Kais could feel the cold against his skin as faint tickles of ice formed against his skin from his prespring sweat. The cold always served as the herald to evil when the things which dwelled within the warp threatened to emerge into the physical universe. Part of him found it soothing to be reminded that such evils existed, and he as a Fire Warrior lived to combat them. Well, that was an inaccuracy if the Tau was to be honest with himself. The Fire Warriors served as the bulwark in defense of The Greater Good. Whom or what they fought was merely an extension of their existence, their purpose.
Purpose, now there was something important. What was his purpose? Kais knew deep down that he wasn't a Fire Warrior anymore. He had no Hunter Cadre. He was alone, a small fragment of his true self just struggling to exist and survive. He should have been scared, perhaps angry, but he wasn't. If anything, Kais found the experience liberating as he accepted who he really was once the thin veneer of civility was stripped away leaving the barbarian adrift from the guarantees of inner peace at the costs of obedience to the Ethereal Caste.
For the first time in several hours Kais opened his eyes and squinted them tightly as the above head light glared down blindingly from the ceiling. His hand instinctively tried to blot out the blurred images dancing before his sight as someone leaned in from a nearby chair, "Easy blue-skin, you're safe," spoke an educated and civil voice with a hint of some sort of twangy accent.
When the Fire Warrior turned his head to look at the man trying meekly to hold the Tau down against some sort of bedframe he noticed blurs of grey clothe and white skin. There was something else, the man was slightly over-weight, and wore a pair of round-lensed spectacles upon his face… a Gue'la? "Whe…" he rasped with a parched throat which pained from the sudden movement. The human was becoming increasingly clear as the daze of foggy shapes faded from Kais's vision. Quickly, as if concerned for Kais's health, the human reached to a nearby wooden stool and picked up a glass of water.
"Here, drink this," Kais obliged and exhaled sharply as several lingering seconds of calm and quite passed by without converse while he guzzled down the unnaturally crisp and cold beverage. The Fire Warrior also seemed puzzled by the ice which had formed within the inner sides of the water glass as he exhaled sharply from a pain spasm in his prior empty gullet.
"What happened?"
The human guardsman leaned forward and smirked comically if not patronizingly, "I don't know how to answer that blue-skin. I think the best explanation is that the… 'people' here are fragged. It's been about four days since this 'invasion' first started," the Gue'la sighed deeply, "And surface contact with the flagship up in orbit has been lost. I have also been led to believe that the effort to recapture it has been… 'partially' successful.
It was now that the Fire Warrior looked into the human's eyes. His… Azura blue eyes, which seemed to lack something basic and important. Much to the Fire Warrior's dismay it was almost like this human was wearing a mask rather than speaking to him directly. There was also the uniform the Imperial Guardsman wore, grey, rather than green. Thus far, in Kais's recent memory, this was the only trooper he had ever seen wearing that unique color. And, it was now that Kais realized exactly how cold it was as his skin prickled while a vapor of cold hair blew from his mouth like a smoky fog.
Kais mumbled to himself spitefully from the sharp pains lancing up his arms and legs as tried to sit up in the bed with his back up against the wall. To his surprise the human didn't try and stop him this time. Instead, the Gue'la merely sat the partially empty cup of water aside, and turned to face the doorway. "Listen blue skin," he said with forlorn woe, "I'm going to be seeing you around. When you're up for it… I recommend seeing the armory here at the marina. I wish that I could do more for you; I really do, but… I'm afraid that my time is up for the moment."
Kais watched the Gue'la with much suspicion as he left the room, stalling briefly within the entrance as his physical mass was illuminated in a sharp white light, "I didn't get your name Gue'la," he called after the grey clothed human trooper.
The Imperial Guard Gue'la chuckled while closing the door behind him, "It was Templeton, Captain Templeton." Almost instantly after the human's departure the cold within the room started to dissipate and normalize with thawed ice crystals receding from the windowsills. Kais knew, he knew with certainty that the man he had just spoken to wasn't natural. Yet, he wasn't a demon. That much was certain. Perhaps, perhaps he was something else… a ghost maybe? Given the prior night, some sort of lingering shade would be far from the most haunting thing that the Tau had encountered within recent memory.
Kais took a few minutes to ease his nerves before shifting in the bedframe to brings his legs over the edge and unto the wooden floorboards. First the flesh and blood leg, and then the mechanical prosthetic. In a rush of hurt to his battered muscles, he pushed himself into a hunched over standing position. It felt like he was being stabbed in the back as the Fire Warrior took his first step forward, lurching to a stop with sweat crisping upon his brow from raw pain crisping up his spine. Then he took another step, and another, and another until he faced the door with bloodshot eyes. When he opened the wooden exit, there wasn't a blinding white light which greeted him like his prior guest. Instead, the marina was illuminated in a dull orange as the sun rose over the horizon of the ocean waves illuminating the water in cresting images of distilled darkened ink reflecting and receding back into a blue tone of salty liquid from its prior possession by evil incarnate.
He turned to face the city and noticed that the shadows were receding back into the far reaches of oblivion just like the ocean surf. As shards and beams of orange light tore through the metropolis, the darkness moved like tentacles over the opposite horizon, retreating perhaps from the light creeping forward with the dawn of a new day. As the shadows fled screeching in pain and agony, as reality burned the truth back into existence from the edge of madness… so too did their corruption to the city recede. The terrain reformed and the buildings rematerialized as if nothing had ever happened.
"It's unnatural," said a Gue'la Guardsman loitering nearby, motioning with his head towards the city while casually holding his lasrifle across his chest. The human grinned at Kais with a slight bit of mockery before further elaborating, "Every dawn is the same way. This evil crap comes out during the night and turns everything against us, and then we wait it out until dawn arises cleansing the land with light. Then everything goes back to normal like nothing ever happened."
"And the undead?" asked Kais. The trooper frowned and awkwardly shifted his footing, "That depends. Sometimes they still linger in the city, and sometimes… they are taken."
"Taken?"
The trooper nodded and motioned towards the perimeter of the marina where a hastily erected barricade had been formed from metal panels and badly mauled vehicles. Every once in a while, soldiers defending from the impromptu battlements would fire a gout of flame into some sort of wailing mob, "This thing is strongest in the night, but it still has some power during the day so long as it remains within the shadows. You'll see the ones it took inside buildings, cowering really anywhere there isn't any direct physical contact with a light source." As if grasping Kais's confusion the guardsman further explained what exactly he meant by taken, "Possessed," blunt and to the point, "Undead or simply abducted living. This thing took countless men and women, Tau and human alike, and is using them like puppets. But, it's limited by the light."
"Is this normal?" asked Kais. Even though the Fire Warrior was debatably a defacto Tau authority on the creatures of the warp from his past combat experiences on Dolumar IV, something about the trooper's explanations left room for personal doubts. It came as no surprise as the Gue'la shook his head in bewilderment and concern, "No, or at least that's what our officers said when everything went to shit. They say… said…"
"Said?" asked Kais. The trooper nodded, "Our Command Chain is mostly dead. Sarge is in charge right now… for what's it worth."
The Trooper quickly resumed his explanation, "They said, once a demon enters the materium it's on borrowed time. It can only stay in the materium so long as it's got enough juice to keep on going. But, what's going on here is nothing like that. This thing is way too powerful. The amount of warp magic it wields, the things it can do, the numerous people it can control like pawns… no demon should be able to do that."
"And yet it can…" said Kais mockingly.
The trooper smiled and nodded approvingly, "And yet it can," he repeated and walked away. Kais watched the Gue'la slowly wonder away along his patrol of the marina before quickly gazing about for signs of his own kindred race. The Tau need not have looked far. Nearby, overseeing maintenance of a dismounted Crisis Suit was a lone male pilot in yellow combat armor. Kais slowly walked up to the man, his mechanical leg loudly tapping upon the wooden dock of the marina as he did so. Without preamble, the fellow Fire Warrior turned around with a faint humored smile as the sunlight reflected eerily off of his blue skin.
"I'm glad to see you awake Shas'la," spoke the pilot while putting away his data pad and giving a mild salute by briefly pounding his clenched fist upon his right armored shoulder pauldron. Kais raised a quizzical brow upon his weathered face from the action, "Shas'la?" he asked. The pilot suddenly crisped to attention as if he had been slapped, "My apologizes Shas'El. I should have known better given your performance during the night whilst escaping that monster's siege of the city."
Kais laughed self-deprecatingly, "Saal'la, I am…" Kais thought hurriedly for the correct words given how long it had been since speaking with his own people, "Uninitiated."
The pilot looked at Kais with wide eyes and faltered in his salute. It took a few very long moments before the man could properly recompose himself from the shock, "Saal'la…" he said both disapprovingly and out of bewilderment, "You have been robbed Mont'yr Shas."
Kais didn't deny it. Instead, he decided best to show some dignity, "To be fair, I would have been inducted as a Shas'la with what remained of my cadre had it not been for the…" he took a moment to consider sharing the entirety of his truth with the pilot, and in the end decided against it. Instead, the Fire Warrior choose something far less detailed, "…M'yen circumstances on Dolumar IV."
At the mention of the distant worlds name the pilot went pale and shook his head woefully at Kais, "You were there, weren't you?" he asked, gasping from equal parts concern and awe, "I always heard rumors that one of us was here. One of the Lar'shi who…"
The pilot suddenly smiled and rubbed the back of his head childishly, "I apologize shas'…" catching himself, Kais instinctively grinned thus encouraging the pilot to finish his verbal slip, "I apologize 'shas'la." It wasn't much, but it was what Kais needed. Officially, it would take a ceremony to induct him fully into the Fire Caste, but just that one detail, that one acknowledgement was enough, shas'la… Fire Warrior Soldier.
"Thank you," said Kais, fully meaning it, and then with a sigh got down to business, "Shas'Ui, I require arms, and to report to an 'El."
The pilot nodded with a broad grin and pointed towards a nearby building with a few green fatigued and armored Imperial Guardsman lingering outside, "You will find our impromptu quartermaster within, along with their… Gue'la equivalent. Shas'El Vior Kauyon is on the top floor. You will find that he is typically distracted from his daily dealings by the lone surviving Gue'la commander. If memory recalls, the human is an Imperial Sergeant called Keplar."
"Thank you Shas'Ui," said Kais to the pilot. The pilot replied correspondingly and returned to his duties as the battered Fire Warrior limped away towards the makeshift armory. He noticed the Gue'la part ways for him with shocked faces. Some even made a bizarre religious gesture across their chests and mumbled faint words ranging from fear to awe.
…
There were only a couple of small buildings at the marina, but the largest structure, some sort of miniature office building, served as the armory and command center for the surviving infantry struggling upon the surface of T'gor. The interior was lined with salvaged gear ranging from suits of Tau and Guard body armor to every imaginable weapon within the two respective military factions. Kais couldn't help but let his eyes skim over the mounds of ammunition and equipment, cherry picking his favorites, as two men argued in the background with their verbal shives becoming louder as they paced through the structure towards the Fire Warriors position.
"I told you, you Emperor forsaken blue skinned bastard, there ain't nothing, and I mean nothing, that a good old fashioned boomstick can't solve," said a human dressed in green armor plating, rounding a nearby corner at a brisk angry pace. Behind him was a Tau soldier dressed in his own respective yellow combat body armor and together they halted nearby and started yelling at one another mockingly about some sort of dispute regarding their respective combat doctrines.
"Typical Gue'la," replied the Tau snidely, "You lack fire discipline, and therefore substitute ego for your lack of talent."
"Ego, ain't nothing egotistical about common sense. You close with the enemy. You shoot the enemy," said the guardsman with a hand chopping motion. The Tau shook his head with a snarl of disapproval.
"That's insanity," he replied briskly, "It is wiser to keep your distance and pick the enemy apart with artillery and well placed rifle fire. Closing ground only increases causalities where common sense should have prevailed."
"Don't lecture me on tactics you god-dourn blue bastard! The Imperium owns this universe and that means we know what we're fragging doing," raged the Gue'la.
The Tau motioned towards the doors where Kais stood with a wave of the hand, "Yes, and you're doing so well. Look at all the undead, and the demons. It's a pity you threw away all your infantry in the first few days. We could have really used them now," Kais chuckled at the Tau Armory El's usage of sarcasm causing the two men to instantly cease their bickering and turn towards him.
"Shas'la… you look terrible," said the Tau Armory Officer. The Gue'la Guardsman cringed as well. Kais laughed self-deprecatingly and shook his head side to side as if dispelling such notions, "You will need to forgive me Shas'El for this conflict has not been kind to me," replied Kais with a smile.
"Ain't that the truth," replied the Gue'la Armory El' with crossed arms while standing nearby, "You look like a Grox done ate you up and shat you out." The human recomposed himself with a laugh and picked up a Tau data slate. To Kais's surprise, the Shas'El did not complain about the forbidden appropriation of technology and merely allowed the human to do as he pleased.
"Well…" said the human, "It ain't like we don't have the toys. Let's get you kitted out blue-skin. Tailor," he motioned towards the Tau Armory El', "Bring me my scissors."
"I'm not your damned tailor," snarled the Tau El' as the two men took Kais's measurements with a three-dimensional modeling tool and keyed in a search for matching sets of armor using the data-slate. The Gue'la nodded approvingly and stalked away to a distant corner of the building. A few moments later he returned with a large plastic container and sat it down upon a nearby table for Kai's inspection.
"Well," said the Gue'la Guardsman, "I hope you like the color red."
Kais walked over to the plastic container and opened it. Within was a suit of red combat plates, a black bodyglove, and an overlying uniform of tan combat fatigues. He nodded approvingly and looked towards the Tau Armory El' with a smile while the human walked away, "Where can I change?"
"This Office Building served as a small business front for those wanting to rent boats in the marina. Outside, you'll find some communal bathing stalls for those who used to walk the beaches. I recommend washing yourself and changing in the stalls before going upstairs to speak with Shas'El Vior Kauyon and Sergeant Keplar, who is the Gue'la El'."
Kais nodded in understanding, took the plastic crate, and left the building. Nothing had changed outdoors since he went to obtain his equipment, and thus Kais ignored the numerous Cadres and Guardsman patrolling or lingering about the marina as he himself walked down a set of wooden steps towards the beach down below. Once again, makeshift barricades had been constructed along the waterfront to prevent the undead from flooding into the marina. Men and women lingered about with flamers, using the abandoned vehicles as makeshift battlements as they burned away the encroaching hordes.
Kais ignored them and limped towards the civilian showers upon his mechanical leg with his hooves digging into loose sand and rocky pebbles with each step. Upon reaching a thin rockcrete structure just below the marina's overhang awning, he opened and closed a small green curtain and started to undress. He could hear other people doing the same as the blood stained clothe slowly peeled away from his sweat stained body revealing numerous old bruises.
The Fire Warrior then activated the shower function and gritted his teeth as a high-powered wash of bitter cold water blew down upon his fully exposed body. His skin prickled from the cold as the stink of old blood and bile trickled down his legs and hooves and into the drain down below. After rotating around so that the shower washed his backside, Kais turned off the valve and knelt to open the plastic armory crate as loose beads of liquid ran down his exposed aching frame. First, he adorned the skin-tight black bodyglove, hurting sharply as he bent at awkward angles to force the conforming suit against his bruised body so that the nano-poars fit comfortably against his skin. The bodyglove was meant to increase infantry effectiveness by recycling perspiration back into easily leathered Tau skin, and subsequently also dealing with the side effect of stink from extreme physical activity accumulated during prolonged combat exposure. While the bodyglove covered his immediate flesh the external infantry threads provided the first physical defense against any actual enemy munitions. And thus, next he slid on the tan combat fatigues made of composite nanocular thread so that they covered the bodyglove with something far capable of halting a small caliber round of live munitions. Lastly, he strapped on the numerous battle plates of the traditional Tau Combat Armor made from ultra-dense nano-crystalline metal, and adorned a combat monocle to study the interlinked HUD system outlining his current physical status. According to the data readouts everything was in perfect working order.
Kais flexed his fingers fitting within his new gauntlets and grinned. Part of him felt puzzled with his new highly unorthodox suit of combat armor because it was painted an untraditional red, but honestly… it wasn't something to be obsessed over excessively. So, he simply pulled aside the drape and exited unto the beach with the now empty armory crate under one arm. Once back within the make-shift command center he dropped off the pod and ascended the steps to meet his new superiors debating over a makeshift command table with primitive paper maps stretched outward to the four corners with numerous circles from empty recaf cups overlapping at the edges.
"And I'm telling you that we don't have the troops to make a run for the spaceport…" the Gue'la Sergeant trailed off as Kais entered the room and came at attention with a fisted salute to his new armored pauldron. Both the human and Tau commanders seemed to beam with surprise as they ceased their current deliberations to inspect him.
"So, the legendary Shas'la T'au Kais lives after all," said Shas'El Vior Kauyon approvingly. The Gue'la Sergeant nodded sagely, probably because he had nothing to contribute to this 'Tau Only' issue. Kais grinned and nodded respectfully to the two men, "Of course Shas'El, I live to serve The Greater Good."
The human chuckled and motioned towards the map table, "Yeah, The Greater Good. It can't help us now, now can it?" Kais raised a wrinkled blue brow and his commander placated with a brief explanation, "You will need to forgive the Gue'la Sergeant young hunter, but… he is indeed correct. We are a small hold-out, cut off from supplies, reinforcements, and evacuation. Unless something changes soon… we are merely waiting out the inevitable."
"The term is dead-men walking," replied the Gue'la known as Sergeant Keplar with a hint of bitterness, "We've been abandoned to our fate with no chance of escape."
Kais saw this moment to chime in with his own information, "Sergeant Keplar, Shas'El," he addressed them both, "On the way here I intercepted a transmission from a human who claimed to know how to combat the things infesting this world. This human claimed to be hiding at the lighthouse up the coast."
This brief spark of hope gained the attention of both commanders, "This human, did he identify himself to you?" asked the Gue'la Sergeant. Kais shook his head bitterly.
"You suspect a trap, maybe one of the Taken?" asked the Tau to his allied commander. The human glowered bitterly at the sudden disappearance of this brief flash of hope to escape T'gor also known as the world of the damned. Before the situation could deteriorate further, Kais interjected, "I want to volunteer to recon the light house regardless. Whether it is, or is not a trap… remains irrelevant to our plight. As the Gue'le El'… as Sergeant Keplar said, 'we are dead-men walking.'"
The Tau and Gue'la commanders thought briefly amongst themselves and nodded at Kais approvingly. It was the Gue'la who spoke first, "You go alone, and risk only yourself. We might be dead-men walking, but I have no intention of needlessly spending lives which can't be better spent on our last stand."
Shas'El Vior Kauyon interjected next, "See the armory downstairs. Help yourself to whatever you need. It isn't like we're short on arms and equipment anyway."
Kais saluted by fisting his pauldron and turned to leave as the Gue'la Sergeant stopped him with a word, "Blue-skin," he addressed the Fire Warrior, "Be weary of The Taken. You'll find that they are more than capable of tricking you into dangerous situations…"
Kais nodded with a grimly and left the command room. Once down below he approached the two bickering Armory El's who had since rekindled their debate, "It's called a shotgun you damned idiot and it's perfect for fighting in the trenches."
"Well perhaps if your artillery had done its job properly then maybe you wouldn't need to be fighting in the trenches in the first place," jibed the Tau right back.
Kais approached the two men with open palms, "I require a weapon," he simply stated. Both men suddenly gained a gleam of madness in their respective eyes. It was now that Kais unfortunately discovered that he had handed them a golden opportunity to wage a personal war of military morals through the dispersion of live ordinance.
"Long range, medium range, or short range?" asked the Tau with a smile. The Gue'la grimaced, "If that's how you issue weapons no wonder your empire struggles. Tell me who you're killing and where trooper. I'll kit you out for the situation right proper."
Kais stopped them both, "Just a pulse rifle… and maybe something for up close," The Tau Armory El' scrambled away to find a standard issue carbine while the Gue'la went over to a rack of weapons to retrieve something…. Something Kais had never seen before.
"This here is a Tarsus IV Scattergun," said the Gue'la as he sat a very large and heavy looking weapon upon the counter before spinning the weapons drum free to expose at least fifteen cartridge slots, "The Scattergun is for good old fashioned up close killing. Each cartridge has its own personal charge and fires roughly fifty grapeshot ball bearings within a one foot splatter diameter at twenty paces. If you hit someone with this… they'll go down and stay down," The Tau El' grumbled a protest upon returning, "But it has terrible range. If you want to do some real killing, use this carbine," Kais took the offered pulserifle and slung it over his shoulder before returning to inspecting the human weapon being offered up by the Gue'la.
"What about ammunition?" he asked. The human nodded sagely and slung two large bandoleers unto the table. Kais went wide eyed as he skimmed over the two hundred rounds of ammunition, "This should get you through the day," said the Gue'la knowingly.
Kais picked up the shotgun and noted how heavy it felt. Before he could ask the Gue'la interjected, "Just make sure to press it firmly up against your shoulder when you fire it… or else your collarbone will snap like a twig."
Kais sighted the weapon, noted the safety swtich, and threw it over his back as well, "Grenades?" he asked. Both Armory El's kitted him out with their respective favorites, giving Kais three Frags and three Photons. The Fire Warrior attached them to his belt and nodded approvingly to both men before leaving. Oddly enough, his sudden acceptance of gear had evidently ended their roving debate.
Outside, numerous humans and Tau warriors gave Kais a wide birth upon viewing the massive amount of fire power strapped to his person. Without a word, the Fire Warrior walked up to his prior stolen Imperial Guard vehicle, leaned into the passenger seat, and activated the ignition. A couple of Imperial Guardsman moved aside a barricade so that he could leave, and Kais roared forward running over a small batch of undead before continuing his trek up the coastline.
