Chapter 14 - Of Fire and Fury

A/N - Love the fact my story already has 25k+ views, and hasn't quite been out for 3 months. What I hate is when you plan a nice short mission, then the mission steals your keyboard and makes the mission practically its own chapter.

As a reminder, reposting the various notations used, because the Eldar don't necessarily speak when 'talking' to other Eldar. Combined notations mean both were used.

"speech" | *mental speech/thoughts* | {untranslated speech} | (nonverbal communications)

'Mah SPAHLEEEEEEEEN!' - Every chaos cultist upon taking a mortal wound. Every one of them. Every. One.

And now, introducing everyone's favorite lethal joke jocks from the Warhammer 40k verse... DA ORKS! Green is best.

Arlas' memory started in a dense forest, as he moved silently through the trees surrounded by twelve other Eldar. Six were in similar armor to what the mon-keigh had seen him wearing, though less ornate, but the other six were in heavier armor, thick plates and a distinctive helm, a thick bulge on the back with tubes running along either side of the jaw, connecting to some sort of nozzle or barrel just past the front of the jaw. The swords were serrated, and when powered would whirl the sharpened serrated edges around, messily rendering opponents to bloody pieces.

The group moved silently through the rough terrain, and after a few seconds, reached the edge of the trees and saw their target. A massive horde of beings, moving through a small valley between the forest and a nearby cliff. The distance was too far to make out details of the horde, even with an Eldar's superior eyes, but it was clear there were quite a significant number of green colored individuals and vehicles. Arlas dropped to a knee, and leveled his rifle, looking over the ramshackle vehicles, most looking like they should barely run, let alone actually move with any sort of speed.

The cloaked Eldar began setting up at the edge of the forest, and the armored Eldar taking place to in a half circle around them, when suddenly one of the cloaked Eldar looked up. (What was that?)

Before anyone could reply, ten forms suddenly lept at the group from the nearby trees, some rushing from around them, but a couple jumped down from the lowest branches, unconcerned about a four meter fall. All ten forms picked a different Eldar, prioritizing the cloaked Eldar over the armored one, leaving three scorpions unengaged, who immediately dove into the fights to help against the ambushers.

Arlas got a good look at his attacker as he dropped his rifle, yanking a chain blade and pistol off his waist to deflect his personal attacker's descending soot covered long knife. He had the uncommon experience of looking up to see his opponent's face. It was huge and squarish, a leering grin showing off sharp teeth crowned by two massive tusks, one red eye glaring balefully while the other had been replaced with a crude optic. Arms with thews thicker than his thighs drove the deflected blade into a nearby tree, effortlessly turning the eight centimeter thick trunk into kindling.

Arlas noticed the fight was completely silent. He knew why the Eldar were, not wanting to alert the massive horde near them to the fight, but the fact the orks weren't screaming their iconic warcry was surprising, almost as much as the fact they weren't using their firearms, or even carrying any other than a couple rokkit launchas and burnas. It wasn't until he spotted the streaks of dirt and mud on his opponent's face, the fact it had red tusks, and the absurd number of grenades on their person that he realized what they were fighting.

Blood Tusk Kommando Boyz.

He swore under his breath and attacked his opponent with a flurry of blows, his skill with the blade matching that of the Striking Scorpions around them, but his opponent was skilled enough with his own blade to keep the Eldar at bay. The exchanged blows for a couple seconds, before suddenly the orc lashed out with a vicious kick, catching Arlas in the gut and launching him backwards to hit a tree with his back. He grunted, stunned, but looked up as the ork was beheaded by one of the scorpions. He forced himself to his feet, and swore. Four of the six other rangers were dead, and one of the scorpions was as well, but only five of the ten kommandos were still standing, including the massive leader, a nob who was even taller than its subordinates who were already taller than the Eldar.

The nob was a whirlwind of fury, holding off three of the scorpions as they attacked from different angles. Another ork fell, its head blasted apart by one of the other rangers, and Arlas moved forward with the scorpion who had rescued him, rushing another kommando. They killed their target quickly, as another ranger's head was bisected by a kommando's axe. The nob managed to grab and then rip off the arm of a scorpion trying to eviscerate him, but the Eldar managed to roll clear of the fight. Arlas and the scorpion separated, the scorpion heading for the nob, and Arlas heading for the last ork kommando, trying to cut it off from the ranger.

He was slow, but the ranger dodged the first strike of the blade, but was blindsided by the meaty fist of the ork, knocking the ranger to the ground. Arlas body checked the ork to prevent it from bringing its iron shod boot down on the ranger's head. He was too light to actually knock the ork over, but he did knock the massive creature off balance, preventing it from crushing the helpless ranger's head. The creature's wildly flailing arms threw Arlas off it, but both regained their balance, and rushed each other. Arlas rolled under the blow, and swiped with his chain blade at knee height, taking the leg off. He swung again, this time removing the kommandos arm past the elbow, and then fired a long burst from his pistol into the ork's throat, shredding the flesh.

Done with the last kommando boy, he glanced to the side, and saw the scorpions had finally killed the nob, though another scorpion had their elbow sliced in half, and was holding the wound while another was sealing the wound with some wraith-webbing until they got back to the host. Arlas headed back to his rifle, pausing only only to kick the blade away from each ork he passed. As he picked up his rifle, he heard someone chuckling wetly behind him. He turned, and saw that the last ork he had fought was the one he had heard.

The ork stared at him for a moment, before speaking haltingly. "Gud fight… panzy. But we boyz… got some… thing for yaz. A nice… suppize."

Every Eldar raised their weapons, but before they could fire, two of the other ork kommandos, one cut in half at the waist, the other stabbed through the chest by a scorpion chain blade, screamed at the top of their lungs.

"WAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

All the Eldar froze for a fraction of a second, before shooting the screaming orks and the one that had been talking. Arlas fired at the talker and ripped off half its face, while the others shredded the screamers. He turned to the edge of the forest, while sending orders. *(Pull the wounded back and gather the spirit stones, then we return to the host. This mission is over.)*

He got to the edge of the forest, and saw that the massive host was still in the valley, but now every ork head he could see was turned in his direction. He was grateful for the ridge and his cloak, which kept the orks from spotting him, but already he could see small groups loping in his direction. But right at the edge of the convoy, he could see a group of nobs, and towering over them the warboss and target of the raid.

Covered in massive, somewhat rusty plates of armor that sparked erratically, a massive flaming claw on one arm powerful enough to rip through tank armor and a dual barreled rifle on its other arm with a barrel big enough for the Eldar to stick his head in, the warboss was an imposing figure, even before someone considered the fact he was at least four meters tall. Arlas threw himself prone onto the ridge, and leveled his rifle, targeting the only weak spot he could see in the armor, the ork's unprotected right eye. He could sense the other Eldar limping away, but he didn't have time to wait for them to get clear. The mission was to kill the boss, and here he was. He took a deep breath, leveled his rifle, put his trust in the Farseer, and fired twice.

Arlas ended the memory as the rifle kicked twice, and looked around at the mon-keigh, most blinking in confusion though a few were rubbing their chests or shoulders where he had been hit in the memory. "That was an ork. Further questions?"

He kept his voice extremely dry, but sadly didn't remember who he was addressing as Wrex placed a massive plate full of meat on it in front of him. "Where can I find those? Look like they would be fun to fight."

Arlas rolled his eyes, before looking at the plate. "And what am I supposed to do with all this?"

Wrex gave him a smirk. "Eat it, you are too… pansy-like to have been eating right. This will put some mass on you."

Arlas' reply was to abruptly lean forward and slam his fist into Wrex's headplate, before looking around at the rest of the mess hall as the krogan fell backwards and thudded to the floor, both hands holding his head where he had been punched. "There are two types of beings that can call an Eldar a pansy. Those who are about to kill them, and those about to be killed by the Eldar."

He paused as Wrex came to his feet with a roar, and simply glared at the krogan. "What would you do to someone that called you plateless and lacking a quad?"

His non-sequitur caused Wrex to pause, before sitting. "Punch them in the face."

Arlas simply nodded to the krogan, before turning back to his… serving, which he swore was larger than it had been mere seconds before. "Now, again, what I am supposed to do with all this?"

A week later, Arlas stared at Wrex in confusion. "You desire what?"

Wrex rolled his eyes, and leaned against the lander. "The twins have been looking for someone for me, and they finally found him. He holds something important to me, and I want to get it back. We are arriving at the system tomorrow, and hitting the base he is at. I want you to slip into the base before we hit it, and find that item."

Arlas stared at Wrex, noting that the request sounded just as insane as before. Yes, it made a certain kind of sense, but the fact the alien trusted him to secure an important item, apparently some kind of ancient relic, seemed completely nonsensical to him. Ancient relics were always powerful, and never to be touched by another race if possible. He knew of at least three planets the Eldar had invaded to get artifacts from, killing the inhabitants even if they hadn't known the artifact was there.

He waited a moment for Wrex to reveal he had been trying to prank the Eldar, but Wrex just gave him an expectant grin. After a moment, he sighed. "Fine. Though what you expect me to do with these incomprehensible computer systems is a mystery."

He gave Arlas a grin, and whacked him on the shoulder, nearly knocking the Eldar over. "Don't waste a vorcha over it, Tali will be linking to you through your tool, and will deal with all the fiddly stuff. You just have to not get seen, and go where the girl tells you."

Wrex suddenly frowned, and leaned forward, suddenly no longer amused. "Also, I am kinda fond of the quarian, so if you hurt her, I will break you."

Arlas knew the two had bonded a couple days ago after they had both gone with the Twins to clear a derelict ship they had encountered. It had been swarming with the cybernetically enhanced corpses, and the Twins had been cut off from the two when a stack of crates had collapsed. According to what they had already found in the ship's logs, the human ship had been moving supplies and workers somewhere, when they had encountered some of Saren's geth. The geth had boarded the ship, and killed all the people on board, turning them into husks. The human crew were still going over the data recovered from the ship, hoping to get a hint on what Saren's plans were.

Arlas simply gave the krogan a flat stare, which admittedly wasn't much different from the neutral look he had been giving him, before turning back to his meditations. Wrex simply snorted, projecting a feeling of being disheartened, before stomping toward the section of the hangar he had claimed. Ten minutes later, he was yanked out of his exercises as Gemling spoke from the side. "I need your omnitool, museum escapee."

She had started calling him that when he had refused to cease calling her Gemling, and frankly he didn't mind. It was mildly amusing to watch her fume about the nickname. He simply nodded to a small table nearby, which held two pieces of local equipment, his omnitool and a local handgun he had disassembled to examine. She ignored the handgun, and only spent a moment typing, before turning back. "I modified your omnitool, it will do what we need for the job."

Arlas simply nodded, trying to hold the immaterium orb steady, but it suddenly collapsed, and the temperature spiked significantly. Arlas rolled away from the center of the circle, and waited for the energy to fully disperse. Tali watched the unusual result of his meditations, before glancing at the Eldar. "Is that supposed to happen, or are you just having an off day?"

Arlas resumed his position in the middle of the circle, the heat was fleeting and quickly dispersed and nothing was attracted by the discharge, but didn't glance at the quarian. "Control is refined through repetition, especially for those who lack innate skill with a talent. I have considerable capacity for immaterium manipulation, but little talent. Now, I must focus."

Tali glared at him, before stalking off, which made him smile slightly, so easy to toy with.

Tali got across the hangar, and glanced back at the Eldar, before smirking to herself. "Heh, too easy."

Wrex looked up from the weapons bench, before gesturing her over. "What has you so perky?"

Tali's body language spoke of amusement and pleasure. "He just let me make the additions to the omnitool. All I needed was a priority communication line. What I got was root admin access."

Wrex choked, before giving her an amused look. "Just be smart about it. Now, I promised to show you are trick or two about shotguns the krogan know, and you were to show me a few the quarians know. Let's get to the really fun part."

Tali laughed. "Maybe for you, but you are a crusty old krogan. I am a quarian, the root access is far more fun, lets me see what he is really looking at when he says he is doing 'research.' But shotguns are a good second."

Wrex laughed softly. "Let me know what he is looking at too. Always good to know what people are interested in."

The next day, Arlas was in the hangar, preparing the lander for its flight. Yol'Pvera had complained about one of the engines feeling 'sticky,' which could be several things, so he was arm deep in the engines, seeing what was wrong. Yol'Pvera was listening to the briefing, but most of his participation was to get in, find the relic, and then kill anyone that approached it. Most of the ground party was coming, only Kaidan was sitting this out, as he was suffering from what the other humans called 'a migraine of epic proportions.' Now, if only he knew what a migraine was, he might be able to determine if the human male was sick, suffering from something else, or suffering a sudden bout of cowardice.

After a small pause, he conceded it was likely not the last, he had fought beside the human male several times, and never seen him falter on the field. The human was a bit dull and boring out of battle, but then again, most humans were to an Eldar. Done contemplating the human, he resumed checking the pieces of the engine. After a few minutes, he had pulled the neutron exciter module out, and was carefully pulsing warp energy through it, cleaning the slight build up of 'goop' from the innards. He frowned at the accumulated slime-like substance before he finished burning it out, trying to remember the official name the mechanics had for it, as well as figure out why it was building up so fast.

His musing were interrupted by the elevator clanking as it started moving. Yol'Pvera let him know the briefing was finally finished, so he carefully replaced the part, and headed for the armory of the lander, to finish getting into his armor. While his armor didn't inhibit his dexterity and flexibility much, it did a little, and made it harder to carefully remove pieces of the engine.

He was quickly dressed, and remembering the mission grabbed his sword, twin pistol, flamer, and the death spinner for a change. After a few seconds of consideration, he grabbed a trio of grenades, and a couple webs of explosives. The fact that Wrex had claimed everything was in sealed chests in a warehouse caused him to pick closer ranged weapons than he normally did, and to leave the fusion gun and long rifle behind. Once he was done preparing, he checked the seats once more, before opening the ramp, and heading to the cockpit. Once again, he was grateful to Singer building the lander so that he could get into the cockpit from inside the ship, rather than having to get in through the cockpit canopy from the outside.

It took nearly a quarter of an hour for the last person to arrive, Ghost, and Arlas gratefully put the lander on course for the planet. He tapped the omnitool, having finally figured out, thanks to Gemling, how to activate and deactivate the communication function of the tool. "Twins, where to?"

The Twins sent a map of the planet with a marker on the surface and another in the space above it. He relayed the location to Yol'Pvera, before fully interfacing with the lander. He felt the lander slip into the atmosphere methane and helium, feeling the thick air slide across the hull with barely a ripple of disturbed air. Ten minutes later, he was circling the compound, getting a good view of the 'warehouse,' and swearing. He activated his comm, as he manipulated the view on the lander's door to show the large compound with four defense turrets. He was fairly certain they could take the turrets out before they could fire once, but that would alert everyone in the base. "Twins, what do you want to do? Turrets. They have not detected us yet."

He was at five kilometers out, and the turrets weren't reacting to the ship, thanks to the holo-field. After a few minutes of consideration, soft Twin responded. "You have a co-pilot. Can she set down behind a hill, let you go ahead to scout, find the armor, and then take out the turrets?"

Arlas didn't bother checking with Yol'Pvera, who was extremely offended at the implication she needed Arlas' help to fly the lander. "She can."

Yol'Pvera was already landing the ship, even as Twins ordered. "Then that is what we will do. Tali, do a secure comm check. And then see about shutting down the pirate's sensors if you can."

Arlas disconnected from the lander, taking a couple seconds to orient himself now that his senses were so much more… limited. After recovering, he paused in the troop bay to ensure everyone had a sealed helmet, before opening the ramp. He checked with Yol'Pvera for where the base was, before activating his cloak and starting toward it. It was a two kilometer walk, as Yol'Pvera didn't wish to get spotted by the base, and took him about ten minutes to walk it. As he started down the slope toward the base, Tali contacted him. "Arlas, Joker just reported another ship in the system, heading directly toward the base. Should be there in about half an hour."

Arlas swore, before climbing to the top of the last small hill, and looking at the base. He tapped his tool. "Entering base, don't call unless important. Ping if you need to talk, and wait for me to call you."

Arlas closed the line, and then set the omnitool to vibrate instead of emit noise, before approaching the base, slowly and cautiously. He couldn't see any guards outside, but that didn't mean there weren't any.

A quarter of an hour later, Arlas had finally gotten into the base as several beings came out, to begin uncovering a concealed landing pad. Finally inside, he began stalking the base, and quickly discovered a problem. He got into a small storage room, and sent a call to the Twins. "Ground area is a fortress, not a warehouse. Lift leading down, but no way to access. Seen two dozen guards already, all turians, and a dozen machine walkers, and two larger machine walkers, several concealed and exposed turrets. Seeking way down."

He closed the comm as he finished reporting, and began making his way slowly across the base to the lift. The upper area was a large airlock and decontamination chamber, connected to a wide tunnel that had a pair of turrets concealed in the ceiling, then a larger area where most of the guards were. There were small storage room off to either side of the large checkpoint, and most of the guards had some kind of cover relative to the tunnel leading to the airlock. He took his time moving along the edge of the room, slowly and carefully, and soon arrived at the lift without anyone noticing him. He then settled in to wait for the lift.

About five minutes before the ship was supposed to arrive, the lift finally pinged, before the door opened, and the two guards facing the door saluted the turian that walked out. "Sir, the Blood Pack will be here momentarily. The ship is on final approach now."

The turian nodded, his black and red armor standing out in the bright lights of the checkpoint room. "Any other problems? Sensors reported a ghost contact at range a half hour ago, but nothing before or since."

The guard shook his head. "No sir, nothing to report."

The leader nodded absently as he turned and entered the elevator, and Arlas slipped into it at the same time, discovering four guards waiting for the leader. The leader pushed the button to take the elevator down, and the elevator gave a loud buzz. Every guard in the outer room immediately turned and approached the elevator with drawn weapons, while the five in the elevator immediately checked their omnitools. The leader stepped back to put his back against the wall, while the other guards got back to back.

Arlas froze, frowning in his helmet, realizing they knew he was here. He watched the two pairs of guards back slowly out of the elevator, covering every corner, while the other guards watched them. Arlas was mildly impressed at the sheer preparedness and paranoia their actions showed, and barely noticed the leader tapping his omnitool. Suddenly the elevator filled with red beams, laser emitters embedded in the ceiling lighting up. The beams did no damage, but arguably that was the only mercy, as the lasers hit his cameleoline cloak, and immediately stopped.

"Oh, Crone's breath."

Every guard immediately turned toward the dead spot in the beams, and opened fire, even as Arlas dove to the side, activating his jump pack. He disappeared into a swirl of darkness and lightning, reappearing just under the elevator and dropping down the shaft. It was a short drop, only a few dozen meters, but he still activated his jump pack. The jump did as it always did, canceling the momentum of anything that entered it, and he landed safely at the bottom. A quick glance at the walls revealed the door, and he quickly jumped again. The guards had to be preparing, and he quickly found he was only half correct when he landed.

There were no guards in the hall he had landed in, but there was another large machine, and four hidden turrets, two in the ceiling and one on each wall. He swore at the opposition, nothing he could fight with his current loadout, and jumped again, aiming to land in the room beyond the machine. This time, he landed to cries of surprise and alarm, and sprinted deeper into the room. He saw almost a dozen guards trying to aim at him as he sprinted into the room, and dozens upon dozens of crates and containers. The warehouse was fair sized, at least five hundred meters long and fifty meters to each side, but Arlas could easily reach up and touch the ceiling. He idly noted the warehouse was well lit and organized, enough to make him hate the person in charge. No dark areas to lurk, no winding paths, and all the containers were either tightly packed into shelves or resting on the ground if they were tall enough to reach the ceiling. At the end of each aisle, a massive blast door stood, but one he could see was open, and on the other side was a small room, barely big enough to hold a statue of some kind, and the door quickly closed, preventing him from getting a good view.

Nowhere to hide, nowhere to ambush, nowhere to make a stand. At least, nowhere if one wasn't an Eldar. For Arlas, it was a matter of activating his cloak again, stepping into one of the aisles, and then jumping back toward the front. He landed safely, though he could feel the jump pack heating up on his back, a sure sign it was being stressed too much, but he was grateful that the turians were so orderly, it made gauging the jumps easy. He watched the turians sprint past, too focused on where they last saw him to realize he could freely teleport, and smiled, before activating his omnitool, and sending a message, two words. "Hard contact."

The twins had given him some short codes to use, the one he had sent meant he was actively fighting. He would likely get some pranking and teasing over getting caught, but how was he to know about the defenses the locals had? Even the Twins and Ghost hadn't been able to find anything about the base. So instead he would get to play with the turians as they got to where he had been, and quickly discovered he wasn't in the aisle, firing their assault rifles and shotguns down the straight passages to confirm it. He sighed, grumbling about intelligent guards. He actually grumbled to himself as the guards all headed back to the lift, and dug in, helmets on, as the machine clanked in. He couldn't see anything, but his ears told him the guards were slowly moving forward.

Arlas moved down the aisle, and wedged himself into the tiny corner near the blast door. There was a slight clear spot near it, and as he settled down and focused on his hearing, he heard the leader issuing orders aloud. "Everyone, use the laser targeting system, keep in pairs and don't sweep ahead. YMIR 3, stay here, engage all unknowns."

Arlas swore, and took a deep breath. Sweeping teams would be able to eventually wear him down; best to strike now. He drew the flamer pistol in his left hand, and gathered some warp energies, before sprinting to the middle aisle. He slid to a stop, the cloak's distortion field confusing the guards long enough to let him view their position, but the machine immediately reacted, leveling its right arm at him. Arlas warp jumped as the machine started firing a machine gun concealed in the arm, and landed behind the machine.

Directing the gathered warp energies in his hand, he then threw the energies into the machine's back. The warp energies didn't even react to the local's shields as they bypassed them, and burned right through the armor plating, making a head sized hole in the back of the machine. As it droned that its armor was compromised, Arlas shoved his flamer pistol into the hole, and pulled the trigger as he drew his twin pistol with his free hand. The machine ignited immediately, flames spewing from its joints as its innards melted, before it slowly toppled to slam into the decking. Arlas leveled both of his pistols at the foolishly clumped turians, as they desperately scattered, some dashing further into the warehouse, others rolling to the sides, and a couple turning and frantically trying to bring their weapons to bear.

Arlas simply fired both pistols, hosing the two trying to fight with both the flamer and the twin pistol, before sweeping both weapons to one side, then the other, immolating and shredding the turians that hadn't had been sixteen opponents and a large war machine fighting him, now it was six turians, ten corpses, and a burnt shell of a machine. Even better, the leader was still intact, having sensibly ran when the teleporter had reappeared behind him.

Arlas took cover at one of the nearby container stacks, and activated his communicator. "Twins, Arlas. The local leader is isolated on the lower level with five guards. Significant number of containers here preventing maneuvering, will try to keep the leader alive. At least ten turrets between my location and the exterior, two large machines the leader called YMIR, and a dozen and a half guards in the top area currently. Also, meeting a group called Blood Pack soon. Advise speed."

Arlas heard the twins swear, before telling him they were coming, and then he snapped his head to one side out of reflex as a couple shots screamed by. The Eldar then leaned out before returning the favor with his pistol. He was stalling, not trying to kill them. At least, not yet. He traded fire with the turians for a moment, neither side willing to charge, or at least not since he knew they were using laser targeting that his cloak couldn't absorb, and they knew he had a flame thrower. He did make a mental note of the weakness, so the cloaks could be improved.

After a moment, he stepped deeper into cover, as the six turians all started firing, showering the crate he was behind with bullets, and he quickly realized that they were trying to suppress him. The thought made him frown, before he reached for his pouches. After a second of deliberation, he pulled out some of his explosive webbing, infused it with a touch of warp energy to designate how it should detonate, reforming into an area sweeping mine. He then placed it at his feet facing the door in, before activating his now cooled jump generator, and jumped a few aisles forward. He landed and then moved the edge, firing the flamer to incinerate another two turians before they could move backwards, before turning back to the entrance.

After a few seconds, he saw the lock change from red to orange before quickly flashing green, and smirked as the door opened revealing a half dozen turian guards. They guards all fired at where he had been seconds before, until the explosive webbing went off at a surge of warp energy from Arlas, engulfing the turian squad. Arlas smirked, as suddenly the base rocked slightly. The turians in the warehouse all paused, before suddenly his omnitool buzzed and the Twins spoke. "Arlas, the leader just surrendered, and the Blood Pack are down. Don't kill anyone else if they aren't hostile."

Arlas sighed in vexation, before switching his flamer for his sword, and activating his external speakers. "Are you surrendering? If so, all weapons on the ground, then approach the hall in. The only one my squad leader wants alive is the leader, and I have no orders about condition, just that he has to be alive."

After a moment, one of the turians yelled back. "Weapons down, we are coming out. Don't shoot."

Arlas watched all four turians march out, single file, hands raised over their heads, he had them stop and sit with their backs to the wall beside the door, admiring the burnt or blasted corpses of their fellow pirates, mercenaries or whatever they thought of themselves. Or perhaps they were examining the destroyed large machine, neither result meant anything to him. After a few seconds, he turned to the leader. "Deactive the defenses and unlock everything. And tell the guards upstairs to surrender as well."

The leader complied, though he did stare at the sword for a moment. About five minutes later, the Twins and Wrex came in, and Wrex stopped to glare at the turian leader, who had removed his helmet at some point. "Well Tonn, I gave you a chance to give my armor back to me. Now I am costing you a lot more."

The turian sneered, and Arlas reflected on the fact he was now much better at identifying aliens' moods just from expressions. "What are you babbling about Wrex, I thought you had hired the Pack as an intermediary."

Wrex sneered right back. "And why would I hire those useless pyjacks for that? Wait, is that why those soft plates were here?"

Tonn just sighed, before looking at the Twins. "The armor is in the seventh aisle, in the sealed vault. Is that all you are here for?"

Arlas couldn't help but notice that Tonn kept shooting him suspicious glares but only after Arlas had flipped his cloak back to let the turians see the flamer pistol. The other three kept an eye on his hands, but Tonn kept looking at the Eldar's armor. Arlas turned his head slightly, so he was staring right at the turian leader, and frowned as the turian flinched slightly. After a moment of contemplation, he drew his sword, and approached the leader.

Joannis was the first to notice the Eldar's shift of attitude. "Arlas? What is wrong?"

The Eldar stopped in front of the turian leader and brought his sword to rest edge down on his shoulder. "You have something. Something that belongs to my people. Where is it?"

The turian's tone remained level, but his mind became frantic even as he replied. "I have no idea what you are talking about."

Arlas stared, before pressing down, sending a trace of energy to the blade, and it became to slowly slice through the shoulder plating. "You are lying. Your words are steady, but your mind is awash with fear. Talk, and I will simply recover that which belongs to my people with no further harm to you, from me, than what you take encouraging you to talk. Make me look, and I will... indulge myself."

The leader looked up at him, before sneering. "Svern shit. Biotics can't read minds. You are just shooting in the mist."

Arlas hummed to himself, before heading to the aisles. Maintaining an empathetic link, especially as he moved away, was difficult, but it paid off, as he passed nine aisles before the turian's discomfort spiked. He paused, and glanced down both side, before frowning to himself. Something was off about this aisle, and it took a half minute before what was wrong suddenly jumped out at him; it lacked a reinforced vault door at the end. He did a quick check of the next and previous aisles, as well as down the opposite side, and all five of those had one, so he activated his omnitool. "Twins, does the leader have anything he wants to say before I move again?"

There was a pause, before Jaclyn got back to him. "No, but he did tell Wrex where his armor was."

Arlas chuckled darkly. "Then ask him why corridor ten on the left side lacks a vault at the end."

He closed the channel before walking to the end of the aisle, and as he got closer, he could just barely make out a seam in the wall, about the same size as the vaults. Which meant this might be a hidden door. A couple quick slashes cut a nice large hole, and he failed to activate any alarms, which meant there was something on the other side. A quick moment of work, and he glanced inside, before he turned on the omnitool again. "Twins, got a disassembled obelisk like the one that grabbed Lioness when we first met. Not what I am looking for, but might be important."

He could hear yelling from the front of the storage area, but headed back and then deeper. He found another three hidden vaults, one containing two long, thin statues with tendrils from their jaws, reclining against cylinder like thrones, another containing some kind of laboratory, and the last was full of crates. As he got to the end of the warehouse, having long since released the link to the mercenary leader, he paused, wondering why the last row was filled with crates blocking the path. Everything else was ordered to the point of compulsion, but here the crates had been haphazardly piled in the walkway.

A glance back toward the entrance, now several hundred meters away according to his rangefinder, showed the three Council Spectres were surrounding the leader, and while he couldn't see the turian or hear anything, he knew the leader was likely wishing he had just spoken up. He always felt that way when the Eldar females did the same thing to him back home. He just shook his head, and started climbing over the boxes, heading toward where the vault should be.

The boxes were ungainly, and several shifted as he moved, so the journey took several minutes to get to where the vault was, even for the Eldar. Once he was there though, he knew he was onto something.

He could feel something in the vault reacting to him.

He looked over the door, before trying diplomacy one last time. "Twins, does our prisoner wish to tell me anything about the last vault, or do I just get to cut my way in?"

Tali quickly cut in on the conversation. "Museum escapee, wait. The schematics on his omnitool show that vault is far more protected, has its own power source, and can destroy everything inside if opened or breached improperly. I am trying to decode the files, just give me a few minutes. This vault doesn't have an inventory, so the Twins want you to wait. You could be destroying something very useful in it."

Arlas rolled his eyes under his helmet, before sitting on one of the crates. He spent the time he had to wait trying to identify the aura of whatever was in the vault, but all he could tell was that it wasn't aware, so it wasn't a spirit stone. After about fifteen minutes, Gemling finally called him again. "Alright, here is the code to get in, I have bypassed the other external defenses, the keypad code input is eight, six, seven, five, three, zero, niner."

Arlas paused as he heard laughter coming from someone with Tali as someone else asked if the other password was 'swordfish,' whatever that was, but the communication channel quickly closed, so he simply stood and approached the wall. He glanced around for a keypad, and noted mostly hidden behind a crate. He punched the code Gemling had given him in, and watched the wall slide silently up into the ceiling, revealing a short hallway. He rolled his eyes, before entering the revealed hall. The wall slid shut behind him, and another slid open in front of him.

Arlas froze at the item displayed along the back wall, in the place of honor and prominence, not even registering the tables and stands along the sides of the room. All he saw was the stand, and his power burned into existence around him. He snarled in all consuming rage, before turning and blasting the outer wall out of the way. He could only snarl again as the inner wall slammed shut, and the inner defenses came online.

He glanced around quickly, his vision still tinted with red, and spotted nearly a dozen flamer nozzles protruding from concealed mounts. Even as the turrets started their pilot lights, he was flinging balls of warp energy at the weapons, all he could do offensively with his power. Only the last one got a gout of flame, but Arlas' psyker shields, built into his armor and fueled by rage, fully stopped the attack, before a last ball of warp fire obliterated the turret. His omnitool gave several loud pings, but in his anger he could barely hear it.

Another glance at the stand, and his rage soared again, before he gestured toward the wall blocking his exit, blowing it out. He took several steps forward, before spotting the crates blocking his path. He wanted to howl in fury, but it was slowly coming to him that he was out of control, and he needed to restrain his impulses before they consumed him. His power still swept the crates in front of him away, flinging them toward the far side of the warehouse, his rage in control as he stalked toward the turian leader. He needed answers, and the turian would either provide them, or Arlas would burn them from his mind.

A/N - And what do you think Arlas spotted, that so drove him to a rage? Read, favorite, follow, and most importantly, enjoy. Also, throw a vote at the poll, and leave a review.