Chapter 18 - Infestation on the Guided Wrath

'… and remember, always piss off your opponent. An angry enemy is one that isn't thinking clearly.' - Warp Spider Exarch Xanthon, Craftworld Ae'Imedra

Joannis leaned against the wall, watching the squad while Jaclyn watched the eldar mechs. Wrex and Ashley were both calm, though Wrex was keeping an eye on the eldar without actually turning toward them, and Tali was doing something on her omnitool, but it was Liara who surprised her the most. She had half expected the asari to be panicking, but she simply stared at the wraiths watching them while rubbing her thumb against the palm of her other hand. After a moment, Joannis headed over to the asari. "Penny for your thoughts?"

Liara turned to her, her expression under her clear mask baffled. "What?"

"Sorry, really old human expression, I was asking what you were thinking about. You have been staring at the eldar walkers since they arrived."

She flushed slightly, before turning back to the wraith forms at the end of the hallway. "I was wondering if what Arlas said was true, about their dead piloting them. Or if he was just pulling our crests again. He does seem to enjoy doing that. But what I was also wondering was how they did that, if he was telling the truth. And why they would ask such a burden on their departed."

Joannis gave Liara a pat on her shoulder, as her face was covered with a plate helm around the visor she usually wore prevented the asari from seeing her grin. "This is the same man that spoke in a monotone for a month just to mess with us, I am almost certain he was just screwing with us."

She headed over to her sister after Liara gave a small nod, noting that Wrex had moved over to talk to Tali on a short ranged channel, leaning over her omnitool. She hesitated for a second, before continuing to her sister, switching to their private channel. "Status?"

Jaclyn gave an indelicate snort. "Reamed."

Joannis sighed, picking up her real thoughts. "That good huh?"

Jaclyn subtly indicated each of the six eldar walkers in turn, emphasizing her points. "The big one in front, good to finally know why the halls are so tall, I mean I know we saw a recording of one earlier, but this puts it into perspective. But anyway the big one in front is carrying a sword like Arlas' but bigger, and has a weapon identical to that first Wraithlord we saw on its shoulder. The second, at the back, doesn't appear to have flamers, but does have two barrels under each fist, and a cannon identical to the one his single seat speeder carries on its shoulder. Of the four smaller ones, one is carrying a weapon we saw mounted on a turret on the way in, two of them are carrying weapons that ripped perfectly spherical one meter holes out a thresher maw at a hundred meters, and the last one is carrying something that looks like a flamethrower, judging from my visor's amplification showing a tank and a small glowing ring around the barrel."

Jaclyn paused, before continuing. "Though I do like that their flamer tanks are partially integrated into the weapon, and lie flat against it. Harder to snipe or overload the weapon that way. I think I will send the idea to mom, let her sort out the details."

Joannis smirked at her sister's last comment, before expressing her amusement. "Everything going on, and you are most impressed with their flamethrowers? Savage."

"Hey, I am going to be in the enemy's face anyway, might as well set it on fire. You were always complaining about me only having three fighting methods, charging, meleeing or shotgunning, now I have a fourth."

She gave her twin a glare, ignoring her smirk which she could read through her posture, before moving over to the oddest pair up in the group. Before picking up Wrex and Tali, if someone had told her that a krogan would become an honorary uncle to a quarian, she would have waited for the rest of the joke. Now, after spending time with those two, it felt so natural it was impossible to imagine otherwise. She stepped around Tali's free shoulder, and looked down. "What are you two doing?"

Wrex simply continued to watch Tali's omnitool, while the quarian shrugged with one shoulder, still tapping away at her omnitool. "Trying to detect the ship we are inside. I am literally standing on top of this material, surrounded by this material, and my omnitool can only detect it about… two percent of the time, at most, and never long enough to get a good scan of it. If I can figure out how to detect the material, I might be able to figure out why it is so hard to detect, and replicate without needing an eldar's help. If that works, and I can work it into other materials, like my suit or plating for a ship, my people might have a chance against the geth."

Wrex snorted. "Still think that is a fool's goal. Better off finding some planet in the Traverse or the Terminus, settle down for a couple centuries, focus on building up and then hit them."

Joannis sighed, understanding both sides of the argument, but refused to throw her opinion in the debate, mostly because it was clear those two were continuing an argument that had been going on long before this mission began. She simply patted Tali's shoulder in sympathy. "I am certain that whatever you bring back will be a great gift to the fleet."

Tali paused in her manipulation of the omnitool, before shaking her head. "I am the daughter of an admiral, Shepard, I have to bring back something… extraordinary. Not minerals, not some little tug boat or fighter, something… something."

She waved her free hand vaguely at the last part, and Joannis smiled, feeling for her. "Believe me, I know that feeling. My mom is the XO of one of the Alliance's dreadnaughts, and she still finds time to design new equipment. She was trained as an engineer, I think you would like her. I know she would love to meet you."

Joannis glanced at the door to the bridge, before leaning in conspiratorially. "Actually, Jaclyn and I are planning to meet her on the Citadel during the tournament, since Arlas is going to participate. She wants to see the ship, meet the crew and ground team, and will be around for most of the week on leave."

Tali nodded absently. "Sounds like it might be enjoyable…"

Wrex laughed. "Hah, meet the woman that birthed you two? I wouldn't miss meeting her for a lot of things. She any good in a fight?"

Joannis glared at the krogan, before shaking her head at him and moving away without a word. Done checking in with everyone else, she moved to the last person on the ground team in the hallway, who was also watching the six eldar units watching them, and opened a private channel. "Ashley. How you doing?"

Ashley didn't take her eyes off their guards, standing at ease near the wall. "Good to go ma'am, just musing on the irony of being guarded by the fellows of an ally for coming in to try and help."

Joannis hummed at that thought, turning her attention to the guards as well, noting that, even after a quarter of an hour, they still hadn't moved after taking position blocking the hall back out. Their weapons were in hand, but not pointing at the group, instead in a ready carry position. She wasn't going to complain about the situation. Certainly better than being killed messily, or in a way that would make her wish she had been. "It could be worse, Ash."

Ashley snorted at that. "True, they could be shooting. Though I do have to wonder how tough that material really is. I mean, it looks tough, but his little hovercraft had two holes and a dent after dealing with that one turian pirate, Hailat I think his name was? And I know those weapons weren't up to specs."

The lieutenant commander snorted in amusement. "Elanos Haliat, and you are right. However, this is a lot more material than the flier had, and I remember the two holes being in the canopy, not the material. All he had was a dent, and that was in the metal shield of the craft's engine, not the actual… whatever this stuff is."

Ashley nodded as Joannis knocked on the wall next to her. "Still, they seem to build almost everything out of it, so it would be nice to know how tough it is, in case they ever decide to… I don't know, take all us women or something."

Joannis noticed the noticeable pause before she gave the example, and snorted at the given one rather than the one Ashley had been about to give. "Doubtful, he mentioned they have significantly more women than men. Kind of wonder how that works, do the guys just have harems, or do they not have long term relationships? Or do the women get to pick a male they like, the male knocks them up, and then move on, unaware of what love is?"

Ashley chuckled at the last option, before nodding. "I am thinking the last one ma'am. He certainly hasn't noticed anything the crew has tried."

Joannis turned and tilted her head, inviting the marine to continue, who happily obliged her. "Oh, some of the crew have been making subtle advances to him, and he hasn't reacted to any of them beyond slight confusion that I have seen."

Joannis let her head tilt further, before sighing. "Is this something I need to take care of?"

Ashley shrugged. "Dunno ma'am. He certainly isn't reacting negatively from what I have seen, else you would know from the Doc, considering he decked Wrex that one time. And I know three women and one male have made passes. The male was the one that got the confused reaction."

She glanced behind her at the rest of the group, before turning back to face their guards. "Though I think our two present female non-humans might have a little crush on him."

Joannis glanced at the marine in surprise. "Are you sure?"

Ashley snorted, but her smirk was audible over the communications channel. "Ma'am, please. I have three younger sisters, I know when someone is getting a crush. Most likely started for Tali when he single handedly rescued her from that stripper bar, and Liara on Therum. I can't tell if he is encouraging or discouraging them, he tends to jerk everyone's chain around for fun or out of habit. Better than some, he at least takes getting pranked back in stride, except when Icivia does it."

Joannis couldn't help chuckling softly at the reminder. "Think he has forgiven her for giving him a reputation for being into asari bondage and kidnapping?"

"No more than she has forgiven him for slighting her on the Citadel in front of the other Spectres in charge of Councilor Tevos' security."

Joannis winced at that, Jaclyn had been on the Spectre servers as that group had gone off duty and learned of the incident before laughing about it in the mess hall later. Joannis' humor left her quickly. "Right, forgot about that. Hopefully neither of them are nursing a grudge. I don't think the ship could take the grudge match."

She glanced back at the door Arlas had gone through, before dismissing Ashley, and heading back over to her twin. "How much longer is Arlas going to take? It has been a half hour."

Inside the room, Arlas gazed up at the towering form in charge of the vessel. The Wraithseer didn't have eyes, but Arlas could easily feel the piercing gaze of the spirit within it staring down at him. For a moment, neither moved, before the spirit harrumphed in Arlas' mind. *So you at least remember the traditional greetings, even if they are almost unseemingly hurried. Very well, I will refrain from judgement. For now.*

Arlas didn't reply, simply stalking forward, and offered a hand to the massive Wraithseer, before opening up his mind. He was aware that his ghosthelm was making it more difficult for the Wraithseer to speak to him, but that didn't mean it was hard. It was simply a gesture of courtesy, to expedite the conversation. Most of the time he wouldn't have bothered, but he was worried what the others would do if left alone too long. So he was going to pass his memories to the Wraithseer, hoping to finish this quickly.

He guided the seer to his briefing and a brief overview of his training, before letting him review everything that had happened after his departure from the Craftworld. Arlas knew it would take him about an hour to cover each week of memories from another eldar, and the mon-keigh would likely only be able to process things at a rate of one real hour for each day. The seer took about ten minutes to go over three months of memories, and a few more minutes to consider everything, before he reluctantly sent his understanding. *Very well, I can see why you have done as you have, even if I do not approve.*

Arlas refrained from sending his sarcastic thanks, as the Wraithseer could easily destroy him offhandedly for an insult. After a few minutes of waiting, a massive hologram suddenly formed around Arlas, making him cry out as his helmet's optics blinded him for a moment. Once he got his sight back, he walked out of the hologram to give the Wraithseer a glare and a mental grumble, before turning back to the hologram. After a moment, the light construct shifted, and he realized it had been a topside view of the ship, but was now oriented for the ship's new gravity.

He looked over the hologram, noting the all-prevalent indications for damage, several sections listed as completely destroyed, many of the sections powerless, but a bare handful of sections had power and were simply indicating that they required attention. After a moment of observing the hologram, the Wraithseer continued their conversation. *As you can see, the damage is quite extensive, and we have few survivors. We lack the ability to seal off a significant section of the ship for the survivors, as well as lack the ability to produce what they need to survive, and what little we did carry in the way of supplies and such were reduced significantly by our crash.*

One section pulsed, and a path was highlighted. *I require you to investigate that section. That section is holding a few of the survivors, and is about to lose power. I have not had contact with the wraith forces in that section in some time, and the damage prevents further wraith forms from entering.*

The hologram showed a second, shorter path, this time leading to the outer section. Arlas didn't need a briefing to understand what that was, the evacuation path. *(How many survivors am I looking for?)*

The large wraithbone construct didn't answer immediately, but when it did, its mental tone was full of despair. *Only four. Recently pods have been going offline, and those are the ones left according to a census we took after the crash.*

It took Arlas a moment to get over his shock and fight off his own despair, but it took considerable effort. He knew these ships carried one hundred thousand eldar, or Asuryani as they called themselves, and while he had known the damage was extensive, he hadn't expected to lose nearly the entire troop complement on the ship. He took a deep, steadying breath, before nodding. *(I will do what I can to get them out of their pods before they expire. Is that area pressurized?)*

The Wraithseer sent back a negative feeling, making Arlas send back an exasperated sigh, before the Wraithseer gestured to the door he had entered through. *One of the Wraithlords will guide you as far as it can. After that, you will lead. Will the mon-keigh help, or should I have them dealt with?*

Arlas considered the question for a moment, before sending his reply. *(They have been helpful so far, and even the ones that aren't have only been irritating. We don't exterminate them for being irritating. We leave that to our fallen kin. We exterminate them for being terminally stupid, ugly, and ignoring our guidance and obvious superiority.)*

The Wraithseer sent back a feeling of being unamused at the Pathfinder's flippant attitude, before dismissing the hologram, opening the door Arlas had entered through, and resumed his previous position. Arlas quickly departed, and stepped into the hallway, before quickly debating the merits of his previous statement about exterminating mon-keigh.

"What took you?"

"Are we going to get decent fight today?"

"Are you alright?"

"What happened in there?"

Arlas wished the ship was pressurized, so he could take off his helmet and rub his forehead but instead settled for simply waiting. It took nearly two minutes before everyone finished babbling, by which point he was seriously considering just warping past the group. Finally able to speak his piece, he gestured to the only wraith form at the intersection, their guide. "We need to follow the Wraithlord. In exchange for not blasting the group, we need to extract four stasis pods from the ship, as power is failing in that section. Answers along the way."

He started down the hall toward the Wraithlord, ignoring the grumbling behind him from the krogan. "We haven't fired a shot yet. Eldar led missions are boring."

"Then I will endeavor to find you some Tyranids, Wrex. I am certain you would find that fight not boring."

"... What is a Tyranid?"

"Later, Wrex."

"Do we really need to do this routine again?"

Arlas rolled his eyes as the Wraithlord started toward the section in question. He followed their guide, ignoring the others behind him. Its gait was steady and consumed ground quickly, forcing Arlas to mentally ask it to slow down after a moment when it became clear that most of the mon-keigh couldn't keep up. "As to your questions, I had to convince the Wraithseer in charge of the ship that I was friendly. We are unlikely to get a decent fight, this is an eldar ship, and I convinced them that you are at least helpful. I am fine, and we need to rescue the last of the survivors in that section, all four of them, before power fails for their section. A Wraithseer is a Wraithlord that leads groups of wraith forms, is extremely powerful, and has several psyker abilities."

The path to the section was wandering, but after an hour of walking, they finally reached the part where they would part with the Wraithlord, and it was immediately obvious why. There was a fifty meter long hole in the middle of the hallway, and only a half meter wide path next to the wall to get past the ten meter wide void. The other side of the hallway was gone, the section of the ship missing for dozens of meters, ending against a cliff. Arlas frowned at the damage, before looking at the ledge. While most of the mon-keigh would get past fine, Wrex was going to be a problem.

Or so he thought, until Wrex simply used biotic charge to get across the gap, followed quickly by Lynx. Lioness glanced at the ledge and sniffed in disdain at it, before using her power to lift herself, and then Lynx gestured to bioticly pull her twin across the gap. Arlas rolled his eyes, before turning to Gemling and Dusk, and gesturing to the ledge as Ashley strolled across it without a problem, though she did have one hand up by some hanging pipes that had separated from the wall. "After you two."

Tali gave him a withering glare, before walking across the ledge, but when Dusk got to the edge, she made the mistake of looking down, seeing the several dozen meter plummet. The asari immediately backed up, and took several rapid, deep breaths, making little noises of distress. "Okay, looking down was a mistake."

Tali got across with no issues, used to having to contort and move around things to perform ship maintenance, so walking across an unmoving and reasonably wide, straight ledge was simple. Arlas turned back to Dusk, and gently touched her elbow. "Dusk, you have to get across, the wraith forms won't ignore you this time. The Twins can help you if you slip with their biotics."

She seemed to relax at the touch, and hesitantly approached the ledge, before shuddering. "You have that teleporter thing. Can't you just…?"

Arlas immediately shook his head. "No. The warp jump generator is not for use without extensive training so you don't claw your own eyes out. Through your helmet."

That got a stunned silence from Dusk, but after a moment, she looked at the chasm, and cautiously approached it. She made a point of not looking down the gaping hole in the floor, but her eyes did find the ledge, before she began examining the wall.

Arlas glanced at the others, before opening a private channel. "Twins, how do you want to do this?"

Jaclyn spoke, her voice a low drawl. "I dunno, but I think you are doing-"

Joannis cut her twin off before her could speak further. "We have a safety line. Can you jump over, get it and then jump back to tie it to her?"

Arlas jumped across, even as he responded. "No. I will carry it back across, however, so we do not sever the cord."

Just as he landed, Arlas glanced up, sensing something odd in the area, before swearing and yanking his fusion gun and pistol out. "Get her across, NOW!"

Everyone turned as he lunged past the group, pistol already up and firing, to see what had caused him suddenly act. Ashley had been half watching the hall ahead and spotted what he had a second ahead of the group, swearing up a storm as she yanked out her assault rifle, and tried to bring it up.

Three monstrosities were scrambling down the hallway toward them, four legs driving each form forward as a pair of claws frantically snapped at the group. A single tail arched gracefully up and over their long, narrow heads, its barbed spine slowly dripping venom onto the deck. Its head was covered in horns and a multitude of eyes, and a long, barbed sinuous tongue lashed the thin air. But most disgusting was that, under its thick scales, the creature clearly showed traits of reptiles, insects, and mammals. The one in front, for example, had at least six rows of deformed breasts, covered in scales, and one of its legs ended in a humanoid foot.

Arlas sprayed the approaching horrors with his pistol, and the others quickly joined in, the Twins putting the one in the back right into a stasis effect. They then turned and used lift and throw to knock the other Fiend of Slaanesh backwards, and everyone else firing their rifles at the remaining Fiend. But it was terrifyingly agile, effortlessly weaving, bobbing, ducking, and evading around their fire, swapping its body's orientation without pause in its stride, avoiding significant damage until it got within range of the group, and lunged.

Arlas brought up the fusion gun, and fired, vaporizing the leaping Fiend and a small section of the floor turned ceiling, as the Fiend that had been biotically thrown regained control of itself and resumed its charge. This time the group was more aware of its movement capabilities, a couple of the group firing to the sides of the creature, so even when it dodged it still took hits, but the creature was tough. It finally faltered and then dropped to the group just before it could try to perform its own leaping lunge. Arlas knew how tough such creatures were, however, and continued to spray the corpse with his pistol, until the stasis on the third creature wore off.

Ashley solved the problem as the creature hesitated for a fraction of an instant, noting the changes around it. She had swapped to her sniper rifle after the second fell, and her long rifle boomed once, causing the creature's head to detonate into a fine, delicate mist of blood, bone, and viscera. Done with the immediate problem, Arlas stepped back from the two closest corpses, and watched them slowly begin to combust into raw warp energies. "Stay back, those flames will burn you to your soul. Get Dusk across, now."

While he could tell the mon-keigh had some very pressing questions, he was in a rush now, there was no way those creatures could be summoned without some kind of sacrifice or ritual, and he knew of four possible victims. But first, he needed to alert Del to the situation. *Del, three Fiends of Shi who Thirsts in the dead area. Is there no way to get reinforcements here? I don't care about damage to the ship, or if you have to cut your way through walls to do it.*

He included a mental image of the three Fiends, and Del responded quickly. *Daemons? Here? This can not be, I would have… I can get a single wraith form to you in time to be useful, but it will be a modest wait while it gets into position and cuts through the plating. Keep moving forward, see if the active pods still contain survivors.*

Everyone paused, except for the Twins who were using biotics to pull Liara across the gap, when an undulating, keening howl ripped through the thin air. Ashley turned to Arlas. "What were those things?"

Arlas sighed, severing his conversation with Del. "Daemonic beasts of the Warp, called Fiends, for the Chaos faction back home. Basically the Warp's equivalent to mindless animals. Though I have little doubt there is something far, far worse in here. Otherwise the Fiends wouldn't be here."

Tali shuddered, her voice quavering despite her shotgun being kept steadily trained on the hallway heading deeper. "Why did one of them have… why did they look like that?"

Arlas looked at the group, before allowing himself to audibly sigh. "The less you know, the safer you are. No records from here on, and if your omnitools recorded images of those things, destroy them, now. Even images of them have power enough to corrupt."

Everyone gave him a flat stare, before Joannis nodded. "Alright, we will destroy any files on our omnitools at the end of the mission. Doing so now means we aren't rescuing your survivors as fast."

He stared at the human, having the oddest feeling he was missing something, before nodding his head. "Stay alert, and keep an eye on the ceiling, Fiends sometimes like to drop on their opponents. If you can modify your weapons to slow them down, that would help considerably."

Arlas waited for everyone to open their weapons and slot in what they called a cryo round mod, before he took point, keeping his fusion gun out, and had Wrex right behind him with his shotgun. The eldar let the rest of the mon-keigh pick their own marching order, and led the way into the corrupted section of the ship.

Arlas was getting more nervous as they continued deeper into the ship; they had been ambushed five more times by a total of twenty six Fiends over the last hour but he suspected they were getting close to where the four survivors were. That many Fiends didn't just appear on their own, and usually there were other daemons mixed with them like Daemonettes, to exploit the openings the lesser daemons made. He couldn't think of a good reason for them to be spread out like they were, and not supported by smarter daemons. Arlas was also concerned about the damage to the section, but despite the many blind passages and dead ends the various destroyed areas created, they were making relatively good time, considering he was relying on non-eldar to support his advance.

Arlas frowned, before gesturing for the group to halt. "Strong warp presence ahead, I suspect it is what is calling the lesser daemons we were fighting."

*Del, where is that support you promised?*

*Nearly there, it is almost a minute away. It will drop in as soon as it can. I can't bolster a wraith form in that area though, my senses don't reach into it, possibly a side effect of the daemons present, so be ready for the wraith form to suffer from wraith-sight.*

Arlas grumbled about it taking its sweet time, as wraith forms would have made the fight against the Fiends exceedingly simple, but simply gestured for the group to resume moving forward. "Wraith form support will be arriving soon."

Two turns later, and Arlas stopped and swore, before lowering his weapon and entering the cleared section ahead. It looked like something had ripped out the walls to several rooms, creating a large area, but there was still rubble and debris scattered about the area. Several stasis pods and their rooms had been destroyed, creating several areas of good cover, and all four intact pods were easy to spot, or what he assumed were stasis pods. They appeared to be covered in pulsing, disgusting cocoons of flesh, covered in eyes, gaping orifices with misshapen teeth, and lashing tendrils. And standing in the middle was a familiar being almost twice as tall as the eldar.

The greater daemon looked at the entrance, and smirked, its wings slowly fanning the thin air as it waited, its narrow, bony face covered in scales, and its mouth full of sharp, pointy teeth. Its massive torso and limbs were covered in scales, and Arlas was disgusted to notice that it still hadn't bothered to find any sort of loin covering, making its 'gender,' such as it applied to something that could freely change shape, obscenely obvious. Its body was wreathed in warp fire, and it carried its hook ended and barbed blade as long as Arlas was tall in one hand effortlessly. *Did you think I had forgotten about you, little eldar? The Mistress is going to be most unhappy that one of His toys tried to run. You are Her's, and I will not fail.*

The greater daemon gave a dark chuckle, as it looked over his companions, and smirked in a most unpleasant fashion. *And you even brought me new toys to play with. Heheheh. I am most pleased with your offering, and will kill you quickly for it.*

Arlas rolled his eyes, and sent a thought back with mock shock. *You! I remember you.*

The greater daemon laughed, delighted at the way the encounter was playing out, and flourished its blade with a casual ease. *And well you should, little eldar, for I am a Gate Keeper and Keeper of Secrets for Slaanesh, Shi who Thirsts. I am -*

Arlas couldn't help himself; he knew it was a bad idea, and that he was likely going to regret it. But he did it anyway. He pointed at the daemon, and mentally spoke over it. *You're Giggles McLizardface!*

The clang of the greater daemon's blade falling out of its suddenly numb hand and hitting the deck seemed to reverberate throughout the entire ship, as the daemon's face flushed with all consuming rage, an impressive feat considering it was covered in scales, and made mental choking noises. For a shocked moment, no one moved, no one spoke, no one dared to breath, before suddenly his omnitool communication line exploded into laughter as the rest of the group lost control. He turned and gave them a thumbs up gesture, before drawing his sword with his main hand, keeping his fusion gun in his off hand. After a moment of gaping like a fish, the daemon finally got its raging fury back under control enough to speak, and snapped up its sword from where it had fallen. *My name is Halrshan-Ishnetrue, you little cunt, and you will address me properly. I also take back my offer of a quick death. Now I am going to rip your arms off and make you my bitch toy and then rape you to death and then rape your corpse until it falls apart, while you watch in that cursed soul gem, before breaking the gem and raping your spirit for the rest of eternity! DIE!*

Arlas was already moving as the greater daemon charged him, getting away from the group so they could live long enough to get to cover. The others scattered, and he waited for the daemon to get close enough before firing the fusion gun. The powerful burst of plasma seared its scales, turning flesh and scales to blackened charcoal, but the enraged daemon didn't even notice the burns, closing the distant terrifyingly quickly, and lashed out with its blade. Arlas ducked under the first blow, and flipped over the backhand swing, his own blade scoring a light cut along the stomach muscles that began bleeding sluggishly, the blood igniting as it dripped and hit the floor. *First blood is mine!*

The daemon's only reply was an inarticulate howl of utter rage, before gathered a sphere of warp energy the size of Arlas' chest in one hand, and flung it. Arlas desperately dove into the immaterium with his jump generator, and swore at the sudden, unexpected currents in it. The daemon had done something to agitate this universe's plane of immaterium, making chain jumps exceedingly difficult and dangerous. The daemon had set up the battlefield well. He swapped his fusion gun out for his twin pistol, idly noting the section of plating where he had been had been obliterated by the warp strike, and the daemon was charging him, ignoring the fire from the rest of the group tearing into its back.

Arlas swore and quickly put the pistol back away, realizing that he was going to need to focus on bladework to survive this until the wraith form arrived. He recognized the attack pattern as the same one as before, and ducked under the first swipe of the massive blade, and then cut a line across its inner thigh, missing its groin as it suddenly pivoted and tried to crush him with a cloven hoof. He rolled out of the way, and noted the daemon was slowing down as more and cryo rounds pierced its back, but rage was keeping Giggles from noticing it. A few more seconds and the daemon would be slow enough for him to simply behead it or one of the monkeigh to blow its head apart.

Then one of the biotics went and hit it with a lift.

Giggles suddenly staggered as it unexpectedly became much lighter, causing it to overcompensate, before the confusion made its fury subside, just enough to start thinking again as it looked down at itself. Finally taking note of the frost forming on it and how sluggish it had become, the daemon turned to the others in the group, idly parrying a slash from Arlas before forcing him to retreat with a quick jab from its blade. It looked down as the others fired a volley into its chest, idly watching the frost form over its scales, before nodding, its voice a menacing whisper. *I know what you were trying to do, little eldar. And it might even have worked if your allies hadn't been so stupid.*

Arlas cursed as the daemon brought its rage under control, and reactivated its aura of warp fire, instantly defrosting itself, before it suddenly blurred and vanished. Arlas swore even harder as he threw himself forward into a combat roll, expecting the daemon to reappear behind him, but the daemon had reappeared near one of the flesh cocooned pods, its blade hanging over the pod. *Dark Prince, grant me thy boon!*

Its blade flashed down, despite desperate fire from the others and Arlas trying to close, unable to use his warp jump with the currents in the immaterium until the generator had cooled, but he was on the other side of the room. The blade hit the pod and cut it in half, instantly killing the eldar inside it, and no doubt destroying the spirit stone at the same time. Arlas watched the wounds on the greater daemon heal, and six warp fires suddenly burst into existence around the destroyed pod, which quickly subsided to reveal six Fiends of Slaanesh. Halrshan pointed with its blade at the others he had come in with. *Deal with those six, the eldar is mine.*

Arlas swore, and moved to try and intercept at least one of the Fiends, the beasts would obey that order at all costs, but Halrshan flared into existence in front of him after a flash of warp fire, forcing the eldar to skid to a halt to avoid having his legs cut off at the knees. He was too focused on his opponent to see much of what was going on across the room, but he could hear the calls on the omnitool, and it didn't sound good. It only got worse when the greater daemon suddenly sucker punched him, knocking Arlas off balance and dazing him enough to let the daemon kick him with all the force it could muster.

Arlas tumbled across the room to slam into one of the broken stasis pods, the armor's psy-shield not activating, and hit the pod hard enough to feel several bones cracking at least. Arlas weakly looked around, idly wondering why he was having trouble breathing as he struggled to locate his sword, but stopped as he tried to move and reflexively uttered a watery scream of pain. He looked down, and cursed as he saw he had been kicked into a broken piece of wraithbone, and it had gone right through his side, spearing his lung before coming out his chest. He grabbed the wraithbone, and tried to lever himself up and off it, but suddenly found his strength fleeing him and was unable to do anything but roughly pant, trying to not use the pierced part of his lung so he wouldn't make the wound worse.

He ignored the openly gloating daemon, turning his head to the others to see how their fight was going, and winced. Three of the Fiends had been killed, but the other three had gotten into melee with the group. Wrex and Jaclyn had taken on two of them with their shotguns, with Tali and Joannis helping them respectively, but the third had slipped around Ashley to drag Liara out of cover before it could be put down. The asari barely had time to shriek in terror before the creature grabbed her arms to hold them still and shoved its tongue through her mass effect mask, licking her from jaw to forehead before shoving the long muscle into her mouth. Liara convulsed and then went limp, the daemon's saliva causing her to slip immediately into a coma. The creature began tearing at her armor so it could feed on her flesh, keeping Dusk between it and Ashley, but Wrex finally finished off his Fiend with Tali's help, and both turned to shotgun the creature off the asari before it could do more than maul the armor.

As the last Fiend died, the greater daemon started applauding, thinking itself fully in control of the situation despite being outnumbered. It deliberately stomped on Arlas' long rifle and then his sword, the eldar's tumble across the room having torn the weapons from him, crushing them into uselessness with contemptuous ease. *Bravo mortals, bravo. Truly a remarkable display, especially since you probably have not fought such creatures before. Since you did so well, I will make you an offer. Submit, and swear eternal servitude to Slaanesh, the Prince of Pleasure, Prince of Excess, Dark Lord, and She Who Thirsts, and you will get power the likes of which you can not possibly imagine. Don't, and I will do whatever I please to you.*

Arlas shoved the pain from his mind, and felt something in the hall above them. He quickly reached out to what he felt, and smirked despite the pain before mentally taunting back. *Better idea. You die, we go home.*

Arlas had the satisfaction of watching the daemon sigh in utter annoyance, before turning back to him and stomping toward him, drawing its blade. *Apparently you need another lesson in pain, eldar. Most of your kind aren't this stupid.*

Arlas sent a private thought, and smirked despite the pain he was in. *Actually, I am going to just sit here. Spike in the chest after all. But my big friend wants a word with you.*

Halrshan actually stopped advancing and started giggling, before turning to look back at the krogan. *Hahahah. What, that little lizard? Heheheh. What is he going to do, punch me in the knee? Bahahaha!*

A sword tip suddenly punched through the ceiling and began transcribing a large circle, and Arlas sent his vicious glee. *No, not that big friend.*

The ceiling circle finally completed and dropped, crashing to the ground in the center of the open area, and a towering, seven meter form loomed over the greater daemon, who suddenly wasn't feeling quite so tall, especially when the Wraithlord leveled its sword at it. *THAT big friend. You know, it just occurred to me, but I could have sworn you used to be bigger. … Aren't you a little short to be a greater daemon? *

Halrshan turned back to him, and gave him a death glare that should have set off a nuclear fireball, while someone choked back laughter on the squad channel. *… I am going to take FAR too much pleasure in breaking you latter.*

Arlas smirked and leaned back against the pod, trying to get comfortable, as Ashley clandestinely pulled the unconscious Liara behind one of the destroyed pods. *Yeah, good luck with that.*

The Wraithlord fired its shoulder mounted starcannon, but the greater daemon displaced itself, reappearing near one of the pods, and quickly brought down the sword as it screamed a supplication. *Prince of Excess, grant me thy boon!*

As the pod split and the fires of the Warp flared around the minion of Chaos, the Wraithlord turned to the greater daemon. As the fires began to fade, the daemon flared its wings and stretched, revealing that this time, the boon had been a significant increase in size, and likely strength, as it stood over eight meters tall, double its previous height. *Ah, much better.*

Halrshan turned and pointed at the Twins and Wrex, before snarling a command. *Despair!*

All three of the squad dropped to their knees, Wrex having the presence of mind to roll behind a nearby destroyed pod when the daemon started to turn to them, as they began wrestling with the psychically induced despair. The Wraithlord rushed the daemon, but it managed to point at the area where Ashley was, and shout another command. *Apathy.*

She was behind cover, so Arlas couldn't tell if she was affected, but couldn't do anything even if she was, and he had lost track of Tali while keeping the daemon busy. He focused on trying to keep the pain from his wound from overwhelming him, and watching the fight. And it was obvious to Arlas this fight was going to be a bit closer than he would have liked, since the Wraithlord would suddenly pause, it's flowing movements hesitating as if it had lost track of the opponent in front of it. Warp blade met wraithblade, sparks and energy discharges giving the fight a slightly surreal edge to it, but after a moment it became clear to Arlas the fight wasn't going to be close, the daemon had the edge, so to speak.

He cursed to himself as he glanced at the two weapons he had left, the pistol lacked the damage to help, and the fusion gun lacked the range. If he pulled himself off the spike in his chest, he would likely bleed to death before the others could help. He started going down everything he had on him, trying to find a solution.

Block of wraith webbing. Useful, but he couldn't throw it accurately enough, and the blast would also damage the Wraithlord if he used the webbing as a general explosive. The wound was too big for the webbing to be used as a cauterizer as well, and went through his torso.

Grenades. Same problem as the webbing block, with the added problem of the ones he had on him were meant to blind senses and sensors or deflect attacks, not damage daemons.

Melta bombs. Same problem as the ones with webbing, the explosion would take a bigger chunk out of the Wraithlord than the daemon as it was at least somewhat resistant to heat. That and the bombs were meant to be affixed to a tank or wall, not thrown. Khaine himself couldn't guess where a thrown melta bomb would end up. How the mon-keigh back home managed to do it was something that had always baffled him.

The grappling assembly didn't have a strong enough line to try and throw off the daemon's attacks, the force would pull him off the spike if he tried. Also, the daemon was facing toward him, so he didn't have a good angle anyways to apply pressure.

Pouch of runes. Healing runes would take too long to be useful, scrying runes were a bit late, empowerment runes didn't work on a wraith form, spider runes only worked on structures and didn't affect daemons, deception runes wouldn't help kill the daemon, and…

He paused, before trying to grab the pouch. That last rune might let him assist the fight a bit. It took him two tries to get a hold of the pouch, and begin digging around for the rune he wanted.

"You look like crap Arlas. I mean, museum escapee."

His head snapped around, and he cursed himself for not paying attention, but it was Tali, kneeling beside him. "Not sure if medigel can fix all that, but it will help keep you alive."

He simply nodded, relaxing a bit as the cool, numbing gel washed the edge off the pain, but he kept digging through the pouch. *How is everyone else?*

"Pissed and trying to figure out how to help without distracting the Wraithlord. The Twins and Wrex are wanting words with you later."

He grumbled something unpleasant before finally finding the rune of guidance he was looking for, and pulling it out. *They can get in line after the Wraithseer and the healer. Tell the others to keep that damn daemon from distracting me for a moment. If this works, the Wraithlord will move so you all can resume shooting the big bastard.*

His left hand reached around, and pulled the fusion gun off his back. He mentally deactivated the biolock on it, before offering it to Tali. *You get by the remaining pods. If the daemon tries to sacrifice another of my people, blast him with this. Don't try before that.*

Arlas could see the weapon casing was cracked near the power pack, and there was a chance it would detonate in her hands, but they were fast running out of options. Tali looked at the weapon, before hesitating. "What about the biolock?"

*Disabled for the moment. If I start glowing, move to the pods. If not, stay here and get ready to blast the bastard. Use it just like your shotgun, but you probably only have one shot with it. So try to not miss.*

She took the fusion gun with all the eagerness most people would display being handed a live grenade missing its pin, which was remarkably astute considering the damage to the weapon. Once she was holding the weapon, he dismissed her from his mind, as well as the pain, the noises from the fight as a pair of handguns, an assault rifle, and a sniper rifle joined the clash of swords, and focused only on the guidance rune in his hand and the Wraithlord. He tried to remember how his teacher had told him to setup the connection between the warlock, rune, and target.

The first step was to get in cover, so your dumb ass wouldn't get shot. The second was to dismiss everything else from your mind. The third was to realize that, thanks to the warp, everything was connected. The fourth was to build and reinforce a psychic bridge between the mind of the warlock and the target. The fifth step was to sit back and watch the guided target start taking everything to pieces.

Arlas glanced down at the spike of wraithbone sticking out of his chest, before dismissing everything but his target and the rune in his hand from his senses. It might have been the blood loss, but he finally found it possible to do, where before he would spend minutes trying to dismiss everything and struggle to not have random things pop back into his awareness. Finally focused, he began psychically building a mental bridge between himself and the Wraithlord, using the rune as a focus. And he was surprised at how easy it was, his mind expanding through the unused portions of the wraith form, and his own senses being used to amplify the Wraithlord's, negating the sense of disassociation from the world the wraith forms suffered from. And then his awareness suddenly flowed into the Wraithlord's, and he lost track of his own body, as he suddenly realized he might have forgotten a step in the linking process.

*Ah, right… the anchoring. I forgot… to… …*

Joannis was not amused by how FUBAR this mission had gone, and she was N7, used to FUBAR, hell FUBAR was the normal for her. This might be a new level of FUBAR, requiring a new acronym to describe it. This was so FUBAR that the FUBAR had FUBARed the FUBAR, and the phrase FUBAR had lost all meaning, and that was pretty damned FUBAR.

Even Wrex wasn't enjoying the fight, that was how messed up it was. Everyone just wanted the fight to end, but the last enemy, a god forsaken demon of all things, with hooves, horns, wings and a fire and torture fetish, refused to just die. She was already dreading the report she was going to have to file, but at least she could use her visor camera to prove she hadn't gone totally insane with the report. They couldn't use their omnitool recordings, Arlas' implied threat had ensured that and she wanted to talk with him later about why he was worried about a mere recording of the beasts, but he had said nothing about the helmet cameras.

She wasn't sure what had happened to Liara, but Ashley had reported that despite the state of her armor, Liara was still alive, they just couldn't revive her. Tali had gone to check Arlas, and the four remaining fighters were trying to snipe into melee, without exposing themselves to more of whatever the daemon had hit them with earlier. She wasn't sure why a single word had utterly crushed her spirits earlier, but now she was too angry to care now and it was another question for Arlas. The eldar was currently putting out quite the psyker light show, but she couldn't tell what he was doing.

She dropped back into cover to let her Locust SMG cool down, before glancing around at the squad. Ashley was firing her sniper rifle with cautious precision, Wrex was blazing away with his assault rifle, and her twin was arcing biotic warps around the Wraithlord while occasionally firing a couple rounds from her Hurricane SMG. Joannis shook her head, and stood back up to begin firing again, but paused to watch the seven meter tall eldar mech suddenly and unexpectedly sidestep a powerful overhead swing from the daemon, before suddenly lashing out with a kick to the daemon's knee.

She frowned, wondering why the mech was suddenly moving so fluidly and only now using those moves when before its movements had been slow and hesitant, as the daemon's kneecap shattered loud enough for the group to hear across the room. The daemon screamed in anger more than pain, before trying to grab its opponent with its free hand covered in purple flames, only for the Wraithlord to swipe its sword, forcing the daemon to jump back to avoid losing its hand. The Wraithlord then stepped to the side and back, giving the group a clear shot at the daemon even as its shoulder mounted weapon fired, and everyone joined in on lighting the daemon up.

Ashley's sniper rifle fired three shots in rapid succession before overheating, and she quickly switched to her assault rifle, already out and deployed right beside her. Wrex kept firing his assault rifle, while Jaclyn hosed the daemon down with her Hurricane, and flung biotic warps as fast as she could. She quickly joined her twin in doing the same with her SMG.

The daemon cried out in pain as the rounds tore through its chest, and then Ashley fired her sniper rifle again, blowing a head sized hole out of its chest thanks to the biotic warps reducing its ability to resist damage, exposing bones and organs. The daemon shrieked in agony, but clearly wasn't dead yet, as it vanished to reappear next to the third pod, sword already raised and held in both hands, point down to stab into the flesh covered mound. *Prince of Pleasure, grant me thy-*

Tali suddenly stood up from behind the pod, the melty gun pointing at the daemon's chest. "How about no?"

The daemon gaped at Tali in horrified shock, before desperately throwing itself backwards and trying to twist away but Tali didn't give it a chance, firing the fusion gun. Joannis didn't wait for the blast to clear, and hit the daemon with a biotic stasis as she yelled orders. "Jaclyn, get a barrier on that pod. Tali, pull back and get ready to fire that thing again. Wrex, charge as soon as the stasis goes down and my follow up warp hits. Ashley, pop that asshole's head like a rotten fruit."

The heat had cleared enough to show the daemon in stasis, but the Twins knew it was going to collapse and soon, the creature was simply too powerful and big to be held long. But Tali's surprise attack had done the most damage to the thing yet, completely blowing its right arm off, and the sword in its left hand was glowing an eye searing bluish-white from trying to block the blast of plasma. Everyone got into position, though Joannis was surprised to see that Tali had swapped the melty gun for her shotgun.

Jaclyn put the barrier on the pod, and Joannis tossed a warp, before dismissing the stasis field. The daemon screamed in agony as the warp hit the gaping hole in its chest as it came back to reality. Then Wrex charged the daemon, detonating the unstable warp field, and blasting the krogan and demon away from each other. Jaclyn's barrier protected her, Tali, and the pod. Ashley's sniper round and Tali's carnage round both missed as the daemon fell, but the daemon hit the ground howling and thrashing in mortal agony.

Then the eldar Wraithlord slammed its foot into the daemon's chest, and shoved the sword straight through its heart. The daemon just gasped in pain this time, before vomiting blood that immediately caught fire, slowly spilling out to coat the ground. The Wraithlord very slowly, and very deliberately took the hilt of the massive blade in both hands, and began to evenly twist the blade, opening the wound. The daemon choked, before taking the final opportunity to send its defiance. *You win this one, little eldar. But we both know that I will never stop hunting you… and that you have no way to truly kill me.*

It gave the Wraithlord a grim smile, unable to turn its head toward where Arlas limply leaned against a destroyed pod. *If you somehow survive this, I look forward to the next fight. I think you and I… might be destined… to do this… for a... very... LONG… time… little eldar.*

The Wraithlord suddenly twisted the blade completely around, before ripping the sword out of the daemon's chest, and spinning it in a quick circle to behead the daemon, the flaming blood coating the blade adding emphasis to the flourishing movement. Done executing the daemon, the Wraithlord turned and trod over to the first intact stasis pod, and bathed the pod in a short burst of fire from the barrel under its fist to begin burning the cocoon off, before moving to the second pod to repeat the action. It paid the disintegrating daemon's body behind it no mind.

Joannis looked over the group, before heading to Arlas. "Jaclyn, help Ashley with Liara. Tali with me, we need to check Arlas. Wrex, overwatch, make sure we aren't ambushed."

As she headed over to the eldar, she opened a private channel with Tali as she drew even with her. "I want to know how you bypassed that biolock he has always been going on about."

Tali shrugged as she replied. "He disabled it for me."

Joannis swore as the Wraithlord beat them over to the eldar pathfinder, and gently touched him, causing his body to gently sway before the Wraithlord slid its blade behind him, and jerked it upwards. Arlas hit the floor limply and then fell over. "Dammit, I think Arlas is dead."

Tali jogged ahead, but before they could do anything, Arlas jerked, and shook his head. *... Set… an… anchor… Serves me right for forgetting something that basic.*

Arlas waited for his senses to start working after getting back to his body, and naturally his hearing returned first. "Arlas, if you aren't dead you are going to wish you were for scaring us like that."

Arlas simply sent back his irritation and pain, before carefully beginning to try and lever himself up. Lying on his side was causing the blood in the damaged section of lung to ooze into the next one, making it ever harder to breathe. After a moment, someone helped him sit up, and he sent them a private thought of thanks for the help. He felt weaker than since he had woken up in the holding pens for that dark eldar succubus, missing half his forearm and having been beaten senseless to be captured. After a moment to try and get his breath back, he forced himself to his feet. *How bad? I couldn't sense much while merged with the Wraithlord.*

"Liara is still unconscious, but two pods survived. No idea how we are going to move those pods though. Especially without them losing power."

*They have a built in power source, but it won't last forever, a couple hours at most. Local power will last a bit longer, and I can merge the pods to the lander. First, though, get me to the exit. I can wait in the lander, the Wraithlord will help you move things, and I can get the lander's Wraithguard to help.*

His sight finally came back enough that things came into enough focus for him to work, and the first thing he noticed concerned him. *Tali, is my fusion gun glowing?*

She looked down before replying. "Is that supposed to happen?"

*Give, now.*

She passed him the gun, which was softly glowing near the power pack, and Arlas quickly discovered it was almost too heavy for him. He grunted, but managed to eject the power pack, which was glowing a bright yellow as it hit the ground and deformed slightly. *Get it away before it explodes!*

He was having to support himself by leaning against the destroyed pod, but Joannis and Tali were smart enough to figure out what needed to happen. Tali gave the pack a firm kick, while Joannis biotically lifted it, causing the pack to sail into the far wall. It hit with a rather pathetic plink, before it suddenly exploded like a plasma grenade. Done with that excitement, he painfully put the fusion gun on his back, before slowly pushing himself to his feet and limping toward the exit of the ship, half a kilometer distant. After a moment, Tali caught up and tried to help support him, but after a moment he projected his pained and exhausted amusement at her. *Too short to help. Thanks for trying though.*

Tali glared up at him, before wrapping one arm around his waist anyways, though she didn't try to put his arm over her shoulder again. A few minutes later Ashley caught up carrying Liara over one shoulder, and he sent his amusement to the human, before broadcasting to the group. *Isn't that the pose that got that stupid prank about me going?*

Ashley stared blankly at him for a moment, before laughing. "You're right, it is. Should I let you carry her then, and Tali try and support me? Or maybe you would like to carry both like that? I think Tali might enjoy it."

He sent back his exhausted annoyance as Tali stiffened and made a soft noise that he couldn't identify, before giving the human an immolating glare. *Only if you tell me what a monkey is.*

He didn't bother waiting for her reply before he contacted Yol'Pvera, and let her and Kap'Eiyl know what happened, requested they move the ship to the exit tunnel, and get ready to accept two stasis pods for integration into the ship. Once he got back, he would move one of them into the Wraithguard to help move the pods. After the Wraithguard left, he would get out of his armor and used the healing rune to keep himself conscious until they got back, before helping fuse the stasis pods into the lander.

He finished issuing orders, before coming back his surroundings. He sighed to himself as he saw how much was ahead. It was going to be a long walk, for only being a half kilometer long, and he could feel himself starting to grey out. Arlas fumbled for his rune pouch, searching for the healing rune, trying to find the one he needed before he passed out. As his vision continued to dim and constrict, he put all his focus to keep walking, despite the slowly growing effort required. *I guess that gut wound… was worse… than I… thought.*

He managed to keep himself conscious long enough to get back to the ship, where he managed to get Kap'Eiyl into the wraithguard and drop most of his equipment in the armory. He then staggered over to one of the seats in the hangar bay, and passed out as he landed heavily in it, not even being able to activate the seat's gravity tethers.

A/N - At almost 16k words, that is the longest single mission yet for the story, not counting the lead up parts for each one, and we haven't even hit most of the canonical major ones yet. Other than Therum and Eden Prime, of course. But with this, most of Arlas' personal missions are finished, and we can get back to our regularly scheduled faffing about. Though I promise not for long.

Anyhoo, hope everyone enjoyed, but if not, drop me a line and let me know what to improve. Or if you think I should just stop writing. :P

Also, some of you might have noticed that I have changed my upload schedule to every other week. This is due to me losing my previous job, which had several hours of nothing to do but write. Now that I am job hunting, I no longer have five easy hours a day to write. So until I get a new job and get my writing groove back, I will be posting as indicated in the story description.