Kaida sat on a box next to Reptile and watched the two tau earth caste reassemble the battlesuit. She had been running the mission through in her head again and again, something wasn't quite right. "Reptile, if we were sent down to Eradis III looking for a psychic beacon, how come none of the psykers came with us?"
"Maybe they thought the psychic signal would have been strong enough for anyone to feel it," said Reptile, "maybe they thought it might be harmful to psykers."
"Maybe you're right," said Kaida, "but I think there might be something else going on here."
Reptile raised his eyebrows at Kaida's suggestion.
"I think there wasn't a psychic source at all."
Reptile moved close to Kaida and whispered in her ear "be careful who hears that."
Kaida went quiet.
A door in the corner opened and Esskrimar entered the hangar bay, he approached Reptile and Kaida.
"Greetings, brother," welcomed Reptile.
"Good day Reptile," said Esskrimar, smiling. "I see you have been tasked with watching the tau rebuild their mech. A joyless activity no doubt."
"They need to be watched," said Reptile, not moving his gaze from the engineers, "earth caste engineers can be very inventive. They could turn the guns on us, or turn an ammunition pack into a bomb if we're not careful."
"It looks bloody boring."
"It's been relaxing watching them work, they work very well together and they do everything very efficiently."
Esskrimar tried to watch them for a few seconds, "It's still bloody boring."
"They are nearly finished," said Reptile "they are just doing a bit of calibration and set up work; we might be able to see it in action soon."
Esskrimar looked around and pointed at the empty dreadnought standing idle, "you think it's going to work like that?"
"It might be similar," said Reptile, "but it's not as well armoured, and it's much more manoeuvrable. Not to mention that you can easily step in and out of it."
Esskrimar took one look at the open cockpit compartment of the battle suit and commented, "I think it's too small for me to step in and out of."
"It's not for you," said Reptile with a smile.
Esskrimar turned to face Kaida, a brutish face, she still remembers how he scared her half to death when she first arrived on the Mourning maiden "Are you up for piloting this?"
Her voice shook as she spoke, "I don't know how it all works, but I'm willing to take it into battle once I have mastered it."
"Once you have mastered it?" repeated Esskrimar, "By the gods, you have way more patience than me, Reptile, what's the point in an asset you can't even use?"
"We will be able to use it, in time," argued Reptile. "What about what you found? Where's your husk blade?"
"I don't know," dismissed Esskrimar.
"You don't know?" gasped Reptile, whipping his head round to stare at Esskrimar.
"Yeah, I lost it somewhere, I don't know," said Esskrimar, "It's just a little eldar weapon, its flimsy and it would break in a proper fight. I'll just stick to my good, strong power sword."
"You must be joking," said Reptile.
Esskrimar looked a bit puzzled.
"You really have no idea how valuable that sword is?"
Esskrimar shook his head.
"It's extremely valuable, a husk blade might be worth the same as a suit of terminator armour, maybe even two."
"I don't believe you."
"Well whatever you want to believe, you've lost it, brother," sighed Reptile, "and we'll never know how much it's worth."
Esskrimar's eyes started darting around, he was starting to panic, and not doing a good job at hiding it on his face. Kaida turned away and bit her finger to stop herself laughing at the space marine.
Reptile started laughing at Esskrimar, "Your face! You were never good at hiding your emotions."
Reptile bashed his fist into Esskrimar's shoulder.
"Don't worry, brother," said Reptile, turning back to watch the earth caste engineers at work. "It's on this ship somewhere. It won't have gotten far."
Kaida had time to observe the relationship between these two marines; Esskrimar looked to Reptile much like one might look up to an older sibling, 'quite fitting' thought Kaida, they called themselves brothers.
Kaida continued to watch the two earthcaste engineers, they were making progress on the battle suit, most of it was put together and they were working on the inside of the cockpit now.
"We had a good time down there." said Esskrimar.
"We did indeed," agreed Reptile.
"Did you see the moment I crashed into an eldar wych on his skyboard?"
"I missed that,"
"It was glorious, he had no idea I was coming, all he saw of me was my boot in his face."
"I assume his skyboard didn't take your weight?"
Esskrimar burst out laughing, "It couldn't; and neither could his face!"
Reptile chuckled as well.
Silence fell for a moment, all there was to fill the air was the quiet whir and hiss of the mechanisms inside the Tau suit. "Someone's coming," said Reptile.
One of the doors to the hangar bay hissed open and one of sorcerers entered, he had a decorated golden helm and red robes flowing from his power armour. "Lord Halphas," greeted Reptile, bowing his head slightly.
"Lord Halphas," said Esskrimar, "you can take your helmet off."
Halphas walked straight towards the tau hazard suit, as he approached Kaida tried to stay out of sight behind the two marines.
"Tell the engineers to move back," called out the sorcerer.
Kaida didn't want to make herself known.
The sorcerer's golden helm turned to stare directly into Kaida's eyes and from it a deep and blood curdling voice was heard repeating itself, "Tell the engineers to move back, or I will think nothing of ending their lives."
"Come on, Kaida," whispered Reptile, nudging her.
Kaida then called out to the engineers in her own language, and sure enough they backed away from what they were doing, but now they had their eyes fixed on the sorcerer.
The sorcerer stood before the alien hulk and began chanting. As he did, the hangar began to swirl with purple light and clouds. He raised his arms up and the swirl of light became more and more intense. The words he was chanting were not recognizable, they were not human. Kaida took a step back from the swirl of colour and light as it intensified. It grew and grew until Halphas lowered his arms again and the light seemed to be sucked into the hazard suit.
The lights on the face of the machine began to glow pink, its arms and legs began to move. It's head darted from side to side as if it was taking in its surroundings, it took a step and then another. It's backpack of thrusters fired and launched the machine to the top of the hangar, from there it dropped down and slammed the ground with its hands, it then thrust itself into the wall and crashed with its shoulder.
Halphas approached and spoke softly, once again using words that Kaida did not recognise. The machine slowed. The sorcerer reached out and touched the machine's chest with his hand, and said "be still, sweet spirit," and it was.
The two engineers were stunned and had no idea what just happened, the machine they had been working on had just lashed out as if it was an animal, and with no one in the pilot seat.
"What are you doing?" exclaimed Reptile, "That was not yours to control."
Halphas moved closer to reptile until he was right in his face. "You may hear much, brother Reptile," explained Halphas, "but we see everything. The tau war machine is better off in the hands of the daemon than under your control."
Reptile took a step back, eyes wide open, "What are you saying, Halphas?"
"We cannot allow a xeno on this ship to have this much power."
"So you would hand the power over to a daemon?"
"The daemon is loyal to us," explained the sorcerer, he pointed a big armoured finger at the Tau, "and she is loyal to you, we believe this is better."
"How can you say that, when I already have a whole squad of noise marines at my command?" asked Reptile.
"Look at your tau, Reptile," insisted Halphas, "Whom does she serve? The chapter, Slaanesh, or you?"
Reptile did not answer.
Halphas leaned in closer, "The game you are playing is dangerous, how far did you think you could go?"
Halphas turned and left without giving reptile enough time to answer.