The sun had fallen and the million stars of the Imperium of Man shone in the sky. Jak sat near the fire alongside Guy, with a half-dozen other survivors of the attack. Sergeant Pliken was talking, his face illuminated by the flames and his voice only contesting with the low hum of the vox-caster as Ram scanned frequencies.
"The commissar is dead, and, according to Ram here," Ram nodded at the mention of his name "the perimeter has been breached at several other locations" there was a pause before he continued saying "We succeeded in delaying the Tyranids enough to expel the need for Exterminatus, as more troops will be making land-fall tomorrow. Thus," he continued "our duty done, we should be concerned about saving our own skins. Cause being the only vet'ran here, I'll tell you something, there's not a god-damned soul in the universe that'll mourn it other than you."
"Now there's a bloody good idea!" yelled Darce, a young guardsman, between sips from his canteen of a liquid Jak guessed to be alcoholic.
Pliken began talking once again. "I don't know what you guys are going to do, but I'm leaving for those hills over there" he gestured with his lasgun "and company would be mighty welcome."
"Well," said Jak "I wanna live the night so I guess I'm coming with you."
Guy quickly followed "I'm coming too."
"Good," said Pliken. "Anyone else?" All the hands of those who had not yet spoken rose, except one man, who was just hugging his knees shivering. Jak had tried to talk to him earlier, he was already gone, his body was perfectly fine but his mind had cracked under the pressure of the battle.
"Excellent," said Pliken, counting the hands "Darce, Ram, Kirt, Aldrin... may I suggest we go and forage as much food as possible before we leave? Let's meet back here in 15."
"Extra equipment might help too," said Jak "power-cells, grenades, first aid; all good."
Slowly the circle broke up as the guardsmen left in search of supplies. Jak went back to the trench and began fishing through the corpses for supplies, trying to resist the urge to hurl.
Fifteen minutes later seven companions set off towards the hills leaving the trench behind them. Jak had four salvaged lasguns strapped to his back, a power knife strapped to his hip, as well as some food. Aldrin walked beside him, a mutilated blood-covered arm hanging limply by his sides, as he groaned softly.
Jak broke the silence. "Beetle?" Aldrin nodded. "Still inside your arm?" Jak continued. Grimacing Aldrin nodded again. "So..." said Jak, "do you want to live?" Aldrin looked at Jak like he was crazy "Well then," said Jak slowly, hand moving to his scavenged knife. "Flesh-borer beetles secrete poisons as they rot, at least according to the manual, so are you willing to lose an arm?" For a while Adrin's face was impassive before coughing a single word from his parched throat "yes."
Jak's knife flashed upwards through the starlight cutting through flesh bone and then air. Aldrin bit his lip until his chin turned red. Jak tied a piece of cloth around the stump which was spurting blood. "Raise it above your head, it will help the bleeding." Aldrin, still biting his lip, raised his arm.
They continued to walk towards the distant hills, dimly lit by the stars and the light of Tentrynon's many moons. They seemed no closer then they were when the party had started marching, but the trench behind too now seemed far away. Jak reckoned they were halfway there.
Jak searched the stars for familiar constellations, and found most of those he knew, but many of the shapes were skewed, some gaps wider then they should have been and some narrower, many did not even look like what they were supposed to look like at all anymore. Jak wondered what the people of Tentrynon had named their constellations, and what stories they had subscribed to them.
They were almost there, the ground was getting rocky, and the hillside could now be seen to be covered by boulders, and dotted with small caves. The group began walking into a valley between two of the large hills, the ground covered with their many shadows cast by the different moons. Jak ran forward hoping to see some cave suitable to spend the night. The small band marched in silence.
The stillness of the night made the sudden scream behind them even louder. Jak spun around counting heads. Aldrin was gone. "Guys..." the disbelief in his voice was evident "we've lost Aldrin." Pliken was the next to speak "Damned spookies." Jak froze for a second, the memory of the data readouts, flashing across his mind. "You don't mean to say," Jak began slowly, "that we have a Lictor?"
"Damned right we do."
"...bleep" Jak could think of nothing else to say.
Darce was the next to speak, "Now what, in the name of the Emperor's teeth is a Lictor?"
"A lictor," said Pliken bringing his face close to Darce's, "Is a Tyranid creature that moves so fast, it is invisible, wherever you look for it, it's already gone. It can taste you in the air, it can smell which way you are facing; it can kill you before you are even aware it's there. I was on Andromus against Tyranids, a single lictor wiped out three green platoons in a jungle environment. These were platoons at full strength, and the lictor just picked them off one by one, until they were all xeno-meat."
Pliken backed off, peering around the darkness of the valley at the assortments of rocks rock formations around the surrounding hill-sides, as if trying to see the lictor peeking out at then. "Few things short of the Emperor's intervention can save us now."
The group began looking around uneasily. Kirt broke the silence. "We're going back."
"That," Pliken conceded "is one of the stupidest things I have ever heard. Firstly, the plains will be a-run with gaunts before dawn, and secondly the spooky could get us on the way out."
Jak was still stunned "There has to be a way..." "Wait." he said struggling to recall everything he had read in the days of the star voyage, "Ram, does that vox-caster use radio-waves as a carrier?"
Ram nodded "yep, it's as antique as they come."
Jak was talking quickly now "Could you set it to strobe all available frequencies with white noise at maximum power on signal?"
Ram thought for a second before nodding slowly "I think I could"
"The Lictor has advanced senses, it sees all electromagnetic wavelengths, including infrared, UV, and Radio. Hopefully we could blind it, Emperor willing with the vox-caster."
"I'm on it" Ram was now kneeling, twirling dials and pressing buttons on all sides of the vox-caster
"It will never work," said Darce despairingly.
"No, it probably won't" Said Jak grimly staring Darce in the eyes, "but if you have a better idea let me know."
Soon Ram was standing again, and the group began slowly inching forward, all eyes peeled, probing the night, struggling to see the hunter that could see them as if it was daylight.
"There... never mind," it was Darce.
"What was it?" Asked Guy
"Ah, nothing, thought I saw something by that rock over yonder" said Darce pointing with his lasgun.
Jak nodded to Ram.
Ram flicked the switch.
A sudden roar, reverberated through the stillness of the night, and a Lictor towered above the small band of guardsman, shrieking in pain, standing behind the rock Darce had gestured towards. Jak fell on one knee and began pumping his trigger furiously, Guy and Ram did the same. Pliken pulled out twin laspistols and began firing furiously, smoking scorch marks began appearing on the Lictor's scaly hide.
Quicker than lightning it leapt through the air and was on top of Darce, the blood and flesh of whom flew out in all directions. Kirt charged, brandishing his bayonet and impaling the creature's flank, acidic blood spraying over his now bubbling skin, Kirt fell away moaning in pain. Jak fired at the base of the creature's neck, which was now incandescent with the heat. Faster than Jak would have thought possible the beast was rushing forward on all limbs towards him, Jak hurled himself to the side as the monster thundered past him, managing to cut off a swiping limb with a quick movement of his knife, before kneeling and preparing to shoot again.
Ram, Pliken and Guy formed around Jak, firing wildly at the quickly moving Lictor which was racing around, over, and behind nearby rocks, it climbed on top of one and then began to charge again, the band of guardsmen scattered as it hit, but it turned on Ram severing a leg and trampling him, Guy shot his bolt pistol till the cartridge was dry, but the bolts ricochet off the beast's smooth exo-skeleton, while Pliken stabbed in with his bayonet puncturing the armour and bringing magenta blood on to the dark star-lit ground. Jak dodged as it charged at him and then pushed sideways again, and rolling across the top of the beast, thorny skin scraping holes in his skin. Jak, brought down the power-knife, again, and again, and again, until the beast slowed, its charred and punctured form sinking to the ground.
Jak fell on to the ground panting, hearing the sounds of heavy boots on gravel as Pliken approached. Jak was lifted upright. "Good job kid, wouldn't have guessed you had it in you," he murmured into his ear, as he ran his hand along Jak's side checking for broken bones and wounds. "You seem fine, stand back up and let's get going again." Jak grunted and began walking to where Kirt, Guy, and Ram now were. Guy was standing over Ram.
"He's in bad shape, but I think could live." Said Guy
Kirt was leaning against a rock the left half of his face totally disfigured. Pliken once again seemed to take command.
"K, Guy, you will give Ram a shoulder to lean on as he walks with one leg, Jak you can take a look at Kirt, I'll go ahead to see if I can find a decent camp"
Jak approached Kirt, his left face had become wrinkled and leathery while his eye had shrunken up into a smoky grey dried up ball. "So how you feeling?" Kirt groaned, rolling his eyes, or the one eye that would still respond to his command.
"We better get moving" Jak urged again, extending a hand. Kirt grabbed it and pulled himself up, his face twitching in pain as his mutilated skin moved, rubbing against himself and the coarse grain of his uniform. He began walking hunched across the rocky ground, Jak followed beside him, feeling like he would have to catch the bowed figure before him if a sudden wind knocked him over.
"I'm fine, go help with Ram," Jak eyed him dubiously. "No really I'm fine! Really," Kirt croaked, while stumbling over a rock. Jak shrugged and headed to where Guy and Ram were making slow progress.
Jak lent Ram his shoulder, and Ram continued to hop, balancing with his arms on Jak and Guy, his way after the quickly moving Pliken.
The night was dark, but not so dark you couldn't see your footing, Jak watched the ground as he struggled up the hillside.
Pliken gestured from way up the hill "We'll make camp here!" Jak increased his rate, soon he stumbled into the cave alongside Ram and Guy.
A while later, Kirt came in.
"Well" Pliken began, "I'll take first watch, and when I begin to fall asleep I'll wake one of you up for the next watch, and so on and so forth. You guys better get some sleep."
Look for a smooth part of the cave, Jak sat down beside Guy. "So," said Guy, "when you left home, did you ever think it would be like this?"
Jak shook his head sideways. "I always thought that it would somehow be cleaner, more... just less..." Jak shuddered as the images of the dead from Epsilon Platoon flashed across his mind. "You know what I mean."
Guy nodded silently. "Wonder where Karj and Darce are now?" He pondered aloud.
"It would be nice to think they're with the Emperor now, in eternal peace."
"Do you?" Inquired Guy.
"I dunno... wish I could. And I hope they are."
Guy paused for a second. "You understand how lucky we are to be here?"
Jak nodded, something suddenly stuck in his throat.
"Out of so many people..." Guy continued beginning to stammer "only we made it, the rest..."
Jak tried to speak, but he couldn't, stuck in his mind was the image of the trench piled to the brim with the bodies, many still moving and crying, and screaming for the mercy of the Emperor and their families. And he would step in their mouths and on their chests, crushing them with his heavy boots, as he struggled to fight the enemy.
"Make me a promise Jak," said Guy quietly. "The fact you will never get any chance to complete it makes no difference.
Promise me that if something happens to me, and if you somehow live through this, and you become rich, you will return home, and tell my family what happened to me. Hive-level 5 Room 266854 that was."
Jak was stunned for a second and then began "Err... how the hell could I possibly..."
"It doesn't matter!" Cried Guy. "Just... just promise me."
"I do." Jak replied, realizing there was little else he could say.
"Thank you" said Guy, suddenly relieved as if some great weight had been lifted off his chest. "It means a lot to me." Guy suddenly lay down and began trying to sleep. Jak moved over and attempted the same.
Ian's dried lips moved slowly, the skin being pulled taut over his skeletal face "Why?" his voice creaked like an old wooden door on rusty hinges "Why did you leave me? Why..."
Gaunts began to chew on his torso as he began to shriek in pain.
It is only a dream.
The Seraphim stood grimly as the would-be deserters strained vainly at their leashes trying to run. The Seraphim activated the flamethrowers and the Guardsman were consumed in flaming napalm, crying they fell to the ground, their screams lifting the smell of their burning skin farther into the air. They began to shrivel in the dirt, still screaming though unrecognizably human.
While the headless Commissar stood by, praising the divine scent of the fumes.
It is only a dream.
He was a little kid running through the corridors of the under-hive now, sucking in the luke-warm recycled air. But there were no thugs. No gangers.
Lictors stalked behind every doorway.
Struggling to slow his breath, Jak peaked around the corner. Nothing. The coast was clear.
A sound behind him...
PAIN
Jak woke up with a start, his body covered in sweat.
It was only a dream.
The night was now darker, Tentrynon's half dozen moons having set, and Pliken still sat on a large rock at the cave entrance, where the faint starlight trickled in, lasgun at ready.
Jak turned over, but decided to give up the charade. He wouldn't be able to sleep.
Yawning he went over to his bundle and picked out his four salvaged lasguns and started to disassemble them. They were basically the same as the schematics on the ships had said.
Most of the gun was simply a tube for channeling the lasbeam and concentrating it. Barely thinking about it, Jak stripped the four guns apart taking the coolants, power pack inputs, transformers and lasgenerators, and began to put them in one pile, separating them from the chassi, capacitors, and refractor crystals.
He began reassembling it, after a fashion. He put the four power inputs together, and brought all the wires into a single lasgenerator. The lasgenerator itself he took a look inside. He had little or no clue how it worked, but he could tell the wires would melt if he put more power through them. Jak welded parts from the other lasgenerators into it with his own lasgun, to fortify.
After continuing like this for a while Jak glanced up. "Hey, Pliken, how's it..."
Pliken glared at Jak angrily a finger raised to his lips, and pointed outside the cave. Moving slowly Jak approached the cave entrance until he saw something that made him freeze where he was, and made his blood run cold.
A spore mine on the hill below the cave entrance.
Spore Mines were seeking bombs. They were blind, but they could smell your breath, hear your movement, and feel your warmth. The "Guardsman's Guide" recommending 1) Not breathing 2) Not moving 3) Finding a thermal energy source to mask your own body-heat. Which was fine except for the fact that point two and three were contradictory and point one was impossible.
The spore mine hovered lazily above the grounding, and slowly, began to float towards the cave.
Jak looked at Pliken, who looked back. Pliken had said he'd been on tour against Tyranids once. He knew how toast they were; trying to shoot it down was suicide, it would cover the distance in a quarter of a second if it thought it was under attack.
Retreating into the cave was equally suicidal, it would simply follow them in and kill them all in a single blast.
Pliken stared at Jak for a while, before nodding and giving a small bitter smile.
Slowly, but purposefully Pliken began to walk out of the cave, on to the rocky slope. The spore mine began to follow him.
Gasping quietly Jak let go of the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
He stood frozen until after both Pliken and the Spore Mine had disappeared from sight, and a few minutes longer, until he heard an explosion faint with the distance.
Slowly Jak sat down on the rock that Pliken had used as look-out, continuing to work on his lasconstruct, glancing up occasionally to scan the valley.
Soon the light of Tentrynon's first Sun poured over the tips of the hills casting long shadows.