A/N: Well, here we are, the last chapter. Well, I'm not entirely sure about that. I do have plenty of ideas for a continuation for 'And They Shall Know No Fear', and would love to do it, however work and a real life beckons. I will eventually try to continue the story, but whether it is under this title or a new story remains to be seen.
Chapter Eleven: Death
A cold gust blew across the battlefield, sending small clouds of grit and dust flying between the combatants. No amount of airborne debris, however, could shield Hikari from feeling the full impact of the malice and hate emanating from Tabris. On either side of her, the other young warriors readied the weapons. Asuka calmly detached her shield from her forearm and let it fall to the ground, then gripped her blade with both hands. Following her example, Hikari raised her left arm to point at the Daemon Prince, and smiled coldly.
"This will be your last day to defile the Emperor's realm, beast." Snarling, she drew power from the warp and sent a bolt of cackling blue lightning at Tabris. Hitting him in the center of his breastplate, the corrupted Angel was sent flying backwards, smashing into a section of broken ferrocrete a dozen meters behind where he originally stood.
Standing back upright, the surprised Daemon Prince flicked his wrist in an almost casual fashion. At his signal, a horde of Warp-spawned monstrosities came rushing at the lines of Space Marines, completely ignoring the small group of EVA battlesuits. Alone now with his quarry trapped in a bubble of calm outside which was a broiling sea of claws and boltguns, Tabris raised his own blackened gauntlet and sent a bolt of purple energy at Hikari. It smashed against her defenses like a storm, but the sphere of protective energy held. Grinning in triumph, Hikari's manner changed abruptly when a second blast, far more powerful than the first, punched straight through her psychic barrier, wreathing her in dark energy.
Enraged by her screams, Shinji charged, swinging his force sword in a mighty arc that would have split Tabris from shoulder to hip had it connected. The Daemon merely grabbed Shinji's wrist and stopped the attack, then threw him like a rag doll against a piece of ferrocrete.
The other three then attacked, Touji swinging from the left, Rei from the right, and Asuka came in with a powerful double-handed blow. Leaping backwards, Tabris counter-attacked, and the fight became a vicious melee too fast for the eye to follow. For the first few moments it was unclear who had the advantage, but as Touji was sent sprawling from a punch to the temple, Asuka and Rei began to fall back under the onslaught, both far too busy defending themselves from the flurry of axe swings to be able to attack back.
As Hikari fought to remain conscious, she could see through tear-stained eyes that it was only a matter of time until her friends would die. Gritting her teeth against the pain, she urged her smoking body to its knees, and her hand sought her fallen blade.
xxx
Aboard the Insidious, Misato was having troubles of her own. Trapped in an elevator with her ex-lover, she was having difficulty in resisting his advances. Due to her oversight in leaving her pistol in her room, the coldly efficient but playful Inquisitor was failing miserably in making Kaji keep his hands to himself. Despite the seriousness of the mission, Kaji could simply not be made to act like the member of the Inquisition he was.
Sighing in relief when the doors finally opened, Misato pushed herself away from the amorous man, and straightened her clothing.
"That's enough, Kaji. There's nothing between us anymore, get it?"
"Your lips didn't say no," Kaji began picking up dropped documents. "So what should I believe?"
"Enough. I will not speak on this again, now are you coming to the bridge or not? The captain requested your presence, too."
"Of course, but it is more your charms than his requests I go for, Katsuragi."
Growling at her fellow Inquisitor, Misato swept off, leaving him to follow. The two walked in silence for the few moments it took them to reach the command room, then sought out the captain.
"What is it, captain?" Misato was brief and concise with her words. Sensing that his superior was already agitated, the long-suffering captain quickly made his report.
"Ma'am, our scanners have picked up something at the edge of the system, but it is too far away, to tell what it is. The outlying dust clouds may also be affecting our sensor sweep."
"Is it coming closer?" Kaji spoke up, for once serious.
"No, my lord. Whatever they are, they do not seem to want to interfere with our operation… yet."
"Very well, captain. Maintain watch on these signals, and inform me at once if you gain any more insight to their identity or purpose. If they do not move, we will seek them out ourselves once this is over."
xxx
For the first time in millennia, Tabris fought a foe worthy of his power. Despite the incapacitation of their comrade, the two young women were truly a force to be reckoned with. As he spun his massive axe in a tight arc to ward off yet another attack, he marveled at how one could attack furiously without any thought of consequence yet always be protected by the other, who seemed content to ward away every blow that the Daemon Prince threw at either of the warriors. Alone, it would have been simple to slay either of the women, but together they seemed almost unstoppable.
Even their enviable weapon skill, however, could not avail itself against a master of battle such as Tabris. As the redhead faltered slightly, he threw his weight onto her, smashing her to the ground. The albino, bereft of her partner, fell back under the fury of his attack. Knocking the blade from her hands, he gouged a massive rent in her shield, slicing neatly through her forearm. Tabris savored in her scream of pain, then kicked her feat out from under her. Licking his lips at the memories of half-forgotten pleasures of the flesh, the Daemonic monstrosity gazed at the warrior kneeling before him, cradling the stump of her left arm.
"And so it ends."
Raising the obsidian axe with both hands, Tabris paused, drinking in the pain, fear and hatred flowing from his victim. Swinging down, he let out a cry of victory.
Only to be met with the resounding clang of his axe hitting a blade held barely inches above the neck of his prey.
Snarling, he followed the sword to its owner, recognizing the dark-haired man who had been the first to charge him.
"JUST DIE!" he screamed, pushing his sword upwards and back for a swing. Laughing, Tabris reached out to grab the upstart by the throat, then stopped short. He coughed once, then glanced down to see a faintly shimmering sword protruding from the twisted mass of his breastplate. As he felt the surge of psychic energy pulse along the blade into his body, Tabris screamed for the last time.
Released from the grip of the Daemon, Shinji took a step back, then drove his sword two-handed into the gut of the monstrosity that had turned its back on the Emperor's light, and sent a stream of his own psychic power into the beast.
Ice-blue light shone out of every crack in its armour, and the Daemon prince gave one last howl of pain as his head exploded in a maelstrom of crackling energy. What had once been his body instantly dissolved into dust, blasting outwards and knocking Shinji onto his back. Shaking his head, he rolled slowly back to his feet, looking across at the supine figure of Hikari. As he trudged wearily to her, Shinji vaguely noticed that the rest of the battlefield had finally fallen silent, as the noise of bolters could no longer be heard.
He knelt before her, gently placing a gauntlet on her brow. The gesture caused Hikari to stir, and the brunette tiredly opened her eyes and fixed them on Shinji.
"Did… Did we do it?" she asked weakly, blinking away unconsciousness.
"Yeah… We did."
Reaching up to grab Shinji by the shoulder, Hikari reached up and planted her lips on his, before collapsing in his arms.
xxx
"Sir? I think you need to see this…"
The captain of the Insidious spun around, fixing his eyes on the sensor screen. What his practiced eyes saw was something wholly unexpected, and well outside his own experiences.
"Inform Inquisitor Katsuragi that we have an Eldar fleet approaching, number unknown. And pass a message to the Golden Blade, ask them if they can confirm what I think that damn thing is." The captain tapped the sensor screen, indicating the massive shape in the centre of the massive screen of Eldar warships.
"What do you think it is… sir?"
"I'm not sure, lieutenant. I just don't know."
xxx
Deep within the confines of his command bridge, Autarch Elrathin watched his command crew work. What thoughts lay below his stony gaze none knew, but each and every Eldar aboard the Void Stalker battleship was aware of the tension between their commander and Farseer Talthan, who sat in deliberation with his Warlock bodyguards.
As the massive fleet cleared the last of the dust clouds, Elrathin seemed to awaken from his meditative state. Inclining his head towards the Farseer, he voiced the same feeling that the rest of the crew felt.
"Why must we go and parley with the filthy Mon-Kiegh? We do not need their help."
Talthan did not even raise her almond-shaped eyes from the delicate wrathbone table, but her otherworldly voice still sent chills down all but the most senior Eldar officers, Elrathin included.
"As I told you before, Autarch. Should we seek out the suits ourselves, we would only succeed at a terrible loss. Do you truly wish the graceful spires of Alindé to fall? For that is what would happen. The Craftworld's survival takes priority over your pride."
"If that is so, why is Alindé accompanying the fleet? Surely placing our home in such danger is foolish."
Talthan finally did look up, and the barest hint of a smile graced her delicate features.
"Because the humans would not be stupid enough to assault the Craftworld while our entire fleet is protecting it, of course. How many ships do we have protecting Alindé?"
"Two Void Stalkers, twenty-three cruisers and over a hundred frigates and destroyers."
"And what do the Mon-Kiegh have in this system? A handful of cruisers and a single battleship. Should our… negotiations fail, we will obliterate them."
Setting his jaw, Elrathin turned away from the Farseer. It was always difficult to argue with Talthan, and this time was more so.
"You did not answer my question."
"Surely you know what is entombed within the heart of Alindé, Autarch. It will be a very valuable arguing point in our favour."
"Yes… a so-called 'Evangelion' battlesuit… Dare we let such a potent artefact out of our sight?"
"I never said that we would give it to the humans, Elrathin. However, they would do anything we wished as long as they held out hope that we would."
"You had better be right, Farseer."
xxx
As the last few Daemons lost their grip on reality and slipped back howling into the Immaterium, the sound of gunfire ceased. Over the smoke-covered urban landscape, a strange silence fell upon the area, as each of the warriors stood in mute amazement, as each and every one of them had come to terms with their inevitable death at the claws of some Warp-spawned monstrosity. Finally, Captain O'Malley drew breath and woke the combined Astartes forces out of their reverie.
"Glory to the Emperor, for He has stood with us today."
"We honour His sacrifice with our own."
The reply came from both the half-dozen Grey Knights left alive and the fifty remaining members of the Captain Idaeus's command, each replying to the mantra with tired voices.
Casting his vision around, O'Malley caught a glimpse of massive Adamantium plate, painted blue. As he approached, he saw a scene of carnage, with the earth scorched and cracked from the massive discharges of psychic energy. It absolutely reeked of sorcery, so thick that the Captain could almost taste it. Stopping several paces away from the unconscious form of Rei Ayanami, he saw with a pang of regret that her slender left arm was sheared off at the elbow. After checking that the stump had stopped most of its bleeding, O'Malley trudged over to the fallen form of Touji, then halted. Looking around suspiciously, he noticed what had aroused his natural wariness. Gingerly picking up the fallen Daemon Weapon, O'Malley regarded the artifact with distaste, then let the heavy blade fall to the ground. Gathering his remaining warriors, the Grey Knight Captain let the pure light of righteousness flow though his body and into the massive sword he carried. With a mighty cry, he slammed downwards with all of the power of his Terminator armour, the point aimed directly in the centre of the twin blades of the Daemon Axe. The point rammed clean through the debased weapon, and the gathered psychic power coursed through the obsidian axe, completely destroying the Daemonic entity imprisoned within. As the echoing screams of the bound creature faded, O'Malley surveyed the shattered landscape. With a thought, he opened a communications channel to the orbiting Strike Crusier.
"Insidious, set a teleportation extraction for both the Grey Knights and EVAs in ten minutes. And get permission from Inquisitor Katsuragi for the use of our Cyclonic torpedoes, this world must face Exterminatus once the Swords Of The Emperor have been extracted."
There was a lengthy pause, and then the static voice of Misato replied.
UNDERSTOOD, CAPTAIN. HOWEVER, WE HAVE SOME PROBLEMS OF OUR OWN HERE.++
The Inquisitor's voice was strained, and that alone warned Captain O'Malley of trouble.
"What is the trouble, Inquisitor?"
IT APPEARS THAT ELDAR FORCES HAVE ENTERED THE SYSTEM.++
"Can we not simply call for reinforcements from Captain Idaeus? His chapter's fleet could be here in a few hours."
NEGATIVE… WE WOULD NEED SEVERAL FULL BATTLEFLEETS… IT APPEARS TO BE A CRAFTWORLD… IF THEY ATTACK, OUR FORCES HAVE LITTLE HOPE.++
"The Emperor Protects, Inquisitor. Get us and the EVAs back to the ship as soon as possible, we may be needed."
xxx
As the Grey Knights and the EVAs disappeared in crackling nimbuses of light, Captain Idaeus heard the same news for himself. Gathering his warriors, he waited for the approaching dropships that were just now entering the atmosphere. Muttering a quick prayer, the young Captain prepared himself for the worst.
xxx
A/N: Well, that's that! I'll be trying to get a start on part 2 soon, but it IS me we are talking about, so the chances of that are slim at best!