"Keep on that fething ship! Dont lose them!" Large floating screens flashed red everywhere, warning sirens blared, a fire sparked into life on one of the terminals singeing the deck hand. The fire was beaten out quickly and the deck hand went back to furiously checking thruster output and ignoring the pain in his bleeding blistered fingers. This was more important than trivial personal pain. "Engines are down 40%!" "At this rate we'll lose them!" "Relay all available power to main thrusters!" the entire Eldar Hellebore class frigate shook and shuddered and groaned with the effort of exceeding the power input of the engines main power cells. There was small explosions all along the fuel lines. People died. But it was a necessary sacrifice. The lives of a few given for the lives of many. "The Eye is closing!" "We'll never make it! Hard to port!" "No! We can make it. Follow them straight through. More power to the thrusters!" "The power cells are already at their max capacity! The thrusters are damaged and just cant go any faster!" the ship shook again as lase fire from a cruiser from one of the Khorne worshiping heretic fleets off of their starboard side opened fire on them. There were screams, perhaps from the explosions all along the haul... perhaps from the Warp daemons that still clung to the Eldar frigate and infested the interior. Battle raged inside and outside of the small battle ship. Daemons and Eldar fighting fiercely in every corner, and the ship taking constant fire from the other heretic ships that surrounded them. Many had died already. Of the three thousand and something crew of the Hellebore frigate only a few hundred were left. It all began more days then any of the Eldar cared to remember. Eldar Craftworlds had amassed to witness the battle of the human leader of their Imperium against his Chaos tainted son and their respective followers. The human leader, this 'emperor', had been viewed by many Eldar as the key to restoring the balance in the universe. To thwart the Chaos and its heathen gods where no others could. The battle ragged on several light years away and several of what was left of the Eldar Craftworlds watched, hoped, prayed to their gods... Then there was a blast of light, the universe convulsed and the fabric in space tore open and swallowed several Craftworlds whole. The initial flight through the Chaos vortex that sucked several of the Craftworlds in destroyed them almost instantly. The force and pull causing a few to slam into one another. Perhaps that would have been a kinder fate then what awaited the rest. Those that survived were faced with horrors and trials... Daemons almost as large as the Craftworld themselves attacked the clutch of easy prey. Hordes of Chaos worshiping heretics in large warships and battle cruisers, even the Warp itself, twisting the minds of some of the less strong willed Eldar psychers and turning them into insane and twisted shells of their former selves that would attack their own people in a blood rage. Within the first hour of the seven Craftworlds that had been sucked into the vortex, onlythree remained. After five days... only one. The Soulc'at Craft World. Due to the leadership of the Master Farseer Talyn and some narrow escapes, the Soulc'ats were surviving... barely. The Soulc'ats had launched their war ships in an effort to keep the larger daemons from attaching themselves to the Craftworld. Sometimes sacrificing themselves for the good of their home. A large dragon like creature materialized from no where and attacked. The war ships were sent out. Many died yet the beast remained persistent in his endeavor to attack the Craftworld. It was at this time, when the daemon proved difficult to kill and that the best choice of action was to try for a hasty retreat... the Craftworld made the escape. But several war ships, thought already lost to the daemon, were left behind. The Ly'ctan Shi was one of them. Being one of the smaller classes of Eldar frigates, it managed to escape the Warp dragon's attention. The others were not as lucky. The Ly'ctan Shi's Flight Commander had become a spineless man in his time in the Warp. Now that the Craftworld was safe, the Flight Commander ordered the frigate to be turned around and follow after the Craftworld. A desperate attempt. The only evidence that the Soulc'at Craftworld had even been there was the engine emissions trail it left behind. But the Flight Commander was desperate. So was most of the flight crew. To survive in a place like the Warp they needed to rejoin their Craftworld. But the Warp... even if the Ly'ctan Shi's scanners worked and they were within distance of their Craftworld to pick it up... there would have been no way for them to find it. The Warp is Chaos and Chaos is the Warp, nothing is ever as it should be or in the same place twice. Once the small frigate was lost so shall it remain. For days, the exact number no one could really say as there was no real way to tell it within the Warp, the Ly'ctan Shi, its flight crew, and all the Eldar warriors inside prayed to their gods. To Khaine, the Eldar god the Soulc'ats looked to above all others. To his Aspect of Justice. They preyed for strength and that they would be able to live on through this and not be lost to the Warp. Others with a more realistic view preyed for the opportunity to have a glorious death in battle and to slay as many Warp daemons as they could before falling prey to them. And many did. Those days spent in the Warp, a single Eldar frigate in the vastness of Chaos. They drew arms and fought. Perhaps their God was with them. It was the only way to explain how... how they could have survived so long against Chaos worshiping scum and the twisted nightmarish daemons of the Warp and then find a small clutch of heretic war ships, opening an eye in the Warp to the outside. The Flight Commander, now an Eldar with more grit since the previous had been... 'relieved' of duty, ordered a suicide stunt. Carrying several hundred daemons inside and out of the haul of the ship, the Ly'ctan Shi surged towards the some ten or twelve heavily armed battle ships of Khorne worshipers towards the quickly closing eye. "Breach in decks thirteen, twenty-seven, and twenty-eight!" the Ly'ctan Shi shook as explosions confirmed the deck hand's report. "T-the beasts have broken through the first barricade! They're trying to reach the flight deck!" More screams, these were closer. The sound of shuriken blasters, metal on metal, and the blood curdling roar of twisted creatures as they fed on the fallen. "It doesnt matter! If we do not make it through then we are as good as dead. Now more power to the thrusters!" Wraith Lord guards at either side of the heavy double doors to the flight deck came to life, experimentally flexing their slightly stiff joints as they prepared to protect the flight deck at all costs. They gripped their large double bladed swords and felt their heavy shuriken cannons at their hips holsters. They shivered with excitement as the screams and war cries of the daemons drew ever closer. As the last two of the Wraith Lords on the entire ship, they had been saved and assigned with the important task of protecting the flight deck. For days they heard battle and the dying screams of their brothers in arms and could do little but stand at attention near the doors, gripping their swords until the metal dented. Now, the souls that powered the machines glowed brighter in the soul stone in their chest cavities as the battle drew closer. Warp touched and blood thirsty, the Wraith Lords would be merciless in their kills. "We-we're taking heavy damage on all sides! The ship wont hold!" "She has to! Keep going!" "Shields at 31%!" There was more explosions, screams, bursts of light, the Wraith Lords came to life as clawed hands began to bend back heavy metal doors with sheer force, the Ly'ctan Shi burst through the line between the Warp and the outside blazing like a black dying star with the heretic war ships close behind. "W-we're through! We've made it out of the Warp!" tears of mixed emotions stained many cheeks as the deck hands looked out at the vast space before them. Many had almost forgotten what stars looked like. For a brief and glorious moment, even the Wraith Lords as they ripped and teared through all of the daemons that tried to force their way onto the flight deck was forgotten but the single feeling of finally being free from the Warp. Then more alarm sirens went off, several screens flashed red and displayed new images "Oh Khaine have mercy... There are battle ships amassed ahead sir!" all heads turned towards the main screen that displayed many large war ships gathered near by. "What- are those... are those human ships?" "Weapons!" "The main guns have all been destroyed! We have a few lase cannons that are still online but they need to have power redirected towards them and charge." "Well charge them! Redistribute power to all available weapons and shields! Prepare for evasive maneuvers!" the deck hands rushed furiously to redirect some of the power from the main thrusters to the few still functioning guns they had and they're quickly falling shields. But they had already been spotted. Lase cannon fire rocketed all around them as the human ships opened fire on them and the heretic ships. "Theres to many of them! At this rate we'll be blown apart!" the Flight Commander ran a gauntleted hand through his black hair as he thought quickly "That planet then." he pointed to the large mass behind the fleet "We repeat our maneuver to the eye and make for that planet." "Are you insane! A few Chaos ships is one thing. But that is an entire fleet!" "What choice do we have? With their superior fire power they would rip through us in a matter of moments!" "So we charge towards them to make our deaths that much quicker?" "No! Look the Warp scum is charging towards them. We follow closely behind in their shadow, get as close as we can to that fleet and pray to Khaine that we can make it into the planets stratosphere before we're torn to pieces." there was little time for argument and without much else to say in objection to the idea the crew of the Ly'ctan Shi prepared for another kamikaze run. Maneuvering around the heretic ships and relaying all power that wasnt going towards the thrusters into the shields, the small Eldar frigate pushed towards the human fleet. Even the large Warp daemons that had attached themselves to the ship and had survived going through the eye had helped to shield the ship from any lase fire that managed to break through the shields. One even detached itself to attack one of the smaller human ships. "Shields are almost down sir!" "Thrusters are at 47% output!" charging through the middle, the Ly'ctan Shi used its small size to its advantage as it flew between two of the largest of the human ships and made towards the planet below. There was still enough of the heretic ships left to distract the humans as the Eldar prepared for a crash landing.
"Aelwyn! Aelwyn!" an Eldar Shinning Spear moved about the masses of other Eldar and the debris of what used to be the Ly'ctan Shi "Hito! Have you seen Aelwyn?" another Shinning Spear, this one bleeding heavily from a wound in his leg turned and shook his head "No. I... Leeal, have you seen Shian? I lost her somewhere after... after the crash. She was wounded, if I dont find her soon she could... she could..." Leeal the Shinning Spear helped his old friend to his feet and helped him hobble over the twisted metal that scattered over the ground and the stone rubble of what used to have been several small buildings. The few hundred of what remained of the crew of the Ly'ctan Shi walked, limped, and even crawled their way to a safe distance, amassing in one spot near another small abandoned building. Wounds were being tended to. The dying comforted. Those thought to have lost their minds to the Warp... they were given a quick and merciful death. Leeal helped his friend to wait amongst the mass of others with heavy injuries to be tended to by the one healer that managed to survive and her volunteers. "Wait here brother. I have to go find Aelwyn." "Would you-" "I'll look for Shian too. Of course." Hito grasped his friend's arm in silent thanks before Leeal turned back towards the Ly'ctan Shi and began to climb back up its remains and inside of the haul. Half of the ship had broken up on impact with the planet and now lay a good eighty yards away, as well as other smaller pieces of the ship scattered and burning everywhere. Leeal could see a few Eldar staggering from the other half of the ship. Amazing. Had his sight always been so good that he could see such small details so far away? Was Aelwyn perhaps somewhere over in the broken section? Leeal bit his lip in worry. He had not seen Aelwyn for almost two days. Somewhere on the ship, at some point while the two of them had stood back to back fighting off daemons they had become separated and he could not find her. Some had tried to convince Leeal of her death. But he knew better. His beloved would not fall so easily. He knew she was alive. She was a proud Eldar Banshee. Such a skilled warrior she could wield the powerful twin mirror blades of a Exarch without having devoted herself to that path. She had to be alive. Leeal reached out his mind, seeking her out desperately as he began to see the burnt and broken corpses of Eldar and daemons. "Aelwyn! Aelwyn! Please answer me!" but there was nothing, he could not feel her. Tears began to sting the corners of Leeal's eyes as a sharp pain deep in his chest constricted his throat "Aelwyn!" he cried, his voice rasping and choked as he fought back the tears. "AELWYN!" he feel to his knees, the pain of his many wounds he sustained in the Warp nothing compared to that of what he felt in his heart. Aelwyn, his beloved. The woman he had known almost since birth. The woman he had fought alongside for over a thousand years and loved for longer. The one woman... There was screaming from inside the ship and the sounds of battle. Leeal's head came up sharply. Daemons still lived? He gripped his black spear tightly and slowly rose to his feet. As he charged blindly towards the noise. He would slaughter those that had taken his Aelwyn from him. A long slimy tentacle came out of the shadows and went to wrap around Leeal's leg "Khaine's fire burn you daemon!" he roared as he cut it in half. Then more appeared, seemingly from everywhere. Leeal cursed, spinning his spear in wide arcs and cutting, slicing, tasting fowled blood as it splattered against his face. He fired his weapon into the darkness as the slimming wiggling things multiplied and persisted in attacking him. A large one appeared infront of him and tried to slam him to the ground but he managed to doge. The metal of the floor dented in and groaned and Leeal's balance was upset and he stumbled into the indention. The floor gave way and he feel. Leeal only had time to tuck his chin towards his chest and protect his head with his arms before he slammed into the ground below. Winded, probably with a few broken ribs, Leeal coughed up blood and tried to stand quickly as he heard strange wet smacking noises draw closer to him. He used his spear to stand, his heavy armor weighing him down as he struggled to his feet. "Blasted Warp perversion! Come at me then! I shall join Aelwyn in a glorious death!" there was a deep rumbling roar from somewhere in the shadows. An obscure form of a large heaving purplish black body of withering tentacles and a hidden mouth that gaped open and closed as it tasted Leeal's scent, revealing rows of jagged fangs and a black slimy forked tongue. Whatever the daemons was, it was huge. At least ten times Leeal's size and pulling itself towards him with its tentacles. Leeal looked around for cover, or something he could use to keep his back from being exposed but there was nothing. Where ever he was in the ship the space was large but relatively empty. Leeal cursed under his breath, making silent prayers to Khaine as he fired at the daemon's tentacles, trying to keep them from wrapping around his legs, walking backwards slowly to keep distance between him and the large creature. But for such a large beast with no legs it could move quickly. "Come! Give me a glorious death!" Leeal shouted as the tentacles massed around him on all sides and were closing in. Leeal readied himself for death, picturing Aelwyn's smiling face as he felt something wrap around his left arm. It wrenched him forwards and off his feet and he could feel the hot putrid breath of the daemon on him as it brought him closer to its open mouth. Then there was a crash, and the screeching sound of metal being forcibly bent and a bright shaft of light blinded Leeal. The daemon shrieked loudly, its tentacle loosened from around his arm, dropping him as the beast retreated back into the darkness "Dont let it get away!" he heard a familiar voice shout. Leeal saw something like a large arm shoot over his head and grasp several tentacles in its large clawed metallic hand. Several purple flaming shuriken were fired overhead and cut into the tentacle daemon spraying its black blood everywhere. It screeched horribly, practically deafening Leeal as it tried to fight back and free itself. There was a the sound of a weapon being charged and then a large boom and burst of purple light as lase cannon fire shot into the Warp daemon. It shivered and the convulsed before exploding, sending its entrails in every which direction and covering Leeal. "Leeal, is that you?" he brushed the dripping black blood and entrails from his head and face and turned to stair at an unmasked Banshee, her shuriken blaster still in hand and her twin mirror blades sheathed at her side "Are you alright?" she asked, bending down to help brush some of the gore from him "I am now." he sighed, catching her hand in his and squeezing it tightly as he smiled at her. She smiled back, her blood stained eyes softening as she helped Leeal to his feet. "We should get you to a healer." "I thought you were dead." he hugged her close to his side, shaking off one of his gauntlets so that he could touch the smooth skin of her face with his bare hands. She placed a gentle hand on his and shook her head "You think some mere Warp daemons could kill me?" Leeal chuckled, feeling revealed and overjoyed "Never." Aelwyn helped him to hobble away from what remained of the daemon towards the hole that had been made in the haul and Leeal saw what had made it. A large black Prowler waited patiently as Aelwyn and Leeal made their way out. "Ji'ang?" Leeal asked, naming the spirit that inhabited the large mechanical body. "It is good to see you survived." Prowler Ji'ang's head bowed in acknowledgment. His 'body' looked different from the last time Leeal had seen him. Deep scratches in the heavy armor plating, exposed gears and wiring, a few of the spikes along the spin broken off... and... the spikes looked larger than normal. The dark blue glowing eyes seemed more sinister looking than he remembered. And the claws on the front and back legs looked longer and jagged. Or was it his imagination? Ji'ang lowered himself further and put out his elbow as a step out to allow Aelwyn to help Leeal onto his back and then to jump up behind him. "Do you know... has there been a count yet? Of survivors?" she asked as Ji'ang picked his way through the ship debris back towards where the Eldar were making a make-shift camp "Not yet... there will need to be a search team put together to look through the ship for survivors... among other things. And they should all be done quickly." "Oh? Why's that?" "This place... I do not know if you noticed but... it seems abandoned. And there are signs of battle further out I've heard." Aelwyn looked off into the distance. "It seems that we might just be destined to die..." Leeal felt a shiver go up his spine and he gripped Aelwyn's hands that wrapped around his waist.