Last chapter's SMG comment brought to you by the fact they were added in Mass Effect 2 and Warhammer doesn't use the term at all. There is a las subcarbine used by the Van Saar in Necromunda, but it's the only one in the whole setting. In the game, it has an autopistol's profile and a las weapon's trait to pass ammo checks.

Speaking of weird wordings, what do you think a las weapon fires? If you answered las bolt, las-bolt, lasbolt, las-beam or las round, congrats! I went with lasbeam for consistency's sake (lasgun, lascannon, shotlas, lasfire, but then we have las-fire and las gauntlet so ehh...) and because lasers aren't bullets. Similarly what is the magazine of a las weapon called: charge pack, power pack or powercell? The middle one is also the name of the back-mounted power sources.


The Quarry

Anxious Hannah peered carefully out of the window. There was enough space between the nearest console and the corner for her to crouch down, but it was still too cramped for her liking and she had to lean over the console to see outside.

The stranger was cautiously approaching the pods that lay on the deck. His skull-drone was nowhere to be seen, likely hiding somewhere safe where it could keep watch like before. Why did he have to go out there? The trap was obvious, it was even identical to the previous one, a bunch of pods placed in plain sight just waiting for someone to approach. Still no sign of the invaders themselves, however, and that was making Hannah even more nervous.

A part of her wanted to leave the tower, get back to the others and check her house herself while the stranger had the Collectors' attention. Surely he could take care of himself, right? She hated that thought, hated ever thinking of it. This wasn't the plan, but she couldn't just abandon him. Hopefully the others were safe at least.

The stranger reached a pod, took a look inside, backed away and raised his weapons. A second later Collectors appeared in the windows, sniper rifles at the ready, and more were flying onto the roof. The door to the upper house to the right opened and two more charged outside. A light shone in the corner of her eye; it was coming from the roof of the stacked houses the previous snipers had holed up in.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw a horde of things that might have once been people come into view under the sideways building. Was this what the aliens had in store for all the people they had taken?

"What the-"

The Collectors opened fire as one. An unseen cannon fired a second later.

There was a bright flash of light.


Once there were machines that could ape the thoughts of man, devices that could unravel matter and halt the rotation of life into death. Forbidden things of a long-past era, things that were best left forgotten. Most were no more than shunned scraps of techno-myths, but some lived on in the shadows. He wondered if this was something similar as he beheld the approaching horde.

Zombies.

Usually such creatures were victims of a warpborn disease like the dreaded plague of unbelief; or forbidden technology such as the Sarcos-waveform energy field; or foul witchcraft, but these ones were different - they looked mechanical. Cables snaked through their emancipated, grey-skinned bodies, and strange nodes were placed in their tortured forms. Said nodes and cables glowed blue as did their eyes. The handiwork of the xenoi. Was this why they wanted the people alive?

The cold rage running in his veins turned molten.

Then the xenoi finally sprung their trap. Snipers appeared in the windows above, two carbine-wielders rushed out the elevated house on his right, two rifle-wielders herded the shambling horde onwards, and more were flying onto the roof.

He caught a glimpse of something hulking and monstrous at the back of the horde before he bolted, snapping off a few shots. He headed towards the ramp leading up to the building on his left. It was the closest piece of cover.

The xenoi opened fire, their bullets and beams smashing into his conversion field. The cannon that had replaced the monster's left arm fired as well.

Conversion fields worked by converting incoming energy into light. A single bullet or lasbeam would produce a small flash, but with enough energy the flash could equal a photon flash grenade, blinding anyone around the wearer. The combined impact of so much firepower was more than enough to trigger such a flash.

The xenoi reeled, covering their unblinking eyes, even the ones further away flinched from the sudden brilliance. It was all the time he needed to rush up the ramp and all but slam against the door.

He cursed his own impatience. He cursed the trap which he had to spring. He cursed the xenoi for existing, a blight upon the galaxy that would never be theirs. He cursed the empty pods even more, a taunting reminder that he could not save the people of this backwater colony.

He heard a local autogun open fire and turned. A glowing xenos was standing up on the roof of the other stacked buildings. It was the sniper he had hit with a las gauntlet while fighting the two carbine-wielders that had come to get the pods. The creature's force field protected it from the autofire, but he raised his arms and fired both las gauntlets. One lasbeam struck it in the head, the other in the chest. It was enough.

Before the sniper had even started disintegrating, the other xenoi fired into the tower, shattering the window on this side. The woman had fired out of the window overlooking the area they had come from, out of the line of sight of the other xenoi, and he did not believe they had come anywhere near hitting her. She had the sense to keep her head down regardless.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, forcing his fury from blazing to simmering, and glanced at his servo-skull's vision. The zombies and the xenoi herding them had slowed due to the flash of his conversion field. The snipers had not moved, but the ones on the roof were jumping out of sight, using their wings to slow their fall. The xenoi on the stairs had been closest to him when the flash had triggered and both were covering their eyes, apparently blinded. One of them stumbled down the stairs, the other leaned on the railing of the landing and clutched its carbine.

He stepped away from door, aimed his laspistols at the latter two and fired. The one on the stairs lost its footing and fell behind the railing; the one on the landing managed to raise its carbine and squeeze the trigger as it died, spraying rounds randomly. One round passed him close enough the conversion field should have deflected it.

He pressed against the door again and looked down at the rosarius in alarm. Of all the times to overload.

It would reactivate in time - hopefully. For now he needed to go round the horde and flank the xenoi. He would have to worry about the zombies and their implications afterwards.

He rounded the other corner and immediately turned back when he saw a strange, black-brown web that stretched outwards from a glowing core just behind the far corner.

The door opened and a xenos charged out. A glowing one was approaching on the roof.

He rammed the first xenos into the door frame before it could raise its carbine and shot out one of its eyes. He holstered one laspistol, grabbed the carbine to keep it away from him and fired again. The xenos let go of the weapon and lashed out with its blade in a predictably wide swing. It was becoming apparent it was the only way the xenoi knew how to use their blades.

He dropped the carbine, ducked under the swing, drew a knife and rose back up before the xenos could swing its arm back. He stabbed his knife into the creature's neck, shoved it into the door frame again and dragged it inside. Its blade clanked harmlessly against his side. The glowing one leaned over the edge of the roof a second too late and only hit the decking with its carbine. He ripped his knife out and flung the xenos onward into a low table which tripped it.

The zombies were on the move again, and he had to move away from the door to avoid an opportunistic burst of autofire through the window by their herders. As he had suspected, the web was large enough to cover the doorway on the other end. Through his servo-skull he saw the glowing xenos was preparing to jump down and the carbine-wielder from the stairs he had thought dead was making its way across the deck.

Suddenly, a swarm of insects flew in from the window. He backed away from it and fired his las gauntlet at the glowing xenos as it entered. It raised its carbine reflexively into the way of the lasbeam blasting into its face, destroying the weapon, but saving its worthless life. It threw aside what remained of the carbine and charged at him, reaching for its blade.

He met it halfway, lowering his head out of the way of its swing and ramming into the creature. Though his knife failed to penetrate its exoskeleton, he managed to knock it off-balance and slam it into the door frame. The blade dropped from the creature's hand as it stumbled outside, and he kicked it into the corner. He turned swiftly, dodged a swing from the other xenos and shot it in the face, destroying another eye. Somehow, the creature still clung to life.

The insects swarmed him, trying in vain to find a way inside his armour, their buzzing muted by his helm. They distracted him enough for the glowing xenos to grab him from behind before he could turn again. Its arms couldn't wrap around him because of the power source on his back, so it settled on holding his arms in place. A warning about increasing temperature appeared on his helm display.

The wounded xenos let out a low chirp and grabbed the grenade on its hip.

His eyes widened, realising the xenoi were willing to kill themselves just to take him out.

Thinking quickly, he threw his head back, smacking his helm into the glowing xenos, wrenched one arm free and shot the lunging suicide bomber through its ruined eye. It died at last, falling forward in a last, desperate attempt to reach him. He turned, shot the glowing xenos in the head and pushed it back until they were outside. He moved out of the doorway, pulling the xenos along, broke free of its slackened grip and shoved it inside.

He had barely begun to back away when the grenade detonated, rocking the whole building. He turned and fired at the approaching xenos as it got into his line of sight. It died before it could fire a shot, falling over at the base of the ramp. The glowing one stumbled outside, still alive thanks to its force field protecting it just enough from the explosion before being overwhelmed. A lasbeam to the head finished it off, and it disintegrated.

He sighed. That had been too close.

The woman yet lived; she had relocated to the back corner and was looking at him from the window, worry evident on her face. She turned her head suddenly, as if hearing something, and ducked out of sight. A sniper fired a moment later, seemingly to no effect.

The number of insects around him had decreased noticeably. He wasn't sure why, but suspected a limited lifespan. He swatted a few and expanded his servo-skull's window for a moment to have a look ahead. The zombie horde and their herders were almost upon him. The large, cannon-toting monster had not moved yet, content to sit and wait for him even if it had to shoot through the rest of the horde. The snipers had not moved from their positions either, but had stopped firing.

Getting past all that would be risky; running away was not an option.

Something moved in the same building as the snipers. He only caught a glimpse through his servo-skull. It was a xenos like the rest, but it looked bigger. A leader at last?

The window shrunk, and he sheathed his knife after wiping the bile that passed for xenos blood from it. As he did, his eyes landed on his last grenade. He glanced at the building he was standing beside, then towards the one at the top of the stairs. An idea came to him.

He checked the remaining charge of his laspistol - enough for one or two shots - and reloaded quickly, putting the old power pack in the third pouch where he kept his aquilas and power packs that weren't completely empty. He grabbed his rosarius and offered a quick prayer to its spirit, unable to tell if it had reactivated yet. He would have to chance it.

He took a deep breath, watched as autoguns opened fire from the tower and charged past the first zombies to reach the bend.


"Nikolai, what are you doing here?" Hannah asked as the panting man climbed out of the floor hatch.

"You were taking too long. Then we heard gunfire and thought you might need help."

"We?"

Hannah's question was answered when a younger man with short, black hair climbed out after Nikolai, carrying three bottles and a bunch of dirty rags in a small bag. He wore baggy trousers and a dirty T-shirt, and was barefoot. His name was Leopold, and he worked as an accountant, diligently taking care of the colony's finances.

"Woke up from my nap to Iulian banging on my door," Leopold explained when he saw her looking at his feet. "Didn't have time to put anything on."

"We found him while dropping off Kris," Nikolai said. "Anyway, Fredrik got the idea to make Molotov cocktails."

"He stayed behind to take care of Kristoffer."

Hannah directed Nikolai to the corner on the left. There was slightly more space there and the trees would block one sniper's fire unless it decided to move. Leopold grimaced as he swept shards of glass away with his bag before he put it down, took out one bottle and uncorked it. He stuffed half a rag inside and placed the bottle next to the console.

"Two snipers in the windows," Hannah explained, raised her Lancer to the top of the console and pulled the trigger. Nikolai did the same, firing single shots while trying to stay behind the wall as much as possible. The sole visible sniper ducked when the first rounds struck its biotic barrier; the other still refused to move from its window despite not having a good line of fire on them.

"What the fuck?" asked Nikolai as he looked out and saw the zombies for the first time. His face went pale at the sight, as did Leopold's when he took a look outside himself.

"I don't know and I don't want to know. We'll be safe up here, but the Collectors are still a threat. And so is the big one with the cannon."

"The what?"

Nikolai got his answer barely a second afterwards when the monster in question fired again with a thump. All three colonists looked outside in time to see the smashed apart remains of zombies hurtling past the stranger, an arm glancing off his shields. He jinked to the side and shot wildly at the Collectors while keeping his head low and the horde between them and himself. The aliens only hit the zombies.

"Covering fire!" Hannah ordered, having figured out where the stranger was headed. She still wanted him to fall back, but he seemed convinced of his chances.

She fired at the sniper's window, forcing it to keep its head down despite its biotic barrier, while Nikolai shot at the two aliens on the ground. He ducked back into cover when they turned their attention on him. Hannah followed suit when a third Collector, larger than the others, appeared in the window, letting its biotic barrier soak up the damage. Some sort of a leader perhaps? It was the first they had seen thus far.

Leopold picked one of the bottles, took a deep breath and activated his omni-tool. The second the gunfire let up, he ignited the rag and hurled the bottle out of the window. Hannah and Nikolai rose to watch it fly, but only after making sure the Collector was no longer at the window. The hastily stuffed rag ended up falling out mid-flight. Alcohol spilled as the bottle spun around before slamming onto the head of a Collector, stunning it and covering it in what remained of the alcohol.

"Stuff it in better," Nikolai reprimanded, then ducked as low as he could when the sniper returned and put a beam through the window frame. Hannah followed suit when the alien ignored the rounds striking its barrier and turned its weapon towards her. The beam went right over her head and struck the central pillar.

"First time doing this, cut me some slack here!" Leopold retorted and picked up another bottle.

There was a sudden squawk from below. The sniper was gone so Hannah looked outside carefully. The Collector that the bottle had hit had caught fire and was flailing about, elbowing a passing zombie in the process. The other alien put more distance between them and turned towards the stranger who had stopped at the base the stairs. The zombies were still after him, stumbling over the pods, but with their speed the man could run rings around them without issue. A beam from a Collector weapon had hit the small, imported tree in the middle of the deck and cut it in half, slowing the pursuers even more.

A burst from a Lancer struck the Collector in the side, and it died. A laser shot put down the burning one.

Nikolai had kept his head down after the sniper's near-miss, but now he rose slightly to look outside. Hannah in turn crawled to the other corner and looked out of the window she had opened earlier to shoot at the glowing sniper.

There was a woman, a Lancer in hand, standing on the landing of the stairs leading up to the house the previous snipers had been in. Hannah recognized Bethany by her long, black hair. She also recognized the red dress and realized the younger woman had been hiding in the greenhouse. The house it was in didn't belong to her, and Hannah could only hope the actual owner was safe somewhere.

Gunfire echoed from inside the house the stranger was headed for as Bethany waved at Hannah, an almost cheerful grin on her face, and she waved back hesitantly. She almost asked where she got the gun, but then remembered Fredrik and Kristoffer had dropped theirs.

"Sorry it took so long to come and help!" Bethany yelled, clearly uneasy. She tried to grin to hide her fear, but quickly stopped. Yet despite it, she had come out of hiding, picked up a gun and come to their aid.

"Good to see you!" Hannah yelled back.

"I should come over there."

"No, stay there!" If anything the three of them should have gone to Bethany. The tower may have been defensible and safe from the zombies, but the longer they spent there, the greater the risk of a Collector throwing a grenade in there - especially now that the stranger was no longer there to protect them. They had been incredibly lucky thus far, and that luck was running out fast. "If any of them come for you, run, okay?"

Bethany signaled she understood, and Hannah quickly made her way to her previous position.

Nikolai and Bethany fired at the horde as it shambled after the stranger, cutting down several zombies. Leopold threw another Molotov cocktail, and this time the burning rag stayed inside. The bottle shattered on contact with the deck, spilling burning alcohol all over the feet of the zombies. He cursed and looked at his last bottle, hesitating. Hannah was about to tell him to wait when the stranger's shields flashed brightly inside the house at the top of the stairs, right before the larger Collector reappeared at its window and opened fire with its rifle, forcing the colonists to keep their heads down.

"Shit!" Nikolai cursed when a blast from the big monster hit the wall, cracking the already weakened metal. The building creaked ominously.

"Guys!" shouted Bethany. "Incoming!"


He fired at the sniper one last time while it fired at the locals, then it was out of his line of sight. He came to a stop at the base of the stairs and looked back to make sure the horde was still after him - and it was. That had been incredibly risky, and though the horde had provided convenient meat shields they were less effective against the snipers on their perch. He was grateful for the locals for distracting the xenoi.

A bottle smashed into a xenos and drenched it in liquid. A smoldering rag dropped to the ground some distance away.

Filling bottles with promethium or other flammable liquid and throwing them at the enemy; simple, but effective. The execution required some refinement, but who was he to criticise?

He put a lasbeam into the stunned xenos, the sudden heat igniting whatever the liquid was. It did not look like promethium to him, but at least it caught fire. The other xenos distanced itself from its comrade and tried to return fire. It died a second later, shot from the side by an autogun. Surprised, he shot the burning xenos and turned to see a woman on the stairs of the building he had fought the previous sniper duo in. She waved awkwardly when she noticed him. He had no idea who she was or where she had come from, but her aid was welcome.

He hurried up the stairs, carefully keeping a laspistol trained on the snipers' windows, but they did not return. When he got to the top he straightened up at last, he holstered one laspistol, closed the door halfway and looked back. The most of the zombies were crawling over the xenotech pods and the fallen tree. They were all solely focused on chasing him despite the autofire from the locals. This was good, containing the horde in this area was a top priority; the Emperor alone knew what could happen if a zombie were to wander off while he was dealing with its fell masters.

The door on the opposite end of the small building opened, and xenoi charged inside, weapons at the ready. He had expected this and simply closed the door completely, blocking their fire. He turned slightly to look at the locals in the tower and realised the man shooting at the horde was the one they had found hiding in the storage earlier. He had not expected any of the men to return, let alone him. He couldn't see the woman and had to hope she yet lived. He shot the first zombie he could see on the stairs. It stumbled, missed a step and fell over, tripping the zombies behind it.

A xenos tried to open the door, but he held it firmly in place until he felt it yank again and let go. He surged forward when the door slid open, fired a single shot into the face of a xenos further away, grabbed the one that had opened the door and shoved it so it was between him and the other two xenoi. It did little to discourage them from opening fire with their rifles, but most of their shots hit the first xenos in the back, a few striking his conversion field even as he lowered his profile. He rammed his shoulder into the staggering xenos and slammed it into its nearest comrade with enough force to knock them both down.

The xenoi had barely started falling over when he pointed his arm towards the third and fired his las gauntlet. The xenos stepped aside and ducked the moment he raised his hand, and the lasbeam ended up hitting one of two xenoi that had chosen to retreat outside instead. It flinched and turned its body reflexively, and the beam only left a long burn on its chest. It chose to shut the door even though he did not plan on firing again.

The xenos he had been aiming for rose and managed to pull the trigger before he crashed into it, the rounds glancing off his side. Chairs clattered as they barely avoided a table, and the rifle fell to the floor. He shot the xenos in the chin and slammed it against the wall between an empty bookshelf and the only window. On the other side of the bookshelf, next to the door he had come through, were a night table and a bed. A worktop, a sink and several cabinets were set against the wall between the window and the other door. He thought this could have been a family home, but the bed was only big enough for a single person.

The xenos he had bowled over pushed aside its comrade's corpse and began to rise. It had dropped its rifle during the fall, and the weapon now lay under its dead comrade, whose own rifle had fallen closer to the doorway. The first of the zombies were halfway up the stairs by now.

He yanked the xenos to the side, struck it with his knee and pulled a knife from its sheath on his boot. He stabbed the blade into the creature's neck and pushed it towards the window until it was halfway outside. It held on to his arm with desperate vigour, until he shot out one of its eyes and let go of his knife. He pulled his hand free, grabbed one of its legs and gave one last push that sent the xenos plummeting to its death with nary a sound. He stepped away from the window and fired at the surviving xenos as it charged at him, unarmed.

The door slid open again, and the xenos he had wounded earlier stepped inside. It was glowing, and several insects circled it. They were larger than the ones that had attacked him and glowed brightly like tiny stars. There was no sign of the other.

It kept its rifle lowered and thrust its other hand towards him, launching one of the insects forward like a missile. It exploded on contact with his conversion field, resulting in a bright flash that blinded both xenoi.

He wanted to fire back, but the other xenos was still charging at him. He stepped aside, grabbed it by the arm, used its momentum to spin it around and send it crashing into the glowing one who tried to fire where it had last seen him. The xenos ended up taking the three-round burst in the chest and pulling the rifle from its comrade's hand as it fell.

He heard a screech like a malfunctioning vox-caster, turned to the other door and shot the zombie that had reached the doorway. Light flickered in its remaining eye for a moment before it collapsed on the floor. From a quick look through his servo-skull he estimated the horde had gone from two dozen to barely ten. That was good; less potential survivors to worry about.

The glowing xenos launched another glowing insect. Blinded as it was, it didn't realise he had started to round the table, and the insect blew apart the bookshelf. He fired one las gauntlet into the side of its head and charged. The xenos turned, hissing hatefully, and he rammed into it, punched it in the head and shoved it to the side. It stumbled towards the zombies, but managed to stay on its feet until he kicked it as hard as he could and knocked it over. A zombie tripped on the corpse of the dead xenos and fell on top of it, tripping several others as they tried to shamble past.

He kicked the other xenos back to the floor when it tried to rise, shot it through the eye and exited quickly. He took his last grenade from his waist, pulled the pin, waited a second to be certain the zombies were all inside and threw. The grenade landed right next to the glowing xenos who was pushing zombies aside and trying to stand back up. He slammed the door shut.

The detonation shook the whole building.

He looked around and took a quick breather. He could feel the fatigue of a long day starting settle in. Adrenaline could only get him so far. He regretted not taking the glass of water the settlers had offered, but he could not doff his helm in their presence; contaminants were his primary reason, but he also preferred to remain faceless, a masked outworlder. It was better that way, it made his duties easier.

He reloaded his laspistol, knowing without looking it was running low. He had one more power pack left and should have reloaded the holstered laspistol as well - it wouldn't have taken more than a few seconds - but he didn't think he would need it. On the other hand, he could not reload his las gauntlets in battle, otherwise he might have spared another shot at the glowing xenos to make sure it was dead. Though they weren't much more powerful than the laspistols, the relative scarcity made every shot precious, and he hated having to use them frequently.

He crossed the small, slanted ramp that connected the door to the landing ahead, checked his flanks one more time and entered the long building, his laspistol at the ready.

One sniper lay dead at a window, but the other xenoi were nowhere to be found. Still no sign of the one he had seen outside either. The building itself was mostly barren save for a curved bench near the door on the opposite end, a few cogitators of some sort scattered about and small containers placed haphazardly against the walls.

He expanded his servo-skull's window and saw that the large creature that had overloaded his rosarius was finally on the move. It was lumbering forward down below and aiming the cannon that made up its left arm towards the tower the locals were holed up in. Now that it was closer and he wasn't busy avoiding gunfire, he could see the creature's human head which rested at an unnatural angle due to the added bulk of large sacks on its back and the thick cables that linked the cannon to said sacks. Some form of abhorrent power source? He could hear intermittent gunfire, but it was not directed at the monster.

A xenos moved in the background, heading for the stairs that led around the corner and up to the door he had just entered. It was the leader, its size unmistakable. Where the others waiting just out of sight?

He minimised the window, drew a dagger slightly longer than his combat knives and moved to the side of the doorway, one arm raised and ready.

The xenos leader entered. It was head and shoulders taller than him, and its exoskeleton was grey as opposed to brown. Its head was far larger as well, its outermost eyes had split vertically into two, and it had two thin horns that curved backwards. It held a rifle in one hand while pointing the other forward, sending forth a swarm of insects much like the one that had attacked him earlier. Had it sent the previous swarm as well?

The creature realised too late he was not where it thought he would be, and a las gauntlet destroyed one of its eyes. As it staggered from the sudden attack and tried to turn, trilling with anger, he slammed into it with enough force to knock it into the wall and fired his laspistol into its gut. With surprising swiftness, the xenos twisted its body and smacked its weapon arm into his side before he could stab it with his blade.

He recovered before he hit the wall and fired his laspistol again. He outstretched his arm to fire his las gauntlet, but had to quickly withdraw it to avoid the swing of the creature's blade. He backed away from the second swing to get some distance and tried aiming again, only to stumble on the dead sniper. The insects the leader had sent out swarmed him from behind.

The xenos saw its opportunity and lunged, autogun at the ready.

He forewent any chance to shoot it and dodged past the creature, barely avoiding the autogun as it got within his conversion field. He got off two shots before the xenos whirled around, lightning quick, and punched at him with a hand covered in a strange, bluish glow.

He jumped back to avoid the hit, but not far enough to avoid the sudden explosion of energy that erupted from the creature's hand.


Hannah and Leopold rushed to the other window and saw Bethany disappear inside the upper building.

Two Collectors that were inspecting the pods opened fire with their SMGs the second they saw the colonists, shattering the window of the tower. Hannah took cover in the nearest corner, the same one she had been in when the battle had started, while Leopold dropped low and got some distance between his bare feet and the shards of glass. Nikolai crawled across the room to the other corner, peeked out when the gunfire ceased and quickly got down when it resumed.

Hannah cursed herself for not thinking of the aliens going around and taking the pods - they had done that before. The fact she now knew they also had grenades made the situation even worse. She noticed Leopold preparing his last Molotov cocktail and quickly exclaimed, "No, don't! You might burn the-" A round almost scraped the window frame next to her head.

"The grass is still wet," Leopold reassured and activated his omni-tool. "Don't worry, it won't spread."

"No, the pods. There's people inside them. You might burn them."

"What?!"

An explosion startled them all. A quick look out of the other window confirmed it came from the house the stranger had entered. What remained of the zombie horde lay in pieces inside, only a few trying to stumble onward. Hannah was certain the stranger was taking care of the snipers because she couldn't see anyone in the windows. She quickly ducked back before the cannon-wielding thing could draw a bead.

"What the hell was that?" Nikolai asked.

"The stranger and his grenade, I think," Hannah answered and fired a quick burst at the Collectors while their attention was elsewhere. Bethany, who had crawled out onto the landing outside the door, did the same while keeping her head as low as possible. They managed to hit one of the aliens, but it quickly scampered into cover behind the platform where none of them could hit it. The other provided covering fire while following at a slower pace.

As Hannah took cover, another Lancer opened fire from inside the house the colonists had taken refuge in earlier. The wounded Collector was caught completely off-guard and died quickly under the hail of mass accelerator rounds; the surviving alien rushed to the storage the colonists had walked through earlier. They fired after it, but a few hits were not enough to stop it.

"Fredrik, that you?!" Leopold yelled out.

Fredrik poked his head out of the doorway, waved and quickly went back inside. The Collector fired into the house a moment later. Fredrik returned fire when it stopped, as did Bethany, but the few seconds were enough for Hannah's heart to leap into her throat. There had been enough close calls to last a lifetime.

"Fucking hell," cursed Nikolai, staring outside.

A glowing Collector landed on the roof on the left. It was a sniper, much like the one that had played dead on the same roof earlier.

"Bethany, get back inside!" Hannah shouted and opened fire, Nikolai following suit. The Collector's biotic barrier blocked all their rounds, and it raised its own weapon. Bethany rushed inside the house while the others ducked out of sight before a beam blasted into the wall.

Fredrik shot the sniper in the back, distracting it, while Bethany kept the other suppressed with haphazard bursts from the doorway. Hannah waited until the alien fired again before shooting it in the back in turn. Fredrik joined Bethany in keeping the other alien suppressed. Nikolai, however, didn't get the chance to do anything before the sniper turned and returned fire. It blasted a hole into the window frame very close to Hannah's head as she ducked.

They really needed to get out of the tower while they still could.

There was a pause in the suppressive fire. Safely out of the sniper's line of sight, Leopold raised his head to see outside and shouted, "Grenade!"

The SMG-wielding Collector was rushing forward, grenade in hand, intending to hurl it up into the tower. A burst from Fredrik caught it in the side, and it stumbled. That gave Hannah enough time to finish it off with a few shots to the head. The alien fell on top of its grenade and smothered the explosion that followed a moment later.

"What the hell is that thing doing now?" asked Nikolai, staring warily at the glowing Collector.

Said alien was hunched over and twitching. A small swarm of insects was beginning to form around it, seemingly born from its very body. The sight made Hannah think of the insects that had poured out of the ship when it had landed, the ones that had to be behind the strange stasis afflicting people. She fired without hesitation, hoping at least one round would get through the alien's biotic barrier. Nikolai and Fredrik opened fire as well.

The Collector straightened up, surrounded by the swarm, and raised its own weapon. Its barrier collapsed at last, but the alien managed to pull the trigger regardless. Hannah and Nikolai ducked just in time to avoid a beam that swept from one side of the window to the other. Fredrik took cover a second later, but the alien did not fire again. After a tense second, Hannah, Nikolai and Leopold risked a peek outside.

Its exoskeleton pitted and cracked in many places, the Collector had turned and lowered its weapon. It pointed its other hand towards the Fredrik's hideout, and the insects around it surged forward and flew in through the window. The others watched in horror as Fredrik stumbled out of the door a second later, desperately trying to fight off the swarm. A beam from the alien weapon struck him in the gut, and he fell behind the railing of the deck.

"Fredrik!" they all screamed.

With a cry of anger, Hannah opened fire. The Collector began to turn back around, flinching from the every round. A laser beam hit it in the back, burning into its exoskeleton, while another missed entirely. Bethany ran outside and opened fire alongside Nikolai, and the alien finally disintegrated under their combined fire, its ashes scattering into the winds.

A moment passed as the colonists stared mutely at the insects that still buzzed where Fredrik had fallen, hoping against hope that he would stand back up. Sudden gunshots startled them all, the sound seeming to echo in the near-silence. It was followed by a muffled boom seconds later.

Bethany inched hesitantly closer to the railing for a better look. The others waited with bated breaths. She turned back and shook her head, tears streaming down her face, confirming what they all knew: Fredrik was dead.

Nikolai slumped against the wall, closed his eyes and slammed a fist repeatedly into the wall. Leopold dropped to his knees, scraping them on the glass, and stared into nothing, mumbling in disbelief. Hannah hugged him tightly, holding back her own tears.

Damned Collectors. The colony just wanted to live in peace, was that too much to ask?

"Let's get out of here," Hannah said and let go. Leopold nodded, took a deep breath and stood back up. Nikolai did the same, still leaning against the wall for support.

Bethany screamed. The others looked outside and saw her trying to duck behind the thick railing of lower landing, her Lancer raised.

The blast of the cannon hit the edge of the railing, smashed apart the assault rifle and blew Bethany backwards like a rag doll.


He flew backwards, seemingly weightless, hit the wall, spun halfway and landed in a heap in the doorway. His laspistol slipped from his grip, but he managed to hold on to the dagger. The xenos fired as he sprung to his feet and bolted for the stairs. A single round managed to get through his conversion field and hit his shoulder guard, almost spinning him around.

He stopped on the landing in the middle of the stairs, panting and thoroughly baffled. Neither the null-psy lattice nor the hexagrammic runes in his armour had reacted to the attack so it could not be psychic; the line in his helm display had not budged either. Xenotech then? Whatever it was, it had also killed the insects swarming him.

Screams of grief and outrage alerted him to a glowing xenos on the roof of the previous stacked buildings. This had to be the missing sniper, having fled its perch in the time he needed to take care of the zombies. He could imagine it watching over other xenoi swarming around their captives, while the settlers desperately tried to hold them off. The thought was enough to make him sick, and he gritted his teeth.

A local opened fire from the tower, and the xenos began to turn. The rounds hit it directly, a sign its force field had collapsed at some point, but he barely noticed that when he stepped closer to the railing and fired both las gauntlets. One lasbeam blasted into the creature's back, the other missed its head by an inch. He needn't have bothered; two more autoguns opened fire and finished the xenos off.

He backed away, looked around warily for more xenoi and checked his shoulder guard. The aquila on it had lost one of its heads, an unwitting blasphemy, but it was otherwise fine.

The xenos leader was still inside, and the dim light from the open doorway revealed why.

He had no time to draw his remaining laspistol and reload it, so he drew his remaining knife and ran up the stairs. The xenos, light leaking from cracks all over its body, was standing still with one hand raised. More and more insects were appearing as if spawned from its body and were beginning to circle it. Was this how they were born? Could all xenoi do this or simply a select few? These insects were different, however, glowing dimly in a way not unlike the xenos itself. It was like they had gone through the same process. The previous glowing insects had been larger but less numerous.

The xenos looked him in the eye and swung its hand down. The insects surged towards him as he fired a las gauntlet, frying the half of the swarm, but doing no noticeable damage to their creator. Said creator fired back, and he stepped out of the doorway with the swarm in tow.

The insects had barely surrounded him when they began to vibrate and move in tight circles. Having an idea of what might happen, he dashed across the doorway to the door of the previous building. A second later the swarm exploded. A full swarm might have rivaled a small grenade, but a diminished one accomplished nothing.

The xenos exited, its rifle raised, but he was ready for it and already moving. He pushed the weapon aside and trapped it between his arm and the creature's chest. As he brought down his dagger, he squeezed a pressure pad in its grip and prayed.

The dagger was an old power blade, one of two he had been given when he had become an inquisitor. Its matter disrupting field made it capable of stabbing right through armour, but it had not worked properly in years, and he had not had a chance to get it fixed. He had always feared it would break for good the next time he used it, and so it had gone unused for a long time.

The power field flickered to life, lightning crackling along the blade, and he stabbed straight through the xenos's hand, through the rifle's grip and into its chest. The power field failed immediately afterwards.

He thrust his knife thrust towards its neck, but the xenos lashed out with its other hand and slammed him against the railing between the buildings, forcing him to let go of the dagger. He recovered quickly, ducked under the swipe of the xenos blade and backed away towards the door to avoid the second swing. The xenos wrenched its hand free from its chest, growling menacingly. The rifle and dagger fell to the ramp. Steaming ichor dripped from the wounds.

Autofire picked up again, and as he tried to pick up his dagger he took a quick look through his servo-skull's eyes just in time to see the zombie monstrosity finally die, gunned down from above while on fire.

The ramp they were on was slightly slanted and only a metre and half wide, barely big enough for the two of them to fight on. The hulking xenos charged regardless, too close and fast for him to fire his las gauntlets in time. He abandoned his dagger, moved to the side, ducked under the predictably wide swing and stabbed his knife into its side. It tried to turn as it swung back, and he rammed his shoulder into its gut, shoving it into the railing. A hasty but powerful swing smacked impotently against his conversion field before he rammed the creature back into the railing while trying to stab his knife into its neck.

The railing was waist-high and little more than a metal pipe.

Man and xenos went over together.


"Beth!" Leopold screamed. Outside the young woman's limp body came to a stop at the base of the stairs.

Eyes wide, Hannah looked out of the other window and saw the cannon-wielding monster was making its way past the corpses that littered the deck. Nikolai ran across the room back into his previous corner and gasped loudly when he saw it. Leopold leaned onto the console to look outside, heedless of the shards of glass digging into his hand, and his expression turned from grief and horror to fury.

The thing looked up at them with its glowing eyes, its skeletal face seemingly grinning. It began to turn, trying to bring the weapon to bear that had just killed their friend.

Leopold lit his last Molotov cocktail and hurled it down onto the monster. "Burn, you sack of shit!"

The bottle slammed right onto the large sack on the hunched creature's back and smashed apart as Hannah and Nikolai opened fire, spilling burning liquid all over. The hump burst under the onslaught, and the fire quickly spread into the exposed mass of cybernetic organs, making a low hissing sound. Blue substance splashed around as the thing swayed on its feet and fell over with a shrill wail.

Nikolai dropped his overheating assault rifle and fell to his knees, shaking. Leopold spat out of the window contemptuously and finally looked at his bleeding hand, desperately holding back tears. Hannah, on the other hand, noticed a Collector on top of the long sideways house. It aimed its rifle at them.

"Get down!" Hannah shouted, reaching for Leopold, but it was too late.

The Collector fired a three-round burst. The first struck the window frame; the second struck the central pillar; the third struck Leopold in the head, and he toppled to the floor.

Nikolai stared at his friend's body and the spreading pool of blood in horror, then he let out a sob, rushed across the room and fled down the floor hatch.

Hannah checked on Leopold, confirmed he was dead, fired a burst in the general direction of the alien, caught a glimpse of the stranger and the larger Collector falling over a railing and followed Nikolai.


He barely managed to turn his body in mid-air, righting himself just before he landed on the deck and collapsed in a heap, a dull bang reverberating through the metal. Pain lanced through his legs, and he wasn't certain if one of his ankles was broken or simply sprained - his knees didn't feel any better. He couldn't let it stop him either way and slowly forced himself to stand. He gritted his teeth, turning a shout of pain into an angry growl.

Some distance away the corpse of the hulking zombie burned. None of the locals were peeking out of the tower, and he got the feeling he was alone. He had dropped his knife during the fall and couldn't locate it. The xenos leader's blade, on the other hand, lay only a metre away.

Through his servo-skull he saw movement on the roof of the long building and turned to look up right before his conversion field flashed as it deflected a burst. The missing xenos at long last. It backed away from the edge of the roof when he raised his arm, and his servo-skull revealed it was slowly manouvering to a better spot.

Several metres away, the xenos leader rose to its feet, spread its arms and wings wide and arched its back. The inner light seemed to flare and burn brighter, making its body steam. Then it charged.

He fired a las gauntlet into its face, destroying the remaining eyes on the injured side of its face, making it flinch and stumble. He jumped onto the lip of the potter next to them, then half-fell, half-lunged towards the creature. The impact stopped its faltering charge cold, and he managed to grab one of its horns before landing, pulling its head down with all his weight. He punched it in the chin at an awkward angle, an angle made necessary by the fact his las gauntlets required him to clench his fist and bend his wrist a specific way - they were not mind impulse triggered. The searing lasbeam that followed blasted into its neck, silencing its hateful snarl.

He struck again, but the xenos put its foot down and began to straighten up before he could fire. Bluish energy gathered in its hands as it pulled them back. He let go and backed away quickly while it staggered backwards from the sudden loss of resistance. It thrust its hands forward regardless, releasing the gathered energy in an explosion that tore its injured hand apart, caused his conversion field to flash and briefly made dirt and the dropped blade hover off the deck. Its foot hit the corpse of the xenos he had pushed out of the window, his knife still jutting from its throat, and it stumbled. He rushed forward before it could recover and fired both las gauntlets into its exposed throat, twin lasbeams boring halfway through its thick neck.

The inner light dimmed, and the xenos went limp. He gave its disintegrating body one last glare before he turned around and looked up, one arm raised.

The other xenos had jumped onto the roof of the building the zombies had been lured into. It seemed distracted, looking towards the tower the locals had vacated, its weapon lowered. He fired his las gauntlet before it could even think of raising it. The power pack finally depleted, but it was enough to blast a smouldering crater into its chest. The xenos took a step back, spread its wings and took off towards the ship.

A familiar screech alerted him to a legless zombie crawling towards him from amidst the corpses that littered the deck. He drew his remaining laspistol, shot it between the eyes and rushed after the xenos. The second it came into view he emptied his laspistol into it, mostly out of spite. One lasbeam hit it right in the base of one of its wings, blasting it off and sending the xenos plummeting towards a wide plaza ahead.

At least a dozen other xenoi had taken off across the settlement, abandoning whatever they were doing for no discernible reason. He watched them go with a grimace. Thinking of all the people they had taken made him clench his hand into a fist in anger. The Emperor alone knew what fate awaited them.

He took a deep breath, turned away and sighed; there was nothing he could do about them now.

He called his servo-skull back to him and started limping back, wincing every time he put weight on his injured leg. He narrowed his eyes when his servo-skull revealed four surviving zombies shambling down the stairs, stumbling over the bodies of those already put down. They had no doubt been alerted by the screech of their kin. Being abandoned by their fell masters meant nothing to such mindless creatures, nor did the fact their wounds were still bleeding blue substance that had replaced their red human blood. With the xenoi gone, it was time to finally worry about these blasphemous things.

He saw the woman standing cautiously at the doors of the storage. It was good to see her alive, at least someone had survived. The thought made him feel better.

He stopped, raised his hand and gestured for the woman to go. She hesitated, her weapon half-raised. He planted his feet firmly on the deck and finally reloaded the laspistol. It was his last power pack, but it would be enough.

Had the zombies gone all the way down the stairs they might have noticed the woman and gone after her; instead, the mindless creatures charged right over the railing, plummeting the short distance to the deck. They began to rise almost immediately, their attention solely on him.

In the distance, the xenos ship began to lift off, surprisingly quiet for something its size.

He raised his weapon in a two-handed grip and was glad to see the woman was gone. He would finish this by himself. This was his quarry after all, his duty. She had helped him enough; let her worry about her friends, her people.

Let the Ordo Malleus worry about the Regia Occulta. Let the Ordo Hereticus worry about the colony. Let the Ordo Xenos worry about the invaders.

He would worry about the quarry of his ordo, the Ordo Sepulturum.


At the doors of the storage below the control room, Hannah watched in disbelief as the Collectors turned tail.

They had won. Against all odds, they had won. It hadn't been easy, it hadn't been without loss, but the aliens were running.

She had intended to follow Nikolai, but he was gone by the time she had climbed down, and she had thought the stranger might have needed help, especially if there were more Collectors than the one on the roof. Ultimately he didn't, and there weren't. The only other aliens around had just taken flight on the other side of the colony.

Hannah wondered how many people the invaders had taken. How many were stuck in pods around the colony or frozen in stasis? How many more were on their ship?

Hannah quickly stepped further into the doorway when she saw the last surviving zombies shambling out of the house. She thought back to the loud moan of the legless one the stranger had shot before chasing after the fleeing alien.

The aforementioned man started walking back, limping slightly. Falling from that height could not have been easy. The horrid skull-drone flew out from behind nearby containers and onto his shoulder. He was looking towards the stairs, clearly aware of the zombies.

She began to raise her Lancer, but the man raised his hand and gestured towards the direction she had come from, telling her to leave. She hesitated for a second, but knew she wasn't needed. She still needed to catch up to Nikolai.

The Collector ship began to take off in the distance.

Hannah was halfway through the storage when the stranger opened fire. She had barely reached the opposite doors when he was done.

She looked around as she got outside. Nikolai had vomited near the wall, but the man himself was nowhere to be found. Hannah was certain he was headed for the clinic where Kristoffer was, however, and set off after him, hoping to catch him so they could break the news to Kristoffer together. Afterwards, they would have to figure out how to open the pods and then bury their dead. After that, they could finally grieve. She would have to find her son while at it. He was out there somewhere, she just knew it. With the Collectors and their jamming gone maybe she could try calling him.

As if on cue, the holographic interface of her omni-tool activated, alerting her to an incoming call.

"Adrian, sweetheart!"

Hannah Shepard never saw the Collector that killed her.