Josef stammered for at least a minute and Callahan almost fell over. And the young boy was shivering. Josef finished stammering for a few seconds.
"Did she just! What? Emperor on terra. What?" he blurted out.
Pontius looked at the girl for a few moments, and then he leaned to Josef, who was next to him.
"Hey" he whispered "why is she looking at me like that?"
Josef was still shocked, and was not going to give an answer.
Callahan regained his footing.
"What's going on Victorian?" he said, his voice almost conveyed fear.
The young boy was beginning to moan, he was beginning to gain colour in his skin.
"Get it out of me… please! The blackness! The void! By the emperor! GET! IT! OUT! OF! MY! HEAD!" as boy began to scream, the girl remained silent.
"What is it victor! For the emperors sake, what is wrong with you!?" Callahan yelled over the boy.
Victor? Gregor thought, the boy was called victor, but the two were referred to as Victorian, Gregor began to make guesses as to the girls name.
"Victoria? What is wrong with him?" Callahan roared, quite genuinely clueless now.
The girl was silent for a few seconds longer, but then turned to face Callahan.
"Irving, perhaps those two…"
She pointed to Pontius and drake.
"…would be better placed on patrol outside?"
Gregor could almost see Callahan raise an eyebrow under the helmet.
Callahan pondered the girls request, that she had used his first name made it an urgent matter.
"You two," he nodded to the two men the girl had indicated. "Do as she said, outside."
Pontius and drake moved outside, shortly after, the boy calmed down and his hair floated freely again, the girl snapped her eyes shut and the glow returned, both children's skin turned pale once more.
"The sight returns, we see once more" the two children spoke.
"Do you see anything concerning this place now?" Callahan hurried the question
"We see many things, but little is clear, inquisitor, there may well be another like us fighting our gaze" the children spoke in unison.
Callahan turned to the gate
"Eldar?"
Victoria nodded
"Perhaps, it is hard to tell. They are actively resisting us."
"Let them resist, see how well they fare…" the inquisitor started, victor interrupted.
"There is more than one who would resist, but the second is… different, his mind is less devoted to the eldar path, in fact he does not even walk that road…" victors eyes flashed briefly.
Victoria continued: "one who has crossed our souls before…"
Callahan sighed
"Aww frak, I don't like this."
Victoria smiled, both children nodded
"Old plagueskin"
At the sound of that name, the eldar gate pulsed and a brief flash illuminated the room.
"Webway insertion! Brace yourselves!" Josef roared, levelling his hellgun.
The gate swirled and shot lighting in all directions, Josef was hit by one strike, but was done no harm. Ethereal energy filled the hut, Gregor had been present when the eldar had entered a battlefield via their webway, but this was different. Then it had been troops and vehicles.
Now, something was forcing its way through.
After the thing finished, the room lighted as bright as the stars, an eldar hand reached out, followed by an arm, a robed figure stumbled into the room, nobody fired.
The figure had a gaping hole in his waist, his robes were torn, and a sharp runed knife was stuck firm in his back. The figure fell forwards onto the floor.
"Inquisitor… come closer…" he groaned.
Callahan stepped towards the alien.
"Who are you?"
"Farseer Elthor harshmirr of biel-tan. You are inquisitor Irving Callahan of the Ordos Xenos, yes? I bring terrible news…"
"Victorian! Stabilize the eldar at once!" Callahan ordered.
The farseer was bleeding dangerous amounts of blood; he would bleed to death if he was not given medical aid.
Victor and Victoria held one hand each over the farseers wounds, the bleeding stopped, temporally. Josef ran over to the farseer and inspected the knife.
"Remove it?" Josef wasn't worried or stressed; emperor knew how many situations like this he had been through.
Callahan inspected the weapon himself.
"Whenever he is stable"
Josef looked to victor, who nodded slightly. Josef slowly removed the blade from the wound, the runes along it flashed briefly, and the farseer screeched. There were a few moments of the farseer shuddering, before his body went limp.
"Damn, failsafe. They really didn't want the bastard getting better" Josef sighed, the blade must have been rigged to kill if it was removed. The problem did not end there; however, as the farseers body twitched several times, and then began shaking. Everybody took positions around the corpse, Victoria and victor retreated to the other room.
After a whole minute of the farseers corpse shaking, there were a few seconds when vile, oozing pus seeped from the eldar's eyes, nostrils and ears. The corrupt fluid flowed in between the floorboards and the wood began to rot. The farseer started to decompose and bloated flies formed from parts of the farseers flesh. Finally, the ooze ascended the walls, the eldar's body was the lifted up onto the ceiling, it was now little more than a mound of flesh and corrupt clothing. The pus solidified into maggot infested arms and mouths. The eldar portal glowed once more before dying.
What may once have been a man stood in the room, he stood almost as high as the ceiling, his decaying form bulked out by gargantuan armour. The house shook at the things approach; he was a living symbol of its patron god.
A traitor space marine.
The traitor stretched its arms, yawning as if awakening from a long sleep. Then he stepped forward, the planks of the building creaked and strained under the things weight, but they never collapsed. He looked up, shaking his head.
"Ah, elthor… such a waste of potential… we could have been pals…." The traitor sighed audibly, and then he grinned and looked up at the others in the room.
"Oh! And Irving, it's been only too long since… how are you anyway?"
Callahan levelled his weapon
"IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR! BLIGHT HIS REALM NO LONGER!"
Callahan's wrist mount storm bolter fired for at least twenty seconds on full auto, it must have had a modified clip capacity, because Gregor had never seen one fire that many rounds in one clip.
Josef, Gregor and the rest of the group joined in, the pus infested walls were demolished completely by the gunfire, half the house was torn into pieces by the volley.
What remained of the marine afterwards was simply a skeleton with small amounts of septic flesh hanging here and there.
"Hmm, you are seeing someone about your anger management problems, right? I thought they were giving you medication" The traitor's remains spoke, it seemed impossible, seeing as most of the marines throat was shredded by gunfire.
Callahan roared again "KEEP FIRING! ANOTHER VOLLEY! ANOTHER!"
The process repeated itself, more gunfire devastated the area, this time Josef threw frag grenades to aid in the destruction, Markus's flamer was burning most of what was left of the room down, the only part remaining was that where the squad stood.
The firing ceased, the traitor was little more than ashes now.
"Ouch… have you taken your pills AT ALL? Bad show Irving, bad show…" the ash pile somehow gave its reply to the gunfire.
Callahan hit a doorframe next to him, breaking it.
"All right, I give up, why are you here and how did you escape from area quinquaginta unus?"
The ash pile reformed itself, the ash grains knitted together to form the traitor once more.
"I have a name, Irving"
Callahan sighed. "Fine, plagueskin, why are you here, and how did you get out?"
Plagueskin smiled.
"Much the same reason as you are. And I hardly escaped from, as much as destroyed area quinquaginta unus"
Plagueskin turned to the portal. "I only came to give you this warning. Leave this world and never return. For if you stay, the future is not bright for you and your men. Not that I expect you to listen."
The traitor was just about to re-enter the portal, when Pontius and drake tore into the room.
Pontius unloaded his shotgun at plagueskins left knee (the armour had been lost when he was incinerated.)
The chaos marine's leg bled green for a few seconds, and then the top half visibly began sliding forward. Pontius had sawn it in two with gunfire. As the leg fell in two, the marine uttered one word.
"Shit"
Plagueskin fell forward into the portal, his lower left leg still left behind.
Callahan looked at Pontius, for some reason, the look made Gregor shiver.
Then Callahan turned to Markus.
"Burn the house to the ground."
