Okay, so this one's one of my shortest. So sorry it's only a tiny little thing, and that it too me damn near a month to write it, but I've been doing so much lately that I'm just running around like a chicken without a head. Please don't lose faith, I'm still here and I'll never, EVER abandon this story. I'm always thinking about it, even if I can't work on it as much as I used to. So, please spread the word about this, tell people I'm not dead, and don't forget me... my god so many drunk people are walking by my dorm it's ridiculous. Anyway we're finally out of the Plains of Ildanesh and are moving into the Hub, where... stuff's going to happen. Not sure what yet, but stuff will happen because, well, stuff happens... and stuff... Soooooo, at a measly 2,588 words, I present to you chapter 17. I'll keep trucking away, and while updates wont be as much as they used to, I'll try to stick to my old schedule, even if that means they have to be shorter. This might seem short, by the way, but remember it only describes maybe a twenty minute span of time. Just saying :P

So here it is. Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your faithfulness and loyalty.

~Advicepuppy

They stood at an archway with two massive and ornate open doors leading into a darkened lobby with a ceiling vaulting up into blackness. The other wall was barely visible, with only tiny remnants of the outside light reaching across the nearly four hundred yard span to illuminate it. The grotesquely elongated shadows of three figures stretched along the floor before having their backs broken as they were dimly cast against the wall opposite them. Their footsteps echoed into emptiness as their eyes adjusted to the lack of light. The floors were deep shades of purple and black inlayed with streaks and curves of shifting colors that changed as Andron scanned over them with the light mounted on his lasrifle. He pointed his rifle up, and the beam of light was swallowed by the seemingly endless space above them. There was nobody there except for them. Even the floating orbs of light he had seen on the streets were absent. He stood in awe at the imposing beauty of the architecture around him. He had never seen something quite so peculiar in nature as how endless his surroundings seemed, as if space expanded as he entered the hub.

Aureleth was the first to dare to break the silence that had been growing suffocating. "From here, we are linked to every other hub in the entire craftworld. The most logical conclusion would be that we should make our way sternward, as the only reports of contact that I recall hearing were towards the front of Yul'Te. We need only make our way to the bays, where we can hopefully find a way of escape."

Andron, still staring into the blackness as absolute as space itself, responded affirmatively. "Which way do we go?"

Aureleth thought for a moment before indicating a smaller arch a short distance along the wall from them. They carefully made their way towards it, making sure to remain close to the wall with Eruwen between them, lest there still be anyone with them that they were unaware of.

After several minutes of walking and scanning the walls with his flashlight, they had made considerable progress towards their goal. Andron swept his light back across the walls, revealing a turn to the right ahead of them. He put himself right at the corner before leaning around and turning his lasrifle down the hall. He illuminated the riddled corpses of several Guardsmen, blood having formed pools around their soaked forms, tunics and equipment sodden and caked with the once life-giving substance. They say, laid, and slouched against walls and on the floor, their faces contorted into screams of agony, surprise, or blank stares as they had been as their final moments of life had drained away.

Andron recoiled back into cover, thumbing the safety off of his lasrifle as he held his other hand out to indicate for the others to stop. He felt his fingers subconsciously tighten around the grip on his lasrifle, his knuckles turning white. His heart pounding, his breathing rate increasing, he felt his adrenal glands begin to pump directly into his bloodstream.

"Stay back!" he hissed through almost painfully gritted teeth. He was concerned that Eruwen might see. Though they would have to pass down the hall, he wanted to do all that he could to ensure that she was as untainted by war as he could keep her. The child had already seen enough, and he feared that if she were to witness any more of the horrors of war, her fragile soul would be shattered. Given the newfound significance that she held, he could not allow such a thing to happen.

"What is it?" Aureleth had already drawn her weapons.

"Bodies. Get her; don't let her see." Andron indicated the child.

Aureleth took Eruwen by the hand, comforting her, and told her in her flowing tongue to cover her eyes. The child obliged, squinting them shut before the three of them turned the corner and into the bloodied hall.

They advanced slowly, careful to keep as quiet as possible, in the event that they were not alone. With the addition of Eruwen, they had to be even more careful than before to avoid combat of any kind, lest they put the girl's life at risk. Andron led the way, with Eruwen in tow followed by Aureleth, weapons drawn and ready for the worst case scenario. Andron scanned back and forth over the walls and bodies, taking note of their injuries. Their wounds were grisly. For many of them it was obvious that they had been made to suffer in their final moments.

On the edge of his hearing, the sound barely struggled into his ear, expending the last of its dying energy carrying the last of an equally deathly human scream through the halls. Andron stopped immediately, the lasrifle flicking to his shoulder and instinctively scanning all potential concealed areas down the hall. The beam of light sliced through the darkness and dust, scanning walls, more bodies, more contorted faces, and more blood. It seemed to take an eternity for the scream to fade as the remains of the dying soldier's last sound echoed and faded through the halls, heard by only three lost souls as his own was released. They stood in absolute silence, and it was then that Andron noticed the faint sounds of machinery. It was a soft hum, continuously purring as proof that the hub was still in fact in working order. It sounded nothing like the deafening roar of his own peoples' clanking, coughing and barking contraptions. Another scream reached them, starting at a pitch before rising sharply to a peak before it was cut short by the sound of a shuriken rifle discharging its deadly hail into its victim. Andron stole a glance behind him, and saw that Eruwen had covered her ears in addition to screwing her eyes shut. He subconsciously noted that as a function of their shape, she covered her ears differently than he would have, aligning her longest middle finger with the pointed part of her ear in order to completely seal it. That thought was quickly suffocated again by the urgency of their situation. They were not alone, and those that were with them were armed and had no qualms about taking lives. Whether or not they would care that Aureleth was one of them, and that they had a child was another matter entirely, however Andron would not put his own life at risk if it was unnecessary. Then again, he thought, was any of the bloodshed necessary?

They continued walking for several minutes without incident, Eruwen in between he and Aureleth as they held their weapons raised. The silence was almost tangible, only broken by the arrhythmic taps of their footsteps and the soft hum of the hub's inner workings, and while several corridors led off into different directions, Aureleth had told him that they were to continue forward. They had no idea where exactly the screams had emanated from. They reached a soft bend in their path, the hall curving up and to the left. Before they reached the base of the incline, Andron saw the pools of blood that had formed at the bottom of it, the deposits of the trails that led up the sloping floor and into unseen places.

Andron dared not speak above the slightest of whispers, taking into account the acute senses of their foe. Again, a small voice asked why he saw them as foe. Had he time to think, he would have settled on the fact that it was simply because they would kill him, and that they would do so because they were at war, and that they were at war because that was all that any of them ever really knew, and it had become embedded in them, permeating them, becoming them.

"Aureleth. I think they're up there. Are you sure there's no other way to go?" He barely exhaled as he spoke, trying to keep his voice lower than the nearly inaudible hum.

Aureleth shook her head. She had only taken the route they were currently on when she had travelled once to see the unveiling of an art piece when she had first walked the Path of the Artisan. She smiled inwardly as she remembered her wonderment at the beautiful work the artist had presented to them that day. Her mind returned from its momentary deviance, resettling on the matter at hand. Upon its second examination of what their immediate future held, she realized something that disturbed her. She would likely have to kill her own people in the coming minutes. Right next to Andron, inside of the one who he cared for most, a balance once thought infallible was put at risk. Though he would not know or see for some time, that balance would be threatened.

Andron gestured ahead, and they slowly crept up the pathway as Aureleth indicated for Eruwen to stay behind them. They came to another corner, leading off to the right. Upon reaching it and leaning around, they saw that it led into a small lobby. It was strewn with dead and dying, both Eldar and human. The only ones left standing, however, were Eldar. He could tell without standing on it that the floor would be slick with blood when they crossed it. Glancing back at Eruwen who, he thanked the Emperor, had kept her eyes closed, he remembered that she was barefoot. A groan reverberated around the lobby, reflecting off of the curves and edges before being funneled to them through the entrance to the hallway. Footsteps followed, light taps accented with the splashes of blood droplets on floor and congealed life. The groan rose into a grunt of frantic effort before erupting in a piercing wail of agony that was cut short with the furious shriek of a shuriken rifle. Andron winced at the sound, his hands tightening around the grips of his rifle. He glanced back at Aureleth, who was crouched in front of Eruwen, a hand placed on the girl's shoulder. She returned his look, and they both understood that the best course of action would be to wait for the soldiers in the lobby to leave before they moved. They could not be sure how many there were, but in his short glance around the corner he had seen only three. If they were only Guardians, and had not at one point been more specialized Aspect Warriors, then they might have stood a chance, however he was unable to determine that.

They sat in absolute silence, trying almost to phase out of reality. After an eternity of tense waiting, the footsteps faded down the halls leading to other areas. Andron leaned round the corner, looking into the lobby, and saw the second most disturbing sight of his life, though not by a large margin. Before he was able to take in more of what lay in front of him, a screaming chainsword clove down through the air tods his head. The chainsword came down, but his neck was no longer there. Andron watched from his new position sitting on the floor in the hall they had been hiding in as the weapon bit into the floor with an ear-piercing screech. He remained where he was in shock for a precious fraction of a second during which his assailant leapt through the doorway at him. Andron reached for his rifle, though he knew that without any further delay to the Eldar's progress, he would be dead.

Aureleth had acted, and in doing so had exposed herself to Andron's assailant. She had no time to retreat back to darkness, and was going to be seen. All she could do was hope that the fight would not end with their deaths. She had already stood, using her energy to propel Andron backwards, and had leaned just within the Eldar's path. His shoulder collided with hers, and he turned to address his newfound assumed enemy as he readdressed his priorities. The sword began a whirring cut upwards toward her neck where it would continue in an arc to plunge into the groveling human's chest as he scrambled for his weapon on the floor. It would take a split second. The sword came to a halt, however, the whirring blades barely skimming her suit, taking only layers of paint away. The warrior skidded to a halt, and stared at her, stunned. What he had seen was something he had never expected, something he never had even considered to be such a horrific possibility.

Andron cursed himself for being so slow compared to them. His heart seized when he saw the warrior coming towards him, and his entire life seemed to do the same when Andron saw him begin to swing towards Aureleth. The sword froze, however, right at her neck, but his finger was already constricting the trigger.

She felt it. Through his mask and through hers, directly into her very soul, she felt his pleading eyes, his silent screams begging for an answer. She felt the sorrow, the pain, the sadness, and her mind recoiled at the confused anger that began to assault her from behind his helmet. She felt the heat, saw the red glow envelop half of his head as he continued to look at her. She saw the room flash red, and a slight afterimage of a red lance were all that remained through her eye gems. As she followed the trail it traced, Aureleth noticed that it continued through the Eldar warrior's throat and into the lobby from which he had come. At that moment she saw the flecks of blood and bone being vaporized from the heat of the lasbolt as it punched through his head, creating orange embers of burnt trachea that floated before disappearing a split second later as the head began to throw itself to the side, pivoting on the neck. The same scene repeated itself, three more times as lasbolts destroyed the warrior's head and chest as the wielder of the weapon frantically fired at an assailant several times faster than he. The warrior jerked with each impact. A sickening silence enough to make her want to vomit crushed them, broken only by the chainsword's dying whir as it was no longer connected to its user's soul. The inert blade slid down her shoulder and clattered on the floor before the soldier followed, his head impacting the floor with a wet and hollow thud that echoed throughout the halls and lobby for what felt like lifetimes.

The dying soldier tried to speak, but all that escaped from his cauterized was blood and a wet gurgle before he died on the floor, staring into the face of the greatest betrayal he had ever had the horror of witnessing.

Aureleth stood in stunned silence as her kin lay dead in front of her, slain by the man she had fallen in love with. Reverberating in her mind was what she felt when the soldier had looked at her. She did not want to think of it.

Eruwen had seen red through her eyelids, and though her ears had been covered she had heard the snap of Andron's lasrifle. She was unable to stop herself as she opened her eyes to reveal the dead Eldar soldier with smoldering las wounds peppering his neck and chest, as well as Andron as he sat, his breathing rate gradually slowing, a lasrifle in his hands.