Disclaimer- I don't own WH40k, or any works/properties therein.
A/N: Thank you to CookieMonsta1233 for your review of last chapter, and to all others who have read/favorited/alerted. In reply to your question Cookie, yes they are indeed solar panels, of course much more efficient and advanced than those made today but still. As for their place in 40k lore, I'm sure that it has them, but my intention was to highlight the fact that Jericus comes from a somewhat low tech world, different cultures and such. Anyway, kindly read and review, I hope to get a little input from you all, if you're new take a crack at it I'm open to anything provided it's not obviously intended to insult, or otherwise get a ill-tempered reaction from me. Give me your critique, and or general opinion I thrive on the feedback and appreciate it.
"God made death so we'd know when to stop."- Steven Stiles
Five towns between them and the city, five, and they had not run into even one enemy ambush. Jericus couldn't figure out if he was relieved or utterly nervous, on the one hand they had been doing relatively well on this front, on the other it could mean that the enemy was really putting all they had in the city defense. Either way he couldn't shake the feeling, that clenching in his stomach, and the twitching of his hand.
It had settled in the pit of his stomach, even as they had begun to dig and set up their trenches, the edge of the city was visible from their positions. Quite a few hundred meters away, enemy sniper fire had been quite the hazard when the Imperials had first started to set up. Their artillery had been left to be set up a few kilometers back behind the cover of some hills; a good sized contingent of troopers had been left behind to defend the vital siege weapons.
They had used those siege guns to target any potential sniper locations after the first dozen or so casualties. Sniper fire stopped for a short time, long enough to get a rudimentary, but effective trench system in place, and as Jericus lay camouflaged against the trench lip he simply let his mind go blank. He tried to let go of his anxiousness, it wouldn't do him any good to mull over something that probably had no meaning. In this moment he had a job to do, looking for enemy movement, Watchmaster B-63 thought it would be a good idea to give the enemy a taste of their own medicine.
And seeing as Jericus now had what amounted to a spotting scope permanently in place of an eye he had been designated spotter for Fenria, his companion currently laying just next to him on his left sharing the camouflage cover. Her longlas could get through enemy armor provided she was using hotshots, those were in few supply, that meant that every shot had to count. Jericus thought it was a good thing then that Fenria was as fine a marksman as could be, she always had a knack for sharpshooting, by the end of their training she had nigh one-hundred percent accuracy.
Scanning the enemy lines with his enhanced eye Jericus looked for minute heat signatures, and movement. Artillery had battered the enemy frontlines, jagged shapes loomed on the edge of the city, outlined by lights produce by enemy activity in the city beyond. He spotted movement, barely noticeable really, but his eye picked up the sight of an enemy sniper, his armor camouflaged to help him blend as he crawled his way to a new position carefully.
"Target spotted, one o'clock just shy of the third gun emplacement," Jericus called out the target to guide her. From the corner of his eye he could see her shift slightly to acquire her mark, sighting in on the movement and finally seeing the enemy sniper.
"Target acquired, particle reading," her tone was low and to the point.
Lasguns didn't suffer from wind drift or the coriolous effect being that light energy hit the target so long as your aim was accurate, and as soon as the trigger was pulled, but loose particles in the air could deflect the bolt if dense enough. As he viewed the field of fire though Jericus could tell via his perceptive augmetic that there was minimal dust particulates in the air, optimal conditions for a shot.
"Minimal, you're clear for the shot," he stated matter-of-factly. He listened to her draw in a deep breath and then exhale slowly, mere heartbeats later she pulled the trigger. Jericus watched as the bright lasbolt hit the enemy sniper dead on in the neck; it was a slight gap in their armor, one that he noticed Fenria take advantage of when she could. The effect was devastating—the sniper was practically decapitated—the bolt seemed to vaporize the flesh of his neck in a spectacular splash of red as the water in his body flash-evaporated.
"Target hit, time to relocate," Jericus stated lowly as he mentally willed his eye back to normal vision. They moved together, backwards until they were safely back in the trench proper, Jericus pulled the camouflage cover with him bundling it up in his arms and stowing it in his webbing for future use. Fenria began to move off farther down the trench-line, it was operating procedure to move after every shot, doubly so when one was using a longlas. The bright lasbolt may as well have been a beacon to the enemy.
Jericus followed behind, they kept crouched under the trench lip, moving past other korpsmen as they went on their way to a new position. Over the course of working together as a sniper team Jericus had found that Fenria was very particular about her hides, everything had to be up to her standards, which were incredibly high, even by korps standards. Walking through the winding sections of trench Jericus couldn't help but think of a maze, the trenches had been dug with the turns in order to minimize casualties from shrapnel, enemy artillery, and to confuse attempted raids should the enemy be so bold.
Quite a ways down Fenria finally stopped at a section of trench; it was well away from any other guardsmen and seemed to be one of the more haphazardly made sections. Nonetheless she motioned for him to set up their camouflage; Jericus obliged, throwing the Hoarfell given meta-material fabric over the two of them. The duo then crawled over the trench-lip into position so they could set up their sector of fire, meanwhile the meta-material fabric quickly took on the colors and simulated the texture of the dirt around them, effectively making the pair invisible to prying eyes.
Jericus made himself as comfortable as possible, they averaged at least half-an-hour between targets they could hit, that meant he'd be laying in the dirt for a bit before they spotted anything. Adjusting his eye he zoomed in on the enemy line, again watching for any movement, opting to leave the thermal imaging mode off. He could see some enemy emplacements, but the majority were camouflaged very skillfully, which left it up mostly to luck.
Occasionally he would also see enemy troopers taking peaks over their own trench system, like small prairie rodents, but these were up and then down so quick that they wouldn't be able to take a proper shot. Plus if they attempted and missed they'd have to relocate again without having gotten a kill. So they waited until they spotted either a sniper, or a grunt that was essentially too stupid to live, i.e. a grunt that was out in the open too long. They found that there weren't too many of the latter, thus they had been killing snipers, the last one making the count rise to four, total enemy kills six, the other two were grunts.
"They're good, we should be careful, the fact that we've only neutralized snipers so far means that they're hunting for us too," Jericus said lowly, his eye ever scanning the distance.
"Well let's hope they keep making mistakes then," Fenria replied with a smirk in her tone.
Off in the distance they heard the sound of enemy artillery, a series of long whistles as the shells began their descent to the earth below. Though something was off about it, judging by the sound the barrage was going to fall very short of their trench-line, too short to be a mistake. The impacts were earth shaking, throwing a great amount of the fine dirt that was native to the land up into the air, choking it in what looked like a dusty fog.
"I don't like that, why would they hit that short of the line," Fenria stated both of their thoughts. As he looked out through the thrown up dust Jericus was hyper vigilant, the enemy could be hiding troop movement in the dense dust cloud. Scanning the enemy line he watched for movement, he didn't see any, but he did see the glint of enemy optics in the distance. He didn't even think to warn Fenria, instead opting to simply haul her backwards with him and throw the both of them into their trench along with their camo-cloak.
A mere moment later before they even hit the trench floor the whip-crack of an enemy hyper-round impacted the earth where Jericus' head had just been, followed by three more. The enemy hyper-rounds kick up more dirt as they impacted the ground they had just occupied, the sniper stopped soon after, probably knowing the chance was lost.
For a while they simply lay there on the trench floor before Jericus gained his wits and gathered the meta-material bunching it up and stowing it away. They then began to get to their feet slowly, careful to keep crouched below the trench-lip before they started down the line back to where they had begun their mission.
"Bastards did it to confuse us, with that much dust in the air we wouldn't have been able to properly return fire," Fenria surmised, speaking up for the first time since he had thrown them back into the trench.
"That means they knew where we were, so why bother with the sniper. Why not just hit us with their artillery," Jericus questioned right back.
"Maybe they can't, those shells fell really short. They might only have mortars and other short range weapons, or maybe they just wanted to beat us at our own game. Either way we shouldn't dwell on it, we'll just report to the Watchmaster and call it a day, next time we might not be as lucky," Fenria concluded.
"Alright, sounds good to me."
They were again in silence as they crept along the trench-line. "Thank you by the way, it was a good thing you saw the enemy. How did you know they were aiming at us though?" Fenria broke the quiet trek.
"I didn't, just saw the glint of an optic and had a feeling in my gut, so I just moved. They might not have even seen us and only shot when they saw me throw us back into the trench," Jericus admitted. Thinking back on the incident that could very well have been the reason the sniper had fired on them, and maybe the barrage was meant to draw them out. But he still couldn't shake the feeling that the sniper had already been sighted in on them and ready to pull the trigger.
"Better safe than dead, it was the right call, thanks again," Fenria assured him.
"No need to thank me S-1050, just doing my duty, besides I owe you a lot more before we're even," he replied.
"I'll hold you to that S-1049."
The pair had made it back to their Watchmaster in a relatively short amount of time; they had been out hunting for a few hours at least a kilometer down the trench-line, if not more. They had started late afternoon, and now the sun was setting as they finally got back to report.
Their squad had its own small area of trench to stay in for the time being between official operations; currently F-920, S-548, and S-360 were eating some rations, or otherwise doing routine equipment checks. Meanwhile Watchmaster B-63 and B-80 were peering through an angled periscope over the trench-lip.
B-63 noticed them as he relinquished the periscope to B-80, they approached their Watchmaster and took a knee in front of him, he was sitting on a dirt bench dug from the trench wall, a flak-board providing a somewhat clean surface for his bottom. They gave a salute, it was far from perfect, but Watchmaster B-63 didn't seem to care as he gave a rather sloppy one back to dismiss the gesture.
"Hmm, you two look like you've got something good to say," he made a wave motion with his hand between them. "Well then, don't keep me in suspense, out with it troopers."
"Sir we neutralized six enemy targets, four were snipers the rest were grunts. We were compromised though, they seem to know our game now, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to try for anymore kills," Fenria reported clearly.
"Six, that's a good number, lucky even on Baurin, good job you two. Get some food in you and some rest, word is we're going to start the bombardment later tonight, so get rest while you can," B-63 said, he dismissed them afterwards with another informal salute and went back to gazing through the periscope with B-80 leaving Jericus and Fenria to their own devices. They went off to their own small area apart from the rest of the group, another small bench dug from the wall, flak-boards for cushions.
Fenria immediately began to inspect and maintain her longlas, as per her ritual, Jericus reflected that it was good, from what little he knew longlas' were reliable, but compared to the basic lasrifles they were a little more high maintenance. Jericus took to inspecting the meta-material cloak—placing his lasgun against the trench-wall securely, but within reach—he hadn't seen anything like it until earlier that day.
Cain had actually come by to deliver it to them before they headed out, and apparently Watchmaster B-63 had contacted Sergeant Grimes and called in a favor. The Hoarfell being rangers tended to employ quite a bit of stealth, in fact they were the main recon element of the three regiments. Their uniforms were apparently made from the same material as the cloak, that's why they were so ragged looking, to help break up their outlines.
The cloak had been special make for sniper teams, Watchmaster B-63 felt that since Jericus and Fenria would be paired as sniper and spotter for the foreseeable future they would need this particular piece of kit. He was actually the one who had to carry it despite Fenria being the sniper, mostly because of equipment weight; Fenria already carried more than he did, so B-63 determined that for maximum combat effectiveness Jericus would carry the extra weight.
Jericus didn't mind personally, over transit he had actually begun to specialize as the light weapons specialist on the squad, so his equipment was already drastically reduced compared to the others. Focusing back on the cloak he noticed it trying to mimic the color of his uniform as he held it across his lap, laying it to his side it began to blend in with the flak-board. It was strangely amusing to watch.
"Having fun S-1049?"
Jericus looked up to see Fenria staring at him, her mask unreadable, but her tone laced with curiosity, she had paused in her cleaning of the longlas' focusing lenses.
"Just still getting surprised by all of the things Surris never had. Who knew that we had camouflage like this? Makes you wonder why the entire Imperial Guard isn't issued these, from what Cain said the Hoarfell make them very cheaply, and still it works so well," it was the truth, ever since embarking on his new life as a Korpsman Jericus was still being surprised by the technology the Imperium at large had access to.
"B-80 says the Munitorum would be to blame for that, he also said not to repeat that to anyone outside of the team," Fenria explained. It wasn't really much of a secret throughout the entirety of the Imperial Guard that the Munitorum swamped in all of its bureaucracy wasn't exactly the quickest, or brightest concerning matters of logistics. In fact it made the logistic miracles Jericus witnessed daily in the form of troop and equipment movement alone hard to believe when the same organization could lose the records of vital supplies and even whole regiments because of one unsigned paper.
"To be honest I'm not sure we can repeat anything that goes on in this team outside of it. Emperor forbid, but I get the feeling Watchmaster B-63's methods of command aren't really even sanctioned by the higher-ups. We might all be facing a Korps firing-line if anyone sees the amount of informal behavior that goes on." Jericus said it jokingly, but there was an undertone of truth to it.
She actually laughed at that, more a barely audible giggle but still. "You know S-1049 sometimes I'm not so sure you were meant for this. Not in a bad way mind, but when your personality comes through it's just so sad to see you bury it again for the sake of this regiment."
"Careful what you say S-1050, talk like that could get you and especially me in trouble," he replied back seriously, now taking out his trench-axe to inspect the weapon.
"It's like you said, Watchmaster B-63's ways aren't really formal, I doubt he, or anyone in the squad cares. Besides sometimes I have to think about what the point of this all is, we're fighting for a bunch of strangers from a completely different world, and command doesn't seem to care about our lives overtly much. Honestly I'm surprise so many of us got through the training, let alone kept up this charade," she spoke clearly, not an ounce of anger, or really any emotion in her voice.
"Does it really matter S-1050, this is our life now, we're going to have to accept it and keep going. Really it's not too much different from the manufactory line, it's just that here we fight instead of put things together; the overseers were just as strict as the Korps ever was. The only difference being that the Korps will just put a lasbolt through your head to kill you instead of firing you and letting you die of the cold and poverty," he felt the weight of his words as they came out of his mouth. Life on his homeworld had been harsh, the working conditions of his manufactory had been lethal at times, the overseers unforgiving, and the wages truthfully only the bare minimum to get by.
Comparing the two it was no wonder in retrospect why he and apparently a lot of other manufactory line-workers had been conscripted. They had already been conditioned to follow orders; the Korps just took that conditioning to the next extreme level.
"And then you say something like that and shatter my image of you completely S-1049," Fenria replied, putting her disassembled longlas back together expertly, all the pieces fitting together nicely.
"What do you mean by that?" Jericus asked truly perplexed.
"I'll tell you some other time S-1049, for now though we should get some rest, if what the Watchmaster says is true the next few days are going to be long," she turned away from him to grab her sleep-bag from her pack. Setting it up behind her she leaned up against the dirt wall, putting her longlas against the wall within easy reach and falling silent as she slept.
Jericus watched her motionless form, with the uniform and mask on it was impossible to tell whether she was truly sleeping. The sight no matter how often he witnessed it was eerie to no end; he should have been used to it by now. Taking her at her word he stowed his trench-axe back in its place on his webbing, he didn't bother with his sleep-bag instead simply leaning back against the dirt wall and folding his arms across his chest.
He looked up at the sky, it had gotten dark, the stars were visible in the cloudless sky, and the smoke from cook fires wasn't overpowering, allowing for a spectacular view. It reminded him of the night sky over Surris vaguely from what he could recall, and he found that it calmed him. Tartarius had been all plassteel and manmade structure, and he was sure that had he seen the sky outside of City-32 that it would have been too obscured by the heavy dust-storms and smoke plaguing the planet.
Content with his view he allowed his eyes to close, the augmetic emanated a phantom pain as it clicked and whirred shut. Once all he could see was black he quickly fell asleep.
Flashforward…
B-80 had passed out, or he was dead. Jericus was convinced he could see the Corporals chest moving in faint shallow breaths, new scars added to his body by their captors. The tortures had gotten progressively worse, and it became very apparent that they weren't planning on keeping B-80 alive too much longer—if he even was still alive—judging by the amount of damage given, and blood lost
As they had been going through the questions and the tortures Jericus had been thinking on the situation. When he had first woken up his memories had been vague and fuzzy, but as he had time to clear his head pieces of them had been coming back.
It wasn't just a raid; it had been a recon mission as well. Incredibly important too, they were sent to find some sort of enemy installation that command was very interested in. They had been reporting back via vox every hour, they must have been out cold for a few hours alone at least, so there might be sizable friendly forces on their way to them at this very moment since they had probably been dark for hours. If Jericus remembered right they had reported their last known position shortly before the ambush, and since they were ambushed then that meant that they were likely close to the installation.
All of this meant that all he had to do was buy time, just so long as they didn't give up any information about the true nature of the mission then they would be fine. Graves may have had suspicion that they knew about the installation, but he might not know that help was on its way for them. Finer details still eluded him, but Jericus was now sure about the overall nature of the mission he was sent on.
The code knock sounded at the door, Graves frowned at him before he walked over to answer. Opening the door only a crack the Sergeant began to have a conversation with whoever was on the other side, Jericus paid it no mind, he couldn't quite make out the low tones, and he didn't bother to turn his head to look.
"Doc, troopers come on, we're done for now," Graves sounded angry, and as the enemy soldiers started to lift Jericus and B-80 from their seats he gestured for them to stop. "Leave them, the Major wants to try his hand at this alone, crazy bastard," the last part was mumbled with contempt.
Jericus felt the rough grasp of the soldiers fade away and saw as they also left B-80 to slump in his seat even more. He watched as the enemies assembled in the room began to file out one by one, Sergeant Graves the last to go, but not without giving him a look of hatred. Stepping out Graves shut the door behind him, Jericus considered getting up to take out this 'Major' as he entered the room, try and use the man as a bartering piece to hold them up, and possibly get himself and his comrades out of this mess.
In the end though the door opened much too soon for him to get into position to make that sort of play. Besides that, even if he had the sudden shock of who had just entered the room might have cost him his life. Standing there as he closed the door, with the most shit-eating-grin Jericus had ever seen was the heretic from Tartarius, Georgii if Jericus remembered the name right. He was still dressed in the same tattered greatcoat armed with the same sword, laspistol, and dagger he stood there tall and seeming completely out of place among the inhabitants of Endurholdgun.
"Before you ask how, I'd like to simply tell you that unlike you many people I come in contact with tend to be quite tricked and disarmed by my rather useful abilities. I have the dolts believing that I'm some high-ranking major, that major is dead of course, had to kill him if I wanted to replace him without incident. And as I'm sure you've noticed until recently the fine and valorous peoples of this world have never even known about the Imperium, warp they don't even know about psykers, therefore I could simply integrate myself through the usual means." The heretic started toward the cart holding the torture implements.
Jericus tensed as he picked one up to inspect it, the heretic noticed immediately and placed it back. "Oh don't worry I'm not one to hit a man while he's down. You know I had to pull a few strings to get this audience with you alone, I wasn't even sure it was you until I heard the description. Not to mention, as I got closer I could feel the void in the flow of the warp. As for why we had to have this face to face alone, well I'm sure you remember that tiny detail that you tend to disrupt my abilities, would be quite a thing to explain if those gentlemen outside saw their Major change into one resembling an invading soldier eh? Your abilities seem to have strengthened a bit since our last meeting."
"You like to hear yourself talk don't you," Jericus stated blandly. He was fully aware of the danger the man posed, and right now he didn't have any weapons to combat him with, the odds were so far out of his favor as to make a fight unwinnable.
"Maybe I just have a lot to say Jericus, surely you do as well, getting tired of that life as one of those dead men walking yet? The Korps is such a waste of your potential, perhaps you've thought on my offer. Oh yes my master is very interested in you my friend, wants you on our team something awful, what do you say?"
"You should know my answer heretic, how do you know my name, I don't remember telling you," Jericus said slowly, he was still biding his time.
"Hmm, that is a shame, and well what is the Munitorum good for if not to provide information. Ah yes all one has to do is dig deep enough and you can find out all sorts of secrets, least of which would be the name of some conscripted Guardsman from Surris Mr. Quint. Besides you know my name, why do I not get the same privilege?" Georgii paced back and forth in front of him now, gesticulating with his hands as he spoke.
"Now I bet you're wondering if we're going to duel as I promised. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you my lad, but now would not be a good time, so that promise will have to remain broken. But, I still very much look forward to it, so much so in fact that I'm going to help you get out of here!" Georgii finished with a frightening smile. Jericus was drawing a blank on the situation, this he had not expected. His face must have cued Georgii in on that fact.
"Well not as in fighting our way out of here side-by-side, but worry not I intend for you to live through this. I have faith in your abilities lad, don't disappoint me, with that in mind…" he walked closer to him, if Jericus wanted to strike now was his chance. He held back though, he wanted to see how this played out, and besides the odds were still stacked against him.
Walking behind him Georgii swiftly cut the rope that bound Jericus' hands, and Jericus pulled them in front of him to rub at his natural wrist, Georgii coming back around to face him once again.
"This should even the odds, these people have good armor, but this'll cut right through it, trust me. Consider it a gift, repayment for taking your eye, though I see that you've gotten quite a nice one to replace it," he placed something in Jericus' hand and stepped away faster than the human eye could follow.
Jericus looked down to see a plain looking dagger, slightly bigger than his korps issued combat knife, though the bulkier hilt seemed unique.
"Mono sharp lad, hit the rune by the guard before you use it, it'll cut through 'em like they're nothing," Georgii took another step back a smirk on his face. "I suggest you hide it up your sleeve and get those hands looking like they're bound before they come back in, I feel you'll be able to take care of the rest. Oh and here's a tip, this room is soundproof, plus they're big on protocol around here, so even if someone disturbs you they'll knock first."
"Why are you doing this? Why help me witch?" Jericus' question was low, barely audible really, but in the silent room it carried.
"The real question you should ask is why I wouldn't? Bye for now lad," Georgii was at the door now; he simply opened it and walked out. Jericus quickly but carefully hid the dagger in his sleeve, it didn't matter that a heretic gave it to him, it would be the key out for him and his comrades. Then he placed his hands behind his back once again to make it seem as though they were still tied securely together. The door opened a few moments later, Sergeant Graves, and the rest of them coming through.
"Crazy arrogant bastard, doesn't even follow the damn protocol, just walks right out, and where's he going in such a hurry?" Graves grumbled.
"It is not ours to question why Sergeant," Mr. Spindly stated right back.
"Can it Doc, let's just get back to the interrogation," Graves retorted.
"As you wish," Mr. Spindly replied.
He took his place at the cart next to B-80, Jericus knew he'd only have one shot at what he was about to do. His two escorts took their place behind him, as far as he could see they were still without weapons, he supposed the idea was so prisoners couldn't grab for one and retaliate. Plus in their armor and with hands supposedly bound he probably wouldn't be able to fight them as effectively barehanded anyway.
But that didn't matter now; he waited for Graves to take his place before him to start with the questions again. He had to wait for the Sergeant to get close again. Graves took his place, standing before Jericus, his posture ramrod straight, and looking down his nose at him.
"So, skull-face do we have to continue with this, or are you go-" Jericus cut him short as he pulled the dagger from his sleeve, hit the rune on its hilt, lunged forward, and jammed the blue shrouded blade straight up into the sergeants gut and through to his heart all in one fluid movement. The look of surprise mixed with anger and pain hardly registered for Jericus. He didn't let the surprise that Georgii had given him an actual power-weapon shock him as he continued with his attack.
Not giving the soldiers behind him a chance to react he pulled the blade free and using his augmetic arms superior speed and flexibility slashed backwards at their necks, pivoting on his feet to create a powerful slashing arc. The power-weapon sliced neatly through armor, flesh, and muscle nearly decapitating the now fatally wounded troopers who stumbled back grasping their wounds simultaneously as though they were mentally linked. Turning again he drove the blade into Graves' stomach a second time, and then lifted the man from his feet and charged with him as a makeshift battering ram.
He crashed into Mr. Spindly, who had just turned to see the commotion, trapping the small and fragile looking man beneath Graves' heavy and fully armored body. The other two guards were ready for him, or at least prepared when he faced them, Jericus waited for the first one to strike at him. As the man's fist came at him Jericus merely held the daggers blade up, the enemy troopers arm was bisected up through to his shoulder as the matter-disrupting energy simply sliced through it without resistance.
Jericus cut off his screams by jamming the blade through his helmet and into his brain, pulling free a moment later to front-kick the other man who was coming for him while he was distracted. Jericus leaped upon him switching the dagger expertly into an ice-pick grip and stabbing down two-handed to give more force at the man's head. The trooper caught Jericus' forearms with both of his hands, keeping the glowing blade mere centimeters from his helmeted face. He obviously didn't know how power-weapons worked, but Jericus did, he had asked Magos Chevel about them while on the Ipsum after having faced Georgii he had been curious.
By simply letting go of his grip on the handle Jericus watched as the energy-sheathed blade fell tip first and just slide through the man's tough armor and right into his head as though it weren't even there, stopping only when the guard not sheathed in matter-disrupting energies hit. The man's struggles ceased as his hands went limp falling from their grip on Jericus who simply retrieved the knife from the man's head.
He went over to where Mr. Spindly was struggling to get Graves' body off of him; he had wriggled most of his top half out from under the dead weight, his legs still caught under his dead comrade. Stopping as he saw Jericus approach, he put his hands up in placation.
"Where have you stored our weapons, and gear, I won't give you a second chance so you'd best answer." Jericus stated his voice monotone and sounding uninterested. His natural and augmetic eye peered into Mr. Spindly's own natural ones unerringly.
"T-the gear was stored away down the hall, f-fourth door after this one. It's where we keep all gathered enemy matera-guh!" Jericus boot to his throat crushed Mr. Spindly's windpipe. The doctor began to asphyxiate, his hands grasping at his throat, Jericus saved him the trouble by stomping on his throat again a loud crack signifying a broken neck.
Jericus realized that he probably could have gotten more information out of the now dead man, but he found himself not caring about it at the moment, even if it would have been useful Intel. He looked around the room, and made sure everyone was dead, the dagger was still sheathed in energy, and it hummed lowly, almost inaudible. Once he was satisfied that none of the bodies would get back up Jericus went over to B-80.
Checking for a pulse Jericus found one, it was slow, weak, but still there, B-80 would just have to hold out a little longer. Going behind him he cut his hands free, they fell to the sides before Jericus took them and placed them in B-80's lap to try and keep him in a better position.
"Don't worry, I'll be back," he whispered to the still unconscious man. He didn't bother to try and re-dress the Corporal in his fatigues and armor, as he didn't want to aggravate any of the wounds he had sustained, not until he could get S-360 to take a look at him.
Making his way to the door he stopped standing to its side as he slowly opened it, dagger ready to gut any guard that might be stationed outside. His caution turned out to be unnecessary; as he peered out into the hallway he looked both ways and didn't spy a single soul.
Going back into the room he liberated a set of keys from the dead Sergeant Graves as well as a helmet from another one of the dead men to prop the door to the interrogation room open for when he came back with the others to get B-80. Walking down the hall he came to the door of the room where they had woken up and where the others resided.
A/N: See you all in a week, two at most. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, kindly review and have a good one.
300-709.