Given a new mission, Roger and the Leopards head east to the port of Kaol-Daissar. Arriving at an oasis in the sands, they prepare a campaign of reconnaissance and harassment of the rebellious forces on Haikk.
However, before the mission can even start, Roger faces harassment of his own, not only from a familiar face, but a new player in the increasingly uncomfortable stalking debacle he has to deal with...
The quiet, untouched sands of northern Mekkar shifted like waves, avoided for its lack of water and life by the people who lived near it. Why bother when the roads, built long before anyone could remember, stretched through the more habitable areas of the land? So everyone ignored the dunes, no patrols guarded it, and no sane men came anywhere near it. Then the sand shook, twisted, and flew from its untouched majesty as three craft soared barely a foot above them. They barely made a noise, traveling over two hundred and fifty miles per hour, but their engines were of a strange technology, nothing like the human inhabitants of Haikk knew. Gliding in silence, they continued their journey unopposed, unobserved, and unnoticed.
Inside the lead Wave Serpent, Roger Wessyng looked into the cockpit from the passenger compartment, watching the ground fly past the glass, rocking with the movement of the strange, fascinating craft. He watched as the pilot, trained and tested to the point he barely stirred in his seat, shifting what was most likely the controls once or twice every few minutes or so as they moved. Roger turned back to the ten warriors inside and grinned.
"I guess that complaining does pay off, Kallen. I'm pretty sure if we moved on foot like the last mission, we would have taken twelve or more days just to get this far in, what, a few hours?"
"What matters, serjeant, is who you complain to, not what you complain about," the Eldar happily responded.
It was true, after the long periods of time they took staying undetected to the city of Al-Madin, Farseer Alwyn and Edmund had made a joint decision to allow the use of better deployment, Edmund offering Valkyrie transport, but given the mission, Roger could hardly refuse the silent and graceful Wave Serpents offered by the Farseer. Roger turned back to the pilot.
"Wynoc, how much longer do we have to arrive at the watchpoint?"
"Fifteen standard Terran minutes, serjeant."
"Excellent."
"I hope your trip has been comfortable. More comfortable than your last one from what I heard."
"We were slowed down by my comrades and my main objective. Turns out traveling with a woman in a combat zone is as miserable as traveling with them normally."
Wynoc laughed, but the comm bead in Rogers' ear squealed to life with a very unhappy female voice, whose owner sat in the rear most Serpent.
"Serjeant, I would remind you that nearly half your force is female, and we moved with little complaint."
"I was joking, Moire, and thank you for nearly deafening us and our pilots. If you have any argument with my observations, do so when we arrive on station."
"Understood, serjeant."
Wynoc laughed again, carefully turning off his own comm bead, which Roger did as well.
"Is that one of your Rangers?"
"Dire Avenger. Feisty and quick to correct me, but a good warrior."
"Understood. You humans may have your faults, but I wouldn't put down any of your own kind, even if they are female."
"You have dealt with my kind before?"
"More than dealt with! I faced your people in combat more than a few times!"
Roger frowned at this.
"No hard feelings?"
"No serjeant. The Farseer commands me to help you and your kind, I do. Orders me to attack your kind, I will. I follow orders, simple as that."
"Did you face Anglerre regiments?"
"What, your friends in the red and blue or that shiny armor? No, but I did face those ones in the green and khaki, the… Cardigans? Cathian?"
"Cadians."
Wynoc lifted his head from the controls and looked back to him, his smooth face and short black hair bobbing in response before snapping his focus back on the screens in front of him.
"Yes, those ones. Demons if I ever fought them. Easier to pull a soulstone off a Crone World than fight them. Made me and my comrades life hell. We'd drop in and deliver our troops and come under fire before the first warrior stepped out, and took forever to finally push them back. Not as bad as the Knights, as they called them. I'd rather drive straight into the Eye of Terror than face them again."
"What, did they charge into you on horseback?"
"Not your knights. The other ones."
Rogers' mind blanked out for a second and slapped his forehead when he realized what the driver had meant.
"Oh those Knights. Big two-legged monsters with more firepower than sense."
"Correct. Cadians ambushed us and forced us to retreat, ran straight into a squadron of them. I barely got out, the rest of my group…"
There was an uncomfortable silence as the pilot visibly twitched.
"As long as I never see another one of those bastards, I'll be more than happy to take you anywhere you need."
"You won't have to worry about that, I doubt any Knight will be anywhere close to Edmund and his army."
"Why's that?"
"He pissed off a Knight house something fierce during the last campaign. Don't know the details, but when you piss those boys off, they talk to the Mechanicus, who talk to everyone in their service."
"I like your commander already. We're arriving soon, inform your warriors."
"Understood, thank you. Hopefully we can continue our conversation after we arrive."
Roger touched the comms bead and informed the Leopards before giving further orders.
"Remember, we are not rushing out of these and pulling up our camp. Our enemies have no idea we are here, it's nighttime, so low visibility, and we have a good, concealed observers position. Take your time, there is no race or pressing need to get into position as soon as possible. I'd prefer you all do this safe and sure than rush it and make a mistake. Gather around me when you disembark."
He saw one of the Scorpions across from him open his mouth and Roger quickly spoke.
"I don't care if you think Eldar don't make mistakes, anyone that thinks they don't are the most likely to do so. Get ready to move."
The Wave Serpent floated to a stop, inertia somehow not affecting anyone inside. Roger and his comrades stood as the rear door opened, walking out into an oasis among the sands. Green patches of grass and palm trees swayed from a slight breeze, the glistening water at the center of the hidden paradise glistening from the light of Haikks two moons. It had been chosen as the main site of the Leopards for their mission, given its seclusion and habitability. It was also large enough to house the warriors, even the three Wave Serpents, adequately camouflaged. As if it didn't seem perfect enough, it was in range of their target. Roger saw all the Leopards dismount, moving towards him. He found a slightly elevated rock, standing on it and waving the stragglers over.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the edge of the Tal-Gedi Desert! We have arrived here in good condition, and with little fatigue. We're already way ahead of schedule, so as I said, no rush for anything. I understand you all were not informed by the Farseer or anyone of your commanders as to why we are here. So-"
Roger pulled off his armor and kettle hat, and walked off the rock, heading towards the lip of the highest sand dune.
"Follow me please."
The Leopards did so, moving cautiously against the soft, almost perfectly fine sand.
"This certainly isn't Ducaish," one of the Scorpions grumbled.
"Your skills of observation are quite remarkable Cadogyn," Kallan quipped.
Roger smirked as he continued up the dune. Reaching the lip, he struggled to get atop it, looking in satisfaction and more than a bit of wonder. He looked around to see his warriors doing the same as they finally got up. He walked a bit ahead and turned to face them.
"Alright everyone. This is what we're here for. That-"
He pointed to the seemingly endless stretch of lights, flame-topped spires, and hundreds, maybe thousands, of cranes.
"Is the port of Kaol-Daissar, jewel of Mekkar, and the main reason why Prince Edmund is tearing the hell out of the rest of the continent. The food that supplies the hive cities of Golgotha-"
He pointed to the massive spires that were visible, even from nearly a thousand miles of ocean away, sticking into the atmosphere of the planet.
"And Yazd towards the southern pole, is transported from the farms here by ship to those locations. You may have noticed, given our last mission, that it doesn't look like the rest of Mekkar. You would be correct. While most of the lands here are in a feudal state, this area is highly developed, and at an industrialization level similar to the hive cities. The roads leading into it allow for the motorized transportation of the food produced from the farms to the south. Only through the developed roads that come from here does any cargo actually arrive at the port. Our mission is simple: we need to determine if the Chevauchee is succeeding in damaging the food production and starving the hives out. Nothing too special or dangerous, but with our skill set and experience, we are the best unit, Eldar and Human, for this job. We're going to be here a while, which is why we have gathered the amount of supplies we have. Any questions?"
One of the Dire Avengers, Daidre, raised her hand.
"This sounds like a mission more suited for the Rangers than the Scorpions and us. Why bring us along?"
Roger nodded.
"I understand your concerns. While this is more the forte of Rangers and scouts, first off, I want us to keep unit cohesion, and we may run into problems that a Ranger can't solve. Close combat for example. We may also have been ordered to commit some raids, mostly to keep the transports on their toes, or even better, shut entire routes down and bottleneck or reduce the food supply."
The Avengers and Scorpions seemed satisfied with the answer.
"This position, especially the one we are standing on top of, is far enough away from the port that we won't be noticed. We will also have, with the use of the observation equipment we brought, and the equipment you already have as part of your battle dress, a view of all major roads leading in. We have a perfect watchpoint here, and a habitable area for those not on duty in the oasis."
Alax, one of the Rangers, now raised his hand.
"Why are the Wave Serpents staying?"
"If our position is made, we'll have a fast escape. And if we need to raid the roads, what better way than to ride in, hit hard, and vanish?"
Seeing a nod from Alax, Roger looked around for more questions. No hands were raised.
"Expect to be here for a month. We'll have resupply runs from the Serpents, and we'll be in contact with Farseer Alwyn and Prince Edmund. Get comfortable, and I hope you all are already friends, 'cause we're going to learn a lot about each other whether you like it or not."
A few of the Leopards chuckled or smiled, but most kept their focus on the port.
"It may not seem like much, but we're going to be the ones who figure out if we're finally beating the rebels here. We're the front lines and the eyes of our respective armies, so I expect nothing but the excellent work you all have done so far."
Finally nodding in satisfaction, Roger waved them off.
"Make camp. Get rested, and be ready to focus and do your duty."
The Leopards moved back to the oasis, all but one vanishing below the dunes lip. Roger bent over and started breathing heavily. The lone Eldar moved next to him
"You all right Roger?"
"I… I've never briefed like that before Kallen."
"Out of breath?"
"No, just nervous as hell. I didn't do too bad, did I?"
"You did excellent for a first timer."
"Thanks."
"I'm sure Anya would say the same."
Roger grunted in frustration.
"She's not stalking me as much. But trying to hold a conversation with her is a whole new problem I have to deal with."
"I can give you some tips on Eldar conversation. If you want, of course."
"Oh what the hell," Roger said, finding his footing amongst the shifting sands. "I'll take some pointers."
XXXXXX
The first night went reasonably well, the temperature dropping much lower than even the Eldar had expected, forcing the Leopards to huddle close around the heating units. The Serpent pilots decided to stay in their machines, apparently finding heat from the still cooling engines. Roger thought Eldar technology was advanced enough to not warrant having to cool down their machines, but what did he know? Curled up in his sleeping bag, he tried to get some sleep. The journey, even though it was only a few hours and in the comfort of a vehicle, had taken more out of him than he expected. He looked at his wrist watch, a gift from Edmund after his last mission, with the ability to not only tell time, but measure temperature, show how far he walked, and a hundred other settings he really did not need and would probably never figure out. It was looking to soon be below freezing, the heaters around the camp struggling to keep everyone comfortable.
"Bugger it all," he said, trying to look around without letting any precious heat outside his bag.
He saw that the Leopards were doing the same as him, trying to sleep and stay warm. The Rangers were spread out around the camp, keeping watch even though it was not necessary. The Dire Avengers seemed to clump together, in a questionably effective strategy of getting warmer. The Scorpions, Kallen included, stayed around one of the heaters, seeming to close in more and more on the bluish glow it emitted. Satisfied, he tried to wiggle in a bit deeper to the bag. He tried to stay close to a clump of small bushes away from the rest of his warriors, wishing to give his Xenos friends something approaching privacy. They seemed to be on edge whenever he tried sleeping near them for some reason, for God-Emperor knew why. Maybe he smelled bad.
He started drifting into sleep when he realized he hadn't seen Anya amongst the groups. He ignored it, thinking she probably was hiding and watching him. No sooner had he brushed away the thought that he was awoken by a soft, but firm hand on his shoulder.
"What the hell?" he sleepily grumbled.
"Roger."
"Yes, Anya?"
"I'm cold."
"We all are if you hadn't noticed. Where's your kit?"
"I have it."
"Well use it."
"Understood."
Roger shook his head, confused as to why she would have bothered him with such a simple question and answer. He was almost asleep when he felt something move beside him, touching his back.
"What?" he hissed.
"You Mon-Keigh have remarkable body heat," Anya said as she moved in on Roger.
He didn't know how to respond to this blatant and highly risky violation of his personal space. He tried moving away from his red-headed assailant, but to no avail. When he raised up a little bit to try and move away, a lithe arm darted under his ribs and wrapped across his midriff, pulling him back to her with a strength that belied the seemingly thin and weak Eldar frame. Her other arm went across his chest, holding him in a kind of embrace that seemed more intimate than Roger was comfortable admitting. Silence passed for a few moments, with him hoping he would get an explanation. Realizing that it wasn't coming and too tired to fight back, he closed his eyes and tried not to think about what was happening.
"Good night Roger," Anya whispered into his ear.
He shuddered and tried to stoically respond, failing miserably.
"G-good night A-Anya."
There was something comforting in her embrace, but all he could think of was a fly getting caught by a spider.
XXXXXX
The buzzing on his wrist woke him up, the golden light of Haikks sun starting to cut through the palm leaves. He let his arms out of the sleeping bag, the temperature already reaching a comfortable warmth compared to the freezing misery that night had brought. Anya was nowhere to be seen, not even an empty sleeping bag.
Rogers' cheeks reddened when he truly thought about what she did last night. She was a Xeno first off, so that made it more than embarrassing, it was borderline heretical. Second, she was a subordinate, and from a professional point of view, completely unacceptable. Third, she was his stalker, so was he enabling her by not refusing her advances on him? He quickly shook his head in disgust. Advances? It was just an embrace! Or was that worse than an advance? He rubbed his face, feeling the growing stubble. He would probably have to shave in a day or two, it wasn't too noticeable.
Peeling out of his bag, he stood and stretched, his knees popping and arms cracking as he did so. He hated to admit it, but even though he was in his mid to late twenties, he wasn't sure after all the travel through the warp in his time with the guard, he was taxing his body to the limit and seemed to be aging faster than he was happy with. He moved towards the rest of the Leopards, nodding and greeting as he moved to the middle of his forces. He saw Kallen holding a mug of some kind of hot drink.
"Good morning serjeant," he chirped.
"Kallen. What are you drinking?"
"Ah, this is called cai. It's a type of plant that grows on Craftworlds and is brewed into a drink. It's similar to what you humans call…tea? Is that the correct word?"
"Tastes bitter but gives you a bit of pep in your step?"
"A perfect description of cai."
"And tea as well. Can humans drink it?"
"I don't see why not. I remember giving humans some of my rations all those years ago and they didn't drop dead. Most of them actually said that it was better than anything they had."
"Have you ever tried Imperial Guard rations?"
"Ishas tears no. Human food is barely edible as is, I can barely imagine military rations."
Roger laughed as Kallen handed him a mug full of the strangely familiar drink.
"It doesn't taste all that bad."
"If you can stomach rations of any type and call it anything but terrible, I'm afraid you have little taste at all."
"A fair observation," Roger said, sticking the mug towards Kallen, who looked confused. Realizing his commander's intention, he tapped his mug to Rogers and the two took a swig.
"Not bad. Could use some sugar though."
"We have similar sweeteners, but I don't think they have the same effect on the human body, mostly taste."
"Probably. Are your Scorpions ready?"
Kallen took another sip from his mug and nodded.
"I was thinking over ambush plans during the night. It is our specialty after all."
"Do tell."
Kallen put his mug on the ground and pulled what seemed to be the Eldar equivalent of a dataslate. As its screen lit up, Roger recognized it as a map of the Leopards area of operations. An Eldari finger pointed to the closest road to the oasis.
"After we do reconnaissance on the supply convoys, I would say that we should hold off on attacking for a while. We should definitely not attack this route first. And we should not come from the direction of the Oasis. That would make it far too obvious where we are. Do we have any intelligence about the convoys themselves?"
Roger scratched his cheek in thought.
"We have no idea. I would believe that they would be barely defended, if at all. Remember, the food is moved from the villages our forces are destroying to central storage facilities. Then the trucks come in and take it to the ports, et cetera et cetera. My best guess? Maybe a few of their troops guarding the convoys, riding in the trucks or an extra vehicle. Maybe an armed Tauros or two. Worst case would be a fully loaded Chimera with a squad sized contingent."
"We should have brought Fire Dragons."
"I tried convincing Alwyn to send us some, but she simply said they weren't interested. God-Emperor knows what they would find interesting."
Kallen laughed and patted Roger on the shoulder.
"If you aren't a Fusion Gun, they have no interest in it. I nearly joined their ranks, would you believe it? The pitch of being given a large weapon and destroying everything in your path had its allure, especially when you are a bored, aimless youth like I was."
"What made you choose the Scorpions?"
Kallens smile and joviality vanished in an instant as he seemed to stare through Roger.
"Someone I cared for dearly followed the Scorpion path, and I foolishly tried to be with her."
His smile returned as suddenly as it disappeared.
"That and I always preferred the art of the blade to firearms. Anyway, we brought multiple forms of military-grade explosives. We should be able to take any kind of escort, infantry or vehicle-wise, especially when we have surprise. If something like your…"
Kallen frowned now.
"What do you call the vehicles with the large weapons? They move on treads."
"Tanks," Roger answered.
"Yes. But considering how slow even the lightest of them move, I wouldn't think they would escort convoys like these."
"Correct. Too slow and a use of resources they either need to defend the port, or they don't have period. I would think even your lightest explosives would be effective against a Chimera. Thankfully I've never learned that personally. We'll iron out a complete strategy with Cruniach and Moire. Speaking of which-"
Roger jerked his head towards two Eldar moving towards them.
"Good morning. All your people survive the night?" Roger asked with a bit of humor.
"My warriors are developing a strategy to alleviate the discomfort the desert night brings," Moire answered with more than a bit of irritation. Even if Roger knew little about Eldar, it was fairly obvious she had a miserable, probably sleepless night.
"You were right about this location, serjeant. We detected no hostile forces anywhere around here. And even then, the closest concentration of enemy troops is unable to detect us unless we are sloppy or they blunder into us," Cruniach said with approval.
"I'm glad you two have settled in well. I wanted to discuss some plans that Kallen and I had for how we will operate here in the coming weeks. I know that observing and ambushing is not everyone's expertise, but I think that-"
Rogers' attention was grabbed by one of the Wave Serpent pilots jogging over to him.
"Something wrong?"
"Mon-Keigh, apologies, serjeant, your commanders are requesting you. The communications equipment is in my Serpent."
"Damn. You three start brain-storming, I'm afraid I can't ignore this."
He could hear the three commanders already chittering in their strange tongue as he moved away.
XXXXXX
The crackling static of the Imperial Guards standard Vox-pack was a bit more grating than Roger remembered, but considering he had been relying on the advanced equipment of the Eldar, it wasn't too surprising. In all honesty, the fact that it was as clear as it was given the distance between the two operators was almost miraculous.
"I am glad to hear that you have arrived safely, serjeant. I take it that the Eldari vehicles were effective?"
"Considering it only took a few hours at what they consider cruising speed, I would say so, my lord."
Robert D'Uxford found one of the largest faults in the mission to Al-Madin was a lack of consistent communications between himself and Roger, which would have alleviated some of the more glaring issues that arose during the mission. For this operation, he decided on updates given every few days, enough for Roger and the Leopards to not feel micromanaged, while still keeping updated and in touch.
"Very impressive. Edmund wanted to provide Valkyrie transport for you and your troops, but considering the noise and rather… attention grabbing silhouette, it was preferable to use Farseer Alwyns contribution."
"Agreed. Other than establishing a forward operating base, we have not begun reconnaissance and fact-finding operations as of yet, so no updates as of now."
"As I thought. Even Eldar must sleep and recover I guess. By the way, things are not bad for me and Edmund if you care. Your recovery of Noura has borne fruit as a matter of fact."
"Really?" Roger said, pressing the handset closer to his ear.
"Yes. The emir of Yalat was very pleased to see his daughter again. The rest of the Seventh Army Group can move to support our Corps, given the loyalty of most of western Mekkar is now secure. The people may be questionable, but their leaders are firmly on our side. Edmund hopes to reward you for it when you return from this mission."
"Glad to hear it. Any update on Army Group Six?"
"No. Volkster is still wasting time around the south. The only good news is that General Lovric and his Second Corps have secured the passes in the Hisir mountain range, meaning we now have our flanks secure. Edmund and I hope this means Borricelli will finally give us orders to finally push towards Al-Madin, and eventually, your location."
"Hopefully the Chevauchee has produced satisfactory results."
"Your observations will tell us so. I understand you and your "Leopards" would prefer being thrown into combat, but this mission, as boring as it seems, is vital and may be the final step to unleashing us and finally crushing this rebellion. Godspeed Roger."
"Thank you, my lord."
A click went through the headset, followed by silence. Not a bad sitrep, all things considered. Roger was surprised he had been given information on the situation with the rest of the crusades forces on Haikk. Either D'Uxford was reinforcing the importance of the mission, or Roger had earned enough of his confidence that he could be trusted with such information. Not bad for a man only a month ago who was tied to a pole and prepared to be shot.
As he exited the Serpent, he nearly jumped out of his skin when he realized someone was standing right in front of the door.
"Bloody hell!" he cried as he slipped and fell on his back, thankfully on the oasis' soft ground.
He shook his head, trying to regain his bearing, looking up into the face of an equally surprised Eldar. Roger recognized her instantly.
"Morgyn, you scared the hell out of me!"
The Dire Avenger held her hand out, which Roger grabbed and lifted himself up.
"I apologize serjeant."
Dusting himself off, he stared at his assailant. While the majority of his troops had skin as pale as snow, with red or brown hair, Morgyns flesh was bronze, with a complement of hair so silver, it would have made a Sister of Battle jealous. It was impossible not to notice her.
"Might I ask what you were doing?"
She ran her left hand over her right arm and sighed.
"I was protecting you."
"From what?"
"Anything is possible, serjeant."
"Uh-huh. Did you hear any of my conversation?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Better that you didn't. Better we silly Mon-Keighs have some secrets, eh?"
She politely smiled and looked at the glistening pool of water that was central to the oasis. Roger shrugged and started walking back to his lieutenants.
"Well, I better be getting back to Kallen and the rest."
"I'll escort you," Morgyn quickly replied.
Roger stopped and looked at her suspiciously.
"Is there something going on that I need to know about?"
"No I… just wanted to make sure you got there alright."
"It's not even two minutes walking…"
Roger was getting frustrated and more than a little paranoid. Was there a threat that he wasn't aware of, but she was? Why was she not telling him about it? What was she doing? Better question, why was she here? Then he noticed something odd. As he started moving away again, Morgyn seemed to become sullen and started looking back at him and then the pool. He stopped again and turned back.
"Actually, considering I don't know what's going on and you do, maybe it's best if you escort me back."
Morgyn seemed to get her confidence back and quickly moved in front of him.
"Follow me serjeant," she said with more than a little joy.
"Gladly, Avenger."
"Please call me Morgyn."
"But you are an Aven-"
"Morgyn."
Roger sighed and shook his head.
"Alright Morgyn. Lead the way."
The two arrived shortly where Roger had left the three commanders off. They still seemed to be deep in discussion. Moire noticed Morgyn approach with the serjeant in tow, looking at them both in a bit of amusement. Cruniach seemed annoyed that their discussion had suddenly stopped, and Kallen actually looked jealous of Roger. Moire spoke to Morgyn in Eldari, the latter bowing and moving away, smiling at Roger in farewell.
"She told me that you needed an escort from our Wave Serpents."
"God-Emperor knows why. I don't know if you all need to hear this, but I am not a fragile bloody doll that will break or perish at the slightest breeze. I am perfectly capable of managing myself and not dying. I've done well these past 25 or so years, I don't need help."
Cruniach chuckled at this, Moire smirked, but Kallen stayed grim.
"How did you get Morgyns attention?" he asked.
"She was waiting for me outside of the Serpent. Said I needed to be protected. You put her up to it, Moire?"
Moire blinked and frowned.
"Not at all serjeant. But I can understand why she wanted to make sure you were safe."
"What?" Kallen and Roger said at the same time. Moire looked in surprise at her Scorpion comrade before turning back to Roger.
"She doesn't speak very much, but she regards you very highly. Says that you taking command was the best thing to happen to our little group."
Roger felt his cheeks redden a bit.
"I was unaware that any of the warriors thought so. Actually, I wanted to ask, what's her story? She obviously isn't from your Craftworld. Doesn't look or seem to act like any of you."
Moire and Cruniach started to answer when Kallen interrupted them both.
"Her parents were Corsairs. Pirates, I believe your people call them. They had been nearby when Ducaish had come under attack from-"
Moire now interrupted, speaking in Eldari, indecipherable, but obviously warning him from divulging too much. He shot her an angry glare and continued.
"Hostile forces. She was barely a child when they arrived. Left her in case the battle went poorly and joined the Craftworld fleet's defense effort."
"And?"
Cruniach now spoke.
"The battle was a ringing victory. Unfortunately, Morgyns parents gave their lives to secure it. She was given to one of the higher-born families of Ducaish and raised as one of our own."
Moire chimed in.
"I am unsure why she followed the path of the Avenger, but it is sometimes better to leave questions unanswered."
"Agreed," Roger said before laughing.
"What the hell did I come over to talk to you all about?"
Kallen grinned and waved his hand with a flourish.
"You wanted us to create a plan for our mission?"
"Right! How is it going?"
The three suddenly looked uncomfortable and tried avoiding Rogers' gaze.
"What now?" he said with a hint of irritation. "What were you all discussing, it sounded like it was important."
Moire gave a sheepish smile and ran a hand through her hair.
"We…. were discussing if it was alright to bathe in the oasis."
"What?"
"We can either use it to feel refreshed or use it for hydration. I'm not drinking whatever filth those two get covered in," Cruniach said grumpily.
"Filth? That is rich coming from a Ranger," Moire said before the three broke once again into furious Eldari.
Roger watched as his commanders went at it before pressing his palm to his forehead and closing his eyes in silent disappointment.
It was going to be a long mission.
