Date: D076. Y977. M31. MI60
'This is an absolute mess of a council' Mela thought as she looked around at the few high ranking Farseers and Exarchs that had stayed on board the 'Ynnead's Voyage', although all of them put on masks of being cool and collected, she could tell they were on the verge of internally panicking at what was going on.
The situation had taken a drastic down turn within the last two hours, to put it mildly, as now they had two enemy fleets bearing down on them from two directions, and if that was not bad enough they could not just withdrawal and let the ignorant species that was the humans of the Federation and Chaos to fight each other as they still had many forces on the ground and in the facility.
The most notable of those still in said facility was her secret beloved Turun, deplorably, there had been talks of simply abandoning them, have them bunker down and hold out deep within the facility and wait for the two rival factions to destroy each other and then come back for them.
In theory it was a good idea that could be performed with minimal preparation as they did not have much time as of now with the Federation Fleet rushing to their position, it could work as with their strength conserved and the humans depleted they could destroy them with ease and continue with their mission.
The proposition had been called to a vote between the High Priestess, Phoenix Lord and High Farseer and she had immediately struck the proposition down as with both the Phoenix Lord and High Farseer unable to attend and with only Turun actually going through the effort of getting a replacement for himself (that being her) it meant that the vote was a tie between herself and Tathyan.
Her reasoning was simple, it would be a great plan if the Phoenix Lord and Turun knew what was going on, as of now it seemed that something was interfering with their communications, it was not the enemy that much they were certain as it had started before the humans had arrived, but as of now they were out of reach.
The communications team could not contact them nor could the Path Masters on the ground, and most concerningly of all she could not reach out to Turun which had caused her a great deal of stress and anxiety, so if they were that deep into the facility by now than it stands to reason they would be unable to evacuate or organize an effective resistance to the humans in time.
Such a thing was made exponentially more dangerous by the fact that those foolish psykers who worshiped Chaos had begun to summon Daemons almost as soon as they arrived, keeping her preoccupied while also having to keep the influence of the choirs of the Federation at bay, they may be unimaginative when it came to their psychic powers but they were still dangerous given their numbers.
Currently she was keeping most of her focus on the clairvoyance while also keeping some on the meeting at hand so she could influence the decision, the only reason she could do this at all was because the enemy was still a ways off so she had some time, some time to deal with some of the most irritating people she's ever met during the chaos that was this meeting, like seriously how did she never know that these people existed in the Temple?.
"Now listen to me Oranth this 'idea' is ridiculous! If you have any respect for the High Priestess and those above your station-" speaking of irritating "as far as i'm aware you are in fact below my station currently, so I must ask you to hold your tongue" she quipped.
Her voice was slightly drowned out by the many voices attempting to get their opinions heard, but still the Exarch whose name she could not recall would seethe before going to respond with his own retort but would be shut down by the High Priestess.
"Quiet all of you!" the High Priestess commanded, her presence being felt throughout the room and immediately shutting up every other Aeldari in the room and returning the room's attention to herself, "calm yourselves we gain nothing from this endless bickering!" she exclaimed, some of the many Farseers and Exarchs would look down in shame while others would only nod their heads and be quiet.
With the chaos of the room now dealt with Tathyan would turn to Mela "your insolence has been noted, and you will refrain from such petty drama in the future" Tathyan said before suddenly utilizing the infinity circuit to communicate her next sentence.
"That is unless you continue this… trend of behavior, but that would not be a good look for you or him correct?" she said telepathically, a small smug smile on her face sending a clear message 'don't get in my way, as I already know about your relationship with him' how she had found out, Mela had no idea.
'Bastard' Mela thought, it was a human word that held no elegance, grace or deeper meaning and was quite primitive but it represented exactly how she felt about the High Priestess and that was really all she cared about, and given that only High Aeldari was supposed to be used in high profile meetings such as this, it gave her some satisfaction in her silent rebellion against the uncaring and detached authority's that were the Temples of the Sanctuary.
To quickly explain, her family were artists and had always been on the lower end of the monetary spectrum as although they could create artworks that could be considered amazing and almost unreal.
But when there were tens of thousands of others that were more distinguished and could produce artworks of similar or even great quality then there just was no room in the market for either of them leading them having to abandon their passions just to scrape by and make 'ends meat' as the humans would call it.
As such her mother and father had used their influence over her young child's brain and the limited funds they had to push her in a more… militant direction to ensure she could live a better, more stable life, but she had never forgotten her roots nor the people who were left to be forgotten by a regime who was disconnected and removed from the destitute state and problems that many common citizens found themselves in.
That is why in response to Tathyan's threat she glared with a look of spite and reluctant compliance, for now she kept her smug happiness deep inside as to not taint it with this nonsense, after all she had already won as Tathyan could not stop Turun from leaving with her.
In short she was going to live her life with someone she truly loved and cared for while taking away a valuable chess piece from the High Priestess, it was about time that she learned what it was like to lose and the value of someone that she underappreciated.
The High Priestess would then turn back to the rest of the Farseers and Exarchs, who like nervous pets were waiting for her to speak "Farseers and Exarchs, now is a dangerous time for all of us and I understand that emotions are running high threatening to boil over, but we must no fall to petty bickering and infighting for if we do than we will fail and failure means death, a death not worthy of Ynnead!" Tathyan exclaimed.
In response all the others in the room would cheer and seemed to forget about their fears and worries for this battle, after all even though they could reincarnate and be reborn every death was in service to a greater good right? So why shouldn't they charge to their deaths 'fools' Mela concluded 'they're truly all fools' although Mela had to give it to Tathyan as she did know how to whip up a crowd.
And at least she was not being hypocritical, Mela may not know much about Tathyan personally or about her past before she was the High Priestess (or Turun's past weirdly enough, she would ask him later) but at the very least she was not being a hypocrite when convincing the young masses to throw away their lives for the uncaring elite.
It was then that the High Priestess would continue "As such I will purpose one last course of action, while I do agree on the points laid out by our gracious 'Farseer' I still believe that a temporary and more measured retreat is necessary" she explained the rest of the Aeldari waiting on her every word.
"This will be my proposition, first we will gather the entirety of our fleet and retreat behind this planets moon thats on the other side of the planet and prepare while we attempt to contact our forces on the ground" Tathyan then appeared to be finished 'it was short at least' Mela thought, she would have a few problems with that plan but for now it would do.
Now with all of the Farseers and Exarchs nodding in agreement to the High Priestess proposal and with the High Priestess herself noting yes on this issue, it fell on her to approve it and considering the situation Mela simply concluded that it was best to play along, as far as she knew Tathyan had knowledge on her relationship but did not know about her and Turun's plans to leave after this whole mess was over with.
And so the proposal went through seamlessly and the meeting was dismissed by the High Priestess and everyone began to file out of the room, "not you Mela, we will have a little meeting of our own" Tathyan said, stopping mid stride out the door Mela would turn back to the table before sitting down in her previous seat "and what do I owe for this pleasure of a meeting" Mela asked dryly, at this point she just wanted to be done with this.
The two of them stared at each other for just a moment before Tathayn began to speak "let's get to the point, those speeches and polite necessities can get quite tedious" Tathyan began, that would probably be the only thing she appreciated about this meeting "you have been his temporary replacement for only a few days and 'problems' are already starting to crop up, do you notice the correlation?" she questioned.
Mela mentally sighed "you can have your pawn back in a few days once this mess of your own creation ends, until then I will do what is right for us in my eyes" Mela replied, in response Tathyan's jaw tightened and her glare intensified "I always have and always will do the same, but you now threaten that while not knowing your place, for what reason exactly?" Tathyan questioned.
'So it's an interrogation then' Mela concluded, she would have to tread carefully even with her authority as the acting High Farseer once she was to step down Tathyan would have legitimate reasons to punish her and thus unknowingly put her and Turun's plans to a halt.
"Again there is no particular reason, I only wish the best for our Temple and if that means voting down proposals that I feel would endanger it, well then, so be it" Mela said her expression tightly controlled to present the facade of being calm and unbothered by the questions, she was concerned on where this was going but again she hide it to the best of her ability.
"Hmmm, that is a good reason isn't it?" Tathyan asked rhetorically "but here's the problem, I simply do not and can not believe you, because you see in my eyes you are ambitious, I can and have seen it multiple times" the High Priestess explained.
The worry and nervousness inside of Mela would continue to grow because of those words, was she too ambitious? How? And in what way? She simply wanted to leave here and live a less military focused life, she didn't want to kill and destroy simply because of a 'greater good' as greater good causes were false and lies, why? Simple, the ones who always died for it were the common people and not the corrupt elite.
Mela would go to respond once again to these accusations but would be silenced by the High Priestess "Quiet, I do not need to hear your excuses, for once I will let this go" Tathyan said, relief would flood throughout Mela and she relaxed just the tiniest bit in order to not give her emotional state away to the High Priestess "but hear me now, if you dare to interfere in affairs that are far above someone such as yourself again there will be… dire consequences" Tathyan threatened before standing up and calmly walking out of the room.
Standing up herself, Mela would first take a deep calming breath before exiting, but she had little time to take in all that had happened as the headache, caused by her upkeep of the Aeldari will in the clairvoyance, had returned twofold the other two fleets were now certainly getting closer and if she wanted any chance at combating the will's of both Chaos and the Federation choirs she would need to get to the meditation chambers as many Farseers were undoubtedly gathering there for the specific purpose.
It was then however that she felt something touch the back of her mind, she instantly forced it away 'dammit they're trying to break in now' Mela cursed, now it appeared that those slaves to chaos had ramped up their efforts to disrupt and attack them with various Daemons of the warp, nothing she could not handle at the moment.
But even as she continued to swat the hand of Chaos away she could not get rid of it, it was like a piece of disgusting goo that one could not fully wash away not matter how hard they tried, even so this did not worry her much as the numerous runes of Ynnead and the Old Gods would certainly protect the Battlecrusier from harm, for now.
Even with the runes and her relatively considerable power the tendrils of Chaos were still ever present with each sect of it feeling differently, to return to her comparison early the first sect, the one of the Plague God, felt like a revolting mixture of rot, decay that felt a lot like mud slowly trapping its target while it attempted to instill an all encompassing crushing feeling of loneliness that it could then exploit.
Meanwhile the next sect, of Kharneth, felt like one was covered in a viscous and thick blood while the taste of iron and rust filled and nearly suffocated any thoughts other than the most violent and rage filled, all of this while it tried to uproot and bring painful or rage inducing memories to the surface to once again leave its target in a vulnerable position that it would then take advantage of, sending the person in a blind rage in service of the Blood God.
Thirdly was the sect of the Architect of Fate which gave a sensation the one could never accurately describe and that constantly and randomly changed with no discernible pattern, all of this would be only a distraction however as the influence of the Architect would continually play on ones insecurities and hopes to paint a hopeless view of a future, all for the purpose of presenting the Great Conspirator as the solution.
Finally there was… it, the thing that the Domain worshiped as their god, the Dark Prince, the Prince of Pleasure or She who Thirsts from what the humans call it, its grubby tendrils would reach out and grab at her within the warp attempting to drag her in to its gaping maw of a mouth to consume her soul, all the while promising pleasure beyond her wildest imagination and practically begging her to let go of her inhibitions, to become like the Drukhari in the Domain, to worship itself Slaanesh, and it's 'perfection'.
But even though she considered the princes very being to be the most vile with it being the corruption of the Aeldari's natural beauty and grace, it was something that she could push down and force away as her parents had raised her right, true happiness was not found in endless sin and debauchery, no that was all temporary, where it was found was in the love and connections that she shared with her friends, mentors, parents and soon to be partner for life through marriage.
The things that she just described are only a small taste of what a powerful psyker such as herself experience, whenever they interact with the warp some Daemon or entity is there to temp or threaten into serving their god and sometimes if you stay to long a monstrously large presence could be felt as if it was just peeking over the distant horizon to… well that was up to the mood and how the small part of the god that was watching you felt at that moment, anyways enough of her ramblings.
Pulling herself from her thoughts It was soon that she reached the end of her little walk and entered the large meditation chambers meant for the High Farseer their entourage of powerful Farseers, the room itself was about the size of library and had all the ancient lore and knowledge to be called one with a large circle of Farseers sitting around a slightly elevated platform where she would focus on the projection of the Aeldari's will.
As she entered she found many Farseers deep in thought or already concentrating on the infinity circuit, a few looked up and greeted her all of them being acquaintances, the rest would simply continue to focus on their current tasks, ignoring her presence for the most part, that was fine in truth she did not really care for the position of High Farseer, dare she say she detested it given how its duties had made the one she cared about the most miserable.
Going around she quickly got the rest of the Farseers who were not already participating in the clairvoyance prepared and ready, in total she had around 150 Farseers here, although only a tenth of those could be considered highly experienced and skilled with the rest being middling at best, this was due to the simple fact that Turun and the Phoenix Lord had taken many of the powerful Farseers with them to the planet below unwittingly making her job just a bit harder.
Even so her skill with the disciplines of Divination and Telekinesis she could try and make up for it even if she was just one person, while the projection of one's will could be done by simply letting your power settle and saturate the area it would not allow you to shape reality instead acting as a sort of aura that if uncontested by another allowed you to manipulate others emotions and thought processes.
It took many Farseers all of them practiced and disciplined to truly manipulate reality to your whim as the fabric of space time was believe it or not tougher than actual fabric and even held certain dangers when it was messed with like causing your insides to become your outsides within a split second, an average day at the office one could say.
Pushing those thoughts aside she would sit down on the platform in a cross legged position and begin to place her full focus on the clairvoyance with the Farseers power and will's soon joining her own in the warp shaping the energies to create and project the will of the Aeldari, in practical terms this meant that they would protect reality around the Temple of Ynnead and prevent the enemy from warping it to their own desires.
In theory they could actually mold reality to their advantage as well within the space that they dominated the clairvoyance but that was simply not practical, to do anything helpful like repair a damaged ship or to block incoming fire going at speeds that made all but the most advanced A.I could not perceive took much time, effort and a high amount of precision less you unwittingly destroy your own allies due to the ever changing tides and currents of the warp.
As such it was simply more tactically sound to just project your will into the warp to engage in a shoving match with the enemies will and once you overpowered the enemy just run ramped and cause as much damage as you could to reality around the enemy fleet, it was not rocket science at the end of the day, just simple tactical and pragmatic thinking.
As her consciousness entered the warp, her eyes would glow and her body grew slack as her soul left it behind to enter the warp, the library around her soon along with the sounds of the candles and the breathing of her fellow Farseers soon disappeared as it faded out and was replaced with the madness that seemed to be the inherent nature of the sea of souls.
When her soul finished transitioning from the martial realm to the immaterial, a myriad of colors that she could not and never would describe filled her vision, while the sensation of dread and stress that one would feel while suburban diving filled her body.
Screams of anguish and despair would fill her ears sounding far off but gradually getting closer, almost certainly coming from the Chaos Fleet, well it relative direction given the up, down and left and right did not exist as concrete rules in the warp, 'Breath, calm yourself' she told herself.
It was then however that she… sensed something, something big and closing in on the Ynnead Fleet fast from the direction of the Chaos Fleet 'All of you to me!' She called out to the many other Farseers, quickly they all formed up, joining their wills and power together in tandem with the runes in order to repel whatever was coming at them, Mela would then quickly analyze the threat coming from the Chaos Fleet.
'A Daemonic swarm' she quickly concluded, it was not a spell or an act of the Chaos Choirs will meant to reshape or destroy reality, no they had summoned a large amount of Daemons and shackled them to their will and had sicked them on the Ynnead fleet to soften them up, 'they will not get through on my watch' Mela thought her resolve hardening as they prepared to battle these Daemons for their own survival-.
'Wait, what' she thought now slightly confused the rest of the Farseers sharing her confusion, the Daemonic swarm had charged right past them completely ignoring her and the Farseers for… 'Molech!' She quickly determined they were going for the planet below, with the only reason being the facility underneath its crust which meant that Turun and the rest of his Farseers were now in grave danger.
'Dammit, Damn it all!' she thought, she was useless to help him on the ground and now could only pray to Ynnead himself to deliver Turun unharmed, even so if she could help him on ground she would ensure the continued safety and survival of the Ynnead Fleet, she could and would not just sit here and sit in self pity.
Nobody had ever gotten anything done by sitting around, so why should she?.
Date: D076. Y977. M31. MI60
Zooming out to acquire a total view of the soon to be battle ground it was obvious the battle for Molech would soon begin in the next 30 minutes, with the Aeldari being forced to withdraw from the planets upper atmosphere and to the dark side of Moles moon in order to not be crushed between the two advancing giants on either side of them, with the Inquisitorial Fleet led by Fleetmaster Hextor Rex being estimated to arrive first and the Chaos Fleet led by Galaxia Légionnaire Annu Aqo of the Cosmic Scholars.
As they closed in the strategy of Hextor Rex became very clear as they would quickly make to harass the withdrawing Aeldari Fleet by utilizing their sizable advantage in airpower via their large Aircraft Carriers, although the shields of the Ynnead Temple Fleet would hold and even allow the Aeldari to respond despite the last minute withdrawal with their own fighter craft and AA batteries destroying around 16 Federation aircraft.
But they did not lose nothing, as following this initial success many more fighters and bombers were launched and soon the shields on the destroyer 'Ynnead's hand' would fail and would be crippled by a lucky bomb from a Starhawk bomber, the subsequent loss of its engines forced its crew to abandon it to rejoin with the rest of the fleet.
But many would not make it out of the now dead in the water vessel as the Federation fighters harassing the Aeldari Fleet would turn about and target the now sinking destroyer and the transports escaping the soon to be large wreck of a ship.
Although the Aeldari fighters would react swiftly and accordingly to this escorting many transports and escape pods to safety they could not prevent the near constant attacks on the 'Ynnead's hand' soon breaching its reactor and destroying it, first blood went to the Federation.
But even with this success the Federation Thunderbolt fighters and Lightning escort fighters would take heavy casualties to the less numerous but more experienced, well equipped, advanced and coordinated Aeldari Nightshade Interceptors and Hemlock Wraithfighters allowing them to force the Federation raiding parties to withdraw back to their carriers, successful but depleted and needing reinforcement.
Meanwhile the Chaos fleet had begun to move in as they had picked the last of their stragglers, in order to soften up the ground in order to acquire their true objective a swarm of Daemons would be summoned and sent charging at the planet of Molech through the warp and into the material via a portal.
While this would achieve their goal of causing chaos and disorder in the local defenses, the spell itself was unstable and with teleportation in it of itself being inconsistent and dangerous at best many Daemons would be destroyed along the way resulting in less than 30% making it to the planet, even with these reduced numbers there was still more than enough to completely overwhelm the Molech PDF.
This Daemonic invasion was something that the chronically underfunded, under equipped and under maned PDF of Molech could not only not handle but then again they had not even comprehend that something like this was possible, and with no doctrines being available (publicly that is) to counter this sudden assault it quickly became an 'every man for themselves' situation with only a few having the foresight to call for aid from the Inquisitorial fleet that was closing in fast.
It just so happened that Hextor Rex was indeed planning to occupy Molech even before this invasion and perform at top down purge of all of Molechs military and political elite while he was at it, but this would give him the perfect excuse/justification to do just that and after, this was an 'investigation' and he needed some type of results to back up his claims of a Chaos conspiracy to present to council, so in the troops would go.
Soon the Inquisitorial Fleet would arrive to Molech and with little under an hour to spare until the arrival of the Chaos Fleet and with the Aeldari Fleet having withdrawn (for now) behind the moon and with the ODST's already prepped and ready to launch the veterans of the regiment now known as the Daemonic Bird Watchers into a war zone that they had only seen once before and due to the expected casualties, would never see again.
"May god save our souls"
Date: D076. Y977. M31. MI60
Those were the words that John Sumium heard as he walked into his orbital drop pod, las rifle in hand and vox equipment strapped to his back with a camo outfit and helmet underneath a gray and heavy flak vest he had yet to meet his hastily thrown together squad 99 of about nine other people from what had been told, the max amount allowed in a squad with himself as the VTO 'Vox Telephone Operator'.
'But they never tell ya the truth do they?' John thought sarcastically as he spied about four other people meaning his squad had five if you included himself less then half then he was told there would be 'either they lied or those idiots are just incompetent, eh, most likely the latter' he decided, given the almost non existante amount of time that those Administratius drones had he could cut them some slack, this one time,.
As he entered the orange lights illuminated four other people, ignoring them for now John looked down to the floor and would pull the straps for the Vox tight as a form of comfort as he could only imagine the drop below "Hey amateur you are VTO?, if not get the hell out" the combative voice of a woman echoed out to him in the small space of the drop pod.
John would eye her short sleeves and fingerless gloves which on top of her war paint and tattoos would make her stand out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of his now squadmates, 'oh doesn't she sound like an angel' he thought sarcastically, he would then go to respond with some sarcastic comment but would be cut off by another voice.
"Do you always run around with such a dirty mouth?" a man said in his hand sat a small, pocket sized hebrew bible with said hand having a tattoo of the star of david wrapping around it, "it is imperative that we remain spiritually pure, for this battle will require all of our faith and will in god to prevail!" the man proclaimed the woman would just roll her eyes in a dramatic fashion before responding.
"Oh, not this overdramatic bullshit again, like I said before the only thing I put my faith in is my machete and my own head" she said while taking said machete partly out of its sheath showing its polished and recently sharpened blade "if that is so then you will fail for you cannot put faith in your senses around any witch or Daemon" the man said in response.
The woman would snort before going to reply in order to get the final word in but would be cut off by another more authoritative voice "Quiet! All of you, if you five chihuahuas are all I have to work with then I might as well have to write my will and testament" turning around John would see that their squad leader had arrived, the man know as Damo Crip was an acolyte of the Fleetmaster and as expected was already proving to be a hardass.
"Some veterans you all are, it seems that even with the decades of experience you all individually posses you still forget the basics of teamwork" Damo said as John walked over to one of the six other open seats on the drop pod that was meant for ten it was only then that he got a good look at the man that was their squad leader.
The man had on a minimalist outfit, a buttoned up camo coat with a flak vest under that 'probably to blend in with us' John concluded as it would do no favors for their squad leader to be singled out by whatever insidious creature were running rampant on the surface below, finally cold gray eyes and sharp facial features betrayed nothing of his emotions with only a sneer across his face telling them how he felt.
"Fist of all you will do what is the most basic form of comradery building, get to know each other's names" Damo said before adding "and do to time constraints this is all you will be able to do in terms of teamwork building before we drop, so get to it" he commanded, looking around he saw that other two who had not spoken looked particularly apprehensive to this, they were another duo you could say, a man and a women but ones who were most likely the quiet ones.
The man had what on the exact same outfit as they all did but was already wearing his psychic thermal detection binoculars down over his face with a skull bandana over his nose and mouth, even so the large scare over both of his external and internal jugular veins 'most likely from bloodletters' John concluded, meanwhile the women did not wear anything special, but compared to the other wack jobs in this drop pod that made her stand out.
Even so it would be one of them who started the introductions with a deep breath the man would begin "my name is Jokh Vance, I am a rifleman of the 99th squad of the regiment the 'Demonic Bird Watchers', my favorite hobbies are writing and history, thank you" the name he now knew as Jokh said "ah an overachiever, good job, now you" Damo said pointing to the women with the machete.
Giving them all expect the squad leader a glare she would then introduce herself "I am Rina Kren and no you cannot call me 'Rin' if you do i'll cut off your kneecaps, and if it's not obvious I am the grenadier of the 99th squad of this mess of a regiment known as the 'Demonic Bird Watchers', your turn" Rina said lazily pointing a thumb at John who would finally notice said grenade launcher on her back, all eyes would then turn to him as he would begin his introduction.
"Names John Sumium, got here by surviving those damned bloodletters on that random dust ball we all know and hate, I am the vox operator for squad 99 of this regiment, I do hope we can at least get along for this assignment, because I for one like living" John said finishing his small ramble with a small joke to hopefully lighten the tense mood in the pod, Damo would just nod before pointing to the man with the hebrew bible "you, speak up" he commanded.
The man would carefully close his bible putting it in his breast pocket and mutter a prayer before going to speak with his face finally rising to meet their own eyes, it was then that John would notice the tattoo for the tree of life on the man's cheek that was covering up a scar that looked like it had been created by a large horn or something similar, such a wound would and should have killed him but given that the man was still here John would think about it later when they were not about to drop into a war zone.
"My name is Elijah Galetz, I am the automatic rifleman of the 99th squad, I pray that my bullets find their marks and cover your advances for that is my job given by the god of my people" Elijah said the tone of his voice made that last part sound like a statement of fact father than a religious belief "just as I thought another religious nut, just great" Rina sighed, Elijah would turn back to her with a murderous glare before a "don't" from Damo would keep him quiet.
Finally it would be the other women's turn to speak, as she stood up to speak she held herself with conviction and confidence "my name is Aaria, I am from the planet of Beirut and am a rifleman or riflewoman, you could say, of the 99th squad, I hope we can simply live through this day and I pray to allah that we triumph over these evils below" she stated glaring openly at someone else outside of John's field of view.
Nodding John would then look back over to the rest of his squad mates 'oh shit, thats whats happening' john thought, across from her Elijah was pretending to read his bible but was making it painfully obvious that he was returning Aaria's glare, the reasons for this was… complicated and steeped in an entire ocean levels of blood from the many religious conflicts and wars fought between the two religions and their followers.
To list all the atrocities committed by both sides would not only be impossible due to the time it would take learn and catalog them, but just the time to list them off would take an entire lifetime and then some, and this was with the URP keeping such conflicts to a minimum as per the constitution which gave all humans and human variants freedom of worship, in truth John himself was not very religious so the gap of understanding and mindset between himself and his two squadmates was already massive.
In all honesty he never got why they continued this cycle of violence, why not put down the blade and just live let live? Alas he also knew that, that was too idealistic and that something along those lines could only be achieved in a galaxy where everyone was perfect and could easily understand another person's view point, which was never going to happen.
But thankfully, before a vicious argument could break out Damo would step in once again "shut it both of you, you can take your disagreements off the battlefield, want to tear each other apart after this? Go ahead but leave your childish disagreements OUTSIDE of our mission, got it?" he commanded, both would sit back down and nod their heads while doing their best to ignore each other.
"WARNING, DROP POD INSERTION IN T-MINUS SIXTY SECONDS" a monotone and robotic voice would then announce to them, Damo would turn back to them after he finished listening to the A.I and would give them a (literally) last minute break down of things to follow, "alright first of all we will land in the fields outside of the object of this mission approximately around a dozen to two dozen miles out, so be prepared" he explained and with that he sat down and locked himself into the harness.
They would all follow his example, not questioning his explanation or his orders for a second locking themselves in with the harness and making final checks on their weapons "hey, John Right?" someone asked him, looking up John would notice that it was Jokh who was trying to talk to him "yeah man, what is it?" he asked back, Jokh would simply shrug before replaying "well I got the feeling that we're the only sane ones in this pod, so might as well get to know who's challenging me for being the most normal right?" Jokh asked sarcastically.
John would just roll his eyes "HAHA!, yeah i'm really kicking your ass in the market right now you know? I might as well be the damn CEO" John said with a laugh, Jokh would laugh with him for a small second before continuing the conversation "in all seriousness though I wanted to ask… how many did you lose to those monsters?" he asked solemnly "I lost a lot of good friends to those… things", John merely gave him a contemplative look and went to respond before being cut off.
"WARNING, DROP POD INSERTION IN T-MINUS THIRTY SECONDS" the A.I announced the lights in the pod turning from orange to red and would begin flashing, with almost no time left to talk Jokh would turn back and give him one last reassurance "just dont die down there alright? You seem like a decent dude with common sense and I'll tell you in all honesty there aren't enough people like that in the galaxy, you know?" Jokh said.
John gave him a nod before responding "yeah, good luck" he said "WARNING, DROP POD INSERTION IN T-MINUS TWENTY SECONDS" taking a deep breath John would attempt to mentally distract himself from the coming events from the blood, the carnage and terror that they would all once again experience, except this time they had the weapons, experience and leadership necessary to face these creatures.
"WARNING, DROP POD INSERTION IN T-MINUS TEN SECONDS" the A.I announced, John wanted to run away, he wanted to leave and simply go home he had been stuck in the damn station for almost a tenth of his predicted life span and had not seen or heard from his family apart for one small courtesy phone call granted by the top brass due to some complaints by the ethics committee of the Administratius which is where he learned about his grandfather illness, he just wants to go home.
"WARNING, DROP POD INSERTION HAS BEGUN" and with that the door seals itself shut and the drop pod detaches from the ship and they begin falling to the surface below, slowly at first but rapidly picking up speed as gravity gains a stronger and more firm grasp on them, fire would soon appear outside of the few small windows the lined the upper walls of the pod.
If he could describe the feeling that had rapidly spread across his body and had settled in his stomach it would be a heavy and at the same time empty feeling, like his organs are slowly climbing up his torso and are about to fly away themselves.
The last time he had this feeling was when he went on the power tower at that theme park as a kid 'damn peer pressure' he thought, not to mention that the blaze outside was doing no favors for his nerves 'just breath, close your eyes and remember your… limited training' John thought.
In the last few weeks they had been given some more 'advanced training' to not only refresh themselves with the workings of the military but to also make sure they were in shape and to teach them the very specific techniques that non psykers needed to utilize in order to fight and banish Daemons.
The first one was simple focus fire from a distance, as with the entirety of your squad aiming for one of those monsters it was going to take some damage and if you pumped enough lead or lasers into it the Daemon may be forced dissipate back into the warp before it can close the distance and shred through your relatively weak flesh and bone.
The second was a bit more dangerous as if the Daemon closed the distance or got the jump on you you needed to utilize your melee weapons as firearms, lasers and plasma weapons simply would not have enough time to do there work without the person operating them to be eviscerated and torn apart.
With this in mind the basic strategy was to basically aim for the head or neck while thinking about reasons you want to live or why you want the Daemon dead and gone something about 'your will be embodied in the blade itself granting it power' or whatever, other than that unless you had the time and resources to set up a 'ritual' or whatever it was to bind the Daemon to some object or had a trained, sanctioned and uncorrupted psyker on hand then you were fucked seven ways to sunday.
And those were basically the only things a regular person like himself could do, other than run as far away as humanly possible but given how fast some Daemons are said to be John was pretty sure that he wouldn't make it twenty feet before being mauled by some horror from the deepest pits of hell that was the warp.
'BOOOM' reopening his eyes John would see through the small windows they had entered the lower atmosphere known as the troposphere and would be landing within the next few seconds at minimum "deploying landing measures" the monotone voice spoke, soon the pods parashoot and thrusters would be deployed and activate, John would take a exhale and begin to calm down as these two things were great on his nerves.
'CRACK' or it would have been a great relief to John if it didn't suddenly jolt his body and head back, a few groans of pain also confirmed that everyone else besides the squad leader had not expected it either so at least he wasn't the only idiot who forgot 'fuuuuuck me' John thought at the pain at the back of his head, thankfully it faded quickly and the monotone voice returned.
"landing measures successful, please stand by and brace for impact" soon John would see the ground approaching and would do as the voice said, within ten seconds they hit the ground a massive tremor going through his body as the impact hit, his spine felt like an accordion and his lungs felt like the air box as he had the wind knocked from him, for a moment John was dazed as he regained his breath he quickly recovered however as they had trained for this, he just foolishly not expected for the ride to be this rocky.
Looking around he quickly recognized that the others were already taking off their harasses and arming their weapons, Rina and her grenade launcher which she now held with both hands, Elijah and his automatic laz rifle that he was now assembling and Aaria and Jokh who were at the door with their horn rifles which unlike the common mako rifle was designed for a more hard hitting weapon with a more powerful and on average actuate shot at the cost of firing rate and magazine size.
Unstrapping himself John would quickly make sure that his Vox equipment was ok and functional before taking out his own horn rifle and rushing over to the others who had just gotten the door open, rushing out they all expected a fire fight or to witness some bloody massacre taking place, that's why they all fanned out in a semicircle with Damo in the middle who had his sword and his automatic eagle plasma pistol out with everyone else on either the right or left of him.
But that's not what they saw at all instead they were greeted to a beautiful, tall and well taken care of wheat field, said field was a bit scorched and destroyed around the creator that their pod had created but other than that it was just a picturesque field like it was ripped straight from some famous artists painting sunset and all.
"Well that was… anticlimactic" Elijah said almost as if he was disappointed they were not facing off against the monsters of the warp, "what? Can't die a heroic death?" Rina teased while elbowing him, Elijah clearly did not like the fact she was poking fun at him because he would just glare at her before responding "No, I merely wish to live my life in service to god, which gives my life some meaning that you are desperately missing" he said smugly.
However before Rina could retort Aaria would interrupt "I actually agree for once as even with my feelings of antipathy towards you I can agree that living for god is what is most important even if you follow the wrong one" she stated the argument seeming to grow from there, in the middle of all of this John had set down his gear and had gotten to work on contacting other squads who were close by in order to coordinate with them.
Feeling someone watching him John would look up to see Damo about a dozen or so feet away analyzing his actions before merely nodding in approval and sitting down in a cross legged position and closing his eyes the argument from the other three seeming to not disturb him at all somehow, with that John would continue to work at his vox eventually getting into contact with several nearby squads.
After about 5 minutes of verifying their locations with the help of Jokh who marked down said locations on a map John would look back up to Jokh, with their job now basically done all they could do was wait for orders from Damos who by now was sweating profusely from his temple and in general looked stressed out by something 'damn psykers' John thought.
"Hey man uh, about the question you asked on the pod" John began seemingly a bit uncomfortable, they were all almost a century gone but talking about his former squadmates was still a challenge "no, no look man it's fine you don't have to answer, I… was just curious about well how it happened you know? Trauma bonding makes it easier to not feel some irrational sense of guilt for being a survivor or some shit" Jokh explained, John supposed that made some sense.
"Yeah, uh thanks" John said the both of them settling into a silence only broken by the arguing of their other squadmates a short distance away while they watched the perimeter, "you know you seem to handle it better than me, if… that means anything" John half complemented or at least attempted to "ha, really now? Haven't seen you stare off into space or suddenly panic like your hard drive just got searched, come on live a little" Jokh said attempting to make a joke.
"We're kinda shitty at this aren't we?" John said sarcastically to which Jokh just nodded with a small laugh "yeah, but honestly this has been… well more helpful than any of those 'therapists' they keep on the station, for real though those guys just creep me out sometimes, you know?" Jokh said, John would just hum in agreement before continuing the conversation away from the more depressing crap "so where do you come from?" he asked.
Jokh would just shrug his shoulders "eh some small planet called Kharford, really hot, dry and tough if I had to describe it, only a few hundred thousand people but all of them were tough as durasteel and as crafty as foxes would trade anything for it as this point" Jokh explained his voice full of nostalgia "you?" At that, John would look down at his feet, his childhood on his homeworld was pretty great if he had to say but that was back when he was still a child as he had signed up for the Army at age 18.
"Decent really, not some megalopolis or anything just a planet with average temp, large lakes and great oceans, it was rainy, sunny and snowy, you know? days like the ones from those stories about ancient Terra, but really who knows? I was barely a man when I left so i'm probably looking through the lens of a naive child and a shithead teen in terms of my memories" John explained his rambling going on for far longer than he thought.
"Why'd you leave?" Jokh asked his voice giving off the impression that he already knew but wanted to hear anyway, that was comforting to John "same reason as you probably, for some good old F, U, N and adventure because of some stories and tales of glory and riches that the church, my public school or hell even my friends shared around fucking assholes" he said.
He and Jokh had a good laugh at that before the mood turned somber once again "we were both fucking idiots to leave home" Jokh said, the words carrying a great weight to John, god why did his last interaction with his family have to be a shouting match? He sometimes hated himself for that, it seemed the conversion had died after that and good thing too the argument between the other three was picking back up again.
"You know you could not be an absolute douchebag bag about it!" Rina yelled "oh please you started this now you don't want to argue? Shame" Aaria said "usually it is the bigger person who ends it, you should know a thing or two about" Elijah said to Aaria who glared at him "I'll show you who's the bigger person!" Rina yelled out.
"ENOUGH!" Damos commanded his eyes shooting open, silence would rain for a good few seconds before he spoke again "there is something coming, all of you stay near the pod farthest from the wheat" he ordered to which they all complied with all verbal communication ceasing and only hand signs being used as they flipped on their binoculars with psychic vision in case of any Daemons.
During their drilling and retraining they had gotten pretty familiarized with these binoculars, such has how every human that was not a psyker had a relatively dimly glowing outline around their bodies and a faded glow inside of them representing their soul and psychic prowess or potential, meanwhile actual psykers appeared to have a soul that glowed vibrantly and an outline that was bright and solid, with there being a specific color for these souls.
Any other animal however would only appear as a grayed out image that would lack defined details, even so he was a bit shocked when a mass of gray practically flooded out from the tall wheat as all manner of animals rushed their way, from huge bears and buck to small rabbits and rats they all appeared to be running away as fast they could, it was as if a primal fear had washed over all of them.
'Running away from what? Oh who am I kidding its probably fucking daemons, but how many?' John concluded and asked himself, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and goosebumps appeared all over his body as his nerves started to go haywire and soon his vox started to go off with the several voices yelling for help or assistance their voices growing louder and more desperate as whatever was coming was clearly big.
'RUMBLE, RUMBLE' as the horde of animals passed them with only a few pot shots be necessary to scare them off from trampling them, a low but ominous rumble would begin its steady approach, they all prepared to face whatever monster was coming with Elijah flat on his stomach off to the side and Rina climbing on top of the pod at Damos orders before he closed his eyes again for some reason, all while himself, Jokh and Aaria stood their ground in front of the pods entrance.
It was then however that Damos snapped his eyes open and began to bark orders at them once again practically yelling at them to be heard over the rumbling that had gotten so close "UP! UP THE DAMN POD NOW!" He commanded no further details, no further explanation, just an order, one that they with only a half second of hesitation carried out, his orders.
The pod itself was bottle shaped with its walls about seven feet high and the ceiling was cone shaped and went up about five feet before ending at a flat top, to get there they simply stand on a lip that was between the pod and cone, they then had to climb a later built in to the pod, Jokh was first up and quickly ascend the seven feet with himself right behind him and Aaria right behind him.
Damo and Rina were already on top helping Jokh up only this time John noticed something different about her, in fact he saw that her eyes were full of fear and it was obvious that she was near panic as she kept looking between them and the daemon, which by now sounded like it was almost on top of them.
As John then reached the lip of the pod that connected to the cone and turned hep Aaria up as Rina climbed back up the cone and got a clear view "HERE IT COMES!" she shouted, once John had helped Aaria up he drew his weapon and looked over, only to see Elijah still making his way to the pod, he had taken his time to pack up his automatic laz rifle and given that all these events had taken place within a few seconds Elijah was over ten feet away when the… swarm burst from the wheat.
If he had to compare the scenes of his first Daemon encounter and this one (his second) John would say that the major difference was the fact that instead of a few monsters that had hulking masses of muscle and warp energy there was possibly thousands of minor daemons, all under two feet tall, rushing into the clearing.
All of them were of a… honestly he could not pinpoint what god these ones could be from with their grossly overproportioned limbs, genitals and other parts of their bodies considered sexual, dark purple skin warped around them like they were wearing someone's skin and patches of white fur dotted around their bodies like some blind idiot had take a razor to their coats, lastly they had mouths full of razor sharp teeth with claws and empty black eyes.
'Fuck me' John realized 'the Unborn God of the Domain, just why?' although John would consider himself a veteran but compared to the daemons of the warp he was cannon fodder even so he had been taught by the Inquisition about the chaos gods with the god of the Domain being prominent and highlighted as a large danger (to put it mildly) that like the others used daemons as its armies to invade the material.
The only upside as of now was the fact that the God as its name suggested was not born yet (whatever the hell that meant) thus its influence was limited, yeah he did not know how that worked but to cut this ramble short, all you had to know was that daemons of the Unborn God were fast, noble and well deviant you don't get close to the daemons of the Unborn God unless you wanted to be violated.
Thus when he saw that Elijah could not make it to the ladder as he was still ten feet away with the daemons closing in with a speed that outpaced all possible expectations, Elijah kept running but the look in his eyes showed that he had already accepted that he was going to die, so he took a grenade while removing the pin in one hand and his combat knife in the other while turning around.
"a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace!" Elijah would shout before the swarm was upon him, he stabbed and cut sending purple blood and limbs flying before being torn apart in a few seconds with there not even being enough time for him to scream as Elijah's body was ripped and shredded into ribbons with flesh being pulled from bone like tishuepaper, the monsters chittering happily as they consumed his flesh before an explosion consumed well over a dozen of them.
"Open Fire!" Damo commanded they all followed, Rina who was just about that the top of the cone took out her grenade launcher and rained holy fire down on the abominations while the rest of them took their horn rifles and aimed down their ironsights, all the while making sure to deal those daemons the most pain they could, they may not have known Elijah or even really liked him for that matter but he was their squadmate at the end of the day.
"DIE YOU FUCKING MONSTERS!" Rina yelled the rest of them yelling out alongside like idiots as they all shared that sentiment, guts, blood and chunks of daemon flesh once again flew but in much large amounts than Elijah was ever able to produce with his combat knife, even so the damage they did was limited as the monsters were just too durable and tough to be cut down in a realistic amount of time.
Soon however, the horde would pass as seemed to act like any other predator, quickly losing interest in prey that took too much effort to reach or take down, the foul monsters disappearing back into the wheat, although from where they stood they could still see them for possibly miles out.
"What, the, fuck" Jokh said his tone giving away his fear and dread while the rest of them stayed silent as if they did speak the shear terror cousing through their veins would certantly bubble up and cause them to break down, Damo however seemed to show no fear just anger but at what?.
As Damo walked over to the spot where Elijah had been torn apart barely ten feet from the pod the squad leader merely scowled, there was nothing left of Elijah, nothing but blood stains and remnants of the auto rifle from what John could tell.
"All of you down now" he commanded this time they were hesitant the daemons had only left their sight some two minutes ago and none of them wanted to suffer Elijah's fate but the look in Damo's face quickly got them to change their minds and come down from the pod, soon they were all standing in a semicircle around their squad leader who then revealed something, a small book, a bible.
All of them were silent as they didnt know how to react, so they ignored it with Jokh asking a question that lingered in all of their minds but didn't want to get court martialed for insubordination "sir you are a psyker right? How in hell did we get like what? Ten seconds of forewarning?" Jokh asked, Damo did not answer right away allowing them all to grow even more afraid, if the daemons could easily sneak up on with a psyker no less than what chance did they really have?.
"All of you calm down, it is true that my lapse may have cost us but I have found where we are going in the process" Damo explained, his gaze then turned east "we do not have much time so I will be concise, while I was meditating I found that this planet has a strange effect" Damo began, as least they were getting some form of an answer even if it felt more like an excuse more than anything.
"Beneath this planet's crust there seems to be a barrier that almost completely bars any psychic power or influence to penetrate it and it is centered around a singular focal point spreading out from their to the whole continent, I followed this barrier almost to its center that is why I did not sense them, in short we must find whatever the conveying Eldar and the foul beasts of Chaos are here for" Damo finished before turning around.
Without words the man drew a combat knife from his belt and used what looked to be some telekinesis to control the blade without any hands, using his powers and the blade as a small shovel Damo dug a small grave about a foot tall, six inches wide and three inches deep, placing the pocket bible in the small grave.
Then once again using his psychic powers he picked up some nearby stones and piled them up for a makeshift head stone which then gave a name by scratching the rocks with the same combat knife he had used to dig the grave, once he was done he sheathed the blade and turned east "all of you we leave now" he ordered, all of them were just happy
To get out of there, soon leaving the clearing and the head stone.
They would never come back.