I cannot describe the sensation of falling uncontrollably through the insanity of the warp. There are more colors in that realm of madness than there are grains of sand on Ba'al and a great many of those colors had voices that would have sent the average mortal into blubbering fits of insanity. It was a relief when I re-entered standard reality, my armor systems taking a few minutes to catch up to the transition even as my superior senses noted the familiar feeling of artificial gravity. After the 2.5 seconds it took my armor auguries to examine my surroundings, a small frown formed on my lips as I regarded the information presented to me. The Warp had spit me out inside the halls of an unfamiliar hab-block of a... by the feel of the artificial gravity, a space station of respectful size. Even as my armor's advanced machine spirits recalibrated to my immediate surroundings, I was blink-clicking the setting of my armor to exit zero-atmosphere configuration to allow nearby scents and sounds to filter through my helm so I could form a complete picture of my surroundings in my mind.
The most pressing detail that I noticed at the time was the trio of distressed heartbeats, immediately identifiable as human to my enhanced sense of hearing, within ten meters of where I had landed, only a flimsy wall of sheet metal separating me from them. In addition to the distressed human hearts, I also heard a pair of hearts beating laboriously by originating from a source that smelled utterly inhuman despite the similarity the sound of their beating hearts had to two of the human's heartbeats. The situation became instantly clear, a pair of xenos of a breed I could not immediately place were menacing three humans; two adults and one child, in the hab I had landed next to.
As my armor systems finished recalibrating, I was already acting, my movements a blur of movement. From the sound of one of the beating xenos hearts, I easily calculated that it was not even a meter distance from my position just on the other side of the thin sheet-metal wall so that xenos had no chance to flee nor even scream when I stuck my armored left hand through the metal wall and closed my hand around its strangely bulbous head. The alien's skull collapsed at just the slightest increase of pressure by my fingers, its paltry cranial bone shattering easily to a grip that could easily break ceramide and adamantium. Just as easily, the sheet-metal wall screeched loudly as it scrapped against neigh-indestructible auramite, first from my left arm and then more noisily as I easily shouldered through the flimsy barrier, leaving a ten-foot-tall whole vaguely in the shape of my armor pushed into the human-family residence.
The first xenos' collapsed skull prevented a full examination of its form but the still living alien was of the same xeno-type, so it would make an acceptable specimen to study and gain an understanding of this breed's weaknesses. Heads that possessed four eyes denoted it as a species that either enjoyed a vision better than a baseline human being or optics that could perceive an expanded spectrum of light, though their reaction time seemed to remain on basic human levels; and Eldar would not have been caught by that opening gambit. One of their species would have heard my fingers the millisecond they touched and pierced the wall, and would have danced out of range of my lethal grapple in less than a second. This xenos breed also lacked in robustness, more like an Eldar in this regard, its skull was actually easier to shatter than a human's and its flesh was far more porous and feeble than human skin. Those last factors told me that these aliens evolved on a planet with a less powerful gravitational pull and thinner atmosphere than Terra's.
The last of the pair of aliens was just about to scream in horror, wheeling around to point a pistol of unknown origin and pattern at me. The xenos' stance and poise lacked any sort of self-disciple and the weapon it was attempting to bring to bear was shaking so much in its grip that I doubted that it could even hit me, but I decided to err on the side of caution and prevent even the chance of ricochet threaten the human inhabitants. With a lazy swipe of the flat of my Castellan Axe, the pistol was sent spinning from the alien's grasp out of the open square door that led out of the habitat. When the weapon made contact with the street outside the home, a loud report sounded as the pistol discharged; I idly noted as it did that the weapon lacked the destructive potential necessary to even scratch auramite.
A quick glance confirmed that the human family was unharmed, though all three of the mortals seemed to be experiencing different intensities of Transhuman Dread. Particularly, both parents looked mortified by the casual display of violence on display in the confines of their home and in front of their child, while said offspring, a little girl they were trying to shield from the sight of death, held both fear and awe in her wide eyes as she gazed at the sight of my armored form. Ultimately, how the mortals reacted to my presence meant little next to my need for information.
I stomped over to the shocked but still living xenos. It had fallen on its back after being disarmed, its futile attempt to crawl backward ceasing when I rested an armored boot that weighed once-and-again the alien's weight on its chest and blink-clicked my servos in that leg to lock into place. Only those locked servos prevented my weighty appendage from descending on the xenos' chest and caving its upper body in itself. The alien's four eyes looked up at my armored visage unblinkingly as it whimpered in terror.
"Can you understand me?" I spoke in Low gothic, the vox speakers built into my helm turned my voice into a mechanical growl.
The words that tumbled out of the alien's trembling lips meant nothing to me, neither could my armor's machine spirits make out anything familiar about it.
"Can you understand me?" I asked again, activating Dirge's powerfield and resting the active power blade of my axe barely an inch away from the alien's cheek, the powerfield crackling dangerously next to the thing's lower left eye. "Nod your head if you can."
Its inhuman utterings stopped spilling from the alien's lips as it carefully nodded its grotesquely bulbous head. At this point, however, I was only giving the interaction a fraction of my attention. My armor's auspex suit had finally finished its examination of my surroundings, and now I was faced with intel that brought a tinge of displeasure to my understanding of the situation I had found myself in. The space station I was in was built into a large asteroid and y sensors registered mining equipment in the lower levels of the station in addition to a strange, unknown ambient energy signal deeper in the rock; it also picked up thousands of xenos biosignatures dispersed through the surrounding miles and mingling peacefully with human biosignatures.
Humanity living in close, peaceful contact with multiple alien species. My Master would want this place destroyed utterly.
"Humans," the mortals flinched at my vox growl. "You live in the same hab-block as this alien?"
"Y-yes, sir." The man replied in badly accented Low Gothic, holding his daughter back as she tried to slowly approach. "Belisk and I even work for the same salvage company. I can still hardly believe that he'd do this."
"Yet here it is, trying to kill you. Is this typical of this xenos breed? Why is it here attempting to terminate you?" I questioned the man as I memorized the nearby layout of the asteroid station. The alien's left hand inched for the weapon of its dead fellow whose head I had crushed. A lazy slash with Dirge, cutting the small pistol clean in half dissuaded it of that idea.
Once more the alien offered up a disgorgement of its foul, garbled language. Once it was finished, as I could still no more understand the thing than the first time it had spoken, I turned my helm slightly to look at the humans and wordlessly confer that I was waiting for their answer to my question and that I'd appreciate if one of them translated the xenos' words.
"The other species think that humans engineered the plague that broke out in this sector. The disease only targets non-human species and is so far extremely lethal." The female spoke up for the first time, she was glaring at my prisoner with hatred in her brown eyes. "It doesn't matter that we've lived practically next door or if we've known each other for years; we're unaffected so we must be the enemy."
"Belisk says that the plague must have been biologically engineered to be so infectious and deadly yet humans are immune to it." The man added, looking at the so-far still living alien.
I blink-clicked a series of runes on my hud, setting my armor's auspex sensors to perform a detailed inspection of the alien's blood as I nicked its neck with Dirge's blade after disabling its powerfield, as well as with the blood of the dead alien. Within moments tactical and pathological data filtered onto my visor screen. It was interesting to note how much this plague acted like a far less dangerous and sophisticated Life-Eater Virus.
"It is not incorrect about the virus being artificial in origin, it is similar in some ways to another biological weapon I've studied in the past." In response to my words, the adult humans looked further horrified. The xenos on the other hand, let out a bark of hard, spluttering laughter and a few more words in its inelegant language.
Personally, I thought such a pathetic laugh and whatever words it spoke were poor last words, but anything such a thing said would mean less than nothing because its foul existence meant less than nothing. Such was the ordinance of the Master of Mankind, and that was all that was important.
Disengaging the lock on my armored leg servos, I lifted my boot off the alien's chest in preparation for crushing the alien's chest cavity in with a single stomp, but I was paused in the act as runes flashed across my visor. My sensors were picking up a trio of life signs, human, that were rapidly approaching my position; additionally, all three registered as being better armored than most nearby biosignatures as well as showing signs of being shielded by a method my machine spirits were not familiar with.
Human authorities? I mused, deciding to hold off on executing the alien for now in favor of gathering more information on how these newcomers would react to the xenos and its actions. How these more heavily armed and armored humans treat violent xenos could provide useful insight and intelligence.
I turned my helmet slightly to glance at the glass and metal automatic door just as my auspex indicated that the armed group reached it and watched as it opened. My change in focus also drew the attention of the xenos and the human family unit to the portal just as the doors slid open to allow the three new humans into the impoverished domicile. The trio moved with decent military drill and unit cohesion, but their flaws stood out to me like a glowing scar-wound that was just waiting to be exploited.
I took in the details of these new mortals in the span of time it took for them to register my form and blink in shock. Two females and one male, all three of exceptional baseline human physical condition though not quite meeting Cadian Standards. The leading woman sported a head of fiery-red hair and like the dark-skinned male who was bringing up the rear, both were baseline mortals, but the dark-haired female in the white and black body glove showed some signs of gene tampering, which I found noteworthy.
There was also something else... inhaling deeply through my nose, I filtered out the slowly rising odor of putrefaction from the dead alien and the stench of sickness that clung to the living one to focus on the trio. It was very faint but both the dark-haired female and the sole male trailed a faint odor the likes of which I'd never encountered before, though I had caught a brief whiff of the faint spicy tinge when I cut the dead alien's weapon in half, and it brought to mind the scent of radioactive materials like when Marllal's Blood Game gambit resulted in a makeshift nuclear devise being intercepted in the Far Southern Wing of the Palace.
"Wha-what's going on here?" The red-haired human asked. Impressively, it looked like she had overcome the Transhuman Dread my form caused her to experience in record time.
"This xenos irrationally believes that these humans deserve to be punished for not suffering the same affliction that is killing its kind," I replied promptly, my vox caster causing the man with the close-shaved hair to shiver. "Are you the authorities of this habitation block?"
"This is Omega Station," the glove-suit-wearing female replied, her blue eyes narrowed in suspicion and what I could easily read as scientific interest. "What are you? With that size and armor plating, only a mech could handle such weight. State your make, model, manufacturer, and assigned designation."
While the humans could not see it, under my helm I was frowning. Some things had just become clear to me from just the dark-haired woman's words, and none of them were gratifying to hear. Humans living among xenos already spoke of the impurity of this human culture, but for one of the Emperor's Custodians to be mistaken as a Man of Iron...
After a moment's consideration, I blink-clicked a short series of runes on my visor display. As a result, the augmented tactical display faded to leave only the red-tinged world visible through the crimson eye lenses of my helm. Following the disconnection of my helmet's circuits from my power armor's power supply, after 1.5 seconds I heard the familiar click of the air-tight neck seals of my headgear disengaging, after which I finally removed my helmet with my free hand before meeting the mortals' unbelieving stare with my own blue-and-gold eyes.
"I assure you, woman, I am no automaton." I met the dark-haired mortal's astonished blue eyes with an unamused stare. In fact, all the humans were now staring up at me with awed wonder again. The married pair now looked close to catatonic from the shock of their traumatic encounter with the aggressive xenos followed by being forced to bear long minutes of Transhuman Dread. However, their offspring was now looking more excited after my reveal than before. Then there were the other two newcomers; the red-haired female was, strangely enough, looking relieved at the reveal of transhuman features while her sole male companion had shifted the aim of his rifle to track my uncovered head, though the fact that he was idly bitting his lip revealed his persisting nervousness.
Then there was the alien who was once more barking in its guttural language.
The insults that the xenos were undoubtedly shouting at me meant very little, but the reproachful and worried look that the red-haired woman shot the four-eyed alien revealed to me that she was concerned for the thing's life and worried that what it was saying might prompt me to kill it.
"What did it say?" I questioned, meeting the green eyes of the squad leader and boring into them. Again, I was impressed, she did not flinch under the scrutiny of one of the Emperor's Talons.
"He's not saying anything important." The squad lead replied. I heard her pulse quicken in time with her response, her stress betraying her and revealing her lie for what it was.
Turning my attention to the human family whose home this alien had intruded on, I posed the same question to them.
"What did the xenos say?"
"He's cursing at you ser," the mother spoke up as she held her hands over her daughter's ears. "He's still claiming that humans must have developed the weaponized virus, and he thinks you had a part in making it... Also, he's saying that he'll gather up more of his friends to hunt you down for killing his brother, but first -ah- but first he's saying he'll come back here and burn my family alive. He won't let himself die until then."
"He won't do that!" The redhead interjected, once more aiming her handgun of unknown pattern at me. "Big Guy, I promise, if you let the Batarian go, I'll convince him not to hurt this family. There is a Salarian doctor somewhere in this district that is rumored to be working on a cure for the virus, so if we get Belisk to him, he can be treated."
I noted that the alien looked surprised at the woman's words. It looked like he had been unaware of this doctor's work. Still, the squad leader's protective intentions for a nonhuman were damning.
"You are assuming that the xenos will realize that it was acting hastily and recklessly as a result of the heightened emotions it is experiencing being so close to death, and, that once its head is clear of those emotions, it will realize the error in its decisions." I extrapolated, easily following the mortal's logic before once more glancing down to examine the sweat-covered, four-eyed alien's ugly features. "You are working under the conception that this alien will heed human logical norms once the threat to its unimportant existence is removed, and you are willing to put the lives of this family- human lives infinitely more worthy of concern than that of a single xenos life- on the line with your belief."
"He doesn't deserve to die just because he panicked!" The squad leader growled. Presumably, she thought her tone sounded dangerous and frightening; it was not.
The red-haired mortal raised her handgun higher to aim it at my head, and in response, her two squadmates tightened their formation and their grips on their weapons as well, also trailing my exposed face with them.
Thus I was left with a choice:
1 - Acquiesce to the mortal's request and show mercy to an alien that had shown hostility to Humanity in a time of crisis...
2 - Or dispatch the xenos and deal with the mortal's ire at my action...