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A TREATISE ON THE ELDAR GUARDIAN

By Magos-Ultima Yvan X-3

The Firebred XXXIst, an Imperial Guard light infantry Company, captured a number of wounded Eldar soldiers known as Guardians at the “Battle of Craven Canyon”, a resounding victory for the forces of the Imperium. I was present at the battle, providing technical assistance to a Basilisk regiment which had been firing into the canyon for three consecutive days, and was able to argue Colonel Diswell out of executing the shell-shocked xenos survivors.

My servitors and Skitarii escorted the wounded Eldar aboard my landing craft, and aboard my flagship, I was able to converse with the self-appointed leader of the Eldar, a female calling herself Yarrar-en.

Yarrar-en spoke High Gothic to a considerable standard. She was very concerned for the safety of her comrades and repeatedly stated that she would accept any torture if I released the others, which does not follow the accepted belief that all xenos are low, callous beasts. Yarrar-en also informed me that Suthoramm, one of her squad whom she claimed to be her father, despite the pair appearing to be the same approximate age, had a cracked and therefore non-functional “soul-stone”. All of the captives were extremely distressed by this fact. Most of them seemed to keep an approximate distance of three feet away from Suthoramm, the maximum distance their cell’s limited confines would allow.

Yarrar-en asked, in a manner which would be considered haughty in an unmodified human, that I contact the Alaitoc Craftworld and release my prisoners to their care so that another soul-stone could be supplied to Suthoramm. She said that if he died without possessing one, he would be subjected to a tormenting existence in the Eldar afterlife.
I was instructed to travel, via realspace and not via the Warp, to a location in the void which would have taken us six months of travel, and the Alaitoc were somehow monitoring that area of the Emperor’s galaxy.

Due to my distinguished rank within the hallowed Order of the Silver Dragon, I am entitled to decide the fate of xenos captives without recourse to Terran or Imperial Guard authorities. At that point I was not prepared to contact the Alaitoc, or seriously inconvenience my fleet, and the Imperial Guard still required my expertise. I advised Yarrar-en that I would not travel to this empty location, but I would ensure Suthoramm continued to receive the finest medical care available so that he did not perish without a soul-stone. Of course, the concept of Eldar living any kind of afterlife is illogical, as only humans possess true souls, but it seemed likely the Eldar might co-operate if I gave shrift to their foolish susperstition.

The Eldar leader was furious and I had to endure her outburst of emotions for three minutes, eight seconds, before I had my servitors restrain her. She appeared to lose all emotional control and I was concerned she might inflict damage to my superstructure, as she had already broken her toe against my groin-guard, apparently believing I still possessed useless genitals.

My medical staff are not Biologis specialists and they had no idea how to treat the internal injuries suffered by the Eldar. Suthoramm had a strange reaction to morphia and he ran down the corridors, stumbling into walls, without wearing any clothes. He broke one orderly’s nose when they eventually caught him – and this only happened due to Suthoramm becoming exhausted and falling over. Despite his injuries, his movements were far quicker than those of the unmodified humans chasing him, and he was easily able to undo his restraints even in such a drug-addled state. I therefore instructed my staff to avoid providing morphia-related medications to the Eldar.

TO BE CONTINUED

Excellent
Very small points:
Magos wouldnt argue the Colonel out of it - he "logic him out of it" - I'd change argue to something else - rational maybe.

Magos wouldnt consider any sort of medical care as the "finest" he'd say efficient etc.

Not sure about the Eldar kicking his groin, I can see the dark humour element but I really like these because they are matter of fact and scientific. I'd personally remove that.

How did the eldar escapse by running down the corridors? Was he not restrained under operation and guard?

Thanks for the feedback Ratius.

I'm not very happy with this story, it's the only Ad Mech one I've started without any kind of clear objective and it veers too much towards comedy. I think I was trying to show the lack of positive relations between the Eldar and the Imperium as borderline tragic, because both species share the same enemies, and are not entirely the enemies of each other. I also want to get the backstabbing, treacherous nature of the Eldar, as well as the blind, violent hatred of the Imperium.

I'll work on a heavy rewrite today.

I like the theme of the spirit stone being shattered and the Eldar being terrified/very concerned about it, whils tthe Magos dosent seem to understand their concerns or fears.
I'd definitely leave that in.

You could plot advance it by having the Magos experiement on the Eldar - noting torcherous, just analysing their blood and body compositons under stress and him trying to figure out their biological makeup.
Maybe have him test a piece of their armor or blood?

The Magos should only be concerend with discovery and advancement through experimentation.
Perhaps in the long run he even gets on good terms with the Eldar and sets them a series of mental or physical tests to assess their biology?