Xenohunter Acolyte with Alacrity
England
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Author's Notes
Looking back on it, there were a few loose ends i left untied in Treachery's Road.
Some of them, such as the story of the Deathwatch team led by Karel, will be resolved in later stories, but i felt that the story of the formerly unnamed Tau prisoner needed some clarification, otherwise she'd just be a random character with no real purpose...
Maybe i'll do something more with Aloh Ro'Yal (Aloh means Cold Winter), but for now, her slaughtering a warehouse full of Hive Gangers ought to be sufficient.
I have another story on the go that might interest those of you who liked the mystery and intrigue of the Horus Heresy, expect to see 'Two Lost to the Depths of Time' on the forums very soon...
In the meantime, revel in the slaughter as a Tau mercenary fights to get her warriors back.
Shas’O Aloh Or’Es Monat Ro’Yal remembered her torture at the hands of the Gue’La, how their insane followers had delighted in torturing her.
She remembered the day she was meant to die, and the terrifying, pale-skinned Gue’La who had named her filth.
That day, she had run far from her sanity, and it had taken a long time to return…
Even before that, she had been running.
Running from her fate, from the Mont’Ka, from the Ethereals, and from her Empire…
Jealousy had caused her to rebel, to leave the Empire, and she had made a living as what the Gue’La called a Mercenary.
It felt good to have her Battlesuit back, to feel it join with her body, to feel two become one.
She wore her Battlesuit now; an XV8 model with its exterior a pure white, with blue segmented panelling.
The Battlesuit was a thing to behold, as tall as a Gue’La Dreadnought, on the left arm a Plasma Rifle buzzed with energy, and on the right a Shield Generator sat comfortably above a blade wreathed in lightning.
On the left shoulder, a missile pod twitched and whirred, searching for targets where there were none and on the right shoulder a burst cannon cycled up, ready for the task ahead of her.
Whilst the corrupted Gue’La had taken her, loyalist Gue’La, dissatisfied with the job her team had performed, had taken her fellow Tau, and could right this minute be exploiting their superior technology.
“Filthy pink-skinned Gue’La.” She muttered, looking through her holo-array at the run-down complex in front of her.
It was an old warehouse, but it served as a base for the people who had hired her.
They had left sentries patrolling the complex, typical human hive gangers in jackets, bullet-proof vests and combats.
Most wielded Imperial solid-round rifles, primitive weapons that wouldn’t even dent her armour, even had she not had her shield generator active.
Then she noticed the Gue’La with the missile launcher, and her Battlesuit instantly began recalculating her course of entry as her mind registered the new threat.
Six guards in total, too easy…
***
Arval shuddered in the freezing air of Medrogus’ lower hive, clutching his mug of caffeine tightly in his hands; his slug-rifle was slung at his waist.
“Mucker’s getting’ ter know the prisoners again…”
Arval turned his head as Gorvar slid out of the warm light of the doorway behind him.
The slim, wiry man also carried a slug-rifle, and a cigar protruded from his mouth, trailing a thin line of smoke up into the crystal sky.
“Again?” Arval replied, “Mucker’s gonna end up with some greyskin disease if he keeps takin’ liberties.”
“’At’s what I said,” Gorvar replied, “But Mucker says it’s cheaper than the brothels, so e’s takin’ what he can get.”
Arval shook his head, “It ain’t right.”
“They’re Greyskins, Arv, they ain’t human.”
“They’re still livin’.” Arval replied.
“Ah, who gives a frag in ‘ell.” Gorvar snarled, removing his cigar and dropping it on the floor.
Arval’s head swivelled round as he heard the distinct noise of jets firing up.
***
Aloh Ro’Yal smiled inside her battlesuit as her arc of trajectory brought her down right on top of the Gue’La’s head.
There was a satisfying crack of a skull bursting, and a spray of red stained the pristine white of her XV8.
Her shoulder-mounted Burst Cannon cycled up and fired a stream of pure plasma into the walkway above her, sending two sentries screaming to their deaths.
She dropped into a crouch, and her Plasma Rifle whined before ejecting a searing bright burst of plasma, completely obliterating a fourth guard.
There were two Gue’La firing solid shots at her from the doorway.
The shots merely frizzed as they passed through her shield generator.
The Gue’La with the missile launcher loaded a projectile, but didn’t get a chance to fire as Aloh leapt towards him and sliced both man and missile launcher in half with the crackling, under-slung blade.
One of the men firing from the door broke and tried to run.
He barely got three feet before a shell fired from her missile launcher detonated in his back, vaporising his upper body in a spray of gore.
Aloh turned towards the remaining Gue’La, who had fallen over backwards in terror.
***
Arval crawled backwards on hands and feet until his back slammed into the wall of the warehouse.
Tears streamed down his face, and warm liquid stained the inside of his combat trousers.
“Why…” He swallowed hard and tried to speak again, “Why not kill me?”
Something whirred inside the alien creature’s body, before Arval heard his own voice speaking.
“It ain’t right.”
He nodded, shaking and sobbing uncontrollably.
The alien then spoke in a different voice, female, soft but commanding.
“Run, you will not find safety here.”
Arval nodded, scrambling to his feet and running wildly.
***
The Gue’La hadn’t deserved mercy, none of them did, and yet…
And yet Aloh had spared him, for the simple fact that he had morals.
She knew not all Gue’La were corrupt, a Gue’La had rescued her from her cell, and brought her to a medic.
Gue’La had treated her wounds and coaxed her back to sanity over the long months.
No, now was not the time to think about that…
She turned, firing a shell from her missile launcher, demolishing an entire section of the warehouse’s wall.
As she stepped in through the rubble, her Battlesuit’s targeting optics locked onto several heat signatures sheltering behind a barricade made of overturned tables, pieces of metal plating and other various objects.
Her burst cannon fired a superheated burst of plasma, searing through the fragile barricade and toppling several of the Gue’La crouching behind.
Three of the hive gangers rose and returned fire.
Explosive rounds, most of them simply fragmented on her shield, but still her sensory array indicated shards lodged in the XV8’s left arm and chest.
The readout indicated her Plasma Rifle was defunct; any attempt to use it could destroy her Battlesuit.
She growled, her voice laced with static over the Battlesuit’s voice link as her thrusters propelled her into the air and down into the midst of the gangers.
Her underslung power blade crackled as it sliced one clean in half.
She dropped and spun, kicking out at the ganger behind her.
The battlesuit’s foot slammed into the man’s chest and sent him hurtling across the room until he smashed into the wall.
The third Gue’La broke and ran, but not fast enough.
Aloh leapt forwards, crushing the man underfoot as she landed.
She moved towards the next doorway, as the distinct sound of a priority alarm sounded.
She smiled.
***
Mucker threw the naked Tau female to the floor as the alarm sounded.
The bare cell was barely large enough to contain a straw bed and a bucket, and the greyskin on the floor in front of him was laced with cuts and bruises.
“Looks like yer dog-soldier friend’s come back for ya.” He grinned smugly, folding his bare arms over his chest. “I’ll gut ‘er like a pig, then I’m comin’ back for ya.”
He stepped out of the cell and locked it.
Before him stood an array of gang members in a variety of clothes, most with slug-rifles, a few with missile launchers.
“Alright, lads,” He began, nestling his Melta gun in the crook of his arm, “We got another greyskin comin’ our way, when she gets ‘ere, we take ‘er out, and the firs’ one ter bring ‘er down gets first go with her.”
There was a mix of cheers and whistling from the crowd.
“Get to yer places, get ready; she’ll be ‘ere soon!”
There was a rush of boots on concrete as the gang members crowded behind makeshift barricades, along the catwalks above, and wherever there was cover to be found.
Mucker stood on the catwalk facing the entrance to the central storage chamber, if the Tau filth wanted her friends back, she’d come, and he’d have first shot at her.
***
Her heat scanners registered multiple signatures in the room before her.
Aloh closed her eyes, breathing in deeply, remembering the teachings of Kayuon.
She was the hunter, her prey stood quivering before her, but the prey was stubborn.
There was more than one way to gut a Grox.
Her missile launcher whirred upwards before spitting out a projectile that blew the ceiling inwards in a cloud of debris.
Her thrusters cycled up and she arced upwards and onto the roof.
A puff of air marked the departure of several projectiles from her missile pod.
The missiles plunged through the roof, ripping through steel and exploding violently in the room below, throwing up clouds of rockrete, dust and liquidised flesh.
Sold slug shots, krak missiles and Melta fire sliced up through the hole, but Aloh Ro’Yal was no longer there.
Without warning, the back wall of the warehouse exploded inwards as the XV8 burst through, it’s underslung power blade slicing clean through the metal catwalk on which Mucker and several other gangers stood.
The Hive gangers crouched behind barricades and still standing on the walkways returned fire, but the solid slug shots simply bounced off Aloh’s shield, and the rockets were easy to track and dodge.
There was a whine as her Battlesuit’s weapons cycled up, the missile pod firing shell after shell as fire from her Burst Cannon ripped through the fragile barricades and the Gue’La behind.
She spun and dropped low, slicing clean through another barricade and separating several human heads from their bodies.
Her Burst Cannon arced upwards, trailing fire through the catwalks and sending chunks of steel crashing to the floor.
Aloh noticed a sudden absence of fire as her Burst Cannon cycled down.
She straightened, looking around at the wrecked interior of the warehouse.
The Gue’La were all dead.
Aloh blinked as her console indicated a dangerously high heat signature behind her.
She turned and found a Gue’La with a shaven head standing there, clutching a primitive Melta weapon in his hands.
“You killed me boys, greyskin filth!” He spat, “Now I’m gonna stick you like a Grox!”
There was an audible puff of compressed air as a projectile spat from the XV8’s missile launcher and ripped into the Melta Gun, detonating its payload and throwing the human back in a bright flash of luminescent blue plasma and searing white Melta fire.
The human screamed, flailing on the floor and desperately seeking respite from the pain wracking his body.
Aloh stood over him, looking down.
“You do not cross us, Gue’La…” she issued through her Battlesuit, “Die now…”
She turned as the burnt, flailing remains of the human slowly died, loping towards the cell doors on the opposite side of the room.
Grasping either side of the heavy door, she tore it free of its hinges, before gently scooping up the naked, beaten Tau female inside.
“Shas’Ui Eur’ii J’Karra,” she murmured softly, “Sister, I will soothe your pains…”
She got only a moan in response, but even that was enough to make Aloh Ro’Yal’s eyes brim with tears of joy.
She looked at the carnage and destruction around her, at the corpses of the feeble humans.
If they hadn’t wanted to end up dead, they shouldn’t have taken her warriors from her.
This world was a violent, harsh one, far from the comfort of T’au, her Homeworld, and to her discomfort, Aloh Or’Es Monat Ro’Yal knew that…
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