The Inquisition III

[TrashMan]

Nice read. Too bad about Princeton.

 

Since when are Eldar so large compared to space marines?

The way they are depicted here is...monstrous. Banshee avoiding lasgun fire? LASERS????

[Wysten]

Nice read. Too bad about Princeton.

 

Since when are Eldar so large compared to space marines?

The way they are depicted here is...monstrous. Banshee avoiding lasgun fire? LASERS????

 

Thats how they would appear to the average human. They were always tall and I imagine in their armour, with the superime training they recieve in their armour, that the aspect warriors are essencally the equilent to the space marines as far as humanity looking at them is concerned. Infinately graceful and artistic, not that the mundane senses of humanity tend to notice when their colleges are being gracefully turned into sliced cucumber.

[Aqui]

Howling Banshee.

 

Yay! ;) ..... I mean Filthy Xeno! ^_^

 

Nice read. Too bad about Princeton.

 

Since when are Eldar so large compared to space marines?

The way they are depicted here is...monstrous. Banshee avoiding lasgun fire? LASERS????

 

Thats how they would appear to the average human. They were always tall and I imagine in their armour, with the superime training they recieve in their armour, that the aspect warriors are essencally the equilent to the space marines as far as humanity looking at them is concerned. Infinately graceful and artistic, not that the mundane senses of humanity tend to notice when their colleges are being gracefully turned into sliced cucumber.

 

Eldar have been referred to as being tall, in many cases being taller than Humans. Most Eldar are are also known for being graceful and very fast, especially Howling Banshees, who have light armour so that it doesn't slow them down in combat. It also helps that the scream from their masks cause paralysis and disorientation, making them seem even faster.

[Lady_Canoness]

Good points out there - especially the one of the Striking Scorpion being seen through Spider's eyes. Eldar are tall, and with the heavy armour of a Scorpion they probably seem darned big indeed!

 

Oh, did I mention that part 22 is already upon us?

 

In writing this part I felt my heart quake at some points and shed tears at others. We'll see what you think when it is done.

 

----------------------------

 

*Part 22*

 

“Safe?!” Nerf shouted; “We’re not f***ing safe! Did you see how many men died back there!?”

“I did and I was among them when it happened,” Aquinas replied coolly, “though you can believe me when I say that we are safe, and that the Eldar will not look for us here.”

“Really!?” Nerf took a step forward and placed his carbine on the ground.

Unmoved, Aquinas regarded him as he would any other nuisance.

“Because there were more than sixty men out there, and they *all* died!” the Catachan shook his head in disbelief and spat on the ground. “They didn’t stand a single Emperor-damn chance!”

“Calm down, Nerf,” Godwyn stepped in, “we were all there, we all know what happened.”

It wasn’t any comfort, but the Catachan bit back his temper and found an exposed root to sit on as he held his head in his hands.

They were deep in the forest where the trees grew thick, and the bare moonlight that trickled through the branches was just enough to see by. Where they were was as much a mystery as where they’d go now that Princeton and his Cadians were gone, but amongst the silent trees it did feel as if there were a measure of safety to be found. Maybe the space marine was right, or maybe the fell eyes of the Eldar were upon them even now.

“How do you know we won’t be found here,” Godwyn asked the space marine, straining to see him through the thin traces of silver light.

Standing in the shadow of grand tree, the librarian’s eyes were hidden in shadow when he looked up, though the Inquisitor could feel his gaze upon her.

“The Eldar who attacked us are now only five in number,” he told her, “they will not seek to pursue us with so few.”

“Five!?” Nerf sounded incredulous. “You’re saying that five killed all of those men?!”

The space marine’s large head dipped downwards to confirm that it was true: the Eldar had slaughtered Princeton and his men even though they were outnumbered more than twelve to one.

“The aliens attacked in an ambush where they had a distinct advantage,” Aquinas continued, “and though I can sense more Eldar are near, they are still few enough in number that they will not attempt a direct assault. In all likelihood, they no longer think us strong enough to be a threat.”

Godwyn found herself nodding in agreement. It all made sense. The Eldar had likely been watching them from the very beginning, and once they had witnessed Princeton’s abilities against the disorganized humans it was only a matter of time until they set a trap and waited for him to walk right in. She had never encountered the Eldar directly before, though she had studied their ways and knew that they did not waste resources on anything other than the most definitive of strikes. They were not about to send a search party to hunt down any survivors, though they would more than likely set another trap to draw the unwary to them.

Godwyn mentioned this, and Aquinas agreed.

“Indeed, we cannot afford to be distracted,” he said. “We must pursue our goal directly.”

Still kneeling where she had fallen in the dirt, Spider pawed nervously at the ground with one hand while she swept the hair from her eyes with the other. She knew this would rely on her, but she didn’t know how they’d manage now that everyone else was dead.

“How do you know all this?” Nerf asked the space marine, tapping his fingers idly against his carbine’s stock.

“I could sense it as it unfolded,” Aquinas replied flatly.

“Did you know this would happen?” the Catachan then asked.

The Inquisitor gave a sharp warning look in his direction, but Aquinas spoke before she could say anything:

“Yes,” he said, “I did.”

Godwyn felt the bottom drop out of her stomach, and Nerf rose to his feet – his weapon in hand.

“What?”

Aquinas glanced between them, unrepentant. “I knew the Eldar would seek to trap us here, and I knew the Cadians would die. I counted on it.”

“WHAT!?!” Nerf was shouting, but Godwyn held her tongue – there had to be a reason – there had to be something.

The space marine remained calm. “The Cadians do not look favourably on desertion, and would become a burden to us sooner or later. We needed an opportunity to get away. The Eldar provided us with that opportunity.”

Godwyn was having a hard time believing her ears, but Nerf wasn’t. His gun was up in a second, but he did not fire.

“You son of a bitch!” he roared. “They died! They all died! You killed them!”

Spider scrambled to her feet and backed away from the space marine. Godwyn was moving as well, but instead she put herself between Aquinas and the Catachan.

“Nerf, lower your weapon,” she said calmly, seeing the fire in his eyes and not wanting to provoke him.

“Cass, he betrayed us!” Nerf yelled, looking past her at where the space marine was still standing beneath the tree. “Don’t defend this traitor!”

“I’m not defending him, Nerf. I am defending you. Don’t do this!”

But her agent had murder in his eyes. “I knew it. I knew it from the f***ing moment I met him that he would turn on us! He’s just been waiting for the chance!”

“Nerf,” she asked him again, “please put the gun down. We can talk about this!”

The barrel was pointing through her head at Aquinas, and looking down its sights was the former commando’s unwavering eye. He’d seen a lot of people die through those sights, and he looked ready to add another body to the count.

“Cass, we talked and talked and talked, and look what happened,” he said. “Look how many men died because all we did was talk. I’m not going to be another casualty of this ass****’s schemes. He dies!”

Godwyn had no choice: she drew her pistol and pointed it at Nerf. “Don’t make me do this, Nerf,” she pleaded with him softly, “please don’t make me do this.”

The Catachan’s aim started to waver, and then dropped completely as he lowered his weapon and stared at the ground. He swore, kicking the dirt, and then threw his carbine at the Inquisitor’s feet before turning his back to her and storming off into the darkness between the trees.

Her heart shivering in her chest, Godwyn swallowed once, and then lowered her gun. Nerf was gone without a sound. She holstered her weapon and turned to Aquinas. The space marine had not moved, but was watching her closely.

“Why did you do it?” she asked. “Tell me it was worth more than just convenience.”

“It was,” he replied flatly, not at all trying to persuade her, “the Cadians have served their purpose. As an Inquisitor, you should know that.”

As an Inquisitor she did know that, but as a human being she also knew how hard it was not save any of them – not even their memories. Nerf was right, but so was the space marine: what Aquinas had was wrong, but also necessary. They could have looked for alternate routes – perhaps a different way of leaving the Cadians behind – but as an Inquisitor Godwyn knew that they had done what needed to be done. Human lives were replaceable – human resources, expendable – and the mission had to come first. She realized that, and so did Aquinas. Nerf, however, did not. Her duty would always require her to make difficult decisions – decisions that would cost lives. His duty was to kill, simply and effectively. His duty was take lives.

“Where do we go from here?” she asked the space marine, but Aquinas had no immediate answer to give her.

“It will take time,” he said. “The Eldar a psychically attuned species and seeing through their illusions will be a long process.”

“How long?”

“I cannot say.”

Godwyn accepted this, though it was without a sense of accomplishment. Not wishing to merely stand there while Nerf had stormed away, she turned towards Mercy, but in the shadow of the tree where the assassin had once stood Godwyn instead saw nothing – the killer having vanished into the dark of night.

“Where’s Mercy?” she asked.

Spider pointed to her left – the direction opposite to where the Catachan had gone – “I saw her go that way,” she said quietly.

Godwyn traced her eyes along the way Mercy had gone. In the other direction was Nerf.

Choosing between a friend and a lover, the Inquisitor followed where the teenager had pointed, leaving the librarian and his student behind as she faded into the darkness after the assassin.

Spider waited for a time with Aquinas. Neither of them spoke as they stood underneath the silver light that drifted between the trees.

Do as you will.

The girl looked up at the giant. Slowly, his blue eyes watching her from the shade, he bowed his bald head, and, without a word, Spider picked up the dropped auto-carbine and walked into the darkness after Nerf.

 

*

 

Twigs cracked and snapped underfoot as Godwyn picked her way through the forest, and bit-by-bit she felt her eyes adjusting to the gloom. She could picture the willowy assassin walking this way and tried to imagine what it was she would have been thinking as she did so. Would she have been angry with her? Disappointed or upset? What would she have been looking for out here in the night? What was it that she, Cassandra Godwyn, could not provide?

Carefully, using only two fingers of her left hand, she brushed a swaying branch away from her face as she ducked underneath a fallen tree.

She soon doubted herself. Had she ever known Mercy? Did they share anything more than a fondness for each other’s bodies? She always thought of the silent woman as someone who didn’t need to speak to be understood, and someone who could understand without uttering a word. Had she taken the assassin’s devotion for granted? If Nerf could turn his back on her, then why couldn’t Mercy as well?

“Mercy,” Godwyn whispered into the night, “mercy.”

She needed to know.

As if hearing her thoughts, the forest soon opened up and gave her a glimpse of silver light between the trees. Turning towards it like a moth to a flame, Godwyn pushed through the undergrowth until she happened upon a clearing flooded with moonlight so bright that it glowed like day. Away from the trees, in the middle of the clearing, was some sort of rectangular-looking structure made of metal, and, strewn around it in the low-lying brush, were hunks of decaying debris in the process of being reclaimed by the forest. Sitting on top of one such chunk of rusting metal, with her long, slender back to the Inquisitor, was Mercy.

Stepping into the silver light, Godwyn walked over to her, but Mercy did not look her way.

“What are you doing here?” she asked the assassin, stopping beside her and touching her cheek.

The tall woman looked at her, her violet eyes sorrowful, and blinked. Tears leaked in slow drops down her cheeks. Godwyn wiped them away, the dirt and dried blood on her hands breaking off into tiny particles in the droplets of water. Leaning closer, Mercy kissed her – her mouth gently tugging on the other woman’s lips – then she hopped delicately down from where she sat so that they stood facing on another on even ground.

Godwyn looked up into the face of the woman that towered over her. She did not understand the expression she saw there. The silent giant was looking towards the building with a type of familiarity, though when Godwyn looked it was like nothing she remembered.

“What is it?”

Mercy did not answer, but walked towards the building with long strides.

It was an entrance of some sort and its doors stood open.

“Mercy?”

The long-limbed woman stepped inside, though tentatively, and beckoned for the Inquisitor to follow. She did.

It was black inside the building and Godwyn could not see, but Mercy took her hand within her own and guided her carefully along what felt like a steady decline leading far underground. With her sparkling violet eyes, the giant could see perfectly even when the woman she was with could not.

“Mercy, where are we going?” she asked, helpless, but hoping that she would be provided with an answer.

Strangely enough, she was.

Glow-globes flickered on in a line along the ceiling, bringing blinding light to where there had been only darkness, and, when the glare had subsided and she could see clearly once more, Godwyn was standing face-to-face with a leering skull coloured gold and inlaid upon a massive capital ‘I’.

The mark of the Inquisition.

First disbelief, then surprise, and finally a longing for understanding clouded her brain at the sight of it, though, when she looked around at the rest of the entrance hall leading into the oubliette, she saw that the bunker was in disrepair. Its inviolable doors had somehow been forced, and instead of cleansing unguents and recycled oxygen she noticed layers of mould clinging to floor and the stench of decay hanging in the air.

Beside her, Mercy’s breathing grew laboured and the curves of her breasts heaved between throws of hyperventilation.

“Mercy – calm, easy,” Godwyn helped the woman to her knees as she lost the strength to stand and held her close until the fit subsided.

“Are you alright?” she asked, looking into the other woman’s face, but Mercy nodded, and together they stood.

Once again, Godwyn looked to her surroundings.

One of the best kept secrets within the Inquisition, Inquisitorial vaults – also known as oubliettes – were scattered throughout the galaxy with no-one save the highest ranking Inquisitors knowing their locations. Such secrecy was paramount, for the work carried out behind the double doors of an oubliette was the kind that the galaxy could not be allowed to witness for one reason or another. Daemons, xenos, and things beyond imagining were brought to places like these, for even in an organization with practices as dark and sinister at the Inquisition the oubliettes held a certain reputation of dread, and it was often said that, once inside an oubliette, an Inquisitor must be prepared for the fact that he might never come out. On a breach of containment or prisoner escape, the oubliette’s machine spirit would execute and auto lock-down, sealing the occupants inside forever while alerting those few with the knowledge of its existence to never send aide.

Oubliettes were said to be impervious, yet here was one with doors flung open, and its secrets exposed to the entirety of the planet.

“How did you know about this, Mercy?” Godwyn asked, but the mute did not respond, and instead led the Inquisitor further inside.

Beyond the entrance hall the lights flickered intermittently, casting fleeting shadows along the ribbed walls, and as they advanced towards the first chamber the air became fouled with the sour stench of death. Holding back, Mercy refused to go any further, and Godwyn made her way through the flickering lights and into the first chamber alone.

Through the door the stink of a rotting corpse grew even stronger until it was almost a physical barrier the Inquisitor needed to pass through, and she had to cover her nose and mouth with a sleeve of her coat to keep herself from gagging. It was darker in this room than the others, and, with her metal hand free, she groped around the walls – her feet bumping clumsily against unseen objects that littered the floor – to see if she could find a light switch. When she found one she quickly flicked it on.

From behind her there was a shriek – Godwyn spun around just in time to see Mercy dart back from where she’d been watching at the door.

“Mercy?” she went after her – purposefully avoiding looking at whatever she’d cast light on.

Outside in the entrance chamber, the giant woman was shaking. Curled up on the dirt-stained metal floor with her long knees bent up to her chest, Mercy hid her face and sobbed. Wanting to be alone, she would not be consoled, and did not lift her head when the Inquisitor tried to comfort her. She only shook, whimpered, and pointed a long finger back into the room she had just fled.

Covering her face again with her sleeve, Godwyn went back inside.

It was an operating theatre of some kind with numerous lamps hanging down form the ceiling on mechanical arms so that they all shone upon the single surgical slab in the centre of the room.

The slab was occupied.

Godwyn had seen enough bodies in her career to not be surprised when her eyes fell upon the source of the smell lying spread-eagled on the table, but, as her boots stepped through stains of sticky dried blood that pooled on the floor with a disgusting sucking sound, the Inquisitor knew right away that this was no mere corpse. The rotting remains were of a woman – a giant, long-limbed, and inhumanly lithe woman – but she had not merely been killed; she had been dissected. Her chest sliced open from her collar-bone down to her genitalia, Godwyn’s eyes peeled over what had been left inside the corpse, and – more importantly – the hollow places where organs were missing.

This was no ordinary human corpse.

Numerous organs had no direct counterpart in the pure human body, and those that did looked heavily modified. With a sickening feeling, she knew that she was looking at Mercy. Not the woman herself, but one of her sisters – like the one she had seen accompanying Inquisitor Brand. Did she even count as a woman?

Walking slowly upwards from the feet, Godwyn cringed in disgust when she saw that whoever had harvested the woman’s organs had also taken her head – leaving only the stump of a neck behind.

She’d seen enough, and turning away from the corpse that had been left to rot, the Inquisitor turned her attention to the rest of the room. It had been trashed – ransacked – whoever was here last having stolen or destroyed everything of value, but there was another door at the end of the theatre, and, wanting answers, Godwyn pulled it open.

Who was this woman who had been cut apart? Where did she come from? How was it that Mercy led her to place where one of her sisters had died? The Inquisitor’s thoughts turned towards the missing head – that would have held answers. Disgusted, she banished the notion from her mind.

The next room looked like another operating chamber, and though it too had been ransacked there was nothing of interest to keep her there.

She kept searching until she had put four more operating rooms behind her.

Still nothing.

She was about to concede that there were no answers left for her to find when she happened upon a larger, circular chamber with a gently domed ceiling. It was surprisingly warm in this room, damp too, and Godwyn could feel a draught follow her as she left the door open behind her and walked to the centre of the room. Inside were a series of long glass tubes filled with some sort of fluid, though otherwise they were empty. Each tube was connected to one another with an assortment of pipes and cables that extended to every section of the glass, and there were more connectors leading from each tube to a large data-cogitator that sat behind it.

Standing in the middle of the room, Godwyn started to count the glass containers one-by-one, turning around in circle as she counted upwards towards twelve, though when she reached the twelfth tube she stopped – staring to see if her eyes had tricked her.

The last tube had something in it.

She went to it and peered through the glass. Inside was a woman, fully grown with long limbs, curled into a foetal and seemingly asleep as she hung suspended in a soup of amniotic fluids.

Backing away, Godwyn tried to shake some sense into her head. She was in a room – a birthing chamber – where killers the likes of Mercy had been bred. This was an Inquisitorial facility, ergo the killers were also of Inquisitorial stock. Her mind racing, she looked back at the creature through the glass.

The woman inside the tube had alabaster skin and platinum hair, and, as she watched, the Inquisitor could see her muscles twitch as if dreaming.

At the base of the tube there was a simple steel plaque. Godwyn had to squint to read it in the dim light. It bore a name.

Zero.

She read it twice more to make sure that her eyes were not playing tricks on her. The name was Zero.

Quickly she went to the others and read the names. Echo – Shade – Night – Faith – Eden – Promise – Whisper – Grace – and, two from the last…

“Mercy.”

It wasn’t Godwyn who said it, and when she turned around the giant woman stood behind her, tears leaking in a steady stream from her violet eyes.

“Mercy…” Godwyn touched her gently, but she did not know what words should be carried on. She felt somehow as if she were intruding – seeing something she should not see – laying bare the secrets of an unknowable mind – visiting the scene of an atrocity she helped commit.

“This is my beginning…” the red haired woman wept, her voice like a nocturne of sounds joining together to make words like oil over water. “I am now this, not who I was…”

With Godwyn’s help, she sat on the floor, trembling with sorrow as Zero floated dreamlessly, unborn in her tank.

“Were you brought here?” the Inquisitor asked, holding the giant woman close in her arms and cradling her to her chest. “Did they… make you like this?”

Tears continued to fall as Godwyn stroked her hair, feeling the warmth of the giant’s trembling body through her clothing. There was no hurry – no necessity – for either of them now, just time to find an understanding, a connection, and give old wounds the power of a voice to be heard.

“I no longer can tell…” she said in a sorrowful whisper. “Life is a dream, and I do not see the dawn.”

 

* *

 

A white mist clung to the forest floor as Spider trekked deeper through the trees after the Catachan. She had his carbine and wished to return it to him, but there was also more than that. Always, there was more.

Tugging of the heart’s strings did strange things, including sending a defenceless teenager picking through the woods in the heart of night while aliens were about.

Her foot caught on a root and she tripped – only barely catching herself before getting another face-full of dirt – but she didn’t stop, and didn’t think to complain. She was committed, body and soul.

“What are you doing here, kid?”

Nerf was sitting on a downed log in the shade, just barely visible by the moonlight and the orange glow of a smouldering cigar.

Spider collected herself, and, holding out the auto-carbine, walked towards him.

“You left this,” she said.

“I know I did.”

She sat beside him on the log, placing the auto-carbine between them. The Catachan had been there for while: his rifle leaned against a nearby tree, and his fighting knife was driven blade first into the wood beside him. His eyes only ever stared directly ahead. With a foot of space between them, Spider felt her insides flutter, and her feet had a hard time staying still.

“I came to find you,” she said.

“Why?”

“Because… I didn’t want you to leave.”

A cloud of smoke escaped his mouth. “I didn’t leave.”

Trapping her hands between her knees, Spider found it hard to look at him, and every time she tried her eyes unfailingly found their way to the ground, or the knife, or the gun, but not him. She wanted to, but if she did he might see it in her eyes, and he’d walk away from her – just like he did from the others.

“Are you going to come back?” she asked.

The Catachan examined the cigar, turning it back and forth between his fingers. “I dunno. Maybe. You’re going back though.”

Spider didn’t know if what he said was a threat, a question, or something else in between. Whatever it was, she knew she couldn’t stay quiet.

“I’d like if you came back,” she said, hands still stuck between her knees.

“Yeah? Why? So I can wait for that f***er to decide that I’m expendable? That you’re expendable? That he doesn’t give a f*** and that we’re all expendable?”

He stood up and walked a few steps forward under the moonlight – kicking at small pebbles as he did so.

“You’re a good kid,” he said while his back was tuned to her, “you got a lot of potential. You deserve more than this, but no-one ever gets what they deserve… do they?”

Sitting in silence, Spider watched as he walked about. She still didn’t understand what he meant, but she longed to hear his voice talking to her, as if every word pushed a feeling of warmth deeper into her chest.

“What do you think I deserve… Nerf?” she asked quietly, hardly breathing as she watched him, her sense of ardour silently growing with his every move.

“How should I know?” he replied, sitting back down beside her on the log with his cigar clamped between his teeth. He took it out, blowing rich smoke into the air, but still did not look at her face. “I just know there are things that everyone wants, and that because of what you are, you got no chance to get them.”

“What kind of things?”

“I don’t know,” he said, again puffing on his cigar, “those are the kind of questions you need to ask yourself.”

She had asked herself those questions. She’d answered them too.

“Nerf…” she said, her fingers tense and holding on to her legs as if to keep them from kicking out.

He glanced in her direction, the cigar between his lips.

“Nerf, I…”

Her breath was catching in her lungs, making it hard to speak. Her heart was throbbing.

“I… I love you, Nerf.”

His eyes were on her for what felt like minutes. She felt her face burning and she couldn’t meet his. How could something that had felt so right leave her feeling like an idiot so quickly? She felt like she need to explain herself – to tell him that it wasn’t some silly thing – to make him understand that…

He put his hand on her thigh.

Her world froze. She stopped breathing.

His hand started to move – tapped up and down twice – and then left as he looked away.

“Don’t say that, kid,” he said in a low voice.

Why not? It was true!

The heart pounding in her chest felt like it was going to explode.

“I want you, Nerf,” she said a little too quickly. “Please?”

The Catachan stood up, and the man she loved walked away from her. Spider would have followed him, but her legs felt like stone.

“Kid,” he said, “you don’t even know what love is.”

“Yes I do.”

“No you don’t!”

She swallowed, licking her dry lips. There was water waiting heavily in the corner of her eyes – if she so much as blinked, she’d be in tears.

“Then teach me!” she begged, her voice breaking as she sat rooted to the spot.

He passed a hand through his hair and looked at the ground.

“Kid – ”

“I’M NOT A CHILD!”

“YES YOU ARE!” he was shouting now and sounded angry. Spider was standing, her fists in balls as the tears flowed.

“You’re a kid!” he drove it home. “You’ve got a whole life ahead of you!”

“All of us almost died!”

“That’s exactly what I don’t want for you! I want to protect you, keep you safe… no more of this…” he waved a hand in the air as he failed to find the words.

It had gone beyond words as Spider as well, and she felt her hopes crashing down around her – splitting into a millions pieces. Everything she’d felt – everything she’d wanted – was gone in a few heartbeats. Her life was bleak. Existence from now on seemed pointless. It was agony – unbearable – beyond her ability to reconcile. How could she have been so blind? How could she have lied to herself so completely?

Through her tears she saw the Catachan approaching, but she backed away- tripping and falling backwards over the log.

“Spider – ”

“Leave me alone!” she screamed, turning and running blindly into the forest.

“Spider!” she heard him shout after her, but she was running too fast with the wind in her ears. She’d never stop – never go back – only running felt real to her now – the power of her own legs springing her forward. Feet pounding through the mist, she ran forever until all the feelings flowed away, until her lungs burned with the inability to keep up.

She skidded to a stop, and doubled over in gasping sobs. It would never be the same anymore. She could not go back. She could never go back.

When Spider opened her eyes, however, she saw her own reflection in a riverbed. It smiled at her, and spoke:

Don’t be afraid, it said, everything will be alright.

She smelled the fire. The inferno was raging around her – a conflagration from the depths of hell had risen to torment her. The trees were burning – twisting and snapping in the heat that consumed them – and all around she hear the voice laughing. It was laughing at her – laughing beyond the edge of her perception through the fire. Now she would belong to it, just as it had foreseen. She had opened the gates of her soul too wide and let the beast in.

Aquinas had warned her – tried to save her – but she was a fool. The fear, the hatred, the loneliness: it all came crashing down as her world caught fire.

What could she do? Could she run? Could she seek help? Forgiveness?

No forgiveness for weakness. No apologies for failure.

She was on her feet as the flames closed in on her, but she was not yet done. She owed it to herself, to Aquinas, to Nerf, to be stronger than this, and not succumb to madness.

Sensing her resolve, the beast emerged from the flames, laughing its challenge for her to accept as it closed in upon her.

Defiant, she drew her knife and lunged at it, but the silver blade did nothing. She stabbed and stabbed again, but the beast still held her – its voice drowning out her own. Faltering, the young psyker screamed and flailed, and then drove home what would be her final blow and felt it strike its mark.

The fire stopped.

The laughing subsided.

A splash of hot blood painted her chest as the Catachan fell into her arms.

“Nerf! NERF!”

His eyes were moving back and forth across her face and blood gushed from his mouth. He sank lower and lower in her arms, his strength leaving him, as the girl struggled to keep him upright.

“Nerf! No – no, I didn’t… not you! Not you!”

She couldn’t hold him, and he fell, dragging her down with him into the dirt as his arms trembled and quaked in their dying throws. The silver bladed knife that had killed him was still embedded in his throat. Arterial blood spurted from the wound.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” she cried, her tears falling onto the Catachan, mingling with his blood. “I’m… I’m so sorry, Nerf!”

His skin was turning pale and his breaths came in burbling gasps, but even so he found the strength to touch her face with bloodied hands – drawing two lines of red along the black spider’s legs. He smiled.

“It’s… o’kay…” he said on his last dying breaths as she stared down into his face. “I’m… okay…”

Spider took his hand in both of hers and held it against her cheek as he looked up at her. He continued to smile for as long as he could, and seemed to shift, growing more comfortable where he lay on the dirt. He sighed, like a long day was finally over, and, moving no more, closed his eyes.

The tears continued to roll down Spider’s face, wetting his fingers as she held them against her cheek, but even with him so close to her she knew he was far away, and when she released his hand it fell away forever. He was gone.

His big smile, his kind words, his warming laugh.

Gone.

Sobbing softly all alone, she laid her head down on his chest and swore that she’d never forget him. Feelings live on forever and memories can never truly die, even here, on this forgotten world lying on the borders of the Imperium.

 

She awoke to the sound of twigs snapping underfoot, but even when she opened her swollen eyes she did not move. Lying amidst blood and tears with Nerf, the girl with the spider tattoo was where she needed to be, and it was not until she sensed the giant form of Aquinas approaching that she looked up to meet his ice-like eyes.

“What have you done?” he asked her in a scathing hiss as he came upon the scene of her crime.

Her face covered in Nerf’s congealed blood, the girl could not hold his stare for long, but nevertheless stayed bent over the corpse – shielding it from harm.

It was the dawn of a new day.

The Librarian exhaled deeply through his nose. “They will never forgive you for this,” he told her, “and you cannot go back to them now.”

She knew that. She could not, and would not, go anywhere anymore. This is where she wanted to be. This is where she wanted to die.

All of this the Librarian sensed, but he knew it was not allowed to be.

“There is still work to be done,” he said, stepping around the body and picking up the girl like he would an infant – removing her from Nerf. “Though your sorrow may consume you, do not let his death be in vain…”

She watched over the space marine’s shoulder as he took her away – watched until she could no longer see the fallen Catachan between the trees.

“…take strength in the loss of others. Grow stronger on their behalf. Your journey is not yet at an end.”

 

-------------------------

 

A prayer for the departed. May they live for ever in memory :rolleyes:

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

wow, nerf....

 

Not Nerf....

[Olis]

Noooooooooo... :lol:

[Papewaio]

:woot: Aaaw...

[Lady_Canoness]

:) Aaaw...

 

As a character, Nerf has been with me since before I even dreamed of writing the Inquisition. Having him die was a very sad moment indeed.

The mission must come first, however, and there are still a hanful of parts (3 at most) to go through before this tale is concluded.

[Dosjetka]

I've only read the last part of this and so I've missed out on it all, but goodness, you write that so well that I feel so sad inside at Nerf's death :lol: Make me want to read the rest as quickly as possible though :)

 

Ludovic

[TrashMan]

Nice read. Too bad about Princeton.

 

Since when are Eldar so large compared to space marines?

The way they are depicted here is...monstrous. Banshee avoiding lasgun fire? LASERS????

 

Thats how they would appear to the average human. They were always tall and I imagine in their armour, with the superime training they recieve in their armour, that the aspect warriors are essencally the equilent to the space marines as far as humanity looking at them is concerned. Infinately graceful and artistic, not that the mundane senses of humanity tend to notice when their colleges are being gracefully turned into sliced cucumber.

 

 

I'm jsut not seeing an eldar warrior matching a SM librarian.

 

I mean....think about it. There's far more eldar than there are SM's. If an eldar is equal to a SM in combat, then the Eldar alone would have decimated the SM armies (that without coutning in losses from Chaos, orcs, Necrons and other nasties).

 

And as gracefull as one is, you don't dodge a LASER. Maybe your average guardsmen would be a poor shot, but a crack Cadian???

I just can't see cadians loosing so utterly to the Eldar..without brining even one down.

[Olis]

And as gracefull as one is, you don't dodge a LASER.

 

Hate to burst your bubble brother but Lasguns are not Laser guns. Laser-based guns, yes. They fire bolts of energy. Bolts which, not only are visible to the naked eye, but is slow enough to be dodged by sufficiently quick aliens/post-humans. A lasgun acts alot like the Stormtrooper blasters from Star Wars, rather than a proper laser gun per se. Granted, in DoW they are depicted as visible lasers but in nearly every other medium I can recall they do not feature the hallmarks of a genuine laser gun, but rather the aforementioned blaster.

 

I'll get off my soapbox now. :P

[Lady_Canoness]

That's what I was going for Ludo, and I'm please that you wish to read the rest of it now ^_^

 

As for the Eldar wooping the Cadians, there were 2 thoughts in my mind when doing that.

 

1) Every Eldar described was an Exarch - the leaders of the warrior aspects, and thousand-year veterans. They are faster, tougher, and more skilled than even the highly skilled aspect warriors they lead.

 

2) The Eldar don't fight fair. They attacked at night and by surprise, and did whatever they could to give themselves a huge advantage. Now consider that the warrior aspects are masters at what it is they do. A banshee exarch dodging lasfire is more like 'being too fast to aim at properly' than directly dodging lasbolts.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys!

 

;)

[Dosjetka]

That's what I was going for Ludo, and I'm please that you wish to read the rest of it now ;)

I always have, but now I'm actually going to make a big effort to be able to read it sometime soon! ;)

 

And I completely agree with you both said about Eldar and lasguns, Olisredan and Lady_C ;)

 

Ludovic

[Taranis]

Oh no. Not Nerf. ;)

 

He was the only normal human left. Now there are just psykers, a cyborg and a clone! Still I like the clone, the cyborg and the smallest psyker ;)

 

A Nerf and a Mercy beats two Mercy; A Nerf and two Mercy's beat anything.

 

Where are all the high tech doctors and cloners? The lab is waiting! Even a herbalist might do the trick? ;)

 

Great description and explanation of the Eldar. They were omnipotent for obvious reasons. :tu:

 

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the story, as always. ;)

[Lady_Canoness]

Oh no. Not Nerf. :cry:

 

He was the only normal human left. Now there are just psykers, a cyborg and a clone! Still I like the clone, the cyborg and the smallest psyker :tu:

 

A Nerf and a Mercy beats two Mercy; A Nerf and two Mercy's beat anything.

 

Where are all the high tech doctors and cloners? The lab is waiting! Even a herbalist might do the trick? ;)

 

Great description and explanation of the Eldar. They were omnipotent for obvious reasons. :tu:

 

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the story, as always. :wub:

 

Nice response, Taranis :)

 

We'll see what happens with Zero as the story wraps up, but I don't intend for her to be a carbon copy of Mercy - so two Mercys is a liiiiittle off ;)

 

Losing Nerf is a blow, for sure, both inside and outside of the story. His loss will be felt :(

[Wysten]

Nice read. Too bad about Princeton.

 

Since when are Eldar so large compared to space marines?

The way they are depicted here is...monstrous. Banshee avoiding lasgun fire? LASERS????

 

Thats how they would appear to the average human. They were always tall and I imagine in their armour, with the superime training they recieve in their armour, that the aspect warriors are essencally the equilent to the space marines as far as humanity looking at them is concerned. Infinately graceful and artistic, not that the mundane senses of humanity tend to notice when their colleges are being gracefully turned into sliced cucumber.

 

 

I'm jsut not seeing an eldar warrior matching a SM librarian.

 

I mean....think about it. There's far more eldar than there are SM's. If an eldar is equal to a SM in combat, then the Eldar alone would have decimated the SM armies (that without coutning in losses from Chaos, orcs, Necrons and other nasties).

 

And as gracefull as one is, you don't dodge a LASER. Maybe your average guardsmen would be a poor shot, but a crack Cadian???

I just can't see cadians loosing so utterly to the Eldar..without brining even one down.

 

There are a few factors you have to consider here.

 

For most part, the Eldar are too few and far between to even begin to challange the warmachine of the Empire. Hence while they are inherently superior in a simlar way that a space marine is superior to a human. A small squad of them can kill many humans, but there is not nearly enough Eldar to fight even a fraction of the millitry might that the Imperium can level. Hence the few times they fight battles they play solely to their strengths of their superior individialisum, very small scale battles with the occational big war now and again, such as against Chaos itself.

 

Secondly normally the Eldar are not that superior, but again aspects have undergone almost the degree of hypo suggestion that the Space Marines have, the only real differences are that they for most part can chose their mentatly (they often keep themselves spilt into modes, for civillian life and a personality for war.) In combination with the armour that is designed to make the most of the fantastic abilitys of your average eldar and you have quite a fearsome killing machine.

 

The third was that the space marine wasn't armoured. He had a power weapon of some kind, but he didn't have the usual conforts that came with the armour, hence is actually a statement of how good Aqiuus actually is.

 

While your average Eldar, who has not embraced an aspect is only mildly super human, a fully armoured aspect warrior with a mentalty rivalling that of the space marines and a physical layout that would make our best sports people look like fat children and all those small factors in combantion with fantastic technology and mental processes allows them to engineer the exact situation that 20 guardsman is just a walk in the park. The fact the space marine and Mercy was there was a complication they may not had counted on and hence resulted in their only loss of life. Could Eldar go head to head with space marines? Possibly, but not without gigantic losses and they would never allow such a head on battle to go on willingly. Either way, they are a foe to be respected. Good when they feel like batting for the imperials, argueably more terrifying then the Necrons and Chaos conbinued when they really want you dead.

 

 

 

Still, woh about Nerf. In all honesty considering the pressence he was getting in fleshing out the character, I fully saw his death coming as a natural cause of advancing the plot, because someone had to die. It still really surprised me in the way which he died, shocking, since he had very much become as importent as the orignal cast and in all honesty, I really was hoping that it would be the Inquistor and not him that died so that he can still continue to tell his story. Cracking story. I am glad the bolter is allowing this lack of marine to allow a powerful story to blossum on this humble forum. ^^

[Lady_Canoness]

Still, woh about Nerf. In all honesty considering the pressence he was getting in fleshing out the character, I fully saw his death coming as a natural cause of advancing the plot, because someone had to die. It still really surprised me in the way which he died, shocking, since he had very much become as importent as the orignal cast and in all honesty, I really was hoping that it would be the Inquistor and not him that died so that he can still continue to tell his story. Cracking story. I am glad the bolter is allowing this lack of marine to allow a powerful story to blossum on this humble forum. ^^

 

There are several reasons behind 'why Nerf?' and the manner in which it happened, though I am planning to hold onto those until III is concluded lest some of you smart-cookies (of which there are a lot of you!) start deducing the rest of the story-arc by interpreting the ramifications of his passing. He was important while alive, and will still have an impact now that he is dead.

 

That you, and possibly others, think my story is 'powerful' is humbling ;)

 

As a side note, I would like to say a special thankyou to Greyall, who has agreed to put pen to paper on my behalf and give us a picutre of either Inquisitor Godwyn or Spider at some point in the future :)

[Olis]

As a side note, I would like to say a special thankyou to Greyall, who has agreed to put pen to paper on my behalf and give us a picutre of either Inquisitor Godwyn or Spider at some point in the future :P

 

Sounds like a treat. I warn you, I'll have high expectations. :ph34r:

 

(I'm still cut up about Nerf, mind you. :( )

[Olis]

Whoops. Double post. That hasn't happened in a while... :ph34r:

[TrashMan]

Still, woh about Nerf. In all honesty considering the pressence he was getting in fleshing out the character, I fully saw his death coming as a natural cause of advancing the plot, because someone had to die. It still really surprised me in the way which he died, shocking, since he had very much become as importent as the orignal cast and in all honesty, I really was hoping that it would be the Inquistor and not him that died so that he can still continue to tell his story. Cracking story. I am glad the bolter is allowing this lack of marine to allow a powerful story to blossum on this humble forum. ^^

 

Agreed.

I too prefer Nerf to the Inquisitor.

But alas, he was too good for hte grimdarkenss....

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

I am wondering what the potential effect on Mercy will be now that Nerf is gone, considering that he was the one who rescued her and seems to have kept her somewhat sane...

 

I also wonder how Cassandra will behave without the voice of reason that is Nerf to help her.

[Aqui]

I am wondering what the potential effect on Mercy will be now that Nerf is gone, considering that he was the one who rescued her and seems to have kept her somewhat sane...

 

I also wonder how Cassandra will behave without the voice of reason that is Nerf to help her.

 

I was thinking the same. besides the fact that Mercy has seen her Dobbelganger (many times over) and the place that she was either born, reborn, or worse.....created.

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

should be interesting to say the least i think!

[Lady_Canoness]

Interesting, but tricky. I'm about half-way through part 23 and have to be very careful not to bungle it ;)

[Azekai]

Well dammit. Haven't kept up lately and had to read the last several pages all at once. I too was shocked at Nerf's death (friggin' mutant witches), but the fact that such a death incited such an emotional tug gave me pause; this is a really, REALLY good story, with characterization that puts many published works to shame. Keep it up Lady Canoness! I am sure your concluding posts will not disappoint in the slightest!