Tanya von Degurechaff
I coughed up something, not exactly sure what. The impact into the ground had been rather devastating and who knew what internal damage I was dealing with. I was trying to use my magic to generate some form of healing but my hands were too cold and I couldn't move my fingers correctly.
Today had been a terrible day. I finally got in my unit out of rotation on the front line in Russy and was trying to get us some kind of desk job before we were all sent back to the fight. So far It had not been a very easy thing to accomplish but things were generally moving in the right direction.
Until the Americans joined the war and then things went south again.
Well… North, actually. An American expeditionary force had landed in the Entente and was currently arming the remnants of their military and taking control of that territory for themselves.
This, of course, could not stand. Given that my force was already well on its way to being rebuilt we were in a perfect position to be sent North.
I would not be granted a moment's peace to try and get myself back into fighting shape or at least get me out of the fight. So Northward we had been sent, the entire army group Salamander. We had been fighting the Entente remnants and the Americans for the last half month, stalling out their advance and pushing them generally back towards the mountains in Norway. Of course we couldn't push them too hard because they had withdrawn into places where they could easily defend.
Really, all of this was standard at this point. Things got unstandard in the fact that the damn berserker who had fought me all across the federation somehow got herself reassigned to the front I was now fighting on and well… Whenever we met things got explosive.
As it had today, the fighting had probably destroyed a couple miles of forest and things had not looked great. Not that things were looking pretty right now but… Oh, I think… I think I won?
Laying across from me was the berserker, her body broken though not her life as she was still moaning in pain. Her legs and arms were most definitely broken as they were facing ways that really were not humanly possible unless they were broken.
It was a great victory as she seemed to be delirious and unable to attack me but I seemed to be dealing with internal injuries.
Unfortunately, things weren't much better on my end. I wasn't really sure where my mage backup was but I was definitely behind enemy lines and my radio was kaput. I was definitely looking at either death by cold or, if I was lucky, I'd be taken prisoner by the Americans.
Although… all things considered, that wouldn't be a terrible outcome, would it?
If I was in an American prison camp I'd probably get an okay life when this is all over and, as far as I was aware, the Empire never committed any war crimes on the level of the Third Reich. So I was probably looking, at worst, whatever treatment German POWs got in World war 1. Well then again maybe even better than then, because being an officer for rank and a teenage girl could come in handy. Maybe I could play up the fact that I was just a dumb teenager swept up in the war. That could possibly work. I might feel sorry for screwing over the Empire but, well, if I was going to be a prisoner of war I'd rather spend it in comfort than misery if I could help it.
Coughs alerted me that my erstwhile enemy had finally woken up. She muttered something and said 'papa' before blinking several times and then she saw me.
Rather interesting, watching her face contort. When she had been unconscious her face had looked absolutely charming but the moment she saw me all that beauty went away and was replaced by a bitter rage.
"Devil!" She called and tried to sit up, immediately screaming as her limbs responded with just pain.
Coughing, I said "I'd recommend not doing that. You're pretty screwed up from what I can see and if you want to live with functionality restored you better just wait till some sort of medical corp finds us."
I Spoke in Scandinavian, with the hope that maybe we could have some communication and my English was not exactly top-notch as I had not had many occasions to practice it in this life.
"I won't live with any functionality unless I make sure you die, you killed my father."
I sighed and shook my head., "Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows things down? I can't even begin to count how many fathers I've probably killed in this war."
A ragged cough escaped my lips, but the look on Mary's face made me push through. "After all, the Empire sends their best to the bloodiest battlefields and, well, not to be immodest…but I was one of the best. Ugly as it might be, I have quite the kill count."
Blinking, I looked up at the sky before adding, "although… I guess if you're speaking Scandinavian that does cut down the options a bit, doesn't it?"
"What do you mean you were the best?" The brown-haired girl said, sounding disgusted and annoyed by my statement.
"Well I have internal bleeding, I'm sure of it, so most likely I'm not going to make it unless I get some good medical care. Unless your allies find us any moment now I'm probably dead for the world."
"Good, a monster like you deserves to die here alone in the cold."
I coughed at that and said, "I'm not alone though, am I?".
"Well, enemies don't count! Guess I've just been granted a front-row seat confirmation of your death."
I chuckled at that and pulled out my pistol and pointed it in her direction, the look of fear that came over her as she realized that I could take away that front row seat was somewhat humorous if not truly sad.
"Bang," I said, before lowering it back down to the ground. "As much as you think I'm a monster I'm really not, I just went where the military sent me. I attempted to never bring my feelings, except for wanting to live into the battlefield, unlike you."
"You killed my father, I'm allowed to bring my feelings onto the battlefield."
Coughing, I asked, "How do you know I killed your father, by the way? That's really been bugging me over the last couple of years, you keep saying that but you've never explained it."
"Your gun, it has my father's initials on it. You obviously stole it from him after you murdered him."
I coughed and thought about it and then nodded. "Oh! That guy. To be fair he came right at me trying to kill me for patriotism's sake when we were withdrawing, so stealing that from him was not really the point. More something that just happened and he didn't even die when I stole it from him."
"What?" The girl said leaning forward, seeming to have been granted some hope that I had unfortunately unleashed.
Coughing, again, and damn that hurt, I said, "He did not die in our first battle. Heck, he didn't even die in our second, though the second one is when I stole the gun. I killed him in our third encounter, over the Channel."
"So, you admit you've murdered him? At least you'll have some forgiveness for your sins."
I coughed and said, "Can you knock off the good godly girl crap? What are you going to do when someone comes after you for murdering people during the war, are you going to let them kill you because you killed their father?"
The girl stuttered and said "You're the bad guys, you invaded my country! Anything that happens after that point is a totally responsible-"
"Bullshit!" I cut her off, leaning forward. "I was there on the very first day of the war, the Entente invaded the Empire. If you're trying to make that argument you are sorely misinformed about how the war actually started."
Coughing again I raised my hand to try and stem it a bit but it came away wet with blood. Sighing I leaned back against the tree, "The world is not black and white, berserker. I'm a damn orphan, I joined the military so I could have a chance at a reasonable life. Then the war broke out and I defended myself. You came to this war to kill me because I defended myself in a war. Which one of those sounds more like the bad guy in the scenario here."
I expected some sort of comeback but all I got was silence. Focusing my eyes better I saw that she was looking at me, biting her lips in thought. Finally she said, "Mary, my name is Mary."
Coughing, I answered, "Tanya," returning the name in exchange since I had no idea what she was thinking.
Well, apparently what she was thinking was rather painful as she flopped her arm down into somewhat of a usable position and screamed as she straightened it.
"Is there some reason you're engaging in self-harm?" I asked. She slowly maneuvered her arm into a better position to reach something on her side.
"My radio is still functioning, I think. If you surrender I'll use it to call for help." Mary said, still slowly reaching down towards what I could now see was a somewhat busted box by the looks of it.
Well, considering I was all for actually surviving… I said, "I surrender. You have my parole, Miss Mary."
She nodded and slowly unclipped the radio and brought it to her face. "This is Mary Sue. I've gone down in the woods somewhere, can anyone hear me?
There was a brief pause but nothing came back. She shook her radio and said, "Well, I guess a quick escape is not going to be guaranteed."
"Unfortunate" I replied, only to be interrupted as the radio broke whatever silence was ongoing.
"Sir, there's no sign of Mary and the enemy mages are pushing on our flags." Came a female voice.
Mary's face lit up as she talked into the radio, saying, "I'm not sure where I am but I'm here."
"Damnation! We can't hold this location, we have to pull back," Responded an older male voice.
"Guys? Guys?" Mary was questioning, trying to figure it out.
Shaking my head, I said, "Transmitter must be broken but we are still able to get communications or overhear communications."
"Ducking damn it," Mary said in a mutter. How old was she?
"What about Mary, we can't leave her out here." The female voice said again.
"That's not our problem now. Our command is putting this defeat on her shoulders, that explosion took out the center of the line and a lot of people are dead. If we see her we're supposed to arrest her... Better to have died a hero than come back and be charged."
Mary seemed stunned by that bit of info but really I was surprised that this had taken so long. Her antics had cost her side quite a number of victories in my opinion. I just scraped by each time so apparently was scraping by this time.
If I was petty I might try and rub that in, but I was in far too much pain and Mary was getting some functionality back to her arms. Better to not tick off the person who was already considering strangling you.
Instead I said, "Well, Mary, on the off chance that it's my people that find us first, do you want to surrender or should we just leave that situation standing here and now?"
She gave me a glare, which I nodded my head at. "Leave that for now, got it."
"Can't believe they just left me. Aren't we the good guys? Aren't we supposed to be watching out for each other?"
The urge to roll my eyes was a thing that I had to fight but I think I managed it quite well. Instead, I said, "You're an accomplished mage, Mary, they're going to assume you can either figure out how to survive on your own or you're already dead. I don't know if you know this but mage combat is not one where prisoners are taken all the time, we're far too dangerous to be left to each other… And infantry tends to carry grudges against us."
"Damn it." Mary muttered, before throwing the radio right above my head. It impacted the tree, was smashed, and fell to pieces around me.
"Bit much," I muttered, but not much else I could say on the matter. Instead I reached down and put the pistol back in my holster before pulling myself up with a branch.
"What are you doing?" Mary asked as I got myself standing, coughing into my hand before starting to stumble in her direction.
"Well, we are in the Northern latitudes and it's snowing. We are very likely to die if we sit across from each other for this entire night. The fact of the matter is the only chance we'll have of surviving is to share body heat." I came to a stop next to where she was lying and then slowly lowered myself till I was against her shoulder. 'That's what we're going to do. Even if it's just a minimal bit of heat it might keep us alive long enough for someone to find us. Hopefully the fact that we're not shooting each other will encourage them not to shoot either one of us when they show up and we can be taken prisoner by whichever side is the one who finds us. Sounds like a deal?"
Mary nodded before saying "Fine, Devil, that sounds like a deal."
Coughing I looked up at the sky and said, "Well, probably not the way you thought you'd spend today?"
"No. No, it is not." Mary muttered.
Sighing I asked a question that had been bugging me, one that normally I would not ask. In fact I was very well possibly going to die before I got the answer but something spurred me on. "So, does being X talk to you?"
"Who?" Mary asked, sounding confused.
"When your eyes glow yellow and you feel unnatural amounts of power flowing through you, does a voice talk to you to spur you on and tell you what to do?"
She shook her head, seeming confused, before replying, "No. That's not something that has ever happened."
I coughed before saying, "Man, you really hate me then. Guess being X wasn't pushing you to attack me."
"Who is this being X?"
"A parasitical creature that calls itself God," I said, before coughing again. Looking up I saw the snow had stopped falling and not in the sense that the clouds were clearing, more in the sense of the time had stopped.
"Really, now? This is the first time you actually try and talk to someone about me. This is momentous, my child. I'm quite inspired by this, to have the disbeliever go to the believer to try and understand."
Coughing, I looked around and saw a figure walking toward me, this time it was a muscular man with a beard and wearing a toga.
"Speak of the parasite," I muttered as he came closer.
"Please, my child, we have known each other so long and you still call me Being X and a parasite? Have I not made it clear that I am who I say I am?"
"You've made some things clear, still not going to worship you as some all-knowing god."
"Wait, what? Are you saying this is God?!"
I stopped and looked to my side, seeing Mary was still functionally here and not frozen. Turning back to being X, I asked, "Why is she here?"
"I don't know…" X murmured, his face going weird as if he was scared or confused. The answer was forthcoming though as a chuckle came from the woods around us.
"Oh, what a grand show! What a bloody good time this has been. Two players of strategy locked in a contest of plans within plans, fighting to achieve their goals at each other's expense. This was a grand sight that I do not wish to ever see go away again."
There was a thump, loud enough that it reminded me of a T-Rex taking a step in the Jurassic Park movies, then another. Out of the trees came a grotesque figure, a bird-like creature that stood a good 10 ft tall. Its feathering was in majority blue though there was a riot of other colors showing as it leaned over and gave a bow, using its walking staff as a way to give it the most depth without falling over.
"Good evening, my entertainment. I must say this has been a wonderful show for me and my master over the last few years, and I am honestly quite sad to see it go. Truly, I am."The creature grabbed its chest and looked up at the sky what might have resembled a twisted mockery of a smile, had it not been for its beak., I think it was smiling but it was hard to tell considering it wore a beak."To have it end with the death of the Berserker and the Devil as they take a moment to actually get to know each other and share warmth, as they both slowly pass into that good night… Ah, it warms my heart!"
"What are you doing here, Daemon?" Called being X as he turned on the creature, drawing a lightning bolt out of The ether and holding it like a javelin.
"Haha? Mimicking Jupiter, or is it Zeus… Which would you prefer? You minor gods all look the same to me."
At that insult being X tossed the lightning bolt at the creature, which stopped it amidst air with a simple wave of its feathered arm.
Chuckling, it said, "Quite an amazing feat you tried there, to slay a minion of The God of change. I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no to that, God of Reincarnation. I think it's time for you to leave this world as we have no need of Reincarnation here."
With that it raised a feathered hand into the air and a chain shot out from the snow, quickly encircling being X, and began to pull him down. A blue flaming circle quickly drew itself over the area as he was pulled through the ground to some unknown place, leaving me and Mary sitting there stunned.
The bird-like being stepped forward onto the recently scorched ground where being X had once stood and ran its claws through it, almost seeming to inspect something, before Mary asked, "What are you?" with a bit of fear in her voice.
This inspired the bird to look at us, its strange eyes seeming to hum with power in a way that I don't think most mages could.
"Change. And now Reincarnation, after all someone has to take over the job now that little minor God has been vanquished and since I was the one doing the vanquishing I guess I get access to all his powers. And all his toys." As it said this it looked directly at us, making its intentions towards us rather clear. I reached for my pistol first but somehow Mary managed to get her pistol up at the same time and we unloaded our chambers into the creature. Her m1911 and my Mauser were both left smoking and the creature, still standing in front of us utterly unconcerned, had blood pouring from numerous holes ripped through its form.
"Oh, no! I've been shot! However may I recover?" the bird said in the most mocking tone I'd probably ever heard, all as it continued to give that weird facsimile of a smile.
Finally it just started laughing at us and said, "You have no power over entities of the Warp, the one who does is currently far far away from this Coast… Though I can feel him already turning in this direction, so I think it's time for us to go."
Snapping its quad fingers there was a flash of light and everything around us changed, it was as if the earth we were sitting on had been scooped out of its place and deposited somewhere else. Three feet around us there was snow and then there was just this new ground, strange glowing blue stone walls to either side of us.
"Now, here's what's going to happen, "the bird said, seeming to stalk around us like some sort of overgrown turkey. "You are currently within the labyrinth, there are only a few places to go in this realm. Make it out and you'll find your way home, don't and well… This realm is connected to multiple dimensions and times, there are monsters within here that have not seen the light of day in millions of years and will not see the light of day in millions of years. There are also monsters from realms that don't exist as you understand it and they're hungry, so I imagine you understand what will happen if they find you."
Coughing, I said, "How the hell are we supposed to find our way out when we're severely injured?"
Its macabre smile widened, "Why, that just adds to the challenge."
"Sounds more like you're just trying to kill us."
The bird stopped and tilted its neck to look in our direction. "Well death is just the beginning for you, I think. After all, I can reincarnate you over and over and over and gleefully watch you fail each and every time. Or succeed! That would certainly be a massive, and fascinating, change in my plans. Have fun, girls, and don't die too quickly."
It stopped and snapped its feathery fingers, as if it had just remembered something."Oh! By the way if you stare into the abyss too long you'll go mad so… don't do that. Also be wary of what doors you open as you might find yourself in the war proper instead of this little maze beneath it and… Well, there are things out there much worse than in here. Toodaloo."
And like that the bird was gone, leaving us sitting there against a tree in a labyrinth that I had no idea where the hell even was. Coughing I pulled off my coat. It wasn't as cold now so I didn't need it and got to work looking over Mary.
"What are you doing?" She asked as I looked over her injuries.
"Compartmentalizing things. We need to escape. In order to escape you need to be able to walk. In order for you to walk I need to set your legs into something reasonable." With that I looked at the tree, called upon a mage blade, and sliced through a couple branches. Then I cut my coat in half and started to set her legs. "This is going to hurt but if we're going to escape you need to bear it. Got it?"
She nodded and I did the job. Her screams were loud, and I realized too late that I Probably should have given her something to bite down on to keep her calm so we didn't draw any notice. Once her legs were set I said about carving up the first branch until I had something she could use as a walking stick, then I went about helping her get up.
"Why are you helping me?" She asked. "It seems to me I'm kind of a burden in this situation and well… I wasn't exactly not rooting for you to die a moment ago."
I nodded and replied, "I understand that, but from the sounds of things, the fact of the matter is that we're surrounded by unknown monsters who'd happily have us for dinner. That means the only people we can trust are each other. It sucks, but that's the reality we're living in, no use whining about it. If we can get out of here maybe we'll have time to complain later."
"And if we don't?"
I looked up at her and shrugged before saying, "Well as the bird said, it's probably just going to reincarnate us over and over again…and I think sooner or later madness will take us. unless of course we get lucky and it forgets to reincarnate us."
Mary chuckled and said "So we're hoping that the bird brain just forgets about us so we can stay dead? Well, that's better than nothing."
"Sometimes my optimism surprises me." I idly quipped. "And today? Well, today I just want to live."
With that we exchanged nods and again tried to move down the hallway. She used the staff to hold herself up on one side and I held on to the other as we moved.
Question of what the void was was quickly answered as we came to a window and saw, well, complete blackness. Now I could assume that we were just under something and had no light out there or I could assume that the void we saw meant actual void and if we fell through that window we would fall for eternity.
Either way I said, "Don't look out there." as Mary turned to look at the window.
She nodded and we kept going, walking further into the labyrinth, me coughing occasionally as I tried not to move as much and her groaning as her limbs settled into something that was probably not going to be healthy in the long run. I generally kept us connected to the right side of the wall by leaving my hand there as we did, remembering some old tactics from when I was a kid and was interested in this kind of stuff.
"Why do you have your hand on the wall?" Mary asked after a while. I shrugged before saying, "You keep your hand on one wall, you'll reach the end of the maze eventually. Sooner or later you'll have exhausted all outcomes."
"Okay but what if we're on some sort of middle segment without really the connection to the edge of the maze?"
"Well that teaches us something," I said. "We move on to the next segment and just keep going until we hit something that doesn't go around in a circle."
"Okay, then what if the maze is changing every time we're not looking at it?"
"Well then we're screwed," I replied with a shrug. "We have to hope that there's some sort of fair rule in this game that we've been sent to. Otherwise, it's just trying to kill us."
"Didn't he say he was a servant of the god of change?"
I made an annoyed sound at that before saying, "Parasite of change but, sure, I can see your point."
"Parasite?" came a voice from behind us causing us to turn to see… I don't know what I saw. There were teeth, some sort of floating creature, I couldn't tell up or down about it. All I could tell was that it was looking insulted.
"I don't like to interfere in the games of my minions but that was rather insulting. I think a change of rules is required." It snapped its fingers and Mary was gone. Where to I don't know, or perhaps it was I that had changed places? Possibly. It was hard to tell since the labyrinth seemed the same but the creature was gone as well. Although I could still hear its voice like it was right next to me.
"That's more like it. Now the game is fairer! Oh I doubt you'll find your way free of this place now and, just for that insult, new reincarnations for you."
I heard another snap of its fingers coming from nowhere, and the creature added with enthusiasm.
"Oh hey want to hear a story? inside this maze there are two wolves: one is young and stupid, thinking they know everything about the world and know nothing at all. The other is old and wise but a fool who has traveled far from his home in hopes of undoing the past. Neither will reach their goals really but it will be amazing to see which one will survive."
"What the hell are you on about?" I simply asked, drawing my pistol as I leaned against a wall.
"Oh, it's quite simple. Look behind you." I blinked, confused, before turning and finding a monster standing there. It was a werewolf, a goddamn werewolf, standing up to 14 feet tall and having barely any room to move in the labyrinth. Its hands were splayed to show its clawed fingers as it slowly stalked forward, its golden fur making it easy to see its blue eyes shining with unnatural intelligence and bestial instincts.
More terrifying of all was the fact that it was wearing gray bits of armor that looked ill-fitted to its form.
As soon as our eyes met, it howled and started rocketing towards my location, scratching up the walls as it charged. I pulled out my gun and unleashed a series of shots into its head but it seemed to have too strong of a skull as it bowled me over and attempted to bite down on me.
I rolled out of the way as it bit the ground where my neck had been. Taking the fraction of a second it gave me, I cast a mage blade spell on my hand and tried to slash at the armored chest in front of me.
It barely noticed, instead swiping at my hand and slicing off my arm effortlessly. I watched, stunned for a moment as the magic faded from my severed hand and it tumbled across the ground, but I quickly forced myself to roll out of the way as another bite came for my head. Blood was everywhere and I was feeling weaker by the moment but I held on tight to my determination as adrenaline sang in my veins.
Moving back to give myself space and time, I tried again, summoning another mage blade, and this time inspected the armor closer to try to find any weak point. By some luck I noticed there was a crack just above the heart. It wasn't much, but I had a target.
It turned around, hunger burning bright in its gaze, its massive claws twitching in anticipation, and its razor-sharp teeth gleaming in the unnatural light. I could feel my injuries catching up with me, the blood loss getting to my head and the agony pounding my chest. I knew I only had one last chance to make it out of this.
So I gathered up all the mana I had left. Time slowed to a crawl as my perception spells burned out the last of my focus. Power gathered at my feet, ready to shoot me forward like a bullet. The searing light of my blade blazed brightly in my hand.
Then the werewolf moved.
I ducked, barely missing its claw as it cut through my hair, wind whistling as it passed. From below, I shot up with the force of a gun, bladed hand extended to meet its chest flying towards me. It tried to dodge at the last second, but it was far too late. With the laser precision born from overclocking my mind with magic, I shoved my mage blade directly into the crack right over its heart.
For a moment, my hand stopped.
Then something cracked, and it burst right through.
Even as it knocked me over, my hand plunged into its chest, burrowing through muscle and bone. Finally, I felt my hand wrap around something pulsing behind its ribs. It had to be the creature's heart. Just then, the creature sprung up, dragging me with it, and sending the top of my head crashing into the underside of its jaw. The collision knocked the last bits of focus from me, and the mage blade spell slipped from my mind.
Not yet!
I don't know what it was. Maybe adrenaline, or human survival instinct, or maybe a level of stubbornness I didn't know I had, but in that moment I pushed through the pain, the blood loss, and the existential terror, and I squeezed.
The creature cried and stumbled around, but I held on till but I held on with every inch of determination I had left in my body. I squeezed and squeezed, crushing the life out of it like I had nothing else to live for in this world. .
I can't really recall if I was successful as blackness, either from the loss of blood or the release of death, overcame my vision and my consciousness faded.
Tanya Russ
I groaned as I pulled myself out of my bed, confused by everything, as I sat up and looked around. For one I now remembered everything from my second life, and what a crappy second life that had been. For two my perception had been thrown off a bit, being so close to the ground for even a few moments in my dream had every move making me a little bit dizzy when I woke up.
Also, apparently, I had been stripped out of my armor while I slept. Not hard to see why as there were a couple of my girls sleeping next to me. They must have come in while I was out and helped me out of my armor. Why do they decide to stick around to sleep next to me?
… Well, I was told I was quite warm, and these days I had no wish to complain about these sorts of things.
Sighing I got up from the bed and looked at my hand, seeing the wound already healed. That was good, I didn't want to risk an infection. Shaking my head I stumbled over to a table and jotted down the important bits about the story I had just been given.
Had that really happened, I wondered. The spear was supposed to help me see what had happened… So, theoretically, yes, but I had also been drunk off my ass last night. Maybe what I had been given was a bit of an interpretation through an alcoholic lens? So I probably only had to keep the important parts in mind..
I nearly died at the end of a war, was picked up by one supernatural entity that thought itself a God, who was swiftly defeated by a different, and somehow far worse, such entity, and then had a werewolf sicked on me in some kind of hell maze. It was probable that at least one of these elements was fueled by alcohol, but I couldn't say that for sure. I would need to ask the Emperor when I spoke to him next.
There was something else to be considered as well. Was Mary currently still trapped in The Labyrinth? After all, it had been tens of thousands of years since we'd been thrown in there. Assuming any of it was real.
Was the maze even a real thing or not?
On one hand I shouldn't really care what the berserker was up to, after all she tried to kill me enough times. On the other hand, well…
The only reason she would be stuck in there would be because of the pissing contest between being X and me, a thing that had been going on too long and drawn the notice of paranormal entities beyond his parasitical control. As much as I'd like to say it wasn't my fault I did possibly bear some blame. At the very least, I felt a little guilty about getting her involved. Assuming that the same energies that kept my soul together in the Warp would have affected hers, that might mean she was still in there, and perhaps I would need to look into finding a way to get her out.
Not because she needed to be saved but because well she was a danger to me. In my last life she was about to see me dead and the only reason that hadn't happened was that she had been unbelievably broken by her attack. She was a tool that could be used to fight me and leaving a tool that could be used to fight me in the hands of creatures whose motives I did not understand was a bad idea.
Of course, I could be overthinking this. It had been tens of thousands of years. there was a good possibility that whatever remnants of her soul that had existed had been used up in the constant experiments of reincarnation. The damned bird that sent us there might have even forgotten about her, or gotten bored, and just left her dead by now. There was also probably no way to actually get into that labyrinth without the enemy's aid as far as I knew.
Who I needed to speak to about this was the Emperor. In fact the matter was urgent as I was playing in a game without knowing the rules or the participants. Emperor would have a better idea of the situation at the very least and could clear up things that didn't make sense to me.
Turning to the girls I thought about waking them up to help me get my armor on but I honestly didn't need my armor for this. Instead I went over to the closet and pulled out a pair of pants and a linen shirt, pulling them on over the hard suit I'd slept in. Once I had that handled I grabbed a jacket, just for a little extra warmth, and started to walk out of my room. I only stopped when I noticed something odd by my door. The spear I used to cut myself last night was sitting there but it was different, the head of the spirit near the front of it had been of an eagle. It was the head of a wolf now, which was weird. I started to reach for it and it jumped off the wall and into my hand as if I beckoned it.
I blinked several times before shrugging. As much as I would like some explanation for a spear shapeshifting to go on brand with my Wolf theme, the fact that it could jump off a wall to my hand if I summoned it pretty much made it clear that this spear was as paranormal in nature as anything else the Emperor made.
Laying the spear back against the wall I shook my head before walking out into the Hall and heading towards the shuttle bays. Grabbing a communicator off my belt I called up to the bridge and asked "Captain Nemmius Tetanus is the Emperor's ship still in the local sector?"
"Yes, my Primarch, he's still here though I don't know for how much longer. Malcador has just transferred over to His ship so he's probably getting ready to take off."
"Ask him to wait a moment and get clearance for me to shuttle over there. I have to ask him a question."
"Yes, I will endeavor to do so for my Primarch."
Quickly I made my way down to the shuttle area and negotiated one of the vehicles for transport to the other ship. Granted there wasn't really much of a negotiation, more an 'I need your shuttle' but that's just a perk of being in charge.
After a few moments, I got clearance to move across the void to Emperor's Ship and was on my way.
Didn't take long and as soon as the shuttle landed and I stepped out I found myself staring at Custodes waiting for me. I gave a nod and they answered me in kind. One said, "The Emperor is waiting for you in the library, we are to escort you there."
"Thank you," I acknowledged, before saying, "Lead the way." and they did. Walking through the Emperor's personal ship revealed some interesting things of note. Mine had slowly become more rustic as the years went on, becoming more akin to the world of Fenris. This one was… well, gold. There was lots of opulent wealth but in color it was all gold. Real gold? Hard to say but it definitely matched the style of his armor and his Custodes.
Through the wide hallways of the ship we soon arrived at a heavy set of golden doors. There were imperial eagles all over the place that basically screamed that this was the Emperor's personal library and the fact the two guards stopped and took a position by the door told me enough. nodding my thanks I opened the door and stepped in.
Which was when I found myself surprised, it wasn't that opulent. Oh, sure, there was a bit of gold but it looked more like a library than a statement about what a library could look like. I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of books as well as scrolls and other stone tablets, some of them behind museum glass.
The room was set up in a massive circle and, stepping in, I saw that it went up at least three levels if not more and that was only what I could see. It seemed that once you got up to the third level there might be hallways, which was interesting.
In the center of the room was a round table where the Emperor was sitting, having a discussion with Malcador. For the most part that was all I saw, except for a figure currently reading a book behind the Emperor.
I couldn't tell much about them. They were only about 5 ft tall and were wearing brown robes that discouraged identifying any further details.
"Tanya, welcome to my sanctum," the Emperor said, his hands outstretched to greet me and welcome me in. "I was about to have our ship get on your way when I got your call. Does something trouble you, my daughter?"
"Yes and no, "I said, looking over at the brown-clothed figure. The Emperor quickly spotted where I was looking and said, "Do not worry about them, they are safe to speak around. They won't tell a single secret learned in this room, trust me."
Nodding, I stepped forward and pulled out a seat, which thankfully was large enough for me.
"I used that spear you gave me last night."
The Emperor nodded and said, "I hope that was an enlightening experience. Did it clear up the headaches as I hoped?"
"The physical headaches are gone so far," I said. "If they come back I'll give it another try, instead I now have a mental headache from the information that was given to me."
"What information is that, my daughter?" The Emperor asked, leaning forward.
I sat, before saying, "To make it quick and easy, I have reason to believe there is another like me trapped in the Warp. Me and this other individual were pulled into the war by a bird-like entity claiming to be a servant of change."
The Emperor started rubbing his chin in interest while Malcador sat up. "Well now, isn't that interesting." Malcador said, running his hand through his beard.
"Do you think it's possible that her soul was as strong as yours and capable of surviving its existence within the Warp Emperor asked as he motioned with his hand?"
I shrugged and said, "It is not impossible, she was… Driven, let us say. I saw her do some quite impossible things in my time and I fought her enough to know that she would not have died without a fight."
"Then perhaps she's already escaped the confines of the Warp." came a female voice from behind the Emperor.
The brown-robed figure was still facing away but beginning to turn. Most of their features were hidden though I could see locks of red hair coming through the opening of the hood they wore.
"Escaped?" I asked, "How did someone escape the Warp without aid?"
The figure stepped forward and replied,d "I never said they didn't have aid. After all, you had to have escaped the Warp with the aid of the Emperor. Who's to say he did not help do the same with this unknown friend of yours?"
"My understudy here raises a good point, even though they were told not to talk during this," said the Emperor as he tapped the table with his fingers. "Primarch souls were created using the souls of powerful humans who were left in the Warp for millennia, it is well within the possibility that this friend of yours was amongst the 19 other souls that were chosen."
"Perhaps," I agreed. After all, I had no idea how the exact mechanics worked, though it seemed unlikely that I would be that lucky. "Perhaps but I would like some way to be sure. If there's one person that berserker-"
Malcador spoke up, asking, "This individual of the same time period as you, what is their name?"
I shrugged before replying, "I only really… Actually, I think I learned their name in our last few days, she was called Mary Sioux."
The Emperor immediately stifled a laugh and snorted. "No, we're serious. What's their name?" He asked, looking at me intently.
"That is their name." I countered, confused by that reaction.
"That can't be right."
"Why?"
"Because Mary Sioux is the name various armies gave to mages who became too much of a nuisance in the latter part of the 20th century. Idiots who would put their own Glory or revenge against what their Nation wanted and were often drummed out of the military because they were not stable."
Well…that sounds about right.
I shrugged and stated, "There were several notable instances where Mary screwed up a potential victory for her side in her blind quest for revenge.."
"Huh… I suppose I Should have looked into it at the time. Then again I was busy with plenty of other missions and objectives at that time period, the world was a busy place then." He looked off into his memories before shaking his head before saying, "Well, as it stands, if this Mary Sue is still in the Warp it is very likely that they no longer bear any resemblance to what you remember.
"If by some chance they've gotten out of the Warp due to my efforts to create Primarchs, your mission objective has already been achieved and it's just a matter of figuring out which Primarch is this enemy/friend. You will have to either make sure they never figure out who you are or attempt to smooth over this awful business that apparently set her on a path to get revenge against you."
True enough, I nodded. It was not like I could just kill a Primarch simply because we'd been on opposite sides thousands of years ago. We would need to learn to work with each other, or at least be able to live with each other if they were amongst the souls chosen.
"I will keep my ears close to the ground and poke around amongst your siblings. If anyone reacts to the name Mary Sioux I'll let you know. Until such time, how is the spear doing? I had always wondered what would happen when I gave it to someone."
I shrugged my shoulders before saying, "The eagle turned into a wolf. And apparently it can come to me if I just will it now."
"Hmm, interesting. I wasn't aware it had such powers, but it's likely a sign I chose the proper child to give it to." Emperor mused, rubbing his chin, before adding, "That reminds me. When is the assault on the planet below supposed to take place?"
"Tomorrow I believe, or perhaps the day after. Depends how long I was out cold, but either way we'll be breaking up that City and freeing the sector from Pirate raids within the week."
"Good, good," the Emperor said, nodding his head.
His understudy, a woman if the subtle curves under the brown robe was any indication, coughed into her hand, likely trying to get the Emperor's attention.
He looked over to her and nodded his understanding before saying, "Well I think we've had our conversation and gotten most of this trouble sorted. With that handled I think it's about time for you to go back to planning the attack with your brother Vulkan and for us to be on our way."
"Of course, Father," I said as I got out of my seat, giving a nod to him.
"Thank you for meeting with me and clarifying some of this issue, I hope that you're right and that they were pulled out of the Warp."
"For an enemy you seem rather worried about them," Emperor said.
I simply smiled and replied, "If they had not been involved with me they would not be in the place they are and I feel some responsibility for that."
Before I even finished I felt Malcador poking and prodding, then he started to laugh."You mean kinship. You feel some kinship because you were both screwed over by a thing from the Warp."
I couldn't help the smile on my lips. "Perhaps I do, yet either way my statement stands. I feel some responsibility towards them."
"What thing in the Warp?", the cloaked figure asked, getting the Emperor to look at her before saying.
The Emperor shot her a look. "As I've said before, young sorcerer, there are things in the Warp that should not be trifled with. It is an ocean of psychic potential, and like with any other ocean, there are strange and dangerous things that lurk just below the surface.."
"Of course, my Emperor," the young woman said, nodding her head.
I caught an annoyed, if suppressed, tone in her voice. A familiar one, born from an inadequately answered question. It was understandable, explaining these creatures fully could probably alert them to your existence considering how even muttering that one was a parasite had alerted it to my existence while in The labyrinth.
But it was a risky thing to not tell your subordinates all the information they needed to know. I'd have to have a more private conversation to discuss this with him at another time. I needed to get a better understanding of what exactly the entities in the Warp could tag on you and learn about through simple conversations here in reality.
Anyway It looked as if our conversation was over so I gave a bow to the three and said, "Till we meet again, Father. I will go conquer this planet and then move on with my mission. Are there any tasks that you have for me before I do this, though?"
The Emperor shook his head before stopping and thought before saying, "Between here and your home world is a planet called Nova Borilia, the Mechanicum has been bugging me about sending an expedition there to try and free it from an unknown threat. It was a forge world that they lost so if you were to stop by that planet and clear it out the Mechanicum would be very thankful and I would as well."
I nodded my head and gave a bow before saying, "It will be done, father." With that being said I turned to Malcador and said, "Goodbye, Malcador. Hopefully we can go on another trip someday and discuss my progress on some of the various lessons you have taught me."
He laughed before saying, "Yeah, that would be fun. Maybe in another 20 years or so." Getting up he bowed before saying, "Good luck, king of wolves."
Turning to the third entity, the understudy, I said with a rather cocky grin, "Make sure to listen to the Emperor, he may be a bit secretive but he's got good reasons. Trust him." With that I turned and left, hoping that whoever this understudy was would take that lesson to heart as I didn't want to have to deal with whatever would happen if the Warp broke through over their stupidity.
Vulkan of nocturne
I hummed to myself as I worked the metal beneath my hands. The fighting down below had been near constant for the last few days and yesterday had been the first break I got in since first stepping foot in this sector.
I have fought on several planets since I joined the Emperor's crusade and I've come to be used to the constant danger of it all. It was not even a worry on my radar nowadays.
I was more interested in making sure my Salamanders came through the conflict alright than if I tired myself out, but when I was forced to take a break I would make the best of those breaks.
My sister calling me up for a conference to figure out how we would deal with the final capital of these pirates had been the impetus for a break and I will admit it have been a nice one.
The joyous time to party and make Merry with my father and sister, as well as get to know them a bit.
But as the evening had ended I asked to borrow my sister's bolter. She seemed nonplussed but she let me do it and that's what I was working on tonight.
I had noted that her gun wasn't working at peak efficiency in my opinion during the few times we fought next to each other. It was good but it could have been better and I was just doing some little bit of modifications, handcrafting pieces to replace parts from Mars using good steel from Nocturne.
What happened was shaping up to be a vast improvement in my opinion, with accuracy going up a good 30 to 40 percent. My plan was to give her back her bolter, as a gift for helping with this fight on the planet. Granted, depending on how you look at it, I was helping her but it really didn't matter. In the long run we both came to this planet by our own paths and we both were going to see the end of these pirates. That's what mattered in the long run.
That and how professional she was. I had had chances to watch her during the fighting the last few weeks and I could quite easily say, she looked after her space Marines like I and seemed to have a similar outlook on treating them like her family. She wasn't as expressive as me and gave more of a quiet approval whenever they did something right, less outward and physical approval than me, but it was there all the same.
And I had been listening to her radio communications, seeing that when someone started doing something really stupid she could be a real spitter of scorn. Hmm… oh, that's a good name.
But back on topic she seemed to be the type to build up her soldiers, make them better than when they came to her, and that I could approve of. I had not met any other siblings yet but I hoped all of them had a bit of her level-headedness, and a tendency to be careful about where to deploy her assets was always useful.
The coming fight for that capital city would probably be a hell of a thing but I had a feeling that it would be successful just because both of us were level-headed and able to deal with situations as they came.
Granted I admit that I was in favor of burning the whole place down. Eldar, dark or otherwise, were a bit of a pain in my back and I would prefer them to be removed but if Tanya thought they could be negotiated to surrender, or at least brought to some sort of state where they would not be a threat to the Imperium, I was willing to not burn the entire city down. This time.
Finishing the heavy work I stepped away from the machinery and used the towel to wipe off some sweat that had built up while I was working on the equipment. Checking the nearby clock I made sure that I still had a few more hours before I should take some rest so I was fresh for combat tomorrow. Once I confirmed that I got to work on the next step.
As I got to work on some of the more finer details of the job, cleaning off rough edges and adding a little bit of etching to pieces before I started to slowly screw pieces together and solder it all together, a beep came. It was the one alerting me that someone wanted to communicate to me from the bridge, putting down my work I got up and walked over to it, picking up the communicator.
"Vulkan here," I said with a joyous tone, to hear what was on the other side of this phone.
"My Primarch, Captain Nemmius Tetanus here. I wanted to let you know that the Emperor is departing and he wished us good hunting on our combat strike tomorrow."
"Good, send a signal back saying we shall hunt these pirates with extra enthusiasm thanks to that."
"Will do, my Primarch," Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before continuing, "Also I thought you'd like to know that Primarch Russ paid them a visit before leaving.
"Really?" my eyebrow raised at that, though he couldn't see it.
"Yes. She just had a 30 to 40 minute meeting with the Emperor before He left. I don't know what that was about but it was a thing."
I laughed before saying, "Well, no need to pry too much into other Primarch's business. An interesting thing, yes, but I'm sure it was nothing. Let me know though if Primarch Russ wishes to talk to me. If anyone else calls you can tell them I'm currently busy with a project, unless it is absolutely necessary and a matter of life or death I need to be uninterrupted all night."
"Of course, my Primarch," Captain Nemmius Tetanus said before adding, "Good luck with your project, sir."
"Thank you. Have a good night, Nemmius Tetanus." I hung up the phone and turned it back towards the table. The fires from the forge were starting to die and I really needed something a bit more bright to actually see what I was doing so I walked over to a nearby wall and dialed up the light settings, revealing my workshop. I had modeled it a bit on my old workshop back on Nocturne, a fake facade of bricks had been installed along the walls to give it a more homely feel. And along those walls were instruments and tools that I used for crafting, as well as one wall dedicated to works and equipment I had built over the years. Weapons and such.
Humming to myself I walked back to my work desk and looked at the yet to be named gun, though I was starting to come up with one now and again, to get to work on etching a wolf into one side since that seemed to be her favorite animal.
One strange thing I had noticed that separated our legions was where the name came from. Hers apparently came from an animal that was both the fiercest creature on the planet but also their most loyal ally while mine came from the Fire Salamanders, creatures that were a menace and needed to be hunted. If left alone they would cause problems for my people. Both were some of the most powerful creatures on the planet, so it made sense to be named after them.
It was a strange thing that our animals were similar but slightly different and I wondered if that would carry over into other legions, if they would have animal names and use them differently. I guess I would only know when I ran into them and there was already quite a bit already on the moves supposedly.
I could not wait to meet the rest of my brothers, and I guess sisters possibly as well. Yes father had kept the fact of our first sister as a mystery to us but I had quickly figured it out, and if he said there was at least one other there might be at least one other. I wondered what they would be like but I imagined they would all be somewhat different, all with different goals and all with different ways of handling the problems of this galaxy, but I would love them all the same. They were family and family was the most important thing on Nocturne for survival, something I had learned and talked to my people over the years I had been there.
If we had not worked as a family to stop the threat of the Eldar we would still be fleeing into the caves whenever the Eldar rating party showed up on Nocturne. That was a lesson that must be imparted to all members of our family, be it the littlest scout initiates to my brothers and sisters. Working together, we can defeat anything. Smiling, I got to work, assembling a few pieces together.
Slowly the gun took shape and as it did it became an excellent bolter pistol. It was large enough that Tanya would be able to wield it with one hand without issue, light enough that it would be perfectly possible to wield another weapon in the other hand and most importantly the accuracy was quite good. I think the best part of the weapon was the underslung capabilities as I traded a weapon that could easily be combined with another weapon and that was with my next project.
Looking across the room I saw several weapons I had brought up from the armory. My plan was quite simple: I would take them apart, find out what could be made as small as possible, and create versions of them that could be underslung on the bolter pistol. This would make it a Combi weapon with multiple choice options. Before every battle she would be able to choose what weapon would work best as its underslung weapon. That would probably be the most useful thing of all, having the capability to switch between a plasma gun and a flamer depending on the situation.
Smiling, I finished up the initial pistol and observed it. It was a bit small in my hand but should fit her hand perfectly and, once I was sure it was not going to fall apart easily by giving it a good few shakes and a whack against the table, I pulled out a painting kit and got to work painting it in her legions colors and adding a bit of artisticness to the Wolf on the side of it. After all this was, in other words, a 'nice to meet you' gift and I might as well make it a good gift I thought as I worked.
I would have to have a meeting with her before The siege though, to make sure she had it and explain how everything worked.