"Kheld'rel!" Layria spat the name as though it were poison. Rayandanel scowled. Kheld'rel had a very unsavourable reputation among the warriors of the Rokea Kabal. Warriors sent to serve under her were never the same again - if they survived, which they usually did not. Kheld'rel herself seemed not to have survived most of her missions for The Betrayer. She was a scarred, hollow woman. Incapable of any emotion besides desire to commit cruel acts. She had once been an usurper, and Nathel had punished her by cutting off her hand and having Philliam fuse an Agonizer to the stump, so that she felt the pain of her foes whenever she used the weapon. Nathel had then sent Kheld'rel on every brutal and suicidal mission she could devise, but somehow Kheld'rel survived - much to Nathel's amusement, it seemed. The other Sybarites didn't know whether to hate her or to be contemptuous of her. Perhaps it was that uncertainty that so infuriated Layria and so amused Nathel. "She has returned, with Wyches from the Naked Blade, and Mandrakes…" Rayandanel said that name with a tightening of his eyes. He still bore the scar he received from a Mandrake's blade on Commorragh. "She's to accompany us on the assault on the Mon'Keigh base." Layria spun and kicked over her chair with a howl of fury. No doubt Jumai and Drucha'la would be having similar reactions. "What does The Betrayer want with that woman?" she asked. Rayandanel stood silently, knowing better than to answer that question. "Why does she come to compete for our prizes?" Rayandanel frowned. "Shut up!" Layria snapped, cutting off his comment. She turned back to her small camp table and hissed in anger. "And why did we have to come to this dirt-ball? Commorragh is so much more appropriate a home for the Dark Eldar!" Rayandanel sighed. "It was come here or die." He said quietly, looking out the door of their tent. "But she sends back slaves! And now Kheld'rel comes and goes from Commorragh!" fumed Layria. "We should be going back to reclaim our fortress!" "The Bloodknife are sitting on an empty fortress. Once their allies find out, their support will be gone, and then we can return stronger than ever after we have stripped this planet clean." Commented Rayandanel. A tap came at the door, and Layria looked up. One of her warriors stood there, rifle in hand. "It is time." He said softly, avoiding making eye-contact with the Sybarite. "Fine, we're coming. Assemble the Coterie and meet us at the perimeter." Responded Layria with a dismissive wave of her hand. She looked down at her holomap for a couple moments more before snatching up her helmet, brushing past Rayandanel and storming out into the rainy morning. They were soon underway. Layria's Coterie, along with Kheld'rel and her warriors and the two spidery drones that followed the Sybarite everywhere, led the way. They were followed by Sedri and seven of her Wyches and the silent tread of one of Philliam's Talos. All around them, they felt the unsettling presence of the Mandrakes. Shadows seemed alive when they were near, but there was no way of knowing just where they actually were. Proceeding on foot, they made good time. The Black Templars had not yet received news of the annihilation of their patrol, or if they had, they had been hesitating in doing anything about it. Nathel wanted to take advantage and hit them at their base, in force, before they could discover Nathel's secret - the warp gate - and attack it. Sedri shivered in the grey mist that arose shortly before dawn. She followed the Rokea warriors, whose blue-grey armor seemed to make them part of the vapours, but she did so reluctantly. She knew that she and her fellow Wyches had been chosen to join this attack, and that made her glad to be included, but her situation was unenviable. To one side, the unsettling presence of Kheld'rel. To the other, the Sybarite Layria, from whom radiated a palpable hatred directed at Kheld'rel. Sedri shook her head. The two were not friends, that much she could sense. She hoped that they would overlook their emnity during the battle to come. Eventually, after they had been traveling for some time, the force split into two. Sedri and Kheld'rel's warriors turned North, while Layria's Coterie and the Talos crossed a small stream and headed East. The Warriors and Wyches slowed their advance, crouching low and listening in the dawn mist for sounds of Black Templar sentries. Sedri came to the edge of another stream - or the same one bending back on itself, and stopped. To her left, Kheld'rel also stopped. The Dark Lance drones followed, their claws sinking in the mud. A sound drew Sedri's attention to her left. Across the stream, some meters away, she saw a large, dark shape moving through the trees. Sedri tapped the arm of the Wych next to her and made the sign for 'sentry' with her fingers. The Wych nodded and passed the signal on to the nearby warriors. The Rokea warriors returned with signs indicating another sentry had been spotted to the North. Now they would creep forward and wait for a chance to slip through the perimeter. Nathel had some kind of surprise in store for the Mon'Keigh, something related to the device Kheld'rel carried with her. Some minutes past and the shapes of the sentries faded into the mist. The warriors arose from their prone positions and began to move forward. Sedri and the Wyches followed them. They reached the stream without spotting any sign of the sentries. Sedri grinned. The Mon'Keigh were fools to allow them to get so close. As she stepped into the cold waters of the stream, she began to hear sounds ahead. A wall loomed out of the mist, and voices echoed through the trees. A droning, chanting sound… The Black Templars were praying! Sedri sneered. Kheld'rel had crossed the stream and paused behind a large standing stone. She set the round device on the ground and stepped back. Prongs snapped out and began to spin, a harmonic vibration building. The Webway Portal began to home in on the Gate back at the base in order to establish a short-range portal that would allow the rest of Nathel's forces to arrive just outside the Mon'Keigh base. The Sybarite looked back at Sedri and waved, ordering the Wyches forward as the drones set themselves with a line of sight to the flat grey shape of a bunker ahead. The mist was rapidly burning off as Sedri and her comrades slipped past the Rokea warriors. One of the crude Space Marine transports appeared out of the fog, sitting idle as its occupants prayed. Sedri pointed at the vehicle and the two Wyches carrying Blasters preared to fire. Somewhere to the East, the buzzing chatter of the Talos' Sting cut through the silence of the morning, and the shouts of Space Marines caught unaware echoed across the camp. Two balls of dark matter struck the Rhino square on, one eating its way through and into the vehicle's engine compartment. There was a subsonic thump and the Rhino jumped as its engine exploded. The Marines inside tumbled out of the side hatch as Sedri and the others ran forward. To her right, she could just see the looming form of the Talos, already inside the outer fortifications, slicing onto a squad of the black and white armored Marines. Sedri drew her blade and slung the chain ahead of her. The first Marine, still righting himself after bailing out of his transport caught the energized barb in the chest, his chest plate cracking like an eggshell. He fell on his face as she yanked the blade free and the other Wyches launched into their foes all around her. She spun and cut open the throat of the next Marine. He tried to fight on, and Sedri laughed, avoiding his clumsy blows with ease. The other Wyches had already cut down the lighter-armored Neophytes, but the Black Templars fought like madmen, refusing to give way. That suited Sedri fine, for she would be able to kill them all in face-to-face combat. A Marine lunged at her, his power fist humming with the force field sheath that would pulverize her if it made contact. She sidestepped his attack and fired into his face with her pistol. The crystalline shards shattered against the powerful armor. Not a worthy opponent, he that depends on armor over skill to save him, she thought as she flipped over the man's next swing. Nearby, another Marine had just shot one of the Wyches in the chest with his Boltgun. The man's body exploded as the rocket-propelled round detonated, showering the other Wyches with his viscera. This merely encouraged the others to fight more ferociously. Sedri grinned as the power fist narrowly missed crushing her skull. She dropped onto her back and aimed her pistol at the Templar's belly. The splinters lodged into his armor, biting through to his skin. He seemed to ignore the pain, and raised his fist to smash Sedri, but she merely smiled as another Wych stepped in and drove his forked blade into the soft spot under his arm. The Marine toppled sideways and hit the ground with a thump. Sedri leapt to her feet to find that the rest of the squad had been eliminated, their bodies littering the ground beside the smoking wreck of their Rhino. Nearby, blasts of dark matter slammed into the hull of a Marine tank, rocking it on its tracks as the Talos stalked in for the kill. More blasts streaked overhead, impacting on the bunker, shaking its walls. The Marine squad on its roof ignored the damage, firing a missile back towards Kheld'rel's squad. Sedri turned and watched as one of the drones exploded, a bladed leg decapitating one of the Rokea warriors nearby. Sedri smirked and turned her attention back to the battles ahead. Another Marine squad had just debarked from their transport. They began to set their Plasma Cannon to fire, but the Razorback behind them suddenly exploded, dark matter burning its way through its hull. Hovering above the trees, the Ravager tank drifted like a carrion bird, its Dark Lances smoking. Sedri laughed and pointed towards the shaken Marines. The Wyches howled their battlecry and launched themselves at the Black Templars. They managed to raise their weapons in time to fire a quick burst, and two Wyches were blasted off their feet. Sedri and the remaining four Wyches ignored their losses and soon they were cutting into new foes. Sedri's blade whirled in a graceful arc, tearing the arm off the Plasma Cannon gunner. He fell against the skeletal wreck of his transport, trying to kick her away even as his lifeblood poured out of the massive wound, but Sedri blocked his feeble attack and rammed the blade into the eyeslit of his armor. She turned and saw another Wych smashed to the ground by the brute strength of one of the Templars, and Sedri raised her pistol, firing into the Mon'Keigh's back. The toxin shard penetrated his armor and he crumpled, writhing, to the ground. A whine of anti-grav engines intruded on her battle frenzy and a Raider containing more Rokea warriors descended over the trees, while another emerged from the Webway Portal in a flash of violet light. The Talos was nowhere to be seen, and the Marine Predator tank was still moving. Sedri cursed silently and shook her head. Another Rhino was careening around the outer fortifications, while nearby, Layria's squad ran to the cover of a wall. More Dark Lance blasts hammered at the bunker, but still the structure held, though one wall had collapsed and the reinforcing girders were revealed to the air. Sedri casually backhanded another Marine's swing aside and watched in surprise as Kheld'rel dashed into the open, only one warrior and one drone still with her. The Sybarite's trident hand glowed with power as she leapt up and slashed at the bunker's supports. With a groan, the beam gave way to the energy of the Dark Eldar weapon and the walls imploded. The Marines above called out in alarm, but they were left unhurt atop the ruins. Kheld'rel snarled a challenge and scrambled up the wreckage. One of the Marines got to his feet, a glowing power sword in his hand, and the Sybarite launched at him, bringing her Agonizer down on him, cutting through his power armor and driving into his chest with the blade. Kheld'rel screamed in pain as she felt the Agonizer recoil on her, but the Black Templar Marshall was already dead. Kheld'rel rolled over and looked down at her abdomen. A great wound had been opened. The Marshall had got his sword up in time and the Sybarite had landed on it. With a sigh, she collapsed as the Marshall's bodyguard charged in to chase away the warrior and the drone. The warrior was shot in the back, but the drone escaped, following some pre-programmed instructions. Sedri shook her head. Never had she seen such a display of pure unconcern for personal safety, but it had succeeded. The Wych Succubus turned and renewed her assault on the Black Templars in front of her. Soon only she and two of her Wyches were left standing in that part of the battlefield. She felt like a Wych should, in the abandon of battle. She felt so far away from the terrified woman she had been a scarce three days past. She and her surviving Wyches looked out over the Templar base. On their right, three Raiders floated, delivering their occupants. Splinter fire hissed through the air, and the Mon'Keigh return fire seemed less. Sedri spotted Nathel and her retinue picking their way around the wreckage of a Marine Rhino as their Raider put a Dark Lance blast through the hull of the Predator tank, causing a plume of fire followed by a cheer from the Dark Eldar. Nathel's hair whipped in the wind from the blast, but she charged forward towards a Rhino transport that was still moving. Sedri grinned and ran forward, looking to wield her blade against the remainder of the command squad that had advanced out of their wrecked bunker after the spider drone. She heard the staccato rumble of a Heavy Bolter somewhere, the tracers tearing through the air. Glancing back, she saw one of the Raiders take a stream of bolts. The skimmer bucked in the air and exploded, shrapnel scything through Jumai's squad. The Warriors were thrown to the ground by the blast and three did not get up. Sedri sneered and ignored the loss, for ahead lay more battle. She directed her gaze as she ran towards Nathel. The Archon's spear shimmering with power as she closed on the Rhino. As she did so, Dark Lance blasts slammed into it, eating away at its hull but failing to destroy it. The blasts were followed by a cloud of monofilament wire from the Shredders of Layria's Coterie. The web of vicious fibre descended on the transport, thrashing and gyring, forcing itself into cracks and viewports. Nathel and her retinue moved in close, careful not to be touched by the wire. With a shriek of metal, the rear end of the Rhino was torn apart. With an accompanying howl of triumph, the Incubi, Warriors and Archon descended on the occupants of the vehicle as they attempted to escape the wreck. They didn't have a chance. Hacked to pieces by the frenzied Dark Eldar as they climbed out of the hatches, barely able to raise a hand against their attackers, they were butchered to a man. Nathel raised her spear in victory and another cheer rose among the Dark Eldar. Sedri shrieked her approval, and soon found herself in a whirling melee around the Command Squad, joined by Nathel's retinue and Drucha'la's Warriors. Philliam, the Haemunculus also appeared, having crept forward from the webway portal. The Black Templar warriors, though fierce, couldn't defeat their attackers. With speed and vicious efficiency, they joined their comrades as casualties, their bodies defiled by blades and by poisons, their heraldry and adornments stained with their blood or claimed as trophies. Sedri turned. 'There must be more.' She hissed, looking around the field. Behind her, the Ravager continued to pour fire into the positions at the opposite end of the base, and Rokea Warriors advanced through the ruins, but something else drew her attention. With hissing gears and thunderous tread, a Black Templars Dreadnought had joined the battle. Its twin lascannons swiveled to face the Ravager, and its blinding beams lanced out at the hovering tank. Sedri's heart skipped a beat, but miraculously, the Ravager's mirrored prow deflected the shot into the sky. Sedri grinned and pointed to the clanking Dreadnought. Blasters fired and Dark Lances followed, but the Dreadnought was similarly protected by fate, for it emerged from the cloud of corrosive dark matter unharmed. Jumai roared a challenge and charged past Sedri, her Agonizer claws crackling with energy that danced over the hull of the behemoth, but again it resisted the technology of the Dark Eldar. It seemed invulnerable as it smashed Jumai aside and began to crush the Warriors of her squad. Sedri snarled and looked to see what could be done, but it seemed the rest of the Dark Eldar had decided to leave the Warriors to their fate. The Ravager unleashed a barrage of fire into a Space Marine squad that had just managed to extricate itself from a long and brutal melee with the Mandrakes. Four of the six Templars were blown apart or disintegrated into nothing, followed by two of their brethren who were the last survivors from another squad. Sedri turned and ran past the Dreadnought, still locked in combat with Jumai's Warriors. The wrecks of no less than three Marine vehicles on her right, she did not see Nathel dash forward alone. The Archon appeared in Sedri's view like a bolt of black, white and crimson as she tore into the last two survivors of the Marine infantry. They tried to raise their bolters, but Nathel was too quick. Her first swing cut a gaping hole in the side of the Squad Leader, throwing him to the ground. Her followup drove the butt of her spear into the second Marine's chest, knocking him off balance. She planted a foot on the chest of the fallen leader, preventing him from reaching his Bolter as she spun her spear around and clove off the other Marine's head before he could regain his feet. She smiled and looked down at the prone form below her, her eyes meeting his, and seeing only defiance from him, she laughed. She raised her spear, twirling it in her hands, until the shimmering point was aimed at his face. The man's eyes glazed over as he made a prayer to the Emperor, which was cut off by the fatal thrust of the ancient Eldar blade. * * * The battle was over. The Dreadnought had withdrawn, and the only survivors left on the field were Dark Eldar. Nathel smiled. It was as she wanted. The Black Templars had been taught once again that they had no business interfering with the return of the Rokea to Commorragh, though they did not know how inconvenient they were. She looked out over the ruins of the Black Templar base from her Raider some distance away. Her Warriors were combing the ruins for anything of use, while the Mandrakes were patrolling the outskirts, searching for the inevitable Marine counter-attack, but Nathel did not intend to be there when they arrived. She planned to leave nothing but ashes. Already the Raiders were preparing to depart. Philliam approached. He had tended to the wounds of Kheld'rel and Jumai. They would be able to fight again soon. The Talos was also salvageable, despite having been torn in half by the Predator's Lascannons. He looked up at Nathel from the ground. "Betrayer," he rasped. "More Mon'Keigh are approaching. They have reached the ruins and seem to be searching for something." Nathel's eyes narrowed. Had they missed something in their search. If this was true, she would make her Sybarites pay for it. Nathel turned to her pilot and ordered him to signal the units still in the field to engage the Black Templars. Four squads responded. Black Templars were closing on their positions and contact would be imminent. Nathel frowned and waved to the forces gathered at the staging area. "Advance! Our task is not complete here!" she called out in a clear tone that reached them all. Skimmers rose into the air and accelerated in the direction of the battlefield, where fighting had already begun… Go back to the first half of the story. If you'd like to read the earlier installments, see: Part 1: My Glass is half Empty Part 2: The Key to the Fury of the Stars Part 3: Desperate Measures By Jesse, December 28, 2001