Editing The Tales of the Emperasque: Part Fourteen (section)

==9-119-001-M42==
The loud footsteps of a passing Megalodon rattled the rocks by her feet, as Isha stood on a clifftop overlooking the migrating herds. A pack of Dragon Riders herded the massive beasts, tapping their thick flanks with electric probes to direct them down the pathsways they had followed for fifteen thousand years. A group of massive, wheeling beasts, with thick membranes of veined leather across their spindly wings, soared overhead, snatching smaller predators on the wing. A sharp, acrid breeze, with the smell of spun Wraith on it, wafted by, from the small camps where the craftsmen were busily fusing the bones of dead saurians with their own Wraithcraft, making all manner of tools.<br>
Distantly, Isha found herself quite content with her decision. Life amongst the Exodites was much more interesting than the staid, structured Craftworld.<br>
A pair of Dragon Elites trooped by the small rock stand where Isha watched the spectacle below, longrifles slung. Behind them trailed almost a hundred Dragon Warriors, eyes alert for wild Clawspinners, threatening the herds below.<br>
Isha had doffed the gown she had worn to Ulthwé and Terra in favor of something more utilitarian. She had selected an outfit like those the Exodite women wore; a simple, utilitarian vest over leather pants, boots and kneepads. Though nothing like the regal appearance she bore in the Eldar legends, she didn’t want to be perceived as insulting her hosts by dressing over them. Besides, she could no more fly here than she could in the House of Rot, and she would have to keep up with the nomadic Exodites when the seasons changed.

Already, the few weeks she had been here had been a salve to the horrors of her confinement. The Exodites had greeted her without reservation, opening their homes to her. The lack of anything that even resembled advanced technology had been a bit of a shock, after the glittering spires of Ulthwé, but she had adapted at once, and looked forward to her recuperation on the sparsely populated world.<br>
She had internally debated about how to use her power here. The population was stable, so her power of fertility was unneeded, and the tribes here did not come to blows, so she wouldn’t be needed as a peacemaker. Ultimately, she resolved, any activity on her part would be fruitless. Even if her power had been urgently needed, its overuse might have drawn Nurgle’s attention…or worse, Slaanesh’s. Fortunately, these Exodites didn’t seem to need them.<br>
Her bodyguard, a Hunter, walked up behind her and waited respectfully. Isha turned to face her, waiting. “My Lady, the camp will be ready to move out in an hour.”<br>
“So soon?” Isha asked. “I was told it would be more like a day.”<br>
“We have hastened,” the Hunter said. “A new beast has appeared at the edge of the plains, looking for food. It’s twice again the size of the Megalodons, and coming this way. We can not risk it finding the herd.”

Isha wearily rubbed her hands over her eyes. “Is it about seventy feet tall and orange?”<br>
“Uh…yes. How did you know?” the Hunter asked in surprise.<br>
“Because we’ve met,” Isha said. “I’ll be right there.”<br>
After a brisk walk out to where the ‘beast’ had been waiting, Isha dropped her hands on her hips and frowned up at it. “And what can I do for you today?”<br>
“HELLO TO YOU TOO, ISHA. THOUGHT YOU MIGHT WANT TO KNOW, YOUR COMMORRAGH-DWELLING CHILDREN ARE USING A WEBWAY GATE ON THIS WORLD,” the Emperor reported.<br>
“Impossible. There’s only two Gates here, and they’re both guarded,” Isha said dismissively.<br>
“DARK ELDAR HAVE A MEANS OF TELEPORTING THROUGH THE ENERGY MEMBRANE OF THE GATE AND EMERGING SOME DISTANCE AWAY, WHILE ALREADY CLOAKED. THEY’VE USED IT AGAINST US MANY TIMES,” the Emperor informed her. “I FOLLOWED A SCOUT HERE AFTER A BATTLE AGAINST SOME TYRANIDS IN A NEARBY SUBSECTOR. HE FLED WHEN HE SAW ME, BUT HE WAS SPYING ON YOU.”<br>
“Really.” Isha heaved a sigh. Her bodyguard looked back and forth between the two Gods, completely flummoxed. “If they want to find me, they’ll know where I am. Did they seem to be preparing for an attack?”<br>
“NOPE, JUST A RECONNOITER. ONE SKIMMER, CLOAKED. HE WAS SPYING ON ME TOO.”<br>
“Then come what may,” Isha said.<br>
“YOU SAY SO,” the Emperor said skeptically. “I’LL BE OFF.”<br>
“Farewell, then,” Isha said, as the Emperor vanished in a burst of purple smoke. Her Hunter guard looked at her in astonishment.<br>
“What in the Warp was that?” she managed.<br>
“The Human Emperor,” Isha said. “My rescuer.” The Hunter looked at the rapidly dissipating cloud of smoke, back to the scarred Birth Goddess.<br>
“…Hell of a story to tell at the campfire, Madam.”<br>
“Consider yourself lucky,” Isha said drily. “You didn’t have to live through it.”

Jaghatai Khan’s vessel, the Minotaur Battle Barge Scourge of the Heretic, tore through the Warp in the Emperor’s wake, streaming towards the Dark Eldar pirate station as fast as the engines would allow. The combined task force of White Scars and Minotaurs was outfitted for a boarding, as they would need to be, for their role was almost pure close-quarters. The Dark Eldar rely on stealth and trickery in battle, in space and on the ground; their primary weapon was their holofield generator, which could hide them from any ships’ sensors. The Emperor, however, had known where to look, having had Commodore Romes compile a list of all the places in the region where his ships had been hijacked by the xenos.<br>
Sure enough, the sites of the hijacking had been correlative. That knowledge in hand, the Emperor had flown straight to the two chapters who would be most capable of (and willing to) boarding a space station full of Dark Eldar.<br>
Jaghatai himself stood in the hangar, running his hands over the new Attack Bike he had acquired from the Chapter armory. The Bike was brand-new, or looked it. The forward twin-linked bolters and heavy bolter on the sidecar didn’t have a visible speck of carbon scoring on their barrels. A neatly-sealed pack of frag grenades on the seat of the passenger car completed the vehicle’s arsenal. Normally, a Bike would have been beyond useless in a boarding action…but Jaghatai Khan knew a trick or two when it came to boarding actions.


''Continues in [[The Tales of the Emperasque: Part Fifteen]]''.

[[Category:The Tales of the Emperasque]]