Editing The Guards (section)

=== Chapter Three ===
Frieren refused. The warlock gestured for the guardian with his knife to come forward. The leader took the knife and presented it to the emotional Eldar.
"What don't you understand, Guardian? Her story ends here, you must accept it. Were you to convince me, someone would eventually put down your sniveling mutt aboard the craftworld. Leave her here and either her own or the orks will kill her. There is no way she can survive the war. Kill her. She trusts you, so why not let her experience her death from someone that cares? It's not out of anger. I simply can't stand to see the poor creature suffer. Kill her."
Frieren took the knife in his trembling hand. He looked at the exquisite blade and its near perfect edge. He looked at Liena. The blade would be quick, pierce her flesh without effort. Her death would be painless. He couldn't bear the thought. He began to see his hand raise, and plunge. His mind was flooded with the images. But these were images placed in his mind by the warlock. He fought them with all his will.

"I-I can't..." He shook his head to free his mind "I won't. This human and I have been through too much, I owe her my life."

"I too have been saved by humans once before, but any animal can save your life by chasing off predators. She isn't eldar - you do not owe her a thing but a merciful death. Remember, Guardian, Humans are those who must be killed. Mon'keigh." He saw the conflict in his heart. "It is that emotion you feel that brought us down from grace. You must free yourself, or we cannot save you. She dies, or you both die on this planet. I am giving you a choice."

He hesitated. The knife rattled in his loose hands. The warlock saw this and approached the guardian. He wrapped his hands around Freiren's making him hold the knife tightly. Liena's body started to move against her will. The Warlock was a powerful psyker, no amount of resisting would prevent his will overpowering her own. She was pried from his leg and her head jerked up violently exposing her neck. He beckoned Freiren to position himself behind her. His steps were heavy, he knew the warlock could have forced him to move like Liena, but this had to be his own actions. The warlock knew this. Liena was still sobbing profusely, tears streaming down her face. As Freiren took the final step, their eyes met. Her face was red and shining from tears. She looked pathetic and feeble. The warlock once again guided Freiren's hand, placing the knife gently on her neck. As soon as the psyker's hand was withdrawn the knife began rattling once again. Freiren couldn't look away. He watched her mouth words in between her gasps of air.
"Please... don't" She begged to her companion. Her body was shaking. She couldn't move, the warlock held her in a firm grip with his mind.
The images began to play in his mind again, the ease of the action, a quick slash, left to right, her blood would spill and she would fall lifeless to the ground. Each time he saw it play over in his mind the more he started feeling hatred. His eyes started to glace around, towards the discarded lasrifles, the distances of the other guardians. How quickly he could throw a knife. For a split second he saw the warlock twitch.
"I wouldn't even think about it." His tone was an arrogant one.

"We are out of time, Warlock, leave the deviant and be done with this!" The haughty Guardian blurted out. The Warlock raised his hand to quiet him.
Freiren saw Liena gain a bit more of her body as the warlock was distracted. He began to muse more on a daring escape. If he was quick enough and dispatched the warlock, he would be able to reach the lasrifle and eliminate a few guardians in the confusion. Liena would most likely join him. But his mind quickly betrayed him. He saw the knife be tossed in his mind, and the warlock send it into Liena's heart. He saw Liena twitch for a moment again. Each time he forced the warlock to place a new thought into his head he released his hold over Liena a small amount. He started running new ideas through his mind, and saw different ways for them to fail. He began thinking of irrational outcomes, the humans super warriors falling from the sky, Necrons bursting from the ground. Strangely it didn't seem the warlock was catching onto his plan. The Warlock was beginning to grow impatient of Freiren's impertinence and started to walk towards him. His influence in both of their minds faded noticeably. His moment had come. His hand raised almost instinctively. He arm jerked as hard as he could, to the point of straining himself. The knife flew towards the warlock, spinning through the air. The blade stopped just in front of the warlock, as expected, its momentum dulled. As it reached its impetus it flew the other direction. The blade shot back with a howling shriek of the blade cutting through the air, and landed with the loud thud of a blade piercing flesh. Freieren twitched an the knife was embedded into his back. He had thrown himself in front of Liena.

The warlock, and his retinue was stunned. No one moved, not even the warlock could have foreseen Frieren's action. The Eldar coughed out a pained gasp as his hand started to reach for the knife. His breathing was shallow, his knees weak. He slumped over the guardsman, and gave her a very human smile. The Warlock was impressed, Frieren managed to outwit him, but as such an unreasonable cost. He waved off the guardians and they began to depart for the webway. He would let the renegade have his prize. Liena watched the eldar leave and turned her attention to her guardian. She laid him carefully on his front pilfering through his pouches for the healing paste. she managed to find the vial and moved quickly to open the precious container. His gasps were becoming more and more ghostly as time went on. There was only one way to heal him, and he wasn't going to like it. Her hand gripped the handle of the knife tightly.
"Forgive me.." She proceeded to count aloud to three. "Three". She ripped the knife out of his back, forcing a pained gasping growl out of the Eldar.
She dispensed the entire contents of the vial in the knife wound in her panicked desperation. There was no reaction at first. She slowly placed her hands on the sides of the wound and pressed them together holding her hand in place applying pressure on his wound. He was silent, buy giving an occasional shallow breath, he let her know he was still alive. She waited, till he finally started to move and take deeper breaths. Her face lit from elation, she couldn't stop herself from letting out a joyed laugh and Frieren slowly rolled himself over. Liena helped the guardian sit up. He cringed in pain as she helped him to his feet. The Eldar left them to their own devices, but they felt something in their mind, a final parting from the warlock.
"Good luck."

For once it was Liena carrying the eldar. She threw his arm around her neck, helping him walk. She had no idea what she was heading to; she surmised that the opposite direction of the eldar's flight meant one of two things, Imperium, or orks. If it was orks, at least she could smell them before they ran into them. Freiren would occasionally catch her looking over at him with a smile on her face. The conflict in her mind was almost settled. If he was willing to die to protect her, then she could trust him. The only eldar in existence that she could say she trusted. The Guardsman didn't think of the implications of bringing a xeno to her lines, when she felt a cold drop of water strike her cheek she only thought about finding shelter.
Rain filled the empty expanse of wasteland, the muddied ground was becoming difficult to walk in, each step her feet would sink in just a bit more than the last. The Emperor saw fit to bless her with a small cave that offered protection from the rain, and possibly small mortar rounds. The cave didn't extend that deep, but at least it went in deep enough and low enough that a small fire wouldn't be seen, and something to warm their spirits would be extremely welcome. With one shoulder, she placed the lasrifles on the ground, with the other she placed Freiren against the cave wall, sitting him carefully against it. He was paler than usual, his breath was still shallow, and his would wasn't fully healed. She leaned him forward to look at his wound, but the light of day had long passed and was covered by the storm. She assembled as many small bits of flammable material as she could find in the cave, and pulled out her uplifting primer. It was a useful book, a hard leather exterior, gilded edges, it was perfect, it kept it dry. She ripped out a couple pages, adding to a large repertoire of missing pages.

The pages of the Uplifting Primer were made from a very dense polymer resin compound of wood pulp and other materials, making each page thick, durable, absorbent—and flammable. The guardsmen found a million different uses for the book, almost none of which involved reading it. She had read it a couple times when she was a whiteshield, but only because she had to memorize entries from the book. The fire she constructed burned comfortably warm, and low, it would warm them up but not let an pesky ork know where they were. The lighting was low, but it offered her enough to inspect the eldar's wound. Liena detached her medpouch from her belt and place it beside Frieren. The wound was still open, and bleeding slightly, but it was significantly less deep. His armor kept getting in the way. She sat in front of him and tried her best to explain the situation, she started to speak slowly to him despite the fact he wouldn't understand.
"Can... you... take... armor... off?" She said grabbing the bottom of her flak armor and miming a lifting motion. He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head in confusion.
She continued to explain in a few different ways. He finally understood what she meant, and he reached for his collar. He pressed something, she had no idea what, but his armor puffed out, and the flexible layer of his armor shrank between the hardened plates of his armor. It compacted itself as it lifted from his body, the cuirass of his armor folded into a neat square in his hands. Liena watched in amazement how something so strong could be folded up like a shirt. She picked up the material and it flopped in her hand like a cloth, and light as one too. She was caught in the strange and almost magical technology of xenos. Freiren cleared his throat and snap the curious human back to reality.

Liena opened her medipouch and started to pull out her stitches. Grabbing his uniform she ripped a larger hole in the silken material so she could work on it. Freiren removed his tunic before she could damage it more than it already was. She threaded the needle and placed it under the flame of her lighter. Liena showed him the needle and the string attached to it. Once again he was baffled at the sheer unsophistication of human methodologies. 'She is going to sew my wound together... it's so crude it's brilliant,' he thought to himself. He felt her small delicate fingertips land themselves around his wound, then a sharp pinch. Liena waited for him to stop flinching each time she pierced his skin. She weaved the needle back and forth slowly closing the wound. It was almost meditation for her, she began to concentrate on other things, the dancing of her shadow on his back from the low flame, the sound of rain echoing in the cave. She made the final pass and cut the string. She placed the materials back into her pouch, and pulled out gauze and a bandage. The bandage was applied. She slowly wrapped the cloth around his narrow waist. Reaching in front of him Liena tied a knot in the material fastening the bandage in place, when she was done she tightened her arms around the eldar and rested her head on his back, closing her eyes. Freiren turned his head to see her brown hair, he placed his hand around hers. He ignored the feeling of cold metal on his bare skin for a moment.
"Almost human..." she muttered to herself quietly.

Liena slithered her way to the front of Freiren, and stood up. She walked towards the entrance of the cave, popping up momentarily to look out into the landscape for any sign of activity. There was only rain, she could barely see a meter out of the entrance. The guardsman made her way back into the cave, placing herself next to the fire Freiren was huddled against, with his hands in held out towards the flame. Liena was cold in her rain drenched uniform, and her old wounds were starting to fade back. She sat down and placed her hands under her armpits, with a quick flick of her thumbs a metallic click was heard and her flak vest loosened a bit, with a second flick it popped free. Her armor was cast off landing with a loud crash on the stone floor. Liena took in a couple of deep breaths and rolled her shoulders finally free of the confines of her armor. The guardian looked at her bulky metal armor in utter disbelief. He couldn't believe that she was wearing it and still moving around like she was. He had to respect the tenacity of humans, the conditions they lived in compared to his, and yet they would still fight to the last over a pile of rocks. His eye popped as he saw Liena begin to undo the buttons of her uniform. One by one she undid the many buttons that lined her beige uniform. She couldn't help but wonder why so many buttons were needed, the same effect could have been meet with half the number. Once she reached the last one she cast off her shirt, spun it into a tube and started to wring out all the water. Freiren had to admit to himself he was somewhat disappointed to find out she was wearing an undershirt, but the rain did work to his benefit in a way. The human form wasn't to dissimilar to an eldar's. It was strange, so similar, yet so different between the cultures. He quickly shook his head and dismissed any thoughts of the matter.

The woman was placing her uniform top on her armor and slid it closer to the fire so it might dry quicker. Her next endeavor was to remove her boots. As she leaned forward she felt the sting of her ribs once again. Her arms reached forward the best she could untucking the strings from the cuff of her boots and tugging them loose. She didn't want to think how long it had been since she removed them. Frieren watched her gazing on almost not paying attention. While he had the moments to spare his mind was racing, thinking of all the events that transpired, he thought little of his future on the doomed planet. Liena. He risked his life to save hers on multiple occasions, and she did the same. Neither owed each other any debt from the beginning, so why did he try to help her in the first place? Because she was so similar to him. He had been told that humans are nothing but dangerous animals that would eventually destroy his race if left unchecked. Yet here was Liena, a human. He had seen her display more eldar emotions than he'd seen in his own kind. She wasn't a dumb animal, she wasn't just acting on instinct, she felt things the way he did.
Liena was enjoying the freedom from her battle gear and wafting her feet back and forth enjoying the warmth of the flame. She was having similar thoughts, contemplating the events that had brought here to this juncture, in a cave, with an Eldar. Her own kind would call a close friendship with an alien blasphemous. In the grand scheme of things, he was the only friend she had left. The whole of Theta company was destroyed. The Eldar was all she had left in the harsh and unforgiving world. She started to inch herself closer to Frerien's side. He looked at her as she moved closer and kissed him, then rested her head on his shoulders. 'A strange way to show affection' Freiren thought.

Liena slept comfortably by the fire that had died down hours before. The Eldar cloth did wonders to keep them both warm during the night. She was the first to wake up. She looked behind her to see the guardian still in his slumber and slinked out of the sheet to fetch her clothes. They weren't as dry as she'd hoped they were, and nowhere near as warm as she'd wanted. She shivered as she tossed the wet denim over her body letting out a gasp. They eventually became warm enough to bear. As she tied her boots she noticed that her ribs didn't hurt as much. 'A good night's sleep is often the best medicine' she remembered the medics telling her when the supplies ran low. She buckled down her flack vest before the guardian woke up. She smiled at the lazy eldar recovering from his sleep like a trooper after an all-nighter on leave. She ambled over to reach for her lasrifle.
"Matutinius uga, piger." She chuckled playfully. She tossed him a ration bar while she opened hers. It was the last two they had until they could find another outpost, or accidentally bump into her lines.
She moved to the entrance of the cave to scout out the landscape while the Eldar armed himself. Freiren joined her at the cave entrance. There was no overcast the sky clear and blue, this boded as a good omen to Liena, that possibly things had changed for the better for the two. 'My she seems more spry than normal today" He thought to himself admiring her new found energy. Just when everything appeared to be going their way, the old sound of distant whistling could be heard. Liena rolled here eyes indignantly and walked back into the cave. When Freiren recognized the sound he darted back into the cave as well. The peaceful landscape was again erupting into explosions from artillery.

The bombardment eventually died down several hours later, and the cacophony of battle could be heard in the distance. From the volume of the staccato of gunfire it was a large and pitched battle. They emerged from the cave entering a brave new world of theirs. Their march was a slow one. They were in no rush to get caught up in a battle that ultimately wasn't theirs. Thoughts kept creeping into Lina's head, maybe she didn't want to reach friendly lines. After all, there would be no way that the Guardian would last. Even under the non-aggression pact there were orders to eliminate any stragglers, no telling what would happen since the two sides engaged in open conflict. Yet they continued to move towards the battle. It was something to behold from a distance, the rant explosions, tracers and beams of light dotting the horizon. The time between flashes of light and sound. She could understand why some planets celebrated holidays with displays of fireworks or actual ordinance expenditure. It was an awesome sight to behold.
The fighting died down and from their distance they could not determine the winner. It didn't matter. Liena had made up her mind. Returning to her lines would only prove to be a bad idea for both companions. Instead she had another thought. If she could reach the space ports of the hive, they could sneak into a shuttle disguising Frieren and make a living as one of those bands of merchants that didn't hold any political alliances. Become a Rogue Trader. It was entirely possible, in her mind, to sneak an eldar through vast billions of people. The more people in one area the less they would notice a single person, or eldar. She stopped. Freiren stopped as well but confused.
"I'll learn your language eventually, it can work." She smiled at the Guardian, his face wasn't nearly as pleased, he saw what was behind her. Liena began to smell it.

A throng of fleeing orks was soon to interrupt her plans. Freiren pushed her aside and began firing on the beasts as they charged yelling their dreadful war chant. The Lasrifle had such a different feel than the shuriken catapult he had become so accustomed to. There was a strange amount of kick to the weapon, and the operation was rather peculiar. As the trigger was pulled the weapon would lurch then snap to function, rather than flow like his old weapon. Though the power behind it was respectable; the first ork was felled in only a handful of shots. Liena joined in on the fight. Her handling of the weapon was much more expert. The orks fired wildly at the two as they stood their ground, felling several more orks. Their shots pinged off the ground harmlessly kicking up dirt. In an all-too-familiar feeling the orks kept growing closer despite the number of them they killed. Only about three remained as they hurled themselves into their lasbolts, almost unfazed. These orks were larger than usual and had more of their scrap metal affixed to them. Liena felt a shot pass uncomfortably close to her ear. She started to focus fire on Feiren's nob but the hulks didn't seem to care they were being shot at.
"Curum!" They started to run fleeing to the side of the orks charging path. The nobs charged past them, unwilling to turn. The brutes smashed into each other and began bickering and slugging one another before beginning their chase again. Liena stopped and took up another strong firing stance. She pointed to her legs then pointed to the orks. "Zap zap." She said with a stern face. They started to fire at the first ork's legs. The lasbolts were absorbed by the bits of metal, but one hit landed almost perfectly from Freiren. The knee of the ork exploded, causing it to topple over tripping the others. Liena looked to her Eldar companion.
"Currum." She started to run, The Guardian was close behind.

Their fight was simple in its tactic - to slow the orks down enough that they could kill them or flee, but the Ork was a tenacious beast and the growing hum of Imperial war machines grew in the distance. Every time a ork would fall they would unleash a barrage of beams at whatever soft bits they could find. Their cries became more fierce hurling strands of putrid spittle as their bloodlust was slowly taking them over. Their speed slowly increased as if their wounds weren't there. Every time Liena and the Eldar fell back the orks quickly closed the gap. No amount of lasfire was slowing the nobs. A large fist adorned in rusted and spiky metal fell violently in front of Frieren. Without a second's hesitation his body flew forward, impaling the primitive bayonet into its eye. The Eldar squeezed his trigger letting out a cry. The back of its helmet began to glow and bubble out as a beam of light shot through. The first ork had been slain, but it hadn't realized it yet. As the blade was pulled from it skull it grasped at the hole in utter disbelief that it could receive such a wound. It swung once more at the nimble eldar, but before it could connect its arm fell dead.

There wouldn't be any time for revelry as the other two beasts loomed over the Eldar. A desperate shot sailed past one of the nobs helmet knocking off a large boney horn, as a large green fist impacted the eldar's chest cracking his already battered armor flinging him to the ground. The second nob raised the dull chunk of metal it called a weapon ready to steal the kill from his comrade. Liena flung herself upon the ork firing as many shots as she could screaming in defiance. Her body crashed on its coarse armor but disrupted the swing long enough for Freiren to melt away bits of the first nob's face, its heavy body crashing onto his lasrifle and pinning him to the ground. She was stabbing the nob crazily until its brute hand clenched her calf ripping her from his back. With a quick fling she flew threw the air like a discarded rag, her body crashed upon a rock and then landed face down in the wet mud. The beast slowly lumbered towards her brandishing his weapon.

"Umie..." It spoke taunting Liena in its guttural belches as its thumb slid across what it would call the edge of its axe. "Yu dented up me fav'rite bitz."

Her lasrifle was just a mere inches from her reach. She grasped futilely at the weapon as she grunted and sobbed in the mud. Her finger touched the fabric of the weapon's strap, but fell off as she tried to pull it. The noise of the brute's foot sinking then flying from the mud grew louder as it hovered over her body. She closed her eyes tightly waiting for the painful end from the greenskin. The Eldar was freeing himself from the fleshy bindings of his assailant. His body was broken and his will was the only thing keeping him conscious. He aimed carefully at the Ork with his shaking hands. His finger pressed up against the metal lever and the weapon obeyed sending a beam into the greenskin's neck. The monster stopped and turned, its red eyes on fire as it glared holes into the Eldar.

Frieren spit out the blood pooling in his mouth. "Come at me, beast."

Mud spat from its feet as it charged Freiren. He blasted his weapon at the beast as many time as he could, before it was almost on top of him. Its blade cocked above his head ready to unleash its pent up force on the Eldar's frail body. The blade launched as the ork grunted. The eldar expected it to make such an attack, he followed the blade's movement with his body leaning painfully to the side as the weapon flew past him landing into the mud with a satisfying "thunk". The ork tried for a second to pull the weapon out of the mud. A bayonet landed into the Nob's gut. The beast grunted and then grinned as its massive hand wrapped around the twig-like lasrifle.

"Cleva git ain'tcha!" He pulled the weapon from his body and unleashed a fist into the Eldar's gut. Frerien coughed out more blood. "Not smarta den me fist!"

Liena dragged her body up reaching her lasrifle as the Ork began to attack her companion. she clenched her side as she inched in the mud to sit herself up. She saw the fist impact Freiren, and then another, She cried out for him, not discharging her weapon in fear of hitting the eldar. Her body was overcome with a sudden rush of adrenaline. She got to her feet brandishing her weapon. Almost as if she wasn't in control of her body she felt one foot place itself in front of the other digging into the mud as she charged at the ork screaming.

"DIE! Just die, die die DIE!" She screamed pushing past the pain lunging into the ork one more time. Her weapon began discharging into the metal parts of its armor hitting the soft flesh. It froze for a split second and swung its fist around to impact Liena on the side of the skull, rendering her unconscious, but it was just the opening Freiren needed to place the lasrife under the beast's chin. The blade sunk in, spilling its dark, viscous blood.

"You've lost." The Eldar pulled his trigger.

They both fell to the ground. The hum of engines growing louder in the distance, the eldar forced his body up one last time.

He could feel his broken bones grinding together as he lurched towards his companion. He gazed at the creature that until recently he considered a mere animal, not even worthy of respect. She was his friend, the only one he had left on this forsaken planet. He bent over and forced his arms to wrap around her, nestling her close to him. He felt almost nostalgic cradling her like an injured puppy. He stumbled and blood trickled from his mouth. The dots on the horizon began to grow and soon he could make out the silhouettes of humans. Instead of the dread he trained himself to feel for many centuries he felt elation.

Soldiers spotted him in the distance and began running towards him. His body could hold himself; he slumped to his knees.
The Guardsmen looked on in confusion as they saw the eldar figure holding one of their own. They approached him with weapons ready. His arms did the best they could to lift Liena. He forced the smile that was alien to him.

"Please, save her..." He grunted and his breath faded away. His head slumped over his companions body as he still held her in his arms. Two wet dots appeared on her cheek. One of the Guardsmen prodded him and he didn't move. Another knelt close to the wounded guardsman in his arms.

"How's she look doc?"

"She's alive, can't say much for the Xeno, She needs medical attention though."

"I hope she makes it, we're going to need intel as to why that fort went dark."

The medic carefully moved for from the xeno's grasp, and the eldar's body fell over. He laid Liena out flat reaching for supplies to treat her with.

"What about the Eldar sarge, do we tell the captain?"

"No, leave it out of the report, Emperor knows what'll happen to her." He sighed and turned to one of the soldiers. "Trooper Harel, go inform the Captain, It looks like she's from Theta company." The Guardsman he addressed turned and dashed back to his lines.

"What about the Eldar?" A trooper blurted out.

"Bury it, hide the evidence."