【战锤40k同人作品翻译】 Ennui 第三十章：亲族 Kin

本章概述：

            伊莎莱降服了她的方舟世界表亲。

            In which Isarae faces down her Craftworld cousins.

正文：

你们不会得到她。

那是我脑海中闪过的第一个念头，我转过身去，朝向狂嚎女妖那熟悉的，彻底盖过了星镖射击的呼啸声的灵能战吼。

人类战士们仍处于失能状态中，一对投放得恰到好处的跳线手雷短接了他们的动力甲系统，使得强大如阿斯塔特大人也不过成了一堆陶钢和肌肉构成的庞然大物。尽管如此，他还是以身体为盾，挡住了守护者小队们自周围的建筑物中倾泻而出的致命火力。

我本以为我们还有更多时间。

至少是足够撤回到亚历莎的堡垒修道院的时间。

不过，凡事都不会如此简单的，不是吗？

“保持原位，Cre’yth!”我将连枷猛地甩到腰间，从身侧的枪套中抽出藜芦和悔恨。

“伊莎莱！”

亚历莎的声音让我停下脚步，她正转入跪姿，压低身子以缩小暴露面。她的盲眼落在我的身上，表情透着不容置疑的坚决。

“净化他们，然后回到我的怀抱中。”亚历莎的命令击穿了我的全身，即便情况危急，我也还是露出了微笑。

“如你所言，吾爱。”我转身面对方舟灵族的威胁，双脚踏上地面，然后猛冲向前。

我数了数，有二十名守护者紧密地组成了几个纪律严明的四人小组。我的方舟世界表亲们用压制火力将整个广场收入囊中，但在我起身转移的一瞬间他们却畏缩了。

只有一瞬间，短暂到几不可察，或许对于任何非灵族人来说都不可见，但我敢肯定，看到一个同族，一个身着可憎的人类帝国的配色和服饰的黑暗灵族巫灵一定震惊了他们。

在他们集中的火力下，如心跳般短暂的沉寂便是我所需的全部。

我在星镖射流间翻转腾挪，在火力交汇前便于几息之间根据武器的角度和位置判读了他们的射击轨迹。我从地面上一跃而起，在空中翻转着标记了视线中的每一个目标。

守护者们自压制射击转向瞄准，但他们还不够快。随着我于半空中用毒晶开火击穿了他们脆弱的头盔护目镜，一个四人小队几乎同时倒地，而他们在大脑被神经毒弹糊成一滩泥前几乎无暇喊出自己的痛苦。

据我估计，我在狂嚎女妖到场前没多少时间，而相对而言她们才是真正的考验。

我牢记这一点，随着星镖火力吞噬了身边的地表和墙面，我在地面上飞奔着将精准的毒晶射击打向守护者们的薄弱部位，击穿护目镜和脆弱的关节，并在死亡的奔流间欢乐地起舞。

啊，我把这点忘了：战斗的狂欢！在嘶吼声的和鸣中奏响的血腥、狂乱的暴力盛会！我从容地指挥他们奏出嘶哑的惨叫，而他们却徒劳地想用循规蹈矩的射击来压制我。

“荣耀归于神皇！”我在连射间的翻转腾挪中狂热地高呼道。“死亡降于灵族！”

这是一场净化。

我放倒的每一个同族都是冲洗我污浊的灵魂的一道清流。我们卑劣的帝国曾分娩了无尽的腐化。如若我们这般狂妄自大的种族未曾降生于孕育我们的原初泥潭，这个银河本该好上许多！（译注：你有点太极端了.jpg）

这群方舟世界蠢货仍苟延残喘，用他们一文不值的存活污染银河已经够糟了。他们肆无忌惮地妨碍神皇——为我的灵魂与巨蛇搏斗的祂——的忠仆则根本不可接受。

死亡乃此等罪行唯一的出路。

我如死亡本身一般击穿了守护者们。他们笨拙的射击在我眼中并不比兽人的更精确，而随着最后一个守护者小队倒下，我收枪入套并紧握剃刀连枷的刀柄，在我猛地抽刀的同时，三个狂嚎女妖伴着出鞘的利刃和自开口头盔中传出的灵能尖啸从阴影中一跃而出。

“黑暗灵族！”

这单词自女战士领队头盔上的灵能语音增幅器被恶毒地吐出，尖啸声如锤击般命中我的胸膛。

随着她们齐声高喊带来的灵能冲击波席卷而来，本能的恐惧冰封了我的四肢并震荡着我的大脑。我无法呼吸，动弹不得。当三名灵族杀手高举战刃冲向我时，我无力的四肢和液化的内脏违背了我的意志，在她们的动力武器上反射的寒光中，我看到了自己的死期。

“伊莎莱！”

亚历莎的哭喊击碎了我的恐惧。我伴着一声怒吼猛冲向前，在最后一刻前自利刃间脱身。狂嚎女妖们试图转身让我留在她们的视野内，可她们还是不够快。

我斩下了最左边的狂嚎女妖的双腿。我的连枷撕开了她的外甲，然后是血肉，随后是骨骼，她怒吼着摔在了自己的血泊里，双腿则像漂流木般落在了她的身边。

我向后舞动着，在剩下两者精湛的攻击之间穿梭。她们快得离谱。我只放倒了第一个，毕竟我用自己的恢复震惊了她们。现在她们十分谨慎，每当一个发起攻击，另一个就守着她的姐妹的侧面。我的连枷无从下手，至少我在攻击其中一个时必然会被一柄利刃直取肚肠。

我冒险在格挡动作间向后一瞥。

即便身受重伤，那位阿斯塔特战士仍在将亚历莎的姐妹们转移到登陆艇的保护中，尽最大的力量拖动自己的盔甲的死重。我能听到引擎在飞行员试图唤醒它时的轰鸣，可它的子系统可能仍因跳线手雷而无法运转。

至于亚历莎……

我睁大了双眼，看着她举起爆弹枪并瞄准。她怎么还能站着？她肯定没想着开火吧？或许她并没有全盲，可精确射击几乎肯定不是她能做到的，至少目前还是。如果亚历莎扣动扳机的话，她既可能打中狂嚎女妖也可能打中我。

另一个想法接踵而至。

不可能，绝不可能，亚历莎绝不会冒打中我的风险，也就是说她并不打算向我们开火，那会是哪里——？

我在亚历莎扣下扳机前的不到一秒内做好了准备。她对着我们的方向打出了两记快速而节制的爆弹点射，而它们准确无误地命中了目标。

哪怕狂嚎女妖们逼迫我后退，质量反应弹药仍打穿了我们之间的地面，恰好在女妖战士们移动着的石制地板上撕扯出了一个个窟窿。

亚历莎，你这超级无敌大美女。

亚历莎已经与我对练过了一个又一个昼夜，有时一练就是好几个小时，她很快就意识到，尽管对她身体的威胁在于我的攻击，但预测这些攻击的关键就在于我的步伐。

打乱脚步，就是打断攻击。

女妖们跌撞起来。

只有那么一点，这也只稍稍减慢了她们的速度，但在瞬息之间她们的动作失去了同步，而她们防御上的空隙如伤口开放在空气中。

当女妖们被迫调整自己的动作以避免踩上石板上炸开的窟窿时，我的连枷如一朵带刺的康乃馨般撕咬了下去。

一个女妖随着我的连枷将她从腹股沟直劈到下颚而惨叫起来，在她的姐妹尖叫着试图冲过我的防线时倒在了一滩血肉中。我猛地抖动手腕破坏了她的剑刃的冲击力，随着扭动和翻转将攻击范围扩大，并用一记命中脖颈的回旋踢打得她匍匐在地。

我猛烈地着陆并击碎了身下的石制广场，向着弯腰蹲伏并将剑刃举成防御姿态的那个女妖走去。

“你怎么敢，”我用灵族语嘶声道。“你这下流种怎么敢威胁我的亚历莎。”

“你到底是什么？”女妖低吼道，她头盔上的扬声器随着她缓慢地后退扭曲了她的语调。“哪有黑暗种会戴着人类尸皇的印记？”

“别跟我提你的异端邪说，莫拉-骸之女，”我啐道。“神皇知晓我的名字，而你和你可悲的姐妹们只会滚进巨蛇的口中。”

“不可能，”女妖说。“先知说得对……这根本不可能……”

我扬起了一侧的眉毛。这么说这里有一个她们的先知。这并不让我感到惊讶，但另我猝不及防的是，她们明显看到了关于我的什么。

又或者……也许是关于亚历桑德拉的。

我把剃刀连枷折回刀刃状，将之举起来对着那个女妖。

“你们的先知都说了些什么？”

她没有回答。随着我逐渐失去耐心，这个方舟灵族战士只是透过她的战争面具的目镜盯着我。行吧，没关系。这个可怜虫告诉不了我什么可信的东西。光是跟她对话就是在浪费我的时间。

“代我向饥渴女士问好，毕竟我可见不到她了，”我嘲笑道。

“伊莎莱快趴下！”

我的身体在能意识到前就遵守了亚历莎的命令。我在倒地时猛地抽打，对着滚到一边的女妖拱起了连枷的刀刃。与此同时，几件事发生了。

首先，那个女妖的剑刃连着她的胳膊被我突然倒地时伸展出去的攻击干净利落地切了下来。第二，一连串的爆弹火力逼迫女妖带着血流如注的断臂撤退。第三，另一声凄厉的尖叫骤然响起，预示着另一个女妖战士的到来。

第四：一道贪婪的白色能量束击穿了我右肩上的肉体。如果我没有倒地，它就会掏空我的内脏并折断我的脊椎。

在我重重地倒地的同时，我的体内立刻便充满了麻醉剂和兴奋剂的混合物。即便隔着剧痛和化学品，我也认出来这一击来自方舟灵族的长步枪。我早该知道的，我早该明白她们应该有来自游侠的支援的。

而更糟的是，另一个女妖已经穿过拐角，沿着林荫大道向我飞奔而来。我的呼吸在我寻找武器时卡在了喉咙里，随后我不断翻身以躲避追上来的女妖。

这可不仅仅只是个支派战士。

她的手中紧握着一把又长又沉的战刀，能量在其尖端噼啪作响。我在这之前只遇到过几次像她这样的人，而这总是个可怕的挑战。如果这个战士不是战士神殿里的主教的话，那她也无疑十分接近那一阶层。

只有技艺最精湛，侵略性最强的女妖能带着一柄处决者进入战斗。

她向着我猛冲过来，长剑的一记致命的刺击被我用连枷的笨拙的挥舞档了下来。我的一条手臂已经是一块死重。没了它，我面对这个级别的敌人的胜算已然十分渺茫。

如果我尚且全须全尾的话，那么这场战斗就会对我有利，但也只有那么一点。我并不傻，我很清楚这个方舟灵族战士得有多么致命才能如此熟练地操纵这样一把武器。

如此的熟练。

她像挥舞着阅兵指挥棒一样转动战刀，在自己周身挥出一道道杀气腾腾，削铁如泥的弧形斩击。

经过这一切后我必须多加小心。我感觉自己已经准确地判断出了狙击手开火的方位，而我则设法向广场中倒退了足够多的距离以让那个游侠无法轻松地射击，但他自身的移动并没有被算进去。

我们得尽快离开这个地方。我们位置不利，四面楚歌，并正承受着看不见的敌人的火力。对我们不利的因素太多了，而由于我可能已经在跟领导了这次部署的女妖交战，我也没把握能让自己撤出来。

“受死吧，黑暗灵族！”女妖领队尖啸着，她对于自己的姐妹的死伤的愤怒溢于言表。

“还没到时候！”我咆哮道，剃刀连枷噼啪作响着撞上了她的战刀，让她旋转着后退了一步。

而她重拾起那一步，又在其上加上另外三步，一息之后她便以一组令人窒息的短促刺击直指我的心脏、脖颈，以及股间的动脉，迫使我在她重夺优势的同时不断后退。

“伊莎莱撤退！”亚历莎呼唤道，我大胆地瞥了一眼，看见她已经站在了载具的坡道上，引擎已经启动，但很吃力，伤员们已经上了船。

但我不能服从她。

如果我中断决斗，这个女妖就会斩下我的首级，而我没有任何能压过她的优势。我几乎无法自保，而我的伤势也让我迟缓到甚至撑不了多久了。

就在我准备赴死时，一声尖锐的哨声提醒我有什么物体从我左侧一米左右的地方冲了过来。我无暇思考亚历莎在想什么，我只是移动起来，完全放下防备，背身栽倒在地面上，并将连枷猛抽向亚历莎向我扔来的物件。

我的刀刃如切开软奶酪一样切开了破片手榴弹，随之而来的爆炸震得我又聋又瞎。不过，那个女妖承受的远比这更严重。她惨叫着被甩了出去，整个左半身都镶满了冒烟的破片。

我的处境并没有好太多，但趴到地面和我的敌人的身体之间给了我掩护，我已经避免了最坏的情况。炽热的金属钻进了我的双腿，我确定其中一片已经轰飞了我的一侧膝盖骨。无论怎样，我的双腿已经不再承受我的重量，于是我把自己拖向坡道，不愿简单地屈服并拒绝执行亚历莎的命令。

我会回到她身边。她命令我回到她的臂弯里，我——！

“离她远点！”

亚历莎向我冲过来，枪声自我的头顶上倾泻而下，她举起爆弹枪朝着那个步履蹒跚的女妖随意地开火，女妖踉跄着在周身挥动她的战刀，即便在这种不知所措的状态下也仍然接住并偏转了几发可能会打中她的爆弹。

亚历莎用一只着甲的手抓住了我的废手，并把我拖向坡道，同时仍用单手打出克制的点射，可没有一发打中女妖领队。

女妖向亚历莎和我发起了冲刺，她完全放弃了防御，甚至还用肩甲接下了几枚擦弹。我无法在她身上聚焦目光，我的耳朵还在因爆炸而嗡嗡作响，就算我强化过的生理机能也无法足够迅速地弥补我收到的伤害。

“带她走！”亚历莎命令道，把我举了起来，片刻之后阿斯塔特大人的巨臂环住了我，将我整个抬进了航空器。

“亚历莎！”在我被从她手中拉开时，我哭喊道。

在女妖从亚历莎手中打掉爆弹枪时，在我与自己的死重和背负着我的阿斯塔特大人难以置信的力量抗争时，我感觉自己的心脏快跳进喉咙里了。

“亚历莎！”

我边踢边挣扎，尖叫着我爱人的名字。我试着接近她，可阿斯塔特的抓握无比的坚决。

一声武器的撞击声充盈了我的双耳，我的呼吸又一次凝滞了。

我的连枷。

我甚至没注意到自己把它丢掉了。我实在太担心亚历莎了，可它现在就在她的手中，它的卷曲已经缠上了战刀噼啪作响的刀刃，将之挡在了亚历莎的心脏前几英寸的距离上。

而亚历莎的全身都开始发光。

原文：

You will not have her.

That was the first thought that passed through my mind as I whirled on my heel to face down the familiar, psychic wail of Asuryani Banshees that had filled the air, completely overwriting the hiss and spit of shuriken fire.

The human warriors were still disabled, a brace of well-placed haywire grenades made short work of their power armoured systems, rendering even the powerful Lord Astartes as little more than a lumbering behemoth of ceramite and muscle. Even in spite of that, he still used his body as a shield against the withering fire of the Guardian squads that were spilling out from the surrounding buildings.

I had hoped we would have more time.

Time enough to extract back to Alessa’s fortress priory, at least.

Nothing can ever be so simple, though, can it?

“Stay down, Cre’yth!” I spun my blade around my waist and drew Hellebore and Rue from their holsters at my sides.

“Isarae!”

Alessa’s voice stopped me in my tracks. She was rising to a knee, keeping low to minimize her profile. Her blind eyes settled on me, and the expression she wore was one of deadset determination.

“Purge them, then return to my arms.” Alessa’s order rang through me and, despite the dire situation, I smiled.

“As you say, my love.” I turned back to the Asuryani threat, settled my heels against the ground, and surged forward.

I counted a score of Guardians in tight, disciplined groups of four. My Craftworld cousins bracketed the entire plaza with suppressing fire, but the moment I rose and began to move they faltered.

It was minute, barely noticeable, and likely invisible to any who are not Aeldari, but I’m certain that the sight of one of my kind, a Druchi Wych, wearing the colours and livery of the hated Imperium of Man must have startled them.

The heartbeat-long lull in their concentrated fire was all the opening I needed.

I ducked and wove between streams of shuriken, reading their shot's trajectory full breaths before the feeds engaged by the angle and set of their weapons. I kicked off from the ground, leaping high and spinning in the air, using the rotation to mark every target in the sight.

The Guardian’s broke off their suppressive fire to aim, but they weren’t nearly fast enough. One squad of four dropped at almost the same moment as I put splinterfire through the vulnerable visors of their helms in midair, and they barely had time to shriek out their agony before their brains turned to slurry from the neurotoxic rounds.

By my count, I had only moments before the Banshees arrived, and they would be the truer test.

Mindful of that, I struck the ground running, sending pinpoint shots of splinter rounds into the soft, vulnerable parts of the Guardians, splitting through eyeglasses and the flexible joints as their shuriken fire chewed up the ground and walls around me, all while I danced joyously between streams of death.

Ah, I had missed this: the carnevale of combat! The bloody and riotous gala of violence played out to a symphony of screams! I conducted their hoarse cries with aplomb as I put round after round through them while they tried in vain to pin me down with disciplined fire.

“Glory to the God-Emperor!” I cried as I spun and spiraled ecstatically between fusillades. “Death to the Aeldarii!” 

It was cleansing.

Every one of my own kind I put down was another sluice of clean water across my muddied soul. Our wretched empire had birthed unfathomable corruption. The galaxy would have been better for it had my hubristic kind never crawled from whatever primordial muck we were born from!

That these Craftworld fools clung to life and continued to pollute the galaxy with their worthless breath was bad enough. That they had the unbridled gall to interfere with the servants of the God-Emperor, He who battled the Serpent for my soul, was unconscionable.

Death was the only recourse for such an offense.

I cut through the Guardians like death herself. Their clumsy shots were no more accurate than an Ork’s to my eyes, and, as the last of the Guardian squads dropped, I holstered my pistols, gripped the hilt of my Razorflail, and snapped it out just as three Banshees erupted from the shadows with blades drawn and psychic screams projecting from their open-mawed helms.

“DRUCHI!” 

The word was spat with such venom, projected through the psychosonic amplifiers in the lead warrioress’ helm, and the shriek struck me like a hammerblow across the chest.

Instinctive terror froze my limbs and rattled my brain as the psychic shockwaves of their combined screams washed over. I could not breathe, I could not move. My arms were limp and my guts turned watery against my will as the three Aeldari killers came at me, blades raised high, and in the light reflected from their powered weapons I saw my death.

“ISARAE!”

Alessa’s cry shattered my fear. With a bellow of rage, I lunged forward, weaving between blade strikes at the last moment. The Banshees tried to turn, to keep me in their sight, but they were not nearly quick enough.

I took the legs from the leftmost Banshee. My flail tore through her aspect armour, then through flesh, then bone, and she screamed in agony as she struck the ground in a pool of her own blood while both of her legs fell like driftwood beside her.

Dancing backward, I wove between the expert strikes of the remaining two. They were damnably fast. I had only taken the first one because I had surprised them with my recovery. Now they were cautious, and wherever one struck, the other guarded her sister’s flank. There was no opening for my flail, or at least there was none that would not result in my taking a blade thrust to the gut from one if I attacked the other.

I risked a glance behind me between defensive flourishes.

Even grievously wounded, the Astartes warrior was ferrying Alessa’s sisters back into the protective cover of the landing craft, carrying the dead weight of his own armour by main strength. I could hear the guttering engine of the craft as it’s pilot attempted to coax it back to life, but its subsystems were likely still inactive from the haywire grenades.

As for Alessa…

My eyes widened as I saw her raising her bolter and taking aim. How was she standing? Surely she wasn’t considering opening fire? She may not have been fully blind, but accurate fire was almost certainly beyond her, at least for now. If Alessa pulled the trigger she was likely to hit me as she was to hit the Banshees.

On the heel of that thought came another one.

There was no chance, absolutely none, that Alessa would risk hitting me, which meant she wasn’t intending to fire on us, so where-? 

I readied myself a fraction of a second before Alessa pulled the trigger. She unleashed two quick, disciplined bursts of bolter fire in our direction and they struck their targets perfectly.

The mass reactive rounds chewed through the ground between us even as the Banshees forced me backward, ripping holes in the stonework floor precisely where the Banshee warriors were moving.

Alessa, you beautiful creature.

For cycle upon cycle, Alessa had sparred against me, sometimes for hours at a time, and she had learned quickly that although the danger to her body lay in my attacks, the ability to predict those attacks lay in my footwork.

Disrupt the footwork, disrupt the attacks.

The Banshees stumbled.

Only slightly, and it slowed them only fractionally, but for a handful of breaths their movements desynchronised, and gaps in their defense opened like wounds in the air. 

My razorflail snapped like a biting carnadon as the Banshees were forced to correct their movements to prevent stepping into the holes blown in the stone.

One Banshee shrieked as my flail split her from groin to jaw, putting her down in a swelter of gore as her sister screamed and attempted to lunge through my guard. I spoiled the thrust of her blade with a flick of my wrist, sending the strike wide as I twisted and spun, catching her neck with a spinning kick that sent her sprawling to the ground.

I lashed the ground around me furiously as I landed, ripping up the stone plaza as I advanced on the Banshee who had coiled into a crouch, her blade raised across her in a defensive guard.

“How dare you,” I hissed in Aeldarii. “How dare you threaten my Alessa with your vile presence.”

“What are you?” The Banshee growled, her helm’s amplivox twisting and distorting her words as she backed slowly away. “What Dark One would wear the mark of mankind’s corpse god?”

“Do not speak your heresies to me, daughter of Morai-Heg,” I spat. “The God-Emperor knows my name, while you and your wretched sisters will go to the maw of the Serpent.”

“Impossible,” The Banshee said. “The seer was right… utterly impossible…”

I raised an eyebrow. So one of their seers was here. That didn’t really surprise me, but what did catch me off guard was that apparently they had seen something regarding me.

Or… perhaps something regarding Alessandra.

I snapped my razorflail back into its blade form and raised it to point at the Banshee.

“What did your seer claim?” I asked.

She didn’t reply. The Asuryani warrior only stared me down through the lenses of her warmask as my patience frayed. Well, no matter. There was nothing this wretch could tell me that I could trust. I was wasting my time even speaking to her.

“Give She Who Thirsts my regards, as I will not be seeing her,” I said with a smirk.

“Isarae get down!” 

My body obeyed Alessa’s command before I could consciously acknowledge it. I lashed out as I dropped, arching my blade at the Banshee as she rolled away just as several things happened at once.

First, the Banshee’s blade, and her arm, was sliced clean from her body as my attack went wide from my sudden drop to the ground. Second, a fusillade of bolter fire opened up over my head, forcing the Banshee to continue her retreat as she bled copiously from the stump of her arm. Thirdly, another keening wail split the air, heralding the arrival of another of the Banshee’s sister warriors.

And fourth: a tight beam of white, ravening energy punched through the meat of my right shoulder. If I hadn’t dropped, it would have gutted me and severed my spine.

My body flooded a combination of numbing narcotics and stimulants in an instant as I hit the ground hard. Even through the haze of agony and chemicals, I recognised the shot from an Asuryani Long-Rifle. I should have known better, I should have known they would have support from their Rangers.

To make matters worse, another Banshee had rounded the corner and was barreling down the boulevard at me. My breath caught in my throat as I scrabbled for my weapon before flipping back, over and over, to get away from the charging Banshee.

This was no mere aspect warrior.

In her hands she gripped a long, heavy glaive whose head crackled with power. I had faced ones like her only a handful of times before and it was always a terrible challenge. If this warrior was not an exarch of a Shrine, then she was undoubtedly near that stage.

None but the most skilled and aggressive of the Banshees enter a battle with an Executioner in hand.

She powered towards me riding the thrust of her glaive in a single, killing strike that I fended off with a clumsy snap of my flail. One of my arms was all but dead weight, and without it my chances of victory against a foe of this caliber were dismal at best.

If I had been whole then the fight would have been in my favor, but only just. I was no fool, I knew precisely how deadly this Asuryani warrior must be to handle a weapon like that so deftly.

And deft it was.

She spun the glaive like a parade baton, spinning it around herself in murderous arcs that would cleave through armor and flesh with equal ease.

Through it all I had to be careful. I thought I had judged accurately where the sniper had shot from, and I managed to backpedal far enough into the plaza that the Ranger would no longer have a clean shot, but that did not account for his own movements.

We needed to leave this place, and quickly. We were outpositioned, outflanked, and under fire from an unseen foe, there were too many factors against us, and I wasn’t certain I could extract myself now that I had engaged the Banshee that, likely, led this detachment.

“Die, Druchi!” The Banshee leader screamed, her rage at the deaths and injury of her sisters was palpable.

“Not yet!” I snarled, snapping my razorflail in a rattling crash against her glaive and sending her wheeling back a step.

She reclaimed that step, and another three on top, a heartbeat later as she lunged out with a withering set of staccato thrusts aimed at my heart, neck, and the arteries of my legs, forcing me back as she reclaimed her advantage. 

“Isarae retreat!” Alessa called, and I dared a quick glance to see her standing on the ramp of the vehicle, the engine had started, but it was laboring, and the wounded were aboard.

But I could not obey her.

If I broke off the duel the Banshee would take my head off, and I had no advantage to claim over her. I could barely keep myself alive, and my wound slowed me enough that even that would not last much longer.

A sharp whistle alerted me to a small object hurtling a meter or so past me on my left even as I began to resign myself to death. I didn’t have time to wonder what Alessa was thinking, I simply moved, collapsing my guard completely, dropping straight down and onto my back as I lashed my flail out and to the side to strike what Alessa had sent my way.

My blade split through the fragmentation grenade like soft cheese, and the resulting detonation deafened and blinded me. The Banshee took it far worse, though. She screamed as she was bodily pitched away with her whole left side peppered with smoking shrapnel.

I wasn’t much better off, but between being low to the ground and my foe’s own body giving me cover, I had avoided the worst of it. Hot metal was digging into my legs, and I was certain that one of the pieces had blown straight through one of my kneecaps. Either way, my legs were refusing to take my weight, so I dragged myself towards the ramp, unwilling to simply give in and fail in Alessa’s order.

I would return to her. She ordered me to return to her arms and I-!

“Get away from her!” 

Shots poured out over my head as Alessa hurried out towards me, her bolter up and firing haphazardly at the staggered Banshee who drunkenly spun her glaive around her, still catching and deflecting the few bolter rounds that might have hit her in spite of her dazed state.

Alessa seized my dead arm with one armoured hand and dragged me backward towards the ramp, still firing one-handed in controlled bursts, but the Banshee leader was having none of it.

The Banshee charged, abandoning defense and even taking a few glancing shots across her pauldrons as she bore down on Alessa and I. I couldn’t focus on her, my ears were still ringing from the explosion, and even my enhanced physiology couldn’t make up for the damage I’d taken fast enough.

“Take her!” Alessa ordered as she heaved me up, and a moment later the enormous arms of Lord Antares were around me and bodily heaving me into the aircraft.

“ALESSA!” I cried out as I was pulled from her grasp. 

As the Banshee knocked the bolter from Alessa’s hands, I felt my heart cram itself into my throat as I struggled against the dead weight and impossible strength of the Astartes who was carrying me.I

“ALESSA!”

I screamed my love's name as I kicked and struggled. I tried to get to her, but the Astartes' grip was utterly implacable.

A crash of weapons filled my ears, and my breath caught once more.

My flail.

I hadn’t even noticed I’d dropped it. I’d been too worried about Alessa, but it was now in her hands, and its coils had caught the crackling blade of the glaive, stopping it mere inches from Alessa’s heart.

And Alessa’s whole body had begun to glow.