The Skitarii Ranger

Draznazar

Something's wrong, this place feels wrong and I think we're lost. These tunnels keep shifting every now and then, this leads me to believe that this place isn't dead, it just looks dead. These dark putrid tunnels carry the stench of the dead, the smell of rot makes me feel ill. I shouldn't have bought the entire team in this place.

Not only is the smell of rotting corpses bothering me but it's also the fact that we're being followed as well. I know me and my team are being followed, I can hear the sounds of a beast stalking its prey, there might be even more of them judging by the sounds of growling and snarling. But every time me or someone in my team turn around to see what's behind us, the sounds stop and the creatures disappear like they were never here.

Maybe I'm being paranoid and there's nothing following us. But the fact that my entire team hears the noises as well, leads me to believe that I'm not going crazy. We need to get out of here before these mysterious creatures slay us and eat our bodies. I don't give a damn about the storm outside, it's better than in here where we will die. "Draznazar we are lost aren't we?" No shit Ser'eth.

"Ser'eth, if you state the obvious once more, I will blow your brains out!" I threaten. "But yes you're right, we should turn back and retrace our steps."

"Exactly what we should do."

We turn around an retrace our steps but soon found out tha all the tunnels are different. Shit I've heard stories about mazes that change all the time and anyone who goes through them goes insane. Call me crazy but I think we're in one of Tzheench's mazes. We are never going to get out, we are stuck here till the end of time.

*Grrr*

"What was that?" Asked one of the wyches. What ever it is, it sounds hungry.

*Grrrr*

The sound grows even louder. In the darkness of the tunnel I see glowing blue eyes, not only that but there's multiple eyes. They stare at me and my team, the eyes pierce through our souls and casting fear into our minds. One of the creatures steps out of the shadows, reviealing a four legged bug like creature. The creature has holes in its legs, its exo skeleton is black, its wings are malformed and its mouth drools saliva.

Other creatures come out of the shadows, they all growl and hiss and they all look feral. Their eyes scream 'I'm hungry' and they look desperate. I turn around away from the creatures only to find that some of themare climbing the walls and ceiling.

We are completely surrounded and I only see one way out of this. "Open fire!" I command my team and the wyches. We fire our weapons at the creatures but they just keep coming, it's like every time one of the creatures is killed, three more take its place. Even worse is the fact that they are fast enough to dodge most of our bullets, on the upside, melee combat seems to kill the creatures faster because wyches have proved that melee combat is more efficient.

Ignoring my blast pistol I sheathe and start using my power sword instead. One of these bugs like creatures rush toward me and grab it by the throat, the creature hisses at me. I thrust my sword into its chest and I slice upwards, this splits the creatures head in half. I get a short look at the creature that attacked me but it melted into a glowing green puddle of plulsing organs and blood. Ignoring the pile of gore, I slice and dice through this horde like melting butter and it is very effective.

Even though melee combat gets rid of the creatures faster, they still just keep coming. If they are intelligent enough to under stand that they're killing themselves they would retreat. But they're not intelligent, they just want to eat anything with flesh. They're just feral animals and they're just an inconvenience.

After a few minutes of fighting the squad have started to run low on ammo, the squad is struggling to reload without getting attacked. Soon we completely ran out of ammo, we had to use our knifes and other melee weapons, some drukhari had to use their fists. But then one of my squad members got pinned down to the ground by one of the bugs. The creature started to suck on my soldiers life force. AAAAAAAGGH he screams

As the creature sucks my team mates soul, the soldiers body starts to get skinnier and skinnier and as his body withers away the creature get more full as if feasts on his soul. I avenged my allies death by slicing the bugs body in half. The bugs guts start to melt along with the rest of the body parts.

"By Commoragh there's no end this horde!" Ser'eth exclaimed as he stated out the obvious again. Soon one by one my whole squad got dragged away into tunnels, they all went in different directions. So eleven Drukhari fell to the bugs. There's only me left and I won't last long. I got surrounded very quickly by these feral pests who only feast like the the C'tan.

"I will die with my honour intact!" I say to myself. But instead of being slayed by the creatures, I got hit on the back of my head. How humiliating.

I wake up only to see myself being dragged by these monsters. "Another intruder, bing it in the throne room with the others." An intelligent voice said. So thes pests have a mind of their own even though they act like wild beasts.

The smell of rotting corpses has gotten stronger, I have no idea where it's coming from but it is very close by. I look around to see what the smell is and I see a tunnle that says 'The corpse tunnel.' This is probably the place where they throw the dead of there own kind, but it might be used to discar there victims.

Soon I enter a chamber full of cocoons on the ceiling and a throne in the middle of the room. The cocoons have living creatures inside them, and I'm not sure what they are because I can't see what's inside them due to how bright they glow, but I suspect that there's bugs inside them or, since there's eleven of them they might be members of my squad. The throne has one of these creatures sitting in it except it's larger than the others, it has messy hair that's coloured dark blue, its green eyes are like a cat, its horn looks mangled and it has a crown on its head. This creature must be the leader.

"My queen we have captured another one of the intruders." The guard informed the leader. Queen eh, what a fitting title for a worthless insect. "What should we do with them? Should we put it in a cocoon?" It continued

"Hmm, it seem intelligent, just look at the armour it's wearing." The queen pointed out "I shall talk to this one, alone." Now why would it want to speak to me? Does it know I'm the leader? Or is she just curious?

"B-But my queen..."

"I don't need your protction! I can take care of this creature myself!"

"Y-Yes my queen." The guard along left the room. Just me and royalty, the queen is a fool I can attack at any moment. She will feel true pain and suffering, yet she might be of use to me.

"I you can talk creature, so tell me why did you and your kind invade my kingdom?" The queen asked

"We were seeking shelter from the storm, and your kind tried to kill us." I answer "One of these monsters killed one of my soldiers."

"You're right to call the creatures that attacked you monsters, they are feral changelings after all. But you are lucky that one of my guards noticed you and rescued you."

"Ferals?"

"Changelings that don't get enough emotions to feed of. For example if they don't eat enough love they either starve to death or turn feral." The queen explained. That explanation sounds similar to the Drukhari, If we don't torture anyone our souls will be eaten by Slaanesh.

"So you you're like us." I pointed out.

"We are nothing like you."

"Don't deny it, we have to torture someone otherwise we die. You feast of emotions, I feast on the pain and suffering of others. You and I are not so different, and we probably have similar goals, so I think we can work togeter."

"I will not work with anything like you. You are weak and pathetic excuse for a monster!"

"I have an army at my disposal." That convinced her. "Thousands of soldiers that will follow me till the end, and they can follow you if you agree to work with me."

"I-I will work with you. If you assist me with an invasion."

"I believe we've made a deal queen-"

"Chrysalis, Queen Chrysalis." She interupted. "And you are?"

"Captain Draznazar of the Dark Eldar." I answer, I always to say that. "also where's the rest of my squad?"

"In the cocoons I'll let them out soon enough."

"They'll attack you on sight you know."

"Yes and they won't even land a hit on me."

"I know I just want you to kill one of them."

"Why?"

"For annoying me."