Getting Warhammered - [Chapter 53] (Patreon)

As I comfortingly ran my hand up and down on Selene's back I felt her try to pull away from me once her aura calmed down. I gave her a final squeeze before I stepped back to let her recollect herself.

"Thanks," said Selene without looking at me, she sighed and shook her head, "Sorry."

"It's alright," I smiled at her, keeping the sigh of relief out of my voice from not feeling like worms were crawling under my skin anymore, Though even if my tendrils are doing just that, it's never been this uncomfortable, "It's the least I could, and you've done the same for me."

"You didn't just turn into a ticking bomb then," her lips curled down self-deprecatingly.

"Self-induced misery doesn't suit you," I poked her in the forehead.

"It's not self-induced," she glared at me as she slapped my hand away.

"But it is," I nodded, "we are in the Webway, demons can hardly reach you here so there is no place better than this to get a handle on your powers and with both me and this kni- *cough* Val here it shouldn't be too hard to manage," I looked into her eyes, "have some confidence in yourself...or in me if you can't manage that."

"Alright," she shook her head weakly, "I'll try."

"Do not try," Valenith interrupted, having observed our interactions up until now silently, "to control your powers you cannot even acknowledge the possibility of failure, doubt is a seed that grows into weakness with time and weakness is what the horrors of the Warp latch onto."

"What he said," I nodded, "by the way, how far should that gate be from here?"

"I suspect these Orcs used the temple surrounding it as their base," said Val as his hand rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "we should reach it in an hour or five based on the bends we take."

"Is there any use in taking a detour?"

"Not that I know of," he shrugged, "Especially with the occupants most likely gone."

"Well stay there for a bit then and help Selene get used to being a Psyker," I nodded, "any objections?"

"Negative." Zedev's voice came devoid of emotion, he disregarded our conversation up until now in favor of dissecting a handful of Orcs.

"Wasn't I supposed to just guide you there?" Valenith asked with a raised eyebrow but I sensed no reluctance from him.

"You wanted to stay with us anyway, didn't you?"

"I might have," he shrugged.

"Well then," I eyed him carefully, "you are welcome, you can continue to bask in my presence for a bit longer."

"Much appreciated," the edge of his mouth twitched as sarcasm leaked into his tone.

"With that done," I clapped, "I'll be right back, let me see what the fuck that fungus used to mess me up this badly."

"It's most likely a-" Vale started but I cut him off, "Yeah I know."

I left the sulking Eldar and the brooding Selene behind with the distracted Magos as I flickered over to where the few remaining pieces of the Orc Boss littered the ground. That reflexive blast might have been a bit much for him, there are barely some bone shards and blood remaining but oh well.

Glancing around I scanned the hallway, the walls seemed to be made of several layers of simple stone bricks I noted as I saw three layers worth of bricks collapsed onto the ground into piles. I tapped into my aura for a moment, letting my subconscious understanding of my surroundings flow into my conscious mind.

My eyes snapped open and my head turned towards one of the piles of debris, my eyes couldn't see it but I knew a glimmering metal weapon hid under it with flashes of sick green energy flowing through it. This aura-sensing thingy I had was for from an accurate sense, I could only tell that these two colors were wrapped around each other in the shape of a tube and that they contrasted the dull grey of the stone bricks.

I stepped back and carefully grabbed ahold of smaller piles of bricks with Telekinesis and got started on uncovering that weapon. hopefully from this far I'd have enough time to protect myself if it was somehow damaged and decided to blow up in my face. You never knew.

I threw tonnes of of stone aside when finally my eyes caught the glimmer of metal, my eyes brightened as I ever so slowly freed the weapon of its confines and levitated it into the air. I held it a good ten meters away from me as I scanned it for any visible defect or sign of imminent explosion but to my delight, it looked as good as if it just rolled out of a factory. Living metal, did it heal itself or was it just that resistant to damage?

With a bit of trepidation, I wrapped two layers of psychic shields onto my skin in films and then I walked up to the floating weapon. To be honest it was rather crude for what was the main infantry weapon of the most technologically advanced species in the galaxy but who was I to judge. It had a simple metal handle that visibly didn't bother to conform to the palm of an organic being and was instead shaped like a brick. From it extended a tube that connected the main part of the gun to the transparent green barrel extending out from it, supposedly transporting ammunition maybe?

The green barrel ended in a dull metal ring from which extended an... axe, for whatever reason and even from the ring four spikes extended forward like viscous claws with no visible function aside from stabbing them into something that came too close. If anything wasn't a pile of carbon by the time they came close to anyone wielding their weapons an axe or some spikes won't do much to stop them.

I shrugged, whatever, it looked sorta cool which was probably the reason it existed. Weird fucking galaxy.

I carefully wrapped my fingers around the handle and held the metal running under the barrel with the other as I felt a smile form on my lips. I held the weapon at the ready and pointed it toward a pile of bricks, with giddiness bubbling in my stomach I pulled the trigger.

The weapon trembled in my hands as energy flew through the tube and before I knew it a green beam of un-life shot out of the weapon and turned the bricks lying helplessly in its way into atomized ash.

Yep, this is cool.

I turned around and saw my three companions watching me with varying expressions standing less than twenty meters behind me. I coughed in embarrassment as their gazes bore into me, my Mind-Cores helpfully reported that they'd been doing that for the last ten minutes, ever since I extracted the weapon from the pile.

"Are you ready to continue then?" I asked as I hung my new toy on my waist, a single tendril wrapping around it to hold it against my thigh even as I moved.

"Affirmative."

"Yes."

"Yes..."

"Great," I clapped, "Val, if you'd lead the way."

He strode forward with his chin held obnoxiously high, I just shrugged and stepped up behind him with Selene falling into step next to me. I heard Zedev's arachnoid feet clink on the floor behind me too, did he get bored with Val?

"You're more interested in my new toy than the Eldar?"

"Affirmative: Necron weaponry tends to...disappear when they fall, so having a working weapon is a great boon...especially without an Inquisitor here to take it away before I could study it."

"I think many Imperial Assassins have Necron weaponry in their arsenal," I shrugged, "a phase sword is quite a tool."

"But what you have is a ranged Power Weapon."

"Not quite but close enough I guess."

"How so?"

"Power Weapons disrupt molecular cohesion and use the weapon itself to break them but this one breaks down Molecules by itself and leaves behind nothing but their constituent atoms."

Zedev released an inhuman shrill which I think he intended to be a 'Humm'-ing sound. I grimaced at it, my ears being much better than a human's him making sounds like nails on a chalkboard is far from appreciated.

"So what is that thing?" Selene spoke up as she glanced between the toy on my thigh and my face, why is your gaze wandering though? I don't think I attached it to my ass Selene.

"A Gauss Flayer," I patted the weapon, "this is the main infantry weapon of the Necrons like the Lasgun is for your Imperium."

Zedev stilled for the briefest moment at me saying 'Your Imperium' but he quickly recovered, I wondered what I'd have to do to make him confront me about it, it was getting tedious to worry about him backstabbing me the moment we got out of the Webway and reached Imperial territory.

"And that thing nearly killed you?" Selene was dubious from the look she was giving me.

"Yep," I nodded cheerfully, I had a fancy sci-fi toy after all, "It's not much of a surprise really, do you know what rock-paper-scissors is?"

"Noooo," Selene raised an eyebrow.

"Well, it's a simple children's game in some parts of the galaxy," I shrugged, spewing bullshit as naturally as I breathed, "the essence of it is this: Rock beats Scissors but loses to Paper, Paper beats Rock but loses to Scissors and Scissors loses to Rock but beats Paper."

"And?"

"Well, " I just shook my two fists thrice and made a rock with my left and a piece of paper with my right, "my left hand is a rock and the right is paper," I wrapped my right hand around my closed left fist, "So the paper wins, but whatever, what I meant to say is," I sighed as I stopped with my overly confusing metaphor, "While I can fuck Tyranids in the ass without much effort the Necrons can do the same to me if I'm not careful."

"How does care save you against that?" she raised an eyebrow.

"It doesn't penetrate and the beam doesn't destroy matter fast enough to be a problem if I can put something between me and it."

"It seemed instant from my perspective though."

"Because you are a human Selene," I patted her shoulder, "I'm sure if Zedev jacked himself up on some of the drugs he has stored in canisters in his body he would have seen the beam creep closer and closer to its target before it hit it."

"How could it hit you then?"

"Do you want the simple or the complicated answer?"

"Ummm, Simple first?"

"I was a moron," I shrugged, "If it hit you, you'd have survived, do you know why?"

"The Armor...." she blinked, "why weren't you wearing armor?!" she glared at me.

"As I said," I smiled at her adorable glare, "I was a moron, I didn't think they had anything that could do more than scratch me."

After a few seconds of continued glaring, she shook her head and sighed, maybe noticing that I was looking at her with a slowly growing smile.

"What are 'Necrons' anyway?"

"Oh," I blinked, "right, I assumed you knew based on how well-informed you were about other existential threats to the Imperium."

"I only know the tidbits I managed to gather from my grandmother's journals," she shook her head, "I only met Eldars and the Tau personally."

"Well," I rolled the world around my tongue, "you were quite lucky then," I gave her a smile, "you met the two species that are not deplorable assholes in this wide galaxy of ours."

"What do you mean?"

"There is a reason you Imperium say that every Xenos is evil and needs to die on the spot," I shrugged, "which is that they are right in doing so more often than not, there are more than a few species that have no right of existing."

"Would you consider yourself to be among them?" Zedev's voice was emotionless and echoed through the hallway.

I tilted my head as I threw a glance at him over my shoulder, he wasn't readying any weapons and was staring back at me inquisitively.

"Depends," I shrugged, "Am I a danger to the Imperium? Hell Yes. Am I as bad as some of the others? Far from it."

"What...others do you refer to?"

"Have you heard of the Khrave? The Slaugth? The Hrud?" I asked and I noticed both Selen and Valenith hanging onto my every word.

"I am not familiar with the latter two but I have heard of the Khrave and their raids on fringe worlds."

"Oh come on," I shook my head, "Selene?" I looked at her, "The Slaught are the source of many legends in the galaxy, never heard of the? Lanky men covered in decrepit robes with their whole bodies made up of maggots, their whole existence is only made valid by all the malice they manage to spread?"

Her eyes widened and I knew she heard of them.

"The Maggot Men," she whispered, "my grandmother's journals spoke of them but she didn't believe the tales of their existence to be real."

"Many don't," I shrugged, "As for the Hrud, I am not surprised, they were exterminated during the Great Crusade along with the last Old One they worshipped as a God."

"Impossible," Val stumbled, "the Old Ones died sixty millennia ago."

"Not all of them," I shrugged, "The Hrud were masters of time sorcery, even Space Marines succumbed to their age under their spells and collapsed into piles of dust."

"I have never read of this."

"Of course, you haven't," I smiled, a cold smile filled with anticipation, "After all the one who exterminated them now serves the 'Great Enemy' even if he was born a Primarch."

"So no," I stared into Zedev's eyes, "Just the fact that I can be reasoned with, negotiated with makes me miles above 90% of the species and subjectively above humanity too, your kind only negotiates when you can't kill your enemy like the bloodthirsty xenophobic little cunts you are."

Zedev fell silent and I saw emotions rush past his suppressors but he stayed silent and still while Selene gulped at my rather severe tone.

"At least there are some good ones among you," I glanced at her, showing her a gentle smile, "Which is the only reason I bothered integrating myself into your little group."

Selene was truly a diamond in the rough, whatever her childhood was like kept her open-minded and clear of the rampant zealotry and xenophobia of the Imperium.

On the other hand, Zedev was just far too self-absorbed and self-serving to care about those doctrines but I could tell that he was by far the more reluctant of the two when it came to working with me.

We will see how you handle the truth, you either bend or you break...either from the truth or under my boots.

I sent a cold glance at the Magos, I might feel guilt again from killing innocents but Zedev's death wouldn't weigh much on my conscience.