Guard fic 3.5
Life never stops for the beleaguered Antonius King. Though it may slow down, since I knew I wanted to get the story to this point but I'm not certain what happens next.
=-=
King blinked in shock. Bill and Hunter alive? Jaks captured weeks ago? It made no sense. Still, he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing him surprised - no more than his involuntary reaction no doubt had done - and he certainly wasn’t going to thank them, so a nod of acknowledgement was all they got.
Robes accompanied him as he was escorted by the four guards through hallways large as hangars and corridors with oval walls, to what was presumably going to be his cell. Robes tried to start conversation but King ignored him, concentrating on memorising the route they were taking. It would be very open with practically no cover in several areas, but at least it meant he knew a way to the exit.
The cell was dark, a single large room with one glowing spot like a luminator at the apex of the ceiling to provide light, and the only window being a small clear presumably plexiglas panel in the door to allow their captors to see in. The only furniture was the beds, the rest of the room was a large bare space devoid of any features. The floor was the same shade as the walls and the main way of telling the difference was the structural beams that curved up like scythes to meet at the centre as the walls merged into becoming a ceiling. As the door opened the three soldiers inside looked up with the vague interest of those expecting nothing but captivity, then jumped to attention and ran to stand by their beds as though on inspection, snapping off salutes. There were eight beds, three of which were stripped of the mattresses and standing end up in a row, legs out, as near to the circular wall as the slope would allow. Of the remaining five, two were unoccupied.
“At ease.” He responded, the relief in his voice plain probably even to the Xenos. The third man clearly wasn’t Jaks obviously, but other than being generically one of the regiment who had come from the 3rd, King wasn’t sure who he actually was. The temperature meant that he was only wearing a shirt and combat trousers, same as the others, but his thick gloves and great coat lay folded at the foot of his bed. He didn’t know why the man was going by Jaks’ name, but he would play along until he found out.
Beside him, Robes spoke “So you see Commander King, we keep our promise. Your soldiers will be released with you when we reach agreement. I will leave you now to rest tonight and we will speak again tomorrow.”
Or in other words, King mentally translated, it’s not actually Rossaria and I who are the hostages. The Xenos left, locking the door behind them, and the troopers were left alone.
“Very sorry to see you here Sir.” Bill started casually, but he was clearly desperate for news of the outside world.
“Are we free to talk?” King asked, focussing on the vital details first. Hunter nodded.
“Yes sir, they’ve played pretty fair with us.”
“We can’t find any bugs.” Bill expanded on Hunter’s summary “And we’ve attempted discussing misinformation loudly to test it, so as best as we can tell it’s safe. It’s not possible to be certain though.”
“Understood. Gather round, let’s keep things quiet then.”
He sat on one bed and the three troopers on the other, heads in close as they updated one another. King explained the plan with the tunnels and how he had come to be captured, breaking the news that he had also brought Rossaria to stay too. He omitted the part about Aloysius, or even that the other Commissar was present: the last thing these three needed to hear was that any rescue may not be entirely on their side.
“That would explain a few things.” Bill commented. He was looking far healthier than when King had seen him last, which given the state of him was a heartening commentary on the Xeno’s medical skills.
“When we were in the traitor’s village, after you left, that one who came in here with you was there. He could speak low gothic and he recognised me and Gisel as being part of your team, so he wouldn’t let the traitors kill us. They were letting the traitors finish the others on the ground, but they wanted us alive specifically because we worked closely with you. They knew Hannah had got away because of her ponytail, it makes her rather distinctive, but when I saw Bellis here lying wounded I shouted that he was Jaks, I guessed that they wouldn’t be able to tell one of the steel guys from another. They couldn’t, so they let him live too. Then they brought us back, patched us up, and threw us in here. Is she ok sir? Hannah Rhys, I mean?”
“She’s fine Bill, and well done for the quick thinking. She and Jaks earned themselves some pretty hefty punishment duty for arguing with the Lord Commissar about leaving you behind, but she’s fine.”
Bill looked pleased and relieved, smiling like his old self again. So it was like that, was it? Well, guardsmen can be human too and so long as it didn’t interfere with their work he wouldn’t complain. King wasn’t sure if he hoped it was mutual or not, one situation could be as bad as the other.
“So have you just been kept here, or has there been interrogations and the like?”
“Some.” Bellis replied, clearly a little awed and nervous at speaking with their Commander on such familiar terms. “Not about the base or numbers or anything like that though, they wanted to know about you. What you were like, what you did, who else was in command, stuff like that. We didn’t tell them anything of course and eventually they gave up asking.”
“They do seem keen to get us to join them though.” Hunter added “They keep coming to explain how the Tau are great, why we should join them, things like that. Meetings with colonists to tell us how great the Tau are, language classes.”
“I’d class that as torture, then.” King commented dryly. The troopers laughed, Bellis joining in a little later than the others as he checked that it was ok. Continuing the conversation, King ascertained that morale was acceptable - they had been treated well and being kept together made a huge difference, if anything the danger was that they would let their guard down and succumb to the Xenos’ insidious kindness. The temperature would also be working to weaken their resolve: no matter how bad their situation there was the knowledge that the alternative would always involve freezing. Their wounds seemed to be largely a thing of the past, some scarring and no doubt aches and pains that would plague them in the years to come, but overall it was a remarkably fast recovery. Another propaganda tool, the implication that their comrades left them to die was almost certainly being used. He prodded and poked through their discussion, trying to gauge how successful this constant barrage on their resolve was being.
Thankfully, it seemed by his assessment that the answer was ‘not very, or at least not yet’, which was a relief to say the least. Perhaps Rossaria’s involvement would prove to be a blessing in an angry, unapproachable disguise.
While they had limited exercise options in the form of pull ups on the upturned beds, there was only so long one could keep doing that before muscles started to burn, particularly when one’s damn arm was held together with string and prayer. Lacking any other form of entertainment or diversion however, the options in the cell seemed to be lying on one’s bunk staring at the ceiling, sitting on one’s bunk staring into space, or arguing - and his presence had put a cap on the third option. It’s one thing they never told you in training, he reflected ruefully, how boring captivity could be. He knew eight different methods for resisting interrogation, two for fighting off psychic incursion and a further four for resisting torture, but mind numbing boredom was something you had to deal with alone. As was the little voice in the back of his head that kept reminding him he wasn’t safe, he wasn’t in control, he couldn’t relax. Bored yet alert, no wonder people go insane.
The troops though had been quite inventive in finding ways to fill their time. None of them very interesting, but compared with contemplating the ceiling they took on all the drama of an Founder’s Day parade. There was a game they played with buttons torn off their clothing, in direct contravention of imperial guidelines regarding both gambling and the proper care and maintenance of official uniform. King watched for a bit to try to follow the rules but it seemed unfathomable, so he twisted a button off Bellis’ protective great coat and joined in. The privilege of rank, and he might need all the formality - and buttons - he possessed for his next meeting with their captors. There were also approximately a dozen variants of tag, all of them remarkably similar, and a wrestling league that got remarkably repetitive with only three competitors. At least with his presence that allowed for doubles and tag team matches, though he hated demonstrating the weakness in his arm and favoured evasion and dirty tricks wherever possible. This being the Guard, that garnered more respect than anything.
At some point, it became night time. He could tell this, because the ceiling light snapped off without warning, plunging them into darkness save for the slight glow of the window to the corridor. He jumped up, ready to defend himself against whatever may happen, but his men reassured him that this happened every night. Clearly they weren’t trusted to be in control of their own light switch. The helplessness of the situation drove him to frustration but he was well aware that that was what the Xenos wanted. He slept that night with his back to the wall and wishing he had a gun under his pillow.
The next day - at least, presumably the next day - the ceiling luminator suddenly flared into life once more and King woke ready to find out what the day would bring. He had no idea what time it was since because he had had the comm bead he rarely bothered with a wrist chronometer, and the other guardsmen had been stripped of all possessions other than the clothes they stood in. Bellis didn’t even get to keep his rebreather and helmet.
His socks and boots were still wet when he came to put them on, but given the lack of any alternative options he did so anyway. Didn’t relish the possibility of being marched barefoot through the corridors when the time came. The other troopers woke more slowly, probably not so used to military discipline any more, or maybe just knowing that the longer they stayed asleep the less time they had to fill in the day. He shouted a reverie and they scrambled out of bed, ready to go. If only there were somewhere to go to.
This time - largely to fill the day, since soldiers with nothing to do invariably find ways to make trouble for both themselves and their commanding officers - he ordered a debrief of everything they had learned about the Tau present on the base. Names, rank, authority, aims, numbers, anything at all that they had gleaned during their time here. He spent rather longer on it than was necessary, but there were a limited number of options for other tasks. He found that they had learned quite a lot during their time here and they were able to enlighten him as to the different castes of Tau society - that was why the troopers were called fire warriors, they came from the fire caste. Likewise Robes came from the water caste, who were their diplomats. Their leaders were called ethereal and there were none present here, but that explained why Scar was against the idea of peace and Robes was pushing it. Lacking any defining leadership or clearcut command structure the two castes had no one to give clear direction and so it was a wonder that the two hadn’t torn each other apart by now. The reason they gave for that was something called Tau Va, which translated as “the greater good”, though given the words they actually used “the greater good of the Tau” seemed more accurate. It was something they were very keen on though and the colonists seemed to be convinced about it too.
They had quizzed the colonists about their defection during the talks about the advantages of life in the Tau Empire, and discovered that the move to abandon the Imperium had not been unanimous by any stretch. The Tau had attempted to subvert the colony when they had first landed and when that did not work the settlement had been bombarded, which accounted for the damage and occasional that his team had found though the Tau had later been very helpful in rebuilding and repairing the damage they had caused, and once their morale had been broken by the fire caste the water caste had moved in to persuade them to the virtues of surrender. Of course the colonists didn’t describe it as such, more that there had been initial hostilities following cultural misunderstanding which had eventually been solved by peace, but those more aware of the insidious tactics that Xenos often used could see more clearly from a remove. Whatever colonists hadn’t been taken in by it however had been killed by the rest of them, with the assistance of the Tau of course. For the greater good, presumably.
Bill had picked up the names of the two in command, or at least parts of them - apparently the Tau quoted chapter and verse when they gave their names, so no one had memorised more than a few syllables. Scar was called Shazzo Sackalar and Robes (or at least the chief robes, whichever one that was) was called Poro Tauna. Hunter, who had clearly paid more attention in the language lessons than the others, knew that Shazzo and Poro were ranks and meant that those two were in charge.
Since everything was done in the cell the troopers hadn’t left it since they were brought there, either unconscious or still sedated, so they could tell him nothing of the size or layout of the building, and not even the usually persuasive Bill had managed to get any useful information on that from the colonists. Likewise they didn’t know anything about the numbers present, or the military capacity of the base.
Breakfast arrived, brought in by armed guard. Clearly they weren’t taking any chances. Two of the traitor colonists carried the plates, surrounded by the usual fire warrior escort. King chose not to stand as they entered.
“Waiting staff? Have you not anything better to aspire to?” He asked caustically. He hadn’t expected an answer, but he got one anyway, from a girl with long hair dyed a startling shade of blue and pulled back in a braid tight against the side of her head.
“Like a killer in the imperial guard?” she snapped back “We offered to help so you didn’t feel so isolated amongst aliens, I’m sorry I bothered.”
“Like a killer in the Imperial Guard.” King echoed proudly, reflectively. “Like a soldier fighting, killing and dying to keep people like you safe. Like a warrior stepping forth to defend the weak and to hold back the scourge of chaos that tries to destroy us all. It’s a difficult aspiration, but a proud one.” She opened her mouth to respond with another smart comment but he was far sharper than a youngster starting out in life, no more than a child really. He cut across her before she could speak.
“You can aspire to messenger for the time being then. Tell Poro Tauna that I will meet with the Lord Commissar Bharti in the medical suite to outline his planned discussions as soon as she awakes. I will agree to the usual escort as he deems necessary to allow his people to feel safe around me.”
“I’m not here for you to order around.” She sulked, but didn’t expand upon it.
“Then take the message for the sake of your Tau masters. I’m sure they will appreciate your diligence.”
“I’ll do it.” The other interjected, a strongly-build girl who could in other circumstances have had an excellent future with a heavy bolter. King got the impression she was only volunteering to stop the rapidly brewing argument, but the reasons didn’t interest him. Only the results.
They left, the fire warriors locking the door behind them, and Bill, Hunter and Bellis talked him through what the food and drink provided seemed to be like. It was unappetising at best but filling and to that extent it was appreciated.
Seeing as it hadn’t been in Poro Tauna’s outlined plans for him to talk to Rossaria he wasn’t sure if his demand would be granted, but seemingly the creature had understood the value in having someone of Rossaria’s rank and species explain the situation to her before it did, and so one of the interchangeable Robes arrived with six armed guards some time later to escort him to the medical suite. It would of course be while he had assigned exercise for them all. King dropped down from the chin ups he was doing on the exercise bed and re-dressed, putting on his shirt, flak and jacket (the coat he left, but he wanted them to get used to the idea that the flak was less armour and more uniform), grabbed his cap and headed out to explain the situation he had gotten them into. He hoped for his sake that they had her heavily sedated.
=-=
King blinked in shock. Bill and Hunter alive? Jaks captured weeks ago? It made no sense. Still, he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of seeing him surprised - no more than his involuntary reaction no doubt had done - and he certainly wasn’t going to thank them, so a nod of acknowledgement was all they got.
Robes accompanied him as he was escorted by the four guards through hallways large as hangars and corridors with oval walls, to what was presumably going to be his cell. Robes tried to start conversation but King ignored him, concentrating on memorising the route they were taking. It would be very open with practically no cover in several areas, but at least it meant he knew a way to the exit.
The cell was dark, a single large room with one glowing spot like a luminator at the apex of the ceiling to provide light, and the only window being a small clear presumably plexiglas panel in the door to allow their captors to see in. The only furniture was the beds, the rest of the room was a large bare space devoid of any features. The floor was the same shade as the walls and the main way of telling the difference was the structural beams that curved up like scythes to meet at the centre as the walls merged into becoming a ceiling. As the door opened the three soldiers inside looked up with the vague interest of those expecting nothing but captivity, then jumped to attention and ran to stand by their beds as though on inspection, snapping off salutes. There were eight beds, three of which were stripped of the mattresses and standing end up in a row, legs out, as near to the circular wall as the slope would allow. Of the remaining five, two were unoccupied.
“At ease.” He responded, the relief in his voice plain probably even to the Xenos. The third man clearly wasn’t Jaks obviously, but other than being generically one of the regiment who had come from the 3rd, King wasn’t sure who he actually was. The temperature meant that he was only wearing a shirt and combat trousers, same as the others, but his thick gloves and great coat lay folded at the foot of his bed. He didn’t know why the man was going by Jaks’ name, but he would play along until he found out.
Beside him, Robes spoke “So you see Commander King, we keep our promise. Your soldiers will be released with you when we reach agreement. I will leave you now to rest tonight and we will speak again tomorrow.”
Or in other words, King mentally translated, it’s not actually Rossaria and I who are the hostages. The Xenos left, locking the door behind them, and the troopers were left alone.
“Very sorry to see you here Sir.” Bill started casually, but he was clearly desperate for news of the outside world.
“Are we free to talk?” King asked, focussing on the vital details first. Hunter nodded.
“Yes sir, they’ve played pretty fair with us.”
“We can’t find any bugs.” Bill expanded on Hunter’s summary “And we’ve attempted discussing misinformation loudly to test it, so as best as we can tell it’s safe. It’s not possible to be certain though.”
“Understood. Gather round, let’s keep things quiet then.”
He sat on one bed and the three troopers on the other, heads in close as they updated one another. King explained the plan with the tunnels and how he had come to be captured, breaking the news that he had also brought Rossaria to stay too. He omitted the part about Aloysius, or even that the other Commissar was present: the last thing these three needed to hear was that any rescue may not be entirely on their side.
“That would explain a few things.” Bill commented. He was looking far healthier than when King had seen him last, which given the state of him was a heartening commentary on the Xeno’s medical skills.
“When we were in the traitor’s village, after you left, that one who came in here with you was there. He could speak low gothic and he recognised me and Gisel as being part of your team, so he wouldn’t let the traitors kill us. They were letting the traitors finish the others on the ground, but they wanted us alive specifically because we worked closely with you. They knew Hannah had got away because of her ponytail, it makes her rather distinctive, but when I saw Bellis here lying wounded I shouted that he was Jaks, I guessed that they wouldn’t be able to tell one of the steel guys from another. They couldn’t, so they let him live too. Then they brought us back, patched us up, and threw us in here. Is she ok sir? Hannah Rhys, I mean?”
“She’s fine Bill, and well done for the quick thinking. She and Jaks earned themselves some pretty hefty punishment duty for arguing with the Lord Commissar about leaving you behind, but she’s fine.”
Bill looked pleased and relieved, smiling like his old self again. So it was like that, was it? Well, guardsmen can be human too and so long as it didn’t interfere with their work he wouldn’t complain. King wasn’t sure if he hoped it was mutual or not, one situation could be as bad as the other.
“So have you just been kept here, or has there been interrogations and the like?”
“Some.” Bellis replied, clearly a little awed and nervous at speaking with their Commander on such familiar terms. “Not about the base or numbers or anything like that though, they wanted to know about you. What you were like, what you did, who else was in command, stuff like that. We didn’t tell them anything of course and eventually they gave up asking.”
“They do seem keen to get us to join them though.” Hunter added “They keep coming to explain how the Tau are great, why we should join them, things like that. Meetings with colonists to tell us how great the Tau are, language classes.”
“I’d class that as torture, then.” King commented dryly. The troopers laughed, Bellis joining in a little later than the others as he checked that it was ok. Continuing the conversation, King ascertained that morale was acceptable - they had been treated well and being kept together made a huge difference, if anything the danger was that they would let their guard down and succumb to the Xenos’ insidious kindness. The temperature would also be working to weaken their resolve: no matter how bad their situation there was the knowledge that the alternative would always involve freezing. Their wounds seemed to be largely a thing of the past, some scarring and no doubt aches and pains that would plague them in the years to come, but overall it was a remarkably fast recovery. Another propaganda tool, the implication that their comrades left them to die was almost certainly being used. He prodded and poked through their discussion, trying to gauge how successful this constant barrage on their resolve was being.
Thankfully, it seemed by his assessment that the answer was ‘not very, or at least not yet’, which was a relief to say the least. Perhaps Rossaria’s involvement would prove to be a blessing in an angry, unapproachable disguise.
While they had limited exercise options in the form of pull ups on the upturned beds, there was only so long one could keep doing that before muscles started to burn, particularly when one’s damn arm was held together with string and prayer. Lacking any other form of entertainment or diversion however, the options in the cell seemed to be lying on one’s bunk staring at the ceiling, sitting on one’s bunk staring into space, or arguing - and his presence had put a cap on the third option. It’s one thing they never told you in training, he reflected ruefully, how boring captivity could be. He knew eight different methods for resisting interrogation, two for fighting off psychic incursion and a further four for resisting torture, but mind numbing boredom was something you had to deal with alone. As was the little voice in the back of his head that kept reminding him he wasn’t safe, he wasn’t in control, he couldn’t relax. Bored yet alert, no wonder people go insane.
The troops though had been quite inventive in finding ways to fill their time. None of them very interesting, but compared with contemplating the ceiling they took on all the drama of an Founder’s Day parade. There was a game they played with buttons torn off their clothing, in direct contravention of imperial guidelines regarding both gambling and the proper care and maintenance of official uniform. King watched for a bit to try to follow the rules but it seemed unfathomable, so he twisted a button off Bellis’ protective great coat and joined in. The privilege of rank, and he might need all the formality - and buttons - he possessed for his next meeting with their captors. There were also approximately a dozen variants of tag, all of them remarkably similar, and a wrestling league that got remarkably repetitive with only three competitors. At least with his presence that allowed for doubles and tag team matches, though he hated demonstrating the weakness in his arm and favoured evasion and dirty tricks wherever possible. This being the Guard, that garnered more respect than anything.
At some point, it became night time. He could tell this, because the ceiling light snapped off without warning, plunging them into darkness save for the slight glow of the window to the corridor. He jumped up, ready to defend himself against whatever may happen, but his men reassured him that this happened every night. Clearly they weren’t trusted to be in control of their own light switch. The helplessness of the situation drove him to frustration but he was well aware that that was what the Xenos wanted. He slept that night with his back to the wall and wishing he had a gun under his pillow.
The next day - at least, presumably the next day - the ceiling luminator suddenly flared into life once more and King woke ready to find out what the day would bring. He had no idea what time it was since because he had had the comm bead he rarely bothered with a wrist chronometer, and the other guardsmen had been stripped of all possessions other than the clothes they stood in. Bellis didn’t even get to keep his rebreather and helmet.
His socks and boots were still wet when he came to put them on, but given the lack of any alternative options he did so anyway. Didn’t relish the possibility of being marched barefoot through the corridors when the time came. The other troopers woke more slowly, probably not so used to military discipline any more, or maybe just knowing that the longer they stayed asleep the less time they had to fill in the day. He shouted a reverie and they scrambled out of bed, ready to go. If only there were somewhere to go to.
This time - largely to fill the day, since soldiers with nothing to do invariably find ways to make trouble for both themselves and their commanding officers - he ordered a debrief of everything they had learned about the Tau present on the base. Names, rank, authority, aims, numbers, anything at all that they had gleaned during their time here. He spent rather longer on it than was necessary, but there were a limited number of options for other tasks. He found that they had learned quite a lot during their time here and they were able to enlighten him as to the different castes of Tau society - that was why the troopers were called fire warriors, they came from the fire caste. Likewise Robes came from the water caste, who were their diplomats. Their leaders were called ethereal and there were none present here, but that explained why Scar was against the idea of peace and Robes was pushing it. Lacking any defining leadership or clearcut command structure the two castes had no one to give clear direction and so it was a wonder that the two hadn’t torn each other apart by now. The reason they gave for that was something called Tau Va, which translated as “the greater good”, though given the words they actually used “the greater good of the Tau” seemed more accurate. It was something they were very keen on though and the colonists seemed to be convinced about it too.
They had quizzed the colonists about their defection during the talks about the advantages of life in the Tau Empire, and discovered that the move to abandon the Imperium had not been unanimous by any stretch. The Tau had attempted to subvert the colony when they had first landed and when that did not work the settlement had been bombarded, which accounted for the damage and occasional that his team had found though the Tau had later been very helpful in rebuilding and repairing the damage they had caused, and once their morale had been broken by the fire caste the water caste had moved in to persuade them to the virtues of surrender. Of course the colonists didn’t describe it as such, more that there had been initial hostilities following cultural misunderstanding which had eventually been solved by peace, but those more aware of the insidious tactics that Xenos often used could see more clearly from a remove. Whatever colonists hadn’t been taken in by it however had been killed by the rest of them, with the assistance of the Tau of course. For the greater good, presumably.
Bill had picked up the names of the two in command, or at least parts of them - apparently the Tau quoted chapter and verse when they gave their names, so no one had memorised more than a few syllables. Scar was called Shazzo Sackalar and Robes (or at least the chief robes, whichever one that was) was called Poro Tauna. Hunter, who had clearly paid more attention in the language lessons than the others, knew that Shazzo and Poro were ranks and meant that those two were in charge.
Since everything was done in the cell the troopers hadn’t left it since they were brought there, either unconscious or still sedated, so they could tell him nothing of the size or layout of the building, and not even the usually persuasive Bill had managed to get any useful information on that from the colonists. Likewise they didn’t know anything about the numbers present, or the military capacity of the base.
Breakfast arrived, brought in by armed guard. Clearly they weren’t taking any chances. Two of the traitor colonists carried the plates, surrounded by the usual fire warrior escort. King chose not to stand as they entered.
“Waiting staff? Have you not anything better to aspire to?” He asked caustically. He hadn’t expected an answer, but he got one anyway, from a girl with long hair dyed a startling shade of blue and pulled back in a braid tight against the side of her head.
“Like a killer in the imperial guard?” she snapped back “We offered to help so you didn’t feel so isolated amongst aliens, I’m sorry I bothered.”
“Like a killer in the Imperial Guard.” King echoed proudly, reflectively. “Like a soldier fighting, killing and dying to keep people like you safe. Like a warrior stepping forth to defend the weak and to hold back the scourge of chaos that tries to destroy us all. It’s a difficult aspiration, but a proud one.” She opened her mouth to respond with another smart comment but he was far sharper than a youngster starting out in life, no more than a child really. He cut across her before she could speak.
“You can aspire to messenger for the time being then. Tell Poro Tauna that I will meet with the Lord Commissar Bharti in the medical suite to outline his planned discussions as soon as she awakes. I will agree to the usual escort as he deems necessary to allow his people to feel safe around me.”
“I’m not here for you to order around.” She sulked, but didn’t expand upon it.
“Then take the message for the sake of your Tau masters. I’m sure they will appreciate your diligence.”
“I’ll do it.” The other interjected, a strongly-build girl who could in other circumstances have had an excellent future with a heavy bolter. King got the impression she was only volunteering to stop the rapidly brewing argument, but the reasons didn’t interest him. Only the results.
They left, the fire warriors locking the door behind them, and Bill, Hunter and Bellis talked him through what the food and drink provided seemed to be like. It was unappetising at best but filling and to that extent it was appreciated.
Seeing as it hadn’t been in Poro Tauna’s outlined plans for him to talk to Rossaria he wasn’t sure if his demand would be granted, but seemingly the creature had understood the value in having someone of Rossaria’s rank and species explain the situation to her before it did, and so one of the interchangeable Robes arrived with six armed guards some time later to escort him to the medical suite. It would of course be while he had assigned exercise for them all. King dropped down from the chin ups he was doing on the exercise bed and re-dressed, putting on his shirt, flak and jacket (the coat he left, but he wanted them to get used to the idea that the flak was less armour and more uniform), grabbed his cap and headed out to explain the situation he had gotten them into. He hoped for his sake that they had her heavily sedated.