The former Corsair's skyboard shot forward, up, and spun back around to force the Lord Heliarch back, providing both cover and an array of spinning blades for his opponent to worry over and create some distance as he recovered, with Kholivaz ending much in the same place, crouched low over his board. As he snapped back into focus, there was no mistaking what was passing through his mind and across his partially covered face. Hatred. His arm snapped straight as the injector implanted in his arm activated with a click, and the Commorrite's breath left him in a rush. It left his body and was instead replaced with his own fury and an unrivaled, brimming speed that could only come from a mix of the Dark City's stimulants. Adrenalight and Final Breath took hold and his eyes were black pinpricks of the purest scorn as he looked on Saghiar.

"Strange to see you pack of gardeners here on a battlefield, Saghiar. But I suppose this is the best place for introductions, as I'll soon be replacing you."

The remaining chainsaber flipped over to his recovering arm, the helglaive appearing to it's opposite now as Kholivaz brandished both weapons. Though a dual-bladed polearm might prove unwieldy even for his unusual style of fighting, the Hellion had no doubt that he could put the Lord Heliarch on the defense as his body practically shook with the energy coursing through it. Just as he was about to shoot forward, he heard the warning from the winged wretch down below and even he didn't want to get too near a lance of dark energy..

A wicked smile crept beneath his mask.

"First, consider me the unwanted executioner of Khaine." Deja vu would strike as his arm whipped forward and sent his chainsaber screaming in a vicious arc, aiming high towards Saghiar's neck to keep him low. His entire body went into the throw, Skyboard dipping down and to the right before snapping back with a flash of it's splinter pods, hemming the Lord Heliarch in to help the Scourge's shot.

I would rather send you screaming to She Who Thirsts myself, but time is of the essence.

Seeing what was outside, Heltherith replied to Kaesar ( @Wata ) "Well, this is why I'm not currently enjoying my time here. Betrayals, looking like we're going to caught an Imperial and Greenskin crossfire and all the rest of it. If anything, I'd ask if you, Venessia and maybe the Craftworlder if you were all free afterwards just so that I have something pleasant to remember this farce of a mission by."

The Wych sighed, and then quietly to Kaeser "Well, personally I'm happy to just get this over with, give everyone else seems to have decided to our 'help' the pointy ends of our blades for their treachery." With that said, she then headed for the Raider, but with her Mirrorswords readied so that while she looked non-threatening at first glance, she'd be able to start rendering the traitors limb from limb in melee once she got on board the Raider.

With the Incubus covering her like a heavily armored strangely friemdly cloak Baeleris went outside to observe the absolute and utter anarchy that was ensuing. Cormmorite backstabbing was eternally prevalent but who had told them now of all times was now ,in the middle of an Ork incursion, in a Mon'keigh hive city. She let out a cry of frustration as which quite promptly turned to fear as shards started raining down on them. "Ceograch must find my life a most amusing tale if he allows more tragedy to keep falling" she said before Throwing the stun grenade onto the traitorous raider and running grabbing ( @Vlayden ) her Incubus companion by the wrist and trying to bring her along to catch up with the Wych

The Incubus was a bit surprised by the Craftworlder taking the lead, before briefly whirling around her - aiming to take any shots that were meant for the woman - and then throw herself into the air, her Shuriken Catapult being pulled out and fired down upon them.
Whether or not they were truly all dealt with mattered little, Venessia now reaching down to give Baeleris a hand and help her get on - another quick burst being given to make sure nothing could hurt either of them (with herself acting as a shield, as before).

"When we get back, I know of a way to get those soft lips to smile." Kaesar whispered to Heltherith's ear, placing a hand on her lower back. @Maleth
Seeing how most of the others were dealing with their backstabbers, Kaesar faced the other numerous threats. He didn't feel much of anything for the treachery, just more potential victims for his klaive.

So he stood his ground and would cull any fool who came too close to the Scions. He stretched his neck, rolled his shoulder and - "One, two, three, four..." - started counting those closest by fingerpoint, klaive resting on his shoulder.

<Upper Hive - Endgame>
@kanila @Draconion @Maleth @Kalle @Skarboy @bossaroo @Wata @Vlayden

Appearance of the Khymerae hound didn't surprise Aerith or his men, actually they seemed to be expecting such move. Forming out of thin air the beast managed to slash through one Kabalite before five others jumped at it, stabbing it to death with their bayonets. "You'll have to be more creative than that Beastmaster, but not like it would matter much because you'll be dead!" Aerith laughed but before he could open fire on Aesra two things happened.

First, Thû approached and threw the Inquisitor on board at two nearby Kabalites, who even though sided with Aerith, they ultimately were way more afraid of Zar'uil and since they knew that the Mon-keigh leader was the main reason they were here, they lowered their splinter rifles in order to catch him and thus sealed their fate as Thû exploited their lack of focus expertly. Balefire blast slammed into the first one, opening a gap in his chest and giving time for the Mandrake to enter sword's reach and decapitate the traitor. Second Kabalite turned out to be more careful and using his comrade's death to back away, he opened fire and a hail of shards slammed all around Thû, some flying through his form but some finding purchase and preventing him from properly advancing, not to mention spilling his black blood all over the Raider's deck.

Too busy with fending off the Mandrake, the Kabalite failed to spot a flaming form in the sky above him, descending down with great speed. Thû on the other hand saw it all to well and jumped back, just in time to see Hawk Lords Assault Marine landing straight onto the Kabalite in question, flattening him with the deck and turning his body into paste. "PURGE THE XENOS FILTH!" Space Marine shouted and pistol-whipped another Kabalite, stunning him before opening fire at point blank range and ripping the Dark Eldar apart. (@Draconion you can kill this Assault Marine and another Kabalite with your next post).

"FOR THE EMPEROR! HAWKS FLY!" two more Assault Marines landed on the deck, firing as they went. First one however was brought low a second later as a dark lance turret was turned inward, slicing the Space Marine in two parts. Still the Mon-keigh lived and with his dying breath, he threw a frag grenade at the Dark Eldar manning the turret which blew both him and the weapon apart. Second Space Marine landed close to the pilot and with a practiced move, removed his head from the body, making the Raider lurch a bit as nobody was flying it anymore.

"SOMEBODY GET TO THE CONSOLES AND GET US OUT OF HERE!" Aerith screamed now, but everyone was too busy fighting their own battles, especially now when Aesra was upon them. Borrowing his strength from the drug cocktail, the Beastmaster for a moment forgot about his wounds and charged at the Raider, running past all of his teammates and with a mighty jump, reaching the vehicle's deck. Like some hero from an ancient tale, he brought his axe above his head, slamming it down at the first Kabalite in his way and basically ripping the warrior in two pieces, the simple armor made useless against Beastmaster's strength. He then felt a stab in his leg as another Kabalite jumped at him, using the bladed edge of his splinter rifle to try and kill him, however Aesra brought his axe back and decapitated the man with one expert move.

Aerith was right there in front of him and seeing what was happening, he dropped his splinter rifle and pulled out his power sword. "It's good that you came here so close, so I don't have to aim and hope for the best!" he growled and swung at Aesra, who parried the blow and struck the Sybarite across his face with the axe's pommel, breaking some of his teeth. In return, showing that he actually possessed some skill, Aerith dodged the next blow and slashed diagonally across Aesra's arm, severing muscles and opening veins, but more importantly making the Beastmaster loose grip on his axe, before twirling around and stabbing Aesra straight through his stomach.

Sword exited the other side and Aesra felt great pain surging through his body as Aerith pulled himself closer. "Now...now you will pay for everything you've done. Trust me, I won't make this quick," he whispered, wanting to get as close as possible and savor every ounce of possible misery coming from the wounded Beastmaster.

Remaining Kabalites who weren't dealing with the unwanted passengers in form of angry Space Marines, turned their attention on the rest of the Scions given the fact all bets were off and the only way to deal with them was to kill them all. However Baeleris was prepared for such event and her stun grenade exploded in the middle of the group, throwing their aim off and preventing them from firing again and thus allowing them to get closer to the vehicle. But it turned out that the Orks were not that far away either. Driven by the promise of proper scrap, the Greenskins ran with all the speed they got and reached the fighting moment later. Not really going for any sort of a proper formation, half of them slammed into Imperials, going for the group of soft Mon-keigh Guardsmen protected by a Hellhound, which fired back and incinerated dozen of boys before it was blown apart by two particularly lucky tankbustas.

Of course, this only meant that the Scions had a little bit less enemies to deal with in the long run, however at this moment it just meant that they had some Orks to kill. First one to experience it first-hand was Heltherith, who's "trip" was interrupted by two eager Ork Boys hefting choppas, both of them completely covered in red paint which could be a reason as to why they reached them first. Swinging at the Wych they found themselves horribly outmatched as she cut into them easily, weaving circles around their crude blades and preventing them from landing a single hit, while in turn she killed both of them with quick cuts that separated their heads from their bodies. But then a meaty fist slammed into her side, breaking two of her ribs (or even more, the pain was stunning) and sending her sprawling on the ground. "Spikey pansy wiv flashy stickers iz fast, roight an propa. But she ain fasta dan me!" a particularly ugly looking Nob with half of his face covered in scars spat at Heltherith, in one hand he had brass knuckles with killy bits all over them while in the other hand he hefted a flamer pistol. Looking for a proper fight, he advanced on the Wych by taking another swing at her with his fist, murderous intent clear in his eyes.

Baeleris was near, standing alongside Venessia, both of them seeing what was going on. Their advance was cut off but the Incubus was ready for this, her shuriken catapult singing and dropping three Ork boys as they charged at them. However then behind them appeared two Nobs, both of them hefting big choppas that looked more like hammers than anything else. First one said nothing as he charged into Venessia, forcing her to pull out her punisher to fend the alien off. Thankfully, her halberd was a perfect weapon for such occasions and she stabbed the creature multiple times with it, but to no avail - the Greenskin merely roared in pain and kept on going. (@Vlayden you can kill this Nob with your next post).

Too busy with having to deal with her own Ork, Venessia was unable to prevent the second Nob from going after Baeleris. This one, as if sensing the different kind of an Eldar mind, approached the Bonesinger a bit more casually, laughing all the way. "Oi, aint you a rong pansy for dis party? Kom, Big Chop wont hurt ya...much!" alien grinned and went after Baeleris, instead of trying to slam his choppa into her he actually attempted to grab her with his meaty hands, perhaps a worse fate than death awaiting the Eldar female if she was to be captured. (@bossaroo you can kill this Nob with your next post).

"One, two, three, four...Five." the sentence was completed by a different voice, which reverberated through Kaesar's skull and he felt as if his body was on fire. Pain was tremendous, as if somebody was trying to rip his heart away from his chest from the inside, a sensation he never felt before. Actually, that wasn't entirely correct as he did feel something like it, although with much less force and intensity, just before they embarked on this mission. He was forced to drop on his knees, struggling for air as he saw the haunting sight, the sight that was on his mind for some time but didn't make an appearance until now.

Eldar lady, beautiful in her own ghostly image appeared in front of him, smiling with a motherly smile. This time around, instead of being naked, she was encased in a bone-white set of armor that made her looking even more stunning, the blond hair tied into a braid and falling across one of her shoulders. She took a step towards Kaesar and he felt even greater pain, even greater...sorrow? The experience was indeed unique, but not in a pleasant way. "Greetings Kaesar," she spoke, her lips not moving but Kaesar heard her voice inside of his head all too well, a commanding tone filled with passion, something similar to his own voice. "I'm sorry, we have to stop meeting like this," he growled in pain and saw the woman smile even more, "But I was getting bored. You have something of mine Kaesar and I want it back."

While Kaesar was engaged in not too pleasant conversation, for the outside world it looked like he was not entirely himself, on his knees in the middle of a fight. Thankfully, the Greenskins thought him to be dead or worse, so they completely ignored him for now, going after more immediate threats in order to experience a proper fight. Another good thing was that both Venessia and Baeleris saw that something was wrong with him, Bonesinger especially due to her innate psychic abilities, sensed a terrible foreboding and could almost spot a trace of something else standing above the stricken Incubus, a shadow of another being, encased in white, looming over him...

While all of that was happening below on the ground, in the sky above a different kind of battle was being fought. Surrounding the dueling Heliarch (one being former and one being current), Hellions didn't care that much for what was going on around them, which turned out to be their undoing. Taking aim in the swirling group, Kadara couldn't get a clear shot on Saghiar but she knew where he was and fired anyway, trusting the devastating potential of her dark lance to do the job for her. Beam of darklight energy escaped her weapon, sailing through the skies and reaching the group in an instant. Hellion "standing" in the way died instantly as the lance pierced his chest and kept on going straight towards the Lord Heliarch.

Hearing the dying scream of his soldier, Saghiar understood the danger and "yanked" his board to the side but such was Kadara's marksmanship that he didn't have much room to maneuver. Dark lance pierced the side of his skyboard, ruining one of the grav motors and almost kicking Saghiar off it, but most importantly it screwed up his movement which allowed Kholivaz to launch his attack. Chainsword came flying at him and he barely escaped getting decapitated - instead the teeth slashed through his shoulder and made him drop flat on the skyboard, eating couple of shards that came from Kholivaz's own board.

If that wasn't the worst thing, from below came a concentrated hail of lasfire mixed with heavy bolter rounds, apparently in addition to the angry Guardsmen some kind of a Devastator took them in his crosshairs and began pounding. Several Hellions were sent screaming to their doom, their bodies exploding when connected with the mass-propelled rockets. Kholivaz himself was spared from that, however a dozen of las shots found him and scorched the bottom of his board, while two Hellions went after him, opening fire with their splinter pods and couple of shots found the purchase in his legs. Of course, his eyes were on Saghiar and he could see that he suffered an additional number of las shots as well, however due to his skyboard being damaged he was loosing altitude and would land somewhere in the middle of a squad of Imperial Guardsmen. But what was most important is that he was alive and as long as that was true, Kholivaz wasn't safe. (@Skarboy you can kill 2 Hellions attacking you with your next post).

As for Kadara, she could see all of this happening from her position, although her flying skills were sufficient enough for her to dodge pretty much every single las shot aimed at her while in return, she took another shot and annihilated a group of Guardsmen right below her. She also saw Kholivaz in danger and Saghiar dropping down, so perhaps her own revenge was finally at hand - but maybe it was better to just let the former Corsair take the kill? Maybe having him as a future ally would be a better decision than antagonizing him, for the rest of the Hellions would hardly follow somebody who didn't kill their former master. Then again, maybe she wanted to have a Hellion gang of her own? Kadara, Sky-Queen of Crimson Moon did have a nice ring to it after all...

-------------

While Scions fought their own battles, the overall battle was taking a turn for the worse, at least from Dark Eldar perspective. Ork firing was inadequate to deal with the Crimson Moon Kabalites and their flying skills, so the Greenskins after some consideration and couple of thousands of wasted bullets, went after Imperials instead. Led by a huge Ork in mega-armor, they formed an unstoppable wall of death as they slammed into Guardsmen, ripping them apart - while the Greenskin mentioned was personally responsible for reaching the Predator Tank and slashing through it with his own power claw, killing the crew inside and blowing the tank sky high.

"Supported" by the Dark Eldar, who served as sort of a distraction for the Imperials and not only that, but a real pain in the butt as the Commorrite flyers carried a great amount of firepower with them which they used to ruin the Imperial line and allow Orks to punch through, the Greenskins won a small victory of sorts, however that soon changed once the Space Marine reinforcements arrived.

Three Stormtalon gunships followed by a Thunderhawk arrived at the plaza, guns blazing. Famous for their usage of such vehicles, Hawk Lords came on the swift wings of fire, bringing death to Dark Eldar and Orks alike. Scores of Greenskins died as battlecannon mixed with multitude of assault cannons and heavy bolters fired, ruining their advance and pushing them back. More importantly for the Dark Eldar, Stormtalons sent a hail of missiles towards the Raiders and Reaver Jetbikes, dropping three out of four Raiders out of the sky and killing more than a half of their jetbike support.

One Raider exploded, taking out all of its crew members to She Who Thirsts, while two of them crash-landed on the ground, in the middle of the battlefield. Kouron himself was among the survivors however, the Seneschal gathering those Kabalites that survived and formed small islands in the sea, fighting a loosing battle against a mix of Orks and Imperial Guardsmen. As a final nail to the coffin, Thunderhawk's bay doors opened and another two squads of Assault Marines exited it, half of them going straight for those stricken Dark Eldar while the other half went to intercept Ork leader with the intention of cutting off the snake's head.

One thing was certain, the Scions were running out of time to flee this place with their lives (and souls) intact.



Battling Forces:

112th Tallarn Imperial Guard Regiment & Hawk Lords Space Marines vs Green Tide vs Crimson Moon Kabalites (Tides of War: Major Imperial advantage)

Immediate threat:

Orks: 7 Nobs, 45 Ork Boys, 12 Tankbustas

Imperium: 8 Assault Marines, 35 Imperial Guardsmen, 1 Hellhound

Dark Eldar: 6 Hellions, Raider, 9 Kabalites, Saghiar, Aerith

Aesra howled in pain as the power sword pierced his body cleanly through. Coughing up blood, he began to laugh as Aerith spoke. "It looks like the end of our dance is finally here." Acting as if his injured arm was worse for wear it hung limply at his side while his good arm grabbed Aerith's sword arm by the wrist, slowly pulling himself closer. Keeping his grimacing Khymerae mask front and center of Aerith's view. Once he reached the guard on the sword, blood dripping from under his mask, he spoke. "This dance ends here you slimy bastard!" Using his other hand he quickly snatched the knife he once stole from Aerith and thrust it upwards trying to stab it through his lower jaw and into his brain.

The Incubus certainly was not having a good day. First, she had lost one of her favoured trinkets - even if it was literally just a small necklace she looted - and had no time to look for it.
Secondly, She had not been able to gain a proper duel of honour in many damned years; not counting her own kin of course. They couldn't count, it was a spar with them.
And thirdly. Blasted Greenskins are in her way.

Frankly, the Commorite had less shits to give than a constipated Haemonculus, the Punisher being swung violently to chop off one of the Greenskin's legs - a brief glance of worry was given to her Partner but didn't distract her in the least - using the same movement to bash the Ork's face with the blunt end of the weapon into the air, spinning marvelously to jam the weapon into his gut and wrench it out to the side, spilling out what insides a Greenskin could have.
It wasn't all of course as she'd dodge what counterattack the Nob may have and swing her Chainsword out to lash at his wrist - an obvious yelp of pain coming from him as he dropped the weapon, the muscles in his wrist quite mutilated beyond use - and immediately whirling around to bash the Punisher once more against his skull, slamming it into the ground.
The last insult of course being as she left the nearly dead Nob - just as one would think she left him for dead, she'd swing the Punisher into the air once more and slam the heavy, bladed edge down onto his skull, cleaving it in two with relative ease.
Now that that was over, she'd take her Shuriken Catapult and spray at the Guardsmen in question, aiming to take as many of the blasted things as she could whilst moving to defend Baeleris - using herself as a shield against any incoming fire.

"Bat," she called out through the Comms to Kadara, "Are you fine with taking out the damned pilot to that ship, or their flame throwing chimera? I do so enjoy remaining uncooked."
Her gaze went over at the last raider that was standing, a few moments of thought going and then~....


"Nevermind that. Destroy the flame Chimera they have, and then kill the Thunderhawk's pilots. If we can, we'll see about using that to get ourselves out of here.

( @Kalle )

She's back...
Kaesar thought to himself as the familiar pain drowned him in agony. It was too much, even for Kaesar to feel pain this horrible. An expression of angry shock formed on his face, when she spoke. What made this infuriating was that she was scaring him. Kaesar fears nothing - was something he could not say without lying anymore.

"Keep back, wench. I haven't killed you, I haven't bed you, why do you torment me, what do you want? Gone from my sight or torch my soul already."
Kaesar replied through gritted teeth, trying to push out the sorrow and replace it all with pain and anger. He tried to summon the strength to lift his klaive and strike at her, to force his legs to stand, to escape. Anything but face her.

Pelted with splinter shards, Thû throws up an arm to ward his face and eyes, gritting his teeth against the momentary agony of the poisons. As the Space Marines make their entrance, he takes advantage of the breathing room it buys him. As the closest Astartes blasts a Kabalite to smithereens, Thû dissipates into gossamer wisps of shadow that fleet to the super-soldier's blind spot, faster even than his posthuman reflexes can follow. A flash of crackling energised blades, and his head parts from his shoulders. Grabbing a rogue Kabalite by the throat, Thû yanks him face to face with his own ebon, glowing-eyed visage.

"If you want to live to see Commorragh again, fool, forget about the dead traitor Aerith and fight to secure our ride out of here," he snarls, his oily black mask of a face shifting and contorting into a fanged, daemonic mask, complete with slavering jaws and lashing tongue, "Now go! Lay down covering fire for me, before I make a mid-fight snack out of you!"

Thrusting the Kabalite away from himself, he triangle-leaps into the fray against the Space Marine that just killed the Raider pilot, bouncing from portside rail to starboard to confuse the Astartes' aim before leaping in behind a balefire blast aimed at centre-of-mass, while he himself darts in low, one power blade slashing up high to intercept the Space Marine's sword arm while the other cuts downwards to the knee as he aims to pass the Astartes on one side, avoiding the gun arm as he does so.