Frank lowered his weapon, then he lowered himself back into his seat. He was unperturbed and just done with the conversation as it stood. He guard only relaxed fractionally for now.
Malrak stopped his attack when the Wych began talking to the human while he did not call her master he was sure the rest did so it was better to just do as she said. "If he is useful I will not eat him." The mouth on his arms said as he lowered his club like arm. He had not noticed the elctropriest until he unleashed lighting on what was left of a building that had collapsed and was wondering why he did such a thing. But he figured this was not time to ponder and went over to the raider and climbed on and sat in his previous postion like nothing had happened. "Well let's get going again we can't allow ourselves to be noticed by the PDF." He motioned for those outside to get in with his claw as the crustacean arms closed his cloak hiding most of his grotesque form. They had no time to be wasting just siting in no man's land and if the man refused to come with Malrak would drag him if necessary.
As if the gates of the dam opened he released the pent-up pressure that was building in his body.Releasing so much potency in one go was an exhilarating experience and Vitali did it with obvious glee.To wield the destructive form of the Motive Force made one feel truly blessed by the Destroyer. Earning a stern look from the Wych,Zeth relented as a cub does before an authoritative mother.Besides...he didn't want to get I a fight with the PDF for it would be awfully one-sided. "Yes...yes we should that."added Zeth,glancing at the gorgeous Wych,her muscles fabulous her form lithe with few bladed spike here and there of what she called...armor. Indeed her stopped looking at her as the murderous alien worthy of unnatural hatred.None of that mattered in the Band,the least of all a racial denomination. Following Malrak`s example he climbed onboard the Raider,glancing from time to time to their seemingly newest addition. "Umm...I can coax the reactors in a starship!The bigger reactor...the better!" added Zeth to none specifically.
"Hah!In that Jozai you are more then right!" spoke Zeth as he laid a hand at his friend`s shoulder. Jozai smiled reassuringly at Zeth before relaxing in the vehicle. He was dozing off until the commotion outside startled him. As Frank and the mutant moved to intercept the unknown, Jozai eased himself back in to his slumber as he was confident the two would handle it. "Jozai - do you by chance have any of that delicious salted expanded grain? Cameron introduced me to it." Jozai once again was jolted to reality. He smiled sheepishly as he responded "I'm sorry Kyrana I don't, though I would definitely kill for some more of it" Once more Jozai attempted to get some rest, he nearly succeeded until he heard a loud noise. He popped his head out of the vehicle and saw the destroyed building and an angry looking Zeth. He simply shrugged and threw it up to hormones....do tech-priests have hormones? Regardless he ignored the commotion, simply focusing on the stranger. Smiling good-naturedly Jozai waved at the stranger. "Hail! The name is Jozai! Are you coming with us?"
"Oh, do you know him?" Kyrana was half-listening to Jozai now as he hadn't got any of what she wanted and the non-fight below was looking boring. So she swooped the Raider down to pickup Malrack and waved vaguely to the new guy. "Come on then, get in. We don't have all day," she said, tolerantly waiting for August to scramble at least most of the way on board before taking the Raider back up. She flew with the grace and speed of an arena champion, which was to say flashily and far too fast. To the spaceport! "Are there Tech-Priestesses?" she asked Zeth, giving no hint as to why.
Seeing as the scantily clad eldar woman had kept him from getting eaten by the mutant creature and, Zeth was it? He quickly hopped onto the raider, putting away his frag grenade, but keeping his hotshot at the ready. "You'll find I'm a good person to have around miss. I made it this far on my own, think that says something bout my skills. Sides, no one better to have at your back than a Kasrkin." He said with some pride, clearly proud of his heritage and rank. Even amongst Cadians the Kasrkin were elite. He'd show his new companions he wouldn't be dead weight. He looked over to the man named Jozai, holding out his hand in greetings, "Names August pal. Thanks for not gunning me down bout the whole grenade thing. Guess I was a bit trigger happy after running for a couple days straight."
The timely departure of the group in their raider transport was just in time to avoid the appearance of a single Hydra flak tank that had emerged from the buildings to the south, what exactly it was doing there was unclear but it was being driven in an almost reckless manner towards the battle at the warehouse. Equipped with a standard pair of Hydra autocannons placed on an open topped tank turret also with a hull mounted heavy bolter at the front it was a lightly armored yet nonetheless deadly adversary to any and all airborne vehicles it might face. As the Hydra neared battle itself the main turret of the tank swiveled as it targeted the Raider transports still present outside the warehouse, already identifying targets it had locked onto the stationary vehicles with an alarmingly robotic efficiency. Before the crews of the raider transports even had a chance to take off to avoid the imminent threat the main weapons of the Hydra had bombarded the skimmers with a storm of autocannon fire reducing most if not all of the transports to burning wreckage. When it finished the main turret swiveled again this time aiming for the group's own raider, firing again it sought to bring down the group with the full force of its guns but was thankfully just out of reach of doing any real damage beyond creating turbulence. Regardless however the tank still trundled after the fleeing raider transport seemingly hell bent on destroying all Xenos vehicles it can even if it had no hope of catching up, the driver of the vehicle did not seem to be paying attention to any aspect of the battle beyond his own particular job as it drove past both allied and enemy positions without ever deviating from its one role. Regardless however the group was already making good progress towards the cities military quarter, although they had yet to reach the quarter itself at this early stage in the journey they could already see the towering space elevator in the distance. As the group went further north away from the warehouse the ground below seemed to be far less militarized, there were groups of refugees along with scattered squads of disorganized PDF troops, there was also small predatory groups of dark Eldar Kabalites who were actively hunting both PDF and citizen alike both for sport and for loading up into raiders to transport back across the river. If the group proceeded further north they would end up in the military quarter and be that much closer to the space elevator, if they went east they would end up in the northern industrial district bordering the military quarter, if they went west they would be in the residential district. Of course back south there was the warehouse and the rest of the band of exiles, but also so was that Hydra flak tank.
As Raider screamed past the enemy and friendly lines,between rubble and defense lines,hounded by a presistent Hydra tank,Zeth grabbed the closest thing he could and held to it as he did for his dear life.He knew Kyrana was a crazy driver...but not this crazy.Adjusting to the speed and wind-resistance,Zeth sat at the back,nodding to their newest addition that hopefully wont try to stabbed them in their sleep. "Hi there!I am Vitali...but exiles usually call me by my lastname...Zeth!You know...the electric-freak as you so eloquently put!"added jokingly as he looked around the fast-moving terrain beside them.During his stay with the Dark Eldar...he had the honor of riding aboard Raiders and various other Dark Eldar skimmer-vehicles.It was always an experience...and mostly without blood-shedding too! "Are there Tech-Priestesses?" Kyrana asked him,and Zeth looked toward the thin horizontal line of the space-elevator as if he could gleam the answer by simply looking at its glorious form as it disappeared above the clouds. "Probably."added Zeth as he sank to the floor of the Raider,taking from his pocket a small machina opus,a small cog that had a skull motif engraved on it..Half of it was that of a human skull and other was that of the machine.The cog was charred as if flash-burned by a high power weapon.Zeth clutched the cog and tossed it into the air as if one would do with a small coin and caught it between his palms.The last thing on his mind would be a suspicion as to her question.Indeed...most of her questions after they got away from the Hulk,Zeth never questioned. The cog was worthless in material means...but priceless otherwise.It was an anchor to many memories and emotions of the Band and his previous life.It was the only thing that kept him going when he had nobody to count on in the dark alleys of the Dark City. The cog was part of a tome. A tome given to him by a blonde Tech-Priestess.A tome he lost aboard the Hulk and got a naty scar across his chest. Broken from his reverie by a familair sensation in the back of his skull he put the cog back in the pocket,he stood up and looked beyond the confines of the Raider. The ride was gradually less bumpy and mostly not due to Kyrana`s unatural driving skills.The ground ahead of them was not so clogged with rubble and indeed,the devastation was yet to arrive in full effect to this district. But war was on a planetary-scale and refuges and scattered PDF troops were all over the place in broken gropus,banded together much like the Band of Exiles,by twist of fate and a little bit of luck...or...misfortune depends on how one sees it. The sensation he was feeling in the back of his cranium was his psyhic-sense...tingling.He remembered when he had to shut-off that part of his brain,lest his brains exploded in the Dark City,for the amount of horror and suffering was over-powering. Here...in the material plane,it was much less so,but still tangible,and Zeth never liked fighting against humans.Much less against unarmed and happless citizenry. Electropriest from his vantageous point aboard the Raider took this chance to look upon several individuals,and indeed the true face of war never stopped to horrify him...or exhilirate him.Depends on the occassion.And this was most definetly the former. A bewildered woman with blood all over her unkempt clothes,a blood obviously not hers,ran toward the spaceport,much like many refuges.She struggled to reach there,as she dragged along a girl of less then ten years old.The girl struggled to keep up with her mother,but the screaming engines of the Raider attracted her attention. Seeing as they caught her eye,Zeth waved toward her in earnest enthusiasm,happiness plastered over his face.The girl simply smiled but was unable to respond due to hurried pace her,presumably mother,kept. Sagging he turned to the group: "Guys...umm...we got to help them.Look at them...the Kabal will be upon them any second.Please!If they take them..."Electropriest stopped,unable to utter the coming words.He pleaded with a innocence of a boy,the enthusiasm and gesticulation of a statically-charged maniac seemingly gone for now.
Jozai finally managed to get comfortable in the Raider despite Kyrana's best attempts against his endeavor. He was enjoying the easy companionship that being with the Exiles brought back. He even smiled at Kyrana's innocent query about female tech-priests. As all the commotion died down Jozai focused on meticulously cleaning his beloved combat knife when he heard Zeth make his plea. Looking up he saw the objects of Zeth's cry. He adopted a soft smile "Zeth...did you notice the tank following us? If we slow down it would most assuredly catch us. I'm all for helping the weak and innocent, but I do not wish to throw our lives away needlessly." Jozai gestured to the refugees. "If we stop to pick them up not only will we die in the attempt due to the Hydra catching up, but those refugees may be killed in the crossfire" The noble of Baal's face took on a empathetic look, "It's in all our best interests that we continue on, even theirs. Who knows? Maybe they'll find a hiding spot and be safe!"
Frank at Jozai's observations. " There is little we can actually do for them even if we picked them up. We are going battle our way off this rock and don't have time playing protect the unarmed." His words were gruff and cold. He felt no empathy for the people of this planet. The strong suvived and the weak either ran, hid, or died. He never had it easy or people really helping him so felt no need to return the favor. And with that Frank went back to concentrating on staying in his seat and keeping his hat on his head. The severe speed and maneuvers of this vehicle left him just looking at stability.
