The Hive That Thirsts (Frightorflight + DuxT)

Shi looked over the Tau encampment in horror. She had a hope that her people had managed to avoid the same fate as his, but that seemed not to be. The sounds of pleasure did not help reassure her anyway, quite the opposite in fact. But after an explosion, her captor returned, looking shocked in the silence. The Tau tried not to think about what he found, only accepting her freedom and the carbine, somewhat happy to have a familiar weapon.

Her gaze turning skyward, she looked away from her dead soldiers. "We must leave this planet, I do not want to think how many of these... things still live." Shi sighed looking down at the human. "I can guide us to the staging ground my people used, with any luck a transport survived the attack."
 
"I don't know if we can escape." His mind was still in shock, but his thoughts were clear. "While I was trying to find someone on the vox I heard something strange. I thought it was just static or something." He looked up at the sky, "I think there is something up there." What that might mean he had no idea. Maybe they would have a better chance if they went up into the mountains. Then again, he had seen what the Imperium does to those who might have consorted with xeno's. he sighed in submission. "Alright. I guess we have no choice. I'm sergeant Kaladin, you can call me call."
 
"I am Shas'o Kronus Shi..." Shi frowned, realising most of that was meaningless to a human who did not know her language. "Shi will do just fine though Kaladin." Looking up at the sky she didn't see anything, but there was no telling what awaited in orbit. "I suspect you might be right, one of our two fleets would of sent help if there wasn't something stopping them." She faced him once more. "But better to try and escape than hide under a mountain."
 
"My people have survived centuries of war by hiding under mountains and scavenging off of what the armies left behind." He said defensively, "But under the circumstances that just isn't an option." I'll let you lead the way but make no mistake if you give me any reason to doubt you I'm tying you back up." His people ad some experience with xeno's. Xeno's who prayed upon and enslaved them until the empire came. He wasn't going to trust her simply because ll the carnage wasn't her peoples doing. "You can lead the way Shi"
 
"I am not a one of the Eldar human, we are also incorruptible by the warp, nor can we use it for power. We meerly seek to unite all civilised races into the Greater Good." Shi shook her head though, sighing. "It does not matter though, Guie'la are stubborn. I just simply seek our survival Kaladin and perhaps the destruction of these monstrosities." With that, Shi headed into the encampment.

Not much survived in equipment, no Battlesuits for sure, nor any vehicle. So instead she sought maps, quickly figuring their location and where to go. With that Shi returned to the bike they had acquired, letting the human drive still, she was unfamiliar with their vehicles after all. "We go south, past the mountains, the staging ground should still be left standing."
 
"I doubt this is all of them. It is never all of them. Not with the ork, or eldar, or any other xeno I've fought. I don't know what your babbling on about the warp but you seem to know a lot about it for a race that can do so little with it." When she headed back in Kaladin followed her, rifle at the ready. "We shouldn't linger here, plenty of those thing's might till be around." While she was looking at the maps he started to strip a dead fire warrior whose armor wasn't damaged. "Put this on." he told her, really ordered. her suit protected nothing, and left little more to the imagination. The last thing he needed was an ally who was not only a constant liability, but a constant distraction.
 
"I know about the warp because my early career was fighting off the forces of Chaos from my home world." Shi turned to Kaladin giving an annoyed look. "Who by the way, were primarily made up by Gue'la like you and those... fanatics in the armour." She shook her head, turning back to finish her examination of the map. "But you are right, we have far from seen the full extent of the enemy forces, especially for them to have seemingly wiped out both our forces."

Shi had just finished looking through the map when Kaladin shoved the armour into her face. Raising a brow she wondered at the insistence, she'd happily take some armour of course, but why did he want her to wear it, she doubted for her protection. Not questioning it, the female tau took the armour and suited up. Her feminine features were quickly covered by the generic armour of the dead Fire Warrior, the suit very much built for function over style in regards of gender. Checking the helmet she strapped the com piece to her ear, on the off chance someone made contact. "It isn't my battle suit, but it'll do." Reaching down she picked up a discarded Pulse Rifle, offering it to him. "You know as well as I do that Tau firepower surpasses that." Pointing at his las weapon, amusingly primitive to the younger, but more technologically advance race.
 
He was somewhat relieved to watch her body disappear under her armor, her curves still betrayed her, but the way the bodysuit hugged every inch of he"That r ad made every fetcher come out was no safely covered. No longer a distraction. Not to mention he no longer had to look over his shoulder constantly and make sure she hadn't had her head blown, or ripped off.
"I'll take a weapon I'll know over a weapon I don't." He replied. If something went wrong with that pulse rifle he wasn't so familiar with it, or any xeno tech, that he could field strip and repair it in a timely manner. His lasrifle may be weaker, but he could take it apart and put it back together in under a minute. "You were talking about chaos. Is that another xeno your people fight with or something?" obviously they had some connection to the warp, from the way she talked about it. Though how anything could live in such a hellish realm he had no idea.
 
Shi raised a brow again at him seeming to not know about Chaos. "No, besides the monstrosities they summon, they are all Gue'la like you. Figured since your race made up the majority of their forces, you'd be aware." She shrugged, taking the rifle herself, slinging it over one shoulder. Sometimes the range did better than the better fire rate of the Carbine. "My people fight many xeno's, as you like to put it. The Orks and their barbaric ways, the Eldar and their treacherous deals, we still hope to bring them to the Greater Good one day." She faced him again, keeping the helmet off right now. "Pride and old prejudice on the part of your people keep us from being allies, so much spilled blood over nothing."

With that she slid her helmet on, the 'eye' of the thing glowing a soft red as her sensors activated. She began to head off though ended up stopping by one of the corpses of the aliens, examining it. "Strange... almost like the deformed monstrosities the forces of Chaos summon... yet I see none of their warriors."
 
From behind the visor of his own helmet he rolled his eyes. He didn't know what she was going on about but she obviously was either under some kind of delusion, being lied to herself, or was trying to play some trick on him. "Your people are to optimistic. You see my people are realists. This universe of ours is just on the slow slide to oblivion. My goal is to live only long enough that I miss the final BIG end." He wasn't religious, although if anyone asked he had once attempted to become a priest because he was so devoted. So in his mind their really was no point to anything. It was all pointless, he would say the sooner it was over with the better if his own instincts didn't drive him to survive. "Lets get going. I don't know if any of these things are still alive and I don't want to risk it. Suddenly a creature jumped from a corpse near him. He stuck up hi hand and it's razor teeth sank into his wrist. At the same time he grabbed a dagger and sliced it off. The thing, like a giant leech. Fell to the floor and squirmed around. While a strange venom gushed from it's mouth. At the same time one leaped out and latched onto Shi's foot. They started to emerge from the corpses of all the creatures. Kaladin started shooting and moving through the nearest door into the safety of open spaces.
 
"One day the civilised races will realise there are bigger problems than fighting each other. On that day the Greater Good of all life will come about, we are sure of it." A naive view point in this galaxy, but the Tau were a naive race after all. When the creatures attacked, Shi cursed in her native tongue, kicking her armoured, hoofed foot to crush the thing against a wall. Quickly she moved for the exit and for their transport, her carbine lighting up with plasma as she began killing the things as she went.
 
'You realize that thing is still on your foot," He said. pointing to the sucking mouth still attached to her foot. he turned and scanned the door way. One or two of them were crawling out, but they were moving so slow that it wasn't a problem worth the ammo. He offered her his knife and went to check the vehicles to see if anything was still running. As far as he could tell something like a land speeder from what he could tell.
 
Shi grimaced as she looked at her foot, annoyed her kick didn't budge the thing. She accepted the knife, swiftly cutting the thing off. She wasn't as clumsy and weak as most of her race, having better training and skill from her position. So she might be able to go toe to toe with Kaladin in a pinch, though he still had advantages. Accompanying him outside, the Tau looked over the various vehicles. Most had been destroyed, however one remained, undamaged, having had no one in it for the beasts to attack. It was a Piranha, the opened top skimmer looking pristine.

Shi moved over to the vehicle, looking it over, checking the engines, the weapon systems, even the twin drones locked into it. Hopping into the pilot seat, she did some more system checks, smiling. "Fortune favours us Kaladin, this should easily take us to the staging area." She glanced skyward at the sun, obscured slightly by... something, she wasn't sure what. "We will likely need to stop at night fall, but we will be there tomorrow."
 
"I'll get my things." He went back to the bike and brought back the supplies he had gathered, as well as some things he had grabbed on the way. "Once we set down tonight we had better treat that. Who knows what that thing did." Although the creature could not finish its corrupting work. It's poison was still in Shi's body, and it could still spread some demonic mutation through her body.

That night they settled down in the mountains and Kaladin set up a small camp, and lit a fire. He bandaged the wound, though he saw no signs of infection or anything to cause worry, he had no idea of what the bite would really do. After he had bandaged up the wound he grabbed his rifle and stood up, "I'm going to go catch something for dinner." He then walked off into the darkness.
 
Shi fired up the vehicle, heading into the mountains for their rest stop. The trip was smooth, not encountering anything, certainly nothing that could keep up with the speeder. Shi set the Piranha down in a relatively safe spot, climbing out with whatever she took from the camp. She had a slight limp from the wound, but not a bad one.

She helped set up camp for the night, letting the human bandage the wound when he got to it. "I'm fine really..." She insisted, having no idea how much venom surged through her still. When he headed off to hunt, she nodded, watching him go. Though she leaned back against the rock wall, she held her carbine close, keeping an eye out for danger.
 
An hour latter he returned with one of the local animals, dead. He sat down and began to skin it before putting it on the fire, it had already been gutted. He put it on a stick over the fire and sat next to her. something seemed a little different about her. It wasn't something he could see but more of something that he sensed. "How are you feeling, you didn't get sick from that bite did you?" he asked, before he move to tend to the food on the fire. He didn't want her dropping dead on him or something like that. If they were going to get out alive he needed her as close to 100% as possible, especially since she had to fly them out of there.
 
Shi looked at him, tilting her head at the question. She had her helmet removed at this point, by her side should they hear something. "I'm feeling fine, not going to let a little bite stop me." She was quite unaware of the corruption these Slanesh infused beasts had pumped into her. Things more subtle, like making her feminine features even more defined and slowly making certain chemicals produce in her mind. She tugged at the armour slightly, starting to feel it chafe as changes happened. "Whoever this soldier was really liked their armour tight.."
 
"I guess they weren't defined as you." H was careful not to look. He felt o shame in being attracted to her. The same features that made her attractive made a human female attractive. He didn't really have to much against xeno's besides a few personal grudges that had developed over the years. Hating and killing them was just the most convenient method of survival until recently. He tore off a piece of the animal flesh and offered it to her, while he took of his helmet off with his other hand before taking a bite of a piece himself. He couldn't say it tasted pleasant but it tasted no worse than anything from his hoe world. Everything was poisoned there. "So whats the deal with your people and your 'Greater Good'."
 
Shi ate what was handed to her, swallowing it down despite the taste. She wasn't about to complain, plus had trained to eat far worse in desperate times, just never in practise. She glanced away slightly at the mention of her defined body, her cheeks flushing slightly. Was she really getting complimented in such a way by a human and was she feeling flattered by it?! Shaking her head she bit into more of the food to distract herself. "The Greater Good is the philosophy we live by. We believe that every Tau has a place where they can serve to best better our race. Since the Etherials came and guided our race in this way, our empire has prospered, thus we seek to enlighten more races, like the Kroot or Vespid, even the Gue'la worlds who joined us."
 
He smiled, that's where he could get her, "So what happens if my greater good isn't the same as your greater good. what if the greater good for my race is to wipe out yours, what do you say to that?" He had heard this greater good nonsense before. It wore a different skin when the imperium spoke it but it was the same nonsense in his mind. "Besides, I heard your greater good castrate human males so they can't breed with you xeno woman." apparently we're a lot better equipped, was what he was thinking, though he didn't say it. He took another bite of his meat.
 
Shi sighed shaking her head. "It would be highly doubtful the Greater Good of your race requires extermination of all Aliens, no matter what your leaders say. In the end, the universal Greater Good would require cooperation from all civilisations, with the fittest among them leading the collective. Now, I concede that maybe my race should not be leaders of the collective, but while everyone else is so... hostile, it is the only choice.

It seemed like she had debated this point over and over and she was right. While no diplomat, she had been with diplomacy missions to some human worlds and arguments like this would spawn often. When the point of casteration came up, that shocked her out of her train of thought. "What? Oh you believe that propaganda? We want you Gue'la to breed within our empire, doing such things would be counter productive. As for the breeding, we are two different species, you could try your hardest right now and no child would result!" She wasn't quite sure where that last point came from, but it was true.
 
"Well, throw in a little bit of warp mutation and anything was possible," He was arguing a point now instead of poking fun. He wiped his hands his gloves off on his pants. "You sleep, I'll take the first watch. I'll wake you up in a few hours when it's your turn. He set his rifle beside him and pulled a small book from a pocket under his vest. It was in low gothic, but he didn't read high gothic that well so he had to go slow. He was trying to learn but t wasn't easy. If he was ever going to go up in the world it would pay to learn though. He gazed over at her, "Well don't waste your time get to sleep." He knew how precious sleep could be.
 
Shi wanted to argue but he brought up a good point, sleep was needed. So the Tau woman lay on her side, curling up to try and get some sleep. She wore the armour still, having had enough training to manage sleeping in armour. It did take time, but soon the commander was asleep, getting as much as she could before they needed to trade watches. Course something could always attack, but she really had to hope that wouldn't happen right now.
 
When it was her turn he woke her up and traded with her. At dawn he woke up and went out to catch some breakfast, he came back only a few minutes later, h got lucky. While he was preparing the animal he asked,
"Bite still feeling okay, don't feel any symptoms of anything." The possibility of venom from the bite had occurred to him. He couldn't do anything if she was poisoned accept hope it didn't kill her. "We don't know what that thing was so if you feel out of place in anyway you should probably tell me." He put the meet on the fire. "Do your people even get poisoned? I assume you work like us but I don't know." He confessed.
 
As the night went on Shi's dreams became more disturbed as the venom spread through her body. Come time for her turn on watch she was glad to be out of it, but wasn't free of it yet. She became aroused, almost painfully so, in addition to the subtle changes it kept making her. The corruption, initially sourced from Slanesh, sought to keep that corruption and power going. So the female felt the need to sate herself, though tried to resist it.

Come morning she was quite, clutching her weapon as she looked away from Kaladin. When he spoke to her she turned to look at him, visibly distracted, eyes roaming a little over him. "I... I think so. Don't feel weak or anything, just..." She tugged at her armour slightly, it feeling constraining. "Just getting hard to stand this stuff is all, maybe it'd be best I don't wear it while we drive."
 
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