Tau

Apocalypse

The twelve dark wings beat the cold night air.  Darkness surrounded them and they were in their element.  No wind blew and the air was deathly still.  Wreaths of smoke played around the squad of the Barracoi, as they made for the refugee camp.

In the deep blue of her night sight Mia-Karla scanned the land ahead for heat sources.  The other Barracoi did the same.  The camp was there ahead, but no heat sources showed.  The spines on the back of Mia-Karla's neck rose, not so much in fear, but more in suspicion of something being wrong.

The group mind of the Barracoi conferred as they zeroed in on the camp.

'There's something there - but it's not human.  Stay sharp.'

It was then that it hit.  Despair, fear... and powerlessness tore into the six demons.  As one they plummeted from the air and struck the hard, dry earth.

'What the hell?'  The six Barracoi rose, unsteadily to their feet, in the dark, and scented the air.  'Smoke... and rot... like death.  And that feeling of despair.  Kaur... can you make fire?'  Kaur's answer was a resounding no.

'So, this is what it feels like to be human.'

Grim, the dealer of death then spoke.

'I smell Howejtadt... and Peytahns... and rotten vegetation.  Head for that building.'

As one, the six Barracoi sped across the ground towards what looked like a hospital building.  The door was locked, but Grim struck the heavy glass door with his scythe and shattered the door.  The Barracoi streamed into the building.

'We can't fly, but we still have our wits and our strength at least.'

It was then Kaur who spoke.  'Take up defensive positions facing the door.  Freya, Ellia, go see what weapons you can find.'

A low desk faced the open doorway.  Mia-Karla, Grim and Kaur crouched behind the desk.  Lor scuttled up the wall and hung from a light fixture, directly above the doorway.

'We've found surgical lasers: four of them, and surgical blades... heading back to you now.'  Freya's cool, calm voice spoke to the minds of the other Barracoi.

In the entrance hall of the hospital building the Barracoi strained to hear and scent the approaching enemy.

'I can't see or hear them, but I smell the Howejtadt and the Peytahns... they're on their way'  Mia-Karla scented the air once more.  'Six different Peytahns, twelve different Howejtadt clones.  We're outnumbered three to one... not bad odds.'

Freya and Ellia slunk up to Mia-Karla and Kaur.  Freya handed the four small lasers to Kaur and he gripped them, two in each hand.

'They may have doused my fire, but these little babies should come in handy.'

Grim held his scythe.  Ellia held two surgical saws, with wicked, long serrated edges.  Freya wore heavy leather gloves and had pushed surgical blades through the thick material.  Eight sharp knives now protruded from the fingers of her gloves.  Mia-Karla smiled, as she stretched out her taloned fingers and bared her fangs.  Up above, Lor could feel that his powers were diminished by whatever was in the air, but he still felt some power flowing through him.

It was then that the lights came on in the building.

The Howejtadt and Peytahns burst through the doorway.  Heavy particle weapons and quantum disruptors blasted away.

Lor fell on his prey.  Flowing and flooding through the open mouth, nostrils, eyes and ears, Lor ripped inside the Howeytadt woman below him.  In an instant the woman collapsed... dead.

Grim leaped forwards, swinging his scythe.  The qauntum disruptor beams only fed energy into Grim.  He felt his powers beginning to grow.  His scythe sliced through the necks of two Howejtadt males, who crumpled to the ground.

It was then that the Hunter Killer Peytahns took action.  Three of the Hunter Killers slid the fallen Howejtadt female, with Lor still partly inside her, into a body bag.  Trapped inside the sealed bag, Lor was captured.

Krais Katchupek, Zee Kurgan and Zoran Karg trained their heavy particle weapons upon the scythe of Grim and blew it to smithereens.  Grim raised his fist to take the life force from the three Peytahns, but nothing happened.

Three female Howejtadt: Djan Gohdar, Layna Kor and Sal Kadur then threw handfuls of a sticky green substance at the dark demon before them.  Grim sniffed the air and smelt the stench of an awful rot.  The green subtance began to flow over the Barracoi, growing, even as it flowed.  As the rotten green substance grew, Grim felt the sense of fear and despair grow within him and his powers dwindled away.  Green tendrils and shoots spread around Grim, rooting him to the ground.  Unable to move, unable to fight, he, too was snared.

Kaur leapt into the fray, with the four lasers firing madly from his hands: slicing through the wings and limbs of the Howejtadt.  Three more Howejtadt fell, but they were just a distraction.  Zee Kurgan focused on Kaur, fired his quantum disruptors and blew away the Barracoi's hands.  The lasers and Kaur's ability to fight were gone.  Defeated, Kaur slumped to the ground.

With blades and serrated saws whirling, Freya and Ellia lashed out at the remaining Howejtadt.  Heavy particle streams and quantum disruptors tore into the two Barracoi, tearing through their flesh and clothes.  In a matter of moments the six Howejtadt overwhelmed the still struggling, fighting female Barracoi.  Manacles and chains were slipped over their arms and feet and they were disarmed.  The same green substance that had been used to subdue Grim was then used to snare Freya and Ellia.  Swarming and spreading over them, they were soon encircled in the living green tendrils that took away all hope of escape.

And that left Mia-Karla.  She exuded her scent and tried to control the Howejtadt and Peytahns.  The Peytahns wore dark black suits and helmets.  The six of them moved to surround Mia-Karla.  The six remaining Howejtadt seemed unaffected by the Barracoi's scent.  With a shrug Mia-Karla retracted her talons.  She turned to the Howejtadt clone, Djan Gohdar, who stood at the head of the group of clones and Peytahns.

'So, sister, is this how it all ends?'

'No... for us, this is how it all begins.' 

Yet, even as Djan Gohdar said these words, she sensed that something was wrong.  As Mia-Karla had spoken she had used her mind, rather than her lips.  And Djan Gohdar now knew that the Barracoi and Howejtadt were the same, just two different faces of the same coin.  And, as she stood there, looking into the eyes of Mia-Karla, she wondered who was flipping that coin?