Don't be afraid to be weak : don't be proud to be strong

[Gabriel Templar]

((I know this might look like it could belong in interludes for I10, but I'm planning on it being a fairly drawn-out arc and I'd rather not spam the interludes thread.))


Another day, another invasion. They were becoming almost routine now. Gabe grit his teeth and shoved his shoulder into a door, splintering the plywood that had been hastily thrown over it. He'd seen some of them come in here, he was sure of it.

He floated up the stairs inside, into the shadow-cast hallway, power had long since gone down, trying not to make a sound, listening for his quarry. Running on combat stimulants again, he felt exceedingly dangerous, something grim and hungry inside him twisting in anticipation.

And when he found the Rikti, in his powered armor, peering out into the street from behind the curtains of a ruined apartment, he didn't hesitate for an instant: only pulled his field around him and fired.

The Rikti hesistated a moment, jerking spasmodically as voltage slammed him, and turned ataxically. Gabe Smirked, and fired again, a wide containment field. that's it... down you go. But the field snapped shut without effect, the rikti made a gutteral noise as it shook off the cage Gabe laid for him and leaned in.

In that instant, the entire world was shimmering. A pain such as he'd never known seared at Gabe's brain. He brought his hands up, still trying to pump out electricity, pulling life force around him, but he couldn't, the entities would not answer, the forces were no longer his to command.
He was being flayed away, his ego dissolved like a sand castle in hurricane winds. Something faraway noticed his assailant, his victim collapse as he fell away from himself, an egoless particle of the universal no-soul.



When he woke, his strength was gone, he was acutely aware of something missing, stripped and burned away. That, and the ferric taste of blood in his mouth. Something smelled like burnt flesh. Slowly his senses were returning, first taste, then smell, now hearing, the streets had gone quiet, only the soft patter of water from firefighters and some cars passing. Then sight.

There was a Rikti, collapsed in burnt armor in front of him, not three feet away. Poor bastard, burnt to hell. Full-depth, probably third-degree. Explosive exit wounds. Electrical burns.

Shit. Electrical burns.

He'd done that; the realization hit him in the gut, and his stomach quivered. The Rikti was still breathing, a gurgling noise through a half-molten faceplace.

And Gabe was trying to move, his legs didn't want to work right, the nerves were probably half-fried by the assault. But even though his brain felt like an overcooked custard, he remembered his training, as he crawled across the wooden floor, rough on his arms. Use the casualty's bandages first, always.

[Gabriel Templar]

Gabe's brain was recovering quickly, remembering bits and pieces as he worked. Rikti medical technology was still beyond him, he was instead using his own bandages to wrap the charred flesh of the soldier's right arm, cautiously.

If you asked him days later why he found himself here, kneeling over a creature he was trying to kill not twenty minutes earlier worrying about shock and bloodloss he'd created. He wouldn't have an answer for you; but right then, all he saw was a wounded soldier, it didn't matter if it was ours of theirs: he was dying, and Gabe had the training.

He propped the things legs up on a chair, struggling with the bulk of advanced power armor, and was in the process of wondering exactly what a normal heart rate for an alien warrior was and how the rule of nines applied to a massive snowshovel-like head when he heard a scraping sound.

The Rikti moved it's arm, its palm finding the floor, and tried to push itself up.

"don't move," gabe said, putting a hand on the Rikti's back, "you're injured."

it tried to push its way up anyway, but flopped to the ground, its left arm was in no condition to support its weight.

"Identify" it said, it's voice synthesizer sounded like a Roland drum machine dropped down a stairwell, it was in rough shape.

"Cadet Gabriel Templar," gabe said, moving a pillow he'd scavanged to under its wounded arm, "medic/empath grade"

the Rikti flipped itself around, using the torque of its legs, and leaned in. Gabe threw his hands to the air, "don't fire! don't fire!"

"command: Disarm"

"I am unarmed!"

"Turn around: secure arms."

gabe shook his head, slowly, his heart was performing interesting gymnastics in his chest, he was acutely aware of a single sweat drop sliding into his eye and the maddening inability to wipe it. "if you kill me, you die, you realize... I'm here to help you, or I'd have finished you by now."

The rikti tilted his head, slightly.

"I'm... here... to... help... you." gabe repeated, slowly, and that seemed to make it through the beaten-up mark two translator better.

"Why?" it clacked out.

"I don't know" gabe said, his arms were starting to burn from holding them, but he managed a shrug.

"assessment: action(foolish). However: unit wounded. In need of assistance."

"Unit, that's you, right?"

"correct. This unit: medical assistance(required)"

Gabe nodded. "let me take a look at your arm, it looks pretty bad."


It was indeed bad, he'd managed a full-thickness electrical burn that looked as if he'd played jumprope with a mains cable. Gabe decided to leave the melted armor in place, and pulled out his medical kit.

"pain?" he inquired.

"negative. Medical injector function: Nominal."

Gabe somehow felt better knowing that Rikti carried autoinjectors of painkillers, he'd done this to others after all.
They say burns are the most painful form of wound.

"What's your name?" Gabe asked, as he swabbed iodine over a swath of charred tissue.

"Unit identification: Erenyes Kai'su"

"Nice to meet you, Erenyes."

"Correction: Mentalist first class Kai'su"

"can I call you Erenyes? You can call me Gabe if you like."

"acceptable: Gabe"

[Gabriel Templar]

((note, all this is wonkytimed to the first week of the invasion, when the first part got posted, I just don't want to write out a massive post in one go))

The sun was setting over the renewed War Walls, a febrile red sunset simmering behind the Tiffany-glass shields.

"you know," Gabe said, the first words spoken in nearly two hours, "if... when you get through this, there are people that can take you."

Erenyes shook his head, slowly. There was obviously stiffness in his neck, which bothered Gabe, he'd never thought to palpate his lymph nodes, assuming he could even locate them on a Rikti, or he'd have recognised the imminent signs of septic shock.

"Cannot: Stay here. This unit: Missed(would be)"

Gabe looked at him, "If you keep fighting, you're going to get yourself killed."

"Fight: cannot Return(must); however. Must see: Family."

Gabe nodded. It made him think of his own family, in a fallout shelter in Skyway, did they wonder about him? They might, and he might even be missed were he not to return. "I understand" he said, "your parents would miss you?"

The mark 2 translator did a rough approximation of a laugh, it was a strange and mechanical bark. "Parents: gone. Mother: first war(attacked on homeworld). Father: very old."

Gabe didn't know what to say, for some reason he'd always assumed the Rikti were like he was, not like the Vanguard soldiers. It'd made things easier for him.

"Wife: concerned." Erenyes continued, "son: young. Daughter: younger."

A wife. Children. damn.

Erenyes tried to sit up, his back was stiffening too it seemed, "back: hurts" he said.

"your back wasn't injured," Gabe said, turning to look at it, "I don't know why."

Erenyes leaned back down, exhausted by the attempt.



Gabe leaned back as well, watching the sun finally dim behind the walls, he was tired, and with no vanguard medic to fill him full of stimulants the call of sleep was strong, the world looked glassy and distant, and his eyelids seemed to shutter closed of their own accord. He fell asleep on the floor, at the side of a Rikti mentalist. It seemed like the most natural thing in the world.


That night, he didn't dream of Lilly. He dreamt of dropships glittering in the dark, crossing the belt of Orion.

[Gabriel Templar]

Gabe woke to sunlight streaming bright and crystalline through the shattered windows. Dawn was bleeding into morning, the light was unusually brilliant.

The war walls had fallen again. Air raid sirens called out their warbling song of warning, he heard the insane shriek of jet fighters, and the whipcrack boom as they broke the sound barrier flying nap of the earth down the city canyons.

It was pure instinct to throw himself across Erenyes, strained against the bombs he was sure were falling.

The Rikti looked up at him, his eyes were dull and listless. "attack: in progress?" he said, the vocorder pitch bent his voice into a question.

"yeah," Gabe said, "come on, it's time to get you out of here"

"Unit: cannot(move)"

Gabe sighed, something in him told him he had failed Erenyes somehow, that he wasn't smart enough, skilled enough, good enough. And he knew it was true. A kid playing with toys, that was all he was.

"up you go" he said, snapping up his magnetic fields to sweep them both airborn. Erenyes' face froze in grimace, and Gabe floated him over with the slightest currents of air. "hold on, here we go."

and down city streets again, the same neuron fire driving him along through the barrage and bedlam of the attack. Liquid fire poured from the skies as the plasma cannons raked apartments; sending particles of safety glass falling like snow and making the skyscrapers ring like giant tubular bells with thermal shock. Erenyes hauled behind him, he poured out energy to sustain the field.

Gabe clicked his comm, "This is Cadet Templar, where are they?"

someone else keyed a mic, a harsh, masculine voice. It sounded like Sargent Hartman meets John Wayne: "Same place as always, gather at Hero Corps for the first wave."

Gabe bent his trajectory around, setting down on the ground. Erenyes groaned and rolled onto his side, "don't move" Gabe said, they'll find you here.

"You're going to get yourself killed" Erenyes grunted.

"Relax, I'm going to be-"

then the camera-charging sound of a plasma rifle's containment chamber loading up and a strange voice "Guardian Athax: Engage. Secure: casualty"

Gabe turned, every cell of his body telling him to drop his head, call the heaven's fire and return their attack, his arms would have no part of it. Flat-footed and utterly stunned, he managed to instinctively pulse his field, diving for an alleyway with animal speed and desperate strength. The cement was rough on his skin as he scrambled on hands and knees for behind a dumpster.