Lifa's Lies

							Lifa's Lies                                    part three of Lifa's timeline
												    Occurs 6 months after Marxus IV
													(unfinished)




	Artemis popped up from behind the rough boulder and loosed another withering hail of bolter rounds at the dazed Chaos marines. As he fired, he watched Lifa bound forward from her hiding place and dispatch the worshipper of Nurgle with a burst from her alien rifle and then pounce upon the shoulders of the Slaaneshii marine, sawing at the malformed warrior's neck with her stolen dagger. It had happened so quickly, Artemis barely had time to blink. He continued his rain of bolts upon the final two warriors, trying to distract them from his nimble Eldar companion. It would be in vain. Both Chaos marines turned to face the source of a sudden piercing wail issuing from the stolen warp twisted dagger which now lay at the Eldar's feet. They brought their bolters to bear on the smaller alien female and immediately Artemis surged to his feet, leaping over the barrier he had been using as protection. As he sprinted towards the pair of Chaos warriors, a bright flash issued from the weapons belonging to both Lifa and the warrior nearest her. The traitor marine she had fired at dropped heavily to his knees before striking the ground, and Artemis watched in horror as the Eldar stumbled and looked down at her breastplate, a hole the size of her fist punched cleanly through where her heart should be. The soul stone upon her breast shone brilliantly. Lifa's shurikan catapult slipped from her hands as her body clattered lifelessly against the cavern's cold surface.

	The final minion of Chaos turned towards him and opened fire. Round after round ground into Artemis' deep navy blue power armor. The loyal marine had dropped his own gun in shock, and he was dimly aware of the anguished howls of agony and rage that shook his body. He pounded towards the Chaos marine, closing the distance separating them more quickly than either had thought possible. The worshipper of Khorne only had time to draw one of the several melee weapons at his side before the Loyalist marine made impact, colliding in a brutal tackle with enough force to shake the walls of the cavern they fought in. The red tinted armor of the Khorne follower contrasted starkly with the deep navy shades worn by the Crimson Fists marine on top. The traitor marine pushed, squeezed, and grappled with his all of his considerable strength which was even further augmented by his ties to Khorne. His brutal chain-dagger bored grooves into Artemis' power armor seeking to find purchase in the flesh and vitals beneath, but to no avail. Try as he might, the corrupted brother could not dislodge the enraged Loyalist marine, and felt the cold touch of fear as a powerful arm wrapped around his neck and began to squeeze viciously.

	With a bestial roar, Artemis tore the horned head from the traitor's shoulders. Blood spurted freely from the corpse in the empty vacuum of space. He released the Chaos marine's detached head and ran to where Lifa lay broken upon the uneven surface of the cavern floor. She had fallen pitched forward and as he drew near he saw immediately the exit wound upon her back. Dropping to the ground beside the delicate Eldar, Artemis picked her up into his arms, turning her over to gaze upon her helmet's face plate. He could see straight through the hole in her body; blood floated freely around the gaping wound in zero gravity, painting a murky picture of what he saw on the other side. He clung tightly to her and rocked the girl gently back and forth, tears pouring down his face beneath his helmet as deep sobs racked his body. He noticed the new brilliance her soul stone radiated and the tears only doubled in their intensity.

	Lifa awoke to a savage yell tinged with fear beside her. Artemis was thrashing violently in the shared covers of their Imperial issue bed. She was hesitant to wake him for fear of his reaction, and bounded out of bed to find something to poke him with. Her sheathed sword lay propped against the wall next to the soundproof door, which she was thankful was closed and bolted. She stood motionless, bare except for a delicate silk thong that girded her hips. She shuddered at the thought of other marines rushing into their room to find one of their battle brothers thrashing about with a half nude Eldar next to him. It was true they knew of her presence, but not of the extent of her relationship with the marine. The two of them were thought to be merely traveling companions; the handful of higher ranking marines in the chapter that knew of their love affair kept their thoughts to themselves.

	Lifa grasped the handle of her elegant sword and prodded the giant marine sharply. Artemis surged forward, howling unintelligible words at the girl as he was roughly awoken. One broad fingered hand clamped around the sheathed weapon and wrenched the blade from the eldar's grasp. With a violent tug, the elegant sword came free of its sheath, sailing through the air and embedding itself to the hilt in the cold steel walls of their shared room. Lifa had jumped back quickly, raising her hands up before her in a defensive gesture, her palms facing the marine signifying she was unarmed. Artemis paused, looking at the girl with a bewildered expression on his face, then at the wall opposite her and finally at the sheath in his hand. He managed a ragged sigh, slumping back into the covers looking exhausted and relieved. Lifa cautiously approached the Astartes sized bed, gently slipping underneath the covers to return to her earlier position as she curled up next to him with her head resting upon his muscled and scarred chest. A broad muscular arm wrapped underneath and around her, stroking her soft skin gently. Lifa would not be the first to speak; if he wanted to talk about it he would. Several minutes passed before the marine finally broached the subject.


	"It was the same dream again." His deep voice rumbled softly throughout the room. "The one in the cavern with the Chaos Marines. The one where you died.." He paused as his voice caught.


	Lifa stirred restlessly, speaking in guarded tones, "Artemis.. that is not the way things happened. You know as well as I do. I am alive, am I not?"

	He spoke haltingly, turning things over in his head several times before replying. "It was so real. I feel as if what happened in my dream actually took place, and my memory of what took place in that cave and after are the dreams."

	Lifa stirred once more, tapping one of the many uplink sockets on his chest every few words. "What is it that you remember happening in the cave and after? Allow yourself to reflect upon it as hard as you can. I do not doubt that the memories are hazy, but you must try to remember lest you lose faith in yourself and the very fabric of reality."

	The marine sighed deeply. It was no easy feat to dredge up this old memory that he would much rather have forgotten. So much about it rubbed him wrongly and he wondered if he would ever make sense of it as easily as his companion who seemed to have no such trouble recollecting their experience. He began slowly as if he were reciting more from a list than actual memory. "I threw four grenades, killing three of the seven marines. You killed the two marines like in the dream. I broke cover and killed another. The final marine disarmed you and held a knife to your throat, holding you as a hostage. He sent me to retrieve the gene seed. When I returned, he told me he would kill you if we did not board his ship. After we stepped inside, he chained me in the cargo bay. I stayed there for four days before you came and unchained me. You showed me his corpse and told me how you bested him. You told me how he planned on bringing us with him as prisoners to the Eye of Terror. I then tried bringing the ship out of the warp. Something went wrong and we woke up on the floor. We were back at the asteroid we had fought upon, and after searching for several hours, we found the cave and our ship. We set charges in the Chaos ship, and returned to our own. After flying away, we detonated the Chaos ship from afar. My head felt strange and I went to our bed to sleep. When I woke up, I realized I could not find Toby. We both searched the ship, but he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, we came to realize that when we left the warp, sixty years had passed in realspace. You returned me to my chapter, and the Chief Librarian ran several tests on my mind and deemed me stable. After a few weeks, my head stopped hurting, and I could function normally again..."

	Artemis seemed unconvinced by his own words. "It's just that everything feels so foggy when I try to remember it." he continued. "It's there, but the whole time, I don't feel like myself -- more like I'm watching what happened through someone else. And ever since, I've had strange dreams that I can't account for. Things that I feel like I should remember, but when I try to think back on what I saw, they disappear and I forget what it was I was trying to remember in the first place." He looked down at the eldar who was unnaturally still beside him. He supposed it worried her how he questioned his mental stability after having dreams like the one he had just had. He gave her a gentle squeeze. "Ah, don't listen to me. You're alive after all aren't you? And besides, I haven't felt strange like I did when we came out of the warp. Lifa, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

	Lifa was struggling to hold back tears, but she kept her real reason for being upset to herself. "I am fortunate to have you Artemis. I want you to know that. I love you, no matter what." She hugged him tightly with her slender, toned arms. He returned the embrace gently.

	"Hey, hey. Shhh. It's okay. I love you too Lifa. They are just bad dreams. I'm not going crazy, I promise."

	As she curled against Artemis and listened to the steady rythym of his twin hearts, she could not stop the flow of tears that continued to course down her cheeks. Tampering with his memories was the worst thing she had ever done, but even worse was keeping that secret to herself. She HAD died in that cavern, and Artemis had spent the next fourty four years searching for a way to bring her back. And when he had, leaving her behind at Commoragh, it had taken another sixteen years for her to find him. He had fled in shame of the things he had done to eventually return her to life. And for that, she had taken his memories so he could know peace again.

Lifa responded weakly. "I know."



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			_UPDATE_
		(i plan on uploading the completed story soon, immediately followed by another story. To save yourself time, stop reading here. The following is all story building, without a hint of smut. The above answers questions following "The Seeds of Chaos") -5/5/15






	It took Lifa several attempts before she was able to dislodge her sword from the wall. She did not envy Artemis for having to explain that to the Tech-Marine assigned to the maintenance of the dwellings. Artemis had left her early this morning, and after a long and passionate kiss he went to prepare for an upcoming battle he was assigned to. Lifa was departing as well, though she would not be accompanying them. She was headed for a sector in Tau controlled space, though her mission would undoubtedly be just as bloody. She grabbed the few things that belonged to her strewn throughout the simple room and donned her Banshee armor. She made sure not to put on her helm though. Many of the astartes she met in the chapter did not approve of her. While the older marines tolerated her, the newer recruits could not fathom her presence. She was sure more than one would be happy to paint the walls with her blood and claim it as an accident or unconscious response to seeing a fully clad xenos wandering their halls. Her face however was known, and without her mask on, no excuse could be made for her death by one of their hands.

	She sighed heavily, wishing not for the first time for a closer relationship with the many humans she had met throughout her long life. She blamed the distance upon their Imperial upbringing, education and governing system. Most humans had no differentiating concept between the Eldar of the Webway, the Exodites, and the Craftworld Eldar. And she was sure it did not help that all of the previous acted so disdainfully towards humans as a whole. She just had to grudgingly accept it.

	Lifa searched the room one last time, pausing at the ceramite door with a heavy heart. She would not see Artemis again for some time. She would miss this place despite the harsh looks she garnered at every turn. The architecture was a pleasant change and there were several places her and Artemis explored that she was particularly fond of. It was a large fortress monastery, and she had met a handful of more pleasant humans during her brief stay. And it was one of the safest places in the galaxy. She collected her grim mask and cradled it in the crook of her arm before setting out through the doorway.

	As she exited the room she looked down at her feet before taking in her surroundings. A long polished hallway stretched for hundreds of meters in both directions. She knew it to span a great length connecting with several similar passages and paths within the fortress. She turned left and followed the hall for several minutes to its bend before turning left again. Along the way, she passed a handful of towering marines, most of which did not deign to look at her. She took little offense, seeing it as a good sign. If they had stared, the eldar would have taken it to mean they wished her harm. Her ship was docked at the space port, and after nearly half an hour and more than a dozen turns later, she reached her destination. Though some one new to the monastery would not have believed it, the path she had taken from her and Artemis' shared room was one of the shorter ones.

	The space port was alive with activity all hours of the day, and the same held true at the present moment as well. Imperial ships of all sizes and makes bustled about, lifting off and landing with a brisk efficiency she could not mark a steady rhythm to. Several carried provisions to the fortress monastery, depositing the annual tithes which kept the Chapter in working order and focused on protecting and enforcing Imperial rule. Sturdy tanks rumbled up and down the rows of space vessels and dreadnoughts lumbered about morosely. Lifa continued walking as she watched squads of marines board waiting Thunderhawk gunships. Several more Thunderhawks could be seen making their way towards the sky where hanging in the atmosphere an even greater ship waited to accept them before it would eventually hurl itself through the warp to some distant battlefield. Techpriests, servitors, and techmarines labored in silent efficiency in every corner of the spaceport, hunched over mechanics and wiring, or inspecting engines and door seals. To Lifa's dismay several were gathered around her own craft as well and it bothered her to no end having them tinker about aimlessly, struggling to comprehend the alien vessel. The fools spoke and prayed to their machines before setting upon them with strange devices that did more harm than good. Their ineptitude with their own space vessels never ceased to shock and terrify her; she wanted them nowhere near her ship.

	"Get away from that! What is it you imagine to think you are doing??" Lifa yelled in her musical voice while running towards her ship in long graceful strides. All but one of the techpriests managed to scamper away before she reached them. The only one left had slipped and fallen flat on his face, his spindly collection of metallic legs working frantically to find purchase upon the slick marble floor. As the eldar strode up to him, his shiny legs spasmed slightly before giving up in their futile attempt at escape and lay still beneath him. Lifa turned him over with the point of her foot.

	"What were you doing to my ship metal mon'keigh? Surely you and your friends were not servicing it, for nothing within or without needed fixing.." She waited several moments for an answer that was not forthcoming. "Speak human." Lifa spoke, absently swatting away an inquisitive servo-skull that had begun inspecting her as she waited for the man's reply. Her hands found their way to her hips and she began to tap her foot as an elegant eyebrow raised, framing her piercing green eyes.

	"So human.." the techpriest mumbled to himself as he observed her posture and body language.

	"So un-human." Lifa spoke clearly, catching his words and eyeing his legs and other strange machinery attached to his augmented body. The few fleshy parts of his face that remained to him flinched slightly and he grew cold at her words.

	"I was not always like this.. I used to feel things. Now, well.. I believe I am better suited for my job, but looking back, I would have forgone the surgeries if not for the unceasing pressure of my superiors and peers. I try not to dwell on it.. I am more efficient as I am now." He fidgeted more than he would have liked. It was the first time he had spoken to another life form in years. And the life form standing over him was sculpted perfectly. His logical mindset could not refrain from picking out the perfect curves and angles of her face, eyes, jaw, neck, shoulders, breasts.. hips..

	Lifa's eyes narrowed as his gaze lowered. "We were discussing my ship. What did you do to it metal one?" Her tone was becoming more impatient.

	The tech priest coughed slightly for reasons he did not understand since it served no bodily function at the moment, but he filed the thought away for later when he had more time to ponder on it. "We were studying the mechanics and how it works. No warp drive could be found, but from the ship's log we had ascertained that great leaps across space had been made none the less. You were in Raccora one week and in the Marxus system the next. As far as we can tell that should be impossible for any-"

	"What did you do to my ship?!" Lifa questioned the man angrily. "That you fail to grasp but the most basic of things is apparent. I want to know how far my ship will make it before it ceases to function due to your meddling!"

	"N-nothing. Nothing at all," the techpriest yelped. "Your vessel was impervious to our ministrations, I can assure you of that. It would yield no secrets and we could not even FIND the engine. Now please, whatever it is you are doing, I beg you to stop. I feel as if I am being dismantled." The man trembled beneath her, his mechanical spider like legs quivering oddly. A pained expression painted the more human parts of his face.

	Lifa realized her mind had dipped into the flow of what was once known to her kind as magic. She sighed gently and watched as the blue aura surrounding her body faded. She needed a break from all the stress she had been feeling lately. This would be less of a problem for her if she adhered more strongly to the path, but that was not how she wished to live. Even after all four hundred and thirty years of her life, she was no better at following a structured way of living than she was at twenty years. And she was glad this was the case. She would not have met Artemis if she had been a model Eldar citizen. A smile broke across her face, lending a beautiful radiant warmth to her features that made the techpriest gasp. She consciously chose not to hear him.

	Reaching down, Lifa picked the man up and set him on his feet. He had turned a deep shade of red and was having a difficult time speaking. She hoped she had not fried any hidden circuitry that may have attached to his brain. She studied the stuttering man quizzically before turning and leaving him where he stood. Just as she disappeared inside the ship, the man called out to her. "B-b-b-BE SAFE!" Lifa poked her head around the corner to stare at him. A great spool of wire had burst out of one of the many pockets sewn into the man's cloak, and he was staring at his trembling metal feet and wringing his hands anxiously.

	"What is that supposed to mean?" the gorgeous eldar questioned. "Are you trying to tell me you DID tamper with my ship?" She raised an eyebrow at the quivering techpriest who jumped at her reappearance.

	"N-n-no! I meant- What I was trying to say...." he started and stopped frantically as another great spool of tubular wiring came cascading from his pockets before muttering to himself, "Oh Emperor be damned.." Raising his voice and eyes to the girl he shouted much more loudly than the situation called for, "I would hate for anything to happen to you my beautiful Eldar lady! My heart which felt moments ago as cold as metal would break if you were hurt! If only I were not bound to the machines that seek my attention, I would go with you and keep you safe, but alas, it is not to be. Go my dove, but know always that I will keep your memory in my heart if you do not return!" The man clutched the chest of his robes and stood in a dramatic pose. Several nearby techpriests slapped their faces and looked away in shame. The oldest of them stared at the love stricken man for nearly a full minute before a small tremor of a smile twitched upon his weathered and emotionless mask of a face. He had felt nothing but the cold touch of logic for the past two centuries. Remembering what it was like to feel once again, the ancient priest knew the remainder of his life would be filled with agony from all he had given up in his service to the Imperium. He promptly set down his tools and walked out in front of a passing land raider.

	Lifa looked at the strange half mechanical man for a long while. An errant priest behind him became a long skid mark of blood and axle grease. She scratched her head, feeling rather warm. Lifa could not remember the last time she was at quite such a loss for words. She finally said plainly, "Uh, you too.." and dipped back into the ship and ran to the cockpit as fast as her swift feet could carry her, sealing the airlocks along the way. Within seconds, the sleek ship was off the ground and a moment later saw her tearing out of the massive space port, breaking the sound barrier before she had even been cleared to leave.

	A small shudder crept up her spine as she pushed her ship into the cold confines of space. 'Never again' she thought to herself remembering the look on the techpriest's face. Despite the nagging feeling of disgust and revulsion she felt, she could not help but pity the man and his bland existence. She continued to guide her ship to the nearest webway branch and set the course. It took her several moments longer than it would have if she was piloting her old ship. She paused for a moment and wondered if that was the correct word for it. While technically the ship she flew in now was her 'new' ship, it had been built far before her last ship, and it was a different make as well. It was a 'gift' from her darker eldar kin, and while it may have been older than her 'old' ship, its speed far exceeded her last ship, which had been of craftworld design. She was most pleased however with the more advanced cloaking fields that her previous ship had lacked. They would prove useful this trip. Her course set, she leaned back in the pilot's chair, pulling her hair over her shoulder to braid and thought about her mission.

	There was an Ethereal Caste Tau by the name of R'ala who had begun to fill her dreams of late. The dreams had started as they always had; bland, tame and not worthy of much thought before slowly growing more convoluted and vivid in detail. At that point the dreams would go either of two ways: brighter and clear with the promise of benefit to the galaxy, or dark and twisted with the only promise being misery and death. In this case, it was the latter of the two that was revealed to her. R'ala had painted a grand vision of the future for his people and many had begun to flock to him. His interpretation of the 'Greater Good' would eventually provoke a five hundred year war that would leave that sector of the Imperium and the Tau Empire crippled, leaving them defenseless to the largest incursion of the Tyranid menace that had ever been encountered. She suspected it to be the main body of the Tyranid fleet. In her dreams, she could tell that nothing previously seen of the Tyranid came close to describing the parent swarm. A being of unimaginable intelligence resided at its heart, and with the creature's appearance, the whole galaxy would be lost. This she had seen her whole life; the dream involving R'ala was only linked due to the part he would play involving quickening the doom of their galaxy. She had seen Orks, Eldar, Humans, Tau, Hrud, and even the Necron and Ruinous Powers of Chaos teaming together to repel the Tyranid, before falling one by one and succumbing to the endless hunger that would consume their galaxy.

	R'ala had to go.

	Lifa left the chair and draped her thick starlight braid across her back. She made her way to the tiny room she had picked to be her bed room. A large mirror hung on the far wall painted her reflection, which she studied. After a moment she agreed that the armor did perhaps accentuate her breasts more than completely necessary, and as she turned, she watched the play of her muscles beneath the skin suit covering her rear. She walked forward a few steps and gasped. The mirror had shown just how revealing her suit could be if one were to focus on the owner's gender instead of its craftsmanship. She poked her large posterior with a slender finger and watched the gentle flow of skin around her digit. Though the opposite could be the only thing said of her, at that moment Lifa felt like a cow. "What would my mother say to me if she could  see how fat I have become? Oh, mother, I am so sorry.." She felt a crushing sadness bearing down around her heart. Her mother had given her this suit more than a century ago during one of Lifa's brief visits to the Craftworld. Lifa had always cherished it, believing it meant her mother was proud of her for a change. Surely, if her mother could see how fat her ass had gotten, she would die of shame. She began to wish for Artemis right then, wanting to hear his voice assuring her like it always did that her anxiety was unfounded, but she would have to suffer at the moment without him. "Like always!" she shouted angrily, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She collapsed into the nearby bed and began crying in earnest.

	She didn't want to leave Artemis. She didn't want to go and kill the Tau named R'ala. She didn't want the humans she fought to protect and her own kind to hate her like they did. And right now, she didn't want anything to do with the path, which she knew was telling her to control her raging torrent of emotions. Path be damned, if she did not succeed in her quest of uniting the galaxy, all sentient life would be lost. If she wanted to cry from the stress and horrors she had gone through so far, she would. And why oh why if her own kin felt the need to act superior to her, did they not see the encroaching demise of the galaxy? Path be damned indeed if it blinded them all to her warnings. The signs were clear if only the Farseers would take the time to LOOK. Yet for all their exaggerated patience and wisdom, they held neither where Lifa was concerned, and it disheartened the girl terribly, causing her to cast doubt on her own visions when she had been younger, and then eventually on her own kind.

	After several minutes of wallowing in her sadness and misery, Lifa divested herself of her regal armor, taking the time to place the pieces  in a small alcove in the corner. Tears still streaked down her face, but they were slowing their pace considerably. In a wooden box beneath her armor stand Lifa pulled out another set of armor. The suit she pulled from the box was much darker than any of the other sets she had possessed during her time as a warrior, and while all had served to fulfill a deadly purpose, this suit in particular was by far the most sinister. She placed the suit on the bed accompanied by a few weak sniffs and began the arduous task of eliminating any reflection of light from its slick surface, taking care not to cut herself on the many sharp edges that adorned it. Like the ship she now flew in, the armor had come as a gift from her darker kin in Commoragh, and unlike her other suits, this one lacked a shallow groove upon the breast plate where a soul stone would fit. It made no difference, because she had no soul stone to place upon the suit anyway, a constant terrible reminder to the girl what the consequences would be if she failed in her mission. Several tears splashed across the armor she was trying to render dull and lusterless at the thought.


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	The journey though the webway had been rather uneventful, but Lifa had expected as much. Her largest fear was getting lost in the synthetic rip of outer space, but she knew her course and had not deviated from it in the slightest. She had thought much about Artemis during her trip and had even tried using her powers to see him and the future of the battle he fought insofar as to make sure he would be alright, but like usual she lacked the talent to paint a clear picture for herself. Her gift of scrying the future with any clarity only extended to her dreams, and even then, she could not control what she would see. She had tried meditating like she knew she should, and was successful for the most part. She had also cried a few more times, but that was born mostly from loneliness, worry, doubt, and self pity, the last of which she rebelled against vehemently, but accepted all the same. She knew she deserved every moment of happiness she could cling to in her life, and during her trip, she remembered each moment with fondness, while trying not to linger on her own past horrors and the future trials she would have to endure.

	Now that she was in Tau controlled space, Lifa activated the ship's stealth engines and set her course for the planet of Fel'draash. Besides the few hours spent familiarizing herself with her more sinister armor and honing its lethal edges, Lifa also crafted herself a hooded cloak from several burlap sacks she had found in the storage bay. The tan cloak would effectively conceal her armor beneath and, hopefully, not appear too out of place among the citizens of the desert planet.

	 Her first test against Tau technology was the appearance of a drone that floated idly spouting a continuous message propagating the Greater Good, while at the same time scanning for any ships across an immense area of space. As Lifa's ship propelled itself through the empty void of space, she waited to see if she would be detected by the drone. Several tense moments passed as she watched her ship draw nearer and over the intercom, she listened to the drone's message. Lifa watched the ship's holo-display and waited. If the colors were to flash yellow it would mean she had been detected, but at the present, they remained a serene pale blue. Her ship had fully passed the drone by some several hundred miles and she was beginning to relax when R'ala's voice began to play over the vox system.

	"Welcome to the S'hashi system traveler! Our great benevolent Empire has blessed me with the task of order and conquest in their name! Should you seek friendship, brotherhood, or trade, then rejoice for you will find all within our borders! Yet should you seek violence, murder, and disruption then I have only this to say to you: Beware, for your path is clouded and will bring only your own demise.. Only those that seek to further our great Empire are tolerated here, and as such only those have remained. Upon landing, you will be tested to divine your true purpose, and all those who hold ill intent shall be cleansed. If you do not wish to turn back, then proceed to the nearest planet for docking and inspection, and from there you will learn more of the S'hashi System's great history and which planet will greater suit the purpose of your visit. Together, we shall pave the paths of tomorrow by today's actions!"

	Lifa's scalp prickled upon hearing his soothing dreamlike voice, and she immediately began to panic believing that her stealth systems had failed. She checked the holo-display again and again before finally realizing his voice had been only a recording that the drone had played in its ceaseless duty to its Empire. Despite her realization, she could not dislodge the knot of worry that had formed in her stomach from his words to those that wished to bring violence and murder to his system. Hearing the Tau say 'your path is clouded' was more disconcerting to her than the rest of his speech and held a cryptic warning for her by their very nature. His voice was one she had only heard in her dreams, and experiencing them for the first time in real life was a nerve wracking experience. Lifa pushed forward on the throttle and a hand full of seconds later, she was out of range from the drone's vox signal. She sighed shakily; she needed to get off this ship. Usually being in space had a calming effect on her, but she was in an unfamiliar Tau province on an unfamiliar craft and she was on her way to murder a man of an unfamiliar race who would doom the galaxy if she were to fail. It was no surprise she was distressed. Lifa checked her course and noted with a measure of relief that she would reach Fel'draash within the next three hours. She left the cockpit to don her gear.



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		Lifa tread softly across the pale dunes, her light footprints barely distinguishable upon the warm sand. Her ship lay hidden in a cavern several kilometers back, and within another hour she would reach the city that housed R'ala. She had not of course gone to the planetary space dock; she preferred to retain her ship after her mission was complete and leave this system with all due haste. As far as she could tell, the stealth systems had functioned flawlessly and no scanners had picked up her presence. She wished for it to stay this way. Sand swirled around the hem of her flowing cloak, and though it was hastily made, any creature with an appreciation for clothing would have found the robe marvelous. It served to not only reflect the heat, but it did a perfect job of concealing the frightening armor beneath as well. Lifa had opted to leave her head free to the elements and wore no helmet, her long hair flowing gently in the slight breeze as she walked.

	It was late afternoon when she reached the massive city's austere gates. A stream of aliens from several races travelled to and from the capitol using the gate, and Lifa had no trouble gaining entry, blending with the crowd more easily than she had expected. Once inside, Lifa continued on the main road for several miles, passing shops and businesses of all kinds. Despite the tasteful architecture of the buildings, Lifa could sense she was in a more squalid district of the capitol city and suspected the further she travelled the more lucrative the shops would become. Her initial impression had been one of disbelief that a city so large could run so smoothly and unburdened by crime. However, after her shock of being in a city after her recent lonely journey though space, the elf's heightened senses began to pick out irregularities.

	 Here and there, several shops that appeared they should be doing as well as their neighbors, if not better due to their attractions, were largely ignored by the populace that traversed the sandy streets. Lifa noticed how some would quicken their pace as they drew near the establishments in question, while others would spare them not a glance and at the same time enter a shop peddling similar wares though in lesser quantity and caliber than its neighbor. She thought perhaps it had to do with the shopper's interest in saving money, but her keen ears also began to twitch in the direction of whispered conversations in doorways and the occasional small group wandering together in the street. She caught snatches of dialog that seemed to detail what she was seeing. While most of the shops she passed were unaffected, the larger of the businesses with only a relative few customers were actually fronts for other merchandise sold off the books, and the other establishments that held no customers at all were the shops they had decided to drive out of business for their own interests. The issue was confirmed when Lifa watched a small Tau child totter playfully up to one of the open door ways of a shop that appeared to be marked. The child's mother frantically ran after her offspring and scooped him up into her arms, ceasing the child's laughter and scolding the tiny blue alien fiercely before the shop keeper appeared with a strained smile on his face.

	Lifa caught the man's words. "How do you do today miss Sh'ara? I have not seen you in a while, is everything well?"

	The child smiled brightly, wriggling in his mother's arms saying over and over again, "Mister Lash'a! Mister Lash'a!"

	The mother shushed the child quickly before speaking. "Yes indeed, I have been well. We just don't come this way as often as we used to."

	Lash'a asked her with a smile, "Would you like to come in? Business has been dreadful as of late, and it is nice to see a familiar face."

	The mother replied quickly while trying to restrain her child, "Oh, I am not doing any shopping today, I should be heading home already as it is. Thank you though. Perhaps next time I am in the area I will stop by."

	Lash'a glanced at the arm that was not carrying the child, which was burdened by a large bag full of wares similar to those he sold, and Sh'ara turned her eyes to the ground before speaking to him softly in words Lifa could just only make out due to her superior hearing. "You know why it has to be this way. You should close your shop now before it is too late. You are one of the good ones, I would hate to see anything happen to you Lash'a.." And with that she turned and left the shop keeper, his weak smile now truly broken. A sign with alien text hung next to the door of the man's shop and on his way back inside he flipped it around, revealing different text written on the back. Lifa could only assume it read "Closed".

	The warm sun continued to beat down upon the city and began its slow descent towards the horizon. Shadows stretched, colors deepened, and the temperature slowly dropped. Lights sprang to life in several buildings and tavern goers filled the streets. The sharp clinking of glasses and warm laughter filled the air as the world began to cool. Off in the distance, another great wall separated the district beyond from the one Lifa currently traversed. By the time she reached its closed gates, the crowds were gone and night had truly fallen.

	Lifa stood from a distance pondering how best to approach the task of getting to the other side. She was sure there were similar gates along its length, but they would likely be closed as well and there were sure to be guards stationed on both sides as there were here. Her eyes flicked towards the surrounding houses and buildings that were closest to the wall. Most stretched upwards for two or three stories, while the wall itself stood at around twelve. She decided her best course of action would be to climb one of the buildings before leaping to the wall and climbing from there to save her the trouble of scaling the wall outright.

	Turning down an alley, Lifa quickly made her way to the tallest surrounding building and up its side by running as far up its wall as she could before pushing off and leaping to the opposite side of the cramped alley and repeating the tactic. This way, Lifa effectively bounded back and forth between the two buildings and rose quickly higher with each successive leap until her swift feet found purchase upon the roof of her original target. To anyone watching, the acrobatic display would have been incredible and defied belief, but to Lifa it had taken too much time and she realized how out of practice she was. From her vantage point the eldar noted that most of the surrounding roofs were flat, as was the one she now tread gently upon.

	Lifa took the time to peek over the edge of the roof to make sure there were no unwanted eyes before making her jump. She was satisfied after a quick glance up and down the alley way that separated the building she was on from the wall. Pulling back the sleeves of her sandy colored cloak revealed the sharpened edges that adorned the murky armor on her fore arms. She took several calming breaths in preparation for her leap; if the dagger like points that protruded from her armor did not catch hold on the wall.. well, the fall should not kill her, but it would succeed in making her life more difficult for the next few days while she recovered. She pushed the thought from her mind and backed her steps to the opposite edge of the roof. One final breath, then immediately she sprang forward, driving her legs beneath her as quickly as she could, pushing herself for maximum speed. Her golden hair whipping behind her as she sprinted forward, the ledge reached her in the span of mere heartbeats and with one final push Lifa shot from the roof like a bullet, traversing the last thirty feet that separated her from the wall. Gravity had just begun to enforce itself upon her when she made impact, and Lifa slammed her arms against the wall with all her might, driving the blades in as far as they would go. The pull of gravity returned, and she hung on the vertical edifice motionless, all of her weight supported by her arms.

	A small shaky laugh escaped her lips as she hung there; she hadn't fully believed it would work. Setting her face in a more determined expression, Lifa pulled herself upwards and eased her left arm from the grooves it had placed in the wall before driving it back against the wall at a point about three feet higher than where it had just been. Lifa tested her weight for a moment making sure her new grip would hold, before pulling her right arm from the wall and repeating the tactic. In this fashion, the lithe eldar was able to scale the sheer face before her in a timely manner. She was slowed by the bulk of her armor, yet her inhuman strength coupled with the fact that she weighed so little herself allowed her to make the climb in a little under a minute's time.

	Lifa's sensitive fingers grasped the wall's ledge and she pulled the rest of her slight frame to the top. Her smooth breathing was inaudible in the warm night air, and she took a moment to admire the view from her perch. Looking south Lifa was able to view the sprawl of the city she had spent the day traversing, and past that, the arid desert where her ship lay buried. Turning her gaze northward revealed several more miles of metropolis, much grander than what she had encountered so far. The buildings and architecture rose higher and higher the closer they came to the main spire which served as R'ala's palace. Even though her distance from the palace warped her perception, Lifa could tell there were at least two more walls between where she sat crouched and the spire's gates. They appeared as tiny rings that strained to contain the jumble of architecture beyond, but the eldar was not fooled; the next two walls stretched to at least a quarter of a mile in height, and far surpassed that in thickness. There would be no climbing them. With a sigh, the crestfallen elf looked up into the night sky. She had hoped to find some comfort there, but the lights from the city blocked out all but a hand full of stars and Zenros, the first of Feldraash's three moons, was steadily making its ascent. It was time for her to delve back into the city once more before Zenros's light revealed her presence atop the wall.

	Walking the remaining few feet to the edge, Lifa lowered herself over its side to sink her barbed gauntlets into its surface. To her dismay, this side of the wall was much slicker and seemed to have been polished, and with little warning, she began to slide down it at an alarming pace. She tried again and again to drive her spiked armor into the stone, but only succeeded in bruising her arms. With the ground rapidly approaching, Lifa pulled out a dagger from her cloak and with both hands plunged it against the wall's polished surface, jarring her violently as the dagger sank into the stone and she came to a rapid stop. Her fingertips strained to keep hold of the blade, but the sudden break in her fall had all but wrenched the dagger from her hands, and looking down, Lifa let the dagger slide from her grasp and dropped the remaining twenty feet to the ground below. She broke her fall with a quick roll, but the impact still rattled her tremendously. Lifa rose to her feet shakily and a soft breath of relief escaped her lips; no one seemed to have heard the commotion she caused during her fall. A few of her ribs ached, and her arms were sore, but that seemed to be the extent of the damage. Wincing slightly, Lifa turned and began searching for the exit of the alley way she found herself in when she heard rapid footsteps approaching accompanied by a gruff voice accosting her.

	"Halt gue'vesa! If you know what's good for you, you'll turn around and face me with your hands in the air! Just like tha- holy Aun'O, you're an Eldar!"

	Lifa looked at the Tau soldier before her with curiosity. He was bulkier than the other Tau she had seen throughout the day, and was certainly cut of a different mold, yet the rigid pose he held was  beginning to waver due to his own curiosity of seeing an Eldar up close. Though his pulse carbine was leveled at her breast, Lifa had no doubt she could dispatch the Fire Warrior if she needed to, but she wished it would not come to that. She did not like killing. Lifa reasoned that the Tau before her must either be very young, or very inexperienced to be stationed near the wall instead of off planet and fighting for the good of his people. She decided to sue for a peaceful resolution, and replied with a rather plain "Yes."

	Her words seemed to startle the warrior slightly, who continued to study her with more wonder and disbelief than aggression. "What is an Eldar doing on Fel'draash? I never even knew--wait, no! What were you doing climbing down the wall! How did you even get on top of the wall to climb down it in the first place?! You had better start talking girl."

	Lifa spoke in gentle soothing tones, to better diffuse the warrior's anger. "Today is the first time I have ever found myself in this beautiful and wondrous city. When I reached this great wall, the gates were barred shut, and I did not wish to trouble the guards to open them or wait until morning. I was afraid with nowhere to go. There was a group of men harassing me, so I decided to climb over the wall instead of waiting to see what would happen to me if I had stayed. I am after all but a small Eldar girl, all alone in such a large city. Surely you too have heard of our great beauty and can understand why I chose to leave the district?"

	The Fire Warrior grumbled to himself unconvinced. "I have heard of your cunning words and trickery as well. Why, if you were so afraid, did you not notify the guards? It is their job to keep you safe, and it may have saved you the trouble of climbing the wall, which while not unheard of, is dangerous in the extreme and outlawed as well. Every week or so, we have to go and clean up after some idiot attempts to do the same and becomes a splatter mark on the street. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't arrest you."
	Lifa cautiously stepped forward and placed her hand on the Carbine rifle still trained on her. The Fire warrior


(unfinished. currently homeless and decided to upload it for the time being. sorry for taking so long with this, it bothers me that i dont have a computer to work on it. will resume when life starts running more smoothly. the following are just notes, this story is a very rough draft. the Commoragh story that follows this one will be VERY interesting, then i plan on writing how Lifa and Artemis meet, then the final story last)

Encounter with Tau Fire warrior. doesnt want to kill him. goes to a bar after. sees burke or mike. spends the night there. travels by transport to R'ala's palace.