#oc: dovo

[sleepyfan-blog]

Mercy

Author's note: this is the first part of a six part series. Next

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Warnings: character death, mentions of torture, mention of child torture, infected wounds

Summary: Cedric is pressed to giving the Final Mercy to a badly injured civilian.

Cedric took in a deep breath, squared his shoulders and stepped into the drop pod he'd been ordered to report to. This was the first major engagement that the young Astartes was going to be participating in. The Imperial world that he was hurtling down to the surface of, the drop pod shaking a little from the force of gravity that gripped it causing him to shift a little, was beset by foul xenos - Drukhari, who were taking a perverse delight in torturing any human who was unfortunate enough to be found by their cruelties. The detachment of Astra Militarum on the planet had tried their best - and was continuing to fight against the evil witch-xenos, but needed the aid of the closest Astartes chapter in order to fully drive the bastards away.

Cedric had never seen any kind of Eldar before - beyond the holo-pictures and brief blurbs on news stations as a young child, and occasionally during his training as an Aspirant for the Black Templars. No matter the challenge set before him and his brothers in arms, they would take up the challenge and they would win. For the Emperor! For the Imperium!

~

It was nightfall when Cedric charged out of his drop pod, power-sword in one hand, blaster in the other. Thick black smoke choked the sky as the nearby village had been set ablaze by laughing xenos. The young apothecary lined up a shot as the slender being continued to laugh and stalk after several humans, each of whom had clearly been injured - their legs broken as they crawled on their hands and knees through the blasted out landscape. One of the humans spotted where he and his fellow Templar-Aspirants had landed and yelled out "My lords! Please, save us!" 

Dovo, who had been named squad leader for this mission growled into his vox "Agrald, Sevros, Rodron, aim for the xenos, try to kill it, or at least drive it off. Dessias, help Cedric find a spot with at least a little bit of cover to patch up the civilians."

A chorus of "Yes sirs!" came from Cedric and the rest of the squad as they immediately obeyed orders.

Cedric's eyes flicked from one blasted out pit to another, his training immediately kicking in "There's a copse of trees a klik and a half from our current location - but I suspect that's been left there as a lure by the xenos... And I'm not sure those civilians can make it that far. Not with how much they've likely already bled."

He was grateful for the internal vox messages, as the roar of a ship's engines blasted overhead, causing the six of them to duck and roll before popping up again - a friendly ship, given that they hadn't been shot at. 

Rodron called out over vox "Xeno down! To the civies, sarge?"

Dovo nodded a little "Yes, move quickly and carefully! These particular xenos like leaving traps that cripple and injure scattered around, as they enjoy the suffering of others. It may even give their witches power."

~

It did not take long for the six of them to get to the injured civilians. Dovo, Agrald, Severos and Rodron started to secure the perimeter as Dessias helped Cedric corral the civilians in one place for treatment. Two elderly baseline humans, four women, trembling and glassy-eyed, and a half-dozen children, none of whom were older than ten years old. The youngest was a four year old little girl, and in the best shape, having been hidden by one of her older brothers from the worst of the xenos' cruelties. Each of them had their legs and fingers broken. Many of them had been stabbed, shot and electrified by what looked like the business end of a cattle prod multiple times from the size and location of the burns.

They'd been tormented by the foul xenos for weeks judging by the infection that had already set into many of their wounds - the swollen redness beneath the skin, the foul greenish-yellow oozing puss that Cedric lanced with sterile needles, having administered just enough pain relievers to keep the civilians from screaming, without them going unconscious and forcing them to guard them for much longer... Additionally, this was only the beginning of what might be a weeks if not months-long battle, and Cedric knew that he needed to ration the supplies that he had carefully. 

"Please stay still while I set your bones, please." Cedric ordered levelly as he gestured for Dessias to hold one of the civilians down as he gripped one of their legs in his hands. 

The middle-aged human woman shook and whimpered a little "My... My lords what-"

Cedric cut her off, explaining with a touch of impatience "The bones in your lower leg have begun to heal, but they are improperly set, and will prevent you from walking properly. I will need to re-break and set them properly, for your own good. Afterwards, I will wrap them to help the bones stay in place. I have given you some painkillers to take the edge off."

"Y-yes my lo-AAAAH!"  The woman screamed as Cedric re-broke and set her tibia and fibula mid-sentence. 

His hands were steady as he used some of the tension-bandages in his pack to set her bones in place. He turned to the two elderly baseline humans, looking them both over critically. The man was feverish and had been showing signs of mental confusion. His breathing was fast and shallow, and as Cedric checked the civilians' legs and arms... Generalized swelling and sweating. Cedric swallowed hard, his stomach sinking a little. While he could treat what had afflicted this civilian... It would take quite a few of the supplies he had on hand, and -

There was another roar of engines and Dessias dragged him away from the badly injured elderly baseline human as the sleek, cruel shape of a drukhari landing vessel swooped low overhead. A half-dozen of their pitiless warriors dropped down onto the ground and stalked towards them.

While the rest of his squad immediately opened fire on the approaching Drukhari, Cedric returned to his civilian patients. The older man was in too critical a condition for him to work on him, not when most of the rest of the civilians also needed patching up and were in much better shape, despite their own broken bones.  May the god-emperor's light guide and accept his soul Cedric thought as he deliberately turned away from the older human man to work on patching up the teenagers and children. "Please keep as quiet as you can, xenos approach, and will likely try to close the distance faster if they know that you are beyond the shield-barrier my brothers are providing you."

"W-We'll try, m-my lord." One of the teenagers stuttered, tears running down her face as she held down one of her companions as he re-broke and bandaged their legs. The sound of bolter fire did help cover the sounds of pain and fear that left the baseline humans he tended to as best he could. Within minutes, the only one he had yet to fully tend to was the older human man... Who was currently shivering as a rash was spreading across his body. Cedric bowed his head for a moment as he checked the old man's vital signs, hearts sinking. "My apologies, elder. You need more help than I am able to give you."

The old baseline human looked at him steadily, nodding shakily. He sat up and said "I don't... I don't want to be left alive for the xenos to find, my lord. I-"

Dovo spoke to the squad over internal vox, so as to not panic the civilians "We need to move - the bastard xenos have a bunch of those twisted animal reinforcements of theirs. Cedric, are the civilians able to be moved at speed?"

"... Most of them, sir." Cedric answered honestly, keeping his voice steady. 

"Understood. Get the civilians capable of moving going. We need to get these civilians three and a half kliks to the north-east to the extraction point. Anyone who can't keep up will need to be left behind."

"To the Drukhari?! That's a fate worse than death, Dovo- I mean Brother-Sargeant!" Rodron spluttered, sounding equal parts horrified and unhappy. "Civilians aren't that heavy, surely we can carry anyone who can't move on their own?"

"We need to be able to shoot and cut down the enemies in our way, Rodron. Having your hands full of civilians increases the possibility of all of us being killed or worse." Dovo countered "Are you disobeying my orders?"

"Of course not, sir. I just-" Rodron spluttered, bristling a little.

Cedric suppressed a wince as he could hear the whole squad beginning to argue about what should be done. As the Apothecary assigned to the squad, it was his duty to tend to the sick and injured to the best of his abilities... And to grant them the emperor's final mercy, should that be needed. He turned to the elderly human man, bolter in hand as he murmured "May you bask eternally in the Emperor's light." 

The elderly baseline human nodded, a grim smile on his lips "Thank you, my lord. For not leaving me to the xenos."

Cedric nodded and fired once at the elderly human man's chest, exactly where his heart should be. The civilians' body jerked backwards with the force of the bolter round entering his body and the youngest of the baseline humans began to cry and whimper. He stood, holstering his bolter for a moment as he offered a hand to help the baseline humans up "We need to get moving quickly. There are more xenos encroaching on our position and we have an extraction point to get you to. But you need to get there on your own feet, while we keep the filthy xenos from inflicting more pain and misery upon you."

"Y-Yes my lord..." They stuttered, one of the teenagers timidly taking his offered hand, staggering up onto their feet wincing as their broken bones likely protested their weight. Cedric and the rest of his squad formed up around the small group of injured civilians, with Dovos leading them to the extraction point.

[dragonotaku-justineverything]

Jaune senpai au

Tell me what happened to his team and what mission went south I must know

Okay, fair warning to you readers for what’s ahead. This is the background for what happened to Jaune’s team. It’s sad. Like, so sad I actually teared up writing it and then when going over it.

But in a morbid way I guess that means I did well with it???

Anyways, don’t read if you aren’t prepared to possibly be sad by the end.

But hey! I kind of made my own OCs for this so that’s pretty of cool!

“Team Jasper’s finally back everyone!”

That excited call into Beacon’s cafeteria made a small stampede of students get up and rush out the large doors. A small crowd had already formed by the time the first year students from Team CFVY arrived. They had to be some of the farthest back from the Bullhead when the doors finally opened.

Coco, Fox, and Velvet all had a hard time trying to see over everyone in front of them. Only Yastuhashi was able to really see over the crowd thanks to his height. 

Coco knew this as well. “Hey Yatsu, what can you see?! Are they really back?!”

“One moment, I can’t see them yet.”

“Come on! They’ve been gone for weeks!”

Velvet felt her ears droop a little in worry that they weren’t actually back. In all honesty, she hadn’t stopped being worried since the knowledge that the second year students of Team JASP hadn’t returned after a week from their first solo trial mission was spread around. That worry only increased in her as days continued to go by without their return. Velvet wasn’t the only worried one either. Many of the student body were afraid of what might have happened to them, even if they didn’t show it. Velvet knew one of those people was Coco.

“Ah! I see them!” Yatsuhashi’s happy announcement got sighs of relief from Velvet, a smile and a relieved huff from fox, and a beaming smile from Coco.

Coco adjusted her sunglasses and said confidently, “Sweet! See I told you softies that they were fine!”

Velvet rolled her eyes and reminded her leader of the fact that she was the one to ask around the cafeteria almost everyday if JASP had returned, which led to some strong denial from Coco. Coco’s denial only grew stronger when Fox joined Velvet’s side to tease his leader.

As their playful arguing continued, Yatsuhashi kept looking at the bullhead. He noticed something. “Wait...” That one word was quiet, but it made his teammates stop and look at him again. “Something isn’t right.”

“What? What do you mean ‘something isn’t right’? They are back aren’t they?”

Since Coco kept talking, she didn’t realize that the crowd had fallen almost completely silent. Only Velvet was able to pick up the few things that were being said throughout the crowd.

‘Oh my Oum...’

“What happened...’

‘This can’t be real...’

‘No...’

These along with quiet, shocked gasps are what Velvet was able to hear past Coco talking to Yatsu. Coco was silenced when Yatsu finally interrupted her. “Azuri is...”

He didn’t finish, but the message got through. Coco turned away from Yatsu just in time to see that the crowd had started to part. As they did, all of Team CFVY could now see for themselves why they were.

They saw Jaune Arc walking out in front. He was carrying something bundled and wrapped in a white sheet in his arms in a bridal carry. The bundle was unmistakably a person. When Jaune passed by Velvet in the crowd, who was devastated by what she was seeing, she could see just a little bit of azure blue hair inside and contrasting with the white cloth. That hair belonged to Jaune’s partner, Azuri Stygia.

Jaune’s other two teammates, Susan Free and Piken Dovo, were walking several feet behind him. Susan Free is a cheetah faunus with a tail as her trait and Piken Dovo was a dark skinned human with his black hair held back against his head with a green and brown headband. They were walking shoulder to shoulder with each other. Piken had one arm around her back with his hand resting on her waist, and his right hand was holding her left hand. It looked like he was supporting her. Susan’s cheeks were red and her eyes were bloodshot, showing she’d been crying. This shook everyone that noticed because it was a common fact that almost nothing dampened Susan’s happy free spirit. And no one had ever seen her look this....broken.

The three members of team JASP didn’t stop walking. They didn’t talk to anyone, they didn’t even look at anyone directly. They just walked past everyone. 

“P-Piken?” A small voice got the man’s attention. He slowed his walk with Susan and looked to the direction of the voice. Velvet looked close to tears when Piken looked at her.  “W-what happened?”

He just looked at her with his own sad eyes. A choked whimper from Susan drew his attention away from his underclassmen briefly when he looked to the woman in his arms to make sure she didn’t break down again. When he saw she was still holding herself together, he turned back to Velvet, and subsequently the whole crowd since they were all behind them now. In a quiet voice he said, “Grimm... just.... so many grimm.” He turned back to look at Jaune, who hadn’t stopped and was now a good distance away from them. “Later.... we can talk later.” Without another word he picked his pace up with Susan to catch up to their leader, leaving the shaken crowd behind.

Team JASP was back... but there was no more joy for their return.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

“What happened Mr. Arc.”

Ozpin’s voice was soft, caring, and understanding. However, to Jaune he might as well have screamed at him. The boy stared blankly between his knees at the floor of Professor Port’s office. He didn’t want to talk. He wanted to head back to the infirmary to be with his team...

He had dropped Azuri’s.... he had dropped Azuri’s body off in Beacon’s infirmary first thing. Piken and Susan went there as well. Not a minute after he arrived and headmaster Ozpin shoved the doors to the infirmary wide open and entered at a brisk pace. He asked Jaune if he was okay enough to give an explanation of their mission. 

He was... he was always okay... his damn semblance made sure of that.

So he left with the headmaster, leaving Piken and Susan to be checked over and examined in the infirmary while he recounted their mission to him. They’d gone to the nearest office for privacy, which just happened to be Professor Port’s. Classes were still in session, so the jolly professor wasn’t there. They both took seats across from each other.

“Mr. Arc, Jaune.” Hearing his name got him to finally look up to the headmaster. “Please. Tell me what happened.”

It took a moment, but Jaune started the story. “We got to the village no problem. After a day there learning info from the residents, we went out to exterminate the grimm in the woods near the village. We went out for several hours and found what Grimm we could, about two dozen, and killed them. We did the same thing the next and found another two dozen more Grimm, which we then took out as well. We did it a third day and found almost another two dozen. No matter how many we took down, there still always seemed to be just about the same amount the next day. Their numbers weren’t going down. We knew something else was going on.”

“What kind of Grimm were there?”

“Beowolves, Ursas, A small swarm of Lancers one day. Nothing uncommon at least.”

Ozpin nodded along. “Okay, apologies for interrupting. Please continue.”

“We knew something else was happening in those woods, so the next day we went out and decided to follow the tracks the Grimm made after we disposed of them. They lead back to a... cave. A fissure? It was just like a hole in the ground, but with an incline down into it. Before we could even question what it was, a huge horde of grimm poured our. Practically every Grimm we’d faced up until then was coming at us all at once. We were caught off guard and scattered. We must have fought them all for over 20 minutes straight but we did it. There must have been five or six dozen after everything was said and done. Piken was barely standing, Susan had lost one of her swords somewhere, Azuri was exhausted, and all three of them barely had any Aura left.”

“And you?”

Jaune’s hand clenched into a fist. “I... I was better off. I just kept my Aura up with my semblance, but I couldn’t reach any of them to boost their aura, so they were drained. After the last grimm fell, we were still trying to catch our bearings. I finally realized I should start trying to amp all of their auras. Azuri was the closest, so I went to do her first. I just started to use my semblance on her when... a roar came from the hole.”

Ozpin leaned on his interlaced fingers. Every word Jaune said he committed to memory, and he paid every ounce of his attention to him as he continued. “A-a Beringel... it just came charging out of the hole. It rushed right towards me amplifying Azuri. I was so...so scared I didn’t move. If Azuri hadn’t tackled me out of the way, it would have crushed us. It kept charging, but now it’s target was Susan. It was on her in seconds... we just watched as she screamed and then it hit her and sent her flying into the woods out of sight. Piken screamed after her, but that just drew it’s attention to him. That’s when I noticed something different about it. I-it had a log in it hand... and it used it like some kind of club.”

Professor Ozpin’s eyes widened at this. The creatures of Grimm rarely used tools or objects as weapons. That must have meant it was somewhat old... and smart because of it. Ozpin stayed quiet while Jaune kept talking.

“It started charging Piken, but I yelled and got its attention before it reached him. I yelled at him to go take care of Susan and the Beringel roared before charging me. I left Azuri and sprinted away, just trying to keep its attention. It worked, but it also caught up to me. I tried to block with my shield, but when it hit me with that log I just got sent flying into a tree. The impact also broke my left arm instantly. I was barely able to start getting up when it started coming at me again. I... I thought I was dead. Then Azuri came rushing in, shooting away at it. It had so much armor on it the bullets just glanced off it. But it got its attention on her. It charged her and she charged it. The Beringel tried to hit her, but she rolled out of the way. She kept running and dodging, shooting it every chance she got. Then the bastard landed a blow. It swung its arm back wildly and she wasn’t expecting it, so all she could do was try to block it. She took the hit and got sent flying, but she somehow landed on her feet and just went right back into the fight. She was fighting this monster by herself and all I did was just sit there and watch because I was trying to fix my arm! My fucking broken arm! She was fighting alone all because I HAD TO TAKE CARE OF MY OUM DAMN BROKEN ARM!”

Jaune didn’t try to stop himself from yelling, and neither did Ozpin. “She was fighting with everything she had, barely any ammo, dust, or Aura left, and I just sat there on my ass! I watched as she took hit after hit, and kept getting back up every time! I-I-!”

Jaune’s voice cracked and he ran his hand up his face, where he realized that there were tears going down his cheeks. His hands went into his hair and clenched, yanking on his blond strands in anger. He took quick, deep breaths, trying to calm down. Ozpin watched his student with understanding eyes, but let him be.

Jaune got himself calmed down enough to continue, but his voice was now shaking. “I... I just watched... as t-the Beringel kn-knocked and tossed her around. I-I was a-almost done w-with my arm. Then...then it swung its club at her. A-Azuri must h-have had a plan, b-because when it did she jumped at it.... S-she was able to j-just barely t-touch it’s chest, b-b-but she s-still got hit.” 

Jaune’s voice was audibly getting shakier and devastated. Jaune could feel himself openly crying now. Nothing was stopping the tears from coming again. “S-she just h-hit the ground a-a-and didn’t move... I-I screamed for her to get up, b-but she didn’t. She didn’t.”

Jaune fell silent, the only sound he made was from choking on his own breath. Ozpin watched the boy in front of him break down into silent sobbing. He knew this pain all too well, and regretted that he was going through it now.

After a minute, Ozpin thought it was safe for him to ask, “What happened to the Beringel?”

Jaune sniffed deeply and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. Some deep breaths and thinking about what indeed did happen to the Beringel helped to calm him down and get his voice back together. He’d already cried his eyes out once, he can’t do it again now. “Azuri blew it to pieces.”

“I��m sorry?”

“She used her semblance when she touched him. After she was hit, the monster’s chest puffed up and exploded. Before it even dissolved, hardly anything above it’s legs was in one piece.”

“I see. Ms. Stygia’s semblance, Direct Redirection if I recall.” Jaune nodded. “So after the Beringel was defeated, what happened.

“My arm was fixed enough to move by that time, so I rushed over to Azuri and I-I tried to heal her... but I-I couldn’t do anything.... I was too late. Piken found us and was carrying Susan with him. She was unconscious and had several broken bones. Piken and I carried both of them back to the village.” Jaune didn’t mention that the trip was filled with the two of them crying the entire way. “We got back to the village and they took us in to treat our wounds. It was four days before Susan woke up. I helped her Aura heal her bones, but I couldn’t wake her up, so we had to wait.” Jaune clenched his eyes shut when he remembered how she cried when she found out about Azuri. “A-as soon as we were able to travel, we got on the first Bullhead we could. Now we’re back.” 

Ozpin sat in silence, digesting everything he just heard from Jaune. “I see. I am terribly sorry for what has happened Mr. Arc. I shall notify her family right away.”

Jaune didn’t say anything. He was tired of talking. He was tired and wanted to go be with his team.

“You may go Mr. Arc. I am so sorry you had to experience all of this even though you’re still only a student. I will check to see how Ms. Free and Mr. Dovo are doing when they are released from the infirmary.”

“Why are you sorry for me? Azuri’s the one who died.” With that, Jaune stood up and left Professor Port’s office and headed back to the infirmary.

The headmaster just watched the door close behind the boy. There was nothing he could really say to alleviate the pain that Jaune felt right now. He knew because no matter what people had told him in all his past lives, it never helped the pain of losing someone close to you. ‘Mr. Arc, I am sorry to say that it is those that go on living are usually the ones that truly suffer, not those that we lose.’

Jaune walked down the empty halls of Beacon, heading towards the infirmary. His thoughts drifted to something that he hadn’t disclosed to the Headmaster. That being Azuri’s last words to him.

He’d gotten to her and his attempts to heal her were too late, but it had helped Azuri hold on to life just a little bit longer, and she used that time to tell him the last words she’d ever speak. 

Jaune had Azuri’s back laying in his lap as he poured every ounce of his Aura into her, trying to save her, to help her, to do anything. Her blue hair was spilled out over his leg and had leaves in it. In a normal situation, she’d ask him to help her fix it. But things were never going to be normal again.

Jaune felt her soft fingers brush his hair aside, out of the way of his eyes, and then rest on his cheek. “J-Jaune.... please....tell my Mom and brother I love them, and that I’m so happy to have been able to help so many people. Tell Piken he better keep making that amazing food of his. Vacuo definitely needs some decent cuisine someday. Susan...tell her never to lose her spirit, cause then she’ll always be free no matter what. And Jaune...” 

Jaune stared down at the blue haired girl in his lap as his tears fell down onto her. He couldn’t even find the words to tell her that she would be okay. 

That’s probably because he knew she wouldn’t be. 

Azuri still had the same warmth in her eyes that they always as she looked up to him. “You’re so strong... You can be the greatest hero... in history. I know it....in my heart I know it. Stay strong... keep moving... and you’ll reach your dream.... someday.” Her fingers fell away from his cheek and her eyes started to lose focus.

Jaune grabbed her hand before it could fall any farther and hugged tightly to his chest. “Azuri please no! Please just, just-!”

“Thank you.....you all..........were such great..........................” 

“Azuri?” He shook her arm. Nothing. “A-Azuri!?” He looked at her face and saw her head had fallen back, her smile was gone, and her eyes that held the kindest gaze he’d ever seen....were devoid of any emotion or life.

Jaune’s thoughts were ripped away when he bumped into the doors to the infirmary. Without a word or any emotion, he opened the door and entered to go to his team.

Two days after JASP returned to Beacon, Jaune listened to the wails of Azuri’s mother as she collapsed in the infirmary after seeing her daughter’s body and her little brother’s frantic cries as he tried to wake her up.

A week after JASP returned to Beacon, a small service was held for Azuri Stygia at Beacon, students from every year came. She’d helped so many fellow students and they all came to say their goodbyes.

Two weeks after JASP returned to Beacon, Piken told Jaune that Susan was pregnant with his kid and that they wanted to give up on being huntsmen, not wanting to go on after seeing how dark the reality of being one can be.

Three weeks after JASP returned to Beacon, Susan and Piken had packed up all of their things from JASP’s dorm and dropped out of Beacon to open a restaurant in Vale and start their family. 

Three weeks and a day after JASP returned to Beacon, and Jaune Arc was the last remaining member of Team JASP.

[sleepyfan-blog]

Author's note: part 3 of Cedric's saga. Prev. Next.

tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

warnings: character death, graphic wound descriptions, canon-typical violence

Summary: Rescuing Civilians doesn't always go well.

Cedric loses a civilian patient, despite his best efforts ):

“Soooo, do you think that we will be able to find something interesting on this mission?” Dessias asked as a small lifted the corners of his lips up a little.

Rodron shrugged before he answered “ Who knows? Last couple of missions, we were stuck on the black lines doing clean up. Fuck, I hope that we are able to get some actually interesting combat in this time.”

Angrald rolled his eyes and pointed out “None of us have yet to earn our armor, Although from what I heard if we survive these next few battles, I think we may earn them soon. We've got to prove ourselves to our older brothers.”

“I know that, Angi… I hope to be able to continue to impress Brother Imeldis.” Dessias sighed, fidgeting a little with the butt of his bolter. 

Cedric gently bumped his shoulder into his red-headed brother “You're consistently the best shot in our Aspirant squad, and you're able to pin all but Sevros and Dovo on the mats four out of five times in spars.”

Sevros - who had been dozing a little, looked over at the three of them and asked through a stretch-and-yawn "What's going on? I'm pretty sure that I heard my name."

"Angi's feeling a little uncertain." Dessias responded promptly, dodging Angrald's half-hearted swat. "What? It's true, though I don't know why. You're an excellent, dutiful brother."

Sevros hummed again and reached over to Angrald, putting him into a headlock, ruffling the shorter Astartes-aspirant's buzz-cut hair with a grin "Have faith in yourself, little brother! The rest of us do."

Angrald grumbled wordlessly as he tried to escape the choke-hold "Hey! You're what, three months older than I am, at most? That doesn't really count! And you all are right. I was just having a... A moment of uncertainty is all."

"We are in training, and so far have proven ourselves to our older brothers." Dovo pointed out "I may be the sergeant of the squad, but you're our best tactician, Angrald. I know that Dessias, Sevros and I wouldn't be in this pod, had you not spotted the psyker-bomb that the knife-ears left for some unfortunate soul to stumble into and get killed by. You were also the one who disarmed it safely."

Angrald nods, a small smile having lifted the corners of his lips a little "... True enough."

Dovo nods, before looking out the small window that was placed in the drop pod, squinting through the thick, frosted-over glass "We're going to make planetfall soon. In the name of the name of the god-emperor, we will reclaim this world from the knife-ears and the green-skins!"

Cedric, along with the rest of the squad shouted in response, eager to join in the battle "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD-EMPEROR, WE WILL RECLAIM THIS WORLD!"

~

The days and nights blended one into the next. Shoot at anything that wasn't a brother. Dodge return fire. Check to make sure that none of his brothers had gotten shot. Sprint to the next bit of cover while the others provided suppressing fire. Check through a burned and blasted out civilian village for any survivors. 

Give a quick prayer that the dead he finds have already returned to the side of the God-emperor and bask in his light. Double check each room of the small houses and apartment buildings. 

Set on fire any heretical messages or altars.

Rinse and repeat until this particular village was cleared, before moving onto the next, while trying to kill as many orcs and drukhari as possible. 

Over and over again. 

"Are there any Imperial Citizens trapped in this house? Please call out or make noise if you are alive." Dessias called out, just loud enough to carry throughout the small house the six of them had shoved their way into. The door had been barricaded with a bunch of furniture, and bore recent signs of life, so there was a possibility that someone was actually still here, taking shelter.

Or it was a Drukhari trap, or some tiny green skins were cowardly trying to hide from the righteous extermination they faced for daring to oppose the will of the god-emperor.

"H-Hello? Are... Are we rescued, finally? Praise be the god-emperor! We are in the basement, the door is hidden by a large rug. Please come help us, my father got shot by one of the invaders while trying to get food and he's not doing well." A young voice called out from beneath the stairs.

Rodron immediately started to head for the only rug in the room, but Dovo held up a hand, shaking his head silently, before hand-signing to the group [Check for traps]

Dessias, Angrald and Sevros silently signed back in understanding and began to check for any traps - while it was possible that these were truly civilians, this could easily be a knife-eared trap... And even if they were civilians it could be a trap anyways. The new scars on Rodron's arms were a testament to the cruel genius of the knife-ears.

Still, there was no need to worry potential civilians who needed evacuation - nor, conversely, was Cedric going to let the possible knife-ears be tipped off to them being wise to such a trap. "We are coming to rescue you, yes. You said that your father is injured? I am an Apothecary..." This world was one of the less advanced worlds, what was another word for Apothecary in such worlds? Oh, right! "A healer. Do you know where your father was shot? Are you hurt or sick? What's your name? I'm Cedric."

"It's an honor to meet you, Healer Cedric. I'm Lilliius. I'm seven and my papa is currently sleeping. He's got a really nasty burn on his chest, and cuts along his arms. I tried to help papa as best I could, but..." Lillius explained, their voice wavering a little in distress.

"There's only so much you can do to help your papa in the basement. Well, my brothers are coming to help you and your papa out of the basement. We're just making sure it's safe to do so." Cedric explained with a small smile. Dessias, ANgrald and Sevros signed [All clear.]

Dovo nodded and signed back [Good. Sevros, open the door. Angrald and Dessias on watch for trouble.]

The trio of young Astartes nodded, and Sevros reached for the rug, as Angrald and Dessias moved to cover him, bolters drawn and at the ready, just in case this was a foul xenos trap of some kind.

The rug was swiftly removed and Sevros pulled the metal hatch over to one side before setting it down. 

A young baseline human who appeared to be around ten years old peered up at them, blinking from the ambient light in the room. They bowed and said "Thank you very much for coming to rescue me and my papa, lord astartes!" 

Sevros knelt down and offered a hand to the child, ordering with a gruff "C'mere young one. Are you hurt anywhere? Cedric here's our Healer, and he's very good at it."

Lillius shook their head "I'm not hurt sir... Though I am kind of hungry. We've been running low on emergency supplies and papa says that we can only eat one ration bar per day, to keep the food lasting longer."

"That's a smart thing to do, but we do have some extra rations. Here you go, kid." Sevros responded, as he stood up with the young child in his arms, pulling a ration bar from his pack and handing it to the young one, taking several steps backwards so that Angrald and Dessias could do a check of the basement for any traps or shenanigans before Cedric went down and checked on the injured baseline human. 

After a brief but thorough check, Dessias gave Cedric a silent all-clear signal, and the young apothecary went to check on his patient.

~

The baseline human appeared to be middle aged - a little bit of grey in his hair. His breathing was even and shallow, but Angrald and Dessias moving around - along with his child speaking - had woken the man. His eyes were glassy and Cedric noted that he had a low-level fever.

"Hello, I am a Healer of the black templars. Where are you injured?" Cedric greeted, pitching his voice low, so as to not attract the attention of the child - Sevros and Rodron were doing a pretty good job of keeping the kid distracted. 

"They shot me in the gut, my lord, and stabbed me with knives. I played dead after they stabbed me, and the knife-ears eventually left me alone." The baseline human answered, voice also low. He pulled up his tunic, revealing a large, circular and infected wound. The energy-weapons that the knife-ears favored tended to leave cauterized burns that were equal parts blessing and curse to treat - especially after being neglected like this. Cedric could smell the necrotic flesh "I'm not sure it's a good thing that I can't feel the gut injury. My leg stopped hurting from where I was stabbed yesterday, and I'm... So cold." He pulled up his pants legs, revealing crusted-over bandages.

 Cedric warned his patient "I'm going to need to remove these bandages to see the wounds beneath. It's likely that the scabs have adhered to the underside of the bandages and you're going to bleed again. I will staunch the blood as best as I can."

"I understand, my lord." The human responded, gritting his teeth. He let out a low sound of pain and flinched as Cedric swiftly removed the bandages and revealed - 

Infected stab wounds. Blood began to ooze out of the center of the wounds, mixed with yellow-white puss that smelled absolutely foul.

Cedric could see bone in the deepest part of the penetrating wound, and the red, puffy infected flesh surrounding them was warm to the touch. He could also see something *wriggling* in the infected flesh and suppressed a gag. Several something wriggling. "Did you wash the wounds with water when you took cover?" On worlds like this, unless the water was boiled and the steam caught and collected, the water couldn't always be counted to be clean enough to be used on wounds. He could also see rashes radiating around the man's legs, originating around the stab wounds. He could trace the other's veins from the vivid marks on his body. 

"I did, my lord. It wasn't much, but it was what I could do. I've also been keeping pressure on the knife wounds with bandages." The baseline human responded through gritted teeth. "I... Figured it didn't look good. So, how do I look, my lord?"

Cedric hesitated for a moment. With weeks of treatment in a proper hospital, there was a good chance this baseline human would recover well.... But on a feudal world, being actively invaded by both greenskins and knife-ears? Considering the fact that the man had *maggots* festering in his stab wounds, and was quite probably septic? His chances... Weren't great. 

The baseline human chuckled wryly, patting one of his shoulders "I know that look. I've seen it before on other healers' faces. I proudly served in the local militia until age forced me to retire, have a child for the good of the community. Promise me you'll do your best to get my child to safety, aye? I've still got my old lasgun. I've heard greenskin patrols coming into this village to loot things occasionally. I'll draw them off while you get Lillius to safety."

"... I could amputate your legs and give you make-shift prosthetics. I can pack the gut wound and patch you up enough to be able to move without aggravating your wounds too much." Cedric offered, though part of him knew what the baseline human was suggesting was for the best. Even on prosthetics, he would slow them down dangerously.

The other's eyes softened a little, and one overly warm hand came up to gently pat his cheek "Oh, you're a good lad, my lord.  But I can feel the fever eating away at my mind, and I'm pretty sure that the knife-eared bastards put something on their blades as I've been hallucinating off and on for the past several days. All I ask is to be able to say goodbye to my child. I'll tell him that I'm going to be clearing a path."

"... If you are certain." Cedric responded, the bitter taste of defeat in his mouth. He briefly glanced at his brothers - most of whom were gathered around the child. Their enhanced senses would allow them to follow the conversation, and from the set of Dovo's shoulders, he knew what the sergeant of their squad had already decided. "Then I will not stop you. Your bravery does you credit."

"Bah, I'm being selfish. I want my child to survive, and they're much more likely to survive with you lads, then if they stay with me." He responded with a shrug. 

Cedric re-bound the man's injuries with fresh bandages, and helped him up to his feet.

Dessias set Lillius down, who immediately rushed over to their papa, hugging him tightly "So are you ready to go, dad?" They asked, a bright and hopeful grin appearing on their face "Lord Dessias was telling me all about how his older brothers have secured a base three days' run from here! We're saved."

"I've gotta help them keep the xenos from finding the base, kiddo. Their healer patched me up real well. You listen to the lords, alright? I'm going to be hunting xenos, to help protect you, and avenge your mama." The man explained, gently ruffling Lillius' hair. "Promise me you'll do what they say?"

"I...I... But papa, can't the lords astartes drive away the xenos? Why do you have to fight?" Lillius asked, tears beginning to fall down their face, clinging tighter to their parent.

"They've gotta protect you, and other civilians they come across during their rescue.  I volunteered to do this. Come now, no more tears. I'll see you again, I promise." The man soothed, pressing a paternal kiss to the top of the crying child's forehead.

Sevros came forward, kneeling down and carefully pulling the weeping child away from their parent "Come with us, young one. Your father needs to do his duty. For you. For the god-emperor."

Lillius wailed, kicking and flailing ineffectually in the young astartes' arms "NO! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SAVE US! WHY DOES PAPA  HAVE TO FIGHT? I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I-"

To prevent the child from harming themself, or potentially attracting the wrong sort of attention, Cedric quickly injected the young one with a sedative that would keep them asleep for several hours, though there was a yawning pit of emotions that threatened to swallow him whole if he let it. 

Dovo ordered "We need to get moving... Thank you for your service, sir. May the god-emperor bless your shots."

"And may he bless yours." The baseline human responded with a nod and a grim smile, carefully telegraphing his movements over to the lasgun laying on an upper shelf in the basement. "I'll leave first, and draw the attention of any xenos who might be looking for trouble." With that, he left on shaking legs.

That was the last time that Cedric or his brothers ever saw that particular human.

[sleepyfan-blog]

Reaper

Author’s note: this is the fifth part of Cedric’s story. Previous. Next.

Warnings: major character death, murder, canon-typical violence, descriptions of body horror

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Summary: Cedric learns that small wounds can be devastating, even to Astartes if Chaos is involved.

"You… You're certain that it must be this way, sir?" Cedric asked his mentor, staring down at the sanctified blade that the much older Brother Apothecary had handed him. It was a master-crafted weapon, with a double-edged auramite blade, hilt and pommel. The hilt of the blade was made in the likeness of the God Emperor's sacred Aquila, and the young astartes could tell that the blade had been anointed with holy oils from the way it gleamed in the artificial light of one of The Sigismund's medical bays. The medical bay that Dessias, Dovo, Angrald, Rodron and himself had been quarantined within for the past three days, after Cedric had come to his mentor, asking for assistance with a puzzling set of symptoms and vital signs readings from one of his squadmates. "There is nothing else to be done?"

Brother Xonfried shook his head, reaching up slightly as he placed a gloved hand on one of his shoulders. "If we had allied witches, they might have been able to give him a little more time, but as we shun witches and burn them for their potential or actual Heresy… This is for the best. If we let things continue as they are, his soul will be corrupted by the poison that foul heretic stabbed into his system, and he'll twist into a mockery of all that he stands for, all that he wants to be. The poison is already affecting his mind, but his soul has yet to be tainted to the point where it won't rejoin the emperor's light. But every moment you wait, the more likely it is that his will and soul will be corrupted by the poison in his body, in addition to it starting to twist his body as well."

"… What do you mean by that, sir?" Cedric asked, his hearts lurching, eyes wide as he sternly reminded himself that he needed to listen closely. The temptation to plug his ears and ignore this warning from his mentor will not help his afflicted Brother.

"I've seen this particular Chaotic poison in use by foul cultists twice before. The first time it was used against a small population of mortals. The communal well had been tainted with it's poison. The rash on his legs and arms will turn into bony growths that will twist his body into fleshy vines that will sprout deceptively sweet smelling and beautiful looking flowers. He will seek combat with others, trying to inflict the poison on them as his mind and soul is further warped by chaos. He will find ecstasy in the pain and glory in the vile monster he has become. If left unchecked, this body and soul corrupting curse will seek out all of us. Flamers are effective against such a creature, but at that point, his soul will be lost to the God Emperor, having been corrupted by Chaos." Brother Alvros explained, forcing Cedric to keep looking him in the eye by catching the younger astartes' chin with the hand not on his shoulder. "That blade is meant to cut down those afflicted by deamonic poisons, so their body will not immediately corrode into a Chaotic mess once their soul leaves it. As the Apothecary assigned to his squad, it is your duty to cleanse him before he is corrupted by chaos."

"… Oh." Cedric managed out through the ten-ton weight that had suddenly landed on his chest and stomach. His eyes were getting blurry again, and with a titanic effort of will, he took in a deep breath. The dagger in his hands was deceptively light, considering what it was meant for. "I… I see."

"If you find yourself unable to do this, I will step in. But I will be… Disappointed. His mentor has been informed of his condition, and that the one who did this to him has already been killed." Alvros informed him, the hand on Cedric's shoulder tightening for several seconds as he spoke before relaxing again. "As apothecaries, part of our duties is to ensure that our brothers are able to seek out the Emperor's Light at the end of their lives… And certain circumstances, that means ensuring that they go to the Emperor's Embrace personally. Do you understand, Cedric?"

Cedric swallowed hard, closing his eyes for several seconds as he struggled with numerous emotions. He opened his eyes and nodded, before glancing away from his mentor, shoulders slumping a little "I understand, sir. I will. I will do my duty to my suffering brother, so that he is not corrupted by the forces of chaos… But I must confess that I will need to speak with one of the chaplains and likely seek absolution for… For some of the thoughts and feelings running through my mind, sir." He hated how small and weak his voice sounded. But… He'd so far been taught hundreds if not thousands of ways to protect and care for his brothers. The task set before him now felt like a betrayal of all of that, though his mentor would not ask this of him, would not set this test before him, were it not necessary.

Surely, he wouldn't.

Brother Apothecary Xonfried's eyes were gentle as he squeezed Cedric's shoulder again "Such thoughts and feelings are understandable. It is never easy putting down a loyal brother due to an unescapable curse or poison laid upon him by the foul witches that are set against the Imperium. I will arrange for you to speak privately with Brother Chaplain Renhardt once you have completed this task… And remember, every moment you tarry, the more likely he is to be corrupted beyond the blade's ability to purify upon death. Once he is dead, message me using this communicator." the older apothecary instructed Cedric, giving him the hand-held device.

"Yes sir, I understand. I'll… I'll explain to the group and then… Then send him to the God-emperor." Cedric vowed, voice trembling a little but his hands were steady as he walked to where his squad mates were currently sitting, as he had been pulled into a sound-proofed side room. His mouth was dry and his hearts ached… But he would do his duty to his brothers. He briefly squeezed the communicator before putting it in a pocket, as he suspected that he would need both hands to complete the grim task set before him.

~

"You're back! Hey Cedric, did they tell you why we've been stuck in quarantine for the past… However long we've been stuck in Quarantine for?" Dovo asked, looking up from where he was seated on a medical cot. He, Dessias, Rodron and Angrald were playing a card game, as they'd been very sternly told not to spar in the medical bay while they were under medical watch.

"… Why do you have that? The rest of us had all of our weapons - and armor - confiscated upon being put in time out." Angrald asks, gesturing to the auramite dagger in Cedric's hand.

The young apothecary couldn't suppress the full body flinch at the other's words, unable to look any of them in the eye. His mouth was so dry, the lights were so bright. His clothes were too tight and too restrictive and scratchy. Nausea and lightheadedness warred with his sense of duty, and the urgency that his mentor had spoken of "I… I-"

All four of them startled up to their feet and Rodron, who happened to be the closest rushed over to Cedric, reaching out and grabbing one of his shoulders "Easy! Easy. Slow your breathing, I think you're hyperventilating. Sit down. We're safe here, Ced. We're in space, on a battle barge, surrounded by our brothers in one of the medical bays. The only possible way we could be safer is if we were in our armor too." He started to rub circles into Cedric's back, a worried frown appearing on his face.

An ugly, awful sound threatened to claw it's way out of Cedric's chest, and the young apothecary shook his head, as his eyes burned. He blinked rapidly, feeling something warm and wet fall onto his cheeks. He took in a deep breath - there wasn't enough air in this room. Not enough air on the ships. By the Emperor's teeth, how was he going to tell them? Guilt and shame warred with his sense of duty. "I… Dessias the… You've been… Do you remember when you got stabbed by that chaos cultist?"

"Yeeeah? That was weeks ago. It was barely a cut, and apart from a weird rash on my leg, I've fully healed. I'm fine, so why are you freaking out so badly?" Dessias answered, a look of confusion appearing on his face.

"There was apparently a Chaotic poison on the blade. You're going to get worse, and it's going to… To corrupt your soul and damn you to be a plaything for the false gods… Unless… Unless you die before the cursed poison warps your body and twists your soul. I was… Given this dagger and… Ordered to ensure you wouldn't fall to the chaos forcibly corrupting you, brother."

Confusion was written all over Dessias', Rodron's and Angrald's faces.

Dovo's face was briefly confused before grim understanding dawned, given the way that the sergeant walked over to where Dessias had jumped to his feet, and pressed a hand to the other's shoulder. "You're going to want to sit down, Dessie. Angrald, Rodron, come with me. We need to give Cedric and Dessias some privacy."

"… Thank you, Dovo." Cedric murmured quietly, grateful beyond words that he didn't have to do this in front of the others. Watching Dessias stare in confusion as the other three left the main room to lurk in the lavatory was difficult enough. He really didn't want to make a spectacle out of this.

"So… Am I about to lose a leg? Is that what the dagger's for?" Dessias asked, looking curiously at Cedric, after the other three were out of sight. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I could rock a prosthetic leg. Brother-Sergent Mallius has two, and he's got a secret compartment built into one of them that holds a weapon, in case some fool manages to disarm him…. Uhhh… Ced… Cedric? Talk to me, brother. You've got a very strange look on your face."

Cedric shook his head a little "I… You're going to be losing more than a leg, Dessias. I asked if there was any other way, but Brother Xonfried says that… That what I'm about to do is the only thing that can be done." He wanted to ask for forgiveness, either Dessias' or the God-Emperor, but he had to keep in mind that this was for his own good. To protect their brothers. He had to do this, even as his hearts trembled before the task set before him.

"… Am I losing both of my legs, then? Ced, Cedric, where are you going with that dagger?" Dessias asked, a nervous edge to his voice, despite the smile plastered on his squad brother's face.

As Cedric approached Dessias, the other swung his legs back over the side of the bed and started to stand. Cedric cleared his throat and ordered "Get back on the cot, Dessias" In his most commanding tone of voice.

Dessias froze for several crucial seconds on instinct, having heard a tone of command, and all of them being drilled to obey, even in their sleep.

Those few seconds were enough time for Cedric to close the distance between the two of them. He shoved Dessias the rest of the way down onto the cot with the hand not holding the dagger - the latter not resisting as he had no idea what was coming - as the hand wielding the dagger flashed forwards and down with all his strength and speed, slashing open his throat.

Dessias gasped in shock, struggling as Cedric used his weight to pin the other to the bed, blood gurgling up in his mouth. "HEL-" The other started to yell.

Cedric covered the other's nose and mouth with the hand not holding the sacred dagger, keeping his voice low and quiet "You've been cursed by Chaos. I've been ordered to kill you before your soul is forcibly corrupted away from the God-Emperor's light. There is nothing else to be done, not even the strength of a witch's magic could do more than delay the worst of the transformations that would have warped your body, Brother." He could feel the tears trying to fall from his eyes again. But he needed to be clear sighted.

Dessias struggled beneath him, trying to shove him off.

Cedric reached over and pressed the button that automatically shackled an unruly patient to the bed with cuffs that extended and wrapped around Dessias' arms and legs. The other's healing factor was starting heal the gash in his throat, so the young Apothecary slashed Dessias's throat, deeper this time, before moving off of his still struggling body. He distantly noted that both of his hands were covered in blood, but there were other vital organs that the robes the other was wearing did nothing to protect against the sanctified blade in his hands. Both of his hearts were pierced in their upper and lower chambers. Cedric then deliberately counted Dessias' ribs, noting the way that his breathing was much faster and shallower, before he pierced each of his three lungs.

Stabbing his kidneys and spleen was next. The cold, clinical portion of Cedric internally wondered if he should remove Dessias' gene-seed now, or if it had been tainted by the chaotic poison that necessitated his brother's culling. The entire time, Dessias was sputtering and growling, struggling against his bonds, glaring betrayed and confused holes into Cedric's very soul. The wet, gurgling gasps eventually faded into silence. Cedric double and triple checked to make sure that Dessias was actually dead before pulling out the communicator and messaging his mentor "It is done, sir."

"Well done. Inform the rest of your squad that they are free to move about the rest of the ship, then clean yourself up and report to me. The morticians will handle the disposal of the body." Apothecary Xonfried ordered.

"Yes sir." Cedric's mouth responded. Cedric himself felt as if he was both thousands of miles away and, at the same time, far, far to present. His body straightened up from where he'd been leaning over Dessias' body and turned, heading to the same lavatory that the rest of his squad were waiting in.

~

"By the Emperor, are you okay? You're covered in blood!" Rodron spluttered, the young sniper having spotted Cedric come into the bathroom first.

"This isn't my blood. We are no longer in quarantine." Cedric heard himself say. "You should go, I'm sure that you'll be glad to finally get some more sparring practice in."

"… You sure you don't want us to help you out with…" Angrald gestured to Cedric, a worried frown on his face.

"I'm fine. I just need to clean up. Go." Cedric huffed, walking over to the sink and starting to wash his blood-soaked hands. The fluid was still warm. So, so warm.

"… We'll be in the usual sparring room, if you need anything." Dovo said, grabbing Angrald and Rodron "We'll be there for the next several hours. I'll… explain what happened to these two, and why."

"Thank you, sergeant. Your cooperation is much appreciated." Cedric's mouth said, confusing the shit out of two of his remaining squad mates as they were dragged off by Dovo.

Finally, a moment alone. To reflect, while he scrubbed his hands free of his brother's blood.

[sleepyfan-blog]

Loss

Author's note: this is the fourth installment in Cedric's story. Prev. Next.

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Warnings: character death, canon-typical violence, wounds,

Summary: Fighting against the Tau takes an unexpected turn.

Another mission, another planet besieged by foul xenos. This world was a miserable ball of mud and rain, from what Cedric could tell, and he'd been on this world for several weeks, working alongside his brothers to rout out the blue bastards who had tried to claim this imperial world For the greater good. Bastards were expansionists and haughty bastards. They preferred to hide behind their turrets and guns like the cowards they were, fleeing whenever they could when in close-quarters combat. The blue bastards were taking pains not to target the civilian population as much as possible - which was... Surprising, given the fact that the other xenos that Cedric had fought against had no problems targeting civilians to try and bait out either members of the Astra Militarum or Astartes... In addition to creating truly gruesome and awful traps using said civilians as either bait, part of the trap, or oftentimes both.

Cedric would count that as a blessing from the god-emperor, and knew better than to question such a thing, as that could easily change. He dodged another hail of Lazer-fire, pausing for a moment behind the tree he had taken cover behind to check in on his brothers - Dovo was leading the charge, bolter in one hand, tower shield in the other to give himself and Dessias a bit of cover. His red-headed brother was right behind their sergeant, providing return fire, targeting the joints of the mechs that the blue bastards favored using in battle. Rodron had climbed one of the taller trees and was straddling one of the sturdiest branches, laying across it as he steadied his lasrifle, getting a bead on the enemy leader to fire on them when a good opportunity presented itself. Sevros and Angrald were also charging the enemy line, bolters up and firing tactically at their cowardly enemy. 

His five brothers were using their darkly painted armor and the density of the trees, alongside the deep shadows that the near constant rain provided them to keep the xenos off balance as to just where they were. Cedric, as an Apothecary, was in primarily white painted armor and stood out against the dark back-drop... Which meant that he drew the most fire. On the other hand, he made for a fantastic distraction, which Cedric was doing his best to provide as his brothers closed the distance between themselves and the enemy, as they were all primarily short-ranged fighters, though all of them were proficient with both bolters and the laser-based weaponry of the Imperium. 

The blue bastards had noticed that the six of them were encroaching on them - but as the local detachment of the Astra Militarum kept firing at them from the other direction, they were pincered on two fronts. The blue fuckers were the most prone to cutting and fleeing like the cowards they were, when the tide of battle turned against them, and, God Emperor willing, they would do so again. This was the six of theirs second mission as fully fledged new members of the Black Templars, and while there were older brothers providing air support and available for assistance if needed, this was a mission that they should be able to complete on their own.

Dovo, Dessias, Sevros and Angrald closed with several of the Blue bastards, the latter two switching from bolter to power sword as Dovo and Dessias provided supportive fire to keep the blue bastards from targeting them while they switched their weapons. Cedric rushed to follow his brothers into melee battle, Rodron providing them with excellent sniper cover. Rodron managed to topple their largest mechs by several well placed shots to the joints of the mech, causing several of the blue fuckers to panic. 

"FOR THE EMPEROR! FOR THE IMPERIUM!" Sevros roared as he lunged forward with his power-sword, the heavy two-handed blow cutting through the nearest enemy's armor as if it didn't exist, causing the xeno to choke on their own blood, staggering and sagging forward on the blade.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" Angrald, Sevros and Dovo shouted back in unison, going after the nearest filthy xenos as all four of them began to cut their way through the enemy forces.

Cedric raced to join his brothers, switching from bolter to power-sword as well, neatly decapitating a blue xenos who had tried to sneak up on Dovo from the side "FOR THE EMPEROR!"

~

The five of them cut their way through Tau forces as the hours blended into days, with Rodron providing sniper fire and calling out changes in battle - like when another giant xenos mech tried to stomp on them - or when a group of xenos had pretended to be shot dead by the Astra Militarum detachment who were coming closer to melee combat at a slower pace than the small group of Astartes. Each of them had taken some minor damage - a few cuts and bruises here and there, but their armor had held up well, and their own abilities to duck and dodge the worst of the attempted strikes against them.

The blue fuckers were in full retreat, and Dovo had given the order to "Keep up the pressure - we don't want these xenos to think that just because they're tucking tail and running, it means that we'll just let them run away to fight another day uncontested."

"Yes sir!" Cedric, Angrald, Sevros and Dessias acknowledged.

A two-heartbeat later and Rodron called out over vox "Understood, sarge. I see a blue ship headed your way. It's about a klik out and it's got heavy weaponry of some kind on it. You should probably get to cover as I think they're going to target you if you're on open ground."

"Good spot, Roddie. You heard our sniper, fall back to the treeline for cover." Dovo ordered.

Some of the more brave - or stupid - Blues chased them all the way back to the treeline, only to be either cut down by Cedric or one of his melee focused brothers, or shot down by Rodron. 

The five of them barely made it in time, as the alien spacecraft roared overhead, weapons blasting down at them. Cedric rushed deeper into the woods for cover, realizing that he was holding his breath, turning to do a headcount after the roar of the ship's engines died - having landed to acquire their surviving ground forces. 

Dovo had already turned around, visor tilted in the direction of the enemy spacecraft, arms crossed over his chest, likely trying to come up with ways to either neutralize the ship or acquire it for their own purposes. Xeno technology was heresy to use long-term, but to use it against the xenos themselves in battle was allowed - so long as one properly repented to the chaplain later.  Angrald was being helped up to his feet by Dessias, having collided with the base of the tree accidentally during his combat roll. Rodron was still up in the tree, clearly watching the xenos through his scope and taking pot-shots at them to keep up the pressure. and Sevros-

...

Where was Sevros? Astartes did not feel fear. Astartes did not feel fear. And because Astartes did not feel fear, Cedric's breathing didn't become much faster as he did another two head-counts, coming up with one person short of their full squad. Sevros much just have rolled into a particularly thick and thorny bush (again) and needed assistance in wrenching his free of the local flora...

Sevros crawled toward them on his hands, his back a bloodied and burned mess, his legs limp as he dragged himself forward. Cedric Did Not feel panic as he rushed over to his brother's side, Dessias and Angrald helping him carry their injured brother further from where the xenos were frantically trying to pile into their ship. He immediately felt himself slide into a state of forced calm as his hands and mouth went into autopilot, ordering Angrald to help him remove the destroyed remains of Sevros' backback and armor. He began to clean and dress Sevros' extensive wounds - the other had taken a round that could have felled a Dreadnaught to the back, it was a miracle that he was alive, much less able to move at all. HE silently muttered a prayer that the god-emperor would see fit to allow Sevros to retain his ability to walk once he healed.

Cedric was wholly focused on his injured patient, and wasn't terribly surprised when the rest of his squad refocused on Other Things. His main job was to keep his brothers alive and intact enough to keep on fighting, which he was desperately trying to do. Sevros' breathing was getting shallower. He swallowed back a wave of Unnecessary Emotion as he continued to work diligently on patching up Sevros as best as he could. They'd trained together since first becoming aspirants and had survived so much. Cedric had no plans on losing his brother on some wet muddy rock to xenos. 

"Cedric." A voice called out.

He had to keep working on Sevros. The other's breathing was undetectable, but that didnt mean much. He was just sleeping, having passed out from the pain. He was going to be fine. Cedric was going to make sure of that.

"Cedric!" The same voice called out, much louder and much closer.

"Unless you are actively dying, please wait your turn to be patched up. I... I'm working on Sev right now." Cedric snapped back, not bothering to look up at whoever was talking to him. Maybe another stim shot, to keep Sevros' awake? The shcock of a wound like this could kill if it went to far.

"BROTHER-APOTHECARY CEDRIC!" The voice... No, Dovo, bellowed directly into his ear, startling the young medic to the point he nearly swung at him with a fist. "He... He's gone. You did your best, but a wound like that... Isn't survivable outside of a dreadnaught. You know that, as well as I do."

"But... But there's... There's got to be something in my pack to help him... I've just... I just need to find it." Cedric protested, his eyes stinging and blurry. He was rapidly blinking, trying to clear his eyes. 

"His hearts have stopped, and he hasn't breathed in minutes. That wound was too much for him. Would've been too much for any of us. The xenos have fucked off world. We need to report back to the mortal military commander, then we'll take him back to the ship for funerary rites." Dovo pointed out, his voice calm and even, the bastard "Are you going to make me order you to leave him?"

"... I'll need to take his gene-seed, since I've got... I've got the time. It's protocol." Cedric's mouth said. Internally he could hear something, someone screaming. He swallowed down the noise as his blood covered gauntlets flipped him over. Sevros' eyes were still open, but the light of life had left them. 

"... Right. Rodron, Dessias help Cedric recover the gene-seed and guard his body. Angrald, you're coming with me to talk to the mortals." Dovo ordered before leaving with Angrald.

Cedric's hands performed the surgery that he'd only seen done a handful of times and participated in twice, on much older brothers who had fallen in battle against the forces against the Imperium. Why was it so different now? He made sure that his hands did not shake until after the gene-seed was removed and safely placed in the stasis jar and nestled securely in his pack. He closed Sevros' eyes and stitched up the wound he'd made. Numbness and Emotions He Shouldn't Be Feeling battling for dominance inside of him.

[egrets-not-regrets]

Heartbreak city over here. 💔

Author's note: part 3 of Cedric's saga. Prev. Next.

tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

warnings: character death, graphic wound descriptions, canon-typical violence

Summary: Rescuing Civilians doesn't always go well.

Cedric loses a civilian patient, despite his best efforts ):

“Soooo, do you think that we will be able to find something interesting on this mission?” Dessias asked as a small lifted the corners of his lips up a little.

Rodron shrugged before he answered “ Who knows? Last couple of missions, we were stuck on the black lines doing clean up. Fuck, I hope that we are able to get some actually interesting combat in this time.”

Angrald rolled his eyes and pointed out “None of us have yet to earn our armor, Although from what I heard if we survive these next few battles, I think we may earn them soon. We've got to prove ourselves to our older brothers.”

“I know that, Angi… I hope to be able to continue to impress Brother Imeldis.” Dessias sighed, fidgeting a little with the butt of his bolter. 

Cedric gently bumped his shoulder into his red-headed brother “You're consistently the best shot in our Aspirant squad, and you're able to pin all but Sevros and Dovo on the mats four out of five times in spars.”

Sevros - who had been dozing a little, looked over at the three of them and asked through a stretch-and-yawn "What's going on? I'm pretty sure that I heard my name."

"Angi's feeling a little uncertain." Dessias responded promptly, dodging Angrald's half-hearted swat. "What? It's true, though I don't know why. You're an excellent, dutiful brother."

Sevros hummed again and reached over to Angrald, putting him into a headlock, ruffling the shorter Astartes-aspirant's buzz-cut hair with a grin "Have faith in yourself, little brother! The rest of us do."

Angrald grumbled wordlessly as he tried to escape the choke-hold "Hey! You're what, three months older than I am, at most? That doesn't really count! And you all are right. I was just having a... A moment of uncertainty is all."

"We are in training, and so far have proven ourselves to our older brothers." Dovo pointed out "I may be the sergeant of the squad, but you're our best tactician, Angrald. I know that Dessias, Sevros and I wouldn't be in this pod, had you not spotted the psyker-bomb that the knife-ears left for some unfortunate soul to stumble into and get killed by. You were also the one who disarmed it safely."

Angrald nods, a small smile having lifted the corners of his lips a little "... True enough."

Dovo nods, before looking out the small window that was placed in the drop pod, squinting through the thick, frosted-over glass "We're going to make planetfall soon. In the name of the name of the god-emperor, we will reclaim this world from the knife-ears and the green-skins!"

Cedric, along with the rest of the squad shouted in response, eager to join in the battle "IN THE NAME OF THE GOD-EMPEROR, WE WILL RECLAIM THIS WORLD!"

~

The days and nights blended one into the next. Shoot at anything that wasn't a brother. Dodge return fire. Check to make sure that none of his brothers had gotten shot. Sprint to the next bit of cover while the others provided suppressing fire. Check through a burned and blasted out civilian village for any survivors. 

Give a quick prayer that the dead he finds have already returned to the side of the God-emperor and bask in his light. Double check each room of the small houses and apartment buildings. 

Set on fire any heretical messages or altars.

Rinse and repeat until this particular village was cleared, before moving onto the next, while trying to kill as many orcs and drukhari as possible. 

Over and over again. 

"Are there any Imperial Citizens trapped in this house? Please call out or make noise if you are alive." Dessias called out, just loud enough to carry throughout the small house the six of them had shoved their way into. The door had been barricaded with a bunch of furniture, and bore recent signs of life, so there was a possibility that someone was actually still here, taking shelter.

Or it was a Drukhari trap, or some tiny green skins were cowardly trying to hide from the righteous extermination they faced for daring to oppose the will of the god-emperor.

"H-Hello? Are... Are we rescued, finally? Praise be the god-emperor! We are in the basement, the door is hidden by a large rug. Please come help us, my father got shot by one of the invaders while trying to get food and he's not doing well." A young voice called out from beneath the stairs.

Rodron immediately started to head for the only rug in the room, but Dovo held up a hand, shaking his head silently, before hand-signing to the group [Check for traps]

Dessias, Angrald and Sevros silently signed back in understanding and began to check for any traps - while it was possible that these were truly civilians, this could easily be a knife-eared trap... And even if they were civilians it could be a trap anyways. The new scars on Rodron's arms were a testament to the cruel genius of the knife-ears.

Still, there was no need to worry potential civilians who needed evacuation - nor, conversely, was Cedric going to let the possible knife-ears be tipped off to them being wise to such a trap. "We are coming to rescue you, yes. You said that your father is injured? I am an Apothecary..." This world was one of the less advanced worlds, what was another word for Apothecary in such worlds? Oh, right! "A healer. Do you know where your father was shot? Are you hurt or sick? What's your name? I'm Cedric."

"It's an honor to meet you, Healer Cedric. I'm Lilliius. I'm seven and my papa is currently sleeping. He's got a really nasty burn on his chest, and cuts along his arms. I tried to help papa as best I could, but..." Lillius explained, their voice wavering a little in distress.

"There's only so much you can do to help your papa in the basement. Well, my brothers are coming to help you and your papa out of the basement. We're just making sure it's safe to do so." Cedric explained with a small smile. Dessias, ANgrald and Sevros signed [All clear.]

Dovo nodded and signed back [Good. Sevros, open the door. Angrald and Dessias on watch for trouble.]

The trio of young Astartes nodded, and Sevros reached for the rug, as Angrald and Dessias moved to cover him, bolters drawn and at the ready, just in case this was a foul xenos trap of some kind.

The rug was swiftly removed and Sevros pulled the metal hatch over to one side before setting it down. 

A young baseline human who appeared to be around ten years old peered up at them, blinking from the ambient light in the room. They bowed and said "Thank you very much for coming to rescue me and my papa, lord astartes!" 

Sevros knelt down and offered a hand to the child, ordering with a gruff "C'mere young one. Are you hurt anywhere? Cedric here's our Healer, and he's very good at it."

Lillius shook their head "I'm not hurt sir... Though I am kind of hungry. We've been running low on emergency supplies and papa says that we can only eat one ration bar per day, to keep the food lasting longer."

"That's a smart thing to do, but we do have some extra rations. Here you go, kid." Sevros responded, as he stood up with the young child in his arms, pulling a ration bar from his pack and handing it to the young one, taking several steps backwards so that Angrald and Dessias could do a check of the basement for any traps or shenanigans before Cedric went down and checked on the injured baseline human. 

After a brief but thorough check, Dessias gave Cedric a silent all-clear signal, and the young apothecary went to check on his patient.

~

The baseline human appeared to be middle aged - a little bit of grey in his hair. His breathing was even and shallow, but Angrald and Dessias moving around - along with his child speaking - had woken the man. His eyes were glassy and Cedric noted that he had a low-level fever.

"Hello, I am a Healer of the black templars. Where are you injured?" Cedric greeted, pitching his voice low, so as to not attract the attention of the child - Sevros and Rodron were doing a pretty good job of keeping the kid distracted. 

"They shot me in the gut, my lord, and stabbed me with knives. I played dead after they stabbed me, and the knife-ears eventually left me alone." The baseline human answered, voice also low. He pulled up his tunic, revealing a large, circular and infected wound. The energy-weapons that the knife-ears favored tended to leave cauterized burns that were equal parts blessing and curse to treat - especially after being neglected like this. Cedric could smell the necrotic flesh "I'm not sure it's a good thing that I can't feel the gut injury. My leg stopped hurting from where I was stabbed yesterday, and I'm... So cold." He pulled up his pants legs, revealing crusted-over bandages.

 Cedric warned his patient "I'm going to need to remove these bandages to see the wounds beneath. It's likely that the scabs have adhered to the underside of the bandages and you're going to bleed again. I will staunch the blood as best as I can."

"I understand, my lord." The human responded, gritting his teeth. He let out a low sound of pain and flinched as Cedric swiftly removed the bandages and revealed - 

Infected stab wounds. Blood began to ooze out of the center of the wounds, mixed with yellow-white puss that smelled absolutely foul.

Cedric could see bone in the deepest part of the penetrating wound, and the red, puffy infected flesh surrounding them was warm to the touch. He could also see something *wriggling* in the infected flesh and suppressed a gag. Several something wriggling. "Did you wash the wounds with water when you took cover?" On worlds like this, unless the water was boiled and the steam caught and collected, the water couldn't always be counted to be clean enough to be used on wounds. He could also see rashes radiating around the man's legs, originating around the stab wounds. He could trace the other's veins from the vivid marks on his body. 

"I did, my lord. It wasn't much, but it was what I could do. I've also been keeping pressure on the knife wounds with bandages." The baseline human responded through gritted teeth. "I... Figured it didn't look good. So, how do I look, my lord?"

Cedric hesitated for a moment. With weeks of treatment in a proper hospital, there was a good chance this baseline human would recover well.... But on a feudal world, being actively invaded by both greenskins and knife-ears? Considering the fact that the man had *maggots* festering in his stab wounds, and was quite probably septic? His chances... Weren't great. 

The baseline human chuckled wryly, patting one of his shoulders "I know that look. I've seen it before on other healers' faces. I proudly served in the local militia until age forced me to retire, have a child for the good of the community. Promise me you'll do your best to get my child to safety, aye? I've still got my old lasgun. I've heard greenskin patrols coming into this village to loot things occasionally. I'll draw them off while you get Lillius to safety."

"... I could amputate your legs and give you make-shift prosthetics. I can pack the gut wound and patch you up enough to be able to move without aggravating your wounds too much." Cedric offered, though part of him knew what the baseline human was suggesting was for the best. Even on prosthetics, he would slow them down dangerously.

The other's eyes softened a little, and one overly warm hand came up to gently pat his cheek "Oh, you're a good lad, my lord.  But I can feel the fever eating away at my mind, and I'm pretty sure that the knife-eared bastards put something on their blades as I've been hallucinating off and on for the past several days. All I ask is to be able to say goodbye to my child. I'll tell him that I'm going to be clearing a path."

"... If you are certain." Cedric responded, the bitter taste of defeat in his mouth. He briefly glanced at his brothers - most of whom were gathered around the child. Their enhanced senses would allow them to follow the conversation, and from the set of Dovo's shoulders, he knew what the sergeant of their squad had already decided. "Then I will not stop you. Your bravery does you credit."

"Bah, I'm being selfish. I want my child to survive, and they're much more likely to survive with you lads, then if they stay with me." He responded with a shrug. 

Cedric re-bound the man's injuries with fresh bandages, and helped him up to his feet.

Dessias set Lillius down, who immediately rushed over to their papa, hugging him tightly "So are you ready to go, dad?" They asked, a bright and hopeful grin appearing on their face "Lord Dessias was telling me all about how his older brothers have secured a base three days' run from here! We're saved."

"I've gotta help them keep the xenos from finding the base, kiddo. Their healer patched me up real well. You listen to the lords, alright? I'm going to be hunting xenos, to help protect you, and avenge your mama." The man explained, gently ruffling Lillius' hair. "Promise me you'll do what they say?"

"I...I... But papa, can't the lords astartes drive away the xenos? Why do you have to fight?" Lillius asked, tears beginning to fall down their face, clinging tighter to their parent.

"They've gotta protect you, and other civilians they come across during their rescue.  I volunteered to do this. Come now, no more tears. I'll see you again, I promise." The man soothed, pressing a paternal kiss to the top of the crying child's forehead.

Sevros came forward, kneeling down and carefully pulling the weeping child away from their parent "Come with us, young one. Your father needs to do his duty. For you. For the god-emperor."

Lillius wailed, kicking and flailing ineffectually in the young astartes' arms "NO! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO SAVE US! WHY DOES PAPA  HAVE TO FIGHT? I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I-"

To prevent the child from harming themself, or potentially attracting the wrong sort of attention, Cedric quickly injected the young one with a sedative that would keep them asleep for several hours, though there was a yawning pit of emotions that threatened to swallow him whole if he let it. 

Dovo ordered "We need to get moving... Thank you for your service, sir. May the god-emperor bless your shots."

"And may he bless yours." The baseline human responded with a nod and a grim smile, carefully telegraphing his movements over to the lasgun laying on an upper shelf in the basement. "I'll leave first, and draw the attention of any xenos who might be looking for trouble." With that, he left on shaking legs.

That was the last time that Cedric or his brothers ever saw that particular human.

[egrets-not-regrets]

That’s heartbreaking. Poor boys. It is interesting that Cedric chose this tactic, rather than be honest with Dessias as soon as his other brothers were out of the vicinity. Is it because he thought that Dessias would fight back?

Reaper

Author’s note: this is the fifth part of Cedric’s story. Previous. Next.

Warnings: major character death, murder, canon-typical violence, descriptions of body horror

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Summary: Cedric learns that small wounds can be devastating, even to Astartes if Chaos is involved.

"You… You're certain that it must be this way, sir?" Cedric asked his mentor, staring down at the sanctified blade that the much older Brother Apothecary had handed him. It was a master-crafted weapon, with a double-edged auramite blade, hilt and pommel. The hilt of the blade was made in the likeness of the God Emperor's sacred Aquila, and the young astartes could tell that the blade had been anointed with holy oils from the way it gleamed in the artificial light of one of The Sigismund's medical bays. The medical bay that Dessias, Dovo, Angrald, Rodron and himself had been quarantined within for the past three days, after Cedric had come to his mentor, asking for assistance with a puzzling set of symptoms and vital signs readings from one of his squadmates. "There is nothing else to be done?"

Brother Xonfried shook his head, reaching up slightly as he placed a gloved hand on one of his shoulders. "If we had allied witches, they might have been able to give him a little more time, but as we shun witches and burn them for their potential or actual Heresy… This is for the best. If we let things continue as they are, his soul will be corrupted by the poison that foul heretic stabbed into his system, and he'll twist into a mockery of all that he stands for, all that he wants to be. The poison is already affecting his mind, but his soul has yet to be tainted to the point where it won't rejoin the emperor's light. But every moment you wait, the more likely it is that his will and soul will be corrupted by the poison in his body, in addition to it starting to twist his body as well."

"… What do you mean by that, sir?" Cedric asked, his hearts lurching, eyes wide as he sternly reminded himself that he needed to listen closely. The temptation to plug his ears and ignore this warning from his mentor will not help his afflicted Brother.

"I've seen this particular Chaotic poison in use by foul cultists twice before. The first time it was used against a small population of mortals. The communal well had been tainted with it's poison. The rash on his legs and arms will turn into bony growths that will twist his body into fleshy vines that will sprout deceptively sweet smelling and beautiful looking flowers. He will seek combat with others, trying to inflict the poison on them as his mind and soul is further warped by chaos. He will find ecstasy in the pain and glory in the vile monster he has become. If left unchecked, this body and soul corrupting curse will seek out all of us. Flamers are effective against such a creature, but at that point, his soul will be lost to the God Emperor, having been corrupted by Chaos." Brother Alvros explained, forcing Cedric to keep looking him in the eye by catching the younger astartes' chin with the hand not on his shoulder. "That blade is meant to cut down those afflicted by deamonic poisons, so their body will not immediately corrode into a Chaotic mess once their soul leaves it. As the Apothecary assigned to his squad, it is your duty to cleanse him before he is corrupted by chaos."

"… Oh." Cedric managed out through the ten-ton weight that had suddenly landed on his chest and stomach. His eyes were getting blurry again, and with a titanic effort of will, he took in a deep breath. The dagger in his hands was deceptively light, considering what it was meant for. "I… I see."

"If you find yourself unable to do this, I will step in. But I will be… Disappointed. His mentor has been informed of his condition, and that the one who did this to him has already been killed." Alvros informed him, the hand on Cedric's shoulder tightening for several seconds as he spoke before relaxing again. "As apothecaries, part of our duties is to ensure that our brothers are able to seek out the Emperor's Light at the end of their lives… And certain circumstances, that means ensuring that they go to the Emperor's Embrace personally. Do you understand, Cedric?"

Cedric swallowed hard, closing his eyes for several seconds as he struggled with numerous emotions. He opened his eyes and nodded, before glancing away from his mentor, shoulders slumping a little "I understand, sir. I will. I will do my duty to my suffering brother, so that he is not corrupted by the forces of chaos… But I must confess that I will need to speak with one of the chaplains and likely seek absolution for… For some of the thoughts and feelings running through my mind, sir." He hated how small and weak his voice sounded. But… He'd so far been taught hundreds if not thousands of ways to protect and care for his brothers. The task set before him now felt like a betrayal of all of that, though his mentor would not ask this of him, would not set this test before him, were it not necessary.

Surely, he wouldn't.

Brother Apothecary Xonfried's eyes were gentle as he squeezed Cedric's shoulder again "Such thoughts and feelings are understandable. It is never easy putting down a loyal brother due to an unescapable curse or poison laid upon him by the foul witches that are set against the Imperium. I will arrange for you to speak privately with Brother Chaplain Renhardt once you have completed this task… And remember, every moment you tarry, the more likely he is to be corrupted beyond the blade's ability to purify upon death. Once he is dead, message me using this communicator." the older apothecary instructed Cedric, giving him the hand-held device.

"Yes sir, I understand. I'll… I'll explain to the group and then… Then send him to the God-emperor." Cedric vowed, voice trembling a little but his hands were steady as he walked to where his squad mates were currently sitting, as he had been pulled into a sound-proofed side room. His mouth was dry and his hearts ached… But he would do his duty to his brothers. He briefly squeezed the communicator before putting it in a pocket, as he suspected that he would need both hands to complete the grim task set before him.

~

"You're back! Hey Cedric, did they tell you why we've been stuck in quarantine for the past… However long we've been stuck in Quarantine for?" Dovo asked, looking up from where he was seated on a medical cot. He, Dessias, Rodron and Angrald were playing a card game, as they'd been very sternly told not to spar in the medical bay while they were under medical watch.

"… Why do you have that? The rest of us had all of our weapons - and armor - confiscated upon being put in time out." Angrald asks, gesturing to the auramite dagger in Cedric's hand.

The young apothecary couldn't suppress the full body flinch at the other's words, unable to look any of them in the eye. His mouth was so dry, the lights were so bright. His clothes were too tight and too restrictive and scratchy. Nausea and lightheadedness warred with his sense of duty, and the urgency that his mentor had spoken of "I… I-"

All four of them startled up to their feet and Rodron, who happened to be the closest rushed over to Cedric, reaching out and grabbing one of his shoulders "Easy! Easy. Slow your breathing, I think you're hyperventilating. Sit down. We're safe here, Ced. We're in space, on a battle barge, surrounded by our brothers in one of the medical bays. The only possible way we could be safer is if we were in our armor too." He started to rub circles into Cedric's back, a worried frown appearing on his face.

An ugly, awful sound threatened to claw it's way out of Cedric's chest, and the young apothecary shook his head, as his eyes burned. He blinked rapidly, feeling something warm and wet fall onto his cheeks. He took in a deep breath - there wasn't enough air in this room. Not enough air on the ships. By the Emperor's teeth, how was he going to tell them? Guilt and shame warred with his sense of duty. "I… Dessias the… You've been… Do you remember when you got stabbed by that chaos cultist?"

"Yeeeah? That was weeks ago. It was barely a cut, and apart from a weird rash on my leg, I've fully healed. I'm fine, so why are you freaking out so badly?" Dessias answered, a look of confusion appearing on his face.

"There was apparently a Chaotic poison on the blade. You're going to get worse, and it's going to… To corrupt your soul and damn you to be a plaything for the false gods… Unless… Unless you die before the cursed poison warps your body and twists your soul. I was… Given this dagger and… Ordered to ensure you wouldn't fall to the chaos forcibly corrupting you, brother."

Confusion was written all over Dessias', Rodron's and Angrald's faces.

Dovo's face was briefly confused before grim understanding dawned, given the way that the sergeant walked over to where Dessias had jumped to his feet, and pressed a hand to the other's shoulder. "You're going to want to sit down, Dessie. Angrald, Rodron, come with me. We need to give Cedric and Dessias some privacy."

"… Thank you, Dovo." Cedric murmured quietly, grateful beyond words that he didn't have to do this in front of the others. Watching Dessias stare in confusion as the other three left the main room to lurk in the lavatory was difficult enough. He really didn't want to make a spectacle out of this.

"So… Am I about to lose a leg? Is that what the dagger's for?" Dessias asked, looking curiously at Cedric, after the other three were out of sight. "I mean, I'm pretty sure I could rock a prosthetic leg. Brother-Sergent Mallius has two, and he's got a secret compartment built into one of them that holds a weapon, in case some fool manages to disarm him…. Uhhh… Ced… Cedric? Talk to me, brother. You've got a very strange look on your face."

Cedric shook his head a little "I… You're going to be losing more than a leg, Dessias. I asked if there was any other way, but Brother Xonfried says that… That what I'm about to do is the only thing that can be done." He wanted to ask for forgiveness, either Dessias' or the God-Emperor, but he had to keep in mind that this was for his own good. To protect their brothers. He had to do this, even as his hearts trembled before the task set before him.

"… Am I losing both of my legs, then? Ced, Cedric, where are you going with that dagger?" Dessias asked, a nervous edge to his voice, despite the smile plastered on his squad brother's face.

As Cedric approached Dessias, the other swung his legs back over the side of the bed and started to stand. Cedric cleared his throat and ordered "Get back on the cot, Dessias" In his most commanding tone of voice.

Dessias froze for several crucial seconds on instinct, having heard a tone of command, and all of them being drilled to obey, even in their sleep.

Those few seconds were enough time for Cedric to close the distance between the two of them. He shoved Dessias the rest of the way down onto the cot with the hand not holding the dagger - the latter not resisting as he had no idea what was coming - as the hand wielding the dagger flashed forwards and down with all his strength and speed, slashing open his throat.

Dessias gasped in shock, struggling as Cedric used his weight to pin the other to the bed, blood gurgling up in his mouth. "HEL-" The other started to yell.

Cedric covered the other's nose and mouth with the hand not holding the sacred dagger, keeping his voice low and quiet "You've been cursed by Chaos. I've been ordered to kill you before your soul is forcibly corrupted away from the God-Emperor's light. There is nothing else to be done, not even the strength of a witch's magic could do more than delay the worst of the transformations that would have warped your body, Brother." He could feel the tears trying to fall from his eyes again. But he needed to be clear sighted.

Dessias struggled beneath him, trying to shove him off.

Cedric reached over and pressed the button that automatically shackled an unruly patient to the bed with cuffs that extended and wrapped around Dessias' arms and legs. The other's healing factor was starting heal the gash in his throat, so the young Apothecary slashed Dessias's throat, deeper this time, before moving off of his still struggling body. He distantly noted that both of his hands were covered in blood, but there were other vital organs that the robes the other was wearing did nothing to protect against the sanctified blade in his hands. Both of his hearts were pierced in their upper and lower chambers. Cedric then deliberately counted Dessias' ribs, noting the way that his breathing was much faster and shallower, before he pierced each of his three lungs.

Stabbing his kidneys and spleen was next. The cold, clinical portion of Cedric internally wondered if he should remove Dessias' gene-seed now, or if it had been tainted by the chaotic poison that necessitated his brother's culling. The entire time, Dessias was sputtering and growling, struggling against his bonds, glaring betrayed and confused holes into Cedric's very soul. The wet, gurgling gasps eventually faded into silence. Cedric double and triple checked to make sure that Dessias was actually dead before pulling out the communicator and messaging his mentor "It is done, sir."

"Well done. Inform the rest of your squad that they are free to move about the rest of the ship, then clean yourself up and report to me. The morticians will handle the disposal of the body." Apothecary Xonfried ordered.

"Yes sir." Cedric's mouth responded. Cedric himself felt as if he was both thousands of miles away and, at the same time, far, far to present. His body straightened up from where he'd been leaning over Dessias' body and turned, heading to the same lavatory that the rest of his squad were waiting in.

~

"By the Emperor, are you okay? You're covered in blood!" Rodron spluttered, the young sniper having spotted Cedric come into the bathroom first.

"This isn't my blood. We are no longer in quarantine." Cedric heard himself say. "You should go, I'm sure that you'll be glad to finally get some more sparring practice in."

"… You sure you don't want us to help you out with…" Angrald gestured to Cedric, a worried frown on his face.

"I'm fine. I just need to clean up. Go." Cedric huffed, walking over to the sink and starting to wash his blood-soaked hands. The fluid was still warm. So, so warm.

"… We'll be in the usual sparring room, if you need anything." Dovo said, grabbing Angrald and Rodron "We'll be there for the next several hours. I'll… explain what happened to these two, and why."

"Thank you, sergeant. Your cooperation is much appreciated." Cedric's mouth said, confusing the shit out of two of his remaining squad mates as they were dragged off by Dovo.

Finally, a moment alone. To reflect, while he scrubbed his hands free of his brother's blood.

[egrets-not-regrets]

Oh Cedric… poor guy. The repeating line of “Astartes did not feel fear.” darn just broke my heart. He knew how badly wounded Sevros was.

Good writing so far!

Loss

Author's note: this is the fourth installment in Cedric's story. Prev. Next.

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Warnings: character death, canon-typical violence, wounds,

Summary: Fighting against the Tau takes an unexpected turn.

Another mission, another planet besieged by foul xenos. This world was a miserable ball of mud and rain, from what Cedric could tell, and he'd been on this world for several weeks, working alongside his brothers to rout out the blue bastards who had tried to claim this imperial world For the greater good. Bastards were expansionists and haughty bastards. They preferred to hide behind their turrets and guns like the cowards they were, fleeing whenever they could when in close-quarters combat. The blue bastards were taking pains not to target the civilian population as much as possible - which was... Surprising, given the fact that the other xenos that Cedric had fought against had no problems targeting civilians to try and bait out either members of the Astra Militarum or Astartes... In addition to creating truly gruesome and awful traps using said civilians as either bait, part of the trap, or oftentimes both.

Cedric would count that as a blessing from the god-emperor, and knew better than to question such a thing, as that could easily change. He dodged another hail of Lazer-fire, pausing for a moment behind the tree he had taken cover behind to check in on his brothers - Dovo was leading the charge, bolter in one hand, tower shield in the other to give himself and Dessias a bit of cover. His red-headed brother was right behind their sergeant, providing return fire, targeting the joints of the mechs that the blue bastards favored using in battle. Rodron had climbed one of the taller trees and was straddling one of the sturdiest branches, laying across it as he steadied his lasrifle, getting a bead on the enemy leader to fire on them when a good opportunity presented itself. Sevros and Angrald were also charging the enemy line, bolters up and firing tactically at their cowardly enemy. 

His five brothers were using their darkly painted armor and the density of the trees, alongside the deep shadows that the near constant rain provided them to keep the xenos off balance as to just where they were. Cedric, as an Apothecary, was in primarily white painted armor and stood out against the dark back-drop... Which meant that he drew the most fire. On the other hand, he made for a fantastic distraction, which Cedric was doing his best to provide as his brothers closed the distance between themselves and the enemy, as they were all primarily short-ranged fighters, though all of them were proficient with both bolters and the laser-based weaponry of the Imperium. 

The blue bastards had noticed that the six of them were encroaching on them - but as the local detachment of the Astra Militarum kept firing at them from the other direction, they were pincered on two fronts. The blue fuckers were the most prone to cutting and fleeing like the cowards they were, when the tide of battle turned against them, and, God Emperor willing, they would do so again. This was the six of theirs second mission as fully fledged new members of the Black Templars, and while there were older brothers providing air support and available for assistance if needed, this was a mission that they should be able to complete on their own.

Dovo, Dessias, Sevros and Angrald closed with several of the Blue bastards, the latter two switching from bolter to power sword as Dovo and Dessias provided supportive fire to keep the blue bastards from targeting them while they switched their weapons. Cedric rushed to follow his brothers into melee battle, Rodron providing them with excellent sniper cover. Rodron managed to topple their largest mechs by several well placed shots to the joints of the mech, causing several of the blue fuckers to panic. 

"FOR THE EMPEROR! FOR THE IMPERIUM!" Sevros roared as he lunged forward with his power-sword, the heavy two-handed blow cutting through the nearest enemy's armor as if it didn't exist, causing the xeno to choke on their own blood, staggering and sagging forward on the blade.

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" Angrald, Sevros and Dovo shouted back in unison, going after the nearest filthy xenos as all four of them began to cut their way through the enemy forces.

Cedric raced to join his brothers, switching from bolter to power-sword as well, neatly decapitating a blue xenos who had tried to sneak up on Dovo from the side "FOR THE EMPEROR!"

~

The five of them cut their way through Tau forces as the hours blended into days, with Rodron providing sniper fire and calling out changes in battle - like when another giant xenos mech tried to stomp on them - or when a group of xenos had pretended to be shot dead by the Astra Militarum detachment who were coming closer to melee combat at a slower pace than the small group of Astartes. Each of them had taken some minor damage - a few cuts and bruises here and there, but their armor had held up well, and their own abilities to duck and dodge the worst of the attempted strikes against them.

The blue fuckers were in full retreat, and Dovo had given the order to "Keep up the pressure - we don't want these xenos to think that just because they're tucking tail and running, it means that we'll just let them run away to fight another day uncontested."

"Yes sir!" Cedric, Angrald, Sevros and Dessias acknowledged.

A two-heartbeat later and Rodron called out over vox "Understood, sarge. I see a blue ship headed your way. It's about a klik out and it's got heavy weaponry of some kind on it. You should probably get to cover as I think they're going to target you if you're on open ground."

"Good spot, Roddie. You heard our sniper, fall back to the treeline for cover." Dovo ordered.

Some of the more brave - or stupid - Blues chased them all the way back to the treeline, only to be either cut down by Cedric or one of his melee focused brothers, or shot down by Rodron. 

The five of them barely made it in time, as the alien spacecraft roared overhead, weapons blasting down at them. Cedric rushed deeper into the woods for cover, realizing that he was holding his breath, turning to do a headcount after the roar of the ship's engines died - having landed to acquire their surviving ground forces. 

Dovo had already turned around, visor tilted in the direction of the enemy spacecraft, arms crossed over his chest, likely trying to come up with ways to either neutralize the ship or acquire it for their own purposes. Xeno technology was heresy to use long-term, but to use it against the xenos themselves in battle was allowed - so long as one properly repented to the chaplain later.  Angrald was being helped up to his feet by Dessias, having collided with the base of the tree accidentally during his combat roll. Rodron was still up in the tree, clearly watching the xenos through his scope and taking pot-shots at them to keep up the pressure. and Sevros-

...

Where was Sevros? Astartes did not feel fear. Astartes did not feel fear. And because Astartes did not feel fear, Cedric's breathing didn't become much faster as he did another two head-counts, coming up with one person short of their full squad. Sevros much just have rolled into a particularly thick and thorny bush (again) and needed assistance in wrenching his free of the local flora...

Sevros crawled toward them on his hands, his back a bloodied and burned mess, his legs limp as he dragged himself forward. Cedric Did Not feel panic as he rushed over to his brother's side, Dessias and Angrald helping him carry their injured brother further from where the xenos were frantically trying to pile into their ship. He immediately felt himself slide into a state of forced calm as his hands and mouth went into autopilot, ordering Angrald to help him remove the destroyed remains of Sevros' backback and armor. He began to clean and dress Sevros' extensive wounds - the other had taken a round that could have felled a Dreadnaught to the back, it was a miracle that he was alive, much less able to move at all. HE silently muttered a prayer that the god-emperor would see fit to allow Sevros to retain his ability to walk once he healed.

Cedric was wholly focused on his injured patient, and wasn't terribly surprised when the rest of his squad refocused on Other Things. His main job was to keep his brothers alive and intact enough to keep on fighting, which he was desperately trying to do. Sevros' breathing was getting shallower. He swallowed back a wave of Unnecessary Emotion as he continued to work diligently on patching up Sevros as best as he could. They'd trained together since first becoming aspirants and had survived so much. Cedric had no plans on losing his brother on some wet muddy rock to xenos. 

"Cedric." A voice called out.

He had to keep working on Sevros. The other's breathing was undetectable, but that didnt mean much. He was just sleeping, having passed out from the pain. He was going to be fine. Cedric was going to make sure of that.

"Cedric!" The same voice called out, much louder and much closer.

"Unless you are actively dying, please wait your turn to be patched up. I... I'm working on Sev right now." Cedric snapped back, not bothering to look up at whoever was talking to him. Maybe another stim shot, to keep Sevros' awake? The shcock of a wound like this could kill if it went to far.

"BROTHER-APOTHECARY CEDRIC!" The voice... No, Dovo, bellowed directly into his ear, startling the young medic to the point he nearly swung at him with a fist. "He... He's gone. You did your best, but a wound like that... Isn't survivable outside of a dreadnaught. You know that, as well as I do."

"But... But there's... There's got to be something in my pack to help him... I've just... I just need to find it." Cedric protested, his eyes stinging and blurry. He was rapidly blinking, trying to clear his eyes. 

"His hearts have stopped, and he hasn't breathed in minutes. That wound was too much for him. Would've been too much for any of us. The xenos have fucked off world. We need to report back to the mortal military commander, then we'll take him back to the ship for funerary rites." Dovo pointed out, his voice calm and even, the bastard "Are you going to make me order you to leave him?"

"... I'll need to take his gene-seed, since I've got... I've got the time. It's protocol." Cedric's mouth said. Internally he could hear something, someone screaming. He swallowed down the noise as his blood covered gauntlets flipped him over. Sevros' eyes were still open, but the light of life had left them. 

"... Right. Rodron, Dessias help Cedric recover the gene-seed and guard his body. Angrald, you're coming with me to talk to the mortals." Dovo ordered before leaving with Angrald.

Cedric's hands performed the surgery that he'd only seen done a handful of times and participated in twice, on much older brothers who had fallen in battle against the forces against the Imperium. Why was it so different now? He made sure that his hands did not shake until after the gene-seed was removed and safely placed in the stasis jar and nestled securely in his pack. He closed Sevros' eyes and stitched up the wound he'd made. Numbness and Emotions He Shouldn't Be Feeling battling for dominance inside of him.

[egrets-not-regrets]

Interesting start to Cedric’s story. Poor guy and his battle brothers will run into many a similar situation I’d imagine. Sometimes to be kind means doing something cruel.

Mercy

Author's note: this is the first part of a six part series. Next

Tagged: @egrets-not-regrets

Warnings: character death, mentions of torture, mention of child torture, infected wounds

Summary: Cedric is pressed to giving the Final Mercy to a badly injured civilian.

Cedric took in a deep breath, squared his shoulders and stepped into the drop pod he'd been ordered to report to. This was the first major engagement that the young Astartes was going to be participating in. The Imperial world that he was hurtling down to the surface of, the drop pod shaking a little from the force of gravity that gripped it causing him to shift a little, was beset by foul xenos - Drukhari, who were taking a perverse delight in torturing any human who was unfortunate enough to be found by their cruelties. The detachment of Astra Militarum on the planet had tried their best - and was continuing to fight against the evil witch-xenos, but needed the aid of the closest Astartes chapter in order to fully drive the bastards away.

Cedric had never seen any kind of Eldar before - beyond the holo-pictures and brief blurbs on news stations as a young child, and occasionally during his training as an Aspirant for the Black Templars. No matter the challenge set before him and his brothers in arms, they would take up the challenge and they would win. For the Emperor! For the Imperium!

~

It was nightfall when Cedric charged out of his drop pod, power-sword in one hand, blaster in the other. Thick black smoke choked the sky as the nearby village had been set ablaze by laughing xenos. The young apothecary lined up a shot as the slender being continued to laugh and stalk after several humans, each of whom had clearly been injured - their legs broken as they crawled on their hands and knees through the blasted out landscape. One of the humans spotted where he and his fellow Templar-Aspirants had landed and yelled out "My lords! Please, save us!" 

Dovo, who had been named squad leader for this mission growled into his vox "Agrald, Sevros, Rodron, aim for the xenos, try to kill it, or at least drive it off. Dessias, help Cedric find a spot with at least a little bit of cover to patch up the civilians."

A chorus of "Yes sirs!" came from Cedric and the rest of the squad as they immediately obeyed orders.

Cedric's eyes flicked from one blasted out pit to another, his training immediately kicking in "There's a copse of trees a klik and a half from our current location - but I suspect that's been left there as a lure by the xenos... And I'm not sure those civilians can make it that far. Not with how much they've likely already bled."

He was grateful for the internal vox messages, as the roar of a ship's engines blasted overhead, causing the six of them to duck and roll before popping up again - a friendly ship, given that they hadn't been shot at. 

Rodron called out over vox "Xeno down! To the civies, sarge?"

Dovo nodded a little "Yes, move quickly and carefully! These particular xenos like leaving traps that cripple and injure scattered around, as they enjoy the suffering of others. It may even give their witches power."

~

It did not take long for the six of them to get to the injured civilians. Dovo, Agrald, Severos and Rodron started to secure the perimeter as Dessias helped Cedric corral the civilians in one place for treatment. Two elderly baseline humans, four women, trembling and glassy-eyed, and a half-dozen children, none of whom were older than ten years old. The youngest was a four year old little girl, and in the best shape, having been hidden by one of her older brothers from the worst of the xenos' cruelties. Each of them had their legs and fingers broken. Many of them had been stabbed, shot and electrified by what looked like the business end of a cattle prod multiple times from the size and location of the burns.

They'd been tormented by the foul xenos for weeks judging by the infection that had already set into many of their wounds - the swollen redness beneath the skin, the foul greenish-yellow oozing puss that Cedric lanced with sterile needles, having administered just enough pain relievers to keep the civilians from screaming, without them going unconscious and forcing them to guard them for much longer... Additionally, this was only the beginning of what might be a weeks if not months-long battle, and Cedric knew that he needed to ration the supplies that he had carefully. 

"Please stay still while I set your bones, please." Cedric ordered levelly as he gestured for Dessias to hold one of the civilians down as he gripped one of their legs in his hands. 

The middle-aged human woman shook and whimpered a little "My... My lords what-"

Cedric cut her off, explaining with a touch of impatience "The bones in your lower leg have begun to heal, but they are improperly set, and will prevent you from walking properly. I will need to re-break and set them properly, for your own good. Afterwards, I will wrap them to help the bones stay in place. I have given you some painkillers to take the edge off."

"Y-yes my lo-AAAAH!"  The woman screamed as Cedric re-broke and set her tibia and fibula mid-sentence. 

His hands were steady as he used some of the tension-bandages in his pack to set her bones in place. He turned to the two elderly baseline humans, looking them both over critically. The man was feverish and had been showing signs of mental confusion. His breathing was fast and shallow, and as Cedric checked the civilians' legs and arms... Generalized swelling and sweating. Cedric swallowed hard, his stomach sinking a little. While he could treat what had afflicted this civilian... It would take quite a few of the supplies he had on hand, and -

There was another roar of engines and Dessias dragged him away from the badly injured elderly baseline human as the sleek, cruel shape of a drukhari landing vessel swooped low overhead. A half-dozen of their pitiless warriors dropped down onto the ground and stalked towards them.

While the rest of his squad immediately opened fire on the approaching Drukhari, Cedric returned to his civilian patients. The older man was in too critical a condition for him to work on him, not when most of the rest of the civilians also needed patching up and were in much better shape, despite their own broken bones.  May the god-emperor's light guide and accept his soul Cedric thought as he deliberately turned away from the older human man to work on patching up the teenagers and children. "Please keep as quiet as you can, xenos approach, and will likely try to close the distance faster if they know that you are beyond the shield-barrier my brothers are providing you."

"W-We'll try, m-my lord." One of the teenagers stuttered, tears running down her face as she held down one of her companions as he re-broke and bandaged their legs. The sound of bolter fire did help cover the sounds of pain and fear that left the baseline humans he tended to as best he could. Within minutes, the only one he had yet to fully tend to was the older human man... Who was currently shivering as a rash was spreading across his body. Cedric bowed his head for a moment as he checked the old man's vital signs, hearts sinking. "My apologies, elder. You need more help than I am able to give you."

The old baseline human looked at him steadily, nodding shakily. He sat up and said "I don't... I don't want to be left alive for the xenos to find, my lord. I-"

Dovo spoke to the squad over internal vox, so as to not panic the civilians "We need to move - the bastard xenos have a bunch of those twisted animal reinforcements of theirs. Cedric, are the civilians able to be moved at speed?"

"... Most of them, sir." Cedric answered honestly, keeping his voice steady. 

"Understood. Get the civilians capable of moving going. We need to get these civilians three and a half kliks to the north-east to the extraction point. Anyone who can't keep up will need to be left behind."

"To the Drukhari?! That's a fate worse than death, Dovo- I mean Brother-Sargeant!" Rodron spluttered, sounding equal parts horrified and unhappy. "Civilians aren't that heavy, surely we can carry anyone who can't move on their own?"

"We need to be able to shoot and cut down the enemies in our way, Rodron. Having your hands full of civilians increases the possibility of all of us being killed or worse." Dovo countered "Are you disobeying my orders?"

"Of course not, sir. I just-" Rodron spluttered, bristling a little.

Cedric suppressed a wince as he could hear the whole squad beginning to argue about what should be done. As the Apothecary assigned to the squad, it was his duty to tend to the sick and injured to the best of his abilities... And to grant them the emperor's final mercy, should that be needed. He turned to the elderly human man, bolter in hand as he murmured "May you bask eternally in the Emperor's light." 

The elderly baseline human nodded, a grim smile on his lips "Thank you, my lord. For not leaving me to the xenos."

Cedric nodded and fired once at the elderly human man's chest, exactly where his heart should be. The civilians' body jerked backwards with the force of the bolter round entering his body and the youngest of the baseline humans began to cry and whimper. He stood, holstering his bolter for a moment as he offered a hand to help the baseline humans up "We need to get moving quickly. There are more xenos encroaching on our position and we have an extraction point to get you to. But you need to get there on your own feet, while we keep the filthy xenos from inflicting more pain and misery upon you."

"Y-Yes my lord..." They stuttered, one of the teenagers timidly taking his offered hand, staggering up onto their feet wincing as their broken bones likely protested their weight. Cedric and the rest of his squad formed up around the small group of injured civilians, with Dovos leading them to the extraction point.