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Aegis
Chapter 60: Catching Up

Chapter 60: Catching Up

"Yasha?" you manage to croak, your throat parched with thirst.

The black robed figure turns, handing you a glass of water as you sit up on your bed. "She will live, Wanderer. As will you, for the moment."

You freeze, the glass halfway to your lips. You know that sing-song voice. Slowly you take a sip of water, letting your brain catch up with reality. "Who are you, Eldar? And why are you here?"

The Eldar has turned to face you fully, and pulls back its hood to reveal a too-pale face with bleached bone hair and knife ears. "I am Ariavari, and I am here because of the damage that bitch Kamas inflicted. What do you remember last?"

You take another sip of water, "running for the Swallow. Kamas shooting me, shoving a metal scarab in my pocket, and vanishing."

Ariavari stares at you hard, and you feel ghostly fingertips stroking your head. "You remember nothing of the last three months then."

You shake your head slowly, "I had no idea that it has even been three months. I probably have a pile of paperwork and reports to catch up on."

Ariavari nods to the side table, piled high with neatly sorted dataslates. "You do Wanderer. But first, I have one question for you. What did Kamas want of you on Vrenna?"

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You think hard, the fingertips ghosting down to massage your shoulders. "It wanted me to free its sister."

The fingertips vanish. Ariavari's voice has gone low and hard, "elaborate."

You take another sip of water, your throat starting to feel human again, and begin your recounting. "I first encountered Kamas in the HJG-1034 system, specifically on the Gibli shipyard. I had been hired to convey a scouting party. Their objective was to figure out what had happened to the shipyard. Mine was to get them there and back out again. Unofficially, I was also investigating the chance of salvaging a mostly completed ship, While the scouting party was aboard the shipyard itself, I was aboard that ship with a working party. We had reached the bridge and activated the ship's sensors when everything broke loose.

The sensors reported seventeen thousand 'automatons', whatever they are, and the leader of the scouting party immediately called for the remainder of his party to extract. They got back to the ship, and we cleared the station before detonating its hydrogen reserves. Kamas put in an appearance at this point, broadcasting a transmission before teleporting out, if the warp flare was anything to go by.

"I didn't actually see it until it stepped from the Swallow and blew my leg off. It told me to find its sister and set her free and put the scarab in my pocket. It said 'When you awaken, so will this. It will give you everything I know of her condition and location.' before stepping through a doorway in the middle of the air and vanishing."

Ariavari hisses out a long breath, "I have an interest in the same individual as Kamas. If you give me the scarab, I will do my best to keep it away from you."