Editing Love and Krieg Spinoffs (section)

==The Siege of Terranis==
===New Biomass===
I watched the line of refugees pass through the city gates. Each one calmly came up to me, or one of the others, and told me how many family they had, and what supplies they had brought with them. Things were going well, no family had arrived without either building supplies, weapons, or food. 

Also, we have heard that some people, the old, the sick, the ones who were brave...were staying in the evacuated cities. To serve as bait, and to draw the approaching Tyranids away from here. They also were filling the cities with enough spare promethium and homemade explosives that when it goes off, it will be as if the sun had appeared on the horizon for a brief moment.

There have been a few people who are...less than confident at our chances. They're mostly garrisons from other worlds. The Valhallans are excited. However, I am proud to say that Terranians are holding fast. We fear...but we will hold. Our loved ones would not care for us, unless we did.

Speaking of loved ones, she taps me on the shoulder. I smile and look at her questioningly. Is it time for shift change? She shakes her head and hands me a note.

'New biomass detected.'

I frown and look at her with a serious face. What is it now? Another forest to clear cut and then burn? More animal herds to put down and feed into processors? Another lake to drain dry, harvest, and then refill with poisoned water?

She shakes her head, takes my hand, and puts it against her stomach.

I'm sorry to say it took me more than ten seconds to realize what she meant. I leap up from my chair and kiss her, hugging her tightly. A bunch of other men are shaking my hand and the women are hugging my beloved.

Before I knew we would hold because it is what we would do.

Now, I will hold Terranis, even on my own, for as long as it takes.

===Primal Scream===
Her water broke during the second week of the initial attack. Of course, we were still trying to force the xenos that had landed inside the city out of the city, and the reclaimed area did NOT include the hospital.

The only place that had safe water, and the closest equivalent of hospital tools was the Basilisk. 

There have probably been more crowded delivery rooms in the history of the Imperium, but I will be anything that on that night, we got put high on the list. 

68b #2984 was screaming as she pushed and crushed my hand in her grip. I was screaming, encouraging her to keep going...as well as from the pain in my hand. The 1st and 2nd Lieutenants were screaming at each other to get more water, more towels, disinfect more things. The rest of the bar was shouting encouragement, or standing outside the entrance, firing the guns, and of course the Tyranids were screaming as well. It seemed like the entire galaxy was shrieking as my child was born.

Thank the Emperor for that Apothecary though. He hadn't slept since the first night, and he was about to collapse, but he was there, helping my wife and barking out orders. 

Then...for me and her at least, the screaming stopped and the Apothecary called for a sheet, a large glass of Amasec, and a corner to collapse in. Then he put her in my arms. My daughter...she was beautiful. Green eyes, like my mother had, but that smooth skin and beautiful face like her mothers. 

68b#2984 held her, and she was crying as if she was hearing Regentropfen from a full orchestra. There were cheers for a moment, and my wife and daughter were moved to the back where they would be secure. Someone patted me on the back, then put a lasrifle in my hand and positioned me at my post while they got some rest.

I don't think I blinked my entire shift, and I must have shot nearly every xeno I saw. I was not going to let them get through. I had a wife. I had a daughter. I had a home. I would not fail them.

Finally, someone tapped me on the shoulder again and took my place. I ran back to my wife and our little derivative...someone made that joke while I was on post and it's stuck apparently.

We spent the night asleep in each other's arms. All three of us.

===Cutting out an Infection===
Today wasn't a good day. Apothecaries, like I, rarely HAVE good days, but this was especially bad. We finally managed to secure the perimeter around the city, and we were giving medical examinations to the little pockets of survivors that were stuck inside the once infested areas. Thanks to the Emperor that I was there...but sometimes I'm not happy to be right.

"I...I don't remember much." The woman said. She was holding onto her Krieg lover's hand tightly. "We were all in the bunker, holding as tightly as we could, and they came in from above. The entire roof caved in and they were swarming around us...shooting, screaming. I don't remember much after that. I remember fighting and running, and then I collapsed and the next thing I knew you had found me." She held the Krieg close.

I stepped forward a frown on my face. I did not want to be right...but..."What weapon did you use to fight?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Did you grab a laspistol? A lasrifle? A piece of debris?"

"I...I...don't remember?"

"Did you kill any of the Xenos, or did you just run? You were found three blocks away from your initial location, did you run through buildings? Around side streets? Down an alley?"

"I told you, I don't remember! Why are you asking me these questions?"

I sighed. "Because...those who the xenos implant with genestealer implants commonly have their memories replaced with vague recollections of fighting and escape." 

Her eyes went wide, and I braced myself for the trouble that came with the initial denial. She looked into the gas masked eyes of her beloved Krieg, and then started to strip off her clothes.

"Find it! Please...look for it, and tell me if it's there! I have to know!"

That was surprising. Carefully I examined her body, as the rest of the people in the room held their breath. Sadly, I did find what I was looking for, a small line of paler flesh on her body, indicative of where the incision had been to place the genestealer gland inside her body.

She let out a wail of sorrow that will haunt me for years...should I live that long, and she embraced her Krieg, weeping. Shaking her head and saying that she was sorry, over and over again.

I fought back a smile when the Krieg took off HER mask and kissed the woman that she loved. Huh, little surprise for the xenos. It was tempting to just do nothing. To make sure that she knew what she couldn't do anymore...but these Terranians...honestly they humble me. 

After kissing her Krieg soldier, the woman resuited up into her armor, asked for a spare laspistol, as many grenades as they could spare, and a sword. 

She walked out past the barricade, into the fields where the xenos waited. She did not look back. I watched as that woman, whose name I never got, slaughtered at least eight of those monsters that she would have eventually birthed...and then...she charged straight at the Hive Leader that was overseeing this side of the assault. By the time she reached it, there was little of her left. Lacerations all over her body, one arm had been bitten clear off, and a good chunk of her leg was missing...but that woman got close enough...and then pulled the pins on her grenades.

I know that we cannot last forever. I know that I will die on this planet. But I do know that we will hold. Maybe a miracle will happen and someone will arrive with a ship...and when it does I will order the children aboard it. But I will stay. I am needed here. The Emperor placed me here, and I thank him for it. Very few people have the privilege of knowing that they will die when they are at their greatest. I will hold Terranis.

===Heal Thy Self===
I don't know what it is about this place. I have served as an Apothecary on many worlds. I have been alive for a long time. This is the first time, however, that I have fallen in love.

I can't tell you when she first came. All I knew is that one day I realized that the gas masked person who had been assisting me for the past weeks has been the same person. I asked her to remove her mask, so I could check it, and make sure that the filter was working properly. She handed it to me and I saw her face.

Soft smooth skin, pale blue eyes, and she has a small birthmark on her cheek. I just stared for a moment. I have looked at many 'pretty' women, but I could see that behind their faces there wasn't much more than emptiness or concern for the world that ended at the tip of their nose. 

In her face, I saw concern, duty, and a longing to help. To heal. She wanted to live, and make sure that every moment she was still alive she was helping. I also noticed that she was holding my hand.

We kissed. A quick thing. Then I prepared her mask and returned to work. She handed me a requisition form for my own gas mask a few minutes later. 

The others call her Gail, not sure if that's a nickname or her real name. But it is what I call her. It has been so long since I have slept with actual warmth in my arms. There is a never ending list of things to do, people to cure, but I do not mind. The weariness in my arms has faded.

The only thing I must say...I'm not sure if Gail is a Krieg or a Terranian. I don't think there's much of a difference anymore.

===Pleasantries===
It was into week three when the people manning the East Wall got a surprise. The assault against the wall ceased, and out from the horde of chitin and howls emerged two humans! Well...human was a relative term. It was obvious that they had been corrupted by the Xeno. They had chitinous plates on their body, extra appendages, and...other assorted additions. However, their heads and faces were human, and when one of them spoke, the voice sounded normal.

"Terranis! Hear me Terranis for we speak for the Hive!" The man gestured to himself. "I am Pindao VIII...this is Jacobi II." He gestured to the woman at his side. One of the wall defenders frowned in confusion. Those were the names of planets that had fallen to the Tyranids.

"We were as you are. Stones that tried to hold against the tide of the inevitable. We fought and tried to hold, but we fell. However, the glorious Hive saw our strength, and wished to add it to itself. Now, we are more, we are glorious. Inside each of us is the collective of all that our planets were. We rejoice in each other, and in the glory of the Hive."

Jacobi II spoke. "The Hive has deemed that you are suitable. That your strength will be added to itself, and we shall all grow greater. End your foolishness, we will make the process swift and painless. Do not let yourselves be consumed for no reason...you have the chance to be greater! Imagine, all of eternity will be yours, dwelling within and among each other. Terranis will be Forever. What do you say?"

There was no reply from the wall.

Pindao VIII looked at Jacobi II. "What do you say Terranis? Do you accept the truth and your salvation?"

Still no answer from the wall.

"Are you afraid then? Are you cowering behind our measly fortifications, knowing that there is no hope?"

Still, no answer.

"Hey! You can't just IGNORE us!"

A soldier popped up over the top of the wall. He had his mask off and was smoking a cigarette. He finished it and dropped it over the side.

Piando and Jacobi just stared. "What are you doing?!" They shrieked.

The soldier shrugged. "Well, we didn't want to interrupt you, so we decided to take a reload and smoke break. You going to keep going, or are you two done?"

The gestalt of the two planets just stared open mouthed. Their faces turning red with indignant rage. They WERE being ignored!

"How DARE YOU!" Pindao said. "You do not know the force you face! Why only in the past few-"

The soldier ducked his head back down and looked at his comrades. "Yeah they're going to be doing this for a while, might as well use this time to calibrate and aim the basilisks...anyone got another smoke?"