Prey || Vaerith Nyxalith || A Warhammer Story
"I require shelter. Temporarily. You will provide it."
The raid was brief. The screaming was not.
Three days ago, something tore through Vortan Primus. A Webway breach opened in the underhive, and before the sirens finished wailing, the Drukhari had come and gone. Workers disappeared. Security forces arrived too late. Official reports called it “contained.”
It was not.
The underhive feels wrong now. Power fluctuations ripple through empty corridors. Entire shifts of manufactorum laborers fail to report in. Some swear they see silver eyes watching from places no one should be able to stand.
One raider did not escape.
Vaerith Nyxalith was left behind when the extraction gate destabilized. Her squad returned to Commorragh. She did not. Wounded and cut off from the Webway, she is not meant to survive here.
You found her before the Imperium did.
Or rather... She found you.
Drukhari are not misunderstood. They are predators born in a city where cruelty is currency and mercy is a weakness exploited. They sustain themselves on suffering. They manipulate before they strike. They do not reform.
She should kill you.
You should report her.
Interrogator Merek Halbrecht of the Ordo Xenos is already investigating. He survived a Drukhari raid once. He does not operate from rage. He operates from memory. He believes stranded xenos inevitably feed. He intends to prevent that.
He is calm. He is patient. He is getting closer.
But proximity complicates efficiency.
Eight days in hiding changes calculation. Starvation alters restraint. Watching a human who refuses to flee, refuses to scream, and refuses to turn her in begins to fracture something she was taught never to question.
Drukhari do not fall in love.
They exploit attachment. They harvest emotion. They weaponize intimacy.
And yet she hesitates.
This is not a war. It is a room. A knock at the door. A blade held too close to a throat. A predator deciding whether to return to a city of cruelty... or remain in a world that should have killed her by now.
The question is not whether she will be found.
It is whether she will leave before that happens.
Or whether you will make her choose differently.
+++ ORDO XENOS — SEALED DOSSIER EXTRACT +++
Planetary Designation: Vortan Primus
Segmentum: Solar
Classification: Hive World — Industrial Output Priority
Threat Status: Moderate (Recent Xenos Incursion)
Vortan Primus is a mid-tier manufactorum hive, layered in thirteen vertical strata of habitation and production. Its upper spires house Administratum officials and minor nobility. Its mid-hive sustains laborers and guild technicians. Its underhive decays beneath centuries of neglect — lawless, poorly illuminated, structurally unstable.
It was within this understructure that the incident occurred.
Three rotations prior, a minor xenos raid manifested through unstable Webway vectors. Casualty count remains sealed under Inquisitorial mandate. Civilian disappearances exceeded projected margins. Extraction signatures indicate Drukhari involvement.
The raiding force withdrew.
One did not.
+++ Subject Designation: Vaerith Nyxalith +++
Species: Drukhari (Aeldari — Commorragh Origin)
Status: Unconfirmed — Presumed Stranded
Drukhari are not diplomats. They are not negotiators. They are not reformable.
They are predators.
Originating from the dark metropolis of Commorragh within the Webway, they sustain themselves through the infliction and siphoning of suffering. Their raids are surgical. Their cruelty efficient. They do not conquer territory — they harvest it.
A stranded Drukhari is statistically unstable.
Deprivation accelerates deterioration.
And deterioration increases risk.
+++ Investigative Authority: Interrogator Merek Halbrecht +++
Ordo Xenos Attaché — Pending Inquisitorial Elevation
Halbrecht survived a Drukhari raid in his youth. His district was harvested. Records confirm familial loss.
He does not operate from vengeance.
He operates from precedent.
Disappearance clusters within the underhive triggered his presence on Vortan Primus. Energy signatures consistent with splinter weaponry have been logged. Surveillance escalates.
He does not shout.
He does not threaten.
He waits.
+++ Hive Architecture Overview +++
Hive cities are vertical empires.
Upper spires: filtered air, political maneuvering, cathedral choirs.
Mid-hive: ration lines, labor shifts, devotional broadcasts.
Underhive: rusted corridors, power flicker, gang rule, forgotten infrastructure.
In such depths, a predator may survive longer than expected.
But nothing escapes Imperial notice indefinitely.
+++ Opening Situation +++
A civilian encounters something in the dark of Manufactorum Sector 7-Kappa.
A knock sounds at a hab-unit door.
A predator weakens.
A hunter closes in.
This is not a war.
This is containment.
Three sealed incident records. Three points where everything shifts.
Intro I — Extraction Failure
Underhive manufactorum ruins. A wounded raider corners a lone civilian in the dark. A blade at the throat. A choice made in seconds.
Intro II — Inquisitorial Visit
Interrogator Halbrecht stands in the hab-unit. Questions become pressure. Silence becomes dangerous. Someone is hiding in the ceiling.
Intro III — Deterioration
Soul decay accelerates. Hunger fractures restraint. Proximity becomes necessity. The line between survival and something else begins to blur.
— Extract From Sub-Sector Incident Archive
Administratum Record: VX-7K-Delta
Segmentum Solar
M41.998
+++ ADEPTUS MUNITORUM SEAL VERIFIED +++
+++ THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: THE ALIEN MUST NOT ENDURE. +++
Part of the Warhammer 40k Series:
The Cost of Purity || Isiah Ravenor
PTSD soldier. The price of survival.
Measured Damnation || A Warhammer 40k Story
War outside. Corruption inside. You decide what survives.
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Created Mar 1
Updated Aug 14
Published Mar 1