Predator 'Fydiaz', Disciples of Be'Lakor
Kommenkos waited, the engine of his Predator ran idle creating a low-level noise that his enhanced senses blocked out. Staring out of the vision ports of the cupola of the turret he watched the ruins before him, waiting for the Imperial Ar-... Imperial Guard armoured patrol to roll past. Scout-cultists had said that a Salamander Command Vehicle and Two Chimera APCs come past this point at least three times a day.
He had chosen perfectly, parking his vehicle mostly within a terraced housing structure, as if it had suddenly diverted into it to escape an attack and then had been disabled. He then prepared his ambush further by taking down any walls or fencing that would impair his field of vision and field of fire. Being a former member of the Iron Warriors, he knew how to keep a structure standing whilst also breaking it apart.
Looking around, the last echoes of humanity within him stirred, this was once a home. Noticing a little pictograph on a wall, damaged now. The glass was cracked over one of the adults in such a manner to obscure them, the other a woman with a beaming smile, in front of them two children. One small boy with a mischievous grin and one girl. Dark brown hair, blue eyes.
'Kommen', he heard a voice distantly say within his mind, 'Kommen'. A memory surged into his mind, a memory from a time before his superhuman form, back on Olympia, he was young then. He was outside the walls of Lochos, in the fields below them, under a tree chasing a girl. A sonic boom overhead caused him to slow, he looks up to see two Lightning Strike Fighters fly overhead. He looks back at the girl who is stood before him now, she says 'Kommen', he reaches out to say something but the words are replaced by muffled noises, she smiles opens her mouth as if speaking but his memory has forgotten what was said. But the memory of emotion is still there, joy and sadness intertwined. She cries, her blue eyes pierce his mind and her name 'Fydiaz' is the only thing he remembers saying. Then pain, memories of combat training, implantation, surgeries, indoctrination swallow his mind and bring him back. Lochos burns in his mind, their rebellion failed. Perturabo decimated and enslaved the population, those who resisted were killed. He remembers finding Fydiaz, in a home like the one he is stood in now. She is dead, alone, but in her hand she holds a picture of a younger version of her and a boy, with a little 'IV' emblem in the corner. He remembers his dread realisation, the boy is him. She never forgot about him, both his hearts sank. That was the day he ceased to serve Perturabo.
He snapped back to the present, turned around and got back into his tank. The Hellwrights had bound the souls of his former crew to the machine spirit, enabling it to perform almost autonomously, which allowed Kommenkos to fight and hunt alone. Firing the weapons was as simple as thinking about it as his bionics allowed him to be directly wired to his vehicles with the views from the sights on the weapons were lit up on hololithic displays for him to see.
He saw the three vehicles approach and angled his weapons accordingly, the lascannons ruined the front and rear vehicles of the patrol with the latter vehicle, a Chimera, exploding in a ball of flame. The Predator Autocannon tore into the remaining vehicle, the other Chimera, taking a set of tracks out and disabling the turret. As the rear hatch opened, guardsmen charging out, Kommenkos fired the havoc missiles. They screamed through the air and detonated on the doomed troopers, shredding many of them. He opened up with the Autocannon again, finalising the destruction of the Chimera and ending the survivors.
Kommenkos surveyed his battlezone, the guardsmen were dead or dying, three vehicles taken out, they didn't have time to react. He closed his eyes, allowing himself to try to remember Fydiaz once more. His training had removed all the other memories of his previous life, his life as a child, before the Ascension. He tried in vain to recall her face, but all he could see was her dark hair and those piercing blue eyes. His brain tried to search for an emotion that wasn't there anymore, just anger and bitterness remain.
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I had such fun with building this tank and I am already thinking of plans for the second predator (a Deimos Infernus pattern). So stay tuned.