Choose Your Enemies, page 17
‘Tangling with the eldar doesn’t seem to make much sense to me,’ I said, and Amberley nodded, glancing down at the seething cloud of filth below us. Pelton was descending slowly, sticking to the traffic lanes, and I found myself looking around at the swarm of other flyers surrounding us, searching for more like the ones which had attacked me during my ascent. I knew how unlikely that was, of course, but I simply couldn’t help it; my innate paranoia had kept me alive often enough for me to indulge it now and again.
‘Which is what puzzles me,’ she said. ‘They were there, in just the right place and at just the right time to save your life. Then, instead of taking a pot-shot at you themselves, they broke off and fled.’
‘Which is not, I take it, typical behaviour for the eldar?’ Vekkman asked.
Amberley shook her head. ‘In so far as that phrase has any meaning at all, no, not really.’
‘You said the farseer you spoke to seemed to think I was going to do something significant,’ I said. ‘Maybe I just haven’t done it yet.’
‘That’s possible,’ Amberley replied, nodding thoughtfully. ‘Though I can’t imagine what it could be for them to go to all that trouble to save you from a couple of heretics.’
‘All that trouble?’ I echoed, a very uncomfortable suspicion beginning to coalesce. But we hadn’t been able to find any other plausible targets for the Vypers, and of all the fast-moving aerial unpleasantness in the eldar arsenal there was nothing better suited to shooting down the heretic air cars. ‘You think the only reason they risked running our blockade in the first place was to save my neck?’
‘I said it was possible,’ Amberley said, ‘not likely. For one thing, I can’t think of anything you might do that would make them take a chance like that.’
‘Me neither,’ I lied. I could think of an excellent one, but it wasn’t an idea I wanted to share. What if I was going to make some catastrophic strategic or tactical blunder which would ensure the success of their invasion? That would surely be worth the eldar taking a few risks to bring about. ‘Just how reliable is this Sambhatain’s prediction likely to be, anyway?’
Amberley shrugged, with the usual aesthetically pleasing results. ‘I couldn’t say,’ she replied, which was hardly the most reassuring thing I could have heard. ‘Farseers’ abilities aren’t quite the same as a human psyker with precognitive abilities. Rakel, for instance, seems to pick up sense impressions, which are generally hard to convey verbally.’ Which, as understatements go, ranked somewhere around asserting that orks have a tendency to testiness. ‘Farseers, on the other hand, seem to perceive potential timelines directly, like the threads of a tapestry, and nudge events towards following the one they see as having the most beneficial outcome.’
‘Then perhaps we should just take it for granted that they’re going to win, and concentrate on the real threat,’ Vekkman said. ‘We need to root out whatever taint of Chaos exists here while the planet is still in Imperial hands, and eradicate it while we have the chance.’
‘Excuse me?’ Amberley turned a frosty glare on her fellow inquisitor. ‘I’m not handing over an entire world to a bunch of pointy-eared pirates to go chasing a handful of headcases who haven’t done any real damage yet, and probably never will.’
‘You’re missing the point,’ Vekkman said, reining in his temper with a visible effort. ‘All your eldar can do is kill the bodies of the faithful, and send their souls to the Emperor’s protection. If the heretics summon another daemon, a truly puissant one this time, it will devour those souls, damning billions of them to perpetual torment, and that cannot and will not be allowed to happen. Decree Exterminatus is an option for a reason.’
‘No one’s decreeing Exterminatus against Ironfound!’ Amberley expostulated. ‘Its strategic and economic value is far too great.’
‘That would be the option of last resort, of course,’ Vekkman said. ‘But if anything were to justify it, a daemonic incursion would. Compared to that, the eldar are a minor irritation.’
‘A minor irritation with an invasion fleet about to make orbit, and every chance there’s an army tunnelling their way up to the main hab zone even as we speak,’ I said. I turned to Amberley. ‘Though if Sambhatain’s really nudging events their way, it does sound as though we’re frakked.’
‘It’s not quite as simple as that,’ Amberley said. ‘A farseer can influence the general direction of things, like send a squad of Guardians to reinforce a defensive line that’s about to give way, but they wouldn’t be able to guarantee that they’ll win once they get there.’
I nodded, taking what solace I could from that. ‘So his presence makes it more likely that the eldar will take the planet, but we can still hold them off?’
She nodded again. ‘In essence, yes. It just makes the job about ten times harder.’
‘Lovely,’ I said, trying to appear as though I was making light of the matter, but uncomfortably aware of how sour I was sounding in spite of myself. ‘Because it’s all looked so easy up until now.’
Understandably, that thought remained with me long after I returned to the command centre, which was infested by far fewer cogboys than the last time I’d seen it, although just as many troopers seemed to be bustling about, and brought Kasteen and Broklaw up to speed. They listened soberly to my account of the meeting, including Amberley’s part in it, which, if it came as a surprise, showed on neither of their faces.[122] Of our subsequent conversation with Vekkman, I of course said nothing.
‘I don’t like it,’ Kasteen said, once I’d finished my summary of the military aspects of the discussion. ‘That leaves us reliant on the Ironfound Defence for a heads up when the pointy-ears make their move in the underhive, and we’ll be playing catch-up after that. I’d rather take the fight to the enemy while we still can.’
‘Me too,’ Broklaw agreed. ‘If we send some recon units in, and find some indication of the line of their advance, we can deploy somewhere we can meet it and hold them off. One thing you can say for the underhive, it’s not exactly short of choke points.’ He turned to me. ‘Ciaphas, this is your area of expertise. What do you think?’
‘I think it’s worth a try,’ I said, reflecting that in a labyrinth as large and complex as the average underhive an entire army stood an excellent chance of strolling past our scouts without even being noticed. Which meant there was an even better chance of them failing to notice me. ‘But they’d need to go in on foot. The Chimeras would run out of manoeuvring room within a score of levels below the gates, and the Sentinels not long after that.’ Which was a pity, as our Sentinel squadron was our primary asset when it came to scouting, fast enough to outflank an enemy, and agile enough to move quickly even in close terrain. But the tunnels of the underhive would be too restrictive even for them.
‘On foot it is, then,’ Kasteen said. ‘What about the planetary defence force?’
‘What about them?’ Broklaw asked, his tone dismissive.
‘They’re patrolling down there anyway, and they know the terrain.’ She glanced in my direction. ‘Isn’t that what their general said?’
‘The upper levels of the underhive, at least,’ I agreed.
‘Good. Then we can leave that layer of defence to them.’ She nodded decisively. ‘Like we did with their counterparts on Drechia. If we get them to establish a proper picket line downgate, in territory they know, we’ll be able to handle recon in the lower levels sure we won’t run into any unpleasant surprises on the way back up.’ Seeing my mouth open to make the obvious rejoinder, she shrugged. ‘As sure as we can be, anyway.’ Which was not that sure at all, really, given the number of branching passageways an infiltrating force might still be able to exploit. Not to mention the fact that Amberley seemed pretty sure the eldar would be well up to the task of carving out new ones.
‘I’ll talk to General Porten,’ I said. ‘He seems competent enough,’ which was true, ‘and he’s definitely got the manpower.’
‘While you’re at it,’ Broklaw suggested, ‘why not ask if he can extend the patrols deeper as well? If they’re fortifying in depth below the gates, that would give them a natural forward base or two to send out recon sweeps of their own from. Then you can crack straight on with your eldar hunt in the lower levels.’ As I’d expected, it seemed everyone was expecting me to tag along with one of the recon squads we were going to send out – which, given how at home I was in environments like that, was hardly surprising.
‘I’ll be sure to mention it,’ I promised; and in the event, Porten obliged, which was just as well as things turned out. I wasn’t able to attend to the matter straight away, however, as at that point we were approached by a harassed-looking augur operator.
‘Ma’am, sirs,’ she said, sketching a hasty salute, the words tumbling over themselves with the urgency of her report. ‘We need you in the operations centre right away. The orbital batteries are engaging the eldar fleet in orbit.’
Editorial Note:
A typical lacuna now occurs in Cain’s account of events, since, as usual, he deems nothing which didn’t affect him personally worthy of record. The following extracts may, however, prove useful in placing his habitually self-centred narrative in a wider context.
From The Eldar: a History of Their Presence in the Ultima Segmentum, and Some Musings Upon Possible Means of Their Eradication, by Baltazar Thromp, 997 M41
Undeterred by the mauling they’d taken at the hands of the system defence force, the eldar fleet continued its relentless advance against Ironfound, showing no sign of dismay at the formidable defences arrayed against them. But the defenders were equally resolute, no doubt due, at least in part, to the presence of the legendary Commissar Cain, who, in one of the earliest recorded skirmishes of the siege, single-handedly repulsed an incursion by an eldar scouting party. Having failed to find any sign of weakness, the xenos interlopers fell back on sheer brute force, unleashing a storm of weapons fire against the ships deployed to meet them.
As before, they paid a heavy toll, the dauntless crews of the defending Imperial ships weathering barrage after barrage in the dogged defence of the home world they held so dear; but ultimately the sheer weight of numbers began to tell, the guns of ship after ship and orbital defence posts alike beginning to fall silent under the sustained pounding of the fiends from the void.
Ere long, the gaps in the defensive line which the heroes of Ironfound fought so desperately to keep closed began to gape wider, allowing the first invaders to break through and begin landing troops on the sacred soil of that beleaguered world.
Transcript of vid and voxcast address by Governor Fulcher.
Many of you will have heard the rumours of a small, limited incursion into our system by eldar pirates, chiefly in the Halo Autonomous Zone, which continues to repel them with great success. Perhaps because of this, a few have now ventured to Ironfound, where no doubt they anticipate easier pickings.
Needless to say, this is a hope in which they are to be profoundly disappointed. The Ironfound Defence Force has the matter well in hand, supported, I’m pleased to say, by an Imperial Guard regiment which happened to be passing through the system on its way to its next deployment: a regiment led by none other than Commissar Cain, whose valour and dedication to duty are renowned throughout the sector, if not the entire segmentum. It may even be true to say that his fame extends across the Imperium itself.[123]
At the moment the enemy are concentrating their efforts, entirely fruitlessly, against Holdvast, which continues to shrug off their attacks. This means, of course, that the vast majority of you are in no danger at all, although your local defence force will be on a heightened state of readiness as a precaution.
If you are resident in Holdvast you should notice no disruption to your regular routine either, although I would ask you to remain vigilant for anything out of the ordinary, and report it to your shift supervisor, hab zone superintendent, or directly to the Prefecture or planetary defence force watch house closest to your location.
You may also notice the occasional troop movement, and I would ask you to assist our heroic defenders in such cases by ensuring that they can pass by unimpeded.
Let me conclude by assuring you all that this matter will be speedily resolved, and the pointy-ears sent packing in no uncertain terms. The Emperor Himself stands with us, and against Him nothing can prevail.
FIFTEEN
To his credit, Porten lost no time in deploying the troops we’d asked for to the higher downgate levels, creating a comfortably deep buffer zone which left the 597th free to act as a mobile reserve to counter the periodic assaults of the eldar deploying from orbit. Kasteen stuck to her original decision not to assign any of our units to the outer surface, where the toxic air and poor visibility would have left us at a distinct disadvantage, but the xenos seemed relatively uninterested in attempting to land large numbers of troops at this early stage of the campaign in any case, preferring instead to contest the skies with the steadily dwindling number of local aircraft capable of intercepting them and make the kind of hit-and-run strikes we’d become so familiar with on Drechia. The prime targets for these were, of course, the defensive batteries which would have taken a severe toll of any attempt to invade en masse.
‘They’re trying to soften us up before landing the transports,’ I explained to Amberley as we made our way through the echoing bustle of one of the lowest of the docking ports. That was the most obvious interpretation of their strategy, anyway. ‘Once they’ve neutralised the defences they’ll start bringing the troops down, and mount a full-scale assault with their heavy stuff.’ And Throne alone knew what that would mean. Titans, probably, given the size of their target, which meant the sooner I was down in the underhive with nothing more threatening to worry about than eldar on foot the better I’d like it. Which was why I’d elected to meet Amberley and her people here instead of in the command centre, now a couple of hundred levels above our heads.
‘How long’s that likely to take?’ Amberley asked, raising her voice a little over the growling of vehicle engines, the unrelenting clamour of the adjoining foundries and the voices all around bellowing and acknowledging instructions.
I shrugged. ‘That depends on how determined they are, and the losses they’re willing to risk,’ I said. ‘But no more than a week, I’d say. After that, it’ll be raining eldar.’
I glanced around, belatedly wondering if we’d been overheard, but fortunately I hadn’t been; the ambient noise was too great for that. I resolved to be a little more guarded in future nevertheless. The civilians around us seemed jittery enough as it was, and who could blame them?
‘Where’s your transport?’ Amberley asked, and I gestured to the sturdy Chimera parked in one of the loading bays.
‘Over there,’ I said. ‘Where’s yours?’
‘Flicker’s parking it,’ Amberley said, glancing around as if expecting to see the air car she’d arrived in still floating somewhere above our heads. ‘There’s an abandoned access tunnel nearby, where no one’ll disturb it.’
‘Pelton’s coming too?’ I asked, a trifle disconcerted. I’d been under the impression that Amberley would be the only one tagging along on our scouting trip; with her chief bodyguard there too, not to mention the squad of Valhallans Jurgen and I had brought with us, the Chimera was going to be uncomfortably crowded.
Amberley nodded. ‘Plus Mott and Zemelda. This is an Inquisition matter. You and Jurgen are just here as Militarum observers, officially anyway.’
Which put rather a disquieting perspective on things. I’d been counting on a squad of warm bodies to hide behind if things went ploin-shaped.
Before I could muster a reply, however, the floor beneath my boot soles shuddered, my ears rang, and a blast wave all but knocked me from my feet. Amberley and I braced ourselves against a tsunami of panicking civilians, and we both drew our sidearms instinctively.
‘You! What’s going on?’ I demanded, grabbing a random panicker as he surged past.
‘The lock’s breached!’ The fellow indicated a wall of noxious fog in the middle distance, billowing into the huge chamber. ‘The xenos are coming!’
He twisted free of my hand and fled, joining his bleating brethren in a concentrated rush for the exit tunnels.
‘And the Guard are already here,’ I tried to reassure any of his compatriots in a fit state to listen, but that seemed to be precious few of them. I tapped the comm-bead in my ear. ‘Incoming. Sounds like jetbikes.’ I turned back to face the slowly encroaching fog bank.
‘On our way, commissar,’ the welcome voice of Lieutenant Grifen responded, ‘ETA three minutes. Can you hold that long?’
‘Looks like we’ll have to,’ I said, as the squad of troopers with me disembarked, levelling their lasguns, and the Chimera’s gunner rotated the turret.
‘How about you?’ Amberley voxed her entourage.
‘Five minutes at least.’ Pelton sounded faintly breathless. ‘We’re on foot.’
‘They’re not,’ Amberley said, and opened fire with her bolt pistol. A trio of green-and-purple jetbikes burst from the fog bank, looping around the ceiling, firing as they came. Everyone else still in the area reacted in the usual manner of civilians suddenly finding themselves in mortal danger, screaming and milling around for a moment before cowering in whatever bolt-holes they could find, where they began swearing, weeping, or whining to the Emperor for protection depending on their temperament.
The troopers with me reacted rather more positively, opening fire with their lasguns and the Chimera’s heavy bolter, with the usual lack of effect given the speed and agility of their targets.
‘Look out!’ I yelled, as the lead jetbike turned lazily and began a strafing run across the width of the cargo bay. The troopers needed no urging, having seen enough of their comrades chewed to pieces by the fast-moving flyers’ heavy shuriken cannon on Drechia, and hunkered down, returning fire doggedly from behind whatever cover came to hand. I lost no time in seeking refuge behind a handy servitor, which went on stacking crates with single-minded diligence until a hail of the lethal spinning discs severed a power line and a couple of major muscle groups, whereupon it began to twitch uselessly, leaking blood and lubricants all over my greatcoat. Amberley, however, was not so lucky, being caught in the open while the razor-edged projectiles lacerated the air around her.
