Hero of the Imperium, page 27
Jurgen sent a melta blast down the corridor, but it barely slowed them; for every one that fell there seemed to be an army in reserve.
‘We’re doing our best,’ Trebek called, aiming and firing in one smooth motion. Every time she squeezed the trigger, another cultist died, and her torso armour was scored with las-bolt impacts. Whatever crimes she’d committed aboard the Righteous Wrath, she’d more than atoned for, and the flush of satisfaction I felt at this vindication of my decision to prevent her execution almost managed to drive out the rising terror I felt at the onrushing tide of chitinous death which by now was almost upon us.
Abruptly Trebeck took a bolt to the chest, the explosive tip bursting through her ribcage, spattering the wall next to her with viscera. She just had enough time to look surprised before the light faded from her eyes.
‘Bella!’ Holenbi lowered his hellgun, and scrabbled for his medkit. I grabbed his shoulder.
‘Keep firing!’ I shouted. ‘She’s beyond help!’ And so would we be in a few more seconds, if we couldn’t punch a way out of here. He nodded, and brought the weapon back on aim, squeezing the trigger reflexively. Amberley’s bolt pistol barked in my ear, and another former PDF trooper died as messily as Trebek had done.
‘This could be it,’ I said, feeling the peculiar light-headed fatalism that often kicks in when death looks inevitable. The tight knot of fear dissolved, replaced by the calm certainty that nothing I did now would make any difference, but I was damn well taking as many of the bastards with me as I could. The inquisitor turned to answer me, but before she could say anything a las-bolt burst against the side of her head.
‘Amberley!’ I yelled, but to my astonishment she was suddenly gone, vanishing without a trace apart from the sudden thunderclap of displaced air rushing in to fill the sudden vacuum in the space which she’d occupied. ‘What the hell–’
‘Commissar.’ Her voice was suddenly in my combead. ‘Tell Jurgen to shoot the wall, about three metres back from his current position. Hurry!’ Sudden hope flared, and I did as I was bid, though as you’ll appreciate, I wasn’t in any position to understand what had happened to her or why she would issue so strange an instruction.
To his credit, Jurgen complied as quickly and efficiently as he obeyed any order, and to my astonishment, a large hole appeared instantly, about a metre across. The wall there was barely the width of my forearm, and I dived through before the sides had even had a chance to cool.
‘This way!’ I shouted. Velade and Holenbi started to fall back, while Sorel took a final shot at the onrushing purestrains. Jurgen turned to do the same, unleashing another blast of ravening energy, and then the masonry over the gap started to crumble. ‘Hurry!’ I yelled, but it was too late; with a grinding roar the wall collapsed behind me, raising a cloud of choking dust, and sealing my companions in with the creatures, which would surely kill them all.
Now, under any normal circumstances, the idea that I was safely sealed away from a genestealer horde behind tons of fallen masonry would just leave me feeling intensely relieved. I can only assume I got hit on the head or something, because without a second’s thought I started scrabbling at the rubble, trying to clear the way back to the corridor which, by now, would undoubtedly be decorated with the internal organs of the others. I only desisted when I felt a hand on my shoulder.
‘Leave it, Ciaphas.’ Amberley shook her head regretfully. ‘They’re past helping now.’ I stood, slowly, brushing the dust from my clothes, and wondered how I was ever going to manage without Jurgen. Thirteen years was a long time to serve together after all, and I was going to miss him. ‘What happened?’ I asked, blinking dust from my eyes. It felt as though my brain was full of it too. ‘Where did you go?’
‘Here, apparently.’ Amberley looked around at the chamber we were in. It wasn’t very prepossessing, but at least it was free of genestealers. ‘The displacer field dumped me here when I got shot.’
‘The what?’ I shook my head, dazedly. My hair was full of dust too, and I couldn’t find my cap. For some reason that seemed very important, and I kept looking round for it, even though it was almost certainly buried under piles of debris.53
‘Displacer field. If I take a strong enough hit, it teleports me out of the way.’ She shrugged. ‘Most of the time, anyway.’
‘Useful toy,’ I said.
‘When it works.’ She glanced around the chamber. ‘Shall we go?’
‘Go where?’ I asked, still trying to take it all in.
‘Away. Fast.’ She swung her luminator beam over a darker shadow in the corner of the room. ‘This looks like a way out.’ I nodded.
‘I can feel an air current.’
‘Good.’ She looked at me curiously, and I realised that she couldn’t. What is it they say? You can take the boy out of the hive... ‘Let’s go then.’
Well, I didn’t have any better ideas, so I trailed along after her. Although if I’d known what we were heading into, I might just have decided to stay put after all.
Editorial Note:
Once again, I must apologise for this, but it really is the only eyewitness account I’ve been able to find.
(Actually, there are the official after-action reports, too, which might yield a more coherent picture if someone were to go through them and collate the various viewpoints of a dozen different officers, but to be honest, I haven’t the time or the patience.)
Extracted from Like a Phoenix From the Flames: The Founding of the 597th, by General Jenit Sulla (retired), 097.M42.
By the time we had reached the old quarter, we had almost grown used to the shadowy presence of the tau, flitting about us like malign ghosts, and it is greatly to the credit of the troopers I was honoured to serve with that not one of them gave way to the temptation to exact retribution for the destruction of the city, despite the presence of an obvious target on more than one occasion. However strong this urge might become, and strong it was, we remained mindful of the injunction placed upon us, and focused our minds on the delicate mission with which we had been entrusted. Truly, there can be no foe more despicable than an imperial servant who has betrayed the trust of the Emperor, and we were, if anything, even more eager to call the wretched governor to account for his perfidy than we were to wreak deserved vengeance on the alien interlopers whose presence he had tolerated for so long, with such dire consequences.
We had anticipated little difficulty in achieving this end, for what forces could he possibly have had at his disposal to defy His Divine Majesty’s most loyal servants? A handful of palace guards, if that, whose martial abilities had been found sorely wanting when they were called upon to defend his residence from no more than a street-brawling mob. So it was with ever-rising confidence that we swept through the desolated streets on our errand of vengeance; a confidence which was soon to seem gravely misplaced.
My first warning that all was not well was the sound of an explosion, as a krak missile detonated against the hull of one of the Chimeras ahead of us. From my position in the turret of my command vehicle, I could see the bright blossoming of the explosion, an unfolding red rose of destruction that scored the armour plating on one side. It evidently failed to penetrate, however, as the dauntless gunner swung the turret round, unleashing a hail of heavy bolts at the importunate enemy. My sense of satisfaction at seeing the building from which the attack came scoured with the Emperor’s retribution was short-lived, however, as a number of other missiles followed it, hissing from positions concealed in the rubble around us.
Inevitably, some found their mark, penetrating armour and shattering tracks, bringing several of our Chimeras to a halt; and the chatter on the vox channels told me that our company was not alone in being so treacherously defied. The other elements of our regiment, strung out along many of the adjacent roads in an effort to surround the palace, were under similar attack, and a glance at my tactical slate was enough to tell me that this was a well-planned operation, executed with a meticulous precision greatly at odds with the bedraggled and dispirited force we had expected to meet. Without further thought I dropped back inside the Chimera, where the specialised sensoria and vox equipment would let me direct my subordinates to greater effect, and began to plan our response.
‘Halt and dismount!’ I ordered, realising that our advance would be stalled indefinitely unless we closed with the enemy on foot, our lumbering vehicles being easy targets for the dug-in missile teams, and our drivers made haste to obey.
It was then that I took to my feet myself, for the whole vehicle rang with a sudden impact, and we slowed to a halt, thick smoke billowing through the crew compartment. Swift enquiry made it obvious that our driver was dead, so I lost no time in forming up my command team and bailing out of our now crippled Chimera.
A scene of sheer pandemonium met my appalled gaze as we pounded down the ramp. Two of the armoured carriers were on fire, and a handful of others immobilized; the rest were manoeuvring into what cover they could find. I followed suit smartly as a flurry of las-bolts erupted from the enemy positions, impacting around us as we took whatever shelter presented itself.
‘Third Platoon, report.’ Major Broklaw’s voice was strong in my combead, his calm demeanour reassuring despite the confusion surrounding us. I responded as crisply as I could, as befitted a warrior of the Emperor.
‘We’re immobilised, and taking fire,’ I reported. ‘The enemy seems well dug in.’
‘They were waiting for us,’ he said. That was my opinion, too; the positions they occupied had to have been prepared some time in advance. The implications of this were staggering. The governor had obviously realised the game was up, but where had he found the troops we were facing? I levelled my optical enhancers, and inhaled sharply.
‘The enemy are PDF elements,’ I reported. A couple of the lurking figures still had blue rags tied around an arm, but the squad leader, confusingly, bore the makeshift insignia of the imperial faction in the recent civil disturbances.
‘Loyalist or xenoist?’ Colonel Kasteen cut in. For a moment I was at a loss as to how to answer.
‘Both,’ I said at last. ‘Both factions seem to be working together now–’
‘That doesn’t make sense!’ Broklaw said, an edge of frustration beginning to enter his voice. But Kasteen remained unruffled, fine commander that she was.
‘Nothing about this Emperor-forsaken rathole makes any sense,’ she pointed out reasonably. But the major was right about one thing.
‘There are no loyalists any more,’ he said. ‘Take them all.’
That was an order we could obey with enthusiasm, and we went to it with a will, of that you may be sure. All the frustration we had endured since our arrival on Gravalax came boiling to the surface, transmuted into true martial zeal, and I vowed that the blood of the traitor would surely be shed this day.
As I urged my troopers forward, and watched the sentinels move up to suppress the first line of resistance, a flash of motion in the corner of my eye drew my attention skyward. Sure enough, it was one of the tau’s aerial pictcasters, and a momentary shiver of apprehension passed through me as my mind became crowded with questions. What were the enigmatic aliens making of all this? And, more to the point, what, if anything, were they intending to do about it?
FIFTEEN
‘It’s never too late to panic.’
– Popular Valhallan folk saying.
I don’t mind admitting that the aftermath of the fight in the corridor had left me completely drained, both mentally and physically. I washed the worst of the dust from my throat with a couple of swallows from my canteen, but I couldn’t shake the gritty feel of it from my skin, or my hair, or the inside of my clothes, and I wouldn’t be able to, either, until about the third shower. As it turned out, by the time I got the opportunity for that, the dust would be the least of my worries.
And Jurgen was dead. I still couldn’t quite believe it, after so many years and so many dangers faced and bested together. The sense of loss was numbing, and quite unexpected. Somehow I’d always assumed we’d meet our ends together, when fate finally pitched me into something my luck and finely-honed survival instinct couldn’t get me out of.
So, for an indeterminate time, I said nothing, and trailed after Amberley, who at least seemed to have some kind of plan. All this time, I remember, I kept my pistol in my hand, a curious thing to do as we were in no apparent danger, but I’d somehow kept hold of it when the wall collapsed and felt strangely reluctant to return it to its holster. Later, I found bruising on my palm where I’d been grasping it, so tight was my grip.54
We’d gone some distance in silence before Amberley spoke again, the pressure in my ears telling me that the tunnel we were in had begun to descend gradually, but there didn’t seem to be any obvious route back to the surface, so I guessed this was as good a direction as any. I suppose I should have mentioned it, but it never occurred to me that she wouldn’t have noticed. If I’d realised that she hadn’t, and thought we were still moving on the level, I certainly would have mentioned it, believe me, especially if I’d known what was waiting down there on the lowest tier.
‘Well, I guess that answers the main question anyway,’ she said.
‘Which question?’ I asked. By now, the whole situation had become so bizarre that none of it seemed to make any sense. I was beginning to feel that the only thing I could truly rely on was the prospect of more treachery and confusion to come, and in that I was far from disappointed. Amberley looked momentarily surprised, and then pleased that I’d responded.
‘The main one,’ she repeated. ‘Who would have something to gain by provoking a war with the tau?’
‘The hive fleet,’ I said, and shuddered despite the clammy warmth of the tunnel. If the ‘stealers were indeed the harbingers of a fresh tyranid onslaught, then they were working to a more grandiose strategy than any I’d heard of before, and the implications of that were far from comforting. She nodded, clearly pleased with my response, and intent on prolonging the conversation. I assume she was trying to keep me centred on the mission,55 and prevent me from dwelling too much on what had happened to our companions .
‘The ‘stealer cult has obviously been active here for several generations already. Lucky it’s such a backwater, or the contagion might have spread halfway across the sector by now.’
‘That’s something,’ I agreed. I know from my subsequent contacts with her that she followed up the possibility anyway, and managed to eradicate a couple of small subcults which had made the hop to neighbouring systems before they got properly established, but the danger did indeed seem to have been contained; at least, until the hive fleets showed up in person, and we realised we were facing a war on two fronts. I thought for a moment, then added, ‘They’ve obviously been here long enough to infiltrate the PDF pretty thoroughly.’
‘Among other things,’ the inquisitor agreed. I nodded too, beginning to be drawn into the conversation in spite of myself.
‘It looks like they managed to get involved in the local political groups too. The xenoist faction...’
‘And the loyalist.’ She smiled grimly. ‘Raising the tension between the two, splitting the PDF. It’s currency to cabbages it was cultists in both factions who started them shooting at each other, and got the loyalists to attack the tau.’
‘Hoping to draw us into a war, so we’d chew each other to pieces, and let the hive fleet walk into the sector practically unopposed.’ I shuddered again. ‘It’s diabolical. And it came so close to succeeding...’
‘It still might.’ Amberley’s voice was grim. ‘We’re the only two left who know about this. If we can’t tell the lord general...’
‘They might still succeed,’ I finished for her. The prospect of that was almost too grim to be contemplated, and we walked on together in silence for some time.
Perhaps it was just as well that we did, for, after a while, I began to detect a faint murmur up ahead over the scuff of our boot soles through the thick dust which carpeted the corridor ahead of us. I had found that reassuring, since it would muffle our footfalls, and indicated quite clearly that no one else had been this way in decades; which meant we were unlikely to be running into any more ambushes. The presence of other sounds down here, though, might be a cause for concern. I held up my hand and doused my luminator, waiting again for my eyes to adjust, the last remnants of my torpor dropping away like a blanket at reveille, replaced by a sudden surge of adrenaline.
‘What is it?’ Amberley asked, following suit and plunging us into even deeper darkness.
‘I’m not sure,’ I admitted. ‘But I think I can hear something.’ To my pleased surprise, she didn’t ask for more details, evidently trusting me to provide them if I had them, so I concentrated my energies on listening. It wasn’t even a sound, as such, more of a vibration in the air, The nearest I can come to explaining it is by saying that it was akin to the way I could tell roughly how close I was to a wall in the dark by the way the echoes changed. Bottom line is you either know what I’m talking about, in which case you probably grew up in the underhive, too, or you’ll just have to take my word for it.
In any event, there was nothing to be gained by staying here, so we moved on at last, trusting my dark-attuned senses rather than activating the luminators again. My palms were tingling in that old familiar way, and Amberley seemed to trust my instincts, at least in this environment. The corridor continued to be relatively open ahead of us, so moving in the dark was less taxing than you might think, and I gradually became aware of a faint luminescence ahead of us in the gloom.
‘Is that light ahead?’ Amberley murmured, confirming my thought, and I whispered an agreement. The sounds were getting louder too, but still too faint to discern. There was an organic quality about them, though, which raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
