Cain's Last Stand, page 30
‘I’ll pass the word along,’ I promised her. I doubted that many would attend, most of our people and the PDF deployed too far away to make it there and back to their positions before the enemy arrived, but it would certainly help settle the waverers. As always, I found myself suspecting that Him on Earth would have rather more important things to do than listen to us whining for special favours, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to ask, and if the fate of the galaxy really was at stake He might be a bit more inclined than usual to take an interest. ‘Perhaps we could relay the prayers by vox, so the ones who can’t leave their posts can join in if they wish.’
‘Good idea,’ Julien said, nodding in approval. She gestured to the nearest of the tech-priests, one of the group who’d accompanied us from the schola, and who I vaguely remembered seeing around the place from time to time, generally rigging wires from one room to another, or rolling them up again. ‘Gray, can you set that up for me?’
‘Yes, ma’am. Not a problem,’ the enginseer assured her, and trotted away.
After a little more discussion, which all boiled down to us being as ready as we were ever going to be, I turned away, preparing to follow Julien from the command post. Not that I intended wasting any time at her little prayer meeting, of course, I had my cadets to chivvy up, and the PDF to motivate, but her departure seemed to mark a definite end to the conversation, which was in danger of becoming somewhat circular by that point in any case. We all knew we were about to have a hard fight on our hands, and that the weight of numbers was all with the enemy. Despite my usual cynicism, I began to hope that Julien would get her little miracle after all.
‘Sir,’ the vox operator said, turning to Rorkins, ‘I’m getting a message from Commodore Visiter. He says it’s urgent.’
‘Of course it is,’ Rorkins said heavily. ‘With our luck, he’s probably spotted the orks coming back for another go as well.’ He sighed. ‘Put him through.’
After a second or two the Commodore’s head and shoulders appeared in the hololith, wavering slightly as such devices generally did.
‘We’ve just had an interestin’ development,’ he reported, without preamble. ‘As we can’t get to the enemy ships in close orbit, we’ve started evacuatin’ the void stations in the outer system.’ A wise precaution, as the enemy fleet had bypassed them on the way in, heading for the more strategically important target of Perlia itself, but would almost certainly turn their attention to these pockets of potential resistance once they had the time, and until they did, the resources they contained would be a considerable help in maintaining Visiter’s ramshackle fleet at battle readiness. ‘When we got to the astropathic relay station in the halo, they’d just picked up a message. There’s a Navy task force inbound from Keffia. No estimated time of arrival, but there’s definitely help on the way.’
‘Praise the Emperor!’ Rorkins said, with considerable feeling, and I must admit that my heart suddenly felt considerably lighter. A spontaneous cheer erupted from several of the control lecterns, which Rorkins let go, despite the clear breach of discipline, a very sensible decision in my opinion. ‘Relay the news on every channel you can, vox, pict, cleft stick if you can manage it.’ He turned to me, the light of renewed determination in his eyes. ‘We’re not alone any more. All we need to do now is hang on until they get here.’
‘True,’ I agreed. The news, though as welcome as it was unexpected, was a double-edged sword. It would put fresh heart into the beleaguered defenders, right enough, and prevent any more defections among the demoralised (no one was going to switch sides with the prospect of retribution both real and immediate), but the enemy would know they were running out of time to achieve their objective, and Varan would undoubtedly redouble his efforts to secure the Shadowlight. ‘But they’re not here yet.’
Keffia was close by, it was true, but there were no guarantees where warp travel was concerned, time having very little meaning in the conventional sense aboard a vessel in transit, and we had no idea when the relieving force had set out in the first place. I tried to remember how long it had taken my old regiment to make the same trip, back in the relatively carefree days of my long-forgotten youth, but the details remained fuzzy, overlaid with more pleasant memories of the shipboard romance I’d enjoyed with Karrie on the way, and the considerably less comfortable time I’d subsequently spent aboard the lifepod which had dropped me so precipitately into the middle of ork-held territory.
I glanced at the hololith, where a local tactical display had replaced the image of the commodore. The first wave of enemy transports were still inbound, closing fast, and we’d be fighting for our lives within moments.
As I left the command post, I heard Julien commencing her prayers in the earpiece of my comm-bead, and, for once in my life, felt the urge to join in.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
‘Here they come,’ Lieutenant Grouber said, narrowing his eyes against the glare of the setting sun. I’d made it to the PDF command Chimera with several minutes to spare before the attack commenced, finding the young officer in charge both reassuringly competent and gratifyingly awestruck by the presence of the hero he’d been brought up to venerate as the saviour of his planet. He’d had the good sense to station himself close to the ridge line, where he’d get a good view of the course of the battle without attracting too much incoming fire, which had been something of a consideration for me as well.
From up here I could look down on the main building of the Mechanicus shrine, with a clear view of the piazza, our parked shuttle, and the dam beyond. The blue-grey mass of the lake seemed ominous and brooding in the fading light, its surface undulating gently under the influence of a moderate breeze, although the disc of the sun apparently balanced on the tops of the distant peaks was still painting the face of the vast rockcrete wall holding back the waters a rich, warm red, which reminded me incongruously of autumnal woodlands and log fires. The other Chimeras had been dispersed around the valley, rather than being massed in a single, easy target, and the rest of our people were dug in according to the battle plan; if I had any doubts about our strategy, now would be a bad time for them to occur to me. Fortunately I couldn’t think of any last-minute revisions, so I held my tongue, and tried to focus on the distant dots skimming the surface of the surrounding slopes.
‘Here you are, sir,’ Jurgen said, handing me an amplivisor, and I raised it to my eyes cautiously, but he’d already set the polarisers to maximum, so despite my fears I remained undazzled by the glare.
‘They’re coming in just above the deck,’ I said, impressed in spite of myself. Even a pilot of Sprie’s calibre would probably think twice about attempting to fly nap of earth at high speed in mountainous terrain, let alone in tight formation and poor light conditions. Their recklessness was a weakness, I reminded myself, typical of the low value followers of Chaos placed on their own lives, as well as those of everyone else.
‘Hold your fire,’ Rorkins said, on the general command channel, his voice sounding calm and professional, and everyone complied, even the PDF, to my vague surprise. ‘Let them get close enough to be sure of a target.’ I could hear the howl of their engines now, a rising note which set the hairs on the back of my neck bristling, and drew my laspistol, although I wouldn’t have the slightest chance of damaging any of the incoming shuttles with it. The turret of the Chimera next to me shifted a little, the motor of its traverser whining like the motivators of Julien’s power armour, and I glanced up.
‘Steady there, gunner,’ I said. All we needed was for some trigger-happy idiot to open up prematurely, and what little advantage we had would be blown. If, on the other hand, everyone kept a cool head, with any luck the enemy wouldn’t realise that we’d been reinforced, at least not until it was far too late for them to do anything about it.
‘It isn’t him, sir,’ Grouber volunteered, a little diffidently. ‘It’s that thing the tech-priests put in.’
‘What thing?’ I asked, lowering the amplivisor for a moment.
The young lieutenant peered down at me from the turret hatch, looking a little confused, as his perch continued to rotate, barely perceptibly, under him. ‘I don’t rightly know, sir,’ he said at last. ‘But the one with the metal face said you’d authorised it.’
‘Oh, right, that thing,’ I said, as though the matter was of little interest, and turned away, activating my comm-bead. ‘Felicia. What have you done to my Chimeras?’
‘Given them a little edge,’ the familiar voice said cheerily. ‘Tied an automatic targeter into the auspex array of the command one, with a vox link to the rest. It’s an unholy lash-up, given the time we had available, but it’ll just have to do until we can burn the incense properly and recalibrate. If it works at all.’
‘Well it seems to be doing something,’ I assured her, feeling the first faint stirrings of optimism for what felt like a very long time.
‘Good.’ Felicia sounded as pleased with herself as ever, and I found myself wondering if she was actually enjoying the chance to relive the adventures of her youth. ‘If we managed to propitiate the machine spirits with the right prayers and programming, they should open fire as soon as they’ve got a lock. If not, you’ll have to get the gunners to do it manually.’
‘How will they know if they have to?’ I asked, and Felicia chuckled, the warm sound I remembered so well from so many years ago.
‘The pict screen will light up, and display the message “Fire Now,”’ she said. ‘I remember how you always took the direct approach to things.’
‘Lieutenant,’ I said casually, glancing up, ‘the magos tells me her people blessed the targeting systems so the Omnissiah itself can manifest through them, and strike down our enemies. Don’t be alarmed if they…’
I never got the chance to complete the sentence, as the multi-laser in the turret fired, the miniature thundercrack drowning out everything, even the rising scream of the approaching shuttle engines. For a moment I thought the sound was echoing from the surrounding hills, then I realised that the vox relay had done its work despite the lack of incense, and the other five had fired too, almost simultaneously. Raising my amplivisor again I tried to focus on the approaching shuttles.
‘A hit, by the Emperor!’ I cried jubilantly, then corrected myself. ‘No, two at least!’ The outermost aircraft on either side of the formation were both losing speed and altitude, which made sense to me, as the Chimeras were ranged along each side of the valley, and the machine spirits, logical as ever, would simply have sought the nearest targets. The turret rotated rapidly, Grouber looking a little seasick, as the cogitators tried for another lock, but the pilots had reacted almost at once, diving for the floor of the valley, lower than the barrels could depress. The engine of the shuttle farthest from us was leaking smoke, and it seemed to be responding more sluggishly, but it followed its fellows nevertheless.
‘That one’s still coming,’ Grouber said, and I focussed on the nearest ship. It seemed to be in a bad way, sideslipping as it came, with most of its control surfaces shot away. Flames were flickering along its underside, and I didn’t envy its occupants in the slightest.
‘See if you can take another crack at it,’ I suggested, and the Chimera’s turret rotated again, but too late; the crippled shuttle roared over our heads, battering us for a moment with the downdraft of its passage, to vanish over the other side of the ridge. A moment later the engine noise ceased, with the unmistakable crump! of impact.
‘Holy Emperor,’ Grouber breathed. For a moment I thought he was reacting to the crash, but the direction of his gaze was in the other direction, towards the dam and the hydro station beside the vast reservoir. The attacking aircraft were rising now, a manoeuvre I recognised from having been in shuttles doing the same thing myself, intending to pop up over the lip of the dam, using its bulk to shield themselves from defensive fire for as long as possible. I started to vox a warning, but there was no need; from my elevated perspective I could see Yaitz’s skitarii fanning out to meet the threat, the more ponderous figures of heavy weapon servitors plodding in their wake, and I found myself wondering just how many of the metal and flesh combat constructs they actually had stowed away beneath the shrine. (Not to mention how they intended explaining their presence to Rorkins.)
‘I don’t think that one’s going to make it, sir,’ Jurgen remarked conversationally, as though commenting on the weather, and I focussed the amplivisor again. My aide was right, I thought, the crippled shuttle was trying to maintain formation with its fellows, but it was clearly responding far too sluggishly. As the undamaged three rose over the lip of the dam, into a barrage of fire from the skitarii and a couple of squads of our stormtrooper cadets, the damaged one ploughed into the rockcrete a few metres below the rim, exploding into a fireball so bright it stabbed my retina. ‘That’s two down,’ my aide said, in tones of unmistakable satisfaction.
‘Let’s just hope it doesn’t–’ I began to say, an instant before it did, and a secondary explosion ripped a ragged hole in the face of the dam. One of the explosive charges we’d placed to blow the structure if we needed to had been detonated by the impact. I held my breath, but none of the others went off, thank the Emperor. Even so, the damage had been done. A section of the retaining wall fell away, propelled by the force of the water behind it, to shatter against the turbine hall at the base of the structure, and a vast new waterfall jetted out through the gap, filling the old river bed beyond as neatly as though someone had turned on a tap.
‘Any casualties?’ I voxed, hoping that none of our people had been caught in the explosion or swept away. The wall of water rushing along the floor of the valley was modest enough compared to the tidal wave we’d unleashed against the orks, but it wouldn’t do anyone down there any favours.
‘Not yet,’ Rorkins reassured me, ‘but we’ve lost the chance of flushing them out if they land in the valley.’ That much was true: I doubted that even Varan would be mad enough to put down there now, the breach in the dam being obvious to even the most cursory of glances. Even if he wasn’t prepared for us to collapse it on purpose, the danger of it giving way of its own accord was now quite manifest.
Any further comment would have been superfluous, and we both had our attention on other matters by then anyway. The surviving shuttles were landing, somewhat heavily, and the first troops were disembarking, taking what cover they could from the withering fire the skitarii and Rorkins’s cadets were pouring into them. They seemed to be giving as good as they got, though; our own people were being very nicely suppressed by the heretics’ heavy weapon teams, and the beachhead might well have been consolidated in pretty short order if it hadn’t been for the combat servitors, which continued to plod forwards, soaking it up and replying in kind.
‘Cain.’ Makan’s voice cut into my comm-bead, on a frequency I was sure no one else had access to. ‘Sparsen says he can sense psykers with them. Looks like your guess was right.’
‘Then we’d better hope we can hold them,’ I said, catching sight of some movement near the corner of the main shrine, which turned out to be a couple of squads of Grouber’s PDF launching a flanking attack. The lieutenant was inside the command Chimera by now, co-ordinating things with the aid of the specialised vox and auspex kit it carried, and seemed to be doing a reasonable job, so I thought it best not to interrupt him. I was on the point of turning away, to check on the progress of the battle on the other flank, when I saw a couple of black greatcoats moving with the troopers, and steadied the amplivisor again. ‘Nelys,’ I voxed, ‘what in the name of the Throne do you think you’re playing at?’
‘Supporting the troopers, sir.’ The distance was too great for me to make out his facial expression, but I could picture the dogged set of his jaw all too easily. ‘Like you asked us to.’
‘We thought it wouldn’t be too good for morale if we refused to go in alongside them,’ Kayla cut in, backing him up, and I had to admit they were both thinking like commissars.
‘Very good,’ I said, trying not to sound too concerned. ‘Watch your backs, and don’t take too many chances.’ At least Kayla’s streak of common sense ought to keep them out of trouble, insofar as that was possible on the battlefield.
I wasn’t able to observe much of what happened next, although I kept catching enough chatter in my comm-bead to keep roughly abreast of how the clash of arms was progressing, as my attention was suddenly grabbed by the unmistakable sound of lasguns firing on the other side of the ridge.
‘There must have been some survivors of the shuttle crash,’ Grouber said, looking up from his tactical display, an expectant look on his face. There were four other troopers with him, like any command squad, but most of them were busy manning the auspex and comms gear, working flat out to communicate with the other elements of the platoon, and for the first time I began to regret spreading them out so much. The Chimera crew might be dragooned into carrying lasguns and going off to investigate, but that would mean we wouldn’t be able to move in a hurry if we needed to, always a strong possibility with gunfire in the immediate vicinity.
‘But who are they firing at?’ I asked, the palms of my hands beginning to prickle. All our people had been deployed inside the valley. I activated the comm-bead. ‘If anyone’s out of position, report now.’
No one replied, although I gathered from the other vox traffic that Julien and her novitiates were getting stuck in down at the shrine, their bolters and power armour proving more than adequate against the lasguns of the heretics.
‘We’ll have to go and take a look,’ I concluded, trying to filter the reluctance out of my voice. There was no one else to do it, and I could hardly compromise my heroic reputation in front of Grouber, not if I needed him to go on trusting me, which I probably did for my continued wellbeing. Besides, as so often in my life, it seemed essential to know what we were facing, the risk of remaining in ignorance far greater than taking the chance of going to find out.
