CHAPTER SEVEN: The Faults Of Superiority.
"General." Galil stood to attention in the presence
of his highest superior. "I have, a theory."
The General was busy looking over maps in his war tent right on the fringe of the market place. Until recently
it had been a safe zone but the cultist bombardments had been moving closer and closer and from time to time the they would over shoot the trenches and back lines of
the Imperial Armies strong hold, blowing up a shop or two in the process.
He looked up from his maps with little figurines on them outlining positions relevant to the campaign.
"How dare you interrupt me!" said the General. His voice
was filled with unwarranted authority. A fake status earned through the corridors of bureaucracy and political arse kissing. Not the field of combat. His long coat hung
heavy over his upright body. His ceremonial hat perched perfectly atop his head. His many, many medals dull and un attended. As if no effort was needed to earn such accolades.
Galil looked at the medals pinned on the Generals chest. "Bastard" he thought. Yes, they were colourful. Each signified a battle "won" via the tactics of the General. "Won". Galil wouldn't call them victories. He had lost a lot of good men at the incompetent decisions made by this bastard General but in the halls of bureaucracy any small victory was validated by a medal. Just so the person giving the damned thing out could themselves further their own ranks amongst the pompous farts seated in charge of
the lives of those who serve courageously in the name of the Emperor. Galil clenched a fist by his side as he stood to attention to address the General bastard.
"Our scouts" he started.
"Scouts?" Interrupted the General. Sniggering and laughing under his breath as he turned to his colleagues next to him in a pathetic effort to belittle Galil in front
of them. As if Galil all ready didn't know what
he was talking about. He paused. The General looking on.
"Yes General. Our scouts", he continued.
"Our scouts encountered enemy forces taking recognisance in the forests outside of our power fields and crop supplies. They weren't of the cultist army." He said.
"Well then." Replied the General with a conniving tone.
"How can we be certain they are enemies?"
"Sir." Galil paused. "I dare say, they are not human." "Not of this world soldier? That notion is preposterous." "I believe they are partly responsible for the plague infecting our civilians. Furthermore I believe they are conjuring a force outside of the village so as to
attack us from the rear."
"Enough!" said the General. Slamming his palm down
onto a wooden table. The table doing more damage to the
General than the General to the table.
"You barge in here making such accusations. I know where our enemies lie. We have very good intelligence to tell us that the village, all the villages beyond the crop lands are safe from enemy forces."
Galil couldn't look at his superior. He stood with his eyes
forward. "Sir, if I may." He responded.
He beckoned for two Imperial Soldiers to enter the tent. They dragged with them the top half of a plague bearer of the Chaos God Nurgle recently slain in the forests by
Ariel.
"This is not of humanity." Said Galil.
The General looked upon the rotting corpse. It's jaw was locked open. Maggots were eating the tender flesh of its tongue. Boils and blisters oozed from the skin of the being. Its innards hung by stringy tendons to its mantle.
The stench was vile. The General dry reached.
"I should have you court marshalled. Bringing in a decaying
corpse and passing it off as some inhuman enemy."
Galil held out the hand of the plague bearer. Tightly gripped with in its fist was a blade. Not a particularly superior blade by any make. It harboured no magic powers. It was not divine. In fact it was a crude make. The blade resembled more a shaped and pointed rock than a blade. "This weapon is not cultist." Said Galil.
The General examined the weapon.
"Leave it with me." He said "But get this rot out of here!" Galil nodded and stood at attention. He saluted, then left the tent. The two accompanying Imperial Soliders did the same and took the carcass out with them.
