Carpe Posterum: Chapter9
High in the mountains black snow was falling, the usual crisp whiteness stained by the soot and ash in the atmosphere. The snowline was already advancing down the valleys far further than it ever had before, encroaching on the plain below.
Those plains were cast into a twilight world of a nuclear winter, crops and forests were already wilting from the cold and gloom, soon this world would be plunged into famine and millions would die. Of course that would make no difference to the clerks of the Administratum, this world owed two years of unpaid tithes and the grey faced bureaucrats would not left a little thing like global catastrophe stop them from collecting their dues.
None of that mattered though to the group of armoured figures laying prone on a ridgeline high above the snowline. Eight of them were clad in thick battleplate and carrying weapons a grown man could not lift, six more were clad in lighter scout armours that were draped in camo cloaks.
Every man carried a canopic jar at his belt just in case they should find the missing gene-seed. They were laid out on the crest of the ridgeline so as not to be silhouetted against the grey sky as they observed a manse nestled in a valley far below.
They had been laying unmoving for three hours, charting the building's lay out, noting guard patrols and counting guns. It was common misconception that Astartes lived their lives charging at the foe, that they fought their battles by just battering the door down and just killing whatever they found. Nothing could be further from the truth; every campaign was built on a bedrock of meticulous intelligence gathering and detailed planning.
The Primarch Roboute Guilliman had written in the Codex Astartes that 'Information is Victory' and no one in the galaxy would ever suspect that the lauded victories of the Space Marines were built on the meticulous reconnaissance of the advance scout parties. A party of Imperial Stormtroopers would have taken ten times as long to accomplish the same task but these were Transhumans after all.
Sergeant Toran was closely watching the lodge, tracking every movement and memorising every feature, to his left was Daite and to his right was Sergeant Nimodes. Further down the ridge line were the rest of the squad, Furion, Jediah and Persion who were now equipped with Heavy Bolters and Halis who had a missile launcher.
Bylan was far too junior to be entrusted with the solemn duty of bearing a heavy weapon and Novak was polishing his rapier again, seemingly disinterested, but the Sergeant knew he was aware of everything occurring.
Nimodes was peering through a magnifying viewscope at the manse, assessing every feature and running mental scenarios of attack. Toran of course needed no such tools, his augmetic eye was far superior in magnification and let him see into spectrums mortal men never could, that didn't stop Nimodes from lecturing him though.
Sergeant Nimodes was talking again saying, "Observe the windows, too low and too wide for effective defence they are an obvious entry points. Yet they are too obvious and we should expect trip wires and grenades laced around the windowsills. Similarly the garage entrance seems unguarded; expect mines to be laid around it. Multi-lasers have been placed at corner points of the rooftops but their arc is too long, once in close they will be unable to targets anyone at the foot of the walls."
Toran tried not to sigh, the veteran Sergeant was a grizzled and experienced warrior who had led aspirants to war for longer than Toran had been alive. His wisdom was sound but the downside of that was that he tended to treat everyone as an unblooded novice on their first deployment. To distract him Toran said, "This entire facility is poorly designed, I do not understand why they would build a base in such a manner."
Nimodes replied, "Because this is not a base, this a lodge, meant as a place for nobility to holiday."
Toran stared at him with blank incomprehension, as Nimodes explained, "The rich often pretend that their lives are too hard and that they deserve time away to recover."
Toran barely followed that reasoning, as a Space Marine his entire life was dedicated to war; every moment not spent fighting was busy with training and study or spent upon ritual and ceremony. Eventually he settled on saying, "I cannot imagine such laxity of spirit"
From further down the ridge Halis said "Don't be fooled, this place is just one more piece in the noble's games for power. You can guarantee they don't come here for fun but to plot and scheme for advantage."
Daite spat, "That sounds weak, no wonder this world fell into heresy."
"It works to our advantage though" said Nimodes, "Observe; this lodge has only two access routes, a single roadway winding up the foothills for goods or servants and that landing pad covered in noble's personal fliters."
"There is something else" interrupted Daite, "There is a void in the heart of the lodge, a place that should not be, a darkness that cannot be observed."
Toran gave him a worried look and said, "Brother… are you having one of your visions?"
Daite frowned at him and held up his auspex in a clenched fist as he said, "I meant a sensor blind spot, something in there is actively blocking scans, some form of vault taking up a large section of the building."
"That definitely shouldn't be there" said Nimodes.
"Certainly not" said Toran, "Someone has converted this place for another purpose."
"Should we call in the Battle Company now?" asked Daite.
"No" said Nimodes, "This is suspicious but not definite proof, we need to take a closer look to be certain this is what we seek."
Toran agreed with the other Sergeant and said, "The lodge has but two external generators to provide power, take them out and they lose all communications and power for the multi lasers."
Nimodes remarked, "That would instantly alert all the guards and they would scramble to alert."
Toran replied, "Exactly what we want, Nimodes have your novices take out the generators and that will lure the guards out into the open. Furion, Jediah, Persion and Halis take the heavy weapons and establish a firebase overlooking the roadway, kill any guard who approaches you. Bylan and Daite storm the landing pad, spike the engines of the fliters and let none escape. While you all distract the guards Novak and I will infiltrate the lodge from the slopes and penetrate the vault, we will find whatever is hidden there and kill anyone in our way."
"A fine plan" said Nimodes "With one slight change, I will accompany you."
Toran was about to protest but when he saw Nimodes' face he knew it was pointless, they were both Sergeants and the scout master had seniority, so he simply nodded then fixed his helm on before briskly setting off.
With that the various parties set off towards their objectives, the initiates were taking circuitous routes to avoid been seen but the scouts relied on their camo cloaks to close directly on the lodge. Toran's party was walking carefully around the lodge, keeping to the high ridges so to approach it from the steep slopes behind. As they walked Novak turned to Nimodes and casually said, "So Sergeant what is your assessment of this campaign so far?"
Nimodes adjusted his shotgun and replied, "This has been an unmitigated disaster, Jossat always was a glory hound but this is unacceptable."
Toran was surprised by the statement and said, "You have served with Captain Jossat before?"
Nimodes snorted and said, "I trained him when he was but a scout, he was a great warrior and turned out to be an even better assault Sergeant but as Captain of a Battle Company he has become reckless and sloppy. I blame those damned preachers and Emperor worshippers, spending all their time spreading their misguided creed when they should be focussing on the proper execution of battle."
Toran was shocked to hear such blatant criticism thus he and Novak couldn't help glance at each other, Nimodes saw it and let out a short bark of a laugh saying, "Did you think that you and Phalros were the only ones trying to put a stop to all this nonsense, there are more of us than you know. You may have the Chaplains fooled but you are not as subtle as you think, that encounter with Honourable Ajax almost gave you away, luckily I was able to run interference before rumours spread."
Toran wasn't quite certain that Nimodes wasn't trying to trick him into revealing more than he should so dissembled, "I am not sure I follow what you mean."
Nimodes grinned and said, "I see you don't trust me on this matter, which is perhaps the wisest thing I have seen you do since you set foot on this planet. I am not offended; when you are ready to trust me I will be waiting, for now let us concentrate on entering the lodge undetected."
With those words the group fell silent, as they tracked around the lodge, it was painstaking work, Nimodes' lighter armour let him skip over the dirty snow but the pair of power armoured brothers had to choose every step with care. After nearly an hour though they got behind the lodge and spied a servant's entrance which was neatly tucked away in the rear of the building.
They settled down and waited for the signal to move out; silently they lay there watching the faint shadows lengthen as evening crept over the mountains. It was a tense time, watching the manse for any signs that the scouts had been detected, that their cover had been blown. They fell back on their training, using the technique of tensing their transhuman muscles one by one to keep their limbs fresh and sharpen their mental awareness.
Just before dusk fell everything changed, without warning a flash erupted and the sharp noise of twin explosions rang out as the generators erupted in balls of fire. The lodge's lights flickered and died then there were the loud noises of many men shouting in panic and crashing about but Toran did not move yet.
They stayed still as crowds of men raced out of the building running about in confusion and then there was the distant roar of a frag missile from the other side of the lodge and the loud chugging of heavy bolters. As the guards raced to meet the attack to the front Toran rose from the ground shaking off black snow from his armour.
"That's the signal" yelled Toran as he ran towards the back of the building, "Follow me, we are going in."
