NINE
When I met with Broklaw and several officers from the other regiments during a hastily-drawn meeting in the Cadian headquarters, I was still upbeat, optimistic and blissfully unaware of the disasters that were soon to unfold. I sat off to the side nursing myself back to a comfortable state, wrapped in a warm blanket and holding a fresh cup of recaf Broklaw had kindly provided me. Meanwhile the other officers discussed the situation on a holographic display of the city. I listened closely to what was being decided, but I was just too cold to give a damn about appearances, I was, for that brief time, comfortable and would have forgotten about the war raging outside were it not for the occasional detonation in the distance that rattled the overhanging luminators.
"Thanks to Cain's timely arrival and the defeat of the Tau sneak attack, we have reports of isolated units reconnecting with their companies," Currae explained, highlighting numerous green dots across the map. "I think it's safe to assume to that when you broke the back of the Tau advance the rest of the incursion began to lose their resolve. Forward units are reporting seeing Tau and PDF units pulling back to the outer districts in the city and a rear guard is forming along the main highway out of the city."
"What's more interesting is that we encountered a number of Tau units in transit while we cleared the western edges of the city," added Scheilt, the Kriegan regiment's executive officer. "I know the Valhallans might have said it as a hyperbole but it seems to me that the Tau were redirecting their troops to reinforce the Tau incursion at the garrison."
"That could have been their plan all along," an Adumbrian officer suggested. Not surprisingly, few agreed with the former PDF officer's assessment.
"Nay, if that had been the case we would have seen a coordinated offensive along the whole parameter," Scheilt explained, indicating how the garrison could have been attacked from all sides had the Tau desired. "Instead, we saw the initial offensive here with the Valhallan's unit and then, several minutes later, attacks from the south and north. Those units were redirected to help with the attack, most likely to break through the stall that the Valhallans created."
"Or maybe they just really wanted Cain dead," I joked from the back, confusing a few who didn't realize where the comment had come from until Broklaw pointed me out to them. I waved sheepishly, not expecting to get that much attention or to be taken seriously but when asked for further elaboration I figured I'd give the theory a go. "Well, it might have just been my limited perspective but they seemed to put a lot of effort into killing me. I mean, they fought all over the place and it might have been a coincidence but I was singled out in the initial shots when we landed, targeted intentionally by a Tau battlesuit, nearly pulverized by hammerheads despite leading a slightly smaller detachment compared to Broklaw's, who met far less resistance by the way, and Cain was chased by three battlesuits when we found him. Like I said, might have been a coincidence or maybe they just really have a hatred for commissars. We do kinda stand out after all."
Though I had worried I would receive the same sort of dismissal as the Adumbrian officer, the Kriegan executive officer and Cain both seemed to give my theory some serious thought. "The Tau do place great importance on those in leadership," Scheilt began, a pensive look upon his pale, weathered face. "They could be specifically targeting commissars and officers in order to break our resolve."
"I'm pretty sure most guardsmen won't lose resolve if their commissar bites it," Cain joked grimly, which got a chuckle from the Kriegans and myself being the only ones with a sense of humour dark enough to appreciate it. "But we are the most visible. If this is the case, we should alert the other commissars to be watchful for ambushes. Maybe even pull them from the front lines altogether."
"Good luck convincing Waffans of that," Scheilt said. "Speaking of which, Waffans, have you encountered any heavy resistance at your position?"
A vox unit had been set up so that we could maintain communication with the units in the city still pushing through the streets. Waffans, with his tank's high-grade sensory equipment, was able to provide valuable tactical data for us as well as give us a first-hand account of the situation. Even the best auspex couldn't paint the same picture as a seasoned officer with a vox.
"The only resistance I'm getting here is when I have to drive over their wrecked skimmers," Waffans said with a laugh before another thunderous roar drowned out his voice. I couldn't help but notice the elation in his tone - it's always important to have a job that is also your passion. "Seriously though, if they're trying to get my head I'm not noticing anything out of the ordinary. I mean, I am the biggest thing on the battlefield so I'm already attracting a lot of attention regardless. You should try asking those doofs with the Adumbrians; maybe they're getting some xeno love."
"We can hear you, you know," Wren's voice hissed over the vox.
"So how are the kids? Not causing you too much trouble I hope," Waffans replied, apathetic to Wren's venom.
"Well as much as I would hate to put holes in Commissar Abel's well-postulated theory, we have not encountered serious resistance during our purge of the xeno and heretical filth," Wren reported. "Scheilt may be correct in his assessment, though. We've dispatched several Tau vehicles that appeared to be redeploying their forces elsewhere."
"Bah, they're just running," Stimpsens' unmistakable voice cut in unaware of magnitude of the discussion he was interrupting. "We got these bluies licked and we're going to ride their butts all the way out of the city!"
"Settle down Commissar Stimpsen," Cain cautioned. "An enemy on the ropes will fight hard if you pursue them too closely. We're just here to drive them from the city, not annihilate them all. We can do that part once we've secured the city."
"We advised Colonel Trevek that only with utter annihilation will the enemies of the Emperor truly be defeated," Wren explained all too eagerly. "He agrees with us and we are pursuing the enemy at our discretion. Trevek and I will report back to you once we have cleansed the soil with their blood. Commissar Wren, out."
There was a brief moment of silence around the table with eyes glancing to each other, especially the Adumbrian officer, but with the colonel and the regimental commissars in agreement it would take the lord general's order to stop the advance and Zyvan's shuttle had only just departed and he'd be out of contact for a while. "Well, what's the worse that they could do?" I remarked.
"Aside from make a mess of things?" Currae replied. "Even if the Tau are pulling out completely if the Adumbrians get too far outside the city walls they could very well attract the attention of the Orks in the forest. The last thing we need is the Orks realizing that there's a big fight going on here."
It wasn't 'end of the world' but it could very well throw a huge wrench into our plans if the Orks decided to crash the party early. The walls were still unmanned and probably full of holes, our forces were scattered about the city with little organization, and the Catachans were still outside the walls engaged with the kroot in the forests. Speaking of which, we hadn't heard much from the Catachans during our meeting but Currae reassured us that they would only bother reporting in if things started going badly. It was agreed that the Adumbrians could run into trouble so Scheilt reluctantly offered to take what tanks he had in his service and reinforce their unit. I got the impression he was just tired of being cooped up inside a command bunker when he could be out doing what he came to the planet to do. At the moment I wasn't feeling too cavalier about returning to the field but I suppose if I had several inches of plasteel to take shelter behind I would feel more capable.
Currae suggested our next task to be to link up with the remaining isolated units within the city and then secure the parameter wall. With all the dense forestry surrounding the city, securing the walls was paramount in order to maintain security within the city. There was also the outer courtyard beyond the walls but those were merely a tertiary objective but would make our lives a whole lot easier. I was surprised to see such significant defences around a city on such an uninhabited planet but as Currae explained to me, the people of this world have had to deal with Eldar raiders, the occasional Ork mob, and your run-of-the-mill pirates since the beginning. It would certainly explain why the PDF forces, while still lacking training, discipline and equipment when compared to an Imperial Guard regiment, were putting up significant resistance. Hell, the PDF on Magnus Viridis were probably more competent than the Adumbrians, or at least their commanders were more sensible. The fact that the governor wasn't a moron didn't help matters either. I imagined purging the planetary capital would be far more difficult as the local defenders were former Cadians shock troopers. If they had managed to repel an Astartes assault as we had been led to believe, then we were going to be in for a heavy fight.
"Colonel Kasteen on route with the next convoy of chimeras," Broklaw informed Cain and me once the meeting had subsided. "She should be arriving in fifteen minutes. How are you two holding up?
"I haven't been this sore since my friend Andrea used me for martial arts practice," I groaned and took a hefty sip of my recaf. "I haven't been here for a day and I've nearly been blown up three or four times already and almost eaten by a giant reptile. I should have spent more time on the firing range…maybe read over a few more dissertations on Tau stratagem…"
"You're handling yourself just fine," Cain interrupted me before my train of thought could plummet into a death spiral for my confidence. I noticed he had a dataslate in hand and I was curious as to what he was reading over, though my curiosity would be sated quickly. "You kept the troops in order even during heavy assaults, coordinated tactical efforts…but I've been reading over some of the reports and, well, to be frank what happened in the courtyard was an extremely reckless maneuver. I thought I instructed you to remain with Sulla so we wouldn't have these kinds of tactics."
"Actually Commissar Cain…the maneuver was my idea," I admitted, feeling a bit sheepish. What Cain would think of my choice of tactics hadn't crossed my mind when I thought them up but I had reached the conclusion that Cain would probably be more troubled if I went with any of the alternatives, most of which would've got a lot of the company killed. The realization of Cain's disappointment in me was a little…disconcerting at first but I realized he was merely keeping focus on the bigger picture. It had been a desperate gamble and desperate gambles were not what we needed so early on in the campaign when so much was still at stake. It may have succeeded but it left the company without any tanks and if were there had been more hammerheads in the area there was a good bet that Sulla's whole company would have been wiped out. However, at the time I had weighed those risks and benefits and thought I had taken the best course of action considering intel that was available. Still, there was a reason why my tutors at the schola gave me such poor grades in almost all my combat and tactical disciplines.
"I thought you would know better than this Commissar Abel," Cain said sternly. "You have to keep a unit's combat effectiveness in perspective at all times. Throwing soldiers and ordinance away in desperate gambits should be avoided whenever possible." From what I've learned, Cain isn't the type to really chew people out, though being a fellow commissar I suppose my relationship with him is rather unique compared to the others. Technically, he could only ever advise me as we on equal grounds in terms of authority. Most other commissars wouldn't take flak like that from a colleague or at the very least would quickly move to the defence. Cain, in his ever-perceptive ways, though, probably knew that I wouldn't fight back. In our fledging and unofficial 'student and mentor' role, I had quickly grown to look to him as I would any of my tutors at the schola; a sort of father figure that I never really had in life. In a way, working with Cain on Viridis just reminded me that I was still very much a cadet in comparison to him.
Well, maybe that was taking it a bit far, especially for how early we were in our professional relationship at the time. I was definitely more impressionable back then and more flexible to Cain's advice and, like any student, felt badly when I failed to live up his expectations. Though he had a valid point, I still reconciled with myself with the belief that he likely would have done similar were he in my situation. Despite what Cain said, I still felt that achieving our objectives was more important than making sure everybody arrived home safely. Casualties were inevitable in a war and while I would occasionally lament the loss of a valued colleague or friend, like any Kriegan I accepted death as a part of our service to the Emperor. Cain's concern for the well being of the troops he served with could have been a liability were it not for the fact that he was so willing to take on the burden himself. Did Cain care about the troops because he acted so selflessly or was it the other way around? I wasn't sure I could ever think like him but, in the end, being myself has probably served me better than trying to be a second version of Cain.
"Perhaps I should keep a closer eye on you," he continued after letting out a quiet, disappointed sigh. He likely would have kept on talking were it not for Major Currae calling for his attention. Cain promptly excused himself, leaving me to my thoughts and Broklaw's lingering presence.
"If it's any consolation I would've done the same," Broklaw said, pulling up a chair and taking a seat next to me. "I think Cain's just a little on the stressed side. He's more used to getting into the thick of things, which is hard given that the Tau like to hang back and let their heavy weapons do the fighting."
"Know the feeling," I groaned. Save for a few instances, I had generally felt rather useless during a lot of the firefights. The Tau soldiers simply fought from too far back and my laspistol was proving to be nothing more than a fancy laser pointer. Perhaps that was why I was looking forward to dealing with the Orks more than I was with the Tau. Orks were at least stupid enough to stand out in the open and let you shoot them and so long as you had solid aim and enough shots you could survive the firefight. Once we were done in Vertens I could leave the Tau and their damnable war machines to Waffans and the rest of the tank boys.
"There's a bunch of cots in the back if you need to take a rest, you look like a mess," he suggested, which I was half-tempted to take him up on. I was tired, aching, and even after having dried myself off with a towel I felt water-logged. However, Cain's little remarks had wounded my pride and while my first instinct was to retreat to a cot and sleep them off, instead I opted to redouble my efforts and prove I could handle front line combat.
"Frak that," I replied. "I'm getting a coat and I'm hopping on that next convoy."
Technically, I shouldn't have even considered going out into a war without a proper uniform but I wasn't going to sit and wait for half an hour for my kit bag to be unloaded from the transport to get a spare. Uniform dress codes could wait until after the shooting stopped. Besides, it wasn't as if Cain was going to report me to the Commissariat. Thankfully, the Cadians had a slightly used commissarial greatcoat that wasn't going to be put to any use so I gave it a second chance to serve the Emperor. It was a little on the big side and there were a few holes in it but at least the blood had been washed out and I could barely smell the plasma scorching anymore.
Broklaw didn't bother trying to talk me out of it. I was a stubborn woman and when I had my mind set on something it usually took a power fist to the head to change my mind. Cain was a little surprised when he saw me getting my gear together. If he thought I was going to get to ride out the battle in the command bunker he had another thing coming, I would show him that I could be just as eager to get back into the fight as he was. While we waited for the next convoy, I quickly wolfed down another ration bar as well an extra cup of recaf and listened to the vox network for any new developments. Cain and his aide went to ready their personal chariot, a salamander scout. I would be lying if I didn't say I wasn't envious that Cain got his own personal salamander but I suppose with a reputation like his it shouldn't be a surprise. Actually, what was a surprise is that it's only a salamander scout and not something more fitting a hero of his stature.
Perhaps he was just too attached to the model. Emperor knows I share the same sentiments to the vehicle I spent most of my career being ferried around in. When I heard it was being decommissioned I had to bribe and blackmail a large part of the Munitorium just to save it from the recycling center. It still sits in the communal garage, a bit rustic compared to the other vehicles but it still runs as well as the day I first hopped in. Spike always knew how to take care of a vehicle but I think I'm getting ahead of myself here.
When you're waiting for your ride back into the warzone, times moves in a manner opposite to how you want it to. So in my case every minute dragged on as though it clung to existence with all its might. Most of the reports that trickled over the vox network were unimportant, at least to me they were; various status reports, coordinates for air support (though there was very little of that available still), requests for medical transports, and other traffic that painted a very disorientating picture of the battlefield. Cain always advocated keeping an ear on the vox traffic for pertinent information but with all the messages being sent across one of a dozen vox channels, I was at a loss how he could ever keep on top of everything. The only reason I was able to pick out information about the troublesome Adumbrian regiment was because I could easily recognize Waffans' voice. He seemed to be griping about something the Adumbrians had just done, which was no doubt done under the misguided advice of Wren and Stimpsen.
Damn overzealous rookies the whole lot of them.
"Waffans, I need you to take your unit and reinforce the Adumbrians before they get their asses handed to them," instructed the Kriegan colonel, whose working relation with Waffans must have been quite close for him to so casually order a commissar around. Of course, the trust between them had to be strong for the colonel to allow Waffans to have command of the largest tank in the regiment. "If you can, try and stop them from leaving the city walls. We just need to push the enemies from the city."
"I say we just let them die," Waffans muttered indignantly, clearly not pleased being relegated to the role of baby-sitter to the junior regiment. It was understandable, since Wren and Stimpsen would likely see this intervention as an insult, as would Trevek.
"As lovely as an option that would be, our forces are stretched thin enough as they are so we need them alive, or at least as many of them as you can manage. If you need to knock a few heads by all means do it." Friction between regiments was common on any campaign and I recall Cain later told me of frictions between the Valhallans and the Tallarns during the Adumbrian campaign. In almost every case, the result is something bad if it's left to fester and in our case, it would prove to be disastrous.
Waffans acknowledged with "I'll wedge the Lament into the main gate if I have too,". Colonel Vismarck, the Kriegan CO, spoke briefly with Broklaw and informed him that a new rally point would have to be established in the still all-too-likely event that the Adumbrians chased the Tau outside the city in their over-zealous charge. Instead of meeting up with Waffans in the city and pushing outwards, we were going to proceed on our own through the city and rendezvous with the tank regiment at the gates. If all went smoothly, the enemy should be gone from the city by the time our regiments joined up and we would be able to call it a day. Should the Adumbrians make a mess of things then we would be in a position to support them. That was the plan, at least. We were all aware that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. But with this campaign that old adage would become our theme song.
I spent a few more minutes listening to Waffans on his motivational vox caster, spouting inspiring retorts and various horrific (and often anatomically impossible) threats to the enemies still within earshot. I found the threats more inspiring than they should have been but as a close friend of mine has often espoused, violence solves everything. Of course, if all you have is a bolter then all of life's problems start to have bulls-eyes painted on them. Eventually, though, I had to pull myself away from the comfort of the command center and join the rest of the Valhallans in the armoured convoy. On the way out, I bumped into Colonel Kasteen who seemed all-too-eager to be out of the rain with a temperament that reminded me of a soaked feline. She managed to slip me a small congratulatory remark as we passed in the corridor – apparently she thought my choice of tactics in the starport was well thought out so I had the personal satisfaction of knowing both commanders agreed with me. Though normally I would've opted for the shelter of a chimera to ride through town in, Cain seemed insistent that I join him in his salamander. Maybe he just wanted me to suffer through the rain like him but I think it was just to keep a better eye on me so I wouldn't run off and try to play hero again (not that I ever really intend to).
With Jurgen in the driver's seat, Cain behind his favourite pintle-mounted heavy bolter, and I trying to take what shelter I could from the rain, which happened to be coming in sideways at that point of the day, the salamander drove off to join the rest of the Valhallans. Cain mentioned something about keeping a hold of something firm but I didn't quite catch it as Jurgen's driving style caught me by surprise and drove me forehead into a side panel. Thankfully, hard surfaces are good teachers and I adjusted accordingly to Jurgen's tendencies to drive vehicles as though we were being bombarded by artillery.
"You've fought alongside the Adumbrians before; do you think they'll start being a liability?" I asked as I tried to make conversation to pass the time. His immediate answer was an uncertain shrug of the shoulders, which offered some comfort in knowing that Cain was as uncertain as I was. In the back of my mind, I hoped I hadn't pushed them too hard when I first spoke with the regiment, prompting them to take excessive risks as if to prove themselves. Then again, I couldn't quite fault them for that since I was guilty of taking excessive risks too.
"I have complete confidence in the decisions of Segmentum command and the Administratum," Cain replied as though reciting something from the side of a disposable recaf cup.
"That's all well and good but they're not here." It was a decent deflection and a mere guardsman or officer would have been satisfied with it but as a fellow commissar I had more headway with Cain so I could press further. The avoidance of truth could often be just as telling so while it wasn't necessary for me to continue, I wanted to see how honest he would be with me.
As I expected (and had hoped against), he took a moment to answer, once again mulling over his choice of words as though this were some delicate procedure. "I had hoped their exuberance would compensate for their lack of experience. Unfortunately, that may be the problem in this case." In hindsight, he might have said that purely to put my mind at ease as I shared those sentiments. It would not have been beyond his ability to predict exactly what I had hoped or needed to hear. In my youthful ignorance, though, I had merely accepted his words as truth. He could very well have had those sentiments but looking back I suspect his impressions were far grimmer than mine.
With the rain sweeping across my face, I kept my head turned towards the left side of the salamander where I at least didn't have to keep wiping my optical lens every five seconds. After a cursory glance to my surroundings, I was pleased to note that much of the city was still standing despite everybody's best efforts to the contrary. If the civilian population weren't completely displaced I could, perhaps, find a nice drinking establishment to wash away my trio of near-death experiences. I noticed Cain was keeping his head on a swivel too, looking to every ledge and alleyway that could house potential attackers and even some that could only have been used by the most desperate and determined of ambushers (but I suppose a man does not survive for as long as he has by being complacent). Though the streets were quiet, relatively speaking, I could not shake the feeling that we were being watched; a feeling reinforced when Cain nudged me to warn me to be extra alert for ambushers. I've learned over many, many occasions that any time Cain felt on edge was cause for concern.
Shortly after Cain's warning, I spotted something and shouted along with a point of my finger, "Stealthsuits! Left balcony, up high!"
Were it a clear, amicable, and sunny day I would never had even noticed the bastards but with the heavy wind and rain the Tau stealth fields were just barely visible. I probably would not have noticed them were it not for the added acuity of my biotic eye, which could more clearly see the space devoid of rain drops. In my haste, I forgot to send the message across the vox channel but there was little need to explain ourselves when Cain opened fire with the heavy bolters, tearing apart a large section of an apartment building balcony and raining bits of armour and Tau upon our convoy. Though I only saw the one group of ambushers, when Cain pulped them with his heavy bolter the rest must have assumed they were spotted and Tau soldiers began appearing in the windows overhead. This was exactly why everybody hated urban warfare and why I was quickly regretting my choice to ride in the only open-top vehicle in the entire convoy.
Cain began carving crevices through the buildings, keeping the Tau sharpshooters suppressed, which was necessary since we were the most exposed targets. Peculiar splashes in the puddles along the sidewalk alerted me to additional stealthsuits and I picked off a few with my laspistol just to let them know that their stealth fields weren't very effective in the rain. However, there were too many stealthsuits for me to keep track of and heavy weapons fire struck the opposite side of the salamander. Our capable, and somewhat erratic, driver veered the vehicle hard to the left to avoid another large energy bolt and managed to plow through a stealthsuit that I had failed to notice. Unfortunately, when the front end of the salamander went through its helmet its gun went off one last time, firing some strange blue bolt, much smaller than most of the others directed at us. Whatever it was, though, it stopped the salamander dead in its tracks without even so much as a hole in the armour and inertia carried the vehicle into the corner of a building.
"Jurgen, what the frak is wrong?" Cain shouted as his heavy bolter fell silent along with the rest of the vehicle.
"All the systems appear to be dead commissar," Jurgen answered in a tone surprisingly calm (or oblivious) despite our increasingly dire situation.
"Bail!" Cain stated the obvious. His words came just in time as more stealthsuits took advantage of our immobility and fired a volley of powerful energy bolts. We had just barely cleared the side armour when the shots melted holes through our vehicle as though it were made of wax. Due to our vehicle's final resting spot and our hasty exit, the three of us landed in the alley next to the salamander. Though staying with the convoy would have been ideal, enemy fire from down the street forced us into the alleyway.
"Cain, are you there?" a concerned officer called out over the vox.
"We're fine but we've had to bail from our vehicle. Get over here and pick us up!"
"We're trying to commissar but the Tau are coming up hard behind us. Cut through the alley, we'll send a chimera around to meet you."
Not the most reassuring of plans but when a Tau soldier appeared in the alleyway entrance behind us we realized staying put was a bad idea. Running from an enemy never sits well with me but with no cover and likely more enemies to come, I was willing to put pride aside and leg it. Having the shortest legs of the lot, I wound up lagging behind and it was left to me to take pot shots at our pursuers, which, with our ongoing run of luck, happened to include a few kroot. As we reached a fork in the alleyway, Cain and Jurgen continued on forward while I made the foolish move of trying to take another shot at our pursuers. Foolish it may have been but it may have also been what kept me alive as I noticed a Tau soldier lining up his plasma rifle. Instincts kicked in and I dove into the side alley just as plasma bolts whipped past me. I thought for certain that this mistake would cost me dearly as the kroot should have been able to overtake me easily. But in a surprising move the kroot continued straight past me as though they were snubbing my very existence. I didn't believe what I saw at first until I poked my head out of the side alley and saw the kroot moving down the main alleyway. Were it not for a few Tau stragglers, though, I would continued after the kroot but a few plasma bolts forced me to duck back into the side alley and several more bolts aimed my way encouraged me to follow it wherever it may lead.
"Abel, where are you?" Cain called over the vox when he realized I wasn't following anymore.
"I had to take a detour. Just keep going Cain, I'll catch up with you later," I insisted as I continued on my way. I knew plasma rifles had long range so I kept running as fast as my legs would carry me. I half-expected to catch a bolt in the back but nothing ever came and by the time I realized I wasn't being pursued I had stumbled back into the city streets. Wherever it was that I wound up, it was a lot quieter than the alley I had fled from. I now found myself surrounded by the scorched remains of several chimeras and Tau vehicles, along with the remains of soldiers from both sides. Judging by the uniforms of the Imperial soldiers they belonged to the Cadian regiment.
For a brief moment, I thought I was alone but then I heard a loud, distinct, and very close thud that could only have come from something large and bipedal. I prayed to the Emperor to that it was simply a sentinel but I would have no such luck as I turned about and discovered I had stumbled right out in front of a Tau battlesuit. This one was markedly different from the others I had encountered as it was far bulkier, had a powerful railgun slung under each forearm, and a missile pod upon each shoulder. Whether it got isolated from the rest of its unit or was the sole survivor of the skirmish I had wandered into I was unsure. But one thing I did know for certain was that it had spotted me as it levelled a railgun towards me. For a brief moment I figured that this was to be my end - splattered into an unrecognizable paste by the might of Tau weaponry - but then I remembered that I had told myself to stop accepting death so readily. It might be for nought but I was intent on remaining defiant to the end. I drew both laspistols and started firing at the only spot where I thought I stood even a slight chance of causing damage – the head. Laser bolts pelted its face and optical lenses and I was rewarded with a crack as its largest optical lens shattered from a direct hit.
It may not have been a lethal hit but it appeared to blind the battlesuit as its railgun fired off-course and sent a shot into the road. It carved a trench through the rockrete, forcing me to jump out of the way as it tore apart the ground where I once stood. I was so overcome with joy that I could've jumped up and down screaming in delight and would've were it not for the possibility that another stray shot could quickly end my victory cheer. Instead, I merely lamented the fact that there wasn't anybody around to actually see this and I doubt anybody would believe me if I told them. Its guns swung erratically from side to side, trying desperately to reacquire a target and while I could have fled from the machine I was intent on bringing it down; if Cain could topple a knarloc I figured I had it in me to down a battlesuit – I simply needed something to crack the armour.
Quickly searching the dead soldiers for some sign of a fallen anti-tank weapon, I eventually spotted a dropped krak grenade resting against the curb. Scrambling over to recover the weapon, I was just about ready to prime the grenade when I heard the sound of a rocket launch. For an instant, I thought the battlesuit had given into desperation and was firing its whole salvo off in hopes of hitting me; instead, though, a rocket screamed in from the opposite direction and struck the battlesuit dead center, blasting a hole through the frontal armour. Then an armoured vehicle sped past me, firing heavy machine guns off before ramming the battlesuit and sending its ruined remains crashing into the rockrete.
After all the damn effort I went through to try and kill the thing myself!
I didn't let my aggravation show, though, and instead took some calming breaths while I pocketed the krak grenade for later use. It took me a moment to realize that the armoured vehicle that had come to my rescue was not a chimera but was, in fact, significantly smaller. It was a centaur light carrier, a vehicle used almost exclusively by the Kriegans for towing around small squads of soldiers and heavy artillery. This one in particular was an assault carrier variant as it had a second heavy stubber mounted in the passenger's seat. One person was standing in the open-top rear half holding a smoking rocket launcher over his shoulder, though I could hear him and the other occupants cheering their victory, which should have been my victory.
The vehicle slowly reversed course until it stopped in front of me and, as I expected, a masked Kriegan looked down to me with a salute. He didn't say anything at first but I got the suspicion he was surprised at something he saw. Suddenly he turned to the unseen occupants riding with him.
"That is not Commissar Cain," he said incredulously.
"What do you mean?" a second voice replied and a head poked up from under the armoured canopy over the driver's seat. He then repeated the obvious, "That is not Commissar Cain at all."
"Impossible, I heard it on the vox!" the final voice said and a third masked figure emerged, this time from under the canopy of the passenger gunner. He, too, joined in staring in disbelief at me, as if somehow the first guy had been mistaken in his original assessment. "You are not Commissar Cain."
Man, nothing slipped past these guys.
"Dummkopf!" the driver shouted angrily, smacking the passenger trooper upon the helmet. "You said we were heading for Commissar Cain's position! You said we would be heroes if we rescued him! I should never have listened to you!"
"You heard the same transmissions as I did," the passenger said in his defence, "so don't blame me, blame the guy who said he saw the commissar and told us to turn this way!"
They must have been referring to the one standing in the back as he suddenly got defensive. "I do not know what the Commissar looks like. You said keep an eye out and I said 'there is a commissar' and you turned. I never once said that it was Cain!"
"Then you are both idiots!" shouted the driver, this time smacking the standing trooper sharply on the shin. "Now look at the mess you have made!"
"Hey, we still saved his life," the standing trooper replied, pointing towards me.
"Her," I corrected. Though I shouldn't have been surprised, this silenced all three of them and they stared at me once more. I suspected they were pondering just how grateful I was for my rescue, which as you can guess would be not at all. "Now are you three quite done bickering yet?"
"My apologies," the driver answered, whom I assumed to be the ranking soldier. "It's just the idiocy of these two doltheads is staggering at times. It will not happen again commissar…?"
"Abel, attached to the 597th Valhallans."
"Oh, that means you do know Cain," the passenger interrupted with great zeal. "Ha, that means we are in the right area. He might still be nearby!"
Though I did not like their singular-minded dedication, I wasn't going to let that enthusiasm go unexploited. Since I didn't really need to ask, I motioned for one to open the back door for me and I climbed aboard. Though much smaller than a chimera, there was enough room in the back, open-top area of the vehicle to seat about four soldiers and their gear, not to mention it sported a heavy stubber. I hadn't ridden in a centaur since I was a child so climbing aboard was a bit nostalgic. "You're damn right he's close by and we're going to help him out so for the time being you boys are sticking with me, understood?"
"Yes commissar!" chimed all three. I was relieved to see how quickly the three of them snapped back into their duty as guardsmen, confirming my suspicion that their bickering was the result of a casual familiarity rather than actual friction between them.
"Good, now take us that way," I ordered and the centaur took off down the road. After realizing I didn't know any of the names of the soldiers around me and always wanting a better means of calling out to people other than using 'hey you,' I quickly asked for introductions. Between the heavy coats and gas masks, it was difficult for anybody to tell one Kriegan from the next, even for a fellow Kriegan and it didn't help that all three of them were roughly the same build and height.
"Corporal Watz," said the driver. "To my left is Trooper Heilmit and beside you is Trooper Gustav."
Centaurs might not be very big or imposing but they were definitely fast little machines when they weren't weighed down by several hundred pounds of artillery. Though I didn't realize it at first, only a few moments down the road did the question strike me and I asked about the overheard transmission they mentioned earlier. They explained that Cain sent out a general call for assistance, which they had picked up with their centaur's enhanced vox caster (which was a 'gift' from an unnamed techpriest who owed the driver far too many favours and debts). I wondered if that addition was authorized or even sanctified but judging by the other amenities that the centaur sported, I got the feeling that Watz, like many Kriegans, worried less about the methods and more about the end results. It would definitely explain the makeshift cup holders crudely bolted onto the control console.
"So you actually work alongside Commissar Cain?" Gustav asked as we raced down the road. There are many days I'm still glad that I never gained the sort of notoriety that Cain did because I wouldn't have been able to put up with so much admiration from people who were otherwise complete strangers. In fact, I was certain Cain would be annoyed at me for bringing these people near him, though he might be more forgiving if they did prove to be crucial to our survival. Part of me suspected we would find Cain already safely aboard a chimera and all our efforts wasted for nothing. Actually, I wouldn't have been disappointed in the least and actually more relieved but Watz would likely have a fit on his fellow troopers, which would probably be a little comical.
By the Emperor I miss those guys…
"I'm getting something on the vox," Heilmit said, pressing the ear of a headphone to the side of his head. "I think it's another call from the commissar. The signal is strong, take the next left!"
Either it was a running trait in drivers or Watz just so happened to be just as insane a driver as Jurgen, pitching the centaur into a lateral slide as we reached the corner. The street was chewed apart beneath the armoured carrier as he hit the throttle, tossing me against the backdoor as we took off. This time, Heilmit's directions proved accurate as we spotted the commissar a few blocks down the street, pinned inside a storefront with Tau soldiers barraging his position with their plasma rifles. If Watz and the others wanted glory I wasn't about to stand in their way.
"Lock and load my friends – victory or death!" Watz' battle cry was echoed by his comrades as the centaur accelerated and both heavy stubbers began spitting death at the Tau. It might not have added much but I joined in with my laspistol, putting a few holes through some Tau before our stubbers' heavy slugs splattered them. Primitive though a heavy stubber may be, it still had a devastating effect against infantry. The hurried counter-attack, though, proved to be astonishingly accurate as I was forced to duck below plasma bolts that whipped over the armoured canopy. Gustav didn't seem dissuaded, simply yelling angrily as his heavy subber drowned out any chance of coherency from him. Unfortunately, between Tau accuracy and Gustav's refusal to yield to anyone or anything, the plasma weapons won out and Gustav took a solid hit in the upper chest that blew out most of his thorax. Even in the wet rain plasma-scorched flesh smelled awful but I had no choice but to push his lifeless body to the side and take his position behind the heavy stubber. I was reminded quickly why I had never bothered with a bolt pistol despite being more than used to carrying around a heavy pistol – the recoil on slug-throwers hurt! It didn't help that the heavy stubber had a cheap wooden stock that did nothing but put all that recoil into my shoulder. Perhaps if I had more meat on my bones it wouldn't have hurt so much but by the time Watz screeched the centaur to a halt amidst a pile of dead Tau, my shoulder was ready to hop right out of its socket and call it quits.
"Now that is how you kill xenos, am I right?" Watz said triumphantly as he looked to the back of the centaur and finally realized there was one less living occupant. "Well shit. That is going to take hours to clean out." Were they from any other planet I would have been surprised at their callousness but they were Kriegans and death was about as nonchalant for them as the morning's weather (which was always smoggy with a chance of noxious fumes when you lived on Krieg).
"Abel? Is that you?" Cain asked rhetorically as he emerged from the shop's remains. "You're getting better at these well-timed interventions."
"Would have been here sooner but I sort of ran into a battlesuit," I said, trying to pull my own little modest routine with a dismissive tone. He would probably have been thoroughly impressed were it not for the interruption of the one of the troopers behind me.
"Almost had her until Gustav here blasted it with a krak rocket," Heilmit said enthusiastically, hoisting up Gustav's lifeless figure for Cain to see. He then proceeded to unceremoniously dump the body over the side of the centaur with a remark of 'no free rides.'
"Was that really necessary?" Cain asked, probably a bit surprised at the callous disregard for the remains of a fallen guardsmen.
"There won't be much room for you and your associate with him clogging up space," Heilmit explained.
"And he's leaking all over the floor," Watz added. "Besides, the guy was a total asshole; all the clones from his stock are assholes. They keep him because he won't back down when the enemies start shooting not because we enjoy his company." The Death Korps of Krieg, unlike any other regiments in the Imperium, regularly employ clones to fill their ranks of troopers; otherwise the thinned population of Krieg wouldn't have been able to fill more than a few regiments every generation. It doesn't exactly help build a sense of unity and brotherhood amongst the troops but Kriegans rarely need it – just their duty and an enemy to kill.
"True but even still that's hardly a fitting way to dispose of the remains of a servant of the Imperium," Cain argued calmly. I suspected he wasn't too concerned with the dead man but he wasn't going to yield the argument to a mere trooper.
"I suppose you're right," Heilmit said as he glanced over the wall at Gustav's remains. "I should have checked his pockets first." He then hopped over the side and began rifling through the many pockets and pouches on the guardsman's uniform. That was probably as close to an agreement as Cain would get from the man so he let the issue go.
"Well if we're going to be searching through pockets then I'm going to see if I can find one of those Tau knives," Watz announced, climbing out of the centaur and hurrying over to the remains of our enemies. It was trudging a bit close to the lines of blasphemy but I figured a simple knife didn't really count as technosorcery and since Cain didn't seem to object neither did I.
"Interesting people these Kriegans," Cain commented as he watched Watz for a moment. "Did you find that attack on the convoy rather strange?"
"What do you mean?" I asked. I never got a chance to get a full grasp of the situation since I was partly distracted with staying alive and killing my enemies but that level of awareness of one of the many things that separated the experienced commissar from me and my lack thereof.
"Well when you want to ambush a tightly-packed convoy in a relatively narrow street, you want to take out a vehicle of sufficient size first so you can box in the rest behind its wreck. They didn't, though, they attacked our smaller vehicle first and there were several larger vehicles in the front. Strategically, it doesn't make sense and I won't be so arrogant as to think the Tau are incapable of such basic stratagem." Now that he pointed it out to me, it did strike me as a bit peculiar, though one could possibly attribute their choice of target to the vehicle's greater vulnerability and also because we were the first to open fire.
"They did seem rather determined to kill us," I nodded in agreement. "However, they pretty much ignored me when we got separated."
"It's almost like their trying to kill me specifically. It would explain why you personally encountered so much resistance at the starport – they might have thought you were, in fact, me."
"Now you're starting to sound paranoid," I said sceptically. "The Tau couldn't have known you were coming, let alone hunt you down. I doubt even any of them would know what you looked like."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Watz suddenly interrupted, approaching us carrying the prized knife in one hand and a strange Tau device in the other. It was a small, disc-like object that just fit into the palm of his hand with a rounded surface that had a glass dimple in the center and visible buttons surrounding the center. "I found this on the same xeno I borrowed the knife from," he explained as he tapped a button. The device lit up and suddenly a small holographic imagine appeared above the center – a remarkable sharp, clear image that surprised Cain and I as most holographic displays we had seen were huge, static-ridden, and woefully unreliable. What amazed us the most, though, was that hovering above the center, made entirely of shimmering blue light, was a perfect likeness of Commissar Cain. Watz clicked a second button and a map of the starport took Cain's place and I noticed that the bright dot corresponded to the same landing pad that my transport had used.
"Looks like you aren't paranoid…they really are trying to kill you."
"Worse than that," Cain said grimly, "it means that somebody is providing information to the Tau. We've got a spy in our midst."
