The black rose chapter 48
It had been a solid two weeks of march. An army made up of the Planetary Defense Forces lead by Lieutenant Garius Lup, the Space Wolves lead by Hjalmar Hargen, and the Sisters of the Hawk lead by Galatea, Anna, Sophia and Emma. Whether due to intervention of the Emperor or the hostages held at the Inquisitorial ship, the road had been traveled without even the signs of an attack. Something the Space Wolves were quick to exploit. Every time they stopped the wolves insisted on drinking, eating and singing. They made a game of smashing tankards and flagons on their heads, trying to see which one of them could manage to most before he started to bleed. Some of the soldiers from the Imperial Guard joined them, and the wolves were quick to share in their food and mead. Of the Sisters of the Hawk, Emma was the only one who regularly partook in the feasts. Her sisters would try the food and drink some of their mead before making their excuses and leave. Galatea would on occasion sit next to Hjalmar. She only took a single plate of food and a few shallow chugs of mead before joining Hjalmar for long discussions. Emma didn´t pay them much mind. She just swallowed tankard on tankard full of mead until her stomach rebelled, at which point she would ask for another. The first time she did it, Hjalmar laughed. He asked if she was trying to compete with him as she finished his tenth tankard filled with undiluted mead.
"Just give me another." Emma had replied.
Hjalmar gave her the tankard but when he saw her chugging it down like a drained man would chug down water, he took it of her.
"A mind is like a battle-axe, Emma." The old wolf said. "Never let it grow dull."
Emma sank silently into her chair. I was ready to let them burn the city. Emma told herself. I was. She echoed the sentiment to herself as she stared searchingly across the feasting wolves and soldiers. Her eyes searched in vanity, because she knew what they searched for was not there. My son. Wherever you are, do not worry. It may be dark and cold, but your mother is always thinking of you. I will be with you, some day. Until then, the Emperor will watch over you. He will protect you from the horrors that dwell in the Warp.
After that, Emma only drank one tankard before pushing it aside. Even if her fingers started itching and her mind ticked with annoyance.
Thanks to the smooth traveling and the healing of the Hospitaler (with some effort to be held to the healing craft of the wolves), both Emma and Galatea recovered from their wounds. Though Emma was warned to be careful, the blade had scrapped closed to her kidney and left a tear in her muscles that would never truly heal unless she implemented bionics, something they did not have to spare for such relatively minor wounds.
Every night, Emma felt an itch in her side. Like an insect was running beneath her wound. She constantly had to resists the urge to scratch it. Though compared to the that, Emma knew that there where far greater things to concern about.
"So, we´re finally here." Hjalmar said as he stood on top of the hill with Emma at his side.
"The final fight of this war." Emma said, her hand resting on the pommel of the sword Johana gave her.
"You know, this fortress being as difficult to breach as they say, think it can make for a more memorable battle then last time?"
"I don´t know. Either way it will be the last for some time."
"Aye." Hjalmar agreed. "But it´ll be a fight worthy of the tales either way."
Mountbatten stood on the peak of outward reaching cliff, its mechanicus growths reaching in and out of the ground like roots made of metal. Even from where they where watching, a solid kilometer away, one could see the sheen of silver and steel from the cannon barrels. Below the cliff, after a hundred-meter droop, was the Black Water. Though the oil that had given it its name had long since faded away into the surrounding ocean, the waves still breached on the shore with a roaring fury. The side of the Mountbatten facing the ocean idle and calm, but no one was so gullible to believe that it would be best side to attack. When the Heretical Astartes had assaulted Mountbatten, they thought the exact same, and where utterly annihilated because of it.
But if the ocean side of Mountbatten was an impossible assault, the land side was incredibly impractical. Sitting at the tip end of a sharp-pointed cliff, there was only one possible entrance into the fortress and it would be trapped with mines, guarded by turrets and watched by the thing they all feared. Imperial Knights. Though calling them that seemed curios to Emma. She recalled what the traitor legions where otherwise called. Heretical Imperial Knight does sound strange. Heretical Knight might just be better.
The forces had gathered behind both Emma and Hjalmar, outside of the range of potential mortars but close enough to see any escaping aircraft. The first guard was made up of Leman Russ Tanks, something Hjalmar never seemed to stop finding amusing. Behind them where Basilisk Tanks, ready to catch anything that took to the air. The infantry, which included Imperial guard, Sisters of the Hawk and Space Wolves were all gathered behind the two rows of tanks.
"Strange." Hjalmar said.
"What is?" Emma asked.
"I´d expect them perhaps boast about their defenses, placing a Knight or two out for us to try and scare us. Think they´re trying to escape?"
"This is not a fortress you escape from." Galatea´s voice came from behind them. She walked quicker than before, thanks to her arm finally healing. "This is a fortress you escape to." She said when she´d gotten up to next to Emma. "If they run away from here, there will nowhere for them to run."
Hjalmar scoffed. "If these heretics are anything like Inquisitors they´ve got five escape plans to try and outwit us."
"If heretics where anything like inquisitors we would be worshipping the Dark Gods at this point." Emma said.
"Hur." Hjalmar snorted. "Not that inquisitor. The kind that would see an entire planet burn along with everyone there because he found a single sign of heresy. The kind that hides the moment you confront him with the consequences of his actions."
"Either way," Galatea said. "Once we raise Mountbatten to the ground, they will have to be fools to try and rise against us again."
"Isn´t that what makes them heretics?" Hjalmar asked with a grin.
"Let´s get started." Emma said.
"Aye." Hjalmar agreed.
They gathered in the tent the wolves would otherwise use for their feasts. It was the only one large enough to house the Palatines of the Hawk, the Brother-Captain of the wolves, the commander of the Imperial Guard and the Inquisitor.
"If they wanted to run…" Garius Lup paced around the holo-projection of the fortress. "They should have done so a long time ago."
"What defenses are we looking at?" Derik asked.
"The walls themselves are downright impenetrable." Garius turned the flickering holo-projection. "They were built during the Long Night, made to withstand explosions that would tear a hive to the ground. But they are not insurmountable." He threw a glance at Sophia, who soured her expression.
"What about mines?" Galatea asked.
"I´ll have scout squads come the field during night." Garius replied. "If there are any mines planted in that field, I´ll have them disarmed."
"That only leaves watch towers, troops and the Traitor Knights." Derik said with weary tone.
"They´ll make for a good fight." Hjalmar grinned.
"They´ll make for our doom if we´re not careful. Besides the knights what else can we except?"
Garius took a slow breath and shrugged lightly. "Had you asked me a year ago, I´d say at least four knights, three regiments worth of troops along with a barrage of artillery and enough fire power to turn the ocean black a second time. Now, I can only say at most three knights with any certainty."
"In that case we assume four knights," Sophia said. "Along with everything else you assumed would be there."
The tent went silent for a moment before Hjalmar raised his voice. "My brothers aren´t drinking tonight."
Neither am I. Emma studied the holo-projection. "How do we assault the gate?" She asked without looking at the Colonel.
"My intention is to have the men lay down a field of suppressive fire upon outer walls before we charge the gate." Garius answered.
"Using what?"
"The firepower my own troops and whatever the wolves can bring."
"Hmph." Hjalmar made grunt as if he had been insulted. "I don´t like using bolters. Makes it hard to tell if the thing I shoot died."
"But your brothers have them?"
"´Course we do."
"And how do we destroy the gate?" Emma asked. "Should I direct the Basilisks to fire at the gate with smoke markers like last time?"
"The Basilisks won´t be enough this time." Garius said. "We have to use the Hellhammer Baneblade."
Hjalmar snorted in amusement.
"What is it that I don´t know about that you find so funny?" Garius asked.
"Emma took a Baneblade down with broken blade." His snort grew into a chuckle.
"Is that true?" Garius asked with disbelieve.
"Half true." Emma admitted. "I did use a broken sword, but it was only to jam into the gears, so Galatea could drop mortar shells on it."
"Hm." Garius looked at Emma before he looked over at the old wolf. "I don´t know how many shoots it will take for the gate to be battered down, but the Baneblade will need an escort."
"In case of what?" Emma asked.
"In case the Knights enter the field."
That night, Emma was back at the hill. She sat on the ground with her legs folded up to her chest.
"It´s quiet, ain´t it." Hjalmar said as he walked up the hill.
"It is." Emma shifted slightly.
"Enough to make you concerned?"
"A bit." Emma looked up at wolf. Sitting down, he seemed almost twice as tall to Emma. Is this what it was like to stand in the presence of a primarch? Emma put on a short-lived smile. It'd be easier to smile if Johana was here. Wouldn´t it?
"Try and enjoy it." Hjalmar sat down with a crash. The sudden sound of it made Emma jump a little, something that had no chance of escaping Hjalmar´s keen senses. He laughed a little at it. "When we´re out there, this will probably seem like paradise."
"You say that," Emma voice took a solemn tone. "But sometimes it feels better to be out there in the field of battle."
"How come?"
"It feels simpler. Everything feels simpler."
"It´s true." Hjalmar said. "I feel it too. If feel it every time I step out there. Every time I hear the roars of my brothers and the barks of bolters."
"It's a fragile feeling." Emma looked up at Hjalmar. "All it takes is one look from someone, or a scream. And it cracks like ice, and then you fall into the water."
Hjalmar opened his mouth like was about to protest but slowly shut it. He took a few moments to answer. "Sometimes. When tempered by the fire of war, it's harder than steel."
"I´ve never experienced something like that." Emma stared forward with empty eyes.
"Say, you know the saying that a good commander follows commands without question?"
"And a good commander gives orders without doubt."
"Aye. It´s one of the biggest loads of shite I´ve ever heard."
Emma´s brows jumped upwards. "What do you mean?"
"You can never be sure of the length of your swing, or the strength of your strike. These will always be in your mind. They always cause you to doubt."
"Speaking from experience?"
Hjalmar looked at Emma with his grey eyes. Though they were large by virtue of Hjalmar being large, they narrowed into sharp slits. "More than you can ever imagine." He looked over his shoulder, to the camp behind them. "Every single one of my brothers on this planet… I´ve raised them like a father would raise his sons since they were old enough to stand. Over the centuries I don´t know how many its amounted to. My brothers that are here… well most of them are of a younger generation. Tor especially. I must have taught hundreds of them. Maybe even a thousand. Whether they be dead or lost, I still remember every single one of their faces."
I was going to be a parent once. Emma wanted to say. Not of a thousand sons. Not of hundreds. Just a single one. She felt the words just behind her lips.
"Every time it´s their turn to drink from the Cup of the Wolfen," Hjalmar continued. "I feel a terror that can´t even be matched by even the greatest daemons or beasts."
"What happens when they drink?"
"If they are true in their intent and pure in their faith, they finish the final step in becoming Vlka Fenryka. Otherwise… they mutate and twist in agony. They become flesh hungry monsters of feral, berserk rage. They become Wulfen. When it's one of my initiates turn to drink, I feel doubt. I think about every lesson, every day of training, and wonder what I could have done different. It doesn´t even stop there. There is another saying, one with much less shite in it, treat your soldiers like they were your own children and they will follow you to hell and back. I treat, and think, of my brothers as my sons, and I never doubt their loyalty."
You just doubt your ability. And theirs. Emma thought of her own sisters, of Serena, and of Johana. "I understand."
"Do you?"
Emma smiled warmly. She reached up and put a hand on Hjalmar´s gauntlet. "Better than you can ever imagine." And more than I can tell you.
