Chapter 25: Breaking Cohesion
I didn't want to waste time with this underwater test, so I dove right back in and swam hard and fast for the surface on the other side. Breaching through the murky blackness, I shot up from the depths like an ungainly fish.
"By the throne!" Ratfinch shouted, flinching back. He'd let go of the rope and was shivering in the freezing water. Egeers was still dangling above us, singing a merry little tune at odds with what was going on below him.
"There's a tunnel, an underground…underwater…one, on the other end, breathable air, lights, stuff to stand on, the lot," I said excitedly, sneezing brackish foam from my drenched nostrils, the sting of icy water invading my nose and eyes.
"How far?" Ratfinch asked.
"I don't know, few metres?" I guessed. Ratfinch and Prassus groaned.
"If you can swim the length of this tube underwater, you could make it," I said. "Just hold your breath as long as you can," I cautioned.
"Got it," Prassus nodded solemnly, looking to Ratfinch. "Coming?"
"Yeah, let's get this over with," the little man said.
"Egeers, time to drop, buddy," I said, urging him down to us. Egeers nodded, hopping off the rope and into the dark black water, shaking his head about.
"Woohoo!" He cheered, like a lunatic. "Wow, that is cold," he muttered a second later.
"Come on, follow me," I said, not wanting to waste a moment longer. "Deep breaths everyone!"
We all inhaled comically large breaths, filling our lungs with air, and then dove downwards into the deep, dark water. I swam at the fore, close enough for the others to follow. I could just about make out their shapes in the depths, the shadowy outlines of the three people crazy enough to follow me into this ominously lit tunnel.
Same as before, going through the entrance was the hardest part, deeper and darker than any other point, surrounded by thick concrete on all sides, only a few metres wide and about a metre in length. Once we were through that threshold, I beckoned upwards with exaggerated arm movements. They were trailing behind me.
Great. I forgot they weren't as good swimmers as me.
Up, up, up, I mentally urged them, unable to stand this freezing black abyss any longer, rising up to breathe in sweet, fresh air before dropping below to pull them up. I grabbed Prassus first, hauling him upwards with all the strength I could muster, throwing him up to the surface before rising with him.
"Gah! That was close!" He cried, rubbing water from his eyes and coughing loudly.
"I'm getting Ratfinch!" I shouted, diving back down, looking for the little black mass that was the diminutive man. I could make out Egeers pushing up along the concrete wall, feeling his way to the surface. He must have his eyes closed and was making his way by touch.
I saw Ratfinch, arms paddling in the mirk, and grabbed onto his arms, causing him to panic momentarily, before he saw that it was me. He was coughing underwater, bubbles streaming from his mouth.
Holy fuck, he was drowning!
I grabbed him in both arms and lifted him, kicking up with what little strength I had left, hugging him close to my chest. We broke the surface in a shower of spray, coughing water. Ratfinch vomited a lungful of water from his pale lips as I paddled to the side of the tunnel. I heard Egeers pop up behind me, coughing his lungs out as he scrambled to reach the platform on the other side of the tunnel.
"Oh, shit, shit, shit," Prassus said, grabbing Ratfinch and I and helping us onto the concrete platform. I nodded dimly in thanks, reaching out to the solid ground with rapidly dwindling strength. I pulled myself up onto the side, legs still submerged, and lay there, shivering. Prassus pulled me up the last bit of the way.
"You nearly died, man!" Prassus said, slapping Ratfinch on the back. He groaned, and threw up some more water, shaking all over.
"Sent…Sent saved me," he gagged, rubbing water from his eyes. Prassus looked at me with a newfound respect.
"You're welcome," I wheezed, putting a hand onto the tunnel wall to rise up. It looked like we could walk to the end of…whatever this was.
"C'mon, let's not stay here. Let's get out of here," I said, standing up. There was still some fire in me. I could feel it.
"Yeah, yeah, let's leave this hellhole behind," Ratfinch coughed, shaking. Prassus nodded silently.
"What about the others?" Egeers asked. Ratfinch bent over double to cough up some more water.
"They'll make it," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. "We did, so can they."
"I hope they will," I said. "I don't feel like hanging around here any longer," I muttered.
The four of us, chilled to our bones, waterlogged, and exhausted, trudged through the tunnel. The walls were no longer concrete, but metal, and, we came to realise, were maintenance tunnels converted into training areas. There were dozens of hatches and tunnels branching off from ours, all sealed behind grates or barred doors, with spray-painted yellow arrows denoting where we should go. Some sections seemed to be meant for training, as they too had spotlights and arrows on the walls, but were locked off with shutters, marked 'exit only', leaving only tantalising glimpses of some sort of 'underground' training area visible to us.
The tunnel went on for some time before we came to an exit, which was a ladder to the surface, reminiscent of a sewer access point below a manhole. Gripping onto the rusted, metal ladder, we slowly climbed up it, one at a time, until we got to the top, where a single unlocked door was all that kept us from the surface.
Wearily pushing the door open, I stepped back into the light of the hangar bay and found myself right to the side of where we began, stepping onto the sandy floor at the start of the climb. It felt like coming out of a dungeon in Skyrim, where the entire system was just one big loop back on itself.
"Private Sent, you made it," sergeant Alexei noted, standing alongside some other squad and their sergeant. Shit. How long did that take?
"We had some troubles, sir," I replied, stopping to catch my breath. Ratfinch and Egeers flopped to the ground beside me, utterly exhausted.
"I nearly drowned, sir," Ratfinch said, glaring at the sergeant. Alexei nodded.
"Yes, but you didn't," he said, staring him down, "you lived."
"Only thanks to Sent here," Prassus said, joining us at last. Sergeant Alexei raised an eyebrow, looking over at me with his birdlike eyes.
"Is that so?"
"I only did what I had to do, sir," I said, coughing. Sergeant Alexei was still staring at me.
"Indeed?" He said. "Well, that is most admirable."
Holy shit, was the genuine praise from the sergeant? Did he just say I did a good job?
Before anyone could speak any further, the second sergeant stepped over to us, and gave us a quick look up and down.
"So, these are the boys, eh?" he said, smiling. Alexei nodded.
"Sergeant Andermark. Pleased to meet you. Your good sergeant has some sudden duties come up, so I'm going to be taking over for a little while, yeah?" He looked around at where his squad was standing at attention, waiting for his orders. We all blinked. What was going on?
How long was he going to be in charge? A few hours? A few days? What was going on?
"I'll be giving them a good little push, eh? C'mon, Alexei old boy, you know I can handle things. Why don't you go off and get that little mess sorted out, huh?" Andermark said, giving the sergeant a jovial nudge on the back. Sergeant Alexei gave him a withering glare.
"I expect you will return my squad to me in one piece, Andermark," Alexei snapped. Andermark nodded, waving away his concerns.
"Yes, yes, good man, yes, of course. Nothing too dangerous, yeah? Ha! Dangerous! As if they'd let the new blood anywhere near danger. Can't have that, oh no, no danger here. Heh! Danger," he muttered, shaking his head, patting Alexei on the back. Alexei nodded stiffly at him and marched off like he had a stick up his ass.
"He's a proper Cadian, that man. It'll forever gall him that we're not off to Cadia. But the Eastern Fringe won't grow quiet just because we're not looking at it," Andermark said. I hung on his every word. We're not going to Cadia? So Cadia is still around then, but it's calling for reinforcements. And if we're off to the Eastern Fringe, that meant our enemies would likely be…
Tyranids. Tau. Orks.
I wasn't keen on fighting any of them.
"Sir, if I may ask…where are we going?" I risked the question. Andermark certainly seemed more conversational then Alexei, who rarely said anything other orders.
"Hmm? What was that? Oh, we are we off to? Who knows!" Andermark grunted, hands on hips. "Not Cadia, that's for sure. Not Cadia."
"Is Cadia your home?" Prassus said, joining the conversation. Andermark looked at him like he'd just asked if the sky was up.
"Is Cadia my…is Cadia home! Is Cadia home! Is it ever!" He laughed incredulously at the question, throwing his head back to laugh.
"Yes, lad, Cadia is my home, but…but things have gone awfully quiet as of late. No one tells us plain old sergeants much, but we can see it. The word spreads. Things have gone awfully quiet in the galaxy. No one can say for certain but…whatever's happening out there…well, let's just say we're becalmed here. Ain't many planets out there we can get to right now. Got thing Practica is in our little sector of space. Allows us a chance to figure out where we're meant to be going and what we're meant to be doing," he said wearily.
That didn't sound good. A quiet galaxy? Did that mean the darkness was already spreading? Had Cadia fallen and the great rift was just now splitting the galaxy in twain? We were safe to even use warp travel at a time like this? Of course, I couldn't even ask about any of this, since not only would he not know the answers, he'd probably shoot me for even asking them.
"So, what are we going to be doing sir?" Egeers asked. Andermaked gestured vaguely around him at his squad, pulling a cigar and lighter from his pocket.
"Hmm? Oh, well, my lot will run the course, you lot, damn, just drop and give me fifty, I guess," he said, pointing to the floor with his cigar. Well, guess that meant I won't be able to ask any more questions. But what I had got there was enough, if I was right.
And I had a feeling I was.
As I was forcing my bruised and battered body to fight through a set of push-ups, I realised that these guys likely didn't realise Cadia was gone, totally blown away. They likely didn't realise the galaxy was being split in two, and the Imperium sundered by Chaos. That even the light of the Emperor was growing dim.
That Guilliman had returned.
Grunting with exertion as I pushed past thirty, I looked up to see some of Andermark's squad meandering over. Three guys and one girl.
"You lot Practian's, yeah?" the tallest guy among them asked. Prassus, coated in sweat and the sheen of icy water, nodded.
"Where are you from?" I asked, groaning with the effort of making it to fifty.
"Bulara," the girl said, with a look of passive disinterest in her surroundings. Prassus nodded.
"Never heard of it. Cityward or Armsward?" Prassus asked.
"Armsward," the tall guy said, "very far Armsward. By the shores of Mycal lake."
"Good to hear. We're from Tandoran. Also, Armsward," Prassus said, grunting as he finished up his push ups.
"Never heard of it," the tall guy said, smiling.
"So, you lot farmers?" the girl asked. Egeers nodded.
"From a farm town. Only one whose a farmer here is Prassus," Ratfinch said, butting in.
"So, what are you?" the girl asked.
"Craftsmen," Egeers and Ratfinch said. They all nodded, then turned to me expectantly.
"And you?"
"Workman," I said. "I'm Sent."
"Adat," the tall guy said. He had ginger hair and a chipped tooth.
"Ziya," the girl added on. She had dirty blonde hair and a scar across her cheek.
"And I'm Jahan," the last guy said. He had some acne across his forehead and had a buzzcut.
"Pleased to meet you," I said, shaking each of their hands in turn. I was about to ask them how they were finding the guard when I saw Egeers jaw fall open.
"No bloody way," he muttered. Ratfinch cursed, and Prassus threw up his hands in frustration. Our new friends turned to see what all the fuss was about. Oh, damn it. This isn't good. Why did it have to be now, of all times. Just as things were starting to go well.
There, standing by the entrance, was sergeant Alexei, and next to him was none other the Desmond Armanlance.