Preparations

"I doubt our rulers would approve your actions."

"I was ordered to construct facilities."

"Not like this."

"The enemy press. They may not accept our withdrawal. Someday we will need to face them. To do that we will need soldiers, materiel. And the means to make more. All this needs to be somewhere the enemy will not look."

"None of which requires the specifications here."

"While our masters slumber we must prepare for their awakening. This is part of the preparation."

"You may have the tools. But if I question the use you put them to, be sure others will also."

"Your warning is appreciated. As is your assistance. When this succeeds you will share the fruit."

"And should it fail, the blame will lie with you alone."

"As ever."

Present Day

"Well that was the biggest frack up I've seen in my time here." Marshal Kryn Sodor looked around the briefing hall. She was tall to begin with and the platform she stood on only emphasised the fact. The room itself was big enough to contain 10 full squads on the main floor with space for 2 more in a viewing gallery halfway up the back wall. The wooden floor and walls were faded yellow by age and the wan light coming in through the high slit windows. The light glinting as it struck the gilt on the name boards. These stretched from floor to the gloom-lost ceiling and were tightly packed with the names of arbitrators fallen in the line of duty. Sawdust piling where a new name was in the process of being added by a servitor. The names covered the whole of one wall and were starting to fill a second, empty boards patiently waiting to take the names of those present when their service came to its inevitable end. The hall seemed almost empty now with a mere 18 arbitrators standing at attention. Another sat in a chair looking equally uncomfortable. A mechanicum adept loitered nervously in the shadows at the back of the room under the gallery.

"Targes you were supposed to secure the far end of the alley."

The target of her gaze blinked nervously. "Marshal. Yan and I took up position ready to use the Rhino's primary weapon to cover, then realised we couldn't use it."

"Why not."

"It's a heavy bolter, it would have cut straight through the gangers. With that and ricochet too much risk of friendly fire."

"I suppose that answers the question of how yesterday could have gone any worse." A few of the troopers winced. "What should you have done?"

The trooper thought for a moment. "If I'd gone side on we could have used a flamer through the weapon slot and used that to block the approach."

Kryn stared at him thoughtfully then nodded. "That was an expensive lesson to learn. Don't forget it. You and Yan let 3 of them get away. I want you both pulling double shifts on foot in the outhab the rest of the week or until you find those sorry sacks who got away and drag them in for interrogation." She paused. "Why are you still here?"

The two luckless troopers made the sign of the Aquila and ran for the door.

"Rysson what do forensics have to say?"

The mechanicum adept scuttled forward. His robe hung down to the floor and the tapping that came from beneath it did not sound like footsteps. When he reached the stage he handed the Marshal a data slate.

"The booby trap was a mix of frag and incendiary grenades linked to a motion sensor. What appeared to be the remains of 8 other traps were destroyed by the fire. Multiple sensors and explosives including..."

"Save the details I'll read it later. Anything non-explosive related."

"Steel hatch leading to a tunnel that connects with the outhab sewer system. Also trapped, but the auspex team managed to disable the devices. No human remains in the building and what appeared to be spore traces from 5 individuals in the tunnel. The flow of sewage destroyed any trace beyond that."

"So at least 8 got away clean. Darien, Totiem, a word. The rest of you, practice house sweep; drill by sections. Trap environment. I want everyone to get at least 2 clean runs in before we go out again. We lost Pelter and Casey will be out of it for too long. If this Trask likes explosives I want to be sure we aren't going to lose any more men to him. Dismissed."

A couple of the troopers looked round puzzled, before realising a second man was sprawled across a seat in the gallery almost lost in the darkness. As the rest of the troops filed out he made an equivocal gesture.

"Mortiurge, you disagree with my tactical assessment?"

The lounging man stood to rough attention and fixed his eye on the marshal. A targeting array was implanted where the other should have been. A twisted scar ran from the eye surgery down through the man's lips giving him a permanent half grin. Without warning he leapt from the gallery, rolling as he landed his cape swirling behind him. The lower gravity this close to the mountain made such tricks easier, but the Marshal knew the warrior could do much the same at full G. He sprang to his feet landing at perfect attention.

"Response was fast. Dispersal and charge was by the book. Over watch cover was tight." He paused. "Targes failed to cover the far end properly but that was the only real flaw, given his relative inexperience not unforgivable. The search and clearance was textbook for chase down. Keep pressure on in hot pursuit. The targets didn't have time to lay traps, must have been pre-prepared. Pelter was unlucky. In short the outcome was a failure but there was no obvious fault in the prosecution." he paused for thought. "So were we blown by faulty intelligence? Worst case someone on the inside, but then they would have just killed Darien and run if they knew rather than taking their time so it seems unlikely."

The Marshal stepped down from the platform, grabbing a chair and pulling it close to the other seated figure.

"So Darien I assume the medics didn't give you permission to leave."

Darien shook his head and managed a rueful smile. "Desk duties for the next month." He glanced at the cast that covered his right hand. "Not that I'm much use with a desk right now either."

"So how did they blow your cover?"

"Dunno." Darien looked thoughtful for a minute. "I'm not sure they did. If you're going to kill an arbitrator you kill them and get out unless you are stupid or arrogant. Trask herded me like a pro and having that escape route planned is obviously not stupid. Didn't come across as arrogant, just well prepared."

"So they just decided to kill you. Why?" the Marshal asked.

"Maybe they'd met him." Mortiurge Totiem muttered, almost under his breath. Darien snorted.

"Everyone seems to know the Goblins make their money from smuggling. But no one seems to know what exactly they smuggle. There's no obvious drug epidemic on their patch, they don't seem to be extorting from the local businesses. The Morticians tried to muscle in on their patch a few months back and were sent packing with some serious firepower. Rumour was that 3 of them were skinned and dumped in Mortician territory as a warning and they only found bits of the rest."

"Odd that resistance to us was so light then. They didn't use anything more powerful than some black market stubbers. If they had a few of those frag grenades from the booby traps to hand they might have made a decent fight of it." Totiem still did not sit down with the others but leant against a wall, constantly switching his gaze between the door and the windows as if he expected some sort of assault.

"For light resistance you took your time getting involved." Darien snapped back.

"Too many targets. Had to wait for backup."

"Never thought I'd hear you admit you were outmatched."

The Mortiurge shrugged. His chosen calling was a rare one in the Arbites. All Arbites from the lowliest trooper up were trained to high standard in combat. But a Mortiurge took that basic competence and turned it into an art form. Specializing only in combat left them unavailable for many standard duties and there was some deliberate ambiguity when it came to chain of command. Theoretically Totiem could refuse any given assignment, and take on any task that he felt was appropriate instead. Some of the men called him an assassin. But never to his face. If any officer went rogue then Totiem would be the one sent to take them down. Naturally this made people more than a little uncomfortable around him, an attitude he seemed to do his best to encourage. Added to that his entire history before the point he joined the Arbites on Tetran I was classified so highly only the Marshal might have had the clearance to see it. And if she had, she wasn't saying.

"Could have killed them all. But you would have died in the process."

Kryn cut off the bickering: "To the point. You don't think your cover was blown."

"Their reaction... OK fifty thousand credits a month for a smuggling job is on the high side, but not suspiciously so. And if you have the pipeline already that should have been pretty much pure profit."

"So a gang that has connections, firepower and turns down free money."

"Whatever they are smuggling it must be so lucrative they don't want the risk."

Kryn looked at her two most trusted subordinates.

"But what. And is it something they are bringing in, or something they are taking out?"

I