Helsreach (warhammer 40000)

by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

  The men and women of Helsreach stood together on cargo crates, on the paved groundways, on steel piers, all eyes turned to the seas and the fleet of enemy vessels breaching the surface of the water, powering closer to the city. A horde of humanity, looking out to sea.

  Maghernus was close to the front of one crowd, leading his worker gang in their filthy overalls, clutching a newly-forged lasgun to his chest. They were being handed out by Guard officers from weapon crates stored in warehouses across the dock districts. Every dock gang was treated to a short, simple talk on how a lasrifle was loaded, unloaded, set to safety and fired after aiming. Maghernus had felt his palms sweating as he collected the rifle and extra power cells, which now sat in a small sack hanging from the side of his belt. The hurried Guard sergeant had shouted his way through a quick demonstration, and now here Maghernus was, gun in hand, dry-mouthed.

  'Follow your assigned leaders,' the sergeant had yelled above the noise of so many men and women gathered in one place. 'Every dock gang, and every group of fifty people, will have a storm-trooper with them. Follow that storm-trooper the way you'd follow the Emperor Himself if He descended from the sky and told you what to do with your sorry arses. He will tell you when to fight, when to run, when to hide and when to move. If you do what this trooper tells you to do, you've got a much greater chance of getting through this in one piece, and not messing up another unit's movements. If you don't listen, there's a greater chance you'll be fouling it up for everyone else, and getting your friends killed. Understood?'

  General assent answered this.

  'For the next few days, you're in the Imperial Guard. First rule of the Guard: Go forward. If you get lost, you go forward. You lose your way? You go forward. You fall away from your group? You go towards the enemy. That's where you'll do the most good, and that's where you'll find your friends. Understood?'

  General assent answered this, too. It came with a little more reluctance.

  'Right. Next groups!'

  With that, Maghernus's gang and several others filed from the warehouse, making room for others to get exactly the same lecture.

  Outside, dozens of Steel Legion storm-troopers in their ochre jackets and heavy, thrumming power generator backpacks were directing the flow of human traffic. Maghernus led his gang to one that waved him over. The man was slender, unshaven, scratching his forehead under the domed helmet he wore. His goggles were raised up, fastened around the helmet, and his rebreather mask was hanging slack around his neck. He had the look of someone who, if not lost, was at least not entirely sure where he was.

  'Hello,' Maghernus swallowed. 'We need an assigned soldier.'

  'Ah, I know this already. That is me. I am Andrej.'

  'Thank you, sir.'

  The storm-trooper laughed, slapping the dockmaster on the shoulder. 'That is funny ''Sir''. I may keep you after the war is done, to make me feel good, eh? I am not Sir. I am Andrej. Perhaps I will be Sir after I make sure none of you are dead. I would like that. It would be nice.'

  'I…'

  'Yes, it is a big pressure. I understand this. I would like a promotion, so you must all stay alive. We play for big stakes now, no? I thank you for this idea you have given me. You have made the day more fun.'

  'I…'

  'Come, come. No time for making friends now. We will talk much soon. Hey! All of you dock-working people, come with me, yes?'

  Without waiting for an answer, Andrej began to walk through the crowds, followed by Maghernus's gang. The storm-trooper would occasionally wave at other soldiers, most of whom offered silent nods or gruff greetings. One of them, a pale beauty with black hair so thick and rich it had no business being leashed in a plain ponytail, smiled and waved back.

  'Throne, who was that?' Maghernus asked as he trailed just behind Andrej. 'Your wife?'

  'Ha! I wish. That is Domoska. We are squadmates. She is nice to look at, no?'

  She was. Maghernus watched her leading another group through the masses. As Domoska was lost in the teeming crowds, his gaze fell on the men she was leading. Maghernus prayed he didn't look as nervous as they all did.

  'It is very funny, I think. Her brother is the ugliest man I have ever seen, yet the sister is touched by fortune with great beauty. He must be very bitter, no?'

  Maghernus just nodded.

  'Come, come. Time is running away from us.'

  That had been an hour ago. Now, they stood with Andrej, unfamiliar weapons held to their chests, pressed against quickened heartbeats. Andrej was occupying himself by picking his nose. This was something he struggled to do in gloves of thick, brown leather, but he went about the task with a curiously stately tenacity.

  'Sir,' Maghernus started.

  'A moment, please. Victory is almost mine.' Andrej flicked something grotesque from his fingertip. 'I can breathe again. Emperor be praised.'

  'Sir, shouldn't you say something to us?' He lowered his voice, stepping closer. 'Something to inspire the men?'

  Andrej frowned, absently biting his cut lip as he looked around at the other groups spread down the dock lines. 'I do not think so. No other Legionnaire is talking. I was going to wait for the Reclusiarch's speech, you know? Would you prefer me to speak now?'

  'The Reclusiarch will speak?'

  'Oh, yes. He is good at this. You will like it. It will happen soon, I am thinking.'

  A blast of screeching feedback slashed through the air as across the docks - kilometre upon kilometre of them - every vox-tower came alive in a distorted whine.

  'See?' Andrej grinned. 'I am always right. It is what I do best.'

  For several seconds, the people of Helsreach heard nothing but breathing - low, heavy, threatening - over the vox-speakers.

  'Sons and daughters of Hive Helsreach,' the voice boomed across the shore districts, too low and resonant to be human, flavoured by the slight crackle of vox-corruption. 'Look to the water. The water from which you draw the wealth of your city. The water that now promises nothing but death.

  'For thirty-six days, the people of your world, the people of your own city, have been selling their lives to defend you. For thirty-six nights, your own mothers and fathers, your own brothers and sisters, your own sons and daughters have been fighting the enemy to ensure that half of the hive remains in human hands. They have battled, road by road, sweating and fighting and dying so you can enjoy a handful of days of freedom.

  'You owe them. You owe them for the sacrifices they have made so far. You owe them for the sacrifices they will make in the days and nights yet to come.

  'Here and now, you will have the chance you deserve, the chance to repay them all. More than that, you will have the chance to punish the enemy for daring to lay siege to your city, for breaking your families apart and destroying your homes.

  'Watch the tides. See the scrap fleet that sails into your port, bearing a horde of howling beasts. When the sun sets at the end of this week, every single invader in those surfacing ships will no longer draw breath from the sacred air of this world. They will fall because of you. You are going to save this city.

  'Fear is natural. It is human. Feel no shame for a heart that beats too fast in this moment, or fingers that tremble as you hold a weapon you have never wielded before. The only shame is in cowardice - in running and leaving others to die when everything comes down to your actions.

  'You are led by Guard veterans - the best of your Steel Legions - Imperial storm-troopers. But they are not alone. The forces of Helsreach are coming. Stand and defy the enemy for long enough, and you will soon see thousands of tanks constructed in this very city grinding the invaders into dust. Help. Is. Coming. Until then, stand proud. Stand resolute.

  'Remember these words, brothers and sisters. ''When death comes, the good we have done will mean nothing. We are judged in life for the evil we destroy''.

  'That time of judgement is upon you. I know every man and women here feels it in their blood, in their bones.

  'I am Grimaldus of the Black Templars, a
nd this is my vow to you all. While one of us stands, these docks will never fall. If I have to kill a thousand of the enemy myself, the sun will rise once more over an unconquered city.

  'Look for the black knights among you. We will be where the fighting is fiercest, at the heart of the storm. Stand with us, and we will be your salvation.' Silence descended once more.

  Maghernus sighed, tension ebbing from him as his breath misted in the cool air. Andrej was adjusting the slide rack settings on his modified lasrifle. The weapon emitted a pulsing, charged hum that set the dockmaster's teeth on edge.

  'That was a stern talking-to, no? Not many will run now, I am thinking.'

  Maghernus nodded. It took him several moments to speak. 'What's that rifle?'

  'This?' Andrej finished his ministrations, gesturing to the thick power cables feeding from the rifle's bulky stock to the humming metal power pack he wore between his shoulders. 'We call them hellguns. Like yours, only brighter and louder and hotter and meaner. And no, you cannot have one. This is mine. They are rare, and only given to people who are right all the time.'

  'And what's that?'

  'This is a det-pack.' He tapped the hand-sized detonator disc hanging from his belt. 'Used for sticking to tanks and making them explode into many pretty pieces. I once had many, now I have only one. When I use it, I will have none, and that will be a sad day.'

  Maghernus wanted to ask if Andrej was really a storm-trooper. He settled for saying ''You are not exactly what I expected''.

  'Life,' the soldier said, looking off to the side in what appeared to be distracted consideration, 'is a series of very wonderful surprises, until a final bad one.' Turning to the entire group, Andrej buckled his helmet's chin strap with a grin.

  'My handsome new friends, it is soon to be time for war. So, my beautiful ladies and fine gentlemen, if you want to remain beautiful and fine, keep your heads down and your rifles up. Always aim from the cheek, with your eyes down the barrel. Do not be firing from the hip - that is the best way to feel excellent about yourself and yet hit nothing. Oh, and it will be loud and scary, no? Much panic, I think. Always wait one second before pulling your trigger, to make sure you are aiming at something you should be aiming at. Otherwise you may be shooting other people, and that is bad news for you, and worse news for them.'

  The gangs of workers began to disperse across the docks, taking up positions in alleys between warehouses, behind crate stacks, around the edges of buildings and on the various floors of multi-storey hangars and work blocks facing the sea.

  'Come, come.' Andrej led his group into the shadows of a loader crane, ordering them to spread out and take cover around the huge metal strut columns and cargo containers close by.

  'Sir?' called one of the men.

  'My name is Andrej, and I have said this many times. But yes, what is the problem?'

  'My gun's jammed. I can't get the power cell back in.'

  From where he crouched at the head of the group, Andrej shook his head with a melodramatic sigh. With his goggles over his eyes and the infantile grin plastered across his features, he looked like some breed of gigantic, amused fly.

  'One has to wonder why you would be taking it out in the first place.'

  'I was just—'

  'Yes, yes. Be nice to the weapon's machine-spirit. Ask it nicely.'

  The dockworker looked awkward as he turned his gaze down at the rifle. 'Please?' he said, lamely.

  'Ha! Such reverence. Now click that lock switch on the other side. That is the release catch, and you need to slide it back to get the cell back in.'

  The man dropped the power cell from his shaking hands, but slapped it home on the second try. 'Thank you, sir.'

  'Yes, yes, I am a hero. Now, my brave friends, a siren will soon begin to sing. When it does, it means the enemy is within range of our artillery defences, which are sadly too few in number to make me smile. When I say it is time to be ready, you are all to sit up and start looking for huge and ugly beasts to shoot.'

  'Yes, sir,' they chorused.

  'I could become used to that, oh yes. Now, listen with both ears my wonderful fellows. Aim for the bodies. It is the biggest target, and that is what counts if you are new to this.'

  'Yes, sir,' they said again.

  'There is a very beautiful woman I would like to marry after this war. She will almost certainly be saying no to my proposal, but hey, we will see. If she says yes, you are all invited to my wedding, which will be in the eastern territories where the weather is much less like being pissed on by the sky every day. Also, the drinks will be free. You have my word on this. I am always truthful, this being one of my many glorious virtues.'

  A few of the men smiled, despite themselves.

  The siren began to wail. A banshee's keen across kilometres of docks, howling over tens of thousands of frightened Imperial souls. Muffled thumps started up in response as the Sabre-class defence platforms opened fire on the incoming fleet.

  'It is time,' Andrej grinned again, 'to earn some very shiny medals.'

  'For the Emperor,' one man breathed the words like a mantra, his eyes closed, 'For the Emperor.'

  'Oh, no. Not for Him.' Andrej fastened his rebreather mask, but they could still hear the smile in his voice. 'He is happy on His Golden Throne, a long way from here. This is for me, and it is for you, and that is more than enough.'

  The sirens began to fade, one by one, until a last lone wail sputtered out.

  'Any moment now,' Andrej said, leaning up to aim over the top of the container he'd been kneeling behind. 'We will have company.'

  The first vessels crashed into the docks with the noise of a storm wave breaking against the shore. With no finesse, without even slowing down, they crunched into the gangways and loading platforms, ferociously beaching themselves. Doors and portals immediately blasted open, disgorging a tide of foul alien flesh onto the docks.

  The very first of the alien beasts to spill from its underwater scrap-pod was a brute, easily half again the size of its lesser brethren, bearing a trophy rack on its hunched shoulders with human skulls and Astartes helms from other wars on other worlds. It had been leading its tribe across the edges of the Imperium for decades, and in a fight with all else even, would have been more than a match for a lone Astartes.

  Its face, shoulder and torso disintegrated in a ruthless volley of las-fire that sent the burning remains spinning off the edge of the docks and into the polluted water below. Less than a hundred metres away, Domoska shouted encouragement to the dockworkers she led, and ordered them to fire again. Many had missed, but more than enough had struck home. It was a pattern being repeated along the Helsreach docks now, as the first wave of xenos creatures howled and laughed their way into the city.

  From his makeshift cover within the den of loosely-stacked cargo containers, Maghernus fired shot after shot, feeling the rifle in his hands growing warmer with each crack of release. He lowered himself below the lip of the crate he knelt behind, and reloaded his lasgun with inexpert fingers. The bastard thing was stuck.

  'Use force,' Andrej said from his place next to the dockmaster. The storm-trooper didn't look at him, didn't even glance away from where he was aiming and firing. Another migraine-bright beam of overcharged energy spat from the soldier's hellgun. 'The slides often jam on new rifles. This is a sad truth with the rifles of our home world. Their spirits take time to wake up.'

  Maghernus was amazed he could even hear the other man over the din of beaching vessels, alien roars and discharging lasguns filling the air with a scattered chorus of mechanical cracks.

  'I fired a Kantrael rifle once,' Andrej was continuing, his words punctuated by slight shifts in his posture and aim as he tracked target after target, releasing round after round, it was a very keen weapon, oh yes. 'That world forges eager guns.'

  Maghernus slotted the fresh power cell home and raised himself back into position. His back already ached from his first two minutes as a soldier. How the Steel Legion crouched like th
is for days on end and got used to battle was a mystery to him. He fired at distant figures, lumbering alien hulks that ran with almost no sense of direction or purpose, as if hunting for a scent - lost until they found it. Others in the emerging packs would race to the source of the las-fire being thrown at them, and were cut down in their headlong run. A few, clearly cunning by the standards of these creatures, remained back and loaded heavy weapons. These last beasts sent shrieking missiles into the entrenched Imperial lines, exploding stacks of cargo crates or pulverising the sides of warehouses.

  Slowly but surely, with an insidious creep, the docks were being enveloped by thick smoke from the destroyed submersibles and burning buildings.

  'We will have to move soon,' Andrej called over his shoulder to the others. The words proved prophetic. With a crash of metal on stone and a wave of flooding water, a submersible beached itself on the docks not thirty metres from their position. Saltwater splashed down on the crouching dockworkers. Alien growls came from the wrecked sub as its doors blasted open.

  'That is far from good,' the storm-trooper scowled behind his rebreather as he slammed back into his firing position, drawing a bead on the first creature to emerge. It dropped like a puppet with its strings cut as the harsh beam lanced through its face and blew out the back of its head.

  Maghernus and the others joined their fire to his. Still more beasts came spilling from the submersible. The greenskins were charging now, having sniffed out the nearby cluster of humans behind the barricade, and following the streams of laser fire.

  'Sir…' one of the men stammered, his eyes wide and bloodshot. 'Sir, they're coming…'

  'That is a fact I am aware of,' Andrej replied, not stopping his stream of fire for a moment.

  'Sir—'

  'Please shut up and keep firing, yes?'

  The beasts reached the cargo containers. They reeked of blood, smoke, bitter sweat and the alien stench of fungal corruption. Bunched muscles hauled the beasts over the barricades, and the brutes roared down at the humans - no longer in cover, but hemmed in by the cargo pods.