1_For_The_Emperor

by Sandy Mitchel

  That was a sound I could identify with some confidence, and I concluded that I was sharing my refuge with some kind of vermin. (An accurate assessment, as I was soon to discover, but not quite in the way I'd imagined.) Before I could consider the matter further, however, I was distracted by a faint tinnitus in my ear, which gradually rose in volume until I was able to distinguish an almost inaudible wash of static. My combead was active, and that could mean only one thing - someone was transmitting on the command frequency reasonably close by. Moreover, there was only one person it could possibly be, a conclusion confirmed by the faint voice, unmistakably feminine, which ebbed in and out of audibility. '… can you hear… commissar… respond…' The breath sighed from my lungs as relief punched me in the gut. They might have moved out, as the mission demanded, but it seemed they hadn't given up on me entirely after all.

  'Inquisitor?' I asked cautiously.

  You wish.' The voice was close and harsh, and if Kelp had been able to resist the taunt, the rifle butt which followed it would probably have stove my skull in. As it was, he'd been considerate enough to warn me, so I ducked it easily, and drove my fist into the pit of his stomach - which was still protected by his hardshell body armour, of course, so much good it did me apart from bruising my knuckles. (The real ones anyway the augmetics were rather more robust than that.) He was still off balance, though, so I drove my hip in and tried to throw him, but he twisted out of the way just in time. For a big man he was a pretty fast mover, I'll give him that.

  A vivid memory of the brawl in the mess hall flashed across my mind, so I ducked again, and sure enough, he'd tried the same spinning kick he'd almost managed to bring Trebek down with. Advantage to me, I thought, that'll teach you to play tag with a hiver in a tunnel, and I began to draw my chainsword to finish this quickly.

  Consequently, I was completely unprepared for the low-level sweeping kick that followed, cracking into the back of my knee, and pitching me to the floor.

  'You were almost right,' he sneered. 'I am in a world of hurt. But it's not mine, is it?' He kept trying to kick me while I was down, but the armour under my greatcoat protected me for the second time that day, and the impacts against my ribs were merely annoying rather than crippling. Then again, I suppose he might have done a better job if he'd concentrated on

  what he was doing instead of talking about it. I stayed silent, masking all but my general position in the darkness, and rolled aside, drawing the chainsword at last.

  'If you're going to fight, fight/ I said, using the sound of my voice to draw him in, and mask the whine of the blade as it powered up. 'Don't make speeches.' He must have thought he had me, because he charged in with a roar of triumph, striking down with the rifle butt at where he must have thought my head was, but I'd already moved by then, rolling aside and slashing at his legs with the weapon. I'd hoped to take the treacherous mongrel off at the knees to be honest, but the keening of the blade must have warned him, and he turned aside at the last second, so all I got was a good cut across one of his calves.

  'Emperor's guts!' It must have done the job though, because he was backing off, and the chamber was suddenly bright with half a dozen luminators, bobbing in hands or utility-taped to the barrels of hellguns.

  'Commissar.' Amberley nodded to me, a casual greeting, as though we'd just met in the street.

  'Inquisitor.' I rolled to my feet, advancing on Kelp, who limped backwards, his expression panicky. A trail of blood followed him. 'Excuse me a moment. I'll be right with you as soon as I've finished this/

  'Stay back/ He raised the hellgun, aiming it at my chest. Incredibly, he still didn't seem to realise that I'd concealed armour there, or he'd have gone for a

  head shot I'm sure. 'One more step and I'll kill you.' I stopped, still a couple of metres too far to finish him off with the chainsword, and he smiled maliciously. 'Or do you still think you can do something from there?' I shrugged.

  'Jurgen, kill him/ I said. The expression on Kelp's face was almost comical for the half-second or so that he still had one, then he exploded into a small pile of gently steaming offal. I turned to my aide, who was lowering the melta, and nodded an acknowledgement. Thank you/ I added.

  'You're welcome, sir/ he replied, as though he'd rendered me no greater service than pouring my tea, and I turned back to Amberley.

  'This is a pleasant surprise/ I added, playing the unflappable hero for all it was worth. 'I didn't think I'd see you again until I got back to the barracks.'

  'Neither did I/ she admitted, with a slight smile. 'But I picked up the carrier wave from your combead, and we just headed in the direction the signal was strongest in/

  'I'm glad you did/1 glanced across to where Trebek was scraping a gooey piece of Kelp residue from her boot. Amberley's smile broadened.

  'You seemed to have the situation well in hand/ I shrugged.

  'I've faced worse odds/

  'No doubt. But he did you a favour, in a way/ I must have looked puzzled at that point, because she explained as though pointing out something

  obvious. 'He made you a lot easier to find. Once we got close enough we just had to follow the noise/

  Her words hit me like a bucket of ice water. (Or a Valhallan shower, which I don't recommend to the unwary, by the way.)

  'Form up/ I said to the troopers. "We're moving out/

  'Just a moment, sir/ Holenbi was rummaging in his medkit. 'I'd like to get you patched up first/ I swear that was the first time I realised I'd taken any damage from the scuffle, or possibly the firelight in the big chamber, my knuckles were smeared with blood. My first thought was that it served me right for punching a suit of carapace armour, but they hadn't been skinned all that badly (and the augmetic ones not at all); most of it had come from the large graze on my forehead, which, now that I'd finally noticed it, had begun to sting abominably. I fended the young medic off as he sprayed it with something.

  'We don't have time for that/ I said. 'If you heard something, you might not have been the only ones/

  That got them moving let me tell you. The thought of facing another horde of hybrids and purestrains was enough to motivate anyone. We moved out in good order, though, I was pleased to note the surviving members of the team actually seemed to mesh together as soldiers should. Now Kelp was gone, the friction which had marred the mission since it started had dissipated, seemingly along with his molecules, and Trebek took point without needing to be ordered to. If she kept this up, I found myself thinking, I might even consider letting her have her corporal's stripes back.

  'We were lucky back there/ I said, falling in beside Amberley again. She raised an eyebrow.

  'How so?'

  When they attacked before. Most of them went for the tau rather than us/

  'And you found that curious?' I nodded.

  'When I fought 'stealers before, on Keffia, they didn't prioritise. Just went for the nearest targets/

  'Intriguing/ she said. 'Mind you, after that prome-thium tank went up they could only get to the xenos anyway/

  'It was before then/ I said. 'Right at the start. They only seemed to come after us once we'd started to retreat/

  'And you say this isn't typical genestealer behaviour/ she prompted.

  'Not in my experience/1 confirmed.

  'I see. Thank you, commissar/ She looked thoughtful, and, once again, her eyes were fixed on Jurgen.

  We pushed on quickly, following a run of piping which seemed to be tending upwards, but I couldn't shake the sense of unease that settled over me as we trotted through the dark. I'd suggested dousing the luminators again, but Amberley overruled me, insisting we make the best time we could, so I left my own off and hurried along at the rear of the group; that way I got the benefit of the others' lights without making myself quite so obvious a target. I didn't like it, though, my palms were tingling again, and my scalp crawled with the anticipation of a sudden shot

  from the shadows, or an eruption of purestrains from the darkness. One thing I'd learned f
rom my previous encounters with the creatures, they were remarkably stealthy and preferred to strike from the shadows, as the Astartes I'd boarded the space hulk with had learned the hard way. The hybrids weren't so worrying, their human genes making them both more conspicuous and easier to kill, even if they were able to use ranged weapons against us.

  'So far so good/ Amberley muttered, which was tempting fate if ever I heard it. We'd been remarkably lucky so far, but I knew that couldn't be expected to last.

  'They won't be too far behind/ I reminded her. In fact, given the speed at which they moved, I was vaguely surprised that they hadn't caught up with us yet…

  Sudden understanding hit me like a blow to the stomach. They didn't have to comb an entire labyrinth to try and find us - they had sentries posted on the main routes in and out. All they had to do was wait, and reinforce their perimeter guards, and we'd walk right into them in our own good time.

  'Wait/ I said. 'We could be running into an ambush/ I thought rapidly, calculating our most probable position, and the distance we'd penetrated after finding the cavern full of the tau's victims. We were still comfortably short, but-

  The sudden detonation of a las-bolt ahead, blowing shards of rockcrete from the wall beside Trebek, derailed my chain of thought at once. I'd missed a

  trick; they were combing the corridors from their outer perimeter, tightening the noose around us-

  'Pull back! Consolidate!' I yelled, as Trebek crouched low to return the fire. Running figures could be seen beyond her, picked out by the beam of the luminator taped to the barrel of her gun, and she squeezed the trigger, felling a young man in the uniform of the PDF. For a moment, I wondered if we'd made a horrible mistake, and were opening fire once more on our own allies, but some of the other figures beside him were unmistakably hybrids. One young woman, who might have been attractive if it wasn't for the third arm growing from her right shoulder blade, tipped with a gen-estealer's razor-sharp claws, flicked the tip of a xenoist braid from her eyes with the monstrous appendage (a surprisingly delicate gesture, I remember thinking at the time), and levelled the heavy stubber cradled in her other two hands. Before I could cry a warning, Sorel punched a hole through her head with his usual unerring accuracy. A second PDF trooper, his uniform embellished with a blue towel tied round his upper arm for some reason, cried out in anguish, dropping his lasgun, and cradled the body.

  'I don't think we can, commissar/ Jurgen was his usual phlegmatic self, seemingly as unconcerned as if he was asking me to approve a routine piece of paperwork. 'They're behind us as well.' He was right, too, the sounds of scurrying feet echoing down the tunnel in the direction from which we'd come.

  Wе have to punch through/ Amberley said decisively. Velade and Holenbi nodded grimly to one another, and opened fire on the cultists in support of Trebek, hugging the walls to present the lowest target profile.

  'Better do it fast!' I shouted. I'd shone my luminator back down the corridor, and my heart nearly stopped - instead of more ragged cultists, the narrow passage was choked with purestrains, jaws gaping, their teeth dripping slobber, as they charged forward at what looked like the pace of a landspeeder. I drew my laspistol and fired a futile volley at them. The lead one fell, and was instantly trampled to goo by the weight of the others as they ran right over it, the snapping of chitin and the squish of its bodily fluids turning my stomach. (And you really don't want to know about the smell.) 'We're running out of time!'

  Jurgen sent a melta blast down the corridor, but it barely slowed them; for every one that fell there seemed to be an army in reserve.

  'We're doing our best/ Trebek called, aiming and firing in one smooth motion. Every time she squeezed the trigger, another cultist died, and her torso armour was scored with las-bolt impacts. Whatever crimes she'd committed aboard the Righteous Wrath, she'd more than atoned for, and the flush of satisfaction I felt at this vindication of my decision to prevent her execution almost managed to drive out the rising terror I felt at the onrushing tide of chitinous death which by now was almost upon us.

  Abruptly Trebeck took a bolt to the chest, the explosive tip bursting through her ribcage, spattering the wall next to her with viscera. She just had enough time to look surprised before the light faded from her eyes.

  'Bella!' Holenbi lowered his hellgun, and scrabbled for his medkit. I grabbed his shoulder.

  'Keep firing!' I shouted. 'She's beyond help!' And so would we be in a few more seconds, if we couldn't punch a way out of here. He nodded, and brought the weapon back on aim, squeezing the trigger reflex-ively Amberley's bolt pistol barked in my ear, and another former PDF trooper died as messily as Tre-bek had done.

  This could be it/ I said, feeling the peculiar lightheaded fatalism that often kicks in when death looks inevitable. The tight knot of fear dissolved, replaced by the calm certainty that nothing I did now would make any difference, but I was damn well taking as many of the bastards with me as I could. The inquisitor turned to answer me, but before she could say anything a las-bolt burst against the side of her head.

  'Amberley!' I yelled, but to my astonishment she was suddenly gone, vanishing without a trace apart from the sudden thunderclap of displaced air rushing in to fill the sudden vacuum in the space which she'd occupied. 'What the hell-'

  'Commissar/ Her voice was suddenly in my combead. Tell Jurgen to shoot the wall, about three metres back from his current position. Hurry!' Sudden hope flared, and I did as I was bid, though as

  you'll appreciate, I wasn't in any position to understand what had happened to her or why she would issue so strange an instruction.

  To his credit, Jurgen complied as quickly and efficiently as he obeyed any order, and to my astonishment, a large hole appeared instantly, about a metre across. The wall there was barely the width of my forearm, and I dived through before the sides had even had a chance to cool.

  This way!' I shouted. Velade and Holenbi started to fall back, while Sorel took a final shot at the onrushing purestrains. Jurgen turned to do the same, unleashing another blast of ravening energy, and then the masonry over the gap started to crumble. 'Hurry!' I yelled, but it was too late; with a grinding roar the wall collapsed behind me, raising a cloud of choking dust, and sealing my companions in with the creatures, which would surely kill them all.

  Now, under any normal circumstances, the idea that I was safely sealed away from a genestealer horde behind tons of fallen masonry would just leave me feeling intensely relieved. I can only assume I got hit on the head or something, because without a second's thought I started scrabbling at the rubble, trying to clear the way back to the corridor which, by now, would undoubtedly be decorated with the internal organs of the others. I only desisted when I felt a hand on my shoulder.

  'Leave it, Ciaphas/ Amberley shook her head regretfully. They're past helping now/ I stood, slowly, brushing the dust from my clothes, and wondered

  how I was ever going to manage without Jurgen. Thirteen years was a long time to serve together after all, and I was going to miss him. 'What happened?' I asked, blinking dust from my eyes. It felt as though my brain was full of it too. "Where did you go?'

  'Here, apparently' Amberley looked around at the chamber we were in. It wasn't very prepossessing, but at least it was free of genestealers. 'The displacer field dumped me here when I got shot.'

  'The what?' I shook my head, dazedly. My hair was full of dust too, and I couldn't find my cap. For some reason that seemed very important, and I kept looking round for it, even though it was almost certainly buried under piles of debris.1

  'Displacer field. If I take a strong enough hit, it tele-ports me out of the way' She shrugged. 'Most of the time, anyway/

  'Useful toy' I said.

  'When it works/ She glanced around the chamber. 'Shall we go?'

  'Go where?' I asked, still trying to take it all in.

  'Away Fast/ She swung her luminator beam over a darker shadow in the corner of the room. 'This looks like a way out/1 nodded.

 
'I can feel an air current/

  'Good/ She looked at me curiously, and I realised that she couldn't. What is it they say? You can take the boy out of the hive… 'Let's go then/

  Well, I didn't have any better ideas, so I trailed along after her. Although if I'd known what we were heading into, I might just have decided to stay put after all.

  1 A common symptom of shock. Hardly surprising under the circumstances…

  Editorial Note:

  Once, again, I must apologise for this, but it really is the only eyewitness account I've been able to find.

  (Actually, there are the official after-action reports, too, which, might yield a more coherent picture if someone were to go through, them and. collate the various viewpoints of a dozen different officers, but to be honest, I haven't the time or the patience.)

  Extracted from Like a Phoenix From the Flames: The Founding of the 597th, by General Jenit Sulla (retired), 097.M42.

  By the time we had reached the old quarter, we had almost grown used to the shadowy presence of the tau, flitting about us like malign ghosts, and it is greatly to the credit of the troopers I was honoured to serve with that not one of them gave way to the temptation to exact retribution for the destruction of the city, despite the presence of an obvious target on more than one occasion. However strong this urge might become, and strong it was, we remained mindful of the injunction placed upon us, and focused our minds on the delicate mission with which we had been entrusted. Truly, there can be no foe more despicable than an imperial servant who has betrayed the trust of the Emperor, and we were, if anything, even more eager to call the wretched governor to account for his perfidy than we were to wreak deserved vengeance on the alien interlopers whose presence he had tolerated for so long, with such dire consequences.