Helsreach (warhammer 40000)

by Aaron Dembski-Bowden

  In wordless silence, he lowered the bolter again.

  'There is nothing to like in them,' Priamus spat as he paced the prayer room. 'They wage war to defend, to preserve. Everything in their way is devoted to maintaining what humanity already has.'

  Bastilan was sharpening his combat blade, running a whetstone along the gladius's killing edges. The small chamber was filled with Priamus's crunching bootsteps and the resssh, resssh of the whetstone scraping.

  'It is flawed,' the swordsman added. 'I mean no offence to them as warriors. But drop-podding into the city purely to defend civilians? Madness.'

  Resssh, resssh.

  'Why do you not answer, brother?'

  'I have little to say.' Resssh, resssh.

  'Do you think ill of me for my beliefs? Bastilan, please, you know I am right.'

  'I know you are treading on unstable ground. Do not besmirch the honour of our brother Chapter. The Salamanders shed as much blood as we did this week.'

  'That is not the point.'

  Resssh, resssh. 'That is where you and I disagree, brother. But you are young. You will learn.'

  Priamus didn't bother to hide his disgusted sneer from infecting his voice. 'Do not patronise me, old man. You know of what I speak. You are just quietened by the mounting years and too reserved to say it aloud.'

  'I am not that old,' Bastilan laughed. The boy was annoying, but he certainly knew how to drag out a smile or two with his misguided fervour.

  'Do not laugh at me.'

  'Then stop making me laugh. What two Chapters fight the same? What two Chapters wage war according to the same principles? We are all born of different worlds and trained by different masters. Accept the differences and stand with them as allies.'

  'But they are wrong.' Priamus stared at the older warrior in disbelief. 'How could he be so obtuse? They could have landed anywhere in the city. They could have struck at one of the alien commanders. Instead, they crash down amongst us at the docks to defend the humans.'

  'That is why they came. Do not mistake their compassion for tactical idiocy.'

  'That is my point.' Priamus resisted the rising urge to draw his blade. There was nothing to cut beyond the air before him, yet he felt a keen need to draw steel. 'They preserve. They defend. We are Astartes, not Imperial Guard. We are the spear thrust to the throat, not the blunt anvil. We are all that remains of the Great Crusade, Bastilan. For ten thousand years, we and we alone have crusaded to bring the Emperor's worlds into compliance. We do not fight for the people of the Imperium, we fight for the Imperium itself. We attack. We attack!'

  Resssh, ressh. 'Not here. Not at Helsreach.'

  Priamus lowered his head, unwilling to concede the point, despite the fact he knew he was defeated. That bastard Bastilan always did this to him. A few quiet words and he'd puncture all of what Priamus was trying to say. It was far, far beyond annoying.

  'Helsreach is…' the swordsman's voice was lower now - less bitter, and somehow less confident. 'Nothing about this war has felt right.'

  Nerovar had also retreated from the others. But apparently not far enough.

  'Brother,' came a voice. Grimaldus had returned. Nero acknowledged him with a nod, and returned to his feigned examination of the blistered and burned mural on the temple wall. Scenes of the Emperor watching over Helsreach: a golden god with His radiant visage regarding scenes of great industry below. With the wall ruined by flame and the artwork charred, it now resembled the city outside more than it ever had.

  'How was the command meeting?'

  'A tedious discussion of last stands. In that respect, it was no different from any other time. The Salamanders have withdrawn.'

  'Then perhaps Priamus will cease his complaints.'

  'I doubt that.'

  Grimaldus removed his helm. Nerovar watched him as he examined the paintings, seeing the Reclusiarch's scarred features set in a thoughtful frown.

  'How is the wound?' Grimaldus asked, his voice both deeper and softer now, unfiltered by helm vox.

  'I will live.'

  'Pain?'

  'Does it matter? I will live.'

  The chains binding his weapons to his armour rattled as the Reclusiarch moved across the chamber. Ceramite armour boots thudded on the dusty mosaics, breaking them underfoot. In the centre of the room, Grimaldus looked up at the holed ceiling, where a stained glass dome had once mercifully blocked the view of the polluted sky.

  'I was with Cador,' he said, staring up into the heavens. 'I was with him at the end.'

  'I know.'

  'So you will believe me when I say that you could have done nothing for him had you been at our side? He was dead the moment the beast struck him.'

  'I saw the death wound, did I not? You are telling me nothing I do not already know.'

  'Then why do you still mourn his fall? It was a magnificent death, worthy of a vault on board the Crusader. He killed nine of the enemy with a broken blade and his bare hands, Nero. Dorn's blood, if only we could all inscribe such deeds on our armour. Humanity would have cleansed the stars by now.'

  'He will never rest in that vault, and you know it.'

  'That is not worth mourning over. It is just a regrettable truth. Hundreds of our own heroes have fallen and remained unrecovered. You carry Cador's true legacy. Why is that not enough? I wish to help you, brother, but you are not making it easy.'

  'He trained me. He taught me the blade and bolter. He was a father in place of the parents I was stolen from.'

  Grimaldus had still not looked at the other knight. He watched as an Imperial fighter streaked overhead, and wondered if it was Helius, the heir to Barasath and Jenzen.

  'It is the way of the warrior,' he said, 'to outlive the ones that train us. We take their lessons and wield them as weapons against the enemies of Man.'

  Nero snorted.

  'Did I say something amusing, Apothecary?'

  'In a way Hypocrisy is always amusing.' The Apothecary removed his own helm. As he did so, he could suddenly feel the unwelcome weight of the cryo-sealed gene-seed in his forearm storage pod.

  'Hypocrisy?' Grimaldus asked, more curious than annoyed.

  'It is not like you to comfort and console, Reclusiarch. Forgive me for saying so.'

  'Why would I need to forgive you for speaking the truth?'

  'You make it sound so clear and easy. None of us have been truthful with you since… we came here.'

  Grimaldus lowered his gaze from the dark skies. He fixed his eyes - eyes that the commander of a god-machine had called kind, of all things - on Nerovar's own.

  'You say ''Since we came here''. I sense another lie.'

  'Very well. Since before we came here. Since Mordred died. It is difficult to be near you, Reclusiarch. You are withdrawn when you should be inspiring. You are distant when you would once have been wrathful. I believe you are wrong to lecture me on Cador's death when you have been lost to us since Mordred fell. There are flashes of fire beneath the cold surface, and we have warned you of these changes before. But to no avail.'

  Grimaldus chuckled, the sound leaving his lips as a soft exhalation through a reluctant smile.

  'I am seeing the world through his eyes,' he said, looking down at the silver skull mask in his hands. 'And I am seeing, night after night, that I am not him. I did not deserve this honour. I am no leader of men, nor am I skilled at dealing with the humans. I should not be wearing the mantle of a Reclusiarch, yet I was certain once the war began, my doubts and discomforts would fade away.'

  'But they have not.'

  'No. They have not. I will die on this world.' Grimaldus looked at the Apothecary again. 'My master died, and mere days later, I was consigned to die on a world that has no hope of surviving an ugly war, far from my brothers and the Chapter I have served for two centuries. Even if we win, what does victory buy? We will be kings astride a ruined world of dead industry.' He shook his head. 'And this is where we will die. A worthless death.'

  'It is glorious, in its own wa
y. The Helsreach Crusade. Our brothers and the people of this world will remember our sacrifice forever. You know this as well as I.'

  'Oh, I know it. I cannot escape it. But I do not care for glory. Glory is earned through a life lived in service to the Throne. It should not be a consolation gift, or something sought to sate a hunger. I want my life to matter to my brothers, and I want my death to further the cause of the Imperium. Do you not recall Mordred's last words to me? They are written in gold upon the plinth of the statue that honours him.'

  'I remember them, Reclusiarch. ''We are judged in life for the evil we destroy''. And we will be judged well, for a great many have fallen before us already.'

  'Our deaths inspire no one. They benefit no one. Do you recall the Shadow Wolves? When we saw the last of that Chapter die, I felt my heart sing. Never before had I craved the taste of alien blood as I did in that moment. Their deaths mattered. Every warrior clad in silver armour died in true glory that day. What of Helsreach? Who will draw courage from a footnote in the archives of a fallen city?'

  Grimaldus closed his eyes. He did not open them again, even as he heard Nerovar approaching. The fist crashing against his jaw knocked him to the ground, where he at last looked back at the Apothecary. Grimaldus was smiling, though in truth he had not expected the blow.

  'How dare you?' Nero asked, his teeth clenched and his fist still tight. 'How dare you? You throw filth on our glory here, yet you dare tell me Cador's death means something? It means nothing. He died as we will all die: unremembered and unburied. You are my Reclusiarch, Grimaldus. Do not lie to me. If our glory matters to no one, then Cador's death is meaningless and I have every right to mourn him as you mourn for all of us.'

  The Chaplain licked his lips, tasting the chemical-rich blood that marked them. In silence, he rose to his feet. Nerovar did not back away. Far from it, he stood his ground, and activated his bracer-mounted storage pod. A plastek vial slid from its secure housing, and Nerovar threw it to Grimaldus.

  The Reclusiarch caught it in hands that threatened to shake. NACLIDES, the script on the vial denoted. The gene-seed of a brother fallen days before.

  'Nero…'

  Nerovar ejected another tube and tossed it to the Reclusiarch. DARGRAVIAN, it read. He had been the first to fall.

  'Nerovar…'

  The Apothecary ejected a third vial. This one he held in his fist, his gauntlet clutching it just shy of crushing it into shards. CADOR showed between Nero's fingers.

  'Answer me,' the Apothecary demanded, 'is what we do here worthless? Is there nothing to be proud of in our sacrifice?'

  Grimaldus didn't answer for several moments. He looked around the modest, broken temple, the light of thought bright in his eyes.

  'The city is falling, brother. Sarren and the other humans faced that fact today. The time has come for us to choose where we will die.'

  'Then let it be where we will be remembered.' Nerovar reverently handed the vial bearing Cador's cryogenically frozen gene-seed organs to the Chaplain. 'Let it be where our deaths will matter, and give birth to tales worthy of being recorded in humanity's history.'

  Grimaldus looked at the three vials resting in his gauntleted palm.

  'I know of a place,' he said softly, a dangerous flicker appearing in his eyes as he looked back up at his battle-brother. 'It is far from here, but there is no holier place on this entire world. There, we shall dig our graves, and there, we will ensure the Great Enemy forever remembers the name of the Black Templars.'

  'Tell me why you have chosen this place. I must know.'

  The truth is… surprising, but as I speak the words, there is no doubt within them. This is what we must do, and it is how we must die. Our lives are sacrifice, from implantation of the gene-seed to its extraction from our bodies.

  'We will die where our deaths matter. Where we can spite the enemy with our last breaths, and inspire the warriors of this city.'

  'Now those,' Nero says, 'are at last the words of a Reclusiarch.'

  'I am a slow learner,' I confess. This brings a smile to my brother's lips.

  'Mordred is dead,' Nero said, keeping his voice low. 'But he trusted you as his heir above any other for one reason. He believed you were worthy.'

  I say nothing.

  'Do not die without ever living up to him, Grimaldus.'

  CHAPTER XX

  Godbreaker

  Maralin moved across the botanical garden, her fingertips trailing along the dewy leaves and petals of the rosebushes.

  They were not hers, but that didn't stop her admiring them. Only one of her sisters had the patience and skill to grow roses in the choking air and sickened soil of the city, and that was Alana. All other blooms in the botanical garden were raised by cultivation servitors, and in Maralin's opinion, it showed. Her fingers danced along the wet petals of the soot-darkened roses, amazed as always at how lovelier and fuller Alana's flowers were in comparison to the modest blooms grown by the augmented slave workers.

  They lacked inspiration, clearly, and no doubt the severance of their souls had much to do with it.

  Passing through the spacious garden, she entered the rectory. The building's air filters were straining, keeping the main chamber cooled. Prioress Sindal was sat, as she almost always was, at her oversized desk of rare stonewood, scribing away in meticulous handwriting.

  She looked up as Maralin entered, peering through the corrective eyelenses that had slipped to the end of her nose.

  'Prioress, we've received word from Tempestora.'

  Sindal's cataracted eyes narrowed, and she gently sprinkled sand across her parchment, drying the fresh ink. She was seventy-one years old, and she didn't just look it - she also sounded it when she spoke.

  'What of the Sanctorum?'

  'Gone,' Maralin swallowed.

  'Survivors?'

  'Few, and most are wounded. The hive has fallen, and the Sanctorum of the Order of Our Martyred Lady is overrun by the enemy. We received word now that there aren't enough survivors to retake their Sanctorum as of yet. Our own sisters in the Ash and Fire Wastes are moving to support.'

  'So Tempestora is gone. What of Hive Stygia to the north?'

  'Still no word, prioress. They are surely enduring the siege as we are.'

  The old woman's hands were palsied, though she found that writing always steadied them for reasons beyond her understanding. They shook now as she set the completed parchment aside, on a loose pile of several others.

  'Helsreach has weeks left, but little beyond that. The siege is almost at our own gates.'

  'That… brings me to the second of the morning's messages, prioress.' Maralin swallowed again. She was clearly uncomfortable, and resented being the one sent to deliver these messages, but she was the youngest, and often relegated to these tasks.

  'Speak, sister.'

  'We received a message from the Astartes commander in the city. The Reclusiarch. He sends word that his knights are en route to stand with us in the defence.'

  The prioress removed her eyeglasses and cleaned them with a soft cloth. Then, carefully, she placed them back onto her face and looked directly at the young girl.

  'The Reclusiarch is bringing the Black Templars here?'

  'Yes, prioress.'

  'Hmph. Did he happen to say why he felt the sudden wish to fight alongside the Order of the Argent Shroud?'

  He had not, but Maralin had been paying close attention to the scraps of information that made it over the vox with any clarity. This, too, was one of her duties as the youngest, while her sisters were preparing for battle.

  'No, prioress. I suspect it ties into Colonel Sarren's decision to break up the remaining defenders into separate bastions. The Reclusiarch has chosen the Temple.'

  'I see. I doubt he asked permission.'

  Maralin smiled. The prioress had fought with the Emperor's Chosen before, and many of her sermons had included irritated mentions of their brash attitudes. 'No, prioress. He didn't.'

  'Typical Astart
es. Hmph. When do they arrive?'

  'Before sunset, mistress.'

  'Very well. Anything more?'

  There was little. The compromised vox-network had offered several suggestions of severe enemy Titan movement to the north, but confirmation wasn't forthcoming. Maralin relayed this, but she could tell the prioress's mind was elsewhere. On the Templars, most certainly.

  'Damn it all,' the old woman muttered as she rose from her chair, placing the quill in the inkpot. 'Well, don't just stand there gawping, girl. Prepare my battle armour.'

  Maralin's eyes widened. 'How long has it been since you wore your armour, prioress?'

  'How old are you, girl?'

  'Fifteen, mistress.'

  'Well, then. Let's just say you couldn't wipe your own backside the last time I went to war.' The old woman's forehead barely reached Maralin's chin as she shuffled past. 'But it'll be good to deliver a sermon with a bolter in hand again.'

  Elsewhere in the Temple of the Emperor Ascendant, the sisters were making ready for war. The Order of the Argent Shroud were not in Helsreach in any significant force, their contributions thus far being little more than a series of fighting withdrawals from churches across the city.

  Ninety-seven battle-ready sisters manned the Temple's walls and halls, standing guard over several thousand menials, servitors, preachers, lay sisters and acolytes. The Temple itself was formed of a central basilica, surrounded by high rockcrete walls bedecked in leering angels and hideous gargoyles staring out at the city beyond. Between the walls and the central building, acre upon acre of graveyard reached out from the basilica in every direction. Thousands of years before, they had been lush garden grounds, grown and tended by the first of Armageddon's settlers. Those same settlers were buried here, their bones long turned to dust and their gravestones weathered faceless by time. Interred alongside them were generations of their descendants; holy servants of the Imperium; and the respected dead of Armageddon's Steel Legions.

  No one was buried here now; the graveyard was considered full. Official records numbered the graves around the basilica as nine million, one hundred and eight thousand, four hundred and sixty. Currently, only two people knew this was incorrect, and only one of them cared about the discrepancy.