Damocles

by Various

  Skilltalker’s smile faded. ‘I’m very much afraid that you will, much to my eternal regret.’

  Skilltalker turned and went back into the Devilfish. We retrieved Hincks’s body. We stood warily, our guns on the Guardsmen as we waited for the engines to spool up. You could see that a lot of the Guard there were considering Skilltalker’s offer, but we couldn’t take them.

  Bu went into the craft. We followed, guns up all the way.

  The door shut on the faces of those who had thought that they were going to die. Their relief was easily apparent. Skilltalker showed mercy and artful diplomacy in releasing the men, for what little good it did them. If their leaders did not surrender, they’d only die tomorrow, or the day after.

  The Devilfish took off, carrying us back to our ship to take us back to the fleet. Back on the ground, the stealth teams would be vanishing in front of the Imperials, going back to hide in the jungle to wait for O’Shaserra’s attack to come over the following days.

  Grunkel should have surrendered.

  Chapter Five

  I never cease to wonder at the efficiency of the tau.

  Only days later and the battle for Agrellan was at full spate. It was late afternoon where we were. Already ten of the twelve hives – Chaeron included – had fallen to Shadowsun’s First Strike hunter cadres. In a single day. Those kinds of rapid gains must have taken the Imperial brass totally by surprise. As history proves, the remaining two cities would not hold out long. I’d heard that the Imperials had begun evacuating the planet the moment Shadowsun attacked. Clever that, as our forces were committed elsewhere, too spread out to do much about it. I suppose that’s the benefits of having your army commanded by a Space Marine Chapter Master. He gave Shadowsun a run for her money all right.

  The Imperials were pulling back all their assets to Agrellan Prime where they were being ferried into orbit. Their fleet was away over that side of the planet, well out of our line of view, holding position over Agrellan Prime and keeping the tau battlegroup back while their warriors were pulled out of the fire. I wondered if the Imperials were going to offer to take the civilian population away with them, and I wondered how many of the civilians would accept that offer. Most of the fighting was away from us, but the ground rumbled with distant artillery bombardments, and flights of Sun Sharks screamed overhead periodically.

  There were few warriors at our position, but the earth caste support work group was busy all around us. The invasion hadn’t even concluded, and already the earth caste were busily constructing a spaceport. Hell, they were building a city. I’m sure pre-existing ground-to-orbit facilities had been identified as key targets for various teams in the cadres, but these assets were as much a liability for the tau. Most of them were close by or built onto the hive cities. As such, guaranteeing their security was nigh on impossible. The cities were vast. No matter how quickly the armed forces capitulated or were routed, the hives were occupied by fractious populations. Not everyone was going to see the tau as a liberating power. The hives would take days to fully pacify, the spaceports and landing pads would be prime targets for every fanatic with a bomb and a death wish. The tau couldn’t risk their constructor groups or administrators coming under attack. Bu had also told me that the earth caste was amazed – in a very bad way – at the hive cities. Some ambitious plans were mooted to convert them, but as Bu said, it’d take a long time to make them fit for the Greater Good, and in any case the population of the world was going to be greatly reduced as the earth caste calculated Agrellan was well over its optimum population loading. He confided to me that personally, he’d prefer to see them dismantled, but he didn’t think that was going happen. The Third Sphere advance was progressing too quickly to take the time to do it.

  To get round this lack of secure facilities, in usual earth caste fashion they were going to build a new city, under fire, in little under three days.

  As we were mere gue’vesa, and not entirely to be trusted, we were assigned rear line duties, in our case guarding the site of this new settlement, named prosaically Mu’gulath’effu’ve – Mu’gulath First Bridgehead.

  Not very poetic, the earth caste.

  I can’t say I was completely disappointed. Space Marines had been present on the planet since the first Imperial reinforcement – White Scars, so I understand, although I never saw any of them. But more had come, Raven Guard, their leader taking command of the whole counter-invasion force. Only a few hundred all told, if that, but that’s more than enough. You have to understand, that to citizens of the Imperium the Adeptus Astartes are the stuff of myth, almost gods… And we’re scared of them. They are called the Angels of Death for good reason.

  There were a few fire warrior teams – real warriors, as far as the tau were concerned, but I’m not convinced. I know I’m on dangerous ground here, but I reckon you’ve enough to shoot me already in this recording should you decide I’m not sufficiently obedient. I’ve noticed that when battle’s going against fire warriors; they’ve got less staying power than men. I’m looking forward to the time that we gue’la are trusted enough to take up front line work with the likes of the mal’kor and the thraxians. We’ve a lot to give, not least flexibility.

  Anyway, that’s something I’ve been badgering fire warrior command about whenever I’m able. I doubt I won them over, they must have judged the time right, because we will be shipping out to the front as soon as my vocal grafts take. I can’t wait, I really can’t. I can’t say all my messages and petitions did the job. But maybe what convinced them is partly down to what happened there, at Mu’gulath’effu’ve.

  Shadowsun began her attack early in the morning, by local noon earth caste contruction teams were clearing the area and beginning to erect the first buildings. The first to come down, under attack, was a lifting unit bearing the four-storey central command node. Somehow it deposited its load and got away before it got shot down. With the command node down, everything sped up. Flights of lifters brought in earth caste equipment, and as soon as they were down, they started laying the road network out. Enemy aircraft were cleared soon after, and we had clear skies for the earth caste to bring their heavier units in. By mid-afternoon, the streets had all been laid out, foundations were dug and basing modules in place, and more and more prefabricated buildings were being shipped in by the air caste. The place was swarming with construction drones, engineers and several hundred alien members of the Tau’va. There was an ethereal on site – Aun’Kira – up in the command node overseeing it all, which goes to show how certain we were of victory. We were co-opted into patrolling the perimeter, but we were there in the first place because our Por’el Skilltalker was stationed at First Bridgehead. A large part of the complex was given over to reprocessing, and there were several water caste there. Confident of capturing many prisoners or experiencing mass surrenders, and mindful of the vast populations of Agrellan’s twelve hives, the reprocessing centres had been put up first. By early evening, we’d already had over ten thousand captured Imperial soldiers brought to the facility, processed, and we were beginning to ship those who were willing to pledge their loyalty to the Tau’va out.

  It’s harsh what happened to those as didn’t, but that’s war. They had their choice.

  It was just after we heard that Agrellan Two had fallen to the cadres, we were attacked.

  Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure this incident has been played over and again at the High Command. There were half a dozen or so bridgeheads constructed by the earth caste teams, why ours was the only one attacked was way above my command tier to know for sure at the time, although it became all too clear. In the immediate aftermath my suspicions were that this was no attack of opportunity, and yeah, in light of what happened later I should have acted on them. I admitted that fair and square at the debriefing. I was still in a situation then where I didn’t feel it my place to speak up and contradict my superiors’ predictions. Commander O’Hye’esera herself to
ld me, to my face, that that should never happen again, that I should speak my mind and that my being a gue’vesa made no difference, that we are all equals fighting for the Greater Good. More than that, she said that I would have much deeper understanding of the gue’la because I am gue’vesa, and that my opinion would therefore be valued.

  I am learning, I swear. Still, hindsight’s a marvellous thing.

  There was one cadre stationed to protect First Bridgehead, along with five kroot kindreds, my la’rua, two other gue’vesa auxiliary teams, and one thraxian close melee. Around two companies’ strength in Imperial Guard terms, I guess. We didn’t see the attack coming at all. Why would we? We were a long way behind the – rapidly shrinking – main lines, the Imperials had been taken unawares despite being prepared, and their evacuation was well underway when we started on First Bridgehead. I’d have thought a cadre backed-up by gunships and one of the new Riptides would be enough to dissuade anyone, but those Catachans are not easily intimidated.

  I was patrolling the southern perimeter with my team when it happened. The woods were evil, gave us all the spooks. I was glad of the ves’ron turrets watching the shade of the woods. Evil place, even in the broad light of day. There was no undergrowth so far as I could tell, only the trees grew, and their pale trunks marched off into a smeary kind of grey that was unpleasant to look too deeply into.

  ‘Local wildlife’s keeping a low profile,’ said Helena.

  ‘Good job,’ said Goliath. ‘It’s not friendly.’

  ‘Do they know what they’re doing here? Choosing this world? Gives me the creeps, what you Imperials do to your planets,’ said Othelliar. As always, that note of anger was clear in his voice.

  ‘By “they” you mean “us”, Othelliar, and by “you” you mean “them”. I’m no Imperial, nor is Helena or Goliath. We’re all in the Tau’va. You seem to be wilfully forgetting that.’

  He mumbled something that might have been an apology. Holyon laughed. Emperor knows why.

  ‘What’s that!’ said Goliath. He pointed out to the edge of the forest. Something was moving there.

  ‘Halt,’ I said, bringing the la’rua to a stop. I zoomed my lenses in to the movement at the fringe of the trees. ‘Native life,’ I said. A large, cat-like thing with a flat head and six legs was prowling along the edge of the forest.

  ‘Look at that thing!’ said Goliath. ‘Nasty looking.’

  ‘I’ve seen bigger, and I’ve seen worse,’ said Holyon dismissively.

  ‘How anything can live here without a respirator beats me,’ said Goliath.

  ‘It does not appear well,’ said Helena.

  ‘No,’ I said. She was right, its grey fur was matted and in places fallen out to show scabbed skin. When I had my helmet zoom at maximum, I could see sores showing pretty much all over it. One of the middle pair of legs was withered.

  ‘Should it look like that, ’vre?’ said Helena.

  ‘Beats me, I don’t know if the local life is hexapedal or whether it’s a quadruped with some kind of mutation. I’m no biologist. Go ask the earth caste.’

  Helena laughed. ‘They’re kind of busy, and the ones hereabouts are the wrong sort.’

  ‘Fine then, you’ll have to save it.’ We watched the animal slink off. In spite of its size, it didn’t appear to be much of a threat, even so, the closest ves’ron turret tracked it pretty carefully until it had vanished into the trees.

  We resumed our patrol. Maybe for about a half dec. We’d settled into a steady, diligent sweep when alarms suddenly went off everywhere. That’s when we heard the first report.

  ‘All units, all units! Stand ready, we are under attack. We are under attack!’

  We looked around like idiots, searching for the source of the disturbance. The south side was silent, alarms clanging out from the ves’ron turrets and our helmet earpieces aside, there was no movement at all. We couldn’t even hear anything, and for the time being the constant activity of the earth caste behind us went on uninterrupted.

  I checked in. ‘Command, command, this is gue’vesa la’rua eight-four-four-eight, we see nothing. What are our orders?’

  There was a pause before O’Hye’esera answered me personally. ‘They attack the north side. Proceed swiftly to reinforce shas’la la’rua goi’va’he’naka.’

  ‘What’s their target?’ I asked. The translation units in my helmet conveying my words to my commander.

  ‘They’re going for the reprocessing centre,’ she said. ‘The gue’la slay gue’la to prevent their joining of the Tau’va. This is abominable!’

  She was right; it seemed petty, but then she didn’t know the Imperium like we did, how vindictive it could be. I think we appal you.

  Signs of combat were becoming apparent. The three Hammerhead gunships that had been patrolling over our heads on the south were heading directly over the centre of First Bridgehead for the north side. Earth caste were abandoning their tasks with that iron efficiency with which they do everything. Machines were setting themselves down, protective energy shields going up around them, blast doors and shutters closing over their vulnerable parts. We ran. The site was four kilometres across. When we’d made the centre, earth caste were making their way in orderly lines to the central command node, where they’d find shelter in its bunker. We had to shove our way through them. Flights of drones whizzed over us. We could hear the gunfire now, the high pitched whine of pulse weaponry, the crack of lasguns. The drone emplacements around the command node were belting out a high rate of fire toward the north. A trio of mortar rounds exploded nearby, showering us with dirt. We ducked into a crouch and ran on. Another, larger shell came close in afterwards, hitting the middle of a line of earth caste we’d just shoved through and lofting body parts, mud and shattered construction matrices into the sky. The shockwave caught us, sending me sprawling. Goliath helped me up. Helena and Holyon were a few paces away, helping wounded earth caste. Othelliar was a problem, sprinting toward the battle.

  ‘You okay, boss?’ said Goliath.

  I shook off his hand. ‘Othelliar, Othelliar! Fall back into formation now!’

  I felt a little woozy. Med teams were running all over the place, hauling shocked fio’la to their feet and pushing them toward the command node. They took over from Helena who was trying to stem the flow of blood from the neck of a fio’la, and she rejoined us. Holyon came in close after. Of Othelliar, there was no sign.

  ‘Come on, we’re one gun down as it is, we need Othelliar.’ I shouted into my vox-pickup. ‘Back here now, la’Othelliar!’

  A network of shield drones came swooping in, throwing a protective energy umbrella over the remaining earth caste as they ran into the broad, slot doors around the command node. Shells, ranged now, slammed into the energy envelope surrounding the structure. A couple got through the shields, but did little more than turn the smooth white of the exterior smoky black. Others exploded among the drones. Three fell from the sky with a clang, sending up sparks and smoke, but they did their job, and the remainder of the fio’la made it to safety.

  We were away from the central section then, off up one of the radial roads, and into the battle proper.

  Lines of fire warriors had taken up station around the northern edge. The Imperials had chosen their time and location well. The land for First Bridgehead had been cleared. The site was circular, and the construction patterns – the processing centre aside – proceeded sectionally, starting in the south-west quadrant and moving around the site like a clock face being filled in. Much of the superstructure had not been put into place in three-fifths of the site, and all that had was towards the south-west and west, so there was precious little cover in the north. The roads were raised somewhat, there was some shelter to be found behind the foundation plugs and turrets, and there were a handful of pits dug to facilitate more rapid deployment of the deeper-ranging prefabricated buildings, other than that we were
caught in the open.

  Bu had told me much about the combat deployment of earth caste facilities – he is quite bloodthirsty for a fio’la, hence his frontline attachment. And actually, a similar facility to First Bridgehead had been my first glimpse of a tau settlement, back on Gormen’s Fast two tau’cyr ago. It’s all very smart, but the self-contained nature of the units that made up First Bridgehead was working against us here. If this were an Imperial beachhead, there’d have been trenches for comms lines, piles of construction materials, cumbersome earth shifter equipment. It would have taken weeks to build, but we’d have had plenty to hide behind. As it was on Mu’gulath Bay, the south was finished, but here there was nothing between us and the processing centre, and there was nothing again between that and the command node.

  The Guard were in a far better position. An initial foray against the processing centre had been beaten back, and there were several dozen human bodies littering the ground in front of it, although the centre itself had not escaped unscathed. The others were a trickier proposition. Attacking from the jungle, they were deep in cover. We ran over to the fire warrior squad we had been assigned to and threw ourselves down, Othelliar was there already. He was firing his pulse gun in time with the shas’la la’rua. I was furious with him. Heedless of the fire coming in from the Guard, I kicked his gun away and rolled him onto his back.

  ‘Don’t ever do that again,’ I said. ‘We’re supposed to work as a team. This is your team. Us, not them.’ I pointed at the fire warriors. ‘Or whoever happens to be fighting a fight you find appealing. You disobey orders and you compromise our efficiency. Do it again and I’ll have you on charges.’

  I couldn’t see his face through his helmet. But he nodded. I let go of his shoulder and he rolled back over, and retrieved his weapon.

  The tactical situation was so: we were out in the open, but we had by far the heavier firepower. So much of it was blasting into the woods that the Guard were keeping their heads down and their shots were poorly aimed. Secondly, pulse fire is more effective at range than las-fire. Especially somewhere like Agrellan where the haze of the atmosphere disperses the coherency of the light beams quite quickly. Every Imperial Guardsman that’s lived through one engagement knows this; lasguns are reliable and cheap to make, but the environment can compromise their efficiency. We’d a number of gunships, they’d three heavy tanks in support. One was a blazing wreck already, but the other two had pushed up banks of the clay soil in front of them with their dozer blades. How they managed to get in so close is still under investigation, but I suspect it’s simple fieldcraft. The Catachans have a knack for this sort of fighting, they’re renowned for it. There were a good number of Sentinel walkers – another signature of the humans from that particular world. They’re hard men, all right. The creatures on their home world make the diseased horrors of Agrellan look pathetic. They wore vests and were bare-armed, barely a scrap of armour among them. Slows them down, they say. Heavily muscled too, on account of their world’s high gravity. The only concession they had made to the toxicity of Agrellan was the respirators each and every one of them had on. Even a Catachan can’t breathe the air of Agrellan.