Secondary explosions ripped along the hull of the drop-ship as the weapons and ammunition carried inside cooked off. Thick smoke boiled from the stricken craft, and sudden hope flared in Uriel as he saw their targets sprawled on the ground before the blazing wreck.
Issam looked back at Uriel. 'Where in the name of the primarch did that come from?'
Uriel suspected he knew the answer, and looked back the way they had come to see Learchus holding one of the tau carbines at his shoulder. The weapon looked tiny in his hands, yet it had undoubtedly saved their mission.
'How did you know how to use the Valkyrie's Mark?' shouted Uriel as Learchus tossed the weapon aside.
'I will tell you later,' said Learchus. 'Now let's get that bastard.'
The tau were beginning to pick themselves up from the ground, and Uriel could almost feel their dismay at the sight of the wrecked drop-ship. The Fire Warrior with the knife turned, saw the Ultramarines bearing down on them, and dragged Koudelkar Shonai to his feet. As Uriel closed, he saw the remains of a white topknot, and realised that he recognised her.
She was the warrior he and his brothers had captured in the ruins of the de Valtos estate.
Her name was La'tyen, and Uriel felt the hand of synchronicity at work.
She shouted something at the noble, who was climbing unsteadily to his feet, but it was already too late for him. Issam reached the tau leader and hauled him upright. Issam's combat blade pricked the skin of his captive's neck, and Uriel held up his hand as Issam looked to him for the killing word.
Learchus marched up with his bolter aimed at La'tyen, and Uriel held his breath, recognising the brittle nature of this moment. He could see the hate in La'tyen's eyes, and he knew that Koudelkar Shonai's life hung by a thread. Uriel reached up and removed his helmet, the sounds of the battle raging through the camp surging in volume.
'Uriel!' cried Koudelkar. 'Don't let her kill me! Please.' Uriel nodded and turned to the tau noble. 'Do you understand my language?'
The tau hesitated, and then nodded. 'I do, yes.'
'I am Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines. Tell me your name.'
'I am Aun'rai,' said the tau.
'And you are the leader of this invasion force?'
'I am the Ethereal of the Burning Star Hunter Coalition.'
'Then you will end this war,' said Uriel, stepping close and looming over Aun'rai. 'Now.'
'Why would I do such a thing?' said Aun'rai. 'My forces are on the verge of overrunning Olzetyn and there is little left to stop us from taking this world.'
'You will do it because I will kill you if you do not.'
'My death matters little,' said Aun'rai, but Uriel saw the first chink in the tau's outward cool. Uriel was no interrogator, but he knew the tau noble was lying.
'Let me tell you what I know,' said Uriel, conscious of the fact that the longer this confrontation went on without resolution, the more men and women would die. 'I know this invasion was a gamble for you and that you needed to defeat us quickly. I know that you have not the resources in place to defend this world against a counterattack, a counterattack that I assure you will happen. I know that even if Olzetyn has already fallen, the rest of this world will be ashes before we let you have it. You will have to kill every single human on this planet to hold it, and even then the Imperium will not let you keep it. Forces from neighbouring systems are already en route to Pavonis, and you won't have a strong enough grip on this world by then to keep them at bay.'
La'tyen shouted something angry, but Uriel ignored her.
Aun'rai's eyes flickered towards La'tyen, but Uriel waved a hand before the Ethereal's face. 'Do not look at her. Look at me, and listen to what I am saying. You have fought well, Aun'rai. Your warriors have earned themselves much honour, but you will gain nothing by continuing this fight.'
'And why is that?' asked Aun'rai, a hint of arrogance in his tone, the same arrogance Uriel had recognised in all his encounters with the tau in this war.
'Because my starship carries weapons that can reduce a world to a barren airless rock in moments,' said Uriel, 'and if you do not order an immediate withdrawal, I will order those weapons deployed.'
'You are lying, Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines,' sneered Aun'rai. 'Just to prevent us from taking this world, you would see it burned to ash?'
'In a heartbeat,' said Uriel, surprised to find he actually meant it.
How far he had come since his last time on Pavonis…
Aun'rai saw the truth of his words, and the moment stretched as the sheer bravura of Uriel's demand sank in.
'You are a barbarous race, you humans,' said the Ethereal. 'To think we were once like you fills me with shame.'
'Then you agree to end the fighting?' asked Uriel.
'If I order a withdrawal, you guarantee the safety of my warriors?'
'Every one of them,' said Uriel. 'I am a man of honour and I do not lie.'
Once again, La'tyen shouted something at her leader, and Aun'rai closed his eyes. Uriel could feel his despair, yet took no pleasure in the Ethereal's defeat. What he had said was true. The tau had fought with honour, and were a foe worthy of recognition.
Uriel nodded to Issam.
'Release him,' he said.
'You sure, captain?' said Issam. 'I don't like the look of that one with the governor.'
'Do it.'
Issam removed his blade from around Aun'rai's throat, and stepped back with his weapon raised. The Ethereal rubbed his neck, shaking his head sadly as his fingers came away sticky with red droplets.
'Captain!' shouted Learchus, and Uriel turned in time to see La'tyen's anguished face twist with rage and hatred. Whether it was the agreement her leader had made, or the sight of the Ethereal's blood, Uriel couldn't say, but, even as Aun'rai started to speak, it was too late to stop the inevitable.
La'tyen's honour blade sliced across Koudelkar Shonai's throat at the same time as Learchus shot her in the head. The Fire Warrior pitched backwards, the top of her skull blown away, but it was too late for Koudelkar. Arterial blood sprayed, and Uriel rushed to the governor's side.
He knelt beside Koudelkar, pressing his gauntlet to the ghastly wound, though he saw that it would do no good. The governor tried to speak, his eyes desperate with the need for a valediction, but La'tyen had cut deep and his life slipped away before he could form any words.
Issam took Aun'rai by the throat once again, but Uriel shook his head.
'Let him go, Issam,' said Uriel. 'This changes nothing. Aun'rai and I have made peace.'
The Scout-sergeant reluctantly released the Ethereal, and Uriel saw that he was itching to avenge the death of the Planetary Governor.
'I did not mean for that to happen,' said Aun'rai. 'Truly.'
'I know,' said Uriel.
'La'tyen suffered terribly while she was held prisoner.'
'I do not doubt it,' said Uriel without apology.
Aun'rai shook his head at Uriel's apparent indifference. 'You are a doomed culture, Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines. You thirst for personal gain and glorification while your Imperium rots from within. Such a society cannot, ultimately, survive.'
'It has survived for ten thousand years since its inception,' pointed out Uriel.
Aun'rai shook his head. 'What you have is not survival, it is merely a slow extinction.'
'Not while warriors of courage and honour stand to defend it.'
'No such warriors exist amongst your race,' snapped Aun'rai. 'You are gue'la barbarians, and you delay the inevitable, nothing more. The frontier of our empire moves with the turning of the planets, and it will push you before it until there is nowhere left for you. Then your race will be no more. The frontier is for those unafraid to face the future, not for those who cling to a forgotten past. I am done speaking with you, Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines, and if this war is over, then let me go.'
'When you order your forces to stand down,' said Uriel.
'It is already done,' replied Aun'rai.
'What the hell are you waiting for?' shouted Gerber. 'Do it!'
'Shut up, Gerber,' hissed Loic.
The battlesuit didn't move, and only then did Loic notice that the sounds of battle had ceased.
The sky was empty of the continual rain of missiles, and the high-pitched electrical noise of their battle tanks' main guns was strangely absent.
Loic shared a sidelong glance with Captain Gerber. 'What the hell's going on?' he asked.
'Damned if I know.'
The silence enveloping the battlefield was unnerving and unnatural. Loic had lived with the continuously droning rumble of war for so long that he had forgotten what silence was like. He heard the soft sound of the wind passing through the bridge's suspension cables, the distant rush of the rivers in the gorges below them, and the eerie sound of a silent battlefield.
Guardsmen and PDF troopers were emerging from their dugouts and bunkers, shock and confusion at the sight of the unmoving tau army overcoming their natural caution.
Then the scarred battlesuit with the blue helmet and flaming sphere emblazoned on its chest took a step forwards, its weapons powering down with a diminishing hum.
Loic flinched, and Gerber reached for a sidearm that wasn't there.
The red lens of its head-unit whirred as it focused on them, like the microscope of an inquisitive magos closing in on a specimen dish.
'I am Shas'El Sa'cea Esaven,' said the battlesuit, 'Fire Warrior of the Burning Star Hunter Coalition.'
Captain Gerber made as if to say something hostile, but Loic shook his head. 'Allow me, captain.'
Loic pulled his bloody and torn greatcoat tighter, attempting to straighten it and make himself more presentable.
'I am Colonel Adren Loic of the Pavonis Planetary Defence Force.'
'You command these warriors?'
'I am one of their commanders, yes,' said Loic, turning to face his fellow officer, 'and this is Captain… er… I'm sorry I don't know your first name, Gerber.'
'It's Stefan.'
'And this is Captain Stefan Gerber of the 44th Lavrentian Hussars,' said Loic, smoothly returning his attention to the tau. 'What's happening? Why have you stopped attacking?'
'My forces are standing down and leaving this world,' said the tau commander.
'Why?' asked Gerber. 'You had us beaten.'
'I am withdrawing because I have been ordered to withdraw by Aun'rai of the Ethereal caste, and warriors from Sa'cea do not disobey orders,' said the battlesuit, turning and marching away.
'You mean that's it?' demanded Gerber. 'All this killing and you're just walking away as if it never happened?'
'The Ethereals have spoken, and for the Greater Good, I must comply,' said the battlesuit, though Loic could sense the deep frustration in its voice. Like any warrior, the tau commander wanted to see the job done. As the battlesuit commander reached the edge of the ruins, he turned to face them once more.
'You were correct, Captain Stefan Gerber of the 44th Lavrentian Hussars,' said the tau warrior. 'You were beaten, and when the tau return to Pavonis, we will beat you again.'
In the last undulant slopes of the Owsen Hills, Lord Winterbourne watched through the vision blocks as the line of Hammerheads and Devilfish pulled back behind the ridge above his forces. The ferocity of the fighting had raged undimmed through the hills for days, and now, with Winterbourne on the verge of ordering a full retreat to Brandon Gate, the tau had ceased their assault.
'What the hell?' he muttered as the last of the tau spearhead vanished from the threat board.
'Sir!' cried Jenko. 'Vox-net has just cleared. I've got the captains of every Command on the horn trying to get hold of you! Every frequency that was jammed has just come back online!'
Winterbourne wiped a hand across his forehead, hardly daring to believe that the fighting might be over or that Uriel's plan could have succeeded.
'Any hostile contacts?' he asked. 'This could be a ploy.'
'None, sir,' confirmed Jenko, his voice rising with excitement. 'All tau forces are withdrawing further into the hills. They're going home! We saw the bastards off!'
Determined to see for himself, Winterbourne hit the hatch release and spun the locking wheel, opening Father Time's turret. He pushed his body upright, standing on his commander's chair as he looked along the line of dug-in tanks and fighting men of Lavrentia.
His fellow tank commanders had popped their hatches, and were watching in disbelief at the empty, shell-cratered wasteland ahead of them. Smoke from burning Leman Russ tanks and Chimeras drifted across the battlefield, and Winterbourne smelled the reek of scorched metal. Guardsmen in their foxholes were looking over to him to confirm what they were all hoping, that the fighting was over.
Captain Mederic of the Hounds, Father Time's guardian angel since the attack of the kroot, slung his rifle and said, 'So that's it then?'
Winterbourne was at a loss. 'So it would appear, Mederic.'
Mederic nodded. 'Good. Maybe I can get some sleep now.'
As Winterbourne watched the man turn from the hills, he felt incredibly proud of what his soldiers had achieved. They had fought courageously, and had done everything he had asked of them. Once more, the honour of the regiment had been tested, and, once more, the men and women of Lavrentia had risen to the challenge.
To think that he had been about to order the retreat…
'Contact all Commands,' said Winterbourne. 'Tell them that the war is over.'
AFTERMATH
Within ten hours of the truce being brokered between tau and Imperial forces, an armada of Mantas was rising into the air above Praxedes. Cheering Lavrentian Guardsmen watched them go, and Pavonis heaved a sigh of relief at its reprieve from invasion. Under the watchful gaze of the Vae Victus, the Mantas were recovered by their fleet, which turned and departed for the Tau Empire.
The aftermath of any fighting is always costly, and, though the tau had been defeated, the price of victory had been high. Thousands were dead, and many thousands more would forever bear the horror of their wounds. Scars, both mental and physical, would be borne by every man and woman who had resisted the alien invaders.
Much of Pavonis was in ruins, and yet again the loyalty of its leader had been found wanting. No longer could the people of Pavonis be trusted to guide their destiny, and though the yoke of alien overlords would not descend, the full might of the Imperium was sure to take Pavonis in an unshakeable iron grip.
In years to come, many would believe that the wrong army had won.
* * *
Uriel watched as the lifter servitors collapsed the last of the structures that had made up Fortress Idaeus, and loaded them into steel-skinned containers on the backs of heavy flatbed crawlers. Three Thunderhawk transporters sat on the wasteland of Belahon Park on the edge of the stagnant lake, ready to clamp the containers to their bellies and carry them to the hold of the Vae Victus. Warships from nearby systems, and a rapid strike cruiser from Macragge, had translated from the warp at the system jump point an hour ago, and were even now drawing near. Their might was no longer needed, but the threat of their arrival had won the day for the Imperial forces.
The Ultramarines presence on Pavonis was almost at an end, and, as the last of the containers was sealed, the time had come to return to Macragge.
The honoured dead and wounded were already ensconced within the Apothecarion at the Vae Victus, including the terribly wounded Techmarine Harkus, whose tenacity had kept him alive throughout the fighting.
Seventy-one members of the 4th Company, all those fit for duty, stood in ordered ranks before their captain and their Chaplain. Ancient Peleus stood at the centre of the warriors, the sta
ndard of the 4th Company flapping in a stiff wind blowing in from the south. Just beyond the Ultramarines, a deputation from the senior commanders of Pavonis waited a respectful distance from the Astartes ritual of closure.
Ancient Peleus lowered the standard towards Uriel, and he dropped to one knee before it. The fabric of the standard was blackened and tattered around its edges from the fighting at Praxedes, though Uriel would swear it was nowhere near as damaged as it had been when he had last seen it.
He took the heavy cloth in his hands, and touched it to his forehead before rising to his feet. Chaplain Clausel also knelt and touched the standard to his forehead before taking up position beside him once more.
Ancient Peleus lifted the standard, and reverently rolled the fabric around the banner pole before securing it with a soft rope of blue and gold velvet.
With the lowering of the banner, the Ultramarines were no longer on a war footing, and the sergeants turned and marched their squads away to their transports.
Chaplain Clausel said, 'It is done,' and Uriel felt a curious blend of sadness and relief wash over him.
'Yes,' agreed Uriel, 'although I cannot help but feel that we leave with a job half-done.'
'What do you mean?' asked Clausel.
'We drove the tau from Pavonis, but I fear we will have to fight those same warriors again.'
'If the Emperor wills it.'
Uriel nodded, knowing that there was no more to be said. As he made to follow his men to their transports, Clausel said, 'I meant what I said before we launched the drop assault. I truly believe you have paid the price for your transgressions against the Codex Astartes.'
The Chaplain paused, and Uriel could see that the skull-faced warrior was struggling for words, something he had never expected to see.
'It seemed impossible that a man who had abandoned the teachings of the primarch could ever find his way again, but you have proved me wrong,' said Clausel.
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