Ashes

by Martin Allen

  The flyer shot into the air vertically forcing the squad into their meagrely padded seats with the inertial forces. The flyer, being designed for rapid troop deployment, left little space for comfort as a result of the numerous design innovations that had to be incorporated into the structure for the safety of the occupants. At the apex if its ascent the flyer hit the gas; sending the troops within leaning to one side as the sideways inertia kicked in. As the acceleration ceased the squad within settled down to the hour long journey, some chattered nervously to themselves, some merely closed their eyes to try and get a cat-nap before the mission started in earnest. Each experienced member of the squad knew that in action sleep could be hard to come by and sought, when on task, to grab each and every opportunity to close their eyes, even for a moment. The computer aided stability controls, designed to assist the pilot in avoiding enemy fire, produced, once in flight, as stable a flight as any of the more luxurious passenger liners used by the affluent inhabitants of the Empire achieved so the flight passed quickly before the rapid deceleration and jolt of landing awoke those who had actually managed to drop off to sleep from their private dream-worlds.

  The LZ was a hub of activity as each squad sought the Crabs, which were the focal point of their assembly. As the gaps opened up around each squad that showed that they had found the correct places, a man in heavy Black Armour resembling the carapace of a beetle climbed easily to the top of a Crab, and the mixed murmuring and shouted orders ceased.

  “I am Colonel Marius Galeo of the Black Guard and I have been placed in command of this mission by Investigator Celeris Furius. You will shortly be assigned positions in a convoy to take approximately three hundred thousand assorted criminals, apostates and various types of ungodly from this continent to the next. Due to the size of this relocation vehicles have been deemed too costly to employ for the transportation and they will march the entire way. You will have use of the Mark 17 Armoured Personnel Carriers assigned to your squads and each Sectio of two will alternate riding and marching. Your assignment is to keep the convoy moving and prevent escape attempts by whatever means necessary. There is a target to neutralise on the way, but my men will see to that objective. That is your official brief, now pay attention because here comes your unofficial briefing. Keep the bastards moving, shoot any of them that even seem like they are planning or attempting to escape. Do not interfere with the actions of my men. They, for the duration of this mission, rank above each one of you, by order of Investigator Celeris Furius. That is all.”

  The squad, as one, looked quizzically to Lieutenant Gratius, as though seeking his approval.

  “You heard him men. At ease until our liaison officer arrives to give us further instructions.”

  The men clambered onto the whatever flat surfaces of the Crab they could find so that they could avail themselves of the opportunity to relax, if only for a moment, for the heat in MiSra was stifling - though at least mercifully it was a dry heat, which made it slightly more comfortable than the humid furnace of the tropics.

  “Calidius Squad, 107th Battalion, Lieutenant Gratius Aquilinus commanding?” A Black Armoured figure approached the squad.

  “Reporting for duty, erm…” Lieutenant Gratius peered at the shoulder area of the black shrouded man to get some clue as to the rank he was supposed to address the armoured figure as.

  “Guardsman, Guardsman Gaius Buteo. I will be your liaison with the command structure in the Black Guard. For this mission I am your superior officer. Your assignment is to take position three quarters of the way back from the head of the column on the left hand side. The Sectios not covering the prisoners from the Mark 17 Armoured Personnel Carriers will scout to the left of the column parallel with the column. Radio check-ins will be every 20 minutes and the squad will call in at any suspicious movement. If there is any sign of an escape attempt or plan, the Mark 17 will open fire at the group concerned. If an escape makes it past the Mark 17, then the scout Sectios will engage and destroy the targets. I will ride in the Mark 17 at all times using the Command computer interface to liaise with the lead Carrier and the Black Guard Command. Are there any questions regarding these orders?”

  “Is there any intelligence as to what we may expect during the transfer? I attempted to cover any eventuality when kitting my squad out, but some more specific data may be of use in preparing for any encounters that may occur.” Lieutenant Gratius hated going into a situation blind and had an almost pathological need for information to plan his strategies.

  “That’s a negative. While it is anticipated that attempted rescue attempts from local insurgent groups aligned to old-world religions may force armed response no specific groups have been identified as any more likely as the others. The capabilities of such groups are yet, unknown; this area of Invictus is littered with the remnants of previous engagements between the nations that previously inhabited it. It is possible that some of the abandoned or damaged hardware has been restored and may be used. Its effectiveness due to its age and the local conditions will be vastly reduced and our equipment should prove to be more than a match for it. Your main concern will be to maintain the perimeter and keep all prisoners contained, unless they have expired in which case their corpses can be left en-route. A running tally of bodies will be maintained by the rearguard and the prisoners will be counted every night as they are contained.”

  “Understood. Are there orders for containment on night camps?” Lieutenant Gratius started to get exasperated at the lack of any sign of real planning. This was a mammoth undertaking and he had expected much more professionalism than had been shown thus far.

  “We have modular camps for the troops in the cargo transports and local logistic corps will construct prisoner containment areas along the route, no more than one days march ahead of us at pre-determined secret locations. We must not therefore be allowed to fall behind. If there is nothing further, I will now take my station in the Mark 17 so that you can assign tasks to your men. I will alert you when the order comes to move to the Great Pyramids where the prisoners are now being collected under the local Guard contingent’s watch.”

  Lieutenant Gratius wished the local contingent had been tasked with this assignment but realised that, while they could temporarily contain such a large prison population, they would be undermanned to move the column or even contain the prisoners for more than a day. He was, however, grateful that the rendezvous point was not far from the LZ. He could see the Pyramids dominating the skyline of miSra even from his current position. It would still be a march of a few hours before he and his men reached them though due to the massive scale of the giant ancient constructs they seemed much closer. Lieutenant Gratius called his Sergeant, Corporals, and Vice-Corporals over to explain the next stage of the operation. This stage was essentially a standard moving column, but the Guardsman had made no distinction between the journey to the prisoners and the journey with the prisoners. Lieutenant Gratius did not want so soon to annoy such an obviously inexperienced soldier, who happened, despite inferior rank, to be able to overrule him. He explained the basic formation and operating policies to his command staff.

  “Vice-Corporals Cornelius Carbo and Ovidius Gracchus your Sectios are on patrol for the first 4 hours, make sure nothing creeps up on us. Do not engage without informing our command Crab first. When escorting prisoners keep your comms open in case one slips past us. Check in every 20 minutes.”

  “20 minutes Sir? We are in open country, nothing can sneak up on us in that time without us seeing it, and an ambush will mean the checks are redundant. We will also be in visual range the whole time. Is this really necessary?” Vice-Corporal Cornelius asked with a puzzled expression on his face.

  “I am under instruction from our liaison Guardsman Gaius. These orders come from the Black Guard who have the authority from an Imperial Investigator. We have no choice but to assume these precautions are necessary. In fact, I would even go so far as to assume that we should take extra precautions. Each Sniper is to
be accompanied by an assault Halberdier as will each Heavy Weapons Specialist. We cannot afford for an ambush to take out our long range or heavy weapons. Patrols are to be in skirmish formation, let’s not give any hostiles a concentrated target to aim for. The Crabs will move as far away from the prisoners, when we have some, as possible so as to give you the greatest chance of obtaining cover. As we are on a long straight edge of the column we can allow some of our guard duties to be taken up as slack by the Squads to either side of us, these are unarmed civilians after all, with no transportation. A wide perimeter will allow us to intercept them more easily should the Squads either side of us not spot them. Remember the Black Guard, whatever their rank is, is in charge here so follow their orders without question. To your stations.”

  The order to move out came soon enough but both Sergeant Curtius and Lieutenant Gratius were proud of the speed and professionalism of the squad when the order came. The Snipers of each Sectio moved through the sandy drifts one at a time each covering the others movements, eyes focussed on the Desert constantly scanning the horizon for signs of trouble. The heavy weapons specialists, although their primary weapons were slung across their backs, carried their secondary snubbed short sub-machine guns at hand and kept to what little cover they could find so that they could maintain maximum arcs of fire once they had unloaded and secured their primaries. The three remaining assault Halberdiers moved in a complex covering formation, designed to provide the maximum covering fire at the instant of assault so as to give the machine gunners the chance to set up and the snipers an opportunity to pick the most important targets. This was designed for maximum devastation to the enemy’s command structure or battle capability depending on what type of assault was launched upon them. The movements although seemingly random conformed to an advanced mathematical pattern derived from an understanding of a form of chaos theory; and the effect was for each member of the squad, when moving in this manner to be in the position of most effectiveness whilst being exactly where the enemy least expected them to be. Lieutenant Gratius was relieved that his sense of over preparation had been transferred to his men. It was obvious even to him that the Black Guard only expected any trouble when transporting the prisoners, and only then due to internal intelligence failures. Hence trying to keep a mass migration classified, a fools errand at best. If Lieutenant Gratius had been planning an action against the Empire with the aim of freeing the prisoners, he would first ignore the prisoners, for that would give the element of surprise. As the prisoners would probably be casualties of trials in Rome, at least in the minds of the insurgents, then it mattered little if some were eliminated; for if the rescue did not succeed then the prisoners were dead anyway. Therefore, the true threat to the rescue attempt should be eliminated at its most overconfident point. This was to Lieutenant Gratius’ mind the march from the LZ to the rendezvous, as this was the point of greatest over confidence. The attack should come far enough from the local contingent for them to be unable to leave the prisoners unattended but close enough for the successful military force to move immediately to eliminate them before additional reserves could be sent to assist. Napoleon, in the pre-Empire wars had attempted a similar move against Wellington; the principle was still valid even now.

  Balbus maintained his movements, struggling to remember the open cover routine that his instructors had attempted to drill into him at boot camp. He did not understand why this level of cautiousness was being employed; most of the other Squad’s were merely deployed in a column marching formation and were watching Calidius Squad with a mixture of amusement and pity. The circuitous routes the open cover manoeuvres relied upon meant that he was covering at least twice as much ground as the other squads in the same time. He was also constantly crouching and jogging, which meant that his calves were burning within ten minutes of leaving the LZ. Much as he would want to reach down and rub the offending muscles, it would mean removing his hand from his assault rifle. Such and action would compromise either accuracy or the ability to fire, depending upon which hand he moved. He decided to suffer, as the rest of his Sectio must be doing. Balbus felt ever more hard done by, as the dry heat, previously a blessing as it did not feel as oppressive as a humid heat of the same temperature, did its work robbing his body of moisture, literally leaching it from his body and dissipating it into the undulating air. Balbus prayed for Vice-Corporal Ovidius to motion for a stop so the other Sectio under Vice-Corporal Tarpeius Paetus to take the lead position, just so his squad could remain kneeling as they passed and he could use the break to take a swig from his canteen and rub away some of the lactic acid that was threatening to give him cramp.

  As the Squad grew closer to the mammoth peaks that were the Pyramids of Giza, Balbus noticed a strange back cloud begin to form on the horizon. It sometimes appeared in front and sometimes behind the Pyramids themselves. No weather system Balbus had seen on the four planets he had visited had ever moved like this one. He couldn’t shake a feeling of unease.

  “Sir? Halberdier Amatius here, we have a large black cloud in the vicinity of the rendezvous, it appears to be moving erratically not in synch with the winds we can feel or the other minimal spotting of cloud cover we can see.”

  “Idiot,” spat Guardsman Gaius, “haven’t you ever heard of a mirage? That’s the image of the prisoners at the base of the Pyramids, the light is refracting through the air due to the heat. You are seeing what is just over the horizon. Now don’t panic airborne friendlies are coming overhead shortly, we have contact on comms. Try not to shoot our own hardware in a moment of panic.” The comm. channel clicked shut.

  Balbus cursed himself for being so stupid, of course, he had read about such phenomena in school, but living in an area with no desert in the vicinity, he had dismissed such subjects as worthless. As he watched the mirage through the corner of his eye, he saw five dots detach themselves from the dark smudge in the sky and move towards the column. This was no natural occurrence, the formation was too perfect, an arrow formation, two military fighters on each wing and a point fighter. This was an Imperial Squadron. As it moved overhead, the lead fighter waggled its wings in greeting to show that the column had been sighted and recognised as friendly. Despite his faith that any insurgents would only attack when the prisoners were in their custody Balbus was secretly relieved that, for this part of this mission at least, he was under the protection of air support. Like their formation, the fighters were arrow shaped. They were painted black, the colour of the specialist paint that helped absorb as much radiation as possible reducing their RADAR and LIDAR profiles, making them very hard to detect, save by the naked eye. The rear end of the fighters were a jagged edge, designed to achieve the same purpose as the paint by reflecting as little radiation back along the path upon which it came as possible. Rumour had it that it was easier to see a child’s kite on RADAR than one of these state of the art fighters. Balbus gave a sigh of relief and looked back to the Pyramids and for the first time saw, under the black cloud, a mirror image of it, this time sitting on the ground. A dark sea appeared to lap around the base of the Pyramids, rising and falling to its own rhythm. The scope of this new sight, being on the ground made it all the more impressive, for humans have been ever used to seeing large clouds and have grown accustomed. This was a sea of humanity itself, flowing around the base of a wonder of the ancient world. Balbus was not the only member of the column to be awestruck by the vista that greeted them with their first sight of the prisoners they were to transport.

  Chapter 5

  The pistol was forcibly dragged from Corvus’ hand before he realised what was happening. He was spun round on his chair to face the Investigator, her face barely inches from his own.

  “While I admire your determination to avoid an Inquisition Trial, I must point out that a change in command in the middle of a battle is extremely destabilising. In fact, so destabilising that I am forced to keep you alive for a while longer. Now, what troops and equipment, if any, do you have left?” The Investigator s
till exuded an almost supernatural air of calm in the face of this new disaster, which chilled General Hostilius to the core.

  “Erm… the rocket batteries are still operational, but they cannot penetrate the bunkers the rebels have occupied and we have a number of battalions, but it would be suicide to come within range of the artillery - the infantry would be destroyed immediately and the rocket batteries have less range than the artillery. There is nothing much we can use at the current time; we will have to wait for additional forces and equipment from command to anything more than contain the revolt. The food and water supplies that the rebels managed to capture must be running low by now” postulated General Hostilius.

  “Ah, the time honoured tradition of the Empire to starve out her enemies, and only then execute them after cessation of hostilities. Such an attitude, it has been discovered, merely fosters that unholy carcinogen within the rebel soul - hope. With hope, they may believe that they can escape, or even believe that the Empire is too weak to do more than merely starve its citizens out, and is thus defeatable so the rebels multiply, with each uprising having more organisational structure than the last. A new strategy is called for. The rebels grow desensitised to our usual methods. We must step up the horror to a new level. If it is not horrific to oppose the true god, then what will be? We must strike hard and cause as much pain to our enemies as possible. We shall let them believe that they can win and then make them realise winning was never an option in the first place. We shall then take all from them in the end.” General Hostilius looked over at the Investigator and knew new horror.