Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

At the moment the enemy are concentrating their efforts, entirely fruitlessly, against Holdvast, which continues to shrug off their attacks. This means, of course, that the vast majority of you are in no danger at all, although your local defence force will be on a heightened state of readiness as a precaution.

If you are resident in Holdvast you should notice no disruption to your regular routine either, although I would ask you to remain vigilant for anything out of the ordinary, and report it to your shift supervisor, hab zone superintendent, or directly to the Prefecture or planetary defence force watch house closest to your location.

You may also notice the occasional troop movement, and I would ask you to assist our heroic defenders in such cases by ensuring that they can pass by unimpeded.

Let me conclude by assuring you all that this matter will be speedily resolved, and the pointy-ears sent packing in no uncertain terms. The Emperor Himself stands with us, and against Him nothing can prevail.

Fifteen

To his credit, Porten lost no time in deploying the troops we’d asked for to the higher downgate levels, creating a comfortably deep buffer zone which left the 597th free to act as a mobile reserve to counter the periodic assaults of the eldar deploying from orbit. Kasteen stuck to her original decision not to assign any of our units to the outer surface, where the toxic air and poor visibility would have left us at a distinct disadvantage, but the xenos seemed relatively uninterested in attempting to land large numbers of troops at this early stage of the campaign in any case, preferring instead to contest the skies with the steadily dwindling number of local aircraft capable of intercepting them and make the kind of hit-and-run strikes we’d become so familiar with on Drechia. The prime targets for these were, of course, the defensive batteries which would have taken a severe toll of any attempt to invade en masse.

‘They’re trying to soften us up before landing the transports,’ I explained to Amberley as we made our way through the echoing bustle of one of the lowest of the docking ports. That was the most obvious interpretation of their strategy, anyway. ‘Once they’ve neutralised the defences they’ll start bringing the troops down, and mount a full-scale assault with their heavy stuff.’ And Throne alone knew what that would mean. Titans, probably, given the size of their target, which meant the sooner I was down in the underhive with nothing more threatening to worry about than eldar on foot the better I’d like it. Which was why I’d elected to meet Amberley and her people here instead of in the command centre, now a couple of hundred levels above our heads.

‘How long’s that likely to take?’ Amberley asked, raising her voice a little over the growling of vehicle engines, the unrelenting clamour of the adjoining foundries and the voices all around bellowing and acknowledging instructions.

I shrugged. ‘That depends on how determined they are, and the losses they’re willing to risk,’ I said. ‘But no more than a week, I’d say. After that, it’ll be raining eldar.’

I glanced around, belatedly wondering if we’d been overheard, but fortunately I hadn’t been; the ambient noise was too great for that. I resolved to be a little more guarded in future nevertheless. The civilians around us seemed jittery enough as it was, and who could blame them?

‘Where’s your transport?’ Amberley asked, and I gestured to the sturdy Chimera parked in one of the loading bays.

‘Over there,’ I said. ‘Where’s yours?’

‘Flicker’s parking it,’ Amberley said, glancing around as if expecting to see the air car she’d arrived in still floating somewhere above our heads. ‘There’s an abandoned access tunnel nearby, where no one’ll disturb it.’

‘Pelton’s coming too?’ I asked, a trifle disconcerted. I’d been under the impression that Amberley would be the only one tagging along on our scouting trip; with her chief bodyguard there too, not to mention the squad of Valhallans Jurgen and I had brought with us, the Chimera was going to be uncomfortably crowded.

Amberley nodded. ‘Plus Mott and Zemelda. This is an Inquisition matter. You and Jurgen are just here as Militarum observers, officially anyway.’

Which put rather a disquieting perspective on things. I’d been counting on a squad of warm bodies to hide behind if things went ploin-shaped.

Before I could muster a reply, however, the floor beneath my boot soles shuddered, my ears rang, and a blast wave all but knocked me from my feet. Amberley and I braced ourselves against a tsunami of panicking civilians, and we both drew our sidearms instinctively.

‘You! What’s going on?’ I demanded, grabbing a random panicker as he surged past.

‘The lock’s breached!’ The fellow indicated a wall of noxious fog in the middle distance, billowing into the huge chamber. ‘The xenos are coming!’

He twisted free of my hand and fled, joining his bleating brethren in a concentrated rush for the exit tunnels.