"This is so stupid." Leon squatted atop the watchtower, grumbling non-stop. "Why do I even listen to him?"
"But haven't you always listened to him?"
Tor sat on the ground, fixing a lasgun against his thigh, using his twisted arm to brace it.
Ben's tentacles wrung out a rag soaked in clean gray water and handed it to Tor. Tor took it with his good hand and carefully wiped the lasgun.
He cherished this weapon. This gun gave him his sense of worth.
In the past, no one valued him because of his deformity. Curze had been the first to make him realize that even he could fight.
"He threatened me!" Leon shouted.
Philly: "He never threatened us. He just asked you to come with him. You could've refused."
Leon: "He looked at me with those fierce eyes! How could I refuse?"
Ben: "Curze isn't fierce at all. He's kind."
"You only say that because he didn't look down on you as a filthy mutant. That proves nothing. He's killed more than he's saved!"
"He has killed a lot, yes. But so have we. Still, you shouldn't say that to Ben, it's rude, Leon. We're comrades."
"It's fine. I am a mutant anyway."
This time Tor didn't take Leon's side. Instead, Ben was the one speaking up for him.
"Leon, apologize to Ben!" Philly glared.
Leon realized he had spoken wrongly and almost apologized, but Philly's tone made him resist.
He stiffened his neck, said nothing, and stared off into the darkness. Everyone from Nostramo had night vision, it was essential for survival in the dark.
Leon could see farther, since he was a psyker.
"Apologize!" Philly blocked his way.
"I'm on watch," Leon said coldly. "Don't disturb me."
Dorothy covered her mouth but couldn't hide her laughter. Only in moments like this did they look like children.
"Apolo- " Philly started, but Leon shoved her head down, forcing her into a crouch. A beam of light streaked past his ear and hit the tower's roof. Leon shouted: "Enemy patrol! Defend, defend!"
Tor shifted smoothly from sitting to a half-crouch, Ben supporting the lasgun so he could aim better and helping to reload.
Tor was the best shot among them. Calculating the trajectory of that first beam, he fired into the darkness.
The laser lit the night for a brief instant, enough for Leon to see clearly.
"You hit one, Tor! There are many of them, be careful!"
The Bloodclaw Gang's defenses were indeed solid; a single gate was their greatest advantage.
The older kids had trained with Tor and other gangers in shooting. Their aim wasn't great, but neither were their enemies'.
Every bullet in the underhive was precious. Only in real combat did they get to fire.
Most of these kids didn't really understand Curze's vision of justice and order. But here, for the first time, they tasted human rights.
They had all the corpse-starch they could eat, meals that filled their bellies without fighting scavengers over garbage.
They could sleep in beds without fearing someone would slit their throats and eat them in the night.
They even received lessons from Teacher Caelan and Teacher Dorothy, education only the nobles in the spires had the right to.
For this, they were willing to risk their lives.
"For order!" someone cried.
"For Curze!" Tor and Ben shouted.
"For teacher Caelan!" Philly yelled.
"For the Night Haunters!" Leon bellowed.
"For the Night Haunters!" they echoed together, because they were the Night Haunters.
The gang's attack was beaten back, leaving a few corpses behind. The Phantoms had spent hundreds of bullets and las-shots.
It had only been a probing assault, testing how much fight the children had in them. They had proven no weaker than the Bloodclaws, but also revealed their flaw: they had no idea how to conserve ammunition.
"How could you fire so recklessly?" Leon fumed. "So many shots and only a few kills? Can't you wait until you see the target? If you keep wasting ammo, they'll bleed us dry with a dozen bodies, and then what?"
"We still have knives," one child said.
"Then we fight them!"
"Idiots! Our mission isn't to wipe them out, it's to hold this place until Caelan and Curze return!"
Leon kept cursing. But when the others heard him invoke Caelan and Curze, they stopped arguing and agreed.
Dorothy soothed them: "Just be more careful next time. Leon's right, our ammo's running low."
The camp settled down. The kids basked in their victory, whispering excitedly. Only Leon sat sulking.
"Fools. Do they think they won?"
Philly knelt in front of him. "Thank you."
Leon almost said 'We're comrades,' but it twisted on his tongue: "Weren't you demanding I apologize?"
Philly said seriously, "You saved me, and I thank you. But you insulted Ben, and you should apologize. They're not contradictory. Teacher Caelan taught us that one thing doesn't cancel another. We're comrades. We carry the burden of building a new order together. We can't let small grudges divide us."
"Argh, fine!" Leon snapped, not wanting to be lectured. "Sorry, okay?"
"It's fine." Ben grinned honestly.
His head itched. He tried to scratch with a tentacle, but without nails, it only slid across his scalp.
"Here?" Tor scratched for him.
"Lower, a little lower."
"And you think you'll build a new world?" Leon muttered. "Without them, you're useless. What can you do?"
Philly raised a fist. "They're the sun, and we're fireflies. But Teacher Caelan told us the story of how a single spark can ignite the prairie."
Leon countered: "That's just a story, a fairytale. There's no such place in this world! He also told us the tale of a hero slaying a dragon. You think people like that exist?"
"They do. Teacher Caelan said he's seen one, on Terra."
"You even know where Terra is? You believe everything he says?"
"I do." Philly nodded firmly.
"And if he told you to die?" Leon asked.
The moment he said it, he regretted it, wanting to slap himself.
Philly answered seriously: "Then I must have committed a sin too great to forgive."