'When in deadly danger,
When beset by doubt,
Run in little circles,
Wave your arms and shout.'
- Parody of the Litany of Command, popular among Commissar cadets.
WELL, I'VE SEEN my share of city fighting over the years, and given my choice of
battlefield, an urban area's about the last one I'd pick. The streets channel you into
firelanes, every window or doorway can conceal a sniper, and the buildings around
you frak up your tactical awareness - if they're not blocking your line of sight they're
distorting sounds, the overlapping echoes making it virtually impossible to pinpoint
where the enemy fire is coming from. In most cases the best thing you can say for it is
that at least there aren't any civilians around to get caught in the crossfire, as by the
time the Guard gets sent in they're either dead or have fled from the airstrikes and the
artillery bombardments.
Mayoh that night was different. Instead of the piles of rubble I'd normally expect to
find in an urban war-zone, the buildings were, for the time being at least, intact.
(Although the ominous orange glow in the distance suggested that wasn't going to be
true for much longer.1
) And the streets were full. Not bustling, exactly, but by no
means deserted either. As the truck gathered pace, we caught sight of civilians running
for cover, to join or avoid the swelling groups of shouting rioters who seemed to be
congregating at every corner. Some wore the xenoist braids, others symbols of
Imperial loyalty. Aquilae were common, of course, and several of the loudest and
most militant sported scarlet sashes, like the one which marked my own commissarial
authority. Regardless of their nominal allegiance, however, most of the groups we
passed were energetically engaged in breaking open the nearest storefronts and looting
the contents
'Not much of an advertisement for the Imperial cause,' Kasteen muttered acidly in my
ear. She was crammed in the cab with me, jammed up against the passenger door, as
far from Jurgen as she could get. The wind of our passage ruffled her hair, the window
wide open. Well, why not? The glass wasn't going to stop a las-bolt anyway, and I was
even closer to our pungent driver than she was, so I wasn't about to object.
'Or theirs,' I indicated a mob of scalplocked xenoists running from a burningpawnbroker's, their pockets bulging with currency.
'Must be something to do with the greater greed,' she joked grimly.
As we approached, the xenoists recognised our truck as an Imperial military model
and began to shout abuse. A few bottles and other makeshift missiles flew in our
direction.
'Over their heads, Lustig,' I ordered. The squad of troopers in the cargo space behind
us fired, just low enough to make the troublemakers flinch away from the crackling
las-bolts, and they scattered as Jurgen put his foot down.
'Very restrained,' Kasteen commented. I shrugged. I couldn't have given a damn if the
troopers had killed the lot of them, to be honest, but I was trying to make a good
impression on our little blue guests, and there was always that reputation to consider.
We'd left the governor's palace as soon as we could get the tau aboard the truck,
scrambling over the tailgate in the flickering light from the burning building.
Lustig's squad split into teams again, five on each side, leaving the xeno diplomats in
the middle. It wasn't exactly high security, but it was the best we could do under the
circumstances, and I hoped it would be enough.
'Good luck, commissar.' Donali's sober tone told me he thought we'd need it as he
grasped my hand. I shook it firmly, thankful for the augmetics that prevented the
tremors in my bowels from transmitting themselves as far as my fingers, and nodded
gravely.
'The Emperor protects,' I intoned with pious hypocrisy, and climbed into the cab. At
least with a box of metal and glass around me I was afforded some degree of shelter,
and with Kasteen and Jurgen on either side to absorb any incoming fire, I'd be safer
there than anywhere else. The Emperor, as I'd noted on more than one occasion, tends
to extend his protection more readily to those who take as many precautions as
possible for themselves.
Donali stood and watched us leave, silhouetted in the flickering light from the flames,
and turned back towards the burning building as he passed out of sight. To my vague
surprise, I found myself hoping he survived the night. I don't normally have much time
for diplomats, but he struck me as a decent sort, and he seemed to be going to a lot of
trouble to keep me from getting shot.
At least in the abstract, preventing a war wasn't going to do me a damn bit of good if
some xenoist rioter stove my skull in with a paving slab this evening, so I was alert for
any potential threat as we made our way through the troubled city.
'Left here.' Kasteen was guiding Jurgen with the aid of the tactical net, hoping to avoid
the worst of the trouble. We passed a couple of street brawls, but the worst of the
rioting appeared to be happening elsewhere.
'So far so good,' I said, tempting fate once more, and, typically, fate obliged. As we
turned out of the alleyway into one of those broad thoroughfares which had so excited
my unease on the journey into the city from the starport, I could see figures up ahead
through the windscreen. Metal barrels had been pushed into the roadway, forming the
spine of a makeshift barricade, and fires had been set inside a couple of them.
Sandy Mitchell ´For the Emperorª
'Roadblock,' Jurgen said unnecessarily, and glanced at me for orders.
'Ease off,' I said, considering the situation. 'No point drawing their fire unless we have
to.' Figures were moving slowly towards us, lasguns levelled, silhouetted against the
firelight. I squinted, trying to identify them. They wore plain fatigues, of a colour I
couldn't quite identify in the yellowish glow, but which looked grey or blue, and light
flak armour of an even darker shade1
.
'PDF,' Kasteen confirmed after a moment listening to the tactical net. 'Loyalist,
supporting the Arbites.'
'Thank the Emperor for that,' I said, and voxed Lustig. 'They're friendlies. Apparently.'
'Understood.' The sergeant's voice was calm, picking up on my qualification, and I
was pretty sure the troopers would be ready if we turned out to be mistaken. Call me
paranoid if you like, and I'll cheerfully admit to it, but I didn't get to an honourable
retirement by having a trusting nature.
A single figure was stepping out in front of the truck now, a hand raised, and Jurgen
coasted to a halt. I straightened my uniform cap, and tried to look as commissarial as I
could manage.
'Who goes there?' He was young, I noticed, his face still pitted with acne scars, and his
helmet looked too big for his head. A lieutenant's rank insignia had been painted in the
centre of it, clearly visible, typical PDF sloppiness. The last thing you want in a
firefight is an obvious sign saying, 'Shoot me, I'm an officer.' But then no one in the
PDF ever really expects to go into combat, unless they make the grade the next time
the Guard come recruiting, and that hadn't happened on Gravalax in generations.
'Colonel Kasteen, Valhallan 597th. And Commissar Cain.' Kasteen leaned out of the
cab window to talk to him. 'Order your men aside.'
'I can't do that.' His jaw took on a stubborn set. 'I'm sorry.'
'Really?' Kasteen looked at him as though she'd just found him on the sole of her boot.
'I was under the impression that a colonel outranks a lieutenant. Isn't that so,
commissar?'
'In my experience,' I agreed. I leaned past her to address the young pup directly. 'Or do
you do things differently on Gravalax?' He paled visibly as I raked him with the
number two glare.
'No, commissar. But I've been ordered not to let anyone past under any circumstances.'
'I think you'll find my authority supersedes any orders you may have been given,' I
said confidently. His jaw worked convulsively.
'But the rebels are in control of the next sector,' he said. 'The tau are leaving their
enclaveó'
'Lies!' El'hassai jumped up on the flatbed behind us, now clearly visible to the young
lieutenant and his PDF troopers. I was really beginning to suspect that the hotheaded tau
had some sort of death wish, and one I'd be happy to grant if he carried on like this formuch longer. 'They remain behind the boundaries we agreed!'
'Bluies!' The lieutenant swung his lasgun up to cover us. Behind the barricade his men
did the same. To my intense relief Lustig and his troopers kept their cool, keeping their
own weapons lowered, or there would have been blood spilt within a heartbeat.
'What's going on here?'
'You don't have the security clearance to know,' I said calmly, hiding my jangling
nerves with the ease of years of practice. 'I'm ordering you in the name of the
Commissariat to let us pass.'
'Traitors!' one of the PDF trolls shouted. 'They're xeno-lovers! Probably stole the
truck!'
'Check with your superiors,' I said, calmly as before, loosening the laspistol in its
holster below the level of the window. 'The Guard liaison office will confirm our
identities.'
'Yes.' The young lieutenant nodded, trying to sound resolute, and wavered the barrel
of his lasgun between Kasteen and me, unsure of which one of us to threaten. 'We'll do
that. Right after you hand over the bluies.'
'String 'em up!' someone else yelled, probably the same idiot who'd shouted before.
The tau began to look agitated.
'The xenos are under Imperial Guard protection.' I said levelly, taking heart from his
obvious indecision. 'And that means mine. Stand aside in the Emperor's name, or face
the consequences.'
I suppose I was to blame for what happened next. I'd got so used to being around
Guardsmen, who accepted my authority without question, that it never even occurred
to me that the young lieutenant wouldn't back down. But I'd reckoned without the
PDF's relative lack of discipline, and the fact that to them a commissar was just
another officer in a fancy hat. The fear and respect that normally goes with the
uniform just wasn't there so far as they were concerned.
'Sergeant!' the lieutenant turned towards one of the troopers outlined by the firebarrels.
'Arrest these traitors!'
'Lustig.' I said. 'Fire.' Even as I spoke I was levelling the laspistol. The lieutenant's eyes
widened for a fraction of a second as he began to turn back to us, the glint of
vindictive triumph giving way to a momentary panic, and then half his face was gone
as I squeezed the trigger.
I've killed a great many men over the years, so many that I lost count about a century
back, and that's not even taking into account the innumerable xenos I've dispatched.
And I've barely lost a night's sleep over any of them. It's usually been them or me, and
I don't suppose they'd have been unduly troubled if things had gone the other way. But
the lieutenant was different - not an enemy, or guilty of a capital crime - just stupid
and overeager. Maybe that's why I can still picture his expression so vividly.
The troopers in the back of the truck raised their lasguns, snapping out a burst of rapid
fire while the PDF were still in shock. Only a few had time to react, diving for cover as
the bolts burst around them, and Jurgen floored the accelerator.
Sandy Mitchell ´For the Emperorª
'Warp this!' Kasteen ducked as a lasbolt from the defenders scored the cab door beside
her, and drew her bolt pistol.
'Take them all,' I ordered. If there were any survivors, they'd be on the vox net in
moments, betraying our position to whoever might be listening, and marking us as a
target to be hunted down by either side. I was within my rights, you understand, they'd
refused a direct order, which was more than enough reason for any commissar to have
done the same, but I couldn't help thinking of the lengths I'd gone to in order to avoid
executing the five troopers aboard the Righteous Wrath who deserved it far more than
these fools had.
No matter. Jurgen floored the accelerator and we burst through the barricade, a tardy
PDF trooper falling beneath our wheels with a scream and an unpleasant crunching
sound vaguely reminiscent of someone treading hard on a thin wooden box. The first
line of barrels scattered like skittles, spinning away across the thoroughfare, clanging
into the sides of buildings and inflicting severe dents in the bodywork of the
groundcars parked nearby. By the time they stopped moving, most of the men
opposing us were already dead. Whatever skills they'd acquired in basic training were
pitifully inadequate in the face of veteran troopers who'd fought a hive fleet and
survived. A few tried to stand their ground, snapping off hasty and badly aimed shots
before the superior marksmanship of the Valhallans blew bloody, self-cauterising
craters through heads and body armour. A muffled curse over the vox link told me that
one of the troopers had been hit by the ragged return fire, but if she was able to swear
like that it couldn't be all that serious.
'Hold on, commissar.' Jurgen gunned the engine, and a jolt bounced through the truck
as he knocked one of the burning barrels in the second rank aside. It spilled, blazing
promethium spreading across the road behind us, consuming the bodies of the dead.
'Runner.' Kasteen tracked her target with the bolt pistol and fired. A thin trail of smoke
connected the barrel with the back of a fleeing PDF man, punching through his body
armour, and exploding in a rain of blood and bowel.
'Nice shooting, colonel.' I tapped the combead. 'Lustig?'
'That was the last one, sir,' he said flatly. I could tell how he felt. Gunning down a
virtually defenceless ally was hardly the blooding any of us would have chosen for our
new regiment. But it had been necessary, I kept telling myself.
'Any casualties?'
'Trooper Penlan caught a ricochet. Just minor flash burns.'
'Glad to hear it,' I said. I hesitated. I needed to say something now, to maintain morale,
but for once in my life my glib tongue had deserted me. 'Tell themÖ Tell them I
appreciate what they just did.'
'Yes sir.' There was an unexpected note of sympathy in the sergeant's voice, and I
realised that I'd said the right thing after all. They knew what was at stake here as much
as I did.
We were silent for a long time after that. There was nothing to say, after all.
Sandy Mitchell ´For the Emperorª
I'D HOPED THAT distressing incident would have been enough of a blood price to see
our mission through, but of course, I'd reckoned without the insensate mentality of the
mob. The divisions between the loyalist and xenoist factions had had generations to
fester here, and the animosity ran deep. As we came closer to the tau enclave, we
began to see signs of bloody faction fighting that would have looked less out of place
in the underhive than the prosperous merchant city we were driving through. Bodies
were lying in the streets, or, in a few cases, hung from luminator poles, loyalists and
xenoists alike, but most of them were in no condition to determine allegiance, or, for
that matter, very much else. Kasteen shook her head.
'Have you ever seen anything like this?' she asked, more in shock than because she
expected an answer. To her visible surprise, I nodded.
'Not often.' And then only in the wake of a Chaos incursion or an ork attack. Never
inflicted by ordinary citizens on their neighbours. I shuddered, reflecting on how close
to the surface of the mundane world such savagery lurked, and how easily everything
we fought to defend against it could be swept away if it wasn't for the ceaseless
vigilance of the Emperor.
'Disturbance up ahead, commissar,' Jurgen said, easing up on the accelerator again. I
peered through the windscreen. A baying mob filled the street, milling around a high
wall with a huge bronze gate in the centre of it, blocking the thoroughfare. Even
without the distinctive curving architecture I would have been sure we'd reached our
destination.
'The perimeter of the tau trading enclave.' El'sorath confirmed when I retuned my
combead to his portable vox. 'But gaining entry may prove problematic'
'Problematic be warped.' I snapped undiplomatically. I hadn't come all this way and
shed all that blood to be baulked this close to our goal. 'I'll get you in there if I have to
throw you over the wall.'
'I doubt that gue'la muscles are sufficiently well developed,' the tau responded dryly.
I'd been right, he did have a sense of humour. 'An alternative strategy would be
preferable.'
'I have a plan,' Jurgen offered. I stared at him in surprise. Abstract thinking was never
exactly his forte.
'A particularly devious one, no doubt,' I said. He nodded, immune to sarcasm.
'We could go through the gate,' he suggested. Kasteen made a peculiar noise, halfway
between a snort and a hiccup.
'We could,' I agreed. 'Except that there's about a thousand rioters between us and it.'
'But they're all xenoists,' Jurgen said. 'So they'll just let us through, won't they?'
Well, they might have done, I thought, if we weren't wearing Imperial Guard uniforms
and driving an Imperial Guard truck. But then againÖ
'Jurgen, you're a genius,' I said, with a little less sarcasm than before. 'Why frak
around when the direct approach might work?' I voxed Lustig and El'sorath again.
'Can we get the tau somewhere visible?'
In a moment, the xenos were standing, flanked by the troopers, and El'sorath was
hissing away on his vox again. Jurgen slowed the truck to a crawl, and blew the horn
loudly to attract the crowd's attention.
A few heads turned in our direction, then more, as a sullen groundswell of hostility
began to build. A couple of rockcrete chunks bounced from the windscreen, leaving
small starred impact craters in the armourglass. Kasteen wound her side window up,
clearly deciding that Jurgen's body odour was better than concussion, at least for a
short while.
'Whenever you're ready,' I suggested, thankful I wasn't out in the open in the back of
the truck. Maybe this wasn't such a brilliant idea after all, I found myself thinking.
'Please desist, for the greater good.' El'sorath must have had an amplivox function
built into his caster, because his voice rang out across the crowd. To my amazement
they complied, falling silent and parting in front of us. I contrasted it with the response
of the crowd in Kasamar1
, who'd charged our lines with berserk fury as soon as the
Arbites commander had tried to address them, and wondered at the degree of
influence the tau were able to wield over their supporters and one another.2
Jurgen rolled the truck to a halt in front of the huge gates, ten metres high and wide as
the thoroughfare they blocked, just as they began to swing open. Eerily, they were
completely noiseless, or at least so quiet I could hear nothing over the murmur of the
crowd and the throbbing of our engine, even after Kasteen and I had disembarked to
see our guests safely home. I noticed she breathed deeply once her boot-heels hit the
rockcrete.
'What's that?' Lustig's voice crackled in my ear. Something small and fast swooped
down from over the wall, heading in our direction, then several more, wheeling and
diving like birds.
'Hold your fire.' I said hastily, fighting the urge to draw my own weapon. 'They're still
on their side of the line.'
Well, technically, at least. They were still above the slope of the wall, even though
they'd passed the crest. I tried to focus on the nearest one, but it was small and fastmoving, and all I got was a vague impression of something resembling a large platter
with a rifle slung underneath it.
'A courtesy,' El'sorath assured me, hopping down from the flatbed with remarkable
dexterity. 'To ensure your departure goes smoothly.'
Well, there was more than one way to take that, of course, but I chose to interpret it as
a guarantee that the crowd would continue to behave themselves.
'Much appreciated,' I assured him, as the rest of the xenos clambered down and began
trooping into their enclave. Armed warriors in body armour came forward to meet
them, their faces hidden inside blank-visaged helmets. I caught sight of something else
moving behind the gate, and turned my head for a better look.
'Dreadnoughts,' Kasteen breathed. They were certainly large enough for that, but they
moved with an easy grace far removed from the lumbering war machines I'd
encountered before. Their lines were angular, topped off with headpieces which
resembled the helmets of their line troopers, but the resemblance ended with their size,
towering at least twice the height of an ordinary tau.
'Just battlesuits,' El'sorath said, with a faint trace of amusement. 'Nothing special.'
Kasteen and I glanced at one another. I couldn't make out much detail at this distance,
but they were clearly heavily armed, and the idea of facing a foe that fielded such
things as a matter of course wasn't exactly comforting. I began to suspect that this was
precisely the impression we'd been meant to get.
'I'm sure they're not,' I said, radiating an easy confidence I didn't feel, and enjoying the
momentary flicker of doubt in the xeno's eyes.
'Go with your Emperor, Commissar Cain. You have our gratitude,' he said at last, and
followed his friends inside. The gates began to swing closed.
'Time we were gone,' I said, hoisting myself back into the cab. Kasteen decided to ride
in the back this time. Can't say I blamed her after getting the full benefit of Jurgen, so
I suggested the wounded trooper Penlan rode back in the cab with us instead.
'Better safe than sorry,' I said, 'until we get back to the medicae at least.' So, despite
her understandable reluctance, I was able to replace my human shield and enhance my
reputation for concern about the troopers under my command at the same time.
And we'd succeeded in doing our bit to prevent a full-scale war from breaking out,
which was no mean feat, so all in all I could have been forgiven for feeling a little
smug as we made our way back to our own staging area. So why, instead, did I keep
thinking about the PDF troopers we'd been forced to kill, and wondering whose plans
we'd derailed by their sacrifice.