Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

‘What is it?’ Amberley asked, equally business-like, standing to one side as she spoke to allow Mott, who had accompanied us, a clear view of the display. I, on the other hand, was the sole representative of the Astra Militarum; Kasteen and Broklaw were still wrestling with the unenviable task of trying to work out how to defend an entire planet with a single regiment, and Jurgen had disappeared on some errand of his own, presumably in search of unattended comestibles or something he felt might come in handy once it was squirrelled away in his tangle of webbing pouches.

‘Something on the long-range augurs,’ Addie said, indicating the screen. ‘Cluster of contacts, heading out from the subsystem on the same course we are.’ Then a trace of doubt entered her voice. ‘But they don’t seem to be moving right.’

‘Eldar,’ Amberley said decisively, after a glance at the display. ‘They use light sails instead of plasma drives, so they’re faster and more manoeuvrable than Imperial vessels.’

‘How much faster?’ I asked, with the familiar sensation of having just been punched in the stomach. If I was reading the display right the contacts were a long way behind, but we still had the best part of a fortnight to go before we reached Ironfound – at least if we wanted to slow down enough to make orbit when we got there, instead of simply punching a continent-sized crater in it. Plenty of time for the eldar to catch up with us, if they really were capable of doing so.

‘That would depend on the intensity and direction of the etheric currents they’re tacking against,’ Mott said, taking the question as literally as Jurgen would have done. ‘But, based on indices of performance from previous encounters, the likelihood of them matching or exceeding our current velocity would be approximately fifty-seven point four three eight per cent.’

Captain Addie exchanged a concerned glance with her augur operator, clearly liking those odds no better than I did.

‘In other words,’ I said, ‘there’s a more than even chance that the eldar will get to Ironfound before we do.’ What I meant, of course, was that they’d catch us up and blow us out of the sky, intra-system ore barges like the Rustbucket not normally being over-endowed with weaponry, but putting that thought into words where Addie and her most senior officers could hear it was unlikely to end well.

Mott shook his head. ‘Not necessarily. That would depend on the class of vessel, as some are swifter than others. The estimate I just gave was averaged out.’

‘Then assume at least some of them will be faster,’ Amberley said, the faint air of testiness entering her voice imperceptible to anyone who knew her less well than I did.

‘If the flotilla includes destroyer- or frigate-sized vessels,’ Mott replied, ‘willing to operate beyond the effective support range of the heavier ships, there’s a thirty-seven per cent chance of making orbit around Ironfound before we do.’ An expression of faint surprise ghosted across his face. ‘Thirty-seven per cent exactly. How odd.’

Addie, at least, was looking a little more cheerful at this news. ‘They might make orbit,’ she said, ‘but they won’t stay in it. The orbital defence batteries will cut them to pieces.’

Mott nodded. ‘Their optimum strategy would be to remain together, and hope the firepower of the capital ships will be enough to breach Ironfound’s defences,’ he agreed.

Unfortunately the eldar appeared to have different ideas, as over the following few days it became increasingly apparent that a single squadron of faster ships had indeed broken free of the main fleet, and was closing inexorably on our position.

‘It’s going to be tight,’ Addie said, when I entered the bridge to observe the crew perform the deceleration rituals necessary to allow us to make orbit around Ironfound instead of ending up spread across most of the facing hemisphere. She indicated the augur screen, which, I’m bound to own, had taken up rather too much of my attention of late. The pursuing trio of eldar vessels had gained on us considerably, although to my untutored eye (mixed, I must confess, with a healthy dose of wishful thinking) we still seemed some considerable distance beyond the range of their weapons. Which made it a bad time to be slowing down, if you asked me.

‘The eldar will have to decelerate too, though, won’t they?’ I asked, and the captain pursed her lips, clearly wondering how best to answer that. Typically, she went for the forthright approach.

‘Frakked if I know. But the inquisitor says they don’t respond like our ships, so I wouldn’t hold your breath.’ She returned to her command chair and began issuing instructions to her crew, not so much ignoring me as shrugging off my continuing presence as something not germane to the proper functioning of her vessel, and therefore of no interest.