Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

‘Nothing we can target reliably,’ Herren said, with a touch of exasperation. ‘They’re moving too fast, and almost out of range in any case.’

‘Have you got anything up there that can intercept them?’ Fulcher asked, which seemed reasonable enough for a civilian unversed in strategic or tactical thinking.

Herren shook his head. ‘We’re deploying what assets we have left to defend the planet,’ he said. ‘None of our boats can accelerate fast enough, and if we tried we’d leave a gap in our picket line. Which may be precisely what they’re hoping to achieve, of course.’

‘I agree,’ I said, more or less accurately. It sounded pretty tenuous, but it wouldn’t be the first time that someone launched a feint attack to try to lure an impetuous defender out of position – in fact I’d employed precisely that stratagem myself on more than one occasion, finding it particularly effective against the orks. The eldar must have realised we were unlikely to fall for it, but offhand I couldn’t see any other reason for such a risky and apparently fruitless endeavour. ‘Unless they were reconnoitring some potential target on the ground. Anything of strategic value along their flight path?’

‘Just the hive itself,’ Porten said, after consulting the data-slate in front of him for a moment. ‘And I hardly think they’d need to get that close to be aware of its existence.’

‘Quite,’ Fulcher said, and glanced in my direction. ‘Any of your people out on the surface around there?’

‘No,’ I told him, with complete confidence. Kasteen and Broklaw had been adamant that if there was any grubbing around in an environment requiring the use of respirators to be done, it could be done by the local defence force, who’d been trained for this sort of thing; at least until an Imperial Guard unit with the appropriate expertise turned up. Our request for reinforcements had been acknowledged, but we still had no idea how long it would take a task force to get here, other than too long, and its constituent elements were a mystery known only to the Munitorum bureaucrats. A company or two of Death Korps would be ideal, given the environment, but if their past record was anything to go by we were just as likely to get Catachan jungle fighters and a ratling marching band.112 ‘Our primary mission remains to secure Holdvast against eldar incursion, which we can best do from within it.’

‘What about the other hives?’ Osric asked, reasonably enough under the circumstances. ‘Are you just leaving them to fend for themselves?’

‘I wouldn’t put it quite like that,’ I said, which was true, even though he’d pretty much hit the nail on the head; I’d have been a bit more tactful. ‘We discussed detaching a company or two to reinforce the Ironfound Defence in other hives,’ which was also true, although we’d only done so for a few seconds before coming to the unanimous conclusion that it was a truly terrible idea, ‘but even an entire regiment would be barely adequate to the task. Our assessment is that Hold­vast will be the eldar’s primary target – it’s the largest, most populous, and most productive, not to mention the centre of planetary government. If it falls, the world falls.’ Not to mention the main reason for us being here, the webway entrance deep in the bowels of the underhive, through which the xenos were undoubtedly already swarming to gnaw away at the foundations. A secret everyone here was now privy to, despite Amberley’s reservations in that regard, as we could hardly be expected to coordinate defences against an attack none of our allies even knew was coming.

‘We can expect to see some activity in the underhive too,’ Porten said, obligingly bringing the matter up for me. ‘Probably a coordinated attack against the lower levels as the main fleet launches its orbital assault.’

‘That’s our thinking too,’ I agreed. ‘But at the moment we’re completely lacking intel on the enemy strength down there.’

‘Pretty near infinite, I’d say,’ a new voice chimed in from the doorway, and with a carefully suppressed sigh of heartfelt relief I glanced up to see Amberley strolling in, the huge bronze doors whispering closed behind her. She smiled at Fulcher, who was doing a pretty good imitation of a recently landed fish. ‘No need to get up, Septimus.’

‘Milady Vail.’ Though completely taken aback by her sudden appearance, the governor rallied fast. ‘I’m afraid this is a highly confidential meeting.’ A trace of puzzlement appeared on his face. ‘There were guards…’