Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

‘Then perhaps we should just take it for granted that they’re going to win, and concentrate on the real threat,’ Vekkman said. ‘We need to root out whatever taint of Chaos exists here while the planet is still in Imperial hands, and eradicate it while we have the chance.’

‘Excuse me?’ Amberley turned a frosty glare on her fellow inquisitor. ‘I’m not handing over an entire world to a bunch of pointy-eared pirates to go chasing a handful of headcases who haven’t done any real damage yet, and probably never will.’

‘You’re missing the point,’ Vekkman said, reining in his temper with a visible effort. ‘All your eldar can do is kill the bodies of the faithful, and send their souls to the Emperor’s protection. If the heretics summon another daemon, a truly puissant one this time, it will devour those souls, damning billions of them to perpetual torment, and that cannot and will not be allowed to happen. Decree Exterminatus is an option for a reason.’

‘No one’s decreeing Exterminatus against Ironfound!’ Amberley expostulated. ‘Its strategic and economic value is far too great.’

‘That would be the option of last resort, of course,’ Vekkman said. ‘But if anything were to justify it, a daemonic incursion would. Compared to that, the eldar are a minor irritation.’

‘A minor irritation with an invasion fleet about to make orbit, and every chance there’s an army tunnelling their way up to the main hab zone even as we speak,’ I said. I turned to Amberley. ‘Though if Sambhatain’s really nudging events their way, it does sound as though we’re frakked.’

‘It’s not quite as simple as that,’ Amberley said. ‘A farseer can influence the general direction of things, like send a squad of Guardians to reinforce a defensive line that’s about to give way, but they wouldn’t be able to guarantee that they’ll win once they get there.’

I nodded, taking what solace I could from that. ‘So his presence makes it more likely that the eldar will take the planet, but we can still hold them off?’

She nodded again. ‘In essence, yes. It just makes the job about ten times harder.’

‘Lovely,’ I said, trying to appear as though I was making light of the matter, but uncomfortably aware of how sour I was sounding in spite of myself. ‘Because it’s all looked so easy up until now.’

Understandably, that thought remained with me long after I returned to the command centre, which was infested by far fewer cogboys than the last time I’d seen it, although just as many troopers seemed to be bustling about, and brought Kasteen and Broklaw up to speed. They listened soberly to my account of the meeting, including Amberley’s part in it, which, if it came as a surprise, showed on neither of their faces.122 Of our subsequent conversation with Vekkman, I of course said nothing.

‘I don’t like it,’ Kasteen said, once I’d finished my summary of the military aspects of the discussion. ‘That leaves us reliant on the Ironfound Defence for a heads up when the pointy-ears make their move in the underhive, and we’ll be playing catch-up after that. I’d rather take the fight to the enemy while we still can.’

‘Me too,’ Broklaw agreed. ‘If we send some recon units in, and find some indication of the line of their advance, we can deploy somewhere we can meet it and hold them off. One thing you can say for the underhive, it’s not exactly short of choke points.’ He turned to me. ‘Ciaphas, this is your area of expertise. What do you think?’

‘I think it’s worth a try,’ I said, reflecting that in a labyrinth as large and complex as the average underhive an entire army stood an excellent chance of strolling past our scouts without even being noticed. Which meant there was an even better chance of them failing to notice me. ‘But they’d need to go in on foot. The Chimeras would run out of manoeuvring room within a score of levels below the gates, and the Sentinels not long after that.’ Which was a pity, as our Sentinel squadron was our primary asset when it came to scouting, fast enough to outflank an enemy, and agile enough to move quickly even in close terrain. But the tunnels of the underhive would be too restrictive even for them.

‘On foot it is, then,’ Kasteen said. ‘What about the planetary defence force?’

‘What about them?’ Broklaw asked, his tone dismissive.

‘They’re patrolling down there anyway, and they know the terrain.’ She glanced in my direction. ‘Isn’t that what their general said?’

‘The upper levels of the underhive, at least,’ I agreed.