Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

‘Good. Then we can leave that layer of defence to them.’ She nodded decisively. ‘Like we did with their counterparts on Drechia. If we get them to establish a proper picket line downgate, in territory they know, we’ll be able to handle recon in the lower levels sure we won’t run into any unpleasant surprises on the way back up.’ Seeing my mouth open to make the obvious rejoinder, she shrugged. ‘As sure as we can be, anyway.’ Which was not that sure at all, really, given the number of branching passageways an infiltrating force might still be able to exploit. Not to mention the fact that Amberley seemed pretty sure the eldar would be well up to the task of carving out new ones.

‘I’ll talk to General Porten,’ I said. ‘He seems competent enough,’ which was true, ‘and he’s definitely got the manpower.’

‘While you’re at it,’ Broklaw suggested, ‘why not ask if he can extend the patrols deeper as well? If they’re fortifying in depth below the gates, that would give them a natural forward base or two to send out recon sweeps of their own from. Then you can crack straight on with your eldar hunt in the lower levels.’ As I’d expected, it seemed everyone was expecting me to tag along with one of the recon squads we were going to send out – which, given how at home I was in environments like that, was hardly surprising.

‘I’ll be sure to mention it,’ I promised; and in the event, Porten obliged, which was just as well as things turned out. I wasn’t able to attend to the matter straight away, however, as at that point we were approached by a harassed-looking augur operator.

‘Ma’am, sirs,’ she said, sketching a hasty salute, the words tumbling over themselves with the urgency of her report. ‘We need you in the operations centre right away. The orbital batteries are engaging the eldar fleet in orbit.’

Editorial Note:

A typical lacuna now occurs in Cain’s account of events, since, as usual, he deems nothing which didn’t affect him personally worthy of record. The following extracts may, however, prove useful in ­placing his habitually self-centred narrative in a wider context.

From The Eldar: a History of Their Presence in the Ultima Segmentum, and Some Musings Upon Possible Means of Their Eradication, by Baltazar Thromp, 997 M41

Undeterred by the mauling they’d taken at the hands of the system defence force, the eldar fleet continued its relentless advance against Ironfound, showing no sign of dismay at the formidable defences arrayed against them. But the defenders were equally resolute, no doubt due, at least in part, to the presence of the legendary Commissar Cain, who, in one of the earliest recorded skirmishes of the siege, single-handedly repulsed an incursion by an eldar scouting party. Having failed to find any sign of weakness, the xenos interlopers fell back on sheer brute force, unleashing a storm of weapons fire against the ships deployed to meet them.

As before, they paid a heavy toll, the dauntless crews of the defending Imperial ships weathering barrage after barrage in the dogged defence of the home world they held so dear; but ultimately the sheer weight of numbers began to tell, the guns of ship after ship and orbital defence posts alike beginning to fall silent under the sustained pounding of the fiends from the void.

Ere long, the gaps in the defensive line which the heroes of Ironfound fought so desperately to keep closed began to gape wider, allowing the first invaders to break through and begin landing troops on the sacred soil of that beleaguered world.

Transcript of vid and voxcast address by Governor Fulcher.

Many of you will have heard the rumours of a small, limited incursion into our system by eldar pirates, chiefly in the Halo Autonomous Zone, which continues to repel them with great success. Perhaps because of this, a few have now ventured to Ironfound, where no doubt they anticipate easier pickings.

Needless to say, this is a hope in which they are to be profoundly disappointed. The Ironfound Defence Force has the matter well in hand, supported, I’m pleased to say, by an Imperial Guard regiment which happened to be passing through the system on its way to its next deployment: a regiment led by none other than Commissar Cain, whose valour and dedication to duty are renowned throughout the sector, if not the entire segmentum. It may even be true to say that his fame extends across the Imperium itself.123