Ciaphas Cain: Choose Your Enemies

At which point I found myself gazing round at the huge, echoing chamber, pinpointing the other security precautions. Porten, or whoever he’d delegated the job to, was clearly sound on the tactics of the situation: a few Chimeras with the insignia of the Ironfound Defence Force on them were parked close by, ready to roll across the road and block the enemy at a moment’s notice, their turrets already angled towards the gates. Barricades had been erected behind them, no less sturdy for the speed of their construction, including several more heavy weapon emplacements. All in all, any eldar intent on forcing a passage would find themselves in an intense and protracted firefight. If they had the numbers and were willing to take a fair few casualties in the process they’d quite likely prevail in the end, but if the defenders were able to buy enough time for the 597th to get down there and properly stuck in, that would be by no means a foregone conclusion.

‘You can bet the eldar will be keeping up the pressure,’ Pelton said sourly. ‘The more refugees they force uphive, the more strain there’ll be on the infrastructure.’ Which, I’ll admit, hadn’t occurred to me, but I suppose that’s the sort of thing you have to take into account when you’re an arbitrator, like he used to be. Quelling riots and distributing food are much the same thing from the point of view of maintaining law and order.

‘Quite so.’ Mott nodded, his eyes unfocusing for a moment. ‘Since accurate population statistics for the underhive are almost a contradiction in terms it’s hard to be precise, but extrapolating the increase in uphive traffic since our last visit, and assuming that the other gates are seeing a similar trend, the resources of the upper hive will become significantly depleted in little more than a month.’

‘Then we’d better clear the eldar out quickly,’ I said, well aware as I spoke that it would be a lot easier said than done.

We began to roll forwards again, towards the nearest of the downhive tunnel mouths, starting and stopping as the vehicles ahead of us were halted for a security check. These were being conducted by local prefects, their brown helmets and body armour130 standing out in marked contrast to the blocky blue, grey and white urban camo pattern of the Ironfound Defence squaddies who so vastly outnumbered them. Seeing our approach they waved us through, the defence force with enthusiastic but sloppy salutes as we growled past, which I returned with my best parade ground snap.131 Beyond the gates the three tunnels seemed to run parallel for a few hundred metres, connected by narrower utility passages every score or so, down which the traffic in the others could be glimpsed momentarily as we passed. Within and between these side tunnels I caught sight of the distinctive curving surfaces of directional mines, the detonation of each one of which would send a devastating blizzard of shrapnel spreading out across the roadway, like a blast from the galaxy’s biggest shotgun; linked to motion sensors, or detonated remotely, they’d turn the entire uphive approach into a killing zone.

I felt the back of my neck begin to prickle, and, despite knowing all the safety protocols which would have to have been in place, tried not to picture the results of an accidental detonation. Thick as it was, the Chimera’s armour plating would find such a concentrated barrage hard to stand up to at such close range, and even if the projectiles failed to penetrate, the spalling132 would probably finish us off just as effectively.

Once we were through the choke point, however, I found myself breathing a little more easily; although, of course, our chances of running into the enemy had just risen considerably. The steady flow uphive seemed to be continuing, with overcrowded vehicles and groups on foot, some pushing hand carts teetering with the weight of their worldly possessions, others having apparently abandoned everything they owned (if they’d owned anything much in the first place) apart from what they could carry in a back pack.

Judging by their clothing, watchful demeanour and prominently displayed weapons, most of the upward bound were from far deeper in the underhive, where even the basic necessities had to be fashioned from the wastefall of the higher levels; I saw blades and bows which had clearly begun life as pieces of scrap, and, in one or two instances, scrimshawed coat toggles which looked suspiciously like finger bones.