Blackshields - The False War by Josh Reynolds

Author:Josh Reynolds
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-11-29T00:00:00+00:00

Another flare, another wave of audient destruction washing across a line of field bunkers and artillery positions. Another thousand lives snuffed in an orgy of annihilation. He watched the serves and prisoners die in their hundreds and felt nothing: neither sadness, nor satisfaction. All such weaknesses had been burned from him on Terra when he’d been forced to hack himself a path to freedom. He’d baptized his oath in the blood of loyal men and never looked back. Nothing mattered but the mission even if the parameters of that mission were unclear.

Rohm Gael (over vox): ‘This is monstrous. A waste.’

Erud Vahn (over vox): ‘I concur, I have identified the cogitator controls for the suicide collars. I might be able to deactivate them. They would at least have a fighting chance.’

«Raxhal Koraddon» (over vox): ‘No, they are not important. The Ordinatus are.’

Erud Vahn (over vox): ‘But…’

«Raxhal Koraddon» (interrupting, over vox): ‘That’s an order.’

Rohm Gael (over vox): ‘Careful, Erud, lest to add your carcass to those we handed over like so much meat.’

He stared at Haar, his fingers tapping against the pommel of his gladius. His words brushed the sharp edge of dissention and Haar met his steady gaze.

Rohm Gael (over vox): ‘Then we are not important either, are we? Just a means to an end.’

«Raxhal Koraddon» (interrupting, over vox): ‘You are soldiers, I am your commander. Now be silent before you give us away.’

Rohm Gael (angrily over vox): ‘We stopped being soldiers the moment our genefathers turned their backs on us. We are nothing save that which we make of ourselves. And I have higher ambitions than being another bullet you fire at the Warmaster.’

«Raxhal Koraddon» (over vox): ‘I am in command, Death Guard. If I say you are a bullet, that is what you are. That is what you must be to accomplish what must be done or I will discard you.’

Rohm Gael (over vox): ‘What must be done? And who are you to judge that?’

Haar’s power claw twitched, energy clawing across its knuckles and fingers.

Gilim Raijan: ‘Is something wrong, commander Koraddon?’

«Raxhal Koraddon»: ‘Nothing, continue!’

He tried to ignore Gael’s contempt and concentrate on the mock war, an armored spearhead this time attempting a breakout. It fared no better than the infantry. Gael wasn’t interested in the battle outside. He pressed his assault even as the feedback from the sonic blast faded.

Rohm Gael (over vox): ‘We should take the Ordinatus now. Give the order and that will be done. We can free the slaves as well. Throne knows we could use the serves.’

«Raxhal Koraddon» (over vox): ‘That is not our objective.’

Rohm Gael (over vox): ‘Then what is? What are we waiting for? You heard Erud, the loyalists will be here soon. We will be trapped between two enemies with nothing to show for it.’

«Raxhal Koraddon» (over vox): ‘We are waiting until I decide to give the order or do you think you should be the one to do it?’

Gael hesitated. His hand twitched to the hilt of his blade. Though Haar could not see his eyes, he could decipher the Death Guard’s body language easily enough.

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