Gaunts Ghosts 05 - The Guns of Tanith by Warhammer

Author:Warhammer [Warhammer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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chamber he passed was full of casualties, mainly Urdeshi, supported in crude but functional

conditions. The worst cases were screened off in side wards.

The smell of pain was inescapable, and so was the low, background murmur of groans.

Varl slid his back to a wall to allow two medicae orderlies hurrying along with a resuscitrex cart

to pass, and then entered the gloom of an intensive ward. The lighting was low-level, and trained

around the individual beds. There was a steady, arrhythmic bleep of vitalators and the asthmatic

wheeze and thump of the automatic respirator bellows.

Corbec lay on a rumpled cot, half-tangled in khaki sheets, like a shroud-wrapped pieta in an

Imperial hero shrine. His limbs were sprawled, knotted in the fabric, as if he had turned restlessly in

his dreams. Drips and monitor cables were variously anchored into his massive arms and chest, and

his mouth and nose were plugged with larger, thicker tubes. It looked as if they were choking him.

Corbec’s eyes were sealed with surgical tape. Through his thick, black body hair it was possible to

see the yellowing bruises and the hundreds of little, scabby cuts that marked his skin.

Varl stood looking at him for a long time and realised he couldn’t think of anything to say or do.

He wasn’t even sure why he’d come.

He was halfway down the corridor on his way out when Dorden called out to him.

“Looking in on the chief, Varl?” the old doctor asked, coming over, his attention half on a data-

slate he was reviewing.

Varl shrugged. “Yeah, I—”

“You’re not the first. Been Tanith in here all morning. In ones or twos. A few Verghastites too.

Paying their respects.”

Varl breathed out deeply and stuck his hands in his pockets of his black combat pants. “I don’t

know about respects,” he said. “I don’t mean that nasty, doc. I mean I… I think I just came to see.”

“To see Colm?”

“To see if it was true. Corbec’s dying, they say. But I couldn’t picture it Couldn’t see it in my

head to believe it.”

“And now?” asked Dorden, handing the slate to a passing nurse.

“Still can’t.” Varl grinned. “He’s not going to die, is he?”

“Well, we should all keep hoping and praying—”

“No, doc. I wasn’t looking for no reassurance. If he’s going to die, I hope you’d tell me. I just

don’t feel it. Standing there, I just don’t. It doesn’t feel like his time. Like he’s not ready and he’s

fething well not going to let go.”

It was Dorden’s turn to smile. “You saw that too, huh? I haven’t said that to anyone because I

didn’t want to get hopes up unfairly. But I feel it that way as well.”

“Doesn’t seem hardly fair, does it?” said Varl. “Corbec takes some punishment He almost

missed the show on Hagia and I know those injuries have only just healed. Now this.”

“Colm Corbec is a brave man and he takes risks. Too many risks, in my opinion. Mainly

because, like all good officers, he leads by example. You know he got messed up this way saving

Muril’s life?”

“I heard.”

“Take risks, Varl, and sooner or later you get hurt.

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