Outgunned by Denny Flowers

Author:Denny Flowers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2022-06-01T14:48:49+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Our return flight was undertaken in near silence. Shard and the surviving crew managed the occasional monosyllabic exchange concerning airspeed or distance. Ironically, I occupied the navigator’s chair, my very presence adding an additional challenge to our return. But they found the way, perhaps using the glimmer of Orbital Station Salus as a beacon.

I was cold in the cockpit, despite my borrowed flight suit. My hands were still shaking, and I clasped them together. But it made little difference.

I had felt this once before, during the Gigerian Cleansing, where the squad I accompanied stumbled across the bodies of those slaughtered by the heretics. The perpetrators did not differentiate between the young or old, and the victims’ flesh had been desecrated, carved with foul runes that stung the eyes. I had not been able to look at it for long, turning from the sight, my stomach heaving. I took solace that even some of the hardened soldiers had a similar reaction.

Little of that footage survives, my superiors deeming it too disturbing for the Imperial citizenry. I wondered then how they would view my latest escapade, opening with Imperial aircraft soaring majestically to war, and concluding with a solitary bomber limping home.

We were lucky to survive. I suppose we were lucky to have blundered into the ork base, though it did not feel that way at the time. Even its destruction could not really be celebrated, because it left me wondering how many similar edifices lurked in the endless swamps.

I sighed, glancing to the cockpit’s window. The sun had almost set, its dying light bleeding Bacchus’ sky a deep purple. It mirrored our outward journey, except now I felt despair, not hope. So much had changed. Then, my fear had been an uneventful flight, our mission having no assigned objective or target, that we might be wasting time and resources.

I frowned, my fingers drumming the armrest. Ahead of me Shard was occupied with the controls, bearing us towards the comparative sanctuary of the governor’s château.

I re-engaged with Mizar, currently transfixed by the flight of insects, perhaps attracted by their iridescent shells. Through it, I reviewed the footage, though I was unable to play back any sound. I knew Shard had told me we sought targets of opportunity, and there was a soundness in this tactic in a conventional war, where potential targets included cities and supply lines. But how did it make sense in a featureless swamp?

Unless they knew there was something out there…

It was difficult to catalogue our flight path from the images Mizar had captured, but it seemed after take-off we had flown true, at least until we were deep within the swamp. Just before we discovered the ork base.

Before I discovered it.

It had not occurred to me until then, but Mizar’s archaic sensors had been the only means of identifying the anomalous energies employed by the orks. The same had been true in the swamp, during my first mission with Shard and the Scions.

Wing Commander Prospherous had said my vision was vital for the mission’s success.

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