Warhammer 40K - [Ultramarines 05] - Courage and Honour by Graham McNeill (Undead) (v1.0) by me

Author:me
Format: epub

TWELVE

Though Koudelkar had no frame of reference by which to judge its merits, the prison camp on the shores of Praxedes was certainly more comfortable than he had been led to believe such institutions were typically appointed. He and his mother had been given a private chamber within a smooth-walled structure containing another fifty prisoners, though the soldiers shared one long dormitory room and a single ablutions block.

Built on one of the vacant landing platforms that jutted out to sea, the structure was clean and comfortable, blandly furnished, softly lit and apparently impervious to graffiti or carving. Along with another twenty such structures, Koudelkar’s new home sat within an enclosure bounded by thin posts topped with domed discs and patrolled by armoured squads of what he learned were called Fire Warriors. Some Guardsmen had tried to escape on their first day of imprisonment, but painful jolts of invisible energy coursing between the posts had hurled them back. Koudelkar sat on the steps of his structure, looking out to sea and enjoying the warm sunlight as it tanned his skin. His mother was inside, lying on her back and staring at the featureless ceiling, almost catatonic in her resignation. “How can you just sit there?” asked Lortuen Perjed, limping unsteadily now that the tau had taken his walking cane. “We should be planning our escape.” “Escape? To where?”

“It doesn’t matter where, Koudelkar,” said Lortuen, sitting beside him. “And it doesn’t even matter if we succeed. All that matters is that we try. I’ve been speaking to some of the senior sergeants and they agree that it is our duty as Imperial citizens to inconvenience these xenos scum any way we can.” Koudelkar looked over at the rippling force barrier that surrounded their enclosure. Beyond the unseen energy field, a number of heavily armed battlesuits moved through the subjugated port city as yet more of the wide-winged craft descended from orbit with fresh supplies and soldiers. “I don’t think we’d inconvenience them that much, Lortuen.” “So we just sit here, meek and compliant?” He sensed Adept Perjed’s steely glare and shrugged. “What would you have me do, Lortuen? Organise a revolution? We are surrounded by an enemy army, and I don’t think we’d last too long if it came down to a fight.” “It doesn’t matter,” pressed Lortuen. “You are the Planetary Governor and these men look to you for leadership.”

“These men?” hissed Koudelkar. “These men are Lavrentians, they think of me as little more than a puppet ruler that they’re here to watch as much as to serve. They don’t need me for leadership, but if you want to foment rebellion, then go ahead and die for it.”

116

“A man should have the courage to die for what he believes is right, and fighting

these aliens is what’s right.” Perjed waved a liver-spotted hand at the tau warriors. “We don’t know what’s going on beyond Praxedes. By sitting here and doing nothing, more and more of these abominable Fire Warriors might be freed to fight on the front lines.

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