Yarrick: The Omnibus by David Annandale

Author:David Annandale
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-08T09:22:56+00:00

2. MANNHEIM

The Claw of Desolation had smashed Armageddon’s orbital defences. Some remote augurs still circled the planet, though. What they could transmit of events on the planet’s surface was fragmentary. It was tactically insignificant. But the death of Tempestora registered. The fire was visible through the atmosphere as a bright red wound. Mannheim saw the picts in the command centre of the Legio Metalica. He stared at them while he spoke with Brenken over the vox. He transferred them to his data-slate and kept looking at them as he made his way to von Strab’s quarters. They were an obscenity. One that could have been avoided. They must be the goad to preventing other disasters on this scale.

He carried his data-slate because he would not allow von Strab to look away from the results of his military leadership. Mannheim knew the overlord would have seen them. But there would be refuge in a pretence of ignorance.

Von Strab had turned his throne room into a centre of operations. Lithographic tables radiated outward from the throne. Rows of pict screens had been installed on the periphery of the chamber. The hive governors were in attendance, as were the Steel Legion’s regimental colonels and General Andechs. The room buzzed with debates and arguments. Ingrid Sohm of Tempestora, looking grim, was speaking with von Strab. The overlord had composed his face into a careful facsimile of sympathy.

Mannheim stopped beside Andechs while von Strab listened to the governor. The general stood beside the largest of the tables. A lithograph of the western region of Armageddon Prime glowed from its surface. It showed the latest reported position of the orks and the companies from Tempestora. The hive appeared as it had before the disaster. ‘This map is out of date,’ Mannheim said pointedly.

The general sighed. ‘We know.’

‘And?’

‘No one expected anything like this.’

‘We should have. Commissar Yarrick tried to warn us.’

‘I don’t recall his saying anything about the destruction of an entire hive by our own troops.’

‘Circumstances,’ Mannheim said.

‘Yes,’ Andechs conceded. His experience in the field was more limited than the princeps considered adequate for an officer of his rank, but it didn’t take many battles to appreciate the perversity of circumstances. It usually took only one.

‘Princeps Mannheim,’ von Strab called out. He left the throne and walked over. ‘Dark news from Tempestora, isn’t it?’

He did not sound concerned. Mannheim couldn’t tell if he genuinely wasn’t, or was keeping up a front of absolute confidence for the benefit of the other governors. Perhaps von Strab didn’t know either. Appearance became reality. The façade became the soul. Worry might imply doubt in his strategy, and that would be a sign of weakness. Von Strab had not shown weakness once in his adult life. Take note, Mannheim told himself. Be careful how you try to convince him.

‘Desperate measures, I agree,’ he said, even though von Strab had mentioned nothing of the kind. Mannheim hoped he could lead von Strab to a decision in such a way that the overlord believed it to be his idea.

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