Knight of Talassar by Steve Lyons

Author:Steve Lyons [Lyons, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-01-17T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER IX

Dast had left the shelter of the command dugout.

He strode through the trenches purposefully. He had never seen them so devoid of life before. He had already passed three abandoned cannon emplacements.

The captain had dismissed him without argument or question, with barely a glance at him. He had been too busy counting the casualty reports.

As a commissar, he had been trained to be dispassionate. Sometimes, however, a feeling took him by surprise. Right now, he was feeling angry. He was keeping it in check, clenching his fists tightly.

He was looking for Sergeant Lucien. He was surprisingly hard to find, considering his size; he moved more quietly than Dast would have imagined.

At last, he caught a glimpse of shiny blue inside one of the enclosures. He stood in the entranceway and cleared his throat, calling attention to himself.

Lucien was lost in thought, or perhaps he was voxing orders inside his helmet. Dast didn’t doubt that his presence had been noted, however. He waited impatiently until the Ultramarine deigned to acknowledge him.

‘Sergeant,’ he said, crisply. ‘I hoped we could talk.’ What he had to say, he couldn’t broadcast, especially not where the captain could overhear him.

Lucien looked at him. His helmet rendered him expressionless, but Dast was more than used to that. ‘The battle is going well,’ he rumbled finally, as if that meant there could be nothing more to talk about.

‘For your Space Marines, perhaps. My regiment has lost a third of its strength, hundreds of men.’ Reports were still coming in from Krieg sergeants and quartermasters at the front, an endless litany of bloodshed in his ear.

‘Your soldiers fight with exceptional courage,’ said Sergeant Lucien.

‘They always do,’ said Dast, ‘even when they are sent to the slaughter.’

Lucien stepped towards him, but the commissar stood his ground. He had never seen a Space Marine up close before today, and it was hard not to feel small and vulnerable in their presence. However, he refused to be intimidated.

‘The Ramilies’s generators are failing,’ said Lucien. ‘Its shields have already collapsed in several key areas. We have silenced most of its guns – and all this was made possible by the sacrifice of the Krieg Korpsmen. Had they not drawn the orks’ fire as they did, then our tanks would have been–’

‘Your tanks could have bided their time,’ insisted Dast. ‘Your captain, Sicarius, only asked for a distraction.’

‘I saw a chance to do more,’ Lucien snapped. ‘Your captain offered me that chance. It was he who offered to send his men out there – I did not ask him. If you have a problem with his decision, you should take it up with him.’

He was right. Dast made himself breathe before he answered.

Before he could, there came a renewed peal of thunder from the east, and the vox-net was flooded with fresh incident reports. The orks had got their big guns working again – a whole battery of them – and shells were raining down around the Imperial forces. Perhaps, thought Dast, the guns were never out of action in the first place, and Khargask lured us into a trap.

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