Damocles Read online

  Shadowsun cancelled her order for reinforcements with a blink-push, her lips set firm. They would have to deal with this new foe themselves.

  At the lip of the ridge, her Sun Shark squadrons had rallied for another attack run. They were coming back in low over the wrecked Imperial gunships and the gue’ron’sha sheltering in their lee. One by one the Sun Sharks dropped more of their temporal anomaly bombs, each detonating with a shimmering burst of white light. In truth Shadowsun did not understand how the earth caste had devised such weapons – despite the fact she had slept in stasis herself for many long years – but their efficacy was beyond question. Oe-ken-yon’s telesensors blipped footage of a low blitz that force-aged each gunship’s wreckage into rusting scrap and left the warriors nearby as slumped skeletons inside yellowed suits of armour.

  Around her, six battlesuits shouldered their way through a smattering of pistol fire to converge on the leader of the gue’ron’sha force. Bolter fire thudded home, knocking two shas’ui off balance but failing to score a kill. The Crisis teams closed in, weapons raised. They formed a circle within a circle, converging upon the leader of the enemy riders.

  The air was suddenly filled with a crossfire of heavy-gauge bolts. They hammered through the air to burst like flak on the armour of the hovering battlesuits, some of them long-range fire from the advancing skimmers, others from the still-operational turrets of the downed gunships at the ridge. Both of Shadowsun’s forward Crisis teams were caught in the teeth of the double fusillade, jerked like the marionettes of a mad puppeteer as they were buffeted by the explosions. Two battlesuits were blasted limb from limb as they desperately tried to escape the lethal storm of detonations around them.

  ‘All teams rise, maximum thrust!’ shouted Shadowsun, a molten pool of anger burning in her stomach, ‘Get up high so the Broadsides can add their fire! Then re-engage!’

  Her battlesuit teams climbed into the sky, jetpacks heat-shimmering columns of air behind them. Shadowsun’s meteorological readouts spiked again, and the unnatural storm came in once more. This time it was more tornado than hurricane, a wall of angry wind and razored black stone.

  Shadowsun saw one of her shas’ui pilots caught by the wind, his battlesuit hurtled around by its uncanny forces and flung in a smoking tangle of limbs into a scree-covered ridge. Its ochre paint had been stripped away, leaving little more than a landscape of dented alloy and ruined circuitry.

  The black tornado whipped around the rallying bikers below, interposing itself between her battlesuits and their prey and moving eastward at speed. Several of her teams made to pursue, but the Imperial skimmers moved parallel, sending streams of explosive bolts towards any who got too close.

  ‘Leave them,’ said Shadowsun. ‘Disengage. Their mind-science must be studied before it can be effectively countered.’

  Golden assent signals blipped, though not nearly enough of them for her liking. Perhaps a quarter of her team-symbols had faded to the charcoal grey of death.

  Shadowsun surveyed the carnage left behind in the wake of the gue’ron’sha’s retreat. Sighing, she flicked through Oe-ken-yon’s footage of the battle in order to consolidate whatever knowledge she could at first glance. From above, the path of the gue’ron’sha’s mounted assault had formed two thick zigzagging columns that shot out from the frontal ramps of their downed gunships, then at the last moment fanned out in a wide delta formation to strike home. She was reminded of the lightning storms of Vior’la she had watched as a child – magnificent, deadly, and all but impossible to predict.

  A learning experience, then, and a costly one. A harrowing number of tau bodies lay scattered about the ridge, some cast from their skimmer cockpits, others dangling from the smoking tombs of their mangled battlesuits. Her frown deepened as she realised there was something wrong, something even more unsettling than the sight of so many tau dead.

  Though at least a dozen of the armoured bikes the Imperials used to such effect lay scattered and smoking in the shale, not a single gue’ron’sha body was amongst them.

  Interlude 1-0

  ‘- - - SO MANY CORPSES - - -’ the autotrans scrolled, its whisper-waveform jerking peaks and troughs. Shadowsun eye-flicked it off, and the buzzing in her head subsided a little. Yet it was still there, reminding her of the death, the blood.

  The symbol of the Supreme Ethereal blipped on her interior command screen for a second, and she transmitted a halt designation to her cadre.

  ‘Master Aun’Va, greatest respects,’ said Shadowsun, averting her eyes as the Ethereal Majesty appeared on her central screen. Even with her gaze cast down she could see his reflection on the inactive side of her battlesuit’s interior dome. A drawn, grey slab of a face with the wisdom of aeons etched into its angles. Aun’Va’s visage was framed by the Crown of Communities, the headdress that denoted the blessing of the entire tau empire. Shadowsun found her heart quicken in her chest at the thought that he was speaking to her, and her alone.

  ‘O’Shaserra,’ the projection intoned, his voice grave and resonant. ‘I hope your preparations are complete.’

  ‘They are, master,’ she replied. ‘Gue’la weaknesses are many, and easily exploited.’

  ‘Excellent. This world must fall, my child, and soon. The Greater Good demands it.’

  ‘Its demise is imminent, master.’

  ‘O’Shassera, did you just tell me the demise of the Greater Good is imminent?’ said Aun’Va, incredulity twisting his features.

  ‘No!’ protested Shadowsun, fear grabbing at her ribs with its cold claws. ‘No, of course not, master! The demise of Agrellan, I mean… I mean the Imperial forces upon Agrellan.’

  ‘I see. State clearly what you mean to say in future, child. There is no room for ambiguity in times of war.’

  ‘As you say, master.’

  There was a long pause, stretching out until it seemed to fill the battlesuit dome’s interior with suffocating silence. At times like this, she was very glad it was forbidden to meet her master’s gaze. She would rather have pushed hot coals into her eyes than witness his displeasure.

  Eventually Aun’Va spoke. ‘Am I to understand the gue’la military forces remain active?’

  ‘There have been… developments, master,’ she said, recovering herself. ‘Three lander ships escaped the air caste’s orbital cordon. A gue’ron’sha strike force, a gue’la regiment ship, and the Imperial force recently designated as House Terryn.’

  ‘Have they not been dealt with?’

  ‘We are whittling them down, master. Their reinforcements were unexpectedly… capable.’

  She appended Oe-ken-yon’s clearest sensor capture of the colossal walkers the Imperium had deployed at Agrellan Prime.

  ‘Whittling them down,’ repeated Aun’Va. ‘I see. So in fact you have failed to destroy them in the time frame allocated. In doing so you have allowed these… monstrosities to regroup with their gue’ron’sha allies.’

  Shadowsun said nothing, her eyes all but closed in shame.

  ‘Commander Puretide would be disappointed in your progress. The empire requires more than patience to realise its destiny.’ The Supreme Ethereal’s long grey lips turned down slightly, a pout of disapproval that Shadowsun realised she hated and feared more than anything else. Perhaps even more than the Traitor.

  The Supreme Ethereal paused, his hooded eyelids low and his large black pupils flicked back in brief meditation. His grey mask could well have been stone for all the life in it.

  ‘I shall be leading the final assault on Agrellan’s principal fortress,’ he said, returning to his former statesmanlike demeanour. ‘It is time the empire is reminded that none are exempt from strife in the name of the Greater Good. Not even those who watch over it. My ship is already inbound upon your position.’

  ‘But… Master, I…’ stammered Shadowsun, her mind whirling.

  ‘This shall occur. Within three ro
’taa this world will be given a more fitting name – Mu’gulath Bay, the Gate of New Hope. The empire’s assimilation of this mineral-rich region will continue apace. You have command of an entire coalition in order to ensure it. The matter of the military details I leave to you.’

  ‘Of course, master. It shall be done.’

  ‘I am sure of it. The earth caste have assured me their fusion array upon Agrellan’s moon is essentially complete. The planetoid is only a matter of decs from its orbital zenith. The water caste are already in influential positions within those hives that will provide us gue’ve’sa for the next phase of expansion. The air caste have ensured total superiority of transfer for my fleet. It is only the fire caste that slow the empire’s progress.’

  ‘That… that is my fault, master,’ said Shadowsun, her voice little more than a whisper. ‘I shall work all the harder, forgoing sleep to ensure my caste’s success whilst remaining at optimum operational efficiency. I shall adopt,’ – she took a shallow breath before saying it – ‘I shall adopt the strategy of Mont’ka.’

  ‘What you will do, O’Shaserra, is accompany me in the creation of a breach in the primary hive’s walls,’ said Aun’Va, his orb-like eyes wide. ‘This breach will be secured by a contingency cadre inbound on your position, details appended. There shall the killing blow land. I intend for the footage of our glorious military victory to be broadcast across the entire empire.’

  Shadowsun spared an eye-flick to scan Aun’Va’s transmitted append. ‘XV104s…’ she said, her eyes growing wide. ‘They are to be field-tested upon Agrellan, master? How many?’

  ‘A number sufficient to the task.’

  ‘Master Aun’Va, with these resources we shall create a legend here, that I promise you.’

  ‘Yes. I shall.’

  A moment of silence passed. Aun’Va nodded slowly, staring hard at her as if he was reading her thoughts.

  ‘Master…’ said Shadowsun, her voice catching.

  ‘My child?’ the Supreme Ethereal replied. His tone was tired, as if he knew what was coming next, and had nothing but contempt for it.

  ‘Has there been any word of Shoh?’

  The Supreme Ethereal’s grey lips grew thin.

  ‘Concentrate on the matter at hand, O’Shaserra,’ he said. ‘We shall speak of the Traitor soon enough.’

  The flickering firelight caused the shadows of the fur-clad Chogorians to dance across the circle of bikes surrounding them. Their powerful machines faced outward in every direction, ready for the White Scars to mount up and disperse at a moment’s notice.

  The khan’s warriors listened in attentive silence as he prepared to issue instructions for the next stage of the hunt.

  ‘Our quarry is cunning, and not to be underestimated,’ he began. ‘The xenos witch has had the better of us once, but will not do so again. At sunrise, we will–’

  Kor’sarro’s voice broke off as a faint silhouette began to take shape amid the darkness. As one, every White Scar aimed his bolter at the ebon figure’s head. The stranger did not flinch.

  ‘In the name of the Great Khan, identify yourself!’ roared Jebe, Kor’sarro’s company champion, as he unsheathed his sword.

  ‘Stand down, brothers,’ ordered the khan, gesturing to his men to lower their weapons. ‘I know him.’

  Kor’sarro Khan was aware of only one person in the entire galaxy that could infiltrate a Space Marine camp undetected. The khan’s warriors obeyed his command without question, though the scornful sneer he wore did little to ease the tension.

  Without a word, the newcomer reached up and unclasped his helm to reveal a narrow, pallid face beneath a veil of lank, black hair. It was Shadow Captain Shrike.

  ‘We meet again, Raven Guard,’ the khan growled. ‘What brings your kind here? Have you come to spill xenos blood or skulk in the shadows and leave the fighting to real warriors?’

  ‘My “kind” have been engaging the enemy in covert operations for ten days,’ stated Shrike. ‘We engaged the tau relief forces in the canyons either side of your position at Blackshale Ridge. Did you not wonder how you managed to escape the ambush against such odds?’

  The khan’s eyes narrowed at this, but Shrike continued before the White Scar could respond. ‘I bring orders from my master, Corvin Severax. This world is lost. The xenos forces arrayed against us are too great, and my scouts report that the tau are massing for a final assault.’

  The realisation of what Shrike was about to say hit the khan like a sledgehammer. ‘You wish us to retreat? Craven!’

  ‘Severax has assumed full command of all Imperial forces in this sector and has called for the evacuation of all military assets and personnel on Agrellan – including you, brother. Given our history, he thought it prudent you heard this from me. He knew these orders would not be to your taste. The Wings of Deliverance awaits us in orbit, and two Magnus-class drop-ships are berthed in the hive’s triumphal boulevard for transfer. You are to accompany me back to Agrellan Prime for immediate extraction.’

  ‘Then he was wise to send you and no other, lest I gut them for their cowardice,’ growled khan. ‘But if these are indeed my orders, then I will do my duty, even though it stains my honour. White Scars, we ride! See you in Agrellan or hell, brother!’

  ‘Hell awaits us all at Agrellan Prime,’ Shrike muttered grimly.

  The curving corridors of the Undeniable Truth were still haunted by the sterile tang of its production dome. Through the spaceship’s white reaches shuffled the squat-bodied, muscular shapes of earth caste scientists. Each of them paused every thirty steps or so, raising a flat grey wand and taking complex readings from the oblong viewing ports that soared up to the roof high above. So far, every one of the nova reactors nestled within the corridors’ inhabitants had been emitting ideal data.

  One of the earth caste scientists stepped up to the viewing port. Wiping the condensation from the plastiglass, he moved his face in close, looking up like a child who had been raised underground and brought out to see the night sky for the first time.

  An armoured colossus stood there in the near-darkness, its sensor-lenses pulsing gently in harmony with the terrifying potential energy at its heart.

  The XV104 Riptide – a hero’s mantle of magnificent and terrible beauty – was soon to be unleashed.

  Chapter Five

  THE GREAT HIVES

  ABSALOM CONTINENT

  AGRELLAN, 747.999.M41

  One by one, Agrellan’s great metropolises began to fall.

  The first to face Shadowsun’s impeccably planned onslaughts were the three hives of the Acacian Basin. This time the White Scars, after being humbled at the battle of Blackshale Ridge and ordered to retreat to Agrellan Prime, were unable to prevent the tau offensive that hammered out from each hives’ blind spots. With the main gun nests and artillery domes of each Acacian hive buried under thousands of tonnes of ferrocrete, Shadowsun’s cadres picked apart each mountainous city like razor ants dismantling the carcass of a dying grox.

  The Imperium was slow to learn from its mistakes, but it was not incapable. The war council of Agrellan Prime, forced to admit that the Acacian hives were as good as lost, resolved that those cities yet to be attacked would not be caught slumbering. They placed every hive on full alert, ensuring their artillery domes were manned around the clock and their vigilis-class servo-skulls were actively questing for signs of tau invaders.

  Imperial Knights strode around the fractured borders of each vast city, ready and eager for battle at a moment’s notice. In the meantime they turned their cannons upon those outcrops and spires that occluded the hive’s fields of fire, methodically demolishing them with melta blasts or the relentless pounding of battle cannon shells. Despite the evacuations preceding each clearance, many citizens were lost in the landslides of rockcrete that were created by each barrage. Yet as each hive’s cataracts were removed one by one, i
ts vision was sharpened once more, and the gold zones that Shadowsun had used to such effect in the Acacian Basin were eliminated.

  With the tau’s advantage of surprise spent in the initial phases of the war, Agrellan was ready and waiting for the next bout of bloodshed. A world given over to the production of war materiel was now armed and armoured to the hilt.

  Ultimately, it made little difference.

  Imortis Hive, whose outer walls were so thick that conventional bombardments were useless against it, fell to its own defences. Though dormant gravity mines studded the folds in its walls, each intended to drag enemies into a pre-prepared kill zone, their locations had been determined long ago. Even before she had made planetfall Shadowsun’s orbital scans had uncovered their unusual energy signatures. At their commander’s behest, tau ranged support cadres edged towards the hive and sent their nimble gun drones to make a simultaneous approach. Small enough to evade the auspice arrays of the monolithic structure, the drones closed in, disc-like beads on a gossamer-thin garrotte closing around the hive’s throat. The drones triggered every one of the mines in a single diving assault, and the resultant gravitic dissonance was so strong that, although the gun drones were crushed flat, the hive’s walls were made momentarily vulnerable by their own density.

  The cadre’s subsequent railgun volleys spread hairline cracks that turned to finger-wide gaps, then gaping fissures until the impossibly strong gravity fields tore the walls down under their own weight. Under the cover of the colossal dust clouds thrown up by the ruinous collapse, hunter cadres by the dozen powered inside, debarking from their anti-grav Devilfish transports to cut down the hive’s defenders in a merciless urban war.

  Gorvus Hive, the fiercest and most vigilant of all its kind, fell to the wiles of Shas’vre Drai. In the shadowy depths of the hive’s industrial layers, Drai’s chameleonic battlesuit teams were all but undetectable. Each stealth group fought its way through the territory of fierce underhive gangs and up to the sloping shoulders of the hive, emerging bloodied but undetected onto the artillery eyries overlooking the plains. The precision violence of their ambush cut down the crew of each artillery battery with ease, their fusion blasters reducing the Hydra flak tanks themselves to molten scrap.