Secret War: Warhammer 40,000, Ben Agar [list of ebook readers .txt] 📗

sickeningly weaved to Karmen, still supine in the medical, then to Adelana, and I wondered if her working day had started yet.

"Exactly," said Brutis. "You're as sharp as a power blade, aren't you? If we could hold off the Space Marines there for long enough, it might delay the Exterminatus allowing more to escape."

I hissed through clenched teeth. "Let's just hope that they don't have much intelligence on the tower, but...but I'm frigging sure they do."

"Why?" asked Jelket.

"There was a spy," I answered with some hesitation. "A double agent working for Edracian, he could've supplied the Inquisitor with a schemata, anything. Which in turn could've been sent by Edracian to Torathe."

"Who was it?" growled Roldar, his expression uncompromising.

I sighed and scratched the back of my head; I saw no reason to lie.

"It was medicae Feuilt."

Roldar's eyes widened. "Feuilt? A spy? You shittin' me? That guy seemed out of touch with everything."

I didn't say anything as the corner of my mouth twitched; that was all part of the ploy, I thought, and I could see by their expressions, everyone else was thinking the same thing.

"I'll vox ahead," said Helma, breaking the brief silence. "Inform base of what's ahead, I uhh, should I...?"

Helma trailed off in her sentence and gave Brutis an uncertain look.

"Should you what?" asked Brutis.

"Should I inform them of how we're against Space Marines?"

"No," said Brutis without hesitation. "Not until it's utterly confirmed. Also, cancel my instruction to destroy that building and extricate your men ASAP. Verenth, Selg, gather the rest of your men; they will need to go to Taryst's tower as well."

Brutis turned to Helm. "We were enemies not long ago, but you must trust them. You must give them as much clearance in that place as you can. If you're going to stand even a tiny chance, you'll need to co-operate. Co-operate like the world's going to end, which it is. You got that?"

Helma gave him a wide-eyed nod, I didn't know her well, but it seemed that not much could phase her. Inquisitor Brutis 'Bones' Tybalt was one thing that could.

"Excuse me, boss," said Verenth as Selg turned and began relaying orders into his vox link. "You said, 'your men' not 'my men.'"

"Yes, I did; I'm going to have to take my leave, Verenth, as much as it pains me to do it," Brutis looked to me. "They're no longer mine because they're yours now. Someone needs to get off this rock who knows about this, and I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

Much to my shock, tears suddenly welled in his eyes. "I wanted to bring you with me, all of you, once this was over. I have served in the Guard for many years and in the Inquisition for many years after that. But never have I met and worked with men so dedicated to the Throne and me. It still amazes me, when I first came to you, you were misfits, rogues, and criminals of the highest order. But I've always believed that almost anyone can be redeemed; anyone can turn their life around and become a better person that the God-Emperor would forgive them and protect them. It happened once to me, y'know? You have proven this to me, without a shadow of a doubt, Verenth, Selg, all of you. You would've been great throne agents, and I ask so much of you; I'm sorry. I do not want to leave, but there is a bigger picture and..."

Brutis trailed off in his sentence as Verenth placed a hand on his shoulder.

"No, don't apologise, boss. I already swore I'd serve, and only in death does duty end, right?" said Verenth. "I've not been a good person, boss; I've done a lot of bad things, sure much in the name of survival, but still, bad. My life isn't worth much, but if I die so that one innocent, one good person can live even a second longer, it's worth it. Thank you, boss, thank you for coming to us offering redemption and giving us purpose, purpose truly worth fighting and dying for."

As I stood, listening in utter awe, at Verenth's mention of 'one innocent, one good person', I instantly thought of Adelana, the utterly beautiful inside and out girl that really, truly didn't deserve to die. Then I thought of the similarity between Verenth and me and the other Hammers, that we were of the lowest of the low but now were given the opportunity to do more, to be more. A purpose. Brutis' words also reminded me of Faleaseen's earlier speech; it struck me with its similarity.

I then realised that this was true camaraderie, that Brutis Bones was a great man, a great leader. One worthy of legend. This was the way to lead. A way which I swore I'd adhere to, I didn't believe I could be even slightly on par with Brutis,' not even in a thousand years, but by frig, I'd try.

Brutis Bones nodded and clamped Verenth on the shoulder, the tears now freely flowing.

He made the sign of the Aquila and said, "You honour me, Verenth, thank you. Thank you, all of you. Verenth, you're in charge; I know you're more than capable of handling it. Tell them, tell them what I'd just told you; I'm afraid if I see any of them, I won't be able to leave. The Emperor protects, now I must gather my belongings and take my leave. Vox me when you get more info on the invaders, Arlathan. If they're Grey Knights, I'll tell you what I know."

Arlathan nodded.

And with that, Brutis turned and walked away, and I was confident I'd never see him again.

"Wow," said Jelket in awe. "If only Taryst had been like that."

"Alright!" snapped Helma, knocking me and everyone else back into reality. "Enough, time-wasting! Hurry it up! We've got a planet to save!"

Chapter 29

We quickly piled into Arlathan's command truck.

"Golyat!" Arlathan said. "Get us to Taryst's, quick smart!"

"Yes, sir," said the driver, and very soon, we were out of the courtyard and into the streets. The klaxon warbled insistently overhead.

"Roldar, Jelket, you're ex-guard," said Helma, after a while. "Either of you ever fought with Space Marines?"

Roldar and Jelket, who sat next to each other, exchanged glances.

"No ma'am," said Roldar, "and neither did Jelket here, captain. As I'm sure, I would've heard about it a thousand times now."

Jelket nodded in agreement; then, a second later, he gave Roldar a glare when he got it, which made me smile despite myself.

Helma rolled her eyes. "Either of you ever knows anyone in our ranks who has?"

Again they shared a glance before Jelket said, "no, there again, ma'am, sorry. Why are you asking?"

Helma sighed. "Y'know, because they will know about what we're up against, so be able to give us info on it. Seriously? Did your mothers drop you on your heads when you were babies?"

"Uhh no, ma'am," said Jelket. "With respect, ma'am, if I'd fallen on my head as a babe, I wouldn't be tenth at the range and wouldn't have figured out Taryst was dead before Brutis even told us."

Helma furrowed her brow. "And how did you figure that out?"

Jelket shrugged and pursed his lips. "Just thought about it, is all, ma'am."

Helma furrowed her brow even more and scratched her jaw. "I don't get; how can you be smart enough to figure that out but dumb enough not to get why I asked if you'd served with Space Marines?"

Jelket shrugged again. "I don't know, ma'am. That...was pretty obvious."

"Unless you're lying about it," said Helma suspiciously.

"No, he's not," sighed Roldar. "He's mentioned it a few times over the last few days. We thought he was being paranoid."

"I sort of have experience with Space Marines," I said hesitantly.

Helma's attention suddenly snapped to me. "Then spit it out! Anything's better than nothing, kid. Wait! Soon just from the propaganda booklets? Is it?"

"No," I said with a frown and a furrowed brow; why would I mention it if it was? I thought.

"That's alright, then," said Helma. "Just making sure, found out the hard way a long time ago that stuff was complete Grox shit. So tell me what you know."

I nodded. "When I was a teenager, my world was invaded by the forces of chaos. I..."

I paused. "I...I survived."

"Yeah, we can see that," said Roldar grinning, which elicited a withering glare from me, causing his eyes to widen, then look away.

Helma frowned and, with watery eyes, glared at Roldar too. "I understand, Attelus, please. Continue."

"I was far from the front lines when they arrived," I said. "Living In a refugee camp, so I never got to see them first hand. The Space Marines, the Dark Angels, but saw the fire trails in the sky of their drop pods. From what I'd heard, the war between the Imperial forces and the Chaos invaders was, until then, a stalemate. But once the Space Marines arrived, it was only a few weeks before the enemy ground forces were wiped out to a man, along with most of their invasion fleet."

Helma sighed and scratched her head. "Sounds about right, an entire planetary invasion force, completely devastated in weeks. What chance do we have?"

I opened my mouth to reply but stopped and shook my head instead, unable to think of anything to say.

Staying here was sure-fire suicide; I wasn't worried about me, we needed to escape, and quickly a plan began to form in my mind.

 

We sat in stoic silence as the van drove through the hive, the bleating claxons causing all traffic in our way to veer clear.

I leaned forward in my restraint belt and watched our advance through the front window as the driver skillfully manoeuvred through the convoluted, labyrinthine streets. We were only about forty-five kilometres or so from Taryst's tower, but by my calculations, it was going to take good three-quarters of an hour or more to get there, even at such speed and the traffic moving out the way. Time wasn't on our side, much to my teeth-grinding frustration.

We turned another corner onto a wide main thoroughfare; it was thick with traffic that struggled to make room for us, forcing the driver to weave through much of it.

Then I saw something that made me narrow my eyes; as the traffic cleared, I saw a figure, a good kilometre down the street, just standing nonchalantly in the middle of it.

Then he pulled out a grenade launcher.

"Shit!" I yelled. "Turn! Turn!"

But the driver couldn't, the traffic on our sides effectively locking us in a tight corridor.

"What?" demanded Helma. "What's going on?"

"Brace yourselves!" Yelled the driver. "And hold the frig on!"

As I thought he was rather redundant, I watched the figure raise his grenade launcher and saw the puff of smoke as he fired just before I pulled myself back.

I should've known this would happen, that Etuarq would have an ace up his sleeve.

The explosion took out the front wheels, throwing the van violently onto its back wheels, tipping us a good thirty degrees into the air. We were abruptly rocked sidewards in our restraints, and I heard sharp screams.

After what seemed like forever, the van finally smashed back forward, the impact sending waves of agony up my spine, which caused it to bounce back up again but only for a split second as the front landed and screeched;