The armored convoy tore through the wasteland, throwing up walls of dust.
“We need to rally the stragglers fast — Thunder Warriors, Astartes, anyone still on their feet, get them to me.”
“Any mortal legionnaire who retreats without orders, execute the officers on the spot.
Get the routed troops assembled into a fighting force.”
“Odo, Rik, Sivar — the three of you are taking out that Reaper.”
Malak glanced over at Bonar.
It was his first time going into battle, and he was carefully checking his weapon.
“Bonar, stay by my side when we get there.
No wandering off.”
“Understood.”
Bonar looked out the window.
Refugees were streaming past with their families and whatever they could carry.
Military police fought to hold the flow in check.
If they failed here, the rear supply center would be left completely exposed to the enemy’s advance.
The forces at the front would run short of ammunition and food, get caught in a pincer, and the Imperium could lose vast swaths of territory in one blow.
No wonder his father, normally so even-tempered, had lost his temper so completely.
The transport ground to a halt.
The Adeptus Custodes hit the ground running the moment they dismounted, leaving Malak and Bonar behind.
And the ever-silent Sisters of Silence, of course.
The routed soldiers stared in bewilderment at this group that had appeared out of nowhere.
Nobody seemed to know what to do.
But a great many people were still fleeing in a frenzy, desperate to outrun the artillery fire drawing closer by the minute.
Despair was the dominant note here.
The war had already broken their courage.
But Bonar had no intention of using fear to rein these soldiers back in, that was just trading one extreme for another.
Malak had barely started thinking about restoring order when he noticed Bonar had already climbed onto the roof of the transport.
“Soldiers!
Is this really how you run — like this, in such a wretched state?”
“You think if you slink home and pull the covers over your heads, the enemy just won’t come knocking?”
“Do you want to go back to the precarious lives you had before?
Living in fear that someday gene-modified soldiers and bio-enhanced warriors will smash through your doors and take everything from you?”
Bonar’s words seemed to land.
Soldiers stopped in their tracks, staring blankly up at the white-robed figure.
“Right now, the Emperor of Mankind is behind us.
Your families and friends are behind us.
If we fail, the enemy will herd us back like strays driven from the wilderness, and they will carry that defeat all the way to the Emperor himself.”
“We must hold this line and buy His Holy Majesty three days.
I cannot promise any of you will survive.
I cannot promise your names will be remembered.”
“But I can promise that your families, your friends, they will get to live.
To live as human beings.”
“Who stands with me!”
“I DO!”
A single common soldier raised his rifle and bellowed.
“Who will live and die with me!”
“I DO!”
A crowd of soldiers raised their rifles and roared.
“Who will die for the Imperium alongside me!”
“I DO!”
Everyone was screaming.
The soldiers charged howling back toward the front.
Many of them tore off their dog tags and shoved them into the hands of the nearest military police, leaving the bewildered officers standing there clutching armfuls of tags.
Malak stared at the figure on the roof of the transport.
For reasons that defied explanation, he thought he caught a glimpse of His Majesty’s shadow.
“The little one has grown up,” Malak murmured.
The troops who had broken from the front lines just moments ago spun around and threw themselves back into the fight, holding firm against the enemy’s assault with a ferocity and conviction that was almost terrifying.
The Astartes and Thunder Warriors who had been barely hanging on finally got a moment to breathe.
Under the Adeptus Custodes’ organization, they were broken into combat squads.
The defensive line, teetering on the edge of collapse once again, was stabilized.
The Nordics’ assault stopped.
They left behind a ground littered with corpses.
Malak quietly poked a head out to check the now-quiet front, then pulled back just as fast.
“Uncle Malak, have they pulled back?” Bonar was sorting through the ammunition he had just picked up.
“They’ll come again soon.
This was only the vanguard.”
Malak looked at the kid.
“Are you afraid?”
Bonar shook his head and tucked three grenades into his harness.
“What about you, Uncle Malak?”
“I lost the ability to feel fear long ago.
The only thing I dread is failing the duty His Majesty has given me.”
Seeing the puzzled look in Bonar’s eyes, Malak raised the guardian spear.
“If anything happens to you, His Majesty will flay me alive.”
Not that the odds were bad, there were a full three lines of defense ahead of them, nearly a thousand Astartes and Thunder Warriors and countless mortals holding the ground, and the Emperor had provided no small number of life-saving items on top of that.
But even if every last one of them died here, the Sisters of Silence still had to get Bonar out alive.
Finally, the air began to tremble.
Then fire rained from the sky, as though a supreme goddess were pouring flames down upon the earth.
Malak moved smoothly to shield Bonar and let the ground ahead shudder and heave.
A dozen or so mortal soldiers screamed and bolted from the trenches, clutching their bleeding ears.
Heavy artillery shells smeared them across the dirt a moment later.
But over the horizon came the roar of engines and a mass of figures pushing forward.
Those lunatics were charging straight into the barrage.
Weren’t they afraid of blasting their own people apart?
Bonar thought they seemed utterly unhinged.
Their own comrades were being torn apart by artillery fire, and not one of them flinched.
The Imperium’s forces pushed out to return fire, but the mortal soldiers could barely hold themselves steady amid the earth-shaking bombardment.
Only the Astartes and Thunder Warriors could aim with any accuracy.
But still…
Bonar watched a Thunder Warrior roaring at an Astartes recruit beside him, he had no idea what about, then saw the Thunder Warrior kick the Astartes flat onto the ground.
Emmmmm.
It seemed these Astartes still had a long road ahead of them.
The enemy came howling forward.
Those lunatics didn’t even care that their own artillery was still firing, they came crashing through fire from both sides and slammed into the line.
There were a great many bio-enhanced warriors and Gene-warriors among them.
The cybernetically augmented soldiers of the Unification Wars era.
Take the berserk cyborg with twin iron pincers for hands.
He plunged into the trench and, soaking up fire like it meant nothing, effortlessly tore apart an entire platoon of Imperium soldiers.
Two Astartes charged in to bring him down.
They were beaten back quickly, even Bolter rounds seemed to have no effect on him whatsoever.
A Thunder Warrior joined the fight.
Under the three-way assault, the bio-soldier’s legs were finally shot out from under him, and he dragged himself forward on his massive iron pincers like a crab, still fighting.
It wasn’t until his skull was nearly pulped by Bolter fire that he finally went down.
The first two lines of defense were torn open.
The Adeptus Custodes holding the third line entered the battle.
The Custodes were formidable.
Those bio-warriors who seemed almost unkillable always crumpled under the Custodes’ precise strikes.
The Astartes were thrown to the front to plug the line, while the more powerful Thunder Warriors were dispatched to destroy the enemy’s armored vehicles, though few came back.
Even Uncle Malak went into the fighting personally.
But before heading up, Malak had given Bonar strict orders not to charge the front line himself.
The Sisters of Silence standing nearby watched Bonar in silence, making sure of it.
Bonar had no choice but to handle logistics.
Fortunately, years of studying under Grandfather Malcador paid off.
Bonar couldn’t manage logistics with anything close to Malcador’s flawless precision, but could at least ensure that every soldier got ammunition and food.
➤ Next: War Fortress