“What action, Aun’el? The gue’la are attempting to evade.”
Ko’vash twisted briefly towards Shas’o Udas, who stood staring at the sensor chart with a calculating frown. “Shas’o?”
Lusha watched the general carefully, wondering what discipline he’d consider the most appropriate. He scratched at his chin.
“Ken’rai,” he decided. “Cut off the head, the body will die.”
Ko’vash nodded, pursing his lips, and turned back to the drone. “Harry the fleet, Kor’o. We’ll target the flagship ourselves.”
O’Men’he’s reply took a long time. Lusha imagined him aboard the Tel’ham Kenvaal, gaping at the brazenness of O’Udas’s plans.
“U-understood, Aun’el. For the Greater Good.” The console chimed again and the room descended into silence.
“O’Udas... Do we have sufficient manpower for this?”
“I believe so, Aun’el. The boarding shuttles are operational at least, so insertion shouldn’t be an issue... providing we can knock through the shields, that is.”
“Very well.” The ethereal turned to the console with a deep breath. “Sound the attack.”
<Tightbeam (multi-direction) commstream generation (0/543.h).>
<Carrier-code [Oscillate:54.4>127.22]. Priority-1. (0/550.q) Datastream transmission only.>
<Logging receipt...>
<All targets receiving. (0/553.d).>
<ALL FLEET CODE.>
<GENERAL HAIL. Suspend comm-traffic for durations.>
<Channels sustained.>
++Fleet, this is Admiral Constantine.++
++Do not, repeat, do not engage the enemy flotilla. Focus on the prize-ship. We must take the ethereal.++
[Admiral? Captain Brunt, Purgatus. They’re moving to intercept. Evasion’s not an option any mo—]
++Brunt — you’ll do as you’re told.++
[He’s right, admiral. Forsithe on the Baleful Gaze, here. Unless we engage now they’ll eat us alive.]
[You see?]
++There will be no discussion! We pursue the target vessel, as planned!++
[Sir — this is lunacy!]
++No, this is insubordination, Forsithe. I’ll have your head!++
[Admiral? Captain Tigarus. I’m afraid I concur with the others. We need to return fire.]
[We’re outnumbered two-to-one. Either we fight or we flee. There’s no way around.]
++The first commander that breaks from the chase will be court-martialled for flagrant sedition and executed!++
[Sir — the “chase” may be a moot issue... The prize-ship’s turning.]
++What?++
[By the throne... are they mad?]
++This doesn’t make sen—++
[They’re closing on the Enduring Blade, sir...]
[You may want to evade...]
++They can’t hope to outgun us... They’re mad!++
[They’re... Oh, Vandire’s teeth... They’re launching shuttles.]
[Admiral! They’re trying to board you!]
++They can’t. The shields will h—++
[Picking up plasma fire.]
[Living god! Look at that payload!]
[Terra’s bones!]
++Th... upid... can’t ho... n... astards!++
[Throne...]
++They’ve knocked out my shield! Assist! Assist!++
[I’m engaged. Can’t get away—]
[Oh terra! They’ve g—]
[Shuttles homing on you, admiral.]
[...ammit, the generarium’s brea—]
[...]
[Brace-brace-brace!]
[The Reverus has gone...]
[Sweet Emperor... They’re so fast...]
++Th... This is...++
++All vessels... All vessels engage and destroy!++
++Forget the bloody ethereal!++
++In the Emperor’s name, make them bleed!++
They called it se’hen che lel. Riding the lightning.
Kais had undergone training, tau’cyrs earlier in the battledome. He remembered the first time. He’d been heartily sick afterwards and was somewhat gratified to find his friends equally as green as was he.
The real thing was worse. Strapped into a one-tau pod like an insect moulded into a bullet, the shuttle tube was little more than a vast railgun: linear energies dragging the pod along a frictionless tunnel with a succession of sonic booms. The view through the small window above his face stopped making any sense as the pod’s velocity increased exponentially and the rounded struts of the tunnel became a single tawny-coloured smear. A vibration grew from nothingness into a dreadful quake, threatening to splinter his armour and turn his body to powder. He gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to cry out. Then the roar ceased, the blur of the tunnel was wiped away in a daub of star speckled blackness and he was streaking across the void.
“They’d tried to stop him. First Ju,” then the others in her team, then Lusha over the comm. He’d earned his rest, they’d said. There were more than enough shas’las for the assault. He’d done his duty. He was a hero. Let it be.
Then they’d grown angry, despairing of his obstinate refusal to rest. He’d been shot in the head, by the One Path. Even by the pragmatic unsuperstitious standards of taukind he was pushing his luck. Hadn’t he done enough?
No.
No, he had not. The trial wasn’t over. He felt it in his bones.
He must face the Mont’au devil again and again and again until he killed it or it became him. Then, he supposed, if he hadn’t died first, the trial would be over. So they rearmed and resulted, filled their packs with as much wargear as they could carry, distributed miniature kor’vesa slave drones, strapped each other into hypervelocity capsules and were unceremoniously blasted at the beaked vulture-shape that was the Enduring Blade.
He’d refused to take a new helmet, though he couldn’t exactly explain why.
The dud bolter-shell might detonate at any moment, he supposed, failed gue’la artifices fizzling to life and blasting his head from his shoulders. And, just as easily, he might detonate at any moment, the devil on his back reaching into his heart and snapping the frail chord leading to the tau’va. Parallels and echoes.
It was sentimentality of the very worst kind, and Ju had looked at him like he was insane when he refused the pristine replacement she offered him. It didn’t matter. This was his Trial by Fire and he’d deal with it in his way.
Alone in the capsule the silence was thick, like being suffocated in velvet. Peering through the maddeningly tiny viewport, Kais was barely aware of moving at all, let alone hurtling at dizzying speed. He wondered vaguely how many other shas’las streaked ahead and behind him, each one immersed in his or her own silent world of introspection and fear.
El’Lusha’s voice startled him, echoing across a multi-band channel.
“Shas’las? We’ve overloaded their void shields but they won’t stay down for long. Shuttle trackers have a lock on their juntas-side launch bays, so that’s your insertion point. Your first priority after splashdown is to knock out the hangar weapons and disrupt their shield generators in the long-term. After that, strategic boarding strategies apply Cripple the engines, capture the bridge, disable the weapons.
“The Aun’el offers his fondest regards and wishes you well in your endeavours. T’au’va be with you, line warriors.”
Before the comm-channel closed, Kais heard the quiet whistle of the bandwidth narrowing. “And La’Kais? Remember the machine.”
With that the comm died and the silence unfolded its wings around him. A bright row of characters at his side dimmed gradually, representing his approach to the target in a chorus of quiet chimes and light levels.
“Thirty raik’ans,” the capsule’s AI trilled. Kais swallowed.
Abruptly his view through the port window changed: the blackness of space was replaced by a ghastly facade of buttresses and spines, vast crenellated towers and spindly steeples, looming towards him. Perspective was impossible to judge; just as it seemed inevitable that he’d smash across the intricate cliff face his senses realigned to accommodate its despicable vastness. Every moment of diminishing proximity was a moment where its enormity became more and more apparent.