Ventanus tries to focus. He tries to get into theoretical so that he can assist the strategy planning. He tries not to dwell on the practical that over one hundred thousand Ultramarines may already be dead. Dead in just a few hours. It is the greatest Legion loss in history, by an appreciable margin.
‘How do you contact them?’ Selaton asks, suddenly.
‘I beg your pardon?’ replies Tawren.
‘You said the skitarii numbers are increasing as you contact other survivor groups. How do you contact them? There is no vox.’
‘True, but the skitarii have a dedicated emergency manifold, a crisis back-up,’ says Tawren. ‘Arook has switched to the reinforced, military code system of his brigade. The range is limited, but secure.’
‘You have limited secure comms?’ asks Ventanus.
She nods.
‘I need to contact Legion Command,’ he says.
‘Not possible,’ replies Arook. ‘We have no orbital links.’
‘Then I need to contact my company,’ Ventanus counters. ‘There are skitarii units stationed with the Mechanicum support at the Erud muster. I need to contact them.’
‘Erud Station?’ Arook echoes. He glares his red eyes at the server. One of them flickers on and off, sporadically.
‘Of course,’ she says.
Ventanus slots open the cuff of his armour, and lights up a small hololithic chart. He scans the terrain, zipping back and forth. Selaton looks over his shoulder.
‘Theoretical,’ says Ventanus. ‘If we can get the muster moving, we could coordinate a rendezvous. Somewhere here. On the Plains of Dera. Zetaya, perhaps.’
‘It’s defensible, but open to the west,’ Selaton points out. ‘Lernaea might be a better choice.’
‘They’d be too exposed crossing the valley floor,’ says Ventanus. He alters the projection.
‘What about Melatis? It’s got a good position, and it’s agricultural. With fortune on our side, it won’t have been hit in the first strike. Not an important enough asset.’
‘Fortune does not seem to have been on our side much so far today, captain,’ says Selaton.
‘What are you talking about, Kiuz?’ Ventanus snaps. ‘We’re here, aren’t we?’
He turns to Arook and Tawren.
‘When you establish contact, I can give you an authority code to identify me. Try to find out who you’re talking to. Ideally, Captain Sydance or Captain Yaulus. I need them to advance any units they have to Melatis on the plains. I’ll meet them there.’
‘You intend to go overland to Melatis?’ asks Tawren.
‘Yes,’ says Ventanus simply.
‘It is probably an over-ambitious goal,’ she says gently.
‘Severe bombing north of the river,’ says Arook. ‘They’ve taken out the highway. The enemy is also massing engines along the Neride Wall.’
‘Titans?’ asks Ventanus.
Arook hesitates.
‘It shocks me too, sir,’ he says stiffly. ‘I have no idea how any Mechanicum engine could have been so miserably corrupted. Loyalty and devotion seem to be in short supply at this hour.’
‘Leptius Numinus,’ says Tawren.
They all look at her.
‘The old gubernatorial palace, on the plains,’ she explains. ‘It was high on my list of potential destinations. The palace has a non-active but functional data-engine, as well as a high-cast vox array. Neither are operational when the governor is not in residence, but they are maintained. I was hoping that, because both systems were off-line, they might have been spared scrapcode infection and electromagnetic damage.’
‘We could contact the fleet?’ asks Ventanus.
‘If we could make them work,’ she agrees, ‘we could contact the fleet.’
‘We’ve already identified Leptius Numinus as one of the most viable options,’ says Arook. ‘As an added advantage, the sub-ground network will make passage there easier than to any open target on the plains.’
‘Are they part of the Calth arcology?’ asks Ventanus. He recalls that significant systems of natural caverns lace the planet, and many are being developed as habitats. They are commonly used as population shelters when the local star undergoes its infrequent periods of maximum solar activity.
‘Not fully, a branch,’ replies Tawren. ‘The early governors created a secure underground link between the city and the palace.’
‘Military support from the XIII Legion at Leptius would be of great assistance while we begin our recovery program,’ says Arook.
He looks at Ventanus. That defective red eye glimmers. It fades out and in again. Ventanus can hear a burble of binaric cant issuing from Arook’s cybernetics.
‘I have made contact,’ he says. ‘I have a manifold link with Skitarii Commander Gargoz. Gargoz has your Captain Sydance with him.’
‘What is the situation?’ asks Ventanus. ‘Ask him what the situation is.’
There is a binaric crackle.
‘Grim,’ relays Arook. ‘The muster site has been bombarded. Many are dead. Very little survives in the way of vehicles or transports. Sydance reports that strengths from the Ultramarines 4th, and eight other companies, have managed to shelter at the Braxas Wall. Approximately seven hundred men. They are ready to move at your instruction.’
Arook looks directly at Ventanus.
‘Captain Sydance apparently wishes to emphasise that he is pleased to hear from you. He is pleased to know that you are alive.’
‘Tell him where we need them to be. Ask him to see what other forces he can mobilise. As muster commander, I am giving authority to the movement of troops. Ask him to send an arrival estimate.’
Arook nods and relays.
‘We will need a shibboleth,’ says Selaton.
Ventanus hesitates.
‘They have cracked everything. They’ve broken Mechanicum code,’ says Selaton. ‘Even our authority codes can’t be trusted.’
Ventanus nods.
‘Tell Sydance that he can only trust a message from someone who knows the number of the painted eldar. Tell him I will only trust the same.’
‘It is done,’ says Arook. ‘What does it mean?’
Ventanus doesn’t answer.
‘Tell him I’ll see him at Leptius Numinus in a few hours,’ he says.
4
Chapter Master Marius Gage hits the bulkhead and slides down it with a wet squeak, leaving a smear of blood.
The wound’s bad. Envenomed somehow. It’s actually beating his transhuman clotting factor. He can feel his body fighting the fever.
He can feel his mind fighting the fear.
It’s not fear of death or fear of pain. It’s not even fear of failure.
It’s the undermining disquiet of the unknown.
It’s what mankind had to overcome in order to come out of his cave, in order to set forth from his birthworld. It’s the thing mankind had to conquer in order to face down the xenos and the horrors that lurked in Old Night.
It’s the fear his kind was bred to lack.
It amazes him.
He thought he had seen everything. His career has been a long and successful one. His status as the first Chapter Master attests to that. He has been with the Ultramarines since the very beginning.
They are genetically adjusted to register diminished levels of fear response. They are psychologically programmed to eschew its weakness, to resist the critical and dismaying shocks that fear can induce. Part of that programming is to study every threat and hazard, every new xenos form and mutant, that the Imperium might encounter during its outward expansion. Nothing must come as a surprise. Every possible horror must be explored. They must be exposed to every new possibility. An immunity must be built up. A disregard. Some say this makes the Ultramarines seem callous, but it is only the same kind of callous that a labourer might build up on his hands through graft work.