V2 Chapter 90: Notification from the Salamanders
Marshal Slaydo did not leave his office immediately.
The encrypted communication from the Salamanders had been transferred by Macaroth into a sealed channel under Warmaster authority. The strategic holo-projection in the office dimmed briefly, and then a green sigil bearing the emblem of a fire drake emerged in the display.
The message was not long.
The Salamanders stated that through evidence in the Book of Fire, recent resonance from sacred relics, and certain sealed records within the warzone, they had confirmed the presence of an object in the Sabbat Crusade forces believed to be a Primarch's relic: a dragon-skull staff.
The relic was in all probability Entropy's Song.
Prior to the arrival of Salamanders representatives in the Sabbat Worlds, they requested that the expedition seal the relic properly: it was not to be disassembled, not to be submitted to a Mechanicus research array, and not to be committed to conventional battlefield use again.
They also conveyed their thanks to the expedition and to Colonel-Commissar Duvette Erdmann for recovering the relic from Chaos contamination, and indicated that appropriate recompense would follow.
The final line of the communication was brief.
The above noted, the Salamanders are on their way.
Slaydo finished reading and was quiet for several seconds.
The communication's tone could be described as measured. All three men in the room understood that the Salamanders possessed considerably more than a measured tone.
Slaydo turned and looked at Duvette.
"What do you intend?"
Duvette looked down and lifted the dragon-skull staff from his hip.
Entropy's Song remained silent.
"I never had any intention of keeping it." Duvette said. "It belongs to Vulkan. It belongs to the Salamanders."
He looked at the staff for a moment, then added: "The Salamanders are considerably more amenable toward ordinary humans than most Astartes Chapters. That does not mean they cannot be angered. And this is a relic left behind by their gene-father."
Slaydo gave a nod.
"Then you will hold it until they arrive."
Duvette raised an eyebrow slightly.
"I assumed you would have it brought into the Warmaster's armoury."
"And have the Mechanicus, the Inquisition, the Ministorum, and the Salamanders all watching my door?" Slaydo glanced at him. "Placing it with me only draws more hands toward it."
He walked to the desk and pulled up a new sealed order.
"Entropy's Song is classified at the expedition's highest level of restricted custody. Access is permitted only to yourself, personnel authorised by the Warmaster's office, and the Salamanders representatives upon their arrival. It is not to be disassembled. It is not to be examined. It is not to enter a Mechanicus research array."
Slaydo paused.
"It is also not to be committed to battlefield use again at your discretion."
Duvette allowed himself a short laugh.
"That last part, I would like to see in writing."
"It is in writing. This is the writing."
Macaroth recorded the order without comment.
Duvette hung Entropy's Song back at his hip.
"When the Salamanders arrive, I will meet with them."
"I will notify you the moment they do." Slaydo said. "Until their arrival, this matter is confined to the highest level of knowledge only."
He closed the Salamanders communication and reopened the Sabbat Worlds strategic map.
"You can return to finishing the Sveren clearance. Once the Rosewater Plague quarantine line in the rear stabilises and the supply nodes recover, we move against Balhaut."
Duvette looked up.
Slaydo's gaze settled on the point of light marking Balhaut in the projection.
"That is the most important engagement of this crusade's first phase. Nadzybar is there. He will not run."
The Marshal's voice dropped slightly.
"Kill Nadzybar, and the Sabbat Worlds will understand that the Imperium can win. The war will continue after that, but the enemy's spine will be broken, and what remains will be a body that can only twitch without direction."
Duvette gave a nod and rendered a salute.
"Understood, Marshal."
He turned and left the office.
When the armoured door closed, only Slaydo and Macaroth remained.
Slaydo looked at the door for a moment, then produced a short sound of quiet satisfaction.
"I was not wrong. He is a good blade."
Macaroth was quiet for a moment.
"A good blade can cut the hand that holds it, Marshal."
Slaydo drew the satisfaction back and returned his gaze to the strategic map.
"Then hold it properly."
---
Two weeks later, the Sveren campaign came to a complete end.
The void engagement above Sveren concluded with a comprehensive Imperial fleet victory.
With the traitor fleet entirely destroyed, the Imperial fleet reclaimed full control of the near-orbital delivery window. Mechanicus vessels and salvage barges began recovering debris from the battlefield, dragging the armour plating, plasma engines, and macro-cannon remnants of damaged warships into the Ark fleet's recovery arrays.
The Imperial fleet was already preparing to move to the next theatre of operations.
On the ground, organised Blood Pact resistance had ceased. The surviving remnants, underground strongpoints, and contaminated zones were handed over to garrison Astra Militarum, combat engineers, flamer crews, and Inquisitorial attached personnel for gradual clearance.
The Imperial standard rose again over Nev City.
The corpse pits inside the encirclement zone were still burning, and scattered gunfire continued from the ruins of Colchis city and the Lamerly assembly point. But for the expedition, Sveren had moved from a critical combat zone to a clearance and reconstruction zone.
The Krieg 1173rd Combat Group assembled at the temporary landing field.
Transports came down one after another. When the hatches opened, the Krieg soldiers boarded in silence and in order. Heavy greatcoats shifted in the wind. The eyes behind their gas masks remained calm. They did not mark the victory. They did not look back at the battlefield.
The order was to board. They boarded.
Duvette stood at the edge of the landing field and watched the force complete its withdrawal.
Not far away, Commissar Oscar Rein and Colonel Jurgen Holst walked over.
Rein looked somewhat better than he had in the preceding days. He still carried his data-slate, but the tension had gone out of his expression. He stopped in front of Duvette and extended his hand.
"A productive cooperation, Colonel-Commissar."
Duvette took it.
Rein glanced at the Krieg soldiers still boarding in the distance, then allowed himself a brief smile.
"You are a good commander. More precisely: you did not waste the Death Korps. That is a high commendation coming from me. I hope we have the opportunity to fight together again."
Duvette smiled. "That sounds like praise."
"It is praise." Rein said. "I have served with the Krieg long enough that occasionally someone needs to say something that passes for human. I have appointed myself to that role."
Colonel Holst spoke from beside him, his voice entirely level.
"Commissar Rein's rate of verbal output exceeds the combat group's average."
Rein's jaw tightened slightly.
"Thank you, Colonel. I will take that as a compliment."
Duvette looked at the two of them, and the smile became somewhat more visible.
"I suspect you have not yet looked at your data-slate."
Rein stopped.
"I have just finished writing my seventeenth anomalous observation report. If there is an eighteenth, I would prefer it has nothing to do with you."
Duvette did not answer. He simply looked at Holst.
Holst stepped forward, his voice unchanged.
"The orders have been issued. The Krieg 1173rd Provisional Siege Combat Group is to be formally established as a standing combat group and transferred into the Warmaster's direct special mobile operations group pre-order of battle."
Rein's expression finally changed.
Holst continued. "Before and after Balhaut, the unit continues under the tactical command of Colonel-Commissar Duvette Erdmann. Upon completion of subsequent appointments, the 1173rd Combat Group will form the core force of his mobile operations group."
Rein was quiet for several seconds. He looked down at his data-slate.
The new transfer order was already there, waiting. He had been processing post-battle reports and had not had time to check.
"Very well." Rein raised his head and looked at Duvette. "It appears the eighteenth report will be about you after all."
Duvette put a hand briefly on his shoulder. "I expect your anomalous observation reports will number well over a hundred before we are finished, Commissar Rein. We have a long stretch of service ahead of us."
Rein looked at the hand on his shoulder, then looked at Duvette.
"Then I should acquire considerably more record slates."
Duvette smiled.
Colonel Holst came to attention and rendered a salute.
"The 1173rd Combat Group awaits further orders."
Duvette returned it.
"They will come soon."
In the distance, another transport lifted off, carrying Krieg soldiers away from Sveren's surface.
Duvette watched it rise into the cloud layer.
Sveren was finished.
Balhaut was waiting ahead.
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