V2 Chapter 119: Lena's Gift of Fate.
Duvette stood on the platform with his hands clasped behind his back and waited in silence.
He narrowed his eyes and looked down. The three Tanith regiments, which had been loud only minutes before, had gone quiet. Many of them were still looking at the sky, not quite returned from what they had just witnessed.
The governor stood to one side, his smile set and stiff. He did not know what the young Major General-Commissar intended to do next, and contented himself with keeping quiet.
Then dense footfalls came from the far end of the assembly ground.
"Move up! Move up!"
"Hold the line!"
With several sharp commands, three full-strength infantry regiments came in at a quick march from the distance. Measured footfalls struck the temporarily compacted earth with a solid, regular sound.
"Halt!"
The three regiments stopped at their designated positions on both flanks of the platform and across the far exercise area. Against the loose formations of the Tanith troops, these soldiers from the 112th Combined Battle Group looked as though they had been drawn with a straight edge: lines even, movements identical, regimental colours opening slowly in the evening wind.
Anderson, in his force-feedback power armour with the thunder hammer at his side, was the first to reach the ground directly in front of the platform.
He brought the thunder hammer down against the earth with a single heavy impact.
Anderson looked across the assembled Tanith recruits and allowed himself a brief expression of contempt. Then he turned to the platform and saluted sharply.
"Second Assault Infantry Regiment, assembled and ready!"
Elias moved out from the other side immediately afterward.
Also in force-feedback power armour and carrying a hellgun, his stride was measured and his face gave nothing away. He stopped at his position in front of the platform and came to attention.
"Third Assault Infantry Regiment, assembled and ready!"
Deputy Commander Dylan came last.
He brought the First Assault Infantry Regiment in from the remaining side, and the formation halted with almost no extraneous sound. The soldiers came to attention as one, weapons angled down, waiting.
"First Assault Infantry Regiment, assembled and ready!"
A brief silence settled across the assembly ground.
A short distance away, Rawne narrowed his eyes and said quietly: "What, are they going to put us down right here?"
Corbec gave him the hardest look he had and said nothing.
Rawne pressed his lips together and eventually went quiet. Larkin sat at the edge of his formation, holding his nalwood-stocked rifle, his eyes drifting across the armoured soldiers' helmets with an unfocused expression, murmuring something that no one next to him could quite hear.
On the platform, Duvette gave a nod.
He was satisfied with his veterans. These people had come with him from Farrak IV all the way to this ground, and they did not need additional orders. Standing there was enough. Standing there told the Tanith people exactly what a real Astra Militarum regiment looked like.
Duvette looked at the three Tanith formations, which had a certain restless quality to them.
From their expressions, these Tanith people had not been won over. They were swallowing their dissatisfaction and their words only because of the force arrayed around them.
Good.
They still had some fight in them.
Duvette allowed himself a short laugh, cleared his throat, and picked up the vox-caster again.
"Take a good look. These are the soldiers you will be operating alongside."
His voice went out across the assembly ground. "What follows is a large-scale joint exercise. The 112th Combined Battle Group, attached armoured forces, landing support units, logistics elements, and your three Tanith regiments, fifty thousand Imperial Astra Militarum in total, will be running integration operations on this planet."
A fresh wave of quiet talking moved through the crowd below.
Duvette made no move to stop it.
"You will be part of it." He said. "I expect that during this time you will begin to understand what you are fighting for. Before that, at a minimum, you need to learn how to stay alive, how to follow orders, and how to keep the person next to you alive as well."
Gaunt stood to the side and said nothing.
He watched Duvette, then looked at the three Tanith regiments below. He had already begun to sense that this exercise was not as straightforward as it had been presented.
Duvette looked up at the sky, which had gone fully dark.
Engine fire from transports still flickered in the distance. More temporary lighting had come up along the walls of Magna. The nalwood forest stood in silence around the clearing in the darkness, like something that would simply reclaim the ground when it was no longer watched.
Duvette set down the vox-caster and ended the assembly with a final order.
"Dismissed. That is your last eight hours of peace."
The moment the words landed, noise erupted across the three Tanith formations.
Officers began moving people back into their groups. Some rushed back toward camp to retrieve their kit. More of the Tanith soldiers muttered complaints as they went, while looking back over their shoulders at the 112th troops still standing in their unbroken lines.
Duvette and his three regiments watched them disperse.
Anderson turned his head and said quietly: "Boss. Those people are going to be difficult."
"That is why they belong to Gaunt." Duvette said without particular emphasis.
Gaunt, standing nearby, heard that. Something in his expression shifted slightly.
Duvette appeared not to notice, and kept watching the Tanith soldiers until they were gone.
There was not much time. This planet was not going to stay quiet.
In the forty-eight hours that followed, the 112th Combined Battle Group established temporary billets near the major settlements of Tanith.
The first phase of the transport landing drills was completed without incident. Large numbers of personnel, armoured vehicles, supply containers, communications arrays, and field medicae stations were deployed to Magna, Attica, and several pre-designated positions near the forest edge.
On its surface, this was an integration exercise between the expedition and Tanith's newly raised regiments.
In practice, Duvette had used the exercise designation to put his alert perimeter, withdrawal points, landing zones, supply nodes, and anti-aircraft positions exactly where he wanted them.
At this moment, he was inside a temporary medicae tent, looking at Lena.
Evan's younger sister had grown considerably. Her face still carried something of a girl's quality to it, but she was considerably steadier than she had been, and in the medicae uniform she was nothing like the small girl who had once needed to stand behind other people. A number of soldiers from other units had been finding reasons to pass near the medicae tent to get a better look at her lately.
Evan, of course, was not someone to take lightly.
And with Lena's status as a medicae, those particular soldiers were probably not going to have an easy time of things.
Right now, Lena's small round face was creased with effort. She sat in a field chair with both hands clenched tight on the hem of her uniform, fine sweat already at her temples.
Duvette did not hurry her.
Armoured vehicles moved past outside the tent. Soldiers called out drill commands in the distance. Lena seemed to hear none of it. Her eyes were shut, her breathing coming faster.
She could see burning sky.
Transports falling into the nalwood forest. A vox channel where a voice kept repeating that enemy warships had translated from the Warp. The images were fragmented and disordered, as though they had been pressed into her head without her consent.
A moment later, Lena's eyes opened.
"Commissar. They're coming soon!"
Duvette looked at her.
Lena's colour had drained somewhat, but she was considerably steadier than she once would have been. She did not cry out. The residual impressions from the psychic vision did not send her spinning out of control. She simply worked to get the words out.
"Soon." She said quietly. "I cannot see the exact time, but it will not be long. They will come. I am certain."
Duvette rested a hand briefly on her shoulder.
"Well done. Go and take care of your patients."
"Yes, sir."
Lena rose, saluted him, and immediately moved to the far side of the medicae tent, where several soldiers who had taken minor injuries during the exercise were waiting.
Duvette watched her go and let out a quiet breath.
She was less warm with him than she used to be.
There was something mildly dispiriting about that, for someone who had watched a small girl grow up and served in something like a guardian's role. But then, looking at what she had become, that five hundred Emperor's Wrath had clearly not been wasted.
He had upgraded Lena's gift specifically to confirm the critical timing of the Tanith operation.
[Echo of Fate]
[The holder can perceive, in a blurred fashion, the fate of one specifically designated target or event. The result obtained cannot be altered by any means. Overuse will cause mental fatigue, nosebleeds, auditory hallucinations, temporary blindness, and increases the risk of attention from Warp entities.]
[Do not look too long, child. The abyss of fate looks back.]
With Lena's result in hand, Duvette finally allowed himself to settle.
The thing he had feared most was that he would complete the exercise, withdraw the fleet, and have the Chaos warships arrive at their leisure afterward. If that happened, every arrangement he had made would become pointless.
It appeared that fate was at least offering him the timing he needed.
Duvette left the medicae tent and returned to the temporary quarters.
Tanith's night was still humid and oppressive. The surrounding nalwood forest produced a constant low sound. Searchlights swept across the treeline in the distance, and several 112th sentries were checking the newly placed sensor arrays.
He found Gaunt standing beside a transport vehicle.
The young Commissar looked tired in a way he was clearly not going to acknowledge. Even so, his uniform was impeccable, and his sidearm was where it always was.
Duvette paused, then walked toward him.
Perhaps because of the tiredness, Gaunt did not notice him until he was close, and turned immediately to salute.
"Major General-Commissar."
Duvette waved it off. "How is it going?"
Gaunt knew exactly what he was being asked.
He was quiet for two seconds, then allowed himself a dry smile. "These... Tanith people are genuinely difficult to work with. They have real talent. Their directional instinct and forest movement capability are outstanding. But discipline is going to take considerable time."
A faint look of sympathy crossed Duvette's expression.
Three Tanith regiments. Several thousand undisciplined forest soldiers. Getting them into anything resembling a deployable Imperial Guard formation was genuinely going to be a difficult task for Gaunt.
He clapped him on the shoulder.
"Don't worry. You'll have an opportunity to work it out sooner than you think."
He paused, then said it once more.
"Soon."
Gaunt looked at him, and found himself thinking that those two words had not sounded much like reassurance.
If you're enjoying the story, toss a Power Stone or drop a review — it helps more than you'd think.
Advance chapters → patreon.com/Eatinpieces