Dark Hunters: Umbra Sumus

‘I never knew that ice could catch fire,’ he said, and his words betrayed some of the wonder that remains in the neophyte. There is still a little of humanity’s weakness and credulity even in those of us who are close to attaining the full brotherhood.

But as I turned to look at his face, I will admit that I felt some of that same wonder myself; I, Mauron Aekin, who has walked and bled upon worlds without count.

Brother Rausa caught my stare and frowned. He bent in the trench and retrieved his helm. The starlight caught the dark lenses, each a momentary, tiny universe in itself. Then he set it upon his head and became faceless, one battle-brother among many others.

‘The plasma cannon it bears will burn up anything. It will make magma out of solid stone. What you see is the glare as it engages our forces on the glacier, brother.’

‘Yes, brother-sergeant. It is just…’ Again, that human hesitation. ‘I have never seen a Titan in battle before.’

I grunted at that and stared out across the icefields again, blue under the stars, winnowed by a chill gale that sped drifts of granular snow across it in bitter clouds.

‘Not many have.’

Perhaps some thirty kilometres away, in the foothills of the mountains, there burst and flared a light show fit to make shame of any planetary aurora. Bolts of yellow, red and green snaked through the thin atmosphere. Flashes went up and died. And in their wake, there carried across the intervening plains a low rumble, like the ominous chuckle of some twisted god.

Mortai Company was out there now, fighting the desperate fight, dying for their brethren in the other companies. Buying time with Adeptus Astartes blood.

Aekin bowed his head a moment, thinking of his friends in Mortai. Already, the Dark Hunters Third Company was coming to be seen as unlucky. The Fated Ones, they were called, and they seemed to take a grim satisfaction in the title.

Throne watch over them, he prayed silently. Let their deaths be worthy.

A vast, horizon-spanning flash of light sprang up for a second and then died almost as instantly. There was a bright glow that smouldered under the stars. The light show abated somewhat.

‘That was the end of a Titan, or I know nothing,’ Aekin said softly. Seconds later, they heard the dull roar of the explosion, and a wind went past them, lifting the snow into the air to shroud them in dancing ice crystals.

‘No Warhound either. That was a Reaver, maybe even a Warlord. Rausa, what of the auspex?’

His fellow Space Marine was already consulting the device, its green light flickering upon him, like sunlight seen through deep water.

‘So much interference it’s hard to say, brother-sergeant. But the base readings have dipped. I’m seeing lower energy levels.’

Aekin blinked on the Chapter-wide vox. ‘Mortai, this is Ansar. Report, brothers.’

Silence, then a brief garbled crackle, then more silence.

Aekin’s face tightened. His lips drew back from his teeth inside the beaked corvid helm. He blinked up the Company vox.

‘Brother-captain.’

‘Report, Aekin.’

‘Large detonation in Mortai’s lines. Possible Titan destruction. Vox with Third Company is difficult to impossible.’

‘I read you, Aekin. Hold position.’

He wanted to say more, to ask his captain for a portion of the bigger picture, but he knew better. The vox was not for gossip, or facile enquiry.

‘Acknowledged. Aekin out.’

‘This is the Haradai’s task we are fulfilling here,’ Brother Rausa said, staring out at the dying apocalypse on the horizon. Impatience and a kind of doubt coloured his tone, even over the medium of the vox.

‘Our brethren in the Scout Company are either dead or scattered all over the glaciers to the south, keeping watch, brother. We fulfil our orders, and we do so without question, complaint or query. Do I make myself clear, Rausa?’

‘Perfectly clear, brother-sergeant.’

‘You are a neophyte, brought into the line companies ahead of your time because we are cruelly understrength. This is your chance to redeem that act of faith. Do not let me or Ansar Company down, Rausa.’

‘Never, brother-sergeant. I would rather die than fail my brethren and my Chapter. By the Throne I swear it.’

Aekin smiled a little at the heat in the young Space Marine’s voice.

‘Would you like to speak to Brother-Chaplain Nurif?’

‘That will be not be necessary, sergeant. His sermon on leaving the fortress was inspiration itself.’

They watched the horizon again, concealed in the trench that they had scooped out of the ice and stone with their own hands. There was no room to turn around in it, and their jump packs were on the lip of the trench behind them, concealed in a mound of snow.

Rausa is right, though, Aekin thought. This is no job for Assault Marines. But when war explodes out of a clear sky, and the Chapter is caught as badly by it as we have been, then many compromises must be made.

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