It sniffed, drool leaking from its loose black lips.
Its coat was not short. It had no coat. Now they saw it properly, they realised it was just bare flesh. There were suture marks around the spine and some of the major muscle groups. It was skeletally canine, but had a human skull, with face attached, had been grafted onto the thick neck.
Its eyes were white and dead. It whined.
Vahgner killed it.
‘What the sacred feth was that?’ he asked Daur.
Vahgner’s blood spattered Daur’s face. The scout fell backwards, dead, his head destroyed by a las round.
Sons of Sek came out of the darkness past the body of their slain creature. There were a dozen of them, firing rifles and pistols.
Haller dropped his sweeper and reached for his rifle. A shot clipped his shoulder and threw him into the wall. Daur returned fire, cutting down two of the attackers with a fierce burst. Merrt fired almost instinctively, crippling a Son with a saline charge he had loaded. A second later, he felt searing pain. A sledgehammer of momentum hit him in the chest and knocked him over.
‘Get back!’ Belloc yelled. ‘Get him back!’
His flamer gouted a spear of flame down the passage, torching one of the Sons. The man lit up and ran, consumed with white flames, into the passageway wall. Belloc fired again, filling the passageway with a hot orange light. A shot blew his throat out in a spray of blood. He staggered backwards and a round went into his chest, another into his hip and a final one into his eye. He fell on his back, his flamer gasping and flaring spurts of untrained fire.
Haller got up, bleeding, firing his laspistol.
‘Get Merrt!’ Daur yelled. ‘Get Merrt! Drag him back!’
Merrt was staring at the ceiling, his eyes wide, his augmetic jaw opening and closing uselessly. His chest was a bloody mess.
‘Get him!’ Daur yelled. He turned to fire again, and las rounds found him too.
TWENTY-TWO
Departures
‘Ban! Ban!’ Haller yelled, firing wildly. He couldn’t even reach Daur. He could see that his friend had been hit badly. Daur wasn’t moving.
Haller also knew there was no way he was going to hold off a Sons of Sek assault on his own with just a pistol.
The enemy charged him. A piercing plasma weapon beam blew the leading officer apart. Lasfire ripped in, cutting down several of the others. The gunfire was coming from behind Haller. He ducked down. The las and plasma fire streaked over his head, punishing the Sons, driving them back down the tunnel.
Hark appeared, plasma gun in hand. The rest of the Strike Gamma detachment came up after him.
‘Emperor damn it, Haller,’ Hark said, looking in dismay at the fallen men. ‘Decide to start without us, did you?’
‘They just came at us,’ Haller replied.
‘Medic!’ Hark yelled. Dorden came forwards. He groaned sadly at the sight that greeted him, and knelt down to examine Daur and Merrt. Vahgner and Belloc were way past saving.
‘We can hear fighting up ahead,’ Haller told Hark. ‘Captain Daur was pretty sure that Strike Beta has engaged. It sounds like they’re in the thick of it.’
‘We’ll move up to support,’ said Hark. He looked at Dorden. ‘How long, doctor?’
‘Move ahead,’ said Dorden, busy. ‘I’ve got my hands full here.’
‘I’m not leaving you,’ said Hark.
‘Well, I’d also prefer it if you didn’t carry two critically injured men into a fight with you. Let me patch them up. If you can spare Haller, we’ll move them back down the tunnel as soon as they’re stable.’
Hark looked at Haller.
‘All right with you?’
Haller nodded.
‘Get them to safety,’ Hark said. He leaned closer to Haller. ‘All three of them, all right?’ he whispered.
He stepped back.
‘Well done,’ he said. ‘You’ve opened the way up for us. Strike Gamma? Ready weapons. Look lively! We’re advancing against hostiles.’
There was a clatter of weapons.
‘Forwards!’ Hark ordered. The troops began to file past. Hark looked back at Haller.
‘Get done here and get back. I’ll see you on the other side.’
‘Good luck, commissar,’ said Haller.
‘The Emperor protects.’
Haller watched as Hark’s force moved out of sight then he clambered over to Dorden.
‘Can we move them?’ he asked.
‘What’s wrong with your shoulder, Haller?’ Dorden asked.
‘It got shot. It’s nothing. Can we move them?’
‘Not yet. Maybe soon.’
‘Can you save them?’
Dorden looked at Haller. In the dim, twitching light cast by Belloc’s fallen flamer, his eyes seemed fathomless. He was exhausted. He couldn’t pretend any more
‘I don’t know, Haller. I can’t even save myself. Merrt’s chest wound is severe. His heart is damaged. Daur is… who am I kidding, Daur’s critical too. An infirmary is their best chance. An infirmary and a better medicae.’
‘You’re the best doctor w–’
Dorden shook his head.
‘Hush, Haller. I can barely walk. My hands are weak and clumsy. I am so tired and addled with pain-suppressing drugs I forget basic techniques. The ridiculous sentiment and affection of men like Gaunt and Hark has allowed me to continue serving long past my competence. I shouldn’t be here, Haller. Hark should have seconded a medic from the ship’s crew. He was humouring the last wishes of an old, dying fool.’
‘That’s not true,’ Haller replied.
‘Trust me, Haller. I forced my way into this because I wanted to matter one last time. I’m an old man and I should have known better–’
‘Stuff it. You know what you’re doing. All the while you’ve been spilling out that self-pity, you’ve been working. You know what you’re doing. Tell me what I can do. Compression or something. Let’s get them fixed and get them out. Now.’
‘We’re not going to hold them off much longer!’ Mkoll yelled, firing out of the college’s main hatchway.
‘I can see that,’ Gaunt replied, loading another clip of ammunition into his pistol.
Rawne appeared beside them, standing against the corner of the wall, firing his rifle. Las rounds whined past them or blew chrome punctures in the rusted metal.
‘This turned out so well,’ he murmured.
‘If we can break their onslaught, just for a few minutes, we can pull out,’ Gaunt said.
‘Have you seen how many of them there are outside?’ Rawne retorted. ‘It’s like the whole fething habitat is trying to kill us!’
‘Rawne’s right,’ said Mkoll. ‘If we’re going to break off, some of us have to stay here to cover the rest.’
‘No,’ said Gaunt.
‘Last ditch,’ Mkoll said.
‘Suicide Kings,’ said Rawne.
‘No. To both of you,’ snapped Gaunt.
‘Then this mission is going to fail,’ said Rawne.
The Sons of Sek threw themselves at the college precinct with renewed fury. They had brought up rockets, and heavier, crew-served guns. Gaunt tried to assess numbers through the smoke. Everything was about to end, and very rapidly.
‘Remember Tanith!’ a voice boomed across the concourse outside the college hatchway. Gaunt watched in disbelief as concentrated small-arms fire smacked into the Sons’ deployment from the right. Despite their superior numbers, the Sons seemed wrong-footed by the counter-assault. Half of their advance positions were suddenly exposed to the side.
‘It’s Strike Gamma!’ Varl yelled.
‘Daur?’ asked Gaunt.