Graham McNeill - Courage and Honour

La'tyen's honour blade sliced across Koudelkar Shonai's throat at the same time as Learchus shot her in the head. The Fire Warrior pitched backwards, the top of her skull blown away, but it was too late for Koudelkar. Arterial blood sprayed, and Uriel rushed to the governor's side.

He knelt beside Koudelkar, pressing his gauntlet to the ghastly wound, though he saw that it would do no good. The governor tried to speak, his eyes desperate with the need for a valediction, but La'tyen had cut deep and his life slipped away before he could form any words.

Issam took Aun'rai by the throat once again, but Uriel shook his head.

'Let him go, Issam,' said Uriel. 'This changes nothing. Aun'rai and I have made peace.'

The Scout-sergeant reluctantly released the Ethereal, and Uriel saw that he was itching to avenge the death of the Planetary Governor.

'I did not mean for that to happen,' said Aun'rai. 'Truly.'

'I know,' said Uriel.

'La'tyen suffered terribly while she was held prisoner.'

'I do not doubt it,' said Uriel without apology.

Aun'rai shook his head at Uriel's apparent indifference. 'You are a doomed culture, Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines. You thirst for personal gain and glorification while your Imperium rots from within. Such a society cannot, ultimately, survive.'

'It has survived for ten thousand years since its inception,' pointed out Uriel.

Aun'rai shook his head. 'What you have is not survival, it is merely a slow extinction.'

'Not while warriors of courage and honour stand to defend it.'

'No such warriors exist amongst your race,' snapped Aun'rai. 'You are gue'la barbarians, and you delay the inevitable, nothing more. The frontier of our empire moves with the turning of the planets, and it will push you before it until there is nowhere left for you. Then your race will be no more. The frontier is for those unafraid to face the future, not for those who cling to a forgotten past. I am done speaking with you, Uriel Ventris of the Ultramarines, and if this war is over, then let me go.'

'When you order your forces to stand down,' said Uriel.

'It is already done,' replied Aun'rai.

The towering battlesuitstood immobile before them, its weapons poised to destroy them. Colonel Adren Loic stood tall in the face of the alien war machine, ready to face death with a comrade-in-arms and with his head held high. A crackling nimbus of plasma played over the muzzle of the long tubular weapon, and Loic hoped his end would be swift.

'What the hell are you waiting for?' shouted Gerber. 'Do it!'

'Shut up, Gerber,' hissed Loic.

The battlesuit didn't move, and only then did Loic notice that the sounds of battle had ceased.

The sky was empty of the continual rain of missiles, and the high-pitched electrical noise of their battle tanks' main guns was strangely absent.

Loic shared a sidelong glance with Captain Gerber. 'What the hell's going on?' he asked.

'Damned if I know.'

The silence enveloping the battlefield was unnerving and unnatural. Loic had lived with the continuously droning rumble of war for so long that he had forgotten what silence was like. He heard the soft sound of the wind passing through the bridge's suspension cables, the distant rush of the rivers in the gorges below them, and the eerie sound of a silent battlefield.

Guardsmen and PDF troopers were emerging from their dugouts and bunkers, shock and confusion at the sight of the unmoving tau army overcoming their natural caution.

Then the scarred battlesuit with the blue helmet and flaming sphere emblazoned on its chest took a step forwards, its weapons powering down with a diminishing hum.

Loic flinched, and Gerber reached for a sidearm that wasn't there.

The red lens of its head-unit whirred as it focused on them, like the microscope of an inquisitive magos closing in on a specimen dish.

'I am Shas'El Sa'cea Esaven,' said the battlesuit, 'Fire Warrior of the Burning Star Hunter Coalition.'

Captain Gerber made as if to say something hostile, but Loic shook his head. 'Allow me, captain.'

Loic pulled his bloody and torn greatcoat tighter, attempting to straighten it and make himself more presentable.

'I am Colonel Adren Loic of the Pavonis Planetary Defence Force.'

'You command these warriors?'

'I am one of their commanders, yes,' said Loic, turning to face his fellow officer, 'and this is Captain… er… I'm sorry I don't know your first name, Gerber.'

'It's Stefan.'

'And this is Captain Stefan Gerber of the 44th Lavrentian Hussars,' said Loic, smoothly returning his attention to the tau. 'What's happening? Why have you stopped attacking?'

'My forces are standing down and leaving this world,' said the tau commander.

'Why?' asked Gerber. 'You had us beaten.'

'I am withdrawing because I have been ordered to withdraw by Aun'rai of the Ethereal caste, and warriors from Sa'cea do not disobey orders,' said the battlesuit, turning and marching away.

'You mean that's it?' demanded Gerber. 'All this killing and you're just walking away as if it never happened?'

'The Ethereals have spoken, and for the Greater Good, I must comply,' said the battlesuit, though Loic could sense the deep frustration in its voice. Like any warrior, the tau commander wanted to see the job done. As the battlesuit commander reached the edge of the ruins, he turned to face them once more.

'You were correct, Captain Stefan Gerber of the 44th Lavrentian Hussars,' said the tau warrior. 'You were beaten, and when the tau return to Pavonis, we will beat you again.'

In the lastundulant slopes of the Owsen Hills, Lord Winterbourne watched through the vision blocks as the line of Hammerheads and Devilfish pulled back behind the ridge above his forces. The ferocity of the fighting had raged undimmed through the hills for days, and now, with Winterbourne on the verge of ordering a full retreat to Brandon Gate, the tau had ceased their assault.

'What the hell?' he muttered as the last of the tau spearhead vanished from the threat board.

'Sir!' cried Jenko. 'Vox-net has just cleared. I've got the captains of every Command on the horn trying to get hold of you! Every frequency that was jammed has just come back online!'

Winterbourne wiped a hand across his forehead, hardly daring to believe that the fighting might be over or that Uriel's plan could have succeeded.

'Any hostile contacts?' he asked. 'This could be a ploy.'

'None, sir,' confirmed Jenko, his voice rising with excitement. 'All tau forces are withdrawing further into the hills. They're going home! We saw the bastards off!'

Determined to see for himself, Winterbourne hit the hatch release and spun the locking wheel, opening Father Time's turret. He pushed his body upright, standing on his commander's chair as he looked along the line of dug-in tanks and fighting men of Lavrentia.

His fellow tank commanders had popped their hatches, and were watching in disbelief at the empty, shell-cratered wasteland ahead of them. Smoke from burning Leman Russ tanks and Chimeras drifted across the battlefield, and Winterbourne smelled the reek of scorched metal. Guardsmen in their foxholes were looking over to him to confirm what they were all hoping, that the fighting was over.

Captain Mederic of the Hounds, Father Time's guardian angel since the attack of the kroot, slung his rifle and said, 'So that's it then?'

Winterbourne was at a loss. 'So it would appear, Mederic.'

Mederic nodded. 'Good. Maybe I can get some sleep now.'

As Winterbourne watched the man turn from the hills, he felt incredibly proud of what his soldiers had achieved. They had fought courageously, and had done everything he had asked of them. Once more, the honour of the regiment had been tested, and, once more, the men and women of Lavrentia had risen to the challenge.