Remember the Alchomite!

[Pictors Studio]

Phillipe was the first to hear it. At least the first to admit he heard it.

It was a drumming, a drumming on metal pipes, a drumming on metal stairs, a drumming on metal walkways.

It was the drumming of feet on metal. 

And it was getting louder.

We had been moving closer and closer to the gate.  Taking new territories was no longer an option and with the number of people moving back to Necromunda because of the Spook prohibition it was getting harder and harder to even eat.

I hadn't had anything to eat that day.

Jan was telling us to make our way to the top of the alchomite stack. There were service walkways around the top and the railings were still intact enough to serve as a reasonable barrier.  We hoped.

I caught site of them first, I could see movement in the dark.  Jan was only a few feet from me and I let him know over our coms.

"Move. Get to the railing and shoot them down as quickly as they come up."



We did and I could finally see who it was that had surrounded us.  House Cawdor.  And it looked as if it was the Landsong gang.  I had just been listening to Jan and Phillipe talking about how they had teamed up with the Landsongs to take out a vicious group of bounty hunters just a couple of weeks back.

The first explosion shook the entire platform we stood on and I heard screaming behind me.  I indulged myself with a glance over my shoulder and saw the other half of our group, getting back up off of the ground from where the explosion had knocked them about.  They didn't look like they were all getting back up.



The next second a distinctive hum followed by a whooshing noise meant that Harald had unleashed hell on the enemy with his plasma cannon. 

I didn't hear the explosion over the rattled of projectiles hitting against the railings we were sheltering behind and our answering fire. 

"Status check," said Jan over the coms. 

"We're holding them on this side," said Harald, "Weimer is wounded, but I think he might be ok. They sent one of their bomb rats up here but I knocked it off the ledge before it could do any harm."



We fired back with a fury fueled by the anger of the betrayal we all felt.  Cawdor gangers were punched off of their feet.  I added my pistol shots to the general barrage although I knew I was unlikely to be able to hit anyone from the range that we were shooting from.

"Helke wait until they get closer, keep in cover until then.  We don't want them to get a great estimation of the numbers we have here," I heard Jan say.  I looked at the others and they hadn't seemed to notice. He must have used my direct link.  I did as he said, thankful that my inexperience hadn't been pointed out to the group.

As soon as I did the first explosion hit our side.  Where there had been four of us, there were now three.  The explosion had knocked Karl off of the platform. Jan was down and injured but he was getting up.  I went to help him and the second explosion hit us.  I was trying to help Jan to his feet when it went off.  He inadvertently shielded me from most of the blast.

I could hear shouting and the whirl of a chain blade on the other side of the platform.  I couldn't worry about that.  I was the only one left standing on our side.

Jan was bleeding profusely and moving him would only make the situation worse.

I couldn't see Karl below us in the dark but I could see one of the Landsong's moving towards where he must have fallen and I fired down at him.

He looked up at me as he moved into one of the few well-lit patches.  Our eyes met.  He pointed his pistols up at me as I pointed mine down at him.  I could see his face beneath the scanty mask he wore.  It young, he could have only been my age.  There was a nobility in it that the crusted faces of his comrades with their scars and skin infections could never posses.  He was beautiful.

As we looked into each others eyes his aim wavered for one second as we pointed our weapons at each other.  He may not have seen a Van Saar before and probably never one as young as me. 

I used the opportunity to shoot first and got him a good one in the leg.  Down he went.



He got up and fired back but at the angle his shots were desultory.

I ducked back behind the railing and looked to the other side of the platform.  Two of the Landsong's had made it to the top and were struggling with Phillipe and Machte.



More fire rattled off of the railing and then a projectile came crashing through it.  The tip of a krak bomb was three inches away from my nose. It hadn't exploded.  It hadn't hit the secondary target to blast through.

The railing was no longer good cover.  I almost slipped in all the blood on the platform as I stood up to shoot back.  Shot after shot went down at the enemy, not having any more effect than keeping them in some cover.

That was when I felt a burning sensation on my back.  I instinctively moved away and over the ledge I went.  Fortunately a shattered wall broke my fall and I took some lumps but was able to look about me when I landed.



I looked up to see the Cawdor youth standing above me with his pistol aimed at my head.  I tried to smile, only imagining what a mess my face must have looked like, given what it felt like.

He knelt beside me and smashed me hard in the face with the pistol and that is the last I remember before waking up here.

Inquisitor Duhr nodded. 

"Release her.  Governor Temamol, they are fighting to the death over scraps of land now.  The Dead Planet will be completely devoid of any human population in a week."

"And my Governorship will be completely at an end."

"Your Governorship would be at end in a way that would end your career in Imperial service if I had not stepped in here."

A sour look passed over the face of the governor before he nodded and moved about the tent camp that passed as a hospital.  The Arbites that had accompanied him stayed with Inquisitor Duhr.  He paused when he noticed that then sighed and walked on.