Secret War: Warhammer 40,000 by Ben Agar (reading eggs books TXT) 📖

underestimated, "nope, I think one'll do."

I frowned and nodded, scratching the back of my head. "Hmm, okay, fire away, but do you mind if I close my eyes?"

Vex's grin widened. "Why, are you scared?"

My reply was a brief nod; hell yes, I was scared. Scared that if my were eyes open when Vex tried to punch, my self-defence instincts would take over, and the poor kid would end up with a broken arm or worse.

Vex shrugged. "Sure, I don't see why not."

Closing my eyes, I leant forward, giving Vex a clear shot. Then the punch came, with no fanfare or ceremony, and he hit me right in my cheekbone with surprising strength. Sharp pain abruptly flared through my face, and I was sent sprawling to the floor so fast that I was barely able to stop myself from smashing my nose into the hard rockcrete.

He somehow had hit me harder than Edracian's mook did earlier.

Still, on the floor, I turned back to Vex, my eyes wide with shock and clutching my face, which was going to leave one hell of a bruise.

But it indeed was the least I deserved.

Vex was smirking triumphantly down at me as one of Olinthre's men approached and abruptly pulled me back to my feet. Woozy, I clung to the Stormtrooper.

Was I woozy? Woozy! How the hell could this kid hit so damned hard!

Vex grinned. "Apology accepted Attelus Kaltos,"

I nodded, still holding my face. "Th-thanks."

"I bet you are wondering why it hurt so much, right?"

Yes, I thought but said nothing.

"Garrakson had taught me how to punch while you were in a coma," said Vex. "That was nice of him, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, real nice of him," I said sarcastically.



Both Olinthre and I exited Vex's office, only pausing briefly for the Major to order the Stormtroopers to stay put and tell some other, supposedly inspiring hold the line crap.

We walked on through the cavern of cogitators, me sulking silently while still holding my cheek and Olinthre studying Vex's print out intently.

As we entered the corridors and out of the deafening crashes of the serfs, Olinthre said to me absently, "you really shouldn't keep touching your face like that Attelus, it won't help you at all."

My sidelong glare was the only reply which Olinthre got.

The major smiled, seemingly quite enjoying my suffering.

"Fine be that way, but I have to warn you, Attelus, if you were in the Imperial Guard and acted that way-"

"What would happen?"

Olinthre grinned. "You would just have to sign up to find out, wouldn't you?"

The corner of my mouth twitched then I turned my attention back forward.

"So Attelus, how long have you worked as an Assassin for?" asked Olinthre out of the blue.

"Why?" I growled, quickly realising that this sounded a lot like small talk.

"Why? Because I'm just interested, that's all."

I looked at him, trying to detect a reason behind this but came up with nil; that was what it exactly seemed to be, small talk.

With a shrug, I answered, "just made seven years now; how long have you worked for Taryst?"

Olinthre frowned; he was still studying that sheet, "around ten years, hmmm."

"What is it?"

Olinthre suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked straight at me. "Frig," he said. "That is one hell of a bruise you've got there, Attelus."

I raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"Yeah, man, the kid got you good, yeah. It's all big and blue; we better see medicae Feuilt."

That was an act that much was blatant, but why would he want to see Feuilt? And if we did this, it would just use up even more of my precious time.

I sighed. "Yeah, okay, maybe he'll bandage it or something."

The major smiled, and we moved on.

"So what is your home planet?" asked Olinthre after a few moments of silence.

My brow furrowed, wondering where the hell this line of questioning was going; it was strange; I don't think anyone has ever actually asked where I came from before.

"E-Elbyra," I answered hesitantly, thinking that maybe I should not be giving out this information so freely.

Olinthre's eyes widened. "Ah! Elbyra! The small Agri world I know it actually."

My eyebrows raised in surprise. "Really, have you been there?"

The major shook his head. "No, no, actually I should re-phrase, I know of Elbyra; the way I found about the planet was because I once served alongside the Velrosian first regiment during my time in the guard."

I nodded; Elbyra was only recently taken in by the Imperium; it would be just over three hundred years ago, as I could recall from school. We Elbyrans attempted to resist at first, particularly the country of Maranger who have always been warlike, but we were still a little primitive; we were indeed a feudal world then, and so it didn't take long before we were under the fold. It wasn't until twenty years ago that the entirety of Elbyra raised their first regiments of Imperial Guard, one drawn from each country on the vast continent; Velrosia, Maranger, Galak Heim, Despasia.

"It was in my last year in the guard," said Olinthre. "My regiment was fighting Orks on the planet Belfost, and the Velrosians were sent in to help us, the famous 'first amongst equals' at first; we all scoffed at the arrogance of the title, but quickly I saw it was justified. They were good, one of the best regiments I have ever worked with actually, well-disciplined, reliable and their general he was a hard bastard. Tathe was his name, and he had a son working inside the regiment as a commissar. His father forced him into the schola progenium when he was young; Delan Tathe was an arrogant little punk but very skilled with a blade; you remind me of him, actually."

My jaw set slightly. "Thanks," I said; it was kind of funny how such a large galaxy could feel so small at times.

I smiled and said, "The Velrosian 1st has made a name for themselves over the last twenty years; my country seems to breed natural warriors. Around a thousand years ago, Olinthre, Velrosia fought the far larger and numerically advantageous invading Maranger to a standstill, a war which lasted over four decades before Velrosia was finally overwhelmed. But it was barely after a year of occupation when the Velrosian rebels led by the young and now legendary prince, Royd Antares, they ousted Maranger and Royd slaying the corrupt Maranger king Voltarin in single combat."

"Although that great act of heroism would lead to events that no one could ever have foreseen. The legend of King Royd of Velrosia was a sad tale that ended in utter tragedy, but that still doesn't stop all Velrosian children wanting to be him growing up, myself included. Of course, my love for sword mastery and hand to hand combat was in part because of that legend."

And my father made me learn, of course.

The corner of my mouth twitched slightly, wondering why I had just suddenly said all that information. It has been a long time since I talked about my homeworld.

Olinthre smiled and nodded as we walked out of the corridors and into the elevator lobby.

"And where are you from, major?" I asked.

"Cadia," answered Olinthre simply.

My eyebrows raised in surprise; I knew of Cadia, of course, the mighty fortress world which guards the only navigational route too and from the Eye of Terror. The Cadian Imperial Guard regiments were amongst the most well known and lauded in the whole of the Imperium so that Olinthre would know of and praise the Velrosian 1st so highly was indeed something to be proud of; that's if the major was telling the truth of course.

Olinthre pushed the elevator call button and turned back to me.

"I served in the 266th regiment for a good ten years with Garrakson under my command as a sergeant."

That surprised me also; I had no idea that both Garrakson and Olinthre were from the same planet, let alone the very same regiment.

Olinthre shook his head. "That was the best decade of my life, don't get me wrong, we all went through hell, that's for sure, but the brotherhood we shared, the friendships we developed. Attelus, war is a terrible, terrible thing, but nothing else could ever bind comrades together so well."

"There is only war," I could not help intone under my breath.

Olinthre sighed sadly. "Yes, I can't disagree with you on that."

"It was hard to see your comrades slowly whittle away Attelus, to die off, sometimes one by one, sometimes even by the dozens. You must have an idea by now; your squad was much larger when you first started fighting in this complete and utter farce."

The major's face suddenly contorted in horrible rage while his eyes watered with barely contained tears. "But to have your entire regiment, the friends! The comrades who you have fought side by side for years on countless battlefields! To have them all slaughtered right in front of your eyes like they were cattle, you can't imagine what that is like!"

His sudden outburst made me flinch in fright, and I could only stand around like an idiot, not knowing what to say.

Olinthre sighed again. "I-I'm sorry for that, Attelus; I didn't mean to-"

Olinthre was interrupted by the elevator's arrival, and we slipped inside.

We went up a few floors before Olinthre finally said, "Taryst saved us from that hell hole Attelus, he saved Garrakson and me from being slaughtered just like the rest of our regiment and for that I truly respect him, and for that, I owe him everything. I was always prepared to die for the Emperor but not in that way, but not that way."

"And for that, I will always be ashamed; I am a coward, Attelus. I should have died in duty along with my comrades, but yet here I am. Working as a soulless mercenary for an ugly and backstabbing corporation that really shouldn't exist, but now it's time to face up as you did with Vex, it's time to finally, truly face up to my mistakes."

I nodded, and that was all I was capable of.

I winced as Feuilt dabbed my sore cheek with a disinfectant wet piece of cotton.

"Yeeep," he said. "Young man, you are going to have one frig of a bruise."

My jaw twitched, and I glared accusingly at the grinning Olinthre; really, is that why we came up here so that Feuilt could state something, I already knew?

"Actually," said on the medicae, "you are lucky that you didn't break your zygomatic bone; that was one hell of a punch."

"Well, the person who threw it has been practising at the art non-stop over the last month," I growled and flinched again as more pain coursed through my face.

Feuilt's eyes widened. "What, just so they could do this to you? What did you do to warrant such retribution?"

I frowned and furrowed my brow, bemused at the medicae's apparent ignorance.

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter," sighed Feuilt. "Just be careful, two injuries so quickly one after the other, just try, be, a, little, bit, less, clumsy next time."

He dabbed between each pause, and I could not help bristle slightly at being called clumsy; I wasn't clumsy, I was never clumsy.

"Alright," said the medicae as he got up and turned to a nearby draw pulling out a bandage, pulled off the adhesive tape then planted onto my face.

"Just wear that for the next few days," he said. "It will keep down the swelling and help prevent the bruising; I'll give you a few more if this one ever falls off."

"Thanks, doc," I said, sounding more grudging than intended.

Feuilt shrugged. "Yes, young man, just make sure you don't come back for any time soon, okay?"

I nodded and briefly played with the idea of telling Feuilt of the poison injected into my system but quickly declined the notion that Edracian could be watching me even now, and I didn't know what kind of poison it was. There were a few kinds that I could name off the top of my that would kill a man in a few hours. Still, here