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

perhaps not, I could've been classed as a master swordsman at seventeen. I guessed the difference between him and me would've been that I didn't know I was as good as I was. Vex knew he was; his skills were in huge demand; in fact, he'd probably earned more thrones in his short life than I would in decades. Also, I'd never intended to use my martial arts and fighting abilities besides being a mere hobby.

I was just another killer, an effective one but still only one among billions upon billions of others. Now Vex, he was one of the very few who held such skill outside the Adeptus Mechanicus, and I couldn't help but wonder how he'd gained such knowledge, especially at such a young age.

We acquiesced to his request, Arlathan and I wandered the room in silence as we waited for Vex to finish his work.

I kept glancing at my wrist chron, seeing the remaining fifteen minutes quickly whittle away. Every once in a while, Vex would announce some setback with another animal roar of frustrated rage, and he hit the floor with his fists.

It wasn't until one minute remained when we heard something other than an utterance of anger from the young hacker. It was a whoop of triumph.

"Got you, you son of a bitch!" he cried. "I've got you!"

"What did you get?" I asked as I approached.

"This!" exclaimed Vex, pointing at a line of code that looked like all the others to me. "This will allow me to decrypt the data! It's all binary, but binary made in numbers from another language! I see it's Cartharsian! A language from..."

"Yes, that's all well and good and all," interrupted Arlathan. "But how much data did you get, exactly?"

"As much as my miniature cogitator's memory core is able to hold," he said, the sullen tone returning. "Only about two hundred years worth, if I didn't have to leave my main cogitator behind..."

"Oh, shut up!" snapped Arlathan. "We couldn't bring those with us even if we weren't running from Space Marines! Two hundred years will have to do, now come on! We've got to go!"

"But I still have to decrypt it!" Vex whined.

"Can you do that later?" I growled.

"Y-yeah."

"Well, then do it later!"

Pouting his lips in anger, Vex abruptly tore out the cord and climbed to his feet.

Arlathan grabbed Vex by the arm as the hacker closed the cover of his portable cogitator, and we moved quickly out the door. Most of the plasteek supply crates had been taken off the shelves, carried into the ship, I assumed.

"So," said Vex as he tore his arm from Arlathan's grip. "What happens now?"

"Now," I said. "Now we're onto the hard part."

 

Chapter 32

 I was taken to my quarters by the two Stormtroopers. I stepped inside with a sigh, my hands in their pockets.

"Can you," I said, turning back to them. "Please get me some Lhos; I could use a smoke right now."

One shook his head as if to say, 'bloody addicts,' but the other nodded and said, "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you; it'd be more than appreciated," I said.

He nodded again and walked out of sight.

I walked further in, and the door slid shut behind me; the place was unsurprisingly spartan, gunmetal grey with bronze edgings and linings. On the other hand, it was surprisingly large, though about six by seven metres wide; a double-sized bed was in the right side corner and a large cogitator bank in the left. There was another door against the far wall, which I guessed to lead into a private bathroom, but I just couldn't be bothered looking.

Now I was alone; the depression I'd been holding back was beginning to overwhelm me again.

I needed something to take my mind off everything; I needed to do something. Enandra may have been right about my mistakes, but I was still responsible. So I closed my eyes and inhaled through my nose, deep down to my stomach, then exhaled out my mouth. An old breathing exercise my father had taught me for what felt like a lifetime ago now.

I stretched my weary, stiff muscles for a good thirty minutes after that were pushups and crunches. Then despite my exhaustion, I began to train. They'd taken my sword, so I worked on my hand to hand drills. First, I practised singular techniques, always ten times slowly, then fifty times fast. Left then right jabs, left then right crosses the Back fist, the uppercut, the hook. Kicks followed them, first the front kick, both snapping and thrust, roundhouse kick, side kick and the hook kick. I worked through every technique I knew, some I hadn't practised in years. Even indulging in the fanciful stuff I usually wouldn't bother with, the spinning side, hook and round kick. Afterwards, I practised the jumping kicks (At first, I'd almost jumped into the ceiling due to my enhanced strength), the axe kick. My father had taught me those techniques despite advising me against using them due to their impractical nature, only so I'd understand them if they were used on me, just in case.

Then it was shadow boxing, and by frig did I get involved in that. I never felt so focused, and I seemed to move so fast; it almost seemed like I was dodging and parrying my techniques. Every step, every pivot and strike felt verged upon perfection despite my speed.

Being so lost in my training, I hadn't noticed the Stormtrooper enter until he shouted my name.

Utterly drenched in sweat, I turned.

"Sorry," I gasped, leaning forward with my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath.

The Stormtrooper shrugged and tossed me a small pack of Lhos, which I almost missed in my haste.

"There ya go," he said. "You're lucky I could find them, kid. The mamzel doesn't approve of Lho, medicae studies say..."

"Yeah, yeah," I sighed. "I've heard it all before. Thanks for this, though. Appreciate it, I do."

The Stormtrooper took another step inside. "I don't intend to tell you what to do, but..."

"Please!" I snapped. "I'm not in the mood! I need this now! Now please, just leave me alone!"

He stood there for a few seconds staring at me, whatever his expression was, hidden behind his helmet, before eventually nodding and backing out the door.

I stood up straight and, with shaking hands, placed the lho in my mouth and, with my igniter, lit it.

After wiping the sweat off my forehead with an arm, I looked at the cogitator. It was an old battered thing, large and boxy.

I remembered that Enandra had mentioned we could watch Omnartus, and I began to approach it. Then suddenly, the door behind me swished open, and I turned, anger abruptly hitting me, thinking it to the Stormtrooper again.

"Look! I'm..."

I stopped and gaped as I saw it wasn't him.

Karmen Kons stood in the door, her face still bandaged, the psy limiter around her neck. Her bright blue eyes focused on me.

"What do you want?" I said, turning away. "Here to try and justify what you've done again?"

"No," she said, shaking her head. "I just wanted to check up on you."

I had nothing to say; anger blazed through me always, but it wasn't at her; I didn't know what it was about. The universe, I guessed, for making me be in this shitty position.

"You've been training?" Karmen said as she walked further inside. "Good idea, take your mind off it."

I took a sharp inhale of Lho.

"Yeah, I guess," I said and grimaced as tears welled. "We've failed, Karmen. Omnartus is dead, and there's nothing we can do; everyone says that we're going to live on so we can stop this from happening again. But! How can we? If Etuarq can see the future if he can do all this, how can we stand a chance? How?"

"Maybe the God-Emperor..." she started.

"Don't give me that grox shit!" I snarled, making her start. "How do you know that this wasn't the God-Emperor's will? That he wanted this? It is his Astartes, his angels of death doing the deed, isn't it? If it wasn't his will, and if he is truly the god people claim, why hasn't he intervened? Why, Karmen? Why?"

"I...I don't know," she said.

"What's the point, Estella?" I sighed. "If humanity is so frigged that we can do this to ourselves, what's the point in trying to save us? I saved Adelana because she was a good person, but now what's she going to become? Like me? Like you? I'm screwed up; you're screwed up because of humans invading and destroying our country and don't frigging try to claim it was just because of Chaos. Sure, whatever! But that those flaws exist in the first place for Chaos to exploit says something, doesn't it?"

Estella sighed. "I have no answers for you; humanity is frigged. We've always had arseholes among us, and we're always going to kill each other. Just look at you; you've made a career out of killing, haven't you? And you are going to continue killing people. You are one of those arseholes, Attelus; you know that, right? Many would claim that you are truly evil for what you do."

I glared at her. "I have been told that in no uncertain terms before, on numerous occasions. So why do you think us mercenaries are thought to be the scum of the verse? And I'll admit, it's true we just kill for money, for no true ideal or anything we could be seen as truly evil, easily."

"So, what are you going to do?" she said. "Put a laspistol in your mouth and pull the trigger?"

I didn't say anything, knowing that such a thing would be pointless as Faleaseen would just bring me back and feeling; perhaps, it wouldn't be too bad an idea if it was permanent.

"Do you expect every arsehole would do that?" said Karmen. "See, that the human race would be better off if they just pulled the trigger? Do you think Etuarq is going to do that? No. Well, then it's up to someone else to do it, then, isn't it? Or at the very least, stop him as you'd once shown, as I'd once shown, as Adelana had once shown. There are good people in the world. But, unfortunately, it also shows that complete and utterly irredeemable arseholes like Etuarq are going to continue making good people into people like us. So it just makes it all the more important we stop him? Isn't it?"

I looked at her, wide-eyed, stupefied.

"You were wrong, Attelus," she said, shaking her head. "You do need me more than I need you, and for all your going on about not hating people, you are bordering on turning into a hypocrite. For all your humanity is shit crap, aren't you?"

I still couldn't say anything.

She then grabbed me roughly by the wrist and began pulling me out the door.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"We're going to man the frig up and see what a true arsehole is capable of!" She snapped. "We're going to watch Omnartus die!"

"I've been hired," I said as we moved. The now four-man Stormtrooper escort walked both in front and following behind.

Karmen smiled; although I couldn't see it, I could tell. "I'd guessed that would happen."

"The Inquisitor said she was going to