Salamander

The three sergeants were atop the ridge, looking down on to the traitors' territory below. Their squads were nearby, hunkered in groups, surveying the surrounding area for enemy scouts or merely guarding the flanks of their leaders.

De'mas was about to answer, when Tsu'gan cut him off.

'Settle down, brothers,' he growled, gauging the fortress defences through a pair of magnoculars. 'We can assume nothing at this stage.' Tsu'gan observed the Iron Warrior's bastion carefully, but didn't linger too long on any one structure so as to mitigate his discomfort. The gate was the only way in. Perimeter guards patrolled the walled battlements, though the muster was curiously thin. Sentries stood stock-still in the towers, almost like statues, presiding over autocannon emplacements. In one of the towers, a searchlight strafed the ash dunes in lazy sweeps. Moving his gaze farther back, Tsu'gan counted the roofed redoubts that filled the no-man's land in front of the wall. Again, they seemed quiet and he could detect no movement from within. The fortress itself was angular, but its ambit was bizarrely shaped. Tsu'gan tried but couldn't seem to pin down how many sides it possessed, the number of defensible walls. He cursed, recognising the warping effects of Chaos. Averting his gaze, he handed the magnoculars back to Tiberon and muttered a quick litany of cleansing.

'Nothing is certain,' he asserted to the other two sergeants, when he was done warding himself. 'Vulkan's fall, or otherwise, at Isstvan is immaterial.'

'It is significant,' argued Typhos, a truculent tone entering his voice.

'You expect the primarch to come striding out of the dunes, thunder hammer in hand? It is a ten thousand year old myth, brother, and I will hear no more of it,' Tsu'gan warned.

'Tu'Shan believes in it,' pressed the other sergeant. 'Why else send an entire company on such a spurious mission, if it were not in fact a

holy quest?'

'

The Chapter Master does what he must,' Tsu'gan replied, his temper fraying. 'He cannot ignore the possibility of the primarch's return, or even the chance to unearth the facts of his demise.

We,

brother, are not so shackled that we must believe what our eyes cannot see.

This,'

he said, brandishing his bolter, 'and

this,'

he slapped the pauldron of his armour, 'even

this,'

Tsu'gan took up a fistful of ash, 'are real.

That

is what I know. Allow blind zeal to guide your path and it will end up leading you to your doom, Typhos,' he added in a derisive tone.

'Afford me some respect,' the other sergeant hissed through gritted teeth. 'We are of equal rank.'

'Out here on these dunes,' Tsu'gan told him, 'I outstrip your ''equal rank''.'

A brief, charged silence descended, but in the end Typhos was brow-beaten into submission.

Perhaps, Tsu'gan considered, it was not wise to aggravate another sergeant when he desired to impeach the captain of the company, especially one that had previously sworn his support. But I need to demonstrate strength, thought Tsu'gan, and knew by asserting his will he had only cemented Typhos's allegiance.

'For siege-specialists, it is a poor location to build a bastion,' remarked De'mas, ignoring the slight altercation. 'Within the basin, the view it commands is restricted.'

During the Heresy, Tsu'gan knew the Iron Warriors had fortresses across all the segmentums of the galaxy. Often these bastions were isolated, single-squad outposts. Despite the paucity of troops, he also knew these bastions were almost impregnable. This supreme defensibility was a result of Iron Warrior tenacity, but it also depended on where the Legion chose to raise its walls. De'mas was right - the fortress before them had no vantage, no high ground to observe the approach of an enemy. It was counter-intuitive towards siege strategy. But then perhaps holding ground was not the traitors' main concern.

'They built it here to hide it,' Tsu'gan realised, a thin smile splitting his face at his deduction. 'Anywhere else would be too conspicuous.'

'To what end?' asked Typhos. 'What could the traitors have to hide here, on this backwater?'

Tsu'gan's expression hardened, as he looped his bolter around his pauldron on its strap.

'I intend to find out,' he said, and made his way back down to the base of the ridge.

T

su'gan's battle-brothers surrounded

him as he outlined his plan. With a combat knife, he drew a rough sketch of the fortress in the hardened ash.

'That looks like an assault strategy,' muttered De'mas, standing at Tsu'gan's shoulder.

'It is,' said Tsu'gan curtly.

'I assume I don't need to remind you, brother, that the Iron Warriors are siege-experts in both attack and

defence!'

'

You

do not.'

Typhos scoffed. 'Then you'll also know that such an assault with thirty men and negligible heavy guns is—'

'Suicide,' Tsu'gan concluded for him, as he looked Typhos in the eye. 'Yes, I am aware of that too, which is why we are attacking the redoubts and not the walls, brother- sergeant.'

'Explain.' Brother-Sergeant De'mas's interest was apparently piqued.

'Four combat squads,' Tsu'gan began, sketching arrows of approach in the dust, 'one per redoubt. Blades and hammers only, flamers standing by as backup. Tactic is silent and stealthy. We enter the redoubts undetected, kill any sentries we find and then occupy their positions. There we will wait until Brother N'keln arrives and then launch a surprise attack, storming the gate and rigging diversionary charges.'

'You mentioned four combat squads?' voiced Typhos.

Tsu'gan nodded, fixing the sergeant with a stony glare.

'I did. You will stay behind in command of our rearguard. You are tasked with apprising the brother-captain of the situation upon his arrival.' Tsu'gan moved his gaze to encompass the entire force, 'All long-range heavy weapons will report to Brother-Sergeant Typhos. You will be our support in the unlikely event of our discovery. De'mas,' he added, switching his attention to the other sergeant. 'Gather the ten best stealthers from yours and Typhos's squads then join me and the rest of my men at the eastern side of the ridge-base.'

Tsu'gan marched away, leaving Typhos no time to protest and only Brother M'lek with his multi-melta in the brother-sergeant's charge. The rest of his squad followed him.

De'mas made his acquisitions quickly and quietly. The rearguard, then, would be an amalgam of the three squads. It was unconventional, but it also demonstrated the strategic flexibility of Tactical squads and the reason why the Astartes were warriors supreme.

The Salamander assault force divided into four five-man squads wordlessly. Battle-sign between each of the squad-leaders ensured total clarity and efficiency as the Astartes made their way around the lip of the vast dune and approached the enemy bastion from an oblique angle. Rubbing ash onto their