Guard fic 4.3
Things continue to not get better for King.
A third day of talks loomed larger than a Necron monolith and far less welcome. King requested again that the troopers join them, but this was again declined. Probably they knew that he’d act out like a juve on his first penal cycle if he had an audience to play to, he couldn’t help thinking, and there was a good possibility they would be right. These meetings were the only respite they had from the tedium of captivity, but the cell was in turn the only respite they had from the tedium of these meetings. King wondered if that was the point of it, to break down their will through sheer boredom. Clearly these Xenos had never faced the might of a speech from some of the Astra Militarum’s least inspiring military command before.
They marched into the room with the same determination and poise as ever, taking the same seats as previously. King was provided with a bowl of liquid to drink automatically, Rosaria dismissed the offer with a contemptuous glance. The discussions started again shying away from yesterday’s topic of rights. These damn creatures were so frakking polite, it was driving him insane. Scar was the only one of them with the balls to speak his own mind, and the rest despised him for it. Told you all you needed to know about Xenos really, didn’t it?
The discussion continued round in circles. Much as King would have loved to just switch off, he knew that to keep the ceasefire going long enough to let Trevanus get away with the artefact he would have to keep the conversations going as long as possible. So they discussed every minute point, every touch of protocol, everything they could think of that might potentially have any bearing whatsoever on the possibility of the Imperium abandoning the planet as the Tau wanted. The sticking point was the Tau wanted everything - the planet, the colonists and the artefact - and were not happy to cede any part of this to Imperial control, so discussion was a somewhat moot point even if King and Rossaria had been willing to negotiate. The problem was that so far as the Xenos knew they held all the cards, so why should they fold?
The tech at the centre of the table had proven itself capable of vid display and holoprojections as well as sound transmissions, and King remained in slightly resentful awe at how clear the images were. There must be an army of Tau techpriests hiding under the table keeping it running, but even so it was an amazing piece of equipment. So today as the discussion moved away from why are the Guard here and staying well clear of discussions about Colonist’s Rights or the Emperor of Mankind, the display flashed and flickered with star charts and diagrams as the Xenos tried to justify their desperate strategic need for Sargas. It was quite a stretch for either side to claim a military significance, Sargas being basically just a frozen useless lump of hell, but neither side was prepared to give an inch.
Until suddenly, like guidance from the Emperor Himself, King saw it all come together. All the clues he’d been getting, all the fractured conversations, everything that was happening, he realised what it all meant and what he had to do.
“Ah no wait, hang on!” he jumped up, suddenly alert. “Show me that star chart again! No, not that one, the other one, the second one we saw. That one!”
One of the Robes flicked through the images until he brought back what King has seen, a broad scan of the sector and surrounding area with various threats to the Tau empire marked on it. The main one - bypassing Hive Fleet Leviathan, which was so far off as to make Sargas a complete nonentity in that battle, and of course completely ignoring the Imperial threat - was a small chaos incursion dotting around the edges of the sector. Poro Tauna was arguing that they ought to work together against the ruinous powers, though of course by work together he meant agree to every compromise the Tau requested. King pointed at the map, linking Sargas with the chaos forces.
“This is a restocking jump off point for you, isn’t it? You can use Sargas as a fuel and ammo dump so you can stage an assault, but you can’t do that with the Guard presence because that much explosive would be too dangerous to store in an active warzone. I’m right, aren’t I? That’s why you need us gone, so you can take the fight to our common enemy!”
Leaving aside for the moment that there were a dozen worlds better placed for that, and that King had enough experience of fighting chaos space marines to know the difference between a full-scale assault and a small-scale troops carrier that that just pointed itself at the Warp and attacked wherever it came out, he allowed himself to get carried away with his hatred of the dark forces. His mouth ran on without full engagement of his brain, outlining the battle after battle against the Wordbearers that had destroyed the 76th Cadian as a regiment and taken many good men and women spiralling into darkness, the familiar bitterness of that campaign freeing up his mind to keep racing forward. Poro Tauna tried to confirm that this was indeed their aim, but he was having difficulty getting a word in edgeways. Rossaria looked ready to murder him - even more so than usual. Eventually he came to the crux of the matter.
“I’d been misunderstanding you the whole time, hadn’t I? You don’t mean the greater good just for the Tau, but for the whole galaxy, and what we’re seeing as you invading is just because you can’t make things work from the outside! We shouldn’t be fighting, not when there’s so many actual enemies out there. We should…”
Now Rossaria also leapt to her feet, her normally icy tone heated to red-hot incandescence. “King, you traitor! You’re talking about selling out your own race for the sake of your personal petty vengeance! Have you completely taken leave of your senses?”
“No, Rossaria, listen!” He grabbed her by the shoulders, bringing his face in line with hers. “Think about the possibilities! Please! They’re not our enemy, not compared to everything else that’s out there. Can’t you see?”
He was expecting a slap for daring to lay hands on her like that. What he got was a knee to the groin, and not a gentle one either. As he doubled up in pain she lashed out again, striking her forearm beautifully against the tattered remnants of muscle in his wounded bicep, shooting a further lance of agony from his fingertips to his skull and causing him to briefly lose vision. He lay crumpled on the floor as she aimed a final kick to his ribcage, adding a final layer of generalised pain to the two specific strikes that already occupied most of his being.
Hazily he heard her speaking to Poro Tauna, but he had no chance of concentrating hard enough to understand what was being said. No grabbing Commissars while you’re in the middle of a treasonous rant, got it. Rossaria left, presumably with the usual armed escort, but then what was going to happen with him? He struggled to regain focus, knowing he had to be alert now to get through this intact. He realised someone was talking to him and concentrating hard he picked out the word medic. He shook his head, instantly regretting the movement, and held up one hand in what he hoped was a universal gesture for “give me a moment” until he felt he could cope with pulling himself to his feet.
“So that went down well then.” He croaked, though the sarcasm was lost on his audience.
“It appears that your colleague does not agree with your stance, and she has further explained that holding one of her caste in such a manner is taboo in your culture, which caused her to respond with chastisement.” The blue-robed figure looked at him with what appeared to be curiosity as he clambered into his chair and sat carefully. He was willing to bet that wasn’t exactly how she’d phrased it.
“It’s not...exactly a...popular stance.” King managed, wishing it would take the hint and leave him in peace to feel extremely sorry for himself a bit longer. “What now?”
As he hoped, Poro Tauna took the question as a launch platform for a monologue which gave King some time to recover. Emperor-forsaken Xenos and their lack of genitalia. The gist of the speech was that they wanted to talk to King in private now to quiz him on his newly-discovered faith and on the ramifications for both cultures. Begging five minutes to recover first, Antonius took a cool drink from his bowl and regained a bit of his dignity before this new interrogation began.
While it was obvious that he was never going to be able to hold a full philosophical debate on the Greater Good, he had grasped sufficient of the basics to be granted a fair degree of respect by the Xenos. The trick seemed to be that it wasn’t just as simple as sublimating your will to the needs of society, although that was a part of it, but it was also a way of looking at things that meant you never really had that will in the first place. Something like that. It was complicated, and Antonius was glad when that part of the interrogation was over.
When conversation turned to the Imperial forces, things were a bit more strained. He refused to tell them specifics of the 76th and 3rd’s make up, since as he explained, that wasn’t relevant. The idea was to persuade them surely, not fight them? Poro Tauna agreed with this in principle, of course, but also wanted a contingency plan for when - if, of course - that didn’t work.
“I don’t see why it won’t.” Antonius argued. “It all makes sense to me, and I’m one of the more stubborn buggers you’ll find this side of Terra.”
“And if they cannot be persuaded?” Scar asked through his translator.
“They will be. Lord Commissar Bharti has a term for it, a cult of personality. Means they’ll do what I tell them even if they don’t believe it yet, but I know they will with time.”
“So you and your soldiers will surrender?” The translator asked after a brief conversation with Scar.
“No.” Antonius answered firmly. “This is not a surrender: there is no need for surrender. We will join the Empire of Tau.”
A third day of talks loomed larger than a Necron monolith and far less welcome. King requested again that the troopers join them, but this was again declined. Probably they knew that he’d act out like a juve on his first penal cycle if he had an audience to play to, he couldn’t help thinking, and there was a good possibility they would be right. These meetings were the only respite they had from the tedium of captivity, but the cell was in turn the only respite they had from the tedium of these meetings. King wondered if that was the point of it, to break down their will through sheer boredom. Clearly these Xenos had never faced the might of a speech from some of the Astra Militarum’s least inspiring military command before.
They marched into the room with the same determination and poise as ever, taking the same seats as previously. King was provided with a bowl of liquid to drink automatically, Rosaria dismissed the offer with a contemptuous glance. The discussions started again shying away from yesterday’s topic of rights. These damn creatures were so frakking polite, it was driving him insane. Scar was the only one of them with the balls to speak his own mind, and the rest despised him for it. Told you all you needed to know about Xenos really, didn’t it?
The discussion continued round in circles. Much as King would have loved to just switch off, he knew that to keep the ceasefire going long enough to let Trevanus get away with the artefact he would have to keep the conversations going as long as possible. So they discussed every minute point, every touch of protocol, everything they could think of that might potentially have any bearing whatsoever on the possibility of the Imperium abandoning the planet as the Tau wanted. The sticking point was the Tau wanted everything - the planet, the colonists and the artefact - and were not happy to cede any part of this to Imperial control, so discussion was a somewhat moot point even if King and Rossaria had been willing to negotiate. The problem was that so far as the Xenos knew they held all the cards, so why should they fold?
The tech at the centre of the table had proven itself capable of vid display and holoprojections as well as sound transmissions, and King remained in slightly resentful awe at how clear the images were. There must be an army of Tau techpriests hiding under the table keeping it running, but even so it was an amazing piece of equipment. So today as the discussion moved away from why are the Guard here and staying well clear of discussions about Colonist’s Rights or the Emperor of Mankind, the display flashed and flickered with star charts and diagrams as the Xenos tried to justify their desperate strategic need for Sargas. It was quite a stretch for either side to claim a military significance, Sargas being basically just a frozen useless lump of hell, but neither side was prepared to give an inch.
Until suddenly, like guidance from the Emperor Himself, King saw it all come together. All the clues he’d been getting, all the fractured conversations, everything that was happening, he realised what it all meant and what he had to do.
“Ah no wait, hang on!” he jumped up, suddenly alert. “Show me that star chart again! No, not that one, the other one, the second one we saw. That one!”
One of the Robes flicked through the images until he brought back what King has seen, a broad scan of the sector and surrounding area with various threats to the Tau empire marked on it. The main one - bypassing Hive Fleet Leviathan, which was so far off as to make Sargas a complete nonentity in that battle, and of course completely ignoring the Imperial threat - was a small chaos incursion dotting around the edges of the sector. Poro Tauna was arguing that they ought to work together against the ruinous powers, though of course by work together he meant agree to every compromise the Tau requested. King pointed at the map, linking Sargas with the chaos forces.
“This is a restocking jump off point for you, isn’t it? You can use Sargas as a fuel and ammo dump so you can stage an assault, but you can’t do that with the Guard presence because that much explosive would be too dangerous to store in an active warzone. I’m right, aren’t I? That’s why you need us gone, so you can take the fight to our common enemy!”
Leaving aside for the moment that there were a dozen worlds better placed for that, and that King had enough experience of fighting chaos space marines to know the difference between a full-scale assault and a small-scale troops carrier that that just pointed itself at the Warp and attacked wherever it came out, he allowed himself to get carried away with his hatred of the dark forces. His mouth ran on without full engagement of his brain, outlining the battle after battle against the Wordbearers that had destroyed the 76th Cadian as a regiment and taken many good men and women spiralling into darkness, the familiar bitterness of that campaign freeing up his mind to keep racing forward. Poro Tauna tried to confirm that this was indeed their aim, but he was having difficulty getting a word in edgeways. Rossaria looked ready to murder him - even more so than usual. Eventually he came to the crux of the matter.
“I’d been misunderstanding you the whole time, hadn’t I? You don’t mean the greater good just for the Tau, but for the whole galaxy, and what we’re seeing as you invading is just because you can’t make things work from the outside! We shouldn’t be fighting, not when there’s so many actual enemies out there. We should…”
Now Rossaria also leapt to her feet, her normally icy tone heated to red-hot incandescence. “King, you traitor! You’re talking about selling out your own race for the sake of your personal petty vengeance! Have you completely taken leave of your senses?”
“No, Rossaria, listen!” He grabbed her by the shoulders, bringing his face in line with hers. “Think about the possibilities! Please! They’re not our enemy, not compared to everything else that’s out there. Can’t you see?”
He was expecting a slap for daring to lay hands on her like that. What he got was a knee to the groin, and not a gentle one either. As he doubled up in pain she lashed out again, striking her forearm beautifully against the tattered remnants of muscle in his wounded bicep, shooting a further lance of agony from his fingertips to his skull and causing him to briefly lose vision. He lay crumpled on the floor as she aimed a final kick to his ribcage, adding a final layer of generalised pain to the two specific strikes that already occupied most of his being.
Hazily he heard her speaking to Poro Tauna, but he had no chance of concentrating hard enough to understand what was being said. No grabbing Commissars while you’re in the middle of a treasonous rant, got it. Rossaria left, presumably with the usual armed escort, but then what was going to happen with him? He struggled to regain focus, knowing he had to be alert now to get through this intact. He realised someone was talking to him and concentrating hard he picked out the word medic. He shook his head, instantly regretting the movement, and held up one hand in what he hoped was a universal gesture for “give me a moment” until he felt he could cope with pulling himself to his feet.
“So that went down well then.” He croaked, though the sarcasm was lost on his audience.
“It appears that your colleague does not agree with your stance, and she has further explained that holding one of her caste in such a manner is taboo in your culture, which caused her to respond with chastisement.” The blue-robed figure looked at him with what appeared to be curiosity as he clambered into his chair and sat carefully. He was willing to bet that wasn’t exactly how she’d phrased it.
“It’s not...exactly a...popular stance.” King managed, wishing it would take the hint and leave him in peace to feel extremely sorry for himself a bit longer. “What now?”
As he hoped, Poro Tauna took the question as a launch platform for a monologue which gave King some time to recover. Emperor-forsaken Xenos and their lack of genitalia. The gist of the speech was that they wanted to talk to King in private now to quiz him on his newly-discovered faith and on the ramifications for both cultures. Begging five minutes to recover first, Antonius took a cool drink from his bowl and regained a bit of his dignity before this new interrogation began.
While it was obvious that he was never going to be able to hold a full philosophical debate on the Greater Good, he had grasped sufficient of the basics to be granted a fair degree of respect by the Xenos. The trick seemed to be that it wasn’t just as simple as sublimating your will to the needs of society, although that was a part of it, but it was also a way of looking at things that meant you never really had that will in the first place. Something like that. It was complicated, and Antonius was glad when that part of the interrogation was over.
When conversation turned to the Imperial forces, things were a bit more strained. He refused to tell them specifics of the 76th and 3rd’s make up, since as he explained, that wasn’t relevant. The idea was to persuade them surely, not fight them? Poro Tauna agreed with this in principle, of course, but also wanted a contingency plan for when - if, of course - that didn’t work.
“I don’t see why it won’t.” Antonius argued. “It all makes sense to me, and I’m one of the more stubborn buggers you’ll find this side of Terra.”
“And if they cannot be persuaded?” Scar asked through his translator.
“They will be. Lord Commissar Bharti has a term for it, a cult of personality. Means they’ll do what I tell them even if they don’t believe it yet, but I know they will with time.”
“So you and your soldiers will surrender?” The translator asked after a brief conversation with Scar.
“No.” Antonius answered firmly. “This is not a surrender: there is no need for surrender. We will join the Empire of Tau.”