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The command echelons generally believed in the theory of attrition when it came to the Imperial Guard. Any foe could be ground into pulp if you threw enough at them, and the Guard was, to them, a limitless supply of cannon fodder for just such a purpose.
‘Seven stones of power. Cut them and you will be free. Do not kill them. But first you must find your ghosts.’
‘It is written in the Vitrian Art of War: “Make your first blow sure enough to kill and there will be no need for a second.”’
It was a human zoo, an urban wilderness that surrounded civilisation. In some ways it almost reminded Gaunt of the Imperium itself – the opulent, luxurious heart surrounded by a terrible reality it knew precious little about. Or cared to know.
‘Sixty years ago on Geyluss Auspix, a rat-water world a long way from nothing in Pleigo Sutarnus, a team of Imperial scouts found an intact STC in the ruins of a pyramid city in a jungle basin. Intact. You know what it made? It was the standard template constructor for a type of steel blade, an alloy of folded steel composite that was sharper and lighter and tougher than anything we’ve had before. Thirty whole Chapters of the great Astartes are now using blades of the new pattern. The scouts became heroes. I believe each was given a world of his own. It was regarded as the greatest
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Give any man the power of a god, and you better hope he’s got the wisdom and morals of a god to match.
‘Great shot, doc,’ Larkin said, getting up, clutching his seared arm. ‘Only said I wouldn’t shoot, not that I couldn’t,’ Dorden said.
Killing is the most abhorrent, mindless profession known to man. Our role is to fashion the killing machine of the human species into a positive force. For the Emperor’s sake. For the sake of our own consciences.’
He thinks about trying again, and second chances. Sometimes there just isn’t the opportunity or the willingness to make things better. Sometimes you can’t simply have another go. You make a choice, and it’s a bad one, and you’re left with it. No amount of trying again will fix it. Don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for you, to cut you slack; you made a mistake you’ll have to live with.
‘The dead will always haunt you,’ Oktar had told him, ‘so make certain the ghosts are friendly.’
By the proclamation of the Most High Emperor, governed as I am by His will, in totally, till the end of all days, as a servant of the Inquisition, I require you to furnish with me with answers of complete truth and veracity to your best knowledge. The penalties for deception are manifold and without limit. Do you understand?’
Eventually, after a prolonged analytical study, the tacticians would decide that the only explanation could be that there were no enemy units on the field that day. It was all an illusion. Gaunt had mounted an assault through open, undefended ground. Only then did the computations and the statistics and the possibilities match up. None of them could admit that this wasn’t the case. And so, perhaps the greatest and most spectacular success of Macaroth’s great Crusade, out-classed and out-numbered but still successful, was deleted from the Imperial Annals as a phantom engagement. Such is the
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‘The first trick a political officer of the Commissariat learns is: learn to lie. The second is: trust no one. The third: never get involved with local politics.’ – Commissar-General
‘How many tanks have you taken out with that method?’ ‘Twenty-four, I think.’ ‘How many men has it cost you?’ Soric shrugged. ‘Twenty-four, of course.’
‘A friend of death, a brother of luck and a son of a bitch.’ – Major Rawne, of his commander
