Duvall told Evan to wait downstairs, then pushed through the door curtain and entered the command post.
The atmosphere on the first floor was more oppressive than usual. Several staff officers stood around the communications apparatus. The usual bustle had vanished from their faces, replaced by a taut silence. Duvall did not linger, but went straight up the iron stairs.
The second-floor briefing chamber stood open.
Duvall paused at the entrance for a moment. The room was crowded. Every officer of the 101st Ashen Watchers Regiment was present. They wore grey greatcoats, some still flecked with unmelted snow. They formed a semicircle, all eyes fixed upon the centre of the room.
Colonel Nathan Fox stood before a data-slate mounted upon a tripod, his expression as grave as though frost lay across it. A servo-skull hovered at his side, its cold mechanical eyes flickering with a dim crimson light while the mechadendrites beneath its skull swayed faintly.
In one corner of the chamber, a stretcher had been laid upon the floor.
A man lay upon it, wrapped head to toe in blood-soaked bandages. Only half of his pallid face and his tightly shut eyes were visible. The wrappings had darkened to a deep red, their edges blackened in places. His chest rose and fell weakly, every breath seeming to demand the last of his strength.
The company commanders reacted differently to the Commissar's arrival.
Most ignored Duvall entirely and continued staring at the data-slate. A few gave him a nod, but there was distance in their eyes as well. Duvall paid it no mind. He wanted only to know what had happened.
He passed through the gathering and came before the data-slate.
A complex structural schematic filled its display. Duvall gave it a cursory glance and immediately recognised it: the structural plans for Heras City's geothermal heating core. A vast reactor, distribution conduits, cooling systems, and a dense labyrinth of maintenance shafts and exhaust ports—every detail meticulously marked.
Duvall noted that the geothermal core was protected by thick alloy-steel walls. Even the maintenance shafts were reinforced, while the exhaust ports were screened by heavy alloy grilles.
"The Tech-priests found this," Colonel Nathan Fox said, his voice hoarse. "Official blueprints left behind when the agricultural collection district was established several thousand years ago."
He ran a finger along the edge of the slate.
The image changed.
A fragmented, visibly incomplete map of underground passages appeared upon the screen. Its lines were chaotic: broken in places, overlapping in others, like a spiderweb torn apart and crudely pieced back together.
"These are all the subterranean passages charted by Astra Militarum reconnaissance teams," Nathan said, lifting his eyes to Duvall. "Including the one you mentioned."
Duvall studied the map. Certain exits had been marked with blue circles, with the names of the towns and villages to which they led written beside them in small script: Norton Town, Carson Keep, Elwyn Village... all nearby settlements.
Then his gaze stopped on a red circle. It appeared to be the fork in the tunnels he had encountered before.
No city name was marked beside it.
Colonel Nathan Fox pressed a finger against the red circle. The display switched back to the geothermal-core schematic, and the two maps overlapped in translucent layers.
Duvall's pupils contracted slightly.
The unnamed branch within that red circle ran almost directly alongside one component of the geothermal core.
The distance between them was terrifyingly slight. Moreover, numerous small and medium-sized passages also approached the core. None came quite so close as this one, but they interconnected with one another.
There was also a patch of shadow between those passages and the geothermal core's components. That was likely where the reconnaissance teams had been attacked. Nathan had marked it with a question mark. Duvall suspected the rebels had nearly breached the alloy-steel wall before that component already.
"These underground passages were dug illegally by civilians," Colonel Nathan Fox said evenly. "For thousands of years, generation after generation kept digging to survive, until they all became connected."
He paused.
"The passages near the geothermal core are where those who could not pay the agricultural tithe were sent when winter came—those cast out into the cold. They did not wish to freeze to death."
Duvall understood.
Most cultists came from the oppressed civilian underclass, along with rank-and-file personnel and officers from the Planetary Defence Force. The leader of this rebellion, for instance, had once been a colonel in the PDF. They knew these illegal tunnels intimately.
"So the planetary governor and the high nobility knew nothing of these passages?" Duvall asked.
Nathan nodded.
"At least, we found no official records." He turned to the window, looking out upon the world buried beneath ice and snow. "Perhaps they knew. Perhaps they simply did not care."
For several seconds he fell silent, his back seeming slightly bowed beneath the grey light.
"I reported your suspicions to higher command," Nathan continued. "But the Lord General and the command staff say they lack sufficient forces to reinforce us. The cultists' main host is assaulting the defensive line on the northern continent."
Duvall cursed inwardly. Damn it.
"And," Nathan said, turning back to meet Duvall's eyes, "of the two reconnaissance teams we sent out, only one man returned."
He pointed to the stretcher in the corner.
"He brought back word that a vast number of cultists have gathered in those passages. They are well equipped, and..." Nathan drew a deep breath. "There are signs of Chaos Space Marines."
The chamber fell into utter silence.
"I suspect the attack on the northern continent is a feint," Nathan's voice carried with exceptional clarity through the stillness. "The cultists' true objective is to destroy the geothermal core beneath Heras City, while using a blood-sacrifice ritual to tear open the veil between the Warp and reality. It may happen today. It may happen tomorrow."
His gaze swept over the company commanders gathered before him.
"I have reported it again. But there is no time to wait for an answer. If we wait any longer, we will most likely be blown into the heavens with the rest of this place. And even if we survive, we will be drowned beneath daemons."
Nathan paused. "So I have summoned you here to ask only one question..."
"Do we risk disobeying orders, descend into the tunnels, and stop them?"
"Or do we remain here like fools and wait to die?"
No one spoke.
Only the faint hum of the servo-skull remained, together with the wounded man's weak breathing upon the stretcher.
Beyond the window, the blizzard had begun anew. Fine snowflakes struck the glass with a dry whisper. The distant horizon remained tranquil, but that tranquillity now seemed monstrously sinister.
Duvall stared at the two passage lines that nearly overlapped upon the data-slate. Only one thought filled his mind.
There was not much time left.
After a long silence, Colonel Nathan Fox glanced at Duvall. Duvall knew exactly why. Here, he represented Imperial discipline, and abandoning their assigned defensive sector constituted grave disobedience. A Commissar had the authority to shoot dead the officer who gave such an order.
But Colonel Nathan Fox only looked at him once before speaking again. "Let us put it to a vote. Those in favour of descending into the tunnels and stopping these damned cultists, raise your hands."
The nineteen company commanders looked at one another, then all turned to Duvall, who stood in the midst of them with his hands clasped behind his back.
Duvall kept his eyes fixed upon Colonel Nathan Fox. After a long moment, he suddenly grinned, then drew his bolt pistol and fired.
Before the faintly startled eyes of the company commanders, the servo-skull shattered and crashed to the floor.
"I agree with your proposal, Nathan."
"If so-called discipline means ignoring the destruction about to fall upon us, the deaths of millions, and even the coming of daemons from the Warp, then I say that bullshit discipline can step aside for now."
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