The Imperial Frontier: A Dire Situation

Countless anti-aircraft shells streaked from the Hive City into the sky. Chimera anti-aircraft guns, ground-based heavy artillery, and Lascannon batteries set the heavens ablaze. The entire Hive City lay beneath this deadly pall, fiery clouds illuminating its upper levels and outer buildings. The glass and pristine facades of every great structure reflected the crimson glow.

In the oval hall of the Administratum, flickering firelight reflected across the dome and the huge fan-shaped windows, but no one there had any time to pay attention to it.

Everyone was busy, working at almost full capacity without pause. Countless mechanical instruments and communications devices answered one another in an endless chorus, and the semicircular hall was packed with people coming and going.

They came from every major organization. The Planetary Defense Force, the Astra Militarum, the Imperial Navy, and the Adeptus Mechanicus were all represented. They were crammed together, relaying messages in all manner of voices—or simply shouting curses.

The vulgar, almost barbaric language carried reports from the front, which data clerks rapidly recorded and projected onto a live map of the fighting across Victoria.

Every request for aid, troop deployment, and frontline situation was clearly displayed. The map shifted with each new outburst of curses as the war on the surface and in orbit grew ever more intense.

At the other end of the hall stood another group: staff from the Administratum, the Adeptus Arbites, and the Hive City government. They were busy keeping order throughout the Hive City, a task no easier than fighting the war.

The entire Hive City was fighting, inside and out. The fierce battle wasn't confined to the walls.

Thanks to the results of Vito's Operation Dynamo, tens of billions of people had gathered in the colossal Hive City. Feeding, clothing, housing, and caring for them were all problems. Fear of the war and rapidly dwindling supplies had led to serious law and order issues, leaving the Adeptus Arbites overwhelmed. Meanwhile, the Administratum was scrambling to provide food and water and find shelter for everyone.

Vito watched the main screen projected in the curved hall. It displayed a summary of the entire planet's situation. Countless markers and signals flickered across the three-dimensional surface of the globe, while dense clusters of lights filled the orbital regions.

Vito's eyes darted from one report to another as a flood of data flashed before him. Several Servitors had already burned out their brains processing the chaotic mass of information and been replaced—and it looked as if more would follow.

An ocean of data poured in. Outside the hall, the roar of artillery rose and fell. The force of the enemy's assaults periodically struck the glass walls of Hive City headquarters, making the multicolored panes creak as if they might shatter at any moment.

Vito glanced down from the data toward the beauty beside him. Olivia sat in the command chair reserved for the system governor. The seat on its shrine-like platform looked more like a throne, and she sat upon it like a true queen.

Of course, she wasn't actually one. The Imperium had only one Emperor: The Emperor. So Olivia wore neither a crown nor royal robes. She was dressed in a close-fitting white blouse trimmed with lace and a black bodice. As she watched the planetary data from her golden throne, her eyes were full of anxiety—almost fear.

Her fingers clutched the armrests so tightly her knuckles had gone white. Vito thought she was already being remarkably brave. Most women—or men, for that matter—would have been crying and panicking by now. But she hadn't. She was keeping as calm as she possibly could, with a composure that was astonishing.

Vito smiled and rested a hand on her shoulder. Olivia looked up at him. He wore the Inquisitor's red battle robes, with a pendant bearing the letter I—the symbol of the Inquisition—hanging on his chest.

Vito stood beside the governor like a king beside his queen, calmly directing and coordinating the vast flow of data from across the planet. Every regiment and fleet was under his command, and he was doing remarkably well. At least, the city had yet to fall in the three days since the war began.

Of course, things were far from good. Olivia could clearly see the districts that had fallen on the holographic map. The Hive City's outer districts had all been overrun, crimson markers spreading toward its core from every direction.

Several districts had vanished entirely, their populations swallowed up in an instant. The same had happened to more than half the planets in the Victoria System. Olivia still remembered the terror she'd felt the first time she saw all that data—a fear that had pierced straight through her heart.

But she had soon regained her composure. Whenever Vito rested a hand on her shoulder and stood beside her, an inexplicable sense of security and trust welled up inside her, along with the conviction that none of the countless enemies in the galaxy could stand against him.

Olivia drew a deep breath, her chest rising and then slowly falling. "Have you ever seen things get worse than this?" she asked softly. Her voice would have been swallowed up by the din of the hall, but Vito heard her clearly.

The Inquisitor smiled and looked at the global data map. "Believe me, darling, if you'd fought as many battles across this galaxy as I have, you'd get used to it too. This isn't the worst it's been."

As he spoke, he pulled a panel from the data map toward himself. It was covered in rows of figures. Vito pressed the communications symbol in one corner of the projection.

"Chapter Master, pull the Sixth Vostroyan Regiment back into the inner city. Forget that position."

"We can hold this ground! Vostroyans never retreat!"

"If you still want to serve The Emperor and the Machine God, then fall back now. I need living people to serve The Emperor and the Imperium—not dead ones."

Vito's voice was stern, full of authority and leaving no room for argument. After a brief silence, a sigh came over the channel. "I'll issue the order, Inquisitor."

"Good, Chapter Master. Stay alive and serve The Emperor for as long as you can."

"As He wills."

Vito switched the data panel to another channel, and the communication opened automatically. "Marshal, how are things with the Valhalla regiments?"

"Badly. Four of the ten regiments under my command have been mauled, and two have been wiped out. The Astartes repelled the Tyranid assault, but I think we'll have to abandon the outer wall and regroup behind the inner one."

Vito nodded slightly as he studied the frontline map displayed on the data screen. "I've already ordered the Vostroyan forces to fall back. Some of them should join up with you. The Tyranids will attack again soon, so reorganize your defenses as quickly as you can."

"Understood, sir."

Vito pushed the data panel aside, then activated the communicator on his wrist and raised it to his face. "Hello, hello. Cole, how are things on your end? Is your picnic going well?"

"If you mean the Tyranids' picnic, and us being their lunch, then they're about to finish."

"How much longer can you hold out?"

"I don't know. The Navy and the Astartes fleet have held back the swarm for now, but there are simply too many of them. We'll lose a war of attrition. All I can say is that our earlier retreat, along with the timely destruction of some supplies, kept the Tyranids from replenishing enough biomass. If The Emperor protects us, we might wear them down before they take the planet."

"How are things on the ground?"

"More than half the Hive City is gone. We're organizing the defense of the core. Fortunately, so far, not a single Tyranid Mycetic Spore has crashed into our position."

"We have to find a way, Vito. Otherwise, we're doomed sooner or later."

"I know."

"You've got a plan, don't you? I can hear it in your voice."

"You sound pretty sure."

"We've been partners for over ten years. I know when you're confident, and when you're not—but still have a plan. A dangerous one."

Cole sighed. "Do you think your plan will work?"

Vito fell silent for a moment. He didn't answer, just gazed at the firelight outside the window. At last, he spoke. "It'll work. But it's dangerous."

"Do what you think is right, Vito. I trust your judgment."

"I know. Good luck, my friend."

"Good luck to you too."

Olivia watched Vito as she placed a hand on his arm. The Inquisitor looked down at the governor, her eyes full of unease. He smiled and gently stroked her fair cheek.

"Don't worry, darling. This isn't the first siege I've fought. I've fought many, and one of them was especially brutal."

"Worse than this? More dire?"

"Yes. Back then, things were even more difficult than they are now. But I had a friend helping me all the way through—three, to be precise. Together, we held the city and made sure everything didn't fall apart."

Vito swiped the data slate away. Olivia watched the artillery fire outside as the ground-based turbine Lascannons fired again, their red flashes lighting half the command hall.

The red light fell across Vito's face, but the Inquisitor's expression remained as calm as ever. Olivia watched the crimson glow fade beyond the peaks and fell silent for a moment. "What was it like the last time you fought the Tyranids?"

"Last time? Ah, Macragge. That was the Imperium's first encounter with the Tyranids. I fought the swarm alongside the Ultramarines. Chapter Master Calgar and everyone else held the polar fronts. That battle was more brutal, more desperate."

"More than once, I thought the line was about to fall. Especially after Calgar fought the Tyrant one-on-one and was badly wounded, then sent to a ship in orbit. The entire burden of command fell on my shoulders. The First Company captain had vanished without a trace, leaving only Mikael, Sicarius, and me to direct the northern polar defense."

"It was just like now. The heavy ground-based Lascannons fired without pause while the Tyranids battered our positions like a tidal wave. It was a hopeless war, at least as it seemed at the time."

"But you all survived. You and the company captains, too."

"Yeah, we all made it. And Sicarius, too. Ah, The Emperor be praised—he somehow didn't die either."

Olivia tilted her head in surprise and looked at Vito in confusion. "You sound disappointed. Aren't you happy the Second Company captain survived?"

Vito gave a wry smile. "Darling, if you spent a few days with Sicarius, you'd want to put a bullet in his head too, just to make the idiot stop yammering."

"But in the end, yes, we won. Macragge didn't fall. After a series of heroic sacrifices and a decisive battle, we emerged victorious. So, darling, we won't die here today either."

He smiled and squeezed Olivia's shoulder. "The Emperor isn't ready to let me die yet. A lot of other people aren't, either. So we'll win."

Olivia smiled too and rested her head against Vito's waist. He gently cradled the governor's head as she closed her eyes, seeming to shut out all the noise and flames of war, leaving only a world with her and Vito in it.

"How many years have you spent living through wars?"

Vito let out a long sigh, his eyes passing over countless memories. "Honestly, I've forgotten. I've even forgotten how old I am."

"How could you?"

"Darling, if you'd lived for several centuries, or even longer, time wouldn't seem so important. You see, once you've lived for more than a hundred years, it all starts to blur."

Olivia smiled with her eyes closed. At last, a genuine smile appeared on her face. "So I slept with a man who's several hundred years old?"

Vito laughed too. "Old? I'm still pretty young. At least, I don't consider myself old. No matter how much time passes, my soul and my optimism stay young."

"Of course," Olivia said with a smile. Vito looked at a newly appeared data panel. It showed a web of red routes, marking the relocation and evacuation paths of the refugees. The survivors had gathered behind the Hive City's inner walls, waiting for either their ultimate salvation or destruction.

A new group of arrivals had appeared on the display. They seemed to be moving very slowly. And, as if that weren't bad enough, some Planetary Defense Force troops appeared to be mixed in with them. If Vito remembered correctly, he'd ordered that unit to hold its position.

Well, that wasn't much of a surprise. Collapsing morale, people losing heart, and so on.

Vito jokingly smiled and moved the data screen aside. He lightly patted Olivia's head. She opened her enchanting eyes and looked at him, and he met her gaze.

"My dear Governor, we should go and give them a little encouragement."

"Encouragement? You mean—"

"No, I'm not planning to encourage them with a Bolter. I'm not like some of my colleagues."

Vito took Olivia's hand. She rose from the throne and slipped her arm through his. Vito smiled as he watched the artillery fire streak outside.

"Let's go for a walk."

"Your choice of time and place for a date really is..."

"Uniquely me, as always. That's right."

Vito smiled and walked with Olivia toward the rear entrance of the command center. Outside the window, explosions continued to flash among the clouds. Yes, this wasn't a good time for anything.