Obtaining Dog Tags

The corpse pit was huge, divided into two sections.

One section was for the rebels to bury their own people. The bodies were wrapped in cloth, then a wooden marker was stuck into the ground. That counted as a burial.

Beside it was a mass grave. Bodies were simply thrown in and left there to be buried later.

Li Qinwu pulled a cart full of corpses over to several rebels handling the bodies and said, "These are all our own brothers. Make sure they get a proper burial."

The rebels came over with burial cloths and said, "May their souls return to the Golden Throne."

Li Qinwu was surprised to hear that these rebels still believed in the God-Emperor. But thinking about it, it made sense. They were rebelling against the planetary governor's harsh taxes, not the God-Emperor.

If they succeeded in seizing control of the planet, it might actually work out. The Imperium did not care who served as planetary governor, only whether the taxes were paid on time.

But when these people, who had risen up because they resented the planetary governor's heavy taxes, turned around and exploited the people in order to pay the Imperium's taxes, what would they think then?

Li Qinwu shook his head, casting off those messy thoughts. He walked over to the mass grave and immediately spotted several heavily decomposed PDF soldiers' corpses.

The uniforms on those PDF soldiers had been stripped clean, leaving only their undershirts and training clothes.

That was already pretty good. This agricultural world had abundant production. On other planets, forget leaving you an undershirt—even the corpses would be recycled!

Li Qinwu found a scrap of cloth and made himself a mask before jumping into the corpse pit. Even so, the overpowering stench nearly made him unable to open his eyes.

He did not dare waste time and quickly began searching for dog tags.

Dog tags were military identification tags. Soldiers generally carried two around their necks, with their information recorded on them.

Li Qinwu fumbled around on a PDF soldier's corpse for a while and found one dog tag. Its design was similar to those worn by American soldiers in the third millennium.

Dog tags came in primary and secondary pieces. Li Qinwu took the secondary tag and left the primary one behind. If the PDF ever retook the area, they could still identify the corpse.

Li Qinwu rummaged through the bodies, and before long, he had more than twenty PDF dog tags in hand.

Then a puzzled voice came from above the corpse pit.

"What are you doing?"

It was two rebels. Rifles were slung across their backs as they looked down at Li Qinwu in confusion.

Li Qinwu covered his nose, held up the dog tags, then bounced the shotgun on his back.

"I'm finding ammo for my gun. These tags are iron. Melt them into little iron balls, and I can shoot them."

The two rebels understood. After their rebellion, there were not many industrial zones in the territory they controlled. The guns they made themselves came in all sorts of strange varieties. The better ones were automatic weapons, but most were lousy guns without even rifling in their barrels.

Guns without rifling had their advantages too. They could fire anything, as long as you could stuff it into the barrel.

The two rebels assumed Li Qinwu was using dog tags as bullets. They told him he could take the cart away, then left.

After a round of scavenging, Li Qinwu took every PDF dog tag from the pit, stuffed them into his backpack, and climbed out. He drew deep breaths of fresh air.

It stank! It fucking stank! The smell in that pit made him feel like he had sniffed Nurgle's ass crack!

After catching his breath for a while, Li Qinwu dragged the empty cart back. When he was about a kilometer from the grain station, he tossed the cart into an irrigation canal and jumped in after it, waiting quietly.

Before long, night fell. He ate some biscuits and drank water to restore his strength, then quietly slipped out of the canal and crept toward the Hive City under cover of darkness.

The rebels' discipline was poor. Li Qinwu made it all the way to the edge of the rebel-controlled zone without encountering a single sentry. He could retreat smoothly under the cover of night.

But there were only thirty-eight PDF dog tags in his backpack. They were light and took up no space. He felt like a fisherman who had caught nothing—unsatisfied.

Li Qinwu looked around and spotted some plants growing in a field.

"Are these potatoes?"

He ran into the field, pulled out his dagger to use as a shovel, and dug up several fist-sized tubers from beneath the plants.

"Heh! They really are potatoes!"

Li Qinwu grinned and threw himself into the field, digging frantically until he had filled a backpack with potatoes.

Who would have thought that a future Rogue Trader roaming the stars would begin his fortune by stealing potatoes?

With a backpack packed full of potatoes, triggering the yellow encumbrance warning, Li Qinwu began his long journey.

He checked the map. Outside the Hive City was a PDF defense zone. One area was marked as Lieutenant Rudosen's defense sector, around twenty kilometers away, so he headed straight for it.

Several hours later, beneath a bright moon high in the sky, Li Qinwu slowly approached Lieutenant Rudosen's defense sector.

The PDF defense zone had a distinctive layout: watchtowers, searchlights, heavy machine-gun bunkers, trenches, barbed wire, and possibly mines beyond the perimeter.

Li Qinwu stopped two kilometers outside the PDF position, found a patch of soft ground, and sat down to rest. He believed Lieutenant Rudosen would come looking for him himself. His life signal had already been recorded by the Auspex, appearing as a little green dot on the map.

Sure enough, before long, an engine roared from the direction of the PDF lines. A Chimera Transport pulled up before Li Qinwu with its headlights on. The turret hatch opened, and Lieutenant Rudosen poked his head out.

Li Qinwu smiled. "How about taking me on a tour of your defensive line?"

Rudosen crossed his arms.

"Unauthorized personnel are forbidden from entering military zones. Violators will be shot!"

Li Qinwu spread his hands.

"Come on, I've been running all night. Let me have a cot. I'll sleep for one night and leave."

Lieutenant Rudosen merely stared at him without saying a word.

Li Qinwu clicked his tongue, pulled out a large handful of dog tags from his backpack, and shook them. Lieutenant Rudosen's pupils contracted.

Li Qinwu said, "To handle your business, I made a special trip into rebel territory. I nearly died for fuck's sake!"

Rudosen was silent for a moment before telling the driver, "Open the hatch."

Creeeak!

The Chimera Transport's hatch opened. Li Qinwu climbed right in, and the vehicle drove all the way back to the PDF defensive line.

The vehicle stopped in a camp surrounded by trenches. The hatch opened, and Lieutenant Rudosen led Li Qinwu toward a tent.

Li Qinwu looked around. There was one watchtower and two machine-gun bunkers. Each bunker held two large-caliber Logging Guns—in other words, heavy machine guns.

There were many tents in the camp. Quite a few PDF soldiers were drinking and playing cards. Some drunken soldiers shouted loudly, while strange cries from women came from inside other tents, all "oh-ho-ho" and such.

Li Qinwu snorted with laughter and teased, "Unauthorized personnel are forbidden from entering military zones. Violators will be shot!"

Lieutenant Rudosen's expression darkened slightly. He led Li Qinwu into his own tent and pointed at a field cot on the ground.

"You can sleep here until tomorrow morning. Tomorrow, you'll take the Great Elevator down to the Lower Hive."

Then he held out his hand to Li Qinwu.

"Hand them over!"

Li Qinwu noticed a small electric stove beside the cot. He took out several potatoes and tossed them on to roast, then pulled out a large handful of PDF dog tags and handed them over.