Chapter Text
‘Why didn’t you just shoot him?’ asked Commissar Rembault looking down at the prisoner.
‘Uh, we did shoot him ma’am,’ said Sergeant Demin scratching his forehead. “Take no prisoners” is our company motto, right after “Cadia Stands!” But apparently, he just didn’t die.’
The dishevelled prisoner sat on the red sand with his arms bound in front of him. His xenos designed armour was a dark red colour; while his underbody suit was the same shade of red as the sand. His close-cropped hair and scruffy beard were also red; and his age appeared to be somewhere in the vicinity of thirty-five to forty-five years of age. Dried red blood covered the whole right side of his face and neck. An ample supply of red mud and sand finished off his attire.
‘Hmm, what’s your name, soldier?’ asked the Commissar, getting down on her haunches.
No reply.
‘Tabac stick?’ asked the Commissar, offering the prisoner one of the nicotine laced cylinders.
‘No ma’am. Don’t smoke,’ replied the prisoner.
‘Whoa, that’s the most he’s spoken since we captured him!’ exclaimed Demin.
‘I’ll ask again, what’s your name?’ said the Commissar lighting the tabac stick for herself.
‘Sergeant First Class Rokken A. Tamaguchi. Ident number 456-789-22010,’ he replied, looking at the commissar with his one good eye, the other having been glued shut by dried blood.
‘Unit sergeant?’
The prisoner took in a breath, coughed, and grunted out, ‘2nd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, of the 7th Mu’gulath Bay Regiment.’
‘I guess it takes a commissar to get these traitors to talk, uh ma’am?’ said the sergeant.
The prisoner turned and glared up at the sergeant with his one good eye.
‘Got a problem, heretic? Want a boot up your arse?’ shouted Demin getting ready to kick the prisoner.
‘Hold on, Sergeant!’ shouted the commissar with the tabac stick still between her teeth. Getting up, she shooed away the small crowd of guardsmen who were gathered around the prisoner. Then, pulling the sergeant aside, she asked, ‘So, Sergeant, tell me What-the-Throne is going on here?’
The sergeant straightened his back and looking off into the desert said, ‘There was a firefight. We over ran their position. Shot all the survivors, including the wounded. Then two hours later this heretic here…’ Demin pointed at the prisoner. ‘…Comes staggering out of the pile of dead bodies holding his head in his hands. He’s gibber jabbering away in that Blue-fish talk, “Tiki-tak ching-chang-chong oola-la-la!” So we gave him a rifle butt to the stomach, bound his hands, and sat his traitorous backside on the ground.’
‘Did you interrogate him?’
‘We tried. But he just wouldn’t answer. So we gave up, figuring he didn’t speak any Low Gothic.’
‘Alright, before we do anything else, let’s get him cleaned up and have the apothecary medic look at his wounds,’ said the commissar waving over the medic. ‘You said he was shot, does he still have any open wounds?’
‘No, ma’am. He’s just got a one big old scratch that runs around the top of his head,’ answered Demin catching a helmet tossed to him by another guardsmen. ‘Here’s his helmet. See the bolter round entered just left of centre; but then it was deflected around his head, and exited the same hole it made coming in. Bet he’s got a helluva headache right now.’
‘Get me Lieutenant Mahin, and post a guard so that no one “accidentality” shoots the prisoner,’ said the Commissar, taking a long drag on the tabac stick. ‘He’s a curiosity. And I want to find out what’s his story is.’
‘Yes ma’am.’
The traitor Sergeant Tamaguchi now found himself stripped of his body armour, and sitting on a large ammunition crate under a camouflaged awning. Cleaned up, and sporting a new head bandage, he sat there with his hands still bound, staring up at Commissar Rembault, Lieutenant Mahin, and Colour Sergeant Ugabe.
‘Cup of recaf sergeant?’ asked the pale skinned Lieutenant Mahin offering him a canteen cup.
‘Thank you ma’am, that would be much appreciated,’ said Tamaguchi taking the cup from her with his bound hands. ‘Use to hate this stuff, but most of the time it was the only thing we had to drink.’ Taking a small sip the traitor sergeant immediately spat it out saying, ‘Meaning no disrespect ma’am, but I can’t drink that!’
There were some irate noises coming from the Cadian officers; but then the commissar took a sip from the sergeant’s cup. Spitting it out, she exclaimed, ‘Belch, that’s awful! If somebody’s pissed in the recaf pot, I’m executing them on the spot!’
There was general disavowing of responsibility until Private Koch, the platoon’s vox operator, explained that the recaf was left over from earlier in that morning. She then vehemently denied pissing in the pot.
‘Go get my kit bag, Koch and dig out my tanna box, then brew us up a fresh pot.’ The voxcast operator then dutifully went off on her assigned task, relieved at her sudden stay of execution.
‘So, Sergeant First Class Tamaguchi, what’s your story?’ asked the commissar. ‘I want to know how a Cadian veteran came to fight for the T’au Empire.’
The eyes of the heretical sergeant grew so large, that they looked like two green marbles. He blew out a long breath and asked, 'Whew… how did you know I was Cadian?’
The commissar came up from behind the prisoner; and asked the apothecary medic, Private Crumb, to pull down the top of the sergeant’s underbody suit. The commissar then pulled up the left sleeve of his under shirt, to reveal an aquila tattoo with the words: “818th Regt. Cadia”.
‘Oh, yeah the tattoo. Guess I’ve had it so long that I forget that it’s there,’ he said with an apologetic smirk. But then screwing up his face he asked, ‘Hey, wait a raik’or! How’d you even know I had a Cadian tattoo commissar?’
‘I didn’t. There’s just something about you that said to me, “He’s Cadian”.’
‘Sergeant, all of us have similar tattoos on our left shoulders. Only ours read: “1012th Regt. Cadia,” said the black skinned Sergeant Ugabe. ‘So, why are you fighting for the Bluies?’
‘Yes, what’s your story sergeant?’ asked the Lieutenant Mahin.
‘Well, since I’m going to die anyway, guess there’s no reason to keep it a secret.’ Tamaguchi then rolled his shoulders, cracked his neck, and stretched his back. Settling down comfortably as he could on the ammo crate, he began his story. ‘I’m from the region of New Oz on the big island of Kakapoi in the southern hemisphere of Cadia prime. Joined the White Shields at fourteen, and the Interior Guard at twenty-one. At twenty-five, I was conscripted into the Imperial levy, and that’s when I joined the 818th regiment. My first tour was on the Mylar campaign against the Tyranids. Not an experience I’d wish on my worst enemy! Then we were sent to support the Black Templars on the Solemnus Crusade against the Orks. Don’t like Astartes and never will! Finally, our regiment was one of those sent on the Second Agrellan Campaign… Oh, thank you very much.’
Tamaguchi gratefully took the cup of tanna from Private Koch, and dropping a cube of sucrose into it, stirred the beverage with a one calloused finger. ‘Hmm, that’s real good tanna… Oh yeah, Mu’gulath Bay. That’s what I call it anyway, because now it’s my home. When we hit the world that you call Agrellan, it sure seemed like Lord General Troskzer knew what the hell he was doing. Those first weeks of the campaign we certainly had the Bluies on the run.’ The sergeant shook his head and then took another sip of tanna.
‘It really did look like we were going to take the whole planet. What with the Imperial Navy fighters cleansing the sky of Tau aircraft; and with Magos Arcotholitis and his Cog Boys messing with the Bluie’s high-tech stuff. And it didn’t hurt that the Astartes were hitting them at all their weak points. It just felt like we couldn’t lose. Were any of you there? I don’t remember the 1012th, being there?’
All the Cadian officers shook their heads. ‘The 1012th wasn’t formed until after the Agrellan Campaign,’ said the lieutenant.
‘Oh. Um…so, the 818th was part of General Graisch’s Second Spearhead in the centre of the assault. And we pushed right up to the outskirts of the Agrellan Hive Prime. But…’ Tamaguchi stopped to take another sip of tanna. ‘…That’s when the renegade warlord Farsight dropped in. And after that, the whole campaign went right into the shitter. It was like going from day to night at the snap of your fingers. One moment we’re winning; and the next moment, we’ve got our backs to the walls fighting for our lives. The 818th found ourselves in a fighting retreat all the way back to the landing zones. But then things got well... disconcerting, or at least worrisome. First, Kor'sarro Khan pulled out his 3rd company of White Scars after getting mauled by Commander Shadowsun. By the way, the White Scars lost their entire 5th company led by Kubla Altai. Killed down to the last space marine. It’s said they were annihilated by Commander Amethyst Blade, the sister of Farsight; and that their standard now hangs in Farsight’s palace on Vior’los. Betcha won’t read that in any official chapter history! Afterwards, Captain Shrike pulled out the Raven Guard, followed by Arcotholitis yanking out his Cog Boys. Then the Inq pulled up stakes soon after that. What? You didn’t know the Inquisition was on Agrellan? Who was going to sort out the few loyal citizens from all those traitors, if not the Inquisition?
‘But then something happened that got all of us in the 818th worried. When the first Imperial Navy transport arrived, Lord General Troskzer and his staff got on board…’
At this hearing the Cadian officers all shuffled about looking angry.
‘As we all know, the Cadian tradition is that the commander is the last one to leave the field of battle. And whether you are a lowly lieutenant, or a high-ranking general; every guardsmen, under your command is supposed to be off world, before you ever take a step up the loading ramp,’ said Tamaguchi finishing off his tanna.
‘Don’t believe you, sergeant. Lord General Troskzer was one of the most respected commanders of Cadia,’ said Lieutenant Mahin getting in Tamaguchi’s face. ‘He would’ve never left his command behind!’
‘Were you there lieutenant?’ he replied, standing up to face her. ‘Well, I was! And I can tell you, as Cadia Stands, that I saw with my own eyes, that sonofabitch walk up the ramp!’
‘As Cadia Stands? Who the hell are you traitor, to invoke Cadia!’ shouted the lieutenant, punching Tamaguchi several times in the face.
Sergeant Ugabe grabbed her commander by the arms saying, ‘Ma’am! Lieutenant, don’t let the traitor provoke you! We’re Cadians and not a bunch of dumb-as-frak Catachans. Let the Jungle Babies fall for that kind of bait, not us!’
Lieutenant Mahin calmed down a bit, as the Commissar pushed Tamaguchi back on the ammo crate saying, ‘Sit your traitorous ass down and finish your story heretic!’ Then, as Koch poured Tamaguchi another cup of tanna; she patted her holster and whispered, ‘I’ve still got a bolter round with your name on it!’
Tamaguchi ground his teeth, but not looking much for wear for his encounter with the lieutenant, took a large drink of his tanna, and said, ‘Begging the lieutenant’s pardon, but the Lord General was the first to leave Agrellan! And as I said, it got us mighty worried. Then things started to look like they were supposed to when the navy began evacuating General Starkzhan’s Eastern Spearhead. So we started to relax a bit. Meanwhile, the Tau held off their attacks; which started to get us worried again. It just didn’t make any sense for them to suddenly stop? Well, the navy was almost finished evacuating the Easter Spearhead; when they started evacuating the Western Spearhead. Then it happened…’ Tamaguchi paused for effect. ‘…The evacuations stopped altogether. And all contact with the navy ceased. It was like they were pulling out of the system without even telling us. Which in fact is what was happening. They pulled out and left us stranded on Agrellan!’
‘So, we’ve heard,’ said Rembault tossing the sergeant a small white package.
Tamaguchi looked down and fingering the package said, ‘The Tau declared a cease fire and sent over envoys to discuss the situation. They told us what we already had figured out, that Admiral Hawke had pulled out the fleet and abandoned us plantside. General Graisch said the Tau were giving us basically three options; we could join the T’au Empire and either join their armed forces or become settlers there on Mu’gulath Bay. Otherwise, if we wanted to stay loyal, we could be transported to a world close to Imperium controlled space. It took us only a day, but every man and woman of the 818th voted to join T’au Empire! Some wanted to be settlers, and some us want to fight for the Greater Good; but none of us wanted to try and go back. Not after what they’d done to us.’
Tamaguchi’s face went blank and he stared off into the distance; it was if he were looking at something a thousand kilometres away. ‘Admiral Hawke’s fleet suddenly arrived back at Mu’gulath Bay; but we didn’t need the Tau to tell us what that meant. We knew he wasn’t there to do a rescue, instead he was there to execute exterminatus. The Tau evacuated us so quickly and efficiently, it was scary how fast it was. They pulled us all in around Lo’vasht’au; which is their name for Agrellan Hive Prime. But they couldn’t rescue all the civilians…’
The traitor sergeant turned pale and his eyes filled with tears. ‘We could see beyond the city’s energy shields the denotations of the cyclonic torpedoes… the wall of rolling fire as it swept over the planet… as it swept up and over the energy shield. I saw with my own damn eyes both Tau’fann and Gue’vesa being incinerated by the blast… the fires killed every thing that breathed, every tree, animal, and person…it killed all of them. And after it was all over, and the fires had gone out, the sky was black and earth was nothing but grey ash,’ Tamaguchi looked down at the package in his hands. ‘I still have nightmares about it.’
‘Thank you sergeant for the emotion filled story of the last hours of Agrellan,’ said the Commissar, putting a boot on the ammo crate. She leaned over and looked at him with an intense gaze in her brown eyes, ‘So now we know how you came to be in the T’au Empire. But you still haven’t told us why you’re fighting for the Bluies?’
‘Damn desert sand!’ said Tamaguchi rubbing his eyes with both palms. ‘Makes my eyes water.’ Now holding up the package he read out loud, ‘Biscuits, Emperor’s Birthday, Qty. 2 each.’ And tearing open the package, he popped a cookie into him mouth saying, ‘Hmm… fruit flavoured. My favourite!’
Just then, a soldier standing on the top of Chimera yelled down, ‘Lieutenant, there’s a column of dust from unknown vehicles headed our way!’
To be continued...
This concludes the first chapter of "Once a Cadian, Always a Cadian", click "Next Chapter" button to continue with the story. Is Rokk a villain or a hero? Can he be trusted? Will he betray the Lieutenant and the Commissar?