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Title: For the Emperor
Series:
WH40K: Ciaphas Cain #1
Authors: Sandy Mitchell
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
281
Words: 91K
From
Wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki
Part
One
Ciaphas
Cain has a problem; since leaving the Schola Progenium as an Imperial
commissar, all he's ever wanted is a nice, safe posting, far away
from any action, where he can keep his head down and count the years
until his retirement. Unfortunately, his unwanted reputation for
heroism follows him wherever he goes, together with the risk of
imminent death. Even a lofty posting to a brigade headquarters isn't
safe, since most general officers tend to see him as the perfect man
to lead the most daring (i.e., suicidal) missions they can imagine.
His only safe option, he reasons, is to request a transfer back to a
serving line regiment.
He is
saddled with the fractious Valhallan 296th/301st , the amalgamation
of two Valhallan Ice Warriors regiments torn to pieces by Tyranids on
Corania, while it is en route to Gravalax. The fact that the unit's
new and surprisingly young C.O., Colonel Regina Kasteen, is genuinely
glad to see him (a Commissar) and Jurgen when they step off the
transport, gives him an idea how bad things are.
The
296th was a rear-echelon all-female regiment, while the 301st was a
battle-hardened all-male one. The remnants of the two units openly
detest each other, and the male troopers understandably resent
Kasteen's promotion (by virtue of simple seniority) over their more
combat-experienced senior officer, Ruput Broklaw.
Less
than a week after Cain's arrival, a riot breaks out in the troop
ship's mess hall that leaves several troopers and naval provosts
dead. Cain manages to stare down the rioters, preventing an all-out
bloodbath from engulfing the rest of the ship.
In
conference with the regiment's senior officers, Cain declares that
the regiment will never be an effective fighting force unless its
troopers learn to work together, so he orders them integrated
together at squad level, and, in order to preserve their pride,
re-designates the regiment as the Valhallan 597th (296 + 301); the
two former regiments, he explains, are not being abolished, only
reborn and redefined. Kasteen and her subordinates are skeptical, but
he lightly reminds them that another Commissar would have happily
ordered wholesale executions to restore discipline, and that the
Departmento Munitorum would be equally pleased to re-designate the
regiment as a Penal Legion.
Gradually,
the troopers begin to adapt to the change, and morale recovers. But
it threatens to dive again when the captain of the ship demands that
the worst of the rioters be tried for murder and shot. Cain has no
authority to overrule the Navy, so he works out a clever compromise:
the five troopers found to have committed murder are tried and
convicted, but instead of execution, he orders them held until they
can be transferred to a Penal Legion, or, failing that, "volunteer"
for a particularly dangerous mission.
By
the time the ship has reached Gravalax, the 597th is united in
regarding Cain as one of their own.
Part
Two
The
regiment's official mission is to police Gravalax and discourage the
local populace from defecting to the Tau Empire, which seems set on
annexing the planet. Right away, Cain notices the conspicuous lack of
the respect, or fear, he is used to seeing among Imperial populations
whenever a Guard unit makes planetfall. He also gravely notes the
enthusiasm with which the people have adopted Tau styles of dress and
architecture.
Soon
after the regiment establishes its base, Cain is surprised to be
hailed by an old friend, Toren Divas from the Valhallan 12th Field
Artillery, also deployed to Gravalax. The two men spend a night out
on the town, and Divas, half-drunk, mentions rumors that the
situation is serious enough that an Inquisitor is poking around.
While staggering home, they run into a gang of pro-Tau locals, and
are nearly beaten to death, before a Kroot warrior, Gorok, appears
and tells them to go home.
Cain
and Kasteen are invited to a reception at the Governor's palace,
where they are introduced to the vapid (and, Cain suspects, inbred)
Governor Grice, the local Imperial envoy Erasmus Donali, and a Rogue
Trader named Orelius. Cain has heard enough gossip to suspect Orelius
of being the rumoured Inquisitor, but he is most captivated by the
young lounge singer providing entertainment for the party, Amberley
Vail. They share a few minutes of conversation, and a dance around
the room, before the footman announces the arrival of the Tau
ambassador.
Moments
after the Ambassador pays his respects to the governor, a bolter is
fired, and the Ambassador falls dead. No one saw where the shot came
from, but some in the Ambassador's entourage accuse the Imperials of
killing him. Cain steps in and narrowly prevents a firefight,
pointing out reasonably that whoever killed the Ambassador is trying
to provoke war between the two factions.
Unfortunately,
news of the crime has already spread, and word comes in that there is
rioting in the streets between pro-Tau and anti-xenos extremists.
Kasteen voxes the regimental headquarters, ordering them to support
the PDF in restoring order, but not to engage the Tau for any reason.
When another hidden agent destroys the Tau's transport skimmer with a
rocket, Cain and his Guard escort reluctantly agree to escort the
Ambassador's party back to their compound. Doing so forces them to
shoot an over-zealous PDF lieutenant and his squad that mistakes them
for Tau sympathizers, but returning the Tau safely helps prevent open
war, although the rioting that engulfs the city for the rest of the
night is savage.
Part
Three
Cain's
actions have brought him to the attention of Lord General Zyvan
himself, who frankly is reluctant to draw the Imperial Guard into a
protracted conflict with the Tau over a "mudball" like
Gravalax. Instead, the Guard regiments are detailed to box in and
neutralize the rebellious PDF elements who are still fighting, while
Donali makes it known that Cain is heading the investigation into
finding the Ambassador's killer.
As
Kasteen and the 597th are preparing to advance against a rebel
stronghold, Cain invents a task that will let him absent himself –
putting the fear of the Emperor into a loyalist PDF unit that is
maintaining a somewhat slack perimeter around another rebel garrison.
Accompanied
by Lieutenant Sulla's platoon, including Sergeant Lustig's squad (who
escorted him and Kasteen from the Governor's Palace), Cain visits the
PDF, only to find that they are desperately holding their own against
a much larger rebel force, having been instructed by "the
inquisitor" to keep guard while the inquisitor was investigating
something in the undercity. Cain acts quickly, igniting a promethium
stockpile that starts to collapse the rebels' fort on them, before
receiving an urgent call for extraction from the Inquisitor's party
over the vox. Given the choice between charging into a burning
building and taking the blame for an Inquisitor's death, Cain chooses
the former without much thought. With a borrowed Chimera, he and
Jurgen extract the Inquisitor's party under heavy fire from the
rebels... only to be stupefied when the Inquisitor introduces herself
– Amberley Vail.
Meanwhile,
Sulla manages to break the back of the rebel position with a
reckless, albeit effective, charge, led by herself and her Command
Squad.
Part
Four
No
longer hiding her real identity, Inquisitor Vail meets in private
with Cain and Zyvan, and fills them in on the strategic situation: by
itself, Gravalax is not worth fighting a protracted, bloody war with
the Tau, especially when the Imperium's military resources may be
needed elsewhere, with ominous signs of a new Tyranid Hive Fleet on
the horizon and Necrons awakening all over the galaxy. On the other
hand, simply letting the Tau annex the planet would invite them to do
the same to other Imperial worlds.
Vail
concludes that the cleanest way to resolve the situation is to find
and destroy the third party hoping to provoke war between the two
sides. That will mean leading another team down to the undercity,
which she was investigating when they were attacked. Since her
original team was killed or injured, she needs Cain to supply her
with another. With a sinking feeling, Cain realizes that she is
"inviting" him along.
To
Cain's further dismay, the escorts she selects to accompany them are
the five condemned troopers from the Righteous Wrath, promising a
pardon to any who come back alive – and the terrible, patient
vengeance of the Inquisition on any of them who get treacherous
ideas. The one bright spot is that Jurgen volunteers to come along
and watch Cain's back.
But
just as they are descending into the undercity, they receive word
that the PDF has rebelled, attacking Guard and Tau alike. The
Governor has panicked and ordered the Guard to mobilize, and the Tau
are doing the same. War has broken out across Gravalax, and the Guard
and Tau forces are only a hairsbreadth from opening fire on each
other.
Under
the city, they come upon a Tau scouting party on the same errand,
which fortunately includes Gorok (the Kroot Cain encountered
earlier). The two parties are able to broker a temporary alliance,
and continue on together. Coming upon the bodies of some humans
killed by their mysterious enemy, Gorok samples their flesh, and
declares it "tainted" – which gives them the first idea
of their true enemy: Genestealers, infiltrating the population and
trying to throw it into anarchy and make the planet easy pickings for
an incoming Hive Fleet.
Aboveground,
General Zyvan orders the 597th to place the Governor under arrest,
seeing it as the best way to pacify the Tau. However, when they reach
the governor's palace, they are opposed by a force larger,
better-armed, and more vicious than any of them expected.
Stumbling
onto a genestealer, nest, Cain and Vail's party is all but wiped out,
and the two of them are separated from Jurgen when a wall collapses
on him, apparently killing him. Cain and Vail have to find their way
back to the surface, relying on Cain's innate sense of direction in
an underground environment. For a moment they argue over whether he
really knows where he's going, putting him in mind of "a couple
of juvies on a disappointing date" – an image so incongruous
with their situation that both of them burst into hysterical
laughter.
After
this release of tension, they are able to focus on finding their way
back to the surface – and neither of them can muster much surprise
when a route from the genestealers' nest takes them to a secret
cellar beneath the Governor's palace. Just then they are rushed by a
brood of purestrains, and have to fight their way through. To Cain's
surprise and delight, Jurgen appears in the tunnel behind them, along
with the last remaining trooper from their party. Then the trooper
goes down, shot in the head by the Genestealer Patriarch: Governor
Grice. Seeing the third arm extending from Grice's chest, Cain
swiftly realizes where the shot that killed the Tau ambassador came
from.
Outside
the Palace, the Valhallans are alarmed when the Tau appear in force -
Hammerheads, Battlesuits, the works - and almost equally surprised
when the xenos open fire on the traitor forces. Though it goes
against the grain, the Guard forms up behind the Tau to fight their
common enemy together.
Inside
the palace, Grice drops Jurgen with a bolt pistol round to the head,
though it ricochets off his helmet and the wound is not fatal.
Amberley is narrowly saved from taking his next shot by her displacer
field. While Cain tries to aim Jurgen's dropped hellgun at the
Governor, Amberley drops him with a poisoned dart from a digital
needler concealed in her ring. The Governor dies after a few seconds
of agony which go a long way towards relieving Cain's feelings.
Cain,
Vail, and the wounded Jurgen are escorted out of the Palace by the
recently-arrived Valhallans, and it seems war has been averted.
Further good news comes when two of the troopers from their party
appear at the tunnel entrance, miraculously alive. Suspicious, Cain
questions them about what happened, and they say they don't remember
clearly. Without further explanation, Cain draws his laspistol and
shoots them both in the head. Kasteen and Broklaw are outraged, until
Cain points to an identical wound in each of their sides, revealing
that they were both infected by the genestealers. Understanding
swiftly, Kasteen orders the bodies incinerated.
At
the same time, two Pathfinders from the Tau party likewise
miraculously appear, and are reunited with their own people. Cain is
alarmed, but Amberley quells him with a look, and a secret smirk –
if the Pathfinders are similarly infected, she has no intention of
warning the Tau.
With
Grice's death, the war comes to an end, though the genestealer
infestation remains a carefully guarded secret.
Epilogue
Cain
and Vail dine at an exclusive restaurant, where she asks after Jurgen
and is pleased to hear that he is recovering steadily.
As
for the Tau, to general surprise, they are abandoning Gravalax. As
Donali explains, they concluded that, if the Imperium was so
determined to fight a protracted, bloody war to hold on to the
planet, it would not "advance the Greater Good" for the Tau
to give them the opportunity.
Vail
has some surprising news for Cain: she has been observing Jurgen
closely, including her psyker, Rakel's violent reaction to him when
Cain first rescued their party from the undercity. Jurgen, she
explains, is a Blank — a staggeringly rare attribute that nullifies
psychic or daemonic forces in his proximity. Cain is afraid that Vail
will recruit him, but she confesses that the Inquisition is much more
divided and factionalized than it appears on the outside, and most
inquisitors learn to guard their resources jealously. She decides it
is safest to leave Jurgen where he is, adding that she'll know where
to find them if she needs them. Cain is inwardly terrified at the
idea of being recruited to any more Inquisitorial errands, but joins
her in toasting "the beginning of a beautiful friendship."
Having found that I got along tolerably well with Ibram
Gaunt and the Commisariat, I asked around it turns out that
Ciaphas Cain was another Commisar and as such was worth a look-see.
From this first book, that would appear to be the case.
Gaunt and the Ghosts were of the Sabbat Crusade, on the bleeding edge
fighting the forces of Chaos directly. Cain on the other hand seems
to attach himself where ever he thinks the least danger is and in
this book only deals with xenos and genestealers, neither of which
are direct forces of Chaos (as far as I can tell). It shined a
different light on the Imperium of Man, deliberately so and it made
me wonder just how humanity had survived in space so long.
While Gaunt is serious and driven by duty, Cain is just trying to
survive, cherry picking what he thinks are the easy jobs and doing
what he thinks is the always the safest and easiest route. This is a
semi-comical series in that no matter what he does Cain comes across
looking like a Hero of the Imperium. It is fun to read about to be
honest.
The main issue I had with this book was in its organization. It is
from Cain's journals, but they are being processed through the
Inquisitor Vail and there are footnotes and addendums. It is a
deliberately layered narrative that is relying on the unreliableness
of both narrators to give the readers the clues they need to pick out
the truth. That's a lot of work for a franchise fiction book :-/ On
the other hand, it adds to the overall amusement of reading these so
I'm only mildly complaining instead of ranting.
There are 8 or 9 novels in this series and 4 or 5 short stories. I'll
be going through them all in the order they're listed under, so the
next couple of entries in the Ciaphus Cain series will be short
stories. I don't expect the reviews for those to be very long at all.
★★★☆☆
