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Title: Caves of Ice
Series:
WH40K: Ciaphas Cain #2
Authors: Sandy Mitchell
Rating:
3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: SF
Pages:
275
Words: 73K
From
wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/
Part
One
About
a year after the Gravalax Incident, the Valhallan 597th is deployed
to Simia Orichalcae, to defend a vital promethium refinery from a
maurading band of Orks. The Valhallans couldn't be happier, being
sent to an Ice World to combat their hated ancestral enemies, though
Commissar Cain can't muster much enthusiasm for either.
Despite
his usual self-effacement, Cain is justifiably proud of his efforts
to merge the formerly disparate elements of the regiment into a
cohesive fighting unit. By now, the men and women of the former 296th
and 301st regiments are so tight-knit that he has to deal with a fair
share of disciplinary problems arising from excessive
"fraternization."
Cain
and Jurgen have some early excitement while riding in the first
shuttle heading down, which comes under fire from a stray band of
Orks on the ground. A lucky hit from a Rokkit Launcha forces them to
make an emergency landing which bloodies their noses but nothing
worse. Mistaking the size of the landing force, the Orks come
charging in, and are cut to pieces in an ambush.
In
the first meeting with the refinery's administrators, Colonel Kasteen
cuts through their bureaucratic meandering and declares the facility
to be under martial law, allowing her to dictate the measures for the
defense.
After
the meeting, Cain pulls aside Artur Morel, a representative from the
miners' guild who has been trying, without success, to get an
investigation into the disappearances of several miners in some of
the lower tunnels. Kasteen is worried that there may be a cave
opening that will let the Orks bypass their defenses, and Cain
volunteers to lead the search party, reasoning that poking around a
tunnel system will be more comfortable and less dangerous than
hanging around on the embattled front lines.
Cain
makes his first foray into the caves accompanied by Sgt. Lustig's
squad, and Jurgen. Finding a set of tracks, they follow them to a
steep depression, which Trooper Penlan is unlucky enough to fall
down. Alarmed, she hears something in the tunnels with her, and Cain,
assisting the effort to haul her up, slips and falls into the pit
with her. Something big and mean attacks, but Cain is able to drive
it off with a flurry of lasgun shots. Wounded but still alive, the
beast retreats before they can get a good look at it.
Cain
agrees to lead a second team, which still seems like the safer
option, now that the Orks are attacking the defenses in earnest. To
his surprise, a junior Tech Priest named Logash asks to come along,
claiming an avid interest in xenobiology.
While
reviewing the tactical situation, Kasteen, Ruput Broklaw, and Cain
are alarmed to receive a report from the orbiting troop ship's
sensors: a Gargant is headed their way. It will not arrive for
several hours, but Kasteen already knows the 597th has nothing in
their arsenal that will even slow it down.
An
extract from Lieutenant Sulla's memoirs reports on the fight at the
front lines, where the Orks are attacking ferociously, but being
effectively repelled.
Part
Two
Since
Penlan is still recovering from her injuries, Cain and Jurgen take
Sgt. Grifen's squad with them, as they pick up the search from the
pit where they stopped earlier. At first the tunnels appear to be
deserted, but as the squad disperses to check the various exits, Cain
hears something coming, and realizes that the beast is burrowing
directly through the ice at him. Before he can run it is on him, too
close for the rest of the squad to use their weapons, but Cain's
natural reflexes allow him to kill the thing with his chainsword.
Bewildered,
Logash identifies the dead beast as an ambull. Native to Luther
Macintyre IX, they have been spotted on dozens of worlds, but its
native environment is a desert. With a sinking feeling, Cain looks
closer and sees no lasgun wounds, meaning they are dealing with more
than one such beast.
During
the next meeting of the "Committee for the Defence and
Preservation of Simia Orichalcae", Kasteen informs the
Administratum and Mechanicus heads of her plan to mine the ice
tunnels under the gargant's path, collapsing the ground under it.
Worried about the risk of damaging or destroying the refinery, the
Administrator demands that Kasteen come up with an alternative
strategy. Kasteen's curt response is that she is welcome to ''go
outside and ask the orks to go away if she thought that would help."
As for Cain's party, there is a risk of them being caught in the
explosion, but Kasteen and Broklaw are reasonably confident that they
will be back before then.
Pressing
forward, Cain's team encounters several more ambulls (Logash
estimates their numbers at around half a dozen), but one of the
Troopers, Janny Drere, is seriously wounded. Cain would like nothing
better than to use that as an excuse to order the whole party back to
base, but Jurgen finds an ork skull among the ambulls' leavings. The
conclusion is unavoidable: whether the orks know it or not, there is
a way to the refinery through the tunnels, and the ambulls have
picked off a few of them already.
Part
Three
Cain
decides they have no choice but to go on, though he divides the squad
into fireteams, having Corporal Karta's carry Drere back to the
refinery for medical treatment.
Continuing
on with Sgt. Grifen's fireteam, they find the walls of an artificial
chamber, made of strange dark stone and inscribed with xenos symbols.
Logash is excited at finding previously-unsuspected archaeotech, but
Cain is horrified to recognize a Necron Tomb. Over Logash's frantic
protests, he orders the team to use their demolition charges to seal
the entrance to the chamber.
After
the explosives are detonated, Cain's first impulse is to rush back to
the surface (followed by the troopship, and then hopefully a whole
other solar system) and warn Kasteen of the Necron presence. But
finding yet another relic of the Orks, a dropped Shoota, proves that
there is still a way open into the tunnels.
Another
extract from Sulla's memoirs relates that the Valhallans are holding
the line against the Orks, though not without casualties. After her
platoon is relieved from the main defenses, Kasteen, to whom Karta
has just reported back, details them to escort the sappers and
engineers while they lay the mines in the tunnels, and retrieve
Cain's team, which is uncomfortably close to the planned mining
route.
Cain's
team emerges on the surface at the other end of the tunnel, finding
tracks that indicate the eaten Orks were Kommandos from the same
scouting party, making it more than likely that the main body of Orks
doesn't know about the tunnel. When Logash unexpectedly disappears,
they have to spread out to search for him, and see a terrible
spectacle: a band of thirty Orks stumbles onto a pair of Necron
Warriors, and are almost completely wiped out. The Necrons teleport
away, while the remaining orks raise their heads from cover and see
the tunnel. Cain orders the Valhallans to open fire, and the Orks are
killed, but the team loses one of its own, Trooper Lunt. Cain
reluctantly orders Jurgen to incinerate the body with his melta gun,
since they can't carry it back, nor can they leave any trace for the
Orks or the Necrons to find.
Heading
back down the tunnel, they pass the tomb and are horrified to see
that one last ambull has tunneled another entrance into it (before
being killed). Worse still, another band of Kommandos stumbles across
them, and they kill two more of the troopers before they are
dispatched. In the fight, a rock-fall cuts off their original route,
and they have to find another way back – unfortunately, the only
one available takes them through the now-open tomb.
With
only Cain, Jurgen, Grifen, and Trooper Magot left alive, the team
enters the Tomb with as much stealth as possible. The chamber is
massive, and there are thousands of (mercifully dormant) Necrons
inside. They hide when a party of Flayed Ones passes through the
chamber, disappearing through a Warp Portal. Wherever they
disappeared to, Cain is sure they will be back, and picks up the
pace. To their astonishment, they find Logash, who escaped from their
party to run back to the Tomb and take in its mysteries –
completely oblivious to the danger. Cain is tempted to shoot the Tech
Priest on the spot, but Logash pulls an auspex from his belt that
allows them to find another fresh ambull tunnel that takes them back
to the surface, just in time to meet Sulla's platoon.
Part
Four
After
returning to the refinery, Cain briefs Kasteen and the refinery
administrators, insisting that their only option is to evacuate the
planet and call in the Navy to obliterate the Tomb from orbit.
Magos
Ernulph, the leading Mechanicus representative, objects frantically,
saying the Tomb is a priceless trove of technology that must be
examined, not destroyed. Cain forms a terrible suspicion, and
consulting some old survey reports procured for him by Broklaw
confirms it – the refinery wasn't built over the most plentiful
promethium deposits on the planet, making it almost certain that
someone in the Mechanicus knew the Tomb was there and built the
refinery with the intent of giving themselves just this opportunity.
Cain
insists that they all have only hours left; the spike in warp energy
caused by the arrival of the Orks' space hulk reactivated the dormant
portal inside the Tomb, drawing a scouting party from wherever the
Necrons' home planet is. Now that their scouts have confirmed the
presence of the Tomb, they will be back soon, in force, to awaken it.
If the portal is left open, then it could disgorge hundreds of
thousands of Necrons into the sector.
But
Magos Ernulph cannily seizes on this very point: it would take
months, or even years, for a naval strike force to arrive, so the
only safe option is for an infantry team to return to the Tomb and
destroy the portal, before any more Necrons come through it. Cain is
horrified when Kasteen agrees, and asks him to lead the team, but
cannot think of any plausible reason to refuse.
Cain
is assigned a squad of stormtroopers, and Jurgen comes along as
always, while Kasteen and Broklaw are coordinating the evacuation of
the regiment. To his consternation, a vox call from Kasteen asks
after the whereabouts of Ernulph, who has disappeared – obviously
unwilling to leave the Tomb alone.
On
the front lines, Sulla is momentarily stunned to witness the gargant
being attacked by a flotilla of Monoliths, which begin tearing huge
chunks out of it with their weapons.
Making
their way to the Tomb, Cain's team begin exchanging fire with another
Necron scouting party; the warriors have started to awaken, thanks to
Magos Ernulph and his followers. They find a tearful and babbling
Logash, the only survivor of the Mechanicus team, the rest having
been cut down. There are enough awake warriors now, and more emerging
from the warp portal, to overcome Cain's stormtrooper escort, leaving
only himself, Jurgen, and Logash. Jurgen clears their path with his
melta, and they run for the surface. Since the stormtroopers were
carrying the demolition charges, there is nothing they can do about
the portal now.
They
emerge in the tunnels under the main processing center of the
refinery, and Cain warns Kasteen over the vox that the Necrons are
fully awake now, and on their way. In a sudden inspiration, he
realizes they are in a position to open the promethium storage tanks,
flooding the underground tunnels. Not only does the flood wash away
the pursuit right behind them, but it will (hopefully) do the same
job as the demolition charges, once it is ignited. Cain is almost
ready to think themselves safe, until they return to the surface just
as the (heavily damaged) gargant reaches the Imperial lines. Seeing a
tear in one of its legs, Kasteen concentrates fire on it, and
succeeds in toppling the war machine. Deciding it is an excellent
time to leave, she orders the last company to board the last waiting
shuttle and lift off.
From
orbit, Cain and Jurgen watch as Captain Federer detonates the
demolition charges laid for the gargant, which are close enough to
ignite the promethium in the tunnels. The resulting explosion throws
up a pillar of flame kilometers high, taking the refinery and the
remaining Orks with it.
Epilogue
Cain
spends a welcome few days with Amberley Vail, who is responsible for
debriefing the Valhallan soldiers about the Necron presence, and
swearing them all to total silence. As she is composing her report to
the Ordo Xenos, he takes the liberty of ordering a room-service
dinner for them. The main course is, naturally, ambull steak.
In a
footnote, Vail states that there was no further sign of Necron
activity on Simia Orichalcae, though the Tomb was buried too deeply
to be certain, and no one was eager to dig down and take a look.
This was a rollicking good read, with plenty of action to keep my
attention. Cain once again tries to avoid all the fights and in the
process gets right in the middle of them all and comes out looking
like a Hero of the Imperium.
The enemies this time are mainly orcs with a side of Necrons. With
this series I am learning a lot about other threats to the Human
Imperium, as Gaunt
and his Ghosts mainly dealt with the Dark Powers and their
ilk. Necrons are like Terminators on steroids that are on steroids.
It was awesome! I just had them in my head as unskinned T800's. That
can teleport. How scarily awesome is that?!?
Part of me enjoyed this so much that I was tempted to bump this up to
4stars, but on the other hand it IS franchise fiction and as such, it
has its own built-in limitations. Maybe if I only read franchise
fiction I'd give this 4stars, but since I read Shakespeare and Rex
Stout, well 3.5stars is pretty high praise!
★★★✬☆
