One of the biggest changes in her daily routines was that now Minka ate in the officer’s mess. It was a block set apart from the other buildings, with guards on the door and its own cater­ing staff. The room had been decorated with a selection of the artefacts that the regiment had salvaged from Cadia. A pair of crossed flags hung at the far end of the room. One was the company banner, the other a golden aquila embroidered onto a field of sable.

Silver bowls and plates hung on the walls, each one engraved with the name of an officer or a battle or a planet where the 101st had served. There were strings of paintings with heavy gilded frames, displaying the commanding officers of the company stretching back hundreds of years. Each likeness showed the officer in dress uniform or camo, according to the passing fashions of the time. Some had chosen to be painted amidst the scenes of their greatest victories. There were ice worlds, flames, broken bastions, great plains filled with furiously contesting ­armour. A few showed images of Cadia. Minka paused before those, and she drank the images up, like a thirsty man given a glass of clear water.

Now she brushed shoulders with the company officers. Sparker sensed her discomfort and took her aside for a briefing. ‘There’s no need for formalities. Treat senior officers with respect. But don’t be backwards in approaching them if you need advice.’

‘Thank you, sir.’

Each morning there were company officer meetings. Tactics were discussed. The state of each platoon, the regiment, the entire war. Minka soaked it all up. She was cautious of speaking at first, but it seemed that the other officers not only accepted her, but were keen to hear her opinion. While Tor Kharybdis had been a success, it hadn’t won the war. And there still remained the question of how to break Traitor Rock.

‘I don’t think it’s going the way Bendikt wanted. We’ve bled them, but not enough. Either that, or they’re more stubborn than he was expecting.’

‘We could attack Margrat,’ Lieutenant Petr suggested.

It made no sense to any of them. No. The attack had to come at Tor Tartarus.

‘But any attack there faces terrible bombardment from above. It would be very costly indeed.’

Colonel Sparker went round each person, asking how they would take Tor Tartarus.

When it was Minka’s turn she tried to appear calm and unhurried. ‘We could launch another amphibious assault at Ophio?’

‘Unlikely to succeed a second time,’ Sparker said.

Minka stared at the fortress. ‘So it’s Tor Tartarus.’ She remembered Markgraaf Hive. ‘Is there a way of going in with Termites?’

Sparker shook his head. ‘No. The island itself is volcanic but the archo-geologists state that the shoreward side is porous rock. Too soft for Termites. They’re likely to get swamped. Or drowned.’