They all stood, looking down. Baytov leafed through the dataslates before handing them to Ostanko and Irinya.

Bendikt couldn’t hold himself back. ‘I’m not going to mess around here. Taking this place by Sanguinalia will be a real challenge. But it can be done. Von Horne was meticulous, but unimaginative. Mere says he was trying to bore the traitors to death. Munitorum estimates state that the expected completion of the siege, at current rates, is over fifteen years away!’

They knew this, of course. Ostanko laughed, Irinya was impassive, Baytov nodded slowly.

Bendikt gestured about him. ‘The Munitorum have already built us a palace. They’ll build a city here before the end. Sanguinalia! That is when this battle ends!’

‘So what is the plan?’ Baytov said. ‘Have they tried Termites?’

‘Yes. And they have been thwarted by a combination of stiff opposition, porous strata and flooded tunnels.’

‘Not a lack of determination?’

‘Possibly,’ Bendikt said.

Baytov glanced through the sheath of reports. ‘And then there is the causeway.’

‘Yes. Assault pipes are built into the structure, beneath the surface. We’ll be able to bring our forces right up to the front, unharmed,’ said Ostanko.

‘Yes. But once ashore there’s Tor Tartarus. Any who assault there will be slaughtered,’ added Irinya.

Bendikt listened to them and took a swill of his drink. ‘You’re all on the wrong track.’ He stood, glass in hand, thinking aloud. ‘The key to victory is Holzhauer and his Elnaur Chasseurs. They’re the steel in the fist of our foes. Once we break them the rest will crumble.’

Irinya knew her old commander well enough. ‘Sir,’ she said to Bendikt, ‘you have a plan?’

Bendikt smiled. Of course he had a plan. But first he looked to Ostanko.

The captain of First Company lifted the map of the island and stared at it. ‘If the substrata really is impossible for subterranean attack then there are two other options. One is via aerial drops. The second is a waterborne attack.’

Bendikt smiled. ‘If I put you in command of a waterborne ­assault, how would you do it?’

Ostanko paused. His forefinger briefly tapped the map as he ran through all the possibilities. ‘The obvious would be the gatehouse of Tor Tartarus. But the enemy are expecting that. Baniyas?’

‘The cliffs are half a mile high.’

Ostanko nodded slowly, considering. ‘Then the only other option would be to attack Ophio at the far side of the island. But first you would have to mount a major amphibious assault to take the island of Tor Kharybdis.’

Bendikt listened carefully. When Ostanko was done Baytov raised a cautionary note. ‘If our landings were opposed in force, then it would be very challenging. Do we have the transports for such an endeavour?’

‘We have Chimeras,’ Irinya put in. ‘They are amphibious.’