The shock waves punched Minka backwards before she realised what was happening, stinging her skin with a spray of earth. Picking herself up, she looked to Dido’s tank. It had shed a track in the explosion, which now unwound behind it as it slewed to a halt.

Minka ran forward, her laspistol drawn. Dido’s Chimera was burning. A large hole had been blown through the side armour and flames licked up the side, turning the Cadian drab black.

Elhrot clambered out of the turret cupola of his own tank. ‘What the Throne happened?’ he demanded.

Minka pointed. There had been a buried demo charge. It had carved a crater into the road. She jabbed the release stud on the access ramp, which slammed down, and the command squad tumbled out from the smoke-filled interior.

None of them appeared hurt. Dido came last. ‘I’m fine,’ she was saying but it was clearly not true. Her nose had stopped bleeding, but the blood was clotting about her nostrils and smeared across her cheek. She stumbled forward and Minka caught her. She put her arm under Dido’s armpit, taking her weight. ‘Come!’ she said. ‘Sit!’

By now the Cadians had formed a protective perimeter, but there was no one in sight. They left a guard on the burning tank, bundled Dido and the others into another Chimera and raced off towards camp.

‘Traitors?’ Minka asked, looking towards Crannog Mons.

‘I’d say blame lies closer to home,’ Sergeant Barnabas said, nodding towards the Drookian camp.

When they got back to their camp it seemed that everyone had seen the smoke and was on full alert. Baytov had sent a platoon out to investigate. They came out of camp, engines roaring, multi lasers and heavy bolters primed and ready to shoot.

Minka signalled that there had been no fatalities. They swung into camp, emptied out of the Chimera and headed for the medicae station. People swarmed around them as they walked, all wanting to know what had happened.

Banting was not at the medicae station, thankfully, but one of the nurses cleaned Dido up, shone a light into her eye, examined her ears, and passed her fit. After a large mug of recaff, Dido claimed she felt better.

‘So what about these new Whiteshields?’ the nurse said.

Minka started. ‘You’ve heard?’

‘Announcement made last night,’ the nurse said.

‘What did they say?’

The nurse paused. It clearly wasn’t of as much concern to her as it was to Minka. She repeated some line that she had heard about them all being drawn from the Cadian bloodline.

‘What the Throne is that?’ Minka said. ‘Cadia’s been cleared and resettled countless times!’

Dido was still catching up. ‘They’re baggage brats?’ she said, meaning children born within the entourage that followed regiments about the stars.

Minka was blunt. ‘Exactly! So they’re not Cadian!’

Dido looked at her. ‘Well, they’re Cadian blood. Isn’t that good enough?’