A gust of sulphurous spray caught Minka in the eye. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. ‘Everything,’ she said, instinctively. She paused to consider the implications of this. ‘I’d give up everything for Cadia. Throne, I’d give up all ten thousand of us just to have Creed back with us.’

Dido nodded. ‘Me too. Tonight we have a chance to make sure the name of Cadia is never forgotten. Every time we go into battle we do that. Some of us will die. Some will keep on fighting. We’ll all die somehow. Better to go out in style, don’t you think?’

As darkness fell on the convoy, the rest of Minka’s squad returned to the Chimera. Jaromir was rubbing at a stain in his left palm. Viktor had his eyes closed. Belus and Baine began a game of Black Five and had found an unscuffed corner to scratch the scores.

‘Want to play?’ Baine said to Minka.

Why not? Minka thought. ‘Sure.’

Baine dealt her cards.

She looked at them without expression. It was a bad hand, but that was exactly what she had wished for. She didn’t want her good luck going to waste on a game of cards. Only Belus seemed happy. He had a pile of credits between his boots.

Belus was one of those troopers who couldn’t stand silence. He kept talking. ‘I hear the Whiteshields are coming in with us,’ he said.

‘Chief Commissar Shand has said that they’re no longer Whiteshields,’ Minka told him. ‘They’re shock troopers now.’

Dreno laughed. Baine pulled out his flask and unscrewed the top. The smell filled the Chimera’s chamber. ‘Recaff, anyone?’

He filled a tin mug and passed it round. Everyone took a mouthful before passing the mug back to Baine. He sieved the dregs through his teeth, swilled it out with some water.

There was a long pause. Baine made his recaff strong enough to keep them all awake.

Allun sucked in his breath. ‘Throne,’ he said, rubbing his eyes. ‘What’s in that stuff?’

Baine laughed. ‘Stimms.’

Minka put her cards down and Belus held out his own hand. Minka nodded to Baine. He scratched the tally onto the floor of the Chimera.

She’d lost a small fortune, but she was content. There you go, she thought to herself as she stood up. That’s my bad luck done with.

As the mist thinned they began to make out the shadows of the other landing ships about them, each butting through every wave that swelled towards them. For a moment they saw the whole convoy – three miles of landing craft carrying ten thousand Cadian Shock Troopers, a thousand tanks and a single point to prove: that the Cadians were the toughest bastards the Astra Militarum could put onto any battlefield, and that a sea crossing had put them all in one hell of a bad mood.