Most Commissars are concerned with driving their forces into an attack – but not Valian Hesh, who finds himself desperately trying to prevent a suicidal assault by the Krieg 472nd Siege Regiment on T’au Empire lines. The world they’re on is doomed to an agonising death at the hands of an Imperial battleship, and as smoke and poison leeches into the atmosphere, Commissar Hesh knows that the only hope he and the entire regiment have of survival is if he can curtail their zeal long enough to withdraw from the front lines.