Tomas Beije
"How truly it has been said that the glory we gain blinds us first with its lustre."
- Tomas Beije, quoting from Caddaway's "Paths to Damnation".[1d]
Tomas Beije was regimental Commissar of the Tallarn 229th during its deployment to Adumbria in 937.M41.[1c]
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History
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This page contains spoilers for: | The Traitor's Hand (Novel) |
Beije was in the same Schola Progenium class as Ciaphas Cain, and the two disliked each other intensely. Beije was always correct in adherence to rules and his piety to the Emperor, and was quick to report any of his fellow cadets who he felt were not[1a]. Cain and several of his less reverent classmates often delighted in playing pranks on their more strait-laced comrades, especially Beije[1b].
The two did not cross paths again until almost twenty years later, when the Tallarn 229th was deployed to Adumbria alongside the Valhallan 597th, Cain's regiment. Like many Tallarn regiments, the 229th was intensely pious, which made Cain feel that Beije's assignment marked a stroke of good judgment (or luck) on the part of the Departmento Munitorum: in any other regiment, Beije would likely have been "accidentally" shot during his first engagement[1a].
Inquisitor Amberley Vail, editing Cain's memoirs, attached several dispatches by Beije to his superiors, which included quotes from Redemptionist tracts of "dubious theology and even worse literacy."[1c][1d]
By the time of their next meeting, Cain had become a celebrated Hero of the Imperium, and a personal friend of Lord General Zyvan. These facts filled Beije with a combination of bafflement, moral outrage, and seething envy. To his mind, it was somehow wrong - not to say impossible - that a man as lacking in discipline and proper fear of the Emperor as Cain should have risen so high, while Beije himself had not[1b].
Beije also shared his Tallarn comrades' low regard for Imperial Guard Regiments that included women, which increased the friction between the Tallarns and the Valhallans prior to their deployment[1a][1b].
During the Adumbria campaign, to defend the world from a Chaos invasion, Beije sought to undermine Cain at several times. In one of the above-mentioned dispatches to the Lord General's office, he implied that there was something at best cowardly, and at worst sinister, in the fact that Cain had been attached to two separate Guard contingents that had stumbled onto the sites of cultist summoning rituals, and, in both cases, had not arrived until after these rituals were completed[1d]. Later, he asked an assembly of the Guard headquarters whether it was really believable that Cain had defeated a World Eater Chaos Space Marine in single combat. Cain played down his role in the encounter, as usual, and managed to convince nearly everyone assembled[1e].
During the climactic battle of the campaign, Cain commandeered a drop ship which had been ordered to the frontlines, and diverted it to an oceanic dredger, where Slaaneshi cultists were conducting a summoning ritual. Beije seized on this action and pursued the dropship with a squad of Tallarn troopers, declaring Cain under arrest for desertion, cowardice and subverting military resources[1f]. When the Valhallan troopers protested, Beije brazenly ordered his Tallarn escorts to shoot them all down. Fortunately, the Tallarns were sensible enough to recognize that they were grossly outnumbered, and held back[1g].
While deriding Cain's claimed reasons for diverting the troopship, Beije also made the mistake of insulting the 597th's commander, Colonel Regina Kasteen. Cain stiffly challenged him to a duel when the combat was over[1g].
Cain broke the standoff by declaring that their mission was in deadly earnest - a fact reinforced when battle erupted between the cultists and an arriving force of World Eaters. Beije, confused, could only order his troopers to follow after Cain as he and the Valhallans charged ahead in the World Eaters' wake[1g].
Fittingly, Beije was personally present when Cain, for the second time, narrowly defeated a World Eater with his chainsword, a feat which cemented his reputation with the Valhallans and the Tallarns alike[1h]. Likewise, Beije's accusations of cowardice rang hollow when Cain and his troops confronted the Daemoness, Emeli Duboir, and banished her back to the Warp. Beije did not distinguish himself during the action, being noticeably petrified by the appearance of the daemon[1i].
For whatever reason, Beije still insisted on putting Cain before a Commissariat tribunal. The results were all Cain could have hoped for: the tribunal, with the help of some discreet information provided by Lord General Zyvan, found Cain innocent of any wrongdoing and commended him for his heroic actions; and on its own motion, brought charges against Beije for conduct unbecoming a commissar. The tribunal found that Beije's actions, had he carried them out, could have had the worst consequences for the planet.[1j] Cain, writing his own memoirs years later, harshly echoed this sentiment, reflecting that Beije's "pig-headed stupidity... almost ended up handing an Imperial world to the Ruinous Powers neatly gift-wrapped with a pretty pink bow[.]"[1a]
Beije was stripped of his rank and was almost certainly facing execution, but Cain promised to speak in his defense, and testify that Beije's actions, however ill-advised, came from only the best intentions. Privately, Cain reflected that shooting him would not do anyone much good, and that it would be infinitely more satisfying to have Beije in his debt for the remainder of their lives.[1j]
Faced with the prospect of a duel with Cain, Beije offered his humble apologies to Colonel Kasteen, before making a hasty exit.[1j]
See also
Related articles
Sources
- 1: The Traitor's Hand (Novel) - Ciaphas Cain: Hero of the Imperium (Omnibus)
- 1a: Chapter 1, pgs. 501–505
- 1b: Chapter 2, pgs. 515-518
- 1c: Editorial Note after Chapter 7, pgs. 588–589
- 1d: Editorial Note after Chapter 10, pgs. 623–624
- 1e: Chapter 14, pg. 666
- 1f: Chapter 17, pgs. 716–717
- 1g: Chapter 18, pgs. 723–725
- 1h: Chapter 19, pgs. 736–737
- 1i: Chapter 20, pgs. 751–752
- 1j: Chapter 21, pgs. 755–756
