Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 28
Rebels filled the woods, frantic men milling everywhere in a state of panic. They ran in all directions, fleeing from shadows and phantasms that chased them. They tried to rally together in a safe spot but the roaring of engines was everywhere and there was no place they could go where it did not echo in their ears.
Racing through those woods Reddam saw their confusion and was pleased by it. In only a few passes his squad had broken up the tightly packed rebels and sent them scurrying. In the open the Heretics had been unbeatable but here in this place of darkness and fear the Astartes held all the advantages. Reddam skidded around a tree as a random shot flew past him. The Heretics were everywhere, firing randomly at anything they saw. It was the perfect environment for him to pick them off one by one but that was not his objective. Taking down the Heretics one man at a time would take too long, especially as he had ordered the squad to focus on bigger targets.
Reddam found himself riding right at a Devilfish, the large transport struggling to find a route past a knot of trees. A few rebels were guarding it with their long guns but they were all looking ahead, while the Sergeant had looped around and was approaching from the rear, unseen and undetected. He saw the thrusters twisting to and fro on either side of the machine and he knew what had to be done. Reddam lifted his bolter's aim and lined up on the machine. He waited half a second until the angle was perfect then he fired the bolters in a tight burst. Mass-reactive rounds spat from both barrels and traversed the distance in an instant, flying right up the exhaust of the Devilfish's right thruster. A moment later the engine exploded, tearing it apart in a fiery explosion. The skimmer fell the ground, its flank burying itself in the dirt as its left tried to push it along.
Reddam saw Heretics frantically wheeling about, trying to target him but before they could react he was already past, roaring off into the shadows. A spray of shots chased him but hit nothing save air as he raced away. A hanging branch lashed his face, leaving cuts over his visage but it was as nothing compared to the elation of his victory. A moment later he fled past another Devilfish, burning from end to end and he knew the rest of his squad was equally busy; the battle was turning in their favour.
Reddam saw a flash of umber in the dark and veered closer, it was Kazao jostling so hard he was nearly flung from the saddle. Reddam drifted around a tree and called, "I count two skimmers!"
Kazao shouted back, "The third one is ahead."
Reddam grinned and called, "With me, we'll take it together!"
With that the pair veered off, heading for the third Devilfish. Reddam saw its ochre hull through the trees and increased speed, hoping to take it by surprise. Unfortunately this time the transport was pointed right at them and the burst cannon was already firing. Reddam jinxed hard and heard the rounds striking something behind him, he had no time to look though, instead focussing ahead and lining up his bolters. The Devilfish presented an angled slab of composite armour to him, impervious to light fire but he spotted a minuscule vision block and lined up his sights. It was incredibly difficult, even for him, to line up the jostling bike on his target but he persevered and then fired.
A flurry of bolts hammered the area around the vision block and three of them struck it directly, shattering the material to spray the driver with razor-sharp shrapnel. A moment later Reddam heard the flat bag of a Grenade Launcher and the fat bulk of a frag round went through the gap, disappearing within. Reddam swerved hard to the right as a crump erupted from the Devilfish, the detonation killing the crew and wrecking the machine's controls. The Devilfish sank to the ground as the pair of Astartes raced away, fleeing the scene at top speed. Reddam glanced back to congratulate Kazao but was shocked to see the lad wrestling with his bike, swaying drunkenly from side to side.
"Are you hit?" Reddam shouted over the roar of the engine.
"That last burst damaged my steering," Kazao declared, "I think I'm losing fuel too."
"Fall-back," Reddam ordered, "Get out of here."
"I can still fight!" Kazao protested.
"You're no use like this," Reddam snarled, "Get out of the woods and wait for the rest of us."
Kazao complied, splitting off and disappearing from the fight. Reddam however focussed ahead and called on the vox, "Status report."
Tebes' voice came back, "Heretics fall before me in droves."
Glord came next, "We took out one of the smaller skimmers with the Heavy Bolter, be aware they like to come from above."
"Good," Reddam declared, "One more skimmer to go, keep sharp."
Reddam went silent as he glanced upwards, looking for the last Piranha. He pressed deeper into the wood, avoiding the rebels for long minutes as he searched for his prey, yet it was in fact the Piranha who found him. From nowhere a spray of burst cannon fire lashed out of the canopy and the two-man machine dove from above, matching his speed perfectly.
Reddam jinxed left and felt his bike shudder as the shots blew gaping craters into its exhausts. Reddam heard the engine's distress but he pushed it harder, overcoming its protestations with grim determination. The Piranha wailed loudly as it chased him through the wood, matching his velocity perfectly. Reddam had no time to turn and engage, he could only flee before his pursuer. He skidded around a tree and opened the throttle wide in an attempt to withdraw but the pilot was good and matched his move firing all the while. The pair shot into the darkness, the biker chased every inch of the way by burst cannon fire.
Reddam yanked his machine from left to right, avoiding deadly shots and trees with all his skill. The Piranha though did not relent, keeping right on his tail, determined to finish him once and for all. Reddam knew death was seconds away but that knowledge lent him preternatural clarity and total awareness of the environment. Suddenly a tree loomed in his vision and his hand flashed out, palm slapping the bare trunk even as he twisted his handlebars. Incredible torsion nearly ripped his arm from the socket and raw bark shredded his palm but with immense strength he spun the bike ninety degrees, making a turn that should have been impossible.
The chasing Piranha pilot didn't even have time to process that, and certainly couldn't have matched the move. He shot past the tree in a blur of movement and had barely begun to turn when he flew straight into a doughty trunk. The Piranha slammed into the tree at remarkable speed, throwing both men out as it crumpled around the bark and came to an instant stop. The pilots however kept going, smacking into the branches with bone-shattering momentum and snapping their necks instantly.
Reddam didn't bother to look back and pushed his bike harder, hurtling through the forest grinning all the while. By his reckoning the Heretics had lost all their transports and they certainly could not keep up with the bikes on foot. Reddam opened his vox again and called, "Squad form up and move out, we're done here."
"Acknowledged," came the voices of Larus, terse as ever.
Yet Tebes' voice came back, "Sergeant, enemies yet live."
Reddam rebuked him, "We have not the time to hunt down every last one. Remember always mission before self, we have left the Deathstrike alone too long already. The Heretics ability to keep up with us has been neutralised, we withdraw now."
With that Reddam veered towards a patch of light and in moments burst out of the constraining darkness into the brilliance of daytime. He found he had emerged from the wood on the cliff's edge, with the long road stretched out before him. It was exactly as they had left it save for one thing, Kazao's bike, lying forlornly on the side of the road, dripping oil and fuel from a score of pulse-shots. Reddam saw the wreckage of the bike, riddled with holes and his hearts went cold. He twisted his head about and looked for its rider and then he saw Kazao, at the cliff's edge where he was battling with another.
Kazao was badly wounded, his light armour in tatters and the flesh beneath crazed with blast marks. His helmet was cracked and his carapace punctured in many places. Set against him was a mortal man in brown fatigues, who had officer pins at his throat and a pulse-pistol in his hand. The pair were wrestling back and forth, trying to batter each other into submission.
In hand to hand combat Reddam would have favoured any Astartes over a mortal, except it was obvious that Kazao was badly wounded. Whatever had taken out his bike had left him reeling, his grip was weakening and he moved with a bad limp that slowed him down. A few minutes of rest would have made good his wounds but he clearly had enjoyed not the time to recover.
The officer, on the other hand, was fit and hale, experienced in combat and he knew how to fight to kill rather than hurt. There was more, a frantic desperation to the man, a need that drove him to the edge of insanity. A single second's glance told Reddam that this man cared not whether he lived or died, only that his foe was slain, the kind of berserk madness that could drive a man to do anything.
Reddam twisted his bike around and roared at the wrestling pair, determined to intervene but he was already too late. Before his eyes he saw the mortal lash out with his boot, driving Kazao's bulk back a step, giving him room to level his pulse pistol at the warrior's head. Reddam's thumb moved for his bolter trigger but Kazao had already reacted.
The wounded Astartes saw death coming for him and threw caution to the wind. He lowered his head and even as the officer's finger tightened on the trigger Kazao threw himself bodily into the man, bowling them both over. Momentum sent them both flying backwards and before Reddam's horrified eyes they both went flying off the cliff's edge.
"No!" Reddam yelled as he barrelled towards the spot, pulling up to the edge a moment after they had disappeared. He screeched to a halt and peered out, frantically scanning for his lost Brother. Below him the slope dropped away, a steep incline back down to the road they had come up. It was a hundred-metre drop down a jagged rockface, a bone-shattering fall that could break a fit Astartes, let alone a wounded one.
Reddam spied the Heretic officer, nestled in an outcropping of rocks some dozen metres down. He had rolled there and was sprawled in a broken heap. He might have lived, or he might not but Reddam didn't care, his eyes looking only for Kazao. Yet of the youth there was no sign, he had vanished among the jagged rocks. He could have fallen ten metres and be lying under a rock or he might have fallen a hundred and be lying dead in a shattered heap, Reddam had no way to know.
A loud roar announced Tebes, Glord and Larus pulling up behind him and he heard Glord call, "What happened?"
Reddam swallowed and said, "Kazao went over the edge."
"Quickly," Glord said, "We need to find him."
Yet Tebes countered, "We have not the time."
"Damn it," Glord spat, "We can't leave him to die!"
Larus however said, "He's dead already or as good as."
"You…" Glord began to say but Reddam cut in to say, "No, we can't stay."
Glord looked forlorn as he said, "But…"
"The mission comes first," Reddam spat angrily, "Mourn later, we must press on."
Glord looked like he was about to argue but then shouts rang out of the woods and Reddam knew the Heretics were pursuing on foot. He twisted his throttle and shot away, leading the squad away and leaving the battle behind. He led the survivors back to the road but inside he was seething, this mission had already cost him two Brothers, he would be damned if he let any more die this day.
