Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 24
Coluber felt the world flying past, the rush of air registering over his armour's autosenses as he was flung away. Sky and ground became interchangeable, spinning around and over each other in a mad kaleidoscope. He saw muddy trenches and piles of dead strewn everywhere as he tumbled, almost flying in defiance of gravity. The cause of this had been the detonation of a battlecannon shell, the heavy ordnance blowing apart the section of trench he had been occupying. The mortals had all been ripped apart in the explosion while the shockwave had picked Coluber up and thrown him aside like a rag doll. Surely such force would have shattered human bone to powder but his physiology was enhanced with ceramic additives, hardening his bones in ways mortals couldn't comprehend.
Coluber hung in the air for a heartbeat and then the ground came up and slammed into his shoulder. The Chapter Master hit the muddy surface and skidded through it, carving a deep groove into the ground. His proud colours were smeared with filth but he was relieved to see that he had kept his grip upon Venom's hilt and not dishonoured his weapon's spirit. Pain thrummed through Coluber but he ignored it, his protesting muscles proving no match for his diamond hard will. He lurched upright, sitting on the muddy ground to see what was occurring.
In the moments he had been incapacitated the nearest Leman Russ had reached the trenches and was ploughing straight over the parapet. It was a brutal slab-sided machine, with the lumpy protrusions of sponson mounts and a squat turret. It was typical Imperial engineering but this machine bore not the holy Aquila but strange alien markings, declarations of allegiance to the filthy Xeno. Coluber was repulsed to see a noble machine defiled so and cursed the Heretic's base treachery. Those fools thought they fought for freedom but he knew better, he knew they were enslaving themselves to alien domination. They had sold out their species and so deserved only extermination, a fate Coluber fully intended to deliver.
The tank rode up high as its tracks mounted the parapet, revealing its blank underside, then it crashed down into the trench. For a moment it was pointed downwards but then the tracks caught the other side and it lifted back up, traversing the trench with contemptuous disdain. As it did so the sponson Heavy bolters thundered, raking the trench with fire. All the remaining mortal defenders collapsed in showers of blood as the rounds tore them to shreds and the tank carried on, headed for the next line.
Yet now Coluber was on his feet, charging at the lumbering behemoth. His boots churned the mud beneath him and he roared, "With me Brothers!" From the other side he saw Sergeant Torvus charging, followed by a pair of his squadmates, Xanath and Timbra bearing a flamer. The rest were absent, headed for the other tanks. The tank gunner saw them coming and the turret started to grind around, but slowly, far too slowly. The sponsons however were quicker and sprayed out rounds wildly in an attempt to hold back the Astartes.
Coluber heard his twin heartbeats thundering in his ears as he redoubled the pace, moving too fast to be targeted. The squad however was not so fortunate and Brother Xanath was caught by a burst of rounds, sawed in half at the waist to fall in two gory chunks. Coluber snarled to himself and blinked clicked an icon in his helm's vision, summoning an Apothecary, but his pace wavered not. His legs bunched and then in one mighty bound he leapt onto the sponson.
The tank ground to a halt and the weapons jerked to and fro, desperately trying to target him but they were helpless. Coluber strode confidently over to the turret hatch for these fools had pulled too far ahead of their infantry support, a blunder that would cost them dear. Coluber heard more thuds as Torvus and Brother Timbra climbed up behind him and then he raised Venom high and struck off the locks securing the hatch and kicked it upright. A fearful cry arose from within and a desperate las-pistol shot flew straight into the sky but Coluber had already stepped back. He grabbed a frag grenade from his belt and tossed it into the hatch, timing it to perfection so the crew wouldn't have time to throw it back out. A millisecond later the grenade detonated, filling the tank with deadly shrapnel and the machine ground to a halt, sitting dead and forlorn amid the trenches.
Coluber felt immense satisfaction at ending the threat but his triumph was short lived. A flurry of las-rounds struck the tank and his armour, explosive thermal exchanges making him rattle. It was the rebel's infantry support, finally arriving in the tank's wake. Too late to save it but still able to avenge it. They spilled into the trench with cries of feral rage, many of them letting loose shots at the warriors silhouetted on the tank's hull.
Mortal instincts would have been to duck and seek shelter but Torvus spun about and cried, "Burn the Heretics!" With that Brother Timbra lifted the barrel of his flamer and shot forth a plume of incandescent Promethium. The flaming liquid struck the packed ranks of foes, setting alight clothes and hair and clinging to flesh. Rebels screamed and flailed as they died, falling in droves to thrash in agony upon the ground. The flames kept coming, filling the trench with molten death, until a stray las-bolt flew out of nowhere and struck Timbra in the helm, punching through to blow out his brains.
Coluber roared as Timbra fell, his flamer tumbling over the side of the tank and he saw another wave of rebels charging forward, jumping over the dying fires. Coluber beheld their overwhelming numbers and their sharp bayonets but he was not afraid, he was exhilarated. Coluber's lips pulled back as he ran to meet them and he roared, "Cold hearts!"
Torvus followed, drawing a combat knife as he yelled, "And fast blades!"
Together they threw themselves off the tank into the packed masses of foes and met them blade to blade. Coluber smashed into the nearest man and the weight bowled the rebel over, shattering bones like he had been hit by a wrecking ball. The next rebel Coluber disembowelled with a low swipe of Venom's edge and then swept upwards, slicing a man's face off. Behind him Torvus followed, hacking and stabbing with less grace but still lethal precision.
Coluber's style favoured a hit and run approach, striking and withdrawing, only to return again but in the tight press of bodies he could not step away. Rebels piled on all sides, hacking and stabbing in a mad scrum, seeking to end the Amber Vipers with sheer brute force. Coluber was reduced to equal crudity, cleaving limbs like a butcher and using his fists and elbows where necessary. He felt a knife ram into a joint in his hip, letting blood flow and another work its way up under his pauldron, trying to penetrate his side. The Chapter Master lashed out wildly, smashing anyone who came near him. He was shattering everything within reach but the rebels were too many and he was being overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
Coluber fought on as he vox-called, "Sector seven is being overrun, we need reinforcements!"
Behind him Torvus gasped, "They won't reach us in time."
"Then the foe shall taste our wrath before the end!" Coluber roared but too late, for a rebel landed a lucky strike and plunged his bayonet into the Sergeant's knee, making him lurch and fall. Coluber roared as he swept Vemon about, clearing an inch of space. The rebels were driven off for a heartbeat but then came back with twice the fury, seeking to end him once and for all. Coluber however refused to be moved, standing over Torvus, protecting his injured Brother with resolute determination. The rebels piled in, pressing on all sides and Coluber knew the odds were turning against him, but if this was to be his end he swore to take as many of the foe with him as possible. Then he saw it, the dreaded sight of another tank, looming over the rebels as it turned towards him. Coluber saw the barrel depressing to target him and he steeled his soul for death.
Suddenly a new voice broke into the vox, a proud declaration that declaimed, "Strike from the skies Brothers!" Coluber instantly recognised it to be the voice of Ferrac and he knew that the tide was about to turn. An instant later eleven Amber-clad giants fell from on high, flames trailing from their roaring jump packs. They slammed down with colossal speed, causing the ground to tremble with the impacts, throwing rebels off their feet.
Clad in shining Ceramite Battle-Captain Ferrac bowed low on landing, storing inertia in his legs and then leaping forward like a coiled spring. His axe-rake described a mighty sweep before him and a half-dozen rebels went down, chewed to ribbons by the raging chain-teeth. His backwards swing impaled another man on the pick side and he lifted his boot to kick the corpse off.
A rebel tried to seize the moment but Ferrac casually lifted his fat gun and fired. Sledgehammer-guns were rare variants of bolt weapon, taken from the dead hands of the pirate clans of Cariga they traded muzzle velocity and explosive-tipped points for a highly potent and unstable propellant. The result was to exchange penetrating power for unbelievable kinetic force. The mortal's body folded up around the squat round as he flew backwards, flung away like he had been hit by a sledgehammer.
"Your doom is at hand!" Ferrac bellowed as he fired again and again. Around him the assault squad piled in, swinging hook-spears, chain-glaives and in once case an energised trident. These were the Brothers of Excelsiam Squad, the finest warriors of the Chapter. If Torvus squad could be considered Chapter Master's Honour Guard then Excelsiam squad were the Vanguard Veterans, the boldest and the fiercest of all Amber Vipers and the competitive rivalry between them was fierce indeed.
Coluber saw two Assault Marines straddling the tank, clamping melta bombs to its hull then leaping clear an instant before the detonations ripped the tank apart. The rebels were dumbfounded at the sight, they froze up, they wept or turned to run away and in that instant the Astartes had them. Furiously the Amber Vipers tore the rebels to shreds, gutting any within reach and driving the rest back out of the trench. With a moment's grace Coluber reached down and pulled Torvus to his feet before leaping into the fray, swinging Venom left and right. He found himself shoulder to shoulder with Ferrac and Coluber yelled, "Good timing!"
"I didn't want you hogging all the action!" Ferrac laughed as he decapitated a dumbfounded rebel.
Coluber laughed wildly as he slashed the throat of a crying Heretic and shouted, "Yes, too fine a battle to keep to oneself!"
Ferrac smashed his axe-rake into a screaming man's chest and exclaimed, "This is truly glorious!"
Men scrambled away, running as fast as their legs could carry them, dropping their weapons as they fled from the Angels of Death. Bolt-pistol rounds chased them, cutting many down before they finally got out of range. Coluber was left standing amid piles of broken and burnt bodies, his lungs heaved as his body fought to restore his vitality and his implants burned as they made good a score of cuts he hadn't noticed taking.
Coluber faced Ferrac, who was shaking gore of the chain-teeth of his weapon and he said, "My thanks, Brother."
"Worry not," Ferrac responded, "Nobody threatens the Master of the Amber Vipers while I draw breath: nobody."
Coluber nodded and saw Sergeant Excelsiam checking the dead, his energised trident held in both hands as he finished off any living foes. Excelsiam spied Sergeant Torvus limping along and called, "No need to thank us."
Torvus snorted, "Typical assault marines, always turning up late and stealing all the glory."
Both Sergeants laughed at the jest, even though they were knee deep in dead bodies and stinking gore. Coluber was glad their spirits were buoyant, this had been a good fight, yet he lifted his voice to say, "Focus Brothers, that was merely the first wave, more will be coming. Clear the way for the Apothecaries and bring in fresh mortals, then prepare for the Rite of the Dead. Make haste, the rebels will surely return."
The squads hastened to obey but Coluber turned to face the looming mountains and muttered to himself, "Hurry Reddam, move like the hounds of hell were upon you."