Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 31

"Lieutenant, can you hear me?" came a gravelly voice. The words stirred Arbet's mind, bringing him back up to consciousness. Slowly Arbet opened his eyes and was dazzled by the blazing sun overhead, he squinted to shut out the worst and tried to make out his surroundings. It was then that the pain hit, a sharp stabbing sensation in his limbs accompanied by sickening nausea and a swirling rush to the head.

"Slowly," came the voice again, "You've had a nasty fall. I think your arm is broken and you have sprained your leg." Arbet blinked and waited for the world to stop spinning then he looked around and said, "Egar?"

The Sergeant's face swam into focus, the old man looking concerned as he peered into Arbet's eyes. The sergeant was not alone, he had a score of men in brown uniforms nearby, all watching with worried expressions. Arbet swallowed and asked, "What happened?"

Egar sighed, "Where to begin, the Space Marines ran rings around us, they tore us to shreds in the woods then hared off. We saw you fall off the cliff, thought you'd be dead for sure but you're lucky to have hit an outcropping, it saved your life. Getting you back up here was tricky but thankfully the other half of the platoon caught up, their Devilfish made it easy to rescue you."

Arbet sat up woozily and indeed saw a pair of transports sitting nearby, with one lone Piranha alongside. Arbet was sat on a stretcher, his legs splayed out before him, his left arm was in a sling but his right was hale and someone had put his pulse pistol back in its holster. They were back at the top of the bluffs, sitting on the road that wound higher into the mountains. It was a sorry sight, the remnants of the platoon gathered together but Arbet was not dismayed and exclaimed, "I got him!"

"Sir?" Egar asked warily.

"The mutant," Arbet declared, "I killed him, I got the mutant!"

Trooper Jonas was present and he said excitedly, "You killed one!"

Behind him Trooper Ganneth muttered, "Big whoop, one Space Marine."

Yet Arbet wasn't listening, the monster was dead, nothing else mattered. He didn't care about the rest of the Space Marines, they couldn't possibly be worse than that nightmare. He was free now, free of the terror and dark dreams that had plagued him. Arbet began to laugh fitfully, each motion sending stabs of pain into his left arm. Egar frowned and said, "Careful sir, you've knocked your head, I think you might be concussed."

Than Jonas asked, "What about the lot who got away?"

"We're in no shape to go chasing after them," Egar replied, "Better contact command and…"

Suddenly the mountain shook with a terrible roar and everybody looked about in confusion as something shot into the sky from nearby. "What was that?!" Egar shouted but Arbet's reply was snatched away as the cold hand of dread seized his heart. Everybody started shouting and pointing upwards but all Arbet could hear was mocking laughter as the terrible realisation crept over him that the nightmare had barely begun. The Space Marines had done something and like a bolt of lightning the understanding dawned that his victory over the mutant was irrelevant.

"Look, look at that!" Ganneth was shouting as something black fell from the sky, moving at tremendous velocity. It flashed past their eyes and dove into the valley before striking the front of the Kalcha dam. Arbet's jaw dropped as a sphere of blackness was conjured from nothing to rip a huge hole out of the edifice and then a moment later the dam began to crack apart. Men were shouting in denial as the dam crumbled but Arbet could only sit and watch in mute horror as the Ferrocrete was torn asunder and a moving peak of water surged into the narrow confines of the valley. The noise was incredible; a roar that made ears throb painfully and even here, high above, the clouds of moisture drenched every man head to toe.

The first tidal surge struck the walls of the valley and scoured them bare, ripping trees from the slopes and carrying away tons of loose rock. Avalanches of stone cascaded from on high but they disappeared into the torrent, swept away like pollen seeds in the wind. In moments the geography of the foothills was rewritten, changed forever by the imperious passage of the flood. Yet the disaster had barely begun. Egar sounded horrified as he gasped, "No… the city." Arbet saw what he meant, the water was not stopping but sweeping down the valley towards the unsuspecting city. The furthest edge touched the outer districts and swept over them without pausing. then the flood smashed into homes and industrial parks, surging through the smallest opening. Windows shattered under the mass of water and doors were ripped off their hinges as whole sections of the city were inundated in moments.

The surge of water swelled ever higher, fed by the vast reservoir set loose by the destruction of the dam. It rose high, reaching over ground floors to spill into first, second and third story levels. Ground cars and street lamps were snatched up, creating a deadly soup filled with metal shards that tore and gouged at anything it encountered. Nothing could stop the water; it flooded around any obstruction and surged over any barricade, reaching every inch of the city.

Many smaller buildings were engulfed entirely, collapsing in on themselves as their foundations were chewed to rubble, while the tallest and strongest were left gutted shells, hollow stands bereft of their contents. Spaceports, manufactorums, domiciles and commercial shops, none were spared, all were drowned in a tidal wave that came from nowhere and brushed aside any resistance. Arbet couldn't imagine how many people had died already and he tried not to see if any bodies were visible in the heaving floodwaters.

The water was no longer remotely blue, it was now a frothing sea of mud, brick-dust, metal shards and wooden splinters but it still moved with almighty power and terrifying speed. The water had overrun the city in moments then it spilled out of the urban conurbation and swept into the battlefield beyond. Tiny lines that were trenches were covered in heartbeats, the blood spent to take them made futile in a moment. Brave Brownshirts and desperate Imperials were obliterated with equal scorn, their enmity meaningless in the face of a force that cared nothing for allegiances or loyalties.

The flood swept over the trenches and left no sign that they were ever there, before it thundered on. It kicked aside tanks and armoured machines like children's toys, blocks of marching infantry were engulfed even as they turned to flee and static artillery was seized by the water and toppled over, long barrels disappearing into the frothing torrents. Here and there an ochre machine tried to fly above the devastation but they could not soar high enough and the wave swatted them out of the air, making a mockery of their vaunted skimmer ability. Nothing was spared; nothing could flee the calamity or avert the doom coming for them. The men watched on aghast as their army was obliterated before their eyes then Ganneth gasped, "Oh no... the Colonel." Arbet's eyes turned to the tiny dot of the Rebel's command tent, or at least the hill where he thought it had been. The tide of water had crested the hill, sweeping over the tiny mound with contemptuous ease. One moment there was a graceful ridge in the earth, the next a raw and excoriated island of mud amid a sea of devastation and Arbet knew the entire leadership of the People's Army had just been annihilated.

In barely a few minutes the green and pleasant valley had been turned into a scene of desolation. From foothill to foothill all was a quagmire of broken buildings and shattered ruins, surrounded by swirling waters that still gouged away at anything left standing. In the distance the furthest edge of the wave was headed down the valley, slowing slightly as it spread out between the foothills. Arbet knew there were other cites between the capital and the coast and for a moment he wondered if they could be warned in time but then he jeered at his own foolishness. What could anybody do to prevent such a calamity, what could any man do to avert the wrath of the Space Marines?

Soon all that was left was a scene of utter ruination, the city reduced to a scattering of broken spires, leaning drunkenly out of swamped streets. Broken buildings toppled over as their foundations failed and the land beyond was a swamp of mud, shattered debris and piled corpses. Arbet beheld it all, taking in every detail. In his mind he knew that he had just watched the death of his dreams and all he held dear. Everything that he had dedicated his life to had been washed away by the flood, crushing his reality as a man would a bug. His entire life had been rendered futile, nothing he had ever done mattered anymore: it was all gone.

Jonas was the first to speak, his voice hoarse as he croaked, "How… how many people lived here?"

Ganneth replied mechanically, "Two million in the capital, another million soldiers in the field."

Arbet gazed out on the vista of destruction with unfocused eyes and said, "I should have warned them…"

Egar's voice arose filled with confusion as he said, "Sir?"

Arbet didn't look at him but gazed out over the ruins of the valley as he said, "I should have told them to run, run and hide and pray the Imperium didn't notice them. The monsters were coming, horrors beyond their comprehension. I was fixated on only one of them, but in truth they are all monsters, more terrible and absolute than we can dare to dream. We thought we could fight them, but we never stood a chance, not against the kind of beings who would do something like this."

Egar sounded concerned as he muttered, "Lieutenant, you shouldn't talk like that."

But Arbet wasn't listening as he said, "I was a fool, I thought I could beat my nightmare but I was kidding myself. There wasn't just one monster, it was all of them. Monsters came from the stars and slaughtered us like cattle."

Jonas' voice broke in to say, "He's right, it's all over, we're beaten."

Egar spun about and barked, "Don't talk like that, we can rally the remainders of the Brownshirts. There are still men out there willing to fight!"

Yet Ganneth argued, "Don't be an idiot, save for some clerks and callow youths, all our fighting strength was in that valley. All our weapons and leadership are gone."

Jonas added, "Colonel Westerfield and that Tau O'Dea are dead and without them the war is over, Maraha is lost."

Egar growled at them, "Don't try that defeatist crap with me, we still have these guns. We can take to the mountains; fight a guerrilla campaign until the Tau send more aid."

Arbet snorted loudly, "You're dreaming, a score of men against the might of Imperium? The Tau won't come back; they don't squander their effort on lost causes."

Egar glared at him and snapped, "Lieutenant, you should be helping me rally the troops. Get your head on straight man!"

Arbet shrugged, "You do whatever you like; I'm done."

Egar spat, "That's coward's talk!"

Arbet however didn't rise to the challenge, he stared outwards and a sense of peace settled over him as he said, "This was inevitable, I should have known it. I was fooling myself to think we had a chance, but I can accept the truth now. The preachers were right; monsters are real. The Space Marines are monsters; they were made to be that way, because only monsters can fight monsters. We live in the tiny space between warring giants and either side could crush us without noticing. Well… I have had enough of it; I don't want to live in such a world anymore."

Egar started as he shouted, "No!"

But Arbet ignored him, he had accepted his fate and he had absolutely no doubts about what he was doing as he drew his weapon and shoved the barrel of the pulse pistol into his mouth and pulled the trigger. His eyes beheld the dazzling sunlight reflecting off the ruined city for a single moment before the contents of his skull were blown all over the landscape and death claimed him for its own.