Tales of the Amber Viper Chapter 35

The drift filled with panic and alarm, the sounds of battle and the rumbles of destruction. Explosions arose randomly, pushing the protruding components of the mass in strange ways. The twisted superstructure of the station, botched together out of a dozen wrecks, was quivering under the strain, filling the air with terrible groans and bowel-loosening wails. Desperate pirates ran in all directions, bereft of leadership and beset by rampaging Space Marines they could not stand their ground. The Amber Vipers seemed to be everywhere so they abandoned their posts and fled.

Hurtling around the interior of the drift Sergeant Reddam saw the pirates' courage breaking and knew victory was within reach. The scum were cowardly at heart, only brave enough to attack those who could not fight back. They had not the steel to match a superior opponent and no plan to deal with the multi-vector assault of the Astartes. Secundus Cohort had sown bedlam in the outer reaches, while Primus Cohort went for the vital systems. The pirates were broken and leaderless, fleeing to whatever hiding holes they could find. Reddam knew that rooting them all out could take weeks, but thankfully it was not necessary. Snakelets of the Tertius Cohort were even now sneaking into life-support systems and air recyclers, sabotaging the vital machinery that kept everyone alive. It would not matter if the pirates evaded death by bolt-round or chainsword once the breathable air ran out.

The Sergeant gripped the handlebars of his bike as he raced down a wide interior passage. He cared not what the pirates used it for, only that it headed the direction he needed to go and was swiftly emptying of enemies. Behind him raced his squad, their bikes keeping pace in formation. They had sown confusion and panic with their attack, but their movements had been far from random, in fact they had been heading towards a very specific objective. Reddam steered around an overturned cargo pallet as he called, "The objective is ahead, make ready!"

Behind him Tebes called over the grinding roar of their engines, "What resistance are we expecting?"

Reddam answered, "The vault contains their most important spoils and captives. Expect heavy resistance."

He could feel the truth of his words in his gut. Reddam too had consumed a pirate's brains and from them learned of a secure vault buried in the drift, filled with the prized fruit of their raiding. Reddam had never seen it with his own eyes but stolen memories steered his hands at every junction, taking him towards his objective. He could not have drawn a map of the drift to save his life but instinct guided him at every turn. They were close, he could feel it in his bones and excitement thrummed within him. The Chapter Master wanted that vault; the Amber Vipers needed what it contained.

Suddenly their path came to an abrupt halt, the passageway ending in a circular doorway, some twenty feet high and six feet thick. It was surrounded by heavy locks that looked almost impenetrable. Set before the door were multiple barricades, lined with guns and heavy weapons. A forest of barrels presented themselves to the oncoming Amber Vipers but that wasn't what made Reddam screech to a halt. No, what made him stop was that they were all empty and unmanned, while the large door was set wide open.

The squad pulled up and looked about in stupefaction as Glord exclaimed, "Where is everybody?!"

Larus mused, "Maybe they fled?"

Yet Tebes countered, "No, this is the pirate's most important asset, they wouldn't leave it undefended."

Reddam felt his hearts sink and he snarled, "Abaddon's Balls, they are looting the place. The Heretics must know they are beaten; so they seek to steal whatever they can, or worse destroy it. We can't let that happen, dismount!"

The squad followed his order, leaping from their mounts and pulling their melee weapons free. Reddam dismounted too and said, "Glord, guard the bikes." The Brother swiftly responded, unclipping the Heavy Bolter from its railing and hefting it in his grip as he pointed it back the way they had come. Reddam meanwhile reached into a sack fitted to the pillion and pulled out a small circlet of metal, which he clipped to his belt, then took up his spear and lead the others inside the vault. Thick metal walls passed them by, reinforced and strengthened against external attack. The pirates clearly thought this place to be their most important treasury and had made sure it would be difficult to penetrate. Probably more concerned about their own minion's thieving than any expectation of a real invader. Reddam gripped his spear in both hands as they emerged into a high roofed chamber, filled with piles of glinting metals and jewels, chests filled with soft fabrics and small statuettes. The floor had ornate rugs and skinned animal furs on the floors and the walls were hung with paintings and tokens taken from captured merchant ships. The room gleamed with opulence, a dream of avarice wrought in gold and silver that would have made any Rogue Trader's fingers itch with desire. Reddam however paid scant attention to it, surveying the room for lurking foes and angles of fire where a sniper could be hiding.

Larus however gripped his knives tighter as he spat, "What is this tat?"

Tebes hefted his mining pick as he replied, "Booty: captured spoils from the pirate's raiding. The Buccaneer Queen stores her treasures here."

Larus didn't sound impressed as he idly kicked a golden lectern wrought into the shape of a spread-winged eagle and commented, "This soft metal wouldn't withstand a lasblast, let alone a bolt-round. It's useless as cover, who'd want this junk?"

Kazao's voice was muffled by his helmet as he replied, "Someone who values aesthetics over tactical utility, that's who."

Larus shook his head and said, "What use are petty trinkets to the dead? I'd take a thick ferrocrete barricade, with good lines of fire, over all this trash."

Joffel held his bonesword low as he commented, "Mortals are idiots, they have no concept of martial glory. They reckon an individual's worth is measured by how big a pile of gold they can sit their fat arses on."

"Enough," Reddam barked, "This room is clear, we need to move on."

Hastily they advanced, their leather boots pressed grime and blood into the rich rugs and rare furs but the Space Marines cared not for the treasures they were spoiling. Weapons held ready they passed into a long corridor that moved ever further back, lined with rooms. Reddam glanced into a couple as they passed and saw more chambers filled with spoils but more than that he saw refectories stocked with rich foods and wines, holo-vid rooms and even a bathhouse. There were even bedchambers, where captives lay in drug-induced torpors, the most appealing of the pirate's slaves used to slake their base lusts. His stolen memories surfaced and revealed the pirates used this vault as more than a warehouse, it was a poor-mans pleasure palace. Deorra used this place as a reward for her elite guard, a way to ensure their loyalty to her rule. Reddam's disgust for this filth rose, but none of this changed his objective. His target was worth more than all of this combined.

Suddenly he pulled up as he heard raised voices ahead, many individuals locked in an argument. The words were blurred together but he recognised threats being made, followed swiftly by the noise of pistols firing. The squad reacted instantly, hastening their pace and they turned a corner to find a firefight. Before them a score of guards was fighting, hacking at each other with knives and blasting away with pistols. A half-dozen men were already down, bleeding or already dead as the rest battled. The cause of their conflict lay behind them, a plasteel door, sealed by many locks, which had mostly been burned through with a melta-cutter. One glance was enough to tell Reddam that the guards had been trying to loot the contents, but it seemed they had fallen out and started fighting over the spoils before they even got their hands on them.

Reddam wasted not a moment to yell "Kill them all!" as he charged into the fray. The first guard he killed before they even knew he was there. A thrust to the back plunged his spear right through the man and back out again, leaving him to collapse in a spray of blood. The surviving guards realised they had another foe and turned about, but too late for the Amber Vipers were upon them. Joffel swept his sword about and tore out a throat, then went low and hacked off another guard's leg then lopped off a hand, each stroke spilling blood freely. Tebes swept his mining pick into a woman's guts, doubling her over vomiting blood, then thrust with the flat head, smashing out a man's teeth and knocking him down. Larus fought with a knife in each hand, his slices leaving convulsing mortals in his wake as the poisoned knives did their deadly work. Kazao had a Kreig-grenade launcher in his hands, wielding the stock like a club. It was a crude weapon but empowered by Space Marine muscles it was enough to crack skulls and break bones.

Reddam waded through the melee, his spear spinning and thrusting constantly. Sprays of blood ran down its length, caught in the channels of its grip and pooling in the hacked out mark of a lightning bolt that Reddam had never quite managed to erase. A man and a women fell before his deadly onslaught, their screams music to his ears. Then suddenly the room was empty of mortals, save those dying upon the floor. Reddam spun about and saw his Amber Vipers flushed with victory, finishing off the downed foes who hadn't been lucky enough to die outright. One man was trying to stuff his guts back in and Reddam rolled his eyes as he lazily reversed his spear and thrust, plunging it into the pirate's heart. The last Heretic fell at his feet and Reddam pulled back his weapon as he yelled, "Quickly, open the vault!"

Joffel shook blood off his sword and peered at the last lock on the door saying, "They were almost through. They must have burned through all but one before they started fighting. It's a runepad combination… I think we'll have to eat their brains to find out…"

He was interrupted as Kazao stepped past him and drove his fist into the lock, shattering it to pieces. The door clunked loudly as the bolts disengaged and then it slowly ground open. Joffel blinked in surprise then said, "Or… that works too."

Reddam ignored the remark as he stepped inside to claim the prize, finding himself in a small room. It was sumptuously furnished, but he paid no regard to the decor, his eyes locked on the inhabitants. Stretched out on leather couches were four individuals, in robes that had once been fine indeed but were now tattered and frayed. They were all thin and willowy, pale-skinned and sallow of cheek. They bore many rings on their fingers and their lips were stained by copious amounts of wine but none of that held any import compared to the fact that each of them boasted a third eye set in the middle of their foreheads. They were Navigators, a sanctioned breed of mutants gifted the ability to steer starships through the Warp. Forget riches and art, finery and intoxicants, nothing could be of more value than the ability to chart a safe course through the nightmarish realm of the Empyrean. These were Deorra's true treasures and Reddam had been tasked to retrieve them.

The navigators started in shock as he entered and they rose to their feet. One man's mouth opened in a wide O and his third eye began to blink open, hinting at impossible mysteries that would drive a man mad to look upon them. Yet Reddam was already in motion, leaping across the room to backhand the mutant across the face. The Amber Viper had pulled his punch but navigator still went down like a sack of flour, collapsing bonelessly to the floor. Instantly Reddam pulled the circlet from his belt and slammed it over the mutant's skull, its length gripping his forehead in a vice and squeezing his eye shut. Reddam grabbed the Navigator in one hand and slung him over his shoulder as he saw the rest of the squad doing likewise.

Reddam turned back the way he came and called, "Make haste, the mission isn't over until we evacuate these prizes."

One woman was slung over Tebes' shoulder and she punched his back feebly with her dainty fists as she shrieked, "You can't do this, Navigator's lives are sacrosanct; the God-Emperor ordained it so! Who are you?!"

Reddam carried his prize out as he snarled, "We are the Amber Vipers and we are here to liberate you. You are being rescued, whether you like it or not."