Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 56
The Mon-Keigh were frantic, the crowds of bestial invaders abandoning their digging and racing for their guns. Hastily lines of frail apes formed, taking up lasrifles and autoguns as they tried to rally. Heavy weapons teams were already in position, pointing heavy bolters and autocannons at the darkness under the trees. Sweaty hands gripped triggers and yellow uniforms were stained with piss as the fearful Mon-keigh searched for the first sign of attack. Among their number the warrior-caste stood proud, their weapons held in hands that did not shake with fear. Many of them wore half-plate and bore shotguns while the finest wore fully-enclosed armour and wielded weapons that promised to reap a terrible slaughter.
Elhyn could see their preparations as he circled around their camp and he judged their defence insufficient. The Mon-keigh were outnumbered and surrounded and their invasion of Athelling was about to be crushed. He was skimming just below the treetops but even from here he could smell them, the rancid sweat of alien bodies, the mixture of fear and perspiration laced with the oils and grease they caked their tools in. Everything about their presence was offensive, they had no right to be on this world and they would pay for the affront with their lives. A kilometre below the united Kinbands moved to encircle the Mon-keigh, they had broken past the perimeter guards and left a rearguard to tie up the twin-boomed flying machines. Now the attack would be unimpeded and victory would belong to the Eldar, but first they had to soften the target.
Elhyn raised Wrymfang high for all to see and shouted, "I shall lead the first wave!"
From her silver drake Celasia cried, "Go my son, open the way!"
Elhyn waved for his bravest kin to form up in his slipstream and Ilfavor croaked, "Strike, strike now."
Elhyn held on tight and said, "Go my friend, as fast as you can. Let our speed be blinding."
As one a hundred drakes beat their wings and then tucked them in, diving on a sharp angle towards the Mon-keigh. Their speed increased at an astonishing rate and the wind became a claw around his head, trying to tear him from his seating. Elhyn clung to his drake and held his spear tight as they dove, trusting in his partner to know when to pull up. A thousand metres became seven hundred, which became five hundred and still they dove. At two hundred Ilfavor's wings snapped out and Elhyn felt a crushing force slam into him as they pulled up, coming to soar a hundred metres above the ground and flying at tremendous speed. Elhyn's eyes watered from the wind stabbing into them but he saw a flash of light and then the drakes shot out over the camp, dashing over the heads of the foolish Mon-Keigh.
Weapons thundered as the invaders opened fire, filling the air with flashing light and tracers. The ground seemed to give birth to a volley of spears, trying to swat the Wind-dancers from the sky but the drake's speed was phenomenal and Mon-keigh eyesight was so poor they failed to lead their targets. The drakes were over the edge of their defence before the first shot was fired and they flew past the apish creatures, leaving them in bewilderment. Only the warrior-caste seemed to able to respond in time, their quick eyes sending screaming rounds exactly where they needed to be. Elhyn felt a buzzing bolt flash past his head, barely missing him, but half-dozen of his kin were not so fortunate. Drakes fell with chests blown out and riders toppled missing heads as the deadly accurate fire blasted them from the sky, causing Elhyn to curse the lives sacrificed on the altar of Mon-Keigh greed.
The first wave was inside the camp but they made no attempt to hurt the invaders, their role was not to injure the foe, but merely to draw their fire. Even as they flew past the shadows under the trees exploded with more Eldar, the encircling Kinbands attacking as one. First came bounding longstriders, their graceful gallop taking them from the depths of the forest into the Mon-keigh line in moments. The riders fell upon bewildered invaders, who were still trying to target the flying forms overhead and their lances bathed in blood as they struck home. The beast's claws lashed out left and right and their fanged maws snapped shut on yellow-uniforms, spilling blood freely. The Mon-keigh line reeled under the onslaught, but they retained their stubborn defiance. Heavy weapons swung about and gave voice to their fury, sending a devastating volley into the Eldar riders. Longstriders were struck most cruelly, their hides torn by weighty rounds and had there been more time they might have been cut down to the last soul. Sadly for the invaders time had run out.
Behind the Longstriders arose a deep rumbling growl and the thudding of heavy feet, then came the Leviatatus', followed more slowly by the Chellonians. The forest exploded with charging beasts, all muscled flanks and flashing tusks. The Mon-keigh frantically swung their guns about to face this new threat but their fire ricocheted off bony crests and they could not stop their doom coming. The Leviatatus' charge hit home and sent broken bodies flying. Tusks ripped chests apart and stomping feet shattered limbs, crushing the invaders on every front. Moments later lumbering mountains of flesh and carapace joined the fray, their thick shells deflecting anything that came their way. On the beast's backs riders sent out flurries of bowshots and lashing whips, adding to the tally of death.
The slaughter on the ground was terrible to behold, but the final blow had yet to fall. From the skies came the second wave of aerial beasts, the remaining Drakes, accompanied by the Kraken. The air became thick with wings, the flurries of attackers filling every inch of air. Drakes led the way, their darting forms raining bowshots while Kraken followed, their stately cruise over the battlefield leaving ruin in their wake. Mon-Keigh fell with arrows protruding through their necks and chests, while showers of rocks crushed heads, their feeble fur hats offering no protection at all.
Elhyn could see it all as he banked around, coming back over the battlefield. He could see the Mon-keigh camp falling into ruin and despair; he could see the victory of the Eldar at hand. Here a knot of resistance was smashed by a Leviatatus, running through the sandbagged emplacement and out the other side without even slowing down. There a fleeing Mon-keigh was cut down by a longstrider that came out of nowhere. A Kraken soared over the fray, five riders on its back picking off fleeing Mon-keigh with precise bowshots as it made its leisurely pass. A sandbag protected team of Mon-keigh swung an autocannon about to target a Leviatatus and their chugging weapon blew steaming chunks out of its side. The beast screamed in pain as rounds punched through its leathery hide but then a Chellonian lumbered into the path of the fire, its shell deflecting every shot. The invaders redoubled their efforts but they could not penetrate the inviolable shell and their efforts were ended a moment later as a team of Eldar riding upon its back fired a salvo of arrows that fell like rain and left the apes dead with shafts sticking out of their chests and throats.
Death was everywhere, advancing on all sides while overhead drakes rained down bowfire, including Celasia who had at last joined the fray, her Bright Lance blowing apart any resistance. Surrounded and dying in droves the Mon-keigh's courage broke, they turned and ran and the rout would have been completed save for the fact that the warrior-caste yet fought on. In the beating heart of battle the Amber-armoured figures stood proud, firing constantly into the fray. They alone were denying the Eldar advance, falling back to create a smaller circle of defence around the bulky, winged craft sitting in the middle of their encampment. Elhyn snarled at the sight, but could not intervene, Wrymfang lacked the reach to target figures upon the ground and their fire was too precise and deadly to risk approaching any nearer. Among their number a yelling warrior with a curved sword led the defence, his exhortations stoking his follower's courage. The warrior-caste alone were holding the line and breaking them open would cost the Eldar dear, but thankfully the Kinbands had brought something special to deal with them.
Elhyn saw the Dynast Olalath advancing, she rode her proud Chellonian into the fray and at her sides were two matching beasts. Three Chellonians, all armed with reaper missile launchers. Eldar attendants on their backs laboured over the weapons, swinging them about on fixed mounts to target the circle of warrior-caste. The Mon-keigh saw the danger and let loose a stream of flaring shots, punching Eldar from the back of the beasts but the Chellonians were proof against the bolts and then the surviving crew gave voice to their response. Streams of micro-missiles fell upon the ring of defiant warriors, blowing the ground apart under their feet and sending them into the air in pieces. Ceramite armour failed to hold and invaders fell in droves before the onslaught, leaving a gaping hole in their line.
The Kinbands cried in elation as they saw their chance to end this battle. The fight was about to become a slaughter and the Mon-Keigh's last defence was shattered. It was only a matter of time until every last invader was brought low. It seemed they knew it too for suddenly the survivors began to retreat, racing to the centre of the clearing where their flying machines began to rumble loudly. Frail apes dropped their weapons in a cowardly dash to reach the machines before they fled, running for their pathetic lives. Sadly despite their losses the armoured warrior-caste fell back in good order, firing constantly to hold back the last charge. Elhyn thought it was pointless but then he grimaced to see a four of them bringing flaming guns to bear. Streams of promethium flames ejected forth on each quadrant, burning the ground black and creating a moat of fire. The Eldar urged their beasts to vault the flames but the animals refused, no amount of cajoling could overcome their innate fear of fire. The beasts halted their advance and the Mon-Keigh fell back, they had bought a moment to effect a withdrawal and it seemed they might just get away.
Elhyn was still circling the battle as his anger rose, he felt powerless to intervene for he could not throw Wyrmfang at the ground without leaving himself unarmed but then he saw a way to fight back. The first grey machine was taking off, desperate Mon-keigh in yellow cloth still trying to pile into the open doors. The machine was moving slowly as it rose, fighting for height and speed. Elhyn immediately steered towards it, grinning at the prospect of a kill. The invaders saw him coming and a gun in the door swung towards him but Ilfavour dodged adroitly, evading the clumsy shots with ease. The machine had barely reached a hundred metres when Elhyn swept by, Wyrmfang lashing out in a dazzling sweep of green light. The machine's engines shattered under the blow, spilling black smoke and flame as he sped by. The hunched machine went into a mad spin as it plummeted, shrieking Mon-Keigh screaming for help until the machine crashed to the ground and exploded, blowing a cloud of turgid flames everywhere.
"Hoooo!" Elhyn cried in victory he saw the Mon-keigh's only avenue of retreat evaporate. The skies were filled with multi-hued wings, drakes and Krakens forming an impenetrable dome over the battle. Nothing could fly through that and hope to survive; the invader's flying machines had been rendered useless. Far below the moat of fire was flickering out and hundreds of beasts closed in on the last Mon-keigh defenders, longstriders, Leviatatus and Chellonians coming for the kill. The invaders of Athelling were surrounded, outnumbered and outgunned. They had no means of retreat and would not survive this final blow.
Elhyn cried in elation, "Witness their doom fall!"
From nearby Celasia responded, "Forward my kin, wipe the filth from our world!"
The Eldar forces bunched up and prepared their last charge, yet before they could finish the job another force intervened. Elhyn's was blinded as a flurry of light shot out of the Everforest, coming not from the ground but from above. Three drakes and a Kraken were caught by a surprise and fell in showers of blood, their lives cut short by a foe they had not seen. Elhyn's eyes snapped up and he blinked furiously to clear spots from his vision, only to be shocked when a flight of twin-boomed machines charged into the fray, their hunched-wings spewing vector-thrust as their guns fired ceaselessly. At their head was a machine without any covering, its glassic windows blown free.
Elhyn gasped as he saw the Mon-Keigh perimeter guards had somehow evaded the forces set against them, returning to the fray at the final moment. They charged into the swirling madness of the battle without pause, their guns lashing the air with constant streams of fire driving the Krakens and Drakes back despite being ridiculously outnumbered. The Kinbands reeled under the unexpected assault but Elhyn turned to meet them, taking Wyrmfang in hand as he growled, "No, it's too late. Your doom has come and none shall escape!"