Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 71

"Incoming!" Reddam yelled as his Vulture fled at top speed, "Can you hear me, enemy forces are right on my tail!"

Coluber voice came back, clear and confident, "Acknowledged we have your position and are prepared."

Reddam gripped the controls of 'Black Condor' as he and Glord had hurriedly named their new craft. The pair had joined the march of the Amber Vipers back into enemy territory, escorting the heavily laden Valkyrie transports. Barely had they started their mission when they had been ambushed, taken by surprise by a lone flying animal and its rider. Reddam and Glord had broken off to give chase, pursuing the enemy through the shadowy world under the treetops. Reddam had pushed his Vulture to the limit in his determination to swat this foe down, not only for the threat to the mission but because he was certain he recognised this one. It was the same Eldar with the glittering spear who had wounded him and Reddam had rejoiced at the prospect of revenge. Unfortunately just as they were closing to finish the foe off they had run straight into the massed ranks of the Xenos, coming for the Amber Vipers in great number.

Reddam pushed the throttle to the max and the howling engine behind his head slammed them through the sky. He waggled the steering column to avoid running straight into a tree but lamented every lost morsel of speed. From the gunner's seat Glord urged, "Faster, go faster!"

Reddam was fighting of every grain of acceleration as he muttered, "What do you think I'm doing?"

Glord barked in response, "You can't see what's behind us; I think every last Eldar on the planet is on our tail."

Reddam could well imagine it, his fleeting glance told him enough. The Eldar were famously a dying race but at this moment it didn't seem that way. Wings of every hue and shape had filled the sky, bearing warriors in leather and woad and wielding their crude weapons. They had flown with steady grace and the sure confidence of victory that told Reddam they intended to carry the day with one massive hammer blow. They must have scraped together every last one of their kind to present these sort of numbers and in his hearts Reddam knew this fight would spell victory or defeat for either side.

Reddam dodged right around a tree and as he did so a flurry of arrows slammed into its bark. He gritted his teeth for he had not known the foe was so close on his tail and weaved behind the tree, trying to use it for cover. Glord's gasp told him that the manoeuvre hadn't worked, the Eldar must be clinging to their rear, their flying beasts matching his Imperial built machine for grace and manoeuvrability. In a straight line he was sure he could outrun them, no animal could fly as fast as a jet-driven attack craft, but in this environment he couldn't fly straight for more than a few seconds, else he slam into a tree. So Reddam dodged and weaved, darting around the trees with bone-rattling jerks to the left and right, desperately trying to find his comrades.

They hurtled around one more tree and Reddam was stunned by the sight of dozens of grey-machines powering by, flying at a right angle to his course. His heart soared to see their massed guns waiting, but then he realised they were all pointing in his direction. Instinctively Reddam pushed Black Condor's nose down, power diving below their line of sight. A heartbeat later the massed machines opened fire, filling the sky with ordnance. From open doorways Heavy Bolters thundered, the surviving Huscarls venting their fury as the Amber Vipers themselves fired bolters one-handed, picking off targets with transhuman precision. Vulture attack craft spun about and blitzed multi-laser fire while the twin bastions that were Viper's Bite and Poisoned Fang unleashed hell, each Thunderhawk putting out more firepower than five other craft combined.

Reddam saw tracers screaming overhead but was more concerned with pulling out of their dive. The forest floor rose alarmingly fast in his eyes, threatening them with another crash but he pulled back on the controls and opened the throttle wide. The engine howled with fury as blasts of thrust arrested their descent and Reddam was able to pull out of his dive, turning and rising to rejoin the fray. He curved about and saw the sky above filled with flashing death. The Imperial machines had blown the first wave of attackers out of the air with massed firepower. Resulting in tumbling tatters of wings and bloody corpses spinning downwards, riders plummeting helplessly as they flailed and screamed. The opening salvo had been devastating but more Eldar were piling in, approaching from above and the sides. Reddam glimpsed a rainbow of wings dive among the orderly ranks of the Imperials and then it was the human's turn to start dying.

Reddam saw bodies falling from open doorways with arrows skewering them and whole machines torn apart as he cried, "Prepare to engage!"

"Come on alien scum," Glord snarled, "Show me your fury."

Black Condor roared as it flew into the fray and erupted with sprays of firepower. The multi-lasers flashed as they stabbed out and the nose-mounted heavy bolter hammered ceaselessly, churning the air with blazing tracers. Reddam saw a green-winged beast tumble away in a glory spray of vital fluids then a red one cry out as a bolt pierced its breast, two kills in the first moments, a good start. One of the larger beasts, with five riders, was cruising through the melee, almost casual in its stately advance. Reddam made it pay for its overconfidence, lining up a perfect shot for Glord to blow its wings off. The flying creature spun away, spilling its crew as its last roll took it to its death. Black Condor ploughed through the fray firing constantly but Reddam was forced to pull off as he flew too close to the Valkyries, nearly being hit by his own side's fire. He jerked his controls to fly higher and get above the combat but as he did so he saw a transport explode in mid-air, spraying black smoke and ash from ruptured engines. The cause of it was a silver beast, who bore a Bright Lance that still glowed with lethal power. Reddam lost sight of it as it dove into the fray and he snarled, "Fang-rot, it's a meatgrinder out here."

The vox crackled as Coluber commanded, "Hold the line! Nobody is to break formation, stay on course and keep firing!"

Reddam called out, "Lord, we are being overwhelmed, we must deploy our cargo before all is lost."

Coluber however responded, "Not yet, we must reach the densest part of the forest first. Hold them off a few more minutes, that's all we need."

Reddam complied, pushing once more into the fray. His vision filled with flaring contrails of ammunition and darting arrows. Spears and whips were everywhere, mixed with las fire and bolter rounds. Here a Valkyrie was beset by a larger beast, its crew jumping off its back with inhuman grace to land on the transport, they practically danced through its open doors, slaughtering all within before leaping back to their own creature. There a Vulture tore through a pair of animals, its rocket pods booming as it sprayed them with fire. To the left a Valkyrie broke formation to evade an oncoming Eldar, only to fly straight into a tree and explode in a dirty fireball. To the right the Thunderhawk Viper's Bite cruised forward, its heavy bolters rotating to unleash deadly accurate bursts of fire. A dappled grey beast with five riders made the mistake of flying directly before it, only to be struck down as the dorsal battle cannon discharged, blowing the beast into a drifting cloud of blood.

Reddam wove and dove among the madness, trying to avoid being struck down as Glord fired ceaselessly. Swirling madness and flashing death were in all directions and all Reddam could do was fly and evade, trusting to his brother's aim, then he saw it. Off to his right the Eldar with the glittering spear was harrying a transport, trying to close and strike its wing off. Reddam snarled, "There he is, Glord, target him."

Yet to his shock Glord cried, "Wait, look to the left!"

Reddam glanced to the left and saw the familiar silver animal looping about, banking through the melee to get into Viper's Bite rear arc. The glittering Bright Lance shone as it built in power and one direct hit to the engines could send it tumbling to its death, along with all on board, including Chapter Master Coluber. For an instant Reddam was frozen in indecision, to the right lay the one who had wounded him and the prospect of revenge burned his hearts. To the left was a threat to his Master and Chapter and his head told him he had to intervene or watch his kin die. Two conflicting impulses warred within him, personal revenge or his duty to his Brothers. Reddam's hands were still as his heart and mind warred for supremacy, each demanding he act. But then he saw the back of Glord's head starting to turn in query and he remembered all that the Amber Viper had done in the name of Brotherhood, risking his life for his comrade. What was Reddam's revenge set against the bonds of Brotherhood? Always he had proclaimed loyalty to each other and now it was his turn he could no more abandon that creed than a rock could roll up a hill.

Instantly Reddam veered left, angling for the silver beast as he cried, "Take it down!"

"I need a moment," Glord replied as he peered through his aiming eyepiece.

"You've got five seconds until it fires," Reddam snarled.

Reddam saw the Eldar closing upon Viper's Bite and knew they were in a race against time. He pushed the engine to its very limit and was crushed by the acceleration. Four seconds left and the Bright Lance rose, targeting the Thunderhawk's engines while Reddam felt his lips being pulled back by sheer velocity as they fought to overtake it. Three seconds left and the Eldar gunner reached for the handle and all Reddam could do was hold on and claw for more speed. Two seconds left and the Xenos pulled the trigger and still Reddam was too far away. One second and the lance shone with building power, preparing to unleash a blast that would tear the Thunderhawk's engines off and end the Chapter Master's life, but in that instant Glord fired.

Searing multi-laser fire crossed the distance, moving at light speed. The energy blasts slammed into the broad back of the animal, punching into its spine and neck. The beast convulsed in agony and as it did so the Bright Lance bucked wildly, sending its shot high into the treetops above. The las-fire walked up the spine of the animal and caught a finely dressed rider, clearly a superior officer of some sort. The Las-blast struck her back and punched through, incinerating her heart in one shot. Together rider and mount dropped away, dead already as they began their final descent to the ground.

Reddam broke off as he gasped, "We did it!"

Glord breathed, "Just in time, look."

Reddam lifted his eyes and saw the transports around him opening their back doors, revealing large canisters within. The Eldar went frantic as they launched one last desperate effort to overrun the Imperials but it was too late. Gas-masked men in rubberised suits took up hoses with broad nozzles, then as one they ejected long streams of black gas into the air. The resulting cloud was heavy and thick, cloying in nature and it moved through the air like an oil-slick on water. Many Eldar were caught in the unexpected plumes and they fell into paroxysms of coughing fits, unable to breathe as their throats closed. The noxious mixture had been brewed by Shrios and it coated their lungs with poisonous spores, multiplying in their respiratory tracks at a rate no normal disease should be capable of. The Eldar broke ranks and flew in all directions, leaderless and scattered by the noxious clouds.

Reddam was forced to push more power into his engine lest he be caught in the cloud, and he swiftly rose above the sooty vapours. He didn't know what effect it would have on his engine intakes but he wasn't willing to find out. He rose over the morass and saw the enemy fleeing but that was only the start. The cloud had reached the nearest trees and its effects on them were even more pronounced. The spores touched the material of the wood and burrowed into it, spreading over the surface in moments. Reddam's jaw fell as the diseased spores spread like wildfire, running over the surface in great black veins of mould that chewed the wood apart as it went. The rate of growth was astonishing, increasing geometrically second by second. He couldn't believe what he was seeing and was forced to remind himself he wasn't watching a sped-up pict-reel.

Glord gasped, "Throne, how can it do that?!"

Reddam gulped, "Shrios said the mould spores were mutated by the Warp, but I didn't understand what he meant."

"Warp-taint," Glord breathed, "It has to be warp-taint, nothing else could do that."

Reddam couldn't argue as the black veins reached the ground below and began spreading out through the underbrush, chewing through vegetation out in all directions. Then it sank its claws into trees as yet unaffected and began climbing up their columns. It moved like a living thing, a black octopus with writhing tentacles and a rapacious hunger. Already the first trees affected were sagging, losing their structural integrity as the rot ate them alive. Even as Reddam watched the nearest collapsed in on itself, imploding like a demolished hab-block. Its own weight spelt its doom and it disappeared into a burst of black spores and rotting splinters, leaving the sky above exposed. Reddam should have been celebrating but somehow he felt he was watching something magnificent dying. An eternal and timeless wonder had been ended and somehow that set Reddam's teeth on edge.

Glord must have felt the same thing for he said, "It's dying, the whole forest is dying."

Reddam swallowed as he said, "It had to be so. Everything on this world was an enemy, remember that."

Glord cast his eyes about and said, "Its spreading fast and I'm not sure we can fly through this. We can't linger on this planet if we ever intend to leave."

"We can't leave yet," Reddam stated flatly, "We have to rescue Battle-Captain Ferrac first. Come on, let's get moving."