Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 141

The tension on the bridge wrapped everyone in a steel vice. Chattels hunched over their consoles as they processed auspex data and soothed the Machine Spirit of the Nest. Voices were low and talk clipped, all minds set upon the task at hand. The stars outside were cold and distant, undisturbed by ship or station. Nothing had troubled them since they had translated back into realspace but that was no guarantee of safety. A hostile foe could approach at any time and few doubted that the Serpens Rex was in no state for a sustained fight.

Coluber gripped the Nalwood railings of his podium as he looked over the bridge. He wanted to shout at them to hurry up but knew it was pointless; the chattels were working as fast as they could and his interfering would only delay their labours. Frustrated he cast his eye over the consoles ringing the podium and was relieved to see local space remained clear. They had broken Warp a week ago on the edges of a cold and deserted stellar system and set about seeking the mysterious beacon. On their voyage they had seen evidence of defunct mining operations and heavy industry on the outer worlds and cloudscoup wreckage over the sole gas giant in the system, but no signs of life. Finding little to interest them in the outer reaches they had headed in-system, setting a course for a lonely planet hanging in the habitable zone of the star.

Annoyed he turned to his advisors and hissed, "How much longer will this take?"

Nathanal didn't look concerned as he replied, "We dispatched the Peregrine to scout ahead. She's the fastest ship in the fleet and should be there already."

Ferrac snarled, "Then why haven't they signalled us?!"

Nathanal shrugged, "Maybe they have. We're still half a system away, ninety light-minutes out from the planet. It takes time for a vox signal to cross that much space."

Shrios scowled as he hissed, "Can't you do something to hurry this up?"

Nathanal snorted, "What, rewrite the laws of physics? No, I cannot. Ninety light-minutes is ninety light-minutes. If you wanted faster communications then you should have sent an Astropath along."

Ferrac muttered, "They're unreliable at the best of times and those burned-out wretches we picked up are hardly prime stock. Looks like we'll have to wait."

Coluber rubbed his jaw and asked, "Are we certain that this planet is the source of the beacon?"

"Without a doubt," came the voice of Maru Kysoto from his armoured shell, "The light that summoned us still burns brightly. It is emanating from that planet; I can see it even now."

"Any idea what's generating it?" Shrios probed.

"None whatsoever," Maru replied, "I would have sworn only living minds could project into the Warp, and only the Most Glorious Emperor's Astronomicon could be used to steer by. Yet this light is sustained in a fashion I cannot explain, artificial certainly, but otherwise unknowable."

"Did the ancients have an Astronomicon in the Dark Age of Technology?" Nathanal asked.

"None can say for sure," Maru sighed, "Yet I am inclined to say no. This light is bright but short-ranged, a few hundred light-years at most. One could not navigate across a galaxy by this beacon, but at short ranges it is a star to steer by."

Nathanal nodded thoughtfully, "I've always wondered how humanity crossed the stars before the Emperor arose. They had no Astronomicon yet colonised the length and breadth of the Milky Way, a series of beacons like this could explain a lot."

Ferrac growled, "It doesn't matter, dusty history is irrelevant. What matters is that there's something operating on that planet, something powerful. We need to find out what it is and who is running it."

Coluber nodded, "He speaks truly, we must focus on the task at hand. I was hoping for a starship or weapon platform we could salvage but this world is far more than I expected. We must make contact with the inhabitants and determine if they are a threat to us and the Imperium."

Maru wondered aloud, "If they are a lost human culture they may be willing to join the Imperium."

"And if they're not willing they will be forced to," Ferrac muttered.

Yet Shrios countered, "I find it doubtful any pure strain of humanity has endured. The record of advanced civilisations surviving the Age of Strife alone is staggeringly low. The few societies that escaped the attention of the Great Crusade invariably turn out to be deformed mutants and hideous gene-freaks. Some worlds even meddled with their own Genic codes, incorporating animal and alien genomes to pollute the blessed purity of the human form."

Coluber sighed, "This is all idle speculation until we receive more intel. We must…" Suddenly there was a cry from the chattels and great flurry of activity arose. Coluber spun about and bit his tongue as a Hololithic projection formed below the roof, hazy and indistinct but growing clearer by the second as more layers of auspex data were added. Slowly the image resolved into crystal clarity and Coluber beheld a grey planet, mottled and slick like a stone plucked from a river. The lands were barren and dusty and the seas torpid and sluggish while few clouds drifted through the skies. It was orbited by drifts of wreckage and its surface was infested by urban sprawls, like a bad rash over a face. Pollution was universal and the telltale signs of an environmental catastrophe were inescapable, a common sight on industrialised Imperial worlds. It looked real enough to touch and Coluber had to remind himself he wasn't seeing the planet as it was now but as it had been ninety minutes earlier.

"What do we have?" Coluber barked as his eyes scoured the planet.

Nathanal was scouring a console as he replied, "A planet, average-sized and with a breathable atmosphere."

"We can see that you idiot," Ferrac snapped, "Give us details."

Nathanal was streaming info-screeds as he elaborated, "The Peregrine has deployed servo-skull probes into low orbits. The planet is slap bang in the middle of the habitable zone but surface temperatures are far colder than they should be. Some form of ice-age or nuclear winter perhaps. Magnetic field is strong, very strong, solar radiation is no issue but I'm seeing little sign of life anywhere."

Shrios was peering at another console as he said, "He's right, bio-diversity is marginal. Those seas aren't just polluted, they're dead. The ecosystem is in terminal decline. Plantlife is almost extinct and I would be shocked if anything larger than an insect walks the surface. This planet has been killed."

"A loaded statement," Maru noted, "You imply intent. It is possible we are witnessing a natural extinction level event."

Nathanal shook his head and said, "No… these chemical markers show widespread signs of industrial contamination. Radioactive slag and toxic lakes cover much of the surface. I'd say this place was an industrial hellscape, long before it was abandoned."

"Abandoned?" Coluber mused, "You mean nobody is alive down there?"

"Can't say for certain," Nathanal corrected, "But I'm seeing no signs of activity. No movement, no transport links operating, no indications of ongoing production. If anyone is alive down there they would struggle to feed themselves, let alone maintain a civilisation."

Ferrac spoke up then, "It's like a dying Imperial Hive World in the last phase of its decline. Those are Hive cities, or whatever you get before Hive cities form. They would grow and grow and grow, consuming all natural resources, until they wring the planet dry and then the people either flee or die."

"Hive worlds are sustained by fleets of ships," Shrios pointed out, "Dozens of agri-worlds and mining planets keep their forges pumping and the population fed."

"Have we seen anything like that?" Ferrac countered, "If this planet had vassals of some sort then they were lost millennia ago. No, this planet is dead, I'd bet my axe-rake on it."

Nathanal mused, "Then that means this world has laid undisturbed since the Dark Age of Technology. Its industries intact and its secrets unplundered. We may be the first living beings to gaze upon this planet in thirty-thousand years."

"A prize of incalculable value," Coluber agreed, "What is this wreckage in orbit?"

Nathanal examined another screen and muttered, "Extensive debris, from something big. Starforts… no, too much for that. A series of dockyards… no not right… I suppose… oh… oh my… It is; it only bloody is!"

"Care to include us in your wonder?" Coluber pressed.

Nathanal looked up and said, "I think it's the remains of a supra-orbital ring."

Jaws fell for such constructs were wonders from the distant past. Vast rings of metal encircling planets, hundreds of kilometres thick and tens of thousands in circumference. Each one was an industrial marvel, boasting dockyards and production nodes and defences unmatched among the stars. Totally beyond the Tech-Priest's ability to construct, they were relics from pre-Imperial history. Each one required untold resources to construct and only the most important of worlds would justify such an endeavour.

Ferrac looked upon the broken wreckage and asked, "How many planets can claim they have such a thing?"

Nathanal replied, "That I know of, Mars, Hydraphur, Medusa, Luna."

"Truly a marvel," Shrios concurred, "Imagine it in its prime."

Coluber agreed "It must have been spectacular and it is a sign that we were wrong. This is so much more than a Hive world."

"I don't understand," Ferrac stated.

Coluber explained, "Such a construct must have required the resources of dozens of worlds to build, centuries of labour. You only commit such effort to the most important of facilities, to your most precious asset. This was no Hive World… it was a Forgeworld."

"A Forgeworld?" Nathanal gasped, "A Dark Age Forgeworld… did they have such planets?"

Maru replied, "Whatever designation the ancients used, it served the same function. An industrial hub and technological nexus, the beating heart of an interstellar civilisation. These metropolises aren't merely cities, they are Forge-Fanes."

Shrios exclaimed, "Imagine the technologies they must have constructed here, imagine the wonders they produced."

Ferrac added, "Imagine the weapons."

Coluber breathed, "Stores of archeotech beyond anything we can imagine. Forget Athelling, it was nothing compared to this, we have never seen such a bounty in our lives. This one world could supply our Chapter's wars for a thousand years. Think of the troves of ancient power, left unguarded and undefended."

Maru spoke up, "Currently undefended. The beacon burns brightly and surely others will come looking. Covetous souls who will see us as threats to their ambitions, obstacles to be removed."

Ferrac added, "If the Mechanicus send an expedition to investigate, or Throne forbid the Inquisition come snooping, they will claim it for themselves. We may have arrived first but we have not the means to hold this planet, should a mightier force decide to wrest it from us."

Coluber saw what they were saying and concurred, "Then time is of the essence. We have to get down there and lay claim to what we need before others coming looking. Nathanal contact the Peregrine and order them to scan the surface for the most intact Forge-Fanes, we must concentrate our efforts in one location."

Nathanal pointed out, "It's an hour and a half for a vox-message to reach them and another hour and a half to get a reply."

"Just do it," Coluber snapped.

The mortal went to work but Maru reproved, "I caution you to look before you leap. There are dangers awaiting us in equal measure to wonders. We must tread carefully, lest we unleash something we cannot control."

Ferrac snorted, "You'd tip-toe around when there are piles of weapons waiting to be claimed? Who are you to tell us what is too dangerous to handle?!"

But Maru chided, "I am a Psyker, I daily ward against dangers more perilous than you can comprehend. Remember the ancients are the ones who crafted the very weapons you sealed away for being too vile to touch. Viral clades and psionic warheads and toxic bombs, these people dreamt of such terrors and made them real. Did you never wonder where they manufactured such filth, where their Magi birthed their nightmares into being?! We have stumbled across the very fountainhead of that vileness."

Coluber sighed wearily, "He speaks wisely, we must not make the mistake of simply grabbing everything in sight. I will summon Kregulf and his Cerberii, they can assess what is safe to handle and what must be sealed away. Don't whine Ferrac, there will still be plenty of gear to liberate, more than our Chapter could exhaust in our lifetimes. Yet I will not blow us all into the afterlife by carelessly pressing the wrong button… imagine explaining that the Emperor before the Golden Throne."

Nathanal straightened up and declared, "Vox message is sent."

"Good," Coluber uttered, "It will still take the Serpens Rex another week to reach orbit, in the meantime I want every Amber Viper to prepare. Ferrac brief the Brothers on what has value to us, especially weapons. Nathanal rig out every shuttle and lifter we have for heavy loads, they will be required to do a lot of back and forth hauling. Maru, keep a wary eye on that beacon, I want to know if it so much as flickers. Shrios, prepare bio-containment units, I don't want to bring back some viral clade that's broken out of its warhead. Brothers make ready: the greatest bounty of our lives awaits. Let's go looting!"