Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 147
Kerubim couldn't believe his ears. The vox message had come in and the Amber Vipers were falling back. It was inconceivable, Space Marines withdrawing while enemies still drew breath, and Kerubim was shaken to the core. Yet what was truly galling was that he had yet to fire a shot.
Kerubim had been scouring the deserted districts of the Forge when the call had come in that alien foes were attempting a landing. Instantly he had rerouted, taking Kregulf and Bane with him. They had raced to meet up with their fellows and seen the distant flashes of gunfire and heard the bedlam of war. Kerubim knew little of the Tau but had read enough to be concerned. These deviant aliens had fought off Imperial crusades, battled Raven Guard and White Scars and Ultramarines to a stand-still and claimed many Imperial worlds. Kerubim was not conceited enough to think the Amber Vipers compared to those vaunted Brotherhoods, if the Tau were landing in force his motley Chapter was in serious trouble.
Faster he had pushed himself and then the shadow of a dropship had passed overhead and the call had come to fall back. The Amber Vipers were conceding the landing ground. The Tau had inserted in force and even now would be disgorging their troops to consolidate their position. Kerubim had veered off, racing along a derelict row of storehouses in an attempt to get clear. It went against the grain but orders were orders, they had to link up with other squads if they were to present anything like a credible threat.
Suddenly Kregulf turned around a wall into a courtyard and Kerubim exclaimed, "Wait, where are you going?!"
"Follow me," was all the Claviger would say.
Kerubim gritted his teeth as they entered the courtyard only to find three more Space Marines entering from the other direction. Their armour was black and they bore Fission-Blasters and Bile-flamers in hand. Cerberii, more of the disgraced order's members coming to meet their leader. Berio, Paneyr and Radfal, each a disgraced rebel, cast out from the ranks as punishment for sedition. Together with Kregulf they represented half the order's strength, the rest remained on guard outside the Gates of Perdition, their charges watched night and day without ceasing.
Kregulf came to a halt and called out, "You came."
"You summoned us," Berio stated flatly, "We responded."
Kerubim's hearts fluttered at the sight but he knew well the power these warriors bore and uttered, "Thank the Throne, now we can give these Tau a good thrashing!"
Helms turned to him in puzzlement as Kregulf said, "I did not summon them to fight but to withdraw in good order."
Kerubim thought he misheard the Cerberii and spluttered, "You're not going to fight?!"
Berio replied, "That is not our mission."
Radfal added, "We are not interested in spilling the blood of aliens."
Kerubim couldn't process this and exclaimed, "But the Chapter is under heavy assault. The enemy advances as we speak!"
Kregulf's only reply was to say, "That is not our concern. The Cerberii exist to safeguard our charges, not fight petty battles. We swore solemn oaths to stand aside from the Chapter. Our duty is clear, only a threat to the Imperium Entire can stir us to action and these Tau are not such a threat."
"You won't fight?!" Kerubim exclaimed, "But the Chapter needs you!"
Paneyr spat, "If they needed us so much maybe they shouldn't have ejected us from their Brotherhood."
That set Kerubim back. He had never stopped to think about how the Cerberii felt about their lot, their eternal disgrace and shame. They had been rejected from their squads, cast aside and shunned by their peers. A Space Marines' Brothers were the only family they would ever know, to be cast out would be worse than death to any Astartes. It seemed those bloody-handed faceplates hid a deep and bitter resentment, but it didn't change Kerubim's mind.
He gripped his rifle tight and hissed, "If you don't fight, I will. You stay here and stew on your bile, I am going to stand with my Brothers."
"Do as you will," Kregulf sniffed, "Our orders are clear and our oaths compel us to stand aside."
Suddenly there was a sharp mechanical rasp from Bane and Kerubim's head turned to take in the street behind. What he beheld dismayed him, while they had been talking a mob of ochre armoured figures had advanced in their wake, closing from the rear. They clutched long rifles in their hands and over their heads advanced waves of flat drones with pairs of shorter rifles hung underneath. They were moving swiftly, with crisp precision and they had seen the Space Marines.
Kerubim threw himself into the courtyard as searing pulse rifle fire cut the air apart, leaving fiery wakes behind and the tang of ozone as oxygen molecules were incinerated. Hurriedly the Space Marines fell back, retreating to the far side of the courtyard where they gripped their weapons tight. They formed into a circle before an empty warehouse and levelled their rifles as Kregulf voxed, "We have been engaged in grid 542-856, serious opposition advancing."
The vox crackled then the firm voice of Coluber broke through, "Hold the line, support is on the way."
Kerubim hissed, "Oh, so now you want to fight?!"
Kregulf replied candidly, "Our oaths do allow for self-defence."
"Good to know," Kerubim snapped as the enemy presented themselves.
The first to emerge weren't living beings but the drones, bobbing up over the nearest building with pulse carbines flaring. The bobbed and weaved in a curious fashion, following no pattern Kerubim could discern. They moved like a flock of birds, organic and fluid in style and Kerubim perceived these were no idiot servo-skulls, they were some form of problem-solving intellect, an Abominable Intelligence.
Hatred surged in his hearts at this vile Heresy and he let loose a wild shot from his rifle, that cleanly missed its target. However Kregulf, Berio and Paneyr were not so hasty, they braced their Fission-blasters in steady grips and then let loose a volley of crackling red orbs that struck three drones from the sky. Kerubim's rad-counter began to click as the dirty-rad weapons polluted the air itself, but he had no time to for a second shot as the drones swooped in.
Flurries of pulse fire smote the ground around them as they stood in the face of the onslaught. Kerubim faced the foe and trusted in his armour, as a Space Marine should, but was cruelly disabused of his confidence when a shot slammed into his chest. A linear induction module accelerated a tiny mote of plasma to stupendous velocity and on contact the magnetic bottle burst, spreading superhot matter widely. Ceramite evaporated, thermal energy traded for kinetic force as Kerubim felt a sledgehammer slam into his chest and heard his breastplate cracking.
The tech-adept staggered back, the breath knocked out of him and his rifle drooped as he struggled to right himself. The drones pressed in, eager to finish the kill. Fission-blasts rose to deny them but were few in number and could not cover enough angles, meant for penetrating power rather than rate of fire. Yet just as they were to be overwhelmed another force entered the fray.
A sudden burst of rotor-fire chewed through the flock of drones, smashing several apart and causing the rest to scatter. Flurries of solid slugs chased them off, blowing them apart with furious lashes of firepower. Tracers split the sky and drove them off, chasing the drones away from the onslaught. It was Bane, the Vorax automaton standing with feet braced as its rotor cannons spun. Once more the faithful robot had saved its master's life and Kerubim wheezed, "Omnissiah's blessings upon you."
Yet Kregulf snarled, "Don't drop your guard, that was just to pin us. Here comes the flanking force!" From around the edges of the courtyard poured waves of troops in ochre armour. Kerubim beheld Fire Warriors for the first time and saw they had hooved feet and three-fingered hands. They were shorter than humans and wore smooth helms with advanced targeting optics in the front. Yet what truly shocked him was they were not alone. Human beings moved in their wake, auxiliary forces aiding the vile aliens in battle. Unspeakable betrayal and heresy most foul, Kerubim instinctively burned to kill each and every one of these race traitors.
His hands moved automatically and his rifle discharged. An Adrathic rifle, a technology few even knew the name of and those who did would be outraged to find such a relic outside the Sanctum Imperiallis on Terra. A golden beam of energy struck a human and unmade him. Atoms flew apart as the bonds between them were severed, reducing the man to a cloud of molecules that drifted away from each other. For a second there was a flaring after image, then it faded to nothing. One betrayal had been repaid but many more remained to be addressed. Sadly in that second the Tau and humans had formed firing lines and they braced their long rifles, readying to fire.
"Into cover!" Kregulf yelled and the Space Marines dove into a nearby building, piling through the entrance. A moment later pulse rifle shots punched clean through the walls, blowing in and out with no impediment at all. Kerubim was amazed at the power on display, far more than the carbine that had wounded him and he doubted even power armour would withstand such might.
The Cerberii took up positions at the windows and returned fire but they had to relocate constantly, lest pulse shots tear them apart. Radfal covered the door with his Bile-flamer as Kerubim crept up to a window and peeked over the lintel. What he saw was the Tau were laying down waves of suppressing fire, keeping the Space Marines at bay so the humans could advance. Filthy aliens, he thought, using noble human blood to spare their own worthless hides.
The traitorous humans were almost at the door and Kerubim snapped, "Aren't you going to do anything?!"
Radfal however replied calmly, "I am waiting for my moment."
The humans were nearly at the door, drawing knives to engage in melee. Mortal they may be but they were many and sheer numbers would win the day. Kerubim thought the Cerberii had left it too late but then Radfal stepped into the doorway and let loose his weapon. A caustic plume of viscous acid shot forth, fuming with toxic gases. Kerubim's multi-lung instinctively went to work to protect him, even behind his helm's filters but the effect on the men was far more pronounced. A dozen enemy were coated in clinging acid, their bodies doused in toxic bile and they collapsed screaming as they flailed in agony at their dissolving flesh.
Once more the vile nature of the Cerberii was driven home but it was a chance too good to pass up. Kerubim leapt to the window and let forth a shot and another, smiting foe after foe. Fission-blasts and rotor shots added their fury and a score of men were culled, their flesh violated by ancient might. Kerubim's hearts soared as they worked a great slaughter, and he thought the enemy's courage was about to break.
Yet from the stern ranks of Tau behind a voice shouted, "For T'au!"
"For the Greater Good!" The humans screamed with the fanaticism of true zealots, words Kerubim had never thought would pass a man's lips.
Driven into a frenzy the humans charged, ignoring their losses as pulse rifle fire screamed over their heads. The passionless steel of the alien married to the raging zealotry of mankind, the ardour that had seen the imperium conquer a million worlds pressed to serve the Xeno, an alloy that proved too strong to break. They poured over their dead without heed, throwing themselves at the windows and doors with knives bared.
Kerubim slammed his rifle to his hip and drew his Fang, driving it into the first face to crest the lintel. Gas-compression coils blew a vial of concentrated acid into the foe, exploding his head into dissolving chunks. The body fell away but more pressed in, scrambling to get over the window and grapple with him. His Fang was expended, but it was still a knife and he knew how to use it. He stabbed and hacked, he chopped and sliced, opening chests, lopping off hands and gouging out eyes. He fought with the fury of a Space Marine at war, yet for every foe he killed three more would take its place and he was drowning in bodies.
"There's too many of them!" Kerubim roared.
"Hold the line!" Kregulf yelled as beset as he was.
"Frak the sodding line," Kerubim yelled as he grabbed a man around the throat with his free hand, "We need a miracle here!"
But Berio shouted, "Wait, what's that?!"
The first thing Kerubim sensed was sudden, inexplicable drop in air pressure. The second thing he noted was the temperature plummet ten degrees in a single second and the third was the coating of ice that built up over his armour. Then came the lightning. From the cloudless sky came a bolt of destruction, striking amid the heaving mass of men attacking the building. It went off like a grenade, blowing steaming chunks of corpses aside and causing the eardrums to bleed among the rest.
A second bolt slammed into the ranks of Fire Warriors, sending them flying. Another bolt struck from nowhere and another, each one devastating all they hit. It was too much for the foe, assailed by a force they could not comprehend or counter they withdrew, abandoning the field to the Space Marines. Yet even in retreat they were cold, falling back in good order, without rancour or threats of retribution. So passionless, so detached, Kerubim had never seen warriors so phlegmatic about being repulsed.
Silence fell as the Cerberii peered out and Berio asked, "What happened?"
"He did," Kregulf replied.
Striding into the courtyard came Maru Kysoto, the Librarian-Dreadnought sheathed in a crackling aura of power. It had been the ancient warrior's will that had summoned the lightning, his power that had broken the foe and his voice proclaimed, "Coluber said there was a fight to be won here and so I came."
Kregulf jumped into the courtyard and muttered, "You don't have to be so smug about it."
Berio added, "We were managing well without you."
It was then that Kerubim realised he was still gripping a man about the throat, a foe whose heart yet beat, and he called, "I've got a live one here!"
"So," Paneyr scoffed, "Break his neck and get it over with."
Yet Maru uttered, "No, take him alive. We have questions that need answering."
Kerubim hoisted the man aloft and hissed, "You get to live... for now."
The man clawed at the Ceramite arm and his face bulged as he spluttered, "Won't talk... You can't make old Hamer talk."
Kerubim drew him close and hissed, "Don't mistake us for snooty Ultramarines, the Amber Vipers don't mind getting our hands dirty. Believe me when I say, you'll be begging to spill your secrets by the time we're done with you."