Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 153
Anarchy reigned throughout the Tau base. Explosions and gunfire hammered the ear, mixed with screams of the dying and yells of fury. The snap-bang of bolters fought for dominance over shotguns and flamers as the hissing screech of pulse rifles struggled to be heard. Bodies lay between the oddly curving buildings, charred flesh and opened chests testifying to the manner of their death. The calamity of battle had swept over the rival armies and none could tell who was suffering more.
In that madness Coluber struggled to heave Ferrac's wobbling form along. The Battle-Captain had taken grievous wounds in the trap and was bleeding profusely. His left flank wept vital fluids and he was forced to clamp a hand over the gushing wound to prevent bleeding out. That the injury had not clotted already showed how vicious the wound was; only the most severe blows could keep a Space Marine's physiology from healing immediately. Coluber braced his old friend under the shoulder as they staggered along, trying to avoid getting killed.
Ahead a trio of Tau stumbled out of a building, frantically looking for an escape. They weren't armed but that made no difference to Coluber, all aliens were enemies. He lifted his volkite pistol in his free hand and shot the first in the back, causing flesh to deflagrate into burning ashes. The other two spun about in horror only to be cut down in turn, leaving the galaxy cleansed of three more Xenos. Coluber had no time to celebrate and continued his walk, vox crackling all the while with reports and orders.
As they lurched along Coluber berated himself for wandering blithely into a trap. The killing ground the Tau had laid out for him had been deadly indeed and by all rights the Amber Vipers should have died in that slaughterhouse. Only the desperate self-sacrifice of a Vulture crew had averted calamity and allowed the survivors to breakout. Coluber knew it was his fault. His attack had been textbook, a classic stratagem straight out of the Codex Astartes, which was why it hadn't worked. He had fooled himself into thinking his ragtag band of miserable thieving bastards could stand and fight as Astartes should; he had dared to believe they had the strength to wage war like any other Chapter. He had been wrong, and his Brothers had paid for his hubris with their lives.
Suddenly Ferrac lurched to one side and groaned, "Gnuggggh…"
Coluber shook him violently and snarled, "Don't you die on me!"
"I'm not dying to a little tap like this," Ferrac wheezed.
"I don't know," Coluber countered, "That drone shot you up good before it knocked you out of the sky."
"Pah," Ferrac hissed angrily, "Killed by a soulless drone… not on my watch."
Coluber was glad to hear some fire in his voice and quipped, "I see you kept your weapons in hand."
Ferrrac scoffed, "It will take more than a mortal injury to make me let go of my axe-rake."
Suddenly the avenue they were inching down was blocked as a mob of warriors rolled into view. Six Amber Vipers in plate wrestling with Tau with shortened pulse carbines. They fought furiously but the Vipers had weight and power on their side they slit throats and smashing bones with ease. Yet the Xenos did not break and one got in behind an Astartes, carbine raised to shoot him in the back. Coluber lifted his Volkite pistol but before he could fire a Katana blade the length of a man shot out from behind a curved wall and sliced into the Tau's chest. The dying Xenos kicked feebly as its lifeblood poured out and it was lifted off the ground as Maru Kysoto stepped into view. He loomed over the combatants and cast them all into shadow as he shook the corpse from his blade and strode into the fray.
Set against a Dreadnought the Tau stood no chance and with a few short strokes of his blade he finished off the rest. Coluber sighed in relief but Ferrac looked up and spat, "Frak's sake, is it too much to ask that you died in the ambush?"
Maru's engraved torso turned slightly as he retorted, "Death and I are old friends but it seems you shall greet the shade first."
From the regrouping squad came a smear of white as Shrios pushed his way out of the mob and barked, "Let me through! Put him down this instant!"
"I don't need help," Ferrac spat but Coluber set him against a wall as the Apothecary went to work with his Narthecium. Drill-bits sawed Ceramite shards away and scalpels sunk into gaping wounds as he liberally sprayed coagulating foam over the injury and the others formed a guard.
"Will he live?" Coluber asked in concern.
Shrios hissed, "Shrapnel has pierced his Larraman organ, but I got to him in time. He'll be as endearingly cuddly as ever, once he's had a chance to rest."
"Frak you," Ferrac spat in vexation.
"No chance of rest," Maru scoffed, "How do we stand?"
Coluber replied, "We're scattered all over the base and cut off. Each squad is fighting their own war and the Tau are pressing hard. We are killing as many Xenos as we can find, but every effort we make to link up is thwarted. I've lost touch with many squads and I can't reach the Brother-Exemplars."
"Not very good bodyguards are they?" Shiros snidely hissed.
They ignored that as Maru asked, "Casualties?"
Coluber's hearts fell as he stated, "Harrowing. We lost too many good lives in the ambush, far too many, but we can still turn this around. In the hack and thrust of melee they are no match for us… well the line warriors aren't, the Crisis Suits are proving problematic. I need time to isolate and destroy them."
Maru's reply was stern as he said, "Sadly our time has just run out."
Darkness fell and Coluber's helm lifted to take in a vast sweep of shadow. Lowering itself over the base came the Manta Dropship, its immense curves blotting out the sky. Straddling the line between strike craft and true starship it was the single largest machine he had ever seen in combat, larger even than a super-heavy tank. His jaw clenched as he beheld the numerous weapon points hanging from its hull, weapons of deadly power and lethal accuracy. In a flash he recalled the reports of Imperial units who had faced these craft and declared them the Tau's most lethal asset, beyond the scope of an armoured regiment, the Xenos' equivalent to Titans.
Scores of barrels lowered to point into the base and then they let rip. Burst cannons thundered, missile streaked away from their racks, Ion cannons flared and Railguns burped fire, inundating the base with destruction. Explosions bloomed everywhere, blowing apart buildings and sweeping avenues clear of Space Marines. Ion blasts smote warriors to ash, burst cannons racked fleeing snakelets, missiles punched into knots of resistance and railguns stabbed through bodies and drove deep into the ground below.
Coluber's voxed hissed and he heard his Brother's cries for aid, unable to fight back against the destruction that fell upon them. The Amber Vipers had brought nothing that could touch the Manta and Coluber's guts clenched as he realised he had drastically underestimated the power of the Dropship. It was going to kill them all.
A missile struck further down the avenue and a wave of flame washed over them as Shrios covered Ferrac with his body and cried, "Madness! They fire into their own base, they kill their own!"
"No," Maru hissed, "They do not, they target only us. Tau casualties are marginal."
"What?!" Shrios barked, "They can't possibly be so accurate, nobody's that accurate."
"Tau are," Coluber hissed, "We have to get…"
His words were cut off as a missile slammed into their group, blowing a pair of Amber Vipers into scraps of gore and Ceramite. Coluber had his back to the explosion but was swept up by the blast wave and thrown bodily into a wall. His skull smacked hard into the surface and he saw stars as his bones ached from the impact. He slid down the smooth wall and dropped to his knees, struggling to stand. The world spun about his head as he fought to clear his vision, his Brothers were dying and defeat loomed yet he could not help them. Fury and defiance burned in his hearts but he could do nothing, yet in his ear a voice squawked urgently.
Coluber shook his head as he snapped, "Repeat that!"
A voice cut in, "Sergeant Reddam here, we've seen your distress. Secundus is on route to assist!"
Secundus, he thought, the fast-attack units were coming back to lend aid. He clung to that notion with desperate faith. He knew the Chapter could not break the Manta like this, but if Secundus could break open an evacuation route they might be able to withdraw in good order. He had lost too many Brothers this day already; he had to try to save the rest.
His optimism was to prove short-lived. The Manta bomber ceased firing into the base and lifted its weapons, tracking an incoming force. Scores of barrels locked on and then let fly, ripping the air apart with torrents of fire. The northern horizon turned into a firestorm as the dropship racked the perimeter, angry red flames dancing like the inferno of hell as destruction came for Secundus.
The vox crackled, "…Under heavy assault, losing Brothers .. and right… dying out here!"
"Break off!" Coluber yelled.
"We… still reach you!" Reddam howled.
But Coluber shouted, "No you won't, break off now and save something of the Chapter. We're pinned; nobody is getting out of here. You're all that's left. Keep the Chapter alive Reddam, don't let the Amber Vipers end this way!"
"Understood," Reddam voxed, "Emperor be with you."
The fire slackened off as the Manta repositioned its guns towards the base. Coluber knew the final strike was at hand and there would be no respite this time. The Manta would sweep the base clear of Space Marines and leave nothing but ruination behind. Coluber would die without being able to look his killer in the eye, murdered by the push of a button from afar. Death was upon him and Coluber lifted his head to stare at the indifferent killer and declared, "To fall in the heat of battle is the wish of every Astartes. I face death without fear, for I die in the Emperor's service."
His declaration rang loud and stiffened the spines of all who heard it yet one voice disagreed, Maru Kysoto who spat, "Not this day." All eyes turned to the Librarian-Dreadnought as he began to shine with witch-light. Shimmering corposant wafted between his armoured plates as ice spread from his feet, covering all in frost. Coluber's eyeballs itched as his psychic potential built, the Psyker drawing astonishing power from the warp. The Osiron-pattern Dreadnought was ancient, fashioned by the mind of a Primarch whose name was now reviled but whose mastery of the psionic arts plunged depths few dared imagine. Maru was holding more power in his hands than any living soul had any right to know and his mechanism creaked with potency.
"What's the bloody fool doing?!" Ferrac yelled.
"I don't know but he better do it fast!" Coluber barked.
He spied a railgun tracking their position, glowing bluely as it prepared to fire. A burst of light erupted but at the same instant Maru released a wave of purest light, that grabbed Coluber and swept him away. Coluber actually felt the railgun shot passing through his form but his body had become intangible, untouched by the crude matter of the world. Everything became translucent and his vision faded and then he was whisked away.
The world span about him, a crazed rollercoaster of insane motion. Up and down lost all meaning, space and time became treacle about his form and he was thrown like a dart from the hand of a god. Every planet spun upon its axis, while orbiting a sun and that star circled a galaxy that drifted through the universe. For the first time Coluber travelled in a truly straight line and his brain rebelled against the insane sensation of drowning in vertigo. He had no idea where he was but in his ears he heard the cackling of Daemons and the felt the gossamer touch of Neverborn seeking his soul-fire, hungry to devour his essence.
Suddenly the light snapped off and Coluber fell flat on his face, feeling cold Ferrocrete under his palms. Head pounding he pushed upright and saw bulky buildings and the familiar sight of Chattels approaching. They were back in their base, Maru Kysoto had teleported them back to the Amber Viper's base camp. Coluber looked about and saw hundreds of groaning Transhumans lying about, shivering with warp-chill and nursing wounds as they sought to recover. Many stared into the sky without blinking, their eyes glazing over in death. Yet the bulk of Primus and Tertius were present, gravely hurt but alive.
Coluber lurched to his feet and called, "What was that?!"
Maru's formed steamed with ice-encrustations as he replied slowly, "Gate of… Infinity…"
"I… I didn't know you could do that," Coluber breathed.
"Neither…" Maru hissed, "…Did I."
Ferrac managed to heave himself into a sitting position and spat, "Great… give us five minutes to recover then you can teleport us back to finish the Xenos!"
Maru however did not reply, his looming bulk leaning forward as he went weak at the knees. He collapsed to a kneeling position, cracking Ferrocrete under his bulk as his arms slammed down to brace himself. The mighty Dreadnought perched there, steaming with evaporating frost as meltwater dripped from the angles of his plate. His exhaustion was obvious at a glance and Coluber knew he was utterly drained. Maru's epic feat of psionic mastery had snatched hundreds of Astartes out of the jaws of death but he was incapable of repeating such a marvel, the Librarian-Dreadnought was spent and silent.
Coluber swallowed hesitantly and said, "I don't think we're getting anything more out of him."
Ferrac growled, "Useless Grox-fondler… so what do we do now?"
Coluber looked over the groaning crowds and saw his Brothers nursing many wounds. The dead were strewn everywhere and he had to stop himself counting them, lest his hearts break. Shrios and his apprentices were already moving to save the worst injured and harvest the gene-seed of those lost but Coluber knew this was the single greatest loss his Chapter had ever known. A day of shame and infamy and he had no idea how to recover from such a defeat. Lost for anything else to say he could only state, "We hold to our creed: first we survive. Survive, Ferrac, that's all we can do right now."