Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 158
"How's the arm?" Alohvar asked in concern.
"Repair's holding but it's stiff," Teq'ila replied, "Armour's still cracked on the shoulder."
"Watch your flank," Alohvar cautioned.
"I'll keep that in mind," Teq'ila grunted.
Alohvar knew he was chiding but couldn't help it, they had lost one of their comrades already and he could not bear the thought of losing another. The three Crisis Suits would be needed in the coming fight and he could not afford any losses. Battle was imminent and the Tau were floundering for lack of information. The new threat had caught them off guard and they were desperately trying to formulate a strategy to counter the rise of the automatons.
He turned his sensors over the lurking Fire Caste, checking their deployment. His forces were set up in a wide avenue, flanked by a towering shield pylon. He had chosen this spot because the nearby streets were narrow and twisted in a typically human fashion. He wasn't sure function what this district was supposed to perform in the byzantine gears of production but they made it extremely difficult for any advancing host to pass in large numbers. The only way to the Tau's base was to march past the shield pylon, else go Tor'kans out of the way.
Here Alohvar had prepared his response. In buildings to either side Fire Warriors lurked, Pulse rifles held low as they hid. Drone squadrons and Vespid were positioned further back, to help secure against sudden rushes or repulse against flank assaults. These were the jaws of the trap but he and the rest of his forces were the bait. Further back he had set out his Crisis Team and the Broadsides, their railguns levelled and ready to fire. There was also the Skyray and the Gue'vesa, lurking behind Tidewall barriers. There were notably fewer humans than there had been upon planetfall, but he wasn't concerned about that, the more he saw of Gue'La the more convinced he was the Tau should never have let them join the Empire. Yet he had no choice, the enemy was coming from everywhere, making a Kauyon impossible, a Mont'ka was the only option left.
This roadblock represented their best hope of repulsing the silent automatons but it was also a lure, a challenge the silver host could not afford to ignore. Whether they were mindless drones following ancient protocols or working to some greater scheme, the result was the same. The host was heading for the Tau's base and must overcome this resistance to advance.
Spiy'tus scanned the horizon and asked, "Can we hold?"
"We have to," Alohvar replied grimly, "If we fail the base will be overrun."
Teq'ila mused, "Why are these machines attacking us?"
"Some form of automated defence unit, I conclude. They must have been triggered by the violence of our battles and activated to confront what they perceive as an invading force."
Teq'ila scoffed, "I know that, but what I meant is why are they attacking only us? The Gue'ron'sha have been ignored."
That was a troubling fact. Drone surveillance had confirmed the silver machines were avoiding the Gue'la encampment. They were emerging from storage units and warehouses all over the metropolis, their numbers swelling with every hour, but going out of their way to avoid the Gue'ron'sha. Either they deemed them no threat, unlikely in Alohvar's opinion, or they were collaborating. How such a thing was possible baffled him but he wouldn't put it past the Gue'La. A small part of him even wondered if the Gue'ron'sha had awakened the automatons to fight their battles. Their vaunted honour should preclude such an action but he knew all too well there were no depths to which they would not sink.
He shook off idle speculation and declared, "This is where we hold them, we have concentrated our greatest might here and shall drive them back."
"Would that we had Manta support," Teq'ila whined.
"I asked the Ethereal but he refused. Jer'ema insists the Manta remains to guard the base as a last line of defence."
Spiy'tus sighed, "We must trust in the wisdom of the Ethereals."
Alohvar's opinion of Jer'ema was rather different; he would have loved to slap some sense into the child but now was not the time to argue. An alarm started blaring as drones spotted silver automatons marching up the street. As before their movements were stiff and inelegant but their deployment could not be faulted. They advanced in combat deployment; covering each other with crisp precision a Shas'O would have been proud to call his own. Their numbers had increased since the last encounter and now they drove numerous tracked weapon platforms with them, of a type Alohvar had not seen before.
He opened a comm-channel and signalled, "Stand by, we shall face the enemy and deny these machines passage to our base. Remember the Earth and Air Castes are depending on us, we are all that stands between them and destruction. For the Empire and the Greater Good!"
There was no elated cry but hands tightened on grips and feet planted firmly as the Tau prepared to engage the closing force. Alohvar shifted channels and signalled, "Shas'Ui Uriem, get out of there."
"Almost done!" the Pathfinder leader called.
"Get back here now or be trapped," Alohvar barked.
"Ready!" Uriem broadcast and then his teams came sprinting out of the base of the shield pylon, running to join the Gue'Vesa behind the Tidewalls.
They were barely in time for a moment later the Broadsides let rip with peals of thunder. Railguns flared with fantastic power and left flaming scorch trails hanging as their hypersonic rounds shot down the road. Alohvar couldn't yet see the oncoming foe with his own sensors but the Railgun's range was incredible and they could hit a foe even from this distance. Primarily anti-armour weapons he hoped they would prove a match for the automatons. Again they fired, and again, hitting the enemy from afar and tallying the first kills.
Alohvar fought his nerves as the first glimpses of silver became apparent, slinking into range. Railgun bursts blasted several into slag as they closed but Alohvar saw their numbers were too great to deny and they did not pause to count their losses. Closer and closer the host came, weaving evasively to avoid the worst and then they crossed an invisible line and he cried, "All units fire!"
The Tau line opened up with an onslaught of firepower. Missiles leapt high and crashed back down, blowing Ceramite and cabling across the ground. Alohvar noted the hollow spaces inside and saw once again these were some form of armoured suits, vacant of warriors but animated regardless, a puzzle he had no time to solve. Pulse rifles discharged in swathes, guided by markerlights projected by lurking Pathfinders it was hard for them to miss and they scythed down scores of empty armoured suits. Even the Skyray added its fury, meant to target aerial threats it nevertheless sent missiles soaring high to crash down in random sprays of explosives.
The fury of the barrage smote the host with deadly force and the Crisis team added their weight to the retort. Plasma rifles punched armours off their feet, missiles blew them to shreds and micro-explosives coated the ground, crippling many. Alohvar swept his Tri-cyclic Ion blaster about, his targeting module allowing him to pick off targets with ease. He fired repeatedly, claiming an ever-increasing tally but kept a sharp eye on the heat readings, the last thing he wanted was another overload in the midst of battle.
The silver host had lost scores in the opening volley but seemed uncaring of loss. They kept advancing, moving up in crisp formations and weaving according to some unknowable formula to avoid being hit. Despite their casualties they closed into weapons range, then they returned fire. Crackling red orbs shot from forearms and slammed into Tidewall barriers. The force fields held but radiation alerts in Alohvar's ear told him the area was being doused in lethal fallout. Those playing bait may live through the day, but each shot was slicing Tau'cyr off their lives. He could only trust his Nanocrystalline armour would spare him a similar fate.
Furious exchanges of fire smote both sides, red and blue bolts of energy flying back and forth. Added to these were quicksilver arrows, that punched through force fields like they weren't there to leave gaping holes straight through living beings. Casualties began to mount among the Gue'vesa and Alohvar grimaced as he shifted his fire to target the heavy weapon automatons, trying to cull them before they could shoot.
The street was filled with bedlam, light, fire and death as both sides fought to the utmost. Railguns lit the air on fire, plasma etched shadows onto the ground and radiation tainted the area with toxic fallout. Then the silver warriors drove their support platforms into range and let loose. Crackling arcs of lightning danced over the line of Gue'vesa and anyone it touched fell to the ground screaming in agony, the slightest graze enough to condemn veteran warriors to howling torment.
A weapon unseen since the apex of Mankind's arrogance, when humanity produced sci-arcana that should never have been dreamt, Neural-flayers stripped nerve endings, leaving the victim in eternal anguish. The slightest touch of the crackling lightning reduced brave warriors to weeping babes, wracked by agony that would never end. There was no possible cure or relief, they would be in pain every remaining second of their lives and many chose the quick way out, putting guns in their mouths and pulling the triggers.
Disgust rose in Alohvar's throat at the sight and he cried, "Fire Warrior teams, now!" From the adjoining buildings Fire Warriors leapt up and opened fire, raining down pulse rifle shots from both sides. Caught in a crossfire the silver host should have broken and withdrawn but they did not. Half the force broke off towards either side and ran for the buildings, intending to clear them out as the rest kept up their steady advance and readied their weapon platforms for another volley.
"Vespid and drone support, defend the flanks! Crisis team with me!" Alohvar yelled as he leapt into the sky. He soared over the battlefield, red orbs missing him by a hairsbreadth as he rained down Ion shots. He smote the operators of one weapon platform and another as his comrades did the same for two more. Silver warriors fired upwards but kept pressing forward, inching closer to the line. Alohvar saw them creep into range and throw dull-glass orbs over the line. He took them for grenades until they shattered to release string-thin silver worms with snapping mandibles, that moved with remarkable swiftness. Before anyone could react they swarmed up the legs of several nearby Gue'vesa and Pathfinders, burrowing their way into skin and bone. Warriors fell flailing at their own bodies as the worms chewed their way inside flesh and began eating their victims alive from the inside out.
Alohvar thought he would be sick at the vileness of these weapons but as his feet slammed down he took that revulsion and vented it at the automatons. Silver armours fell before his scything onslaught, mowed down by ion blasts in such number that overheating alarms began to wail once more. He cared not, determined to end this travesty. The Tau had known this planet housed the lost secrets of the Gue'La history, but none had imagined that the horrors of the past would surpass the brutality of their current Imperium. As Alohvar beheld the dark genius of mankind with his own eyes he grasped the Gue'La had not fallen from a state of grace, they had always been cruel and depraved in their hearts.
Plasma and missiles joined his barrage as Pulse rifle fire culled many armours from on high. The white heat of battle enveloped him and he fought to his utmost, his will set upon ending this threat once and for all, but he had yet to see the worst of the enemy's weapons. A trio of automatons hefted a bulky cannon and fired it at the nearest Tidewall, releasing a wave of distortion. It passed over the line without a qualm and in its wake left nightmares.
Weapons of terror, Ether-flux cannons had once been feared across the galaxy, for they rearranged the dimensions of spacetime in ways no sane mind would want to understand. Gue'vesa and Pathfinders were covered in distortions and emerged as parodies of life. Twisted limbs stuck out of faces while spines and ribs ripped free and walked as insects. Guts writhed like snakes, choking the necks of their owners, as tongues grew teeth and began to chew their way out of faces. Mouths screamed from torsos as eyes blinked from fingertips and one warrior had his skin turned inside out, becoming a screaming vision of wet blood. They weren't dead, that was the worst part, the victims were left alive and howling in torment, until their comrades turned their guns upon them and put them down with mercy kills.
Alohvar's gore rose to new heights as he gunned down the automatons carrying the weapon and he screamed, "This is madness!"
Spiy'tus shot a missile at point-blank range as he cried, "We can't hold them!"
"We must destroy them all!" Alohvar yelled.
But Teq'ila shouted, "We're being overrun!"
Alohvar wanted to rend and slay as he never had before in his life but cold discipline told him the line was breaking. Despite the courage of the defence the silver host was breaking through. They had endless numbers and weapons that could not be denied. To stand and kill was all he wanted but this was not the Tau way and he had a final contingency yet to deploy.
"Fall-back!" he cried as he lit his jet pack and sent a neural-command. The Crisis Suits leapt clear and as they did so explosions wracked the base of the shield vane. Demolition charges set by the Pathfinders earlier, they had been carefully places to weaken the supports and the explosives did their work well. A billowing cloud of dust blew forth then the world shook to the sound of breaking Ferrocrete and metal as the tower collapsed over the street, raining down debris as it did so. A rumble of thunder deafened all ears and dust obscured all sight as the tower toppled upon the advancing host, burying hundreds in the rubble.
Alohvar slammed into the ground as dust billowed freely and he held his breath as he switched to a drone's visual feed. Beyond the piled debris the rest of the silver host paused, staring at the blocked road. For a moment he thought they would try to climb it, but then as one they turned away and marched off, uncaring for the hundreds of their kind buried in the rubble. They quit the field and didn't look back as they headed for the next clear route to the Tau base.
"That was too close," Spiy'tus hissed.
"What sort of weapons were those!" Teq'ila gasped, "I've never imagined such horrors existed."
Alohvar only said grimly, "Prepare to see them again, they won't give up so easily. We've only claimed a few more Decs. We must fall back and prepare the next defence, then we will have to do this all over again."