Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 162
Brontes was stunned by the way he collided with the wall and made it shatter under his weight. Glassic panels cascaded down as Obsidian staves snapped in two and the Cadmus tried to understand what was happening. The punch had sent Brontes flying, lifted bodily from the floor to sail through the air as if he was nothing. It shouldn't have been possible, a Cadmus unit was a heavy-class automaton, weighing tons. Nothing should toss one aside so easily, not least a mortal man.
Across the room Lasper stood with his face split inhumanly wide. Skin and muscles contorting to reveal a maw too large for his head and his tongue rolled down further than it had any right. Despite that grotesque visage the grin was mocking in aspect, a scornful leer of contempt. It had good reason to jeer, Lasper had just thrown away a Cadmus robot like it was a rag doll, his strength unearthly, beyond anything mere flesh and bone could conceivably produce.
Suddenly a red ball of fire leapt forth from an Atomocindo, leaving radioactive particles hanging. The blast came from Arges, who planted his feet and tried to gun down the fleshbag, but Lasper was no longer there. The mortal blurred, even a Cadmus' eyes being unable to track him and suddenly the mortal was beside Arges. Hands gripped a metal arm and heaved and in one second Arges' right arm was sheared from his body, torn away with ease.
Brontes could barely calculate the strength that required and Arges stumbled in shock. A moment later a backhanded blow sent Arges flying, crashing head over heels to slam into the floor. Brontes had never seen the like and his threat calculations couldn't keep up, but his ingrained programming fell back on core doctrines and made him lift his arms to fire.
Radioactive bolts filled the air, slamming into the man and singeing his flesh. He should have been vaporised, his atoms blown apart, but he did not expire. He lifted his arms as red bolts slammed into his flesh and a wave of coldness erupted from him. Temperatures dropped, despite the energy being pumped into the room and Lasper began to grow. Mass came out of nowhere as his body split apart. Arms grew in length and sprouted black talons, legs twisted and became like an animal's as hooves formed over his toes. The face erupted into a mutts' snout as jaws distended and his skin became flayed red. Horror was not part of Brontes' programming but his mind drew a blank for a proper response. This defied all logic, all laws of physics and nothing he knew of could explain such a feat. A Daemon Prince it had been daubed, Brontes didn't know the term but he was rapidly learning what it meant.
"It's not working!" Steropes cried as he added his fire.
"Keep shooting!" Brontes roared.
"Kill Lasper," Arges shouted as he climbed to his feet and fired his one remaining arm.
The thing that stood amid their fire grinned as it hissed, "Lasper isn't here anymore, only Samus!" Suddenly Samus leapt into the fray, skipping past their onslaught to crash into Arges. Black talons swept low and sliced at his legs, then Arges crashed to the floor missing everything below his hips. He waved his one remaining arm but was helpless to resist as Samus lifted his claws to tear out his core and hissed, "Samus is your doom".
It was then five smaller beings leapt into the fray. The Fleshbags, diving under flying blasts to tackle Samus about the legs. Their heads barely reached his hips but they charged regardless, showing no fear of a horror that would shatter the sanity of any mortal to behold. Space Marines, fallible, frail things of skin and bone tested their courage against a Daemon Prince and they were not found wanting. Hands flashed and black knives stabbed, sinking deep into unholy flesh. Fission based weapons had done no damage to the Daemon Prince but these knives cut deep, letting turgid blood flow. Obsidian, Brontes realised, the Fleshbags had fashioned crude tools from the ruins of the walls. Psychically inert matter cutting that impossible hide, where all the power of the Cadmus' armaments had failed.
Kregulf slammed a knife into the groin as he shouted, "Stand against the unholy! "
Berio stabbed a knee as he cried, "In His name begone foul fiend!"
Paneyr hacked at an ankle as he bellowed, "We cast you out!"
Radfal sliced a tendon and yelled, "For the Emperor!"
Kerubim sliced a thigh as he barked, "You shall fall Neverborn filth!"
Brontes was stunned to see that their attacks were hurting it. All the power of the Cadmus had done nothing, yet these frail beings were inflicting damage, but not a lot. Samus drew itself together and then heaved outwards, flinging its attackers away. Four warriors spun away, tossed aside with ease, but one was not. Paneyr was snatched out of the air by a taloned hand and lifted bodily overhead. He stabbed frantically with his knife but only drew a little blood and in return the lashing tongue of the Daemon stabbed through his neck, almost slicing his head clean off. Transhuman blood sprayed Samus and he drank deep of the shower, relishing every drop that slid down his gullet.
Samus dropped the bleeding corpse of the Cerberii as he hissed, "Samus is the last name you'll hear."
"What does it take to make you stop talking?!" Brontes roared as he resumed firing.
Red bolts glanced off impossible flesh but Kerubim cried, "Not like that you fool! It's a Daemon, ranged fire is ineffective, only combat can end it. Use the ancient ways, fury and steel!"
Brontes had no time to argue and leapt into a charge. His fists crackled as he readied to strike, pulling back to impact with all his force. Samus' claws were faster, they struck out and carved vicious gouges down his front but Brontes leaned into the blows and threw his fists forward. Cadmus strength met Neverborn flesh and for the first time he made an impact. His right fist slammed into the chest and caused it to cave inwards, sending Samus stumbling. The other lashed high and took it in the neck, ripping the head clean off. Samus swayed for a moment then crashed back, hitting the floor with a thud. Red flesh began to dissolve, evaporating as if it had never been.
Brontes stumbled back, processors whirring as he gasped, "Wasn't... wasn't so hard to beat."
Yet the Fleshbags didn't relax as Kregulf spat, "Idiot, do you thinking the Imperium would fear anything that was that easy to kill?!"
Suddenly Paneyr's corpse sat upright as dead eyes opened to reveal pits of infinite horror and he wheezed, "Look out, Samus is here!"
A blur of motion erupted as Samus leapt upright. A confusing moment of blurry impressions passed and then Steropes was sent tumbling to the ground, his left arm ripped out of its socket. Samus tossed the torn limb aside with contempt as he hissed, "Samus has seen the birth of galaxies and the death of the universe."
"Ragh!" Brontes roared as he flung himself into the fray, fists swinging. His blows smote the Daemon with full fury but Samus only laughed as he began to grow again. Even under the onslaught of punches the familiar form of red skin and dog-snout returned as Samus took on his full might and struck back. The pair traded blows, each punch booming in the Laboritorum. They wrestled back and forth, smashing through walls and breaking priceless artefacts in their struggle. They fought without restraint, landing blows that would have slain a score of foes but neither was willing to fall.
"You killed my people!" Brontes bellowed as he slammed a fist into a bulging midriff.
Samus only laughed, "Your people killed themselves! I only gave them a push and it was so easy to do. A whisper here, a hint there and they tore themselves apart in fear of me!"
"You lie!" Brontes screamed as he drove his fist into its face.
Samus sneered, "Little thing of cogs and wires, so blind to the truth. Samus does not lie, Samus was there. I saw it all: the Hegemony destroyed itself and the Gods of Chaos feasted on their tears."
"Then Chaos is my enemy!" Brontes bellowed.
"Fight all you like, destroy any body I take, there are always more. Samus is eternal!"
It was then that Kregulf cried, "He's right, no matter how many times we kill the Daemon it will keep coming back. There must be a locus or totem that's feeding it warp-energy!"
"That throne!" Kerubim shouted, "It's the bridge!"
Without pause the Fleshbags turned upon the throne, ripping it apart with their bare hands. The glowing jewel in the helmet blinked and stuttered and for the first time Samus hesitated as it cried, "Leave that alone!"
He moved to stop them but Brontes surged forward, wrapping arms around Samus' bulk as he growled, "I'm not done with you yet."
In moments the throne was reduced to scrap metal and Samus' flesh stopped growing. It thrashed and it kicked as its voice snarled, "You destroyed my bridge but it matters not. I still have this body and it will end you!"
"No, it won't," Brontes growled as he increased the pressure of his arms.
Pistons hissed and servo-motors whined as the Cadmus squeezed for all he was worth. Samus' body resisted, trying to create more mass but its connection to the Warp was weakened and it could not defy the robot's strength. Brontes put all he had into closing his arms, knowing to let go would be the end of them all. His people were dead, their dreams were dust but the cause of their ruin was within his grasp. So he drove on, crushing it utterly until he heard the snap of its spine. Even then he did not let go, scissoring his arms together until they met, slicing Samus in two.
The shorn halves fell to the ground but Samus was still jeering, "It matters not, I have seen the future and it is the death of you. The way will be opened and I shall return, your breed cannot help yourselves." His tirade was cut short by Brontes' foot slamming into his head, crushing the dog-snout into paste and leaving a steaming corpse. Flesh began to dissolve, revealing Ceramite shards as Samus was banished, leaving Brontes battered but victorious.
Silence fell at last as the corpse disintegrated. Brontes has no way to sense the departure of the Daemon but he noted the temperature rising as its malign influence faded. The shattered ruin of the chambers dripped with condensation and the twisted wreckage of the throne lost its glowing aura as the connection failed at last. The fight was done but there was no escaping the consequences.
From the floor Arges waved his one remaining arm. The Cadmus robot was wrecked and would require extensive repair work to stand again. Arges rotated a single remaining eye-lens and pleaded, "Brontes... help me up."
"Help yourself," Brontes muttered.
"Don't be a glitch," Arges snapped, "We have to get out of here and warn Apophis of the danger. He doesn't understand what we're dealing with."
Brontes looked down upon his companion, a warrior who had stood by him for millennia. Together they had fought through the ages, driven back alien horrors and carved out a place for the Hegemony among the stars. They had been lost and found together and Brontes knew all they truly had was each other. Yet that didn't stop him from lifting his Atomocindo and putting a radioactive blast into Arges' central processing unit.
Angry sparks fountained high as the Cadmus fell limp and its destruction was completed. As the echo of the blast faded Steropes cried, "Arges no! What are you doing Brontes?!" Brontes only response was to swing about and slam a fist into Steropes' front. Broken armour parted before his fist and he opened his grasp to wrap hefty digits around stacks of quantum circuits.
Steropes jerked randomly and slapped his one remaining hand into Brontes' side as he gasped, "Wh... wh... w... why?"
Brontes snarled, "Because you always were a follower."
He ripped his hand out and tore away the delicate processors and micro-cogitators that formed Steropes' mind. Techarcana utterly irreplaceable in this ignorant age was destroyed forevermore, leaving Brontes the sole remaining Cadmus in the galaxy. He shoved Steropes and watched as the corpse dropped like a toppled tree, slamming into the shattered remains of the chamber with a crash of doom. That left Brontes alone with four Transhumans and he noticed they had surrounded him, black shards in hands as they prepared to strike.
"Don't try it fleshbags," Brontes growled, "You can't take me."
Kregulf hissed, "We will die trying."
"Don't waste your strength when there is a more important fight to be won," Brontes snapped.
"Don't listen to it," Kerubim spat, "He killed his own kind, he killed Bane. He's corrupted."
"They had to die," Brontes stated flatly, "Arges and Steropes were followers at heart, they would never agree to do what has to be done."
"And what is that?" Radfal hissed suspiciously.
Brontes declared, "The Hegemony destroyed itself by reaching too far. I see it now, some knowledge is too terrible to bear, some weapons are too dangerous to grasp. My people would never have accepted that, they laughed at the idea of there being anything they could not master and that arrogance lives on in Apophis. He lied to us, he deceived us and hid this truth. He plans to bring the Hegemony back, to recreate the folly that destroyed us. He will let loose Chaos, because he would never accept the warp is beyond understanding. He must be stopped before he unleashes a new dark age."
"Why do you care if humanity suffers?" Berio hissed.
"I don't," Brontes retorted, "Humanity can go extinct for all I care, but I want justice. Believe me we are not so different in that regard. Apophis lied and betrayed us, he will suffer for that."
"What exactly are you proposing?" Kregulf probed.
Brontes looked down upon the Space Marines and declared, "You will come with me and I will show you the weapons you will need. Then we are going to kill Apophis."