Tales of the Amber Viper Chapter 165
The perimeter had fallen within minutes, overrun by silver automatons. They broke through the ragged defence with sheer numbers, blowing past faltering Fire Warrior teams and Gue'vesa. Their vile weapons had shattered all resistance and forced the defenders to withdraw into the base itself, where they made their last stand. Alohvar knew their time was up but he could not flee, not while there were Tau lives to be saved.
"Order the evacuation!" he yelled into the comms-waves.
Aun'La Jer'ema replied sternly, "No, we must repulse this attack."
"We can't hold them," Alohvar snapped, "We are about to be crushed!"
"I will not abandon this world's bounty," Jer'ema retorted.
"It's worthless to the Empire if no-one returns to tell of it," Alohvar retorted.
"You have your orders. Hold for the Greater Good, I will provide covering fire."
Jer'ema cut the link before Alohvar could shout curses at the wretched fool. The Tau base was about to fall and the boy was still thinking of his prizes. Either he was wilfully blind or he cared not for the rising death toll, after all he was floating safe above in the Manta. The super-heavy bomber was hovering above the base on a cloud of antigrav force, its many weapons chugging away at the encroaching host. In truth it was the only thing holding back the final destruction of the base, but it was only delaying the inevitable.
Alohvar looked about and saw flames and smoke rising in all corners. Bright flashes of pulse fire fought with red bolts of energy for dominance as the armours pressed deeper into the base. Dead bodies piled high and the air was thick with fallout and toxic ash, even if anyone lived through this day their days would be few. Alohvar set that aside as he lashed a knot of automatons with ion fire, punching several off their feet. The survivors hoisted an elongated barrel towards him, one of those unspeakable weapons the machines boasted, and he knew its might would be deadly. Yet before they could fire a missile streaked in and blew them away, showing parts over the nearby buildings as flames consumed them.
"My thanks," Alohvar breathed.
"My last missile," Spiy'tus lamented, "But worth it."
Alohvar grimaced as he questioned, "Teq'ila?"
"I'm out too," Teq'ila spat, "I'm down to energy rounds and my power core is running on fumes."
"Make it count," Alohvar hissed, "Come on, let's finish this together."
He lit his jet pack and leapt over the next building, raining down ion blasts. He hardly had to aim, so densely packed were the armours. He saw them overrunning every defence, crushing all before them and grinding the defenders into the dust. His heart fell as he spied the forlorn corpse of a XV88 Broadside suit, cleaved open to reveal the dead pilot within. Its partner fought on, blazing away with railgun fire but its defiance was cut short as a Singularity Driver imploded next to it, crushing it into a ball no bigger than Alohvar's fist.
He gritted his teeth as he slammed into the dirt, blowing away the missile bearing automaton with a furious shot. Two more he culled with energy rounds and the last he shattered with his Onager Gauntlet. Spiy'tus and Teq'ila flung plasma in both directions as Spiy'tus yelled, "The Nem'yar Atoll wasn't half this bad!"
"At least they bled!" Teq'ila spat as he destroyed another armour.
Suddenly the humming of wings heralded Vespid Stingwings appearing, raining down neutron fire as Ki'kiki cried, "Hold, deny, repulse. Crush them all!"
Alohvar was glad to see the insect and cried, "Ki'kiki, take your Stingwings west, move fast and keep high. Hit and run attacks!"
"Obviousness, clearly, redundant. We know what we are..."
His reply was cut off as the roar of great engines shook the air. Alohvar's sensor-head rose and he saw the Manta moving off, its thrusters pushing it away from the base. He couldn't believe it, the Manta was the only thing buying them time and it was leaving. Even as he watched its many guns realigned, targeting the horizon. The Tau's only real defence was abandoning them.
"Aun'La!" Alohvar cried, "Where are you going?!"
"A greater threat looms," Jer'ema signalled, "I go to confront it."
"But we need you," Alohvar gasped.
Jer'ema only cried, "For T'au!"
Alohvar was left dumbfounded as the boy left them. He tracked his sensor-head about, trying to discern what was drawing the Manta away and beheld a giant upon the horizon. Looming against the twilight sky was a humanoid figure, taller than a building and almost as broad. Alohvar recognised it immediately; all Tau officers had been briefed on them, the ultimate war machine: a Titan.
"No one said they had one of those!" Spiy'tus cried.
"What do we do?!" Teq'ila wailed.
Alohvar looked about the base and saw the end was at hand. The Tau's resistance was about to break and there was nothing he could do to stop it. This planet was lost and in truth had never been worth claiming, it was a poisonous mire that should have remained lost. Better the Tau had never come here, better that it was forgotten. His resolve hardened and he opened a comms-wave to declare, "All personnel withdraw to the Orcas and evacuate. We are leaving this world."
"Retreat?!" Spiy'tus gasped, "But the Ethereal..."
"Abandoned us!" Alohvar spat, "Now follow my order!"
At his command the nearby buildings emptied. Huddling non-combat personnel breaking out of their hiding places and running to the dropships. Energy bolts chased them and he knew most would die, but he could still save a handful. Curse Jer'ema for not doing this earlier, the boy's pride had doomed them.
"Covering fire!" Alohvar cried as he leapt high. He shot over the fleeing crowds and blazed downwards, scything automatons apart. Streams of running lifeforms dashing over the shattered armours to reach the dropships. Alohvar's leap saw him cull a half dozen foes, but they responded in kind. A pair of them raised a bulbous weapon and it disgorged a cloud of miniature darts, flying burrs covered in razor-sharp edges. They were micro-automatons, self-guiding munitions with a mote of intelligence. Each dart was tiny but they worked in concert, pooling their processing-intelligence to become almost sentient. Alohvar was forced to let off a burst of thrust to avoid being hit but he was not the target. The darts honed in on the Vespid and punched into them, burrowing within carapaces like bullets from a gun. The Vespid fell from the sky and Ki'kiki's last words were, "Fo... he hive..."
Alohvar snarled in denial as he gunned down the killers, leaving them in his wake as he soared on. His leap took him to the dropships and he thudded down and swept about. In ragged lines fleeing non-combatants ran into his line of sight, dashing into the waiting holds of the Orcas. A few Fire Warriors joined them, their numbers were reduced to almost nothing and they would play no further part in this conflict. Hot on their heels came more automatons, their numbers never-ending and their weapons hot. A red bolt deflected off his faltering shield drone and he returned fire, his heat alarms a constant wail.
Spiy'tus thudded down and added plasma fire as he cried, "Look like this is the end!"
"Then we stand proud!" Teq'ila cried as he added his fire, "Make them remember the Tau!"
Alohvar couldn't have put it better as the three Crisis pilots stood their ground as the last line of defence. They gunned down anything silver they saw, making the automatons pay for showing their faces. Behind the Orcas whined as they readied to take-off, their holds bearing the few hundred survivors of the expedition to this planet. Alohvar fought to buy them time, knowing he would not be joining them. All his life he had fought for the Tau Empire and so he would die, expiring as he had lived, in service to the Greater Good. It was as proud a moment as any in the shining history of the Fire Caste but it was about to be eclipsed entirely.
The horizon lit up with a scintillating bloom of colour and his eyes were drawn away to witness the fight between giants. In the distance the Manta was flying low over the metropolis, its railguns thundering. Streaking trails of fire split the sky as it unleashed destruction, adding burst cannons, missiles and plasma to its barrage. Firepower enough to level a city block fell upon its target and smote it cruelly, yet the Titan was untroubled. Shimmering void shields surrounded the towering machine, shrugging off all incoming ordnance. They became stained a livid purple colour and yet they held true, withstanding all that could be thrown at them.
Alohvar watched as the Titan strode nearer, its long legs crushing small buildings like a child kicking over a sandcastle. It seemed uncaring for the destruction it left, focused only on meeting its rival. A long barrel lifted high and then discharged, sending a streak of rainbow light to touch the Manta. Energy fields proved useless as the beam punched through, the blast sinking into realms the Tau had not dreamt existed.
Alohvar squinted as a lurid smear of colour bloomed over the left wing of the Manta and then it began to break up. Alohvar had no explanation for what happened next as plates began to tear away from the hull. As he watched holes were punched through the fuselage, engines crumpled and weapons were yanked away, all by hands he could not see. In the Nem'yar Atoll Daemons had required hosts to walk free, physical vessels to inhabit that the Tau could see. These were pure Neverborn, psychic in nature and so invisible to Tau eyes, yet deadly nonetheless. Alohvar saw the Manta disintegrating, wings torn away as the flaming remains dropped to the ground in a fireball that lit the city far and wide.
"The Honoured Ethereal!" Spiy'tus screamed through the thunder, "He's dead!"
"All is lost," Teq'ila wailed, "All is lost!"
Alohvar knew his comrades were unmanned by the loss of the Ethereal but he had bigger concerns. The Titan had not turned away, it was continuing its stride, drawing nearer to the base and its infernal weapon was pointed their way. He knew not what it did but he knew it was irresistible; one shot from that weapon would end them.
"Take off!" Alohvar ordered, "Take off now!" Orca engines roared as they fought for lift, rising off the ground in clouds of exhaust. Alohvar felt his suit being buffeted as the dropships lifted and he dared to think he had saved something from this debacle. His distraction cost them dear. As the Orcas lifted an Automaton closed upon the Crisis Suits, hefting a bulky arm weapon and let fly. A quicksilver arrow shot forth and struck Teq'ila's cockpit, smashing through nanocrystalline armour to punch into the interior. Teq'ila's Crisis Suit fell still and unmoving, then toppled over, the Tau within already dead.
"Teq'ila!" Spiy'tus screamed in dismay.
Alohvar shared his woe but kept firing as he roared, "Shoot, shoot or we die!"
He blazed away at the closing silver host, trying to buy a few more precious seconds but his time was up. The Titan had closed to point blank range; its strides slow but covering immense distances. Its weapon-arm throbbed with building energies and then fired a rainbow beam that split reality apart. Alohvar was thrown aside as something he could not see crashed into his suit, sent spinning away by thrashing tentacles that poured out of a rift to claw at the material world. Limbs he could not see thrashed the air, reaching for the lumbering dropships and the pounding heartbeats within. Alohvar rolled over and saw beleaguered craft wallowing in the sky. They fought for lift, engines wailing as invisible foes grasped them tight. Even as he watched dropships were thrown to the ground, exploding on impact. One was torn in half, spilling screaming bodies to be broken on the hard ground below. Another was compacted like an empty beverage can and another had its engines torn off one by one before being dropped.
Alohvar staggered to his feet and fired randomly into the sky as he yelled, "Madness! This is Madness!" He could not see what he was firing at, yet his ion bolts scorched something, splashing off invisible forces he could not perceive. His sanity was crumbling and all he could do was shoot.
Suddenly a voice cried, "Help me!" Alohvar spun about to see Spiy'tus held aloft in mid-air. His Crisis Suit splayed like it was being crucified. He lifted his ion blaster to shoot but too slow, for the cockpit was torn asunder and the pilot yanked out. Spiy'tus body was torn from his shelter but his neural shunt was not disengaged and the connections burrowed deep into his spine. The cabling would not break but the force pulling him was irresistible. Something had to give and it turned out to be Spiy'tus spinal column. A long section of his brain stem was ripped from his body, left dangling from the cockpit like a bloody umbilical cord as his corpse was disdainfully dropped.
"No!" Alohvar screamed, "Spiy'tus no!" He fired wildly, uncaring for what he hit. All was madness and insanity and he felt himself drowning in it. The universe was filled with horrors he could not understand and the only possible response was unthinking violence. He spun about, firing constantly as he tried to cleanse the world with fire. But then he saw it. The Titan stood over him now, lording over the carnage it had unleashed. Before its eyes a single remaining Orca struggled to break away, but its doom had come. The Titan lifted a clawed hand and electric fires arced out, blowing the Orca's rear half clean off.
Alohvar gasped as the dropship yawed over, flames spewing everywhere and it came to point right at him. The craft filled his vision as it fell earthwards, the blunt snout plummeting towards him. He tried to activate his jet pack but all he could see was the growing mass of flaming wreckage falling upon him. His mind screamed a command for his suit to fly away but the dropship hit the ground and exploded, creating a firestorm that covered his suit head to toe and swept all away in an inferno of destruction.