Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 184
Juto Hornan was awoken by the blaring of alarums, a harsh wail that cut across the ear and made it impossible to sleep. His eyes snapped open and he sat up in bed, hearing the call to battlestations ringing loud. Sleep dusted his eyes but he had no time to wipe them clean as he vaulted from his bed and grabbed his uniform. As naval tradition dictated he'd laid out his trousers, shirt and jacket in a ready position, easy to don in moments. His feet slid into boots and he yanked on the laces, cunningly tied in a fashion that allowed them to close with a tug. He grabbed his chainsword and stub pistol, already fitted to his belt and shrugged them on. In less than thirty seconds he was dressed and running to the door, but that was when the Carmilla lurched violently to the side as the superstructure wailed in distress.
Hornan swayed as the deck bucked under his feet. A heartbeat later he heard a crash as his manservant Vigoro slammed into a wall but long experience allowed Hornan to keep his feet. He heard the wailing alarms take on a new pitch, the whooping of fire alerts cutting through the din. Hornan changed direction and went straight to a vox-set built into the wall, hitting the rune as he cried, "Bridge, come in! Commander Hornan to bridge!"
Nothing came back except static and Hornan's guts clenched in dread, then a voice crackled, "Secondary bridge, watch officer Tinag reporting."
Hornan's guts filled with icy-fear at the words. The secondary bridge, the back-up reserve in event of catastrophic disaster overtaking the primary bridge, buried deep in the hull where it would be safe. If the secondary bridge was answering then something dire had happened to the primary bridge. Without thinking he blurted out, "What's happening?!"
"We're under attack!" Tinag cried, "A torpedo volley came out of the ion storm, before we could react it hit us. The bridge was blown clean off!"
Questions of who and how flashed through his mind, yet he knew he would find no answers here. By dire luck or amazing skill an unknown attacker had struck the Carmilla and wounded her grievously. Whoever it was would doubtless be closing to finish the job and Hornan knew seconds counted. "Summon all senior officers to the secondary bridge, keep us away from the storm and tell the Commissars to whip the turret gunners for their sloth!"
Hornan wasted no time waiting for a response as he ran for the door. He dove out and turned down a long passage, headed for the secondary bridge. Everywhere running ratings and midshipmen raced to get their posts, hurrying along as best they could. Alarms wailed and lights flashed as he ran, passing gaggles of tech-priests chanting psalms of belligerence at the Machine Spirits. He knew even now thousands of crewmen would be struggling to bring the Carmilla to wakefulness, but their efforts would be in vain unless a clear chain of command was established. A leaderless ship was a dead ship.
Soon he reached the heavy hatch and ran past a team of armsmen hunkering down behind a line of plasteel barricades. He emerged into a haze of noise and sweat, hundreds of shouting officers bellowing over each other. Compared to the grand majesty of the main bridge the secondary was cramped and tight, consoles packed together in snug lines. A short dais squatted before a Hololith, it's surface bare metal and the railing plain. Everything was functional and economical, but that only underlined the seriousness of the situation.
Hornan leapt onto the dais and watch officer Tinag said, "Commander, thank the throne!"
"Report!" Hornan barked irately.
"We're heaving away from the storm, creating room. The Fury CAP was lured away by an errant contact and then a torpedo volley came out of nowhere, no sign of the attackers but energy emissions betray ships on approach. Fires on deck one through four, we've sealed the air doors to suffocate it, estimate three hundred dead."
"Where's Captain Yarret?" Hornan demanded, "She should be here!"
Tinag looked pale as he answered, "Captain Yarret had watch on the bridge. She's not responding, we can only assume she's dead. You're in command, sir."
Hornan's world tilted at the news. Captain Yarret, his friend and patron had been killed, culled from the ranks of living by cruel tragedy. He didn't know how to process her loss and knew the only person who had ever believed in him was gone. Yet under that a dark thrill ran through him, he was in command. The Carmilla was his now, his chariot to steer as he willed. A small part of him exulted at the prospect, no matter the cost it had demanded.
As Tinag dismounted Hornan faced the frantic bridge crew and ordered, "Note in the ship's log that I have assumed command of the Carmilla at this hour. Direct damage control teams to the upper decks, ready main weapons and launch all Fury interceptors. Helm bring us parallel to the ion storm, communications signal Admiral Belliad we have been engaged by unknown attackers and somebody shut off that damned alarm. Snap to it!"
Responding to orders with reassured spirits the crew went to work. In moments the mad panic quelled and order returned to the Carmilla, the officers trained to obey orders without question. Hornan was glad to see they obeyed him as they would Captain Yarret but then noticed more personnel pouring through the hatch. Gunnery master Torhay, Ordnance master Gansay and Commissar Landry. That last one made Hornan grit his teeth, he had hoped the Commissar died on the bridge, but he wasn't so lucky.
Landry stepped onto the dais and said, "Where is the Captain?"
"Dead, I have assumed command."
There was the faintest tick in the commissar's cheek but it was quickly supressed as his professional demeanour forced him to say, "As the God-Emperor wills."
Suddenly a cry rang out "New contacts emerging from the storm!" Hornan looked into the Hololith and saw a capital ship emerging, along with three, no four escorts. They were clearing the interference, wisps of electrostatic discharge clinging to their hulls. Sleek prows broke the clouds and set sail into the light of the local star as weapon ports opened and engines flared like captured stars.
Tinag called, "Reading four Falchion-class frigates. Logic engines have identified them as Scorpio squadron; they were recorded as lost in the Immaterium seven years ago. Also a light cruiser, Hellbringer class, the Echidna. A Red Corsairs commerce-raider thought destroyed at the battle of Farchas Sound."
Landry growled, "Clearly not as dead as we thought. Are they raiders coming for Lutum, or dregs of the rebellion left behind?"
Hornan growled, "Either way, we must confront them."
Landry eyed him warily and probed, "We are outnumbered and outgunned. The Hellbringer is a match for an Enforcer-class alone, but with her escorts we are outmatched."
Hornan refused to be cowed and said, "I do not intend to retreat without first drawing blood. They have wounded the Carmilla and must pay; besides the Imperial Navy teaches no captain can go far wrong if he puts his ship alongside the enemy."
"Very good," Landry agreed, "Shall we copy our surveyor data to the Admiral, in case we die gloriously?"
Hornan concurred, "Comms, send an updated data-packet to the Veritas every ten seconds. Helm, steer a course towards the foe and Enginarium, beseech the reactors for maximum output. Sensorium, refresh the Hololith every three seconds. Gunnery, tell me the lances are charged."
"Purring like a defrocked priest in a brothel," Torhay called.
Hornan grinned eagerly as the Carmilla came to point towards the enemy, her lances gleaming with deadly power. The Enforcer sacrificed her gundecks for launch bays, but there was nothing wrong with her prow weaponry. Power enough to punch through the shields of the enemy and land a telling blow. But where devilled him. He could steer for the frigates and take out one or two of them, or head for the Echidna and try to wound the foe, as they had wounded the Carmilla. There would only be time for one pass, to stay and engage would be suicide, he would have to make a choice.
Suddenly Gansay cried, "Echidna is launching strike craft, cogitators read them as… oh this is odd: Deathbird fighters."
"Deathbirds," Landry mused, "A rare breed, I can't imagine where they dug up those relics."
"A question for another day," Hornan stated, "Signal Uno and Duo squadrons to block their path."
In the Hololith flurries of tiny icons darted into the shrinking distance between the two forces. Imperial Furies engaging renegade Deathbirds, brave pilots against insidious Heretics. The Imperials were holding their own, their craft being optimised for interceptor duties in the void. Deathbirds by comparison were cumbersome and sported fewer lascannons, but they carried a heavy plasma cannon under their bellies, a minor threat to a capital ship but one not to be ignored. If the Deathbirds got close enough they could incinerate auspex vanes, shield projectors, comms towers and shuttle bays. Annoying bites that could make all the difference in the heat of battle. Hornan could only trust the daring Imperial flyers would hold their own as the Fury and Deathbirds engaged in a swirling dance, filling the void with las and missile.
He turned his eyes back to the bigger threats and saw Echidna was powering forward, her prow gunports yawning wide. Yet it was Scorpio squadron who concerned him more, moving up the flank to bracket the Carmilla. Falchion frigates, Voss-pattern escorts that were becoming a more frequent sight in the galaxy. Many naval officers poured scorn on the design, deriding them as new and untested at a mere five hundred years old, and proclaimed they could not match the redoubtable power of the Sword-class. Yet Hornan knew to be wary, for Falchions were also torpedo-boats and by the looks of things they were angling to launch a volley.
"Contacts!" Tinag yelled, "Four torpedoes in the void and burning hard!"
"Recalling Fury's!" Gansay yelled.
"Belay that order!" Hornan bellowed, "Divert reserve power to the plasma drives: all ahead full!"
The light cruiser surged through the void, riding on a comet tail of plasma wash. The ship raced forward, clawing for room as the torpedoes bore down. Hornan felt an icy bead run down his neck as he watched vectors slide over each other, the hurtling darts spearing for his ship at breakneck speed. The Carmilla was accelerating, but he wasn't sure she was fast enough to clear the danger. All he could do was cling to the rail of the Dais to stop his hands shaking, as he waited to see if his gamble had killed them all.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the angles changed and then suddenly they were clear. The torpedoes shot past the Carmilla's stern, blown aside by plasma wash as the cruiser made her escape. A ragged cheer rang out across the bridge but they were not out of danger yet. The Carmilla blew through the clouds of swirling fighters, screaming past and straight into the waiting arcs of the Echidna's prow guns. The raider's bow lit up as her guns boomed, macrocannons, plasma annihilators, turbolasers, Grav-cannons and missiles batteries, flinging destruction into the void. The torrent of firepower struck the racing cruiser dead on, pummelling her shields and making them fit and crackle as they struggled to shunt aside the onslaught.
The bridge heaved as feedback surged through the artificial gravity, making men cling to their consoles as Tinag shouted, "We're taking a beating!"
"Hold your course!" Hornan yelled as his boots slipped on the metal of his dais, "Divert all power to the lances and lock on target."
"Shields buckling!" Tinag yelled as panicked ratings prayed for deliverance.
"We can't take much more of this," growled Landry.
"We have to, we have one only shot," Hornan snapped back.
More and more impacts smote the shields and Hornan knew they were on the verge of failure. The Echidna kept firing, flinging all she had into the Carmilla's path. A blizzard of destruction pounding on their defences, wearing them down piece by piece to leave them exposed and vulnerable. Sure enough Tinag yelled, "Shields collapsing!"
"Where the hell are my lances?!" Hornan cried.
Torhay shouted, "One more second…Lock. We have a hard lock."
"What are you waiting for, fire!" Hornan bellowed.
The Carmilla's prow erupted with collimated light as her lances let rip. Fed by surging power from the reactors three beams of coherent destruction crossed the void at light-speed, connecting Carmilla and Echidna with spears of energy. The first beam struck her square on and shattered her shields with an electro-static bang, leaving her wreathed with flaring discharges of lightning. Staggered a moment later a second beam struck home, boring into her spine and cutting deep, destroying power relays and crew barracks deep within. The third beam went slightly wide and clipped her port launch bay, setting fuel and ordnance ablaze and starting a fire in her flank that raged out of control. Hundreds of Heretics died in that inferno, flailing madly as blast doors slid shut to choke the fire of oxygen. The Echidna was wounded deeply, left streaming fire and bodies from ragged injuries as the Carmilla shot past, flying by at breakneck speed.
On the bridge cheers erupted at the sight, men punching the air as the hits landed. The enemy was reeling and hearts thundered in chests as men cried their huzzahs. "That was for Captain Yarret you scum!" Hornan yelled in delight.
Landry nodded in affirmation, "A timely blow, but i suggest we take our prize and depart, before those escorts slip into our stern."
"A sage suggestion Commissar, let us…"
Suddenly Tinag cried, "New contact! New contact emerging from the storm… it's… it's massive." Hornan's joy died as he saw an icon emerging, bigger and more powerful than all the ships engaged in battle combined. Her flanks were mountains, her gundecks tiered stacks of deadly weaponry and her drives blazing stars in the void. Her prow parted ion clouds like a sledgehammer through smoke, reinforced layers of Adamantium shrugging off corposant with disdain. She was immense, a leviathan of the void, a ship-killer and line-breaker and her gun ports were open.
Gansay gasped in dismay, "That's… that's a battlebarge… That's a warp-damned Astartes Battlebarge!"
Hornan breathed in shock, "No… it can't be…"
Horrified silence fell as men stood aghast but Commissar Landry spat, "We must withdraw immediately."
"What?!" Hornan spluttered in stunned confusion.
"We can't stand against that, to try is to waste one of the God-Emperor's ships in pointless bravado. We must fall back to Lutum and make a stand with Admiral Belliad. Only combined can we hope to prevail."
Hornan blinked in confusion then agreed, "Yes... yes it is our duty to stand with our comrades. Helm, steer course 055 mark 325, maximum acceleration. We must dive under their arc of fire and disengage. If we are swift enough we can evade before they bracket us. Gansay, recall the Fury squadrons, tell them to watch our flanks for more torpedo salvoes. And communications, signal Admiral Belliad and tell him trouble is heading his way!"