Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 249
Shimmering heat wafted off salt plains, making the horizon waver like water. White ground spread as far as the eye could see, cracked and parched of all moisture, not a single plant or animal to be seen anywhere. The heat was oppressive, battering the skin like a blowtorch. Sweat patches swiftly spread under arms and across backs, the teams of crewmen labouring in the arid waste struggling not to pass out from heatstroke. Plodding servitors were required to drag bowsers of water around constantly, their heavy tanks already half-depleted. Yet despite oppressive temperatures the work went on, it had to, they had no time.
Ruuka stood under an awning erected at the dig site, staring across the camp. For days they had been digging ceaselessly, but found nothing. The Sea of Annwyn was a vast scope of salt plain and dust, hundreds of kilometres wide and two thousand long. Finding something specific in this vast nothingness was a challenge. They'd started at the old mining settlement and radiated outwards, but so far had struck only dead-ends and false leads. That wasn't Ruuka's biggest problem however. He was listening to his vox-bead, scowling in annoyance as the link went dead.
With a grimace he turned and found Dannye and Krusin tending to various scanning devices, staring intently at the readings. The pair didn't seem hurried, they could have been gathering Petri-dishes for all the tension they betrayed. Ruuka was in no haste to embrace full augmentation, but he envied their calm demeanours. Also the fact that cooling fans in their back blew off waste heat, far more efficient than his metabolic sweat.
"We have a problem," Ruuka declared.
Krusin didn't look up as she said, "A moment, this bio-sample is truly interesting."
"I said…"
"Wait," Krusin snapped, "This crustacean was found just below the surface layer, perfectly preserved by the salt. It is an aquatic lifeform, therefore this ground was indeed once a sea."
"Would you…" Ruuka tried.
But Dannye spoke over him, "Interesting indeed. This salt plain is all that remains of a dried-up sea. Can we date the specimen?"
"Four thousand years old," Krusin replied, "I hypothesise a climate shift altered rain patterns and lowered the water table in this region. Twenty thousand years ago this would indeed have been a body of water."
"The time of the Hegemony," Dannye mused, "Under a sea, truly an excellent location to hide valuable artefacts. Secondary evidence supports the premise we are on the right track."
Ruuka's patience snapped and he barked, "Zar-Quaesitor has been detected entering orbit!"
Both their heads finally came up and Krusin stated, "That was faster than predicted."
"Cawl has his ways," Dannye muttered, "Is Tezla preparing to fight or flee?"
"Flee," Ruuka answered, "The crew has no wish to face Pycelo's retribution, but I doubt they'll get far. She may be fast, but she can't outrun Sharkboats. Cawl can capture her with ease, assuming he doesn't just blow her out of the void to make an example."
"Then we have to succeed," Krusin stated, "Can we evade Cawl long enough to achieve our goal?"
Dannye replied, "We are in the opposite hemisphere to his approach and I have set up anti-augur screens to deflect auspex sweeps, but that won't fool him long. I estimate we have at most a solar rotation to find the relic before Cawl descends on us with maximum prejudice."
Ruuka rubbed his brow in frustration and said, "Then it all comes down to if we are digging in the right place."
Dannye stated, "Sub-surface auspexes are detecting a large mass directly below us."
"You are sure this time?" Krusin pressed, "That buried salt-crawler was a total error 404."
"Yes I am certain, seismic resonance scans have detected an extensive network of structures below. Some form of bunker and networked caverns await us."
Ruuka shook his head and said, "A bunker, buried under a sea, and well defended. The Ancients really didn't want anyone getting in there."
"You presume active defences?" Krusin pressed.
"You saw the damage to that Salt-crawler we found. Size of a Capital Imperalis and something chewed it to bit. Whatever we find in there killed all those salt-miners, and it won't take kindly to us poking our noses in."
Dannye began to reply but right then a great cry went up from the workers. All three of Adepts turned and dashed to the dig site, hastening past tents and slack-jawed crewmen who were directing servitor pallets to haul loads of dirt away. At the centre of the camp they found a great pit, sloping down at a sharp angle. At the bottom of the pit was a hard, flat surface, the familiar sight of reinforced Ferrocrete, level and squared at the corners. Already workers were moving to clear the edges, deepening the pit as they sought a door inside.
"The bunker, we found it," Ruuka breathed.
"Only the roof," Dannye asked as he waved an auspex over the sight, "The structure extends far into the subsurface, many kilometres down."
"Then there's no time to waste," Ruuka hissed, "Bring up melta bombs to open it."
Krusin looked at him askance and said, "We could try the door."
"Bound to be sealed and locked with fiendish code-traps and Adamantium girders. Quicker just to blow the roof and make our own door."
Crewman hurried away and came back loaded with circular discs, melta bombs in great number. Dannye directed them to clamp the bombs to the Ferrocrete roof, placing them in a pattern designed to penetrate the thick structure but not incinerate whatever was below, it would not do to destroy the very thing they were looking for. Ruuka fretted in the hot sun as they waited, keenly aware that time was not with them. The Archmagos was bearing down on the planet, and he would not be slow to exact vengeance. There was also the concern that the bunker would be defended, whatever traps the ancients left behind presenting a lethal danger to any intruder. He was right to be concerned but when the trap was sprung it came not from the front, but the rear.
Ruuka was stunned when a scream ripped through the air and a loud explosion rang out from behind. He spun about, drawing his pistol and sword as he did so, only to find calamity unfolding. Fleeing men and women ran from something at the edge of the camp, something moving fast along the perimeter. No, he realised, many things, advancing in a wave. Fires rippled ahead of them, tearing through the camp as something plunged into the reeling workers, culling them mercilessly.
"Cawl's found us!" Krusin cursed as she drew her Meson-pistol.
"Too fast, even for him," Dannye hissed as he slapped his palms together and drew a Repulsor-stave from his hands.
"Whatever it is, it's trying to stop us getting in," Ruuka snarled as he spied a bulky shape advancing.
From the milling crowds burst a machine. It was low to the ground and moved on three balls that spun like wheels. Its frame was curved smoothly and ringed by red lenses for eyes while atop protruded the snout of a Multi-las. Unlike Imperial machinery there were no exposed mechanisms, no wires or gears or pistons, the ball-wheels spun unattached to the frame, held in place by magnetic force alone. The whole machine was covered in salt-grit, but it moved regardless and it killed.
Ruuka spied a fleeing man get gunned down by a burst of las and returned fire with a spray of rounds from his gun. Blazing mass-reactives flew but they deflected off the curved frame, flying into the air before detonating. The burst drew the machine's attention and the top spun to bring its weapon to bear, but Ruuka threw himself aside as a burst of las tore through the space he was standing, only to hear the machine closing. He hit the ground and rolled over, expecting the machine to be backing up, but to his shock it wasn't, it was already heading right at him. Unlike wheeled vehicles that had to turn, the ball-wheels could spin in any direction, making every angle it's front.
If Ruuka had hesitated he would have died, but he reacted on instinct, diving straight at the oncoming machine. The las weapon was angling to shoot further away and missed his sudden reversal, allowing him to close and ram his sword-point into its mass. Armour parted and sparks flew as he plunged his sword deep, destroying circuits and bringing the machine to a halt.
He hastily pulled back, trying to get a sense of what was going on. To his dismay more machines were advancing, ringing the camp in hostile devices, all seeking to destroy the intruders. More balled gun carriages were grinding forward, alongside many-tentacled guardians that skittered forward on the tips of their legs as plasma-talons flashed under their bulk. There were even large simian constructs, tearing men apart with metal hands as feral screeches of electronic hash erupted from speaker grilles. All was madness and carnage and Ruuka saw the attackers would tear this place to bits in moments.
"We cannot withstand this!" Krusin yelled as she fired a Meson-beam through a tentacle construct.
Dannye fought with a simian device, fending it off with his spear as he shouted, "Estimate two hundred and forty seconds until force depletion!"
Ruuka spun about and ran to the crater edge to shout, "Blow the melta-bombs, blow them now!"
The huddling crewman didn't bother to argue as they set the timers and ran for the edge of the pit. Moments later the bombs went off, blasting Ferrocrete with fusion fire. The roof glowed cherry-red for a moment, then fell in on itself, dripping molten stone into the depths below, revealing a dark expanse under the earth.
"Get inside!" Ruuka howled.
"We have no time to set up climbing gear," Krusin protested as she backed up.
Dannye snapped, "Probability of surviving drop of unknown depth, indeterminable. Probability of surviving up here: zero."
"We're not going backwards, the only way is forward!" Ruuka yelled as he dropped into the crater and slithered down the sides. Salty gravel sprayed up around him as he reached the edge of the hole. He heard feet pounding dirt as surviving crewmen chased him, and behind mechanical roars as the attacker gave chase. Ahead was a drop that may kill him, but to stay was to die so Ruuka jumped into the hole without pause, letting gravity sweep him away as the darkness rushed up to claim him.