Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 257
Ruuka strode through the fires of battle and was pleased. The flanking attack had been carried off flawlessly, taking the embedded Skitarii in the rear and laying waste to them. The Skitarii had fought back but their limited arsenal was no match for the cruelties of the past, the ancient weapon templates the Nanoswarm retained, weapons that had broken alien civilisations beyond the paltry threats of this lesser age. Already hundreds had fallen, and many more were about to die. True, hundreds of constructs had been cast down, but it mattered not. The Nanoswarm's ability to reconstruct templates was limitless, any form destroyed this day could be made again, if necessary.
Ruuka grinned as he saw Skitarii struggling to redress their ranks, trying to close the gaps in the defence. He did not feel any joy over their plight, but the impetus to complete his objectives was a close approximation and this template knew only one way to express that imperative. He strode confidently on as sporadic rad-fire mowed down constructs, knowing every shot was being returned thricefold. The ambient rad-count was climbing, a sensation that could only be described as an irritating itch on his skin, but not fast enough to stop the army of constructs. The inescapable conclusion was simply this: Ruuka was winning.
"Estimated time to hostile force destruction, twenty-seven minutes," the Dannye construct said at his side.
"Good," Ruuka sniffed, "But not good enough."
"You propose expediting the conclusion?"
"I do, let me show you how."
Ruuka drew his gun with a smooth draw and aimed at a knot of Skitarii. The red-robed warriors were laying volleys of radium-shots, punching constructs out off their feet in a futile attempt to slow the closing horde. With a tug of his finger Ruuka spat a flurry of bolts at them, watching rounds twist in mid-air as they sought their targets. The Skitarii were clipped by the rounds and staggered, but their augmented frames contained much redundancy and armoured plating and they were not killed. That however was not to their favour.
Reconstructed perfectly out of the being of the Nanoswarm these rounds were in essence clusters of Nanocytes. When they struck the Skitarii they abandoned the template of bullets and reached for the unclaimed atoms of the target. The Skitarii resumed firing for a few seconds, then froze as the first patches of silver began to spread over their bodies. Ruuka slowed his stride to watch as the warriors reacted with frantic haste, tearing their robes off in an attempt to avoid contamination. It was as close to panic as the Tech-guard' programming would allow, but it did nothing to spare them. The Nanocytes were inside the mass of their being, drawing of the matter of their being to replicate. Inside the Skitarii floods of Nanocytes multiplied, consuming everything they found in an exponential growth curve. Mere seconds after being struck the Skitarii fell to the ground and dissolved into silver puddles, their templates absorbed into the Nanoswarm's infinite memory as trails of liquid silver began the slow process of returning to the greater mass.
"Efficient," Dannye commented.
"Have new constructs built with copies of this weapon," Ruuka said, "But for now bring up the Ether-flux cannons."
"Those units are highly destructive, we will lose potential data."
"Less than we will if we dither, bring them up!"
A swirl behind indicated heavier units being summoned from deeper in the horde. Ruuka saw the two armies were nearly touching now, the exchange of firepower so extreme that the air seemed to light on fire. Casualties were mounting on both sides, but the constructs could make good their losses while the tech-guard could not, it was only a matter of time until the Skitarii were ground down. That was good and bad, mindless destruction was not the Nanoswarm's goal, to absorb templates and consume data was. Ruuka needed to get his army closer, much, much closer. For that he needed a line-breaker.
His scheming was interrupted by a brilliant flash, that smote a pair of constructs to ruin. An Irad-Cleanser, its lingering fallout making Ruuka's skin itch furiously. He turned his head to track the origin of the shot and lifted an eyebrow as he saw a Primaris Marine, one with a black serpent wrapped around a goblet on his shoulder.
Ruuka sniffed, "Either my memories were reconstructed faulty or that is Kerubim shooting at us."
"Error, the Astartes was terminated," Dannye snapped.
"He wasn't a Primaris either," Ruuka noted.
"This is anomalous," Dannye hissed, "It does not compute."
"Then I suggest you get over there and correct the situation, quickly. Absorb him if you can, kill him again if you can't."
Dannye hefted his spear and lopped off, heading for the lone Space Marine. Ruuka however turned his eye to a line of heavy sleds being dragged forward. Atop each stood a heavy weapon of considerable heft. Wrapped in charged coils and with flared barrel endings they promised more than death, weapons of torment and terror, used to cow civilisations rival to the Hegemony, in ages long past. Ether-flux cannons, weapons whose mere existence had prompted more than one alien race to sue for peace.
A single line of cannons was lined up, then they discharged as one. No material round or energy bolt did they fire, but contorted waves of dimensional instability. Ripples of spacetime flew forth, passing over the front rank of Skitarii, subjecting them to an impossible jumble of non-Euclidian geometry. When the waves passed over all that remained was horror. Men had been turned inside out, organs and augmetics left on the outside of their skin. Limbs stuck out of spines, heads were buried in groins, fingers grew out of eyesockets and tongues where hands had been. It was a vision of hell but the worst part was they were still alive and still screaming in torment.
The remaining Skitarii wavered, even their inbuilt programming struggling to hold back the visceral horror of what they beheld. Implanted hormonal dampers were overloaded by primal surges, thought repressors faltered and emotional inhibitors proved lacking as animal fear took hold. The Skitarii, the stalwart troops of the Tech-priests knew fear and their will to fight shattered. The Nanoswarm had made the fearless quiver in terror.
Ruuka saw the moment was at hand and drew his sword to cry, "Charge!" As one the horde broke into a gallop, racing to clear the distance. The Skitarii were still reeling and failed to react fast enough, no more than a couple of shots rising to defy the charge. Constructs threw themselves bodily into the fray, tackling stunned Tech-guard and letting their Nanocytes go to work. Ranks of Skitarii disappeared into silver puddles, absorbed before they could fight back. Those further back tried to deny the charge, but they were outmatched. A single touch was enough to expose a body, one hand laid on an arm or shoulder dooming the individual to become a part of the Nanoswarm.
Ruuka grinned as the day turned in his favour, striding through the fray with sword drawn. A Skitarii with five glassic-eyes came at him, crackling electro-spear in hand. Ruuka deflected the flared tip with his swords' edge, then grabbed the haft with his free hand. Nanocytes flowed, absorbing the weapon. The Skitarii threw the spear down and flung a punch, but Ruuka deftly spun right and then stepped back. The Skitarii followed up with a punch to the gut. Ruuka rolled his eyes as he saw the blow coming, and chose to let it land. The blow rang through him but his grin widened as contact was made and his Nanocytes took root. The Skitarii staggered back, aghast as his knuckles turned silver, then watched in dismay as his arm and chest fell apart. In moments the tech-guard was reduced to a silver puddle, joining Ruuka in the Nanoswarm's being.
He cast about and saw his compatriots overrunning the defence, swarming over any resistance with ease. Nothing could stand against them, even trying to fight back was futile. How could one resist an enemy for whom victory came with but a single touch? He saw Dannye charging at Kerubim, stave swinging for the head. The Marine abandoned his Irad-cleanser and retreated, unable to do anything but run. Nearby he heard the gruff bellows of a Squat at war, and knew Wulfe was trying to make a stand. He hoped the Squat would be absorbed quickly; it would be good to have such strength at his side once more. Further out the mechanical war-cries of Brontes echoed loud. That provoked a grimace, Cadmus robots had proven vexing in the distant past, a serious obstacle to the Nanoswarm's expansion. Brontes was perhaps the only defender holding his ground, it was only shame they hadn't a hundred Cadmus, then they might have stood a chance.
Then he saw something far more enticing: Pycelo, the Magos Explorator himself, walking backwards on his four towering legs, as a pair of Irad-Cleansers fired from under his bulk. Instantly Ruuka diverted course, heading straight at the Magos. The flaring beam weapons struck into the closing horde, even as he backed up, but the pattern was predictable and one Ruuka had memorised in a previous life.
Ruuka deftly avoided the lashing beams, letting other constructs take the hits as he called out, "Stagnant targeting gene-father, you're as moribund as ever!"
Pycelo's optical arrays turned and the Magos snarled, "You! You traitorous cur!"
A brilliant beam nearly struck Ruuka but he had already sidestepped as he called out, "Poor shot, you must be eager to join us."
"You are no son of mine!" Pycelo snarled as he fired and missed again, Ruuka one step ahead at every turn.
Ruuka had nearly closed the distance as he called, "I am all he was and more! Look at me, I have achieved all your dreams. I am immortal, man and machine, flesh and metal, all bound in an eternal state of harmony. I am the fulfilment of all the Mechanicus' creeds; I have outgrown you at last!"
"You are Blasphemy incarnate!" Pycelo roared as he fired once more, but the angle was too close and the beam passed over Ruuka's head without making contact. Instantly he struck, darting in close to lay a hand on Pycelo's leg. A moment's touch was all it took to pass Nanocytes, letting them sink into the atoms of the metal leg. Ruuka stepped back and watched as silver patches began to grow, consuming the leg as they spread upwards.
"What have you done?!" Pycelo's organic brain quivered.
"Ruuka replied, "I agree it is suboptimal, I had wanted to make you see how right I was first, but this shall suffice."
"You shall not own me."
"Rest assured you will see things differently after I resurrect you. Your talents will be quite useful in the coming expansion. We shall spread across the universe and absorb planet after planet, acquire whole civilisations, all data that exists shall we know. I think you will thank me, once the Nanoswarm has adjusted your objectives somewhat."
"Over my cold dead corpse," Pycelo snarled.
"Oh be quiet, there's nothing you can do."
But Pycelo snarled, "I can do this!"
As the silver tendrils reached the apex of the leg a loud bang rang out. Steaming gushes of vapour spewed out of the join of body and leg as the Magos blew pistons and overloaded fluid-links. An explosion ripped the infected leg free, blowing it away from the greater mass of the body, leaving Pycelo lurching on three legs, free and untainted.
Ruuka's grin faded as he saw Pycelo escape absorption. He moved to rectify that, intending to finish the job but then the sky darkened. His head snapped upwards and he saw wide wings flying high, Mechnicus Archaeopters, bellies heavy with metal spheres. He knew what they were, knew all too well and stood helpless to intervene as heavy rad-bombs rained down on the battle. Constructs turned to fall back but were struck by metal spheroids, which cracked to spill radioactive elements onto the ground.
Ruuka's itching became a gnawing sensation in his guts, the cells of his body struggling to hold together. Pain, was the closest approximation he could assign to this feeling, the registering of massive internal damage. In moments radiation levels across the field soared to 250 roentgen, nearly enough to disable a construct, but more than enough to slow them down and make them stumble. Ruuka watched as his invincible army slowed, struggling not to collapse into ooze. He fell to his knees and watched as the surviving Skitarii fell back, retreating towards the landing flyers, which came in to collect them.
Ruuka glared upwards and snarled, "This is no victory."
"No, but it will hurt," Pycelo growled.
Ruuka snarled, "Run then, but know this trick only buys you a little time, no more."
"Time enough to find a way to end you," Pycelo hissed as his crippled form limped away, lurching awkwardly on three legs.
Ruuka felt the Nanoswarm summoning its constructs back, compelling them to leave the field before rad-counts became terminal. He took a few faltering steps but then looked over his shoulder and grinned knowingly as he said, "We shall see, I am coming for you and next time I will not be stopped."