Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 335
Quar'tok system, Imperium Sanctus
On the very edge of the Cicatrix Maledictum the Quar'tok system hung. Barely a dozen lightyears from the raging torrent it was a system beset by woe. As the great rupture spilt the sky the Imperial Hive Cities were inundated with rebellion and the spontaneous emergence of Psykers. The Governor was an admirably tyrannical man and mobilised his armies to violently suppress the uprising, a move that saved his dominions when the Orks came. From the stars they poured, seeking to bathe in the light of Gork's Grin, their feral fury enervated by the emissions of the warp rift. War consumed the system as armies fought in a grinding conflict without resolution, the towering Hives pitting their industrial might against a never-ending tide of green flesh.
The Serpens Rex however was not here for that. The Amber Viper's starfort hung on the edge of the stellar system, its eyes upon the Cicatrix Maledictum. Over a barren and airless moon it hung, as shuttles flew to the surface. The Amber Vipers were about to cross into the madness of Imperium Nihilus and would need a supply cache to return to when they came back, and a failsafe in case they never did.
"I won't do it!" Drill-Captain Thaddis snapped.
"You will," Coluber retorted, "Someone has to command the rearguard."
"Let Ferrac do it then!"
But the Battle-Captain snorted, "No Frakking way."
Coluber sighed, for he had had this argument several times. Thaddis commanded Tertius Cohort, the recruits and scout-novices colloquially known as Snakelets. It made sense that the youngest and least hardened remained behind, given what little they knew of Imperium Nihilus. Coluber had steeled himself for harrowing losses to come, and wanted fresh blood ready to come back to. Thaddis however was galled at the idea of being left behind.
Thaddis snapped, "I will not sit on my hands and drill recruits while the rest of you battle for your lives!"
"I'm not expecting you to," Coluber corrected, "This system is awash with Orks, they'll be plenty of chances to blood the Snakelets. You might even be able to do some good here. I'm leaving you the Strike Cruiser Quaesitor Eruditio and the Thunderhawk Dread Omen, along with armoured shuttles and orbital-lighters. You have supplies and a marginal manufacturing base, gene-tech to implant any recruits you acquire and a couple of Shrios' sawbones to make Space Marines of them. You have more at your disposal than we had when the Amber Vipers started."
Thaddis was appeased, "Its' still make-work, the real danger is on the other side of the Rift."
Ferrac grunted, "Tell yourself that if a horde of Daemons comes pouring out of it."
Coluber glared at his old friend, but said, "There are two crusader hosts roaming the stars, they have orders to deliver supplies and recruits to you when they can. Plus Cawl's continued shipments."
"You may be gone for years," Thaddis growled.
"Then you should have a significant stockpile of war-material when we get back."
"I still don't like it," Thaddis snapped.
Coluber' patience broke, "Then consider it an order. You are staying, end of discussion."
Thaddis clenched his jaw, "As you will."
But Coluber shook his head, "Just remember, if we don't come back then you will be Chapter Master. I am trusting you with the future of the Amber Vipers, it is no slight upon your character."
"Don't try to grease me up," Thaddis muttered, "I'll do as you command, just bloody well make sure to come back."
Thaddis turned and left, making Coluber sigh in frustration. He knew Thaddis would obey, but he'd never be happy with it. Nothing could be done about that, so he put it from his mind and focused on the mission to come. It had taken six weeks to move the Serpens Rex via the Warp's tides to this system, sited northwest of the galactic core. They were as close to the rift as they dared get and according to starcharts should be able to steer directly to Dimmamar. In theory the plan was straightforward, sail to Dimmamer, dig up the Primaris vaults, and sail back. But simple plans had a way of getting complicated.
Coluber and Ferrac were deep in the Nest's Enginarium decks, near the pulsing throb of the Warp drives and Gellar fields. One of the few things on the starfort that had worked since they arrived, but soon be relegated to obsolescence. During the voyage the Corposant had been brought forth and installed, linked to the Nest's drives in ways Coluber didn't pretend to understand. If it worked as advertised they should be able to sail across the Cicatrix Maledictum without issue, if not they wouldn't live long enough to realise.
"You think Kerubim knows what he's doing?" Ferrac asked.
"We have no choice save to trust that he does," Coluber sighed.
"You get that if this relic works then we will have just rendered Imperial warp flight obsolete?"
"Maybe, maybe not," Coluber sniffed, "Cawl didn't build the Corposant, he just figured out how to switch it on. I suspect mass-producing so Heretical an artefact will be more challenging than he dreams. Forging the Primaris would be childsplay by comparison."
Their talk saw them enter the drive room, where hundreds of Tech-Priests laboured over the relic. Coluber had only seen it briefly, during battle, and hadn't had time to take in its strange form. A Noctolilith spire of pure black, reflecting the room but not the occupants. Around its base circled a briar of Warithbone, strange lights pulsing in gaps where no mechanisms existed to produce them. It was part Xenos, part Heresy and part not there. At the base someone had added a glassic chamber, fitted with four thrones, each heavy with wires and neural jacks. Coluber was no tech-adept but the Corposant gave the distinct impression of being bodged out of mismatched parts, components never meant to fit, jammed together without a care.
Kerubim, Nathanal and Mihas were overseeing the effort to prepare the artefact. The trio stood amid a bustle of red robes, as incense wafted high from chanting Tech-priests. Kerubim looked confident, if strange, his silver face still perturbing to see. Mihas seemed animated by the work and Nathanal, well Nathanal just looked tired. They were the Chapter's foremost experts on the mysteries of machine and warp, but Coluber suspected they were out of their depth.
Kerubim saw the Chapter Master enter and proclaimed, "Stand alert for our Lord!"
"Be at ease," Coluber ordered as he strode up.
"When did you get all formal?" Ferrac snorted.
"Oh," Kerubim admitted with chagrin, "I've been hanging around Skitarii for years, they don't do informality."
Coluber brushed off the remark, "Is it completed?"
"Nearly," Nathanal wheezed, "We followed Cawl's instructions to the letter, but we want to run a few more tests. Another day should suffice."
"So this will really let us cross the Cicatrix Maledictum?" Ferrac asked.
Mihas explained, "The device generates negative gravity waves. By shaping them into a tunnelling bow wave we can drop out of this reality into a dimensional appendix underlying reality. Space and time do not exist there, as we understand the concepts, we will be able to traverse hundreds of lightyears in realspace."
"How is that any different to the Warp?" Ferrac puzzled.
Kerubim explained, "It is entirely different! The Warp is a hyperdimensional realm of psychic energy, the Ghostwind is a realm without dimension or any detectable energy. Records stolen from the Necrons describe the Ghostwind as the deepest layer of creation, where universal forces combine to form a singular aspect. Gravity, electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak, even space and time, are all one in Nonspace."
Coluber was lost and Ferrac muttered, "Were those words meant to make sense?"
Nathanal explained, "Think of it as a simpler dimension, where complicated universal barriers like lightspeed no longer exist. Nothing happens there because nothing can exist there. As opposed to the Warp, where all possibilities exist at once."
"So it's the basement of the universe?" Ferrac guessed, "We're tunnelling under the floorboards of a house and plan to pop up in the next room?"
"Let's go with that," Nathanal groaned.
"Is it safe?" Coluber asked warily.
Mihas explained, "The twin issues are that no energy exists there to draw upon, no currents to sail, no warp-tides to exploit. We can neither steer nor sail in Nonspace. If we enter unprepared we will sail eternally into the dark, without a star to steer by. What Cawl devised is a way to charge and steer the device by using a trio of specially primed psykers. They provide energy enough for the entire trip and psychically generate exit vectors before we even enter. I will receive these coordinates and harmonise them, creating a true course out of random psychic visions."
Coluber knew the navigator was exaggerating his role, they could do this without him, but the mutant strain had wealth beyond measure and held power and influence in the Imperium. Cutting them out would create more problems than it would solve, so he kept that detail to himself. Let Mihas strut and preen, so long as he felt needed.
Ferrac broke in, "So this Corposant, Cawl has tested it, hasn't he?"
Kerubim replied, "The Archmagos has run several million Binaric simulations."
Ferrac pressed, "But how many actual field tests has he done?"
Kerubim sniffed, "Including this voyage… one."
Coluber gulped, "Cawl expects us to cross the Cicatrix Maledictum, using a half-Xenos device, that he hasn't even tested?!"
"Now I know why he selected the Amber Vipers," Ferrac scoffed, "I feel amazingly expendable."
"It is what it is," Nathanal groaned as he rubbed a weary brow. Coluber was no expert on mortal frailties but the man looked tired beyond belief. In the last few weeks he had adopted an air of exhaustion, as if his bones were too heavy.
"Are you hale?" Coluber enquired.
"I…" Nathanal grunted, "I haven't been sleeping well."
"Warp transit has that effect."
"The warp brings bad dreams, all know that, but I haven't been dreaming at all. Ever since we hooked the Corposant up I can't recall a single dream, I'm not sure if I've even experienced one. The warp is horror and terror… this is… nothingness."
Ferrac scoffed, "If trouble sleeping is the worst we'll see, then I'm Ghazghkull Mad Urg Thraka."
"I hate to say it, but he's right," Coluber allowed, "Everything we know of Imperium Nihilus tells us to expect madness incarnate. We are stepping into the Carnodon's mouth."
Kerubim spoke up, "We're doing all we can to minimise the risk. Astropathic scrying tells this is a calmer region of the Cicatrix Maledictum... well, less active. We should clear the rift in one jump, then reach Dimmamar in twenty to forty jumps after. Even if we burn out a trio of psykers with each jump we should have enough to get there and back with a comfortable reserve."
Coluber looked at Kerubim, taking in the strange hybrid of Firstborn, Primaris and silver metal. He looked so bizarre and he was no longer the boy who had left so long ago. What mysteries had he beheld, what battles had he fought, Coluber could not guess. The Cult Technis guarded its secrets jealously, what Kerubim had learnt there was sacrosanct to the Techmarines, even if the Amber Viper's order numbered only one. And yet Coluber wanted to know more.
"You trust Cawl's judgement?" Coluber asked.
"On matters technical, yes," Kerubim replied, "On the wider implications… hell no."
Ferrac snorted, "You don't sound grateful to the man who plated your ass in chrome."
Kerubim's eyes narrowed, "Belisarius Cawl is a visionary and a polymathic genius. His accomplishments have revolutionised the galaxy. And will do so again tenfold over. Ah, if only he'd been free to work these ten millennia, how different the galaxy would be. And yet for all that he holds scant regard for risks, for the perils he courts. Cawl turns his mind to whatever takes his fancy, oft attempting deeds when all data foretells disaster. I've had to serve as his Naysmith, telling him no when the danger grows too great. And there have been so many times I've had to say no."
"Hardly a ringing endorsement for this voyage," Coluber noted.
"I've looked over the math," Kerubim explained, "Every data point we have says this will work."
"And what about the one's we don't know about?"
"That's why we're sending Space Marines, just in case."
Ferrac grinned, "First good idea you've had since I met you. I've yet to meet an eldritch horror that doesn't go down to a few hits from an axe-rake."
Coluber shook his head, "Kerubim, is there something you are not telling me?"
"Many things," the Techmarine replied, "But none relevant to the mission. I expect unforeseen dangers, but when we return the Imperium will be stronger and Cawl will be pleased. He has offered to train more Techmarines for us, and keep us supplied."
"And I expect that tinheaded charlatan will expect more favours from us in the future," Ferrac snorted.
Coluber interrupted, "We are getting ahead of ourselves. First we cross the rift, then we worry about what is on the other side. We can talk about what comes after when we get back. Kerubim, Nathanal, Mihas, run whatever tests you require, I don't want us to explode as soon as we switch it on. I'll oversee the last flights offloading supplies to the rearguard, then tomorrow we shall attempt the crossing and see what's out there."