Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 345

The Ghostwind

Serpens Rex drifted idly through nonspace, seeming to hardly move at all. The Starfort's lights burned bright, as if that could fend off the darkness without. Within Chattels tried to go about their business, but they could not hide their tiredness. Men drudged from work shift to bed and back again having earned no rest at all. Food became ashes in the mouth and friends passed each other having failed to recognise their faces. The rations of fruit-juice, essential for fending off scurvy, were consumed mindlessly and the mess halls no longer rang with chatter. Even the augmented Tech-priests noticed the lack of anima among the crew, saying the mortals were acting more like servitors, as if some vital spark of humanity was withering in the Ghostwind.

Coluber however had other problems. In his quarters he was arguing with the senior officers. Reddam, Ferrac, Shrios and Maru, all shouting over each other. By his desk the image of Mihas Chamanderley floated, a minor misalignment in the projector making his avatar manifest three inches off the floor. The debate had been raging furiously for a time, and showed no signs of abating.

"You can't do this to him!" Reddam spat with invective.

"We have no choice," Maru countered, "He is unfit."

Ferrac's anger broiled, "After all he's done for us, this is how you reward him?!"

"It is not a question of reward, but of status. Anaxar is no longer able to keep up with his squad."

Ferrac was incensed, "He gave centuries of service, and we dump him like a sack of rotten ploin-fruit?!"

Coluber sighed deeply as the debate rang back and forth. The mission to the Terra's Resolve had taken a toll on the scouting party. While barely a few hours passed on the Serpens Rex they had wandered through a maze of broken time. Coluber struggled to believe the reports, but the loss of a Brother could not be denied. Wrexal would be mourned as dead, but worse was Anaxar's fate. Brought back to the Serpens Rex as an old Marine, he was withered and malnourished, rusty in mind and body. Putting him back into command of a squad was unthinkable.

Coluber cut in, "Do we have any idea how long he dwelt alone?"

Shrios shook his head, "Space Marine ageing is a tricky business, our genic code doesn't decay the same way as mortal's. Still I examined his cell structures and determined Anaxar is now older than any of us. I can't put an exact number on it but I'd wager he's on the wrong side of three hundred… possibly older."

Ferrac argued, "Space Marines have served beyond that age, some of the greatest heroes of the Astartes were over five hundred!"

But Shrios pointed out, "Centuries spent in harsh training and under constant monitoring. Our bodies require specialised nutrients and chemical bolstering. Anaxar has not had access to any of that. His muscle mass is depleted, his bone structure is brittle. He is weak in arm and slow of reflex. I've prescribed a course of intravenous drips and triple-reinforced diet, but even with an Astartes' physiology I can't guarantee he'll ever be the Marine he once was."

Reddam protested, "So he's been knocked down, but he'll get back up. A few months of arduous physical training and he'll bounce back. I promised him he'd be a Sergeant again some day."

But Maru countered, "The body is only part of the problem. His mind has been harrowed by centuries of isolation. His sanity has frayed, then been stitched back together, then frayed again. A gulf lies between him and his squad mates, he can no longer laugh and rage as one of them."

Reddam spat, "Centuries alone and he never abandoned his duty, never thought to flee and leave the rest of us to die. I couldn't…"

Reddam trailed off as his face flushed with shame. Coluber knew he was thinking of poor Wrexal, left to die in an endlessly repeating cycle. It had to be done, but knowing that made living with the decision no easier. Coluber was all too familiar with harsh choices and knew they stayed with one forever. Reddam would carry this burden to the end of his days.

Coluber leaned forward, "You had no choice."

"Not everyone will see it that way," Reddam sighed.

"You aren't wrong," Ferrac grunted, "Torvus plans to call you out in the fighting arena."

"I'm tempted to let him win," Reddam groaned.

Coluber dragged the conversation back on track, "Shrios, what is the judgement of the Apothecarion?"

Shrios crossed his arms, "Anaxar is unfit for duty."

"But…" Ferrac protested.

Yet Coluber rebuked, "If he is currently unfit then he is unfit. I cannot have a squad led by a Brother weakened in mind and body. Anaxar must undergo retraining and harsh conditioning. We will monitor his progress closely, as soon as he is judged able a role will be found. His sacrifice will be honoured, but not today. Now onto other matters. Mihas, have you figured out where we are yet?"

The Navigator's holo-image shimmered as he responded, "I've examined the astrogation data and determined that we did emerge in the Promal Sector, some five thousand light years from where we began our journey. This corresponds with our psychic vectors. The Corposant is averaging eighteen hundred light-years per jump, among our higher projections. Impossible to determine temporal distortion, yet spatially we are on course. But…."

"But what?" Ferrac growled.

"We are where we are supposed to be, but the Promal sector isn't," Mihas sighed.

"Explain that," Coluber pressed.

Mihas nodded, "Terra has had no contact with this region of space since the Great Rift opened, so all our starcharts predate the fall of Cadia. When we compare our records to what we can see nothing matches. Stars aren't where they are supposed to be, Warp routes no longer exist. Nebula have vanished and pulsars appear where none were before. If we hadn't confirmed this with the Astrogation data I'd swear we were deep in uncharted space."

"How is that possible?" Coluber questioned.

Maru explained, "The Noctis Aeterna has rewritten everything we know. All is changed on the dark side of the rift. Time and space are putty to be formed as Dark Gods' will. The whole topography of space has changed; the stars themselves have been swept into new configurations."

Reddam gulped, "So you're saying we may well get to our destination only to find Dimmamar is not where it's supposed to be?"

"That is a distinct possibility," Mihas groaned.

"I am truly starting to hate Imperium Nihilus," Ferrac spat.

Reddam concurred, "You're not the only one, I can't wait to return to Imperium Sanctus."

"Back to fighting hopeless wars against Traitors and Xenos and Daemons. Bargaining for scraps and being looked down on by all, and sneered at by the high and mighty. How Frakking screwed up is Imperium Nihilus to make that sound appealing?"

Coluber sighed, "Until we complete the mission we can't think of turning back. We must press on. Mihas, is there any way to ensure we are going to find Dimmamar at all?"

The navigator sighed, "Without an updated starchart… no."

"Good luck with that," Ferrac scoffed.

"Then we have no choice save to…" Coluber began. A commotion at the door interrupted. He turned and saw the doors swing wide, as Kerubim and Nathanal burst in, trailed by the Brother-Exemplars. Kerubim was carrying a length of metal in his arms but it was Seyda and Hasak who were shouting, "You can't go in there!"

"Get out the way," Nathanal spat, "We have every right."

"At least let us announce you!"

Coluber called out, "Stand down, they have my leave to enter."

"Couldn't stop," Hasak grumbled the big aberrant sounding apologetic.

"All is well, go stand guard," Coluber ordered.

The Brother-Exemplars complied but Seyda muttered, "What's the point being a guard if everyone and his aunt walks in as they please?"

Coluber shook his head but Kerubim marched to the desk and declared, "You need to know what we've found!"

Ferrac glanced at the rod in his hands, "A bar, how nice. Going to use it to scratch your chrome-plated arse?"

"This is no jesting matter," Kerubim hissed, "This is an Adamantium support, from the lance arrays. We were running an inspection and… well… grasp it firmly and you'll see."

Ferrac tilted his head but did as bid. He grabbed the end of the proffered rod and jumped when a piece broke off in his hand. Coluber couldn't believe his eyes and reached out to touch it. Adamantium crumbled under his touch. It was flaky and brittle, easy to squeeze into crumbs and trailing particles spilled through his fingers like sand. Impossible, Adamantium was the hardest substance known to man, but this was soft as sandstone.

Ferrac exclaimed, "Frak me in the eyeball!"

"What he said," Reddam agreed as he crumbled a chunk of Adamantium between his gauntlet's digits.

Nathanal spoke up, "A workgang was running routine maintenance when an Auspex detected micro-fissures in the bracing. We tracked the fault back and found it. This is Adamantium, but something has gone wrong with it at a subatomic level. The bonds that hold atoms together have failed, as if the energy between protons and neutrons has been drained… to somewhere else."

"The Ghostwind?" Coluber guessed.

"That's our conclusion," Kerubim agreed, "We know of no force in our universe that can do this, so that only leaves the unknown. Nonspace has never been charted before, we have no idea what effect it is having on our technology. We hypothesise the environment is having a deleterious effect on the Serpens Rex."

Ferrac looked concerned, "You can replace this, right?"

"We have copious supplies," Nathanal explained, "But we have no way of knowing if they too have been affected. We'll have to stress test each and every component before we can risk installing them."

"Has this happened elsewhere?" Coluber asked.

"Not that we know of," Kerubim replied, "But our Starfort is a hundred kilometres in diameter and our crews limited. It could well be we just haven't found any other faults yet. We've got teams running auspex sweeps over the critical systems, just in case."

Reddam mused, "Perhaps it's a fluke. Maybe we ran over something in nonspace, something undetectable by our Augurs. Pockets of corrosive space, invisible till we've passed through them."

"That's one possibility," Kerubim allowed, "But it could be universal decay. Adamantium has the strongest atomic bonds known to man; it may suffer more deterioration than other materials."

"That's no comfort, the Serpens Rex is riddled with Adamantium," Nathanal argued.

"We simply don't know enough about the Ghostwind, we know next to nothing."

Maru spoke up, "This is but a weapon-brace but I ask you, what happens if a similar fault occurs in a Plasma reactor?"

Nathanal replied grimly, "It would explode, without any warning at all. One second we'd be fine, the next… kaboom."

Reddam gulped, "Travelling in Nonspace may cause us to spontaneously explode?!"

Nathanal nodded, "In layman's terms, yes. The corrosive effect of this realm is unpredictable; it may be an isolated incident, or a systemic problem that will grow worse in time. We have no choice save to assume it will get worse and take precautions. But it's hard; the crew are wrung out and are having trouble reading their own handwriting. I can't guarantee someone will notice a problem, even if they're staring at it."

Coluber rubbed his jaw, "I thought the Necrons had made use of the Ghostwind without ill-effect."

Kerubim sniffed, "Our stolen records made no note of this, but Necron technowitchery is hyper-advanced, it may not be an issue for them."

Maru added, "Plus they have no souls, they simply not be affected by Nonspace as we are."

Ferrac groaned loudly, "Lucky them."

Reddam however looked to the Holo-Navigator, "Could we resort to conventional Warp flight, save the Ghostwind solely for crossing the Cicatrix Maledictum?"

Mihas looked troubled, "I would say no. The warp is changed, and the Astronomican is obscured. I can see warp passages, while in realspace, but I have no way to know where they lead. We would be reduced to blind jumps, no more than five lightyears at a time. We could wander for millennia and not find our destination. For good or ill the Corposant is the only way to reach our goal."

Coluber knew what that meant. They would be risking their lives with every jump, chancing catastrophic failure in a plasma reactor at any moment. Even if nothing else bad happened the crew were failing, their tiredness wringing them dry. To press on risked all, but to turn back now would mean abandoning the mission. He couldn't countenance that, he was a Space Marine, danger and death meant nothing compared to victory.

Coluber declared, "We have no choice save to carry on using the Corposant. Still we must take steps. I want continuous scans of all essential areas, and a close watch kept on the reactors. We'll stop for longer pauses between jumps, so the Chattels can rest and sleep. We'll take every precaution, but we must press on."

"And if a reactor does fail?" Reddam asked.

"Then take comfort in the fact we'll all be dead before we notice anything is wrong," Kerubim retorted.

Ferrac sneered, "When we get back remind me to send a message to Cawl, congratulating him on finding the one way to travel between the stars that's actually worse than the Warp!"

Coluber agreed with the sentiment but said, "Brave hearts, and let nobody see you sweat. We have to set an example for the Chattels, don't let them see we are worried. Emperor willing we'll reach Dimmamar without serious incident, and find it where it's supposed to be. If not… we'll deal with that when we have to. We carry on Brothers, we carry on, it's all we can do."