Deflection Sacrifice
War reigned on Indomias VIII. For twenty-nine years the land had been torn apart by advancing armies, fire had swept away the sparse vegetation, explosions cratered the hills and valleys, bombing runs made ruins of towns and cities. The once-blue sky was turned sooty black by national firestorms, the air made a toxic swamp by Factorums that fed shell and tanks and airplanes into the hungry maw of battle. Mountains of smashed armour rose in all corners as seas choked on the wrecks of destroyed boats and the rivers were blocked by piled dead. Toxic pollution spread across continents like a cancer. What the Hive cities would have taken a millennia to do, war completed in a mere three decades. Indomias VIII had become a warworld, eternal and without any possibility of victory, and yet still the fighting continued. The planet's industries were key to claiming the Cartao sector and none would pass up such a prize.
Many armies had come and gone as the years crawled by. The Glittering Hosts of Lady Mikie were reduced to scraps of flesh. The Harakoni Warhawks were torn from the sky. The Ragesworn proved no match for the massed artillery of the Steel Legion, who themselves were deposed by the Plaguekin of Berhass. The Order of Our Martyred Lady sacrificed an entire Convent to end the threat of the Plague God, only for the Magikers of Houdidi to arise in their wake. The Tallarn Rough Riders rode to challenge them and none could say what occurred amid those shimmering mists, save that neither force was ever heard from again. Armies came and armies went, until at the end, only two remained. The resolute sons of Krieg and the relentless Iron Warriors of Pertuarbo.
The war entered its terminal phase in the form of trench warfare. Continental furrows stretched from coast to coast, spotted by fortresses and redoubts. Artillery boomed without pause, flinging megatons of death in continuous exchanges. Day and night lost all meaning as fire lit the horizon, a perpetual sunset that never sank out of sight. Millions died, billions, and still the war ground on. It had become a battle of attrition and neither side would admit they could not win.
In a distant quadrant a redoubt stood. Proud and indomitable, protected by many void shields and flanked by Macroweapons of irresistible power. For seven years this bastion had stood against the Iron Warrior's barrage and from it an entire combat zone's artillery was directed. It had withstood shell and assault, it had defied legions of cultists and echelons of Traitor Astartes. Atomonic bombs had not broken it, nor orbital fire. But when the end came it came from within.
At the heart of the bastion the command hub lay in ruins. Cogitators were strewn in pieces, servitors cut apart and Hololiths smashed to rubble. Bodies lay where they fell, cut most cruelly. None had survived, none had managed to hold against the Transhuman killers who had entered in the guise of allies only to betray them.
That fact was made plain as a dying man clutched his ruptured guts and gargled, "But… we were on your side…"
"I know," Sergeant Reddam said sadly as he plunged his power spear into the heart, "I know."
Reddam waited a moment then pulled back his spear, looking about to see the carnage his squad had made. Among ruptured equipment his squad stood, stubborn Tebes with his mining hammer, glory-hungry Joffel with his Gaunt-sword, relentless Larus with his poisoned knives and the aberrant Kazao with the butt of his grenade launcher. Their power armour was stained by Krieg blood, their weapons dripping with spilled vitae. They had made this slaughter as only Space Marines could, but it brought them no glory, only shame.
Reddam set his spear butt down and ordered, "Check they are all dead, secure the cogitators and make sure the Macroweapons stop firing."
They moved to obey yet Larus asked, "What of the other squads?"
"They struck as one, surprise was total. This fortress will be swept clean of life, and left abandoned, as the Regent ordered."
"We had better make sure we don't leave any traces we did it," Kazao muttered.
"Last thing our dire reputation needs is for this to become known," Joffel agreed.
"Then make sure nobody ever suspects the Amber Vipers were involved," Reddam ordered, "Leave the evidence of Iron Warrior involvement, where it will be found."
Larus, Kazao and Joffel set to, but Tebes paused. He set his hammer head down and laid a hand on the broken body of a comms-officer. She had been bent over backwards by the force of his blow, spine shattered to kindling. Tebes had struck without hesitation in the moment, but now the fight was over seemed regretful. So strange to see, Space Marines fought without remorse, but they were accusomted to fighting those who deserved no pity. Heretics, Xenos and Traitors, to be killing loyal soldiers of the Imperium harrowed the soul. Reddam knew that firsthand, he'd done it himself, to better souls than these, and the guilt never lifted.
"It was necessary," Reddam whispered.
"Why?" Tebes asked, "Why did we have to do this?"
"You know why, the war on this planet is a stalemate. Two expert siege-specialists, locked into a battle of wills. Krieg and Iron Warrior, neither never able to admit when they are beaten. Throwing lives and munitions away like wastrels. The stalemate must be broken, it has to end, but they are too well-matched. Every move they make is instantly countered, every stratagem known to the other. The only way to end this is for one side or the other to make a mistake, that's where we come in."
"How the hell does breaking this fortress help the Imperium win?" Tebes spat.
"You saw the Regent's strategic projection. Without this bastion the region will falter, the Iron Warriors will breakthrough into Hanaser Province. They will think its the break they've been waiting for and pour troops into the breach, only to find the Hanaser Province has been stripped of all useful material. Factorums relocated, the mines closed, the people evacuated. The Iron Warriors will spend their strength to claim worthless soil, left over-extended on all other fronts. Losing this bastion will win the Imperium the war."
"Couldn't we just have evacuated the bastion?" Tebes lamented.
"You know who the Imperium fights. The Iron Warriors wouldn't buy the Imperium abandoning a fortress without reason. It had to be torn down in blood and fire, or they'd have never believed it was real. The cold, hard calculus of war, leading to only one possible strategy: victory through sacrifice."
"But why us?"
"Because no one else would do it," Reddam growled, "You can't imagine the high and mighty Ultramarines sullying themselves so. As usual the Amber Vipers are left to do the dirty work."
Tebes' head came about as he hissed, "I grow tired of being Guilliman's dirty-war unit."
"We all do, " Reddam sighed , "We all do, but it must be bourne."
"Does it… does it get easier?"
"Pray that it doesn't," Reddam advised, "The day actions like these do not harrow the soul, is the day the Amber Vipers becomes what everyone thinks we are."
Tebes lowered his helm and asked, "Then how do we continue?"
"It was necessary," Reddam whispered, "Cling to that, it had to be done, and no one else could do it. The Amber Vipers are necessary, we have a role to play. Dirty and ugly, but essential."
"Will it always be this way?"
"No," Reddam promised, "One day we will grow in strength and honour. On that day we will leave dishonours like this behind. Till then we do what must be done, as only the Amber Vipers can."