Tales of the Amber Viper Chapter 383
Reddam's body burned hot as genhanced organs laboured to restore his vitality. The Strike-Captain swiftly went from being dragged along to limping, then staggering and finally running. The crunch of reknitting bones was as sharp nails driven into his knees, but he endured, pushing the pain to the back of his mind. There was no time for lingering in agony, not when the ship was dying around them.
"It was this way!" Joffel barked turning right down a passageway.
"Wrong, turn left," Tebes rejoined.
"I'm telling you it was right!"
"Stop arguing!" Reddam barked, "Head left!"
Joffel's annoyance was plain, but he didn't argue as the trio dashed along a quivering passage. The meat and bone of Naglfar were thrumming in distress and the exposed metalwork resonated dangerously. The hybrid ship was a living thing and it was in pain. Reddam well knew why, the evacuation order had come minutes before, the Cerberii had deployed the Nail.
"This artefact, what does it do?" Tebes pressed as they ran.
"An ancient torture device," Reddam explained, "Berio said it psychically manipulates brains to stimulate neural activity in the pain receptors and induce violent mania. Any thought that isn't aggressive causes torment."
"The ancients used that device to torture people?"
"No, they used it to torture whole planets," Reddam spat in disgust, "Entire continents would drown in blood as the people tore each other apart in a mindless frenzy. But it serves our purposes."
"They said something about it needing a brain to empower it," Joffel gasped, "If the Nail makes contact with a brain the size of this ship's..."
"The torment will be unspeakable," Tebes concluded.
Reddam didn't need to explain further, the trembling of the walls spoke of Naglfar's agony. The floor was beginning to buck under his feet and a deep wail stirred the air. Naglfar was screaming in the void, writhing in agony as the Cerberii's tainted relic went to work. The kilometres long ship was convulsing under the torture of the Nail, its internal braces snapping one by one as its length cracked hard.
Reddam was counting steps back to the boarding torpedoes. The Amber Vipers had to evacuate before the ship destroyed itself, a fighting withdrawal in the face of obliteration. Hard enough at the best of times but with the Space Marines scattered like seeds in the wind it would be thrice as hard. He couldn't coordinate in this tangled mess of random passages, all they could do was trust each group would find its way back.
"Contact!" Joffel shouted. Reddam gripped his spear tight, expecting a charge of feral monsters but instead was stunned when three more Astartes blundered into view. It was Larus, accompanied by Kazao and the lost form of Hasak. Reddam's hearts were gladdened to see them alive, this unexpected reunion a boon in a dark time.
"Brothers!" he called.
"Strike-Captain," Larus exclaimed, "We are glad to see you!"
"I thought you dead at Skoll's hand."
"We lost him, been wandering down here ever since."
"No matter, we are evacuating, we are done here."
"Wait," Tebes interjected, "Where's Shrios, I saw him go with you?"
Kazao answered, "Shrios is dead."
"The Space Wolves got him," Laurs elaborated.
The news struck Reddam like a knife in the guts. Shrios was dead, the bitter old skinflint gone at last, it seemed impossible. Shrios had been with them since the beginning, he was one of the Old Seventeen. He'd made the Amber Vipers from scratch, inducting every single recruit and overseen their ascension. To imagine the Chapter without him seemed impossible, and yet it was so. Reddam knew better than to doubt his squadmate's words, but still this was a grievous wound to the Chapter. Despite his sullen ways Shrios would be sorely missed.
"This is a harsh day for us all," Reddam sighed, "How did he fall?"
Hasak answered, "Gunned down."
"By Space Wolves," Larus hastily interjected, "He was shot in the head by the Sons of Garm."
"It is a sore blow, Coluber will grieve his passing, we all will."
Any further talk was cut off as the ship convulsed. All staggered as the floor rolled and Reddam winced as a high-pitched whine cut across his ear. It shredded his nerves, grating over his thoughts like a rasp and he made to block the autosenses, only to realise it wasn't coming from his ears. The noise was not audible, it was inside his head, generated within the neurons of his brain. It was all-pervasive and it hurt.
"What is this?!" Joffel shouted as he snapped his head about like a sneezing mastiff.
"The Nail..." Reddam growled.
"What, nobody said it would affect us!"
"It tortures planets, what made you think it wouldn't?!" Tebes snapped.
"We can't stay," Reddam cried, "Run!"
Down the passageway they sprinted, taking narrow capillaries and rising slopes of oozing meat. Numerous enemies did they pass, but they were not challenged. Vanagandyr lay upon the floor, clawing at their own skulls, as if they could wrench the pain out of their heads with their hands. A pair of the Sons of Garm came and went, but they were distracted, hands locked about each other's throats, battling to the death.
Reddam understood their urge. His head throbbed with every pulse of his hearts, a raw scraping across the nerves causing him to twitch and spit randomly. The back of his skull squeezed like a vice, his eyeballs burned in their sockets and an icepick bored into his temple. The pain increased second by second, demanding relief. Violence, hot raw violence was the only way to make it stop. The urge to rend and slay pushing aside all other thoughts.
"I need to kill something," Joffel snarled.
"Shut up," Tebes snapped.
"I don't take orders from you!"
"Just shut up, I've had enough of your yammering!"
"Hold," Reddam growled though his head was splitting apart.
"You don't get to boss me about!" Joffel spat.
"Yes I do!"
"I'll peel your skin off!"
Reddam felt the urge to kill battering at the walls of his mind. So painful and overwhelming. Even breathing was causing him agony now, every second he wasn't fighting a torment. The psychic emissions of the Nail were too powerful, designed to lay waste planets, even a Space Marine could not deny its power. In ages past such devices had turned worlds against themselves, wiping away all sense of self in a flood of hot bloodlust. The pulses could not be resisted and Reddam struggled to remember his own name. Nearly he took up his spear, the need to slay battering his soul into submission.
It was then Kazao's voice cut through the din, "Hold fast! Deny the craving to kill!"
"Gnnnaaarrrgh!" Joffel spat as he brandished his sword.
"Cold Hearts!" Kazao cried, "Cold Hearts!"
"And..." Reddam gasped, "And fast blades! Cold Hearts and Fast Blades!"
The cry steadied him, bringing him back to his senses. The pain remained but he retained his essence, repeating the words like a mantra. Like a shipwrecked sailor at high tide he clung to the spars of his being, holding tight to prevent falling into the frothing maelstrom and be lost forevermore. A step forward, another, each a trial of agony but through it all he chanted, "Cold hearts and fast blades. Cold hearts and fast blades. Cold hearts and fast blades."
Time lost all meaning as they stumbled through the dark. Reddam had no idea how long or how far they stumbled but suddenly they emerged into a bone-chamber. He could barely see but two things stood out, a boarding torpedo penetrating the wall, and Kerubim, waving them forward.
"Quickly, inside!" Kerubim called.
"Gggghhhhhh," Reddam drooled.
"I have been scanning for Brothers, you are the last to come. Get inside, we must depart!"
Reddam couldn't speak, he stumbled into the dark interior, closely followed by the others. Kerubim went last, barely fitting into the tight confines. The hatch sealed shut, then retro-rockets fired and the torpedo shook itself free. Reddam flopped on the unyielding metal of the floor, so welcome after the squishy horror of the Hive Ship. Distance helped, as the Torpedoes' simple servitor brain steered them away. A few kilometres became dozens, then scores, then hundreds and with every moment the terrible urge to slay diminished.
Reddam pushed himself upright and breathed, "That was..."
"Frakking awful," Joffel spat.
"I wasn't myself anymore," Tebes groaned.
"Kazao was," Reddam breathed, "Our thanks Brother."
"Don't mention it," Kazao deflected.
"He's had practice," Larus muttered as he flopped against a wall.
Reddam lay back and closed his eyes in relief. The deed was done, the Sons of Garm were dead and so too was their flagship. He did not see but the boarding torpedoes of the Amber Vipers flew away, back to their waiting Battlebarge, its hanger bay yawning wide to accept them. Against the backdrop of Dimmamar Naglfar tumbled, shattering its spine as its death throes played out. Hide ruptured, spewing gases into the vacuum, along with flailing bodies that choked to death at the salvia boiled off their tongues. The vast ship screamed silently in the vacuum, and at last its multiple spinal cords snapped, cutting off all impulses to the vital organs that kept it alive. Robbed of power the Nail went silent, ending its siren call to war.
Any survivors within were doomed, trapped in an uninhabitable warren of passages that soon would be chilled by the cold of space. Left a lifeless tomb Naglfar tumbled into a low orbit, beginning an encirclement of the planet that would take decades to decay. It would become a harrowing star to the Confederation of Light, a navigational hazard to shipping, and an omen of dread to all. Many attempts would be made to drag it out of orbit, all would fail, paltry system boats too weak to break such a mass free. Many decades from now the frozen corpse would fall from the sky and flatten a continent, levelling cathedrums and razing templums districts by the score. Millions of lives would end in the calamity, but that day was far away. For today there was the heady triumph of victory and the knowledge that the pride of knowing that the Amber Vipers had fought as the Emperor intended.