Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 264
Dawn's wan light spread over the township of Greenford, revealing a vista of destruction. Faint golden rays struggled to pierce rising smoke, serving only to make the wispy ash glow with amber hues. Fires raged across the houses and market squares, adding red to the light. Vermillion red, just like the spilled vitae of its inhabitants, the town seemed washed with blood, a fitting backdrop for dawn on a day of war, the last dawn Greenford would ever see.
Kerubim was struck by elemental light as he jumped out of an Archaeopter. All around surviving Tech-guard disembarked, bringing their weapons to bear on surrounding buildings. Wave after wave of troopers, yet barely a fraction of those they had brought to this world. A few hundred Skitarii, all that remained of a once mighty army. With them were Brontes, Pycelo, Wulfe and Jordig, all ready to fight. They had set down on the edge of the town, trying to avoid the fighting deeper within Greenford, they were all keenly aware that they hadn't time to get bogged down in battle. Speed was everything.
"Clear!" Jordig called as he swept the landing ground for threats.
"The Hungering has only brushed this settlement," Pycelo observed, "The constructs it sent this way went straight for the town's centre."
"Willnae last long," Wulfe growled, "It cannae have missed us taking off."
"No other option," Brontes declared, "We haven't time to be sneaky, and it would probably have seen us anyway. We need to reach our destination before it figures out what we are doing."
"This way!" Jordig called as he set off at a jog. The war-party followed suit, matching his pace. The Skitarii moved with crisp efficiency, sweeping alleyways and corners with Radium Jezzails, searching for threats but it seemed their surprise move had caught the Hungering off-guard. As they jogged Kerubim examined their surroundings. This humble town was nothing special, larger than most settlements but still small by Imperial standards. Homes and pubs and shops came and went, their white-washed walls made red by firelight. Lines of washing hung between buildings, small wooden hoops lay discarded in the street, along with skipping ropes and chalked squares for children's games. People had lived their whole lives here, laughed and loved, grew old and died. It struck Kerubim that this humble abode was probably as close to happiness as any Imperial citizen could ever expect to get. Today that would end, if not by the Hungering then by human hands.
His eyes rose and took in the soaring bulk of the Crystal Pyramid. Greenford was built abutting the corner of one of those mysterious edifices. Supposed inert monuments, warning signs visible from space, but according to Brontes this one was different, this one hid a way to end the Hungering. The Cadmus robot had awoken with great urgency, calling for their immediate redeployment. With no realistic alternative the decision had been made swiftly, they all knew a last stand was to die in futile defeat. They could only trust the Cadmus knew what he was doing.
"You're sure this is the place?" Kerubim asked as they ran.
"This is where Polydorus said to go," Brontes affirmed as he ran.
"Would have it been so hard for your makers to bury it under the capital?" Jordig muttered.
"The Hegemony built this bunker millennia before your Imperium existed, don't blame us if your lot threw up a city in the wrong place!"
"And you're sure this Nocia Reginum can defeat the Hungering?" Pycelo asked.
"Noxia Interregnum," Brontes corrected, "The Hegemony's final safeguard, our last line of defence. We knew the Hungering might break its bonds, my makers weren't blind to the threat and took precautions."
"Not so dumb as they looked," Wulfe snorted.
The column of marching red suddenly halted as they found their route blocked by many ground-cabs, burning wrecks tangled in a fatal collision. Jordig waved a team of Skitarii to shift the debris and they leapt to the task, grasping the plasteel frames and wheeling them aside, indifferent to the charred corpses still sitting within. Kerubim watched impatiently but then frowned. His altered eyes saw a strange shimmer pass through the ground-cabs, motive force wafting off them. He'd seen this before, but to see it here confused him.
"What's wrong?" Jordig asked, noting his frown.
"The ground-cabs, they look wrong."
"Wrong how?"
"I don't know," Kerubim grunted, "They almost remind me of… of… oh throne… get away from them! Don't touch them!"
The Skitarii paused for a moment, but it was too late. Where their hands lay upon stark metal a liquid shimmer arose, then spread. From the contact surged silver threads, burrowing through the meat and bone and metal of the Skitarii. They froze or they tried to break contact but it was too late, Nanocytes were inside them, eating them alive. In seconds they had been Absorbed, devoured entirely to collapse into silver puddles.
"The ground-cabs!" Kerubim cried, "They're Hungering constructs!"
"Destroy them!" Pycelo ordered as he opened fire.
Streams of Irad-cleaner and Fission-blasters struck the lurking machines, blowing them to bits. Black veins crawled through the metal as rads burrowed deep, but several cratered remains still fumed. Kerubim leapt to clear the way, using his silver hands to shove them aside. He was immune and was glad of a way to be useful. Brontes helped, the Cadmus equally protected, and in moments they had cleared the road.
"How did it do that?" Jordig asked as they squeezed through the gap single file.
"The Hungering can be anything," Brontes explained, "Not just people but machines and landscapes. It targets those who can fight back first, but has already commenced the next phase. Be on your guard, anything could be a Construct, absolutely anything."
Kerubim gulped as he eyed the surrounding buildings nervously. He might not be absorbable but had no wish to be crushed by a construct-building that spontaneously fell over, or smashed down by a collection of Nanocytes masquerading as a ground-cab. The others seemed to share his wariness, flinching back from scattered debris and taking great care not to touch a random street light or bump into a wall.
Brontes led them on, pressing for the crystal pyramid. They tried to keep to the wider roads, not wishing to squeeze into narrow alleyways. Kerubim felt sweat beading the back of his neck, like a million eyes were upon him. If the Hungering was in the matter of the buildings then it would be watching them, marking every footstep and laying traps. Like a ravenous predator it drooled for their flesh, the atoms of their bodies and the data in their heads its meat and drink. Being gristle in that metaphor was no comfort to Kerubim, he'd still be chewed up and spat out.
They came to another corner and made to turn left but Kerubim cried, "No, not that way!"
"I don't see any obstructions," Pycelo barked, "There's nothing there."
"The road," Kerubim breathed, "Can't you see the road shimmer, like a river of silver."
"Frak me sideways," Wulfe growled, "It's the sodding ground now!"
"Get back," Brontes commanded but then a cry rang out. Kerubim saw a door open halfway down the road and a gaggle of people dash outside. Filthy and crying, men and women and babes in arms. They did not shimmer as constructs would, survivors of the initial attack. They saw the Tech-guard and thought it was deliverance coming, running into the road without thought.
"No, get back!" Kerubim yelled.
"Save us!" a wild-eyed man shouted, "Save us!"
"Not that way!" Kerubim implored.
Too late, far too late. The people took a few stumbling steps and then froze. Their legs locked rigid to the ground. Shrieks of terror let slip as they jerked to and fro, but could not free themselves. One man grabbed his own legs and tried to pull his feet away but was bound tight, Nanocytes already surging up his legs as the roadway ate them alive.
"What's happening?!" a woman screamed.
"Help us!" an elderly man cried, "God-Emperor help us!"
"Save my baby!" a woman cried making as if to throw the child to the Tech-guard, despite it being more than twenty metres distance.
There was nothing to be done, these people were marked for death. Kerubim could only stand impotently as he watched them get taken apart, atom by atom. In the space of a few seconds they went from living breathing people to silver statues, then collapsed into puddles. Men, women, even the babies, none were spared. Kerubim refused to look away as his hearts went cold, feeling how powerless he had been to save a single person.
"We couldn't save them," Jordig said softly.
"There's no saving anyone," Kerubim growled through gritted teeth, "Everyone on this planet is dead, we can't help any of them."
"We can make sure no other world suffers this fate," Pycelo declared, "We stop it, today, no matter the cost."
Kerubim set his jaw firm and said, "This way, that road's clear."
With haste they diverted around the trap and pressed on. Step by step they closed on their destination, feeling the jaws of a great beast closing around them. They did their best to avoid any traps and Kerubim's eyes found several more streets that were death to cross. As they progressed the number grew sharply and Kerubim thought they were entering a denser region, but he soon realised the Nanocytes were spreading, claiming more ground with every second. The Hungering was accelerating in its spread, taking the whole town for itself. The sands of time had nearly run out.
There were losses on the way. A Skitarii stumbled on a loose rock and brushed a street light, he was gone in seconds. A man leaned out of a high window, trying to attract their attention, he was Absorbed moments later, his entire building falling apart around him. A random bird flew out of the sky and pecked at a Skitarii warrior, too late revealed to be a construct. The Tech-guard collapsed into silver puddles, as a slew of Fission-blaster fire smote the creature to ash. Everything was turning against them, the entire planet. Kerubim knew it to be true.
They found a bridge over a narrow river, the ford for which the town was named. Kerubim directed the Tech-guard to wade through the waist-deep water when he saw the bridge shimmering, a trap laid in their path. Swiftly they crossed, but not swiftly enough. A score of Skitarii at the rear were lost as the river turned against them, the water itself becoming Nanocytes. Kerubim shuddered as the cyborgs disintegrated, rock and metal could not be trusted, now water was no longer safe. How long until the Hungering became the air they breathed, he suspected far less time than he would like.
His hearts were in his mouth as the survivors staggered to the edge of the Crystal Pyramid, mere minutes ahead of the Hungering's spread. "Quickly, find the door!" Jordig barked as he directed the Skitarii to form a perimeter.
"I'm looking," Brontes growled.
"Make it fast," Pycelo urged, "We've got constructs incoming. Auspex is going mad, too many to hold back."
"If the shiny-mongrels dannae get us the ground will," Wulfe spat.
Kerubim turned to Brontes and said, "What are we looking for?"
"A low-energy but active power source," Brontes hissed, "Any trace should lead to a door. Hurry, before it claims the pyramid too."
Kerubim peered at the structure. He had never been so close to one of the edifices and up close found it to be made of dull crystal, polished smooth and rising into the heavens as f trying to brush the stars themselves. The sides were steep and slick, the surface flushed perfectly. There wasn't a gap or seam anywhere, no matter how close he zoomed his altered eyes. It was as if the molecules had been aligned from the ground up, one single structure fashioned by tiny hands. Nanoswarm work, he guessed, he couldn't think of anything else that could do this.
"Incoming!" Jordig howled.
"Open fire!" Pycelo ordered as the Tech-guard began firing at unseen targets.
"Bring ye shiny faces to my hammer!" Wulfe roared.
Kerubim yearned to turn and see what was happening but forced his eyes to scour the pyramid, seeking any hint of discrepancy. All he saw was dull crystal, through and through, but he squinted as he saw a glint in the depths, the smallest hint of Motive Force. He followed it, stepping sideways as the trace grew stronger. It was so small, beyond a conventional auspex, without his eyes it would have needed a full-spectrum-augur to see it, no wonder generations of Explorators had missed this tiny spark in one pyramid among hundreds.
Stronger the trace grew, stronger, then suddenly he found a spot where the Motive Force came near the surface. Flowing in an arc mere inches below the crystal's outer layer. "Here! I found something!"
"Make way boy," Brontes barked as he stepped to the wall.
"Whatever you're going to do, make it fast," Kerubim urged as he glanced back to the line of firing Skitarii.
"Polydorus' codes better work as promised," Brontes grunted as he touched one hand to the wall.
A sharp crack rang out, ringing over the battlefield as something shifted. Kerubim saw a flare of Motive Force in the wall, describing an arc thrice Brontes' height. A grinding noise issued forth, then suddenly a section of wall fell away, creating a doorway in the pyramid's side. A dark tunnel was revealed beyond, flanked by stone walls and sloping down into the ground. Kerubim didn't know what lay within but there was no time to waste and called, "The door's open!"
"Make haste!" Pycelo cried as he backpedalled.
"Fall back by sections!" Jordig ordered, "Lay down covering fire and withdraw in demi-squads."
In small knots the Skitarii withdrew, falling back to the open door. Leapfrogging each other while firing continuously. Kerubim had a glimpse of advancing warrior Constructs, firing back with las and bolt, their own red robes tainted with eerie shimmers. A few Tech-guard were punched off their feet but the rest poured into the opening, racing into the dark beneath the world. Brontes and Kerubim were a step behind as Jordig directed heavy-weapon teams to set up a rearguard, one-tenth of their force sacrificed to hold the enemy at bay while the rest pressed on. Kerubim had no time to witness their valiant last stand as they drove on, racing into the dark, chasing the scant chance that they could stop this madness. Martial strength had failed to stop the Hungering, the sciences of the ancients had failed, all that remained was stubborn defiance and blind courage. He could only trust it would be enough.
