Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 274
Terminal Conclave
Across the boiling lava fields of Naraka the grav-train sped, soaring above spitting lavabeds and across scorched black plains of lifeless rock. Never did it touch the ground, for the surface of this planet was nothing but a thin crust of cooling stone over a sea of magma. The heat was lethal, the air a toxic miasma and the light barely enough to steer by. Few would wish to visit so bleak a world, save those who craved boundless mineral wealth and an endless bounty of geothermal energies. For the Imperium of Man that could only mean the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The grav-train was typically blunt and inelegant, as behoved the scions of Mars. Three-stories high, two kilometres long and built with heavy armour along its entire length. It rode on a shimmering field of grav-effect, kept safe from the boiling lava by the wonders of arcane technology. Heavy guns adorned its sides and flak batteries its roof, for the journey was anything but safe. The Forgefanes of Naraka were locked in bitter civil war, contesting for supremacy in an ever-shifting web of alliance and betrayal. Rebellion raged on Nakara, though the line between leal faith and vile sedition was hard to distinguish.
Ahead lay the train's destination, Hedvats Forgefane. A massive pyramid of Ferrocrete adorned with black iron towers, rising from a cauldron of boiling lava. Magnetic bottles held the magma at bay, mighty foundations kept the Forgefane safe, while grav-spikes drew precious minerals straight from the mantle of the planet. Hedvats was long reviled among the roster of treason as one of the founders of rebellion. The train was evidence of that, a tribute sent from lesser outposts and fearful vassals, to appease their jealous master. Plasma capacitors and Promethium tanks filled to bursting, macroshells and stacks of missiles, thousands upon thousands of prisoners, this one shipment would feed the rapacious hunger of Hedvats' Taghmata. Which made the assault upon it so critical.
Inside the train Tech-Guards gave battle to a knot of intruders. How they had arrived and when was unknown, but that the enemy was within could not be denied. Stowaways, saboteurs and spies, it mattered not, only that they be ended. Sadly they weren't going down easy. Ceramite armour shrugged off blows, brutal melee weaponry tore metal bodies to shreds and the fiercest attacks made scant impression. By the time the Tech-guard registered their attackers were Space Marines it was too late.
Kazao fought in the tight confines with furious strength. He broke a Skitarii warrior in half with his bare hands, then whipped the butt of his Kreig-pattern grenade launcher into a face that was merely an optical strip in a blank sheet of metal. Such a blow should have made scant impression but when put to the test Kazao's strength folded the skull inwards. Space Marine strength was remarkable, doubly so when boosted by power armour, but Kazao's might was beyond even that. His speed and strength were unmatched among his brothers, unnaturally so. This truth was made plain by the fact he never showed his face or bare skin. A mutated aberrant, afflicted by flawed gene-seed, making him hideous to look upon.
Kazao dropped the corpse of the Skitarii and spun to find another trying to stab him in the back. A folded-steel blade scored his generator, making the already leaky reactor cell blare in distress. Kazao ignored his battered armour's rad-alarums as he drove a fist into the warrior's heart, punching through a plasteel breastplate to drive his hand within. He grabbed a tangle of wires and devices then heaved, ripping the heart from the Tech-guard entirely.
Kazao grinned at the sight but had no time for gloating, for his brothers were beset. Joffel spun and slashed through the melee, a curved bonesword made from a Tyranid's claw slashing throats and joints. Tebes by comparison fought with a brutally inelegant mining pick, the sharp point smashing through armour while the blunt head on the reverse shattered spines and stoved in heads. Larus wielded twin knives in his hands, coated with unspeakable substances. None knew how he could devise a poison that would affect Skitarii, but he'd found a means and left convulsing Tech-guard in his wake.
They were reaping a fine tally but none of them compared to the blurring form of Brother-Sergeant Reddam. The veteran warrior spun and thrust with a blazing power spear, driving its point into vulnerable joints and blocking return blows with its adamantium haft. His janky power armour growled as he moved through the fight, every motion causing the pitted plate's mismatched parts to whine. Yet Reddam was not troubled, the oldest and deadliest warrior in Secundus Cohort, his experience revealed by the perfect union of warrior and plate. Where the others wore their power armour as a suit, he enjoined with the spirit of the plate, man and machine moving as one. Scant wonder Reddam was held only behind Master Coluber and Captain Ferrac in the regard of the Amber Vipers.
With swift motions Reddam finished the remaining Tech-guard and barked, "Check they're dead!"
The others obeyed and in moments Kazao called, "All terminated."
"Request permission to move aft and clear the rest," Tebes offered.
"Denied, the Heretic Magos Lyreus is above, we must reach him before the train arrives at Hedvats!"
Reddam sprang into action, charging up a metal staircase, that squealed under his armoured weight. The others followed, emerging onto a narrow gantry between stacked crates of munitions. They tore along at full pelt and Kazao reflected how hard it had been to sneak themselves aboard inside such crates. It would have been a simpler task in scout-armour, but given the fight they had just won he was glad they were granted the honour of full plate, few Amber Vipers were. Power armour was a rare and precious asset, hard to maintain with their threadbare resources, so saved for the elite of Primus Cohort and select squads of Secundus.
"I wish we could snag a few of these munition pallets," Joffel jested as they ran, "We could put them to better use."
Reddam growled, "The Amber Vipers have bigger concerns."
"Never stopped us flinching a few warheads before," Larus pointed out.
"We have no time," Reddam snapped, "We have to disable the flak batteries, or our evac won't be able to approach. We do not want to be on board when this train reaches Hedvats!"
Another flight they climbed and this floor was entirely filled with slave pens. Emaciated men and women, dressed in rags of fine clothes, made filthy by the squalid conditions. Rich and poor, pious and criminal, all had been swept up and thrown together, the slave-takers of Nakara sweeping neighbouring systems for fresh meat, uncaring for quality, only quantity.
Kazao nearly missed a step as calls rang, "Space Marines! The God-Emperor's Angels! Save us blessed sons of Terra! Save us, save us!"
"Press on!" Reddam barked, "We have no time to open cages."
"Don't leave us!" the desperate crowds cried fearfully as hands reached through bars.
Tebes called to them, "Be brave a little longer, your suffering is nearly at an end."
"Don't engage with them," Larus hissed.
"We need you focused," Joffel agreed as they sped on.
Another flight of stairs and they found a blank door. Reddam signalled Larus and Tebes to grip its frame and said, "Lyreus is within, Kazao you know what to do."
Kazao opened his grenade launcher and fitted a rounded shell, "Ready."
"Don't wait for my order, you see the opening, take it. On my mark force the door... mark!"
Tebes and Larus heaved and the door slid open, mechanisms screamed in protest but could not deny the strength of two Space Marines and the door slid apart, leaving a wide gap. The Amber Vipers burst into the control room the second the way was wide enough. Kazao fully expected a hail of bolt rounds to greet them, but instead was surprised by the wailing of mortals. He was next to the right wall before his brain even registered what he saw. The control room was broad, a curved semi-circle of wide-spread consoles and Servitors, set before a sweeping armourglass window. Beyond loomed the towering bulk of Hedvats Forgefane, lit from below by bubbling lava pits. But what was near was far more concerning.
The Heretic Magos Lyreus stood in the centre, red robes covering a body of unimpressive height. Kazao had expected some looming monster, with a hundred mechandrites and guns on pivoting mounts. Instead he was simply a Tech-priest, two arms and two legs, a face of many eye lenses, inhuman yes, but no more than any other adherent to the Cult Technis. As monsters went, he was disappointing, yet he had surrounded himself with a score of cowering mortals.
"Halt!" Lyreus barked in a metallic voice, "Another step and I will kill these hostages!"
Sergeant Reddam growled, "Don't think that will stop us."
"I'll do it," Lyreus barked as he brandished a gun with strange coils, "You won't risk innocent lives to kill me."
"You don't know us," Reddam hissed.
"I know your kind! Space Marines, the vaunted Astartes, the Imperium's so-called saviours. Fools and idiots, crushing what you don't understand. This war would be over by now had you not brought destruction to Naraka, and for what?! For daring to dream new things, to invent and create! We have done nothing your odious tinkerer Cawl has not done, we offered no fealty to Chaos. We are punished unjustly, simply because we refused to kneel to your self-righteous Primarch and his Crusade. Naraka wanted to be free, why couldn't you just let us be?!"
"What of your raids on other worlds?" Tebes snapped, "The cities you emptied for bodies?!"
"We took no more than the Imperium does on any given day, you shall not cow me with your hypocrisy."
Reddam held his spear in one hand and spat, "Magos, we are not here to listen to your justifications."
"No, but I will not die easy. If you try to touch me I will kill the hostages. You hear, your mission to save them will fail!"
But Reddam stated, "Rescuing hostages is not our mission."
Quick as a flash he whipped out his bolt pistol and swept wide. Hammering rounds shot forth, blasting into the bodies of cowering mortals. They screamed briefly, then exploded, chests bursting apart as the mass-reactives detonated. Blood painted the windows and dismembered limbs scattered everywhere. A dozen helpless mortals killed by their supposed saviour.
"Oh..." Lyreus breathed as realisation dawned. Kazao took that as his cue, he hefted his grenade launcher and squeezed the trigger. A soft phoot noise and a fat round flew, crackling with discharging electromagnetic forces. It struck the Heretic dead square and erupted, spilling Haywire energies everywhere. The Magos collapsed as his systems overloaded, left stuttering in shock. The Servitors jerked as their brains were fried and the Machine Spirits wailed in dismay.
Power armour was void-hardened and so the Amber Vipers were untroubled. They leapt to the Magos, drawing plasteel bands to wrap his arms and legs in vices of tight imprisonment. In seconds they had him trussed up like a poultry animal, helpless to move.
"Quickly, the flak batteries are disabled," Reddam ordered, "Make an exit, I'm calling in Poisoned Fang!"
Tebes took his mining pick to the window, armourglass shattering under Transhuman strength. He looked outside and called, "Brother-Sergeant, we're moving fast... too fast."
"Then we need to be faster," Reddam growled.
"What of the prisoners?" Joffel asked.
"You care about them?" Larus snorted.
"No, just seeking clarity," Joffel explained.
Reddam barked, "We're not here to rescue anyone, this is a retrieval mission only. We have the package, we are leaving. Cold hearts!"
"And fast blades!" the rest chorused.
A roar of downdraft signalled the Thunderhawk Poisoned Fang pulling alongside, coasting along at two hundred kilometres an hour. Stubby wings allowed it to close near to the shattered window, an easy jump for power armoured legs. Joffel went first, leaping through the howling wind to land in an open side hatch. Larus crossed next, then Kazao and Tebes grabbed the Heretic Magos and threw him into the waiting arms of their comrades. Package secured Tebes made the jump, but Kazao paused "Brother-Sergeant?"
"A moment," Reddam muttered as he took up his spear and decapitated the Servitors, before ramming the tip into the consoles. The whole train jerked as its controls were destroyed and then Reddam ran past, leaping out the window. Kazao wasted no time to follow, leaping over open air, wind tugging at his bulk before he caught the edges of the hatch and pulled himself inside.
Poisoned Fang veered and rose, leaving Kazao hanging on by his fingertips. He craned his neck back and saw the train continue on, barrelling along without controls. It shot past a blaring checkpoint, passing over the lava moat at top speed as it drove for the Forgefane. Ahead warning lamps lit and sirens wailed, as gun turrets came to bear, but too slow. The grav-train was travelling at two hundred kilometre an hour, the point where it could be stopped had come and gone long ago.
Kazao watched intently as a three-stories high mass of metal, two kilometres long, slammed into the waiting loading docks in a tangled eruption of twisting metal and detonating fuel. The train terminal was smashed in the first seconds, dicing waiting menials and exploding fuel conduits. Then the stored munitions detonated. Secondary explosions blew apart the side of the Forgefane, cracking open its walls from base to summit. The defences were many and well-built, but all intended to protect from without, not within. Fire spread unchecked, running wild through power lines and maintenance corridors, a series of explosions walking up the flank of the edifice and crumbling an entire quadrant. Votive shrines fell away, tumbling into the lava below as gun turrets collapsed and cascades of metal rained on those within. Thousands died, not least the prisoners penned in the train, but that was only the start.
Booming roars sounded from below as carefully maintained lava-channels faltered. The molten fury of the planet had been bound by ancient science and as the leash slipped the lava-cauldron began to erupt. Magma fountained freely, clawing at the walls and tearing out foundations. Magnetic bottles should have held off disaster but were crippled by internal explosions, leaving Hedvats without protection. Kazao saw the entire monument to industry sag sideways, millions of tons of Ferrocrete slumping over, beginning an unstoppable plunge into the pool of lava that it had lorded over for so long. A sight to make lungs stop breathing in awe.
Then the hatch slid closed and cut off his sight. Kazao sighed as the Thunderhawk pulled for the sky, taking the Amber Vipers and their prize back to orbit, leaving utter ruin in their wake.
