Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 308
Battle wracked the Serpens Rex and none understood it better than Maru Kysoto. The Librarian-Dreadnought wandered listlessly through the tangled wreckage of his home, drowning in despair. His mind was open so he heard the desperate fallbacks of the Tertius Snakelets above and the bitter fighting around the Forges. Lives were ending, deeds heroic and base being played out and he could do nothing.
To a Psyker a battle was a macabre arena of brilliance and shadow. Each soul lost blazed fiercely in its last instant, etching its essence into the world, before falling into the sea of the Warp to be consumed by Daemons or find stranger fates. A Librarian was trained to close their minds to such experiences, blocking their ears and filling their minds with nonsense rhymes to drown out the death cries, but today Maru heard them all. Warriors he had fought beside were dying, youths he had helped train were being snuffed from existence, while he remained idle.
Maru heard Reddam closing the trap upon the Howling Griffons, forcing them to withdraw and saving Coluber's braying Mastiff that passed for a Battle-Captain. The Sergeant was cruelly surprised when more invaders arrived at his rear, catching the ambushers in an ambush. Great was the fighting and more lives were reaped and Maru's spirit wished he was there. It could not be. Auriga had demanded Maru play no part in the fighting, the price that must be paid for his blood-kin to live again.
Again Maru repeated the truths of his order. His loyalty was to his blood, not these roughshod pretenders. His long-lost Brother's honour was on the line, the shameful truth of their origin would yet damn their memories and cast their lives into eternal shame. Greater than this was the prospect they could be restored, the lone Progenoid set that contained the last trace of the real Amber Viper's genic legacy. Maru could not stray from the course; he must remain true to his Brother's noble spirit. The dead owned his fealty, Coluber's brigands had no debt upon the Librarian. Why then did Maru's spirit weep for every life lost?
A surge from above caught his attention. The Storm Heralds were making a fierce drive for their ship. Against them Sergeant Thaddis directed his meagre forces. He had a smattering of power-armoured squads but the bulk of his force were the young novices and recon specialists who collectively were called Tertius Cohort. They were fighting at range, firing bolters and shotguns at towering giants in Ceramite. Their intent was to slow the Storm Heralds down, while Thaddis set explosive charges to destroy all access to the ship. They were brave in the face of death, proud and fierce but they were dying so very, very quickly. Scout-novices against a Battle Company, there was only one way that story ended and it was not in victory.
Maru's mind was caught by the dying soul of a young Marine named Rackus. The snakelet's life blossomed in the Psyker's mind, every moment of his short existence laid out like a dissected corpse. Birth and happy childhood, followed by pain, loss and anger, a dark need for vengeance and then recruitment into Coluber's band. The urge for revenge had not been tempered but honed, made into a sword for the Most Glorious' Emperor's service. This boy had yearned to fight for the Golden Throne, dreamt of glory and triumph, so pure in heart despite the lifetime's worth of killing he had already seen. Rackus didn't deserve to die so abruptly.
Maru's mechanical feet were in motion before he knew it, charging up a ramp. He knew he was risking his Brother's legacy with this foolishness but he could not stop himself, he had to intervene, he simply had to. Maru took turns only he knew and emerged onto the level where battle raged. His arrival was unlooked for and he found himself on the Storm Herald's flank. They were charging up a broad transitway, half their force in one place, advancing in perfect Codex-pattern formations. At the far end a ragged band of warriors blazed away with abandon, they outnumbered the Storm Heralds two-to-one, but it made no difference, the invaders strode through the onslaught with utter conviction of superiority. Maru was about to disabuse that confidence.
Maru's mind drew torrents from the roiling tides of the Warp and channelled them through the arcane crystal matrixes of his chassis. Perilous sciences, feared even in the days of yore, magnified his power to levels undreamt of by most and his will imposed shape and form upon the tsunami. It was like a man crafting shapes in a waterfall with his hands, but Maru's mind was equal to the task and from his Katana blade shot forth a blaze of lightning.
Deck plates exploded under the force of the blasts, Ceramite bodies were flung away, trailing blazes of smoke and fires erupted where there was no fuel to feed them. Not just in one spot, but in scores, across the length of the Transitway he carved a firebreak of crackling energy, cutting off the Storm Herald's advance. Their Captain with his red cloak cried out in warning but Maru flung a wall of force around his frame, absorbing the incoming wave of bolt rounds and plasma that answered.
"Maru!" Sergeant Thaddis cried from afar, "Where the hell have you been?!"
Maru ignored that and yelled, "How long do you require?"
"Buy me three minutes and we'll close the way."
"I guarantee two only," Maru growled, "Be swift or be dead."
The Storm Heralds were coming to bear, recognising the greater threat on their flank. Maru responded by summoning a howling tornado, generating a cyclone that sent them staggering. Their minds reeked of pride in their namesake, of embodying the heart of the storm, but against Maru's wroth they were found wanting. All save one.
From their midst came a mechanical giant, charging through the gale with the clanging of metal feet on the deck. Equal to Maru in size and girth but armed with a hefty shield and a dolorous blade that promised death. Novak Titanslayer, coming to claim another kill for his saga.
Maru kept the gale going but gathered a lightning blast to throw at Novak. To his surprise the bolt was caught upon a raised shield and the energy disappeared as water down a drain, then Novak got faster. The rival Contemptor surged across the distance, faster than any war machine had any right to be and threw his vast bulk into the charge, leading with his sword.
Maru got his Katana up to parry just in time but Novak slammed bodily into the frame of his Chassis, carrying them both along. Maru nearly lost control of his gale in the impact but was a Chief Librarian and kept the pressure up, even as Novak's feet slammed into the ground, irresistible as a freight train. The pair of Contemptors caromed into a wall and their combined mass tore through with ease. Into a machine workshop they barrelled, then through the next wall into a storage room, then a dank passage untouched since the Great Crusade, then a mess hall, then into an artist's gallery.
Maru felt every impact on his back, each wall crashing into him so hard his remains bounced within his amniotic coffin. His mind was consumed keeping the gale going so his response would have to be physical. He drew his free hand back and then slammed it into the other war machine's flank, denting armour plates. Novak gave no sign he felt the blow, continuing his mad charge but Maru reached over and racked metal digits over the sensor dome, blowing an eye lens out.
Novak was at last forced to break off, lest be blinded, and Maru was thrown away as inertia carried him along. It was then he realised he was in the Gallery of Keen Mourning, where his long-lost Brothers expressed sorrow. Displays of holo-art, tapestry and glassic sculpture were laid out in rows, the product of thousands of years of artistic endeavour. Unlike the statues on the Mortuary deck these were not triumphs to be celebrated but born from aching losses and harrowing grief. Not ignored as some Chapters would choose, as if they were incapable of making mistakes, but rendered into art, to process the pain of defeat.
Maru slammed into a glassic statue of the loss of Chapter Master Szeto and his bulk obliterated it into a million pieces. A work of surpassing wonder, reduced to tinkling flakes of drifting glassic. Maru's anger was stoked, "You understand nothing of what you destroy!"
"Can't be worth much, if you curs made it!" Novak spat as he hefted his blade.
"Do not compare me to Coluber's ronins!"
"I don't know what a ronin is, and I don't care!"
"Forgive me Brothers," Maru hissed as he reached out and grabbed a dead Rhino, hoisting it aloft. Riddled through a hundred times by precise fire, its corpse had been made a work of gruesome art, preserving its death for all time. Despite that it retained the mass of an APC and when Maru's mechanical limbs threw the tank at Novak it hit like a landslide. No Contemptor was fast enough to avoid that missile and Novak disappeared into the tangle of wreckage with a shriek of parting metal.
Maru had a second to enjoy his enemy's pain but then that Dolorous blade erupted through the roof of the Rhino. Crackling fields wreathed the sword as Dreadnought strength sawed through armour plates, ripping the APC in two. Novak shoved the bisected halves apart as he emerged, "I am somewhat annoyed."
An instant later the Dreadnought was charging, leading with his swordpoint. Maru had to parry with his Katana, only to have the weight of the shield slam into his front, buckling armoured panels. A lashing blow tore across his abdomen, obliterating embossed carvings and a shoulder barge sent him reeling. Maru's Katana glanced off a rotating shoulder then a rising bash from the shield cost the Librarian a golden serpent from his heraldry. Novak's attack was a work of art, not the dazzling display of a dancing blade but a perfect fusion of form and function. He knew exactly how to use his immense strength and bulk to his advantage, every attack building momentum and keeping Maru from responding. A Sword-Champion in life, Novak had spent his afterlife honing the craft of Dreadnought fighting to the pinnacle of perfection.
Maru was powerful in the ways of the mind but he was no match for Novak with a sword. A lashing blow ruptured fluid links in his arm and the Katana fell limp. Novak's shield slammed home a second later, making Maru crash backwards through a free-standing archway of tangled metal thorns that bled rubies. Intricate artwork snapped like kindling under his bulk, leaving ruby blood drops scattered everywhere.
"That looked expensive," Novak scoffed as he levelled his sword for the killing strike, intending to pierce Maru's sarcophagus and end this fight. The Librarian however had run out of patience. Throughout the fight he had been keeping his gale going, suppressing the Storm Heralds but no longer. He let go of the tornado and redirected his power into the moment, calling forth his most powerful and perilous conjuration.
Space-time rippled behind Novak, then tore open. A sucking whirlpool of nothingness that snatched all with reach and sucked it into a gaping maw that led nowhere. The Vortex of Doom, a power few could summon and none could master. Paintings, statues and tapestries were ripped free, swirling into the black maw to never be seen again. Maru rocked on his feet as the vortex pulled at him, but Novak was nearer. The Contemptor rocked back, his weight almost keeping him steady but the gravity inclines dragging his bulk backwards. Almost he toppled, almost he fell into that abyss, but then he slammed to his knees and drove his sword into the floor, anchoring himself.
Even Maru couldn't keep this apparition going, not without losing all control of it. Four seconds the Vortex rampaged, and then he was forced to collapse it, before it broke free of his shackles and destroyed all. Silence fell as the Vortex closed, and Novak remained kneeling in the ruins. Maru however didn't stay to see him rise, he turned for the broken wall and ran, racing for clearance.
"Hey, get back here and fight me!" Novak yelled.
"Only a fool fights in a burning house!" Maru shouted back.
"What?!"
"Observe!"
Maru had been counting down the seconds and exactly two minutes after engaging the Serpens Rex was racked by explosions. Maru felt them going off all around, Thaddis' demolition charges ripping the surroundings to shreds. Bulkheads imploded, walls folded into themselves and corridors were crunched into tiny balls, as an entire sweep of the Nest was made impassable. Maru felt debris ringing off his roof and the floor danced under his tread like a pond's surface in the rain. The walls were falling in around him, there was no time to negotiate a passage, so he made his own, ramming through metal bulkheads with sheer brute force.
He knew not how long he ran but suddenly he burst into open air, to find a ring of muzzles rising to greet him. "Stand down," Thaddis barked, "It's Maru!"
"Brother-Sergeant, two minutes to the second," Maru wheezed as dust cascaded off his form.
"Fastest demolition of my life, but it worked. Every avenue to the dock from their position is cut off, the Storm Heralds will have to backtrack a long way before trying again."
Maru noted lines of bodies in ruptured amber armour being laid out. Most in scout plate but a few in power armour. Ashen-faced youths were gathering to take tokens of remembrance, in the Rite of the Dead. Loss weighed heavily upon them, the bitter sting of Brothers taken too soon, a pain Maru knew too well.
"Their grief is heavy," Maru lamented.
Thaddis sighed, "Don't have an exact counting, but best guess for every one of theirs we lost three of ours. Would have been a lot higher had you not turned up. Still, with you at our side we'll thrash them next time... Maru... Maru?"
Maru had no answer to give. He turned and walked away, leaving the living to their grief. He had saved a handful, but in doing so may have lost far more. His true blood-kin's legacy lay in the balance and he may have imperilled it with this display. He had gambled with his real Brother's past and future, to save a motley band of hoodlums not fit to shine their boots. Maru's guilt dragged at his spirit, and he could do nothing save wait for the inevitable reprisal. So he left, more torn than ever in his hearts.
