Tales of the Amber Vipers Chapter 362
The Parascene Sanguine, Imperium Nihilus
Strike-Captain Reddam moved warily down the street, on a hair trigger for threats. None presented but he was not relieved, if anything it made him more uneasy. A cold chill ran down his spine, his cropped hair rubbing on the inside of his helm as it stood up and the grip on his power spear grew sweaty. Unnerving silence only made the deserted city seem more alien, the lack of activity more alarming than a barrage of Earthshaker shells.
Reddam moved at the head of a wave of orange and red, Astartes of the Amber Vipers and Blood Talons sweeping the streets for any signs of life. In their wake trailed their allies' mortal auxiliary, trying to act the equal of the Transhumans. Reddam couldn't see the point, slow, weak and frail. They couldn't dream to keep up with Space Marines, all they could do was slow them down. Regrettably, the Blood Talon leader insisted they come, and so they came.
Reddam's eyes lifted as a trio of jetbikes shot overhead, engines purring and Joffel sighed in longing, "We have got to get some of those."
"You have a bike already," Tebes rebuked.
"Not one that flies," Joffel argued.
Larus broke in, "You've driven bikes, tanks, void fighters and Vulture
gunships. What more could a jetbike offer?"
Joffel retorted, "I don't know, but I want to find out."
"Stow the chatter, keep your eyes open," Reddam snapped impatiently. They obeyed for once, sweeping the area with sharp eyes. They were advancing down a line of hab-blocks, squat four-story lumps of Ferrocrete, with single panes of glassic for windows. Identical to dwellings on a million Imperial worlds, save that these were deserted. Since landing Reddam had not seen one man toiling in a Factorum, nor bringing in crops from the fields beyond the city. No wives hung around doorways, no children ran in the streets, and not a single ground-cab moved under direction. The city was deserted.
Reddam had seen many abandoned cities in his life, but always there were signs of the cause. Craters from bolt and artillery, to tell a tale of battles fought in the streets. Bodies piled high, bloated with plague, broken shops from starving crowds fighting for scraps amid famine. Fire, flood, bullet holes, none of these were present. The city was empty, as if everyone had simply decided to lay down their tools and leave, but where did they go?
"Any idea what planet we are in?" Larus called over his shoulder.
Trailing behind Techmarine Kerubim was waving an auspex in the air, "There is a rudimentary vo-net operating, Administratum-grade, typical of an agri-world. The logic engine is tagged as assigned to Niehra, but no starchart shows a planet of such designation anywhere along our projected course to Dimmamar."
Kazao muttered, "So either we're thousands of lightyears from where we're meant to be, or the planet is."
Tebes scoffed, "This is Imperium Nihilus, there's no telling what happened."
Reddam glanced at the towering Techmarine, "Do the Logic Engines have any idea what happened to the people?"
Kerubim adjusted a dial on his auspex, "Negative, the logs just stop. No records of invasion or warp-incursion. Daily tithes, import/export balances, birth certificates… it's all very mundane."
"Must have been recent though," Larus noted, "There's hardly any decay."
It was true, the buildings were near pristine. Time took its toll and a city abandoned would soon crumble. Imperial materials were immune to rust and oxidisation, but dust should gather swiftly, water tables rise and leaves gather into piles of mulch. There was hardly any to be seen, a mere smattering of detritus.
The vox squawked, "Centurio Rovenator to Amber Vipers, come in!"
"Reddam here," the Strike-Captain called, "Report!"
"We've found something, come and see."
Rovenator was scouting two streets over and Reddam's genhanced recall let him navigate a mental map in an instant. He sprang into a jog, moving to his counterpart's location in minutes. Squads of Amber Vipers carried on, but he saw a pair of Blood Talon units lingering outside a large domicile. Five stories, with a gated courtyard, arched windows and a family crest over the door. Some administrator's abode, squalid on most worlds but in this drab city a veritable mansion.
Reddam jogged past the Blood Talons without a word and up the steps. Inside he found a carpeted hallway and unimpressive pictures placed upon walls, showing pinch-faced men who'd sooner lose a child than a penny in their ledgers and ladies in ballgowns, trying not to die of boredom. Rovenator however was in a side room, a large dining hall, with a marble table and bulky sideboards.
Reddam ducked through the doorway, "What's the emergency?"
"No emergency, but a mystery," Rovenator explained, "Look at this table, the plates and cutlery are laid out, the tureens are full. Foodstuffs have rotted, but they were never emptied."
"So they got up in the middle of dinner," Larus sniffed, "Why do we care?"
"Got up, stripped naked and left," Rovenator corrected.
Reddam leaned in and saw piled fabrics in the chairs, "Dresses and shirts, pantaloons, even jewellery. This room was isolated from the elements, it preserved the fabric, but that still makes no sense."
"Then there's this," Rovenator indicated, kicking a pile of scrap parts.
Kerubim pushed past and knelt to examine the debris. Reddam let him work but wondered what had drawn the Blood Talon to this spot. Rovenator was an unknown quality. Fierce and bloodthirsty, but young for his role. He tried to act the belligerent ingrate, but didn't quite have the martial presence to pull it off. A Ferrac knock-off in Reddam's opinion.
Suddenly Kerubim stiffened, "These are servitor parts."
"So?" Joffel pressed.
"So where are the organic elements?" Kerubim elaborated, "These implants aren't removable, without killing the flesh-components."
"They were torn out?"
"More like the flesh was torn from them," Kerubim muttered darkly.
Rovenator shook his head, "Questions abound, but answers elude us."
"We should converge on the prime anomaly," Reddam suggested.
"Agreed," the Centurio concurred.
They left the mansion and returned to their sweep. Into the city they headed, steering for the heart of the city. From orbit they had observed the planet's empty state, but there was something they couldn't account for, an object they defied long-range surveillance. It was Reddam's mission to examine the anomaly and deduce what had happened here. The Strike-Captain had argued they ignore it and press on, but the Blood Talons insisted they stop to investigate.
Reddam glanced over to his counterpart and asked, "Have you seen many worlds like this?"
"Countless," Rovenator stated.
"Do they always end in tragedy?"
"I have yet to find one that doesn't."
"Then why stop to explore each and every single one?"
Rovenator's helm lowered a hair, "We have learned to our cost that the only thing more dangerous than a threat in front of you, is a threat behind. Trying to avoid danger is no guarantee of safety. The best way to deal with challenges is to go straight at them. Besides, there is always the prospect of a Beautiful death to entice one."
Reddam had no idea how to respond to that and concentrated on reaching their objective. Ahead it loomed, rising over the local buildings like a setting sun over a horizon. From orbit it had appeared a vast dome, occupying the plaza that should have been the hub of the city. From the ground it was a curve of red, appearing between rooftops and growing larger as they approached. Reddam judged it taller than an Imperator Titan, and rounded, a vast curve blotting out the sky beyond. As they closed he realised he'd misjudged its size, it was even bigger than he thought. It not only dominated the plaza but had knocked down several buildings nearby, toppling them over like skittles.
They were not the first to arrive. At the point the dome touched the Ferrocrete road Maru Kysoto waited. The Librarian-Dreadnought had insisted on accompanying them, citing arcane premonitions of danger. Reddam had learned not to discount dread omens from Librarians, he only wished the ancient had warned them not to come at all.
"Maru, have you discerned the nature of this thing?" Reddam called as they closed.
"I have been probing the edge of this dome, but I have not risked touching it with my mind," the scholar recited.
Rovenator seemed cautious about a Psyker in their midst and asked, "You aren't about to explode and unleash a Daemon upon us?"
"Not today," Maru retorted.
Reddam shook his head, "So you have no answers?"
"I have suspicions," Maru stated.
Joffel reached out to poke the red surface, "Doesn't look dangerous."
"Don't touch it!" Maru barked, "I know this much, something terrible happened here and you do not wish to experience it."
Kerubim stepped up and waved his auspex over the surface. Reddam watched him work, wondering what he would learn. The dome was immense, soaring upwards like a skyscraper viewed from the foundations. It almost seemed like it would topple upon them, though that was surely madness. Still Reddam could not shake the idea that the glistening red wall was about to stir, as if it was watching him.
"It's spherical," Kerubim called, "Ferrocrete has compacted under its weight, leaving it half-sunken."
"Any idea what it does?" Reddam asked.
"No trace of Motive Force, no moving parts or fashioned materials I can detect. It appears inert… save its generating heat. I have no idea how."
Maru interjected, "I sense a background psychic field, low-level, like the hearing a couple argue through the walls of a tenement hab."
"I need a sample," Kerubim said.
Reddam held his breath as the Techmarine drew a sample drill and inched up to the wall. Kerubim extended a probe and gingerly took a coring of the matter. He took great care not to make contact with the red surface, other than his drill bit. A whirring noise issued forth and lingered in the air long after he drew back his sample and inserted it into a device he drew from his belt.
Kerubim read from a tiny screen, "Oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorous, potassium, sulfur, magnesium, sodium and chlorine. It's organic."
"Organic?!" Rovenator gulped.
Kerubim mused, "It has to be… I'm reading protein strands, amino acids, bacteria and viruses. Scanner is reading… oh… oh Red Sands no…"
"Brother?" Reddam pressed warily.
"Staphylococcus Aureus," Kerubim gasped.
"Staffycocco what?" Joffel puzzled.
"It's a Terran bacterium," Kerubim stated, "Carried from the Throneworld along with the first colonists, inside their bodies. It's as common across the galaxy as rats, but genetically unique to Terra. We have more in common with this bacteria than we do with an Eldar. This matter is suffused with it."
Tebes sounded confused, "What does that mean?"
Reddam levelled his spear, "It means we've found the missing people."
"They're inside that ball?" Joffel started.
"No," Maru corrected, "Not inside, they are the ball."
All gasped as they looked up at the soaring height of red, obviously meat and raw muscle, now they knew what it was. The flesh and blood of the population had been compressed into a single spot, compacted together like offal into a sausage. Skin and bone, organs and sinew, eyes, teeth and hair, all squished together till they lost all form. Reddam tried to estimate the number of people that must have been culled to fashion this obscenity, millions, tens of millions, the entire planet's population most likely. And it was humming.
"Why is it making that noise?" Larus hissed.
"I think we disturbed it," Rovenator growled.
"I think this would be a very good moment to withdraw," Joffel urged.
Rovenator's lightning claws flared as he snarled, "Retreat?! Never! This abomination killed millions. Taken from their homes and beds, ripped from their hearths and subjected to horrors beyond imagining. They were defiled, dishonoured, vengeance must be exacted!"
Reddam snapped back, "By slashing at it with those claws?! That won't do a thing. We fall back to the gunships and withdraw. Then we phosphor bomb this whole city from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."
Maru interjected, "You are more right than you know. The psychic field is increasing; I feel a blood-summons echoing forth, calling to the cells of our bodies like a Siren lures sailors to their deaths. A Parascene call, hungry to consume all."
"Can you block it?!" Kazao yelped.
"For a brief spell," Maru stated as his psychic hood glittered with potential, "If we do not leave soon, we will be enjoined with this desecration forevermore."
"That," Rovenator gulped, "Does not sound like a good death."
Reddam snapped, "That's it, we're leaving, all squads…." He was cut off as another noise arose. Louder than the humming of the Parascene, more feral and wild. It echoed off the buildings, carrying the harsh condemnation of the winter world, and the promise of blood-slaying and savage death. Reddam spun about in horror as the nearby buildings erupted into shaggy forms, leaping into view with fang and claw extended. Grey Ceramite charged in their wake, fierce and hungry for battle. Reddam had no idea how but the Sons of Garm had found them, and at their head raced the Nightholwer himself. Skoll had come to finish what he had begun.
