Tales of the Amber Viper Chapter 379
Reddam had never fought Tyranids before but had read the Astropathic reports of those who did, so thought he knew what to expect. Kill teams had reported bulging fleshy passages, they spoke of dripping organic fluids and the thunder of rushing blood pumped by hearts the size of hab-blocks. Legions of razor-clawed fiends and grinning maws, hungry for the flesh of intruders. Naglfar was none of these things.
He emerged from the boarding torpedo into a dank cavern, dwelling near the outer hull. His autosenses immediately detected near-lethal chills and low oxygen levels. Stablights illuminated walls crusted with black bile, bored through by metallic tendrils that wove themselves into the meat. The floor was piled high with human bones, stripped of all meat and left cracked open. A glance revealed fang marks upon them, and his genhanced brain told him the devourers were larger than any animal he knew of. Fields of discarded bone fragments filled the cavern, piled as high as his knees. There must be thousands of skeletons in here, tens of thousands, scattered without care.
"No contacts," Tebes reported as his bolter swept back and forth.
"Apart from the dead men," Larus grunted as his relic weapon glinted in the wan light.
"Women," Kazao hissed.
"What?"
"These bones are all female; no males are present."
Joffel cut in, "How do you... oh never mind... hadn't we better move?"
Reddam agreed, "Entry clear, bring up the weapon!" From the gaping hole of the boarding torpedo came grim figures, their armour was blackened by rad-discharge and their faceplates bore the red hand of ruin. In their hands were bile flamers and Fission-blasters, vile creations no righteous Marine should bear, but these were not righteous Marines. They were the Cerberii and their duty was one of condemnation, not honour.
Berio the Claviger was at the fore, his body swollen with augmetic implants. He led half a dozen of his accursed breed, but was not the bearer of their charge. Two Cerberii at the back carried a long cylinder, marked with fell runes, so thick and heavy two Space Marines struggled to lift it. Strange mechanisms glinted between exposed casings and glimmers of Unlight leaked through, hinting at eldritch power beyond the ken of men. The Cerberii guarded relics from the Dark Age of Technology, a bubbling cauldron of horrors mankind had tried very hard to forget. Till now it had been kept safe behind the Gates of Perdition, and was simply known as the Nail. Reddam didn't know what it did, and didn't want to know.
"Strike-Captain to Coluber, entry achieved, no opposition," Reddam voxed.
"Cap... well... we have... two..." Coluber voxed.
"Damn it, blocked comms," Reddam spat, "We must link up."
Berio agreed, "Find the Chapter Master, then find the ship's brain. The Nail must be driven into the central nerve cluster."
Reddam didn't waste time, he took up his spear and marched forth. Bones crunched under Ceramite boots, snapping like dry twigs after a long drought. Reddam's anger grew at the offence, death had been ugly and slow for these people. Yet more crimes to lay at Skoll's feet. Truly he was a threat to the Emperor's realm, even the Cerberii had not argued the need to end him.
A gap in the wall revealed a way out and Reddam stepped forward. A narrow passage dark and stinking of rotten meat. The smell made Reddam want to gag, but his ears detected distant bolter fire from the right, so headed that way. A quick pace did he set, eager to engage. They were here for more than death and destruction; they were here to save the Blood Talons too.
"Quickly, there may be survivors!" he barked.
"I doubt it," Larus grunted.
"Don't question the mission," Reddam snapped.
"I'm not, just saying we could have blown this ship to bits with the Serpens Rex's guns."
"That would cast shame upon our pride," Tebes spat.
"Never bothered us before," Larus snorted.
Reddam had no time to explain why it was so important they engage directly, why they couldn't just blast friend and foe alike as was typical. The Amber Vipers were here to prove a point, and actions would speak better than words this day. As if responding to his thought the passage widened into an arterial vein, and battle was upon them.
One second Reddam was running full pelt, the next he was confronted by a wall of hairy flesh. Misshapen fiends gave battle to figures in red and black. Cries of righteous defiance and feral bloodlust arose, as lives were ended and deeds of heroism and infamy played out in the darkness. A flash of energised claw proclaimed a familiar warrior was among them, Rovenator, Centurio of the Blood Talons.
Reddam screeched to a halt and cried, "Suppressing fire!" Bolters rose spoke, sending mass-reactives into the rabid masses' backs. Spines blew out, legs tore off and screams of primal pain were surpassed only by outrage at the attack from the rear. A moment later Fission-blasters blazed, incinerating foes in star-bright flashes of rad-infused energy. Radiation counters began ticking as fallout contaminated the scene, but that gave neither side pause.
The Vanagandyr turned about and raced to meet the unexpected attack, but were met by a caustic plume of noxious filth. One of the Cerberii stood firm and swept his Bilefamer across their ranks, burning skin and fur away with potent acidic sprays. More foes fell, skin and muscle peeling away to reveal twisted bone, and Reddam saw his chance.
"Into them!" he cried as he leapt to attack. His speartip plunged into the first foe to come at him, bursting a heart and erupting from the back. Momentum carried him forward, twisting about to shake off the body and sweep about in an upwards slice. The next foe was parted from groin to neck, spilling entrails everywhere. The next took the butt of the spear in an eye, bursting optical fluids as the brain behind folded inwards. And the next had its spine smashed by a lateral strike. Reddam was swift and sure, his every blow made lethal by righteous fury. Never had the cause been so urgent, never had the foe merited destruction so ardently, sheer revulsion lent Reddam strength and made him mighty.
In moments he had cleared a path to the Centurio and found a knot of Blood Talons atop a pile of slain foes. Rovenator's claws flared as he diced a raging fiend and cried, "What are you doing here?!"
"Saving your life!" Reddam barked as he hacked the head off a slathering monster.
"We didn't ask you to come. This death was ours!"
"We can debate the pros and cons after we win through!" Reddam retorted.
Death filled the passageway, ugly and brutal. Rad-weapons punched Vanagandyr off their feet, as toxic bile laid scores low. Tebes swung his mining pick wide, shattering ribs and pulping heads. Joffel's bonesword had never seemed more appropriate as he sliced limbs off and slit necks. Larus' knives left frothing bodies in his wake, deadly poisons making them convulse so hard their spines snapped in torment. Kazao fought bare-handed, but raw strength made up for it, his punches impacting faces into the skulls behind.
Reddam was caught in the swirling melee and fought with all his hearts. He stood with the Blood Talons, shoulder to shoulder, in a proud ring of defiance. He lost count of how many he slew but the tide never seemed to diminish. More foes came every second, promising to overwhelm them. Reddam was not dismayed, his spear destroyed any who dared and he held his ground no matter the odds.
Time lost all meaning, till the sound of Chainweapons arose from behind the mass of enemies. Another force had found them, more Amber Vipers. Reddam strained to see through the packed foes and saw the distinctive flashes of volkite-fields and knew who it must be. A foe flung high, folded over itself, confirmed the masters had found them and Reddam grinned at the slaughter to come.
A flash of energised metal revealed Coluber, cleaving his way through enemies with furious speed. At his left Hasak fought, burst-lance leaving glittering red wakes in the air. Wherever he struck flesh disintegrated into ashes, rendered as dust by contact Volkite-fields. Ferrac was to the left, axe-rake clotted with gore and sledgehammer gun booming. He laughed in the midst of slaughter, revelling in the massacre he made. Others followed behind, a wedge of amber, and one in white, Shrios, bringing up the rear.
Coluber made for the embattled knot of Astartes and drove the scum forward. The battle became a blur of hacking madness, but caught between the hammer and the anvil there was no way the Vanagandyr could survive. In moments the last of them fell, leaving the passageway strewn with bleeding corpses.
"Well met by battle-light!" Coluber crowed.
"Save me your entreaties," Rovenator snapped, "This is no place for you!"
"We come to fight at your side," Coluber growled.
"We needed no aid from you!"
"The odds suggest differently," Reddam muttered.
Rovenator's voice showed his ire, "Regnator Aronyx has decreed this is our final day. We die in glory, and so become Angels of Death."
Ferrac scoffed, "That's a bad plan."
Coluber agreed, "We have the means to end these foes, permanently, all we ask is to fight at your side."
"Begone! "Rovenator spat, "Take your thieving hands elsewhere and leave us to die!"
Shrios cut in, "They don't want our help, I say we leave them to it."
"No," Coluber rebuked, "We are not going anywhere!"
"Then..." Reddam began to say.
He never got to finish. Down the passageway came a fresh tide of foes, running wildly into the fray. From the dark they charged, a veritable avalanche of hostility. Bolters fired snapshots that punched bodies off their feet, but too few to stop them. At their head loped a swollen monster, armour falling off his engorged limbs. Hunch-backed and long of fang, with inhuman eyes and deformed jaw. Reddam almost didn't recognise him, save for the twin axes, still held tight in deathgrips. Skoll, the Nighthowler, changed in ways no Marine should know.
Reddam swung his spear to engage but a sweep of an axe to the haft sent him flying. Cold unlike anything he had ever known dug deep, making his bones creak with frost. His spear sparked in distress at the blow, and his armour's Machine Spirit cried out in ways that the chill of space did not make it do. Reddam slammed into the wall and slid down, struggling to draw breath into lungs cramping with cold.
His eyes beheld Skoll charging into the fray and the cur made a red ruin. A Blood Talon was cleaved head to toe in one sweep, a Cerberii was reduced to a smoking husk by electrical discharges from a Daemonic axe. Ferrac charged from the flank, but a back-handed blow sent him tumbling away. Hasak thrust for the eye, only to be kicked down by a clawed foot. Shrios was flung high and Coluber's mightiest blow barely made a scratch. Nothing could stand against Skoll in his monstrous form, anyone who tried was bested with ease.
"Gun him down!" Coluber shouted and bolt and rad-blast scorched his mutated form. Skoll shrugged it off, bearing down on the scattered Astartes, even as they tried to fend off the Vanagandyr. Reddam tried to rise but his muscles were locked tight, an unearthly chill cramping him head to toe. He could only watch the slaughter play out as Skoll killed another Blood Talon with ease.
"Scatter!" Rovenator howled.
"We can take him!" Coluber shouted.
"This is my death, I choose it!" Rovenator yelled, "Go now!"
"Disengage!" Coluber ordered as the Space Marines broke apart and ran for smaller passages. Reddam couldn't move, all he could do was watch as Rovenator flung himself into the fray. His lightning claws smote left and right, culling foes with every gesture, till he confronted Skoll directly. The swollen traitor loomed high, growing mighty on the adrenaline of combat. Yet Rovenator didn't hesitate, hurling himself at the chest, claws leading the way. So brave, so noble, so pointless.
An axe sank into his chest before he could make a strike. Rovenator's charge faltered as a breath was driven from his lungs. No noble cry of defiance but a pathetic wheeze. Skoll's axe dug deep and he hoisted the Centurio aloft like a man would a fish on a line. Vital fluids poured out of the sundered Marine, but his death would not be so easy. Skoll's jaws yawned wide, not enough to engulf the head, but still able to take the scalp in his maw. Teeth cut through Ceramite, bone and brain with ease and in one bite he dissected Rovenator's cranium, leaving a perfect slice exposed.
Reddam gasped at the sight of Rovenator's ending, but his death bought precious seconds. Suddenly arms were grappling at him and Tebes shouted into his ear, "On your feet Strike-Captain!"
"We can't flee!" Reddam wheezed.
"Fight smart not stupid!" Joffel spat.
Reddam found his feet at last and cried, "Where are the others... Larus, Kazao?"
"Scattered to the nine vectors!" Tebes barked, "Now run!"
Into a narrow capillary they fled, chased by bestial forms. Reddam could only trust they would be confronted by mere Vanagandyr, if Skoll himself came after them he could not see how they would survive. The Nightholwer had become something greater and more terrible than a mere Space Marine and even the foulest weapons of the Cerberii would not be enough to win this day.
