by Various
‘Burn like fire.’
Kal’va closed his eyes. When he opened them again the lead battle tank was centred in his sights. He fired the markerlight, tagging the tank, then each of the others in turn.
A little over a mile away, a Sky Ray gunship whispered into life.
Its thrusters gently nudged it up off the rock bed, dislodging the layer of sand that had settled on it, and manoeuvred it into firing position.
The gunship’s turret rotated, its missile rack tracking towards Kal’va’s markers. One after another, the six seeker missiles blazed into life and shot into the air.
Kal’va stared at the convoy and waited. It would take the missiles time to reach target acquisition altitude, and more again for their onboard target locks to calculate the optimum attack trajectory.
Next the missiles’ boosters would cut out, removing any trace of their energy signature, leaving them to plummet towards the ground. At the last possible moment, the boosters would reignite, burning with the full fury of the fire caste as they sped the missiles towards their targets.
Kal’va activated the light dampener on his scope.
The first missile darted out of the clouds and hit the lead battle tank in its weaker rear armour.
The warhead detonated on impact, reducing the tank to a crumpled mess of flaming metal.
The second missile swung around the treeline and struck the right-side tracks of the rear battle tank.
The blast flipped the vehicle. It landed hard, crushing its own turret and triggering a raft of secondary detonations that blew out its exposed underside.
The rest of the convoy began reacting, fanning out in panic, while two of the transports stopped. Ten humans rushed from each, their weapons raised, and formed a cordon around the command transport.
The third missile roared down from the sky on a pillar of fire to strike the roof of the final battle tank, smashing its turret and multi-barrelled weapons.
‘Timing…’ Kal’va grinned, the heat from the flames setting off the tank’s ammo reserves.
The nine Guardsmen nearest the tank were torn apart, shredded as the high-calibre slugs tore through their bodies. The squad’s sole survivor sank to his knees, his face bathed in blood and fleshy matter.
Kal’va whispered the axiom of mindfulness.
‘It is a careless warrior who allows himself to be burned by his own flame.’
Gripped by panic, the twin walkers opened fire, their weapons churning up trees and undergrowth as they searched the valley for vengeance.
Their crazed fusillade came to an abrupt end as a missile slammed into each of them.
Their ruined legs remained upright for a moment, twitching briefly before collapsing.
The sixth and final missile struck the command transport, demolishing the fore portion of its hull and enveloping the aft in fire. The transport’s door blew open, propelling from the vehicle like an expended round.
Kal’va watched dispassionately as a huddle of humans in uniform half leapt, half fell out of the doorway. Two of them clung to the ground, rolling around to douse the flames that were licking across their clothing.
The tau warrior tracked the human officer, reading his lips as the soldier waved his weapon around and demanded an explanation. The remaining humans formed a huddle around their commander, weapons tracking in every direction.
Tagging the officer with his markerlight, he squeezed the trigger of his rifle.
The sniper drone fired before the gun’s trigger had even reset. In a flash the officer’s torso came apart, vaporised by the rail round. For a heartbeat the Guardsmen didn’t move, fixed in place by the sudden carnage. Then they opened fire. Frantic, undisciplined volleys hammered into the hillside as the humans tried in vain to end the nightmare they had stumbled upon.
Kal’va ignored the humans and focused his attention on the single remaining transport. Its engines had slowed to idle, its turret panning for targets.
‘Show yourselves,’ he breathed, fighting the urge to break from cover and blast his way inside the vehicle. He had come too far to throw his life away now, but perhaps he had been hasty. Perhaps he should have taken the target out with one of the seeker missiles.
No. He would see the target with his own scope and look into its monstrous eyes when he killed it. At this, Kal’va tightened his grip on his rifle.
A few moments later, his patience was rewarded. The transport’s ramp dropped to the ground and five yellow-armoured giants emerged in quick order, fanning out to cover the angles and appraising the situation down the barrels of their heavy guns.
If he had not hated them with every fibre of his being, Kal’va would have admired them. Where the humans were frightened, cowering behind whatever cover they could, the Space Marines stood in the open, untroubled by the death and destruction wrought around them.
‘Cease fire,’ barked one of the Space Marines. Lost to panic, the humans ignored him and continued their fight.
Kal’va watched as the Space Marine moved to the Guardsmen. Clamping his gauntlet around the barrel of one of the human’s weapons, he pulled it from his hands.
‘Cease fire! Do not waste your ammunition or I will expend mine on you.’
Faced with a more immediate threat, the humans eased off their triggers.
Kal’va studied the Space Marine. Judging by the elaborate insignia and raft of parchment adorning his pauldron, he was the squad leader. Yes, Kal’va nodded to himself, he would be the first to die.
‘We are being manipulated. We must–’
At a command from Kal’va, his drones attacked. Crisscrossing each other in a deadly ballet, they strafed the Imperial forces with a hail of photon grenades.
The Guardsmen fell to the ground, screaming in agony as the grenades exploded amongst them with ear-splitting violence. Blood streamed from their eyes and ears as the sensory overload tore at their sanity. A few managed to clamp their hands over their ears and screwed their eyes shut; most spasmed on the ground, throttled by their own nervous system.
The drones’ pulse carbines finished the job, executing the twitching Guardsmen with bursts of lancing plasma.
A pair of heavy gun drones darted out of the treeline and engaged the Space Marines, their burst cannons blazing on full auto.
The Space Marines returned fire without pause, engaging the drones with practised precision even as their armour chipped and cracked under the attentions of the tau weaponry.
One of the drones exploded, hammered from existence by a hail of bolt-rounds. Another banked sharply to avoid the same fate, sending the last of its ammunition chewing up across the squad leader’s shoulder guard and into his helmet. The Space Marine slumped to the ground, his body and face a mess of bloody holes.
Kal’va shifted his attention to the carrier as its turret-mounted weapon spat super-heated laser towards the circling gun drones.
He took aim at the weapon, tagging the space between two of its spinning barrels with his markerlight.
Behind him, a sniper drone fired. The rail round punched through the gun’s barrel, sending a ripple of explosions traversing back along its length to the turret base.
A second detonation within the tank sent a plume of ashen smoke sparking from the back of the vehicle.
Kal’va stared at the carrier’s open hatchway, his finger hovering over his rifle’s trigger. Another of the Space Marines emerged a moment later, striding down the ramp, heedless of the flames dancing over his armour. A line of script ran across the top of Kal’va’s display, confirming what he already knew – this was Or’sha’s killer. The target.
‘Patience will pierce even a rock.’
Kal’va let the words ready his mind and put down his rifle, unslinging Or’sha’s from across his back. Activating the weapon’s scope, he settled back into the firing position, adjusting slightly for th
e extra weight of the weapon.
Or’sha had equipped his rifle with an enlarged power pack, enabling it to fire rounds at a higher than standard velocity. Through habit, Kal’va checked the shot counter, though he knew the answer – only a single round remained unfired in Or’sha’s weapon. One shot, one target.
‘As the auns will it,’ he whispered. He smiled at the nature of fate and sighted down Or’sha’s rifle. Three of the Space Marines remained, finishing off his gun drones and forming up around the target.
‘Ver’re!’ Kal’va cursed. A clean shot was unlikely. He activated the rifle’s underslung markerlight and slaved two of the nearby sniper drones to it – they would aim at what he aimed at, and fire when he fired.
Kal’va took aim at the target’s breastplate, drawing an imaginary line through the intervening Space Marine. It was the thickest point of the armour, but the easiest to hit. A calculated risk, and one that the overcharged rifle went out of its way to offset.
A blue rune flashed in the corner of Kal’va’s helm display. The sniper drones were now almost equidistant from the target. Their shots would impact near simultaneously.
He made one final adjustment to the drones’ positions to account for wind speed and the increased velocity of the round he would be firing.
‘Vior’yr.’ Vengeful kill – the ancient word left Kal’va’s lips without conscious thought as he exhaled and fired.
The trio of rail rounds raced through the air. The first struck the intervening Space Marine, shattering his breastplate and passing out through his back. The second speared through the hole in the Space Marine’s torso to strike the energy field enveloping the target. There was a flash of blue lightning as the shield flared and failed.
Kal’va’s round struck home last, punching into the Space Marine’s chest and toppling him to the ground. The two remaining Space Marines reacted instantly, somehow able to track the final round to its point of origin.
Kal’va scooped up his own rifle and rolled right as the Space Marines’ weapons chattered to life. Still rolling, he tagged them both with his markerlight and initiated the pair of sniper drones’ fire and move protocols.
The drones darted from cover, one firing while the other moved, leapfrogging around the Space Marines. The humans were caught by surprise, one of them beheaded in short order as a rail round tore through his pauldron and neck.
The surviving Space Marine managed to unload a salvo into one of the drones, blowing it out of the air before the other shot him through the knee. He stumbled forward, catching himself with his free hand, and continued to fire.
In his moment’s respite, Kal’va caught sight of the target.
The enemy pushed himself to his feet, its chestplate still smouldering from the heat of the rail round.
Kal’va opened fire but the target was too fast and ducked inside the ruined transport for cover. A warning flashed across his display as the other sniper drone was damaged.
Feeding another power pack into his rifle, he targeted the wounded Space Marine, blowing off his weapon arm at the elbow. The weapon clattered to the ground with the Space Marine’s finger still clamped around its trigger.
The target bounded down the transport’s ramp with a glowing pistol in one hand and what looked like some form of launcher held over his opposite shoulder.
Kal’va fired. The shot missed, stabbing into the earth as the target dived forwards. Rolling onto his feet, the target swung his pistol up and blasted apart the remaining sniper drone before levelling the launcher.
Kal’va felt his heart race as he scanned the area. There was nothing but light trees and small rocks, all insufficient cover to shelter himself behind. In desperation, he hit the recall button on his squadron of shield drones. They hurtled towards him at maximum acceleration as the target fired. Kal’va directed them into a curving line in front of him, their energy shields overlapping with a crackle.
Less than a heartbeat later, the missile exploded, hammering his makeshift energy barrier.
EARLIER
The Chamber of Bonding was lit by a single brazier, an echo of the flame that burned in the breast of all the fire caste. Situated in the very centre of the chamber, its glow cast spectral faces across the rock of the walls and reached as far as the low ceiling.
‘It is smaller than I had imagined,’ said Or’sha.
Kal’va nodded, but said nothing. Like Or’sha, he had not set foot on a sept world since taking up a weapon. The rough-hewn, brutal cavern was in stark contrast to the clean lines and smooth decking of the warships on which he had spent his life. Breathing deeply, he filled his lungs with the thick incense that swam in the air.
‘We stand on honoured Vior’la, on the earth that birthed the warrior caste. We walk amongst the ghosts of heroes. What we do now, we do not do lightly.’ Sas’la paused a moment to let the weight of his words settle. ‘Come.’
As was his right, Sasl’a walked ahead of Kal’va and Or’sha, leading them down through the cavern and up onto the Eternal Circle. Carved into a raised dais of rock hundreds of years before, the circle had the same dimensions as the ones Kal’va had seen etched into the ceremonial hangars of the warships he’d served aboard. It was the focal point for all bonding rituals, a reminder that a warrior’s spirit had no beginning and no end.
‘Only in fire can a weapon be forged.’
Sas’la crossed into the centre of the circle and tugged on a length of brass chain connected to the brazier. The action opened a small shutter set into the brazier’s base, allowing a single ember to fall to the ground.
The errant flame ignited the oil that pooled in the recessed outline of the Eternal Circle.
Kal’va stepped over the flames, welcoming the heat, and knelt together with Sas’la and Or’sha. As was tradition, the three sat equidistant from one another, formed as a targeting triangle set within the circle of a rifle’s scope.
‘Ancestors bear witness. Auns honour our vow.’ Sas’la gestured for them to begin, and the three bowed to one another before unsheathing their bonding knives. ‘My life is your life, and your life is my life.’
Kal’va drew his knife across his chest, cutting a deep gash across his heart. Breathing through the pain, he passed his blade to Sas’la as the shas’ui gave his to Or’sha.
‘My strength is your strength, and your strength is my strength,’ intoned Or’sha. With Or’sha’s knife, Kal’va cut into his bicep, drawing the blade down his forearm. The pain was intense but honour demanded silence.
‘My path is your path, and your path is my path,’ he said. He took Sas’la’s knife and made the final mark, a thin line across his forehead. He could feel his rising pulse beating in his neck, its thrum threatening to overwhelm him. Accepting his own blade from Or’sha, he slashed his palm, clenching his fist to squeeze three drops of blood onto the ground.
‘With blood we strengthen the circle and our bond with those who have bled before us,’ said Sas’la.
Kal’va and Or’sha responded as one: ‘As the auns will it.’
Keeping his head bowed, Kal’va struggled to his feet. The Ta’lissera Va was complete. They were as one being; bonded in mind, body and spirit. The Eternal Circle could not be broken, all would live or die.
NOW
Kal’va opened his eyes and saw nothing. The piercing flash of the shield drones overloading had shorted out his helmet’s optical array.
He coughed violently, feeling the bones in his chest grind in response. Fighting through pain worse than any he had faced, Kal’va unclipped his helmet and let the blood that was filling his mouth drip onto the ground.
Struggling to lift his head, he stared up at the sky. Its blue-grey reminded him of the Chamber of Bonding. He thought of Sas’la, of Or’sha…
…of the target. The target was coming for him.
Kal’va propped himself up on his elbow
s, scanning for his rifle. There was no sign of the weapon.
Thick mucus dripped from his mouth as his organs began failing.
‘Great auns accept me,’ he breathed as he eased himself down onto his back, closed his eyes, and listened to the footsteps as they drew nearer. Slowing his breathing, he fought to hang on to what little life he had left. He did not need long.
Kal’va knew the target was standing over him. He had felt the slight change in temperature as its bulk cast a shadow over him. He opened his eyes to stare up the barrel of the Space Marine’s pistol.
‘Where are your filthy accomplices hiding?’ the target’s voice rasped through his damaged helmet. His armour was scorched and battered, its crimson hue worn and tarnished.
‘I… am…’ The words cost Kal’va more blood as he convulsed between syllables. ‘…all.’ He looked down at his belt, finding Sas’la’s helmet still locked to his hip.
‘One?’ Kal’va was unsure if it was surprise or admiration he heard in the Space Marine’s voice. ‘Do not lie…’
The Space Marine’s helm sparked as it malfunctioned, its glowering optics flickering and dying like the final embers of an inferno. The giant removed it; beneath it, he looked even more monstrous. His jaw had been replaced by a plate of metal, wires bulged beneath his greyed skin like veins and his eyes shone red with augmentation.
‘Tell me where they are and I will kill you cleanly.’ The target’s voice was harsh and gnarled. It reminded Kal’va of the giant compressors that the earth caste used to terra-form rock.
‘Sas’la… Or’sha…’ Shaking, he reached across his chest and grabbed the hilt of his bonding knife.
‘I would not have credited you, xenos, with such courage. Never have I met one of your kind who doesn’t hide behind his rifle. You are a weak race of cur killers.’
Tears of agony streaming down his face, Kal’va drew his knife from its scabbard. The Space Marine lowered his pistol and drew an axe from across his back.