Chapter 148: The Tide of the Dead (Patreon)

Kais Val'ra could barely recognize the land beneath his feet.

In its memory, Sere Kl had been a shining pearl beneath the radiance of the Greater Good. The sky was always pure blue, with three small moons taking turns rising at night and casting a soft silver glow across the land.

Within the cities, elegant white, curved structures blended seamlessly into the natural landscape. Anti-gravity vehicles drifted silently along designated routes, leaving fleeting trails of light in their wake. Earth Caste engineers had designed vast ecological parks where exotic flowers and plants from countless worlds grew together in harmony. The air had always carried a faint, pleasant fragrance.

On its days off, Kais's favorite pastime had been taking its family to picnic beside the crystal lake outside the city. Its children would chase glowing insects through the soft grass while vendors sold refreshing drinks made from local fruits. Laughter would drift across the meadow.

There had been no poverty. No strife. Every T'au citizen had contributed to the Greater Good in their appointed role, living in peace and prosperity.

Sere Kl had once been a tranquil jewel—a perfect little reflection of the T'au Empire's promise of order and peace in a dark universe.

Now, it was hell.

The heat from the orbital bombardment had yet to dissipate. The ground beneath Kais's feet was still hot enough to feel like an iron plate fresh from a forge. Every breath brought choking dust and the stench of sulfur into his filters.

The beautiful landscape had been melted away by fire and explosions, leaving only twisted metal and blackened ruins. The once-azure sky had turned a sickly blood-red beneath layers of dust and smoke, illuminated from below by countless fires.

The laughter of the past had been replaced by the incessant roar of gunfire and the screams of the dying.

Kais tightened his grip on his pulse rifle. The familiar weight of the weapon gave him a small measure of reassurance.

Around him, the surviving Fire Warriors from several squads crouched behind a makeshift defensive line built from broken walls and heaps of rubble. Their weapons were held ready, their armor scorched and dust-covered.

Even Shas, normally the most cheerful and irreverent among them, had fallen silent.

Sadness, anger, and a deep, simmering hatred for the invaders weighed heavily on every warrior.

Then the artillery stopped.

The distant thunder of cannon fire and gunshots dwindled until, for a few brief seconds, the battlefield fell unnaturally quiet.

Kais did not relax.

Instead, he increased the sensitivity of his battlesuit's sensors and swept the front line again.

The calm before the storm.

That rule seemed to hold true in every corner of the universe.

Sure enough, a few seconds later, a savage engine roar rose from the dust-shrouded horizon.

It was unlike the disciplined machinery they had heard before. These engines screamed as though they were being driven far beyond their limits.

The sound grew rapidly louder.

"What is that?" one of the younger warriors asked.

Kais stared into the dust. His battlesuit magnified the distant shapes, sharpening them until he could make out their silhouettes.

Human tanks.

Armored transports.

During previous skirmishes, the Fire Warriors had already formed a rough assessment of these clumsy iron machines. They were heavily armored and carried respectable firepower, but their mobility was poor and their fire-control systems primitive.

To Kais, they looked like museum pieces from centuries ago—relics from an age when armies still fought with tracks and steel.

Yet now, those relics were charging at full speed.

The vehicles tore across the scorched earth with reckless abandon, engines screaming, suspension buckling over craters. Black smoke poured from their exhausts. Metal groaned and rattled with every violent impact, as though the machines might disintegrate before they ever reached the T'au lines.

Then Kais noticed the soldiers.

They were clinging to the vehicles.

Dozens of human soldiers gripped handholds, armor, and whatever other surfaces they could find, riding exposed atop the transports like ornaments nailed to the hulls. Gravel and shrapnel whipped against them. Some were barely holding on.

They looked less like soldiers than parasites clinging to steel beasts.

"What kind of tactic is this?" Kais muttered.

The charge was tactically crude.

Almost suicidal.

And yet it was coming straight at them.

He had no time to wonder why.

"Fire! Don't let them get close!"

Kais raised his pulse rifle.

His battlesuit's targeting system instantly selected the lead Chimera. The moment he pulled the trigger, a burst of blue plasma tore through the dust.

The other Fire Warriors opened fire as well.

Pulse rifles and carbines merged into a continuous stream of brilliant energy, forming a killing zone across the battlefield.

The humans answered.

Heavy stubbers spat streams of fire from the vehicles. Crude lasguns flashed from among the infantry. But their weapons were generations behind those of the Fire Warriors, and their armor offered little protection against concentrated pulse fire.

The result was immediate.

Human soldiers pitched from the speeding vehicles as blue bolts tore through them. Some collapsed onto the scorched earth. Others were knocked beneath the tracks of the vehicles behind them and vanished in a spray of blood.

But the charge did not slow.

The human vehicles kept coming.

One after another.

Finally, after suffering staggering casualties, a Chimera burst through the edge of the T'au firing line.

Its hull was blackened and cratered. Smoke poured from its damaged engine. Several fires burned across its armor.

It did not stop.

It slammed directly into a Hammerhead on the flank of Kais's position.

"BOOM—!"

The explosion erupted in a blinding flash.

A wall of heat and pressure struck Kais and hurled him into the ground. His vision spun violently. For a moment, he could not tell which way was up.

His internal organs felt as though they had been punched from the inside.

Fortunately, his battlesuit's cushioning systems engaged before the impact could become fatal.

Kais sucked in a breath and forced himself upright.

"Damn it..."

His ears rang.

He looked toward the Hammerhead.

It was gone.

Only a burning wreck remained.

The Fire Warriors who had been sheltering beside it had vanished entirely.

Kais stared in disbelief.

The explosives aboard that Chimera had been far more powerful than he had anticipated.

Then something moved inside the wreckage.

Several figures emerged from the flames.

Human soldiers.

They were burned, battered, and covered in soot, yet they were still moving.

And the moment they saw Kais, they charged.

Confusion flashed through his mind.

How?

How had they survived that explosion?

The question made no sense.

His training overrode his thoughts.

Kais raised his pulse rifle.

"For the Greater Good!"

He pulled the trigger.

Blue energy flashed across the battlefield.

The first human took a pulse blast through the chest. A smoking hole opened through his torso, and he collapsed backward.

The second and third attempted to weave from side to side.

It made no difference.

The battlesuit's targeting system predicted their movements. Two more bursts struck almost simultaneously, one blowing apart a helmet and the other tearing through a torso.

Both soldiers dropped.

Kais swung his rifle toward the final attacker.

Too late.

The human was already upon him.

The primitive bayonet fixed beneath his lasgun glimmered in the firelight.

"Thud."

Metal screamed.

Kais felt something punch through his abdomen.

For one terrible instant, he could not understand what had happened.

Then the pain arrived.

He looked down.

The bayonet had pierced straight through his battlesuit's composite armor and deep into his body.

His vision blurred.

The human soldier was still pushing forward, teeth bared behind the grille of his helmet.

Kais reacted on instinct.

With his remaining strength, he drove the muzzle of his pulse rifle against the man's helmet.

"Boom!"

At point-blank range, the pulse rifle turned the human's head into a red spray.

The corpse collapsed against Kais before sliding to the ground.

Kais dropped to one knee.

Blood poured from the wound in his abdomen. His battlesuit's life-support system screamed warnings into his ears.

He barely heard them.

He raised his head.

And froze.

More humans were coming.

They emerged from the burning wreckage.

From behind the shattered ruins.

From the smoke.

They came from every direction, stepping over the bodies of their fallen comrades as though the dead were nothing more than obstacles beneath their boots.

"No..."

Kais lifted his rifle.

He fired.

One burst.

Two.

Two more humans fell.

There were still more.

Then the first bayonet struck his shoulder.

The second pierced his thigh.

The third entered his side.

Then the fourth.

The fifth.

Kais felt the blades punching through him one after another.

His rifle slipped from numb fingers.

His vision darkened.

The last thing he could see was the endless sea of black helmets advancing through the fire.

Then darkness took him.

The humans did not pursue the fleeing T'au.

They turned around.

One by one, they returned to the burning wreckage of the Chimera and the Hammerhead.

Beneath the twisted metal lay a single surviving figure.

Their squad leader.

He was barely alive. A medkit had slowed the bleeding, and he had apparently thrown himself backward at the last possible moment before the explosion.

A soldier approached him.

The squad leader looked up.

For a moment, neither spoke.

The soldier raised his lasgun.

A single shot rang out.

The squad leader's head snapped back.

Silence followed.