Salamanders: Rebirth by Nick Kyme

Author:Nick Kyme [Kyme, Nick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Military, Action & Adventure, Warhammer 40k, Space Marines, Salamanders
ISBN: 9781849706742
Google: id07nwEACAAJ
Amazon: 1849706743
Barnesnoble: 1849706743
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2014-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

Heletine, Canticus, Salvation Bridge

Dozer blades attached to the front of Zantho’s Predators shouldered aside the minor wreckage but not the heavier land-freighters and hauler-trams the heretics had used to block the road. Using their turret weapons would not clear them, either. If they managed anything more than a dent, they would only create more trammelling wreckage. Zantho was not accustomed to relying on others, no fire-born was, so he decided they would try to barge their way through.

‘Roll back,’ the tank commander ordered. ‘Push again.’ He was starting to regret holding the larger Redeemers in reserve, but nothing could help that now.

Small-arms fire from scattered pockets of enemy fighters was peppering Zantho’s position, but it was no more irritating than a persistent hail against his power armour. The various cannon nests dug in across the bridge and shored up in alcoves and on ledges high up on its Victory Arch were less easily dismissed.

Salvation Bridge was the single largest span leading into Canticus. It was almost four thousand metres long with six major arches and twelve minor arches stretching over its fifty-metre width. Heretics occupied the first third of that. Victory Arch was but the initial major arch across the bridge. That left at least one more major, and up to four minor arches, a total of over one thousand metres of hard, dug-in fighters. Tough did not begin to describe the task before Zantho.

And he needed to get through it. In the north, Kor’ad led a force that was moving into Canticus through its templum district and then on to its slums. A large disposition of heretic armour had been sighted moving through that region and an attack from the angle of the slums to the north and Salvation Bridge to the south would not only bracket the enemy armour, but also see it destroyed as a result. Any other outcome would leave one or the other force outgunned, outmatched and likely defeated. Smashing this armoured convoy was the key to gaining a foothold in the city, above and beyond the scraps of territory the Imperial alliance had so far achieved. And from that staging ground with the Adepta Sororitas as reinforcement, they could begin a meaningful invasion.

A major step was opening the ‘gate’ and releasing Zantho’s armour onto the bridge.

He winced when a las-beam came close, searing the side of his face with its passage of heat. High-calibre solid shot and heavy bolt-rounds followed it in withering storm, but the same wreckage that was impeding the armour group’s progress absorbed most of the impact. It was the lascannons that gave Zantho the greatest concern.

As soon as the beam flashed past, he opened up the vox-feed.

‘Storm bolters on that nest. Hose the whole damn thing down.’

The arches were riddled with alcoves and crawlspaces. Ledges, suspension wires and gantries clung to every surface. There was room enough for an entire army to bed in, if they so desired.

The pintle mounts on the Predators were already firing, and aimed up simultaneously to put pressure on the lascannon nest.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.