ONE – TYRANS AT TERRA
Gladius's consciousness slowly rose him from his slumber. Still groggy, his initial realization was that he was being held upright. His second was that he was no longer aboard the barge Obedience. Adrenaline pumped throughout his veins as realized that his unarmored body was cocooned against a slowly thrumming, breathing wall.
A nearby hiss alerted him to the presence of two gangly, reptilian creatures nearby. They stood on hoofed legs that brought them at least a foot taller than the over seven foot marine. Unlike the swoop-helmeted warriors Gladius had fought alongside his brothers in the boarding action, these creatures had long, smooth heads that resembled ripe cantaloupes.
One of the six armed creatures reached out to a nearby lump that protruded from the scale-laden floor. With a taloned, three-finger claw it withdrew a black, waving beetle from the slime-filled basin atop the lump. As the creature clomped towards the increasingly struggling marine, it pressed the beetle to its gangly neck. In an instant, the beetle sank its saber-like legs into the sides of the larger creature's throat. The beast staggered and inhaled sharply as blood bubbled up from its throat. The massive creature took a moment to steady itself as its compatriot looked on with disdain.
"Can you understand me?" the creature suddenly stated in a gravelly growl. The spoken words caused the marine to pause a moment from his struggles. In his too-brief encounters and briefings about these creatures called Tyranids, there had never been a glimmer that these voracious creatures were more than cunning animals driven by gluttony.
"What do you want, alien?" Gladius growled back, taking the brief interlude to scan the room for signs of his brothers. He grimaced as he caught sight of their dissected bodies on nearby slabs of lumpy, reptilian flesh protruding from the floor.
"Good," the gaunt creature toothily smiled, straightening to its nine-foot tall height momentarily. It glanced away from the marine to its sulking companion. "Let the overseer know I have made first contact – the organism works," it spoke. The red-skinned creature gave a slight nod and slowly trudged out of the room, not giving its companion or the bound marine a second glance.
The remaining creature returned its gaze back to the marine, lowering its body into a less imposing slouch. Yet despite its lower body shifting back downward into a mass coil of plate-covered flesh, Gladius could still see the hidden point of the ichor-loaded stinger that ended the creature's lower abdomen.
"Do your worst xeno," Gladius spat, "I do not fear you."
"Good," the creature replied. "As an instrument of your emperor, my queen desires that I relay a message to your High Lords of Terra."
"I am no alien's lackey," Gladius defiantly retorted. "I will deliver no message."
The tall creature stepped forward a step, its massive hoof landing inches away from Gladius's bound, naked body.
"You do not get a choice in the matter," the creature remarked with a slow, sad shake of its head. The creature's orange, slitted eyes narrowed on the marine. "Attend, and learn why the Tyranids have come to your galaxy. Perhaps, it will save us all."