Not so Iron Will
Commander Stanton Gardner smiled with every bump he hit as his tank drove over the rugged ground, knowing he was grinding the aliens into pulp. He was receiving reports from his other armored units across the battlefield as they desperately tried to repulse the Tyranid invasion of this Imperial mining world.
"More over this next ridge, get ready!" he shouted down at Klade, the primary gunner for the Sabre Gloria's Vulcan cannon.
Klade smiled as he fastened another new belt of huge bullets to the cannon's feeder.
Stanton watched through the thick glass viewport in front of him as the body of the tank tilted upward moving up the hill giving him a view of the gray, stormy sky with gargantuan flesh colored blobs raining down onto the planet's surface, before leveling out again on the downward slope. What he saw was far worse than the rumor's he'd heard.
Millions upon millions of the small, reptile-like creatures charged the whole length of the Imperial lines, their armored backs creating a pulsating, moving ocean of hideous organisms. They all moved in a single, coherent mass of bodies, like an ocean, except each drop was a living voracious beast ready to tear his face off.
"All guns open fire! Give'em hell!" Stanton yelled over the rumble of the engine.
Klade firmly held down the trigger as the turret poured out an endless stream of bolter fire into the mass of aliens, the explosive rounds turning them into minced meat. The two side gunners, Gallus and Benton, switched on their flamer sponsons and began to douse the xenos who got too close in white-hot flames, the foul odor of burnt skin quickly began to leak into the cabin.
"How's the hunting out there?" Stanton called out to Garter, the heavy stubber operator.
"There's so many of them!" replied Garter, the sound of the stubber almost overpowering his voice; "I'm going to need a whole Manufactorum worth of ammunition for this!"
"Just keep it up, we're getting' them good!" said Stanton.
"Cassus", he called to the driver, "Full throttle!"
The tank's speed increased as it drove further into the infinite horde, guns blazing.
"There's too many!" shouted Garter, "There's too…"
Garter didn't finish his sentence. Instead a muffled cry escaped his lips as the vox channel cut out.
"Garter? Garter!?" Gardner yelled into the comm bead as he squinted through the viewport; only static replied.
Suddenly the glass was covered in red and an unknown object landed in front of the viewport, obstructing his sight.
"Damn it!" said Gardner, shifting out of his chair and reaching towards the turret hatch.
The deadbolt unlocked with a dull metallic clunk as the hatch slid open. Garter, or his lower torso for that matter, fell through the hatch and landed into the cabin with a soft thud. A few dozen used stubber rounds tumbled in after, jingling around on the vibrating floor of the vehicle. Gardner swore under his breath as he climbed out of the hatch to the cupola. The cupola looked like the den of a wild beast with blood spattered around the hatch and all over the stubber. He leaned over the rim of the cupola to find a mangled hunk of flesh, which Gardner identified as Garter's upper half, blocking the viewport. He shoved the remains to the side where they fell in front of the tank and disappeared beneath the bloodied treads.
He then looked up at the sea of bodies, swarming and consuming the entire countryside, swallowing up the Imperial defenders like a flood surging over the planet's surface. He saw a serpent-like alien stand out from the rest of the swarm; the way the other beasts reacted to its presence, sprinting around it almost avoiding it, sparked his curiosity. As it rose up higher he could make out more of the creature's form. It boasted a massive brain, nearly twice its body length, and appeared to levitate above the horde. Garter watched in amazement as it turned its head toward an Imperial Knight and a group of aliens stopped what they were doing and rushed the imposing war machine. The creatures clambered up the mechanical legs, frantically biting and ripping off chunks of armor. The miniature titan let out a dull hollow groan as its knee joints gave way and it toppled into the sea of monsters, guns firing blindly into the sky.
Gardner was horrified only for a split second before tearing his gaze from the stricken Knight and grabbing a hold of the stubber and firing a few bursts at the floating creature. His first few shots missed but he found his range and he was awarded with a few piercing cries of pain from the Zoanthrope as it struggled to right itself in its levitating state. His smile of victory was soon dashed however, as it recovered its balance and turned in his direction. A searing pain shot through his head, heating up the bionic implants fused to his skull. It was like a bolter round exploding along each nerve in his brain. His knuckles turned white as he gripped the metal rim of the cupola in an effort to ward off the pain. The hand of agony released its grip on his mind and he was left short of breath, and somehow physically and mentally exhausted. He immediately opened the hatch and climbed back into the super-heavy war machine.
He sat in the commander's throne, panting for air and contemplating what had just occurred. He slammed his fist on the armrest and cursed the creature that had caused him such pain. He vowed that his mind would not be a feeble as it had previously been.
"All sponsons open up on the swarmed Knight, there may be hope for it yet!" Gardner bellowed, "Divert course to Knight Nitxus, flatten that horde!"
The hands of the tank pilots flew across the control banks, the colossal machine's engines rumbling and revving in response. Gardner smiled as he made out the shrieks of the vile beasts in between bolter salvos. Then, unexpectedly, the tank began to pitch and roll.
"Driver! What the Golden Throne is happening?!" Shouted Gardner.
"I don't know! The terrain in this sector should not be this uneven."
The sergeant of the command squad in the tank's troop compartment patched into the vox channel,
"Commander! The xenos are trying to get into the hold, they're starting to break through…"
The transmission was interrupted by the cries of alien and man alike accompanied by sporadic lasgun fire.
"Lock down the transport compartment, keep those filthy demons out!" Yelled Gardner.
Mid-speech, Gardner was suddenly transported into the large-headed creatures eyes, he saw his own tank, struggling to traverse the ground. Only it wasn't ground, Gardner could make out moving, squirming shapes beneath the vehicles giant treads. The creature had ordered its allies to bog down the tank and rip it apart. He was present in its thoughts and its intentions. He saw beyond the battlefield, the entire planet, with countless monsters raining from space, easily overwhelming the Imperial fleet in orbit. Then the solar system, littered with already consumed worlds, lifeless and cold, then the Milky Way, with tentacles of a distant, dead galaxy, the color of raw meat, slowly but surely creep in with an insatiable hunger for death and destruction. The vision faded as his consciousness once again returned to his body sitting in the commander's seat, out of breath and sweat beading on his forehead. The tank was filled with the echoing sounds of the engine's grumble and innumerable scratching and scraping sounds as the creatures tried to tear their way in.
He felt himself stand up, involuntarily, and make his way to the rear of the tank and approach the transport hold. He stood in front of the door, staring at it. He heard the ravenous screeches of the monsters scratching and clawing at the door, trying, hoping to get in. He was powerless to stop himself as his arm reached for the deadbolt. One of the crew saw the commander and cried out,
"Commander, what are yo…"
It was all he could get out before Gardner unlocked the door.