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Silver Knights ~ Gladius III
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Daeron Primaris. Gryphonne Sector. Segmentum Tempestus. .997 M41.
The Imperial fleet descended on Daeron Primaris en masse. Several battle barges and battleships formed the core of the battlegroup as it deployed around the planet. In the void Imperial and Tyranid ships dueled as the Imperials sought to clear out a way to evacuate their troops.
The White Scars and the Kasrkin deployed in drop shuttles and gunships to needed areas on the surface. The entire ground situation on Daeron II was poor, with the Tyranids occupying three-quarters of the planet and pushing the local Guard and PDF further back.
But the real objective of Kill-Team Gladius lay fifty-six miles away from the Daeronite Capital. The Pegasus moved in to orbit, right at the ideal ranges for teleportation.
Research Facility Epsilon-Four was a model STC construction, seven kilometers long and placed strategically away from the local population in case of an outbreak. From afar, it was unremarkable, a linked assortment of blocky grey buildings and tall spiraling towers.
Around it skittered masses of patrolling Termagaunts, Hormagaunts and countless other Tyranid warrior-beasts. Leader-beasts strode around and directed broods of Tyranids to scour the land of any surviving human to consume.
Then there was a crack of light and the Silver Knights appeared.
Vandius took a moment to recover from the teleportation before his helmet targeters promptly selected a hissing Termagaunt. His ornate eagle-mouthed bolter rose and the Termagaunt's head exploded, chips of chitin and ichor spraying over the ground. In his helmet visor he marked out the mission start time. It was a little hobby of his, to see how quickly and efficiently he could complete the mission.
The Ultramarine issued a set of orders in combat cant. Short, clipped commands sent Cestus soaring overhead on wings of fire. The White Consul landed ahead with a thunderous impact among a group of Hormagaunts, his power sword slicing apart Tyranids. Expertly the Silver Knight smashed his storm shield into the face of a gaunt before gutting another with his blade.
Dovah stepped forward, crimson-white fires billowing out in a sea of flame to scour the Tyranids before him. Beside him Khaden opened fire with his heavy bolter, cutting down dozens and dozens of Tyranids with mass-reactive shells. The bolters of Vandius and Nicander tracked side to side, blowing apart Tyranid after Tyranid.
Dovah could feel the roiling shadow in the warp. It clawed at the edges of his senses, the all-consuming mass of a vast hunger that almost blotted out the warp. He did his best to ignore it, relying on his training. He was Fireborn. He would not give in. He clutched his drake-hilted force sword for support.
''Carnifex at twenty meters. It's moving around the wrecked tower,'' Khaden reported.
''Kill it,'' Vandius spotted the beast move out, massive crusher claws raised as it broke into a charge. The Iron Warrior obliged, lifting his heavy bolter and tracked the beast. Acid-filled Hellfire rounds impacted the Carnifex, digging into exposed joints and flesh and dissolving organic matter.
The Carnifex stumbled as its muscles began to dissolve and Dovah summoned forth a screaming dragon made of warpfire to engulf it. The thing screeched as it died, flames licking off its carapace and endoskeleton.
Meanwhile Cestus was in his element. Surrounded by a trio of Tyranid warriors he fought with exquisite skill and grace. This was the kind of challenge he lived for. The fact he was fighting against Tyranids of all races was an added bonus.
As a member of the White Consuls, Cestus had spent most of his life in the Segmentum Obscuras fighting around Cadia. Like all of Guilliman's sons he had felt utter hatred against the Tyranids due to their attack on Macragge, but the chapter rarely got a chance to engage the Tyranids due to circumstances of location. Cestus relished every chance he got to kill a 'nid.
Quickly the Silver Knights cut across the surrounding wasteland to one of the side entrances to the facility. Vandius issued another short clipped command and Khaden set aside his heavy bolter and began to override the locking mechanism, his backpack mounted servo-arms casting aside a dead Tyranid.
''Form a perimeter,'' The Ultramarine commanded, bolter blazing as the rest of the kill-team took up positions around the Iron Warrior who worked feverishly to open the door. All around him more and more Tyranid broods started to close on.
''Come on...got it,'' The Iron Warrior smirked triumphantly as the doors opened and he grabbed his heavy bolter. Turning around he provided covering fire for the rest of the Silver Knights as they moved inside the building.
Adept Marvian was not really having a good day. He drummed his fingers nervously on the keyboard as the system monitors fed reports of the Tyranids breaching the outer perimeter. Sentry guns were already running low on ammo as they struggled to repel the Tyranids.
No, not good at all. How had it come to this? , he was just a humble genetic researcher of the Mercurians assigned to Daeron Prime to investigate and dissect Tyranid genetics for the ongoing war effort. Here new insights could be made into the Tyranid menace.
Previously the closest he had come to a live Tyranid was when he was safely behind two meters of safety glass and ceramite. Previously he had armored Stormtroopers to provide protection as he went about his research.
Now?
Now the Tyranids hordes were already breaching this facility. Almost everyone else was dead, but Marvian himself had the good luck to lock himself in a safe room and activate defenses before a particularly nasty Genestealer took his head off.
Outside he heard the faint hissing and scratching to the Tyranids, but for the moment, he should be safe. But now he was trapped in a single room filled with bubbling beakers and various cognition engines with only two others left.
''What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?'' blubbered Adept Wilkes as he hyperventilated on the floor. Wilkes never had stomach for blood of any kind.
''We hold,'' said Siara. Usual aboard the research facility Siara was an Imperial Eldar researcher, the daughter of a Craftworld ambassador to the Imperium, she was an expert on Eldar studies of biology and genetics.
Right now they were the last three survivors of the facility.
Suddenly their vox system flickered on with a harsh buzz of static. Marvian winced.
''-vivors. I repeat this is Brother Khaden of the Silver Knights Chapter. Are any survivors present?''
Marvian scrambled over to the vox-unit.
''Yes for the love of Serenity yes! We're hiding on the first floor in the Delta district. Please rescue us,''
''Affirmative. Moving in,''
''Silver Knights. I told you everything would be well,'' Siara grinned. Wilkes fearfully got up, heart pounding.
About ten minutes later did the Silver Knights arrived.
''Open the doors. I don't want to cut our way in,'' the voice of the Silver Knight who spoke to them earlier came over the vox.
''I'm doing it,'' Marvian pressed the correct set of data-keys and the blast doors slid open. Five silver giants stepped in, their once pristine armor covered in Tyranid gore and ichor. The leader stepped forward, axe dripping with blood. Marvian recognized the make of an Axe of Ultramar, a weapon customarily wielded by the Ultramarines Honor Guard.
''Thank Serenity! Thank the Emperor! You're here to take us away? Pleas say yes,'' Wilkes ran up to the leader eagerly.
Vandius looked them over. His armor sensors detected all of them where healthy and unarmed so far. The closest thing to an injury was the one before him having soiled himself in a panic attack. Disgusting really.
''Are you the only survivors?'' Vandius asked.
''I think so yes. We've run sensor sweeps but we are only getting Tyranid life signs, the attack came too quickly,'' Siara told him.
''Where are the others if I may ask?'' Marvian approached the Silver Knights. The leader's helm inclined ever so slightly to look at him.
''What others?'' The Ultramarine responded quizzically.
''The other Silver Knights,'' The Adept blinked.
''We are the rescue team,''
''Just five of you?''
''Five should prove to be sufficient,'' Vandius replied coldly. He turned to Khaden.
''Prepare the data-download. We will escort the survivors to the nearest landing pad and evac by Thunderhawk,'' The Ultramarine said. The Iron Warrior nodded and made his way to the data-consoles were he would download the station backups into the meme-units of his armor. One of his servo-arms plugged into the consule and began the download process.
''Captain Vandius there is some information you might need to know,'' Siara approached him hesitantly. Marvian glared at her.
''Don't tell them!'' he hissed.
''They'll find out anyway. If we come clean then maybe we won't suffer any harsh consequences,'' Siara shrugged.
However Vandius was intrigued.
''Speak.''
''We were developing a weapon. A warp weapon, testing it on live genestealers-''
''Live genestealers! I was told this facility only dealt in Tyranid corpses!'' Nicander looked at her in shock.
''Master Feroven felt some things were best not known. He believed the success of this weapon would gainsay any questionable practices used in its creation,'' The Eldar told them.
''What kind of questionable practices?'' Dovah asked. Meanwhile Nicander was continuing to rant about the horrible dangers of live genestealers.
''We… experimented on live psykers and live genestealers. It was a mind-bomb to take out the hive mind in the immediate area,'' Siara forced out.
''Something tells me said psykers were not willing,'' Dovah glared at them. Experimenting on live psykers for some sort of twisted bio-weapon?
''Again, Master Feroven felt that the ends justified the means,'' Siara told them.
''You said this was a mind-bomb. Tell me. How successful was it?'' Cestus asked.
''It was never completed or tested on a large scale. We did however have success on captured Tyranid specimens, '' Siara told them.
''I'm not finding any mention of this on the data-banks,'' Khaden said.
''That's because Master Feroven kept it in his own private data-cache in the vault along with the prototypes. He was paranoid he might be found out,'' Marvian said reluctantly.
''I have the authorization to open the vault and retrieve the device and data if you wish,'' Siara told Vandius.
''A mind-bomb or sorts. This could change the war effort if further developed. Think about it. Drop that in a Tyranid swarm and they tear each other apart,'' Khaden remarked.
''I'm at least interested to study it,'' Nicander commented.
Vandius was silent. Briefly he accessed the station schematics that had been uploaded during the prior-sermon briefing. He located the area in question. It was not too far from here. If possible they might be able to make it. He did have a good chance at grabbing it.
However it was not even a choice for Vandius. The Ultramarine adhered to the laws of the Imperium and the Codex Astartes. An unsanctioned experiment like this was nothing he could ever condone, despite any potential benefits.
''No. We will not retrieve the item,'' He said finally.
''Are you sure Captain?'' Khaden asked dubiously.
''I'm fairly sure this device is not sanctioned by official Imperial means. I do not condone unofficial measures. Perhaps this weapon could change the war, but it's untested on any kind of large scale. In addition I will not risk my team or my mission on retrieving an untested unsanctioned weapon while Tyranids are attacking this site. We move to extract. End of story,'' The Ultramarine Captain said.
''I see then Captain. However there is one more thing you should know,'' Siara told him.
''What is that?''
''That genestealer? I think the Broodlord is still alive.''
''Mine. Totally mine. I'm calling that one.'' Cestus grinned under his helmet.