7

Riff had heard enough about Space Hulks to be surprised that he hadn't given up survival then and there as a futile endeavor. They were heralds of unimaginable catastrophe and death wherever they appeared and played host to both the worshippers of the great enemy and vile xenos threats. The one that hung in the void above them lived up to the stories. A vast ugly wreck that stuck out like a sore, marring Herraspatia's blue sky. What scared Riff most was that if the unholy wreck could be seen from the ground, then how close was it?

Riff's unbelieving terror was interrupted for a moment as a massive explosion shuddered through the air. Followed by a trail of thick, oily smoke a drop ship ripped across the sky. Flames belched from multiple impact craters and licked across the hull. Riff stared in dumbfounded amazement as it seemed somebody was flying the doomed ship. The drop ship's nose pulled up and it swerved as whoever was piloting it tried to keep it stable. Finally, as the drop ship's belly skimmed the trees, the pilot seemed to give up as the drop ship swayed back and forth and plummeted into the jungle carving a trail of destruction as it went. Similar events seemed to be playing out countless miles away as small dots were plummeting to earth. From the drop ships that were able to be made out all of them were in various states of damage ranging from being relatively unscathed to burnt-out wrecks.

Smaller ships began to appear in the wake of the dozens of drop ships making planetfall, which Riff immediately recognized as escape pods. Whether they carried Imperial Guard officers or Penal Legionnaires Riff didn't have time to ponder as they suddenly began erupting into balls of fire. The escape pods that weren't lucky enough to make it into the jungle were violently ripped apart under a deadly rain of bullets and some sort of missiles. Their assailants seemed to have mustered the numbers to compensate for their lack of marksmanship as a countless number of new aircrafts joined the fray. Riff sent a silent thanks to the Emperor that they'd only been pursued by one aircraft. Whenever one of the luckless pods being pursued managed to dodge a missile another one of the deadly projectiles would impact against its side immediately followed by report of a heavy machine gun.

Riff watched the dazzling carnage for a while longer before suddenly being reminded of their location and how open it was. None of the aircrafts seemed to have noticed them but when they finished with the escape pods chances were they'd be scanning for survivors. Shem was still distracted by the commotion in the sky when Riff shook him back to reality. Arbas had apparently been thinking ahead of the game as he emerged from their downed escape pod carrying two lasguns. Arbas threw one to Riff and kept the other for himself.

"Where's the other one?" Riff asked as he checked the charge on the weapon's power cell.

"Shredded." Arbas said while pinning Shem with a hard glare. Riff fought the urge to hit Shem over the head for leaving his gun in the passenger area. The juvie had probably ditched in favor of getting to the cockpit as fast as possible, but that didn't change the fact that one third of their munitions had just been reduced to scrap metal.

Riff flinched as all around them the loose soil was violently thrown into the air as a trail of bullets ripped into the ground. A shadow passed over the field as the aircraft circled around for another go. Riff swept his gaze across the field, frantically searching for a place to hide. The pod was an obvious target and trying to hide among the crops was impossible due to their bright orange outfits. Riff saw only one option.

"Get to the trees!" Riff bellowed as he ran for the closest tree line. Riff knew Arbas and Shem would follow; neither of them were stupid enough to take shelter in the pod. As Riff tore across the field the tree line seemed unfathomably far away and for a brief moment he considered turning back and taking his chances in the pod. However, the sound of bullets impacting against the ground an uncomfortable number of feet away made the tree line seem quite a bit closer.

Riff couldn't tell if their assailants were stupid or incredibly bold as they flew impossibly close. If he wasn't so busy running for his life, Riff would have tried to get a better look at the aircraft. He was able to make out the minute detail that the aircraft was scarlet red. The bark of a heavy machine gun once again roared through the air as bullets ripped up the ground around Riff. A new sound entered the cacophony that Riff recognized as the report of a lasgun. Sparing the briefest of glances behind him Riff saw that Arbas aiming down the lasgun and firing in controlled bursts as he ran. At the very least his returning fire had shown their attackers that they weren't easy targets. As suddenly as the aircraft pulled up and away from view Riff found himself immersed in the dense vegetation of the jungle. Vines, flowers, and all other sorts of plant life brushed against Riff as he sprinted further in the jungle. The rational part of his mind was telling him to stop and get his bearings while the survivor wondered whether or not their attackers had deployed any ground forces.

Riff's mad dash through the jungle came to a halt as he collided with the firm wood of a tree. After picking himself up from the ground, checking to make sure Arbas and Shem had made it, and examining his lasgun for any damage Riff observed their surroundings. Despite their negligible prospects of making it out of their current situation alive, Riff found the jungle to be strangely beautiful. Maybe it was his being accustomed to the angular and rigid forms of typical imperial structures but the intricate organic forms of the plant life surrounding him filled him with a sense of awe. The sounds of battle far above resonated hauntingly through the jungle. Riff's awe was slowly replaced by a growing sense of unease as he realized that he knew nothing of the alien jungle they were in; not to mention its inhabitants. Riff started as something moved through the jungle's thick growth before he saw Arbas trudging towards him.

"Quick thinkin' kid," Arbas said. "Now where?" Arbas was still grim faced so Riff tried to think of a better way to say "no idea" than just coming out and saying it. Riff prayed he could summon up the image of what he'd seen through the viewport but knew that even if he could it would be useless as he had no idea how relative their current position was with the image and he'd only been able to make out the most general details. All Riff really wanted to know was in what direction was the bulk of the Tyranid forces and then he could work out a plan from there.

"Well, I'm open to ideas." Riff said.

"We've got a few options from what I can gather. We can wait here in the forest and hope the Tyranids don't make it this far while playing the guessing game on which plants are safe to eat, and this is excluding local wildlife and whatever horrors that Space Hulk will be pukin' up. Or, we can head for one of the towns and pray we go unnoticed in all the chaos. Finally, we could go lookin' for one of the drop ship crash sites. Bound to be lots of ammunition and artillery that would pack a much more hefty punch than a lasgun." Arbas finished his list of near impossible ideas as he sat down on an old and decaying log.

Riff noticed that during Arbas's talk Shem had wandered over still catching his breath. Extra ammunition and weapons would be welcome at a time like this. That and Riff didn't much fancy the idea of taking their chances in one of the towns. Not that they'd even be able to find one. And anything was better than just waiting around for the Tyranids too. On the plus side, Riff doubted they'd be finding much resistance at any of the crash sites anyway. Unless, Riff thought grimly, their new airborne friends shot them down for the express purpose of looting them. Either way, a decision had to be made.

"Let's wait until nightfall. We'll be a little less easy to spot." Riff said, gesturing at his bright orange combat suit. "Then we can go look for a drop ship. That sound good?"

"I'm up for anything that'll get us through the next hour." Arbas said.

"S-sounds….g-great." Shem sputtered between ragged breaths. Riff doubted the juvie had ever gotten much running done back at the hive, which would explain his labored breathing. Riff couldn't judge him though, his chest was still heaving slightly and his heart still pounded just a little faster than normal. It took another minute or two for Shem's breathing to return to a near normal rate.

"So…what were those things?" Shem asked the question that Riff knew was on both his and Arbas's mind.

"Beats the hell out of me." Arbas said bluntly. "I was just taking pot shots at whatever it was to try and get it off our backs. Guess they weren't expectin' any retaliation." Arbas gave a grim laugh before muttering something that sounded like "frakheads".

"Well it wasn't a Tyranid." Shem pointed out obviously.

"I think we ruled that out when they started shootin' missiles at us. Besides, it was mechanical." Arbas said. The fact that there was something other than Tyranids they had to watch out for now was scary enough, but not knowing what was trying to kill you and why was even worse in Riff's opinion.

Other than their small conversation, the hours passed in a silence only interrupted by the occasional sounds of far off battles. Riff enjoyed the lull in action. The only problem was that it allowed him some time to think. Riff accepted long ago that he was an instinctual creature. He just wasn't cut from the right block to be some sort of philosopher. He took pride in the primal aspects of himself. How many men he'd soundly beaten and the scars he'd collected through the years; not that his collection of scars was anything compared to the number that marred Arbas's face alone. Riff knew a story was probably etched into every one. Maybe, Riff thought, he'd ask him one day how he got into this predicament. If they survived that long. Riff through his mind off that track and instead wiled away the hours counting how many different kinds of plants he could find.

Night inevitably fell and Riff immediately headed off in the direction he thought the crop field was. In some places, moonlight filtered through the dense canopy and lit their way through the pitch black. Even without the moonlight Riff knew they would find their way just by sticking to the faint glow of the hundreds of bioluminescent fungi lining the ground. Not that he didn't appreciate the moonlight. It helped in that they didn't go blundering into the lair of some vicious animal.

Riff knew they weren't alone as the forest had sprung to life as soon as the Herraspatia's moon had risen. The sounds of thousands of alien creatures mingled together, only broken by the harsh roars and bellows of some larger creatures. They took considerable lengths to avoid the owners of these guttural calls whenever one sounded off nearby. This didn't stop some extremely close calls however.

Riff ducked and froze as something massive tore through the undergrowth ahead. The glow of the fungi illuminated a bipedal, reptilian behemoth. Every part of the creature rippled with muscle. The alien let out a ferocious roar and lashed out with a great, taloned hand impossibly fast, neatly chopping through the trunk of a tree. Riff breathed in relief as the tree crashed to the forest floor and the creature retreated. Riff had no doubt they could have taken down the beast in a blizzard of lasbolts, but better not to bring every predator in the jungle down on their heads.

Barring that incident, they made it through the jungle alive. Riff waited, holding his breath as Arbas broke through the tree line. Arbas crouched just at the edge of the crop field and stayed there motionless for what felt like an eternity before he finally gave the signal to move forward. There was no sign of their previous flight through the field. Or, more accurately, no trace had been left to find. Vast swathes of crops had been obliterated and the field was pocked with blast craters. As they passed a crater Riff saw that whatever had exploded was still embedded in the soft earth, gently smoking. But there was no point in lingering, the object was scorched and mangled beyond recognition.

Riff found he had unconsciously hunkered down into a crouch like Arbas, who was leading them stealthily through the field. Shem was even closer to the ground and creeped at the flank of their small procession. The field was deathly silent, so much so that the cries of the jungle dwelling creatures could still be heard even when they had creeped a great distance away from the trees. The sounds of desperate battle had slowly died away.

As Riff turned his gaze to the sky he saw that the space hulk had become an ugly splotch against the moon. He couldn't begin to imagine its titanic proportions. And he didn't want to. The bigger the unholy wreck was the more it could hold, and that was an uncomfortable idea.

Riff found his attention yanked back to earth as a red glow flickered across the field. Instinctively, he threw himself flat onto the ground and found that Arbas had done the same moments earlier. Looking back Riff saw that Shem too was pressed to the ground. The hellish glow flickered across them and Riff gave silent thanks that at least they partially blended in against the illumination.

Finally, Riff mustered the courage to barely lift his head so that he could see the source of the illumination. It was a house, engulfed in flames. It made sense that there would be a house or some sort of homestead in the field; the field had to belong to somebody. Riff wouldn't be surprised if there were multiple houses. Seeing as how large and continuous the field was it likely belonged to an entire town whose populace tended to these behemoth crop fields.

Riff found himself unsure of what to do. This house and other ones like it had without a doubt been caught in the middle of the fighting, but if that were true than it would be a blasted wreck not a roaring inferno. Arbas seemed to have come to the same conclusion as he lingered and stared at the burning house as well.

Without the slightest change in expression, Arbas pointed towards the burning porch of the house. Riff couldn't tell what was wrong before it finally clicked. A lump was sprawled over the steps where the fire was slowly and relentlessly working its way to. The intense light of the inferno was cast across the porch and the lump manifested itself into a body. It was definitely a man, broad shouldered with muscles built from years of toiling in fields. He lied motionless, face down on the steps leading to the fire. The steps had a wet sheen that was reflected by the raging fire. It finally dawned on Riff that it was blood, hissing and steaming as the fire inched closer. The man was face down in his own intestines. A thick pool of blood had gathered at the bottom of the steps.

The man's family hadn't fared much better. Just a yard away from the corpse on the steps another body lied sprawled on the ground. This one was much more feminine. Its hair was in a bun and the body's form was much more curved and slim but still stocky like the corpse on the steps. Riff thought the woman might have been beautiful in life but now she was a hideously maimed corpse. A hole had been punched clear through her chest and pieces of her were scattered about randomly.

Riff knew what was next, but it still didn't make seeing it any easier. Two small forms were slumped against the ground only a few feet away from the corpse of who was undoubtedly their mother. The twin corpses were of little girls; their small dresses stained a deep red. One laid in a broken heap and the other was covered in hideous swelling lumps where she had been struck by some powerful force. Riff gagged as it seemed one had a chunk missing from her.

"Move." Arbas whispered hollowly. As Riff turned away from the horrifying scene he saw dozens upon dozens of other fires burning like beacons across the field where similar events were undoubtedly framed.

Riff felt something cold in his hands as he crawled forward. Looking down he found the shells of expended rounds littered the ground. The space hulk had disgorged its horrors onto Herraspatia; of this he was certain.