Kay leapt from the shuttle's ramp, landed in a roll, and came up on one knee, bolt pistol scanning the edge of the jungle for targets. A quick signal with her free hand gave the all clear, and the rest of the team responded in kind. The area was secure. They could release the hormagaunts. At Arkon's command the two Tyranids bounded easily into the centre of the group, looking around their new environment, instinctively scanning for threats. Then, in near silence, the group moved into the jungle, towards their target. Vio kept pace easily, it's new 'enhancements' working perfectly. Arkon's biologis team had created a custom set of bionics to replace what the Ravener had removed. The left side of its head contained a bulky robot eye with a large green lens that was a stark contrast to the natural red of its right. It also had replacements for the two lower limbs on that side of its body. There was always a drop in performance with the installation of bionics, but despite the singular nature of the experimental units tests indicated Vio was functioning at over 98%.
Their mission was a simple one. They had waited for Goliath to regain its strength, and launch another probing attack on Freedom. With the hive fleet's efforts focused in the north the conquered southern hemisphere was less well defended. Arkon had identified an isolated capillary tower and digestion pool at its base. They would infiltrate the site and a drop a large thermo-nuclear explosive device into it. This would then but carried up into one of the hive ships, where it would detonate. If the Inquisitor's mathematician had done his sums right, the bomb's yield would be high enough to combust the high energy "soup" being sucked up the tower and stored in the hive ship, causing an explosion similar to the one that had occurred when the promethium tanker had been destroyed, and hopefully doing a similar amount of damage. Unfortunately, simple rarely meant easy.
Now they were groundside, Kay was fully focused on the mission. In the shuttle it was harder. She had been in her usual seat, and had spent the time talking to Flint, checking her equipment, and, when she was sure he wasn't looking, stealing a glance at Arkon. It had been a mistake, letting him know how she felt, but it was always going to happen. She had had feelings for the Inquisitor since the night she met him, when he saved her life in that grimy dive bar, but after the fight with the Tyrant she could no longer keep those feelings hidden. Still, at least now she knew he didn't feel the same way. She had always suspected the Inquisitor thought she was just a dumb kid, and now she had her confirmation. Flint had been invaluable over the last few weeks, filling the gap Raynor's death had created, giving her a real friend, someone who wasn't an emotionless Inquisitor or Space Marine. He wasn't simply the cocky, womanising jackass he seemed. That was part of his character - a part that being in the Guard had nurtured well – but underneath it he was also kind, and protective.
The team reached the site of the digestion pool and took positions on the edge of the jungle, the border south of which nothing native lived. Beyond it was a huge wasteland of barren rock, in which stood the capillary tower, climbing up into space. The area was mostly deserted, except around the pools, where thousands of rippers and other harvesting creatures moved, some giving themselves to the biomass, but most simply vomiting up a load then going off for another. Each pool was watched over by a brood of Warriors. These were not frontline fighters, but weaker versions. They were oddities for another reason – they were one of the few breeds employed by Goliath that were armed with ranged weaponry. As well as long talons, they carried Devourers.
They made easy progress over the first couple of kilometres. The only opposition they encountered were rippers which were easily dispatched, and as the harvesters were operating out of synapse range Goliath was not alerted to their presence. They got a quite alert from their synapse scanners when they entered the warrior's control range, and things got trickier from there.
They were within four hundred metres of their target pool, using a low ridge as cover, when Flint stop suddenly. A single ripper was watching them from the top of the ridge. It made no move to protect itself as Flint dropped it with a single bolt pistol round, but by then it was too late. Goliath was aware of them, and from the other side of the ridge they could here the sound of a thousand bodies slithering in their direction. Kay braced herself for battle, and Arkon issued a single, calm order. "Charge."
The team ran over the top of hill, straight into a tide of rippers. Mortan took the lead, using his flamer to burn out a path, and the rest of the team tucked in close behind him, striking and shooting Tyranids to either side. Kay ducked as a volley of fleshworms flew overhead. The Warriors were off to their right, away from the pool. The team ducked behind a rocky outcrop, the last vestige of cover between them and the pool still over 200 metres distant. They were keeping the rippers at bay, the hormagaunts racking up huge numbers of kills. Vio was showing no signs that its bionics was causing it any difficulty, easily slaying any ripper that entered a wide arching kill zone in front of it. Like the rest of the team though, it was pinned down, and they couldn't hold out forever. Another shower of worms flew in, bouncing off Brathus' armour, failing to find a weak point in which to burrow. The next time they might not be so lucky.
Kay knew what she had to do. She vaulted their cover, vaugely aware of Flint's dismayed cry as she went. She emptied her bolt pistol's clip into the rippers in front of her, and, using the safe ground for a run-up, leapt towards the Warriors. She landed well short of them, but here the rippers were thinner on the ground, and she darted through them, supernatural agility keeping her from the lunges of their snapping jaws. As soon as she was in range she leapt at the nearest Warrior. It thrust a talon at her, but she parried easily with one sword and swept the other round, taking the creature's head clean off. She kicked off the corpse's torso, landing between the two surviving leaders. Ducking one attack she caught another on a blade, then pushed the talon away and took a step back.
All the rage and grief of losing Raynor, of being rejected by Arkon, of seeing thousands upon thousands of humans butchered took her, and she found herself fighting beyond even her own exemplary skills. She dropped low, sweeping out a sword, and took one Warrior's leg off at the ankle. The beast fell, and before it could recover she was on it, stabbing a dozen frenzied times, tearing it to pieces. The last leader came at her, slashing down, but she side-stepped easily, and chopped off a talon. The Tyranid screamed, swiping across, but she parried and knocked the creature off balance, cutting its devourer in half. She started to revel in the carnage, jamming a blade up into the socket of its one remaining good arm, then took a step back. The Warrior, knowing only to fight, threw itself forwards, trying to bite, but she dodged and plunged her other sword into the back of its neck. It collapsed in a heap. She stopped, breathless, exhilarated, and looked over at the others, just in time to see Mortan pitch the bomb into the digestion pool, then she grabbed her swords and ran for the extraction point. The others did likewise and the rippers, now uncoordinated, could not stop them.
Back in the shuttle Kay started to calm down. Before she had always fought with a cool detachment, but this time had been different. Her rage had given her strength.
"You shouldn't have run off like that."
She looked at Flint and shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. "Had to deal with those Warriors."
The guardsman opened his mouth to speak then stopped, unable, or perhaps unwilling, to argue the point further.
She turned her attention to the cockpit where the pilot was addressing the Inquisitor. "Sir, we have a message from General Lucian. Goliath's attack was no probe."
"Does he have the situation under control?" Arkon looked worried.
"No sir." The pilot shook his head. "He doubts Freedom can be saved this time."
The Inquisitor swore under his breath. "Take us to the city, now."