GaleBread; Thanks
I literally finished my first exam yesterday, and it seemed to go quite well. As a form of celebration, I'm posting this chapter up. I hope you enjoy it.
As you, no doubt, already know, I have started a second side story; Metal Storm. I intend to alternate between the two, chapter for chapter. I will try to keep the time between chapters short, but it'll probably be a month before the next chapter for this story. Still, I'll try to get the next chapter of Metal storm up within a couple of weeks, so I hope that'll make up for it.
GaleBread; Thanks, I don't like leaving too much time between chapters, but sometimes real life just makes it impossible to give the important stuff it's due consideration. As I have done throughout the series, when I reach the end, I'll go back over the chapters, and adjust them with respect to the various messages I've received, so I will fix the spelling. Eventually.
nick2951; Well, Shinji's getting stuck in here. I hope you enjoy it.
As always, comments and criticism are welcome, flamers will be used as bait to ambush a Dark Eldar slaving party.
They use the Evangelion? Those Mon'keigh fools! They know not what they play with!
Unknown Eldar Farseer, (attributed)
Chapter 9
The rockcrete of the city's background transit road cracked, fractures spreading out from every footstep as Shinji tore down the highway at speeds even a Land Speeder would be hard-pressed to match. Spotting the end of the road ahead, Shinji tensed… and leaped high, clearing the top of the nearest skyscrapers as he passed over the district and the rapidly assembled fortifications at the cities edge, before slamming to the ground hard enough to sink into the fertile soil nearly up to Unit 01's shins.
"Nice entrance, Shinji," Asuka said, sardonically, spraying a fleeing swarm with a last blast of 150mm shells before turning to face him. "What are you going to do for an encore?"
"Are you alright?" Shinji half-shouted, fists instinctively clenching as he took in the rents in her red armour.
"It was a bit painful," Asuka admitted, glancing down at the Evangelion's battered chest plates, "but I regenerated it, so yeah, I'm fine. Gotta' love these S2 organs."
"Yeah," Shinji agreed, relaxing slightly, "I always found it useful myself. Mostly. Anyway…" He walked over, unslinging one of the cannons from his back. "It sounds like we're getting hit by more Bio-titans then normal for a Tyranid attack, so I doubled back to grab this for you."
"Is that…a melta?" she asked, taking the bulky weapon and hefting it thoughtfully. "I thought there was a problem with these; thermal dispersion, or something."
"The Tech-priests say they've fixed it," Shinji replied, shrugging as he pulled a second melta from his back, where the holstered form of the Lancea Longinus also rested. "I haven't tested it yet."
-Pilot Ikari?- the vox hissed, as a second comm. window opened on the view-screen.
"Unit 01 here," Shinji replied, turning his attention away from Asuka.
-We're just putting you through to Magi Organti for orders, hold one-
--
+WE WANT YOU TO SPLIT UP+ Orgenti said into the vox, watching the flow of the next Tyranid wave as it approached the city. +UNIT 01, HEAD TO REFERENCE POINT 04-320, UNIT 02 HEAD TO 04-370+
The Tech-priest listened to the acknowledgements, before handing the channel back to one of the vox. monitors in the room.
+THAT SHOULD LEAVE THEM CLOSE ENOUGH TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER IN A SERIOUS PROBLEM, AND FAR APART ENOUGH TO PROPERLY ANCHOR THE FAR SIDE OF THE CITY+ he commented, turning back to Thorne as the Evangelions' symbols started to move apart on the hologram.
"Good," Thorne nodded, before lowering his voice. "And… what of the other problem?"
+I SENT OUT A PAIR OF HELLHOUNDS WITH SUPPORT+ Organti replied, also lowering the output of his voxponder. +THEY INCINERATED ALL TRACES OF EVA FLUIDS AND FLESH AT THE SCENE. THE HIVE FLEET WON'T OBTAIN EVANGELION DNA FROM THAT SOURCE+
"Good," Thorne nodded, before leaning in and lowering his voice further. "What about the Evas themselves?"
+WE REMOVED THE EMERGENCY SUICIDE CHARGES FROM THEM, AND MANAGED TO FIT IN A PAIR OF FUSION WARHEADS THAT WERE STRIPPED FROM A TORPEDO OFF THE CALM AND COOPERATIVE. IF ONE OR BOTH OF THEM FALL, THE WARHEADS WILL VAPORISE THE CORPSE, LEAVING NOTHING FOR THE TYRANID HIVE SHIPS+
"Good," Thorne muttered, standing back and returning his attention to the displays. "The last thing we need right now is for the Tyranid to start using AT fields, S2 cores or any of the other Evangelion abilities."
--
"So…" Shinji began as he drew to a halt and hefted his gun, "what was it like?"
"Fighting one of the Tyranid?" Asuka asked. "Not present. Hold on, I'll open up the mind-link and show you." Shinji winced, and closed his eyes.
It wasn't that he had any problem with partially merging his mind with Asuka, Kyoko or Unit 02 (not that he'd be suicidal enough to say so if he had had a problem). The time together after 3rd Impact would have been much worse if that'd been a problem. And it was safe to say that this technique was fairly common in the Legion Titanicus, with Princeps exchanging messages, tactical briefings and discussions, and even memories and sensor data using it.
But to Shinji, extending the Mind-Impulse link through a high-density vox-signal felt like pushing his mind into the transmission, and if something went wrong, he'd be left there hanging in the radio waves forever.
He almost felt relieved as he felt the cautious, spidery edge of Asuka's mind, and they began to weave with his own consciousness. The memory transfer was over in less then a second, Shinji feeling the ground shaking underfoot as the serpentine monster shot forward, the gut-twisting thud as it slammed into his/her AT field
Fast and vicious, Shinji thought, and then, reconsidering the later part of the memory, and smart.
Yes, Asuka agreed as the mind-link began to peel apart. I looked into it's eyes before it died, and anybody dismissing these things as animals, was talking out of their arse.
We have our own advantages, Shinji pointed out. Still…we'll have to be careful. Nice trick with fooling it and taking the head off, though.
"Yeah," Asuka replied audibly as the link separated, before chuckling. "Heh, do you think Thorne would mind if I had it's head mounted on the bulkhead of the main Titan bay on the Warrior's Chariot?"
Shinji merely rolled his eyes silently at the comm. screen.
--
"Move it out" Sargent Carmeron hissed, gesturing to his squad as they slipped out from the hedge and into one of the agri-fields surrounding the city.
"We shouldn't be here, sarge," trooper Gus hissed, lasgun shaking in his tightly clenched hands.
"We have our orders, trooper," Carmeron replied grimly, glaring at him. "Scout out in front of the lines, report any Xenos sighting and engage any foe you could conceivably defeat. That is a vital role, and those aren't suicide orders. Throne… we've handled xenos before. Remember those Eldar pirates three years ago?"
"But these are Tyranids, sarge! You've heard the stories too! Even the Astartes can only barely stand against them!"
"We've all heard stories, trooper," Carmeron growled. "You know that most of them are false or glorified. And I promise you; those of the Tyranid are no more true then that stupid, heretical tale claiming that the traitors of Chaos once set foot on Holy Terra. You're a soldier in the PDF, Gus. Act like it."
Carmeron turned his attention back to the light, sweetberry bushes around them and the silent curses he aimed at them and the lack of decent cover the agri-fields provided.
"Contact!" came the scream Carmeron was dreading. He spun, taking in the situation in a glance.
"Rogue hormagaunt swarm!" he snapped, "find cover and take aim! Jack, open fire!" Carmeron ran for the dubious nearby cover of a bush as the crack of grenades started in the background. Bringing his pistol up to cover the stragglers, He watched the swarm carefully. Still some distance, but closing fast, he thought grimly. Should be in range round about… Now!
"Open fire!" he shouted, blasting away with his laspistol.
The air quickly began to fill with the red streaks of las-shots. The talyoned beasts ran through the firestorm, unharmed at first, but as they grew closer and the PDF troopers began to get their eye in, they began to fall. Carmeron blasted one and watched it fall, gut shot, and bring down a second which fell to more las-fire before it could struggle to it's feet. The four on the left literally came apart as a frag bounced off one of them. Another slumped sideways and collapsed into a bush, twitching as it covered the plant with it's fluids.
Carmeron blinked in shock as he realised there was only a couple left. Despite all of his words to the men, the idea of going up against the Tyranids had left a deep chill of fear in his belly. Looks like the briefing slates were right about our range advantage after all, he thought, bringing his sword up as the remaining 'gaunts approached. One of them suddenly crouched and leaped.
Carmeron didn't stop to think, he simply twisted, and bought his chainsword round. It wasn't one of the measured strokes of the trained officers, or the flashy, morale-raising attacks of the Commissars. It was a simple, crude blow that embedded the whirling teeth of the blade halfway into the beast's chest. It snapped at his face, before finally sagged in death.
The last hormagaunt seemed to cower, and then spin and run for the trees. Carmeron dropped the sword, raised his pistol and carefully aimed. The shot went into the back of it's head, splattering it and sending the creature spinning head over heals into the dirt.
"Bloody hell," one of the troopers hissed.
"There we go," Carmeron said loudly, placing a boot on the hormagaunt's chest and wrenching his chainblade loose. "Those are the Tyranid. Dangerous, yes. Monsters, yes. Blasphemous Xenos, yes. But they're not invulnerable daemons. We're disciplined, well armed, well trained. We're the damned PDF, and we're going to push these fragin' aliens off our world, right!"
The troopers in the squad let out a group cheer. It was a bit half-hearted, but it sounded better then anything they had said or shown since the sky had darkened with the constant flow of mynotic spores.
Carmeron grinned and began to push his way through the bushes, when The sky shattered above him. A ball of fire tore it's way down through the clouds, the shockwave of it's passage tearing up trees and scattering the squad to the ground.
It hit.
Carmeron fought to hold onto the ground, and failed as it seemed to drop away from him, before changing direction and slamming back into him with enough force to steal the breath from his lungs. Grabbing onto a nearby bush, which was barely holding onto the ground itself, he clung to the ground desperately as the shockwaves tried to fling him about.
--
Shinji blinked as a fireball, larger then the rest shot by overhead and into the agri-lands. The shockwaves passed quickly, Shinji riding them with the instinctive ease of someone who has been through more then half-a-dozen drop-pod assaults and quite a few tons of Evangelion and armour as a stabiliser.
As the shockwaves, weakened by distance, faded, Shinji tripped the vox.
"HQ," he said, eying the enhanced image as the plume of dirt in the distance began to settle. "There's been a large impact nearby; larger then anything I've seen before."
-We know- came the reply. -We anticipate either a bio-titan or a full swarm. We did have a recon team in the area, but not surprisingly, we've lost contact with them. You're authorised to investigate and engage if it's a threat, but the Tyranids have used diversionary tactics before. Do not allow yourself to be pulled out of position until you are convinced it's not a trick-
"Understood," Shinji nodded, breaking out into the deceptively slow-looking, mile-eating run common to all Evangelions.
--
As the shaking finally faded into the distance, Carmeron finally released his death-grip on the battered bush. His body ached wherever it had hit something, which seemed to be everywhere. As the stunned surprise at his survival faded, his training took over. Painfully, he pushed himself up on his elbows and tested various muscles groups. There didn't seem to be any broken bones, just a dull ache, like a full body hangover the morning after.
Cautiously, he managed to twist his body round and push himself into a sitting position, the soil on his back (that had been thrown into the air by the impact), pouring off onto the ground. He still had his pistol, though the holder seemed half torn from his belt, but the chainsword had vanished, lost somewhere in the debris.
The rest of the squad was scattered around him, either lying groaning on the ground, or weakly pulling their way out of tangles of vegetation. Carmeron winced as he spotted Davis, a loose tree branch had stabbed through his chest and pinned him to the ground as neatly as a colourful flutter-bug to a collection book's page. Forcing the rising bile back down his throat, he raised his gaze further, searching for the fireball that took Davis' life. His breath caught.
Several fields over a blasphemous oval of flesh lay, smoking gently. Larger then a full hab-complex, it was a series of huge, building-sized blackened chitin plates held together by seared leathery muscle, cooked by it's passage through the atmosphere. It rippled slowly, as if it were breathing…or as if something inside it was pushing the skin out.
That sight did for Carmeron's pain and fuzzy thoughts, what several cups of re-caf did for a hangover.
"Up!" he screamed, "Up now! Find cover, quick!"
The squad started to struggle to their feet, a struggle that became much faster as the troopers caught sight of the monstrosity in the near distance. Carmeron climbed to his own feet, and sprinted towards the nearest cover, a shallow hole torn in the ground by the impact, ignoring the pain shooting up and down the backs of his legs.
There was a tearing noise, like some giant tearing apart the largest phone book in the world. The giant ball of flesh and chitin came apart, something squirming out like a monstrous parody of a chick hatching from an egg.
"Sarge!" Carmeron turned back, and realised that Gus was trapped, tangled in a couple of bushes and desperately struggling against them. Carmeron began to head back, and froze as a shadow fell over the field.
An immense Tyranid, shaped vaguely like a four-legged spider stood over them, looking at the city in the distance. Then it seemed to start, before looking down, apparently attracted by Gus' frantic movements. As it's hot breath, surprisingly clear of stink, washed over the field Carmeron saw Gus freeze in fear. For a moment, the monster seemed to watch him, an almost curious expression on its face. Then it lunged. A chunk of ground, several bushes and the figure of Gus vanished into the abomination's jaws.
Screaming in anger Carmeron opened fire, aiming desperately for the eye. He heard several others open up as well, a firestorm of red las-blasts reaching for the Tyranid's eye, which didn't even bother to blink under the impact.
It crouched, readying itself to pounce.
Then a blast of heat, with a sound like the roar of a God, flew by overhead and threw the monster to the ground.
--
Shinji winced as the back wash of the melta flowed over him, much like opening an oven to check a roast. The bright flash of the melta, automatically dimmed by the Eva's electronics, reached out and flung the beast into the ground. The Tyranid, a Hierophant, Yui whispered into the back of his mind, spasmed under the pain as a slab of chitin flowed off it's back and splattered to the ground.
Shinji brought the gun round, carefully picking out a kill-shot to put the monster down.
The Hierophant leaped to it's clawed feet, fast as the spider it resembled. The blast of super-heated air missed, gouging a deep trench in the ground.
Cursing silently, Shinji moved, trying to bring the melta round for another shot. The Hierophant got there first, the muscles in the bio-rifles clutched under it's belly convulsing as muscular spasms flung clusters of unnaturally sharp chitin-spines at him.
Shinji flung up his AT field, the orange barrier catching most of the three meter spines harmlessly, but slightly too slow for full effectiveness; resulting in several spines digging deep into Unit 01's armour, before shattering and leaking their loads of genehanced acids and toxins into the cracks they'd made.
Ignoring the pain, which felt as though a few dozen soldier ants had bitten into his chest, Shinji focused and threw his AT field outwards. The Tyranid leaped aside, but was only partly successful, the 2D energy field throwing up a wave of soil and plants as it clipped the beast, spinning it to the ground. As the Hierophant clawed back to its feet, Shinji fired the melta again, the super-heated blast of air screaming out and scouring a deep groove along the monster's back.
The Hierophant roared, and charged, earth showering up as the claws dug at the ground. It slammed into unit 01 before Shinji could react, biting down on his arm, sending the melta flying and slamming him into the ground.
Shinji hissed in sympathetic pain as the armour began to fracture under the incredible power of the beast's jaws. He shifted his feet under him and braced, pulling on his arm hard.
The Hierophant, startled, staggered froward and Shinji found himself face-to-face with it's nemesis, Unit 01's horn resting against it's forehead. For a second, Shinji stared into it's eyes, lit by the faint glow of bio-plasma as the startled creature tried to attack, and something inside him quivered in fear at that dead gaze.
He rolled back, curving his legs under it's belly, and kicked out hard. The monster screeched as it flew up into the air, before slamming down into the ground with enough force to feel like a Tokyo earthquake.
As the creature hit, Shinji reached round to his back and snatched the Lancea Longinus from it's holster and flung it, overarm. Unit 01's targeting computers took over even as he pulled it out, complex algorithms turning his simple urge to throw the spear into a pin-point trajectory, took control of the fibre-muscles built into the Eva's armour, and guided his arm round as he flung the lance.
The red spear tore into the Hierophant's body as it struggled to it's feet, tearing in just above it's head and slicing through it's abdomen until the blades slid out of the chitin plates on it's back, the shaft wedged solid in the biological war machine. With a gargling scream, the monster's limbs buckled, dropping the Hierophant to the ground. It convulsed as it fell, throwing fountains of dirt and vegetation around in it's death throes.
Finally, it fell silent.
Climbing to his feet, Shinji carefully walked forward, nudging the beast's head with a foot. When it failed to move, he carefully placed a foot on the creature for leverage, grabbed the shaft of the Lancea Longinus, and pulled it clear of the beast with an unpleasant sucking sound, speeder-sized organs spilling out onto the ground.
Fighting down the urge to puke, Shinji tripped the vox.
"Command, target was a Hierophant," he muttered, trembling slightly as he turned back to the city. "It's dead. I'm…I'm heading back to 04-320."
-Understood pilot- came the reply. -Good work. Be advised that a pair of Warlords will be meeting you in ten minutes-
"Right," Shinji muttered, picking up pace to a run, although he was unsure whether he was running towards the defence point…or away from the corpse behind him.
--
The corpse of the immense monster hit the ground with a bone-rattling thud. Within their cover in a hollow in the ground, nothing moved.
"Golden Throne," one of the soldiers finally hissed as the immense God-Machine retreated its weapon, turned and strode off.
"Right, then," Carmeron growled, doing a surprisingly good impression of having not just been blindly staring like a drugged out juvie, "forget the techno-magics of the Cog-boys; some of those monsters might carry smaller ones, like humans and blood-ticks or something. Jack, Carter, David, cover us. The rest of you, form up. We'll give that thing a quick check over, and then fall back to ref. 04-367."
Bloody Hell, Carmeron thought to himself, staring up at the mound of flesh as the troopers split up. How can we fight something like this… He stopped, silently berating himself for the minor blasphemy. The fragging thing is dead. This…abomination can be killed, so the rest can be too…
"Sarge!" Quinn called, interrupting his train of thought. "You ain't gonna' believe this."
Carmeron walked towards him, raising an eyebrow… and slowed to a stop. He stared in bemused surprise. One of the Tyranids teeth had a brown and green lump clinging to it, faintly murmuring, "The emperor protects" over and over again.
"Gus," he muttered to himself, shaking his head as a couple of troopers carefully peeled the traumatised soldier from his death-grip on the over-sized fang, "you are the luckiest son-of-a-grox on the planet."
To be continued…
--
Hellhounds; Based around a Chimara chassis, the Hellhound mounts an extra large heavy flamer and enough fuel to allow several hours of constant usage. Regarded as one of the least pleasant vehicles of the Imperium (both because the unpleasant way it kills, and because the externally mounted fuel tanks make the Hellhound more vulnerable to enemy weaponry), it has proven extremely useful against weaker armed foes.
Hormagaunt; A subspecies of the Gaunt genus, the Hormagaunt resembles most other gaunts; roughly human-sized, two motive legs, two atrophied, useless limbs, think chitin armour and animal-level intelligence when away from a synapse creature. Instead of any form of bio-weapon, however, the forward two limbs instead sprout a pair of razor-sharp talons, and the muscles of the creature are up to ten percent denser then usual. Harmless at range, the Hormagaunt is engineered for close combat.
Hierophant; One of the most dangerous and largest Bio-titan, the Hierophant resembles a four-legged spider with an elongated body (the front of which remains close to the ground, while the abdomen slopes up into the air). Heavily covered with thick armour, armed with a pair of heavy spike rifles, immense jaws and adjacent talons, and one of the many species capable of spitting bio-plasma, the Hierophant is one of the most dangerous creatures in the galaxy. It is also the first of the bio-Titans officially encountered by the Imperium, a Hierophant being present at the battle of the Northern defence fortress and being responsible of the mutual destruction of itself and at least one Warlord-class Titan.
Juvie; Juvenile. Usually refers to a child or teenager. The actual definition tends to alter depending on status and location; in poor or low technology areas (agri/feral worlds, hive slums, etc) this seems to refer to anyone under the age of fifteen to sixteen. In the richer areas, where re-juv treatments are readily available and the average lifespan approaches multiple centuries, this definition can extend clear into the late twenties or even early thirties.