'Another patrol,' Nasty said. 'Great.' He didn't sound entirely enthusiastic He flicked a bit of grit from the back of one of his gauntlets.
'Stop complaining,' Alaster said. 'You were whining about being bored earlier.'
'Yeah,' Nasty said. 'That was earlier.'
It was early in the morning on their second day at the Gap. The first day had ended up being a bit of a non-event. There had been a few more skirmishes later in the afternoon but no major engagements. After meeting opposition at the Gap, the Nids had pulled back. It had seemed the Hive Mind had been taken by surprise. It clearly hadn't expected its skirmishers to get skirmished themselves. The speculation was that it had steped back to reconsider. There had been a few exploratory probes overnight but no significant attacks. By that point all five chapters were in place on the other side of the valley. They'd found themselves in the rather-weird situation of outnumbering the occasional Nid excursions. There was a rumour that the commanders had ended up drawing lots over which chapter got to butcher which clutch of Nids.
There'd been irritable mutterings in the Ravens' camp. The marines felt they hadn't been given their fair share of bug-bashing overnight.
The morning had dawned clearer and brighter than the night before. A decision had apparently been made to force the Nids' hand. Reconnaissance by force. The bugs hadn't done a lot overnight. Alaster suspected that was worrying people. What were the aliens up to? It wasn't like them to sit there and do nothing. It seemed to hint at some sort of plan. So this morning patrols were being sent out, up and through the Gap, to see how far they could go before they drew a response. The sooner whatever the bugs were doing was disrupted, the better. That was exactly what the squad were doing right now.
Small stones crunched under Alaster's soles as he walked. The Ravens were on foot for now, just to make sure they didn't miss anything on the ground. The wind moaned around them. Alaster kept his eyes focused on his surroundings. He still felt a twinge of embarrassment from yesterday's near-disaster. He was determined not to be surprised by any Lictors today.
'It's quiet,' Patreus observed. He didn't sound pleased by the silence. Alaster didn't blame him. They were technically in the middle of a battle and yet apart from the wind, it was pretty much silent. It felt weird.
'Enjoy it while it lasts, Brother,' Kodos said.
A sense of tension had settled over the squad. They were eager to get out there and take the fight to the enemy but they were also uncomfortably aware that they didn't know what awaited them.
Alaster glanced at his chainsword. His fist was clutched on it. He could feel the grip under his palm. He looked around. They were moving through a greener region of the Gap. The rocks were encrusted with dense lichen and thick carpets of moss. Targetting graphics slid across his field of vision, crosshairs and range-finders randomly locking onto odd rocks and patches of moss. It seemed the machine spirit was feeling the tension too.
He heard Nasty's boots grate on the rock. 'I didn't bargain on this lot,' Nasty said in a low voice. He jerked his bolt pistol backwards, to signify their allies.
Alaster had to nod. The Ravens were accompanying a squad of Doom Eagles. They were a distance back. They were quite visible. Their main colour was silver. Even in the morning gloom it was prominent. Their armour was far more prominent than their manners, though. In the time the Ravens had been scouting for them, Alaster reckoned he hadn't heard more than four words out of any of the Doom Eagles. Even Kodos didn't get much more than curt nods out of their sergeant.
There was a little, bluish light near the front of their ranks. One of the Eagles cradled a flamer. The light was the tiny ignition point, hot and ready under the main barrel. Alaster was curious to see it in action. He'd seen them used during the fight at the hive centre, but never up close. It would be interesting to watch, if he got the chance. Alaster wondered what one of them would be like to carry. He glanced at his blade. A different sort of fighting experience, he supposed, to his chainsword. He reckoned he could understand the silence of the flamer-holder. If you were lugging around that much incendiary gas, you probably would keep your eyes on it and your mouth shut.
As for the rest of them, though, that was a different matter.
There was a crackle in his ears. 'Hills ahead,' he heard Fegust report.
There they were. Alaster could suddenly just see them, two black mounds looming in the fog. They weren't really hills, just two big mounds of debris. The ancient glacier that had carved the Gap must have dumped a load of rubbish just here, as it had melted away several thousand years previously. The hills were about a dozen metres high and maybe three times that far apart. Their rolling, rubble-strewn slopes stopped just short of each other. They were old terrain features – they were on pre-war aerial images going back a long time.
A Raven moved in the mist. Kodos. He was signalling to the Eagles. 'Wait here,' he said over the public channel. 'We'll look ahead.'
Their sergeant just nodded. Once.
'Curt skakker,' Nasty muttered to himself.
Kodos' eyelenses glared redly at Nasty. 'Brother Sandy, you will be polite about our allies. Or I'll kick your scrawny arse.' He paused, then added, 'Even if they are curt skakkers.'
Moments later the Ravens were in the air. The hills slid by below them. Mist swirled around them. A few moments passed.
'Okay,' Kodos said. 'Lets' drop down.'
Thrusters lowered them toward the rocky ground. As they approached Alaster saw lots of little pebbles and rounded stones. They were heaped in unstable mounds. Some of them were sliding down even as the marines approached. And some of them had tails.
Alaster blinked. Wait, what -?
There was a blur of motion. Something sprang. Teeth flashed. The Ripper clamped its jaw onto his boot.
'RIPPERS!' Alaster shouted. His thrusters slammed into reverse. He was jerked upwards. He kicked his leg, trying to dislodge the Tyranid.
It was hanging by its mouth, from the end of its boot. Two beady little eyes glared malevolently up at him. There was a grinding sound. It was workings its jaw, trying to wear at the ceramite.
He swung his legs together. As hard as he could. His boots came together. There was a loud crack.
Pulverised, bloody chunks of Ripper peeled away. The main body hung, broken and mangled, wedged between his feet. Alaster let his legs hang apart. Even in death it still clung to his foot. With a shudder he scraped it off with the end of his chainsword.
The carcass fell away into the mist. Alaster saw something spring up toward it. Another flash of jaws, then a swirling feeding frenzy below and the remains were devoured.
'Skak,' Nasty said. 'There's hundreds of them!'
'A little ambush,' Kodos growled. 'Think they're clever, do they? Let's deal with these little mouthy skaks. Follow me!'
With that he roared off, back the way they'd come.
Puzzled, Alaster followed. He checked to make sure Patreus and Nasty were with him. They were - good. He was flanked by the rumble of their thrusters.
Kodos was heading straight for the two hills.
Alaster looked down. Below them, there was a slithering, flowing motion on the ground. The Rippers were following. It was like a tide over the ground.
Alaster wondered what Kodos was planning.
The hills loomed.
'Between them!' the sergeant said. 'Make them follow us. Choke point!'
Suddenly Alaster had an inkling.
The hills were on either side of them. They passed. There was a rush of backwash as several thrusters played against the nearby slopes. The mist swirled. They were through.
Silver. Up ahead in the gloom were the Doom Eagles. They were arrayed in a half-circle, facing the hills. The marine with the flamer was in the middle.
'Up – pull up!' Kodos ordered.
The Ravens obeyed, slowing their approach and turning upwards.
'Okay, that'll do. We're out of the line of fire,' Kodos said.
Moments later, the Ripper flood came pouring out from between the hills. A chittering, slithering mass of alien horrors swarmed toward the waiting Space Marines.
'Shouldn't we help?' Patreus asked.
'Watch,' Kodos replied.
There was new light below. A curling, swirly red tongue of flame reached out from the flamer. Bloody reflections washed over the silver armour of the Doom Eagles. The tongue of flame licked out toward the Rippers. Fire caressed carapaces.
The chittering turned to a keening.
Confusion erupted below. The front wave of Nids found themselves on fire. They tried to surge back but the density of bugs behind them drove them forward. More Rippers plunged into the flames.
The brother with the flamer raked it back and forth across the flow. His movements were calm and methodical. He displayed no urgency.
Alaster took a deep breath. He smelt the weak rubbery-metal scent of the inside of his helmet – and something else, leaking through the filters. It wasn't remotely like bacon, but he could smell cooked Nid.
The keening below was an agonised roar now.
Still the Nids poured on. Sheer volume was driving them somewhat forward. Now ten bolters spoke, as the other Doom Eagles joined in. Nid after Nid was blasted apart. Alaster watched the carnage with awe. The Doom Eagles might not speak much but their aim was just fine. His eyes looke onto a Ripper just below, just in time for a single shot to blow its little body apart. Chitinous fragments sprayed everywhere, along with shredded innards.
The flow of Nids was decreasing. The flamer played over them a couple more times, then the flame subsided. Moments later, the bolter-fire stopped. The ground below was slick with mangled Rippers.
'Wow,' Nasty said.
'Reverse ambush.' Kodos was smug. 'I was feeding everything we were seeing back to the Eagles. The moment we saw the Nids, they knew what to do.'
'Oh,' Alaster said. 'Now what?'
'Now we move on.'
Two hours passed.
'Where're we going?' Nasty asked.
'Don't know,' Alaster said. 'Kodos just said follow.'
The Gap was dead quiet. All the patrol reports filtering back painted a picture of desertion. The Nids seemed to have pulled back a long way. It was still cloudy beyond the other side, below the level of the Gap. It was hard to see what was going on down there. Alaster imagined people weren't too keen on that. It made it all the odder that they'd been recalled from the Gap.
They'd parted ways with the Doom Eagles about a quarter of an hour earlier. The Ravens weren't directed back toward the camp. Instead they were flying in the direction of the dam. The river was passing below them. Sunlight glinted on the water.
There was a crackle. Kodos' voice cut into their conversation. 'There's a Guard motor detachment entering the area. Apparently they've seen movement.'
'Uh,' Nasty said, 'can't they deal with it? And leave us alone?'
This time it was Eorvan. 'You know what you get when you leave the Guard alone? Corpses, that's what.' Then he actually snorted with amusement.
'And that would be a bit mean,' Kodos added, 'even if it does serve them right for taking so long.'
Alaster's hand clutched at his chainsword. He felt a gnawing sense of frustration. Was this all they had to do? Wasn't it time to press an attack? Babysitting the Guard seemed trivial.
The dam was fast approaching. There was a sheer rockface on one side. On the other, trees ran down toward the waterline. Alaster was startled to see that some of them were actually still alive. He'd got used to trees being dead, blackened spars jutting from the ground. Seeing them with thick green foliage and wreathed in branches came as a surprise.
There was a dirt track running along the edge of the wood. A couple of miles back, Alaster could see a small puff of dirt rising from it.
'There it is,' Kodos said.
An icon blinked into life in Alaster's display, a little red circle blinking on and off around a tiny dot. Squinting, he realised it was a Chimera. The transport was rumbling on just ahead of the cloud of dirt.
'They seem okay,' Nasty said. He sounded doubtful. Alaster suspected they all felt this mission was a bit pointless.
'We've got our orders,' Kodos said. 'We'll check in, make sure they haven't stubbed their toes or anything. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get back to some real work.'
They headed toward the chimera.
They were halfway there when the trees erupted. The leaves rippled. Black shapes rushed from the branches. Ugly wings flapped and angular heads glared hungrily.
The Gargoyles flew straight for the Space Marines.
'Attack!' Eorvan said.
There were six of them.
'Everyone get ready,' Kodos said.
'They've got no guns,' Fegust pointed out.
He was right, Alaster saw. The Gargoyles weren't carrying any bio-weapons. Their arms were free, ending in sharp claws.
'Great,' Eorvan said. 'A new mutation. Wonderful.'
The Gargoyles were almost on them. Alaster swung himself round, lining up his pistol. He snapped off three shots, in close succession. One clipped a Gargoyle's wing. Ichor spurted out. The leathery membrane spasmed. The beast's flight was disrupted. His second shot clipped its head. The bolt bounced but the alien was stunned. It dropped to the ground.
His third shot was at another one. It went wild.
There wasn't time for a fourth one. The Gargoyles were on them.
A shadow swept over Alaster. The alien dived at him, furling its wings. Alaster slapped it with the side of his chainsword. It tumbled. Then it flapped its wings and steadied itself. Its eyes glared at him. It flew back toward him.
It extended its claws. Aerial close combat, Alaster realised. The hive mind must be trying a new way to neutralise the assault marines. He supposed they had caused it some inconvenience.
As it approached, he kicked. His boot smacked into its face. Chitin crunched. It spun back, dazed.
Alaster risked a look around. As he did he watched Nasty dispatch one with his axe. Patreus and Kodos were hacking away together at one particular Gargoyle. He saw another one slither, dead and slick with ichor, from Fegust's blade.
He looked back just in time for the Gargoyle to fly at him again.
He met it with his blade. His stroke was careful. The swing spun him back in the air but he didn't miss. The blade crunched into the creature's head. Ichor and brains spewed out.
Dead and broken, the Gargoyle fell to the ground below.
Alaster turned, just in time to watch Eorvan dispatch one. Alaster couldn't see any others. He looked down and counted six corpses, broken and bloody on the grass below.
'Well,' Kodos said, 'it looks like the Guard weren't seeing things after all. Who could've guessed?'
'We'd better say hello,' Eorvan remarked.
The Chimera had stopped. It was sat nearby. They flew over to it.
It was a long, blocky vehicle. Its sides were sharp and angular, so that any impacting ordnance would just bounce off. It was sat on big, fat wheels. Open firing slots lined its sides. Nervous eyes peeped out from inside. The trees loomed behind it.
The grass rustled as Kodos landed. The mutter of his thrusters fell silent. The vents on his plasma pistol glowed in their flickering way. 'Hello,' he said to the vehicle. 'We heard you'd seen something.'
The other Ravens followed suit, dropping quietly to the ground. Alaster bent his knees as he landed, absorbing the slight impact.
Alaster was expecting someone to emerge but no-one did. Instead, a worried voice spoke from somewhere inside. 'Uh, there's more, we think, in the trees-'
And then everything happened at once.
The undergrowth rustled. Shadows moved amongst the trees.
Genestealers exploded from cover.
Alaster had a flash of fangs and claws and then it was on him. The force of the impact slammed him to the ground. Its bulk blocked out the sky. A clawed arm slashed. He felt it smack into his side. He heard the claw screech across his breastplate.
He kicked it, as hard as he could.
The Genestealer was thrown into the air. Alaster caught a glimpse of chaos, all around him. He saw Patreus chop at one then shoot another while it was distracted. He saw Nasty's axe bite into an alien skull. He heard the hiss-roar of Kodos's plasma pistol. He saw the flash of light as a plasma bolt leapt angrily from the barrel.
There was a thud behind him. The Genestealer had landed.
Alaster rolled to his feet. Just in time for the monster to rush him. This time he was ready. He brought out his sword, turning the flat to it. The alien ran into it. The impact reverberated up his arm.
It was slowed for an instant – just long enough for Alaster to drill a bolt straight into its head. His pistol-shot was true. The creature's head exploded. It toppled to the ground.
Another one leapt at him.
Alaster brought his bolt pistol up, straight into its face. He felt a satisfying crack as the heavy gun-metal connected with xeno bone. Before it could do more then stumble, his chainsword whirred into life. Its teeth ripped into the alien's side. Ichor and guts sprayed out. For a moment the blade caught on some bone. Alaster yanked it back.
With a ripping sound, the xeno was torn asunder. Its innards spilled onto the grass. The air stank of excrement and ichor. It was dead.
Alaster turned, in time to see a Genestealer running at Patreus's back. Patreus was busy with another Genestealer, hacking and slashing. It kept almost getting him with its claws.
The other one loomed behind the Raven. It raised its arms-
Alaster's pistol spoke. Two short, sharp cracks. It kicked back in his hand. Two spurts of ichor leapt from the Genestealer's neck. It staggered. Alaster shot it again, ripping an arm from its socket. The xeno toppled to the ground. It spasmed a couple of times, then it died.
At that moment, Patreus finally got an edge on his attacker. The Space Marine kicked at one of its legs, knocking the bony appendage out. The alien stumbled. That gave Patreus all the opening he needed. He brought the butt of his pistol down on its head, as hard as he could. A loud crunch rang out.
Another dead Tyranid fell to the ground.
Alaster looked around, eager to find more xenos to kill. Two more ran from the trees. His bolt pistol spoke again, and again. They fell lifelessly to the grass.
The sounds of combat were dying down. 'I think that's the last of them,' he heard Sandrer say.
It seemed Sandrer was right. There was no more movement in the bushes. The Ravens checked each other over for injuries, then quickly cleaned their blades. Kodos went to talk to the Guardsmen.
A Space Marine walked up to Alaster. It was Patreus. He was sporting a fresh scratch running across his breastplate and a couple of new nicks on his shoulder pads. Other then those minor bits of damage, he was fine.
'What are the bugs doing out here?' Patreus asked.
'I don't know,' Alaster replied.
'How did they get here?'
'I guess the Gargoyles flew.'
'But they're behind our lines. Why didn't anyone see them?'
Alaster shrugged. 'Brother, I have no idea.'
Patreus scanned the strewn corpses. 'This doesn't bode well,' he said.
'What, that we got a lot of them?'
'No, that they're here in the first place.'
'Look, perhaps they're just what's left of a patrol. An advance guard or something. Something they sent out, perhaps, before we got here. Look, Kodos is coming back. Let's see what he has to say.'
The sergeant returned from the Chimera, striding grimly over. The squad gathered round. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, at the forest. 'They say they've been seeing stuff all along. Movement in the trees and that. Not much, but enough to be spooked. It's why they won't leave the transport. They haven't actually been attacked themselves, at any point-'
'Lucky us,' Nasty put in.
'-but they say there's been more of it the last few miles. One of them reckons he saw something near the dam. He's got binoculars. Says he saw movement. Aerial shapes – Gargoyles, possibly.'
'There shouldn't be any Nids here,' Eorvan said.
'Yes, Corporal. I've heard the tactical summaries too. Sadly it seems the carcasses here haven't. We can't leave this alone. We're going to the dam, have a little look around.'
'What about the Guard?' Fegust said.
Kodos shrugged. 'If this lot are too scared to help us save their scrawny arses then frankly, I don't care. Let them get on with it. I guess they're safe enough, inside their wheeled tin can.'
'No-one said we had to babysit them all the way in,' Eorvan added.
'Supposedly there's an artillery detachment rolling in after this lot,' Kodos added. 'Should be due this afternoon. It'd be good if it actually does show up. We could use some bombardment.' He nodded toward the Gap, visible in the distance behind them. 'We need to make sure this area's clear. I'm filing a report for Lakon right now.' He paused for a moment. 'There, that's sent. Now we need to move!'
The assault squad took to the air again. They flew over ranks of dense trees. There was some movement but it seemed to be down to the wind. Although they kept a wary eye below, nothing else arose to challenge them.
The dam arrived shortly. It was a curved expanse of concrete, plugging the valley completely at one end. The other side of it was flooded with placid blue water. The river re-emerged through the dam's drainage, a frothing, foaming cascade spouting from a rectangular opening halfway down the dam. The water splashed and roared down to the valley floor, where it surged on.
The top of the dam was wide enough for a walkway. It was just big enough to accommodate two Space Marines, stood next to each other. It was marked with a couple of inspection hatches and some pipes. The dominant colour was a beige-greyish shade.
'I don't see anything,' Nasty said as they hovered over it.
There wasn't any sign of life. The dam was still.
'Look,' Patreus said. He pointed. 'On the slope. Above the water. There's something.'
He was right. Just above the big rectangular slot, there was a bulging, discoloured patch.
'We'd better have a look,' Kodos said.
The marines descended. The patch's nature was revealed soon enough.
A cluster of big, bulging sacks were glued to the concrete by a slimy, organic webbing. The sacks were lumpy and uneven. They were a meaty pink in colour, the webbing a shiny, wet white. The whole clutch was big, maybe four metres across.
'Bio-mines,' Kodos said with revulsion. 'The Nids've mined the dam!'
'Skak,' Nasty said. 'What do we do?'
'Don't touch them,' Kodos said. 'Any impact might rupture them. There's bio-acids in there, powerful ones. The idea, I suppose, is they'll eat into the concrete. The weakened dam blows. Big flood of water drowns the valley.'
'That sounds pointless,' Nasty said.
'Not if half our army's down there when it goes,' Patreus noted.
'Clever skakking bugs,' Kodos said.
'Can we …disarm it?' Alaster asked.
Kodos considered the alien bomb. The marines hovered in front of it. The wind pushed at them. Some of the spray reached up from the foaming water below. The rumbling roar of the cascade dominated all other sounds.
'What's that above it?' Fegust asked suddenly. He pointed with his sword.
From the clutch of sacks, a thick greyish cord ran upwards. Two and a half metres above the collection, it reached its destination. This proved to be a fat, round nodule that bulged out from the dam. It was purplish in colour, with swollen veins staring out from its sides. Something about it put Alaster in mind of an alien brain.
'Well, well, well,' Kodos said. 'It seems we've found the detonator. A hive node, linked straight into the mass. And hooking it straight back into Bug Central. The hive mind can blow this out with a single thought. We can't do anything about the bombs themselves, but maybe…'
Abruptly, he raised his plasma pistol. He aimed above the nodule. He fired. The pistol hiss-roared. A bolt of white-hot plasma seared itself into the concrete.
Heated so abruptly, the hive node swelled up as its interior fluids boiled. It ruptured on one side. Slime dribbled out. It sagged down, like a deflating balloon. Its colour faded into a lifeless grey.
The sacks were unaffected. They rippled slightly, but did nothing else. They were far enough away that they didn't feel the blast. To them it was just a wash of warm air, nothing else.
'Well,' Kodos said, 'that helps. A little. The hive mind can't feel the mines anymore – the link's broken. They're not defused, exactly, but setting them off's going to be a bit more difficult now.'
'Won't it need something, you know, more permanent?' Nasty asked.
'And today's award for spotting the blindingly obvious goes to Sandy Shepherd,' Kodos growled. 'Yes of course it'll skakking need something more permanent. If anyone has any ideas, let me know.