An explosion rocked the bunker throwing what little furniture was inside to the ground. In fact everything was shaken to the floor except the three occupants. Clad in their ebony power armor three space marines of the Dark Templars chapter stood their ground at the vision slit bolters blasting away, the empty shell casings falling to the floor still smoking. Another hit against the bunker caused some steel support girders to crash to the floor. Brother Caddius turned and looked at the strained framework of the shelter. "We should leave this place before it collapses around us. Brother Darrel turned to look at his fellow marine and then at the scene outside. Tyranids had attacked the base and were overrunning its defenses. Shifting his gaze back to his battle brother he gave a nod of his head and pulled away from the slit. Brother Kain ignored the two completely continuing to fire despite their dwindling stock of ammunition. "Brother we must leave or the bunker will collapse upon us." Caddius said. Kain didn't turn "Brother please what use will you be to the Emperor if you are dead? Better to leave the bunker and relocate so that we may do the most good." Kain kept firing. Caddius shrugged his shoulders at Darrel and started toward the exit when a crunching sound was heard. He turned in time to see Brother Kain slump to the floor his visor cracked open and a long thin bone rod sticking out.
Caddius ran for the exit Darrel close behind. Kicking open the metal blast door they ran out into a raging hell. Though it was night Brother Caddius's night vision goggles coupled with his enhanced senses made it seem as if it were day. A large metal structure loomed up in front of the pair of marines. To their right several bunkers like their were stationed at intervals along the sand bag wall. A trench system ran in a crisscrossing network across the base. Towers had been erected near the wall though most were in ruins and an ammo dump was present behind the main base building. Tyraninds and marines were all over the base battling. As they left the bunker blasts of acid took chunks out of the duracrete wall in front of them. Caddius rolled behind a low sandbag wall followed by Darrel who took a running dive sliding to the wall corner and coming up in a crouch. Caddius peered over the wall edge and saw a set of five termagants slinking around the main courtyard. Caddius opened fire on the group bolter spitting death. Two termagants were a fleshly pile before they knew what was happening. Darrel killed another as it tried to return fire. The last two tried to find cover though only one managed to do so alive. Caddius motioned for Darrel to follow him. Running in a crouch he went for the base door just as they reached it the bunker they had just been in collapsed as it was hit by another blast from a spore mine. Tyranid gargoyles came swooping down upon some marines in the base tower. Their claws didn't do much damage but one marine lost his balance and was pushed over the tower parapet to fall with a bone crunching force into the ground staining the dirt red.
Darrel slammed open the base door running into the anteroom. Signs of a battle were all over. Shredded furniture and torn up desks and chairs. As well as some machinery guts spilled out onto the floor occasionally giving off sparks. Alien bodies littered the area, hormagaunts in grotesque death poses lay in pools of their own black blood. Caddius and Darrel turned on the lights on their bolters sweeping them over the area. A doorway in the right wall led into another room though only the hinges from the actual door remained. Darrel entered first sweeping the area with his light. Boxes of equipment were stacked around the room though most had been toppled and opened their contents scattered across the room. The mystery of where the door went was solved as the light passed over it at the far end of the room. More hormagaunts lay strewn around the area along with one or two marine bodies. A set of metal stairs leading up to a door stood in one corner of the room. Then halfway up the stairs Caddius spotted it. A hormagaunt sat hunched over feasting on one of its own. Blood dripped down the steps and pooled at the stair bottom. As they entered the hormagaunt turned to face them blood caked around its mouth. It leapt off the stairs bones crunching under its feet as it landed on another creature's carcass. Sprinting across the floor at the two marines in the doorway it gave a howl. Caddius calmly raised his bolter and pumped two rounds through the creature's head throwing it onto its back, blood leaking from the holes in its head.
Caddius stepped in to the room Darrel covered doorway they had just come through. Suddenly the door at the top of the stairs shook as a dent appeared in the center. Another dent and then another appeared. Caddius ran halfway up the stairs bolter raised and pointed at the door while Darrel stood in the center of the room covering Caddius. A crack appeared in the door, which then widened into a hole. A hormagaunt head poked its way through the hole. Darrel sent a bolter shell straight into its face throwing it out of sight on the other side of the door. Another couple of hits and the door finally gave way falling outwards onto the stairs and sliding off the side to crash to the floor below. Two hormagaunts stood framed in the doorway. Attracted by the noise of the bolters they came dashing down the stairs. More gaunts piled in behind them. Caddius took down one of the lead gaunts pitching him off the stairway. A second creature leapt five stairs and landed right on top of Caddius hissing. Caddius stumbled backwards falling and sliding down the stairs the gaunt still latched onto him. It was about to sink its claws through his visor when it's head exploded in a blast of flesh and blood. Darrel came running leaping over Caddius's prone form He landed with a crunch on a gaunt's head just as it was about to leap on Caddius. Its skull was crushed under the weight of the marine's armored boot. Bringing up his bolter he fired a hail of shells at the gaunts swarming down the stairs towards them carving a swathe between them. Caddius jumped up and unclipped a frag grenade from his belt. Priming the grenade he lobbed it over Darrel and into the doorway. Two seconds later the resulting explosion threw gaunts from the stairway lethal shrapnel slicing the creatures to bits. Darrel took this opportunity to pound his way up the stairs smashing guants aside with his fists. Caddius followed up behind him bolter sending controlled bursts into the remaining gaunts. They reached the top of the stairs and surged into the room. Darrel turned on his heel and stood in the doorway firing at the gaunts that were in still in the room below.
Caddius made his way in. A large glass window was to his right as he entered. The glass had been shattered inward and glass shards littered the floor. A panel of machinery sat at the base of the glass window though like the others was shorted out wires and paneling everywhere. Several technicians lay stretched over the circuit boards or slumped back in their chairs blood dripping off them. A ladder stood in one corner going up to the roof. A small metal table stood in the center of the room its chairs tipped over and badly scarred with scratches and dents. To the left a small maintenance closet it's door shut was imbedded in the wall. Caddius went over and opened the closet. Something heavy toppled out onto the floor. It was the body of a technician. Caddius turned him over onto his back. The man's face was eaten away by acid and all that was left was an indistinguishable bloody wreck. Caddius left the body where it lay and walked over to the shattered window. Darrel had finished off the remaining gaunts and joined him at the window. They looked out at the carnage below. The trenches were being overrun by swarms of genestealers. Bodies lay everywhere both alien and marine alike. Caddius turned and made for the ladder to the roof. Darrel was about to follow when a clawed appendage came over the window ledge. Then another joined it. At that moment a genestealer hoisted it self through the window and landed on the control panel. Darrel sent a shot screaming through its chest before it could leap on him. The stealer went flying back out the window. Darrel was about to leave once again when another two genestealers leapt through the window then another three. Soon the ledge was teeming with the things. Darrel reacted swiftly grabbing an empty chair he hoisted it at two stealers about to spring. It crashed into them throwing them into the others knocking a group of them out the window.
Caddius rushed back to the window. Firing a burst of bolter fire he then leaped onto the control panel and bulled a group of surprised genestelers back out the window. They went down onto another group of stealers trying to scale the walls themselves. They moved swiftly flesh hooks digging into the duracrete, climbing faster than anything human could hope to. Darrel sprayed the group of stealers nearest him. Two succeeded in leaping past his bolter shots and tackling him to the ground. Caddius was trying to wrest another out of the window. Smashing it with a piece of metal he had ripped from the panel he was able to send it flying outwards straight into one of its brothers who had just climbed up. Darrel sent the two who had tackled him flying off to the side. They skittered away claws scrabbling for purchase on the smooth metal. Darrel then leapt onto the panel with Caddius. More stealers swarmed onto Darrel until he was covered with the creatures. Caddius tried to help by knocking them off him when the two beasts he had sent flying into the room came springing straight at him. Caddius ducked and the stealers went over his head but into the mass clinging to Darrel. He stumbled back from the combined weight of the beasts. His boots caught the edge of the window ledge. He teetered there for a moment before falling backwards out the window genestealers flying off him.
Caddius gave a silent thanks to Darrel for buying him time to escape. Running for the ladder he clambered nearly missing the claws of the genestealer at the bottom. Going up to the top he flung the hatch open. Looking back down he saw a single genestealer climbing after him claws biting through the metal. He waited till it was almost under him before giving a tremendous kick. His boot connected with the beast's face cracking its skull. It's claws immediately let go of the ladder as its lifeless corpse fell to the ground. Caddius was about to hoist his full body out of the hole when a burst of acid splattered near him. Looking up he saw gargoyles winging through the sky towards him fleshborers at the ready. Leaning against the open cover all of his body from the waist up was out of the hole. Rasing his bolter he sent a set of accurate shots into the gargoyles dropping three. After that last shot his magzine was empty. He ducked back down into the hole pulling the hatch partially closed. Two more acid bolts smashed into the rusted cover melting holes in the metal. Caddius finally got a fresh magazine into the bolter when the hatch literally disintegrated under a spalsh of acid. Caddius hoisted himself out of the hole and rolled behind a venting duct just as acid bolts hit the area where he had just been. Standing up he took another shot and then looked to the tower where some of his brother marines were defending themselves against the onslaught of genestealers. Making a run for the tower acid bolts impacted only a step behind his every stride. He reach the ladder connecting the tower to the roof and went banging up it. He reached the tower just as the squad finished off the remaining stealers. Going up to the commander he got his attention. "Sir how long before we are overrun?" The commander gave him a penetrating gaze. "Well that all depends on how many bullets you have doesn't it?" Caddius turned away and wondered just exactly when the armor column would arrive and how many bullets they would bring.