The last mission. The first drop. We have cleansed our planets of the
Tyranid Menace, and now it is time for them to pay for what they have done.
Our last mission because this will end the Tyranid Threat forever. Our
first drop because no longer are we fighting defensively, we are assaulting
their home world.
Being first in line, I will be one of the few, privileged soldiers to see the planet at ground level, without the chaos of battle, and I shall be one of the first to fall to the horror of the Tyranid Swarm. My helmet's display fills with serene blue waves. This was designed to calm us down before the drop so that we don't bust our pods on the way to the planet's surface. The waves slowly recede through the bottom of my visor.
Then, suddenly, the last little bit of blue drains away and my view flashes once, step forward, twice, secure rifle, three times and I jump forward into the slimy gel they use to send us through space, let us survive the atmosphere, and, hopefully, the impact. Down the line, two- thousand other soldiers step forward and into the chambers as well. The other 18000 will follow.
The world goes black and I can feel the cold of space even through the gel and my plassteel suit. Now red, and the gel activates under the intense heat of the alien world's atmosphere, cooling me down. Finally, my suit and I slide out of the gel as it hits the ground. I live, for now.
But then I notice it. All around us are the sheer cliffs that make up the terrain of this world. And on those cliffs.termagaunts! Termagaunts everywhere! I was wrong, there would be no time to take in the beauty of there world. They begin to fire upon us. Their weapon fire bounce harmlessly off of our suits, being designed to withstand fleshborers, but they keep shooting. A soldier falls to the ground next to me, a spike protruding from his leg.
"What happened?!" I scream at him.
"Spike rifles, watch out!" Came his reply, as he dove forward and knocked me out of the way of one of the hideous sharpened cylinders the termagaunts use as heavy weapons.
"Get back to the transit pad and warn the rest of the army, then get yourself out of here." I say as I help him off of the ground.
"I'll be fine, I'll just tell them and head back here."
"No, you won't, your suit's already leaking, and you don't have much time. C'mon!" I help him back to transit, throw him into a dropship and hit the evacuate button.
I watch him fly away and I head back towards the battle. More soldiers are helping the wounded to the dropships as I draw nearer. I manage to get off two shots before the order to retreat flashes across my HUD, slightly obscuring my view of the battle.
"Why are we running? We had those 'gaunts outnumbered ten to one!" I ask one of the soldiers near me.
"Spore mines." She is able to reply before the first one hits. Way off target. But the blast still made everyone stumble.
"We're not going to make it, run to the caves!" Comes the shout from a nearby officer. As I get closer to the safety of the caves in the cliff face, the ground begins to move beneath me. A crack appears between my feet but I keep running. Other soldiers are not so lucky. As they stare at the quivering ground, frozen in fear, the huge mass of the Carnifex rises up from the subterranean tunnel it had dug. The men still standing atop it are raised into the air and fall to the ground with sickening thuds upon impact. Some live, but they cannot escape the massive feet of the Carnifex as it brings them down upon my comrades. I can't look. I stop watching and head for the dropships. The caves were no longer safe. One hundred yards left. Now eighty. Fifty. The last twenty and I break into an all-out sprint. A sound beside me. I turn to my left to look and the last thing I see is the horrible claws of a Genestealer smashing through my faceplate.
Aftermath: the Second Life of a Soldier
"That's how we found him." Came the cold voice of the doctor as she pointed to what seemed like a corpse in armor. "He should have died when the claws broke the glass on the helmet."
"He's lucky." Was the response.
"But.when they went through his head.that man should not be alive!" She finished up.
"And yet he lives, not only that but there appears to be no permanent damage to him at all. It's as if the Genestealer wasn't trying to kill him." The other said.
"Maybe we'll get him back into his armor before the end of the month."
"We'll see."
And then the change happened. First inside, where no one could see. The soldier's genes were switching, trading out with those of his invader's. Slowly, with the help of the new species of cell in his blood, his body healed itself on its own, and then the outside began to change. First came the skin, it darkened and became rougher, thicker. Then his nails hardened and grew longer and sharper. His eyesight increased ten- fold. He obtained infravision and a sense of smell keener than that of a bloodhound. His head took shape and his spine came to the surface of its, no longer human enough to be called his, back. He stood up, ripped a hole in the wall, releasing the atmosphere in the room, and strode out of the medical outpost to join the test of his species, while the soundless screams of the dying scientists echoed in the chamber behind it. And thus, another servant of the swarm was created.
Being first in line, I will be one of the few, privileged soldiers to see the planet at ground level, without the chaos of battle, and I shall be one of the first to fall to the horror of the Tyranid Swarm. My helmet's display fills with serene blue waves. This was designed to calm us down before the drop so that we don't bust our pods on the way to the planet's surface. The waves slowly recede through the bottom of my visor.
Then, suddenly, the last little bit of blue drains away and my view flashes once, step forward, twice, secure rifle, three times and I jump forward into the slimy gel they use to send us through space, let us survive the atmosphere, and, hopefully, the impact. Down the line, two- thousand other soldiers step forward and into the chambers as well. The other 18000 will follow.
The world goes black and I can feel the cold of space even through the gel and my plassteel suit. Now red, and the gel activates under the intense heat of the alien world's atmosphere, cooling me down. Finally, my suit and I slide out of the gel as it hits the ground. I live, for now.
But then I notice it. All around us are the sheer cliffs that make up the terrain of this world. And on those cliffs.termagaunts! Termagaunts everywhere! I was wrong, there would be no time to take in the beauty of there world. They begin to fire upon us. Their weapon fire bounce harmlessly off of our suits, being designed to withstand fleshborers, but they keep shooting. A soldier falls to the ground next to me, a spike protruding from his leg.
"What happened?!" I scream at him.
"Spike rifles, watch out!" Came his reply, as he dove forward and knocked me out of the way of one of the hideous sharpened cylinders the termagaunts use as heavy weapons.
"Get back to the transit pad and warn the rest of the army, then get yourself out of here." I say as I help him off of the ground.
"I'll be fine, I'll just tell them and head back here."
"No, you won't, your suit's already leaking, and you don't have much time. C'mon!" I help him back to transit, throw him into a dropship and hit the evacuate button.
I watch him fly away and I head back towards the battle. More soldiers are helping the wounded to the dropships as I draw nearer. I manage to get off two shots before the order to retreat flashes across my HUD, slightly obscuring my view of the battle.
"Why are we running? We had those 'gaunts outnumbered ten to one!" I ask one of the soldiers near me.
"Spore mines." She is able to reply before the first one hits. Way off target. But the blast still made everyone stumble.
"We're not going to make it, run to the caves!" Comes the shout from a nearby officer. As I get closer to the safety of the caves in the cliff face, the ground begins to move beneath me. A crack appears between my feet but I keep running. Other soldiers are not so lucky. As they stare at the quivering ground, frozen in fear, the huge mass of the Carnifex rises up from the subterranean tunnel it had dug. The men still standing atop it are raised into the air and fall to the ground with sickening thuds upon impact. Some live, but they cannot escape the massive feet of the Carnifex as it brings them down upon my comrades. I can't look. I stop watching and head for the dropships. The caves were no longer safe. One hundred yards left. Now eighty. Fifty. The last twenty and I break into an all-out sprint. A sound beside me. I turn to my left to look and the last thing I see is the horrible claws of a Genestealer smashing through my faceplate.
Aftermath: the Second Life of a Soldier
"That's how we found him." Came the cold voice of the doctor as she pointed to what seemed like a corpse in armor. "He should have died when the claws broke the glass on the helmet."
"He's lucky." Was the response.
"But.when they went through his head.that man should not be alive!" She finished up.
"And yet he lives, not only that but there appears to be no permanent damage to him at all. It's as if the Genestealer wasn't trying to kill him." The other said.
"Maybe we'll get him back into his armor before the end of the month."
"We'll see."
And then the change happened. First inside, where no one could see. The soldier's genes were switching, trading out with those of his invader's. Slowly, with the help of the new species of cell in his blood, his body healed itself on its own, and then the outside began to change. First came the skin, it darkened and became rougher, thicker. Then his nails hardened and grew longer and sharper. His eyesight increased ten- fold. He obtained infravision and a sense of smell keener than that of a bloodhound. His head took shape and his spine came to the surface of its, no longer human enough to be called his, back. He stood up, ripped a hole in the wall, releasing the atmosphere in the room, and strode out of the medical outpost to join the test of his species, while the soundless screams of the dying scientists echoed in the chamber behind it. And thus, another servant of the swarm was created.