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The three of us moved fast towards the side door, if people were coming here I needed to get out. Even if they didn't see the Hormagaunt there would still be some rather straight forwards set of questions that I couldn't answer truthfully. Seeing as how they would all be crazy answers to them. I was hesitant to let the Genestealer go first, even if they were mainly infiltration creatures that didn't mean combat was out of the question of it felt like that was necessary. I wasn't about to let violence break out if I had the capacity to prevent it. Not to mention any gunfire that broke out could end up endangering me as well.
I didn't have the control over the Genestealer as I did with my Hormagaunt. Even if I told it to remain still and let me peak out the door, I felt as if I more persuaded it into doing it. As the creature had to pause before accepting my order as if it was taking a few seconds to toss the idea around in its head.
I should not have been that surprised when I saw at least three Guardsmen with the same uniforms from the temple. I only wondered if they found the corpses then just followed our trail. Neither of us we being careful getting here and hunting Tyranids was what they were in the jungle for. This was a jungle planet too, it stood to reason the regiments Typhon raised would learn how to track targets through the Jungle especially the one on their homeworld.
"They're still a fair distance away, we can still slip on by." Thankfully Genestealers supposedly had strong instincts not to engage in combat when the odds didn't look favorable because it thought much the same.
We all slowly crept behind some of the large machinery, to use that word fairly loosely. The Genestealer and Hormagaunt were the only ones that could move carefully and not attract attention and especially being midday my red pajama pants would make me stick out like a sore thumb. Thankfully the troopers were taking things slowly and not moving towards the side door but the main hanger-like ones at the front. While they weren't coming towards our hiding spot it didn't mean they weren't too close for comfort though.
"Isn't this the place where we lost the Captain?" Someone asked around with a thick accent I could quite place.
"Aye poor lass, and we just cleaned this placed out too. Damn 'nids are like cockroaches I tell you." They were trying to be quiet but the words got carried by the breeze and I was able
"Except cockroaches don't rip people apart with claws and teeth." Another far older voice that I was certain came from a Sargent answered. "Now cut the chatter, we need focus now, the tracks are still fresh. If this is a den company command needs to know."
By the sounds of it all these were the same Guardsmen that intervened and saved me. I didn't recall seeing any Chimeras around. Yet I was sprinting away from here and perhaps rolling up down the dirt road like they owned the place would have tipped the Hybrids off. It seemed like that whole situation was a total shock to the Genestealers with how sudden it all was.
The three of them moved like professional soldiers, covering each other as one moved, using the saw tucks and plies of logs for cover. Although I have never seen troops back on Earth. Just action films and in video games, I doubted the produces did much to be accurate in those. They were also coming dangerously close to overcoming our cover. While they weren't close to it all someone would need to do was turn their head and see some shirtless guy with a gun and weird bag next to a crouched Genestealer and a laying Hormagaunt.
We needed to move before that happened, this was obviously some kind of scout force, so getting past would be that hard. Especially since they were focused on moving to the other ending of the building away from us. It just meant we all needed to move over half a dozen yards to the nearest piece of cover with no foliage to shield anybody.
I tried to pick our moment well, waiting for them to be focused on going straight and just overcoming our stop. I was tempted to just run as fast as I could but it was still midday and fast movement was more likely to catch the eyes. So against every instinct urging haste the Hormagaunt and I kept as low to the ground as we could and carefully made our way to a pair of large metal stakes that were used to store up wood once cut. It was mostly empty but probably good enough to let the Guardsmen pass.
It was the Genestealer that was better at stealth than we were. Moving on all fours snd shuffling low with speed and care that made my crouching form look and feel unbelievably sluggish. I could feel my skin grow slick from the sweat, not just from the heat either. My mind was conjuring images of one of them turning around to fire on us, it would be so simple. I kept my eyes focused on our destination and the closer we got the more and more my nervous attitude got stronger.
Any second things would go back, any second I'd be a dead man. It wasn't until we all had made it around the wood holder and I was certain the three of us were fully covered from the gazes of those Guardsmen did I relax. Letting out a great sigh it was as if all my fear left with my breathe like exhaust from a car's engine. I couldn't help but turn towards the Genestealer as it looked at me perplexed by the intense emotions I felt.
"I supposed you wouldn't know much about fear, you've only got a basic self-preservation instinct to prevent yourself from dying pointlessly." I don't know why I said that aloud though. It was not liable to get what I truly meant even if I used my apparent telepathy.
Acceptance of my connection with these creatures had to come at some point. It was telepathy plain and simple, either that or a Hormagaunt as just a psykers that just happened to have wanted to connect with me. The Genestealer was much more and it kind of frightened me, what would happen if it decided I wasn't Tyranid-like and death was preferable. What would happen if I met its patriarch and it decided I was better dead. Still, something that wasn't immediately going to kill me was better than nothing, I had to find somewhere safe and this Tyranid with higher intelligence is my best chance of that.
"Right now let us just focus on leaving the area." I carefully stuck my head over the cover and still saw the three of them focusing on moving towards the hanger doors cautiously. "This is our chance, if they turn to position themselves in front of the door we'd not longer have their backs to us."
So with just a few more yards from the treeline and the soldiers being far enough away I just ran to it. Followed closely by my Hormagaunt and more carefully by the Genestealer. Then just like that, we were covered by the foliage and wide trees. Still, my mind couldn't shake off the idea that any of us had been spotted and those three Guardsmen were coming to gt us. So I ended up hazarding a peak to check.
I poked my head out from the tree and didn't see any of the Guardsmen. I should have just ducks back behind the bark but kept eyeing the area to see a glimpse of them. I did... and one of them saw me, we were separated by a far twelve yards but I knew he was looking right at me from behind his visor. My guy reaction was unfortunately not to book it out of there but just stare back. Broken when the Genestealer stood up to see what I found to cause me to pause like a statue.
"'Nid!" He called out for his companions and they too stood up and leveled their weapons in the direction I was in. One of them didn't even wait for orders and just fired. At the obvious Genestealer of course, it was a clear threat here. The gunfire had it ducking back and me scrambling for the back of my Hormagaunt as soon as I latched on it sped off into the jungle.
A few speculative lasrounds flew over to leave burns over trees before we got out of there. It was mainly the same as the last few times I was sped through the jungle on the back of this creature. After a few seconds, my mind floated to the Genestealer and we stopped. Sitting up to peer behind me I wondered if I had just lost our newest member. Until I 'felt' then heard its presence traversing not the ground but trees. It swung and leaped from branch to trunk using its claws to follow at astounding speeds and it hung just over me. I wanted to resume racing through the jungle but we had no destination, the fruit tree was an enticing location seeing as a refill of my 'bag' was perfectly sensible. Yet where from there would be the next question. So I turned to the Genestealer and it hopped down from the tree sensing I wanted it to.
"Okay now," I looked deep into the yellow eyes of the Genestealer, it stared right back. We both engaged one another and I felt it... I supposed connecting with me was the best way to put it. "Take me somewhere safe."
I knew that safety was seriously relative for me in this world. Just because I didn't encounter threats for a few days. It just meant this location didn't fully warrant mass patrols but that could change fast once other parts of the planet had cleaned up the Tyranids there. But if there was anybody who knew where a safe space it had to be a Genestealer.
Granted I was more than aware this place would have Tyranids in it but the vicious beasts thus far weren't going to be immediately hostile towards me. I was willing to throw the dice on whether or not meeting more would end up acting the same as my two current companions. Sunlight was fading from the sky for the second time since I woke up here as I was carried just behind the Genestealer who moved with surprising speed through the trees. Whether that was an inherent trait or something it gained from a creature on the planet I had yet to determine.
We made fast progress to our destination, which was highly familiar to me. Large holes and tons of rock strewed about in front of it all like some massive ants has been here. The tunnels weren't somewhere I wanted to head into but I could 'feel' no ill intent from the Genestealer. Also if it kept me away from confrontations with even more Guardsmen then I was happy enough to grit my teeth. I was still puzzled by the Genestealer or more accurately by how it 'felt' to me. I could sense emotions rolling off it but it felt more sealed off to me, the Hormagaunt, by contrast, was opened like a book yet didn't have emotions to the intensity of the Genestealer.
"One is a machine running off pre-programmed instinct the other is more akin to an artificial intelligence," I concluded. "There is probably more to it than that but it's likely the gist of it all."
The Genestealer entered the mouth of one of the caves, it clearly knew where it was going. I kept my Hormagaunt close in case I needed to make a quick retreat from the area. The tunnels were pretty wide but still, the sun's ultraviolet rays failed to penetrate deep enough into it. It was mostly due to the poor angle I was certain. Sound passed through far better and my ears detected tappings on the ground fast approaching. I couldn't get a good read based on sound and moved further in cautiously. There were heavy steps but also quieter ones happening faster and something that I thought was a heavy object being dragged along.
Then I stilled as my eyes adjusted enough to make out a Tyranid warrior slowly emerging from the darkness. This one had a large biological rifle slung under it unlike the bladed one from the settlement. It stomped forwards and I fell back bending down to level its eyes with mine. Even if I came here looking to meet more Tyranids it would be lying to say that I hadn't immediately thought about turning tail and bolting out of here...
A vice-like pressure returned, the same dance as the times before just with a different partner.
It was a bit perplexed by my appearance but I could feel it steadily relax as the pressure increased to the same uncomfortable levels as before. I held onto the lasgun but did not unsling it. If the Genestealer thought I wasn't a threat then maybe the warrior would do the same in a minute. It's not like I could kill it with one Hormagaunt and a single gun even if we were at close range... Especially when it had a whole brood behind it... Not even mention the Genestealer at my back-
"Jesus Christ I am practically surrounded!" I thought almost ready to panic as the Tyranid Warrior was still eyeing me up. My Hormagaunt turned around, ready for me to hop on its back to flee.
My heart was pounding as the nine-foot-tall thing kept on looking me over, even slouching to fit through the cave it was still intimidating. By design, I knew. Its warm breath wafted over me and for a moment I thought I was about to become mincemeat. Then it just pulled away and kept moving out of the cave with its brood once more. Either it decided I wasn't a threat or just another synapse creature I could not say but at least it meant I was able to remain here without being killed. Perhaps determining what I was could have been what that last Tyranid warrior was trying to do. Like the Genestealer but somehow it felt less 'personal'.
It moved out and towards the tunnel entrance and was followed by a brood made up of dozens of Termagants and Hormagaunts. I had to press myself against the wall as they moved past, there had to be a mixed mesh of over forty of them. Three taking up the rear were new though.
These things didn't have legs but slithered on snake-like tails just with no scales. Six arms were donned on its abdomen with long pointed blades curved down like the Hormagaunts scythes but thicker and not serrated. Starting from the upper body and going down I noted the arms and blades got a don't shorter in length. Their heads had a distinct similarity to the warrior but I didn't feel the same mental impression as I got from the warrior or Genestealer...
I pulled off the wall and followed close behind and eventually I decided they had to be Raveners.
The Genestealer had backed off and remained with me but it was clear it wanted me to follow it further into the caves.
"Not going to happen, even if more Tyranids are not hostile to me. That place is going to be dark and could even be hard for me to breathe in." So I decided to follow the brood I just met instead.
Traveling through the jungle was all I was able to do at the moment and... I have really made no progress towards anything these past few days. I need to focus my efforts on getting out of this jungle then planet before chaos shows up. Things are only going to get worse for Aurelia and probably in a couple of months too. So here I was watching a brood of Tyranids likely following its last orders from the hivemind going out to terrorize some people just to be wiped out later. And me wondering just how I could make my situation better. Moving through the jungle right now did mean I would be more likely to meet a lot more hostile imperial, with my fluctuating luck so far that could happen any hour now.
A thought entered my brain as I looked to the brood of smaller warrior forms and Raveners crowded around the Tyranid warrior as they all exited the tunnel. Forming a protective circle around them as we all marched through the jungle. These were the perfect bodyguards. Like my Hormagaunt they just do as I wanted and keep me safe. It would take serious work not to accidentally sick them on someone but if I really wanted to get to a city perhaps having something people were liable to shoot at first before me.
With a bunch of Tyranids at my back, I could remain a bit safer from anything that might try and kill me. Whether that be Guardsmen, Space Marines, or wild animals. An escort to the city then just ditching them in front of a firing line. Meat shields and if push came to shove and the city plan didn't pan out as I wanted protection would still be good. It would get to where I wanted to go and remove dangerous creatures from the jungle, the more time they spent escorting me the less they'd be assaulting settlements. People weren't likely to die if I managed to gain sway over them.
While that idea had formed and taken root it eventually begged a brand new question.
How do I take command?
