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As soon as the Raveners were killed and I had the time to process the death of my Hormagaunt I fled the area with my newly acquired brood. We were close to that settlement, not exactly right next to it but it repelled a Tyranid assault and was likely to notice the commotion. As the adrenaline lessened from my near-death experience I began to tire, my body's internal sleep schedule was still on and I had to resist climbing on the back of one of the Hormagaunts less it caused me to fall asleep then and there.

The creatures had been a bit sluggish on the retreat but quickly reasserted themselves and instinctively formed up around me. Four Termagants surrounded me creating a sort of X with me at its center, they shoot taller than the rest and with testing I found they lessen their heights with mine. The rest fanned out trying to maintain a checkerboard formation whilst avoiding trees or thick foliage. The Hormagaunts make a loose crescent-like screen around the front of the group, not trying to hole any particular shape just making a living shield before us.

Of this brood, I had twenty Hormagaunts left from the fight five minutes ago and at least thirty Termagants all with spike rifles I was sure. It was a shame the Raveners got cut down, they were beasts with those six blades and killed dozens of Hormagaunts before going down. Then again a smaller brood would be able to sneak around better and those creatures were quite large for stealth. So it was probably for the best they were taken out.

"I have bodyguards now and that's what matters, they will protect me and are not likely to hurt someone. Now it's on to the next step in this plan of mine."

I needed to get out of this region, somebody is bound to notice those body's and tract this many Tyranids if I linger with them. The lesser 'nids were a dead end and the Genestealer was my only hope now If they didn't know anything I'd have to just pick a direction or steal a map from somewhere. The former left too many unknowns, I could just end up running into a military base. The ladder would involve ransacking someplace and hoping I can find a map I could use.

"Assuming said map works as they do in Minecraft, I don't know how to read a map." That didn't even mention the people likely to try and fight off a hoard of Tyranids and probably die. So really my only options were the Genestealer and random direction held by the hand of lady luck and I was getting the distinct feeling that woman had it out for me.

So with a sigh, I moved towards the Genestealer who had taken up the rear to follow us. I noted how the Termagants shifted to maintain their positioning around me as they had with their previous synaptic creature. The Hormagaunts fanned out in a circle around the group, getting on their hind legs and scanning the darkness. Before I 'reach out' with my mind and touched the Genestealer's. This did start feeling like riding a bike, once you had it you know it almost instinctively.

"City... large metallic buildings... hundreds of thousands of humans within... safe passage to reach..." I tried using concept art from the Halo series as anything from a Hive world was unlikely to be found on Typhoon. The Genestealer remained still for a while before it gave me its reply.

I lit up when the Genestealer showed me images in turn, not just any ordinary place, however, but from the ascending and descending ships, I kept getting it could be a center for vessels leaving the planet. That was perfect, getting off a world that was going to be exterminatused in ten years was my first priority. This was the best step to take in getting the hell out of the Aurelia subsector and far from the events of Chaos Rising. I just needed to get there and slip in and somehow get on board a ship to leave. Yeah, this wasn't going to be easy sailing ever. The Genestealer knew only one route that could take us quickly there, it was dark, damp, hard to breathe, and stretched for miles below the surface...

In short, the fastest way to reach the city required the cave network I wanted to avoid. There was no other route the Genestealer knew to take.

"I was wondering when the other shoe would drop..."


Once I had gained a safe enough distance from the settlement I decide to grab something to eat then some shut-eye at last. I was tired, shirtless, low on fruit, but had significant bodyguards to where I felt comfortable enough dozing off into an unconscious slumber. If something did come after us they'd need to get past the gun line of Termagants and a pack of Hormagaunts. Eventually, I had to wake up to the cool morning air and finally follow the Genestealer back to those dark tunnels...

The tunnels the Tyranids made were something I wanted to avoid not just because there were 'nids liable to be inside of it. Or because the impression I got from it is that they were extremely hot and had less air within them. Though those were serious factors, it was mainly because it meant I would have to be in pitch-black darkness for a long track when I had the vaguest idea of the distance I'd have to travel. The tunnels ended up going through a mountain range and that is the extent of what I knew, the Genestealer wasn't saying much. That much time of me being incapable of seeing where I was going frightened me more than anything else.

At least out here I could see a threat and flee but those tunnels would take away reaction time. Still, it was the fastest way to reach the city and I had a brood of Tyranids backing me up now. Trying to get exactly the path I wanted was dumb to even consider so I was going to grit my teeth and power through the whole journey. Not before a quick stop at a fruit tree, I needed to eat and pack some provisions of course. It was thankfully a lot easier to find and gather enough food for me and give some members of my brood a snack.

"Still don't know if you guys are omnivores or just carnivores though..." I said aloud as the Termagant bit into and gobbled up the fruit like the Hormagaunts. However, it had opposable thumbs to hold it up to its mouth better. These things were just short of me but likely stronger, the Hormagaunt was the size of a large dog but could still support the weight of a five-foot-six inches man's and still run pretty fast.

The Termagant's heads looked similar enough to the Hormagaunts, in fact, a lot about it looked the same except for the bipedal stature and just two arms with no blades just a living gun. The spike rifle caught my attention a moment later and the creature holding it lifted it to eye level for me. It was a long bone-white barrel connected to a bulky grip with no stock. Touching it I noted how it had the same feel as the carapace plates the Tyranids had.

"What does it have a magazine though? How do they reload this thing? Or is that just one of those things Games Workshop expects people to just extend their disbelief for indefinitely? I mean most of us did."

I broke off my attention and turned to the Genestealer, I had a reasonable grasp of my connection to the warrior strains of the broken Hive fleet. They saw me as a synapse creature and just followed my orders because that is just what they were programmed to do. They have no free will other than the instincts pre-programmed into them. That was simplistic but it made sense to me and was easily acceptable. The Tyranid warrior had a bit more free will so it was able to look at me and ask "The heck are you?" but it too was a boatload of pre-programmed stuff so it found the synaptic link and just accepted me as is. The Genestealer?

It had almost as much free will as the Nord Queen of the Hive fleet. They are independent beings and just felt different than the other Tyranids I've been near. Not like the Raveners who felt too 'large' for me to impose any kind of influence over. This thing was designed to act and think on its own while having a psychic connection to other Genestealers and hybrids.

"At least that's the impression I got from the Wikipedia entry and Chiapas Cain books. This could be completed wrong on my part."

Never mind that if this thing had more independence then why did it stat its claws and not attack me? Back at the warehouse, I realized it was totally prepared to jump out and kill me, my Hormagaunt got that before me. Yet it decided not to, the Tyranid warrior just saw the synaptic link and accepted that was it, the Raveners saw me as a threat the moment I killed their leader. So why did this Genestealer see in me that caused it to stand down? Did it not or could not realize I wasn't a hybrid? I couldn't be a hybrid now and just not have the same brainwashing others have, the synaptic connection was to the other 'nids, right?

Once more I tried to connect with the Genestealer but my lack of experience or just this thing being different meant I wasn't able to gather anything. It wasn't like it kept my telepathic attempts at bay more like it had everything in a lock filing cabinet and wouldn't let me have the key...

We kind of just stood there having a staring contest until it moved and I knew from the images and feelings I got from it that it wanted to move. At least that told me I could sense its desire and it likely worked both ways. The Genestealer either didn't have an answer to my questions, had no way of conveying a response or kept said answers to itself. The ladder could prove problematic if it had I'll intentions.

"More questions, no answers. Great, I'll just have to figure this stuff out later. My end goal is still getting out of the sub-sector and making sure these Tyranids don't hurt anybody else."

I sighed and my entourage moved with me as I followed it. "It's time to go traversing through some tunnels..."


The tunnels were about what I expected, the trip here was so uneventful should have been seen as the harbinger of what was to come. Now at first it wasn't so bad, the light permeating from the mouth was something I could look back on and feel some semblance of comfort on. Eventually, that disappeared when we sharted to bend downwards into the stone and earth with my precious UV rays leaving me to pitch-black darkness. I had always heard that people with pure blindness describe it like that, a nothingness where there will never be any degrees of light. Like when you shut your eyes tight but you can kind of see light seeping through.

I wondered if this is what they are talking about.

The Genestealer knew where it was going. I was pretty sure it and the other Tyranids in my brood could not see but was able to sense where they were going. Didn't really understand it all nor, I suspect, I ever would. Right now this was just a temporary pathway I needed to take so I could get off this world and the more I kept repeating that the better it calmed my nerves.

I didn't know how long we had been traveling but it had to be getting close to an hour. The darkness combined with the tapping of feet on the stone and dirt floor began to just blend together within my head. Not to mention air was thin here and my shallow breathing slowly became deeper as we continued. The air wasn't bad or toxin, just thin and it make me light-headed. I had to calm myself because panicking would just require me to use more air and compound the problem.

I was on the back of one of the Hormagaunts with the rest taking up the rear and a double four row of Termagants covering my front. If something came at us it would have to deal with a firing line while I booked it to the rear. That was the plan if anything assaulted us down here. I contemplated asking for some fruit from the Termagant next to me carrying the shirt-bag but decide against it. It would be awkward to pull off in these dark tunnels.

"They seem to be pretty large, I haven't heard anybody scrap past the walls or had anyone bunch up."

The long March continued for quite some time after something shined in the distance. The tunnels had been as straight as I expected with only a few turns or bumps likely due to some hard rock the burrows didn't or couldn't breakthrough. The shine, as I came to realize when I stood straight on the back of the Hormagaunt, had to be a distant light. That sparked a renewed hope for this journey to end soon until I recalled us descending a bit so why would I just see a light at the end. Upon closer inspection I realized we weren't just getting closer to it, that light was also coming to us.

Carried along by someone who needed it and could hold it. The column stopped and my brood sensed my unease and concern and tried to form a defensive front. The Genestealer was confused by the action and I had to wonder if it just couldn't see the potential threat coming at us. But no, these Tyranids had far better eyesight and senses than I did and it really didn't think what we were going towards was dangerous. Trying to focus my mind the Genestealer seemed to think what was coming was supposed to... help?

"Is that the word you wanted to express?" I muttered but of course, it didn't answer. So cautiously my brood inched closer to the fast-approaching light. It got bigger and brighter with the tapping of shoes and boots echoing on the floor, which made me assume humans but surely they would have noticed the Tyranids. They would have fired if they were hostile.

Which could only mean one thing. A thing that was confirmed when they closed the distance and I saw. Mainly limbed beings with large foreheads, a purple hue to their skin, and some had claws. None of the Hybrids made any attempts to shield their bodies here. Suddenly the Genestealer's thought about this helping me made sense.

"It called their brood down here from who knows how far away..."

I kept my lines of Termagants where they were but got off my Hormagaunt to better present myself to them. I didn't like the idea of being here Hybrids, these were the things who cut open my skull and shoved something in. The Hybrids held flashlights that they redirected away from my face, it was still hard to adjust under these conditions but I was able to make out their expressions.

Their very excited expressions, like my siblings and I on Christmas morning. Then they were the more developed hybrids that remained neutral about the whole thing, the sheer contradiction present unnerved me.

One of the Hybrids stepped forwards, a woman, who wore a purple robe and hood and was clearly the one in charge here. She drew back the hood and I was a bit surprised to see an almost human face staring back at me, there was a purple hue and her forehead was a bit bulging though she could definitely pass as human with makeup.

As soon as we locked eyes an unsettling grin grew across her face. "Great Carrier, we are all marveled by the chance to bask in the presence of the siren of our lord!" She held an air of religious ecstasy to her words. Reinforcing the idea that she is an important figure here. "The dispenser of the God above directed us here and we followed the will to serve the lord's will as it stands!"

"Great Carrier...?" I said aloud, that didn't sound good. I knew something synaptic-related was in my head but not what. Or from which Tyranid creature it came from. "What does she mean by siren? Do I even want to know?"

She continued regardless of my visible concern and confusion, either she didn't notice or care. "Our lord's star fairing vessels yet live and the broods are still-"

"Wait, wait!" I waved my hands out in front of me and she stopped, her creepy grin never wavering. "You mean to say there are still Hive ships out there? How?!"

"The Space Marine fleets may have been ruthless in their annihilation of the fleet of our lord, but some yet remain at the corners of the sector slumbering. We know of one oh great carrier, a patriarch has been reborn and the brood shall rise once more!"

There was a near-deafening and fully united cheer from the Hybrids, it broke the neutrality of the later generations of hybrids. As their voice bounced off the walls I tried to ignore it as I considered the information. Going into an imperial city then getting on a ship would mean ditching the brood I had and thusly the only defense I had. Getting on a warp sailing ship to leave to parts unknown and even harder and risk-filled idea. But a Hiveship?

"I don't know how those things work but they have to use some form of faster than light travel right? That could be my easy ticket out of this subsector!"

Was it the best-laid plan, no, was it better than what I was going to do and take Tyranids out of this soon-to-be Chaos infested sector? Yes, At this point I needed to take advantage of circumstances and opportunities even if they weren't perfect. First things first I needed to get off Typhon.

I smiled, not a happy one just to make a polite look. "You wouldn't happen to have this brood established within this planet's commercial center do you miss?" I gyrated my hand and she caught my meaning.

"Norma Meer Great Carrier, and yes, that is where we have come from following the trail of the pure one!" She waved a hand towards the Genestealer and I had to wonder what else it had done without me knowing. "One of the holy gift-givers had delivered this man to us! Entrusted our brood with delivering the Great Carrier!" A few others cheered and I smiled, hoping they would take it as a good sign.

Did it do this to make it easier for us to slip in or some other more sinister desire... Well, I had a brood of dozen of Hormagants and Termagaunts at my back now, so I'll take this gamble for now.

"The name's Michael, now lead me there my dear, let us continue the work for our lords above." An anonymous phone call to the Arbiters would be prudent after I was guaranteed a way off the world. It would be the least I could do.