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Giving medical treatment to a man who just got both his knees jabbed through the back was, of course, a messy affair. The blades were pulled back out by the Hormagaunt with care, stopping at times when he groaned too loudly. Tears stained his face and blood quickly pooled around the food and stained my boots and pants. I stayed right there through as the slits were covered by medical disinfectant and cloth to hold back the bleeding. The Armsman was trying to be as tender as he could, per my orders, and although he was clearly not a medical professional he did seem to have some knowledge of basic first aid. The crew member got an injection which dulled the pain and was slowly flipped on tho his back once the bleeding was halted on the back of his knees. It was also of blood and he seemed extremely woosy, like from the morphine or whatever equivalent they had in the 40k universe.
The remaining bridge team was lined up against a wall, faces pressed into the metal. The only gunshot survivor was the exception, allowed to remain seated while she nursed the bullet in her shoulder. She too got medicine for the pain but would likely live without immediate medical treatment. These guys got mixed up in all this by my decision to agree with Norma and board this vessel, and I was serious to myself in saying that nobody was going to die When I could avoid it.
"How long can I maintain that through?" A dark thought passed through my mind and rooted itself, I clutched the wounded man's hand tighter. This is Warhammer 40K pretty much every major faction would be jumping to kill me the moment they realized what I can do. Could I reasonably call self-defense in every instance I would have to fight in?
"How many soldiers just with zealous superiors am I going to have to kill just to keep myself safe...?" I was already trying to ignore the pool of blood on the floor, the wounds on the man's knees probably took away his ability to walk. Augmentations existed but could this guy even affort to get them?
I pushed these serious thoughts away to focus on the here and now. "Shem how goes securing the armor and dealing with the communications dish coming along?"
I had changed my orders a bit to also take some guns out of the armory and sabotage the rest. If I was going to dally behind everyone else I wanted to crew attempting to retake the ship have no easy access to guns. Shem's reply seemed to convey he had me under control and I felt comfortable believing him. Even if Absalom was remotely sealing doors ahead of the crowds they were either circumventing or just manually overriding the bridge to open them as he said. There was also the fact that I refused to vent any section of the ship, even if it was ahead of the crowd.
They were in a frenzy and all that needed to occur was for them to unknowingly open a door into a vacuum. My no deaths or harm rule would probably be infuriating to anyone in this universe that wasn't a brainwashed Hybrid. There were likely a lot of people who'd think that trying to be overly moral in 40K is going to bite me in the rear later, that was definitely going to be true...
"Great Carrier, the bleeding has been halted and he will live." The Armsman didn't look up as he said this, focusing on packing up the medkit.
"Leave it we don't need it, Absalom I need a route we can take to avoid the crowds." The former Captain nodded graciously and held up a data slate to do just that. I sighed, knowing that at the very least we wouldn't have to worry about avoiding any angry crowds.
Booking it down to the puncture wound on the cargo bay was quiet enough if you didn't account for our footsteps. Although I did pause when the Hybrids in the engine room ceased being a part of our collective conscious. It was like a void had opened up briefly then disappeared to signify that they died.
"It couldn't be helped without more dead." I told myself before moving on. We got on board my Bio-Cruiser without issue and as soon as our group got deep enough the creature retracted the tentacle and we were off. Not that I or anyone else could feel that was the case I just took the crusier's word and tried my best to convey that it needed to give the planet Meridian an extremely wide breadth. The only way we'd be able to find any other bioships. Soon after that Absalom and I reunited with Shem and Norma in the same large chamber I met the Patriarch in. Except now there was a massive of cargo containers filled with the provision I had bought.
Norma stood immediately upon seeing me and approached, arms out as if about to hug someone."Great Carrier, our kin still feel the loss of our kinsmen from the purge. I am hopeful of the path you forge for us I wish to know what it is so I can ease the pain."
I let my mind wander about and tried to focus on the various Hybrids strewed about. I didn't notice this before, probably because I wasn't looking too hard, but most of them were feeling a lot of the same pain she did. They just didn't express it as seriously as she did, perhaps the weight of her station made Norma act even harder on herself than the others. So I did the only thing that could ease them.
"We have set off for an uninhabited world, so that we may grow the brood and rebuild the Gods above the fleet. That was we man fulfill their holy work in for the Galaxy, there is little else but death for us in Aurelia." The idea of remaining true to the Tyranid's goal seemed to help but there was still an air of unease from killing so many. I didn't know how to cheer anybody up, didn't have to as they would follow me no matter what, but I felt and still was responsible for them now...
"I need to focus on finding other bioships, especially the ones we need to leave the subsector." I took a seat upon my Hormagaunt and tried projecting my mind outwards. Not on the small and short range fashion like with the Hybrids but as far as I could push it beyond the Bio-Cruiser. It was headache enducing but I still tried to keep things up, to sense what was in the void. I still had little clue how I was doing this. It really felt like finding your balance on a bike, something you just do once then suddenly it's there forever. Not much in the way of conscious thought to do it again.
It was not working well so I shifted my focus onto the Bio-Cruiser and saw if I could shift my influence into control over it. The thing was edger to come under my influence but its mind felt... Large, for the lack of a better term. Too much for me to just take over like the Tyranids in my brood. Even the Centaurs I had had only barely worked, they needed to kill a few of their number after all. The Guants and Centaurs I had taken control over was like I had covered their minds with something and it aided me in exuding control over them. The Hybrids had that with the Patriarch but was broken when it died and lesser generations of Hybrids were quite simple to take over. So trying to exercise a full control over the Bio-Cruiser felt like trying to wrap plastic wrap over a boat. Possible but you'd need a lot of wrap to do so.
Out of the blue the Bio-Cruiser had warned me of a ship coming in. It could detect it somehow and at first, I wonder if it was the cargo freighter and that man who started the ship rebellion had completely lost his marbles. However, the Tyranid vessel reported it was four times the size and held serious armaments on the front and sides and it didn't take a genius in 40K lore to figure out what was coming at us.
"There is an imperial warship coming after us!" I said aloud, grabbing the attention of every hybrid in the room. Just why there was a vessel coming at us now had me freaking out. There was no way that cargo freighter could be able to get the emergency beacon on and suddenly they have an honest to God warship here like a few minutes after we left. I do t they even had the time to get the thing on. I voiced as much while attempting to suppress as much panic from my tone as possible.
"Perhaps someone did hear the brief distress Beacon when it was first activated?" Absalom voiced and I just couldn't accept that, yeah sure it had been a few hours but surely they would have tried calling first-
"Oh, right I had the communications array broken..." So perhaps someone did hear then tried to call, and when that failed reported it and with their being Tyranid ships around here they must have taken this seriously enough to check it out. The subsector just fought off a Tyranid invasion after all and had no reason to assume things were completely safe just yet.
I tried thinking about how maybe they would stop for the cargo hauler but they'd have to be crazy to just let a bioship just float away to cause issues. No the only thing I could do was run and try to find the right bioship to travel to that uncolonized sector Absalom mentioned. Although one ship confirming a Tyranid ship would just mean more would come.
"Move you oversized space fish! Fast as you can, give a wide berth to the planet's system!" The thing began to move, not that any of us could feel it without my synaptic connection to it. We were moving and the warship had either spotted us on its sensors. Or if I was lucky missed me then learned about it from the Cargo Freighter.
I wasn't dumb enough to think lady luck was going to help me here nor did I follow through with the idea of praying. I doubt any of the deities would care to help. No, the best and really only choice was the fly away and hope the sheer number of Tyranids Bioships that we're once here combined with basic probability meant I'd find what I was looking for before more ships could be mobilized to intercept us...
The fight was not the high paced action-filled moment one might expect. Space is a big void and these vessels all move relatively slowly, more imperial ships were sent out to get me but none could quite catch up. Soon enough over a dozen Cruisers of various classes, I could not name we're now chasing me. Yet it wasn't all bad, as the usual balancing act I had found a few more Bio-Cruisers and one or two around half the size that I dubbed the frigate, smaller and seemed to have no boarding crew but faster and had more weapons and teeth on the front.
I did the same thing with the Cruiser I was on and the pressure to be fast about it certainly helped. Much like the one I was in the bioships I met seemed eager to come under my influence which was fine by me. I contemplated throwing ships at my pursuers but that would have only been a momentary diversion, so instead I send three bioships in the opposite direction and thankfully some banked off and chased after them as well. They would be hunted down and destroyed and hopefully with the space around Meridian cleared up a bit it won't be an issue later. Lives would be saved in the long term because of my actions here.
Now to focus on my own, I had found three l of the ships I needed to get out of here just floating in hibernation or something. I would be taking them and only them with me, the other Tyranids ships would have to deal with the fleet chasing me. Said fleet had steadily grown as the chase and size of my fleet got larger. It was probably just a dozen Imperial Cruisers with the small things around them their escorting frigates. Relatively low firepower but I was just gonna assume whoever was in charge by now knew what they could spare to deal with this. The ones that broke off were nice but not exactly what I needed and I still wanted a shield to cover my back as the FTL bioships did whatever they were supposed to do.
The three ships crowded close to my bio-Cruiser and started to do their thing. I still didn't know what that was but it was surely taking a long time to actually get done, we also needed to remain perfectly still and not move. Which was an issue because a couple dozen warships were still chasing my ship with annihilation in mind.
"I still don't want to have a naval battle with the ships I now have, that doesn't mean I cannot use them in another way..." It took some mental prodding but thankfully the other Cruisers and transports turned to the side and formed a living shield. The Imperial warships were in range now, according to my bioship, I still didn't know what was going on outside beyond what it could tell me. It seemed like they hadn't fired through, I tried linking my mind with one of the other Cruisers and they just confirmed the Imperial ship was in range but added that they had not fired yet. Odd but maybe they were just temporary confused as to why the Tyranid fleet they have been hounding for hours is forming a barrier and not attacking.
Eventually, they opened up with a few torpedoes and front-mounted batteries if they had any. I have faith in my shield and had them do whatever they could to brace together. Tightening their formation with the use of tentacles I could sense a torpedo impact the body of the Cruiser I was connected to, it buried into the softer underbelly instead of hitting the armor and detonated a second later. The ship was in pain from the blast but was still functional. I did a little check-in and all seven of my bioship were hit but few took actual damage of note, they were all fine and still living.
So my improvised shield still existed and worked but now our assailants were turning about, probably to bring their macro-cannons to bear.
"Why is this taking so long?!" Tyranid FTL has a longer start-up than the computers at my elementary school. Something was happening, I could feel these ships were taking in something and preparing to jump. I still couldn't ascertain a specific time frame, just cross my fingers and hope for the best. We were being shot at and these things couldn't work any faster when they were trying to move one bioship to the next system over? Macro-cannon fire would begin to rain against the barrier of ships. They too fired back with a mix of their own projectiles. I wanted to get them to stop but as evident by me not having full control over them they ignored my orders to just sit there and tank shot.
I mean they were still doing just that only were now shooting back. This went on for who knows how long, the bioship taking more and more damage with cracks in the carapace shells forming. The Imperial ships and their void shields aided them in getting through any return fire. I was worried my shield would eventually break and the vessels responsible for getting me out of the sector shot up next but then we began to lurch forwards. Whatever charging thing they were up to it was done and they didn't wait for permission to activate it.
I felt the Bio-Cruiser I was in getting pulled forwards as if some inevitable force just shot us out of a slingshot. A quick check and the ships that created this were along for the ride. I tore my mind away from the Bio-Cruiser as the jarring sensation of becoming a massive projectile became too much. I fell backward from my seat and breathed heavily.
Shem materialized before my vision soon enough. "Great Carrier, are you alright?"
"I am..." I sighed, relieved. "Yeah, I'm good, we're underway as we speak." I didn't know how and decided it did not matter at all. It just worked and concluded it best to leave it at that instead of wracking my mind trying to figure it out. The Bio-Cruser confirmed that we were sailing through the black void of space between systems and all those vessels on Aurelia were now lost behind me. Taking that cult away, and killing the Patriarch would definitely help. Keep the cults disorganized and the space around the Capital planet wouldn't have to worry about Hibernating Tyranids anymore. I saved more lives than were lost and that's what matters here.
With all that out of the way, I was on a Bioship with food and a lot of still Hibernating 'nids in some pods. The Centaurs were tank-sized and had some seriously dangerous cannons but what else could be here? Was there I spawning pool somewhere I could make use of? Increasing my synaptic connections to these creatures for control's sake was a wise move.
"Well, it looks like getting bored here wouldn't be an issue."
