Please favorite, follow, share, and/or review


The sun had already rose over the tree line when I opened my eyes. I didn't sleep that well last night the hard ground and my Hormagaunt pillow were not exactly comfortable. Yesterday had blurred past with preparations and waiting for my Lictors to report back anything they could find. I got nothing though, thankfully, as a sudden assault by a mob of Orks could have decimated me. More troops had arrived and bolstered my Gaunts to a few hundred, mostly ranged-based Termagants but there was plenty of Hormagaunts for melee situations and I even had a dozen Raveners, two alphas for any Nobs that might now up. Sargents of course made up a tenth of the forces so my single synaptic Tyranid Warrior could focus less on keeping this horde in line. It really was a horde by now too. They kept away from the batch of trees Absalom and I resided in but the three-mile radius I had chosen was cluttered with Gaunts like a cockroach den.

All of my Tyranids could see in the dark so everyone would be working until they were pushed to their absolute limit. My Centaurs had been working around the clock to secure the area to my specifications. Gaunts and Raveners had all been slashing and eating away at all the smaller vegetation. Anything that would block the bunker's viewport and shield the Orks. Not that I presumed any Greenskin would take cover just needed to make sure the Termagants could fire on them at maximum range... That I haven't checked yet. Seven wide dugouts had been made a mile out from my bundle of trees all planted in a ring surrounding the center point. Each of my bunkers were literally a dugout with dirt piled to allow a viewpoint outwards and thick logs stuck in front for extra protection then slanted over the back to provide a roof. A dozen Termagants packed tightly together could fire from it. Openings at the side allied them to crawl into shoot from the sides. Mainly to keep grenades or any other thrown projectiles from just being tossed over an exposed roof. They would, hopefully, just roll down the back and detonate away from the heads of the Termagants. How effective such makeshift bunkers would be against a full-blow Ork attack wasn't something I was looking forwards too.

Orks had a pretty simple and relatively predictable attack pattern as I noted in the books I've read. See a fight, run at it screaming 'Waaagh' spraying bullets vaguely at the enemy, and try to wade onto combat with choppas.

These hard points I was hoping would get them to rush and bunch up for the buried spore mines scattered about. Orks were simple creatures. It was my theory that giving them an obvious target would get them bunching up and focusing on the repairable bunker with replaceable units. Rather than the Centaurs and their anti-tank guns. The trees would slow down any mass armored attack if they had that many and my Centaurs would have to do the rest. Taking care of vehicles and any larger in charge Orks was going to be key here as my mines would have to be for groups of infantry. I wanted to get this done as soon as possible and get more Termagants and spore mines down here. Getting the Orks to fight on my terms was going to be key to beating them off. Routing them meant killing the Nobs and getting them out here was about widdling them down with attrition. They weren't going to be smart enough to just shell me into oblivion.

"At least I hope none of them would be..." I thought anxiously, the armor I wore might help. If the round being fired was really now caliber, but these are Orks. If any actually got past my defenses and into melee range I would be screwed, one lasguns wasn't going to do much. "There is a lot of vicious-looking Tyranids around so perhaps we Orks would just focus on them."

I had no way of evacuating the planet, just running into an unknown jungle. Or flying, I had the Gargoyles and two could carry Absalom and myself easily enough. We'd have nowhere to go through. So a stand would have to be made here. Well, by the time any of the Orks would get to me the battle would have to be over by them. Hence why the defenses were essential.

"Is there anything I can assist with here?" Absalom asked, breaking me out from my thoughts and back to breakfast which was just sitting on my lap. I took a handful of the... meat? Before answering him.

"Not really no, my Brood will handle everything present," I said turning up to see him leaning casually against a tree and wondering something. "You don't know a whole lot about Orks right?"

He frowned. "There were always Ork vessels harassing shipping whenever they could..."

"But not really about them on the ground though right?" Absalom shook his head, he wasn't going to be much help here sadly. A trader hauling goods back and forth to worlds his entire life wasn't going to be well versed in worldly things.

"Tell me about what your life was like before becoming a part of the brood?"

"Routines mainly. My father had me learn how to read and count as soon as I was able. There was much competition for hauling goods and one needed to be savvy for getting someone to think your vessel was the best. Deals made quickly and quietly are not as uncommon as dock officials think."

"So smuggling people and things aren't out of the ordinary for everyone else. If the competition for hauls goods was high I guess getting money any way you can " Explained why he brought out the bounty on my head and tried extorting me and not questioning why it existed.

"The war must have made it a bit easier if ships were being lost." The incorrect assessment if his dry laugh was any indication.

"The arrival of the great fleet three everything into chaos. Many ships were destroyed, others were forced to haul soldiers and equipment at reduced rates or no cost at all."

"They couldn't just pick and choose what they hauled?"

"When an entire subsector is placed under martial law the Guard can do just about anything to us citizens," Absalom explained with clear disdain in his voice. "There was also a lot fewer people wanting to ship goods off-world, and invasion shifts their priorities. Especially when they didn't understand how joyous the event truly was."

"I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised. In the Ciaphas Cain book Caves of Ice, there was a ship captain that wasn't very enthusiastic about helping the Valhallans. I'm pretty sure it was implied they were a civilian ship and we're pressed into aiding them." Perhaps that's what the genestealer brainwashing latched on to that? Or it's how he rationalizes joining up with the Xenos that attacked his home.

"Your ship looked better off than most." At least I presumed, it looked a lot better than how imperial vessels were described.

"Yes well, I don't mean to sound prideful." He straighten his back and smiled graciously. "I am quite the negotiator."

I couldn't help but stare at him. "Let me check that..."

Absalom let me get close and grasp the side of his face. I implored him to try and recall as much of his past meetings and was glad to learn the man didn't try and implore blackmail in every dealing. Just a few he could get away with. There was a lot of personal bias to be sure but I still liked what I was seeing.

"He looks completely human and could serve as a diplomat, not the best but hey, golden opportunity to be sure!" I thought enthusiastically and I even felt Absalom fill with even more pride. I wondered for a meant until realized this wasn't just peering into someone's mind but connecting them. It seemed to have a two-way street and I disconnected with haste.

Absalom didn't seem confused or questioned it just kept leaning against a tree feeling proud of my previous thoughts.

"So normal I could sense their minds and get emotions and a general sense of what they're thinking. Now we can firmly connect like this..."

I couldn't help but wonder if I could try something similar with the Tyranid Warrior but at the distance. Make it my eyes and ears while I'm far away. Sure I could 'see' things through my Gaunts and other Tyranids but they lacked the sentience like me to know what an Ork was. All they told was large, dangerous, and shot projectiles from guns. I would have liked a clearer picture and the synaptic Tyranid Warrior might help so I called it over.

It crouched down and I entered its mind same as Absalom. The man was an individual and while I could get into his head it wasn't like I could control things like here. The Synaptic creature's limited sentience was made clear when I rooted myself deep into its mind. At least I hoped that's what I was doing here. Being the first to have this power meant I was never sure if something I did was what I wanted or just a figment of my imagination.

I was like an alchemist of the middle ages trying to make gold, except I had a very real possibility of success. So I had myself inserted into the mind of the Tyranid and had it transmit what it saw and heard into my mind. It got jarring fast. Suddenly I was looking at my face with the after image of the Warrior, my hands still capped against its sides. Being able to peer into my brown eyes without a mirror plus getting sound far more clearly from the synaptic creature's eardrums had me staggering back and into Absalom.

I thanked him for catching me and blinked at the two images in my eyes- no my mind was getting information through the Tyranid Warrior and my own vision. Closing my eyes helped elevate this issue and the blackness it created was like a blank wall to project myself being propped up by Absalom. I raised my hand and tried adjusting my hair because man does that look like Carlos's in the RE3 remake.

"I really need a wash."

Putting that on the back burner for now, I refocused on the triumph that I was not seeing things through the synapse 'nid. I clasped my hands together in that cliche fashion someone in a show or movie would do, but I couldn't help it. With this, I could safely view combat from... I'd need to test the range on this... However many yards or hopefully miles away without putting myself too much into the line of fire.

I sat down and had it move over to one of the bunkers. It was like viewing one of those videos when someone has a Go-Pro on, just more eye level than on your head. Its hearing picks up every rustle of the leave and branches and every snap of trees being yanked from the ground and piled. Observing the second layer of my defenses, or just the clearing of the area for their eventual erection. I could feel all my Tyranids before but with my connection to the synaptic link, things felt more, grounded in a way. Before they were beings out there but now it was more like being able to feel the immune or nervous system at work. Little and large things move with predetermined purpose from place to place and the patrols are like nodes ready to send out a single when harm came. Bunkers like white blood cells are ready to send out antibodies to stop said harm.

I brushed off the comparison fast after that. I didn't want to start believing these things were somehow a part of me. They're just animals I control now, the Bioships is the one that chooses to make them and I am unwilling to participate in their synaptic connections, a conduit and not the source...

"I think..." My hand came around to rub the bulging scar tissue there. I didn't want to put any more thought into that right now. So when I got a message from elsewhere I took the distraction without hesitation.

It was from three of my Lictors, the ones I had sent in the general direction of where the Ork party came from. I knew it wasn't going to be goods news, so it wasn't too unexpected that they telegraphed a large group of hulking figures coming towards the landing zone. Nothing specific, of course, I made an attempt to try and connect my mind with one of the pairs of eyes there to no avail. Whether that's because they were synaptic creatures or distance had to be figured out later. I had an Ork mob to deal with.

The mines were in the ground and bunkers ready, so I supposed a test was in order to see if my plan worked. I had almost three hundred Gaunts scattered all over the place but I was still hesitant to just drown the Orks in a tide of organic blades and rounds. If I could beat them smart that was obviously the better outcome. Although I wanted to be careful but not too much that it was to my detriment. So holding off a bulk of my Gaunts from the bunkers was a no-go.

"Dig a trench, between the spaces of the three westernmost bunkers now." Every Centaur stopped what they were doing and moved to follow my command. Hormagaunts did the same, grabbing foliage and branches to fulfill my plan.

"Absalom," The man perked up, like a dog hearing its owner calling. "Orks are on their way, I need you to remain at my side at all times!"

I made it absolutely clear to him that there would be no argument or personal initiative on his part. He nodded but I had a Hormagaunt personally assigned to watch him just in case.

All I knew was it was a large mob of them coming this way. I had no idea how large but was just gonna assume they had the numbers to be a threat. It was made up of Orks after all, they almost always move in large groups. I ordered the Lictor to keep after them and be careful not to be spotted.

"Send me the Gaunts!" I telepathy shouted to the Cruiser in orbit. "I don't care if the batch is read just send them down here!" I needed to make some last-minute preparations...


To say I was nervous would be an understatement. Before I ran away from combat but now I was sitting around waiting for it to come to me. With little clue as to the force we were facing. They had no vehicles, such things would be loud and I'd hear them knocking down trees before they'd get here. So they had to be infantry only. The waiting was making me seriously nervous though. My bunkers were stocked up, traps laid down, and soon we'd see just how effective it all was. I was inspecting the front one of the bunkers, situated between two and the one likely to be hit first and suffer the most hits. Fifteen Termagants were packed in so they had the numbers to take up the viewport to fire out if some got killed but not too much that the Gaunts wouldn't be able to maneuver within.

The piled dirt and broken logs now looked flimsy with me right up next to it.

"Will it hold?" One rocket through the viewport and they'd all be dead. The two bunkers thirty yards to its side might be enough to get the Orks to break up their attack and run to them once they saw the foe in front of them was gone... I was presuming here greatly which didn't help calm my nerves. I eyed the three massive bundles of branches and leaves behind the bunker, each the size of a Lemon Russ spread out a little bit back from the bunker. I thought about praying to whatever deity would listen that the disguise would work. Then decide against praying because the last thing I wanted was one of the four chaos beings to take an interest in me. There were three more Centaurs planets behind the northwestern and southwestern bunkers crouched low and ready for the order to unleash their shots. If any vehicles did show up they were going to have a bad time.

"Magnificant isn't it?" Absalom added crouching down to eye the Termagants lined up inside, he reached into runs his hand up one of their spike rifles.

"Uh, what?"

"The Greenskins don't know what they're up against. The Gods legions are numberless and their ferocity in battle unmatched."

"I'm pretty sure the Orks could make a good counterargument against that." Absalom's confidence wasn't rooted in facts but an idea that the Tyranid's 'holy mission' could not be hauled but delayed. Even if we started losing he'd probably still think it was a momentary snag on the road to victory.

"That's brainwashing for you. Plus if he's lived on a ship mom's of his life he probably doesn't even know what Orks are like." Nor would he get a rude awakening of I had anything to say about it. The lasgun was strapped tightly around my shoulder. The last thing I needed was for him to pick it up and start shooting easily tractable red beams.

It was the Lictors calling me to say the Orks were almost here that had me ordering him to mount a Hormagaunt. They leaped over a long line of branches and left made between the spaces between the three bunkers. My bundle of trees was well enough out of the way. Plus I had more than a few crouched Hormagaunts and the Gargoyles here just in case. So I felt safe putting my back to a tree for cover and connecting to my Tyranid Warrior. Said Warrior was now my eyes and ears in the fight positioned behind the southwestern most bunker.

Its heightened eyesight and hearing made scanning the grounds easy and note it was not as clear as I would have hoped. The whole area starting from just outside the trees I was under and expanded outwards halfway into the second-mile-wide ring I was forming. Was stripped of trees and foliage like a bunch of leaf cutter ants had come through. The grass was trampled into a paste and debris from the well over a hundred trees that had been pulled up into many pyramid piles that were still scattered around. Not much cover except for the bunkers inside but the distance from said bunker to the tree line was almost fifteen yards. A distance Orks could likely close in short order.

There was no time to think more about it as they were closing in. The Tyranid warrior could hear them rustling through the foliage of the jungle and I informed my Termagants in the center bunker they could fire as soon as the Orks were in sight. After a few more tense moments of waiting, where could feel sweat fall across my brow even connected to the synapse creature. They fired.

The shots weren't very loud, a little splunk from the guns pressing out the spikes as a volley fired out to little effect. The Orks, sensing a fight, at last, erupted from the tree line and surged forwards. Their balistic rifles spewing out hot lead while others waved blades about, they all filled the air with 'Waaagh!' But they were Orks, so their shots were about as carefully aimed as someone peeing in a public bathroom. My ears picked up Absalom ducking close to the ground as some shots even whizzed high above and impacted the trees. Some bits of branches and leaves rained down.

I ignored it, we were the target and the likelihood of being bit was astronomically low.

The horde had covered half the distance to the center bunker and more were still pouring out of the jungle. All wore a serious variation between full scrap armor, just metal here and there, or just a plain shirt and paints. Their impromptu formation was that of an arrow pointing directly at the center bunker. The closest fight to be found and the horde was about thirty yards wide, I had been right to assume they'd be a massive threat. I had the other Termagants join in. Bursts of dozens of spike rounds flew out but no Orks dropped. They had an extremely high tolerance to pain, as I recalled from the lore. Still, things were going as I had planned, they were two-thirds of the distance from the bunker when I gave the spore mines their orders.

Only one to give to living explosives really.

The blast, like the spike rifles, wasn't very loud but the conclusive force blew out wide and sent leaves scattering to the wind. The Tyranid Warrior's senses felt it too and I was glad not to be over then as the synapse creature buckled under it. The majority of the Ork horde had been covered by the acidic cloud that had a distinct red mist to it. Body parts were even landing beyond the green cloud and I now knew the blast radius and force, so I needed to redo the remaining mines if we made it through this. The gunfire and screaming had died except for my Termagants who let out a few more bursts to down what few Orks they could see through the mist. Eventually, it died down enough for me to see that enough Orks to threaten me were still around. Many were trying to get out of a tangled mess of limbs they were blown back into. One far larger and armored with cannon strapped to his left hand looked to be barking out orders to what was left of his boys.

"There you are," I thought satisfied, it was doubtful that was a Warboss but certainly a high-ranking nob judging from the size and looks.

I was just about to order my Centaurs to fire when a coupled more sensibly armored Orks stepped forwards. Then hefted odd-looking rifles and unleash a barrage of rockets toward the center bunker. Literally dozens of them. The bunker was engulfed in flames the second they impacted, some fell short and blew the already disorganized Ork horde further into disarray. Dirt and flaming logs flew mainly backward and into the plies of leave and beaches. The concealment of the three Centaurs behind it had thankfully been held and they were still covered by the smoke and fire from the blast.

The direct foe before them now gone the Orks would naturally gravitate towards the next fight. No reason I couldn't encourage them. So I had the Centaur groups behind the northwestern and southwestern bunkers stand and aim at the Nob but mostly the rocket launcher boys. Six massive organic cannons unleashed large projectiles that moved too fast for me to see. Yet their result on impact could not be ignored. The shots tore through the armored and masculine bodies of the Orks like tissue paper. The shots were, much to my surprise, incredibly accurate. The Nob lost his upper half by one of the shots.

There were still plenty of Orks around to cause me concern. More so because they didn't start breaking apart with their leader dead.

"They're not Tyranids." I reminded myself. "If I can get them to route then the group will turn on itself but as it stands they're still too worked up to just run just a few more losses, that was something I could do.."

While I was still a bit nervous it soon died down once I saw that the blast from the mine really sealed my victory. The disorganized, not that they had any in the first place, Ork band was now breaking off into three groups. Two running for the remaining bunkers which weren't sending out as many spike rounds due to a poor angle. Then a third far smaller group around their fallen leader who looked to be squabbling over leadership or loot... Probably both.

Thankfully I had something in place for the former two bands. The lines of leaves and branches stretching between the space between all three bunkers bulged up and the remaining Hormagants I had opened fire from the concealed trenches. The Orks had thankfully formed lines as they buzzed toward the other bunkers so the Termagants were still able to hit something. Soon enough some Orks broke off and made for the trenches, screaming their typical warcry. I contemplated setting off more mines but decided to hold off for now. The Orks were being cut down now but few were closing the distance.

This too I had planned for.

Four Raveners also concealed in wider holes in the trench line burst out. Accompanied by Hormagaunts who surged forwards to assault the legs and pin down the Orks. I saw one Choppa boy easily hack the head off and gun down another but soon enough there were too many and he flailed around wildly trying to kill them all. Then one of the scythe blades of a Ravener buried itself into his head. It was the same over both lines the Orks were slaughtered nearly to a man before deciding to leg it. Soon enough a succession crisis would consume them so I had little to worry about another assault once they regrouped.

I had my Lictors chase after them. If they made it back to camp I wanted to know how far away it was and if more were coming. I had the Tyranid warrior survey the battlefield and eyed dozens upon dozens of relatively intact Greenskin bodies. I order my Hormagaunts and Raveners to start cutting off heads and dragging the bodies to pile them near me. Disconnecting from the synapse creature I cranked my head around to return a smile to Absalom. He knew the battle was over and presumed we won, no reason to make him think otherwise.

I then turned to the Genestealer who was standing at the ready like the Hormagaunts and gargoyles around me, they relaxed once they felt me do the same. I had plenty of bodies to infect and then plant around here. I had a lot of debris from the trees I pulled so maybe I could try burying a few rather than just leaving them out in the sun?

"How much space between bodies do they need?"

My mind was now of from the fight and now onto preparations for the next and then I'd have to deal with another. Until I had conquered the planet nobody was safe going to be safe.

"Especially not me."