Please favorite, follow, share, and/or review
The brood that would reinforce me finally pushed my numbers from around three hundred to well over a thousand strong. Mostly made up of hundreds of Gaunts and even more so Spore mines that my Gargoyles held. My vehicle-killing Centaurs were now thirty strong, my losses from before more than recouped by this. Raveners had reached a hundred strong, especially when in the coming days more drop pods landed to swell my numbers further.
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the scar tissue still there and slightly bulging, it's been well over two months- Actually, I didn't know how long I was asleep within the pod of abord the Bio-Curser, so it was probably much longer than that!
I rubbed it and wonder as I still sat aboard a Hormagaunt, a creature built to kill and eat every bit of biomass, just how human I could claim to be at this point. I was able to influence the craftsmanship of the Tyranid creatures and they were an extension of me. Like the muscles within my arm, responding to my will either reflexively or through conscious thought. In fact, one could say that they were me by now. Beings I ordered were made to facilitate a specific need or function like a Norn Queen, everything was in service to me and the brood was just a part of that now. The main difference was I wasn't looking to feel and grow but just survive...
"Well actually feeding and growing is a part of that plan. Quite essential if I'm going to keep myself and the Human Hybrids safe..."
Those were the thought that steadily crept up to the surface from the depths of my mind. To question if I could consider myself human or just a member of a Lovecraftian race. Like the Hybrids just with a lot more free will and choice involved.
"It was Hybrids that gave me this power... They didn't manage to finish the job so perhaps this wasn't what they had in mind? Perhaps I am just a normal guy with Synaptic powers? Still gonna be human in this setting of all places? With my turn of luck?"
The more I kept trying to tell myself that the more the back of my neck buzzed. As if whatever the Hybrids put there wanted to remind me that I didn't understand any of this and the opposite was equally as possible to every question I asked. My existence was now linked to the Tyranids I used for safety, transport, and providing food through hunting and gathering.
It wasn't just all that which spurred on this line of thought at last. Over the past few days, my burnt skin was gradually flaking off and when I had taken off the bandage over my ears last night I felt something stiff there. While it took some time to find a reflective surface I wished I never did. It wasn't carapace but it felt and looked like the leathery skin of the Tyranids. My ears were still damaged but the burns were gone and my hearing had steadily been coming back these past few days. It was changing to look like Tyranid skin and there was no forgetting about this unexplainable event. It was as if someone had placed a patch over the burnt tissue of my left cheek and ear, except scratching it revealed I could feel through it. Which meant it was a permanent part of my face.
"Except I can explain it. I have a piece of some 'Nid in the back of my neck that's been getting stronger." The irritation that brew there when I tried using it and practicing my ability slowly went away. What if... It was like working with a muscle more than I thought and it was getting stronger or just better ingrained into my being.
"Perhaps that is also why my eyes were gaining a deeper hue of red."
But like all the other times I had no answers and only more questions with no discernable way of getting answers. So my only option was to just keep asking more and piling on so many my head hurt and I just shelved this event. As if putting it off would magically get rid of the plainly obvious to anyone that looked at me.
Hence why I rewrapped the bandages and kept the skin chance completely out of sight purely for my benefit.
Purposely moving away from that I started noticing that with so many Sargents and their nature being them having minor telepathic powers to keep other 'Nids in line. They had become something of pack leaders. With other Gaunts following them even Alpha Raveners. Who were smarter yet didn't have the same modifications as my Sargents did. This was behavior I immediately told them to cut out, as the whole point of the Sargents was to seal up the weakness of killing synaptic creatures while not being obvious while doing so. This would key in anyone slightly observant to eventually what was going on.
"Okay, I doubt they can do much about it, and killing a Sargent doesn't disrupt the horde like ones with true synaptic links. I still wanna air on the side of caution."
The brood not even being temporarily disrupted by the death of the Tyranid Warriors was one heck of an advantage. It called for a complete rethink as to how people fought Tyranids.
"Although I think the Eldar must have clued into that fact or at least thinks I'm the one holding the brood together." A bigger target on my back aside, this was a force I left comfortable being surrounded by. My pointed eared guest didn't share my enthusiasm on her way to the latrine. It was almost comical how she tried balling into herself to avoid making contact with all the Tyranids clustering in such a small area. The Orks she just sneered at, especially the ones that looked the most like actual Orks.
There was still no sign of that Psyker man I had spoken with or any other Eldar for that matter. My Lictor scouts were still fine and my forces had yet to encounter any ambushes or booby-trapped bodies. There were Orks running around, patrols, or perhaps just roaming bands none more than a hundred mucking about from the North. Where that, size yet to be defined, starship had been and the scary they had was fashioned into arms and explosives for my Ork boyz to use. All done in a specially made ditch at the far edge of camp away from me and my guest. If anything blew up from their excessive modding I wanted to take precautions. We'd have a lot more for my ship if we managed to take that place.
"Oi boss! Wenz wez gonna go krump somefink?" Tinker asked, even before our link told me his apprehension about the lack of combat. They had all grown seriously restless as when the hundred or so Orks went on the march they had assumed it was to a fight.
Still, their Orkish nature as living weapons clashed with the mind control of the Genestealer kiss. Yet my hold was still strong enough to keep them from bashing each other's or my 'nids head's in to pass the time. The Gretchen and their Squig mounts were less so agitated, the former mainly getting to work under Tinker before I had to cut him off from the scrap. Instead of just modding the shootas or chopped used by the other Hybridized Orks.
A mighty force but I wonder just what the heck I was supposed to do with those Squigs. Most of them could barely walk from the mutations they bore, limbs and thick carapace extruding out in disturbing ways and causing many of them to slowly claw their way forwards. It was really sad for me to watch but for some reason amusing to the Orks. Like they brought a bunch of them from the landing zone specifically so they could have them race and laugh when a Squig rolled onto its back and rolled uselessly trying to right themselves...
The ones that could walk and run with any normality weren't common just the ones able to follow the brood's march. There were dozens upon dozens of these walking mouths and I wonder just what use I could squeeze out of them. Sure just using them as biomass or replant to see if a more useful Ork being would form seemed the obvious route. Yet a simple recycling felt inefficient for my situation so I wracked my brain for a better choice.
"Hormogaunts already fill the roles these guys could and they're far more readily available and replaceable." Just lumping them in any way seemed the only choice though, they couldn't fit in or do much of anything else. "If I'm going to assault an Ork encampment I would like to have everyone fulfilling a role..."
An Ork camp or stronghold more with Squigs of their own and Orks are pretty bad shots... I could have these little guys run into the place to cause havoc. Not on their own though, they were pretty useless by themselves and wouldn't be able to cause as much chaos as my Rippers were.
They could get inside but then what? What were Squigs good for when it comes to Ork? I dug deep into the 40k lore I knew about Greenskins for the answer, which was quite substantial as they were my favorite faction just behind the Imperial Guard. But started to come up blank within my memory banks. Which was filled with mostly Ork and Guard memes, not lore. It was only when my mind drifted to Warhammer 40.000: Space Marine and recall the overabundance of Spore mines I had did my answer present itself.
They could just run at enemies with Spore mines strapped to their sides, moving land mines, or just kamikaze units. There were so many Spore mines here and they were so easy to make. I also had a lot of explosive gear made by the Orks that I could probably find a better use for than with such inaccurate troops.
"Tinker..." The Orks perked up at his boss's voice. "Can you make an explosive that has a trigger that can be activated by the device ramming into something?"
I knew where the Orks lived and I was not keen on dallying any long now that I had an army present. The march there happened early in the morning, before the sun and even risen. Much to me Eldar guest's frustration, apparently she wanted to sleep in. Her wellness was what spurred me into doing this now, she hadn't fallen ill from the food she ate three days back so the Exodites were going to be chill. I also didn't like leaving her here when the bulk of my army was moving towards the Orks crash site. The Exodites might try something with so few forces present and perhaps her being with me would help dissuade some from trying to snipe me.
"They never officiated anything about the ceasefire so I might as well take advantage of this reprieve from one adversary."
Tinker and any other mechboyz would be left with the garrison. They were too important to lose in this assault. The march to the Orkish crash site was not as uneventful as I wanted it to be. My Vanguard of Lictors and Gargoyles made certain I would see any Ork patrols coming in before. It worked perfectly and I was able to make sure none of the marching or driving Orks lived to mention me. The small individual bands often charged directly at my force to be cut down or just getting bombed from the air by Spore mines. The Ork camp wouldn't know for a long time, Orks weren't known for check-ins with there patrols
The land was looking noticeably more like a World War One reenactment with pretty much nothing my dead or dying trees strewed about. The Greenskin's sheer lack for the natural world and even the ground began to glow down my brood considerably with how churned up it had become. Not to mention the frequency I met these groups steadily increased as my brood got closer and closer to the crash site my Lictors mark out for me to follow. Although it got even more noticeable from the tracks of footfalls, tires, and treads. Plus the smoke billowing from the distance or simply looking at the massive starship wreck seen easily without too much jungle foliage in the way.
It was not a complete vessel, more like the front half of one of the medium-sized cruisers in Battlefleet Gothic Armada. It was all crumpled up and ruined. It must have broken upon entry or perhaps before that or something. I could be behind it in some ways but that was a search to be conducted later. It was a ton of scrap though, and that's all I cared about here.
The sun was setting on just, not enough to kill visibility but close enough that we probably had three hours till sundown.
"I wish this thing was more orientated to the east than I'd have the sun to my back and in their eyes..."
It is what is though. And I stopped what I determined to be a fair distance away and we had no patrols seen so my Gargoyles landed to get new Spore mines. I brought up a telescope Tinker made. After several minutes of me holding up a crispy made scope I found and tried to get the Ork to understand I wanted the same but zoomier.
He got the job done at the last possible minute, but I couldn't complain as I asked for it last minute as well. My first thought as held the thing up and viewed through the spyglass Tinker had made was:
"My god are these lenses dirty."
I could see through them but it hurt my eyes to do so. The grime and blur on the front lenses was way this thick and wavy for me to make use of it. I spat onto the front lenses and rubbed the thing on my clothing. Trying to rub off the gunk blocking my view. I left satisfied when I drew it back and had a black stain on my shirt. Confident I had sorted the issues, only to find I had made it worse. The gunk had only been smudged by my efforts and made it go from barely able to can't even see a thing.
I groaned and wondered why I hadn't just checked it before we left camp and the chuckling of the Eldar said she realized my plight. I shot her a dirty look and merely stared from the vast distance between me and the Orkish stronghold. I couldn't get closer I had no foliage to cover me meaning it was a great risk I didn't want to take.
I saw the wooden wall even from this distance, it was the same as the first camp I sacked just with more watchtowers. Likely ones that were worth manning. My Squigs would be needed for this, my plan would involve kicking the hornet's nest and having all those Greenskin charging out into a gun line of Termagants and Centaurs to widdle down the force and prevent any vehicles from causing me too much grief. Hormagaunts, Raveners, and even my Lictors, as few in numbers as they were, would be around you occupy anyone that got too close...
"Actually..." I tested the ground with my foot and noted just how weak it really was. "Would it take much to have some of my Hormagaunts and Raveners buried just ahead of any firing line I made...?"
Would having a partial ambush be better than just a long line of blades? Disrupt a charge even more so what would get through wouldn't be this block of bodies? There had to be several hundred at least within that encampment, just how many could I thin before they'd get here and could I tank the brunt of the charge. Would I just stop them before they arrived?
"One solidified force is probably better, the Gargoyles shall be bombing them with Spores and there will be plenty of distance between us."
That decided I had the Squigs make their move. The dozens upon dozens of creatures were at the very back of the army. In case one of them set off their explosive first and touched off a chain reaction. Most had two Spores mines strapped to either side of their bodies. The ones with the actual bombs and face-mounted triggers went first, charging forwards jaws hanging out at the prospect of getting a meal in. They were ravenous creatures, more so that the Tyranids because they were able to express it. The Spore mined ones follow in waves. Mainly to avoid them going off and killing one another with the blast waves. They wouldn't be able to take out or do much damage to so massive a place I was certain, but they weren't supposed to.
I kept on trying to clean the spyglass as the last of the raced forwards and ordered my Brood to fan out and take up firing positions. It took a lot less effort than one might think, it wasn't as if I need to tell them exactly where they needed to go. I said move and they naturally sense what I wanted through the Synaptic link we all shared. My Tyranid Warrior positioned itself behind the Eldar as our mounts moved to the center of the force. The Orks I had all moved ahead of the army for the bait they were to become.
The woman stared at it all with puzzlement, to me it was a buzzing movement as I was able to feel almost everything the 'Nids were doing. Yet all she saw was us moving in silence and it probably unnerved her even if she didn't outwardly show it. It reminded me of just how apart these things were to me, seeing as how I barely noticed or acknowledged this fact.
My scope was still a bit grimy but at least I was able to make out the red dots getting smaller as the encampment walls got closer. The Tyranids stopped but the Orks kept moving as per my orders.
I couldn't really make out the Squigs getting to the wall after a while. However, time stretched on and no Ork shot at or perhaps seemed to get what was going on. That would have been fairly obvious to see even from here. So it was a good start and I found myself feeling a sense of hope.
"Odd... I thought I had learned better than to do that."
I knew they made it when the explosions rang out, the ones with real bombs slammed their heads below some of the watchtowers scattered about. They weren't possible with any determined distance so some blasts overlapped one another and created bigger holes than I planned. Towers began to topple over burning bright to illuminate the surrounding area. The openings would allow the Squigs to funnel wave after wave in and the Orks should come running over, expecting a fight and getting blasted with acid.
The Hybridized Orks charged while the Brood kept marching information. Breaking the line only to get around the odd tree, once we reach the tree line I'd connect to the Tyranid Warrior and wait back there. Everyone else will deal with the Orks.
Half of my Gargoyles flew in unison overhead to make their bombing run. More and more Orks would bunch up and I had to encourage them to charge out of the camp and into my firing line. The whole process was long, I could make out the pops of Spore mines detonating but couldn't judge their effectiveness with the wall, smoke, and distance obscuring it. Gargoyles were labeled to fly over and with orders to only drop on groups or vehicles, fanned out from their tightly made formation. Again, still didn't know if they were doing a good job or not but I could see from the spyglass the line of gunfire spewing out to hit them. Dozens were cut down as they kept trying to find a target.
"That's fine, I've got plenty more to go..." The Hybrid Ork band was a third of the way to the battle. It was then I saw Orks climbing over the smoldering rubble or opening a massive gate to pour out and shoot at the airborne assailants.
"Finally!" I thought and graciously order my Greenskins to bellow Waaagh and Tyranids to advance with greater speed. Except for my personal bodyguards of course, which consisted of some of my heavy hitters to dissuade any outside force from thinking me vulnerable.
The Orks clambered over the ruins in their walls and the Baneblade sized gate to the case after the Gargoyles soon spotted the other Orks. Bellowing their usual warcry and firing off rounds. So they join in firing back at them, thankfully my Choppa boyz remained still and waited for the opposing ax-wielding guys met them in battle. While still a bit hard to tell they were so focused on the enemy in from of them that they failed to see the new flyers swooping in. The second wave of Gargoyles dropped their payloads, covering the Shoota boyz that weren't mine in a rain of Spore mines.
The longer that group of Hybrid Orks lasted the longer my Tyranids had to line up and fire. More and more Orka poured out but no vehicles. I could only guess the ones manning them needed more time or the previous run by the Gargoyles disrupted them.
The Tyranid Warrior I was peering thought might have better eyesight but not telescopic vision. So I could only make crude assumptions of events as the line of 'Nids began lining up halfway to the Ork camp.
The battle didn't have any clear winner at the moment, my Hybrids were beginning to drop. Not to mention the Gargoyles flying above and spewing their living ammunition now that their payloads were all gone. I had a handful left but decided to save them for the Warboss. Taking him out would turn the Orks into a beast eating itself alive. He wasn't drawn out and oddly enough neither were any Nobs, plenty of big Orks that tried to shove their way into the melee. Though none of the leadership was out yet and I couldn't understand why.
"They can't all be dead and right here is a battle they should be running out to join in the fight..."
The line of my Tyranids begin to march, and so did I to maintain a good connection with the Warrior. The Hybrids all ended up as blacken voids and my ranges units fired into the mass of Orks as they turned their attention to us. The battle was going my way but I still sent in all my remaining Gargoyles to help scatter the mob barreling towards my brood. Centaurs spent rounds to mist as many as they could. Still, it seemed like I was winning...
"I've lost all the Hybrid Orks and the vast majority of my Gargoyles. Yet it feels like there are a lot fewer enemies than there ought to be..."
My forces were mowing them down and the final bombing run sealed the fate of the Greenskins with many fleeing. Most would get away, as the green clouds formed by the Spore mine detonations.
"I... won...?"
My uncertainty would be validated when a bunch of loud explosions would sound out as rockets and shells would blow away the rubble I created. Wartrakk and I men a lot of them raced out of three holes to the west and began firing. There had to be one thirty expanded out, I would accept no smaller and estimated sd the Tyranid Warrior registered a cry of Waaagh! The size I expected it to be and a steady rumble of tanks rolling towards the open gate. They wasted no time lobbing out shells and spewing out heavily bolter shells with their obvious looted guns from a past conflict.
The center and flank of my once large and imposing army were scattered and cut down like a scythe over grass.
The Ork counter-attack tore through my main force, they were putting up on heck of a fight but the armored vehicles were too many. Their firepower mowing down plenty of my Brood and Centaurs didn't have the ammo nor the speed to cut them down before they were overwhelmed by a hail of bullets and rockets.
"D-Did they... wait to build up their force for a proper charge?!" The ones that ran out were just closest to the wall and reacted as Orks would in the presence of combat. But someone managed to gather all their Boyz for a frontal charge like this
The Warboss here knew what he was doing. Not every Ork Warboss was a worshipper of Gork. What few Tyranids remained rallied from the reeling shock to put up a valiant defense. They were hacked and shot apart by an unending tide of Greenskins. Even with the gaps in my army from before their armored vehicles still spewing shots wildly. My Centaurs unleashed volley after volley, too hearty to imminently be felled, and began to swiss cheesed many vehicles. Orks clambering out to fight were cut down in droves, yet this was not the wave of disorganized rabble I had faced and taken out before...
"This is one large mass moving with some semblance of order to them, and no matter how many were cutting down they're is no reprieve." I wanted them to charge out like before but this unified counter-attack held the same danger as the first Wartrakk counterattack I faced when taking the outpost. Many were dropping and even a charge by my Hormogaunts and Raveners did little to help, the gaps were made and my forces couldn't clot the wounds fast enough for it to matter.
I was going to lose this fight.
I sat there slack jaw, wondering just how this could have gone from so well to an utter disaster in a matter of seconds. A hand touched my shoulder snapping me out of the trance. Instead of a snarky look, she appeared deeply concerned. The Eldar nodded her head towards the on-rushing Orks then gestured to our mounts. No doubt wondering when we would start fleeing for what was very much going to be our lives.
I ordered all my remaining Centaurs to follow. But the rest of the brood would remain to try and draw the Orks off us. Firing then breaking into two groups to draw the enemy off to the east and west. Away from the outpost to the south, if they wanted to follow I wanted to make certain they'd be stalled for as long as possible. The outpost lacked the troop composition to be held and I'd need to use the Centaurs to carry what progress Tinker had made on the spaceship and get it back to the landing zone.
My stronghold and only place worth defending and had a sizable force to do so. As I rode as fast as the Hormagaunts could carry us I could only wonder exasperatedly as to how I was supposed to rebound from this tremendous loss...
