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Time seemed to slowly tick by like it always did when anyone would get absorbed in a task. The two armsmen eagerly throw themselves into the assignment of teaching the Great Carrier how to fight. My body no longer jerked as often as it did while dodging. A gloved fist flew right at my weight shift and pulled me away. Leaving an opening for a retaliating and spun in place. Bringing my leg around to strike the head of my assailant. I regretted it as they fell to the then I staggered to one side. Lost my balance due to angling my body too far. Movement was so different now, everyone wasn't slow but I had certainly gotten faster and my entire body moving like a well-oiled machine. One I was still getting used to. Especially with how I could bend it and sometimes I would overdo it and give gravity a chance to yank me down. I felt as if the armored plates were the only thing that was keeping me from bending over backwards. Even after so long it was trying not to throw off a balance that I just couldn't get right when fighting.
Training had been a great work in process over the next days and I was sake to mark a rough movement of weeks. Mainly by keeping track of when Noma needed to fall asleep and wake up. At first, I had seen to follow through with their lessons of redirecting blows or absorbing the shock of an attack. However, when my opponents in melee will likely have powered or chain weapons, I decided not to grow reliant on my armored forearms to stop damage. It was better to learn more about avoiding damage over trying to tank it. If I had come across a moment where I was required to combat that I couldn't dodge the carapace on me was a good line of defense. But to learn enough about redirecting with my bare arms wasn't liable to end well.
There was also the idea of what weaponry I should use besides my claws. The blades left over from the Eldar assault were nice nobody knew how to swing one. The guns were a bit better but limited ammo meant no way of knowing how to take the mags out. Or even camber new rounds, if that was even a necessary action for those types of weapons. It was my claws and just a lasgun only then, like how I had forgone clothing for my carapace armor. And that makeshift skirt.
Then I looked to my purple-colored carapace and realized it couldn't be repaired easily. Even if it's organically made the plates will most likely soak up damage over time and fall out of usefulness if I'm careless. Plus I start to wonder that when it gets damaged I need to repair it but the how part eluded me. I willed the armsmen off to eat and rest while I left the main room lost in my new thoughts.
"That is a question to ask for later, can I easily regrow my body armor?" The idea that damage might mean I would eventually have to yank it off scared me. I mean why not if it was useless, but the thing is a skin to me now... "Will I have to get inside a pod and wait for it to regrow? I hate how I have to figure all this out by myself, so experience in battle is where that question shall be answered."
Unfortunately, that was the case and I sighed the noise barely echoing amongst the flesh walls.
My hand-to-hand drills had been trudging along just fine so was the can dodging exercise. I could tell my reflexes getting better as I maneuvered and weaved through the hail of tin. More than a few still grazed or bounced off my body from time to time. Yet there was a lot of improvement on my part, it was far less than when I started. I felt as if I had earned the right to use words like ducked and weaved to describe what I was doing during these sessions.
My claws were quite sharp too. I took them over to the metal cargo containers and learned just how easily I could drive my clawed hands into them. Then rip off the bunched-up metal as if it was little more than plastic wrapping over a fine meal.
"Someone in flak armor is going to have a bad day if I decided to tear a hope into them." I looked down and flexed my hands, skill covered in that same hard skin. The darker hue contrasts the lightly greyed skin elsewhere on my body. I wonder what that would feel like, tearing open someone with clawed hands.
"Would they scream out in pain and wail for a bit or would they just die immediately and that's that?"
I knew to never go all out with my full strength, or at least what I presumed was, against the armsmen that trained me. They ran the risk of me hurting them and generally I am trying to look after them. So I kept my hands tightened into fists and kept trying to knock them around the normal way. Getting knocked around at first only to pick up on how they fought until I was actually able to swing a fist at them and not only land but eventually force one of them into falling back. Then I was able to take on two of them at a time. Made easier by my armor, increasing homing reflexes, and of course, me just being faster than them and getting better at doing so. As evident by noticing the attacks coming from the cans and seeing the wind up for sparring attacks.
"I wonder how facing the Eldar would go now that I'm so limber and... Well not a suggest human anymore."
It probably wouldn't have gone any better with them being trained warriors with decades and even centuries of experience under their belts. So that thought behind me I kept walking and tried losing myself with anything to pass the moments where nothing happened. Lest I grow bored. There wasn't much else to do but train and the others seemed to enjoy participating and watching these events. It was good to make sure some people were entertained but eventually, I would have to stop so everyone could relax. It was always a dull time when Norma needed to sleep she always had something interesting to say. And I knew enough about running a lumber mill that I could probably get a loan and start up a business chopping trees.
Tinker too had been restless for the longest time, the fight with the Eldar had given him something. But that had to have been a long time ago and wasn't anything like the combat he wanted. Nor was built for real, his Ork instincts to kill were strong but the Genestealer infection the boy was born with proved far greater. A strict order later and he was behaving like any old Gaunt in my army and merely sat in a corner staring blankly at nothing. Waiting to be told to do something.
I had made for the spawning chamber and crouched low to run my hand through the light green liquid. It was warm from consistent use, ready to follow any command for new units. The assimilation of the Eldar genes was coming along fine, the bodies dissolved and was flowing throughout the pool as the Biocrusier tried to see what use it held.
As for the construction of new Tyranids troopers, the Ork genetic material had been soaked up by the ship. Now it could make a new unit, one that looked a bit like a four-paw walking rhino, mins the horn and with the head of a Hormagaunt. It was almost the height of a Centaur but rivaled its tall statue with a lot of meat on the thing's bones. What most interested me about the images the ship showcased was the large cannon mounted on its back. The thing was thicker and a bit taller than the Centaur's cannon, this thing was clearly a form of long-range artillery. Yet it was in me thinking I could make one get a better look at the thing did I learn something.
We didn't have much more biomass from the harvesting on the Maiden World. At first, this seemed utterly preposterous, the surrounding area of the landing zone had been sapped badly for miles and it was slowly expanding outwards. Yet on further inquires did I realize that the majority of what was soaked up went towards the mass troops I had deployed planetside. I ended up using much of what was being taken, combined with the Biocrusier needing to feed itself and the FTL vessels. Meant we had no more biomass from when we started the journey. That didn't mean were low, but I would have felt more comfortable knowing there was an excess that made raising a few hundred Gaunts. Some more Tyranid Warriors wouldn't help either.
And that's just what we did for, well, an unspecified amount of time. No one had clocks and the passage of it just flowed around here and I never bother to keep track of it. So the length until we reached Typhon could have been days, weeks, or perhaps even a month until we got there. No real sleep schedule for me anymore. That meant I had time to watch Norma sleep and food reserves getting significantly lower and my hand-to-hand skills and dodging steadily improving that were used to judge the time. It was probably a significant amount of time before the Cruiser reported we had stopped shooting between the void and arrived far from the green world. A place where we should also look to gather food at. Sure there was that nutritious paste the ship produced but I thought giving everyone a flavorful palate would be better.
"Now I need to find out a way to scope the place out before trying to create a plan of action."
Then a thought occurred to me, Typhon has loads of ships going from it to Meridian and then back to drop off resources. It's gonna be an important chain in the system but what about Calderis? That place was a desert Feudal world and gotta be less important than the other two. The main reason why the Blood Ravens defended it with such fury is that it's one of their recruiting worlds. Space Marine chapters cannot afford to lose any of those. But would it have the traffic Typhon has? Especially with the planet Aurelia having emerged from the warp for some time now and a lot of the conflict centering on there and Meridia?
"There are only two worlds here out of the four that could still have ships floating around. With Calderis, I shall have a far less chance of being spotted and needing to fight with only one armed vessel."
The safest bet if I wanna get my hands on a fleet quickly and perhaps cause a bit of havoc with the Orks. Hopefully, draw a little attention off Typhon in the process then make my move to look for ships there. With a thought, I asked if there could be any sort of last-minute course correction to the dusty planet. Thankfully the Cruiser had a good enough memory to figure out which that was and with a relaxed sigh as we shifted away from our previous destination.
"Okay, let's roll these dice once more."
There is going to be a defensive fleet here, the Tyranids just hit the place over a year ago and now there was the Black legion and the Eldar to contend with. I doubted those forces would give much trouble in space through. I'm fairly certain that while any naval force is crippled and spread thin it's still gonna be a problem with them still being on high alert. Nevertheless, the Biocrusier crept forwards and didn't detect much of anything for a while. So there weren't any patrols looking around the edge of the system or they really couldn't notice a Biocrusier floating through space. Either suited me just fine right now. There shouldn't be any major trading traffic as this was a desert feudal world and as I suspected it would have been far less important than the sector capital or the green Typhon.
"Nor the newly emerged Aurelia with Eldar wraith constructs and brought Black Legion force. That seemed to be based on the ice world."
I wasn't too keen on figuring out just how right or wrong I actually was and held position quite some distance away. Calderis had Orks and a previous Tyranid presence. So the former was the dispersion I was trying to stir up to draw forces off Typhon and the latter had the chance to mean there were more Hybrids I wanted to pull out. They should have a chance at a normal life, or just as normal as any of them could get. All were victims of the Tyranids and specifically their Genestealer Vanguard units and I was probably the only person in the Galaxy who had the power to help them. I wanted to use that, to do something good, a deed to focus on and commit to. It was the best thing I could think of to do besides just run around looking for some world to call home for a time.
So the first issue I had to overcome was figuring out how to get on Calderis's surface without being trapped there. I had no idea what was on the surface or where any Genestealer cults were holed up at. J doubt they had the numbers at this point to establish any sort of telepathic line to me. Nor did I even know if there were any cults there. Not to mention I had no clue where Ork tribes would be, which ones had the most potential to rouse into attacking imperial forces on Calderis into calling for backup. Plus how was anyone supposed to go grocery shopping when we didn't know where any whole foods or whatever counter as a place to buy supplies on Calderis. Probably just a marketplace, although this was a feudal world so they likely didn't have many canned goods so maybe getting food was reserved for elsewhere.
"Just how I was supposed to get a feel for what was down there when I couldn't launch drop pods is a serious issue." It's not as if I could just fire in the dark here. Even if most made it into the atmosphere all it took was a couple dropping into populated areas to unnecessarily kill civilians. Then tip people off the presence of an active Hiveship or more in the void, which was something I was trying to avoid by getting to Orks to attack military targets.
So I needed some means of transport to properly drop off 'nids in places that would be away from a populated area. And not require the Cruiser close to Calderis and risk being detected by a sensor array. I quickly recalled the Aquila transport was still in one of the tentacles but was functional. Plus it could travel through the vacuum of space so perhaps I did have the means to put someone out in the desert to scout around. So who to send was the new question flowing across my head. Creatures that could stalk around the land undetected and built to observe and gather intel in the first place. Plus a unit that could send signals off Calderis and back to the ship so I could hear them without precipitating the need for me to head down there.
Well, I didn't have just one Tyranid that could do that but I did have to the cruiser could mass.
"I need a lot of Tyranid Warriors and a boat load of Lictors made now."
I wanted to know what was going on planet side. Both to learn if any Hybrids needed to be extracted and if I didn't get very many ships here and needed to stir up the Orks into a frenzy. To do that I needed some units on the ground that could scout the different regions and call any Hybrids to them. For that, I needed Tyranid Warriors and their strong synaptic link to communicate. The Lictors would be going as the former wasn't exactly made for being stealthy and the last thing I wanted was for people to see a synaptic creature running around. Those things were always top priory to kill when fighting 'nids. Getting them on the ground would be Tinker and the drop ship's roll.
He'd made a few trips back and forth and let a Warrior and its four Lictor entourage off to start exploring and eyeing mostly Ork tribes to get a good idea as to where they were and who was in charge. As well as the location of any imperial outposts and defenses. I wanted a distracting to draw, the Blood Raven's especially, here but not to overrun and wipe out their ability to defend the local populous.
"I'd go with Tinker to make sure this went completely as planned but if sensors spot the Aquilla or the flimsy thing breaks I'll be a dead man. I can communicate with the Synaptic creatures over a far longer distance and I mostly need scouting data about Ork forced planet side."
As the Spawning pool stirred producing its new quota I sat down and tried to think. Or more accurately expand my mind in an attempt to communicate with any Bioships in the nearest vicinity. I could not risk calling across the entire system, a Psyker with good authority could pick up on that and send somebody to investigate.
"I'm pretty sure sending out pulses like that aided greatly in then finding me flying around Meridia."
Most of the surviving vessels were going to be at the edges of Calderis. It was the same with Meridia so why be different here? Connecting my mind to the ship occurred in a snap, I was a lot better at this and had been changed to be more closely to Tyranids. The synaptic link allowed me full access to the Cruiser's ability to telepathically communicate with other vessels and with it, I devised a signal. A local pulse that would radiate outwards, like a sphere in the four dimensions of space. It was a call from the Hivemind, me for any vessels nearby to respond back. To wake up yet remain still, I would judge if they could move to me or I come to them. To have all records prepared and transmit back what type they were, the capacities, and what they held within them. The pulse flew out with no trouble, I remained connected with my flagship and sighed at how simple this was. I really had become an extension of- or more likely became a Hivemind in and of myself.
Signals came back and my head flooded with information as a dozen vessels scattered in space woke. Woke because I demanded and now locked themselves to my fleet without delay and with little prompt. I was in command and not one was trying to refute that right. Hundreds of thousands of creatures steadily connecting, sleeping still but I could feel a collective consciousness growing in size and power. I guess it should have felt overwhelming to me, but instead it felt like getting on a bike. My mind just knew at this point there wasn't anything out of the ordinary nor off about so many Gaunts and synaptic creatures being connected to me.
"Yeah, that's right my own splinter fleet, now to take stock and learn what I can use."
In the fleet, I had counted a dozen vessels and all were warships. Few were Cruisers like the one I was aboard with the many troopers being aboard their pods waiting for the word to activate. There was a lot more of the smaller nimble craft around, I was going to dub them frigates. Such vessels were a third of the size of the Cruisers and seemed to possess only the front section of them. No internal systems to house Tyranid bioforms and they were apparently faster than most ships in the navy.
"I guess it's sensible to assume that the smaller aspects of the Hivefleet broken here were the smaller craft. One's that could go unnoticed after a sweep was conducted for them."
Because I doubted that the Blood Ravens especially wouldn't conduct a sort of sweep and just assume they got them all. The fact there are ships still loading about and that the Tyranids reemerge across the subsector ten years later is a testament to that fact. Back to the remaining ships, it was the last three that most piqued my interest and excited me. The vessels were much larger than the Cruisers but lacked a lot of weapons and massive maws from eating hostile ships. Yet these three hive ships made up try bulk of the bioforms that were now locked to my head. They were the furthest away from Calderis and the most scattered from others. I guessed at what they were before asking them through the link. Sure enough, I was right and smiled grateful somebody missed these bad boys in space.
Cause what these three lacked in basic ship-to-ship firepower and speed. It made up for it with sheer production ability, several spawning pools were felt beneath and all massive enough to produce a small army in each. Not to mention storage, if what the vessels were getting at was the truth. Then that they were barely running at a fraction of the storage capacity they could for 'nids. It meant I had the capacity to craft an entire army!
"So long as I have the biomass to do so," I thought with a smile and knew the Hybrids would rejoice as well when I broke what we have to the. "For now, time for everyone to simmer down and do nothing to provoke an investigation or response. For now, I needed that scouting data from any Tyranid Warriors."
The ones I ordered were still being made, waiting for them to hurry along was going to take the time I do not want to spend. Especially with Chaos invading the sub-sector. So it was time to see which of them had any Tyranid Warriors and Lictors. I had the ships and means to build an army now, I just need to see if I have the Biomass for it and keep all this unseen from a high alert space marine recruiting sub-sector and any of the other powers fighting here.
"So I guess that last part is the other shoe dropping..."
