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I was a man on a mission, to kill a Patriarch and seize dictatorial control over its Cult. That would be one of my objectives done. Then my scouts will keep looking around for mechanized Ork tribes. Plus an airfield, if that idea isn't panning out as needed. My scouts already have a general sense of where Orks were mucking about. It was always in small groups wandering around, they were pretty broken from the Blood Raven's efforts and Tyranid invasion.
"I guess phase one would be to find an airbase and kidnap some Orks to build ship before rilling up an Ork assault?"
Yeah, that sounded like a good start. Before I started shaking things up around here I should have a means of escape or start making it. Being able to flee is more important than drawing off attention from Typhon and other planets to gather a few dozen more Hiveships for the fleet. The priority shall be getting the Hybrids and myself off Calderis. It wasn't difficult figuring out where the cult was located. With my Synapse creatures help they already pinned down the general location of the cult. As I approached that area a strong presence steadily began to grow in size. It wasn't one being either but a lot of individual blips all interconnected, as was the nature of a Hivemind.
"Gonna keep killing their leader to myself. I am not going to have a repeat of the last time I tried killing a Patriarch." Especially with the Hybrids being its bodyguards they'll die in droves. It was the bioship that helped me greatly in surviving the onslaught of Genestealers. But now I didn't have an organic vessel that could shut doors not ensure I would know where to go. This place will give them the home-field advantage.
"Could I get the Patriarch alone?" I wondered, mentally plotting a path to my hostile takeover. "Get it to follow me into a place filled with Lictors and Tyranid Warriors... Eh, probably not. Why would it just follow me into some faraway zone from its Hybrids? The one on the Bioship was absolutely surrounded by guards."
I think the reason why it personally chased after me is that it didn't see me as too big a physical threat. I doubt this one would, now that I've changed my body and gotten a better understanding of my synaptic powers. So if drawing it into a trap wouldn't work could I draw away its guards instead...?
"The how part of that plan escapes me." I did order a few groups of scouts around the region to converge and assist me. I will have five Tyranid warriors and about twenty-five Lictors counting the ones I have now. It wasn't an army but I knew how effective both could be in combat, they didn't even need to kill any Hybrids. Just keep them off my back until I kill the Patriarch and take over the cult. I didn't know how long that would take...
"I don't want to kill or maim any Hybrids... Maybe the later generation pure strains I could live with... I'll have to wait until I get there and see the location, then I can devise a better plan." One that doesn't involve mass murder.
My mind wandered back to the Spirit Stones still clutched in the arms of the racing Lictors next to us. I still had those things and wondered just how useful they could be in some future encounter with Eldar. Yes, I knew there is a force in the sub-sector but I also knew just how intensely protective they were of these things. With my luck would it be a good idea to keep them? I could just have the Lictor stop and lay them under a tree covered with leaves or something. They'd divine where it was right? I could just get rid of them. I kept them safe enough and eventually the warriors who tries to kill me and did kill a few Hybrids would be returned to their Infinity Circuit. It more than made up for my rage-induced mistake.
The Lictor itself began slowing down as my consideration began to take hold. But a conflicting idea meant no true order came through just yet.
"What happens if I do get rid of them now and suddenly lose a bargaining chip? Or just something that could get the Eldar here's attention to that I could explain that my efforts wouldn't hamper theirs if they just didn't attack me...?"
A long-shot idea I'm sure, though it wouldn't be the first gamble I have taken in the past year. Insane to think that if I factored in the time traveling through space it has essentially been a year since I popped into existence in 40K. Going from roaming around the jungle hoping I'll get enough food and shelter from the elements, hoping I wouldn't run into something that won't kill me. To now pondering being ready to kill if and when the needs arise. It did yesterday with those Guardsmen from shit luck and my stupidity. I am going to fight one of the intelligence behind the Tyranid vanguard and what has to be the most dangerous Genestealer on the planet. That phased me less than needing to kill more human soldiers to get a ride off this dust ball.
"They are monstrous entities, not people, the Hybrids are less so cause they retain some semblance of humanity. But those guys were human beings so it greatly complicated things."
And I decided to end my line of thought on that matter. I will kill in self-defense of myself and the Hybrids or do so in an effort to preserve more life. I mean the Imperium operates along similar principles, I'm just better because I feel conflicted about it. That had to make me better, especially in this horrid universe...
The closer we got to the Cult's location the clearer picture began to form as to where they hid. The road went from sand to paved in concrete and instant as we went past a large truck, the place where the wheels would go was almost the size of the Lictor in height. With an equally massive bed for its back that could carry the Tyranid Warrior sitting down. Although the thing looked as if it was hastily gutted of the engine and multiple parts. Black parallel lines signifying tire marks crisscrossed all around us.
With the number of marks present. There had to have been more than one and all were constantly hauling fully loaded. Plus the one here being cut apart could mean Orks were here at one point and drove off with the rest. If the Genestealer Cult set up residence here there aren't any more Orks in the general vicinity nor in what I was certain to be a mine entrance. It fit the bill of one. In that, I vaguely remember aspects of the beams and machinery lying around being similar looking to that one mission in Dawn of war 2. There was also some serious noise and raddling coming from some of the machines. The mass of minds within the caves could be felt even through the rock. But I suppose non-psychic physical barriers cannot block a telepathic ability.
There were many Tyranid Warriors and Lictors still coming but I hopped off my ride's back and moved towards the Mine's entrance. I wanted to get things moving as fast as possible and besides spending time just standing outside the place felt wasteful. The entrance was wide enough to allow for mine carts the size of small cars to be comfortably placed on two sets of rails next to one another. There were lamps but most seemed to be broken, an intentional action by the half a dozen pure-strain Genstealers lurking in the darkness. Likely the guards in case anyone wandered in. Even if my enhanced eyesight didn't pick them up I could feel their psychic presence. I moved unconcernedly with the synaptic creature and Lictor right behind me, the latter of which still holding onto the Spirit Stones.
We kept a brisk pace, casual really as I took in my surroundings. The twin tracts had more than one cart each but some were upturned ahead or partially filled with rock. One had its contents spilled over the midsection of the floor and while I and the Lictor had little trouble traversing over. The Tyranid Warrior was already a bit cramped and we needed to stall as it crouched and maneuvered over the debris. It was actually kinda funny to watch the thing raddle back and forth as the ore and rocks shifted from its weight. Nearly falling flat on its face several times.
That amusing little hiccups aside, we passed many more pure strain Genestealers. It seemed like the Patriarch wanted only the real stealers watching the entrance. Brushing that aside it was the Hybrids I was most interested in seeing right now. Keeping the thoughts about overthrowing the Patriarch away in the back of my head. I noted a far better-lit zone ahead and it was teeming with life. So much so that I paused just to analyze the sheer numbers connected to the brood mind. Once I regained my bearing, I jogged the final forty yards until the narrow tunnel gave way to the far more open zone.
The place looked like someone pushed a cone into a muddy mound. It was the widest where I was making my way over to peer over the side revealed it got narrow as you went down. The whole place could probably hold a Warhound titan if it crouched. The mine cart tracts forked at the entrance I came from and into a junction that would allow them to be separated into another set of tracts. Running parallel to one another just like in the tunnel. It was also better lit with power coming from somewhere so light up the main walkways. I turned and regarded the denizens of this colossal mine.
"Oh God..." I said aloud as my eyes settled on a pair of Hybrids. They were pretty sickly looking, their tanned skins seemed to hold a ghastly white to them. My gaze moved about to see more lounging about and while some had plenty of meat on their bones. Many more looked a bit skinny for their age and it contrasted greatly with their Tyranid arms. The usual bulk that same from the Genestealer infection increasing their muscle mass seemed smaller. As the claws were given this illusion of being elongated yet closer inspected said they were of the same size as mine. They just had skinny hands.
It was then I got hit by a wave of hunger from the Hybrids. Walking down the lane of mine tracts just showed me group after group of starving Hybrids. Or getting pretty close to starving as they were hungry. Any pure strain I saw on the long walk to the Patriarch was nowhere near as starved for a meal as the various generation of Hybrids were.
"Calderis is a fuedal dust ball. I doubt there's much food to scavage from the surrounding region." So their sheer lack of sustenance made sense, although the pure strains and third generations seemed better fed. I wonder briefly what food the Hybrids could try and sustain themselves on. Before brushing that away for some other time. I had work to do.
There were a lot of Hybrids, huddling about in small groups or wandering briefly between them. There had to be well over a hundred on this ring. Most of which felt like latter generations of Hybrids and I could even feel the strength of some minds increase as I approach the Patriarch's nest.
It was only then did I realize that none of the Hybrids were reacting to me the way Norma and the rest did. They were remaining where they were and mainly regarded me with blank expressions. As if that light of life had been suppressed. I had seen this before, on the Biocrusier when the Patriarch realized I planned to kill took control over the Hybrids. This one had overwritten any semblance of free will and made them just an extension of its will. That might be why they were starving yet weren't expressing that much.
Finally arriving a dozen or so yards from the Patriarch's nest. They were flanked by three crudely robed cultists. I could tell by their psychic minds they had to be powerful psykers. My gaze roamed upwards a noted the same body and height as the one encountered on the Biocruiser. Hovering a few feet over me. Except it seemed to be missing it's lower left arm, the stump up to the elbow only existing. And it had many nasty lashes and tiny holes over the armor. This one had seen combat on its rise to the top. Moving further up we locked red eyes at one another.
I felt the memory of the first Genestealer I encountered in the warehouse on Typhon. Mirroring what it did, the Patriarch was eyeing me up and I could sense it was trying to get an idea as to what I was. After a period of staring and Psychically probing it decided I was a variant of Tyranid and went back to settling on this haunches.
It was curious, as it could identify me as the one who told it to cease calling for the fleet. Yet here I was on the ground with no massive landing force. I didn't really have an answer beyond 'don't question it everything is going well'. It thankfully seemed to accept that and now I had plenty of time to plan.
"Alright, I have now identified the threat, it's time to figure out how to proceed."
My backup of twenty-three 'nids arrived in waves so I had a lot of time to look around the mine. During that time I found a few generators outside the place some Hybrids would periodically go outside to check up on it. Each was a gurgling, rattling thing that shook violently as it powered the whole place. Yet it didn't produce any smoke, just steam. I didn't even try to understand how the thing worked without breaking itself.
I also took a closer look at many of the Hybrids around the main ring and man did they look famished. They were eating but it seemed as if they had run out of food. Some raw meat was being snacked on mostly by the later generations. For some reason though I found no first generation or I played humans. The cult was hundreds strong yet had no first generation or humans with more in the way. It was a bunch of pure breeds and very obvious looking near Genestealers with four arms, bulb-like heads, and most were hairless.
It was a mystery I couldn't ask about as the Patriarch was holding everyone under the influence of the brood mind. Unable to think nor act for themselves.
"Well, then it was time to free them."
I didn't have all the Tyranid Warriors from the region but that was fine, I suspected the force I had was large enough. I had devised a plan to draw away as many from the Patriarch and especially deal with those four Psykers. The cult had guns and explosives laying around in piles, so I acquired them. The generators were important, I wasn't going to blast all of them but enough to cause a ruckus. A Lictor already had the explosives. A couple of grenades it could pull would deal and would be detonating them soon. I was lounging around next to the Patriarch and had unslung the lasgun and flicked to the high semiauto power setting. Tyranid Warriors were scatted all along this side of the ring, said ring stretched on for about three miles around and was the only place where the Hybrids were concentrated at. While I would have liked to bring all my large synaptic creatures in to just overwhelm the Patriarch I felt that would've made the thing suspicious. The stealthier Lictors crept around better so they made to subtly surround the Patriarch in case those three Psykers became a problem. I would need time to take control of the brood mind and a lot could happen in a few seconds.
Two generators detonated outside. I couldn't hear it from here but through the Lictor I was connected to. The blast was also heard by the Genestealers in the tunnel and the Patriarch parked up both at the explosion and the brief dimming of the lights as the remaining generators tried compensating for the loss. My eyes closed and my mind wandered into the Patriarch's, filling its head with the sound of gunfire and images of the exterior of the mine flooded with Imperial troops. The thing's reaction was quick and in line with what I hoped would happen. Its eyes glowed as it spoke its will through the brood mind to order is mostly malnourished brood to rush and secure the only entrance. The hybrids were weak but rushed to defend their Patriarch from the perceived threat. Booking it away from and past the nest it sat on and even the psychically gifted Hybrids moved a few steps ahead.
"Good for me."
Three Tyranid Warriors some yards distance behind us with a dozen Lictors blocked any more Hybrids from rushing towards their leader. Ahead a similarly sized group also formed a line to block off any who decided to turn around. Six Lictors poised behind them, ready to jump the robed priests the moment the Patriarch's head blew off. I stood cautiously, taking aim at the side of its oblivious head before pulling the-
In an instant, the thing lashed out with its only arm on that side and knocked the rifle out from my hands, and roared. Perhaps it was the barriers I had formed or the Lictors behind it, or just the synaptic link. Cause something alerted the Patriarch to my intentions and now its Hybrid army turned to rush the Tyranid Warriors and Lictors many had guns and started peppering them but many more just ran with their claws to try digging past their armored forms. They didn't take it standing and frailed about with their twin swords and spare arms. Slicing many in half, beheading them, or ripping off limbs and chunks of their bodies with elongated claws. The twelve-foot-tall Warriors were too close together to fight effectively and were easily pushed back a few feet. One to our backs was even tacked to the floor, covered with Hybrids eagerly ripping into its leathery skin even as it bit off heads and clawed at the backs of its attackers. The Lictors had an easier time tearing apart people but there was too many rushing against them to hold the tide back for a long.
The lines I had them from being a serious disadvantage to the wave of murderous claws and bullets. I had no time to even tell them to space out or stop killing people as I was rolling away from the many hands of the Patriarch all poised to rip me apart for my treachery. The only help I had was the Lictors who all rushed the Patriarch two tried leaping onto it with one being caught with one of its right arms while the other tore into its body to rip a heart out. I was stuck wondering if I should go for the Lasgun far away or towards the Psykers who were already cracking with energy. I decided they were too big a problem to ignore and slipped past the oversized Genestealer while it was finishing off the Lictor in its hand and tossing it to knock back two more of its kind. The Psykers had the telltale electricity coming off them but I was thankful fasted and they had no other weaponry. One had their throat almost completely slashed apart from one mighty swing with my arm and the remaining to died so quickly it wasn't worth mentioning.
That done, I ducked away from a Lictor's head tossed behind the Patriarch as causally as one would throw away an empty can. I didn't even need to look to see why, only three Lictors remained and one was currently in half coating the floor with purple ichor. One had half its face badly sliced and many of its tentacles there gone or hanging by a few thin threads. The Tyranid Warriors and Lictors stemming the tide were faltering and had already killed far too many people. I had to end this soon before the body count could mount even higher. I planted myself on the thing's back and dug my claws into its eyes. They blinded the creature easily enough but it grabbed me with both its upper hands and gripped hard. It was only the intervention from the twin Lictors that saved me. I would be tossed hard onto the floor, the wind knocked out of me, but not torn apart. Catching my breath and finding the lasgun now next to me, which was just my luck because it made the next part a tad easier. I had the two Lictors rush and assault the legs of the Patriarch, digging into its knees and pulling them out. Its back hit the rocky ground with a mighty slap.
I wasn't about to waste this opportunity and surged forwards, leaping onto the Patriarch's body with my armored shins first to have it roar before cutting it off by shoving the lasgun's barrel into its mouth. It was still semiauto but the speed by which I was pulling that trigger might as well made it full auto. I could have pulled me off while I was melting its brain matter but the Lictors already sense that concern and moved to grab or just stall any retaliation. The muffled roars died out as its skull was blown off by red beams of light spewing out. The moment it died I immediately tried to gain control over the brood to stop the carnage occurring. My own 'nids already stopped with barely a thought but it took a hot minute to have all the people and pure strains locked into my synaptic link. As soon as they were I sighed, long and deep at the death finally being over...
Then I opened my eyes and saw the bleeding bodies of the Hybrids I just killed.
"My god, just how many did my fuck up get killed." I wanted to remain sitting there for the rest of eternity. If only so I wouldn't have to look upon the mangled remains of the people I failed to free properly. But I had to, I had to take control of the situation and ensure any wounded were tended to. It was the best I could do at this point...
Sand gave way easily to the pointed front of the spade as I drove then lifted the orange and yellow floor. Annoyingly most of it ended up just falling back into the hole I was trying to make. I would have gotten frustrated if not for the three dozen or so Hybrids pitching in to help dig all the graves. There were a lot of bodies and the messy ones were the hardest for me to look at.
I had the cult in hand now. In an operation that wasn't as simple as I wanted it to be. Many Hybrids had been killed because I had come up with the dumbest plan I could think of. At least getting behind the Patriarch would have let me get a shot off and kill it. Not to mention I was too conservative in that duel, my carapace armor is tough as that point blank lasround to the back informed me. Such weaponry could blow people's limbs off but it only created a slight dent and scotch mark. Even when the hands of the Patriarch had grabbed me its claws had just pierced the armor and gotten to the skin underneath. But I had Lictors there to back me up!
"I should have rushed the Patriarch's and ripped its head off from the beginning. Its three-armed claws be dammed!" I was too conservative about getting any Hybrids killed and now I had lost dozens of them in painful ways plus a few Tyranid Warriors were dead or too wounded to be much help. It went the same for many of the Lictors too.
That there were enough shovels and pickaxes with the flat sides to them laying around the mine to let me fashion as proper a burial as possible was only a small consultation to the dead really.
"They shouldn't have been killed in the first place... Nor should any of the Hybrids be wondering why I'm getting rid of perfectly good meat..."
The how aspect of why Hybrids were able to survive despite the fact they could forage for food easily. Now made sense with so many passing thoughts about the 'good meat' I was throwing away. The strong desire to eat something was expressed across the brood and I could feel their guts rumbling especially now that there were bodies to feed on. I had lost a bunch of lictors and a Tyranid Warrior. They had meat and weren't messed up to eat like the Hybrid bodies were. As soon as permission was given many decided on the bodies with their claws to start tearing off the armor and get at the muscle and flesh below. The ravenous nature of the Tyranids was on full display and I was glad to only feel it occur from outside the mine.
"Not before you all cook it well," I was not gonna let them get sick on my watch. Cooking was the best way to minimize the chance of some stomach disease occurring. "And share it as evenly as possible. The least hungry ones get what's left or nothing at all!"
They could toughen it out and my plans to cause a diversion and draw attention off Typhon had been canceled now. They were starving and weren't like me who could go without eating for a long, long period of time. Even now I wasn't even snackish, but they were going to die and their Patriarch was okay with it. Possibly because it thought a fleet of 'nid we're already coming and its brood had fulfilled its role then.
"If I had come just a little later a lot of them would have died... and if I choose to dally here for a long time a lot of them will die too. So I needed to grab some ships but knew I couldn't wait for Orks to build them. There were not many foraging opportunities in the desert. I doubted any abandoned towns on a feudal world would have good food preservation skills to make them last long. So any we'd find there will be spoiled. Plus we couldn't eat any Orks found and implanted because we needed their reality-bending powers to make the ships as quickly as possible. Raiding imperial convoys was not a long-term solution either...
"Even ignoring the deaths of the troopers driving them, I haven't seen any. That could be because my scouts have been intentionally avoiding areas they could have been spotted them. But the more I raid the sooner the Imperium and thusly the Blood Raven's first company would take notice. Then send a force to take us out."
The hole was ready and two Hybrids carried the body over. Her entire form was covered in lacerations, clothing was torn all over revealing deep gashes on her stomach, not to mention being drenched in blood. Her chest even had a deep hole where the heart would be. Torn out by an eager Lictor looking to end the woman so it could move on to a new combatant. It was her legs that brought the most attention.
The sheer lack of them that is.
One of the Hybrids held what remained of one in its hand. The second was still attached but just barely, the tendons valiantly locking the bones together. She was placed down and the cut leg was positioned against the knee it was once connected to. All to add some sense of respect to the woman that shouldn't be a corpse. It was only with that reasoning at the forefront of my mind did I take a deep breath and cranked my head down towards her face. The head was placed just past my feet and was remarkably enacted with only a few splotches of drying blood. In direct juxtaposition to the rest of her form.
She was of course a later generation with a bald head and four arms. Her skin had a more tanned complexion like a native of such a hot world would have. Her face contorted into one of defiance and clearly worked through the pain inflicted by the injuries. She died determined to defend her Patriarch till the bitter end.
"That creature didn't deserve that." I thought angrily, as it was content to let them starve in the mine.
Once more my shovel pierced into the sand, this time in the pile I made outside the grave. Then lifted as large a mass as I could, much of it falling off. Then carried and dropped it over her face. Covering the deep blue eyes I felt unease being stared at. The rest of the Hybrids followed suit and we covered the remains in a few minutes. Which meant I could no longer ignore what had become obvious from the Hybrid's food and malnutrition situation.
"I have to raid an airbase and grab some airships that way."
I claimed to myself that I would only do so if it became necessary and it did now. Pilots needed to be implanted too, as many as I could to get us all off and perhaps even a fighter escort. I couldn't risk the fleet in orbit from finding us and taking out the transports. The fleet would need to make their way to us to minimize the void we'd need to fly through to reach safety. It was time to tell all remaining scouts to start looking and dispatch the Lictors I had to further widen the search.
"I'm really gonna do this... Attacking a military base and implanting people."
It was necessary though, for the Hybrids on Calderis, it was necessary to save them and things would be better later...
"At least I hope I could make things better."
