'My name is Malina. Can you see me, Emperor? You see everything, right? Even me?' the six year old girl whispered into her bracelet as she rushed down another slimy corridor. A rebreather kept her air clean, and a thin set of armor that had been repurposed from a Culexus assassin's kept her skin from being hurt too much by the thick poison in this place. A pair of small goggles enabled her to see in the dark, as well as any sewer-dwelling vermin could.
'My name is Malina. I'm six years old. I-' her words were halted by two big bugs vaulting down the corridor. She wasn't heard because she wasn't important enough. Her whisperings resembled the mindless hissing all around her, small noises that were inconsequential and ignorable. She herself was small, underfed, underloved, and always unnoticed. Her mother called her dead, and her father was gone. She was cursed, and everyone knew it, so they sent her away. The Temple people eventually found her, covered in bugs in a sewer, hunting rats for food.
'A blank! Look at the wretched thing!' the Temple people said when they took her away. The Temple people taught her to cut throats, to move silently, and to kill. She didn't want to do any of those things, but the Temple people paid attention to her and fed her, so that was enough. They told her that "Malina" was dead, that she had no name, but that couldn't be true. They said that she had a new purpose, and soon, important people would come and take her away somewhere so that she could learn to kill even more.
But, she didn't want that. Malina just wanted to play with dolls and make friends, not kill people. And she certainly still had her name!
'My name is Malina, Emperor. Can you see me?' she whispered to the bracelet. 'They said you and mummy and daddy will love me if I win the game.'
The girl crushed something resembling an oversized cockroach underfoot as she raced through the darkness undetected. Malina was very small, and very fast, so when the bigger monsters trundled past her, she could ease her body into the gaps of the soft, gut-like walls.
Other little girls thought this stuff was scary, Malina thought as she raced silently along, but since she had lived in the dark shadows, she knew that slimy things weren't so bad. What she hated more were the faces of the people she scared just by being near them. Bugs were just gross; she could squash them. She used to hunt them in the sewer.
Some bigger bugs walked past, but one sniffed around, looking for her. Go away, Malina thought, watching the monster hesitate. Eventually it left, and she continued onward.
The girl thought about her home far below. The bugs were eating everything down there. But more importantly, the Temple people had given her a test. They promised to reunite her with her family. In return, she'd have to go somewhere really gross. She accepted.
She would have to go where the bugs lived in their sky-sewer. Malina would be sent up in the sky on a tiny rocket ship. The Temple people had marked a spot on her "uss-pex" map device, and she was to push a button when she found it. They said it was just like the game hide and seek, but if the bugs saw her, she would lose. That wasn't so bad. Malina wouldn't lose. Mummy and daddy and the Emperor would be disappointed if she lost.
Malina didn't want to mess up, so she was very careful. She was given a bracelet to speak into so they would know when she won the game. She found herself whispering to it when she was afraid. She hoped they would forgive her.
The sky-sewer she was in was very dirty. The drips of slime that edged through the gaps in her armor burned her, but she was brave, and she continued on. Malina wasn't afraid of big stupid bugs, she thought.
On her uss-pex, she saw that she was near a big door, but it was covered in weird skin. She needed to pass through it. As swift as a mouse, she cut through the membrane with a special knife. Parts of her exposed skin began to numb, so she wasn't bothered by pain anymore. 'I'm brave,' she reminded herself, even when she was shivering.
Malina squeezed through the hole she had cut, and into a big room.
Inside, there was a huge bug attached to the wall like a cocooned sewer moth! This was the biggest bug ever, bigger than a hab block! She would tell all the kids back home about this! Her uss-pex pointed to it. Malina had to go there. She had to climb it.
'My name is Malina, Emperor. I have a name, and I'm gonna win! I'm brave,' she whispered as she slunk along, hugging the wall. She would win this game! The girl was sick of these creatures; they were killing everyone back home. Malina wanted to kill them all instead.
Her smallness enabled her to nimbly climb the cocooned monstrosity. It was very slimy, and she stepped on weird eggs that squirmed with baby bugs inside of them. The big queen bug was so tall that she had to remind herself in a whisper, 'don't look down!' so she wouldn't get scared. The goal was close now. Malina crawled inside the crook of the neck of the queen bug. That's where the uss-pex said to go. She went to press the button, but suddenly, it started to move. It was awake!
The giant queen bug was trying to find her! Malina saw it swing its head around, searching, but like everything, it didn't really see her. It kept searching, but the small girl remained hidden. Even the biggest, scariest bug couldn't see her because Malina was clever, smart, and good. She had won the game. She could be with her family again, just like the Temple people promised!
'My name is Malina, and I won!' the girl spoke as she pressed the detonator.
A Tyranid Hive Ship and its commanding Norn-Queen were destroyed by an internal explosion brighter than the sun when seen from the planet below.
Her name was Malina, and she was brave.