Imperial Emperor-Class Battleship BLUE TIDE

1244 hours (Imperial Warp-standard time)

39 Days Ago

Kashihan, his three eyes uncovered, prepared to guide the battleship, and the fleet they were leading, out of the Warp. They had been in and out of the Warp for a month now, moving as fast as they could to meet up with Admiral Rask at his rendezvous. In only minutes, however, they would be there. It was an entirely different matter, though, when the fleet would leave to face the Tyranids. Even as he brought the ship around another star's gravity well, Kashihan suppressed a shutter that an image of the bio-morphs caused. He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He needed to focus to bring the ship out of the Warp properly.

The Battleship approached the target coordinates and the helmsman dialed down the power to the engines. Kashihan felt the ship's very fabric slow as it left the Warp and returned to it's proper dimension. He released a breath that he'd been holding and dropped to the floor. Immediately, he removed his bandana from his pocket and tied it around his forehead. Covering up his third eye, lest an unfortunate member of the crew look into it. He took a deep breath and stood, looking out the large front viewport.

He wished he hadn't. Where he had expected to see dozens of Imperial ships, there was now the burnt, destroyed hulls of the Admiral's fleet. Most of the Bridge crew gasped, Kashihan included, and the Captain himself seemed to be at a loss for words. He stood out of his seat and moved closer to the meter thick glass. As he did so, the BLUE TIDE came around the port side of another Battleship's burnt husk that had the words FURY IV on it's side.

'The Admiral's Flagship.' Kashihan realized. The entire scene was harrowing, but an even worse sight slid out from behind the destroyed Battleship.

"Sir!" A young officer called from the sensor station. "Sir Tyranid ship off the Starboard Bow!" It was like nothing the middle-aged Navigator had ever seen. Unlike the square, metal, box-like ships of the Imperium, this ship was a mass of tentacles. It had a somewhat conical shape, fat and round in the back and thin and tapered to a point in the front. It was a disgusting, putrid black color, with shoots of dark red and green throughout. Other tentacles hung off in certain places, and they seemed to move on their own as the horrid ship turned toward their Battleship.

The Captain shook his head quickly to clear it and returned to his seat, the look of determination Kashihan knew had made the man a legend on his face.

"How big is it?" He asked in a strong voice. The young officer squinted at the screen.

"Over three kilometers Sir. It…It's bigger than anything in the fleet." The Captain glared at the officer before turning to the man at the comms station.

"Then it's the Hive ship. Where's the rest of the fleet?"

"They just came out of the Warp and are forming up behind us." The Captain nodded.

"Good. Signal to all ships, prepare for battle." All at once the Bridge became a bustle of activity. The Vox operator began speaking into his microphone, a flurry of words that Kashihan couldn't make out. Other Officers ran about as the Captain gave more orders, and the ship began to turn to meet the Hive ship in a broadside.

Kashihan took this as his cue to excuse himself from the Bridge. Normally, he would have stayed to watch the battle, but there was no room for him on deck when they were facing a threat like a hive ship. He made his way down the hall, planning to do as he'd done the time Dark Elder had bordered the first ship he had navigated for and stay away from the fight. As he passed the same doors that he'd seen Pilots leave from the day the Landers had descended on the Tau, he had to keep to the side of the hallway to avoid being trampled by the mass of Fighter Pilots making their way to their craft. He came to the fork in the hall and made the left turn this time, finding this hallway less crowed. As he rounded a corner he nearly lost his balance as the ship sped up.

'Ork, Eldar, Chaos.' Kashihan thought. 'the strategy's the same.' A lifetime aboard ships of the Imperium had given him a crash course in Imperial tactics. Without seeing any part of the battle, he knew what they were doing. Tactics involving Battleships always centered on using the Battleship's size and firepower to their advantage. When they faced smaller or less powerful craft, the battle plan varied. But when they went up against something as big or bigger, there was really only one course of action. Slug it out in a full on broadside. At over two and a half kilometers long, the BLUE TIDE could put out some serious firepower, plus, the fighters and frigates in the fleet could move to flank the Hive ship as they moved on it. 'Still,' Kashihan thought, coming to another fork in the hall. 'That ship did destroy the entire fleet already. The ship sped up again and turned sharply. It was nearly in range. Kashihan gauged that he was still too far from his quarters to make it their before they began the exchange and ducked into the first unlocked door he came to.

Inside he was greeted by the faces of a half dozen Guardsmen in full kit and all holding lascarbines . Kashihan was surprised to see them when he remembered that a ship of this size had a Battalion of Guardsman aboard to repel any borders. This squad had most likely been awoken and activated when the Captain had ordered the ship prepared for action. The playing cards from an incomplete game still sitting on the table and a line of unlocked wall lockers seemed to support this.

"Navigator," A left handed Guardsman with Sergeant stripes on his shoulder said. "What brings you here?" Kashihan swallowed hard.

"The ship's about to broadside…I needed to take cover." The Other Guardsmen seemed to accept this, but the Sergeant bit his lip.

"The Stand-To orders didn't say exactly what kind of ship or borders are out there. I don't suppose you would know Navigator. Would you?" It was a fair question, but one Kashihan would rather not have answered.

"Tyranids." He said as plainly as he could. "A massive Hive ships' out there." The Guardsmen all showed expressions of dread an the Southpaw Sergeant opened his mouth to speak when the attack started.

The Battleship rocked and vibrated as the dozen starboard guns belched out both massive lasbolts as well as solid rounds several meters thick. The Guns kept firing, a steady chorus of sound from them echoed through the ship. The Guardsmen, and Kashihan, used to being aboard a ship during combat, braced themselves for the impact of the Tyranid guns. The Imperial weapons continued their onslaught, but even after several minutes, no other noise joined the chorus.

"Sergeant, maybe their not as tough as we thought." A young Guardsman offered. The Left handed NCO raised his hand for silence, as though listening for something. Kashihan tried to focus of the sounds of the battle as well. Seconds latter, they all heard a sound that they would have heard even if they were asleep.

In all his life Kashihan had never head a sound quite like the one he was hearing now. It had the painful screech of metal on metal he had heard before when two ships collided. But it was also mixed with an odd, wet, suction sound. The sound got louder and more, similar sounds joined the first. Above the group a red warning light clicked on and the Vox-box next to it screeched.

"All hands! The Enemy is attempting to board the ship! All Guardsmen to Arms!" The Sergeant turned on the holo-display on the table and changed it to a map of the ship in relation to their position. Not a hundred meters away there was a section of the ship's hull blinking red.

"That's it! Let's go!" the Sergeant said, already making for the door." Kashihan was reluctant for the Guardsmen to leave him, especially if there were Tyranids onboard.

"Sergeant!" he called louder than he had intended. "I know a shortcut to that corridor." The Sergeant stopped and looked at him. Kashihan realized just how difficult it must be for him to trust a mutant during an attack. For all he knew, the Navigator could have fallen prey to the Warp's corruption and be leading them into a trap. The forty-two year old Navigator made the sign of the Aquila on his chest. "Sergeant, I still serve the Emperor!" he pleaded. The ship rocked and another of the inhuman noises joined the others. The Sergeant bit his lip and nodded.

"Lead the way Navigator." he said. Kashihan nodded and turned to the opposite wall of the room. Entering a code into the runes set into the door. It slid open and Kashihan waved to the Guardsmen to follow.

~/~/~

The corridor twisted and turned, and branched off in a disorienting manner that would have gotten anyone not familiar with them lost. Thankfully, Kashihan used these tunnels on a regular basis to travel unseen through the ship. Though he was protected as a sanctioned mutant, it was still better for him to stay out of sight. They came to another door and the Navigator entered the code into the runes on the door. It slid open as well and they passed through into their target corridor. Immediately, it was obvious where the Bio-morphs were trying to enter the ship. A thick circular depression showed on one wall of the hallway. Already, a handful of Guardsmen were lined up in the hallway, lascarbines trained on the depression. The Sergeant's squad took up positions alongside them and the NCO surveyed the scene.

"Who's in charge here?" he asked. A heavyset Corporal stepped forward to speak with him. Kashihan turned his attention away from them and back to the door he'd entered through. Being a Navigator, he had never been directly involved in combat and didn't plan to start by facing the Tyranids. He walked back through the door into the corridor and began making his way back towards his quarters, when he noticed something along the wall. There was a weapons locker along the wall. Sealed and locked the same way that the doors were he had never given it any thought though he'd passed by it nearly every day. Now, however, he saw them and a new feeling moved within him. He entered his code into the runes on the lock and the metal bar slid away and the locker opened.

Inside of the locker were two of the finest weapons in the Imperial Navy's arsenal. In over 38,000 years the pump-action shotgun had changed little from it's original design. Kashihan reached inside, feeling the cool gunmetal of the barrel. The same new feeling that had caused him to open the locker returned to him and he knew what he had to do. He pulled out the shotguns, taking them both in one hand and grabbing the two boxes of yellow shells with the other.

Walking back into the hallway, Kashihan saw that all the Guardsmen had taken cover behind the various bulkheads, corners, and wherever they could. The depression was more noticeable now, and there were the lines along the side where something was cutting through the hull itself. The left handed Sergeant noticed Kashihan's return and immediately went up to the Navigator.

"Navigator! You need to get out of here! The Tyranid will…" he noticed the weapons Kashihan was holding. The Navigator pushed one into his hand.

"I think that this might help." he said, handing him a box of the shells as well. The Left handed Sergeant took the shells and the weapon and slowly nodded.

"Good thinking Navigator." he said, opening the box and loading the weapon with the yellow 12 gauge shells. Kashihan copied the Sergeant's movements, realizing that this was the first time he'd held, let alone loaded, a weapon. The Sergeant finished loading his weapon as Kashihan grabbed the last shell from his box. The NCO moved the shotgun to his left hand and racked back on the action, putting a shell into the chamber. Kashihan loaded the last shell and looked up at the Sergeant just in time to see him turn around to face the depression in the wall.

"Sergeant," Kashihan said holding out the loaded shotgun. "Who should I give this one to?" At that instant the hallway was filled with an unbearable metal shrieking sound as the hull was breached. The depression collapsed in and was replaced by the same disgusting, putrid black color of the Tyranid ship.

Peering into the darkness, Kashihan couldn't fully discern anything. Though there seemed to be movement, he couldn't tell what he was seeing. One of the Guardsmen stepped forward towards the hole in the ship. Then the Bio-morph revealed it's self and the Navigator wished he'd stayed on the bridge. A long red scythe shot out the darkness, stabbing out and into the Guardsman's chest. The red scythe went through the Guardsman's armor, body and out his back. The Scythe raised up and lifted the impaled man, still thrashing in pain, into the air.

"OPEN FIRE!" The Left Handed Sergeant yelled. The Guardsmen in the hall all opened up with their lascarbines, red bolts tearing into the darkness. From the darkness within, Kashihan heard an unholy, inhuman scream. The Scythe holding the Guardsman dropped to the floor and a large Alien body connected to it fell into view. It was big. Bigger than a man. It's feet were red hooves and they were connected to legs a sick yellow color and bowed backwards from the way a human's would have been. It's body seemed to be a skeleton covered by the yellow skin up to it's arms. It's two upper arms both ended in the red scythes that had impaled the Guardsman, while it's lower arms were connected to a strange looking weapon. It's head was all teeth, sharp and an even sicker yellow. A red crest topped it's head, and Kashihan noticed other flashes of red on it's body. The body was further marred by a half dozen burn marks from the Guardsmen's weapons. The Guardsmen stopped shooting and an odd silence fell over the hallway. From inside the darkness more of the inhuman screams rang out and another of the creatures appeared in the doorway they'd created. And another. And another until their bodies covered the darkness and they poured into the ship.

The Guardsmen didn't need any prodding this time, they let loose with everything that they had. Kashihan heard the distinct sound of a shotgun being pumped as the Sergeant ejected a spent shell and moved a fresh one into the chamber. Kashihan remembered the shotgun in his hands. His right hand found the trigger and his left found the action. He racked back on the action and heard the shell enter the chamber. Kashihan looked back up to see more of the horrific aliens come through the hole in the ship and the now familiar feeling returned to him and once again, he knew what the Emperor wanted him to do.

One of the Aliens shot the Guardsman kneeling in front of him. The man fell back and Kashihan saw a mess of maggots on his chest. The bugs were literally eating through the man. The Alien turned it's attention to Kashihan and the Navigator leveled the shotgun at it. He pulled the trigger and the weapon thundered with a sound not quite like anything else in the universe. The kick from the weapon surprised Kashihan and nearly knocked him over. As he regained his balance, he saw the Tyranid creature had been thrown back as well, except that the creature had a thousand metal balls imbedded in it's mid section. The Creature convulsed on the ground for a moment until a lasbolt connected with it's head. Kashihan racked back again and his shotgun was ready for action. He adjusted his grip on the weapon to compensate for the kick and fired into a mass of three of the Creatures, reloading, and shooting twice more. The metal spray from his weapon tore into the creatures, downing two, who convulsed on the ground, and blowing the face off a third. Kashihan took a step back as still more of the creatures poured into the ship, finding himself next to the Sergeant.

"There's too many." The Sergeant standing to the Navigator's left said, ejecting another shell even before his last target had stopped convulsing. "We'll have to fall back and vent this part of the ship." Kashihan nodded. He was familiar with the procedure, though he had always been on the bridge when they had done it before. The remainder of the squad and Kashihan all began walking backwards towards the airlock sealable door, firing as they went. They were only ten feet from the door when Kashihan spotted the Creature that was flanking them.

This one had come up another hallway to their left. Proof, a part of Kashihan's mind told him, that the Tyranid's were boarding the ship in force, and from more than one place. The Creature was still too far to use it's scythe, but Kashihan saw it level it's weapon at the Sergeant. This time he acted even before he felt the feeling he now recognized as courage. He swept his left arm out and to his side, pushing the Sergeant closer to the door they were making towards and out of the path of the Bio-morph's weapon. The creature shot his living weapon and Kashihan immediately felt something solid hit his left arm at the elbow. In fact, he felt several somthings on his arm. He looked at his out stretched arm in horror to see a small army of tan colored maggots chewing into his arm. The Sergeant saw the maggots too. He stood and pulled out the Navigator's arm towards him with his right hand, and pressed the barrel of the shotgun into what was left of Kashihan's elbow. He looked into the lower two of Kashihan's eyes.

"I'm sorry Navigator." he said and pulled the trigger. At that range, the shotgun blasted through his arm as well as the maggots, tearing the limb from the rest of his body. Kashihan dropped his shotgun and grabbed the bloody stump of his left arm with his right hand, screaming out in pain.

Even as he was screaming, he felt a pair of arms reach under his shoulders and pull him backwards towards and through the air lock door. His vision began to grow dark around the edges as he was set down. The Left handed Sergeant was the last through the door, shooting even as it closed. The air lock sealed with a hiss and the guardsmen all took up positions guarding the door. Kashihan felt someone slide a band around what was left of his left arm at the shoulder. A guard issue tourniquet, he realized. The Sergeant knelt down in front of him.

"Navigator, we need to get you out of here, we can't get back into the Warp without you. Kashihan felt his vision grow darker. The Sergeant opened his mouth to speak again when one of the scythes broke through the door. Kashihan shook his head.

"Get out of here Sergeant." he said reaching up to the bandana that covered his third eye. "I'll hold them off." The Sergeant seemed confused, then followed Kashihan's hands with his eyes and understood his movements and nodded.

Kashihan heard the sound of boots on the metal floor as the Guardsmen moved farther and farther away. He could see just well enough to see another blade come through the door and help the first pry it open. He pulled the bandana off his forehead, revealing his third eye.

'C'mon then,' he thought as the first of the abominations came into view. 'Gaze into the Warp.'

Author's Note: I'm pretty pleased with this chapter. What do you guys think?