Fame Cimex Chapter 16

The Tyranids came in a staggeringly vast wave of destruction, barrelling forwards with claws and tentacles reaching towards their prey. Their endless hordes filled space end to end, making the scouting party looked feeble and miniscule. At the heart of the fleet drifted two Hive Ships, each one out-massing all any lesser pretender. They were bloated Leviathans, miles long and bearing the most hideous of weapons. One of them had trailing tendrils that billowed behind it as it moved, almost like branches in the wind. From chasms in its hide spilled wave after wave of fleshy boarding pods and drones, surrounding their mothership in a billowing cloud. The other Hive Ship had massive rending claws that protruded from its bow, scythes as long as escort frigates covered in hollow tubes, just waiting to disgorge teeming bio-forms into a prey's hull.

The Hive Fleet dove upon the embattled Imperial line, drowning them in sheer numbers and any distant observer would have struggled to even see them through the cloud of swarming vessels. On the Averof's bridge Captain Mandas was roaring, "Fire you dogs! Hit them again, hold nothing back!"

Commander Grenfeld hollered, "Sir, weapons are running too hot, we can't maintain this rate of fire!"

Mandas snarled, "If we slow then we die, we have to keep up our rate at all costs. Signal the Aetos to swing alongside; we can cover her while she puts out those fires."

Grenfeld paused for a moment then called, "I can't raise the Aetos at all, she's gone quiet… I think her crew are all dead."

Mandas thumped the rail hard, "Damn the bugs will pay for that… find me something big to kill."

Grenfeld checked the reports, "Razorfiend cruiser, dead ahead."

Mandas growled, "Target torpedoes and fire when ready."

Kaath-Dousmanis looked concerned, "They're too close, we won't survive the blast if they blow up."

Mandas only countered, "I don't think we should be concerned with survival at this point."

The Averof rumbled as six ship-killing torpedoes leapt from her prow, crossing the distance to the cruiser with unseemly speed. Two of the torpedoes missed outright, but so thick was the environment with targets that they went on to smash into a pair of escorts regardless. The rest hit the cruiser dead on and exploded; tearing out its guts and making it shudder and scream silently in the vacuum. The cruiser rolled over and limped away, not exploding but crippled and unable to fight anymore.

The Averof's bridge crew were cheering but Mandas roared, "Get back to it you dogs, there's plenty more out there that needs killing!" He looked into the Hololith and saw the Imperials surrounded, swarms of beasts attacking with feral ferocity. The Navy ships were blasting away with every weapon they had left and were killing scores of Bio-ships, but it wasn't making any difference. The weight of numbers was beyond calculation and there had never been any chance of them actually surviving in the face of such astronomical odds. Suddenly Kaath-Dousmanis gasped, "Oh Throne no… the Hyperion."

Mandas looked up at the Hololith and saw what he meant. The great battleship was beset on all sides by Tyranid vessels, tearing and blasting at its hull. Yet worse one of the Hive Ships was closing in, its immense rending claws opening wide like a squid preparing to feast. The Hyperion frantically brought her guns to bear, blasting away with weapon battery and lances in a desperate attempt to keep the beast at bay. The weapons tore and ripped at the thick hide, blowing craters the size of buildings into its flesh. One lance beam even caught a rending claw and severed it halfway along its length, leaving a bleeding wound that spilled warrior forms into the void. It was the forlorn act of dying men for the Hive Ship ignored its wounds, closing inexorably closer and then it impacted.

Had it been possible the noise of the impact would have shaken the pillars of heaven itself, two giga-tonne masses colliding with awful, majestic grace. The rending claws tore right through the Battleship's armour, punching deeply within to shatter compartments and destroy power feeds and transitways. The two ships were tangled together, locked in a deadly embrace like a crocodile snaring its prey in a death roll. Fleshy tubes in the rending claws began to pulse and undulate, conveying deadly hordes of lesser beasts into the Battleship's guts. The human crew already dazed and bewildered by the attack found themselves beset by clawed killer beasts. Millions of genetically tailored killing machines racing through the Battleship's bowels, seeking out every last man and devouring them alive.

On the Averof's bridge Captain Mandas saw the death of the Hyperion was inevitable but he swore that he would be damned if he let it go unchallenged. He roared, "Helm plot a course to take us alongside the rear of that beast, we can cross at point-blank range and ram a red hot poker right up their rear!"

The crew rushed to obey but Kaath-Dousmanis looked pale, "Captain, it's not going to work there are too many Tyranids in our path, we won't make contact before they rip us to shreds."

Mandas looked at him and snarled, "Then we will die trying! We all swore to lay down our lives in service to the God-Emperor and this is as fine a way as any I have ever seen. The spirit of the Averof will be pleased; I have finally found her a worthy death."

Kaath-Dousmanis opened his mouth to say something but was cut off as Commander Grenfeld shouted excitedly, "Sir, new contacts! New Contacts! We have more vessels heaving into range!"

Mandas's eyes snapped back to the Hololith which showed a new and unidentified force entering the combat zone. He held his breath in anticipation, not even daring to articulate his desperate hope lest, even thinking such a thing dash it asunder. There was only one other force in the system that could have hoped to intervene but they had been driven off, could it be that they had dared to defy fate itself and come regardless? Mandas gripped the rail and muttered, "Come on, come on; just this once, just for once let fate be on our side."

The vox crackled and a voice came over the air, it was stern and harsh yet to the Navy men it was wondrous to behold and it declared, "All ships of the Imperial Navy this is Chapter Master Gorgall, under the auspices of the emergency war conventions I am assuming command of the fleet. All vessels are hereby directed to disengage and withdraw while our ships clear a path for you to evacuate. Fall back to Angle's Redoubt for Regroup and Counterattack: the Storm Heralds have your back."

Mandas looked on in amazement as the Space Marine vessels dived into the fray, weapon batteries and Bombardment Canons annihilating everything in reach. Bio-ships were torn asunder by their barrage, withering and dying while Thunderhawks wheeled and spun, engaging and destroying boarding pods and drones everywhere. The Astartes were still massively outnumbered, they could not dare to dream of beating the Hive Fleet, but they could blast open a narrow evacuation corridor, a thin lifeline for the Imperial Fleet to retreat along. Mandas saw that the Kilkis and the Agamemnon were already swinging away, leading the crippled fleet out of the combat zone, but he could not leave yet. He looked again and saw the Hyperion still tangled with the great Hive Ship, fighting to survive even now. Mandas said, "We cannot leave without the Lord Admiral, we must get that leech off the Hyperion's neck before we withdraw."

The crew looked grim, knowing the chances of surviving such an encounter were slim indeed but they were determined to follow their daring Captain anywhere. Men lifted golden Aquilla's to their lips and made last prayers as Mandas swiftly calculated the vectors in his head, but before the order could be given the Hololithic communication pedestal unexpectedly flared and an image of a man appeared. His gold braiding was hanging loose and his high collar had been torn off, but it was unmistakably the visage of Lord Admiral Dousmanis, "Henrique, Henrique… can you hear me?"

The Captain turned to face the image and replied, "Lord Admiral, this is the Averof we are receiving your transmission."

The man blinked in surprise, "Mandas? I was trying to reach my nephew… Our communications system is damaged, I can't reach anyone else. You'll have to relay my orders for me."

Mandas said, "Sir we are off your starboard flank, if we swing across we can give that beast a broadside right up the arse."

The Lord Admiral shook his head and said, "No, it's too late for that, the Hyperion is filled with things I can't even describe. They're clawing at the bridge hatch as I speak, we'll all be dead before you can intervene. I need you to relay my orders to the fleet, confirm the order to retreat and fall back under the Astartes' covering fire, salvage whatever can be saved. Then contact my nephew; tell him he will assume command of the fleet as soon as they are in safe vectors."

Mandas swallowed, knowing that the Lord Admiral was about to die, and said, "Understood sir, may the Emperor be with you."

Dousmanis sighed and said, "I suspect he will cast me down for my many sins, but I won't let good men be dragged down with me. Tell my nephew not to trust those snakes Giovanni and Zerban, they will smile to his face, but then plunge a knife into his back at the first opportunity. Tell him that somehow they knew all about the money from Lascham, but he doesn't need to fall into the same snare. Tell him to look in my safe at the family manor, there's a data-slate in there which has…."

Suddenly there was a terrible screeching noise and the Lord Admiral looked away in terror at something beyond the range of the Hololith. His image grabbed for its laspistol and he screamed as he frantically blasted away at something only he could see, then there was a blur of fangs and claws. The image fell out of sight, leaving only the hideous screeching noises that made spines shiver in fear.

Mandas swallowed, "Shut that bloody thing off."

As silence fell Kaath-Dousmanis said, "What now?"

Mandas answered grimly, "Now we tell the fleet to get the hell out of here and lick our wounds. This isn't over, we will see the Tyranids again soon and we will make them pay for what they did here today."