A.N.: New chapter, and we're continuing forth with the escalation of the war! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
"Private Harrison, correct?" He nods, taking a swig of the cool water offered to him. The woman before him has a gentle smile and is dressed in casual clothes; An unusual sight for the white haired sisters of battle. He notices that the clothing is fairly baggy and helps hide the musculature frame of the sororitas. Everything about her demeanor seems to radiate a comfortable, welcoming presence. And yet, when he looks into her eyes...he feels like an insect being scrutinized by a particularly cold scientist. They're trying to put him at ease, he realizes. Reduce the perceptible threat the woman poses, without her gear and armour. It doesn't really work. He has no illusion that she could kill him in a matter of seconds bare handed if she wished so.
"Yes ma'am." He nods. She takes a quick look at his ramrod back and chuckles.
"Now now. No need to be so tense. I assure you, you are in no trouble." It does allow him to relax, just a little. He knows better than to think he is out of the woods. "So Harrison. You were present when the attack on the seventh level started, is that correct?"
"Yes ma'am." He confirmed. "Was with my squad when it all went down." She nodded, gesturing at him.
"Could you describe what happened until the point you up with the Arbites officer who accompanied you here?" He sighs, but nods.
"Sure. We were doing a regular patrol exercise, just the usual. Then we got a report. Some sort of attack was happening at one of the gates. We were told to head there." She frowned.
"No other instructions?" He shook his head.
"No ma'am." She tilted her head.
"Nothing further from command?" There was a shrewd look in her eyes, but he chose to ignore it. Nothing good would come from pointing it out. Well, if she was going to go for casual and try to make him comfortable...
"Permission to speak frankly ma'am?" She seemed satisfied as he said that, her smile growing a bit sharper.
"Permission granted private. And please, call me Elisia."
"Well Elisia...Command was a fucking mess." She tilted an eyebrow at that, but seeing no rebuttal or reprimand, he chose to continue. "They were just telling us to come here, or there, with no further instructions. They seemed just as confused as us, and if I had to guess, spent more time trying to pass around blame on anyone but themselves than trying to work together to give us actual, proper orders." He gritted his teeth. "It was up to us on the ground to deal with the situation by ourselves, but...we were underequipped and undermanned." He shook his head despondently. "And without larger scale coordination, it was every squad to themselves until we stumbled into each other." She nodded.
"I see. This seems to corroborate with everything we've been observing ourselves." He let out an internal sigh of relief. "Continue please."
"Well, before we could actually get to the gate, we got attacked. A group of civies running away from some of these things...the ones with the claws, the ones that are kinda the same size as us..."
"Hormagaunts." She commented. His eyes widened.
"Wait, you know what the fuck these are?!" She looked up at him, and he felt like his outburst was a mistake at the cold look in her eyes. He gulped, before lowering his head slightly. "Apologies ma...Elisia. Nerves are still high from the battle." She looked at him for a few more seconds before that fake warm smile of hers returned.
"Understandable, no worries. Now you were saying?"
"Right. Yeah so those hormagaunts were chasing these people and killing them as they caught up. We engaged them, and it went well at first. Then..." He swallowed heavily. "More of them came. Five, then ten, then a hundred...we got overwhelmed. Half of us stayed back to cover the over half. That made us drop from twenty to ten." He shook his head, trying not to sink into the memories as he recalled their walk through the city. His hands shook as he spoke. "We...we knew things were fucked. We could hear the screams, the radio chatter was going fucking insane." His eyes glazed over. "We started getting picked off, one by one. Sometimes it was a hormagaunt rush that got one of us. Sometimes it was one of the ones with their weirdass flesh guns..." He looked at her questioningly, and she commented.
"We call them termagants." He nodded at that.
"Thanks. Yeah those things shot at us, and when it hit...it wasn't pretty. David and Yi-san got taken down that way." He shivered. The sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bone as something dug its way through their bodies as they writhed on the ground, screaming before the rest of the squad put them out of their misery... "It was a nightmare." She nodded, and for once he felt her sympathy was not feigned.
"The Tyranids weapons are particularly vicious, especially those wielded by the smaller ones..." He nodded in a jerky motion.
"Yeah." He took a moment to breathe. "So, eventually, it was just me. I was close to the transport hub, so I decided it was my only shot. And then...well. I met the Arbites officer, as you said."
"Right." She tapped on her data slate. "Perfect. Thank you for your information, soldier." She put the data slate down next to her. "Just one more thing before I send you out on your way..." He looked at her, curious. "Did you see anything...unusual?" He stared at her.
"Besides the whole...what did you call them? Tyranids?" She simply stared at him, her smile fixed. He gulped, feeling a pearl of sweat run down his face. "Well..." His mind brought a memory to the forefront. "There was...that thing..." He stayed quiet for a moment.
"Yes?" She asked. There was a definite interest in her voice now.
"It was...I'm not sure what it was, really. It looked humanoid, that's for sure. Covered in the same silvery carapace as the others, but instead of looking like a growth, it seemed more like...armour." Had it really been or not, it had been impossible to say from that distance. "It was fast. Faster than any of the others." He recalled how it had effortlessly torn the heads of other PDF soldiers. "And strong. Really, really strong."
"Anything else you can tell us about this entity?" She asked, insistent. "Did it have multiple arms, any growths?" He shook his head.
"No, though I did see its face. It looked..." He gulped. "It looked human." She stared at him, and for a moment he thought he registered surprise in her expression. In the blink of an eye it was gone, replaced by the serene look from before.
"Well thank you very much Harrison. I'll ask that you stay within the compound for now, as we may have further questions for you." He inwardly winced, but nodded.
"Of course. Am I free to go?" She smiled wide.
"Yes. Thank you for your cooperation."
He did not need to be told twice.
She looked at the battle hologram before her. One represented a side view of the hive, with each level depicted. Another showed the sixth level, with various areas coloured in red. Further holograms depicted other levels, such as the seventh level which was depicted in red and had the simple message "Lost" on it, or the third level where the forces of the Sororitas had been gathering.
"Recap." She said aloud, the various people gathered in the war room exchanging nervous looks.
"Well as you can see Canoness, the seventh level is entirely lost. We have confirmed that our foe is in fact a Tyranid Hive fleet. The sixth level is also on the verge of being overrun, and we have confirmed the presence of increasingly more dangerous creatures." Another set of holograms materialised, depicting various creatures that sent the room into whispers. "Hormagaunts, termagants and rippers formed the bulk of the attack on the seventh level, with some tyranid warriors leading the assault on some of our points of resistance. On the sixth level however we have confirmed a far greater amount of warriors, along with some carnifexes serving as heavy assault units. The swarm is showing surprising amounts of coordination despite the lack of the presence of higher synaptic units such as hive tyrants." The man who'd spoken all of this was a heavily scarred one, with greying hair a tired look in his eyes. The man in charge of the local PDF. General Varon. She gave him a glance.
"A hive fleet huh?" She said softly. "Then I ask you this. Where are the ships?" Silence was her answer, and so she decided to push. "Our fleet in orbit has yet to come into contact with even a single spore. And from what I have seen, your ships have met with the same success. So tell me. Where are the tyranid ships?" The man frowned.
"Well either they are hiding away, or we are dealing with a ground invasion solely. That would be a boon to us, as we can leverage orbital supremacy if things start going too wrong."
"Indeed." But they both knew no one would order the ships to fire. No one sane, that was. This world was one of the many on the fringe of Tau space, and the despicable xenos were always looking for ways to convince Imperial worlds to defect to their side. Ordering an orbital bombardment on a highly populated hive was a great way to make a few of them look to other options for rulers. Still, appearances had to be maintained. "But for now, let us focus on keeping control of the situation. I agree with you that the degree of coordination we face is abnormal for a tyranid invasion with such organisms. Warriors are good at relaying orders and giving some degree of tactical command, but what we are dealing with here is a carefully implemented strategy." She scoffed. "At least, the initial strike was."
"There is the mystery organism." He pointed out a hologram appearing showing the blurred reconstitution of had appeared on some of the security footage during the assault. A humanoid figure covered in chitinous carapace, with long claws at the end of their fingers and a lithe frame that belied its incredible strength. "It's the only one so far that disrupts the usual tyranid patterns."
"Tyranids are ever evolving creatures" The canoness muttered to herself.
"But why make it look like us?" The general asked. "I mean, genestealers are one thing, but this...this is different." He took a deep breath.
"Yes." She agreed, but didn't elaborate. She had reports from her troops having interrogated survivors. It all corroborated together to form a very dangerous picture: An intelligent new type of tyranid leading a non characteristic assault. No fleet, and yet this was no genestealer invasion. This shouldn't be possible, according to all reports she had on tyranid invasions. There should have been at least one ship to seed the world for actual tyranid organisms to start appearing. "What are the casualties reports?" That elicited winces from the people around her.
"Well...whilst the sixth level was partly evacuated when the attack on it happened, the seventh level saw most of its population killed. Casualties estimate range from fifty to sixty million." Silence permeated the room at the number.
"Emperor protect us..." The general mumbled. She could understand. The tyranids would only grow stronger with every person slain, consuming their biomass and producing more organisms.
"What of the rest of the population? How many people are in the hive?"
"The total population consists of four hundred million survivors." Another woman spoke, wearing the robes of the Administratum. "The original population was higher before the revolution, but casualties were massive then, and with addition to emigration and further casualties dealing with the fallout of the uprising...well." The woman shook her head. "Thanks to that, we have the extra space on the upper levels to actually house all the refugees. Even having started evacuating level five, there is still enough room for all of the current remaining survivors in levels four through one, and with some constraints from level three and up."
"The problem is not space." The strange, mechanical voice of a tech-priest cut through her dialogue. The man was heavily modified, and their speech was modulated by the device that had replaced their vocal chords. "It is infrastructure. Repairs on the hive's systems damaged during the uprising are not finished, and the extra strain from the influx of people is already causing issues. "Already we are struggling to distribute food fast enough, and water filtration is pushed to the breaking point. The machine spirits are angered by the lack of proper care shown to them." The tech priest seemed agitated. "We cannot maintain this for long."
"And the people are noticing. They're starting to panic. We've already had to put down some large-scale rioting, and it's only going to get worse." The general grumbled. "It's forcing me to pull away troops that are painfully needed in the fight." The Canoness was silent. With millions of people devoured, the tyranid numbers would swell similarly. With just two thousand troops, it was a dangerous fight to pick in the best circumstances, even with the support from the PDF forces. The urban combat would favor her sisters' use of the purging flame, but so would it give advantage to their foe's close quarters abilities. And yet, the more time and ground they allowed the tyranids to take, the worse the situation would get.
Emperor damn the xenos.
"We will do a precision strike." She commanded. "How many troops can you gather for a full scale offensive general?" The man's eyes widened.
"A full offensive? We do not have the equipment, our armoured vehicles are in poor numbers and..." She gave him a single look. "I can have three million trained men ready and armed. Ten if you allow me to declare full conscription of the population, though I would be cautious handing weapons to large numbers of the population given the current context."
"Distribute the weapons and gather the conscripts. I will speak to them." She declared. "My forces can give a surgical strike on the tyranid leadership; killing this creature and as many of the synaptic warriors as possible. But if the tyranids are not pressed, they will simply gather their forces and overwhelm us through sheer weight of numbers. I need you and your men to apply pressure on them and force as many of their forces to commit to pushing back against your offensive." She looked at him, the hard look of someone who had fought on dozens of battlefields before. "Can I count on your forces?" The man stood straighter, glaring right back at her.
"Yes ma'am! We'll show the xenos not to mess with us!" She grinned viciously.
"Good. We'll go over the details once you have started mobilizing your forces." She glared at the hologram of the creature. "I have a call to make."
"A tyranid invasion? You are sure of it?" Silence as he waits for the person speaking to him to finish. "No no, I do not doubt you. But no hive fleet you say? And no genestealers? That's unusual for sure." Further silence. "Yes. I understand. Of course, the Ecclesiarchy can rely on our support. We will be mobilizing and heading your way." Silence. "I see. In that case I wish you luck Canoness. If things go wrong, be assured. The hammer of the emperor is on its way." Lord Commander Marqes closed communications, the astropath standing nearby opening their eyes as they released their focus. He was a relatively young man for his rank of Lord Commander, only just having hit thirty years of age. His olive skin contrasted with the pale skin streaking across his face where the power claw of an ork warboss had nearly taken his entire head off during the recent campaign.
"My Lord?" The astropath asked. Marqes nodded.
"We are moving. The campaign here is almost over; What remains of the orks can be dealt with by the local planetary defense force." The man walked away from the long distance communication room, entering the command deck of his battleship, the Wrath of Elegian. "The Adeptus Sororitas have called with an official request for support in defending a nearby world. We are the closest who can respond."
"I see." The astropath shuddered. "Tyranids...I heard rumors of them whilst training. The Shadow in the Warp is not something I look forward to experiencing."
"With any luck, you will not have to. It seems that only ground forces are present, as odd as that is." He glanced at the staff in the command deck, knowing full well they would be listening in. By the next hour, every single person aboard would be aware of what he spoke here. "But I refuse to take any risk. We are taking the full fleet with us."
"Understood my Lord." The astropath gave a small bow. "I will await to relay your command."
"Thank you Decius." He gave a small smile to the bald astropath. "Everyone!" He called out to the crew, their heads snapping to him. "We have a new assignment. The Ecclesiarchy calls upon us, and God Emperor willing we will answer this call!" He raised a hand. "Prepare the ship to move. I will announce it to the rest of the fleet." With that the astropath closes his eyes, a third glowing symbol appearing on his forehead.
"Soldiers of the Seventy First!" The booming voice transmitted through the astro-choir rings out through the dozens of battle ships orbiting over a dark gray world. "Another world of the Imperium of Man is under threat!" Already knowing what is coming, in the deepest parts of the ships, thousands of chained up indentured servants; slaves, the more liberal worlds of the Imperium would call them; start pulling the heavy wheels connected to the loaders of the macro cannons on the broadsides. It is an inefficient system; and frankly, unnecessary to the well functioning of the vessel. It is nothing more than a way of punishing those who would oppose the Imperium of Man whilst still making use of their labor. The darkness of this place contrasts heavily with the bright, golden light shining in the command deck. "We go now. Whatever foe we may face, we will crush! Whatever enemy opposes us shall suffer the Emperor's wrath!" The powerful engines of various ships light up, warming their warp drive as transports descend upon the world to bring back the ground troops. "We move in a day. Anyone still down on the world will be left behind!" With that, he ends his message, the astropath letting a sigh of relief as he rubs his head.
"Ahhh...what a headache. Do you have to yell so loud?" The Lord Commander grinned.
"Well, you have to rally the troops somehow, don't you?"
"You didn't mention the Tyranids."
"They'll learn about it soon enough." He glanced at the planet and added, lower. "Don't want any of our men to 'accidentally' stay behind rather than deal with the bugs."
"I mean..." The astropath gestured to the world as well. "That would mean staying with the orks." The Lord Commander sighed.
"More or less pacified orks, though that's a fair point. Neither of these are particularly enjoyable to fight..." He shook his head. "Well, no use worrying over these things. Once we have everyone, we're moving."
Anya winced at the taste of the person she'd just bitten into. She wasn't sure what it was they were feeding some of the workers down here, but it gave their flesh a horrible, polluted taste. It didn't matter to her, not really. Tyranids were hardly bothered by pollutants, and were adept at filtering them out or repurposing them. It still made the food taste bad though.
"Ugh. I'd offer you some, but that would be just cruel." She mentioned to the man she was currently facing. The PDF soldier was glaring at her, a hand pressed to their left arm where she'd stabbed through with a claw. "Yeah see I knew you would react like that. That taste is just offensive."
"What do you want from me, monster?" He snarled through gritted teeth. She blinked slowly at him, expression confused.
"Right. I forget you guys can't feel the network." She gave a sheepish grin. "Sorry, I'm just so used to everyone around me being able to just kinda tell before I even speak I forget I have to actually use my words here." She blinked again. "Well except for my younger self, but it just feels normal to chat with her."
"What in the fuc..." She interrupted him, and to her satisfaction he snapped his mouth shut the moment she spoke.
"Anyways! The reason I kept you alive is...well..." She sighed. "I'm bored. And I haven't had anyone to properly talk to in like, forever. Like, talk talk. Not the weird mind thingie me and Nornie have. Which don't get me wrong, is nice, but hte Network left a lot of human in me and it just wants to talk talk! Do you get me?" The man looked a mixture between annoyed, confused and deeply disturbed.
"I...I can't say I do." She shook her head.
"Doesn't really matter, just know you're here for a chat."
"And why in the God Emperor's name would I facilitate your whims, witch?" She frowned at him.
"Okay first of all I'm not a witch. I'm..." She frowned further. "Actually I'm not sure." She turned her head to the side. "I mean yeah, it sounds cool but it doesn't feel right you know? Calling myself a Hive Queen just feels weird. Come up with something better." The man looked in the direction that she was looking at.
"Talking to things that aren't there is pretty characteristic of witches if you ask me." She pouted at him.
"Well I didn't. Anyways, not a witch, and if you do talk to me...I'll let you go." She grinned. "And then, any piece of information you managed to get out of me, you can pass on to your commanders. That's good right? Soldiers like to do good." The man frowned at her, but there was a calculating look in his eyes. He clearly knew that he stood no chance of making it out if she didn't want him to. And at this point, what did he lose just talking to her? And he was right, really. If she wanted information from him, she could just rip it out of his mind.
"...Fine. We'll play your games, xenos." She grinned at him. She could just feel his hatred, the burning desire he had to gun her down or beat her to death. The grenade he held hidden in his jacket, his other hand on it, ready to pull the pin at the first chance. Pragmatism held him back though, she could tell. He'd seen what she'd done to the other people in his squad. Maybe he would try to catch her off guard to blow her up. She wondered if it would work.
"Great! So to start with, what's your name?" He cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Isn't it rude to ask for someone's name without offering your own?" She blinked at him yet again.
"Is it? Huh. Well my name's Anya." She held a clawed hand out. "Nice to meet you!" He looked at the hand warily, skittering backwards further into the wall.
"You'll forgive me for not shaking that. Name's Vaniss." She clapped her hands together, the claws screeching against each other and making the man wince.
"Awesome!" She crouched down, bringing her to eye level with him. "So what do you think?" She gestured at the devastated city around them. "Of this, I mean." He barked a choked laugh.
"Are you...are you serious?!" He coughed a little blood, making her frown. Well that wouldn't do, but she doubted he would be happy if she tried to use tyranid biology to regenerate him. "It's monstrous! It's a fucking nightmare! Is that why you left me alive?!" His face twitched. "To gloat?!" She stared at him as he panted, glaring at him.
"No." She shook her head. "Not really. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite proud of how well I did...but gloating just feels petty." She smiled. "This is about survival after all."
"Survival?" The man laughed disbelievingly. "What about this is survival? You just...showed up with your assortment of freaky xenos friends and started killing everyone!" A tear pearled down his face. "You...you ate Jane!" She blinked.
"Well yes. I was hungry. I needed to eat." She tilted her head. "Don't you need to eat to survive?" The man glared at her.
"I. Don't. Eat. People." She giggled, seeming to make him angrier.
"Tell that to the corpse starch." She shook her head. "But I mean...what's the difference? You eat stuff to survive. So do I." He looked at the devastated city.
"And what, you needed to eat everyone here to survive? Couldn't like...grow plants or something?" She tilted her head.
"Well, yes. But also no." She smiled. "Survival isn't just about eating. It's about protecting yourself from threats." She shook her head. "There aren't a lot of things scarier than the Imperium out there. And it doesn't leave you alone." She continued as he looked at her, his eyes focused. "If I hadn't come out here, someone would eventually have come down and found me. There is no mercy for the mutant. The alien. The Imperium only knows one way of dealing with things like me. Extermination." She grinned wide. "So I struck first. There can be no reasoning with mankind. For as long as you scare them, they will stop at nothing to kill you." Her grin was too wide now, showing too many teeth. "And I scare people a lot." She saw him shiver for a second, but he did not back down.
"Keep your self-righteous tripe for yourself xenos. With aliens like you, is it any wonder we keep trying to exterminate you?" She sighed.
"Well I mean I kind of get it with the Tyranids. I can use whatever justification I want, but really it's just about feeding and growing the species. I just go along with the ride." She shrugged. "If it makes you feel any better, it's not malicious or personal. It's just...well I mean you might feel bad about the rabbit you have to eat to survive, but you'll still do it." He looked at her, and sighed.
"Alright I get it. You're just trying to feed yourself, nothing personal, bla bla bla. Do you expect us to just...what, roll over and accept it?" To his surprise, she shook her head.
"No. No, I don't expect you to. I don't want you to." That made his eyes go wide. "I want you to fight back. I want you to try your best to survive, for you to use everything you have to beat us down, to throw your best champions at us." She had a burning light in her eyes. "Do you know what I used to do, before I was blessed by the Hive? I was just some dirty street rat. Some cockroach to be ignored or beaten." She laughed. "I was already dead! I might have been moving, talking, breathing...but I was just a corpse with the illusion of life. Nothing to live for, nothing to do. Just survive by barely scraping by. But now?" She looked down at him with such a burning passion that she saw him lower on himself, trying to crawl away from her gaze. "For the first time in my life, I feel alive! Overcoming the odds, evolving, growing! That is what it means to exist! To overcome, to adapt and constantly strive to improve! Conflict is necessary for change, I see it now!" She looked at him with the happiest smile she'd ever had, opening her arms wide. "And when I fight is when I feel this at its strongest. I want strong opponents, I want to get beaten down and get back up for more, learning more and getting stronger and stronger. I don't want it to ever end!" For a moment, he stared back at her as she gave him a hopeful look. "Do you understand that?!" She asked, a genuine smile on her face.
He shook his head.
"Nope." And pulled the pin on the grenade.
She stared down at the splattered, ashy remains of what had been the PDF soldier. Huh. She'd gotten completely distracted. She looked down at herself. Thankfully, the damage was minimal.
"You let your guard down." Her younger self said disapprovingly. "And for what? To have a conversation?" She mumbled back:
"You understand why." Her younger self looked like she wanted to disagree, but sighed.
"I suppose I do. I am you, at the end of the day."
Anya was somewhat disappointed that she'd let herself get caught off guard so badly. And yet, as she got back up and felt her body start regenerating the damage, she felt more disappointed by the man's answer.
Surely, someone out there could understand her. That desire to be strong. To fight. To surpass yourself, to constantly strive to be more than what you were.
Surely. She wasn't alone.
Ylsen looked at the gathered warriors before him. There weren't many of them, only a dozen in fact. Five of them were rangers; Specialized in infiltration and forward reconnaissance. Six were aspect warriors; Those who had yet to pick a more specific martial path, or who did not wish to do so. And finally two were banshees; The elite assault troops capable of unleashing powerful sonic weaponry before tearing apart their foes in close quarters combat. It wasn't exactly what he would call a proper combat force; he didn't have any heavy weapons support, their numbers were quite low and they had no vehicles whatsoever. But for what little he could provide the council of Farseers and the nebulousness of his mission, it was quite frankly a high display of trust that he was given anything more than a handful of rangers. He gazed at them, his helmet under his arm. He was already wearing his combat gear, something he hadn't done in four decades. He would have to spar with the banshees; His capacities were still there, but he needed to get back into the framework of fighting.
"Thank you all for coming." He started his speech, knowing from their posture that they were all paying strict attention to him. It seemed he still had a bit of a reputation then. "I am unsure what exactly you were told about this mission, so I will try and make my briefing as informative as possible." He felt a touch of embarrassment at the next sentence. "Recently, I have been getting visions of possible dangers to our craftworld. These, I believe, are related to the Great Devourer. Thanks to the assistance of the Council, We have managed to narrow down the location that the visions are pointing at to a single planet. Unfortunately, it is already populated by humans." One of the aspect warriors shook their head.
"Mon-keigh...always making things more difficult than they have to be."
"Call them humans." He said, frowning at the warrior. "We do not know if we will need to use diplomacy during this mission, but I would rather not antagonize the owners of the planet we are heading to."
"Yes Ylsen." He could not see their facial expression, but the aspect warrior seemed properly chastised. Whether that was out of remorse for what he had said or merely feeling embarrassed to be called out by a person he respected, he could not tell.
"Good. Now, what we are going to be dealing with is unsure. What is certain however, is that we do not have the combat strength to take on a full on tyranid invasion. Even if we had a hundred times the numbers, it could well not be enough if the presence of the Great Devourer is great. As such, our primary purpose is investigation and exploration. We want to understand what is going on there, not stumble blindly, guns blazing like some Biel-Tan hot heads." The words elicited some amused snickering from the rangers, his own lips twitching upwards. "I will be counting on all of you."
"Is there a webway gate on the world we are to go to?" One of the banshees spoke, her voice like a song that Ylsen knew could turn into a deadly scream at any instant.
"Yes. A small network of them in fact, which should help us in our task."
"Can we count on reinforcements?" That was one of the rangers.
"If we find ourselves in trouble, we can rely on an extraction team. And if we stumble onto something big, and can find evidence that it would be a threat to the craftworld..." He nodded. "I doubt the Council would remain blind to our words." Accordance all around. "Unless there is anything else, let us get moving then. The travel in the webway should take a day or two."
"Yes Ylsen!" With that, the group headed towards the webway gate network, a towering structure of wraithbone standing at the centre of the craftworld.
"You are distracted." Anya looked to the side of her younger self, shuffling slightly from her position sitting on a resting carnifex's carapace.
"I...I'm just feeling frustrated I guess." She sighed. "I don't really know what I was hoping for earlier."
"Hm." Her younger self seemed to be looking at her thoughtfully. "Well, just be careful. You need to stay focused for what comes next." Anya's eyes narrowed.
"Right. So, the fifth level. I mean, we could always just...do like we did with the sixth and break down the gates with carnifexes." She shrugged. "But I mean they've got to be expecting that."
"Just because an enemy expects a tactic does not mean it cannot be successful." Her younger self mentioned. "Catching your foe by surprise is an advantage, but if it comes at the cost of a ridiculous strategy it might not be worth it."
"I suppose." Anya sighed. "Still, things have been going well, I don't want them to go down the drain out of predictability..." Both of their heads snapped at once towards the same direction. Distant explosions rang out, a chorus of screeching and trampling noises rising in answer.
"You felt that?"
"Yes. What the..." Anya's eyes widened. "Are they...are they attacking?! There's so many of them!" Her younger self tilted her head.
"So they are. This was expected. They were always going to launch a counter offensive at some point."
"I guess so..." Anya stood up on the carnifex as it roused back to full wakefulness, letting out a rumbling growl as it did. "Well then. If they're going to be so nice as to save us the effort to siege them..." A whistling sound suddenly pierced the air, her eyes turning upwards and widening as she tried to jump away as a reflex from the incoming projectile. But it was far too fast, and she had only noticed a fraction of a second before the impact.
The missile exploded in a burning ball of flame and shrapnel, sending the still moving body of Anya flying through the air, slamming into the ground fast enough to feel her bones snap.
Anya blinked. Her vision was blurred and felt very, very strange. She slowly moved her head around, catching sight of the carnifex she'd been sitting on, now little more than a caved-in carcasse. She felt a pang of sorrow at the sight, her mind slowly catching up to what had just happened. She tried to reach up to her head with her left arm, but it refused to obey. She looked down at it.
Oh. It was gone.
Her entire left side was almost completely charred to the bone, flesh and carapace burned away. She looked to her right side. It was in slightly better shape; For one, the arm was still there, though the chitin was cracked and broken and much of the skin exposed had been burned, revealing the slightly charred flesh underneath. She felt a great sense of relief at no longer feeling pain as a human did. Her brain started brushing off the shock of the explosion, feeding her information about the state of her body.
It wasn't great.
Her internal organs had been shaken badly, and only her enhanced biology had prevented them from being outright turned to jelly. As she had seen, her left arm and leg were gone, with much of the side itself gone with them. Some of her redundant organs had been burned away or damaged beyond the point of function. Her right side was functional but heavily damaged. And the left side of her face had more or less melted away.
Overall, utterly catastrophic amounts of damage that would have killed any normal human, and almost did kill her.
She wondered if it was her tyranid biology or a state of shock that was allowing her to react so calmly to the fact she'd almost died in a fraction of a second to some unseen attack.
"ANYA!" Her younger self screamed from the side. "WE NEED TO MOVE!" She blinked at her younger self. She was intact, thank goodness, looking at her with wide and frightened eyes.
"I'm missing a leg. I won't be very fast." She slurred as she slowly brought herself up. She struggled, but she managed to stand upright.
"Fuck..." She looked at her younger self in surprise. "FUCK! Alright, plan B!" With that, she felt a powerful tug on the synaptic web. "I'm calling reinforcements. We're getting you out of here."
"Since when do you swear?" She asked dully. Her vision was still swimming as she slowly hopped away from the corpse of the carnifex, making her way to an abandoned building.
"Not the time, Anya!" Anya chuckled.
"You're also Anya."
"I…" She looked conflicted " Look, just... I'm going to need you to do something for me." Her younger self seemed stressed, glancing around nervously. "I wanted to wait until you had a bit more practice with the rest, but fuck it. We don't have much of a choice." Another sound pierced the air before an explosion rocked a nearby building, startling them both. "FUCKS SAKE!" Another explosion, this time blasting a nearby squad of hormagaunts. A warrior stepped out in the open, rushing towards her. Two more followed in its trail, looking warily around. "I WILL SPAWN EXOCRINES AND WE WILL SEE HOW MUCH YOU ENJOY BEING ON THE RECEIVING END!" Anya blinked in surprise at her younger self's rant. She wasn't feeling that angry, surely? Even subconsciously, she just felt…sleepy. "Oh no you don't. Get her the fuck out of her!" She screamed at the warrior, who merely leaned down next to her and lifted her up, using its bulk to protect her from a shower of debris from a nearby explosion. From afar she could hear the shrieking of her hordes as they battled the marching humans.
"Why…am I so… tired?" She mumbled.
"Your body has entered fast regeneration mode. It takes a lot of energy out of you." The younger Anya responded, her eyes narrowed and her voice tight. "Never should have allowed you to go around with such a small escort. Tyrant guards for sure."
"You wanted me to practice something?" She could see her arm was already starting to regrow. She could hear shouting now, and the sounds of roaring engines. There were a dozen warriors near her by now, along with two carnifexes as they charged through the street, bashing aside vehicles and anything that stood in the way. Hordes of hormagaunts and termagants were sprinting past them, rushing towards the approaching human voices.
"Yes. Your psychic powers, I want you to focus on them. Imagine a bubble around you. One that will stop anything that wants to harm you. For this time, I will help you." She felt a push against her brain, and started to do as she was told. It was more difficult than usual, but as her body regenerated the fog clouding her vanished as well.
Right as the psychic shield manifested into place, another shell nearly hit them straight on. She watched as it impacted the iridescent shield; Like a large bubble from the baths she heard the rich people in the upper levels could afford. She didn't know how she knew what they looked like. The explosion splashed over it, making it crack like glass as she winced. Despite her increased powers and her younger self's assistance, she barely managed to stop the artillery shell from splattering them on the ground.
"Good! Good, now focus on repairing it!" Her younger self's eyes widened. "Wait, they stopped shelling…" The sound of roaring flames from above made Anya squint as she looked further up. From the roof of the building…were those…people jumping down? No, there were flames coming from their backs.
"I knew it! You're the objective!" Her younger self screamed.
"SERAPHIM, NOW!" Anya stared as the armoured women descended down towards her. Then, she reached out with her arm.
"They're lighter than the warriors." She casually mentioned. With a jerk of the arm to the side. One of the Seraphim was sent crashing into a wall, smashing into it with such strength it surely killed her instantly. Before she could continue, the other nine were on her. The warriors bellowed out roars of challenge as they sought to protect Anya, claws and bone swords striking against chainswords, bolt pistols fired in close range and blasting the warriors chitinous armour apart. The three closest to her stabbed at her with their chainswords, the warrior using their body to protect her; But the chainsword pierced through anyways, making Anya scream as she felt the chainsword wreck through her body, turning her insides to mush as it ripped her skin, flesh and organs to shreds. A psychic pulse of power sent the seraphim flying backwards, her jetpack detonating as it exploded against a nearby building. The warriors around her fought with renewed frenzy, the one holding her, with the last of its strength, held her out; The Carnifex grabbing her with its crab like claws and holding her surprisingly gently as it picked up speed and left the warriors behind to hold back the jetpack using warriors.
She sank her power sword through the maw of the Tyranid warrior, snarling in fury as the beast sank to its knees before she yanked it out.
"Fire!" The Exorcist artillery vehicle behind her launched another rocket at the approaching mass, leaving a crater full of chitin and gore as it slammed into a horde of termagants.
"Report!" She screamed at one of her celestians.
"We lost the xenos leader! The seraphim got overwhelmed before they could lay the finishing blow!"
"Emperor damn them!" She snarled in rage. "What of the PDF assault?"
"Initial success, but they're getting pushed back. The enemy's numerical advantage is too much for them."
"Our losses?"
"Minimal. As you decreed, the tactics used left only the seraphim exposed. They are currently getting wiped out however."
"Necessary sacrifices." She cursed. "Pull us back. The enemy is out of range, and we're not getting through that tar pit of flesh." A nod.
"Pull back! We're retreating back to the third level!" The sororitas around them quickly started to rearrange in their squads, suppressive fire laid down on the hordes of xenos as they quickly made their way towards the gates. "What of the PDF?"
"Have them pull back as well. We are going to need every person available." She frowned. "The decapitation strike didn't work. We're going to need to rely on the Imperial Guard to bring the hammer down."
"What of our sisterhood? Are reinforcements on the way?"
"Yes, but the warp being what it is I would not rely on a quick arrival." She sighed. "Damn it all. And here I was hoping for a decisive blow."
"We killed quite a few of the warriors. Estimates are that their numbers are down seventy percent, and there is notable reduction in tyranid coordination." The celestian noted.
"Is that so?" The canoness murmured. "Change of plan. Contact the general, tell him to regroup his troops into their battalions, and get the reserves down there." She grinned, taking a step to the now disorganized mass of creatures, which showed a clear degradation in the near unanimous organization they were showing previously.
"We're pushing the counter attack."