Battle Brother Arius of the Ultramarines Second Battle Company stepped out into the chill air of the morning. Before him, a winding, grassy pass wove between two sheer cliff sides and disappeared about a bend in the low canyon. It was a serene view, even with the layers of sandbags, barbed wire and tank traps that compromised the path. Were it not for the knowledge of the Xenos that plagued this verdant land, Arius was sure he would find himself at a loss on this beautiful world.
The bulky, blue armoured forms of fellow Ultramarines dotted the fortifications before the PDF outpost that Arius had just stepped from. They kept a vigilant watch on the winding valley, while the rest of their squad mobilised to push forwards to a tunnel leading West to the Lycantium houses. A vanguard force of Tyranids had been sighted moving along it, their alien sights undoubtedly set on the Imperial Mausoleum further back where the canyons gave way to a low valley. In this building lay the revered remains of the world's most ancient and glorious heroes, but to the Tyranids it was simply biomass.
A force had been allocated here to drive back the Tyranids who sought to defile this holy ground, as they had the Capital City some miles away. Arius was glad for the canyon slopes that obscured the ominous stain on the horizon. The Capital City of this world, Heller IV, had come under heavy attack from the bulk of the Xenos force and already the land there was mutating and moulding itself into a twisted hell more suited to the Tyranid lifeforms. He was grateful that the effects of Tyranid invasion had yet to reach these beautiful plains, though he knew it was only a matter of time.
With a pneumatic hiss, the doors to the outpost behind him slid open. Arius glanced back as the Veteran Sergeant in command of this strike force strode out to join him, flanked by a trio of Marines, one of whom wielded a hefty Heavy Bolter. Arius himself wielded a Meltagun, marking him out as one of the specialist weapon units amongst the ten man squad.
'How the PDF managed to contain that beast, only the Emperor knows,' said the Veteran and before the outpost doors slid closed, Arius once again caught a glimpse of the Tyranid abomination suspended within a vat. He knew of these creatures, having slain them before; terrible beings of devastating psychic potential, the more independent components of any Hive Fleet.
'It cost them dearly, whatever the case,' replied Arius, nodding to the piled bodies of several PDF troopers. When they had reached the outpost, only three weary soldiers had remained, exhausted from a battle that they should not have survived. Yet, by some miracle of the Emperor, they had managed to injure the Zoanthrope leading the attack and the rest of the Tyranid force had crumbled and fled to regroup. The soldiers had been relieved and sent packing towards the Mausoleum, where a PDF relief force was gathering for the next attempt to liberate Lycantium. The Ultramarines were the spearhead of that assault, clearing a path for the advance.
'Come, we must be on the move. The Tyranids will not wait for us,' said the Veteran Sergeant, unsheathing his Chainsword and pulling the Inferno Pistol from its holster. As if to spite him for his words, a cry of warning came from the defences and the Marines looked out to where a mass of crimson bodies swarmed from the bend in the canyon.
'It seems not,' said a deep, grating voice from the Heavy Marine, hefting his weapon in preparation for the carnage it was about to unleash. They rushed to join their Brothers, taking cover behind a wall of sandbags, crusted with dry gore.
With a primal roar that spoke of nothing but the urge to feed, the Tyranids raced along the canyon path to meet the Ultramarines. Arius hunkered down in cover, biding his time as the squad acted according to the scriptures of the blessed Codex Astartes. With the longest range, the Heavy Bolter would open fire first and thus suppressed, the enemy would be brought to ruin with scything waves of succint bolter fire.
The canyon echoed with barking reports as the Heavy Bolter opened fire, spitting round after round of explosive bolts into the massing foe. The Marine strafed his weapon left and right and his barrage mashed the front wave of lesser Tyranid creatures. The alien advance slowed visibly and the rest of the Ultramarines rose from cover, their Bolters alive with righteous fury. Yet for all their vigour, the kills they inflicted on the enemy seemed irrelevant and onwards the Tyranids came.
Larger organisms, Warriors, battered their way through the fire, rounds bouncing from their chitinous carapaces and leapt to meet the Space Marines. Arius darted from cover and depressed the trigger of his weapon in one fluid motion. A stream of searing molecular gases that rippled the very air caught the first Warrior full on and it burst into flames as its flesh was cooked. The second was brought low by the whirring of monomolecular teeth as the Veteran Sergeant lashed out with his Chainsword in a furious arc.
A third warrior stepped in and scythed its lethal talons towards Arius. Only his enhanced reflexes saved him from being swiftly beheaded, but a gouge was rent in his cuirass and bore him to the gore splattered grass. The Warrior reared itself up for the kill, but was shredded in a hail of bolts as the Heavy Marine turned his weapon on it.
It wasn't long before the Warrior brood was all but annihilated and the psychic will binding the lesser organisms was shattered, sending them into a wild panic. Those that did not flee turned on one another with reckless abandon.
'Forward!' cried the Veteran and the band of Ultramarines surged from cover. They fired from the hip as they advanced and soon the Tyranid assault was no more. Keeping up the pace, the Space Marines rounded the sudden turn of the canyon, to where the tunnel lay in a wide valley.
Arius pulled up short, his breath leaving him in one sharp exhale. The thuds of a giant shook rubble from the canyon walls and the Ultramarines advance was brought to a stand still as they beheld the monstrous beast that descended upon them. Two pairs of talons, each one twice as long as man, scythed the air in a primal show of dominance.
'Destroy this beast!' roared the Veteran, raising his Chainsword in defiance of death. 'It insults the Emperor with its very presence!'
Galvanised onwards by their leader, the Ultramarines raised their Bolters, but too late. An inhuman screech split the air, barely kept at bay by the audio regulators of the Space Marine helmets. A wave of highly energised particles vomited from the Carnifex' gaping maw and splashed into the ranks of Ultramarines. Arius was thrown bodily from his feet and heard the roars of dying Astartes. Hastily, he pushed himself from the ground. A crater of churned soil sizzled in the centre of the path and Arius counted the mangled bodies of four of his Brothers, their armour eaten away by the highly deadly bio-plasma.
He turned to face the Carnifex, his rage at the death of his brethren burning brightly in his chest, but the beast was already amongst them. Arius watched as the Sergeant lifted his Inferno Pistol, firing a spear of fiery particles into the Tyranid's body. As though it had barely felt the devastating power of the weapon, the Carnifex batted the Veteran away with a swing of its talons, sending him crashing into the canyon wall with the crack of adamantium.
A storm of bolts clattered from its armoured hide as the Heavy Marine returned to his feet, several punching beneath the chitin plates with wet, fleshy explosions. It ignored him for now and instead brought its talons down upon a closer Ultramarine, punching through the Marine's armour as easily as paper. Rich, red blood sprayed from the impaled Space Marine and Arius roared in despairing hate as his brothers were slain.
Forgetting all else, he charged forwards as the Carnifex flung the twitching Ultramarine from its bloodied talon. Mighty strides fuelled by a hate without depth cleared the distance in seconds and Arius fell into a roll as a talon swept overhead. Rising to his knee, he jabbed his meltagun towards the beasts head and fired. The Carnifex stumbled back as its head was bathed in particles with the heat of a sun and its flesh burst into righteous flames, eager to devour alien flesh. With a thud that shook the ground, the Carnifex collapsed in a heap of disintegrating matter.
Arius rose to his feet slowly and took a deep breath, calming the storm that brewed within him.
'Well fought, Brother,' said a strained voice and Arius looked up to see the Veteran striding towards him as his surviving brothers regrouped.
'Not well enough,' said Arius quietly, casting his gaze to the dead. In a single moment, their squad had been cut in half.
'They will find their place at the Emperor's side, but let us honour their deaths by completing our mission,' the Veteran said, noticing Arius' grief.
The weapon specialist nodded and the Ultramarines left the burning carcass of the Carnifex behind, making a silent vow that they would return for their dead when their mission was complete.
Ah, a little piece of writing that flowed from me after my battle today. Yes, this piece is indeed fashioned after the match I fought earlier this day, not simply empty words of fabricated courage.
Oh? You don't believe I brought low the mighty Carnifex?
Here is your
proof!
Comments and constructive critiscm are welcome! Hopefully, if you all like it, there will be more to come!
