"We shall kill all of them!" Ogami shouted, barely able to rein in the ferocious spirit of Okami. The Knight Preceptor howled, a mechanical noise that echoed in the noosphere. The Armigers responded to Okami, adding their own growls.
Without hesitation, Okami plunged into the fray, accompanied by the Armiger Warglaives. Suzuki, in his Hebi, and the two new guys - Sato in Kaen and Watanabe in Tsurugi. Sendo in a new Armiger Moirax armed with a pair of lightning locks joined Kanda and Chiba, and they gathered near Tanaka's Kazan, the venerable Knight Castellan taking aim at the Tyrannofex in the distance.
The Genestealers pounced ahead of the fray, even as an Exorcine loosed shots at Ogami. Okami's ion shields rotated about to deflect the bio-plasma, as well as withstood a barrage from a swooping Harpy from above.
"Hah!" Ogami sneered. "Your puny attacks won't be able to break through my defenses!"
On the opposite end, however, the Tyranofex's powerful bombardment smashed through Kazan's ion shields and sent the Knight Castellan reeling.
"Ouch!" Tanaka complained as he fought with the controls in his Throne Mechanicum. He sighed when the venom cannons from the Tyranid Warriors further damaged his steed. The ion shields were failing him, it seemed, despite him spending three Command Points to rotate them. A waste of Command Points, if he ever saw one.
The Genestealers charged and slashed at Okami, only to have a couple of them stomped to oblivion. Fortunately, Watanabe moved Tsurugi forward and swept his reaper chain-cleaver across, killing another three and halving their original number.
"Time for us to strike back!" Ogami yelled, stepping over the Genestealers and firing his las-impulsor at the Broodlord that failed to make its charge along with its brethren. It was vaporized in a single volley. On the other end, the missiles from the Stormspear rocket pod struck the Exocrine but did very little damage.
Suzuki vaporized two Tyranid Warriors with his thermal spear, and Tanaka took care of another few with his plasma decimator and siegebreaker cannons. The volcano lance struck the Tyranofex and took a hefty chunk of flesh and chitin off, but the monstrous creature still lived, smoldering like a volcanic crater.
"Whoops, I should have fired more shots at it," Tanaka muttered.
The Armiger Moirax Knights cleared the Termagaunts off the board with their lightning locks and graviton pulsars, while Watanabe continued to combat the Genestealers. Sato moved Kaen up to support Ogami's charge, but he didn't manage to do much. Fortunately, he charged into the Gargoyles that had flocked ahead and killed a few of them. Ogami retreated to kill another three Genestealers along with Watanabe, but two survived.
The Harpy bombed Okami, seeing an opportunity, but the Knight Preceptor stood strong, shrugging off mortal wounds and damage from the Exocrine and the Harpy's ranged weapons. The Tervigon spawned more Termagaunts to shore up the numbers they had lost, while the sole surviving Tyranid Warrior, Tyranid Warrior Prime and Tyranofex hacked into Suzuki's Armiger Warglaive.
"Not this time!"
Suzuki managed to kill a few Tyranid Warriors earlier in combat, but the last one decided to fall back, leaving the combat to his Prime and Tyranofex. Though Suzuki survived the onslaught from the Tyranofex, he struck back and killed the Tyranid Warrior Prime. However, his foe fought on death and cut him down along with it.
"Yikes! No way! That's unfair!"
"It is what it is," Tanaka said with a sigh when Kazan rocked from another bio-plasma bombardment from the Tyranofex. A winged Hive Tyrant had also dove from the skies to assail Chiba's Knight Moirax with psychic powers, but fortunately it didn't do too much damage.
Sato's Kaen was ripped apart by the Tervigon, which pounced on him. Sato groaned as his Knight fell, blowing up and knocking a few of the Zoantropes down, as well as killing three Gargoyles outright.
"I think that was an overextension," he grumbled.
The Knights fought back valiantly. The four meltaguns opened up, but the Winged Hive Tyrant formed a barrier that withstood the thermal shots. Fortunately, the siegebreaker cannons ripped it apart in an explosive hail of shrapnel, and the beast fell. The volcano lance boomed once more, and this time, the Tyranofex disappeared for good.
Sendo opened up with his lightning locks and obliterated all but one of the Termagaunts at the back. Watanabe managed to damage the Tervigon with his thermal spear, but it continued to survive. On the other hand, Ogami slew the Exocrine with his las-impulsor before charging into the Gargoyles and stomping them to death. Most of them, anyway...he ended up fluffing his stomps, and the majority of them fled.
"Looking good!" Ogami shouted encouragingly. "Let's wipe these bugs out!"
"Don't speak too soon," Tanaka warned. Sure enough, the Tyranids had yet to unleash their true power. The Zoanthropes hovered forward, unleashing psychic powers that smashed Kanda's Knight Moirax to bits. Even as Ogami slew the Tervigon, the Harpy flew forward and finished off Tanaka's heavily damaged Kazan.
"Oh, for the love of the Emperor..."
Tanaka sighed as he slouched against his Throne Mechanicum, his Knight a wreck. Well, nothing a few sacristans couldn't repair, but it sucked to be out of the fight for now. He wished he could have done more.
The Zoanthropes continued to pound the Knights with psychic powers, obliterating both Chiba's Knight Moirax and Watanabe's Tsurugi. That shifted the battle firmly in the Tyranids' favor, and Sendo was forced to fall back with his Knight Moirax, while firing and killing the rest of the Termagaunts.
"Do you think I'll let you win?!" Ogami raged, and he fired at the sole surviving Tyranid Warrior, killing it with missiles. He then pursued the Zoanthropes, scything three of them down with his las-impulsor. Little good it could do, for Sendo's Knight fell to the bombardment from the Harpy.
And so the battle ended, with only Ogami surviving.
"...that's quite the change," Tanaka commented. "Usually Ogami is always the first to fall. He's the only one who survived the battle this time."
Unfortunately, Ogami wasn't satisfied. He was raging and yelling, waving his reaper chainsword at the retreating Harpy, Zoanthropes and Neurothrope. Apparently the Hive mind had decided that it had lost too much and decided to pull back for the day. Not to worry, for it would return, stronger, better and more highly evolved. The Tyranids were an adaptative race, after all.
This was the first time this particular horde had faced Knights...and they knew what sort of mutations they needed in future.
"Not good, not good at all," Tanaka muttered under his breath. Meanwhile Ogami continued to bellow at the departing Tyranids.
"Get back here, you cowards! Come and fight me! I'll show you..."
"Oh, just shut up already!" Suzuki yelled. "We're done! Let's just get our Knight suits repaired and move on to the next battle!"
"Unless you want to pursue the Tyranids on your own," Kanda added sourly.
Ogami, mercifully, fell silent, and watched over the fallen steeds of his comrades while the sacristans rushed over to begin enacting repairs.
"At least we won this time," he said.
"This time," Tanaka repeated grimly. "I don't know if we'll be lucky enough to win the next battle against the Tyranids, though."
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