Heart of the Swarm

The Tyranids had descended upon Hamlicar.

Watching the skies darken, Tanaka gulped as the crimson biological pods crashed upon the fields of the agri-world. Their rippling surfaces steamed with the heat of reentry, and cracks widened as Hormagaunts fought to exit their organic prisons. Their bodies still wet with amniotic fluids, they bounded across the fields with a terrifying screech.

At the head of them, a Hive Tyrant burst free from the largest pod. Roaring, it trampled upon one of the hapless Hormagaunts as it pulled free, it bonesword cleaving the last of its pulsating cage open. It turned its eyes toward the lance of Knights that awaited them and snarled. The formerly chaotic mob of Hormagaunts abruptly halted before organizing themselves into leaping ranks that surged forward.

"There's...a lot of them," Tanaka muttered, once again displaying his penchant for stating the obvious.

"Don't just stare at them! Attack!" Suzuki snapped. He was already bringing his Armiger Warglaive forward. Hebi swung its thermal spear about to take aim at the Hive Tyrant. "Concentrate fire on the leader beast!"

"There's a bunch of Warriors to the right," Tanaka warned when he caught sight of a trio of Tyranid Warriors marching forward. Two of them bore organic cannons that fired swarms of ravenous insectile projectiles. The deathspitters vaporized against his ion shield, and the few that survived the protective screen harmlessly collided against the hull of Kazan, unable to chew their way through the adamantium.

"Ignore them for now! Focus on the biggest creature! It poses the greatest threat. Cut off the head and the body of the beast will fall."

Tanaka had to admit that Suzuki had a point, gently guiding Kazan forward at full stride. He took aim with his thermal spear and meltagun, but the Hive Tyrant generated a psychic barrier that deflected the superheated beams.

"Ugh...that sucks."

"Thanks for distracting it!" Suzuki crowed and fired a volley from both his thermal spear and meltagun. Having focused its attention on Kazan, the Hive Tyrant wasn't able to align its empyric energies in time to protect itself from the melta rays striking it from the rear. It howled in pain and staggered as Suzuki's onslaught disintegrated huge chunks of fuming flesh and bone from its back. The pilot cursed when he saw the damage was superficial. "Throne damn it, I was out of optimal range!"

While Suzuki bemoaned his failure to take out the Hive Tyrant, Tanaka turned his attention toward the horde of Hormagaunts pouncing toward him. "Kanda!" He yelled through the vox. "Covering fire, please!"

"You got it, sir."

Kanda had moved his Armiger Knight Moirax into position behind cover, behind a wall. His lightning locks glowed for a moment before unleashing exotic energies that sprayed over the swarm. Over half of the Hormagaunts fell, their carapaces blackened and carcasses convulsing as the lethal electricity danced over them.

While the mob was disorientated momentarily, both Kazan and Hebi plunged into the Hive Tyrant. Tanaka managed to stab the creature in the gut, his reaper chain-cleaver dealing a mortal blow that caused the huge beast to double over. Snarling, the Hive Tyrant lashed out, but Hebi took the brunt of the attacks, Suzuki not as skilled as Tanaka in close combat.

"Hey! That hurts!"

He tried to retaliate, but the Hive Tyrant parried his reaper chain-cleaver with a deft backswing of its bonesword. Tanaka tried to help, but Kazan was currently overwhelmed by a bunch of Hormagaunts that slowly but surely tore through the armor plating of the Armiger Warglaive's legs.

"This sucks..."

Tanaka was suddenly aware that Kazan didn't have long to live. He was right. The Hive Tyrant snarled and shrieked all of a sudden, a mental onslaught that smashed his Knight into pieces. Kazan toppled over, its torso crumpling. Swearing, Tanaka punched the eject button and launched his Helm Mechanicum out of his dying Knight suit.

However, before he punched out, he was determined to deal one final act of spite and vengeance.

"Screw you, Emperor-cursed a-hole!"

With a sick sense of glee that probably only an Ork would understand, Tanaka hit the red button. No, it wasn't going to make Kazan go faster. Instead, like the volcano that the Armiger Warglaive was named for in Draconis III's native language, Kazan erupted for a final time.

The explosion almost knocked Hebi over.

"Hey!" Suzuki yelled angrily as Hebi teetered dangerously over. "Watch it!"

"What? I killed the Hive Tyrant and a good bunch of the Hormagaunts!" Tanaka protested as the grav-chute opened up above him, the remnants of his Helm Mechanicum slowly descending into safety behind Kanda's Armiger Moirax. "I would say that was totally worth it!"

That was true. The detonation had ripped the already mortally wounded Hive Tyrant apart, its great body blasted into pieces. Half of its skull was missing, brain matter dripping out and evaporating from the sheer heat. As for the Hormagaunts, about quarter of them ceased to exist, the remainder stumbling dazedly in the smoking crater.

However, they were quick to adapt. Their lips peeling back to reveal rows of dagger-like teeth, they charged at Suzuki. Hebi was still swaying clumsily, its pilot yet to recover from the explosion that his comrade had set off.

They almost took down the incredibly weakened Armiger Warglaive. However, Hebi displayed its martial prowess, the indomitable machine spirit defiant. Executing a chainsweep maneuver, Suzuki maanged to scythe down the remaining Hormagaunts with his growling reaper chain-cleaver.

"Holy Emperor! Just one more scratch and Hebi would be wrecked!" Suzuki complained when he saw the corrosion that the Hormagaunts' toxic sacs had left on his crumbling hull. Hebi was just barely moving, its machine spirit unwilling to surrender to oblivion. Then he jolted in panic when he saw the Tyranid Warriors advancing toward him. They had tried to reach him before the last of the Hormagaunts fell, but failed to make it in time. Suzuki smirked. "Die, you vile beasts!"

Unfortunately for him, the extensive damage to Hebi meant that he missed all but one of his melta shots, and even his meltagun did little more than score a glancing hit against one of the Warriors. Aside from charred carapace, they weren't even hurt.

"...uh oh." Suzuki swallowed. "A little help here?"

His request was answered in spectacular fashion, lethal lightning lancing from Kanda's Armiger Knight Moirax. Two of the Warriors cooked within their own chitin, the noxious fluids serving as their blood boiling and searing through their vessels. The last Warrior braced itself behind its dying brethren, but Suzuki ran it through with a slash from Hebi's revving reaper chain-cleaver. The creature went into spasms, but finally flopped over the whirring blade.

"We did it!" Tanaka breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the last of the swarm get decimated. "We don't have to worry about Tyranids invading and devouring Hamlicar anymore! YAY!"

And thus, another world of the Imperium survived the cosmic horrors that the universe was determined to throw at it...for a single day longer.

*

Phyron simmered as he watched Solen Bloodsplitter pace about on the surface of the torn world of Tanit. The warlord's initial victory over the Knights of House Yato had gained him favor from the warfleet, but his subsequent defeat by a vengeful House Charon meant they had been driven off Hamlicar.

Despite the setback, the renegades mustering under Solen had believed that it was a fluke, and they believed that the Chaos Lord would lead them to victory once more. The dark gods were fickle, after all. What they bestowed with one hand, they took away with another. Victory and defeat were the two sides of the same coin.

The Imperials would pay. For now, though, Solen had voiced his strong desire to not have to fight Knights again.

"I'm sick of facing them. I want to fight infantry."

"And where are we supposed to find infantry?" Phyron rolled his eyes. "You think the Sisters on Hammon will take up our challenge? We always miss the best timing to fight them."

"In time, my friend," Solen said in a silky voice. "Be patient. Our opportunity will arrive."

"It might not, sir," one of his subordinates warned. Clad in thick, pink power armor, he saluted before delivering his report. "A splinter of Hive Fleet Hydra has just dropped down on Tanit, and they're eating our guardsmen."

"Let them." Solen waved his hand dismissively. "The mortal soldiers are expendable."

"Whatever happened to you wanting to fight infantry?" Phyron muttered. The light went off in Solen's eyes and he rammed a gauntleted fist into his palm.

"You're right, Phyron! Why didn't I think of that? Let us spill their blood and bring glory to the dark gods!" He grinned. "I just thought of an idea too! No longer shall we be known as the Pink Corsairs, as our enemies mockingly call us...but we shall now be the Flesh Hooks! That is the name of our warband, and we will build a reputation that strikes terror into the hearts of all who hears of us! Let us mobilize!"

Solen's legionnaires and Phyron's Rubric Marines arrived just in time to see their mortal troops massacred by a Hive Tyrant and Tyrannid Warriors, the deathspitters and organic cannon tearing through their fragile bodies in devastating salvos. A single traitor guardsman - a Sergeant, by the looks of his desecrated chevrons on a once proud Astra Militarum uniform - retreated.

"Lord," he panted. "The Tyranids are coming!"

"I can see that, fool!" Solen snapped and shoved him aside. "Move out of the way!"

The sergeant complied, retreating to a building to seek cover after the nightmare he had just faced. Phyron, not bothering to wait for Solen's command, was already transmitting mental orders to his phalanx of Rubric Marines. The mutagenic stream of fire leaped out of their warpflamers to dissolve the carapaces of the Tyranid Warriors, rendering them into bubbling misshapen forms that the Hive Mind would never have conceived of.

"Hmph." Already, Phyron was dreaming of the glory he would earned in this battle. He turned his sights on the Hive Tyrant, eager to slay it. Such a feat would earn him favor from Tzeentch...and perhaps even grant him the power to usurp Solen's position. He shall take over as the new lord of the Flesh Hooks and command his own warband...

Stifling a laugh when he saw Solen and his legionnaires get swarmed by Hormagaunts, he charged his force stave and slammed it against the Hive Tyrant. The strike didn't even penetrate its armored chitin, and the Hive Tyrant roared furiously. With great sweeping blows of its bonesword, it cleaved open the enchanted power armor of his Rubric Marines, dust spilling from the cracks and rents. Phyron himself was hardpressed to survive, struggling to defend himself from the monster's overwhelming blows.

I may have bitten off a lot more than I could chew, he thought, a sliver of unease invading his usually calm mind when he was confronted with the stark reality that the Hive Tyrant could end his existence. Another three of his automata-like brothers fell, the dust that they now were escaping from the broken shells of their armor.

Solen was leaving his legionnaires to their fate, the small squad standing their ground over a mountain of carcasses. More and more Hormagaunts were hurling themselves at the dwindling band, and already half their number had fallen. Even so, they were selling their lives dearly for Solen to escape. Phyron would have scoffed at his leader's cowardice if he wasn't so distracted with the task of keeping himself alive.

Raising its head, the Hive Tyrant shrieked at the legionnaires, killing them off. Then it returned to the task of finishing off Phyron and his Rubric Marines.

Is this how I die? Phyron wondered in dismay as he was forced back by a vicious cut from the Hive Tyrant's bonesword. Under the amused gaze of uncaring gods as they laugh at my failure to achieve glory for myself?

Before the Hive Tyrant could slice him apart with a devastating chop, Phyron caught sight of Solen throwing himself forward, swinging his daemon axe to intercept the blow. The Aspiring Sorcerer retreated, grudgingly grateful that Tzeentch had seen fit to spare him from the twisted, dark wiles of fate that befell all who played his game. What he had mistaken for cowardice was actually strategic brilliance on his commander's part. Having realized that it was pointless to be bogged down by endless numbers of Hormagaunts, Solen had sought out the leader-beast to challenge it in combat. As long as he could kill it, the Hydra swarm would naturally fall apart.

With a grunt, Solen swung Moon-Tearer at the Hive Tyrant, gleefully anticipating the foul powers that possessed the weapon to lay low his foe. However, the daemon inhabiting the weapon rebelled, empyric energies coursing through the haft and treacherously lashing out at its wielder. Solen cried out and staggered, his gauntlets blackening. Cursing, he dropped Moon-Tearer for a second and hammered at the Hive Tyrant with his bare fists, but the creature smacked him aside. Phyron scrambled away, relieved that the leader beast had now refocused its attention on his commander rather than the diminished Rubric Marine squad.

Unfortunately, he didn't have the luxury of enjoying his rival's plight. The surviving Hormagaunts that had torn apart the Flesh Hooks legionnaires were now pouncing on them before they could fire their warpflamers. Already, the sole surviving Traitor guardsman had been torn apart by their claws before they descended upon the Rubric Marines in a frenzy.

"There's...too many of them!"

Phyron fought a trio of them off in despair, clobbering them into bloodied masses. Meanwhile, Solen had finally rallied and forcibly brought Moon-Tearer under control. Glowing brightly and spitefully, the daemon axe bit deeply into the wounded Hive Tyrant and cleaved its head from its shoulders. There was one last wail before the headless monster dropped to its knees...then finally toppled over.

Bellowing triumphantly, Solen held the head of the Hive Tyrant up to display his prowess to all. The dark energies around him shimmered and strengthened further, the dark gods above both amused and impressed by his superlative performance.

The Hormagaunts that were assailing Phyron and his Rubric Marines were falling back now, losing coherency now that their leader had been slain. Solen turned a disdainful look at them, and the survivors literally dropped dead under his gaze. Their flesh blackened and sizzled and they burst apart as chaotic energies rippled across the mob.

Phyron felt a chill as he witnessed his leader's ascension. Solen was strolling toward him now, and in one smooth motion, he tossed the Hive Tyrant's head into the Aspiring Sorcerer's hands. Phyron caught it without thinking, and for some reason he could still feel the warmth of the leaking blood through his gauntlets.

"A worthy challenge," Solen drawled as he stopped beside Phyron, placing a hand on his pauldron. There was no brotherly affection in the grip, only a foreboding sense of warning. Phyron could almost see the feral grin spreading across the hideous face of his commander under the twisted helm. "Come, my friend. This is just the beginning. We still have a lot to do."

Phyron turned and followed the warlord, mustering the remains of his Rubric Marines as they returned to their fleet.

Above, amidst the grotesque skies that churned with daemonic auroras, the laughter of the gods continued to ring.