With an ear-piercing crack, the large, top-heavy spar of rock struck by the Magos' melta-beam shifts position and begins sliding toward the shrike, a shower of dislodged snow preceding the one ton column of wind-tortured stone as it falls, slamming pinnacle first into the xenos' upper body.
Still under heavy fire from the gargoyle's flesh-borers, Brother Emeric turns to shield the vox-caster from the barrage as he hastily adjusts the band and oscillation rate to better alleviate the hissing static. Dialing back the rate to the 110.7 MHz range sacred to Adeptus Astartes covert fleet actions, he is rewarded with a real-time, tight-beamed burst of data that immediately begins playing audibly over his internal microbead.
<<<...ther Pellas of the Thunder's Word to Kill-Team designate Umbra: Thunderhawk Vengeful Lightning has penetrated Tantalus planetary atmosphere at coordinates 55.721° by 72.333° bearing north, northeast over Sothunder Saggital Massif. Estimated time of arrival for emergency exfiltration at grid coordinate is seven minutes thirty seconds sidereal time. Please confirm present position and status...Brother Pellas out.>>>
<<<...ther Pellas of the Thunder's Word to Kill-Team designate Umbra: Thunderhawk Vengeful Lightning has penetrated Tantalus planetary atmosphere at coordinates 55.721° by 72.333° bearing north, northeast over Sothunder Saggital Massif. Estimated time of arrival for emergency exfiltration at grid coordinate is seven minutes thirty seconds sidereal time. Please confirm present position and status...Brother Pellas out.>>>
Another Tyranid volley hits a nearby spar of rock, showering me with a combined spray of acid, ice, and fragments of shale. Damn these foul abominations! A quick adjustment to focus my vox-beam north-north-east... In an eye-blink I cogitate and answer using an automated, electronic-voice subroutine housed in my cranial circuitry, thus permitting maintenance of full battle concentration. Transmitting:
<<<Reception of message, Battle-Brother Pellas, Vengeful Lightning inbound status and ETA is confirmed. Brother Techmarine Emeric responding. Location, Kill-Team Umbra, designated extraction zone, Pyroclast-Gamma-9 Southern Expanse, Grid Zone Omicron-Upsilon-7, coordinates (76.24642395766811°, -94.21875°). We stare into the maw of the Great Devourer and know no fear. Brother Emeric out.>>>
To the Kill-Team using my internal voice-operated vox: "Thunderhawk inbound. ETA: 7 minutes, 12 seconds. Abhor the alien. Maintain maximum lethality."
Stepping forward without hesitation, the fate of the mission hanging in the balance, Brother Quintus fires a burst from his bolt pistol into the staggered shrike's back, the bursting chitin spraying violet ichor across the rusty orange and black hide of the monster.
Eli shifts his fire to the next target without even thinking, his focus on the battle absolute.
The shrike makes no secret about its choice of prey, folding its leathery wings back as it plunges toward Brother Syne. The Dark Angel shows no apprehension whatsoever, and merely regulates his breathing before squeezing the trigger and releasing another thunderous burst toward his foe.
The wide bore barrel of the bolter now glows bright red with a heat like that of a Mechanicus forge as it releases its deadly salvo, the rounds tearing into the hardened skin of the shrike with buffeting force.
As the shrike draws nearer and nearer, the burst tear it to pieces, raining gobbets of shredded chitin, milky white tissue, and spatters of violet ichor down on the combatants below. The bulk of the creature remaining aloft then tumbles from the sky, slamming into the escarpment beneath the Dark Angel with a crunch of ice and snow.
Undeterred by the gory rain dropping around him, the Blood Angel continues to hack and cut with his chainsword through the scattered hormagaunts, living up to his chapter's reputation as furious, almost bloodthirsty combatants when their anger is stoked.
Hormagaunt after hormagaunt perishes in a storm of buzzing teeth and spraying ichor as Brother Sepheren pushes through the diminished swarm.
The shrike shrugs off the huge chunk of frozen rock, turning its attention fully toward the Ultramarine and screeches in fury as the Kraken rounds rip through its carapace. It lowers its repugnant head, mandibles clacking angrily and charges Brother Quintus.
As this happens, the other shrike raises both of its huge talons overhead, like a furious mantid, and lunges toward Brother Emeric.
Taking careful aim, the Ultramarine squeezes off a quick round at the mortally wounded shrike.
The armor-piercing projectile blows a sizable hole in the shrike's barbed torso, but the beast continues its headlong charge toward the Ultramarine just the same.
Omega Vault:
The unholy beast unleashes an odious screech and raises its massive talons, hoping to deliver a killing strike. Never! You have met your doom! A weapons rune blinks in my visual array as Ferocitas locks onto a large gap in Tyranid's chitinous armor covering its thoracic ganglion. I step towards the beast, fire-select a Kraken round, raise my bolter and fire.
Before the shrike can impale him on its descending talons, the Black Templar raises his arm and fires a single round into the center of the shrike's exposed thorax, the kraken round blowing a gaping hole in the xenos entity, killing it instantly. Wiping the foul ichor from his left pauldron escutcheon, he turns his attention to the circling gargoyles.
Still charging headlong toward the Ultramarine, the mortally wounded shrike rakes its massive claws across Brother Quintus' armor.
Waiting until the last possible moment, Brother Quintus crouches and rolls as the rending claws of the hulking shrike sweep over his helmet, just missing a decapitating blow.
Seeing that I am currently in a calm spot of the storm I will take a shot at the shrike again. Hopefully I will go dow before it gets to Brother Quintus.
Hrothgar renews his attack on the Shrike. Both bolt pistols screaming death.
Having dispensed the Shrike, I turn and face the mass of slavering Gargoyles spiraling towards my position. With only three Kraken rounds remaining, I shift to regular bolt-rounds and cut loose. Round after round finds purchase, each causing a Tyranid to plummet onto the icy plain below.
Seeing his foe vanquished by the techmarine, Brother Caledonii sights down the barrel of his bolter and fires a single round at distance, aiming at the final shrike menacing the Kill-Team leader. The shot goes just wide, taking a sizable chunk from one of the wind-tortured spurs of rock jutting from the plateau.
The shot however, does draw the attention of Brother Hrothgar, who turns and kneels, raising both bolt pistols at once to chest height, unleashing a furious storm of fire on the creature as it engages with Brother Quintus. Most of the shots miss their mark, given that the Space Wolf focuses his fire on the creature's back and legs for fear of hitting the Ultramarine, but one finds the target, blowing through the side of the screeching xenos' head with a hollow whump of vaporized chitin and tissue.
Satisfied that Brother Quintus is no longer in immediate danger, Brother Emeric turns his augmetic eyes to the sky, toggles his bolter's fire selector, and returns the punishment rained down on him by the gargoyles.
The shrieking spawn of the Devourer fall from the sky in bunches as the Black Templar swivels in place to rake across their hovering ranks, each death assuaging the pain of the techmarine's wounds and placating the hunger of Ferocitas' targeting reticule.
The Iron Snake continues his march toward the apothecary, stabbing at the hormagaunts whenever they draw too near.
The foul xenos nimbly elude the Iron Snake, their diminished numbers making them harder and harder to skewer on the end of his sea lance.
The much diminished hormagaunt hordes continue their implacable assault on Brothers Vex, Sepheren, and Decius, raking with razor sharp talons in hopes of penetrating their armor.
Brother Vex continues to hold off the swarming 'Nids from atop the spar of ice he has chosen to make his stand, slashing and riposting whenever they draw near.
The voracious Tyranid pack that remains dart in again and again on the Blood Angel, but each time he cuts another in half with his chainsword, forcing them out of the makeshift trenches and wading through their ranks.
Sensing, as if by the hive mind's volition, that their divided attacks on the two foes are not working, the remaining hormgaunts swarm as one, rushing past the surprised apothecary to leap through the Iron Snake's overwhelmed defenses, tearing into and through the legs of his power armor.
Still circling like carrion birds, the gargoyles unleash another barrage with their flesh-boring cannons.
Another rain of the plasm-drenched beetles erupt from the sky above the the techmarine, but he holds his ground, the creatures landing in wet spatters around him harmlessly.
Although Brother Hrothgar isn't as lucky, he quickly manages to shed the foul living ammunition, shaking his body like a wet wolf to remove the scuttling insect-things from his helm before they can inflict lasting damage.
Brother Caledonii toggles the fire selector again, and rakes across the gargoyle flight circling above Emeric and Hrothgar.
'Nid after 'nid tumbles from the sky, the shrapnel ripping the xenos to pieces as they airburst throughout the horrid flock.
Using the Gaunts aggressive nature against them. I feign loosing my balance further. Instead planting my foot, and whirling my force sword into the mass of them.
Force Weapon Damage (1d10+11=20)
Knowing the longer I have to deal with these lesser creatures I am failing in my duty to protect the Guardsmen. I channel my psychic rage into my sword to shatter the xenos minds and body.
These smaller xenos groups are a mere annoyance. They distract us from the hammer that is about to fall.
Taking full advantage of his feint, the Dark Angel presses his counterattack, carving a wide swath of death into the horde of Tyranids, his force blade crackling with the uncolors of channeled Warpfire.
The techmarine pivots, aims, and fires, his shot blasting another gargoyle out of the sky in a grisly cloud of ichor. The xenos that remain wheel about chaotically, their formation broken by the recent fire.
The guardsmen open fire again, their morale clearly bolstered by the Kill-team's success against the Tyranid host. Las bursts stab out from the hauler, raking across the Tyranid surrounding Brother Vex.
Commissar Sander and the sharpshooters among the Karlack 2nd pick off several of the 'Nids scuttling around behind the Librarian, ending them before they can creep up on the marine's blind side.
The Magos slowly rotates in the air, hovering forward until he rests in the air just above Brother's Decius, Sepheren, and the remnants of the Hormagaunt swarm they fight against, a specter of black metal clad in tattered red robes.
Once in position, an ocular targeting lens slides into place before his augmetic eye and he raises his infernus pistol to unleash its devastation upon the enemies of the Omnissiah.
The flash of heat incinerates both hormagaunts and much of the surface ice, raising a great cloud of scalding steam into the air around the combatants.
The great monstrosities felled, Eli unclips the feed chute from his heavy bolter and snaps it securely to his chest. Then, he extracts the belt of Hellfire rounds from his bandoleer and loads his weapon with grim satisfaction. He is prepared for this occasion.
The shrike no more, Brother Quintus hoists his heavy flamer and strides several paces to the east before pointing the flickering pilot at the end of the weapon's nozzle to the sky. Great sheets of burning promethium engulf the hovering gargoyles, rendering them unto cinders so great is the heat. In one sustained flash of white-hot flame, the winged harriers troubling Brother Emeric and Brother Hrothgar are gone, replaced by a shower of ash and blistered chitin.
Brother Sepheren continues his savage assault against the remaining hormagaunts, slashing and rending them in his efforts to close the distance and assist the Iron Snake.
By the time the berserking son of Sanguinius is finished, the hormagaunts are nothing more than purple stains upon his armor and the cracked ice underfoot. Chainsword still chattering, he masters himself again, coming to an almost reluctant halt in front of Brother Decius.
Hrothgar fires at the nearest gargoyle horde.
"Emeric, you think we have time to rig a bomb on that refinery?"
The mole mortar secreted in the hauler fires again, delayed by a dud round loaded into it that the Karlack 2nd quickly discard.
The proximity fuse on the subterranean munition detonates prematurely, scattering chunks of permafrost and a shower of powdery snow across the ice plain well short of the vanguard hosts advance. The guardsmen's curses echo tinnily from within the hauler, the coming doom of the horrid xenos now visible as a massive wall of thorny shadow on the southern horizon.
The Space Wolf's bolt pistols thunder again, dropping a few more of the winged horrors from the sky, the specially formulated mutagenic acid in the core of each round sending the xenos to their death in screeching seizures of agony.
With the fire selector still primed with the metal storm bolts I turn and fire upon the remaining gargoyles.
I mutter to myself as the battle fatigue and wound are catching up with me as the shot goes wide.
"Emeric, you think we have time to rig a bomb on that refinery?"
"Negative, Brother. Geographic and temporal factors preclude this option."
Incinerated xenos fall all around me, thanks to the flamer of our Brother-Leader. I recalibrate and add my fire to that of the Space Wolf.
The Storm Warden curses and ducks down as the metal storm rounds misfire, fragmenting well short of their intended target and creating a rain of hot shrapnel that hisses as it impacts the dirty snow.
His auto-senses compensating for the nearby explosion with their flare filters, Brother Emeric takes aim and rakes fire across the remaining gargoyles as they flap away from the concussive blasts. Their flight takes them directly into his line of fire, and the rest of the screeching xenos die, one by one, crashing to the snowy hillside below.