Shanek walked across the bloodsoaked town. The Lasgun
in his hand seemed almost too heavy to bear as he saw the bodies of human
children and mothers
covering the ground. Quite a few Tyranid bodies littered the landscape,
but not half enough to match the multitudes of dead people.
"Shit!" Shanek could hear Avacar, his Lieutenant walking
up to him.
"What is it sir?" Shanek questioned.
"we got here too late, and we're not well enough equipped."
"I can see that we got here too late sir, but what aren't
we equipped for? There's a whole regiment of Leman Russ tanks coming up,
and we have two
companies of space marines coming in."
"The tanks aren't coming, and another wave of
Tyranids are."
"Sir, what about the space marines, they should
be here in land
raiders."
"The first thing that you need to know about the
Tyranids is that they are not like the deathskulls you've been fighting
recently. They won't run away at the sight of a vehicle bigger than a battle
wagon."
"Do they run away at al.." Before Shanek
could finish he heard a clicking noise from inside the building that they
were standing by. What the hell is that? Shanek leveled his
Lasgun at the door as Avacar went
over to open it. As soon as he did so a Tyranid Termagant shot out and
began tearing Avacar to shreads. Shanek quickly brought his Lasgun to bear
at the Tyranid and fired off two shots. Each hit the monster in the head,
and it let off a terrible scream. Before the Tyranid was done
butchering Avacar it turned on Shanek. Shanek let off three more shots,
all hitting the moster in the head. Suddenly green ooz started gushing
out of the moster's head, and it began to stumble. Finally it fell. Shanek
turned the Lasgun on it again and shot off the rest off the clip [editors
note:
lasers don't have limited ammo.]. He watched as the head literally exploded.
In the confusion Shanek had not heard the rumble
of land raiders. He walked through the streets toward the sound, as he
went he joined the rest of the men that made up his IG division. A loud
cheer rang out as the first space marine squad poured out from the Land
Raider. The space marines
quickly took positions in the ruins. The division it seemed all at once
remembered that they were not out of the fight and they quickly took places
along side the marines. As soon as the marines had all disembarked the
land raiders took up positions as well. Shanek asked a space marine on
the roofof the ruin that they shared where the Tyranids were coming from.
He pointed to a ridge about a mile away from his position. Shanek felt
protected. He was with the best fighters in the imperium, and he was fighting
with the best of them, the blood angels.
Out of nowhere a deafiningly shrill scream with
incredible multitudes of clicking ran out from over the ridge. Suddenly
hundreds of Tyranids of all kinds swarmed over the hill. Shanek brought
his Lasgun to his shoulder. All around him he could hear the lock and load
of bolters, standard and heavy. And even a multimelta or two charging up.
Shanek then remembered that he had used up his last clip so he added a
new one.
Soon he heard the guns of the land raiders opening up.
The rattling of the guns could almost not be heard compared to the increasing
multitude of clicks, and the shrill screach of the tyranids. First one
or two Tyranids dropped, then they began to fall in Swarms, and fire back.
The soldiers on
the first building began to take casualties, and then the whole city
erupted in bolter and lasgun fire. Now though the Tyranids had reached
the land raiders, and were tearing them apart. Soldiers everywhere began
to drop. Shanek continue to take aim at the smaller Tyranids, because it
seemed
that he could drop them in only one or two shots. Finally the land raiders
seemed all destroyed. But not at a high price to the Tyranids. It seemed
as though thousands of their corpses littered the city streets and
the field surrounding the city.
The last Tyranids were just now swarming over the hill.
The plain seemed covered in charging Tyranids. In the first few buildings
there was alreadybloody hand to hand fighting going on. Although the Imperial
guard troops seemed to be getting slaughtered the blood angels were fairing
wellagainst the mostrosities that were attacking them. Blood was spattering
everywhere. Mixed with a considerable amount of ooze. The ooze in
the streets was beginning to flow. The first buildings had been taken by
Tyranids. The multi meltas were baking multitudes of them, but there were
too many.
Shanek had used a considerable amount of clips at this
point, and he was about out of ammunition. He fired off his last few shots
when the space marine next to him was killed. Shanek without thinking picked
up the heavy bolter next to him and made war with the Tyranids again. The
building in front of Shanek, after a huge fight, was finally taken. Shanek
wasted no time in clearing it of Tyranids with his heavy bolter.
Suddenly a spike drove through the roof of the building,
quickly a Tyranid head burst through. Shanek and many other soldiers there
quickly turned on it and killed it. Quickly though more heads popped up.
Shanek was forced to shoot at them. Suddenly he felt the razor sharp pain
of a claw
tearing through his back, and everything went black.
(C)1998 by Joshua Scannell