We Stand Together
Applejack sent out a ping from her battlesuit’s sensors, the response coming back almost instantly, registering the strike force around her and automatically checking it against the battle order that had been uploaded into its sensors just hours ago.
They were all there, Hazzard and Crisis battlesuits, Piranha’s and TX-42’s, a pair of Hammerheads. It was a brutally powerful force, but more importantly it was fast. A pair of Manta’s would be deploying the strike force deep into enemy lines, while across the planet Tau and Exodites engaged in similar attacks. Some were fast strikes like Applejack’s team, others were slower affairs, led by Fire Warriors on foot, their transports destroyed in the fighting before this day.
There were few Dark Eldar on the world, most had been deployed aboard the fleets in orbit, ready to board and destroy the Hive Ships when the mission clock hit zero. Only two forces remained planetside from their kind. The first was a personal ‘gift’ from Eethron, his finest work as he called them. Legions of wracks, grotesques, Talos’s and Cronos engines all waited to rip into the Tyranids. The Tau empire had seen what happened when their kind fought the Great Devourer in the War of Dark Revelations, the commanders well versed in what they specialised in, and what they were made from.
The final force was Rainbow’s own, thousands of Wyches, hundreds of Reavers. This was the full might of the Lighting Fang Cult, putting even Applejack’s force to shame in terms of speed. They would be the first to strike, just west of Applejack’s own target, the primary gestation pool.
“Alright everybody,” Applejack murmured into her suits communicator. “Let’s mount up.”
Without a word the strike force moved forward, entering the holds of the Manta’s, taking to the sky the moment the last foot was on board. It was like a well-oiled machine. A well-oiled machine that was about to be dropped into hell and expected to come out the other side still working. Applejack didn’t expect over half of the strike forces to survive this. They were putting everything they had into this, if it failed…
“Shas’O,” Aun’Vesa’s voice came over the communicator from half a continent away. “Applejack, is your force in the air?”
“We are, Mighty Ethereal,” Applejack responded quickly. “You set off yet?”
“My Fire Warrior teams are advancing as we speak. Once we eliminate our target I will be rerouting my forces to you, you are to order your Manta’s to provide initial air cover for your landings, then redeploy to pick us up. I’ll bring the cavalry.”
“Y’all have been spending to much time with Goge,” Applejack chuckled. “Received though, Aun’Vesa. We’ll send ‘em over to pick you up. Applejack out.”
Applejack turned off the communicator, sighing deeply as she did so.
“Shas’O? Is everything ok?” One of the Hazzard suits standing beside her asked.
Applejack wanted to say no, to say that she was sure she’d be losing at least one friend before the day was out. That Aun’Vesa taking away their air support to provide reinforcements made it far less likely that there would be anyone left to reinforce when he arrived. She wanted to scream and rage as she dropped into the forces of the Great Devourer, to let hatred and frustration guide her.
“Everything’s fine, Shas’Vre. Everything’s just fine.”
***
Rainbow let out a scream of exhilaration as she slammed into her first Gargoyle, cutting it apart with her bikes blades without slowing. The swarm they had flown directly into seemed to part as they streaked forward, splinter rifles spitting death into the swarm, felling hundreds before the jetbikes even had a chance to cut them apart in close combat.
Behind the leading edge of the aerial assault were Raiders and Venoms, each one packed to bursting with Wyches, all of them eager to get to grips with the enemy. Rainbow could smell the combat drugs in the air, even at this speed and surrounded by the blood of the dying Tyranids. It was intoxicating, making her vision sharper and her reactions quicker. Her own drug dispensers were refilled and ready, already pumping her own cocktail into her blood stream.
Most warriors would hate to fight the Tyranids, fighting for their lives and the survival of their empire rather than enjoyment. The Dark Eldar were different, Rainbow was different. The Tyranids were the perfect prey for the Dark Eldar, their greatest bio-forms being just as vulnerable to their splinter weapons as the smaller forms, and in combat, few foes were as brutal or as primally vicious as they were. Even the Orks paled before them. There was no cruelty behind the Tyranids blows, no malice, only a complete and utterly alien hunger, the instinct guiding their weapons to kill. It was pure violence, no dilution. Rainbow loved it, the purity of their violence.
Without a word the formation went into a steep dive, streaking towards the ground, the gargoyles they killed falling with them. Wyches leapt from their transports as soon as they arrested their dives, flipping across the heads of their foe, landing on bodies or jetbikes before diving forward again, killing with each move before landing back in a transport, their feet never once touching solid ground.
Pain rolled off the battlefield, from the Tyranids and those Dark Eldar too slow to avoid them. It was glorious, Rainbow letting out another victorious screech as she tore the throat from a warrior form. She was already drenched in blood and ichor, but she didn’t care. She was home, and she was more than happy to welcome the Tyranids in.
***
Koghad grunted as the Pulse Blaster kicked in his hands, blasting back a gaunt that had been leaping towards him. On either side of him were more Demiurg, similarly armed, armoured and pressed into combat. They were Earth Caste, engineers and repairmen normally, but here and now they were warriors like any other, everyone had been pressed into service to smash this foe.
Behind the Demiurg were Fire Warriors, standing taller than the diminutive shotgun toting dwarves and firing volley after volley into the oncoming horde. The Tyranids were pressing them hard, getting closer with each death, coming on like a wave. Then, just as they seemed poised to overwhelm them, a single missile streaked overhead, detonating behind the Tyranids frontline. Robbed of their momentum, the Tyranids advance faltered, the momentary hesitation allowing the Tau to cut them down where they stood, before taking another step forward and beginning the procedure again. It was working exceptionally well, but it wouldn’t hold forever, the next stage of the plan had to happen now, or they would all be dead.
As if to answers Koghad’s thoughts, a wing of five Orcas streaked overhead, barely slowing as their ramps slid open, close to a hundred small dark shapes jumping from the transports and streaking towards the ground. Normally they would use battlesuits or fire warriors equipped with jump packs, but for the same reason the Earth Caste were currently on the frontline, there hadn’t been enough Tau to commit to such a reckless assault. Luckily for the Pa’Laa sept, they had someone who had done just such a manoeuvre more times than he could count.
Goge Cursatis, former Colonel of the Elysian 212th and current leader of the Pa’Laa Septs Gue’Vesa, streaked towards the ground, his rebreather mask strapped tightly in please, and a pulse pistol held tightly by his side. Much of his gear had been lost in Commoragh, but the Tau had made sure he was armoured and ready for war. Though the Emperor may damn him for even thinking it, the new equipment he had been provided with made his old weapons look like toys and he said a hurried prayer to the God Emperor even as the ground rushed up to meet him.
An altimeter in his helmet shot downwards, the display suddenly turning red as he passed into the ideal zone. With practiced ease, Goge twisted in mid-air and activated the grav-pack on his back, his stomach lurching as he suddenly cut his speed by more than half. Around him the other Gue’Vesa did the same, though with far less ease, descending towards the foe who were even now turning to shoot up at them.
“Second phase!” Goge roared over the vox, grabbing hold of a bandolier of a dozen pulse grenades as he spoke. They had been linked together for just this purpose, a single button arming each of them for contact detonation.
Moments later, the ground beneath them erupted in blue flames as over a thousand grenades detonated almost simultaneously. Goge felt the shockwave travel through him, his eyes and ears protected by the auto-senses built into his helmet, returning to normal the instant he touched down, his pistol already up and firing into the horde.
“Push forward!” Goge roared, unsheathing a chainsword and revving the motor before swinging it towards the swarm.
It was a brave charge, but it was also suicidal. They were outnumbered, and even as they pushed through they began to fall, one by one. Soon, only Goge and his squad were left, Goge grunting as his pulse pistol finally ran dry, switching to a two-handed grip on his chainsword.
“This is Colonel Goge Cursatis. Aun’Vesa we are in position, drop the hammer now!”
“Your sacrifice shall not be forgotten,” Aun’Vesa’s voice was heavy on the other end of the vox link. “You have served the Greater Good well, I hope you will sit at the table of your God Emperor.”
Aun’Vesa waited for a reply, but there was never going to be one. Colonel Goge Cursatis lay atop a mound of bodies at the mouth of a gestation warren, his chest ripped apart, tiny lava already growing and feasting on his still warm flesh. A single blinking light glinted on his breastplate, before that too was covered with writhing bodies.
Far above, a shoal of Sunshark bombers began their attack run, pulse bomb generators flaring into life even as their other weapons fought to protect their crafts from the airborne swarm. As one, the plasma balls were released, streaking towards the ground, accompanied by a dozen Seeker Missiles. Guided in by the locator beacon Goge had carried to the heart of the swarm, the payload struck their target almost perfectly, detonating in a brilliant plume of roiling plasma. The gestation warrens had been well protected by the environment, saturation bombing the area would have done little to damage them, but guided as they were, the full force of a blast that could level cities or destroy titans was funnelled directly into the tunnels. Tyranids screamed as the local Hive Mind was snuffed out in an instant, the creatures deep below the surface that had been directing the swarm being boiled alive in an instant. Soon, the swarm had been cut back, the surviving Tau forces already retreating towards the two waiting Manta’s.
Aun’Vesa was the last to board, casting his gaze back at the scorched ground of the battlefield. Bowing his head, Aun’Vesa placed a hand over his heart, vowing to not forget a single one of the valiant warriors who had made the victory possible, before stepping onboard the transport, the pilot shooting off towards the final fight.
***
Across the planet the story was the same, sacrificial units guided missiles into place, or dropped on their targets to destroy them themselves, knowing they would not survive to retreat. Everyone knew what was at stake here. For the Exodites it was the survival of their world, but for the Tau, it was the survival of their entire galactic border. The fleet could not be allowed to survive and move on from here or it would threaten far more than just Pa’Laa. Every soldier of the Sept knew that, and they were willing to lay down their lives for the Greater Good if and when it was asked of them.
Gestation warrens and pools, capillary towers and Hive Tyrants, all were struck with precision aided by the Dark Eldar fleet in orbit, even as they themselves struck at Hive Ships, disgorging thousands of Grotesques into ships just as a diversion, heedless of the deaths of the aberrations. Every force was feeling the losses dearly, but as more and more missions reported in as successful, the tide of the war slowly looked to be changing. With horrendous casualty rates the Tyranids were being forced back, until there was only a single target left. The Alpha Gestation Pool, capable of birthing the most terrifying monsters of the Swarm. All forces that had completed their missions and were still able to were making their way there, but for now, there were only two force fighting their way to the centre, one of the Tau, one of the Dark Eldar, but both led by an equine xenos.
***
Applejack twisted as she landed from another elongated jump, delivering a brutal buck with both her Onager Hooves, popping the creature before her in a spectacular fountain of blood. Beside her two Hazzard suits opened up with their burst cannons, spraying superheated rounds into the horde before the trio jumped again.
Overhead, Rainbow and her warriors duelled with flying bio-forms, keeping the skies clear for Applejack and her force. Ahead was the pool, the last stand for the Hive Fleet. If they could win here, the fleet would crumble, unable to replenish itself from the losses it was sustaining in orbit, if they lost here, everyone would die, and their names would be forgotten. There was no turning back, Applejack knew that as she landed once more, standing and catching a Tyrant Guard’s massive claw on her shield before impaling it with her fusion blade.
“Where’s tha Hive Tyrant?” Applejack roared, looking around for the towering creature that usually accompanied these bio-forms but seeing nothing.
“No sighting of one has been reported for some time, Shas’O,” one of the Crisis suits far to her left responded.
“Perhaps we already killed their charge,” Rainbow grunted, shooting past as she spoke.
“They ain’t fightin’ like Guard who lost their master,” Applejack grunted as the impaled Tyranid slid from her blade and leapt at her once more.
The Tyrant Guard were terrifying foes, little more than armour and claws. They barely registered pain or mortal injuries and were completely slaved to the will of the Hive Mind. They were not synapse beasts, but they only listened to the will of a Hive Tyrant. If that will was slain, they became feral, fighting with a near impossible ferocity and savage abandon. These creatures were not fighting like that however, they were protecting the gestation pool like they would protect a Tyrant, and that could only mean one thing.
“Brace for a Tyrant birth!” Applejack bellowed, leaping backwards even as the churning waters of the gestation pool erupted upwards, a massive beast forcing itself clear of the gelatinous water.
Taller than even a Crisis battlesuit, a Hive Tyrant was a terrifying foe, but what lifted itself from the pool was not a normal Tyrant. Standing even taller still, the creature oozed malevolent, ancient power merely by its presence. Even though she was not a Psyker, Applejack could feel the Shadow it cast into the minds of those who could manipulate the higher plains, a dense darkness closing in on her mind.
The creature raised its head and let out a bellowing cry, one taken up by the rest of the swarm who surged forward as one once more. The cry was not what drew Applejack’s eye however, her gaze falling upon the weapons the Tyrant wielded. Bone swords were not uncommon amongst the ranks of the Hive Tyrants, but they were long, flat ended cleavers almost universally. These however were shorter, ending in a vicious point, and covered in a strange mineral protrusion. The Tyrant wielded four such blades, and Applejack’s eyes went wide as she finally realised just what this creature was.
Her blood ran cold as she screamed a single word across all channels.
“Swarmlord!”
***
Rainbow twisted as she heard the word, catching sight of the towering monstrosity instantly. In a heartbeat she had leapt from her bike, heedless of what would happen to it as she streaked towards the creature, drawing two Husk Daggers as she flew.
The Swarmlord was a true threat, stronger than anything else the Hive Mind could summon, even compared to the bio-titans and gargantuan space fleet. Legends told that the creature was as old as the Tyranid race itself, the first creature born from the Hive Mind. A monster of the darkest nightmares, the Swarmlord had preyed on Empires and exterminated whole species for many times Rainbow’s own life, rumoured as it was to have come from a galaxy beyond the one they currently fought in. It had died a thousand times, but each time it grew smarter, the Hive Fleet birthing it in times of dire need with all the memories of its prior incarnations intact. It learnt from death, and its presence here showed just how desperate the situation had become, and how close they were to victory.
Rainbow emptied her drug canisters into her system, mental warnings flaring in her mind of an overdose warning, but she pushed them aside, time slowing as she raced to engage the Swarmlord, swinging a husk blade at its neck.
The Swarmlord moved fast, even to Rainbow it was almost a blur, knocking aside the blade with contemptuous ease before delivering a flurry of its own attacks, Rainbow dodging and weaving every one, even as she was forced backwards, her avenues of escape being cut off one by one. There was no artistry in the creatures bladework, only pure skill learnt across a thousand lifetimes. For the first time in many years, Rainbow knew she was outclassed, and knew she could not win.
Applejack tried to watch as Rainbow and the Swarmlord clashed, but they were moving faster than her eye could follow. Her bionic was trying to keep track of the fight, relaying the information to Applejack’s brain slower for her to observe, but she could not waste time on making sense of the fight, the Tyrant Guard closing in on her again.
“All Tau forces to my position,” Applejack ordered as she finally put down the creature she had run through, having to cut it almost in half before it finally stopped moving. “We need to break the guard and engage the Swarmlord.”
Tau immediately followed her orders, breaking off from their own fights and landing by her side. They were down to half a dozen battlesuits, all piloted by veterans of the Fire Caste. The Tanks and Piranhas had been overwhelmed in the opening shots of the assault, leaving only the more mobile battlesuits left.
Together the size warriors tore forward, overwhelming the Tyrant Guard with bursts of fusion shots, gouts of fire, missiles and every other weapon they carried with them, even resorting to their fists when the Tyrant Guard, heedless of their injuries, leapt at them. Applejack saw two battlesuits get dragged down before they finally punched through.
The Swarmlord lashed out at Rainbow, Rainbow managing to weave away from the blades edge but still taking the full brunt of the blow on her knives. The Huskblades did their work, eating the blade as they evaporated all the moisture from the bio-weapon, but even as it was destroyed, the strength behind the blow threw Rainbow across the battlefield away from the Swarmlord. Before she could leap back into the fight, the gargoyles overhead began to swarm, the Reavers struggling to keep the skies clear, forcing Rainbow to stay on the ground.
A trio of carnifexes, each of them having been fighting separate battles a moment earlier, turned as one to face Rainbow, commanded directly by the Swarmlords impossibly powerful mind. Rainbow let out a curse as she realised she couldn’t avoid them, leaping forward with a wordless cry, blood spilling from her tongue where she had nearly bitten it off.
“Forget her,” A Shas’El roared at Applejack. “We need to kill the Swarmlord!”
Shaking herself from watching her friend fight, Applejack nodded before charging forward with the last of her command, peppering the massive Tyranid with shots, only to have it block them with its swords, the three remaining weapons somehow surviving being struck directly with weapons capable of burning holes in battle tanks.
In two short thrusts that Applejack barely saw, a battlesuit was bisected, another was caught by the beast’s tail and slammed under the acidic water of the gestation pool, his screams echoing across the communicator as the acid as millions of tiny Tyranid organisms ate through his armour and into his flesh.
Applejack leapt forward, pouring everything she had learnt into her strike as she roared in anger. The Swarmlord turned his head towards her, a trio of blades rising to meet her mid-jump.
***
Rainbow let out a screech of anguish as she watched Applejack’s jump and the Swarmlords response. Driving both her daggers into the remaining Carnifex she took to the air again, leaving the weapons behind in the rapidly decaying corpse, beating her wings harder than ever before as she sped towards Applejack.
Her vision became tunnelled as her entire world became the fight before her. Her eyes watered even as the bio-lens Eethron had installed years ago kicked in, flicking down across her sensitive eyeballs to stop them from drying out in the wind.
A Mach cone began to form around Rainbow, the tell-tale signs of something she had not done in decades. She flew faster than she had ever done, she swore it was faster than all the previous times she had caused a Sonic Rainboom and yet still she sped on, her body feeling like it was being crushed.
She didn’t care. All that mattered was Applejack and the Swarmlord.
Applejack’s blade missed its mark.
The Swarmlords blades slammed through Applejack’s battlesuit.
Rainbow screamed.
The world erupted into darkness.
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Bout time you updated, interesting chapter and end, what happens next should be interesting.
flipping across the heads of their foe, landing n bodies or jetbikes before diving forward again
Normally they would battlesuits, or maybe even fire warriors equipped
the surviving Tau forces already retreating towards the two waiting Manata’s
it was the survival of their entire galactic boarder
The Swarmlord moved fast, even to Rainbow it was almost a blue
before delivering a flurry of its own attacks, Rainbow dodging and weaving everyone
The Huskblades did their word, eating the blade as they evaporated
as millions of tiny Tyranid organisms ate threw his armour
1. On.
2. Normally they would carry battlesuits.
3. Manta's.
4. Border.
5. Blur.
6. Every one, two words in this case.
7. Uhh... I'd say Work but not sure if this is what you actaully meant as a wordplay.
8. Through.
Now I don't think even a Swarmlord can survive a point blank Rainboom. Or something akin to precision orbital bombardment but I'm not sure.
9123818
Thanks man, and it was meant to be: The Huskblades did their work, eating the blade as they evaporated
9123781
yes verrrry interesting. Dis gon be Good.
Oh shit
Oh dear, something happened, and I don't know if it was bad or good.
Did rainbow break the light-barrier and somehow manage to go faster than light !?. If so, wow that is going to leave a nasty mark.
9124658
If so, there would be no survivors of this battle. On both sides.
A pony sized object moving at the c speed in the atmosphere would be a freaking global disaster.
May you rest in peace goge when shunned by your regiment you defended the imperium we tank you
ah, its always so much excitement when you release a new chapter... followed immediately by sadness that now I must wait yet again
9125738
Not too long a wait...
Oh.
Oh...I'm not too sure I like where this is going besides the obvious reason.