Horror of the Hive

The Tyranid invasion of Oresh'uan, told by Shas'ui Ko'vash 
I am Shas'ui Oresh'uan Ko'vash, the shas'ui of the First fire warrior team in Oresh'uan. I fight in the cadre that Shas'O Aures's himself goes to war in. Seeing him fight is nothing but an insparation, his brilliant tactics, plus the power of technology and faith in the Greater Good, we have become a strong Sept, standing tall against the horrors of the galaxy.
But what comes from other galaxies is to be feared...
The Y'he, also known as the Great Hunger, and known to the Gue'la as Tyranids. One of the few races that will never find a place in the Greater Good.
I had first heard about them when I was only a Shas'saal, i found it hard to believe that something couldn't find a place in society. But as i grew older I learnt more about the insects, that they only lived to eat, to destroy, like all preadators. They only deserved death.
It was during a training session at Mon'ash was when I had heard the great hunger had invaded Oresh'uan, I was instantly struck, worried about my family in Arn'uan City. But it was too late, the sad news came later that day, their persumec death. Only the crumbling ruin of our home was found.
I have then dedicated my life to destroying these demons from the Mon'tau. They took my familiy, and in return, i will only give them death.
That was how I earned my personal name, Ko'vash, meaning "To strive for a worthy cause".
===Silence before the tide===
Mon'ash wasteland, 0500 hours.
The sound of distant explosions pierced the cool morning air, blowing a whip of dust into my face. The Shas'ui were training again. It wouldn't be long before a blazing sun would be burning the earth, air and the back of my neck. The detatchment I am fighting in consists of the twenty-four brave fire warriors, each organised into two teams, and supported by a Pirahna skimmer armed with a burst cannon, and two deadly seeker missles. We are also accompanied by six gun drones, two of which are docked into the skimmer. My team is armed with pulse rifles, and supposed to stand back on high ground and to shoot, while the other team, led by Shas'ui Fio'tan Nesh, is armed with carbines to pin the oncoming enemy down.
This combination is good for fighting virtually any opponent, even powerful enough to immobilise the deadly necron monoliths I hear about from the wars on Kor'tael.
Our cadre has set up a temporary Run'al out here in the middle of nowhere, with my detatchment having the only outpost, a few Tor'kan away from the camp. We have been watching for tyranid ground activity since 0100 hours, and surviving in a desert is not an easy task, freezing cold at night to blistering hot at day, especially on a desert world, there is no such thing as cool breezes on a nice cloud to cover the sun.
The sun is just starting to creep over the horizon. I have just taken off a warm clothing, and have started to put on my armour. I checked my wrist computer, no heat traces in the distance, there never is.
I paced for a while.
Then it struck me, Tyranids are not mammals, they probably dont even give off a heat signature! I slammed a power pack into my pulse rifle. And said:
"Shas'la, i haven't been thinking this through properly, fighting too many mammals! But you are aware Y'he are insects!"
"Tau'va! i cannot belive i didn't think of that" Was the squad medic, Shasl'a Ares'shan's response as he looked up from his slate. "No wonder our heat trace scanners showed up with nothing!"
"We need to alert the Run'al! Prepare for a fight warriors!" I pressed down the button on my comm-bead, and tuned it to Shas'o Aures' channel.
"O'Aures! are you there? This is a code black!" I sternly spoke into the bead. There was crackles of interferring radio waves. but then came out, Aures' voice loud and clear:
"Yes Ko'vash? are there heat signiatures?"
"Far more worse.. I am blaming lack of early observation! You do know insects dont give off a heat signature, so..." I was cut off.
"Y'he are insects! I would of known if i had time to study them! All those years of fighting Be'gel and Gue'vesa you see! You posess a vibrant mind Ui'Ko'vash... Stand your ground, the rest of the cadre will be with you soon!"
The sun was visible now, pouring its golden light onto the dusty steppes, it was then I saw the tendrils of Y'he orbital craft polluting the entire sky, as if it were an overcast day. In the distance was a cloud of strewn dust, rumbling ever closer, with the distant alien screams. I turned around and saw, airborne, a manta bomber accompanied by several barracuda gunships and orca troop carriers, and fronted by many teams of the legendary XV8 Crisis battlesuits flying towards us, blue lights flickering from their thrusters. The ships screeched past overhead, and the battlesuits and a single orca ship zoomed in, their trhusters blowing up sand and dust, they hovered for a second, then...
THUMP!
The dust completley engulfed the area, the blue lights glowing from the battlesuit's visual receptors were all I could see, then as the dust cleared, there stood four squads of battlesuits. The presence of so many was a sight to behold. Shas'o Aures stode foreward, encased in his XV8 Crisis Commander battlesuit, the energy feild from his famous twin-link plasma rifle disrupting the surrounding dust. He was the only member of his team present today, the rest were fighting at Kor'tael.
"Now thats what I call Se'hen che lel!" I heard coming from one of Shas'ui Fio'tan's fire warriors.
I took two steps foreward and saluted, pressing my left hand to my chest, and so did Aures. Inspiring some confidence, he said:
"Looks like were in for a fight Ko'vash!"
"This won't be hard, Y'he downright primitive, very few ranged attacks at all!" I replied. "They will die before their claws even scratch us!"
But I lied, there were no pathfinders, no snipers, no auxilaries sent In. None of Aure's powerful team were present either. It was going to take pure bravery and a lot of luck to win this battle. The sound of alien screams was unbearably loud now. I swivelled on the spot, my fire warriors were preparing themselves, raised my hand, pointing to a large dune.
"Go to the high ground!" I commanded.
===Into the Maw===
My team had found itself on the ledge of cliff, facing towards the oncoming tide. Devourer shots zinged past us, some hitting my armour, but doing do real damage. I inserted a fresh drum magazine into my rifle, just in time...
A swarm of gargoyles swooped in from behind us, the horrors swarming around us like flies. I quickly slammed on my helmet to protect me from their blinding acid. We all shot at them, I delivered two shots to each one, just to be sure. One... two... three down.. everything was happening so fast. A fire warrior was picked up my one of the wretched thing's claws, his cries of terror silenced by a flurry of shots mashing his upper body into a pulp. Another one tried to grab me from behind, i ducked as it swooped past me, but it just flew around, and came in for another strike, it zoomed in, and suddenly it was too close for me too shoot, I just slammed my pulse rifle's butt into its right wing. It fell to the ground in a spasm, and I exploded its head with a single shot, point blank.
Looking up I couldn't see the battlesuits anywhere, I counted the dead bodies of three fire warriors, one smashed drone, and about twenty gargoyles on the gound.
"Shoot the gaunts!" I yelled, cathcing a glimse of the battlesuits shooting down some genestealers.
A scything talon swiped into view, it peirced two fire warriors through the chest, then the Lictor picked up another warrior with its claws, they were thrown up and scrunched down its revenous mouth, armour and all. I unclipped a pulse grenade from my belt and threw it towards the monster, and it dissapeared into a flash of blue-white light, my vision then returned,I looked back, and saw...
CRACK! One of it's scything talons had missed my head by only a strand of hair. The grenade had only just dulled it's weapon skill. It was quickly followed by a claw that threw off my feet. I landed on the ground and quickly got up, tasting blood.
It was playing with it's food.
I didn't know what to do, my pulse rifle was behind it, I was looking like my final stand. I reached into my backpack and pulled out a pulse pistol. I slowly aimed it towards it's head...
But there was no need.
Blam! Twin blasts of plasma shot through its head and body, the Lictor's headless body flew to the ground. I glanced over and saw Shas'o Aures, his smoking plasma pifle still raised.
"Thought you needed a hand!" He said.
I gave him a quick nod in return, shocked by his perfect timing, and ran behind the pirahna for cover, it was there I found the last four survivors of my squad, the squad medic, Shas'la Ares'shan, the rather silent Shas'la Ol'nan, The second gun drone in our posession we liked to call "Fio'shas", and the newest member of the team, Shas'la Sha'is. I impressed at Sha'is' survival, impressed at how he managed to beat the threat that killed the more experienced members of the team.
I crouched in the sand and looked under the skimmer, the entire Uash'o was fighting at full force to kill of this threat, but the tide of Y'he just kept gaining momentum. My comm-link chimed in my ear, I pressed it, it was Shas'ui Fio'tan.
"Ko'vash! I think that's you over behind the skimmer..."
He appeared to my left, and the two surviving members of his team. I responded with:
"How about we combine La'rua's for the moment?"
"Thats just what I was thinking!" He replied, "Apparently not one battlesuit has fallen, lucky buggers, but there are many other casualties. We will win this though!"
I was relieved, that annoyed at my underconfidence in this Sept's potential. This wave was devastating, but we will triumph!
But the first wave is always the weakest.
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Category:Stories
Category:Wars