Captain Rico Vondutech wiped his red power armour vigorously, trying to get off the blood stains of the tyranides off. The greenish blood of the tyranides covered his armour and bolt gun, some pieces of tyranide flesh still stuck to his chain sword, a small piece still writhing with life. He glanced at the remainder of his Marines and muttered a quiet prayer to the Emperor, thankful that slightly more than half of his company still remained.
An apothecary strode up to the Captain, wanting to see if he had sustained injuries, but the Captain merely stood up to his full height and addressed the apothecary. "Casualty report and injury report on the remaining Marines."
Apothecary couldn't help but gaze with admiration at the huge bulking Captain, if just for a split second. Apothecary James McGillan had been assigned to several different companies over the years since his 20 year stint at the Imperial Guard's Medical Center on planet Kronus. He had seen warriors from different Chapters before and tended to their wounds or carried them off to be incinerated. He had served under Captains and Generals of the Imperial Guard and Navy, battled against Orks and other aliens. Yet he realised that there was something different about Captain Rico. It wasn't just that he stood taller than most Marines at the height of 2.2 meters, or that he had only 2 golden studs over his left eye showing his youth as a Space Marine, or that he had a rumour passed about him that he was once accidentally thrown from a Thunderhawk, survived the fall, and survived in an Ork-infested jungle for 1 whole week before the rescue squad came - only to find that he had single-handedly taken down an Ork stronghold while waiting her his pickup vehicle to arrive. Apothecary James could only imagine the brave Captain, standing over the fallen Warboss of the Orks and in the center of a bloody battlefield littered with dozens of dead Orks. He also sense something about this Captain, that perhaps he was more akin to a Librarian, given his heightened physic awareness and abilities. Normally, the Codex would never allow one such as him to rise the ranks to Captain, as he would've been chosen to serve under the Grey Knights or the Inquisition with his rare gift. Yet, James did not know that Rico hated his psychi abilities, condemning it as blasphemous and filth before the Emperor.
"Your status report?" reminded the Captain looking not the least bit annoyed but glowing with the glory of the Space Marines.
James quickly snapped to his senses. "31 Marines killed in action, 17 sustained crippling injuries which require some time to heal, 23 sustained minor injuries and 29 are undamaged. Sir, may I see your wounds to add to the final status report?"
Rico grunted and replied, "So we have a fighting force of 52, without including you and myself. I would say we have a small chance of victory, but I wouldn't get your hopes too high, apothecary. You saw for yourself what we are up against."
James only had to turn his head a little to the side to peak from the cover of the damaged Land Raider to face his darkest nightmares again. "Yes sir. But we will fight for the Emperor nonetheless!" he muttered, with faltering confidence in his own words as he saw the third tyranide swarm approach in the distance. They were probably still about 10 miles away at least, but their numbers surged in the thousands - a huge thronge of pinkish, brownish vicious creatures with sharp talons and claws. Lethal killing bio-mechanical creatures controlled by the hive mind, they felt no pain and lived only to serve the hive mind's purpose - to feed and multiply.
"Come on, let's prepare for battle. They'll be upon us in an hour's time. I want our men fighting fit and our weapons primed and ready 15 minutes before they come within firing range. Do your job apothecary." Rico walked over to where his sergeants stood, wandering how many of them would be left standing when night falls - and the unimaginable nightmare of those creatures attacking the survivors in the dark. "Emperor grant me strength!" he muttered.
***
1st Sergeant Panasius wasn't in the best condition. His adomen was pierced by some creature's frenzied attack and although the blood had clotted and the skin tissue was already healing, the insides were still damaged and pain streaked through his body when he moved. But to the stranger, nobody would've think that he had suffered such a wound, as he walked around busying himself with preparation for the third battle they were going to go through, lifting up large boxes of bolt shells to transport to the heavy bolters. He had to keep the morale of his squad up if they were to face the onslaught of tyranide horrors. The oldest and most experienced sergeant, his wisdom often got the company out of hairy situations and ensured their survivability.
"Panasius! The Captain's heading over!" 2nd Sergeant Lutherian Soell called while monitoring the servitors who were fixing up a predator tank. His squad had suffered severe casualties and only 4 marines stood well enough to fight. Still, his courage shone brightly in the previous battle, as 2nd Sergeant Lutherian led his Assault Marines charging through the center and cut a bloody path through the tyranide creatures, creating a distraction while 3 predators moved to the right flank into position to cut the enemy into ribbons, and 2 squads of marines set up their heavy bolters on the left flank. His fearless charge had surprised the aliens for a few seconds before they counter charged and swarmed his squad from all directions. His squads agility and swordmanship, coupled with raw ferocity of the marines held the creatures at bay for several minutes, but there were simply too many to kill. Lutherian himself would've perished, if not for the Dreadnought that stomped its way in to pull him out of the massacre.
3rd Sergeant Rock Stallone grinned to see his old friend Lutherian still alive after being dragged out of the mess. "The Emperor's favour shines upon the skinny ones!" he had joked. Like his name suggested, Rock was a stout marine, so huge than only First Company's terminator armour was large enough for him. So in a way, a tough and strong marine was made even tougher and hardier, given his thick terminator armour and heavy bolt machine gun attached to his right arm, while a power fist crackled with electricity in his left fist. What he lacked in experience and intelligence, he made up for in strength and endurance. The only Space Marine not in First Comapny to ever don terminator armour, his size alone was usually enough to send enemies running for cover. But the one flaw in the terminator bolt machine gun was that it needed another marine to reload should it run out of ammunition, yet Sergeant Rock usually ran out of enemies before he ran out of ammo. Or, he could use his bolt machine gun as a huge club creatively.
The rest of the sergeants quickly jogged to where the Captain was gathering his seargeants for a briefing. Only squads 5, 7 and 8 did not send their sergeants. The sergeants of squad 5 and 7 were killed as they were entranched in the outposts, closest to the front lines, and Sergeant Killancer of squad 8 was laying the mines with the rest of his squad about 1 mile from where the meeting was taking place. About 500 mines, each about the size of a large frizbee, had already been put in place, with about 200 more to go. The mines should reduce the size of the swarm by at least 20%, Sergeant Panasius estimated.
Captain Rico watched his sergeants with pride, knowing he was going into battle with possibly the finest warriors the Blazing Angels have ever known. To die with these brave brethren was an honour he was happy to receive. He spoke into his vox, "Squad 9, anything to report?"
***
The smallest squad of the Blazing Angels was the scout squad. Lightly armoured and without heavy weapons, they seemed like the biggest liability to the company, but in fact served one of the most important roles of finding the enemy before the enemy found them.
The small squad of 5 men were quick on their feet, and deadly accurate with their sniper rifles, and they were sent to find signs of the weakness of the enemy - the hive mind. If they could locate one of those beasts, killing it would take away the driving force of the tyranide swarm, and drive them into confusion and disarray. Unfortunately, no chapter in the entire Imperial Grand Library ever spoke or described what a hive mind looked like, or was supposed to look like. These soldiers were relying on instinct, military training and common sense to figure out the key to winning this battle.
"Hey Silverthorn! See the huge lumbering monster at the back? That could be it!" an excited scout shouted.
Private Silverthorn looked in the direction the scout was pointing at and picked up the monster on his visuals. It was more than 12 miles away, but stood towering over the other mini-criters. It had to be at least 20 meters tall, walking on 6 legs, looking like a huge spider, only it had writhing tentacles on the front, like an octopus. Sure looked like that was the hive mind, he thought to himself. At any rate, better report it back to base.
"Wait! There's more of them coming! Isn't there supposed to be only one hive mind controlling them?" the excited scout asked.
Silverthorn swore. He was several seasons older than the young scout but it appeared that his eye sight wasn't as keen. He glanced through his binoculars again, and this time there wasn't one giant spider-squid thingy, there were 4. Ok, good news is that it probably isn't the hive mind and they have to keep looking. The bad news was that there were 4 of those things for the Blazing Angels to deal with. Then he heard the vox sqwuak "Squad 9, anything to report?"
"Captain, 4 giant spider-squids are coming with the tyranide swarm. They look like bad news, sir, really huge and scary looking!"
"I'm not asking you to tell me bad news, have you found the hive mind private?"
"No sir!"
"Well, then keep observing until you do. You do your job, we'll keep you from dying. Over and out."
Thought Captain can really be a pain in the rear, Silverthorn thought, and looked through his binoculars once again. "9-oh-2, seen anything to report?"
The other half of the squad was about 4 miles to the east of Silverthorn.
"902 reporting to 901. Be advised, winged tyranide heading our way. We're gonna have to point some rifles at the sky."
Sure enough, even as the tyranide creatures on the ground surged forward with the spider-squid beasts, a giant flock of bat-like creatures descended from the air. Several were wavering unsteadily, colliding into other bat-things and screehing in frustration, but most were silently flapping their wings and moving together with the ground tyranide swarm.
Silverthorn cursed, "Shit, this ain't good! Gotta vox back to the Captain, we've got to fall back to base, we're too exposed out here, sitting ducks for those bat-things!"
"Yeah we hear you. Rendezvous at check point C. 902 out."
Silverthorn picked up his gear and rifle, when his squad member froze in terror. "Silverthorn, look below! They're already coming through!" A few tyranide scavengers raced toward them, aware that they were being watched and eager to rip the spies to shreds. Fast runners with big fangs, like some rabid wild dogs. They were only about a hundred meters away and closing in on them.
Silverthorn flicked off the safety on his rifle. "Well then let's give them a warm welcome!"
***
"Gentlemen, we've got some interesting news. Seems that the tyranide are bringing out the big guns in this wave of attack. It either means that we've ruffled their feathers enough for them to really pay attention to us, or they've realised throwing canonfodder at us isn't going to get us out of their way. Either way, we're still stuck here until the Imperial Navy realises our ship has been destroyed and sets out here to check for survivors. That could take days or even weeks." Rico let the information sink into his sergeants for awhile before proceeding to tell them his battle plan.
"We're leaving this outpost by tonight."
Some of his sergeants were clearly stunned by the Captain's decision, while others merely nodded in ackowledgement, as if they had been expecting this plan sooner or later.
"I know there're not enough transport vehicles for all of us to head to the mountain post, but we cannot win this battle. The Codex Astartes states that in such a situation, we have to retreat, regroup and return to battle another time. In the mountains, the tyranides will not have the advantage of burrowing into the sand and hiding from our shells, and we'll have a better chance at surviving this." Rico held his breath before making the crucial announcement.
"But one squad has to stay behind to delay the aliens' progress. It is a suicide mission, and I volunteer to stay back with the squad who chooses to stay and fight."
Immediately there was an uproar of disapproval, or sergeants volunteering themselves and arguing who is better suited to the job of holding the tyranides off as long as possible, which squad is more experienced, and all other things. Rico held up his right hand and the group was silenced.
"We are Space Marines and we shall know no fear. To stay behind or to go to the mountains, neither shows a lack of resolve or strength. We will not disrespect the squad who chooses to retreat, nor will we worship the squad that stays to defend the outpost. Since you cannot decide amongst yourselves, I have decided for the company. Sergeant Panasius.."
The sergeant beamed with pride and responded, "Yes sir."
".. Ready all the squads with sergeants to move out in 15 minutes, taking all the vehicles capable of transporting Marines, but leave behind 2 predators and 2 servitors. Squad 5 and 7, to me. We will make final battle preparations to honour the glorious deaths of your sergeants, and pray that we may follow them in the blaze of glory in the service of the Emperor."
Panasius, Lutherian and Rock couldn't believe their ears even with the augmented sense. The Captain, with the 2 squads of only 14 men i total, we going to sacrifice their lives for the rest of them to escape. They looked at each other and nodded without a word. Then they stepped forward and dropped to one knee before their Captain. The other sergeants, seeing the 3 lead by example, immediately did the same and knelt before the Captain.
"Leave no man behind. From code 215 of the Codex." Panasius said.
"Your men are your charge and you shall not abandon them. From code 223 of the Codex." Lutherian said.
"When there is no hope for victory, there is no glory in retreat. From code 635 of the Codex." Rock uttered.
"And the Blazing Angels will burn the aliens to the ground!!" Panasius stood up and roared defiantly, causing the group of sergeants to raise their fists to the air and shout in triumph. "No Captain of mine will stand alone to face those scum, Codex or no Codex! We are brother Marines, none can withstand our wrath when we fight as one!!" he stared with defiance and anger at his Captain, but also with a fierce loyalty and sense of comradeship.
Captain Rico himself was at a loss for words. He had expected resistence to his plan, but not a united resistence. While angry at their act of insubordination, he was proud of his Marines. They were truly fearless, and willing to stand with him until the bitter end. They had used the Codex against him, and they were right. There was no place to run to which offered much shelter from the battle anyway, not the mountains or the jungles could provide any safety from the tyranide swarm for long. He was about to reply to Panasius' outburst when his vox cackled with the sound of gun fire and Silverthorn screamed.
***
