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Competition fiction courtesy of RampagingRavener
Howling in fury, the Carnifex smashed into the flank of the Land Raider, buckling the metal and almost flipping the tank onto its side. Marines were desperately evacuating out of the front hatch, only to be cut down by the tides of hormagaunts swarming over the beleaguered Imperial Forces.
With a final groan of tortured adamantium, the Land Raider burst apart, wreathing the Carnifex in a halo of flame as the hormagaunts around its ankles burned. No longer desperately fighting for survival and now simply fighting to die with honour, the remaining squads of Marines poured fire into the beast as it smashed aside the ruined machine and began pounding towards them. Bolter fire rattled harmlessly from its thick carapace; a volley of missiles launched from the Devastator squad detonated harmlessly without so much as slowing the charging monster; even a volley of plasma fire had no more effect than blackening its chitinous hide.
With a scream filled with an ancient, alien malice, the Carnifex bowled into the first squad within reach, breaking apart five of the marines before it with a swipe of its massive claws, and gored another on its tusks. Desperately trying to at least wound the beast, the remaining Marine swung a glittering power sword towards his foe, burying it up to the hilt in the monsters leg. Thrashing its tail around, the scythe-like bony club sliced forwards, neatly beheading the Veteran Sergeant.
As he fell, thrashing randomly as his armour expended the last of its energy reserves, the Carnifex slowly turned. The blade was still lodged in its upper thigh, though it felt no pain-it was untroubled by the sensitive nerve endings that rendered other species vulnerable to such wounds. Again, it was aware of the hail of fire directed towards it. Even when a luck shot put out one of its eyes, it gave the wound no heed. It existed only to kill, something it did spectacularly well, as its claws and talons rose and fell among the few remaining marines, splitting them apart in welters of blood and trampling the bodies underfoot as they fell.
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A few hundred yards away, the Hive Tyrant watched as the Carnifex finished off the rest of the prey. The little emotions is had left allowed it to feel a slight pang of regret that it was unable to join the Carnifex in the slaughter, but it had played its part in the defeat of those who stood before the hive. The blood dripping from its Scything Talons and Bonesword were a silent testimony to this.
And, it had more important tasks to undertake.
Turning from the scene, it strode forwards, its massive legs carrying it several meters a stride. It stopped before a pair of Lictors, who dragged a prone creature towards him. The Tyrant remembered this one; it had played a key part in the defences of the Marines, tearing apart gaunts with blasts of psychic energy and killing even the largest Tyranid with a single blow of his weapon. Now, though, he lay at the Tyrants feet, without his wretched axe, and unable to use his powers due to the clogging psychic shadow that preceded the Tyrant.
Delicately, it reached down with the lashwhip, coiling it round the Librarian and hoisting him up to eye level. Slowly opening his eyes, the Marine looked at the Tyrant. Mustering up what little energy he had left, he spat at it.
“You xenos abominations will never escape the light of the Emperor. You may kill me, but it is only a matter of time until you are purged from His relm.”
Slowly reaching out with psychic tendrils, the Tyrant began to force its way into the mind of the Librarian, pushing aside his weakening mental barriers as easily as the Carnifex had pushed over the Land Raider. Gently, it probed his brain, looking for what it required.
Struggling against the foul abuse of his mind, the Librarian tried to hide the knowledge the Tyrant was looking for. The thoughts of the Tyrant echoed through him, and he wept blood as it began to strip away his memories.
Where is prey-hive? Great mind wishes to know, and you will tell.
For a second, he remembered growing up on his home world as a child, his wonder at the legends of the God-Warriors, and his pride at being taken away by them. For a second, he saw them as clear as he had when he had been their. Then, in the most horrifying way possible, they were ripped from him, discarded as the monstrous psyche of the Tyrant bored deeper.
Where? You will share knowledge and join the Great mind, and be reborn in its service.
His training in the Fortress-monastery. The tales of his chapter told by the Oldest Librarians and Dreadnoughts, the trauma he had experienced as he learned of his psychic powers and had been taught to control them. He could smell the meat and taste the wine of the grand feasts held there. Then they were gone. What was wine? He couldn’t remember.
The Great mind will know, little prey-morsel, and you will join with it, like all others that stood before the swarm. Where are the prey-hives? Where?
Memories of a thousand wars across a thousand battlefields were found, examined, and eliminated one by one as the Tyrant continued searching through his mind. One by one, his memories were deleted as easily as he deleted the corrupted data in the chapter’s archives. Then, when the last memory was gone, when he forgot his chapter, his rank, forgot even his own name, the Tyrant finally found what he was looking for.
The towering citadels and spires of the planet’s hive cities stood out in his mind. The locations of them, the amount of civilians, the few PDF the guarded them. Five million defenceless civilians ready to be absorbed by the Tyranids.
Then, like it had done with his mind, the Tyrant discarded him as if he was nothing, dropping him and turning away to gather the swarm again. The last thing it did was reach out with its mind, pushing an impulse into the minds of the rippers that were gathering.
The Librarian was still alive when they cracked open his armour and began to feed.
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