Eroking
patreon
Chapter 321: Why Does This Taste So Familiar?
🕑 Added 2025-09-25 11:17:06 +0000 UTCChapter 321: Why Does This Taste So Familiar?
When the Hive Mind discovered its plan had failed, it completely dropped its disguise. It could even be said that the scale of this Hive Fleet was far larger than it should have been. The opening of the Great Rift in the original timeline was not just a disaster for the native life of the galaxy; it also had a significant impact on the outsider that was the Hive Mind.
The turbulent tides of the warp should have forced the Hive Mind to go "offline" for a period, during which Hive Fleet Leviathan would have lost control of a portion of its fleet. But now, that event had not occurred. The Leviathan entering the Cryptus System was in its true, complete form.
Every psyker and Navigator on the Imperial warships could feel the terrifying Shadow in the Warp drawing ever closer. The voice of the Great Devourer made them scream on the decks and in the corridors of their ships. Some of the less strong-willed psykers even lost control of their powers, and the resulting backlash caused considerable damage to the Imperial vessels. Only the Gorgons, which had no Astropaths or Navigators, were spared, but they were not completely unaffected.
The sheer number of Tyranids made the Shadow in the Warp even more severe, to the point where it was beginning to create an effect similar to a Null-Field, even affecting ordinary mortals. Headaches, dizziness, and feelings of irritability began to appear among the mortal troops. If one were to quantify the morale of the Imperial Navy's warships, it had already dropped to thirty percent before the battle had even officially begun.
Admiral Justus gritted his teeth, staring at the Tyranid bio-fleet that blotted out the stars.
The Tyranid fleet had begun to enter the Castellan's Ring. The Genestealer Cultists hiding within, following Mellen's orders, made no sound. They hid themselves, waiting for the first wave of Tyranid bio-ships to pass through before attacking, to achieve their goal of cutting the Tyranid fleet in two. The first wave of bio-ships that was allowed through would be met by a pincer attack from the Imperial fleet.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for the war to begin.
"The numbers are sufficient now, Lord Lucan," Mellen urged via the vox. "Please have the cultists in the Castellan's Ring make their move!"
Lucan nodded, then looked at Kerrigan. As her command was issued, the previously silent Genestealer Cultists all began to manically operate their assigned weapon batteries. The countless lances and macro-cannons installed in the Castellan's Ring all fired at once.
At the same time, the Imperial fleet led by Justus, along with the one hundred Gorgons, surged toward the Tyranid bio-ships that were now cut off from their reinforcements. A large number of the smaller Tyranid vessels were instantly blown into floating chunks of flesh by the concentrated fire from the Castellan's Ring. The Gorgons, in small squadrons of three to five, continuously used their mobility to hunt and kite the Tyranid swarm. With their speed, the Tyranid bio-ships could not possibly catch them.
One by one, the smaller Tyranid vessels were destroyed by the kiting Gorgons. They would lure the bio-ships into the defensive fire grid of the Castellan's Ring and then use their tactical jumps to withdraw from the kill zone. Justus also commanded his own capital ships, along with the Stellar Pioneer, to concentrate fire on the high-threat targets.
Without their numerical advantage, the Tyranid bio-ships of the same class were at a disadvantage against the Imperial warships. The range of the Tyranid bio-ships was relatively short; they were more like a wolf pack, surrounding their prey and then using their biological rams and predator-tendrils to finish the enemy off. As long as the Imperial fleet maintained sufficient distance, these bio-ships could not even deploy their boarding parties.
And on the Castellan's Ring, in the eyes of the millions of Genestealer Cultists, these Tyranid creatures were no longer the angels who would bring them to ascension. The hypnosis their Patriarch had placed on them had completely failed. In their hearts, there was now only one master: the great Queen of Blades, Kerrigan.
In their eyes, the Tyranids had become the enemies who were trying to kill their queen.
Sensing the massive amount of biomass on these asteroids, Leviathan began to deploy its landing forces. Warrior-forms, acting as synapse creatures, led vast numbers of Hormagaunts and Termagants, riding in spore-pods, to assault the orbital defense platforms.
The cultists were obviously no match for these Tyranid armies. They were killed one after another, but before they died, they would often take a grenade or a melta charge and die with a score of Tyranid creatures. And when most of the cultists had been killed, and the Tyranid creatures were trying to transport their biomass back to the fleet's digestion pools, the last surviving cultists would detonate the defense platform's power supply and all remaining ammunition.
Massive explosions would incinerate all the biomass and the Tyranids. Countless fireballs lit up the Castellan's Ring as one defense platform after another was turned into fragments. The asteroids, along with all the enemies on them, were turned to dust in the void.
These cultists, who would follow their orders to the letter, had perfectly fulfilled their mission. The Tyranids' assault on these defense platforms had become a completely unprofitable venture. They had invested a massive number of ground units, only to have them all wiped out, with almost no biomass successfully returned.
A small number of Tyranid units did manage to bring back some of the biomass from the cultists. But when the Hive Mind absorbed this biomass and read its genetic information, it became completely bewildered.
This biomass... this genetic taste... why is it so familiar? Wait a minute... aren't these the Genestealer Cultists that we created? Didn't they light the psychic beacon to attract us here? Aren't they supposed to be shouting for the Four-Armed Emperor and welcoming the arrival of the Great Devourer? Why are they now fighting for the humans against their original masters? This isn't reasonable! This isn't how the script is supposed to go!
Through the memories of the cultists, the Hive Mind learned that the instigator was Kerrigan. Her threat level in the Swarm's consciousness was raised once again.
"Emperor above..." Mellen breathed, staring at the unfolding battle. "How did you make them so utterly devoted? At this rate, we can annihilate the entire Tyranid vanguard!" He looked at Lucan with a new level of awe. In his original plan, the Castellan's Ring was just a delaying action. The Tyranid fleet would eventually reach the skies of Asphodel. Now, they had a chance to destroy a part of it in the void.
But Lucan was not smiling. On the augur arrays, he had not seen a single Hive Ship signal. There were even very few of the cruiser-class Tyranid bio-ships.
And in the next second, an even larger fleet of Tyranid bio-ships emerged from the Diamor Shield. The fleet that had just arrived was the true main force of Leviathan. What they had just encountered was merely the vanguard, just a small part of it.
The smile on Mellen's face froze. The augur arrays were filled with a dense mass of Tyranid bio-ships, too numerous to count. These ships were enough to occupy every region of the Cryptus System.
"How many of them are there..."
"Mellen, have the troops prepare to repel boarders," Lucan said grimly. "At least we've destroyed a good number of their forces. Our strategic objective has been achieved."
"I understand!"
At that moment, two massive Hive Ships, each over twenty kilometers long, pushed through the defensive fire and charged directly into the Castellan's Ring. This time, the Tyranids were not trying to plunder the biomass. They were using their own immense size to simply smash the asteroids apart, or using their bio-plasma and acid cannons to destroy the defensive positions. The macro-cannons and lances were having less and less of an effect on the armor of these giant bio-ships.
The Castellan's Ring, which had been so effective, was completely destroyed in just four hours after the arrival of the main Tyranid force. Millions of Genestealer Cultists had died on those positions.
Justus had not even finished clearing out the first wave of Tyranid bio-ships before an even larger wave swarmed over them. The advancing main force of the Tyranids was also collecting the flesh of their own destroyed ships in the void. Soon, this biomass would be converted back into bio-weapons. It seemed the Swarm had lost a lot of ships, but the recycled biomass was enough for them to be produced again.
Just as Justus was about to lead his fleet to fight the Tyranids to the last, Lucan's voice echoed through the ship's vox.
"Justus, now is not the time to die for the Emperor. Do not engage your fleet in a pitched battle. The Tyranid landing is inevitable. Detach a portion of your fleet and follow mine to Iphix. That battlefield is just as important as Asphodel!"
"Iphix? Weren't the Firstborn already withdrawn from there? Why are we going to protect a useless planet?"
"Execute the order, Justus!"
"...Alright. I understand."
After Lucan's prediction had come true, Justus had begun to choose to follow his commands.
