Post by thegreatdevourer on Jan 19, 2013 13:15:44 GMT
THE GREAT DEVOURER
As the fleet neared, all communications to the planet were lost. A month later, a sphere of rock devoid of life and atmosphere was discovered in its place. The latest victim to the feared Hive Fleet Leviathan.
This particular planet was known for its defences. Each and every city was guarded by four Proteus class bunkers and two giant defence lasers protected by hardened ceramite and void shield generators. These defences were further bolstered by three dozen lascannon interceptors. Eight wings of thunderbolt fighters and four endeavour light cruisers guarded the skies and space and rained hell down upon any attacking ground troops. Further increasing the ground defences were a full regiment of imperial guard troops, including catachan veterans and four chimeras, backed up with four regiments of Black Templars, ten land raiders and fifteen dreadnaughts, led by Sergeant Vangar, veteran of many battles against alien foes.
But nothing could prepare Vangar for what was to come. It began with the psykers of the planet going insane, muttering strange words in an alien tongue too complex to pronounce properly.
Then, a few weeks after, the ships entered orbit. The thunderbolt fighters engaged them and quickly found they were vastly outnumbered by huge fleshy creatures with cavernous mouths encircled by tentacles and others that had long flexible proboscises that pierced the hull of the fighters and injected vast hordes of living blades and creatures with arms that function like guns. Others made physical contact with the larger, slower Vanguard light cruisers and discharged vast amounts of bioelectricity, neutralizing the weapons grids and shielding, rendering the craft harmless and vulnerable to attack from other bioships. A Vanguard light cruiser was torn in two by a vast tentacle clad ship and devoured. All the while, the larger ships were releasing their payload of spore-like objects onto the planets surface.
Each spore that made planetfall released its cargo of alien monstrosities into the planets many vast cities. Ranging from small, snake-like creatures that travelled in packs and tore meat from bone as easily as could tear flowers from the ground to gigantic clawed monsters that smashed through walls and tore the black templars land raiders to scrap metal as if they were made of paper, these monstrosities were widely known as the Tyranids.
These creatures, not native to our galaxy, cannot be reasoned with, bribed or surrendered to. They only see mankind as mere prey, a food source.
As the space battle raged on, the battle on the land was quickly turning sour for the defenders. A brood of carnifexes, led into battle by a hive tyrant, stormed the northern bunker of the capital city of the planet. The defenders held their ground for as long as possible before being pulped by a set of crushing claws and diced by scything talons and bone swords. Sergeant Vangar, overseeing the battle from the top of the city’s central spire, showed no signs of fear about the many gruesome deaths that could befall him, instead seemed brimming with bloodlust, and overjoyed at even the sight of a single dead ripper swarm. He descended from his high vantage point into battle, both chainswords whirring into life as he engaged his jump pack and shot over a wrecked land raider into the thick of a sea of hormagaunts, followed by his terminator guards.
Meanwhile, the defence lasers in the southern bunker fell silent as a brood of tyrannofexes blasted a hole in the ten foot thick wall of the structure, which was quickly filled with genestealers. These then threw themselves at the coolant lines and caused a huge explosion which collapsed the bunker.
Sergeant Vangar and his terminator guard had successfully slaughtered the hormagaunts and two tyranid warriors when they were pounced upon by a trygon prime, which burst from the ground below them and threw them fifteen feet through the air and into a wall. After the trygon prime had followed up its prey, raveners emerged from the tunnel created by the great beast’s digging. These raveners tore their way through a squad of imperial guardsmen before being shot down by lascannon fire from a land raider. Meanwhile, the trygon prime had been slain, taking with it all but one of Vangar’s terminator guards and inflicting minor injuries to Vangar himself, nothing a Sergeant cannot handle.
Terror struck the defenders. Just outside the city, three hierophants were wreaking havoc on the outer wall. Vangar decided to aid the few guardsmen trying to halt the vast biotitans assault on the quickly weakening wall. Vangar ordered his remaining guard to hold off the steadily advancing tide of genestealers and launched himself into the air directly at the largest hierophant. Before he could even utter a word of the black templars war cry, a vast harridan plucked him from the air and flicked him onto the sword tip of the statue dedicated to Vangar for his heroism in past battles. The moment that he hit the statue, his jump pack exploded and the resulting shrapnel removed his left arm and gashed his throat. He wouldn’t survive this battle. Skewered on a statue of himself, he was a sad sight to any black templars who saw him, knowing the battle was lost.
This was a severe moral breaker, and, were it not for this, the defenders could have lasted more than two weeks, but not much more as they were vastly outnumbered and out-gunned thanks to the many broods of tyrannofex and the hierophants.
By the time of Vangar’s death, the battle in space had long since ended. The last Endeavour light cruiser had been swallowed whole and doused with powerful stomach acids that could dissolve adamantine and ceramite as if it were flesh.
All but the most skilled thunderbolt fighter pilots had been enclosed in writhing masses of tentacles and drawn into the gaping maws of the bioships. The few remaining pilots decided the best option would be to fly directly into the ships mouths and activate the self destruct mechanisms. This was later found to be an unwise option as when the fourteen pilots closed in on their targets, a gargantuan bioship came up from beneath them and coated them all in stomach acid before devouring every last one.
Back on land, the hierophants had torn down the walls, consumed the remaining guardsmen, written-off the land raiders and blasted the central spire of the city off its foundations with salvoes of bio-cannon fire. The statue of Vangar was lying on its side on top of an unfortunate dreadnaught. Few pockets of resistance remained, but these were quickly put an end to by lictors and pyrovores.
The seas were drained; forests devoured; every life form, even the simplest bacteria, scoured from the surface of the planet. The resulting biomatter was siphoned up into the ships and carried away. Finally, the atmosphere was sucked up and the fleet moved on. On to their next victim.
Took me two days to type out and another three to make all neccecary corrections. hope you liked it!!
As the fleet neared, all communications to the planet were lost. A month later, a sphere of rock devoid of life and atmosphere was discovered in its place. The latest victim to the feared Hive Fleet Leviathan.
This particular planet was known for its defences. Each and every city was guarded by four Proteus class bunkers and two giant defence lasers protected by hardened ceramite and void shield generators. These defences were further bolstered by three dozen lascannon interceptors. Eight wings of thunderbolt fighters and four endeavour light cruisers guarded the skies and space and rained hell down upon any attacking ground troops. Further increasing the ground defences were a full regiment of imperial guard troops, including catachan veterans and four chimeras, backed up with four regiments of Black Templars, ten land raiders and fifteen dreadnaughts, led by Sergeant Vangar, veteran of many battles against alien foes.
But nothing could prepare Vangar for what was to come. It began with the psykers of the planet going insane, muttering strange words in an alien tongue too complex to pronounce properly.
Then, a few weeks after, the ships entered orbit. The thunderbolt fighters engaged them and quickly found they were vastly outnumbered by huge fleshy creatures with cavernous mouths encircled by tentacles and others that had long flexible proboscises that pierced the hull of the fighters and injected vast hordes of living blades and creatures with arms that function like guns. Others made physical contact with the larger, slower Vanguard light cruisers and discharged vast amounts of bioelectricity, neutralizing the weapons grids and shielding, rendering the craft harmless and vulnerable to attack from other bioships. A Vanguard light cruiser was torn in two by a vast tentacle clad ship and devoured. All the while, the larger ships were releasing their payload of spore-like objects onto the planets surface.
Each spore that made planetfall released its cargo of alien monstrosities into the planets many vast cities. Ranging from small, snake-like creatures that travelled in packs and tore meat from bone as easily as could tear flowers from the ground to gigantic clawed monsters that smashed through walls and tore the black templars land raiders to scrap metal as if they were made of paper, these monstrosities were widely known as the Tyranids.
These creatures, not native to our galaxy, cannot be reasoned with, bribed or surrendered to. They only see mankind as mere prey, a food source.
As the space battle raged on, the battle on the land was quickly turning sour for the defenders. A brood of carnifexes, led into battle by a hive tyrant, stormed the northern bunker of the capital city of the planet. The defenders held their ground for as long as possible before being pulped by a set of crushing claws and diced by scything talons and bone swords. Sergeant Vangar, overseeing the battle from the top of the city’s central spire, showed no signs of fear about the many gruesome deaths that could befall him, instead seemed brimming with bloodlust, and overjoyed at even the sight of a single dead ripper swarm. He descended from his high vantage point into battle, both chainswords whirring into life as he engaged his jump pack and shot over a wrecked land raider into the thick of a sea of hormagaunts, followed by his terminator guards.
Meanwhile, the defence lasers in the southern bunker fell silent as a brood of tyrannofexes blasted a hole in the ten foot thick wall of the structure, which was quickly filled with genestealers. These then threw themselves at the coolant lines and caused a huge explosion which collapsed the bunker.
Sergeant Vangar and his terminator guard had successfully slaughtered the hormagaunts and two tyranid warriors when they were pounced upon by a trygon prime, which burst from the ground below them and threw them fifteen feet through the air and into a wall. After the trygon prime had followed up its prey, raveners emerged from the tunnel created by the great beast’s digging. These raveners tore their way through a squad of imperial guardsmen before being shot down by lascannon fire from a land raider. Meanwhile, the trygon prime had been slain, taking with it all but one of Vangar’s terminator guards and inflicting minor injuries to Vangar himself, nothing a Sergeant cannot handle.
Terror struck the defenders. Just outside the city, three hierophants were wreaking havoc on the outer wall. Vangar decided to aid the few guardsmen trying to halt the vast biotitans assault on the quickly weakening wall. Vangar ordered his remaining guard to hold off the steadily advancing tide of genestealers and launched himself into the air directly at the largest hierophant. Before he could even utter a word of the black templars war cry, a vast harridan plucked him from the air and flicked him onto the sword tip of the statue dedicated to Vangar for his heroism in past battles. The moment that he hit the statue, his jump pack exploded and the resulting shrapnel removed his left arm and gashed his throat. He wouldn’t survive this battle. Skewered on a statue of himself, he was a sad sight to any black templars who saw him, knowing the battle was lost.
This was a severe moral breaker, and, were it not for this, the defenders could have lasted more than two weeks, but not much more as they were vastly outnumbered and out-gunned thanks to the many broods of tyrannofex and the hierophants.
By the time of Vangar’s death, the battle in space had long since ended. The last Endeavour light cruiser had been swallowed whole and doused with powerful stomach acids that could dissolve adamantine and ceramite as if it were flesh.
All but the most skilled thunderbolt fighter pilots had been enclosed in writhing masses of tentacles and drawn into the gaping maws of the bioships. The few remaining pilots decided the best option would be to fly directly into the ships mouths and activate the self destruct mechanisms. This was later found to be an unwise option as when the fourteen pilots closed in on their targets, a gargantuan bioship came up from beneath them and coated them all in stomach acid before devouring every last one.
Back on land, the hierophants had torn down the walls, consumed the remaining guardsmen, written-off the land raiders and blasted the central spire of the city off its foundations with salvoes of bio-cannon fire. The statue of Vangar was lying on its side on top of an unfortunate dreadnaught. Few pockets of resistance remained, but these were quickly put an end to by lictors and pyrovores.
The seas were drained; forests devoured; every life form, even the simplest bacteria, scoured from the surface of the planet. The resulting biomatter was siphoned up into the ships and carried away. Finally, the atmosphere was sucked up and the fleet moved on. On to their next victim.
Took me two days to type out and another three to make all neccecary corrections. hope you liked it!!
