The Emperor’s Angel of Death

"Alternate covering fire, retreat! We can't outrun them!"

Realizing the Tyranids were getting closer, especially those hopping Ripper swarms, Jacob made the decisive choice to turn and fire.

Bolts erupted from his bolter, each exploding upon contact with a Ripper, sending it and several others around it sprawling to the ground, oozing ichor. For this operation, their bolters were loaded with 'Metal Storm' fragmentation rounds. These rounds replaced the mass-reactive detonator with a proximity fuse, allowing the bolt to explode a few meters from the target, showering nearby lightly armored targets with a dense cloud of shrapnel, specifically designed to deal with large swarms of small targets.

Suddenly, a shadow fell from the sky as a winged Warrior bug, brandishing bone swords and a barbed whip, swooped down on Jacob. He immediately adjusted his rifle's firing mode, and a plasma blast roared forth, striking the flying Warrior. The creature lost its balance and crashed to the ground, its body shriveling and steaming under the horrific energy.

Zzzzt—

The air crackled with static, and shimmering arcs of electricity danced through the Tyranid swarm, Ripper swarms convulsing and collapsing, large portions of their bodies charred black.

"Don't get bogged down!"

Jacob quickly moved to Neil's side, pulled a grenade, and hurled it into the swarm.

With a deafening boom, a cloud of chitinous fragments and gore erupted into the air.

"Move!"

The four fired as they retreated, the Tyranids relentlessly snapping at their heels.

Soon, their fragmentation grenades were exhausted, and their bolter magazines were almost empty, but their troubles only multiplied.

"Captain, we need to call in air support!"

Jacob swatted away a Carnifex grub trying to burrow into the gap in his armor, then used his last few rounds to mow down a group of Termagants.

Hearing Ricas's words, Jacob pulled out his signal pistol and quickly loaded an air support marker flare, firing it into the rolling sea of Tyranids. If the larger Tyranid bioforms weren't so slow, they would already be dead.

"Comet! Comet! We've been discovered, we need support!"

"Roger, Seven. Evacuate the blast zone immediately."

The four scrambled up the jagged, rocky hillside, firing and leaping to reposition themselves. From this height, Ricas could finally see the scale of the Tyranid swarm pursuing them.

It was truly boundless, and worse, he thought he saw something massive emerging from the re-gathering spore clouds.

The sky was torn apart by a roar once more. The four didn't see the fighters, but a dozen or so gliding bombs triggered a series of earth-shattering explosions. One of the bombs, its wing damaged, didn't fully deploy and veered off course, landing too close to the four. The massive shockwave sent them flying like ragdolls.

Ricas was thrown the furthest, landing a hundred meters away, rolling a dozen times before slamming into a rock.

"Damn it..."

As he tried to stand, he felt something pounce. He instinctively rolled, dodging snapping claws, and grabbed his bolter, slamming it into the gaping maw of a shrieking Ripper.

With a sickening crunch, the alien's skull crumpled and burst, ichor splattering across his armor.

As it fell, Ricas stood, bringing his weapon back to firing position.

Despite the extensive bombardment, a few Tyranid creatures, with their incredible vitality, still charged forward. Ricas fired as he contacted his teammates.

A Warrior raised its bio-gun to fire, but Ricas shot first. When a bolt struck the bio-gun, the Warrior staggered, then charged forward before collapsing with a screech. Ricas's Vengeance rounds had precisely struck its torso. These rounds contained unstable melta warheads, making them extremely lethal. As the Tyranid Warrior fell, black bile and steam spewed from its open mandibles.

"Ricas! What's your situation?"

"Reporting, Captain, I'm temporarily clear."

"Hold on, we're moving to support you... Damn it! Warrior swarm! Khursakla, take out that Warrior leader with your railgun!"

Hearing the curses in the comm-link, and the distant roar of the railgun firing, Ricas knew he was on his own for a while.

Facing the surging swarm, he immediately slung his bolter over his back and grabbed the pyreblaster.

Crimson flames erupted from the muzzle as a thin stream, then expanded into a blazing cloud over a hundred meters in diameter, instantly engulfing hundreds of Ripper swarms and Termagants.

Ricas fired and retreated, but enemies soon appeared behind him as well. He switched to wide-dispersion mode, creating a ring of fire around himself. Any small Tyranid creatures that touched it were reduced to charred husks in seconds, his power armor screaming warnings as it overheated.

With that done, his pyreblaster was down to two-thirds energy.

He glanced at his three teammates' positions. They weren't too far away, so he decided to use grenades to blast a path to them.

But as he holstered the pyreblaster, a group of creatures suddenly burst through the fire.

These were specially mutated Ripper swarms, covered in thicker armor, with stronger hind legs, and shorter, wider foreclaws like huge cleavers. When they leaped, their back plates opened, and four thin, small wings began to vibrate at high speed. Though unable to fly, they could propel themselves over a hundred meters.

"What!"

Ricas immediately realized that these were Tyranid creatures not in the records, and their structure was perfect for movement in rugged terrain, easily crossing ground-based fire lines without being as fragile as gargoyles.

Facing the Tyranid aliens that had flown into the fire circle in the blink of an eye, Ricas decisively drew his chainsword and plasma pistol. He nimbly dodged the attacks, then used the roaring chainsword to tear through the alien creatures, cutting down hordes of ugly creatures hopping and skipping around and waving bone scimitars in just a few breaths.

But the Tyranids had no emotion, no fear. They would only chirp and roar in the face of death, and no matter how many of their kind were slaughtered, they would not retreat an inch.

Faced with the siege, Ricas could only keep turning, moving, slashing and stabbing again and again, the hum of the chainsword, the shriek of the bolter, and the roar of the alien beasts echoing each other.

This was the music of war, and Ricas could only dance to its rhythm until the enemy was annihilated.

Just as he was fighting, not too far away came a roar from far to near, then the earth began to tremble, a mass of swelling huge pale yellow cloud suddenly rose from the ground, the center is a huge dust column, and create a ring of condensation cloud - missiles launched from the Snow Palace precisely hit the Tyranid hatchery according to the signal.

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