Chapter 127: Hunter or Hunted?
"Scrap-eating bug, look here! Look at your grandpa's big gun! WAAAGH! or not WAAAGH!?"
The Tyranid Warrior dodged the incoming bolter round. A look that would not appear in the eyes of a Hormagaunt or Termagant flashed in its compound eyes. It was thinking. The human's provocation made it sense something was amiss. The biggest difference between it, a synapse creature, and the lower-level Tyranid creatures was that it had intelligence.
Although it still could not understand the meaning of the human's actions with its innate wisdom, it didn't matter. As a synapse creature, its consciousness was forever connected to the Hive Mind. It could search for the optimal solution in the Hive Mind's knowledge base. They want to hunt me. These foods are just to block me.
The Tyranid Warrior, having already understood the commander's intentions, did not attempt to break out or escape. It did not think that the food would pose a threat to it. Or rather, it did not fear death. To occupy this planet for the Hive Mind was the most important thing. If its death could speed up the occupation by even a second, it would die without hesitation.
The Tyranid Warrior, focused on killing, transformed into a terrifying creature that only existed in human nightmares. Although it was twice the height of a normal human, with a thick carapace, these did not slow its movements. Its speed was like a whip being swung through the air.
One after another, humans fell under its scything talons and boneswords. Brave, fearless, terrified, weak—in its eyes, there was no difference.
The Astra Militarum Colonel, watching from a distance, several times drew his chainsword and was about to charge, but was held back by the people around him.
Finally, just as the soldiers who were responsible for holding back the Tyranid Warrior were on the verge of collapse, a series of roars sounded behind them.
"Woof!"
"Woof, woof!"
"Woof, woof, woof!"
The hounds' roars seemed to inject courage into the soldiers' bodies. Some of them voluntarily leaped out of their cover and unleashed all their fury on the Tyranid Warrior. They did not fear death. They feared a sacrifice without a victory. "Come on, you son of a bitch! Come on! Grandpa is here! Come and eat me!"
The soldier, even as his mouth and nose bled from the recoil of his bolter, his whole body numb, his bones fractured, still did not let go of his gun, still did not release his finger from the trigger. Pain, disability, death—the soldier did not care. All he cared about, all he wanted, was for this bug to die.
Are these things that cannot be converted into biomass the weapons they use to fight me?
The Tyranid Warrior, watching the charging mechanical hounds, had a flicker of doubt in its mind. It had already destroyed many of these useless four-legged scraps. Although their combat effectiveness was higher than that of a normal human, it was still not enough to pose a threat to it.
The Warrior decided to test them first. It raised its deathspitter, wanting to shoot the approaching mechanical hounds. But the humans who had noticed its intention immediately suppressed it with fire. At the same time, the hounds also dispersed, flanking the Tyranid Warrior from both sides. "Stop the reinforcing bugs!"
Hearing the command from the comms, the soldiers finally noticed the Tyranid swarm rushing over from the distance. They had already sacrificed too much to eliminate the swarm around the Tyranid Warrior. The soldiers understood that they absolutely could not let these bugs get to their target. Otherwise, everything they had done would be meaningless.
The moment it had discovered the humans' intentions, the Tyranid Warrior, as a synapse creature, had used the Hive Mind to summon the nearby Hormagaunts and Termagants to reinforce it. The humans wanted to hunt it, but did it not also want to use this to hunt the humans? Who was the prey? Who was the bait? Who was the hunter? Who could say?
At this moment, the situation on the battlefield had undergone a drastic change. The humans who had been surrounding the Tyranid Warrior were now the ones being surrounded. The bullets that had been pouring inwards, suppressing the Tyranid Warrior, had to be turned outwards, to fire at the Tyranid swarm outside the encirclement.
The entire encirclement, which had been set up to hunt the Tyranid Warrior, had now become a huge "colosseum," a colosseum where a pack of steel beasts was fighting a Tyranid behemoth.
"Roar!"
"Woof!"
There was no standoff. The battle between the pack of beasts and the behemoth had begun the moment they met. The Tyranid Warrior's ranged bio-weapon fired a living bullet. Although these living maggots could only survive in the air for a few seconds, the digestive enzymes and bodily fluids they secreted could easily melt armor.
The Machine Spirit, born in the Golden Age of humanity, had reacted the moment the Tyranid had raised its gun, following the instincts in its soul. The hounds began to run, circling the Tyranid Warrior. The constantly changing, irregular circle around the Tyranid Warrior helped the hounds to dodge the bullets it fired.
"Roar!"
The Tyranid Warrior, seeing that its shooting was useless, put away its deathspitter. It found that the combat effectiveness of these steel scraps increased with their numbers. It would take some effort to deal with them. It raised its two boneswords. The psychic power of the Hive Mind was activated, and a bio-disruption field enveloped the boneswords. Is this the humans' trump card? A flicker of doubt flashed in the Tyranid Warrior's mind, but the hounds did not give it time to think. The moment the Tyranid had put down its gun and picked up its bone blades, the mechanical hounds' behavior also changed. They all changed their running direction at the same time and charged at the Tyranid Warrior in the center.
"Woof!"
Looking at the mechanical hound leaping at its bone blades, the Tyranid Warrior seemed to have thought of something. It did not swing its bone blades to cut the hound in two, but wanted to retreat and dodge. But it was already surrounded. Thirteen hounds had left it no room to dodge.
Boom, boom, boom!
"It's done! Counter-attack! Full-scale counter-attack! Before a new synapse creature appears, drive the Tyranids from our defensive line! Kill them all!" the Astra Militarum Colonel roared into the comms.
The Astra Militarum who had received this communication were all invigorated. No matter their current situation, even if they were just clinging to the defensive line, even if the Tyranids' claws were already raised before them, this communication gave their bodies a new surge of courage and strength, making them roar and swing their weapons at the Tyranids before them.
At the same time as the Colonel was giving the order through the comms, the Tech-Priest who had been closely observing the results in the "colosseum" with him had already run towards the place where the Tyranid Warrior had fallen. When he arrived, the wounded soldiers who were unable to move were venting their anger on the tattered body of the Tyranid Warrior. Seeing the cog-head from the regiment arrive, they all stopped what they were doing.
"Priest, it's so烂. The brothers thought it was useless—" The medic's words of excuse for the wounded were cut short by the Tech-Priest.
"Cut the crap! Everyone, immediately, collect the remains of the mechanical hounds and give them to me!"
"Huh?"
While the front-line officers were commanding the Astra Militarum's counter-attack, the human high command in the rear, after receiving the intelligence from the front, also made a move. Although Gorgon's large-scale attack was sudden, how could the humans, who had always been on guard, not be prepared?
Dozens of armored regiments were urgently dispatched from the rear. With their speed advantage, they arrived at the battlefield in the first time and, in cooperation with the counter-attacking Astra Militarum, used their armor and firepower advantage to carry out a targeted sniping of the discovered Tyranid synapse creatures.
"Hahaha! What damned Tyranids, what synapse creatures! I think the Commissar just likes to scare us all day. He makes it sound like a single sword can cut my vehicle in two. But in the end, wasn't it blown to bits by a single shot from me?" the tank commander joked to his crew.
"That's right! I was praying to the Emperor before we set out. Now I've made a fool of myself in front of him," the loader grumbled.
The others, hearing this, all laughed. Having just easily dealt with a high-value target, the entire crew was filled with a relaxed atmosphere. If the high-risk Tyranid creatures the officers had talked about were all of this level, after this battle on Korsa, the military medals each of them received would be enough to make a bulletproof vest.
"Crew 33, proceed immediately to Hill 4 for support. A Tyranid synapse creature has appeared there."
Hearing the command from the Leman Russ's comms, the smiling tank commander picked up the microphone and replied, "Acknowledged."
"Brothers, let's go! Let's show the grunts what we're made of again!"
"Yes, sir! Let's show them! Their expressions just now were priceless."
"Hahaha."
Crew 33, which had sped all the way to Hill 4, after arriving at the target location, was met by the Astra Militarum who were guiding the way. They guided them towards the last known location of the Tyranid Warrior. "You have to be careful. We've already tried several times and couldn't kill it. We've lost a lot of brothers."
"Alright, alright, I know," the tank commander, who had stuck his body out of the tank, replied perfunctorily.
"Especially its weapon! You have to be careful! Even with the protection of this iron lump, you have to be careful!" the Astra Militarum, seeing the other's perfunctory attitude, reminded him again, not at all at ease.
Hearing the grunt not even know the name of his baby, the tank commander said impatiently, "I know! Cut the crap! How powerful can it be? No matter how powerful it is, it can't be more powerful than the iron lump in your mouth. I've already killed one. The little toy in its hand couldn't even scratch my baby's paint."
The inexperienced rookie, seeing this, didn't know what to say. This iron lump did look very powerful. No matter how powerful a bug was, it was still made of meat. How could something made of meat be more powerful than something made of iron?
After reaching the danger zone, the tank commander retreated into the tank, closed the hatch, and said unhappily, "Driver, step on it. Let the bumpkins behind us eat our baby's exhaust."
The driver, hearing this, smiled. "You got it."
"Open the augur-array. See where that bug is."
"Acknowledged. Searching."
"Gunner, aim well. One shot, one kill. Don't embarrass us."
"Got it. Don't worry."
"Report! Target found! 9 o'clock direction, distance 320 meters."
"Good! Get—"
"Target moving! It's charging towards us! Very fast!"
"Gunner!"
"Aiming! Loader, load! High-explosive!"
"One round loaded!"
"Big bug, grandpa is sending you back to your bug mama's belly!"
As the Leman Russ turned its turret to aim at the Tyranid Warrior, the Tyranid Warrior's strangler cannon also aimed at it and, a step ahead of the Leman Russ, pulled the trigger.
A fist-sized seed pod was fired from the muscle tube. The seed pod, endowed with great kinetic energy by the Tyranid creature's powerful muscles and steel tendons, with a piercing whistle, shot directly into the Leman Russ's armor plate.
The noise and vibration from the impact made the crew's hearts tremble. They found that this opponent was a little different from the last one. Although its attack power was much stronger, it was still not enough to penetrate their vehicle's armor.
"Gunner, hurry the hell up!"
But this was not the end of the attack. On the contrary, the impact just now was just the beginning. The seed pod matured in a few seconds, broke open its hard shell, and extended its hook-like tendrils in all directions. The vehicle's armor plate was lifted by the force of the growing tendrils. The gun barrel and the tracks were also tightly bound by the steel-like tendrils.
"Commander, turret malfunction! Cannot turn!" the gunner cried out in panic.
"What are you panicking for?! Driver, adjust direction! Use the forward secondary weapon to engage the enemy!"
"Yes! Hmm?! The tracks are stuck! We can't move!" the driver shouted in panic.
"Scrap it!" A look of panic flashed across the commander's face. He forced himself to calm down and continued to command, "Gunner, driver, you two keep trying! Don't stop! You go to the left auxiliary weapon, I'll go to the right! The moment you see a bug, open fire! Don't let it get close to us!"
The loader immediately replied, "Yes!"
"!" Another impact sound, just like the one before.
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
One impact sound after another made the hearts of everyone in Crew 33 sink to the bottom. Now, on their faces, there was not a trace of the relaxation and disdain of a short while ago, only a deep fear.