Commander Vash'ya was a young Fire Caste officer, but he was far from inexperienced. He had fought numerous xenos races that had either been integrated into the Greater Good or erased from the stars. But now, for the first time, he felt the cold, suffocating pressure of impending death.
"They just won't stop!"
The Fire Caste warriors were peerless marksmen, and their pulse rifles were devastating against the soft tissue of the Infested humans. But they were facing a mathematical nightmare: they were simply running out of ammunition.
At the corridor's entrance, the mountain of charred corpses had grown so high it obscured their line of sight, yet the Infested continued to scramble over the dead in an endless, mindless stream. Finally, the first T'au warrior's rifle emitted a hollow whine—it was empty. The high-tech weapon was now nothing more than an expensive club.
"Is there any more energy remaining?"
"I'm on my last cell!"
"Dammit, do these things have no end?"
Driven to desperation, the T'au were forced to use survival shovels and rifle butts to crack the skulls of the Infested. Because this was an Imperial-built ship, the T'au lacked local supply caches for their specific pulse weaponry. If not for the Gue'vesa civilians taking up arms to bolster the line, the defense would have collapsed minutes ago.
"Fall back! Contract the perimeter!"
Vash'ya issued the grim order. The Fire Caste retreated deeper into the bowels of the Luna-class cruiser. They were running out of rooms to hide in. The Infested advanced at a slow, oppressive pace, gradually eroding the living space of the survivors. In a few sectors, the defense held firm only because of heavy flamethrowers that turned the passageways into incinerators.
"Mother!" a child cried in the darkness.
"Don't be afraid, little one. The Greater Good will protect us," a woman whispered, though her voice trembled.
The unarmed refugees huddled in corners, praying for salvation. They had no way of knowing that they weren't facing a mindless horde, but a specialized strike force commanded by a Cerebrate. Against the tactical precision of Zasz, even elite T'au troops could only hold for so long.
Vash'ya was struggling to coordinate a final stand when his comms crackled with a burst of static-cleared hope.
"This is Commander O'Dara of the Merchant Fleet. We have reached the support coordinates. Are there survivors on the planet?"
"Praise the Ethereals! You're finally here!" Vash'ya shouted. "I am Ground Commander Vash'ya. We are trapped within the derelict cruiser in the city center. We need immediate extraction and reinforcements!"
"Copy that, Commander. However, we are currently engaging an enemy fleet in high orbit. Please hold your position."
Outside the atmosphere, the T'au Merchant Fleet—a collection of Merchant-class cruisers and Defender-class frigates—found themselves staring down a nightmare. The Zerg fleet was a jagged mixture of gargantuan Leviathans and a massive swarm of Infested Imperial warships.
While T'au vessels are often considered less rugged than their Imperial counterparts, their ion cannons, plasma pulses, and railgun batteries are exceptionally precise. Theoretically, they could gut an Infested cruiser, but the Leviathans were another matter entirely.
"All crews, battle stations," O'Dara commanded from the bridge of her flagship. "Open fire!"
The T'au ships unleashed their legendary frontal firepower. Beams of blue ion energy and hyper-velocity railgun slugs slammed into the Infested fleet. The Infested ships, however, ignored the damage. They didn't maneuver; they simply accelerated on a collision course, relying on the thick, ancient prow armor of the Imperial hulls to soak up the punishment.
Suddenly, a Leviathan blinked out of existence, reappearing directly behind the T'au formation.
"What?!" O'Dara gasped. "These bio-ships possess warp-jump capabilities at this range?"
As a commander of a fleet that relied on slower-than-light gravitic drives for tactical movement, she was genuinely stunned by the Zerg's spatial agility. But she didn't let the shock paralyze her.
"Maintain discipline! Deploy orbital mines to the rear! Force that beast back!"
Compared to the Zerg monstrosity, the T'au cruisers looked fragile and flat—elegant slivers of metal that looked like they would snap under the Leviathan's weight. The Leviathan ignored the mines. Just as O'Dara expected a massive explosion to cripple the creature, the Leviathan exhaled a cloud of Scourges. These suicidal organisms crashed into the mines, clearing a path through a series of violent detonations that left the Leviathan completely unharmed.
"It's using organic interceptors," an officer reported. "Like carrier-based fighters!"
The situation had turned critical. The Zerg fleet had successfully encircled the T'au. As the T'au tried to break away, the Leviathans and Infested ships extended massive, fleshy tentacles, snagging the T'au hulls and dragging them close. Within these tentacles, hollow feeding tubes pierced the T'au shields and hulls, beginning the boarding process.
The interior defense of the T'au ships was fierce. Some Fire Caste warriors, equipped with XV-8 Crisis Battlesuits, stood as iron walls in the corridors. These suits, twice the height of a man and bristling with burst cannons and missile pods, provided the heavy firepower needed to vaporize Zerglings by the dozen.
"The Gue'vesa call them 'Gundams' for a reason," the Overmind remarked dryly while observing the slaughter. "The XV-8 is a fine machine, but it's still just a suit."
Zasz pushed the link. "Crisis suits are merely target practice for the elite. Hounds, pick up the pace!"
The Zerglings responded, their wings buzzing as they accelerated to speeds no ground vehicle could match. They became a blur of purple and teeth, swarming the Crisis suits from every angle. Behind them, the Roaches lumbered in, their heavy chitin shrugging off burst cannon fire as if it were rain.
"Even your newest suits," Zasz whispered into the void, "must bow before the armor of the Swarm."