He slid downhill through the thick mud to his earlier vantage point and squinted down into the murk. Movement rippled below him, but was it incoming tyranids or a trick of the light and rain?
Then a sheet of lightning flashed in conjunction with booming peals of thunder and the night was suddenly and vividly illuminated.
The slippery slopes of the mountain teemed with tyranid creatures, swarming uphill in their thousands. Leaping hormagaunts led the charge, but in his brief glimpse he saw a trio of lumbering, crab-clawed carnifex and a great winged beast with a long, barbed tail and a huge bony crest that stretched high above its bellowing jaws. Giant blades on its upper limbs cut the rain and a steaming bio-weapon oozed from its midsection.
He scrambled back uphill, fighting through the thick, sucking mud.
He opened a channel to the captain of the Deathwatch and Techmarine Harkus.
'Bannon, ready your men! Harkus, get the Thunderhawk off the ground,' he yelled.
Seconds later, the gunship's engines roared as it lifted off to assume a holding pattern until the Space Marines were ready for extraction.
Uriel looked back down the slopes of the mountain.
'And tell Gossin to work faster,' he said. 'They're here…'
'Fire bombardment cannon!' shouted Tiberius as the two pincered kraken moved slowly across the viewing bay. Without many of their targeting auguries, gunnery was a far from exact science and only his and Philotas's experience gave them any chance of scoring hits on their foe.
The bridge shuddered as the-ship's main gun fired and Tiberius winced as a fresh batch of red runes began flashing on the damage control panels.
'Hull breach reopened on deck six!'
'Come to new heading, zero-five-seven,' ordered Tiberius. 'Flank speed. We've got to get past their cordon.'
The entire bridge groaned as the battered ship forced itself into the turn, her buckled keel squealing in protest.
'Come on, hold on.' Tiberius whispered to the spirit of the Vae Victus.
Sprays of ichor burst before his ship as the bombardment cannon's shells impacted on the kraken's hide, detonating in a giant fleshy burst of gore. An angular prow slid into view as the Mortis Probati crossed the bow of the Ultramarines' ship. Her starboard guns hammered the listing remains of the kraken, blasting its thrashing body to expanding clouds of scorched flesh.
The second kraken ponderously moved to engage the Mortifactors' ship, its blade wings rippling as it changed course. Behind it, Tiberius could see the outline of one of the massive hive ships, limned in the glow of the planet's atmosphere.
'All ahead full,' shouted Tiberius. 'Twenty-degree down angle. Take us through the gap!'
Tiberius gripped the cracked timbers of his command pulpit as the Vae Victus shook violently and accelerated through the gap the strike cruisers had blasted.
Smaller drone creatures peeled off from their attack on the Sword of Retribution, swooping around to come for Tiberius's vessel.
'Lord admiral!'
'I see them, Philotas. Engage with port batteries.'
'We won't hit much without the targeting surveyors.'
'Fire anyway.'
'If they board us, we will be unable to repel them.'
'Damn them! Our only priority is the hive ships. Stay on target!'
The Sword of Retribution pushed deeper into the swarming tyranid creatures, firing devastating broadsides from its many gun decks, filling the space around it with vast explosions. It had suffered the least of the Imperial fleet and its captain had volunteered to take the lead position in the attack.
Lethal strikes from the dorsal lances punched a hole in the tyranid fleet through which the smaller vessels of the fleet sailed. Alien vessels surged to close the gap, but the Space Marine vessels were too fast, slipping past the vanguard organisms on a course for the hive ships.
The Kharloss Vincennes limped behind the Sword of Retribution, her ruptured hull and damaged engines causing her to fall behind the speeding Space Marine ships. As the tyranid creatures closed the gap in their forces, they also closed inexorably on the wounded carrier. Unable to launch fighters or bombers to defend herself, she was easy prey. Close-in turrets and broadside batteries kept the alien creatures at bay for a time, but as more and more closed with her, there was no doubting the outcome of the battle.
Snaking tentacles drifted forwards from a dozen cone-shaped drones, latching limpet-like to the hull of the battling carrier. Acidic secretions bound the creatures to the ship and their maws irised open, revealing caverns of giant teeth that burrowed into their prey at a horrifying rate.
Larger ships closed, then suddenly altered course to head back towards the planet, recalled by the hive mind to catch its attackers in a trap.
As the Kharloss Vincennes fought the losing battle for its life, the remainder of the Imperial fleet pushed on into the swarm.
The nearest hive ship lay before the Vae Victus, its gargantuan shape filling the viewing bay before him. Attendant guardian creatures formed an impenetrable barrier between her and her escorting ships.
'All ships, fire all weapons!' shouted Tiberius. 'We have to break through.'
Massive projectiles hurtled through space, exploding in vivid blossoms of fire ahead, but none were reaching their target. Kraken and drones moved in an intricate ballet that would have been virtually impossible for the Imperial Navy to emulate, screening the hive ship from the incoming firepower. Tiberius saw a handful of shots penetrate the living shield, but precious few were causing any real damage.
Tiberius opened a vox-link to the captain of the Sword of Retribution.
'Captain, you must clear us a path! Use whatever means are necessary.'
He snapped off the link without waiting for an answer and said, 'Philotas, try and raise Uriel. Tell him that whatever he's doing, he'd better do it fast, because we won't last much longer here.'
Rain hammered the mountainside and lightning provided stroboscopic illumination across the rocky slopes as the thousands-strong horde scrambled up towards the bunker. Rivers of foaming water flooded downhill, sweeping great swathes of the aliens with it.
For once, the tyranids' metamorphosis of a planet's surface was working against them, saw Uriel. The glutinous mud was as much of a hindrance to them as it was to the Space Marines. Bolter fire raked the slopes, blasting apart hormagaunts and other nameless horrors in stuttering blazes of shells. Uriel hurled a pair of grenades, ducking back behind a rock as they detonated, sending up showers of mud and alien body parts.
Screeching carnifex struggled in the mud, their bulk causing them to sink knee deep. The winged monster flapped above the horde, buffeting winds keeping it from advancing for now.
The Deathwatch picked off aliens with single shots to their vulnerable organs, careful to conserve their ammunition. Bannon scrambled across the slopes to Uriel's position, his armour caked in clods of mud, the symbol of the Imperial Fists barely visible.
'They're circling around behind us. We need to get inside!'
Uriel looked up into the filthy downpour, seeing indistinct shapes bounding across the rocks towards the bunker. Bannon was right, given a few minutes, they would be surrounded.
'Let's get going then,' he said, rising from behind the rock.
Uriel felt the ground shift under his feet and leapt backwards as a huge portion of mud suddenly detached from the slope, sliding downhill as the torrential downpour washed it from the side of the mountain. He landed on his back and rolled, grabbing onto the rock as he felt himself slipping. His bolter clattered behind the rock.