'Indeed we could.'
'You're sure there's nothing from Uriel?'
'As sure as I can be. Most of our vox-casters were smashed in the explosion or had their internal workings fried by the electromagnetic pulse. We were lucky to make contact at all.'
'Then we're going to have to do this the old fashioned way,' said Tiberius.
Philotas nodded and returned to his charts as Tiberius stared in anticipation at the viewing bay. The world of Tarsis Ultra spun gently before him, tainted with several bruised areas of colour that were spreading across its surface. He could see distant specks of tyranid organisms and felt his hate grow. Like parasites, they suckled on this world, draining it of its life without thought for the billions of creatures that called it home. Even as he watched them, several of the vanguard drone creatures altered direction to face the incoming Imperial fleet.
'All ships, this is Tiberius. Battle stations. They're coming.'
He closed his eyes and muttered a prayer that Uriel was currently hurtling towards his objective.
Whether he was or he wasn't, there was nothing Tiberius could do about it.
All he could do was lead his ships into battle and fight.
Spouts of mud and water were thrown up as the Thunderhawk touched down on the upper slopes of the eastern mountains in a cloud of shrieking jetwash. Its skids slid briefly on the slippery ground before finally finding purchase. The front ramp slammed down into the mud and the five members of the Deathwatch and Uriel surged from its interior.
Uriel jogged to a covering position and crouched low behind a jagged black boulder, resting his bolter on it as he surveyed the slopes below him for threats. A thick, viscous rain fell and Uriel could tell that the temperature here was many degrees higher than at Erebus. Already tyranid mutagenic viruses were working to raise the temperature of Tarsis Ultra for ease of consumption.
The thick sheets of rain cut visibility dramatically and he could see no more than three hundred metres through it. Thunder rambled, followed shortly by jagged bolts of lightning that speared the sky, throwing patchy illumination onto the plains below: He cursed as he realised they would have little or no warning of any attack.
He signalled to one of the Deathwatch to take his place and climbed the mud-slick slope to where Bannon coordinated the unloading of the Thunderhawk's cargo. Another whip of lightning seared the sky and Uriel saw what they had come for, thrown into shadow by the bright atmospheric discharge.
From the outside it was nothing remarkable, simply an oversized rockcrete bunker some thirty metres square, with an armoured blast door leading within. A hemispherical dome topped with eight long gun barrels squatted atop the bunker, its bronze surface streaked with oxides.
Four lifter-servitors struggled under the weight of cargo pallets while Magos Gossin and his three drenched Adeptus Mechanicus tech-priests hitched up their robes and hurriedly made their way towards the bunker. Behind them, the servitors carried the precious cargo, fully charged capacitors to power the defence lasers, into the bunker with the utmost care.
Bannon strode downhill to meet Uriel, his black armour glossy in the heavy rain.
'Anything?'
'No, but they could be right on top of us and we wouldn't know,' replied Uriel, having to shout to be heard over the rain and whine of the Thunderhawk's engines.
Another tense half an hour passed until eventually the last of the charged capacitors was unloaded from the belly of the Thunderhawk and taken inside the bunker. By now the Adeptus Mechanicus should be hooking them up to the main power grid. Silently Uriel prayed they would work fast.
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.