Executioner!
The heavy assault organism of the Tyranid swarms—a creature of pure, biological malice. Its arrival shifted the weight of the battlefield instantly. Ordinary bolter rounds and las-beams sparked harmlessly against its dense chitinous plating, leaving only shallow scorch marks.
The behemoths advanced with heavy, rhythmic thuds toward the Sons of Medusa's line. With a casual sweep of its sickle-limbs, an Executioner bifurcated several lesser Termagants that obstructed its path, clearing a bloody trail through its own kin.
"Concentrate fire! Target the heavy bio-forms!" Cassius's cold command cut through the vox-channel.
In an instant, seventy percent of the squad's fire-support pivoted toward the two Executioners. Melta-beams hissed as they attempted to bore through the armor, rockets bloomed in fire against their torsos, and phosphorescent promethium clung to their carapaces, cooking the meat beneath.
The effect was marginal. An Executioner's hide was composed of ablative layers of hardened chitin; as the outer shells cracked and fell away, fresh, undamaged armor was revealed beneath. Their pace slowed, but they remained a steady, inexorable wall of death.
Cassius knew conventional fire would not break these titans before the endless swarm overwhelmed them.
"Iron Cavalry, on me! Intercept!" he barked. "Supporting units, maintain suppressive fire. Purge the chaff!"
"Understood, Sergeant!" the other two Terminators replied, their voices deep and synthesized.
"Purge the weak!"
Cassius bellowed the battle cry of the Sons of Medusa. He was the first to lunge forward, the powerful servos of his modified Terminator plate propelling his bulk with terrifying acceleration. Like a living tank, he shattered the lesser xenos in his path and pounced toward the larger Executioner, distinguished by its darker, oil-slicked shell.
The other two Iron Knight Terminators split off to engage the second beast.
Cassius's chosen foe roared—a sound like grinding stones. An enormous sickle swept through the air with a piercing whistle.
Cassius did not raise his shield to block. His armor, custom-tuned by Magos Cyrus, possessed a responsive speed that defied its massive silhouette. He twisted mid-stride, the blade missing his chestplate by a fraction of an inch. Using his momentum, he brought his Thunder Hammer down in a crushing arc against the Executioner's knee joint.
CRACK!
The deafening roar of the hammer's power-field discharging echoed through the chamber. Chitin shattered, and green ichor sprayed as the Executioner staggered, its massive limb buckling.
But the beast's instinct was faster than its pain. The vents on its back flipped open, revealing clusters of bio-organic launch tubes.
Whump-whump-whump!
Dozens of toxin-coated bone spurs erupted like canister shot, saturating the area. Cassius's pupils contracted as he slammed his Storm Shield into position, the power armor's thrusters barking to shove him backward. Most of the projectiles hissed off the shield's energy field, but several raked his pauldron and greaves, leaving jagged furrows in the ceramite.
Before he could reset his stance, the Executioner's tail—thick and muscular as a battering ram—whipped around with predatory speed. This time, there was no room to dodge.
BOOM!
The impact slammed into the Storm Shield with the force of a falling star. Even with the internal dampeners and the Iron Halo's protective field, Cassius felt the shockwave vibrate through his marrow. He tasted copper as his teeth rattled.
The shield's energy levels plummeted into the red, a piercing alarm wailing in his ears. He was thrown back, his heavy boots carving two deep furrows into the fungal carpet as he fought to stay upright.
The Executioner lunged, its massive weight moving with a fluidity that mocked its size. It raised both sickles high, crossing them for a final, decapitating strike. Cassius raised his shield, bracing for the crushing weight of a blow he knew his depleted energy field might not survive.
The bone-blades, wreathed in a biological disruption field, began to bite into the shield's edge. The tips of the sickles were inches from his visor.
Then, a new sound: "Omnissiah guide us! Steel Charge!"
Three members of the Skitarii Vanguard had broken from the line, launching a desperate, flanking sprint. As they closed in, the Executioner's tail lashed out, pulping one Vanguard into a ruin of scrap-metal and viscera.
But the sacrifice bought a window. The remaining two Skitarii leapt, driving their taser-lances into the vulnerable vents on the Executioner's back.
BZZZT!
Arc-energy surged through the beast's nervous system. The Executioner stiffened, its death-stroke faltering for a crucial second.
"Sergeant! Witness our service!" a flat, mechanical voice crackled over the vox.
The Skitarii detonated the specialized thermal-melta charges strapped to their chests—munitions designed specifically to breach hive-ship hulls.
KABOOM!
A blinding white sphere of heat engulfed the upper half of the Executioner. The sheer temperature vaporized chitin, muscle, and bone in a heartbeat. The shockwave, laden with molten metal and bio-matter, hammered outward.
Cassius curled behind his shield as he was thrown through the air, crashing into a rusted bulkhead with a dull thud.
When the glare subsided, the Executioner was a ruin. Its upper torso was gone, leaving only charred legs and a smoking crater where a titan had once stood. The two Skitarii were gone, vanished into the heat of their own devotion.
"Soldiers!" Cassius's voice roared over the vox, tinged with a rare, burning anger. "Who authorized you to break the line? Who ordered a suicide strike?!"
He had given explicit orders: none were to leave the defensive perimeter except the Terminators. This suicidal maneuver defied his tactical plan.
Silence followed on the channel. The remaining Skitarii continued to fire with rhythmic, mechanical precision, clearing the encroaching swarm as if nothing had happened. No one answered him.
Before these warriors had deployed, Magos Cyrus had given them a single, overriding directive that superseded any field command:
Protect Cassius Erato at all costs.