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'Sneaking with a heavy weapon is ineffective. It is possible but very slow. Chance of detection is calculated to be dangerously high. Assault, of course, brings its own risks. Not my decision.'

From his forward position ahead of the others, Elysius glanced back as he muttered into the vox.
"Brothers, we are committed to battle, there will be plenty of time for chit-chat over quadruble-strength recaf back at the Watch Station," he hissed through the comm. "With faith in the Emperor and some fine accuracy from yourselves, we shall prevail."

It was time to commence battle. A swift double-check of his beloved flamer and he was up, sprinting from concealment and spraying a torrent of merciless flame towards the Tyranids he was flanking. Stealth abandoned, he gave voice to his Chapter's warcry at the top of his lungs as the purgation began.

"Into the fires of battle, unto the anvil of war! Leave none alive!"

Arthilos does not waste a second to open fire, targeting the birth-sac of the horrid Tyranid creature, his HUD filling with targeting vectors and calculated beam trajectories to ensure the shot is as effective as possible.

Vensk grunts a single time and heaves scant, quick breaths as he kicks off into action in a thunderously loud run; broken up by sounds of the stomps and servos in motion. He was disused to war cries - the Omega Lords chapter was one to favour subtlety and cold efficiency, seeing excess of emotion in battle given off as a weakness, similarly to how some Chapters see lack of bionics as weakness of the flesh.

Where he can, he fires off the occasional bolt pistol round from behind his brothers, his Power Maul, still not so highly raised, the end and shaft seen almost as an extension of the arm, such was the way it was held; the time had not yet come to begin swinging.

Squad Nirn waited in ambush, time measured by the squelch of their enemies feet as they moved down the corridor towards them, the drip of some unutterable fluid from the ceiling and the beat and pulse in the walls from the huge heart of the hive ship. Morr muttered and invocation of the Emperor’s Grace, and Nirn felt a new clarity fill him, and time seemed to slow. A quick glance confirmed that the Hive Guard were entering the kill zone. “For the Emperor!” he cried, sprinting round the corner with his bolt pistol levelled, the rest of his squad hot on his heels. The Hive Guard screeched, and the very walls seemed to shudder as the Tyranids became aware of an enemy within the heart of their domain. They began to aim their weapons as the marines sprinted towards them, fire support from Raphael zipping past. A feral howl from Haraldson split the air, each of the marines joining in with a battlecry from their own Chapter, creating a wall of sound that cried death upon the enemies of mankind.
Battle was joined.

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Squad Solem looked up as the walls shook alarmingly and the creatures in the chamber before them became more alert. “I guess Sergeant Nirn has started something” Ilin noted. Solem nodded as the marines advanced into the chamber in a line abreast, not even trying to hide. The tyranids in the chamber noticed them immediately, screeching and charging to protect their spawn mother, which began to writhe with hideous peristaltic motion. They were answered by the hiss and click of Ignis’ pilot light sparking up, and the building whine from Arthilos’ multimelta.

“I’ve heard cooked insect is a delicacy on some worlds. Let’s see what all the fuss is about!” quipped Ignis, before engulfing the charging hormagaunts in fire.

Victorus Aut Mortis!

Solem's vox boomed as his servos whined and he strode to his feet, beginning a thunderous advance towards the brood mother as he flicked up his bolt pistol to target the Termagants that now approached the squad, firing off a pair of stray, inaccurate rounds before Brother Ignis' holy promethium stretched out in a swathe and incinerated the first wave. With this gesture, he came to a sudden, loud halt, his bolt pistol arm relaxed before him as he activated his power maul.

As two of his brothers received ineffective hits from Tyranid ranged weaponry, Solem's helmet display acquired a Xeno, designation "Hormagaunt" that darted in between a gap in the swath of burning fire, leaping towards the squad. The Omega Lord reacted quickly and in two strides reached the back of Brother Renzo, slightly pushing him aside as he loosely pressed an ungripped hand against his shoulder pad, taking one more stride in front of him as the Hormagaunt leaped directly in front of him, immediately letting loose a flurry of stabs with its blades, which glanced his armour, the deepest puncture on the plate on the right side of his hip. Luckily, the puncture did not seem to have fully pierced the plate, and Solem swung his power maul up from his side, and then down, hammering the skull with the first swing, obliterating in an explosion of matter it with the second, recoiling and returning swing, and kicking its corpse to the side as his vox quietly barked with a grunt of spite, as he took a pair of walking steps forward, releasing his power maul to his side, once more pointing to the ground.

Solem steps forward behind Brother Ignis as he lets loose another torrent of promethium into the newly born Xenos.

The bowels of a hive ship were never a welcome sight. It only got worse as one traipsed further and further in, and no two were ever the same. Kereon had seen a lot in his long years, but a Tyrranid vessel was admittedly a new experience. As the squads traveled further in, he found himself keeping to the shortest exchanges of discourse. Every detail here could be the difference between life and death, and Kereon knew he had only gotten this far by observing and remaining alert. Inter-chapter relations could wait until later.

The groups split, Kereon assigned to a man called Solem. Sergeant, Omega Lords. Alongside him was Brother Ignis, Salamanders, Brother Renzo, Blood Ravens, Brother Ilin, Blood Angels, and Arthilos, Thunder Dragons - yet another Ultramarines successor. He had rolled his eyes under his helm at that. After the Inceptors incident, the Ultramarines and their successors had been less than welcoming of the brazen Chapter. Nevertheless, Kereon had a job to do.

So now we wait. Kereon idly checked his Bolter over, twice, three times, once more because the other squad was taking their time. He checked the mag again; Hellfire. Nothing less. The poisoned rounds were indispensable against the Hive beasts, and increased a Marine's efficiency by 100% against most of the smaller beasts - more in some cases. Where they really shined, however, was against the larger beasts, where - The walls seemingly writhed as a large boom snapped their attention upwards.
"I guess Sergeant Nirn has started something." The Blood Angel muttered. Kereon slammed the mag home, racking the first round. He had forty one before he'd have to reload.
Plenty to work with.
The squad advanced, a strong line of adamantium and vicious resolve. Bolters rose as the beasts screamed at the intrusion. The smaller ones skittered forwards as the klarge one rumbled. Bolts flew as the squad fired. A burst of flame on Kereon's left incinerated a slew of beasts, while Kereon and the Blood Raven combined fire, tagging the Tyrranids attempting to engage at range.
'Ranged combatants in the field brothers' he voxed, dropping to one knee. 'We have them.' The Sergeant and the Blood Angel joined them, taking a further two from the fight. A rising screech sounded from behind, tearing into the broodmother, blood and viscera instantly cooking away on impact. Kereon was almost surprised the Thunder Dragon hadn't turned the weapon on him, but said nothing. Perhaps the grudge was not one the Dragon held - or maybe he was simply doing his job too. Kereon was cut from his thoughts as trails of green return fire arced towards the squad. Beside him, Solem was moving, pushing the Blood raven to one side as he swung his mace, obliterating another Tyrranid's head in a spray of gore, soaked into the walls and floor. The Salamander fired again, roasting more xenos with each squeeze of the trigger. Kereon almost envied the Marine. A shot struck Kereon's shoulder, the experienced marine rolling the shot aside. He switched his bolter, now firing left handed to offset the damage to his armour. There were more important things to deal with now though. With the smaller beasts mostly dealt with, he focused on the Broodmother, relaying target information to the Blood Raven.
'Combined fire, go.'
He settled on an eye, bit his breath for a moment. Fired. Both bolters boomed twice, each finding a mark in the Broodmother. The Multimelta whined again, tearing into it also.

Gundleif felt his skin crawl and his veines throbb with the all too familiar hunger for blood and violence. He fougth of the urge to sucumb to the snarling beast that lurked within all sons of Fenris. He raised his pistiol as he charged and let loose a series of shots that struck home. The Hive Guard howled in pain as the rounds struck it, and as he was almost in sword rage a feral and utterly frigthening howl escaped his curled lips.
The enemy would pay dearly for their foul xeno ways he vowed as the beast came within reach of his blade and he began to lay into it with the cold and controled manner he had been trained to figth, but still. He was a wolf enraged by the scent of blood and it showed

As the battle began in earnest, Arthilos felt time slow to a crawl. His companions charged in front of him, his battle-worn gaze predicting their movement routes and adjusting his aim accordingly. Such was his concentration that he barely noticed the noise of the fight, the data on his HUD and the targets in front of him everything deserving of his attention. Melta recharge: 37%

His HUD was a cobweb of information and targeting vectors, the numbers and symbols moving too quickly for the human brain to process them but almost seeming slow to his eyes. His Multi-Melta had exactly 94% of its ammunition remaining. The target spawn rate of additional targets was 18.573 per standard minute, on average. His brothers had suffered no wounds, and neither had he. His clockwork-like mind, while focused, was still alert. New orders, additional dangers, or other unforeseen events, all must be taken into account by a Space Marine.

Brother Lethos smiles a bit as the Tyranid monster explodes in a cloud of gore. A warning on his hud flashes indicating he has taken a few hits. He levels his bolter at the offending Tyranid and fires off another burst of bolter fire.

The initial torrent of fire immolated four hormagaunts. Elysius watched gleefully, a slight smile playing across his charcoal lips. The flames reflected in the crimson lenses of his impassive helm and he deactivated its auto-sense filter, that he might rejoice in the smell of flesh and sinew roasting off the Tyranid's charred exoskeletons. The alien screams that accompanied the slaughter were as satisfying as they were unpleasant, yet he preferred to hear it. Death by fire was the purest, even for these most vile of all xenos. While the brood writhed in their death throes, Elysius' battle-brothers swiftly entered the fray. Lethos and Kereon raised their weapons and picked off two termagants with ease. Solem's aim was off however and his shot went wide, bursting a gelatinous bio-sac on the far end of the chamber, releasing a putrid bile that presumably functioned to feed the brood-mother. Arthilos vaporised a chunk of the spawn-beasts' side with his multi-melta, eliciting an unthinkable wail of agony which their power armour dampened, lest by some chance the screech manage to damage their enhanced hearing.

One of the hormagaunts, its carapace blackened and smouldering, had managed to avoid annihilation by his flamer's breath, but its respite was short lived. It made a foolhardy charge, although Tyranids lacked any concept of foolishness or fear when under the control of the larger synapse creatures. Solem leapt forward, intercepting the creature. With its talons made of jagged bone it unleashed a flurry of scything attacks at Solem, but the thick ceramite armour protected him from anything more than superficial scrapes and paint chipping. In response, he smashed it asunder with his power maul. Three times he brought it down, though in truth the first pulverised the creature outright.

Perhaps their acting brother-sergeant was simply thorough, or simply bloodthirsty? Elysius pondered this as the brood-mother, determined not to be exterminated as was its manifest destiny, spat out another four hormagaunts with a powerful spasm from its womb-sac. The mewling, new-born beasts flopped onto the wet chamber floor with an audible squelch and they had barely a scant second to savour their existence before Elysius' finger curled around the trigger of his flamer once more. They were instantly incinerated by the unrelenting burst of flame spewed by the dragon-headed weapon. Elysius revelled in their oblivion.

"Such is the fate of all xenos," he observed.

Close by, Kereon's armour deflected a stream of voracious micro-organisms spewed from a termagants bio-weapon, moments before Lethos terminated it with cold efficiency. Unperturbed by the creature that was moments ago targeting him, he was already laying down accurate bolter fire, coordinated with brother Renzo. Their hellfire rounds pierced the heavily armoured broodmother and their acids ate away at it. The sheer pain the creature was in became evident, for it writhed so much it seemed to be almost tearing itself from the very wall it was mounted on. The sickening sound of strained and tearing flesh was barely audible over its continued cacophony of anguish. Arthilos added to its suffering as he hefted his heavy weapon once again and boiled away more of its hide.

With pious words of the Emperor's benediction on his lips, Solem rushed towards the expiring broodmother. His shots proved ineffective, but once he was within an arm's-length the broodmother seemed to realise its peril. It lashed out with sinewy tendrils and a number of secondary slasher arms, yet Solem deflected these. He jumped, the momentum of his charge and powerful servos in his armour propelling him upwards. His bolt pistol returned to his side, he was able to find purchase on the creature's scarred exoskeleton with ease. Batting aside a final, feeble attempt by the broodmother to defend itself, he scaled onto its top. Hefting his mighty maul in two hands, he brought it down on its head, cracking open natural plating and smashing the top of its skull open. Its head lulled but it was not finished. Leaping off the creature, Solem swung his maul in a wide arc that shattered the side of its face. Its lower jaw came loose from the force of the blow and it broke free with the scraping crunch of bone and flesh ripping free.

Solem hit the ground as the squad formed up around him. The broodmother was slain, yet its ruined body twitched once more and it convulsed, regurgitating one final brood of lesser beasts as its body failed. The creatures were smaller, less formed, but still as deadly as the rest. Quick to react as ever, Elysius emptied the rest of his flamer's canister of prometheum, burning the first two hormagaunts. Renzo, Lethos and Kereon aimed down their weapons' sights and dispatched the remaining hormagaunts. Arthilos ceased the existence of two termagants with contempt, his melta weapon making them disappear as if they had never been there.

Raising his bolt pistol once more, Solem blasted the head off one before charging towards the rest, who unleashed a stream of beetle-like borer bugs that could do great damage even to the body of an Astartes, particularly one caught off-guard such as Elysius who was reloading. However, he noted with no surprise that his meticulously maintained armour protected him from any harm. Beside him, Renzo and Kereon were similarly unaffected by the feeble firepower of their foes. Solem was in the midst of the termagants after merely three strides and he butchered them as casually as lesser men would swat flies.

For a moment, the chamber was silent. Then, Elysius spoke. "Perhaps this mission was a waste of resources. It seems we could have simply sent in brother Solem here and he'd have had no difficulty mauling his way through this entire hive ship. Mind you, that's not quite so eloquent nor efficient a solution as burning out the infestation," he pointed out, sending a sideways glance towards Solem as he reverently checked his flamer for damage.

It would have been all too easy to drop their guard as the last tyranids fell. Shunt, clank. Kereon turned, falling to one knee as he checked the squad's rear.
Clear. Good.
There was a click as his bolter ejected the magazine, which he tucked neatly behind his powerpack as Elysius spoke.
'Indeed, though I would wager this operation would be far less entertaining if we left the sergeant to have all the fun. Speaking of which...' Kereon gestured forwards with a nod. 'Where to next, sergeant?'

Reality shifted around him as Morr cast his mind into the deep warp, and possibilities shifted and blossomed around him. He quickly passed the futures that left him or his companions injured or worst, and pulled the more successful en devours into being.

The Hive Guard spat fury at him and it's weapon fired, but Morr for-sore it's trajectory and threw himself bodily to avoid it, even as it swerved. Then he was amoungst them, the Hive Guard roared and swung it's heavy fore-limbs but they were met with Morr's crackling force staff, concussive force emanating from each clash. Morr ducked under a heavy swing of the Hive Guards barrel before thrusting the staff, incandescent with psychic heat and writhing with lightning, into the belly of the beast. Morr threw his entire consciousness through the psycho-active materials in the haft of the staff and into the black heart of the beast, were Morr snuffed out it's alien mind.

Morr retreated to the safety of his own body quickly, for the non-descript whispers in the aliens head unnerved him. Morr looked around, weary and panting.

''1 down.''

Renzo took aim at the creatures, but before he could fire, the creatures disappeared in a cloud of flame and ash, four of the Hormagaunts falling apart into piles of charred flesh. The lone survivor sprinted towards the Blood Raven, its hoofed back legs propelling it along at astounding speed. It leapt at him, claws outstretched, as two Borer Beetles, large as his eyeball, crashed onto his chestplate. Renzo flesh an ally nudge him aside, and saw Brother Solem race before him, power maul arcing through the aim. A spray of alien bile splattered along the bio-walls as the maul connected, smashing through the Hormagaunt's body and casting it aside in one fell sweep, but not before it's blade-like forelimbs stabbed at the acting-Sergeant thrice. Thankfully, the chitinous weapons bounced harmlessly off the black cermatie. Beside him, Arthilos' multi-melta hissed as a jet of superheated gas tore into the Broodmother's swollen womb- exactly as Renzo suggested. The Blood Raven took a moment of satisfaction in watching the Broodmother squeal as another burst hit its womb, vaporising flesh and bone in an instant.
Targetting information filled Renzo's helmet display as Brother Kereon sent him across targeting vectors and data of the Broodmother Varus flashed an affirmative rune in response, readying his Combi-Weapon in his shoulder. The targeting reticule on his HUD aimed itself at the Xenos' chest.
"Combined fire, go."
The boltgun kicked twice, a pair of Hellfire round slamming into the Tyranid, but only one found purchase in the monstrous flesh, the acid inside causing the flesh to slough away in seconds, while a pair of shots from Kereon did the same. His autosenses darkened slightly as Elysius incinerated four fresh Hormagaunts with his flamer, their mewling like a choir to him, singing praises to the Emperor.
The Broodmother continued to howl, until Solem's power maul, in an unnnecassry display of agility and finesse, smashed its skull asunder. The charred and malformed abdomen convulsed, showering Solem in amniotic fluid and 11 more Tyranids, 5 Termagants and 6 Hormagaunts. Renzo, Ilin and Keroen take aim, each firing a pair of shots at the Hormagaunts, the rounds hitting their skulls, melting away at it as Elysius incinerates the remaining two. Another hiss escaped the heavy weapon, and a pair of Termagants vanished in a puff of steam, and a third dropped as a pistol shot from Solem blew it's tiny brain out of its mouth. another Borer Beetle from the survivors joined the two on his armour ineffectibely nawing at the ceramite. Renzo brushed them off, crushing them underfoot, examining the damage. A superficial scratch and paint scuffs, nothing more. The remaining beasts swiftly crumpled beneath Solem's blows.
For a moment, the chamber was silent. Then, Elysius spoke.
"Perhaps this mission was a waste of resources. It seems we could have simply sent in brother Solem here and he'd have had no difficulty mauling his way through this entire hive ship. Mind you, that's not quite so eloquent nor efficient a solution as burning out the infestation," he pointed out, sending a sideways glance towards Solem as he reverently checked his flamer for damage.
'Indeed", the Minotaur, Kereo, answered," though I would wager this operation would be far less entertaining if we left the sergeant to have all the fun. Speaking of which..." Kereon gestured forwards with a nod. "Where to next, sergeant?"
Renzo nodded his approval. "We must move swiftly brothers. The Broodmother will have undoubtably alerted the rest of the ship to us. Time is of the essence, before the ship awakens the heavy artillery, so to speak." Renzo checked his HUD. In the top right, the mission time displayed a mere 32 minutes since landing in the rectal region of the ship. His ammo counter noted only 4 shots fire, meaning that he had another 12 magazines, each with 30 rounds, plus 26 in his current one, and 3 cans of promethium in total for the flamer section of his weapon. He also had 3 clips of 1 rounds for his Pistol, 3 frag and krak grenades and his serrated knife.
His armour also displayed the status and loadouts of his squad members. It was a handy feature. His suit, a full set of MkV Heresy pattern, was once the property of Watch Commander Torvan. A hero if Renzo ever saw one, who embodied his Primarch Vulkan to his core. The suit had a number of useful features like that leftover, it told him that Combat Squad Nirn was enaged with the beasts designated Hive Guard, and Varus watched through the helmet feed of his old friend, Balar Nirn, as one of the beasts tumbled to the ground.
"The other squad are likewise enagaged. We must moved quickly to complete our mission. Brother Solem, where next?"

As Solem took a heavy step back from the... deceased broodmother, his attention was summoned by the small, pathetic fusillade of the Termagants that remained. He subtly gave his mace arm a small swinging heave as he turned, his helmet turning down in angered spite as he saw the remaining Xenos. A barrage of fire erupted from the squad furiously and slew many, alien death-screeches providing sound in between deafening blasts.

As the barrage died down in a timespan measured in microseconds, Solem began his charge. As he got within close proximity he held his Maul high as it buzzed with its field, using his momentum to power the first uppercut into a Termagant, sending it flying backwards a short distance. He quickly followed with a spin, aiming his bolt pistol at the head of the Termagant earliest into its reflex... the blessed round thundered and ripped it off, followed by its sudden, quiet collapse. The remaining beasts pitifully attempted to breach his armour and were met with additional swings of his mace. As the final beast collapsed, still somewhat alive, Solem slowly raised his bolt pistol before him and ended it with another strike of thunder.

At once, his rage brought on by his Chapter's history of defeats against this genotype of alien subsided. He relaxed his arms. His reception of additional senses valued less in combat returned. He heard Elysius make a remark, turning to him after a second had passed. He elected to reply by shrugging his mace arm once more, and moving his head briefly to stare once up and down his melee weapon. He then let it hold looser by his side, as per usual.

Kereon spoke for his next command. He began walking before he replied.

"We continue into the ship and cause chaos. Our secondary objective, though imperative, is to regroup with Sergeant Nirn."

As the dim of battle closed in around him Gundleif growled with satisfaction, too damn much of their time was spent skulking around or dancing to the tunes of some inbred Inquistor and his or hers plans.
Sidestepping a blow aim at his belly he wonderd what would be the next beastie to be torn limb from limb by him and his comrades in arms

Nirn looked around at the carnage, satisfied by the dead xenos he saw arranged before him. Morr stood above the corpse of one of the beasts, its eyes nothing more than blackened, smoking holes, the psychic hood around his head crackling ominously with bolts of psychic power. Nearby Willie wiped dripping green ichor from his armour as he pulled his axe from the brainpan of the other beast. Nirn looked down, taking in the new dent on his plate, where the barb from the beast had struck him. He muttered a quick prayer of thanks to the warspirit of the armour for protecting him from harm.

The squad formed up again and they moved out, moving at a run now that secrecy would avail them no more and speed was off the essence. The sound of their booted feet echoed down the corridor as they ran. Nirn opened a vox link to Squad Solem “Solem, report status.”

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Solem and his squad charged down the next corridor, breaching the portal sealing the next chamber by virtue of rupturing the flesh and tendons sealing the door with a shoulder charge. The vox crackled as the first members of the squad breached the room “Solem, report status.”

“We’re making the best progress that we can, sergeant. I make it no more than 200m until we breach the primary target.” Solem replied as he ducked though broken the valve. “We are encountering resistance, 5 Pyrovore class organisms before us in this chamber” he finished, taking in the monstrosities arranged against them and readying his maul for combat.

5 Pyrovores face you. Let me know how you want to fight it.
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“Copy that.” responded Nirn “Keep me updated as to your progress.”

“Sergeant, I sense minds ahead!” Morr shouted.

“Brace for combat!” Nirn shouted, activating his weapons, and seeing the others do the same.

They swept round the corner seeing a tide of Tyranid organisms sweeping the other way, using the walls, floor, ceiling and even each other to scurry forwards in their haste to reach the intruders. A rune flickered on inside his helmet “Tyranid organism. Designation: Genestealer. Known close combat specialism.” He counted as best he could, there were at least 8, possibly as many as 12. This was going to get bloody.

“For the Emperor!” he charged, leaping to meet the first beast head on.

You are facing genestealers. Post your actions!

Glanced at the large pyrovores barrelling down the corridor towards them, caustic drool sizzling on the flesh-floor, only dim-witted starvation in their eyes. Their ferocious flamespurt weapons jutted from their backs, ready to ignite the bloodstream that would spray once non-Tyranid life was close enough. A high pressure bloodstream that could melt through plasteel. Enormous size and strength and enough numbers to pose a serious threat.
"Brothers," Varus voxed to his fellows, "keep your distance from the beasts. They are potent in close quarters and explode upon death!"
Shouldering his combiflamer, Varus opened fire on the nearest beast, aiming a trio of Hellfire rounds for the creature's cranium. Keeping his gun in place he reached down and unclipped a Frag Grenade, throwing it overarm towards the beasts, shouting to the others to warn them of his actions.
As the grenade arced towards the Pyrovores, Varus heard a single sound over the roars of Tyranids and Bolters.
Ping
Varus paused and sent a thought to bring up his suit's Auspex readings.
Ping

Seeing these foul beasts swarm forwards like some gigantic version of the small vermin he had seen infest countless hives made his bile rise.
But he knew these particualr vermin to be letal as any foe he had faced over the centuries, their claws could rip appart any foe and penetrate even warplate without any problems.
So Gundleif leveled his bolt pistiol and witha feral howl squeezed the trigger, sending several shots zipping towards their target before with his other hand hurling a frag grenade towards the vile beasts.
" FOR RUSS! AND THE ALLFATHER!" he howled as the din of battle once more fillied his ears and drowned out all other noises around him.

Arthilos calmly studied the situation. Pyrovores. Deadly at close range, both in melee and with their flame weapons. Slow. Sluggish. Multiple options.

'Do not charge. Keep your distance and focus fire. Aim for the weak spots.'

His HUD had already scanned one of the Pyrovores and provided him with a full schematic. Several vulnerable locations to target. Eyes, certain areas on the weapon, and the chemical sacs. Multiple armour plates, possibly capable of deflecting bolts. Not that it mattered. A shot from his Multi-Melta had a 94% chance of detonating the chemicals in its body. That would be an instant kill, but could damage nearby allies. Another reason to hold back. Notable flaw in their biology, though. They are not immune to their own flames. That could cost them.

'Funnel them together. Their death explosions may harm their fellows.'

His HUD calculated the ideal firing trajectory. He took a step to the side, taking up a wide-footed stance, and aimed at the middle Pyrovore. He ensured none of his brothers were close to his projected line of fire, and took the shot.

Realising that charging in against the beasts that he knew to excel at killing in close quarters, Solem distanced himself and did not rush into combat, instead preparing for a brutal counter attack should any come after his squad had opened fire. The squad's firepower, he hoped, would be sufficient to cripple the group before it struck back.

Furthermore, he took a step to the side, out of the way of potential harmful backlash from the imminent firing of Arthilos' Multi Melta. He followed up with a vox to the Thunder Dragon just before he opened fire.

Annihilate them, brother.

Arthilos stumbled.

Biometric readings flooded his vision. The probabilities were not on his side, it seemed. A shard from one of the detonating Pyrovores had lodged itself at -just- the wrong place and drew blood. The wound would hardly slow him down, but the Tyranid toxin seemed to counteract his Larraman cells. Not good.

He promptly turned as the Lictor appeared and fired at it, his motion sensor detecting it as it leapt.

Brother Lethos Ilin shoulders his Boltgun, centers the barrel over the closest Pyrovore and fires off a barrage of mass reactive rockets at the xenos abomination.

Pyrovores. The name doesn't matter. Kereon opened up, his bolter spitting harsh death at the invaders.
Yes, invaders. The galaxy is the Emperor's.
Despite his righteous vigour, the mass-reactive bolts couldn't find purchase in the Xenos armour, detonating harmlessly outside the body. He was glad to see the rest of the squad doing better - as glad as he could, considering - as one of the xenos burst in a violent conflagration under the weight of Squad Solem's fire. He glanced at his HUD map. One contact down, five to go.

Wait.

He acted on instinct, snapping shots at the blurred image even as the Lictor leapt. He paced away, back towards the entrance, never taking his eyes from the Lictor - or, rather, his best estimate of the creature.

Edit: Waiting on permission