A Forgotten Warrior

There was no description on the terror these beasts had brought upon our glorious home of Iyanden. Now the rest of my beleaguered troops were trapped in one of our grand temples. This had served as a vestige for my contingent for days, now however the gruesome plant like weaponry of the Tyranids was burrowing through the walls of the engraved and jeweled temple. Scuttling flesh burrowing beetles were a constant nuisance and were growing in number by the hour. Hacking coughs could be heard from the troops without helmets, having no filtration against the microscopic Tyranid organisms. There were many nightmares that came along with an invasion from these monsters that were only believed to be rumor. The biggest problem however were the burrowing Tyranids, the temple covered us from incoming fire and the flying monstrosities. The burrowers however would blast from the ground at random times killing as many as they could grab before being driven back or being killed. The subsequent holes would of course have to be filled back up, this took precious energy that the men didn't have and needed when the beasts finally broke through the walls. The few bonesingers that were left were near death from trying to compete with the alien flora for dominance but continued their plight, though it was just a matter of time before they drained all of their energy and were either dead or useless.

“Farseer, the guardians are exhausted. They cannot continue to be alert as you require.”

“There is nothing that I can do; they have rested as much as they can with Tyranids outside this building. Which I must point out is not an easy task. Our final moments in this temporary safe haven are not far from now; they will soon rest with the gods.”

“The fact that you knew of this temple to be our graves is quite unsettling, could we not have regrouped with the rest of the Iyanden force?”

“Yes I knew this would happen, I knew this would be our final resting place…. for all of us. We however, bought valuable time for the rest of our forces to regroup and are even now accomplishing this task. If you have nothing but grim news to bring to my attention adviser you should at least be intelligent enough to know that I already have knowledge of it. Now be gone, I wish to pray and concentrate before the coming battle.”

“As you will it Farseer Mal’ Naer.”

His constant bickering of the condition of the troops bothered me to no end. Of course he realized I already knew all of this information, but it was his outlet. Everyone of us needed it right now. It was obvious; it didn't take a Farseer to know our condition right now. A blind ork could deduce that we were doomed. My insight into the future fading with each passing day revealed no hope for victory on Iyanden. Our glorious home was to become a useless hulk…. a memory of a great Eldar civilization and one step closer to the extinction of our kind in general. This was also the terrible news for the galaxy not just Eldar, the Tyranid would devour all of us. All of the countless millions of their monstrous armies would mean nothing. They would descend down in their ships and collect all of the casualties all of our wraith bone even would fuel their war machine. They will lose nothing and gain even more than they came with, and we will lose everything. The feeling in the air was palpable, death. The terrible screeches and roars could be heard outside echoing in our minds; pictures of earlier battles being brought back fresh in the minds of all the temples occupants. It didn’t help…. the rumors of my fading connection to my psychic powers. Constant mental duels with Zoanthropes, severing the link to the hive mind from the lesser Tyranids left me weak, and it felt all the prayer and meditation in the galaxy couldn’t help us now.

“Farseer, the western wall is falling the Bonesingers are losing control!”

“Move the Wraithlords forward to that position, alert our rangers. I will inform the tank crews.”

“The guardians are already in position to defend the breach, Mal’Naer. Will there be any other break throughs?”

“No, the Tyranids know where the wall is falling. They will pour through the western hole, but it will get bigger.”

“But Farseer even Tyranids must know that they will be bottle-necked.”

“Im sure the Hive tyrant knows but it cares less for its own kind than an Ork Warboss cared for a squig. Now act according to our plan and we will show these beasts what the Eldar can do when at the end of their rope!”

The next sound was loud, so loud. The Wraithbone finally giving way was like the sound of thunder. Accompanied by the sound of countless screeches and weapons being fired at each side, both mechanical and bio. The horde of beasts was held back for an unforeseen long while. The creatures seemed endless unforgiving and savage. Thousands were dying but they kept coming. Eventually though the tidal wave of flesh was to much. Gigantic Carnifexes broke through the wall of now dead Gaunts and Hormogaunts. Plowing into our line with giant boulder sized appendages. The screams from Tyranid and Eldar alike now filled the magnificent temple. I rammed my spear through countless aliens trying to do as much damage as possible to the Tyranid advance. I saw a massive Carnifex charge into a wraith tank tearing it to pieces with its massive scythe-arms. Swinging its snake-like tail into guardian after guardian, I threw the gaunt corpse from the end of my spear and ran straight toward the beast. It swung its massive scythe but was to slow. I dove forward, dodging a swing that would mean certain death. I grabbed the lower part of its thick carapace covering its back and launched myself onto the monster. Whether it was stupidity or instinct I do not know it continued its massacre of my troops and was oblivious to my presence. I immediately took advantage of this rare gift and loped off one of its upper appendages. It roared in anger and began its futile attempts to throw me off of its back. I acted quickly driving the spear down into its neck and twisting causing sickening amounts of blood to spurt from its neck. The monster came crashing down throwing me to the ground. The smaller Tyranids immediately reacted to the death of their superior and became easy to slaughter for a short time before another of the huge creatures came to reunite their assault. I felt the ground begin to shake, and before I could realize what was happening the ground below me burst. I was thrown into the air and came smashing into the corpses littering the ground. I felt a horrible pain in my right shoulder where the claw of a dead gaunt had pierced through my robes. I pulled it out from between my shoulder bones and stood up. Hundreds of scuttling terrors now poured through the hole created by a massive Trygon loomed over the carnage on the ground. It saw me standing there what had been over its hole only a moment before and lunged. I dove to my right and landed on my injured shoulder. The pain coursed through my body, and before I could regain my footing I felt a giant scythe punch through my abdomen. The creature turned me to face it far above the battle. I saw small pockets of elder still alive and in the largest my second in command. His unit was being decimated by a group of Genestealers and he finally fell. I removed my helmet and looked into the pitch black eyes of my doom. I glanced one last time into the future and I saw the Eldritch Raiders and I smiled for the first time in weeks. I came back to the present as the creature pulled me closer to its open maw.