The huge capillary tower undulated wildly as the hive ships began reclaiming the biomass stored within them. Lex Pulled her coat tighter around her. No plants, no animals. Just a sad, brown mass of land. A film of dust rolled along around her ankles, stirred by a pitiful breeze. She turned her gaze back to the tower. A vast affront to nature, the Tyranid structure was wrong in every sense of the word. The size of it was incredible, stretching all the way up into the lower atmosphere to deliver tons of biomass up to the hiveships. Even as they had landed, it had started contracting, a hive ship nesting in orbit connected to it via a feeding tube. The smell and noise was overwhelming. They were a good kilometer or two from the thing, but still it remained in the forefront of their vision, assaulting their ears with low gurgling and rumbling. The smell was the worst. If the collective scents of millions of people were somehow to be gathered, and mixed with rotten meat, stale water and the remains of hundreds of disused septic tanks... Lex gauged that the smell of the tower was at least twice as disgusting as that. She should know. She had lived with the first kind of smell for months. She looked around again. She and her small team had stopped for a break while on the lookout for Valakt. Kive was floating about aimlessly, resting his eyes and mind. Her two baggage servitors were at the rear, venting heat into the air. She didn't see the Raven Guard marines anywhere. How did they blend into a solid, brown landscape? Lorax was walking over to meet her in the front of their little detachment. His armour was still the dark black it had always been, with the silver trim.
"My marines do not report any activity, Tyranid or otherwise." He reported. He looked at her worried face. "Rest assured my marines are out there Inquisitor." He said with a seemingly straight face.
She shook her head. "You Astartes are unbelievable. Born and bred to be the Emperors finest, yet, somehow, what you achieve somehow seems impossible. How in the seven hells do your marines blend into a solid brown landscape with black armour?!" She ranted. She was on edge, she knew, and acted irrationally. Not many of her fellow Inquisitors had ever fought with the Tyranids on a world like this. Fewer still lived. She thought it fortunate that Stavrakis and her were a part of that group.
Lorax chuckled and pointed to a nearby hillock. She glanced hurriedly and saw nothing. She stared harder. Still nothing.
"Now watch." Lorax whispered.
Suddenly the hulking, black armoured marine was plain for her too see. She understood what had happened, and appreciated the Librarian's skill and power.
"It is not so complex. The belief that the Raven Guard are masters of stealth, and could hide completely in a snowy field aids the psychic field. The subject sees the marine, but the psychic field prevents recognition."
He explained quietly.
"So I was seeing the Marine, but your power caused me not to recognize what I was seeing?" She reasoned.
Lorax nodded. "It is indiscriminate in who it affects, but it is powerful and also has a minute psychic signature. The more powerful Tyranid forms will have an easier time breaking the spell, but it should buy us time in the event of a confrontation."
Makes sense, she thought. With the spell broken for her mind, she now noticed the marines all around her. A full 10 man tactical squad had accompanied her to the ground, the second wave behind the Raven Guard Scout neophytes. She was still on edge, but now that she could see her allies, it gave her some small peace of mind. The detachment moved off again a few minutes later. Lex wondered what the world looked like before the Tyranids. Would it have been a sprawling cityscape, with vast spires and towers rising majestically, the air space filled with hundreds of fliers? Or would it have been a quiet, agri-world? Huge acres of cultivated land, small hamlets or villages dotting the plains? All she saw was a monotonous brown husk of a world, like a person on their deathbed. The large open expanse they trudged through now could easily have been the site of a large city. She slowed her pace and kicked at the dust layering the ground. The Tyranids had eaten everything. The buildings, the fauna, the people, even the shrines. She imagined the hordes of terrified citizens flocking in droves to the Shrines of the Emperor, only to become huge, defenseless nuggets of food and biomass for the Hivefleet. Her slight kicking had uncovered what she thought could be the foundations of some sort of structure. She shivered in the cold. And it was cold. She looked at the tiny star in the sky, and shivered again. The wind was manic in its strength, there being no buildings to block and channel it anymore. It howled, unrestrained and irresistible across the planet, chilling whatever it touched.
"Chill enough for you, Sir?" Her bodyguard pipped up from ahead of her, the voice coming over the vox link before she heard his voice carried by the wind. Damn him, he was smiling. His name was Davin, and he hailed from some arctic backwater somewhere. Some might call her insensitive for not bothering to remember. She didnt care. Neither did Davin. He was a thrill seeker, looking for the next big adrenalin kick. She had signed him on because of that trait, his enthusiasm and passion for adventure made him a fantastic bodyguard. Surprisingly, he was also good with machinery, exhibiting knowledge of most Mechanicus mysteries. Lex had asked him about it one day. He had just shrugged.
"I have learnt, in my years." He said jokingly. "That people hide their best stuff behind locked doors."
It was definitely true. If he had been inside her private vault, he might have died from shock.
They found the first scout three hours later. The brown landscape hadn't changed in that time. The Neophyte had somehow managed to implant himself into the ground, using subsequent layers of dirt and dust to cover himself. Only his head and upper shoulders were visible above ground. In front of him, laying on the ground was a small hand-held vox unit, and a needlessly large set of Magnoculars. She wondered at the particular devotion the neophytes applied to their life. Lorax walked past her to speak in hushed tones with the scout. She ordered her detachment to take a rest break. The Emperor knows when they might get another one if the Tyranids find them. Where were the Tyranids? She wondered. Surely they should have seen at least a Bio-Titan by now? She hoped that the assimilation of this part of the continent was complete, and that the Tyranids were finished with it. The thought of a Heirophant brood bearing down on them made her knees weak. There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run to. At least they would be able to see any Tyranids coming at them.
"Inquisitor. I have bad news." Lorax called to her. She walked over to him. The scout had crawled out of the ground by that point, and was dusting himself off. He saluted the Inquisitor.
"Report Marine." Lorax instructed him.
"Your target knows you are here." He stated simply. "The other scout positions were raided and killed."
"Any good news?" She cursed. What did that crazy fool Stavrakis get her into now?
"I was the last scout in the formation. The Tyranids should be at this position in approximately 47 minutes." He finished. Lorax handed the scout his boltgun, and drew his Staff. The head crackled explosively with psychic energies.
"So. Are we done hiding?" Lex asked the Librarian impatiently. She drew her powersword out of its scabbard, and took a few swings at the air. Davin primed his lasrifle.
"Sure. Shall I announce our presence?" Lorax suggested.
Lex nodded.
She could feel the blowout of his mind as he spread his awareness over the surrounding environment.
"They are moving fast. Make it 35 minutes." He corrected. His eyes were shut, but he could see the entire countryside for kilometers. And with the way the Hive Mind played around with Psychic activity, she was sure Valakt and the Tyranids knew they were here now.
"Kive. Take the Servitors and get back to the lander. Drop any armament you have with you." She ordered her Interrogator.
He nodded. "Remember, the eyes and joints are their most vulnerable spots." He added before he left.
Lex watched him leave with sadness in her heart. She hoped he would make it.
"Have you found Valakt, Librarian?" She asked him, turning back around
"Yes. He and his cadre of guards are a handful of kilometers ahead of us."
He frowned then. His eyes were still closed, his awareness spread out still.
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Warhammer 40,000: Stavrakis- The Hunt For Valakt
الخيال العلمي[BOOK IS COMPLETE] Inquisitor Stavrakis has returned triumphant. The last 10 years of his life spent hunting the Tyranid menace. But an Inquisitors job is never done, as a new and even deadlier threat emerges, pitching Stavrakis into another violent...
