* * * 

Continued from Part 2 . . .

Despite the road of gunfire, Alina could hear the men yelling from the direction where Tomas was fighting. She was so frightened for him.

Shouting also broke out farther down the line. She turned and gasped. In the sky, a massive winged xeno was diving toward the rear of the town.

It was huge. It had a long tail, but its body alone looked to be 10 meters long and half that in breadth. Its wings stretched 25 meters across. 

Beneath the creature, hundreds of xenos  were racing for the back wall.  A secondary attack at the weakest part of the defenses, she realized.

Alina gripped her autopistol in frustration. Why hadn’t they let the women fight on the ramparts. Here she had a weapon, and she was too far away to use it.

Then a twisted thought came to her. If the xenos reached the school, her weapon would do nothing to stop the xenos. Shooting at them would be pointless.

The only lives worth taking today would be those of her children—to save them the horror of what was to come.

She started to cry.

* * *

 “They’re inside!”

Mattius’ heart dropped. It was the end. He’d gathered the reserves and raced to the wall where the xenos were trying to break through.

He ran past a metal shanty and found himself only 15 meters from the breach. Men were battling the xenos in hand-to-claw fighting. The men wielded axes, bayonets, and metal tools; a few fired their weapons at point-blank range.

But for every xeno killed, two took its place. And the xenos wielded razor-sharp talons that cut men in half with a single swing.

There weren’t enough men to stem the tide. 

“Boss, there’s some giant winged monster at the rear walls,” Domoro yelled. “It’s punched a hole inside, and xenos are pouring in.”

“Give the order to fall back to the redoubt,” Mattius yelled. “Retreat to the redoubt.”

 * * * 

A new kind of xeno made itself known. Behind the first wave of bugs came xenos with four arms ending in huge and razor-sharp claws.

They left their talon-armed cousins to push deeper into the town. These new monsters set their sights on the men on the ramparts. Some began to climb the scaffolding, and they died quickly as the men turned their guns at them.

But others showed a frightening cunning. As Tomas fought, he could hear alien hoofs running beneath him. Then he heard the screech of metal and felt the rampart shift. The monsters were attacking the scaffolding itself.

Tomas wanted to shout a warming, but it was too late. The rampart suddenly collapsed beneath him, and as Tomas fell, he saw below him the skull-colored faces of the xenos—and their open, screaming mouths filled with sharp teeth. 

 * * * 

Mattius felt shame. He’d been so strong during the battle, doing everything possible to save his town. But as the xenos broke in, he’d panicked. He’d hurried to the ramparts that had been abandoned in the north side of the town, and he’d ordered the still-surviving Chimera to meet him there.

Two six-meter-tall xenos had charged the transport. One was killed by the Chimera’s weapons, but the other had slammed into the vehicle and tore a rent in its hull. Even military-grade armor was no match for these monsters.

The Chimera’s driver had pushed the vehicle forward and knocked down the surviving xeno and, while it struggled to rise, the transport had backed up to the wall and Mattius had clambered aboard.

On Mattius’ order the driver slammed down on the accelerator, and the Chimera’s engines roared as it raced away from the doomed town.

And for what? Mattius thought. There was nowhere safe to go. They’d simply delayed the inevitable. How he wished he’d stayed, defending the ramparts to the last man. He’d be dead by now, and he’d be welcomed into the Emperor’s light.

Instead, he’d succumbed to dishonor. He would die soon enough, alone, and the Emperor would spurn him. He’d cursed himself.

There was nothing more to live for, yet Mattius could not bring himself to use the autopistol in his hand. 

+ + + THE END + + +

Click here to return to the beginning of this story.

Click here to return to Part 2 of this story.

TheGM: This is a battle report of a solo game. The Tyranids have not yet reached the Corvus Cluster, but I wanted to offer a taste of their approach.

I also wanted to commemorate this story, as the scenario I devised had a solid narrative focus—filled with tragedy, regret, and a “Grimdark” tone.

The last stand of humanity on the world of Canopus. By simple, decent folk, at that. What a tragedy.

I know I haven’t done the story justice. I indulged myself with a lengthy story as the battle resonated with me. I would like to polish it more, but I’ve already spent too many hours on it. Even I can only spend so much time in the 40K universe.

But, in the years ahead, I can read this story again and again, and remember the excitement of playing it . . . and the pang of sadness I felt for the fictional characters that could not hold off the monsters.

—

The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our hobby adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.