Editing Obstinate Marines (section)

=== Stubborn Meal ===

Another wave of spore-laden smog wafted over the trenches, and Guardsman Allidus prayed to the Emperor that he had fixed his gasmask tightly. For weeks massed swarms of chitinous creatures assaulted the Imperial lines. The tyranid had come to this planet to feed, and this meager lot of humanity was the only thing standing in its way. They would not be for long. Guardsman Donic had called the alien horde “an unstoppable force”. Donic received a bolt round to the head from the Commissar for that remark.

Allidus fit the magazine into his lasgun and prepared to die when a call rang out along the lines. Eventually the news reached their post. “A space marine! One of the Emperor’s angels!” the messenger blurted excitedly as he made his way through the dugout trench. Allidus’ pulse quickened. A space marine? Here?
Perhaps there was hope for them after all. But only one?

Lifting his head as high as he dared, Allidus peaked over the earthworks to the battlefield. There strode a lone space marine, seemingly oblivious to the carnage around him. He was a massive thing, a slab of gunmetal armour encasing his superhuman form. It was pitted and dented from what seemed like a million strikes. Stabbing claws and grabbing hands worked at him, but he marched ever forward, plowing through the horde like a wedge. Xenos that got caught in his way were simply trampled into paste; quick, precise bursts of bolter fire were casually aimed and let loose. Hundreds of the monsters fell.

Allidus had never seen such a thing in his life. A momentous cheer rose from the guard lines. It seemed like this lone space marine would win the day. The celebration was premature, however. All the boisterous laughter died away as a massive monster, larger than the rest, rose from the seething mass. It dwarfed the space marine, and brandished its menacing claws and dripping biological weapons. Allidus had heard of this beast.; the hive tyrant, the leader of the swarm. With a deafening screech it charged toward the space marine, and with blinding speed it snatched him in its jaws, and swallowed him whole. 

Men began to flee. Lasguns were thrown aside. The Commissar fired his bolt pistol into the backs of the deserters until he ran out of ammo, and was overrun by the tyranid. Allidus looked on in dismay. They had come so close. The huge hive tyrant bellowed again, as if boasting of its victory. On and on it roared, until the pitch began to change into a gurgling bellow, and then a pained scream. The monster doubled over, and began to retch ichors from its maw, all the while screaming and screaming. 

Allidus watched in horror as the stomach of the monster began to split and tear. Taut sinew and meter thick chitin was rent open from the inside. The sound of tearing flesh and animalistic screams reached a crescendo, and the hive tyrant’s stomach exploded in a wave of gore. Out of the ragged red hole strode the space marine, covered in innards. Without even stopping to brush away the viscera the marine continued on in the direction he was traveling. Allidus’ jaw hung open, his mind unable to make sense of the spectacle he just saw. With the psychic direction of the hive tyrant severed the remaining tyranid milled aimlessly on the battlefield. A torrent of bolter fire from guard reinforcements made short work of them. 

“An amazing sight, isn’t it lad?” a gruff voice called from behind. There stood Lord General Titian, resplendent in his golden armour, but a good deal less impressive to Allidus than he had been before the battle. “Aye, my Lord. Did you summon the space marines to aid us?” The general laughed, and slowly nodded his head. “I’m afraid not my lad. That was a Partinax Marine….an Obstinate Marine. He was spotted in the sector a week ago. I doubt he even knew there was a war raging on this world. Regardless, he has saved us this day.”

Allidus stared at his commander. He stared at the broken and mutilated bodies the marine had casually left in his wake. Finally. He watched the form of the hulking warrior fade off into the distance, silhouetted by the sun, ever marching.