"By the Divine Emperor..."
Over the vox-channel came a young soldier's subconscious gasp—a fragile mixture of awe and sheer despair. "It really is a Titan!"
The Hierophant Bio-Titan is the ultimate breaching hammer of the Tyranid Hive Mind. When a planetary invasion reaches its zenith, these behemoths are unleashed. They advance with unstoppable momentum, absorbing the enemy's fiercest fire while clearing a path for the endless swarms scuttling in their wake.
Equipped with bio-cannons capable of liquefying reinforced bunkers and covered in a forest of lashing, venomous tentacles, they are mobile natural disasters. Although reconnaissance had hinted at their presence, witnessing one in the flesh triggered a primal, suffocating terror that even psycho-indoctrinated soldiers struggled to suppress.
But Cassius's squad was not unprepared.
"Are the anti-Titan arrays active?" Cassius's voice was like tempered steel—cold, sharp, and resolute.
"Weapon systems green, Sergeant!"
From the moment they had breached the hatchery, Skitarii and servitors had been feverishly deploying heavy ordinance. Two heavy Multi-Meltas, their barrels thick as ancient oaks, began to emit the low, dark-red thrum of a thermal charge. Beside them, two Heavy Plasma Cannons whined as azure energy surged through their acceleration coils. Finally, a quad-linked missile battery, operated by a team of heavy servitors, locked its guidance spirits onto the massive target.
These were the "trump cards" Cassius had requisitioned with the highest priority from the Governor of Necromunda. Every charge, every cell, and every missile was a precious resource, intended solely for a threat of this magnitude.
Now, that threat was here. But first, a lingering obstacle remained.
The wounded Executioner, though overshadowed by the Bio-Titan, was still a lethal predator. "Finish the Executioner first!" Cassius commanded.
The Sergeant and his two fellow Terminators immediately disengaged, creating a clear line of fire for the slaved servitors.
BOOM!
The Multi-Meltas and Plasma Cannons fired in a synchronized volley. Two beams of white-hot thermal energy and two spheres of deep-blue plasma tore through the air, striking the Executioner with surgical precision. Temperatures that could slag an Imperial main battle tank acted instantly upon the xenos's biological shell.
The Executioner let out a bloodcurdling shriek as its meters-thick chitinous armor vaporized like snow before a furnace. A cauterized cavity, three meters wide, was blasted through its chest.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!
Four anti-tank missiles, trailing plumes of fire, roared from their launchers. They adjusted their trajectory in mid-air, diving like hungry predators into the molten "channel" carved by the energy weapons.
KABOOM!
The Executioner was detonated from the inside. Green ichor, shattered plates, and broken bone-blades erupted in a violent spray. The shockwave was so immense it obliterated every lesser tyranid within a thirty-meter radius.
The Executioner was gone. Yet, no one cheered. All eyes were fixed on the twenty-meter shadow looming in the mist.
Enraged by the death of its lesser kin, the Hierophant turned its multifaceted gaze toward the weapon array. The twin bio-cannons integrated into its forelimbs shifted, a sickly green luminescence glowing deep within their muzzles.
"Take cover!" Cassius's warning had barely cleared his vox-grille when the Bio-Titan spoke.
THUMP!
The Hierophant did not fire a beam. It launched a massive cluster of wriggling, maggot-like organisms encased in a thick, acidic slime. These "bio-shells" expanded in mid-air, trailing corrosive green smoke as they hurtled toward the Imperial lines.
The bio-mass slammed into the flickering blue energy shield protecting the artillery array. The field hissed and distorted violently, its brightness dimming as the acids began to eat through the very air.
"Return fire! Do not let it close the distance!"
Cassius knew that if the Hierophant reached their lines, the defense would crumble. The weapons array fired again. Meltas and plasma struck the Hierophant's frontal carapace, but where they had vaporized the Executioner, they now only managed to scorch the Bio-Titan's armor and scatter a few fragments of shell.
This was no mere predator; it was a living fortress. You could not engage this in melee with a suit of Terminator armor; its toxic spores would corrode a man through his plate before he could swing his hammer.
The Bio-Titan's next attack was swifter. Within the muzzles of its cannons, bio-electric energy surged, distorting the surrounding space. The threat-detectors in Cassius's helmet wailed a piercing alarm.
"Get behind the shield arrays! Now!"
Cassius roared the order, his armor's servos straining at full power as he dove for cover.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Dozens of sticky, highly toxic shells rained down on the Sons of Medusa's position. They burst in the air, creating a lethal deluge of concentrated acid and spore-clouds. Despite the shield array's coverage, the spread was too vast.
"Argh!"
A short, agonizing scream cut through the vox.
Cassius turned to see a battle-brother on the left flank, a flamer-specialist who had been suppressing the swarm. He hadn't been fast enough. A spray of the Bio-Titan's venom had struck his upper torso. The dark green liquid hissed against the ceramite, melting through the sacred armor in a matter of seconds.
The soldier collapsed, his plate emitting white, acrid smoke as the biological acid reached the man inside.
The first casualty. The first death of a Son of Medusa on this world had come, sudden and merciless.