Space E-war

[TyrannoTitan]

One of the immense insect's legs fell through the weakened ground before it could retreat too far, one of the Mawlocs bursting forth on the opposite side, biting onto the other leg with its gaping maw, pulling the creature down toward the weakened earth...

[dinoman666]

With a furious bellow, the Tank Bug released another stream of flame directly into the Mawloc grappling it, ignoring the pain in its leg as it attempted to melt the Tyranid's face off...

[TyrannoTitan]

The Mawloc, half into the hole it just dug, released the leg as the flames scorched the top of its head, a loud hiss emanating from the hole the Mawloc disappearing into. From underneath the bulk of the tank bug's body came the other, already injured Mawloc, lunging upward, gaping maw biting onto the creature's underside.

[dinoman666]

The Tank Bug howled again, this time slamming itself directly into the ground below it, crushing the attacking Mawloc beneath its weight...

[TyrannoTitan]

The Mawloc, the majority of its body still in the hole, fell back into the tunnel it made, though one of its limbs was caught on the outside, the creature shrieking loudly as the limb was crushed. Without hesitation, the Mawloc ripped the trapped limb free, disappearing underground, a trail of blood following it down the hole. Its companion exploded out of the side of the tunnel, slamming its jaws onto the side of the tank bug's head, wrapping its tail around the arachnid's neck, its numerous limbs allowing it to cling to the creature...

[dinoman666]

Now in a blind frenzy, the Tank Bug thrashed about wildly, slamming against the tunnel walls to crush the Mawloc underneath its weight, simultaneously spraying fire all around it, trying to incinerate the Tyranid...

[TyrannoTitan]

The Mawloc hissed with every slam, its armored carapace cracking in places, but managed to avoid being thrown off the creature. Emerging once again from the hole underneath the creature, the other Mawloc latched onto its underside once again, thrashing about while still half submerged in the hole, teeth shredding the creature's flesh...

[dinoman666]

Orange blood began leaking from the Tank Bug's armored hide as the Mawlocs attacked it repeatedly. However, the Arachnid's frenzied flame blasts soon ignited the flammable blood, causing a massive explosion, not only incinerating the Tank Bug as the explosion expanded on contact with the inside of its body, but the Tyranids as well...

[TyrannoTitan]

The Raveners continued their trek through the underground, ignorant of their saviors' demise. They would soon feed the hive once more...their biomass...what was left of it...would be returned to the Tyranids in time.

[dinoman666]

The remaining Arachnids had long since left the battlefield, stripping it of Tyranid and Arachnid corpses alike to feed the hive. However, some Ripplers continued their patrol of the skies. They were well aware of the other threat nearby...

The Space Bugs continued battling the Tyranid ships above, blasting them apart from a distance, moving towards the Hive Ships...

"Are you insane, Cole?!" "If I was, it would make this decision much easier, Admiral." Fleet Admirals Preston Cole and Terrence Hood sat across from each other in a large meeting room aboard the Marathon-class Cruiser Everest. They were divided by a polished wood table, surrounded by neutral grey, soundproof walls. For once, Cole was glad about the design of the meeting room. It prevented any undesirables from hearing the conversation. Only he, Hood, and ONI knew about this now, and he planned on keeping it that way for the time being. "We barely have the resources to revive that project, Cole! I thought we had learned from our mistakes last time." "Last time, we didn't know our a**es from a hole in the ground," Cole said curtly. Sitting back in the chair, he sighed. "We've never encountered anything like the things in this galaxy, Terrence. Those Daleks, the Tyranids, Skaven raids, and now the Covenant have returned. We need to do this. We need to do this, or the UNSC might as well jump into the nearest star and save ourselves the hassle of killing ourselves slowly." Hood rubbed his temples irritably, shifting uncomfortably in his uniform. After a long moment, he finally said, "You're right, Cole. I hate to admit it, but you are. We'll revive the SPARTAN project. I just hope you know what you're doing."

[TyrannoTitan]

As more and more Tyranids made their way into the mountainous regions, a gargantuan beast stirred beneath the ground on the opposite side of the mountain range. The creature, like its Ravener allies, dug immediately into the ground upon arrival, the impact zone far from any combat...only now did it fall under the Hive Mind's command once more, calling it toward the rest of the invasion force.

In space, any space bugs that followed the Tyranid vessels away from the planet were obliterated by the sheer firepower of the attacking force, now that they were without aid from the plasma bugs on the surface. The original attack on the planet was but a mere fraction of the Tyranid vessels in the system...now that they had stripped the mostly inhospitable planets of the system, they massed around the planet, surrounding it from all directions, but remained far enough away that they were out of range of the surface defenses. The retreating forces were supported by these untouched elements of the fleet, destroying any opposition that tried to give chase...

[dinoman666]

The Space Bugs were content to hang back, letting the Tyranids come to them. Meanwhile, a swarm of small spores was fired into space by the Plasma Bugs, scattering in every direction when they reached the vacuum of space. The spores were too small to be spotted by the Tyranid ships, easily mistaken for debris from the previous battle...

[TyrannoTitan]

The Tyranids on the surface decided to test their enemies. A small group of fifteen hormagaunts, led by three warriors armed with massive rending claws, made their way out of the mountain region. They would test just how fast the natives could react...they were not expected to survive.

[dinoman666]

Ripplers descended from the sky as the Tyranids made it out into the open, showering them in explosive stingers, before swooping away...

[TyrannoTitan]

The hormagaunts immediately moved to avoid the spines, their fast speeds making them difficult to kill. The warriors followed after them, directing the swarm toward a rocky structure back near the mountains, hoping to lure the winged creatures closer...

[dinoman666]

The Ripplers continued their hit-and-run attacks, concentrating cones of stingers on the larger Warriors and relying on sheer numbers to saturate the area with fire. As the Tyranids neared the mountains again, however, they veered off permanently, at a disadvantage in the mountainous regions...

[TyrannoTitan]

A number of gaunts were slain in the continued barrage, as was one unfortunate warrior. But it had been a learning experience...the Hive Mind now knew what to expect as the natives' first line of defense. The survivors from the ordeal made their way back into the mountains as the Tyranid creatures prepared their next plan of attack...

[dinoman666]

The Ripplers dragged their Tyranid prey into the skies while the rest continued to patrol. They were eager to feed the Warrior to the Brain Bug. Maybe then they would know what to do...

[TyrannoTitan]

The small swarm watched from a distance as the warrior was pulled away. The Hive Mind saw such an act before, during the initial invasion. Already, the Hive Ships in the space above were making adjustments...adaptations that would aid the hive in consuming the planet.

[dinoman666]

The Warrior was soon dragged beneath the earth, given to a Brain Bug to absorb its information. There wasn't much to get from a dead body, but it appeared that Tyranids wouldn't be captured alive very easily...