# The Hive



## marineskickass2009 (Jul 30, 2009)

<Hey all, Marineskickass here to write a new suspense filled, gory, horror story from the Warhammer 40k universe! If I get plenty of positive feedback I’ll see about updating it chapter by chapter, perhaps one or two a week, you know, whenever I have time... So sit back, enjoy and don't forget to leave a comment!> 

_*Chapter One *_
*-:Welcome Wagon:-*

*--Pvt E.Fletcher, Imperial Catchan Guard 
-ID#00000194058388929802948893
--Loc: P-L96825B7542DS (Fernaltia)
---START INQUISITORIAL LOG---
---5/125/264.M41
*
-What is your name?

-M...My name? It’s... Fletcher.... Everett Fletcher.... Unit number 406 of the Catchan Guard... Stationed on the p...planet of.... Fernaltia....

-It says here that you fled during battle? Children like you have been executed for such acts of cowardice... I feel almost sick to be in the same room as you... *papers shuffling* But it seems you have valuable information on our enemy... I’m only wondering what tidbit you hold that is so valuable to keep you alive for so long... But start from the beginning, be honest and leave no detail out boy, we will know if you lie....

-Y...Yes sir....

*Three months ago:*
The drop ships launched from the imperial cruiser The Celestius Mortae, I looked out the window watching as the giant green sphere grew closer to us. It was here I would be stationed for the next 10 years, possibly even longer assuming I’d even last the first one. 
Ten years of looking over my shoulder for predators capable of tearing men in half with one swipe, exposed to poisonous insect life and a variety of blood sucking parasites, not to mention that half the plants were poison and the other half would just plain eat you alive, all to protect a small Ferrite mine that could barely produce more than 10 metric tons per day. A useless planet, but one under God Emperors' divine rule and I would die before any damned xeno or demon would lay a foot on this protected soil. 
There were 200 of us in a small encampment near the mine along with 50 planetary veterans. My comrades Lucius Grimes and Dax Hunter were the closest thing I had to a family since we had all survived our training together. My other two friends were not so lucky during training, shot dead by our commisar for talking during his morale speech.
I was jolted out of my memory when the ship landed solidly on the ground in the midst of the small clearing.
We immediately hustled out, our las rifles raised defensively in case any native predator of significance made an appearance, though there wasn't much that we would be able to do if that happened. It was said that the swamp tigers of Fernaltia could kill 20 men before they had a chance to raise their weapons... 
'Flashlights' our rifles were called, because they could do barely more damage than what they were named after. 

Hmpf... And my prep book said that the emperor would bestow upon us his finest armor and most powerful weapons...

We finally made it to the encampment, a few ramshackle buildings overgrown with vegetation, all bearing the mark of the imperial Aquila, a mandatory symbol for all of the emperors warriors in the imperial guard. A few veterans came by; they looked fairly grizzled wearing the olive drab green bandanna of the catchan guard, shirtless, one carrying a heavy bolter with relative ease while the other picked his teeth with a knife half as big as my arm as he set the 90lb ammo box he was carrying on the ground.
"Ahh... Fresh meat fer the grinder!" the old man said with a sooty grin before spitting out a gob of blackened... Whatever it was... 
"Welcome to hell kiddies! Roll call is in ten so grab a bunk and get comfy cause yer gonna be using that same one for the next ten years!" he spat again before grabbing the ammo box and leaving us along with his partner.
I and my friends quickly grabbed our bunks, the cleanest ones we could find, or at least, the ones that didn't smell like piss or have too many questionable stains on them. One even broke the moment a comrade sat on it sending us into a row of laughter as we settled in.

Ten minutes later a servitor came to fetch us, looking as old and grizzled as the two blokes we had just seen, all of his parts had rust and his joints creaked distinctly as he walked about. He stomped in and stood in the doorway watching over us "TEN HUT!!!" crackled the metal box attached to its throat. We immediately stood straight next to our bunks in neat lines "I AM GUNNERY SGT.CRANK! FOR THE NEXT TEN YEARS I EXPECT YOU MAGGOTS OUT OF YOUR BUNKS AND SALUTING BEFORE I EVEN REACH THE ROOM! THIS ISN'T A SOCIAL GATHERING! YOU ARE HERE TO WORK UNDER THE NAME OF THE GOD EMPEROR AND YOU WILL WORK UNTIL YOU DIE, AND POSSIBLY IN SOME LUCKY CASES END UP LIKE ME, SERVING THE GOD EMPEROR UNTIL YOU RUST!" He grinned, a sickening one that I had never seen on a servitor before... Because they never smiled... 
"ALRIGHT WORMS, OUTSIDE, NOW!" we all took formation and headed out the door as the sgt let us pass. There was another vet standing before us, he rather scared us since his towering muscled form reminded us of the build of a Leman Russ tank. 
We quickly got into neat lines before he smiled and held up his hand "At ease soldiers... Don't pay much attention to what old crankshaft says, he's still programmed to be a mean old bastard...." he said as we relaxed a bit "My name is Captain Notch and we do remind you that you boys represent the Emperor's finest while you're here on this forsaken moss rock, but trust me, I see some of you are just out of training, you'll learn quick! It's adapt or die out here boys, and hopefully you won't face the latter!" He grinned and a few of us chuckled nervously. 
He began the roll call, assigning us to our duties for the day. When he got to me and my two friends he checked the list on his beaten up clipboard “All right, Fletcher, Hunter, Grimes... You boys are lucky lucky! You got guard duty on the shaft...” he took our map and made a small, quick ‘X’ on it before sending us on our way. 

We met up with two more vets who were on their way to the same place. All the while we walked the men kept quiet as we talked amongst ourselves; suddenly one of the vets pushed me out of the way and ducked down as a thin vine snapped forward towards our necks. The other who was carrying a combo bolter/flamer let loose a torrent of cleansing fire into the growth that seemed to make a shrieking sound as it withered to ash. 
As the flames crackled happily the vet let out a good chuckle "Strangle vine... It’d be best to keep quiet when we’re on this part of the trail... It’s sound sensitive and I’ve seen more than one of my friends snatched up by it when they tried to take a leak...” I nodded and made a mental note to draw a small skull on the area of my map later. 

After hiking for another hour we finally reached the mine shaft, and it wasn’t as simple looking as the commander had described it... 
The ‘shaft’ was a giant hole with a one click diameter and large, heavily rusted elevators hooked around it. One of my friends picked up an old bolter round casing nearby and chucked it over the edge, but there was no sound at all to let us know it had hit the bottom.
We all sighed as the two vets saluted and climbed into an elevator before leaving us alone to do our job. We were pretty well equipped with two heavy bolters mounted in fox holes on either side of the path and enough ammo to take down a squad of at least 100 enemies of the imperium and their tank to boot! As we were manning our weapons though, we suddenly heard the small echo of metal on rock behind us. Dax grinned nervously “now that’s a deep hole...”

Time went by uneventfully as we guarded the position, from whom I don’t know, but we were ordered to shoot on sight at anyone who came down without getting the go ahead, even the captain himself. We wondered why such a large operation would have so little to defend it. We knew we’d be squashed like bugs if an enemy cruiser came our way. Though it only looked like a big operation to us, we were just a grain of sand adrift in the imperium’s vast desert of occupied space, probably so small that they wouldn't even notice the drop of raw material if we were taken over. So on our day went, letting all of the shift miners into the shaft, all of them giving us nods and waves as they headed down into the darkness.

Hours passed until nightfall was upon us, but suddenly an unscheduled crackle on our radio let us know that something was up, especially since it was captain Notch addressing us “Where are Corp.Shepherd and Barkley? They were only supposed to be in the shaft for a five hour inspection, and the miners haven’t come back either! Over...” we had blank looks on our faces as we turned to look at the shaft, Lucius going over to raise the nearest elevator. I picked up the radio and clicked the button “Roger that... They never came up... Did they travel to a different entrance, over?” I asked “Negative on that, that shaft is the only way in or out... You’re telling me that not a single person has come back out of that hole?... Over.” A loud clank signalled the arrival of the elevator platform, the entire floor of which was covered in blood with a single human leg sitting in the middle of the pool and some flayed entrails sitting beside it, both obviously torn from their owner. We were all pale, Lucius heading off to the bushes to wretch as I slowly raised the radio to my mouth and clicked the button again “Negative... We may have a bit of a situation... Over...”


<So there's chapter 1! Like it? Hate it? Interested to see more? Leave a comment below!>


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## wrycanion (Nov 14, 2011)

Once I re-formatted it, I enjoyed reading it! :grin:


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## marineskickass2009 (Jul 30, 2009)

*Chapter 2 *
*-:The Descent:-*

It had only taken a few minutes before the sounds of chimera transports could be heard. The two vehicles stopped just before them and emptied out their 24 passengers, including the commander and 10 of his veterans, the rest were made up of the newer boys who had only just gotten to the planet, all of them looking either eager or uneasy as they unloaded the weapons and equipment from the transports. 

“So what've we got then cap?” asked one of the vets as captain Notch grabbed the bloody stump and held it up, examining it closely causing a few of the new recruits to immediately seek out the bushes and expel the dinner rations they had recently been eating. 
“Well if it were a native predator, the only thing that could do this much damage would be the Fernaltian razor bear, but since their claws are serrated I wouldn’t expect this clean a cut... Also the fact that they can’t operate elevators on their own now can they?” he said as he ran his finger along the edge of the grievous looking cut just as a few of the recruits came back from the bushes, making them turn around and go right back in. 
“True... So what do you reckon we do Notch?” asked one of the vets who’d been bent over the entrails on the platform. 
“What do we do? We go down, we look around and we kill the beast, or beasts, responsible for this mess!” the other vets around all grinned as they cheered “HOO-AH!!” locking and loading their weapons as a younger guard ‘Welshie’ approached the captain 
“Sir? What if it isn’t an animal? What if it’s something else?” Notch turned to the lad and grimaced as he grabbed the boy by the throat. 
“Look son, you’re a guardsman, born to die for your Emperor and his entire race so you’d better face this like a true man instead of a spineless worm... You hear me!” he said as he shook the lad on his last sentence before letting him go and looking at the others, “This aint’ training anymore kids! So smarten the frak up and put on your war faces, ‘cause it’s go time you planks!” 

He tossed the foot aside and picked up a bolter gun, slamming a magazine into it before getting onto the platform elevator with some of his vets “Now who’s comin’ with me?” he asked and was surprised as the young private Everett Fletcher stepped onto the platform beside him, lasgun at the ready.
“Ready to do the Emperor’s work sir?” he asked as the commander grinned at him and then at Grimes and Hunter as they stepped aboard, immediately followed by more of the younger troops until only four privates remained behind along with two of the veterans who were ordered to guard the top. 
I watched them and sighed, knowing what would happen as the elevator began its descent.

“I understand you boys are too scared... Don’t worry, the ‘men’ will take care of this...” chuckled one of the vets who’d been left behind with them. The boys hung their heads in shame as they turned to leave. 

*Ka-chak* 

The privates all turned and saw that the two vets had brought up their bolters “W-What are you doing?” asked one of the boys nervously as the other vet scowled “You know what the penalty is for cowardice...” he said as the other three began to make a run for it.

*DAKKA!DAKKA!DAKKA!DAKKA!DAKKA!*

The shots rang out from above and I looked up, watching the shells rain down... Poor bastards...
The other boys were trembling now, not only from the shots, but as we looked up, the hole that had seemed so huge to start was only getting smaller and smaller. When we reached the bottom it looked like a small, strange black moon specked with bits of white here and there. 

The bottom of the cavern was just as massive as the top, covered in years of vegetative growth that had only been cut in large trails to allow the heavy machinery access. We all had our guns ready and crouched in a defensive position as the vets exited the elevator, the commander nodding my way as he left the ramp. We followed closely behind and could already see the massive tunnel entrances littered around the circle. Who knew what deep dark labyrinth of tunnels awaited us...

The familiar sound of wretching could be heard as the commander halted us “What’s going on back there?” he called back to a pale lad a few feet behind us who was looking off into the bush, a puddle of vomit at his feet “err... sir?..” he said weakly as he pointed to where he was looking. Two of the vets rushed over, training their bolters into the undergrowth and looked a bit pale themselves.
“Well what do you see lads? Spit it out!” one of the vets turned, “Remember the leg we found up there? Well this lad just found whatever’s left of the poor bugger it was attached to...” 
The commander sighed as he came back to have a look. This time the majority of the lads were able to will themselves an iron stomach as they looked upon the carnage in the small clearing. Body parts and chunks of meat were scattered around the area, and the main torso, or what was left of it, sat in the middle, covered in the shredded, bloodied cloth of one of the miners uniforms, but a strange thing, it was smoking and there was a sizzling sound coming from it. 
I decided to be the first to approach it and knelt down next to it as commander Notch knelt next to me. 
“Acid sir...” I said as I covered my mouth with the sleeve of my uniform to keep myself from inhaling the awful stench of the bubbling flesh. The commander only nodded as he got up and turned to his men. 
“Alright lads... Shite just got real... Pop quiz... Any of you remember what race uses bio weapons?” he asked as the torso, to my horror, disintegrated into a pool of bubbling, writhing maggots. One boy held up his hand and Notch pointed to him “Tyranids sir?” 
The captain nodded slowly “That’s right... ‘Nids...” he growled, a dead silence followed by a soft rustling of foliage in the wind now put everyone on edge.
“Alright...” he pointed to 3/4 of our group “You lot, make for the entrance of the main tunnel, I want you guarding it until we get back... We’re gonna have to go back to camp and grab some extra firepower” one of the vets nodded and motioned for the men to follow him, that just left me, my friends, two vets and the captain. 
“Alright, topside you lot.” he said as he began to run to the lift, the rest of us following him.

We took one of the chimeras back to the camp and began loading it with everything the commander deemed ‘necessary’ including four flamers, four full tanks of sanctified promethium, 50 belts of heavy bolter ammunition, rations, five plasma rifles, the list went on... “What the warp are you lot doing?” asked Crank as he lumbered over, looking over us as we continued to fill the chimera. Notch took him aside, “Our little problem has turned into a big one Crank... Looks like we’ve got ‘nids in the shaft” but crank only grinned. 
“Does that mean I get to wake _*‘her’*_ up?” he asked, Notch only nodded, “We may need to if things get hairy... You know how ‘nids are Crank...” 
The gunnery sergeant with the servitor body only nodded and cackled with glee as he trod away towards the main vehicle hangar “What was he talking about sir? Who’s *‘her’*?” Dax asked with a raised eyebrow 
“Sophia...” he said simply as the heavy roar of a large engine came from the hangar causing all of us too look up. 

The ground shook slightly with each heavy footstep as the penitent engine emerged from the hangar, two saw blades whirring in unison and its heavy hands opening and closing reflexively, I could also make out two heavy flamers mounted on the undersides of its wrists. In the center of the machine though sat Crank in a cradle of steel that covered over his torso and head, not exposed like the true penitents usually were. 
Notch grinned, “Crank once did service with the sisters of battle... He lost ‘is arms and legs while protecting their mistress from a gene stealer and she rewarded him for his valor with this older model... The lucky sod...” Crank’s massive, rusty metal body now made its way to them “Alright maggots!” his vox boomed “Let’s move!”

<Alright, I know it’s a bit disappointing that this chapter is a bit shorter, but it’s just because I have my college exams coming up on the 13th of this month and I have to study. I promise much longer chapters after school’s over and done with!>


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## marineskickass2009 (Jul 30, 2009)

<Just another update. I'm sorry to any readers who have been following this story, I was caught up in exams and forgot to make a new chapter this week, but now that school is over and holidays are starting for me, I'll have plenty of time to make a much longer chapter for next Wednesday. Happy Holidays!>


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## Brother Emund (Apr 17, 2009)

Mate, some of those 'word blocks' need to be broken up a bit. My eyes hurt!!! :wink:


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## Ambush Beast (Oct 31, 2010)

*I agree*

Brother Emund is right. Your work looks almost as bad as mine was when I started, lol. 

The beginning few paragraphs were excellent, broken up and small enough to read quickly, so go through your story and make the whole thing look like your beginning. 

I was really starting to settle in and enjoy your work until I went cross-eyed and nearly passed out.

Fix it soon cause it has my attention.


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## Haskanael (Jul 5, 2011)

great story can't wait to read more.


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## marineskickass2009 (Jul 30, 2009)

ok guys, i've broken up the story into more manageable sections, i'll try to do this in the future so there will be no more complaints right?

Anywho, I also corrected a few things that were bugging me with the story, for instance you may notice that for a time I was calling 'captain' Notch a commander, well that's fixed. Anyways, it would be worth giving it another read through just so you guys can see what I changed, though I promise I didn't change anything that will affect the story so far.


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## marineskickass2009 (Jul 30, 2009)

*Chapter 3
-:Trouble on the Path:-*

“You’d best hope we get there soon Notch, I want to squish some bugs and my arse is already starting to itch in places I can’t reach...” called Crank over the dash mounted radio vox. 
Since the heavy war engine could not keep up with the two faster tanks, he was being towed along behind us in a heavily armoured wagon that to my knowledge had possibly been used to tow the equally massive bulks of the blessed Astartes dreadnoughts. Even though he was secured in place it still didn't keep him from complaining about every jostling bump in the road as we continued along. 

After awhile Lucius spoke up “So captain, I’ve been meaning to ask... How did the tyranids get down here? If there had been a hive ship we would have seen it when the Celestius Mortae was in the area...” 
Notch nodded, “Good question kiddo... But we had reports of a smaller hive fleet that attacked the second system over... It was dealt with, but that doesn’t mean their spore pods couldn’t have scattered before the ships bit the dust... Tyranids can stay in stasis for decades until their pod happens to crash into an unsuspecting planet, and those pods are usually so small that they are often mistaken for space debris... WOAH!!!” 

Suddenly the chimera lurched as Notch hit the brakes, the chimera beside ours doing the same “Oi! What the fethe are we stopping for this time!?” called Crank.
We were staring down a pile of trees and boulders that were now blocking the road completely, just a few feet in front of us, but that didn’t stop crank from asking “What? Does one of the runts need to take a leak?”

We piled out of the tanks and scanned the area as the two vets helped unhook Crank from the chassis of the wagon 
“This is rather troubling...” said the commander as he looked over the placement of the debris. “Nids don’t work like this... They don’t think tactically... They just swarm and devour... This also means they’ve been watching us, but they couldn’t have discerned that we were going back to get more guns, could they?” 
the familiar stomping came closer as Crank looked at the pile, “Who cares... This is only a minor bump in the road... I’ll have this crap cleared in five mins tops!” he said as he went to the pile and began tossing the logs and boulders like they were nothing. 

Suddenly there was a rustle in the bushes on each side of the trail. We raised our weapons, one of the veterans running to the transport just as a group of creatures jumped out and began to run at us as a rampant chittering mass. 
They were only half the size of us, but they were covered in stone grey, chitinous armor plates, their limbs each ended in small sharp scythes of bone and their mouths a deathly grin of razor sharp teeth.
“GAUNTS!” shouted a vet as he began to lay down fire on the swarm just as ten of them jumped onto Crank’s lumbering metal body, biting and scratching at the thick steel plates. 
Crank spun around, trying to shake the little brutes off of him. 
He caught one in the arm with his saw, the sudden loss of its limb causing the creature to fall to the ground, letting out a helpless shriek as he stomped his massive foot down on it. 
I brought my gun up and took aim, reciting a short litany to my weapon before squeezing the trigger. My shot held true and hit one of the creatures, burning through its skull and out the other side, wounding a second one behind it, but suddenly they changed direction and started to come after me just as the other vet came back out of the tank, carrying a flamer, seeing the writhing swarm coming after me and crying “RUN LAD! RUN!” 

I took to his word and ran as fast as I could, turning and firing my weapon back into the crowd of gaunts. Suddenly much of the crowd burst into flame as the catachan doused them in the Emperors cleansing fire... 

By the Emperor... That sound... That horrible, blood curdling sound as thirty aliens suddenly screamed in agony, falling in a writhing pile of seared flesh. But there were still five others after me, two of which I managed to take out with another well placed shot, but now they were upon me. 
The creatures were fast, but I caught one in the face with the butt of my rifle before dropping it and going for my combat knife. 
The other vet dropped his bolter and ran, tackling another one and cutting off its head with his own giant combat blade. 
I managed to boot another one, knocking it aside before swinging my knife at another, though it only glanced the hard carapace. 
I heard a scream that I realized was Lucius as two of the gaunts pierced his torso and proceeded to rip him apart using claws and teeth alike. 
I screamed with primal rage as I ran at them, tackling one to the ground and planting my knife firmly into its neck, gouts of thick green blood spraying from the wound as it died. 
The other didn’t even notice its comrade’s demise as it continued tearing my friend apart, though its life was short lived when Notch grabbed the creature, crushing its neck in a vice-like head lock. 

I stood and saw my friend Dax alongside the vet with the flamer, unloading a few rounds from his shotgun into three more creatures that were trying to sneak up from behind, splattering his front with mutant gore. 
There was a loud war cry as Crank charged another five, trampling them to death as he swung an arm around, decapitating another three. 
The vet once again swept the remaining mutants with fire, finally ridding us of the troublesome insects.

“Report!” called Notch as we began to take stock. 
“I’ve still got three quarters of a tank left...” called the vet with the flamer. “I’ve still got five clips... We’ve lost one of the kids...” said the other vet. 
“His name was Lucius!” said Dax as he got up, catching his breath, tears streaming down his face to mix with the mutant blood that was smeared on his cheeks.
Notch only sighed as he went to Dax placing a hand on his shoulder “I’m sorry about your friend, but he gave his life bravely to serve the Emperor and we will respect him for it. That is, once we’ve wiped those fething bugs from this world!” he growled. 
Dax looked up at him, his eyes aglow with kindled fire and newly fuelled hatred for his enemies.

Once Crank had cleared the path, there was a crackle on the radio. Notch picked it up, “Report...” 
The voice came on though there was quite a bit of static interference “We’ve found the pods captain...” Notch looked a bit worried “Pods?” 
The man’s voice came back on, “Yeah, about....ssssssssssshhhhhhhh” Notch sighed as he waited for the static to clear, “Come again, how many?” 
“Thirty so far sir, but they’re fairly scattered though some were stuck together, we believe it was part of a cluster that fell down here...” 
“Alright, good job, go back to the main tunnel entrance with the others and wait there, we’re coming back now with extra equipment and ammo...” “Rodger sir...”
Notch fiddled with the radio dial for a moment before making contact with the main base. 
“How are the preparations going?” “Good captain, we have three quarters of the supplies loaded like you’ve asked, transports four through fifteen are fired up and ready to go!” 
“Then move out and keep a sharp eye out along the road... We’ll rendezvous at the main entrance and stock up more before we head in to flush the little mudbug bastards out...” 
“Rodger sir... For the Emperor...”
Notch grinned, “For the Emperor”



<Again, sorry for the late update, writing this book has sort of taken a bit of a back seat right now since i'm enjoying the holidays with my famjam. Most of the time I've been starved of ideas for piecing together new chapters and often find myself wanting to do this... :headbutt:
You know, cause if hitting things to make them work worked for the Fonz, then there's no reason it shouldn't work for me!
Anyways, thanks for your comments and pointers guys, it's really nice to have appreciative readers like you. Update next Wednesday, or Thursday. Peace out, have a merry Christmahaunakawanzasolstice!>


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