It came shambling out through the underbrush, trilling its undulating scream. Limbs thrashed and struck out at the nearest men as its massive body collided with the firing line. Of the ones hit, those who were lucky were merely tossed aside, their bodies crushed and pulped by the massive force of the strike. The rest were less fortunate, and screamed in agony as the writhing, gelatinous limbs coiled around their bodies, tiny, venomous barbs piercing the skin on their arms and legs. As the virulent toxin began to liquefy their insides, the remaining Guardsmen opened up with their weapons against the unholy beast. Scores of wounds burst open upon the slimy skin of the monster, and the blood that sprayed out smoked and hissed as it struck the nearest soldiers. The gurgling screams of the trapped and paralyzed mixed with the howls of those whose eyes and skin began to melt under the caustic influence of the blood of the chaos spawn.

The beast screamed again, this time in anger and pain. It was far from seriously injured, but the indignity it felt as its prey tried to bite back was enough to fuel its rage. Those nearest the beast felt their ears and mouth fill with blood, and more than a dozen collapsed outright with crimson tears gushing from their eye sockets. Others stumbled, blinked under the psychic assault, and trained their weapons on the nearest friendly. The firefight became confused as Guardsmen began targeting each other with flurries of full-auto fire. Undeterred, the beast trudged on, releasing the now liquefied remains of its held prey to grab and seize new victims. It gurgled. It thrilled.

Five hundred meters away, Iris lowered the autocannon onto the soft earth and threw herself behind it. The ground was soft and pliant, and her curvaceous body came to an easy rest on the soft grass. The weapon's barrel gleamed in the warm sun as she trained it on the monstrous being thrashing around in a field of human corpses. She saw it lift a Guardsman, his body sagging as if every bone in his body had melted, and stuff him into a huge, toothy maw. He might have screamed. It was impossible to tell at this distance.

Iris brought the weapon online and crouched up to it, easing her finger over the trigger. The drum magazine was fresh, and she had its twin brother hanging over her shoulder from a strap. The sight on the weapon was not made for long distance firing, but the target was large - impossibly, improbably large. She squeezed the trigger and felt the satisfying kick of the 30mm round as it thumped from the barrel. Less than a second later, the ululating scream of the monstrosity indicated that she had hit it. Thumbing the gun to semi-auto, Iris sent three bursts of fire into the shrieking beast. The tripod gave her weapon solid footing, and soon, aiming became less of a concern as the monster made a beeline for the short, blonde trooper. No other Guardsmen stood between her and it, but its massive limbs still struck out to grab, squeeze and crush anyone within reach as it sped towards her.

Despite its size, it was fast, but even the deranged minds of the Arch-enemy could not conceive of a creature that could withstand a sustained barrage of autocannon shells. 150 meters from her position, the creature suddenly burst and collapsed in on itself. Black, foul-smelling goo burst forth and stained the ground, tainting it forever. Behind her, several troopers cheered, even as the psy-addled men who had turned on their comrades fell to the ground, their minds fried and gone.

Iris made sure to hammer the rest of the magazine into the disintegrating creature. When the gun finally clicked, she got up and wiped the cakes of mud and grass from her uniform. A few troopers were retching and vomiting behind her, some others were crying. One, a handsome man around Iris' own age, came up and helped her load a fresh drum into the autocannon. He smiled weakly to her. She returned it.

An hour later and two kilometers North, troopers of the 6th Praxis infantry clashed into a convoy of Chaos light tanks. The battle lasted two hours and claimed the lives of four hundred Guardsmen. Iris, however, did not see it. She had been called back with her squad, relieved by another squad who all fell to the business end of the enemy's heavy bolters. Eventually, the hammer of the Emperor would grind the heretics to dust and scatter them, but it would be at a heavy cost. Even witnessing the devastation that a single warp beast could produce made Iris shudder. Emperor help them if there were more of them lurking out there.