Free Catechism Of Hate by Gav Thorpe

seconds, giving Cassius time to fire a shot into the head of one of the attacking creatures. Its skull exploded, sending the brow-horn spear-like into the side of the remaining tyranid.
    Something hit Cassius in the back before he could despatch the wounded creature. Warning icons blinked in the Chaplain's helm display, and his ears were filled with the scratch and thud of the gargoyle's claws slashing at his backpack and helm. He turned quickly, trying to throw the creature off his back, but it had sunk its wing-claw into a heat exchange vent and would not be shaken free.
    'Brother-Chaplain!' Cassius heard the warning over his external pick-up rather than the vox and swung around to see Sergeant Capilla with his bolter levelled at him. Cassius turned and dropped to one knee as a hooked claw scratched against the right lens of his helm.
    The bark of Capilla's bolter sounded over the screeching of the gargoyle; a shriek that ended abruptly with a wet spatter of ichor across Cassius's vision.
    'Thank you, brother,' said Cassius, pushing himself back to both feet, looking for foes. Only a few gargoyles were still alive, wheeling up into the air above the devastators, spitting bio-plasma.
    Cassius took aim but before he could fire, an immense shadow fell across him. Looking up, he saw the massive head of a harridan, long claws trailing from its lower limbs. The Chaplain hurled himself face first into the rooftop as the metres-long scythe swept overhead, missing Cassius by a metre or less. Their focus on the gargoyles, the devastators did not react so quickly.
    Even as Cassius shouted a warning, two of the Space Marines were lifted from the rooftop, speared through their torsos by the elongated claws. Capilla fired at the immense beast as it passed over, the detonations of his bolt-rounds appearing as small sparks against the bulk of the harridan. The creature was followed by a downdraught of air that swept up grit and dust from the streets and buildings, swathing the Ultramarines in a thick cloud. Cassius's autosenses flicked to thermal in time to show the gargoyles dropping once more towards the devastators, hidden by the dust storm.
    'Enemy above!' Cassius warned, but the cry was not needed. Therotius already had his squad prepared and the descending column of gargoyles were caught in a crossfire of heavy bolter rounds and exploding frag missiles. The dust cloud churned with whirring bolts and ichor pattered down on Cassius like milky-white rain.
    A shockwave rippled through the dust as the Thunderhawk screamed past, its nose spitting las-bolts at the departing harridan, each shot tearing chunks from its ribbed underside. The gunship's main cannon boomed out, hitting the ascending tyranid on its dorsal plates, and then both were lost from view again.
    'Casualty reports,' snapped Cassius. A wounded gargoyle flopped and flapped a few metres away. The Chaplain crossed the rooftop and brought his crozius down onto the creature's head, crushing its skull with one blow. 'All squads, report in.'
    The devastators had not fared too badly: one Space Marine killed, three more too grievously wounded to continue fighting. Several had suffered minor injuries from bio-plasma and gargoyle claws but nothing that could not be ignored for the time being. The tactical squads stationed across the warehouses had suffered the wrath of the harridan and had lost five Space Marines to its bio-cannons and deadly claws before it had turned its attention towards the battle atop the dormitory building.
    Apothecary Valion was already making his way from squad to squad in the southern outskirts, tending as best he could to those who had been injured. Sergeant Augustin was amongst those that had fallen; decapitated by the harridan as it had overflown his position. Cassius reviewed his mental list of the Space Marines under his command to find a suitable replacement.
    'Brother Tyrius,' he announced over the vox.
    'Yes, Brother-Chaplain?'
    'You are now sergeant,