| abstract | - When the world of Shadrac was attacked by the Tyranids, one of the Space Wolves' Great Companies attempted to defend it, and when it became clear that this effort was in vain, Skold Greypelt and his Pack decided to remain behind with the assistance of an Iron Priest and his Thunderhawk gunship, to inflict as many losses as possible on the Tyranids and make them pay the heaviest possible price for the Imperium's loss of the doomed world. Thirty standard days after the beginning of the Tyranid invasion, Greypelt and his Pack chanced upon two score survivors of the 10th Slavok Regiment. The Imperial Guardsmen, weakened and hungry, were proceeding on foot toward one outpost they hoped had not yet been overrun by the Tyranids. The Space Wolves immediately began to shadow the retreating Guardsmen, somewhat callously using them as bait to draw Tyranid swarms into attacking this weakened prey. When a swarm managed to surround the surviving Guardsmen, the Astartes intervened, exterminating the swarm of lesser Gaunts before disappearing again, leaving the bewildered Guardsmen unharmed but alone. The Guardsmen eventually reached the outpost they were making for, where one of their numbers suffered from toxic dementia after eating rotten food. The madman escaped into the frozen wastes surrounding the outpost, and was killed by a Hormagaunt. Greypelt intervened and shot the Hormagaunt as he prepared to jump on Sergeant Poul Marlin, who had come out to attempt rescuing his crazed fellow soldier. Again the Space Wolf left without making any other form of contact than the sound of his Bolter and the glimpse of grey Power Armour picked up by Marlin. The situation would be complicated the next day, for the Guardsmen had found Chimera APCs in the outpost, and one of them had managed to get three of the transports in working order. The Guardsmen moved out at speed in search of the Space Wolves, but this left their protectors unable to follow them, save by exposing their Thunderhawk, which they did not desire to do just yet, as the Tyranids had only started gathering in numbers to eradicate the stubborn defenders. Skold Greypelt then decided to follow the Guardsmen with two of his brothers mounted on their three remaining Assault Bikes, while the rest of his Pack waited on board their Thunderhawk. The Guardsmen ran headlong into yet another large Gaunt swarm, and fought them fiercely, and when the three Astartes bikers joined the fray, they quickly routed the lesser Tyranid bioforms, only realising too late that they had been led into a trap; the Gaunts had sacrificed themselves to slow the humans down and allow a mighty Carnifex to enter the fray. As the "Screaming Killer" charged forward, Skold Greypelt ordered the Guardsmen to run for it, and turned to face the gigantic Tyranid with his two Battle-Brothers. The three Space Wolves fought bravely, but without any anti-tank weaponry, they had little hope of slaying the mighty beast. The Carnifex smashed their bikes to pieces and advanced on the two still-standing Space Wolves. They were only saved in the nick of time by Poul Marlin, who, refusing to flee, fired the last remaining Krak Missile from a Missile Launcher straight down the Carnifex's maw.
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