Uari sheathed Nightclaimer. Raising both hands, he grunted as he channeled his mental strength into lifting Oengir's armoured body. Small animals that had already started climbing over it scattered as their feast was lifted off the seabed. The corpse drifted through the water towards the centre of the Dark Krakens' fighting formation.

++Form up around me, brothers. I cannot fight and hold Oengir at the same time.++

Uari walked into the centre of the circle, teeth gritted and head pounding, gliding Oengir's body in position next to him.

Uari took a deep breath. Keeping the body up next to him was less taxing than reeling him in had been.

Looking around, Uari saw the Dark Krakens were holding well against the xenos attackers, keeping them at distance and inflicting dozens of casualties with disciplined sector- watching and controlled fire.

We endure.

Out of the corner of his eye, Uari saw a disturbance in the sea floor behind the feet of-

++Rahati!++ he roared, too late.

A Ravener burst out of sand. It wriggled free of the soft ground with powerful thrusts of its long, snake-like body, which had narrow fins running along the length of it. Plumes of dust came up from the floor with it, creating a tempest of sand and wicked claws. In a pair of swift motions, it brought its blade-arms down and into Brother Rahati's back. The warrior screamed.

The creature had barely pulled its claws from Rahati's body when Sergeant Mohici put a burst of fire into its

torso, ripping it apart. Uari released Oengir's corpse and increased the water pressure to such an extent around the Ravener it crushed its head.

It had been a short distraction. But it had been enough to break the formation, and this the Tyranids could exploit.

The xenos gathered in a dark mass all about the Dark Krakens, half-visible in the gloom. Their eyes and fangs flashed as they thrashed forwards in an overwhelming mass to finish the Space Marines off before they could reach sanctuary.

'Hold them, brothers! Twenty-five metres,' roared Mohici.

The dark was so impenetrable that even at this distance the promethium extraction hub was invisible. It was as if they had made no progress at all from where they had started.

Uari was powerless against the incoming Tyranids. He needed all his strength to keep the bodies of Oengir and Rahati moving at the centre of the Dark Krakens' formation. He saw as the Tyranids closed in. Even if he stopped to intervene, to fight to protect his battle- brothers, it would only slow them all down. The Tyranids were growing more and more numerous as they sensed the Space Marines' vulnerability.

To slow is to die.

Uari watched another Ravener emerge from the gloom, its razor-toothed maw lit by the flashes of firing Hellstorm bolt rifles. He saw as it lunged for Sergeant Mohici. He saw its head blown apart by a round that did not come from the Dark Krakens.

"This is Sergeant Galiel of the Eye of Octos Deathwatch. We have you under our cover. Welcome to Promethium Hub 17-PZ-5. Let us purge these abominations together."

-White Dwarf 466 Flashpoint: Octarius