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A man adorned in carapace armor crouched next to a massive footprint embedded into the mud.

Needless to say, the pawprint stood out amid the lush landscape. Just a toe alone could completely cover an entire human man. The titanic tracks joining it created a trail delving deeper into an alien environment reminiscent of the wild jungles originally found on Holy Terra itself.

"Have you ever seen a creature this large before, praefect?"

The praefect's head perked up upon hearing the nearby inquisitor. "Negative, sire. This is easily one of the largest beasts I've ever seen, even by Indiga standards."

"Fascinating." said the inquisitor, putting his hands behind his back. Penal legionnaires armed with lasguns gradually secured the perimeter surrounding him. "In that case, can you tell me anything else about this dastardly creature just by looking at its tracks?"

The praefect nodded. He kneeled to the ground once more, taking a closer look through his helmet's visor. "Well, they obviously seem mammalian if they have something like paws."

"I assumed as much already." said the inquisitor, who stopped speaking for several seconds to watch his servo skull scanning the vicinity a short distance away. "Anything else?"

"The pattern of the tracks is also... odd." answered the praefect before going silent.

The inquisitor raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

The praefect held his lasgun with one hand before gesturing at the pawprint. "It's the footprint placement itself. It's nothing like quadrupeds with fore and hind paws leaving tons of tracks behind. On the contrary, I'd dare to say we're looking at something that walks on two feet, much like a human."

"So something bipedal..." said the inquisitor, scratching his chin. "Hmm. Assuming that's true, we're dealing with something as big as an Imperial Titan."

"It's a possibility," said the praefect with a nod. "But we won't know for certain until we see a live one. They could be even bigger than certain titans altogether. That would be... quite the sight to behold, sire. I'm surprised we haven't spotted any of these creatures from orbit, but I blame the enormous trees for that... obstruction."

The inquisitor narrowed his eyes. "Do you know what happened last time we found a world brimming with beasts that made the titans look small in comparison, praefect?"

The praefect rose back to his feet to face the inquisitor. "Negative."

Pacing in place, the inquisitor gave a tech priest accompanying them the side eye. "The tech priests didn't want something that could replace or threaten their war machines, so they had us order an exterminatus on a world filled with megafauna." He paused and stopped in place to give the praefect a death stare. "Do you understand the implications here?"

In response, the praefect shook his head. "I don't believe I do, sire."

"It means something similar could play out here." continued the inquisitor, crossing his arms. "Entire convoys and platoons have gone missing trying to tame the wilds without a single survivor, and there's always those damn pawprints scattered throughout the aftermath! It's extremely concerning. So if you fail here and others consider these mysterious creatures dangerous enough, this whole world will be cleansed in the emperor's hellfire!"

"With all due respect, sire..." said the praefect, hesitating to speak for a moment. "This should be a vacation compared to fighting Tyranids. My only concern is these contemptible criminals you've sent out to hunt these massive creatures rather than more proper praefects."

The inquisitor sneered. "You're sorely mistaken if you think that rabble is supposed to truly hunt anything at all!"

The praefect directed his attention to a few penal legionnaires, noticing that some lacked basic flak armor since they only had prison jumpsuits for protection. "Then why are they here?"

"To die for the God Emperor..." said the inquisitor in a low tone. "To act as bait. I don't intend to waste good men on a risky intelligence gathering operation! Despite that, men of your... veterancy and expertise will still be needed for tracking down and slaying the titanic beasts, assuming we can even manage it with this rabble..."

"You make it sound like a death sentence or a suicide mission." said the praefect in a cold tone. "That's not what I volunteered for."

The inquisitor stayed silent for a while. "Praefect?"

"Yes, sire?" asked the praefect in return.

"Tell me your name." said the inquisitor in a monotone voice.

The praefect's helmet hid his resulting emotions and facial expressions. "Uh... Lance Corporal Muldoon, sire. I thought you would know that. Why?"

At these words, the inquisitor revealed an antique inferno pistol holstered on his hip. "Let me make something crystal clear, Corporal Muldoon." He stopped speaking to unholster his pistol. "I could kill you right now and no one would question it. I probably wouldn't even remember your name a few cycles from now. So I'd highly recommend completing this assignment to the best of your ability since I can always handpick and replace you with another veteran praefect if something... unfortunate happened to befall you. Can you comprehend that much, at least?"

The aforementioned praefect tensed up. "I understand, sire. My apologies. I meant no offense by my objections or any other apprehensions..."

With a sigh, the inquisitor returned his handgun to a holster. "Good. Ideally, I can see one of these beasts with my own eyes before I decide upon their ultimate fate!"

"And if they're hostile..." Muldoon said, followed by a long pause. "Do you think your little penal legion will stand a chance? Because I'm afraid that they might not try to fight to begin with..."

The inquisitor clenched his hands into fists. "If they don't engage the enemy or try to retreat, the tech priests accompanying us will detonate their explosive collars, then they'll decorate the local flora with their brain matter! So I doubt it'll be a problem."

Muldoon glared at a prisoner with a metallic collar like all the others. "If you insist, sire."

With that, the inquisitor resumed following the giant footprints. "Oh, and with someone part of the prestigious Indigan Praefects within our ranks, we have an expert on fighting megafauna at our disposal!"

The praefect refrained from voicing further concerns before marching on ahead. His purple and bronze colored carapace armor contrasted against the blue grass and other foliage, making him stand out compared to the rest of the warband as they traveled further into the harsh wilderness.

~~~~~

Over time, a peculiar pattern formed among the imperial soldiers as they followed the footprints. The inquisitor and several tech priests stuck to the formation's rear. As for Muldoon, he found himself leading the way forward with dozens of penal legionnaires trailing behind him as they explored the dense jungle environment. Ongoing reactions to their hot and humid surroundings varied. Some conscripted prisoners simply grimaced, others had wide eyes as if their heads were on swivels, while the rest retained varying smiles on their faces to maintain a devil-may-care attitude.

"What planet you from, cyclops?" asked a prisoner with a red jumpsuit and facial tattoos.

The praefect glanced over his shoulder. "Pardon me? Did you just say... cyclops?"

The red prisoner tapped on his forehead for emphasis. "Yeah, yeah! You got that dinky little helmet with the camera on it... or whatever it is... so I'm calling you cyclops!"

"That might get confusing..." said the newly dubbed cyclops, shrugging. "But do as you will."

Another prisoner with a blue jumpsuit adjusted his glasses. "Just call him a praefect."

"A karkin' what?" asked the red prisoner with a snarl.

"I'm so surprised that someone as refined as you has never heard of them..." replied the blue prisoner, rolling his eyes. "Either way, people call all the soldiers from his regiment praefects since they're specialists when it comes to fighting giant monsters."

"Eh... praefect sounds too fancy for that..." said the red prisoner, scratching his head.

A prisoner with a green jumpsuit, a shaved head, and a cocky smile bellowed with laughter. "At least he ain't another fuckin' Cadian! Been getting sick of those blowhards runnin' the show!"

The blue prisoner furrowed his brow. "What? What's wrong with Cadians? They're some of the most experienced soldiers in the Imperial Guard..."

"Don't get me started!" said the green prisoner, scoffing. "Before this, I used to be part of the guard me self, and those blokes were always so obnoxious! Always cryin' about Cadia and actin' like they were the hardest bastards around with everyone else being so soft..." He paused to put a free hand in the air, changing his tone of voice before he spoke again. "Ah, I can't believe what happened to Cadia! I woke up this morning with a mighty case of hardwood and rubbed one out thinking about Cadia! Oh man... I took a massive dump, and looking down at my own shit in the loo made me think about all the dumps I took back in the good old days when I was stationed on fuckin' Cadia!"

The red prisoner snickered. "Sounds about right based on that one vet we had to deal with..."

"The planet broke before the guard did!" continued the green prisoner, chuckling. "Ah, I'm gonna say that a million times til you lot get absolutely sick of it! You're a bunch of pansies compared to what the Kasrkins had to deal with during Cadia's final days!"

The blue prisoner shook his head. "Certain Cadian veterans might be a bit abrasive, sure, but Cadia was the only reason why the Eye of Terror got kept at bay."

"Clearly the bloody wankers didn't do a good job then!" said the green prisoner with some exasperation. "Cadia is nothing but a bunch of rubble now and half the imperium is just... fucked." He stared at the blue prisoner following a long pause. "So fuck Cadia."

"Right..." said the blue prisoner, grumbling. "If that fortress world couldn't hold, then none could."

The green prisoner jeered. "You seem knowledgeable about random crap like that, four-eyes, so how'd someone like you end up here in the first place?"

"He's probably a serial killer or something." said the red prisoner, smirking.

Meanwhile, the praefect faced forward and kept moving without saying a word.

The blue prisoner looked away as he started following the praefect again. "I... used to be a scribe."

"And how the bloody hell does a scribe end up in an inquisitor's penal legion?" asked the green prisoner with a look of bemusement. "Sounds like a strange set of circumstances!"

"I'd rather not talk about it..." said the scribe as he broke eye contact. "It's... personal."

"Hey!" said the green prisoner, raising his voice. "That ain't fair!" He gestured at the red prisoner. "Scorch here already told us about his former history as a hive ganger, and I told you a bunch about my unfortunate misunderstandin' with a commissar and an exploding power pack! It'd only be fair if you told us more about how you even got thrown in a prison and picked for this crap!"

The blue prisoner frowned. "Ugh. I'll just say that I'm not a damned heretic for asking questions about a document discrepancy I noticed while going through some old archives!"

Multiple prisoners roared with laughter upon hearing the scribe spout some rare and beloved vulgarity, making them the same on some level.

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" shouted the inquisitor, brandishing his power sword. "Focus on the task ahead! All your blabbering is only going to attract attention, and I'll be more than happy to personally execute anyone who compromises this operation!"

The green prisoner spread out his arms, looking left to right at the dozens of men wearing prisoner jumpsuits. "We're all dead men walkin' as it is! Might as well have some fun while we're at it!"

The red prisoner bared his teeth. "Sarge... shit sucks, but don't get us all killed by running your karkin' mouth! I still got a few things to live for, you know?"

The so-called sergeant put his hands on his hips. "I'll say whatever I damn please, son!"

Leaves and foliage rustled as they spoke.

Consequently, the praefect froze in place. "Stop. Stay silent."

"Oh, and now the cyclops is trying to tell me what to do too!" said the green prisoner before turning around. "I bet cyclops..." He stopped speaking for several moments as a massive beast the size of an elephant looked down at them with four eyes. "Fucking hell."

The beast's tail swished behind them as it simply... watched. It vaguely resembled a lizard, but with blue and smooth striped skin rather than any scales. The way it observed and stalked the penal legion from a short distance away drew parallels between a wolf and a lion, but a forked tongue flicking outside its muzzle also gave it characteristics similar to a snake.

Everyone and everything went silent as the beast and the humans stared each other down.

Muldoon held up his hand, indicating for everyone to stop moving and to hold their fire.

On the contrary, the former sergeant wearing a green jumpsuit tensed up. He aimed his lasgun at the beast with nothing but bloodlust flaring up in his eyes. "Light 'em up, lads!"

Before the praefect or the inquisitor could react, the sergeant squeezed his trigger. A laser pulse traveling at the speed of light almost instantaneously struck one of the beast's four eyes, making the creature screech as the affected eyeball ruptured. Other penal legionnaires impulsively joined in with sporadic volleys of lasgun fire. Most of their laser pulses missed the creature as it rapidly retreated back into the treeline, scorching its limbs and backside at most before it disappeared altogether.

The sergeant charged after the beast, letting out a war cry. Other frenzied and screaming legionnaires joined him in his pursuit with reckless abandon.

Muldoon motioned to the inquisitor upon witnessing this madness. "Sire, that beast isn't even our target! Why are they attacking it?!"

The inquisitor beckoned him forward with his power sword. "Indeed, but we can't just let that xeno monster get away now, can we?"

Muldoon grumbled. "On Indiga, we try to avoid unnecessary-"

"CHARGE, PRAEFECT!" screamed the inquisitor, dashing after his penal legion. He held his power sword in one hand and his inferno pistol in the other. "IN THE NAME OF THE GOLDEN THRONE!"

In the end, Muldoon could do nothing but shake his head and sigh before sprinting alongside them.

~~~~~

The plentiful plants and foliage eventually gave way to a small clearing. Although the sergeant wearing a green jumpsuit reached the area first, his sly smile immediately disappeared from his face.

"What the bloody..." he muttered under his breath.

The sergeant soon spotted over a dozen creatures nearly identical to the beast he pursued, hunched over in different spots throughout the bushes and trees...

Ambush predators.

He let out some more laughter. "Looks like we're eatin' good tonight, boys!"

One beast sprung the ambush mere moments later.

It pounced on the sergeant, all while he shouted and blindly fired his weapon. "HAVE AT 'EM!"

His bravado did little to nothing to deter the beast as it raked its claws through his flesh...

It made the sergeant scream at the top of his lungs. The beast then used its powerful jaw to decapitate him in a single chomp, snuffing out his life like it was nothing. More penal legionnaires met similar fates as they engaged the pack of beasts, lasfire and primal roaring filling the air as numerous engagements erupted throughout the vicinity.

Pure pandemonium enveloped the legion. Some legionnaires stuck to small squads and fired wildly at the beasts, focusing their fire at best. Others broke off and did their own thing. The scribe wearing a blue jumpsuit saw all the excitement with his face going pale, then ran in the exact opposite direction, away from the bloodshed. This prompted a tech priest to flick a switch, detonating the scribe's collar before his head exploded in a graphic and visceral display. By the time the inquisitor and the praefect joined the fray, everything was consumed in complete chaos and carnage as far as the eye could see.

Muldoon readied his lasgun and practically growled. "Perfect."

As this occurred, their quarry returned from an unexpected angle. The original beast they pursued, who now had a ruptured eyeball, stalked and approached the two tech priests from the sidelines as the rest of its pack fought the penal legion.

By the time the tech priests spotted the alien beast, it was far too late. It leaped and lunged at one man, pinning him to the ground with an audible thud. Its jaw and claws made short work of flesh and metal alike. As the beast mauled his compatriot, the adjacent tech priest opened fire with a laspistol, doing pitiful damage to its hardy hide at most. A subsequent swipe from the beast resulted in long claws cleaving through the second tech priest like individual short swords, rupturing his bionics before the light literally left his augmented eyes.

The commotion caught the attention of the inquisitor. For better or worse, the dead or dying tech priests served as an ideal distraction, allowing him to flank the beast from behind. His inferno pistol, a devastating device capable of melting metal or damaging vehicles in its own right, unleashed a potent energy beam once he pulled the trigger. The beam went through the beast's hide like a hot knife through butter. As it cooked or eviscerated internal organs, the creature screeched, then the inquisitor closed the distance with his power sword... culminating in the man sundering an alien limb with a single swing.

The beast then let out another pained cry before collapsing to the ground with a loud thud. With that, the inquisitor sunk his sword into its empty eye socket, finishing it off for good.

Corporal Muldoon joined the other penal legionnaires in the meantime, entering the unraveling battle. He turned on his lasgun with a simple flick and click of a switch as its electronic information displays surged to life. Unlike other lasguns, his own had an extended barrel and a unique pattern permitting for more potent shots than what the usual lasgun would normally allow for. He promptly toggled the highest possible power draw setting before concentrating on another beast attacking several penal legionnaires.

Each legionnaire scurried away from the beast as it swung its claws left to right in an unrelenting fury. They peppered it with plentiful lasgun fire in return, but their retaliation proved to be far from sufficient as the beast tore a human limb asunder with a ferocious blow, tossing the affected man in the air like a ragdoll.

Meanwhile, Muldoon crouched and lined up his holographic sights with a red dot reticle. In one smooth motion, he fired his weapon, instantaneously striking the beast's mouth the moment they opened it, and eviscerating soft tissue. The beast let out a distorted screech as a direct result. Muldoon wasted no time following this up by squeezing his trigger again, almost instantaneously popping an eyeball. His lasgun's heatsink rings glowed along the barrel a bit as its capacitors constantly sprung into action, expelling gas and photons alike with each shot.

The red prisoner resumed firing at the wounded beast, incinerating its hide with a series of laser pulses. This caught its complete attention. Naturally, the beast fully focused on the red prisoner with its remaining eyes, intent on dragging him to hell with them. So it let out a roar before charging forward. Additional precision shots on behalf of the praefect burst another eyeball and struck a leg, causing the creature to stumble to the dirt instead.

Others took the chance to unload their lasguns. As their relentless barrage struck the beast, it died with a whimper before it stopped moving altogether... twitching an intact limb at most.

"Kark me!" said the red prisoner, rapidly ejecting and inserting a fresh power pack like an ammo magazine. He made his way to the praefect in short order. "Screw this, cyclops! I'm sticking with you if you're the only one who knows how to quickly kill the karkin' things!"

Muldoon nodded. "Scorch, right?"

"Yeah, yeah!" said the red prisoner before checking his flanks. "That's my dumb little nickname, but you can call me whatever! What do you want me to do?"

"Follow me and aim for their soft spots." Muldoon said, moving toward another target. "Eyes, mouths, maybe even their bellies... whatever looks like a weak point."

Scorch sprinted forward, holding his compact lasgun with one hand. "You're the boss!"

Some surviving penal legionnaires converged on Scorch and the Praefect, rallying the survivors.

Other scattered forces resumed fighting by themselves. For instance, the inquisitor went completely berserk with his power sword and inferno pistol, slaying beasts by himself. Green blood progressively covered his black coat. He raised his sword high in the air as he placed a boot on a dead beast's head. "FOR THE EMPEROR OF MANKIND!"

As this unraveled, Muldoon suddenly dived to the ground. The maneuver narrowly avoided a beast trying to pounce on him, resulting in it leaping over his prone body instead. He then rolled onto his back to fire his lasgun twice and relied on nothing but his raw instinct and extensive training to connect the shots. Both laser pulses proceeded to strike the beast's backside. Before the beast could return the favor, Scorch and the other penal legionnaires unloaded their weapons with erratic volleys of lasfire, causing the beast to die a death of a thousand cuts as it gradually dropped down with another high-pitched whining noise.

As Muldoon rose back to his feet, he aimed his weapon at yet another nearby beast. The creature stood on its hind legs and unleashed an ear-piercing screech as it stood over several dead prisoners. However, it also granted Muldoon a short window of opportunity. He shot at its exposed belly a few times, bypassing the hard hide to hit its soft stomach. Blood boiled and wounds instantly cauterized from the immense heat of the laser beams with every single shot taken. Other legionnaires followed his example by firing at the same time, slaughtering the beast as sparse bile spewed from its menacing maw, then its body flinched and spasmed during the aftermath.

Over time, dozens of corpses from man and beast alike decorated the landscape. Some viscera and stray body parts were also strewn across the grass, standing out with streaks of red or green blood on the blue foliage like an abstract art project.

Only the ground shaking made some legionnaires and beasts stop in place.

Almost everyone froze once another tremor abruptly erupted, shaking their surroundings.

Something massive slowly shadowed over the entire area. Her sheer size made the little men look like mice while the beasts were rabbits in comparison to her gargantuan physical form. She strongly resembled an anthropomorphic griffin, standing on two feet and holding a massive spear. The spear towered over everyone else by itself and served as a clear indicator of intelligence. Only the titanic trees outsized the griffin entirely. Each step she took caused additional vibrations, much like brief earthquakes as she exited the treeline, leaving behind large and familiar pawprints.

From there, she looked down at the battle previously unfolding beneath her feet. Most just stared up at her in awe and fear. The griffin then directed her attention to the few prisoners still fighting an angry beast, resulting in her raising her spear...

Her eyes dilated. A powerful yet abrupt thrust skewered the beast before it could harm anyone else, flinging dirt and debris in all directions as the spear penetrated the earth itself.

Several legionnaires recoiled from the resulting shockwave.

Following a few moments of silence, the griffin slowly pulled her spear back, then the beast's bloody carcass slid off the sharp tip as it hit the floor with a light thud. The scene encouraged any remaining beasts to scatter in several different directions, ignoring any humans as they ran for their lives.

"By the emperor..." Muldoon said, finding himself paralyzed.

The griffin woman was nothing short of a mesmerizing sight. Some more crude clothing fashioned from vines and other natural fibers covered her crotch and the mammary glands on her chest, granting her anatomy somewhat similar to a human. This included curvy hips on her feline lower half with light purple fur. She didn't even have wings. However, her avian upper half had darker indigo feathers instead, highlighting her emerald green eyes that seemed to stare into your soul.

For the most part, everyone just looked at each other in eerie silence. The griffin resumed looming over the humans as she observed them from a few paces away... at least from her perspective.

Her black beak opening allowed her to make odd vocalizations in an incomprehensible alien language, making most humans reel upon hearing it.

The only one who showed absolutely no visible signs of fear or hesitation happened to be an overzealous inquisitor.

"Don't just stand there!" said the inquisitor, raising his voice. "Fire at the damned giant! KILL IT!"

Muldoon held up a hand as he faced the surviving legionnaires. "Don't."

The inquisitor shook his head, scoffing and sneering. "Are you daring to defy my direct orders, praefect?! I'm the one in charge here!"

"And your orders will get us all killed if we try to harm someone or something like that..." Muldoon said, ever so slowly taking several steps back. "Not all megafauna are inherently hostile to human life. No need to fight every last giant creature we see, especially if this one leaves us alone."

Scorch also backed away, hiding behind the praefect. "Yeah! I'm not fighting that karkin' thing... cyclops is right! That's a death wish!"

Dozens of other legionnaires followed their example, holding their fire or moving away from the giant griffin staring down at them with nothing but curiosity in her eyes.

The inquisitor bared his teeth. "Either you fight, or you die! The tech priests will blow your brains out if you continue to disobey my commands!"

Muldoon gave him a blank stare. "The tech priests are all dead, sire."

"You... think that will make a difference?!" said the inquisitor, grinding his teeth. "It matters not! Whether it be a beast or another intelligent species, I won't allow this... thing... to threaten the imperium's new foothold on this planet any longer!"

The griffin spoke in an alien tongue, drowning out everyone else with her powerful yet soothing voice. Her huge tail also occasionally swayed to create audible swishing sounds in the distance.

"Well said, madame." Muldoon replied, stoic as ever.

The inquisitor clenched his weapons, shaking a little. "I swear, I'll purge this foul creature by myself if I have to, then you dregs will have no choice but to fight for your foul lives!"

With the same unrelenting zealotry and frothing-at-the-mouth xenophobia that any aspiring acolyte was infamous for, the inquisitor charged at the giant alien. Alone. The griffin's face scrunched up as the tiny man made his way to her foot, and she slowly lifted it in the air accordingly.

The inquisitor soon saw dark purple paw padding meant to absorb the shock of her footsteps. Undeterred, he aimed his inferno pistol at the foot slowly shadowing over him, opening fire. A short-ranged energy beam surged toward the paw padding. For several seconds, the beam failed to reach the foot, then it anticlimactically dissipated into thin air.

The griffin woman flinched in response. She swiftly slammed her foot against the ground, immediately crushing the inquisitor like a bug. The overwhelming force concurrently created another brief tremor and a subsequent shockwave that vibrated the earth beneath her huge feet.

It all happened so fast that the other humans reacted with nothing but shock.

The griffin woman herself huffed and put a hand on her hip. She made a few high-pitched chirps, presumably displeased as her feathers puffed up. Her foot shifted left to right as she smothered the inquisitor's body, pulverizing whatever remained of him with her soft yet powerful paw pads. Her fierce gaze then turned toward whatever remained of the original penal legion. She took a single step forward, deliberately stomping on the area in front of them, and everything around the initial impact shook in place or vibrated, quaking in the face of her raw power.

"Kark this crap!" Scorch said, turning tail and running in the polar opposite direction. "I'm out!"

Another prisoner made a hasty retreat into the jungle as well.

"Every man for himself!" shouted a penal legionnaire, moving away from everyone else.

Although the griffin woman stopped moving, she successfully shattered the legion's morale as they dispersed. Everyone scattered like seeds in the wind. She let out a satisfied sigh and closed her eyes as the humans ran away from her, just to open them again to see one man still standing before her.

The praefect didn't move a muscle. He held his ground and stood still like a statue.

Cocking her head to the right, the griffin stared at him specifically. An expression similar to bemusement spread across her face as she looked down at him, fiddling her foot and scrunching up a few toes before she spoke once more.

As before, Muldoon didn't understand a single word. He stuck out like a sore thumb compared to his fleeing comrades due to his unique armor and other war gear. "So much for running..." he said, shaking his head. "Now what?"

The griffin crouched to the ground, blocking some sunlight. Her massive shadow loomed over him. She slowly lowered a huge hand toward his position, making him stumble back a bit. He failed to outpace her hand with her fingers curling around his comparatively small body, carefully picking him up with her taloned fingertips.

Muldoon then found himself ascending into the air as his eyes went wide. He locked up altogether. Over time, the griffin woman held him high in the sky with the ground dozens of meters beneath his feet. She let out some soft chirps. Afterward, she treated him like a tin soldier, plucking away his lasgun with one hand and inspecting his carapace armor with the other. Her thumb rubbed against his torso for a brief moment, then she maneuvered him with her fingers to tilt and turn his body in many different ways, seeing his extensive armor from new angles.

"Easy girl..." he said, trying to steady his breathing. His heart raced in his chest. "I have no quarrel with you. Live and let live, even if the imperium would have my head for saying that!"

Rather than responding in any way Muldoon could comprehend, the griffin held him directly in front of her gargantuan green eyes. Something seemed to sparkle within them as she stared at his exotic helmet. More low, soft chirps escaped her beak, remaining indecipherable to him.

Muldoon let out a sigh of relief. "Do we have a... mutual understanding then? I'd like to think so."

The griffin gradually opened her beak again. Instead of trying to talk, she suddenly showcased her mouth to its fullest extent. Steamy breath washed over Muldoon's metal armor as a result. Her entire tongue and throat came into full view with a curious lack of any sharp teeth. She also started to lift him above her head with only a few fingers, eventually dangling him over her open mouth like a worm fit for a bird.

In the meantime, Muldoon shuddered at the sight. "Oh..." he muttered to himself. "I guess it was only a matter of time. I fought massive beasts all my life and expected my end to be like this, but I wasn't expecting to be your prey today..."

The griffin made more light chirping noises as if she was trying to calm or reassure him.

Nonetheless, her wormlike tongue rolled out to guide him inside her beak. He soon saw some saliva slickening her pale and purple mouth as she slowly lowered him into its interior. Muldoon offered no real resistance, kicking his feet in the air at most. The griffin kept things slow and gentle throughout the whole process, then a soft clack from her beak marked the moment she simultaneously released him from her fingertips and closed her big mouth to trap him within.

From there, everything happened too fast for him to fully comprehend. First Muldoon saw the wet and fleshy walls of her throat, then darkness rapidly replaced it. He slid down her tongue with slimy saliva only assisting his descent. Powerful throat muscles awaited him once he reached the entrance to her esophagus, where he vanished down the pulsing abyss with a soft swallow.

The griffin woman closed her eyes for a moment...

Gluck.

She let out a light sigh as the praefect became nothing more than a small bulge in her throat. His metallic taste still graced her taste buds as she stuck out her tongue, sloshing it around before swallowing it all with a few light gulps.

However, Muldoon didn't descend any further. The griffin's throat muscles clenched all around him as they deposited him into a small pouch located in her neck, also known as the crop. The crop itself expanded its fleshy walls to contain his small form, albeit it was still a tight fit that left him with little free room. As he struggled within and tried to regain his bearings, the wet throat muscles continued to contort and contract around him, constantly applying light pressure to his body.

As for the griffin, she placed a taloned finger against the newly formed bulge in her neck, caressing it. She let out a soft coo and closed her eyes with her feline tail wagging more quickly, clearly pleased by this unforeseen turn of events. With nothing of note left for her here, she grasped her spear with both hands and walked away, leaving behind yet more titanic footprints and a bloody battlefield littered with corpses belonging to the condemned and the damned.

However, the griffin woman failed to notice the inquisitor's servo skull departing the scene...

Even with the penal legion in shambles, the inquisitor dead, and the praefect stored inside the griffin's crop for later, it'd only be a matter of time until the servo skull returned to other imperial forces with crucial information in tow, completing their primary objective.

A pyrrhic imperial victory at its finest.

~~~~~

AFTER ACTION REPORT:

Titanomachia

Operation Status: Success*

Inquisitor Status: KIA

Penal Legion Status: MIA/KIA

Summary -

The Imperium has been struggling to colonize a newly discovered world dubbed Bedlam due to plentiful megaflora and megafauna. Although pacification efforts have yielded some success, other massive creatures displayed signs of high intelligence before eradicating local Astra Militarum units. An inquisitor from _Ordo Xenos_was sent to investigate. The inquisitor perished during the ordeal and the full fate of his warband is currently unknown, but his servo skull documented the entire encounter, revealing the existence of intelligent alien giants.

Locals are calling them griffins, or just griffs for short. They usually leave humans alone, but they can be extremely dangerous if provoked, and even the passive ones can be deadly if they trample over people. Griffs likely have technology around the neolithic to bronze age. Conflicting sources from locals claim that they're organized into clans with some specifically collecting any humans that they stumble upon, but reports greatly range from griffs eating humans to keeping them as pets.

Anything is possible. Griffs are extremely dangerous either way due to their extreme sizes.

Puritan inquisitors are already advocating for full griffin extermination. Their potential solutions include sending in deathwatch kill teams, launching limited orbital bombardments, or even ordering an exterminatus. Radical inquisitors claim that the griffs could alternatively be turned into auxiliaries or somehow weaponized against the imperium's many enemies, calling them renewable imperial titans in all but name.

An extensive debate has stalled any decisive course of action.

Regardless, additional praefects will be vital for any future operations on the planet. Finding and recovering inquisitorial property and/or members of the doomed penal legion should be a high priority since it's a time-critical situation. Lance Corporal Muldoon may still be alive, after all.