Three squads of Astartes flew precisely into the "scabbards" of the three teeth that had been blasted out-or should they be called "tooth sheaths"? These hundred-meter-long spaces, built to house the fangs, were now empty and could accommodate plenty of Astartes warriors.
As the beast closed its mouth and began descending at a steady speed, everyone sprang into action.
Fragments of the transport ship lay all around them. Some had embedded themselves in the flesh, while others simply lay inside the mouth, tumbling about as the beast swam.
There were fish bones and broken chunks of reef, too.
They deployed Melta Bombs and secured themselves, ready for the creature to thrash once it was wounded.
Climbing out of the "tooth sheaths," they carefully moved forward to find suitable positions. The last thing they wanted was to slip and fall into its stomach.
They secured themselves in place. Even driving their Power Swords into the creature's flesh failed to attract its attention.
Their task was simple: find its brain, or whatever organ served the same purpose, and blow it up.
Obviously, no creature would have its brain connected directly to its mouth and stomach. They would have to blast their way through.
For most creatures, they could make a reasonable guess at the location of the central control system. Although their Auspex scans could not penetrate much of the beast's body, they had at least ruled out some wrong answers. Anything protected that heavily had to be an important organ, right?
The Astartes had a simpler way to find out. Several warriors removed their helmets and briefly breathed the air that had entered the beast's mouth when it leaped up to bite the Escort Ship.
"Chomp!" They bit off great mouthfuls of flesh from inside the beast's mouth.
Their task complete,