Death In One Warzone and Then Waking Up In Another

The Hive Tyrants scythe sliced through my stomach and lifted me into the air, it's jagged and sharp teeth covered in the flesh of my men and the green blood of the Orks.

'How in the flying fuck did those Lord bastards think we were suited to this job?' I groggily thought as the Hive Tyrant lifted me into the air, a rare display of sadistic cunning on the Tyranids Insectoid face, '...Don't suppose that matters anymore,' I thought another scythe pierced my chest. Letting out a much more subdued cry than you'd believe at such an injury, I held onto my life as hard as it might seem to do so.

How could I? I was from Catachan, of course. I was hardier and more robust than just about any non-enhanced human out there. 'Being pierced through the torso twice...it kinda feels like being back home,' I thought as I coughed up a glob of blood.

The Tyranid hissed as it raised me higher, my blood running down the scythes penetrating my flesh or just dripping down into the bloody maw of the bug beneath me.

Reaching behind me with my remaining arm, I grasped what I supposed to use to break through the fortifications of the Chaos Marines based on this planet...'Shame we didn't know they were currently fighting Orks and that the Orks were fighting Tyranids,' I glared at the Hive Tyrant lapping up my blood, 'We were dropped right into a fucking death trap.'

Getting bored with drinking the blood, the Tyrant seemed to decide it wanted the main dish and I armed the Melta Bomb latched to my back. I originally set the timer to ten seconds. Long enough to plant it, arm it and get the hell out of there before the whole thing blew and Chaos Marines started pouring out. We were sent, as usual, as shock troopers to start the battle by attacking one of the rear fortresses of this battlefield. Then, once we'd blown a big fucking hole in the fortress, a whole army would come down and finish the job alongside a dozen or so squads of Space Marines.

Yet we never got to that point. After all, how do you get close to a fortress currently surrounded by Orks? And those Orks were surrounded by Tyranids?

I called it in and asked for support but we got nothing other than some Commissar prick telling us to push forward with the mission.

And that's how we got like this - killed.

'Well, technically I'm still alive but it'll only be for a few more moments,' I thought to myself, my vision already going dark from the blood loss. But I forced myself to stay awake and focused as I was lowered closer and closer to the Hive Tyrants mouth.

8...

I was keeping count in my head, and it was time. By this point I was right next to the Tyrants face at and I whipped the Melta Bomb out and placed it slap bang on the Tyranids facial carapace, "Have a nice time growing your body back, bug," I spat this out, forcing the words out despite the blood filling my lungs and chest cavity. I even matched it with a wide and bright smile, albeit it being smudged with blood.

And then everything went white, followed by black. I'd died, obviously.

I might be a top-tier Catachan and a special forces soldier but I wasn't a Space Marine. Hell, I don't think the average Space Marine would be able to tank a Melta Bomb without his armor and at point-blank range.

...But seriously, man. What a trip. I remember painting Warhammer figurines when I was a kid in my first life. To actually live it...man, I feel sorry for some of the characters I've read about. My life was rough but theirs was horrendously rough. 'I wonder where I'm off to though...Hopefully not the Warp. I'll been in too many missions to kill Chaos Marines, so I'd say one of the Chaos Gods would enjoy fucking with my soul in the Warp,' I shivered at the thought which instantly made me freeze, 'What?' I questioned myself and instantly I found myself in a disorganized library.

Bookshelves tipped over, books everywhere, the windows were broken and the air that came through the broken windows was filled with dust.

It was only at that moment that I realized my ears were ringing like an explosion had just gone off.

Looking down, I saw that I was sitting, my knees against my chest and my arms wrapped around my legs as if I was having a mental breakdown. Extending my legs and arms, I finally realized I was right, 'I'm in a new body again,' I grinned before frowning as I looked at the body, 'Skinny, decent height, seems to be a Catachan body--Or is that a new addition with my soul now being in this body?' I questioned myself as my ringing ears began to stop ringing.

Screams, explosions and alien laughter began to enter my ears and I slowly raised myself just enough that I could look over the counter this previous body's inhabitant had used as a hiding spot.

Glancing over the wooden counter, I saw three Xenos-looking motherfuckers. They looked like backwards Eldari...and those stuck-up twats were already pretty backward.

Silently chuckling at my own joke, my training and experience in countless warzones kicked in as I scanned over the opponent and their weaponry. Primitive armor and what looked like a primitive Lasgun. Some kind of grenade on their belts - looks like a thermite grenade from the overall size and shape. Could be wrong though, I've never seen this type of gear before. Could just be an explode-y grenade.

Lifting a hand, I looked around for a weapon before rolling my eyes at the lack of anything sharp near me. So, I tapped the counter and whistled loud enough that I caught the attention of the aliens. They grunted, confusedly, and seemed to converse between themselves before one of them walked over, it's footsteps heavy like clunky metal hitting the wooden floor of the library.

Meanwhile, I was calming my breath and thinking about how to take down an alien soldier with this useless body. It might have changed to be of Catachan origin when my soul got in it, '...But even a skinny Catachan is pretty useless. You need muscle mass to have strength, regardless of your muscle density,' I had this forlorn thought going around my head before I shook my head to disperse such negative thoughts.

'Tempestus Scions work best under maximum pressure, maximum intensity, and maximum danger.'

Closing my eyes, I sharpened my hearing and ignored the explosions and distant screams. I focused on the sound of the alien walking.

My heart began to beat quicker and quicker, my breathing hitching slightly before I brought it under control. My bloodstream was flooded with adrenaline, my hands barely being stopped from shaking by my countless days of experiencing the same shakes in warzones much worse than whatever and wherever this place was.

The training as a Martial Artist and the training of a Storm Trooper of the Astra Militarum, a member of the Tempestus Scions--it all kicked in and I opened my eyes just as I burst into action.

I pushed myself to my feet and without giving the alien time to react, I slipped an arm under his chest plate while my other hand grabbed it by the throat. With surprising ease, I lifted the armored Xeno and threw it into the ground, headfirst.

Yet I wasn't done. Kicking the face mask off of the alien, I ducked down just in time to dodge the volley of projectiles fired from the other two's primitive guns.

Rearing back a fist, I slammed it into the alien's face before pulling back the bloodied fist for another hit...which burst through the aliens face and killed it. But I had no time to be surprised with this seemingly useless body's physical strength as I grabbed it's primitive gun, giving it a once over to see if it held any similarities to any of the weapons I'd been trained in.

'It really does look like a primitive lasgun,' I shook my head before reaching over to the now-dead alien's metal face mask. Picking it up, I threw it at the ceiling above the two other alien soldiers and they released sounds of surprise, 'If this 'flashlight' and these soldiers are the best this army has...it ain't too scary,' I chuckled to myself as I stood up once more in a fluid motion, the alien gun held in my hands, my finger on the trigger.

My firing stance was perfect and before the surprised aliens could react, I'd planted two shots on their heads, turning their brains and their helmets into a bloody metallic mist.

Pivoting to my left, I looked at the upper level of the library, scanning between the still standing bookshelves. I tried to listen out for movement but got nothing. Lowering the gun but not relaxing for even a second, I knelt down next to the alien with the crushed face and looked at it with narrowed eyes for a few seconds, 'This body shouldn't be capable of this level of strength. Even with it's Catachan origins,' I thought for a few seconds before I shook my head and searched the corpse for ammo and other useful materials.

I found a few clips of ammo that seemed to fit this gun, alongside those mystery grenades and what seemed like this alien's version of a combat knife. Fitting it's bigger size when compared to a human, the combat knife was sized more like a machete than a knife.

Yet that only made me smile. I might not be a Catachan Jungler but I still loved close quarters combat. Must be in my blood as a pure-blooded Catachan.

Grabbing the sheath for the 'knife' I tied the straps around my right thigh and sheathed the razor sharp weapon before I moved over to the other corpses I'd down and looted them for ammo and grenades as well. In the end I had a pile of things but the problem I had was that I didn't have enough space to carry them.

Looking around, I saw a few human corpses. Though it was far from a rare sight to me, so without messing about, I walked over and picked up a backpack of what looked like a highschool teen. Unzipping the bag, I emptied the kid's belongings and walked back over to the pile.

I stuffed the ammo and grenades into the backpack before putting it on, except I put it on my front instead of my back. I did this so I could easily reach in and grab the things inside when needed.

With all this done, I walked toward the entrance of the library. The heavy wooden doors were shattered, most likely from an explosion, so I didn't have to sneak about and try and sneak a peek of the outside because it was clear to see that it was chaos outside the library just like how it was inside.

Though this didn't scare me. Instead, it actually left a savage smile on my face.

'I can only thank whoever keeps reincarnating me that they keep throwing me into interesting places,' I thought before my smile stiffened somewhat, 'Though maybe 40k was a little too interesting. The amount of times I nearly died--not to mention the amount of times I was tortured...Jeez, that was a hard life, huh?' my thoughts ran a mile a minute as my heart thumped in my ears but I tried my best to ignore it as I looked out at the street, poking my head around the broken door.

The first thing I noticed were the yellow taxis, '...I'm in New York,' I figured before looking around for more clues before I remembered the style of clothes the corpses had been wearing, '21st century at least,' I thought this before I felt something in my pocket. A phone.

Backing back into the library, I leaned against the wall while balancing the alien rifle against my shoulder as I fished my phone out of my pocket. An iPhone. An older one. An iPhone 4 or 5?

It was currently ringing, the words 'Dad' written in white as I narrowed my eyes at it.

I denied the call and opened the phone. Luckily it didn't have a password, and I was easily able to open up the message app on the phone. Clicking on the one that said 'Dad', I typed out a quick message of 'I'm fine' before turning the phone off. I'd feel bad making this kids dad worry about him, so I tried my best to put my rusty social skills to work.

'...How long has it been since I spoke to someone outside of the military?' I uselessly thought as I put the phone away and held the rifle with two hands again. Peeking back around the shattered door, I saw something blur through the sky above, sounding like a jet.

Yet my eyes caught a glimpse of it, the image emblazoned into my brain.

A humanoid figure of armor, red and gold, blasting beams of energy out of it's palms, rockets flying out of it's shoulders and back as it targeted the aliens. But most of all, I recognized the figure.

Iron Man.

Smiling, more and more information came back to me. These aliens had felt familiar but to a guy like me who was a part of the Astra Militarum, I'd seen loads of Xenos on the battlefield. Seeing aliens that looked familiar to me? That was, like, a normal Wednesday to me. But now, I knew it wasn't familiarity from my second life - it was something from my first life.

These aliens, in New York, and being attacked by Iron Man? These guys were the Chitauri. And most importantly, that meant I was currently in New York during the events of the first Avengers movie.

'...Man, what a fucking trip,' I thought with a smile as I walked out of the library, rifle raised as I looked around from window to window, street to street and alleyway to alleyway, 'Well, compared to the Warhammer 40k Universe, the MCU should be a fucking cake walk at least,' I audibly chuckled as I thought this.