The Thoth Infestation

## Thoth

The planet Antiphone has one moon, Thoth. Covered in ocean and thus deemed unviable for colonization, it was mostly ignored until the population of Antiphone grew to the point that the planet struggled to support them. Thoth became a valuable source of water, and its oceans were siphoned away over years of expansion. In the months before Mammon revealed itself to the galaxy, the weakening atmosphere was defeated by solar flares from the red giant, and the last of the oceans boiled away, killing the remaining sea-creatures of the moon instantly, and leaving behind abandoned stations and towering rigs, the exposed ocean floor betraying their true height. Now stripped of its only resource, Thoth was returned to obscurity, and Antiphone found itself lacking for water again. It is impossible to say if this shortage was a significant factor in Antiphone's resistance to the Imperium. It was likely just one of many.

## Hive Fleet Tarasque

Scouting vessels of Hive Fleet Tarasque plunge deep into the Mammon system, drawn to every body they can reach. One of these vessels collides with Thoth, crashing down onto the surface and burrowing itself into the soil. The embalmed corpses of sea-leviathans provide plentiful biomass and unique genetic material to the fleet, and the infestation quietly grows even as the fleet proper makes its way into the system.

## The Order of the Motive Force

The sisters of the Order were forced back by defeat on Antiphone, and needed to regroup and gather strength if they were to achieve redemption. A psychic beacon emanating from Thoth carried promise; a potential relic or piece of archaeotech they could use to enlist a noble Knight to their service. Upon landing, however, they discovered it would not be so easy; the beacon had aggravated the Tyranid nests below the surface, and now the swarm was out in force to locate and destroy it, along with anyone who got in the way.

## The swarm attacks...

On landing, it is confirmed; a psychic baton, used in the throne of a knight's cockpit, is the source of the signal. Relics like this one are scattered across Thoth's surface, lost beneath the waves over many years. A secondary objective is located on-site as well, and both are deemed worth recovering despite rising intensity of Tyranid contact en route.

The Ministorum force moves forward to secure the psychic baton, bolstering their confidence by bringing down an initial group of gaunts with ease. Too late, they realize they overstepped as genestealers burst forth from the decaying corpse of a leviathan, reaching claw-range in moments. A gout of flame brings down the first set of charging genestealers, but over their scorched corpses comes the rest, tearing one squad to ribbons. They scatter again before retribution could be brought onto them.

Meanwhile, heavy fire proves ineffective in bringing down approaching zoanthropes, their psychic barriers dissipating the heat from their melta weaponry before it can do its work. "Lord Klaw" follows its genestealers and grabs Inquisitor Draxus, crushing her chestplate and flinging her aside like a ragdoll. Shard volleys curve from firing positions far out of sight, forcing Palatine Veridiyan and her sisters from the broken immolator. Hormagaunts leap forward to seize the baton, but are cut down by bolter fire from Canonness Irulan's squad. A trygon bursts from the ground on their rear flank, and the Canonness charges the beast on her own to buy her squad more time. Rushing for the baton, Preacher Nickodemus and his crusaders are set upon by the genestealers again, and though they fight dearly the might of the aliens is too much for them.

By now the sisters have been split down the middle, the crusaders slaughtered, the tanks immobilized and the psychic baton lost. Remnants of their squads retreat from the battlefield, recovering their wounded comrades and leaders when possible. Palatine Veridiyan knows her primary objective is lost, but she can still rush to retrieve the second; she orders her squad to cover her and sprints across the battlefield. The squad trades fire with the zoanthrope psychic bolts, but are brought down. Veridiyan is hit in the side from the hive guard's cannons, and is launched; these weapons are powerful enough to bring down tanks, and she has taken an inhuman amount of injury, yet stands once more. She limps to the half-buried relic, defiant of her fate.

The psychic baton spikes its signal again, and the tyranids screech in pain, converging around the device now that the battlefield is secured. All their attention for one enraged moment is focused upon this, and as they tear apart the hardy artifact, that moment is enough for a collapsed Veridiyan to be rescued, relic still in hand.