Iyanden - Iyanden Invaded: When the Tyranids came again, they did so in numbers greater than ever before. The pitiful remnants of the Eldar fleet opposed the hive swarms as best they could, but were swept aside by a tide of bio-ships. Ethrael, his ship ablaze and his crew dead, guided the Starwind Voyager onto a collision course with the largest of the Tyranid vessels, and in one last deperate act, overloaded the starships systems to create a plasma explosion that consumed both ships. With its fleet now completely destroyed, Iyanden was fully engulfed, as clouds of spores settled, infecting the Сraftworld itself. Twisted forms struggled to emerge from the beautiful harmony of Iyanden's architecture. A horrific psychic scream resounded around the Сraftworld's infrastructure as seething hordes of clawed, scuttling aliens were disgorged into its heart. Huge battles erupted all over Iyanden; the fighting was bitter and close-ranged, with enemy forces often only separated by the width of a Wraithbone wall.Battle was joined in every imaginable arena. Amongst the treetops of the ancient and holy Forests of Silence, Crimson Hunters struck at Harridan brood-mothers whilst Swooping Hawks fought a deadly aerial dance with dark flocks of bat-winged Gargoyles. Striking Scorpions sliced their way through the massed Termagants that blocked the Craftworld's arterial passageways like a vile cancer. Falcons hunted massive Carnifexes as they smashed apart the beautiful and complex sculpture-bastions of the Fortress of Tears. On the hallowed steps of the Shrine of Asuryan, Dire Avengers fought close and bloody battles with seemingly infinite numbers of Hormagaunts. But all of these valiant champions fell to the sheer number of attackers, their lives sold at a great cost to the Tyranid hordes. Before long, the most heavily contested regions of the Craftworld were knee-deep in mingled blood and ichor, the bodies of the slain beyond counting. But still the Tyranids came. The Eldar now abandoned entire regions so that they might offer a better defence elsewhere. At Kelmon's order, Quallindral, Exarch of the Fire Dragons, set the forsaken passageways ablaze. The Craftworld flinched in agony as the flames tore through its structure. Not all those slain in the fires were Tyranids; many defenders had been cut off by the Tyranid advance, and now those that had not succumbed to the warriors of the Hive Mind did so to the flames.Scarcely had the fires cooled when the Eldar counter-attacked. The Avatar itself led the charge, smashing apart all who stood before it. Guardian fought side by side with ghost warrior, the living generation battling alongside those long-dead as the Eldar gave everything they had. The ensuing battle was an orgy of destruction. It raged like wildfire through the embattled Forests of Silence, scouring the Tyranids from that sacred earth. But the damage was done, the arboretum defiled by the fast-growing alien spores. The Eldar wept tears of anger to see the hideous and twisted parodies of once-great trees that were left standing. However, the tide of the battle was turning, or so it appeared. The Eldar forced the Tyranids back, albeit at the cost of untold lives. Wraithknights and Falcon grav-tanks had systematically hunted down the giant synapse creatures, destroying the network of command that guided their minions. Choirs of Warlocks united in psychic accord to repel the Shadow in the Warp. Bonesingers coaxed the writhing Wraithbone, rich with the departed spirits of the Infinity Circuit, to fight against the terrible warping effects of the Tyranid spores. Then, to the Eldar's utter despair, the hive fleet launched another assault wave. This was the largest yet, and as the scanners of Iyanden's command dome turned bright with the readings of yet more swarms, the Farseers fell silent. There was to be no escape.Kelmon knew that, barring a miracle, Iyanden was doomed. Again and again, he consulted the runes, desperate for hope. Each time, he saw only the same; the runes for pride, doom and salvation circling that of Asuryan. As the Tyranids swarmed across Iyanden, Kelmon sealed himself away in the Chambers of Starlight, his meditation halls, and sought enlightenment. The Tyranids advanced as never before, but still Kelmon remained hidden in the Chambers of Starlight. Desperate obsession drove the Farseer now, and he did not heed how his absence caused his people to lose heart.