vizn3r/warhammer40k-lore huggingface dataset:
Hive Fleet - Splinter Fleets: The scattered remnants of the great attack by Hive Fleet Kraken on Ichar IV during the Second Tyrannic War fled towards the galactic core, eventually driving within the Imperial defensive perimeters that had been erected to contain the Kraken. These so-called "splinter fleets" have, if anything, become an even greater threat as they feed upon unsuspecting and ill-defended worlds far from the major war zones.Running battles with the splinter fleets have continued for many standard years since Hive Fleet Kraken's passage, draining the galaxy's defences against later incursions. It is doubtful if the true extent of the devastation caused by the hive fleet will ever be known.Splinter fleets of the larger Tyranid hive fleets can comprise as few as a dozen Hive Ships, but even a dozen bioships are more than capable of overrunning a world and harvesting its biomass to become a yet greater threat. Some have become so large as to be classified as a new, distinct hive fleet. Indeed, Hive Fleet Magalodon grew from one of Kraken's sundered tendrils, and continues to ravage the Imperium to this day.There is no doubt that by this point the Tyranid Hive Mind has learned a great deal about the galaxy's defences from the actions of these splinter fleets. Every battle that a group of Tyranids engages in, whether they are victorious or not, only adds to the Hive Mind's growing depth of knowledge about its prey within the Milky Way Galaxy.Some Imperial scholars of a particularly melancholic turn of mind believe that gaining this information was the true goal of Hive Fleet Kraken's invasion. It is perhaps preferable to believe that the Hive Mind has planned this outcome in advance, than to believe that it has the strategic skill to turn even its greatest defeats into longer-term victories.
Hive Fleet - Hive Fleet Biomorphs: While completely organic in nature like all Tyranid biomechanical technologies, voidship-analogue Tyranid bioforms have evolved multiple weapon biomorphs that are quite comparable in effectiveness to contemporary Imperial voidship weaponry.
Hive Fleet - Pyro-acid Cannons: A Pyro-acid Cannon is a common biomorph weapon found on many Tyranid vessels that is comparable to a Macrocannon. A Pyro-acid Cannon fires concentrated balls of acid. While the range of these weapons is somewhat limited, their damage and firing rate is considerable and they have been responsible for outbreaks of fire in the sections of target ships on occasion.
Hive Fleet - Acid Spray Cannon: An Acid Spray Cannon is a rarer biomorph found on some of the Tyranid command vessels. Instead of a ballistic projectile composed of pyro-acid, the vessel sprays a torrent of pyro-acid in front of it in a short-range cone for a few solar seconds. While this "Drool Cannon" does not have the kinetic punch of the Pyro-acid Cannon in terms of instantly damaging a an enemy ship and cannot be fired as frequently as one, it is more flammable; ships caught in the spray often immediately catch fire on multiple decks.
Hive Fleet - Bio-plasma Cannons: The Bio-plasma Cannon is another common weapon biomorph found on many Tyranid vessels that is comparable to a Lance. This weapon fires a rapid stream of biochemically-created, superheated plasma at the target. It possesses a shorter range, a slower firing rate and lower damage output than a Pyro-acid Cannon. However, Bio-plasma Cannons are almost perfectly accurate and their plasma is fairly effective at punching through hull armour. The plasma can pass completely through Void Shields by an unknown method.
Hive Fleet - Nebula and Asteroid Mass Consumption: Some Tyranid fleets have been seen using asteroid belts and nebulas comprised of interstellar gas and dust to fuel their metabolisms. While inside such a nebula or asteroid field, the Tyranids have been observed firing their weapons at roughly double the normal rate, making it exceptionally dangerous for Imperial fleets to engage them in such environments.
Hive Fleet - Spore Shields: Spore Shields are a biomorph that essentially serves as a defensive Void Shield for Tyranid voidships. Tyranid ships do not use an energy-based defensive field akin to Void Shields or the Craftworld Aeldari's Holo-Field technology. However, larger Tyranid vessels have been seen using a biological equivalent that is comprised of a dense cloud of spores emitted from and surrounding the vessel, acting as a living, secondary shell of armour. These spores are also capable of attack; enemy ships that get into close range to a Tyranid bioship with an active Spore Shield will take damage as the spores slowly start eating its outer hull. The spores will also actively fire themselves at incoming torpedoes and fighters in a manner similar to that of point-defence turrets on Imperial voidships. Like Void Shields this protective layer can be overwhelmed by sustained fire, which then allows strikes on the "hull" of the Tyranid bioship. Like Void Shields, Spore Shields will eventually regenerate and reform once they are no longer being overwhelmed by enemy fire.
Hive Fleet - Tentacles: Tentacles are a melee-based biomorph sometimes found on Tyranid bioships. Several Tyranid bioship variants have multiple types of tentacles instead of weapons attached to the bow or "mouth" of the bioship. These tentacles are used to latch on and pull a target vessel closer to the Tyranid bioship, physically striking a ship to knock it further away or latching onto a ship to act as a boarding tunnel for Lictor squads that can proceed to infiltrate the vessel and initiate a ship-to-ship boarding action.
Hive Fleet - Devourer Claws: Devourer Claws are a biomorph that serve as a potent close combat weapon for Tyranid bioships. Several Tyranid bioship variants have been seen with no standard weapon biomorphs deployed on the bow of the bioship; instead they have an extremely large "mouth" accompanied by hardened claw appendages. These bioship variants demonstrate the fundamental goal of the Tyranids in void warfare quite clearly. They rapidly close with an enemy voidship and collide with it, their Devourer Claws latching onto the ship and consuming it over time.
Hive Fleet - Rapid Regeneration: Tyranid bioships have been seen to have exceptional regenerative abilities both in and out of combat.Every Tyranid bioship that can be classified as a capital ship analogue has been found to have onboard crew hatcheries. Tyranid bioships do need an onboard crew just like those of other starfaring species. However, when a Tyranid vessel sustains crew losses they can grow and hatch new crew members almost instantly as the need arises, including even during combat.Tyranid fleets have also been seen constructing hatchery-like structures in space in sectors they control. These hatcheries appear to be repositories of spare biomass and regenerative enzymes; outside of combat, sizeable Tyranid fleets use these void structures to rapidly regenerate critical damage to their bioships and fully restore their onboard crews of various bioforms.
Hive Fleet - Synaptic Link: Tyranid hive fleets have been seen to have a distinctive command and control structure. Each hive fleet centres around a command vessel, which acts as a synaptic link for the bioships of the fleet with the rest of the Hive Mind. When such a command ship is destroyed, if there are no similar synaptic link bioships nearby to maintain psychic command and control, the subordinate bioships of a hive fleet will turn uncontrollably feral and rapidly become completely disorganised, making them easy targets for enemy voidships to pick off. However, as long as these synaptic command ships remain intact, their subordinate vessels remain under the Hive Mind's perfect control; they have never been seen breaking or fleeing from their command vessel during combat.Such synaptic command ships are powerful psychic entities. Some have been known to emit a "psychic scream" -- this is a shockwave of psychic energy that can shatter the minds of enemy crews, making them flee the battle in fear. Hive Ships have also been known to emit similar, albeit weaker, screams akin to a death shriek upon their demise.
Hive Fleet - Sources: 13th Legion (Novel) by Gav Thorpe, Ch. 7Codex: Blood Angels (5th Edition), pg. 17Codex: Eldar (4th Edition), pp. 52-53Codex Heretic Astartes - Death Guard (8th Edition), "The Doom of Hesp," pg. 23Codex: Imperial Guard (5th Edition), pp. 18, 23-24, 27Codex: Orks (4th Edition), pg. 29Codex: Space Marines (5th Edition), pp. 30-33, 40Codex: Space Wolves (5th Edition), pp. 19, 21Codex: Tau Empire (6th Edition), pg. 35Codex: Tyranids (4th Edition), pp. 6-8, 24-25, 59Codex: Tyranids (5th Edition), pp. 8-15, 16-21, 23-25, 28-31, 38, 59, 66Codex: Tyranids (6th Edition), pp. 8-12, 14-24, 26-29, 32-47, 49-56, 62, 64, 71-75, 77-80Codex: Tyranids (8th Edition), pp. 37-38Deathwatch: Core Rulebook (RPG), pp. 341-342Deathwatch: Mark of the Xenos (RPG), pp. 33-34Deathwatch: Know No Fear (RPG), pg. 11Deathwatch: The Jericho Reach (RPG), pp. 170-176Iyanden: A Codex: Eldar Supplement (Digital Edition), pp. 45-47Warhammer 40,000: Planetstrike (Supplement), pg. 30, 54, 57-59, 74-77Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (4th Edition), pg. 163Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (5th Edition), pg. 166Warhammer 40,000: Rulebook (6th Edition), pg. 175White Dwarf 97 (UK), "The Ultra-Marines" pp. 40, 45White Dwarf 362 (UK), "Liber Apocalyptica: Trygons", pg. 46White Dwarf Weekly 37 (11 Oct 2014), "The White Dwarf Parade - Ironclad Dreadnought, Brother Crissica", pg. 78Lone Wolves (Graphic Novel) by Dan Abnett and Karl RichardsonPlanetkill (Anthology) Edited by Nick Kyme and Lindsey PriestleyPriest of Mars (Novel) by Graham McNeillLegends of the Space Marines (Anthology), "Orphans of the Kraken" by Richard WilliamsWarriors of Ultramar (Novel) by Graham McNeillThe Dread Sentinels of Dorn (Short Story) by Rob SandersForgotten Fleets - The Spore of the Alien: Xenos Threats ExposedDawn of War II (PC Game)Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 (PC Game)
Hive Fleet - Dreadnought Analogues: A Tyranid Ancient One is a class of bioship that has been seen very rarely. This gargantuan biomechanical entity is among the largest living organisms ever encountered by the Imperium. Roughly twice as wide and over twice as long tail-to-jaw as the Tyranids' Hive-class Battleships, the Ancient One appears to be a synaptically-linked high command vessel of sorts for the Tyranid swarms, operating in Tyranid naval operations akin to a Lord Admiral of the Navis Imperialis.While this bioship has not been seen firing any projectile weapons, it is host to a swarm of support fighter craft and uses an even stronger version of the "psychic scream" used by lesser Tyranid command vessels. This "Ancient Psychic Scream" can break the minds of the crews of entire fleets of enemy vessels simultaneously.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Hive Fleet Behemoth: Hive Fleet Behemoth was the first major Tyranid hive fleet encountered and defeated by the Imperium of Man. The ensuing conflict became known as the First Tyrannic War.The hive fleet was eventually destroyed in 745.M41 by the combined might of the Space Marines of the Ultramarines and the Imperial Navy at the Battle of Macragge.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - History: The first documented attack of a full Tyranid hive fleet upon the Imperium was at a small Research Station on Tyran Primus. The Tyranids overran this isolated outpost of the Adeptus Mechanicus with overwhelming force, and stripped the world of all life.By the time Inquisitor Fidus Kryptman of the Ordo Xenos arrived to investigate the strange planet-stripping phenomenon, it was already too late.However, the adepts of the Adeptus Mechanicus who accompanied Kryptman managed to gather vital information. Before being overrun, Magos Varnak had gathered information on the alien attackers into a data codex and hid it in a bore shaft, some 3,000 metres below the planet's surface, hoping that it would be recovered later by the Imperium.Analyzing the recovered information, Inquisitor Kryptman managed to warn the Imperium of the new xenos threat it faced. Honouring an ancient tradition of naming invading alien forces by giving them an appellation drawn from the great beasts of ancient Terran myth, this first Tyranid hive fleet was designated as "Behemoth."
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Occulus: The next world to fall was Occulus, a moon-sized observator station caught in Hive Fleet Behemoth's path as it pushed onwards past Tyran. The station was a bio-artefact claimed by the Imperium nine thousand standard years earlier and it was devoured, along with its Mechanicus crew.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Jagga: Jagga was the homeworld of the Ork Freebooterz known as the Star Krumpas. Their considerable fleet of Kill Kroozers, once a major threat to local Imperial shipping, fought the Behemoth in a great naval engagement but was eventually destroyed.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Fate of Thandros: Kryptman ordered his astropath to send a warning to the Imperium, but the psyker could not penetrate the Warp turmoil left by the passing of the alien fleet and its shadow in the Warp.Even the nearby Thandros Telepathica Booster Matrix was obscured. In desperation, Kryptman set course for the Thandros System in the hopes of re-establishing communications with the Imperium there.It was on this voyage that Kryptman realised the scale of the Tyranid threat. Following in the hive fleet's wake, Kryptman discovered a string of barren worlds that Imperial records indicated should be verdant and lush.Reviewing a solar decade's worth of planetary survey data from that region of space, Kryptman saw a pattern emerging. He was able to plot the hive fleet's course by the trail of dead and lifeless worlds it had left behind. There was no subtlety to the hive fleet's approach, no sense of strategic genius.It merely ploughed through the galaxy without stopping, devouring everything in its path with a rapacious hunger that would become its defining feature.Though Kryptman's starship made good speed, the Tyranids had attacked the Thandros System and moved on long before his arrival. Thandros was not as well-protected as Tyran, and was likewise overwhelmed by the seemingly endless numbers of biohorrors that flooded its cities and fortifications.The telepathica matrix was found to have emptied all of its turret magazines and burned out its defence laser crystal before being overrun. It was evident that Thandros had fought bravely, but its populace had nonetheless been slaughtered and consumed.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Solemnace: Solemnace is a Necron Tomb World ruled by the Necron Overlord Trazyn that lay in the path of two minor tendrils of Hive Fleet Behemoth.However, the Hive Mind recognised the enormous threat presented by the Necrons, so their bio-ships made major course corrections to avoid conflict with the Necron forces on Solemnace.Eventually, due to the inability of these tendrils to identify any biomass-rich prey worlds, these two tendrils of the Behemoth lapsed into hibernation.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Sybari: It was not only the forces of the Imperium that suffered great losses due to the arrival of the Behemoth.The world of Sybari, a Fortress World that served as the stronghold of the Death Shadows Renegade Chapter of Heretic Astartes, was also consumed by the arrival of the Great Devourer.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Battle of Macragge: The fighting was intense, and every battle-brother of the Chapter was deployed to defend the planet. Millions of Mycetic Spores were destroyed by the planetary defences, yet millions more got through and reached the surface of the world.Around the frozen northern laser defence batteries, Tyranid bodies stacked 10 deep. So corpse-covered was the ground, in fact, that one walked on them, and not on the frozen soil. The entire Veteran Ultramarines 1st Company was wiped out -- an enormous loss that the Chapter could ill-afford.In space, Inquisitor Kryptman was able to discover a weakness of the Tyranid Fleet: when one of the Tyranids' major bioships was destroyed, the surrounding bioships became unable to coordinate before the arrival of a similar vessel. Striking as hard as possible, and losing many ships in the process, the Space Marines were able to destroy the Tyranid Fleet.Unknown to the Ultramarines, Hive Fleet Behemoth was in reality separated into two forces, leapfrogging each other as they gorged on the worlds they invaded. The Ultramarines' victory at the Battle of Macragge had only destroyed half of the enemy's strength. However, the arrival of Battlefleet Tempestus, the major Imperial fleet of the entire Segmentum Tempestus, brought much-needed reinforcements.Still, the battle was only won when Dominus Astra, the Emperor-class flagship of Battlefleet Tempestus, sacrificed itself by charging deep into the bulk of the Tyranid fleet while its Warp engines were set to overload, creating a Warp vortex that dragged it and the Tyranid fleet to oblivion. This sacrifice allowed the Imperium to finally claim victory over the Tyranid threat, at least for a short time. The Tyrannic Wars had only just begun.It took a full Terran century for the Ultramarines to recover their full strength, and only now is the Chapter Banner of Ultramar allowed to be carried into battle forcefully once more by a full-sized Ultramarine Chapter.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Legacy of the Behemoth: The Ultramarines' Realm of Ultramar was deeply penetrated by the first Tyranid force to make contact with the Imperium, although the region lost only one of its precious worlds, Prandium.Despite only losing one major world to the rapacious xenos, many minor worlds of the realm were consumed by Hive Fleet Behemoth, and the damage was still quite extensive.It would take the Ultramarines nearly a standard century to recover from the loss of its entire 1st Company and much of the rest of the Chapter's forces, and the Imperial Navy also took a sizeable amount of time to recover from its losses. Also, the Tyranids left behind a deadly biological weapon in Ultramar: Old One Eye.Though Behemoth's threat to the galaxy had ended, the Hive Mind had sampled a significant amount of new biomass during its first major incursion and gained experience in facing the strategies and operational tactics deployed by the various factions of the Milky Way. It would also be many Terran years before its creatures were scoured from Macragge and the Ultramarines replaced their losses.After the Battle of Macragge, Hive Fleet Behemoth's survivors fractured into smaller splinter fleets that scattered in all directions. As these splinters absorbed biomass on their own, they soon grew large again, forcing the Imperium to deal with a variety of new Tyranid threats during the following solar decades.Nevertheless, the Imperium's leaders allowed themselves to believe that the worst of the Tyranid menace was over, until it became clear during the final century of the 41st Millennium that the scattered Tyranid forces being discovered on worlds in the Eastern Fringe were the precursors of two new hive fleets, Kraken and Leviathan.One splinter of Hive Fleet Behemoth made its way into the Adeptus Mechanicus-held world known as the Daugel Helix. Here the Mechanicus was able to use knowledge taken from the data-codex recovered from Tyran to give their cybernetic Skitarii warriors a fighting chance.The cohort commander Alpha 9-Thyrrc turned the tide against the Great Devourer by saturating a stratum of the atmosphere with gas from the planet's promethium refineries.After his Onager's Neutron Laser set the sky ablaze, each new wave of Tyranid spores was set aflame and incinerated the xenos already planetside instead of reinforcing them.Though effective, this tactic was stored in another Mechanicus data-codex, brought back to the Forge World of Accatran and promptly forgotten during the battles to come.Despite these dangers and losses, the Imperium also gained a vast amount of knowledge about the Tyranids during the First Tyrannic War. This knowledge helped the defenders of Mankind to face future hive fleets, which were soon to come, as the next threat to the Imperium was the arrival of Hive Fleet Kraken and the start of the Second Tyrannic War in 992.M41.
Hive Fleet Behemoth - Notable Splinter Fleets: Crimson MawCourt of the Nephilim KingKordex StrainHive Fleet Gorgon
Hive Fleet Dagon - First Encounter: The earliest encounters with what would eventually be designated Hive Fleet Dagon went almost entirely unnoticed by the Achilus Crusade High Command. The first Tyranid bioforms encountered were Genestealer hybrids, and the members of the planet's Enforcers that destroyed them thought them to be merely hideously deformed Human mutants.It was not until an encounter with a full-scale infestation on the Death World of Herisor that word of a new xenos threat reached the ears of the leadership of the crusade. Slightly over a standard year later, Battlegroup Argo returned to Herisor to find the landscape completely changed, and no sign of the pioneers or the members of the Adeptus Mechanicus. Once again, the troops of the Astra Militarum's Iaxian Tithe Guard, in this case the Iaxian 7th Regiment, were sent down to the surface to investigate what happened.Once they had made planetfall, the troops who had been there previously were stunned to find that in place of a barren wasteland was now a mighty tundra that stretched as far as the eye could see. The commander of the Iaxian Tithe Guard complement sent out scout patrols in all directions to attempt to find some trace of the missing group of Imperials.For the first solar hour or so, all was normal. No sign of the previous landing group, but nothing to indicate what happened to them. That's when all communication was lost, except for one broken transmission. The commander of the Iaxian guardsmen had his communication officer relay a message to the fleet in orbit, along with his plans for dealing with this new menace on the planet's surface. Receiving an acknowledgment from command, he proceeded to carry out his mission. The Iaxians were never heard from again.
Hive Fleet Dagon - Zanatov's Harbour: Zanatov's Harbour was named for the legendary Rogue Trader Corsair-Captain Zanatov. This planet was one he frequented on his trade runs coming in from the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy. At one point it boasted excellent voidship repair facilities, and the lack of contact with the Imperium made an excellent place for smugglers and other members of the so-called "Cold Trade" with xenos to meet up and swap goods.This all changed at the end of 812.M41. Early reports recovered after the fact state that many people saw what they believed to be a meteor shower in the night sky. No one thought much of it, as a meteor shower is often a good omen for voidship captains. Slowly the reports began to filter in. These were no mere meteorites that had hit the ground, but instead housed a more sinister cargo of Tyranid bioforms and reconnaissance organisms. The merchants and crew on the surface put up a decent fight, but were utterly outmatched by the lethal organic killing machines.Some managed to make their way to their voidships, but found that larger organisms were floating through the void, firing caustic projectiles of a biomechanical nature. None survived the onslaught of the ravenous beasts. All that were on-planet were devoured, their genetic patterns added to the primordial soup that comprises Hive Fleet Dagon's gene-pool. Ships in orbit were left abandoned.Most had had their hulls ruptured in hundreds of places by Tyranid bio-spores attaching to the hull that ate their way inside. Any ships not completely wrecked were now floating abattoirs, a sickening testament to the utter brutality of a Tyranid swarm on the warpath.So it was that Brother-Captain Kristoff and his company of Templars of Blood Astartes made their way to this graveyard of a planet. They expected to have to use the battle barge's bombardment cannons to clear the way of Tyranid vessels, and then deploy Thunderhawk gunships, as they would not be able to get close enough to use Drop Pods. What they actually encountered was something far worse.When the Blood Sword translated back into realspace, it found nothing but a dead planet. Every bit of biological material had been stripped bare from the planet's surface. Setting down in their Thunderhawks, the Templars of Blood began a thorough search of the planet for any clue as to how the massive hive fleet had arrived in the Jericho Reach. Realising that he could not take a full Battle Company off of the front lines, Brother-Captain Kristoff left behind a small contingent of his available Space Marines to continue the investigation.Currently, there has been no communication from the Space Marines left behind that day, but the commanders of the Orpheus Salient still hold out hope that some day there will be news that can help them turn the tide of this war.
Hive Fleet Dagon - Turning of the Tide: Backed into a corner by the ever-encroaching swarm of Tyranids, the Astra Militarum forces in the region began to retreat towards the Iron Collar. Lord Commissar Vance Theren and General Derian Arkelius pulled almost all of the guardsmen who were not already engaged with the Tyranids back to the Feral World of Treyen.Here, they determined, was their line in the proverbial sand. They would fall back no further and they would either die to the man, or push the foul xenos back into the Warp from whence they came.
Hive Fleet Dagon - The Bold Decision: Fresh from their successful defence of Treyen, the Triumvirate of the Orpheus Salient decided that they would now have to make a gamble on their next move. The Tyranid infestations must be wiped clean from the Jericho Reach, so as not to risk another splinter fleet moving somewhere else and continuing the destruction.Lord Admiral Anastasia Arkelius suggested that they concentrate their naval resources into one massive fleet and overwhelm the Tyranids at every encounter. Her brother General Derian Arkelius suggested luring the xenos to either an uninhabited or sparsely-inhabited world and just bombarding them from orbit.Lord Commissar Vance Theren had another idea. Battlegroup Cerberus would swing coreward and skirt the edges of the Orpheus Salient until they had reached the end of the push. At this point they would turn about and begin to give chase after the trailing edges of the hive fleet. Battlegroup Daedalus would move rimward and skirt the other edge of the salient. They would then hold position until they received acknowledgment that Battlegroup Cerberus were in place.At this point, the two Imperial fleets would converge on the Tyranids and make them pay for the suffering that they had caused the Imperial Crusade. Only time will tell if their plan is successful.
Hive Fleet Dagon - Morphology: The Tyranids of Hive Fleet Dagon are similar to those which were encountered during Hive Fleet Behemoth's assault in the First Tyrannic War. However, additional Tyranid bioforms have been observed among the forces of Hive Fleet Dagon.There have also been subtle changes within the appearance, but not the tactical role, of some of the previously identified Tyranid organism strains. These variations have included exoskeletal structures, colourations, and the most commonly observed weapon biomorph symbiotes used by the different Tyranid species.The most distinctive change shown by Hive Fleet Dagon is a variation in the hues of the different Tyranid creatures. The carapace on specimens from Hive Fleet Behemoth typically ranged from jet black to a deep blue. The unprotected skin of those bioforms was typically a bright red. In contrast, the exoskeletons of Hive Fleet Dagon's bioforms are generally dark grey or a blue close to that used by the Ultramarines Chapter. Where the xenos' flesh is unprotected, it is a burgundy colour.Weapon symbiotes employed by the various Tyranids also show a substantial change in frequency from those observed during Hive Fleet Behemoth's forays into the Ultima Segmentum. Specific instances within commonly encountered creatures are addressed below. Nonetheless, the consensus variants have been shown to be statistically different among parts of Hive Fleet Dagon.As this incursion has been in progress for less than five standard years at the time of this report, this may be an anomaly due to the environmental conditions and the defenders present on the worlds that have been invaded to date. This evidence suggests that Hive Fleet Dagon is a distinct entity from Hive Fleet Behemoth, but does not definitively confirm a separation between the two incursions.In addition to biomorph symbiote modifications, the Tyranids found within Hive Fleet Dagon have shown an increased propensity for toxicity. A substantial number of otherwise characteristic Tyranid bioforms have presented with venomous sacks near their claws and fangs. These toxins substantially increased the mortality rate among Imperial casualties within the Orpheus Salient. Further, these toxins have shown a substantial range of variation even within planetary environs. Imperial medicae personnel have been unable to identify an antiserum that works consistently against the toxins.
Hive Fleet Dagon - Distinctive Specimens: Several Tyranid variant strains have been observed within Hive Fleet Dagon that are believed to be completely novel. Of these, a few have generated legends and lore among the Imperial forces that oppose them.The Genetor Tech-priests of the Adeptus Mechanicus seem unable to discern whether these specimens are specific individuals of their species or entire variant strains. It is, however, clear that these examples are consistent in their tactical approaches and seem capable of learning from past encounters.Some reports indicate that members of these strain variants have returned to the battlefront after being slain in battle. It is unclear if this indicates that the Tyranids have a mechanism for resurrecting these bioforms, or if the later encounters are evidence of additional specimens.Dagon Overlord - First encountered during the brutal warfare on the world of Castobel, this specimen is believed to be a variant of the Hive Tyrant strain. The Dagon Overlord has been identified as active within many of the systems under assault within the Orpheus Salient. This monster is known for its malicious streak and its ability to drive lesser Tyranid strains into an even more hideous fervour than is typically observed. As is often seen amongst Hive Fleet Dagon bioforms, this specimen is exceptionally toxic, constantly dripping with venom.Mist Reaper - First observed on Xyan, this variant of the Lictor strain has been recently observed on other worlds of the Orpheus Salient. The Mist Reaper invariably works alone, generally long before Tyranid forces assault a prey world. This monster is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Imperial citizens who believed that they were safe, far from any conflict lines. Members of the Ordo Xenos' Divisionis Biologis postulate that the creature has a specific knack for overcoming Imperial security measures, though this has not yet been confirmed.What Lies Beneath - First identified during a hive city assault on Castobel, this horror is believed to be a variant of the Trygon bio-construct. Always accompanied by swarms of Hormagaunts, What Lies Beneath is characterised by attacks upon Imperial structures far from any battle lines. Reports indicate that this xenos nightmare is capable of burrowing through even the thick fortifications of plasteel and ferrocrete required by the foundation of an Imperial hive city. Imperial analysts are currently attempting to identify what draws the creature to its targets, so that they might find a means to isolate and eliminate the threat it represents.
Hive Fleet Gorgon - Hive Fleet Gorgon: Hive Fleet Gorgon was a Tyranid Hive Fleet which invaded the T'au Empire in 899.M41. The Gorgon was a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Behemoth that had been founded by those Tyranids who had survived the Behemoth's destruction during the Battle of Macragge and which began consuming poorly defended Imperial worlds to replenish its small numbers. By the time this splinter fleet made its way into T'au space in the Eastern Fringe of the galaxy, it had grown to become a full Hive Fleet in its own right. Hive Fleet Gorgon was relatively small in size compared to the other Hive Fleets that assaulted the galaxy, but it was characterised by an extremely rapid rate of adaptation to new weapons and tactics that was astounding even for a species renowned for its ability to direct its own evolution to meet new challenges. In response to the pulse weaponry and long-ranged tactics of the T'au, the Gorgon's primary strategy was the utilisation of smaller and faster-breeding Tyranid organisms to accelerate its evolutionary process. As a consequence of this strategy, the larger Tyranid biomorphs were few in number within the swarms of the Gorgon. Hive Fleet Gorgon was finally destroyed in 903.M41 at the Battle of Worldspine Ridge on Kel'shan by the combined forces of the T'au Fire Caste and the Astra Militarum.It is possible that this extremely rapid adaptability was an innate characteristic of the Tyranid strains that comprised Hive Fleet Gorgon. However, the truth may lie in the unusual nature of the Gorgon's foe. The T'au are no less dynamic a species than the Tyranids, always willing to adapt, though their methods are rooted in the flexibility of their technology rather than biological evolution. The T'au proved to be a very different kind of foe for the Tyranids, one less hidebound by tradition and doctrine than either the humans of the Imperium of Man or the Eldar of the Craftworlds. As such, Hive Fleet Gorgon may simply have had to adapt even faster to defeat this new kind of enemy.
Hive Fleet Gorgon - Adaptations: As the war between the T'au and the Tyranids progressed across T'au space, both the invaders and the defenders rapidly adjusted to their opponent's tactical shifts. Both sides tested each other for a weakness that could be exploited whilst preventing their foe from doing likewise. The T'au Supreme Admiral, Kor'O'Vanan, soon realised that only a fluid strategy that combined the entrapment tactics of the T'au Fire Caste's ancient Kauyon disciplines with the aggression of the tactics of the Mont'ka could provide victory. But tactical difficulties were just the beginning of O'Vanan's troubles as the Tyranids moved to adapt not just to the T'au's tactics but to their weapons technology as well. In response to the T'au's Pulse Rifle technology, the Tyranids restructured their biomorphs' carapaces, dramatically increasing their resistance to the Tau's energy weapons. In response, the T'au reconfigured their weapons to use either new or even older versions of the weaponry that the Tyranids had not before encountered and therefore could not have adapted to. However, each time they faced the T'au in combat, the Tyranid Hive Mind adjusted its biomorphs' reproductive matrices to meet the challenge with new phenotypes.During the Gorgon's initial assault on the forest world of Sha'draig, the ferocity of the Kroot Auxilia commanded by Shas'el Vorcah was decisive in repelling the Tyranids' first landings as the Kroot mercenaries proved more than capable of holding the swarms of Hormagaunts at bay. But the Hive Mind adapted and the second wave of Hormagaunts to assault the world were noticeably swifter than their predecessors, able to move through the planet's twisted foliage without fear of becoming entangled. Many thousands of Kroot gave their lives to stop this second invasion.When the third invasion of Sha'draig inevitably began, the Hive Mind had altered the Hormagaunts further, increasing the efficiency of the creatures in tearing through the thick hide of the Kroot. Unfortunately, this third wave made quick work of the forest world's Kroot defenders, yet the genetic changes made to the Hormagaunt biomorph weakened the creatures' own resistance to injury as the Hive Mind had traded thicker carapaces for more powerful musculature and speed. This allowed the T'au, using the time bought by vast quantities of Kroot blood, to blow them apart with their powerful ranged energy weapons.In the end, Hive Fleet Gorgon's extreme adaptability proved to be its chief vulnerability, as the rapid cycle of adaptation and replenishment of its forces forced the Tyranids to rely on their smaller, less complex biomorphs that could be bred most rapidly. The Gorgon had few of the larger and more potent Tyranid biomorphs at its disposal and those it did possess were not easy to replace. Once the T'au recognised this reality and made the elimination of these creatures a priority for the Fire Caste, the course of the war dramatically shifted in their favour.
Hive Fleet Gorgon - Strange Bedfellows: The last weeks of the T'au Empire's campaign against Hive Fleet Gorgon unfolded on the Sept World of Kel'shan in 903.M41. Even as the Tyranids had threatened T'au space, the T'au of Kel'shan had already been involved in a war against the 18th Cadian Army of the Imperial Guard. Once the Tyranids entered the star system, the commander of the Cadian 18th, Castellan Crask, temporarily ended his battle with the T'au and joined with their forces to shatter the Hive Fleet that represented a danger to every living thing on Kel'shan. The truce lasted only until the last Hormagaunt was slain, but such was to be expected from the xenophobic forces of the Imperium of Man.While the Gorgon had represented a terrible danger to the T'au Empire, by Imperial standards this splinter Hive Fleet had been only a minor irritant. Crask believed the T'au to be weaklings for having such difficulty in scouring such a small Tyranid force from their space since he did not realise how far the T'au had already degraded the threat by the time it reached Kel'shan. This misunderstanding of the situation was the primary factor in the commencement of the Imperium's Iron Hammer campaign against the T'au, which eventually escalated into the greatest confrontation seen yet between the Imperium and the T'au Empire.
Hive Fleet Gorgon - Future Peril: Despite their victory, the invasion of T'au space by Hive Fleet Gorgon would leave a dark shadow upon the future of the T'au Empire. Just before the Gorgon's final destruction, three Hive Ships had broken off from the main fleet of bio-ships and headed back into the intergalactic void beyond the galactic rim with elements of the Tau Navy in close pursuit. These Hive Ships carried within their adaptive genomes the full scope of the Gorgon's experiences in battle with the T'au. The T'au mistakenly believed that this knowledge could only be transferred if these Hive Ships survived to make physical contact with other Tyranid Hive Fleets that were moving on T'au space. This was not the case, and the T'au were likely to face further incursions from the Great Devourer that would reveal the true scope of the Tyranid threat to all forms of life in the Milky Way Galaxy.
Hive Fleet Gorgon - The Harvest of Ka'mais: In early 902.M41 dozens of Hive Ships separated from the main body of Hive Fleet Gorgon and descended upon the T'au colony of Ka'mais. Bitter fighting erupted as a fleet of Necron starships unexpectedly emerged from within Ka'mais' dead moon, which had been a secret Necron Tomb World, its undying inhabitants' long sleep disturbed by the conflict between the T'au and the Tyranids. The outnumbered Tyranid bio-ships were destroyed. This unexpected victory led to a day of celebration amongst the T'au on Ka'mais. Unfortunately, the Necrons landed a force on the colony world to be greeted in great ceremony by the honoured Ethereal Aun'taniel. The T'au had never encountered the Necrons before and thus did not realise that the undying machine race represented a threat as great, if not more so, than the Tyranids. Aun'taniel was slain by the Necron invaders, who immediately began harvesting all of the T'au on Ka'mais for their C'tan Star Gods. In response, the Kel'shan Sept's Ethereal Council ordered the evacuation of the remaining T'au colony worlds that lay between Ka'mais and Kel'shan.During the evacuation of the colony planet of Ho'sarn, the fleet was ambushed by Tyranid Prowler drone bio-ships. More than 300 T'au vessels were lost to the Gorgon in less than 3 hours. A small group of T'au ships escaped to the abandoned mining facilities on the edge of the Ho'sarn System. The survivors tried to fortify the decrepit residential buildings of the mines, but the improvised defences were easily swept away by the Tyranids that arrived on the planet 2 days later. Not a single T'au survived the Massacre of Ho'sarn.In mid-902.M41 the T'au engaged Hive Fleet Gorgon in the Battle of the Sol'ai Rift. Kor'O'Vanan's fleet engaged the Gorgon as it left the Ka'mais System. The battle at first went well for the T'au Navy, but they were forced to retreat after encountering a cluster of Ramsmiter and Razorfiend bio-ships that had developed immunity to the T'au's ion weaponry. Before the T'au fleet withdrew, they did succeed in slaughtering many of the Gorgon's Narvhals, hoping to buy enough time to fortify Kel'shan against the Tyranid onslaught. Not long after the battle at the Sol'ai Rift, the world of Roksh, the home of the Rokshashi Wealthweb merchant guilds, was completely consumed by the Gorgon. Several T'au trading fleets were lost in the Roksh System, including a secret T'au Fire Caste listening post on Roksh XVI. Meanwhile, Valroth's fleet had returned to the Kel'shan Sept's orbital shipyards. The fleet underwent major retrofits in an attempt to overcome the Tyranids' recently developed immunities to ion fire.
Hive Fleet Gorgon - Victory at Kel'shan: An Imperial Navy fleet, sent into the Warp more than 150 Terran years before to support the then on-going Damocles Gulf Crusade, arrived at Kel'shan unexpectedly in late 902.M41 after being trapped and delayed in an eddy in the Immaterium. Unaware that a Tyranid Hive Fleet was already assaulting the region, the fleet entered orbit of Kel'shan and besieged the planet. The commander of the 18th Cadian Army of the Imperial Guard that was carried aboard the fleet, Castellan Crask, led his Guardsmen in a planetary assault. Valroth's fleet, its modifications completed, left the orbital shipyards and immediately engaged the human besiegers. Not long after the Imperials arrived, the Tyranids entered the Kel'shan System and joined the already ongoing battle in orbit and on the planet below, initiating a short three-way conflict. But faced with a common enemy that represented a terrible danger to them both, Castellan Crask and Kor'O'Valroth agreed to an uneasy truce. Acting in concert, the Imperial and T'au fleets cut deep into the Gorgon's fleet of bio-ships. Tyranid casualties proved heavy, and almost all of the bio-ships were destroyed. In the confusion, 3 Hive Ships fled the star system. Kor'O'Vanan's T'au fleet pursued the Tyranids and fleet engaged the surviving Hive Ships at the Delmarra System. One of the Tyranid Hive Ships was destroyed but succeeded in luring the Kir'shasvre (Castellan)-class Fleet Carrier Firestar into Delmarra's asteroid belt where it was destroyed. Outnumbered and outgunned, the remaining bio-ships fled, drawing the T'au even further from Sept worlds that were now left unprotected.In early 903.M41 the Cadian 18th Army and the Kel'shan Sept's Fire Warriors purged the remaining Tyranids from that world. With the destruction of their fleet, the Tyranids no longer possessed any reproductive capacity on Kel'shan save for a single Dominatrix and a group of already-battered Tervigons. That reality, and the combined tactics and different weapons of the T'au and Astra Militarum, now prevented the rapid adaptation that the units of Hive Fleet Gorgon had displayed in previous encounters. As a result, at the final Battle of Worldspine Ridge in mid-903.M41, the last Dominatrix and Hive Tyrant of Hive Fleet Gorgon were both slain by combined Imperial and T'au forces. Though the alliance between the Imperial Guard and the T'au promised to break down into renewed combat almost before the last Tyranid corpse had grown cold, the terrible threat of Hive Fleet Gorgon had been ended.
Hive Fleet Hydra - Hive Fleet Hydra: A recent tendril of the Tyranid invasion, Hive Fleet Hydra drifts along in the wake of Hive Fleet Leviathan, seeking out defeated splinters of previous hive fleets in order to cannibalise them and absorb their genetic memory.The Hydra is a relatively minor hive fleet that some Imperial reports indicate was first detected entering the galaxy at its eastern extremes or from the galactic south; the discrepancy has not been resolved.Hive Fleet Hydra was prematurely awakened from its hibernation as it drifted through the intergalactic void towards the Milky Way Galaxy by Drukhari pirates who boarded several of the fleet's largest bio-ships in hopes of obtaining rare genetic specimens for the fleshcrafters of Commorragh.While the Hydra appears to be relatively small in size compared to the larger hive fleets that fought the Tyrannic Wars, this impression is deceiving; it is still capable of unleashing vast hordes of bioforms, burying its prey under sheer weight of numbers.When approaching a prey world, Hydra seeds its atmosphere with thousands upon thousands of spore clusters, each containing scores of dormant Hormagaunts and Termagants.When its initial invasion swarms encounter resistance, each slain organism releases a powerful synaptic pulse. Upon sensing this psychic death cry, the embedded spore clusters immediately release their living cargo.Instinctively these reinforcements converge upon the kill-signal, driven to a frenzy by the echo in their predatory consciousness. Thus, a single pack of slaughtered Gaunts swiftly becomes a cluster of swarming xenos bodies, which soon becomes a living tidal wave of chitin and flesh.On several occasions Hive Fleet Hydra has swept into sectors of space that have only recently repelled a Tyranid assault, falling upon and consuming both weary survivors and the carcasses of fire-gutted bio-ships, before disappearing into the void once again.Whether Hydra's unnerving generative capacity is related to this pattern of feeding upon members of its own race is a subject of heated debate amongst Imperial scientists.Many experts, most notably the famed Magos Xenobiologis Echros Van-Zendrech, have theorised that this development may signal the next stage in the Tyranid invasion -- an autophagic cycle that will unleash a new, more resilient wave of Tyranid bioforms upon the fractured galaxy.
Hive Fleet Hydra - Hive Fleet History: There are seemingly no limits to the swarms that Hive Fleet Hydra can bring to bear against its prey. To do battle with this nightmare is to drown beneath a tide of surging xenos bodies.