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I scanned the area and saw the numerous drop pods splattered against the surface and decide it was better if I did keep thinking about that. It only felt like a minute to get down here but that was okay, I didn't die and that was the important part. Plus my food cans were also okay so there was that too. If I needed more I could always just contact the ship, with the vessel I was able to keep in contract, probably because it was a lot bigger than the members of my brood. Therefore I could talk to it even on the surface of the planet and like tens of thousands of miles in the sky. I still wanted to test my range but that was a postponed experiment for later.

Shoving that out of my mind. I was having Centaurs yanking the trees out from their roots. This place was another jungle-like world, Typhon gave me the experience to recognize the climate and sighed. I didn't want to be back in a stupid jungle, in many ways I had to deal with the various hands I was dealt with. Constantly asking for new cards and taking gambles to see if things would only just work out in my favor. Never completely through, there always seemed to be complications and I was doing my hardest to prepare for the shoe to drop.

That was because I wasn't seeing any dangerous plants or wildlife here. My Gaunts had traveled everywhere in what I assumed was a mile radius and found nothing but some skittish animals. They were the size of cats and booked it from their dens in short order. I didn't relax because I was in an area that lacked large dangerous predators. After all, a colony fleet did come here and yet the whole thing got wiped out. Something had to have done that to them.

So Centaurs had been using their eminence strength to deforest the surrounding area and pile up logs as makeshift barriers for Termagant firing positions. The only exception was a few trees to give me shade. I would have to see about them trying to make me a house to live in later. Five patrols of Hormagaunts, Termagants, and sergeant variants patrolled inside the treelines while my Tyranid Warrior watched over the cutting of trees. Or more accurately having two Centaurs come over, shake, and yank the things out. They weren't redwood trees but certainly supple enough to take a hot minute to do but with twenty Centaurs working for the past hour I was going to have a couple of fortified zones prepared by the end of the day.

I really did mean makeshift though, literally logs just piled up like a pyramid for the time being. I would have dugouts made once I had the trees down and more permanent bunker-like structures make eventually. The Cruiser couldn't make any dedicated Tyranids burrow units so I would have to make do with what I had. The first three miles were going to be methodically locked down tight before I tried expanding outwards and really seizing control over the region. If there was something sentient on this world I was going to be fighting smart and not just trying to bury them in a wave of 'nids.

"If I have enough time perhaps I could get some more spawning pools down here and amass troops for a numbers game. But I'm getting ahead of myself. "

My troops also needed to eat, I was still assuming they were omnivores and could go long without sustenance. That didn't mean I wasn't going to organize some foraging parties once this base was established and the feeding tendril was down. For the time being the drop pods were edible, so might as well make use of them and pile them up for the Centaurs. It's what we would have to use for now before I find some fruit trees or something.

"Could Tyranids eat grass or is that just the digestive pools of the Bioships?" It was a legitimate question about the lore people didn't ask because they weren't in charge of managing a planetary takeover.

Something I could just test now will all the foliage around me and had two Termagants start munching away at the various plants on the ground. Centaurs were already doing the same with branches from the trees they tore off the ground. I'd also like to get these things cleared lit because in a Death world you never know when something is going to be dangerous. Which was kind of why I had just planted myself in one spot and kept at my thought. I had my Tyranid Warrior to keep things going and the sergeants to field test now that I had patrols fanning out in a perimeter.

The next thing I wanted to do was see how best I could break down and replant these trees. Farming this world to amass and maintain a force to protect me and my Hybrid's charges was equally as important as eliminating any threats to our survival. Just soaking up the Biomass here like using a sponge with water was not a sustainable long-term solution for us and I knew it. The Bioship's hibernation pods meant they needed less food but were still given nutrients. The Cruiser might be making its own food but eventually, the demand would outstrip production and my finite amount of troops would mean I'd need to get picky.

This world of biomass would be the solution for that, plenty to store and use if only I could make it work. I felt pretty confident at the moment but an hour or two into it I soon realized the impossibility of what I was thinking...


I remember seeing a post online wondering why the Tyranid Hiveminds never thought to just farm planets indefinitely. Surely that would be a better long-term solution than constantly stripping planet after planet of all its biomass. Yet now that I was thinking about it here I realized it's not that simple. When plants leeched minerals from the soil it's eventually taken up and eaten by a herbivore then either taken up by a carnivore then pooped out or rotted back into the soil when the animal is killed. Something I realized once I got to this lush world is that the moment I take any biomass from the world that's it. It's gone for good. I remember seeing a documentary in college saying that we do a lot with modern farming techniques to ensure that farms don't just leech all the minerals out of the soil and render it useless.

Those minerals the plants and animals use within this planet's ecosystem will be gone completely as soon as the Bioship slurps it up and into its belly. So things would grow back surely but slowly and less healthy than before. Even if I somehow found a way to make stuff here grow more readily and faster I would still be killing the planet just over a longer period of time.

That's the thing about Tyranids, they take everything from a planet and leave nothing behind. They don't even defecate and likely use up every bit of the minerals and biomass they can. So trying to farm a planet just wasn't possible because you needed to factor in that you weren't taking advantage of the ecosystem. But stripping it bare, as you were never going to be a part of it in the first place. The moment that tendril is down the Bioship I going to be leeching the life out of this planet, slowly but surely killing it and the legion of 'nids I wanted to form would only accelerate that process.

The only way farming a planet as Tyranids could work was if I legit landed the hiveship on the planet and made the digestive systems of all the Tyranids work less efficiently. That way my brood would be giving something back to the environment which would make having a fleet pointless and mean I'd have to limit the number of Tyranids I had. So I'd have to ditch being fleet-based and put myself at risk if or when I needed to flee the world and system.

"Tyranids are not just mindless beasts, they have a serious intelligence behind themselves. If they could just farm planets I doubt they ever would have left their home galaxy... Much less the homeworld they first evolved on." I murmured frustrated at my plan falling apart before it could begin. Yeah, it sucked but there was still plenty of biomass to fatten up the ship with and maybe even make some farms to feed myself and the Hybrids. "As soon as I figure out what is and isn't safe to eat and what can be grown..."

The Termagants formed a tighter circle around me and I could sense that they were responding to a threat. That got me frightened, had some gotten so close that my guards were able to sense it? So I tried expanding my mind onto theirs to get a better idea of what was coming and from where. Gunfire sounded out in the distance, snapping my attention to the opposite end of our landing sight. I ducked low and my Gaunts began reforming more to the west in response to my fear. Centaurs turned and hefted their cannons, dropping the trees they were holding but remained at their stations as instructed. It was bullets being fired I had been to a shooting range and seen movies to know what gunfire sounded like. It was quite loud and accompanied by screaming and obviously not from my patrols.

One had been attacked and another rushed to back them up, I ordered the remaining to keep searching for threats. The last thing I wanted was for something to slip on though while we were busy dealing with this. I felt voids begin to open up in the places where some of my Hormagaunts and Termagants had been, I was taking losses. So the planet had sentient life technologically advanced enough to have automatic weapons.

"Darn it all to hell, this place isn't going to work after all..." I quickly thought, believing this whole trip to be a wash after all.

However, having ballistic weaponry could mean a lot of different species both major and minor and I wanted it confirmed before jumping to any conclusions. I wanted the Gaunts there to just tell me what was attacking them but the combat apparently made any images back a no-go. All I have was that they were large. Which was incredibly vague especially when you didn't have any relative being to compare it to. So with serious trepidation, I kept low and had my brood of Termagants move with me quickly with weapons raised and orders to shoot at anything that wasn't Tyranid. The fighting wasn't that far off and eventually, I was able to make out a familiar phrase.

"WAAAAAAGH!"

It didn't take an expert in 40K lore to figure out who was screaming that out and with a sigh of relief. I had most of my bodyguards surge forwards to meet and deal with the Orks. I moved far slower than they did and soon enough the battle was over. I ordered my Hormagaunts to cut off the heads of every Ork there just to be certain they weren't going to spring up and shoot me.

Once there I found your typical Ork squad, about a dozen with more ax-wielding ones over the ones with machine guns. Their armor and weapons all looked like they were cobbled together by someone who didn't know what they were doing either. I knew better than to underestimate their craftsmanship from appearances alone. Their tall and bulky appearance was mangled here and there by deep lashes from biological blades, and spikes from the rifles. Over half of my initial patrol had been killed in the engagement but Gaunts were expendable creatures so I wasn't too concerned about casualties right now. The confirmation that these were Orks and this likely a Death World occupied by them was a comforting one.

Mainly because killing Orks was like eating skittles. In that you could rid the universe of as many of them as you like and never get a bad taste in your mouth. So I was pretty okay with the idea that the main enemy I'd have to fight would be the wildlife and Orks. Not that I was assuming this would be a cakewalk. Orks had a glaring weakness in that you kill their leader and the whole hoard would fall begin eating itself alive. Yet the warboss was also the strongest of the lot so in addition to finding them and getting them away from their fellows, the whole kill the warboss thing was actually harder than it sounds. But they were Orks and I was okay about genociding them off the face of this planet.

"I'm going to need to figure out their strength in the region and where any encampments were at." An important task I'd leave to the Lictors, I was about to get a dozen of them for scouting purposes, and having them fan out in every direction would mean they'd eventually bump into something.

"Wait... did those Orks find me by chance..?" It was a concerning thought to have and even with my luck, I doubted this group just happens across my landing zone. No, I had dozens of drop pods fall concentrated into this one area. The chances just one Ork would see it and bring his buddies to figure out what happened was high. That or a camp had sent them out to see what it was. Either meant I need to make an army fast but one spawning pool as large as it was couldn't possibly amass the forces I'd need as fast as I needed them.

Not with my track record with luck.

Getting another pooling on the surface was also going to take time, the tendril for feeding was still being formed and it would be a week before that was ready so no go there. I needed to immediately start building more troops, good troops to assist me in dealing with fortifying and a planetary conquest.

My eyes refocused on the Orks, they had a pretty long gestation period but were creatures created for war, and more than one could from just one body so there was that...

"I need... a Genestealer as quickly as you can make one and send it down here." The Cruiser began the process of gestation while getting the Lictors, Gargoyles, and Spore mines ready to drop. Yeah, it was great at multitasking. Orks could be Hybridized, they didn't make good infiltrators from what I knew about the lore but that wasn't what I wanted them for. Just a decent enough ground troop to grow en mass without the need for a spawning pool or collecting and using biomass. Just enough space for them to grow and in... However long it took for Orks to grow, I was kind of assuming a month or so...

"Every Ork I kill can be a body I use to make more troops and have them digested into biomass when needed." This wasn't going to be easy but hopefully I can last long enough to build up steam and take care of these Orks. A dangerous hope to be sure but that's why I was fortifying.

In time the Genestealer would arrive and thankful I caught a break with it simple to control and infect the dozen or so Ork bodies with as much genetic material as possible. Then I had them half-buried in the middle of a patch of trees, Orks were fungus-based life forms and should grow quickly in a moist jungle climate. In the meantime I could see the drops pods with my Lictors, Gargoyles, and mines coming down to-

My eyes widened and I tracked one of the pods as it slammed into the green floor. There was a familiar presence aboard it and not one of the many Tyranid bioforms I had asked for and hoped that maybe my telepathic link was just glitching out or something and he really didn't just follow me down here. I wanted to just stand under the trees and hope that maybe if I didn't go or and confirm it then it wouldn't be true. My life isn't as kind to me though and a bipedal human figure emerged from the pod. Staggering and disorientated from not being in the reinforced one I had made.

"Absalom!" I cried out injecting as much raw anger as I could into my voice he turned over and I could feel the regret radiation off him as he too felt my anger. Even if he was wearing a helmet with a visor I could sense his mind and even recognized those fancy clothes twenty yards away. I marched over, irritated to have been defied especially by him of all things. The closest one to a normal human I had, and perhaps the reason why he was able to defy my orders and somehow stow away with the second wave. My Termagant guards advanced with me and I had to force myself to calm down as they were starting to see Absalom as a hostile.

"What in gods name are you doing down here?!" I demanded once I was within a yard of him. The rest of the wings and explosive 'nids gave us a wide berth as they too could sense my displeasure.

"You forgot... Your weapon and some body armor." He said carefully and swung around the lasgun and dropped a patch of armsmen body armor, tied together with something string or something. He even took off the helmet to place it next to the bundle.

I did leave the lasgun behind because I didn't feel comfortable having a loaded gun with a power pack known for exploding when agitated inside the drop pod. Plus I had come to better trust my bodyguard's ability to keep me safe after they had almost starved to death watching over my sleeping form. I didn't bring body armor because I didn't think about it and even if I didn't I had my doubts that bulky stuff would do much.

"How the hell did you even get into this- Ugh!" I just threw my hands in the air in that overdramatic fashion seen in movies and TV shows. It was hard not to get up in arms about this, Absalom started to feel confused at this. I mean he meant well certainly but I didn't want anyone else at risk than me. Oh and now he was starting to feel indignation.

"You've got to be kidding me- ugh!" I wanted them to stay up there for good reason but now I had... Well just one extra gut to watch over and it's not like I can send him back to the Cruiser. "Stay close to me okay, this place isn't safe..."

Absalom complied like the bad Hybrid that he was, and I moved to inspect and order around my newest additions. I had the Lictors deployed in every possible direction to observe and report. Doubled up in the west where the Orks had come from. This also worked to test the range with some of my Tyranids. The Lictors would find something when, where, and how far would determine the necessity for how I would need to deal with it. Gargoyles would have to just sit around the middle of the landing zone or my command post. As they wouldn't be of much use with all these trees around. The spore mines would... Well, be mine I'd place once the first layer was ready. I was going to have three layers of dugout defenses and the living mines would be integral to that place.

They were odd things, I wondered how they even ate as they had no mouth. Or much sentience at all as I would, less living creatures than the Gaunts and could explode with serious concussive force and send out a powerful acidic mist. At least I hoped that's what they did, these things were pretty dangerous when I played Dawn of War 2 and I was applying much the same logic until proven otherwise. They would bunch up inside the remnants of some of the pods, the ones that weren't going to be eaten that is.

Once that was done and I was back under the shade of my trees. I leaned against one of the trunks and gave the most disapproving glare I could muster. "Now then, Absalom."

He flinched at the way I had said his name, setting down the armor bundle and rifle.

"Explain to me why you thought it appropriate for you to come here?"


Absalom tried offloading some story about him falling into the drop pod whilst trying to load the armor and weapon into the pod. We were telepathically linked though so I could easily sense he was lying to me. His recently made status as a none generation Hybrid had allowed him far more leeway in doing stuff like this.

So I grabbed his head and searched his mind. I got a better explanation of how he got past the other Tyranids, which was he waited for when the pod opened and then hopped in. Now he was on the surface of the planet with Orks on it and I could come under assault any minute now so there's that.

"I just supposed some armor and your weapon would be prudent to send down..." Absalom tried to explain away his actions but I cut him off.

"Instead of just loading it you decided to come along and defy my orders." He justified it as helping me so his brainwashing had allowed him to go along with it. Plus he wasn't like the other Hybrids, not a born generation but a normal human turned with the kiss.

He paused, trying to find the most tactful way of speaking to me that didn't seem like he was questioning my judgment. Kind of hard for him to do because I was still able to read most of his surface thoughts and feelings.

"I merely thought that some company was in order and I could aid you with any possible..." He eyes the Termagants and knew full well I had the troops to fight anything off. "Complications that requires a being with more of a human touch."

"That's why I'm down here with them." I said cautiously and he flinched under my gaze. There being just the Orks and I was so uncomplicated but Absalom's presence made it so much less simplistic. I had to keep him safe from any Orks, or just trust in any self reservations instinct to keep him out of danger but his willingness to come down here proved otherwise.

I still couldn't get why he was here though...

My mind wandered back to when I spoke with him on the ship. Absalom talked about it being nice to be a part of a family again. That he never had something like that before his father and even thanked me for it... Was that all brainwashing or was there a kernel of truth behind it? Did he really think he was spreading the love of a family and I was somehow to thank? This was all getting really complicated to think about and I wanted to just focus on the Ork problem rather than this.

"Okay, since you're here just stay close to me unless I say otherwise." I sighed as he perked up smiling but I gave him a disapproving look. This was not the behavior I wanted to encourage, even if some human company would be nice to have. "Now then, help me get this armor on."