Swarm of War
Chapter 88
661.747.M41
Ultima Segmentum
Outside Ultramar
Hive Fleet Behemoth
The Great Devourer sluggishly pondered its path towards some hapless planet that its frayed senses could barely detect.
Genestealer Broods grew here and there.
Yet, none sent strong enough signals to truly entice the Hive Fleet if it had been unscathed from the previous engagements. However, given the devastating loss suffered at the hands of 'Ultramarines', the Tyranid Hive Mind felt a sense of desperation that it had not felt in a long time. Even at its most dire, a Hive Fleet would become dormant, but this was different. The Hive Mind felt genuine fear for its survival.
Some splinter fleets would be lost this way as the Tyranids forever foraged the stars for the next meal. The Hive Fleet already knew the presence of its lost splinter fleets. One such fleet went dormant as its biological clock ticked beyond safe measures once it had veered away from a planet controlled by 'metal things' that would provide too much resistance and zero sustenance. Others also went into dormancy once they could no longer navigate towards a suitable food source.
In fact, the Hive Mind sought to replenish its numbers once more through awakening some of these lost splinter fleets.
This was almost instinctive than of a deliberate design on the part of the Hive Mind, for this had been pre-programmed into its engineered genes. Thus, the Hive Mind sent out its psychic connection outwards in a tsunami of horrible screeches that could only be understood by other Tyranid organisms. Any human psyker caught in the direct path of this wail of desperation would have his or her mind shredded and brain boiled alive. Even the daemons of Chaos hurriedly stepped away from this wave of pure animalistic thought.
Weeks went by as the wounded Hive Fleet toddled its way toward the nearest solar system away from the pesky and resilient humans. The Hive Mind found the solar system void of what it needed, for the small red sun had but a handful of barren rocks, none of them sustaining life, even one as prevalent as that of the Orkoids. So, the Hive Fleet sent out more Narvhals to nearby areas, seeking to find some source of sustenance.
It was nearly six weeks after the Hive Fleet's arrival on the remote solar system that one of the splinter fleets seemed to respond, and it was in the general direction of a couple of Narvhals. This had greatly hastened the departure and travel of the Tyranid Hive Fleet. The Hive Fleet became impatient at the idea of replenishing its forces so that it could not choose edible systems at leisure. Then even as the Hive Fleet huddled around the psychically charged bubble around the last remaining Hive Ships for its journey, the nearest Narvhal caused a gravity corridor for the Hive Fleet to move through.
It took another eight weeks for the Hive Fleet to arrive at another remote solar system with six gas giants and nine rocky worlds, with just one of the worlds having traces of suitable bio-matter upon it. The mushroom forests of this small uncolonized world were quickly devoured by the Tyranid Hive Fleet. While the consumption of such a flora-based world was still enough for the Hive Fleet to lick its wounds and stop the bleeding, it was hardly enough.
Then the signal from the splinter fleet came again. This time, it had indicated that the splinter fleet had detected multiple worlds teeming with life.
The Hive Mind became agitated with excitement as it was in desperate need of nutrients, and this new finding was a boon that it had so craved.
The hunger was back.
It had been suppressed by the Hive Mind's deliberate choice as to not devour its dwindling creatures to satiate the desire to consume things. Now that it had detected food, the Hive Mind felt that irrepressible hunger once more. The genetic design for its cravings had increased in potency until the Hive Fleet diverted three more Narvhals towards the splinter fleet in an insane push to move faster towards food.
The signal became stronger as the Hive Fleet transitioned into the compressed space caused by its Narvhal vessels. The splinter fleet seemed to indicate that it was under attack and its few remaining vessels including the last remaining Hive Ship was hiding inside an asteroid field between the sixth and the seventh planets of the solar system.
The Hive Fleet had sensed that the signal from the splinter fleet was relatively weaker as if it was severely wounded. However, it also recognized the message embedded in that psychic message. Apparently, the sixth planet was a cold tundra world full of Orks and humans, while the fifth and the fourth planets were entirely human. The third planet had the Eldar signature somehow hidden from the humans.
Such news was encouraging. The Hive Fleet needed more food after all.
More days went by, and eventually, the Tyranid Hive Fleet had arrived in the solar system. It could almost feel the splinter fleet. There were psychic echoes of the Tyranid lifeforms scattered around most of the habitable worlds.
Yet, the Hive Fleet did not lose its focus as it sought out the faint signal from the surviving Hive Ship of the splinter fleet. It was not long before the Hive Fleet tracked the splinter fleet within the thickest part of the asteroid field. The Hive Fleet also detected Ork vessels patrolling around the asteroid field, though those ragtag Ork vessels were quite far away from where the splinter fleet was hiding.
Confident that it was safe to traverse the asteroid belt, the wounded Hive Fleet slowly waded into the sea of rocks and ice, ignoring the minor damages to the exterior of its few remaining Hive Ships. The billions of creatures that would have swarmed about the vessels as living shields could no longer be mustered and the Hive Mind was careful not to lose the biomass through such wasteful luxury. Instead, the four smaller Hive Ships huddled around in front of the single larger Hive Ship to shield the bigger vessel from the asteroids.
Several Devourer Cruisers, dozens of Void Prowlers, and hundreds of Razorfiends and Krakens milled about, taking out smaller asteroids even as the Hive Fleet blindly swam towards the source of the signal from the splinter fleet.
Then it had finally arrived at a small clearing within the asteroid field.
It was a strange location indeed, as there was a large empty chunk of space forming a jagged sphere. A human captain may have thought it strange. Yet, the Hive Mind was hungry and its gaze clouded by more than the simple hunger.
Across the clearing within the asteroid field, there was a great shadow cast by a planetoid that dwarfed everything else. The Hive Fleet sensed the gravity of the planetoid and a large hole within the celestial object. It felt the vessels of the splinter fleet hiding inside the hole of the half-broken planetoid.
Had a human seen the odd shape of the planetoid, he or she would comment on how it looked as though it was a giant fish with its massive mouth open. In fact, the hole in the planetoid seemed almost as if it was a maw of a giant creature.
Inside the hole of the planetoid, it seemed as if something ripped out a large chunk violently from the body of the giant rock and had left a forest of jagged stone pillars. In fact, that was exactly how it looked. The handful of light from the system's sun revealed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of giant rock pillar formations. They were easily a hundred meters in height and as thick as buildings at the base. Then the Hive Fleet detected the four Hive Ships hiding among some of the larger formations.
Slowly, the Hive Fleet Behemoth moved toward its lost vessels. The four Hive Ships seem heavily wounded, with gaping gashes bleeding freely into the void of empty space. There were still thousands of small flyers roaming around the injured Hive Ships almost like vultures, though the purpose was more like that of angry bees seeking to protect their hive. There were even thousands of cocoons stuck among the giant rock pillars awaiting the Hive Mind's call to wake. The synaptic network within the dormant splinter fleet was almost non-existent as if it was so severely weakened to the point of stupor.
Yet, the Hive Fleet Behemoth desperately needed those ships. Even four wounded ships were much better than none. Instinctively, the Hive Fleet sought to increase its numbers and waded into the unknown darkness between the strange stone pillars.
Omega Hive Ship 'Yggdrasil' – Zerg Flagship
"And scene!" I exclaimed as I bolted up from the flesh-and-bone throne that I had conjured to seat my humanoid avatar.
At my shouting, several slumbering presences woke up.
First to react was Mimir, a large worm-like creature with the face of an old man with twelve eyes on his forehead. This creature was basically a secretary, perhaps equivalent to Izsha from the Heart of the Swarm in terms of function. His name reflected this, as the name came from Norse mythology. In the mythology, Mimir is a being of great wisdom, considered the wisest of gods, and for this knowledge, Mimir was beheaded and his bodiless head carried by Odin, the King of Aesir.
While I did not separate my Mimir's head from his body, he could detach a tiny lump on his back that had a psionic organ that used quantum entanglement to communicate with its main body. As an avatar, this allowed me a secure and direct line back to my massive flagship, the Yggdrasil, and could wield its might as I would do with my own fingers. This was to somehow meet the need to supplement the psionic communication with the swarm so far from my main body back on the New Char.
Of course, like all Zerg, Mimir was not weakened by his giant worm-like body, which was mostly a giant brain encased in layers of the tough carapace. He had his mobility ensured by twelve pairs of legs, like a giant centipede, and on his back were six mounds within each living a modified Hydralisk whose lower body had been fused to the mound on Mimir's body. Each mound had a special function of birthing a new Hydralisk module when the creature dies every thirty minutes that it has been active.
This short life of the defensive Hydralisk was to provide greater firepower. By reducing its lifespan, the parasitic version of the Hydralisk could shoot eight spines every three seconds, and each spine contained a powerful explosive acid bomb coated in Warp Blade energy field. While born within the Yggdrasil and would never really see the outside of the moon-sized flagship, Mimir could technically be a disaster for his enemies. More than that, I had been experimenting with this style of creature.
The second to wake was the two-headed creatures with two personalities. Eitri and Sindri were strange creatures indeed. These were my gene-smiths, as much as Abathur was for Kerrigan. In Norse mythology, Eitri was the dwarf who had forged Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. However, other sources also named him Sindri. Having played the Dawn of War series as human James Raynor, I could not resist the name of 'Sindri' but could not leave the name Eitri to dust. So, I attempted an ambitious experiment to create a being that had two minds that worked in perfect harmony but still remained as a singular being.
The final result had been Eitri and Sindri. Their lower body was an amalgam of an Ultralisk and a Swarm Host. It had eight legs, four in the middle being those of an Ultralisk, and was the primary method of mobility. The other four had been the front legs of a Swarm Host, allowing the creature to quickly burrow underground. On top of this lower body were two nodes similar to that of a Swarm Host's body. Instead of multiple holes, however, the nodes only hosted one torso each, placing them side by side.
Torsos of Eitri and Sindri were similar to that of a Zerg Queen but with four fully active arms and hands instead of atrophied ones. Their torso blazed with an energy similar to that of a Protoss Archon, encasing them within a powerful shield of their own creation. Not only did they have a tough lower body protected by carapace and strong regeneration capability, but their torsos also had enormous reserves of shield, and they could transfer shield energy to each other. They attacked in similar manners as Protoss Archons also, spewing forth Psionic Shockwave from each pair of their hands. Of course, their range was far greater than that of a Protoss Archon, and the brothers could fire up to four such attacks at one time and at different targets.
Perhaps their weakness would be the giant sac of spare brains on the backs of their torso, covered in several layers of the regenerative carapace. Yet, those brains had such imagination. After all, they were harvested from the psychically talented children who were not that strong enough to be chosen as a hybrid program. Having approximately six hundred human brains on their back in total, the brothers had enormous computing power. After all, that was more than three times the number of human brains that made up parts of Mimir's body. Well, Eitri and Sindri were about the size of a two-floor house while Mimir was only about three train carriages linked up together. Still, with this brainpower, Eitri and Sindri were making and improving my creatures, including designing a creature out of Mimir's style.
"Master?" asked Mimir.
"It is done, Mimir! The Hive Fleet Behemoth is now as good as mine! Their last Norn-Queens are aboard their last Hive Ships. Their most elite creatures and the core of their gene bank are all aboard!"
My excitement had also affected the twins.
"We are greatly delighted, sir," started Sindri.
"We would welcome this development, sire," finished Eitri.
I looked at Sindri and Eitri.
"You have been specifically created for this moment, and your task is upon you. Yggdrasil will devour the remaining Hive Ships and the Behemoth will be no more."
At my single thought, the Yggdrasil awakened.
Hive Fleet Behemoth
At first, the Hive Fleet did not understand what was happening.
All of sudden, a great heat poured out from the dark end of the massive cavern and the forest of rock pillars shuddered.
The Hive Fleet would not leave its four injured vessels and immediately attempted to extricate them with tendrils of their Hive Ships. Unfortunately, in the delirium of unexpected changes in its circumstances, the Hive Fleet had fallen into indecision.
Darkness descended into the strange asteroid, and the Hive Fleet sought the cause, only to see a pair of massive curtains of darkness closing up around the field of rock pillars. It was as if a giant creature was closing its incredibly massive mouth, and the Hive Fleet was staring at the closing of its lips.
Darkness enveloped the Hive Fleet and it panicked.
It was not the absence of light that had affected the Tyranid Hive Fleet, for the species had long braved the eternal darkness between galaxies, where no starlight could be seen. Yet, it instinctively knew that this was something else. Perhaps there was an animalistic instinct against danger, or perhaps it still had enough of its alien intelligence left in its gestalt consciousness to recognize the unnatural nature of the current predicament.
The defensive instinct had corralled the Tyranid flyers to form tighter formations around the Hive Ships, with stronger synaptic pulses guiding their flights even in the utter darkness. Almost two thousand Tyranid Shrikes had led the million-strong Gargoyles, and they spread out to form a layer of ring around each Hive Ship. Several hundred Hive Crones and almost a thousand Harpies dispersed themselves around the Hive Ships.
Of course, such a number was unthinkable for the Tyranids, as their usual numbers would easily be in the tens of millions of Gargoyles and tens of thousands of greater creatures for EACH Hive Ship. Now, they were reduced to merely a million Gargoyles for the seven Hive Ships, not including the four still stuck on the rock pillars.
Then came teeth.
There was a small glow that appeared several hundred meters from a Hive Ship.
Then another appeared.
Then another.
Until there were thousands of glows as if a swarm of fireflies was coming upon the Hive Fleet.
Yet, these were not fireflies.
These were teeth and maw.
CRUNCH!
The first set of glowing teeth found its mark and bit into the thick carapace armor of a Hive Ship.
Then came the understanding.
Tens of thousands of massive creatures, with razor-sharp teeth glowing in an eerie energy field, came upon the Hive Fleet. In the utter darkness, that glow seems so surreal and yet so bright. The Hive Fleet only saw the teeth but mere hundreds of meters from their hull. These creatures were sneaky indeed as they had only opened their maw just before they struck upon the Hive Ships.
From every conceivable direction came these teeth, and in their own glow, they had revealed each other. These were giant creatures, of worm-like bodies and covered in layers of chitin armor, and whose maw was covered in teeth.
Flying creatures of the Tyranid Hive Fleet reacted almost instantly, throwing their own flesh against these attackers. Yet, the creatures coming upon the Hive Fleet were large. Each of the maws could easily swallow a Harridan whole and that meant such small creatures as Gargoyles could not hinder the incredible velocity of these strange enemies.
Another maw bit into a Hive Ship.
Tyranid flyers went into a frenzy in their futile attempts to stop these creatures.
Yet another maw sank its teeth into a Hive Ship.
Harpies and Harridans assailed these worm creatures and Shrikes formed swarms to attack the worm creatures' bodies.
Crrrraaaa! Crraaaa!
The worm-like creatures had their own defenses.
Along their central line, these worm-creatures had flared up their scales and revealed tube-like formations positioned every few meters along with their long bodies that stretched more than a kilometer. From these tubes came green-glowing orbs that flung themselves at Tyranid creatures.
Splat!
Each of such orbs exploded in a small shower of acid and bacteria so dense and so aggressive that Gargoyles had their chitin almost instantly melted and their flesh devoured. The acid worked to enhance the aggression of the bacteria and they worked together to convert the flesh of their target into small pockets of flammable gas that instantly ignited. It was these explosions that literally shredded the Tyranid Gargoyles into tiny pieces.
Tyranid Shrikes reacted quickly and moved their squadrons away from the two main spines of these tube-like turrets around the worm-creatures. Even as more and more maws bit into Hive Ships, some of these worm creatures fell, their bodies too damaged or cut in half by the assault by Harridans and Harpies or even the Hive Crones.
Hive Crones fired their Drool Cannons and melted the thick carapace of worm-creatures and melted down the tube-turrets that formed its defenses. Then came the waves of Tentaclids, the living missiles of Hive Crones, which came upon a single point in the length of a worm-creature and exploded in a spectacular display of explosions.
Harpies fired their Heavy Venom Cannons in twin-linked fashion or Stranglethorn Cannons, both being quite effective against the chitin scales of their enemies. The tube turrets around the spines of worm-creatures did hurt those larger Tyranid creatures but were not enough to easily take down such creatures in equal ease as against Gargoyles.
Yet, there were too many worm-creatures and they were too tough overall. It took three Hive Crones to bombard a worm-creature to take it down even as more and more worm-creatures came out from the darkness.
The Hive Fleet focused more of its attention against these worm-creatures, and the million-strong Gargoyle squadron began to throw themselves against these creatures as if they were blades upon a chainsaw, grinding down the creatures. It worked as several hundred worm-creatures were slain including several of those that had already latched onto a Hive Ship.
Struggles did not end, however.
Even as more and more worm-creatures appeared out from the darkness, they brought with them new creatures. These were smaller creatures, slightly smaller than Gargoyles, and made of nothing but a set of teeth and a pair of wings. These creatures formed a layer of the zone around the head of the worm-creatures and followed their movements. They crashed into the swarm of Gargoyles intercepting the worm-creatures.
Then they exploded.
These tiny wing creatures flung themselves directly at Gargoyles or Shrikes and exploded. Their explosions showered the surroundings with a flare of acid and toxin that almost instantly converted into an explosion of deadly impact. Several Gargoyles were taken out by each of such explosions, and the synaptic backlash from every time a Shrike fell began to affect the coherence of the Gargoyle swarm.
This was not the end.
The flapping of wings came from thousands of creatures.
The Hive Fleet recognized those winged creatures.
The Hive Fleet now knew who the enemy was.
The wings were of the 'Mutalisks' as humans had called them.
The enemy was the Zerg.
Within the massive mouth-cavern of the Omega Hive Ship Yggdrasil, the last vestige of the Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth was being attacked by the Zerg in a desperate fight for survival.
Thousands of Nydus Worms were deployed from within the depth of the Yggdrasil's mouth, all of them specially developed to punch into the thick carapace of the main Tyranid Hive Ship. The first wave of thousands bit off chunks of the Hive Ship and tore flesh and blood and bile from the massive Hive Ship, now so vulnerable. Then the next thousands finally chewed their way through into the outer layers of the Hive Ship's body.
The connection was made.
Through the long and flexing throat of Nydus Worms appeared Zerg in all their hounding glory.
Leading the charge were always Zerglings and their variants.
Squads of Zerglings led by Raptors spewed out like the flash flood upon a desert. Alpha Raptors roared as Raptor squads exerted even greater cohesion of Zerglings that swarmed through the flesh-corridors within Tyranid Hive Ships. Roaches in their thousands skittered among the sea of Zerglings and they crashed through what measly initial defenses held by various Gaunts. Then came Hydralisks and their numerous variants.
Scores of Command Slayers held tight leashes upon their subordinates. Cerberus Slayers and their three heads rained down spines while Brawler Slayers cut their way through entire flesh walls within Hive Ships. Hydralisks moved in their squadrons and took down any target deemed dangerous.
All in all, tens of millions of Zerg poured into Tyranid Hive Ships.
The Swarmlord, freshly birthed, howled in desperate rage as it shook the mucus off its Boneswords. Thousands of elite Tyranid creatures screamed in unison as the Hive Ship felt the forest of fangs buried itself into the flesh of the Tyranid vessel.
The thick and dense chitinous armor of the Hive Ship had been shattered so easily under the sheer pressure of the moon-sized creature biting down upon the Hive Fleet. Within the dying Hive Ship, the Swarmlord had appeared as a reaction as desperate and critical as the human body releases adrenaline in key moments.
Against any wound in a body, antibodies would react instantly, and thus was the reaction of the Hive Ship against the attack. It was also because hundreds of powerful tentacles had appeared from among the roots of the forest of fangs. These tentacles had dug into the cracks of the chitinous armor and began pouring in strange foreign creatures.
The Tyranid Hive Mind recognized the enemy.
It had fought these 'Zerg' on many worlds, and as recently as on the Ultramarine Homeworld of Macragge. When the Hive Mind had first encountered the Zerg, it had felt a strange kinship to a fellow biotech lifeform that had such similarity to itself. There was an obvious hostility that was the baseline of the Tyranid psyche against a rival, just as Necrons and the forces of Chaos had been so. Yet, the Zerg had been something even greater in threat, for the way of war for both species had been so similar and so different from other local life forms such as humans of the Imperium or Orks.
The hunger for such genetically similar and yet different species was almost overwhelming. During the fight upon the ruined surface of Macragge, the Hive Mind had ordered the capture and absorption of many Zerg creatures, only to feel a poisonous effect upon its digestive tract. Entire Reclamation Pools were corrupted by having several hundred Zerg creatures dropped into. Rippers screamed as their bodies warped and strange disease struck the very flesh and tendons within their bodies.
Eventually, the bodies of Zerg had to be ground down to mere amino acids and no genetic materials could be used, and this had meant that the Tyranid Hive Mind had no understanding of the Zerg on the genetic level. Adapting to fight the Zerg was going to be difficult, to say the least. Still, a Swarmlord was created in reaction to the invasion.
Other Hive Ships quickly produced Alpha-level Hive Tyrants, not having the resources or the willpower to create a Swarmlord of their own to rally meagre defences that could be mustered. These leader creatures would strategize against the invading Zerg.
The Swarmlord of the primary Hive Ship growled as it psychically directed its creatures against the open wounds of the Hive Ship. Then it led a small group of several hundred most powerful creatures towards the chamber of the Norn-Queen. Being the strategic mind for the Hive Fleet, the Swarmlord had quickly estimated the reason for the Zerg's reluctance to simply kill the Hive Ship and crush everything within.
The Zerg wanted to absorb the Tyranid genes, especially the pure genetic fluid flowing through within the Norn-Queen at the heart of the Hive Ship. It was something that the Swarmlord could not allow to pass. With the Norn-Queen captured and devoured, the enemy would become more potent than ever. The Swarmlord knew this and moved to prevent such occurrence.
Obviously, the chamber of the Norn-Queen was well protected. Even so depleted, the birthing chamber of all Tyranid lifeforms would not be left bare. Hibernating within the chamber were several hundred Hive Guards and Tyrant Guards. Several hundred Tyranid Warriors slept around the chamber's outer edges with a collection of Raveners, Lictors, Genestealers, Hormagaunts, and Termagants forming a team with each of the lonesome Tyranid Warriors while some Tyranid Warriors formed groups of their own.
Outside these chambers were intense battlefields of death and violence of unimaginable scale. There were no battle lines or organizations anymore. It was a mass of creatures biting and clawing almost at random, as enemies were all around. Dozens of different acid types dissolved creatures in their hundreds while exploding psychic and psionic powers shattered and imploded entire battalions of creatures.
It was into such chaos that the Swarmlord drove its sharp tactical acumen like a finely honed blade.
The Swarmlord commanded sixteen Tyranid Guards to charge through the field of mounting corpses to make way. These creatures were psychically charged as a dozen Zoanthropes poured their power into the flesh and bones of these living tanks. Indeed, they crunched their way through and above the layers of corpses, both Zerg and Tyranid. Living combatants have been knocked aside or crushed by this charge, and the maddened combat paused for a moment.
It was this moment that the Swarmlord had been waiting for. It roared and four Maleceptors came out from the flesh walls of the massive hall that led to the birth chambers. This had cut off two of the seventeen corridors that the Zerg had been using to pour into this hall. Maleceptors' might psychic field simply turned any Zerg near them into finely minced meat.
Then came scores of Pyrovores that poured fire into three corridors, further reducing Zerg reinforcements into this valuable strategic location. From above dropped eleven Toxicrenes and twenty-nine Venomthropes, each so rare to see on a planetary invasion yet available here in their dozens. The fumes of Tyranid poison wiped out thousands of Zerg and Tyranid alike and made enough space for several hundred Raveners to pop out from their little holes on their floor, mutating into tunnels within minutes.
The battle was not won yet as the Zerg did put up a vicious fight.
Dozens of Brawler Slayers tore through several hundred Hormagaunts within seconds and engaged the Raveners while Beetle Roaches with their thick carapace withstood the Pyrovores' flames. Banelings leaped at Maleceptors, intentionally dying in mid-air so that their explosive acid would be sprayed upon the elite Tyranid creatures.
Toxicrenes and Venomthropes met their match in Defilers and Infestors. Thousands of Infesteds were spawned every minute even as they decayed and died within the toxic clouds that choked up an entire section of the hall. Then came the waves of Plague Toxins of Defilers that turned entire squads of Tyranid creatures into mush even as the Fungal Growth turned those dying Tyranid creatures into mounds of explosive fungal infection.
Tyranid Warriors engaged Hydralisks even as hundreds of Lictors and a dozen Dimachaerons waded through the combat to hunt the leading creatures of the Zerg Swarm. Even as Dimachaerons found their target, Zerg Hunter Killers locked their mighty claws against the Tyranid assassin creatures. Cerberus Slayers rained down even more deadly spines upon Tyranid creatures.
Even the Swarmlord had to engage in combat as four Pygalisks charged at it. While much smaller than actual Ultralisks, these Pygalisks were not so cute as their name may indicate. They were still as large as a Tyrant Guard, and moved and acted in a similar manner except for their much deadlier claws. The smaller Kaiser Blades were still encased in deadly Psi Blade, capable of blocking the Swarmlord's Boneswords.
The crackling potency of the Swarmlord's Boneswords had easily sliced through most Zerg creatures not powerful enough to have their own shield. Even Beetle Roaches with their enormously thick and tough carapace could not withstand four Boneswords cutting through at molecular level. However, Pygalisks were a different sort. They were large enough to contain multiple Khaydarin Crystals within their bodies, amplifying whatever psionic powers that they had. These appeared both as shields and as Psi Blades covering their Kaiser Blades.
"Crrrraaaaah!"
The Swarmlord screamed in frustration as it finally tore apart a single Pygalisk while others continued to hound it, thus holding it at bay while the Zerg refocused their attack to punch through this last defense before the birthing chambers. A Hunter jumped at the Swarmlord. After all, a Hunter was a Hydralisk variant designed for a similar role as a Dimachaeron, to take down the enemy leader, therefore a Swarmlord was what a Hunter was made for.
Indeed, it was such an ample creature for such a task. It had been invisible until the very moment before it had leaped at the Swarmlord's face. It had launched its tentacles and aimed them at the Swarmlord's eyes, seeking to blind the Tyranid leader creature. Yet, the Swarmlord was never alone. Even as the Swarmlord detected the Hunter, a dozen Purestrain Genestealers jumped at the Hunter, tackling it to the floor.
From surroundings appeared more Hunters, each as much invisible until that moment. They were met by Genestealers. Claws of Genestealers were sharp and though a Hunter was stronger, faster, and deadlier one on one, Genestealers were many. Seven Hunters were surrounded by almost thirty Genestealers and they tore each other apart within minutes.
This was yet another card that the Swarmlord had lost in this insane clash of flesh and claws. Corpses of both swarm species piled up fifteen deep as both sides fought over the entire carpets of dead creatures. The Swarmlord climbed up a particular mound that it had made with Pygalisks but was quickly assailed with a rainstorm of spines from four Cerberus Slayers. A wall of Ripper swarms rose up before the Swarmlord to protect this vital creature from the attack even as the Swarmlord ducked and fled into the ranks of its own creatures.
Scores of Hive Guards appeared from holes high up in the walls and fired upon the Zerg with their Impaler Cannons with deadly accuracy. Cerberus Slayers returned fire but Hive Guards were too many and the rest of the hundred-strong Hydralisks were busy engaging a wave of Hormagaunts and Termagants led by four Tervigons.
Tervigons were the primaries in the Tyranid Hive Ships' defense mechanism, and they roamed in great numbers within the main Hive Ship. While rare on planetary invasions, the Zerg encountered several hundred of them within the first hour, and such occurrences increased as the Zerg burrowed deeper into the Hive Ship. Tens of thousands of Termagants spewed out from beneath Tervigons and then came an even greater number of Hormagaunts.
Zerglings were outmatched by this combination as Zerglings were about at par in combat and in numbers as Hormagaunts but not when Termagants were added on top. These Termagants were often dealt with by Roaches or Infesteds or Hydralisks, but compared to Roaches or Hydralisks, these Termagants outnumbered the equating Zerg creatures fifty to one.
Indeed, even as a fresh batch of Hydralisks, Roaches, and Zerglings appeared from still-open corridors, more Termagants blocked their way in with a flood of Borer Beetles from their Fleshborer weapons. Of course, the Zerg retaliated and countered this by sending Banelings of a special strain. These armored Banelings not only leaped at its enemies but exploded into a burst of shrapnel. Each shrapnel was drenched in acid and encased with decaying Psi Blade, easily puncturing through most creatures.
Such a fight continued for weeks.
For a desperate beast is a dangerous one indeed.
Even in the darkness of being swallowed up, chewed, broken and drained, the Tyranid Hive Fleet was not so easily devoured.
The Zerg wanted what was within the birthing chambers and its Norn-Queens, and the Tyranids did not wish them in there.
Both fought and died, clogging the once-massive hall thick with corpses, slowly dissolving in various acids they had sprayed.
Tyranids did attempt to absorb the biomass to grow more, and they had succeeded in replacing quite a few creatures. Yet, the speed of birth, where it should have been enough to rebuild entire armies, had slowed due to the strange maladies that disrupted the gestalt mind's concentration.
A little chaos that was introduced to order.
And it was enough.
As days passed, more and more of the Hive Ship was taken over by the Zerg. Indeed, the Hive Fleet was parked within a Zerg ship, and the Zerg had come prepared for this very encounter.
As the 722nd hour passed since the initial engagement began, the Tyranids began to dwindle in their numbers. Even their once-mighty strength of infinite creatures had waned and dithered.
Norn-Queens were running low in nutrients and even as the Hive Ship began to tap into its reserves and ate through its own internal organs, they kept dying. Of course, if they had the time, it would not have mattered, for so many creatures were dead and stacked neatly in halls surrounding birthing chambers. Yet, the speed of reabsorption could not keep up with the spending.
They only needed some breathing room to begin digesting these dead Zerg and dead Tyranids.
The Zerg Swarm did not give such leniency.
This was truly the first time that the Tyranid Hive Fleet was the one that was being outmatched with overwhelming numbers. The Zerg Swarm kept coming. They just kept coming and in greater numbers. The Zerg Swarm adapted, deployed multiple tactics and weapons, and they kept rushing.
At the 788th hour, the newly erected chitin and bone walls of the primary birth chamber were being breached.
The Swarmlord, wounded and healed over fifty times in the past 32 days, had retreated to this chamber, where Norn-Queens huddled together in their final desperate effort to stay alive.
They were making their last stand, a situation that the Tyranid Hive Fleet had never really encountered before. However, even the Hive Mind was under assault and was weakening.
The Hive Mind was still a gestalt mind created from the billions of creatures linked in a giant network of psychic connections. It was like a bio-computer with a complex neural network if such a network was based on psychic connection as well as physical. While the Swarmlord and Norn-Queens were alive, they remained as the focal points for the Hive Mind to remain coherent, but without the billions of tiny minds to add to the overall computational power of the Hive Mind, it began to dwindle.
Moreover, it was being attacked from outside. The Hive Mind was being assaulted by something that was similar to it but greater and more singular in nature.
The Overmind was invading the Hive Mind from every angle, both physically and psychically. While the Hive Mind continued to create layer upon layer of defense, it was a matter of time before the Overmind would breach the core of what constituted the Hive Mind.
Omega Hive Ship 'Yggdrasil' – Zerg Flagship
"You know, this reminds me of a scene from that movie… What was it? Ah, Matrix 3? Where they defended the hanger bay or something from the swarm of machines. Yes, that's the scene that this reminds me of."
I mumbled as a large portion of my attention continued to form a massive psychic assault against the Tyranid Hive Mind. Even with its creatures now dwindling to merely a billion or so, the Hive Mind held. Clearly, the Hive Mind was not just a simple gestalt mind that would have dissipated once its creatures were killed off. While it became sluggish, it had lost none of its potency. It seemed to have collected and stored a vast amount of psychic power from its own creatures and those that it had devoured.
It is not a wonder that such a mind was powerful enough to cast the infamous 'Shadow in the Warp' across such a massive area. Yet, I now knew that its focus points were Norn-Queens, which were both the birthing creatures as well as a major synaptic node.
A tiny fragment of my attention flittered back to the scene at hand. My Banelings were being poured into a single hole that my creatures were digging into the side of the reinforced birthing chamber. The Hive Mind had quickly set up about a hundred layers of chitin and carapace and dozens of hard crystalline bones to wall up the birthing chamber. Within the chamber, new creatures were being birthed just to combat the incoming flood.
Of course, the rest of the Hive Ship was still only about half controlled by my Swarm. There were still about a billion creatures within the main Hive Ship after all. Other Hive Ships were in similar situations, and their lesser Norn-Queens were also holed up in reinforced chambers.
What I wanted was the primary Norn-Queen in the main Hive Ship. She was probably the mother of this particular Hive Fleet. The genetic knowledge that she would have under her flesh was like a thousand Christmas gifts given at once.
I was almost giddy with anticipation as more Banelings killed themselves against the single hole that was being drilled.
-Having trouble, honey?-
My gaze turned to the translucent image of my dear consort, Alena the Witch Queen, my Queen of Blades.
"No trouble at all, my queen. It was all as expected and planned for."
-I was just wondering if things were going fine. My task is done.-
"All pieces picked up and cleaned out? Ultramarines, having such ancient reinforcements was unexpected so they will survive, but not others."
-No. Others have been thoroughly weakened. Of many Second Founding Chapters of Ultramarine stock, there were only a few who stayed near Ultramar.-
"Now there are fewer. Which did you deal with?"
-Sons of Orar are gone but for a single company that had stayed on Macragge. Genesis Chapter and Praetors of Orpheus had returned to their Homeworld gravely wounded, barely two companies each. Heralds of Ultramar are gone but for thirty or so Astartes left upon Macragge.-
"Well done. With this plan done, both the Imperium and the Tyranids have suffered, and we reap its benefits."
-Many worlds that we had once forcibly emptied would soon be restocked with enemies of the Imperium, my love. You know that at least nineteen different Ork pirate fleets have turned around back to their original port. Seven warp tears that we have temporarily closed are ready to burst. Drukhari raid fleets are marshaling from their hole in the Webway, the infamous Commorragh, and there are rumors of Asdrubael Vect and his Kabal of the Black Heart have been witnessed to have raided a feudal world near the edge of that empty region.-
"Ah! Asdrubael Vect! Such personage to grace us with a visit."
-Do you want me to track him down and see if he is willing to have chat?-
"Not yet, dear. I am far too busy right now to deal with the Aeldari, neither the Drukhari nor the Asuryani. They shall know us soon enough."
-What of the Necrons?-
That had attracted my wandering attention from the ongoing Tyranid situation back to her.
"Necrons? I had thought we had avoided touching any identified Necron worlds?"
-We missed one, and a Tomb World has awakened. It is led by a Necron Lord but it does not seem to be of particular importance. There were only three Lychguards that defended it even as it raised several thousand Necron Warriors to terminate the stationed Imperial Guard regiment.-
"I shall keep an eye on it."
A tiny portion of my gaze split off and aimed itself at the designated world.
Imperials had called the world 'Ordan's World', named after an Ultramarine Sergeant stationed there during early stages of the Great Crusade. The Sergeant had been gravely wounded during a fight to take the world and save the human population against its Ork overlord.
It seemded that without enough Dreadnought chassis available at the time, Roboute Guilliman had left the Sergeant with a small number of Ultramarines, perhaps his squad and a few Adeptus Mechanicus priests. It was a tradition of the Ultramarines to govern their conquered worlds with efficiency and self-sufficiency as expected by their gene-father.
Indeed, the Sergeant had ruled over the world as a governor for over a century, building it up a powerful way-station to a region of sectors called the 'Emitor's Passage', a corridor of relatively-calm regions of warp where the most striking features being most of identified Aeldari webway gates in the area being utterly destroyed.
Having absorbed so much information from all over the sectors, I had quickly surmised that the 'Emitor's Passage' was, in fact, an old battleground between the Aeldari and the Necrons. The relatively peaceful warp had been because of nine worlds and moons with Necron pillars sticking out of the ground.
"So, this Ordan's World is an important and well-defended Imperial Word, a capital world of Plaustri Sector. Yet, it is the ground of a Necron Tombword also. Interesting."
My eyes gazed over the world's martial strength. It had contributed to the defence of Ultramar and Macragge, dispatching over eleven Ordanian regiments numbering around two million well-equipped Imperial Guards with almost six hundred thousand auxiliaries, and three thousand heavily armored variant of Sentinels and nearly six hundred Hydra Flak Tanks. These had been in stock for the world, supplied from the nearby minor Forge World moon of Lighthall whose main defence relied on the military support from Ordan's World.
"Wait… this may actually become a threat."
This world was important to my strategic plan in the region.
Perhaps the greatest threat I had now faced in this part of the galaxy was the Ultramarines and their numerous Successor chapters. Moreover, almost three hundred worlds beyond the old realm of Ultramar's Five Hundred Worlds, were all still well-entrenched.
This was the true power of Guilliman.
His organization and meticulous logistics had meant that after ten thousand years, so many worlds conquered by his Legion had still prospered. Sure, other thousands had collapsed, fallen or destroyed one way or another. On top of that, Ultramar's old domain of the Five Hundred Worlds had fared better, with many worlds still highly productive and prosperous and well defended.
In trying to rally the Imperium against the threat of Tyranids, I had emptied a vast swath of the space around Ultramar of Imperium's enemies. Of course, this was not an easy feat nor a short-term plan. It did, however, provide the chance for these worlds to have a respite against threats for almost two decades.
This was my mistake, perhaps.
It was not a mistake for the Ordan's World to send such a tithe to Ultramar. Even after sending well over two million soldiers, Ordanians had felt no fear against threats.
They had a population of over five billion people, well educated in numerous schools where martial training was the core of their curriculum. Their Imerial Guard regiments still had the Ultramarine colors on their left shoulder pauldron. These Ordanian regiments known as the 'Hardies' had a special flak armor, where their plasteel armor was further coated in a special titanium-steel alloy. It was a thin coat but it had greatly increased their lifespan, allowing veterans to survive and lead their younger counterparts.
For a long time, Ordanians had fought against the Dark Eldars and sporadic Necron outcroppings in the Emitor's Passage, where they had been in charge of defence. Thus, their weapons had been modified and upgraded against metal bodies of Necrons in terms of armor piercing and high rate of fire to send volleys against fast-moving Drukhari warriors. Of course, this had meant their lasgun magazines would deplete faster but they were almost always well-supplied.
Other worlds in the Emitor's Passage had not been as prosperous nor as well-defended, so it had stretched the Ordanians thin in the millennia before. Thus, they were not as famous as some other Militarum forces such as Cadians. Yet, around this region, they were the backbone of the Imperial might.
"A world of living conditions slightly higher than the 1950s on Earths but with five billion people, with still about fifty million guardsmen. Even with half dispatched over other worlds around, there are still twenty million guardsmen defending it. This against a Necron Tomb World? I wonder."
Yet, this world could not be allowed to stand as a lynchpin of Imperial defence in the region nor could it fall to its old Necron masters.
"This is too close to the Vault of Abyss. I cannot risk that. Should Judanus get there first… Well, that would be interesting."
I looked at the map of the region, seeing different worlds surrounding those sectors. I saw two small warp storms just outside the Emitor's Passage, and a single Webway Gate, through which the Dark Eldar had been sneaking through.
"Moreover, the Necron pylons, now that I am aware of them, must be removed. Necrons pose a little too much risk to my plans for now."
They were quite an antithesis of what I was planning.
Author's Comment
Well, it has been a long time. Like 6 years+
A lot has happened to me since. I settled into a proper career, became an Academic Director and now a Vice Principal.
As for writing, I have been writing in Korean. I write webnovels, which are successful in minor way, enough to pay for my vacations.
This chapter has been long in waiting, and I can say that my writing may have gotten better, which a lot of auto-correct for things that I did not care as much before. Also, it took almost a four months to work on it on-and-off.
I cannot say when the next chapter would be posted, but for now, my plan is to focus on the Swarm of War more than my other stories.
See you all later!
PS: Also, I found I have a TV tropes page. Wow, I had used a LOT of cliches.