BUG

Hive Fleet Behemoth managed to destroy the entire Ultramarine 1st company and planetary defense force whilst Marneus Calgar was destroying the Hive Fleet out in Ultima Segmentum. Such was Calgar's haste to fallback to Macragge and help his battle brothers, he didn't actually destroy the entire fleet. Heavily wounded, a few of the hives bioships went into hibernation, fooling Calgar's scanners and showing zero life signs. As the ships floated for 2 centuries, they slowly regenerated by using up already harvested biomass from Paradium.

Slowly, silently drifting through space, the Hive mind picks up a pheromone trail...

The whereabouts and details of the rogue Splinter Fleet is sketchy at best, Ordo Xenos Inquisitors were unable to communicate with a handful of worlds near the centre of the Ultima Segmentum, and after cross referencing shipping details, it appeared no cargo ships had returned from that sector. The Inquisitors saw this as the tell tale signs of a Tyranid invasion and dispatched Death Watch kill teams to investigate and recover witnesses, data slates, vox recordings and pict capt images.

Could it be that Calgar had got it wrong and the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth had survived and evolved and where now in the heart of the Ultima Segmentum? The Magos Biologis was desperate to analysis data recovered from the lost worlds, they were already considering theories about infiltrating genestealers from crashed hulks, or contaminated ork waarghs unwittingly spreading hybrid stealers... these theories could have been reason enough to draw a hibernating bioship to the now lost worlds.

The Deathwatch did not disappoint the Ordo Xenos, with a bountiful haul of Tyranid Specimens, which was most unusual considering that all biomass is consumed once the invasion has overthrown the population of a planet. By the time the Deathwatch had arrived at their location there was no sign of orbiting of any Tyranid threat in orbit. They were completely expecting a lifeless barren rock when they made planet fall, but were shocked to discover a hive flourishing on the planet. This was difficult to explain and went against common Tyranid knowledge laid down by Inquisitor Kryptman. Perhaps the Tyranids were using the Barren Rock as a breediing ground, with Species feeding off the weaker species. Another theory is the Splinter Fleet left a hive there to establish a focal nodal of synaptic energies, or even as a pheromone beacon calling to other broken off splinter fleets.

What did the Ordo Xenos bring back from the lost worlds?

For months the Magos Biologis dissected, examined and tested the Tyranid Specimens the Death Watch had delivered. The de-briefing report the Death Watch submitted ascertained that the lost worlds were near the Charadon the Ork Empire in the Loki sector, it was in agreement that the Rogue Hive Fleet was on a collision course with the Ork empire. Some Inquisitors believed this spelt the end of the Imperium, because further Hive fleets would be drawn to the fighting from rogue fleet's pheromone trail, and the harvested DNA from Orks and other Deathworld organisms could create a new species of super Tyranids.

Already, the Tyranids they examined displayed signs of rapid evolution. The predictions were correct. Hive Fleet Dendrobates had evolved into a highly toxic and poisonous species. It's quite possible the Hive Mind had assimilated DNA similar to a race of toads on catchan that when scared or excited explode. This was merely a guess from an erratic Inquisitor due to the similar colourings, as no one had witnessed exploding Tyranids.

The markings and the colourings from the Tyranid Specimens went against common knowledge that Tyranid creatures used colour to blend into their surroundings, according to the general consensus this rogue fleet should be greens and browns to fit in with the deathworld they occupied but that couldn't be further from the truth. The claws were a bone like substance, which were fused to the internal and external exoskeletons, they seemed to weep toxins so powerful it could destroy an Astartes super human immune system. The skin ranged from dark almost brown reds to light reds, one genestealer exhibited a pink fleshy colour in places, possible still going through hybrid acolyte stage. This red skin fit in with the fact that these Tyranids are indeed from a surviving Behemoth fleet. They also had the same black carapace of Behemoth, but they now had these unique markings on their carapace, strange alien patterns which made no sense... The Biologis servants could only guess it was something inherent in the DNA they had obtained, due to the likeness of toads seen on Catchan, they code named the rogue fleet Hive Fleet Dendrobates, which is Imperial Latin for poison rain frog.

By: Gareth

By: Leech

By: Gareth

By: Leech