Hive Fleet Balrog
Hive Fleet Balrog
Beyond the human galaxy, beyond the range of human spacecraft and astrotelepathy, lies the unspeakable cold of the intergalactic void. Few men have ventured into this realm and none have ever returned. It is the great barrier that divides galaxy from galaxy, a place where time and space conspire to hold the galaxies apart with inconceivable distances.
Yet the void is no longer empty. An immeasurably ancient and implacable intelligence moves through the cold and the darkness, its many eyes fixed on the distant glittering lights of our galaxy. The Great Devourer moves between the stars and hungers for the flesh of all who lie before it. This great organism, this monstrous entity, men know as the Tyranid race.
Even by naming the Great Devourer men betray their ignorance.
Every thought and action, every spark of life in the Tyranid race is bound
and interlinked into a single mind, into a single great entity which stretches
over light years of space and is controlled by the immortal hive mind.
A billion times a billion Tyranids stand at the rim of the galaxy yet each
one is no more than a single cell in the living body of the hive mind,
the devourer of worlds.
The single monstrous entity which is the Tyranid race has found a new, rich feeding ground: the human galaxy. Driven by the single consciousness of the hive mind, the Tyranids consume every living thing in their path. The bio-engineered warriors of the hive mind overrun world after world, each generation becoming better adapted to hunting their new prey. The galaxy is doomed to become a barren lifeless wasteland if the Tyranids cannot be stopped.
The Tyranids were named such as this was the first world they
are known to have consumed. Strange reports had been received from
Tyran of once lush and populated worlds now being desolate balls of rock.
A ship was despatched to investigate, but was never heard from. Before
anything could be done to investigate this further, Tyran came under attack.
Magos Varnak, in charge of the Primus base began recording all the the
data possible before the base was finally overrun. This information,
along with Inquisitor Varnaks findings was telepathically sent to Earth.
Kryptman was ordered to Macragge, the Ultramarines chapter of Space Marines
homeworld. There they would attempt to destroy this new threat to
the galaxy. The hive fleet, labeled Behemoth, was eventually destroyed,
but at great cost. Several ships, including the flagship of the fleet
were lost. The Ultramarines 1st company had been wiped out to the
last man in the defense of Ultramar, a blow the chapter has yet to recover
from.
Two and a half centuries passed with no sign of Tyranid incursion.
The Inquisition began to think this threat had ended. Rebellion on
Ichar IV, a Hive World, was soon dicovered to be a vanguard for Tyranid
invasion. This time the hive fleet attacked along several fronts
instead of one large force. The vast forces of the Imperium mobilised
against this threat. Countless worlds fell to the Tyranid invasion
and the Imperiums losses were staggering. Eventually this threat,
too, was defeated. Many of the infested worlds were destroyed, others
still hold remnants of the hive fleet labeled Kraken.
The Imperium waits for the next push of the Great Devourer.
It would seem it is here. Hive fleet Leviathan is moving in the Segmentum
Solar, the very heart of the Imperium. If it is not stopped, earth
shall fall. Even if this threat is defeated, it will cost the Imperium
dearly. So much so, they may not be able to recover in time for the
next attack.
For there will always be another hive fleet on its way.
Smarter, stronger and better than the one before. From every defeat,
the Great Devourer learns more of what it needs to complete its task, the
consumption of all life in our galaxy. It knows it will win, for
it is infinite and man is not. It waits and learns, for great wars
to man are but mere battles to it, allowing it to evolve for its next conquest.
For once this galaxy has fallen, it shall move on, through the interstellar
voids of time and space, to a new galaxy.
