"The Sleeping Menace" fluffia Tyranidiswarmilleni

[Grand Admiral Prawn]

+++Message transmitted to: Emperor-class Battleship Venator+++
+++Message directed to: Commissar-General Vortigus Hornth, acting Warmaster; Diatan sector, Ultima Segmentum+++
+++Input date: 4/371/989.M41+++
+++Crossfile to: (Tactica Tyranicorum) Adeptus Mechanicus record entry T5668124+++
+++Transmitted: Magos Biologis research station, Jarloss V+++
+++Transmitter: Astropath Prime Tellan+++
+++Receiver: Astropath Terminus Borax+++
+++Thought for the day: The unseen threat is the greatest one+++
+++Subject: New method of attack being applied by Tyranid Bio-Fleets+++

Ever since the days of Hive Fleet Behemoth, the Tyranids, no matter how far their fleets have since spread out, have been single-minded in their vile way of war: They observe a suitable planet, move immediately to secure control of the space around it, and send their warrior organisms down to eradicate any resistance before consuming the bio-mass of the entire world. Once they have become aware of potential prey, their attacks have been instant, lethal and preceded by the so-called “Shadow in the Warp” by which trained Astropaths have been able to predict the attack days before it begins.

Or so we have thought. Recently, evidence gained from certain Tyranid-consumed worlds before their destruction indicates that the Tyranids are fully capable of staying their hand for years, even decades, before committing their forces in one fatal blow.

+++Loading Vid-Log from Adeptus Mechanicus research station D-15 Kholiath’s Senior Adept Mechanicus Marnegau’s cranial data bank+++
+++Vid-Log dated 6/225/984.M41+++

The snow comes down from the sky in a never-ending white torrent, reducing visibility to a dozen metres or so at best. The dark form of a glacier rising almost vertically from the ground looms ominously ahead. A team of Cult Mechanicus Adepts, servitors and five guardsmen march toward a crack in the ice, entering the newly excavated cave, eager to get in from the snowstorm. A voice clearly belonging to the man behind the camera, or in this case a bionic system fitted into his left eye, calls out.
“Proceed”.
The Tech-Adepts enter the sacred codes required to open the massive blast door ahead of them, and the party moves on into the next chamber. The walls are translucent, and deep in the ice one can make out the dark forms of several large, orb-shaped objects. The Tech-Adepts open a large adamantine shell attached to the ice in the northernmost wall, revealing one of the orbs, which has already been partly detached from the ice. It is massive, yet clearly organic, as if a gigantic spider egg of some kind. One of the guardsmen grips his lasgun tightly, his knuckles white, and even the others, standing neatly in attention, seem nervous. At a remote command from one of the Adepti Mechanici, the servitors begin to saw open the orb.
Suddenly, one of the Adepts strides over to the working servitors, looking excited. Turning towards the camera, he speaks in a monotonous, metallic voice.
“Subject’s temperature increasing, master. Cause uncertain. The servitors’ cutting devices generate no heat.”
The camera moves forward, peering over the servitors’ shoulders to gaze at the orb. The ice around it is beginning to melt, and from where the servitors have cut its surface, a dark, steaming liquid spills forth. Suddenly, the other Adept’s biological eye widens as his delicate sensor systems tell him that the other orbs, further away in the ice, are also coming alive. He turns towards the camera to speak, when suddenly a sharp, bony claw the size of a greatsword punches free from the orb, impaling the nearest source of heat it finds. The Adept falls to the ground, blood spurting from his biological organs, as the guardsmen open fire. The servitors, the orb, the creature or creatures inside it, are all turned into piles of ash as the soldiers frantically send round after round of lasbolts into them. The camera turns sharply towards the guardsmen, and the senior Adept begins to speak, as he is cut short by a terrible grinding noise. Cracks appear in the ice and with horror the party realises that whatever the orbs contained is now breaking through solid ice to get at them. Suddenly, the wall bursts apart in a shower of sharp icicles and a bluish, sinuous creature roughly the size of a human leaps with impossible speed at the guardsmen, stabbing one huge claw through the chest of the first, ripping the throat from another with its long-fanged mouth. The creature is blasted off its feet by the remaining guardsmen’s fire, but more, clearly identifiable as Tyranids, swarm from the shattered ice and in a heartbeat the guardsmen are mercilessly torn apart and butchered. One of the creatures, its head bulbous and somewhat larger than the others’, hisses sharply as a further creature emerges, leaving in the ice a hole that would allow a battle tank to pass through. Filling the cavern with its awesome presence, the enormous wings in its back stretching, the Hive Tyrant’s claws lash out at the camera with seemingly impossible speed.

+++Vid-Log ends+++

This recording, being part of the personal Vid-Log of a senior Tech-Priest, was transmitted back to research station D-15 live, and the receiving Adepts wasted no time in transmitting it a to the nearest Naval base once they realised the seriousness of the situation. When relief forces arrived to Kholiath after two weeks, all they found was a world horribly transformed, full of Tyranid organisms that were busy broadcasting a warp signal, presumably in order to summon a Hive Fleet to consume the biosphere of the now defenseless planet. Captain Harlo, in command of the relief fleet, judged Kholiath beyond hope of recovery and thereby cleansed the alien infestation through Exterminatus.

Throughout the past few decades, there have been further reports of cases throughout the Eastern Fringe, on planets both Imperial and alien, where a substantial Tyranid force has lain dormant, in wait for either a pre-specified time or their discovery by intelligent beings, when they would emerge from their protective cocoons and attack. Often it happened that the planet in question, not warned of danger through their Astropaths and confident in the strength of their orbital defences, unknowing that an enemy already lay hidden in the planet itself, was overrun in a matter of days and later consumed by Hive Ships that knew exactly where and when to appear.

From a number of reliable sources of information and biological research of the Tyranid cocoons in worlds where the attacks were unsuccessful, we have been able to determine the nature of this threat. It appears that the Tyranids, in their endless quest to end all other lifeforms, sometimes come across worlds that are too heavily defended for a planetary attack to be successful, or where reinforcements can be brought so quickly as to compromise the safety of the main Hive Ships, that they are forced to employ more insidious methods.

When faced with a planet determined by scout lifeforms [see files D23-D26: Tyranid genotype/(Lictor, Genestealer)] to be particularly resistant to attack, the Tyranids proceed to drop substantial amounts of mycetic spores down on the planet, initiating a massive planetary assault. However, while their main forces land close to the habitation centres, additional spore drops center on polar areas, mountain regions and other extremely low-temperature places where human habitation is virtually nonexistent. These spores, using the heat generated by their rapid descent, burrow deep under the ice, which collapses above them even as the spores begin to cool down. Once a pre-determined amount of the spores has made it to their destination, the Hive Fleet recalls what troops they can and leave the system at full speed, so as to appear “defeated”, giving their victims a credible illusion of victory and safety.

Eventually, the spores down on the planet, unnoticed during the ferocity of the main assault and far from the prying eyes of any search parties, are all but frozen solid, the only active life inside them being that of a certain specifically engineered microscopic organism that is extremely resistant to the lowest of temperatures. Living on inside the spores, feeding on their reserve of nutrients, these “biological timers” wait until their food is thoroughly consumed, at which point they expire, though not before releasing all the energy contained with their tiny systems in a tremendous burst of heat, which in turn raises the spores’ temperature to a certain degree. This heat wave is detected by certain other, now active organisms, which immediately begin to heat up the spores with their own internal reactions, causing a chain reaction that eventually leads to the Tyranid creatures inside the spore awakening and frenziedly burrowing their way out of their icy prison.



Once the Tyranids emerge from their spores, they immediately begin a low-scale but thorough harvesting of nearby biological resources, which they use to create more of their vile kind in massive factory-creatures the size of buildings. All the while the swarm does its best to remain undiscovered by intelligent life-forms on the planet. Once a suitably large force has been amassed, the Tyranids seek out and assault the main centres of potential resistance, swarming the defenders before they have a chance to react, let alone call for aid, the leading synapse creatures apparently using their psychic connection with the Hive mind to generate disturbances in the warp that make it nigh-on impossible to broadcast any distress call once the attack is underway. After the entire planet has been subdued, the Tyranids begin to project a keen psychic call similar to that of the Genestealer cults encountered on Ichar IV and other planets that have later fallen victim to Tyranid attentions. The nearest Hive Fleets will receive the call and make at full speed to the conquered planet, proceeding immediately to consume the biomass of the world in standard Tyranid manner, after which the Hive departs, unhindered by the Imperial Navy who will often learn of the planet’s demise weeks or even months afterwards.

Tactics-wise, the Tyranids deployed in this way have little time to spare once their assault is underway; they must overrun all defences in a single decisive strike, or the defenders will be able to coordinate their forces better and push back the Tyranids, who, although as deadly as ever, have no Hive Ships in orbit to fuel a sustained assault and provide fresh troops as the first wave falters. As such, their warriors will be biologically engineered for maximum speed and close combat capability, eschewing the deadly long-range bio-weaponry commonly used by Tyranids in favour of enchanced ferocity and improvements [eg. toxin sac, adrenal gland – see attached files T34-T37] to their close combat bio-weapons, and the limitless numbers of lesser, expendable beasts in favour of fewer but more deadly elite troops. Furthermore, as the Tyranids are far from the greater Hive Fleets and their psychic link with the Hive Mind is weaker, many of them manifest deadly psychic powers, both to provide ranged support to the otherwise assault-based swarm and to maximise the amount of raw power the leading Tyranids draw from the Aetherium, which fuels their psychic connection to the rest of their vile race and is used to project the telepathic call that draws the Hive Fleets to the planet that is being consumed.

In this manner, the Tyranids have all too often been able to capture worlds nearly impervious to an ordinary planetary assault years, decades or even centuries after seeding them with mycetic spores. Since only a few years have passed after Hive Fleet Kraken was first discovered, there can be no question that such tactics were employed even two centuries ago, when Hive Fleet Behemoth first arrived in Imperial space. The records of that time show that, everyone’s main concern being the massive Hive Fleet about to impact on the Ultramar system, the breaking off of small amounts of Hive Ships from the main fleet could either have passed unnoticed or simply been considered insignificant compared to the devastation wrought by Behemoth. In this way Tyranid ships have been able to seed many worlds, some of which may not have been under Imperial rule two centuries ago, the oversight on our part now costing the Imperium dearly as the Tyranids emerge from their hiding places. Who indeed can tell how many human-inhabited worlds, warm and comfortable around the equator but with cold and inhospitable poles, contain a deadly army of biological killing machines under the vast cap of ancient ice, waiting for the day when they awaken to bring doom to all living creatures? Who can tell how many more planets and star systems will be lost before the awesome hunger of the Hive Mind, unless we take steps now to prevent such horrors from being unleashed upon Imperial citizens? In the name of the immortal and benevolent God-Emperor, we cannot allow such losses to accumulate without doing our best to discover in time these pericula latentes, these sleeping menaces.

Your obedient servant,
Magus Biologis senior Jamos Kerren
Xenological research station, Jarloss V
4371989.M41

[Grand Admiral Prawn]

Juu eli tämmöistä kirjoittelin niin että tulisi 'Nideillekin vähän ilmettä vaikkeivät välttämättä niitä parhaita fluffin aiheita olekaan.

Vastaavasti sitten maalaisin ötökät vaalean sinisellä (looginen suojaväritys lumi-ilmastossa) ja baset niin ikään jäisiksi.

Enkuksi siis kirjoitan kun en muuta osaa... No ei mutta kun nyt on kuitenkin brittiläinen peli jossa kaikki lähdemateriaali (okei HeroQuestia sun muita *ei* lasketa) on englanniksi niin teen kaikki fluffini sillä kielellä. Ja pitäähän sitä joskus käyttääkin.

Mutta kertokaa mitä pidätte, tämä nyt on taas tämmöinen karkea yritys hankkia Mustan Suden turnauksissa ne fluffista saatavat +3 pistettä Jos joku tykkää niin ehkä pistän tänne liskomiesteni tarinat myös...

[The Captain]

Tyylikästä. Nuo olivat varmaan juuri niitä 'Nidejä, joita fennialaiset listivät sodan uhrissa...

[Grand Admiral Prawn]

joita fennialaiset listivät sodan uhrissa...

Mikä juttu tuo oli?

[kuitni-2]

joita fennialaiset listivät sodan uhrissa...

Mikä juttu tuo oli?

Tämä: http://forums.sotavasara.net/viewtopic.php?t=12901 The Captainin oma tarina...

[Imz]

Enpä olisi uskonut, että nideille saa persoonallisen ja hyvän armeijafluffin. Yleensä kaikki ovat splinter fleettejä, mutta kerrankin jotain originaalia. Onnittelut hyvästä tarinanpoikasesta

[Grand Admiral Prawn]

Enpä olisi uskonut, että nideille saa persoonallisen ja hyvän armeijafluffin. Yleensä kaikki ovat splinter fleettejä, mutta kerrankin jotain originaalia. Onnittelut hyvästä tarinanpoikasesta

No kiitos Jotain tavallisempaa aluksi keksin mutta sitten tuli mieleen että kun on kumminkin yksilöttömät 'nidit kyseessä niin eihän armeijan tarvitse esittää vain jotain tiettyä porukkaa - nyt se on kokonainen armeijatyyppi

Tuo "talvihorros"-idea tuli muuten ihan Tyranidien Codexista, kun siinä kerrottiin miten se Old One Eye oli hautautuneena jossakin Macraggen pohjoisnavalla ja heräsi sitten sieltä henkiin...

[High king Godric]

Ihan kivaa fluffia, varsinkin kun `Nideille on sinänsä vaikeaa keksiä fluffia sanan perinteisessä mielessä. Kirjota vaan kaikin mokomin enkuksi, ei siitä ammuta. Kunhan et vään kirjota finglishiä

[Grand Admiral Prawn]

Kunhan et vään kirjota finglishiä

Ehei, finglishi säästetään näihin keskusteluihin