 or
a Tyranid Hive Fleet to devour a world it must first prepare
the planet for consumption by unleashing a full-scale invasion.
It would be wasteful for the Hive Fleets to send the Hive
Ships themselves to the surface, risking planetary defenses
and endangering the health of the fleet itself. Instead thousands
of Mycetic Spores are spat into the planet's atmosphere,
each couching a vicious brood of alien horrors within a tentacled,
womb-like sac. These plummet through the planet's atmosphere
in a great fleshy hail until they reach the planet's
surface, whereupon they split apart and disgorge their lethal
passengers.
Should a Tyranid invasion encounter serious confrontation,
the creatures sent down within the mycetic spores will be
larger and more powerful. With the centers of resistance
identified
by previous assault waves, the Hive Fleets begin to concentrate
their mycetic spore bombardment on specific locales. These
offensives usually contain the largest of the Tyranid bio-constructs.
When the Mycetic Spores finally hammer onto the battlefield
their walls split apart and fold open like the mucus-draped
petals of a repulsive flower. Unlike previous attack waves
it is not a brood of razor-limbed Gaunts or Genestealers
that emerges from the ruin of the spore but a mighty Carnifex
or
Heirodule. Even heavily fortified citadels and Imperial bastions
are no obstacle to the onslaught of such truly powerful bio-constructs,
and the ground shakes as more and more building-sized spores
pound into the planet's crust. The mere sight of a hail
of these grotesque conveyances disgorging their towering
occupants can rob a defender of his sanity and, ultimately,
his life. |
