Chapter 542: The Tyranids

The clash between the Necrons and the Tyranids was like two starving beasts meeting in a wasteland.

The moment they encountered each other, neither side hesitated.

They attacked with absolute ferocity.

—

The Tyranids fought with overwhelming numbers.

Losses meant nothing to them—

every creature, every carcass, every scrap of biomass, soil, metal, or fallen brood-kin was fuel for the swarm.

The Necrons fought with equal relentlessness.

Ever since they shed their frail Necrontyr bodies to become living metal under the dominion of the C’tan, they had perfected consciousness-uploading.

Their bodies were expendable.

Their minds were not.

So long as their core datasouls remained intact, they could rebuild endlessly.

The result was a battle completely devoid of finesse.

No strategy.

No subtlety.

Just raw, unrestrained annihilation.

Tyranid bio-cannons—acid jets, bio-plasmic bolts, corrosive spines—reduced Necron bodies to bubbling sludge.

Necron gauss weaponry stripped Tyranid flesh down to atoms in a single shot.

The fields of death stretched across multiple planets, yet both sides seemed to suffer no meaningful reduction in numbers.

If anything, the swarm only grew larger the longer the fighting continued.

—

Months Later — The Galactic Divide

Since the Horus Heresy, the Imperium had been split in two.

Two-thirds—still ruled in the Emperor’s name—remained the Imperium of Man.

The remaining third was held by the traitor Primarchs, forming the so-called Chaos Imperium.

Though the Emperor’s half possessed greater strength, He was shackled to Terra by the Golden Throne, unable to project His full power.

With most of His energy consumed suppressing the warp rift at the palace, even He could not strike down the traitor empire.

Thus five surviving loyalist Primarchs had been left to maintain what remained of Imperial territory.

—

On the frontier, a routine Imperial patrol fleet received a distress signal.

They proceeded cautiously—

for all they knew, it could be a Chaos trap.

Only after calling in reinforcements did they move toward the source:

a mining world known as Tyran.

It was not wealthy.

Moderate population, moderate technology—

but with decent mineral output, it served mainly as a local resource hub.

Nothing valuable enough to expect trouble.

But what they found upon arrival shattered that assumption.

Floating before them was a colossal mass of living flesh—hundreds of kilometers wide—

surrounded by swarms of monstrous organisms beyond counting.

They were tearing the planet apart.

Not ravaging.

Not invading.

Eating it.

Tyran’s crust, oceans, atmosphere—

all were being consumed like carrion.

Even the nearby star and its sister planets were being drained at visible speed.

When the great biomass entity unfurled a maw filled with layered fangs, and dozens of tentacles plunged into the star’s core to suck its nuclear energies dry, the fleet captain involuntarily swallowed.

Then he shouted:

“Retreat! Full retreat!”

But it was too late.

Some of the swarm had already noticed the newcomers.

Thousands of floating psychic organisms—upper bodies resembling deformed human infants, lower bodies like spiral shells—turned their attention toward the Imperial ships.

From their tendrils burst blinding arcs of warp-charged bio-lightning.

Imperial void shields popped like bubbles.

Warship hulls vaporized into drifting shards.

Crew were annihilated before they could scream.

In a single brief volley, more than half the Imperial fleet was erased.

The Tyranids had used only peripheral organisms, barely worth noting.

The surviving humans fled in blind terror.

The Tyranids gave only a token chase.

They did not care if the intruders warned the rest of their species.

After assimilating Tyran, the broodmind had already consumed the planetary governor’s protein-rich brain, extracting all knowledge of humanity’s strength and political fragmentation.

What it learned did not impress it.

This was nothing more than another ordinary stellar empire.

The Tyranids had devoured countless such empires already.

Why would this one be any different?

This splinter force was merely a mining detachment, having slipped into the galaxy through a long detour.

Its purpose was simple:

strip biomass

analyze native organisms

map the galactic environment

Actual extermination would begin only after extragalactic Tyranid vanguard fleets finished clearing away the obstructing Necron forces.

Once they completed their resource extraction, the mining swarm divided again and surged toward the Chaos Imperium—spreading to sample and test every major species in the galaxy.

—

By sheer luck—and because the swarm barely cared—several Imperial ships escaped.

They even managed to capture a few Tyranid specimens.

For the first time, the Imperium had hard evidence.

After urgent deliberation, Imperial High Command officially named the organisms after the first world devoured:

“Tyranids.”

(The Tyranids of Tyran.)

They believed them to be an undiscovered xenos species.

They had no idea—

These creatures were not simply a new alien race.

They were an apex predator race from beyond the galaxy,

and the force they had encountered was merely…

…the mining crew.