Vanguard Drone Ships
Vanguard Drone Ships are tyranid bio-ships designed to travel long distances oved the galaxy in search of new planets to devour. This bio-ships are quite smaller and fragile than the other forms of void transportation the tyranids have at their disposal. Desined for quick travel and stealth, these organisms are probably the most independent bioforms, rarely needing to contact the Hive Mind but to relay info and to replenish their biomass reserves. The drawback for their speed and stealth is its poor defenses and its short lifespam: these are usually destroyed when discovered by the planetary forces. Once they are born, they connect to the Hive Mind to receive its instructions, and are sent into the void far ahead of other hive fleet vessels. Once they find a planet, they seed it with organisms such as lictors and genestalers, so that they can create psychic beacons to attract the rest of the hive fleet. They have also been seen signaling and marking enemy ships so the tyranid bio-ships can attack them.
This unit appears in the Battlefleet Gothic tabletop game.