Editing Black Locks (section)

===Taniwha Strikes===
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''"We did meet Tyranids before, but these were something completely different."'' - Brother Marcel of the Blazing Cannons
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The later part of the 41st Millennium was the beginning of The Times of Ending. A period where the Imperium of Man would be tested for its rights to exist, these events did not ignore the Calico Colonies nor the Black Locks. Especially one such event occurred near the end of this Millennium and which would change the Calico Colonies forever.

The Colonies send out newly formed regiments to fight somewhere on the other side of the galaxy without any of the soldiers ever seeing their beloved planets again, while the nearly Chapter nominal Expedition Force the Space Marines formed (and which also included multiple volunteers from many Imperial organisations) sought out the location of other Halcyon Disk elements and aided Imperial forces outside the Calico Stars. Even among the Colonial Lords, the information about the Tyrannic Wars and the appearance of the Tyranid Hive Fleets have stirred enough panic among them. The Colonies faced against renegades, xenos and heretics, but fighting against something like these Tyranids required changes in tactics as the damnable monsters rapidly adapted to any situation they found themselves. The addition of them would strain further the already thin defences of their domains. In order to counter this, The Colonial Lords asked the Ordo Xenos for every detail on this new threat, as if the Calico Colonies were to fight it, then with sufficient preparations. It’s enough that they have to fight off aliens and heretics.

The Black Locks themselves experienced at firsthand in the capabilities of the Tyranid menace as the whole Chapter was called in to fight a large tendril of Kraken along four Imperial Guard Regiments and two other Space Marine Chapters. The lads never fought an enemy that hit in such enormous numbers nor adapt this fast to their tactics, but the Locks being Locks, even they adapted to the menace when they found out how the swarm functioned. With this newly acquired experience by the Chapter at fighting these monstrosities, the marines themselves were ready for future confrontations with the threat, but the next time the Black Locks met the Tyranids, it would be a completely different situation.

There came in reports of disappearing trade ships and patrol vessels. Not even distress hymnals were sent out. The only things that remained were misshapen and twisted scraps that remained from what was left of the ships. As if that was not enough, contact is lost with three fringe colonies in the mostly lifeless Mobius cluster. At the time the Navy arrives, nothing but lifeless rocks remain. The Black Locks were asked to aid a joint Colonial Navy and Ordo Xenos investigation fleet in order to analyze what could possibly cause that much damage. After analysis of the ship wreckages it is concluded that Tyranids are present in the Calico Stars, and that turning three entire planets into lifeless rocks were was also their doing. The information is send to every single outpost and it wasn’t long after it spread that the foul xenos attacked. This time it was a heavily defended colony in Saint Juan controlled space. The colony’s name was Maria’s Bulwark, or as the Colonists of Saint Juan called it: Baluarte de Maria. The fleet stationed there suffered a attack from a Tyranid Fleet that was never encountered before. The very bio-ships were light-greyish with a small black dotting, yet the style they fought wasn’t like that encountered while fighting Hive Fleet Behemoth or Kraken. Instead of directing the whole fleet towards the planet, two third of it engaged the Imperials, while the rest of it went straight for the planet. It wasn’t a large fleet, but its assault caught the Imperials by surprise. Ramsmiter Krakens hit the largest ships and deployed broods of Genestealers and a unique type of Tyranid Warrior brood that were armed in something akin to armoured shield-like shells and biomorphs designed for combat in tight corridors.

When the Black Locks finally arrived, the situation snowballed into ship to ship and boarding to boarding combat. The marines send to the nearby Imperial ships lots of their own to strengthen the crews while the Dread Fleet’s ships engaged the bio-ships. The land invasion was being held off by the PDF, but with the equipment they had it would be hard to fight the xeno ground forces. The Crimson Blades and Blazing Cannons made planetfall to aid the defenders. The fights in both space and on the surface were equal despite the Black Locks giving the Navy aid, but that changed the moment when it appeared...

A giant Hive Ship emerged from the dark void of space, ramming and crushing everything that was in its pathway, even its own ships. The Hive Ship was going straight for the planet, but a Battle Barge, the Pequod, belonging to the Black Cutlasses fired its payload at the beast, only to irritate it and be swapped by one of its tentacles. The monstrosity was finally stopped by a Calician Battleship. One of the members of the Pequod, Captain Ahab E. Teach, despite losing a leg in battle, managed to crawl to the weapon’s console and manually activate the ship’s auto-loaders along its targeting system, firing a melta torpedo into the one element of the monstrosity that couldn’t withstand the power behind it. Within a couple of seconds, the torpedo flew out and hit it right in what one would think of as the beast’s eye, causing it to flee in excruciating pain. 

After the beast’s departure, the remaining forces dealt with the remains of the fleet and the Tyranids on Maria’s Bulwark. After further analysis of the recordings that were cannibalized from what remained of the Mobius Colonies and ship wreckages, it was discovered that the attacks on the convoys were done by the white Hive Ship all by itself, and that after it build up enough biomass, it produced a fleet to attack the outer rim colonies. After analyzing them, the Hive Fleet it produced was nicknamed Taniwha, while the white Hive Ship that was its flagship came to be known as the Mobian Terror. How a Hive Ship like it appeared light years away from the place where the first Tyranid incursion was unknown, and would remain a mystery to this day.

The Imperials suffered casualties from Taniwha’s attack, though they were lucky it was still a small fleet of ships. The Black Locks also suffered the loss of their own brethren, but the biggest of them was the death of the Dread Fleet’s Master as he died from fighting Tyranid boarding parties and was completely overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and brute force of the assailants. Captain Barrabas of The Serpent Watch was his name. The council of captains met along with the newly elected Serpent Watch Captain, Captain Pedro, to appoint a new Master of The Dread Fleet. After hours it was Captain Ahab who became the new one who would don the mantle of the supreme leader of the Black Locks.

Additionally the Serpent Watch made an outstanding discovery when they were repairing their flagship after the battle. They discovered two marines locked in stasis under the floor in the grand hall. It was confirmed that one of them was the lost Quartermaster Gibbs, while the other marine was no one else as Brother Sparrow. It was discovered that the Corsair Heart tried to stop Jones along with Quartermaster Gibbs and reason with him, yet the two were put into stasis and locked under the grand hall's floor. Gibbs wanted to return to his crew, while Sparrow seeing that his original company changed past all recognition, he asked the Quartermaster if he'd join the Rum Grails.
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