Hive Fleet Nidhoggr: Ignition

The following article is a /tg/ related story or fanfic. Should you continue, expect to find tl;dr and an occasional amount of awesome.

It started on a clear autumn day. I had ended my shift, and was headed back to the barracks when the Global Defense Alarm sounded. Immediately the base was back on high alert, Guardsmen scrambling to their posts, grabbing their equipment and jumping into whatever transport they could find. After everyone had made it to the briefing area, we were told that a series of bizarre meteor strikes had occurred across the planet. We were to assist in humanitarian aid and ensure that the Adeptus Mechanicus could get to the various strike locations and study the impacts. We rolled out of there with the techies and were off to the closest impact site: Municipal Centre #142, where two Class II meteors and one Class III meteor had struck. We weren't optimistic about what we would find, but we had our orders, and we planned to carry them out.

After arriving at the Centre, we discovered that the meteors had impacted on the eastern edge of the city, reducing most of the financial district to dust, but sparing a good portion of the residential district. Luckily, casualties at the time were put at an acceptable 550,000, far lower than the 3.5 million which would have resulted had the meteors struck the center of the city. The Mechanicus were stationed at the edge of the impact craters, set up to do whatever they usually do, and we were given boxes of purified water and corpse rations to hand out to the local population. Clean-up and recovery took a few months, but eventually the outer portions of the city were restored to working order. Now, I'm an Emperor-fearing man, and I've never put much stock in the Omnissiah or those "machine-spirits" the Mechanicus always mumble about, but some of the stuff they discovered from the samples of the rocks and shit they took from the impact site made me a little uneasy. They tell us that they found bio-mass within the craters; more specifically, from the xenos known as Tyranids. I knew a man once, lost his arm and a good bit of his face fightin' them filthy xenos, and he always said that they were the most terrifying sight he had ever beheld. I shuddered to think that they may bear down upon us. I might have shuddered more if I had known what was to happen in the days to come.

Nearly three years after the meteor strikes, we received communications from the Tech-priests that they had made a breakthrough with the impact craters. After scanning through the earth beneath them, they had uncovered several unusual shapes within the crust of the planet. The Mechanicus had granted them some of their more sacred technologies to drill down as far as they could and try and retrieve a sample from the anomalies. They would keep us posted on their findings. A battalion was dispatched to the Centre to keep an eye on things, as civil unrest was flaring up around the anniversary of the calamity.

Seven days after the initial report from the Mechanicus, all hell broke loose. Planet-wide earthquakes rent the continents along major fault lines, resulting in massive damage to infrastructure and the population of the planet. We received frenzied reports of creatures emerging from the choking pyroclastic flows and terrifying lava geysers, but no two reports were the same, and we lost contact with nearly every Guardsmen outpost on the planet, save one: the one at Municipal Centre #142.

From there, we received a final report from the commander in charge, complete with pictures of the foul xenos. They were far more terrifying than I could have possibly comprehended. The smallest were nearly eight meters tall, and the largest reached a staggering forty. They were clad in obsidian-like armour, jagged black claws rending flesh and tearing plasteel apart like it was paper. The most horrifying aspect of these beasts, however, was their ability to spew molten geysers of lava from within their very bodies. I saw men I had known my whole life turned to dust; I saw tanks melted, buildings reduced to ash. I saw all these things, and I know the face of fear.

Nidhoggr. The All-Consuming Flame, the Eater of Yggdrassil.

May the Emperor have mercy on me.

+++++

--Intercepted Encrypted Intel Transmitting from Tiji Sector, three months after classified event codenamed "IGNITION"--

Analysis of world extinction event code named IGNITION on planet [CLASSIFIED], the subsequent liquidation of the world, and the emergence of the new Tyranid Hive Fleet, codenamed NIDHOGGR, have been completed.

It is speculated that the bioforms first arrived via the impact of several massive meteorites who's true purpose remained undetected for over two years. The traces of Tyrannid DNA were reported as likely remains of the incinerated Leviathan Fleet of years past and the case was subsequently closed.

Though not the first identified biomorphs, the first xeno believed to have arrived were variant strains of Magma Corers, a xenomorph not seen since the First Tyrannid war and thought obsolete. It is believed that several buried themselves into the lower mantle of the world and systematically assembled a small hive structure incubated by the molten currents of the subterranean magma flow.

What transpired in the years that followed are difficult to determine, but increased volcanic and seismic activity and a statistical increase in sinkholes point to the likelihood of intense underground activity and possibly predation of native fauna and flora.

During the first encounter, modified Raveners leading heavily equipped Carnifexes, with unique inflammable mutation of their Bio Plasma, were the first encountered life forms during IGNITION.

The traditional swarms of Gaunts were not witnessed at any time during the attack, and it is predicted that their strain may not exist within this splinter fleet. It is possible that their relatively long preparation time and preference for massive tunnels to rise suddenly and without warning from below leaves little use for infantry, using terrain to supplement their artillery.

The artillery were not observed directly, or at least no record survived the blitz of the invasion, but heavy melta-class artillery was witnessed to rain down from the skies, propelled from afar. The expected culprit of Tyrannofexes has yet to be documented, but extreme caution, particularly for non-heat reinforced vehicles, is advised should any encounter be made.

Analysis indicates the likelihood of Zoanthrope presence as a significant shadow was observed within the warp during the time of the assault. Whether this elusive morph was present or played any part during the assault is unknown, but the possibility of their involvement must be mentioned.

This may hint at the origins of the new fleet, possibly a result of the warp storm generated by the events at Leviathan's Rest. Though the Salamander 5th Company confirmed complete destruction of the local fleet there it is possible that there were survivors affected by the rampant warp storm.

After a period of less than a week there were no remaining survivors. Observations later confirmed that the atmosphere was completely blacked out by ash and dust so what occurred over the next month still remains a mystery. But what was observed was three fleet ships, unlike any Tyranid formation seen before, leaving the world in a plume of flames. When the dust of the atmosphere finally cleared there was nothing of value left upon the world. Every rare metal, every trace of life, stripped from the barren earth. Surface analysis indicated that the molten core of the world was completely gone, the mantle nothing but a web work for tunnels and holes, and it would only be a matter of time before it degraded in interstellar dust and nothing remained.

This fleet operates like nothing ever seen before. They do not only devour the body and soul of all that live, but entire worlds, from within. We must learn to fight this new foe, to be vigilant for the dragon below, and to save the very galaxy itself from the new flame of war.