Primeval Behemoth Backstory

This is fluff lore for my Retro-Tyranid army, the "Primeval Behemoth".

Life on a Emperor-class battleship was rarely uninteresting. This was a repetitious musing of Commodore Rion Liber as they gazed at the stars slipping lazily past the windows of the magnificent craft. Since she had slipped her drydock at the orbiting shipyards of Anauris, the Exitium Metiri had been performing as well as could be expected of a ship her age. A little long in the tooth, to be sure, but they were too. They chuckled to themself at this connection, then turned back to face the ever-present commotion on the bridge. 

They made their way along the overhead catwalk, towards their Command-throne situated neatly in the center of the room, giving view to both the comings and goings of the bridge, and through the windows of the attack fleet in formation around the Exitium Metiri. Prowling packs of starfighters burned past at regular intervals, leaving a glowing path along ones retinas as they did so. Further afield, picket ships guarded from Xenos ambush. Liber wasn't afraid of much, but the desperate struggle on Macragge renewed their caution when dealing with the voracious filth. Although they had been en-route to the besieged planet while the invading horde of Xenos ran amok, they had heard the legends of bravery that had been forged during the fighting, and they had seen firsthand the graveyard of ships littering Macragge's orbit. 

And that's what they were after - chasing down the menace, these... Tyranids. The newly coined name for the Xenos sat strangely in Liber's mouth, and they disliked uttering it. To name these things gave them power, gave them identity. This was a mega-creature, a being that superseded human conception, let alone something so pedestrian as being named after a planet.

The Commodore interrupted their own line of thought, turning to the Adeptus Taskmaster Fermatus who had crept in during their reverie. It sputtered in Binharic, the language of the followers of the Omnissiah, then tuned some internal variable and switched to High Gothic, speaking rapidly.

"Commodore, report. No threats detected, the destroyer Venator Claritas has detected a Warp disturbance similar in reading to that of Tyranid Bio-ships. This one recommends adjusting heading to intercept."

It shuffled to the holoprojector and pulled up the proposed flight plan. Liber's eye ran deftly along, tracing the path, halting an alarmingly labelled node.

"And what of that Pulsar, Fermatus?" Liber pointed out.

"It poses no danger, though this specific star's interactions with the warp energies are peculiar. We could dispatch an-" It chattered haltingly.

"No matter, as long as it does not affect our hunt. Lay in the course, alert the fleet, and pull fighters in. The quarry has been flushed."

Hellfire, these creatures could move through space. While the mighty ships of the Imperium could easily outstrip the creatures while in Warp, they'd blast millions of miles too far past, or perhaps years ahead. The immaterium was a shifting thing, never doing what one expected. So old-fashioned tactics were called for. Pointing your nose at the leviathan, and full steam ahead.

Rion had begun pacing on the deck, a habit they felt made them look indecisive, but couldn't quite shake the energetic necessity of. The fleet was now within range of their Starhawk bombers, and sorties had departed moments ago. The behemoth creatures hadn't made a break towards open space, as the Commodore had expected, which made them wary. Instead, the beasts had dove towards the nearby Pulsar system. Perhaps it hoped to cloak itself within the warp-energies spewing from the star, or hide among the asteroid belt encircling the star? Liber was unsure if the creatures could do such a thing as hope.

The deck jolted underneath them as the main Lance fired. Apparently, they were in range. The blinding bolt of energy jumped forward, catching one of the smaller creature amidships. Gouts of blood and massive ribs tumbled forth, as the creature roiled and squirmed. A small kill, but Rion still paused their pacing to grin wide. Other fleets such as theirs were hunting down the fleeing remnants of these creatures; Those Commodores would not falter, and neither would they.

Still, the beasts scurried, hiding like interstellar cockroaches among the asteroids. No matter. Liber would rout them out. They ordered the fleet into the rocky field, pursuing close behind, smashing through the asteroids as the engines flared to full burn.

Another hive ship fell, and then another. They were almost out of the asteroid field, and once clear, they would be able to gain ground and take down the greater leviathans further ahead. Then, they would-

"Unknown classification of Tyranid Bio-ship detected around star. Recommend extreme caution, Commodore." interrupted Fermatus.

"What, and lose our prey?" Snapped back Liber, without even looking away from the ongoing battle. 

"Yes, Commodore. Beneficent rites Zed-3882 dictate the canonical-"

"Damn the rites. We won't let these fiends escape because one of your subroutines." Snapped Rion, beginning to anger. "You forget yourself, Fermatus."

"This indiscretion will be noted and logged, Commodore." it said, almost like a muttering under it's breath. Liber ignored it, focusing on the battle at hand.

Finally, the big guns turned grindingly towards the heart of their quarry, and began to roar. Flaming lances burned through the carapaces of the massive beasts, and which each resounding thrum of the cannon fire, Liber began to relax. They had done well. They had caught the creatures. Hellfire, they had even found a new organism. Maybe it would be named after them, they though bemusedly.

Both they and Fermatus looked on, enraptured, as the entire hunter-fleet closed around their prey. They had corralled the creatures, who seemed to be defending the new Bio-ship, surrounding it with their battered bodies. From between the blasts of shells detonating and rippling tendrils, Liber thought they could just barely spot it. It appeared to be opening some shell, or deploying some sort of tentacles. No matter. It had blood, they thought amused, same as anything that could be killed. Liber ordered the fleet forward into point-blank range, so that none might survive.

Suddenly, the universe shifted in the viewscreen. For a moment, the Commodore wondered if something had something collided with the ship? But no, no breach alarms were sounding. The world around them stretched and contorted, gravity and time slipping oddly at oblique angles. Liber rounded on Fermatus, demanding and explanation.

"Commodore, we did not enter Warp! This one cannot explain readings that say we are and aren't in the immaterium"

The colors of the galaxy melted and ran together outside the windows, as the bridge crew desperately tried to right the ship. Now the alarms kicked in, flashing red with a low crooning klaxon. Liber glanced worriedly, unsure of what they could do, if anything. 

Over the vox, reports begin to pile in. "Contact lost with engineering sections". "Contact lost with gunnery crews". "Contact lost-".

The craft - or bridge, that seemed to be all that remained - tumbled through the kaleidoscope of colors for moments more, then suddenly, all stilled. They drifted, slowly, but with markedly less intendity. Wincing, Liber opened their eyes, not realizing they had been shut in terror.

"Fermatus, status report" barked Liber.

"Commodore... This unit's internal chronometer is, is, is, RESETTING", it spewed.

"To hellfire with your clock, where are we? Are we still even in space?" Liber yelled at the machine, clearly deep in the throes of some glitch or seizure. They dropped it to the ground, barking orders to the bridge crew.

"Order engines to full, gunnery crews to ready positions. Let's not let our prey turn to hunters, eh?" They growled.

"Reset complete, chronometer calibrated."

Fermatus stood up behind them, slowly, haltingly.

"Commodore. This unit's internal readings indicate we have travelled a distance of zero point zero zero kilometers and Five hundred and fifty two hours forward in time. Gravity distortion has made exact offsets-"

"What?" exclaimed Rion. "How many days is that?"

"Approximately three weeks and two days. This unit-"

Fermatus was abruptly cut off by an apoplectic Bosun. "Commodore, large parts of the ship are destroyed and missing. What are we supposed to do? What orders should I give?"

Overwhelmed, Liber collapsed in their throne. "The creatures have a week's head start. My ship is mangled. There's nothing we can do. Put out an emergency distress signal, and we'll pray to the Emperor that someone hears it.

Fermatus shuffled awkwardly, and made a Binharic rumble that sounded like a throat clearing. Liber glanced over, apathetically.

"Yes?"

"My lord... The creatures did not exit the anomaly alongside our vessel. Our data indicates they stayed in the gravitational flow. Based on their last trajectory... they will not exit for several centuries more."

The Captain of the Quarens Perdere sighed and double checked the readouts. She had read them once already, but didn't quite understand what the missive meant. The green pict-screen flickered, as if to try and clear the warning away for her, but she pored over the text.

"Warning: Extant time-space event expected in the Ultramar region near the Anauris system in the year of our Great Emperor 257.M41. Escaped remnants of Tyranid Hive Fleet Behemoth pursued but escaped into Pulsar-generated gravitational anomaly."

"Where did this message come from", she questioned of her Astropath.

"An automated beacon not far from our current location, though I'm not sure what it means either. It didn't start communicating until we were well within it's broadcast range. And, it stopped shortly afterward, as abruptly as it began."

She turned this over. Strange happenings were simply a reality of space travel. 

"Well, let us archive the message, and go to Warp" she ordered. Maybe she'd report it next time she made dock.