Tyranid Brethren Moon

• Crusade[Tyrranic War]:

"The image was grainy, a deep-void capture direct from the acid-scorched prow of the Pinion Blade. Gaeron's post-human cerebrum swiftly accounted for static warping and image degradation. He identified Stanhalde's distant stat, several of its worlds - long overrun by rapacious xenos - and the dark clouds against the star field that were the nearest enemy fleet swarms. He became very still as he registered something else just off centre of the image, something that at first his mind had insisted on categorising as a visual artifact or feed error. It was surely too large to be a Tyranid biovessel, by an almost absurd degree, yet there was no moon in that region of the void; Gaeron's eidetic memory assured him of that. He gazed at the colossal shape, and as he did so he began to discern details and hints of squirming biological motion that disturbed him on a primal level.

'That is not natural to this system' he said.

'It is not, Shadow Captain,' replied Uvarin, almost managing to keep the tremor from his voice. 'Nor is it anything even our most advanced augers can make sense of. The machine spirits are driven close to madness by the mere sight of it. That it is Tyranid in nature is beyond doubt, my lord, but the sheer scale of the thing . . . '

'Its heading?' asked Gaeron, already knowing the answer in his hearts.

'Formidyre system, lord.' said Uvarin. 'Sanctium. The precogitators are certain.'

The Shadow Captain nodded to himself, then spoke.

'Wake the Navigator and make haste for the Mandeville point, shipmaster.' he ordered. 'We will risk warp translation. They must be warned.'"

• White Dwarf #495:

"XENOS PHENOMENA:

The Tyranid invasion of the Bastior Sub-sector resulted in many disturbing intelligence reports from Imperial commanders. One such account was that of Shadow Captain Sard Gaeron of the Raven Guard. Whilst engaged in a fighting retreat from the Stanghalde System, his vessel - the Pinion Blade - encountered a Tyranid biovessel of truly colossal size, far larger than any encountered before. The Captain's account was reinforced only by a hazy vid-capture and partially corrupted augur readouts harvested by the Pinion Blade's sensors. As if the presence of such a titanic Tyranid vessel were not terrifying enough, the Pinion Blade's precogitators showed the vast mass's heading to be the Formidyre System. Upon Gaeron's arrival at Sanctum, the Adeptus Mechanicus Tech-Priests and agents of the Ordo Xenos pored over the footage and data, crafting many contrasting theories as to the nature of the phenomena. Magos Gharan-Khys Rhylon of forge world Metalica posited that the moon-sized monstrosity might be a planet-devouring super- organism created to accelerate the hive fleet's feeding process. Scornful of Rhylon's theorem, Magos Yurigo of Mars suspected it may act as a beacon for the Shadow in the Warp. Inquisitor Thackatar, meanwhile, believed the Tyranid monstrosity may be a mobile nutrient store to enable the hive fleet to cross the vast emptiness of the galactic void. Until a closer investigation could be undertaken - a terrifying prospect indeed - these theories would remain little more than conjecture."