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sponsoring this investigation, and I’ll see you on the battlefield. — A day may come when the skies of Holy Terra
are darkened by clouds of mycetic spores, its great bastions shattered beneath the weight
of enormous tendrils that stretch into orbit, and the last vestiges of man’s presence
on its homeworld are swept away. Such a fate has already befallen countless Imperial planets,
each one home to billions of men and women who even as the spores fell, and defenses
crumbled, refused to accept that their existence in this reality was over. It is foolhardy
to believe that Terra is above such a fate, nor is it inconceivable that its ultimate
destiny may be as merely another dead world in a galaxy stripped of all life, a silent
husk left in the wake of the ultimate predator. Should that day ever arrive, it will be the
final chapter of a story that began in the 745th year of the 41st Millennium, with the
start of the First Tyrannic War. Within the distant frontiers of the Eastern
Fringe, the Adeptus Mechanicus had established a research outpost on the oceanic world of
Tyran Primus. Amongst their fields of study was the dissection of Tyran’s immense marine
predators, geotechnical investigations and the exploitation of geothermal energy. The
outpost itself was a labyrinthine complex meticulously constructed across an ancient
chain of volcanic islands. It hosted a series of superdeep boreholes that extended miles
into the planetary crust, ostensibly for geospatial mapping, but additionally as a method of shielding
sensitive warp studies from cosmic rays. Tyran was not the only such outpost dedicated to
this research, merely a minor node in a galaxy spanning network of Mechanicus facilities.
By every metric, Tyran was not exceptional or even remarkable, within the Imperium’s
enormous research apparatus. Tyran's position however, on the extreme edge
of Imperial space, necessitated a far more capable garrison than would otherwise be assigned
to an outpost of its size and importance. The facility itself was as much a fortress
as a laboratory. Its structures extended deep into volcanic rock and were fortified against
the tropical hurricanes that ravaged Tyran, as well as the occasionally hostile native
life beneath its savage oceans. To ward off the raiders and pirates active
throughout the Eastern Fringe, four anti-voidship defense lasers had been constructed across
the volcanic chain, each enclosed within ceremite silos and void shield generators. These were
supplemented by three dozen autocannon or lascannon emplacements and overlapping rings
of firebases, trench lines, and bunkers. Their arrangement had been expertly overseen by
Mechanicus Artisans and concealed throughout the beaches, volcanoes and jungles that surrounded
the outpost. The garrison itself consisted of a mixed force,
an elite unit drawn from the Skitarri legions of the Mechanicus and a far larger infantry
regiment of the Astra Militarum. Additionally, the Tyran outpost made a convenient headquarters
for anti-piracy operations throughout the Eastern Fringe. The Imperial Navy had stationed
three full wings of Thunderbolt heavy fighters on Tyran, as well as a flotilla of three Endeavour-class
Light Cruisers that conducted routine patrols throughout the planetary system and its closest
neighbors. It was these patrols that discovered the first
evidence that an immense new xenos threat was encroaching on the Eastern Fringe. Since
the outpost’s construction, Mechanicus Explorators had conducted regular studies of the surrounding
planetary systems and had detailed information as to their native xenobiology. But In the
74th decade of the 41st millennium, patrols based out of Tyran had reported that worlds
supposedly teeming with life, were now completely barren. Explorators later expanded on these
reports, noting that every trace of life, down to the bacterium, was simply gone. Dozens
of worlds were soon found to have been stripped of all biological matter in this same way,
and reports were sent to the Explorator General of the Adminstrartum. Though peculiar these
reports were ultimately deemed to be of low priority, and no follow-up investigation was
ordered. In the year 745, M41, the cause of these anomalies
had arrived on the outer outskirts of the Tyran system. A Hive Fleet, the first of its
kind to arrive in the galaxy and what would later be classified by the Imperium as “Behemoth”
had been replenishing its biomatter in the surrounding area of space. The myriad of primitive
worlds it had consumed, replenished its biomass after a long extra-galactic journey, and it
was now fully prepared to engage a more sophisticated and advanced type of prey. By sheer accident, the Imperial outpost on
Tyran was given a degree of warning. A survey ship, returning from another planetary system
stripped of all life, emerged from the warp into a cloud of unidentified organic matter
that had enveloped the edge of the system. The vessel was quickly crippled by some of
these objects, whose functions resembled those of void-mines, but were clearly organic in
nature. It limped back to Tyran proper, and when briefed on the interstellar situation,
the outpost prepared for some kind of Xenos siege. When Behemoth arrived in orbit just days later,
Tyran’s planetary defense lasers immediately opened fire. The concentration of alien ships
in orbit was so great that the batteries fired ceaselessly for over an hour, their effectiveness
unclear due to the sheer volume of matter above them. Just as the defense lasers showed
the most dire signs of overheating, their barrels close to melting, the xenos swarm
in orbit mysteriously withdrew. Believing this new enemy to be little more than mindless
beasts, the ruling Tech Priest of Tyran ordered the three Imperial Navy cruisers under his
command to pursue and harry the retreating xenos. This retreat however, had been a ruse. The
moment the Imperial cruisers had moved beyond the protective envelope of the planetary defense
lasers, the swarm suddenly turned and the cruisers were ripped apart in a matter of
moments, almost too quickly for a distress call to be sent. The attack on the planet
resumed, and it was clear that the initial attempt had been nothing more than a probing
attack, conducted in such a way as to reveal Imperial strategy and capabilities. The tempestuous
skies of Tyran were overwhelmed, with the power of the defense lasers only intermittently
effective against a foe that seemed to know their precise fields of fire. Organic drop
pods fell in such numbers that the seas of Tyran appeared to boil at their impact. They
quickly turned red with blood, and the beaches were full of horrifically mauled oceanic life
attempting to flee the confines of the sea. What next emerged from the oceans and the
organic drop pods that had landed on the island chain itself, were like nothing ever before
encountered by the Imperium. A towering wave of creatures, each one a swirling mass of
serrated claws and sharpened teeth scaled even the tallest bastions of the outpost.
Wherever they met the Imperial defenders, the xenos suffered unthinkable casualties
from disciplined lascannon fire or autocannon rounds until the ground was covered in their
corpses. In the skies above, the Imperial fighter wings and every other ship fit to
fly, carved through the swirling masses of flying organisms, their broken bodies falling
like rain. But the success would never last. As if a single command had been addressed
to the swarm in an instant, the xenos would suddenly and violently shift tactics. The
barrels of the defense lasers were clogged with their bodies until they couldn’t fire.
The Thunderbolts’s engines were choked with spores and blood and even veteran Guardsmen
of Catachan were outhunted by a species that seemed aware of every human instinct. A full year later, when the Imperium of Man
had finally dispatched a relief force, the fate of Tyran was revealed. The oceans were
gone, along with every trace of life. Like the planets in the surrounding sectors, it
was just another barren rock. Deep within one of the boreholes, among the few remaining
traces of the Imperial presence on Tyran, a Mechanicus data codex was recovered. Within
was a full record of the planet’s defense, from the first sightings of the xenos swarm
on the edge of the system, to the breach of the last command bunker deep within the facility.
Amongst the most startling details encoded into the codex, was that from the time the
first landing occurred, the defenders of Tyran had held on for barely a single hour. Embedded within the relief force was an Imperial
Inquisitor, Fidus Kryptman, whose exploits during the suppression of the Macharian Heresy
had made him a favored agent among Imperial power brokers. Though the annihilation of
Imperial outposts under mysterious circumstances was hardly unusual, the thoroughness of Tyran’s
transformation from a verdant oceanic world to a barren planetoid intrigued the Inquisitor.
He determined these new xenos to be a grave threat to Imperial interests, and named them
Tyranids in a grim acknowledgement of the first human world they had consumed. Krpytman sent warnings to Imperial authorities
across the Eastern Fringe which quickly proved to be prescient. But as Hive Fleet Behemoth
began to advance from the outer frontiers of the galaxy into densely populated and developed
Imperial territories, no manner of defense proved sufficient. More star systems went
silent. The garrisons of Hive Worlds, Forge Worlds, even Fortress Worlds and every other
category of Imperial planet proved as incapable in resisting the Tyranids as those on Tyran.
In each instance, Kryptman’s force arrived too late to assist in the defense or observe
the Tyranids directly. His only evidence of their approach was limited to more dead worlds
and voidships left adrift, their crews missing and hulls scorched and battered by what seemed
to be exotic acids, and terrible claws. Much of the difficulty encountered by Kryptman
in getting ahead of the encroaching swarm seemed to result from a strange unprecedented
type of phenomena in the Warp. Communications and travel through this alternate dimension
of pure psychic energy were unreliable even during favorable circumstances, but the Navigators,
Astropaths and Sanctioned psykers aboard Kyptman’s vessels, reported a new kind of interference.
Connections to the warp were increasingly smothered by a seemingly random yet consistent
Psychic signal, emanating without any discernible pattern or frequency. Blinded, deafened and slowed to a crawl by
this “Shadow in the Warp”, Kryptman slowly discovered that his warnings to now dead Imperial
worlds had been garbled, misinterpreted, or never received at all. An attempt was made
to use a Astropathic Relay Station in the Thandros system specifically designed to overcome
Warp interference, but when Krpytman arrived the station was adrift. The void station,
like the Imperial worlds encountered by Kryptman before, had been stripped of all biomatter
and its arsenal completely expended. Mining stations situated throughout the system were
similarly silent, and completely empty. Kryptman still lacked a clear picture of the
size and nature of Hive Fleet Behemoth, but in studying the positions of dead worlds left
in its wake, he was able to accurately project its course. Once the Relay Station over Thandros
was repaired and contact with the wider Imperium established, Kryptman’s reports and the
recovered data-codex from Tyran were hurriedly analyzed. Agreeing with Kyptman’s own assessment
and recommendations, he was directed by the Ordo Xenos of the Inquisition to make all
possible speed for Ultramar, the greatest bastion of the Eastern Fringe, and the most
formidable obstacle in the path of Hive Fleet Behemoth. Up until this point, what would become known
as the First Tyrannic War was hardly a war at all, rather a series of surprise attacks
and massacres against unprepared, isolated Imperial worlds. Most suffered from widespread
corruption within their governments, deteriorating infrastructure and severe negligence in every
level of their defense forces and military institutions. Ultramar stood in stark contrast.
Once a deeply integrated Imperial satrapy known as the “500 Worlds”, its planets
and star systems had retained their close connections, sophistication, and capabilities
despite the dissolution of their overarching administrative structure. In practice the
entire Ultramar Sub-sector was also the Stellar Empire of the Ultramarines, one of the Imperium’s
most vaunted Astartes Chapters. Now fully aware of the impending threat, Marneus
Calgar, Chapter Matter of the Ultramarines assumed total command over the Imperial response.
His efforts were focused on Macragge, Capital of Ultramar and one of the most fortified
sites within the entire Imperium. Though the Tyranids would be engaged at every opportunity
across the 500 Worlds, the task of breaking its momentum would fall upon the defenders
of Macragge alone. Ultramarines across the galaxy were hastily
recalled to the defense of their homeworld. They were joined by contingents from their
successor Chapters and countless other Imperial units who in the preceding millennia, had
pledged themselves through oaths and blood to the defense of Ultramar. Every Imperial
institution with assets in range of the sub-sector, rerouted them to take part in the defense,
from Astra Militarum Regiments to a full Legion of the Collegia Titanica. In orbit, the Battle
Barges and Strike Cruisers of the Ultramarines assembled, likewise reinforced by elements
of the Imperial Navy and even merchant vessels hastily repurposed into gunboats or fire ships. The bulk of the Imperial defense however consisted
of units mobilized from the Ultramar Auxilia. Unlike other Planetary Defense Forces present
throughout the Imperium whose role was often limited to a single planet, Ultramar’s local
forces were organized under a command structure that extended throughout the entire subsector.
The Auxilia’s size and capabilities were accordingly far greater, one of the most well-trained
and supplied Defense Forces in the Imperium, resembling more the regiments of the Astra
Militarum. For Solar weeks the Imperium assembled its
forces in Macragge, even as the outer systems of Ultramar reported contact with Behemoth.
Inquisitor Kryptman himself barely managed to arrive before the Shadow in the Warp engulfed
the region, reporting to Marneus Calgar the insights he had gleaned from studying Behemoth’s
advance. This would be the first real effort to stop the Tyranid thread, and neither man
knew what small detail might prove to be invaluable in the coming effort. The first concentrated attempts to stop Behemoth
were unsustainable and quickly developed into hastily organized retreats and meaningless
slaughter. Prandium, the Jewel of Ultramar and famed across the Imperium for its perfectly
engineered gardens and forests, was amongst the first to fall, swiftly joined by Calth,
a world that had fiercely resisted the traitor legions during the Horus Heresy only to be
seemingly overwhelmed in a matter of days by the Tyranids. Everywhere Behemoth made
contact with Imperial defenders, the results were disastrous and most critically, failed
to buy time for the ongoing mobilization effort centered in Macragge. Most concerning was the realization that the
Codex Astartes, the great tome of military strategy penned by the Ultramarines Primarch,
Roboute Guilliman himself, failed to possess any insights into how such an unprecedented
foe might be beaten. The fierce hit and run attacks against the Hive Fleet, as well as
the bold yet doomed attempts to reinforce those already under siege were abandoned,
and the static lines in Macragge reinforced. The capital of Ultramar had made use of every
second afforded to them to prepare, but the Shadow in the Warp had left its defenders
blind to events outside their system. The fate of Battlefleet Brakka was of pivotal
importance. The Imperial Navy’s High Command in Segmentum Tempestus had ordered almost
the entirety of their forces to defend Ultramar, but as the first Tyranid organisms entered
the boundaries of the Macragge Planetary System, it remained unknown if they were still on
route, had been diverted elsewhere, or had perhaps already been destroyed. The battle for the homeworld of the Ultramarines
opened in much the same way as the Fall of Tyran, albeit on an exponentially larger scale.
The Tyranid Hive Fleet, swarmed into the system from multiple points, the sheer number of
organisms rendering the Imperial defense confused and disjointed. The initial plan had called
for Imperial warships to take station alongside Macraggre’s Starnova Class Orbital weapon
stations. With concentrated bastions of immense firepower, Marneus Calgar hoped to delay any
landing on Macragge for as long as possible. This quickly proved untenable. Every Imperial
strongpoint within the system found itself immediately engaged in a battle for its own
survival, unable to assist one another or coordinate their fire. Countless Tyranid bioships
were destroyed, but the flood of Behemoth was so great that landings occurred across
Macragge almost immediately. Wave after wave of Tyranid organisms smashed against the orbital
defenses, while just as many slipped through gaps, their progress barely impeded by the
rapidly developing orbital battle. On the planet itself, Imperial forces had
been divided into three Army Groups. Two of these were based on each of Maccgre’s polar
fortresses, continent sized bastons defended by immense batteries of anti-starship weaponry.
With orbiting Imperial Naval forces so quickly committed and overwhelmed, the Polar Fortresses
represented the last major asset able to assist the battle in orbit, and stem the tide of
further Tyranid landings. The last Army Group, personally commanded by Marneus Calgar, would
act as a more mobile force. It would simultaneously exploit any opportunities to delay the Tyranid
advance on the poles, and prioritize the destruction of the largest Tyranid bioforms that seemed
to act as officers, or perhaps relays for whatever consciousness was directing their
attack. Calgar was at first enormously successful
in this, swiftly destroying Tyranid landing sites before they could develop into established
beachheads. Yet it was clear that such measures could only delay what appeared to be an inevitable
slaughter, especially as Hive Fleet Behemoth began to exhibit even more unusual and sophisticated
tactics. Sirocco Starport, a pivotal assembly point for the Imperial Navy was almost overrun
by a strange new form of Tyranid infiltrator, leaving its critically important fleet of
transatmospheric shuttles devastated. No longer able to as rapidly redeploy, the army group
under Calgar took positions across Cold Steel Ridge, an enormous industrial complex that
stretched across the Northern seas of the planet. Though the complexities of the Tyranid Hive
Mind were barely understood by the Imperium of this era, it was undeniable that whatever
was in control of Hive Fleet Behemoth had recognized the importance of Calgar. As he
continued to hold off the Tyranid swarms at Cold Steel Ridge, specifically engineered
organisms were deployed to neutralize him. Calgar failed to grasp the change in the enemy’s
tactics until it was nearly too late. He was lured into the open by the destruction of
the Pride of Hera, a Defense Auxilia Baneblade that had served as a lynchpin on its local
sector of the defense line. Moving to reinforce the now vulnerable position, Calgar and his
bodyguards were ambushed by swarms of Tyranid creatures that were thought to be dead, but
had in fact merely remained motionless for hours. Larger Tyranid bioforms struck down
the Chapter Master, who was quickly evacuated back into orbit. The Battle Barge Octavius in which the grievously
wounded Calgar now made his new command post, was one of only a few vessels that had survived
the onslaught of Behemoth. Most of the orbital defenses had been destroyed or had their ammunition
supplies expended while whatever voidships remained could only harry the vast swarm of
Tyranid organisms that continued to land on the planet. Every spaceborne asset present
in the system had been fully committed, and no reserves remained to challenge the invasion
of Macragge proper. On the planet itself, the Polar Fortresses continued to hold though
the Tyranids had achieved their first initial breakthroughs across defense lines that ringed
the installations. Even the Titan Legion assigned to their defense were overwhelmed and destroyed.
The forces available to defend the Polar Fortresses were quickly diminishing, the obvious prelude
to a much larger effort by the swarm that would surely see both sites of resistance
overwhelmed. At terrible cost, Calgar organized the remnants
of the Imperial battle groups in orbit into a single battered force in which to make his
final stand. Astonishingly though, in this pivotal moment, Tyranid bioships began to
withdraw from the planet, seemingly unwilling to bear the firepower still emanating from
Maccrage’s terrestrial, polar batteries. Their maneuver gave Calgar an immense opportunity
to deliver a massive punishing blow as the swarm moved to reoriented itself. But wary
of Kryptman’s reports, he soon recognized the action for what it truly represented,
a faint intended to draw out the remaining Imperial warships, just as had occurred over
Tyran. But whether intending to sacrifice his remaining
warships while inflicting the greatest amount of damage on the enemy, or somehow given warning
of the events that would follow, Calgar’s force moved into the opening Hive Fleet Behemoth
had created. The Imperial battlegroup pursued the Tyranids to Circe, an outlying gas giant
in the planetary system, devastating the swarm’s fleeing bioships along the way. Just as Kryptman
had warned however, a second Tyranid force lay hidden in Circe’s rings, and now swarmed
out to overwhelm the isolated warships well beyond the protective envelope of Maccrage
planetary guns. It was Behemoth that found itself trapped
however. It had moved glacially slow through the Shadow in the Warp, but now, in this pivotal
moment, Battlefleet Brakka exploded out from the warp and into realspace, hundreds of warships
of the Imperial Navy now perfectly situated in the midst of Hive Fleet Behemoth. A savage
void engagement erupted again as Imperial and Tyranid reinforcements flooded into the
outskirts of the system, neither side possessing a significant advantage. Behemoth, though,
seemed poised to accomplish its immediate objective, utilizing its significant numerical
advantage to deny Imperial reinforcements from aiding Macragge. Since their emergence into the galaxy, the
Imperium of Man had fought Hive Fleet Behemoth with every weapon available to it. From Virus
Bombs and Cyclonic Torpedoes, to a bloodied bayonet on the end of a conscript's lasgun.
The Imperium’s defenders had utilized every strategy, every tactic, anything that might
afford them just another few moments against the onslaught of the swarm. But what ultimately
shattered Behemoth was Mankind’s oldest weapon, its first, and its last, pure unrestrained
hate. In a final sacrifice, Lord Admiral Zaccarius
Rath of the Imperial Navy drove his battered and burning flagship, the Emperor Class Battleship
“Dominus Astra '' directly into the heart of Behemoth. As the last vestiges of its noble
hull were covered beneath the weight of xenos organisms, the ship detonated its warp drives
and a new star of cataclysmic power briefly flared on the outskirts of the Macragge system. When Calgar’s battlegroup and the reinforcements
from Battlefleet Brakka returned to clear the remaining hive ships from the orbit of
Macragge Proper, contact had been lost with both of the Polar Fortresses. The onslaught
they had unleashed on the Tyranids before falling silent however, was obvious. Survivors
were eventually found amidst the ruins of the southern bastion, while the Imperial relief
effort that pushed into the northern pole found that the defenders had been killed to
a man. The entire Ultramarines 1st Company had been annihilated, trading their lives
for just a few more salvos fired from the fortress’s guns. Behemoth had been shattered and Macragge saved
from total annihilation, but no single battle could bring about an end to the Tyranids in
the Eastern Fringe. It would be years before the Macragge system was fully cleansed, while
the campaigns to similarly clear the surrounding systems and sectors would take centuries and
further Imperial armies marshaled from across the galaxy. As mankind’s forces retook the
systems consumed by Behemoth, their worlds stripped bare, the full extent of the Tyrannic
War became clear. As on Macragge, isolated Imperial fleets and armies had fought heroically
throughout the Eastern Fringe, a vital yet overshadowed aspect of the Imperium’s defense. But mankind had not fought alone, evidence
was found of an enormous battle between the Hive Fleet and a collection of Ork Freebooterz
known as the Star Krumpas whose Kill Kroozers had long been a major threat to Imperial shipping
the region. Kaptin Blackgit himself was believed killed, and the greenskin presence in the
surrounding region eradicated, albeit temporarily. Renegade elements had also taken up arms against
Behemoth, with a notable fortress world of Heretic Astartes likewise consumed during
the Hive Fleet’s advance. Particular attention was given to the fate of the Warband’s leader,
the Sorcerer Malafor who had apparently been driven insane by the sheer power of the Shadow
in the Warp. More curious though was the fate of Solemnace, a world directly in the path
of the Tyranids that the hive fleet astonishingly made deliberate moves to avoid. These reports
and every other bit of data that might be gleaned from the invasion were relentlessly
recorded and transmitted back to Terra. One hundred and sixteen years after the Battle
of Macragge, the Ultramarines recorded that they had finally recovered from the losses
sustained against Hive Fleet Behemoth. Their homeworld was likewise rebuilt, and the surrounding
sectors repopulated, but the stain of the Tyranids could never be fully removed. Across
the Eastern Fringe there have been sporadic encounters with the remnants of Behemoth,
lone Tyranid organisms that have regressed to a more bestial state, or even entire splinter
tendrils left adrift or in hibernation in the dark void between star systems. Yet nothing
could erase the most pronounced evidence of the conflict, hundreds of barren worlds where
once had been teeming masses of humanity. Even so, the High Lords of Terra were quick
to judge that the threat of the Tyranids had been ended. This was not the first time a
new xenos species had been encountered, only to be dramatically and violently extinguished.
Like the Rangdan Xenocides of the Great Crusade, it was expected that the Tyranid Invasion
would be just another footnote in Imperial history. Something to be honored, but quietly
forgotten. Several across the Imperium suspected otherwise however, Inquisitor Fidus Kryptman
first among them. Too much of the Tyranids remained unexplained for no further investigation
to be conducted. The Bell of Lost Souls, high atop the Tower
of Heroes in the center of the Imperial Palace on Terra, is known to sound whenever the greatest
heroes of mankind take their place at the Emperor’s side. It rang out in honor of
the billions of souls lost to the advance of Hive Fleet Behemoth. And just as Kryptman
suspected, it rang out again to mark those lost some two and a half centuries later against
Hive Fleet Kraken. A mere five years after that the Bell sounded again, this time to
mark the Devastation of Baal and the supposed defeat of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Each time
the Imperium has declared victory and each time that declaration proven premature. As the 4th Tyrannic War begins, and vast hive
fleets begin their inexorable advance across the whole of Segmentum Pacificus, the battles
of Tyran, Macragge and all the others are revealed for what they truly were: the opening
act of a slaughter that has just begun. A day may come when the skies of Holy Terra
are darkened by clouds of mycetic spores, its great bastions shattered beneath the weight
of enormous tendrils that stretch into orbit, and the last vestiges of man’s presence
on its homeworld are swept away. Perhaps then the Bell of Lost Souls will sound for the
final time, not in honor of some great victory, but as the final act of the human race as
it rages violently, but helplessly, against the dying of the light. Thanks again to War Thunder for sponsoring
this investigation into the First Tyrannic War. Use the link in the description below
to mount up and get War Thunder on your platform of choice along with a whole host of bonuses. And remember whether you find yourself facing
alien swarms or hostile armor, big guns never tire.
