The Hive Mind's Victory!

Fabius Bile chose this star system as his hiding place based on a fleeting feeling, instinct, and inspiration.

There was nothing in this star system. It had never left any trace in the galaxy and possessed almost no resources. It did not even have a name on the Imperium of Man's star charts.

No one cared. No one noticed.

But what Fabius did not know was that a tiny xenos species had once been born in this system.

In a chance flash of inspiration, this species discovered the secrets of fossil fuels. With scant resources, they created roaring internal combustion engines and gradually formed a reverence for the howling power within them, worshipping the illusory V8 Power God. Their civilization developed all the way to a level close to humanity's twentieth century.

But lacking crucial resources and technology, this xenos species never managed to leave the ground and fly among the stars. At most, they had barely reached nearby satellites.

Then, several decades ago, this pitiful species met its end.

A tiny number of tendrils from the Leviathan Hive Fleet, which had been repelled by the Blood Angels at Baal, survived. They fled the Scarlet Scar region and escaped all the way toward the galactic frontier, passing through this star system at just the right moment.

The starving Tyranid Swarm flooded toward the planet inhabited by that species. Even a small surviving tendril was more than this weak species could resist.

The Tyranid Swarm devoured the planet. That species prayed to their V8 Power God, but received nothing in return. In the end, the entire planet was consumed by the surviving tendrils of the Leviathan Hive Fleet.

Yet the planet was too barren, and the engines made by that species had terribly inefficient conversion rates. They had squandered and wasted