The Tyranid Hive's Vanguard Fleet caught up with the last superheavy transport.
It was as huge as a lumbering turtle, laboriously paddling its short, thick claws through the dark galaxy.
The engines wailed as a tentacle covered in sharp biomass spines plunged deep into the ship. Inexplicably, cracks opened across the tentacle's steel-hard chitinous shell, spilling countless white "eggs." They split open, and Tyranid creatures burst out to attack.
The Tendrilled Hunter Devourer Ship had a completely different structure from other vessels. Equipped with both Devouring Claws and Predatory Tentacles, it resembled an octopus brandishing its limbs rather than a teardrop.
But when its tentacles latched onto the transport, flames engulfed the entire vessel. A phased-array explosion concentrated its force in one place: the engine compartment.
The ship's massive secondary detonation not only killed that Tyranid bio-ship, but also caught the surrounding swarm of Corrosive-Tendril Bio-ships.
And ahead of them lay many more similar transports.
The Tyranid Hive Mind was clever. It quickly dispatched "boarding" forces, sending small units into the transports to disarm the bombs while keeping its main vessels as far from those enormous bombs as possible.
It was a good tactic, but the Alpha Legion commander had never intended to let them live. The slow transports brought up the rear, while the fast ones had already smashed into the very front of the battle line.
The Alpha Legion commander ordered them to blow themselves up and blast an escape route open for the Legion... without the mortals aboard knowing a thing.
For a time, the Tyranid ships hesitated to press forward at full strength. They could only attack with bioplasma and long-range Spore Torpedoes, allowing the heavily armoured Astartes vessels to begin their breakout.
The battlefield was silent. The distant explosions could not reach them, and