The Devouring of Calthingum – 03.025M42

By 03.025M42, the Tyranid menace in the Rifts of Hecate showed no sign of slowing. World after world had fallen to the merciless onslaught of Hive Fleet Poseidon, its tendrils sweeping through the region unchecked, leaving desolation and stripped planets in its wake. Though Imperial systems continued to hold out—thanks in part to hastily organised defences and renewed efforts by General Maximus—the war was far from favouring the Imperium.

One of the greatest demonstrations of Tyranid power came with their return to Calthingum, a world already reeling from prior xenos raids and internal strife. This time, the swarm descended in full force.

The Fall of Chaos on Calthingum

The planet, tenuously held by Chaos, saw its defenders—primarily the debased remnants of the World Eaters—utterly swept aside. A Daemon Prince, believed by some warp-scholars to be a manifestation or echo of Angron himself, led a frenzied defence. Accounts suggest the Khornate monstrosity managed to destroy a mere nine hormagaunts before being annihilated in spectacular fashion by the focused firepower of a Tyrannofex and Exocrine.

Despite manifesting once more during the battle, the daemon was again unable to engage the swarm meaningfully, vanishing back into the Immaterium, outpaced and overwhelmed by the biomass tide.

Necron Intervention

As the Tyranids scoured the landscape, their advance disturbed a previously unknown Necron tomb complex deep beneath Calthingum's surface. The ancient warriors rose in defence of their holdings, even unleashing a C’tan shard, whose malevolent power momentarily turned the tide. But the psychic might of the Hive Mind proved dominant. Zoanthropes, crackling with synaptic energy, obliterated the C’tan’s physical form and scattered its essence.

Faced with a foe beyond even their ancient reckoning, the Necrons withdrew, leaving behind only shattered constructs and desecrated tombs.

The Devouring Approaches Completion

By the end of the month, Chaos resistance had been completely annihilated, their strongholds reduced to mulch and ichor, and even the ancient Necron lords had abandoned their holdings. Only one force remained to resist the hive fleet: a band of Orks, seemingly drawn by the scale of the conflict and the chance for endless fighting.

Yet even they now stood alone against a force that had toppled gods, devoured kings, and now hungered for the world entire. The fate of Calthingum was all but sealed. Though Fecus Major, the Daemon World in orbit, still writhed with warp energies, it could not prevent the world below from being turned into raw biomass. The Tyranids had proven once again that no force—not daemon, not xenos, not machine—was immune to their hunger.

Calthingum would fall. It was only a matter of time.