The first new operation for Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2’s co-op multiplayer mode will task players with a desperate mission to try and starve the Tyranid hive fleet in orbit. As dedicated Warhammer 40k lore nuts, we thought we’d explain why that’s so cool, so scary, and why we have high hopes for a truly awesome mission.
Publisher Saber Interactive announced the new mission on the Space Marine 2 steam page on Wednesday. Kadaku is lost. If you’ve played through the campaign you’ll know that the Space Marines and the Cadians are fighting a rearguard on the world, holding the Tyranids back just long enough to attempt to evacuate project Aurora and as many guardsmen as possible. This mission shows how that defiance ends.
Though all of the Warhammer 40k factions are horrifying in one way or another, the Tyranids are particularly visceral. Think of them as a galactic locust swarm. The hive fleets are invading our galaxy from the great darkness beyond, in numbers the Imperium can only guess at, and they are so very, very hungry.
The Space Marine 2 enemies you actually fight, the Hormagaunts, Warriors, even the massive Carnifexes and Hive Tyrants? They’re just the visible part of the Great Devourer’s digestive system.
A Tyranid invasion has several waves. It starts with vanguard organisms, like the stealthy Lictor and rapidly deployed Gargoyles, that soften up the prey. Then the Tyranids’ main fighting forces land, pacifying any sentient defenders capable of resisting the swarm. At the same time a microbiological assault begins, killing life on the planet at the cellular level.
When all resistance is defeated, the hive begins to strip the planet bare of biomass. Digester beasts, like the ravenous Ripper Swarms, consume everything organic (and a good deal inorganic) on the planet, right down to drinking the oceans and scraping the soil back to the bedrock.
This natural bounty is transferred to huge digester vats, out of which grow huge capillary towers that reach up to the heavens. It’s from these sky-scraping, bone-and-meat drinking straws that the living ships of the hive fleet feed.
The Ultramarines last mission on the world will see them join the remaining Cadian forces as they attempt to destroy these Capillary Towers. You will be fighting on the precipice of Kadaku’s apocalypse. This is nothing short of spiteful defiance: there’s no chance that this will seriously harm the hive fleet. All it can do is make the great monsters of the void skip a meal.
This isn’t necessarily the last new Space Marine 2 mission that will feature Tyranids. This hive fleet is also busy fighting on Avarax, prying open that world’s dense industrial cities like a hungry man with a tin of sardines. Yes, a Hive Tyrant has been killed, but they are replaceable, and they’re far from the apex of the Tyranids’ leader-beasts. And the trillions of bugs that are fighting on the world represent a tiny fraction of a tiny splinter of one hive fleet. There are many, many more in the black void beyond the stars…
If all this leaves you tantalised by the lore of Warhammer 40k, make sure you check out our guides to the best Warhammer 40k books and best Warhammer 40k games. We even have this tailored article full of particularly good books and games for you to jump in, after completing Space Marine 2.
Source: Wargamer
