Hive Fleet Hydra

Hive Fleet Hydra is a small Tyranid Hive Fleet active between the southern part of the galaxy and the extreme of the eastern spiral, and first encountered during the M41. And no they don't have anything to do with that hydra. Or maybe they do? Or maybe that's what they want you to think...

Awakening of Hydra

Hive Fleet Hydra was first discovered by a group of Dark Eldar pirates from the Kabal of the Poisoned Fang, when the nids were still in hibernation. Instead of doing the sensible thing and either getting reinforcements to destroy it while it's still inactive or just getting the fuck out of there, the Drukhari decided it would be a good idea to board the bio-ships and capture as many of the tyranid bioforms as possible. Obviously, all the tinkering the Drukhari did inside of the ships ended up waking the Tyranids up, and they proceded to eat all of them. Prematurely awakened from its deep sleep, Hive Fleet Hydra started advancing to the nearest worlds to satiate its hunger.

Strategy of Hydra

By Hive Fleet standards, Hydra is quite small in size, although that doesn't make it any less dangerous. Its strategy usually focuses on massive swarms of small tyranid bioforms, like Termagants, Hormagaunts and Gargoyle (Tyranids)s. Before the invasion starts the Hive Fleet sends thousands upon thousands of spores, containing the aforementioned bioforms, to the chosen planet. These lay dormant and hidden until the main assault starts. Once the attack starts, the bigger synapse creatures can call upon these organism to attack whatever objective they need to take down. If by any chance the defenders manage to kill one of the synapse creatures, it will send a psykic chain reaction that will drive all bioforms hidden in spores absolutely crazy. this means that thousands, if not millions of tyranid creatures will immediately swarm whatever killed the bigger nids, surrounding them with creatures from a wide area.

This, combined with the fast recovery rate Hive Fleet Hydra has to replenish the ranks of its swarms, means they can take down big objectives by using relatively simple tyranid creatures, only focusing in bigger bioforms when needed.

Tyranid cannibalism

The behaviour of Hive Fleet Hydra has puzzled the Ordo Xenos over the years. They seem to focus on attacking planets that have recently repelled an earlier Tyranid invasion, usually eating whatever Tyranid remnants were left floating around, then attack the planet. Although Tyranid cannibalism is not an isolated or rare phenomenon, Hive Fleet Hydra is way more inclined to attack and eat other Tyranids when found. Experts have theorised that this is a way to get easy biomass and useful DNA strands to better evolve. Attacking a planet was recently victim to the Tyranids probably means its defenses are worn out and exhausted, and by eating other nids they manage to analyze whatever they used on the planet and plan accordingly. Lately, Hive Fleet Hydra has been ignoring most inhabited worlds in its path altogether, instead focusing on cannibalizing the splinters of other Hive Fleets. While this sounds like it would be detrimental to the Tyranids at first glance, some Magos Biologi have voiced fears that Hydra's cannibalism may be accelerating the evolution of the Tyranids as a whole somehow and could explain how Hydra is able to build up its numbers so quickly.

Tyranid Hive Fleets
Major Hive Fleets:	Hive Fleet Behemoth - Hive Fleet Kraken - Hive Fleet Leviathan
Minor Hive Fleets:	Hive Fleet Colossus - Hive Fleet Dagon - Hive Fleet Gorgon - Hive Fleet Hydra - Hive Fleet Jormungandr Hive Fleet Kronos - Hive Fleet Moloch - Hive Fleet Naga - Hive Fleet Ouroboris - Hive Fleet Tiamet