Fanfic / The Swarm of War

The Swarm of War is a Warhammer 40,000/Starcraft Crossover written by VexMaster. It tells the story of James Malcolm Raynor, a nerd with knowledge of both universes killed by a car... and reincarnated as a Zerg Larva on the fallen Aiur. The guy morphs to a Drone... then a Hatchery... then a Hive Cluster... and just as he's ready to take over after Kerrigan's depowerment... the Xel'Naga artifact transports him elsewhere. From that moment, James is no more. There is a new Overmind. And that Overmind lands on a new planet. A planet just in the middle of a Warp Storm. Well, time to rebuild... and consume.

The first story arc — the first 40 chapters — is about the Overmind taking over the planet. The second arc — finished in summer 2014 — is about the Swarm testing itself against future enemies on a remote planet, opposed by the Imperium, the Eldar, the Chaos, Captain Titus... and Scout Sergeant Cyrus.

Since the author is a teacher, most of the updates tend to be in the summer.

As of 2015, the story is in the process of being beta'd, but is a very enjoyable one even without it.

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Contains examples of:

• Abnormal Ammo: Can be expected, considering the setting. For the Swarm, goes all the way from the regular Hydralisk spines in the ground units to psionically charged Ultralisk sized Baneling bunches and ICBM sized explosive spines fired at relativistic speeds from the newer capital Living Ships.
• Anti-Magic: The first arc occurs on a planet surrounded by a Warp Storm. all the human Psykers upon it are incapable of using their powers, except for the ones assimilated by the Swarm. Daemon summoning magic is also much reduced in power.
• Arch-Nemesis: Warboss Bugklaw. Too bad he doesn't survive into the second arc. Judanus seems to be shaping up to be one in the later chapters.
• Asshole Victim: Elegas, when confronted by Elric and accused of having... inappropriate feelings toward his sister, merely replies that she was only a half-sister... and then asks about her daughter. Mind you, said daughter is something like seven.
• Assimilation Plot: Well, what did you expect? It’s the Swarm.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: James' first body was a Hive sized Ultralisk variant. Gets better later, when he starts making Zerg Titans and Living Ships up to ten kilometers long, with bigger stuff being planned.
• Back from the Brink: After Char, James/Overmind arrives in the W40K universe with only eight Overlords and some escorts from his force. Three of the Overlords are lost to local Giant Flyers, so he makes do with just over twenty land units and a lot of dead meat from the crashed Overlords. Oh, and a large Khaydarin Crystal from a Protoss Pylon.
• Back from the Dead: The leaders of the Swarm can do it on army scale, so long as the corpses are sufficiently intact. Also, many of the command creatures, and even regular fighters which farmed enough experience points for gaining sapience, are subject to resurrection just like the old Cerebrates.
• Badass Boast: The representatives of the Swarm are giving them to both Chaos Marines and the Imperium.
  We are the Zerg. We are the Swarm. We are the Devouring Ones. We are the God Killers. We are the Conquerors of Aiur and Destroyers of Tarsonis. We are the Unending Doom.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: The Overmind has one against Ahzek Ahriman. Turns out even one of the most powerful psykers in the galaxy cannot match a world spanning Hive Mind.
• Beehive Barrier: Considering much of the Zerg technology comes from the Protoss, it's not surprising their shields are described as such.
• The Battlestar: The larger Zerg Living Ships, like the Hive Ship, are capable of carrying and spawning millions of smaller flyers.
• Beware My Stinger Tail: Zerg Patriarchs have a long scorpion-like tale shooting out beams.
• Big Damn Heroes: In the final battle of arc 2, Titus, Cyrus and the other Astartes are almost killed by Volran before the Silent One arrives with a group of rescued Guardsmen.
• Body Horror: Considering the universes involved, a number of examples are naturally present:
  • When Zerg attack humans with acid and spores, the results are... not pretty. Roots growing through your body, acid melting off flesh...
  • Chapter 23 describes a battlefield full of corpses... and then a severed head comes alive — a Spyling still has enough life in him to try searching for another host. Of course, a few tentacles must be grown first to move around.
  • Chapter 61 contains a brief description of a Warp Drive detonating near a fleet of sea ships... since these naturally have no Gellar Field generators, one can guess what happens.
• A Boy and His X: Alena and Tobi are a girl of five and a Zergling at first, then she grows up and he recieves a few upgrades, but they are still all but inseparable.
• Brain in a Jar: Humans allowed to survive under the Swarm largely end up as these in the end, either as part of the Zerg network, or, in rare cases, as remote controllers for leader creatures.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Elegas harbored rather... inappropriate feelings toward his sister.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": Zerglings are often called "Dog-things" by humans.
• Cannibalism Superpower: Aside from the Zerg consuming native fauna, Orks, space marines, daemons, etc, for their essence, Captain Titus demonstrates the Space Marines' little-remembered Omophagea implant by eating a zergling's brain to learn about the Zerg.
• Can't Argue with Elves: Seyeris, even after being captured by the Swarm, still has all the Eldar haughtiness when talking to Hargen.
• Carry a Big Stick: Bugklaw's mace during his first Waaagh. As befits his name, it was made from Roach claws.
• Cassandra Truth: Inquisitor Pardia is the first to realize the threat of the Swarm, but is ignored. Later, he is the one to figure out the truth about the identity of Queen Alena, but others are rather disbelieving – not to mention simply have no forces capable of dealing with the problem by then.
• Cavalry Betrayal:
  • The village which calls for help against the Orks is attacked due to Tobias being mistaken for a daemon.
  • The Space Marines woken up to fight the Zerg (misidentified as a Chaos infestation) turn out to be largely corrupted by Chaos.
  • During a battle between the King's Army and Chaos, forces led by the Loyalist Space Marines attack and wipe out the Chaos forces. The commander of the King's forces thanks them for the help... and is immediately exterminated along with his army; due to the King refusing to recognize the Space Marines as his superiors, his kingdom had been branded as heretics.
• Combat Tentacles: Many of the advanced Zerg units have them. For some of them, they double as Energy Weapons.
• Cool Sword: Judanus' sword, once it absorbs Ga'huld the daemon.
• Crafted from Animals: Orks outfit themselves with armor and weapons made out of Zerg bones. The Ork leader is actually called Warboss Bugklaw.
• Crossover Relatives: It is strongly implied that the Tyranids are the descendants of another Zerg group which got sucked into Warhammer 40,000 universe in the same incident, but into another time and place.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: The first Warboss against the Ultralisk, then the Kingdom forces against the Chaos. Alena and the Host deliver these to... well, whatever they have encountered in the first arc. An Avatar of Khaine turned out to be much more of a problem.
• Cyborg: The new Swarm incorporates a good amount of Protoss tech in its units.
• Deader than Dead:
  • The Zerg Khaydarin Crystals can absorb and process Chaos energy, making them one of the few reliable ways to permanently kill a daemon.
  • Turns out Dark Templar energy disrupts Necron reviving just as efficiently as it does Zerg reincarnation.
  • The Soul Changer runs a risk of permanently killing any Zerg leader using it, since it feeds directly on Essence.
• Deal with the Devil: Not counting the obvious examples for the Chaos Marines, there is Judanus' deal with Ahriman to get him into Warp before he's killed by the Swarm.
• Death from Above: In chapter 32, after the Overmind learns that Ork reinforcement are coming from a large archipelago with a single island as a rally point, he uses Overlords to bring in a million Banelings and literally flood the island with acid.
• Deliver Us from Evil: Played with. After Alena goes through the Hormone-Addled Teenager phase, the Overmind thinks that an actual pregnancy may restore her humanity completely. Of course, there is no way he'll risk it. Chapter 67 reveals that they did have a child together. Alena didn't carry it physically, but even so, there was quite a bit of that trope in effect.
• Deflector Shields: The new Swarm gets a lot of them.
• Didn't See That Coming: The Overmind didn't expect its mere presence to purge Guilliman's slumbering form of the Chaos corruption in his wound, allowing for the possibility of an early revival.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • In the second arc, when questioned, Captain Paris is the only calm person among the shouting and complaining commanders, despite Hadrian psionically influencing everyone to express their emotions.
  • Admiral Mercurion is very good in that. He must be, considering A Million Is a Statistic is something he has to deal with quite often.
• The Dragon: Apothecary Lilgath to Judanus.
• Easy Logistics: Averted. There are a lot of issues with feeding an army a million strong, and the Ork invasion runs into significant problems once they find out their spores don't grow in Creep.
• Emergency Transformation: Alena, Elric, Volran and Hargen.
• The Enemy Weapons Are Better: There is a reason the Ork Warboss is called Bugklaw.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Played with. Enough of James remains in the Overmind to care for Alena, but it later turns a good part of it is attraction to her psyker talent. It doesn't tend to extend to other children, in any case (although quite a few are spared for Pragmatic Villainy purposes). Chapter 64 has a Zerg Matriarch having... some strange sensations connected with an Imperial Guard commander, eventually appearing before him in a humanoid form for a talk. And then we are introduced to James and Alena's child...
• Explosive Leash: Judanus puts these on his Marine underlings' necks.
• Exposition: Quite a few chapters are dedicated to description of the politics, forces and new units. One chapter is actually a Zerg codex (incomplete as of early 2016)
• False Flag Operation: In the second story arc, a Zerg force is lost in a minor Warp anomaly and lands on an Imperium world. Investigation reveals Laser-Guided Amnesia in the colony's memories, which implies artificial causes with hints pointing toward the Eldar and their psyker powers. However, Volran guesses correctly that the real culprit is the Overmind, since only he could have done such a precise work. The next chapter reveals it was an Eldar attack all right, but the Overmind attempted to erase the evidence for his own reasons.
• Fantastic Nuke: A single ability of the Overmind wipes out a city of eight million people in a heartbeat.
• Fatal Flaw: The remains of James' human overconfidence cause quite a bit of trouble at first. Matriarch Asmodeus takes heavy casualties due to her reluctance to use proper recon, leading to her being replaced.
• Feather Flechettes: The Garuda flings these... hundred meter long, armor penetrating, and explosive.
• Fighting a Shadow: The Overmind and its Champions.
• Flaunting Your Fleets: Chapter 46 describes a fleet of tens of thousands of Living Ships at the start of the Zerg expansion, and that's just the ones in the kilometer and above size category.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Starts as a nerd, then becomes a good-sized Hive Cluster, then takes over a planet and, last the fic was updated, had a sizable empire with at least one moon-sized ship.
• Fusion Dance: The Overmind does this with bases. A Hive merged with a dozen Spine Crawlers and Spore Crawlers is not something to take lightly.
• The Game Come to Life: A variation. The Overmind designs a device that essentially transforms a planet it is deployed upon to fit the Starcraft rules. Meaning, Vespene geysers and mineral crystals pop all over, and Zerg get the Ridiculously Fast Construction times of the game... temporarily, at least; the cost in Essence is way too high.
• General Failure: Everything was done to make General Vegin look like one. Then it turns out he was a traitor... not too successful in that either.
• Genius Bruiser: Bugklaw is the closest an Ork can come to this trope.
• Got Volunteered: In Chapter 58, "Lori and other soldiers were 'asked' to 'volunteer' in their entirety to aid in the construction" of fortifications once the Space Marines arrive.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Judanus' goal in Arc 3 is gathering a number of objects which are the keys to... well, as of Chapter 79, it's not quite clear what.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • The Host's attack against Bugklaw's forces starts with him summoning a small army of Zerg and flinging them at the Ork tanks and Stompa.
  • The Overmind kills dozens of Tyranids in the Battle of Tyran by rolling a Tyrant Guard over them.
• Gunship Rescue: During the Imperium's battle with the Zerg, a rampaging Ultralisk is destroyed by Valkyrie gunships. Then, a massive wave of enemies comes, too much for the gunships. All seems lost, but then a Kill Sat network reactivates. Kind of a Pyrrhic Victory though; the humans take enormous casualties themselves.
• Haunted Technology: Judanus is forced to resort to that due to the limited volume of conventional production.
• Heroic RRoD: During the Battle of Tyran, the Overmind needs to take a Hive Tyrant's brain for study. Since he is forced to use a fully human avatar for secrecy, it is a close fight, and he barely has time to send the creature's brain away before his brain literally dissolves.
• Hormone-Addled Teenager: The Overmind goes through such a stage a few months after arriving in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Doesn't quite work the way it does for humans, but it's enough for some confusion. Then Alena goes through the same... enough for them both to be confused.
• Human Sacrifice: Judanus. The Ruinous Powers pay him well for all the dormant psykers he gives them.
• Human Popsicle: The Space Marines from the original ship spent centuries in stasis, waiting until contant could be established with the Imperium.
• Humans Are Bastards: There is an offhanded mention of James adding the "boundless cruelty of a human" to the Swarm.
• Humans Are Special: The new Overmind is certainly much more creative than the first one. And savvy enough about the trope.
• Humongous Mecha: Bugklaw's Stompa serves as a Superweapon Surprise to the Swarm.
• Hybrid Monster: The new Zerg, especially the special units, have all kind of combined abilities from different old units.
• I Call It "Vera": Mercurion has a Power Sword called Lunarion, a Master-Crafted Bolter named Rex Tigris and an Inferno Pistol named Dracon.
• I Can Rule Alone: Judanus traps the daemon Ga'huld who has been tempting him. Admittedly, the daemon did intend to possess the Astartes instead of letting him rule.
• It Can Think: Harax seems very surprised when he encounters and is addressed by Volran.
• It's Quiet… Too Quiet:
  • Said by Captain Barridon right before his force and Inquisitor Pardia are attacked by the Zerg.
  • Inquisitor Kryptman, on his way to Tyran, stops at a Deathwatch fortress and sees a lot of Astartes and Inquisitors there, far more than a Crapsack World like Warhammer ever allows to be idle. Further investigation leads to a massive Oh, Crap! moment for everyone once they realise something has silenced the Imperium's enemies all across the region.
• Kill Sat: At the beginning of the second arc, Captain Titus leads a mission to reactivate a network of these.
• Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better:
  • The Swarm's first attack against an Imperium fleet starts with dozens of asteroids (with shield disruption fields). One Cobra Class Destroyer makes a Heroic Sacrifice, the rest survive, although not completely unscathed.
  • Chapter 63 has the tables turned — a Chaos attack on a Zerg fleet starts with a bombardment by an entire shattered Emperor-class battleship.
• Kiss of Death: The Blood Master exchanging his body for that of a Chaos Terminator. He even calls it "the kiss of your doom". Not the slightest bit erotic, of course. Then there is a Krakenlisk's attack, which involves grabbing an enemy starship and blasting it point blank with a Breath Weapon.
• Laser Blade: Elric uses a Protoss style Warp Blade. Also, many Zerg units have their regular blades enhanced with psionic energy.
• Last Stand: Lord Hebaras against the Swarm. Eblas against Judanus' forces.
• Let's You and Him Fight: The Zerg change details from canon to ensure enormous amounts of Imperial forces are freed up around Ultramar in order to cripple the advancing Behemoth Fleet while at the same time softening up Ultramar for conquest.
• Like a Duck Takes to Water: James accepts his reincarnation very quickly. Then he builds an empire within months. Then he gets to the Warhammer 40,000 universe... well, it's technically not him anymore, but still, he develops a new plan quickly enough.
• Living Ship: Up to ten kilometers long so far.
• Loss of Identity: Alena seems to lose her humanity, leading to quite a bit of headache for the Overmind.
• Lost Colony: They are the descendants of a destroyed warship's crew, at least the ruling class is. The planet was already settled by the time they arrived, and they took over.
• Love Is in the Air: The entire royal family and the court are destroyed by Alena's pheromones. And perhaps her psyker power as well.
• Mad Doctor: Lilgath is described to look like one, although there is little opportunity to demonstrate.
• Magic Eater: The new Zerg, with their Khaydarin Crystal implants, are capable of consuming Warp. And daemons.
• Meaningful Rename: After Char, the name "James" isn't used often, except in some private conversations. There is only the new Overmind. After the first arc, the planet upon which it occurred is named New Char, although it is unclear whether it had a name earlier.
• Mêlée à Trois: Five sides in the first arc. 1) The King's Army. 2) The Space Marines and Duke Verin's forces. 3) Judanus with his Chaos Marines and cultists. 4) Bugklaw with his Orks. 5) The Swarm. The second ark has the Swarm, the Imperium Inquisition, Chaos, Eldar, and Vegin, although it turns out he is actually with the Chaos. In one of the intermission chapters, the Swarm manipulates the Orks, Imperium and Eldar into that, with Dark Eldar and Chaos joining in later.
• Memory Gambit: Alena pulls it off during the intermission. Pity; the false personality was cute.
• Mental Fusion: In Chapter 76, two opponents are on the brink of death; a Zerg Patriarch, after being wounded in a battle and having served its purpose, and a Chaos Lord, after a You Have Failed Me from a superior due to being tricked by that Patriarch. The Patriarch offers to merge their minds together, since it will both strengthen them enough to survive, and make the Overmind notice the result and perhaps be impressed enough to grant the creature Resurrective Immortality. Seems to work.
• Million Mook March: By the end of the first arc, every faction was at that scale (before the Swarm emerged victorious). In the second one...
• Mind Hive: Despite the Split-Personality Merge, there are enough distinct personae remaining in the Overmind's consciousness.
• Mole in Charge: Alena as the queen, Changelings as most of the nobility and commanders. The intermission after arc two shows a Swarm controlled Ork Warboss and an infested Adepta Sororitas Canoness.
• Mook Promotion: The Spyling/Blood Master started as a simple Puppeteer Parasite, but with all the chances to feed, eventually became the Sixth Ranger.
• Multipurpose Tongue: Alena can use her tongue as a Combat Tentacle.
• Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The first Host and its bodyguards all have four arms. And that's not counting all the Combat Tentacles and Kerrigan style wings.
• Mundane Utility: The Ultralisks' Sharpened to a Single Atom Kaiser Blades turn out to be very useful for cutting down trees.
• Named Like My Name: James Malcolm Raynor. He became rather popular with his friends once Starcraft came out.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Swarm's command creatures have names like Lucifer, Anub'arak, Maul and Shelob.
• Negative Space Wedgie: The planet upon which the first arc occurs is inside a Warp Storm.
• The Neidermeyer: Captain Willon, having inherited his position as a commander. Actually worked quite well for him... until he became the first Imperium commander to engage the Tyranids. Not only does he pull a Leeroy Jenkins, he had also personally filled the commanding posts around him with boot-licking cowards.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: After the Kingdom learns about the Zerg and misidentifies them as a Chaos corruption, a decision is made to bring out the hidden superweapon: hibernating Space Marines. Unfortunately, nine of them are corrupted by Chaos.
• No-Sell: Theq'aras shoots the Blood Master with a full volley from a Meltagun. The guy gets knocked back a few meters... and then thanks the Chaos Terminator for the experience — now the Swarm knows what a point blank Meltagun blast is like.
• Not Herself: The Overmind realizes something is really off when he notices Alena's behavior is outright sadistic instead of the normal Zerg Pragmatic Villainy.
• Off the Rails: The Overmind has decided to use its position in the timeline to change certain aspects. Most interestingly, knowing of the first Tyranid advances has allowed it to manipulate certain events so the Imperium is better prepared against Hive Fleet Behemoth in order to eventually change the timeline. It appears to be successful, forcing Marneus Calgar to choose between allowing the Zerg Overmind to consume his Primarch or destroying the Tyranid Hive Fleet entirely, saving Macragge and his Chapter.
• One-Winged Angel: Used by Volran against Warboss Bugklaw. Volran gets Curb Stomped.
• Only a Flesh Wound: With the new modifications, Zerglings can regenerate even after losing a head, a Spyling possessed human can regrow an arm in seconds, and some units are upgraded to pull off the From a Single Cell variant.
• People Farms: After the first planet is conquered, about a million humans are allowed to survive because the Swarm needs workers to build machines, as well as psykers.
• Phlebotinum Overload: The Overmind's first bite of the Warp Storm is enough to send him into a coma. After that, he's careful not to bite off more than he can chew.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: Alena's mind grows from 5 to 16 in a matter of months. Then, an adult looking Zerg/human body is made for her.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: When the Imperium encounters the Zerg for the first time, they are much easier to dispatch than one would expect from the earlier chapters. That's because it's a Lost Colony which lacks some of the upgrades.
• Power Crystals: The Khaydarin Crystals serve as that. Also, at the end of the first arc, the temporary success of the human forces is because Alena ordered to put small amethysts in all weapons, with her and the Spylings regularly charging them up with psionic energy.
• Pragmatic Villainy: A lot of children are spared — because they can grow up to become powerful psykers, or, failing that, workers producing advanced equipment.
• Puppeteer Parasite: The Spylings are capable of consuming a human brain and then taking over from inside the empty skull — with all of the target's memories, of course.
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • An Avatar of the Overmind manages to defeat Khaine's, but is left so weak that the remaining Eldar take it out.
  • Admiral Mercurion dies fighting a Tyranid Hive Fleet. The latter is left so weak that the planet defended manages to hold out until reinforcements arrive.
• Rainbow Pimp Gear: The Crimson Knights honor gear gifted to them by other Chapters by keeping them in their original color, so an Astartes prominent enough to entrusted with a few such items can easily fit the trope.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: The Overmind makes powerful bodies for himself and his Champions. Also, Warboss Bugklaw gets bigger and stronger with each encounter, until he's six meters tall.
• Rape, Pillage, and Burn: The inquisition and the Chaos forces.
• Removable Turret Gun: Titus sees a heavy bolter during his mission to retake the facility. Unlike the usual examples, however, he has a cyborg Huscarl carry it — the weapons he carries already are heavy enough.
• Resurrected for a Job: Judanus summons back the souls of the Chaos marines betrayed and killed by him. Then he binds them to their former armor and skeletons.
• RPG Elements: The Zerg, both individually and as a collective, turn out to be capable of using psionic energy (including that of slain enemies) to mutate into stronger forms.
• Rousing Speech: Armanus gives the Do Not Go Gentle type after it's discovered most of his brothers have been corrupted or killed by Chaos.
• Sadistic Choice: Chapter 86 ends with the Overmind presenting one to Calgar: either stop the Zerg from taking Guilliman or kill the Swarmlord while it's weak, saving Macragge and the Ultramarines from the Tyranids.
• Schizo Tech: The planet in the first arc has mostly Middle Ages level technology, but there are some advanced weapons from the crashed starship, as well as limited production by the remaining Techmarines and the Adeptus Mechanicus descendants.
• Serial Escalation: Starts with a few hundred humans, a few hundred Orks, and the Overmind with a few dozen Zerglings... Ends up with human armies a million strong, hundreds of Chaos Space Marines, hundreds of Daemons. hundreds of thousands of Chaos Cultists, millions of Orks, and tens of millions of Zerg (with all kinds of advanced tech brought out). And all of that is before the expansion to other planets starts...
• Significant Anagram: Sergeant Lori Anela? And with an immediate commander named Jon "Mac" Ronyar at that?
• Split-Personality Merge: Happens to the Overmind after the Hormone-Addled Teenager phase.
• Standard Sci-Fi Fleet: Everything the old Swarm had is Small Craft, except for the Leviathan. The new Overmind has added Battlestars, carriers and other Capital Ships (Living Ships, of course), hopefully we'll see more soon.
• The Starscream: Judanus pulls it off against a Daemon Prince.
• Super-Empowering: Alena has the power to empower entire Zerg task forces around her. However, more importantly and very ironically, the Swarm is this... to its enemies. That is, because the Zerg consume Chaos energy in their vicinity, enemy psykers can use their powers against them with a significantly reduced risk of corruption. When a Space Marine team boards a Zerg Hive Ship, their Librarian uses his powers until he falls unconscious with exhaustion.
• Superweapon Surprise: Bugklaw delivers a few of these in the first arc. Later, a Zerg invasion of an Ork world runs into problems when the Warboss deploys what seems to be a mountain sized Necron vehicle... the vehicle vanishes before the Zerg manage to even scratch it, let's hope it reappears one day.
• Talking to Themself: James/Overmind attempts at one point to get information from another of the Overmind's personalities. The other personality tells him to fuck off.
• Tastes Like Chicken: The Overmind compares the taste of daemon essences to human food... although chicken isn’t on the list.
• Telefrag: The Garuda's spines are capable of emerging out of Warp right in the middle of an enemy ship. The explosions can be quite spectacular.
• Teleport Interdiction: Overmind does this to Judanus. Judanus is forced into a Deal with the Devil to make an escape. Later, it is introduced as a special attack of a Krakenling group.
• Teleport Spam: Bugklaw does this at the end of the first arc... after using a lot of teleporters for a surprise invasion.
• That Makes Me Feel Angry: Axkand the Magos has the HK/Elcor speech pattern.
• That's No Moon: The Overmind's flagship, Ygdrassil, is three thousand kilometer long and has kilometer thick armor. Hopefully, firepower will be demonstrated eventually.
• Those Were Only Their Scouts: In the first arc, the Zerg had most of their units burrow and hibernate, with little outside indication about the real size of their army. The Orks turn out to have an army millions strong on a remote archipelago. In the second arc, the Imperium has its first encounter with the Zerg... a rather degraded Lost Colony...
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: The daemon Ga'huld orders Judanus to break the hibernation tube where it's imprisoned with his bare hands. Fortunately for Judanus, he takes time first to consult other daemons about possible consequences and... well, from that moment, he has a powerful sword named Ga'huld.
• Time Skip: After the end of the first arc, the Overmind rules the planet, but cannot expand beyond until he consumes enough of the Warp Storm to clear the way. It takes decades, but of course there isn't much to tell about.
• Took a Level in Badass: The new Swarm, the new units, Warboss Bugklaw...
• Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: The Overmind issavvy enough not to try absorbing Chaos Space Marines, despite the usefulness of the Gene-seeds for his plans.
• Transhuman Treachery: What used to be James and his transformed human servants care little for humanity.
• Unholy Matrimony: Alena's title as the Overmind's Queen-consort turns out to be more than just a mere word.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The Overmind doesn't tell Volran about the confrontation with the Eldar because, just like the Dark Templar, the Eldar can use the Hive Mind link of the Swarm to gain knowledge about the Zerg. In fact, a lot of his schemes appear to be hidden even from parts of his own mind.
• Upgrade Artifact: Judanus' transformed Power Sword grants him spellcasting abilities thanks to the daemon trapped inside.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Alena was a regular five year old kid, but is the Queen of the Swarm by the end of the first arc.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Lance cannon serves as one in the first arc. Two have appeared, and each was a big trouble.
• We Are Everywhere: Alena says the exact words to Judanus. You can trust her to have a good reason for such a boast.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Admiral Mercurion only survives a chapter and a half, but he certainly leaves an impression. A Badass Normal who manages to force the Tyranids into a Pyrrhic Victory bad enough for the planet defended to survive until reinforcements arrive...
• We Have Reserves: The Overmind is perfectly willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of creatures to delay Bugklaw's Stompa for a single day. Later, at the end of Arc 2, Volran assaults an impregnable fortress... by sending creatures at it until the Imperium Ragnarok Proof weapons break down from constant firing.
• We Will Meet Again: the Daemon Prince Nar'heskor screams it at the Zerg when he is forced to flee a battle. doesn't happen; Judanus pulls a Starscream about ten seconds later.
• Weather Manipulation: In their first attack against a city, the Zerg fliers use their psionic power to start it with fist sized hail.
• What the Hell Are You?: Seems to be a common reaction to the Spylings.
• Worf Effect: The Overmind's first mental battle is against Ahzek Ahriman. That’s a ten thousand years old Badass with knowledge and power only surpassed by the Greater Daemons and Primarchs... and he’s completely Curb Stomped. At the end of arc 2, a hastily prepared Overmind Host takes out (barely) an Avatar of Khaine. Volran seems to suffer from the trope as well — as the Champion most inclined toward direct combat and brute strength, he was killed twice already.
• Worthy Opponent: Apparently, Bugklaw is considered that by the Overmind, seeing as a Zerg agent made in his image appears at one point.
• Ye Olde Butcherede Englishe: Archmagos Dorsar's speech pattern is rendered as this. Admiral Mercurion finds it rather annoying.
• Year Inside, Hour Outside: The planet upon which the first arc occurs is trapped inside a Warp Storm. Inside, over five centuries have passed. Outside, it's a single century at the most. For an orbiting abandoned starship in the Storm itself — ten hours.
• You and What Army?: Elegas and Elric have the exchange word for word.
• You Are in Command Now: In chapter 45, after the battle is finished, Lieutenant Worak realizes he's the only officer alive in his regiment. Naturally, he then reports to Captain Titus.
• You Monster!: Elegas' final words to Elric. Elric's reply is "Well, I am a monster now, Elegas".
• You Need to Get Laid: The Overmind lampshades it at one point, saying that perhaps a lot of his violence is due to sexual frustration without a proper sex drive (well, James still has that drive, but he is only a relatively small part of the Overmind's persona).
• You Shall Not Pass!: The Imperium's attitude toward the Zerg in the second arc.
• Zerg Rush: Volran actually has it as a tactic — a psionically reinforced stampede of a million Zerg isn’t easy to stop.

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