The universe of Warhammer 40,000 is full of awesome. One cannot truly look at a single faction and say there is nothing awesome about it. You have the enormous legions of Badass Normals, supermen in Powered Armor, the psychically-gifted dying race and their dark brehtren, a genetically engineered race entirely composed of Crazy Awesome Blood Knights, the Legions of Hell at the beck and call of massively powerful Eldritch Abominations, a race of robotic Omnicidal Maniacs who threw off the yoke of their own gods, and the rapidly growing empire of a Higher Tech Species.

Of course, one of these races is a group that has been emulated by Starcraft and (effectively) emulated by Dead Space. Fan speculation believes they are a take-off from the Xenomorphs of Alien. Though first a mere passing mention, they quickly grew into the incredibly awesome bio-terrors they are today. They can strip a planet of all biological matter in 100 days. They are the Tyranids.

Having picked clean multiple galaxies of all biological matter, the Tyranids are an enormous force. Horrendously numerous, yet as one due to their Hive Mind, their biomass is positively enormous, and is capable of producing palpably terrible creatures that all of the other forces in the galaxy must face. Everything is biological, including their spaceships, and they genetically engineer themselves to adapt to changing situations.

Of course, the awesome horror does not stop there. Now add in Body Horror - Genestealers are a kind of Tyranid that injects its DNA into an intelligent organism, which then forgets the incident. When that organism reproduces, its offspring will be a Genestealer Hybrid, who will form a psychic link with Genestealers and other Hybrids, acting a group, growing in numbers. This link attracts the Hive Fleet to the planet.

Of course, one cannot get away with talking about the awesomeness of the Tyranids without mentioning their horrific Bio-Titans. Heirophants are huge creatures over 40 feet tall, and armed to the teeth with Bio-Cannons, claws, and toxic spines. Tyrannofexes are enormous, heavily-armored tanklike Tyranids that bring to bear extremely powerful bio-weapons. Exocrines are long-range support Bio-Titans biologically fitted with BFGs that can fire shells that can even penetrate the armor of Humongous Mechas. Mawlocs are enormous burrowing Tyranids that dig behind enemy linds, pop out of the ground and swallow infantry, destroy artillery, destroy command posts, and then leave as quickly as they came. Dominatrixes are huge Tyranids that act as battlefield commanders, and fire Warp-blast weapons. And finally, Tervigons are gigantic organisms, deadly close in and at a range, that act as living incubators for swarms of Termagants, which can be released from its body. I missed a couple, I know.

And yet, perhaps the most awesome of all, is the Swarmlord. The Swarmlord is huge, but not as huge as most of the Bio-Titans. It weilds four Bone Swords with extragalactic crystalline growths, positively crackling with destructive power. These blades can slice through the most powerful force fields, and even things that are Made of Indestructium. It is a horrifying creature because of its nature. It possesses more autonomy than any other Tyranid creature, and as such likely has a will and mind of its own, yet can connect so well with the Hive Mind that physical distance ceases to be an object, and can emerge in any Hive Fleet. As soon as it dies, it is reborn, with all of its memories and experiences. It is a Time Abyss, incredibly old, as old as the Tyranid race itself. With so much experience in battle, no living creature can possibly compare, and only grows stronger as it is killed, because it learns.

In short, Tyranids are a biological terror, performing X-3 Class apocalypses (though only exterminating them of life, not destroying the entire places) on an industrial scale, capable of spewing out endless Mooks as well as precipitating many an Attack of the 50 Foot Whatever, the Tyranids are extremely awesome and deserve your respect.

edited 19th May '12 8:53:35 PM by FrozenEagle

"So these aliens assimilate all organic matter and adapt to anything in hours and burrow and breed so quickly you have to explode the whole planet just to slow them down but their big units are just as indestructible as more advanced races' best stuff and they're also super smart because the swarmlord is as old as the universe and reincarnates as soon as you kill it and" UGH. Entire goddamn race of Mary Sues. And for WH40K that's really saying a lot.

edited 19th May '12 10:05:32 PM by Pykrete

Pfft. They can bleed and die like everything else, and I enjoy stories of them getting their fucking teeth kicked in.

The Great Devourer is worse.

That fanfic I didn't know about. Thank you for it.

Pfft, 'nids. Nothing the sledgehammer that is the Guard can't smash.

I thought this thread was gonna be about dinosaurs.