Hive Fleet Zephyr

"Get those munitions moving lads! First frost is nearly upon us- and with it comes the Zephyr!"

Hive Fleet Zephyr is a peculiar strain of Tyranid. Their connection to the Hive Mind seems to be completely severed. They are only found on a handful of planets across a couple of systems. These factors combined with their predictable, animalistic behavior leaves them a low priority on the Imperium's ever-growing list of fires to extinguish.

Appearance

The Zephyr have deep black exoskeletons with bright yellow carapaces. The carapaces are adorned with black markings. Their venomous claws, talons, and stingers are a vibrant green color. The Magos Biologis proclaim this unusual appearance to be aposematism- a warning sign to potential adversaries that they pose a significant threat and are best left alone.

Hives

The swarm lives in clusters of bulbous, ribbed structures erected from mulched biomass. Locals refer to these clusters as 'Hives'. The constructs are arranged in hexagonal patterns surrounding a single 'Nexus'. Within this nexus hive is the Brood Queen- a highly powerful and intelligent synaptic anchor that directs the brood.

Brood Queen

The Brood Queen is a Tyrannic pattern unique to the Zephyr. Lacking a connection to the Hive Mind, their Brood Queens exist to operate in its place. The Brood Queen consumes vast amounts of energy to psychically link and coordinate the various members of the cluster. There is only ever one Brood Queen to a hive, and members of a hive cannot interface with a queen that's not their own.

If the Brood Queen dies, the entire hive's synaptic link is severed at once. The members turn feral and attack anything around them. Despite the immense difficulty, this is the only way to ensure a hive is permanently destroyed.

Behavior

The Zephyr are highly territorial, but rarely venture more than than a handful of miles from their hives. They pray on local flora and fauna, and take the assimilated biomass back to the hives for the queen.

When fall arrives, the Brood Queen is spent and will soon die. Before it does, it births the next queens. This marks the beginning of the end for the colony.

The new queens require many months to develop, and initially can only synaptically link to a handful of allies. This poses a great danger to the Hive- should the current Brood Queen die, the hive will turn feral. They will attack each other and, more importantly, the next generation of queens. Thus the Brood Queen's final action each autumn is to send the hive as far away from the cluster as possible.

This wandering horde of Zephyr has no further use to the queen, so it commands them aggressively. They rampage across the planet's surface and are often attracted to settlements. They fight to the last, and grow increasingly feral as the Brood Queen's life-force wanes.

When the current Brood Queen dies, the young successor queens begin to hibernate. A small retinue of combat-capable spawn are linked to the queens, and protect them throughout the fall and winter seasons. Come spring, the queens will leave the decaying Hive Cluster. They will travel for dozens of miles to establish a new nesting site.

War-Swarms

Occasionally, Brood Queens of disparate hives will link together. Doing so substantially increases the strain placed on each queen, but allows them to coordinate in significant ways. This coordination often results in vast swarms of Zephyr moving and acting as one. These hordes are known as 'War-Swarms', and are the only times that Hive Fleet Zephyr behaves in ways that resembles a traditional Tyranid hive fleet.