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2drones.gif This article is about the Tyranid Hive Fleet; for the Ordnance Weapon, see Behemoth Cannon.
2drones.gif This article is about the Tyranid Hive Fleet; for the Daemon, see Daemon Behemoth.

Hive Fleet Behemoth was the first Tyranid Hive Fleet encountered by the Imperium, and was also the first contact the Imperium had with the Tyranids as a race. Behemoth made a juggernaut rush into the Galaxy from the Eastern Fringe and proceeded into Ultramar, resulting in what became known as the First Tyrannic War.[1a] It was eventually destroyed at the Battle for Macragge in 745.M41 [1a] or 746.M41 [4] depending on the source.


Behemoth's path into the galaxy from the galactic south-east. Other Hive Fleets are also shown.

Early warning signs of the apocalyptic threat of Hive Fleet Behemoth came from an Explorator census of the planetary Systems on the Eastern Fringe surrounding Tyran undertaken in the preceding decade before Behemoth's invasion. Planets known to have been full of life were discovered reduced to lifeless, barren rock without even any living bacteria. These mysterious new Dead Worlds were reported to the Explorator General but nothing came of it. The outpost on Tyran also filed its own reports of discovered dead worlds, but no help was sent.[1b]

Hive Fleet Behemoth attacked from the galactic south-east of the Eastern Fringe without warning and ploughed wildly into the galaxy, ruining hundreds of systems and devouring everything in its path. Compared to later Hive Fleets which adopted different strategies, Behemoth showed no subtlety in its berserker advance. Eventually its onslaught used more biomass than it could replace and it all but consumed itself in the process of breaking the Imperial defence at the Battle for Macragge.[1a]


The first documented attack was upon the outpost of Tyran in 745.M41 [4]. Hive Fleet Behemoth overran the isolated Adeptus Mechanicus Explorator Base with overwhelming force, and stripped the world of all life. A data-codex recording the invasion was stored deep below the base's command bunker and was recovered almost a year later by Inquisitor Kryptman, a far-sighted Inquisitor who had been dispatched to investigate the reports of unexplained dead worlds. Analyzing the codex, Kryptman realised the grave threat that was entering the galaxy and became determined to warn the Imperium. Being the first time the Imperium had encountered a new alien race, they were named after the planet Tyran.[1b][2a]


Occulus was an moon-sized observator station caught in Behemoth's path as it pushed onwards past Tyran. The station was a bio-artefact claimed by the Imperium nine thousand years earlier and was devoured, along with its crew.[1a]


Jagga was the home to Ork Freebooters known as the Star Krumpas. Their considerable Kill Kroozer fleet, once the major threat to local shipping, put up a great fight against Behemoth but was eventually destroyed.[1a]


The System of Thandros contained a Telepathica Matrix orbiting Thandros I, which boosted astropathic signals and allowed intragalactic communications. Kryptman, after discovering the fate of Tyran, attempted to send a message via this Telepathica Matrix. But he couldn't get through. In desperation he ventured to Thandros and found it destroyed. Kryptman managed to salvage the Matrix so it could project the data-codex along with his own report. The Ordo Xenos replied with orders to travel to Macragge and assist in mounting a defence against the alien fleet. The Ordo Xenos, as dictated by Imperial tradition, also named the invading alien fleet after an ancient and forbidding legend - Behemoth.[2b]


Solemnace is a Necron Tomb World that was in the path of two minor tendrils. However they made major course corrections to avoid conflict with the Necrons, and eventually the tendrils lapsed into hibernation after finding themselves unable to pinpoint any nutrient-rich prey worlds.[1a]


Prandium, known as the "jewel in Ultramar's crown", was as easy conquest for Behemoth. The luscious Agri-World was stripped of all life.[1a][2a] The Tyranids were so thorough that even Prandium's atmosphere was consumed for what ever biomass it contained. The Ultramarines, led by Marneus Calgar, mounted a defence of the planet, but had to sacrifice Prandium. For a week Marneus Calgar went without food or water while meditating on the matter. When he came out of his trance-like state, he told the Ultramarines that they had been guilty of the sin of pride and that they would have to adapt and develop new strategies and tactics, even weapons. Hit and run raids were abandoned in place of concentrated defenses and static firepower. This meant that the Ultramarines had to choose a place to defend, and they chose their fortress monastery on Macragge.[Needs Citation]


Behemoth went on to absorb Sybari, a Fortress World that served as the secret stronghold for the Death Shadows Renegade Chapter.[1a]

The Anphelion Project

An Imperial taskforce, sent to investigate a covert project which studied captured Tyranid life forms, is ambushed and decimated by monstrous alien organisms.[6a]

Blackthrone's End

The Freeblade Knight known as Blackthorne seeks the head of the Hive Tyrant responsible for the fall of his Noble house. After smashing through the living wall formed by the monster’s bodyguard organisms, Blackthorne finally cleaves his reaper chainsword though its torso. His oath remains unfulfilled however, as the monster’s ravaged exoskeleton knits back together with frightening speed. Blackthorne screams one final curse upon his nemesis as the Hive Tyrant sends a devastating pulse of psychic feedback through the neural circuitry of his Throne Mechanicum, ending the lone hunter’s anguish.[6b]

Bane of Shau-Yor

When a fragment of Behemoth threatens the Aeldari maiden world of Shau-Yor, Craftworld Biel-Tan unleashes the engines of Vaul. The pristine surface of Shau-Yor plays host to a titanic clash of towering biomonstrosities and graceful Aeldari gravtanks. Stalking through the carnage comes the Tyrannofex that the Aeldari name the Bane of Shau-Yor, its colossal bio-cannon obliterating enemy vehicles with every peristaltic blast. Their losses mounting, the warriors of Biel-Tan are forced to abandon Shau-Yor to the Great Devourer.[6c]


On the frontier mining world of Kernov, Watch Sergeant Dramus of the Deathwatch slays the subterranean terror known as the Obsidian Drake, ending the Trygon Prime’s decades-long reign of terror.[6d]

Battle for Macragge

Behemoth's invasion of the galaxy towards Macragge. Hive Fleet Kraken is also shown.
Main article: Battle for Macragge

Marneus Calgar declared that the Hive Fleet would be halted at Macragge. Forewarned of the impending Tyranid attack by Inquisitor Kryptman, the Ultramarines fortified their Homeworld's already formidable defences. In the inevitable assault the defenders blew apart countless waves of Bio-vessels as they speed towards the planet, but with every wave more and more Mycetic Spores managed to break through to the planet's surface. Calgar, on the planet's surface, attempted to slow the Tyranid onslaught and buy time for the vital polar fortresses of Macragge to be further fortified. At the battle of Cold Steel Ridge the Swarmlord, the Hive Mind's deadliest servant, was dispatched to deal with Calgar. The arrival of this unique beast infused the Tyranids with a keen strategy that coupled with their animalistic nature. The Swarmlord bellowed a challenge to Calgar and charged directly towards his position. The Ultramarines Honour Guard could not stop the Swarmlord from renting, tearing and gravely wounding Calgar. Just in time, Thunderhawk Gunships arrived to evacuated Calgar to the Battle Barge Octavius in orbit above Macragge. Cold Steel Ridge was taken by the Tyranids, leaving the path to the northern polar fortress clear.[1c][3]

Arriving on Octavius, Calgar took command of the surviving Imperial fleet. Macragge's space defences had been all but destroyed by the Tyranid fleet. The Tyranid ships, having delivered their cargo of spores, broke orbit and turned away from Macragge. Calgar pursued them to the ringed world of Circe where the Tyranids revealed a second fleet concealed amongst the planet's rings. However reinforcements from the Tempestus Fleet dropped into Real Space and viced the Tyranid fleet in. But still the Tyranid's had superiority in numbers, until the Emperor Class Battleship the Dominus Astra valiantly charged into the heart of Hive Fleet Behemoth and detonated its Warp Drives, creating a cataclysmic vortex that sucked both it and the entire Tyranid fleet into oblivion. The Tyranid fleet now destroyed, Calgar's forces made haste back to Macragge where all contact had been lost with the polar fortresses. The 3rd Company landed on the northen fortress and pushed into the subterranean tunnels to find them littered with Tyranid and Ultramarine bodies. Within the lower penitorium, they found a circle of Terminators laying dead where they had fought back to back and made their last stand. The entire 1st Company of the Ultramarines had been killed to the last man defending Macragge.[1c][3]


Behemoth's threat to the galaxy had ended, but the Hive Mind had sampled a significant amount of new biomass and gained experience of how the galaxy's defenders tactically operate. It would also be years before its creatures were scoured from Macragge and before the Ultramarines and Ultramar could replace all their losses.[1c][3]

After the Battle of Macragge, the Hive Fleet splintered into smaller fragments that scattered in all directions. Since, given time to absorb fresh biomass, these splinters could grow large, the Imperium had to deal with plenty of fresh Tyranid threats during the following decades. Nevertheless, the Imperium allowed itself to think that the worst of the Tyranid menace was over, until it became clear during the last century of M41 that the scattered Tyranid forces being discovered on worlds in the Eastern Fringe were the precursors of two new Hive Fleets, Kraken and Leviathan.

One fragment of Hive Fleet Behemoth made its way into the Mechanicum-held Daugel Helix. Here the Mechanicus was able to use knowledge from the Tyran data-codex to give their Skitarii warriors a fighting chance. The Cohor commander Alpha 9-Thyrrc turned the tide by saturating a stratum of the atmosphere with gas from the planet's Promethium refineries. After his Onager's Neutron Laser sets the sky ablaze, each new wave of Tyranid spores are set aflame and incinerate those xenos planetside instead of reinforcing them. However this tactic is stored in a data-codex, brought back to the Forge World of Accatran and promptly forgotten.[5]

Known Fragments

Colour Scheme

The creatures of Hive Fleet Behemoth have a distinctive colouring of red skin with blue carapaces and, usually, black weapon symbiotes.[1d]

See also