Hive Fleet Tenebrae

During Hive Fleet Behemoth’s assault of Macragge, the Hive Mind, convinced of yet another victory, sent out splinter fleets to survey the way for the advancing swarm. In the closing hours of the battle, the Imperial Forces performed a desperate assault on the numerous Hive Craft in orbit in an attempt to stop the swarms of Tyranids bringing devastation to the Planet's surface. During this lucky hit, the assaulting Tyranid force was thrown into a state of disarray which ultimately gave victory to the Imperial forces. It is believed that during this valiant assault, a 'Norn Queen' was either wounded, or killed. To this day, the Ultramarines believe that the Norn Queen is the embodiment of the Hive Mind, controlling the entire fleet with her will. Be this true, or be it that the target was merely a larger Synapse Creature further up the evolutionary chain, nobody will ever know. Regardless of this, the temporary lapse of synapse that ensued caused many of the scouting splinter fleets to fall into a state of dormancy. Many of these dormant vessels and splinter fleets were either destroyed or simply wandered out of Imperium space in to the dead space between the stars. One such splinter was dubbed Hive Fleet Tenebrae.

Hive Fleet Tenebrae was brought to the attention of both the Imperium and the burgeoning Tau Empire when it re-entered the galaxy close to the Quintairn system, where it is hypothesised that its relative proximity to the Ymgarl system (The once theorised home of the Genestealer) and to core splinters of Hive fleet Behemoth resulted in the awakening of the hive ships many decades later. This is the first recorded active sighting of the Hive Fleet and I am sure that it will not be the last.