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The fleshborer gun, particularly on a Termaguant, is a nest for the Fleshborer beetles. The gun its self isnt alive, but the ammunition is. So, why then, does the gun have an eye? Is it just rule of cool? Is there a reason behind it?

Because Tyranids.

 Iechine wrote:
Because Tyranids.

Well, that answers just about any further questions I could possibly ask.

I thought the gun had a whole set of musculature to propel the beetles on their way. The gun is not just a home, but also a symbiotic creature. Also if you're going to all the trouble to breed ballistic weapons, you may as well add in a simple targetaquisition tool for the bearer

I suppose the Fleshborers does the aiming and the Termigaunt brings the Fleshborer closer to the target.

 welshhoppo wrote:
I suppose the Fleshborers does the aiming and the Termigaunt brings the Fleshborer closer to the target.

That seems awful, as the eye can only look to the sides. No matter how you turn it, it will never see its target.

The gun is also alive!

<insert creative biology>

I suspect the Fleshborer "gun" has its own rudimentary awareness, its own senses and lends a claw helping the Termagant to aim the weapon.

Sure the eye is on the side, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have a wide angle of vision (180 degrees plus). Perhaps it contains a different set of senses allowing it to see in different spectra to the Termagant allowing the beast to hunt at night, in blinding light, in thick gas etc? It could even double as a secondary eye to warn the Termagant if it is being flanked or while the Termagant is busy aiming the weapon.

The key point though is that the "gun" is alive, just as the Termagant is alive and the Borer Beetles are alive. It's never been specified, but it's there and it stands to reason that the Tyranids get "something" out of it.

As someone above wrote, "because Tyranids".

 welshhoppo wrote:
I suppose the Fleshborers does the aiming and the Termigaunt brings the Fleshborer closer to the target.

This is why I hate the whole living weapon deal.

The Hive mind could just bang a pair of legs on the Fleshborer and voila: a much smaller target with all the lethality of a Termagant for a fraction on the biomass.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I suppose the Fleshborers does the aiming and the Termigaunt brings the Fleshborer closer to the target.

This is why I hate the whole living weapon deal.

The Hive mind could just bang a pair of legs on the Fleshborer and voila: a much smaller target with all the lethality of a Termagant for a fraction on the biomass.

Some of it looks cool. Tyranid warriors carrying venom cannons has always been one of my favorite asthetic pieces of the nids. But besides heavy weapons, the rest should all function like Raveners, with ranges weapons built into their chests Starcraft style.

 BrotherHaraldus wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I suppose the Fleshborers does the aiming and the Termigaunt brings the Fleshborer closer to the target.

That seems awful, as the eye can only look to the sides. No matter how you turn it, it will never see its target.

No, that's perfect. That way, if they can see the target, they know that they are off-target. They aim by flying towards the blind-spot!

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I suppose the Fleshborers does the aiming and the Termigaunt brings the Fleshborer closer to the target.

This is why I hate the whole living weapon deal.

The Hive mind could just bang a pair of legs on the Fleshborer and voila: a much smaller target with all the lethality of a Termagant for a fraction on the biomass.

I always kind of justified it as a Gaunt can be used for a ton more than just slinging a weapon into battle. Clearing biomass from already conquered worlds, maintaining the hive ships, handling young tyranids until they mature. Just unplug the flesh borer and plug in a "tyranid baby milk dispenser" onto the same platform.

Modularity man. If you've got a good tool, don't bother changing it.

 Hive Fleet Cerberus wrote:
The gun its self isnt alive, but the ammunition is.

Maybe the gun is alive. I guess the ammunition was made out of some insects with some parasitic habits, and I would not be surprised if it actually needed to feed on something when waiting to be eaten. I mean, if you want to keep several beetles alive until you shoot them, they will need to feed, and since you can not have them devour the gaunt, have some kind of poor, wretched creature who can regenerate very quickly and who will be devoured from the inside for its whole life ! Oh, and then give it eyes and ears so that it can see how cruel its fate is compared to others, and despair in its agony.
That is actually extra, unneeded cruelty here, Hive Mind .

[edit]Checked Lexicanicum, apparently the beetles are kept into a state of dormancy, so they do not need to eat much, but it also says that maybe the fleshborer itself is some evolution of the beetles itself, that actually produce the beetles rather than just stock them. It however also says that the beetles are blind, so that does not explain the eyes.[/edit]

 Hive Fleet Cerberus wrote:
The fleshborer gun, particularly on a Termaguant, is a nest for the Fleshborer beetles. The gun its self isnt alive, but the ammunition is.

The gun is alive. Its a symbiotic organism on the Termigant which in itself has a symbiotic organism living and breeding inside it.

Now the gun is literally going to be nothing more than a breeding ground for the fleshborer beetles, along with either a muscular or gas pressure system to feed them into the barrel and then launch them, but its still very much alive.


The "eye" is probably linked to the Termigant's nerve system giving it a third eye to help with aiming.

As for feeding the beetles, the gun likely secretes some sort of nutrient to feed the beetles. And gun itself draws upon the Termigant for sustenance.

 Blackhair Duckshape wrote:

 welshhoppo wrote:
I suppose the Fleshborers does the aiming and the Termigaunt brings the Fleshborer closer to the target.

This is why I hate the whole living weapon deal.

The Hive mind could just bang a pair of legs on the Fleshborer and voila: a much smaller target with all the lethality of a Termagant for a fraction on the biomass.

They have. Its called a Termagent. Legs require muscles, living beings require support organs and energy stores, the Hive Mind requires some kind of brian in the construct to control autonomic biological systems and to give the creature some kind of purpose if it drops out of synapse range (rather than just dropping like a puppet with cut strings), combat ops require robust physiology and some kind of sensor package (i.e. eyes, ears, nose, vibration sensors).

Just "banging a pair of legs" on a fleshborer would give you a horrible fleshy mass that can't support itself, will expire as soon as it leaves direct contact with something that can feed it and will be unable to fight because it can't see anything.

Think of it like a male sea horse. The hive is located inside the body of the host, which is attached the ultimate host organism. Hence the eyes. So, if you really want to think of it, the entire Tyranid projectile weapon system is a great big...yea sorry, but I have to..."Yo dawg, I heard you like parasites, so we put parasites in your parasites so you can shoot parasites while you shoot parasites."

I don't think you have to be that creative with it. Known animals are weird enough let alone intergalactic aliens. I imagine as just higher velocity version of this toad thing:

its like fish eye lenses... 180 degress sight, not the 45 or 90 degree most other animals have...

it makes perfect sense, helps to aim ect.. the weapons are just living symbiotes so eyes could help them shoot.

and the legs with FB on top... well.. thats useless in CC, and would need arms for climbing over stuff, let alone pointing itself.

It's a pride thing.

The Norn Queen of Hive Fleet Euridice made these awesome critters called Gaunts, and gave them symbiotes that use muscles spasms to shoot spikes.

The Norn Queen of Hive Fleet Stheno looked at them and said, "Yeah? Well, I can do better!" and altered the symbiotes to nurture little beetles that eat into the target.

Finally, the Norn Queen of Hive Fleet Medusa realised that she couldn't outdo her sisters on the lethality front, and said, "Pah, simple mechanisms! The key to innovation is complexity!" and added eyes, to prove that she was a better geneticist.

All of the Exalts.

 Furyou Miko wrote:
It's a pride thing.

The Norn Queen of Hive Fleet Euridice made these awesome critters called Gaunts, and gave them symbiotes that use muscles spasms to shoot spikes.

The Norn Queen of Hive Fleet Stheno looked at them and said, "Yeah? Well, I can do better!" and altered the symbiotes to nurture little beetles that eat into the target.

Finally, the Norn Queen of Hive Fleet Medusa realised that she couldn't outdo her sisters on the lethality front, and said, "Pah, simple mechanisms! The key to innovation is complexity!" and added eyes, to prove that she was a better geneticist.

i dont get it...

Imagine the Norn queens as rival biologists, each trying to one up each other.

The eye is one of the most complicated pieces of biology in existence, so adding eyes to something instantly makes it significantly more difficult (and therefore prestigious) to create.

That's why we have two.
Suck it one eyed things!

Eyes making things creeper.

Maybe its a fake eye, kinda like the ones on a peacock's tail feathers.

It could be used to relay additional visual information to the Hive Mind. We know from how Hive Guard work that the Hive Mind essentially creates a mental image of the battlefield through the conglomerate perception of all of the Tyranids in it, complete with data on each target and their likely movement patterns. The majority of Termies seeing in two directions at all times would probably help this. That said, I never paint them as eyes and have always thought it looked tremendously silly, especially considering how they don't even fit the established aesthetic for Tyranid eyes (lacking pupils).

Perhaps instead of the eye being used to aim, it may be to look out for potential damage to the gun itself? It may see a projectile heading right for it, so sends a brief signal to the Gant to move. The gun is very important after all, and intelligent enemies could definitely be targeting the guns themselves.

The fleshborers/etc are linked to the hive mind. There is a piece of canon in which inquisitor Kyrupman*(sp) dissects a fleshborer, and his telepathic psyker gets linked into the gun and has his mind taken over by the hive mind.

The eye though, would probably be rule of cool, plus to make sure the fleshborer isn't hit by enemy fire, because of course being a creature its a bit more vunerable to firepower than metallics.

 Doctadeth wrote:

The eye though, would probably be rule of cool, plus to make sure the fleshborer isn't hit by enemy fire, because of course being a creature its a bit more vunerable to firepower than metallics.

This statement requiers substantiation! A Carnifex would probably have issue with being deemed to be more vulnerable than a Rhino