"Fleetless" swarms and the Hive mind

[greyseer]

What maintains the link to the Hive mind for a swarm that has no corresponding fleet? For example, if a planet was being invaded and the Tyranid Hive ships (including norn queen) were destroyed in a counter attack, what would maintain the link to the Hive mind itself?

There have been instances when the norn queen was killed and the corresponding swarm went feral and crazy (Tarsis Ultra). And there have been instances where the fleet was utterly destroyed, but the surviving swarm maintained coordination to the point of rebuilding themselves in the face of an aggressive enemy (Ghorala swarm).

What was the difference between the two?

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[WestRider]

Basically, it comes down to what the author of that particular bit of fluff would be coolest. There's no real consistency or canon explanation for much of it.

[Lanesend]

Maybe if the Tyranid presence on a planet is large enough, the Tyrants and Dominatrixes can maintain a synaptic web big enough to have an overall conciousness. It would still be a Hive Mind.

[t⊗theark]

I would have thought that the swarm would then come under the control of the next subordinate synapse creature (So say, the most powerful hivetyrant or dominatrix would take control if a norn queen was killed and the hydra effect had not yet come into effect). So say if there say a tervigon which was supporting a particular part pf was swarm of downed, after the synaptic backlash a tyranid prime or zoanthrope would then be the primary synapse creature, and so on until the last warrior dies. I would think that after some time something like the hydra effect would occur amongst smaller broods of creatures if there was enough of them for their consciousnesses (Wow, that is one awkward word!) to collect and coordinate together to gather resources and spawn a synapse creature to connect with the rest of the hivemind.

[infornography]

Hivemind means a mind that spans multiple creatures. Think of it like a network. If you have 5 computers hanging off of a router and that router loses connection to the main internet, it is still a network and can function, but is lacking a lot of the power and resources it had when it was connected to the Internet.

The greater hive mind is like the internet, whereas the local network is like a small hive mind that was separated from the greater hive mind. It can still function, but at a lesser capacity. It doesn't mean an individual tyrant or computer has taken over control, the network is a group all acting as one with many interfaces with the outside world.

Does that make sense? I hope I didn't strain the analogy too far.

[Lanesend]

Good explanation, info.

[1swarmlord]

i like that explanation, i guess as long as some synapse is around, warrior, trygon, etc, the network continuous to function!