How do Tyranids get biomatter up to their Hive Ships?

[gingerwerewolf]

As the Title says, How do Tyranids get the biomatter up to their Hiveships?

Assuming that the process goes perfectly on a planet:

• Earthquakes and so forth to disrupt world
• Seeding spores kick the Flora and Fauna into overdrive
• First spores touch down and start the battle (if needs be)
• Tyranids arrive on mass to deal with any threat, Ripperswarms start eating everything they can
• The Rippers and any other Nid and enemy bodies are moved to the Digestion pools
• Planet is slowly stripped to the digestion pools.
• Eventually all organic matter and Nids are put in the pools to be broken down.
• Digestion pools get their DNA and matter goodness to the Hiveships? <--- How?

Has this ever been described? Is there a bit of fluff I'm missing??

If you can link to sources that would be ace!

[Bane Wordsmith]

I don't have the codex on me, but I'm pretty sure the Hive Guard fluff mentions Capillary towers funnelling the matter up.

[Raven]

Yeah, they get big capillary towers, then the hive ships enter the atmosphere and suck up the biomass through the capillary towers.

[undead]

Yeah prince ravens is right thats how they do it

[Hive Carnithrope]

The Hive Ships also suck up the atmosphere too, which makes the seas boil so they can be absorbed as well. Basically, all that's left is a rock, although there is a non-official Carnifex variant that burrows into the planet to take its minerals, so even less is left.

[gingerwerewolf]

I didnt know about the fex that ate minerals, but I figured that if you had a mass increase in the Flora and Fauna, that the plants would do a lot of that for you.

As for Capilery towers I guess I never thought they were big enough - You see I saw the Forge world ones and assumed that was the max size of them. However the Low Orbit reaching ones - wow...

Thanks for the responses guys!

[ranmafan]

I think in the fluff, Pyrovores take over the role of that carnifex in the 'eating minerals and ores' part.

[Meddy]

Behold!

[oranos325]

That's a cool picture. Where did you get it from?

[oranos325]

That's a cool picture. Where did you get it from?

[Hive Carnithrope]

Jul 29, 2013 16:57:44 GMT ranmafan said:

I think in the fluff, Pyrovores take over the role of that carnifex in the 'eating minerals and ores' part.

You're probably right. It's called a Magma Corer, and it was created by someone for a special event, or something, like the Laius Horror. The only mention is a dead link on the Lexicanum. There's about a paragraph of info on it somewhere too, but it's all made up, so take from it what you will. The Pyrovore was created later and officially, so is probably better fluff wise for all the minerals.

WE REQUIRE MORE MINERALS OM NOM NOM!!!

[Davor]

A really big straw? I wonder if they took over an Ice planet like Hoth, could the Hive MInd or Ships get a brain freeze?

Also how can Rippers eat up a planet, if not being babysat every 12" or what ever equivalent it would be in real life of synapse, because they would eat each other up before eating up the planet?

In seriousness I agree with Meddy's pic. Awsome pic. Wasn't that the pic on the side of the Battleforce box set? If not I remember seeing something like that when Tyranids were going to be released in 2010 from GW. It was a 2 pic collection.

[gigasnail]

forget everything you know about physics and biology when dealing with 40k fluff. accept they just suck the planet dry, like space vampire roaches.

i will now stop shitting up your legitimate fluff question/thread. thank you, that is all.

[Kwodd]

Davor is right, a big ass straw.

[Meddy]

There's plenty o cool pics when you google image search 'tyranid invasion' I'm not sure what the original source o the one i posted is - it crops up everywhere and it's been copied so many times.