The hive mind bit was kind of cool, but the bit where it seemed to matter that it was trying to sell the guy on why it felt the God-King lied to humanity was unexpected. I do like the idea of GDF's Alien Hives breaking away from the GW Nid idea of them being just a smart all consuming swarm.
The Dark Elf Raider involvement as having 'made a deal' with the Alien Hives also hints at them being able to be negotiated with at all too. I like that.
I’m really glad you enjoyed the piece! The story actually is about the Infected Colonies Faction instead of the Alien Hives. Noctifer was the personification of the plague’s will in a Necromorph/Flood type fashion. The Plague as a whole has a gestalt consciousness based out of the Dead Planet named Noctifer, which has intelligence just because of the amount of biomass infected by the plague itself.
it has a vested interest in breaking the spirit mentally first before taking it into the horde, easier conversion and more of the host’s personality survives to be blended into the greater whole.
The Noctiferian Plague views the sector as cattle to manage and cull, if it can help other factions in exchange for more biomass or weaponry it will. Saves it from wasting bodies in a direct fight.
