Subject: Alpha Legion.
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Posted on: 2017-10-20 14:43:00 UTC

The Alpha Legion has the distinct advantage (in this instance) of not hanging out in the Eye of Terror, and therefore not really looking like Chaos Space Marines. I mean, Space Marines, absolutely, but if they could swing a 'we're a splinter group which has nothing to do with any of that' style of thing, it could still work.

Actually, it doesn't even need to be that complex: the Alphas have human operatives. Find one in a position to help the Rebel side of the Alliance, and they can work their way through until they get onto the Bugzapper. Though it does leave the Alliance in a better position, since they get to keep their fleet.

The difficulty with the Fallen Clone scenario is that the Alliance isn't really pitching itself against Chaos. I mean, granted that there's Chaos all over the place, but mostly they're going to be fighting the Imperium and the Empire. Unless...

... unless a Chaos faction deliberately sets out to turn them. Perhaps the turning point for the Alliance isn't a betrayal by a third party, but by the fall of the Hail of Flames at precisely the moment things seem to be going well (the capture of the Bugzapper). The Bugzapper is whisked away by the clones, and the Alliance fleet is torn apart by Chaos-infected clones running riot. What's left of it limps back to Coruscant, unable to make the journey all the way to the Fourth Sphere.

That separation leaves a ticking time-bomb in the Tau half of the Alliance: the Fourth Sphere doesn't know that the Hail of Flames is vulnerable to mass corruption. So they're fighting the Imperium and the 'Nids, while we watch and go 'but any moment all these soldiers could turn evil...'.

I think you underestimate the Rebels facing the Tyranids, though: they're quite a brave lot by and large, and in the old EU they faced the Vong (extra-galactic organic ships) and the Killiks (slightly less mindless Tyranids) without descending into absolute panic. Their primary strategies, depending on who exactly is on-site, will be 'look for a Queen to shoot' and 'design a bioweapon'. (The latter comes up a lot in the EUs, though not usually condoned by Our Heroes.)

Of course, the Tyranid Hive Mind doesn't have a Queen, so that won't work. The Force team (Luke, Yoda, Leia, and the Ethereals) might be able to pull off some kind of psychic damping effect, disrupting the Hive Mind locally...? It's worth a shot, at least!

hS

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