Benevolent Tyranids (alternate interpertation of th Hive Mind)

There is a short story in the Fear the Alien short story compilation, it's titled Belly of the Beast or something similar that somewhat supports this theory.

Essentially, a group of neophytes are led aboard a damaged or dormant Hive Ship to destroy it. One of the neophytes is a psyker, and he hears a voice telepathically coming from the ship or something inside it. The tyranid urges him to surrender, to kill his comrades, to become a part of something grand and eternal. It is difficult to know from an objective standpoint, but from the boy's perspective at least he is convinced that the tyranid ship's offer is a genuine one. To be forever a part of their collective mind.

However, due to Imperial dogma in his mind already as well as space marine training, he resists and continues alongside his neophyte brothers and their space marine commander. Eventually he is killed among most of the others and devoured by the ship. The last words he hears in his head are One way or another, you will be a part of me.

So, I can believe this theory, and it seems at least loosely supported. I doubt it would be something the tyranids would resort to under normal circumstances, but an intelligence as vast as theirs is surely capable of communicating in one form or another if the need or purpose truly arises.

I wouldn't call the tyranids benevolent, I'd see it as more a case of scouting for powerful minds to add to their own in the same way they favour superior genetic traits.

Normal genestealers are engineered to fear and flee the main tyranid hive fleets. Whether this was by design or by circumstance ultimately doesn't matter, as the tyranids follow the psychic trail of a thriving genestealer cult and home in on the worlds they have infiltrated. In their drive to continue fleeing their masters, the genestealers will continually seek to infest newer worlds. But once the Hive Mind gains proximity via an invading Hive Fleet the genestealers are once again slaved to its will the same as any other tyranid.

The ymgarl genestealers are exactly the opposite. They actively seek to rejoin the hive fleets but are rejected for reasons stated in the codex as biological instability. There's something wrong with their genetic makeup that somehow makes them too dangerous for even the tyranids to re-integrate. Interestingly, the ymgarl factor existing in the newer codex suggests that this may not be the case, or that accidents have occurred and the odd ymgarl stealer has slipped through the cracks. But generally these stealers are used then abandoned once a world has been stripped.


Both of these examples show that the tyranids are capable of understanding, using and creating the concept of individually minded creatures.