Kilobo Lore!
… And yet the Magos was dissatisfied. He was obsessed with perfect compliance and none of what he had so far was good enough. His cybernetics labs are yet to be credited with any true breakthroughs. His method of vitae-womb production was expensive and inefficient compared to natural reproduction, and while it ensured obedience those born from it are uncreative and need oversight. His terror weapons occasionally faltered in the face of brave or fanatical souls. And while the combat narcotics were a success, they were prohibitively expensive to produce or distribute on a truly mass scale. Even the Boppers, fanatically loyal though they were, ever held out the possibility of dissent or rebellion, the mere thought of which could drive the Magos to fits of rage unbecoming of a servant of the omnissiah. He needed more.
Yet more was not forthcoming. Yes it was true that Agreste was a model of perfect order, but gradualy what happiness this brought was replaced by bitterness as it called to mind the erratic disorder that characterised everywhere else. Pymp-D’ahdee would vacilate between rage and sadness as he read field reports of his products in action. His eyes passed over the many success stories with jaded disinterest, but when he read of some failure or some little unexpected side effect he would be inconsolable for solar days. It got to the point that he was forgetting to take his monthly nutritional supplement, and his clones were growing concerned for their gene father. Ironically it was just one of these failures that waas to snap him out of the fugue.
Some time ago the Magos had wrote a short treatise on the use of terror weapons as a bolster for morale. In particular, based on some experiments he had performed on his workers, he argued that if you disintegrated fleeing troops with a high-visibility and high-audio output laser weapon, and made sure to do so in front of their peers, then the psychological effect was so strong that it would instantly render retreat more terrifying than whatever had caused them to fall back in the first place. The rest of the piece was then taken up with some complex expected utility calculations to show that at least sometimes the gains of doing this and averting a rout outweighted the opportunity cost involved in positining the artiliary to be ready for this eventuality. An Imperial Guard field commander serving in the Ultima segmentum had put the theory to test and detailed its results in an after-action report.
Well it turned out that it had worked pretty well until it had failed miserably. The tactic had on two different battlefields managed to avert a complete route, and on both occasions a Tyranid swarm had been prevented from overrunning a defensive line. Upon hearing this other commanders had started shifting some of their big guns to cover potential points of retreat in this way. However, at just the moment this had been done the 'nids had concentrated their big organisms on the weak points in the line, and it turned out had infilitrated the backlines to destroy the laser weapons in any case, leading to total routes where over-confident commanders had not bothered to assign sufficient commissariat support to keep up morale thinking the terror weapons would suffice.
Reading this had almost prompted another week of tantrum from the Magos until he had saw the date this battle was to have taken place. They took place well after the central fighting of the campaign against Hive Fleet Behemouth had resolved. And that meant it was long after the Hive Mind had shifted its attention elsewhere, and none of the usual synapse control beasts had been seen in the area for some time (nor were they subsequently discovered, when the Magos sent enquiries to confirm). He realised that the solution had been staring him in the face all this time.
So he pitched an even more ambitious project to the highest levels of Imperial governance. He was to form a syndicate dedicated to a most sacred research project. And it turned out it was one sanctified by (totally forged) documents revealing an awful truth: the Tyranids ability to operate a hive mind was something they had stolen from technologists in Humanity's dark age of technology. It was thus a techno-crusade of the highest importance that this method of projecting long range control was secured and once more placed in the hands of humanity, its rightful heirs and appropriators. Not only was this a matter of theological importance for the Omnissiah, but with this in hand he promised he could deliver Agreste’s level of productivity and loyalty for the entire Imperium.
Now, it was never really that plausible that Tyranid control was based on originally human technology. It is said that Belasarius Cawl - who had long hated Pymp-D’ahdee - wrote numerous missives pointing out logical holes in his arguments. So one may wonder why it was believed. And the simple answer is because people very much wanted to believe it. Of course the imperium can already create servitors – near mindless automata who will carry out any command. By inducing the right chemical compounds among the vitae-womb mix the Magos had already shown one could ensure workers and soldiers were perfectly obedient. These were more creative than servitors but still ultimately not able to think outside the parameters specified by whoever gives them orders. And through religious indoctrination and raw intimidation the Church brings most of mankind into compliance already - but a shaky compliance prone to disruption by chaos. What is still wanting is something the Tyranids have: vanguard organisms. Being capable of fully autonomous thought and problem solving, in full possession of rational faculties, but who simply never choose to disobey those axioms implanted by their masters.
Just think what a vanguard humanity could accomplish! Generals could have wave after wave of conscripts who would never falter, never retreat, never disobey an oder; and yet who could take initiative in working out how to fulfil those orders on the changing conditions of the battlefield. The commercial houses envisioned a workforce who would never strike, who would take whatever pay they were given, who wouldn’t let petty concerns like workplace safety get in the way of a solid day’s labour — and yet who would not need to be maintained and would go home and see to their own reproduction. The ecclesiarchs saw total victory against heresy and the archenemy. A vigorous population yet utterly averse to rebellion! If accepting the odd logical leap in interpretation of archeological evidence was what it took to gain access to this plenty then so be it. Pymp-D’ahdee rapidly gained approval for his project, and set about gathering a team.