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From Warhammer 40k - Lexicanum
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'''Capillary towers''', also called '''feeding towers'''{{Fn|6}} or '''intestinal towers''', are a key part of a [[Tyranid]] [[Hive Fleet]]'s consumption cycle.{{Fn|5}}
These nascent plant-like growths are often seen sprouting across the landscape in the wake of a Tyranid invasion, often in the Tyranid's backlines. The nascent towers will eventually grow to monumental heights in the latter stages of a world's consumption,{{Fn|2c}} like gigantic jagged fangs erupting from a world's crust.{{Fn|2a}} Their fleshy, musclular bulk is held upright by durable mineral structures and flesh tethers.{{Fn|6}} The feeding tower's ultimate role is to serve as a connection point for a bioship's feeding tubes that will then gorge on the consolidated biomass.{{Fn|2c}}{{Fn|5}} The feeding tubes are a multi-pronged system of proboscises twisted together that descend from consumption ships that themselves are tethered to larger bio-ships in orbit.{{Fn|5}}
The biomass consolidated at these towers is collected by various Tyranid [[Ripper|feeder beast]]s who, alongside their larger combat bioforms, throw bloated bodies into the [[Reclamation Pool|reclamation pool]]s at the base of a towers, being dissolved in digestive acids alongside their harvest of biomass. The towers can also spawn additional bioforms planetside, bolstering the invasion of a world.{{Fn|2a}}
