In the 41st Millennium. the rule of humanity encompasses almost the entire galaxy, a glittering circle of stars ninety thousand light years from rim to rim. This is the Imperium of Man, the largest and most populous empire of all time, an empire of more than a million worlds and untold billions of human beings. The Imperium is ruled by the ancient and immeasurably powerful Emperor. Once he was a living man but he has long since ceased to live in any normal sense. His body is dead, yet for ten thousand years the Emperor has controlled the destiny of die Imperium, thanks to a complex life-support system which preserves his spirit. His wishes are enacted by means of the Adeptus Administratum, a colossal bureaucratic organisation based upon Earth but with the authority and means to rule the entire galaxy. Despite the power of the lmperium, the human race remains under constant threat from the many hostile aliens which seek to destroy or enslave mankind. The enemies of humanity are strong, but man has so far proved stronger, more resourceful and ultimately more enduring. This is largely due to the armed forces of the Imperium. Human fleets travel the star clusters of the galactic core and the outer rim. Human armies wage war on planets fifty thousand light years from Earth. Most important of all, the Space Marines stand ready to combat any threat to the Imperium. They are humanity's finest warriors, bio-adapted to survive on the toughest battlefields, trained as the ultimate fighting men, equipped with the most advanced power armour and the most potent armament from the weaponshops of Mars. In ten thousand years of battle, the Space Marines have served humanity well so that today, despite the relentless pressure of hostile foes, mankind thrives under the beneficent rule of the Emperor and the vigilance of the Space Marines. Beyond the human galaxy, beyond the range of human space craft and astrotelepathy, lies the unspeakable cold void of intergalactic space. This is a realm into which few men have ventured and from which no-one has ever returned. It is the great barrier which divides galaxy from galaxy. Yet the void is not empty. Through it moves an intelligence, a great creature that is formed from countless billions of creatures, a mind that is many inter-linked minds. This entity, this race, is the Tyranid hive mind, and it has come from a galaxy unimaginably distant. Now its advanced forces have reached the Imperium, and the fate of mankind and every living thing in the galaxy hangs in the balance. The Tyranids have travelled to the Imperium in a hive fleet consisting of a great dark swarm of many millions of individual spacecraft. Each spacecraft is a gigantic living being, a creature fashioned from organic tissue by means of sophisticated genetic manipulation. The journey across the void has taken eons and during that time the Tyranids have slumbered in a state of frozen hibernation. As the edge of the love fleet approached the Imperium the spacecraft stirred from sleep and their inhabitants slowly began to thaw. However, the hive fleet is so large that its trailing edge still slumbers beyond the galaxy's outer rim. The eternally slow thought processes of the hive mind are gathering pace as more Tyranids wake and recall the age-old purpose of their kind. The Tyranid hive mind hungers for fresh genetic material, gene-stocks that can be used to create new bio-construct creatures and organic-machines. Their own galaxy is exhausted, its creatures long since absorbed into the hive mind, their flesh turned to machine-like purposes or discarded as useless. The Imperium with its billions of humans and countless other creatures offers the Tyranids an almost inexhaustible stock of flesh and genes which will invigorate the hive mind and enable it to embody itself in new forms. Humanity will be absorbed, broken into strands of DNA to be used to create a new generation of bio-technology. It will be the death of the human race, but to die Tyranid hive mind it is no more than the mining of a precious mineral or the harvesting of a field of wheat. For the Tyranids have no sense of pity or compassion. they are as utterly beyond human understanding as humans are beyond their comprehension. Where a man sees life. the hive mind sees only something to be consumed. Such has been the fate of a thousand galaxies, of millions of intelligent species, since time immemorial.
TYRANID WARRIORS
The Tyranids are the undisputed masters of genetic manipulation and bioengineering. By means of the Great Tyranid Norn-Queens, vast living factory-creatures whose role is to make other creatures, the Tyranids have created the countless bio-constructs that make up the hive fleets. The Tyranids themselves have six limbs and stand twice the height of a man. Their bodies are covered with thick bony plates which overlap forming a tough natural armour. Pores between their plates exude a colourless slime which oozes over their bodies and drips from their talons. This slime lubricates the inflexible bony plates and prevents friction from gradually wearing away their surfaces. The Tyranid's lower pair of limbs act as legs, enabling it to move, and end in hard bony hooves - although not primarily intended as weapons a kick from a hoof can easily crush a man's skull. The middle pair of limbs are incredibly strong and end in razor sharp talons - these limbs are used to rip apart an enemy in close combat. The upper limbs are more delicate and end in jointed talons which serve the Tyranid as hands and fingers - these are used to carry weapons and other devices, to operate delicate bio-machines, and for other subtle manipulative tasks. The limbs are held together by a perforated bony girdle which protects the creature's spine and soft organs from damage. Above the upper arms is a bony neck and the Tyranid's fearsome head equipped with powerful jaws. This basic six-limbed layout is common to many Tyranid bio-engineered creatures, such as Genestealers, and it is quite likely that these creatures are derived from Tyranid gene material or a closely related species from some long forgotten planet of origin.
THE TYRANID HIVE MIND
The Tyranid hive mind is a single co-ordinating will that directs the entire hive fleet. The hive mind is formed from untold billions of individual consciousness, each of which is a Tyranid or some other living creature in the hive fleet. Some of these minds are capable of individual rational thought; some are capable of making only limited decisions; and others are mere automatons whose minds perform only basic motor functions. The extent of this ability to act and think freely varies and depends upon the creature's role in the hive fleet. As all Tyranid technology is based upon biological engineering, even the most simple functions are performed by genetically tailored bio-constructs which have a rudimentary consciousness and so form part of the hive mind. The Tyranid spacecraft are living creatures, and even individual components such as sphincter doors, food hatcheries and teleportation cysts are also highly modified living things. Even the most simple Tyranid devices have their origins as living tissue and have a thread of the hive mind within them. Tyranids also use gene-manipulation to create new races of servant creatures from captives. These advanced bioconstructs are artificial races bred by the Tyranids. Their minds form part of the hive mind but they can still diink and act for themselves and can make and act upon decisions within the limits engineered into them. There are many hundreds of these races, amongst them the destructive Genestealers, the ponderous Zoats, and the murderous Grabber-Slashers. Although these awesome creatures may look improbable and horrific to human eyes, they are all designed to fulfil some specific role in Tyranid society: for example as advance fighters and infiltrators in the case of Genestealers, ambassador-conquerors in the case of Zoats, and warrior assassins in the cue of Grabber-Slashers.
THE SHADOW IN THE WARP
In order to move from planet to planet, human spacecraft travel through an alternate dimension known as warpspace. Warpspace is the medium through which human Astrotelepaths send psychic messages enabling the million worlds of the hnperium to communicate with each other. The Tyranid hive fleet also moves through the warp. Normally any space-craft moving through the warp sets up vibrations which can be detected by a human Astropath, but the hive fleet is so unimaginably vast that it creates an impenetrable disturbance like a huge blocking shadow in the warp. This shadow is the dark, impenetrable will of the hive mind itself, before which the astral spirit of a puny psyker is about as safe as a candle in a hurricane. Once the Tyranid hive fleet arrives, the shadow cast by the hive mind presents an impenetrable block which prevents Astropaths from sending or receiving telepathic messages, stops spacecraft entering the warp and forces spacecraft already in the warp wildly off-course. As the Tyranid hive fleet advances, the area of the Imperium swallowed up by it simply stops communicating, giving almost no clues as to what has happened.
THE ADVANCE OF THE TYRANIDS
The hive fleet has now reached the outer part of the Imperiurn and the entire southeastern spiral arm lies under its dominion. Only now has the full extent of the danger been realised, as fleeing refugees struggle back into free space. Only by tremendous luck have any victims survived at all, their spacecraft pushed thousands of light years through the warp by the advancing edge of the Tyranid hive fleet. A thousand human worlds have already fallen to the invader. Their populations have been consumed or imprisoned by the Tyranids. Even after so short a time new races of human-based bio-constructs are ready to join the hive mind. Only the vaguest details of the fighting have reached the Imperium. Millions of human warriors have died. Entire chapters of the Imperium's finest Space Marines have vanished without trace with no clue as to their fate. The Lamenters chapter is presumed to have been destroyed and the Scythes of the Emperor chapter has been reduced to a few scattered remnants. But these human warriors have not died in vain. During the fiercest fighting Space Marine spacecraft engaged ships of the Tyranid fleet. Boarding parties entered the vitals of the immense alien craft, gathering information about the Tyranids and successfully destroying untold thousands of aliens. The information gained by these brave Space Marines is essential if the'ryranids are going to be driven back. Armed with this precious information the Irnperium prepares for open war against the enemy it has called Hive Fleet Kraken after the mythical monster of Earth's ancient past. The weaponshops of Mars turn out new and more potent machineries of war, gleaming new spacecraft pour from the shipyards of Necromunda, the vast resources of the Imperial Guard gradually swing into action as millions of men prepare to embark on a war for humanity's very survival. But the Imperium needs time - time which only the remaining Space Marine chapters can give them. The most famous chapters of all, the Dark Angels, the Space Wolves, the Blood Angels and the Ultramarines together with remnants of the Scythes of the Emperor, head towards the hive fleet. Other Space Marine chapters from all over the human galaxy prepare ships to follow in their wake.
TYRANID STARSHIPS
Tyranid starships are great living leviathans swimming through the hidden currents of space. Between solar systems, they dive into the warp, naturally adapted to survive the tides of the immaterium. surfacing once again in realspace to feed. They consume the cosmic detritus, the comets and asteroids left by the creation of solar systems. A ship grows as it travels, adapting itself to each new source of food, creating new digestive systems to break down the different "s of matter. The old stomachs atrophy and harden so that an ancient Tyranid starship is a mass of stony growths, often forming a fantastic whorl of armour around the still-growing body. As a ship moves slowly through the depths of space, the Tyranids hibernate. In the smaller starships, hibernating Tyranids are gathered in small chambers, contained within pods that feed them vital nutrients. In the largest ships there are great halls packed with hibernating Tyranids - in their hundreds and thousands they pass the long years of travel in a dreamless sleep. 'Me only creatures moving around the miles of passages and tubes within a ship are the countless bioconstructs that perform the mindless, repetitive duties necessary to keep the ship healthy. When a starship approaches a star system, the Tyranids begin to wake. The chemistry of the hive ship itself changes and new hormones are secreted, bringing the Tyranids back from their long sleep. As the ship moves through the outer edges of a star system the hive mind prepares for war. It is at this point in its journey that the Tyranid ship is most vulnerable. Tyranid Warriors are just beginning to awaken but the ship is as yet lightly defended. A lightning assault can punch its way through the weak defences to sabotage the ship's vital organs. If the ship dies, so does its cargo of Tyranid Warriors and bio-constructs. Those still in hibernation never awaken as the supply of life-sustaining fluids dries up. Those who are awake and survive the attack are doomed to drift on the dying spaceship as it floats out into the cold of interstellar space. It is generally the smaller Tyranid ships that are attacked in this way. The largest ships are unimaginably vast and are better left as targets for the battlecruisers of the Imperial Navy. But the Navy can't patrol every star system - sometimes there isn't time for a message to be sent before the shadow in the warp cuts the system off. At these times, the Irnperiun must depend upon the loyalty and heroism of whatever forces are available. If the system is lucky there will be Space Marines stationed there, for their bravery is beyond question, their skill as warriors beyond compare.
THE GREAT TYRANID NORN-QUEENS
Within some of the spacecraft of the Tyranid hive fleet are huge chambers many hundreds of metres high. Widiin each chamber is a creature so vast that its great, pulsing bulk almost fills the entire structure. This is a Nom-Queen, also known as a Splicer-Beast, a creature whose function is to make other creatures. Every living creature in the Tyranid hive fleet owes its ultimate origins to the Nom-Queen, including the Tyranids themselves. Long ago the Tyranids gave up whatever primitive form of reproduction afflicted their kind, and adopted genetic cloning as their sole form of reproduction. A Nom-Queen is a huge biological machine, a factory whose only concern is to produce other creatures.
BIO-CONSTRUCTS
All the weird creatures that live in the hive fleet, including the Tyranids themselves. are created by means of the Norn-Queens. Genetic material in dw form of captive creatures and corpse scavengers called Coffin-Crawlers is fed into the great maws located at the top of the Nom-Queen and synthesised by its genetic shredder organs. The dissembled DNA structures form a gene-bank which provides the raw material from which new creatures called bio-constructs are created. Once a type of bio-construct has been designed more identical creatures can be cloned by the Nom-Queens. The many kinds of bio-construct emerge in different ways from different parts of the huge Splicer Beasts. Clusters of eggs spill from rows of ovipository orifices along its flanks, fluid filled depressions on its upper surface writhe with maggot-like larvae, foetal sacs hang like ripe fruit from umbilical branches, and huge larval Teleporter Worms burst from incubator pouches on the Nom-Queen's sides. Simpler bio-constructs may emerge already in their adult form to be gathered and directed by the horde of creatures which feed and serve the Nom-Queen. Most bio-constructs are born as tiny wriggling larvae or may begin life as eggs which must be nurtured further before they hatch and develop into adults. The ships of the hive fleets swarm with thousands of different kinds of bio-constructed creatures. For example, tiny multiarmed creatures roam the innards sucking up detritus and processing it into a sickly nutrient which they store in their swollen bodies and then feed to other creatures. CoffinCrawlers consume fresh corpses and grow in bulk until they are ready to return to the Nom-Queen, carrying their swollen bodies back to feed the Nom-Queen itself. Another kind of bio-construct is the globe-like creature which hangs from the upper surfaces of the ship's tunnels; these creatures synthesise a huninous chemical inside their own bodies proving a dim green light for others to see by. These are just a few bio-constructs but there are many others which maintain the ship in good working order, provide food and guard vulnerable areas. The ship's various controls and facilities are themselves bio-constructs, although they are immobile and function much like biological versions of teleporters, air recycling systems and communications networks. Small bio-constructs tend not to be very bright They go about their genetically-determined tasks with a satisfyingly singleminded persistence, largely untroubled by the higher purposes of the hive mind. Far more dangerous to intruders are the larger bio-constructed races such as the Genestealers, Zoats and Grabber Slashers. There are many others too, some of which are relatively rare whilst others are very common. No matter how large or how intelligent they are, all bio-constructs form part of the hive mind and are an integral part of the hive fleet and Tyranid society.
GENESTEALERS
lie Genestealer is one of the most deadly of all die Tyranid bio-construct creatures. It is very likely that the Genestealer was created from the genetic structure of the Tyranids themselves, or if not then a very closely related species. Like Tyranids, Genestealers have six limbs, including ferocious, taloned mid-limbs which are used to tear enemies apart in hand-to-hand fighting. Genestealers are the shock and infiltration troops of the Tyranids. They are fast and deadly but they can also hide in alien societies for years, interbreeding with the native creatures and producing generations of Hybrid Genestealer creatures ready to join a full-scale invasion. Although it seems unlikely that a creature so terrifying as a Genestealer could hide in human society, they achieve this by implanting their genetic structure inside unsuspecting humans. This genetic material is passed down to the offspring of the infected humans, creating a generation which includes monstrous Genestealer Hybrids as well as seemingly normal children. The Hybrids are genetic time bombs whose own descendants will eventually become fully-developed Purestrain Genestealers. The effect is quite horrifying suddenly for no apparent reason monstrous Genestealers start to appear all over the world, destroying and enslaving humans in preparation for the arrival of the Tyranid hive fleet. Mature Genestealers, called Patriarchs act as psychic beacons which attract the Tyranid hive fleets, signalling that their world is ready for invasion. Genestealers are also ideal warrior-guardians, so the spacecraft of the hive fleet contain many of these creatures to defend against infiltrators and invaders.
ZOATS
Zoats are probably a very ancient strain of bio-construct because they share the same six-limbed structure as Tyranids and Genestealers. It is quite likely that this sextrupedal form is derived from the native creatures of the lost Tyranid homeworld in whatever remote galaxy they originally came from. Zoats are robust creatures with thick powerful limbs. Only their upper arms are used to hold or carry things; the lower two pairs are used for movement and have horny toes rather like a rhino. Zoats have been specially developed so that they can communicate with alien creatures. Their minds are capable of tremendous leaps of logic and they are able to master new languages with astonishing speed. This enables Zoats to act as ambassadors to races taken over by the Tyranids and it also enables the Tyranids to find out about the races they have conquered. No matter how strange or mentally incompatible a race might be, the Zoats can learn how they think and act, and thereby access their true value to the Tyranids. Zoats are also tremendously strong and have thick horny skins. When they unleash their warrior skills they can destroy many times their own number of humans or other races, a feat which may serve to impress upon the defeated creatures just how superior the Tyranids are.
HUNTER-SLAYERS
Of all the Tyranid bio-constructs, the Hunter-Slayer most closely resembles the Tyranid Warriors. The most apparent different is only size, for the Hunter-Slayers are much smaller than a Tyranid at only two metres tall. Hunter-Slayers are incredibly fast and ferocious creatures so that although they don't have the strength or resilience of a Tyranid they're far more mobile. Hunter-Slayers move quickly through the small arterial tubeways in the hive ships, exploiting their size and speed by wriggling through narrow ventricles and soft constricted passages. Their role is to protect the hive ships from intruders, moving swiftly from one part of the craft to another in search of their foes. When enemies are discovered, whole swamis of Hunter-Slayers burst from the narrow orifices and vents in the tunnel walls, dropping on their foes from above and wreaking havoc with their sharp talons and deadly bio-weapons. Given the similarity between Hunter-Slayers and Tyranids, it is likely that the Hunter-Slayers are a very ancient kind of bio-construct developed from Tyranids genes, possibly as a sort of fast attack warrior.
GRABBER-SLASHERS
The Grabber-Slasher is a destructive warrior assassin which has certain biological traits in common with Orks, including blood containing symbiotic algae which enables the creature to digest its prey. Indeed, it is possible that the Grabber-Slasher has been created from Ork captives, in which case it heralds the birth of new bio-constructs based upon creatures from the human galaxy. The algae in the Grabber-Slasher's bloodstream synthesises the genetic material of its victims which is then absorbed into the Grabber-Slasher's body enabling it to gradually mutate its own form. However, the Grabber-Slasher can always revert to its basic GrabberSlasher shape. although the change may take a day or so to complete. Its powerful body is very muscular and it can propel itself along by its tail. A single flick of its tail sends it bounding through the air towards its chosen target. The target is then grabbed by the clawed hand-like organ on top, and immediately disembowelled by means of the razor-sharp protrusion underneath. Grabber-Slashers are very single-minded creatures: if instructed to assassinate a particular individual they will stop at nothing until the target is dead, ignoring all other threats to themselves entirely.
MIND SLAVES
The Tyranids have come to the human galaxy in search of fresh genetic material to feed their Nom-Queen and revitalise the hive fleet after its long journey through space. However, not all captives are fed to the Nom-Queen; some are useful simply as food for the Tyranid bio-construcu. And some are sacrificed to the breeding programs of other creatures; it is their grisly fate to become hosts for immature grubs or the larvae of a bio-construct. If the Tyranids want to store a captive so that he can be eaten, genetically shredded or used as a breeder host at a later date, then a special biocontruct called a Shroud-Spinner weaves an anaesthetising cocoon round the victim to keep him alive and fresh. This is the reason why traps assaulting a Tyranid ship sometimes find whole chambers of these cocooned victims. One particular creature which feeds upon a captive during its larval stage is the parasitic Mind-Slaver. The mature MindSlaver is a crab-like bio-device which is used by the Tyranids to gain temporary control over another bio-machine which has malfunctioned or been damaged. As such, the Mind-Slaver takes over the individual mind of the bio-machine and allows the hive mind to control its mechanical functions. The larval form of the creature is about the size of a pea or small pebble. When the egg laid by the Nom-Queen hatches, the creature is introduced to a living captive. It burrows into the captive's skull and searches out the brain stem. Here it clasps in place with its legs and attaches itself to the base of the medulla. At first the immature creature is not powerful enough to influence its host but, as it feeds from the host's blood stream it becomes stronger, allowing the hive mind to seep into the host's brain and eventually take over and direct all of the creatures higher brain functions. These victims are known as mind slaves. Although they're captives, their actions and thoughts are completely controlled by the Tyranid hive mind. Eventually the Mind-Slaver outgrows and destroys its host but, until it does so, the mind slave moves about the ship and performs tasks under the direction of the hive mind. If the ship is attacked, the mind slaves will be amongst the first to move to its defence, especially if they belong to an armed warrior race whose fighting skills may be usefully employed by the Tyranids. As the Space Marines move through the spacecraft they may meet mind slaves controlled by the Tyranid hive mind and will recognise many of the creatures of the Warhammer 40,000 galaxy including Chaos Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks and Eldar. The ultimate fate of a mind slave is to be sacrificed to the next part of the life cycle of a mind slaver. When it is quite large and almost fills the cranial cavity of its host, the Mind-Slaver exudes a chemical which encysts the host, dissolves him from the inside and turns his body into nutritious soup. The Mind Slaver feeds off this soup and grows into its adult form.
+++Genestealers+++
From WD’s 114/115 – before a fixed idea on the Tyranids was implemented.
The Genestealers are a race of aliens from another galaxy who seek to conquer the Imperium from within. They infiltrate a planet, infecting citizens with their genetic material, causing their children to be born Genestealer-Human hybrids. A Stealer and its victims form a secret cult on the planet, wherein the Stealer's monstrous progeny can mature in safety and secrecy, until they are in a position to challenge the planet's rulers. These cults seek to gain control over the host planet subtly, through hidden manipulation of the populace and subversion of the planetary government. However, they can put a potent force into battle if threatened. The Stealer cults sometimes form alliances with other cults, and they can be found fighting alongside Chaos or Vampire cults or warbands - or, if it suits their purpose, against them. The Genestealers are among the most unusual of creatures Humanity has yet encountered, combining extraordinary intelligence and subtlety of mind with remarkable strength and quickness of body. Their torsos and extremities are protected by a deep blue carapace. Their sinewy muscles are purple-red. They are bipedal, standing in a perpetual crouch atop hooved feet, and they have two sets of arms, one equipped with Human-like hands, one with powerful ripping claws. The Genestealers' hairless heads are bulbous in shape, coloured the same deep purple-red as their muscles, with the creatures' fang-filled mouths and hypnotic eyes at the front. Genestealers are stronger and hardier than Men, able to withstand even the most hostile environments - including hard vacuum - unprotected. They live for centuries.
REPRODUCTION CYCLE OF THE GENESTEALERS
The Genestealers' method of reproduction is as alien as their appearance. There are no male or female Genestealers: the Stealers do not mate with each other; they do not bear their own young. Instead, the Stealers infect' members of other races with their genetic material. Genestealers are equipped with oviposters, or egg-layers, in their tongues. They have the ability to mesmerise their victims with their gaze, in much the way a snake can paralyse a bird with terror. Once the victim is subdued, the Stealer pierces the victim with its tongue, which deposits an egg beneath the skin. The Stealer's egg never hatches - in fact, 'egg' is something of a misnomer; it is more like a cancer than an egg. When implanted, the egg begins to alter the host's genetic structure, cell by cell, wreaking particular damage to the victim's reproductive system. The victim shows little outward sign of the infection - in fact, he gains some of the Stealer's remarkable strength, resilience, and longevity, becoming healthier than he was before. However, the damage is horribly evident in the victim's children. When someone infected by a Stealer mates, his offspring are hybrids - part Human, part Stealer, with the Stealer traits predominating. Once mature, these hybrids infect other Humans with eggs: their children are also hybrids, though they will look more like normal Humans. Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the entire cycle is that the Human hosts appear not to notice - or care - that their children are monsters. The parents love and cherish the creatures, above and beyond even normal parental affection. Whether this is because of some power of the child or because the parents are psychically dominated by the purestrain Genestealer is unknown. Once the Genestealers begin to infiltrate and infect a new race, that race's days are clearly numbered. A single Genestealer can infect hundreds; their children can infect millions. Unless the infection is spotted early and ruthlessly countered, in short centuries the original race is all but extinct. This makes the Genestealers terrible, implacable enemies - they must constantly seek out new races to conquer, or their race will perish with their victims.
GENESTEALERS AND TECHNOLOGY
Though equipped with flexible, sensitive hands, purestrain Genestealers are mentally incapable of using even the simplest of tools and weapons. Apparently, the very concept of manipulating their environment through tools is entirely alien to their psychology, and they are not able to comprehend the workings of the lever, the spear or the blaster. This is extremely fortunate for the Imperium, for in every other way they are deadly warriors. However, their hybrid children are not so limited. The first generation tends to have the same mental shortcomings as pure Stealers, but further generations - where the Human genes apparently have more influence - gain some of Man's facility with tools and weapons. Though not technological innovators, these later hybrids can use equipment others have designed and built. The cycle of infection continues until about the fourth generation, when the hybrids are all but indistinguishable from purestrain Humans. The fourth generation hybrids have no oviposters and mate in the normal Human fashion, but they may spawn Humans, hybrids, or purestrain Genestealers.
SPACE HULKS
Space hulks are massive, derelict vessels, locked in a strange, eternal voyage through the warp. These mysterious vessels appear only very rarely in Imperial space - and they bring either great wealth or great calamity to those who find them. Very little is known about the warp. Some studies were undertaken during the Dark Ages of Technology, but most of the knowledge was lost in the Age of Strife, or suppressed by the Ordo Malleus in the years since. However, it is known that there are currents and eddies in the warp, which can trap a vessel in warpspace forever, or turn it from its course and deposit it back in realspace light years - or centuries - from its intended destination. The vessels known as space hulks suffer a different, and in many ways, much more unpleasant, fate. Space hulks have been wrenched from their course, and drift helplessly through warpspace, travelling wherever the currents take them. They may stay locked in warpspace for centuries, or drop back into realspace minutes after entering the warp. It is impossible to determine where or when - or if - a hulk will return to real space, and even the psychic Astropaths are unable to influence or predict the hulk's voyage. Once the hulk is returned to realspace, it is not free. Minutes, hours, days, or years later, it will be sucked back into the warp, to endure another uncertain, endless voyage. Passengers trapped aboard a drifting space hulk face slow death by starvation - or quick death by madness. Possibly the most unfortunate are those whose vessels have efficient life-support systems: they may linger for centuries. There appears to be some kind of pattern to the arrival and departure of space hulks, and periodically, two or more appear in realspace at the same place and time. If one is empty and dead and the other inhabited, the crew of the inhabited vessel scavenges the other for metal, energy, and spare parts, seeking to repair their own dying ship or expand their living space by binding the two vessels together. If both ships are occupied, the crews may fight savagely to take each other's vessel. Over the millennia, the patchwork vessels attain huge size. It is impossible to predict when a hulk will re-enter the warp, so anyone who boards them risks eternal prison. However, there are many who are willing to take that risk. Some hulks have been in existence since the Dark Age of Technology or even earlier - though their original inhabitants are long dead, these vessels are treasure-houses of lost technology, containing secrets which could bring unimaginable wealth to anyone who dares plunder them. Genestealers use this to their great advantage in the war against Man. They have boarded a number of space hulks, accompanied by their hybrid children. The hybrids construct cryogenic suspension chambers for the pure Stealers - though hardy and long-lived, even the Stealers cannot survive for centuries in the awful cold and vacuum of space. Once the cryogenic chambers are complete, the hybrids depart. The purestrain Genestealers sleep, and the hulk continues its eternal voyage. Though it may take centuries, eventually - inevitably - some day the space hulk will reappear in populated space, to be discovered and boarded by foolhardy treasure-hunters. When the space hulk is boarded, sensors are triggered, awakening the sleeping Genestealers. The boarding party is attacked, overwhelmed, infected - and then released. Several Stealers accompany the party back to their ship, infecting the ship's crew as well, and then hiding themselves in the ship's holds. Psychically controlled by the Stealers, the ship's crew have little or no memory of the attack, and may not be aware that they have been infected or that they are carrying Stealers. When the ship reaches a Human-held planet, an implanted crewman departs, accompanied by a Genestealer. The vessel becomes a plague carrier, bringing its cargo of death and despair to each planet it visits. Once on the planet, the Stealer goes into hiding, and the crewman under his control begins to form a cult.
GENESTEALER CULTS
There are many cults scattered throughout the Imperium. In an age where psychic power is strong, when Daemons and monsters stalk the galaxy, and the powers that be ruthlessly suppress all knowledge of these things, it is inevitable that the foolish, or curious, or power-hungry will seek this knowledge on their own. Such people often form religions, secret societies or hidden enclaves where they can experiment, plot, or worship far from the prying eyes of the Inquisition. Some of these cults are harmless, run by religious quacks or charlatans; some are much more sinister. It is rumoured that there are millions of Chaos cults scattered throughout the Imperium, as well as other groups dedicated to the Emperor's downfall - including Genestealer cults. When they arrive on a Human planet, the Genestealer and its Human thrall go as far away as possible from civilisation, settling in the most remote and desolate part of the planet - either in the far wilderness or deep in the bowels of the abandoned inner city. The Genestealer begins to prey on the Humans around him; those he infects join his cult. The children of the infected Humans (Human-Stealer hybrids) are kept well hidden from prying eyes. A Genestealer cult usually masquerades as a new religion, with the Stealer's thrall as titular head. In outward appearance the religion is completely harmless, and often laudable, promoting hard work, cherishing the young and respecting the old, and encouraging extreme modesty (most of the priests and priestesses go about completely robed at all times). The religious message is simple, usually foretelling the coming arrival of the Blessed Children, who will lead their parents to eternal bliss. As it grows in power and influence, the religion attracts genuine converts, who have no idea of the sinister cult hiding behind it. Eventually, these dupes are initiated into the deeper mysteries of the faith - and infected themselves. Though Genestealers are driven by a ferocious and all but uncontrollable need to infect victims to ensure the survival of their species, the pure Stealer restrains itself and its progeny from infecting too many Humans too fast, recognizing that the religion's too-rapid growth might arouse the suspicion of the Imperial Inquisition. The years pass, and eventually the third and fourth generation hybrids are born. Some are virtually indistinguishable from untainted Humans. It is at this point that the cult begins to spread its power across the planet. The titular head of the religion, the original crewmember infected by the Stealer, is removed, and his place is taken by a fourth generation hybrid. The hybrid, having some of the Genestealers' hypnotic powers, literally mesmerises those who see him, gaining new and even more fanatical members for the cult. Other fourth generation hybrids leave the close protection of the cult and, masquerading as diplomats, religious missionaries, merchants, or other travellers, spread the infection across the planet, and throughout the Imperium. Once the fourth generation is born, virtually the only way to stop the infection is to sterilize the entire planet, killing every living thing on it.
GENESTEALER CULTS IN BATTLE
When a Genestealer fights, it does so as a wild beast - rending its opponents with its powerful claws, tearing at them with its razor-sharp teeth. A Stealer is all but unstoppable in close combat; even a man protected by Tactical Dreadnought Armour is no match. Thus, close combat is at the heart of a Genestealer cult's battle tactics - a massive wave assault of Stealers, hybrids, and Human fanatics. If the attackers reach the enemy's position, the enemy is almost certainly doomed. In battle, the cult is led by its Magus - a fourth generation hybrid who is the figurehead leader of the cult. The purestrain Genestealer continues to advise the Magus, but it leaves the actual generalship to someone who is better able to understand the opponent's weaponry. The Magus and Genestealer are accompanied by the core of the cult - the coven, containing most of the early-generation hybrids and a small number of Humans armed with ranged weapons. The coven takes no part in the early stages of the battle, merely directing the other troops, providing a rallying point, and awaiting the moment to spring. The cult probably won't have a good deal of ranged weaponry at its disposal - the Genestealer is indifferent to such things and they are often difficult for any but legitimate military forces to attain. Whatever ranged weapons the cult has are concentrated in a single unit. This unit takes up a good defensive position, attempting to engage the enemy's ranged weapons, pinning them down and drawing fire away from the coven's shock troops. The bulk of the cult's fanatic Human members are provided with close assault weapons - short-range guns, if available, rocks, clubs, swords, and the like. Forming up in massive waves, they rush out onto the field, screaming wildly, firing indiscriminately, and waving the cult's battle banner. This has two purposes: to work them up into an even greater frenzy, and to frighten and demoralize the enemy. They advance mindlessly, taking no notice of casualties - the only way to stop them is to kill them all. When the enemy is demoralized or the battle hangs in the balance, the coven itself enters the fray. Moving close behind the fanatics, drawing protection from enemy fire by the seething mass of frenzied Humanity, the Magus, the purestrain Stealer and the early hybrids move in for the kill. When the fanatics have reached the enemy lines, the coven springs into action, ripping their opponents apart in an orgy of blood and destruction. Of course, specific details vary from battle to battle. The cult may have auxiliary troops from allied Chaos cults or other Genestealer cults; rogue psykers or Beastmen may be fighting alongside the cult for their own purposes; the cultists may be mounted on horseback or within an armoured vehicle; the Magus may be possessed by a Daemon (an awesome combination indeed!). But whatever the circumstances, the overall tactics remain the same: get in close and tear the enemy apart. Few can face the awesome might of a Genestealer cult at war. If discipline is at all weak, if they waver for even a moment, they are surely doomed.
GENESTEALER PHYSIOLOGY
Purestrain Genestealers can only reproduce by infecting a victim with their genetic material. The gene-host survives as a healthy Human being, but, upon becoming a parent, the gene-host's firstborn child is indelibly marked by the gene-infection. Once the child matures into a Human-Genestealer Hybrid, it can pass the infection on to other Humans, whose firstborn will also be born as Hybrids. It is only the firstborn child of infected parents that is a Human-Genestealer Hybrid; later offspring will always be normal Humans. The first generation Hybrids closely resemble purestrain Genestealers. But, with each new generation of Hybrids, Genestealer traits give way to Human traits, until fourth generation Hybrids arc all but indistinguishable from untainted Humans. However, a Hybrid will always display the Genestealer's primal instincts; these always remain in their genetic structure, and - no matter how Human in appearance - a Hybrid belongs to the Genestealer brood. Purestrain Genestealers are totally incapable of passing as Human. Their multiple arms, bulbous heads, glaring eyes, and animal crouch give them away; no amount of clothing and make-up can disguise such characteristics. However, later generations, particularly the third and fourth, become more humanoid in appearance. Indeed, many Genestealers of advanced generations can appear as Humans at first glance, especially if wearing concealing clothing. However, as their sharp teeth and hypnotic eyes are somewhat of a giveaway, they tend to avoid speaking to strangers or looking at people straight in the face. It follows that, in many ways, the later generation Hybrids are the most dangerous - they can move freely among Humans, passing on their terrible disease unnoticed. Due to the sheer number of Humans throughout the Imperium they are the race most commonly affected by Genestealers. Nevertheless, there is no reason why any other race cannot be infected; Ork-Genestealer Hybrids are perfectly possible - indeed many exist. The appearance of such Hybrids would, of course, depend on the parent race, and they would show different physical characteristics than a Human-Genestealer crossbreed.
GENESTEALER AND HYBRID PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS
By infecting a victim with its genetic material, a Genestealer passes on some of its physical characteristics to the victim's first offspring. In the first generation, this gives rise to a Hybrid with a number of Genestealer traits. Through successive generations of Hybrids these traits become less extreme, until in the fourth generation the Hybrids can pass as normal Humans. Each physical characteristic goes through certain distinct stages.
The Head
Although Genestealer Hybrids gradually lose their long bulbous craniums as the generations progress, their hypnotic, staring eyes remain; their appearance often gives away a Hybrid who otherwise looks quite Human. In the same way, fangs become shorter in later generations although all the Hybrids retain vicious sharp teeth.
The Carapace
Purestrain Genestealers have a tough, armoured carapace with a horny spinal ridge, and raised ligatures running along their limbs. They are also bent over in a perpetual crouch, as if waiting to spring, making them appear much shorter than their true height. Later Hybrids lose the carapace, and attain a more upright stance as the spine straightens out to accommodate a more Human hip structure.
The Arms
Purestrain Genestealers have four arms - a pair with hands from their midsection, and a pair with powerful claws mounted at their shoulders with which they attack. Later Hybrids lose one or both of the clawed arms, leaving only those with hands, and their hands become more able to handle manipulative tasks of an intricate nature.
The Legs
Throughout the successive generations, the Hybrids lose the long, powerful legs typical of the Purestrain Genestealers and acquire normal Human legs.
GENESTEALERS IN COMBAT
Purestrain Genestealers and first generation Hybrids are extremely fast and agile when on the attack. Purestrain Genestealers and first generation Hybrids can deliver a powerful and destructive blow with their claws, and have a considerably longer reach than most Humans or later generation Hybrids.
The Genestealer Kiss
Purestrain and early generation Hybrids have an ovipositor in their throat which is used to implant the Stealer gene into their victims. After being implanted with the Stealer gene, the victim immediately collapses in a coma and is unable to do anything. The victim recovers after a few days and appears completely unharmed, if somewhat dazed and with no conscious memory of the Genestealer attack. There are no outward signs that the victim is host to the Stealer gene. Obviously, a Genestealer intent on passing its genetic material on to a victim will make no further attacks, or do any harm to the victim, once the implant attack is successful. In addition, other Genestealers can identify unconscious gene hosts and will not harm them. Third generation Hybrids have a 50% chance of having an ovipositor. If they do not possess one, they are neuter Hybrids or Drones, and are unable to mate at all (although, with the appropriate surgical equipment, they can pass on the Stealer gene by injecting a victim with their blood). Fourth generation Hybrids always lack the ovipositor and can only mate in the normal Human manner.
Genestealers and Weaponry
Purestrain Genestealers are unable to use Human weaponry; their thought processes and aggressive instincts are entirely alien, and they rely instead on their own natural forms of attack. However, later generation Hybrids are sufficiently Human to be able to understand and manipulate weaponry designed for Human hands, eyes and minds.
Psychology
Purestrain Genestealers and all Hybrids are immune to the effects of psychology. PSYCHIC ABILITIES Both Purestrain Genestealers and Hybrids possess two innate traits that are similar in operation to psychic abilities: their Hypnotic Gaze allows them to paralyse foes prior to the implantation of the Stealer gene, while Brood Telepathy allows them to transmit and receive messages.
Psychic Hybrids
Purestrain Genestealers and first and second generation Hybrids have no psychic powers except for their innate abilities, Hypnotic Gaze and Brood Telepathy. Third and fourth generation Hybrids, however, will often have additional psychic powers. Inherited psychic traits passed on from infected psykers in the Hybrid's ancestory may become apparent in the near-Human third and fourth generation Hybrids. Purestrains and Hybrids can recognise Human psykers when they find them. Genestealers are attracted to psykers, and share none of the normal Human's prejudices against them, simply regarding them as exceptionally advanced specimens of the race. Consequently, the psykers in a community are amongst the first to be infected by the Stealer gene. This means that Human psychic traits will pass into the gene pool of the Hybrid brood, to be inherited by later generations. Thus, by the third and fourth generations, the Hybrids can develop full psychic powers in addition to possessing the two innate abilities of Genestealers. Psychic Hybrids tap raw psychic energy emenating from the primitive Genestealer Power that exists in the warp - the shadow image of the will to survive' of the Genestealer species. Psychic Hybrids who worship a Chaos Power may of course draw psychic energy from their patron, thus tainting their simple Genestealer souls.
GENESTEALER INVASION FORCE
The ultimate origin of Genestealers remains unknown, but at any given time there are many broods of Genestealers scattered throughout the universe - either existing parasitically in a host society, dominating a subdued race, or on the move to found a new colony. It is those broods that are at the expansion stage in the cycle of infestation and conquest, those who require new hosts to breed with, that become a Genestealer Invasion Force. The reason why the brood has to move on is explained by a summary of its breeding cycle. The first stage is the infection of the original host by a Purestrain Genestealer. Subsequently, this infected gene-host goes on to form a family, from which his first offspring is a first generation Hybrid. This Hybrid then infects more Human hosts, who in turn engender second generation Hybrids - and so the process goes on, progressing geometrically. After four generations of infected hosts (taking less than a century), a brood made up hybrids of various generations has arisen. The Human members' kin, the parents and untainted siblings, feel very intense bonds towards their Hybrid relations, even though they are deformed. Thus, the entire extended family forms a close-knit clan, the head of which will be the Purestrain progenitor of all the brood, known as the Patriarch. Once it has become big enough, the clan will strive for dominance within the host society, initiating Chaos worship if it encounters difficulty, to harness power to assist in the struggle. The clan thus becomes a cult. The fourth generation Hybrids within the clan will go on to found families like normal Humans, with their firstborn being Purestrain Genestealers. Because Hybrids live for Human lifetimes however, and because Purestrains are immortal, the early Hybrids in the brood will die out, leaving an increasing number of Purestrain Genestealers. Once a whole new generation of Purestrains has grown to maturity, the brood-cycle is almost complete. It is now time for the Purestrain brood, led by their Patriarch, to find a new host with which to continue the cycle, and to found a new colony. In this way, with each Purestrain potentially the Patriarch of a future brood - indeed, it becomes one as soon as it breeds - the Genestealer race expands throughout the universe. Because they require new genetic material, the Patriarch of each brood and his Purestrain descendants, along with the remaining later generation Hybrids, will either trek to another settlement, city or region, or embark on a captured starship or space hulk to travel to another planet. In the latter case, the Hybrids serve the brood by operating the controls of the spacecraft. Eventually, all of the Hybrids die off, leaving only the Patriarch and the Purestrains. Once the brood encounters a new intelligent race, the cycle can begin again. They may either overwhelm and infect those who investigate their spacecraft, or transport an advance party on to the hosts' ship or planet. The advance party has the task of overwhelming local defences and any opposition they encounter to prepare the way for the rest of the brood. It is this advance party that is the Genestealer Invasion Force.
+++Hive Fleet Behemoth+++
The first contact the Imperium of mankind had with the alien menace of the Tyranids took place on a little-known Imperial outpost in the Tyran system located on the south-eastern fringes of the galaxy. The planet Tyran was an Adeptus Mechanicus way-station for Explorator expeditions studying the virtually unknown sectors at the edge of the galaxy. Because of its isolation the base was well protected despite its small size and boasted an Astropath for communication with the Earth, over 60,000 light years away. The first disquieting reports from Tyran told of a number of ravaged worlds which lay at the very edge of intergalactic space. In ancient surveys these particular planets had been logged as supporting life but more recent expeditions reported them to be bare, airless rocks. At first nothing untoward was apparent: the earlier surveys were hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years old and inaccuracies were not uncommon. As time passed the Technomagi found that worlds which were known to have thriving ecosystems had been transformed into barren planetoids. Investigation teams could find no discernible cause for the phenomena and the reports filed with the Explorator General received little attention. The planets in question had supported no sentient life forms and lay thousands of light years from the nearest human-colonised systems. In a galaxy of a billion worlds such mysteries abounded, so for a time the information languished in the hundreds of miles of databanks that form the archives of the Administratum on Earth. As the Tyran outpost dutifully continued to file reports of dead worlds the growing body of evidence attracted the attention of an organisation that abhors mysteries and unexplained phenomena: the Inquisition. Inquisitor Kryptman, well-respected for his far-sighted condemnation of the Macharlan Heresies, began to ask probing questions about events in the distant south-east. The Adepts of the Explorator's office could offer little additional information but as soon as Inquisitor Kryptman compiled and analysed the reports on the extinct worlds it became apparent that the phenomenon exhibited a distinct pattern, and was encroaching ever deeper into the galactic rim. The Inquisitor presented his findings to the council of the Inquisition and received dispensation to commandeer a ship to travel to the eastern fringe and uncover more data. But even as the Inquisitor's ship was churning through the warp Tyran came under attack.
ASSAULT ON TYRAN
The Tyran Primus base lay in the midst of Tyran's great world-spanning oceans, dug into an island that was the very tip of a chain of ancient volcanoes. The oceans of Tyran covered over 80% of the world's surface and were home to a dizzying array of marine life ranging from the small and innocuous scuttlefish to the highly dangerous 200 metre long kraken. The base itself was fortified to resist violent storms and the attentions of the voracious oceanic life forms. Tyran Primus also had four giant defence lasers in armoured silos for defence against marauding alien space craft and any unknown monstrosities lurking in the deep oceanic abyss. Over four hundred personnel manned the base Administratum scribes, Explorators, Adeptus Mechanicus Genetors, Engineers, Lexmechanics, their entourage Servitors and a single Astropath. They were under the command of Magos Varnak. a member of the ruling caste the Cult Mechanicus. Explorator ships passed through the Tyran system to collect supplies and deliver reports every three to six months. The last ship to depart was the Investigation, destined to survey worlds on the Eastern Fring though Varnak feared all he would receive were further reports of extinct planets. Over a month after the departure of the Investigation Tyran Primus detected a cloud of close to a thousand unidentified objects entering the Tyran star system. After initial studies revealed the cloud was made up of neither spacecraft n debris Magos Varnak piloted one of the station's small system ships towards the cloud to investigate further. When approached, the ship came under attack by unknown object almost immediately. Magos Varnak was injured, several oft crew were killed and the ship itself was so badly crippled barely survived the journey back to Tyran. As he recovered from his injuries Varnak grimly ordered the base to alert status and armed the Servitors who would act as the first line defence if there were an invasion. A week later the first attacks began on the base. The stom-wracked skies of Tyran were split again and again by the blinding flash of the defence lasers as they strove to drive t] attackers away. Bolts of laser energy capable of melting through whole city blocks lanced into space as projectiles launched by the enemy above smashed down on the base. Silo 2 was shaken and cracked by several hits but the chants a ceremonies of the Tech Priests kept it firing. The uneven battle raged on for an hour or more as the bra laser crews blasted at the hundreds of invaders around Tyran before, amazingly, the enemy simply withdrew. Varnak sent his three remaining system ships in pursuit of the foe. They added to the destruction already wrought by the ground-bas lasers and confirmed Varnak's earlier observations of the attackers. The objects appeared to be creatures of alien origin vast armoured organisms with thick carapaces that were apparently fully adapted for life in space. The system ships were quickly crippled or destroyed by the bio-ships and Magos Varnak was informed that the defences of Tyran had damaged or destroyed only a dozen creatures out of a swarm of close to a thousand. He was forced to conclusion that should the invaders attack again and with greater vigc the base on Tyran was doomed. Escape was impossible. All that remained was to try and warn the Imperium before selling themselves as dearly as possible. But the Astropath could broadcast no messages. The disruptions caused in the warp by the creatures' arrival made it impossible to use astrotelepathy. In a few hours or days the warp might clear but for the moment Tyran was completely cut off. To preserve what knowledge they had Varnak ordered a data codex to be formed of all the information gathered about the invaders. The data codex would be set to record the fate of the base until it was sealed at a signal from Varnak's control pulpit and dropped into a 3,000 metre deep bore shaft beneath the base. Even as the codex was being prepared the aliens moved in to attack positions once more. As they came within laser range the invaders released thousands of pods above the planet. The pods fell toward Tyran in tight clusters and did not break up as they hit the atmosphere. Though the laser defences destroyed any pods which would have impacted on the base many more fell into the sea around it. To enter the sea was death for a human yet the aliens could be seen approaching the base on sonar scan. The seas thrashed and boiled as more aliens emerged from their pods and hacked their way through the voracious native beasts that swarmed around them. Defence laser fire ripped into the bio-ships as they began an intense bombardment of the base. Several of the creatures fell burning into the atmosphere but the bombardment continued. Hissing acids ate through the armoured laser silos and one by one they were silenced. Magos Varnak watched the advance of the aliens on the crystal screens of the sacristy. The creatures were upright and six-limbed, clawed and fanged like fiends. The scattered defensive fire ricocheted off their thick hides and heavy carapaces like hailstones. The aliens attacked the south dock and smashed their way through the electro field and armourplas shutters as if they were paper and glass. Servitors guarding the dock fought back with flamers and the first invaders through the breach were slain or driven back hissing their defiance. But other creatures, screaming giants with arms like great scythes, waded forward and Magos Varnak watched in horror as they shrugged off the napalm fires and hacked their way through the Servitors as if they were made of straw. In an instant the enemy were through the dock and spreading through the base, destroying everything they found. Magos Varnak's finger hovered over the switch that would send the data codex plummeting into the depths. Every moment might give some additional insight into the enemy, but every moment brought the fighting closer to the sacristy. Smaller, scuttling creatures appeared in the enemy ranks and began to cast constricting webs over the Servitors and Tech-Priests as they fought in the corridors. Varnak looked to the station Astropath and both understood that they could not allow themselves to be captured by this new and terrible alien race. Varnak released the codex and descended into the reactor chamber to set the station destruct sequence. Even as he completed his prayer the doors of the sacristy were buckling and tearing before the fury of the assault from outside, and with only seconds remaining Magos Varnak struck the sacred rune of ending upon the power altar. Earth received one final, garbled message from Tyran. On the wings of death came a dire prophesy of doom and a mental image of the skies over Tyran turned black with swarming monsters. From the world of Tyran the invaders acquired a name at last - Tyranids.
THANDROS TO MACRAGGE
Inquisitor Kryptman received word of the last message from Tyran months after the attack. By the time his ship reached the Tyran system almost a year had passed and at first he could not equate the dead, dry planet he found to ocean-bound Tyran at all. After a long search Inquisitor Kryptman unearthed Varnak's data codex and learned the full horror of the alien threat menacing the Imperium. As the Inquisitor's ship left the Tyran system it encountered the acid-eaten hulk of the investigation, declared missing months before. The vessel appeared to have been crippled and then boarded: all of the crew were missing and the ship was little more than an icy shell. Clearly the same foe that attacked Tyran had destroyed the Investigation and perhaps even followed its trail through the warp back to the Tyran Primus base. Kryptman ordered his Astropath to send a priority warning to the Imperium but the Astropath could not penetrate the warp turmoil left by the passing of the alien fleet. Even the nearby Thandros telepathica booster matrix was obscured. In desperation Kryptman set course for Thandros in the hopes of re-establishing communications there. But the Tyranids had attacked Thandros and moved on long before the arrival of Inquisitor Kryptman. Thandros was not as well protected as Tyran. The miners living in tunnels on Thandros II and III could not hide from the Tyranids or escape into space. The telepathica matrix orbiting Thandros I was later found to have emptied all of its turret magazines and burned out its defence laser crystal before it was overrun. Nonetheless the Telepathica adepts manning the base were unable to send word of their plight to the Imperium because of the Tyranids' psychic blockade. The Thandros system fought and died alone. Kryptman salvaged the telepathica matrix and sent his message to warn the unsuspecting Imperium of the magnitude of the Tyranid threat. The Astropath, red-eyed with weariness after days of concentration broadcasting Varnak' s codex and Kryptman's report, gave the Inquisitor instructions to travel to the planet Macragge in Ultramar, the empire of the Ultramarines Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. There he would assist the Master of the Chapter in locating and eliminating the Tyranid fleet. As dictated by Imperial tradition the alien hive fleet of the Tyranids had been codified with an ancient and forbidding name from legend: Behemoth. The Navigator of Kryptman's ship strained to follow the guiding light of the Astronomican through the swirling energies of warp space as the ship pushed through the shoals and reefs of that most capricious medium. At times the undertow left by Hive Fleet Behemoth threatened to lose the ship in the warp forever but the Navigator avoided every whirlpool and riptide with consummate skill, the elongated teardrop formed by the warp drives of the Inquisition ship slipping through the Immaterium like oil through water. In the Macragge system a dozen other ships already hung in orbit and each day more arrived from the warp. Lumbering Space Marine battle barges hung over Macragge like gigantic azure monoliths etched with the gaping maws of weapon bays, launch tubes and heavy bombardment turrets. These leviathans dwarfed even the sleek strike cruisers arriving from the Ultramarines' furthest outposts. Orbital fortresses and ponderous systems defence monitors surrounded Macragge with a ring of firepower. Inquisitor Kryptman met with Marneus Calgar, Master of the Ultramarines, beneath the portico of his palace of brilliant white marble perched high in rugged mountains above the glittering seas of Hera. Calgar stood as a giant even among the genetically altered Space Marines. Nothing escaped his piercing blue eyes and even Kryptman' s terrible discoveries did not disturb his noble demeanour. The Ultramarines were readying themselves for all-out war with the Tyranids. The Emperor had despatched a Segmentum Tempestus battlefleet from the orbital docks at Bakka. Calgar felt that Macragge was the system most immediately threatened by hive fleet Behemoth. Macragge itself, already well-protected, was being even more heavily fortified and would be held tenaciously by Ultramarines and planetary defence auxilia until the combined Ultramar and Imperial fleet arrived to take on the hive fleet. A month later the Tyranids attacked Macragge, their fleet of over a thousand vessels sweeping aside attacks by Ultramarines strike cruisers as they pushed insystem. With no sign of the Imperial fleet from Bakka, Calgar was forced to use the Ultramar fleet in a risky ploy. By leaving Macragge and retreating outsystem Calgar drew the Tyranids onto the defences of Macragge as they sought to encircle it and invade. The Ultramar fleet struck the aliens while they were spread out and vulnerable, successfully carving a bloody swathe through their fleet as Calgar tried to fight his way back through to the protection of the big guns of Macragge. At the height of the battle Ultramar fighters from Macragge crippled one of the largest Tyranid hive ships and this seemed to fatally disrupt the cohesion of the hive fleet. The Tyranids' attacks became increasingly uncoordinated and Calgar's fleet reaped a great tally of fallen bio-ships. As the battle raged the Tyranids unleashed thousands of spores above the vital northern and southern polar fortresses which were the keystones of Macragge's defences. Each spore that fell to earth cracked open to reveal a Tyranid creature and soon thousands of Tyranids were marching across the ice fields towards the fortresses. In space the battered hive ships retreated and, desperate to prevent their escape, Calgar' s tiny fleet gave chase. Though Calgar feared for the polar fortresses he knew they were well guarded by Ultramarines of the 1st Company supported by defence auxilia and Titans of the Legio Praetor. Most of the 1st Company were formed into Terminator squads equipped with tactical dreadnought armour and the best personal weaponry in the Imperium. Entrnsting the fate of Macragge to these veteran warriors, Calgar chose to pursue the Tyranid hive fleet. The Tyranid swarms on Macragge surged on towards the polar fortresses. Sickle-clawed beasts bounded forward across snowy plains scored by lasers, their numbers blurring individuals into a shifting mass of slicing hooks and piercing talons, others wheeled through the bleak, grey skies on leathery wings and drooled their liquid fire on the defenders below. The ear splitting rattle of bolters and the thump of artillery drowned out the bestial, hate-filled screams of the swarming Tyranids but they swept on with implacable ferocity. The veteran Space Marines of the 1st Company led the lightly armed defence auxilia in a tenacious defence of the fortresses, holding every wall and trench until the last possible moment before it was overrun by the swarm. Slowly the troops withdrew ever deeper into the fortress while making the Tyranids pay in blood for every yard of ground. The Titans of Legio Praetor stalked the ice fields and drove smoking furrows through the onrushing Tyranid hordes with shells and plasma. Crippled Ultramarine ships which Calgar had left in orbit above hurled down bolts of ruby flame and megatons of explosive death at the Tyranids, but still they came on. The ferocity of the swarms was unbelievable. At the northern fortress they overran the walls by using the steaming piles of their own dead for cover. Titans were dragged down and ripped apart by sheer weight of numbers, like lions being swarmed over by soldier ants. Weapon barrels glowed red hot and jammed in spite of the arctic cold, ammunition began to run low though the fortress contained stockpiles for months of siege. The snows around the fortresses were stained arterial purple with Tyranid ichor. As the fighting became close and deadly lumbering scythe-armed giants tore into the defenders' ranks like living battering rams, smashing their way through metal and rockcrete walls with equal fury. Even the Terminators could not stand against Tyranids in hand-to-hand fighting. Six-limbed, armed and armoured in shining chitin, the creatures sprang forward with blinding swiftness, their claws lashing out to rip through ceramite and adamantium with impossible ease. The Ultramarines had to rely on the heavy short-range firepower of their storm bolters, heavy flamers and Assault cannon to bring down the foe. At the southern fortress stalking creatures penetrated deep into the labyrinthine corridors beneath the citadel through a supposedly inaccessible disposal culvert. The mantis-clawed horrors slew dozens of auxilia troopers from ambush in the maze of dark corridors and rooms before they were finally hunted down and eliminated by Terminator squads. Some men were driven mad with fear or paralysed with terror as the Tyranids broke through the perimeter again and again. With each perimeter breach the Ultramar garrisons had to withdraw to a new defence line. The Ultramarines were forced back, step by step, by the alien tide of organic killing machines. In space Calgar pursued the Tyranid fleet toward the ringed world of Circe at the edge of the Macragge system. The timely arrival of the Tempestus fleet from Bakka finally sealed th Tyranids' fate by catching them in a vice between the tw fleets. In a desperate fight the combined human fleet destroyed the remaining hive ships at a great cost in men and ships. The Tempestus fleet of over two hundred warships including the huge Emperor class battleship Dominus Astra was almost completely wiped out in a titanic battle around Circe. The battle was only won by the heroic sacrifice of the Dominus Astra charging into the heart of the hive fleet and triggering it's warp drives. The Tyranids were destroyed in an uncontrolled warp vortex which also dragged the Dominus Astra tc oblivion. Calgar's surviving ships came about and roared back to Macragge to try and save the beleaguered polar garrisons. The remnants of the Ultramar garrisons had been forced deep underground by wave after wave of Tyranids. The survivors of the Ultramarines 1st Company were still fighting amongst the coolant stores and capacitors of the giant defence laser silos of the northern citadel but all contact with them was lost after the Tyranids completely overran the surface outposts. At the southern fortress the remaining 1st Company detachments had been destroyed when they attempted a counter-attack against a vital bastion captured by the Tyranids. Small pockets of Ultramar resistance still held out in bunkers above ground. Calgar, feeling that the situation was becoming critical, sent the 3rd and 7th Ultramarines Companies ahead in their fast strike cruisers while his remaining damaged ships limped back to Macragge. As the sleek strike cruisers swooped over Macragge the Space Marines of the 3rd and 7th Companies were deployed by drop pod onto the poles with their supporting units following up in gunships. Scenes of unbelievable carnage awaited them below. Piles of mangled Tyranid corpses and shattered wargear lay strewn across the ice. Vast steaming craters pocked the snows where Titan plasma reactors had melted down and the stench of death lay everywhere. The 7th Company, dropping on the southern fortress, landed unopposed and quickly linked up with the survivors of the garrison above ground. Together they pushed on to clear the subterranean passages which had been overrun. Only a handful of Tyranids remained to oppose them but they fought back with maniacal ferocity. Initial progress was bloody, with several advance squads being attacked by lone Tyranids or small groups which took their toll. But the Tyranids' attacks lacked strategy or coordination and most of the creatures were riddled with bolter fire as they emerged from cover. In the north the 3rd Company came under attack as soon as it landed. Hundreds of creatures emerged from dark tunnel mouths and shattered bunkers to assail the Space Marines, threatening to overrun their dropzone by sheer force of numbers. Only staunch defensive fire laid down by the company s Devastator squads kept the alien swarm at bay until Thunderhawk gunships arrived to blast the Tyranids back below ground. Captain Fabian of the 3rd Company prudently awaited the arrival of the company's three Dreadnoughts before proceeding into the fortress itself to search for survivors. The dark, dank corridors beneath the northern fortress were already subtly altered by the aliens' presence. Mucous dripped from the walls and ceilings and a pervasive musky stench filled the air. Alien screams and roars echoed and re-echoed weirdly along the tunnels. Warily, the Space Marines pushed forward, the darkness moving back reluctantly before their suit lights. The corridors were littered with Tyranid and Ultramar dead and even bio-scanners failed to identify the creatures that lay in ambush amongst the corpses. Such lone attackers wreaked havoc at close quarters, slashing into the advance squads in an orgy of destruction before they were killed. Eventually the forward squads started to use flamers to burn their way along the passages and flush out their enemy. Even as the creatures burned they still leapt forward with claws outstretched to rip and slay. Two full squads of Space Marines were killed in a lightning fast flank attack by a dozen Tyranids at an intersection. Only the presence of a Dreadnought blocked their rampage through the company's perimeter, and the Dreadnought itself had one arm ripped off by the creatures before it cut through them with its assault cannon. As the company entered a great chamber below Silo 8 they were assailed from all sides as a nightmarish horde of creatures sprang from the shadows. A hail of obscene projectiles struck at the Space Marines, burning through their armour and spraying them with vile corrosive mucous. Chain swords clashed against curving blades of bone and bolters chanted their catechism of death as the Ultramarines desperately fought back. A mighty Tyranid lord, huge as a Dreadnought, thundered into the Space Marines' line. Three Space Marines fell to a single sweep of its curving blade before a Dreadnought charged into the monster. A titanic struggle ensued as monster and machine battled to the death. The Dreadnought reeled back as the Tyranid struck it a mighty blow, sparks flew as the Dreadnought's power fist crashed into beast's carapace. Pouring ichor from its wounds the creature raised its blade and chopped through the machine's leg to send it crashing to the ground. The beast howled in triumph and raised its blade to deliver the killing blow as Captain Fabian leapt forward into the fray. Power sword and alien blade clashed together with a cracking energy discharge. The beast swung a mighty overhead blow at Fabian as he staggered back from the discharge but the captain leaped aside and the blade buried itself in the rockcrete floor with a flash of power. In the fraction of a second before the creature freed its blade Fabian levelled his plasma pistol at the creature and fired, the incandescent blast catching it full in the head as Fabian pumped shot after shot into the creature. The beast reared up with a final ululating howl of agony and fell back dead. All around, the Ultramarines were on the verge of being overwhelmed, only the psychic blasts of the Librarian were stopping the Tyranids completing the slaughter. But as the Tyranid lord fell many of its minions turned tail and were cut down by bolters as they fled. Those that fought on were blasted apart as the Ultramarines resorted to firing amongst their own troops to finally prevail. At the end of the fight barely a quarter of the company had survived and all three Dreadnoughts were damaged. Captain Fabian grimly ordered his remaining men to continue the hunt for survivors. Once more the greatly reduced company cleared its way forward with flamers and finally reached the lower penitorium where the 1st Company had made their last stand. Tyranid bodies were piled six deep around the doors and within the room a circle of Terminators lay where they had fought hack to back. They were still and lifeless, every one having given his life against the Tyranid hordes. The Ultramarines' 1st Company had been wiped out to the last man, a grievous blow from which the Chapter has still to fully recover. Hive Fleet Behemoth had been stopped, but only at a grievous cost to the Imperium of Mankind. In the aftermath of the first Tyrannic war there was little the Imperium could do to strike back at its foe. Behemoth had arrived from a virtually unexplored quarter and had disappeared completely after the Battle of Macragge. The trail of the hive fleet led back to the empty void of intergalactic space. The Techno Magi of Mars spent many years classifying the Tyranid artefacts and bodies left on Macragge but could divine little from the evidence. The obvious facts were that, like the Eldar, the Tyranids used a form of bio-technology to organically form weaponry (though Tyranid weapons were limited to short-ranged projectiles and close combat weaponry) and that the Tyranids themselves formed an incredibly diverse race, more so than even the Orks. Gretchin and Snotlings which infest the galaxy. The only discovery of great note was that the Tyranids had employed Genestealers as shock troops. These creatures had previously been thought to be autochthonous denizens of the moons of Ymgarl that had spread through space onboard cargo barges. Their presence amongst the Tyranid hordes was testament that this theory was in error. Genetic samples indicated they were Tyranid creatures, so why were they already established far to the galactic north-west? The Salamanders Chapter of Space Marines conducted a xenocide campaign to purge the moons of Ymgarl and Inquisitors intensified their scrutiny for Genestealer infestations but nothing more could be done.
+++Hive Fleet Kraken+++
Two and a half centuries passed with neither sight nor sound of further Tyranid incursions. Some members of Earth's Adeptus Administratum began to question the necessity of maintaining so many armed forces in the galactic south-east to resist a non-existent Tyranid threat. They argued that the hive fleet had represented the sum total of the Tyranid race and that it had been destroyed at Macragge. When inhabited worlds along the south-eastern fringe began to suffer an epidemic of riots, terrorism, sabotage and, in some cases, outright rebellion the same Adeptus claimed the people had become dissatisfied with living in the midst of an armed camp and chosen to violently illustrate their displeasure. The Inquisition suspected a plot and moved quickly to 'investigate" the dissenters for signs of treasonous thoughts or heretical influence. It was soon established that all of the dissenting Administratum officials either originated from the south-eastern fringes or had travelled there at some point in their career. No other unifying factors could be found, and many of the suspected traitors had never even met each other. Inquisitors were dispatched from the Inquisition fortress at Talasa Prime to fully investigate the Ultima rebellions. Meanwhile, the Inquisition instigated a terrifying purge throughout the Imperium and particularly on Earth, incarcerating anyone in high office who had had contact with the Eastern Fringe. Tens of thousands were dragged away by the Arbites to languish in prison colonies while the investigation continued.
ICHAR IV
The Imperium's first concern was the rebellion on the industrial world of Ichar IV. The Ichar system is vital to the Imperium. Its gigantic factories and sprawling refineries form the lynch pin of one of the few densely populated sectors in the Ultima Segmentum. Thousands of ships carrying ore and myco-protein pass through Ichar's huge orbital docks each year. The rebellion had been swift and bloody. Years before, a religious fundamentalist group called the Brotherhood had caught the hearts and minds of the impoverished city workers. Their preaching of the return of the Emperor had promised better times to come and a place in heaven at his side, the kind of spiritual comfort most sought after by those without power or privilege in life. The Brotherhood's mercy missions and chapels had soon become a common sight in the poorest districts and their good works were legendary. The Ecclesiarchy had carefully monitored the Brotherhood for any taint of iconoclasm or heresy but had found nothing, if the reports were to be believed, but the most laudable of faith in the Emperor. Eventually permission was sought and granted for the Brotherhood to build a cathedral in Lomas, Ichar IV's largest city. Shortly after the completion of the cathedral the trouble began. The Brotherhood refused to pay its tithes to the Planetary Governor and refused to allow its members to be inducted into the Planetary Defence Force. Brotherhood preachers began whipping the populace into a frenzy with predictions of the imminent return of the Emperor. Vigilante Brotherhood militias started to patrol in many areas, brutalising far more "unbelievers" than non-existent criminals.
REBELLION AND WAR
Matters came to a head when rioting broke out at a Brotherhood mass rally held before the great cathedral. Arbitrators moved in to break up the crowds with power mauls and suppression shields but were fired on from the cathedral itself. The Arbites returned fire, killing several Brotherhood militia and enraging the great mass of people. After beating off several charges by the mob the Arbitrators were forced to withdraw by the arrival of another, larger mob from the poor district. Rioting spread throughout the city and the Arhites were unable to suppress it. When PDF troops were called from their barracks to assist the Arbitrators most of them rebelled and came out in favour of the Brotherhood. Vicious fighting broke out all over the city and, when it came to light that the Planetary Governor had been assassinated, the fighting spread to every city on Ichar IV. Within hours tanks daubed with Brotherhood symbols and flying crude revolutionary banners held most of the intersections and utilities in Lomas and the Imperial forces were being pushed back in other cities. Dawn brought full news of the assassination of the planetary governor and most of his ministers. Some were killed by bombs, others by snipers, others were murdered with their households in horrific massacres which looked like the attacks of wild beasts or mob violence. Shortly afterwards the Brotherhood seized all broadcast stations and announced their new theocratic government. Loyal forces still controlled much of the countryside outside the cities and the judges of the Adeptus Arbites still held their precinct fortress against the rebellious populace inside Lomas. Nonetheless, most of the world's cities had been captured in a full scale rebellion against the Emperor of Mankind. Inquisitor Agmar arrived on Ichar twenty seven days after the outbreak of rebellion, on the same day that the Arbites precinct fortress was finally overrun by Brotherhood forces. The judges were not to be so easily defeated, however. Most of their number escaped along a secret tunnel and captured the city's four main power generators. To Inquisitor Agmar's eyes the situation on Ichar IV had the appearance of a well-orchestrated plot rather than the upsurge of popular opinion being depicted by the Brotherhood. Agmar requested the assistance of the Ultramarmnes Chapter of Space Marines to help the Imperial forces regain full control of Ichar IV. While they awaited the arrival of the Ultramarines the Imperial Guard regiments on Ichar bombarded the cities and held off ferocious counter-attacks made by Brotherhood militia battalions. Repeated attempts to reach the trapped Arbites met with failure in the dense rubble surrounding the generator plant. Amidst piles of crumbled rockerete and twisted girders Imperial Guard units were consistently driven back by the savage zeal of the Brotherhood troops in deadly close combats. The brave Arhites finally fell six days after Agmar s arrival, though in their last act of loyalty to the Emperor they destroyed the power generators they had held so diligently. The lurid fires lit by their melta bombs burned for days afterwards, casting a black pall of smoke across Lomas like a chilling shroud. The war had reached a stalemate and ground down into an extended city-fight. Casualties spiralled upwards daily in dozens of skirmishes and ambushes fought through ruined apartment blocks, burned-out factories and mangled refineries. Predatory snipers lurked, ready to kill the unwary. Every doorway could conceal a booby trap or a hidden enemy. Entire Imperial Guard patrols disappeared without trace in the maelstrom of combat. At the other cities the story was the same. The Brotherhood had the Planetary Defence armouries and the teeming populace to draw on for their soldiery, and they controlled the bulk of the planet's laser and missile silos. Siege and starvation would be necessary to drive them out. Inquisitor Agmar led several small battle forces into Lomas to uncover more information about the Brotherhood. Piece by piece the picture of what had happened on Ichar IV became clear. He learned from prisoners about the ruling hierophants, heard their fanatical claims to be part of the magnificent "New Order" which would sweep through the galaxy. In a surprise raid he slew a Neophyte of the Brotherhood and saw what manner of creatures were leading this New Order. The divinations of the Imperial Tarot and Adeptus Telepathica psykers confirmed Inquisitor Agmar's worst fears. In utmost secrecy Inquisitor Agmar sent a report to the conclave of the Inquisition and awaited the arrival of the Space Marines.
ULTRAMARINES INVASION
Thirty nine days after the outbreak of rebellion the Ultramarines battle barge Octavius entered Ichar's orbit and prepared to deploy its drop pods. Ichar IV's defences were still largely ineffective because of the damage inflicted on Lomas' s generatorium by the Arbites and drop casualties were light. Companies of Space Marines seized the main defence armouries and the governor's palace where the Brotherhood militia headquarters had been established. At first the Brotherhood was taken by complete surprise and the primary objectives were quickly secured. The Brotherhood militia launched a series of desperate counter attacks to dislodge the Space Marines but their forces were critically disorganised by the destruction of their HQ and they were beaten off with heavy losses. Outside the city the Imperial Guard launched a major assault to link up with the Ultramarines. Fire and smoke leapt into the sky as artillery shells burst upon the city. Laser fire slashed back and forth as crouched figures scrambled from cover to cover. Heavy bolters flared through the murk, their shells kicking up erupting lines of dirt and rubble. The Imperial Guard doggedly advanced using their Leman Russ tanks as moving strongpoints and the Brotherhood's lines bent back before them. At the height of the attack Inquisitor Agmar's specially-placed spy satellite picked up militia forces leaving the Brotherhood cathedral and moving up to contain the Imperial assault. The Inquisitor knew the time had now come when one hold stroke would end the rebellion. He sent a prearranged signal to the Octavius orbiting high above. In the echoing nave of the cathedral a crackling blue haze appeared, brightened and then in a flash of azure light solidified into a number of hulking figures. The Brotherhood guards at the doors wheeled round in time to be ripped apart by a thunderous hail of explosive shells. More than twenty Space Marines in Terminator armour stood towering over their torn corpses in the sudden silence that followed. More guards, Neophytes and Acolytes suddenly poured into the cathedral through side doors as the Ultramarines Terminators spread out from their teleport point. A storm of lasbeams and autoshells rattled off the Terminators' thick armour plates to no avail: storm bolters were raised in gauntleted fists and the walls were painted with Brotherhood blood. A handful of survivors hurled themselves into close combat with the giant warriors. Voluminous robes fell hack to reveal bone-ridged heads and glaring eyes when the Neophytes lashed out with their inhuman claws. Some of the Terminators were overwhelmed and dragged down by the supernatural ferocity of the mob but the roaring jet of a heavy flamer cut across the survivors before they could exploit their victory. Smoke and the stink of burned flesh billowed up to the high-arched roof from the funeral pyre. The Terminators spread out with machine-like precision, some froze into overwatch positions while the others searched the cathedral for the hidden passages they knew it must contain. Their Librarian pointed to the altar and more explosive shells blasted it apart, revealing steps down into darkness. Flipping on their suit lights the Terminators filed down the steps to find the black heart of the Brotherhood. A dismal crypt lay below, with many twisting passages spreading out from it in all directions hut the Librarian could sense the way through the labyrinth. The Terminators' scanners came to life as they left the crypt, showing multiple foes closing quickly on their location, creatures that moved too quickly to be human. The Terminators moved to the positions they would cover from overwatch and waited, ready to deal death at the slightest movement. First came the distant clicking of claws on stone, then the thunder of the creatures' armoured bodies striking the walls and each other as they rushed forth to bring swift death to the intruders. The first of them sprang into the glare of the lights, its four deadly arms held high over its crouched body and bestial head. Genestealers! No doubt was left now, the Inquisitor was right: a viper's nest of aliens lay at the heart of the rebellion. Fangs and claws glittered as the Genestealers ran forward with insect-quickness to slay their hated foes. Storm bolters roared, sounding impossibly loud in the confined tunnels, explosive tipped bolts caromed from chitinous bodies or pierced them and blasted alien flesh to bloody pulp. The cleansing fires of flamers incinerated whole tunnels at a time but the creatures charged forward without fear or hesitation. Each strobing flash of the storm bolters showed the foe getting closer. They swept over the bodies piled in front of the Ultramarines and tore into the Terminators. Three of the armoured giants were ripped apart in as many seconds before the rest fell back to the crypt. The Genestealers leapt after them without pause, easily catching the rearguards as they backed away still blasting. Who can say how many more of the aliens were blown apart or crushed by the Terminators' power fists before they were overrun? Not enough to stop the onrushing brood but enough to slow them while their brethren prepared to fight again. In the crypt flamers held side passages against flanking Genestealers and forced them to pour forth from one end of the room. The combined fire of a half-dozen storm bolters burst through the horde and, as the survivors leapt into cover behind great stone sarcophagi, the Librarian summoned a purifying column of warp fire. Unnatural flames filled the end of the crypt, hissing fires that ate through alien flesh as though it were fat and gristle instead of iron hard chitin and steely cartilage. Most of the brood burned in an instant, the rest fell to the explosive bolts which raged through their ranks like a miniature artillery barrage. The Terminators moved on, cautiously now because they were few. No more of the nightmarish Genestealers barred their way or leapt from ambush as the Ultramarines pushed ever deeper into the heart of darkness. Deep beneath the city they found what they were seeking in a high-groined chamber with carved walls like the ribs of some great beast. There the Genestealer Patriarch crouched on a great dais, huge and bloated with the power of its sprawling brood. It squatted with arms outstretched, head turned upward as if listening for some distant call as the Ultramarines marched into the hall. They raised their weapons to destroy the abomination and it lowered its eyes to gaze on them with a threatening hiss. Without warning a horde of monstrosities poured into the chamber from between the calcified ribs-walls. Three-armed hybrids, tainted humans and purestrain Genestealers leapt forward to protect their all-father. A wall of explosive bolts marched along the mob and the chamber dissolved into a scene of chaos and bloodshed as the howling fanatics hurled themselves on the Terminators. The Ultramarines Librarian cut his way forward through the creatures, the glowing white blade of his force axe leaving a trail of shorn limbs and lopped heads behind him. Each step became harder, as if he were wading through deeper and deeper water. He could feel the palpable psychic waves of alien thoughts beating against his mind as the Patriarch exerted its ancient, implacable will upon him. Deep pits opened in his subconscious, ready to swallow his psyche whole. A shocking surge from the Librarian's psychic hood broke the spell. Focusing his own indomitable will, the Librarian forced his body out of the physical world for an instant, and in an instant he was gone. A bright flash marked his departure, another flared at his point of arrival as he teleported onto the dais with the Patriarch. The creature span round and lashed out its claws with incredible speed. Blood and sparks flew from the Librarian's armour as the claws ripped into it. The Patriarch easily ducked away from his clumsy backswing. The beast pounced again and rained a flurry of blows on the armoured figure which were almost too swift to follow. In desperation the Librarian called to his battle brothers and the dais was swept by storm bolters. Indiscriminate fire ricocheted off the Librarian's armour but some shots struck and wounded the Patriarch. In its moment of distraction the Librarian swung his force axe in an irresistible arc which carved through the Patriarch's armoured hide with a flash of power. The force axe rose and fell, hacking the Patriarch into a bloody pulp and spraying purple ichor across the chamber. With the death of its Patriarch the brood was thrown into confusion. In the chamber the handful of remaining Terminators slaughtered the mass of creatures assailing them. Nothing escaped the blasts of their storm bolters and the cleansing fires of their flamers as the Terminators exacted some small measure of revenge for the death of their forebears over two centuries before. In the city above the Brotherhood units resisting the Imperial Guard offensive collapsed. Small knots of fanatical Acolytes and Neophytes held out in towers and bunkers but triumphant Imperial Guard tanks swept through the rubble-strewn streets crushing all opposition. Ichar IV was back under the iron heel of the Imperium within three weeks. All signs of the Genestealer infestation were thoroughly rooted out by the energetic Inquisitor Agmar with the assistance of the Ultramarines. Yet at the end of the campaign several mysteries remained unanswered. The first was what had become of the Magus, the human-seeming leader of the Brotherhood who had disappeared at the start of the rebellion. His body was never found and no prisoners were able to shed light on his whereabouts, even under Agmar's most persuasive questioning. The second mystery was the reports of Astropaths and the Ultramarmnes Librarian who had slain the Patriarch. They told of sensing a faint psychic disturbance like a long, keening call or a signal radiating from the planet, a signal which had been cut off when the Patriarch was killed. The oldest and most powerful of the Astropaths had told the Inquisitor that he toc had sensed the Patriarch's call and that he had felt a distant shift in the warp. It was a sense of something vast and seething, a shadow of a monstrously powerful entity which had turned its attention to Ichar. When Agmar submitted his report to the conclave of the Inquisition he was warned of a growing number of reports from survivors fleeing from the outer fringes. The information was garbled and contradictory but one fact stood out, the Tyranids had returned with a new hive fleet, Hive Fleet Kraken.
TENDRILS OF THE KRAKEN
This new Tyranid invasion had come without warning and no one could be sure how many planets had fallen to the Tyranid horde already. Hive Fleet Krakcn appeared to made up of many sub-fleets which moved to attack worlds across an entire sector simultaneously. The alarming disruption in the warp brought about by the hive fleet's passage had blocked out astropathic communication beyond the besieged systems and warp travel in their vicinity had become dangerously unpredictable. Whole sub-sectors of the Imperium had been swallowed up with almost no clues as to what had happened to them. The handfuls of survivors had fled aboard ships and been flung hundreds of light years off course by the turbulence in the warp. Their chilling accounts of the nightmare advance of the hive fleet formed the bulk of information available to the Imperium. Tales came of skies turned black over whole continents by clouds of wind blown poison spores. Of hulking monsters that stalked the land, ripping and slashing with murderous claws. Stories of billions of creatures swarming across the face of a world, devouring everything in their path and leaving the planet a wasteland. Whole population centres had been subdued or wiped out in a single night, and those taken alive had envied the dead. In the Miral system Imperial Guard regiments and Space Marines of the Scythes Chapter still held out against Tyranids which had overrun the lush jungles and plantations of Miral Prime. The Imperial Forces had retreated to a huge rock mesa known locally as the Giant's Coffin where they fought almost daily against raging hordes from the dense jungles below. The jungles themselves had become extraordinarily active since the invasion and only constant defoliation prevented vines and creepers engulfing the defenders' narrow island of rock overnight. A free captain brought rumours of Lamarno, a feral planet which had come completely under the sway of Genestealers. When a Tyranid hive fleet arrived the fierce tribesmen had calmly boarded the bio-ships to be consumed by their new 'living gods'. He also brought a tale from the giant asteroid-monastery of Salem, telling of how the monks had chosen to poison themselves and their carefully built ecosystem rather than allow their sanctified flesh and bones to be consumed by the advancing Tyranids. Now Salem was nothing more than a gigantic tomb. Another dedicated merchant captain helped evacuate millions from the mining worlds of Devlan before it was consumed. The extensive system of Sentinel space stations around Devlan delayed the hive fleet long enough for a fleet of giant freighters to escape into space. A company of the Lamenters Chapter of Space Marines held off frenzied attacks by the Tyranids until the last ship was loaded. Left surrounded and cut off, the Lamenters commended their souls to the Emperor and took a heavy toll of the invaders before they were finally overrun. Yet there seemed to be no refuge even in flight. One giant ore ship fleeing from Devlan with its cargo of refugees arrived at its destination ominously dark and silent. No communication was forthcoming from the vessel and it made an automated landing far from habitation. Those investigating the ship found it to be a slaughterhouse of terror and death when they unsealed it. Men, women and children had been mercilessly butchered in their hundreds, perhaps thousands, it was impossible to tell. The Inquisition suspected a breach of quarantine protocol had allowed some Tyranid organism to get aboard, but nothing could be found, so what it it was and what became of it remained a mystery. Orbital defences on Graia had held the hive fleet back for a time but the invaders had overrun Graia's single moon. Now every orbit brought a rain of mycetic spores on the planet below, each spore bearing its payload of doom and destruction. Explorators reported discovering a world deep in the Eastern Fringe which had been seeded with Hormagaunts during a Tyranid terror raid decades before. Swarms of the sickle-armed beasts had killed every living thing on the planet and now battled with each other in their unrelenting bloodlust. The Squats had reported attacks by a swarm of hive ships on isolated Homeworlds close to the galactic core, tens of thousands of light years away from the main hive fleet on the south-eastern rim of the galaxy. Inquisitor Czevak reported that the Eldar craftworld of Iyanden had been subjected to a series of massive Tyranid attacks. The once mighty craftworld had fought off swarm after swarm of attacking hive ships but in doing so its space fleet had been virtually destroyed. Several swarms of Tyranids had reached the craftworld itself and fighting had raged throughout its slender Wraithhone towers and magnificent crystal domes. Now most of the craftworld lay in ruins and four fifths of its people were left dead or dying, a terrible blow to the dwindling Eldar race.
TOTAL WAR
The Adeptus Terra was sufficiently shaken by the news from the Ultima Segmentum to convene the High Lords of Terra. Their conclusion was rapid and succinct: the vast inroads of the Tyranids into the Imperium must be stopped at all costs, the Tyranid race must be investigated and, if possible, utterly extenninated. The Imperial Tarot predicted a time of coming darkness unmatched since the darkest hours of the Horus Heresy: the Devourer of Worlds grappled with the human galaxy and thus far it had shown only the first hints of its true strength. At the command of the High Lords the huge military juggernaut of the Imperium's armed forces turned its face to the Ultima Segmentum and readied itself for total war. The forge worlds of the Adeptus Mechanicus produce tanks, weapons and war machines by tens of thousands. The ship yards at Bakka and Terra work night and day to build battlecruisers and warcraft to stem the tide of the Tyranid hive fleets. Millions of Imperial Guardsmen prepare to embark on a war for humanity's very survival. To the Imperium war is a religion, a crusade against the forces of darkness which wait in the shadows to enslave mankind. The Tyranids are the ultimate blasphemy, a race of creatures that brings not mere enslavement but utter extinction. New and deadly Tyranid weapons and creatures are being reported all the time: long-ranged acidic projectiles which melt through steel like wax, creatures which attack with bolts of psychic energy or electro-static blasts, gigantic beasts as tall as Titans. The regularity of Tyranid attacks is increasing and no adequate defence has yet been discovered. Several hundred large inhabited worlds have fallen to the Tyranids. Two entire Space Marine Chapters based on the Eastern Fringe, the Scythes of the Emperor and the Lamenters, have been all but destroyed with little more than a company of Space Marines surviving the Tyranid onslaught. The fight has not been entirely in vain. In a number of systems Space Marines have boarded Tyranid ships while they were still dormant after exiting the warp. These boarding parties entered the pulsing vitals of the immense alien craft, gathering information about the Tyranids and destroying thousands of creatures while they lay frozen in hibernation. The information gathered by these brave Space Marines has proved vital to the Imperium' s search for a way to defeat the Tyranid menace. The Techno Magi have concluded that the Tyranids originate outside the galaxy. Their voracious genetic structure and biological existence are different from even the most alien creatures of our own galaxy. Whereas human and other galactic organisms naturally diversify into distinct species over the course of millions of years, Tyranids evolve rapidly and constantly to meet the conscious needs of the entire race. The Tyranids are not one creature but a bewildering array of monstrosities created to perform specific functions. Hence Tyranids vary in size from the huge organic spacecraft of the hive fleets to tiny functionary creatures such as the beetle-sized scataphagoids which cleanse and recycle organic waste in the respiratory vents of the bin-ships. The conscious mutability of the Tyranids means they have never needed to develop more conventional technologies like those used by Man. For example, much of the Tyranids' weaponry is created from symbiote creatures which have been adapted and combined to fire voracious living shells or generate deadly energies. These artefacts have probably not even been consciously designed by the Tyranids, rather they design themselves in response to the requirements of the hive mind, genetically adapting to their tasks from the moment of inception. As time passes generations of the weapon symbiotes constantly change and evolve to become lighter, more efficient and deadlier against the Tyranid's foes. The hive mind appears to require a constant influx of fresh genetic material and new DNA to create new creatures and adapt to different environments. The Adeptus Mechanicus postulate that the Tyranids exhausted their own galaxy and, perhaps, others of all life before crossing the interstellar void to seek fresh feeding grounds. With its billions of humans and countless other creatures the Imperium offers the Tyranids an inexhaustible stock of organic matter and genetic codes to invigorate the hive mind and enable it to manifest new forms. The Tyranids represent the nightmare pinnacle of evolution gone mad, a ravening super-predator of stellar dimensions which will make all other life forms extinct if it cannot be stopped.
