The Genestealers. What more is there to say. They're big, they're bad, and very ugly. I'll also give some info. on the hybrids stealers as well.
The edge of a solar system. Behind is the warm glow of a bright, yellow sun, surrounded by balls of green and blue and red, planets locked in the endless Newtonian dance of orbit. Ahead is darkness, broken only by pinpricks of tired white light issued years before from faraway suns, and the occasional passage of small bits of rock heading in-system to temporary warmth of firery death, or out-system to the long journey through the cold dark night.
Suddenly, a soundless explosion. For an instant - the merest fraction of an instant - a hole opens. A hole leading to nowhere.
An impossibility issues forth.
Clad in black ice, scored by huge rents ans tears, the ship appears. A nightmare of distorted physics and monstrous energy, too huge, too alien to comprehend, the ship shudders and moans as it makes the transition from nothingness to being. Outraged, reality denies the ship, but is defeated by the certitude of those aboard. A wave of new possibility ripples sullenly through the fabric of what is.
The Genestealers have come. Another solar system begins to die. Genestealers form the vanguard of the Tyranid invasion, infiltrating ahead of the hive fleets to disrupt the enemy. These four-armed monsters are an absolute terror in hand-to-hand combat. In battle the Genestealers form an assault wave that hopes to charge forward and overrun the foe. Designed for close combat, the razor-sharp claws of the Genestealers make them a match for any creature in the galaxy.
The Invaders
The Genestealers are the most enigmatic of races. Fierce warriors, they eschew the use of weapons in combat. Highly intelligent, they build nothing of their own, relying solely upon the technology of conquered people. Possessing an incredibly strong survival drive, they die fearlessly in battle. Vicious, destructive, they choose to conquer through seduction and infiltration rather than overt battle.
At first glance, it is difficult to believe that a cunning and malign intelligence lurks within the Genestealer's Bestial exterior. A Genestealer resembles the most fearsome monster of ancient legend, a horror of teeth, claws, and carapace, through which protrude ropes of sinewy muscle, the creature stands in a perpetual crouch atop its clawed feet. Two sets of arms descend from its massive shoulders, one equipped with fingers, the other with powerful claws. Its long, thick head is equipped with fearsome array of fangs and an even more frightening pair of eyes.
We came in through the western wall at the height of the ceremony, as the frenzied screams of pain and ecstasy reached their loudest. To the left where the cult members, about two hundred men and women in all, lying fully prostrate on the floor. To the right stood their - priest? Gods? Children? - I don't know what to call them. There were perhaps a dozen of the creatures, dressed for battle and arrayed about a tall, handsome man in ceremonial robes, bearing a staff of some kind.
For a long moment, no one moved. The tall man looked at me. I could feel his eyes burning into my mind. I was frozen with terror and... and something like anticipation. He smiled. I - I don't know what would have happened next, if Gorrn, my Ogryn Sergeant, hadn't torn loose a piece of the wall and thrown it at the tall man. He missed - and one of the creatures ripped Gorrn's head off for his pains - but the tall man flinched, and the spell was broken.
I ordered my men to attack. You know the rest.
- Final report of Rickkart Toll,
late of the Imperial Guards. -
Patriarch, Purestrain
Hybrid
Last Updated May 20, 1999 by Branden D
