Survival of the Fittest.

[Remalis]

Continuing on from previous story
The Search.

thetyranidhive.proboards.com/thread/48547/search

[Remalis]

The Genestealer had very little to distinguish itself from its many brethren, hidden in the mines far beneath the imperial outpost.

It was no larger or stronger or smarter.
It was perhaps just -ever- so slightly more psychically sensitive to the warp.

For this particular genestealer, on this particular planet at this particular time, this single evolutionary trait made all the difference.

It felt the pressure building some weeks before its broodmates. Whether the Patriarch or the Magus was also aware of the approaching shadow through the warp, they gave no indication.

Other races sensing this building pressure would respond with a growing sense of fear.
The chemical signals in the genestealer were almost identical. Andrenaline and stress triggered the fight or flight response.
The broodmind bond, dominated by the Patriarch and Magus dampened the instincts towards aggression, leaving flight as the only option.

Days pass and the pressure builds.

Around the time the rest of the pure strains finally start sensing a disquiet from the void, the drive pushing This Genestealer finally tips the balance past the becalming influence of the broodmind.

The Genestealer creeps away from the cult through the mine tunnels, avoiding all contact with others - be it hybrids, humans above or other stealers.


Survival instincts have overridden all familial bonds. Survival itself is the only remaining drive.

Alien intelligence and cunning finds the genestealer hidden just outside the spaceport some days later. In the cover of night, avoiding imperial patrols and automated defenses, it infiltrates an ore transport vessel, nesting itself away in one of the many cargo bins and settles down to wait.

A day later, the transport launches. It is a scant week remaining before the first lictors make planet fall, marking targets and disrupting the prey's command structures to best effect.
Mere days beyond the that, the shadow of leviathan descends upon the system -silencing all cries for help. Sealing its fate.

The ore transport leaves the system and enters the warp. The crew blissfully unaware of what approaches from the void behind them.

The genestealer perceives the warp around it. If it were not for the intense sense of pressure from without, things may have developed differently.
Without the adrenaline and stimulants coursing through its body, the genestealer would have entered hibernation.
The ore transport would have made its destination.
The genestealer would have escaped the vessel, infected a new host and over time developed into the new patriarch of a new hybrid cult. The cycle repeating once more.

This was not to be.

The shadow of the hive fleet still far to close, and with a broodmind no longer present, the genestealers drive towards aggression now dominated.
It was no simple beast. Guided by psychic sensitivity it made its way stealthily to the navigators compartment.
The bulkhead tore like paper under the genestealers claws.
The navigator didn't stir, as the stealer struck down the attending servitors in a blur of gore and arterial spray.

The stealer punched through the navigators containment pod.
Instinct paused the genestealers attack.
Instead of tearing the navigator apart, the stealer stabs into her neck, implanting genetic viral material to start overwriting her very being.
The navigator starts convulsing and the ship is immediately thrown hard off course.
The navigator may or may not survive the process.
If she does, the result will be a powerful pilot/magus.
If she does not, it is of no concern to the genestealer.
The navigator will last long enough to perform the required function.

The stripping and reforming of her dna alongside her existing powerful psychic nature will embue a strong broodmind connection and the same sense of dread proximity to the leviathan hive mind.

The overwhelming imperative to survive will have her pilot the vessel as fast and as far from the hive mind as possible.
The genestealer has now achieved the best chance for its own survival.

The remaining crew was in a state of panic now. The vessel seemingly out of control, racing through the warp.
Distress signals activated and Beacons launched in the vain hope of rescue.
All signals that will attract more prey.

More deliberately now, the Genestealer stalks through the ship.
It is not a large crew.
Through scent,senses and psychic intuition, the crew is sorted as either genetic stock or prey.
One by one, the crew members are either implanted or consumed.
The Genestealer starts slowly to change. The extra biomass absorbed, along with the ever present pressure of the hivemind still far too close, triggers an alternative evolution path to becoming a Patriarch.

Soon the decks of the transport become quiet. Implanted crew tend to the ship and the navigator.
The new broodmind link grows stronger.
The Genestealer finds a isolated spot in the ship and hibernates to undergo it's final metamorphosis.
When it emerges it will be far larger and more powerful.

Genestealer no longer. In its place, a Broodlord.

For as long as the navigator survives, the vessel will flee the Leviathan swarm.
The ship intermittently drops back into real space. Distress signals attracting other ships to pull alongside and investigate.
The hybrids will beckon then subdue their would-be rescuers. Once again separating genetic stock from biomass.
Navigators of captured vessels always implanted to increase chances of one of them surviving the process.
Docked ships are secured, cannibalized and incorporated into the original transport - slowly transforming the vessel into a space hulk.
Soon, enough generations of hybrids are created to produce pure strain Genestealers.
In time the frail hybrids will die off.
Only genestealers will remain on board. They will drift off into hyberbation awating the triggers of new life entering thier domain.
Commanded and controlled by the awakened BroodLord - hidden somewhere deep within the dark labyrinth of twisting corridors , bulkheads and ceramite patchwork of fused ships.

The hulk will slowly decay over the aeons, sometimes active - flying away from Leviathan as new hybrids and navigators are created.
Other times the hulk will be drifting, seemingly lifeless, carried along on the tides and currents of the warp
Always Surviving.

[Remalis]

Another random idea, exploring the relationship between Patriarchs (the old school kind) and BroodLords and touching on one way Genestealers might come to infest a space hulk.
I think I've developed a reasonably sound biological system to explain both bio forms.
As always, thanks for taking the time to read.

[Remalis]

Oh, please forgive some terrible grammar and the the occasional typo. Smashed it out on my phone on the train to work. I'll go back and try to fix it later.

[sunshine]

Great stuff!

[Remalis]

Cheers for the kind feedback. Appreciated. :-)

[sunshine]

You should deff keep up the good work