Games Workshop Warhammer 40,000 Tyranid Broodlord

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The host victims, or Contagii, return to their own societies and begin to have an urgent need to find a mate and begin a family. This mate also becomes infected with Genestealer DNA through sexual intercourse with the infected host. Rather, they invade to harvest valuable biomass and feed their insatiable hunger. The Tyranids require an endless supply of food, not only to nourish the hive fleets, but to grow new organisms. Therefore, when a hive fleet invades a planet rich in life, every action of every Tyranid creature is honed to a single goal -- the total and rapid absorption of that world's organic population, ecosystems and bioresources. Some of these pods are filled with microbial life. These hostile micro-organisms immediately begin to change the planet's atmosphere, oceans, soil, flora, and fauna. Complex organic molecules are broken down and recreated in formats that are best suited for absorption by the swarm. Other spores bear more complex Tyranid creatures. The Genestealer DNA will be incorporated into the host's germ cells and so any child that results from this union will be a Genestealer hybrid, which now has the complete loyalty of its parents through a psychic bond. Mawlocs - The Mawlocs are a subspecies of the Trygon. They are worm-like and blind, though they are incredibly agile despite their size. Their short claws are not suited for close combat, rather to tunnel efficiently under the battlefield, although they are by no means defenseless. They prefer to swallow their prey whole to be digested alive for several days. Despite being blind, the Mawloc can gather information of the surface through pressure waves since they can travel through solid and fluid objects below ground. When a Mawloc begins to home in on the enemy, severe tremors errupt on the surface, which can tell the Mawloc where its prey is with more accuracy. If the sound is regular and rhythmic, it is easier for the Mawloc to home in on. Even a heartbeat will tell it where its next meal is.

The three Tyranid species most active during this stage are Vanguard Drone Ships, Lictors, and Genestealers. These bioforms share two critical characteristics for identifying new target planets and performing infiltrations: stealth and independence. All of the organisms involved have physiological abilities that are focused upon concealment. These talents are exploited to the utmost, so that they can initially observe the native environment safely. As there are often a very limited number of Tyranids involved at this stage, these specimens exhibit an uncharacteristic degree of self-preservation. However, on closer inspection their alien form is revealed. They have heavily ridged heads, mauve to violet skin, and may even hide an extra clawed limb under their tattered clothes. Every thought and action, every spark of life in the Tyranid species, is bound and interlinked into a single unfathomable consciousness, a great entity that stretches across hundreds of light years of space. This gestalt sentience is known as the " Hive Mind."Isolated broods of this Tyranid creature are typified by a blue-indigo coloration. Such beasts have been encountered not only on numerous Space Hulks, notably the Sin of Damnation, but also upon the moons of Ymgarl, once thought home to a tentacle-mawed variation of the xenoform. This strain is possibly specifically nomadic; bio-engineered purely to infect new hosts. A Genestealer ( Corporaptor hominis) is a bioform of the multispecies Tyranid race that was genetically designed by the Hive Mind for the infiltration of other intelligent species' settled worlds.

These creatures must be eliminated with extreme prejudice, before they establish a breeding nest and a community of dedicated hybrid organisms. Once Tyranid species have established a toehold on a planet, their strategy soon changes. Whilst it is true that the Tyranids are forced to remain at sublight speeds while within the gravitic boundaries of a planetary system, they are capable of superluminal velocities when travelling through interstellar space. This capability is the result of a small Tyranid bio-ship classified by the savants of the Imperium of Man as a " Narvhal." Whatever the truth, for the Tyranids to have endured such a voyage must have required utter single-mindedness and unimaginable energy. During their journey,At the same time that this rain of devastation begins, those Genestealers and Lictors which have already infested the planet reveal themselves. Using the knowledge that they have obtained and the hybrid fauna they have spawned, these creatures sow confusion through the ranks of the defenders. By selectively targeting officers and communications hubs, the infiltrators can effectively delay or even compromise a planet's defences. By spreading their genetic curse in secrecy, these creatures multiply the threat they pose in the manner of a virus. Even a single Purestrain Genestealer, borne across the stars by an unwitting pilot who lands upon a fertile planet, can spawn enough tainted progeny to take that world over from the bottom up. Such potential disasters are seeded across the Imperium in great measure. From the smallest feeder organisms, to the microbes that decompose new biomass; from the sessile and rooted flora-like forms, to the huge tendril-like shoals of the hive fleets, every Tyranid organism has a place within the will of the Hive Mind.