Part Five - Genestealer Empires
Though the death of the Tyranid Hivemind caused the mass death of the Tyranid Hives, with very few left, some Genestealers sensed the fear and anguish of the dying Hive Mind, struck down by a resurgent Emperor and the remaining Eldar Gods. One final mutation was undergone, and but four Genestealers completed the new transformation before the Hive Mind was finally slain.
Independence. The most terrifying gift of all.
Yes, it was independence that gave the Tyranids a second chance. With the hive gone and the remnants scattered and feral, these four Genestealers worked to sustain and eventually rebuild the Hive Mind, when there would be no God-Emperor or Aeldari Lords to stop them. Resilence was always a trait of the Tyranids, and these new Lord Genestealers began to build a new swarm, from the subjects who killed their god...
The Bladed Cog is heresy of the highest accord, for the remaining Forge Worlds. Corrupted Tech-Priests and technology interwoven with the bio-organic hallmarks of the Tyranids. Skitarii with chitin claws and poison-tipped tails, Tech-Priests with bioplasma launchers and organic mechadentrites, and newly formed Tyranid Warriors equipped with Iron Halos and chainsword claws. Their capital ships of Imperial design with the skulls of long dead Tyranid ship bioforms tied to their masts. Their Lord Genestealer has undergone unchecked mutation and has merged with a former Emperor Titan, bonded with using the biomass of an entire moon.
The remaining forces of the Mechanicus clash often with their new mortal foe...
The New Man is insidious as it is large, and it controls a significant portion of Segmentum Pacifica. It mimicks the old Imperium in many ways, almost as a taunt to those who recall better days. The New Man has their Lord Genestealer as their Emperor, tied to the 'Flesh Terra' and interwoven deep within the layers of the world, itself becoming tied to almost every faucet of its biosphere. Its 'Astartes' were once mortal men, thrown into and reborn from the bio-chambers aboard their Bio-Barges. When these new warriors come out, they retain their bipedal nature but are laced in thick layers of tough chitin equal to the plate which proper Space Marines wear, mimicking the armor of the Adeptus Astartes.
Their Guard regiments are comprised of cultists primarily, but replacing the generals are the new batches of Genestealers, using their synapse capabilities to give orders to their troops, providing an eerie coordination outpacing their normal human counterparts.
The Angels of the Hive sprouted from onboard an Emperor-Class Battleship, deep within its massive amount of menials and crew. Taking over it (then the rest of the fleet) has become tradition, and many Navy vessels have fallen under their command. With the hundreds of warships thrown up by a calm warp, there has been a massive influx in warships, which the Angels took great advantage of. Their Lord Genestealer has merged with the original Emperor-Class, its golden ceramite plates grown over by xenos chitin, fueled by the energy of the Warp released by the ship's Warp Drive. The ship's drives and generators, its organs. Its decks, its intestines. Its hangar bays, the Lord Genestealer's womb, producing hundreds of new bioforms designed to dogfight enemy starfighters.
The Tendrils of God is a terrifying new threat recently revealed, when philanthropists from the Bile Trade Empire accidentally discovered the final Lord Genestealer. The Tendrils of God were formed on an Imperial Shrine World which doubled as a crematorium for enemies slain by the local Order of Sisters, when the utter psychic might of the final Lord Genestealer drove most of its citizens mad and caused many to do grotesque and morbid things with the collected dead corpses of the Tyranids. Things reminiscent of the most depraved of Chaos Cults; Sisters of Battle hacked off their own arms and sewed the claws of dead guants onto the stubs, priests baptized their holy followers in the ichor of Tyranid Warriors, and a few Aeldari corpses they had left were pieced together using bits of other Tyranid bio-forms, given life by the psychic might of the Lord Genestealer, and turned into their most mighty of warriors.
Even the Bile Trade Empire was too repulsed to do deals with them, and the Tendrils of God did not take such an insult well, departing their desecrated warships and disrupting the Trade Empire's trade routes. Fabius himself got involved, leading a mighty collection of his loyal creations and hired mercenaries and burned much of the Tendrils' world to the ground. However, they were unable to find the Lord Genestealer, leaving Fabius to wonder where it had gone