Welcome to my second ever fanfic, so don't expect quality because that is not what you are likely to receive, although I will do my best at writing this story, second my knowledge of 40k lore is pretty good but not complete so lore discrepancies are possible, please feel free to comment after reading this first chapter, and I also want to inform you that my desire to write is a fickle thing so this story could drop dead at any time
I also don't own Warhammer 40k if that wasn't obvious
Beginnings
Chapter one
I was your average Warhammer 40k loving nerd, I read many of the books written about the setting, regularly made the unwise financial decision to buy minis, and was just generally passionate about the franchise. I had a particular love of the Genestealer Cults, I'm not sure why but they always fascinated me with the general design of their faction, the combination of alien with human and the idea that they are no professional army, they are just a fervent militia making due with mining equipment and smuggled weaponry. I always wished the Genestealer Cults could survive and forge their own destiny instead of being eaten by Tyranids, well, as much of a destiny as can be forged by a bunch of brainwashed, alien worshipping cultists can.
How I died is unimportant, more so because I don't actually know how it happened all I know is that I went to sleep one day and then I was no longer in my home. I didn't know what was going on at first and if felt like I was dreaming for a long time, I wasn't in control of my body and I only remembered flashes of what happened. I remember an egg and hatching from it, I also remember wandering fleshy halls that must have been a bio ship of the Tyranid hive fleets, other Tyranids walked along with me, they were most likely other Genestealers, I remember a battle, bullets, lasgun shots, and bolter rounds flying everywhere, I got hit by something and fell to the ground, dying but not dead yet, things got dark then I woke up from my dreamlike state.
I looked around confused for a few moments, and I thought, 'this isn't my bed.' I appeared to be in some sort of tube filled with liquid, surprisingly though I wasn't having trouble breathing. My mind briefly thought I might've been taken by the government and stuck in Area 51 to be experimented on or something, but I quickly pushed that thought away, it was way too ridiculous. I reached my hand out to touch the edge of the tube I had been contained in then paused when I saw that my hand looked a lot less like I remembered it when I went to sleep, it was more wrinkled, ended in sharp claws, and was a deep pinkish-purple hue in color. A sinking feeling settled in my gut and I began to use my hands to feel over my own body, the results were disturbing, I was covered in a hard carapace, I had another set of arms coming out from above the arms I was currently using, they were bigger, stronger, and ended in much bigger claws, my head was longer and not even remotely felt like a human head. If I could have I would've laughed, it was all so ridiculous, impossible, something you'd hear from a mentally deranged person, but there is only one creature I know of that fits this description, and they had fought for me in many a battle on the tabletop, it seems I've become a Genestealer.
Right after that realization came a second realization, 'I'm a Genestealer... Fuck, the Imperium hates me.' Not that the Imperium was that good but I'd at least be with humans. I once again looked around and pieced together what must have happened, I had been born a Genestealer and that dream was probably when I was under the direct control of the hive mind, I had fought in a battle, been wounded and then captured. The two questions now were, one, where are they taking me? And two, can I escape? Hopefully I don't have to answer question one, I tried to think up ways I could escape, busting through the tube? I imagine it's too strong for me to do that, try to convince someone I was once human? Too insane, hypnotize someone to let me free? That would require someone to come in this room, besides, I'd have the entire ship looking for me in a couple hours, break out when I get to the destination? I'd probably been under heavy guard, so not likely to succeed. As I was brainstorming I began to feel tired and my eyes began to close, 'Huh? I just woke up, why would I be going to sleep now?' I thought. Then it hit me, they were probably monitoring my vitals or something, noticed I was awake and decided to use something to send me back to sleep. I couldn't fight whatever was happening to me and my eyes closed and I descended into a dreamless slumber.
The next time I awoke it was the the sound of alarms blaring and as my eyes opened they were assaulted by the harsh red of alarm lights, was the ship in combat? I tried to move but I was still sluggish and my limbs barely responded, my arms weakly hit the glass tubes interior, bouncing off harmlessly and doing no damage. I felt the ship around me quake and it was obvious that the ship was coming apart and wouldn't last much longer under whatever assault was pounding at it, but all I could do was watch and listen from my prison as metal screeched and tore, soon after that everything went dark once again.
My next awakening was much kinder than the last, sound wise at least, however my entire body ached as I lay on the ground eyes closed, after a bit I finally opened my eyes and studied my surroundings, I was laying on the floor of the room I was being stored in, the tube containing me shattered and the liquid I was suspended in was all over the area I was laying down in, the room was relatively intact, the same could not be said for the cargo, all the other cargo boxes and things stored in the room were scattered all over in varying states of destruction, there was also a large hole in one of the walls. I tentatively brought my arms and legs closer to me and tried to push myself onto my feet, my first attempt failed, this new body was completely different to a human body and even though I could feel that I had been given some muscle memory on how to use this body, probably by the hive mind, I don't suspect it expected to have to contend with a rival set of muscle memory made by a human. After a few minutes of floundering about I was able to get on my feet. While crouched down with my smaller hands ready to give support, my larger hands lay limp as I didn't want to try to command six limbs at once yet, gotta take small steps towards your goals. I slowly got over to the hole in the wall and was meant with a wave of heat, and the scene that met my eyes was a giant desert. 'Of all the planets in the galaxy I landed on a desert planet, are you kidding me.' Was all I thought as I looked out at the heat blasted wasteland.
Well I couldn't just sit around and feel sorry for myself forever, so without any real plan or idea of where to go or what to do I climbed through the hole and out into the desert. Compared to how I thought it was going to feel to walk through a desert in reality it wasn't that bad, although I suspect it had more to do with my new body than anything else, it was probably really hot out here but I didn't feel much warmer than I did in the ship, and even after hours of walking I wasn't feeling tired or thirsty, probably my new biology, it seems being a Genestealer had some perks. While I was walking I tried to use my second set of arms but it was far from easy, of course the hive mind had left the body with knowledge of how to use them but my human mind was getting in the way of things once again. But over the hours I got better at using all of my six limbs rather quickly, that's another thing I noticed, I was feeling more alert like my thoughts were going faster and I was more aware of my surrounding, if I focused I could hear the scampering of little creatures as they crawled through the sands, I could smell them too and also where they've been, the hive mind really tried to make the Genestealers apex predators it seems.
Time passed and the sun of this planet began to dip below the horizon and night settled over the desert, as the stars began to show themselves I looked up at the sky in wonder, it was beautiful. The stars were bright and vibrant and the planet had three moons orbiting at different positions in the sky, it was truly breathtaking. But as I was watching the sky my ears picked up a sound drawing near, I turned around just in time to watch a large beast jump at me, instinct took over and I dodged out of the way and the beast soared to the side of me, I struck out with my two larger arms as the thing went by and scratched large gouges into the beasts side, the claws of a Genestealer could cut through Space Marine armor with relative ease so whatever this beast had for armor counted for nothing. The thing let out a cry as it's flesh was torn and blood spurted from the wound onto the sand, it was now wary and slowly began to circle me as I kept facing towards it. It was a strange creature reminiscent of a tiger, although it was covered in a carapace you'd think would belong to an insect, it also had two large tusks coming from its face, likely used to gouge its prey. I tried to rush forward and claw at the thing but compared to the doge I performed a few seconds earlier this wasn't driven by instincts and I ended up tripping myself, 'fuck!' I thought as the creature pounced at me, I rolled onto my backside and held up all my arms, thankfully the carapace on them protected me from any really damage. I then used the claws on my feet to dig up into the armor-less underside of the beast and I felt as it's blood rushed out and soaked my legs as the thing yelped in pain, I pushed it off as it's assault weakened and it lay there slowly bleeding out, I decided to end its suffering so I took my arms and snapped its neck.
Now with that threat taken care of I had another thing to think about, I needed to eat didn't I? Well I guess there's a meal right here in front of me then, and who knows when's the next time I'll get a chance to eat anything, even though I know that fresh raw meat isn't dangerous and I doubt a Genestealer could be killed by something as mundane as food poisoning the idea of putting the flesh of what was essentially a giant insect tiger into my mouth and body was, uncomfortable. 'Though I don't have much of a choice do I.' With that thought I grabbed the beast turned it over onto its backside and began to tear at the things abdomen, it wasn't as bad as I had thought, it may not have been anything like a grilled steak or anything, but it didn't taste bad, just kind of bland. After eating my full I once again got up and continued to wander before any other things out in the desert arrived to the body, fatigue still had yet to set in and with the meal I was feeling fine, which made no sense even with my limited knowledge of biology, being that you use a somewhat sizable amount energy to digest food, but then again, I'm not sure how much the Tyranids care about the laws of biology because large things like hive tyrants should be energy consuming as all hell to merely keep alive much less fight with, and don't even get me started on how much energy a bio form the size of a spaceship would take.
On more serious matters as I crested a dune in the distance I spotted something I didn't think I'd be seeing for a long time, water, specifically a large river surrounded by green, it looked kinda like how I heard the Nile looked like, of course I never got to actually see the Nile, my jobs pay made sure of that. I tried to remain stealthy as I neared the flowing river, trying to be wary of any more of those beasts that may be lurking about, but it looked to be clear as I approached, I entered the undergrowth and soon got to the river bank, I was wary of it for a bit until I remembered that there happen to be trees all around me, and the water is flowing, so it should be safe and mostly uncontaminated, not too mention being a Genestealer and all that. I took my smaller set of hands and dipped them in the water, then brought it too my mouth and drank deeply, I may not have really been thirsty yet but it had been who knows how long since I got a drink of water after getting brought here so it felt great nonetheless.
Over the next few hours I walked along the riverbank and following where it went downstream, sometimes I thought I caught a glimpse of something in the undergrowth but nothing tried to fight me again. The river was slow and peaceful, it was nice to watch to the point where I almost hit a few trees as I walked, while I was walking I also tried to get more practice with using all my limbs at once, it wasn't easy and I tended to trip myself up for a while but I was slowly getting the hang of it although it would take a lot more practice before I could be considered "good" at wielding all six of my limbs. Slowly the sun came up from under the horizon and once again shone down on this world with warmth that would soon enough turn into oppressive heat.
As I was practicing I suddenly heard a sound I soon recognized as humming, for a second I was confused until I looked out on the river and saw a boat coming upstream being propelled by a middle aged man with a paddle, he was wearing a roughly made outfit that consisted of a shirt made from some cheap material, the edges were frayed and it looked like it was slowly coming apart, same with his leg wear. I quickly dived into the undergrowth to try to avoid being seen, because if I was seen things were going to become very bad very quick. I slowly slunk through the undergrowth away from the river and walked on the other side of the green patch away from the river and though, 'So this planet is inhabited, maybe there's a town or even a city nearby.' As much as I might dislike it the best way for me to be safe would be to form a Genestealer cult, to do that I would need people, and a place where semi often disappearances can go unnoticed, so a city would be great.
For a couple more hours I walked along until I crested another dune and finally saw what I was hoping for in the distance, a city, it was on a peninsula where the river I was following met with another river, it was quite large probably host to good amount of people, perfect for a place to remain undetected. The city looked to be made out of limestone with a wall blocking off the peninsula, I guessed there were housing for the citizens behind the walls, and then further back in the city palaces rose above the walls, it truly was a beautiful city, that soon was going to become host to a fearsome infection.