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I received my copy of Space Hulk in the post today, and found something rather odd when I examined one of the genestealer models...

Check out the skulls that this stealer is standing on:



Each of the people those skulls originally belonged to was killed execution-style with a single shot to the head. Why were these people rounded up and executed? Did this happen before the hulk was infected with stealers? Or in response to the spreading infection? Perhaps they were hosts, and were killed to stop the stealers from gestating? Who knows...

I think those are genestealer tongue-penetrations, as they poke a hole to suck out the lovely, lovely brains.

Who knew that Genestealers are actually zombies?!?

The ship's security could've also been infected and could have executed all the non-combat personnel, There could've been one or two Stealers or Hybrids running around causing paranoia and causing the Ship's Captain and some trusted crew to go around and execute everybody, etc... Endless reasons.

Really though, I think it comes down to the most obvious answer...

If Skulls are GRIMDARK, then Skulls with bullet holes through their foreheads are SUPERGRIMDARKSPACEHULKWORTHY

Suicide cult, so they would be able to feed their genestealer children. (conjecture)

Well the skulls are decapitated, so I'm assuming something Khornate jumped on it when it travelled through the warp.

metallifan wrote:
Really though, I think it comes down to the most obvious answer...

If Skulls are GRIMDARK, then Skulls with bullet holes through their foreheads are SUPERGRIMDARKSPACEHULKWORTHY

QFT.

While the tongue penetrations theory makes the most sense, the GRIMDARK theory is highly entertaining

Genestealers DON'T KILL their victims. They need them to live, to return home so that they pass on their taint to the next generation (first child produced afterwards will be a hybrid and so on). This is how 'stealer cults happen.

If a Deathwatch patrol came across the hulk, they would have killed all of the "blood brothers" (non-genetically tainted, but familial ties) as they would have defended the hybrids.

They do kill their victims... just not all of them.


Anyway, we went over this skull thing in the other thread. Genestealers are actually a peaceful race of space-faring aliens who happen to all suffer from OCD. This OCD requires them to stack skulls and helmets all the time. OCD is considered an aberration and akin to heresy in the Imperium, so the Space Marines are used to persecute the harmless and peaceful Genestealers.

I thought everyone knew this?

The old fluff (pre tyranids) had them loading up on spaceships with their hybrid decedents and families acting as crewman (since stealers themselves are not tool users), but that on the long voyages they would end up on the crew would die of old age leaving only the naturally immortal stealers who cannot man the ship left, hence it becoming another drifting hulk, until the next set of victims comes along.

So perhaps they find the skulls of their families comforting or worth keeping as keepsakes for some reason...

Jack

EDIT: although it is hilarious for someone named Morskul to be asking this question...