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Title says it all.

On a side note, I recently got Space Hulk Deathwing and I really enjoy it.

Genestealers are parasitic life forms. The probably board ships a bit like alien xenomorphs. Idiots found eggs on a planet, got infected, slowly starte to turn into a genestealer, infected other members of the crew and then some people at various ports until one of them set foot on a hulk where they decided to build a nest. Hulks are very large and attract a lot of visitors for they can hide riches. That's my best bet. Else, they could be pure genestealers from a nearby hve fleet that were sent on a hulk as scouts via one of their organic drop pods.

Genestealers are just like from the movie 'Alien'. Except, they can infect anyone with just a few microbes of touch and eventually they will birth an alien/sorry genestealer.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
Title says it all.

Life... uh, finds a way.

I know they can also go into a hibernation state that allows them to surface the cold vacuum of space, so unlikely Xenomorphs, shooting them out an air lock doesn't kill them.
They don't have to "board" a ship, but can instead latch onto the underside of one.
Then if is lands on a palnent with favorable conditions, they "unfold" and go hunting for life-forms to infect.

-

And beyond just the genestealers themselves, they can drop a few hybrids off to fornicate in back allies until they start popping out new genestealers who then go on to infect more things.

Space hulks specifically have been called out in the past as being sought out by the hive mind and seeded with genestealers if I remember the 2nd ed codex right.

With a can-do attitude is how they do it!

(Which was brilliantly said in a similar thread)

There are a few ways:

1) The Hive fleet finds an abandoned Hulk and seeds it with some genestealers which then lay in wait.

2) The ship escapes a world under Tyranid invasion carrying with it at least one infected person. At some point that person spreads the infection through others in the ship and opens the airlocks - killing the crew and then laying in a dormant state to await rescue to begin it all over again

3) Some Tech Priest decides to conduct experiments on Tyranids in space - gets infected and it spreads.


Basically the Hive wants to create and infect Space Hulks for two key reasons. First its a great way to infect other major ships in space and take them and their crews down without having to risk direct battle.
Secondly its a great way to infect a ship and then await rescue in the hope of infecting a working ship; then having those infected unwittingly carry the infection home.


Genestealers essentially shift between two states- that of an aggressive and powerful attack unit designed to kill and maim; and that of an insurgent who wants to make it to a planet, found a cult, twist and weaken the world and its people and then call a hive ship to come and devour the world.

There is also the other option that an infestation on a ship takes out the Navigator whilst in the warp and the ship drifts until it crashes it another ship or an existing hulk and the brood expands into the available space, or simply stays dormant waiting for the inevitable exploration party.

From fluff I have read Genestealers are from microbes, can be anything attached to anything (it gave them the best narrative license to be anywhere eventually) Is the worst the hook, but is the best thing for a narrative based game/player game


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Spectral Ceramite wrote:
From fluff I have read Genestealers are from microbes, can be anything attached to anything (it gave them the best narrative license to be anywhere eventually) Is the worst the hook, but is the best thing for a narrative based game/player game

Bad writing to use that but it is what it is



Automatically Appended Next Post:
The video game is fun if playing that (or guy who started it is promoting it, it is fun. Reality not so much)

That's... Different. It used to be specifically ovipositors. They had to stick their 'tongue' in to infect a host with their DNA.

Happily, they mind wiped the infected of that sloppy wet kiss and just left an imperative to start a family.

The Genestealer life cycle involves sending out purestrain genestealers to hitch rides from other sentient races space vessels. Space Hulks are treasure troves for most races out there, so eventually a ship that a genestealer is hiding on will dock with a space hulk. The genestealer will instinctively swap ships because it is trying to migrate and thats how they get aboard.

Space Hulks are sort of dead ends for the Genestealers, since they only randomly travel across the galaxy and not always to a place with lots of space faring sentient life forms, but they'll still set up shop with any life that does inhabit the hulk and basically be a ticking time bomb for anybody who boards the hulk.