The deadly Tyranids

[CrazyD]

The Tyranids have many different species. They can be catagorized into 5 seperate catigories. If you want to read all this, sit down and stay awile, you'll be here for a while. (of coarse if your a fast reader, you'll be fine)

--Leaders:

Hive Tyrant-A hive tyrant is a gigantic, many limbed alien horror. As well as it's fearsome claws,fangs,and whip-like tail, a hive tyrant carries a variety of symbolic weaponry to deal death at close quarters and from afar. Hive Tyrants course with the potent psychic energy of hive mind, filling the minds of thier enemies with preternatural dread.(CrazyD is one of these)

Tyrant Guard -Tyrant Gaurds are living shields whose resistance to injury is amazing.Blind and ultimately controlled by the Synapse Creatures they protect, these half-sentient but ferocious creatures appear to have been bio-engineered specifically to counter anti-Tyranid combat techniques.

Broodlord-A product of the continual evolution of the Genestealer race, the Broodlord is the consummate hand-to-hand warrior. Lightning-fast and frighteningly strong, its diamond-hard claws can rip through steel as though it were silk. A Tyranid vanguard organism, swarms led by Broodlords often precede the main Tyranid advance, infiltrating enemy positions before launching a devastating assault on the elements of the enemy most dangerous to the main Tyranid army.

--Elites:

Tyranid Warrior-The Tyranid Warriors are amongst the most important Tyranids on the battlefield. Not only are they large and powerful fighters, but they also fulfil a pivotal role in Tyranid swarms. The warriors act as psychic resonators, amplifying the psychic bond of the Hive Mind and transmitting its power to the smaller, less receptive creatures around them. When the Tyranids begin to swarm, the Tyranid Warriors become the focal points of the Hive Mind. Like officers marshalling their armies, the Tyranid Warriors lead the lesser creatures into battle, directing their troops to their appointed stations in the greater plan.

Lictors-Lictors rove ahead of Tyranid ground swarms seeking out pockets of enemy resistance and native lifeforms to be absorbed. Often referred to by Imperial troops as Spooks or Mantis Stalkers because of their unnerving behavioural patterns and combat techniques, they are intelligent and possess highly developed sensory organs so they can see, smell, hear and taste their prey long before it becomes aware of their presence. Lictors appear to be a specialist mutation of Tyranid Warriors and are highly adapted to survival in hostile environments and a stalker/predator role. Stalking Lictors exude a pheromone trail which draws other Tyranid creatures in their wake. A larger concentration of prey stimulates a stronger pheromone response and brings a larger group of trailing Tyranids.

--Troops:

Genestealers-Genestealers are vanguard organisms for the Hive, created to seek out and undermine potential prey-worlds by infiltration. Genestealers are legendarily ferocious close combat opponents, with lightning fast reflexes and deadly claws, capable of ripping through the thickest of armour.

Termagants-The Termagant is agile, fast, cunning and deadly despite its small size relative to other Tyranids. Most commonly equipped with the basic fleshborer weapon symbiote, it is undoubtedly the most common species of the Gaunt genus and fulfils the role of common foot soldier in Tyranid swarms. Termagants have been known to be expended by the thousand merely to exhaust the defenders' ammunition prior to a major assault

Hormagaunts-The Hormagaunt is single-minded in its engineered purpose of closing with the foe and eviscerating it with its scythe-like claws. They are very fast and seemingly indefatigable, constantly moving in restless swarms that seem to be made of nothing but rippling claws and ridged armour plates. Appearing to be another manipulation of the Gaunt genus, this bio-form is more upright, with its two sets of upper limbs equipped with well-developed claws. Its lower legs are long and powerful, tucking up beneath the body when the creature is at rest but flicking out to drive it forward in a series of bounding leaps as it attacks.

Ripper Swarms-They move across its surface multiplying and consuming everything, leaving an empty and desolate wasteland. Eventually they are reabsorbed by the hive fleet and their biomass used to create more complex creatures. These short-lived organisms are extremely varied but the most common are known as Rippers. These are energetic and persistent, so are quite capable of pulling down creatures many times their own size.

Fast Attack

Raveners-Raveners are twisted, snake-like creatures which combine the worst elements of the Tyranid Warriors' powerful symbiote weapons with the unholy speed of Gargoyles. Vulnerable to heavy weapons fire, Raveners have evolved the ability to burrow through almost any substance with their spade-like scything talons. Sensing vibrations, they reappear in a spray of earth right in front of the enemy position, their thorax-mounted weapon-symbiotes spitting out death.

Gargoyles-Gargoyles are vicious winged monsters that are often the first parts of Tyranid swarms seen in battle. Their prime purpose seems to be seeking out the enemy and sowing terror and confusion amongst them. Thus, fire and the flap of the Gargoyles' membranous wings precede the Tyranid hordes, driving the enemy out into the open to be absorbed by the swarm.

Spore Mines-Tyranids often seed an area ripe for infestation with clusters of living bombs called Spore Mines. These drift down through the atmosphere to home in on heat sources and concentrations of movement. Should the tentacles of one of the cluster’s mines brush against a non-Tyranid life form, the entire cluster will detonate in a chain reaction that can obliterate everything around it in a storm of razor-edged shrapnel or hissing bio-toxins.

and last, Heavy Support

Carnifex-The Carnifex is a living engine of destruction evolved for use in shock assaults, spaceship boarding actions and massed battles where it can smash through almost any obstacle, whether it is a defensive line, enemy tanks or a fortified position. The assault of these creatures is terrifying to behold – a primeval force which smashes men and vehicles aside like children's toys.

Zonethrope-Rare even in the most recent iterations of Tyranid evolution, Zoanthropes are perhaps the strangest of Tyranid creatures. They are powerful psykers, apparently engineered from harvested alien lifeforms to form living conduits for the focussed power for the Hive Mind. So extreme is their development that their atrophied bodies and bulbous heads are entirely energised by psychic force. They can move only by psychically levitating themselves, drifting across the battlefield to rain bolts of incandescent power on the enemy or relay the synapse commands of the Hive Mind to its lesser beasts.

Biovore-In battle, Spore Mines are most often vomited from the maw of a genetically adapted war beast referred as the Biovore. The creature nurtures a clutch of Spore Mines inside its own body and launches them by a powerful muscle spasm.