Genestealer - Combat Capabilities: Genestealers do not rely purely on their deadly speed and razor-fine claws to defeat their enemies. They are possessed of considerable intelligence, comparable to that of Lupus fenrisii (Fenrisian Wolves), and are able to coordinate stealth tactics such as setting functional traps when hunting prey.It is postulated that they convey information telepathically since no other form of communication has been observed from them thus far. This "brood intelligence" is thought to be akin to the gestalt consciousness of the Hive Mind, only on a smaller scale. This enables the Genestealer brood to act as an autonomous unit, able to function light years away from the synapse control of the larger Tyranid creatures.Much of the Imperium's information on the combat abilities of the Genestealer has been supplied by the 1st Company of the Blood Angels Chapter. They have performed numerous expeditions into the depths of space hulks such as Spawn of Execration, Charybdis, Immeasurable Hatred, Sin of Damnation and Harbinger of Despair.Decorated with the Blood Star after his success in leading missions into the heart of two of the aforementioned hulks, Sergeant Lorenzo of the Blood Angels has filed comprehensive reports on the tactics used by these aliens and the lethal threat they pose.The Genestealer will not hibernate without in-depth familiarity of its surroundings, including the ventilation systems, sewers and other crawl-ways that permeate the space hulk's corridors. In this way they can use such knowledge to take advantage of unsuspecting victims, whose knowledge of the voidship's labyrinthine passageways are often woefully inadequate. This allows them to close incredibly rapidly, denying any opportunity to cut them down with ranged weaponry.Once the Genestealer is in close quarters, it utilises its incredibly durable claws on each forelimb, able to slice through bulkheads and cut through the thickest armour. Combined with the awesome strength afforded by the efficiency of the Genestealer's musculature, it is quite feasible for a Genestealer to rip its way through the side of a Chimera and get to the troops inside. Any returning survivors of a Genestealer attack are inevitably heavily armed, forewarned and well-trained, or have become a host carrying purestrain seed.Although the characteristic claws of the Genestealer are its primary weapons, certain variations in the xenomorph's form have been reported across the galaxy. Long, stabbing talons occasionally replace the Genestealer's secondary limbs, and several specimens have been found on Ork-infested space hulks with thicker carapaces. In 234.921.M41, a captured Genestealer was discovered to carry virulent, inorganic poisons and haemotoxins in sac-like pouches on its arms.Another known genus can shoot thick, barbed strands of sinew into their victims to keep them from moving freely as the Genestealer closes in for the kill. These "flesh hooks" are dispatched from the ribcage by a sharp intercostal muscle spasm, and can also aid the xenomorph in climbing walls and other vertical surfaces. Presumably these traits are either inherited in part from the host species, or bioengineered by the Tyranid Hive Mind in its eternal quest for ever more deadly soldier-organisms.