Genestealer Cult - Classification and Dire Implications, M41: Ghosar Quintus Anomaly (680.M41) - Inquisitor Chaegryn of the Ordo Xenos investigates rumours of a hidden religion upon a mining planetoid, a "Delverworld," in the Ghosar System. He and his requisitioned Tempestus Scions report many anomalous findings before mysteriously reporting that all is well, that last missive followed by ominous silence. The Deathwatch investigate -- first with a small group of operatives, then, when they too go missing, in greater force. Chaplain Ortan Cassius of the Ultramarines hand-picks a team of elite operatives to form an Aquila Kill-team, and launches a hunt-and-destroy investigation. They find Ghosar Quintus' Great Pit entirely overrun by the Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor, the centre of a web of industrial infestations that spreads across the sector and beyond.A Single Seed (Unknown Date.M41) - The wreckage of the freighter Pegasine, destroyed by the Lance strike of an Ordo Xenos corvette, spirals through the skies of the Frontier World Hopefoster. Most of the debris burns up on entry, but the largest section lands more or less intact. After long solar weeks spent healing, a single Genestealer survivor awakens in the wreckage. It becomes the Patriarch of the Voidbrood, and after a Terran century of unfettered expansion, its cult rises up to overrun the planet entirely.The Gnarling (Unknown Date.M41) - Upon the Forge World of Ecovoria, the spider-like figure known only as the "Gnarling" becomes a popular bogeyman used to scare the manufactorum caste's children into obedience. Tragically, a kernel of truth lurks in the legend of a subterranean monster clad in a cloak of human skin. Ten generations after the first grand-mamzel tells her wards the Gnarling will steal them away, giant sinkholes appear across Ecovoria -- the secret tunnels burrowed under each forge complex were so extensive that entire portions of the planet's crust fall away. Black-limbed Genestealer Cultists boil out of each underground warren in impossible numbers, first ripping apart the Skitarii maniples sent to quarantine each sinkhole, then attacking the wider populace. Through the carnage stalks the Genestealer Patriarch that gave rise to the Gnarling myth, the leathery devotionals tied to its spine billowing in the winds of open war.The Greater Good Corrupted (Unknown Date.M41) - A lone Genestealer from Hive Fleet Gorgon reaches the T'au Sept World of Ksi'm'yen. The creature is captured by the planet's Earth Caste scientists and subjected to extensive analysis, resulting in a lowly worker being implanted with a measure of Genestealer germ-seed. The grotesque anatomies that spring up in the laboratories are seen as curious rather than blasphemous by the ever-inquisitive Earth Caste, for the T'au approach to alien life forms is founded on the concept of acceptance and tolerance. When the research divisions experience a bloody schism twenty Terran years later, the Fire Caste are called in, only to find many subterranean research facilities overrun. Ksi'm'yen is consumed by war, and quarantined for almost ten Terran years before the eccentric Ethereal Aun'ghol declares it productive and clean.The Sin of Damnation (589.M41) - Sergeant Lorenzo -- a gifted Blood Angels tactician –- leads two squads of Terminators to board the Space Hulk designated the Sin of Damnation. Within that legendary hulk the Blood Angels erase the shame of their Chapter's former defeat, releasing a poison throughout the behemoth that kills the tens of thousands of Genestealers slumbering in void-hibernation within its cavernous recesses. In doing so, the Space Marines prevent the vanguard organisms from spreading across the stars, eradicating thousands of potential cults before they have a chance to spawn.Xenos War (Unknown Date.M41) - A Genestealer Cult rises in the shadows of the Octarius Sector's Scrapworld Dakka. The Orks of Mount Mekaniak are impressed by the massive Gargant Clawbeast, a purple monstrosity of beaten metal built with six limbs. When the Vostroyan Firstborn descend to kill the planet's ruler, Gurnmek of the Iron Fist, Clawbeast is deployed to terrifying effect. The Vostroyans send in whole companies of Devil Dog tanks to carve up the Gargant, and succeed in stopping it in its tracks -- until the Gargant's great belly hinges open, spilling hundreds of Genestealers into the ranks of the Astra Militarum. They tear open the tanks and feast on the fleshy bounty within.The Vitria Strike (Unknown Date.M41) - Evidence of Tyranid infestation is uncovered upon the glasscrete world of Vitria. A platoon of Kappic Eagles takes battle to the Genestealers lurking within the shattered pane-habs. They engage the xenos broods in a battle that culminates in a desperate fight against a Tyranid Lictor. The beast is slain, and its lair examined in detail. Its walls are covered with doomsayer ravings -- phrases daubed in blood telling of numberless killers from beyond the stars, of death made flesh, and of a "Great Devourer." Amongst them was a single word repeated over and over -- "Cryptus."Beyond Salvation (Unknown Date.M41) - The dusty but adamantium-rich planet of Soharia becomes host to an infestation of the Cult of the Rusted Claw. Wide-roaming, they make little effort to conceal their growing influence. Planetary Governor Endst, loath to inform the proper authorities and hence invite a potential Exterminatus action upon his beloved world, resorts to drastic measures of his own. After arranging systematic bio-scans via his extensive collection of Servo-skulls, Endst takes great pains to sort those untouched by xenos gene-taint from those who may be compromised. He does so in secret, for news of a Genestealer Cult insurrection has reached him from the neighbouring world of Ghord Ninth, and he dares not trigger a full uprising just yet. Instead, those deemed genetically pure are gradually secreted in a network of underground bunkers, each locked with a cellular syringe system that keeps it inviolable against the alien. Then, when he is sure his core supporters are safe, Endst levels a systematic bombardment of hyperfusion missiles from his personal arsenal at all those cities he marks on his prized cartographs as "beyond salvation." The solar-week-long firestorms that follow raze the planet's surface, eradicating 99% of the populace. Only the hardiest and most resourceful escape the firestorms, but unfortunately for Endst, they include a great proportion of outrider cultists from the Rusted Claw. The years that follow, known as the "Dust Hunt," see those same outriders scour the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Soharia for the enclaves of pure-blooded humans forced to ride out the radiation of their own nuclear winter. One by one they are found, compromised, and corrupted by the agents of the Rusted Claw -- and within the solar decade, even Endst himself is converted to the cult's nihilistic creed.The Xenos and the Beast (Unknown Date.M41) - An infestation of the Rusted Claw finds it near impossible to move their Magus across the planet of Anacharos at anything faster than a walk. Their Magus' skin crawls with a high concentration of metallophage organisms, and any metal nearby instantly corrodes, rendering vehicles in his vicinity inoperable. Securing the aid of their allies in the Bladed Cog, they commission a succession of Departmento Munitorum crates made of plastic compounds that are just as hard as steel. With these they are able to spread the war leaders of their cult from one planet to another. When their Primus, the resourceful Fender Threnn, hears word of a nest of Ferro-Beasts in the long-forsaken Yimbo System, he uses the same Munitorum crates to capture the armadillo-like metal-eating monsters by the dozen. These he sets loose in the spaceports of Anacharos, causing utter havoc as the beasts go into a feeding frenzy amongst the richly appointed vessels. The distraction is used to full effect as the cult rises up against the rich upworlders -- who, when attempting to flee the planet, find many of their vessels already half-eaten.Bore Wars (Unknown Date.M41) - The Cult of the Four-Armed Emperor takes over the volcano-farming world of Thousandile in a single Terran year. Having been commissioned to "bleed" the lava rivers that are slowly cooking Thousandile's hive cities -- much as a medicae would use leeches to bleed a swollen limb -- the Trysst mining dynasty brings in hundreds of large industrial drills. At first, their work goes well -- or so it seems -- as the temperature in the hives drops to become bearable once more. Then, on what comes to be known as the "Day of Eruption," all of the geothermic tunnels overflow at once -- worse still, their level is swiftly rising. The reason for the rising tide of lava is secondary to survival. In their desperation, all the gangs within the hive move to higher ground, fighting their way into the upper spires and eventually overcoming the Spyrer hunters who attempt to repel them through sheer weight of numbers. Meanwhile, the cultists of the Four-armed Emperor take more and more of the hive for their own territory, and when the lava recedes, use aqua pipes and sluices to harden the metal of the main hive once more. Amongst the melted organic-looking labyrinths of the lower hives, a new order rises -- and this time, its deadly tides rise all the way to the top.A Single Shot (Unknown Date.M41) - The first Sanctus of the Twisted Helix, Astrid Xeneca, infiltrates a crowd of Imperial pilgrims upon Immortis IX. From the courtyard of the famed Ivory Basilicanum, she plants a dart from her serum needler in the jugular vein of the Arch-Cardinal Vidderminster just as he is mid-speech on his balcony. The needler, customised to fire a glass tube so thin it bypasses the Arch-Cardinal's electromagnetic saviour shield, delivers a potent cocktail of hypertrophic enzymes. Specially concocted by Xeneca's Biophagus brother, the enzymes go to work with astonishing speed. In front of a millions-strong audience of adoring Imperial faithful, the Adeptus Ministorum leader swells up like a balloon and bursts in a splatter of gore just as he is proclaiming the immunity of the pious man to the insidious scourge of the xenos. It is a blow to the political stability of Immortis IX that leads to the appointment of a new Arch-Cardinal from off world, new trade deals, compulsory medicae visits, and ultimately the New Wars of Faith that lead to the planet's downfall.Shadow of the Leviathan (997.M41) - Reports of a new and mighty Tyranid Hive Fleet emerge -- later designated Hive Fleet Leviathan. But the Leviathan moves into the galaxy not from one prime sector, as with Hive Fleets Kraken and Behemoth, but a dozen at once. A wave of insurgencies rises up across the Segmentum Solar. Hundreds of Genestealer Cults reveal themselves in the space of a single Terran month. The Deathwatch, spread too thin to halt these unforeseen conquests, seek help from the wider Adeptus Astartes -- but to no avail.Spawn of Cryptus (998.M41) - Soon after the Kappic Eagles' mission report from Vitria reaches the Commissariat, the Cryptus System is reinforced by Cadians, Sisters of Battle, and the Militarum Tempestus. The area known as the Shield of Baal -- that cordon of space that protects Baal, the homeworld of the Blood Angels Chapter -- is placed on a war footing not a moment too soon. The warnings found on Vitria prove prescient -- tendrils of Hive Fleet Leviathan reach out to consume every living thing in the overpopulated Cryptus System. As soon as the Leviathan splinter fleet's innumerable bio-ships pass through the icy shield of the Aegis Diamando, the corruption upon the capital world of Asphodex is revealed. The ruling family of Asphodex's principal metropolis has long been corrupted by the towering Genestealer known as the "Spawn of Cryptus," and its aristocracy work to undo everything the Astra Militarum has achieved. When a Blood Angels fleet from the neighbouring Baal System arrives to bolster the increasingly desperate defenders, Captain Arenos Karlaen of the Veteran Blood Angels 1st Company, "the Archangels," leads his brothers under the city in a series of escalating battles that eventually sees the Spawn of Cryptus slain and its vile brood scattered to the stars.Infestation and Plague (ca. 998.M41) - The Genestealer Cult Tenebrous finds itself becoming the infested, rather than the infesters, when their bulk lander is swallowed by a Warp Storm that strands them on the outskirts of the Garden of Nurgle in the Realm of Chaos. The cult discovers the true meaning of parasitism and horror. Eventually, the Grandfather of Plagues allows them to emerge into realspace once more, horrifically changed and ready to serve their new master's sickly agendas.Shadow of the Leviathan (ca. 999.M41) - Reports of a new and mighty Hive Fleet emerge -- not from one prime sector, as with Hive Fleets Kraken and Behemoth, but a dozen at once. A wave of insurgencies rises up across the Segmentum Solar. Hundreds of Genestealer Cults reveal themselves in the space of a single Terran month. The Deathwatch, spread too thin to halt these unforeseen conquests, seek help from the wider Adeptus Astartes -- but to no avail.A Deathly Gift (ca. 999.M41) - On the Agri-world of Cornucopia, a splinter fleet of the shattered Hive Fleet Behemoth triggers the rise of the Genestealer Cult known as the Starchosen. The Ultramarines 8th Company put down the insurrection at great cost, its massed Assault Marines taking their Chainswords to the Genestealers and their kin until none are left alive. Planetary Governor Udo Ingloriam sends a cargo ship full of brand new Goliath Trucks to Masali, Cornucopia's twin Agri-world within Ultramar's borders. Only after the vehicles are found to be full of Genestealers, sealed within antique stasis caskets to prevent detection, is Udo Ingloriam's treachery uncovered. The 8th Company returns to Cornucopia. This time, it is all but destroyed, for the Starchosen have grown strong indeed. On the orders of Ultramarines Chapter Master Marneus Calgar himself, the planet is designated Perdita and subjected to Exterminatus.The Wyrmslayers (999.M41) - A Genestealer Cult calling themselves the Wyrms of the Ur-tendril are discovered by Ordo Xenos agents, entrenched amongst the Nordafrik under-archives on Terra. Adeptus Custodes Captain-General Trajann Valoris refuses a request by the Deathwatch to send Kill-teams against this threat, instead leading the purge in person at the head of a huge Adeptus Custodes Shield Host. The cult put up a brutal fight, their sheer numbers and fanaticism allowing them to drag down one Custodian after another and tear them limb from limb. Yet for every one of the Custodians that falls, hundreds upon hundreds of malformed cultists and Aberrants are slaughtered. At last, Valoris himself beheads the monstrous Broodlord that ruled over the cult. He orders the creature's disturbing inner sanctum burned despite the protests from the Ordo Xenos investigators -- Valoris refuses to let anyone other than his comrades witness the foul mural that decorates the sanctum's back wall, of a nest of fanged tendrils emerging from the heart of Sol itself to devour Terra whole...