Genestealer Cult - Cult of War: From the moment the first Genestealer hybrid is born, the newborn cult begins preparing for a world-spanning war of insurrection. There are other factors that can trigger a large-scale military intervention, sometimes before the dynasty reaches critical mass. Woe betide those who derail the cult's master plan, for its warriors strike serpent-fast, and their vengeance is terrible.Genestealer Cults are concerned with their own propagation above all, and will usually only commit to an armed action on their own terms. There remain exceptions, of course, for in the crumbling edifice of the Imperium, even the most watertight plans do not last long in practice. Each ruction, setback or disaster is handled in its own fashion. On occasion, an incautious power-grab or roving aberration may lead to the cult being investigated by Imperial authorities.If an inquest from the Adeptus Arbites -- or worse still, the Inquisition -- cannot be dealt with by a visit from the Magus or his minions, the cult may soon find itself under attack by anything from a regiment of Militarum Tempestus soldiers to a strike force of Deathwatch Space Marines. Though this calibre of attack can eradicate a Genestealer Cult in a scouring that shakes the underworld to its core, all it takes is for one Tyranid lifeform to escape and the cult can begin anew.Such purges are uncommon, for the cult spreads its infection in the shadows -- and amidst the vast, sprawling confusion of the Imperium, there are millions of locations where one cannot be easily discovered. With the cult's members inducted from the indigenous populace, they have countless advantages. Those recruited from the underbelly of society are already wise to the best places to hide, whereas those from the upper echelons have influence enough to cover their tracks with ease. Over time, the cult spreads its creed from one stratum of Imperial civilisation to another. A mature cult with several brood cycles will have everything from sewerjacks, factotums and autoproctors to high justices and spirelords under its sway.On the day of uprising, all the infected members of a planet will act as one, bound to the cause of destabilisation and sabotage as the shock troops of the cult take out the military targets they have proven unable to infiltrate. This broad-spectrum attack has proven utterly devastating on hundreds of Imperial worlds; so prepared were the insurrectionists that, in places, the planet's infrastructure was turned on its head and then dismantled entirely in a matter of solar days.The entire effort is painstakingly coordinated by each gene-sect's Nexos, whose simulations, tactical analyses and hololith-guided battle projections give their brethren a vital edge. In conjunction with a Clamavus, an expert in both the dissemination of information and the disruption of the prey's communications, the Nexos will convey their constantly adapting plans to the greater throng of cultists.Should something go awry, as it sometimes does when the Imperium's megalithic structure seeks to protect itself, it is the Nexos who drives the attack to victory along a different vector. Perhaps they will have to redistribute subterranean assets after hearing word from their Jackal Alphus lieutenant of a drop insertion force of Space Marines sent to stymie the cult's attack. Perhaps they will order their Rockgrinders to block the roads or demolish buildings in order to hold back the mass assault of a mechanised Sisters of Battle army.With curt orders and split-second decision-making, the Nexos will put into motion contingency plans and adaptive strategies that see the cult withdraw as one, only to strike elsewhere -- for they are linked, body and soul, far more than any conventional military force. On a wider level it is they who determine the optimum time for the cult to rise up in unforeseen circumstances; where its war leaders may deal in faith and fury, the Nexos' role is that of cold hard logic.The cult's Primus, being a war leader, has a more aggressive approach to the propagation of his kin. He will gather a hand-picked army from the parent cult, and then strike out to claim new worlds in the name of the Patriarch. Often this is done under the guise of industry, making use of existing space lanes and import routes to carry a host of Genestealer Cultists to a new planet.In the darkness of the cargo holds, shipment auto-crates will hiss open, and the Primus will lead his brethren forth. Should their incursion be uncovered, the cult will strike with swift and overwhelming force. If their assault does not take down their new adversaries in short order, they will scatter like oil-roaches in torchlight, seeking shelter in the dank corners of their new domain before later regrouping.There are times when a host planet is attacked by outside forces -- perhaps the target of a Hrud migration, a xenos pirate raid, a Greenskin WAAAGH! or even a Warp breach. Most cults, nestled in hiding, will be content to wait for the storm to pass. But if the invasion directly threatens their interests, they will fight like a hive of angered hornets to defend them. Such planets teeter on the brink of catastrophe, rescued from one alien warhost only to find their saviours embody another, far more sinister threat.Should all go well, the cult will wait with the patience of spiders for their moment, generation after generation spent in preparation for the final battle as they infect ever more territory. Once all is in order, the intricate web of secrecy is finally torn away, and the world is plunged into anarchy.When a cult rises up to conquer their host planet, it is usually because a Tyranid hive fleet has blackened the sky with the immensity of its bio-ships. The Genestealers and their Human and hybrid kin are united in a singular desire to slay, to cause havoc, to destabilise and spread terror to every corner of the planet. Every member that has felt the mind-kiss of the cult's progenitors feels it in their blood, a pulsing, desperate need to kill that has seen even lowly Neophyte Hybrids tear their victims limb from limb in a frenzy of semi-religious ecstasy. As the nightmare of the hive fleet's invasion descends, even a small cult can shatter a planet's defences.There are those worlds that are conquered by a Genestealer Cult far earlier, claimed by the Patriarch's dynasty when the Tyranids are still hundreds of standard years distant, or even not coming at all. This may be because their uprising was triggered prematurely, because they have simply run out of ways to spread beneath the radar of their enemies, or because their Patriarch senses psychically that the hive fleet that would have claimed them is now lost. As part of a wider onslaught divorced from its hive fleet, it will have to claim dominion through its own wiles.These are in some ways the most dangerous cults to the Imperium, for like a virus spreading to new host bodies, they actively sow the seeds of destruction across a far wider area in the hope of somehow reconnecting with their star gods. Using their homeworld as a base of operations, they replicate their successes by any means possible, sending stowaway organisms and covert invasion forces to every planet within reach. Whole star systems have been conquered by such cults, the beacon of their psychic presence all the stronger for the Tyranid hive fleets that will eventually arrive to consume all.The butchery the cult metes out upon its enemies on the day of their uprising is terrible indeed. Though the greater masses of these hordes are no more potent than a standard Planetary Defence Force, their sheer numbers and fanatical devotion make them a fierce prospect in a firefight. High-level threats will be ambushed with uncanny synchronicity, for the cult has laboured hard to ensure everything is in place.At the Patriarch's unheard psychic signal, the shock troops of the cult appear from crawlspaces, air ducts, grates and hidden trapdoors installed by infected work crews but never used before this moment. The Acolyte Hybrids who emerge to fall upon the commanders of the enemy hiss and shriek as they lay about themselves with weapon-like mutations.Those enemies who a Primus has designated an extreme threat -- those of the Adepta Sororitas or Adeptus Astartes, for instance -- are set upon by the Purestrain Genestealers of the cult's fifth generation, for they are the deadliest of all the cult's warriors save the Patriarch itself. Like a perfectly engineered machine of destruction, the cult strikes as one -- few indeed are the forces that can fight back.