Warhammer 40K: The Parasite of Mortrex
There’s one horrifying Tyranid organism that can spawn an army for deadly Ripper Swarms: The Parasite of Mortrex.
The Parasite of Mortrex is a bat-winged Tyranid creature the size of a Tyranid Warrior. It has a barbed tail tipped with a hollow tube, like a snake’s fang, capable of implanting its still-living victims with Ripper parasites. Within moments after a sting, or even as short as a few heartbeats, the Ripper parasites mature and devour their hosts from the inside out.
Parasite of Mortrex History
The Parasite of Mortrex was first encountered on the Imperial Fortress World of Mortrex in the Ultima Segmentum. The solid Imperial Guard defenses held back the Tyranid invasion for days. On the tenth day the Parasite first attacked. Each victim it claimed added to a swelling horde of Rippers. Soon after it’s arrival only armoured units dared to leave the fortress walls.
Unfortunately for the defenders even tanks couldn’t withstand the massive numbers of Rippers. Two weeks later the planet was completely overrun by vast Ripper Swarms. A single transmission was sent out as the planet fell warning of the Parasite of Mortrex.
To this day rumors and whispers of the Parasite of Mortrex circulate within the Astra Militarum. Whenever Guardsmen engage the Tyranids they keep a sharp eye on the skies — just to make sure.
Bio-Origins
The Parasite may be a mutated or evolved organism derived from the flying Ripper (Sky-slasher) gene-line. It has the ability to infect a host creature and lay eggs of another Tyranid species. This attribute points to abilities seen in both Genestealers and Rippers.
Rippers
They are the most numerous of Tyranid creatures. In great swarms they can pull down and consume creatures many times their own size. However, they are completely mindless and will perish if they lose a synaptic link with the Hive Mind.
During the final stages of a planetary invasion Rippers scour the entirety of a planet. They start ingesting all biological material and leave only an empty and desolate wasteland. Eventually, the Rippers will become bloated full of biomass. Subsequently this makes them unfit for combat. At this point, they simply crawl into Reclamation Pools. There they and the biomass they’ve fed upon are broken down and absorbed by the Hive Fleet. Rarely in some cases they might be evolved to perform higher functions depending on the genetic material they have absorbed.
In certain instances, hive ships have been driven away from a world, leaving Tyranid ground forces isolated. Rippers appear to respond to such circumstances by burrowing below ground and metamorphosing into higher life forms. This has led many among the Magos Biologis to believe that Rippers are an immature form of the prime Tyrancii genus. This would mean they are theoretically capable of gestating into any kind of Tyranid creature with the right impetus from the Hive Mind, from Hive Tyrants to Hormagaunts.
It’s back and still just as nasty as ever.
