Alienhunters
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Alien hunting! Alien hunting! — Patrick Star
My enemy is not human... my enemy is less than a human! Since the earliest dawning of mankind, this is the battlecry! It just happened to be more literal in my case. — The Major
The Alienhunters are the branch of the Inquisition that, unsurprisingly, hunts aliens. They are properly known as the Ordo Xenos.
In addition to highly-trained Inquisitors and access to the best soldiers and technology of the Imperium, the Ordo Xenos has no Chamber Militant. Sometimes they work with the chapter called the Deathwatch, composed of the best alien-hunters from all the Space Marine chapters, but usually they don't. While the other Ordos often field whole armies of soldiers devoted to their causes, the Alienhunters often seem to prefer a small team basis, as their missions are often more information/objective grabbing or specific target elimination rather then whole-scale war-ranging. Should a situation arise that requires more manpower, the Inquisitor in charge of the team usually points a few Imperial Guard regiments and a space marine chapter in the right direction.
Seems to be the most overall level-minded of the three main Inquisition branches mostly because they don't work with brain rotting chaos. This might be also because the alienhunters often deal with at least semi-civilised foes (Who sometimes even work with them!) compared to the others dealing with madmen, although you might get your head blown off if you point this out.
The Xenos Enemy
The Enemy Without, the Xenos that assault mankind are every bit as varied and unpredictable as the minions of Chaos can be. Ranging from civilised races every bit if not more advanced (HERESY!) than humanity who compete for the galaxy, to primitive but effectively brutal murdering hordes to psychic xenos that invade from the realm of Chaos, the alienhunters must be prepared to face all of these threats.
Here is a concise list of the many threats of the Enemy Without that the Imperium faces. Learn well young apprentice and guard yourself against their predations:
- Eldar: Sneaky, impossibly arrogant space elves. They are known to try to twist humans into their pawns. They come in a variety of sub-races which is even more a headache as you can't tell if they are going to greet you, dance for you, ignore you or torture you right off the bat. Learn how to distinguish them, as on occasion they may be willing to work alongside humanity against a more dangerous enemy. However, like Dragons in Shadowrun, never ever fucking cut a deal with them unless you want to suffer horribly a couple of years later.
- Tau: Blue skinned, hoofed weeaboo space communists who dare to think the Emperor's domain is theirs for the talking! (on the bright side they happen to be on of the easier races to get along with on a temporary basis). The worst case scenario is they somehow persuade an older race to a long term alliance which means VERY bad news for humanity.
- Tyranids: Space locusts who spend half their time trying to devour the Emperor's worlds and the other infecting his subjects.
- Orks: Dumb as rocks--or rather more accurately, Fungus--but at least they don't infect anyone with their spores....yet. But they do have numbers on their side, as well as fully automatic fire. They love to fight...EVERYTHING, even themselves.
- Hrud: No one knows what they truly look like, as they are always psychically shrouded in darkness. They start to twist space and time when gathered in large numbers.
- Umbras: Blobs of living darkness who defy what few laws of physics 40k pays any heed to.
- Kroot: Expert warriors who can direct their evolution by eating you. Often hires themselves out as mercenaries to other races, mostly to the Tau, but sometimes to the Imperium.
- Vespid: Flying bat-bug hybrids with an affinity towards crystal-based weapons technology. Allies of the Tau with whom they communicate via telepathic headgear.
- Necrons: Ancient robot-zombie aliens, the Mechanicus get strangely aroused by them....begin heresy investigation!
- Slaugth[1][2]: Horrific swarms of maggots arranged in the shape of men and clad in reaper like hoods wielding extremely advanced and non-warp based technology who sow disorder by offering the greedy some technology in exchange for favors, all so that they and their legions of genetically engineered freaks can have an easier time eating you later.
- Rak'gol: Extremely violent raiders with a fetish for cybernetics, radiation, and extremely ugly looking machinery.
- Fra'al: Hyper advanced marauders who have only shown us the least of what their tech can do, and said tech blows right through Void Shields and Holofields.
- Thyrrus: A species of performance artist squid blobs with extremely weird technology that is used in strange ways, make use of nonsensical tactics made for as much drama and spectacle as possible, and flash pretty colours.
- Q'Orl: Bug people of the more Ender's Game than Starship troopers variety. They don't have faster than light travel yet, but they're working on it.
- Saruthi: Asymmetrical aliens with crazy biology, hands that turn into faces, and ice lasers. May also be tainted by chaos.
Possibilities of heresy
Like with the other ordos there is a high possibility of heresy corruption in the alienhunters. Prolonged contact with alienkind can alter the perceptions of the Inquisitor and make them think the xenos aren't all that bad; sometimes, they may even openly question the necessity of destroying them. Some Inquisitors become attracted by Xenos technology and start trafficking it to get their hands on it. Others become the tools or agents of Xenos cleverer or who have stronger psychic powers then their own.
The threat of biological corruption is a particular worry. There are many xenos diseases in the galaxy and some xenos even breed through infecting other species. Look no further to Genestealers for example and all the particular horror revolving around them and how they spread.
There is at least one known case of the Eldar of Ulthwe having a pact with an Inquisitor cell of the alienhunters for mutual assistance/information. And there have also been several cases of Inquisitors..."fraternizing" with the Eldar, usually by Radicals who argue that "well they look human enough and they enjoy it just as much as we do, if not more". And to be fair, they do have a point.*BLAM* Heresy!
Gideon Ravenor, famed Inquisitor of the Ordo, was known to be in contact with the Eldar and even to address in them in an honourable fashion, quite unlike the usual gung-ho attitude any servant of the Emperor should rightly assume with the dirty xenos.
Oh where, where is my codex?
They were supposed to get a Codex like the Daemonhunters and Witch Hunters (which were First and Second Books of the Inquisition, respectively), but the Sisters of Battle got split into their own White Dwarf army list, and the entire Inquisition got folded into the new Grey Knights. The alienhunters often seem to get diddled by GW for no good reason, perhaps because they don't want their glorious high end selling Grey Knights to have some competition.
