Nexos

A Nexos is a specialised Genestealer hybrid who serves as a Genestealer Cult's consummate military strategist. A Nexos possesses the psychic ability to absorb the memories and perceptions of any member of the cult's Broodmind. They combine this data with the intellectual ability to read the ebb and flow of battle in such a way as to identify the enemy's vulnerabilities and shift the cult's military resources to take advantage of them.

Role
Coordinating the billions of indoctrinated souls involved in a planet-wide cult uprising is a task that even a Genestealer Patriarch cannot oversee alone. To ensure that this immeasurably complex task does not fail, the sire of the cult seeds unique hybrid bioforms with a fraction of his cerebral might.

Nexoses act as the cult's central nervous system. They are granted strange, psychometric powers that allow them to absorb the memories and consciousness of organisms linked to the cult's Broodmind, processing that sensory data into a steady stream of strategic instructions and deployment orders.

By laying their hands upon the skin of a creature that carries the Genestealer taint, a Nexos can absorb that individual's memory. In a rush of flashing images and tactile sensations, the strategist witnesses every event of the subject's life, every bullet fired and every winding kilometre of underworld terrain traversed. Such is the Nexos' formidable cerebral power that they can compartmentalise millions of these mental imprints inside their brain, building an incredibly complex three-dimensional view of the battlefield.

This process is draining for both subject and initiator, for the human body -- even one infused with xenos DNA -- is not meant to channel such potent neural processes. The Nexos is physically worn and weathered by the strain, flesh growing pallid and veins pulsing agonisingly in their temples.



Yet they do not offer a word of complaint or shy away from their task, for they are utterly assured of the righteousness of their actions. By analysing and interpreting every subtle ebb and flow of battle, a Nexos can identify vulnerable positions for their kin to exploit, pointing out potential flanking routes and subterranean passages perfect for arranging sudden ambushes. Opposition commanders -- especially those of the upper echelons of the Astra Militarum -- all too often dismiss cultist uprisings as the disorganised violence of the underworld rabble, unable to glean the true cunning of their foe's actions.

With a single, daring manoeuvre the Nexos can disprove this notion, turning the tables on their enemies to encircle and pick them apart piecemeal. Where the Primus is bio-crafted to perform the role of front-line general, granted extreme strength and resilience so that he may engage the enemy blade-to-blade, the Nexos is the equivalent of a rear echelon officer: a field marshal directing thousands, even millions of soldiers with each vox communication.

Nexoses rarely emerge from their hidden strategium lairs unless they require a first-hand view of the engagement, and to absorb the memories of troops at the front. In such rare situations they will always be accompanied by some of their gene-sect's fiercest fighters: Acolyte Hybrid bodyguards, squads of Neophyte Hybrid infantry or even an impenetrable wall of flesh in the shape of hulking Aberrants.

Nexoses are often seen in the company of a Clamavus communications specialist, for together the two can achieve a fearsome synchronicity. As the Nexos calculates odds and complex strategies in the blink of an eye, the Clamavus relays the matrix of tactical instructions to the coils of the insurrection, allowing the mass of the cult to counter the enemy's tactics with blinding speed.

Wargear

 * Autopistol