Barbed Strangler

Barbed Stranglers are a Tyranid Bio-Weapon. When Tyranids first did battle with the Imperium of Man, the Barbed Strangler was in fact the name of the projectile itself. This version held seeds that began within a seed pod the size of a man's fist, which was fired through a simple muscled tube. This pod was fired at such a powerful velocity that it could pierce armor, where it activated due to the warmth now surrounding the seed, indicating that the weapon itself was cooled on the inside. This seed grew at an exponential speed, and within seconds a number of tendrils would shoot through the body of the victim and tear it asunder. Upon full development the now-blood red tendrils began to lash out of the victim at nearby foes, at the same time spreading in all directions. This version of the strangler seemed to have no body as such but was still a creature, bearing some similarities to terrestrial xenomorphs. It would use up its energy within moments and thereafter would fall dormant. However the initial burst of growth was easily enough to destroy anything it impacted, including vehicle armor assuming it could find a suitable chink in said armor. Even should a victim survive the attack, they would become helpless, having become bound by the steel-hard tendrils.

However, this version of the Strangler was eventually scrapped by the Tyranids, likely because it was not enough to defeat the Imperium of Man and consume the galaxy as a whole, and their bio-mass was used to create a new generation of the weapon. This new version is a fairly simple weapon consisting of a seed sac attached to a muscled tube, similar to the original weapon. However, this version differs from the original in that the weapon seems to heat up when it fires a seed, causing the seed to begin growing as it moves through the barrel. Upon its actual launch from the weapon it grows even further, now in all directions, and reaches its maturity within only seconds as before. This new version then sends out hooked tendrils to bind and tear apart its prey. While still possessing similarities to some ground-based xenomorphs it is in fact a sapient alien flora.