The Grendel is a new brood of the Garm of the Extinction Fleet.
Biology[]
The Grendel had traits of a giant centipede and snake. It had an undulating body that was a pale sickly color and layered with pulsing rolls of mucus covered flesh. On it’s back and shoulders bristled with hundreds of twitching spines and its sides were festooned with several pairs of claw tipped, disturbingly humanoid arms.
It had a serpentine tail comprised of many sections of interlocking chitin, with a meter-long blade of razor-sharp chitin was attached to thick torso equal to the size of a WarGarm. It was covered in spiny appendages and had strange frills jutting up from its back. However its face was a maw of tendrils and hinged pincers, reptilian and insectoid features it shared with the other Garm.
The Grendel was a relatively new breed of Garm. One designed to circumvent the advantage of the Einherjar that allowed them to revive after death.
Grendel initially acted as the forward observer in the Garm ground forces z they targeted high ranking Einherjar. After kill their targets and destroying, the skull opening it they would then vacuum the contents.
Given the selective feeding, by a new Garm organism it represented the first time that the swarm has evolved rather than adapted. What makes them so deadly is that Grendel have the ability to permanently kill Einherjar.
They achieve this my injecting their victims with a venom that interferes and perhaps permanently prevents the mind’s ability to accept rebirth. Even when a Einherjar brain waves are passed through the torc, the trauma stays with them on a genetic level, causing a backlash that kills the brain when in mind is transferred to a new body.
Source[]
- Extinction Fleet 1: Space Marine Ajax by Sean Michael Argo