Ripper

Rippers (Latin: Minoris omniphagea) are a species of Tyranid bio-construct which appear in Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 universe.

Description
By far the most numerous of the Hive Fleet’s organisms, whilst Rippers vary in appearance, the most common configuration is that of a small (around two feet in length), armoured insectoid creature resembling one of the “chestbursters” from the Alien movie franchise. Possessed of a pair of frighteningly powerful jaws full of razor-sharp teeth, given time they are capable of tearing their way through almost any substance, a trait which gives them their name.

Function
Although Rippers can be found anyplace large numbers of Tyranid organisms take to the field, they are mainly employed as a literal mouth for the Hive Fleets. Unleashed upon a planet’s surface in seemingly-endless waves, Rippers will proceed to devour any and all of the world’s biomass; once full, they will subsequently make their way to the enormous “reclamation pools” where they, along with the matter they have consumed, will be digested in the acidic fluids contained within, and either re-spawned to continue their task, or transported to the orbiting fleet for processing by the Norn-Queens.

Occasionally, a planet will possess the military might to repel the Hive Fleet, and destroy any hordes left behind on its surface. In these instances the surviving Rippers, which are usually far too numerous to eradicate completely, will burrow beneath the surface and enter a form of suspended animation until such time as they can re-establish contact with the Hive Mind. In even rarer instances, these hibernating Rippers have shown the ability to spontaneously evolve into more advanced Tyranid constructs, although the triggers for this process are a complete mystery. However, it does lead some to speculate that Rippers are in fact the base form of every Tyranid organism ever created.

Stable Variants
Although Rippers can be genetically reconfigured by the Norn-Queens to stay viable on any type of planet, there exist a few variant strains which are recognisable enough to warrant a mention.

Sky-Slashers

 * Similar to the basic form, but with the addition of a pair of wings, these creatures have been used to assault worlds such as gas giants which host suspended mining and research platforms. In such cases, the defence batteries which are designed to combat hostile ships have little effect on hordes of smaller creatures which simply overwhelm them with weight of numbers.

Unnamed Aquatic Variant

 * A strain which somewhat resembles the terrestrial eel, these Rippers are designed to consume the aquatic biomass of a planet which would be otherwise unreachable to their cousins.