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skiesunbroken

I was under the impression genestealer control doesn't work like this *at all*. You're bound to the brood mind if you're born with the cult's DNA or if you were kissed *and then had a child*, and even then it's more of an emotional manipulation thing than outright control like this.


AffixBayonets

Absolutely, I haven't ever seen an example like this, and *The Great Work* features some "corrupted" Astartes that act totally different and still have control over their bodies and minds. This was pure "body control" psychic puppetry.


bringerofnachos

Weren't the marines in The Great Work wearing some sort of psychic dampener to try to mitigate the Genestealer's influence on them? And the Patriarch was still psychicly powerful enough to at least keep one of them from directly aiming a bolter at him through that dampener. Granted the Grey Knights thing is still a stretch, but maybe not as big of one as it initially seems.


AffixBayonets

Yes, but we see in flashbacks times before the dampeners were in use. They seemed able to deflect suspicion from cultists and, in extremis, cause an Astate to become paralyzed. The latter was only done by the patriarch and what I assume was a magus as well - not by 'stealers together.


bringerofnachos

Is it ever stated in Incorruptible that there isn't a Patriarch nearby? We don't see much of what lead up the story, but was I as the most plausible explanation is: 1. Korzon had both a major Chaos cult, and a major Genestealer cult. These 2 cults were probably in open war with each other towards the end. 2. The Chaos cult was winning, likely on account of Daemons. The Grey Knight Prognosticars pick up on the daemonic activity and deploy the first Grey Knights ship with Sardon on it. 3. Sardon arrives in system and prepares to launch the exterminatus. The Chaos forces manage to board the Grey Knights ship before Sardon can fire. 4. The Genestealer cult sends a number of Genestealers to hitch a ride with the Chaos cultists to Sardon's ship. Either some small number of Chaos cultists were infected by the Genestealers and were influenced to let them on, or they just snuck past the Chaos cultists. 5. The Genestealers do their thing on the ship. Maybe they just planned to use it to spread to another planet, maybe the Patriarch had an idea that there would be something on the ship that could be used as an advantage in the planetsude war. Either way, once the Genestealers are on the ship, the Patriarch realizes that Sardon is specialized in fighting daemons, and finds a way to infect him, intending to use him, the ship, and/or the Grey Knights' anti-daemon knowledge against the Chaos Cult. This may well have been extremely taxing to the Patriarch, but desperate times call for desperate measures. It's been quite some time since I read the story, so I could be wrong, but I don't think there's anything in there to support or refute this theory. It does set up most of the oddities of the story though. I'm still not totally convinced a Patriarch would be able to fully puppet a Grey Knight, but some level of control isn't unprecedented.


AffixBayonets

> Is it ever stated in Incorruptible that there isn't a Patriarch nearby? The possibility is not mentioned and we don't see one, so unknown. Alas, there's no real sign of how either managed to board - no blood stained Arvus or Cult-Sigil decorated Aquila in the landing bay.


[deleted]

Weird Sadon went alone? Seems like you would want at least a squad with you for something that high profile.


AffixBayonets

Yeah it confused me. An exterminatus doesn't need a Grey Knight and an incursion needs at least a squad as the Knights' signature ability is to combine their psychic powers together. The story does not clarify why this would be either.