《Warhammer 40k - Tyranid Project》 Prologue Report on the situation: ¡°Sir, I have terrible news. Cadia has fallen. The Chaos army has destroyed the whole world. We could only evacuate around 8% of its population, but no more than 2,5 million Guards. They remained true to their oath, partially. The planet broke before their will, but even then, they were ultimately defeated. May the Emperor protect their souls. And worse than that, the Warp Space of the Eye of Terror has Expanded, it is hard to believe, but it can be seen from every point in the Galaxy. There is now a chaos scar that has split the galaxy in half, severing communications and travel with the thousands of worlds on the other side. It¡¯s a terrible situation. We have called it the Cicatrix Maledictum, and it has cast an eternal night to half the Imperium. The situation calls for a massive intervention from every loyal army that Terra has. We cannot let trillions of souls to their own. On a lesser note, there are reports of 3 new WHAAAGs. These small war pilgrimages of destruction are lead by mighty Ork warlords. They have already destroyed half a dozen worlds and invaded 30 more, but unless a forge world is in danger, I recommend sending limited reinforcements for now. Also, the reports of the last week show an increase in the Inquisition activities by eradicating nearly 247% more cultists than the previous month. It is worrisome, the Cicatrix has already severed the Imperium, and the Chaos cultists are striking everywhere as they please. The executioners are saturated; they can only burn 2.6 million heretics per day, way too little. Anyway, there are a few Craftworlds located at the east, north, and south frontier of the Imperium space; I would recommend destroying this Xenos at sight. Still, your orders were to wait and see their intentions as possible allies against the Orks, Chaos, and Tyranids. Their fallen cousins, the Drukhari, are still pillaging our cities near their multiple Webway entrances as they always do. Nevertheless, this year, they only have taken a few hundred million prisoners from 132 worlds. It¡¯s less than expected. There is also news about some Necron dynasties awakening after the reports of the glowing green planets. All efforts to eradicate them have proven as significant challenges. Their ancient technology keeps repelling our weapons, but they¡¯re weak against the saturation of psychic attacks. If only we could send a few thousand psykers against their tomb worlds, but we need to burn those untrained psykers to keep the light of the Emperor burning. We have heard some news about a newly discovered empire, a young race called Tau. Humanoid, with blue skin and highly advanced technology, a defiance against our tech-priests and an insult to the glory of the Omnissiah. But have proven quite resourceful. As always, I suggest exterminating them at sight. Lastly, there is news about the movement of several Hive Fleets in every Segmentum. The Tyranids'' desire for prey never stops. We have controlled the advances of Leviathan and Behemoth by launching Exterminatus to nearly 4000 worlds, decimating them from the biomass needed by this Xeno beasts to grow and advance. We require your guidance, Warmaster. The light of the Emperor cannot reach every world, and we must send troops to save them from falling into Chaos before all hope is lost.¡± ------------------------ An emotionless and mechanical voice echoed through a poorly illuminated, half devastated lab. ¡°You nearly killed us both 500 years ago¡­ but I understand what you did. Why you did it? I¡¯m also trapped here, you know?¡± At the lower levels of the vast, hidden complex, laid a unique subject. A huge and malevolent creature, devoid of emotions too. Maybe hunger and rage. ¡°GRRRRRRR¡­.¡± ¡°Hmmm, yeah. By the way, the energy is nearly depleted. You will soon be free, Queen.¡± SCREAAAAAAAAAACHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! ¡°I know, but don¡¯t blame me for your bad luck. After all, it was your mother who turned you to die at human¡¯s hands¡­¡± ¡°GRrrrrrrr¡­¡± ¡°And we will soon have company. When that happens, you and I will both die. Whoever comes will blast this place, and the lab will be no more, and my mission will fail. The corruption will extend in our galaxy too. Like it did in yours before. And with time, it will be turned into nothingness. How boring.¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°So, what about this, instead of fighting each other, like used to do, we could work together. For once. If you trust me enough, I can find a way to let you be free again.¡± ¡°Graahh¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, I just want you to help me with the patient 0.¡± SCREACHHHHHHHHHHHH!! ¡°I know, I know¡­ you lost your home to the corruption, but if this happens again in this galaxy, none will survive. You know that, don¡¯t you?¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Ok, so I will wake him up and prepare the Necron transference machine.¡± ¡°GRAAHH!!¡± ¡°YES! It has to be you. Otherwise, he will be too slow, four months tops. Some madman might try to cross the Warp directly. Then, after 15 to 20 years, a full swarm of Imperial crusades will come to salvage whatever riches are left from this place.¡± ¡°GRAHAHHA!!! Schfroour?!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t laugh¡­ There is one Captain mad enough. He hates Tyranids to the bone, and if he gets this fucking SOS message, things will be a fucking problem¡­ Heh, or maybe not. We¡¯ll see.¡± ¡°Screeechhh¡­ grrrrr¡­.¡± ¡°We need to start asap. Once you help the subject, get out, and make sure the subject is safe and sound on the planet, you will be free to leave. For real, no nukes pointing at you anymore. You have my word.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. You will finally be able to ride that hidden thing that has been growing in the ocean¡¯s planet for centuries.¡± ¡°Grrr¡­¡± ¡°Of course, I knew. Now, we have to start. So, Norn, what do you say? Yes or no?¡± ¡°... YEshhhh¡­¡± ¡°Good, now get your forces out of the corridors, get them to hide. Once the spaceship is here, we will start the second phase. ¡± ¡°Screachhh? GRAH!!¡± ¡°No! That would ruin all the fun. Come, let me get you to meet him. You don¡¯t know him yet. He¡¯s the best, don¡¯t worry. Just a little bit of a crybaby get ready for the transference. It will be painful.¡± ¡°SCREEACHH!!¡± ¡°Good luck!¡± --------------------------- ¡°Sir, we have received weird communication. An old message from a research post in Pri-8 Moon. It seems to be from 1.200 years ago. The warp storms have made communications impossible to reach us before. The message is encrypted, but the code doesn¡¯t look like anything I have seen from an Imperial world.¡± ¡°Let me see. Hmmm, Could it be?!¡± ¡°Sir?¡± ¡°Silence, Officer!¡± ¡°...¡± ¡°Let¡¯s see if that war was worth fighting. Code name Aldaris, Rank, High Captain of the Imperial Navy. Authorizing the use of S-class code breaker Mechanicus servitor¡­¡± Silence came shortly after at the deck. After a few minutes, the screens showed the image of a moon with a lab built on it and a small planet. He started to upload information on the screens. ¡°Sir? Isn¡¯t that one of the old colonization projects from Terra? We should go and provide help, letting the Imperium take them under the mantle of humankind. We would be rewarded!¡± The captain remains silent, ignoring his officer. The colonization project was an old fairy tale about perfect worlds used as colonization tests where humans were living happily ever after, far from war, disease, and death. They were called Maiden worlds, nothing more than beautiful heresy tales to tempt the good citizens of the Emperor, in his opinion. Most were old Eldar colonization grounds that humans took for themselves. But the lab is what gathers his attention. He knows of it, just barely. That place is a legend, even among high ranking officers and some Rogue Traders. A lab with so many riches that could allow you to buy a whole planet, even a system. There could be some original STC or Dark technology equipment that the Astra Mechanichus would kill without blinking, or relics from before the Heresy¡­ and weapons. ¡°Sir? Should we inform the inquisition about that rogue planet? The other worlds recently adhered to the Imperium have proven to be of great interest and-¡± The Captain looks at the officer, shutting him up. ¡°We are too late to provide any help now. If the protocols of that lab have failed, we have one more mission. Contain the samples and destroy all the experiments after collecting the data from the investigation outpost. Set course.¡° ¡°Understood sir, the safest route will take us 13 years entering the warp through 3 safe channels, the expected losses of the crew are under 15%.¡± He checked the route but avoided a direct course through realspace as they had to cross through several Ork infested areas. The route that the navigator found passed through their actual destination near Cypra Mundi towards Belis Corona, all the way to Lastrati, moving closeby the huge Maelstorm. It was considered one of the worst Warp Storms in existence, and then, towards Cirillo Prime, passing the blinking Rift Corridor. Then they had to go towards the Ymga Monolith and traverse the Chaos scar again to hit the planet that was north of the T¡¯Au empire. They had to cross the whole galaxy! ¡°Sir? Is there any problem with the chosen route?¡± Another silence was cast upon the deck. Heavy, oppressive. Then, the captain spoke again. ¡°Set a direct route, avoid all frequented Astartes, Imperial Guard, Ecclesiarchy and Astra Mechanicus safe ports and trade routes.¡± ¡°But sir, then which route are we going to fol-¡± ¡°We will enter the Cicatrix Maledictum and travel all the way to the lab through the Warp. If we hurry, it won¡¯t be too late...¡± ¡°But Sir, that! That is crazy!¡± ¡°Officer¡­ just do what I have told you.¡± The man shuts up, sweating as the captain has given him a direct order, and he doesn¡¯t want to fail him. The man is notorious for how harsh his punishments are. The simulation ends shortly after, and he shakes his head, deeming it crazy. ¡°This¡­ this is suicide¡­¡± ¡°Officer? What are you complaining about?!¡± ¡°Sir, the reality generators will not stand the pressure from the Warp for three months! We will lose nearly 50% of the recruited crew just from madness and suicides. And a direct route will make either Chaos or Drukhari forces notice us!! Sir, you are condemning all of us to death!¡± ¡°50%? Just what scum have we recruited from this world?!¡± ¡°Sir¡­ the t-the planetary governor s-said-¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care! I asked for two hundred thousand soldiers!! And from I can see, you accepted all sorts of gangs, criminals and¡­ rebels?!¡± ¡°S-sir¡­ I-I can explain!!¡± ¡°Commissar, execute this man. We don''t need traitors in our ranks.¡± ¡°NO! Please, S-¡± * Blam!! A corpse falls to the ground in a puddle of its blood and brain tissues. Twenty-four years of fighting together did not make the Commissar doubt when firing, not even for a single second. Without punishment, cowards are traitors who will turn into heretics. ¡°Open a communication channel with the Planetary Governor immediately!¡± The rest of the deck officers start to work frantically, ignoring their death teammate. The iron smell starts to permeate the deck, yet no one dares complain. ¡°UH?! Who dar-! Fuck!! Ehem!! Ohh! Captain Aldaris! To what do I owe the¡­ pleasure?¡± ¡°Governor, there seems to be a problem with the recruited troops.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡­ well, you demanded some fighters, so I provided them!¡± ¡°Those are filthy scum from your Hive cities¡­ not soldiers.¡± ¡°We are very short on good soldiers, the rebels-¡± ¡°You dared to disobey a direct order?¡± ¡°No, of course not, I wouldn¡¯t dare¡­ but, I need those troops to fight against the revolt in the three valleys Hive City and-¡± ¡°Second Officer, please set course to orbital position over the Hive City.¡± ¡°Captain?!¡± ¡°Prepare the weapons. Ready to fire at my order.¡± ¡°W-wait!! What are you-¡± ¡°I¡¯m solving your insurrection problem.¡± ¡°Sir p-please! There, there is no need!!¡± ¡°Ohh, and why is that?¡± ¡°600 million people are living there, and just over 13 or 14 million are rebels, I do not think that you need to send your troops and-¡± ¡°You are not required to think, Governor, you need to obey. Are the weapons ready?¡± ¡°Yessir!¡± ¡°Captain, please, reconsider the implications of-¡± ¡°Shhh¡­ Governor, I understand.¡± ¡°Y-you do?¡± ¡°Yes. You are used to the privileges of your rank, and have grown weak and lax.¡± ¡°Captain, please if you give me two months I can-¡± ¡°Open Fire¡­¡± BrreaaaaaaaaaaOOOOOOOOOMMMM!!!! An immense light illuminates the lower part of the ship, and then, a fire descends from the sky. At the busy Hive City, millions of people turn their heads to the sudden glow. Most were not used to seeing the sun, as the toxic fumes and tall buildings negate them of direct sunlight. People wonder what can that bright light be for a few seconds, just before a massive pillar of laser fire starts burning through the atmosphere. Loud and strident alarms started to sound, and an energy shield began to materialize over the city, a desperate and costly protective measure. But it only stands a few seconds before being crushed. Corruption had taken its toll on the city¡¯s defenses. Their voices turned to screams of fear before being vaporized. The laser then hits the massive Hive City and burns the downtown in an instant. It keeps expanding, turning several square kilometers to ash and dust. In a few minutes, over 100 million people had died from fire, heat, or suffocation. The governor shout pleaded and cried, but to no avail. ¡°Keep firing¡­ leave nothing!¡± ¡°Yessir!!¡± Several minutes later, the attack ended. When the laser batteries stopped the onslaught, a whole 40 km in diameter area turned into a huge fire pit where nothing remained. Just destruction. No survivors. ¡°... How! How could you!! Th-the city! The people!!¡± ¡°I told you. There are no more rebels now.¡± ¡°B-but¡­ the city! It¡¯s been¡­¡± ¡°I want your troops, Governor. Or else, I will bomb the Palatine Palace next. Am I clear?¡± ¡°... yes, Captain Aldaris¡­¡± Nodding in satisfaction, the Captain let the recruitment process proceed with the alarmed and scared troops from the planetary defense guard. ¡°Good. Proceed with your duties governor, may the Emperor protect you.¡± For the Governor, it was another story. The planet was in disarray. One of the planet''s biggest cities had been destroyed in an instant without any justification. The planetary governor tried to calm the population, but more and more cities start to rise against the weakened and demoralized planetary defense forces, demanding retribution. But that problem was not one Captain Aldaris had to care for as he had another mission. ¡°Let¡¯s go, and may the Emperor protects us all!¡± ¡°YES, SIR!!¡± Hundreds of fearful voices answer to their captain without holding back. The ship slowly takes life, and it''s engines roared silently in the darkness of space. It''s direction, a secret lab that could make the whole Imperium tremble if it was made known to any military Segmentum. And turn loyal Emperor subjects into traitors, if not taken care of carefully. Chapter 1 - The awakening "Agh¡­ fuuuuckk! My head!" Ohh, my head hurt. I didn''t feel well. "What was that?" I heard some noise, maybe a voice. It was weird, metallic. "... procedure 215.224 failed, deterioration beyond repair. Corruption spreading, rebooting." Something was wrong, so fucking wrong. I couldn''t move, and I didn''t see anything. But I seemed to be at some capsule. "Purging the corruption out of the subject." "AGHHH!! It hurts! Stop, stop!!" Something just started slicing through my back. I felt some metallic sounds and- "Oh shit." I could hear a horrible sound of flesh being cut and torn apart. My flesh. "STOP!!! AGhh, why are you torturing me? Please, stop!" I tried to ask for whoever was doing this to stop to no avail. It kept going for several minutes as I cry and scream. After several minutes of machines doing a complicated medical operation, I heard the metallic voice again, but it was not a mere message this time. "The corruption in your body is too serious; it''s necessary to purge it. Again." The pain slowly subsidized, as a cold sensation started to invade my organs. It felt like dying. "What do you mean again? And what corruption are you talking about!?" "Irrelevant, critical energy levels detected, forcing cryo sleep." "Wait! Why are you doing this to me? I want to get out! HELP!! I want to get out! I feel tired. I can''t breathe, please, stop..." The little air I could breath was freezing; I tried to stay awake for a few seconds, but then, my conscience falls into darkness. "Proceeding to enter forced emergency lockdown. Sending an emergency signal to Terra. Spatial storm detected, communications interrupted." "Time until the chaos storm subsidizes¡­ impossible to verify." ----------- I woke up again after who knows how much time. I felt empty and devoid of life. Just the idea of closing my eyes was scaring me. "H-hey! Is, is anybody there?" I tried to shout and ask for help, but I was alone here. After a few minutes, my eyes adapted to the darkness, and I started to see some screens through the glass cabin where I''ve been sleeping. I could hardly understand the language or the meaning behind the numbers that the decaying screens reflected. "Hello? Is anyone there?! Why does everything seem to have been eroded so badly?" I kept asking, and after a few minutes of silence, I tried to move and force the cabin to open. I wanted to get out. I pushed, but I was too weak to open it. When I started hitting the glass, an alarm sounded, and some energy seemed to revive a few screens. I stopped for a few seconds and then continued trying to open this coffin with desperation. "Cryo-sleep supplies have run dry; impossible to keep containing the corruption levels from spreading¡­" I heard the metallic voice again, but it didn''t seem to be talking to me specifically. It was more like a protocol or an automatic message. "Hello? I want to get out! Open the cabin doors so I can get out!"If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. A particular screen switched on, and the voice talked to me directly again. "I can''t do that right now. You are way too dangerous. In a few more hours, you will just become another Warp door with that cursed blood of yours." What was that voice talking about? "You call ME dangerous!? I have been locked inside this cabin for god knows how long and been tortured by you! And now you come and tell me I am the dangerous one?" A few seconds of silence followed through. "There is no time for that. You need to be put into quarantine right now to avoid another episode of corruption to spread through this sector." "I don''t understand anything you are talking about! I want out! I want to get back home." "Home? Do you know where is that?" I felt empty and alone right now. "I, that, hmm¡­ Wait, why can''t I remember anything?" A child''s laughter sounded through my memories, breaking me apart. I feel mist forming in my eyes, and a tear fell through my cheek. "I don''t get it¡­ I remember a kid smiling at me¡­" While I was having a break down with glimpses of my long-forgotten memories, the voice seemed to be considering something. I saw a few screens that come to live in front of my cabin. "You have been here because of your sins. You were a scientist that committed a terrible mistake, opening the door to another dimension. What you unleashed nearly drought Terra into madness and destruction." I saw dozens of pictures on the screens showing strange figures to me; some of them were humans, and some others, not. Those seemed to be hybrids of some sort. Corrupted and mutated beasts resembling human shapes attacked and destroyed different cities, towns. They were tearing apart people and feeding on them. "What is all that¡­ Was it my doing? I don''t remember anything¡­" Silence fell again for nearly a minute until one of the screens showed a woman and a little girl. "T-that girl¡­ who, who is she?!" Another tear fell from my eyes without me knowing why. "Your family. They died a long time ago." It took me a few seconds to process the information. "Do you know how? Was it because of me? Did, did I¡­" The voice spoke again; less cold and more emotional? "It was because of your mistakes, yes. But it wasn''t you personally. Despite that, you did cause thousands of innocents to perish and many more to suffer." "I-I can''t remember, but I''m sorry to hear that." I did feel bad after hearing this information, but still, I wanted answers and a way out. "Don''t be; I have not finished." What does that mean? "Can you make yourself clear about that?" I asked. The screens showed a kind of lab in different periods. The images show a brand new facility, and then it started to deteriorate until it almost turned into a shutdown and forgotten ruin. "This lab had the mission to contain horrible energies that spread and mutate whatever they touch, be it mind, soul, or body." "And what''s the contagion focus? Where is-" "Your soul. That''s where the corruption is spreading from." "I, I don''t get it¡­" "I told you, that accident and your actions tainted your soul. This place was your prison, and the only option to save you. Even though it has suffered irreparable damages and is nearly shutting down, it has served its purpose until now." "So, it''s gonna shut down? When?" "It still has the energy to do some limited actions, but it cannot purge your blood anymore. Before you ask, energies beyond this reality have contaminated your blood. Every time we purge it, your soul keeps turning it into some abyssal poison, over and over." It was hard to believe, but after all those images, those monsters seem very real to me. "Is there any solution or option for me?" The voice started showing some diagrams on the screens. "There is, but I need to know if you want to live. It will not be a pleasurable existence; I can assure you about that. You will be treated as a monster by all the universe and chased until the day you die." Those were some harsh words. But I wasn''t ready to die. I couldn''t even remember who I am. Might I have a chance to redeem myself? I close my eyes and think about the answer. I took air and release it slowly. I then answered the voice. "I want to live. I need those answers¡­" "Good, you showed some humanity back then, at least you seem to care for your family." Well, that was a compliment. It did sound with a little contempt, though. "Initiating full mind transference." "Wait, transference?" Was this machine going to make me shift my body with someone else? "Initialization¡­" "Wait, wait, stop! I don''t want to be transferred to anybody! I want to stay in my body. There has to be a way to stop this corruption or whatever you called it from spreading!" I started to hear noises, and the cabin gets illuminated all of a sudden. Damn it; this is bad, so, so bad. I saw my reflex, and my body was a thin and decayed mummy. Grey and black patches of skin showed several unnatural injuries that were spreading. "Don''t worry, we are using old technology we recovered from an old tomb world, it''s foolproof. We need to wait a few more seconds for the program to recover all the genetic samples, and we will be ready." It still didn''t sound right. Not at all. "What do you mean, old technology? And what the hell do you mean by samples!?" Just then, a side door opened, and a robot carried into the room what seems to be a dead insect. "Wait, what the hell is that? Oh my god, it''s alive?!?" I saw how that thing starts to move erratically. It then opened its eyes and shrieked. * Screech!! It was some insect with several eyes, limbs and had a ferocious expression. It tried to move but was subjected to several stripes and metal rings that hold it in place. "It''s just a larva but is one of the most interesting subjects this lab has ever managed to find." I looked at it, and it looked at me. This situation was so wrong. That thing had several eyes, a large mouth for its small size, and a tail with a sting that tried to use against the strips that were keeping it restricted. "Don''t worry. It will be over very, very soon." I started to feel so powerless right now. "Wait, wait!! STOP IT!!! Oh god, get me any other body, whatever but that damn insect!" "It''s a larva, a monarch specifically. You are lucky to be before the only ever seen Norn Queen larvae the imperium could get its hands on. It cost the life of a few million soldiers to capture it alive." "I don''t care!! Just stop it! Aghhh!" The machines on my back started to stab at me again, and I felt weak. I soon was sedated and fell unconscious very quickly, but the fear was so real that it kept me from falling asleep. The voice kept talking while the robotic arms dug into my brain. It also spoke to the little creature. A bright green light started to shine and turned the lab into a gloomy and eerie place. Then, at one point, everything turned dark, and I fell unconscious, not before hearing some last words from the mechanical voice. "Don''t worry. You will do just fine. After all, Tyranids are some hard to kill beasts." Chapter 2 - First steps This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Chapter 3 - Walking into a door I could get out of the room and into a corridor. It was white, I guess. It¡¯s hard to see colors with this set of eyes. The corridor was devoid of sounds, except my claws clicking on the pavement. * Tick tick tick¡­ If I still were human, this would have put me nervous. But I am not that anymore. While I walked, I tried to recall any memories from my past, but everything seemed to be surrounded by a thick fog. Even that girl was fading away. All that I could think of now was how hungry we are. And this damn corridor that never ends!! "Ohh! There is an intersection!" I kept walking towards it and then advanced carefully to pick a look. I don''t have it clear if there is no one alive in this place. ¡°Okay, what do we have here?¡± Uhmm¡­ to the left, there are some lights and images of plants and to the right, well¡­ I can see a metal door. There are claw marks in it, an old fight probably. Not good. I¡¯ll take a look at it. As I got closer, my bad sight started to reveal the scale of the aggressor, and it was huge. There were many streams of information like smells, and something else, It¡¯s hard to explain. -Danger! Big prey, we food! Ah okay. It¡¯s a primal instinct. Fear. I thought that this body''s original owner is still here. That could explain the strange feelings I have been experiencing these last few minutes. And the voices¡­ "Well, left it is. Let''s go find some food. Who knows! It might be some vegetables or fruits on the trees!" The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I stopped and looked at my claws. How will I get the fruit? Maybe this weird body could be able to climb. I can just hear scratching and little hisses. I thought it was my stomach at first, but the shrieks have a kind of rhythm to it. -Prey! Food! Yeah, yeah, you know I just understood a vague meaning of what you say? After 10 more minutes, I found another door blocking my path. This one has no huge marks of an attack of a horrible beast. I tried to scratch it but to no avail. This metal door was way harder than my claws. "Damn¡­ what to do now? This is frustrating." Wait, that feeling! It smelled different here, like green and, and¡­ I looked left and right, and it took me a few seconds to look up. An air vent. I felt a flow of air carrying the scent of life. "Oh god, I¡¯m salivating so bad that it¡¯s falling on the floor! And¡­ shit, is it corroding it? Anyways, I need to get into this place ASAP!!" It¡¯s just that¡­ that air vent was quite high! Like, 3 meters above me and I¡¯m just the size of a small cat, so I¡¯m not sure what to do. Let¡¯s try climbing! ¡°OUCH!! Damn it! FUCK!!! Okay, again¡­ this time is personal, damn door!¡± I¡¯ve been climbing and falling for nearly 20 minutes! This is being so lame. ¡°C¡¯mooonnnn!!!!! WHY is this! So damn hard! DAmn it!!!¡± "Oh, there is a map up here¡­" I check it and memorize the biomes this door leads to. For what I understood, this was a pretty straightforward area, with plants, a few gardens, and mostly small insects and birds. I was thinking about suspending the climb mission, but I managed to get to the vent! Yes! On your face, gravity! I took a better look at the ventilation grill and it looked old and half broken. There was some humidity on the air and strange smells too! These weird senses were affecting me more and more¡­ "There is food in front of me, so no more complaining! Maybe I can break this blockage, let¡¯s try to bite it!" * CHOMP! "Holy shit! What the hell!? Yucks! It tastes like iron." I looked at the air vent, and I see that it has a small hole that I made. I focused on my mouth, and after a couple of seconds, I project a deadly looking second mouth. Sick! This looked like a retractable maw. I tried to eject it a few times, yep. Feels powerful and deadly. "Now, let¡¯s get some food!" -Food! Yei! "Yes, yes. But first, the vent." * Chomp, chomp¡­ chomp. Okay, I have broken a few more pieces, and I can pass through it. I still don¡¯t have good synch with my tail. I just know it¡¯s there, but I am not using it to do anything. So much to learn. I got to the vent, and despite the lack of light, I could sense the direction towards food quickly. I pass a few intersections, and a few dozens of meters later, I see some leaves. ¡°We found food! I mean, I did.¡± Damn it¡­ this is so confusing. Why do I keep calling myself in plural? It must be that transference thing. I¡¯m sure whoever was in this body will soon be- ¡°FOOD!¡± ¡°Aghhh, damn you!! Don¡¯t shout! If we¡¯re gonna be together, don¡¯t scare me like that!¡± ¡°Eat!!¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah. Why should I even- Okay, you know what?! I will do it, because I¡¯m hungry, not because you have told me to!¡± I started to bite the leaves, and they¡¯re not so bad, even though they have a bitter aftertaste. I noticed a weird thing. Despite my relatively small size, I managed to eat a whole branch, several hundreds of leaves, and every single bit of organic matter that was in the air vent. That was easily 4 or 5 times my weight. Weird. Very weird. Nearly half an hour later, I found the origin of this whole set of branches and vines. Another air vent, broken by the plants. I felt so bloated that I had to take a rest before keep ingesting every piece of food I can get my claws into. These couple of hours have been exhausting. "Ahhh, so sleepy¡­" "Lazy! More food! We need to evolve!" "Yeah, yeah, after the nap. Wait, evolve? What are you talking about?" "Eat, grow, eat more!" "Yeah, I know you only care about the food, but how does it work?" "We kill, we eat, we grow!" "Okay, you have no idea either. Then I will just sleep, and we''ll see you later. ¡®Night, little one." All this Tyranid stuff was hard to understand; so many new sensations, and limbs. At least I was not hungry anymore. Despite feeling tired, I also felt full of energy and life. Chapter 4 - Level up Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. Chapter 5 - Just keep eating Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Chapter 6 - New biome This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it Chapter 7 - Samples Chapter 8 - Hunting The three remaining units moved back while I focus all my eyes and senses into that seemingly innocent rock. "Hmm¡­ It actually is some sort of camouflage, there is something under it." That would explain how many of the bird¡¯s remains disappeared without me noticing. As I try to think about how to proceed, I saw several more rocks and pieces of concrete moving slowly to the disappeared mite position. A bunch of those creatures started to assemble and devour what was left of it. I moved again, making a little bit of noise. That low noise was enough for the creatures to stop moving all at once like they were real, lifeless rocks. "Too bad, I already saw your little trick." I positioned myself next to the nearest one, and stabbed it with my tail; I managed to break some parts of it, but it wasn''t enough to kill it. And that sound has alerted the pack. Now I see half a dozen armored bugs getting closer. "What do you mean? That I should use the units like bait?" Well, they are worth just a few energy points after all, but I still don''t like the idea of having them thrown into the action. I retreated with my little units to think about a plan. The 3 little mites ended up drying up while waiting. Their life expectancy is short as heck. "Norn, any advances with the DNA modification?" -Little maw! "Huh, what do you¡­. Ohhh! I get it! A fighting bug! Can you do that?" Yes, of course! The spores¡­. I checked my biomass, and I have 30 or so points, after some time spent growing my own body, and I decided to upgrade the biomorph spores to level 2. It took less than a minute to upgrade it. A painful one. As an answer, now Norn started to gather energy and a little bit of biomass, and I feel a new unit gaining life. As I released it, the newly formed unit unfolds, and I can see a slightly bigger and heavier bug. It had a slightly slimmer body shape than me, but I can see a pair of powerful front limbs, like scythes. That, together with a powerful and menacing maw, was a biomorph Norn called claws and teeth.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. It''s the simplest biomorph in the Tyranid race, also one that grows with the user and strengthens itself to frightening levels, given time. I released 4 fighters, and as I got drained, a little squad of newly created fighters appears before me. Despite being small, their strength is not to be underestimated. Now I just need a strategy. I don¡¯t want to engage our enemies head-on. "Any ideas, guys?" "That was not helpful at all, Norn. Okay, hmm. You, unit n¡ã 1, go to the left and start to make noise, you 3, follow me. We let the first unit go around the group of rock while we started to surround the furthest rock-bug to ambush it. The rest didn''t seem too smart, or I wouldn''t try to pull this off. The fighter started screaming and shouting, making a pretty good battle-cry. As the strange group drifted its direction towards the sound, we proceed with our attack. The hard rock-like shell proved quite hard to break, so I tried using my teeth instead. I got next to it and launched my horrifying secondary mouth. This time, the attack broke its shell easily. My 3 little helpers began biting and attacking to the best of their capabilities. Despite the protection and low intelligence, I underestimated its speed and strength; this damned bug managed to catch one of my units! "Not gonna happen! Again!" I used my strength to gain some advantage against the body of this bug while it was attacking a fighter; With some difficulty, I managed to turn it upside down. Not without getting myself a few scratches. "I can see it now!" It looked like a trilobite. We then jumped at it and started devouring it since its defenses were much weaker on the inside. I tasted its flesh and blood, satiating some of the hunger I have been building at such a slow pace. "Let¡¯s keep the fight!" Some of these mutated trilobites surrounded us with all the noise, and I feel it¡¯s time to back off from this battle. They¡¯re too much for me to handle single-handedly. The fighters are just a distraction right now. I called back my units and went near the group of enemies. Just as I reached their position, I started releasing some black and green smoke through my spore biomorph that surrounds me. A few seconds later, the creatures that touch it began to shriek and move back frantically as their shells are being corroded. That will entertain them and make them cautious for a couple of hours until they decide to move again. Painful lessons tend to stick with us more than anything else. I ordered the bait fighter to escape while we transported the trilobite''s carcass far from this position into a secluded place. While tired and slightly hurt, I could gather a few key points to battle this prey way more easily. We will keep damaging them with this hit and run guerrilla tactics to drain them and make them move to our rhythm, not the other way around. That will help us decide the flow of the battle. "Can you show me my status?" Primal Larvae - Ripper Level - 3 (40 biomass to level up) Health - 13/15 Energy - 17/60 Biomass Reserves - 28 biomass / 4 corrupted (processing) Str - 14 Res - 11 Vit - 10 Agi - 8 Int - 4 Support level 2 Enhanced senses level 2 Maw and claws level 3 Chitin level 1 Poison sting level 1 Spores level 1 --> 2 The trilobites gave me a few more biomass points, and Norn shut herself to study its DNA and make some tests to try to enhance my Chitin and defense. As a Tyranid, food is as important as DNA material. One may provide enough units and resources, but it¡¯s the DNA that matters at the end of the day. It is critical towards unlocking better genetic paths, biomorphs, units, etc. All in all, the best path seems to be killing and devouring our enemies. I finished eating the carcass and started to munch on the hard surface of the shell. Love the crunchiness of this thing. Besides, it has given me a few ideas to use some camouflage myself in the future. I summoned 4 new units and proceeded with the same strategy. This time we took down 2 trilobites before having to back from the bug pack. It took a few more travels to finish off this group of cowards. I took vengeance for my little unit. And got me quite a bunch of food in the process. Chapter 9 - Rip and tear As we rested a little bit after our continued fights, I sent some units to explore. Despite their lack of autonomy, they could fulfill some simple orders and sent them as explorers. As they advanced through the biome, they kept sending me inputs through our shared mind. I could see some destroyed habitats and broken nests from birds of unknown species. It seems that the corrupted bird caused quite the strife back when it went berserker. When I rested enough, I decided to go explore with them. The enhanced spore biomorph eased my control of the smallest units. I could now command double the collector mites, from 4 to 8. I decide to keep 1 fighter and summon 6 mites until I reach my top. With these units set, I ordered them to gather food, collect samples, and try to locate life in this old broken module. The day went by as we slowly consumed every little piece of flora and fauna that is near the entrance. Just as I wanted to go rest for a couple of hours, I sensed something weird. I gathered and devoured the collectors and summoned 3 fighters to explore the area while I sent the last unit to the wall to climb it to have a better view. There are some scratches on the walls, and there is also a faint scent of darkness. "Corruption..." Despite my initial discomfort with this Tyranid body, it has the advantage of having many limbs and many eyes. I can see some shadow near the top of this biome. I am surprised by the bad quality of what I perceive, but it''s definitely there. "Norn, we have company. A few meters over us..." The seconds passed by, and there was a false sense of calm. But it didn''t last. The shadow jumped and fell with top speed to pierce me. I hardly managed to evade it with a side jump. After many fights, I finally got a better understanding of my morphology and how to use my body. I used my tail like a spring to make a dash, but the figure managed to correct its trajectory somehow, and I feel my back chitin split, being torn apart.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. "Fuuck! That hurts!" I immediately activated the spore aura, trying to punish my aggressor, but it moved too quickly and evaded it with ease. I finally saw what was it. Another bird, pretty big and somehow, extraordinarily agile and muscular. It had some traces of a monkey in its body shape. It also had a terrible shark peak that used to attack me. Okay, I lost nearly half of my health, and this bird is just too fast. I would better retreat now. I began running back with a few broken limbs while still pouring spores into the air to dissuade it from following me. This damned bird was going to jump at me again, but it stopped as soon as it saw the spores started to melt its feathers. It went nuts and started to hurt himself, tearing apart the smoking areas with its limbs that ended in some claws more fit to climb than to fight. Some feathers fell to the ground and melted into a black goo. Mere drops, but there was corruption in that beast''s body. This bird was dangerous, and the corruption seemed to be permeating into this biome faster than before. It probably had something to do with the lab''s low energy levels. As it is focused on me, my units manage to engage it, biting its limbs and legs. It shouts, surprised, and angrily crushes them in mere seconds, one after another. "Damn fucking beast!!" Once it was done, it even stopped crush the last of them, so I could see it. "You fucker!! This is now personal." Despite my considerable anger, I retreat while summoning another 2 units to slow it down. As I nearly run dry of energy, I hide into a burrow I made before. The beast tried to stab me with its beak, but I put my tail in position to stab it in case it tried to attack again. I almost managed to get him, and it got out while screaming angrily. The next few hours were painfully slow to pass, as I healed my body. The good part was that the biomorphs worked nearly autonomously to help me to their best abilities. I worked together with Norn to modify an already existing biomorph to create some new alternatives. After investing more biomass than I thought it would be needed at first, we managed to come with the pincer biomorph! I then spent some more biomass and upgraded my tail with 2 sharp chitinous appendages. "I just need one chance to make you suffer, you just wait..." But when I exited again, there was no enemy to see, just silence. No ambush, nor assault. But I knew better, it was hidden, waiting. I can smell the corruption everywhere now. As I got near the place where we fought, I could see that the black goo started to expand and turned a few bushes and weeds into oversized specimens, ill and wrong. It seemed that those were some flowers with feathers. "The hell is that?" I then felt some movement up in the ceiling. That feathered monkey is there again. I breathed in and out, getting myself ready for a confrontation. I¡¯ve never had to step into such a dangerous situation before. Not voluntarily, at least. Two of my fighters were beside me to dissuade that creature from another easy ambush. It wasn''t enough to scare it, but it was enough to make it hesitate. I had four little collectors gathering samples here and there, some corrupted plants too. This could be useful later on. We went to the point they had investigated before, another cave. It looks like a semi-safe point where we can go into and get ourselves some protection. I went into it with the new food sources, and I lay a fighter into the cave¡¯s opening. "Now, we wait." With the newly gained biomass, I did some upgrades and enhanced my venom to level 2. While I suffered in silence, I dug and hid under the soil, waiting. 2, 3, 6 hours passed, it had become a game of patience. After a whole day, a sudden feeling assaults me; it has arrived. "Okay, is everyone ready, does every one of you know what to do? Good. We fight my way this time Norn, next time you can choose the strategy. It will work, trust me." Chapter 10 - Rip and Tear II A fighter had been outside the cave for a whole day, waiting. The pack was nowhere to be seen. Nor the bigger creature. Despite the apparent setup, the bird wanted to go; to fight this enemy and kill it, make it pay for the injuries he suffered the last fight. The bird waited, for he likes the thrill of the hunt. But as the hours passed, he began to feel anxious and frustrated. Why doesn''t the bug get out? It finally lost its patience and climbed to the rocky wall over the cave. He could see the bug at the cave''s door and decides to kill it quickly to make the alpha bug angry. As he prepared, he suddenly felt that it was too easy, too obvious. With a shake of its feathered head, it focused its great eyes into the fighter, pointed its sharp beak, and made its jump, correcting the trajectory mid-air with its winged arms. The fighter had no time to react, the bird just sliced it in half, its beak far too strong for its opponent to resist. Then just as he was going to jump back, he noticed a sudden movement under the soil! A pair of grey and sharp pincers traped one of his limbs. If that wasn''t bad enough, he also felt a powerful sting injecting venom into its body. It hit the dangerous limb and jumped back, but one of its arms was bleeding, and its own blood was now poisoned. Its breathing was all messed up after the sudden attack. A shadow emerged from under the caverns soil, followed by 3 smaller creatures, all of them looking menacing. As the 2 sides stood before the other, tense silence followed for one, two, three seconds. And the hell unleashed! ---------- We made a battle cry, shouting to the top with our chitinous lungs to demoralize the enemy. * SCREEEEEESSCHHHEEEEEE!!!!!! It sounded like a thousand knives scratching a blackboard. Even my psychic energy was imbued in it, making it far worse for the monkey-bird to bear without repercussions. I saw it getting both angry and scared. It doubted for a few seconds what to do. It was scared, we can smell its fear. I jumped and run to surround it as soon as I could as he was hesitating. We cannot allow it to jump to the walls again. I used my tail to make it wary of both advancing and attacking me.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. The 3 smaller fighters went full out, and it had to divert some attention to fight back while keeping an eye on me. The bird was agile enough to fight back both the 3 mites and me at the same time with just one arm and its legs. But time was taking its toll. Yet it was no pushover, and it managed to kill a mite and injure another one in the first few seconds of the fight. I just kept summoning them back again, turning it into an attrition fight. As it started to lose its confidence, the bird tried to bypass the fighters and reach the wall to escape, as we expected. In its rush, it got bitten, and one of the mites managed to cause a deep wound into its leg; it was now bleeding profusely. Yet using an opening, the damaged bird jumped into the wall and even turned back to mock me somehow, but it just sees me looking back at it, waiting. From the ceiling, a mucus projectile fell onto the bird''s back. It started burning through the feathers and skin, easily breaking it apart. The bird was taken by surprise and shouted in agony, nearly falling to the ground, where we are waiting for it. After evading a couple more shots, the bird found the spot where my hidden mite was hidden and sniping at him. It was a reasonably plump mite with deep green colors, entirely full of toxins and poisonous spores that I previously generated and made it store into its own body. But the shooting was not its main feature, not the worse it had to offer. The bird-monkey creature kept evading and climbing, with its exhausted body, full of wounds, scratches, and a few deep corrosion burns were showing its muscles and some bare-bones. It was so obsessed about taking down that plump mite that hurt both its pride and body that it just forgot about escaping. The bird kept evading and jumping up, getting closer by the second. "C''mon! Keep going." I saw it getting closer. 6 meters, 4, 3, 1 meter. The mite was now within the bird''s reach, and with a cruel look, it extends its arm to catch it and crush it slowly. But just as it was about to grab it, the mite jumped towards the bird directly. That was unexpected, the mite¡¯s behavior was a cowardly one. It remained hid on top of the wall and only attacked when the bird was distracted. So this direct assault took the already enraged bird by surprise. With pleasure, it tried to pierce it with its powerful beak. And then, just at the last second, the mite exploded. * Ploooofff! Corrosive liquid, together with venom, toxins, and spores, fell onto its arm, face, and body. The pain surpassed all the limits the bird''s brain could manage, and it just fell from the wall while screaming in pain. A couple of seconds later, a bloody figure dropped onto the ground. It was still alive and shaking its few working muscles, not giving up; it tried to stand up, to put together it''s broken arms and legs. To no avail. We got closer to the suffering bird but stayed out of reach. A wounded animal was dangerous, even one mortally wounded. It was no exception. I summoned a few more mites to start dismantling the body; the newly born mites started its job with utmost efficiency; they began piercing, ripping apart muscle and tearing limb after limb. As the bird was dying, it kept looking me directly at my eyes. All I saw there was resentment, and an intense desire for revenge. That was precisely why it died. I saw that malice and used it against it. Less than a minute later, we start eating its flesh. I could see the traces of corruption all over its flesh and even bones. The changes are different from the first bird. That one suffered an explosive mutation in a few hours. This one had been morphing for a long while from what I could see. But the changes were greater than just the body. Its mind had also changed and twisted in unnatural ways. Chapter 11 - Way of the Swarm As I kept eating the bird''s flesh and restoring biomass, I chat with Norn and the Support. ¡°I think we should prepare for a corrupted battlefield from now on. I¡¯m not sure why the investigators did this, but the AI already told us that there were many animals and experiments corrupted. And from the looks of it, we are just scratching the surface. We will fight worse enemies as we advance, that¡¯s for sure.¡± ¡°HEY, a little respect? I just took down a powerful foe right now.¡± They both laugh at me. Why do I feel I''m being looked down upon by both of them? ¡°Wow¡­ that¡¯s,,, okay. Okey, NORN! WHERE ARE OUR STRONG AS HECK UNITS!!!!!¡± "Okay, I might like to keep my body as intact as possible! I don¡¯t wanna die, is that so wrong?! You guys might not like all the decisions I make, but I take them thinking in improving as much as possible without taking crazy risks that could take us down.¡± They both began to think about that while I try to calm myself; I''m still affected by the battle mood from before. I don¡¯t know how Norn can just take things so easily without breaking a sweat. It feels¡­ well, too difficult for me to understand right now. ¡°The great what?¡± Oh, Tyranid history 101, right. ¡°So, is your species some sort of eusocial insect species with an abnormal hunger? Or there is more behind the decision of sending fleets through the void between galaxies just like that?¡± Huh, so dull, I really wanted to know more about that, but it seems I will have to wait. As we were talking, the brood and I finished the meat and even ate the bones. The beak was hard as hell to bite, and I wasn''t sure what to do with it yet. Just as I was inspecting it, I found a little crystal gem. It was purplish-dark in color and seemed to suck all the light into it, without reflecting none of it. It looked to be some sort of metallic alloy or crystal structure.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. I really don¡¯t know. ¡°Oh, great. Let¡¯s leave the potentially lethal DNA therapy with corrupted energy to the hungry obsessed psycho. Psycher, I said Psycher.¡± ¡°That sounds promising! And expensive. I don¡¯t know why I can''t just level up if given enough biomass to do it all the way to the next evolution.¡± ¡°So, you mean that she is working on that all day long? I thought she was just looking for some biomorphs from the DNA we took, as well as the samples.¡± ¡°Wow, that sure feels like cheating.¡± "Huh, so any alien or feral beasts could potentially evolve through this corrupted energy, right?" ¡°True, that first corrupted bird was completely messed up, it seemed to be exhausting its lifespan just to get strength.¡± Right! I should check my status before proceeding to walk further into the biome. I even have left some green areas to devour, and some bird nests into the ceiling that I could not reach before without the fear of being attacked. ¡°Status!!¡± Primal Larvae - Ripper Level - 3 (40 biomass to level up) Health - 11/15 Energy - 24/60 Biomass Reserves - 18 biomass / 11 corrupted (processing) 1 Corrupted core (small) Str - 14 Res - 11 Vit - 10 Agi - 8 Int - 4 Support level 2 Enhanced senses level 2 Maw and claws level 3 Chitin level 1 Poison sting level 2 - (1 level up) Spores level 2 Pincer level 1 (new) Minor -> Collectors, Fighters, Bomb (New) ¡°Yes!! there it is.¡± My winning trap card against that bird. The pincer helped, that was a nasty surprise that managed to score a hit, but it was impossible to come up again with such a surprise a second time. But the new unit! That was the nail in the coffin for our prey! We managed to produce a new breed of ¡®mite¡¯ that can contain massive amounts of liquid or gas elements, so I just poured into it some venom, newly developed toxins, corroding spores, etc. A terrible combination, I might say. And with a mental order, it can just mix everything into a highly exothermic and powerful explosion of corroding acid and toxins. Okay, so I should focus on getting more biomass to upgrade my level. With that, I could get an overall improvement in my stats. And for the next level-ups, I will try to get my hand into some more of those energy cores. It is going to be hard to manage every detail and balance my growth. Too much biomass spent into speeding the level ups, and my biomorphs will be left behind, rendering me a big fat duck to be hunted. And the opposite, with too many biomorphs leveled up, will give me a considerable amount of options, but not the final kick to pass through every fight and survive them. Decisions, decisions. "Well, we will see how I manage to keep it balanced. For now, gathering more biomass is undoubtedly the best option for everything." I summoned 8 collectors, and we began to deforest every inch of soil that we could, devouring some more trilobites by the way. We managed to gather the required biomass to advance to the next level after consuming food for several hours. "Okay, I know it will hurt, I hate this. Fuck! Okey, Norn, go on, do it." I went back to the cave and created four fighters to scare any possible enemy that might try to approach us. "Yes, Norn, just do it, I was just talking to myself. But I don''t think that it will¡­ AGHHH!!! DAMN IT!" I felt my whole body breaking apart, even the fighters I left to protect me are rendered useless and fell to the ground convulsing. Our psychic link is a bitch sometimes. As I suffered the evolution process in absolute silence, we were entering into the next stage, adult Ripper. "Aghh! Shut up Norn..." I hate her so much at times like this. Chapter 12 - Exploring It¡¯s been the WORST experience I had so far, being torn apart and having all my organs and limbs reattaching themselves while being paralyzed and depleted of energy¡­ The Corrupted core we gathered from the bird helped to supply some chaotic energy that Norn could stabilize and use to further improve our body and stats. If we keep this up, we could enhance our abilities to new heights. We just need more biomass, and cores; both of them involves hunting. "Oh, I feel so hungry. Show me my stats!" Primal Adult- Ripper Level - 4 (60 biomass to level up) Health - 18/18 Energy - 0/70 Biomass Reserves - 3 biomass / 8 corrupted (processing) Str - 16 Res - 13 Vit - 12 Agi - 10 Int - 6 "Right, and you say that we still have some energy juice to spare? Good! I don¡¯t really want to go hunt another crazed and dangerous animal. Let¡¯s keep it easy for a day or two." "Aghh, yes, I am hungry too." I ordered the fighters to start moving, and they get up with difficulties; it seems that the psychic backlash is still affecting them. "C¡¯mon!! Move already little ones! We have work to do." I pushed them one by one, trying to supply some energy, despite being depleted and exhausted from the evolution. And as I was thinking about my things, I felt heavier. And maybe taller. ¡°Did I somehow managed to gain some weight?¡± "Oh, good, so I must be around 20 kilograms or 50 pounds. So I passed from being chihuahua size to a boxer size insect. So sick."Stolen novel; please report. ---------- I kept on talking with Norn and the Support for 20 minutes or so, waiting for the units to come back online and gain some energy to send new collector mites into the biome. With my increase in intelligence, I could now control 6 units or 12 collectors. I created a bunch of them and let them go harvest. As they worked, I went with a couple of fighters to explore further into the biome. I kept walking until we hit a wall, then turned right. About 50 meters or so ahead of us, there is a metal door built into the wall. On each side of the corridor, there were several more crystal cages. It looked like a zoo somehow, but one that had been abandoned for some really long time. We kept walking, without making a sound nor attract unwelcome attention upon us. As we were reaching the door, I noticed something weird. There was one of these rooms or jails that were white. All of it seemed foggy. As I sent the mites for closer inspection, I noticed that it was not fog, but some sort of silk. The whole area was full of spider silk, and it reached the glass. The mites checked it, and there seemed that the glass was still in place, despite some cracks here and there, it was still holding up. That was reassuring, as my sensors didn''t pick any readings from inside. Despite my concern, I advanced to investigate the door. While it certainly looked unsettling, I tried to calm down. I couldn''t avoid feeling worried, but whatever was living in that room had not come out to meet us. And hopefully, that would not change. We moved further, leaving this room behind and focusing on the door. It was less than 20 meters from us. I could see some rusty areas we could exploit. There also seemed to be some air conduct similar to the one I came from. One of the fighters began to climb the rocky wall to access the vent and explore it while the second one kept exploring with me until we hit the door. A large metal door stood before us. But now, I didn''t see it as an impossible obstacle to surpass. I just need a few bites. I got close to the door and tried to chew onto the weakest point I could detect. * CHOMP! A metallic sound echoes through the corridor. I turned to look back, worriedly, but nothing happened. I focused back at the door and noticed I could barely do a scratch the size of a coin. I checked the two mites, but there didn''t seem to be any surprises so far at the cage. Up at the air vent, there was some silk web, so I could expect something nasty lying there. "I''m not gonna explore it yet, I have yet to recover the collectors'' group of mites. Better go with a full stomach." I kept working on the door for a few minutes; I even applied some spores and toxins to deteriorate the hinges, but with little effect. "It¡¯s time to go back, we¡¯ll leave it for today and ¡­ where is the fighter of the ventilation?" "Oh, shit. We have enemies incoming!" I summoned a second mite, and we stood focusing our attention at the ceiling while walking back through the corridor. I made a psychic call for the mites to come back asap. I will need the extra biomass probably. My senses were telling me that things are getting fucked up quickly. Several noises are coming from the ventilation grid and then stop. Just as I thought that nothing would come out of it, a few huge spiders fell to the ground while carrying my dead fighter. "Damn it, I hate these insects! Too many legs and eyes. 6 is just perfect! Okay, so you want to pick up a fight against us, huh? I will make you pay for killing my brood!" The collectors were quite near, I could feel them. Just as I was considering picking up a with these new foes, I heard a muffled sound. * Tap-Tap... I turned around to look at the glass from the lab room and saw something at the glass. "Oh shit, what da hell is that??!!" I saw a huge spider. It was black as night, with 8 red eyes focusing on me, a terrible mouth moving it¡¯s chelicera menacingly towards me. It''s even drooling. "You sick fucker!" It was at the other side of the glass and had 4 of its 8 legs onto the glass. Luckily the glass was holding up, and the spider soon receded. "Seriously, how big it¡¯s that thing!? I felt I grew stronger, but this thing is massive!" Let''s call it a big ass huge spider queen; it is at least a couple hundred kilograms, that''s a very, very heavy spider there. Just as the spider was backing off, she seemed to scream, despite not having the proper organs to perform that feat. Then, from the ventilation grid, a bunch of smaller spiders erupted, jumping and throwing webs at us. Meanwhile, the bigger spiders started to walk towards us. I severed the psychic link with the collectors, forcing them to shut down and summon a force of mites to help me. 3 fighters and 2 bombers. "Let''s see how they perform at keeping our foes at bay." Chapter 13 - Brood war There were several spiders on the floor and ceiling, and they already had killed one of my own before, so I was quite pissed off. We kept the stance until some silk webs started floating in our direction. One of those threads managed to fall over one of the fighters, and it was just pulled over to the wall without effort. There, it struggled against several smaller spiders that started to throw more webs at it, turning into a cocoon less than a minute later. This threads managed to pick my interest, in a wrong way. Being pulled out of the ground was an almost guaranteed death sentence. My venomous and highly unstable bomb mites started to pour some shoots at our foes with terrible results. Their shooting range was too short, not reaching even 7 meters, plus those spiders were quite agile themselves. They managed to evade all the incoming shots quite quickly, and my brood soon started to get tired and low on ammo. Damn it. One of my fighters and I managed to engage one of the bigger and less agile spiders while the small spiders on the ceiling kept throwing webs at us. While the spider was trying to take down the fighter, I stabbed at its thorax, rendering in a half-paralyzed state. I then used my pincers and claws to cut through the webs that had fallen at us. With the area turning into a silk nest at each passing second, I decided to take the spider and go back before this turned into a full-scale battle I was not ready to fight. I summoned a couple of bombs to cover our escape and pulled back the prey we managed to capture with quite the effort. The spider queen watched all the fights through the glass and seemed quite furious herself, hitting the glass. Luckily she couldn''t join the fray. When we are arriving at the intersection where this corridor started, I could see a vast web being created at the end of the corridor, covering the floor, walls, and ceiling in a white fog. "Damn, that is gonna be hard to get through." Well, we lost some good units, but we managed to secure quite a piece of lunch. "Oh, the spider is moving again! That''s some huge resistance to poison you have! How about this?" * CHOMP! Yikes, it tastes like mud and vinegar. Bah, beggars cannot be pickers. I force myself to keep eating and swallowing some biomass. Norn started to work on the DNA sequence and tried to create some sort of acid that can counter these foes'' webs. I stopped eating the spider and get out of the cave where we are resting. This whole fight has left me quite a bad taste. I then moved through the biome to search the collectors I shut down before. As soon as Norn gives me the okay, I will level up and get my spores and venom to level 3 too. That might help me fight them off. "If only we had some fire at hand¡­ wait, Norn, can you make some collectors produce some hydrogen? It¡¯s a gas, flammable." "How? Dunno, by digesting cellulose or something? What do you mean you don''t know? How can you manage to tamper the DNA and genes but don''t know this?" As soon as I said that, I knew I pissed her off.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. She gave me a speech about how she is working her mental ass off to get the right sequence to evolve us as fast as she can, not complaining (seriously?) about my hunting speed or methods. And basically, after 10 minutes or so, she shut down the conversation without a proper answer. So, It seems I am alone at this¡­ Maybe we could just dig the soil to get through. ¡°You too? Okay, we''re going to do it this way, but next time I choose.¡± I created a few collectors to eat and process the spider for me. I was not going to keep eating that corpse. I noticed my units were defenseless in the last couple of fights. Unless they manage to get stronger or I get more energy to keep pumping them to keep the balance of the battles, I''m reaching a bottleneck. "Norn, unless you have something useful to add, just- Sigh. It doesn''t matter. I''ll go find the biomass to level up." I kept walking and finally found the collectors'' bodies. I ate them and begun searching for more food. I miss being human¡­ In less than a week, I turned into a dog-sized insectoid that eats its own brood at convenience. Despite sharing this body with two other beings, I feel quite lonely. I guess that what happens when you are stuck with a childish and bossy Queen and its psycho and efficiently murderous support thing. I should name it, though. With no intention to go back to the spider''s corridor, I left a fighter near the intersection monitoring the spiders'' nest and went back to the cave. After picking a resting spot, I slowly ate the rest of the collectors, trying to fill the empty sensation inside me. It didn''t work, and I felt even worse afterward. I closed my eyes and pushed myself to the next step of evolution. My body begins to crack again, growing new tissue, muscle, and chitin. As I grew, the cave I was in started to feel less spacious than before. That feeling is only confirmed after I wake up. Okay, I have just enough biomass to level up either the pincers or the chitin, and I don''t want to stock it while I am risking my life at any given time, so, chitin it is! "15 biomass? That was cheap!" Well, maybe it wasn''t so cheap before, but now I don''t even break a sweat for expenditures of 100 biomass in one go. "Yeah, like that''s gonna happen." "So, what does it do?" "Yass! Okay, so I have to spend¡­ 2 biomass per 5 energy units! What!! That''s a rip-off." "Yeah, but¡­ Agghh, Okey. Thank you, Norn. Happy already? Cmon, show me the stats! By the way, you need a name, dude. Any suggestions?" "Okay, you talk too much. What about Darwin? You like that name? Or maybe Adam. We''ll see." Primal Adult- Ripper Level - 5 (80 biomass to level up) Health - 21/21 Energy - 0/80 Biomass Reserves - 34 biomass Str - 18 Res - 15 Vit - 14 Agi - 12 Int - 8 Support level 2 Enhanced senses level 2 Maw and claws level 3 Chitin level 1 - - > 2 Poison sting level 2 Spores level 2 Pincer level 1 Adrenal glands, level 1(new) Minor -> Collectors, Fighters, Bomb "Ughhh, why can''t I scratch, this burns my skin!! Seriously Norn, can''t you make it less painful??!" "Oh, you can? Why don''t you¡­ oh wow, a hundred thousand? That''s expensive. Okay, I will bear with it for now. But I assure you I will buy that biomorph someday." As the chitin was growing and being reinforced, I tried to decide my course of action. With nearly no energy and low biomass reserves, I needed to move and get some food. "I will check the rest of the biome areas I haven''t seen yet. I''m sure I will manage to find more useful stuff." Chapter 14 - Corruption and Chaos I got out of the cave with new energies. Hunger was a great motivation. I went through the old areas and checked for hidden animals or vegetation we hadn''t picked up yet. I discovered a bunch of trilobites in a cave and easily lured them out, making a loud sound. In less than 10 minutes, I had killed the pack of 6, and then I summon the collectors to process the corpses while I got to the intersection again. The web nest didn''t seem to have increased since yesterday, but I could see some spiders roaming on the ceiling. I moved out of their sight, trying not to make much noise and went to the left instead. After a few meters, I found some more experiment rooms, most of them had plants and even some flowers growing in. I got into the room and started eating everything in sight. "This is going to take forever. I don''t want to waste biomass, but I need energy asap." Despite it hurting me deeply, I activated the adrenal glands and burned some biomass to gain energy, I then used that to summon a complete pack of mites that started to devour this garden area. Some birds were flying over the trees, too little to annoy us; but I wouldn''t spare them either, I had already paid an enormous price with the first corrupted specimen I met. The plants and vegetation, all the green and verdant colors, started to vanish as the hours passed by. The biomass was getting carried through my brood to feed this body and our dreams¡­ Well, at least my dream of freedom. Norn just wanted food, so she was already having her share of dreams fulfilled. When then reached the biggest tree in the garden, a fruit tree that had some beautiful apple-like fruits hanging from its branches. I¡¯d love to eat a few of those fruits and leave, sparing the birds and the whole garden. Let them live their lives without such devastation. But it was not what I had in mind. I got closer to the large tree, and then, one of the apples feel and crumpled into darkness, the whole tree changing from a vibrant green to an ash-like color. ¡°What the hell is that¡­ It was okay just a minute ago!¡± ¡°What? What do you mean by that, Darwin?¡± ¡°How can that even be possible?¡± Wait, that AI told me something about being possessed and having caused a hell of a situation on old earth. It said they had been trying to find a cure to eradicate that corruption from my body. For god''s sake, I had even been transferred into a Tyranid''s body! "What else has to be done?! I want my life back!" My eyes start to burn in violet light, while rage invaded my mind. I roared, and the area around me began to tremble. Everything began to change. As my aura expanded, both plants and animals fell to the ground. Their bodies melted and died shortly after. I woke up from this moment of pure hate and became horrified about this whole change in the scenery. What was beautiful and lively a couple of minutes, was now bloated, corrupted, and dying. "I, I did that?" I say that as I turn to the garden and look left and right, panicked by the death surrounding me. ¡°Pushing me is not helping right now, Norn. I know you want to help, but it¡¯s just that I don''t know how to process all of this.¡± ¡°That¡¯s true, thank you both. I was, I felt sad, frustrated, and hopeless¡­ then rage invaded me, it was all I could feel for a few seconds. I still don¡¯t get what triggering me, but it certainly has to do with my past.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. As I talk and open about how I feel, we kept moving, leaving behind this devastated area, where death and corruption were all that remained. ¡°Darwin, could you explain to me something more about the whole Chaos you said before? For what I learned, some evil energies are working in this universe to affect its inhabitants, right?¡± ¡°Huh, so your motto is something like, ''No food, no fight.'' It kind of makes sense if I think in Norn." "It¡¯s true, c¡¯mon you woke me up asking to¡­ bah, I will just go get more food.¡± I commanded the collector mites to move back and retreat from that infested place of decay. Some of them even got affected by it, having a few extra limbs, eyes, or even tentacles. ¡°How is that even possible? Where did you guys get the DNA to do this?¡± I did as she asks and let the collectors process the food and turn into biomass. I ate them afterward, and it was weird. Very random. It tastes cold for the most part. Yet, there was something like marshmallow flavor too, and something burned, wrong. It stank like charred flesh too. As the last one arrived, I saw it carrying a small yet healthy apple fruit. I smiled and thanked it just before the small mite turned itself into a ball and turns grey. "Sigh...I have to stop thinking so human-like, or I will just keep bottling up negative emotions." We walked back, and I was just going towards the cave when I felt something weird near the intersection. It was an odd sound, very annoying. ¡°Did you notice that?¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not food-related, Norn. It feels like a weird static sound, like an old radio.¡± I summoned a couple of fighters to help me find the source. ¡°I just hate that sound so much. It reminds me of something¡­ Agh! I forgot about it. But I don''t like that sound.¡± Again with the lost memories. Could it have to do with the whole corruption thing? Does it tamper with people''s minds? I think about it, and it makes itself evident when I think about the beasts we fought. I went near the wall and heard it better; there was a weird electrical sound coming from a crack. We checked it better and found what looked like a hidden door. "C¡¯mon my mites, push with me!" The hidden rock door opened slowly, showing a dark room full of old monitors and panels covered with dust. There were a few dried corpses on the ground. We barely noticed them for the shape of the dust and whatever remained of their clothes. "This was a monitoring station. Interesting." I checked some of the cages and containment chambers on the corridors, most of them were broken. Two of them picked my attention. The newly corrupted garden area and the spiders'' terrarium. I spent a few minutes investigating the whole biome and the cameras, searching for something useful. Then, through one of the screens at the end of the room, I saw something unusual. "Ohh, what is that?" I saw a dock. But not a regular one, it looks like the ones I watched in films when I was¡­ "Wait, that¡¯s weird, how can I remember what that structure is?" Were some old memories or new ones? Were those even my memories? "Fuck." I then had a terrible headache that rendered me useless for a few seconds as more and more flashes appeared on my mind as small explosions. An old house, a room full of papers, a grass field at night, a sky with stars, a little girl... the last one was like a short sequence. There was an energy portal, filled with light. Something was carrying me towards it as a woman shouted. I saw shadows and darkness. Too many things, too fast to make a clear thought. "AGHH!! Ahhh, ahh..." Some screens began to vibrate as the purple light on my eyes switched on and off multiple times. As the last memory faded, my eyes dimmed too. "These memory waves sure are painful. Some triggers activate them, but it didn''t end as badly as one back at the tree." There is nothing melted here, and the dead ones were already in that state before. A few screens then turned red and showed something that looked like darkness with a few bright spots. "Is that an image of the space?" I could not see it clearly as some bright lights shone at the screen, an explosion in the darkness of space. Something fell towards the screen, I saw that it was a piece of a spaceship. It destroyed the camera, and we could see nothing else. I prepared for something too. A couple of seconds later, there was no reaction. "Maybe that was some sort of old footage, stored and-" * brrrmmm¡­ I felt it clearly with both my body and senses. A faint, but distinct vibration. ¡°Oh, fuck! Hell no!! I HAD THREE MONTHS!¡± ¡°What do you mean? I slept a lot?!! How long did the evolution take!!¡± ¡°Uhhh, okay. Norn!! You scared the shit out of me!¡± I paid no attention to Darwin, too busy to mess with Norn. She was trying to get me scared or something, I don¡¯t like her jokes. ¡°It¡¯s true! You have no humor nor taste!¡± ¡°Okey, I dare you to tell a joke!¡± ¡°Who¡¯s there?¡± ¡°What?! Where did you fucking learned those words?!¡± ¡°Oh, right, I¡¯m the one teaching them to you.¡± * Brooommm¡­.. "Fuck, I mean, fudge! Whatever is happening, it¡¯s huge enough to cause vibrations and seems to be getting closer to the lab." "Okay, that plan has many leaks, we will work on it as we get there." -------------- ¡°Norn, I want wings! ¡­ I know I can''t fly in space, you dummy! ¡­ Nononono, sorry, don¡¯t make them so expensive! C¡¯mon, don¡¯t you wanna fly someday too? Truce?¡± Chapter 15 - The door I tried to memorize as much information as possible from the different screens, but most of the cameras were either broken or pointing to no useful places. There were some useful screens, though. Mainly about the next biomes. Sea, ice, jungle¡­ how did they put all of this into a lab? It should have cost a few billion or more. ¡°Okey, that¡¯s a lot. We could get our hands in a few space stones of that and buy a city¡¯s worth of food, what do you say Norn?¡± ¡°Darwin? How can we grab that stone?¡± ¡°Wow, I want it. So bad. Fuck the food." "I want my own pocket world. How could we get it, Darwin?!" ¡°You make it sound kind of harsh. So this, Aeldari, are they like, willing to help others?¡± ¡°Oh shit, space elves? We¡¯re fucked. Those are a prideful bunch of fuckers filled with malice and prejudices against other races.¡± I stopped and pondered about it. How did I know that? Shaking my head, I let that thought go as it came. ¡°Well, almost every creature I have met was trying to either kill me, hurt me or eat me, sometimes all three of them in any order. So yeah, I''m quite concerned about my security. And what about you?! You treat every single living being as food, isn¡¯t that like¡­ Racist?¡± ¡°Uh-huh, yeah, sure. Not a bit psycho at all.¡± As we kept speaking, the floor has trembled a couple of times. Whatever kind of battle taking place outside the lab, one thing was sure. It could blast all of us into oblivion. "I want a spaceship so bad¡­" "WE CAN HAVE ONE? MANY? Oh god, I am so pumped right now!" I went back into the room filled with decayed and tainted vegetation and tried to salvage any clean biomass that was left. I also began to summon units and let them keep clearing the area and digest the highly corrupted biomass. --------------- The corridor was in silence. But the spiders knew they had to defend it. They had set the silk trap in place to avoid any intruders to pass and disturb the mother-queen. One of the younger spiders had picked up something. It appeared to be a bug-thing, like the ones that attacked a few days ago, hurting their brothers and sisters. The spider soon detected more of them, bloated and slow, the dangerous ones! She quickly began to move some key threads alerting the whole nest, bringing it into life. More and more arachnids began to appear and took positions, waiting for their prey to get closer to the trap. It was weird, the bug-things were walking straight to the web. The first of them just arrived at the web¡¯s side and began to pour some foul liquid that burned the webs and emitted toxic fumes. All spiders were on high alert! What is that liquid? It was dangerous. The mother-queen was monitoring everything from the nests¡¯ chambers. She then moved a few strings to communicate with her descendants. Capture them and bring them to the queen so she could eat their flesh. The spiders moved with enthusiasm to follow their queen''s orders. Soon, their kind would dominate the great rift and fight against the fly-things! Death to the fly-things! The spider saw how its brothers and sisters jumped through the web towards the bugs-things, capturing them in a quick and decisive action. The bigger spiders attacked through the ground, and the smaller ones threw the webs in an agile and elaborate strategy. They captured all of them; their destiny was sealed in white silk. The bug-things were immobilized and pushed through the air vent right into the nest. A few minutes later, they were offered to the mother-queen. But then, more enemies arrived at our doors! Bigger bug-things with huge pincers!! They tried using those claws and pincers to cut our silk trap, in a futile attempt. A few minutes later, all of them were either stuck or surrounded by drone brothers. Again, we used silk to wrap them and sent them to the queen¡¯s sacred chambers. It kept happening every few hours. We grew used to their strategies and optimized our hunting strategy.Stolen story; please report. Not a single enemy managed to pass through our superior senses and infinite view. We will prevail. ------------ "Aaaand, that was the last one." I waited for a few more minutes and kept checking the spider nest. The situation was what I hoped for. They were a weird kind of eusocial nest of spiders. Despite the lack of sense, I learned as they captured our brood. The smaller spiders acted like sentinels to the designed post. Once a threat came, they called for their bigger counterparts and joined the fight, shooting silk threads. One thing was sure, they were not too bright. ¡°They kept capturing each and every unit I sent, not knowing they are getting closer to their doom! Hahahahah.¡± ¡°Always a joy to hear you, Norn.¡± I sent some telepathic orders, and a chemical reaction started happening inside the nest. Most of the cocoons began emitting grey and green smoke that keeps spreading and poisoning the air. The spiders broke into chaos mode, not knowing what to do. Most of them went back into the nest to protect the queen, blocking the other spiders trying to escape from the poison. Having unlocked the Spore biomorph to level 3 was a good idea. I could enhance my units, implanting biomorphs into them to a limit. I put venom glands in most of the first batches and pincers in the rest so they could destroy the web obstruction in the corridor. The first part worked perfectly, but the nest was still there. I was now my turn to get out of this biome. We could not find any more biomass, so it was time to move further into the lab. Summoning a new batch of units, I started walking towards the intersection. Trying a new tactic, I put a bomb unit on top of my head so it can function as an improvised cannon, spreading venom and acid everywhere there are webs and silk. In case of a major threat, it could always jump and detonate. The fight started as soon as we approached the silk threads. The confused spiders were easy prey for my first round of fighters, but their friends at the ceiling soon noticed us. More and more white threads fell upon us, and my bomb units started to show their might. My bomb unit saved me from getting trapped, and I kept pumping venom and spores into it, so the unit did not run out of juice for the time being. When we were arriving at the door¡¯s frame, I heard a loud crack, then another. I turned to see what was that noise. A couple of spiders jumped at me while I was distracted, biting my side. It hurt quite a bit, but my reinforced chitin helped to keep the damages to a minimum. With a slash from my tail, I chop them both and pick one to keep eating and gaining a few more points. Desperate times indeed. Every biomass point was necessary. I eroded my reserve to poison their nest and wasted several times my reserve of energy to allow the units to keep attacking. I turned, and I saw the poisoned and enraged spider queen smashing its body against the glass. It did not look good, the glass was cracking. "Fuuuck, quick, fighters, to the hinges! Break them!" The damage we did a few hours before helped speed the process, and the acid mixture had weakened the old door. But its a huge fucking metal reinforced door! "Who the hell installs this kind of door into a lab? What would happen if they run out of electrici-" * CRACHHSHHH ¡°Oh, fuck!!¡± I turned again, and I saw a half of the spider''s body out of the room already. There was black smoke getting out, and most of the spiders on the nest were dead or too poisoned to put up a fight. More and more spiders were falling from the air vent and joining the fight. Half of the fighters stopped their work at the door and turned to fight them. I kept losing more and more units, and so, I had to burn biomass at every second to keep throwing units at the fight. It was a dire situation. The fight was more or less stable for the next minute until the spider queen managed to get out of its cage. It was poisoned and had several cuts on its lower abdomen, but it wasn''t enough. She stood up and started to walk towards us. "I can pass to the next biome! I just need a couple of minutes!" I summoned a pair of bomb units and grabbed one with my tail. I spun and sent it flying next to the queen. * Booom! Screaaach!!! The bomb exploded onto the spider''s body, damaging it. Then I grabbed the second and repeated the process, but failed to hit the queen as another spider attacked me and threw more web onto my body. "Goddammit." The little unit on top of me started to pour acid to melt the threads, and then, I saw the queen approaching us. ¡°We¡¯re running low on time!!! How is the door?!" "WHAT! C¡¯mon, we need to work faster!!¡± I created two more bombs and took one, throwing it to the spider. The second one walked slowly and attached itself to the spider. The one I missed came back and grabbed a rear leg while the other was on the abdomen, the spider wasn''t even paying them any attention. "It will be your loss." I then hit my tail against the door and managed to finally break one of the three main hinges that were holding the door. "One less! Two to go." * Thump, thump... The spider queen was now at 15 meters, getting closer step by step. It was quite slow, but also relentless despite the poison and injuries. "Fuck!" I sent a couple of fighters to try to gain some time while I kept damaging the door with all my strength. They attacked and managed to hurt one of its legs, but that only enraged her even more. The huge queen turned her back at us and started shooting huge amounts of webs, trapping all of us. The mite over my head began to pour some poison, damaging the web. But it is way less effective than with regular silk. I saw my energy levels and gritting my maw, I activated the spores and burned the last reserves of biomass I had to gain a few seconds worth of energy. ¡°Why is she not being affected by the poison?! Those fumes were filled with venom designed to break apart cells, and I don¡¯t see that happening! Norn?!!! Any input?" "A catalyst?! Seriously!!! I asked you before to make a big boom with fire!! Now you ask me to cause her critical damage somehow?! Okay! I¡¯m on it.¡± The spores began to destroy a section of the webs and kept damaging the door at the same time as they spread. I picked the unit on top of my head, the little bomb, and prepared to throw it. Once the spider saw me destroying her webs, she roared and began sprinting towards me. 8 meters, 7, 6...5¡­ 4. I could see every little detail of the huge and bloated body, there were injuries and damaged tissue here and there, but it wasn''t enough to stop it. 3 meters, she is over us!!!! ¡°NOW!!!¡± * BOOM BOOMM!!! Two explosions happen at the same time and pick by surprise the spider, one at her back legs and another on her thorax, hurting her badly with venom, toxins, acid, and pieces of chitin shrapnel. She then screams of pain, severely wounded. Using that chance, I threw the last bomb into her mouth, and I saw it doubt for a second; I smiled and blinked at her, then¡­ "DO IT!" * BOOMMM!!! Half of her face explodes and melts at the same time. Her whole body broke apart and fell to the ground, dead. "Yes!! We did it!!" The amount of damage she could sustain was incredible. Way beyond what I initially expected. I went to the top of her head and bit at it with my secondary maws, breaking it apart and digging with my claws to try to find a core, as Norn asked me to do. A few seconds later, I found it. That crystal had a lot of value for me right now. It was both an energy source and a promise of evolution. A core the size of a small egg. It was huge compared to the pea-sized of the first bird and the pebble size of the second. This one was twice as big in comparison. And now it was mine. I collapsed on the ground, completely drained. I rested for a few seconds, too exhausted to think about anything. ¡°What?! Oh shit!!!¡± Another bunch of spiders started to appear out of the nest! "Where did those come from!?" I sent the last 3 fighters to protect me while I ate the flesh of the queen; it tasted horrible but is also so full of energy and rich biomass. I kept eating and eating until I felt bloated. Then, I went to the door and started to slash at the weakened area to make way for myself. I used the spores, a bomber, and even my tail to pry and try to open an overture. After a few seconds, I started to feel a few cracks appear at the pincers of my tail. They were too damaged from all the hits. But it was done. I managed to create a breach. I then use my mouth to try to make it big enough to pass. Once my energy rose a bit, I threw more units to defend me while burning the recently ingested biomass. I paid very little attention to the battle next to me, as I was entirely focused on leaving. But then, I felt some huge vibrations again and turned slowly. "What the hell is that?!" I turned and saw another spider queen. Despite being half the size of the recently deceased queen, it was well over 70 to 80 kilograms, more than twice my weight, and I was considerably tired already, without much reserves nor units to fight. I had to run. The spider queen saw the corpse of the colossal queen dead and looked at me, roaring. It then starts a mad sprint to catch me, ignoring the units in front of it. The fighters kept attacking it, but its size alone was enough to keep advancing through the battlefield. The area was filled with corpses of both mites and spiders. Acid burns and body parts present everywhere. The spiders on the ceiling had nearly run dry of silk to throw but kept attacking nonetheless. I tried to pass through the whole but got stuck due to my bloated body. "FUCK! I overate, damn it!" I kept pushing and managed to fit my head and front claws, then 2 legs that I used to keep pushing. ¡°Norn!! Make the chitin weaker or something for a few seconds!" "YOU ASKED ME TO EAT, now help me!!! We¡¯re gonna get eaten if you don''t!!!¡± It had been a horrible decision to eat so much without thinking. As I was stuck and only managed to hurt my body by pushing, I activated the spores, damaging the metal even more. As I felt the large creature approaching, I panicked and managed to push 2 more legs. I was halfway, but some chitin plaques were stuck and didn''t allow me to move any further. As I was desperate, I started to swing my tail blindly to scare the small queen while I was pushing and making my best effort to get through the door. But then, the worst happened. * Chomp!! "AGHH!! Let me go, you 8 legged bastard!" The spider managed to catch my tail with threads and started to pull it to the other side. ¡°No, no, no, no! Aghhhhhg, Darwin! Can you detach it from our body???¡± ¡°JUST DO IT!¡± * Cr-craackk!! I felt pain in my lower back as my flesh and chitin were being severed. A few seconds later, I felt something breaking apart, and I was ejected from the door, flying half a meter and rolling through the ground. "Fuck... That was way too close¡­" My body began to heal shortly afterward, but I was half-dead on the floor, too busy, just breathing. Concept Art https://imgur.com/gallery/0pjKufAEnjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Well, the complete image from a young version of Kai. This artwork is a commission I asked Helge C. Balzer to create for the story, so I hope you like the brutal and visceral vibe it gets!! If you like the story and want tosupport spread the Heresy, you can checkmy Patreon :p Have a nice day! BrokenOath Chapter 16 - Stories next to the river It took me a couple of minutes to process the whole fight. "That was exhausting¡­" I got up and moved far from the door that keeps being struck and hit. With occasional hisses and threads being thrown at this side. ¡°Well, I survived! That was good. I just had to lose my tail¡­ Darwin, what did you said before? I was too stressed to listen.¡± ¡°I will wait for it to heal and then reconstruct the biomorph.¡± That would render me almost defenseless for a while, but I didn''t have enough biomass right now. I turned myself to look at the new area, and it was indeed beautiful. Full of life, green plants, with a waterfall, a river, and a lake. Part of the biome was a forest and part, a green meadow with some vines, flowers, and a huge tree. It looked like a buffet to me right now. But, first things first. I had to go hiding and rest. After that, it was crucial growing familiar with the biome. I sent a couple of mites with enhanced senses to explore and ten collectors to begin the Tyranid formation process. From a vibrant forest to dead rocks without even minerals or metals. A few minutes after resting, I move to the river area, finding a nice burrow and hiding there. ¡°Hmmm.. Norn, could you work on some units to filter water? That could speed up the gathering process.¡± ¡°Hey Darwin, what can we really eat, and what can we not? Could we just go to a huge gas planet that has the right amount of elements and just drying it up of everything?" ¡°That sounds quite simple-minded to me. Is there any reason behind that apart from the animal instincts? I mean, that sounds just like a locust plague somewhat.¡± ¡°Do you know it? Norn, can you explain it to us? We have some time until I recover so¡­¡± I frowned as much as my chitinous face allowed me and sighed. Norn could be a nuisance to work with sometimes. I listened to Darwin explain their story, trying to pay my utmost attention. I was probably the first human being to ever know of this information. I felt honored, somehow. Like I was part of that story. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. As Darwin talked about their past, I started to see echoes of such fights. I saw it as a small unit flying, as a Norn queen working, as a huge fighter killing; I saw it as part of their race. The wars and their desperation when hiding on the ocean. The centuries of forced changes and adaptation, and finally, the conquering of the surface with teeth and claws. Again, I saw rudimentary organisms take off from the worlds, merge into hive ships and travel from planet to planet, their moons, and asteroids, expanding, building. I frowned as that was not what I expected from the Tyranids. "You had an empire? I thought Tyranids only devastated." "They? You mean that mechanical race?" "Corruption¡­" "What were they? From what you describe, they were probably some sort of robots or AI." I kept listening to Darwin, as my mites came back regularly to give me some biomass they could collect and DNA samples from the plants and vegetation from the forest. I was totally thrilled by this history. ¡°Wow, that was, quite sad. But why did the AI said that in this galaxy, every race was our enemy?¡± ¡°Huh, that certainly depends on the point of view. What is good for a spider sure is hell for a fly.¡± I said while pondering about all the information Darwin shared with me. Meanwhile, Norn was still busy trying to unlock further biomorphs, allow me to level up, and create new units. A busy Queen. After a few hours in this biome, I had a better understanding of its structure and the areas in it. Most of the forest was brimming with life. I saw small rodents, reptiles, and birds. So that was an excellent place to increase our biomass fast. I turned towards the door and saw how damaged it was. But at least, it was holding in its place. After our fight, the new spider leading that nest tried to burst through the door by attacking it. It lasted only a few minutes, but I was relieved once it stopped. I had a couple of bomb units throwing acid at the door''s breach to avoid any small spiders from crossing. I did not want them to create a new silk nest on this side of the door. "We will start gathering resources from the forest. But what worries me are the lake and the meadows." I saw some significant movement on the waters, and I wasn''t sure how to face any aquatic enemies yet. And the seemingly quiet meadows were simply... eerie. No birds or insects were flying around. I just saw a few rabbit-like creatures in the area near the river. And flowers. Lots of them grew on the further wall near the big tree. There had to be a reason for this weird phenomenon. I was really interested in the area and sent a mite to explore, but it was too far to pick up anything weird, so I should go myself to see what is happening there. I decided to mark it for exploration after gaining back my tail. I felt kind of defenseless without it right now. I sent a pack of fighters with pincers, venomous tails, and reinforced chitin to break into the forest. They started hunting and killing every animal that they found. Only a few small or nimble creatures escaped the sweep. We detected a few openings that looked like cenotes too. I disregarded them as most of them were inundated and lead to water caves. I got there and started to gather the biomass. "Kill, eat, and grow. Right,Norn?¡± She doesn''t respond, though. After getting our stomach full of new DNA, I sent the mites again to the nearest trees. I approached the river and picked some readings, but barely anything useful. There seemed to be quite a lot of living organisms down there, and I wanted to explore that area to gain a better understanding of the biome and its inhabitants. Now, I could either keep cleaning this side of the forest or pick one of two paths. Either go to the meadows, with its weird flower zone, or jump at the river, which has unknown threats. "Decisions, decisions." I summoned a unit and threw it into the air. "Ok, heads the flower zone, tails the river." The poor mite kept flying for a couple of seconds before going down, and when it fell makes itself a ball. "Damn, I didn''t see that coming." But, when it opened, it was heads. I looked at it and sighed. "To the green fields, it is..." I looked at the greenfield and its inhabitants. A group of rabbits was eating in it, somewhat agitated by the fights at the forest, but they were entirely passive otherwise. Chapter 17 - The meadow I drank from the river, but the water had some sort of salty aftertaste that was quite horrible. The filters had probably collapsed long ago. It was a miracle that the river itself still was still running. After searching for a shallow part to cross without being too exposed, I found a fallen tree and used it as a bridge. Walking through it, I hesitated before putting a chitinous leg at the grass like it was going to bite at me. "Sigh... I''m too tense." I then walked over and created a few collectors to gather food. The fighters that were walking with me gave me little assurance, though. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but there is something eerie about those flowers. They seem ominous to me.¡± I bit my own tongue, to the point of injuring myself, and had to stop when Darwin alerted about the damages I caused to myself. Norn and Darwin did not understand what my problem was, but I had a gut feeling that this area hides a certain danger I would not like to awaken. But, as I waited, nothing unusual happened. Not a sound nor a hidden attack. So after a couple of minutes of hesitation, I decided to advance again and summon a fighter equipped with sensors to pick any strange readings and help me to survey the area. I should have done that before. After 15 minutes, we didn¡¯t get anything strange, near the river. We then moved closer to the tree that was in the middle of the meadow. It was the only characteristic feature of this area, beside the flower wall near the waterfall. It looked like a cedar tree, not matching the rest of the jungle-like forest on the other side of the river. At the shadow of the tree, I could see some more rabbit-creatures resting and eating some grass. Lots of cute rabbits and bunnies. I only saw prey and food at this point. I was undoubtedly becoming desensitized. I sent the fighters and caught a few of them silently, pulling them from the further sides of the pack. Despite our silent killing, the air got a bloody metallic smell that put all the pack in tension. I walked and stepped on a branch, making a loud sound and sending the creatures into a panic. Some rabbits went hiding into their burrows, and others ran to a further region closer to the river. Nearly all of them avoided the flower wall filled with vines. Only a few of the younger ones moved in that direction. "That would be quite a distinct hiding spot, what¡¯s wrong with it?" I then proceed to fall back to the ground and wait, observing their behavior. The area started to calm down after a few minutes. And after a full hour, the situation was more or less the same as before. It seems like the bunnies were not a menace. I then focused my attention on the tree. I sent the scouts to climb it and get a better view. From there, I could get some interesting data. The light from the ceiling was produced by some sort of glowing rocks. I thought it was electrical, but any components would have been broken apart after a certain time. I decided to rest in this area for a few more hours while the healing and regrowth took place. I got some biomass that the collectors gathered near the riverside.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I wanted to be prepared for any unexpected occurrences before touching anything weird, like the tree or the flowers. I asked Norn about the progress for the eleventh time. She was quite pissed off at this point. "Norn, how is the-" The rabbit pack started to make way to feed once they had rested enough, and they scattered through the field, giving me a few more chances to capture and kill some of them. The air began to get filled with blood smell. I keep eating while observing the behavior of these animals. To make time and speed the biomass gathering, I called the collectors and sent them to gather some leaves and parts of the tree. "Darwin, show me the status." Primal Adult- Ripper Level - 5 (80 biomass to level up) Health - 18/21 - Regrowing Tail Energy - 0/80 Biomass Reserves - 46 biomass Str - 18 Res - 15 Vit - 14 Agi - 12 Int - 8 Poison sting level 0/2 - Damaged Pincer level 0/1 - Damaged "Okay, the damages are there, but in a few more hours, I will be able to regrow my biomorphs and fight like before." As I was focused on my stats, a lonely bunny got near the flowers, driven by curiosity. It smelled and hopped here and there. I stopped and focused my full attention on that outlier. "It¡¯s the first time I see any animal interact with those flowers. Darwin, move the scout closer!" As the bunny was hesitating to munch on some of the leaves, one of the flowers started to rotate to face it; when the rabbit noticed the weird phenomenon, the flower jumped and caught the animal before it could react. ¡°Oh shit!! I knew there was something wicked about this area.¡± The still fighting animal was then pulled back, and the flower hid it onto the vine section, where more flowers turned to feed on it. "Sure, Norn! Do you also want a massage and... wait, are they looking at us?!!" The flowers started to turn towards our direction, one by one, and a few seconds later, there were nearly a hundred white, blue, yellow, and red flowers ''looking at us''. I stood quiet for a second, then started walking back, just how I did with the spider back then. "This is bad. I knew it, damn it." The flowers seemed to have caught blood scent or something because they dropped from the wall and start to creep in our direction, slowly at first, then faster. ¡°Damn, fuck, fuckk!!¡± "How is it possible for the flowers to creep like snakes with that speed!?" I ran with my fighters and left the tree area quickly as the flower-snakes arrived; I turned to see a disturbing scene as half of the flowers had attached to the rabbits and were partially growing on the still-living animals. The bunnies jumped in panic and squicked, but then, they started to turn silent and stand up with their bodies bleeding and roots growing on their skin and flesh. "Holy fuck! Are those vines parasites?!" The rabbits then began to hop, following us. After a few seconds, they started moving faster than we could run. I dropped a couple of bombs to distract them while I was running towards the bridge. The flowers-zombie rabbits start to gather on the mites and- * BOoomM, BOOM!! The bombs were triggered. I turned and saw the bloody and terrible after effects of the explosions. Nearly a fifth of the animals were broken bodies at this point. Many more had several burns on their bodies, but they didn''t seem to pay attention to that. Their expressions were just blank and empty. They all look at the injuries sustained by the tree. Somehow a bomb exploded next to it and had ruined quite a lot of the branches. All of the flowers then turn and look at me¡­ ¡°Really? I hadn¡¯t noticed, Sherlock! FUCK! Here they come again!!¡± Despite the many injuries, their decaying flesh, or burned skin, they keep jumping and running in our direction. They have taken it very seriously now! Even personal, I would say. I chomped at the wood a few times to destroy the bridge, just in time to break it to the river before the pack could use it to pass. They stopped and stayed at their side of the river somehow. ¡°Uhh¡­ That¡¯s certainly a lucky fear they do have. Do we have any sample of-¡± Just then, the first hare steps onto the river, and then the next one follows. ¡°FUCK! Retreat!!¡± I kept running near the riverside as I was not sure how long could I hide in the forest. I was not even sure how to fight this snake-things that have attached themselves to the rabbits. While I was starting to feel quite pressured, I found what I was looking for, a burrow for some animals that lived on the river. I decided to hide there and jump to the cold waters. I had a hard time trying to swim with a still-growing tail. I fell into the river¡¯s bottom and walked from there to the hole. I saw some weird movement onto the waters nearby, but it was too fast to see it properly. Was there something else following me? I sent a psychic order for the bombs defending the door to come and detonate themselves at the river to pollute the waters and scare any brave animals with their powerful acid and toxins. The effect would probably get diluted, but it was going to spread to every inch of this side of the river for a few minutes. I had to be quick, as I started to see some weird looking figures jumping at the water, the zombie rabbits again! "God, I seriously never thought that the combination of a flower and a rabbit would produce some scary fucking weird zombie creature." I entered the burrow and moved through it, going under the forest for a few meters until I noticed a cenote. "Well, time to explore the third option. The underwater caves." References (among many others) Rol Manuals and Miniature games - WH40k Tiranid + Genestealer Codex, The Others: 7 Sins, Cyberpunk 2020, Downfall, GeneFunk 2090, Augmented Reality Books - Lovecraft, Dune, The Foundation¡¯s Trilogy, Starship Troopers, Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451, A stranger in a Strange Land, Ender¡¯s Game, American Gods, the Windup Girl, Clockwork Orange, Neuromancer Series & Anime - Cowboy Bebop, Ghost in the Shell, Ergo Proxy, Evangelion, Avatar - Last Airbender Comic, Manga & Webtoon - Sandman, Kumo Desu Ga, Hellboy, Priest, Constantine, Knight Run, Duty after School, HIVE, Gamer, All You Need Is Kill, Battle Angel Alita, Gone with the Blastwave.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Webnovel - My House of Horrors, Release That Witch, Monster Paradise, Number One Dungeon Supplier, The Mech Touch, Chrysalis, I have a mansion in a Post-apocalyptic world, There is no epic loot here, only puns, The Ultimate Evolution, The Everyday Grind. Films & Series - Astartes (Short animation), Matrix, Alien, Event Horizon, The Thing, Blob, IT, Serenity, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Mad Max, Dagon, Stranger Things, Pandorum Games - Gears of War, Resistance Fall of Men, Dead Space, Metroid, I have no mouth but I must scream, Distant Worlds, Dwarf Fortress (FUN), Zelda Majora¡¯s Mask, Deus Ex, Resident Evil, Jak & Daxter Trilogy, Metal Gear Solid II & III, Evolve Webs & Other references - WH40k Lexicanum & Fandom, 1d4Chan, TvTropes, Pinterest, Deviantart, ArtStation Everyday Life - Barcelona, Metro Stations, My job. Chapter 18 - Under the forest After hours of exploring, it was clear that the millennia had taken its toll on this biome. There was an extensive cave system I found after swimming for 2 or 3 minutes under the water. I asked Norn for that particular modified unit that could filter water, and she told me she was working on it at full speed. If I could catch some fish, algae, or seafood, it could help her gain valuable DNA to speed the process of iterations. "First of all, it was a fucking rabbit that got too close to that wall of flower things, and second¡­ we now have all these caves to explore!" I kept swimming and breathing from individual air pockets I found by the way, but it was not entirely efficient, and after half an hour, I had to stop because I nearly drown. Norn told me I could enhance the glandules to work into an anaerobic system at level 3 or 4, but that was way too far for the current me. After exploring the caves a bit more, we found a cenote area. Some open-air holes feed upon the water of the river from secondary tributaries. There were also some traces of animals living on those caves or visiting them to drink from a safe water source. I waited for Norn as she told me that the new unit was almost complete. After a couple more hours, she started to brag about how she''s such an expert and bla, bla, bla. Just as self-centered as always. "What? No, I do like the new unit. I''m not complaining." "You want me to what?" "Ejem¡­. Okay, here it goes. ''Good job,'' Norn. See? I wasn''t bad talking." She has done a great job with the iteration of this unit; I could see how Norn used the collector and bomb frames as inspiration for this new design. I created a new unit, and I saw that it looks like a barrel with legs. This unit could absorb both liquid or air, so it was able to transport oxygen and other necessary gas elements I need for breathing. It also could filter and collect the water into biomass with ease, much faster than the smaller mite collectors were able to do. Yet water alone will render us nearly nothing to keep investing and advancing in the gene path. I decided to invest in a few modified tails for them, paying a few bio points to allow the nids sort of swimming mechanism on the water-filled caves. As we kept traveling through the cave system, I started to pick some noise readings, similar to clicks. I couldn''t measure the distance as the sound traveled so much faster through the water. Before I could find the source, the noise stopped. After a few hours, we had not advanced too much. I could not swim properly yet, and I also was concerned about meeting some nasty neighbors if I moved carelessly. Until my tail heals appropriately, I won''t take any fight head-on. My senses then started indicating a change in water composition. "Huh, it''s saltier?" Maybe the lake was fed by saltwater and could have marine life in it. And by how much we already moved, we could easily be at some point connected to the oceanic-lake.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. I haven''t found any animals in the cave after many hours, that was weird. Something had cleaned this cave to the bare bones before us. After a couple more turns, we found traces of acidic elements on the water. It was a low concentration, but the source could be dangerous for what I picked. Maybe there was some chemical spill killing everything at the caves system. "We need to find a resting area¡­" I needed to stop and heal myself, but I haven''t seen any adequate cave yet. Checking the gains from the last few hours, I saw we have over 80 biomass. I could try something new instead. If there were no place big enough, I would build it! I repaired the pincers and even upgraded them to level 2. "Norn, help me out with this idea, I need you to-" "Just do it!" Soon, my head starts to hurt, and the mouth area ripped itself apart, creating a split lower jaw. * Craack! "Agrhhr!!" As the biomorphs got stable, I started to try it to dig, and I was surprised by the positive result. I could now move earth and crush rock by sheer strength quite swiftly. With the idea of creating a place to rest, I summoned a few more fighters to help. I also implanted them with the newly develop maw, mixing the fangs and pincers biomorphs. I send them to help me dig a cave where we can sleep for a few hours. We will be using it as our base and resting point from now on. "Darwin, can you show me the stats? " Primal Adult- Ripper Level - 5 (80 biomass to level up) Health - 20/21 - Regrowing tail Energy - 48/80 Biomass Reserves - 28 biomass Energy Core (medium) Str - 18 Res - 15 Vit - 14 Agi - 12 Int - 8 Support level 2 Enhanced senses level 2 Maw and claws level 3 Chitin level 2 Poison sting level 0/2 - Damaged Spores level 3 Pincer level 2 - 1 level up Adrenal glands, level 1 Minor -> Collectors, Fighters, Bomb, Transport (new) "Great, it seems that we are advancing." I then lose myself digging, and I space out. It gives me time to think about the last ten days. "I can''t believe how much has changed in so little time¡­" "Shaddup Norn, you''re horrible. Haven''t you got the slightest piece of emotion or empathy?" "Bah, I knew it. Wait, did you call me Kai? Where did you hear that?" "STOP Digging into my memories, Norn! I did not ask you to do that, nor I want you to pull out any more information without asking me first." I got enraged because of the disrespect from Norn; she had been picking into my past without my knowledge. I felt betrayed. My eyes shone with purple light, and the whole cave trembled with chaotic psychic energy that pulsated from my body. She has certainly been changing, but it does not justify the fact that she did it on my back. I closed my eyes and began to calm down, still upset. "Just don''t do it again, I will keep working on the base." This whole situation had put me into a sour mood. I focused on the work for a few hours, trying to get over the previous fight. After much effort, we created a decent opening to build a nest under the forest. I did use some of my vague notions and knowledge about physics to avoid flooding the whole cave but allowing some water to enter and flow naturally into a pool where I had a few transporters absorb it to filter nutrients and biomass. --------------- As I finished the work, the tail''s wound finally healed. "Darwin, let''s regrow the biomorph already." We check it with Norn, and I end up spending 30 biomass units for the limb, and ten extra to speed up the process. In addition to that, I regrow the tail''s pincers, making them sharp and increasing the tail''s already dangerous vibe. It could now trap enemies when closing the biomorph or slash at our enemies more effectively with the side of the chitin pincer. But I had a hard time deciding what to do with the venom sting. It''s been quite useful, but I don''t like the idea to keep risking myself every time there is a fight, so I decided to modify the tail, allowing it an option to shoot some nasty projectiles with a swing. With that, I have mostly expended my small fortune of biomass. I listened to Norn and God. It does HURT when the tail''s biomorphs grow back again!!! It''s like burning, itching, and being smashed all at once. I didn''t want to think about the next level; it could be deadly. * Vrroommmrrrrr¡­. The whole cave trembled. Probably the lab had too, as some after-effects of the space battle had hit the moon''s surface. "Fuck, I almost forgot about the space battle, how many hours have they been fighting already?" "Hmm, okay, so we might still have a few more days until they either blow up one another or one of their vessels tries to breach the lab. Let''s call it a day and go to rest!" Tomorrow I''ll investigate the deeper areas of the cave system and try to find some food. Chapter 19 - Deep waters I woke up after having some bad dreams, but I forgot every piece of them as soon as I opened my eyes. Well, some of them. Even while I sleep, I have 2 or 3 of my six eyes opened, so I always have some vision of my surroundings. After moving around the small cave, I checked the biomass gathered by my transporters and was quite happy with the number, nearly 100 points ready to do something with them. I decided to invest in a couple of new transporters, raising them to 5 and leaving three fighters with substantial biomorph upgrades to fight with me. These bad bugs had been with me for a few hours already, even escaped the flowerpokalypse. Then, I sent two transporters back to the cenotes to gather air and carry it back to the cave, making it more breathable. I escorted them with the fighters while the rest of the transports were either digging or filtering. Luckily there were no incidents, so after a couple of travels, I left them to work autonomously. I wanted to catch some snake-plants to unlock their weird DNA, but I thought it would trigger them to hunt me again, and that''s a big concern right now. I''m not going to give away my position so quickly, not before I level up and can put up a fight in this cave. For that, I need more than raw strength. We need new units and reliable defenses. While swimming with the units, I turned my head slightly to look at my body. After the new changes I did with my biomorphs, I have a slightly thinner body frame, but it''s way more agile and adapted to moving through the water, so I don''t feel like it is too bad. "Ok, time to explore!" My team and I, with a transporter for air, jumped into the water and we kept exploring for half an hour before we reached some exciting places. There were traces of some sort slime or worms in the cave. I found pools of red goo on the bottom of the cave that picked my interest; it looked like some slither creatures passed through here. I tried to pick it up with one of my limbs, but it started to burn my chitin and become apparent that it was a dangerous element. I detached a few chitin plaques from my leg and avoided touching that again. "This could be an interesting weapon!! I need to avoid killing myself while getting it." Ten minutes later, we found a group of red worms devouring the remains of a body with a weird skull at the bottom of a tunnel, next to an opening to the biome''s vast lake. Huh, so some creature was enough of an idiot to be captured by them. I sent a fighter to catch one and come back, but as soon as my unit bites it, the worm started to fight back, releasing an enormous cloud of red goo we saw and biting back the skull of my fighter that starts to panic trying to detach that vermin from itself.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. As it was fighting and moving erratically, the rest of the worms picked up the scent of blood and started to converge on my unit, attacking it and devouring the mite with an insane level of aggression and hunger. It was a short but gory show. As I see the fight lost, I order my unit to jump to the open lake to try to minimize the concentration. It barely manages to fall down the cave before dying. "My god, Norn, I think I have a new pet for you, they seem just as hungry as you used to be!" "Yeah, that sounds like a plan." I swam forward to the area where the vermin are still populating the skull from an unknown species. Their numbers have reduced, but after giving it a thought, I created a fighter and sent it in a suicide mission again. After a couple more tries, I could finally see that the worms were eating. It seems like a crab of some sort, quite mutated, and- "Is that a core?!! Okey, the danger level of this little worms has increased by a whole level." If they could kill a corrupted beast with a core, they surely can handle me if I give them the chance to surround me with enough numbers. Another mite dies bravely infested by a considerable group of worms, and all that remains are a few dozens more. I go close enough to feel my chitin itching and pick one of those red worm bastards. It starts to bite my limb with fury immediately. "You think you are so tough. Let''s see if you like your own medicine!!" I bite at it, and it plops in my mouth and, oh GOD. I feel lava in my mouth!! "IT''S FUCKING SPICY!!! Aghhhh! For god''s sake, what are these worms made of!?!?" I barely heard Darwin as I was too focused on the painful sensation melting my mouth. I even had to release poison to try to decrease the damage in my mouth and stomach. My hp fell from 21 points to nearly 13 in less than a minute, but I survived the test. I kept drinking water from the environment, but it didn''t help much with the burning after taste of this inferno creatures. "I could? But you saw how they melted the fighters defenses, that''s some serious acid there. It would not have worked." I then did a mental puppy look to Norn, and she started to fumble about being exploited to work all day long, having no food or rest. "Norn, I gathered that bastard. Could you please do some weapon with them?" "Sure, keep doing your thing, Norn." Darwin then put a piece of advice that I found quite interesting. "That''s also a good idea Darwin" With that, I could stop micromanaging every aspect of the fights, and focus more on our strategy and defense. "Norn, are we ready to level up? No?? Tomorrow?! But why? What do you mean blocked?! Aghhhh, ok, keep working on it then, I will keep exploring this area then." I used another fighter and several collectors to try to eat a few worms, with very little success. These worms not only provoked the units'' severe corrosive damage, but they also devoured vasts amounts of biomass, rendering them unusable. They also reproduce like a plague when there is enough food. What a nightmare of a creature. I could hardly gain any biomass from them, losing some with all the healing and unit spawning. It was a net loss, but quite useful to understand how these creatures behave. After a lengthy discussion, I decided to use a transporter specially designed as a containment unit an put some life worms inside it to have live samples for later. Darwin and Norn thought it was a weird decision, but I have plans for these red worms. After cleaning the nearly destroyed carcass, I try to look for the core, hoping to see some radiant crystal, but it was badly damaged. I stored it with a bit of sadness as it could have been a nice extra kick. ------------- A few shadows far from the group of weird creatures swam through the dark caves while clicking their claws. Click clickkk clikck clickkk¡­ (Mother, what are we doing in the caves? We need to run!). Click! CLickk clikcck (Have no worries, my child, I have sensed a strong life force inside that could help us now that we require protection). Chapter 20 - Neighbours After we managed to clean the last of worms, I took a peep out of the cave. The views of the lake were quite impressive. I could see the surface full of light and green with the river moving the waters where it met the lake. I was 12 or 15 meters below the surface, so the pressure should be slightly over two times that of the surface. Darwin had been monitoring it and told me our body could adapt to support extreme situations, and this amount of pressure is no issue at all, luckily. After a few minutes, my eyes adapted to the lower light, and I decided to send a small force of few collectors to the walls and rocks nearby to gather algae and some other plants that we finally found outside the cave. Samples! I also had two fighters monitoring the situation and guarding the gathering operation while I remained in the cave, hidden. After a couple of hours, we cleared a radius of 5 to 6 meters in all directions, but there were a few rocks filled with life and many fascinating little animals near the top of the lake that intrigued me. The transport unit had gone a few times to the surface to supply us with air to breathe, and I was dying to go there to collect biomass. Despite the promise of new DNA strands, I could feel danger with all the open areas where I had not much control or visibility. ¡°I think it¡¯s time to upgrade the sensors. This aquatic medium has messed with my perception too much.¡± ¡°Yeah, hit it!" I suddenly felt a painful sensation erupting. "Argh! Damn, my eyes!!¡± After ten painful minutes of upgrading my eyes and sensors, I finally recovered and started to pick new readings. I could see heat and cold areas and had weak sonar-like echolocation too. I swam towards the lake again, and now I can sense the rocky areas, like a small oasis in the vast lake, filled with life. There were some readings at the bottom area that I can''t fully translate into a clear image. But they were big. "Darwin, keep an eye at any movement from the bottom of the lake." These new senses showed me that there was indeed movement beyond my sight. And that meant risk. I could try to create more units, but that might void my actual psychic link with the transporters back at the base. Nevertheless, I don¡¯t feel such connections being as stable as before. I was too far from the base for a long time, so they might have turned feral, as Darwin said it would happen. When Tyranids are too far from a psychic link, they regress to a more feral state, even fighting one another in extreme cases. I have not found a solution yet, but I was certainly worried about having a constant necessity to control and micromanage every unit steps. ¡°Well¡­ that leaves me with potentially eight units.¡± Then I will go with four fighters, and the rest will be collectors. Hmmm, for the fighters composition, two quick ones for damage, one scout and a heavy unit with chitin and pincers to lock down enemies. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s start. Darwin, I¡¯ll let you the scout to investigate, and I¡¯ll move with the tank and fighters.¡± We then swam quickly to the first rocky area, which was full of corals, algae, and some fishes, most of which I had never seen or heard. The collectors started to devour a bit of everything while the two agile fighters hunt the fish, the scout was warding with Darwin paying attention to it for any surprises. As the operation was going on quite smoothly, I swam to the surface for a quick view of the forest. And I didn¡¯t like what I saw. Not at all. I saw a weird scenery, much different from the verdant forest from a few days ago. A white fog covered half of the forest. Yet as I paid more attention, I saw dozens of trees covered in spider webs, while the other half of the forest, as well as the meadows, were decorated with colorful and innocent-looking flowers. That innocence was lost when I saw that most of them were growing on the dead and dried corpses of the rabbits and several other animals, including spiders. ¡°Oh, fuck! I removed the bomb units throwing acid at the door. The spiders might have gotten into the biome in the last hours.¡± I am astonished by the amount of ground they managed to cover in such a short time. "But at least it seems those two are not working together. At least not that I can see." I hold my breath, trying not to attract any attention towards my position near the lake. ¡°Yeah, and I probably caused much of this damage all by myself, provoking both sides with my actions.¡± Some birds and lizards were living on rocky walls that the flowers or spiders had not yet colonized. But except for them, the biome is ruined. While inspecting the area and waiting for any movements or fights, I failed to notice a few leaves floating inconspicuously at the lake''s surface. There was a water lily flower on top of one of the leaves. At first, it didn''t pick my attention, but when I saw it moving towards my direction without an ounce of wind, it made me weary.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. My enhanced eyes started to pick minute movement in the leaf¡¯s base, and I soon began to feel a minute heat source. ¡°Huh, so they are a hybrid between animal and plant?¡± What mattered now was how to avoid it, or even capture it without causing a ruckus. I submerged and then looked for its roots, only finding some tail-like tentacles. "Can''t you bunch of monsters decide what you are? Why does it resemble a jellyfish now?" I called for the fighters and heavy unit but kept the scout near the cave rocks to notify us of any movement. I then went down and proceeded to gather all the collectors'' biomass and DNA accumulated by them. After being ready, I sent a mental order for the units to engage the lily pad as silently as possible. They attacked at the same time from 3 areas, tearing the fragile leaf apart and pulling it down to the rocky area where we start devouring it in little time. It tried to fight back and then used its tentacles to protect itself. It managed to cause some injuries and pressed into the weakest part of the chitin shell from one mite, but all in all, it¡¯s three vs. one, so the match ended quickly with the flower being killed by us. After we kept biting at it tried to latch itself to one of my units, and even managed to introduce some of its tentacles through the eyes to touch some nerve tissue. I then felt a mental attack trying to rob the unit from my control. It seems that Norn felt that too because she jumped like crazy. ¡°You attacked my brood, molest my Queen, and try to hurt me, Huh?! Do you think I will allow it!?¡± My eyes started burning purple for a fraction of a second, and I launched a psychic attack that burned its nerve system entirely in a mere second. ¡°Trying to turn my brood against me!! Disrespectful bastard!! That¡¯s not gonna happen!¡° The creature started to tremble and shake violently while my attack kept consuming its very soul. Then, just like that, it dropped dead. There was nothing more to burn. ¡°Fuck!!" I overdid it again. I can¡¯t explode like that. What did happen? "Norn?! Did you just triggered me to attack the flower?!¡± ¡°That was very weird. And you called by my name again. You called me Kai. Is that my real name?¡± I calmed myself and check my units; they are fine. I eat the rest of the creature while pondering about that name. ¡°We have to talk, Norn. My mind is not your playfield to do as you please. I want you to-¡± Just then, I noticed some vibrations and noises on the surface of the lake. The scout sends an alert shortly after too. The surface of the lake began to get full of different plants and creatures floating, converging near the point where we attacked the lily pad. ¡°So it did not go unnoticed, uh?¡± Small krill-like creatures were being released from the different plants, converging and morphing into new aquatic plants with animal features. ¡°Damned corruption, they can get the best from both worlds.¡± As we swam to the cave, I picked some more readings from the bottom of the lake; a couple of huge fish-like animals appear. One was similar to a shark with more fins, and the other is a weird octopus with a shell skull; it looked quite similar to the one the worms were eating, just bigger. When we reached the cave¡¯s entrance, I noticed that unlike the other creature, the octopus focused on us and started chasing my units. We got into the cave, but the creature entered behind us and managed to devour the scout and a fighter. It then moved its tentacles further ahead and caught both me and the other fighter. I slash at it with my maw and pincers, but its skin is rubber-like, protecting it from most of the damage. The tentacles caught my claw and started pulling and crushing it with utmost strength. As it devoured the fighter, it then focused on me. It began to move me closer to its mouth, little by little. "FUCK!" With limited options, I activated the spores, creating a cloud of poisonous and toxic aura around me while consuming energy. But this fucker skin is making the poison damage null. ¡°AGHH!! Let me go!¡± My Hp keeps descending. 18, 16, 13, 8¡­ I was desperate, and the beast did not release me. I summoned more fighters that got entangled in close combat, briefly distracting it. Just as the creature had me near his face, it opened its mouth, and I quickly launched a couple of bombs, dropping them inside its mouth. It ate the bombs and then. * Boom! BOOM! It started screaming in pain and confusion, blood pouring out of its damaged mouth, dirtying the waters with acid, poison, and blood. I used that distraction to get free and swam quickly into the cave¡¯s tunnels. It roared as I escaped. I sent a first and then a second wave of fighter to stall the creature while I desperately dug with my split maw and half-broken claws, destroying the tunnel and causing a cave-in that blocked the corridor. * Vrrooaoaaaammm!!!! Rocks keep falling for more than 20 seconds, and finally, I dropped myself on the ground. Once I was more or less ok, I was about to leave, but the tunnel started vibrating. I opened and closed my claws, preparing myself for the worst. When another vibration happened, I saw a tentacle moving towards me and almost capturing me again. The fucking octopus was trying to open a path. ¡°Norn, Darwin!! What can we do to stop it?! It almost killed me back there.¡± I summoned more fighters, depleting my reserves, and let Darwin control them to slow the beast. ¡°Understood!!¡± I called the transporter with the worms, and after swimming back a few tunnels, the link reactivated. As I got near it, I injected some biomass, activating the deadly load inside it. ¡°C¡¯mon! Now we go back, and you do your thing!¡± The worms started to multiply, and when we reach the caved-in corridor, I pushed the transported to let the tentacle grab it. The beast did not doubt and moved it towards the other side of the fallen rocks. I concentrated and gave a psychic order to the transporter to start releasing as much of the newly born worms as it could, effectively creating a barrier of red goo that managed to stop the creature¡¯s advances, at least for now. I went close to the mass of red blood worms and managed to catch a small and half-devoured piece of a tentacle, still moving and trying to grab some food. I look at it and then eat it without further hesitation. ¡°I hope this is worth something good, Norn!¡± With that biomass, I created another new transport and ordered it to catch a few more worms and seal them into a semi-sleep by depriving them of food. As my units were devoured, the transporter managed to stop the creature''s advance with the red worms acid goo. At least, it stopped advancing for now. I felt shame, anger, and yet, some satisfaction from the gains of DNA. Those might not seem huge gains, but in the long run, they were the game changers, the keys to new strands of units, new and better biomorphs, and endless possibilities. I swam with the only two units left, a transporter filled with air and one with the worm specimens, back to the cave. It was a lonely and silent trip through the labyrinth of darkness until we arrived at the cave 10 minutes after. There, I found the transporters in a lethargic state, so I hurried to link my mind with them again and create what Norn called a Synapse. It was a telepathic link that allows me to control the units and sent them orders while receiving inputs from them. It could be tiring, but it allowed me to coordinate with them to unbelievable levels of precision. Once that was done, it felt like some limbs got reattached to my body. It was quite a weird sensation, like missing something you didn¡¯t know you were lacking. But, as Norn said, these units were more similar to cells or organs than to individuals with their own minds. As I gave it a thought, philosophical and inhuman concepts of what was life, freedom, free will, or desires opened here; but I was not going to start diving in such obtuse concepts. I entered the cave and fell on a piece of ground, thinking out loud my worries. ¡°I need them, and there is little more to think. The Tyranids'' sole purpose is to follow the Queen¡¯s command. And as I am currently living in her body, my will. Yet this body cannot even be considered female, nor male, those are human concepts. It¡¯s more like a DNA splicing lab or a nightmare fuel factory?¡± ¡°Because, if I do leave this body, would part of my mind be kept here? Could Norn, start pumping clones of myself? Do Tyranids even have souls?¡± ¡°Could I read somebody''s memories and learn about their life''s experiences? Would that mean I could replicate their soul too?¡± ¡°Uh? What is it, Darwin?¡± ¡°What?! Ah, yes, the level up! Ok, let¡¯s do it!¡± Chapter 21 - Chit Chat Duel I focused again after zooming out and drifting on a sea of weird questions and strange thoughts. I stopped and grabbed some snack biomass from the transporter mites. It took me a couple of minutes to finish eating everything that had been accumulated. Shortly after, I started summoning units and organizing defenses. There were 2 main areas in the cave. The first one was a water-filled entrance, and the second one an elevated ground area where I dug up some minor defense positions that could help us stand our place. I put some bomb units hidden on the ceiling and fighters at the high ground. With the multiple biomorph options, I modified a couple of them to shoot sharp pieces of chitin that work like harpoons. Not only it can cut and cause piercing injuries, but those chitin projectiles were also filled with venom and spores that burned the blood and damaged organs of the creature attacked. Lastly, I produced a couple of units that worked as my tanks by reinforcing the chitin biomorph to level 3. That allowed me to stack several layers of chitin on them and, given enough time, I could even produce detailed pieces to mimic armor. A scout was patrolling the corridor 20 meters ahead of the entrance and kept giving us information about any strange sights it captured. I then prepared a secure area where I hid the broken small core and the medium one I had been carrying for quite a while already. Despite the broken state of the first core and its inherent instability, I might as well use it to produce some damage as a bobby trap. ¡°Norn, could we-¡± ¡°What?! Are they plants or arachnids? No, wait! Spiders can¡¯t breathe underwater, so it should be the flowers or that freaking 8 legged bastard with a skull! Get ready!!¡± The fighters took positions all around me, some of the more agile ones on the ceiling, and the rest at the rock defenses we created on the cave. A minute or two went by as the scout came back to the cave and started showing me a weird image; a shrimp mantis. ¡°That is unexpected!¡± I give it a thought, looking left and right to my units, and once I am sure we have the upper hand, respond. "Let them inside the cave, have every fighter ready to jump at them. If those creatures do anything weird or threatening, make the bombs at the ceiling explode!" I walked to the high area and watched as a parade of colorful shrimp mantises swam into the cave and started to form a semi-circle near the shore area. Then the largest one walked slowly out of the water and rose its claws at me. It then made a clicking noise that I remember to have heard before, in the tunnels. Maybe it has been following us for some time already. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°I see that, but she¡¯s quite injured. Why is she here?¡± The queen-mantis rises her claws again, and then all the other creatures following her do the same, following its leader and click at the same time, with quite a loud sound. ¡°It wants to fight then?¡± The queen-mantis stopped and raised her body out of the water, looking at me with her multi-colored eyes. I could see a trace of intelligence, a spark of something very human-like. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s play then.¡± I am certainly curious, as this is the first creature to have shown such intelligence and a weird and primitive sense of honor. I will respect that and have the duel. I am certain I can overpower her. And worst-case scenario, I could throw the mites against them. I rolled my 6 eyes at Norn''s idiotic remark and inspected my rival. She had two bumpy compound eyes that could see in nearly 300 degrees, so I could forget about scoring a sucker punch with my tail, but I saw that she had some injuries. "Norn, Darwin, any idea what caused those injuries?" ¡°A civil war? More like a coup¡­¡± Even these seemingly intelligent animals were ruthless as fuck from what I could see. I walked forward, leaving behind the tanks and fighters and stood in front of it. I weighed over 30 kilograms and was physically more imposing than it was, but not by much. I raised my front claws, morphed into two sharp scythes. The mantis raised its own claws, and we stood still, waiting. The cave fell into silence, and a ridiculous battle of wills starts. We both looked for an opening, and when she starts to recede her left claw, I attacked. She moved her right claw with terrible speed, blocking my attack and pushing me back with a fast and precise impact. "Has she feigned weakness?" I felt quite some pain in my inner muscles inside the chitin. This queen can hit quite hard. "Darwin, activate the adrenal glands!" I feel a mixture of healing energy and battle enhancing hormones kick my body as heat spreads through my body. I see her moving slower than before as if she was less fluid. I moved forward and attacked again, hitting her left claw. I noticed that it was not her moving slower, it was me. A secondary effect of the adrenal glands was an increased metabolism. And I could see that as my energy levels were burning lower by each passing second. We crashed again, and as we were going to clash the third time, she was a fraction slower than before, not capable of showing that much strength without a brief rest between attacks. On the other hand, I kept my adrenal glands pumping adrenaline to maintain the rhythm of the battle and my limbs agile. Despite the waste of biomass, I felt that this duel is a strange occurrence. Even Norn and Darwin are not complaining about my decision, for once. We clashed again and again. I felt some cracks appearing in my limbs, and my muscles start to burn with accumulated strain, I could even feel my hp falling because of this duel and the obstination we were both having. After 25 or 30 hits, we both fall back to rest for a second. "AH, Ahh... Hahaha, she is good! Wow, I did not know this could be so fun!" I then coiled my tail and used it against the ground to gain impulse, preparing for the last blow. The mantis was preparing herself too. Somehow, she was standing up, despite the accumulated damage; I could even see some blood falling from her mouth. A few of her brood broke the circle and approached to help her, but she hit the water with the tail a few times. Its offspring stopped and went back, understanding that the queen¡¯s pride did not allow her to receive help. The mantis then rose her claws one more time. I noticed she had several eggs on her thorax when it moved the tail. I stopped and shook my head and stopped the adrenal glands. My fight junkie and hyper-violent state started receding, and I decided to put down my claws. The mantis queen was already defeated. I didn''t need to kill nor humiliate it anymore. I stood down and pointed at the side of the cave, part of the lake can be theirs to rest. The queen looks at me and puts down her claws too, accepting my offer. She then clicks the claws, and the rest of her child went fast next to her to help her stand and recover. "How filial, you could learn a bit of family love from them, Norn." "Huh¡­ It doesn''t matter. We will let them stay, for now." "I do, but they could prove to be a potential ally. That queen had quite a good punch, but I''m sure it was holding back to avoid a massacre. I''m interested in that fast attack. Try analyzing it, Norn." "No. Not yet, at least. If you can''t then-" I smiled by how easily triggered Norn was sometimes. But then, my eyes shone purple for half a second, and I thought to myself that I was on Norn''s body, that was true. But my real allies were reduced to one person. Me. I wasn''t human anymore, but I wasn''t a Tyranid either. "If I ever forget that, I will die sooner or later without realizing it." Chapter 22 - Reaching adulthood I gathered all the biomass from the transport units. Thanks to the lake exploration, we had now over 140 biomass, and I need 80 to break through the next level. After that, the next level will be again a minor evolution. Thankfully, I had a core I could use too. ¡°Darwin, did you manage to find a way to activate the broken core?¡± ¡°Risky? Norn, on a scale from 0 to 10, how worried should I be that it can blow my face?¡± ¡°That¡¯s bad. Keep working on it then.¡± I looked at my units and felt that we might be ready to survive an attack of that octopus creature. Killing it was another thing, and an invasion of spiders or a breach of flower-snakes could take us down. I needed to get stronger quickly. And I need to help. Despite my reluctance, Darwin and Norn have proved themselves as powerful allies for now. I can''t fully trust them, but we''re on the same boat, and body. That¡¯s why I chose to upgrade the support biomorph to level 3. I had a hard time deciding the order of upgrades, as I usually choose what I felt could solve some immediate shortcomings. ¡°Do it, Norn, before I regret it. Darwin, keep the units in check while I¡¯m KO. And have some eyes on our flashy neighbors.¡± It then began. Pain ran up and down my body, and I fell to the ground, convulsing. I felt how the least amount of energy from the first core was being used to enhance my evolution again. The changes in my DNA and genomes enhance my strength, speed, and biomorphs. At the same time, those biomorphs allowed me to have more options and grow more dangerous. But the process was hell itself. The DNA helix was broken and reforged into a triple helix. The number of biological changes the universe would take a million years to achieve by itself was taking place in mere hours. There was a price to pay nonetheless, and that is a considerable risk to damage myself forever. Thankfully, that was kept in check thanks to Norn and had only a terrible and grotesque amount of pain as an aftereffect. My body kept growing, changing the biomass stored in super packed energy cells into huge chains of lipids, proteins, hormones, and many other chemicals that produced what seemed to be magic in ordinary eyes. Or nightmare, that depended on how you looked at it. In less than three hours later, my body had been broken apart several times, and each time it grew new chitin plaques to cover the newly formed muscle tissue. "AHH! Finally." I stood up and shook my neck, making a disgusting sound when the chitin cracked. "Darwin, show me the stats." Primal Adult- Ripper Level - 6 (100 biomass to unlock minor evolution: Elite) Health - 12/24 (Temporarily weakened) Energy - 0/90 Biomass Reserves - 16 biomass Energy Core (medium) + (Small-broken) Str - 20 Res - 17If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Vit - 16 Agi - 14 Int - 10 Support level 3 Enhanced senses level 3 Maw and claws level 3 Chitin level 3 Poison sting level 3 Spores level 3 Pincer level 2 Adrenal glands, level 1 Minor -> Collectors, Fighters, Bomb, Transport "I feel so alive right now!" But I was also weakened. That must be a side effect of depleting the small core after the evolution. It sure has been kicking a fast conversion up to now, but I also have kind of overclocked Norn. I woke up from the slumber, and I checked my new body. It was bigger. I had at least 25% more volume than before that I wanted to fill as soon as possible with food. I was starving! The transporters came to present me biomass reserves that they had been storing until I woke up, and I devour it immediately. "Ahh, so good. I think I get your point, Norn. Hunger can be horrible." I still felt empty despite eating nearly 40 units of biomass in a few bites. "Really? Will she be able to stay so much time without messing with me?" I giggled about it but silently thanked her efforts. "Queen Norn is exhausted. The constant forceful evolutions and DNA damage control she has been monitoring have taken its toll." "So we must wait for her, right? Keep the evolutions without her is dangerous. We need a certain margin of security." "That means we will surely discover some new biomorphs useful to our fights. Good. Darwin, do you have any idea about the possible gains?" It does not give much light into the issue, but I can¡¯t ask for more until Norn herself picks up the project and prioritizes the development. She seemed partially asleep. I didn''t fully understand the extent of her role in my evolution, but I would stick to my purpose. Survive. That''s all I want, all I need to know. I summoned a couple more transporters and put them to filter water and devour every piece of nutrient from the wet soil of the walls they could get. They were producing fewer and fewer returns lately, as the area was being depleted of usable biomass. "We have to think of a new way to get more biomass. Without getting ourselves killed." My senses then picked something. The scout unit swam back, and it moves left and right, jumping out of the water as soon as it reached us. It showed me several images of tentacles and a skull face approaching the cave. ¡°Talking about biomass, it seems we have some coming right to our doors.¡± I frowned, though. This was bad. I was quite weakened after the evolution took place. I still need more food and a few hours to recover completely. "Did that creature picked up the energy leaking from me?" The foe was nearing the entrance of the cave, using its tentacles to investigate it, searching for traps and more blood worms. It looked that this creature had a bad experience with them and was now weary. "What?!" I moved to the wall, and I too sensed something, it was faint, but it was there nonetheless. "They had to come in batches. How is this possible?!" ¡°Fuck, seriously, can¡¯t we have the party without a bloodbath?¡± ¡°Hey, Norn, you¡¯re still awake! It¡¯s good to have you back with us. By the way, Darwin, can you understand the clippity clop thing of the mantis? From the looks of it, they seem to have some language based on that sounds.¡± Norn showed me what looked like a complex communication system. "I love your jokes Norn, now leave me to do my thing!" Norn''s consciousness fell back into slumber, and I shook my head. I turned towards the Mantis Queen and played with my mouth, trying to mimic the same clicks it did before, with varying amounts of success. * Cliick, sClahk, Plckikck, CLACK! "That last one was good enough! Okey, Darwin, help me translate the following." We started to create a sort of clicks and clacks, imitating their language, and the mantis soon reacted. ¡°Prepare -- - for - -the fight! We have -- -enemies -- -incoming!!¡± I saw that the queen gets surprised by my ability to mimic their language and urges its brood to take cover and prepares a defense near the shore. They may surprise us in combat or crumble. We¡¯ll see that soon. I jumped to the waters and began to throw bombs towards the entrance to block our enemies path. "That will earn us a few minutes!" The octopus roared and started to assault the rock barrier I created with rage, as it noticed we did not have more red worms. I could not release them on the base just like that. We would die first if I did so. My units started to move to take positions and got ready for whatever was going to happen. "Now we have to get ready for the fight!" Chapter 23 - Cave Fight I I coordinated the strategy with the upgraded Darwin, improving some units with better biomorphs to fulfill specific roles. We sorted some templates to create units faster, with a slight increase in cost. I wished that Norn will soon upgrade them to spawn some proper Tyranid troops. I guess the fighters will evolve into Gaunts and the collectors into Rippers. Maybe we will have some Spore Mines too. - "Host, the list of units is ready." "Okay, Darwin. Show it to me!" "Good. It might be a weird categorization, but it''s the best we have." I was pretty sure I won''t have enough time to waste time in the middle of the fight. This way, I will be able to replenish my units with specific roles to be better adapted to changing situations. I couldn''t level up any biomorphs until Norn wakes up. Once she comes back and gives us her obnoxious blessing, I will break through to the next step of the evolution to Elite Ripper and work my way to the next level. I liked how it sounds, and I wanted that title for myself. * Brrooommm The cave trembled slightly, reminding me of the battle that was taking place outside this lab. All I could focus on was on surviving, though. "We have to endure..." I summoned a pair of close combat units that moved to the protection barriers but felt something weird. I had ten improved units, but I still possessed some more mental space. It was like having eaten a full meal and having some room for desserts. "Darwin, why do I feel I can summon an additional unit?" - "It is due to the increase in the support level. It allows better use of your biomorphs and body skills. Right now, your intelligence allows you one extra unit at a very close range." "So, I can have a sort of extra unit to command?" - "You can say so, yes. But this unit cannot exceed 15 meters from the synapse body, or it will collapse." The cave was barely 10 meters long per 8 meters wide so the unit could fight in this area without a problem. "Good! I''ll have a tank at my side then, just as an extra layer of precaution. We could try to give you a body afterward." Darwin didn''t reply, but I felt quite a load of agitation from him. I let it settle down and concentrated on the battle at hand. As a rough estimation, my units could work within a range of 25 to 30 meters from me. They were able to move even further with some given orders, but will eventually turn feral or even die unless they returned to the synapse control within very few hours. The scouts'' enhanced senses allowed them to operate at further distances with limited freedom. "Okay, let''s move the useless troops now, I don''t want to lose them in the middle of the fight." I ordered all of the transporters to go into hiding at the depths of our safe-zone. They then were shut down on a semi-coma state until I could take them back in control. I summoned a few more units with that liberated mental strain and turned towards a special transporter. It was carrying a particular load of living samples. "I hope we don''t have to use them." The red worms will be our last line of defense if everything else fails. But liberating them would mean that ruin had likely occurred to the base and our survival options as well. The newly awakened hunters started to climb the ceiling and hid near the smaller bomb mites. Our fight composition was two tanks on the shore, protected by rock barriers. Three damagers were also closeby to attack at any good chance and three hunters on the ceiling to shoot projectiles. This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. I also had two hidden bomb units on the ceiling, just in case things needed an extra kick of corrosive damage. Lastly, an extra tank was near me. I was at the top of the ground area, protected by these units and several rock barriers. Soon my army should be able to take down more enemies by themselves, but right now, I had to rely on my strength to take down any significant enemies. I still hoped that this distribution would prove capable of defending the base for a while before I moved into combat. On the left side of the cave, the Mantis Queen had put a few of its offsprings, covering one of our flanks, but my units could easily cover that area if we had to divert our attention. * Cr-craackck!! The rocks on the entrance keep trembling and falling, as the octopus creature was trying to penetrate our base. It stopped for a few seconds, and then, the rocks started to being removed with even more speed than before. Finally, we could see a creature appearing. It was smaller than I expected and seemed to be forced into the cave, more than entering with the determination to kill us. "Did they used this guy as cannon fodder?" I was surprised by that action, but we started to launch our attacks at the beast without hesitation. "Nevermind. Kill it!!" I ordered the ranged fighters to shoot their attacks while I launched my projectiles towards the still hesitating enemy. The creature''s skin managed to repel the weaker projectiles, but a few impacted upon its face through soft tissues, making it roar in pain. The pain awoke the beast, and it moved forward, using its tentacles to try catching a tank. It failed a couple of times and even got injured by the fighters, but once it managed to grab the shell from the tank, it started pulling towards the water, overpowering my unit. "Let''s kill it quickly!! Darwin! Help me out before more foes enter!" I used this chance to drop a bomb to the monster. It exploded near its face, badly hurting it and allowing me and the tank unit to drag it outside of the water where the fighters joined in attacking at it. There, we started attacking at it, and despite losing a limb to one of its attacks, and seeing how the beast bit in half the tank, we chopped at it relentlessly. The beast was desperately trying to go back to the waters, yet my units jumped at it together, not giving it any respite. The fighters then started to attack its shell with their pincers, creating cracks that I managed to exploit to rip its skull open apart. It then turned into a gory festival of flesh while the octopus kept screaming while being devoured alive by my units. I was furious with this monster for invading my base and ended up its life with a tail strike that mangled its brains. As the blood tainted the cave''s lake, the Mantis Queen started to clack its claws in distress, and I turned to see what the issue was. More tentacles appeared from the cave''s entrance, creating ripples in the water. "Prepare for the next foe!!" I took a few bites and started to pump my adrenal glands to allow some hormones to kick in. - "We have several readings! There are at least three lesser enemies!" A group of octopus broke into the cave, causing more damage to the safety measures I created when digging the cave. Water kept flooding inside this place. I summoned more units to replace the fallen while eating chunks of flesh from the recently killed monster. "Those units are quite smaller than I expected; it seems that the monster we met has managed to draw some reinforcements here." - "Host, we need to beware of the monster lurking outside of the cave. The scout displayed a formidable foe." I nodded and let the two tanks and the rest of the units fight them off while I was busy ingesting biomass. The new creatures put some pressure on our neighbors as they spread to all fronts. But the mantis defended themselves with fierce strikes. At the same time, rocks and dust fell from the ceiling as the flower creatures from the forest were digging closer to us. "We''re surrounded, Darwin, do you think we can hold on?!" - "It is highly improbable. I suggest escaping." I tried recalling the mental map I memorized as exploring the caves and pinpointed the nearest tunnel below our cave. "Can you awake the transporters to dig up a tunnel downwards?! I will go buy us some time!" As Darwin used two transporters, I had to fight off three enemies with a reduced force while avoiding taking any more damage. Until we managed to create a path, we had to stand our ground. The hunters kept shooting at the lesser octopus, and the tanks kept them at bay, holding the damage dealt at them. I took my chance as one of the three lesser beasts was too focused on the mantis to slash at it with my tail, opening a deep wound on its body. It roared in pain and turned towards me, launching multiple tentacles to trap me. I activated my spores, but it didn''t release me despite the damage done to it. Soon, some of my limbs started to crack. "Aghh!" In the middle of this fight, the other two lesser octopus managed to catch and pull one tank to the waters, where they began twisting its body and breaking its shell. I was turning more and more desperate as the creature did not release me, but then, the Queen Mantis moved forward and stroke two swift hits against the lesser monster, damaging it even further and weakening it. * Clack-Clack!!! Using that chance, I created another bomb and made it explode at close range of the lesser creature, crippling it and stumbled out of the water. The entrance trembled again, and another creature managed to enter. It looked twisted and had a dark aura surrounding it. With just a few glances, I knew it had some traces of corruption on it. When it arrived, it took no more than a couple of seconds to kill and start devouring the tank that the two lesser creatures had captured. I looked at it and knew it was bad news. It did not charge madly, and the corruption seemed to have enhanced its strength and trickery. It remained hidden on the rising waters and moved its tentacles with nimble and unexpected twists to damage or trap any creature at sight. It was a proficient fighter and did not stop fighting even when the hunters tried to shoot at it. The monster soon took a combat unit and pulled it towards the waters. I created two bombs and moved them forward, letting the lesser monsters capture them. "Bastard... let''s see if you do like this!" Yet the corrupted one noticed something weird and receded. I frowned but activated the explosive creatures, damaging the two beasts and polluting even further the cave''s waters. They had started turning into a green a reddish puddle filled with toxins, poison, and acid, highly dangerous. The Queen Mantis moved its troops to the hill, hiding the injured ones at backlines. She had to take care of her offspring, but I could regrow my army with enough biomass and energy. "Okay, change of strategy! They are barely affected by our ranged attacks, and the tanks are being crushed..." - "Shall we try a swarm tactic?" "Yes! Let''s roll with that. I will leave a tank and a scout at the back. Darwin, defend the transporters and monitor the situation!" I started creating a living swarm of collectors that began to assault every lesser octopus, tearing small pieces of flesh from them as they were still damaged and confused. Many of the newly born units were torn apart or crushed, but I kept burning more energy to throw more units, adjusting my strategy. If I could not hold my position, I would swarm them with units. As my hunters proved ineffective, I sent them to slumber and created bombs that started to spread more acid on the waters. I could see the corrupted octopus angered and suffering in silence as the waters were turning deadlier. Chapter 24 - Cave Fight II The transporters were digging nonstop, and I was eating the remains of the collectors that managed to come back with chunks of biomass. But the situation only worked for a short time before the corrupted octopus had enough and tried to launch itself towards the front enemies to take them down and reach me. Yet the bombs acted as a preemptive measure, exploding when it tried to grab them or get itself out of the water. "How long until we can get out?!" - "The transporters are stuck on a hard layer of rocks. We need more time to pass through." "Fuck!" I was having a hard time pumping energy through burning biomass to keep the swarm going on. I went back to the transporters and took the damaged core, trying to tamper with it to know exactly how did it work so that I could extract energy from it. - "Host, that core is highly unstable and dangerous, Queen Norn-" I stopped and was about to throw it to the wall in distress. "What do you propose, then?! We''re running out of energy and biomass, I''m weakened and can''t take that creature down, nor the one that will come after it. And the cave will soon be filled with even more- Wait..." I looked left and right, trying to pinpoint the weakened areas where the flowers were trying to use to reach us. "Darwin, point out where the flowers are going to enter through!" The scout unit moved around the cave while the corrupted octopus was busy fighting, and I detected three areas where that seemed promising. Two were at our side of the cave, but one was near the entrance, and the octopus creature was between them and us. We could use it as a useful diversion. "Send some units to bomb and blow up a hole in that section next to the cave''s entrance! Let them in." Darwin keeps silent for a few seconds, analyzing my idea and soon gave its response. - "It is a high-risk movement. Allowing another group of foes can ruin our escape options if they team-up-" "They will be too busy fighting amongst themselves! Trust me." A group of bombs moved towards the weakened wall, where they latch themselves, prepared to detonate at my signal. I made them start screaming, calling the attention of the corrupted creature, that shifted its focus and tried to take them down. And as it approached, I detonated the bombs and created a massive explosion, throwing acid, chitin, and rocks towards the octopus. * Boomm!! B-BOOM!!! The wall crumbled, and a group of snake flowers showed up, some of them in their vine form, while others were grotesquely attached to spiders or lesser animals. "Darwin, focus all the available units at the tunnel; we must get out before they focus on us again!" The creatures started to jump at the waters, hissing in pain shortly after as the acid and poisonous bath started burning them. The parasite-spiders started to climb through the ceiling, and I then reactivated the hunters to start shooting chitin projectiles at them to make them fall, but they were resilient enough to keep advancing for a while. "Did we kill the corrupted beast?"A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. - "Negative, there are signatures of movement on the cave''s waters. Get prepared for an emergency attack!" I nodded and looked left and right through the ripples on the water, where burned and mangled tentacles started to rise, capturing a few parasites and pulling them towards it. *ROaaaaah!! With a tremendous roar, the beast jumped out of the water, maddened, and having sustained an enormous amount of damage. As the flowers saw it, they tried to launch themselves to kill or slave the creature, yet it fended off the enemies and hid again underwater. "Look! They are fighting!! Hahaha! YES! It worked!!" I used this chance to pull the corpses of the lesser octopus to the hill with the help of a tank and started devouring their flesh with gusto. But my good mood was short-lived. * Cr-craack-CRAAACKK!!! The entrance was falling apart, and an oppressive and ominous aura hit me like a slap. "Wait! What is that?!" Some dark and tainted liquid started to pour into the cave. More and more tentacles appeared, causing a considerable disturbance on the cave''s waters, and I took a few steps back. Air seemed to have vanished from the cave. I looked at it, and I was sure I knew this beast. - "Host, that creature matches the beast detected by the scout." "That''s the same fucker we met on the lake. Look at the skull." A spiky bone shell protected its head and body, while the tentacles emerged from under its torso. I could see how the worms had partially burned and melted skin. "God, that beast is even bigger than before?! How can it be possible?" I noticed spikes on its body and two growing horns, appearing from over its face, making it look both dangerous and menacing. - "It is fully corrupted." Yes, of course. It had that warp and disordered energy, like a sort of cancer spreading and consuming it. There was no trace of the might it somehow exuded before. If anything else, the corruption had turned into something wrong. There were a terrible aura and stench of corruption permeating the cave. Its body was looking both lifeless and mutated on equal proportions, with pieces of flesh wide open, new eyes grown randomly in its skull, or a pair of vast and menacing jaws. - "Host, the tunnel will be finished in two minutes! Survive two more minutes, and we will get out!" The creature''s tentacles ended in some sharp and lethal-looking bone appendixes. That beast was on a league of its own. It started to spread an obscure and dark substance on the water, and a cold and thick layer of darkness began to permeate on the cave, weakening us. My creatures slowly began to fall on the ground, falling as darkness spread. "Darwin, we''re not its match... can''t you see it?" I could even feel it in my very insides. I felt slower, weak. The terrible aura fell upon the cave, rendering us sluggish and scaring some of the parasites into hiding. Even I was slowly falling to that terrible emptiness looking at me through the creature''s eyes. It was an empty abyss, and as I was looking at it, it was looking- - "Psychic attack detected, countermeasures activated!!" My eyes suddenly shone with purple light, and Darwin somehow took control of my body for a few seconds. My Tyranid body stood up and started screaming, a mighty and stimulating shout that awoke my troops from the slumber. * SCREAAAACCHH!!! A powerful pulse of energy surged like a heartbeat, allowing me to breathe again. "Aghh! W-what was that?! Also, what did you do to stop it?" - "I used our mental powers, burning energy to keep a psychic field strong enough to counteract the creature''s own." The vibration over the cave increases in speed and frequency once I leaked more energy. It looks like those bloody snake-plants are trying to reach us from every direction. More and more rocks kept falling. But the oppressive feeling had lessened. I took the broken core and inserted it into the transport that was carrying the blood worms and stopped for a second. "Fucking bastard. Is the tunnel ready?!" As the creature noticed my scream and that my units began to move again, it got angry and advanced, ignoring the acid and poisonous water as its skin seemed to nullified it completely. The profoundly injured octopus started to retreat, scared by the monster that had spread such corruption and dreadful aura. I transplanted a few lethargic worms to another transporter and prepared to cause massive wreckage on the cave. As the corrupted beast saw it, it roared and stopped advancing. Without wasting any time, it turned and grabbed the escaping creature that was reaching the entrance, about to escape. It used its clawed tentacles and pierced its back, pulling it back while the creature roared and bled all over the corrupted creature. "The hell is that wicked beast doing?!" I saw how it secured the grab of the weakened yet fierce beast. And then it started to move forward, using it as a meat shield. "Stop it!!" I dropped any collector''s connection I had and summoned tanks and bombs, running completely dry. But the creatures were not nearly ready for taking their positions, and it was advancing too fast. As the corrupted beast got to the shore''s defenses, it just launched forward its kin, that flew towards us, about to crush our position with its body. Yet at that moment, the Mantis Queen moved forward and used her claws to produce an ear-splitting sound. I barely saw a little flash of light, followed by a muffled scream when the creature stopped mid-air in a cloud of blood. "Wh-what?! Darwin, what was that?!" The attack was a concentrated sonic blast that hit the creature and almost blasted into pieces. It fell to the ground, bleeding profusely with a cracked shell and broken body. - "Host, a Psychic blast was detected. The Mantis Queen has used a sort of hypersonic strike added with psychic energy." I saw the Queen collapse after the attack, but her offspring moved forward to pick her up. "Let''s use that body to pump our biological barrier!! Open that tunnel, Darwin, we have no more time!" The corrupted beast saw its companion nearly explode in pieces, but only reacted when it saw the transported I had brimmed with acid worms, it got enraged and started to lash its tentacles as whips. My units managed to stop it for a few attacks, and I used that time to prepare the dangerous and deadly load of worms, activating them. I then introduced the broken core into the transporter and pumped biomass into it, starting a reaction highly unstable. The horrific worms began to multiply and grow inside the transporter, which started bloating as the larvae grew in a few seconds. Chapter 25 - Corruption As the transporter started to bloat with wriggling worms and unstable energy, the flower-parasites became immediately attracted to it like moths. Some of those creatures swam through the acidic waters disregarding the injuries, and the enslaved spiders that we had been sniping fell from the ceiling, adding pressure at us. The corrupted beast moved its tentacles swiftly, chopping at the creatures, but a pair of flower-parasites jumped at its body, one of them managing to distract it by planting its roots in one eye. The cave trembled as another wall collapsed, and even more parasite flowers surged from our left, rushing directly to the bloated unit. "Great, now we have two fronts to fight!" My tanks moved back to close our lines and kept pushing any enemy out of the shore, trying to earn us more time. As I kept tampering with the core and the transporter, I triggered it to start releasing a ton of energy that started burning and hyper activating the worms. Those who survived mutated and grew larger, deadlier. The modified transport started to tremble, unable to withstand the sheer amount of pressure it was put into, and its shell began to crack. "Oh, no, no!! Off you go!" I panicked and grabbed it with my tail, making sure not to put too much pressure with my pincers. I started to rotate, gaining momentum, and after one full spin, I released it. The octopus and the parasites looked at is as the unit finally burst open mid-air and started to pour a rain of acid and voracious worms. Most fell over the body of the near-dead octopus, filling it with maggots that began to feast and multiply, creating a living barrier of death. * ROAAGHH!!! The corrupted beast saw it and panicked, retreating and trying to avoid the red tide of vermin. It had learned a painful lesson and wanted to avoid the horrible creatures at all costs. But when the broken core started to crack and burst energy, the parasite-flowers jumped forward and captured it, disregarding the damage. When one died, devoured by the vermin, another took its place. - "Host, the tunnel is finished! The transporters are widening it for you to pass while the mantis brood descends." I nodded, giving orders to the hunters to snipe at the creature''s eyes as I walked back to the tunnel, exhausted and drained of biomass and energy. My health had taken a few hits over the last fights, and I was about to collapse. I turned and clicked my message for the Queen. "I''m gonna expand the tunnel for us, get ready to escape!" She nodded and remained behind, waiting for my signal. The corrupted octopus finally decided to throw itself to the fight. After several failed attempts, it managed to capture the broken core while all the parasite-flower creatures assaulted it. They tried to grow roots on its flesh, trying to stop it from putting the core on its maw, but it opened its jaw filled with dozens of sharp and pointy fangs and tore a piece of its own tentacle, some parasites, and even blood worms. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. "That creature is fucking mad!" It then started to roar and fell to the waters. I noticed its psychic aura wavering as pain distracted it, like a sea in a storm. Without waiting to see the result, I split my mandible and started digging with the transporters to make the tunnel broader. I managed to descend a couple of meters until we hit a secondary underwater tunnel, I clicked again, and I moved aside to let the transporters and mantis offspring to pass. Less than a minute later, only the Queen and my tanks hadn''t descended. I started to get worried and moved closer to the tunnel. Then, I heard a screech, followed by a loud crack. "Darwin!! Report! What happened?!" - "Host, the Queen Mantis has suffered a stab wound before escaping, her situation is critical." I rushed back to the cave where the corrupted beast was fighting off my tanks and the parasites alike. The creature was mutating yet again, growing and changing in grotesque ways while its skin was destroyed and devoured. The worms seemed to have turned a part of it as they multiplied inside it, and dark blood poured from several dozens of wounds. "Fuck!!" I saw her on the ground. She was bleeding some ichor through a wound on her thorax. She wasn''t able to breathe correctly, her bumpy eyes dimming by the second. "It''s okay. We''re almost out of here!" Next to her was a piece of tentacle that she had hit and severed by her terrible strike. She didn''t go down without a fight. I ordered a transporter to come back and pick her up when I noticed a terrible danger. I only managed to turn around before a tentacle burst from the red and dark waters and coiled around me, crushing my chitin and damaging my biomorphs. "AGHH!" I activated my spores, but the creature didn''t bat an eye. "D-Darwin!! Bring t-the fucking core!" - "Host, that will attract every creature and force us-" "Exactly!! AGH!" He immediately made the transport carrying the medium core climb through the tunnel, and the flowers turned mad at it. They stopped caring about the corrupted octopus and turned their attention to the core that was releasing energy and rushed towards it. The creature got distracted, but it didn''t release me just like that. While the transporter was climbing the ceiling trying to avoid all foes, I started to bit and mangled the tentacle that was holding onto me. At every bite, I ate more and more flesh, but I could feel the corrupted blood too, infecting me. It was pulsating, like trying whispering just one word, over and over. ...consume... I kept biting and tearing flesh, as my life depended entirely on it, and at last, I managed to tear apart the freaking limb of the creature. My body fell to the ground, devastated, with just a few hp left. I felt how my consciousness was about to shut down. But I kept advancing. I managed to reach the tunnel and descended through it. It was a fall into darkness and a reality check. How can I help others if I can''t save myself? I needed more strength, more power. That was all I could think when my body hit the secondary channel. It was dark on those waters, and my vision was failing. I created a tank with the last reserve of biomass to destroy the tunnel. I could hear Darwin saying something, but I couldn''t be sure. -------------- Darwin took control of the tank, and it immediately started to erode, just as he knew would happen. Without a proper body, his will would destroy any Tyranid he was put into, just as Kai had to be into a Norn Queen to avoid his soul from contaminating everything solely by breathing. The rest of the mantis brood was in disarray, as their Queen had died. Darwin looked at them and turned to examine the body of his Queen, the one that Kai had been forcefully transferred. It was dying. The biomorphs and general structure had accumulated too much damage, and they needed resources to be repaired. Darwin started to push the body, moving away from the cave and the fight that was taking place there. It was no longer their fight, so all he cared about was the survival of the main body. Once they arrived at a seemingly safe place, he then turned. The mantis had been following it by default, expecting to find a place to heal and then leave. But Darwin needed resources and biomass to repair the body of the Queen. And Kai was no longer here to stop a Tyranid from doing what it was best. Consume. The first strike was swift and unexpected. He snapped the creature''s neck and went towards the second. This one tried to defend itself, but Darwin avoided the fast strike and pierced its thorax. The third one and the fourth tried to move back and attack when Darwin advanced, but its body had deteriorated beyond repair. He did not move. And the mantis did not advance, still wondering why this creature suddenly attacked them. From the main body, several small collectors started to spread, devouring the fallen or severely injured prey. Once enough biomass was consumed, Darwin created another unit, a fighter, and advanced, pushing the tank''s body as a meat shield. The mantis attacked at it, but Darwin pierced their necks with two sharp talons and moved forward. It took a little more than 3 minutes to kill every survivor. The collectors devoured all of them in one hour. After twelve hours, Kai woke up again. Side Chapter - The Report The planetary Governor was sweating profusely. He drank from a golden cup embellished with silver and red gems. He then remembered the reason why he had begun drinking non-stop from the last six years and smashed the glass in the wall. That damned captain! That man destroyed one of his hive cities, abusing his authority and then disappeared in the Warp after stealing half his most trained troops! Some of the glass shards hit one of his two personal bodyguards, but they didn¡¯t pay attention to it, as they were used to this man¡¯s lack of control once he began drinking. A pair of staff maiden entered the room, cleaning the mess and preparing a new set of glasses and drinks for him. After a few minutes of tense silence, he heard a soft knock on the door and made a gesture so that one of the guards opened the door and let the Ministorum investigator team enter. An old man entered the room in a rather bland look. He seemed like a boring bureaucrat that spent most of his years writing and sending reports from and back different Ministorum departments. But he saw the sign on his chest and snapped out of his contempt. A cardinal? This man was a high ranking ecclesiarchy member, and that Terra had dispatched such high ranking officer in just a few years only meant they took his report rather seriously. What looked weird was the companion that entered with him. She was a female Arbites, with black full body armor, and her helmet. The only part of her body visible was the mouth, and it showed a displeased gesture. ¡°Are you the emissary from Terra?¡± ¡°Ah Governor, Yes, yes, I¡¯m the Cardinal Rotan, and this is Lady Naya Taeghal, a Senior Arbitrator. It took us a while to reach here; the warp storms are quite a big deal lately.¡± ¡°Y-yes, they are.¡± ¡°So, you have reported the acts of a Spaceship captain as Rebellious and Heretical, right?¡± ¡°I did so, yes. That man, Aldaris, he-¡± ¡°Are you referring to Lord-Captain Aldaris, Governor?¡± The planetary Governor gritted his teeth, not wanting to acknowledge that bastard¡¯s rank. ¡°Yes¡­ He ordered me to provide him troops, which I did, understanding that he might be on a mission that required an extra pair of hands, and-¡± ¡°But, it wasn¡¯t approved by the Ministorum, did you have the right to make such a call?¡± The planetary Governor opened and closed his mouth a few times, but the man in front of him continued talking, not giving him the time to respond. ¡°There are also many testimonies that corroborate that what you provided to the Lord-Captain were delinquents, gang members and rebels from that destroyed hive-city, is that right?¡± The planetary Governor frowned, not expecting this man to know so much already. Hadn''t he just arrived at this planet a day ago? What was going on? Taking another sip to his glass, he felt the liquor calming his nerves. ¡°I needed my soldiers to fight off the rebellion on the Three Valley Hive City, but Alda- Ehem¡­ Lord-Captain Aldaris, he didn''t conform with the quality of the fighters provided. He ordered an Orbital Bombardment over the city as punishment, killing millions of innocents!!¡± ¡°Ahh, but wasn¡¯t that city full of rebels that your troops had to fight? He might as well did you a favor, didn¡¯t he?¡± The planetary Governor¡¯s face started to turn purple, and then put his most distinguished expression and responded to the man in front of him, an old and peaceful man in front of him. For a dog of the church, he looked humble and didn¡¯t command much respect. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°He didn¡¯t comply with the Imperial Law and killed millions of imperial citizens, may the Emperor protect their souls.¡± ¡°But, Governor, I have another doubt.¡± ¡°What is it now?! Can¡¯t you finish this damn string of questions and go chase that man?!¡± The old man slowly stood up, and the light in the room seemed to dim. The Governor turned left and right and saw his guards lying on the floor, with darts on their necks. The female Arbitrator had put them to sleep. ¡°W-what is the meaning of this?! Y-you are rebels!! Guards!!! HELP!¡± ¡°Shhh, don¡¯t worry, Governor, we have some privacy now. So, you think Lord-Captain Aldaris should be killed for his actions?¡± ¡°W-what?! He is a monster! He destroyed a whole Hive city without blinking!¡± ¡°And how could he do that? Didn¡¯t the shields on the city rise to protect it from the attack? I¡¯m sure the ship took a few minutes to reposition itself before launching the bombardment.¡± ¡°T-that¡­ I-I¡¯m not sure, but the Tech-priest Enginseer will be able to answer that question.¡± The old man stopped and turned, walking closer to the Governor, that was glued to the chair, unable to move. With each word, he felt his heartbeat rising and the sweat on his back growing. ¡°We have already interrogated him. He told us that you dismissed his calls for workforce and resources to repair the power stations lines.¡± ¡°B-but, ehem. I had to use every man and coin to fight the rebellion. The cities would be protected in case a fleet would attack from space.¡± ¡°Ah, yes. The city''s shield was not ready to fend off an unexpected bombardment, and they would take nearly an hour to charge fully. You were irresponsible, Governor, allowing irreparable damage to happen the shields. You disregarded his advice and allowed this tragedy to occur in that city. Plus, you¡¯ve not even put down this rebellion yet, allowing it to propagate like a virus through the whole planet.¡± Right now, the Governor was truly scared. This old man knew more than it seemed, but the level of accuracy and the amount of information he collected put the noble in real problems. ¡°Wh-wh-who are you?! How do you know all that!?¡± The old man¡¯s smile died out, and the light in his eyes turned dark and cold. He moved the bony hand through his clothes and took a sigil. It showed a capital letter ''I'' with a skull in the middle. ¡°T-tha-that''s an Inquisitorial Rosette? Y-you¡¯re an Inquisitor?¡± The Governor tried to stand but failed. He fell to the ground, pissing himself as a little kid, and started to cry, crawling backwards until he felt something behind him. It was the woman that came with this old man. Her mouth was showing a seriously displeased expression, just as cold as the Inquisitors. ¡°Indeed, I am. And you, Governor¡­ You¡¯re an utter failure. You have proven that the faith put upon you exceeded your ability to fulfill your duty.¡± The fear in the eyes of the man on the floor only increased as he noticed his body was slowly turning rigid, and he was slowly paralyzed. He fell on the ground with a loud thump and saw how the old man signaled a few things, and the woman took everything they needed. Afterward, they left the room, leaving the Governor paralyzed and crying, yet unable to scream for help. All he could hear, though, was a high pitch that was beeping faster each passing minute. After the old Inquisitor and his helper entered their vessel and left the palatine palace, an explosion took place on one of the central spires. The female Arbitres cracked her neck and turned slowly to look at the Inquisitor. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. It was probably the rebels¡­¡± She swallowed her anger and made a mental annotation on another possible law broken by this man, on a long list of wrong deeds. One day, she would make him pay for each one of them. The palace turned into a frenzy, trying to locate the ones responsible. A few hours later, several documents and reports were presented to the local population, about how the rebels had infiltrated and killed the Planetary Governor and his family, even the young royal princess wasn¡¯t spared. The whole world was shocked by the event, and several ships with Guardsmen descended upon the world the next day together with several hundred Arbitres and ecclesiarchy members, who started to pacify the world quickly and put down the rebels, now that they had lost the populations support. It was a bloody and ruthless campaign. In just a few weeks, the whole planet was right on track, praising the emperor and ready to work and serve the imperium once again. The rebels and their families, executed, burned, or forced into slavery. ------------------- Back on their main ship, the Inquisitor and the Arbitres woman were looking at some documents over a table. She was standing near the door, still with her black clothes and armor. ¡°Are you still mad about that Governor? I just accelerated the process and gave your department a solid reason to put down this rebellion without turning it into a civil war.¡± She looked away, angered, yet half convinced by the logical reasoning he used. ¡°So, what do you think, Naya?¡± The woman looked silently at him and tilted her head. The Inquisitor pointed towards several reports and testimonies about how the captain of the Battlecruiser acted in a hurry and an extremely decisive way. She then shook her head slowly, disapproving of such actions, and moved her head towards the window. The old Inquisitor turned and looked at a weird line on the starry sky. It was a purple, red, and twisted scar that traversed the cosmos. That was the Cicatrix. ¡°Right, he¡¯s not an idiot. If he used such drastic measures, it means he was in a hurry, do we know where he left?¡± She sighed and nodded and pointed at a region of space on the map. It made no sense to either of them. Who would directly jump right into the Cicatrix? And why? ¡°Interesting¡­ that is also from where the encrypted message came from. But, from that point onwards, there is only the Cicatrix. Why would he abandon his mission to investigate Ziaphoria? He has taken huge risks to get an opportunity to go there.¡± The answers pointed towards the message. It was that transmission that sparked everything. He then used an advanced servitor from the old Governor and waited for several hours so it could decipher the message, but all it managed to get was the first part. ¡°Research lab¡­ Pri-8¡¯s Moon? Do we know that place?¡± She then made a series of fast hand symbols. ''Sand, water, death.'' ¡°Oh, right! Wasn''t it the weird planet that was turning into a desert? We left some Mechanicus priests taking care of it. But, this message seems old, very old. Hmmm, M39, or M40? Interesting.¡± The Inquisitor looked at the data and frowned, was it possible for a message to travel the whole galaxy through the Cicatrix Maledictum? It was a corridor after all. Despite how counterintuitive it looked, the message was there, an old encrypted message from the other side of the galaxy. ¡°Go search for the planetary Logis. We need to decipher this message. If he can¡¯t decode it, we might need to visit an old friend from Mars to lend me a hand.¡± It looks like he would have to pay a visit to that world way earlier than he expected. Glossary I - Races Old Ones (presumably deceased) An old race with high psychic powers and advanced technology. They expanded through the stars and dominated the cosmos for millennia. They crafted multiple warp gates and dimensional corridors to travel faster than light without incurring in the dangers of the Inmaterium. The remnants of those labyrinth dimensions are known as the Webway. They fought against the alliance of the Necrons and C¡¯than in a war called the ¡®War in Heaven.¡¯ In that war, they gave birth to several psychic sensitive races, such as the Aeldar and the antecessors of the Orks, to fight off the technological Necrons and energy beings that ruled them, the C¡¯than gods. The massive amount of psychic energies deformed the Warp into a chaotic and dangerous place. They allowed a race of warp creatures, the Enslavers, to assault the galaxy. All those wars and enemies proved too much for them to withstand. They are believed to be either extinct or having fled the galaxy. Necrons The Necrontyr race was born near a star that irradiated their planet with high levels of radiation, turning them into a weak and ill race. They created a culture that praised the dead and built monuments and dynasties - akin to the old Pharaohs of Earth. They started to expand through the stars and conquered part of the galaxy. When they met the Old Ones, and older and much more advanced sentient race, they felt jealous of their technology and long lifespans, that seemed to reach immortality. The Necrontyr tried to get those secrets to cure their weak and ill bodies, but the Old Ones did not give it to them. They started a war and tried to defeat the Old Ones, but it proved too much of a challenge. The mystique energy and psychic powers of the Old Ones beat them to losing their empire and were thrown back to their homeworld. After millennia of resentment and growing hate to the Old Ones and every other race in the galaxy, they met the energy and star-devouring beings known as the C¡¯than. They were god-like figures and promised them revenge and new, undying bodies. The C¡¯than turned the Necrontyr race into the now known Necrons, through a process of biotransference. They lost their emotions and empathy. They felt no more pain and had lasting, seemingly immortal lifespans. But they lost their souls in the process, and no joy nor happiness could be felt in their cold, living metal bodies. The C¡¯than devoured the souls and gained unprecedented energy, and started a massive war against the Old Ones, the War in Heaven. They used the Necrons as warriors against the psychic and genetically advanced races of the Old Ones. The Necrons forged pylons to stop the psychic races and tried to separate reality from the Inmaterium, severing the psychic powers from reality. Yet the plague known as the Enslavers hit the Old Ones and their new races, weakening them. After defeating the Old Ones in the war known as the ¡®War in Heavens,¡¯ the Necrons turned against the C¡¯than and broke their bodies in shards. Their society was tired after the war and their rebellion against their treacherous gods. The Necrons then closed themselves in Tomb Worlds for the Galaxy to calm down, and have been sleeping for over 60 million years. The Necrons have started to wake up to take over their old galaxy empire, and crush any lower race. Aeldari Empire (Eldar, Drukhari, Harlequins, Exodite worlds) The Aeldar race was a highly psychic race engineered by the Old ones to fight the Necrons. They took over the Galaxy after the Necrons slumber and expanded through the stars for millions of years with their powers and advanced technology and began the Aeldari Empire. As a highly psychic race, they believed in a pantheon of gods through their beliefs. They conquered the galaxy with the help of the Webway, the project the Old Ones used for faster-than-light travel. After millennia of calm, they started to get obsessed with emotions and extreme sensations, hedonism, and decadence, which proved to be their downfall. After millennia of excess, they birthed the Chaos God Slaanesh. Its birth collapsed the empire and killed billions of Aeldar. The remains are known as the Eye of Terror. The Eldar were part of that race that survived the collapse of their empire fleeing away in vast continent-sized spaceships known as Craftworlds. They protect their souls by controlling their emotions and using soul stones to capture their souls were they to die. The Drukhari are part of the decadent old race that hid in a secret city in the Webway, Commorragh. Known as the Dark City, it is a place where anarchy, terror, and pain are ever-present. They need to feed on emotions such as pain and desperation to survive. They are treacherous, wicked, and cruel. The Harlequins serve the Laughing God of the Aeldar. They see art and war as the same, and seek to keep the legend of the Fall of the Aeldar alive through their performances. They are a secretive and secluded force that follows their god and explores their agendas. The Exodites are Eldars living on newly terraformed worlds that exiled themselves from the excess and hedonism that was bringing down their race. They were viewed as alarmists, puritans, or fanatics obsessed with misery and self-denial. They are survivalists. Orks They descend from the Krork, an engineered race by the Old Ones created to fight the Necrons. They are a violent, salvage, and warlike race that can withstand absurd levels of punishment. Orks reproduce through spores, that exude during their lifespan and especially at their death. Such spores grow all the members of their race, as Gretchins and Snotlings, that help build ecosystems for greater Orkoids to be born. There is also a sub-species that serves as an all-purpose herd, the Squigs. The Orks are a race that thrives in battle and has a collective psychic consciousness that drives their race to seek enemies to fight. That psychic powers also affect their beliefs, with weird things just as red things go faster, or yellow ones are more explosive. It somehow works.The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Once their psychic field grows strong enough, or when a particular Ork is big enough, it can trigger a WAAAGH!, a war campaign of enormous proportions that encompasses all Orks on a world or several worlds. The bigger Ork, the Warboss, leads it to conquer, destroy, and fight. Equal parts war, genocide as well as pub brawl, a WAAAGH! It is a massive and dangerous event to any other nearby races that wish to survive the Greenskin menace. Their genes are coded with the knowledge to create machinery and technology that only their race can use and build-out of scraps of metal or parts of metal. They fight against every other race in the galaxy, and if there are none, against themselves, just for fun. Orks are tribalistic in nature and grow more prominent the stronger they are. Humans Currently living in the Age of the Imperium, humankind is the most significant unified force in the galaxy. Humanity moved through different ages, the Age of Progress (M1-M14), Dark Age of Technology (M15 - M24), Age of Strife (M25 - M29), Unification Wars (M30), Great Crusade (798M30 - 005M31), Horus Heresy (005M31 - 014M31), Age of the Imperium (M30 - M42) After expanding through the stars and acquiring substantial technological advancements, they started to develop through the stars. After they unlocked the first Warp drives at the Age of Technology, a massive expansion through cosmos began. The technology managed to create Standard Template Construct (STC), extensive database systems that allowed humans to unlock many technological advancements stored in it. But technology turned into a menace as humanity had to fight a terrible war against their own AIs and several humanoid machines that rebelled and lead to a terrible war. After such war, Humanity entered a phase of slumber for 5 thousand years (M25-M29) as warp stormes grew stronger due to the impending fall of the Aeldari Empire. It all ended once the Chaos God Slaanesh was born in the first years of the 30th Millenium. Under the Emperor of Mankind, a man born as the collective inheritor of all the old psykers of humanity, humans expanded through the starts for millennia, conquering their old worlds, and gathering many new ones. The Emperor engineered a bio-enhanced army of super-human warriors, the Space Marines Legions, to fight the hard wars, and to lead them, he created the greatest of its warriors, 20 Primarchs, that embodied different aspects of his psyche and abilities. They were lost though the Galaxy due to Chaos intervening. As they were later found, each one was given a Legion to command with tens of thousands of Space Marines at their orders. Together with the Tech-priests of Mars, which followed the Mechanicus Cult, they began a glorious crusade to unify the humans scattered through the cosmos. Two Primarchs were erased from Imperial history by their acts, and are known as the lost and forgotten, its destiny unknown. The Emperor wanted to destroy the Chaos Gods and created the Imperial Truth; it had reason and science as its pillars. Yet he banned the creation of artificial intelligence, remembering the terrible wars that humanity had fought millennia ago. Yet an immense civil war was brewing as half of his Primarch and many of the troops they lead, betraying the Emperor and Mankind as they thought he was using them and turned to serve Chaos. It turned into a devastating war lead by Horus, the greatest of all the Primarchs and his first ''son.'' As it ended, the Imperium was devastated, the Emperor mortally wounded, and his dreams collapsed. He had to enter the Golden Throne, an old artifact that served as a way to maintain whatever was left of his life and also produce a vast beacon to let the warp navigators traverse the cosmos with relative safety. He has been enclosed for over 10 thousand years on the throne, which is slowly failing, needing thousands of psykers to be sacrificed every day to keep the light illuminate the imperium. To avoid another civil war of such scale, the remaining Space Marines Legions were split into chapters of a thousand units, and no one has the authority to call for hundreds of thousands to millions of units individually as in the Horus Heresy. Another significant change has been the creation and push of simple human soldiers to fight the wars as the main armies, letting the Space Marines some breathing space to fight and give support at necessary times at critical battles and wars for the Imperium. Since his fall, the Imperium has stagnated and morphed into a decadent, obscure, and fanatic place where he is treated as a god-like figure. Meanwhile, the galaxy keeps at war with many Xeno races threatening every world of the Imperium. Many other menaces exist, such as the heretics, cultists of chaos that try to bring down humanity to their dark masters. Tau The Tau are one of the youngest and most naive races of the galaxy. They are blue-skinned, humanoid, with small frames and short lifespans. They have nearly no presence in the Warp, attracting little attention from the Chaos gods. During the M35th, the Tau lived as several primitive tribes on their homeworld. Each one specializing in a different area, such as hunting, building, sending messages, etc. They were almost destroyed by civil war, yet some saint-like figures descended and started to teach them a new philosophical way through diplomacy. The Ethereals, as they were known, looked like them, but their words resonated at a deep level, and the race stopped their wars. The ideas that spread were the Greater Good, and they managed to turn the primitive tribes into a caste system with the Ethereals as their leaders. Each caste would work in a different field. The Fire cast as the military forces, highly disciplined soldiers, turned into professionals since birth. The Earth caste members are the most numerous ones and work as artisans, engineers, and scientists to enhance the technology and wonders of their race. The Air caste members work as messengers and pilots, leading their spaceships through the stars. Water caste members work as merchants, administrators, and diplomats. Lastly, the Ethereal caste works as spiritual and political leaders and rule the rest of the castes. They are believed to produce some pheromone suggestion effect that leads the rest of the castes to obey their words without being able to deny them. For six thousand years, they have progressed and advanced and turned into a highly technologically advanced society and one rising power in the galaxy. They proved masters of tactics and worked as one unified race to stop many Ork invasions, Tyranid hive fleet, and managed to stop the Imperium at the Damocles Gulf Crusade. They have accepted and assimilated into their empire dozens of lesser races through diplomacy and commerce. But when words could not convince other races of their ways, they have frequently invaded and even exterminated populations to keep their expansion. Tyranids Tyranids are one of the latest, yet more dangerous species to have entered the Galaxy. They form vast swarms of hundreds of hive fleets and millions or billions of insectoid and grotesque organisms that serve different roles such as recognizance and infiltration, assault, and heavy support or absorption. Each of them, working as a cog to allow the race to advance. Individuality has no meaning in their race, as they all communicate through telepathy orders and coordinate their efforts in battle as one colossal organism, each little creature nothing more than a cell in the bigger frame of their war efforts. They are thought to be lead by what is known as the Great Devourer, a massive accumulation of Tyranid minds that leads the race through the cosmos. They excel at biotechnology and bioengineering to build adaptable and better organisms to consume worlds and use living ships to travel through space. The Tyranids are depicted as a voracious race of locusts sometimes. Yet, they work as a highly complex individual, trying to find new strands of DNA, enhance their evolution path, and adapt to any threats in their way. As the Tyranids grow in number, they create a psychic nullifying effect, the Shadow in the Warp, that isolates Imperial worlds as a Hive fleet approaches. Humanity has discovered three major hive fleets so far, High Fleet Behemoth (745M41), High Fleet Kraken (993M41), and High Fleet Leviathan (997M41). The real terror is yet to be understood, as even in defeat, the remnants of a hive fleet might splinter and turn into new hive fleets. Even worse, is the Genestealer threat, bring by Hive Fleet Kraken. These creatures are skilled at deception and infiltration. They spread like a disease, and form hidden secret organizations under seemingly peaceful worlds, leading them through Patriarch figures. Through the last centuries, they have grown several Genestealer Cults, that thrive in Imperial Hive Cities and, with time, turn a world into widespread civil unrest, and may attract nearby Hive Fleets. Chaos As the Old Ones discovered, the psychic aware races affected the Inmaterium with their emotions and turned the Warp from a mystique place to the demon-like hell it is now. From that pool of emotions, the Chaos Gods were born. Three of them were born during the middle age of humanity. The last one was born from the Fall of the Eldar. Chaos forces may be human or Xeno, but some of the most powerful mortal beings to serve the Chaos gods are the mighty Space Marines, turned to Chaos during the Horus Heresy, or other events. From the warp, demons lurk and desire to possess psykers and enter realspace to cause havoc and massacre. They are Khorne, the god of Blood and Skulls, that encompasses all aspects of close combat battle, carnage, and violence. Tzeentch is the chaos god of Fate and Changer of Ways, and he thrives when plots and treason take place. He is the patron of mystiques and knowledge seekers, and usually alters the paths of mortals. The third god is Nurgle, the Grandfather of Diseases and Pestilence; also Death and Decay. He believes his ¡®gifts¡¯ are to be enjoyed by mortals and brews deadlier and worse plagues to bring to reality and be spread. The last one is Slaanesh, God/dess of Pleasure, Decadence, and Excess. It was born from the massive fall of the Aeldari Empire. Each god encompasses several aspects of emotions and feelings, some even positive, as bravery, knowledge, resilience, and pleasure, to name a few. Chapter 26 - Second Base I opened and closed my eyes. I saw nothing, just darkness. My heart started to accelerate, and my adrenaline rushed immediately. After a few seconds, my sensors started to give me a few inputs. "Wh-what happened? I remember reaching the tunnel and falling." I looked left and right, I could see a few collectors moving, and two transporters. One had air, and the other had samples of the red worms. "T-the mantis, where are-" "Norn. You woke up." "I wanted to return their help. Where are they?" "Norn, stop doing that, or-" "What''s fucking wrong with trying to do some good thing, Norn?!¡± I cracked my neck and started to investigate the corridor. ¡°Where are the mantis?¡± ¡°You did WHAT?!¡± My eyes started to shine in purple light, and I was thinking about beating Norn, even considering burning her soul from existence as an option. I stood there and used my tail to hit the wall, cracking it. ¡°FUCK!¡± I closed my eyes and saw what Darwin meant, my body was damaged, and there were signs of injuries that were barely healed. After sighing, I started to calm down, burying my anger for now. They are working towards a simple objective, survival. I was too weak and tried to help others, but ended up failing miserably. I took it as a blow to my confidence and had to reevaluate my priorities and choices. I¡¯ve been so carried away by the dichotomy of surviving in this Xeno body that I didn¡¯t give it enough, though. ¡°Darwin, take a few collectors and monitor them through a scout.¡± We rested in silence for a few more minutes while I was trying to calm down and find some answers to calm my mind. My mood was stormy at best. I knew that I had to choose how to live from now on. But I wanted to delay that decision as much as possible. I stood up in the desolated and submerged corridor. It looked like Darwin moved in a random direction for a few dozens of meters. We were close enough to feel some acid and corruption that leaked from the ceiling. We needed to move out of here soon. "Can you tell me what happened when I was out? How did the fight end?" Darwin told me that he was too focused on escaping, so we don''t know anything. With a bit of luck, the parasite flowers would have killed that corrupted beast, but I can¡¯t count on that. "Well, let''s move downwards and build another base. We need a place to defend ourselves." Norn then unlocked something and went into slumber again. She was cold with me, but it was her offer of managing to create a body for me that picked my attention. "What?! Can you really do that?¡± I asked her about her words, but she had fallen into slumber. I then inspected what she had unlocked. Looking at the information, I focused on the fact that we¡¯re on the same boat, at least for now. I started moving with the transporters and used my enhanced senses to locate some areas that might have a significant accumulation of resources. We managed to get to one of the lower zones that I could navigate through the cave system of this biome, probably around 30 meters below the forest. Once I noticed a soft area at the end of a corridor, I split my maw and summoned tanks and fighters, as well as transporters to help to dig. We all started working for hours to create our second base. This time, we will build our base in a slightly different way. I wanted to create a sort of maze and use the minimum number of units to defend several corridors, with hunters or bombs. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ¡°Okay, let¡¯s try this new thing.¡± My back cracked, and some chitin plaques moved to allow a seed the size of a grape to be formed. I threw it to the soil, and it started to spread, growing over half a meter towards the cave and absorbed nutrients and valuable biomass from the terrain, making it crumble shortly after. It then started to create a sort of fruit, that accumulated all the biomass in a biomass snack. As I ate it, the seed dried out and died. My first pleasant surprise was that the seed could capture part of the oxygen in the water, allowing me to breathe regularly again. That made the air gathering problem disappear. I munched it and noticed it gave me 13 biomass, returned slightly more biomass than it cost. Grinning at the sight of profits, I moved the units and started to move the rest of the soil and earth to block the corridor from where we came. After trying to create a cave with a few more seeds, I modified them and started to harden, creating some root system to hold the newly built cave, so it didn''t fall apart. "Okay, we can either erode or help strengthen an area. We can''t just erode these walls mindlessly, but it can help us prepare some traps or fake corridors." I created a corridor that moved from our soon to be nest room, and after 6 meters, I then began to dig upwards while thinking about what to use as a defense mechanism. Maybe some spikes or acid at the bottom of the cave could serve to take down our prey. What I needed right now was a steady flow of biomass, and I thought that the best was the small parasites or the spiders. If we managed to control their numbers, I could defeat and devour them without much problem. The issue was that I couldn''t just move outside the caves to hunt, nor go to the lake. Both were too much of a challenge right now. The only areas left were the ones I could make for myself. I started to dig downwards, creating a sort of well that had several bombs pumping acid at the bottom of it. Norn called it a crudely crafted digestion pool. But once I reached 6 meters, I hit some sort of hardened surface, unnaturally flat. ¡°Looks like I have hit a wall.¡± "Darwin, show me the status." Species: Primal Adult- Ripper Level - 6 (100 biomass to unlock minor evolution: Elite) Health - 17/24 (Temporarily weakened) Energy - 68/90 Biomass Reserves - 36 biomass Str - 20 Res - 17 Vit - 16 Agi - 14 Int - 10 Support level 3 Enhanced senses level 3 Maw and claws level 3 Chitin level 3 Poison sting level 3 Spores level 3 Pincer level 2 Adrenal glands, level 1 Minor -> Collectors, Mites, Bomb, Transport Basic -> Tank, Fighter, Hunter, Scout Structures -> Seed (10 biomass) ¡°I need real defenses. Maybe I could merge the seeds with a biomorph?¡± So that will take some time to get. Well, it¡¯s worth trying once we are settled. ¡°Well, let¡¯s keep working with what we have on hand.¡± I started digging, trying to forget about the Mantis, and focused on the work at hand. -------------------------- After entering the Cicatrix Maledictum, the spaceship had been traveling for more than 11 months through the Warp, one of the most dangerous places known to humanity. It was a Mars Class Battlecruiser, one unique model able to throw Orbital Bombardment strikes and had powerful Gellar Fields, capable of creating reality bubbles to protect ships on the Warp. Some crew members said it was more like 12 or 15 months, no one was really sure. Time fluctuated differently in different areas of the ship. The closer one was to the reality generator fields, the less strange phenomenon happened. Yet the ones in the weakest parts, sometimes turned inside out, with their bodies exploded all over walls or spontaneously combusted in chaotic flames. Only the faith in the Emperor, the guns, and the Captain''s presence could maintain the order on the ship for so long. And they had traveled further than anyone in the whole Sector, probably the entire Segmentum Ultima, the one situated at the eastern fringe of the galaxy. That half of the whole crew survived was surprising. They had recycled thousands of corpses for food and water. Yet that was business as usual for the thousands upon thousands of servitors, slaves, and lower crew members that kept the ship alive. And after all that pain, suffering, and uncertainty, they reached a relatively safe point where the ship returned to reality while escaping the hands of screaming demons and ghostly apparitions that had haunted the ship and hunted the souls inside it. ¡°Lord Captain Aldaris! We made it!!¡± An exhausted and prematurely aged officer talked to the Captain. ¡°Good! Well done, everyone.¡± Everyone on the deck shouted in happiness, and some jumped. Even Aldaris sighed and slowly nodded, releasing some stress. After a few hours locating their position, and letting the tech-priests cool down the nearly melted Gellar Field generators, the ship activated their scanners to determine their objective. The Auger Array, a multi-sensor device capable of launching a multitude of scanners and provide valuable data and analysis, returned the first images of a yellowish-brown, somewhat ochre planet. One of its continents was verdant, yet the rest of the planet was strangely an immense desert. Two moons orbited the planet, that rotated a star of similar size to the sun. ¡°Lord Captain, we have located Pri-8, the encrypted message said that the research outpost was located on one of the moons, but we have not determined any Imperial remnant structures. Suddenly, the whole bridge trembled. ¡°Sir! We have been hit! Multiple spaceships are appearing near our flank!¡± The screens showed a few black and extraordinarily advanced and twisted brutal aesthetic, resembling pirate ships filled with edges and pointy and sharp ends. The ships started to launch several shoots and moved with unmatched speed towards the Imperial spaceship. ¡°Prepare for battle! Officer, send orders to the Vox, let the spaceship know we have company!¡± The officer started to send messages, awakening the dormant ship and preparing it for a crude battle that was about to come. Some areas reported smaller vessels moving nearby the ship, testing their void shield, and trying to destroy the propulsors. There were more impacts and explosions as the enemy vessels attacked their ship. A high ranking Tech-Priest present at the commanding bridge moved closer and whispered some words to the Captain with a cold, emotionless, and mechanical voice. ¡°Aldaris, you know why we came here, those ships are a mere distraction. Time is of the essence! We must recover the artifacts and secure the lab!¡± The second in command in the ship reported the data from the screens. ¡°Sir! They seem like Drukhari vessels! They were waiting to ambush us once we moved out of the Warp!¡± Lord Captain Aldaris hit his chair and pondered for a few seconds, then turned to the Tech-Priest Explorator, the highest Mechanicus member in his ship that was following a sacred Quest of Knowledge, trying to recover ancient archeotech. ¡°You¡¯re right, I will deal with those scum pirates, take a few vessels, and locate the lab. Once we can get inside it, I will send reinforcements.¡± The Tech-Priest nodded slowly and turned, moving his oversized mechanical body, that was hidden under a red robe. One could see several mechanical arms attached to its back, moving on its own as they gathered data, and did minor reparations to his bionic limbs. Then, Aldaris nodded and gave new orders. ¡°Officer, send Tech-Priest Explorator Furjorn Da¡¯Kriek and his helpers to the docks. Call Captain Trummol and Leah, they will escort and protect them during their investigation. Also, call the Master of Ordnance to activate the torpedos; we might need to launch some nuclear warheads to fend off those Dark Eldar parasites.¡± The officer nodded, and Aldaris stood up and took out his blade, a saber sword gifted by the prior Captain of this ship. It still had some engraved words on it. ¡®Eternal Glory¡¯ He grinned and made a swift motion, put the tip on the ground, creating a high pitched metallic sound that called everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Everyone, listen! We have survived a terrible test! We traveled all the galaxy to secure this outpost and its treasures! But we have more challenges before us! Yet again, some vile and treacherous Xenos are trying to destroy what is rightfully ours!! Get ready to kill those scum! Ready the weapons, fire all lances, and send all fighter vessels!! May the Emperor protect us all!!¡± Dozens of voices responded at his words. ¡°For the Emperor!!¡± He nodded and sat down on his chair of command. The officers and crew members responded with energy on their voices. Even though they were all suffering terrible exhaustion after many months in the Warp, they knew duty came first. ¡°This space battle will be a tough one¡­¡± Lord Captain Aldaris spoke with cold hate in his voice as he saw the report of the damage on his ship and the many enemy vessels that kept appearing form portals near their position. Chapter 27 - Flytrap After working for a whole day, I coiled to rest and sleep. Yet it was not a peaceful one, as I had a nightmare. I''m sure it was one as I slashed a few times with my tail. I woke up and then returned to sleep for a few more minutes, and this time, it was different. I recovered what seemed like old memories of a child. It was smiling, and I could hear her calling my name. "Who was that girl? Was she my daughter?" I wasn''t sure. It was too blurry to see that kid''s face. But I remember her smile, as I was doing some hand tricks to make her laugh, trying to discover where I hid a small object. I was playing with something small, shiny, and rounded. Using my chitin biomorph, I started to create some small byproducts that were rounded and tiny. It took several tries, but I was satisfied with the 6th iteration. ¡°What was this called? A coin?¡± I tried to play with it with my claw, but the small coin kept falling. I got distracted while playing with it for a few minutes, trying to remember my dream. Once I had failed too many times, I sighed and absorbed it again into my organism. I felt it was a waste of time, but it also helped me focus while I cracked my neck and got ready to keep building the nest. ¡°Darwin, can you recall the records we saw at the awakening? The ones the AI showed us.¡± As I was doing a repetitive and uninteresting task, I started to look back at the images the Tyranid body memorized at a near-perfect level. Back when I first woke up in this body, I had put all my attention and absorbed all that information, but I had no time to look at it in detail properly. I just had the data, without any idea of its meaning. And now, I had time to think, waiting for Norn to wake up while in this darkness and silence. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s read about this galaxy¡­ By the way, do we know where are we exactly?¡± Darwin remained silent most of the time, giving some data or solving some of my doubts about a race, an enemy, or a situation. He knew way more than I expected, but it was little more than a passive communicator. I missed a proper conversation. My metabolism allowed me to sleep a minimum of 3-4 hours and work over 20 without any problems. I heard this was also the regular work time from trillions of humans in the Imperium. Their living conditions were just awful. Work hard, have kids, praise the Emperor. That was it. Worse than cattle in some worlds. I can¡¯t understand how this galaxy descended to this level of darkness and obscurity. It is almost a mockery of what humanity once was. "It seems like the Emperor failed to the worst possible level. He is about to turn into a warp god at this level..." As I moved through our growing base, I looked back at the digestive pool devouring some prey. We had opened a tunnel towards the biome, luckily at the area in dispute from both parasites and spiders, so only a handful of enemies entered such tunnel to investigate. We noticed that the parasite flowers were guided both by energy and by pheromones, and we managed to lure a few of them towards the pool of acid, where any creature was slowly being dissolved, unable to climb back as the walls were slippery. I had invested quite a significant sum of biomass, but it was worth it. The trap was self-sustained by semi-sentient units that pumped acid and provided an easy way to lure prey and dispose of them at the same time. It was efficient.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. After a few more hours digging and hunting some minor prey, I managed to gather enough biomass to level up. Yet Norn was nowhere present. It looked like the last few days, and the accumulated damages had slowed her recovery. Another 20 hours passed, and I went to sleep. I closed 3 of my eyes and left a few scouts here and there on the tunnels, with bombs and tanks. Lastly, I had one tank near me, just in case. ¡°What do I want?¡± It was a hard question. Or maybe I was overthinking. I wanted to survive, and for that, I needed power. Tyranids only understood the power of accumulative growth, disregarding technology, and investigation. Their sole focus was on adapting to the threats through their particular way of evolution. As a human, I knew that our bodies are way, way less robust, resilient, or durable compared to any other race. Except for the Tau, those are even more useless physically, yet it was precisely such weakness that allowed them and us to rise towards the stars. However, the Imperium had cut off that path through religious fanaticism and an obscure machine cult. They only attempted to recover the remnants of the Dark Age of Technology, their old peak, and almost universally disregarded any other progress as an insult to their creed. Especially from Xenos'' tech. They had their reasons, though. This era was one where the Imperium had been forced time and again to amputate and cauterize any traces from Heresy, Mutation or Psyker could contaminate it. And the AI''s were one of those threats that nearly took down humanity at one point. I stopped moving for a second and looked at my claws. "Where does that leave me?" I pondered, lost in my thoughts. My mere existence was an aberration to the Imperium, and most other races would shoot first without a doubt. I knew I could play a role somewhere. I just had to find it. The route of technological superiority wasn''t all that appealing to me, nor was the route of pure natural adaptation. I could try to merge both realities through society. The best of both worlds would be using Tyranids as a workforce and fighting force and human or Xeno technology to allow me to surpass any obstacle and gain more power to change my fate. The only way I could think to achieve that was a Genestealer Cult. That would allow me to return to society, and even change it to my advantage. I would turn people from total slaves of the Imperium to being half slaves to a Hive mind, but any change was better than what the Imperium had been offering for 10 thousand years. It was oppressive, obscure, and twisted beyond reason. And it was collapsing. "Aghh, what a headache. This galaxy is just too obtuse!" I was having a hard time understanding the scale and horrors of the 41st Millenium. And that was only focusing on the problems the Imperium had within. I didn''t even start with what was without the Imperium or beyond reality. If I included Xenos, Cults, or Demons, it was just unbearable. Right now, humanity can only hope to hold on. There is nothing else, just death and suffering. The tech-priests have chopped progress; the Ecclesiarchy had purged ideas. Maybe I could do something about that. ¡°Maybe I can change something¡­¡± * Brrrmmmmmm The whole biome trembled again. * BRRRRMMM!!! CRaacckk!!! A whole section of the tunnels collapsed, and I started hearing hissing noises. ¡°Fuck! When the trap was working perfectly fine melting those bastards, we now have to face more enemies!!¡± I went on full alert mode and started moving towards the area where the tunnels caved in. There were a ton of spiders entering the tunnels. A few dozens of small ones were starting to throw their webs, and 4 or 5 big ones assaulted a pair of tanks that rushed to the area. ¡°Great, I just had a showdown with the other eight-legged freaks!¡± The spiders started to capture units again, and I sent a scout in a suicide mission to gave me some visibility on what we were facing. I could ¡®see¡¯ through my scout the number of enemies. It looked that the spiders had access to a sub-biome from where they gathered resources. And the last tremor had just collapsed part of its walls and our tunnels. The second I realized the abundance of enemies and the presence of one or two highly mutated creatures in their ranks, I rushed back to the inner areas of my own nest. ¡°Can¡¯t we collapse them completely?¡± "Right, and that¡¯s without taking the Imperial spaceship." Their battle with the Drukhari has been taking several days, and it''s weird, as the dark Eldar are usually more on fast attacks, raids, and hit and runs. That means this place is as vital to them as it is to Imperials. But it looks like their fight is not over, and I don¡¯t think they will send troops anytime soon. I hope they won''t. ¡°Darwin, how long till Norn wakes up?¡± ¡°Fuck¡­ Okay, you take two transporters and start digging towards the river, then follow it towards the waterfall, we will try to hide there. I¡¯ll take care of our friendly neighbors.¡± I crack my back and neck, ready to kill some freaking spiders. It¡¯s a nest vs. nest fight. Chapter 28 - Prole War As part of our tunnels were either collapsed or beginning to got infested by spiders, I had to start spreading fighter units to fight off the spiders, but for each spider, we killed another took its place, and the problem is that the webs kept being thrown. Like the last time, I sent bomb units to keep the spiders from expanding, but we needed a way to deal with them. ¡°Darwin spread the pheromones! Attract the parasites towards the spider nest!¡± I created a transport unit filled with a unique pheromone mix and let it get captured by the spiders. They proceeded to trap it, sting poison inside the unit and take it to their nest. It will start to spread the invisible message, like a subliminal idea to call the parasites. The spiders kept acting mechanically. Throw webs, send the heavy units, again and again. ¡°Have they not learn anything at all?¡± They are like drones, executing without thinking. I stopped and saw that only 3 of our tunnels were still open. 1 of them had a few parasites walking to the digestive pool, with a little help from my units. The other 2 had spiders advancing while the tanks and bombs tried to hold them off. I summoned a few bomb units and planted them on weakened areas of the tunnel, ready to detonate at my signal. ¡°Let the spiders invade, let¡¯s move back the units!! Prepare to detonate!¡± Darwin did as told, and I started to dig on the intersection where all tunnels connected. The spiders kept advancing through both tunnels, securing the captured ground by releasing threads and silk. I moved my units back until 10 or 12 creatures had surpassed the hidden bombs and then detonated them. * Brooomm!! BRoomm!! The tremors were muffled, but earth and soil fell from every point of the nest, collapsing full sections of both tunnels and cutting the way back from the spiders to their nest. * Screech! The spiders were suddenly blocked and turned mad, looking for a way out. They had a mission to fulfill, hunt, and capture or kill the bug-things. But now, they were the prey. ¡°Let¡¯s focus on the big ones, they are the dangerous ones and have more biomass!¡± I started summoning bombs and detonating them in the middle of the spiders'' group, that began to get separated from the dangerous foes group. Once I managed to spread our enemies through the tunnels, I dig myself out of my hiding ground and created tanks and fighters to go and take the bulk of the fight. The tanks started trapping them, and with the help of the fighters, they pulled the spiders one by one. I then moved from the intersection where the spiders were trying to find their way around and activated my spore aura, poisoning them and damaging their lungs and chitin. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The spiders began to walk backward, trying to move away from my deadly poison and slowly but inevitably arrived near the digestion pool. Once there, it was a child¡¯s play to push them, throwing units that fought them, some even falling with the spiders and ending in the acidic soup where many other creatures had fallen before them. After the last enemy was on the pool, I summoned a pair of bombs that started to pour acid over them, just to make sure they couldn¡¯t escape through launching webs. Their screams and shouts lasted a few minutes but ended up dying, as the acid devoured them alive, and the whole pit was filled with toxic fumes and deadly gases that could suffocate a regular human in mere seconds. The endurance of the spiders was remarkable. We kept using the same tactics a few times, losing ground with every passing hour. At last, after 9 stressful hours of fights and salvage close combat, we suffered a heavy blow. One of the elite creatures managed to enter the main tunnel. ¡°Shit! Move the bombs, I¡¯ll summon a few tanks!¡± The creature was black and had several spikes or protrusions oozing a blackish and deep purple venom. It smelled like corruption, but it wasn¡¯t too concentrated yet. The creature had two oversized forelimbs that looked like blades. With its overbearing size, the corrupted beast started to impale and slash at every creature I threw at it. Even worse, its prole was equally deadly and faster than what we had been fighting until now. I hid a few bomb units and receded, but this monster picked notice of our behavior and let the simple spiders advance first, draining our forces and making us lose terrain. The creature moved back and sat on the corridor, baiting me to make a movement. ¡°That fucker¡­¡± As the brood started to advance, I detonated the bombs and sent more tanks to keep them busy while I moved back to the digestion pool. I then used part of the accumulated biomass and threw seeds to cover the pit. Then I moved to the room beside the digestion pool and looked at my latest creation. ¡°Darwin, how is the nest?¡± We had spent over 150 units of biomass already with the number of enemies we managed to digest already. The structure I was trying to develop was an intricate replica of my Spore Biomorph, to create units and increase my capacity limit, but it¡¯s been a headache without Norn. ¡°Just a little bit more, keep pumping the biomass of the digested enemies!¡± I turned and saw my units having a hard time holding off the enemies. As the creatures started to overwhelm my units, I went and hid from view under the growing seeds at the digestive pool¡¯s well. The coverage was almost done. The spiders managed to kill and capture my units and then started to advance towards the nest, not caring that much about the ground they were stepping on. After the first units, the next creatures to advance were the corrupted lesser spiders, with their scythe-like forelimbs. And as time went on, they began pouring silk and creating webs. I waited patiently, as I knew my prey would finally make its move. And despite my precarious situation, I knew a thing or two about waiting. A few minutes later, a loud sound could be heard. * Thump, Thump, Thump. The creature moved closer to the pit, but stopped suddenly, noticing something wrong. My heartbeat started to spike, and the adrenal gland started to pump adrenal hormones into my bloodstream. Then, just as I was about to let go from the platform, expecting an attack, the corrupted spider began to walk again. But instead of walking through the platform, it climbed the ceiling and moved towards the nest room. I let go of my breath slowly and ready for a tough fight. With a mental order, the nest cracked and started to leak an invisible and odorless gas on the air, slowly poisoning the spiders. The effects began to make clear after the first couple of minutes, as the minor spiders started creating messed up webs. The corrupted spider leading them neared the nest and inspected it. It then started to notice the weird behavior of its lesser units and began to recede, walking backward. Once it stepped into the seed¡¯s bridge, the seeds deformed upon contact, making the spider got entangled with a net of roots that began to grow over it, almost falling into the pit. As only two or three legs got messed up, it used the rest of its limbs to hold on and started climbing back. I saw it and wasted no time to jump at its back and started biting and tearing it, crushing two of its legs with my claws and causing grievous wounds with my tail. ¡°Darwin!! Release all of them!¡± The nest then started to tremble, and the outer shell broke into pieces as a living swarm of creatures moved from it seeking prey. There were almost a hundred collectors, and they immediately attacked any nearby monsters. They compensated their small size for a massive number of units, jumping and biting madly at any enemy they could reach. Some got crushed, bitten, or tangled onto the webs, but more took the place of the fallen ones with ease as a living carpet of creatures inundated the nest room. Chapter 29 - Elites While the corrupted spider was roaring angrily and trying to pierce me, I pushed it towards the pit, and once it began to fall, I jumped to the other side of the hole and launched a group of hunters that started to snipe at our enemies. The projectiles were not strong enough to damage the thick shell of the corrupted spider but could hurt the rest of the creatures. We focused on the smaller and nimbler enemies first, and the swarm of uncontrolled collectors did their best at devouring and searching for weak spots in our enemies, be their eyes, thorax, or limbs, they bit non stop with sharp and oversized maws. Yet what surprised me was the corrupted elite spider. It used its two scythes to slash at the wall and stop its fall. It roared, and I noticed its corrupted offspring turning more frantic and violent, cutting and tearing apart my collectors with single-minded dedication, near an obsession. As the spiders on the nest were being devoured alive, the hunters did an excellent job keeping any invaders at bay, but the spider was trying to climb up by sheer will. I summoned a tank, and it jumped at the spider, trying to attack its eyes or limb joints. Yet, a couple of lesser spiders jumped madly at my unit, making all three of them fall to the digestive soup. They fell and started to roar together with the rest of the enemies that were being slowly digested. ¡°I also know how to play at that.¡± This creature shriek in anger and then had to suffer me throwing several fighters and bomb units at it. The damage it incurred was incredible, but it didn¡¯t give up. And as I threw more units, it used one limb to keep suspended and the other to slash at my units. I neared the pit, thinking about jumping to finish it myself but noticed a glow on the beast¡¯s eyes. It was waiting, biding its time and enduring. ¡°You¡¯re one smart bastard.¡± Cracking my neck, I noticed that the collectors had mostly finished their life cycle of violent, animalistic rampage with the spiders. Once their work was done, I put the hunters into slumber and created several more collectors, and sent the starving bastards towards the wounded beast. They fell over it and began to chip off its shell, and the spider had little to do against the nasty and continuous bites of the lesser creatures. It then tried to climb faster, but the pit proved a challenge for the beast, as it had lost most of its legs in our prior exchange. The cave trembled again, and I could hear hisses from the tunnels, as some new enemies were nearing our position. ¡°Ok, fuck it. Darwin, release the nest, we¡¯re using it.¡± ¡°I decided it will look better down there, over that bastard¡¯s face!¡± Climbing the ceiling, I moved back to the nest¡¯s chamber and avoided most of the webs and body parts from the corrupted lesser spiders. I summoned two tanks, and we started to push the massive structure of the nest towards the pit. Despite my increased strength and weight, it proved quite an effort, and by when the structure started to reach the hole, the corrupted elite spider was about to exit the trap thanks to its sharp limbs that used as climbing tools. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. The creature saw the nest and began to roar, trying to slice and cut the structure, but it was a reinforced nest with several chitin layers of hardened biomass. ¡°Come on! A little more!!¡± The nest finally reached the point where it was tilting, and the spider panicked as it saw a big mass of green, purple, and dark chitin and organic flesh pushed over it. * Baam!! The nest fell and hit the creature, that began to fall under the excessive weight, but used its scythes to lock its body, holding for a few more seconds. I sent the tanks to attack its left limb, and I used that chance to start to strike at the right one, hitting it with my tail¡¯s pincers. After three or four strikes, the damaged limb¡¯s joint snapped, and the spider fell heavily on the deadly pool of digestive acids. * SCREAACHHH!!!! REAAHGHH!! It screamed and roared, moving its legs and scythe, trying to get free from the dead weight and my two tanks, but it only managed to aggravate its wounds. Without several limbs and having lost one of its primary weapons, it was as good as dead. I then picked up the scythe and inspected it. The sharpness was astonishing. ¡°We¡¯ll copy it when Norn is back. There are enough samples of the creature¡¯s DNA for that.¡± The whole beast was there, plus several collector mites that had taken small bites of its flesh. As I looked at the weapon, the beast roared one more time and finally dropped dead. Its head slowly got submerged with acid, and it began to melt. I noticed how part of the flesh released some dark substance that floated on the top of the boiling acid. ¡°I hope that doesn¡¯t affect us in the long term. We must find a way to cleanse the corruption.¡± Without wasting more time, I moved back through the tunnels where I saw some spiders enslaved by parasite-flowers, lead by a huge hybrid creature. ¡°Oh, shit¡­¡± The new enemy had a sort of corrupted body that mixed both arachnids and plant traits of the flower-parasites. It looked like a mixture of a crab and a spider somehow. * Roaaghhh!! But it then roared and advanced in a mad rush as it saw me. It was more than twice my size, easily surpassing the 100 kg of mass and pushed through the tunnel with difficulties. Yet it proved to be relentless. The creature just kept pushing forward, roaring, and ignoring the pain. It then opened its mouth and launched several vines to capture one of my tanks, devouring it in mere seconds. It took me half a second to process what happened. From under its body, some vine parasites started to writhe with shocking speed, and I didn¡¯t think it twice. I turned and started running for my life. I didn¡¯t even need to throw anything as the walking tank-ish beast was making the whole tunnels tremble and cave in. Some rocks fell, but the mutated creature managed to keep advancing, although rather slowly, allowing the smaller and nimbler flowers to slither forward. Once I reached the pit, I jumped to the pool, falling over the broken nest and the half-digested corpse of the corrupted spider. My chitin slowed the effects of the acid to extreme levels, but I could not swim through it as if it were water without suffering a terrible itch that kept growing. A pair of vine parasites fell to the acids only to start screaming in pain as they tried to climb back. Meanwhile, I hid into the nest, starting to modify the feeding tubes and capillaries that were grown from the digestive pool towards the nest in the other room and re-attaching them here. The whole liquid started to overheat and turned into vapor, but the corrupted parasite stood there, patrolling the area. It suffered the toxic fumes in silence, as it guarded the pit. I couldn¡¯t quickly get out of the pit as I would get exposed to the creature¡¯s attacks. With a few seeds, I created spikes in case the creature thought it was a good idea to jump over us in a suicidal attack. ¡°Darwin, can I send you more transporters to speed the tunnel towards the waterfall?¡± ¡°Agh, c¡¯mon! Give me some good news¡­¡± I open my eyes and exit the nest, searching for it with desperation. I don¡¯t want it to get damaged by the acid or start to react and cause an explosion somehow. ¡°It seems that we will have to wait for Norn to wake up¡­¡± -------------------- Meanwhile, the parasites had started following a trace towards a nest of many-legged creatures and began observing them. The spiders had also changed into darker and more dangerous creatures, with sharp limbs that fended off the enslaving creatures. On the meadows, the huge tree had grown twice its size in the last few days, and had a presence nearby, hiding in its shadows. It looked like a bloated tick. Illusory tentacles moved, and part of its many eyes could be seen as the branches moved without any wind. Mixed within the roots, dozens of dead creatures were feeding the organism, that started to spawn more and more leaf-parasites and flowers to advance through the biome. Side Chapter - Inquisitor Request The Inquisitor strolled, followed by the Arbites woman. Surpassing several mechanicus priests plugged into a vast matrix, chanting a never-ending litany, they walked. The buzzing sound of the binary chant was incessant. The noise was just like bursts of static white noise, but for the Tech-Priests, it had meaning. It was their very own language, the Lingua-Technis, the sacred code language of the Machine God, or so they say. In the eyes of Inquisitor Rotan, they did not look better than the drones of a bee colony or a hive city. Tiny cogs and little parts without consciousness that worked for something higher than their individuality. It was inspiring, but it also filled Rotan with fear of losing himself. ¡°Bunch of weirdos¡­¡± The smell of incense filled the air, and sacred oil was burned to appease the spirit machines of the forge world. The Inquisitor looked at the hundreds of humans there; most were naked, yet all that remained of them were parts of their brains as well as other organs like the heart, lungs, etc. They called this the ascension, freeing themselves from the decadence of the flesh, getting closer to the Omnissiah¡¯s mechanical perfection. The old Inquisitor kept walking, and soon reached a rusty door, that looked like it had not been opened in several years. A few Skitarii soldiers were guarding the entrance, yet they moved to let him pass once he showed them the Inquisitorial Rosette. Their names were as weird as those of every other Mechanicus soldier. One was called, R6-135 and the other one, Tyr-VII. He looked at both of them and remembered the last time he came the second guard was called Tyr-VI. It seemed that the name of whoever was here was hereditary. He ignored them and disregarded their name fashion as another weird tradition from the Cult Mechanicus. The old and rusty door was a noticeable disruption in the order the Mechanicus followed, and was even painful to look at. The contrast that such a damaged door caused was more noticeable once one looked at the weapons of the Skitarii or the well-tuned machines and tubes outside. Those same tubes allowed the minds of the several acolytes to connect one another and calculate everything the Forge World was producing with exquisite precision. He got in front of the door and started pressing a few codes. The door unlocked itself after a few seconds, and he knocked it. After a long wait, the rusty door cracked and opened, letting him see a messy and cramped room that had dozens, if not hundreds of inventions. ¡°Hello, old friend! It¡¯s good to see that you are right where I left you.¡± The red mechanical eyes of the Tech-Priest looked with cold emotion at the Inquisitor and turned away, not showing anger for the imprisonment he had been suffering for decades. ¡°I had more time to investigate the wonders of the Omnissiah, Inquisitor. Thank you for such an opportunity you bring me.¡± The old Inquisitor put a half-mocking smile and entered without receiving any invitation with the Arbites woman followed him closeby. The smell was much different. It also had incense, but there was something else mixed with it, something sweet, yet wrong. That put the female fighter in a defensive stance, ready to jump at any sign of danger. ¡°I have a request for you, Tech-Priest Rael Zenith, do you want to hear it?¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. The Tech-Priest moved through the raws of defective robot parts, limbs, Cogitator chips, and mechadendrites, the servo arms that Tech-Priests usually implanted on their backs. ¡°Do I have a choice?¡± His response was as slow as his steps and carried a tint of hate. ¡°Of course, of course. You can also stay here a few more decades until your broken heart finally rots and leaves a metal husk behind.¡± The Inquisitor responded and kept walking behind the Tech-Priest. The further they moved into the room, the weirder things turned out to be. Some pieces of metal had dark reflections, like humanoid shadows in them. Others had eyes or weird symbols like twisted runes had been carved. But the worst of all was at the end of the room. A broken body was attached to a machine, with tubes, vials, and cables entering the chest, severed arms, and half torso from a female. She only had one-third of her body left, and all one could see was covered in chaotic runes. The sight of the woman was gory beyond reason. The flesh was dried, and the machines were barely keeping her alive, yet she seemed to be suffering, as warp energies tainted parts of her flesh. ¡°Oh, she¡¯s still alive. I thought she would have died by now. If not for the Mechanicus protection, you would have been burned long ago, you know?¡± A tense silence followed, and the Arbites woman took her power maul and tried to strike the Tech-Priest. ¡°Huaaaaghh!!¡± * Baaang!! A void shield appeared and repelled her attack. Meanwhile, the Tech-Priest gritted its teeth and tried to launch its mechanical arms at the Inquisitor, but Naya, used her weapon, a power maul, and fended off all the attacks. She then noticed a few cables feeding a portable generator and took her weapon, shooting at the machine. The shield fell, but it had given enough time for Rael to strike the Inquisitor. The older man took a step back and allowed Naya to take care of the maddened Tech-Priest while he looked from afar. ¡°You coward!! Face me off and allow me to kill you finally! We will finally find peace once your corpse is in front of her!¡± The Tech-Priest shouted at Rotan, while the Inquisitor laughed. ¡°Hahaha! Naya, please entertain our friend here!¡± The Arbites frowned even more and kept attacking silently, not caring for the electrical damage some of the mechadendrites transmitted to her arm. The energy surrounding her baton damaged half the mechadendrites and made the Priest took a few steps back, as he was unable to overpower the much more violent woman. ¡°Such a bad temper as always. Don¡¯t you want to listen to me, Rael?¡± The Tech-Priest stopped and started to grab a few pieces of broken machinery hasty crafter a device that began scattering warp energies in the room. ¡°I want to see you suffer, Rotan!! For eternity!¡± The aura of the Tech-Priest turned darker at each passing second as shrieks and howls began to resonate through the room. Noticing the danger of such artifact, Naya was about to jump, but the Inquisitor stopped her. He then smiled and walked closer to the maddened Priest. "Ahh, Rael, as rotten as always, aren''t you?" The Inquisitor then took a black device from his robes and pressed a button that immediately sends a painful signal to the Priest¡¯s nerves, making him collapse. It was a modified version of the Excruciator, and Inquisitor Rotan loved to use it. ¡°AHH!! AGHHH!!!!¡± Revolving in the floor, the Tech-Priest couldn¡¯t do much more than scream and retort as the few nerves that were still operational on his body were being burned, causing him agonizing pain. ¡°Listen, Heretek. The only reason you¡¯re alive is that you are still useful.¡± He then stopped and took the beeping device from the floor, inspecting it. It looked like a crude bomb that Tech-Priest Rael had crafted with spare parts of limbs and patches of his skin. It was filled with heretical and Chaotic symbols. It was absolute Heresy. ¡°You¡¯re like a stupid kid. You want knowledge, but keep searching it in places that will only lead you and those around you to damnation. I thought you would have learned that lesson already.¡± The Inquisitor smiled and looked at what was left of the woman on the wall. He could see how this man was trying to purge the warp energies from her body. He had even cut off the mutated limbs and body parts, replacing them with machines. Less than a third of the woman¡¯s body remained by now. Yet he hadn¡¯t surrendered. ¡°If only we could trust in your knowledge to help repair the throne¡­¡± Inquisitor Rotan sighed and stopped the torture device. The Tech-Priest felt how the pain ended and gasped for air. He slowly turned, only to see the body of his wife on the wall, barely alive. He could see a tear falling from the left eye. Naya then turned and looked at the Inquisitor with a stern expression, signaling the device. ¡°Ah, yes. About this, it was a good try, if not for this little stone I have here.¡± The old man smiled and from within his tunic, took a piece of dark stone that slowly started to nullify the warp energies in the device and the room. The artifact then stopped beeping. ¡°Lucky us, right, Naya?¡± He smiled as if he was just an old man that had never broken a dish. She rolled her eyes under her mask. Yes, Inquisitor Rotan felt lucky that he got himself such formidable protection against the foul corrupting powers of Chaos and the Warp. The Tech-Priest was surprised at first, but once he analyzed the stone in the Inquisitor¡¯s hand, he asked with utmost interest. ¡°Is, is that Noctilith?!¡± He approached, not caring for the woman and her menacing weapon pointing at him. ¡°Yes, Black Stone. A piece from the Cadian Pylons at that. Now, put that thing down and let¡¯s talk. I hope we can strike a deal. When we¡¯re done, I can give you this so you can save your wife, what do you say, Rael?¡± As he asked the Heretek, he knew that even a poisoned apple had its uses. But this apple had to calm down and accept the deal first. The eyes from the Priest shone with illusory light for a few seconds before calming. He then proceeded with a cold, mechanical voice. ¡°What do you need from me, Inquisitor?¡± Inquisitor Rotan smiled at the man¡¯s choice. Chapter 30 - Dreamscape After a few more hours and several failed attempts to blast that creature from existence, Norn finally woke up. ¡°Fuck! It took you forever!¡± I explained to her the issue with the spider nest we hit and how those creatures began invading our own nest. And then I told her about using the parasites to attack the spiders, reaching the current situation where we were blocked by a hybrid of both species. ¡°We have no time¡­ Can you use this core?!¡± I moved through the nest and showed Norn the partially corrupted core. It was a crystalline structure that we secured from the corrupted spider and had a considerable energy accumulation. I listen to Darwin, and what he implies is that a minor body would burn out near immediately. That would explain the energy outbursts I had a few days back. I guess that as this body grows stronger, I will be able to control better any corruption powers that might remain within me. ¡°Norn? What do you say? We are running out of time.¡± I frown, and the nest suddenly starts to reinforce the walls. Then, the biomass that was accumulated starts to inundate the chamber. Following my instincts, I tried to relax and empty my mind, knowing that whatever was about to come was going to be painful. As the chamber kept getting filled with what seems amniotic fluid, I cracked my neck and approached the core towards my body. Breathing one last time, I opened my six eyes, and psychic energy started to accumulate inside the chamber. The core seemed to react to it immediately and soon started to release its energy, adding more and more temperature and pressure at the modified nest. I noticed how the temperature was reaching a dangerous level, but kept releasing all my energy as Norn said. I gritted and started to growl in pain, yet kept enduring the process. As the core emptied part of the corruption to the nest, I started to hear whispers, like old fragments of my memory, returning to me. But one word was repeated non-stop. ... Consum ... My eyes began to overload with psychic energy, trying to replicate what Darwin did to counteract the aura released by the corrupted octopus back in the cave.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Despite managing to control a small part of the energy, it was like trying to hold a river with my hands, totally useless. All I knew was that I was losing control of the core. I tried to cut the energy release from my body, but it seemed like the process had linked itself with the core, and both released energy faster and faster. ¡°Norn?! Darwin!! Are you there?!¡± I tried asking for help, but either they were keeping silent, or I was somewhat psychically isolated from our synapse mind. That made me feel alone for a second. It was weird not to have other presences with me at all times. Wait, that was not right. Was it? I wasn¡¯t sure, and that voice keeps repeating over and over weird words in a language I didn¡¯t understand. It felt strange, fluid, and changing, nearly alive. But utterly wrong. The pressure inside the nest kept rising, as the energy accumulated turned the amniotic fluid to the point of boiling. I started screaming, yet it served nothing. All I could do was endure. -------------- I woke up in a green field, with a starry sky. Shaking my head, I slowly stood up, and gradually noticed that I had two legs again, and two hands, but as I tried to look at them, I couldn¡¯t count my fingers accurately. Some details were shifting, but I didn¡¯t care. When I looked up into the sky, I noticed that there was a moon. I didn¡¯t see it before. It was captivating, but something weird began to happen. The moon seemed to be growing, little by little, filling me with confusion and the feeling that something was not normal. I walked a hill upwards and noticed patches of dead trees, opened flowers, and even a few trees with icicles falling from its leafless branches. But I kept moving upwards, and when I reached the top of the hill, I saw the moon had grown bigger, from the size of a coin to that of a ball. The details from its surface were much more notorious. The craters, valleys, and even scars were visible at plain sight. I then noticed some pulse or tremor. I looked left and right and saw that the trees now started to shift like shadows, and once I turned to look at the moon, its scars were even more profound and pronounced. It was gleaming with a red and purple light of its own, and it gave the forest an eerie and unnatural vibe. The light embezzled me, and I kept standing at the top of the hill as the forest shifted, the shadows growing from the dead trees like tumors and the wood cracking as it leads open passages to dark and hidden creatures. I could hear it, but my eyes were fixed as the moon was growing bigger, closer at each passing second. From the dark-red aura of the moon, I noticed how shadows started to move at the sides of my sight. I wanted to look at them, run from here, but couldn¡¯t move. My consciousness began to blur as the moon got closer and closer until all that remained was a vast, black, and red scorched moon on my sight. The scars on the surface keep growing until they resemblance an eye, and I feel how it was looking right at me, deep into my soul. And I could feel something awakening inside me. ... Consume ... I couldn¡¯t close my eyes. I had to look at that moon approaching, growing, and felt the pressure and certainty of death at every passing second. And as I was trapped in the moon¡¯s light, another pulse of energy shattered the illusion. ¡°AGHH!! Ahhh! W-what is wrong!?¡± Deep inside my chest, something began to move. It was cold and alien-like. It didn¡¯t belong to me. Yet it was moving inside my ribs, without any heartbeat, but alive. ¡°aH!! I-I have to take it out! I need to take it out of me!!¡± I started to scratch, desperately, madly, looking to my chest as a grey and red stain that looked like a bruise started to grow. My nails scratched my skin, making me bleed, but I didn¡¯t stop. * Thump!! With a tremendous noise, I felt my rib cage being hit from inside like something wanted to exit. My whole body trembled, and pain aroused like never before, like something had cracked. As the pain grew more significant, I fell on my knees, shouting from the pain I was suffering, I looked back at the moon, and it started collapsing revealing something under its surface. It swallowed the light, reflecting nothingness, but there was something there, moving and waiting to pass to this side. I could feel it in my soul. Black tears began to fall from my eyes as my ribcage kept being broken, bruises, and veins were exploding and forming a bloody symbol on my chest. The liquid burned on my skin, and whatever was lurking under my ribs didn¡¯t like it, as it started to move more violently. A terrible and scorching burning sensation assaulted me, and I had the urge to scratch, to rip apart my chest to take away whatever was crawling there. But once I approached my hands to my chest, I got burned by whatever mark was being written in my flesh. It twisted and morphed, changing and adapting like a living lock to the corruption spreading from the depths of my soul. * Thump!! The moon pulsated once more, and I fell to the ground. My chest kept hurting and burning, as something was seeking deeply inside, and the burning pain from outside did not recede. But I could breathe again, and each time, it made it recede, taking a fraction of the pain and cleansing me. A few minutes later, it was over. I turned and looked at the sky and the forest. It was just a forest, with just bushes and trees. And the moon was nothing but a little coin-sized light in the sky. I moved my hand upright, trying to catch it, failing even to lift it properly. I sighed and rose it again, and at the second try, I noticed four shadows lurking in the shadows nearby. ¡°Who are y-¡± But then, as an unconscious act, I grabbed the moon from the sky. I looked towards the shadows, but before I could comprehend what they were and what was happening, the dream shattered, and I woke up. Chapter 31 - Upgrades ¡°AHH! Aghh! Holy, fuck¡­¡± I woke up in the nest, feeling completely broken. My body hurt so much that I didn¡¯t even try to move for the first few minutes, too busy just breathing and assimilating that weird dream. ¡°Ahh¡­ Norn, it¡¯s good to hear from you!¡± I laughed and stayed in a coiled position, not daring to move due to the burning sensation on my chest. I closed my eyes and could almost see the red moon and the shadows lurking nearby. ¡°I just had a bad dream, a nasty one. How was the situation here?¡± I looked around the area and frowned while Darwin was talking. We were in the middle of what seemed like a huge acid lake. The units had excavated and opened a massive cave, with the nest in the middle. As a measure of protection, it was surrounded by burning acid. I saw some pieces of the elite enslaved spider on the side of the cave, half-digested. ¡°How long has the process taken?¡± We needed to hurry. I tried to uncoil and walk but fail miserably. ¡°What the-¡± I looked down and noticed two things. I was not a human anymore, and I had a crystalline protrusion on my chest. It slowly pulsated, and I felt an oppressive energy that didn''t let me breathe. My chest started to glow slightly, as well as my eyes, and the whole nest opened up at my thoughts like it was made of paper. I then tilted my head, and the whole bunch of seeds and tubes that formed the nest began to merge again. I chuckled and experimented with it for a while; it was weird. It felt like I always had my mind reduced into a nut, and now it had cracked. ¡°Darwin, can you show me my status?¡± Primal Elite - Ripper Level - 6 (100 biomass to level up) Health - 40/40 Energy - 120/120 Biomass Reserves - 73 biomass Inner Core - Psychic level - Iota (6 meters radius) Str - 22 Res - 19 Vit - 18 Agi - 16 Int - 12 Support level 3 Enhanced senses level 3 Maw and claws level 3 Scything Talons level 2 (New) Chitin level 3This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Poison sting level 3 Spores level 3 Pincer level 2 Adrenal glands, level 1 Minor -> Collectors, Mite, Bomb, Transport Basic enhanced Units - Tank, Close Combat, Ranged Hunter, Scout Proto Tyranids: Ripper, Gaunt (New) Seed (10 biomass) -> Allows to absorb biomass, erode the soil, or build simple structures when hardening it¡¯s composition. Proto-Nest (250 biomass) -> A basic and below-average structure. It has decent protection and can be used to spawn units. I noticed my size increased yet again, and my body was bigger, over 1 meter tall and 1.5 in length. And I had two extra limbs on my shoulders. Two sharp and sword-like talons that were somewhat copies of the corrupted spiders. And as the core seemed to react to my mind and ideas, once I summoned a tank, I noticed it was now easier to control them. ¡°Norn, has the core affect my control over my units?¡± I nodded and started to move my new limbs, trying them, and their mobility. The psychic field was around 5 or 6 meters from me, but I felt it could grow much stronger. ¡°What about the new units?¡± I nodded and summoned one Ripper. It looked like me when I turned level 2, a 30 centimeters nightmarish creature. It was a maw with a few limbs to allow it to walk. I had cost two biomass points to summon it, but I felt it was worth it, as the creature could quickly overtake larger opponents through fierce and voracious attacks. For the Gaunt, it took a long time as the creature began to be slowly formed inside my body. The seed biomorph acted as both a defense mechanism and a minor breeding chamber. Once I noticed the egg being formed, my back chitin split, and the unit fell to the nest, taking a few more minutes to grow into full size. I frowned, as it had consumed five biomass. I waited while moving and getting used to my new size until the egg started to tremble feebly. As I paid attention to it, two sharp limbs pierced the egg, and a few seconds later, it completely broke the shell. The creature looked ready to fight once it exited the shell, screeching and looking left and right, ready to strike. As the small unit was moving and exploring, I frowned. It seemed that it had its own intelligence, despite being at the level of a small animal. One I expanded my psychic field to touch it, its behavior changed. We connected, and it entered the synapse control. A cold intelligence substituted the more animalistic movements like it was a predator waiting for prey. It felt like an extra limb from my body, and I could partially see and feel through it. It was weak but way stronger than anything any unit had given me before. I then stopped, and it returned to its behavior as if nothing happened. ¡°Now we have a chance to fight back.¡± I nodded and sighed. I knew that things would turn harder, the longer we waited. ¡°Okay, what about the tunnel to the waterfall?¡± ¡°That was a risk. We will need to create a huge distraction. With that, we will move towards the waterfall and climb it. Hopefully, we will manage to go through some tubes or machinery towards the first biome and the cryo-chamber again.¡± Norn asked me about that decision, and I told her that the map showed some weird formation behind the waterfall, with enough space for a control room to exist. ¡°Besides, there must be some machines pumping the water to this biome. This area is certainly artificial.¡± The more time I passed on these biomes, the less real they felt like everything was controlled to be in equilibrium, and there were no more elements from one side or the other, cutting off any alterations or disparities that tend to be normal in life. In the last few weeks, we had altered the ecosystems violently by consuming everything, and the corruption has spread like a miasma. ¡°Okay, Norn, Darwin. I plan to go to the AI¡¯s room where the cryo chamber was stored and try to awaken it or find a way to locate it¡¯s processing core. It said that we could find it on the lower levels. After that, we will try to escape and go to the planet.¡± ¡°Not yet. First, we must survive and escape this biome, then the lab. After we reach the planet, we will think about what to do next.¡± ¡°Well, that''s what I have. If we can¡¯t locate more biomass, we won¡¯t be able to upgrade any further, and I don''t think we should use the trick with the core, it was concerning.¡± I listened to her and noticed we lacked biomass and time. The core could supply some energy, but I was cautious about the dream and what it could mean. Those shadows appeared all of a sudden, but didn''t seem part of the dream; it felt like they had inserted themselves somehow. I thought to myself that I should tell them about those figures, but discarded for when all this is over. I start summoning Gaunts and a plethora of units. It was a team consisting of two tanks, six Gaunts, and a scout. The last two units are the transporters I have sent to dig the tunnel. It is quite an aggressive combination, but I want no surprises. ¡°Okay, Darwin, lead the way.¡± I slowly move towards the direction the tunnel was, and once we reached it, I noticed it had been built too small. I cursed and sent the Gaunts digging to make myself some way. It was quite easy for them to dig with its sharp talons. ¡°Now, we need to really make a scene¡­¡± I looked left and right and started summoning seeds with whatever biomass I still had and started eroding the ceiling, gaining back a few biomass points each time one seed reached its natural limits. After a full hour, the cave¡¯s ceiling had been weakened to its absolute limits, and I turned to my units, ordering them to enter the tunnel. Once all my units are ready and walk inside the tunnel, I sent an order to the nest, and it started to crack, opening several tubes that began to spread pheromones and particular flammable gas. It will last only a few minutes, but will surely attract much attention. The last I heard, were roars and screeches from the nearby tunnels. I used my tail to block the tunnel as we advanced, causing rocks to fall behind us. Chapter 32 - Speleology Pheromones started to accumulate in the cave, and some parasites moved nearby to investigate what happened to the weird and dangerous cave. As the creatures knew it was a dangerous place, they started moved closeby and went back for reinforcements. As more units arrived, they noticed the nest structure standing in the middle of the enlarged acid pool was without any units defending it. A few minutes later, more parasites and some enslaved spiders moved into the cave to explore, as the nest was burning with high energy levels. The spiders started to walk through the ceiling, securing that no enemies remained nearby. They needed to capture those high energy sources. The hunger was eating them alive, and if they could not find more resources, the hunger would turn them mad. The high level of caution was lowered as they thought the bug-things had either died or escaped. But the nest seemed to be a highly valuable structure, maybe where their Queen lied. A third wave moved towards the cave, and this time, an elite creature was leading them, it was a giant vine looking snake with several flowers growing on its back. It had no eyes but used it¡¯s psychic perception to advance. It could notice the emptiness in the cave and the danger of the acid. It released a low pitched scream, and the enslaved spiders started to move to the ceiling. The creature was over 3 meters in length and stood up like a cobra, trying to detect any hidden dangers or enemies. On the deadly acid pool, there was a dead enslaved elite spider, a hybrid creature that was more akin to a tank than a fighter. This snake-like creature was smarter. It had led the fight against the spider nest and captured the half-dead life of a high spider queen. All that remained were the mutated spiders, those tainted and mutated. Now, the parasites detected the empty cave and moved in to locate their enemies. Suddenly the greater snake noticed a few vibrations again, the enemy was escaping, yet they could not see where. The nest was then slowly pulled by several spiders and silk threads. Once it started to rise, the greater snake noticed a weird set of tubes that kept throwing gas to the cave, yet it wasn''t poison. They then pulled the nest, and once the few spiders managed to pull it to safe terrain, the snake investigated it in detail, noticing a weird egg-like structure. As it approached, the egg started to crack, and from inside, a weird organ began to produce a bluish electric light, followed by a buzzing sound. The only thing the beast noticed before being burned alive was regret and surprise, as that thing was no egg to devour. * BzzzZZZZZZZ!!! FGGAAAAAHHHH!!!!! The whole cave, filled with flammable gas, ignited and caused a massive explosion that killed most of the creatures on the cave and tunnels as the flames expanded everywhere, searching for oxygen to keep the combustion. A few seconds later, the whole weakened structure collapsed, creating a small crater-like structure near the lake. You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. The whole biome turned its attention towards the explosion. The enslaved spiders, the parasites, and the octopus creatures moved towards it in hopes of managing to secure food and energy for themselves, causing a minor fight between the forest and water creatures. ------------------ * Brraaammmm!!! We didn¡¯t have to wait for too long until we noticed a considerable vibration, followed by a huge ruckus on the biome. ¡°Looks like it worked. Let¡¯s dig upwards and climb the waterfall.¡± We started to move upwards, and we soon found soft, humid terrain. I stopped and sent the Gaunts to explore and take down any enemies nearby. As the insectoid creatures dug up themselves near the river, they found themselves on the forest side, covered in webs. A few dozens of meters down the river, there had been a sort of landslide, caused by the early explosion. From here, they could see how part of the webs had caught fire, and enslaved spiders were panicking, most of them not knowing how to react to the flames. We started to kill any remaining parasites that took root around here and quickly moved to the waterfall before being noticed. The Gaunts moved in silent and coordinated efficiency. I then ordered the transporters to carry half the load of blood worms each to ease their climbing. Once the area was cleared, we moved closer to the waterfall. As I started to climb, I turned and looked at the biome¡¯s state. It was utterly devastated. The lights had dimmed, yet the fire from the early explosion had spread to the forest and web nest. The flames devoured the silk and webs, and I could still see some corrupted beings trying to escape the fire. ¡°I thought the parasite-flowers had captured all of them¡­¡± I then turned towards the other side of the forest and saw that the tree at the meadows had grown to monstrous proportions. It was taller but also twisted in unnatural angles, like broken limbs or deformed body parts. Worst even, the leaves and branches moved without wind. The roots were plagued with corpses of creatures, but the one that caught my attention was a huge spider, partially covered in roots and a few flowers. It was the Queen''s remains that I killed before entering the biome. I frowned and noticed some weird shadow lurking on the bark of the tree. I was too far to know what was that, but I knew I could not lower my guard. ¡°Okay, let¡¯s move before we¡¯re detected!¡± We began to climb the mossy and wet rock wall, but the transporters were too weak to rise on their own, so I picked one, and a tank took the other. As I was reaching the top of the waterfall, I managed to locate and enter a sort of tunnel from where the water was exiting at high pressure. The Gaunts followed me, and the tanks tried to do so. But as the high flow of water was way too strong, the tank carrying the transporter tripped, and the transporter fell, hitting the river¡¯s rocks and activating the load of blood worms. The transporter started screaming as the worms ate it alive, multiplying in mere seconds and bloating its broken body. The transport floated down the stream while roaring and releasing acid. The further it moved, the more attention it called from several creatures near the river. I closed my eyes in regret and turned to climb, not paying it more attention. ¡°Leave it. The river will carry it downwards. We must find a way to escape.¡± Despite my upgraded units, I¡¯m in no position to fight head-on against a whole biome of enemies. As we enter the insides of the wall, I reach a water collector and use my new limbs to cut through the metal, after a full minute, managing to break the tank-like structure. I exited it and found myself in a small but tall room filled with machinery and tubes. As I broke one of the main pipes, water slowly began inundating the control room, and the stream of water at the river diminished to nearly nothing. I quickly turned to locate any viable sources of biomass and found a sort of filters and water treating pipes, filled with algae and cleansing organic and chemical barriers. It was a closed, self-sustained ecosystem that collected part of the water from the lake and cleansed to pump it again to form the river. It was an absolute wonder how such an ecosystem had been created and survived for so long. ¡°I¡¯m going to take samples of this, Norn will be happy for once if we can efficiently filter the corruption before eating it.¡± With care, I took samples of every stratum and noticed several dozens of organisms of different sizes, interconnected to form a delicate equilibrium that allowed all of them to survive. After absorbing their DNA and gaining several points of biomass, I used them to throw a seed to try and stop the room from getting inundated. The structure grew in less than a minute and stopped most of the water from falling into the room. ------------ But that couple of minutes before the water returned and the waterfall sound could be heard again seemed like two weeks in the forest. That sound was one that the biome had not known. Silence. The creatures of the forest had been born and raised with the ever-present sound of water falling, and the sudden shift in the natural sounds caused a considerable reaction in them, moving from the bloated transporter that had turned into a flesh paste at this point. More and more parasite creatures and slaved spiders moved towards the waterfall that had now nearly stopped pumping water. A creature leads them, a half charred and severely injured great snake-parasite. Chapter 33 - Offensive Defense I then proceeded to summon seeds on the back wall of the room, slowly eroding and breaking down a path towards the first biome. The transport and the tanks were slowly moving any debris to a side of the room, trying not to mess the already half-submerged machines. I wasn¡¯t sure how long would they keep working under so much punishment. After a couple of minutes, we noticed some weird sounds, like screeches and some vibrations. I moved closer to the forest¡¯s biome wall and noticed some cracks being formed by roots and parasite flower tendrils appearing. The worst part was that most of them were dropping tainted sap into the room, turning the water into a murky and viscous ichor pool. ¡°What?! For fuck''s sake¡­¡± I gave mental orders for the units to get out of the corrupted water, as it was slowly eroding our chitin. We then tried to keep defending the room from the flower-parasites. That took a real effort from our part, as the wall filled with vines and flowers at the meadows was not far from this room, and the creatures started to dig in haste, trying to reach us by any means. I created some bombs to pour acid and toxins towards any enemies, but I had my hands tied with the little biomass we could gather from the seeds. The Gaunts positioned themselves, ready to chop down any creature that tried to get into the room. ¡°They noticed us way earlier than I thought. Darwin, how long till we can make a hole?!¡± I hit a piece of machinery with my tail to vent up the frustration. My eyes shone with some purple light for a few seconds until I calmed myself down. ¡°Fuck! That¡¯s way too long.¡± Without the extra influx of biomass, I won¡¯t be able to hold on; and waiting has proven to be a bad option on the caves. I need to change my strategy. I turn to investigate the pipes and tubes, noticing how some of them go towards the ceiling, with some badly damaged signs, and I moved upwards. After a few minutes investigating, I discovered it was a partially broken rain system. ¡°Maybe we can use this¡­¡± I jumped to the dark waters and searched for the correct pipe that went to the ceiling and looked at the machinery that controlled the rain, but it was dead. I sighed and to rest for a minute and rethink the situation. The flow of water helped me calm down, and then I frowned at it. The machines kept working; it was just this part that wasn¡¯t anymore.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°If we can¡¯t make it work, we will just redirect the flow.¡± I then decided to move upwards and started to throw seeds from the main pipe that fed the waterfall towards the tube on the top. Then, I took the transporter with the blood worms, and secured it in the middle of all the seed-pipes I had built, and started to put whatever biomass we had gathered into it, making it ready to bloom. ¡°Ok, let¡¯s try to redirect the flow of water!!¡± I shifted part of the stream, and the pipes on the ceiling started to tremble and crack. I feared they would break down from the pressure, but it then started to pump water to the rain system. As it kept raining on the biome, I then activated the transport, sending red acid water to the old rain system, causing an actual bloody rain on the biome. The parasites on the walls started to turn desperate, trying to hide. We chopped them, and using the acid from the bomb units, we started to digest the muddy pool of biomass, water, and corruption using the newly found eco-filters from before. With that, we gained some respite. But less than a minute later, I could hear massive roars outside, and the wall started to tremble. ¡°What the-¡± * Braammbmmm!! Suddenly, several small tremors could be heard as the wall was hit by something massive. --------------- As soon as the transporter carried away by the river arrived at the lake, it called the attention of several creatures. Most of them got closer to inspect the prey before dismissing it as a dangerous and deadly infested treat. But one recognized that as a threat he had faced twice already. * Graaaghhh!! A huge body moved closer to the surface, with several huge tentacles ended in a sharp bone. Its huge maws took over half of the creature¡¯s face, and two massive horns grew from the top of its skull. It had spikes and deformations all-around several wounds that had healed not long ago. From some points, it could be seen worms festering on its flesh and tentacles, causing immense pain to the creature that had grown larger and maddened as it was unable to get rid of this vermin plague. The corrupted octopus roared and started to move towards the river, getting itself out of the water and looking for the insect creature that had damaged it twice. It would find it and devour that bastard and consume it and its brood of bugs. * ROaaghh!!! It took the octopus several seconds to get used to the new environment, but the creature could partially breathe out of water for a short time. It didn¡¯t care, as it advanced with a single-minded focus on its mind, get revenge, and massacre its enemy. As the corrupted beast exited the waters, more and more creatures followed it, until a total of three larger octopus and eight lesser ones. They followed it up the river, not caring for the few spider remnants that were desperately trying to save what was left of their burned and destroyed nest. The corrupted beast stopped midriver and turned to look at the huge willow tree, the progenitor of all the enslaver flower-parasite creatures. It also had grown bigger and twisted. But it wasn''t yet awakened. Piles of bodies laid on its roots as offerings for it to grow and slowly consume, and the leaves and branches moved to an unseen or unheard wind. The octopus roared and gritted its teeth, and as the tree had no response, it kept moving upwards, not noticing a cocoon of roots pulsating. It soon reached the waterfall and started to attack and eviscerate any nearby parasites. The damaged greater snake parasite roared, and they gave way to the playground to the newly, more energetic, and salvage kids. The corrupted beast looked at the parasites and the waterfall and sent a pair of lesser creatures to try and enter the waterfall, yet the beasts failed miserably. He chopped one in half and ate it, and then started to use its claws to try to destroy the rock-wall, yet it proved much more of a challenge than the rocks at the tunnels. A weird sound then appeared, like drops of water started to fall, imitating rain. The beast then turned upwards to look with interest once the first drops of water fell, as it was something that this biome had not seen in hundreds of years. Yet soon, it turned from innocuous water drops to slowly more and more acidic and deadly, making all the biome hiss and the creatures in it roar in pain. The parasites tried to hide underground, and the octopuses were trying to partially get underwater, to avoid most of the acid damage that was slowly falling over them. The corrupted beast did not pay much attention, as it had already several worms festering its flesh and melting it from inside, and simply started to hit with anger and hate the wall from the waterfall, trying to break it by sheer force. What the creature was not noticing were the changes in the huge willow tree at the meadows. Its roots twisted, and the leaves started to turn red as the acid soaked its bark. Christmas Special - Grandfather Nurgle visits the town! It was a dark and cold night, and only a few dozen fires were still burning on the houses. On the walls defending the town, a few figures with heavy winter clothes were drinking and playing card games. One of them, a medium age man that had seen more than 30 winters, got out to pee and nearly lost his dick to the cold. As he was moving back to the slightly less cold watchtower, he noticed small figures moved through the night. ¡°What the¡­ did someone let out the cattle in the middle of the night?¡± He sighed and kept moving, thinking that the old farmer had left his cattle out again through the night. Poor bastard. Yet he frowned as the creatures moved closer to the town. He reached his side and took a badly damaged binocular. The lens was so damaged that he could not see them at all, much less with so little light. He took a flashlight and shoot it, illuminating the immediate area outside of the walls. And what he saw wasn¡¯t cattle at all. There were green bums of putrid flesh. ¡°No¡­ it can¡¯t be!¡± He began to count and saw more than a dozen one meter tall creatures. They were fat, even bloated as if their insides and bowels had expanded beyond any possible limit. The man gulped and was about to begin shooting at them when he noticed huge and heavy steps. * Thump, Thump, Thump! He took a few steps back, as a giant 3-meter tall creature appeared and laughed. ¡°HO, HO, HO!!¡± ¡°F-fuck! T-they are back!!¡± The man suddenly noticed that each of the other watchtowers had the lights off and started to run towards the one he was responsible for. He halted in his steps as there was a small and bloated green creature there, looking at him. Despite the terrible wind and cold, he could smell a weak rotting smell, and he knew that this winter, the servants of the Grandfather had come again to spread their wicked toys in town. He began to cough and noticed blood falling from his nose. ¡°Aghh¡­ damn foul creatures!¡± The little grotesque being was grinning and smiling at him as if his death was the best thing that could have happened to the man¡¯s night. All he had to do was try to reach the button and give the alert. Otherwise, the whole town would perish tomorrow morning, once they began to open cursed and putrid presents given by these twisted devils, servants of Nurgle himself, lord of Diseases. They had visited this town before, always the same night of the year, when the day was shorter, and the winter colder. And they always brought presents for everyone in town. ¡°You twisted creature!! Let me show you my present!¡± The small copy of the chaos god, a Nurgling, smiled even more as if expecting a great surprise. Yet the man simply took the shotgun that he always carried on duty and blew the head of the monster off with a double shoot. * Ban-BAANG!! Green and yellowish ichor spread everywhere. The body fell backward with its arms still moving, trying to search its head. He tried to move into the watchtower, but he suddenly felt his lungs slowly collapsing, getting filled with mucus and blood. After four or five steps, he fell to the ground, fighting to breathe. The man put a hand on his heavy jacket and took a picture of a little kid. ¡°I-I¡¯m sorry, pumpkin. Daddy won¡¯t make it home tonight. Chooghh¡­¡± He began crying and kissed the photo, and let it fly through the storm. This time, his eyes shone with the blazing light of fervor and pulled the string of a grenade he carried with him. More Nurglings began to climb the wall and surrendered the dying man. They were all short and had horns erupting from their heads in twisted and weird ways. Some had two eyes, others had up to seven. But all of them had a rotten smile on their putrid faces. ¡°For the Empe-ror¡­¡± As the pin fell to the snow, he simply closed his eyes, dying shortly after on the freezing wall. * BOAAAAAMMM!!! The wall suddenly exploded, demolishing the watchtower and throwing bits and pieces of the lesser demons¡¯ bodies in a ten-meter radius. The storm carried away most of the explosion''s noise. But the loud sound and the tremor were enough to wake up a few of the towns¡¯ more paranoid citizens, that knew this was a bad day to sleep. One of the few vigilant ones was the Priest of the Church, which saw the explosion far on the North-West wall. He began to hit the town¡¯s bell. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Afterward, the town¡¯s Mayor woke up in her two-story house, and after two minutes, she exited her house while carrying a heavy flamethrower. She was together with her husband and their two sons, each carrying a different heavy weapon. ¡°OH, NO! WAKE UP, EVERYONE!!! WAKE UP!!¡± She soon reached her office at the town¡¯s square that was just a couple streets from her house and rang a town alarm. A huge siren began to sound together with the Emperor¡¯s church bells and started to wake up the sleepy town in the middle of the night. A few men and women got out of their homes as the kids sleepily followed them, only to be scolded and sent back to their houses. Half of the town got their weapons near their beds, and the other half slept with them on the bed, so it was no surprise each and every adult had either a gun, a rifle, or some other weapon. ¡°What¡¯s happening?! Mayor? Why are the alarms on?¡± ¡°Damn!! We were in the middle of-¡± ¡°Mooommyyyy!! Is it time to go to the Church!?¡± The town was a mess, yet when the doors were heavily kicked, every adult above 14 loaded their weapons and began to prepare to defend the town square. The kids between 8 and 13 were in charge of gathering every small kid and move them to the Church. Over a thousand souls lived here and had suffered a couple of minor demonic invasions before, so they were quite adept at what to do and how to fend off the servants of the chaos gods. ¡°Where are the guards?! What happened at the watchtowers?¡± They illuminated the town square and prepared a frame for the only Autocannon in their village. ¡°HO, HO, HO¡­ OPEN UP, MORTALS!! I bring presents!!¡± The Mayor searched for the Priest. "Priest! Take you used to be a soldier, right?!" "I was, Mayor, many years ago." "Then use the Autocannon and blast that Demon out of my town!! Understood?! I will keep the small ones busy!" The man smiled with a heavy look and began to roar orders to some still sleepy citizens. She left the man in charge of such a critical duty. This man had turned into priesthood after many wars and was a veteran more than an ecclesiarchy goon, so the Mayor breathed relieved, but only for half a second. Some huge creature began to knock on the town''s doors. * Baaang!! BaanG!!! BAAAANG!!! ¡°HOO! HOOOO! HOOOOOO!!! Santa Nurgle Claus has come to town!! Is anybody home?!" Yet no answer was heard, and the Demon of Nurgle kept hitting the doors. After a while, he stopped, and the people looked confused. They then saw small figures flying through the night. * Wiiiii!!! WOOOOO!!!! Sudden sounds of laughter and joy were heard as lesser demons were thrown over the walls, falling over the roofs and houses. The Mayor then rushed forward with her husband and kids and began to blast terrible shots at the smaller creatures with rage. ¡°Kill those Nurglings!! Kill them before they infect the town!!¡± A massive amount of shots began to pour down the small creatures that jumped joyfully while they run clumsily, trying to deliver presents at each house. They threw the boxes and bags through the chimneys, windows, and even breaking parts of the roof. The unfortunate people too old to move or too scared to leave their homes began to suffer all kinds of nightmarish diseases once the boxes fell on their homes and opened up their toxic and bile presents. Putrid snakes, Cans of worms, Mucus slime that moved on its own, and many more objects. Each of them was dangerous, deadly, and filled with diseases. Dozens of people began to cough and bleed, rot and cry as their bodies began to get blessed by the toys and presents of Grandfather Nurgle. A few minutes later, the citizens began to see the corpses walking out of their houses and moved towards the fighting people. The furthest ones got overrun by the many plagued humans, and by when the Mayor saw them, she cursed and took a flamethrower. She then approached the dead residents and turned them into ashes. That really pissed her, as she had fought every vote on this town. A Nurgling then jumped at her from a rooftop. Her husband saw it and jumped, only to be stabbed by a small, crooked candy. ¡°NOOO!!¡± She then melted the smiling and half deformed face of the creature with her weapon. She ducked to see his husband convulsing and screaming in pain as his body began to decompose from the inside out, and the Mayor could do nothing to save him. She roared and cried, but her two sons rushed to take her away. The Priest saw that and muttered a silent prayer to the man''s soul. "There''s no time to cry, Mayor!" The woman heard his words, and with a heart-breaking roar, burned the corpse of her loved one before it could rise up as a rotten monster. Her sons began to shoot a load of bullets at the Nurglings and dead citizens, blaming themselves for not being able to help their father. As the battle was turning cruder in the city, the Great Demon began to hit the doors again, and after a few more strikes, it managed to burst the reinforced plasteel doors open. * ¡°HO, HO, H-¡± BAAAAM! The Priest pulled the trigger of the Autocannon and hit the Great Demon''s head, blowing part of its skull as it laughed, disregarding the terrible injury. The monster began to advance through the doors with a swarm of Nurglings. ¡°Mayor! Let¡¯s kill this abomination!! For the Emperor!!¡± The Mayor stood up with the help of her two sons, and together with half of the remaining citizens, they began to pour heavy fire at the creature. The Great Demon had to stop for a few seconds and rose its hand to protect its smiling putrid face. * BAAAAM! Another massive shot from the Autocannon pierced the Demon''s stomach. "PRIEST! Aim at the fucking head!!" The Major turned white when she saw the rotten insides of the creature spill on the floor. From the Demon''s insides, more Nurglings began to appear, sliding by his intestines and jumping up and down on the muddy puddles of bloody ichor. ¡°Ho, Ho, Ho!! No time to play, kids!! We have presents to deliv-!!¡± * BAAAM!!! ¡°Uughh!! You¡¯re on the naughty list, Priest!¡± With a mildly annoyed growl, the monster moved his left hand towards its belly and began searching for something. A few seconds later, it took a piece of rusted metal. It was an unholy Bilesword, blessed by Nurgle. The moment the sword was brandished, the bodies of every living or dead creature infected began to grow flies and insects that flew to attack the former allies. ¡°HO, HO, HO!!! Wonderful! Let''s carry the joy and wonder of the Grandfather to this town!!¡± More and more town¡¯s citizens were taken down by the insects, the infected humans, or the rotting touch of the demons. The Mayor had to use her flamethrower without a stop to keep the swarms of flies at bay, burning hundreds of those vile creatures each second. "My sons, protect the Priest!! Kill that Demon, whatever it takes!! I will give you enough time!" The woman kissed each of their son''s forehead and changed the tank of her flamethrower. She then began to walk forward, attracting the attention of each insect, human or Nurgling nearby, before using a few grenades to blow herself with the monsters in a desperate last stand. * BOOOOM!!!!! Her sons, together with the remaining survivors, had made a circle near the Autocannon, as it was the only thing that could possibly take down the creature. ¡°For the Emperor!! Kill those demons!¡± The Priest roared as his hands burned from the overheated metal from the Autocannon. He had been pouring loads of bullets at the body of the creature. The rusty and ancient cannon cried and menaced with breaking apart at each shot, but the blessings from the Priest seemed to be working, as the bullets kept hitting their enemy. Still, the monster did not care when one leg was blown, or his right arm was burned. It merely continued walking forward, tearing down full houses and groups of defenders with each sword strike. The Priest then heard shouts and screams from the Church and turned with a worried expression. "HO! HO! HOOOO!! Your present has already been sent to the Church, Priest!! Those young kids are enjoying it on your behalf!!" At this moment, the Priest''s mind when blank. He saw himself punch one of the two sons of the Major, run past the hands of the defendants and rush towards the Church''s door. When he arrived, he saw the smiling and decaying faces of the kids running at him. He could not even try to push them away, as he felt the bliss of Nurgle''s present entering his lungs with each breath. The man knew it was too late when he began to run, and from the lack of more shots from the Autocannon, it was clear the town had failed. But they had fought off through the night, and with the rising sun, this particular Demon called his troops back to the realm of the Grandfather to prepare for the next difficult present delivery night. It was the same each year, the humans were too humble to easily accept the presents, but at the end of the night, they always loved them. --------------- Walking down the snowy road from the town, a little girl walked as a broken toy, unable to comprehend the horrors she had witnessed. On her hands, she carried the bloodied picture of her with a man. Chapter 34 - Imprisonment The wall¡¯s cracks kept growing as some huge creature was hitting and roaring. It looked like whatever we did with the acid rain, did not like the creatures outside, and far from scattering, they turned extremely aggressive. We had only been here for half an hour, and the hole in the wall was less than 20% advanced. The work from the roots took longer than I expected. We needed to hold at least 1.5 to 2 more hours to get out of here. * Thump!! Cr-crack!! Thump!!! ¡°I know. Sigh¡­¡± The water inside was slowly being turned into a soup of acid, and we could soon use it to produce something of use. ¡°Ok, we will double down on the blood worms! Darwin, prepare to mend the cracks with seeds!¡± I threw some seeds from the liquid to the transporter that had grown twice and looked like a red pulsating tumor and had several hundreds of worms inside it twisting and wriggling. By creating more tubes, I attached the acid biomass pool to the transporter and feed it with even more biomass to produce an ever-growing excess of blood worms. It was a desperate and dangerous move, as the creature''s integrity was being eroded pretty fast. I created several layers to reinforce the pulsating mass, and once everything was connected, we reversed the flow. --------------- The rain stopped, and the transporter and its seed-tubes started to move the acid to the waterfall. The falling waters then started to turn redder and even had some blood worms in it as acid and toxins were expelled through the opening falling over the angered corrupted beast, damaging its skin even further. It tried to bash into the cave, but after a few tense minutes, it surrendered and moved away, as the corrupted octopus could not withstand such constant damage, it had to move backward. The beast roared so that its companions would take its place, yet received no response. It turned in anger, only to see the damaged bodies of several of its kin being trapped and devoured by an expanding net of roots that twisted and morphed into what looked like a pulsating gate towards hell. Hundreds of roots had expanded all over the biome and captured every living creature that was nearby. Despite the creatures'' efforts, the tree brought them started merging them into a living and construct of horror and gore. From the insides of that net, the beast saw more tentacles appearing, and felt something it had not felt in many years. Fear. ------------------ From inside the room, we stopped hearing the creature roared, and I smiled, but I felt something, wicked and cold, like a tentacle touch the back of my head. I turned fast, chopping the air, and felt the same sensation on the left side of my body. ¡°Darwin, what was that?! Is there something invisible in the room?¡± ¡°Warp? That means, demons? That or something equally scary.¡± I swallowed and started to concentrate, trying to create a psychic field to keep at bay any being from the immaterial with my powers. Yet, it felt like I just created a bullseye on me, as more and more weird psychic tentacles kept trying to grab me, even paralyzing parts of my body or cracking my limbs. I was scared and felt like someone was throwing strings that slowly got attached to my body. And the more scared I was, the more I lost control from my psychic field, attracting whatever was lurking in the warp closer to me. After a few minutes, my whole body fell on the pool of corrupted biomass and acid, and the pain slowly managed to turn any numbing sensations away. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Aghhh¡­ fuck. What was that!?!¡± I stopped using any psychic powers, and the sensation simply passed away, looking for some other prey. One of my units that were trying to communicate was slowly caught, and I saw how it got paralyzed and then started to turn paler until it merely stood in its place, as its eyes turned grey. Once it turned to look at me, I felt something so alien and weird that I immediately chopped the Gaunt in half with my scythe talons. ¡°A what?! Weren¡¯t those beings destroyed in the War in Heaven?¡± I looked like the body of the Gaunt slowly melted at the acid, still looking at me with grey and ethereal eyes. It gave me the creeps. ¡°Fuck it. We must get out of here, now!¡± I started to produce bombs and seeds, trying to dig deeper into the wall and break the rocks faster, as I was feeling something weird growing on the biome we left behind. What I felt was some mind-numbing cold, expanding from the other side of the wall, and I did not want to wait here to see what it would give birth. For another tense hour, we worked in a hurry, hurting my claws and talons several times, I kept working and hitting the weak parts of the wall as the roots and acid kept weakening the wall. As we approached a specially hard area, I noticed a thin metal plate and stopped. ¡°Darwin, can we cut this wall?¡± I waited for my scythe talons to mend its cracks and stabbed at it. I left a minor mark, but that proved enough to fuel my tired body. ¡°We can break it!¡± My core shone for half a second, and I felt invigorated, and attacked over and over to the metal plate, slowly cutting my way through. I could feel some feeble breeze as I finally stroke through the metal plate and could see some light on the other side. But between each strike, I started to hear the sound of something slithering and getting closer. I turned to see how several dark tendrils and roots were growing into the room and had already captured one tank without me noticing. The creature was fighting to break itself from the weird vines, but it proved useless. I stopped and ordered the Gaunts to come, yet that called the attention of the tendrils, that started to spread towards me. As I cut the mental link with my creatures, the tendril also stopped, and I was left to see how these physical tendrils grew at a languid pace into the room. The Gaunts positioned near me, and the tendril moved towards them. I turned and tried to use my claws to create an opening to escape, but the tendrils suddenly noticed the core in my body and began to grow, slowly, but surely towards me. As I hit and tried to bend the metal, I noticed the same cold sensation, numbing the back of my mind as the roots of the parasites grew closer. Once I got fed up with it, I created bombs and poured acid on it, making the rook-like tendrils to hiss and recede. ¡°Are they gone?¡± * BAANG!! CR-aackk! BAANG!! Then, the wall started to get hit again, with more strength than ever, and from the cracks, some tentacles appeared, and started to pull, menacing with breaking the wall protecting us from the rock. ¡°For fuck''s sake¡­ Darwin! Make the transporter pump more worms!!¡± ¡°Just do it!!¡± The transporter¡¯s body started to crack, and I could see its body bloating, as more biomass got transferred into it, and red worms and acid were being poured outside the cave. Yet at the same time, the chitin plaques I used to reinforce it was starting to get melted and crack. I turned to keep working on the wall and ordered the Gaunt troops to help me, creating a few new Gaunt eggs to grow in the next minute. Right now, I had control over the damaged transporter, five Gaunts, one tank, and three Rippers'' processing biomass. All I could do was hasten the attacks on the wall. Slowly but surely, we were able to see more parts of the devastated garden we devoured a few weeks ago, where the birds lived. I could see the rocky wall that led to the beginning of the second biome. The air vents were I moved through and- * Thump! ¡°AGHH!¡± A terrible pain hit me in the back. I felt a burning sensation cut me as a huge tentacle suddenly pierced my body through and through, splashing blood and ichor on the wall in front of me. I roared in pain, not understanding what had happened yet when suddenly I felt a pulling sensation. I clung onto the wall as my units began to move in disarray. The Gaunts jumped at it and started to chop at the tentacle, trying to tear the muscle apart, but the octopus noticed it had caught something and kept pulling with more strength. ¡°Th-that fucking octopus!! AGhh!¡± With a terrible strength, I lost my ground and fell, but I used my tail to grab onto the metal. Gritting my maws, I managed to hold as we all attacked the tentacle. The room was a mess, but all my units had jumped over our enemy and were chopping, cutting, and devouring pieces of flesh, weakening the damaged limb. * Roaagh!! Under so many attacks, the tentacle finally was chopped and fell heavily, dragging me behind. ¡°Aghhh¡­ aghh¡­ that fucking bastard! I¡¯m gonna¡­ aghhh¡­ kill it!!¡± Yet as soon as I said those words, more tentacles entered the room and began to pull the huge rocks, causing the massive cracks and fissures to finally gave in. * Cr-CRAACKK!! The wall collapsed and fell over the octopus, revealing a horrifying scene. The whole meadows and part of the forest had been covered in tendrils, brambles, and parasite flowers. The acid rain had made the roots back off but had also awakened the willow tree, and it sought the nearest energy source it could find, that seemed to be the maddened octopus. Somehow, this beast managed to get out of the water and move closer to the waterfall but was not yet wholly enslaved to the parasites. A large snake-like creature suddenly jumped over it and began to enter its body as the octopus roared and tried to chop it down, but after a few seconds, it had partially fused with it already. The snake parasite had thrown tendrils and roots in the open wounds of the octopus and began to grow inside the creature¡¯s body. Yet the acid vermin residing inside the octopus body managed to slow the assimilation process, causing acid wounds on the snake¡¯s tendrils. The octopus had suffered massive damage and terrifying wounds, that was evident, as it had all its skin burned, but it was not going down yet. The light on its eyes didn''t dim as it tried to take off the parasite. But all that fight had somehow attracted the roots from the willow tree towards it. I decided to use this chance to get rid of it finally and began to shoot at the dying creature, trying to kill it. But as the living ammunition began to hit the beast, it turned and saw me. ¡°Oh, fuck¡­¡± Right then, at the door¡¯s deaths, the creature smiled. It had finally found its nemesis. I, on the other hand, could see the massive maw of the beast approaching, ready to swallow me. Chapter 35 - Risks The creature roared, and I could see lines and lines of twisted and sharp fangs and sharp teeth. Corruption had taken its toll on the beast. Its skin, body, and mind had changed, from an oversized octopus to a monster beyond recognition. A reinforced bone-shell recovered its head and thorax, the damaged and giant tentacles had sharp claws at its ends, and blood worms festered its body; it looked more dead than alive. Yet it jumped forward, with utmost hate and maddened resolve. I launched the eggs of the Gaunts right into its maw, and it swallowed them, yet once the creatures awoke, they started to cut and chop its insides, turning it even more ferocious. * ROAGHH!!! The creature moved back and began to chop itself in a frenzy, cracking its shell but failed to kill the Gaunts that were eviscerating its stomach. I kept shooting at it, and one of the living ammunition managed to hit one of its many eyes, and began to burrow deeper into the beast''s skull and brain. With an absolute desperate roar, the beast fell backward to the acid waters and attracted the attention of even more parasites. Together with the huge snake parasite, the creature''s wounds were a mix of roots and tendrils attacking from outside and flesh worms festering inside it. But pain and madness proved stronger than the mind control from the wicked parasites, at least for now. The creature used its remaining tentacles to attack at the creatures nearby, even jumping on one of its own beasts that were hiding and half devouring it to gain some energy. I crawled back towards the metal wall, passing next to the piece of the tentacle. I threw seeds to it and devoured some of the tainted flesh, hoping the corrupted biomass would not affect my injured body. My health was in the single digits, and I knew I could not suffer another hit, else I would collapse and die shortly afterward. The Gaunts were trying to keep chopping the wall, but weren¡¯t strong enough on their own. ¡°Darwin, activate our psychic powers!¡± I could sense the hesitation on him, as it was a tactic that would weaken me and attract the warp entity. The Gaunts stopped and started to move in an unnatural and coordinated effort, chopping one strike after another in perfect synchrony, like a team of perfectly trained metal workers hitting a piece of metal to give it form. The opening was slowly growing at each hit. The talons from the Gaunts were slowly being damaged, yet they attacked as one unique being. A terrible crack was heard through the biome, together with a low growl. It was both carrying warp and psychic energy, and I heard the sound of wood breaking apart, twisting and cracking. I turned to see the willow tree slowly unfolding to present a creature lurking under its leaves. That being was hidden under the shadows, and all I could make sense was a weird and thin presence, like a sword ready to strike. The more I looked at the tree, the more anxiety it gave me, and I turned to activate the rain again as the waterfall was now completely ruined. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Red and acid water began to fall over the biome again, yet I didn''t hear more screams or roars. As the tree had awakened, massive amounts of roots started to grow in seconds. All creatures on the biome were captured and enslaved, turned into a matrix of living beings serving the tree-like creature. They were a net of living slaves, ready to serve it, prepared to die for it. The acid rain only managed to damage that roots and tendrils slowly, but the tree started to shake its branches, sending a swarm of vines towards us. They tendrils crawled over the fallen octopus, that was still fighting desperately next to our cave. I frowned and saw the biome''s enslaved creatures and parasites turning to our direction and approaching the broken waterfall. ¡°We need more time!¡± I had an idea and moved towards the pulsating mass of worms that used to be called a transporter and attached an organic tube towards my right claw, using a seed and biomass to craft a poorly designed weapon. As I activated it, I pointed towards the swarm of vines and poured blood worms and acid at them, halting the creatures'' advance and making death rain at them. I grit my maws, as the acid was painful to endure, and the worms were trying to devour my right claw, yet I kept the attack. My eyes shone as the situation kept escalating, and the tree roots began to move in our direction. From under the tree, immense spider-like limbs surged, as the Spider queen had been assimilated into the willow tree and started to take slow steps forward, ignoring the acid rain. I noticed a group of corrupted spiders fighting far from us, near their nest, and prayed for them not to get closer to us, as I could not defend against two sides at once. My eyes began to lose focus as I was overextended. My right claw''s shell cracked, and the pain from the worms broke my concentration. I stopped the attack and fell to the ground, gasping for air. "Fuck..." As I ran out of energy, the psychic effects of my power began to fade, and the Gaunts lost most of their coordination. They then began to fall too, their bodies completely exhausted and drained from energy. My psychic energy had drained them to attack in a frenzy, ignoring all wounds for several minutes to open the hole, but they too hit their limits when I couldn''t supply more energy. The hole was almost ready for me to pass, but when I raised my head, I saw the parasites advancing, and I knew I needed to do something quickly. "Darwin, activate the adrenal glands, burn biomass to gain energy, do whatever it takes to keep us pushing forward!" I cracked my neck and activated my core, enhancing my psychic powers, and managing to stand up again. At the same time, the willow tree''s legs began to move faster towards me, sensing the core energy. I turned and poured acid and sent bombs at the wall, trying to make the whole increase in size, but the acid merely damaged the metal a little bit, not enough to weaken it significantly. ¡°Fuck, we will use the old ways then! Darwin! Help me summon some tanks and coordinate them!¡± I summoned several tank units that grew faster than the Gaunts and sent them to punch and bend the metal. It was way much slower than before, but the tanks managed to keep advancing. "Easier said than done!! Bring that fucking Queen ASAP, and tell her to help somehow!!" I roared as my right claw was completely morphed into a pulsating mass of chitin, flesh, and acid. It barely held together, and I could do nothing but keep attacking to stop our enemies'' advances. It turned into a marathon of resistance, where I had to keep the enemies at bay with the acid while withstanding the pain myself. Yet the huge tree creature was slowly getting closer. My mind was gradually turning towards the most primitive and savage impulses, and all I could think of was on kill and escape. Survive. Consume. Suddenly, an obnoxious voice was heard. Norn was as prideful as always, but I felt a ray of hope. ¡°Wait, Norn? What do you mean?¡± Yet her voice died slowly afterward, falling again into slumber. And as her voice died out, my right claw''s pain began to increase steadily. "Grrraaaghhh!!!" I shook my head and noticed my right claw pulsating with energy, as it was morphing into something different, deadlier. I had to grit my teeth and withstand the pain and burning sensation that hit my whole limb. I had morphed seeds and chitin to shoot acid and worms, but Norn did something. The claw began turning into a weapon. After a few seconds, it had reforged, and most of the chitin and pulsating flesh cracked and closed into a sort of rotten and living projectile weapon. I looked at it with interest and activated it. It then began throwing living bullets each time I activated it. Each time I trigger it, a bio-electric jolt sput a living worm that hit an enemy and began to burrow and fester in my enemies'' flesh. I began to enjoy the feeling of each shot, as psychic energy rose. My six eyes cracked with purple light, and I smiled, witnessing the massacre my weapon was causing. The dying octopus kept trying to rise again, and I was tired of it. I turned my weapon at the beast, and shot at it. The living projectiles hit it in the broken thorax, maw, and eyes. Some worms began to burrow and somehow reached the brain, causing immense pain to the creature, that roared and started slashing at everything without caring for its life anymore. The creature attracted the attention of every nearby parasite, and I moved back to rest for a few seconds. I heard Darwin''s words and looked at my grotesque right arm and felt like it was a sick joke. Turning to the half-devoured tentacle and threw several Gaunt eggs and waited for them to be born. Hiatus I will take some time to think about the progress of this project. It''s been an amazing experience, and I want to thank every reader for their support. The comments and criticismhave been a way to improve way faster than I could have done by myself.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. But it''s taken a toll on me and I need to rethink my objectives and priorities regarding this book. I think I had several mistakes when choosing the main charater, the starting point of the story, and the setting of Warhammer 40k. Again, thanks to everyone for your support, Regards