The Galaxy is Flood, Not Food
- Thread starter Jackson Fox
- Start date
- Crossover Sci-Fi Horror
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The MC seems to have some sense of morality left hopefully he doesn't lose that and just starting eating everything. I know some people like that but I generally don't like reading stories about good people getting killed by a monster over and over again. I gave up on "The Swarm of War" because of that. I get that some people like villain protagonists but I'm personally not a fan. Give me some moral quandaries that they try to solve any day. I guess I just don't like reading from the perspective of people who only care about themselves. Sorry for the tagent I know its only somewhat related. Whatever happens I think people will probably like it your a good writer.
Oh, you think there is even the slightest chance that MC ain't pulling all the Gravemind's quotes out? That is half the reason I'm writing this story
I've struggled with where I want to take this SI and their morality quite a bit. It's something I have a lot of experience with since I don't normally write characters who are one hundred percent morally good, but I also don't often write outright pure evil villains either. Even so, its still difficult for me to figure out, especially for this story. There are a lot of factors in 40k that encourage if not outright demand characters to take horrible actions and be monstrous (I know, mind boggling take on the grimdark future, right? /s). The SI being placed into a universal threat like the Flood and at least being somewhat affected by its inherent instincts and desires is also working against him.
In the end, this character is going to be an interesting one for me to write. Oftentimes its a balancing act between good and evil for a lot of my characters, so we'll have to wait and see where the scales dip for this one.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Will be interesting to see if you'll be going with the theory about the Precursors.
The one where the Flood is but one part of their lifecycle and the endstage of Adulthood, is a multitude of Precursors. Then they seed life through the Galaxy consumed in their Adolescence.
Also will be interesting to see how the Flood will deal with the Old One Crafted Races of the Orks/Krorks and Eldar with them having some fuckery going on in their biology.
Will also be secondarily interesting to see if seeding lifeforms like you did to Trellis will continue as its a fairly good strategy for having fallback spreaders. Might even lead up to having willing hosts that will serve for the abilitys being partially infected gives them. Would be interesting to see how a Flood Assisted Race would evolve through civilization and how successful they would be.
The one where the Flood is but one part of their lifecycle and the endstage of Adulthood, is a multitude of Precursors. Then they seed life through the Galaxy consumed in their Adolescence.
Also will be interesting to see how the Flood will deal with the Old One Crafted Races of the Orks/Krorks and Eldar with them having some fuckery going on in their biology.
Will also be secondarily interesting to see if seeding lifeforms like you did to Trellis will continue as its a fairly good strategy for having fallback spreaders. Might even lead up to having willing hosts that will serve for the abilitys being partially infected gives them. Would be interesting to see how a Flood Assisted Race would evolve through civilization and how successful they would be.
These things you've stated are all on the list of reasons why I am super excited to write this story! Its similar to how I felt when writing my Commander Rex story, though hopefully I've learned to pace myself and won't get burned out so quickly.
Jackson, whats the flood lore in 40k then? Will it be that the MC from the Eldar perspective has existed since the War in Heaven, and has re-emerged? I also read another comment about swarm of war, which I dislike for similar reasons as the original post. I don't know if you've read it, but dragon at the edge of dawn on SB is what I was thinking more closely too.
I also really liked your commander rex story, and I can't wait to see more of this!
I also really liked your commander rex story, and I can't wait to see more of this!
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
You know, while it would be fun to have this be 100% out of context, I'd laugh if the Precursors in this were the Great Froggy Ones.
I don't think the Flood will be considered native to this reality, nor the mind of the MC. I haven't read Swarm of War, though I think I might since so many people are talking about it. Haven't seen Dragon at the Edge of Dawn either, so I'll give that one a look as well.
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I hope this one lives up to the expectations, lol
I'd find that hilarious as well, but the Froggos aren't on the same level as the Precursors and I fully intend on acknowledging that in this. The Old Ones are pretty strong, but they're not 'play pong with galaxies' strong.
Now I'm trying to figure out what their first sentences would be to each other. Would Trazyn know about the Flood prior to speaking directly to it? Would the SI be too busy fanboying over Trazyn to do anything? Would Trazyn try to add the Flood to his collection?
The answer to that last one is yes, obviously.
C4d
Has approximate knowledge of many things.
- Location
- Germany
The correct answer would obviously be to enthusiastically volunteer to be a part of his collection as a live exhibit so you always have a fallback point if something goes wrong. There are few places safer than the depths of Solemnace as a prized piece of the Infinites collection after all.
Chapter 2 - Level 0
Day 2
His Proto had reshaped itself within one of the many abandoned buildings, an old factory, hidden in the back behind assembly lines and machines. It transformed again into an immobile mass, though one with two tentacles for manipulation and defense. The front of the chamber was covered in a carefully constructed labyrinth made of the webs of his newest combat form, the Spider. He kept the Spider and twenty more of his combat forms within the factory and the surrounding buildings as guards and sentries. The remaining seventeen mutated further and exploded additional swarms of Infector Pods, which he split into two groups. One group stayed in the factory, to infect anything that came near, while the other group split apart and began scouting the tunnel network.
His chosen lair was a few hundred meters from the industrial lift, which was watched by two of his sentries in case of intrusion. This level of the underhive, which he dubbed Level 0 in a moment of complete unoriginality, was massive, and he wanted to know what else lay waiting for him. That predators like the spider were common and would not think twice about eating his Pods was an… additional benefit.
Within the first twenty-four hours of sending out his Pod scouts, half of the original swarm were devoured by an astonishing variety of mutated monstrosities. Most were attacked by small packs of creatures, most not much larger than the Pod they ambushed. These were easily infected by their own meals just like the Spider had been. He turned these into yet more Pods and had them continue the search, simultaneously building his forces and increasing his understanding of the local terrain.
The things he was far more interested in were the creatures of much larger size. He had stumbled across another of the giant spiders, though this one was only two meters tall and didn't use webbing. Instead, it skittered forward from the darkness and snatched the Infector Pod from the ground with razor sharp mandibles that slashed apart the weak form, practically slurping up the slimy remains, unknowingly signing its own death warrant. The other creatures were just as intriguing.
Three giant centipedes had separately attacked his Pods. One, the largest, had managed to devour three before the infection had fully taken over. While not as tall as the spiders with their legs, they were each nearly three meters long and had more biomass overall, along with massive maws of razor-sharp teeth and were shockingly fast on their many legs, even able to crawl up walls and along the ceiling. He kept their mutations mostly internal, strengthening their muscles, further improving their speed and monstrous bite. They returned to his lair, further strengthening his guard.
However, what was the greatest addition would be the trio of creatures presently feasting on their second Infector Pod. They were smaller than the spiders and even the centipedes, at a little over a single meter in length each. They looked like giant wasps, with sharp mandibles, four thin membranous wings, and a stinger that was the length of a man's forearm. Of its six legs, its front two had surprisingly dexterous pincers. Yet, what intrigued him most was not that they could fly, were prehensile or even had a particularly dangerous venom within them that he could steal.
No, it was that they were members of a hive.
It was a primitive hive mind, not even close to what the Flood possessed or what he suspected Tyranids had. Nothing of value there for him. However, they did still have some level of mental communication, or at least influence from a central source, a queen.
They were also surprisingly intelligent creatures, though not sentient in the slightest. Most worked in squads of three to five to hunt prey, much like pack animals. Usually, they slew their targets and then brought it back before eating, but this group had strayed too far and gotten lost. From their collective memories, which had only the barest levels of thought attached to them, he determined they'd been a squad of five originally, but lost two to a particularly large centipede. They were close to starving and had not given the disgusting nature of his pods a second thought before digging in.
He found the location of said centipede and sent out several infector pods to search for – and likely be eaten by – the beast, which was nearly four meters in length and one in width, easily enough to swallow a man whole.
While those pods were on the way, he considered what to do with his newfound knowledge. The wasp hive was large, with over a hundred individuals within it, and their hunting grounds spanned across the three levels directly below him, which they had found tunnels and chasms connecting. He dubbed those Levels -1, -2, and -3. Their hive structure, which resembled a regular wasp hive just gigantic and more complex, was on Level -2.
He wondered if these wasps were the reason he'd yet to find any humans in this part of the hive. Their numbers would have made clearing them out an impossibility for most without heavier weapons or great numbers. The kind of power that he doubted many on this planet had access to beyond the larger organizations. From the memories of the factory workers, the Planetary Defense Force and the Adeptus Arbites seemed the most well-equipped groups in the hive and they mostly had the equivalent of modern ballistic weapons, though in 40k they were called stubbers. Though he doubted factory workers would have heard much about the presence of any other military forces outside the area he lived in.
In any case, he didn't have the forces to take on the wasps conventionally. While they weren't currently a direct threat, the fact that they had sent a squad of hunting wasps up to his level was simultaneously concerning and intriguing. An expansion in feeding territory usually meant one of two things: One, there was less prey around in their present territory, thus necessitating a larger search area. Or, two, there wasn't enough prey to sustain the population anymore.
If the wasps were undergoing a population boom, that could be beneficial to him. They were fast and lethal creatures and would make excellent scouts and combat forms. He wanted them. Their hive mind capabilities also intrigued him. Though he doubted it would be of much value to him.
Flood didn't communicate through pheromones or even through something like telepathy. The Flood instead communicated with one another through Neural Physics, a form of technology that the Precursors had mastered. That communication was limited without the presence of a central hub like his Proto-Gravemind or other forms with sufficient 'mental' strength. He could only create those kinds of forms by merging the minds of several sentient beings.
In the lore, they were called key minds, but that was considered separate from the Keymind, which was a Gravemind that had grown to consume an entire planet's biomass. For sanity's sake, he dubbed the lesser forms 'Mind Forms'.
Currently, he only had his Proto-Gravemind. As its mass and mental power increased, so did its effective 'range' at an exponential rate. Outside of that range, he felt that he wouldn't have an easy time controlling his Flood forms. That could be dangerous since he didn't want a repeat of the factory, where he slaughtered uncontrollably.
Thankfully, that range was quite large. He could 'feel' its borders, though couldn't put an exact distance to it. He'd have to experiment with that.
He wondered how someone like Trellis, an Altered, would be affected by leaving his range. Would the Flood within him maintain its state of coexistence or would it seek to fully infect him? Presently, the man was half-way through his next shift of work.
To his modern sensibilities, a fourteen-hour work shift was… well, it was insane. There was only a single day of rest as well, which was dedicated to the worship of the God-Emperor. That this was considered to be the norm was frankly almost as horrifying as everything else he knew to be in this galaxy.
Trellis seemed to be suffering no ill effects from being connected, even if only temporarily, to a Proto-Gravemind or from the Flood spores currently intertwined with almost every part of him. Nor did anyone seem to notice any signs of anything being wrong with him.
That was good. He wanted to learn more about this world with terrible names, but he'd rather not kill people to get that information. Spreading harmlessly through beings like he had with Trellis would be an excellent method of gathering that information.
There was the possibility of discovery through an in-depth medical exam, but the 'doctors' of at least this part of the hive city were less than stellar, let alone trained. While there was little chance that would prove true in the upper levels, even if one of his little spies were discovered, there was little danger to him.
One of the things that could prove dangerous to him and lead to his discovery was also something he'd had no control over. The factory incident.
The simultaneous disappearance of nearly a hundred workers was more than a little noticeable. After the discovery and the alert that had been sent, the Adeptus Arbites had responded surprisingly swiftly, sending a team of armed investigators to the level in question.
That it was odd was something his gathered memories told him. The PDF and Arbites had a light presence on those levels and rarely interacted with them except for instances of full-on uprisings. While the disappearance could be construed as a sign of such an uprising, he suspected otherwise.
He focused for a moment on the last remaining Flood form within the factory that had been the place of his rebirth.
"Well!?!" Corvus Krell demanded, giving the uncooperative supervisor a shove for good measure. Inwardly, he reveled in the look of fear on the underhiver's scrawny face even as the man swiftly punched in the code to unlock the factory's large door, which slowly rumbled open. He roughly grabbed the man's arm, holding the shaking man in front of himself as they entered the empty factory.
"Please, the ghosts!" The supervisor begged, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
"Shut yer yap," Corvus snapped as he manhandled the man through the doors, finally releasing the man with a final push, sending him sprawling to the ferrocrete floor. He strode in a moment later, scowling down at the man. "See? Just an empty factory!"
This was a waste of time, Corvus knew. Factory workers disappeared all the time, either running into the abandoned levels to join a hive gang or not watching themselves and getting crushed to paste by machinery with no one noticing.
True, the disappearance of an entire worker group wasn't normal, but Corvus already suspected it was just the work of that shift's supervisor or someone else who had convinced the easily riled workers to form their own gang below. Filth like that wasn't worth the time.
The workers of this level had already found their own explanation: ghosts. They were a superstitious lot.
The factory was quiet, only its red lights still running, leaving the various assembly lines and half-finished frames awash in a crimson glow. The lack of any overwhelming scent of incense meant the factory hadn't received any consecration from the tech-priests recently. There was one scent underneath the oil and grease, however: blood.
"Frak," Corvus muttered under his breath. His team of four Arbites followed him in, some clearly noticing the same scent. He drew out his laspistol and his Arbites readied their own weapons, stubbers one-and-all. "You sure no one has been in here since them?"
"Y-yes, sir!" The supervisor had gotten to his feet and nodded rapidly. "Nobody!"
"Frak," Corvus repeated before sighing. "Fan out."
They spread out through the factory, leaving the supervisor behind by the door. Normally, if he'd smelled blood in a factory disappearance, he'd have thought someone had gotten crushed to paste. But he doubted the entire workforce had jumped beneath a press.
"The lights normally like this?" Corvus called back to the frightened man. The red light made looking for blood just about impossible.
"N-no, this isn't the usual," The man said. "If something gets stuck the machine spirit halts everything and the lights go red. We'd need a tech-priest to turn it back. Enginseer Midus is usually the one we get."
Corvus muttered another curse. "Call him here. Now."
"Lieutenant!" One of his Arbites, Eddard, called him. "I've found something."
As the supervisor departed, a little too quickly for Corvus' taste, he made his way over to Eddard, who was partially obscured by an assembly line. Of the five of them, he'd gone farther back than the others.
Corvus glanced around once he reached his subordinate, but he didn't see anything out of place. "Well?" He demanded, somewhat impatient.
"Smell," Eddard said with a grim look and Corvus took a deep breath.
"Throne," Corvus whispered, his eyes going wide. The scent of blood had become almost overpowering, hitting him in the face like a hammer, but there was no sign of any gore or puddles of the stuff. "Something has to be around here. Find it."
Eddard nodded and they moved up onto the scaffolding that ran the length of the factory. The central hub of the factory would be above them and Corvus cursed himself for not asking the supervisor before he'd gone away.
There were two paths on the scaffolding, both leading off into the walls of the factory. Eddard went down the left, Corvus the right.
It was quickly apparent that Corvus had made the correct choice. The control room of the factory was buzzing with flashing lights and strange symbols that Corvus had no understanding of, though at least the lighting was normal in this part of the factory. For a moment, he even thought he heard something skittering around above him and groaned in annoyance. The enginseer would probably take their frustrations at having an infested workspace out on him.
Cutting through the buzzing like a knife, Corvus heard the loud scream from Eddard and the crack of a stubber, ripping him from his thoughts. He bolted out of the control room and back to the path his fellow Arbites had taken, not bothering to look down to see his three compatriots already sprinting to join him.
Corvus burst into what seemed like a storage room for workers, laspistol at the ready, only to find Eddard standing strangely still in the middle of the room, his arms limp, stubber hanging loosely in his hands. A fresh bullet hole had embedded itself into the ventilation shaft above him, seemingly knocking the grate open.
"Eddard! What happened?!?" Corvus demanded, eyes still scanning the room. When the man didn't respond, Corvus repeated his words, louder this time. "EDDARD!"
It seemed to snap the man out of whatever trance he was in, turning around, rubbing his jaw as though it were sore. "S-sorry, Cor- sir. I… saw a rat."
For a moment, the adrenaline pumping in his ears just caused him to stare at the Arbites. When he finally understood what the man had said, he holstered his laspistol, stepped in front o f him and punched him square in the nose.
Eddard crashed to the ground, yelping in pain, but otherwise fine. As the other Arbites joined them, they got to witness their lieutenant yank the man by his collar and hiss, "Next time you use a bullet on a rat, at least kill it."
"Y-yes, sir," Eddard coughed, rubbing his nose. It was leaking blood and a bit of yellow mucus. He quickly wiped both away.
His Proto had reshaped itself within one of the many abandoned buildings, an old factory, hidden in the back behind assembly lines and machines. It transformed again into an immobile mass, though one with two tentacles for manipulation and defense. The front of the chamber was covered in a carefully constructed labyrinth made of the webs of his newest combat form, the Spider. He kept the Spider and twenty more of his combat forms within the factory and the surrounding buildings as guards and sentries. The remaining seventeen mutated further and exploded additional swarms of Infector Pods, which he split into two groups. One group stayed in the factory, to infect anything that came near, while the other group split apart and began scouting the tunnel network.
His chosen lair was a few hundred meters from the industrial lift, which was watched by two of his sentries in case of intrusion. This level of the underhive, which he dubbed Level 0 in a moment of complete unoriginality, was massive, and he wanted to know what else lay waiting for him. That predators like the spider were common and would not think twice about eating his Pods was an… additional benefit.
Within the first twenty-four hours of sending out his Pod scouts, half of the original swarm were devoured by an astonishing variety of mutated monstrosities. Most were attacked by small packs of creatures, most not much larger than the Pod they ambushed. These were easily infected by their own meals just like the Spider had been. He turned these into yet more Pods and had them continue the search, simultaneously building his forces and increasing his understanding of the local terrain.
The things he was far more interested in were the creatures of much larger size. He had stumbled across another of the giant spiders, though this one was only two meters tall and didn't use webbing. Instead, it skittered forward from the darkness and snatched the Infector Pod from the ground with razor sharp mandibles that slashed apart the weak form, practically slurping up the slimy remains, unknowingly signing its own death warrant. The other creatures were just as intriguing.
Three giant centipedes had separately attacked his Pods. One, the largest, had managed to devour three before the infection had fully taken over. While not as tall as the spiders with their legs, they were each nearly three meters long and had more biomass overall, along with massive maws of razor-sharp teeth and were shockingly fast on their many legs, even able to crawl up walls and along the ceiling. He kept their mutations mostly internal, strengthening their muscles, further improving their speed and monstrous bite. They returned to his lair, further strengthening his guard.
However, what was the greatest addition would be the trio of creatures presently feasting on their second Infector Pod. They were smaller than the spiders and even the centipedes, at a little over a single meter in length each. They looked like giant wasps, with sharp mandibles, four thin membranous wings, and a stinger that was the length of a man's forearm. Of its six legs, its front two had surprisingly dexterous pincers. Yet, what intrigued him most was not that they could fly, were prehensile or even had a particularly dangerous venom within them that he could steal.
No, it was that they were members of a hive.
It was a primitive hive mind, not even close to what the Flood possessed or what he suspected Tyranids had. Nothing of value there for him. However, they did still have some level of mental communication, or at least influence from a central source, a queen.
They were also surprisingly intelligent creatures, though not sentient in the slightest. Most worked in squads of three to five to hunt prey, much like pack animals. Usually, they slew their targets and then brought it back before eating, but this group had strayed too far and gotten lost. From their collective memories, which had only the barest levels of thought attached to them, he determined they'd been a squad of five originally, but lost two to a particularly large centipede. They were close to starving and had not given the disgusting nature of his pods a second thought before digging in.
He found the location of said centipede and sent out several infector pods to search for – and likely be eaten by – the beast, which was nearly four meters in length and one in width, easily enough to swallow a man whole.
While those pods were on the way, he considered what to do with his newfound knowledge. The wasp hive was large, with over a hundred individuals within it, and their hunting grounds spanned across the three levels directly below him, which they had found tunnels and chasms connecting. He dubbed those Levels -1, -2, and -3. Their hive structure, which resembled a regular wasp hive just gigantic and more complex, was on Level -2.
He wondered if these wasps were the reason he'd yet to find any humans in this part of the hive. Their numbers would have made clearing them out an impossibility for most without heavier weapons or great numbers. The kind of power that he doubted many on this planet had access to beyond the larger organizations. From the memories of the factory workers, the Planetary Defense Force and the Adeptus Arbites seemed the most well-equipped groups in the hive and they mostly had the equivalent of modern ballistic weapons, though in 40k they were called stubbers. Though he doubted factory workers would have heard much about the presence of any other military forces outside the area he lived in.
In any case, he didn't have the forces to take on the wasps conventionally. While they weren't currently a direct threat, the fact that they had sent a squad of hunting wasps up to his level was simultaneously concerning and intriguing. An expansion in feeding territory usually meant one of two things: One, there was less prey around in their present territory, thus necessitating a larger search area. Or, two, there wasn't enough prey to sustain the population anymore.
If the wasps were undergoing a population boom, that could be beneficial to him. They were fast and lethal creatures and would make excellent scouts and combat forms. He wanted them. Their hive mind capabilities also intrigued him. Though he doubted it would be of much value to him.
Flood didn't communicate through pheromones or even through something like telepathy. The Flood instead communicated with one another through Neural Physics, a form of technology that the Precursors had mastered. That communication was limited without the presence of a central hub like his Proto-Gravemind or other forms with sufficient 'mental' strength. He could only create those kinds of forms by merging the minds of several sentient beings.
In the lore, they were called key minds, but that was considered separate from the Keymind, which was a Gravemind that had grown to consume an entire planet's biomass. For sanity's sake, he dubbed the lesser forms 'Mind Forms'.
Currently, he only had his Proto-Gravemind. As its mass and mental power increased, so did its effective 'range' at an exponential rate. Outside of that range, he felt that he wouldn't have an easy time controlling his Flood forms. That could be dangerous since he didn't want a repeat of the factory, where he slaughtered uncontrollably.
Thankfully, that range was quite large. He could 'feel' its borders, though couldn't put an exact distance to it. He'd have to experiment with that.
He wondered how someone like Trellis, an Altered, would be affected by leaving his range. Would the Flood within him maintain its state of coexistence or would it seek to fully infect him? Presently, the man was half-way through his next shift of work.
To his modern sensibilities, a fourteen-hour work shift was… well, it was insane. There was only a single day of rest as well, which was dedicated to the worship of the God-Emperor. That this was considered to be the norm was frankly almost as horrifying as everything else he knew to be in this galaxy.
Trellis seemed to be suffering no ill effects from being connected, even if only temporarily, to a Proto-Gravemind or from the Flood spores currently intertwined with almost every part of him. Nor did anyone seem to notice any signs of anything being wrong with him.
That was good. He wanted to learn more about this world with terrible names, but he'd rather not kill people to get that information. Spreading harmlessly through beings like he had with Trellis would be an excellent method of gathering that information.
There was the possibility of discovery through an in-depth medical exam, but the 'doctors' of at least this part of the hive city were less than stellar, let alone trained. While there was little chance that would prove true in the upper levels, even if one of his little spies were discovered, there was little danger to him.
One of the things that could prove dangerous to him and lead to his discovery was also something he'd had no control over. The factory incident.
The simultaneous disappearance of nearly a hundred workers was more than a little noticeable. After the discovery and the alert that had been sent, the Adeptus Arbites had responded surprisingly swiftly, sending a team of armed investigators to the level in question.
That it was odd was something his gathered memories told him. The PDF and Arbites had a light presence on those levels and rarely interacted with them except for instances of full-on uprisings. While the disappearance could be construed as a sign of such an uprising, he suspected otherwise.
He focused for a moment on the last remaining Flood form within the factory that had been the place of his rebirth.
"Well!?!" Corvus Krell demanded, giving the uncooperative supervisor a shove for good measure. Inwardly, he reveled in the look of fear on the underhiver's scrawny face even as the man swiftly punched in the code to unlock the factory's large door, which slowly rumbled open. He roughly grabbed the man's arm, holding the shaking man in front of himself as they entered the empty factory.
"Please, the ghosts!" The supervisor begged, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.
"Shut yer yap," Corvus snapped as he manhandled the man through the doors, finally releasing the man with a final push, sending him sprawling to the ferrocrete floor. He strode in a moment later, scowling down at the man. "See? Just an empty factory!"
This was a waste of time, Corvus knew. Factory workers disappeared all the time, either running into the abandoned levels to join a hive gang or not watching themselves and getting crushed to paste by machinery with no one noticing.
True, the disappearance of an entire worker group wasn't normal, but Corvus already suspected it was just the work of that shift's supervisor or someone else who had convinced the easily riled workers to form their own gang below. Filth like that wasn't worth the time.
The workers of this level had already found their own explanation: ghosts. They were a superstitious lot.
The factory was quiet, only its red lights still running, leaving the various assembly lines and half-finished frames awash in a crimson glow. The lack of any overwhelming scent of incense meant the factory hadn't received any consecration from the tech-priests recently. There was one scent underneath the oil and grease, however: blood.
"Frak," Corvus muttered under his breath. His team of four Arbites followed him in, some clearly noticing the same scent. He drew out his laspistol and his Arbites readied their own weapons, stubbers one-and-all. "You sure no one has been in here since them?"
"Y-yes, sir!" The supervisor had gotten to his feet and nodded rapidly. "Nobody!"
"Frak," Corvus repeated before sighing. "Fan out."
They spread out through the factory, leaving the supervisor behind by the door. Normally, if he'd smelled blood in a factory disappearance, he'd have thought someone had gotten crushed to paste. But he doubted the entire workforce had jumped beneath a press.
"The lights normally like this?" Corvus called back to the frightened man. The red light made looking for blood just about impossible.
"N-no, this isn't the usual," The man said. "If something gets stuck the machine spirit halts everything and the lights go red. We'd need a tech-priest to turn it back. Enginseer Midus is usually the one we get."
Corvus muttered another curse. "Call him here. Now."
"Lieutenant!" One of his Arbites, Eddard, called him. "I've found something."
As the supervisor departed, a little too quickly for Corvus' taste, he made his way over to Eddard, who was partially obscured by an assembly line. Of the five of them, he'd gone farther back than the others.
Corvus glanced around once he reached his subordinate, but he didn't see anything out of place. "Well?" He demanded, somewhat impatient.
"Smell," Eddard said with a grim look and Corvus took a deep breath.
"Throne," Corvus whispered, his eyes going wide. The scent of blood had become almost overpowering, hitting him in the face like a hammer, but there was no sign of any gore or puddles of the stuff. "Something has to be around here. Find it."
Eddard nodded and they moved up onto the scaffolding that ran the length of the factory. The central hub of the factory would be above them and Corvus cursed himself for not asking the supervisor before he'd gone away.
There were two paths on the scaffolding, both leading off into the walls of the factory. Eddard went down the left, Corvus the right.
It was quickly apparent that Corvus had made the correct choice. The control room of the factory was buzzing with flashing lights and strange symbols that Corvus had no understanding of, though at least the lighting was normal in this part of the factory. For a moment, he even thought he heard something skittering around above him and groaned in annoyance. The enginseer would probably take their frustrations at having an infested workspace out on him.
Cutting through the buzzing like a knife, Corvus heard the loud scream from Eddard and the crack of a stubber, ripping him from his thoughts. He bolted out of the control room and back to the path his fellow Arbites had taken, not bothering to look down to see his three compatriots already sprinting to join him.
Corvus burst into what seemed like a storage room for workers, laspistol at the ready, only to find Eddard standing strangely still in the middle of the room, his arms limp, stubber hanging loosely in his hands. A fresh bullet hole had embedded itself into the ventilation shaft above him, seemingly knocking the grate open.
"Eddard! What happened?!?" Corvus demanded, eyes still scanning the room. When the man didn't respond, Corvus repeated his words, louder this time. "EDDARD!"
It seemed to snap the man out of whatever trance he was in, turning around, rubbing his jaw as though it were sore. "S-sorry, Cor- sir. I… saw a rat."
For a moment, the adrenaline pumping in his ears just caused him to stare at the Arbites. When he finally understood what the man had said, he holstered his laspistol, stepped in front o f him and punched him square in the nose.
Eddard crashed to the ground, yelping in pain, but otherwise fine. As the other Arbites joined them, they got to witness their lieutenant yank the man by his collar and hiss, "Next time you use a bullet on a rat, at least kill it."
"Y-yes, sir," Eddard coughed, rubbing his nose. It was leaking blood and a bit of yellow mucus. He quickly wiped both away.
I was not expecting this much feedback just from the first week! It's a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!
I'm really glad you all seem to like the story idea so much and I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it!
I'm really glad you all seem to like the story idea so much and I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoy writing it!
- Location
- Utah, salt lake city
Great chapter, can't wait for how these arbites do.
Love the chapter! I can't wait for more, and I think it was the right choice to not openly infect as many humans as possible. It gives the MC more depth as a character, and opens up more possibilities. Does he have access to forerunner technology by the way? Making a society entirely reliant on his infestation wouldn't be practical if he wants to keep people alive.
I pretty sure our baby gravemind just infected Eddard, he left a few infector pods in the factory and getting a "mole" in law enforcement would be a massive advantage, no real reason to not do so.
Remember, it's not a war crime if they're doing it too!
Thanks! More of the MC's thoughts will be revealed next chapter on his current status and how he will handle being in Monstrum.
As for forerunner tech, I'm afraid he doesn't have any of their stuff. However, he is only a Proto-Gravemind at this stage and his growth will be very important to him going forward.
Bingo, though that was his last pod in the factory. He took the rest with him below.
Yeah, at this point the Geneva Conventions aren't even the Geneva Suggestions.
If our baby Gravemind goes the path of no warcrimes (impossible), that suggests a very interesting direction.
In a universe like 40k the Flood will either kill everything or die early on full stop, but that assumes a normal Flood infestation. However, we know the Gravemind can infect people and their still able to go about a normal day without notice. The question now is can the Gravemind make them do things they wouldn't do normally. Can he make Eddard write reports and paperwork the way he wants, can he infect medical staff and have them infect others with "standard practices", will they outright ignore Flood infection with patients brought to them, can he get nobles to pass legislation he wants, such as "All death row inmates will sacrifice themselves in the name of the Emperor by clearing out the lower hive", that just so happens to feed the alien hivemind from another universe.
Cuz if he can do these things, he'd out geanstealer the geanstealers on such a scale that it might be possible to infect entire sectors via traders and guardsmen without anyone noticing for maybe centuries.
In a universe like 40k the Flood will either kill everything or die early on full stop, but that assumes a normal Flood infestation. However, we know the Gravemind can infect people and their still able to go about a normal day without notice. The question now is can the Gravemind make them do things they wouldn't do normally. Can he make Eddard write reports and paperwork the way he wants, can he infect medical staff and have them infect others with "standard practices", will they outright ignore Flood infection with patients brought to them, can he get nobles to pass legislation he wants, such as "All death row inmates will sacrifice themselves in the name of the Emperor by clearing out the lower hive", that just so happens to feed the alien hivemind from another universe.
Cuz if he can do these things, he'd out geanstealer the geanstealers on such a scale that it might be possible to infect entire sectors via traders and guardsmen without anyone noticing for maybe centuries.
AzureShogun
Tanks are better than Mechs
- Location
- United Kingdom
Hmm, I'm really eager to see more of this story, but I also hope it doesn't get bogged down too much with this 'early' stuff. I don't remember all the names off the top of my head, but I've definitely read a few similar stories which promise exponential growth, and sci-fi elements like that, but just get hopelessly bogged down and stalled out at pretty much the size/expansion your MC is currently at. They just start doing a minor plot with a couple people and it... Never ends... I don't know if it's just losing sight of the original concept, trying to pad the word count, finding unexpected fun and interest in this new plot, whatever. All I know is it's annoying and I've pretty much got no expectations for this type of story anymore lol. I enjoyed what was done so far, so there's that at least!
- Location
- Puerto Rico
Good chapter.
Question, since this is Hive world where food might as well be gold, specially for those underground; how fast would the Flood infection spread if your SI embraces two simple words:
Soylent Green
Um...
Question, since this is Hive world where food might as well be gold, specially for those underground; how fast would the Flood infection spread if your SI embraces two simple words:
Soylent Green