Post by Gigachad on Aug 16, 2021 18:55:58 GMT
Ordoman Empire-Invilis corridor
The city of Krens
Olkeux and his squad steadily marched across the deserted streets,almost everyone had evacuated,likely clogging the underdeveloped highways and on their way to bunkers that littered their nation on behalf of their "Emperor". The thought disgusted him,he knew that they didn't have even a month's worth of supplies in any of them,the economy simply wouldn't allow it. He could already imagine the carnage that would ensue,the debauchery committed by the masses,the slaughter that would commence should the enemy find them.
This didn't make sense,none of it did. Three days ago the Montagal Kingdom declared war upon them,claiming that they were freeing the population from the emperor's regime. Ironically,Olkeux agreed with them. They had rebelled for good reason,yet now they were worse off than ever thanks to his majesty. The moron had run their country into the gutter as his terrible agricultural reforms crushed the only thing they could actually do well. And for what? An industry that never even got off the ground properly,an attempt that now resulted in millions starving.
He agreed with their conquest alright,what he did not agree with was the way they were seemingly going about it. On that day,it wasn't Montagal ships that entered their system,but giant monsters of flesh. Their numbers,technology and sheer scales utterly dwarfed them. Their own "navy",if that's what you could call 5 ships,lasted a little over two hours. Their moonbase was gone in that afternoon,destroyed by an asteroid steered their way by tug craft. Olkeux remembered that in particular,he saw the explosion from the surface,much like millions of other terrified people. Ever since then,the enemy had been sending sub orbital craft on rapid assaults across the planet. Bunkers,air bases,factories,missile silos, the foe had destroyed more than a fair share of each,all while loosing five of their own. It took them a while,but they figured the things were vulnerable,even to their technology,when undergoing re entry. Slow and blind,that's when their missiles actually had a chance of hitting the damn things.
Yet he had no part to play in this. He,his 10 man squad and countless other units simply ensured that the evacuation continued. That's when he heard them,sonic booms. He and his fellow soldiers instinctively raised their assault rifles and looked up at the sky. These weren't more craft,far too slow,small but numerous. Hundreds,no,thousands of homogenous objects were hurling across the sky,leaving foul fumes and flames in their wake. More asteroids? No,that didn't make sense,why even bother with the craft then?
In an instant,the city was plagued by shockwaves and thunderous crashes. Olkeux looked up in time to see one of the things crash through a building above,streak across the street then slam through the opposite one. Not an asteroid, some sort of fleshy capsule. Debris fell towards them,immediately crushing two of his squad mates beneath tons of concrete and steel. There was no time to mourn,he and the survivors were already running towards the end of the street,looking to round the corner and face the crash site. They saw the pod,vile fumes already steaming from its cracked shell and shredded meat.
That's when the creature came sprinting from behind a car. It wasn't too big,1 meter tall and 3 long,he reckoned. It had a raptorial posture,digitigrade legs ending in four fingers,two pointed upwards and ending in sickle claws. Its back was covered in thick,overlapping plates,with the rest sheathed in exoskeleton. Its head had six eyes,big jaws with several rows of teeth and a horn,thin and serrated like their combat knives. Its long tail ended in some kind of stinger and two pairs of arms boasted scythe like talons and what Olkeux presumed were some sort of rifle respectively.
The monster turned to them and took off,faster than any animal he'd ever seen,indeed he swore it was faster than the car he owned. It opened fire with its rifles,sending a burst of rounds into the body cavity of a squadmate,piercing his vest. They retaliated,but it was too late,they only got a few shots off before the thing rammed another member of his squad. It really was going faster than a car,his comrade literally blasted to pieces by the impact,limbs and guts flying in various directions,tainting their visors. The thing endured,merely slowed by the obstacle. It charged another soldier,slicing at him with its limbs. It was simply too quick,his friend didn't stand a chance. He saw the aberration strike what felt like several times in the blink of an eye as intestines,shards of ribs,kidneys and pieces of lung flew out of the man's form while he was still standing. The creature sighted another friend of his,avoiding a hail of gunfire as it leapt half a dozen meters in the air. Its leg made contact with the victim's chest,sickle claws swooping down and turning his chest inside out. It took off again,almost instantly diving for the legs of yet another comrade and slicing them with a motion of its blade arms. Olkeux was ready this time,releasing a burst of fire in the beast's path.
The alien was fast,but not as fast as bullets. It took every shot,body arm and leg becoming riddled with holes. It didn't make a sound,no scream or even a whimper. Instead it ran behind a car and dove for a basement's window,crashing through the glass and contorting its form like some roach until it fit. He ran up to the window and released another burst,instead being met by the screams of the family above. It was already upstairs,tearing them limb from limb no doubt. He looked back to see shards of chitinous substance and droplets of thick black blood, yet not nearly enough considering the punishment it just took.
He turned back,it had been 2 minutes and they were already down to 5 men,one of whom was missing legs and cried out in
agony as their medic frantically tried to stop his bleeding. The alien's advantage was speed and agility,allowing them to butcher and outmaneuver foes in close range or close quarters combat. The urban environment only played to their strengths,he figured. Gunshots sounded off in the distance,followed by inhuman screeching. Fighting must have broken out across the city. Some of the beastial shrieks were drawing closer,they needed a plan.
"We're going to the roofs! We'll offer fire support to those in need" he barked,covering his fellow men as they quickly entered a nearby building.
Their ascent was thankfully without issue. They took the stairs,fearing the tremors from the orbital insertions may have damaged the elevator cables and frankly,the things were poorly built in general. Once at the top,their dire situation became clear again as the soldier without legs began convulsing on the shoulders of his peers. They quickly laid him on the concrete,his mouth frothing and eyes rolling back in their sockets.
"Shit,what's the matter with him? He goin' into shock?" Olkeux asked the medic,a tinge of concern on his face.
"Worse,that fucker's claws must've been laced with poison,a neurotoxin most likely. Judging by how fast it is acting he's as good as dead"
That's all he needed to hear,taking out his pistol and putting the poor man out of his misery.
"Set up on the ledges,attach scopes. Watch the streets and kill anything with six limbs" he ordered,his men quickly doing so.
The city was in chaos,packs of the things were engaging,and slaughtering squads of imperial soldiers. Some locations held it seemed,huddled around heavy weapons personnel with machine guns,grenade launchers and other assets Olkeux would give anything for right about now
He managed to hit a good number of the things,finding out that body shots had little effect besides temporarily slowing them down. He took off one's arm with a burst to the joint,seemingly a weak spot. Too bad it was nigh impossible to hit,not to mention the creature still couldn't be bothered to even notice. It appeared headshots were the best way to put them down quickly,at least with the weapons they had available.
He scored his 6th kill when he noticed one of the things staring straight at him,letting off some kind of call before taking off. Could it see him all the way up there with no scope? That thought made him uneasy. He quickly scoured nearby roofs just in case. That action saved his life,the 3rd roof had a critter looking him dead in the eyes. It had oversized legs,ending in large hooves. Its tail was thick and rigid,dragging across the ground. The head was flat and had four eyes facing forwards,affording it great sight and superior depth perception. Its four arms were tiny and vestigial,ending in a pair of useless digits each. What caught Okleux's attention was a large weapon fused to its back,much more heavy duty than the rifles carried by the skittering critters. Worst of all,it was winding up…
"MACHINE GUN! TAKE COVER" he yelled frantically,grabbing the nearest soldier by the arm and dashing for an outcropping on the roof,some sort of old concrete warehouse. He knew the others wouldn't make it,there was no time. He heard the hail of gunfire,the sounds of his subordinates getting turned into puddles of gore. They had to think fast,already the wall on their side was starting to crack under the hail of heavy bullets and it likely only took one to kill either of them.
There was no getting out. Olkeux knew it as soon as the winged shape descended from the clouds. Clad in black plates and as big as a main battle tank,the thing's terrible maw lit up as it swooped towards them. Its alien visage was the last thing the soldier saw before he and his fellow were vaporised by its plasma bolt….
Pertchin rain forest-5 days after the fall of Krens
Bonqun was pissed,enraged by the explanation he and his men received on this whole war. Those Montagal bastards didn't even have the decency to expend their own troops for this,they made some sort of deal with these "lithorians" apparently. They broke their ability to fight and Montagal men came to peacekeep whatever was left. He found it quite ironic that these heartless monstrosities came from the Austral Expanse,from below the galaxy,like demons reaching out from the bowels of hell. What he did not find amusing was the way that this war was going.
After the Krens massacre,several other cities received the same treatment mere hours apart. Now that their landing sites had been established,they were spreading across the surface in several massive offensives. Surprisingly,the monsters were avoiding civilian casualties whenever possible,likely as part of their deal with the Kingdom. Of course when such acts were conducted well...the reports spoke for themselves.
The enemy had proven more numerous and advanced. What they should be doing is commence a full scale retreat,shrink vulnerable supply lines and establish easily defendable positions across key points and if necessary use their nuclear stockpiles to create a no man's land. Of course,the emperor and his court of morons had other plans,they wanted to push back the foe,launch a counter attack. They were idiots,and because of them Bonqun and his company now found themselves trudging through the jungle,aiming to get into a flat plane full of strategically useless villages and towns that their leaders so adamantly wanted to reinforce. Other units were a few klicks west or east of their position,doing the same.
They had just crossed a shallow river when rain began pouring down,much to their dismay. Bonqun continued making his way through the increasingly muddy soil and thick brush before something stood out against the constant noise of hail. It sounded like something slithering. He swore to himself,thinking he had just run into some venomous critter,only to jump back when something leapt out of the foliage. It was a vine,or at least some kind of plant,which quickly wrapped itself around the neck of a nearby soldier,causing him to scream out and gasp as it knocked the breath out of him. "Shit! Get him free!" he shouted as he and another two men ran up to free their comrade. The vine was thick and rubbery in consistency,refusing to let go despite all three pulling on it and even withstanding their combat knives,the blades getting stuck in thick,black resin. By the time they finally cut the damn thing,the ensnared soldier had run out of air and his throat had been crushed.
This wasn't normal,plants didn't just up and attack someone,at least not on their planet. Their suspicions were confirmed when a creature dropped out of the trees and landed on one of them. It was some kind of beetle like thing,yet wrong in not so subtle ways. It was a meter long,only had four legs which were sharpened into blades,jaws with needle like teeth and tusks as long as the rest of its body. The man's terrified screams were silenced as those tusks were plunged into the back of his neck,coming out the front much to the horror of the rest,Bonqun included. With an upwards motion,the soldier's head was plucked cleanly from his shoulders.
More beetles dropped down from branches,others leaped out of the brush,their chameleonic hides giving up the facade. Bonqun raised his rifle and killed one of the aliens as it leapt at him,turning to see another man grappling with one before a needle erupted from its abdomen and pierced his arm. A quick burst of rounds tore the fiend apart as he rushed to the downed soldier
"Medic! Medic!" he yelled,letting out more hails of bullets into the various skittering forms among the vegetation.
What he did not expect was for his fire to be answered back by globs and spittles of acid. One of them hit his arm,causing him to drop on his back and scream. His clothes were already gone,making way for his skin to slough off and the flesh beneath to bubble. He saw other soldiers running,being hit by dozens of the same projectiles before collapsing into steaming heaps of carnage. He noticed the culprits,slightly smaller insectoids with no discernable head,but a crest on their back with a hole that shot the vile fluids up to 30 or so meters. Had they been in an open space,they would have massacred these poor excuses for enemies,sadly this was not the case.
One of the melee forms descended upon him,jaws snapping wildly as its tusks were mere inches from his face. It took all he had to hold the beast back given the wound his arm had sustained. The chitinous horror opened its fanged maw wide before a forked tongue shot out and coiled around his neck. Bonqun couldn't believe it,it was strangling him. He tried to push the aberration away with all his might,yet its will was unrelenting. He could hear the sounds of screaming and gunfire getting fainter as the edges of his vision darkened,signalling an imminent end. It was not to be however,as the bug was blasted to pieces by a shower of bullets,thick black ooze showering Bonqun.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?THE COMMAND POST SHOULD'VE WARNED US THERE WERE HOSTILES" said a trooper,coming to give Bonqun his arm.
"If I had to guess,we or they are being jammed. Either that or they're just as deep in shit as we are,posibilly dead already" he said pessimistically,not noticing the thin,almost crystalline webbing that shot down and stuck to the other soldier's shoulder.
By the time Bonqun noticed the strand,it was too late. The man in front of him was dragged up into the canopy,kicking and screaming. It took only seconds for a shower of viscera to come raining down on him. He wiped his face,then raised his rifle and unleashed a torrent of bullets up into the leaves and branches,screaming out in defiance. The screaming in his ears was louder now,prompting him to turn around and notice the scores of soldiers deciding to retreat back the way they came. Many others held the line,some even pressed the attack,moving in the direction the beasts were coming from and disappearing from view.
"Fuck it,this whole thing was a mistake" he said,mostly to himself,and started bolting back the way they came.
He passed by many sights as he ran for his life. Two medics,looking over a man that had been stung by one of the beetles,the needle still imbedded in his shoulder. The medics had stripped him,allowing them,and Bonqun,to see there were things moving beneath his skin. One of the medics plucked out a parasite,a small grub like thing with jaws full of sharp fangs and plates running down its back. He looked at it,perplexed. Big mistake,the creature vomited a stream of acid straight into his eyes,sending the man into a fit of screaming as he clawed at his face,skin and flesh sticking to his fingers.
One of the soldiers,a brave one,had set up his machine gun and was unloading round after round into whatever was going on behind Bonqun. Several of the web strings attached to his back,flinging him up into the trees. He saw more of the vines,leaping from the greenery and strangling soldiers,others wrapping around their legs and allowing the beetles to tear them limb from limb like ants. He passed by one man,bloody and with several acidic burns,unloading his pistol at the hordes of profane beings.
"WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING COWARD?! GET BACK IN THE FIGHT" he yelled,turning around and trying to shoot at Bonqun.
This did not last,one of the beetles leapt from the ferns and slit his throat with its tusks.
He finally made it to the river,only to find it stained red with blood. Dozens of soldiers were trying to cross,many were dragged down by what seemed to be swarms of fish like creatures. Clad in black armour,sporting 20 eyes and similar tusks to the beetles,tentacles trailing behind their forms,they were just as hideous as the rest of their kin. They had growths on their backs with some kind of biological turbine propelling them faster than any regular animal could accomplish. He went in the river aswell,feeling jaws occasionally take bites at his ankles. A swarm of them jumped from the waters towards him,in perfect unison. He grabbed a soldier next to him and shoved him in their way. Their tusks dug into him,dragging the man beneath the water and sending him downstream,his movement causing ripples amidst the scarlet liquid.
Bonqun finally made it to the other shore,he saw soldiers running,yet no more of the infernal beasts ahead. This was it,he had made it,he thought. As he took his first steps on the muddy ground again,something hit him in the lower back,sending him falling face first into the muck. He could not feel his legs anymore,yet that quickly became the least of his worries as whatever hit him started to move. Searing pain erupted across every inch of him and made him convulse uncontrollably. Unbeknownst to him,this was the work of the scarab like thing eating its way up his body,the chemicals coating its slimy carapace were stimulating his pain receptors and made Bonqun feel as if he had been set on fire.
He felt someone tug at his arm,pulling him across the dirt for few meters before letting go
"LEAVE HIM! WE GOTTA GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!" a voice boomed,the last human voice he would ever hear. He heard the sounds of water splashing violently,then hundreds of screeches and chitters. A tide of creatures had made its way to him,enveloping and walking across his twitching form in pursuit of those who escaped. He heard a loud roar and the heavy footsteps of something else,it was the creature that shot the parasite into him,not that he knew of course. As the world around him grew more distant,Bonqun swore he could hear whispering in his head,consistent yet unknown in meaning. Such thoughts were swiftly put to rest as the scarab clamped its fangs around his heart,putting the man out of his misery.
Verkat village
Nelgun dove,narrowly avoiding a spiky limb from battering him to a pulp. He was now face to face with the alien. It was huge,with a lower segmented body ending in two whip like antennae,three legs on either side. The other half was upright,almost twice his height even when noticeably hunched over. Its arms were long and ended in spiked stumps like living maces. The lithorian's head was smooth,three eyes on either side and serrated mandibles concealing its jaws. He could see the firing tubes in its shoulders,the parasitic scarabs wriggling within as they waited to be shot out. The beast screeched and let loose a stream of its living ammunition,shattering several tree trunks as he barely rolled out of the way.
Another soldier began shooting the alien's head. It was a smart idea,were it not for the fact he was using his handgun. The bullets either failed to penetrate and got stuck in its shell or bounced off altogether. The monster dashed with impossible speed,nothing that large should move like that. Of course,Nelgun's definition of the impossible had been put to the test all week. It was no surprise when a swing of the creature's arm tore the poor lad in two and sent the pieces flying off like ragdolls. More fire peppered the aberration's form,Nelgun joined as well with his rifle. He had picked up a thing or two from his previous encounters with the alien beasts,aiming for the lithorian's legs on the lower body,the unarmoured joints in particular. Unfortunately,the carbon nanofiber sinew proved thick and durable enough in this one to necessitate several bursts until one of the limbs came off. The creature let forth an infernal shriek,causing its opponents to drop to their knees and clasp their heads in pain. The chitinous hump on its back unveiled pairs of insectile limbs and came off,revealing itself to be some sort of symbiotic beetle. The creature used firing tubes of its own to launch a hail of poisonous barbs into one soldier,potent neurotoxins causing them to spasm and froth at the mouth. It then rammed another man,carrying him into the foliage.
The lithorian's chest armour also came off,a wingless version of the first symbiote. It galloped upon bladed limbs and tackled Nelgun,trying to claw his face off. He barely managed to hold the thing back while taking out his pistol. He rammed the barrel into the fiend's fanged maw and blew its brains out,sending the insectoid tumbling back with its back against the grass. Nelgun knew this wasn't enough,he had made that kind of mistake before. He unloaded his magazine into its soft underside and reloaded,using up another one just to be sure,these things were hardy bastards afterall. He looked on to see the main creature sweep its tails across the ground to throw off a soldiers footing. It loomed over him and prepared to pummel him into a puddle before an RPG screamed into its chest,annihilating its upper body and sending black blood all over the man below it,his legs were turned to mince meat by shards of the creature's former armour.
"What the fuck was that for?!" Nelgun shouted to the man wielding the heavy weapon.
"What? It's anti armour and that thing met the damn criteria to me" he replied,throwing the weapon back on his back.
"Then you haven't seen shi-" their exchange was interrupted as the man they just saved screamed out in agony. They had guessed it was because of the shrapnel in his legs,they were wrong. The blood that splattered his mouth,eyes and nostrils had undergone a peculiar transformation. Its chemical contents reacting to the messenger proteins circulating between cells by coagulating into sharpened shards of glass like substance. Millions of tiny blades were effectively cutting up his insides as his eyes became red and he began to vomit blood
A man rushed over to help him,only to be called out by Nelgun
"STOP! Whatever he has,it might be transmisibile" he barked,loading his pistol and putting his fellow countryman out of his misery.
"We need to continue,get out of this damn rainforest and reach our objective" he said.
"Are you insane? If the jungle's crawling with these things then imagine what's happening on the plain! We shouldn't have pushed on at all! I say we join the wise men and fall the fuck back!" another soldier argued.
"Knock yourselves out,you and those 'wise men' will be shot for treason. Best case scenario you get a collar around your neck and thrown into a swarm of these things. I'd rather go out on my own terms" Nelgun said,starting to continue forwards.
Unsurprisingly,nobody followed him. Let them rot in the jungle,he thought. The open terrain was more to their advantage anyway,they were just too stupid to see it,or perhaps too paralysed by terror.
It was a short walk out of the rainforest from the current position,only five minutes. He could see strange insects flying about in swarms,no bigger than a mosquito. They just stared at him,giving away their role as scouts for the nightmarish intelect assaulting their world. What was it waiting for? Why no combat forms? Did it not see one man as worth the effort? If that was the case,then Nelgun would prove these freaks wrong.
He came upon the plain,vast and empty,no sign of foes or friendlies. What he did see was a village,made apparent by the shape of buildings on the horizon. He laid down in the tall grass,inspecting his surroundings for about ten minutes before starting to creep forwards amidst the brush. The bugs were still after him,one even landing on a blade of grass just in front of his face,still watching. They knew exactly where he was and where he was headed,no doubt about that. His slow creeping and occasional stopping was so that he may know where they are in return,making sure to not be caught entirely off guard. Nothing came,not until he got to the outermost home and snuck in through a window,shutting it before any of the 'spy flies' got inside. The home was empty,dark,yet unnaturally well maintained. There were no signs of conflict,of the things tearing it apart,no frantic attempt to pack up and leave. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be,free of any filth,mold,dust or vermin. This did not add up….
Just then,Neldun heard something skittering about. He turned in time to see something small running across the ground floor. It was odd,featureless almost,definitely not native. The man raised his rifle and moved down the stairway slowly. No creaking,were the bugs oiling it? No,forget about the peculiarities. All that mattered was that there were hostiles in the residence.
He entered the kitchen,and there he found it,feasting on a rat. From behind it looked like some weird homogenous greyish lump with four equally featureless protrusions for arms and legs. Two eyes,small and pitch black dotted its "neck". The thing was meticulous,eating every scrap of meat from the vermin and licking the puddle of blood around it clean. Was it taking care of the place? In his contemplation,he failed to see a part of the adjacent grey wall stir before another critter leapt at him. Neldun barely managed to catch it,noticing that its underside was a bright green with countless feeler nubs squirming about. Two articulated bony growths burst out of tiny holes at the ends of its arms and began swiping at him,aiming for the throat. An orifice opened on where the face should have been and a prehensile tongue blasted out,splitting at the tip like a flower to unveil a sharpened proboscis. Neldun threw the thing on the ground and stomped on it,its soft form turning to guts and black blood beneath his boots. The other thing screeched and ran up,starting to….clean up the mess. Others joined in,dozens,eating away at the heap that was their kinsman. He did not stay or gave it further thought,instead leaping out of an open window into the open.
The sight there broke something inside of him. If there was a God,then this would be an affront against them,against anyone sound of mind. There,in the center of town lay a creature. Its hide red like flesh and glistening with pulsing veins and was 5 or so meters tall. It had eight tendrils which it splayed across the ground,a conical body and a bulbous head,donned with countless black eyes on short stalks. Around it were the villagers,likely all of them plus soldiers that must have made it there before him. Most were in a catatonic state,others were whispering in tongues he could not make sense of while others yet openly chanted,danced and worshipped it in ways that made bile build up in the pit of his stomach. He could feel it creeping into his mind,a hurricane of whispers,promises and threats all washing over his thoughts. He had to get way,he NEEDED to leave. Developing growths on the creature's body opened to release equally horrid underlings. Shorter than him,they bore the same red exterior riddled with blackened veins. They had a tail,six tendrils to drag their limp bodies and a long neck ending in seven manipulating tentacles. Others burst forth from the houses,wielding assault rifles
Neldun ran for his life across the street,aided by the fact that the aim of the creatures was atrocious,likely due to lack of experience. He kicked open the door to a house and ran inside,finding it equally well maintained. He could hear the sounds of the things getting closer alongside what sounded like mounds of people. Hundreds of the soft bodied cleaners were running around,slashing at his ankles and squeezing through impossible spaces as if they were not even solid. He had a plan,get up on the roof,throw his belt of grenades as they filled and surrounded the house then hopefully get to out a bullet in his own head before something else came creeping.
He put his scheme in motion,running up the stairs only to be confronted by some amorphous creature blocking his path. Made of greenish goo,with a head that had two tendrils trailing behind and black spots for eyes,it shifted a pair of misshapen arms and lunged at him. Nelbun dodged the attempt,unleashing a shower of bullets into the thing with no effect. It bearhugged him,emitting corrosive substances that burned through his skin and flesh like a hot knife through butter. Speaking of which,in an act of desperation,the soldier got a hold of his combat knife and rammed it into one of the black eyes. This solicited a response from the thing,causing it to screech and loosen its grip. He freed himself and darted to the first floor,discovering a hatch to the house's attic and promptly opening it. What came out was another limb of shapeless goo,wrapping around his grenade belt and ripping it away. More of the things came washing out,enveloping parts of the man's body and dragging him back from where he came like a living wave. He kicked and thrashed and screamed,all to no avail. Soon he was once more out in the open and restrained by the red things as the blobs receded back in the residence,their task complete.
He was brought before the thing in the town square. He could feel its annoyance at the inability to control him fully like the inert masses that came before. The solution merely lied in opting for a different approach,opening one of its tendrils and wrapping the fleshy flower around his face. From there it implanted a parasite,one that quickly attached to his brain and took command of his frame. He would be a prisoner of his own mind,a tool,until the kingdom's occupation force would arrive.
Moeux command post-5 hours prior to Pertchin disaster
Bonflen sat comfortably on his chair,reading orders into his headgear compiled in accordance to field observations,which would be passed down to secondary comm and relay stations then in turn right hack to those out in the warzone. His command post was one of three that answered directly to the central command center in their nation's heartland. The Moeux oversaw operations in the central part of the front,with another facility of similar status close to either coast. The other continents and islands were on their own,all communication with them ceasing as the satellite link was brought down by tiny craft pushing them into unstable orbits. They didn't have any intercontinental cables and naval assets were seriously crippled by enemy sub orbital craft in the opening days of the war. Worse,they now had to hug the coastlines as the enemy's analogues to submarines were deployed and swarmed the open waters.
The Moeux was the pinnacle of their nation's engineering. It was called a command bunker,but in reality it was more like an underground town. Powered by a series of fission reactors and possessing 10 years worth of supplies in addition to hydroponic bays,they could hold out indefinitely should they choose to isolate themselves. An obscene amount of money had gone into it,that's for sure.
Recently their situation had gotten even better,a thousand new staff members had been transferred from hot zones by "Irwin",a member of the emperor's court. Supposedly,they knew how the foe operated. 10 more years worth of food were also brought over from a coastal city,thousands of crates lined up in warehouses.
To top it all off,the one who managed his comm's room and thus essentially his boss,was Vroderick,a friend he had not seen in years.
His attention shifted back to his station as new reports came in. Apparently the enemy had shattered and divided their defense line in the central plain,allowing the formation of vast undefended regions leading to the Pertchin rainforest down south. There were reinforcements currently making their way to it to reinforce the front,they would have to be called off. Bonflen tuned in on the frequency that the command center was using
"Command,this is Moeux,the central plain has-" the power went out,prompting the red emergency lights to flicker on.
"Crap,now of all times? I'll have to check in with the other rooms. If they still have power I'll get them to relay the situation" he explained to the other comm operators.
He got off his chair when chaos erupted,as if spurred on by his very words,one man began to cough up strange creatures the size of a finger. Worm like and with a circular mouth,alongside two bladed appendages,they proceeded to leap onto another officer and began eating into him.
One person started convulsing and screaming,prompting five other people to try and restrain him before he exploded,splattering them with corrosive fluids that broke their bodies down. Several men simply dropped to the ground without a sound as creatures burst from their body cavity. They were the size of a dog,bipedal,bladed forearms and an eyeless head with jaws that were lined with razor sharp fangs. How did they even fit inside of them? Wouldn't organs get in the way? That was when he noticed that the body cavities had no organs,not even bones,they were utterly hollow. Bonflen certainly didn't stick around to find out why however,instead bolting for the exit. He came to an abrupt stop as he slammed into something that was hard like stone,prompting him to fall back onto the floor. Looking up he saw Vroderick standing in the door frame
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that,friend" he said,as his body began deforming. Sharpened blades erupted from his wrists,his lower jaw split in two as his open maw revealed rows of biological needles. His shoes tore as chitinous feet with two digits burst from them. His eyeballs fell out,revealing a pair of glowing compound ocular organs deep in their sockets.
This Not Vroderick gripped the terrified Bonflen by his temples,one of the dog sized creatures taking hold of his lower jaw and forcing his mouth opened. From there,the impostor spewed yellowish bile down his throat. It let go,letting Bonflen spasm on the ground for a few minutes as the amorphous lifeform travelled from his digestive tract to the circulatory system,then to his brain. He rose up again,his mind now linked to the pretender's as subtle alterations to his anatomy were being made beneath the skin. Vroderick had transcended the limitations of a singular frame,having been inserted into this world's oceans as his yellowish amorphous self via orbital insertion. From there it was not hard to take command of a local lifeform,then a navy personnel. He made landfall in a coastal city,establishing himself in the supply network before making his way here.
He walked out of the room,past the open electric pannel,several switches turned and wires taken out of place. He looked up at one of the cameras,its lens gazing at his now inhuman form. No matter,the man in the security room was just another one of his instances. He had been thorough,experience from a dozen worlds gave him that luxury,and experience from others was flooding in at this very moment,all so he could serve the greater gestalt,The Almighty. He walked across the empty corridors,none had heard the commotion and were busy with their own tasks. Vroderick entered the life support room,promptly approaching the technician set on permanent watch before snapping his neck.
From there,he took out several canisters stored there by him beforehand,stopped the air purification system,and discharged their gaseous contents in the ventilation. Amidst the gas were eggs,which would be inhaled and hatch a creature that would attach to the spine, overriding the brain's control. From there,they'd incubate over the next few days,growing the dog sized insectoids,replacing organs and substituting them with the creature's own smaller but more efficient analogues. Then they would be prepared,prepared to shed their host and cause carnage should the situation demand it.
Vroderick went back to the communication's room,undoing his tampering on the panel and bringing back power before activating the hardware
"Moeux,this is command,do you read?" A voice rang over the radio
"Yes sir"
"What the hell happened? You went dark on us for a few minutes there"
"There were some issues with a reactor,we had to shut off the power while it was being disconnected from the grid"
"Ah,alright then. You were saying something about the central plain? Any reports?"
"Several enemy offensives have been blunted,the front is holding strong. The reinforcements are free to proceed through Pertchin"
"Roger that. Just one more thing,would you like us to send some people there to fix your reactor?"
He took a moment,his mind focusing on the warehouse,the food crates that had been shipped with his arrival,the chitinous frames that twitched within,slowly rousing from slumber
"Yes,we shall give them a warm welcome. Over and out"
The city of Krens
Olkeux and his squad steadily marched across the deserted streets,almost everyone had evacuated,likely clogging the underdeveloped highways and on their way to bunkers that littered their nation on behalf of their "Emperor". The thought disgusted him,he knew that they didn't have even a month's worth of supplies in any of them,the economy simply wouldn't allow it. He could already imagine the carnage that would ensue,the debauchery committed by the masses,the slaughter that would commence should the enemy find them.
This didn't make sense,none of it did. Three days ago the Montagal Kingdom declared war upon them,claiming that they were freeing the population from the emperor's regime. Ironically,Olkeux agreed with them. They had rebelled for good reason,yet now they were worse off than ever thanks to his majesty. The moron had run their country into the gutter as his terrible agricultural reforms crushed the only thing they could actually do well. And for what? An industry that never even got off the ground properly,an attempt that now resulted in millions starving.
He agreed with their conquest alright,what he did not agree with was the way they were seemingly going about it. On that day,it wasn't Montagal ships that entered their system,but giant monsters of flesh. Their numbers,technology and sheer scales utterly dwarfed them. Their own "navy",if that's what you could call 5 ships,lasted a little over two hours. Their moonbase was gone in that afternoon,destroyed by an asteroid steered their way by tug craft. Olkeux remembered that in particular,he saw the explosion from the surface,much like millions of other terrified people. Ever since then,the enemy had been sending sub orbital craft on rapid assaults across the planet. Bunkers,air bases,factories,missile silos, the foe had destroyed more than a fair share of each,all while loosing five of their own. It took them a while,but they figured the things were vulnerable,even to their technology,when undergoing re entry. Slow and blind,that's when their missiles actually had a chance of hitting the damn things.
Yet he had no part to play in this. He,his 10 man squad and countless other units simply ensured that the evacuation continued. That's when he heard them,sonic booms. He and his fellow soldiers instinctively raised their assault rifles and looked up at the sky. These weren't more craft,far too slow,small but numerous. Hundreds,no,thousands of homogenous objects were hurling across the sky,leaving foul fumes and flames in their wake. More asteroids? No,that didn't make sense,why even bother with the craft then?
In an instant,the city was plagued by shockwaves and thunderous crashes. Olkeux looked up in time to see one of the things crash through a building above,streak across the street then slam through the opposite one. Not an asteroid, some sort of fleshy capsule. Debris fell towards them,immediately crushing two of his squad mates beneath tons of concrete and steel. There was no time to mourn,he and the survivors were already running towards the end of the street,looking to round the corner and face the crash site. They saw the pod,vile fumes already steaming from its cracked shell and shredded meat.
That's when the creature came sprinting from behind a car. It wasn't too big,1 meter tall and 3 long,he reckoned. It had a raptorial posture,digitigrade legs ending in four fingers,two pointed upwards and ending in sickle claws. Its back was covered in thick,overlapping plates,with the rest sheathed in exoskeleton. Its head had six eyes,big jaws with several rows of teeth and a horn,thin and serrated like their combat knives. Its long tail ended in some kind of stinger and two pairs of arms boasted scythe like talons and what Olkeux presumed were some sort of rifle respectively.
The monster turned to them and took off,faster than any animal he'd ever seen,indeed he swore it was faster than the car he owned. It opened fire with its rifles,sending a burst of rounds into the body cavity of a squadmate,piercing his vest. They retaliated,but it was too late,they only got a few shots off before the thing rammed another member of his squad. It really was going faster than a car,his comrade literally blasted to pieces by the impact,limbs and guts flying in various directions,tainting their visors. The thing endured,merely slowed by the obstacle. It charged another soldier,slicing at him with its limbs. It was simply too quick,his friend didn't stand a chance. He saw the aberration strike what felt like several times in the blink of an eye as intestines,shards of ribs,kidneys and pieces of lung flew out of the man's form while he was still standing. The creature sighted another friend of his,avoiding a hail of gunfire as it leapt half a dozen meters in the air. Its leg made contact with the victim's chest,sickle claws swooping down and turning his chest inside out. It took off again,almost instantly diving for the legs of yet another comrade and slicing them with a motion of its blade arms. Olkeux was ready this time,releasing a burst of fire in the beast's path.
The alien was fast,but not as fast as bullets. It took every shot,body arm and leg becoming riddled with holes. It didn't make a sound,no scream or even a whimper. Instead it ran behind a car and dove for a basement's window,crashing through the glass and contorting its form like some roach until it fit. He ran up to the window and released another burst,instead being met by the screams of the family above. It was already upstairs,tearing them limb from limb no doubt. He looked back to see shards of chitinous substance and droplets of thick black blood, yet not nearly enough considering the punishment it just took.
He turned back,it had been 2 minutes and they were already down to 5 men,one of whom was missing legs and cried out in
agony as their medic frantically tried to stop his bleeding. The alien's advantage was speed and agility,allowing them to butcher and outmaneuver foes in close range or close quarters combat. The urban environment only played to their strengths,he figured. Gunshots sounded off in the distance,followed by inhuman screeching. Fighting must have broken out across the city. Some of the beastial shrieks were drawing closer,they needed a plan.
"We're going to the roofs! We'll offer fire support to those in need" he barked,covering his fellow men as they quickly entered a nearby building.
Their ascent was thankfully without issue. They took the stairs,fearing the tremors from the orbital insertions may have damaged the elevator cables and frankly,the things were poorly built in general. Once at the top,their dire situation became clear again as the soldier without legs began convulsing on the shoulders of his peers. They quickly laid him on the concrete,his mouth frothing and eyes rolling back in their sockets.
"Shit,what's the matter with him? He goin' into shock?" Olkeux asked the medic,a tinge of concern on his face.
"Worse,that fucker's claws must've been laced with poison,a neurotoxin most likely. Judging by how fast it is acting he's as good as dead"
That's all he needed to hear,taking out his pistol and putting the poor man out of his misery.
"Set up on the ledges,attach scopes. Watch the streets and kill anything with six limbs" he ordered,his men quickly doing so.
The city was in chaos,packs of the things were engaging,and slaughtering squads of imperial soldiers. Some locations held it seemed,huddled around heavy weapons personnel with machine guns,grenade launchers and other assets Olkeux would give anything for right about now
He managed to hit a good number of the things,finding out that body shots had little effect besides temporarily slowing them down. He took off one's arm with a burst to the joint,seemingly a weak spot. Too bad it was nigh impossible to hit,not to mention the creature still couldn't be bothered to even notice. It appeared headshots were the best way to put them down quickly,at least with the weapons they had available.
He scored his 6th kill when he noticed one of the things staring straight at him,letting off some kind of call before taking off. Could it see him all the way up there with no scope? That thought made him uneasy. He quickly scoured nearby roofs just in case. That action saved his life,the 3rd roof had a critter looking him dead in the eyes. It had oversized legs,ending in large hooves. Its tail was thick and rigid,dragging across the ground. The head was flat and had four eyes facing forwards,affording it great sight and superior depth perception. Its four arms were tiny and vestigial,ending in a pair of useless digits each. What caught Okleux's attention was a large weapon fused to its back,much more heavy duty than the rifles carried by the skittering critters. Worst of all,it was winding up…
"MACHINE GUN! TAKE COVER" he yelled frantically,grabbing the nearest soldier by the arm and dashing for an outcropping on the roof,some sort of old concrete warehouse. He knew the others wouldn't make it,there was no time. He heard the hail of gunfire,the sounds of his subordinates getting turned into puddles of gore. They had to think fast,already the wall on their side was starting to crack under the hail of heavy bullets and it likely only took one to kill either of them.
There was no getting out. Olkeux knew it as soon as the winged shape descended from the clouds. Clad in black plates and as big as a main battle tank,the thing's terrible maw lit up as it swooped towards them. Its alien visage was the last thing the soldier saw before he and his fellow were vaporised by its plasma bolt….
Pertchin rain forest-5 days after the fall of Krens
Bonqun was pissed,enraged by the explanation he and his men received on this whole war. Those Montagal bastards didn't even have the decency to expend their own troops for this,they made some sort of deal with these "lithorians" apparently. They broke their ability to fight and Montagal men came to peacekeep whatever was left. He found it quite ironic that these heartless monstrosities came from the Austral Expanse,from below the galaxy,like demons reaching out from the bowels of hell. What he did not find amusing was the way that this war was going.
After the Krens massacre,several other cities received the same treatment mere hours apart. Now that their landing sites had been established,they were spreading across the surface in several massive offensives. Surprisingly,the monsters were avoiding civilian casualties whenever possible,likely as part of their deal with the Kingdom. Of course when such acts were conducted well...the reports spoke for themselves.
The enemy had proven more numerous and advanced. What they should be doing is commence a full scale retreat,shrink vulnerable supply lines and establish easily defendable positions across key points and if necessary use their nuclear stockpiles to create a no man's land. Of course,the emperor and his court of morons had other plans,they wanted to push back the foe,launch a counter attack. They were idiots,and because of them Bonqun and his company now found themselves trudging through the jungle,aiming to get into a flat plane full of strategically useless villages and towns that their leaders so adamantly wanted to reinforce. Other units were a few klicks west or east of their position,doing the same.
They had just crossed a shallow river when rain began pouring down,much to their dismay. Bonqun continued making his way through the increasingly muddy soil and thick brush before something stood out against the constant noise of hail. It sounded like something slithering. He swore to himself,thinking he had just run into some venomous critter,only to jump back when something leapt out of the foliage. It was a vine,or at least some kind of plant,which quickly wrapped itself around the neck of a nearby soldier,causing him to scream out and gasp as it knocked the breath out of him. "Shit! Get him free!" he shouted as he and another two men ran up to free their comrade. The vine was thick and rubbery in consistency,refusing to let go despite all three pulling on it and even withstanding their combat knives,the blades getting stuck in thick,black resin. By the time they finally cut the damn thing,the ensnared soldier had run out of air and his throat had been crushed.
This wasn't normal,plants didn't just up and attack someone,at least not on their planet. Their suspicions were confirmed when a creature dropped out of the trees and landed on one of them. It was some kind of beetle like thing,yet wrong in not so subtle ways. It was a meter long,only had four legs which were sharpened into blades,jaws with needle like teeth and tusks as long as the rest of its body. The man's terrified screams were silenced as those tusks were plunged into the back of his neck,coming out the front much to the horror of the rest,Bonqun included. With an upwards motion,the soldier's head was plucked cleanly from his shoulders.
More beetles dropped down from branches,others leaped out of the brush,their chameleonic hides giving up the facade. Bonqun raised his rifle and killed one of the aliens as it leapt at him,turning to see another man grappling with one before a needle erupted from its abdomen and pierced his arm. A quick burst of rounds tore the fiend apart as he rushed to the downed soldier
"Medic! Medic!" he yelled,letting out more hails of bullets into the various skittering forms among the vegetation.
What he did not expect was for his fire to be answered back by globs and spittles of acid. One of them hit his arm,causing him to drop on his back and scream. His clothes were already gone,making way for his skin to slough off and the flesh beneath to bubble. He saw other soldiers running,being hit by dozens of the same projectiles before collapsing into steaming heaps of carnage. He noticed the culprits,slightly smaller insectoids with no discernable head,but a crest on their back with a hole that shot the vile fluids up to 30 or so meters. Had they been in an open space,they would have massacred these poor excuses for enemies,sadly this was not the case.
One of the melee forms descended upon him,jaws snapping wildly as its tusks were mere inches from his face. It took all he had to hold the beast back given the wound his arm had sustained. The chitinous horror opened its fanged maw wide before a forked tongue shot out and coiled around his neck. Bonqun couldn't believe it,it was strangling him. He tried to push the aberration away with all his might,yet its will was unrelenting. He could hear the sounds of screaming and gunfire getting fainter as the edges of his vision darkened,signalling an imminent end. It was not to be however,as the bug was blasted to pieces by a shower of bullets,thick black ooze showering Bonqun.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!?THE COMMAND POST SHOULD'VE WARNED US THERE WERE HOSTILES" said a trooper,coming to give Bonqun his arm.
"If I had to guess,we or they are being jammed. Either that or they're just as deep in shit as we are,posibilly dead already" he said pessimistically,not noticing the thin,almost crystalline webbing that shot down and stuck to the other soldier's shoulder.
By the time Bonqun noticed the strand,it was too late. The man in front of him was dragged up into the canopy,kicking and screaming. It took only seconds for a shower of viscera to come raining down on him. He wiped his face,then raised his rifle and unleashed a torrent of bullets up into the leaves and branches,screaming out in defiance. The screaming in his ears was louder now,prompting him to turn around and notice the scores of soldiers deciding to retreat back the way they came. Many others held the line,some even pressed the attack,moving in the direction the beasts were coming from and disappearing from view.
"Fuck it,this whole thing was a mistake" he said,mostly to himself,and started bolting back the way they came.
He passed by many sights as he ran for his life. Two medics,looking over a man that had been stung by one of the beetles,the needle still imbedded in his shoulder. The medics had stripped him,allowing them,and Bonqun,to see there were things moving beneath his skin. One of the medics plucked out a parasite,a small grub like thing with jaws full of sharp fangs and plates running down its back. He looked at it,perplexed. Big mistake,the creature vomited a stream of acid straight into his eyes,sending the man into a fit of screaming as he clawed at his face,skin and flesh sticking to his fingers.
One of the soldiers,a brave one,had set up his machine gun and was unloading round after round into whatever was going on behind Bonqun. Several of the web strings attached to his back,flinging him up into the trees. He saw more of the vines,leaping from the greenery and strangling soldiers,others wrapping around their legs and allowing the beetles to tear them limb from limb like ants. He passed by one man,bloody and with several acidic burns,unloading his pistol at the hordes of profane beings.
"WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING COWARD?! GET BACK IN THE FIGHT" he yelled,turning around and trying to shoot at Bonqun.
This did not last,one of the beetles leapt from the ferns and slit his throat with its tusks.
He finally made it to the river,only to find it stained red with blood. Dozens of soldiers were trying to cross,many were dragged down by what seemed to be swarms of fish like creatures. Clad in black armour,sporting 20 eyes and similar tusks to the beetles,tentacles trailing behind their forms,they were just as hideous as the rest of their kin. They had growths on their backs with some kind of biological turbine propelling them faster than any regular animal could accomplish. He went in the river aswell,feeling jaws occasionally take bites at his ankles. A swarm of them jumped from the waters towards him,in perfect unison. He grabbed a soldier next to him and shoved him in their way. Their tusks dug into him,dragging the man beneath the water and sending him downstream,his movement causing ripples amidst the scarlet liquid.
Bonqun finally made it to the other shore,he saw soldiers running,yet no more of the infernal beasts ahead. This was it,he had made it,he thought. As he took his first steps on the muddy ground again,something hit him in the lower back,sending him falling face first into the muck. He could not feel his legs anymore,yet that quickly became the least of his worries as whatever hit him started to move. Searing pain erupted across every inch of him and made him convulse uncontrollably. Unbeknownst to him,this was the work of the scarab like thing eating its way up his body,the chemicals coating its slimy carapace were stimulating his pain receptors and made Bonqun feel as if he had been set on fire.
He felt someone tug at his arm,pulling him across the dirt for few meters before letting go
"LEAVE HIM! WE GOTTA GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE!" a voice boomed,the last human voice he would ever hear. He heard the sounds of water splashing violently,then hundreds of screeches and chitters. A tide of creatures had made its way to him,enveloping and walking across his twitching form in pursuit of those who escaped. He heard a loud roar and the heavy footsteps of something else,it was the creature that shot the parasite into him,not that he knew of course. As the world around him grew more distant,Bonqun swore he could hear whispering in his head,consistent yet unknown in meaning. Such thoughts were swiftly put to rest as the scarab clamped its fangs around his heart,putting the man out of his misery.
Verkat village
Nelgun dove,narrowly avoiding a spiky limb from battering him to a pulp. He was now face to face with the alien. It was huge,with a lower segmented body ending in two whip like antennae,three legs on either side. The other half was upright,almost twice his height even when noticeably hunched over. Its arms were long and ended in spiked stumps like living maces. The lithorian's head was smooth,three eyes on either side and serrated mandibles concealing its jaws. He could see the firing tubes in its shoulders,the parasitic scarabs wriggling within as they waited to be shot out. The beast screeched and let loose a stream of its living ammunition,shattering several tree trunks as he barely rolled out of the way.
Another soldier began shooting the alien's head. It was a smart idea,were it not for the fact he was using his handgun. The bullets either failed to penetrate and got stuck in its shell or bounced off altogether. The monster dashed with impossible speed,nothing that large should move like that. Of course,Nelgun's definition of the impossible had been put to the test all week. It was no surprise when a swing of the creature's arm tore the poor lad in two and sent the pieces flying off like ragdolls. More fire peppered the aberration's form,Nelgun joined as well with his rifle. He had picked up a thing or two from his previous encounters with the alien beasts,aiming for the lithorian's legs on the lower body,the unarmoured joints in particular. Unfortunately,the carbon nanofiber sinew proved thick and durable enough in this one to necessitate several bursts until one of the limbs came off. The creature let forth an infernal shriek,causing its opponents to drop to their knees and clasp their heads in pain. The chitinous hump on its back unveiled pairs of insectile limbs and came off,revealing itself to be some sort of symbiotic beetle. The creature used firing tubes of its own to launch a hail of poisonous barbs into one soldier,potent neurotoxins causing them to spasm and froth at the mouth. It then rammed another man,carrying him into the foliage.
The lithorian's chest armour also came off,a wingless version of the first symbiote. It galloped upon bladed limbs and tackled Nelgun,trying to claw his face off. He barely managed to hold the thing back while taking out his pistol. He rammed the barrel into the fiend's fanged maw and blew its brains out,sending the insectoid tumbling back with its back against the grass. Nelgun knew this wasn't enough,he had made that kind of mistake before. He unloaded his magazine into its soft underside and reloaded,using up another one just to be sure,these things were hardy bastards afterall. He looked on to see the main creature sweep its tails across the ground to throw off a soldiers footing. It loomed over him and prepared to pummel him into a puddle before an RPG screamed into its chest,annihilating its upper body and sending black blood all over the man below it,his legs were turned to mince meat by shards of the creature's former armour.
"What the fuck was that for?!" Nelgun shouted to the man wielding the heavy weapon.
"What? It's anti armour and that thing met the damn criteria to me" he replied,throwing the weapon back on his back.
"Then you haven't seen shi-" their exchange was interrupted as the man they just saved screamed out in agony. They had guessed it was because of the shrapnel in his legs,they were wrong. The blood that splattered his mouth,eyes and nostrils had undergone a peculiar transformation. Its chemical contents reacting to the messenger proteins circulating between cells by coagulating into sharpened shards of glass like substance. Millions of tiny blades were effectively cutting up his insides as his eyes became red and he began to vomit blood
A man rushed over to help him,only to be called out by Nelgun
"STOP! Whatever he has,it might be transmisibile" he barked,loading his pistol and putting his fellow countryman out of his misery.
"We need to continue,get out of this damn rainforest and reach our objective" he said.
"Are you insane? If the jungle's crawling with these things then imagine what's happening on the plain! We shouldn't have pushed on at all! I say we join the wise men and fall the fuck back!" another soldier argued.
"Knock yourselves out,you and those 'wise men' will be shot for treason. Best case scenario you get a collar around your neck and thrown into a swarm of these things. I'd rather go out on my own terms" Nelgun said,starting to continue forwards.
Unsurprisingly,nobody followed him. Let them rot in the jungle,he thought. The open terrain was more to their advantage anyway,they were just too stupid to see it,or perhaps too paralysed by terror.
It was a short walk out of the rainforest from the current position,only five minutes. He could see strange insects flying about in swarms,no bigger than a mosquito. They just stared at him,giving away their role as scouts for the nightmarish intelect assaulting their world. What was it waiting for? Why no combat forms? Did it not see one man as worth the effort? If that was the case,then Nelgun would prove these freaks wrong.
He came upon the plain,vast and empty,no sign of foes or friendlies. What he did see was a village,made apparent by the shape of buildings on the horizon. He laid down in the tall grass,inspecting his surroundings for about ten minutes before starting to creep forwards amidst the brush. The bugs were still after him,one even landing on a blade of grass just in front of his face,still watching. They knew exactly where he was and where he was headed,no doubt about that. His slow creeping and occasional stopping was so that he may know where they are in return,making sure to not be caught entirely off guard. Nothing came,not until he got to the outermost home and snuck in through a window,shutting it before any of the 'spy flies' got inside. The home was empty,dark,yet unnaturally well maintained. There were no signs of conflict,of the things tearing it apart,no frantic attempt to pack up and leave. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be,free of any filth,mold,dust or vermin. This did not add up….
Just then,Neldun heard something skittering about. He turned in time to see something small running across the ground floor. It was odd,featureless almost,definitely not native. The man raised his rifle and moved down the stairway slowly. No creaking,were the bugs oiling it? No,forget about the peculiarities. All that mattered was that there were hostiles in the residence.
He entered the kitchen,and there he found it,feasting on a rat. From behind it looked like some weird homogenous greyish lump with four equally featureless protrusions for arms and legs. Two eyes,small and pitch black dotted its "neck". The thing was meticulous,eating every scrap of meat from the vermin and licking the puddle of blood around it clean. Was it taking care of the place? In his contemplation,he failed to see a part of the adjacent grey wall stir before another critter leapt at him. Neldun barely managed to catch it,noticing that its underside was a bright green with countless feeler nubs squirming about. Two articulated bony growths burst out of tiny holes at the ends of its arms and began swiping at him,aiming for the throat. An orifice opened on where the face should have been and a prehensile tongue blasted out,splitting at the tip like a flower to unveil a sharpened proboscis. Neldun threw the thing on the ground and stomped on it,its soft form turning to guts and black blood beneath his boots. The other thing screeched and ran up,starting to….clean up the mess. Others joined in,dozens,eating away at the heap that was their kinsman. He did not stay or gave it further thought,instead leaping out of an open window into the open.
The sight there broke something inside of him. If there was a God,then this would be an affront against them,against anyone sound of mind. There,in the center of town lay a creature. Its hide red like flesh and glistening with pulsing veins and was 5 or so meters tall. It had eight tendrils which it splayed across the ground,a conical body and a bulbous head,donned with countless black eyes on short stalks. Around it were the villagers,likely all of them plus soldiers that must have made it there before him. Most were in a catatonic state,others were whispering in tongues he could not make sense of while others yet openly chanted,danced and worshipped it in ways that made bile build up in the pit of his stomach. He could feel it creeping into his mind,a hurricane of whispers,promises and threats all washing over his thoughts. He had to get way,he NEEDED to leave. Developing growths on the creature's body opened to release equally horrid underlings. Shorter than him,they bore the same red exterior riddled with blackened veins. They had a tail,six tendrils to drag their limp bodies and a long neck ending in seven manipulating tentacles. Others burst forth from the houses,wielding assault rifles
Neldun ran for his life across the street,aided by the fact that the aim of the creatures was atrocious,likely due to lack of experience. He kicked open the door to a house and ran inside,finding it equally well maintained. He could hear the sounds of the things getting closer alongside what sounded like mounds of people. Hundreds of the soft bodied cleaners were running around,slashing at his ankles and squeezing through impossible spaces as if they were not even solid. He had a plan,get up on the roof,throw his belt of grenades as they filled and surrounded the house then hopefully get to out a bullet in his own head before something else came creeping.
He put his scheme in motion,running up the stairs only to be confronted by some amorphous creature blocking his path. Made of greenish goo,with a head that had two tendrils trailing behind and black spots for eyes,it shifted a pair of misshapen arms and lunged at him. Nelbun dodged the attempt,unleashing a shower of bullets into the thing with no effect. It bearhugged him,emitting corrosive substances that burned through his skin and flesh like a hot knife through butter. Speaking of which,in an act of desperation,the soldier got a hold of his combat knife and rammed it into one of the black eyes. This solicited a response from the thing,causing it to screech and loosen its grip. He freed himself and darted to the first floor,discovering a hatch to the house's attic and promptly opening it. What came out was another limb of shapeless goo,wrapping around his grenade belt and ripping it away. More of the things came washing out,enveloping parts of the man's body and dragging him back from where he came like a living wave. He kicked and thrashed and screamed,all to no avail. Soon he was once more out in the open and restrained by the red things as the blobs receded back in the residence,their task complete.
He was brought before the thing in the town square. He could feel its annoyance at the inability to control him fully like the inert masses that came before. The solution merely lied in opting for a different approach,opening one of its tendrils and wrapping the fleshy flower around his face. From there it implanted a parasite,one that quickly attached to his brain and took command of his frame. He would be a prisoner of his own mind,a tool,until the kingdom's occupation force would arrive.
Moeux command post-5 hours prior to Pertchin disaster
Bonflen sat comfortably on his chair,reading orders into his headgear compiled in accordance to field observations,which would be passed down to secondary comm and relay stations then in turn right hack to those out in the warzone. His command post was one of three that answered directly to the central command center in their nation's heartland. The Moeux oversaw operations in the central part of the front,with another facility of similar status close to either coast. The other continents and islands were on their own,all communication with them ceasing as the satellite link was brought down by tiny craft pushing them into unstable orbits. They didn't have any intercontinental cables and naval assets were seriously crippled by enemy sub orbital craft in the opening days of the war. Worse,they now had to hug the coastlines as the enemy's analogues to submarines were deployed and swarmed the open waters.
The Moeux was the pinnacle of their nation's engineering. It was called a command bunker,but in reality it was more like an underground town. Powered by a series of fission reactors and possessing 10 years worth of supplies in addition to hydroponic bays,they could hold out indefinitely should they choose to isolate themselves. An obscene amount of money had gone into it,that's for sure.
Recently their situation had gotten even better,a thousand new staff members had been transferred from hot zones by "Irwin",a member of the emperor's court. Supposedly,they knew how the foe operated. 10 more years worth of food were also brought over from a coastal city,thousands of crates lined up in warehouses.
To top it all off,the one who managed his comm's room and thus essentially his boss,was Vroderick,a friend he had not seen in years.
His attention shifted back to his station as new reports came in. Apparently the enemy had shattered and divided their defense line in the central plain,allowing the formation of vast undefended regions leading to the Pertchin rainforest down south. There were reinforcements currently making their way to it to reinforce the front,they would have to be called off. Bonflen tuned in on the frequency that the command center was using
"Command,this is Moeux,the central plain has-" the power went out,prompting the red emergency lights to flicker on.
"Crap,now of all times? I'll have to check in with the other rooms. If they still have power I'll get them to relay the situation" he explained to the other comm operators.
He got off his chair when chaos erupted,as if spurred on by his very words,one man began to cough up strange creatures the size of a finger. Worm like and with a circular mouth,alongside two bladed appendages,they proceeded to leap onto another officer and began eating into him.
One person started convulsing and screaming,prompting five other people to try and restrain him before he exploded,splattering them with corrosive fluids that broke their bodies down. Several men simply dropped to the ground without a sound as creatures burst from their body cavity. They were the size of a dog,bipedal,bladed forearms and an eyeless head with jaws that were lined with razor sharp fangs. How did they even fit inside of them? Wouldn't organs get in the way? That was when he noticed that the body cavities had no organs,not even bones,they were utterly hollow. Bonflen certainly didn't stick around to find out why however,instead bolting for the exit. He came to an abrupt stop as he slammed into something that was hard like stone,prompting him to fall back onto the floor. Looking up he saw Vroderick standing in the door frame
"I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that,friend" he said,as his body began deforming. Sharpened blades erupted from his wrists,his lower jaw split in two as his open maw revealed rows of biological needles. His shoes tore as chitinous feet with two digits burst from them. His eyeballs fell out,revealing a pair of glowing compound ocular organs deep in their sockets.
This Not Vroderick gripped the terrified Bonflen by his temples,one of the dog sized creatures taking hold of his lower jaw and forcing his mouth opened. From there,the impostor spewed yellowish bile down his throat. It let go,letting Bonflen spasm on the ground for a few minutes as the amorphous lifeform travelled from his digestive tract to the circulatory system,then to his brain. He rose up again,his mind now linked to the pretender's as subtle alterations to his anatomy were being made beneath the skin. Vroderick had transcended the limitations of a singular frame,having been inserted into this world's oceans as his yellowish amorphous self via orbital insertion. From there it was not hard to take command of a local lifeform,then a navy personnel. He made landfall in a coastal city,establishing himself in the supply network before making his way here.
He walked out of the room,past the open electric pannel,several switches turned and wires taken out of place. He looked up at one of the cameras,its lens gazing at his now inhuman form. No matter,the man in the security room was just another one of his instances. He had been thorough,experience from a dozen worlds gave him that luxury,and experience from others was flooding in at this very moment,all so he could serve the greater gestalt,The Almighty. He walked across the empty corridors,none had heard the commotion and were busy with their own tasks. Vroderick entered the life support room,promptly approaching the technician set on permanent watch before snapping his neck.
From there,he took out several canisters stored there by him beforehand,stopped the air purification system,and discharged their gaseous contents in the ventilation. Amidst the gas were eggs,which would be inhaled and hatch a creature that would attach to the spine, overriding the brain's control. From there,they'd incubate over the next few days,growing the dog sized insectoids,replacing organs and substituting them with the creature's own smaller but more efficient analogues. Then they would be prepared,prepared to shed their host and cause carnage should the situation demand it.
Vroderick went back to the communication's room,undoing his tampering on the panel and bringing back power before activating the hardware
"Moeux,this is command,do you read?" A voice rang over the radio
"Yes sir"
"What the hell happened? You went dark on us for a few minutes there"
"There were some issues with a reactor,we had to shut off the power while it was being disconnected from the grid"
"Ah,alright then. You were saying something about the central plain? Any reports?"
"Several enemy offensives have been blunted,the front is holding strong. The reinforcements are free to proceed through Pertchin"
"Roger that. Just one more thing,would you like us to send some people there to fix your reactor?"
He took a moment,his mind focusing on the warehouse,the food crates that had been shipped with his arrival,the chitinous frames that twitched within,slowly rousing from slumber
"Yes,we shall give them a warm welcome. Over and out"