Post by Gigachad on Aug 30, 2021 12:13:22 GMT
Qhoz'ul clenched his fist as the form of the veraxian leviathan came ever closer,ready to tell his fleet to scramble at a moment's notice. He had only faced such a beast once,barely getting back to friendly territory with his life. He knew well that in a head on engagement,they stood no chance.
The behemoth heaved towards them at full speed,its tail and fins releasing slews of gravitic waves as it did so. Qhoz'ul was quick to act,ordering his third of the fleet to scatter and avoid being plowed into by the beast. His two companions faced to such issues,being out on the flanks and spared of the creature's attention. No bioships were lost to the austral fiend's jaws,Qhoz'ul now preparing for the creature to turn around and try again.
The second charge never came,instead the creature just kept blasting ahead,speeding up even more before unfurling its tachyon sails and achieving superluminal velocities.
"It…...left" came the voice of Naz'kid,rather confused by this turn of events.
"Are these creatures shy perhaps?" added Uq'eik,trying to make sense of what just transpired.
"Hardly,it should have seen us as easy prey. This does not make any iota of sense" declared Qhoz'ul,hand clasped around his chin.
That was when the psychic scream hit them,hurling against their minds like waves against the cliffs. They each clasped their heads as waves of pain overcame them. To Uq'eik and Naz'kid,the alien feeling of agony was too much,immobilizing both for the time being. Yet to Qhoz'ul,this sensation was all too familiar,he forced himself up,taking a look at the sensory readings of their fleet.
Sure enough,something gigantic had just entered their detection range,prompting the lithorian to check the visual feed of the probe set to keep watch of that direction. The skeletal jaws of the lithorian gaped with disbelief as the image manifested itself. It was a conglomeration of living vessels,of a design much different to their own,which been gruesomely conjoined into a rough spheroid frame and stood about three hundred kilometers across. Most worrisome was a protrusion from one of its sides,itself made of about a dozen ships and bristling with gravitational readings.
Despite all of this,what made Qhoz'ul shudder was the monstrosity's mind,already clawing and slithering at the edges of his own. He recognized it,this thing was what had attacked him before,what tried to turn him into a puppet. Despite this,it could not overtake him,its mind still fractured and beaten by The Almighty's wrathful strikes. A new feeling began to boil within him as the spherical bio construct approached,hatred.
This was a chance to repay the fiend in kind,make it suffer as he had. With but a gesture,Qhoz'ul took command of his third of the fleet and came forth to accept its challenge. Like clockwork,mass driver rounds began hurdling towards the colossal creature,ripping off chunks of flesh as it advanced.
The flesh spawn retaliated in kind,its central growth releasing a burst of gravitic waves. The lithorian watched as the bubble of warped spacetime collided with one of his frigates,utterly obliterating it before others behind it were blasted by both debris and weaker gravitational waves,creating tears and gashes along their forms as they went limp.
A flurry of batteries strung along a line connecting the creature's poles lit up. Qhoz'ul recognized the distinct signature of brightstone,no doubt collected from austral creatures. In a flash,hundreds of tachyon arrows were flung towards his fleet. The damage done to the creature's mind seemed severe indeed as most of the projectiles simply went off into the void,yet about ten of the glowing spears still hit,destroying a light cruiser and a slew of destroyers.
One of the projectiles very nearly destroyed Qhoz'uls battleship,the vessel diving out of the way just in time to only have one of its fins cleaved off. This respite was not to last however,the moon sized horror already turning its main weapon his way. Scanners already indicated a new gravity vortex swirling within as it prepared to utterly erase him.
Before it could however,an emerald beam of energy hit the barrel of the weapon,phasing right through it and discharging its energy within,resulting in an explosion that tore off several of the ships comprising it.
This had been the meson accelerator of Naz'kids own battleship,his allies picked themselves up and were joining the battle.
The creature tried to fire its main weapon once more,but the damage sustained had rendered it inoperable for the time being.
Despite this,sensors and probes already showed legions of skittering horrors crawling to it,linking together in an attempt to piece the canon back into shape.
"I fear we cannot defeat this creature with firepower alone. Its raw strength outmatches us." said the familiar voice of Uq'eik.
"Indeed. Follow my lead,I have a plan" responded Qhoz'ul,taking command of his heavy cruisers and having them activate the pairs of spheromak cannons at their fronts.
The nimble vessels began circling the mighty leviathan,letting loose their plasma projectiles and burning the beast's surface while the electromagnetic disturbance hindered its already reeling mind and nervous system. Masterful volleys of missiles from the corvettes proceeded to take out the tachyon weaponry lining its frame,each one releasing a flurry of shaped charge warheads.
After a few minutes of the assault,the creature was left paralysed. Despite its bulk,its form was riddled with damages of countless battles and its weaponry,though powerful,was scarce. All this might was clearly hollow as it now laid helpless amidst the swarm of smaller bioships,flocking around it like vultures.
A psychic scream left the weakened form of the flesh construct and washed over the lithorians,yet this time it did little more than stagger them,its mind just as depleted as the physical vessel. Unfortunately,hurting them was not its intent,as about fifty contacts entered the fleet's sensory range and began to approach rapidly.
The monster had thralls,minions not unlike those that were fused to create its grotesque frame. Acting quickly,Qhoz'uls battleship released a salvo of nuclear missiles at the moon beast,blowing off one of the larger vessels that made up its surface.
"Prepare yourselves,the three of us are going inside it" he commanded his colleagues. Promptly racing to get his staff and a trio of amulets with strange symbols as their shapes.
Without further delay,the lithorian got inside an atmospheric insertion pod and shot himself straight into the gash. Two others fleshy growths followed him as they burst out of the other two battleships.
Impact was unpleasant,shaking each alien occupant as their pods smashed through layer after layer of fleshy walls.
Naz'kid was the first to exit,noticing that both she and her colleagues were now in some sort of corridor,the hole behind them rapidly closing off from the vacuum by way of overlapping membranes. Both Qhoz'ul and Uq'eik exited their pods right after,being surprised by the presence of gases here.
"Don't breathe anything in,the beast is likely to try and poison us." she said,denying her air sacs the joy of contracting or expanding,much as she did whenever within a vacuum.
The other two aliens nodded as they began making their way further in. Qhoz'ul could feel the thoughts of this creatures,and more importantly,their point of origin.
"Its neural cortex is this way,with haste" he uttered,pointing a boney finger deeper into the fleshy cavity.
Before any more progress could be made,a squelch erupted from the ceiling,promptly disgorging a mass of filth in front of them. From it emerged a deformed creature,yet still undeniably what was once a hochlander.
Their face was akin to a gasmask,with sunken eyes and a trunk like apparatus connecting to the chest,yet still revealing a mouth full of uneven teeth. They could see a vast mass on its back expanding and contracting,corresponding to the wheezing and plumes of vile fumes exiting the monster's mouth.
It prepared its arms,tatters of former wing membranes hanging loosely as the palms, now turned to metallic blades slid off of one another.
With a piercing shriek the creature began sprinting towards them,leaping unnaturally high as it prepared to slash at Uq'eik
It was too slow,within moments,Naz'kids arm wrapped cleanly around the monster's neck as she lunged forth,bladed fingers cutting into the putrid flesh of its throat and releasing a gust of the foul miasma. She wasted no time,quickly slamming its head into a pulp against the floor,reducing it to a smear.
"How peculiar,this aberration has inner defenses" She remarked before the room began to quake,more of the sickening sounds filled the room as the trio glanced up. Noticing hundreds,perhaps thousands,of cocoon like pods with a familiar beast swimming inside. Already more and more of them were bursting,releasing a swarm of terrible soldiers that took off for them.
"To the exit! Quickly!" Shouted Uq'eik as he manifested six white orbs of arcane light.
With a flick of his pointy fingers,each one turned yellow and betan releasing hails of glowing bolts as they made their way towards a monolithic membrane at the end of the chamber.
The slew of creatures continued on,powering through the barrage by weight of numbers and prompting Naz'kid to jump into action. Dozens of spikes morphed on her arms before being flung from her blackened form with a gesture,releasing a hail of projectiles that cut many of the aberrations to pieces. She soon leapt into the fray,moving with supernatural agility and slicing apart groups of them with each swing of ger arms and bladed tendrils.
Qhoz'ul meanwhile pushed his arm against the waxy wall in front of them,his needle like digits sinking into the gel like substance without issue,yet it was far too thick to power through. Worse,it flowed back into place as soon as his arm recoiled.
Thinking quickly,he focused upon the tip of his staff,manifesting a concentrated flame not unlike that of a plasma torch which stretched several meters into the air.
The lithorian swiftly plunged his tool almost completely into the barrier,seeing the substance around it begin to bubble as he used all his might to move it across slowly
"Cover me! I'll make us an exit" he shouted,becoming absorbed in his task soon after.
"Understood. Me and Naz-" Uq'eik stopped as soon as he gazed upon the mound of creatures that had gathered where his companion had been. Climbing over each other,they tirelessly slashed and stabbed at what lay below them.
An almost metallic slash came from the pile of beasts as dark spines impaled every single one of them. Naz'kid stood in the middle of the carnage,the protrusions receding back into her form just in time for a punch to land on another creature,sending pieces of it into a crowd of its kin and knocking them all off their feet.
"We'll hold. Just be quick with that escape route" she said,getting ready to face more of these horrors
Uq'eik stood behind,two of his orbs turning a dark blue and releasing spinning discs of luminous substance that cut through swathes of foes,then turned around and did so again,as if guided. The other four were of lighter pigmentation,releasing strings which wrapped around enemies and allowed him to puppeteer them,eventually discarding them for others once their bodies were too broken.
Qhoz'ul grunted as he pulled back his staff,a blackened,almost stony layer of material separating the bulk of the gel barrier from the piece in front of him. He recoiled his free arm,clenching a fist and punching the substance with enough force to send the whole chunk sliding across the fleshy floor.
He spun his staff in his grip a few times,putting out the plasma plume at its top and promptly walked through the charred tunnel he created
"It is done. Get out of there" he said,hastily walking with his back turned on both peers.
Naz'kid had just torn a foe in two when those words reached her,distracting the alien as a hail of spines the size of a man's arm plunged into her form.
A new breed of foe had intermingled with the masses,one of their arms becoming completely rigid and turning into a launcher for the deadly projectiles
Before another volley of needles could pierce her,one of Uq'eiks orbs flew in the way,turning a greenish hue before morphing into a barrier which stopped the incoming shots.
Despite being speared in ten or so places,the lithorian showed little reaction,her form rippling as the base of the spines snapped and the tips sunk into her body. She then signaled her fellow to drop the protection,which he relented to.
Naz'kid quickly eyed all of the shooter bioforms within the incoming tide,aimed her palm their way and began taking their heads off with their own ammunition,providing cover for Uq'eik as he moved into the tunnel as well.
After running out of spines,Naz'kid too dashed through the opening with great speed,turning around and planting her claws into the sides of the opening.
She could see the horde of deformed people still making its way toward them,urging her to slam the fissure shut with a mighty show of physical prowess.
All three of them could see the ripples in the syrupy substance,no doubt caused by the lifeforms crashing into its other side.
They had to continue,it was only a matter of time before they somehow made their way through as well.
Turning around,they could see light emanating from an entry into some sort of chamber,but between them and it stood about a hundred more of the twisted hochlanders,split between melee and range breeds.
Qhoz'ul looked to both his peers,whom gave him a nod of assurance,they had to push right through.
With a swing of his arm,he used his telekinetic prowess to rip out a piece of the roof,sending it crashing down onto a dozen of the spine shooting ones,crushing them instantly.
Uq'eiks orbs dawned a crimson colour,each beginning to release deadly beams of energy that vaporised limbs and torsos as if they were not there,cutting through the tide of decrepit mutants like sickles through a fields of wheat.
Naz'kid dove into the thick of the horde,hands shifting to serrated blades as her upper body spun independently of her stem,turning her into a living hurricane of carnage that cleaved all around it. She had the least to fear of the trio,as neither blade nor spine could do actual lasting damage to her amorphous frame,allowing her to take strikes otherwise meant for her allies.
Qhoz'ul turned to see a group of them breaking off and charging him. With a motion of his staff,the four spines of dark matter at its top shot out and split further into a cone of shrapnel. After blasting apart a good number of the things to pieces,the shards flew back and coalesced into an axe's head atop the handle,allowing him to scramble the survivors with a great swing.
Those that were not torn asunder laid onto the ground,having lost their footing as pieces of their own compatriots flew into them,looking up to see the lithorian holding his tool with both hands above his head. The axe head changed shape once more into something reminiscent of a mace as he struck,shaking the whole chamber and flattening all opposition.
One of the mutants had skipped through the grid of butchery,managing to close in on Uq'eik and sink one blade into his left pauldron,cracking and breaking the elaborate thing with a well placed hit. It continued,launching a flurry of strikes that tore up the lithorian's robe,while some were blocked by its own needle like fingers,sending sparks as the metallic substances of both collided.
Naz'kid was quick to intervene,plunging her clawed digits straight through the monster's chest,swinging them upwards and creating a shower of gore. A further barrage of lightning quick strikes reduced to fiend to a pair of legs and an abdomen,promptly crumpling to the floor right after.
"Have you gotten slower with age Naz'kid?" Uq'eik asked almost teasingly,motioning to his superficial damage with one hand.
"I think not,but you've certainly gone blind. Not only did I save your sorry life,but I took the most foes" she retorted,clearly unamused
"Stop blaming your incompetence on others Uq'eik,you should have brought your blade. Now then,let us continue" Qhoz'ul intervened,thumping the base of his staff on the ground.
As the three aliens reached the end of the corridor,their target became clear. Another barrier,this one made of toughened ceramics and metals stood in their path. Still there were cracks,likely induced by ripples of their earlier weapons fire,where light peaked through. This was it,the planetoid's mind was at the apex of its intensity there.
Peril was poised to strike however,as various pods dotted about the room released fleshy tendrils that grabbed all aliens with impunity. Qhoz'ul tried to sever his bindings,but a quick flexing of the leathery flesh broke his arm and caused him to drop his staff. Uq'eik was just as unfortunate,with several tendrils grabbing his throat,causing him to loose focus and dissipate his magical summons.
"Naz'kid! It is up to you!" said Qhoz'ul,fiercely thrashing against the grip of his bindings.
Naz'kid was no less intertwined,having appendages wrapped around her stem and chest,yet she understood what her companion meant. In an instant,her body lost its form and simply flowed through the grasp of the tendrils like a liquid,splattering on the ground and earning almost confused movements from the vile growths.
The black substance quickly coalesced into her usual shape once more,palms morphing into blades as she leapt forth to free her teammates.
It was not to be,something lodged itself into her chest and quickly sapped her momentum,slamming her with her back against the floor. She could see drops of slime from the ceiling bounce off some sort of unseen figure above her,the creature revealing itself shortly after.
As the light bending epidermis disengaged,a long snout materialized in front of her face. Three eyes on either side,a pair of mandibles,red plates of chitinous substance all over. The beast's maw opened,revealing a trio of fangs at the front of its upper jaw and two rows on its lower one as it began snapping at her.
Quick to act,the lithorian placed the foot of her stem against its chest to keep it off,followed swiftly by the tendrils coming out of it to slam onto its form. The crimson fiend was thrown back by this,revealing its full appearance as Naz'kid rose to face it.
The beast was easily twice her height,balancing on a pair of insectile legs ending in sharpened tips,almost making it look as if it were squatting. It began striking the four sickle growths it had for arms against each other,producing sparks and beckoning its opponent.
Naz'kid obliged,charging the creature and stopping a swing from two of its arms with her own,sickle and claw bouncing off each other before she gripped the blades. Predictably,the monster's other pair of arms lunged at her midsection,digging in thoroughly.
The creature however found its foe's grip unwavering,as their blades became stuck in the homogenous form of the lithorian and even sunk further in. The ashen gel that made her body crep over its arms,branching out into spiked protrusions before shoving them through chinks in its plating.
The insectoid recoiled,two of its arms now torn and ejected out of Naz'kids body onto the floor. The wound,no,the gap it had made was already closing as the substance flowed back into place,any detached puddle simply slinking across the ground and back into her form as well.
Determined to end this,Naz'kid dashed at the enemy,claws poised to slice open its neck. The being proved resilient,stopping her with its remaining arms as the curved spines running around its back began vibrating. The last one,located at the top of its head,opened to reveal a proboscis whose end bloomed wide open and spat a torrent of acidic bile.
Naz'kid recoiled,splatters of the fluid hitting her chest and half of her face,causing the three horns on that side to melt off and take four of her eyes out of commision. Thanks to the attack destroying her at the cellular level,the steaming sludge that resulted from it did not flow back into place,instead becoming inert,dead.
Hatred bubbled within Naz'kids remaining eyed as the creature spat another stream of sizzling substance. Her upper half split in two to avoid the strike,quickly reforming as a motion of her arm sent spikes flying into the beast's eyes. The creature recoiled as it was blinded,allowing Naz'kid to descend upon it,ripping off the proboscis and ruining one of her palms in the process. Uncaring,her stem and tendrils wrapped around the creature's chest and neck,sending cracks and snaps rippling across its form.
"Now Qhoz'ul! Strike it down!" she roared,holding onto the creature's arms with her own as it furiously fought to get her off.
Qhoz'uls gaze snapped to her,grabbing his staff telekinetically,the process putting severe strain on him as he could make no accompanying gestures. The tool's tip became spear like and shot into the creature's back,coming out the front and ripping it in half.
Naz'kid sighed with relief,promptly freeing her helper from his bindings.
As she moved on to Uq'eik,Qhoz'ul snapped his shoulder back into place,but found his mangled arm to still be of no use. With a grunt,he ripped off everything below his elbow,chipping the bone on his end to posibilly use as a weapon. He recalled his staff in his other arm and looked to his companions,both gruesomely wounded by normal standards but pushing forth nonetheless.
"With me Uq'eik. Naz'kid can cover us" he said,pointing to the obstruction in front of them
His fellow lithorian nodded as Qhoz'ul pointed his staff at the dead end,forcing whatever mental strength he had left as the barrier began to chip and crack under the mental assault.
Uq'eik conjured his orbs again,turning them to a familiar crimson hue as they spun about in a circle,summoning a much larger arcane blast between them.
The barrier buckled under the combined assault of the two,revealing what was beyond
And so,the path now lay open,the three aliens quickly making their way to the light's source.
The lithorians found themselves within a vast chamber,in the middle of which was a vast stonelike sphere,connected to both the floor and ceiling by tendrils. Around either end of this mechanism was a series of spikes,each one the size of a skyscraper.
"This is our objective. Put on the relics,we'll be launching a mental intrusion" said Qhoz'ul,holding out the three amulets he had taken prior to the intrusion. Made of pure aurastone,their purpose was to greatly augment the psionic capabilities of the wearer.
As the trio placed these accessories around their necks,they could feel their psionic prowess vastly increasing and thanks to their exotic biology,their bodies too received a similar increase in performance.
The lithorians now focused upon the gigantic organ above them,a veritable fortress inhabited by the mind of this abomination.
An agonising screech signaled their successful entry into its thoughts,the beast crying out in terror as The Almighty's tendrils seeped into its consciousness,remembering its last encounter with them.
Things however quickly became more complicated as the assault continued. A plethora of thoughts,memories and emotions began flashing before the three aliens,as if they had intruded upon a whole network of linked minds,only shattered and without a singular will.
They saw hooded figures toiling with vile fluids,heard the manic laughter of a mad god and felt an indescribable rage towards all that lived. More flashes,of Little Light standing weapons and Hochlander flotillas. The dancing silhouettes of shadowy figures soon circled around them,yet were in turn replaced by the roiling horrors of the Tradex.
At last,they saw a light,almost heavenly and angelic,yet wrong in subtle ways. There was a creature,a pale horror that radiated unimaginable power like a star. To their surprise,the creature's featureless visage turned to them.
More psychic screams perforated their minds,ending this session of visions. It seemed the creature was extremely distressed by what was just witnessed. The lithorians meanwhile,doubled down on their efforts,attacking the broken mind of the beast with renewed fervor. At last,a final shriek signaled its defeat,countless ethereal tendrils chaining it to their alien will.
The three awoke back in the chamber,surrounded on all sides by hordes of the creatures. Without fear,Naz'kid clenched her first at them,prompting the aberrations to kneel.
Qhoz'ul now looked through the sensors of his bioships,seeing the vessels of the meat drinker approaching still. With a gesture,the fifty enemy vessels stopped at his command,then turned to face away from them. He was surprised to hear both Naz'kid and Uq'eik laughing,almost maniacally,no doubt both at the fact they survived this ordeal and because they had triumphed so thoroughly.
The Almighty meanwhile meticulously probed the mind of its new subjects,finding little of interest at first,until discovering some sort of broken mental link. It reached out,discovering various pockets of interest scattered throughout the galaxy. Imprints on the psion,echoes of mental activity on a great scale,similar to its own. Each was left in a place once treaded by whatever great intellect controlled these puppets in days of yore. And yet,each one was shrinking,every second meant another string of information turned to garbled garbage. It was only a matter of time before they fully receded into the uniformity of the psion. Already,the vast mind drew new machinations,this was a great find indeed,for there was much to learn from these snippets of the past,they merely needed to be sought out.
Qhoz'ul meanwhile couldn't help but feel uneasy. What was that pale creature? It couldn't have been a memory,afterall it had reacted to them…..
The behemoth heaved towards them at full speed,its tail and fins releasing slews of gravitic waves as it did so. Qhoz'ul was quick to act,ordering his third of the fleet to scatter and avoid being plowed into by the beast. His two companions faced to such issues,being out on the flanks and spared of the creature's attention. No bioships were lost to the austral fiend's jaws,Qhoz'ul now preparing for the creature to turn around and try again.
The second charge never came,instead the creature just kept blasting ahead,speeding up even more before unfurling its tachyon sails and achieving superluminal velocities.
"It…...left" came the voice of Naz'kid,rather confused by this turn of events.
"Are these creatures shy perhaps?" added Uq'eik,trying to make sense of what just transpired.
"Hardly,it should have seen us as easy prey. This does not make any iota of sense" declared Qhoz'ul,hand clasped around his chin.
That was when the psychic scream hit them,hurling against their minds like waves against the cliffs. They each clasped their heads as waves of pain overcame them. To Uq'eik and Naz'kid,the alien feeling of agony was too much,immobilizing both for the time being. Yet to Qhoz'ul,this sensation was all too familiar,he forced himself up,taking a look at the sensory readings of their fleet.
Sure enough,something gigantic had just entered their detection range,prompting the lithorian to check the visual feed of the probe set to keep watch of that direction. The skeletal jaws of the lithorian gaped with disbelief as the image manifested itself. It was a conglomeration of living vessels,of a design much different to their own,which been gruesomely conjoined into a rough spheroid frame and stood about three hundred kilometers across. Most worrisome was a protrusion from one of its sides,itself made of about a dozen ships and bristling with gravitational readings.
Despite all of this,what made Qhoz'ul shudder was the monstrosity's mind,already clawing and slithering at the edges of his own. He recognized it,this thing was what had attacked him before,what tried to turn him into a puppet. Despite this,it could not overtake him,its mind still fractured and beaten by The Almighty's wrathful strikes. A new feeling began to boil within him as the spherical bio construct approached,hatred.
This was a chance to repay the fiend in kind,make it suffer as he had. With but a gesture,Qhoz'ul took command of his third of the fleet and came forth to accept its challenge. Like clockwork,mass driver rounds began hurdling towards the colossal creature,ripping off chunks of flesh as it advanced.
The flesh spawn retaliated in kind,its central growth releasing a burst of gravitic waves. The lithorian watched as the bubble of warped spacetime collided with one of his frigates,utterly obliterating it before others behind it were blasted by both debris and weaker gravitational waves,creating tears and gashes along their forms as they went limp.
A flurry of batteries strung along a line connecting the creature's poles lit up. Qhoz'ul recognized the distinct signature of brightstone,no doubt collected from austral creatures. In a flash,hundreds of tachyon arrows were flung towards his fleet. The damage done to the creature's mind seemed severe indeed as most of the projectiles simply went off into the void,yet about ten of the glowing spears still hit,destroying a light cruiser and a slew of destroyers.
One of the projectiles very nearly destroyed Qhoz'uls battleship,the vessel diving out of the way just in time to only have one of its fins cleaved off. This respite was not to last however,the moon sized horror already turning its main weapon his way. Scanners already indicated a new gravity vortex swirling within as it prepared to utterly erase him.
Before it could however,an emerald beam of energy hit the barrel of the weapon,phasing right through it and discharging its energy within,resulting in an explosion that tore off several of the ships comprising it.
This had been the meson accelerator of Naz'kids own battleship,his allies picked themselves up and were joining the battle.
The creature tried to fire its main weapon once more,but the damage sustained had rendered it inoperable for the time being.
Despite this,sensors and probes already showed legions of skittering horrors crawling to it,linking together in an attempt to piece the canon back into shape.
"I fear we cannot defeat this creature with firepower alone. Its raw strength outmatches us." said the familiar voice of Uq'eik.
"Indeed. Follow my lead,I have a plan" responded Qhoz'ul,taking command of his heavy cruisers and having them activate the pairs of spheromak cannons at their fronts.
The nimble vessels began circling the mighty leviathan,letting loose their plasma projectiles and burning the beast's surface while the electromagnetic disturbance hindered its already reeling mind and nervous system. Masterful volleys of missiles from the corvettes proceeded to take out the tachyon weaponry lining its frame,each one releasing a flurry of shaped charge warheads.
After a few minutes of the assault,the creature was left paralysed. Despite its bulk,its form was riddled with damages of countless battles and its weaponry,though powerful,was scarce. All this might was clearly hollow as it now laid helpless amidst the swarm of smaller bioships,flocking around it like vultures.
A psychic scream left the weakened form of the flesh construct and washed over the lithorians,yet this time it did little more than stagger them,its mind just as depleted as the physical vessel. Unfortunately,hurting them was not its intent,as about fifty contacts entered the fleet's sensory range and began to approach rapidly.
The monster had thralls,minions not unlike those that were fused to create its grotesque frame. Acting quickly,Qhoz'uls battleship released a salvo of nuclear missiles at the moon beast,blowing off one of the larger vessels that made up its surface.
"Prepare yourselves,the three of us are going inside it" he commanded his colleagues. Promptly racing to get his staff and a trio of amulets with strange symbols as their shapes.
Without further delay,the lithorian got inside an atmospheric insertion pod and shot himself straight into the gash. Two others fleshy growths followed him as they burst out of the other two battleships.
Impact was unpleasant,shaking each alien occupant as their pods smashed through layer after layer of fleshy walls.
Naz'kid was the first to exit,noticing that both she and her colleagues were now in some sort of corridor,the hole behind them rapidly closing off from the vacuum by way of overlapping membranes. Both Qhoz'ul and Uq'eik exited their pods right after,being surprised by the presence of gases here.
"Don't breathe anything in,the beast is likely to try and poison us." she said,denying her air sacs the joy of contracting or expanding,much as she did whenever within a vacuum.
The other two aliens nodded as they began making their way further in. Qhoz'ul could feel the thoughts of this creatures,and more importantly,their point of origin.
"Its neural cortex is this way,with haste" he uttered,pointing a boney finger deeper into the fleshy cavity.
Before any more progress could be made,a squelch erupted from the ceiling,promptly disgorging a mass of filth in front of them. From it emerged a deformed creature,yet still undeniably what was once a hochlander.
Their face was akin to a gasmask,with sunken eyes and a trunk like apparatus connecting to the chest,yet still revealing a mouth full of uneven teeth. They could see a vast mass on its back expanding and contracting,corresponding to the wheezing and plumes of vile fumes exiting the monster's mouth.
It prepared its arms,tatters of former wing membranes hanging loosely as the palms, now turned to metallic blades slid off of one another.
With a piercing shriek the creature began sprinting towards them,leaping unnaturally high as it prepared to slash at Uq'eik
It was too slow,within moments,Naz'kids arm wrapped cleanly around the monster's neck as she lunged forth,bladed fingers cutting into the putrid flesh of its throat and releasing a gust of the foul miasma. She wasted no time,quickly slamming its head into a pulp against the floor,reducing it to a smear.
"How peculiar,this aberration has inner defenses" She remarked before the room began to quake,more of the sickening sounds filled the room as the trio glanced up. Noticing hundreds,perhaps thousands,of cocoon like pods with a familiar beast swimming inside. Already more and more of them were bursting,releasing a swarm of terrible soldiers that took off for them.
"To the exit! Quickly!" Shouted Uq'eik as he manifested six white orbs of arcane light.
With a flick of his pointy fingers,each one turned yellow and betan releasing hails of glowing bolts as they made their way towards a monolithic membrane at the end of the chamber.
The slew of creatures continued on,powering through the barrage by weight of numbers and prompting Naz'kid to jump into action. Dozens of spikes morphed on her arms before being flung from her blackened form with a gesture,releasing a hail of projectiles that cut many of the aberrations to pieces. She soon leapt into the fray,moving with supernatural agility and slicing apart groups of them with each swing of ger arms and bladed tendrils.
Qhoz'ul meanwhile pushed his arm against the waxy wall in front of them,his needle like digits sinking into the gel like substance without issue,yet it was far too thick to power through. Worse,it flowed back into place as soon as his arm recoiled.
Thinking quickly,he focused upon the tip of his staff,manifesting a concentrated flame not unlike that of a plasma torch which stretched several meters into the air.
The lithorian swiftly plunged his tool almost completely into the barrier,seeing the substance around it begin to bubble as he used all his might to move it across slowly
"Cover me! I'll make us an exit" he shouted,becoming absorbed in his task soon after.
"Understood. Me and Naz-" Uq'eik stopped as soon as he gazed upon the mound of creatures that had gathered where his companion had been. Climbing over each other,they tirelessly slashed and stabbed at what lay below them.
An almost metallic slash came from the pile of beasts as dark spines impaled every single one of them. Naz'kid stood in the middle of the carnage,the protrusions receding back into her form just in time for a punch to land on another creature,sending pieces of it into a crowd of its kin and knocking them all off their feet.
"We'll hold. Just be quick with that escape route" she said,getting ready to face more of these horrors
Uq'eik stood behind,two of his orbs turning a dark blue and releasing spinning discs of luminous substance that cut through swathes of foes,then turned around and did so again,as if guided. The other four were of lighter pigmentation,releasing strings which wrapped around enemies and allowed him to puppeteer them,eventually discarding them for others once their bodies were too broken.
Qhoz'ul grunted as he pulled back his staff,a blackened,almost stony layer of material separating the bulk of the gel barrier from the piece in front of him. He recoiled his free arm,clenching a fist and punching the substance with enough force to send the whole chunk sliding across the fleshy floor.
He spun his staff in his grip a few times,putting out the plasma plume at its top and promptly walked through the charred tunnel he created
"It is done. Get out of there" he said,hastily walking with his back turned on both peers.
Naz'kid had just torn a foe in two when those words reached her,distracting the alien as a hail of spines the size of a man's arm plunged into her form.
A new breed of foe had intermingled with the masses,one of their arms becoming completely rigid and turning into a launcher for the deadly projectiles
Before another volley of needles could pierce her,one of Uq'eiks orbs flew in the way,turning a greenish hue before morphing into a barrier which stopped the incoming shots.
Despite being speared in ten or so places,the lithorian showed little reaction,her form rippling as the base of the spines snapped and the tips sunk into her body. She then signaled her fellow to drop the protection,which he relented to.
Naz'kid quickly eyed all of the shooter bioforms within the incoming tide,aimed her palm their way and began taking their heads off with their own ammunition,providing cover for Uq'eik as he moved into the tunnel as well.
After running out of spines,Naz'kid too dashed through the opening with great speed,turning around and planting her claws into the sides of the opening.
She could see the horde of deformed people still making its way toward them,urging her to slam the fissure shut with a mighty show of physical prowess.
All three of them could see the ripples in the syrupy substance,no doubt caused by the lifeforms crashing into its other side.
They had to continue,it was only a matter of time before they somehow made their way through as well.
Turning around,they could see light emanating from an entry into some sort of chamber,but between them and it stood about a hundred more of the twisted hochlanders,split between melee and range breeds.
Qhoz'ul looked to both his peers,whom gave him a nod of assurance,they had to push right through.
With a swing of his arm,he used his telekinetic prowess to rip out a piece of the roof,sending it crashing down onto a dozen of the spine shooting ones,crushing them instantly.
Uq'eiks orbs dawned a crimson colour,each beginning to release deadly beams of energy that vaporised limbs and torsos as if they were not there,cutting through the tide of decrepit mutants like sickles through a fields of wheat.
Naz'kid dove into the thick of the horde,hands shifting to serrated blades as her upper body spun independently of her stem,turning her into a living hurricane of carnage that cleaved all around it. She had the least to fear of the trio,as neither blade nor spine could do actual lasting damage to her amorphous frame,allowing her to take strikes otherwise meant for her allies.
Qhoz'ul turned to see a group of them breaking off and charging him. With a motion of his staff,the four spines of dark matter at its top shot out and split further into a cone of shrapnel. After blasting apart a good number of the things to pieces,the shards flew back and coalesced into an axe's head atop the handle,allowing him to scramble the survivors with a great swing.
Those that were not torn asunder laid onto the ground,having lost their footing as pieces of their own compatriots flew into them,looking up to see the lithorian holding his tool with both hands above his head. The axe head changed shape once more into something reminiscent of a mace as he struck,shaking the whole chamber and flattening all opposition.
One of the mutants had skipped through the grid of butchery,managing to close in on Uq'eik and sink one blade into his left pauldron,cracking and breaking the elaborate thing with a well placed hit. It continued,launching a flurry of strikes that tore up the lithorian's robe,while some were blocked by its own needle like fingers,sending sparks as the metallic substances of both collided.
Naz'kid was quick to intervene,plunging her clawed digits straight through the monster's chest,swinging them upwards and creating a shower of gore. A further barrage of lightning quick strikes reduced to fiend to a pair of legs and an abdomen,promptly crumpling to the floor right after.
"Have you gotten slower with age Naz'kid?" Uq'eik asked almost teasingly,motioning to his superficial damage with one hand.
"I think not,but you've certainly gone blind. Not only did I save your sorry life,but I took the most foes" she retorted,clearly unamused
"Stop blaming your incompetence on others Uq'eik,you should have brought your blade. Now then,let us continue" Qhoz'ul intervened,thumping the base of his staff on the ground.
As the three aliens reached the end of the corridor,their target became clear. Another barrier,this one made of toughened ceramics and metals stood in their path. Still there were cracks,likely induced by ripples of their earlier weapons fire,where light peaked through. This was it,the planetoid's mind was at the apex of its intensity there.
Peril was poised to strike however,as various pods dotted about the room released fleshy tendrils that grabbed all aliens with impunity. Qhoz'ul tried to sever his bindings,but a quick flexing of the leathery flesh broke his arm and caused him to drop his staff. Uq'eik was just as unfortunate,with several tendrils grabbing his throat,causing him to loose focus and dissipate his magical summons.
"Naz'kid! It is up to you!" said Qhoz'ul,fiercely thrashing against the grip of his bindings.
Naz'kid was no less intertwined,having appendages wrapped around her stem and chest,yet she understood what her companion meant. In an instant,her body lost its form and simply flowed through the grasp of the tendrils like a liquid,splattering on the ground and earning almost confused movements from the vile growths.
The black substance quickly coalesced into her usual shape once more,palms morphing into blades as she leapt forth to free her teammates.
It was not to be,something lodged itself into her chest and quickly sapped her momentum,slamming her with her back against the floor. She could see drops of slime from the ceiling bounce off some sort of unseen figure above her,the creature revealing itself shortly after.
As the light bending epidermis disengaged,a long snout materialized in front of her face. Three eyes on either side,a pair of mandibles,red plates of chitinous substance all over. The beast's maw opened,revealing a trio of fangs at the front of its upper jaw and two rows on its lower one as it began snapping at her.
Quick to act,the lithorian placed the foot of her stem against its chest to keep it off,followed swiftly by the tendrils coming out of it to slam onto its form. The crimson fiend was thrown back by this,revealing its full appearance as Naz'kid rose to face it.
The beast was easily twice her height,balancing on a pair of insectile legs ending in sharpened tips,almost making it look as if it were squatting. It began striking the four sickle growths it had for arms against each other,producing sparks and beckoning its opponent.
Naz'kid obliged,charging the creature and stopping a swing from two of its arms with her own,sickle and claw bouncing off each other before she gripped the blades. Predictably,the monster's other pair of arms lunged at her midsection,digging in thoroughly.
The creature however found its foe's grip unwavering,as their blades became stuck in the homogenous form of the lithorian and even sunk further in. The ashen gel that made her body crep over its arms,branching out into spiked protrusions before shoving them through chinks in its plating.
The insectoid recoiled,two of its arms now torn and ejected out of Naz'kids body onto the floor. The wound,no,the gap it had made was already closing as the substance flowed back into place,any detached puddle simply slinking across the ground and back into her form as well.
Determined to end this,Naz'kid dashed at the enemy,claws poised to slice open its neck. The being proved resilient,stopping her with its remaining arms as the curved spines running around its back began vibrating. The last one,located at the top of its head,opened to reveal a proboscis whose end bloomed wide open and spat a torrent of acidic bile.
Naz'kid recoiled,splatters of the fluid hitting her chest and half of her face,causing the three horns on that side to melt off and take four of her eyes out of commision. Thanks to the attack destroying her at the cellular level,the steaming sludge that resulted from it did not flow back into place,instead becoming inert,dead.
Hatred bubbled within Naz'kids remaining eyed as the creature spat another stream of sizzling substance. Her upper half split in two to avoid the strike,quickly reforming as a motion of her arm sent spikes flying into the beast's eyes. The creature recoiled as it was blinded,allowing Naz'kid to descend upon it,ripping off the proboscis and ruining one of her palms in the process. Uncaring,her stem and tendrils wrapped around the creature's chest and neck,sending cracks and snaps rippling across its form.
"Now Qhoz'ul! Strike it down!" she roared,holding onto the creature's arms with her own as it furiously fought to get her off.
Qhoz'uls gaze snapped to her,grabbing his staff telekinetically,the process putting severe strain on him as he could make no accompanying gestures. The tool's tip became spear like and shot into the creature's back,coming out the front and ripping it in half.
Naz'kid sighed with relief,promptly freeing her helper from his bindings.
As she moved on to Uq'eik,Qhoz'ul snapped his shoulder back into place,but found his mangled arm to still be of no use. With a grunt,he ripped off everything below his elbow,chipping the bone on his end to posibilly use as a weapon. He recalled his staff in his other arm and looked to his companions,both gruesomely wounded by normal standards but pushing forth nonetheless.
"With me Uq'eik. Naz'kid can cover us" he said,pointing to the obstruction in front of them
His fellow lithorian nodded as Qhoz'ul pointed his staff at the dead end,forcing whatever mental strength he had left as the barrier began to chip and crack under the mental assault.
Uq'eik conjured his orbs again,turning them to a familiar crimson hue as they spun about in a circle,summoning a much larger arcane blast between them.
The barrier buckled under the combined assault of the two,revealing what was beyond
And so,the path now lay open,the three aliens quickly making their way to the light's source.
The lithorians found themselves within a vast chamber,in the middle of which was a vast stonelike sphere,connected to both the floor and ceiling by tendrils. Around either end of this mechanism was a series of spikes,each one the size of a skyscraper.
"This is our objective. Put on the relics,we'll be launching a mental intrusion" said Qhoz'ul,holding out the three amulets he had taken prior to the intrusion. Made of pure aurastone,their purpose was to greatly augment the psionic capabilities of the wearer.
As the trio placed these accessories around their necks,they could feel their psionic prowess vastly increasing and thanks to their exotic biology,their bodies too received a similar increase in performance.
The lithorians now focused upon the gigantic organ above them,a veritable fortress inhabited by the mind of this abomination.
An agonising screech signaled their successful entry into its thoughts,the beast crying out in terror as The Almighty's tendrils seeped into its consciousness,remembering its last encounter with them.
Things however quickly became more complicated as the assault continued. A plethora of thoughts,memories and emotions began flashing before the three aliens,as if they had intruded upon a whole network of linked minds,only shattered and without a singular will.
They saw hooded figures toiling with vile fluids,heard the manic laughter of a mad god and felt an indescribable rage towards all that lived. More flashes,of Little Light standing weapons and Hochlander flotillas. The dancing silhouettes of shadowy figures soon circled around them,yet were in turn replaced by the roiling horrors of the Tradex.
At last,they saw a light,almost heavenly and angelic,yet wrong in subtle ways. There was a creature,a pale horror that radiated unimaginable power like a star. To their surprise,the creature's featureless visage turned to them.
More psychic screams perforated their minds,ending this session of visions. It seemed the creature was extremely distressed by what was just witnessed. The lithorians meanwhile,doubled down on their efforts,attacking the broken mind of the beast with renewed fervor. At last,a final shriek signaled its defeat,countless ethereal tendrils chaining it to their alien will.
The three awoke back in the chamber,surrounded on all sides by hordes of the creatures. Without fear,Naz'kid clenched her first at them,prompting the aberrations to kneel.
Qhoz'ul now looked through the sensors of his bioships,seeing the vessels of the meat drinker approaching still. With a gesture,the fifty enemy vessels stopped at his command,then turned to face away from them. He was surprised to hear both Naz'kid and Uq'eik laughing,almost maniacally,no doubt both at the fact they survived this ordeal and because they had triumphed so thoroughly.
The Almighty meanwhile meticulously probed the mind of its new subjects,finding little of interest at first,until discovering some sort of broken mental link. It reached out,discovering various pockets of interest scattered throughout the galaxy. Imprints on the psion,echoes of mental activity on a great scale,similar to its own. Each was left in a place once treaded by whatever great intellect controlled these puppets in days of yore. And yet,each one was shrinking,every second meant another string of information turned to garbled garbage. It was only a matter of time before they fully receded into the uniformity of the psion. Already,the vast mind drew new machinations,this was a great find indeed,for there was much to learn from these snippets of the past,they merely needed to be sought out.
Qhoz'ul meanwhile couldn't help but feel uneasy. What was that pale creature? It couldn't have been a memory,afterall it had reacted to them…..