Chapter 2

Creator of Devils

/80 CE/ The Rachni War continues on/ Years pass as The Rachni War continues on decimating through The Council's fleets within a few short months The Salarian STG groups encounter a new species The Krogan and decide upon uplifting the species to fight The Rachni.

As the war raged on Edgar spent his time learning on controlling The Flood fully along with using the vast collective knowledge that each Gravemind aquired throughout the millenium of their existence to build temple like constructs on The Hive-World, upon building these structures he built himself a unique temple for himself to seclude himself in. Edgar had never realized the vast knowledge The Flood contained he knew of the many lives it consumed their wants, desires, and passion it brought peace to his mind and using selective knowledge he worked in a unique lab as he learned of The Rachni's abilities as he performed several experiments to one of the queens he captured. Cutting the dead queen open he removed organs and saw what made them tick, using a sample of his blood he infected the queens organs that birthed forth Rachni eggs seeing they continued to spawn forth stillborned Rachni eggs.

"Hmm another failure, may need to adjust the dosage and up the viability of the Rachni tissue samples" he said examining the organs closely.

Kella entered the room looking upon his omni-tool over reports he gathered about how the war was going.

"Sir I have new information for you" Kella said displaying the information to Edgar, "It seems STG teams have uplifted a new species to The Council's war the species is designated Krogan they come from a planet called Tuchanka."

"Hmm indeed quite interesting I will aquire live samples for testing, Kella I will need you to continue your reconissance in the field while I work here I'm close to something here" Edgar said as he used his own omni-tool to scan The Rachni organs.

"I shall continue as you say sir, I shall try to retrieve a Krogan specimen in the meantime" Kella said as he bowed and left the room.

Edgar looked over the dead Rachni specimens along with several unaltered eggs, The Rachni we're indeed interesting creatures but they had flaws that could be exploited as he learned that if a queen is fully isolated or dead it's Rachni warriors seem utterly clueless on what to do next but if they're are multiple queens the warriors can rally and coordinate within ten or so seconds. Leaving his lab he headed below to a holding area where he kept one of the surviving queens he captured looking at it, she continued to breed more Rachni eggs looking to his side having two of his combat forms remove ten of the fourty eggs that the queen had birthed. The Rachni queen looked at Edgar with confusion and fear sensing him out all it could feel was an empty void hungry to consume all in it's way but the other half was one looking to learn and bring more into it's fold but not by force.

Leaving The Rachni Queen to her thoughts as it had not spoken to him since back on it's planet, Edgar went to a small balcony he had at the top of the temple as he walked about to the top he looked over the unique plant life he collected before he allowed The Flood to over consume the entire planet. The only locations that weren't overgrown by Flood spores or organic matter were the oceans and high mountain area's Edgar thought of peaceful moments between his research and having to deal with what The Council may consider doing in The Rachni War but he felt concern over these Krogan as it seemed The Council we're incredibly desperate. Looking out over the valley below many Flood lifeforms could be seen some slightly humanoid being turned from the corpses Edgar has collected while others have become the titled Pure Forms of The Flood, upon leaving the temple Edgar walked amoungst The Flood creatures watching them ever so closely seeing their natural state.

After finishing looking over the Pure Forms he walked to a nearby structure that was linked to his temple home the construct was a completely encased circular sphere the outer walls pulsated slightly being covered in organic growth, the interior of the structure was lined with somewhat familiar art from earth things Edgar remembered from his childhood before joining the UNSC some of the art we're in resemblances of the statue of david, others we're minor works of art he thought of from his childhood but these were all over shadowed by the center wall that contained a massiver mural of a large being that had multiple eyes with four long arms, it's body was quite plump with small insectoid like arms extending from it's belly, it's head was thin and pointed on either end with no visible mouth.

Below the creature we're several humanoid like beings that were the Forerunners, encircled by them we're human beings both these species we're held by the smaller hands of the large creature within the mural but the larger hands became tendril like in nature, as the image showed more the tendrils warped and malformed becoming what would be known as The Flood the twisted form the Precursors had been reduced to. Upon looking over this mural he created from the memories The Gravemind had Edgar understood why The Flood hated the Forerunners so much and wanted them destroyed.

"Do you ever regret destroying The Forerunners, I mean you or whatever you we're before made them they were your children" Edgar asked as he touched the mural.

"They're was a time we all had such regrets but not anymore, we became twisted and became something much different we lost the vision of our old forms so in panic and blind rage we took the embodiment of a formless flood that would wipe away all past hatreds and need of ownership" The Gravemind said.

Edgar looked to the mural then walked away from it heading downstairs to a large room where it was quite damp and small trickles of water dripped from the ceiling an omenous green hue of light came from each side of the room, upon lighting the room six large tube like containers on each side of the room lit up and inside we're several specimens some contained Asari while others contained Salarians and Rachni warriors, some of which we're in a different state of Flood infection but we're contained to preserve them from fully turning into combat forms. Sitting at a small rocky lab table he activated his omni-tool and a ominous melody played from it as he continued his experimentations as infront of him layed a dissected Asari soldier Kella recently brought to him.

/Citadel Space/ Council Chambers

Many concerns had come to the attention of The Citadel Council as the war continued on how The Rachni continued to advance relentlessly to how the public had wanted The Council to continue trying for peace talks. Recently The Council had been gifted a silver lining, The Krogan a clan based warrior race that had been reduced by what appeared to be a nuclear war. The Salarian Councilor had viewed over his files on his omni-tool learning from STG agents that the Krogan we're already being deployed to battlefields across Citadel controlled space, The Asari Councilor entered shortly after and looked not to pleased to with her fellow Councilor learning that Krogan troops had been deployed to Thessia without her knowledge.

"You have some nerve Councilor and here I thought we both kept each other in the loop on information of this sort but not only do you take it upon yourself to have STG uplift The Krogan people and have them outfitted with weaponry, you have them deployed to Thessia" The Asari Councilor said fuming with anger.

"A necessary step from what I heard, Thessia wasn't exactly holding ground as The Rachni had landed on your homeworld so what I did was a favor to you and your people" The Salarian Councilor said as he looked at her with calculating eyes.

"Next time ... if you ever go behind my back like this I'll make sure the only thing your people ever find of you is a smear on the window" she said as she left the room her biotics glowing all around her.

Outside the Councilors room Kella had been listening in on the Councilors recording what they've been saying, sending the information to Edgar back on the Hive-World leaving the area he had been listening in on the Councilors Kella took a transport from The Citadel and to head back to the Hive-World.

/Hive-World/

Looking over his specimens he encased in the large tubes he saw each could have had such potential a new form of The Flood something beyond being a corpse reborn through parasitic means, but he still had hope with the one Rachni Queen who showed trust to Edgar using several experimental vials of his own blood he injected them within the Rachni Queen. Knowing this would take hours or days he gave the queen a large enough space to rest while he continued his experimentations on the corpses he had. Using his own cells he added them to the cells of Rachni cells looking for a perfect unique way to combine Flood cells with those of Rachni to create a stronger orginism.

As he analysed the cells Kella walked in bringing several more information pads along with a few Asari corpses, Edgar looked at them and nodded for Kella to take a seat next to him as he analysed more information.

"Tell me Kella is the Council still breathing down each others necks over The Rachni hmm ?" Edgar asked as he looked to Kella.

"Yes but the Asari Councilor is more furious at the Salarian Councilor right now he deployed a battalion of Krogan to Thessia without permission from the Asari Republics and from what I've already learned they've repelled The Rachni from Thessia" Kella said.

"Hm thats interesting these Krogan may prove useful heh, Kella I want you to gather any Krogan bodies The Rachni kill and if possible a living one they may have interesting potential" Edgar says, as he gets up and looks at his new specimens.

"Yes sir, I will and in the meantime I shall gather battle data on how the Krogan fight anything else to add sir ?" Kella asks Edgar.

"No nothing else for now Kella... just be careful Kella I hate losing a valuable assest" Edgar says as he turns back looking at the corpses.

Kella looked to Edgar seeing that he did value him with knowing that he left the room feeling pride in that, leaving the lab he went back out into space to gather the specimens and intel for further use in Edgars research.

Several hundred years pass while Edgar simply watched and continued his experiments on Rachni eggs and the last queen he had, during this time The Rachni War had took a surprising turn as The Rachni had been pushed back to their homeworld of Suen this surprised Edgar greatly taking notice he ventured from the Hive-World to Suen to see the outcome of the war here and maybe test his new creation on them as it slept within it's organic pod.


/Suen/ Homeworld of The Rachni/ End of The Rachni Wars

Council ships had surrounded the planet as they began orbital bombardment of the surface structures making way for Korgan forces, hundreds of Rachni warriors swarmed about the surface being blasted apart by The Citadel Council fleets The Rachni had been beaten back harshly as the Krogan seemed to have and endless number of warriors to throw at The Rachni. On the ground Krogan forces blasted they're way through the hordes of Rachni that defended the remaining hives, The Rachni Queens tried every conceivable way to stop the oncoming assault of the Krogan even going as far as destroying parts of the cities they had built above ground to kill as many Krogan as possible, Krogan battlemasters had pushed their way through the ruined Rachni city destroying it's defenses and bringing in nuclear devices to destroy The Rachni nests.

As the battle waged below on the surface, The Citadel fleet had a time destroying the remaining Rachni fleet while this had been going on Edgar had arrived by way of the mass relay using this to his advantage he had The Leviathan move in the low orbit of Suen to begin his own little incursion wanting to test the battle hardened Krogan for himself. The spinal like ribs of The Leviathan opened up slowly revealing inside six organic like pods containing large mysterious creatures, Edgar looked down to the battlefield and simply smiled upon snapping his fingers the pods ejected and rushed to the battlefield below. Several Krogan and Rachni forces had stopped fighting to witness the massive vessel launch the strange pods, upon landing hard into the ground cracking it to pieces three Krogan warriors approached the pods only to be greeted by it breaking open as tendrils wrapped and tore through several Krogan at once with ease. The creature stood a towering seven in a half feet tall with dark greenish skin, with four eyes on each side of it's head tendrils coming from it's back that it used to kill the Krogan and it's legs bent backwards.

The Krogan and Rachni attacked the creature together, it quickly dodged out of the way allowing the two opposing sides to end up attacking each other, launching itself forward using it's legs the creature used it's bare hands and tore two Krogans heads from their shoulders and threw them to The Rachni warriors knocking them down. The few remaining Rachni attacked the creature some landing lucky blows making the creature bleed while others had been torn apart by it's tendrils and bare hands, with no other choice one Krogan warrior charged the creature tackling it to the ground, the creature flailed about clawing at the Krogans face making it bleed as it tried kicking him off the Krogan fought back till it reached for a set of pins red blips sounded shortly after as the Krogan had attached a set of grenades to his body closing his eyes the grenades detonating killing himself and the creature as fire engulfed them together. Edgar watched closely seeing his creations we're indeed quite powerful even for newborns.

/Codex Entry/ Flood Newborns

A newly created form of The Flood made by Edgar using a combination of dna from Asari and Krogan subjects the creatures possess enhanced strength and biotic abilities as well as agility. These creatures are considered highly dangerous and to not be fought alone the Newborns have atleast two known weaknesses one using fire and the other damaging their upper backs as it contains a strange fluid that upon being destroyed disoriantes them for several seconds.

Edgar watched from his vessel seeing one of his creations go down but not before it slaughtered part of the two opposing forces which gave these new Flood creations such promise, snapping his fingers the remaining pods opened up and the Newborns emerged and began they're slaughter of both Rachni and Citadel forces. Throughout most of the battle many Krogan forces had marched relentlessly to their objective bringing in nuclear devices to kill The Rachni Queens but soon some of these destroyer teams encountered the Newborns which ended badly for the Krogan teams, Edgar saw through the Newborns eyes these nuclear devices which seemed to concern him deciding to leave the ship he headed down to the planet bringing several small squishy pods as he placed them in his satchel.

/Citadel Dreadnaught/ The Unwavering Conviction

Several Asari officers we're not pleased with how the battle was going even though Krogan forces had pushed Rachni forces from Citadel space back to their homeworld something was troubling as Krogan destroyer teams had not responded for nearly an hour over the comms. Captain Samar Gave was in charge of leading a huntress team to the planet to see if they're were complications with delivering the weapons to the hive, in her gut she felt something wasn't right something that wasn't The Rachni's doing.

"Captain I don't like this why are we in charge of this operation" one commando asked as she seemed quite nervous.

"The Krogan team responsible for deploying the nuke to a nearby Rachni nest hasn't reported in for nearly 2 hours we go in find the team and secure the nuke for deployment" Samar said as she looked to her team.

"May the goddess watch over us all" another commando said as she prayed silently bowing her head and closing her eyes.

The shuttle entered the atmosphere of the planet, storms quickly rushed against the shuttles hull inside the Asari commandos felt the harsh enviroment of Suen as the shuttle made it's desecent to the surface but soon over the comms the pilot told them of an unidentified vessel that was on left side. The Asari commandos we're in somewhat shock seeing the massive vessel it was clearly larger then The Destiny Ascension which was the largest in The Citadel Fleet this worried the commandos thinking it was some kind of new Rachni ship constructed to compete against The Council.

"By the goddess that ship is massive, do you think it's a Rachni vessel" a commando asked as her eyes we're glued to looking at the vessel.

"I don't believe it is if it was even a Rachni vessel why isn't it helping the rest of The Rachni fleet above the planet" Samar said as she loaded her weapon and took holo images of the vessel to bring back to the Asari Republics.

"Either way I don't want to think what's aboard that ship let's... just go ahead and get this over with" a commando said feeling nervous about this.

As the shuttle landed the commando team had went to work to find the location of the Krogan destroyer team along with the nuke they we're to use on The Rachni nest below the surface, the search itself would not be an easy one as in the distance the sound of gunfire and shreeking Rachni could be heard as the Krogan held their ground against the creatures. Samar held her belief that she would get her team safely off Suen as quickly as possible but for some reason she couldn't shake a gut feling they we're being watched by something or someone, soon she heard one of her commandos yell out to her to check something out as they all gathered around.

"What is it Samyx, what have ya found" Samar asked as she looked in her huntress direction.

"Several different sets of footprints most appear to be Krogan but these others aren't Rachni or Krogan ma'am, I think someone else is down here with us" she said as she looked at the surroundings.

"Your maybe right it would make since, along with that strange ship as well alright everyone let's find the Krogan team then call for extraction" Samar said as she holstered her rifle.

Overhead of the Asari commandos stood Edgar watching along with two of his Newborns, cracking his thumb the two creatures ran on all fours to cut off the Asari commandos as they headed north to the last location of the Krogan team, Samar led her team through a nearby passage that slipped between two mountain walls the passage itself seemed to be blown open by explosives which meant that the Krogan weren't to far away especially if they left this much evidence of they're trail. Edgar used his enhanced agility and jumped between different sides of the mountains keeping up with the commandos, his Newborns skurried along the path ahead of the commandos and watched patiently while they made slight clicks with their boney tendrils. Samar raised her hand having her commandos spread out in a equal defensive pattern as she had heard something coming from up ahead aiming her rifle carefully she listened for the noise till finally she saw it a Krogan who was badly wounded and missing his right arm, his armor had been torn to pieces and he seemed quite frightened something an Asari didn't think was possible to see.

Having one of her commandos grab ahold of the wounded Krogan they had let him fall to the ground easily as thye we're surprised he was alive still, Samar had the rest of her commandos on lookout as she attempted to identify the Krogan soldier she couldn't help but see how badly he was damaged his right arm was nothing but tissue and small pieces of bone sticking out as he bled out and it seemed like something tried clawing it's way into his armor but whatever it was it failed as evidence of the strange greenish ooze dripping from his shattered armor.


"Soldier listen I need to know are you with the Krogan destroyer team" Samar said as she applied more medi-gel "Focus ok I just need ya to focus are you with the destroyer team?"

"I-i- i was they're... all dead.. Nuke at sight.. not Rachni it's something worse" the Krogan said as he slipped into death from extensive blood loss.

Samar looked down to the Krogan warrior closing his eyes and giving a quite prayer to him, picking up her rifle she looked to her fellow commandos and told them to move out as they had a mission to complete, her commandos felt nervous and more worried then before as they witnessed a Krogan warrior or what was left of him seem to be torn almost part by something that was quote on quote worse then The Rachni. Deciding to throw part of caution to the wind Samar had her team pick up the pace by speeding to their destination, finding it nearly ten minutes later but the sight where the nuke was wasn't something no one should see dead Korgan and Rachni bodies littered the sight several Krogan had been torn in half and thrown about like nothing and Rachni had been either sliced apart or what appeared to be eaten by something that wasn't friendly to either side.

Samar had her commandos set up a defendable location as Samar would need time to arm the nuke for detonation, Edgar had watched overhead for to long as he saw the Asari had found the nuke looking to his Newborns he nodded for them to attack to which they did, one of the Newborns rushed toward the camp grabbing ahold of one of the commandos and slammed her face repeatedly into the ground till nothing but a blue smeer remained of where her head once was. Samar used a singularity to catch the Newborn in to which it had no effect as the Newborn simpy walked through it immune to biotic attacks, one of Samar's commandos opened fire on the Newborn only for it to shoot several tendrils from it's wounds that lashed out attacking the commando and impaling her through the eyes and mouth then quickly tearing her whole body apart into a mist of blood and organs.

Samar with no other choice joined the fight defending the last of her commandos using all of the abilities of her biotics to the fullest, two of the Newborns turned their attention to Samar as she represented the most dangerous threat as they rushed her position her biotic field slowly inabled them from moving to which she lifted them above her head and threw them hard against the nearest wall turning them into a smeer of blood across the rocks and dirt of Suen. Samar's last commando's cheered her on as they rushed to hug their commander only to be greeted by several strange gooey pods landing at their feet that released dark green-like spores into the air around them, Samar's eyes widened in horror seeing her fellow soldiers women she trained begin to choke on their own breath as each time they breathed the spores in they slowly began to change, they're armor ripped and cracked deforming them changing their beautiful skin from dark blue to a disgusting brownish green, eyes slowly malforming and heads twisting backwards as they're chests ripped and tore exposing three tendril like sprouts with almost flower like antenna.

As the horror grew more intense within Samar she tried backing up not wanting to attack her sisters only to feel someone at her back upon turning she saw a tall figure stand before her hooded all she could see were his eyes devoid of life all she could see within was an endless hunger which made her shake uncontrollably. She watched as the man raised his hand holding one of the pods as it sprouted open the man smirked at her as his eyes lit up with excitment.

"Welcome to the fold little Asari." Edgar said smirking.

As he said those words the pod exploded releasing the spores, images flooded Samar's mind of wars and trillions of lives screaming and praying for mercy as a shapless Flood of voices overwhelmed her mind and within the voices they slowly took shape as many tendrils formed from the void grasping at Samar's mind she begged for it to stop but it would not stop as she was now drowned in the endless flood of those who had succumbed to The Flood and the torments it would bring being connected to the grave Edgar.

Sorry it took so long to upload this newest chapter since i'm back at work now I've had no time to write so I hope this short chapter gives ya a hint at what Edgar has planned for The Flood and it's evolution. And I want to thank everyone for loving the first chapter and for following it I hope to bring more great works to the site and hope all of ya'll will enjoy it as much as I as i make it.