Author's notes:
Lok Heb Tenno, I am still alive as you can see. Here has been raining since Monday, there is something like a cyclone on Italy. The land is gray cause the clouds are covering the whole sky, the mountains are falling, the forests are disappearing... KYOGRE HAS RETURNED! Ok, I exaggerated a little... but no much, trust me.
What about you guys? Have you seen what is happening? DE released a new video about Fortuna for pc and the operation Plague Star for console, do you understand what that means? The message that DE sent to us is clear: IIIIIIIT'S FARMING TIME!
Here is my new chapter, hope you enjoy. Read it fast, so you can go and farm in the name of grofit, Doh-ga!
The Empire Game
Chapter 10 - Evolve
In the dark times of the war, before the birth of the Tenno, when the Grineer were servants of the Orokin Empire, the desperation brought to a disputable choice. For decades, the Orokin manipulated the life, the nature, but they never put a limit to what they were doing. Never questioning if they were going too far.
Grineer, soldiers, machines, uncountable numbers of them disappeared, defeated by the Sentients. Their creators were losing everything, the terraforming machines were winning. So, they dared, and like when they created the Sentients, they dared too much.
In the laboratories, with mastery and determination, they forged a new weapon, a new army. Machines, humans, clones were obsolete, nothing compared to the new solution. A new species arose, destined to survive, destined to renew itself. And so it did, surviving the war and overcoming the orders of the Emperors, ruining their reign.
They spread, they conquered, they evolved, they consumed. The Infestation became the new plague of the era, a virulent outburst of sickness with one purpose: becoming everything. And so the Emperors faced again a simple truth: they were losing control.
The quadruped monster screamed, frustrated by its fall. Its pulsing tendrils squirmed violently, its bulbs shone like sparks. Celeris rushed to that thing, biting what appeared to be the head of the Infested, a protuberance covered by many small bulbs. The Infested fell on its side, pushed by Celeris who kept the jaws around his prey.
The Infested threw him away, hitting Celeris with one of its clawed edges, it screamed again. Frost shot it in the head, and red fluids came out as its bulbs exploded. I got closer, with strength, I pierced it with Silva. The metal tore apart the Infested flesh, it broke the bones, blood flowed out and then, from the inside, flames appeared.
The fire of my Silva came out from the wound, then enveloped the entire body of that thing once I removed Silva from its body. The beast on the floor squirmed madly, its sounds of desperation echoed through the corridors. Something answered that call.
Around us, we heard a rumble through the metal, the grates on the floor and on the ceiling were being thrown away. From the holes they left, other Infested came out, shouting with rage. Their bulbs, like torches in the night, pulsated brightly in unison.
AETHERIS: "The ship is under an Infested attack?! Wait... I'm receiving communications by other Cephalons through the Wave. Operator, dispatch those hideous things, I will try to discover what's going on."
The beasts we had around us were of different shapes. Biological masses with pulsing bulbs, claws, teeth, tendrils and limbs. Few of them were taller than the others, from their bodies yellow and green vapors intoxicated the air with venomous spores.
Smaller Infested charged, their heads opened up, uncovering clawed tentacles while they were running to us, screaming. A gelid breeze came from my side, it enveloped me. Small ice sheets appeared on the walls and grates around us, the air was cold but now cleaned, the spores fell upon the floor in small frozen drops.
The charging beasts got frozen and thrown away. Those that clashed against the walls broke into ice fragments. Frost's globe protected us as he started to shoot the Infested that were around. Latron shots echoed through the corridors, accompanied by the Infested's screams, Carrier's shots, and Celeris's barks.
I took my Akstiletto and helped him with the extermination. Every time a bullet reached the Infested flesh, red fluids came out covering the area around the wounded beasts. With every single shot, the infestation spread through the blood gushing out of the bulbs.
The Infestation could colonize various habitats, using fluids and spores as vectors. It could manifest itself like biological substrates on soil and structures, or taking control of living beings, like animals and plants. That's why it was so feared, an entire city could be conquered in a few days. Fortunately, Celeris, like other Kubrows, was immune to the plague.
AETHERIS: "Operator, it's like I suspected: the meteors that damaged the ship are carrying the Infestation! Leave those beasts, the Cephalons are gathering a Tenno squad near your position, join them. The globe cannot protect you."
I was confused at those last words. The Infested were too much susceptible to cold temperatures, the globe could give us a perfect protection for sure. That's the reason why the cities on the high mountains survived the plague so easily... till that moment.
Then, when I thought Aetheris was paranoid, I saw something I could not believe. The frozen Infested moved, they should have died the right instant the globe appeared! The ice on their bodies began to melt, they were still alive!
Frost shots stopped, I turned towards him, he was still, looking in front of him. Few Infested were passing through the globe. They were walking slowly, they were suffering the cold, but they were passing through! I never saw an Infested capable to resist those temperatures.
How is this possible? Did they evolve?
My mind went back to my past fights, the Infested were always segregated in tempered areas. They could not resist the cold temperatures of the high mountains covered by snow, or the heat of active volcanoes. In the past, Frost models could exterminate those beasts with just their gelid touch, now it was different.
I hope Ember models can still burn them up.
Other Infested began to come out from the openings in the floor. It would have been easier to deal with them with more Tenno. A yellow icon appeared on my map, signaling the position of the squad Aetheris talked about. The beasts' bulbs shone again, together. They charged, screaming like that was their war chant, coming from every corridor around us.
The gelid wind traveled across the area, thorns of ice appeared at Frost's feet, and vapors surrounded his body, coming from his hand, raised. The Infested trembled, they twisted and inflected so badly that I thought they were going to break, then they turned into ice statues.
Frost ran, he passed through the frozen Infested, without losing any time in shooting or smashing them with his Bo. Only his Carrier paid attention to them, but it never stopped following its master, always floating upon his head.
I saw Celeris was hitting a small frozen Infested, turning it into pieces. Once our glances encountered each other, I followed Frost, without caring about the Infested. I turned back to make sure Celeris was following me, and that was a good thing since the frozen Infested had already started to move again.
Frost was right in front of me, I didn't need too much time to reach him, Frost models weren't exactly speedy frames. We were getting closer to the position Aetheris signaled me, probably she had a little talk with Frost's Cephalon. The communication between Cephalons was a convenient thing during missions.
As we continued our run, I heard sounds coming from the way ahead. The corridor opened up. To our right, a black railing separated us from a deep pit, the alarm lights were functioning there, but was impossible to see the end of it. Around the pit, other corridors were opened as well, forming a multitude of crossroads and bridges upon different height levels. The ship looked so empty, creepy, everything around us was barely illuminated by the yellow lights.
Frost and I hold on, observing that immense space, no human was around. They all escaped, died... or worse. The sounds became louder, we heard explosions, rumblings, shots and Infested screams. The Tenno squad was further ahead, fighting. Behind us, from the corridor opening, the Infested were approaching, their heavy steps made the grates tremble. Apparently, they didn't appreciate to be frozen up.
We proceeded, taking the first entrance we saw right ahead, following the sounds of the fight. We entered into another maze of corridors. The signs of a battle began to appear on the way. Burns and holes upon the walls, projectiles and arrows on the floor, the Infested's corpses, blood.
We were getting closer, the shots were so loud that it was like we were already in the middle of the battle. We couldn't even hear the Infested that were chasing us, since the sound was so intense, but we didn't doubt that they were approaching.
We reached a closed door, just as something clashed against it, passing through and creating a hole, hitting the corridor wall at the other side. It was a dead Infested, covered in blood. From the hole, a force was sucking in the air, and the entrance of the corridor, behind us, closed up immediately. At least, the Infested could not follow us, if the door was sturdy enough to deal with their fury.
The hole in the door next to us was big enough to allow us to enter and going through, and so we found ourselves on the battlefield. To our left, a huge hole opened up to outer space. We could see the stars and other ships through it. That's why the air was being sucked from the hole in the door, and why the emergency closure activated.
The structure of the ship was heavily damaged. Stairs, corridors, rooms were destroyed, something passed through them all, leaving behind a breach in the ship. On the other side of the great breach, there was a large mass encased into the wall, the Infested meteor.
It was a brown and black thing, covered by bulbs containing fluids. They shone one after another, like a flow of energy. Yellow vapors were coming out from that mass and its surface was pulsating as bulbs increased in size and exploded, freeing even more infested into the ship.
The breach left by the meteor looked like a rough outline of a large corridor. Other Infested were entering from the destroyed doors, walking even upon the walls and the ceiling. The Tenno were trying to hold them confined in the area, they were jumping everywhere, reaching the highest levels of that pit. Their sentinels always followed them closely, obsessively floating above their heads just like Corpus were obsessed by profit. Kubrows were preying the Infested furiously, just like their modified instinct commanded them to do.
Valkyr, Rhino, Excalibur, Oberon, Trinity, and Frost models fought together against the plague. Few ice globes were around the area, right in front of the entrances, to slow down the incoming waves of Infested. Few could pass through, in suffering, others fell down inside the globes, trying.
Ice and plants covered the fields of the breach, waves of energy were enveloping the area. Rhino models were charging the Infested, or stomping the floor with such strength to make them detach from it, paralyzed like frozen in time. Valkyrs were mercilessly tearing every beast apart with their bright claws of pure energy, shining like torches in the dark space.
AETHERIS: "Operator, reinforcements incoming. Please endure till their arrival."
Frost charged forward, holding his Bo. He jumped and landed upon a quadruped infested that just came out from the meteor. His Bo pierced the beast's flesh, its blood flowed out and few drops remained suspended in the air because the artificial gravity system was not working properly.
I stared at him, the great hunter upon his prey. Two machines of destruction fighting each other because of their creators' mistakes. Yes, indeed, the entire war was their mistake, the more they created, the more they ruined. They thought to be always right, that their actions were perfect like their bodies. They were wrong.
What would happen if one day we betr...
My thought faded away before I could finish to elaborate the phrase, my mind went empty. It was like something cut down the flow of my thoughts. My optical sensors weren't focalizing anymore on what was in front of me. Frost and the Infested under his feet became a mass of small pixels, everything else around them as well. I felt like I was falling asleep.
Something made me come back from that feeling of emptiness. It was a man's scream of pain, accompanied by a muffled breath. The figures around me became instantly clear, my mind focused on a single thought: What was that?
From one of the highest doors, a human figure stepped into the breach, unsteady. His skin was white, his eyes were empty and fixed, his suit was covered with cuts, and a few of them reached deep into his flesh, causing blood to drip on the floor where he stood. His mouth was half opened, from it the poor man kept taking heavy breaths. His right arm was pointed forward, hand opened as if he was trying to grab something. The other arm had been cut down, the suit torn apart at shoulder-length. The naked piece of arm that remained, ended with dark red flesh, hosting a pulsing cyst that was leaving behind small floating sparkly spores.
The Infested tissue around the cyst was like a system of ramifications, very much like roots. It was covering part of the wound, blocking the blood circulation. I was pretty sure an Infested tore that man's arm when he was still human, then the Infestation had spread into his body and took over it. That was the fastest way to contaminate other living beings: through direct contact with the circulatory system of the prey.
Celeris, like the other Kubrows, began to bark in the direction of the man. Behind the Infested human, in the darkness of the corridor, other figures were coming in. Few were walking, others were dragging themselves on the floor with their arms. Passengers turned into Infested puppets.
I could not imagine how horrible was having the Infestation running into your own body, turning yourself into something else. What did they feel in the moment when they lost themselves? Their wounds reminded me about the man we found under the grates, maybe we made a mistake when we sent him back.
I hope he wasn't contaminated.