Alright and we finally come from the hiatus and onto this chapter. For the record, if you haven't read the latest story arc in Accounts of the Flood Conflicts, I would recommend doing so now, otherwise you'll be totally lost on everything that's happening. If you have read through it already, well, you know what's coming next.
Anyway, to recap what happened last time: Dark Samus killed Han and Leia Solo, abducted their granddaughter Allana and gave her to the Gravemind, who used her to find the Throne of Balance. Subsequently, the Gravemind also obtained the Relics of Remnant, the Spear of Destiny and the Infinity Stones, using all of these artifacts to rebuild its old galaxy-sized body.
And here's what happens next.
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars, Halo, Mass Effect, or any other franchise that makes its appearance in this story.
In orbit over Ossus
Onboard the Normandy, the members of Inferno Squadron were being interrogated by the crew. All three had been disarmed (and with Hask, that phrase was barely kept from being literal due to his cybernetic arm) and were kneeling on the floor with their hands behind their back.
Garrus and James were standing behind the trio, keeping a close eye on their hands to ensure that they didn't try to slip out of their bonds, while Shepard continued the interrogation, with Javik, Ventress and Locus on hand and willing to provide some 'persuasion.'
But despite their efforts, Iden Versio, Gideon Hask and Del Meeko refused to give up any meaningful information about the First Order, especially not the faction's home base. Before deciding to let the Prothean and Nightsister off their leash, Shepard decided to go for another line of questioning.
"How did you know about the Unitologist operation?" Shepard asked. "Who or what tipped you off?"
"Do you really believe we'd tell our enemy that?" Hask spat. "That you could ask politely and we'd just tell you everything? The stories really were true. You are weak."
"Do your worst." Iden dared. "We will serve the Supreme Leader to the end."
"That can be arranged." Javik and Ventress said at the same time, but Shepard just sighed.
"Very well, we can do this the hard way." Shepard looked up at the ceiling. "EDI, send in the memory extractor." There was a flash of light, and suddenly, a strange headband appeared in the Commander's hand.
"Now, this little device will scan your mind and read it, giving us everything you know. This is your last chance to tell us everything willingly." Three defiant stares were all the answer they gave. Shepard sighed. "As you wish."
But before Shepard could put the headband on Iden, the laughter started. It was low, but a familiar noise that no one in the room could forget, not after hearing it from thousands upon thousands of horrific abominations. The laughter of the Gravemind echoed through the halls, this sound actually eliciting fear from Inferno Squadron along with the others in the room.
"Do not be afraid. I bring unity. I bring peace."
"EDI, this better not be some kind of joke." Shepard warned, looking at the nearest holoprojector.
"I am unable to determine the source." The AI's avatar sprang up, sounding unnerved herself. "It seems to be coming from everywhere."
"Commander, we've got a problem!" Joker's voice came over the intercom. "Flood dispersal pods have appeared over Ossus."
"How did we not detect them?" Garrus muttered, as Shepard spoke up.
"What vector are they coming in from?" Joker's answer wasn't exactly pleasant.
"All of them."
...
The Jedi Temple found itself under a barrage of Flood forms as more and more dispersal pods rained through the atmosphere. Having been on edge due to the Flood's recent corruption of the Force, as well as having accepted the Republic's offer of hospitality, the Temple had already been in the process of evacuation when the attack began.
But the fact that they had gotten no prior warning besides the Gravemind's laughter, not from the Force, not from any other ground or space sensors, and not from the Republic itself indicated a number of possibilities, none of them pleasant.
And given the horde of Flood forms advancing on them at this very moment, those possibilities were being narrowed down to the worst ones. All over the Temple grounds, lightsabers ignited and blasterfire tore through the air, as the Parasite closed in.
"From life's cruel embrace, I offer release."
"We need to evacuate, right now!" Luke shouted, sending a Force Push out that would normally have torn flesh from bone. At this point, all it did was knock a handful of them back a few meters. "We won't be able to hold the Temple any longer."
"Get to the transports!" Kyle shouted, but as soon as he said that, several rockets lanced out and smashed into the engines of the nearest transport, grounding the vessel. The firer, a Chadra-Fan dropped the weapon and raised his arms to the sky.
"The master has returned!" The Joyous shout was drowned out as the technician was swarmed by the Parasite, changing the Unitologist into one of them now.
More and more Flood forms landed, with Seeders and Infestors going after and corrupting airborne and ground vehicles, turning them against the people they had previously been protecting.
And all through the Force, one vision suddenly became clear to the Jedi, thrust into their minds: a multiverse of life consumed by the Parasite, with nothing but horrors beyond imagining.
A dark shadow approached the galaxy, dwarfing and consuming the billions of stars and trillions upon trillions of sentient life forms, leaving nothing but pain, suffering and misery in their wake.
This was the fate that awaited them all.
Wynn Dorvan watched helplessly as the Flood attack had begun. He was standing in his office, watching through the window as millions of drop pods fell to the surface. Behind him, several uniformed guards were standing over the bodies of loyalist GA Security, as the Unitologists had all but ensured that he could not escape.
Not that there was anywhere to go. For the first time ever, the Flood had landed on Coruscant. Millions of drop pods and spore capsules rained through the atmosphere, teleporting through the planetary shields.
GA military forces attempted to defend against this threat, but they were almost effortlessly overwhelmed as the Flood was quick to make use of all the biomass on Coruscant. Massive tentacles began emerging from the underlevels, several wrapping themselves around skyscrapers and crumpling them like cardboard.
The collapse of the IDA, the war with the UNSC, the Council and the other factions, the loss of the Solos. All that was pointless now. This had the potential to surpass the destruction wrought by the Great Flood war.
"Resistance is hopeless, I will not be stopped,"
"The master's return is at hand!" One of the Unitologists preached. "Glorious salvation for all!"
At that moment, the door to the Chief of State's office blew open, as precision blasterfire struck the Unitologists before they could muster themselves. A snap-hiss of an igniting lightsaber revealed the form of Yantahar Bwua'tu, who parried the blaster bolts of the surviving Unitologists back at them. Once they had fallen, the Jedi and the security squad turned to him.
"Chief, we need to go right now!" The Bothan grabbed his arm, but Wynn remained rooted to the spot. "Sir, we have to move."
"And go where?" Dorvan asked, his tone a touch hysterical. "How do we escape this?!" He gestured to the window.
"We have a bunker underneath the building." One of the guards replied. "We know that the Flood hasn't compromised it yet."
"Wynn please." Yantahar sent as much of a calming wave as he could through the Force. "We must see to your safety." Dorvan was silent for a long moment.
"Very well." He said at last, walking away from the window. "Lead the way."
The Bothan Jedi nodded and allowed the Security guards to lead the way, while simultaneously doing his best to ignore his own lingering doubts. And his effort was failing. Even through the Gravemind's corruption of the Force, he could still feel the loss of billions as they were consumed by the Parasite.
Coruscant was practically a buffet to them, and it was becoming quite clear that no aid would come. And it wasn't because the Flood was jamming transmissions, it was quite the opposite. Thousands upon thousands of distress signals from all over the Galaxy had been broadcasted into the Senate building, as it became clear that the current situation was hardly unique to Coruscant.
"All will join the fold, whether willfully or not."
Yantahar could feel the Jedi fighting on Ossus, and it was clear that they were about to be overrun. But there was nothing the Alliance could do. There was nothing anyone could do.
When the superpowers had reported that the Flood had survived, the Senate had assumed that the Republic and Separatists had it well in hand. The Flood clearly wasn't as much of a threat as it had been during the Great Flood war, and even hoped that it's continued existence would keep the two of them busy.
And as they approached the Senate chambers, it became clear just how much that wish had cost them. The guards and Jedi stepped back, with the latter pushing Dorvan behind him.
The Flood had clearly breached the Hall, as thousands of unique combat forms were present aboard the repulsorlift pods. And as one entity, they turned to the small gathering that had mistakenly stepped through what they had thought was still a safe zone.
With a loud roar, the Flood leapt down.
Mandalore was under attack. The Parasite had appeared out of nowhere, bypassing the defensive fleets in orbit as well as doing their best to board them. On the ground, Mandalorian warriors fought against their infected brethren as mounds of Flood biomass hurled spores into the atmosphere, already starting to terraform the world.
Boba Fett watched a bombardment from several Canderous-class tanks as they unleashed their firepower against one of the Spore Mounds. While suffering from severe damage, the barrage failed to destroy it, and a massive Flood root tore its way out of the ground, grabbing one of the tanks and throwing it at another one.
"The Flood has risen again, our chorus fills the night,"
Meanwhile other Pure forms were launched out of the Flood pile, with several Infestors making their way to the tanks. As the Mandalor watched, one of the creatures latched onto a tank, tearing through the hatches and corrupting the screaming crew with tentacles, turning them into more biomass.
The corrupted tank immediately turned on its fellows, forcing several other Mandalorians to divert their attention. Boba himself launched a jetpack missile, contributing to the the tank's destruction.
It was a minor victory in the grand scheme of things: more and more Flood forms were still incoming, capsules of hardened biomass releasing their contents on the ground or in the atmosphere.
Boba was forced to activate his rocket pack when several combat forms landed near his position, forcing him to unleash more of his arsenal against these monsters while he was forced to retreat.
He hated doing this, hated having to fight these creatures. The Mandalorian in him was galled at the destruction they were carrying out, turning friend against friend, tearing families apart and forcing brother to fight brother.
"Like water we ebb and flow, with no end in sight!"
The worst part was how quickly they had blindsided them. There was no warning beyond the Gravemind's laughter, no preparation to be had against this onslaught, and if what little they heard was true, no possible way to get reinforcements.
Unless a miracle happened Mandalore would fall in less than a day.
Over the UEG Earth, the UNSC's Home Fleet and Orbital MAC platforms had stood guard, having been upgraded with Forerunner technology ever since the Great Flood War. The defenses were so heavy that any open attack against the planet was considered suicide by most of the IDA factions after their civil war started.
Then the Star Roads appeared in orbit and effortlessly shut all of them down at once. As Flood capsules began boarding the ships and platforms, countless more began the invasion of Earth itself.
"Our numbers are infinite, we grow as I speak,"
Air raid sirens had been intermingled with anti-aircraft fire, as the AI controlled defenses did what little they could to stem the tide. Like everything else, it wasn't enough, as many of them landed on the surface.
The UNSC had prepared plans for an attack by the Flood ever since they learned of the Parasite's existence, plans that had only become more comprehensive during and after the Great Flood War.
But this attack on such a scale was unprecedented. Lord Hood looked over the data, which wasn't as comprehensive as he would've liked due to ONI's dismantling, and knew that extreme measures had to be taken, and in fact were being taken at that moment.
The most infected cities would be targeted and destroyed by nuclear strikes in an effort to stem the Flood's advance. But deep in his heart, the Fleet Admiral knew that it was a futile gesture.
They couldn't even expect any chance of aid from the other colonies: from what reports they had heard, this wasn't an isolated incident. The Flood was everywhere, attacking on an unprecedentedly coordinated scale that even the Forerunners couldn't have pulled off.
The Gravemind had clearly left the comms open, letting the entire Human Sphere know just what fate awaited them. In fact, any attempt to cut off the broadcasts had been overwritten remotely.
The facility shook from a tremendous impact, causing Hood to check the security monitor. The Flood had apparently located the new HQ of HighCom, and they had already breached into the building proper.
Security teams led by some of the best Spartans and ODSTs held their ground, but even now Hood could tell it was a losing battle. The Admiral pulled out his sidearm, but hesitated, looking over the weapon.
It would be so easy. He racked the slide. Just pull the trigger...
...
Arbiter Thel 'Vadam slid underneath the tank form's clumsy swing, carving it into two pieces with the Prophet's Bane. His movement flowed like water as he rolled to his feet, cutting down several combat forms as they tried to finish off what the other forms hadn't.
One by one, the Sangheili Kaidon took them down, as the battle devolved into a chaotic melee within his Keep. Angered and disgusted that the Parasite had broken into his home and attacked his planet, the Arbiter continued the battle as his guards did the same.
"We are the young and the old, the strong and the weak."
All the while, Thel knew that all the Sangheili were doing was prolonging the inevitable. The sheer veracity and scale of the Parasite's attack had caught them all of guard, and the ships of the defense fleet above were already being forced to either self-destruct or inevitably turn against one another.
As the Arbiter kicked a stalker form off one of the balconies, he could see the Shadow of Intent overhead, its weapons flaring as it took several corrupted ships out of the sky.
He knew Rtas would fight to the bitter end, just like any true Sangheili would. But in his hearts he knew that it would be a bitter end for the Sangheili. The Flood were clearly attacking everywhere, and with the IDA fractured, there was no way any of them could survive.
This was a thought that proved prophetic as a fresh wave of Flood pods appeared from the sky. Towering Abominations tore through Wraiths and Ghosts while Banshees were forced to take evasive action against Seeder forms.
And all around the Arbiter, Sangheilios burned.
The many factions that made up the now former InterDimensional Alliance found themselves at the complete lack of mercy exhibited by the Flood as they rampaged unchecked through space.
"All life will soon fall, all will join the fold,"
Colonies of the UCN fell almost effortlessly, their ISA defenses providing little protection and the Parasite was more than willing to turn said defenses against the UCN when they arrived to provide what aid they could.
In the United Systems region of space, the Colonial Marine Corps found themselves severely outnumbered, outgunned and outmatched by the size of the Parasite attacks. And many of the megacorporations found out the hard way that their money was all but worthless in the face of this onslaught.
The Galactic Federation had still not fully recovered from the Great Flood war, and while their military had managed to adapt and fought rather valiantly against the Parasite, they were still outmatched and were inevitably forced to sacrifice multiple worlds as they attempted to pick which planets to save.
Not that it really mattered in the long run. More often than not, defense fleets and military forces found the Flood bypassing them and targeting civilians, and by the time they could redeploy, they then found themselves under attack by the civilians they had intended to protect, with mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, daughters and sons turned against their families.
...
Throughout Citadel Space, the Parasite launched a savage attack, one of their main priorities being the Citadel. Almost as soon as they had boarded the station, the Flood had immediately taken control of the Mass Relay network, shutting them all down and keeping anyone from escaping.
Star Roads had also appeared in the Serpent Nebula, deactivating every ship that attempted to flee the station. The attack was so sudden that the Council had no time to evacuate, and it took very little time for them to overwhelm C-Sec and breach the bunker the Council was hiding in.
While the Citadel fell quickly, the worlds that made up the Council governments had no intention of doing the same. The Turians refused to retreat and fought against annihilation with the same determination they always had. Even with their fleets crippled and their very infrastructure under attack, the military arm of Citadel space continued to fight on.
The Asari and Salarians, however, were caught more flat-footed. Even as steeped in war footing as they were due to the IDA civil war, the Flood's unexpected attack sent them scrambling to face it.
This left many other species vulnerable, with the Volus, Hanar and Elcor among them. Previously, the Flood had mostly neglected the homeworlds of the Council Species during the Great Flood War, but this time they were past that point of courtesy.
...
For Urdnot Wrex, it was an unpleasant sense of deja vu as the Parasite once again attacked Tuchanka. After the Great Flood War, the Krogan had returned to their homeworld after a hasty evacuation, but less than a decade later, the enemy that had forced them off the first time was back.
And this time, the Krogan had their backs against the wall, since they had nowhere to go and they knew it. Even if they could get off the ground during the constant bombardment of Flood pods, everywhere else in the galaxy was under attack, and potentially the entire multiverse as well.
Of course, the Krogan Overlord knew better than most that a cornered animal was all the more dangerous. If the Krogan were to finally fall against this enemy, they would make damn sure that the Flood would remember it.
"Keep fighting, you pyjacks!" Wrex shouted, even as he launched a Warp bolt into the center of the Flood horde. "If the Flood want to take the Krogan, then we'll be sure to make it hurt! For Tuchanka!"
"FOR TUCHANKA!"
...
On Rannoch, things were not going so pleasantly. In the years since the Reaper War, the Quarians had slowly but surely reintegrated peacefully with the Geth. Oh there had been some instances of violence, and former Admirals Han'Garrel and Xen had occasionally advocated for Geth destruction and slavery respectively, but after the formation of the IDA and the revelation that the UNSC and Galactic Alliance still used widespread AIs, those viewpoints died down considerably.
"Near or far, all realms will come to our hold."
When the Great Flood war began, the two races hunkered down and defended their home, though strangely, the Flood had mostly ignored them until the final days. This time however, it did not, and was especially cruel in its method.
Tali ducked behind cover as a Geth Prime kept her pinned, it's Spitfire blaring loudly as the Flood continued their rampage. Activating her omni-tool, her drone appeared behind the Prime and detonated, staggering the large Geth and allowing her time to blast it with her Arc projector.
The moment of victory was short lived as more Geth supported Flood approached, forcing the remaining Quarians to retreat back into the bunker. Tali was the last in, locking the door with the strongest encryption she knew, but was aware that it would only slow them for a moment.
When the Flood had started their assault, they had also sent a signal through the Geth network, corrupting them with some form of the logic plague. In moments, the previously loyal Geth had turned on their creators, aiding the Flood in consuming Rannoch.
Tears flowed down Tali's face and she was unable to stop it. She knew than unlike before, Shepard wouldn't be coming for her at the last minute. The Quarians wouldn't escape this onslaught, no matter how much they fought.
Any semblance of a brave face all but shattered as Tali fell to despair.
Even the isolation of Starkiller Base couldn't protect the First Order from the Flood's attack. The Parasite had dropped onto the fortified planet in waves, breaching through the defenses worryingly quickly, even for the Parasite.
Of course, when Unitologists were found aiding the Flood in their entry to the underground levels, the reason for the Parasite's ease became alarmingly clear. Fortunately, there hadn't been that many, but nevertheless, the damage had been done and the Parasite was swarming through the First Order HQ.
"All life is in my hand,"
Stormtroopers and Dark Troopers held the line as best as they could, utilizing choke points as much as possible, but it wasn't enough as the Parasite continued to overwhelm the defenders, often finding new avenues to bypass the chokepoints.
The primary cloning facilities on the planet were heavily guarded by vehicles and battalions of heavily armed troops. Supreme Leader Snoke had even sent his personal Phase III Dark Trooper to aid in the defense, and so far they were holding.
As for the Supreme Leader himself, he, Vestara and Hux had been caught by surprise in the attack and were currently fighting their way through the Parasite to get to safer lines.
Force lightning arced through the hallways as they fried the Parasite, becoming increasingly harder for Vestara and Snoke to control given what the Flood were doing to the Force itself.
A smaller abomination came rolling down the hall and Vestara bisected it with her lightsaber, before using Force Push to knock away a carrier form that had just fallen from the ceiling vents.
The explosion downed several Flood forms behind them, and a sudden burst of blasterfire from the side passage took care of the remainder. Once the hall was momentarily clear, a squad of Shadow Troopers led by Phasma appeared, providing covering fire as they escorted their Supreme Leader to safety.
"Get to the command center." Snoke ordered. "We must call for reinforcements."
Fortunately, the First Order forces were holding for the moment, allowing them to do just that. But when they arrived, it became clear that no help would be forthcoming. Distress signals from all over First Order territory had been initiated, making it clear just how widespread the Flood were.
"What do we do now?" Hux asked. Snoke was silent for a moment.
"Contact the Banished." He finally said.
...
"Atriox, we're getting a transmission from the First Order." The leader of the Banished didn't speak, instead focusing on knocking away the Pure from attacking him. Once the Flood from was nothing but a pulpy mass, Atriox heeded the report.
"Patch it through."
"The prudent, the foolish."
"Atriox, we're under heavy attack from the Flood!" Hux's panicked voice came over the comlink, which still remained clear even with everything going on.
"You and the rest of the multiverse." Atriox snarled. "My forces are being overrun at this very moment."
And that was a bitter pill to swallow. After the events on the Ark and High Charity, none of the Banished were very enthralled with the idea of the Parasite attacking once more, and were fortunate enough that they avoided the brunt of the Great Flood war.
But this time, the scale was unprecedented. Not even the Forerunners had to deal with this sort of attack, not at this scale. All across the desert world, Banished forces were engaging the Parasite, with more than a few of their forces already infected.
Banshees fought and were infected by Seeder forms, infected vehicles traded volleys with each other, captured bases were already being converted into mounds of Flood Biomass and even the building where Atriox was currently standing was under assault, the Flood having broken the shield doors and engaging Voridus, Pavium and Laccabeus outside.
In the skies above, the Enduring Conviction was still holding its own, glassing concentrations of the Flood wherever it could, but the Banished chieftain knew that even the supercarrier would eventually succumb to the continuing attack.
Already, the atmosphere was being choked with Flood spores, which would inevitably corrupt the defenders still fighting as more and more Flood forms kept falling from the sky. No aid would be forthcoming, that much Atriox knew, and it seemed that the First Order hadn't grasped that yet, or more likely, they were in denial.
"All who dwell in the land,"
"There must be something you can send!" Hux's voice was almost a shriek now, and in the background of the transmission, the Banished leader could hear blasterfire and the approaching howling of the Flood. "We are in desperate need of reinforcements."
"Get in line!" Atriox slammed his fist into the speaker, not wishing to hear the General's whining any more.
It was a futile belief that there was anything they could do to survive and Atriox knew it. He had no false delusions that the Banished could beat back the Flood themselves, not at this level.
Still, he refused to bow down to fate so easily. If the Banished kept fighting, then so would he. But it would be a last stand, and deep down, they all knew it. All that they could really do now (besides fight) was hope for a miracle.
Omega was on fire. This, well wasn't normally too out of the ordinary for the station, especially during Aria's reign, but it had never been this damaged since Darth Maul had taken over.
Unfortunately for the Shadow Collective, the Flood weren't exactly giving them a choice in the matter, as the Sith's forces were forced to burn out parts of the station to keep the Parasite from spreading. And at the moment, it didn't seem to be enough.
"Their days are numbered"
Maul himself was trying to keep himself calm, but the constant damage reports and continual distress beacons from his forces was making that difficult. The Flood was everywhere, operating on a scale that no one had any defense against.
As he absentmindedly gave orders, he couldn't help but feel despair creeping in. It wasn't a foreign concept to him, but for once, he couldn't exactly make use of it to fuel his power over the Dark Side, not after whatever the Flood had done.
"Until the last sunrise,"
"Brother." Maul looked to his personal terminal and was relieved to see Savage still alive, albeit clearly harried and exhausted. "We have lost Sera to the Flood. They've overrun everything."
"Forget Sera!" Maul all but shouted. "You must leave, apprentice. Now!"
"And go where?" The Nightbrother asked, the simple question burning through Maul's thoughts. "If the Flood are as widespread as we fear, then what place is secure?"
"Until the war is over,"
"I-I don't know." The Sith admitted, stunning his brother and those controllers nearby. There was a brief moment of silence before Maul's senses spiked and fear gathered in his gut.
"Savage, behind you!"
The Nightbrother swung around, his lightsaber instinctively cutting into the carrier form that had managed to slip behind him. Maul could only watch helplessly as his brother had done the exact wrong thing, the explosion sending the Nightbrother flying towards the screen.
"No."
Maul could do nothing but watch helplessly as the resulting Infection forms slithered toward his brother. Savage recovered enough to struggle, but it was far too late, as one form breached his armor and burrowed into his chest, twisting the yellow and brown tattooed Zabrak into a combat form. The form turned and looked at Maul, Savage's voice now one with the Gravemind.
"Until reality dies!"
His vision had come true. Maul collapsed to his knees as the realization struck him. All those premonitions he had had, all the work he had done for the Gravemind: none of this would've come to pass without what he had done.
Panicked shouts for orders came from the rest of the bridge, but he couldn't hear them, his mind blocking them out. Nothing mattered, not anymore. Not when he knew his brother was gone. He snapped back to the present at the explosion behind him, but was sluggish nonetheless.
The Sith drew his lightsaber in a futile gesture. There were too many, the Flood too widespread and already upon him. The Infection form was mere centimeters away when it suddenly disintegrated.
Stunned at his own survival, Maul finally registered the same thing happening to every Flood form that had entered the room. Rising to his feet, the Sith checked the security monitors, and found that the pitched battle that had gripped Omega had suddenly ground to a halt, as soldiers and mercenaries looked around, confused by the sudden lack of Flood in the vicinity.
"Um... what the hell just happened?"
What happened on Omega was not an isolated incident. Just as quickly as the Flood had arrived, they vanished, disintegrated by an extremely powerful energy wave that propagated throughout the multiverse, not unlike how the Great Flood war had ended the first time around.
All across reality, many people looked up to the sky with hope and shock, scarcely willing to believe that their sudden nightmare had abruptly come to an end. But it quickly became clear that this was no illusion, no cruel trick by the Parasite.
All over what remained of IDA space, many survivors began cheering, caught up in the moment that they had actually survived what should have been the end times for the multiverse.
A lot of that good cheer was inevitably brought crashing down when it became clear just how much had been lost during the attack. The Flood had caused considerable damage during their rampage, and countless people had been consumed by the Parasite before they were stopped.
And that wasn't counting the damage caused by the Flood's actual destruction: unlike last time, the energy hadn't been solely focused on destroying Flood biomass and Precursor artifacts. It had lashed out, scarring the surfaces of numerous worlds and shattering many others.
Whole star systems were rendered uninhabitable, with some stars even completely snuffed out. The full extent of the damage to the entire multiverse would never be cataloged and it wouldn't be until later that other, unusual effects were noticed.
They had survived, but the cost was high.
...
Atriox looked around the camp, watching as his forces slowly recovered from what had happened. The destruction of the Parasite had been an unexpected windfall, but the damage was still done.
Pillars of smoke wafted into the air, with many vehicles and buildings burning. Even the Enduring Conviction had noticeable damage, fire streaking out of a number of openings in the hull, with damage control forces doing their best to repair the stricken ship.
There weren't very many bodies, but that was hardly reassuring given the circumstances. Laccabeus limped over to the Banished Chieftain, a smirk on his face in spite of everything.
"It seems the Republic and Separatists have saved the day once again." The Shipmaster snarked. "Remind me to thank them for the timely rescue." Atriox ignored his fellow Jiralhanae's vitriol and turned to the communications officer.
"I want reports from all surviving units. I want to know what we still have and what we've lost." The warmaster growled. "And get me a line to Maul and Snoke. We need to get ahead of this setback."
And that's the end of this chapter. Again, if you haven't read the previous chapters from Accounts of the Flood Conflicts, I would recommend doing so now, as it's rather important for explaining what happened here.
Suffice to say though, shit has hit the fan for... well, pretty much everyone. This event is going to have major ramifications going forward, I can guarantee that much. How and why though, are still up in the air.
With that said, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.