Evolved not kill Evolved 1 July 2025, Houston

Sarah Connor, one of the 12 Prototypes, traveled into the infested town. DFEV C3-L2 is a highly specialized genetic operating system with an (only okay) viral delivery system. Which means that in order to spread the precious immunity toward the leftover survivors on the continent, especially in the time where much of GenTek's high directors and facilities was already compromised, none of the planned delivery systems are now working... Which means that the sole survivors of the DFEV C3/Blacklight project directives have to manually deliver it to the ones who needed it...no matter whether they liked it or not. Infected attempted to stop her, but being one of the developers of Blacklight, she had mastery of it's every quirk and caveat. The quirks and caveats that allowed her to utilize the full potential of the "ancestral" Redlight traits, plus some of her own coding. The few unlucky Infected that tried to stop her in her way have now became part of her own biomass. The part that is currently being burned at an extremely high rate to fuel her race against time across the southern part of the U.S.

Kaiden Alenko, one of the many men and women that used to work for the enormous rocket and satellite assembly center in Houston, now hides inside a half-complete fuel tank of an Atlas V. as the Infected broke into the facility, most of the lab-coats does not know how to hide-they were brutally dismembered and eaten, their biomass dragged away to places of horror that he could only imagine. Kaiden was a physicist-He knew from their behavior that Infected hunts by heat- And the upper stage tank of the Atlas V rocket is lined with a nearly perfect insulator. An insulator that was meant to stop the liquid hydrogen from evaporating, but also shielded the heat of his body from detection by the larger Brawlers and Juggernauts that searched for heat and commanded the Hunters, Walkers and the numerous Fliers that hunted and killed the facility's staff members mercilessly. There were neither food nor water-the lab rules forbade the bringing of anything edible or drinkable into the cleanroom, which is now neither clean nor still a room. Kaiden was working on the rocket when the Infected arrived-and He didn't have any food or water on himself. Almost one day have passed, and Kaiden have started to feel the dizziness from dehydration. Infected was still roaring beneath him.

Suddenly, Kaiden Alenko could feel that the Infected below him started to look for something other than what's inside the building. Something that flies past the air with the roar of a jet-engine. Something that is not controlled by Elizabeth Greene. Sounds of Hunters's claws clanging on metal increases, the Infected mobilizing toward outside of the facility chasing the unknown object. He tried to climb out of the tank to see what happened, but a piercing pain have developed across all his body.

"The Whitelight have finally failed... maybe I will soon become one of the many infected that chases the unknown source of sound... I'm sorry for my parents. May God bless me and my son." The last thought slipped past Kaiden's mind as he fell into a deep coma.

Thousands of minute disturbances shook Kaiden's unconscious body, as minute tendrils and what looked like a dark smoke emanates from under his skin and disappearing in the same time.

The same thing is now happening on every Human still uninfected and still alive, that is contacting the air of this not-so-big town, as Sarah Connor spreads the DFEV C3-L2P as a finely aerosolized mist across the overran town. After killing and consuming several unlucky Hunters and a Juggernaut, Sarah Connor left this town with the same air-crackling speed as she came toward the town. America is still very big even with the MK1 Hyperspeed module she fashioned out of the flesh of a few Hunters and even more Flyers. The Infection is spreading, and there is still a lot of towns and people to save. No matter the cost.

Kaiden Alenko woke up in the same tank he fell unconscious in. He is still hungry. But the extreme thirst have gone. His myopia was gone. The Infected was still below him, but have seemed to calm down.

"Is this what feels to become an Infected?" Kaiden Alenko stood up, and peeked out from the top of the unfinished fuel tank. He could see multiple Walkers patrolling the floor and catwalk around the rocket. A strange craving emerged from his body, as Kaiden Alenko feels that if the Walkers in front of him was some of the most delicious food he have ever eaten. And as if a voice tells him "Eat those Infected! Eat these Walkers!".

"It looks like that I have in deed became an Infected...monster. I'm sorry for my son not being able to protect him while I am still able to... S**** the mad woman that made all this happen."

Guided by the strengthening hunger, Kaiden Alenko leapt from the edge of the Upper stage, flying across the 15-or so meters gap without even noticing, and landed right on top of one of the walkers. Black tendrils and a dark mist emerges from his body as he made contact with the Infected creature, enveloping the entire creature as sound of crackling bones and tearing flesh emanates from the unlucky Walker being torn apart and dragged into Kaiden's body. Eldritch fluids splashed from the carnage, and a reddish mist emanated from the horrifying scene that just happened. The tendrils and the black mist disappeared into Kaiden's body, as he is not standing in a puddle of what appears to be pus, blood, bone meal and water, face to face with another Walker that were used to be located behind the first.

"Did... I... just... ate it?" "What kind of monster had I became..." Kaiden Alenko stood confused in the place the Infected Walker used to be, his hunger slightly relieved, but he still could not feel his stomach. And his mind still shocked from the scene that just happened in front of his eyes.

Another Walker sensed the newly emerged threat, it's shambling body walked moved towards Kaiden. Still guided by fear from his knowledge of the Infected, Kaiden Alenko backed off the walking corpse as best as he could, before there was nowhere to go.

"Even if I die, I shall at least put a wound on Elizabeth Greene's Infected army."

"Even if I have no weapon, I will still fight you."

Kaiden Alenko clenched his fists tightly, and punched the closing Walker in the face.

Once again, Black tendrils and dark mist emanates from Kaiden's arm, punctured into and torn the Walker into thousands of tiny pieces, fluids splashing everywhere and a misty gas drifting up from the carnage, before pulling every small piece of flesh and what appeared to be a glowing red substance into his body.

Kaiden Alenko was utterly shocked as the same scene happened the second time in front of his eyes. No longer feeling hungry, he noticed that what looks like an icon the shape of a window have appeared on the top left corner of his field of view. As soon as he noticed that small icon, the small icon suddenly magnified into a simple drop menu.

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Hello-

-Energy 1055.24 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"Hello?"

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-This is DFEV C3/L2P rev1, You have been Evolved.-

-Tutorial-

-System info-

-Energy 1055.22 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"System info"

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-This is the operating system/console interface for the DFEV Dark Forest Evolutionary Genetic&Bioengineering platform by GenTek-

-You are currently running on Virtual Machine Lazarus Ver 1.8 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Tutorial-

-Energy 1055.21 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"Tutorial"

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Hello User, if you see this message, you should not panic.-

-This is the DFEV Dark Forest Evolutionary&Bioengineering platform by GenTek-

-You have been Evolved-

-This is the HUD of your current situation-

-Look around to move the mouse cursor-

-The white box is your cursor. GenTek's newest advanced CV API will produce live feed of the best property analysis result of anything currently boxed inside the cursor-

-Next-

-Energy 1055.20 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"I see these are Walkers. Also a Hunter and several Fliers. What's next?"

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Herditary abilities of DFEV C3/L2P includes the following-

-Polymorph-

-Consume-

-Autowalk-

-Prev-

-Next-

-Energy 1055.19 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"What I'm supposed to do?"

-Error: Invalid command-

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Herditary abilities of DFEV C3/L2P includes the following-

-Polymorph-

-Consume-

-Autowalk-

-Prev-

-Next-

-Energy 1055.18 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"Polymorph"

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2 support complete controllable polymorphing only for Humanoid models Update or download relevant software to use non-Humanoid models-

-Move your cursor to the extreme left of the screen your field of view-

-Current models-

-Kaiden Alenko(Default)-

-Lvl.1 Walker (#002)-

-Lvl.1 Walker (#003)-

-Energy 1055.17 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"Lvl.1 Walker (#002)"

The outer surface of Kaiden Alenko suddenly started to shimmer, smoke particles emanating fro the body and disappeared back inside, and the body of Kaiden have changed to become almost identical to the Walker he have just consumed.

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Herditary abilities of DFEV C3/L2P includes the following-

-Polymorph-

-Consume-

-Autowalk-

-Prev-

-Next-

-Energy 1054.81 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"Autowalk"

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-The arrows on your HUD indicates all possible routes toward any point/object you are currently pointing with your cursor-

-In order to engage target, simply move toward the arrows-

-The GenDynamic API will automatically perform all the necessary maneuvers needed to reach your current direction in optimal time and energy-

-Update or download relevant software to increase Autowalk performance and optimization-

-Energy 1054.80 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

Kaiden Alenko moved toward the Hunter on the bottom floor of the facility. As his higher thought processes sends the command to move to the position where the Hunter was, Kaiden Alenko's body, as if by instinct, flipped down from the catwalk, hands grabbing the metal railings on the side of the catwalks while feet anchors precisely on the various divots and extrusions on the wall, parkouring professionally down from 4th floor to the 1st floor.

"Consume"

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-The current models of DFEV can consume any living organism by direct contact-

-However, for anything whose fluid-containing interior is not directly available through Enhanced cellular tendrils alone, the outer shell of said organism must be broken first in order to expose the interior-

-When an available target is in close proximity within 0.05 m of any part of your biomass, click the "Consume" option on the right side of your cursor-

-Energy 1050.80 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

"F***"

-Error: Invalid command-

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Energy 1050.79 MJ EP 2/10-

-84/168kg-

-Safety Mode-

The Hunter was acting normally without any alert, as it thought that the figure walking toward it is just another Walker under Elizabeth Greene's order.

Kaiden Alenko sneaked toward the back side of the Hunter, and clicked "Consume".

The armored exterior of the Hunter blocked off the tendrils that emerged from the strange acting "Walker". The Hunter now knows that this "Walker" is not a part of Elizabeth Greene's Hive Mind.

The Hunter let off a deafening roar, turned back toward the figure that tried to harm it, claws raised and slashed toward the source of Danger.

Only to see that Kaiden Alenko is no longer there.

Using Autowalk, Kaiden Alenko ran and jumped between the various appliances and debris on the floor, lifting up pieces of the debris and threw them at the mightiest strength he could produce, toward the enraged Hunter. The Hunter sliced one large desk in to two stools with one of it's claws, then a rock into two halves. Then a Walker in to two screeching pieces from the middle.

-Energy 1022.50 MJ-

-Energy 1010.21 MJ-

-Energy 1001.10 MJ-

-Energy 995.20 MJ-

Kaiden noticed a large canister with the word "Hydrazine, Explosive, Toxic(T+)" on it, standing on top of a large shelf. Hydrazine that used to be fuel for the newest Mars probe. Fuel that may well be his only chance of victory. Using the same Autowalk feature, He quickly ran toward the canister, pried it off the shelf, liquid spilling out from severed tubing on the canister. Smell of Ammonia started to fill the room. He also saw a few rocket igniters on a desk, so he picked one up. Stuffing the cylindrical piece of packed explosives into the canister of hydrazine from the holes left behind by the broken tubing, Kaiden Alenko threw the now highly explosive canister towards the Hunter. The Hunter sliced into the canister with it's claws. The canister exploded in a powerful burst of orange flames, shrapnel and debris flying everywhere. From the advantage point of Kaiden Alenko, he could see that one of the Hunter's arms have been torn off by the explosion, and the armored skin of the Hunter have been charred by the orange hydrazine fireball and started to fall off. Red, pulsating, glowing flesh of the Infected can be seen from beneath. Before He saw the lower half of his body right in front of his eyes.

-Energy 950.67 MJ EP 2/10-

-79/168kg-

In the first thought, Kaiden Alenko thought that he will die from the same explosion he have created to wound that Hunter due to his stupidity. The next second, the cut on the two halves of Kaiden Alenko's body is now enveloped within a thick, black mist. Black tendrils emerges from the cut face of the two halves, meeting each other and starts to pull the two halves of Haiden Alenko back together. 3 seconds later, the cut that used to separate the upper half and lower half of Kaiden Alenko's body have all but disappeared without a trace. Kaiden Alenko have also found that his appearance have changed back to his original, or Default appearance.

-Energy 932.21 MJ EP 2/10-

-79/168kg-

Still shocked from his new found ability of instant healing, Kaiden Alenko did not waste any time - He quickly ran toward the now wounded, and still not fully-regenerated Hunter, pressed one of his hands onto the squirming, fresh red glowing muscles, and clicked "Consume".

This time, the same mass of tendrils and black mist is able to penetrate the now cracked shell of the Hunter, the Hunter produced the last roar in despair, before being shredded into hundreds and thousands of pieces and pulled into Kaiden Alenko's body, leaving behind a puddle of liquids and a pile of ground-up bones.

-VirNT ver 3.0.1 rev2.2, Xwin ver 4.5.3 by Marcus d'morpheus-

-Command line-

-Settings-

-Code editor-

-Energy 4811.14 MJ EP 10/10-

-168/168kg-

-Full access-

Many other "Humans" have emerged from the rubble that used to be the town of Houston. Many have mutated limbs, some had claws , some holding what seems to be a sword, and there is even one black man that have created a huge blade for one of his arms. Judged by the eldritch looking fluid dripping from the edge of said blade, this man must have went through quite a battle with the Infected in the town.

James Heller: "We all thought we were the chosen one when we found out that something gave us the abilities that used to be exclusive to the Infected monsters that turned our town into their breeding ground. From the message we now knew that this is not a gift and it is not accidental. This is a contingency plan created by the best minds of Humanity for the event of nature's vengeance. This is the desperate legacy of the only ones that were awake when everyone else was asleep. This is a call for WAR! Humanity is not fallen, Nature may unite it's forces against us under Elizabeth Greene but Nature is stagnant, it had it's limits that it can not overcome. We are constantly evolving as we had the means to do so. Only we Humans had the mind and brain power to push evolution past it's stagnant limits. We are the Evolved, and we will not perish in this dark forest of the Universe."

Jack Harper: "Elephant may kill Elephant, Tigers may kill Tiger, Ape may kill Ape, but Evolved don't kill Evolved. Elizabeth Greene thought that individuality caused disunity that made us fight ourselves and made us weak, what she failed to see is that the same individuality is what made us Humans create, innovate, evolve, and what will ultimately bring us better than anything she could ever imagine!"

(One of the reason Real-Life Hive Minds, like ants or bees, are evolutionarily stagnant. Ants have been around for at least 220 million years, and the first modern bees appeared in the late cretaceous circa 80 million years ago. And they still resembled their ancestors, not even a single detail have changed- As soon as you had unlimited access to everything your species have ever developed, you stop looking for new ways to solve a problem and stick with existing solutions whenever a new chellenge is met. And all knowledge of an anthill covers a massive range of different possible challenges in an ant's standpoint. This prevent the ants themselves from mutating to tackle an evolutionary challenge, as there is always a (nomatter how inefficient) mean of dealing with said challenge buried within the anthill's collective memories. Same story for fictional Hive Minds- a Hive Mind can not innovate because nomatter what chellenge they met, there is always an existing (often quite poor) solution somewhere down the collective. It worked initially- But a solution that one may come up in tha absense of knowledge of an existing one within the collective can often solve problems more than what it was originally designed for. And by accumulating more and more such innovative solutions through the action of the millions of individuals within a society, the collective's ability of solving problems eventually improves, and the entire species evolves one problem at a time. Hive Minds may always have some sort of solution whenever a problem meets them, yet the collective ability of a Hive Mind in solving problems will not increase because no new knowlege and novel solutions are made when the collective's will is used to solve the problem. Hence why ants are still ants, and bees are still bees.)

Samuel Norman: "Everyone who stood here that still had their own independent mind had a different past. Some wealthy. Some poor, Some prince, Some serf. Some hero, Some criminal. Some knowledgeable, some illiterate. But if I was to point out ONE trait common through all of us, is that we are now all survivors standing on the same starting line. What used to be our conflict of interest no longer matter in this new world. We are all Awake. We are all Evolved. United we stand, divided we fall."

(For anyone who have commented on the purported Hive Mind- Keep in mind that Viruses in Real Life are dumb and non-active. Let alone Sentient. As this work is intended to stick to Real-world physics and biology without introducing Magic from other works, Blacklight, New Blacklight® and other versions of the genetically modified Hobo-Shoggoths will be denied use of Magic- Even Space Magic like the Element Zero from Mass Effect, or QEC (Real-life QEC can only be used for encryption, not FTL instant-communications like what Mass Effect (Circa 2010) claimed due to the lack of understanding on this subject) (Though Redlight would be allowed to use Magic that is defined in the Universe of Mass Effect- Biotics, for one. and other shenigans that Element Zero does in-universe.) (Though they will still try- with catastrophic consequences.). For now and on, Blacklight will only stick to science and technologies that had direct reference within Google Academic, plus some logical extension of the papers themselves+certain exaggeration to make it gameplay-wise compatible to what you see in the Games. As Hive Minds violate known scientific theories regarding the light-speed limit of communication, and there is no way that a radio could be made small enough to fit inside a cell (and even if you managed to do it, the trillions of cells within a single body will clutter out all possible channels in Radio frequency long before instant, cell-to-cell communication was achieved for less than 2.5*10^-6 of the total cell number of an average Human.), Blacklight itself would have no access to a Hive Mind, and instead rely on communication technologies that worked: Electrical communication through wires, plus some large-scale slow data transfers handled through varients of gene editing. None of these mechanisms are capable of crossing the air-gap between disconnected Biomass, so they would have to stick to Human-style communications by talking and sign language. For now.)

(Individual-level communications through the use of existing or known technologies, like WIFI or GSM, would be soon made available to the Evolved- As soon as they develop the technology to build the more traditional forms and scales of electronics required in these technology with molecular manufacturing. Although it will be best a form of glorified, organic Internet instead of the instant mind-upload shennigan in Biomass Effect- Instant, Full-Brain upload to a remote location is just not possible within that timescales under Shannon's limits of information theory with transmitters the full-body size of an Evolved. let lone the brain of one (which is much, much smaller).)