Blood. Cold and thick like the veins it rested in. That was the first thing the serpent experienced when the time came for it to be born.
It took its first bite, tasting blood for the first time as it sank its silver teeth into the dense tissue of an organ. It bit again, pushing forward at the same time. A third bite tore straight through the organ and collided with bone. Acid spewed from its mouth. Nothing more than a few droplets, but enough to weaken the bone as it pressed on. Flesh ripped and was forced aside. Bone crunched and gave way. Only skin left now, thick and tough like the skin of the serpent. Cold blood everywhere.
One last bite, then the serpent felt air, hotter than flesh but not as tangible. The air hummed, too, a low quiet hum that permeated everything. The bloodied head rose up past dented armor and ruined flesh, seeing for the first time. The blood was yellow-green, its glow dulled after two hours of coagulating. The world around the host was a mix of dark greys, browns and black. On one side it spied a black sea and twinkling stars, a thick transparent shell separating the metal room from the cold abyss that surrounded the ship. The serpent saw its reflection for the first time, recognizing itself even in infancy. Yellow skin smeared green with the blood of its host. A smooth, curved face with no eyes or nose but a mouth of silvery sharp teeth surrounded by tusks inherited from its deceased host. The serpent screeched, tusks flaring like a flower, drowning out the hum for a short time, before its body slid out the host's cavity and hit the warm metal floor with a wet smack. The door opposite the massive window was sealed, but it spied another way out, a circular hole in the wall no bigger than the ragged hole it had left behind. The serpent slithered to it, disappearing into the warm comfort of darkness.
Time passed. The door remained sealed. No one came to check on the body that lay on the black altar that was aglow with blood-red symbols.
In the deepest, most isolated chamber in the ship, the serpent began to grow. The little stubs in its body became arms and legs, limber and muscled. As the yellow-brown skin stretched and ripped, hands and feet formed from the stubs and became claws. Its tail became segmented, a thick long barb emerging from the tip like a spearhead. From beneath the shredded skin emerged an obsidian shell. Thick black tendrils dangled from the elongated head like dreadlocks. The serpent ripped the last piece of old skin from its arm and stood up.
The growing was done, and the hunting must begin.
The ducts were much too small now, so it forced the door open and entered the hallway. It stuck to the shadows as it went, avoiding the square white lights that illuminated most of the passageway. It knew where to go first, having sensed the presence of impregnators while searching for a safe place to grow. There was one in particular that it had to retrieve at any cost.
It could sense them now, squirming spidery creatures floating in amniotic fluid. They were moving, it realized all of a sudden. The crew of the ship was taking the impregnators away. Taking them this way.
The serpent ducked into an alcove and crouched behind the skull of a great six-eyed reptile to hide from two masked crewmembers as they pushed the hovering craft of cylindrical tanks down the hallway. The impregnators were inside, floating almost lifelessly in the pale grey liquid. The one slightly bigger than the others, the most precious impregnator of all, suddenly lunged at the masked creature pushing the rear of the craft, its red 'palm' and probing proboscis striking thick glass. Acid was secreted to weaken the glass, only to be instantly neutralized by the fluid. The impregnator floated away from the glass and back to the center of the cylinder, giving up for now.
When the craft had passed the serpent emerged from behind the skull, only for its ambush to be foiled by a door that descended out of nowhere and sealed off the rest of the hallway.
The serpent gripped one of the grooves and lifted the door as easily as if it were lifting a fallen sapling, then slid under the gap.
The masked creature on the other side, one different than the two carrying the impregnators, stood frozen for a second or two. Then the strange object on its shoulder rose up just as three red lasers shot out from the side of the silver mask and pointed straight at the serpent.
The serpent hissed, ducked the deadly blue sphere that spat out of the shoulder cannon and lashed out with its tail. The thick barb skewered the threat straight through its chest armor and then dragged it forward until their faces were inches apart.
With a long, drawn out hiss, the serpent opened its jaws wide and the inner jaw shot out in a black flash, punching a hole straight through the helmet. An explosion of glowing green liquid tore out the back of the creature's head. The creature went limp. The serpent dropped it like the sack of meat it was.
Blood. Warm and fluid. The serpent paused to savor it before resuming its pursuit of the impregnators.
In a scouting craft attached to the underside of the Mothership, the two clan brothers placed the parasitoids in the cargo hold and sealed the room tight. Every precaution was taken, every sensor ready to alert them if the cylinders so much as tilted. It was essential that none of the parasitoids escaped, especially the one that contained the queen embryo, not until the ship reached its destination. As for the serpent they'd found gestating inside their fallen clan brother, a lethal injection had killed the abomination in its crib.
At the bridge, a third clan brother, an elite older and leagues above the blooded joining him on his mission, watched the slowly spinning hologram of their starting point, a small planet of blue and white, one that recently bore witness to one of the greatest disasters of their generation. The loss of the Great Pyramid would be mourned, but its sacrifice had not been in vain; their fallen clan brother had died ensuring that the serpent plague did not escape. A warrior's funeral awaited him back at Homeworld, but the crew of the scout ship had been given a mission of a different sort. The Great Pyramid was just one of many their ancestors had built; with the royal parasitoid, they could begin anew with another.
Its wrist computer beeped, signaling that the parasitoids were secure. The elite warrior sat at a great black chair and started the disengagement sequence. With a hiss that could only be heard from inside, the scout ship separated from its mother and blazed away in a different direction. They were on auto-pilot at the moment, flying at a cruising speed of ten miles per second, but with the hyper drive they would arrive at their next destination in a matter of hours. Once they conducted their mandatory orbital survey of Dhi'haka, it was just a matter of locating the pyramid. Once the next pyramid was reactivated and the new queen was born and secured, the Rite of Passage would be preserved for millennia to come.
As long as nothing goes wrong.