Alright, I know it's been a while since I've updated this story, and I apologize for that. Now, quite a few things have happened since I last updated this series; mainly, the publishing of a Codex for my fictional world, which I would recommend reading if you wish to understand what's going on in this one-shot.
This is where things get a little... insane.
I do not own Star Wars, Halo, Dead Space, Mass Effect or Metroid.
In the quiet darkness of space, over the now ruined planet of Earth, a rift in time and space tore open in the middle of the cosmos. A large object emerged from the rift, slowly coming into orbit of the planet.
At 2 kilometers in height in a dark blue sheen, the ship descended towards the ruins of one of Earth's cities, unfolding its mechanical tentacles in preparation for landing. As the Sovereign-class Reaper touched down, half a dozen smaller vessels emerged from the ship's belly.
Touching down several miles from the skyscraper-sized ship behind them, the lead ship opened its boarding ramp and disgorged its passengers onto the ruined streets of the city.
If any other living beings were still in the city, they would have found the head three of the group very unusual: One was an average human male, albeit heavily disheveled, but the other two were a pair of horned humanoids, dressed in black clothing and tattoos covering their whole bodies. The shorter of the two horned ones was clad in red and black tattoos, while the larger of the duo was covered in yellow and brown tattoos and stood a head taller than everyone else. The two of them were the Zabrak heads of the Shadow Collective; Darth Maul and Savage Opress respectively.
"Where is it?!" Darth Maul demanded.
"It's in the city, just a few miles to the north." the human replied with a mixture of terror and religious awe.
"Get moving!" Savage Opress ordered him angrily.
The human was a Unitologist, and one of the only surviving humans in this universe. The Sith Lord had discovered him on an abandoned vessel, thanks to knowledge dispensed by the Reaper. According to the AI, this universe contained some of the most powerful artifacts ever made, which could tip the power balance in the multiverse.
The Shadow Collective had intended to harness these 'Markers' for their own ends, but right now, they could only be found by someone who had come into direct contact with one. They had rescued him from the derelict, but he wouldn't divulge what put him there, not even with Force-assisted 'persuasion'.
However, the Unitologist was quite eager to deliver them to a Marker, speaking of the artifact in religious awe. Maul had felt concern from the descriptions this man had given, but he paid it no mind, and soon was on his way to where the Unitologist said the Marker was.
Unnatural screeching interrupted the 3 of them as several fleshy cocoons opened up around them, unleashing dozens of nightmarish humanoid creatures. Several had their arms replaced with bone scythes, others had their legs replaced with a stinger tail, and even more had different variations. All of them however, had one singular purpose: Kill anything that breathed. Something they were more than happy to do against these newcomers.
At that moment, several fighters flew overhead and disgorged 16 armored humans equipped with jetpacks. The Death Watch had arrived to clear the path through these abominations.
Explosions ripped the creatures apart, while the two brothers pulled out their lightsabers and cut down any creature that made it through the barrage of blasterfire. Disturbingly, being cut into several pieces didn't kill these beings, so Savage and Maul had to resort to cutting the bodies to pieces, in a manner resembling the necessary measures for killing the Flood.
Eventually, the unending wave of creatures finally stopped, allowing the individuals present to catch their breath. The Unitologist got down on his knees and started praying and rambling in equal measure.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Collective was worried about the fact that these creatures were apparently created by this Marker. Maul was now wondering if this was a good idea. No, it was, it made perfect sense. These creatures were an unintended side effect.
Was he indoctrinated? No, it was proven that the indoctrination field would not work on Force-users, and he had made sure not to stay on or near the Reaper vessel for any length of time. Shaking his head, the Sith Lord grabbed the Unitologist with Force and ordered him to take them to the artifact.
None of those creatures attempted to launch another attack. Nevertheless, the soldiers of the Shadow Collective were on edge, and not just from nerves: these creatures, these Necromorphs, shared a disturbing amount of similarities with the Flood. But, it couldn't be them? No, the parasite had been wiped from existence during the Great Flood War.
Regardless, the two Zabraks and their guide had made it to the artifact without incident. This Marker, as their Human guide kept calling it, was supposedly a powerful religious device that would bring about 'Convergence', whatever that meaned.
The way that it had been described reminded Maul of the stories regarding the Covenant religion. They misinterpreted the Halo weapons as tools that would ascend those believers to godhood. They had been deluded, as were these Unitologists.
The assembled force stared at the towering monolith, which stood against the starry backdrop. A moon could be seen in the sky, hanging to the side of the huge Marker.
"Altman be praised." The Unitologist announced with an aura of reverence, before getting on his knees and muttering a prayer.
Disgusted by his weakness, Maul and Savage walked towards the red monolith, eager to learn if this could be a weapon that they could control. If it wasn't, the kneeling man's life was forfeit for wasting the Sith Lord's time.
As they got to the base, however, the Marker activated, emitting a noise that sounded like a foghorn as a massive beam of energy emerged from the twin prongs and shot up into the sky. Most of the Shadow Collective didn't notice this, as they were either too busy grasping their heads in pain, or trying to murder each other. The only one who seemed unaffected was the Unitologist.
"Convergence is upon us!" He screamed in absolute joy, "The end has come again!"
The two Zabrak brothers were able to hold onto their sanity better than the rest of the Shadow Collective, but before the Sith Lord and the Nightbrother could regain control of their forces and get some answers, an earsplitting roar filled the air, as dozens of Necromorphs appeared from the ruins. They halted mid-charge when another unbeliavably loud roar sliced through the air.
Turning towards the source, Maul and Savage were horrified to find that this shriek had came from the moon.
Only it wasn't a moon.
Dozens of tentacles the length of continents had emerged from the shell, revealing large eyes and a maw the size of a Super Star Destroyer. Darth Maul was terrified. He had never intended to release a monster like this. How could this happen?
The fog in his mind cleared as he realized that while the Reaper indoctrination hadn't been controlling him, it had been subtly manipulating him. As if to confirm this, the Reaper blared its bass tone, adding to the already deafening cacophony of noise.
The sheer psionic energy from the Markers was too much for even minds that were steeped in the Dark Side of the Force. Seconds after Savage fell to the ground, clutching his head and screaming in agony, Maul also blacked out.
Far above, far above
We don't know where we'll fall
Far above, far above
What once was great is rendered small
When the Sith Lord woke up he was surrounded by the dead. Including people he'd personally killed. Lorn Pavan, Dutchess Satine, Pre Vizsla, Meltch Krakko and more. Dozens of individuals he had known by name, and more that he just knew by their species or their faces.
This... was impossible. Every single individual here had been killed, and yet they were standing here, most carrying wounds that would have crippled everyone else. To make matters even stranger, ominous whispering chanting permeated through the foggy atmosphere.
"Make us whole."
"They are coming. They are hungry."
"They have awoken."
"It has returned."
"What have you done?" A sullen, and somewhat mournful voice split through the air, drowning out the whispering madness.
That voice.
Maul knew that sound. The Jedi who had driven him to madness. The man he swore vengeance against for over ten years, only for him to lose that chance years later.
"Kenobi." The Sith Lord spat, turning to see the Jedi Master behind him. He was in his mid-thirties, far younger than the day he had died, but the Sith could never forget him. Lashing out with Force, Maul sent bolts of lightning at the Jedi, only for it to pass right through him.
Obi-Wan only seemed melancholy at this attempt to kill one who had passed, and just looked at the Sith's unabashed shock.
"The end times are here once again." The Jedi whispered, "And you are the architect."
"What are you talking about?" Maul roared, but his answer came from another voice.
"You have awoken the Perversion from its slumber." The voice of Qui-Gon Jinn split through the silence as the Obi-Wan's mentor emerged from the fog. "Your arrogance has unleashed the Corrupter of the Force, and will cost the galaxy everything."
"You will not decieve me, Jedi." The Sith snarled. "I will not be frightened by ghosts into abandoning the most powerful weapons in existence!"
"You are a fool."
That voice. There was only one person that could say that. Yet another ghost from the past. The man who had raised the Zabrak from childhood. The man who had earned both his undying loyalty and neverending hatred. The man who had shaped Maul into the being of hatred he was today. The man who many said was the greatest Sith Lord to ever live.
"Master?" Maul breathed, disbelieving and utterly terrified.
Sure enough, the hooded visage of Darth Sidious appeared, looking more furious in death than Maul had ever seen when he was still alive.
"You would doom all sentient life to be consumed by that monster." The Sith Master snarled, "All because you let your pride blind you, as always."
Before the hallucinations could say anything else, the fog cleared, revealing a twisted field filled with Markers. In the background, dozens of Moons similar to the one Maul had seen were hovering, as if they were waiting for something.
An earsplitting howl rang out through realm, causing the Zabrak to cover his ears in an attempt to dampen the noise. Despite that, he could still make out Darth Sidious' next words quite clearly.
"It has come."
In the deepest recesses of this universe, hidden from the rest of the multiverse, they awoke. The Brethren Moons shook off the fog of sleep as the combined Marker signals alerted them to the promise of another civilization to consume.
There was something different about this awakening, however: There were no more sufficiently developed species that could have produced such a signal, as they had yet to evolve to such a stage.
Another factor affecting the Moons was the presence of another hive mind within their own. Despite what should have been an alarming development to the Necromorphs, the Brethren Moons made no attempt to resist the rapidly spreading mind within them.
After all, it had created them.
That was the last independent thought that crossed through the minds of the Brethren Moons before the Gravemind overrode their network to replace it with its own. Trapped within the dormant minds of the Brethren Moons for years after the destruction of the Flood, the Gravemind could now spread its corruption anew.
And it would now thank the beings responsible for setting it free, by consuming them last.
"Brother!" Maul felt tired, his vision clouded, and his eyes heavy. "Brother!" Something pushed him, he felt himself rising to conciousness.
"Brother, wake up!"
Savage's shouting woke the Sith Lord from his vision induced coma, and the Zabrak came to, just in time to see the horde of Necromorphs surround his army. The Shadow Collective had put up a decent fight, but they were still being pushed back towards the Marker.
Suddenly, several tentacles emerged from the nearby cliffside, drawing the attention of the criminals and their masters. This seemed to have the effect of 'calling off' the Necromorphs, as they all calmed down and just stood where they were, watching.
A long wormlike head emerged from the cliffs behind the Marker, letting out another ear-splitting roar. Several tentacles also emerged, trapping the Shadow Collective in an inescapable vice. The creature turned it's five eyes toward the Sith and moved closer to them.
But instead of attempting to consume them, the creature began to laugh... in a voice none of them had ever wanted to hear again. Likewise, the nearby Necromorphs also started laughing in tandem with the monstrous being. Thousands of beings laughing as one, forming a rasping baritone voice of the monster that everyone in the multiverse feared.
"NOW THE GATE HAS BEEN UNLATCHED! HEADSTONES PUSHED ASIDE! CORPSES SHIFT AND OFFER ROOM! A FATE YOU MUST ABIDE!"
All this time, the Gravemind had prepared the Reapers to ensure that the Moons would be awakened and its essence would be freed. When the Sith Lord had found the Reaper drifting in the outer reaches of the Mass Effect galaxy, the oppurtunity to use the knowledge of something created by the Gravemind was too good to pass up.
Nonetheless, he had taken every precaution to prevent his forces from being indoctrinated and the two Zabraks themselves never set foot on the Reaper for longer than a few hours. Clearly, that hadn't been enough to keep the Reaper from manipulating them.
And now the multiverse would pay the price for this mistake.
Now, in this story, I'm operating on the idea that the Necromorphs are a Flood sub-species and a backup plan in case all Flood in existence were destroyed. Considering the behaviors of both species, I don't think that idea is far-fetched.
I'm not sure how often I'll get to this story again, and for those who requested that the Flood attack different universes, I sincerely apologise if I don't get to yours. I've been dealing with a case of writer's block for the last few weeks, and because of that, I don't feel as if my writing is as good as it could be.
Regardless, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and reviews are always welcome.