Chapter 14 : The Plague Princess and the Aftermath of the Imperium-Batarian War
PART 1
The Imperium Batarian war was over, in its aftermath the Imperium has secured most of the Batarian territories and have increased its influence to that of a major galactical faction, its appearance and power have shook the very foundations of the galactical order, in the quakes of the Imperial uprising, old orders crumbled and fell. It began with the citadel space first.
Federalisation and unification was something the Citadel council promoted, in the podiums and in the holo news there were only talks about unity and militarization, the hope of the Citadel Federation laid on the Turians, they were given massive monetary assistance in order to construct the new grand fleet of the federation, limits to the ship size were lifted, and only thing to prevent them from building goliaths of war were resources and creativity.
Turians lacked none.
Shipyards worked their entire planetary cycles without stoping, constructing huge ships of war, gone were the days of 1 km max warships,turian ships were now reaching 1.5 and 1.8km length, their new pride of fleet Fist of Palaven was 2.2km long, it was the biggest warship the Turian Hierarchy has ever constructed.
Their fleets have expanded by 340%, their size was such that they have expanded the council seats to 5 and took 2 of the 5 councilor places, 1 being left to asari, another to Salarians, and the fifth was rewarded to the most loyal species in the council space which contributed more to the new militarization effort.
The fifth position in the council was given a term of 1 year, and each year a minor election was made, and species with most contributions would get a representative on the council. The nature of such arrangement meant that the Turians were holding the fifth councillorship always, and effectively controlled the new Citadel Federation, turning it from a relatively peaceful coalition of galactic races to a militarized federation bent on increasing its power tremendously with each passing year.
New Citadel Federation enabled two members to hold position in the times of war "Arminetes Umbria" or in the tongue of Turians "Defenders of the Land" were elected in times of war from the most skilled generals in any race should they prove their skills. They would be given absolute power and dictatorship like powers until the crisis has been averted.
Citadel Federation Army became much more than an assembly of protector soldiers of various races, it became legion in number, numbering approximately 5 to 15 million at any given time with countless more being available for drafting, mostly made of turians, asari and other races which proved skillful in waging war.
C.F.A routinely patrolled the borders of citadel space in the newely constructed federation ships, ensuring that no human aggression from either the Imperium of Alliance occurred.
Salarians were inspired to develop most lethal biological patogens and weapons, of which some would come to bite them hard, and some which plague the galaxy to this day. Their inventions were abysmal, for they followed neither logic nor morality, neither compassion or any sort of reasoning.
ALIAS virus being one of them, such was the danger posed by that virus, that it was to be destroyed as soon as possible. Namely the tests were too efficient and the virus proved more than capable as a biological weapon.
What was the power of ALIAS? The virus was uncontrollable. it was made so it could take any host imaginable and mutilate and twist the flesh until it became an unrecognizable mass of flesh ,tentacles and teeth. Every infection was different from one another, and the biological weapon was such, that it was impossible to develop a cure for it, for should one develop a cure for the pathogen, it would mutate, and another version would take its place.
Namely the virus changed itself in such a speed, that it wasn't possible to cure it. Nor did Salarians attempt to make it curable.
And so on the planet Xomia did they test the virus on a small colony of humans numbering around 2300. This colony was inside the Citadel Federation space after the alliance became a broken mess of infighting nations and factions, and so was claimed by Turian Hierarchy not long after, and without the Alliance to protest, this annexation occurred silently.
The scientists and the crew were around 500, accompanied by the 10000 Citadel Forces. They have constructed their testing and research centers and released the virus onto the small village with 240 civilians not far away from the human main colony.
The results were fantastic. Every host in less than a minute mutated into what could be described as literal daemons, claws, teeth…they were not even animals, nothing logical was behind their mutation, each specimen was unique and horrifying when it came to form, some salarians regreted their invention and expressed their desires to leave the planet as soon as the experiment was complete.
This new mass of flesh and teeth snarled and huffed, leaving blood trails seeping from their bodies and went towards the 3km further main colony.
The humans in it had no time to organize before the mess of flesh appeared on the horizon, snarling and gnawing and drooling, they sought only to consume and spread the virus .
The colony and their guards opened fire in attempts to let women and children escape if at all possible. Their guns were alliance made Assault rifles used by most citadel races, and as they opened rapid fire onto the mass of flesh they saw how ineffective they were, the mass absorbed small arm fire as If nothing, those which fell or were killed, the bigger ALIAS organisms swarmed it and consumed it enlarging their own bodies.
Soon the colonists faced mass of flesh as tall as 6 meters, screaming from their undeveloped and mutated vocal chords with such pitch and intensity that nearby glass would shake. Only fire bullets stopped and killed the beasts, but so much bullets needed to be fired into the enemy that by the time a single creature was killed, 5 more were already on top of the shooter, and once the monstrosities entered the city….hell, hell is just a word, reality was much worse.
For what happened in the city when the masses of monstrous flesh and primeval desires to maul and eat and breed entered it ,is something out of the most twisted mind imaginable.
Those stabbed or badly wounded by the creatures would instantly transform into the most sickening form imaginable, for the ALIAS virus did not work on a dead flesh.
These forms sought Women, and female children, not caring about the age of the victim, and attempted to breed with them. Violently, the incubation period was instantaneous, and from their wombs sprouted, clawing their way outside, many forms of the abominable undeveloped fetuses and babies, whom screamed and merged with one another making their forms more grotesque and unlike any animal or sapient in the galaxy.
The Scientists seeing this couldn't help but feel utter terror and dread at their work.
It is unknown if the foul forces of the warp had anything to do with the virus and its efficiency, but so much horror began happening in the galaxy at this date, that to exclude the foul forces of chaos as the culprit would be idiotic.
One of the scientist took his own pistol ,and eyes filled with tears ,ended his own suffering at the sight he was forced to inflict upon another innocent organism.
The Turian Citadel Force Army commander ordered the body removed as if nothing just occurred and kept watching the mass of flesh from their own safe place as it consumed the rest of the human colonists.
Then as the bloody work was done, the aberrant masses of flesh all gazed 15km away in the direction of the research installation, and uttered a howl towards the stars signifying their desires to consume them, eyes dead and mouths filled with innocent blood, they still hungered ,desiring to make them as they are, so their suffering could be shared to others.
Their march was not fast or organized, but the masses of jaws and claws went in the same direction, right at the CFA soldiers and the researchers 15km away.
The colonists were now part of the armies, from 2300 humans on the planet, 1500 were now part of the ungodly horde, supported by 3000 monstrosities born out of the wombs of the colonist women before they expired from the suffering inflicted upon them.
The Turian commander wasted no time and ordered the defense organized, 10000 soldiers stood by in improvised defenses and awaited the tide to hit them. The smell had hit them first ,then their eyes watered at the terror before them.
In their trip towards the research facility, the masses of horrors mended and mixed, amongst the bipedal multi limbed creatures, there were now towering 12 to 18 meter tall four leged tyranic like monsters marching along the smaller creatures of the Horde.
The turians opened fire, and their fire bullets have cut down the small creatures freshly born out of the womb, the bipedal 2 meter aberrant also fell as the concentrated fires have cut them down.
Towers erected by the turians unleashed strong coaxil and big caliber type weapons, it blasted apart the masses that were not increasing their pace, but just slowly approaching, the forward 3000 turians confident in their victory were disciplined and kept firing, cutting down the numbers of the enemy.
But the bigger monsters upon approaching some 400 meters from the turians, opened their orifices on the overgrown bodies, and fired clumps of flesh 1 meter in diameter against the turian soldiers, whom were unprepared for such an attack.
The mess of 1 meter flesh fell all over the battlefield, most near the soldiers, and from there, spider like limbs made of arteries, bone and muscle sprouted, and giant mosquito like proboscis extended ,some 2 meter in size, the small 1 meter monsters were quick and closed ranks faster than they can be killed, their stabs were lethal, thin probuscus was armored enough to pierce shield as well as armor, and each stab was fatal, as from the wound infection began to spread and turian soldiers which were stabbed but not killed began to instantly mutate, themselves turning into clumps of mass and flesh, the masses of dextero amino acid creatures did not look kindly at the mosquitoe like creatures and upon evolution stomped them into nothingness, then proceeded to charge their former brothers in arms, killing or infecting them.
The first 3000 turians were now getting slaughtered, and before their comrades at the back could properly assist, were dead. But their death was not fatal, some 1300 dextero amino monsters now joined the ranks of the human messes of flesh, some mixing with both amino acids, and making the abominable creatures which spewed ungodly gasses that were extremely toxic to any living thing except the ALIAS creatures.
Rest of the soldiers of the CFA have lost their heart some attempted to flee, mostly Asari and Salarians, as they were now chased by the endlessly mutating creatures which splited from the group and chased after them, resembling giant human like birds on Terra, only with skulls made of Turians and limbs made of human arms.
Those foolish and brave that desired quicker death than to be run over and hunted, opened fire and attempted to defend themselves as the horde approached. Namely the horde was a terror weapon through and through, besides being insanely hard to kill, the monsters also made constant shrieking and demoralizing sounds, equal to their hosts dying and their death screams were repeated in unnatural tones by the mutated vocal chords. So the Turians in the ranks of the CFA had to listen to their comrades death screams over and over as they approached their positions, it was nerve wrecking to say the least.
Before long the flesh tide swept over the positions, those who were lucky, killed themselves beforehand, some smart enough not to be wounded used their grenade and detonated themselves along with the creature which sought to convert them to the flesh gospel. Those who attempted to run were quickly catched by the birdlike creatures, males were instantly killed or converted with poisonous jaws.
The asari though…their fate would be far worse, for the 3 meter tall bird like creatures opened the flesh on their stomach, showcasing their organ. If I would describe it as a male reproductive organ, I would insult everything holy the Emperor made in a human and or any organic. What extended from the bodies of the bird like fleshbeings was nothing but rotten and mutilated flesh, various genital organs, arteries, muscle and whatever meat or organ caught in the transformation made what could be called a penis. It was insanely large and leaking foul fluid containing maddening quantities of ALIAS virus.
The creatures riped apart their lower armour ,as if knowing what to seek, and proceeded to violate them.
*Author shakes as he recollects his endless knowledge about the galactic events.
"Emperor forgive me, for I will describe partly what happened. If for nothing else, then to serve as a warning for those foolish enough to invent and develop new technology ,be it of the machine or the flesh."
The author continues to write, hesitantly.*
They would proceed to penetrate the asari captives, both virgin and those who saw pleasure of the flesh, the length of the organ forced the asari captives to push their behinds in the air as if to mitigate the inflicted pain, which allowed the creature to use its atrophied arms and attach to the shoulder of the Asari.
Upon penetration, the foul organ of the being would began to leak and seep as much foul liquid as possible into the innards of the asari captive, this would naturally cause rapid mutation instantly as the captives screamed horrifyingly.
The asari would began to twist their flesh, merging with the creature ,connecting their backs to their chests, organ still inside. Upon merging the stomach of the asari would bulge and extend, within few moments the stomach would burst, and from it various spawn of…
*The author stops, his hand shaking and he drops the quill, he begins to chant his litanies slowly and silently, rocking back and forth as the candles illuminate the slender frame of the techpriest in his red robes. Then his apprentice approaches.
"Master are you able…"
He shakes his hand at him, and the apprentice silently retreats.
"I must continue." The author speaks and continues writing, litanies still echoing from his lips.*
The small Emperor cursed creatures, no bigger than a baby or a human fetus would crawl on the ground ,and with their overdeveloped muscles, jump 2 to 3 meters in the air, attempting to attach to the face of the nearby victim. Those unlucky to let one of these beings attach to his face would suffer unfathomably much, for the small creature would meld its flesh around the mouth of its victim/host, and leek various liquids into the mouth of the victim, which being chocked and without air would gulp these liquids, their transformation occurring at that moment, the stomachs would burst and innards fall out, their ribs would extend outwards and heart and other organs would collapse on themselves and reform themselves to resemble inner mouth organ, so the host would have a mouth where his chest would be, with ribs used as teeth. The arms of the host would twist, break and split backwards, twisting further behind the back, they would combine, and slowly move along the flesh near the head, forming a sort of a horn made of both hands, it was sharp, and very lethal, meaning that someone might luckily die before being infected.
The final result is a creature which resembled a bird, with its arms used as a horn, its chest used as a mouth, and its real head, being swollen and resembling a sack filled with puss and bile, for the creature would upon knocking down its victim, open the sack and spill liters of vile fluid on top of it, the result of that being pain, being sorrow…being horror.
The defenders were now nearly slaughtered to a man, and from the inside of the facility, where the few stubborn guards still lived and fought back, the commander ordered their final salvation, calling upon a nuclear strike on his position from the Turian fleet in orbit.
His officers requesting they send a rescue operation.
"Negative! That is an order! Send nobody here! " his gun glowed red from use. " We are all dead here, dead! I will not see this contagion flee the planet, for it would doom us all. Launch the nuclear weapons! Right now!" the Commander struggled as his men spent the last of their ammunition even as the creatures ripped apart metal walls and began to pour through the entrances.
The crew in the orbit prepared their arsenal of 5 nuclear weapons and silently launched them at the coordinates. From obit they could see the mess of flesh on their radars surrounding the building they are bombing, the creatures all too eager to consume and devour.
The bombs were falling from orbit even as the closest soldiers of the commander died and turned into more of the abominable creatures, the commander himself being pinned by a salarian spawn, which jumped on top of him, its eyes were grey and dead, and its head started shaking violently even as it held the commander pinned, then it split open and from it emerged an insect like beak forming a Z letter, it attempted to stab the downed turian in the head, missing as he moved his head to the right. It tried again, but he moved the head once more. The creature shook violently and began to grow more limbs in order to grasp the head of the commander ,holding it in place as it prepared for a final stab. The Commander in his utter desperation managed to use his knee and push the creature upwards a bit, before kicking it as hard as he could in the chest with his other leg, sending it flying away.
He recollected himself and stood up. His terror was evident as he saw his former soldiers and various monsters surrounded him ,his back against the wall.
In that moment, the time stopped for him, he gazed upon them, his former soldiers were now monstrosities, bird like creatures with their penis organs exposed, weather eager to defile him, or for whatever monstrous reasons they decided to penetrate a male turian, he did not know or cared. The Asari captives melded with the turian bird like creatures still birthed small fetus like monsters, and moaned harshly as their heads were twisted in an unnatural ways, cracking with each twitch as their dead eyes followed the only living thing in the complex.
Time continued to flow as he grasped the chain of granades on his chest, and pulled the pin on all of them, extending his arms as if in embrace, creatures violently hissing and snarling before jumping on top of him, and outside, the nuclear bombs fell and a harsh light blasted at the compound, melting the aberrant beasts on the outside, the blastwave melting both the building and the rest of the beings inside, the entire zone being burnt to a crisp.
The turian fleet watched as the five nukes created a deep crater where they fell, and certain their duty complete, fire bombed the civilian village where infection started and the city where the creatures went, after they have burnt everything where the monsters were, they departed, leaving the system and instituting the act of no trespassing, this system would remain under guard and forever isolated from the galactic society.
The project was silently shut down, deemed a failure, and abandoned. But many more were the insights in which the salarian scientists delved, almost as if driven by a malicious force.
As for the Virus…nobody is crazy enough to go and check out if something remains, if it did survive, let it be forever cursed and trapped on that planet, for if it escapes its confines, it would spell the doom of us all.
Many are stories of these dark times filled with mystery and pain, the events that happened after the Imperium arrived were nothing short of stellar shock for the galactic community, to say that someone remained unaffected would be a lie, for each race in the conflict lost a bit of their soul for the sake of survival.
Many terrors would this galaxy see during the Dark Ages of the galaxy as this time period would be known to the races save the imperium, which saw this as small galactic conflict and a start of a new golden age, having many resources and plenty servitors now that the xenos race fell to them, the imperium would massively increase its own military production, after the collapse of the alliance and various civil strife among the Space Nations of Humanity, countless refugees fled the conflicted human regions and asked for asylum at Imperium of Man, all too eager to accept them, and indoctrinate them into the Imperial Cult and other organizations in order to better serve the imperium.
The imperium now went on a rebuilding effort, the leadership knew the galaxy will come for them one day, and they decided not to wait for them, they built ships and trained soldiers, so that one day, when ready, the Imperium will take the fight to them, and purge the xenos from this galaxy as the Emperor would desire.
But for now they had pressing matters, the warp rift at Anhur grows with each soul sacrificed in the names of the deities that do not exist in the warp in this timeline, but with each soul sacrificed, the influence of the warp upon real space increased, and as long as it persisted, the more dangerous it was that something truly bad might happen.
The Imperum was zealous in hunting down potential heretics in this universe, it sought to crush anything even remotely chaotic or heretical, it didn't want a new eye of terror or any such event, and imperium desired to go great lengths to hunt potential heretics and chaotic believers.
The Amun system with the warp hole on anhur was something the Citadel Federation could not explain, their fear of the unknown took hold of them and that system was isolated under a heavy military blockade, and left to its own devices, now humans and other xenos were stuck on Anhur to fight their own battles, until either the council returns or the imperium decides to intervene, may the Emperor help them survive until the moment of their salvation.
Amongst the Terrors that plagued the galaxy, one sticks out, the story about the Plague Queen, an unexpected harbinger of doom and warp touched one.
It would all begin with the discovery of the Quarian ship of the traitorous Tali Zorah by the New Quarians of the Arahi'ler. Their colonization of the new home was advancing, away from the Citadel Federation and Imperium of Man, they began to thrive, rivaling minor races in the galaxy, they have felt they have a meaning again.
The death toll caused by the Imperium upon them was negated, as the insane birth rates of the New Quarians replaced the dead with new and young quarians, eager to enjoy fullness of life on their new homeworld, Rannoch was becoming but a dream that one day it would be liberated under the leadership of Arahi'Ler and returned back to the fold from the vile machines.
But for now Arahi'Ler reconstructed, the planet the imperium provided was booming, millions of quarians lived on it, but he wasn't exactly trustful of the Imperials, they were under tense truce, their ships avoided the quarian territory and vice versa, he sent no messages or requested anything from them, knowing that to do that and annoy the xenophobic superpower would only antagonize them against him, so he commanded that no quarian ever engages the imperial ships under any cost. Such was the price of peace for the Quarians.
But he sought to learn much from them, years of being isolated in the system with the imperium and the Batarians gave him much info about them, the few human captives gave him the image of what kind of society Imperium is, and he learnt all sorts of esoteric sciences they possessed, the psykers were unknown to him, as he did not engage them, but everyone saw the holo vids when the Batarians were streaming to the galaxy before the feed died, about the humans whom used their brain to fry the Batarian soldiers alive in massive numbers and whom turned the tides of battles. He learnt about their God , the Man God of their fate, one called the Emperor. He learnt from the human captive that their God is always protecting, and that one day they will conquer the galaxy in his name. When question where their God is, the prisoner became silent and unwilling to speak, only saying one thing for the duration of the torture afterwards "The Emperor Protects".
He learnt about Chaos from one priest he managed to capture as he used the escape pod from one of the ships that was destroyed by quarian flotilla during the Great Space Battle of Aurelian. The priest was then released at the border of Imperium territory, a symbol of good will. Nobody responded to his act, and to be honest, he would rather not risk repercussions of killing one of the Imperial priests.
Arahi'ler was the sole being in this galaxy that understood what kind of threat the Imperium is, and even with all his development and progress, he could not hope to match them, and hope that if he increases military massively they would avoid attacking his borders and drawing him into war. And for the moment that tactic worked.
Arahi slowly expanded his territories, absorbing minor colonies of the various races that were not part of the citadel space and had no protecting of the CFA, regardless of it all, Arahi had a sizable fleet and advanced ships, with the Quarians having a planet, they began constructing ships to bolster the Magna Flotilla , or the First Quarian fleet as named by the CFA, approx. 2000 ships with Arahi'Ler's flagship leading them, other two fleets were 1300 ships respectively and nowhere near as powerful as the primary fleet.
CFE or the Citadel Federation Empire as it was called by its xenos peoples during the years that passed, was very strong, their ships in the thousands, but they were unwilling to wage war with Arahi'Ler and his New Quarian Reich over few measly systems, not when they knew not how many ships the Imperium has, or if they will attack the CFE should they open a second front, so they gave Arahi his few systems, and threatened war if he continues expanding towards CFE territory.
It was during one expansion away from the CFE territory that Quarian SS Kosmos marines detected something horrible.
They have approached a system with a dim star, its glow long past its zenith, in the orbit of one of the barren planets was a quarian ship, Trima Trosma, 1km long habitation ship, its captain was known to the leader of the marines, the captain of the Trima Trosma , Mon'Sha, one of the close confidants of the Arahi Ler, during the times the fleet was united and not splintered into the unknown by Tali Zorah.
They sought to hail Trima Trosma, unwilling to fire first at the dormant vessel.
There was no answer, so the Leader of the Arahi's Storm Staff Kosmos Marines, Gebelz'Jos decided to board the vessel and find out the reason for their unresponsiveness.
They circled around the dormant ship at first, the windows were shut with steel panels over them ,common in case of a pirate attack. The scan of the engines showed them engulfed in organic ooze, the scans of the ooze have shown nothing.
They attempted to scan the innards of the ships, but the scan couldn't pierce the hull for unknown reasons.
They have then approached the main hatch and attached to the door, extending their own platform, connecting the transport and the Trima Trosma, the main Kosmos Marine ship was not far away.
The Arahi'Ler's Kosmos Marines were clad in all black enviro suits, much like the original ones, only with thicker armour plating and decorations of the new Quarian Reich, over the chest in X symbol there was a Dark Red coloured paint with the symbol of the Quarian reich in the middle. They did not required the suits for their missions, as the New Quarians had a strong immune system ,boosted by various vacines developed by Reichs Laboratorium System, but have done so, to keep with tradition, and extra protection of the head, didn't hurt anyone.
The Reichs symbol varied from unit to unit, for the SS Kosmos Marines it was a symbol of Arahi'lers personal ship, the planet of ranoch stabbed with a sword in the middle, the symbol of their desires to liberate their original home world.
SS Kosmos Marines were Arahi's personal grouping of soldiers, going anywhere from 80 to 140 thousand. They were divided in ships and minor fleets patrolling the borders, and keeping the order on the planet and various space stations the Quarians began to construct and inhabit, some still unwilling to set their feet on solid ground, centuries of nomadic life still fresh in their blood.
These black clad enviro soldiers were now attempting to open the Trima Trosma, the ship had an ominous feeling about it, something the soldiers felt, but none said a word as they approached the door leading inside the dormant vessel.
The doors refused to open, the codes typed were ineffective so they sought to hack it, the hack worked, and the door squealed. For the moment nothing happened, the doors didn't budge, but then they split open horizontally and vented the foulest imaginable stench possible. The soldiers felt nothing due to superior masks, but their inner scanners have shown the air was so polluted that for unmodified quarian it would lead to death within half a minute.
The doors opened, revealing them coated in weird fungi on the inner side, as they stepped inside the darkness they could see the same fungi growing on the walls, the windows were murky and muddy , and the ground was stained in dirt, organic compounds of unknown origin and various mushrooms which seemed to pulsate as the Kosmos Marines approached them.
They took a moment to look around the empty entrance of this ship, and saw it polluted in various organic compounds, decaying plants, but no bodies.
As they sought to reach the main deck, they advanced slowly, 30 of the Kosmos marines, armed to the teeth with their new quarian assault rifles. They were a domestic design, using clips to cool down the weapon, enabling two fire modes, normal one that fired faster and the fire bullet mod, firing slower but higher caliber and stronger rounds. These weapons became standard issue amongst the New Quarian armies, which were trained and disciplined, as no citizen had a right to slack in the physical department. The quarians were few in numbers when compared to multibillion numbers of the other races, but they were proficient and highly trained fighters.
They were moving slowly, their feet getting stuck constantly as if in quick sand, the side rooms of the ship were cemented in organic compounds, and few rooms with opened doors were filled with secretions of unknown origin, flies were rampant and the smell of decay would destroy one's sense of smell if they had no masks.
"Herr Gebelz, I do not like this, all this secretion hanging from the walls and ceiling, I fear any cut to our suits would be fatal."
"Yes…secretions, but from what?" another marine said.
" my hand scanner says the temperature is 42 celsius, the moisture is impossible, like that a of a tropical forests in the inner jungle worlds of the citadel federation.." one of the marines spoke.
"this is crazy, I hear nothing, there is no sounds except these ungodly flies, what are they even?, the walls are moving sir…they are pulsating!"
"Nobody touch nothing!" Commander Gebelz said "we don't know what contagion is this, and we are here to see what happened to the Zorah Fleet all those years ago."
"Yeah, how did they just disappear, not one living soul in the galaxy knew of them…"
"They went through the Aquila Rift Relay… nobody knows where it leads, as no ship yet returned, I heard they wanted refuge in the citadel space, but they were cast out, that was their only salvation from our righteous rage." Marine chat continued
"Enough, from now on, nobody say nothing, keep it silent. Any information coming out of your mouth better be related to this ship, understood?"
"Yes Herr Gebelz." Marines agreed.
The journey continued slowly, they were entering a sort of reddish mist in what seemed to be a Canteen on the ship.
"Ishtar Vril, Use the hand scanner, keep watch for hostiles, our visors can not penetrate the mist, And we have communication disturbances, so keep in close proximity." Gebelz spoke and the marine took head, his scanner beeping gently, detecting nothing.
Marines were moving slowly, the canteen was 100 meter long, made to feed near 5000 civilians living on board it. But from all those civilians, not one was seen.
The silent thuds of their feet echoed in the murky and red green mud, visibility was bad, beyond 5 meters nothing could be seen.
Every so often they passed one of the overturned tables and chairs, coated in a mixture of secretions resembling weird eggs.
"Asmos…" marine spoke to private voice chat to another comrade at the back of the column.
"Asmos…"
"Asmos here, Jovian, we are on communication silence, we can't speak."
"Asmos please….i am lost, help me."
"Jovian, what do you mean, where are you?" The marine turned and saw nobody behind, he took his own personal scanner and turned it backwards, seeing that life signs of Asmos were 13 meters behind him. "jovian , you fool, if the Sarge found out he will have you flogged! Stay there, I am coming back."
Asmos sped up, his pace was fast, and he could hear buzzing of the flies in the canteen, they were like a choir, it drew him mad, but thanks to his enviro suit, they did not bother him.
He came close to the signals just 6 meters away was Asmos, he could see him through the mist, crouching down in the organic goo next to one of the tables with fly eggs.
"What are you bloody doing Asmos, get up from that filthy mud, are you trying to get infected you dumb fool!" his steps were closer to the marine and he came to him grasping him by the shoulder and turning him around.
" By all that is holy…" the marine said
"Asmos…I don't feel so good." Inside the marines visor, which self-cleaned and made it visible inside when two comrades were speaking, per command to make soldiers bond better. There was horror to see inside, his face was swollen, and filled with bulbous sacks filled with puss, his eyes were red and his nose leaking blood and green liquid.
" What the fuck did you do?!" Jovian spoke and instinctly walked step backwards.
"My suit ruptured as we entered, I cut it by one of the tables…I thought I could weather it out…" he spoke still kneeling in the mud
" I have to call the unit. Herr Gebelz do you read me! "there was static. "Herr Gebelz, Sarge, is anyone reading me!" there was no answer.
"I think I feel better…" Jovian said and stood up, only when he stood up Asmos could see how swollen his stomach is, his leg was swollen equally, and near the cut on his uniform by the thigh, the green liquid poured freely out of the uniform. "I think…I want to breathe freely." He reached for his mask.
"Jovian! No! " Asmos could only shout as his comrade took off the mask, violent hiss was heard and the mask detached in the similar manner of the door with liquid leaving his mask as the pustules burst open.
As if inhaling with full lungs, Asmos inhaled attracting to himself hundreds of flies, from the mud, worm like things crawled up his suit and entered his uniform through the cut, as he took one step forward.
"You do not realize how much in peace I am Asmos, the fear. The pain. It is all gone." His mouth parted and his teeth became rotten and fell out, his head lost his hair and on his scalp massive swelling occurred, Asmos made comparison to the eggs he saw growing on the chairs and tables.
His instincts woke and he pointed the gun at his comrade.
"Not one step closer Jovian, I will open fire. You are sick and need help. "
"Help? Asmos my brother, I only wish to spread my love to you. Look." He said and opening his mouth he regurgitated 20 centimeter long thick larvae of an unknown kind into his hand, it violently trashed left and right as he held it and came ever closer. "Let me give you this small gift, and then you will understand…"
"My God…" Asmos spoke, and opened a short burst into the chest and stomach of his friend. Jovian recoiling slightly, his suit rupturing in many places gushing out brown warm liquid which fell onto the ground and the worms there fought over it who would eat it first, his stomach burst open from the impact wounds and let loose intestines swarming with flies which took flight and escaped, his inner organs rotten and decaying, hissing violently when coming in contact with the air.
" Is that how you treat a friend Asmos? " Jovian had slight confused look on his face, even as the large larva burst from his forehead and fell to the ground. "this simply won't do…" he completed and violently spat towards Asmos, whom instantly raised his weapon as if to shield himself, the spit impacting it.
IT began to corrode instantly, the mechanism and the inner workings of the weapon rusted and rotted, and the gun simply parted in two.
The creatures gangrenous eyes didn't blink even as the worms entered them one by one. It gathered spit again, intent on finishing its work.
But in that moment, loud gunfire was heard and the creature was filled with holes as the three marines came rushing back. Jovian fell on his back onto the mud.
" Ditrih, Frozt, comrades! " Asmos spoke full of joy. "You've came back."
"Yeah, we saw you all missing. And rushed back, the entire unit is here."
Gebellz pushed aside his marines and came close to Asmos. "Soldier, what the fuck is that thing" he pointed at Jovian.
"it is Jovian sir, or it was, now it Is something different…something…" he didn't managed to complete his sentence before being interrupted.
"Perfeeeeeeect" the voice echoed from the lying Jovian, the marines looked at it. It tried to get up, the suit fell apart as a snake would shed skin, revealing the swollen and rotten body of the Jovian, his wounds seeping foul liquids, as he refused to die. " Herr Gebelz, Sarge..my brothers." It continued "I have love for all of you, let me hug you." It spoke and with slow, movements which cracked the bones in his body, started getting closer.
"Blast him! Use fire rounds!" was a simple command from the sarge . There was a clicking sound from the various guns in the hands of the marines before they unloaded fire rounds into their former comrade.
The bullets impacted and sizzled, fire erupted and hurt the corrupted flesh, as the creature that was once called Jovian screamed in pain.
"Vooooooorghhhh!" was the last shout of the creature as it erupted in flames and fell the ground ,finally dying.
The silence was broken, the buzzing increased in volume. The fire from the burning creature illuminated around the area around itself in 20 meter radius, the hand scanners began beeping, showing movement all around them. revealing insect like creatures resembling quarians shambling towards the marines their masks were still on their face, but from their backs, insects made a home. Their entire backs were swollen, black and chitinous, as the parasitoid fly gorged on the flesh of its poor victims, growing so large that it encompassed the entire back of the quarian, which was now hunched back and driven onwards by the flies mouth which replaced the head of the quarian. Black wings of the fly were shaking eagerly at the prospect of fresh meat.
The flies face was covered by the victims mask, it remained as a mockery in a a way, only the mouth was free, and it displayed open black mouth without teeth.
Nobody needed to give the order, as the marines opened fire on the creatures surrounding them.
Fire bullets blasting apart the insectoid creatures that approached with a steady and certain step, the mud was ripe with worms waiting for their victims to receive a rupture and be condemned.
Back to back, the soldiers fought , fire grenades erupted and engulfed multitude of the parasitoid creatures, the bullets render their flesh apart with fire, step by step the quarians were getting encircled.
"Marines! We push onwards to the objective! As one!" Gebelz shouted
They went onwards, moving step by step towards the exit of the mess hall and towards the exit leading to the bridge even as the monsters closed in.
"Ditrih! Look out!" the marine shouted as one fly was too close and grasped the marine, it swung him around and threw him towards his brother flies before being killed by the next marine.
Ditrih violently fell onto the mud, kicking aside chairs and table that were next to him, it was pounced eagerly by one of the quarian insectoids.
He gazed upon into the mask, searching for the eyes of the creature, but there was none, only low hum and buzzing of the creature with black open mouth.
In a split second it used one of its gangrenous and mutilated arms grasping one side of the mask, before violently ripping it apart and throwing it away, the insectoid creature on its back giving it tremendous power.
Ditrih gasped as the foul air seared through his throat, his immune system already collapsing at the vile toxins and unknown pathogens filled his lungs, he had no time to ponder, as the creatures hand grasped him by the jaw, opening them violently.
He couldn't defend himself, vile air made him dizzy and weak. The insectoid creature began hurling, and it drooled one of the massive larvaes out, and gently, almost caringly, placed it in Ditrihs mouth that started shaking violently, he gulped the larvae which passed through his throat and down his stomach.
His screams from there on were ungodly, the creature released him, and he trashed around, standing on arms and legs like a dog, he shouted and shouted, as his back cracked, ruptured and black chitinous creature began growing, his pain was indescribable ,he stood up on his two legs, but had no time to do anything, as the creature burst through his back ,destroyed his spine and sprouted wings, the fly has grown, but the terror didn't end there.
The larva ate through the back and grew a head, for the screaming ditrih it was almost over, the larva extended its small spike like mouth, stabbing him in the back of the head ,he could only gurgle as the larva drained his brain and and emptied his eyes out from the skull. He stopped screaming then and would have went limp and fell down were it not for the fly which took control of his nerve system. Dithrih's head was detached; it rotted instantly and fell down amongst the hungry worms which swarmed the head instantly. Now the creature that used to be dithrih sought to join its insectoid brethren and continue with the attack, but was stopped as one of the marines threw a fire grenade, engulfing the damned creature in flames.
The marines were now pushing hard and reached the ending of the hall, losing one more soldier, whom fell down, and whom the creatures ripped apart his armor at the stomach, depositing the larvae directly in innumerable quantities, the soldier began swelling instantly ,and would have given birth to who knows what abomination before being mercy killed by one of the grenades thrown by his brothers, which burned him and the creatures killing him.
The doors of the hall were shut.
"Open the door Sominus! Right now!" Gebelz shouted and fired his fire bullets at the endless swarm of creatures.
"fucking hell!" Sominius spoke, and got his omni blow torch, he did not waste time hacking the rusted console.
The doors crackled as the searing flames began melting them, the process being slow.
"What is taking so long Sominus! Hurry it up!" one of the fellow marines shouted
"I am going as fast as I can you stupid cunt, the doors are toughened by the secretions of these creatures! "
"Hurry it up god damn it!" another spoke as he was almost surrounded.
"There! They are open, go go go!" Sominus spoke and jumped first through the hole he cut in the door, his brothers following after, one of the last soldiers was unlucky, as one of the insect creatures spat a needle like being which stabbed at the back of one of the unlucky soldiers whom did not pass through the door, but began to shake his hands violently and attempting to seal the breach in his suit.
"God no! God help me please!" the marine trashed around as the eager creatures surrounded him in the mess hall. Creature moving freely in his suit, laying thousands of eggs inside.
"Fucking hell, put the bastard out of his misery!" sarge shouted and soldiers were eager to do so, but he was lost in the mist which was getting thicker, and the creatures were now moving towards the door.
"No time! " Gebelz shouted, "Seal the doors! Use Omni Plast Foam grenade!"
One of the soldiers obeyed and threw it, it instantly exploded at the open hole in the gate and cemented itself. And on the other side of the doors, the violent and loud screams were the only indication of what happened to the last marine.
They all gasped and and stood there silently, the marines survived a nightmare.
"We have no time, the foam will not hold them forever, let us complete the mission and get out of here." Gebelz spoke and the other disciplined marines followed him, the bridge was near.
Here as in the entrance of the ship there was mud and various fungi, the marines were getting tired and weary for they feared ambush from any corner of this ship.
But they have reached the main bridge, the doors were slightly opened and carefully approaching them, two marines opened them wholly, watchful that they do not pierce their protective suits.
The walls in the main bridge were coated in corpses, rotten bloated corpses. The quarian officers and other staff were attached and fused to the walls of the main bridge; they still had their masks on, and the soldier's feared another ambush, preparing their rifles to open fire at any sudden movement.
Commander Gebelz approached a single lying corpse on the ground, noticing it beared the markings of the ships captain. He couldn't tell, but he was convinced this was Mon'Sha, Leader's confidant back when the fleets were not separated.
He saw the corpse still held a holo disk, constantly watching the rotten corpse he grasped the disk, and slowly began pulling it out of the hand of the Captain.
He took it safely, the corpse remained still as even the two soldiers behind whom had their guns pointed at the corpse sighed.
Inserting the disk in his Omni tool he played the video.
There was static, and then figure of Mon'Sha took form.
"This is the log of Captain Mon'Sha of the Trima Trosma, free from my captivity I speak now of the events that occurred past the treasonous act of the Tali Zorah."
The hologram was stable and the soldiers took guard, watching at the fused corpses in the walls and outside the hallway in case the insectoids attack again.
"I was part of the second wave of the fleet transitioning into the Aurelian System, before, one of the three commanders of the second wave, and unfortunately enough. One of the commanders who was stuck in the portion of the fleet which harbored Zorah.
Her command to retreat from the battle was not taken kindly, but before me and the other officers could act, we were apprehended and the fleet escaped.
I am not sure what happened afterwards, as I was locked in a jail cell on one of the prison vessels. But from what I heard the following happened.
Passing through various relays, Tali Zorah felt sick, her fever was high, and would have died, regardless of medicine, for her contagion was weird, and unknown.
Later did I realize we passed through the Aquila Rift Relay.
Her situation improved miraculously. I must add for the log, it was impossible, her recovery was impossible, but it happened.
Tali woke up, and assembled the conclave of various ship captains on the biggest ship. Nobody knew what happened, but I can now realize that Tali was the first harbinger of the unknown plague that would consume the entire Rebel flotilla.
Each captain that met tali on the main ship returned, and through ventilation unleashed an unknown contagion which converted most of the flotilla.
Within a day the entire flotilla fell to the contagion, but they have not died. They were consumed, and became carriers in various forms. They still live in a parody of life."
The soldiers were on the edge and gazed at the quarians fused with organic material to the walls, extremely eager to open fire as they listened to the log.
" I have managed to break out of the jail cell during the first outbreak on my vessel, namely the ship crew unlocked the jail doors in hopes that we can escape what is going on.
But we managed to punch the Coordinates away from the rest of the flotilla, what I could realize; over 80% of the flotilla was now harbingers of disease.
As we sped on in vain hopes of escape, a single boarding pod impacted our hull. We got a holo call and turned it on. It was the traitor herself, but she was not her, her face was melting, and still contained the mask, it was unlike other quarians behind her whom were in different states of decay.
"You seek to avoid blessings of the Grandfather? It is pointless; I send you my last gift to you Mon'Sha. Spread it to the galaxy. Spread the Glory of Chaos."
The vid died down, and from the pod emerged creatures out of pure nightmare, they have polluted our air, and killed our people.
Now we are isolated in the main deck, our attempts at stopping them has failed, we managed to destroy the engines in this system, away from the plague flotilla.
But it is small consolation to know we will die here, but a relaxing thought that they won't use us as carriers.
I have decided to take my life away honorably, so did the rest of my officers, we will not be plague bearers.
May our deaths be avenged. Glory, to Arahi'Ler.
Glory….to the Flotilla." The video ends with Mon'Sha ending his life with a bullet to the head.
The marines were silent. Before Gebelz spoke.
"We are leaving. Right now. No wonder they couldn't self-destruct, the organic matter ruined most of the controls, these quarians died before they could be polluted. The monsters fused them to the walls as a mockery to their unwillingness to be monsters, they will be honored on the new homeworld."
Quickly, the marines began to retreat towards the exit, leaving alone the mess hall and going the long way around, the ship reverberated and felt alive as it sought to stop the marines from escaping, at certain parts of the ships tentacles sprouted and sought to catch the fleeing soldiers whom opened fire and hurted them.
One marine came to close to the door which was open and was caught and dragged in by the unknown creatures, his screams echoing wildly as the other marines couldn't help him in any way, for they knew exposure is a certain death.
They saw the insectoid creatures entering the hallway from another door, they fired in order to prevent the creatures from pouring in before using Foam Grenade and sealing them in, they were speeding through as fast as they could, the mud and the organic materials slowing them down.
They heard a loud screech and saw the last marine rushing at them, he was running on all four, eggs growing all over his now near fully chitinous body, sprouting flies and other worm like beings.
They concentrated fire on him and brought him down, the fire sizzled as it died down, still twitching.
Before long they reached the entry way of their pod and sped inside as fast as they could, sealing the door, fearing the nightmare would follow them.
The doors shut and they were decontaminated 5 times before being allowed through the quarantine.
Detaching violently they sped towards the waiting ship.
They joined the main ship of the SS Kosmos Marines, and opened fire onto the derelict plague bearer ship, obliterating it wholly. Lest the contagion spreads somehow.
They were now on the way to report the situation to Arahi'Ler, the Quarian Fuhrer.
To say Arahi was concerned was an understatement, he knew of Chaos, and knew of what it could do, he didn't believe in it, but the recordings shown by his soldiers, as well as the logs, and downloaded data on the Mon'Sha's pad. He was convinced this was not something he could fight alone.
He approached his long ranged Communication device, he gazed upon it. Long and hard, minutes passed and he was still contemplating before issuing a call.
He knew of a radio link the imperials used during his years of isolation. He was not eager to do this ,but he sent a call.
"This is the imperium watch station Zigama, unauthorized call detected. Identify yourself." The human voice shouted.
"This is Arahi'Ler of the Quarian Reich, I need to speak with Admiral Tiberius of the Imperium of Man. It is of utmost importance that you do not end this call, for it concerns the future of both our empires."
"And prey tell xeno, why would our Admiral speak with you? " the voice was angry.
"Because I bring him news of Chaos appearance which if not culled now, could spread and endanger not just us, but the galaxy.
Tell admiral Tiberius, the Plague God found his host."
There was a silence on the other side and minutes passed. Arahi was patient. Then there was a voice.
"This is Supreme Admiral Tiberius of the Imperium of Man, and I will listen to you Xeno, speak."
Arahi'Ler prepared himself, for his words now carried the survival of not just his race, not of just humans, but of the entire Galaxy.
And in the shadows of Aquila Rift Relay system, the Plague Princess prepared her dark crusade against all living things, seeking to grasp the galaxy in the loving embrace of the Grandfather Nurgle
The Plague Lord.