Author's note : Hey guys i'm sorry that it's taken a few days to make this happen but the issues are that i work a lot so i'm not going to make promises of dozens of chapters a month instead i'm going to try to make it happen about once a week sometimes less but i won't give up on my stories i know that one day this will be the foundation of something amazing and i won't let go of that.
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On the surface of dawn a mad scramble was taking place in mere hours an enemy unknown to the beings of this galaxy would grow unstoppable.
….grow…. A yellow vapor was permeating the air in the sites of the meteorites crash expanding ever outward clinging to the plants and to the trees and any animals that were unfortunate enough were quickly overtaken.
…..feed….. The mists growing darker at the center as the hours passed all the trees and plants began to change in color and appearance
As if growths were protruding from their surfaces and growing around them consuming the organic matter to fuel its growth.
…..expand…. In mere hours the growth has consumed hundreds of feet
All life now had new purpose a new goal to Infect to consume to feed on everything.
…...need…... more…..more….infect…..
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Jak was a strange fellow where others were happy and proud to serve in the imperial forces seeking conflicts and heroics.
He always desired to explore worlds and see new sights things that others could only dream of.
so on his days off duty he likes to explore the sights of whatever world he's currently on and today seemed like his lucky day.
It was an amazing sight to see the falling star the previous night and the yellow mist that followed it down amazed many
so when he heard people talking about tracking it down he just knew he had to be a part of it.
Turned out it fell a couple of miles just out of the city so there were was many people heading off to see it
so there he was with people he didn't bother to learn the names of heading towards the site that many were seeking all crammed into a shuttle.
It was a relief when he felt themselves land
From what he heard they were placing down less than a mile from the crash site
since the forest was too dense further in they were going to have to walk it
When everyone was outside he noticed that there was at least 20 of them.
Jak couldn't prevent himself from groaning, just because he wanted to adventure that didn't mean that he liked people.
Off they went in the direction of the impact everyone's happy chirping were grating at his nerves.
But he remained silent since he came along to get a ride and he would need one back.
As they walked they began to go silent as they began to notice the stillness of the day.
The woods were far more quiet than ever before even at the most still of night and day the planet was never so silent.
But the curiosity kills the cat as they say so they marched forward now in silence, Jak would have enjoyed the silence if he wasn't so unnerved
As an avid explorer he's spent enough time wandering the woods on different worlds to know that nature never stills so silent
This silence while making him wary only served to fueled his desire to keep going since the mystery is making him eager.
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Vague feelings are all that there is inside a deep darkness lacking in all senses aside from those wild impulses there existed no thought not yet..
…..Consume…..Convert….create
More….hunger for more….
…..create….infect …..consume…...
…..create….. infect …..consume….
…create…..infect….consume...reforge….
Soon clicking and tapping began to appear so silently but yet deafening in the graveyard of these woods
Goooo….infect….consume….repurpose…
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...clicking that damned clicking
As they kept walking a few minutes in they began to hear some clicks in the distance and a soft tapping
At first it was light and and distant but it soon started coming closer and and sounding clearer
It wasn't rhythmic it sounded alive like hundreds of feet clicking feet all over almost like a swarm of millipedes walking around
Jak could see that everyone was nervous and at any moment the slightest thing will cause them to take off
While he didn't like people it was still his responsibility to lead then to safety as an Imperial soldier
"Everyone stop!"
Everyone abruptly stopped walking some even looked as though they jumped out of their skin from the sudden sound and quickly turned to look at Jak
" While we all wanted to come see the meteorite crash i can tell that you're all very nervous and jittery and that isn't safe"
He could see the relief in many of the faces he was getting from the most panicked of the group as they began to sigh and show relief
"At any moment one of you might run off into the woods and the rest might follow trying to find them and that just isn't safe so we'll have to settle for being safe and head back to the shuttle"
He could see that a few wanted to argue but when they looked at their friends and how relieved they were to leave they decided to go along with it
Truthfully Jak wanted to stay and keep going but he refused to abandon civilians to run off and get lost in the woods.
They began their march back to the shuttle but the tapping wasn't fading it was only growing louder
Some looked frantic and Jak was preparing to give another warning to stay together when something jumped down from the trees ahead of the group
"What is that"
"what"
"Its hideous"
"Where did it come from
"Did you see that it jumped down at least 20 feet"
Jaks words weren't heard as everyone immediately started talking, he was trying to warn them not to get closer
Jak immediately saw not a new unknown but an enemy since the small creature was smarter than they assumed
If he was right that the little thing has been following them for a time already and it alone wasn't enough to produce so much sound
There had to be more probably surrounding them now the question was if they were prey or simply being treated as an unknown
Either way things were going to get dangerous quickly, Jak watched some idiot approach it
One second he was standing with the rest of the group then he was next to the strange little blob
Jak couldn't help the morbid thought that came next
So he wasn't even surprised when the strange little blob with red tentacles jumped into the idiot's face and tore it apart what he wasn't expecting was to watch it crawl inside him
"Aahghh" the screams kept coming even though he should've been unable to speak by then
As his body warped and changed all you could hear were screams and a stomach churning groaning and squelching as his body mutated
Soon it was protruding a hooked arm and an open chest cavity with the red tentacles sticking out of its chest and his mangled head hung out to the side almost looking pleading
'There was no way he had to be dead there was no way for him to be suffering in agony like this could there' is all Jak could think
Everyone was in shock and silent but the moment the thing that was once prothean stood up once more and screech at them
They all screamed out in panic and back away so Jak ran right passed them and tackled it down with one hand holding back the hook and the other holding back its other arm
"Run towards the shuttle Go Now"
The people snapped out of it and started running
When they started running dozens more of the parasites lept down towards them from above as the treeline hid the parasites forms
Jak watched this and felt dread knowing that they were done for, he needed to inform command somehow
He quickly hopped off the creature and ran in the opposite direction while trying to open his omnitool to call to his commanders ship
He could hear screaming and screeching creeping up on him and his legs ached from how hard he was stomping on the ground trying to run faster and get away from this nightmare
'Fwap' everything faded to Jak as the colors began disappear he could feel himself falling and then suddenly his body hit the earth
His consciousness was fading in and out but he could feel and hear himself being dragged along the ground
Fear gripped his heart but he couldn't move it was like his body was disconnected from his body most likely a heavy blow to the spine crippling him
Denying him escape from this nightmare but no he was forced to watch the trees passing by staring at the patches of blood of the people he came with
Some even stood around him staring as he was dragged along before running off towards the city in the distance
Jak couldn't do anything anymore for his people they were going to be consumed by this monsters that tear away at their bodies and wear them as some kind of demented disguise
Jak couldn't stay awake any longer so he gave into the embrace of sleep and just let this nightmare end
Then darkness…..
Itch...scratching...crawling….wriggling...digging…
eating…..devouring ...me… it asks….i answer ….
make it stop…. Anything….. to make it stop…..it
wants…..what does….. it want to know…..
EVERYTHING…it wants everything ...what does
that mean…...aah….pain …..pain…..make it
stop….nnoo more…please…..ok...ill…..
….. nnoo…ahhh….
...ok...ill...give...you everything…
just make it...stop….end it…
..I'm...Jak...i...w….wa...was….Jak….i...don't….
…'sob'...know…..who…..am...i….i….no...we...
...yesss….we….
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Toruk was a pilot for a company of shuttle services so he ended up doing weird assignments from time to time
sometimes some people were nicer than others most of the time they were dicks to him but he didn't mind too much it all came with the job
you meet all kinds of people when you flew them around, today he was flying some group of people into the woods to look at some fallen space rock
at least they were only civies the last time that he took scientists to some crap like this he ended up being detained by military police for days
and that sucked so he was fine with this just sit back and wait up on their return
Besides they were less than a mile out from the site so it's time to sit back and relax and wait this whole thing out.
…...after 20 minutes Toruk looked up from his Omnitool and saw that there was still no-one around so he laid back and chilled out before he knew it he was napping maybe minutes maybe hours but when he awoke it wasn't by choice
TaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptapTaptaptaptaptap
He looked around the outside of the ship at least what he could see from inside the shuttle's cockpit but he didn't see anything
He considered going outside but decided it wasn't worth his job since it was company policy to stay inside at all times
Helps keep the pilots safe and away from the passenger's to prevent any altercations lack of contact helps prevent any dispute or so they say
Toruk always thought it was just so that the company wasn't held liable for any stupid decisions the clients made.
He looked at his omni tool and saw that it was nearing 6 hours since they arrived at this spot
He sent out a message towards the clients omni tool but received no response so he waited another hour
Once that occurred he began the start up routine for the shuttle since the company policy once again kicked in .
that if contact with the client was not maintained past 6 hours then a message had to be sent to the client and if there was no response.
Then the shuttle would make multiple passes in the area so that the client would be alerted to the shuttles nearing departure
Firstly he closed the side bay doors and started up the shuttles routine programs to check the systems and start up the engine
Once it all passed he elevated the ship a few dozen feet in the air so that he would passed just over the trees and started on the direction of the crash site
it was a very short trip there but before the mile was up Toruk had already started seeing strange things outside the shuttle
First it was the wandering people that didn't quite look right heading without a general direction
Then the yellow mist hanging around some of the trees further in as well as the distinct lack of trees coming up almost like they've been cut down
"Mother of God"
Shock took hold oh Toruk as he looked out over the infestation growing over the planet having grown hundreds of feet in all directions
It had a sickening color of orange on most parts but what he focused on was how it moved almost like it was alive as if it had a pulse pumping as he saw what looked like gas bags inflate and deflate with time
Toruk feared for the fate of the passengers that he brought to this place but he wasn't going to stick around so he quickly drove the shuttle back to the city
It only took a few minutes to cross the miles by shuttle so as soon as he touched down he quickly exited the ship's cockpit trying to run and warn someone
when he heard the tapping again almost afraid to look he peeked over at his shuttle only to see some small parasites walking atop it and staring at him .
"Ahh" he screamed in fright only for the fiends to leap atop him and tear their way inside him
His screams grew silent only to be replaced by a screeching of a new being "Fweeehhh" that preceded the fall of the city's populous.
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Amos was fascinated with was he was able to see inside the samples chamber once he had it inside the machine
He opened the vial and watched as the sample began to grow out of the sealed chamber that he brought it in
That was an important distinction it didn't crawl out rather it was growing along the new chamber
As it spread he could see it slowing maybe lacking in fuel.
As he scanned it he quickly learned that it was alive a fully biological being explaining why it was believed to mimic life since it Was Alive
He attempted to study its biological composition but it didn't make much sense since the data didn't match existing records in any form
This likely meant that there was nothing to compare it to maybe its been traveling for millennia and finally entered known space
As he looked at it he began to think of it as a thinking muscle since it appeared to change itself to meet the environments demands
He began changing the temperatures inside the container as he thought about it he considered that it closely resembles both neurons and glial cells in terms of its physical structure
But it's almost as if the cells themselves have the ability of deciding what to be and how to approach an issue that threatens them
When he attempted to use a physical tool the growth hardened to prevent it being split
This made him wonder how it would react to other biological components so he went off in search of other collected samples of other life forms.
He soon reached the chamber where they stored vials of blood samples of other species that they had been studying over time
In this case since the most recent expedition his team had embarked on was to a primitive world of bipedal apes
He took some samples due to their abundance within storage and then returned to the laboratory where he loaded in a vial and watched
A few drops were placed by the growth he watched intensely as it quickly moved onto the sample
He scanned the changes and couldn't help but compare it to the breaking of a damn as it flooded over and into the sample
breaking down and consuming the organic matter and then proceeding to grow and expand over the area where it collected the recent sustenance
It was unlike any living organism that he had seen before it acted more like bacteria
A virus infecting and consuming the cells within an organism to fuel its own growth
Amos replicated and recorded the same test again time and time again with different samples
Every time he was amazed at how efficiently it adapted the new organic matter to supply its needs and fuel its growth
Soon from blood alone it had grown far larger than the same sample he allocated inside in the beginning
As it grew he began to notice that it was exerting large quantities of force on the containment walls
While they held it in it was concerning because it was almost as if it was attempting to break free and seek out more food
More accurately it seemed as though it was pushing towards him like it knew that he was more food
Amos insured that he recorded these occurrences for his report to the Admiral
To warn him of the dangers of introducing this organism to any organic environment
If he was correct then this was an extremely hostile lifeform that consumed entire ecosystems and maybe the entirety of planets
If introduced into a live environment it would likely devour it and use it to expand its mass to astronomical levels
Amos knew it was a bit morbid of him but he decided to see what would happen if he introduced a live specimen within the pod
He headed to his room and collected one of his pet salarian lizards
While they were considered food some protheans took them in as pets due to their seemingly deeper and quick grasp of new information
They could be taught easily and made nice simple pets but now one would end up as a sacrifice for Science
When he unsealed mass effect field keeping it out apart from the specimen that he had dubbed the Flood Parasite
due to its quick invasion and consumption of organic matter seemingly as if a powerful current dragged along all life in its path
Quickly he saw the salarian lizard approach the new specimen and then immediately ran in the opposite direction of it
It was clinging to the wall trying to escape it by being as far as it was able to be
While this was an interesting development as it proved that animal instincts warned them of the danger that the parasite represented
But he needed to test its actions in regard to living beings so he prepared to activate the biotic fields to connect close the distance between the two
When he began to notice the parasite squirming when a bulge began growing out its surface and then burst suddenly releasing a building monstrosity
An overgrown head making up the body supported by small tentacles with a few strands sticking out of its only seeable orifice covered in a red fuzz like strands
It was small the size of a fingertip and quickly it was standing amongst more of itself all wandering around then shot towards the lizard
Quickly the distance was closed and while the lizard hopped around and squirmed it was quickly pinned down as the pods clawed their way inside
It was a grotesque experience to watch and recording especially but a new experience to be sure
Rather than the salarian being broken down and consumed the growths began protruding from inside the new holes carved into its body
As it began to bulge and inflate and the limbs began to recede and thin as well as its head and tail
Soon it stopped struggling and remained still as he continued scanning the process he watched the change occurring internally as well
The salarians cells were overridden and converted into flood cells and the inside of the salarian was secreting a strong gas
He couldn't be sure but it appeared to have converted the salarian into a mobile incubator
He programmed in a mass effect field to slam into the new creature and he was proven correct as it burst with great force and released dozens of new walking parasites
Amos considered the comparison between feeding it samples and the idea of it having access to free growth outside of containment he was filled with fear
Amos quickly rushed out towards the ship's communication room to make an immediate call to the Admiral before anything horrible took place
As he sent out the signal to the Admiral he continued to worry as he knew some portions of it were meant to crash into the planet and most likely already had.
When the signal was patched through Amos skipped over any decorum and spouted out his fears
"Admiral Avox Sir Quickly you must Destroy It"
The Admiral looked flabbergasted for a moment before a firm and focused look entered his eyes as he began to question him
"Explain yourself Amos failure to follow protocol is a punishable offense when made towards a much higher officer"
Amos looked panicked but began to sputter apologies and attempting to restrain the desire to scream out the need to skip over them
Amos knew very well that the admiral was one of the empire's most strict followers of proper imperial conduct
Amos saluted the Admiral and Presented him with the proper greeting and subsequent apology
"I Deeply Apologize Fleet Admiral Avox Sir
I Have News Of The Most Urgent Matter"
Admiral avox looked to him and saw that he truly looked Impatient rather than merely petulant like most imperial researchers so he quickly wrote off the failure in protocol and ask him to elaborate
"Apologies accepted, Now speak Imperial Researcher Amos what is this news that has you so frantic"
Once again Amos Blurted out the response but this time the admiral did not take offence as he was very curious to know what had the man so panicked
"Admiral the portion of the Meteorite that you sent me to study turned out to be far more than simply floating space debri"
"Yes Amos which is precisely why you where to study it to learn how we could use it"
"That's precisely it sir my initial results proved that the meteor did not mimic organic signatures in any way"
"What do you mean that it did not mimic an organic signature all the scans from the ship's clearly read out an organic signature in the makeup of the meteorite"
"Thats precisely it sir it did not mimic the signature because what you shot down was Organic or Rather it still is a living Organism"
"That makes no sense, There isn't any species capable of surviving space travel without a vessel and we even blew a hole right through it with an orbital defence cannon"
"That's precisely why i'm calling you to alert you of an impending danger that could result in an extinction event taking place on the world of Dawn"
That instantly drew the Admirals focus and complete attention
"You better explain what your saying because it's starting to sound like you've lost your damn mind"
"Ye..Yes sir ok so what the original scans showed was that the specimen was in fact a parasitic life form"
"Parasitic so it's like a virus"
"Yes a very powerful infection it's as if bacteria was weaponised and evolved into a solid physical form able to infect other organic life at the cellular level
"Do you mean to say that it's compatible with all forms of life?"
"I believe so sir, ill send you a copy of my experiments so that you can witness it for yourself but i assure you that this is a very serious threat."
" Yes i see that clearly i'll immediately send out the order to destroy all other traces of it from space"
"That would be wise sir… but there is more to it i'm afraid this creature that i've dubbed the flood parasite is able to do much more than infect and consume other organic matter."
"Honestly it's tougher to consider any possible scenario that is worst than this"
"Well sir the bigger issue is that the parasite can con the state of the composition of its form meaning that there is a risk that it'll land on our worlds and survive the reentry speed"
"Damn alright, i'll deal with this, quickly keep experimenting see if there any way to reverse the infection process in the worst we'll need a counter weapon for these flood"
"Yes sir i'll do that right away"
Quickly breaking off into a salute and ending the call amos hurried back to his lab only to stare and gasp in shock at the sight of the containment pods torn side
Likely ripped apart by the parasite and reached an escape plan
Pulling out his omnitool Amos sent out a message to all his researchers and everyone else to suit up in gear for a possible outbreak to keep them safe and blind to the danger of the situation.
Amos was afraid deeply afraid he'd seen what happened to the salarian lizard that might just end up being him next..
Till next time
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Author's note:
Hey guys did you enjoy my newest chapter it know its far longer than the last 2 combined and that's exactly why i did it I wanted to show you what i'm going to try to pump out on the weekly or biweekly and while i know that isn't as great as constant updates i hope these will make you happy and get lots of reviews from you guys since a single comment alone makes my day
So please guys comment and enjoy my story.