Collectors freedom
It ran forward, chitin cracking against rock and metal as it ran. It was not fast enough, it could not catch up with the three assailants, the three degenerate intruders who had dared breach the sanctum.
Golden eyes steadied with energy, rippling with eldritch power it raised its weapon and open fired, three bolts of seemingly liquid metal drenched in a yellow light pulsed through the air. But the enemy was far too fast, like with its brothers own weapons the assault hit the wall above them as the three jumped down.
One was a fool, its armour blue, burned and broken. He was tall and covered in a pale imitation of its own exoskeleton but so useless as to require armour, the grand mind called it a Turian: some sort of defunct mix between an avian and an insect. Half of its face was cracked and boiled.
It jumped down with them, two other brothers in pursuit. They all fired as one, a crescendo of sickening yellow darts flew over the chamber, some hit the walls, the pressure causing the rock and metal plating to break apart from within whilst others pinged and popped off the floor and ceiling of the hives megastructure. However a few did hit their target, but these damned intruders were crafty, their armour was made of metal and ceramics able to hold off a few shots but they had to go even further for they were covered in a slimy blue energy that seemed to cling to them like bile and for all the loose shots that did hit none could ever seem to breach that silly thing.
A crescendo of yellow light violently trembling the antechamber, burning light followed by glossy red and abyssal smoke followed. It must have been a projectile shot by its brothers which had gone too far, hitting a power line, breaking its amber glass like shell and generating an explosion of miraculous power.
One was a cripple. Her body immersed fully in a suit covered in purple cloth and silver metal, the cloth was decorated in silly swirling patterns that did nothing but confuse, perhaps that was their function- to confuse low lying lifeforms. But what came about as so laughable was not its cloth armour that so heavily relied on its protective bubble but instead what a basing biometric scan could tell, its bones and muscles were weak but that was not so surprising. Instead the immune system of the pitiful animal was more akin to the workings of a piece of rotting organic matter. A single shot could end its pathetic life. It took aim for her.
They continued to run up the ramp, further explosions, further missed shots. More of the brood joined them in the crusade against the raiders. But as ti and their enemy rose up the encroaching ramp other explosions rocked the structure. Not ones of mechanical failure and straining infrastructure but ones of weaponry and death. A ship rose from the end of the walkway. It was small, white and garishly clashing with the grand architecture of the hive but even with the subpar technology that built the craft it was still able to do some damage, explosions burst from its cannons and armaments like the rising tide of a volcano, most hitting the panelling of the hive creating further flashes of heat and causing an avalanche of brown rock to fall and dowse both flames and hallways. Some hit the chitinous tide, rich golden eyes were snuffed out forever by the burning might of primitive explosives whilst others were cut apart by the fragments ejected from the buckling floor and cast through the brood creating a wave of ethereal yellow ichor to descend from the remains of ripped apart brothers.
The last was strong. He was decked in black armour plating split with stripes of red and white paint. It was stronger than its companions, almost as strong as one of the broods, biometrics confirmed it was modified like them, cybernetics, organic and genetic augmentation all ran through its body pushing it to feats its original framework could never do. Scars also littered its flesh, the pronunciation of a great warrior that could not be stopped, but they would butcher this xeno filth. But something echoed from the grand mind, the dreams and imaginations of the golden god that willed them, that which directed them, that which pushed them, let loose an echo of language that they could not decipher; salvation, destruction, Shepard… But it did not care for this mystery for like the rest of the brood it had a purpose in killing these intruders.
As the three combatants reached the top of the ledge the white ship shifted with its weak drives, revealing an opening hatch. Another invader emerged and with its kinetic assault weapon opened fire on the crusading brood, like cowards the two weak ones leaped into the open hatch, the strong one stayed however, boldly covering their retreat its weapon activated and in a clashing sound of fury many of its brothers were torn apart by the whirlwind of microscopic pellets fired.
The ship began pulling away, beckoned by its cowardly allies, the leader ran to jump the gap, we fired, bolts of energy whipped past but none made it. He nearly did not make it, clinging to the floor of the hatch, the perfect target but before he could be pulverised by our fire it was grabbed and pulled up by its contemporaries.
It pulled away, the hatch closed. Even though the invaders had fled from direct harm they could still be destroyed, vanquished and burned from the hive, to never again try and fight against the chosen of the gods! It and its brethren shot crazed at the vessel, beams of yellow energy leeching across the chasm and against the rear of the ship, pelting its thrusters and mechanics. But like the others it too was cloaked in a bubble of energy, and unlike the others not even the strongest weapons they could be armed with could penetrate it. But still they fired.
Screeching emerged suddenly through the network, a new signal, a new command. But as they prepared to commence the news they received it and everything began falling apart.
Throughout the assembled hoard, eyes flickered. From the throbbing gold to a dead yellow. Shadows descended their vision.
Screams of pain echoed through the halls of the hive.
"You Have Failed"
Pain pulsed through every nerve ending as mechanical and cybernetic works which replaced organs fell offline.
"We Will Find Another Way"
Emotions long believed lost, to have been torn out thousands of years ago were brought back to life, fear stood unparalleled.
'Releasing Control'
Everything disappeared and the final thing the dying brood heard was a cruel whimper before a ballooning shield of flame and fiery death snuffed them out.
Authors notes:
Just a simple foray into the art that is fanfiction,
Hope its good
Might do more one day