AN: Halfway through the Darkspore Universe. I apologize if this feels like a bunch of padding, but it will be over soon.

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I found myself once again going through a rather boring arrival at a new world, this one being Verdanth, home of Biogenesis. You know, in hindsight, the Darkspore universe was probably the most boring universe I went to: no real foes that offered me any challenges, nor were there any tangled webs of alliances, spies and secrets to navigate. It just had a bunch of foes to fight, all of whom were woefully underpowered in the face of my progenitor hypertech.

Still, it was fun to beat these guys into the dust.

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It took me a few hours to totally exterminate the darkspore in my LZ, because I really didn't want to demolish too much of the landscape on Verdanth. I think the natives took it as sacred. For me, this meant no flame tanks and very careful usage of artillery, so casualty rates were significantly higher during the skirmishes on Verdanth than they were in similar battles on Zelem's Nexus and Nocturna. Not that this did any lasting damage to my army, though, because seriously, I could rebuild any losses I took.

Once I'd cleaned out the LZ and set up my initial base, though, things really took off. I sent out five different armies to purge the planet of Darkspore, each one paired with five genetic heroes: one of each type. he ones leading this were the Biogenesis heroes: they were really pissed off by how the darkspore had defiled their homeland and desired to make their vengeance as messy and painful as possible. Not that I cared: the Darkspore were a menaced that needed to be cleansed from the cosmos.

Despite the limitations I had imposed on myself, the cleansing of Verdanth was still a short affair, with little notable events occurring besides the fight against the local destructor, Orcus. Though I was briefly surprised when Savage managed to summon a literal horde of angry wildlife that reduced a Darkspore Army into a massive pile of flesh, blood, gore, bone and gristle. Even that, though, wasn't very noteworthy.

As for the fight against Orcus, that was pretty amazing. Though, that could be said of all of the battles with the destructors.

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After several hours of cleansing, I'd reduced the Darkspore to their last stronghold on the planet. Their hordes were on their last legs, having been driven to exhaustion by the genetic heroes and my armies of cold steel (Well, technically it was progenitor alloys, but the idea is the same). Now, it was time to go for the coup de grace.

As soon as I arrived at Orcus' hiding spot, I found myself being contacted by the overgrown locust.

"So, I take it you are the one that defeated Polaris and Nashira?" he asked in a rather odd voice: it was very deep at one moment, only to get screechy at the next.

Now, in the game, the Darkspore didn't talk to you at all, they just howled, screeched and roared. I guess maybe they weren't interested in talking to heroes going to destroy them, but the Outside Context Problem was an entity worthy of conversation.

"Indeed I am, and you will soon be joining your fellow destructors in death, mega-cricket."

"You sound so sure that the outcome of a battle between us is in your favor."

"I am certain it is."

"Well, then, let's put your faith to the test."

Then the ground shook as Orcus, The Devourer of Life unburrowed from the ground and moved to attack

The genetic heroes and my metallic legions responded to this by opening fire... only for a wall of very, very, very thick thorns to pop up, blocking our assault.

Huh, he could raise walls of thorns. Well played.

Though, not enough to save him: the Biogenesis heroes had given me their permission to use flame tanks here, so it wasn't long before the thorns were roasting.

Not missing a beat, Orcus summoned a small army of tiny creatures to attack my forces, before promptly firing blasts of energy and venom at my armies. I had the heroes pull back, but my tanks and bots got smashed by those attacks. Of course, whenever one fell, two more were ready to take its place.

And with his thorn shield down, not to mention being far smaller than his fellow destructors, Orcus was in for a lot of hurt. The first volley of hits alone made him bleed HUGE amounts of blood, to point I was surprised he was still able to stand after that attack. Even more surprising, he only seemed annoyed by the attack.

As for his response, he ate some of his own minions. And the minute he swallowed them, I could see his wounds rapidly begin to close.

Great, he's got a metabolism so fast that he can heal himself by eating his minions, and I wasn't sure how many he could summon. Oh well, time for More Dakka.

First, I gave the genetic heroes a new set of orders: kill Orcus' minions (which were apparently called biosoids). From there, I renewed my assault on the Bio Destructor, once again forcing him to eat his minions. Only this time, due to the heroes killing several of the biosoids, he didn't heal nearly as much.

Things soon fell into a pattern: Orcus would summon his minions, I would attack him while the heroes would kill the minions, he would eat his remaining minions, and then the process would repeat. Occasionally, he would raise the thorn shield again, which my flame tanks and the Plasmagenesis heroes would soon reduce to ash. It wasn't long before Orcus was out of commission.

I briefly considered letting the heroes get the kill, but when I asked them, they refused the offer: they didn't have anything personal against him, and I'd really been the one who'd beaten him. With that discussion settled, I moved in for the killing blow: instead of using my commander's overcharge attack, I just walked up to him and put one of my commander legs over his head.

"Time to get squished, you overgrown cockroach."

I swear, the look on his face was priceless.

Then the foot came down and Orcus head was reduced to pulp. Somehow, his mask survived that attack unscathed, aside from being drenched in blood and poison. After his body went limp, giant roots emerged from the ground and pulled him beneath the soil, reducing the Devourer of Life to mulch. What a fitting end.

After that, I hitched his mask up to a transport, then set a course for Cryos.

Three down, three to go.

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AN: Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off!