Day 8, Continued
Fucking
Genestealers
Because of course the first planet couldn't just be a nice, calm one with nothing to fuck with him. He had to end up with one where Genestealers were.
Alright, tone it down, don't do anything stupid, Tide told himself. Getting angry and scared wasn't a good idea, not when he essentially had a death-grip on over twelve thousand people's nervous systems, plus millions more infected.
Strangely enough, when his Flood cells had interacted with the mind of the Genestealer, there had been a connection, like a bridge between their two minds. That interaction had gone both ways and taught him much before they'd forcibly ended the connection by killing the infected Genestealer through something like a psychic killswitch.
The first, and most reassuring, bit of knowledge was that the Broodmind was as cut-off from the rest of the Tyranids as the locals were from the Imperium. The call to feast had also not been sent out prior to the descent of the storm, meaning he didn't have to worry about a Hive Fleet for at least as long as the warp storm was still there. Essentially, his foe was the local Genestealer cult, which seemed mostly secluded in a single city at the moment. Fortunately, said city was not Malum. He hadn't been able to learn which city it was before the interaction had ended.
The second, and far less reassuring, was their belief in the presence of a certain being on the planet. A quick look through the minds of the higher ranking arbites he'd altered revealed the authenticity of that belief and given greater context. The Ordos Xenos Inquisitor Catherine Ellen had apparently taken up residence in the capital city of Deimos. They didn't have much information on her, but she'd required regular reports from all the high-ranking arbites on the planet and the PDF forces. She also had commandeered command of three recently recruited Imperial Guard Infantry Regiments along with the support of the local Sisters of Battle, the Order of the Cleansing Rains, all of which were based in the capital as well.
Supposedly, not all of the city governors were pleased with the Inquisitor's interference in their affairs, particularly in the south, but nothing appeared to be coming of it, at least in Malum.
The presence of an Inquisitor and, concerningly, Sisters of Battle, could be fatal to him. While there did not appear to be any ships capable of carrying out an Exterminatus order in the system, that did not necessarily mean an Inquisitor would not find some way of at least wiping out a few hive cities deemed to be 'acceptable losses'.
He wasn't sure how capable of detecting the Flood Spores the various hive cities would be either or whether that detection would allow them some insight into his true capabilities. While he doubted they would discover the guiding intelligence behind the infection, the capability of rapid growth and mutation, if learned of, could be of extreme danger. Not to mention the fact that an Inquisitor would likely see a plague, even one that was seemingly harmless as the one spreading throughout Malum, as a sign of some kind of corruption.
Perhaps this could be a blessing in clothing, however?
The Genestealer's body had been a strange one. His spores had been able to spread throughout it unhindered after it had perished, but a great amount of biomass and energy had been depleted by the efforts to fight off infection, something that Tide had never encountered before even with the strange and varied beasts of the Underhive. While some of the expended biomass could be… harvested, disgusting though it was, and the main body was still usable, it was the implication that concerned him more than the minor loss.
He consumed this being, adding it to the growing Proto-Gravemind and found its DNA… strange. Despite its appearance, there was only a very small amount of recognizably human DNA within the being. Roughly around 5-10% of it could be seen in other humans he'd absorbed, mainly having to do with rough body structure. Yet, its internals and brain were almost wholly alien, though still usable.
Tide suspected that the reason the Genestealer's body had fought so hard against his spores had been due to that alien portion, implying that proper Tyranids would be far more resistant to infection. He'd… honestly thought that might be the case, but he'd hoped he was wrong. The pure organisms could even be outright immune to infection, though he couldn't be sure without a Purestrain Genestealer or other Bioform to experiment on.
Genestealer biology was not something he'd been well-versed in his previous life, but he recalled there being different generations in the lifecycle of the Genestealer hybrids before they eventually produced a Purestrain. This one could have been an early stage, he wasn't sure how quickly the Genestealer DNA began to assert itself the human DNA, but he guessed it was a later stage given how much of the creature was alien in origin.
Oddly, there was nothing within the Genestealer that he could determine as being some kind of connection to the larger hive mind. The wasps he'd consumed had been similar and he recalled the Flood could not infect the Lekgolo hive minds from Halo. He suspected that it may have had something to do with whatever passed for a soul in Genestealers and Tyranids, rather than being anything biological. Since he couldn't infect souls as far as he knew, he doubted he could infect a hive mind outside of just consuming all its consummate parts.
Though, that did make him wonder how he was able to form that connection with the Genestealer hive mind. It had been a small thing, far too small and weak to be what he remembered the true Tyranid Hive Mind being described as, but it was still substantial, indicating a larger number of minds contributing to it than what he currently had at his disposal. Yet, if it was the soul that formed a hive mind and not a biological component, then how had he connected to them through the infected Genestealer?
He wanted more Genestealers to experiment with, but he wasn't willing to move openly, not with an Inquisitor on the board, nor without knowing how capable said Genestealers were. He'd have to be on the lookout. At the very least, it seemed his Flood Spores were able to infect Genestealers, at least after death. If any more of them attempted to infiltrate Malum, he'd soon know about it, or at least he hoped.
The knowledge of the Inquisitor's presence was just as frightening as that of the Cult's existence, if not more so. In many situations, such an individual could very easily cause his complete annihilation if they deemed it beneficial at this stage. While the lack of any weapons of mass destruction in the system according to the minds of those Arbites he had looked into was reassuring, it was a cold comfort compared to not having to worry about them at all.
The fact that he had not known such an important piece of information about his situation, despite having easy access to the sources of that knowledge, was not lost to him either. The minds of those he'd Altered were like open books to him, but it still required him to actually read that book in order to gain the knowledge they held. Unlike those who became a part of the Proto-Gravemind, who had the whole sum of their knowledge essentially uploaded into his mind.
It was a problem that he didn't have an obvious solution to. Well, he did, but that solution was 'eat everyone', which he'd already made clear was right out.
He was quite capable of multi-tasking, being able to essentially dedicate various parts of his Proto-Gravemind's intelligence to different problems, but permanently dedicating enough minds to spying on millions, soon to be billions, of people was not something feasible at the moment.
Perhaps not the general populace then, but those highest up he had access to? Spying on the Arbites higher-ups would be a good method to get some idea of current events beyond just waiting for someone to die and reviewing their memories would give him more knowledge on a variety of subjects useful to him.
He selected the twenty highest ranked Arbites out of the nearly forty thousand he could access the minds of and dedicated one of his contemporary minds to studying each of their pasts and presents.
There, now he would be able to tell if anything important came up.
Enginseer Holadus 88-Bal noted the halting of the lift, the grate rattling open, only to grind to a halt 12.8 centimeters earlier than a rusian pattern of its make should have. The door seemed to grumble and Holadus alerted his superiors upon the Noosphere of the Machine Spirit's distress and relevant data. He could not perform the proper rites to facilitate repairs in time to keep with his schedule. There was never enough time.
Stepping past the partially caught door, Holadus made his way deeper into Spire 01000101, noting the higher concentration of nitrogen and sulfur in the air, along with several chemicals commonly produced by factory operations, all within expected parameters. His breathing apparatus would filter out any non-standard particulate matter, but even without it the air quality would not kill anyone, even those unblessed who were without machine augments. Not quickly, anyways.
The crowds were few in number, the cycle's work shift still in operation with most still at work. Some glanced at him, perhaps surprised to see the red-coloring of his clothes that marked him as one of the Omnissiah's Children, but none dared to interfere. The heavy mechandendrite claw that hung over one shoulder and laspistol openly displayed in its holster at his waist most likely assisted in this.
There were many more series of lifts and corridors needed for him to reach his destination, one of the lowest factories of Malum that remained operational. It was many levels above that where his apparatus made a peculiar note.
More non-standard particulate matter, rarely of interest or importance, however this seemed to at least be of the latter. It was organic and while its genetic structure was beyond the ability of his apparatus to detect or understand outside of marking it to be not belonging to any known airborne lifeform known to the Noosphere, it was not unable to determine that the substance was alive, if seemingly inactive.
Protocol demanded that he make a note of the unusual substance for logging in the Noosphere and he quickly did so, taking a sample of the air even as he continued onwards. A new pathogen in the depths of a low-priority hive spire was not so great a concern for the Tech-Priests of Holy Mars, such things occurred routinely. Thus, Holadus was surprised to note the speed of the response, which took only eighteen minutes and twenty-seven seconds. Perhaps Genetor Alteus had simply found an opportune moment to respond more quickly than expected.
Sample requested by Genetor Alteus to be delivered at earliest convenience. Epsilon Prioris.
-Genetor Alteus 13-A/C,
Magi Biologis
It was a higher priority level than Holadus had expected for such a thing and the Enginseer could not determine the reasoning for the unusual importance. He'd expected a Priority Level of Iota, Theta at most. Still, it was not so great that he was required to deviate from his given task.
He reached the next lift quickly, finding this one to surprisingly be more well-kept than the previous. Normally, the reverse would have been true as one went lower into the depths of a Hive Spire the worse things got. The lift appeared to have been the recipient of recent, if rudimentary, repair. Had another Enginseer been sent here recently? No, the work was within acceptable standards for a worker trained in some of the knowledge of the Omnissiah, but it paled in comparison to what even a newly initiated Enginseer would be expected of. Strange, but not noteworthy.
What was noteworthy was the change in the presence of that same organic particulate. It went from less than one part in ten thousand, barely detectable by his apparatus' mechanisms, to an astonishing near one in five hundred. Nearly 0.5% of the air was made up of this mystery particle, a density normally only seen in basic gaseous elements. On rudimentary inspection, the denizens of the level did not appear affected by the unknown organic, at least in that they were not obviously sick or dead, however such a drastic change in just a single level was stunning and it was a moment before the Enginseer even thought to inform his superiors.
The updated data was sent to Genetor Alteus directly and Holadus took a second sample of the air. This time, the response was even faster, only two minutes and fifteen seconds after his own report.
Disregard standing orders, proceed to Level 00110111 00110110 and report air quality. Delta Prioris.
-Genetor Alteus 13-A/C,
Magi Biologis
That was the level directly below him, Holadus noted, and one step closer to his destination. What had been his destination, in any case. Surely it couldn't be denser than his present level.
He proceeded at the Genetor's command, quickly finding his way to the next lift, which appeared to be the beneficiary of recent maintenance as well, the Machine Spirit barely grumbling as it descended to Level 00110111 00110110.
Stepping out, Holadus froze as his apparatus notified him of the air composition. He performed a check of his equipment, though he was careful to leave the breathing device in place and not inhale possibly tainted air, just in case it was mistaken.
It was not.
One in one hundred. 1% of the air, twice that of the level above him. The Enginseer was not trained in the matters of the Genetors, but even he recognized that this was no ordinary pathogen.
Once more, the updated data was sent to Genetor, with the Enginseer remaining by the lift as he waited for a response.
Three minutes and fifty-four seconds passed by.
Eighteen minutes and forty-five seconds passed by.
Twenty-seven minutes and thirty-six seconds passed by before he received a response, though it was not from Genetor Alteus.
Acquire sample and deliver to me. Transportation has been rerouted for use. Alpha Prioris.
-Genetor Vidriov,
Magi Biologis
It was not a Genetor the Enginseer knew of and the attached data demanded he leave not just the spire, but the city of Malum and head to the capital of Deimos. However, it was not that knowledge that had him rushing to fulfill the task, nor what sent a sudden chill of fear deep into his all-too human heart. It was what else was under the name of the Genetor:
The Inquisitorial Rosette.
