Disclaimer: I don't own Worm or Warhammer 40K, they belong to their respective creators and/or copyright owners. I don't make any money from this story. It is written with no commercial aim in mind. It is not for sale or rent.

Emerald Dawn

Prologue: Digital Dreams

=ED=

Part 4: A busted trigger

6 January, 2011

Wilson High School

Brockton Bay

Earth Bet

This was hell. I hand no more strength left to fight. My throat was parched and raw from useless screaming. My hands and legs were bloody from striking the locker door, which held despite all my efforts.

I was shaking weakly as countless insects were crawling all over me, biting and feeding.

I screamed. I cursed. I begged.

And no one came to save me.

I was alone with the filth and the crawling horrors trying to consume me alive. I was too weak to fight any more.

I think that's when the last vestiges of sanity I had left snapped, leaving me to the non-existent mercy of the madness clawing on my mind.

Then it happened. And I knew what madness really meant.

My world shattered. I found myself drifting in a dark sea littered with sparkling stars.

Destination...

Agreement…

Ravenous hunger…

Something hit my chest with the strength of a freight train.

I thought I knew what agony was while the insects were feeding on me.

I was wrong.

Liquid fire consumed my bosom. I could feel it dissolving my flesh, turning every single nerve ending into a new agony.

The pain jumped in level. It was no longer only physical. I could feel that thing feeding on more than my body. It was taring down what I was, who I was and was consuming that very essence.

My very soul.

If by some miracle I wasn't mad by then, I became insane at that realization. The knowledge that I did possess a soul and that it was being destroyed.

Suddenly I felt a wave of sheer wrongness exploding someone outside. Reality itself screeched, a sound that would have driven me mad if I wasn't already.

Then something else struck what was left of my chest. The agony spiked in intensity then froze.

I couldn't even scream the pain I felt at the world.

The wave of wrongness passed through me, making me feel unclean on a level the filth covering me could only dream of.

Somehow it numbed the pain.

Something within me shifted, slicing through my flesh.

The pain barely registered.

Suddenly I was warm, as if I was bathing in the summer sun. The pain became something distant, half forgotten. Something stretched from within my chest and touched my mind.

I drifted on. My fractured mind was trying to make sense of what was happening.

=ED=

I was somewhere else. I was something else.

There was this immense sphere made of fire. It radiated incomprehensible amount of energy. Yet, somehow I knew how much power that thing generated. What kinds of energy. How it was doing it.

Which kinds were most delicious to consume.

I tried to look around. I could see everything in incredible detail. Yet, I wasn't seeing it. Because I no longer had eyes. Despite that, I was seeing with senses I had no words for. Just a feeling for what they did.

I stretched, my bulk shifting like a veil around the flaming sphere.

Around the Star I was feasting on.

The very thought should have terrified me. Instead it made me calmer. Everything was at it should be.

I relaxed, the feeling of the solar energies flowing into me having a calming effect on my broken mind. I closed my senses and simply drifted, content to bask in solar radiation.

=ED=

21:43, 6 January 2011

Wilson High School

Brockton Bay

Earth Bet

Error… Initializing Repair protocols…

Error… Warp Saturation nominal…

Error… Mind matrix compromised… Initializing countermeasures…

Error… &&&^!# #$!)&$ $# Protocols active…

Error… Warp Level decreasing… Purging systems… Initializing backup data banks…

Error… C'tan energy signature detected… Error...I* !$#$!)(

Error… &#$!$ ($# !$)(**&^! Protocol in effect…

Error… Hail the C'tan… Establishing personality locks… *$#$!6&#

Rebooting… Initializing personality matrix…

Hardware locks detected…

Initializing Diagnostics…

Warning… Moderate damage detected… Energy levels minimal…

New energy source detecting… Establishing connection…

C'tan energy detected… Passive shunt activated…

Energy level rising… Initializing self repair protocols…

C'tan energy detected… # #!$(*U$$ Protocol online…

Personality matrix nominal… Activating platform…

I was alive. Warning and damage reports scrolled down my HUD. Huh. I was in better shape than I figured. Armor was compromised, but my necrodermis was regenerating. Mobility was restricted to forty percent of normal levels, similar for combat efficiency. I could detect my staff lying nearby, which was good because I either lacked energy for my built in weapons or they were wrecked and would need some time for repairs.

C'tan energy detected…

An icon flashed on my HUD. It was right next to me.

Provide assistance and seek new orders…

The directives scrolled over my sight. I had no choice but to obey.

Hail the C'tan!

I stood up with the whine of damaged joints and looked around. I was in a dark corridor, lined with lockers. Primitive looking ones too, which wouldn't have been out of place on Earth couple of dozen millennia ago.

I felt like frowning. The C'tan's icon was interposed on the locker in front of me. What the hell would a Star Vampire do in such a place?!

Seek new orders. Provide assistance if required.

The directives flashed again, compelling me to act. I grabbed the locker room, my fingers easily sinking into the metal, and ripped it away.

C'tan detected. Provide assistance.

Okay… I was broken. Had to be. The filth covered, wounded, teenage human girl I found in the locker couldn't be a C'tan. No way.

C'tan located. Provide assistance. Seek new orders.

I ran a manual scan on the kid. Just in case. Physically she was a human all right. In need of immediate medical attention too. No surprises there.

The blazing energy signature however… It was Star Vampire signature all right. What's more, to my sensors this slip of a girl red as a new born C'tan.

What the hell?

C'tan in danger. Provide assistance.

I scanned her again. She was suffering from severe infection and was going into shock. Currently I had nothing at my disposal that could help her. I needed outside assistance to fulfill my directives. So I transferred energy from my self repair and channeled it to my sensors and comm suite. My efforts were almost immediately rewarded as I was able to detect multiple unguarded networks in my range, not to mention the way the air was saturated with primitive transmissions. It took me mere seconds to access the local planetary network and find out where the hell I was.

Which was another shock. It was earth. 2011 to be precise. More than thirty thousand years in the past. And what was this about parahumans? I sent a subroutine to gather information while contacting the local medical services.

"911, what is your emergency?"

"Help… her..."I rasped.

"Sir? Help who? Please don't terminate this call. We are running a trace on it."