I opened and closed my eyes. I saw nothing, just darkness.

My heart started to accelerate, and my adrenaline rushed immediately.

After a few seconds, my sensors started to give me a few inputs.

"Wh-what happened? I remember reaching the tunnel and falling."

I looked left and right, I could see a few collectors moving, and two transporters. One had air, and the other had samples of the red worms.

"T-the mantis, where are-"

"Oh, Kai... Good that you woke up. Darwin told me you almost got us killed."

"Norn. You woke up."

"You, any words to add?"

"I wanted to return their help. Where are they?"

"You're as dumb as it can get. I can read your thoughts, you know?"

"Norn, stop doing that, or-"

"Or WHAT?! You're trying to seek fucking forgiveness or atone for the deaths of some people thousands of years ago?! WAKE UP, no one cares, and millions are dying every day. You're just being-"

"What's fucking wrong with trying to do some good thing, Norn?!” I cracked my neck and started to investigate the corridor. “Where are the mantis?”

"This galaxy only knows about WAR, Kai. If you want to play the nice dumb human, do it AFTER you get a new body. Tyranids do not care about virtue or ethics. We care for survival. And we devoured them, so there are no survivors."

“You did WHAT?!” My eyes started to shine in purple light, and I was thinking about beating Norn, even considering burning her soul from existence as an option.

"Host, I was the one who took the actions.”

I stood there and used my tail to hit the wall, cracking it. “FUCK!”

“It was a necessity to restore the body. It was in critical condition."

I closed my eyes and saw what Darwin meant, my body was damaged, and there were signs of injuries that were barely healed.

After sighing, I started to calm down, burying my anger for now. They are working towards a simple objective, survival.

I was too weak and tried to help others, but ended up failing miserably. I took it as a blow to my confidence and had to reevaluate my priorities and choices. I’ve been so carried away by the dichotomy of surviving in this Xeno body that I didn’t give it enough, though.

“Darwin, take a few collectors and monitor them through a scout.”

We rested in silence for a few more minutes while I was trying to calm down and find some answers to calm my mind. My mood was stormy at best. I knew that I had to choose how to live from now on. But I wanted to delay that decision as much as possible.

I stood up in the desolated and submerged corridor. It looked like Darwin moved in a random direction for a few dozens of meters. We were close enough to feel some acid and corruption that leaked from the ceiling. We needed to move out of here soon.

“Host, there are little to no biomass sources on these corridors, we need to move further.”

"Can you tell me what happened when I was out? How did the fight end?"

Darwin told me that he was too focused on escaping, so we don't know anything. With a bit of luck, the parasite flowers would have killed that corrupted beast, but I can’t count on that.

"Well, let's move downwards and build another base. We need a place to defend ourselves."

“Kai, we need to get out, and if we manage to do it, I promise that I can create a new body for you to kill yourself alone. I need to rest, I’m too tired…”

Norn then unlocked something and went into slumber again. She was cold with me, but it was her offer of managing to create a body for me that picked my attention.

"What?! Can you really do that?” I asked her about her words, but she had fallen into slumber.

I then inspected what she had unlocked.

Structure unlocked: Seed, cost: 10 biomass - It's the base of any Tyranid ecosystem. It can be used to gather resources or develop in any formation, allowing complex structures to be built.

Looking at the information, I focused on the fact that we’re on the same boat, at least for now.

I started moving with the transporters and used my enhanced senses to locate some areas that might have a significant accumulation of resources.

We managed to get to one of the lower zones that I could navigate through the cave system of this biome, probably around 30 meters below the forest.

Once I noticed a soft area at the end of a corridor, I split my maw and summoned tanks and fighters, as well as transporters to help to dig. We all started working for hours to create our second base.

This time, we will build our base in a slightly different way. I wanted to create a sort of maze and use the minimum number of units to defend several corridors, with hunters or bombs.

“Okay, let’s try this new thing.”

My back cracked, and some chitin plaques moved to allow a seed the size of a grape to be formed. I threw it to the soil, and it started to spread, growing over half a meter towards the cave and absorbed nutrients and valuable biomass from the terrain, making it crumble shortly after.

It then started to create a sort of fruit, that accumulated all the biomass in a biomass snack. As I ate it, the seed dried out and died.

My first pleasant surprise was that the seed could capture part of the oxygen in the water, allowing me to breathe regularly again. That made the air gathering problem disappear.

I munched it and noticed it gave me 13 biomass, returned slightly more biomass than it cost.

Grinning at the sight of profits, I moved the units and started to move the rest of the soil and earth to block the corridor from where we came.

After trying to create a cave with a few more seeds, I modified them and started to harden, creating some root system to hold the newly built cave, so it didn't fall apart.

"Okay, we can either erode or help strengthen an area. We can't just erode these walls mindlessly, but it can help us prepare some traps or fake corridors."

I created a corridor that moved from our soon to be nest room, and after 6 meters, I then began to dig upwards while thinking about what to use as a defense mechanism.

Maybe some spikes or acid at the bottom of the cave could serve to take down our prey.

What I needed right now was a steady flow of biomass, and I thought that the best was the small parasites or the spiders. If we managed to control their numbers, I could defeat and devour them without much problem. The issue was that I couldn't just move outside the caves to hunt, nor go to the lake. Both were too much of a challenge right now.

The only areas left were the ones I could make for myself.

I started to dig downwards, creating a sort of well that had several bombs pumping acid at the bottom of it. Norn called it a crudely crafted digestion pool. But once I reached 6 meters, I hit some sort of hardened surface, unnaturally flat. “Looks like I have hit a wall.”

"Darwin, show me the status."

Species: Primal Adult- Ripper

Stats:

Level - 6 (100 biomass to unlock minor evolution: Elite)

Health - 17/24 (Temporarily weakened)

Energy - 68/90

Biomass Reserves - 36 biomass

Str - 20

Res - 17

Vit - 16

Agi - 14

Int - 10

Biomorph list:

Support level 3

Enhanced senses level 3

Maw and claws level 3

Chitin level 3

Poison sting level 3

Spores level 3

Pincer level 2

Adrenal glands, level 1

Unit & Structure list:

Minor -> Collectors, Mites, Bomb, Transport

Basic -> Tank, Fighter, Hunter, Scout

Structures -> Seed (10 biomass)

“I need real defenses. Maybe I could merge the seeds with a biomorph?”

“Host, that will be allowed once we create advanced seeds. Those are specialized structures that can use and sustain a biomorph outside of a Tyranid body.”

So that will take some time to get. Well, it’s worth trying once we are settled.

“Well, let’s keep working with what we have on hand.” I started digging, trying to forget about the Mantis, and focused on the work at hand.

--------------------------

After entering the Cicatrix Maledictum, the spaceship had been traveling for more than 11 months through the Warp, one of the most dangerous places known to humanity.

It was a Mars Class Battlecruiser, one unique model able to throw Orbital Bombardment strikes and had powerful Gellar Fields, capable of creating reality bubbles to protect ships on the Warp.

Some crew members said it was more like 12 or 15 months, no one was really sure. Time fluctuated differently in different areas of the ship. The closer one was to the reality generator fields, the less strange phenomenon happened.

Yet the ones in the weakest parts, sometimes turned inside out, with their bodies exploded all over walls or spontaneously combusted in chaotic flames.

Only the faith in the Emperor, the guns, and the Captain's presence could maintain the order on the ship for so long.

And they had traveled further than anyone in the whole Sector, probably the entire Segmentum Ultima, the one situated at the eastern fringe of the galaxy.

That half of the whole crew survived was surprising. They had recycled thousands of corpses for food and water. Yet that was business as usual for the thousands upon thousands of servitors, slaves, and lower crew members that kept the ship alive.

And after all that pain, suffering, and uncertainty, they reached a relatively safe point where the ship returned to reality while escaping the hands of screaming demons and ghostly apparitions that had haunted the ship and hunted the souls inside it.

“Lord Captain Aldaris! We made it!!”

An exhausted and prematurely aged officer talked to the Captain.

“Good! Well done, everyone.”

Everyone on the deck shouted in happiness, and some jumped. Even Aldaris sighed and slowly nodded, releasing some stress. After a few hours locating their position, and letting the tech-priests cool down the nearly melted Gellar Field generators, the ship activated their scanners to determine their objective.

The Auger Array, a multi-sensor device capable of launching a multitude of scanners and provide valuable data and analysis, returned the first images of a yellowish-brown, somewhat ochre planet. One of its continents was verdant, yet the rest of the planet was strangely an immense desert.

Two moons orbited the planet, that rotated a star of similar size to the sun.

“Lord Captain, we have located Pri-8, the encrypted message said that the research outpost was located on one of the moons, but we have not determined any Imperial remnant structures.

Suddenly, the whole bridge trembled.

“Sir! We have been hit! Multiple spaceships are appearing near our flank!”

The screens showed a few black and extraordinarily advanced and twisted brutal aesthetic, resembling pirate ships filled with edges and pointy and sharp ends.

The ships started to launch several shoots and moved with unmatched speed towards the Imperial spaceship.

“Prepare for battle! Officer, send orders to the Vox, let the spaceship know we have company!”

The officer started to send messages, awakening the dormant ship and preparing it for a crude battle that was about to come. Some areas reported smaller vessels moving nearby the ship, testing their void shield, and trying to destroy the propulsors.

There were more impacts and explosions as the enemy vessels attacked their ship.

A high ranking Tech-Priest present at the commanding bridge moved closer and whispered some words to the Captain with a cold, emotionless, and mechanical voice. “Aldaris, you know why we came here, those ships are a mere distraction. Time is of the essence! We must recover the artifacts and secure the lab!”

The second in command in the ship reported the data from the screens. “Sir! They seem like Drukhari vessels! They were waiting to ambush us once we moved out of the Warp!”

Lord Captain Aldaris hit his chair and pondered for a few seconds, then turned to the Tech-Priest Explorator, the highest Mechanicus member in his ship that was following a sacred Quest of Knowledge, trying to recover ancient archeotech.

“You’re right, I will deal with those scum pirates, take a few vessels, and locate the lab. Once we can get inside it, I will send reinforcements.”

The Tech-Priest nodded slowly and turned, moving his oversized mechanical body, that was hidden under a red robe. One could see several mechanical arms attached to its back, moving on its own as they gathered data, and did minor reparations to his bionic limbs.

Then, Aldaris nodded and gave new orders.

“Officer, send Tech-Priest Explorator Furjorn Da’Kriek and his helpers to the docks. Call Captain Trummol and Leah, they will escort and protect them during their investigation. Also, call the Master of Ordnance to activate the torpedos; we might need to launch some nuclear warheads to fend off those Dark Eldar parasites.”

The officer nodded, and Aldaris stood up and took out his blade, a saber sword gifted by the prior Captain of this ship. It still had some engraved words on it. ‘Eternal Glory’

He grinned and made a swift motion, put the tip on the ground, creating a high pitched metallic sound that called everyone’s attention.

“Everyone, listen! We have survived a terrible test! We traveled all the galaxy to secure this outpost and its treasures! But we have more challenges before us!

Yet again, some vile and treacherous Xenos are trying to destroy what is rightfully ours!! Get ready to kill those scum! Ready the weapons, fire all lances, and send all fighter vessels!!

May the Emperor protect us all!!”

Dozens of voices responded at his words.

“For the Emperor!!”

He nodded and sat down on his chair of command.

The officers and crew members responded with energy on their voices.

Even though they were all suffering terrible exhaustion after many months in the Warp, they knew duty came first.

“This space battle will be a tough one…”

Lord Captain Aldaris spoke with cold hate in his voice as he saw the report of the damage on his ship and the many enemy vessels that kept appearing form portals near their position.