“AHH! Aghh! Holy, fuck…”

I woke up in the nest, feeling completely broken. My body hurt so much that I didn’t even try to move for the first few minutes, too busy just breathing and assimilating that weird dream.

“Kai, what the hell happened? We tried to reach you, but there was no response.”

“Ahh… Norn, it’s good to hear from you!”

“... What? Are you okay?”

I laughed and stayed in a coiled position, not daring to move due to the burning sensation on my chest. I closed my eyes and could almost see the red moon and the shadows lurking nearby.

“I just had a bad dream, a nasty one. How was the situation here?”

“Host, Queen Norn managed to upgrade our body and unlocked more troops. But as the energy leaked was remarkably strong, it attracted more enemies. So we had to take drastic measures to defend ourselves.”

I looked around the area and frowned while Darwin was talking.

We were in the middle of what seemed like a huge acid lake. The units had excavated and opened a massive cave, with the nest in the middle.

As a measure of protection, it was surrounded by burning acid.

I saw some pieces of the elite enslaved spider on the side of the cave, half-digested.

“How long has the process taken?”

“Half a day, I managed to use some seeds and transporters to increase the size of our digestion pool, creating a natural defense and filling it with toxic fumes.”

We needed to hurry. I tried to uncoil and walk but fail miserably.

“What the-”

I looked down and noticed two things. I was not a human anymore, and I had a crystalline protrusion on my chest. It slowly pulsated, and I felt an oppressive energy that didn't let me breathe.

My chest started to glow slightly, as well as my eyes, and the whole nest opened up at my thoughts like it was made of paper. I then tilted my head, and the whole bunch of seeds and tubes that formed the nest began to merge again.

“Host’s synapse control has increased due to the core.”

I chuckled and experimented with it for a while; it was weird. It felt like I always had my mind reduced into a nut, and now it had cracked.

“Darwin, can you show me my status?”

Primal Elite - Ripper

Stats:

Level - 6 (100 biomass to level up)

Health - 40/40

Energy - 120/120

Biomass Reserves - 73 biomass

Inner Core - Psychic level - Iota (6 meters radius)

Str - 22

Res - 19

Vit - 18

Agi - 16

Int - 12

Biomorph list:

Support level 3

Enhanced senses level 3

Maw and claws level 3

Scything Talons level 2 (New)

Chitin level 3

Poison sting level 3

Spores level 3

Pincer level 2

Adrenal glands, level 1

Unit list:

Minor -> Collectors, Mite, Bomb, Transport

Basic enhanced Units - Tank, Close Combat, Ranged Hunter, Scout

Proto Tyranids: Ripper, Gaunt (New)

Structures:

Seed (10 biomass) -> Allows to absorb biomass, erode the soil, or build simple structures when hardening it’s composition.

Proto-Nest (250 biomass) -> A basic and below-average structure. It has decent protection and can be used to spawn units.

I noticed my size increased yet again, and my body was bigger, over 1 meter tall and 1.5 in length.

And I had two extra limbs on my shoulders. Two sharp and sword-like talons that were somewhat copies of the corrupted spiders. And as the core seemed to react to my mind and ideas, once I summoned a tank, I noticed it was now easier to control them.

“Norn, has the core affect my control over my units?”

“Indeed, you can now control some proto Tyranids, twice the amount of basic units and four times the number of minor ones. The core has unlocked your latent psychic powers too.”

I nodded and started to move my new limbs, trying them, and their mobility. The psychic field was around 5 or 6 meters from me, but I felt it could grow much stronger.

“What about the new units?”

“I thought you would never ask. As our body is still not complete, we can’t produce true and deadly units, but we are closing by the day. You can now create fake Rippers and Hormagaunts. They look similar, but cannot munch ceramite armor yet.”

I nodded and summoned one Ripper. It looked like me when I turned level 2, a 30 centimeters nightmarish creature.

It was a maw with a few limbs to allow it to walk. I had cost two biomass points to summon it, but I felt it was worth it, as the creature could quickly overtake larger opponents through fierce and voracious attacks.

For the Gaunt, it took a long time as the creature began to be slowly formed inside my body. The seed biomorph acted as both a defense mechanism and a minor breeding chamber.

Once I noticed the egg being formed, my back chitin split, and the unit fell to the nest, taking a few more minutes to grow into full size. I frowned, as it had consumed five biomass.

"The cost of the rest of the units has decreased as well. Basic units will cost one biomass points, two in the case of the tanks.

I waited while moving and getting used to my new size until the egg started to tremble feebly. As I paid attention to it, two sharp limbs pierced the egg, and a few seconds later, it completely broke the shell. The creature looked ready to fight once it exited the shell, screeching and looking left and right, ready to strike.

As the small unit was moving and exploring, I frowned. It seemed that it had its own intelligence, despite being at the level of a small animal.

One I expanded my psychic field to touch it, its behavior changed. We connected, and it entered the synapse control.

A cold intelligence substituted the more animalistic movements like it was a predator waiting for prey.

It felt like an extra limb from my body, and I could partially see and feel through it. It was weak but way stronger than anything any unit had given me before.

I then stopped, and it returned to its behavior as if nothing happened.

“Now we have a chance to fight back.”

“Host, the corruption has been changing and mutating our enemies. Untainted biomass has started to be scarce too. We need to spend a large amount of time cleaning it to make it edible; otherwise, we risk damaging our DNA.”

I nodded and sighed. I knew that things would turn harder, the longer we waited.

“Okay, what about the tunnel to the waterfall?”

“It’s almost completed. But we have called some parasite-flowers attention.”

“That was a risk. We will need to create a huge distraction. With that, we will move towards the waterfall and climb it. Hopefully, we will manage to go through some tubes or machinery towards the first biome and the cryo-chamber again.”

Norn asked me about that decision, and I told her that the map showed some weird formation behind the waterfall, with enough space for a control room to exist. “Besides, there must be some machines pumping the water to this biome. This area is certainly artificial.”

The more time I passed on these biomes, the less real they felt like everything was controlled to be in equilibrium, and there were no more elements from one side or the other, cutting off any alterations or disparities that tend to be normal in life.

In the last few weeks, we had altered the ecosystems violently by consuming everything, and the corruption has spread like a miasma.

“Okay, Norn, Darwin. I plan to go to the AI’s room where the cryo chamber was stored and try to awaken it or find a way to locate it’s processing core. It said that we could find it on the lower levels. After that, we will try to escape and go to the planet.”

“Any idea how you’re going to do that?”

“Not yet. First, we must survive and escape this biome, then the lab. After we reach the planet, we will think about what to do next.”

“This can’t even be considered a plan, Kai…”

“Well, that's what I have. If we can’t locate more biomass, we won’t be able to upgrade any further, and I don't think we should use the trick with the core, it was concerning.”

“Yeah, the core fusion has been pushing us past my limits. I won’t be able to upgrade us any further without a proper amount of biomass, time. and a good amount of rest.”

I listened to her and noticed we lacked biomass and time. The core could supply some energy, but I was cautious about the dream and what it could mean.

Those shadows appeared all of a sudden, but didn't seem part of the dream; it felt like they had inserted themselves somehow.

I thought to myself that I should tell them about those figures, but discarded for when all this is over.

I start summoning Gaunts and a plethora of units. It was a team consisting of two tanks, six Gaunts, and a scout. The last two units are the transporters I have sent to dig the tunnel. It is quite an aggressive combination, but I want no surprises.

“Okay, Darwin, lead the way.”

I slowly move towards the direction the tunnel was, and once we reached it, I noticed it had been built too small. I cursed and sent the Gaunts digging to make myself some way. It was quite easy for them to dig with its sharp talons.

“Now, we need to really make a scene…”

I looked left and right and started summoning seeds with whatever biomass I still had and started eroding the ceiling, gaining back a few biomass points each time one seed reached its natural limits.

After a full hour, the cave’s ceiling had been weakened to its absolute limits, and I turned to my units, ordering them to enter the tunnel.

Once all my units are ready and walk inside the tunnel, I sent an order to the nest, and it started to crack, opening several tubes that began to spread pheromones and particular flammable gas.

It will last only a few minutes, but will surely attract much attention.

The last I heard, were roars and screeches from the nearby tunnels. I used my tail to block the tunnel as we advanced, causing rocks to fall behind us.