NationStates Jolt Archive

[ooc: technology wise, it's a mix of Killzone,Fallout and some S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and cyberpunk themes here and there. I dunno what "FT brand I'd call it.]



This small moon was originally colonized by several pharmaceutical companies, mostly as a research post and colony. It was named due to it's vague resemblance of the Kiev Oblast of Earth's Ukraine, though most parts are desert now.

Around 2157, a fleet from a far off star system waged war on the small moon, designated "XD-R". The fleet stuck first with heavy bombardment from Thermonuclear munitions before landing their soldiers on the ground.

The war waged on for several years, resulting in a Pyrrhic victory for the inhabitants of XD-R. It ended when a legendary soldier infiltrated the invaders flagship, and detonated a poorly designed suitcase nuke, which in turn caused a massive chain reaction. Over the span of 10 years, they'd lost over 60% of the population, most of the moon turned into a radioactive wasteland [which in turned earned it it's "official" name.] The large planet where they'd originally came form was now devoid of life, and they quickly fell into a state of isolation. While most of the moon's population centers were reduced to bickering nation states, fighting over basic resources, the megacorperations had set up governments, thus in turn large cities emerged. The companies, however, were no better off then the factions of people, they also lacked sanitary water at first.





While most of the population is human, there's a sizable "alien" population. The CEO of the company "SynTec" is an "alien" himself. In the wastelands as a result of radiation and chemical agents, mutants and other undesired things roam freely. An entire colony on the edge of the Clean Zone purposely mutated their survivors, in order to easily adapt to the new ecosystem.



Military matters are conducted by the regions corporation. During and after the war, PMC's became the career of choice, out of necessity. Because human units were very vulnerable to ballistic and energy weapons, enhanced soldiers were created by some, while others enlisted robots, due to their resilience against radiation and total immunity against chemical and biological agents. They were also fearless when out numbered, which made them ideal for wave attacks against the invaders.






Data[as conducted by the Umbrella Corp.]:
Population: < 9,750,000 [not including cyborgs or robots]
Genetic make up: 60% humanoid 40% other
Average lifespan: variable, between 40 and 70
Capital city: Spire





Corporations/Factions:

SynTech-
Designed the water purification facilities, alongside various advanced prosthetic parts. High public opinion, they maintain order over Spire and several small[in a sense] cities.


Umbrella Corperation-
SynTech's main rival. They produce many products, ranging from medical technology to weapons, including bio-organic types. They were the first to develop a personal body armor that was equally effective against ballistic weapons and energy weapons, and lead in medical science relating to the lack of supplies, and means to stretch already availible supplies.

Azure-Industries-
This particular corporation is the main provider of food for the moon, and even has it's own Region. The quality of life there is highest, because it was less affected by the war then others.


Clear Sky: A faction which is neutral to everyone, they provide guide services to travelers and protect supply runners.


Duty: This faction was created by the SynTech corporation to handle security in Spire and other cities they control. They seek a world where SynTech has full authority over matters, and have long been at war with the Freedom Faction.


Freedom: A group comprising of anarchists, criminals and other exiles, they really don't have anything note worthy about them. they're neutral to everyone except the Duty faction, SynTech PMC's and mutants.


Loners: A mixed bunch to say the least. They often band together in groups to protect each other from mutants and bands of criminals. They have many camps and small townships that some stay at, often for life.


Supply Runners: They exist as a logistics train between cities.


Bandits: Criminal organizations, they're everywhere.

Scavs/stalkers: Most population centers have them, they often venture into highly contaminated territories and seek supplies either for their own wealth, or for others. They're often affiliated with the factions.

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


On the outskirts of Spire, near the security cordon, some elders were playing a game of chess.

"Hmm, well. I think I've finally beat you."

"Bollocks!.... I guess you're right. Now what? We've played this game for the past few years.. it's getting..old."

The other man sighed.

"I suppose. I'm too old to travel now. We could always go to Spire and play bingo at one of the community centers."

Seeming like he had a bright idea because the expression on his face, the other man agreed.

"Sounds like a plan. I think the trolley is leaving in an hour."


On their way there, they past a SynTech patrol, and asked if they had any luck with that radio transmission center they'd found. The patrol's hadn't heard anything new about it, but suspected that they had it running and were fine-tuning it.

That center could make contact with the main planet, other moons on certain frequencies, alongside other stations on XD-R.




In the Communications Center, they'd finally did it. It was now time for them to make the first broadcast for decades, and they had high hopes for it to work.

"Testing, Testing, over. This is XD-R transmitting for anyone with in range, can anybody hear us, over."

Everyone in the room was tense.

Out in space, a large insect appeared to drift along aimlessly, while in truth looking for new worlds to expand the swarm to. It was the size of a small carrier, it's bloated frame twisted by Warp energies. It's shell was red, and the creature itself was completely non-threatening. It had one of it's long spindly legs wrapped around a second insect trailing it. The second insect was smaller, and tended to glow and blink occasionally. It looked like an hourglass, with each end being a large dish-like depression with a single antennae sticking out. It was purple.

The giant bloated creature stopped, and cocked it's head with interest, as the creature behind it emitted screeches on Warp energy frequencies.

The screeching creature was known as a Satellite, because that's exactly what it was. The Eternal Swarm had long since realized the need for foreign communications, if their many plans were ever going to succeed, so they mutated some drones into satellites, capable of sending and receiving communications on a variety of systems, and on a variety of frequencies. The creature to which it screeched, was known as an Overlord, and Overlords could control other things, most notably the satellite it pulled, and the swarm inside it's belly, for Overlords were also used for their transportation abilities.

Having received the message, the Overlord drifted, and thought, and thought, and at last arrived on a suitable course of action.

It caused the Satellite to send a return message on the same system, in the same frequency, and the message would arrive intact, without much degradation, but the message was almost entirely an assortment of clicks, screeches, and howls.

Then the message repeated a few times, each building on the previous collection of before somehow becoming an understandable message in the tenth transmission.

"Greetings, I am Imvorlate, Overlord #3,622 of The Eternal Swarm. How may I terrify you today?" The voice almost sounded mechanical. But then, the swarm had trouble grasping languages outside it's own, and so mis-communication was often the result.

After what seemed like a long time, they'd heard a response.

"What did it say?"

"I don't know, putting it through a filter now."

After it had replayed though a better frequency, it was understood.

"Doesn't sound human, too mechanical."

"Still, it's better then nothing. Send a reply."

A message was sent, explaining their situation. Included were some coordinates, which lead to an empty space in the vast desert as a precaution.

The scout team was traveling on what appeared to be a tracked vehicle more commonly used to transport heavy goods, and had a SiSKia 30mm AT gun mounted on a tripod. While it was outdated by now, it could still punch a hole in the sides of tanks, and could easily take out personnel carriers, alongside people, mutants and others. When they arrived, the scouts concealed themselves among the rocks, and set the cannon up just in case. The tracked vehicle stayed several dozen meters back, and had a camo net put over it, and the remaining crew were in contact with the base.

A small white rent in space, was torn open near a small system, what looked like a dust storm flew out of it, slowly forming the bulk of a small frigate, a Kewenic frigate, the small sip listed to one side, as the two crew inside fought to re gain control.

The ship slowly corrected itself, and a stunning beutiful woman, exited from under neath a control panel, holding a wrench and some duct tape she quipped " Delta! I fixed it!, we should be good for awhile"

She was addressing, the stiff figure of a man, that couldnt be much more then twenty standing barely a few meters away tending a cylindrical tank, holding the ships thrid, and unwanted passenger.

"Hes still in stasis, and its holding, Navi's still offline, so it will be awhile before we ca---" Delta was cut off, as a quicking beeping sound filled the bride, and the alien transmission played.

"Hello, hello, hello.. I think we found our way home" The girl said, sliding up to the comms panel, and quickly sending her reply, as delta Changed course.

"Why hello there XD-R, this is the pleasure frigate, Ambient Gazer we have recived your transmission," her voice would of sounded like that of a childs, sweet innocent and soft as she continued "I am.." she quickly thought of another lie " Monica, Commander of this vessel"

After what seemed like a long time, they'd heard a response.

"What did it say?"

"I don't know, putting it through a filter now."

After it had replayed though a better frequency, it was understood.

"Doesn't sound human, too mechanical."

"Still, it's better then nothing. Send a reply."

A message was sent, explaining their situation. Included were some coordinates, which lead to an empty space in the vast desert as a precaution.

The scout team was traveling on what appeared to be a tracked vehicle more commonly used to transport heavy goods, and had a SiSKia 30mm AT gun mounted on a tripod. While it was outdated by now, it could still punch a hole in the sides of tanks, and could easily take out personnel carriers, alongside people, mutants and others. When they arrived, the scouts concealed themselves among the rocks, and set the cannon up just in case. The tracked vehicle stayed several dozen meters back, and had a camo net put over it, and the remaining crew were in contact with the base.

The Overlord turned slowly in space and moved off towards the coordinates given, being outside the system, it would take it awhile to arrive, but the ground troops wouldn't be waiting more then ten minutes after arriving for their visitors.

What they saw might cause some of them to snicker, for the overlord drifted down from space, and really did look like a giant balloon, with the way it just hung there. It's elephant trunk like legs reached up inside an opening closely resembling a mouth, but on the side, and pulled out a large balled creature, and set it down on the ground.

The thing unfurled itself to reveal itself to be a serpentine creature, much like a giant boa constrictor, but in a variety of colors, and glowing with energy. It slithered around in circles, as though looking for them, and then stopped, and hissed in a passable dialect of galactic common.

"It feels your minds, we know your here somewhere." the thing hissed at them, pointing at the Overlord with it's tail.

The Satellite meanwhile hovered outside in space in Geo-synchronous orbit with the coordinates.

A small white rent in space, was torn open near a small system, what looked like a dust storm flew out of it, slowly forming the bulk of a small frigate, a Kewenic frigate, the small sip listed to one side, as the two crew inside fought to re gain control.

The ship slowly corrected itself, and a stunning beutiful woman, exited from under neath a control panel, holding a wrench and some duct tape she quipped " Delta! I fixed it!, we should be good for awhile"

She was addressing, the stiff figure of a man, that couldnt be much more then twenty standing barely a few meters away tending a cylindrical tank, holding the ships thrid, and unwanted passenger.

"Hes still in stasis, and its holding, Navi's still offline, so it will be awhile before we ca---" Delta was cut off, as a quicking beeping sound filled the bride, and the alien transmission played.

"Hello, hello, hello.. I think we found our way home" The girl said, sliding up to the comms panel, and quickly sending her reply, as delta Changed course.

"Why hello there XD-R, this is the pleasure frigate, Ambient Gazer we have recived your transmission," her voice would of sounded like that of a childs, sweet innocent and soft as she continued "I am.." she quickly thought of another lie " Monica, Commander of this vessel"



"Looks like we've got some company out there, humanoids too."

The radio operator then spoke into the machine to reply, after getting orders from HQ detailing thing's he should ask.

"How is it out there? Unfortunately, we've been unable to confirm if there's anything alive on the main planet, so we've been isolated for some time."


In the control room, someones radio cracked to life. Someone in the room went over the control panel and whispered into the radio officer's ear.

"I've just been informed that our leader would life to meet you. If you wish to do so, there's a landing station in Spire."





The Overlord turned slowly in space and moved off towards the coordinates given, being outside the system, it would take it awhile to arrive, but the ground troops wouldn't be waiting more then ten minutes after arriving for their visitors.

What they saw might cause some of them to snicker, for the overlord drifted down from space, and really did look like a giant balloon, with the way it just hung there. It's elephant trunk like legs reached up inside an opening closely resembling a mouth, but on the side, and pulled out a large balled creature, and set it down on the ground.

The thing unfurled itself to reveal itself to be a serpentine creature, much like a giant boa constrictor, but in a variety of colors, and glowing with energy. It slithered around in circles, as though looking for them, and then stopped, and hissed in a passable dialect of galactic common.

"It feels your minds, we know your here somewhere." the thing hissed at them, pointing at the Overlord with it's tail.

The Satellite meanwhile hovered outside in space in Geo-synchronous orbit with the coordinates.



They saw the thing as it emerged. Seeing the massive snake like thing on the ground, then the thing above it, they decided what to do next.

"What is that?.."

"Hendricks, you move up to it, keep your grenades hot, just in case.. We'll cover you from here."

One of them men navigated his way through the rocks to meet the strange thing on the ground. his hands were in his pockets, holding the spoon's on his grenades. The other higher up couldn't get a clear shot with the Siskia, but rather aimed at the larger thing that seemed to hover like a balloon of a sort after loading an ammunition belt in.

The man on the ground nervously approached the "snake" on the ground, and spoke to it.

"Hello.. welcome to XD-R. And you are?.."

"I am a Swarmling Zealot. We are numerous and many, and do not possess or require further Identification than that. That which is above me is a Swarmling Overlord, and they do not possess or require further identification than that. I am a priest to the powers of Chaos, so chosen to speak, because I can speak many languages, where as the rest of the Swarm can speak only one.

Welcome to space, it is a large and empty place, yet impossibly filled with life. We ourselves were looking for a place to set down a new colony. Mighty large and unused desert you got here, it'd be a shame to let it go to waste." The Zealot said. As it spoke, Hendricks would notice it's voice seemed to have an echo effect.

The Small frigate, to any watching, would of just appeared at the edge of the system, it neared the planet as well, and "monica" Replied,
"Oh, I would love to meet with your leader, I am currently above your planet, where is this "spire" you speak of?"

Delta, stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulder
"Mistress, you are way to trusting, remeber what others of there kind did?"
She shook her head, and smiled before replying
"Delta, you need to forgive and forget, dont forget they still are your race, your not totally mindless."

"I am a Swarmling Zealot. We are numerous and many, and do not possess or require further Identification than that. That which is above me is a Swarmling Overlord, and they do not possess or require further identification than that. I am a priest to the powers of Chaos, so chosen to speak, because I can speak many languages, where as the rest of the Swarm can speak only one.

Welcome to space, it is a large and empty place, yet impossibly filled with life. We ourselves were looking for a place to set down a new colony. Mighty large and unused desert you got here, it'd be a shame to let it go to waste." The Zealot said. As it spoke, Hendricks would notice it's voice seemed to have an echo effect.



The man thought for a second.

"I don't see why it would be an an issue, but.. there's really nothing here. The big planet still has some resources, if anything. Otherwise, this crater is yours."

He wondered why the bigger creature didn't say anything the whole time.



The Small frigate, to any watching, would of just appeared at the edge of the system, it neared the planet as well, and "monica" Replied,
"Oh, I would love to meet with your leader, I am currently above your planet, where is this "spire" you speak of?"

Delta, stood behind her and put his hands on her shoulder
"Mistress, you are way to trusting, remeber what others of there kind did?"
She shook her head, and smiled before replying
"Delta, you need to forgive and forget, dont forget they still are your race, your not totally mindless."


"It's the largest city on XD-R, I'll uplink the coordinates."

Spire was really one of several dozen "Official" cities; countless others were just occupied wastelands. Spire indeed could be considered the capital, due to it's population and it's operational launch site.

A small Space Cruiser entered the moons orbit. It remained cloaked to all other parties in the area, instead opting to deploy a small shuttle to the moons surface. It too cloaked untill it touched down a good distance away from any cities, somewhere in the desert. The rear door opened, and a small group of soldiers (http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/article/890/890093/e3-2008-resistance-2-screens-20080715043024206_640w.jpg) ran down the ramp, aiming their weapons around and checking for any enemies. Most of them carried their standard Laser Carbine (http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2006/291/928399_20061019_screen006.jpg), but one of them carried a large Gatling Laser (http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2006/291/928399_20061019_screen008.jpg).

They kept watch for a moment, whilst one of them ajusted the settings on a small device (http://ablogtoread.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/pipboy-3000-watch-11.jpg) fitted to his arm. After a second, he spoke

"Okay, don't take off your suits" he said "I'm seeing a radiation spike on my wearable"

"Where are we, Sarge?" asked one of them

"I don't know the name, but we actually have this Moon recorded in our archives" he replied "Research vessel Fallen Star apparently visited this system around Astral Date 4750. They recorded good life signs at that time"

"Well, looks like things have changed since then" chipped in another

"Indeed. My wearable dates some of this radioactive dust as over 160 years old" the Sergeant told him

"What happened here?" continued the soldier "We passed over a city on the way in. Maybe we should start by observing it?"

"Yep, that's our mission. Observe - Record - Archive" said the Sergeant, picking up his Laser Carbine "Let's go"

The man thought for a second.

"I don't see why it would be an an issue, but.. there's really nothing here. The big planet still has some resources, if anything. Otherwise, this crater is yours."

He wondered why the bigger creature didn't say anything the whole time.

The big creature let out a ponderous groan that was mostly screech. Really it was it's own language, but outsiders without unneccessarily complicated translation equipment wouldn't understand it. So the fact that it had just said "Finally, what a relief" would be lost on most people.

It lowered itself to the ground, and it's sides opened to reveal cavernous insides, filled with monsters!

The most numerous where giant green cockroaches that simply scurried out and made way for the other two breeds, two large monsters with thick bulky muscles and sharp looking claws. It's skin seemed remarkably tough.

The other two were creatures that went about on spider legs, which supported a thick bulky body. Tails dragged by the tip in the ground behind them.

"Behold the swarms. The most numerous and first to exit were the Drones, barely more than organic Automatons, they are the entire base of the swarm. The strong ones are Khornate Swarmlings, the offensive warriors of the swarm. The ones on spider legs are Spitters, a ranged offensive breed. We had no idea when first we left Zerus what we would encounter on a planet, thus the protection." The Zealot said.

Then, the swarms got out of the way of the scuttling drones. The Overlord lifted back up into the sky, and a single Drone went to the exact center of the crater. It squished itself flat, spilling out it's insides on the ground. It's insides began to swell and grow, twitching and moving in a display that was both utterly disgusting, and completely fascinating. The guts appeared to mutate and morph, evolving into a new outside, masking the changes happening to the inside guts. With a flash of Warp Energy, the process finished, and the drone was now a Hive. The two swarmlings and spitters went inside the hive and disappeared.

A green goo appeared to come spilling out of the hive, and it sank into the ground surrounding the hive, merging the ground with the hive, as a sort of skin. It made the ground seem, alive. As it spread, some Drones took to taking care of the hive, and the spreading creep, going in and out of it. Others went to various spots on the creep, and themselves morphed into extension organs of the hive, increasing it's powers.

"Behold, a fully functional Swarmling Hive." The zealot said some time later after the hive finished building.

ooc: dude, nuke the site, before it expands! >.> its going to kill you all its the swarm! *flee*

IC:

The small frigate, well small compared to any decent kewenic ship you encountered, at a mere one hundred and fourty five meters dipped into the planets atmohspere, and headed down towards the planet, fires formed around it as its sheilds bore the brunt of re-entry, as it came screaming down to the surface, on the command deck, "monica" was squaling like a child, as the ship rolled and pitched, before Delta, having enough of being flung about righted it, and set it to over near enough over a fairly important looking building.

The frigate, hovered there for barely a few minutes, before a small door, really small opened up on one of the sides, and the two occupants, slid down from a rope and landed with a soft thud.

"Sergeant, you seeing this?!" called one of the troopers, watching something through his Binos

"What is it Capelli?" asked the Sergeant, kneeling by him

"What the hell is that?" Capelli asked him, passing the Binos. Looking through it, the Sergeant could see the Swarmling Hive forming

"My God" whispered the Sergeant "I have no idea"

Space is a strange place, many wonders and mysterious things are in space. And within space somethings are dilibertly placed and set to a fate of wondering. These things are all different shapes and sizes, some are small some are large, some are clear some are dense and dark. But all these things have different missions, some as probes others... more sinister.

For this object, a small sphere, black in color and metallic in texture, its missions was simple... assimilate. It was formed from a dark being far worse then anything organic, if was a consumer, a devourerer, it was an egg. A strange egg one would say if they saw it up close. Like none they would have ever seen. But this was only an egg, but what was inside was far more terifying. For within was a spawn of a creature that enjoyes destruction and multiples like the grains of sand that form wastelands. For it feeds on anything and everything, and never ceases to feed. As it grows its multiples, as it multiples its feeds more. The process never ceasing until the planet itself is consumed, and has become one with the creature.

As this egg floated throughout space it was suddenly taken hold of by a planets gravitational pull. The egg swiftly changed course and took a striaght line for the planets atmosphere. As it entered on the darkside, it began to heat up drasticly and became red hot, and a trail of pitch black smoke followed behind it. Then with a thounderous boom it touched down, sending rock and carbon score into the air like a bomb going off. Only time would tell when the egg would hatch....

The over watch team couldn't believe what they saw. They were discussing what to do, since they weren't expecting this, of all things.

"I don't think the cannons going to be much help, we should really call it in-"

"And the Corporation will do what? They'll just send a few more guys and that's it, for all they care we just ran into some mutants.... we should just report it as that."

With that thought, the patrol officer climbed up the side of the hill and ran to the tracked vehicle. Once inside, he used the radioset and called in that they found a new mutant colony, and no ship ever arrived.


Meanwhile, on the ground, the man had some questions, despite being utterly disgusted and frightened of the creatures that spawned from the bigger one.

"So what do you intend to do here?.."

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

Not too far away, abrupt gunfire would had gained the attention of the space commandos. A supply runner convoy had been ambushed by a gang of bandits, and the escorting s.t.a.l.k.e.r.s had a relatively short shoot out. Most of the supply runners they were escorting had been killed, when one of the bandits fired a military-grade rocket launcher at the tracked vehicle and killed everyone sitting inside, and most of the people sitting on top. The mutant-ox-drawn carts stood little chance against the bandit's fire, and were decimated. Once the fight ended, the 3 remaining stalkers and a seriously wounded bandit were the only ones left.

They'd begun to scavenge the dead bandits for valuables and supplies, turning out some strange objects and assorted items.

"Hey Ghost, I found some ammo for that StA-52 that once guy had.. whatever his name was."

One of the other men jokingly added:

"The leader of the convey? might as well call him "halfy", since I still can't find his legs... what the hell? these things are everywhere."

He pointed out as he picked an ancient Kalashnikov rifle off of one of the dead. Despite leaving earth so long ago, the rifle seemed to follow mankind everywhere they went.

"Fang, I'd keep it if I were you, there was a guy back in Junktown that was looking for one, he said he'd pay a high price."

Among the equipment was a plasma rifle that the 3 men bickered over who'd get to keep it, before they realized it's power pack was dry, and the stiff they picked it off of didn't have any spares.

"Strelok.. shouldn't we get the stuff to that town?"

"And how do you expect us to do that?" He said as he hopped off of a boulder he was sitting on.

"All the brahms, or whatever they're called are dead, which is an understatement for the mover. It's a day's walk in either direction to the nearest town, and it's already evening. You both know traveling alone is a bad idea in these parts, and we don't know who that smoke will attract. We'll stay here the night and rest up, then we'll head to that vault and tell them what happened."

"Fine, but what about him?" Fang pointed at the wounded bandit.

"Nothing we can really do about 'em, but he isn't worth a bullet."

The 3 continued to move the dead into neat piles a dozen meters from where they were going to break camp, and were going to move the guys that were in the vehicle, but they'd been turned into dogfood by the rocket.

Afterwords, they set up a camp fire and sat with their backs to a large rock.

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


Two SynTech guards had been assigned to great the newcomers, and escort them to the CEO's office. Once they arrived, the humanoid greeted them at the door.


"That will be all" he said to the guards, who then returned to where they had been stationed.

As he returned to his desk, making a stop at his liqour cabinet, he offered them a drink, and asked:

"So, you must be "Monica", and you are..? Anyway, my name is Thomas Koiso, CEO of SynTech, and the mayor of Spire."

"Sir, movement on our western flank" Capelli told them "Looks like a small camp"

"Very well Capelli, keep an eye on them"

The over watch team couldn't believe what they saw. They were discussing what to do, since they weren't expecting this, of all things.

"I don't think the cannons going to be much help, we should really call it in-"

"And the Corporation will do what? They'll just send a few more guys and that's it, for all they care we just ran into some mutants.... we should just report it as that."

With that thought, the patrol officer climbed up the side of the hill and ran to the tracked vehicle. Once inside, he used the radioset and called in that they found a new mutant colony, and no ship ever arrived.


Meanwhile, on the ground, the man had some questions, despite being utterly disgusted and frightened of the creatures that spawned from the bigger one.

"So what do you intend to do here?.."



"First we shall expand to fill the crater, within one month it shall no longer exist, being filled to the brim by the hive. I assume there is no problem of how deep we dig into the ground, so we shall have done some of that as well. Then we will peacefully co-exist as neighbors, assisting you with your problems whenever, and however we can. Low on food? We have a breed called the Roast Swarmling. Genetically formulated to be nutritious for most species we run across, we can produce them by the millions. Test subjects reveal the desire to not eat ever again after consuming one, but really only go a day or two before begging for another due to hunger. We don't understand your tastes, so perhaps there's something we're missing.

There are a number of ways in which we can help out." the zealot said.

It hissed at a drone, which was clacking it's mandibles at it.

"I heard stories of official documents being drawn up to this effect. After a Cerebrate is finished forming within two weeks time, we could have them drawn up here in the Temple I will then go on to form with a Drone. Or if you like I could go with you to one of your man-cities now and it could be drawn up there." the zealot hissed.

The small egg that impacted the surface was still smoldering from its long fall from the cold vacuum of space. And as the egg sat within its crater the creature stirred within, wondering, feeling the area around it. Then with a quick motion the egg absorbed all the heat energy within the area and used it to jump start the creature within. But more energy was needed to set the creature free to roam and consume.

The egg searched around and found the planet had a wealth of latent energy burning within its crust. The egg vibrated wildly and then without warning shot skinny rods straight into the ground which stretched for miles and took hold of the ground like the roots of a weed, sapping the nutrients and energy from the planet itself. The area around the egg swiftly become cold and took a dead look upon its surface, then it began to look like the egg; black and metallic. With every passing moment the egg grew larger, and changed in shape and appearance. The once spherical object was now like a deformed and bloated mound of metallic flesh, pulsing and seizing as the being stirred within.

A farmer had heard a "boom" while he was in the field, and went to check it out. Near the edge of his land, he'd noticed that the plants had died around it, and there was a metallic looking object on the ground, moving. He approached the thing and poked it with his shovel.

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

"A treaty?" the man said.

"Yeah, I'm sure Mr. Koiso would sign one of those."

He thought for a second.

"As for meeting him.. We'd have to see about that, we'll come back in a week with an answer."

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

"Hey Ghost, your lifeform detector has some more contacts."

"Yeah, probably some travelers or scavs."

They waited for something to happen, in the meantime cooking some food from one of the wagons.

Two SynTech guards had been assigned to great the newcomers, and escort them to the CEO's office. Once they arrived, the humanoid greeted them at the door.


"That will be all" he said to the guards, who then returned to where they had been stationed.

As he returned to his desk, making a stop at his liqour cabinet, he offered them a drink, and asked:

"So, you must be "Monica", and you are..? Anyway, my name is Thomas Koiso, CEO of SynTech, and the mayor of Spire."

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

Delta, while being led in by the two guards, had a very distasteful look on his face, and didnt utter a word.
"monica" politly delicned the drinks.
"He is Delta, my bodyguard so to speak, forgive him if he is rude, he is still touchy about the last of your kind we met, its nothing personal"

"A treaty?" the man said.

"Yeah, I'm sure Mr. Koiso would sign one of those."

He thought for a second.

"As for meeting him.. We'd have to see about that, we'll come back in a week with an answer."


"Then, have a pleasant week, since your going to be gone, I guess I can get started on that temple now." The Zealot said.

A drone went to a large empty area, and the Zealot coiled around it. Both of their insides spilled forth, intertwined, and began twisting and growing, mutating into something new, but this temple the zealot said he would make, it would take awhile to complete.

A farmer had heard a "boom" while he was in the field, and went to check it out. Near the edge of his land, he'd noticed that the plants had died around it, and there was a metallic looking object on the ground, moving. He approached the thing and poked it with his shovel.

As the farmer poked the egg with the shovel, it suddenly stopped moving and the creature within opened its photosynthetic eyes and looked at the farmer from within its confines. If was blurred and distorted, but the being within could tell he was organic.

The egg, however, didn't like the shovel and acted to defend itself by taking a tentacle that was underground and swiftly shot them up from the ground towards the farmers shovel.

The being inside then began to stir and began to hatch... The eggs 'shell' cracked and started to glow a deathly black light glow. And from within the black light a hand came forth and revealed its claws, by the looks it appeared metallic and completely nonliving. But as the rest of the Dragon-like creature formed it let out a small roar. The black light still glowing bright, started to dim down giving way to the metallic skin and body of the creature.

As the light finished its cycle the creature stood at its tallest reaching some 10 feet tall...

bump

As the farmer witnessed the creature spawn, he swore and began running down the field. He had no radio set, so he couldn't possibly call for help, so he jumped into a ditch and hid there for a little while. He'd seen some strange things roaming around at night, but nothing like this..



--------

Spire


"Ahh. Well I don't blame him, human's are rather unreliable sometimes if you should ask me."

As he sat down at his desk, he opened up a folder and skimmed through it, before closing it again.

"Where could I procure a ship such as the one you arrived on? I'm afraid the only facilities capable of manufacturing are in a warzone at the moment, and appear to be under Umbrella's control."

He presses a button on his desk, which in turn an small semi-transparent screen slides up, showing the most recent footage from the site, though it appears to be at least 3 months out of date. SynTech forces are shown firing both plasma and ballistic rifles at a ship dock, before getting torn to pieces by a series of bursts from an Umbrella IFV.

"Basically, we've been unable to move them out of those areas, and a ship would allow us to gather resources from a nearby moon-mine. We would also be able to eventually purchase more, and travel would be a nice thing to have. I grow sick of the endless deserts and plains.."

"Our ship, would not be suited to much more then light combat duty, and transportation of personel, its primaryily a Frigate, specifically a light combat one if you must ask, we procured it... from our kin, in order to make our escape, and thus we cannot sell it or trade it to you. and they themselves, would not give away such things that easily, it would require something of worth, something which is new to us, but what you have is old"
It was Delta who spoke, cutting off "monica" as she was about to start.

"Oh dont mind him, he's pessamistic, grumpy old boy, but as he pointed out, procuring a ship such as ours wouldnt be the easiest task, but in return for materials and supplies, we could help you retake these docks, do not be fooled, just because we are young, dosnt mean we arnt dangerous" Monica said sweetly, all the while smiling happily.

As the men went about finding out about signing a treaty with the swarm, the temple was finished. As the old Zealot was lost in the affair, a new one could be made, but something, else, was in the process of being made. Killed aboard the a space station, there were only enough swarmlings to support two Guardians. It was by pure chance that there were only two hives, the massive hive cluster in the Zerus system, and here.

So it was that when the men finally returned, they would find a greatly expanded hive, complete with a variety of organs visibly beating away on the surface, and a few things that looked like entrances. There was no doubt that the swarm had settled in for the long term.

But what greeted them was not another Zealot, but a gigantic monster! It stood at it's fully erect thirteen foot height and let out a low menacing growl that seemed to rumble in the ground itself. It wasn't too threatening, but it was a warning not to try anything funny, or there would be trouble.

Then it lowered itself to seven feet, still taller than most men, and dragged it's knuckles on the ground.

"I am The Guardian. Gone is the Zealot, turned into the Temple behind me. It's better to talk through me though, I am capable of far more than a mere Zealot. So, what was Mr. Kioso's response?" The Guardian asked.

The creature that emerged from the crater clinched its fist and began to walk towards the farmer who was hiding in the ditch nearby. The beings sensory recepters locked on to his evelvated heartbeat and health reading flahed up in the creatures vision field.

As the being walked over the edge of the ditch it spoke...

" Organic lifeform. I am yours to command, I will grant you the power of my kind in order to bring chaos to the cosmos. but this offer comes with a very serious condition... After you have achived your objective, I will use you for my purposes. Do you accept?"

A small Cresilian Deep Space Probe floated towards XD-R. The Computer brain instantly went about scanning the moon. Alarms began to go off in the "brian", There was Swarm on the moon!!!!!!! A few blinking lights set into the maincase shut down and a cryptic message was sent out, "Q-19 sighted, ******** Quadrant, Confirmed Presence, Execute Operation: Reciprocity." The probe then went into complete shut down and became what looked like just another piece of space junk. Waiting, hoping its message was recieved.