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Getting Warhammered - [Chapter 29]
🕑 Added 2023-08-25 00:40:11 +0000 UTC"So you say you found other genestealer holdouts all over the planet?" I asked the towering Magos with a raised eyebrow.
"Affirmative: Yes," he...it, answered.
I took the moment to take in his whole form, he had four mechanical legs like thick spider legs that held up his towering torso that was covered in plated armoring which hid a swarm of cables and tubes. A Mechanicus coat hung over his shoulders, hiding four larger arms and several smaller ones under it, some had normal humanoid hands while others ended in syringes, claws, power tools or some that I couldn't even guess the function of.
"Suggestion: It is imperative to eliminate threats on our backline before the main foe arrives."
"Indeed," I nodded, pulling my gaze back to his face hidden under the shadow of a hood. Tubes thicker than my fingers streamed out of it and down into his mechanical shoulders like dreadlocks, interesting hairstyle to be sure but his face was the most outstanding part of him.
Pale, necrotic flesh with a single brown eye that I suspected to be a replacement for a long gone original one and the glowing crimson sensor on the other side of his face. It was a bit unnerving and I felt a bit disgruntled looking at him, it seemed the body horror of it all still managed to affect me despite myself being much worse.
"A Valid suggestion Magos," I reiterated, "Unfortunately it'd take far too long for only myself to go around exterminating them and such, do you have men under you or should we ask for troops from the Captain?"
"Affirmative: I have a contingent of Skitarii under me and a group of Adepts but transportation and reconnaissance would need Arch-Militant Vortigern's assistance."
"Ah, Orion, yes," I nodded again, "Would you handle that for me?"
"Affirmative: Yes."
"Recommendation: Letting me dissect a few of their remains would let me learn about any genetic disparity with the recorded Tyranid bioforms, I implore you to let me."
"Agreed," I nodded, "You are a Xenobiologist, aren't you?"
"Uncertain: That is what some would call one of my areas of research, yes."
"You see, Magos Dominus Zedev," I stared into his unblinking 'eyes', "I could use some of your 'samples' if you have any as my Psychic talents lie mostly in ... well, this."
My outstretched hand morphed, far from as fast or natural as I usually do but it shifted. My forearm shifted, bones thickened and extended, flesh melted and sharp cithinous armour covered it all. From the elbow down my arm was the jagged scythe of a Lictor in all of its malefic glory.
The Magos' single eye trembled in an undescribable emotion as his blood-red sensor stared unblinkingly at my arm as it morphed slowly back into a human arm. I didn't just do this without any reason either, I'd managed to translate his mind's binary chanting quite easily after I left two of my mind cores to work on it.
I knew the Magos was on the doors of death and all of his hope lay in Xeno organic replacement for his mind and fleshy parts. He probably had many different samples from all around the galaxy and I was the best Biokinesist in this whole damned galaxy, of that I had no doubt.
Well, if you count my body's natural abilities as Biokinesis.
My psychic Biokinesis was coming along well too, it wasn't too hard to mimic what my body was doing when healing with soul energy. Turning it into biomatter was a bit harder but I could already induce cancerous growths on myself, the only problem with those was that I only induced them and not fed them with soul energy. Cancer took the energy for growth from my existing cells, as such it was the exact opposite of what I wanted, it ate my bio-energy instead of replenishing it.
"Outstanding...impossible...maybe...yes..." Zedev's speakers sounded out, seemingly without his input as he still stared at my now human hand.
"So you can talk normally too," I noted as he snapped himself out of his daze.
"Affirmative: Yes. Clarification: Most fail to understand my intentions due to my synthetic voice, this method is the most efficient."
"Understandable,"
"Query: Your previous appendage matched the recorded melee appendages of Bioform: Lictor, how?"
"There are few beings better at murder than Tyranids," I just shrugged, "easier to mimic the finished work of others than coming up with something new."
"Query: How would different samples augment your Biomancy?"
"Trade secrets Magos," I shook my head, "though I'm willing to say that I learned the trick from the Kroot."
"Understanding: I see."
"On the note of samples," I brought his wandering attention back to myself, "If you had an Ambull or Crotalid among them that would be great."
"I will see what I can do. Farewell Inquisitor."
"Farewell Magos," I nodded and the giant ambled out of my assigned room.
That was somewhat risky but he should know by now that I know about his little research. He is a threat but his use is much more than the danger he poses.
He understood my unspoken promise, he'd come through with his part. His life depended on it in more ways than one even if he didn't know it.
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The time I spent waiting for the Magos to do his rounds wasn't wasted. I kept mainly to my own quarters, generously given to me by the Captain and I worked on my gene-pool. I had a bunch of trash by now and just like with my enhanced skin I had to make use of it.
In the meantime I kept track of my four-legged friend, he more or less strongarmed Orion into giving him troops and transport to wherever he wanted and after that off he went. He took with him a contingent of skitarii and a flock of servo skulls, you call them a flock right? They looked like a flock so that's what they are.
He told me he'd do the recognizance himself and would only bother me when he narrowed down the locations to only those that still had sizable genestealer presence in them.
I set a few of my Mind-Cores to work on incorporating all of the beneficial genetic sequences into my human form, making the best possible, bones, organs, muscles and such and afterward move on to doing the same with a Hunter Form and a Combat Form, each being modeled after the Lictor and the Patriarch respectively.
Wish I had a Carnifex, oh or a Hive Tyrant. Well, the Patriarch will have to do for now.
I didn't have to hurry overly much with these and as such I focused all of my free Mind-Cores on figuring out the Navigator's Genes from the few cells and strands of hair I absorbed. I ate one of every important-looking cell-type I found in him without doing any permanent damage to him so it shouldn't be too much trouble.
I could replicate anything I had already eaten and deeply scanned in the process, this meant I could replicate any of the cells I had absorbed from him, along with his hair but that's not what I wanted. I wanted to replicate his whole body based only on this genetic sample, if I could do this it'd be a disgusting ability in the future.
I'd only have to take a single drop of blood from my enemy or a single hair to replicate their body mid-combat. How annoying would that be? A Krork came around to smash me to bits only for me to turn into a Krork, instantly evening the odds.
I tried just imagining replicating the Navigator but that ended up with a gory pile of randomly placed cells. I somehow had to take the template of his body from the sample, I was sure my body could do it somehow.
Hours went by with me doing slightly different mental exercises. I could have just used another human template and pushed his cells into it but that'd have been counterproductive. Normal humans didn't have a third eye, Navigators were Abhumans, a sub-species of humans and if they mixed their bloodlines with any normal human it could have disastrous consequences.
They used Seers and Genologists and all kinds of weird shit to find the perfect genetic match for themselves to interbreed with.
My bio-energy kept me awake, nourished, and in top health, as I spent days without moving a muscle in my quarters. Thinking, experimenting, testing. I realized that I had to understand what the genes meant in exact detail, I had to have the mental image of the finished form I wanted, and the gene sample I had was like a written description only that it was encrypted too.
It was like learning a coding language only by practicing with a compiler. I was given examples of working code and I could mess around with it and see what happened to the original program that the code produced. I had to figure out with trial and error what each 'command' of the code meant and then compare it with another similar code.
It was monotonous but I didn't tire nor bore as my focus was held entirely. Around a week into this, my Hunter and Combat Forms were finished and I could reallocate my Cores to the other task. With the increased brainpower it only took another few days to finally crack the code.
The mental template was clear, my instincts were telling me that it was solid and it'd produce a stable form but I've watched far too many of them melt or just straight up convulse and die for me to just test it myself. I wouldn't die, sure but that couldn't be a nice experience.
A tendril extended from my finger, like a dangling rope until the end of it started to swell. I let it lay down on the floor as the white bulbous form started taking on a humanoid form. I watched carefully for any sign of sudden combustion as I detached the tendril connecting my finger to it.
The form followed my previously given orders like a machine and finished transforming based on the genetic template I provided.
A second later I was staring down at a somewhat good replica of Lord Aaron Fallanx.
Not a single sign of life, I wonder if I could make bio-drones with this?
I put that thought on a mental list and started going through the prone clone with probing soul energy tendrils soon followed by a myriad of my white ones joining in.
Comments
Dan Nicolae Barzu
The machine spirits in the background: Heretic.
