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Vazyrin nodded and immediately made his way across the snow, sinking in deep with his immense weight. It barely seemed to dissuade him as he casually sunk his claws digits into the body of his rifle, causing a wet ripping sound that teetered on the edge of completely bisecting the weapon. That's what wone might think if not for the fact that his carbine began to extend with pale, newborn biomass manifesting in the space between its elongating barrel and slimming body while its stock began to mold as if being forced into the shape of some sort of x-shaped cup-like mass, bracing against his shoulder.

"Get going and stay on the coms. Ping me every five or so minutes. If your coms go down and an emergency happens, make noise and light."

With that, the huge creature advanced and settled on some of the elevated ground, partially shoved upwards from the cratering brought about the crashed vessels. His powerful claws stretched out from underneath his raised gun, shovelling away dirt and snow as he began to burrow into ground, soon partially concealed as he shovelled snow onto the rest of his body with smaller rear legs with brush-like claw-digits.

Soon, he looked little more like a rock formation himself, keeping a close eye on the vast plains. Subtly, a group of six or so flat-bodied creatures crept out from the snowy pile. Two skittered off to the crashed ships, climbing atop for a better vantage point and the remaining four split off to form a perimeter around the area.

"I've set up my surveillance. I'll let you know if I detect anything unusual."

"We're making this quick. The Federation do not lose that much personnel and hardware without raising alarms. There may be other vultures looking to cash in on this as well. Someone stays on lookout duty." The rust-scraping voice of the crew's largest companion grated away warningly. This mission was simple but so was every battle he had been in at heart. Everything else that would happen rarely was.

As Vazyrin finished talking, a series of loud clicks, clacks, and cocking cha-chunks responded as his arsenal (that anyewhere else would be a crew-served weapon) prepared themselves for their task. The huge arthropod stepped forward as his various firearms folded up into compact modular forms and seemingly vanished into his armour. It was dizzying to watch the plethora of alien limbs, each one guided by a single consciousness but working in an interconected series of prodding, shoving, twitching motions while his enormous primary arms and legs moved in some rough approximation of a common biped. At his enormous height, he looked almost to be guarding the landing chute if not for the fact his back was turned.

"The cargo ship will be the main priority. Once we make it in main threat will be security automata; this isn't the first ship I've raided and where humans will break, they do not. That leaves the potential for flesh and blood survivors on board and if so..."

He turned his long, mandibled skull to face Vorra and Frost.

"Rules of engagement, if you please. For surviving crew and unwelcome visitors. I'll leave it to you to decide who stays on watch duty."

||| Your kind are not unknown to us. We know you are not the original inhabitants of this world and have an understanding of why. We are not here for you and our presence here is not militaristic in intent but scientific and historical. Your sovereignty is respected and we do not intend to cause problems where they are not needed. This extends to the others who dwell below; we have also been aware of them for some time. We are willing to negotiate - we understand that you are far removed from most conflicts in the cosmos. This extends to us as well. You are aware however it may only be a matter of time before said conflict finds both of us and it will not hurt to be prepared. Our fleet has supplies and we are willing to work out a variety of deals in matters of mutual interest.

We have reasons to enter the depths but we do not plan to conquer them. Just as we are aware of your variuos observation points, we do not seek hostility. There are remnants of our own in there and would be willing to request your assistance with regards to finding them. We would prefer to speak directly about them over a secure channel or in a secure meeting space with your ambassadors. There doubtless questions you may have and vice versa. These are not matters we consider secure for conversation over a datapad. We hope you can understand and we look forward to future communications. Message us back and we can work out a location and time.
|||

The mite-like entity scribbled over the tablet, its palps splitting into a variety of smaller manipuator limbs like a nightmarish tree-branch assembly of surgical equipment. Laser projectors, vibratory blade cutters, self-repairing metal-coated cutter tips - its impressive arsenal was put to the task of meticulously writing across the back of the tablet and slowly piling up small anthills of dust around itself. One could easily think it was more of a machine with its mechnical precision. They wouldn't be entirely wrong. Like the bulbous, jellyfish like constructs their features were clearer now that it was easier to watch them. They had the bumpy texture of something like a meatball crossed with a mixture of sewer gunk and a nightmarish mess of jagged, metallic spikes.

These grotesque entities were simply drifting across the chasms below, almost looking like some sort of strange wildlife that had adapted to a world where remaining terrestrial or aquatic was entirely out of the question. Unlike jellyfish though, they were far from mindless. Complex sensory mechanisms and organs were scanning below but elsewhere, the beings they had been scouting for were making landfall.

On one of the large landmasses by the chasms below, a vessel long and flattened like some prehistoric crustacean hovered down to settle onto the ground. It almost appeared at rest but within its biomechanical body, it was anything but relaxed. Hundreds of multi-jointed limbs moved in visually overwhelming, hurried patterns as the un-living ship began to activate a series of complex mechanisms and hidden systems. Huge figures that shambled and skittered with the speed of creatures much smaller moved in busied patterns, coming close to yet never really crashing into one another. Some crept up the curving and undulating walls, others through floor-holes obscured by shadows, and some walked bipedally in a near silent harmony.

This landing spot hadn't been randomly chosen. The gunships flying overhead weren't doing simple air patrols. The mite-machines jumping from rock to rock weren't just exploring. No other nation knew it yet but this wouldn't be the first time some of these crewmen had landed here.

As the belly of the ship opened, hidden from sight behind a complex composite of syncretic armour, the belly of the chitinour machine began to open. Normally this would be used for deploying space-rated combat craft but today, it was something drastically different.

After all, it wasn't often the Rozkleřešení was manifested on the vessel - a gignatic swirling spherical mass of festering biomatter and constant self repair, its very surface a living tapestry of self-consuming and regenerative complexities laced through with eldritch machinery and guided by a consciousness far beyond what what anyone in the NIRC was capable of truly comprehending in terms of scope.

Only fragments of it were ever taken for these missions but they were almost revered such as the swirling chaos-sphere that hovered in the hangar bay, a silent watcher of the enormous vrexul crew that toiled with the complex preparations of scourging the very stone and metal they lay on with precise energy tools and cutter beams. Their augmented bodies seemed nonsensical at first - grotesque and overdeveloped with complex interlocking metal and biomass plating, multiple limbs working independently of one another, fleshless heads and lidless eyes at once aware yet empty. They moved to vividly to be machines but there was an economy to their motion almost measured in execution that certainly wasn't typical of organic life.

How they could keep so calm with the ominous sphere whose very being seemed a biomechanical catastrophe encased in a very loose shape was anyone's guess. There were smaller figures present, some digitigrade and tall, others roughly humanoid. Occaisonally, their armoured heads drifted to the mayhemic mass hovering above and the squishing, chittering, rustling sound - like a thousand pieces of paper shuddering and tearing in a dusty metal vent. Even as stone was scraped, metal scourged, and the ground slowly deepened, the piercing frequencies scratched at the consciousness as much as they did the ear.

Gradually the shape of some sort of cryptic alien design became clearer framed within the ovular launch bay. Symbols hidden by stone and debris revealed - lines and depressions in the black steel beneath the stone, coiling and jutting at asymmetrical angular configurations crafted by hands more ancient than any life on this world.

It seemed a metallic sigil lay there, somehow spotless in black-silver in spite of the ravages of time and the roughness of the excavation effort. Its purpose however, didn't seem clear. Not to the simple crewmen but to the Gnosis Eater fragment, it was clear why it was there. The vile sphere descended, joined by the mixed-species research crew, kneeling around it as blocky handheld computerized devices were pulled out and the sinewy centipede-like organism limbs that crawled out like freshly born worms of the sphere descended onto the the strange formation.

Slowly, a light began to travel along the grooves of the symbol.

++++++++++


In the easternmost reaches of space, between the NIRC and the Imperivm, a series of pod-like objects drifted near the edges of Surnian aerospace. They were inert, seemingly lifeless objects but a casual scan revealed they were satellites of some sort. Primitive machines from perhaps a generation or so ago of what was once Ascendency technology but something was different. They were sending out communications to the Surnians - a simple loop with a simple message.

|| To the high command of the SSCDL, the Nexus would like to formally open diplomatic channels in the wake of a change in leadership. We are aware of the state of your nation in these precarious times. We are offering an alliance and the exchange of our technologies. Retain these satellites in their current position for ease of communication. ||

++++++++++


Southwards, on abandoned Foundry worlds, once inert factories were seeing new visitors. Amidst the shattered bodies of defective vessels and the blast-marked ground, a new force walked upon these hostile worlds. Like the gigantic lungs of heaving beasts, the great industrial centres of the machine empire were starting to breathe again. It was slow at first with the grand shuddering of mechanism and gears but with each passing day, the exhales become growls and the growls became roars. On these lifeless worlds, the organs of dominion were awakening once more but it was not the CORE who was in charge.

On one such world, the pretender's to the throne were learning that the NIRC was far, far from the same threat as their own. The defector-Foundry's machines had the same ruthless efficiency but they were not used to fighting liberated SeCI's following the directives not of rival computerized overlords but a cunning, experienced enemy not bound by their strategic directives. Heavy tanks were baited into assaulting what at first seemed to be random uprisings of service class infantry, pelted by laser beams and missile launchers. Their shells cut first into the stone and steel of what at first seemed like makeshift fortresses, gounging them out and sending smoke and flames into the air.

The enemy would go silent... if only for them to reveal the reason for such. They hadn't silenced the SeCI's - only hidden them from scans as the electrointerference of their discharging weaponry impacting hidden mines, flooding the air with static interference. Early warning systems were left unaware and blind as globs of green-white plasma flew out of distnat, concealed positions. Heavy armour shifted and turned, caught between an enemy strongpoint and unidentified rays of metal-devouring hyper-heated wrath, shells cooking off and armour deforming them crushing under the horrific globules of flame. Stones crumbled and walls fell apart as the fortified position they were once besieging erupted open and from behind it, a monstrous away of titanic constructs foreign to their data logs. Tens of legs carried forth large ovular, crablike bodies effortlessly crawling over or smashing through the debris they had created. Fields of misty green and yellow flared as ion and rail shells slammed against them in close quarters, shielding what could be both warmachine or warbeast.

A few machines tried to break formation and carry out a flank but long beams of blue shot out from distant hillsides, tearing through wheels and navigation computers, sending the defector heavy armour to a stalling halt. All the better for the monstrous constructs to raise their massive, car sized claws and drive them into the unprepared armour of the now trapped armour battallions. Reinforced and hardened to resist railguns, they fared little better as the absurd brute strength and ethereal fields of wrath-amplifyng power simply ripped them apart, exposing delicate wiring and electronics to the rest of the world. Like some vicious arthropod predators, their multiple limbs sliced, stabbed, jabbed, and swung at sometimes up to four more machines. Close-in weapons and cannons fired at point blank against the conquering horde, gouging deep wounds but only seeming to further enrage the enormous machines. As if having discovered fresh carrion, they gutted the iron battalion, viciously ripping through multiple layers of internal mechanisms and gears, scourging open weaker side armour, and sometimes nearly bisecting them with their near-supernaturally enhanced claws.

While armour divisions were being all but devoured by an enemy they had never previously faced, infantry attempting to retake rocier territories themselves suffering no worse a fate. Rigid movements of robotic forces were spotted from thousands of yards away as bioelectro-thermal weaponry fired in criss-crossing patterns, sending living rounds slamming into troops disnegaging from armoured transports. Storms of energy bolts were fired in retaliation as the advance continued, sweeping over hillsides only to be pounced upon by long-legged, savage bipeds. Gealtirocht soldiers, hidden by jamming and active camo, kicked off of the ledges they were hanging on as energy sheaths over their blades effortlessly sliced through skulls, torsos, and legs. High intensity plasma PDW's opened up, overwhelming and overloading disrupted groups of infantry while point-blank solidified energy rounds tore off limbs and staggered back even heavier troop types. Even when forcing them back, it only meant having to deal with storms of overwhelming bio-propulsed seed-like bullets. Weaker than the autocannon fire from earlier, the increasingly bogged down troops pushed through only to find landmines hidden at enfilade positions, shattering them into pieces before gatling guns audibly revved up. Cover was shredded and the countless impacts per second slamming into even their most armoured soldiers nearly knocking them off their feet.

All throughout the valleys and outcroppings, bestial roars howling over shattered, crumbling, sparking metal were a stressful constant. The pretenders to the throne had found themselves now the targets a force like few others, one that could creep beneath their fleet, obscure itself in plain sight, and that so far, treated them as little more than inedible prey.
"The walls have eyes and ears. So does the dirt. An old saying from my homeland." His response was about as casual as he could get with a voice like rusting metal and rotting wood and a body like a jigsaw puzzle of segmented biology. It was an old saying but it wasn't wrong - work wasn't always steady for a vagabond like himself. Between dodging Federation patrols and dealing with the more unscrupulous parts of galactic society, it wasn't necessarily easy for someone was conspicuous as him to get work through official channels. Listening in, sometimes where he shouldn't be, was a necessary skill.

The fact that he hadn't simply murdered anyone made it clear that he had skills he didn't mind putting to use in the service of another's goals.
"You can release your grip on the pistol. You would need an accelerator-mod to even dent me." He continued, his multiple mandibles stretching outwards like a gigantic set of narrow sickle-like bear traps with serrated teeth lining every appendage. He was facing away from her, watching through the wide field of view afforded by his dome-like eyes, but the length and gnarled features of his mouthparts were clear. Sapient as he was, he looked more as if he should be some creeping, crawling, mindless creature. It was a miracle his voice, rough as it was, could somehow be more comprehensible than the vile biomechanical tapestries of grotesque cybernetics, mutations, and symbiotic growths that covered his carapaced form.

"We are not an illegal people. My kind have wandered your streets and back alleys before me. It is harder now but far from impossible, unless like me, you are in a certain line of work." He continued, extending one of his large arms. Even simply stretching it out caused multiple complex mechanism-like joints to reveal themselves as if it was not a limb but some enormous creature whose head ended in a formation of claw-like digits, each one moving as if bearing a life independent of the main body. A section of his wirst flicked open a series of text messages and star-maps opened up. They contained rather pertinent details - it appears he had been recruited for a very specific assignment.

"I was told a certain kind of expertise was needed. Aczyiom Dvrawsxyir thankfully, is the exact sort often requested in such a scenario." He continued, retracting the holo-display and turning fully to face her.
“That was your plane shot down a few hours earlier correct? I’m afraid that area is Kerovanian Separatist Alliance territory. As much as I would love to personally make it ours, the peace we maintain with them is done so for… reasons beyond my paygrade.” Gourlan spoke, pausing for a moment as a few of the troops near him grunted. Someone could be heard spitting and muttering something in celaderakan under their tongue – a human, specifically, one of Gourlan’s entourage. His semi-triangular, blocky helmet pulled back over his head as he turned towards Paris for a second; he wasn’t as bulky or blocky in shape given that the armour he and the rest of the group were wearing was based on a similar design philosophy.

“I can offer you something else in return. Your team is awfully small to say the least and while I do not claim to be an expert in Sect operations, I do know that many here lack the same respect that we will show towards you. After all, holding a few deniable mercenaries hostage is one thing but such a mismatched collection of commandos? They’ll know who it is easily. You are not just threats to be eliminated but assets to acquire. I would know from prior operations I have seen.” His grin grew, sickly motley fungal flesh pulling back against cruel, thorn-like teeth.

His fingers snapped and the same soldier that looked for him stepped up, bringing a box-like device, almost like a jerry-can save for a small gap around its midsection and a number of small antennae pointing out from its flat sides. Gourlan took it and offered it to Paris on his gloved fingers, long enough to hold the entirety of the device.

“Portable shield generator, the sort we employ during patrols. Handy when the local League-funded militias start thinking they can sneak under our noses and ambush us. 30 minutes for a full recharge but I’ve seen it hold out against a whole mag’s worth of heavy-duty gauss rounds. Yes, the militiafolk have those. Of course, the scielto lords we see carouseling on interstellar news-feeds about the importance of civility in this time of tension wouldn’t know anything about that.” He chuckled with a sound like water sloshing inside of a plastic bag.

As the impressively tall tarrhaidim turned to the hulking vrexul, Silver would get a sudden buzz over his coms. The soldier who he had been speaking to didn’t notice, giving him a rather disappointed expression before shrugging it off and walking away. Encrypted private channel – IFF tag marked as Dolsilvec Regime, specifically, from Yrilovan. There was data being sent but the progress bar was climbing slowly. It seemed reception was weak out here but soon he began to talk.

<I know you don’t trust us, but we have a mutual problem.> His voice was tense, a far cry from the arrogant confidence of earlier. <The rendez-vous point was top secret; nobody could’ve gotten the location unless someone incredibly capable broke in to our channels, unlikely without compromising it and alerting us, or someone is pulling some strings.>

A trace revealed that Yrilovan had moved between two of the APC’s – he was purposefully far from the rest of the gathered forces, even his own.

<I do not know what Gourlan is doing here; he might be being positioned and redirected. He might talk big but he’s a clown more than he is a killer. Something went wrong with your command chain or they are lowering their standards. I have never liked him, even as a respected leader who earned his spot, and I feel someone knows that.>

Gourlan in the meantime had produced a small rectangular data-pad in his hand, roughly the size of the mobile phones of civilians. With a few flicks of his wrist, a projected map appeared in a ghostly teal of the surrounding mountainous territory in all of its forested digital glory. A pair of lines were shown tracing back to a flat area of round and a nearby power plant – their current location. There were two spherical dots, one being a orange and another purple. Both travelled the same direction but differing paths, with the purple trail surrounded by flashing dots of red.

“As you can see, this is what I was instructed. The orange path is you of course, at least the path I was told you would take. Our path is parallel to yours and we have the fun part of the job – causing a ruckus with all the rebels hiding in the wood. We will draw their attention – you will be free to have your heroic little rescue mission in relative peace.” He smiled and turned to the rest of the team, leaning to the right to look at Silver. That voidhanger had been quiet – maybe the nature of such beings.

“I imagine you would all want to download a copy of this – this data-port is open right now if anyone would like a remote transferral. I don’t know how your briefing went but I was told that you would all take care of the scavenger hunt yourself. My folk are simply here to make noise and problems for any threats in the area of operations. There is a path for vehicles but it will be treacherous and the most open to hostile fire – it will slow us but just enough that we can match pace. All the better us than you – you will be doing a lot of movement through rough, forested terrain. Be prepared, Gnosis Eaters.”

He smiled to them all, his head slowly sweeping left and right. Was he looking for someone? And if so, who? After a while he closed the port and turned to his own squad, motioning for them to regroup and head to their transports. Just as suddenly as they had appeared, the group was getting prepared to leave, the engines of their huge machines revving as their mounted guns began to swivel.

Yrilovan had stepped out around this time, just as Gourlan entered his transport, and looked over to the Sect members he’d escorted this far.

“I will be on my way. I have some matters to deal with about this mission. When I get to base, I’m going to reach out to my higher ups and my contact with the Sect. We’ll need to stay in touch.” To that end, a number of blocky com devices, almost brick like in shape save for a thinner body that could be gripped, popped up in his hands and he passed them to the others. “I have no reason to stay but seeing that smug bastard’s face makes a lot of things not sit right with me. You watch yourself.”

++++++++++


The Sprawls, forested region of Caracosa






The appropriately titled Sprawls didn’t get their name for nothing. Moss covered trees bent like the old and the withered, barely maintained paths that stretched off into root-covered dirt piles, and past the treeline and over the edge of the mountain path, a maze of ancient vegetation that in spite of a number of grand craters and massive stretches of scorched forest, still seemed barely affected by the war. They could distantly see the group of APC’s moving up a badly maintained gravel paths, crumbling and dropping down into the treelines far below them, nearing an open area plateau area created by sustained bombing runs. It was impossible to tell where the hostiles were hiding, only that the sheer scope of it would be revealed soon.

For the Gnosis Eater team now making their way through the treacherous, misted terrain there were more pressing matters to deal with. They were assigned with finding a Sect base but there was a bit of a problem – they weren’t told how to. It was clear there was an idea of where to look and as far as anyone could be concerned, the base couldn’t have fallen yet. Whatever anyone thought of Gourlan and his team, it was clear they believed that they would be more than capable. He had all the reason to given it was known the Sect only chose the best of the best.

If the fungoid’s data was to be correct, their path through the woods would be fairly straightforward – keep moving northwards, remaining parallel to the Dolsilvecs even if they were divided by a treacherous, unknown wall of the wilderness. It wouldn’t be hard to keep track of them.

After all, barely a few minutes later and the sound of heavy calibre automatic weaponry and hissing energy weapons could be heard. Flashes of light lit up the woods a few thousand feet away and distant blasts echoed over the staccato argument between dolsilvec and rebel arms.

<Gourlan here. The madness begins. Let us see who can complete their work first now, Gnosis Eaters!> The tarrhaidim leader’s voice buzzed over their coms, followed by crackling and a scraping, unpleasant buzz. Those of the Dolsilvecs flashed a mixture of purple, yellow, and white. The rebels blue, green, and orange. Right now, the former were starting to drown the latter as storms of tracers scourged through trees and through distant black shapes, rendering an insurgent weapon silent.

Hidden from sight but not from scans, radar, and motion sensors, there was rapid movement just a few hundred metres away. Camo-fatigued forces could be seen moving deep through the faint fog with heavy footsteps and distant shouts – some in English, others in alien tongues. At least ten of them moving northwards along a similar path as Gourlan had outlined the Sect team was supposed to follow. Something was moving with them that wasn’t bipedal – they could hear some kind of mechanized gears whirring and heavier steps being taken, accented with crunching bark and loose soil slogging under its weight. Where exactly they were headed couldn’t be determined, at least not where they stood.

Whatever the source of that stomping sound was, it remained unseen as the silhouettes of the guerillas vanished, their footfalls becoming increasingly inaudible. The path forward for now, remained clear, but it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that any hostiles on this side were getting agitated and the mist could only hide one from their site for so long.

Further up ahead, where the insurgents had charged out of, the Sect team would be able to see what had seemed like a small camp further up on one of the hills, partially hidden by heavy bush but exposed when they had charged out of it, footsteps easily visible across the leaf-strewn floor. It wasn’t much – a few large rocks gathered around a small fire pit, a series of bio-mesh tents, and what looked like a pile of shells of some sort, snail like and covered in some sort of slimy fluid, next to a small hole in the ground with a shovel next to it. A long-bodied insect, looking something like a spinier ladybug larva, could be seen crawling near the round shells and some sort of ginger-y, pungent smell was coming from the tent.

They had left in a hurry – it was clear these ones were caught unexpected by the sudden Dolsilvec advance, but nothing of much worth could be seen here. Any weapons they had were taken with them and it was clear this was just a temporary hide out.

More gunshots off in the distance, blasts echoing over the mountains. Buzzing creatures shot off towards the sky, black shapes around the camp’s perimeter, and rustling could be heard all around. The forest was alive and it was clear as the battles grew more heated, the wildlife would grow further agitated. Time was of the essence – Gourlan’s team was heavily armed but there was no telling if it was only gauss guns the rebels had in store.

The path they had been travelling on was somewhat more exposed, closer to the edges of the elevated, hilly ground they had seen on the map. Yet another one was visible behind the tents – bushier and overgrown but clearly well used, either by animals or the guerillas. It seemed to head the same way but it didn’t look much easier to navigate, flatter but larger roots could be seen travelling across it with some only partially chopped open or cleared off – a few piles of chipped up wood could be seen.

It was less exposed but the problem was that there was no telling what could be hiding in here. After all, soldiers went missing in the Sprawl frequently and everybody knew it couldn’t always be chalked up to covert operators or clandestine engagements.
"I wish I knew. Are you attempting to get caught by the enforcers of the law? Get a better com-device."

The voice that responded was a scraping, distorted buzz that sounded harsh enough to be almost degrading but annoyed enough to not actually be hostile. Something scraped against the ground, skittered as if caught out of its hiding place and scampering for cover. Not too long after, a door could be heard clicking with a series of metallic scrapes, indicating that the locking mechanism was being undone. The gears whined and thuds ensued; heavy footsteps and a series of dimming chitters.

"I'm not a fan of waiting especially in conditions like these." The lock clicked back into place and the heavy steps continued."It is difficult for my kind to move around unnoticed. The porcine kind have eyes and ears all around. I walked in the city not as a free sapient but a creature to be watched and observed. It was difficult to not give them a piece of my mind, as your kind say."

His voice continued over the radio.

"They attempted to follow but I lost them in the scrap-yards. They thought me another vagrant, a lumbering hulk. They know not that the squalor and decay they created was my kingdom before it was their hunting ground." A grim chuckle, sounding more like metal scraping over dried bone than anything approximating human laughter. It was not easy for his kind to replicate the language of vertebrate species.

The steps stopped as the creature stopped, simply sitting onto the floor. Its massive, arthropod bulk was a death sentence for the old rusted chairs that were laid about.

"I was told there was work needed to be done, work that requires my talents." The huge creature continued, content to sit inside and speak over the coms built into its suit. "I want to know how big our team is and who they are first."

Karbana Kinis was far from the raging battlefields near the Dominion's boundaries but there were actions of a more calculatred nature progressing. The fleet of monstrosites carapaced and armoured had spread out in the same manner as predators drawn to the scent of hidden quarry - a few of the smaller vessels descended past the voidbeasts hanging in low orbit and past the networks of drones, not burning bright but like faded embers through the atmosphere that shrouded the labyrinthine world. They did not descend alone as like flaking dust, a rain of shrivelled, wrinkled particle fields fell alongside them, burning through the atmosphere as if the creatures serpentine and arthropod were decrepit architecture, the innumerable fragments dotting the sky beneath them like a cloud of flies.

The function of the chaff however was not merely hygenic. As they descended into the atmosphere they burnt, releasing waves of electrointerference and static and turning the area beneath them into a dead zone for any scanning devices present in the area. The beetle-like ships however, were not affected by such. They contained a variety of electronic components themselves but those were placed within the grotesque context of engineered chitin and flesh. What would cripple even EMP hardened satellites and current generation atmospheric entry craft did little but at most slightly dim the bioluminescent lights within them. Their living cargo shuddered as they braced themselves for drop, mycelial nerves connected to electronic wiring jolting them into awakeness. It wasn't light and life behind their flat, pupil-less spot-like eye-analogues or their motley, blemished flesh laced through with complex metals and electronics, lab-grown symbiote-parasites, and adaptive-malleable nano-armour plating directly bolted into their bodies.

The flooring beneath them began to open as the dropships, still beneath the cover of the cloud of interference, discharged their living cargo letting them fall towards the targeted drop sites. Spine-like protrusions on mite-like bodies extended as if waiting to catch onto some passing creature or vegetation, multiple feathered wing like protrusions emerging like moth antennae, stabilizing their patterns as they glided towards the rectangular platform seemingly floating above the chasm of jutting, misaligned metal below. These vast puzzle pieces that formed the body of Karbana Kinis were each large enough to be cities, islands amidst the architectural un-logic of whatever civilization once inhabited and deformed this world.

It wasn't long before their decelerated descent brought them onto the hard surfaces - they, along with others of their lab-born kind descending behind them through the atmosphere. Not human, vrexul, tarrhaidim, or gealtirocht but the un-living creations of this powerful alliance. Arachnid shapes bulbous yet predatory, bodies lined with complex scanning mechanisms and hidden weaponry, skittering about guided by intelligences as programmed machine as bestial instinct. Taking advantage of the remaining static interference, they began to rapidly disperse in groups of four kept aware of one another by psycho-mycelial communication networks immune to electronic interference. A number of them began to scatter downwards, hopping from platform to platform, boosting themselves with anti-gravitational thrusters, and swinging about with specialized retractable silk-like threads launched from frontally mounted caster-ports - they were too graceful to be mere automata but even a passing glance made it clear they were not mere animals.

Their data gathering was not merely visual. Senses normally reserved for creatures guided them and specialized observational software and organs detected minute traces of living organisms - scent trails from repeated use, areas where small flecks of residue could be detected subtly against small irregularities on the terrain, and holes or crevices where they were clearly stronger from distant scans done by camera-mounts behind translucent biomass-ports. There was life on this planet, not just that which teemed beneath from innumerable aliens crowding into the hollowed out carcass-world but something else. Consistent patterns of scent and other residual markings.

Something had been sliding over this ground. Many somethings, too many for it to have merely been ambient wildlife. Not all at once but repeated usage, subtle and creeping, skilled in concealment but not before entities created to detect, observe, and if need be, to prey.

As the information was relayed between the multiple squads, as if guided by an unseen leader they all began to move at once almost in synch across the distance they had dispersed. In the same way marbles clustered in formation would scatter when another clattered into them, so they did the same. The difference was the motions were not random reactions to force and energy but deeper strategic positioning across a shared network of information. Some skittered high, others slinked low, all activating scanner-muting shrouds as they began to settle into various positions at varying heights - all allowing multiple observation angles around the crevices and holes. Angles that if need be, could become firing ones.

A few hours later and more ships would arrive. In stark contrast to the seed-like beetle ships that flown by earlier, these ones had more angular, conventional shapes with bulky bodies and long, powerful wings. High output and heavy calibre weaponry sat next to missile pods and ball-like ECM mounts, the slight shimmer of the air around their bodies as their force-shielding rapidly adapted to the new atmospheric conditions, and a tinge of cold in the air as they boosted over the great chasms and towards multiple landing sites. In their wake, strange organisms like floating spheres of pulsing fungoid mass out of which jutted pointed, smeared electronic antennae and multi-jointed limbs descended. Easily the size of attack helicopters but drifting with an almost jellyfish like languidness, they neared the miscellaneous alien inhabitants below, the long wire-limbs underneath their body waving in the wind currents wafting from the winding chasms beneath.

Out of their bodies, messages in multiple languages, some little more than fragmented code and others transmissions of symbolic images, echoed throughout the hollow realm. The message was the same regardless.

"All citizens of Karbana Kinis, please proceed as usual. The Nexus of Integrated Revolutionary Councils is undergoing a survey of this region."


++++++++++++++++++++++++


South of the NIRC's territory, a different matter was unfolding. Through a vast expanse of shattered metal, sparking plasma fires, and starship carcasses a patrol fleet forged through. The few sparking machines that remained clinging to some semblance of life, some bisected in two and others little more than half hollowed hulks, fired with some vengeful desperation to the fleet of ships. Force-shields flared like glass lit by pinkish red lighting before armoured smashed through their dying carcasses. Lances of plasma and particles sliced apart those that dared to bring heavier weaponry to the fray. The debris field was growing, shields flaring constantly as if they were sending out signals to one another, but they pressed onwards.

They weren't here for a clean-up operations. They knew whose they belonged to. A single individual's fleet was the easiest way to put it.

That was it, close enough, past the interference of the debris field. This was Foundry territory now. The problem was figuring out which foundry. Long range scans had pointed to this region of space supposedly being under control of the originator, the prime machine as they were known to the Ascendency and later, to their successors in the NIRC.

Turrets, vomitor-mounts, heavy duty particle accelerator cannons - a variety of weapons swept the air. There was no telling if this area outside of The Foundry's had fallen years ago to the divisors within their ranks... or if perhaps the Ascendency's remnants were listening in. They were armed for a reason - there was work to be done but would the original Foundry allow for it, even in a weakened state? The cosmos watched their every move. They were upstart inheritors to a throne they had dismantled. They could not afford to metamorphosize into the tyrants they had sworn for lifetimes to defy and never become.

They had backup of course - some of their own and more monstrous companions remained in the debris field. If things truly fell apart, it was better to be prepared than to be remorseful.

From the antennae of one of the enormous earwig like ships, a message was sent towards where they believed the original Foundry's forces were. If they reached that, it was as good as reaching the CORE itself.

"Attention - CORE and its sub-entities. The Nexus of Integrated Revolutionary Councils recognizes that you have a problem. We are of the understanding that if unaddressed, it will soon become ours. If we are in agreement of this assessment, we are prepared to work out an agreement and an alliance."


Name


Birth name: Varzyrin Zracyrvski

Alias: Acyziom Dvrawsxyir

Nickname: Poczervurac ("Worm-Eater")

Note on Names

He goes by Aczyiom most of the time as the grand majority of people aware of him were typically friends (and enemies) on the frontier worlds. Due to how his appearance has changed with time and his desire to keep a low profile after leaving his posting, he avoids using his real name. There will be very few people who know that he is the near heroic special forces soldier.

Appearance


At roughly eight and a half feet with a large carapace-armoured body bristling with various retractable appendages, weapons, and even symbiotes, Varzyrin seems to be somewhere between a devil's coach horse beetle, mantis shrimp, phronima, and a wolf spider. His main body is covered with various segmented plates almost like living isopods and fairly broad with large shoulders connecting powerfully multi-segmented arms ending in six fingered claws capable of splitting into smaller digits. His head has the almost mask-like appearance of a mantis with the longer features of a ground beetle with four dome-like formations hiding his numerous eyes. A ghastly maze of mandibles comprises its lower half, some of which are a bit longer than human fingers and there is a small cluster of eyes where his forehead might be. Antennae and such emerge from the upper half of his head as well as shoulders, capable of retracting at will. His lower body is just as dense as his upper one with a pair of larger primary legs and a bit above them a number of complex smaller limbs with finer grasping and interacting appendages. His midsection also contains a few more arms like smaller versions of his primary ones, bringing him to around 24 limbs in total.

While he seems fully organic, a closer look reveals some of his carapace plating to be partialy metallic with a number of components looking almost bolted or otherwise integrated into his body. It adds a semi-metallic tinge to his forest floor coloured body - a splotchy, motley mixture of blackish dirt, faded leafy brown, a few strips of lighter green, and a sort of sickly faded rust-red. This causes him to look almost as if he is partially decomposed but his colour can be changed with some modifications.

Species


Vrexul

Gender


Male

Age


94

Personality


Stern, distrustful, and stubborn - he can come off as unpleasant but in spite of that, is not really hateful of people as much as he is of organizations, ideals, and movements. He has a sociable and compassionate side that contrasts his bitterness and cynicism towards the GFL. He is generally not the sort to open up about why he is the way he is beyond bringing up the cruelties and conflict inflicted upon him and his people by the GFL. He does however like to tell stories and it is one of the easier ways he has of momentarily reliving himself of his regrets. He prefers to lead when he can, often for combat or exploration scenarios, sometimes to show up others to alleviate his anger or to remind himself that he hasn't lost his edge. He isn't against taking orders and working as a team but a fear of repeating past mistakes can make him very vocal on attempting to influence or lead on decision making.

Reputation


On the frontier worlds, even after he had gone dark and drastically changed his appearance Vazyrin was something of a legend amongst the insurgents his military career began with and initially an unconformed rumours by the colonial alliance. To the GFL, he and his cells were monsters that needed to be slain. His reputation would grow after he was recruited to the military. While he and his unit was rarely in contact with rank and file soldiers, staying mostly concealed for security purposes, the rumours that surrounded him made him a folk hero to his allies and a boogeyman to his foes. A few GFL commanders know who he is but are not exactly sure of his current physical appearance while it is believed some of his colonist commanders have at least a general idea of where he currently is. The tragic end to his military career has not yet become very well known so for now, his reputation remains the same.

As "Acyziom Dvrawsxyir", he is known in some corners as something of a shifty and reclusive fellow though a reliable and overall honourable one. He has taken on jobs to help out various independent colonies, rebel groups, and a few local governments with a variety of problems whether it's getting rid of dangerous animals or battling cruel local rulers. As such, he has a pretty good reputation and is somewhat known in the further ends of the galaxy as a helpful figure in spite of the strange rewards he requests alongside his monetary payments (specific fauna or vegetation, niche animal products, specific metals and so on). He is known to certain bounty hunter guilds as an occasional customer, taking a few specific targets with impressive tenacity and proffessionalism. Rumours surround him concerning his background, mixinng vrexul street rumours with GFL propaganda for an unusual effect but they diminish in more urban worlds the further inwards to major Landrunian territories one goes.

History


Varzyin is a veteran guerilla turned proffessional soldier from vrexul controlled space, having experienced the brutal occupation of a mixed-species commune-colony and its subsequent absorption into a larger industrialized city. He had been a teacher at first, having been trapped on a world where its leaders had been forced to give up territory to the GFL wherein he found his job of educating post-pupal vrexul taken from him and forced to work in costly, dangerous mining and construction positions. As living conditions worsened and disenfranchisement grew among the growing working class, so did brutal repression against an increasingly agitated populace. His primary concern was at first survival until his students, the ones he had watched pupate and mature into adults, were the ones struck by shock-batons and electroshock bullets, many frying to death from the unhinged response of the authorities during a crackdown on a large workers strike.

From this point onwards, he would become a member of a now growing number of community defence groups whose street fights and brawls against corporate-backed crime organizations and hired ex-military security would quickly begin escalating into urban insurgencies that soon spread off into the unconquered and primordial wildernesses of his homeworld. He gained a reputation for adaptiveness and viscerality, appearing on a number of Most Wanted APB's but it became harder to track him the more he modified and augmented his body. It is here that he found his true calling, finding that he transferred the lessons from his own experience to those of new recruits and established soldiers, developing a reputation as a teacher as he was a fighter. The results would speak on the battlefield as the rag-tag cells he operated with struck crippling blows against an increasingly over-stretched GFL whether it was taking advantage of mass riots they'd organized and incited to assassinate key political figures or raiding the headquarters of foreign mercenaries then clearing out their stockpiles.

His successes would catch the attention of the growing armed forces of the growing colonial-vrexul alliance, soon recruiting him amidst a grand GFL push into these independent planets. With experienced soldiers in great need, he would be frequently cycled between the frontline and the rear, finding his guerilla experience and teaching background perfect for forging and leading a new wave of increasingly hardened troops unfazed by a numerically and often technologically superior enemy. It is here his exploits would become well known to both the insurgents he frequently was deployed alongside and the command chain that saw him as an increasingly valuable asset with his high rate of success. He had a trusted team he was developing that were becoming progressively more successful in eliminating high value targets whether personnel, structures, and materiel as well as crippling enemy defences and holding up larger enemy forces with clever and for a while unconventional tactics.

As the relentless advance of the enemy began to hit numerous roadblocks, the great momentum he seemed to have began to stall and he found his deployments growing increasingly difficult. Not just in terms of completing the objectives but the toll was beginning to catch up with him physically and mentally. As the GFL began to tighten its grip on territories it had taken and their civilian populace, he found himself taking riskier actions and on a number of occasions operating with his squad and more hardline mixed guerilla/military forces beyond the parameter set by command. The effects of this are controversial in terms of their effect but they were the cause of a number of short, abrupt, but shockingly violent encounters between both sides. One of these involved his team, a large civilian centre of mixed Landrunians and indepedents and a foreign-installed head of nation-state believed to have been responsible for mass tortures and executions of vrexul and any alien species aligned with them.

Naturally, the commando team took great offence to this and his particularly vicious rule. Yet in their eagerness to eliminate him and his honour guard, they were left blind to certain other factors in the area of operations. They executed a fast lightning raid upon his personal fortified mansion-palace, sowing the violent discord they were known for. Taking a detour through a secret passageway, they would enter an area of the small fortress their stolen blueprints did not indicate, discovering it later to be a training ground for younger cadets and to also hold civilian contractors. Their attempts to sneak past were offset by their hastiness and in the ensuing confusion, terrified trainees and civilians firing their plasma rifles and grenade launchers found their bodies torn apart by experienced gunfire and ripping claws as the commando unit fought to try and preserve a delicate mission quickly going to the wayside. They were only partially successful, sending much of the fortress into a panic as terrified civilians mixed with increasingly angry, agitated elite guards and a bloodbath ensued once they encountered the vrexul and his squad.

The ensuing carnage resulted in numerous casualties with the ordinary citizens mixed among hardened stormtroopers in a controversial incident that both the GFL and the colonial alliance both know little about. That is because much of the squad died, went missing in action, simply refused to give up the information, or it was kept secret. The general they were targeting is believed to have been destroyed in a large explosion from the destruction of his personal transport prior to its attempted launch but it was never found. Varzyrin was among the six of the 12 who made it out, debriefed quickly by his superiors but then vanishing from his unit and the alliance's forces. A few years later the grand counter-offensive would begin but he had long since departed the frontier and as a special forces trooper, still remains unknown to most of the galaxy at large. He has since become an "odd jobs person", taking on a variety of work for a hefty price and keeping low and out of the eye of galactic geopolitics.

Gear


Augmentative Internal Network

His body is drastically different from a normal vrexul's due to the sheer volume of augmentative parasites, cybernetic wiring, and foreign biomass installed into it. What makes it more impressive is that he has modified all of it to work as a unified system to simplify maintenance and allow for further enhancement of his impressive physical capabiltiies. Most of this is hidden from plain sight but within and beneath his armour is a small environment where machines, parasites, and artificial entities are in constant cooperation as a distinct-yet-singular whole. The AIN allows him to very easily adapt and modify new augmentations, implants, integrated weapons and so on as well as allow him control his own with an ease as if he was born with them. It also functions as a sort of computer system, powered by his own body, that allows him to analyse, organize, compile, and otherwise interact with data his senses and those of his parasite-symbiotes gather from the environemnt or their own databases.

Personal Carapace Armour

All vrexul have a tough, flexible outer shell but it is frequently customized for a number of tasks. Varzyrin's is a strange composite of various cutting edge alien alloys, selectively biomodified carapace plating, and complex under-layers of lattice-networked stabilizing sub-architecture and protective semi-living mesh. Capable of resisting the same autocannon rounds, plasma bursts, and high explosives that are used both by and against the vrexul soldiers, it has impressive durability and damage reduction systems whether in terms of energy ablative glands and the capability to lock up to avoid excessive damage when falling to allowing the integration of layered energy-based shielding and absorbing nutrient intake to accelerate repair.

Biomorph Encoder Module Network

A complex series of implanted biological components, updated with a series of genetically modified lab-grown organisms and integrated organ-machines. It allows for him to "encode" a variety of additional weapons, tools, limbs, and even organs and glands among other such things into his own body with the right biocodes. When used, it redirects specially prepared mass linked to itself to take the form he needs it to. It is a complex piece of biotechnology to use and requires usually a good deal of tinkering about with various components and his own internal biology in order to prepare a particular morph. He can usually carry only a limited amount, usually taking options such as an extra energy-based projectile weapon, specialized digging claws, and a biomechanical ECM suite. There are more exotic options available though his BEMN usually has room for a maximum of six.

Sepulchral Eye Synthetic Intelligence Unit

An advanced intelligence created through a mixture of biological and cybernetic means, comprised of a series of self-sustaining augmentative parasite units that network throughout his body. They allow Varzyrin to multitask and better control his various limbs but also any independent drone units linked to his computer systems, even capable of operating for him if he loses consciousness. It is even capable of piloting vehicles and operating them independently from him. They also help with scanning, analysing, archiving, and general utility funcitons.

Void Shrine Internal Etherbiology Colony

The vrexul have studied strange sciences once the domain of the mythic and the occult, drawing power from a shadowy dimension inhabited by monstrous entities and bizarre forces. A series of creatures and void-touched implants within Varzyrin's body generate, store, and purify this energy which typically manifests as dense cloud-like conjurations made of rotting biomatter and what appears to be self-replicating machinery, both of which have a distinctly arthropod appearance. They typically are used to form objects such as barriers and platforms and interacting typically by morphing into floating limb-configurations, manifesting within a moderately sized radius around a roughly 55 foot wide radius. Utilizing such power puts a strain on the void shrine and when overloaded, will undergo an automatic shutdown to avoid the supernatural energies breaking the threshold and irradiating him. It has a manual override but this is unsurprisingly very risky to use. He is attempting to figure out how to use this ability to launch projectiles.

Impurifier Drone Gestation-Control Unit

A sack-like organ of sorts with a variety of electronics woven into it, containing a modified vat-made egg-laying system used to spawn, incubate, and birth larval creatures that can be mentally programmed to hyper-pupate into a variety of forms resembling something between mole crickets and huntsmen spiders. The current configurations are a larger rapidly scurrying attack unit, a flight capable one, and a living bomb though all require a degree of energy and specialized biomass to create. When they are deployed from his body, psycho-cybernetic links allow him to see through them as well as experienced a limited degree of other sensory stimuli they encounter. They can be programmed to follow certain actions when rendered separate from his control, such as when they go beyond his range of control, and by themselves will follow and assist him unless instructed to do otherwise.

Unrelenting-Type Self-Repair System

This fusion of biology and technology allows for a vrexul to heal their own wounds over time when activated. It is connected to a series of nutrient packs and a series of specialized micro and macro organisms that utilize them to accelerate regeneration of lost biomass, capable of regrowing entire limbs as long as there is enough energy stored within. It can be restocked by simply eating or otherwise acquiring nutrients and can even be augmented with certain high energy injections.

Condemnation Autocannon Rifle (Wormscourger Configuration)

A modification of the service rifle typically used by vrexul infantry. The original weapon, a fairly large and semi-blocky firearm derived from heavy-calibre guns mounted on security automata, has been slimmed down partially and enhanced with a series of biomass implants resembling sloping staphylinid carapace allowing it to be selectively modified through selective mutation on the fly. The wormscourger configuration is considered a carbine but is larger than most human medium to even heavy machine guns, using a bioelectro chemical firing mechanism to launch high calibre to light autocannon type rounds typically with an explosive charge. It has a slower firing rate than most rifles and hefty kickback but is known for its impressive range, armour piercing, and accuracy.

The Wormscourger variant is used by their special forces and is a little smaller with an increased though still not particularly high rate of fire. It features an adaptive feed allowing it to use foreign rounds and an even more advanced morphomutagenic frame that allows the weapon to be reconfigured from a rifle to other forms. They can include a designated marksman rifle, a carbine/PDW, a shotgun, and even a launcher. Varzyrin is also modifying it to fire beams but it is taking a while to complete.

Hellmouth Infantry Plasma Cannon

A high power infantry weapon based on the defensive weapons used by human allies to the vrexul. This weapon has a more curved, cynlindrical shape than most but it carries a number of carapace-like plates and almost rib or insect segment like design elements giving it a distinctly arthropod appearance. It cannot be modified to the same extent as the condemnation but it has a number of built in and additional fire modes. Typically it accelerates and launches large green-white spherical plasma blasts with a slower semi-automatic rate of fire, capable of devouring their way through heavy armour and is intended for short to medium range due to energy being leached by the environment. Said shots can be charged up to the extent they make an explosion on contact and are capable of burning enemies even when passing by. Any firing will cause it to build up heat and once it hits its limit, it will automatically activate its cooling mode and lock itself from firing further until it drops to a safe levle.

It does possess other firing modes however. The most common is a flamethrower-like mode that widens the barrel and belches forth like dragon's breath, limiting its range further in exchange for devastating energy bursts that can incinerate a whole squadron in seconds. A lower-output hyperspray mode is available, utilizing a minigun like collection of barrels to spit out an inaccurate but harrowing degree of rapid moving bolts. For concentrated piercing power, a sustained beam configuraiton is possible wherein the plasma energy is fired as a single column of light. This mode generates the highest heat but at medium to slightly longer ranges can burn right through certain vehicle armour. Varzyrin is attempting to find the parts to modify it to be converted into a particle weapon as well.

Desecrator Fragmentation Cannon

Functionally a shotgun, this weapon's main body is essence a large cylindrical tube placed within a body that looks like a large spinal millipede, connected to two rails partially resembling beetle elytra by a series of interconnecting limbs and a fairly large handle and grip. Also known as a "flak cannon", this fires by detonating spherical explosives within a blast chamber and channeling both the blast and the numerous white-hot fragments outwards. It is useful from short to medium ranges with considerably higher armour piercing than shotguns ytpically get. It can also launch these explosives as well where they function identically to fragmentation grenades. They typically use a specialized normally inert pillbug like organism's egg-clusters as its shells but can fire synthetic rounds as well. It is possible to convert it to a makeshift grenade launcher though it is not as effective as dedicated versions.

Vitriol Integrated Personal Defence Weapons

Bodily mounted weapons integrated into a vrexul's carapace with his on his side. They are scaled down versions of a powerful squad automatic weapon common with vrexul soldiers, between a submachine gun and a carbine in terms of size. He has four of these limb-weapons, resembling somewhere between a centipede and a mantis in shape with notable bendable joints along their body allowing for a variety of firing angles. They use a bioelectric firing method to rapidly launch numerous spines grown in special birthing chambers that at closer ranges can shred through lighter armoured targets and weaken the defences of tougher ones. He has modified his own to be able to electrify the rounds as well as to combine them into larger mini-cannons capable of firing larger spines effective up to short-medium ranges, allowing him to stun his targets and overload automatons and shielding more easily at closer ranges. He has a pair of barrel attachments he can use when he combines them to become a pair of small cannons wherein they are converted to a lighter version of the machine gun they were based on, increasing their range and stopping power. For those purposes he tends to carry the upscaled machine gun spines with him.

Intransigence Integrated Light Launcher Cannons

A duo of small turret-like biomechanical cannons that typically emerge vrom Vazyrin's shoulders, capable of launching explosives long distances with higher accuracy than throwing, modified shotguns, or underslung attachments. Typically they use biological high fragmentation rounds, made in a simliar manner to the vitriol's but with greater blast power to launch a larger amount of fragments outwards. They can easily take in a variety of other explosives such as conventional HE, incendiary, smoke, EMP, and so on. He is currently attmepting to find the components allowing them to launch guided and missile/rocket type munitions.

Terrormaw Sickle-Blades

Large hand-held weapons resembling lengthy insectoid bodies curved almost like the hook of a question mark and ending with semi-biological carapace-blades infused with specialized metallic alloys. He has four of these blades that when combined with his long arms and immense strength, can easily tear through a fully armoured trooper and any of their squadmates. The curving blades can also straighten out or curl further, allowing them to "grip" enemy weapons or turn into straighter swords. They have a void-reactive series of veins running through them that allows them to channel the power from the void shrine to infuse themselves with unearthly, wrathful power that greatly increase their lethality.

Ravener-Class Patrol Craft

A lengthy gunship resembling something like a long black-clad triop with pointed sensor and gun protrusions emerging from what would be an eerily smooth body. This alien vessel has an eerily flexible tail and multiple legs it can use to crawl across the ground as well when not using its anti-gravitational thrusters. It is armed with a series of bio-particle cannons and can create sub-organisms that can be launched as homing missiles. For defence it has the ability to interfere with and conceal itself from scanners as well as specialized bio-electric signal projectors and chaff-launchers, creating electromagnetic disturbances and interfering with targeting or lock on systems. This is Vazyrin's primary way of getting around but it also serves as a mobile base for him, containing ammo-replicators, a medical station, a powerful computer system, a nutrient-paste culturing device, and a number of storage sections.

Miscellaneous

Medikits, repair equipment, rations, spare munitions, grenades of various sorts, portable computers, datapads, water purifiying devices, and other such items tend to populate both his storage space and that of his patrol ship.
Name


Birth name: Varzyrin Zracyrvski

Alias: Acyziom Dvrawsxyir

Nickname: Poczervurac ("Worm-Eater")

Note on Names

He goes by Aczyiom most of the time as the grand majority of people aware of him were typically friends (and enemies) on the frontier worlds. Due to how his appearance has changed with time and his desire to keep a low profile after leaving his posting, he avoids using his real name. There will be very few people who know that he is the near heroic special forces soldier.

Appearance


At roughly eight and a half feet with a large carapace-armoured body bristling with various retractable appendages, weapons, and even symbiotes, Varzyrin seems to be somewhere between a devil's coach horse beetle, mantis shrimp, phronima, and a wolf spider. His main body is covered with various segmented plates almost like living isopods and fairly broad with large shoulders connecting powerfully multi-segmented arms ending in six fingered claws capable of splitting into smaller digits. His head has the almost mask-like appearance of a mantis with the longer features of a ground beetle with four dome-like formations hiding his numerous eyes. A ghastly maze of mandibles comprises its lower half, some of which are a bit longer than human fingers and there is a small cluster of eyes where his forehead might be. Antennae and such emerge from the upper half of his head as well as shoulders, capable of retracting at will. His lower body is just as dense as his upper one with a pair of larger primary legs and a bit above them a number of complex smaller limbs with finer grasping and interacting appendages. His midsection also contains a few more arms like smaller versions of his primary ones, bringing him to around 24 limbs in total.

While he seems fully organic, a closer look reveals some of his carapace plating to be partialy metallic with a number of components looking almost bolted or otherwise integrated into his body. It adds a semi-metallic tinge to his forest floor coloured body - a splotchy, motley mixture of blackish dirt, faded leafy brown, a few strips of lighter green, and a sort of sickly faded rust-red. This causes him to look almost as if he is partially decomposed but his colour can be changed with some modifications.

Species


Vrexul

Gender


Male

Age


94

Personality


Stern, distrustful, and stubborn - he can come off as unpleasant but in spite of that, is not really hateful of people as much as he is of organizations, ideals, and movements. He has a sociable and compassionate side that contrasts his bitterness and cynicism towards the GFL. He is generally not the sort to open up about why he is the way he is beyond bringing up the cruelties and conflict inflicted upon him and his people by the GFL. He does however like to tell stories and it is one of the easier ways he has of momentarily reliving himself of his regrets. He prefers to lead when he can, often for combat or exploration scenarios, sometimes to show up others to alleviate his anger or to remind himself that he hasn't lost his edge. He isn't against taking orders and working as a team but a fear of repeating past mistakes can make him very vocal on attempting to influence or lead on decision making.

Reputation


On the frontier worlds, even after he had gone dark and drastically changed his appearance Vazyrin was something of a legend amongst the insurgents his military career began with and initially an unconformed rumours by the colonial alliance. To the GFL, he and his cells were monsters that needed to be slain. His reputation would grow after he was recruited to the military. While he and his unit was rarely in contact with rank and file soldiers, staying mostly concealed for security purposes, the rumours that surrounded him made him a folk hero to his allies and a boogeyman to his foes. A few GFL commanders know who he is but are not exactly sure of his current physical appearance while it is believed some of his colonist commanders have at least a general idea of where he currently is. The tragic end to his military career has not yet become very well known so for now, his reputation remains the same.

As "Acyziom Dvrawsxyir", he is known in some corners as something of a shifty and reclusive fellow though a reliable and overall honourable one. He has taken on jobs to help out various independent colonies, rebel groups, and a few local governments with a variety of problems whether it's getting rid of dangerous animals or battling cruel local rulers. As such, he has a pretty good reputation and is somewhat known in the further ends of the galaxy as a helpful figure in spite of the strange rewards he requests alongside his monetary payments (specific fauna or vegetation, niche animal products, specific metals and so on). He is known to certain bounty hunter guilds as an occasional customer, taking a few specific targets with impressive tenacity and proffessionalism. Rumours surround him concerning his background, mixinng vrexul street rumours with GFL propaganda for an unusual effect but they diminish in more urban worlds the further inwards to major Landrunian territories one goes.

History


Varzyin is a veteran guerilla turned proffessional soldier from vrexul controlled space, having experienced the brutal occupation of a mixed-species commune-colony and its subsequent absorption into a larger industrialized city. He had been a teacher at first, having been trapped on a world where its leaders had been forced to give up territory to the GFL wherein he found his job of educating post-pupal vrexul taken from him and forced to work in costly, dangerous mining and construction positions. As living conditions worsened and disenfranchisement grew among the growing working class, so did brutal repression against an increasingly agitated populace. His primary concern was at first survival until his students, the ones he had watched pupate and mature into adults, were the ones struck by shock-batons and electroshock bullets, many frying to death from the unhinged response of the authorities during a crackdown on a large workers strike.

From this point onwards, he would become a member of a now growing number of community defence groups whose street fights and brawls against corporate-backed crime organizations and hired ex-military security would quickly begin escalating into urban insurgencies that soon spread off into the unconquered and primordial wildernesses of his homeworld. He gained a reputation for adaptiveness and viscerality, appearing on a number of Most Wanted APB's but it became harder to track him the more he modified and augmented his body. It is here that he found his true calling, finding that he transferred the lessons from his own experience to those of new recruits and established soldiers, developing a reputation as a teacher as he was a fighter. The results would speak on the battlefield as the rag-tag cells he operated with struck crippling blows against an increasingly over-stretched GFL whether it was taking advantage of mass riots they'd organized and incited to assassinate key political figures or raiding the headquarters of foreign mercenaries then clearing out their stockpiles.

His successes would catch the attention of the growing armed forces of the growing colonial-vrexul alliance, soon recruiting him amidst a grand GFL push into these independent planets. With experienced soldiers in great need, he would be frequently cycled between the frontline and the rear, finding his guerilla experience and teaching background perfect for forging and leading a new wave of increasingly hardened troops unfazed by a numerically and often technologically superior enemy. It is here his exploits would become well known to both the insurgents he frequently was deployed alongside and the command chain that saw him as an increasingly valuable asset with his high rate of success. He had a trusted team he was developing that were becoming progressively more successful in eliminating high value targets whether personnel, structures, and materiel as well as crippling enemy defences and holding up larger enemy forces with clever and for a while unconventional tactics.

As the relentless advance of the enemy began to hit numerous roadblocks, the great momentum he seemed to have began to stall and he found his deployments growing increasingly difficult. Not just in terms of completing the objectives but the toll was beginning to catch up with him physically and mentally. As the GFL began to tighten its grip on territories it had taken and their civilian populace, he found himself taking riskier actions and on a number of occasions operating with his squad and more hardline mixed guerilla/military forces beyond the parameter set by command. The effects of this are controversial in terms of their effect but they were the cause of a number of short, abrupt, but shockingly violent encounters between both sides. One of these involved his team, a large civilian centre of mixed Landrunians and indepedents and a foreign-installed head of nation-state believed to have been responsible for mass tortures and executions of vrexul and any alien species aligned with them.

Naturally, the commando team took great offence to this and his particularly vicious rule. Yet in their eagerness to eliminate him and his honour guard, they were left blind to certain other factors in the area of operations. They executed a fast lightning raid upon his personal fortified mansion-palace, sowing the violent discord they were known for. Taking a detour through a secret passageway, they would enter an area of the small fortress their stolen blueprints did not indicate, discovering it later to be a training ground for younger cadets and to also hold civilian contractors. Their attempts to sneak past were offset by their hastiness and in the ensuing confusion, terrified trainees and civilians firing their plasma rifles and grenade launchers found their bodies torn apart by experienced gunfire and ripping claws as the commando unit fought to try and preserve a delicate mission quickly going to the wayside. They were only partially successful, sending much of the fortress into a panic as terrified civilians mixed with increasingly angry, agitated elite guards and a bloodbath ensued once they encountered the vrexul and his squad.

The ensuing carnage resulted in numerous casualties with the ordinary citizens mixed among hardened stormtroopers in a controversial incident that both the GFL and the colonial alliance both know little about. That is because much of the squad died, went missing in action, simply refused to give up the information, or it was kept secret. The general they were targeting is believed to have been destroyed in a large explosion from the destruction of his personal transport prior to its attempted launch but it was never found. Varzyrin was among the six of the 12 who made it out, debriefed quickly by his superiors but then vanishing from his unit and the alliance's forces. A few years later the grand counter-offensive would begin but he had long since departed the frontier and as a special forces trooper, still remains unknown to most of the galaxy at large. He has since become an "odd jobs person", taking on a variety of work for a hefty price and keeping low and out of the eye of galactic geopolitics.

Gear


Augmentative Internal Network

His body is drastically different from a normal vrexul's due to the sheer volume of augmentative parasites, cybernetic wiring, and foreign biomass installed into it. What makes it more impressive is that he has modified all of it to work as a unified system to simplify maintenance and allow for further enhancement of his impressive physical capabiltiies. Most of this is hidden from plain sight but within and beneath his armour is a small environment where machines, parasites, and artificial entities are in constant cooperation as a distinct-yet-singular whole. The AIN allows him to very easily adapt and modify new augmentations, implants, integrated weapons and so on as well as allow him control his own with an ease as if he was born with them. It also functions as a sort of computer system, powered by his own body, that allows him to analyse, organize, compile, and otherwise interact with data his senses and those of his parasite-symbiotes gather from the environemnt or their own databases.

Personal Carapace Armour

All vrexul have a tough, flexible outer shell but it is frequently customized for a number of tasks. Varzyrin's is a strange composite of various cutting edge alien alloys, selectively biomodified carapace plating, and complex under-layers of lattice-networked stabilizing sub-architecture and protective semi-living mesh. Capable of resisting the same autocannon rounds, plasma bursts, and high explosives that are used both by and against the vrexul soldiers, it has impressive durability and damage reduction systems whether in terms of energy ablative glands and the capability to lock up to avoid excessive damage when falling to allowing the integration of layered energy-based shielding and absorbing nutrient intake to accelerate repair.

Biomorph Encoder Module Network

A complex series of implanted biological components, updated with a series of genetically modified lab-grown organisms and integrated organ-machines. It allows for him to "encode" a variety of additional weapons, tools, limbs, and even organs and glands among other such things into his own body with the right biocodes. When used, it redirects specially prepared mass linked to itself to take the form he needs it to. It is a complex piece of biotechnology to use and requires usually a good deal of tinkering about with various components and his own internal biology in order to prepare a particular morph. He can usually carry only a limited amount, usually taking options such as an extra energy-based projectile weapon, specialized digging claws, and a biomechanical ECM suite. There are more exotic options available though his BEMN usually has room for a maximum of six.

Sepulchral Eye Synthetic Intelligence Unit

An advanced intelligence created through a mixture of biological and cybernetic means, comprised of a series of self-sustaining augmentative parasite units that network throughout his body. They allow Varzyrin to multitask and better control his various limbs but also any independent drone units linked to his computer systems, even capable of operating for him if he loses consciousness. It is even capable of piloting vehicles and operating them independently from him. They also help with scanning, analysing, archiving, and general utility funcitons.

Void Shrine Internal Etherbiology Colony

The vrexul have studied strange sciences once the domain of the mythic and the occult, drawing power from a shadowy dimension inhabited by monstrous entities and bizarre forces. A series of creatures and void-touched implants within Varzyrin's body generate, store, and purify this energy which typically manifests as dense cloud-like conjurations made of rotting biomatter and what appears to be self-replicating machinery, both of which have a distinctly arthropod appearance. They typically are used to form objects such as barriers and platforms and interacting typically by morphing into floating limb-configurations. Utilizing such power puts a strain on the void shrine and when overloaded, will undergo an automatic shutdown to avoid the supernatural energies breaking the threshold and irradiating him. It has a manual override but this is unsurprisingly very risky to use.

Unrelenting-Type Self-Repair System

This fusion of biology and technology allows for a vrexul to heal their own wounds over time when activated. It is connected to a series of nutrient packs and a series of specialized micro and macro organisms that utilize them to accelerate regeneration of lost biomass, capable of regrowing entire limbs as long as there is enough energy stored within. It can be restocked by simply eating or otherwise acquiring nutrients and can even be augmented with certain high energy injections.

Condemnation Autocannon Rifle (Wormscourger Configuration)

A modification of the service rifle typically used by vrexul infantry. The original weapon, a fairly large and semi-blocky firearm derived from heavy-calibre guns mounted on security automata, has been slimmed down partially and enhanced with a series of biomass implants resembling sloping staphylinid carapace allowing it to be selectively modified through selective mutation on the fly. The wormscourger configuration is considered a carbine but is larger than most human medium to even heavy machine guns, using a bioelectro chemical firing mechanism to launch high calibre to light autocannon type rounds typically with an explosive charge. It has a slower firing rate than most rifles and hefty kickback but is known for its impressive range, armour piercing, and accuracy.

The Wormscourger variant is used by their special forces and is a little smaller with an increased though still not particularly high rate of fire. It features an adaptive feed allowing it to use foreign rounds and an even more advanced morphomutagenic frame that allows the weapon to be reconfigured from a rifle to other forms. They can include a designated marksman rifle, a carbine/PDW, a shotgun, and even a launcher. Varzyrin is also modifying it to fire beams but it is taking a while to complete.

Hellmouth Infantry Plasma Cannon

A high power infantry weapon based on the defensive weapons used by human allies to the vrexul. This weapon has a more curved, cynlindrical shape than most but it carries a number of carapace-like plates and almost rib or insect segment like design elements giving it a distinctly arthropod appearance. It cannot be modified to the same extent as the condemnation but it has a number of built in and additional fire modes. Typically it accelerates and launches large green-white spherical plasma blasts with a slower semi-automatic rate of fire, capable of devouring their way through heavy armour and is intended for short to medium range due to energy being leached by the environment. Said shots can be charged up to the extent they make an explosion on contact and are capable of burning enemies even when passing by. Any firing will cause it to build up heat and once it hits its limit, it will automatically activate its cooling mode and lock itself from firing further until it drops to a safe levle.

It does possess other firing modes however. The most common is a flamethrower-like mode that widens the barrel and belches forth like dragon's breath, limiting its range further in exchange for devastating energy bursts that can incinerate a whole squadron in seconds. A lower-output hyperspray mode is available, utilizing a minigun like collection of barrels to spit out an inaccurate but harrowing degree of rapid moving bolts. For concentrated piercing power, a sustained beam configuraiton is possible wherein the plasma energy is fired as a single column of light. This mode generates the highest heat but at medium to slightly longer ranges can burn right through certain vehicle armour. Varzyrin is attempting to find the parts to modify it to be converted into a particle weapon as well.

Desecrator Fragmentation Cannon

Functionally a shotgun, this weapon's main body is essence a large cylindrical tube placed within a body that looks like a large spinal millipede, connected to two rails partially resembling beetle elytra by a series of interconnecting limbs and a fairly large handle and grip. Also known as a "flak cannon", this fires by detonating spherical explosives within a blast chamber and channeling both the blast and the numerous white-hot fragments outwards. It is useful from short to medium ranges with considerably higher armour piercing than shotguns ytpically get. It can also launch these explosives as well where they function identically to fragmentation grenades. They typically use a specialized normally inert pillbug like organism's egg-clusters as its shells but can fire synthetic rounds as well. It is possible to convert it to a makeshift grenade launcher though it is not as effective as dedicated versions.

Vitriol Integrated Personal Defence Weapons

Bodily mounted weapons integrated into a vrexul's carapace with his on his side. They are scaled down versions of a powerful squad automatic weapon common with vrexul soldiers, between a submachine gun and a carbine in terms of size. He has four of these limb-weapons, resembling somewhere between a centipede and a mantis in shape with notable bendable joints along their body allowing for a variety of firing angles. They use a bioelectric firing method to rapidly launch numerous spines grown in special birthing chambers that at closer ranges can shred through lighter armoured targets and weaken the defences of tougher ones. He has modified his own to be able to electrify the rounds as well as to combine them into larger mini-cannons capable of firing larger spines effective up to short-medium ranges, allowing him to stun his targets and overload automatons and shielding more easily at closer ranges. He has a pair of barrel attachments he can use when he combines them to become a pair of small cannons wherein they are converted to a lighter version of the machine gun they were based on, increasing their range and stopping power. For those purposes he tends to carry the upscaled machine gun spines with him.

Intransigence Integrated Light Launcher Cannons

A duo of small turret-like biomechanical cannons that typically emerge vrom Vazyrin's shoulders, capable of launching explosives long distances with higher accuracy than throwing, modified shotguns, or underslung attachments. Typically they use biological high fragmentation rounds, made in a simliar manner to the vitriol's but with greater blast power to launch a larger amount of fragments outwards. They can easily take in a variety of other explosives such as conventional HE, incendiary, smoke, EMP, and so on. He is currently attmepting to find the components allowing them to launch guided and missile/rocket type munitions.

Terrormaw Sickle-Blades

Large hand-held weapons resembling lengthy insectoid bodies curved almost like the hook of a question mark and ending with semi-biological carapace-blades infused with specialized metallic alloys. He has four of these blades that when combined with his long arms and immense strength, can easily tear through a fully armoured trooper and any of their squadmates. The curving blades can also straighten out or curl further, allowing them to "grip" enemy weapons or turn into straighter swords. They have a void-reactive series of veins running through them that allows them to channel the power from the void shrine to infuse themselves with unearthly, wrathful power that greatly increase their lethality.

Ravener-Class Patrol Craft

A lengthy gunship resembling something like a long black-clad triop with pointed sensor and gun protrusions emerging from what would be an eerily smooth body. This alien vessel has an eerily flexible tail and multiple legs it can use to crawl across the ground as well when not using its anti-gravitational thrusters. It is armed with a series of bio-particle cannons and can create sub-organisms that can be launched as homing missiles. For defence it has the ability to interfere with and conceal itself from scanners as well as specialized bio-electric signal projectors and chaff-launchers, creating electromagnetic disturbances and interfering with targeting or lock on systems. This is Vazyrin's primary way of getting around but it also serves as a mobile base for him, containing ammo-replicators, a medical station, a powerful computer system, a nutrient-paste culturing device, and a number of storage sections.
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