The infestation

The driller hits the crust and digs through Vrak effortlessly. It doesn’t take long for it to go from rock to flesh. It drills through the flesh, making the machine shake and splatter blood into its intake and nearly gunk up the machine. Luckily, drillers were made to handle this amount of abuse and eventually hits an open cave, an eaten core shroom root. It free falls for a moment until it hits more flesh again. It digs, and it finally hits its intended target, a heart. As soon as the driller hits the floor it stops and the crew is let go. They pick up their weapons and open the main hatch. As soon as the hatch opens, the horde comes at full force. Vhilem fires at the crowd with his new gun and is cutting down the horde in massive chunks. Triton picks off stragglers and keeps the perimeter from being penetrated. Johnathan stands behind them and aims his gauss rifle at the heart.

The heart beats faster and faster, and the pounding of the heart shakes the cave, like an organ contracting and releasing. It shakes the driller, almost toppling it. The crew almost lose their balance, but they stand tall and keep the advance from taking over. Johnathan's gauss rifle is powered to its maximum.

He fires at the beating heart and the shot makes a massive hole that goes all the way through the heart and into the cave wall. The green blood comes rushing out like a raging river. It comes out with so much force it washes away the horde and moves the driller, making it slant. Johnathan yells out a command. “GET BACK INSIDE, NOW! MOVE IT!” The two brothers barely get enough of a foothold to run inside the driller and after they are in, Johnathan goes inside the driller, without issue. Once inside through the monitors they view the carnage. The heart keeps beating and the river of green blood streams even harder.

From the roof the creatures dig in and rush towards the heart. They throw themselves at the hole to clog it. Like ants making a bridge from their own bodies little by little they manage to seal the heart with only small amounts of green blood leaking out. Then the cave rumbles.

The Heart changes. It was dangling on its arteries but they grow out and the heart plops down onto the floor. The heart then grows legs it wobbles, but it quickly gains balance and it runs away. The cave shifts and it moves the arteries with the heart, making sure it’s connected at all times. “Sasha get down here. It’s wide enough for you to fit inside.” “yes sir.” Johnathan then looks at the two brothers. “you two. Get on the ship and destroy the tubes that connect to the heart. I’m Going to remain in the driller and send it back up.” Vilhem disagrees. “Wait what?! how do you expect us to deal with it?”

“either of you know how to operate a driller?” The two brothers look at each other and then back at Johnathan, they shake their heads. “yeah thought so. This thing needs to be moved manually and I have experience with drillers.” Soon the ship appears on the monitor. Its back door open towards the hatch of the driller. They open the hatch and the two brothers get on the ship and fly away. As they leave Johnathan makes sure the coast is clear. He grabs as many samples of the green blood as he can and heads back into the driller.

The ship flies off, chasing the heart. It doesn’t take long before the ship catches up and is in front of the heart. It slows down and steadies itself, giving Vhilem a clear shot on the heart. “do you want me to shoot?” asks Triton. “no. I've been practicing on my aim and I'm confident that I can hit it.” Vhilem loads the explosive mags. He aims in the middle of the cluster of arteries and fires. He hits most of them and they spew out green blood. The cave rumbles again, and out come the creatures to clog and heal. They quickly stop the bleeding. Vhilem then changes to the circle pattern. He singles out a single artery and aims at it. He takes a deep breath, trying his best to aim at the center. He fires and misses the center, blowing out a decent chunk but the creatures are able to fully stop the bleeding and reconnect the artery. “Shit. They keep healing it. You got any ideas Triton.” Triton shakes his head.

The cave rumbles and the creatures fall from the roof and onto the ship. Sasha gives an announcement. “Creatures are on the roof. Turning on weapons.” weapons appear on the roof of the ship and fire at the creatures falling onto the roof. “You two need to destroy the heart soon or I will need to turn around.” announces Sasha. Vhilem world slows down as he is deep in thought. “I can’t destroy them fast enough. I'm running out of time. Need more time first.” Vhilem then asks Sasha some questions. “Sasha can Triton go on the roof?” “I can take Triton to the roof.” A mass of nanites form together to make a platform. “Triton go up and stop them from overwhelming the ship.” Triton nods and quickly run towards the platform without a second thought.

He is taken to the roof and immediately a creature pounces on him. He swats it away, and it splatters on the cave floor. More come at him, but a few are shot and killed before they can reach him and the last one pounces on him. Triton then jams the barrel of his modern era long gun and fires a shot from inside the creature. It explodes into a bloody mist and triton is hit with a face full of green blood. He wipes it off and begins slaughtering any that are on the top of the ship and any that fall down. He is held down by the nanites and his sheer strength allows him to aim and move around the fast flying ship with ease. Triton expertly shoots down creature after creature, making them bounce off the ship as they land. A creature bounces off the ship and into triton which nearly knocks him off balance. He is helped by the nanites and is able to regain balance. With that dealt with Vhilem is again deep in thought. “Still need to deal with the heart. Damn little monsters are the problem. Should I use my grenades? or the plasma pistol? Wait maybe…” Vhilem then asks Sasha a question. “Sasha. can you make me some sort of fire grenade?” “Let me call Johnathan, a moment please… he has granted you permission. One simple fire grenade with vitrulium adherent. It will be done in 1 minute.” The re-atomizer gets to work, and in the meantime Vhilem fires at heart getting as much of those creatures on it as possible. An audible ding goes off and the grenade is taken by a drone and given to Vhilem. Vhilem bounces the grenade on his hand, up and down, up and down, he feels the weight to gauge how hard he can throw it. He lifts one leg and outstretches his arm, and in one swift motion, throws the grenade. It hits the very center of the heart and it goes up in blue flame.

The heart is set aflame, and the mass of creatures act as fuel, making the bright blue flame even brighter. The vitrulium stays on the heart, making any new creature burn as soon as they touch it. The hearts previous wounds open up and a new wave of green blood rushes out. The heart cannot maintain its stride. It slows down and falls onto the floor. Every pump deflates the heart, and it eventually beats no more.

“Fuck yeah!” Vhilem yells out triumphantly. The creatures stop coming, but the cave rumbles once again. The flesh that made up the cave immediately rots. It spews out green blood from everywhere, and massive rotten chunks of flesh fall off the cave roof. Without the flesh to support the cave it begins to crumble. Vhilem then calls his brother through communicator. “shit! Triton get down from the roof we gotta go NOW!” Triton is then lifted by the swarm of nanites and let back inside. Not long after a massive rock slams the top of the ship. The nanites cushion the blow, and the power diffusion plate beneath takes the rest of the damage, but the weight is too much. It drags the ship down and the ship makes a desperate maneuver. It tilts up, making the boulder fall the ship takes back end scratches the cave bottom, but it regains control and gains altitude. The brothers are tossed around the ship as it fights to regain control, and Triton hugs Vhilem and uses his own body to cushion the blows. The ship regains control and realigns itself. It then makes a mad dash back to where it came from as the cave quickly crumbles.

Massive chunks of rock fall down and the ship expertly dodges as much as it can, but still gets hit. The ship is struck by another massive rock as it does it cascades into it getting hit again and again as it loses control. The ship scrapes the floor, making horrifying and ear wrenching sounds of metal scratching rock. On the floor it finds an opportunity, the ship puts all its power into the thrusters and stays low. It hits the floor again and again while dodging, but it never loses speed. The first lake of green blood is in view, the exit. As soon as it reaches the initial entrance it turns upward, aiming for the massive hole the driller made, the driller is no longer around. From there it has no further issues and is in Vrak sky.

The cave-in is so unimaginably long that it’s visible from space. massive core shroom trees fall into the newly made crevasse and the glow that the shroom trees make is majestic, a river of ruined bioluminescent's. The ship goes into orbit and meets up with the driller ship. The two brothers get off the ship and meet up with Johnathan. “first one down and 1 more to go. We head out again once we’re over the site and the operator resets the driller parameters.” Johnathan slowly looks over to his ship as if he had all the time in the world. “Sasha, damage report.” “…No damage to ship proper. Nanite loss…5%. Nanite recuperation time…1 hour.” Johnathan then looks back at the visible scar on the planet.

The two brothers then lean against the rail with him and look at the planetary scar. Vhilem comments on the destruction, “So this is how dangerous a tier 1 is…huh.” “yup. Tier 1 is a threat to a planet or planets. Tier 2 is threat to a continental landmass. Tier 3 is a city threat and Tier 4 is a threat to humans in the hundreds of thousands. And tier 5 is an unknown unquantifiable threat or benefit.”

“and what’s its tier 0? It does have a tier 0 like all other tier systems.”

“We’re over the area and the driller is prepped.” Announces the operator and all the ship lights turn yellow. Johnathan gets off the guardrail and heads into the driller and so does the two brothers. “we’re ready to go.” as he says that the lights turn green and shortly after the driller is sent down again. “we’ll talk again when we’re back up. For now, let’s focus on the mission.” The driller drills even deeper than before, but ultimately end up in their destination. Johnathan has a different look about him this time.

As the driller opens up, he doesn’t play around. He grabs his plasma rifle and briskly walks up to the open hatch. “stay there you two. I got this.” Vhilem looks at Triton and Triton looks at Vhilem and shrug. The two brothers have a clear view of the heart and the creatures running up to the open hatch. Johnathan Nanites make weapons all around him and stop the horde dead in its tracks. He takes his time to aim his plasma rifle and fires at the heart. It bursts into flame and is also melted open and arcs of energy hit multiple sections of the heart, creating even more holes. The heart immediately dies with no chance to run and heal. The creatures fall dead, and the flesh all around the cave rots and decays. “There, job done.” Vhilem’s mouth is agape in amazement, Triton is unamused. “You could have just done that!? Why even bring us along then.” asks Vhilem at a loss for words. Johnathan gets to manually working the driller and recalling it back to the main ship. “I’m a solo hunter, but I have a soft spot for newbies who want to prove themselves.” Johnathan finishes working on the console and goes to his seat and straps in. The driller then goes back up. As it does Johnathan talks to Vhilem. “I’ve always had that soft spot even back when I was human. I don’t know I just… enjoy seeing the best in people and seeing them succeed.” Johnathan looks up with a look of satisfaction.

The driller then returns to the main ship and locks in. The catwalk rolls out and is connected to the driller. It opens and the three come out and look at the new planetary scars. “So you mentioned about a tier 0 old earth monster.” Vhilem asks Johnathan. Johnathan leans in on the rail. “Yeah…tier 0. Tier 0 is an existential threat to the universe.” Vhilem’s eyes go wide with both awe and fear. “Has there ever been a tier 0 threat?” Johnathan sticks out two fingers. “Twice. One long dead, and it took the entire corporate armada of every corporation to kill it. Then it took an entire year of non stop ship after ship to kill it. Afterwards the mega-corps couldn't maintain their power and the universe fractured.” Vhilem vaguely remembers what he’s talking about. “wait wasn’t that the old earth event?” Johnathan shakes his head. “technically yes, but no. Old earth event was a 100 years prior and the official end of it was the killing of the Urkith the void worm, 101 years after.” “Oh…OH that void worm was the first tier 0?” Johnathan nods. “Yes and the second one. Actually, do you know the madness zone?” Vhilem shakes his head. Johnathan uses his nanites to create a map of the universe with sections colored to define borders. On the rightmost section behind Gorth and in front of Genisis is a massive section that is un-colored. “See the section that is not colored in? That is the madness zone. I’ve investigated it, but unfortunately even I get affected by the madness.”

“And what is that like? The madness?”

“It’s hard to explain. You just go crazy when you stay too long in that sector and we still don’t know what’s causing it. Never go there, obviously. Nothing but cannibals and bandits in that area.”

Vhilem is confused. “people live there? People go there?”

Johnathan looks up to see the operator, and it’s obvious he is getting annoyed. “you know, we should probably get going. Sasha make us a ramp.” The ship opens the back door and makes a ramp with the nanites. “We’ll talk some more on the ship.” They all walk into the ship and head out. Vhilem and Triton sit on the bench and take off their helmets. Johnathan puts away his weapons and turns around to look at the two brothers. “The madness zone was the main sector of Archotech HQ and anything Archotech is worth trillions.” Vhilem looks at Triton and he smiles. “ey! I see that little smile. It ain’t worth it.” Jonathan chuckles and shakes his head.

The ship lands on the Norn docks. Rain is pouring down on all of Vrak and everyone is working outside in the rain. As they get out of the ship all three hurry over to the bar and get out of the rain. They come into the empty bar soaked, and take a seat at the bar. A bummed out Olia is also sitting down and is being served drinks by Vhith. “Job’s done Olia. Cheer up.” Olia rolls his eyes and takes another shot. Johnathan then whispers something in his ear and he perks up and say. “I GOTTA GO. UH UMM uhhh oh…” Olia vomits all over the floor. He powers through and wobbles his way to his office. Vhith sighs and goes to get a mop. “What’d you tell him?” asks Vhilem “that’s a secret.” answers Johnathan

The sound of a mop and a gagging Vhith can be heard over the vomit pile. “Uughhh… c-can I get your order. mmppghh.”