1 Chapter 1 - The awakening

"Agh… fuuuuckk! My head!"

Ohh, my head hurt. I didn't feel well.

"What was that?" I heard some noise, maybe a voice. It was weird, metallic.

"... procedure 215.224 failed, deterioration beyond repair. Corruption spreading, rebooting."

Something was wrong, so fucking wrong. I couldn't move, and I didn't see anything. But I seemed to be at some capsule.

"Purging the corruption out of the subject."

"AGHHH!! It hurts! Stop, stop!!"

Something just started slicing through my back. I felt some metallic sounds and- "Oh shit."

I could hear a horrible sound of flesh being cut and torn apart. My flesh.

"STOP!!! AGhh, why are you torturing me? Please, stop!"

I tried to ask for whoever was doing this to stop to no avail.

It kept going for several minutes as I cry and scream. After several minutes of machines doing a complicated medical operation, I heard the metallic voice again, but it was not a mere message this time.

"The corruption in your body is too serious; it's necessary to purge it. Again."

The pain slowly subsidized, as a cold sensation started to invade my organs. It felt like dying.

"What do you mean again? And what corruption are you talking about!?"

"Irrelevant, critical energy levels detected, forcing cryo sleep."

"Wait! Why are you doing this to me? I want to get out! HELP!! I want to get out! I feel tired. I can't breathe, please, stop..."

The little air I could breath was freezing; I tried to stay awake for a few seconds, but then, my conscience falls into darkness.

"Proceeding to enter forced emergency lockdown. Sending an emergency signal to Terra. Spatial storm detected, communications interrupted."

"Time until the chaos storm subsidizes… impossible to verify."

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I woke up again after who knows how much time.

I felt empty and devoid of life. Just the idea of closing my eyes was scaring me.

"H-hey! Is, is anybody there?"

I tried to shout and ask for help, but I was alone here.

After a few minutes, my eyes adapted to the darkness, and I started to see some screens through the glass cabin where I've been sleeping.

I could hardly understand the language or the meaning behind the numbers that the decaying screens reflected.

"Hello? Is anyone there?! Why does everything seem to have been eroded so badly?"

I kept asking, and after a few minutes of silence, I tried to move and force the cabin to open. I wanted to get out. I pushed, but I was too weak to open it.

When I started hitting the glass, an alarm sounded, and some energy seemed to revive a few screens.

I stopped for a few seconds and then continued trying to open this coffin with desperation.

"Cryo-sleep supplies have run dry; impossible to keep containing the corruption levels from spreading…"

I heard the metallic voice again, but it didn't seem to be talking to me specifically. It was more like a protocol or an automatic message.

"Hello? I want to get out! Open the cabin doors so I can get out!"

A particular screen switched on, and the voice talked to me directly again.

"I can't do that right now. You are way too dangerous. In a few more hours, you will just become another Warp door with that cursed blood of yours."

What was that voice talking about?

"You call ME dangerous!? I have been locked inside this cabin for god knows how long and been tortured by you! And now you come and tell me I am the dangerous one?"

A few seconds of silence followed through.

"There is no time for that. You need to be put into quarantine right now to avoid another episode of corruption to spread through this sector."

"I don't understand anything you are talking about! I want out! I want to get back home."

"Home? Do you know where is that?"

I felt empty and alone right now. "I, that, hmm… Wait, why can't I remember anything?"

A child's laughter sounded through my memories, breaking me apart. I feel mist forming in my eyes, and a tear fell through my cheek.

"I don't get it… I remember a kid smiling at me…"

While I was having a break down with glimpses of my long-forgotten memories, the voice seemed to be considering something. I saw a few screens that come to live in front of my cabin.

"You have been here because of your sins. You were a scientist that committed a terrible mistake, opening the door to another dimension. What you unleashed nearly drought Terra into madness and destruction."

I saw dozens of pictures on the screens showing strange figures to me; some of them were humans, and some others, not.

Those seemed to be hybrids of some sort. Corrupted and mutated beasts resembling human shapes attacked and destroyed different cities, towns. They were tearing apart people and feeding on them.

"What is all that… Was it my doing? I don't remember anything…"

Silence fell again for nearly a minute until one of the screens showed a woman and a little girl.

"T-that girl… who, who is she?!"

Another tear fell from my eyes without me knowing why.

"Your family. They died a long time ago."

It took me a few seconds to process the information.

"Do you know how? Was it because of me? Did, did I…"

The voice spoke again; less cold and more emotional?

"It was because of your mistakes, yes. But it wasn't you personally. Despite that, you did cause thousands of innocents to perish and many more to suffer."

"I-I can't remember, but I'm sorry to hear that."

I did feel bad after hearing this information, but still, I wanted answers and a way out.

"Don't be; I have not finished."

What does that mean?

"Can you make yourself clear about that?" I asked.

The screens showed a kind of lab in different periods. The images show a brand new facility, and then it started to deteriorate until it almost turned into a shutdown and forgotten ruin.

"This lab had the mission to contain horrible energies that spread and mutate whatever they touch, be it mind, soul, or body."

"And what's the contagion focus? Where is-"

"Your soul. That's where the corruption is spreading from."

"I, I don't get it…"

"I told you, that accident and your actions tainted your soul. This place was your prison, and the only option to save you.

Even though it has suffered irreparable damages and is nearly shutting down, it has served its purpose until now."

"So, it's gonna shut down? When?"

"It still has the energy to do some limited actions, but it cannot purge your blood anymore. Before you ask, energies beyond this reality have contaminated your blood. Every time we purge it, your soul keeps turning it into some abyssal poison, over and over."

It was hard to believe, but after all those images, those monsters seem very real to me.

"Is there any solution or option for me?"

The voice started showing some diagrams on the screens.

"There is, but I need to know if you want to live. It will not be a pleasurable existence; I can assure you about that. You will be treated as a monster by all the universe and chased until the day you die."

Those were some harsh words. But I wasn't ready to die. I couldn't even remember who I am. Might I have a chance to redeem myself?

I close my eyes and think about the answer.

I took air and release it slowly. I then answered the voice.

"I want to live. I need those answers…"

"Good, you showed some humanity back then, at least you seem to care for your family."

Well, that was a compliment. It did sound with a little contempt, though.

"Initiating full mind transference."

"Wait, transference?" Was this machine going to make me shift my body with someone else?

"Initialization…"

"Wait, wait, stop! I don't want to be transferred to anybody! I want to stay in my body. There has to be a way to stop this corruption or whatever you called it from spreading!"

I started to hear noises, and the cabin gets illuminated all of a sudden.

Damn it; this is bad, so, so bad. I saw my reflex, and my body was a thin and decayed mummy. Grey and black patches of skin showed several unnatural injuries that were spreading.

"Don't worry, we are using old technology we recovered from an old tomb world, it's foolproof. We need to wait a few more seconds for the program to recover all the genetic samples, and we will be ready."

It still didn't sound right. Not at all.

"What do you mean, old technology? And what the hell do you mean by samples!?"

Just then, a side door opened, and a robot carried into the room what seems to be a dead insect.

"Wait, what the hell is that? Oh my god, it's alive?!?"

I saw how that thing starts to move erratically. It then opened its eyes and shrieked.

* Screech!!

It was some insect with several eyes, limbs and had a ferocious expression. It tried to move but was subjected to several stripes and metal rings that hold it in place.

"It's just a larva but is one of the most interesting subjects this lab has ever managed to find."

I looked at it, and it looked at me.

This situation was so wrong. That thing had several eyes, a large mouth for its small size, and a tail with a sting that tried to use against the strips that were keeping it restricted.

"Don't worry. It will be over very, very soon."

I started to feel so powerless right now.

"Wait, wait!! STOP IT!!! Oh god, get me any other body, whatever but that damn insect!"

"It's a larva, a monarch specifically. You are lucky to be before the only ever seen Norn Queen larvae the imperium could get its hands on. It cost the life of a few million soldiers to capture it alive."

"I don't care!! Just stop it! Aghhh!"

The machines on my back started to stab at me again, and I felt weak. I soon was sedated and fell unconscious very quickly, but the fear was so real that it kept me from falling asleep.

The voice kept talking while the robotic arms dug into my brain. It also spoke to the little creature.

A bright green light started to shine and turned the lab into a gloomy and eerie place.

Then, at one point, everything turned dark, and I fell unconscious, not before hearing some last words from the mechanical voice.

"Don't worry. You will do just fine.

After all, Tyranids are some hard to kill beasts."