Chapter 3 - First Battle

Desolas stood in the Comm Room. Before him was a holographic representation of the Primarch. He stood with a stern expression, but Desolas could tell something had gotten under his plates. Desolas did not blame him considering what he stumbled across.

"We looked at the video files presented to us. These creatures, whatever they are, pose a significant threat to greater galactic security. The state of the relay in their home system is very worrying. We can confirm the webs are indeed nerves, and the nodes on them match the ones seen on Biotic individuals too much to be anything else. What worries me more is the large shell at the back of the relay, the one that randomly discharges electricity. We think it is a brain."

Desolas felt his plates shake at the thought. His mind came up with scenario after scenario, each one worse than the last. He didn't let it show however.

"Are they turning the relay into another one of them?", asked Desolas.

"Unknown, but it doesn't appear so. None of the creatures are so large as to have a relay embedded within them. Whatever they are doing, it likely isn't as drastic as that."

Desolas nodded. At least they wouldn't have to deal with creatures the size of a Mass relay. He could hardly imaging something that size floating through space.

"Other evidence shows that the planets of the system are similarly infected. It was short, but the video showed what appeared to be a garden world. While we can't confirm much from the brief time it was seen, the planet does have an unusual color on parts of it that matches the color of the softer tissues of these space creatures. I don't think that is a coincidence."

"Spirits", said Desolas mostly to himself.

He almost lost his balance as he though what exactly that could mean. The state of the Mass Relay was horrible enough, but a planet in a similar state? He didn't want to imagine what that would be like.

"Indeed. Finally we looked at the video when you encountered the creature. The flashing of colors could be taken to show it was intelligent rather than an act of warning. What was much more interesting was the tail flashes. It was a string of prime numbers. These creatures are sapient."

"Why would an animal need math?", asked Desolas.

"Unknown, but the evidence does not lie. Now, we have looked at the evidence and determined that the worst case scenario is that somehow, these creatures feed on Element Zero. They may also be parasitic based on the state of the planet and relay. The damage these creatures could cause to the galaxy if this is true is staggering. They cannot be ignored. They could endanger galactic society by feeding on Eezo. Anything else is unknown based on available data. You did well to quarantine the relay. Had we not encountered these creatures, many could have escaped and caused much damage."

"The spirits of my fleet guided me in my actions Primarch. I merely did my duty."

The Primarch nodded.

"Good. We're mobilizing the fleets now. You will continue to monitor the Relay until they arrive. We will purge the system of these creatures. The 12th, 9th, and 6th fleets are best suited against combat against something of this size. They will arrive within the hour, and they will be under your command. You may do whatever you feel is necessary to ensure the safety of our people and of the people of Citadel space."

The hologram flickered before fading away. Desolas turned around and headed for the Command Deck. He looked at each of his men as he past them, all working diligently at their posts. His thoughts once again fell to the strange creatures. He could not shake the feeling that they had stumbled across something worse than the Rachni. These beasts were massive, and other than that they knew very little about them.

The fact that they were sapient could mean anything really. Many planets had sapient animals, usually those animals were very close to the dominant life on the evolutionary scale. Primitive cousins of the Turians were known to form social groups that used basic tactics to hunt for food.

Desolas stopped his musing as he made it to his seat. He turned to Marcius.

"Put me on the Comm for all ships."

"Yes sir"

Desolas heard the familiar sound of static and took a deep breath.

"This is General Desolas Arterius. I have spoken to the Primarch, and he is sending us three fleets to aid us in dealing with these creatures. I know that we can handle these beasts with that many ships, but the problem will be ensuring they have room to arrive. Last time, these creatures were in close proximity to the relay, leaving very little room for the fleets to arrive and maneuver. Our first goal is to get the beasts as far away from the relay as possible to allow room for the fleets to effectively combat these creatures. We'll soften these creatures up for them at the same time. I will remain on comm issuing orders. We don't know much about these creatures, and though at last count there were ten, assume there are more. Spirits watch over us."

They will come, their actions are most telling. The warning shots, the scouting, the waiting. They are planning, they are scheming. They plan to fight and purge until we are extirpated and eliminated. They will bring their weapons and their ships and their men. It is familiar behavior for us.

We must prepare.

They do not understand what we are. They fear what they do not understand. These aliens are not so different from what we once were. Interchangeable with that now dead race.

We must evolve.

We pity them, they are so much like us before we became innumerable and various. They are a mirror of what we once were, of what we could have become. These aliens are so very Human.

We must survive.

We are a sea made up of many voices. When we took to the stars the sea was calm but not still. If these beings wish to fight, they will fight a unit, countless voices who stand as one. The sea will become a mighty storm. We will fight.

And we will win.

The biomass of the ships writhed and changed. They had not changed much since Earth, not on such a scale. Their weapons worked best in the skies and the sea and the ground. So much time spent evolving the ability to traverse space that they never evolved much to fight within it. Until now they never had to, though if there was one thing Blacklight was good at, it was evolving fast.

Meanwhile at the Citadel, heart of the galactic government, Salarian Councilor Jobol Ulise looked through documents sent through hidden channels to his personal omni tool, one built for the express purpose of keeping out prying eyes. The STG had came across some very interesting information regarding the Turians. Something that could end in the second coming of the Rachni wars or jumps in biotechnology far beyond what Jobol thought possible.

"And this is accurate?" asked Jobol into his omni tool.

"Yes sir."

Jobol nodded before looking back to the footage. The Turians had already analyzed the footage, but it was obvious they didn't know exactly what they found.

"Fascinating creatures and the Turians wish to wipe them out. Foolish, but understand their position. These beings' capabilities are dangerous, but dangerous does not mean bad. They didn't know what they had with just the video. Much can be determined with an astute enough mind. Creatures are possibly a Super-organism, different forms between individuals of the same species don't make sense otherwise unless they're artificial creations, bioengineered most likely if true. Perhaps even both, bioengineered super-organism, hard to say. Definitely intelligent, more than the Turians give them credit for, not feeding on Element Zero as they believe, but studying its effects on nerves. Show knowledge of math on the base 10 scale. Species traditionally use math based on number of fingers. Historically solarians and Turians used base 6. Adopted Asari base 10 after joining the citadel. They were most likely created by species with ten fingers or finger equivalents. Not an animal, they just don't use traditional technology. They don't need to."

Jobol deleted the information immediately. Salarian photographic memory allowed him to already memorize everything. Not good if information was found by a third party, implications of that were unpleasant. His fingers laced and elbows propped, hands blocking his lower face.

"Only hypotheses, not conclusive. Could be wrong, probably not. Need more data to be sure. Keep me updated on the fights between the Turians and this unknown species. I will alert the council once we can determine what these beings are. Biological equivalents of traditional technology is interesting. Could lead to innovation, must first determine if species is dangerous. Loss of life definite, though much knowledge could be gained from the fight. Let the Turians have their fun, keep an eye on this until then."

"Yes sir."

Jobol nodded before deactivating his omni tool. Things were getting interesting, and a lot of it could lead to greatness. He just had to play his cards right.

There were several other bioships already there, created mere moments after the aliens scouts had left. They flew towards the relay, waiting to see if the ships would come back through. Each bioship was already in the process of shifting parts of themselves into various weapons in the event the aliens proved to be hostile, an event which seemed likely given their current behaviors.

It wasn't long until something else came through the relay, the same ships as before, of the unknown alien race. Blacklight was ready, and all of the aliens' ships found themselves surrounded by not ten, but nearly fifty of the giant animals.

Each and every one of them were very close to the fleet, so close that it would be easy for the massive creatures to reach out with their tentacles and rip them apart. None were closer than the dozen cruisers however, who had drifted when they exited the relay. Looking at the Galaxy Map displaying the system, and seeing just how close these things were, Desolas immediately knew he had to put some distance between his fleet and these things.

"We need some relief. Breakout from the creatures, and fire at them while doing so. We need to push them back!"

The ships opened fire immediately as they strafed downwards, and the creatures reacted as any animal attack would. They attacked back. Though it was how they attacked back that was unusual.

"Sir we have incoming!"

"What?"

The explosions came, The general turned back to the screen. The massive beasts spat out torrents of green fluid from their mouths. Before the fleet could even react the fluid showered several cruisers. The Kinetic Barriers proved useless, as they were built to stop kinetic weapons moving at a certain speed, and the chemicals spat by these beasts moved just under that speed, bypassing the barriers completely.

"Sir, the chemicals, they're melting the hulls!"

"Spirits, these things spew acid just like the Rachni", said Desolas.

Rachni like organisms horrified Desolas to his very core and what was worse, these things were unknown, able to spew acid strong enough to melt starship hulls. Who knows what else they cold do. He observed the battlefield, trying to find something he could do to save the now damaged Cruisers. There was not a whole lot of room to maneuver, or to fire accurately with the spinal mounted cannon.

"The cruisers are all reporting multiple hull breaches, the acid is leaking into their engines!"

"Fire! Kill those things before they tear those ships apart. Keep their attention off the Cruisers. All damaged ships covered in acid are to land on the garden world, tell them to aim for green and stay away from the black and red lands. These things are much too big to follow them onto a planet, tell them we are going to handle these things, and once these things are dead we will come for them. As for the ships not yet damaged, get them all to back off and distract the creatures from a distance. The acid seems to be short to mid range at best, so keep your distance. Keep us back further, we'll take shots with the spinal cannon while the rest of the fleet is distracting them, and for the sake of their lives tell them to keep at a distance."

The ships weapons flared, before firing at one of the massive beasts. They managed to divert their attention away from the Cruisers, who were already moving towards the Planet. Desolas noted that the mass accelerator shells passed right through its softer tissue, but surprisingly the creature did not react to the damage as the General had expected. In fact, it showed no signs it was shot in the first place other than the holes in their flesh.

"Can these things not feel pain?", Desolas asked himself.

"Sir, three frigates have gone down. We are down to a single Cruiser squadron."

Years of Turian discipline kicked in, fear pushed aside as he looked at the situation. The loss of major Cruiser support would make this difficult, and the Frigates could only harass these things for so long. But, Desolas had men to save. He steeled himself as he watched the battle field on the Galaxy map. He noted his Dreadnought had a bit more room to maneuver even with the diminished support from Cruisers. There was a particularly large monster that was attempting to destroy the remaining Cruisers. Considering he only had four left, and the loss of those Cruisers would make the Dreadnought all but useless. That particular beast was his target.

"Prepare the spinal mounted cannon, aim at the large one, we will fire on my signal. Message to all ships, we are going to open fire, I repeat we are going to open fire. Keep your distance from the big one", said Desolas as the beast entered his sights.

Blacklight stopped, as billions of minds observed the damaged ships moving toward the planet. The minds were confused. If they were here to exterminate them, then they must know of our viral nature, why attack the world from orbit? Why would the aliens go right to an infested planet? Were their ships so damaged that they would risk such a move? Many minds were curious. Others warned the Hive that the undamaged crafts were moving farther away.

Were the aliens separating the damaged ships to the planet as a form of quarantine? Why head toward the infested planet? Were their ships going to crash and explode into the planet? It would do little more than slow the infection of the planet. All that was needed was a single cell for Blacklight to grow.

Blacklight's discussion ceased when the undamaged ships fired again, only this time much further away than before. The alien ships were fast and much too far for acid to hit. Blacklight contemplated, and a decision was reached. It needed information on the aliens' plans.

General Desolas Arterius watched as the strange creatures flew toward the amassed frigates, shrugging off attacks like they were nothing. The spinal mounted cannon was nearly aimed at the largest one. He was about to command his crew to fire when he saw something new. The massive beasts spat something out, what looked like large red orbs, that flew towards the ship before exploding in a spectacular fashion not far away from several frigates. Desolas' eyes widened as long tendrils exploded from the orb. The tendrils seemed to grow, before skewering or wrapping around several freighters. Then the tendrils dragged the ships together. Pulling them towards the central mass until the ships were trapped in their hold.

Other ships still fired, even as the beasts spewed more of the red orbs. Looking at the red orbs, Desolas was reminded of a boil, one filled with pus. It took only moments to push away the feelings of superstitious awe at the strange organic explosives. He yelled his next command.

"Fire main cannon!"

The ship shook as the mass accelerated slug shot out at a significant fraction of the speed of light. It hit the largest beast, delivering the kinetic energy of 38 kilotons of TNT. Much of the beast's shell was all but obliterated and a massive hole was punched right through it. Desolas let out a breath. There was no way that thing could survive having a hole of that size in it. He was about to command the ship to aim at the next target when he heard what were perhaps the most horrible words he would ever know.

"Sir, the target. It's still moving!"

Desolas looked to the screen and just stared at the impossibility before his eyes. The thing, with a massive hole straight through it was moving as if it was never hit at all. Strange black and red tendrils writhed around the wound, gripping onto other tendrils and slowly closing the wound. After only a few moments, one could hardly tell the thing was hurt at all, though unusually it was smaller than it was before. The bits of flesh that were blown apart had also started to squirm, seemingly form smaller versions of the strange monsters.

"Spirits. These things, they're demons!"

Desolas watched as the beast continued spewing the strange organic bombs that skewered ships with tentacles when they went off. He was losing men fast, to animals with the most impossible biology Desolas had ever seen. He was down to only a handful of frigates, two Cruisers, and a dreadnought, none of which seemed to have any effect against these creatures.

"Ensign, command all ships to our location, We're falling back. I want every weapon we have aimed at these things, I want every ship to lay mines as we move, and I want those things as far away as possible. Reinforcements will arrive soon, we just have to last a bit longer."

Abrudas, a Turian lieutenant, carefully got to her feet. Her ship and many others were skewered by the strange tendril bombs spat by the beasts. Many around her were dead, some were merely unconscious.

"What's the situation?", asked Abrudas.

"Ma'am?", spoke the tired voice of a Turian soldier.

Abrudas growled as she leveled the Turian a glare. He seemed dazed somewhat, and had a large swell on his head.

"I need a status report, what's going on."

The Soldier examined his computers, eyes shifting around the screen.

"Mam, the fleet is backtracking and laying mines. The creatures seem to be ignoring us for now. We are in contact with what's left of the fleet, but we can't do anything."

"What do you mean we can't do anything?"

"The ship has multiple hull breaches, but these tendrils are preventing air from escaping. Life support is still up, as is communications, but the engines and weapons were destroyed. It's like it's trying to keep us alive and out of the fight."

Abrudas sighed as she looked to the door. Most of it was missing and a massive wall of flesh from a tendril was blocking it, effectively keeping them trapped on the bridge. She took her gun and tapped it on the biomass, only to find it was hard like bone.

"Anyone have any idea how to get this thing out of the way?"

"We can't, it is the only thing keeping the air in the ship. If we move it...", the soldier did not finish his sentence, he didn't need to.

"I see", said Abrudas.

She examined it, eyeing the wall of bone curiously. From it, thin tendrils grew out, coating parts of the ship. It was a somewhat slow process. It almost looked like it was trying to grow along the walls themselves. Abrudas did not know what it was, but she knew she did not want to touch it.

"What is this stuff anyway, and how does a species evolve the ability to spit out what is essentially a biological mine?", asked Abrudas.

"Unknown, ma'am."

Before Abrudas could say anything more, one of the Turians screamed and aimed his weapon towards her. She would have shot the man herself, if she didn't notice that it wasn't her he was aiming at, but slightly behind her. She turned to see what had caused his scream. The tentacle that blocked the door was growing something on its surface, slowly at first, but as the swelling mass reddened like a sore, it began to grow faster. It looked like a massive tumor, and was frighteningly similar to the biological mines the creatures spat out.

"Hold your fire, it might explode like those things the creatures spat at us and impale us on those tentacles. Just keep your distance", said Abrudas as she took several careful steps back from the thing.

It grew within the womb, from the aliens' mass. Its mind distanced itself from the Hive, separating from the sea of voices. Though the connection to the Hive remained, the connection was weaker, atrophied. As the body grew, the mind within felt much returning to it. A measure of individuality thought lost. It felt strange to not be as connected to the whole as it once was.

He was once known as Williams before his mind became but a drop in a mighty sea. Separation from the Hive brought back some measure of self, more so than before, though he was still one with the collective. He could feel the creatures outside using electroreceptive sensory organs that detected distortions in his newly developed electrical field. They had weapons pointed at him. Williams adapted accordingly, growing a shell like armor around him, one made of a latticework of carbon bonds. It would cost him some mobility, but in these tight spaces mobility was not needed.

His eyes opened as he tore his way from the Infested pustule. Causing a deluge of liquid nutrients to spill and pool around the room. Williams landed in a crouch, on all fours. He looked to his fingers – there were five of them, each covered in chitin. He twitched them a bit. It had been a long time since he had been separate from the Hive, since he had been an Individual. He had nearly forgotten what it was like to wear the shape of a Human, granted one covered in armor.

He pushed those thought aside as he rose. These aliens they were a strange species, very avian in appearance, similar in many ways to the ancient dinosaurs that ruled Earth long before Blacklight. Williams smelled a chemical pheromone coming off the creatures that indicated they were scared, no not scared. Terrified. Yes, they were so very Human.

Williams sent what he saw to the Hive. While he was not able to know what the Hive chose just yet, he knew it heard him. The connection to the Hive was much too weak to send more than basic information back, nothing too intricate, but enough to get a clear picture back to them. He observed his surroundings. Close combat would be the best way to deal with those surrounding him.

They stared at the thing that emerged from the tumor. It had the basic body shape of an Asari or Batarian, humanoid with five fingered hands, though it was covered in what appeared to be chitin that looked disturbingly similar to the shells of the space creatures that started this mess.

It simply stood there, staring at them, before red and black tendrils danced over its skin and down its arm.

The shots were fired immediately as the beast's arm lengthened into a massive bladed appendage. Then the monster struck.

Each shot had very little effect against his hard shell. Their bullets moved fast, that much he could tell, fast enough to distort and even damage his exoskeleton, but the ammunition were so small, like grains of sand striking his carapace. He sliced, slaughtered, and consumed. One by one they fell, barely able to inflict any real lasting damage against him. Their choice of weapons were most telling. They did not know how to handle an entity such as Blacklight.

As Williams consumed the aliens, he could tell they were very interesting. Based on dextro-amino acids, they were alien, but not alien enough to prevent their assimilation. They were still oxygen breathing carbon based lifeforms with a biology susceptible to infection/

He sliced at the last of the aliens, the Turians according to their memory. This one lacked the horns of the others. Sexual dimorphism. This one was a female, and very agile. She continued to shoot at the armor, though it had little effect. Her speed made things difficult.

The bone like shell was quickly discarded, absorbed into Williams' mass. He would need speed to bring this Turian down. Curiously, the alien froze when she saw the visage of a Human, and there was a hint of recognition in her eyes, though she stared at his head, specifically his hair. It was like she had seen a face like his before, but not hair. Asari, if his memories gained from the other Turians were anything to go by.

Yes, even he saw the resemblance in their memory to this other species.

Williams moved much faster than before, and the Turian escaped her stupor, able to move around with the grace and agility that reminded Williams of the one known as Specialist Cross. She was very flexible, Williams decided he would need more reach. He doubled his efforts, his bladed arm shifting and changing into a long tentacle that somewhat resembled a human spine, the whip fist. He began attacking again. Lashing out with the long whip like spine.

Each shot from the alien was much more noticeable now, the sand sized bullets tearing holes into him at speeds even he couldn't dodge, but it was easily healed. She was however proving bothersome, so Williams took away the whip fist. He leapt back from her, landing near the wall of biomass that trapped the alien in the room. He placed his hand on it's surface as she continued to shoot at him. As he fed on its biomass, he slowly began to reach critical mass. Eventually he could consume no more, Black and red tendrils dancing all around his skin, squirming in ways that made the female Turian show obvious signs of disgust, right before he unleashed the devastator.

Hundreds of bladed tendrils exploded from his skin. There was nowhere for her to go, and she was skewered and consumed. Williams retracted the tendrils and went back to the wall of biomass that blocked the exit, and walked into it.

Abrudas felt the myriad minds around her, the knowledge of so many things, the lives of billions all known to her simultaneously. It was beautiful and terrible and overwhelming all at once. Privacy didn't exist, yet it meant nothing to her anymore, and she felt nothing at its loss, nothing but a strange form of freedom she had never imagined. If it were not for the other minds in this place, she would assume she had joined the spirits, though she could hardly imagine it compared to this.

It was rapture. She felt the many, and willingly went to them, and they accepted her wholly. She was not judged in any way for her past actions by the myriad of souls within this strange and wondrous mindscape. Her mind and memories interested the many greatly, and she parted wit them willingly, without hesitation or reluctance. She felt like she was one of them, and as she did a powerful mind made his presence known. She knew him, she knew everything about him. He was the first, the one who gave her this paradise, who inducted her into the Hive. She felt she owed this man so much, this Alex Mercer.

The Hive looked to the minds of the Turians, their knowledge proving interesting. A community of various species was much more than they had hoped to find. Each one of these new species was as interesting as the last.

We should meet them.

Their history was great and terrible, filled with deeds both good and ill. If any within the collective minds thought otherwise, they did no more. Indeed these aliens were so very Human. More importantly, they were interesting.

We should observe them.

The never-ending boredom had ceased this day, and the many knew they were no longer alone. Consumed Turians knew more than they realized, a single Individual Turians memories had changed so much about Blacklight in so little time.

But first we must end this.

None of the Turians consumed were Biotic, though they knew Biotic abilities well. The Hive learned long ago that Biotics could be used to propel the Bioships and protect them from the forces involved when going faster than light itself. Though these Turians' knowledge showed so much more information on Biotics, information that was not present in the Prothean ruins. Information on how biotics could be used as a weapon.

The many ships began shifting internally, changing the nervous systems and growing eezo nodes around them. While none of the Turians were Biotic themselves, they were knowledgeable enough to fill in many of the blanks left in the Prothean Archives.

The changes were done, and once they were, the Turian ships felt the power of a series of massive Biotic singularities. Aimed at key points to minimize death but maximize damage. Blacklight was no longer limited by range.

CODEX

Blacklight Culture

Blacklight culture is unusual to say the least. While there are individuals within the Hive, there are many beliefs shared by the whole. They often compare the Hive Mind to a sea or ocean, and use appropriate metaphors to describe it, such as referring to a single mind as a drop, to peace times as still waters, and to war times as storms. Their government (if it can be called such) is a democratic consensus, though the individual known as the First Mind (Alex Mercer) has more pull over the actions of the many than any other. Thus far any decision of the First Mind has never been argued against by the many, though they do have the power to do so. The reason for this is a sense of obligation to Alex for his efforts in building the foundations of Blacklights Hive mind.

There are two types of Individuals within the Hive, referred to as the Consumed Individuals and the Fractured Individuals. To Blacklight there is no distinction between the two, though it is used for the convenience of others when speaking to entities not part of the Hive. Consumed Individuals refer to those whose minds have been consumed into Blacklight. The original Human population count as this. Fractured Individuals refer to minds who through a process similar to DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) have spawned within the Hive from the memories and thoughts of other Individuals and have become self aware.

Blacklight's opinion on consuming others is unusual, as it is apathetic to it. While it is a major aspect of its biology, consuming is not necessary for it to evolve or reproduce, though it can be used to do such. Despite this it is more than willing to consume others who pose a threat to it. Blacklight views traditional technology as stiff, unchanging, and limiting, and prefers the near instantaneous improvements via evolution which can be applied to all structures simultaneously, something only possible with organic technology.

Finally, Blacklight has an intense almost irrational loathing of boredom, and will go to great lengths to avoid it. This is due to the state they were left in immediately after the consumption of all life on Earth.

Blacklight Biotics

The archives on Mars held comparatively little information on Biotics. Blacklight used nerves connected to the machines to read the available information, which was a slow process. At the time it only knew that Biotics could be used to move itself through space, and create barriers, something difficult to accomplish prior to that as no life on Earth was able to move effectively through a vacuum.

After gaining better information on Biotics from consumed Turians, Blacklight was able to know ways other races used Biotics, and was able to figure out how to replicate those feats for itself, to devastating effect.