A few hours prior on the deck of the Terse Resignation, Justin’s corvette.

“I still don’t understand why the orbital bombardments haven’t been started. Why hold all of these Limonite-pledged planets if we aren’t gaining anything from them? They won’t contribute resources, they won’t pay tributes, they won’t submit! It’s like holding our enemies behind lines while feeding them steak and potatoes for every meal!”

On the main deck of the ship there was a large table that was situated at the center of the room. It was shaped roughly like a ‘V’, and around it sat six members of the guild Seventh Heaven. The last member was currently attempting to lead a presentation on their objective, and was standing at the far end of the table by a projected hologram.

“Gary, you realize that we don’t bomb civilian planets just because they aren’t paying their war tax, right? Nobody but you and the ministers on Ansana hold to that insane and archaic kind of thinking. For all these planets know, by next month their systems will be back under the Limonite Federation’s control, and they’ll have bled for nothing. That’s why they aren’t yielding to us, not until the Council’s offensive into the Federation further deepens.”

A woman on the opposite side of the table spoke up to match the psychic’s political ramblings. Her hammer, nearly as large as her and normally slung over her back, was left at her side on the ground.

“That’s the philosophy of a defeatist, Jade. It sounds like you don’t even think that we can keep our claims over the contested star systems. Do you even believe we’ll win this war?”

“Of course I…”

“Everyone, please! Quiet down. You’re interrupting the mission briefing. Harriet, please.”

Justin suddenly interjected before the discussion turned into an argument. Truly, the subject was as contentious as it was irrelevant to their current contract. In his mind, he once again lamented how his guild never seemed to have their mind focused on the important things.

The star system they were in was on the other end of the Federation’s territory, about as far as one could get from the war being fought. Their current mission was what mattered, not some galactic politics they had next to no stake in.

And unless he was unaware, no one here owned cushy vacation homes on the resort planets that were close to the fighting, so the current topic was meaningless.

“Thank you Justin, like I was saying, the surface of Lemus IV may look clean, but scans of the Pre-FTL civilization have shown us that a dangerous signal source lurks underneath the continental plates.”

Harriet, the team of supers’ mission coordinator and healer, spoke calmly as she swiped the globe of light around, zooming in on a subterranean view of the planet.

“About right here, we’ve picked up scans of one of a high-grade daemon, possibly a Herald. It predates the native population by a few million years, and up until a month ago it spent that time absorbing energy in a static state of incubation. Its movements were picked up recently, so we know it's at least awake, if not fully activated.”

“Damn…”

“A Herald…”

Some murmurs were heard at the table, but Harriet continued her briefing.

“Our contract on Lemus IV is fulfilled upon the neutralization of the threat before it can come into contact with the local populace. Even more important, is avoiding our own contact with them. They can not see us, hear us, or know about us, so we’ll be covering our tracks with a planetary EMP we bought from the Soleta Corporation. It should buy us a maximum of up to a half a day. This operation has to be taken care of quietly, everyone understand?”

The whole table nodded, of course knowing why.

There was a galaxy-wide policy on non-interference with planets yet to develop faster-than-light travel. In some sectors that was enforced by law, like within the Federation’s borders, but in others it was simply best practice.

The reason was that in almost every case of contact between a higher civilization and a lesser advanced native one, the higher civilization with access to the System would inadvertently spark the naturalization of the one without.

This would bring about a sudden upwelling of Voltas within their unprepared society. In 99 out of 100 cases, this meant a total upheaval, if not a complete collapse of cultures and government.

Given an influx of people suddenly gaining supernatural powers and abilities, aka Voltas, it was obvious what dangers awaited a civilization without the methods to contain them.

Throughout the galaxy’s history, this had led to many infamous cases, and even the complete destruction of the more-advanced civilization at one point. So for clear reasons, the act carried very strong condemnation nearly everywhere.

“Of course, regardless of how efficiently we handle this, whatever local government that’s in place will eventually get wind of some disturbance, so we’ve got a short window between first engagement with our target and extraction. Justin, any questions for the ground team?”

Justin looked around the room for a moment before shaking his head.

“None. Nice job with the briefing. Brilliant and succinct as always.”

“Ha…mm, thanks.”

Harriet blushed a little from the guild leader’s compliment, earning some knowing grins from around the table.

“Alright then. Any other comments from the peanut gallery?”

Justin looked around the room.

“Just one!”

‘Oh?’

All eyes were directed to a muscular, yet stable-looking man who sat by the side of Elrissa. Two sets of high end mechanical gauntlets laid on the table in front of him, suited to his role as the close range specialist and damage sponge. The concept he embodied as an Augur was suited for such things.

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Heinrich stood up and confidently pointed to the center of his chest.

“When we get there, and find this Herald or whatever it is, you guys leave it to me! I’m tearing at the chance to get my hands on some real daemon hide!”

He made a constricting motion in the air before him which the group found humorous. A round of laughs and some good natured jeering erupted, mostly from his own spouse.

By no means did the room resemble a group of battle-hardened veterans who were preparing to go into battle, but that's what they were. For the members of Seventh Heaven, this would be a challenging contract, but only that.

In the end, it was just another day at work for them.

…

Justin’s body laid dead against the sharp stones. Not three minutes having passed since his team had left him.

A pool of blood was forming around him, gushing out from the many punctured holes and cracks in his suit that held together what little of the man was left.

In a few more minutes, if nothing happened, the planet’s natives would arrive to find the gruesome scene, and probably experience the greatest mystery in their history to date.

Yet as Justin would probably be dead by that time, their potential of activating the System interface among their species would be close to null. Without a living Volta or Daemon, system activation was impossible.

‘...’

‘...t’

‘...the’

‘The hu…’

‘Hu? H-human. Human!’

Or perhaps that might’ve happened, if there truly hadn’t been any survivors from the fierce brawl.

But that was untrue, and as living testimony to that, a small spindle of flesh no more than an inch long wriggled out from the charred corpse of the herald.

Plopping onto the ground, its slimy coating caused it to struggle to move along the coarse stone of the desert. The small, flickering semblance of sentience it contained repeated over and over in what excuse it had for a mind, the last directive it was given by the greater entity it had just emerged from.

‘The human. The human! Go…go! The human!’

The squirming tapeworm began to move in haste, scraping its greyish green body against the rocks and debris from the fight, doing all that it could to travel the short distance over to where the defeated pugilist had landed.

Yet it couldn't make it there very fast, a distance that felt like miles to its small and swollen self.

So before long, the sound of choppers filled the skies overhead and the squawking of radios and men hollering erupted.

The natives of Lemus IV were a race of sapient bipeds who evolved from the primates of their planet, quite similar to Justin’s own species by all measures. In short order they began to land their aircraft around the hulking remains of the herald.

Quickly, they swarmed outward to form a defensive perimeter, but in their rapid initiative to secure the area failed to notice the tiny worm squirming between the cracks of the stone desert.

Soon enough the worm reached its target with not a soul the wiser and found an accessible opening. In one of the mechanical suit’s large gashes it pushed itself inside with a squelch..

Burrowing through battered flesh, it cut through the dense tissue of the superhuman with its extended teeth like chipping through ice. After a few minutes, it had traveled far enough to reach the brainstem.

Finally, it had reached its goal!

The worm began to expand, bloating itself within the small cavity to prepare for what came next..

Festering with tentacles that resembled the herald’s own, they clamored around it like a thousand needy hands. Each of them found hold on some part of Justin’s brain, gripping the folds of neurons and gray matter with instinctual prowess.

In his torn and bruised shell of a body, bit by bit Justin’s brain was gradually consumed and rebuilt by the worm. Bit by bit it was replaced.

At the same time, that very worm was forcibly using the organic matter it had so far consumed to evolve itself further, folding its body over itself and morphing into a vital part of his body’s functions.

Hwah….

Justin’s mind awoke with a jolt, his mouth opening automatically to express the fetid odor from the inside of his body. His organs had yet to begin the process of decomposition, but there were still some noxious fumes generated by something within his body that needed release.

“What…what? What?!”

Justin clamored to move once more, somehow, suddenly finding the ability to make small movements with his neck and fingers. Hadn’t he been paralyzed?

Wait…he had actually survived?

‘How?’

“S…system.”

Justin spoke one of the many phrases that could be used to open up the system’s interface with a tongue that didn’t feel his own. Without delay the glowing window came into view.

[Level: 1]

[Grade: E-]

[Status Effects: N/A]

[Race: Scourge Progenitor (Larva)]

[Attributes: 0 STR, 0 DEX, 1 END, 0 PER, 1 INT, 0 CHA, MYS 0]

[Free Attribute Points: 0]

[Health: 9 / 10]

[Stamina: 14 / 50]

[CEL: 1 / 1]

“Ah-!”

Justin’s eyes widened to a point they almost hurt. His throat felt stuck in his voice, and a dense sweat came over him, just as he had felt witnessing his friends leave him behind.

Thinking of that fact once again hurt Justin, but quickly he quelled it. Throughout Justin’s life he had been forced into many roles, and gained skills along the way. As the leader of Seventh Heaven, he was nothing if not an effective thinker.

He quickly got back to the problem at hand. The system’s oddities. Something that should be impossible, given what he knew as a Volta.

‘These system readings…It’s a mistake of some kind. It has to be.’

Justin weakly raised a finger to tap on the system, but to his absolute shock, nothing happened. That was when he looked down, and to his horror he found his body wriggling through the cracks in his suit.

‘What the fuck!?’

Justin’s wounds…were healing themselves. Common enough for some, but not for him. Sickly-looking green tendrils were weaving themselves underneath his skin, curling around his bones and allowing themselves into his blood vessels and through his muscles.

As he watched on, more and more of his ligaments started to turn the sickly color. Even through the cracks of the suit, his exposed flesh was starting to turn, regardless if it had been injured or not.

It didn’t hurt, but the scene of his own flesh, what was missing and some of what was already there, being converted into this strange, other entity…scared him more than anything ever had. It was a different fear than having his life threatened, a kind that was stranger and foreign to him until now..

For the first time in his life, Justin thought he might finally understand what people meant by ‘existential terror’.

He wanted to scream, to jump and claw out the being invading his body, rip up and discard his own skin no matter what it took, but before he could find the strength to do so he felt a calm wash over his mind that was not his.

‘Thinking about it logically, I understand. Somehow, a piece of the Herald we thought we defeated was able to survive and escape, and now it has chosen me as host to continue its mission. To…’

Just as Justin came upon that realization, something in his mind clicked, and a prepared packet of memories flooded into his mind and gave him an idea of his potential, and his mission.

‘To assimilate. To devour. To bring everything into the fold that is not already myself, the Herald.’

‘To spark desolation.’