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Necromachinarum
The Foundation

The Foundation

During this descent, 0nce the blackness of the void had passed we found ourselves in a massive cavernous chamber. It was clear we were underground now. Glancing up, we were just plummeting through a large mechanical tube connecting the floating district to this underground chamber. It was hard to wrap my head around. We arrived at the bottom. Whatever was inside this chamber ahead was completely shrouded in darkness with the only lights being two lanterns greeting us at our drop off point. The tall slug holding me proceeded forward, joined by the twins. A metal plate joined by two thinner, smaller plates were in the ground near a lever. The tall slug pushed me past the large plate and released me. The twins stood side-by-side in front of me facing the darkness, cupping their hands together and bowing their heads. Huh? The tall slug pulled on the lever. The big metal plate raised up with a rusted steel rack coming out of the ground coated in dirt and dust. The thinner metal plates rose up, revealing rustic mechanical arms that grabbed a hold of me and put me on the rack, clamping my wrists, ankles and neck down. The arms then retracted, being replaced with two different arms. One had a spotlight that flashed on to light me up. The other was a multi-tool with various attachments.

Before I knew it, one-by-one other lanterns flashed on ahead of us to illuminate the rest of the chamber. My heart sunk into my gut as I looked up. With the darkness gone, towering high above us was a monstrous creature comprised almost entirely of flesh. It's body was bulbous with a paunchy see-through belly housing what seemed to be several tiny embryos, large breasts and mounds of pulsating, veiny, rotting flesh beneath it rather then any lower region like I had. It had two long arms resting at its side. With a ungodly long neck, its head tilted up showing two gleaming white eyes and small tendrils danging from flaps of flesh where it's mouth was. All around us, the growth of the Rot was connected to this single creature. Every vine, sinew and tendril was spreading from its base. What... Was I looking at?

The creature then lurched its neck forwards towards me to get a closer look. I met the white pearls with my own eyes. It brought up one of its hands to press its bony finger against me. A single finger was as big as I was but it was gentle when it stroked my flesh. The twin slugs continued to remain still while the tall slug moved forward to get the creatures attention. After it was done communing silently, it turned to face me, pointing out all of the Rot around us. Then it gestured towards my instrument, pointing over at the base of the creature then to it's stomach. I struggled with the restraints. I just wanted off of this rack. With no way out I was forced to remain restrained as the rack lifted up higher when the tall slug flicked a switch on the handle. The creature reached out a hand to grab a hold of me, the clamps coming undone. Now I was in the grip of this giant creature. It took a moment to glare at me. Observing me. I could feel the tall slug's gaze piercing the back of my head. The creature then brought me close underneath it's mouth. Those dripping, moist tendrils started suckling against my skin as they wrapped around my limbs and torso. I... Was being consumed? In an instant, I was fed up into this things mouth and carefully driven through the masses of tendrils until being thrown down its gullet.

I plummeted through this long throat, smacking against a giant organ, then another, and squeezed through a gaping flesh hole. Further down I went, my body being coated in saliva and phlegm as I arrived inside a large chamber. My body bounced off of a giant beating heart. I landed below it on a soft coating of throbbing red muscles. Ouch. I scratched my head, opening my eyes after my landing to look around this inner chamber. The walls were made of a horrendous scarlet tissue with pulsating red veins. But what was most noticeable were hundreds of thousands of egg sacks housing embryos of various sizes. Some were minuscule in size while others were about ready to hatch. Right as I was getting up, a couple of these sacks tore open. The small creatures resembled fleshy red worms with four legs, a gaping wide mouth with circular rows of tiny teeth and tendrils wriggling out from within their throats. They belched out eerie squeals and immediately darted for the walls, leaving trails of bloody excrement behind. I watched in horror as the babies penetrated the tissue to squeeze themselves right out of the chamber. This creature... Was a gigantic factory for the Rot.

Finally finding my footing, I wandered to get a better view of that organ I hit on the way down. The heart. I saw it. Nothing but a mass of searing red flesh. Each and every egg was connected to that organ via a red vein constantly feeding the embryos blood to survive and slowly grow over time from the looks of it. All this time... I thought the humanoid encased in the Rot I had met beneath the district of Oris was the source all this time... But I was wrong. Why did the slugs lead me here though? Should I even be alive? A hideous red hue was in the air but I felt fine. Perhaps this is what the modifications done to my body by the Doctor were for. I was not entirely of flesh. I never was. But with these modified organs inside of me, maybe I was immune to any amount of horrific effects to my body or damage to my internal components. Clearly this creature needed to be put down.

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I started climbing up on the egg sacks. They were surprisingly sturdy. My feet left minor indentations in the tissue. I could hear another few hatching around me. I watched one of the babies fall several feet down onto the soft tissue below. It was fine. So this is the birthing process? How unusual. I continued climbing until I found a reasonable place to perch; on top of a set of eggs right next to each other. I was still far from getting close to the heart but I had it in my sights. I reached for my firearm. I checked the cartridge. It was nearly spent. So I ejected it, grabbing another from my belt and slotted it in, closing the barrel chamber. I took aim at the beating heart and fired a shot. The surface of the heart was pierced as a trickle of blood spilled out. I felt the entire chamber shutter and a haunting groan echo throughout. I fired another shot. Same result. However... The flesh wounds suddenly sealed themselves up. It worked like how my flesh could regenerate from small wounds. Hm. So simply firing into the heart isn't working. I need to climb higher. I'm missing something here.

As I was climbing I heard a skittering nearby. Reaching another egg to stand on I glanced to the nearest wall. There was a few of the babies climbing up and rearing their heads at me. Small, soulless white eyes popped open. One of them jumped at me. Shit. It stuck its tiny claws into the egg sack I was standing on. I took the butt of my firearm and smacked it, sending it tumbling down to the bottom. I put that away and pulled out my instrument, unsheathing the blade. The other two jumped one-by-one. I swung at them, cutting them apart with ease. Okay... So they're aware I'm a threat. I needed to climb higher and faster. Utilizing these new bio-mechanical lungs, I mustered my strength to ascend further without losing my breath. Now these little cretins were climbing on the eggs of their own kind to get to me. I cut down another one. But one caught me off guard, jumping on my back. I could feel its claws in my skin and its tendrils beginning to wrap around my neck. I shook myself but it wouldn't budge. I flipped the handle of my instrument so the blade was facing behind me. I jabbed it into the creature. It cried out and fell off after dissecting it with a clean swing. This is miserable... I had to press on regardless of how I felt internally.

After culling more of the hell-spawn children, I had reached a much higher point then when I first fired those shots. As high as these eggs were perched. Now I had a much clearer view of the heart. There were five thick arteries connecting the heart to the organs and upper chamber. I could even see the hole where I had fallen from. Taking a moment to make sure the area was clear, I put the instrument away and pulled out the firearm to take aim at the tendrils. They were quite thick but clearly crucial as blood was pumping through them. I fired at the nearest artery. Some blood spilled out. Firing again, the artery popped off with blood gushing out and dousing several eggs below. The chamber shuttered violently that I almost lost my footing. Down below I could hear more and more eggs hatching. Time was running thin. I fired off a couple more shots and severed another artery. Turns out there were only five shots in a single cartridge. I emptied the cartridge and swiftly inserted another. This was my last one I had realized. Not good. I took out that third artery and slung the firearm behind my back. I wanted to keep my remaining rounds. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed a hold of a couple of the veins connecting the eggs to the heart and started motioning myself upwards.

Right when I was getting close, a creature pounced onto my leg and started suckling on it. I felt a sharp jolt of pain from the biting. Hesitating, I pulled out my instrument and stabbed the creature. That worked. I sheathed it and continued onward until another stuck to my back. Damn it all. Took out the instrument and thrust the blade through the filthy little beast. Moved on. I heard another behind me and swung forward. The creature plummeted down. Good riddance. I took my instrument and jabbed it into the heart so I could begin climbing. I squeezed my hand onto the heart tissue to hold on for dear life as I brought the blade up to take another stab. The chamber shook again with every injury I was making. The pulsing of the heart almost made me loose my grip. But I persisted.

I climbed up onto the top of the heart. Each heartbeat making me lose some of my balance. I had to make this quick. I looked behind my back to see the little creatures crawling across the veins. Not good. Not good at all. I carefully approached the first of the remaining two arteries. With my instrument ready, I cleanly cut through the artery. The chamber shook even more violently that I fell onto my posterior. No time for this. I got back up and went for the last artery. The pulsating of the heart had gotten much slower now. This ends now. Hand gripping the hilt as tightly as ever... I hacked off the last remaining artery connecting the heart to the rest of the body.