The Zeta-series was a success.
That’s what we believed.
*Muffled coughing, rough and coarse*
As much as I’m loathe to admit it, using stillon based anatomy for a test subject was an inspired idea by Doctor Rester. And it adapted wonderfully.
Within hours of its growth, it began developing a core. This was unusual, as carbon based lifeforms that have the capability to grow a core typically don’t begin doing so until their body has already mostly developed. Zeta-One, however, seemed to mold its form around the function of its core, deviating from the biomap we’d developed. But rather than terminating the experiment when deviation began to occur, we decided to observe. This was our best chance to observe how Rift entities formed, and we were astounded. Their bodies seemed to develop the necessary properties to exhibit the best results of their core properties.
*Multiple people screaming in the distance, followed by distant gunfire*
And what a success *more coughing, intense and racking this time* it was. Just a week after incubation, Z1 was fully functional, and displayed above average intelligence for a newly formed Rift entity.
How could we have known what it was?
Who could have known?
*The coughing lasts nearly a full minute this time*
Ah damn. There was blood in that one.
*More coughing, the sounds of gunfire echoing down hallways*
The first few tests were promising. It adapted quickly, and displayed category 4 characteristics, a rare archetype this far from a Rift. After just a week, its reality debicules were measured at 10.34, and growing by the hour. A gift, we had thought. A miraculous development, one that would advance the study of Rift entities by years.
And then it escaped its enclosure.
We checked surveillance again, and again. When we realized how it had done so, it was too late.
It had already opened a Rift, right in our laboratory.
And what stepped through...
My team had already begun killing each other before I could order them to consume their mental blockers.
*Retching, along with muffled curses*
They’ve almost found me, I can hear them running through the halls.
Ha. Ha ha.
What a fool I was, Rester. In my haste to surpass you, I’ve doomed us all.
*Retching, and the sound of something large and wet slapping against stone*
Apologies... are in order. What Z1 summoned…
*The screaming is much closer, and is followed by crazed laughter. Voices chant, low and barely audible*
May God... help us all.
-End of recovered audio log from the head of lab three’s research and development team, Doctor Charlie Grant
A large eighteen-wheeler semi-truck, flanked by three other police cars, travels down the highway, eerily silent, with all of its passengers strangely stable. A human male with buzzed black hair and scars covering his face and scalp sits on one of a ring of cushioned seats, a rifle resting in his lap, carefully pointed away from the twelve other passengers in the back of the truck.
“Alright boys and girls, I know that some of you, looking at you Ramon, caught a nap on the way here. And some of you, again looking at you Ramon, have a habit of forgetting mission details during these naps. So let me remind you.” He says, his voice oddly high and clear compared to his hard appearance. “This is a low-contact, non-lethal task. If you encounter any mutants in the forest, you are to hit it with a tranq and keep moving. We’ll be moving in two groups, one core user per.”
He nods his head to the left row of seats, which house five people on them. “Team one will be hunting with me, in the first and second quadrants. Team two,” He gestures to the other side, which holds seven people, “you’ll take the third and fourth quadrants. Our target is a black wolf with tentacles, but it’s a cat 6, recorded with both cat 1 and 2 characteristics. Keep in mind that it could have changed its form in the week since last contact. Eyes open, head low to the ground. When you encounter it, orders are to tranq it, but be warned that it may be able to eject the tranquing fluid from its body. According to intel, it has an adverse reaction to electricity, so hit it with static rounds if the tranqs prove ineffective.”
There’s a round of nods, and the truck slows to a stop.
“Masks on. It can understand human speech, so psionic communication is our primary. Let’s move.”
The group of thirteen dons their masks, completing their ever shifting camouflage armor as six bright lights slowly dull on each helmet, and the group pours out of the truck, slinking into the forest as their armor rapidly bends light to obscure them.
“Good hunting everyone.”
I leap away, dodging an attack from a kin-prey.
Recognize structures, digitigrade legs, eight scything tentacles on its sides, three eye tentacles waving from its back. It crouches, scything tentacles returning back to its main body to hover protectively around it.
Smug. The digitigrade legs may be superior for single direction movement and ambushes, but they are inferior in fights.
I have already fought against this kin-prey. Easy source of biomass.
Yip! Yip Yip!
Sigh.
The wolf pup squirms in the pouch I’ve made on my back, looking at the kin-prey defiantly. Snorts, and looks at me.
Yes pup. It is an enemy.
Yip!
The kin-prey looks at us, perhaps confused? Does not matter. Refine white muscle system. Develop scythes on hands and arms.
Activate space warping Core ability, stab at the air next to me with my scythe arm.
There’s a shriek of pain, as the kin-prey (Hunters, I’ve unlocked their inferior anatomy after eating two of them) organs are pierced by my scythe.
The hunter rips itself free of my scythe, and charges at me. It’s fast, but…
Smug. I am faster.
I stab my tentacles into a tree, pulling my body and jumping at the same time, leaving ten tentacles behind. It runs into them, scything tentacles severing pain four of the tentacles I’ve left. The rest wrap around its body.
It lets out a distressed wail as the teeth tear into its flesh.
Jump into the air, as the hunter severs the tentacles around it.
Develop armor on tentacles. Send them into the ground around it. And pull my body back down.
The hunter looks around, confused, before it finally sees my main body.
Too late.
Three scything tentacles are sent towards me, but I twist my body around them, crossing my arms in front of me and slashing at the hunter, cutting off its head and twisting to land on my feet.
It stumbles, then collapses and stills.
There have been a lot of kin-prey lately, and they’ve hunted a lot of the other preys in this forest. Which is unpleasant, because the kin-prey tastes bad.
Yip!
The little one doesn’t agree with me, as it scrambles out of my pouch to look at the prey. Its nose sniffs the air, and its mouth begins to drool.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Fine.
I wrap my tentacles around it and separate its body into parts; limbs, two pieces of torso, and it’s head. Give the pup a leg to chew on in the pouch, and devour the rest.
Disgusting. And...
Sniff.
Disdain. The hunter didn’t even have a Core.
The only Core I’ve obtained in the past fifteen awake cycles was Star-Reader’s Core. Which…
Reluctant. Don’t want to admit it, but…
I don’t know how to use the ability, minor clairvoyance.
Sigh. If only the wolf pack was still around to teach me.
List of available Core abilities: Analyzation and adoption, shapeshifting and major regeneration, psionic link and assault, minor telekinesis, invisibility, minor osteokinesis, moderate electrokinesis, electroreception, space warping (minor teleportation), minor clairvoyance.
Core energy is at 31%.
Tired.
Change back to wolf anatomy, it consumes less biomass than being human. But I’ll keep the complex brain, obviously. And the pouch that the pup is in, still chewing on its leg. Strangely, my human shape has not changed much with my increased biomass, even though the wolf anatomy has grown by 40%. My wolf anatomy is now bigger than Time-Breaker’s.
Walk back to the den, trailing my mouth tentacles on the ground behind me, devouring the grass. I had the idea ten awake cycles ago. Though only eating grass is inefficient, if I ate it with my tentacles while traveling, the efficiency would increase drastically.
Smug. Truly, the complex brain is the most superior design among all others.
Wiggle.
The sun is almost gone from the sky by the time I make it back to the den. I’m being forced to travel further and further away to find prey.
… I may have to move soon. But where? Even my first home was inside of the forest, just in a different place. What is there outside of it? Is there anything outside of it?
…
Too tired to think of that for now. Stasis first, then think of moving.
The pup climbs out of the pouch, pressing its body against my fur.
Stasis.
…
Except… for some reason…
Core energy is at 25%.
My Core energy is being depleted rapidly. And I’m getting the instinct to moVE!
I MUST GRAB THE PUP AND MOVE!
Charge out of the den DODGE TO THE LEFT!
Feel vibrations in the air, wave eye tentacle.
There’s a strange structure sticking out of the ground where I was about to enter stasis. Strange, it looks like a porcupine’s quill, but… different.
MUST DODGE TO THE RIGHT!
Another quill lodges into the ground.
Core energy is at 23%.
But why? What ability am I using that is draining the energy? And how is the instinct to dodge coming?
AND WHERE ARE THESE ATTACKS DODGE COMING FROM!?
Wave eye tentacles DODGE DODGE and search for the attackers.
Frustrated. Can’t find them. INVISIBILITY? HAH! YOU THINK YOU ARE SAFE BECAUSE YOU ARE INVISIBLE!?
Activate electroreception! Useful for finding coward invisible prey that are close to the mai-
THERE ARE SEVEN OF THEM! All close to me.
The pup is squirming. For now, put it into my pouch, and seal the pouch. Still allow air to pass through, inferior designs require air.
Wave eye tentacles. Still cannot see them.
FRUSTRATED!
Growl.
DODGE DODGE! Fine! You will hide from this one?
Send tentacles to the electronic signals, wrap and constrict!
PAIIINNNN!
All of the tentacles I wrapped around them are severed.
There’s a feeling in the back of my brain. I can sense psionic link communication happening, but when I attempt to form the link with them it is blocked.
BANG BANG BANG!
LOUD!
PAAAAAIIIIIINNNNN!
The same pain as poking instruments!? HOW! AND FROM A DISTANCE!?
Ten percent of my main body has been destroyed by just three attacks.
…
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!
TIME FOR COWARDICE! FLEE!
“The target is running away!”
Wait. I recognize that form of communication.
HUMANS! WHY IS IT ALWAYS HUMANS THAT ARE THE THREAT!?
Jump from tree to tree, wrap my tentacles around a a branch and fling myself into the air. Develop wings! Fly fly fly fl-
BANG BANG PAIIIINNNNNNN! BANG PAIN BANG BANG PAIN BANG PAIN!
My wings are destroyed.
NOT GOOD! CRASHING BACK DOWN TO THE TREES!
There’s a rush of colors and pain stabs through my body as branches scratch at me.
The pup whimpers as we fall. GRAB a branch with tentacles and sling myself forwards.
SENSE EVEN MORE HUMANS ! THEY’RE SO FAST! HOW!?
The other humans were not as fast as these.
Is it possible… the humans I killed were weak?
I must move faster.
Refine white muscle system. Refine it again. And again!
Hungry. And tired. So tired.
Core energy is at 11%
Biomass is being consumed faster than it ever has before.
But…
I tense my muscles and shoot forward, the trees blurring past me. I’M SO FAST!
BAAANG BANG BANG BANG bang bang.
The get farther and farther away. But just a few breaths later...
Stagger.
My body collapses and I roll to a stop.
Core energy is at 8%.
So… tired…
The pup whimpers, shaking in the pouch.
I must have lost them by no-
Sense vibrations in air.
…
Growl.
Reluctant.
But the vibrations are getting closer.
DON’T WANT TO! IT IS COWARDICE!
The vibrations are getting even closer.
FINE!
…
Activate…
…
Activate invisibility.
I huddle against a tree, shaking. It is COWARDICE, but… necessary.
A few breaths later, and the humans rush past me. They make no noise, and use the same invisibility, but I can still sense them through electroreception.
…
Relief. Deactivate invisibility.
So. Tired.
Frustrated.
Why do I have to run away from the humans? And why do they keep attacking me?
…
Actually, humans attacked the pack before. Is it because I’m a wolf?
…
Perhaps… if I’m also human, they won’t attack me?
Use precious remnants of my Core energy to develop the human anatomy.
Come to think of it, the humans also have strange armor. But the base human anatomy does not have it. Are they superior forms of humans?
I don’t like the idea of being an inferior human. But I don’t have the armor…
But it didn’t look complicated.
I’ll just change my skin to match it. That should work.
Core energy is at 6%.
This is bad. My body’s starting to shut down, attempting to enter stasis on its own.
“What in the hell are you doing out here? This forest is prohibited until further notice.” A voice says, and I still.
A human! A human I didn’t sense, because I turned off electroreception to conserve Core energy.
I turn around. The human is still invisible, and I don’t want to activate electroreception again. I might enter stasis right now if I do.
I have to communicate with the human.
“Thanks doc?” I say.
“... Hunting team, this is one of the members of your escort. I've got an unidentified person here. Now, you, what is your identification number?” The human says, closer now.
They don’t believe me. I can hear it in their voice. But I have to try again.
“Identification number.” I repeat back to them.
Hear a cl-
NOPE!
Tentacles erupt out of my back, sweeping the area.
PAAAINNN but I’ve GOT THEM!
Develop scythe arms, dash over to pain them and STAB!
The human lets out a shriek before I STAB it again.
MOVE MOVE MOVE MOVE!
The other humans will be here soon!
Wrap tentacles around a tree again, and LAUNCH myself forwards!
…
There are no trees here? And why is it so bright WHAT IS THAT BIG THING COMING TOWARDS M-