-Mars Quarantined Zone
The lost district of Forge Sector 17-K Gamma was a scar upon Mars — a dead zone that was quarantined centuries ago when the foolish ambition of an Explorator cult had unleashed something unsanctioned.
A genestealer comes loose. From a single genestealer it turns unto millions in few centuries.
Officially, no such outbreak had ever occurred.
Unofficially, a buried Genestealer cult had long festered here, unnoticed by Terra, unpurged by the Mechanicum. Until now.
While Lord Machinist Nusa and his delegation readied for Terra, the real work of reclamation fell to the warrior in the shadows.
Four thousand elite shinobi of the Exile's finest, drawn from ANBU and ROOT black ops moved like wraiths through the red dessert.
Phase cloaks dialed in, their forms displaced into hyper-liminal frequencies, simultaneously within and outside baseline reality. Untouchable, invisible, unable to interact.
A hunting pack of ghosts that walks between two dimensions.
"Command, operation zone in sight, meeting with forward element." came the steady vox-whisper of ANBU Commander Alexander. His white Oni mask reflected HUD telemetry and pulse-lattice data. Around him, his ANBU squads formed a silent vanguard.
[Command to ANBU Actual: Lord Machinist has suppressed technomantic activity in this sector to maintain synaptic masking. Updated mission grid and bio-synapse telemetry uploaded.
Primary Objective: purge confirmed xeno infestation.
Secondary: locate and terminate high-value synapse strains — codename Patriarch and Primus. Extract cranial cores intact.
Enemy presence: multi-million biomass cluster.
Rules of Engagement: melee protocols only. Ranged fire prohibited — avoid projectile telemetry uplink to Mechanicus auspex net.]
Alexander inclined his head. "Understood."
It doesn't take long before they meet up with the forward element lead by the root Commander.
Root Commander, Joe nod at the main force.
Joe tapped two fingers against his crimson oni mask. "Phase integrity nominal. Locust protocols primed. Location prime for initiating deployment."
From his belt, Joe retrieved a palm-sized capsule etched with machinist sigil. He thumbed the activation button and hurled it into the ruins ahead.
With a poof. a shimmer of white smoke covers the area.
No detonation. No audible noise.
Then a ripple in the dark.
A cloud of microscopic machines, shaped like translucent, bio-organic locusts, spread outward in all directions, unseen by unaided eyes, but tracked by shinobi HUD overlays. Each drone phased back into reality, their mass-harmonics phase field destabilizing one by one, shimmering against the red dust.
Neophite hybrid sentries, manning a crude autocannon nest, and a lone Purestrain Genestealer gnawing on severed human femur it held in one claw crouched behind a makeshift barricade of rusted ceramite plating will be the first casualties.
The tyranid hybrid never felt the first drone crawl into their ear canal. Or the thousand more that followed.
Within seconds, locust bypassed blood-brain barriers, rewrote neural activity, converted flesh and bone into replicated nanite matter. The creatures was hollowed out, reduced to base resources as the swarm multiplied exponentially.
The sentry's taloned hand gripping the autocannon spasmed as its face slackened into a death mask. A thin trickle of black, oily ichor seeped from its nostrils and gaping maw.
A heartbeat later, its torso imploded in a silent ripple of nanite consumption, leaving only its weapon, and a blood scorched patch of floor.
While Microscopic drones infiltrated the purestrain's skin pores, ear canals, and other orifices.
Its face twitched as it sniffed the stagnant, polluted air, sensing nothing.
It didn't notice the locust drones that has enter its body.
Within seconds, its chitinous flesh began to bubble in places as its nervous system and biomass was devoured in a cascade of molecular breakdown until nothing remains.
The locusts drifted on.
They flowed over and through the vent shafts like a liquid mist of glinting steel looking for their next target, and the next until no more remains.
The shinobi watches in silent awe at such weapon capabilities.
"Telemetry confirms phase breach points clear," Joe reported coldly. "Phase-dissolution at designated infiltration zones complete. Minimal resistance encountered."
"Sir, why we don't let locust consume all the tyranid biomass?" An anbu operative asks.
"Negative. Locust protocol lacks precision at synaptic node targeting. The Exile requires the Patriarch's cortical lobe and Primus cranial mass intact for bio-synaptic mapping. Command makes sure the swarm steer clear of our target." Joe shakes his head rejecting the idea.
"Every replication wave carries a non-zero probability of code degradation. One feral anomaly, and the swarm will eat everything, even us." Alexander reminds.
"understood sir." The anbu operatives nodded in understanding.
Alexander spoke into the vox-line. "Command, our teams are advancing. Secondary objective telemetry?"
[Confirmed. Synaptic frequency detected. Approximated 1.4 klicks west, beneath sub-reactor chamber Gamma-Delta. Structural integrity minimal.]
"Joe. Go hunt the patriach. My anbu will clean the surface." Alexander repeat the commands order.
Joe gave a sharp nod, and his ROOT division broke off, each warrior moving individually, using grav-lock boots to scale walls and ceilings to go subterranian area, phase cloaks rendering them ghosts.