The Katanfreia

[Corsair]

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The Vespucci system is far from empty. The Hellfire Legion's iron grip is manifested in the form of rigid patrols criss-crossing the area in unerring, unwavering lines. Every speck of space dust is observed and recorded. The lone Kusari Destroyer that wanders hapazardly on impulse power stands out in stark contrast from the disciplined Legionnaires around it. The ship isn't old, but its hull looks to be aged decades ahead of its time. Its color has faded and the several insignia that decorated its hull have been rubbed off. Almost every inch of the surface has a dent or scorch mark on it. Patches of its hull have been repaired using different materials than it had been built from. These patches are dark gray and red, and one of them bears the Legion's insignia. It flies around the sun in a lazy loop, fulfilling its own agenda. Nearby patrols swerve around it as if it wasn't even there.

Inside the hull was dark and cold and silent. There was no light, no air, no heat within its body. Until you turned on a flashlight, you'd think the ship was dead. But as soon as you did, the scene would burn itself into your mind. Mottled red moss covered the walls, almost flesh-like in appearance. On closer inspection, you could see black veins running throughout it, which pulsed an contracted as they carried fluids throughout its expanse. If you were to touch it, the area would convulse as it reacted. Which would inevitably bring attention from the crew, the ExMortis.

Like ghosts, they would float down the hallways, unhindered by gravity. If you were in a strategically important, they would crawl through the myriad of traps that protruded from the walls and floor: spikes, turrets, incinerators, et cetra. As they approached, they would appear to be ordinary human crewmen- minus the air and heat that is normally required for human survival. Depending on what role the ExMortis fulfilled, your experience would be wildly different.

If it were a common engineer, it would have all of its human faculties and would attempt to kill you with its bare hands, clawing at your suit, attempting to cut off your oxygen or throw you into one of the wall traps. The only way to effectively disable it would be to neutralize its nervous system by attacking the spine or head. They would continue to attack even with missing limbs and holes in their body.

If you encountered an ExMortis that doesn't use their hands regularly, chances are the hands would be replaced with weapons of some variety. They would slash at your suit, try to impale and throw you. Same as the engineer, the only way to disable the ExMortis would be to disable its nervous system.

If you had the misfortune to be attacked by a soldier, you might as well pull the trigger on yourself. The soldiers of the ExMortis are developed for fighting in a spacecraft. In most cases, you wouldn't even see them coming, only feel their claws and teeth tearing at you from above, below, behind. Managing to catch a glimpse would reveal cold gray skin covering a small and muscular body. All four of its limbs are the same length and thickness, and a tail extends a short way down from its back. Its head is angular and lean, making it look like an enormous lizard. All of its limbs end in wicked sharp claws and its jaw, once closed, is impossible to release without blowing the creature's head off. A soldier has two nervous centers, both of which must be destroyed. The first is in the head, and once it is disabled the soldier will be stunned for approximately five minutes while control shifts to the secondary node in the base of the tail. Both nodes must be destroyed for the soldier to die off completely.

But you wouldn't board the ExMortis core ship. Too cold. Too dark. The only way of contacting the ExMortis is over their communication relay, which is operated by the leader of the ExMortis, the Speaker. The behemoth of a lifeform had undergone extensive development since it was first developed, partly by Hellfire scientists and technicians. More on that later.

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[Corsair]

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My name is Ryker Sexton, chief researcher of the 'ExMortis'. I'm compiling these personalized notes for public consumption in the hope of.. Well, I don't know what I intend to do with these notes, or why I'm writing them. But the things I've seen in this past year.. Since the last major experiment like this, I had thought I had seen the most far-flung forms of life. But the sheer complexity and scale of the ExMortis boggles my mind. It's macro on a micro scale. It's tiny but gargantuan. It's.. Unthinkable. But enough of my talking nonsense. Let's get to the ExMortis.

From the history they've shared with me, I've condensed it to a shorter, more manageable version*. They originated on the Order research vessel Jelkanar, in a far off and uncharted Omicron system. Completely isolated and alone, the Jelkanar carried years of supplies and plenty of research material. They were loaded full of Artifacts, Nomad remains, Cardamine, Machinery, et cetra. By a freak chance, two of the four biological researchers on the Jelkanar were addicted to Cardamine.

These researchers were testing the applications of nanobots on humans in the field of medicine. The problem was that nanobots couldn't figure out what to repair and floated around like a lot of useless nothing; that is, until they discovered that Cardamine provided a 'lock' for the nanobots to target. Since Cardamine rewrites the user's genetic code, it was easier for the nanobots to figure out what to repair. Things were looking good.. Until the first human test trial took place.

For some unknown reason, there was a virus present in the first test subject. The origin of the virus is unknown. I theorize that it was present to feed off of the Cardamine already in his system.. and when it got a load of nanobots as company, it adapted. It took control of one of the nanobots by burrowing into its command processor. It may have simply thought it was a new host cell to reproduce. Whatever the reason, it was now controlling the nanobot and was able to harvest Cardamine much more efficiently. It 'farmed' the molecule and consumed the broken-down substrate. It used this to enhance its own genetic code and evolve rapidly.

The virus spread, and effectively killed the host, but not before he went rabid and bit the rest of the biological team. All four passed out and were delivered to the medical ward. The bodies then re-animated after the viruses had taken root in the spine and brain, using its nervous system to move and spread the infection. The Order wasn't prepared to face an outbreak like this, and all crew were converted.

I'll end this section here. In my next report I'll talk about the Core, the telepathic advisor to the Speaker. It's a fascinating thing..

*This is a streamlined report: Only important events are recorded.

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[Corsair]

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The Core originated from the corpses of two Order crew members who had been 'pinned' to the exterior of the Jelkanar's main power core. Maryn, one of the original biologists to be infected, used some of the viruses in her blood to cover the two bodies. What happened next can only be described as a miracle of evolution.

The viruses originally began to snatch up the abundant supplies of Cardamine on their own, ignoring the others. As supplies began to run out, they would assault one another to get their digested Cardamine. But when there were only two of these viruses left, they stopped fighting and instead joined together. Their nanobots connected and used all of the material that they had ingested to manufacture a new kind of virus- one that was already built into a nanobot. They created a brand new strain of virus.

Now that they had achieved a cooperation, the two viruses (we'll call it the Core from now on) began to send out these 'worker' viruses to begin to break down the corpses on the wall and then rebuild in a new and more efficient way, spreading like a moss across the wall. As they deconstructed the bodies, the Core began to learn about how it worked. How a human body functioned, with its nervous and cardiovascular systems all working in unison. The Core tried to replicate this by building vascular tissue into the mass that was spreading. This made it so that the viruses could travel quickly, speeding up the rate of expansion.

The Core realized that it could learn a lot of valuable information from these 'human' things. It began to study the brains in particular, and built itself a nervous system to better control the viruses it created. By now the Core had grown, the red moss now covering much of the room. Maryn had been delivering regular doses of Cardamine, guided by pheromones excreted by the Core. Occasionally, expansion would stall and another infected crew member would be 'deconstructed' and used to fuel renewed progress.

It continued much in that fashion until the Speaker* retrieved one of the Jelkanar's Nomad brains. This one in particular was recovered from a battleship-sized specimen, so it was large and rather powerful. The Core deconstructed it, assimilated it and used it to develop its own telepathy to control the ExMortis drones.

The Core had to be relocated after the destruction of the Jelkanar** and now resides within the reactor chamber of the Katanfreia. Its 'skin' reaches throughout the entire ship, monitoring core systems and reports fluctuations to nearby workers. Depending on what section of the ship is involved, the skin can detect vibrations, radiation, EM energy, and so on. The brain of the Core was once the leader of the ExMortis, but is now more of the Mastermind. It still has significant influence, but most leadership is handled by the Speaker.

The Core brain inside the Katanfreia is large. It is approximately three meters tall, reaching from floor to ceiling. It is spherical in shape, and is suspended in the air by a web of red tendrils. The core itself is a red-purple color, likely due to the consumption of the Nomad brain. White specks inside of the Core glitter like jewels. These specks are factories that produce viruses that flow through the ship.

I think that about covers it for the Core. It's a giant telepathic nanobot-virus factory.

*I'll talk about the Speaker next.
** And the Jelkanar after that.

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[Corsair]

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Maryn Oldsfield was one of the biologists originally infected with the ExMortis. She has shown a remarkable acceptance to the virus, allowing it to fully integrate into her body and achieve unthinkable levels of malleability.

After her initial infection, she displayed above average intelligence when compared to the other drones around her. This was manifested as she hunted down individual survivors on her own, often trapping them so that they had no escape. At one point, she herded a survivor to the escape pods but managed to get there first, jettisoning all but one and waiting for the survivor to appear.

As the Core developed and assimilated more brain matter, it began to acquire some basic memories from them. Most of it was gibberish, but the Core noticed that there was a single similarity in each of the memories: it was only describable as 'blue'. What it meant, of course, was Nomads. The Core wanted access to the Nomad remains on the ship.

The Core needed Maryn to be its go-to operative for tasks like this. It couldn't simply keep her as a human, that was far too inefficient. So it turned her into a monster. Using pheromones instructing her to come closer, Maryn touched the Core, which injected her with a reprogrammed set of viruses that set about killing and subjugating her out dated ones. When she was fully 'upgraded', they began to tear her body apart from the inside and rebuild it to suit the Core's needs.

It began to tear apart her internal organs which were no longer being used anyway. Intestines, stomach, bladder, ovaries, breasts, all disappeared. The only things left were her heart and lungs. It then took those materials and began to rebuild her. Unfortunately, she didn't have enough material inside of her to complete the transformation so she had to devour two other ExMortis in order to get the required components. Hair, skin, bones, everything.

She began to grow as the viruses extended her bones, added to her muscles to compensate and deconstructed her feet. Her torso got lean and gaunt, her heart and lungs encased within a small, tough ribcage. Her arms were also lengthened and her fingers deconstructed. She grew to be two and a half meters tall- but her transformation wasn't over yet.

Where her feet had been, now hooves were being constructed. They were hard, black ovals with a single talon protruding from the top. Her knees had reverse directions, now pointing backwards rather than forwards. Her fingers grew back as long, skeletal claws. Towards the end of the claw, they tapered vertically like knives, ending in a wicked hook. She resembled a demonic satyr when standing upright.

On top of all of that, two new arms grew from her back, below her shoulder blades. They reached up and draped over her shoulders. These arms were thick, ending in a blade. She used these to smash through metal plating.

Now, her claws and extra arms wouldn't do much good if they were simply bone. To that effect, Maryn was fed metal from the Jelkanar's repair reserves. The nanobots took apart the metal and used it to augment her claws and extra arms. In the end, her body was infused with battleship hull plating. That would explain her powers of survival.

Her face is about what you could expect- it lost its hair and her teeth grew to enormous length, forcing her to grin indefinitely due to her lack of lips at the time. She grew lips later, to better communicate with humans. But those teeth are also hybridized with the Jelkanar's hull, so a bite from them will pierce through all but the toughest armor.

The Speaker also has the unique ability to absorb technology into her body and make it her own. When attempting to get the Nomad Brain for the Core, she could not simply smash through the door, so she needed to cut through. There was a plasma torch nearby but she was unable to operate it because of her claws. So instead, she absorbed the torch into her arm and cut through it that way.

Though it is no surprise that the ExMortis can survive in areas of zero atmosphere, the Speaker has been exposed to several months of open space, following the destruction of the Jelkanar. She was able to use asteroids as jumping platforms until she was eventually picked up by the 'A.A.A.I' that was mapping the system at the time.

The Speaker has shown to be extraordinarily intelligent, commanding ExMortis soldiers and crew during raids, hunting prey using guerrilla tactics and is especially manifest in her dealing with humans. Her already impressive strength has been augmented with technology in recent months since the ExMortis' arrival in Vespucci.

The Speaker now looks slightly different than when she was originally transformed. Two shield generators have been grafted into her back, right below her extra arms. These gray blobs surround her with a powerful personal shield, equatable to a heavy fighter's. This makes her entirely impervious to small arms fire. Only starship-grade weaponry can put a dent in it. On her skull, a small metal patch can be seen. This is just the exterior of a processor that has been inserted into her brain, allowing for faster and more precise thought.

Her claws and hooves have been implanted with 'vibration' tech, which makes them resonate at extremely high frequencies. This gives them extra destructive power on metal surfaces, effectively turning them into scalpel-sized chainsaws. And finally, in the palm of each hand is a gun barrel that fires pistol rounds. This is for when she is otherwise unable to attack.

In the end, you have something that surpasses supersoldier status. She could take on a tank brigade, but never leaves her ship except for raids. The reason for this is that she does not want to leave the Core undefended; luckily, during ship-to-ship raids they are usually close enough to each other for the Speaker to be comfortable.

The Speaker usually leads a raiding party of five or six soldiers. They can fight just as well in ships with atmosphere as in ships without. When on these raids, they attempt to cripple the ship and then capture and infect the crew. This is their only method of reproduction. Due to their relationship with the Hellfire Legion, they do not target Libertonian civilians, rather going for the military. Operating in the Magellan, Leeds and Manchester systems, they have plenty of targets to choose from.

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[Corsair]

// Read backstory first

My reports shall conclude with the life and death of the Jelkanar, and the ExMortis finding their current residence.

The Jelkanar was an Order research ship constructed in 804 AS, one of the first Osiris-class battleships to roll off the assembly lines since the conclusion of the Nomad War. The Jelkanar was sent off on a fifteen-year journey, to return with new technology and system maps. They took a series of jump holes that led them far away from known space, eventually parking in a section of nebula they classified as the Journeyman Field. The 'J.F' was an area that was perfectly suited for their needs- low ambient radiation, plenty of refineable gases, and was near enough to a star to recharge their systems.

The ExMortis took over the ship seven years into its journey, and during their seven-month return trip the ship celebrated its eight-year mark. Along the way, the encountered a Zoner Corvo-class cruiser. The Corvo was out for exploration, and the ExMortis raided it for supplies and to test out their combat capabilities. Using explosives taken from the ship's own armory, the ExMortis killed or infected the crew and placed explosives on key areas of the ship, crippling it. Over the next week or so, the Jelkanar salvaged as much as they could- metal for repairs, undamaged electronics, and the infected crew.

Turns out the Corvo had sent a distress call, and an Order battlecruiser came to investigate. They boarded the Jelkanar and were slaughtered. The Jelkanar's guns obliterated their ship. They had hoped they would be able to get back to human space unmolested. They were wrong.

The battlecruiser had sent its own warning signal back to Order space, and an ambush was put in place. When the Jelkanar jumped into Omicron Delta, it was destroyed by several Order capital ships and strike wings. There was nothing it could do.

The Speaker was able to take the heart of the Core with her as she fled, leaping into space. For months she drifted until she reached an asteroid field. She jumped from asteroid to asteroid, trying to get as close to Freeport 11 as possible, then would have jumped for the distant station if she had not first been picked up by A.A.A.I, a traveling Artificial Intelligence who was mapping the system. The AI, for reasons known only to itself, dropped the Speaker in Kyushu near the Jump Gate to the Taus.

A passed through, and the Speaker was able to board the freighter and kill the pilot. The freighter drifted off course, drawing the attention of the Kusari Naval Forces. A destroyer was on patrol nearby, and docked with the freighter. The Speaker boarded and worked her deadly art. The crew of the destroyer was unprepared for the Speaker's ferocity. She put emphasis on infecting the crew rather than killing, and after swiftly cutting the destroyer's comm systems was able to sweep through and eradicate the resistance.

She left a single crewmember alive to fly them out of Kyushu and into the Taus to evade pursuit. She sent us a transmission, then was able to get to Vespucci without being killed though the local militaries tried. The destroyer was moored in Leniex for repairs and.. negotiations. What exactly was decided is far above my rank, but the Katanfreia has so far been able to fly about Vespucci, Humboldt and Magellan. It hasn't assisted us with combat objectives, and has opted to flee from attackers than engage.

That ends these reports. Any further updates will be done on another channel.

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