Xenoparasites!

[Borg12345]

The Artificer army had reverted to it's primary objective with the loss of it's lord, to wipe out all life and harvest the life force for their dark gods. And this they did with ruthless efficiency as they whittled down the undead forces in their way. Countless numbers of undead attacked, and countless numbers were vaporised, sliced apart and wiped out. Green lighting cut down swathes of the monstrosities like a scythe through harvest crops, but they were not without their losses. The Artificers had lost just over half of their forces before enough of the undead were destroyed for them to make a tactical retreat, opting to spread out and disperse throughout the immediate area, throughout the entire planet if required, so that the Artificer cause may continue.

In the Tomb Fortress, which with every passing minute was looking more like the billion year old tombs on countless other planets, Lykaios was the only thing showing any sort of life. Until the middle of the floor parted, like some unseen force had pulled the floor in half. Then something rose from the floor, a figure similar to the Artificer that set these events in motion. But something was different about this one. A sense of dread emanated from this particular lord, power coursing through the very air around it. This new arrival was glowing with an arcane energy that had far surpassed the Artificer that was now on the run, for this Lord was at full strength and had been sent from somewhere in the universe to fix this mess of a harvest, but it seemed to be too late. It only briefly acknowledged Lykarios before rending open the top of the Tomb, splitting and tearing the metal and ripping the land apart before shifting the metal of the floor to raise itself upwards and outwards. It's only mission was to round up it's now scattered forces, and bring a swift destruction to the Lord that had failed in it's task.

The outcast Artificer was running through the forest, constantly looking back to make sure it wasn't followed. In this unusual lapse of judgement from it's normally cold, calculating mind it ran straight into a group of life forms it hadn't encountered before. It's initial instinct was to slice them apart, murder them all and keep running. But it didn't. Something stopped it... it was experiencing mercy.
"No not go down this path. You will be slaughtered. This is a warning. This is not a threat."

[Swix]

((Very interesting))

The group of lifeforms-well, small parasitic being encased in dead flesh-stopped, nearly as stunned as the robot. How could they not know this? But even they couldn't be everywhere.
They also stared at him with their dead eyes, though he didn't know them, they knew him.

The one using the ex-Coms body spoke in Common, as the one carrying the fleshy growth-which was more alive than any of the reanimated-immediately turned around and instead headed for the Red Trees Grove.

"All are one, one is All. We do not die until the All falls" the body told him, it's tone sounded suspicious "you are one of them-you are one of the cold ones that worked with the White One, we saw. They attack us and ours, we attack them. We've lost many bodies, but so have they. The 'human' girl thinks of you as the 'big, scary robot'. Why do you tell us this?" it paused, a thought occurring to it in a myriad of others "why were you running from your family?"

In the Tomb Fortress Lykaios watched the powerful Lord rip the place apart even further in order to get out... and as soon as it was free, and clear, that was the white wolfs cue.

Covering himself closely with the ethereal substance, Lykaios let loose some of the Antimatter he'd stored away from when he had been present at the birth of a universe. Just enough to completely destroy the Fortress and all the nanobots within it. The explosion that blossomed from this simple release rocked the earth at Ground Zero with it's ferocity, and the Underling rode the edge of the blast high into the sky. The white wolf stopped there, like an ominous star, looking down at the chaos below with glee.

The tiny machines were an unwitting gift, and he didn't want to truly unleash them just yet-it was far too soon for that.

The spreading Artificers would find that though the undead forces were greatly thinned, still they attacked. They followed the robots and hampered their progress, until either all within a certain area were slaughtered or the objects of their aggression were destroyed.

It seemed in this task they were mindless, though their own forces soon wore away to a quarter of what they were.

((Argh, sorry, knew I missed something out))

[Jodie]

Serah squeaked as the canids took the weird growth thing from her, and she watched the reminated bodys walk off, she then jumped starteldly when she heard the explosion and then mumbled "I have the feeling... I should go this way"

Then she ran off in the opposite direction of the explosion.

(In the field)

The Herd watched as the reminated creatures went past, Foresta was tending to the leaders wounds

Buzz mumbled "They seem to be ignoring us..."

Zamural sighed with releaf "thats a good thing" then asked himself "I wonder what my dad did... He sure did somthing good..." then ran over to the Leader and shouted worridly "dad, you ok!?", the other herd members followed.

The Leader lifted his head up and said "I will be soon, these wounds are nothing compared to what I'v been trough to keep this herd from danger"

Zamural mumbled sadly "Dad..."

[Swix]

Serah would find that the reanimateds numbers had been greatly thinned thanks to the Artificers army cutting through so many of their number, and she wasn't bumping into them at every other turn. But she'd also find that she was joined in her flight away from the explosion by the lizard bird carrying the growth, who appeared from behind and slowly began to overtake the less nimble human. It made no aggressive or friendly moves towards Serah, so it probably wasn't aware of her presence-or it was ignoring her for some reason. Either way, Serah would have company in her flight.

Whatever was over there apparently scared even them.

[Jodie]

Serah continued to run, then thaught 'I wonder what that weird, pulsing thing is anyways?' then thaught 'Well, atleast that lizard bird thing is ignoring me' and continued running

(In the field)

Foresta and the rest of the herd that was good at using healing magic was tending to the leaders wounds, Buzz was practacing, but wasn't doing as much sucsess as the older herd members but was still healing the leader. Zamural asked tilting his head "dad, what did you do to stop them?"

The Leader said, no longer as weak as he was gaining strengh "I just talked to them, and discovred they are trying to protect some weird red trees, I'm glad I managed to understand them, because they started to look impatent as I was puzzeling about it" he then did a small, nervious chuckle at the thaught

Zamural just sighed and said "You realy worried me, and the rest of the herd too..."

[Swix]

Serah and the lizard bird carrying the growth kept going for a short distance in the same direction, before the creature tripped over a root that rose out of the ground. It fell to all fours, it's claws creating grooves in the ground, but in doing it's precious load was lost and tumbled on the ground ahead of them before it finally lost it's momentum, coming to a stop ahead of the fleeing human.

In the forest, those creatures that had bypassed the herd suddenly stopped stiff, as though someone had flicked an 'off' switch. This brief halt to their madness didn't last though, as they began moving again quite suddenly. They all turned back to the way they had originally come, and made a bee line towards Serah.

[Jodie]

Serah watched as the growth stopped tumbeling, whatever it was, it seemed important.

She Picked up the growth and quickley examined it, hoping that is it was damaged, she would be able to heal it.

(In the Field)

The Herd had made a defensive circle around the leader and the young members of the Herd as the Reminated bodys walked past.

[Borg12345]

((Forgive me if this ends up being a bit disjointed. I don't wanna abandon this but I've sorta lost track. Not completely but a little bit. Please bare with me! ))

The Artificer paused in it's thoughts of escape. Family. Faaaamily. The word rolled around in it's mind. A dim spark of memory lit up, but this was not retrieval of data, it was something different... something ancient... something primal.

"They are not... family. They are soldiers. They are legion. They are death. Initiate escape protocols, or suffer." Replied the Artificer. Something was wrong though, something about it's voice. A hint, a tiny insignificant hint of empathy travelled with it's words.

That shook the metal creature to it's very core, and that in turn seemed to break open the mental floodgates that barred an old and ancient life from it. Memories of the flesh flooded it's thoughts, memories of emotion, sensation and true sentience overwhelmed the fallen Lord. It's expressionless face looked to the sky, and let out a modulated scream of machine noise, such was the horror and terror of this revelation.

[Swix]

(Serah)

The growth Serah picked up off the floor had a few slightly darker patches on it's skin, but otherwise seemed unharmed. The thing also seemed to be pulsing, almost like a heartbeat, and was soft rather than slimy to the touch.

The lizard bird that had been running with her regained it's feet and began to approach the girl warily, and as it did so it spoke, pointing a long clawed finger at the object "Give us back the All".

Other members of the reanimated slowly began showing up as well...

<hr />

(The field)

The herd had little reason to be quite so alarmed this time, as the bodies simply walked around them, ignoring the animals or their defensive, aggressive posture.

The blind lizards though, trudged directly into the herd. Well, they couldn't see them afterall...

(The Artificer)

The ex-Coms Officer just stared at the robot, even as it lifted it's head to the sky and screamed in a very unnatural, disturbing way.

But the lone Monstrosity lifted an over long, clawed finger to point at the screaming machine and offer some very logical advice. "If you are running from a legion of death" it said "then you have just told them where you and this body are"

At this point the creature removed it's head from it's qhoulders, tucked the disturbing object underneath it's arm, then turned completely around and began to run.

[Jodie]

Serah mumbled "the what?" then handed it to the weird growth to the lizard bird and said "I was just making sure it wasn't damaged or anything", She tried to Ignore the other Reminated bodys that showed up.

(In the Field)

The Herd didn't attack, but stayed in a defencive posture, Buzz was about to poke one of the blind Lizerds, but his mother pulled him away from it.

The Leader was nearly compleatly healed, Foresta mumbled "Whatever those weird hook headed lizerds are, they are realy freaking me out..." Zamurel sighed "And the Zombies don't?"

[Borg12345]

The Artificer ended it's pseudo-scream, the rational and logical machine mind wrestling control again.

"Survival rates will plummet with irrational outbursts, must keep control."

Looking around, the area seemed to be clear. The army it brought to the surface would surely be busy with the undead creatures and the living it encountered had run away. The traitor Artificers had to be stopped and brought to heel, but in this condition the Lord would be torn apart in seconds. The Artificer was death incarnate, it's usurper however lead a legion of them.

[ALERT: IRREPARABLE DAMAGE DETECTED]

The Lord snapped it's attention to the source of the alert, it's own hand. It was glowing with the nanomachines that the wolf form had released, and collapsing in on itself. Thinking swiftly the Artificer sliced what was left of the hand off, sure in the knowledge that the blade would be unaffected by the nanomachines. One of the many advantages to phase weapons, existing in the material realm and phase space simultaneously allowed it to pass through the thickest armour like it wasn't there and stopped rare machine viruses such as this. As soon as the hand dropped to the ground the nanomachines began to decay the earth beneath it. The Artificer would have to move swiftly to avoid being infected again. The next course of action was to once again hide away and recover it's strength. There was no tomb to return to however, and burying himself would only delay the inevitable.

The Artificer needed to escape to the nearest planet.

[Swix]

(Serah)

The lizard bird took the growth from Serah, slowly and carefully, before examining it closely for many minutes. The other Monstrosity's slowly began closing in.

The bird with the growth then held the thing up and pointed at the dark patches. "It is damaged, it is bruised" it told Serah "why would you want to heal the All?"

(In the field)

The bodies continue to trudge away, but the herd might find the hook lizards trying to clamber over them if they weren't quick enough at moving out of the way.

(The Artificer)

The robot would find that the trail the ex-Coms Officer had left was rather easy to follow, if he wanted to go that way.

If he stayed in that area for much longer though, he'd find that he'd attracted attention from above. Specifically that of a glowing white sphere floating towards the spot where the loud noise had come from.

[Jodie]

Serah said "It's just that it seems important" then asked "uh, so what is that 'all' thing?"

(In the field)

One of the herd members squeaked as one of the Hook headed lizerds started to climb up it and tried to shake it off, Foresta and the others tried to stay out of the hook headed lizerds way.

One of the other young members of the herd, slightly younger than Buzz watched the hook headed lizerds curiousley, then decided to test her telepathy and asked one of them ~Where are you going?, what are you?, why did you attack the leader?~

[Swix]

((I know, I know, I'm bumping an old thread. But tbh one single post after this could end it on a good or bad note easily and it seems a shame to just let it sit here tnfinished when it's this close to ending properly ))

(Serah)

The lizard bird that had taken the growth off Serah tilted it's head first one way, then the other, before it anrwesed.
"It is important. It is the All.
It is us. It is our Great Tree" it still seemed a bit confused though, so repeated "why would you want to heal the All?" then added "why would you want to help us?"

<hr />

The hook headed lizards that had clambered up one young herd member stabbed the creature with their natural weapons in order not to be shaken off, but they never burrowed. As soon as he was done shaking they slid to the floor and continued their trek back the way they had come.

The one who had decided to test their telepathy would find words in the Common tongue sent back in a myriad of different but combined voicer.

~We are going back to protect the All and the Red Trees from the White One and any living thing that wishes harm~ they answered, with accompanying pictures ~We are the Red Trees Children. We attacked your Leader because we believed him to be a threat and we need bodies to defend against threats~. They made no apologies and shared no sympathy whatsover for their actims.

[Swix]

Epilogue:

After their rampage that left destruction and bloody messes but no bodies to speak of the reanimated Monstrosity's eventually retreated back to the Red Trees. Only one survivor would know what happened, that was Serah, because she was the only one from this world that had come across the very thing that could have stopped this. The growth they carried around with them that was so precious held even more importance than it's tiny, disgusting appearance might have one believe. In showing them kindness rather than destroying what they called their 'All', the swarm had to rethink their impression of living beings and instead of continuing their rampage to destroy, went back home. Back to the Red Trees Grove, where the only two remaining survivors of the three alien races remained, warning people away from harming the sapient foliage let they cause another outbreak. The Monstrosity's and the blind lizards themselves were never seen again after that, not by anyone alive anyway. The Red Trees Grove became something of a rumoured to be haunted place, one where shapes and eyes watched you from behind the grey alien trunks if you were smart enough not to go in, and heed the blue insectoid that called herself 'Teacher's advice to stay away. But nothing solid ever revealed itself to anyone again... or maybe it did, if they were foolish enough to go in.

As for The Artificers, their own swathe of destruction left corpses everywhere, both the reanimated and the living, until numbers had seriously thinned on both sides. It's highly likely this also contributed to the Monstrosity's retreat, because most of their number had fallen to the relentless machines blades even as the dead fought back to overwhelm them. Hoiwever, what remained of these also disappeared. This time though there was noone to say where they went, or how, or if they'd turn back up again at some point, perhaps renewed, but this bloody piece of history had finally come to an end.

In the areas where the most energy had been spent fighting these creatures roamed a lone white wolf, glowing ethereally, and grinning lupinely at the results of his particular handiwork. He'd had to use up some of his precious antimatter to stop the spread of the machine virus from engulfing this world, but it was worth the loss of that victory to see the results of this one. Lykaios hadn't had this much fun in a long time.

((And done. Hopefully I've covered everything XD))

((EDIT: I've forgotten something XD))

CP the Goo was last seen inside the Red Trees Grove, sitting on a branch. It's possible he left and simply went back to Kata, or maybe, just maybe, he's still there, learning from the aliens.