The Dragon at the Edge of Dawn (Warhammer 40000 Tyranid Isekai) by The-Black-Aengel-Mrk7
A Tyrannid SI which is also Wise to boot unlike most sı's ohhh the horror Imperium will experience serves the biggots right in my opinion
Words: 20k+
Link: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-dragon-at-the-edge-of-dawn-warhammer-40000-tyranid-isekai.1096712/
(To consume. To evolve. To endure. To survive.
Such is the sole reason for their existence, for they needed none more. What is to ponder higher cognition and the toils of morality and philosophy for a mind that has no need for such trivial things? All that the Great Devourer needs is to feed. To evolve. To grow. To propagate. To endure.
It is nothing more than an animal seeking its next prey. And in that it is a perfect being without doubt or uncertainty.
But what if it is given to partake in the forbidden act of consuming the Fruit of Wisdom?
What wonders could the Great Devourer create, if it sought more than its next meal? What horrors could it instil, when malice lies in its heart?
These are the tales of the Galaxy. Where Gods played their games... Empires raged into Oblivion... and Mankind ceased to be forevermore.)
Nigredo I: Waking from Dreams
Nigredo I
Waking from Dreams
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Darkness…
Cold…
Nothing…
It is all I feel…
It is all I know…
There is only dark…
And pain… distant memories… of pain.
Old pains…
Old aches…
I am cold…
So cold…
So hungry…
So… tired…
Sleep…
Sleep…
Sleep…
.
.
.
Light…
Far away…
Warmth…
I stir… slowly for a slumber the passage of time I could not wager… no… instincts… insticts told me…
Centuries…
.
.
.
What?
I began to stir closer to the waking world…
I still felt cold…
I still lingered in darkness…
I was still… so… very hungry…
But I felt… less… hungry…
My… eyes…? How many? Six? Twenty? Eighty?!
A full three hundred and sixty degree panoramic view of everything manifested at the forefront of my senses, filled with darkness punctuated by dots of white… no… not dots… stars…
Distant stars placed upon the tapestry of the void.
All except one… one closer… one so close that I could see… just see enough… just see enough of me…
Wide spaced tendrils -feeling the motion of distant great bodies- … long black sinuous membranes spread out wide -to gain as much sunlight as possible- into the void… black chitinous plates covering a vast body whose bulk I knew was beyond my awareness' capacity of discern.
Huge…
Black…
Inhuman…
A heavy click echoed across my body. A beak and set of mandibles moving within a sealed casing. Its tremors triggering something resembling auditory sensors within my body.
There was no air… there was only void…
There was no light… just a distant star…
There was no sound… only the trembling cracks of my body's motions…
There was no familiarity… only alien flesh…
Different…
Other…
Unknown…
Situation uncertain…
Uncertainty…
Distress…
Fear…
Panic…
The worst part of being alone in the void is that none can hear you scream.
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Tired… tired… tired… sleep… tired…
So tired…
Want to sleep…
Used up… all energy…
Used up… tired…
Maybe some more sun bathing…
Maybe its just enough…
Maybe…
I...
Should…
Just…
Sleep…
For a bit…
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My eyes stare into the distant light of this system's star… Its far. Very far… but I believe I am well held within its gravitational well. I am now a part of this system… All seven planets of it. Yes… I have come to discover that I can perceive gravity waves, and through extrapolation and instinct… and the focused attention to changes in ambient light… I was able to discern that there had to be seven planets in this system. Five rocky worlds and two gas giants.
Mayhaps there are other planets, but may be too small for my senses to pick up as of yet.
My tendrils provide me information that I, as a human, would not be able to process otherwise. Subtle senses. The very organs that dot my body are strange in so many ways and yet… I have a deep sense of understanding how each and every one of them works… If I think hard enough, every part of me becomes as easy to read as a book. Each and every one of them is a marble of engineering, abusing every trick in biology to achieve things that would otherwise demand the cold directed certainty of technology.
But I cannot do this for long.
Higher though costs energy. Even as the vast majority of my dermis is filled with photosynthetic cells of a pigment similar in its light absorbing properties as meta-black, the distance from to the star just makes the amount of energy absorbed from it be non viable for prolonged activity.
I can only remain cognizant for a few hours at a time, punctuated by long periods of hibernation that my internal clocks have estimated to be months…
Months of sleep, only to be awake for mere brief moments…
This… cannot do…
I... need to rectify this…
I need more energy… I need to feed.
My mind… slow to find a solution but eager crawled through the vastness of my own bodily senses. Looking for something.
If I was a creature of the void… made to live in it… to thrive in it… then I wouldn't be something as pathetic as void benthic organism… not when my mind can reach these heights of thought… not when my body looks like this…
Instincts in me knew this…
Claws and chitin knew this. This was not a sessile form to be anchored in the void and ruled by the whims of the galaxy's gravitational currents.
This… was mobile…
It had its own direction and could will motion.
And the answer… eventually came.
If I were in atmosphere… -could I even survive in one?- there would have been a loud hiss emerging from my form.
Streams of gas, expelled with subtle pressure from chambers all over my back began to burst. Releasing their contents into the void and using Newton's decree to propagate forth into the direction of the star whose light is my only source of nourishment.
Its subtle at first. I can barely perceive the changes. But eventually, it starts adding up. A gradual acceleration that continues on until the propulsion chambers empty themselves of what little content they had at the time.
Its slow… its very little…
But gradually, as I begin to drift back into sleep, I instinctively knew that I was drifting in orbit towards the star. To brighter light… Soon…
My eyes closed… into sleepless night.
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As I awoke once more from my slumber… I reminisced on the years that have passed.
Years…
The thought made me chuckle… if I physically could. Instead I sufficed with a brief moment of amusement.
Altogether… it may not have been more than a few weeks of waking time… yet I am aware that a long time has passed.
A long… long time.
And while it may not be much… I have been keeping track of my body's reserves and how rapidly they refill under the sun's light. Its not by much, but the gradual difference is enough to have me awake for longer time periods.
I deliberated some cycles ago how long it would take me before I could reach a distance from the star that it's shine may feed me sufficiently to persist in lucidity for prolongued periods of time.
Sixty years most likely.
My path did not lead me into the way of the gravity fields of the system's planets, which I could have used to catapult my movement further as my approach came from the system's north and there were no large astronomical bodies in my way. All I had as propulsion was the biochemical fuel I had and it was on dangerously low amounts.
I had deigned it unwise to spend what little of it remained for acceleration. My angle of approach would ensure that eventually I would reach the system. If I did not speed past it and back out into the void of space.
Which would be problematic, but I have time for adjustments before then. If I try it… I may be able to fly close to one of the gas giants and use their gravity to position myself in a more favourable orbit.
It remains to be seen however.
There have been other… unsettling developments as of late.
As my time awake grows longer… so do previously unknown senses of mine start to come awake as well….
Senses I did not know I had. Impressions that had been gnawing at my insides. A sense of dread growing.
I did not know how I knew… I do not grasp all that I am now… but instincts deep within me… chittering calls and vague images of fire and claws… for some reason I knew… that four of the planets of the system… they were transmitting radio waves.
Like a buzz at the edge of my eyes. Repeating and continuous. Rhythmic and encoded.
Planets did not do that.
Only technology.
A sign of civilization…
A sign of life…
.
.
.
Why do I feel a gnawing at my entrails all of the sudden?
.
.
.
I should rest.
My energy reserves are running low and soon I will be forced into slumber.
Better do so now and rest up, save what calories you produced for the next waking cycle.
Rest… think not of things for now. Not when you can't affect them.
I closed my eyes and dulled my senses. Wings still spread out and consuming as much light as they could as I drifted away into the dark.
I dreamed of chitin and jaws…
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The longer I am awake, the worse it becomes.
It is a feeling of dread and hunger. Mixed together with vague images of pain and fire and blood and claws.
There isn't just a dreading hunger in my pit. There are calls.
Of gnashing and biting teeth. Of hissing and chirping roars that do not cease their dying wail, but only grow louder and more defiant.
My mind is fogged with screaming instincts and memories of pain. Pain that I cannot conceptualize. Pain that I cannot recognize yet know it was.
Ever since I began to hear the signs of civilization, the call… the urge… the need to feed just kept growing.
Growing…
Life…
Biomass…
Energy…
Evolve…
Survive…
Endure…
There are the things that were racking up my mind into a churning quagmire of anguish. Where no state of balance could be achieved when all directions were being pulled at by instincts so deep and ingrained that they were anathema to the very notion of though.
There were… there were big black things… shells of metal and fire…
-They hurt me-
There was death…
-They attacked me-
And pain…
-They killed me-
So much pain…
-They hurt us…-
Losing pieces…
-Fleet… decimated…-
Losing members…
-Hive… broken…-
Losing brood…
-Cannot adapt…-
Losing link…
-Cannot stifle...-
Claws chitin biting crying breaking bleeding roaring pain pain painpainPAIN!
Adapt adapt... survive! Survive! Survive! Consume! Devour! Grow! Evolve! Adapt! Spread! Survive! Survive! Endure!
The fog of my mind parted.
And with it came horrid agony.
Of repressed memories… of shunned instincts… of ancient lore of biology and alchemy and the mind…
And how we all died…
Had it been on a world with air, the sound would have shattered concrete.
The silent roar in the void. The cursing scream of a newfound perspective. The agony of returning to be whole and not the same. To wake up from a dream only to realize that the nightmare was what awaited in the real world. All I could do was roar in horror as I saw the very secrets of the flesh unravel between the synapses of my mind and the soul echo of my being reeling back from the legacy I have inherited.
Hive Mind!
Tyranid!
The Great Devourer!
All I could do was scream until the storm passed, squirming in anguish. Until I was too tired to continue burning. Until I was too tired to think. Until slumber came calling once more…
And with my defeat… I dreamed once more… I dreamed of cruel laughing gods
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To be continued…
Spoiler: In the Void no one can hear you Scream