A Bloody Rose Story

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Day one of specimen arrival: 

The specimen seems to be doing while… despite the fact the mechanicus nuts are in a frenzy about the creature's condition… if I remember right the lords in charge of capturing this… thing or swarm lord as they call it… took heavy damage in the process… apparently, the angels got involved in its eventual capture… 

Of course, anything involving his angels is top secret but that won't stop me from recording this! This creature is fascinating! And exceedingly rare! Supposedly it was found in the heart of the Behemoth fleet… oh! Man, if only was I there! To think of the honor to witness such creatures being destroyed by his angels! It must have been a sight to behold but I digress… 

As the head of research, I take it upon myself to rename this Xeno to subject 13, and boy is this thing tall! It's got to be the size of an angel and a half or more! 

Day two of studying subject 13 

Hmm... though the angel removed two of its smoke chimneys, this subject 13 still seems capable of producing high levels of… well we don't have a name for it yet, but it's similar to smog, so, for the importance of recorded keeping I will just call it that... Yeah, smog… in any case after extensive study under its effect by 'willing participants' shows signs of corrosion and suffocation… also internal organ damage… interesting…. Now if only subject 13 would stop glaring at me… I mean we only removed parts of its skin… 

Day 3 

Today the mechanicus nuts wanted to study certain parts of subject 13 organs for reasons… when asked why. They said I was unauthorized to know! Sigh, I can't believe it! Even the head doc such as I, the one leading the scene, is not allowed to know! Blasphemous I tell you! Well… I should at least count my stars they allowed me a choice of what they could take from the creature… after all, I can't have the specimen die just yet… 

And thanks to this intrusion, I was gifted a small gleam into this 'swarm lord' as I believe it could perceive 'somewhat' the sound of the human tongue or the knowledge of… at least I think it can… poor dumb bugs…. Anyway, the reason for this theory is because of the creature's glare… It seems to know my routine by now and is always looking at me... I mean I know I'm great-looking and everything… but why bugs! Sigh…. 

Day 4 sudden power outage 

Sigh, it's already been four days, and I have yet to break this creature of all its secrets! Even with removing two of its arms the creature still seems determined to hide its secrets… well fine that's ok… Maybe another few hours in the acid bath will change its mind! this dam bug is too resilient! The bastard shells can tuff out Lasgun fire and traditional firearms! Hopefully, after the bath, we can remove a few of those layers! 

Sigh there those eyes again! I swear it's starting to get on my nerves maybe I should do that to it… 

A few hours later: 

Dam monster! How can he take such high voltage? Even its eyes exploded from the shock! And it's still glaring at me! How! Even with the lights out, I know it is! Hell, it's even smiling! Does this 'thing' not feel pain? No, it certainly does… I know because all the monitors tell me so... Yet it doesn't show signs… maybe it can turn off its pain? Or it could be as simple as high pain tolerance… well in any case I guess I'll start the next round of tests then! Oh! There it goes again... Testing the strength of the restraints! Stupid Xeno… 

Date unknown, year unknown 

Sigh, as much as I enjoyed my time with subject 13, I believe we have found out everything we could about this Xeno… shame really… even after exposing it to various poisons and diseases, even warp heresy, it still lives… though in a very haggard state... But as a man of science call me impressed… I mean… imagine if we could give our soldiers this resilience… but then again… that would be heresy to his majesty to even think of such a thing… 

Well, it doesn't matter, subject 13 has completed its usefulness to the imperium and now they have decided to grant the creature the emperor mercy… I, however, couldn't let that happen! How could we give it such a gift as the emperor's mercy? This dam thing has been trying to escape every day since it was brought here! Every day it tests our walls or restraints, hell it even tried playing dead a few times… sigh, lost a few good men that way… I mean I knew it was faking it, but you know… for science, we had to send people in… 

Watching subject 13 devouring them was something… the poor peasants that entered never saw it coming, as we turned off the light as soon as they entered, what! Don't look at me like that! We had to know how if this Xeno could still find them, even when blinded! Of course, subject 13 didn't fail on that part…. 

In the toxic smoke, the poor people... Didn't see in the shadows or between coughing the giant teeth that bit them… or the claws that tore them… even the servitors on the side that watched everything twitched at the scene… now that was odd… but I ignored it, as it was not my job to concern myself with such servants… 

I guess even lobotomized robots couldn't handle all the blood and guts spilling onto the viewing windows… the twitching lights didn't help either as the knight's machine we had on stand-by had to restrain subject 13… but it's because of a situation like these that I chose not to give subject 13 the emperor mercy… and instead chose to impression it at the very button… no light or food… to be tied down till it rots… 

I figured it would be a poetic end to such a Xeno race… I mean they loved devouring biomass, so, why not let it watch its own mass wither and die… to feel hungry till the end... And not allowed to rejoin with its hive… its biomass…. I couldn't think of anything better… 

→Excerpt by Doc…. audio record← 

With red and black and a tint of painted skulls of the emperor, Layla's armor felt heavy, while her sword burned blue with precious fire, there standing like a glowing shadow, the swarm lord, smelled her sweet scent mixed with psyker fire blood… with the words subject 13 etched on its red skin, with a metal plate. 

Smelling the rose, caused the lord to smile as he puffed black smoke from his back spiral columns… intoxicating and sulfurous the smoke covered what little light was left in the room. Layla looked at her guards in that internal darkness, and without words, they knew what to do. 

They waited with their Lasguns in hand over a fallen and bent-over computer table, with dead candles, and crushed servitor heads by their feet, the two men gulp down their fear as a bloody red blade aimed out of the smoke! 

[worry not! I will be your eyes] whispered Miss A as a ghost figure of herself wrapped around Layla's neck. 

Hearing these words, Layla responded through her helmet in a quiet voice: 

{for the emperor!} 

Knowing she didn't have the strength to block a blow from such a monster, or even the sight from such a smoke, Layla lowered her stance to parry it the best she could. With sparks and the sound of his bio bone hitting the metal floor, the swarm lord knew he had missed but felt the flow of Layla's sword! And with a twist of the hand, he turned his other free saber sword for a side slice! 

But seeing the sideswipe in the mirror of her sword caused Layla to forgo her counter move and instead choose to take advantage of her small height, to huddle closer to the big Xeno, to limit his strike. Though unable to stab the creature from this position, Layla chooses to put her hand on the swarm lord! 

And with sapphire eyes, sent the swarm lord ablaze! On fire, the swarm lord screamed as it stomped on the floor! With that stomp, the swarm lord felt the prick of red lasers hit what was left of his citrine skin armor! Fist-sized hole leaking blood and soft flesh, the maggots and parasites inside his body poured from his wounds! 

But those lasers and shots were like pellets to his body, he felt them but the feeling of pain had long since been stolen from subject 13! If anything, his ferocious stomp wasn't caused by pain, but anger! Berserk yet calm… subject 13 sniffed the air to catch a sniff of a sweet rosy smell… 

He chose to ignore the other smells in the room as they smelled like his own, for in his mind, he believed the ones shooting him was the rose… and with fire on his skin, and blood erupting from the puss in his mouth…he struck and slashed, but the little rose was quick on her feet! Dodging near death… where one mistake would cost her everything… 

With Miss A's guidance, the red blade would miss as close as a fine hair, and her blade would shine with each slice and stab with Xenos blood! With multiple lives of fighting and experience beyond eons of time, a weapon designed by the hive out of desperation…subject 13 knew his role well, but time and torture had eroded his mind… 

But still… with the strength of the hive on his back and the legacy thereof… how could he just lose… he fought psykers before, and has been in a position like this before… so why? Was he losing? How could none of his strikes hit? How could she dodge like time was slow? She didn't even smell like those giant humans… 

Yet… she was strong… a fact that made subject 13 smile as he thought about all the civilizations, he had conquered in another version of himself. But that was another time and another him, and so, with blood oozing between his teeth, subject 13 gripped his sword that carried his weight from the knees, and stood up, despite the fact the rose was constantly pricking him with her thorns…

with fire and blood, with smoke all-round the swarm lord roared mighty as he turned and tossed one sword towards the lasers, and another to right! As he sent his clawed tail to the left! 

The blade was quick and weightless in the air, and like a spinning axe… met its target! Oliver! With a gust of red and a pearl surface, the heavy sword split him in two! And breaching a hole in the wall surface, allowing the small rippers that hid inside to come greedily in! Panicking Dylan ran into the smoke, where a red sword came flying to his right! 

As life flashed between his eyes, a golden spear came from the darkness to diverge the sword just slightly enough… not knowing what happened and tripping to the floor, Dylan aimed his gun and took a shot! A shot that seemed slow to him, yet hit the swarm lord where his eyes once were, causing his tail to barely miss grabbing Layla as she went in for another strike! 

A strike that aimed at his spine! A spine unprotected by the lack of citrine armor, only rotten flesh as a shield! The mirror sword slid into his flesh with gentle softness as it severed his nerves! But a creature born of the hive to be at its pinnacle would not have such a weakness… 

With a quick turn to peel the rose off his back, he smelled her as she flew from the force! Hearing the slam through the walls and book shelves and smelling that sweet blood, subject 13 ran with vigor as he ripped the floor with each step! 

Dazed and disorientated, Layla looked up to a mad and starving monster! When a door opened! And fresh air drank the smog into the new cavity! There… a servitor dressed in fine gold, whose shoulders carried the burden of two angel babies, shot a plasma round of blue fire at the back of the swarm lord! 

Shattering bone and flesh and showering Xeno blood onto Layla! With a force so strong it knocked the swarmlord off its feet and into the ground! The ground became weak and soft from all the pressure! Collapsing it by the swarm lord's wight!

Falling back down, deeper into his prison, and at the bottom covered in metal pipes and sticks, with multiple broken bones, he did one last 'psyker' cry! That traveled through the pipes and weighed heavily on the vibrations to carry its call, all the way home!