Months passed and corruption has been found in more locations. The mystery behind these appearances was that there were only faint signs of spatial anomalies that could be detected and these were nowhere nearly strong enough to transport them into these far flung locations. Oceania is located near Earth but on another arm. Hive space is the central bulge around Sagittarius A. The new Corruption was found at spots near the galactic edge. The only reason they were found was due to reports from a station’s A.M.I. noticing an unusually mana signature on a rogue planet passing by. In response to this, the researchers at the quarantine zone used as many sensors as they could without straight up atomizing the Corruption. What they saw was hundreds of cocoons. They were covered in marks that shined like gems and after some realized that they were arranged into a kind of pattern.
They sent this data back to Earth to speed up research but before the data could go all the way there, they noticed one of the cocoons to move. Each movement caused it to light up more and more until it was releasing a blinding amount of light. The sound of broken glass and shockwaves blasted from the moving cocoon. As soon as the blast was released, the lights disappeared and the cocoon flattened on the floor, empty of its contents. This caused a massive panic through the entire quarantine zone and spread to all the higher ups. They spent months trying to track where the Corruption went but they never found it so they sent a small branch of the navy to be on a constant search for it.
Vegis was hanging out at the house while Mitra was getting Boreal from the daycare. Everything was silent except for the noise of a bird that started to nest nearby the home. It was calm and tranquil but something about this unnerved Vegis. Like something wasn’t quite right and something was nearby that wasn’t right. He checked room by room until he went into the basement and finally, went down the stairs of the plant room. Inside, there was a green colored ball. It was transparent and inside was a mass of flesh poorly wrapped around a humanoid skeleton made of metal. It was slamming its hands against the walls of its new prison. Vegis wondered where the energy for this force field was coming from so he focused on the thick roots that make up the room and tried to sense where it was coming from. His senses followed the energy all the way to just below the surface. There, energy was being pulled from everywhere through the mycelium that interwoven itself through the entire ground. The trees stored the biggest chunk of energy and the smaller but more flexible plants sucked in the free floating energy in the air that the rigid body of the trees had a harder time with. It seemed that the entire forest around the property transformed itself into a kind of energy siphon formation.
The mana radiating off of Vegis, Boreal, and Mitra must have caused a kind of sentience to be created from the connection of the mycelium. Vegis frowned at this since it confused him but he turned his attention to the flesh. “Is this a piece of Corruption” was one of many thoughts that passed through Vegis’s head as he got closer to the containment. Every step brought a wave of unexplainable disgust in his soul. Something intrinsic about this thing felt so wrong, unnatural, unwanted. It was like he was standing in the middle of a great forest that his home world was known for and seeing a broken machine wearing the flesh and skin of a deer. Soon, a mind shattering headache struck Vegis to his knees and nothing could stop the pain. Words start to be heard in the noise of pain.
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“r?????????????e?????????l?????????e????a?????????????s??????????e???????????????????????? ???????????????m??????????????????e????????????????????????.???????? ??????????????l????????????????e?????t???????????????????? ????????????????????m????e????????????? ???????????????????????????o???????????????????????u??????????t??????????? ???????????????????????????o??????????????????f???????????????????????????? ????????????????t?????????????????h?????????????????????????????i?????????????????????n???????????????????????????g???????????????????????? ??????????c???????????????????a?????????g???????????????????????????e???????????????? ????????????????????a?????????n?????????????d???????????????? ???????????????????????j?????o???????????????i????????????????n?????????????????????? ???????????????????????????m???????e???????????????????????????”
was the only thing Vegis could hear as it repeat over and over, overlapping, goi9ng faster and slower, but never getting louder. It was like a solid monotone voice that was trying to cave in his head with a spoon. He spent hours bent in the fetal position and holding his head until Mitra and Boreal came back. The very moment they stepped on the porch of the home, it stopped. Vegis’s mind cleared and he ran out of the basement while frantically trying to contact Drake.
He fought back the urge to throw up as he called Drake. Vegis told him that there was something in the basement and they needed a team there now to deal with it. A team of guards rushed to the home from all over the property and Drake ran to an EPV to rush over there. Vegis pointed to the basement and they headed down. They tried to go down the second staircase but were repelled by a kind of psychic pressure. The moment they touched the plant stairs, it felt as if the entire world was collapsing on them and they only got pulled out when another member managed to drag them out of the staircase. Drake was pulling all sorts of favors to get people to the home including some scientists who were at the quarantine zone to check this out. This forced the hand of the Elder nearby and they appeared personally at the home with a squad of their personal guard to check out what was happening. The entire property was put in quarantine with Vegis and the guards were put in a portable containment cell while Boreal and Mitra were kept at the Elder’s facility.
Over the course of three months, Drake was forced to tell the Elder about what was going on with Vegis, Mitra, and Boreal, the Elder spent a week in a semi-comatose state from the reveal, several groups from quarantine zone arrived and try to enter but fail, Vegis got checked up by the scientist since is the only individual to get up close to a living specimen of the Corruption, and much much more. It was a blur to Vegis since it was so much testing and sitting for him. What they managed to find out is that only Vegis, Boreal, and Mitra can enter the plant room, however, if Mitra and/or Boreal are not nearby, if Vegis gets too close to the specimen, he would get assaulted by its hive mind capabilities. Their home was now becoming a new lab and since Vegis and the others were vital for this site to function, they would be transferred to this place for now.
