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Flood before the Storm

By: Lapsa

Warning: Flood (Halo), Gore, body horror

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" Kristen's attention was pulled away from the view outside the lift briefly, attention turning from the ancient forerunner ruins to the figure at her side.

"Oh, yes! Sorry, it's just...still hard to believe they picked me to explore another one of these." She turned her gaze out the window once more. "I would've never dreamed that one day I'd be sifting through the ruins of a civilization more advanced than the one I lived in."

"Yeah, I know that feeling." The scientist chuckled as the room rocked, the lift beginning its approach to the structure. "I'm just glad I'm not going to be stuffed into a lab right away."

"I couldn't imagine." Kristen chuckled as she turned. "Being so close to something so incredible, but not even being able to see it."

"I'm Doctor Shimizu, by the way. Part of the bio-team." The man extended a hand.

"You can just call me Kristen, I'm an archeologist...or I guess a xeno-archeologist in this case."

"Alright everyone, remember to stick with the group." One of the other marines sent with them spoke as the lift came to a halt, the door opening with a soft clank as the warmth of the small room was sucked out into the cool stagnant depths of the Forerunner installation.

***

The team would file out into the installation, trailing behind their well-armed escort as they made their way to one of the rooms marked for study. All the while Kristen's eyes would be darting around with amazement, taking in each detail she could of the ancient structure as her mind wandered about the purpose and sheer advancement of it. It wouldn't be until the group stopped moving that her attention would once again move forward, focusing in on the front of the group as they stood in front of a closed door.

"That's odd...the installation must have some automated processes; this door was open when we sent the recon team through." One of the soldiers looked cautiously around the frame. "I think I can get it open again, shouldn't be more than a few seconds."

Kristen watched as marine darted forward to the door, the display showing various glyphs and symbols as they attached their own equipment to interface. She wouldn't be able to shake one in particular out of her mind though as the rest of the team turned their attention to the door when it finally opened - the last glyph still displayed seeming so familiar to the vixen.

"Sir! I recognize this symbol...it's a warning." Kristen's eyes widened as the realization hit her, gaze moving up from the computer screen to see the rest of the team already well inside the room, now looking around with concern as faint skittering clinked through the ducts above.

"Something's wrong - what is that noise?"

"There! What is that thing!" several large spidery creatures seemed to rain from the ceiling onto the group as bullets started to rip through the room - each creature that burst into a mist of green replaced by ten more.

The vixen would be frozen in place as she watched with horror as the strange entities swarmed the team, lurching forward onto them before burrowing into their chests - their bodies twisted and mangled within seconds by some strange process before they turned on the rest of the team - scientists and soldiers now scrambling and scattering towards the door where she was.

"O-oh fuck!" Kristen broke out of her trance just in time to dodge one of the large creatures as it launched itself forward toward her, barely missing as it darted towards one of the other scientists - pinning him as his screams turned into pained gurgles.

She'd break her gaze away as he started to turn, attention barely drawn to a beeping getting closer as one of the turned soldiers lunged forward. She'd notice the source all too late amid the chaos - a flashing light from a bomb - as a sudden burst knocked her back through the air - body smacking against the side of the room as a ringing filled her ears. She'd find her vision fading as she hit the ground, the last few sensations passing through her mind being a gentle pressure wrapping around her leg, tugging her as the world went black.

***

"W-where am I? W-h-how did I?" The vixen's heart began to race again as she came to in another part of the lab, eyes adjusted to the dim light. Her body would sit suspended, limbs uselessly pulling and tugging against slimy tendrils that seemed to tighten as they sensed a return of her consciousness - more joining to hold her steady, slithering around her neck to force her eyes forward.

"I have spared you to give you a choice...a chance to save yourself and save your species...to allow them the chance to join my unity." She could see a mass before her move with each word, though the voice spoke in her mind - booming inside of her ears as her vision seemed to quake with its force. "You are aware of the coordinates of your planet..."

"N-never!" Kristen growled the words between gasps for air, brushing off the fear as the tendrils tightened even more around her neck.

"Your defiance only prolongs your defeat..." More tendrils came from the mass before the vixen, wrapping around her legs as they were pulled apart. "Letting you free...would merely be a courtesy."

The malformed mouth would unhinge, almost turning itself inside out as a spurt of green coughed onto the floor in front of it, a smaller mass oozing out into a large puddle. It would quickly form itself into an infector form - smaller than normal as tendrils lifted it up, its feelers scanning the air before pointing themselves towards the suspended vixen, now lowered and presented to it.

"N-no!" She'd let out a scream as the mass tore through her clothes with its tendrils, pushing its soft slimy body between her legs as it wormed into her passage - burrowing its way into her womb before stopping. She'd feel its tendrils dig into her after that, wrapping around her spine as her distended stomach bulged and stirred with each of its movements.

It wouldn't be but seconds after that the changes began to take effect, body shuddering and twitching as bones snapped and reformed, skin bursting and shifting. The sensory stalks from the infector form deep inside her forcing themselves through her stomach in a burst of green, flesh reforming around them to barely show the small 'face' of the creature just above her belly button. She could just barely stand the pain enough to keep from passing out, shutting her eyes as tightly as she could to try to distract her mind - the sensations more than enough to let her know exactly what was happening.

"Your form will serve us." Her right arm would shoot with pain before splitting, reshaped into an inhuman claw as each bit of pain was forced into the front of her mind - amplified by the dominating presence of the abomination that had hold of her. "Body and mind molded into perfection."

"Your planet...show me where your home resides." The voice boomed as the last few changes took hold, muscles bulging and twitching as she felt the tendrils slither over her thoughts - sifting through her memories as each one flashed before her eyes.

She'd desperately try to fight against it, forcing herself to think on anything she could, any irrelevant piece of information - any fleeting thought to halt the twisted entity shambling through her mind. It would take everything she had just to focus, every bit of will left within her to power through the pain and the domineering ancient will.

"I-Y-you can't--" She'd let out a few grunts as she kept fighting within her mind, the tendril around her neck growing even tighter still until she could feel it worming up the back of her neck.

"I told you, your defiance only prolongs your defeat...and your suffering." Her eyes would shoot open and widen as the tendril around her neck pushed into the back of her neck, smaller feelers pushing into her brain as the entire tentacle began to pulse, memories placed again in vivid detail - this time leaving the vixen completely helpless to do anything but let them play before her glassy eyes.

She'd be forced to relive memories at random, the strongest first as they played out - each second passing making more of the vivid details fade. Memories of birthdays and friends slowly consumed as even her thoughts were corrupted and erased, the flood's horrific twisted form replacing that of each person one by one as their names were slowly stolen from her.

"N-no! Y-you can't...I w-won't give in!"

"They will all be part of us soon." The voice mocked the vixen as she felt tugs of loss ripple through her twisted chest, the names melting from her mind as more memories flashed forward only to be forgotten.

"M-My name is Kristen Reid. I'm a-an archeologist for the UNSC." The vixen began to try to distract herself again, mounting one final push against the creature's grip on her mind with everything she had - trying to focus on any memories strong enough to stave off the Flood's influence.

"Your identity is an illusion, your job as pointless as the history you seek to understand."

"My name is Kr-Kristen Reid. I-I'm an arch--" She'd yelp as She felt her body convulse with a strong shock of pain that shot up her spine. "I'm...I'm an archeologist for the UNSC."

"You think you can resist me? I am the culmination of aeons...you are nothing but a child shuffling through the dark." Another burst of pain would shoot through the vixen's spine as she saw the memories begin to flash one again, the most recent ones now as she watched as they were corrupted - details fading like before, images of herself being corrupted and twisted by the flood haunting her as scenario after scenario was forced to play in her head.

"M-my name is...K-Kristen...a-an arch...eologist. N-nnn--" She'd feel tears starting to run down her face, warm against her cold skin as more memories flooded into her mind only to be taken from her, twisted and forgotten - corrupted and thrown aside like the bodies of her co-workers.

"Forget..." The voiced echoed again through her mind.

"M-my name...is....I-I'm...a-an arche..." Her words trailed off as her mind struggled to find the information she sought. Her eyes would only just seconds after to look for clues, peering onto and unfamiliar body, what it used to look like or who it used to be completely gone from her mind as the greenish flesh shifted and stirred. "M-my...name..."

"What you were is no more, a shell without a purpose - without us, without unity." The creature spoke again in her mind as her eyes scanned over her body, massive furless breasts blocking most of her view as feelers were just barely visible past them - coming from her stomach as part of the infection form protruded from her now more lithe figure. "I have now what I need...and now I have you as well, a vessal with which to bring us all together."

"Submit and become one with me...become greater..." The voice boomed again, echoing through the vixen's empty mind. "Deliver your race to its apex."

"B-become one..." The words left her lips as the vixen's green slimy tongue slithered from her maw, feet now planted on the ground as the tendrils left her, setting her gently back onto the cold metallic floor. "Become greater, become one...I am unity...I am one"

***

"W-what is that thing!?"

"O-open fire! Quarantine Protocol Alpha!"

The doors of the elevator opened to reveal the now changed and unrecognizable form of the vixen, the soldiers that had just hours before seen her off now drawn aback by the twisted figure. They'd waste little time taking in all the mangled details before turning their guns on the entity, sirens blaring throughout the station as the sound of gunfire echoed through the halls. The vixen was unphased by each of the bullets that ripped through her flesh, every wound healing within seconds - a devious twisted grin growing across her face as she started to step forward.

"I-it's no us--" Tendrils burst from the creature's back as they grabbed ahold of the nearest marine, flinging him into the wall as she growled.

"W-what are you!?" The remaining soldier spoke in a shaky voice as he backed away from the lift, eyes darting between the body of his dead friend and the barely vulpine monstrosity standing before him.

"I am...the Queenmind." Kristen grinned as her wicked green eyes shot forward, the twisted mangled bodies of her former colleagues rushing past as a hail of bullets and screams filled the corridors of the station - the sounds dying out as the flood consumed all in their path - setting their sights next on Earth.

If you enjoyed yourself, and the story, considering donating to my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Kikikalani or my ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/lapsaheartlocke every little bit will really help me out and let me continue making content for you all to enjoy!