The whistle did not return to everyone, instead a pattern began to emerge, and Roric Roric Halvek lasted six days after the incident, missing from the crowd.
The Defense Force marked him as a survivor and placed him under observation in a mid-hive medicae ward. He was ordered to have a full scan performed on him, while also enduring questioning from the Defence forces.
"Residual othersea exposure," one medicae said.
"Trace readings only," another replied.
"Vitals are holding within guild spec."Roric sat on the edge of a metal cot, staring at his hands, which still moved sometimes.
His mind and body were at odds with each other, his body hopping to return to normalcy to abate the terror. While his mind could not forget what he had seen…and felt.
The questioning stopped after 7 days, and by the 8th day, he heard something, something he did not want to admit outloud. Then he asked a question that brought a shiver down his spine
"Do you hear it?" he asked a medicae attendant.
"Only the recyclers, Halvek now sit down."
"The patterns... they're converging"
"There's nothing" with a frown the attendant answered
"The alignment... it's almost perfect," Roric continued, smiling faintly
"Just a few more atmospheres of pressure"Across the ward, three other patients began speaking at the same time.
The same words spoken by all of them, it caused the Defense Forces to order the wing sealed within minutes. There was no hesitation, a containment Squad came to Theta-9 and entered in full gear.
They had learned from the experience, there was to be no exposed skin, no direct eye contact with the anomalies, no hesitation when symptoms escalated
Inside, the ward was quiet.
"Status on the thermals?" the squad leader barked
"Multiple heat signatures," came the reply
"Clustered."
"Pinpoint the origins" A pause followed
"…Not stable." They decided to advance anyway.
When they got in the first body was at the far end of the room a medicae attendant and she could be called alive, on a technicality.
Her limbs were folded inward, joints reversed, spine bent at angles that should not be possible, but she was breathing.
"Closer," she whispered as her chest rhythmically rose and fell.
"Burn it," the leader ordered refusing further interaction with the monstrosity.
Promethium washed over her as her face cracked a smile and she asked again
"Closer."
Then the room changed in a second distance became a malleable concept, what had been ten meters became a corridor of unknowable length. The far wall receded, pulling away into a perspective not seen by the human eye.
"Fall back!" someone shouted.
One trooper took a step and never finished it, like the stories of a black hole his body elongated mid-motion, spaghettified as it stretched across the expanding space. His scream warped with him, pitch rising until it vanished entirely.
"Lock boots! Stabilizers on" the leader barked to his men
Mag-locks on their boots were engaged anchoring them to the floor, but it was all for naught.
"Focus on fixed points!" the Witch attached to the unit shouted, forcing his voice through the distortion
"Ignore depth, only trust instrumentation!"
This did not work as 2 more troops were pulled into the hole. That was when the second anomaly revealed itself, Roric Halvek who now stood at the center of the ward, remained steady even in the chaos, unharmed by anything.
He wasn't quite there his body flickered as it overlapped in on itself with slight offsets, like multiple versions failing to align. His eyes opened with his eyeballs pushing to exit their sockets.
"It's almost right," he said again.
The squad opened fire with no delay or hesitation, sending out mass reactive rounds that tore into his chest. He behaved like he did not see them, the rounds slowed as they closed in on him, like moving through a thick gell
The Witch shouted something as his words were drowned in pressure. Reality was beginning to shift around them, but for some reason came back into the fray.
The bullets all at one completed their trajectory as they impacted on Roric's body. Which was then torn apart by the impact, they believed it was over when…
The pieces began to crawl back to his body, in an eerie manner. Flesh dragged back to the body by muscle fibers. Bones attaching to flesh moving along for the ride, and his blood seeping back into him like a friend that had found its home once more.
"Full saturation! Burn the air itself!" the leader ordered.
"Execute!" Flame engulfed the entire ward, this time they were determined to burn everything to the ground at once.
A distorted scream echoed out of the walls, as it wriggled to break free from the flames. Twisting and mending as it expanded one more.
For a few seconds the troopers held their breaths, hoping this would do the job for them. Then everything snapped back into normalcy, as the heat radiated across the room.
"Containment successful," the leader said as his voice cracked slightly.
Above the hive, a report was filed to the guild senior and controllers. The guilds defence forces hoped for an explanation and immediate resolution of the situation, but…
Before they could get their answer, another incident occurred. Forcing the defence forces to expand their operation range and quarantine estimates.
Jorren Nox walked through a different sector that same time. Aiming for the upper-mid hive, planning to attain some information to complete his current objective.
'It is spreading, Tzeentch, you will not stop me from my goal'
This place did not have the heavy air of the lower Hive sectors. It is clean, quiet, and a sense of order prevailed in this place. But the infection has already spread to this place, he could feel it in the very fabric of the level.
He could feel it in the people, and that aura is not mistakable by him. He had lived with it for 10 years, now he has spread this accursed thing into this world.
As he brushed past a man who suddenly turned towards him. Their eyes met for a fraction of a second, saw him, yet didn't. It felt like he had seen a ghost or a hallucination. In these times is there really a difference…
"W-what…was that"Jorren kept walking.
But behind him, the man began to laugh, Jorren understood it at once.
He had fallen
His purge had redistributed the corruption throughout the, and his former work duty location seemed to have been the first to be affected. He had not initiated a purge at the manifactorum, so where could it have started from.
He remembered most of the people working in the same area as he was, lived in the same area as well.
'What of my parents' he mused
He needed to leave this planet soon, he cannot be bogged down by this any longer.
"Sheckly melovinasus…velanadri" he whispered as the area around him shimmered.
No one could see or even catch a glimpse of him anymore. He arrived at his destination, the magistrate's quarters, inside he was mid-conversation when Jorren stepped through the door.
Prompting him to stop and asked with a frown."Identify yourself, by the guilds, how did you get in?"
Jorren reached out with his mind and touched the magistrate. He opened the man's mind and looked through his life like one would a book placed on a table.
Trade routes, off-world contracts hidden from the rest of the guild, hidden docking schedules, and restricted ship registries. Jorren took them from him as the man collapsed to the floor unbothered by his death.
Turning to leave the room, as the man's last breath was about to leave him, Jorren heard him say the words…
'The Endeavour'
His ship that he had hid on the far side of the planet's moon in case of an emergency escape was needed. Jorren already had the coordinates and the call signals, but was missing the vox-transmission relay hub, which was not with him.
Meanwhile deep below in the under hive. A man has his body constantly shifting between real and ghost. Besides him a woman, her skin already blue, with scales running along her arms and legs.
The man's face kept cycling between what looked like Jorren, Roric and many other faces. A drop of blood kept seeping out of the ground, flowing into him slowly.
His hands changed into the claws of a bird, then returned to those of a human. He grabbed the woman just as his hands turned into claws once more tearing her throat.
Blood gushed out of her as he bathed in it. A satisfying smile plastered across his face.
"Why dId You noT reTuRn, we haVe dOnE NoThiNg WroNg" his voice scratched out in a very high pitched scream.