Kharaa?
nooby
Join Date: 2003-04-21 Member: 15717Members
Join Date: 2003-04-21 Member: 15717Members
<div class="IPBDescription">A different slant on things.</div> A different slant on things.
A tendril of contact, a mere wisp of mental pressure, I alligned my receptors and pulsed a query. By way of acknowledgement my mind was expanded, and I was brought unto full awareness.
"Kharaa, that was what they called me, but wait what are these aliens thoughts and concepts". I settled down on my haunches, and rummaged roughly through my memories. "More alien ideas, science, gestation, tests and security". ["What is going on?"]
"Youngling, you are deserving of answers and knowledge, but only pain and suffering await you if you do not escape", along with a sense of dread came an overwhelming desire to be elsewhere.
Unbidden, a detailed way of escape entered my mind accompanied with a terror most profound. Instinctively my body responded to the urgent and relentless, uprising of primordial fear. Without conscious thought my body leapt from the table to the ceiling, and I ran full speed straight into the nearby vent.
I ran, trying to outdistance the darkness, the fear. I caroomed off vent walls, heedless of any injury, I had to escape. For an age I raced, the primitive instinct all conquering. The distance I covered was unknown, my panic supreme.
In my primal, chaotic desire to escape, I had not followed the implanted map. The voice tried to quell my dash of insanity, to no avail. I continued my flight, terror building on fear. I had reached the edge of reason.
Darkness.
A tendril of contact, a mere wisp of mental pressure, I alligned my receptors and pulsed a query. By way of acknowledgement my mind was expanded, and I was brought unto full awareness.
"Kharaa, that was what they called me, but wait what are these aliens thoughts and concepts". I settled down on my haunches, and rummaged roughly through my memories. "More alien ideas, science, gestation, tests and security". ["What is going on?"]
"Youngling, you are deserving of answers and knowledge, but only pain and suffering await you if you do not escape", along with a sense of dread came an overwhelming desire to be elsewhere.
Unbidden, a detailed way of escape entered my mind accompanied with a terror most profound. Instinctively my body responded to the urgent and relentless, uprising of primordial fear. Without conscious thought my body leapt from the table to the ceiling, and I ran full speed straight into the nearby vent.
I ran, trying to outdistance the darkness, the fear. I caroomed off vent walls, heedless of any injury, I had to escape. For an age I raced, the primitive instinct all conquering. The distance I covered was unknown, my panic supreme.
In my primal, chaotic desire to escape, I had not followed the implanted map. The voice tried to quell my dash of insanity, to no avail. I continued my flight, terror building on fear. I had reached the edge of reason.
Darkness.
Comments
Now, for the simpler homosap|4ns, explain what happened?
Awareness, pain so vast.
Darkness.
Awareness, pain, a soothing caress.
Darkness.
Awareness, lesser pain, a soothing caress, remembrance.
Darkness.
Awareness, lessened pain, a soothing caress, remembrance, shame.
Darkness.
Awareness, no pain, a soothing caress, remembrance, shame, guilt.
Darkness.
Awareness, no pain, a soothing caress, remembrance, shame, guilt, a gentle {guilty] voice of calm, the voice full of guilt yet calming, soothing, I realized that I was seeing my surroundings with senses vaster than my own. I was nowhere my short lifespan could account for.
I gained my feet albeit a little unsteady.The remembered voice asked my forgiveness, the pain and suffering it had caused me, a barrier between us, by imparting its own memories of pain, suffering, torture and death, I had been pushed beyond the capacity of a newly awakened mind into madness.
I replied it was but a remembered dream. The voice slowly integrated all that had occurred, included the awakening of my mind and its subsequent descent into madness. The shame and guilt the voice imparted was the final balm of healing needed. Upon full integration I was released from the mental embrace to begin anew
The colours, odours, shapes, perspectives, sounds and dimensions were/are wrong, panic, confusion, fear, 'FEAR' I'm a Kharaa how can I FEEL fear, I'm a peon/drone, primordial instincts start to surge, the urge to flee is rising, ......... a caress and a soothing voice with a haunting melody that sends signals of warmth, caring and safety. A dimming of instincts, a lessening of flight or flee, a realisation, I'm Kharaa I know not these things.
A feeling of awe, of smallness, I'm witness to another beings memories, how can this be? The voice, less caressing but still with warmth begins the tale with hints to show me the way. Hints to the memories I need to better understand this phenomena. Slowly, patiently, the voice whispers the secrets that lead me to begin my new life.
"Beware the trap of complacency", echoes constantly in my mind.
I sift and dvelve deep into memory, while in the distance the voice sends encouragement. "Live, feel, analyse, store, relate, experience and remember. Live, feel, analyse, store, relate, experience and remember". A litany of words and feelings all delivered with a caress.
"All the past can be yours as well youngling, you have but to look and yours it shall be, it is by no means yet complete, live the memories, be the memories, sift and learn the memories, but be one with the memories and then we will talk", the voice began to withdraw, a sensation of loss, betrayal, FEAR and aloneness washed over me and the urge to flee was again stalking me. I was being abandoned again, I was of no value. I would be held and comforted if I was of worth, would not this be so, I looked to memory and FEAR haunted me again.
The soothing voice came again, "Be still, youngling, there is nothing to fear here, you are well protected and loved, a soothing caress and that haunting melody. I was advised to relax, to continue to sift and dvelve into the memories. After an unknown time, I began to
perceive a difference in my surroundings, I stopped plumbing my mind and looked at the green that surrounded me, it was both alien and familiar on many levels.
I allowed my mind to roam free and to make associations without my control. Facts?, figures?, data? and sensations? began to join then split to reform into different patterns, I was curious as to this new way of thinking, so watched without trying to force control over the process.I made slow progress, becoming aware that I was KHARAA but more, with new found memories and knowledge.
I KNEW I WAS DIFFERENT, the same, yet, DIFFERENT. I became more aware.
I slowly raised my head to look at my surroundings and the creatures which ranged from my present shape (skulk?), to a vast quadruped (Onos?). The knowledge was slowly being integrated into my mind. The voice gently caressed my mind, as it imparted more knowledge and helped soothe any hurts that remained.
I was told that all the creatures before me were my hive tribe. With this knowledge a trigger was tripped, I had to gestate. The shadowy shape blossomed before me and the urge to grow filled me with an urgency that would not be denied. I raced the wall to the ceiling and tethered myself. Two pairs of skulks took a hind leg each and slowly stretched them to the other tether points as I expanded.
They held to their spots until I was fully able to support myself. Two gorges? hastened my growth by applying healing spores. In moments I was grown complete. My mental capacity increased with the change, the ability to integrate and connect information, data etc also increased. The advances in my mind were truly so vast, that shortly I was familiar with all information it held. The problem now was to understand it all.
The voice asked if I was ready for the full knowledge of our race. Answering yes, I received a copy of OUR vast history and racial memory.
The Mother MInd told me to integrate, catalogue and store this knowledge. She showed me I was safe, well defended and had the time to become fully functional. I spent the next couple of rotations becoming. Integration was slow with constant links being forged within my vastly larger mind, knowlegde rising from the depths to triggered further corelations, I was Kharaa but I was also Dr. Cheq Oute, at least his memories, included were records from libraries? I was also millions of Kharaa memories.
I saw within the depths, links, the evolution of our race, memories, and with the memories ---- wait what is this? a dark and foreboding mass was waiting inside my mind, new waves of FEAR and MALICE? were awaiting me. The voice was with me in an instant.
"Calm yourself little one, these are memories which you put lockdown on until you are capable of facing them, one technique is to think of a room and place them inside , close the door and they stay until you're ready", said Hive Mother (Mother Mind).
With soothing rythyms and THAT haunting melody I began to build my cave. A cave with a door that could not be opened without focused energy. I had Hive Mother watching as I built checking for flaws, upon finding a flaw I unmade then rebuilt the cave. Each repetition was better than the last.
I finished my cave and built the door. It was well made, the result of many rebuilds, no flaws were detected by Hive Mother nor myself. I placed my dangerous memories inside and locked the door with a phrase using the haunting melody as the key. No stray thought would accidently open these memories. Until I was ready they were safe but more importantly I was safe. I checked and a thought came, money in the bank, "money", "bank" what a weird word.
I let these alien concepts slide I had a tribe to evolve and security to attend to. I evolved two more gorge with instructions to build bundles of OCs and behind them DCs. I was aware that res were not a problem, this intrigued me. I KNEW from memory that res were to be actively sought and battles would be desperately fought around them. I evolved five fades and onos for defending the access ways.
I evolved twelve lerks for mobile hit and run tactics, I searched my memories for an appropiate word, guerilla warfare sprang to mind. I gave myself fifteen minutes to quickly contemplate this new word then put it on hold. Thirty skulks I evolved. All were placed in squads, another alien concept. This concept held my fancy. I made my squad 1 into ten skulks, 2 fades, two lerks and 2 onos. The next two squads were made equal then sent to patrol differernt areas.
I made the 6 lerks into a roving warband. That left 3 gorge, 1 skulk, 1 lerk, 1 fade and an onos for hive defence. I gave all my tribe a limited awareness for greater decision making abilities. I set them loose on this place. The limited awareness had the increased advantage for my tribe, they learnt the passageways, nooks and hidey holes more rapidly.
I evolved another squad for protection so I could delve inside myself for knowledge. The gorges I increased to twenty and taught them the train, I sent them capping res towers then seeding protection for the newly built res towers. I increased their awareness so they were more independent. They were to build where-ever they thought was relevant but to be especially aware of hive sites and to build to protect and make all upgrades.
Satisfied that all was proceeding to plan I meditated? and sorted my mind to find myself. The first major discovery was the knowledge that all the tactics were being based on hybrid knowledge of rines and Kharaa that I now had. The data came from ancestral knowledge with library and computer files. The latter were extensive. Dr. Cheq Oute had been thorough in his collation of human knowledge. I basically knew his reasons but would need to access the cave for the full explaination.
I knew dread and fear then, I knew I must open and inspect the cave for all the memories, I would be crippled, terror always haunting me if I shied away from them.
I felt my second hives completion and mused on the level of awareness it would need and what memories to give. I knew that for now our racial memories were imperative, I expanded the awareness and shared the Kharaa knowledge, I finished by helping integrate them and stating that at least one more hive be evolved. I pulled back inside myself to plan out the means for accessing the lock away memories.
No flight or escape was available, I would become insane if I failed the assault, I had to design failsafes. Another alien word, this was annoying, I will break this hold on me. But how. It was a skulk bunnyhopping that gave me the clue. I made my dear skulk more aware, I gave it knowledge of my impending course of action and instructions to play the antics up and down my sides if I lost my reason. I gave my skulk a sense of the humourous.
With this accomplished I made three more using my dear skulk as a template. The result had me slooshing and gurgling in happy relief. I began the descent into my mind. I chose a setting of a sunlit glade <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif' /><!--endemo--> and added the cave. Dark and silent it sat. Light I added so all areas could be seen, no shadows were allowed. I slowly opened the door and waited.
Nothing occurred, so I venture in, darkness was expected but the mild merry light that I encountered totally disarmed me. I waited for the assault but nothing came. Puzzled I went outside and was about to call Hive Mother when I was assaulted from every side. Fear, Malice and Hatred. It saved me. I was so amazed by the concept of Hatred that I forgot to be afraid. I had looked at this alien emotion so fixedly I realized that the other memories were assimilated.
The reason for my fear was that the human side had been severely injured before dying. The fear of death had been more tham Dr. Cheq Oute could stand. I began the long slow process of incorporating and integrtaing all memories. I was aware that two more hives were built.
I sent the first hive more knowledge and raised its awareness level. This would ensure I needn't be disturbed except for a dire emergency. I began again to expand my minds. Minds! I realised that in my excitement and eagerness to expand I had not withdrawn my link, the result was a faster more flexible mind. We directed the train to seek and build as many hives as possible. We emphasised protection of the whole tribe. Contemplation began anew. The alien knowledge became important to us now and we spent many cycles on the problem.
As each new hive evolved our mental capacity and awareness increased. At five hives we began to extrapolate into areas hitherto unknown to either Kharaa or man. Hive Mother called and bid me goodbye, We knew she was not as advanced as we and asked if she would accept our help to expand. She was moved by our selfless offer and agreed. It took little time and was a joy to behold. Hive Mother now had all memories integrated into her awareness.
We saw that she was to use an old shuttle to journey to her next destination and offered to upgrade her ship. She was puzzled by how we would accomplish this feat. We opened our mind and showed her our new projects. She was astounded, We would use the ship we had taken over to journey to the research and construction vessel in the ships log. We saw Hive Mother looking inside her memory for the knowledge and chuckled.
We are gaining more with each new hive that's built and each adds new abilities to us. We evolved a human mimic with the ability to gestate to any shape known. We built fifty and sent them to the bridge and the engine room. They shared all the needed knowledge of their areas to get the ship moving. We realised that we would need lots more so set all hives to evolving mimics until we were two for each post.
We had the ship started on its course then finished the inventory of the computers. The knowledge that on board were nano-factories and workshops sent us into delirium. Again it was Hive Mother that jolted us back to reality. We gave our science and engineering mimics all the knowledge we had and let them loose in their respective areas. The finding of vast resources stored in the sealed holds opened avenues that we thought were closed.
The science team proved our speculations by designing a new more efficient drive. We had the engineering team remove and replace Hive Mothers engines. We were saddened to see her depart but knew she had more work to accomplish. The engineering team then set about changing our own drives. The science team went on to redesign the weapons systems, which replaced our old. The old were recycled.
The science team then looked at the Kharaa and its unique biology. We were so intrigued that we joined all minds together and so the new discoveries were made. The problems of cloaked armour and how to make it heavy yet flexible was solved. Ship cloaking became a thing of the past, We cloaked and continued on to our destination. The problem of weapons damage to the Kharaa was solved by changing the evolving Kharaa with nanite sensitive skin.
The new evolutions would have skin that analysed the differences in each system and adjust accordingly. They would evolve skin that was capable of adjusting to the enemy nanites. This would be a first hive ability, now only grenades would damage our tribe. Our next breakthrough was the increase in our own cloaking ability. The scientists were having fun improving all they could.
Before long we saw our objective, unfortunately a human ship was in front of us.We had the fire teams test the new guns. The complete destruction without warning was gratifying.
We saw the size of our prize and knew our forces were too small. We had all hives build fighter mimics with the new skin, cloaking, and the ability to assume any shape. We felt we were ready. We docked in the gargantuan hold and we were in atmosphere.
As the hold door opened scores of skulks charged our fighters. They were dispatched without trouble but now the Kharaa were alerted to a hostile presence. Our fighters fanned out and secured the hold. We tried mental contact with the hives but found them to be ancient and battle frenzied. The only way to take this vessel was to remove all other Kharaa. We had all hives begin constant evolution of fighter/mimics.
We purpose built a mimic for computer hacking, it went straight to work on the ships systems and the scientists drooled in glee. We took control slowly and systematically. We evolved new gorges with twenty new style mimic guards to begin hive building. Each hive then began new style mimics for the running and control of the ship. The scientists and engineers moved right in. More engineers and scientists were now evolved. The engineers upgraded the engines.
We replaced and upgraded all weapons and sensor systems. The ship cloaking on this size ship had to be researched anew. The increased hives and numbers to our tribe made everything quicker and easier, the new cloaking was developed and installed. We were ready for voyage. The previous Kharaa we stored for food on the voyage. We had the scientists design planetary fighter/freighters with the totally new technology.
We could raid to our hearts content.
The main purpose of the fighter/freighters was to enter a worlds atmosphere and gather food, water and other resources. Being cloaked and of new materials they were invisible to the plantary tracking systems. The larders were soon full. Each planet was scanned for resources or anamolies. We filled the giant ship with our tribe.
The hacker mimic was given free rein against all. We soon had almost all the knowledge known to man. The scanning of all frequences resulted in our finding the persons who had tortured and killed Dr. Cheq Oute. We spent two months planning the raid. The scientists were happy to be given two months to research for the sake of research. It was during a brainstorming session that unique ideas were put forward by an unusually timid scientist.
The scientist suggested we research the stealth method of the sensory chamber, when asked why he replied that if a sensory mimic could be developed, our forces could be almost invisible to Humans and their sensors. The boost from having first hive standard cloaking would be a benefit. The idea was at first disagreed with. Then an experiment gone wrong and a scientist laid up for ten days put the research back on the agenda.
The injured scientist wasn't allowed into the main labs for fear of contamination of ongoing experiments. Instead of being idle the scientist checked the tribe mind for experiments that needed only small facilities, and so it came about that applying the tribe mind, the discovery was made. It meant that early battles would be fought with our forces at our advantage.
The solution was simple after the event, make a mimic with internals that were a cross between a fade, human and the sensory chamber. It meant that we had gestate the new unit before battle. The res cost was huge, questions were asked about the need for such an exotic useless fighting creature. The answer, level one tribe able to enter any human or Kharaa held structures without detection and setting up, attacking and overwhelming the enemy before they knew we were there.
The concept was so novel that everyone had a try at making tactics for the new unit. The best one consisted of having fadsens waiting so we could always enter the area populated by humans or other tribes without knowledge. The complete overwhelming of any base or hive area at first attack was considered the best, and it was agreed to find a base and implement the strategy for analysis. A small base was chosen from the records.
A route was plotted to pass the greatest number of planets with bases and tribes, so we could glean as much information on our travels. As well we did. We found a medium corporation military research base and changed our target. Our tactics worked to perfection, then came a horrible shock of epic proportions.
keep them coming mate