First Story "enter The Hive"
lljk_pointy
Join Date: 2002-11-06 Member: 7350Members
Join Date: 2002-11-06 Member: 7350Members
<div class="IPBDescription">please like it :P</div> The hive was awake. It was a stream of a million voices echoing in his head, a thousand nerve endings shooting signals through his spine. Every synapse in the hive was absorbed by his brain, and every sensory input linked with his forming a massive swell of information. Slowly, his vision cleared. Blobs of warm light floated around his eyes, he turned his eyes and saw blurry, distorted figures move irregularly in front of him. Darkness.
Awake again. "Sergeant!" a voice sounded as if it came from a deep ventilation shaft. "Sergeant Collins!" the voice was closer. Suddenly the darkness succumbed to a bright phosphorus light, and he lunged forward as his lunch abruptly evacuated from his throat. "He's back!", "Get the anti-congestant... 500cc now!". Needles, vials, a rack of machines, a desk, lights, a doctor in a white robe. Sergeant Collins felt his body oscillating into half-conciousness, he found himself leaning over the edge of an examination bed, his hand violently grabbing the edge of it. He attempted to focus his eyesight on his whitening knuckles. "Aww fucki.." his sentence aborted by another rush of dizziness and as he threw up the remainder of his stomach contents, a nurse grabbed his upper body to prevent him from rolling off the bed.
Colonel McCormic took a few steps back, as Collins' gall and stomach acid splattered over the linoleum floor and up on the Colonel's dress pants. "When will he be able to speak?" Robbins turned towards Doctor Stephen Taylor. The Doctor replied quickly "Well, I see no traces of blood in his vomit, which is a good sign. Apart from his nosebleed that is. Maybe a few hours, maybe tomorrow.". Sgt. Collins breathed heavily and abruptly, almost choking on the next surge of yellow-green spew. "Call me when he recovers, Dr. Taylor", the colonel rapidly moved towards the doorway. "Yes sir!" the Doctor responded.
Collins awakened again. He swept his hands over his chest and head. The electrodes were gone. He was now in a wide hospital bed, soft white sheets. The light was dimmed, the blinds closed but he could still see the soft red light seeping in from the nearest star Aphargon, making his hospital room bathe in an eerie reddish glow. He heard the soft buzz from a TV set in the room, it was meant for Station broadcasts, but also provided a few crude shows to keep the population of Space Station Phalanx happy. His back stinged a bit, and he suddenly remembered the pain involved when the doctors had put in the tubing connectors in his spine. He shuddered in a remembered pain. Well, they had warned him. He volunteered for this. He was doing this for the human race, not for his own comfort. Footsteps outside the door, maybe 6-7 people. All talking in low voices.
The doorway slid up, almost unhearable, and the party walked in. It was Colonel James D. McCormic in full dress uniform, half the medical officer staff all in white robes, and the scientist Doctor Stephen Taylor. They all entered the room in silence, all looking at Sergeant Collins as if he was some curiosity from an alien planet. Well, that's practically what he was now. The door slid shut.
"Devon Collins" Dr. Taylor spoke first. "That's still my name, i hope", Sgt. Collins' voice cracked from his dry throat. He coughed briefly, as a cup of water was handed to him by one of the medical officers. As he drank deeply from the cup, Doctor Taylor spoke "I hope you're rested enough for the interview. We have seen that you are in shape enough to take the stress for another entry, we think your body and mind is able to handle connecting to the hive for a longer period now..." The Colonel interrupted, "Yes, your progress has been fantastic! this project is becoming more of a success than we ever hoped for. Soon, we will be able to deploy marines at regular intervals into any alien hive as spies! We will have won any conflict before we even fire the first shot". The Colonel seemed very excited, his face beamed with pride over his project.
"Last time was rough", Devon said, "Very rough" he paused briefly. "I mean... the sensations... the impressions... overwhelming. I could not process them all.". "The gorge we captured and connected you too was part of a rather large hive, Sergeant" the Doctor filled in. "It was important for us to try your tolerance to a larger hive. And also see if the hive mind would detect you as a human in their circuits.". "What if they did?" Devon crumpled up the cup and tossed it in the trashcan by the wall. Grinning a bit, because he knew what the Doctor would say, he just liked the way he got uncomfortable saying it. "Er.. Well. You'd be .. dead." the Doctor was hestiant in his wording.
After a short stroll down hallway ZB-12, the company entered the research lab, a lingering smell of vomit hung like a damp fog in the room. The medical officers were comfortable with the connectors now, and inserted each sensory input in the connectors in his spinal cord with ease. A nurse attached electrodes on his temples and his chest. When they were done, he curled up in fetal position, tubes and wires sticking out of his back, making him look like a porcupine. "I'm ready" Collins said in the middle of a deep breath. Lights turned on, switches thrown, beeping noises, and vibrating light filled the room as Doctor Taylor went over the control panel attached to tubes leading to Collins, and a covered titanium cage in the corner of the room. "Any chance we can lose the hoses soon?" The Colonel asked Doctor Taylor. "I doubt it" he replied "I don't think the human mind is at all capable of communicating telepathically as the Kharaa do.". He flicked a last switch on the board and slowly pushed a slider along it's groove. Dials and gauges reacting to his input.
A light flash! a squirming tunnel of black and white.. Another light flashes, repeatedly like a strobe in front of Devon's eyes. The hive was awake. He gasped for air as the tidal wave of feelings, emotions, scents, visions, voices, pain and pleasure filled his entire being. Not familiar ones, foregin but recognizable. He had been in the hive several times now, and he started to feel with it. At first, he let his mind hover in the vaccuum it arrived in, then he attempted to move. He saw a skulk. Sniffing an encrusted floor, digging the dirt, feeding. He moved again. Another skulk, no three, sleeping in a bright pink chamber.. babies? Darkness, he still had not full control over what he could do in the hive. Pain rushed over his body and he felt his hairs stand up like needles as he sensed the death of something. This time he moved towards the pain, his vision blurring by redness. A hive! he'd seen one before, he know what they looked like. Red and yellow flames licked the outside of the hive, engulfing the nozzles and sending waves of pain messages into him, he tried to block them. A white light terminated the scene.
Suddenly, his adrenal gland shot out a huge load of pure adrenaline into his stomach. What was that? he moved towards it, his hairs stood up again, not from fear this time. Another surge of adrenaline. He was in a skulk, moving fast.. he heard the noise the claws made on a metal deck. The skulk looked around, a blurry figure. A human! The skulk cloaked, and creeped along the floor. Close enough now, a woman! The skulk leaped and Devons mind was filled with the taste of blood, as his nerves caused his adrenal gland to produce more of a rush.
Darkness again. Suddenly a new sensation, he'd never felt this before. First cold, then warmer, hot, now cooler, perfect! warm, peaceful. The hive cared for him, warmed him. He felt his body twitch as the hive sent signals of pleasure and rest through his body. Morphines were released by his brain to stimulate it's pleasure center. Strange rushes of a new sensation broke into his mind, hate! no... disgust.. no. love? love... he felt love coming like a straight beacon from the hive, it filled him, caressed him. He'd never felt love like this, so true, so steady and uncompromising. He didn't want to move, but after a while he did. Vaccuum again. A new sensation... A flash of light. On the hospital examination bed, Devon's body twiched violently, and his left nostril poured out blood. Another flash! He felt mad! he wanted to strike out, but subdued by the hospital drugs his body was nearly immobile. A vision, that's a marine! he felt a black cloud of hate swelling. Pain, hate anger inside him. Suddenly nothing.
Devon awoke slowly, he felt the medical officers removing nozzles from his back, he opened his eyes. Looking at the linoleum floor awaiting the sickness he knew would follow. He took a deep breath, stll nothing. "You okay sergeant" The colonel's voice was clear. "Yeah.. I'm fine?" Devon was surprised, no illness had stricken him yet. He sat up in his nightrobe. The Colonel smiled broadly, "Hah! no sickness". "Perfect" Dr. Taylor filled in. "Tomorrow we'll give you sensory output and local input so that you can be aware of your surroundings here while you're in the hive. It will be a huge advancement" The doctor explained as the now delightful team walked back to his chambers. The colonel stayed with Devon in his hospital room as the staff walked off.
Devon walked to the window and peered through the blinds as the Colonel spoke. "This is outstanding! tomorrow we'll start adapting a company of our best marines, and next week they'll be ready for combat!" The Colonel's enthusiasm was poorly hidden. "Yes" Devon spoke softly "We'll be ready for combat...". Devon took a deep breath as the door slid shut after the colonel left. Inside Devon, the hive was awake.
Awake again. "Sergeant!" a voice sounded as if it came from a deep ventilation shaft. "Sergeant Collins!" the voice was closer. Suddenly the darkness succumbed to a bright phosphorus light, and he lunged forward as his lunch abruptly evacuated from his throat. "He's back!", "Get the anti-congestant... 500cc now!". Needles, vials, a rack of machines, a desk, lights, a doctor in a white robe. Sergeant Collins felt his body oscillating into half-conciousness, he found himself leaning over the edge of an examination bed, his hand violently grabbing the edge of it. He attempted to focus his eyesight on his whitening knuckles. "Aww fucki.." his sentence aborted by another rush of dizziness and as he threw up the remainder of his stomach contents, a nurse grabbed his upper body to prevent him from rolling off the bed.
Colonel McCormic took a few steps back, as Collins' gall and stomach acid splattered over the linoleum floor and up on the Colonel's dress pants. "When will he be able to speak?" Robbins turned towards Doctor Stephen Taylor. The Doctor replied quickly "Well, I see no traces of blood in his vomit, which is a good sign. Apart from his nosebleed that is. Maybe a few hours, maybe tomorrow.". Sgt. Collins breathed heavily and abruptly, almost choking on the next surge of yellow-green spew. "Call me when he recovers, Dr. Taylor", the colonel rapidly moved towards the doorway. "Yes sir!" the Doctor responded.
Collins awakened again. He swept his hands over his chest and head. The electrodes were gone. He was now in a wide hospital bed, soft white sheets. The light was dimmed, the blinds closed but he could still see the soft red light seeping in from the nearest star Aphargon, making his hospital room bathe in an eerie reddish glow. He heard the soft buzz from a TV set in the room, it was meant for Station broadcasts, but also provided a few crude shows to keep the population of Space Station Phalanx happy. His back stinged a bit, and he suddenly remembered the pain involved when the doctors had put in the tubing connectors in his spine. He shuddered in a remembered pain. Well, they had warned him. He volunteered for this. He was doing this for the human race, not for his own comfort. Footsteps outside the door, maybe 6-7 people. All talking in low voices.
The doorway slid up, almost unhearable, and the party walked in. It was Colonel James D. McCormic in full dress uniform, half the medical officer staff all in white robes, and the scientist Doctor Stephen Taylor. They all entered the room in silence, all looking at Sergeant Collins as if he was some curiosity from an alien planet. Well, that's practically what he was now. The door slid shut.
"Devon Collins" Dr. Taylor spoke first. "That's still my name, i hope", Sgt. Collins' voice cracked from his dry throat. He coughed briefly, as a cup of water was handed to him by one of the medical officers. As he drank deeply from the cup, Doctor Taylor spoke "I hope you're rested enough for the interview. We have seen that you are in shape enough to take the stress for another entry, we think your body and mind is able to handle connecting to the hive for a longer period now..." The Colonel interrupted, "Yes, your progress has been fantastic! this project is becoming more of a success than we ever hoped for. Soon, we will be able to deploy marines at regular intervals into any alien hive as spies! We will have won any conflict before we even fire the first shot". The Colonel seemed very excited, his face beamed with pride over his project.
"Last time was rough", Devon said, "Very rough" he paused briefly. "I mean... the sensations... the impressions... overwhelming. I could not process them all.". "The gorge we captured and connected you too was part of a rather large hive, Sergeant" the Doctor filled in. "It was important for us to try your tolerance to a larger hive. And also see if the hive mind would detect you as a human in their circuits.". "What if they did?" Devon crumpled up the cup and tossed it in the trashcan by the wall. Grinning a bit, because he knew what the Doctor would say, he just liked the way he got uncomfortable saying it. "Er.. Well. You'd be .. dead." the Doctor was hestiant in his wording.
After a short stroll down hallway ZB-12, the company entered the research lab, a lingering smell of vomit hung like a damp fog in the room. The medical officers were comfortable with the connectors now, and inserted each sensory input in the connectors in his spinal cord with ease. A nurse attached electrodes on his temples and his chest. When they were done, he curled up in fetal position, tubes and wires sticking out of his back, making him look like a porcupine. "I'm ready" Collins said in the middle of a deep breath. Lights turned on, switches thrown, beeping noises, and vibrating light filled the room as Doctor Taylor went over the control panel attached to tubes leading to Collins, and a covered titanium cage in the corner of the room. "Any chance we can lose the hoses soon?" The Colonel asked Doctor Taylor. "I doubt it" he replied "I don't think the human mind is at all capable of communicating telepathically as the Kharaa do.". He flicked a last switch on the board and slowly pushed a slider along it's groove. Dials and gauges reacting to his input.
A light flash! a squirming tunnel of black and white.. Another light flashes, repeatedly like a strobe in front of Devon's eyes. The hive was awake. He gasped for air as the tidal wave of feelings, emotions, scents, visions, voices, pain and pleasure filled his entire being. Not familiar ones, foregin but recognizable. He had been in the hive several times now, and he started to feel with it. At first, he let his mind hover in the vaccuum it arrived in, then he attempted to move. He saw a skulk. Sniffing an encrusted floor, digging the dirt, feeding. He moved again. Another skulk, no three, sleeping in a bright pink chamber.. babies? Darkness, he still had not full control over what he could do in the hive. Pain rushed over his body and he felt his hairs stand up like needles as he sensed the death of something. This time he moved towards the pain, his vision blurring by redness. A hive! he'd seen one before, he know what they looked like. Red and yellow flames licked the outside of the hive, engulfing the nozzles and sending waves of pain messages into him, he tried to block them. A white light terminated the scene.
Suddenly, his adrenal gland shot out a huge load of pure adrenaline into his stomach. What was that? he moved towards it, his hairs stood up again, not from fear this time. Another surge of adrenaline. He was in a skulk, moving fast.. he heard the noise the claws made on a metal deck. The skulk looked around, a blurry figure. A human! The skulk cloaked, and creeped along the floor. Close enough now, a woman! The skulk leaped and Devons mind was filled with the taste of blood, as his nerves caused his adrenal gland to produce more of a rush.
Darkness again. Suddenly a new sensation, he'd never felt this before. First cold, then warmer, hot, now cooler, perfect! warm, peaceful. The hive cared for him, warmed him. He felt his body twitch as the hive sent signals of pleasure and rest through his body. Morphines were released by his brain to stimulate it's pleasure center. Strange rushes of a new sensation broke into his mind, hate! no... disgust.. no. love? love... he felt love coming like a straight beacon from the hive, it filled him, caressed him. He'd never felt love like this, so true, so steady and uncompromising. He didn't want to move, but after a while he did. Vaccuum again. A new sensation... A flash of light. On the hospital examination bed, Devon's body twiched violently, and his left nostril poured out blood. Another flash! He felt mad! he wanted to strike out, but subdued by the hospital drugs his body was nearly immobile. A vision, that's a marine! he felt a black cloud of hate swelling. Pain, hate anger inside him. Suddenly nothing.
Devon awoke slowly, he felt the medical officers removing nozzles from his back, he opened his eyes. Looking at the linoleum floor awaiting the sickness he knew would follow. He took a deep breath, stll nothing. "You okay sergeant" The colonel's voice was clear. "Yeah.. I'm fine?" Devon was surprised, no illness had stricken him yet. He sat up in his nightrobe. The Colonel smiled broadly, "Hah! no sickness". "Perfect" Dr. Taylor filled in. "Tomorrow we'll give you sensory output and local input so that you can be aware of your surroundings here while you're in the hive. It will be a huge advancement" The doctor explained as the now delightful team walked back to his chambers. The colonel stayed with Devon in his hospital room as the staff walked off.
Devon walked to the window and peered through the blinds as the Colonel spoke. "This is outstanding! tomorrow we'll start adapting a company of our best marines, and next week they'll be ready for combat!" The Colonel's enthusiasm was poorly hidden. "Yes" Devon spoke softly "We'll be ready for combat...". Devon took a deep breath as the door slid shut after the colonel left. Inside Devon, the hive was awake.
Comments
*growl!*
/me grumbles.
Thanks for helping to restore some pride as a human in me.
EX:
The hallway was dark, deserted. The marines crept forwards, weapons at ready.
"Keep your eyes peeled for anything unusual." the sarge ordered.
"What isn't unusual about this?" mumbled a private.
"Stow that **obscenity** private!" The Sergeant stared the private down.
And you said "morphines" were released and stimulated his pleasure center, I think you mean "endorphins"
Nitpicking aside, I give this five out of five golden manbabies.
<!--emo&::skulk::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/skulk.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='skulk.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--emo&::asrifle::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/asrifle.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='asrifle.gif'><!--endemo--> <<<b>CHOMPEH!!</b>>> <!--emo&::gorge::--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/pudgy.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='pudgy.gif'><!--endemo-->
truly great...
so the marine vs marine would probably be explained by him giving into the hive and letting it replicate his genestructure, huh?
so you could probably just leave all the upgrades the way they are and just reskin all the models to be kind of infested looking (have the marines faces sort of greenish with some infestation growing on it)
Good Story <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' valign='absmiddle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->