Warhammer 40: Doom

Chapter 269 Ghanaian Filaria
"What...are you saying...?"

Before Grandpa could finish speaking, he found himself losing control of his body and beginning to move involuntarily.

Not only him, but the other four people who rushed to the living room were the same; their bodies no longer obeyed their commands and moved like puppets on strings.

The four of them worked silently together to lift the couple to the dining table, where the grandmother took out a household medical instrument to perform a simple examination.

“There are bite marks on your neck and arms, which are preliminarily suspected to be mosquito bites.”

The granddaughter spoke too, but her voice was no longer as clear and crisp as before. Her words were chilling and devoid of any girlish liveliness.

Contrary to her cold voice, her beautiful, bright blue eyes darted around, revealing fear and dread.

Not only was she terrified, but all four people present were also afraid, overwhelmed by an involuntary fear.

They felt a sense of powerlessness, their brains couldn't control their bodies, and it was as if a ghost was inhabiting their bodies, controlling their actions.

Deep within one's consciousness, self-awareness becomes increasingly blurred, as if... there is a more profound being devouring the soul bit by bit.

And so, the family of six continued to function normally, but their brains were completely consumed by the parasites, causing them to gradually lose their self-awareness and become nothing more than shells controlled by the parasites.

“Damn…mosquitoes!” the father hissed, his body still convulsing. “The livestock aren’t afraid of them, but we’re afraid of those lowly creatures?”

"Was it really a mosquito?" The son tilted his head and pointed to his head. "The memories in this body indicate that you and I encountered a representative of the human empire today."

“Your body should have an image,” he said expressionlessly, cold as if he were not human, “that tall human is very suspicious of us.”

“Think about it carefully,” the son said painfully, clutching his head. “This body is not fully developed, and the wisdom inherited from limited cognition is limited. It lacks the ability to think deeply.”

Its words silenced the father, who, with the help of his host's wisdom, began to consider whether it was an enemy attack.

The parasite looked at its partner's arm, at the slightly raised red mosquito bites on the porcelain-white skin, and fell into thought.

"It must be a mosquito." After thinking for a while, it came to the conclusion: "We just encountered it during the day, and it came to scout at night. It was a bit too hasty and reckless."

"That so-called 'imperial heir' wouldn't do that; rumors say he's very arrogant."

“I believe he will pressure the governor and high-ranking officials to investigate our existence, but he will not act secretly or behind the scenes.”

It spoke eloquently, using the wisdom of the human body to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.

The other members of the family nodded in agreement, thinking that this was the case, since their species had a strong ability to disguise themselves and would not be easily exposed to human instruments.

After discussing it for a while, the parasites waited for their stress reactions to subside before returning to their rooms to rest. Some of the couples even engaged in intimate activities.

The aliens possessed human bodies and stole human memories; their actions were no different from those of normal people.

KV-230's cautious approach fooled the alien; if they had chosen the non-invasive injection method, their operation tonight would have been detected.

The injection, mimicking the marks left by mosquito bites, fooled the aliens and made them lower their guard.

Everything they said and did was recorded by the KV-230.

Parasites are afraid of mosquito bites, which can trigger an overreaction. After an alien takes over a human body, it also inherits the host's intelligence.

The intelligence was quickly uploaded to the Royal Majesty and handed over to the Stone Engineers for analysis.

Once the room was quiet, the Iron Man climbed out of the ceiling and slowly fell to the ground, looking as graceful as a nimble cat.

The mission here is complete. KV-230 has chosen to leave and head to a safe place to take cover, ready to evacuate at any time.

This is the job of assassins and spies: to scheme against the unsuspecting and obtain secrets through the most covert means.

Two Ironmen have completed their missions in succession, and intelligence gathering is progressing smoothly.

The final mission executor, KV-117, ran into trouble; its reconnaissance intelligence was not going well.

The security level inside the sculpted hall is very high, with all-round protection without any blind spots, and the aliens have not missed any corner.

The invincible nanobots penetrated the walls, only to be stopped by the protective force field inside the sealed room, achieving nothing.

Helpless, 117 chose to wait patiently for an opportunity to enter the secret room, and this wait lasted for a whole week in Terra.

It was affixed to the top of the secret chamber door, its sensory shield activated to evade biological detection, and its black cloak was also activated to evade psionic sensing. In one Terra week, the Iron Man memorized the locations of all the mechanisms in the main hall and had a clear grasp of the staff's movements.

117 is waiting for an opportunity: for staff to enter the core secret room for a routine equipment check.

They missed it last week due to caution, but they won't miss it this week. They need this intelligence to complete the intelligence chain of the Royal Majesty.

Soon, six staff members dressed in white robes and gloves, completely covered up, came over.

It immediately came down from the roof and stood side by side with the alien body in front of the secret room door.

In the staff's biometric perception, there was nothing around them except themselves and their group of six standing at the door, waiting for the door to scan for access.

117 was prepared in advance; it had analyzed the communication signals in the past and then hid itself by simulating DNA structure.

The security procedure for the locked room detected six people at the door, which perfectly matched the information of the six people in the maintenance plan.

Iron Man brazenly followed the team into the core chamber, finally glimpsing how the alien's so-called "shaping machine" operated.

The secret room was very large, covering tens of thousands of square meters, but it was clean and tidy, unlike the terrifying underground spaces in the city.

The ground is transparent in all layers, and you can clearly see the golden nutrient solution being transported through pipes to the shaping machine at the front.

Square pipes lined the ceiling of the sealed chamber, converging at a funnel-shaped outlet from which clumps of golden, gelatinous substance were expelled.

The 117 electronic eye swept over the area and learned where the gelatinous substance came from—it was a substance from the giant insects digesting humans in the underground space, which was eventually transported here.

The camera quickly focuses, and the Iron Man assassin spots the target—the Shapeshifter's deepest secret.

A transparent, centipede-like mother worm, twenty meters long, was devouring a golden substance that had fallen in front of her, and her body turned pale gold as she consumed it.

It is completely different from the giant underground insects; its body is a single, unified entity, not composed of clusters of tiny insect bodies.

The front half of the mother insect's body lay on the floor, while the back half extended beneath the transparent floor, immersed in a golden artificial nutrient solution.

"Hiss~~~"

As the mother insect devoured the golden substance, rapidly digesting it within her transparent body and supplying it with abundant nutrients, it opened its ovipositor at the tail, spraying out a cloud of transparent substance.

117 locked onto the edge of the sealed chamber, while the electronic eye locked onto the mother insect's tail, analyzing what the transparent substance was.

Those were filamentous worm eggs, wriggling and spreading out in the golden nutrient solution, instinctively entering the pipes and using the machine to enter the human body.

During this process, 117 discovered an anomaly: the mother insect was emitting some kind of psionic energy fluctuations towards the larvae.

The staff who entered the room began to check various equipment and instruments. The leader walked up to the mother insect and knelt down respectfully.

"Great Mother!" he cried out, his usual elegance and composure gone, replaced by fervent zeal: "The negotiations with the human empire are about to be completed, and our race will usher in true prosperity!"

"When the footprints of the Ghana worms are all over the galaxy, you will become powerful, and even the strongest among humans will be no threat to you."

As he spoke, he casually removed his mask and began kissing the tendrils of the Great Mother's body, expressing his affection at that moment: "At that time, we will shed this humble body and share prosperity with you."

117 leans against the wall by the door, its electronic eyes faithfully recording everything, and its data chip recording all of this.

At this moment, a clear picture emerged before its eyes. The information in its mind was pieced together, and it finally learned the true nature of the alien.

Just as it was piecing together the whole story, another surge of psionic energy arrived. The mother insect's tentacles entwined with the equipment, emitting a voice from some being:

“My people,” the voice said with compassion and love, stroking his children with its touch, “we have made countless preparations for this moment over the millennia, and our long-cherished wish has finally come true.”

"Our race will ride on the wings of humanity, traversing the galaxy, plundering all wisdom, and conquering all powerful bodies."

“Those foolish humans will never know that the ‘fellow countrymen’ they accept are a carefully prepared sweet poison.”

"Yes, yes!" The staff member was frantic, his excitement fueled by his mother's reassurance: "We will do everything we can to completely take over humanity and build a great empire on the corpses of their race."

"Your Father and I are waiting together."

(End of this chapter)