the Kosmosis Chronicles

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-Hrok'Dok Information

--Report on the First Encounter of Hrok'Dok, 1/1/1 (http://kosmosischronicles.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,21.msg307.html#msg307)

--Report on the Chief Investigator's Dream, 1/2/1 (http://kosmosischronicles.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,21.msg361.html#msg361)

Why the apostrophe?

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PunctuationShaker

Document: Report on the First Encounter of Hrok'Dok

Submission Date: 1/1/1

Submitter: Head of Hrok'Dok Studies, Chief Investigator Qom

Submission:

I just made it back home... With incredible evidence that proves the existence of the hrok'dok! But at what price...? I've decided to create the Nexus Hub of Hrok'Dok Studies so that if I die from this damn bite, others can carry on my research... Let this day be known as the first day of the first month of the first year of the existence of the nexus. Ugh, I'm so tired. But I can't sleep, not yet... I know what they do when you sleep... I have to get the transcript recorded.

---

Transcript of Interview with Krac/Fenry Zilken

MYSELF: *I enter a white room built for outsiders talking to patients. It's only furniture is a white table and two white, rather uncomfortable, chairs.* "Good morning, young sir."

PATIENT: "You don't look like the other people..."

MYSELF: "What other people?"

PATIENT: "The ones who put me here. They were afraid of me." *The young Perrachi smiles, rather creepily.* "So you're someone else... The question is, who?"

MYSELF: "Well I suppose introductions are in order then, my name is Chief Investigator Qom. I want to know everything that you know about what happened to the Shallow Springs colony."

PATIENT: *The patient smiles that creepy, somewhat frightening smile again.* "Of course, of course. My name is Krac. It means worthless one in the Hrok'Dok tongue."

MYSELF: *Stunned* "I-I... You... You know their name? But your name is actually Fenry Zilken."

PATIENT: *Smiles again.* "Fenry was swallowed by the Blood. There is only a krac now."

MYSELF: *I now notice that Fenry/Krac hasn't blinked once, or moved his gaze from my eyes. He is very disturbing.* "Only 'a krac' now? I'm a bit confused."

KRAC: "I am a krac, a worthless one. My life is nothing. My only purpose is to serve the Hrok'Dok, the Hatchlings of Gods, which is the translation in your language. At the same time though, my name is also Krac."

MYSELF: "I see... How do you serve the Hatchlings of Gods, more specifically?"

KRAC: "I do as my masters command. There are basically 'standing orders' though, such as spreading the Blood."

MYSELF: "Spreading the Blood? What is the Blood?"

KRAC: "The Blood is what gives the masters and their servants long, long life. To be more exact, it's an ancient nanomachine that was developed millennia ago by the masters, with many functions. Some believe it might even predate the masters' civilization, because no one remembers how to make them anymore. They just reproduce through consumption of the necessary elements, and is spread through liquids like blood. But the key thing is, it doesn't always spread... the Blood seems to have a mind of its own. Sometimes it speaks to the masters, sometimes it speaks to kracs. The Blood spoke to me though, it told me to take care of the eggs..."

MYSELF: "Eggs? The 'Blood' doesn't always spread? What happens if it doesn't spread?"

KRAC: "The eggs came in a sphere that was guarding them, from outer space. Sometimes the Blood doesn't spread. Sometimes it will outright kill you, sometimes the nanomachines simply choose to self-destruct inside you. As far as the masters know, it's not related to genetics. When another species is exposed to the Blood, four things can happen: They can become kracs; they can die; nothing could happen; or the Blood could choose simply to enhance them as it does the masters. Now, it's very unusual and rare for the Blood to simply enhance another species. To do so is like the Blood stating that that creature is on the same level as the masters, and in a way, it's true. As much as they might hate it, the masters accept that there are creatures that are apparently worthy enough to stand with them."

MYSELF: "Hmm. Ok, well, can you explain what happened at Shallow Springs?"

KRAC: "Fenry was out playing with his friends in the woods when they came across the guardian sphere. He had the courage to approach it, and it opened for him when he touched it. The outside was slimy, this is what contained the Blood that entered his body through the skin. Inside was a tiny clutch of hrok'dok eggs, three to be exact. A male and two females were preserved inside, but Fenry didn't know that. He stubbornly took the eggs home, against what his friends told him to do, and hid the eggs in his closet.

That night, the Blood made its move as he slept, as the Blood so characteristically does, with a dream. A dream that depicted the masters in their adult form, and how they had escaped the destruction of their galaxy by their own arrogance."

MYSELF: "Sorry to interrupt you, but destruction of their own galaxy?"

KRAC: "The masters were once the supreme civilization in their galaxy, holding control over all of it, having crushed and exterminated countless rival civilizations. But they fell into civil war. Every side threatened every other side, until things devolved into war. Then, finally, every faction began unleashing black hole weapons, breaking multiple treaties designed to prevent the use of gravitic weaponry, particularly hyper-gravitic weaponry. Ultimately, the galaxy became doomed to be sucked into a bunch of artificial black holes. Before this happened, a faction of hrok'dok sent the sphere with the eggs out of the galaxy, with a trajectory to reach this planet."

MYSELF: "Why didn't the hrok'dok simply perform an exodus from the galaxy?"

KRAC: "An exodus was seen as cowardice, and dishonor. The hrok'dok chose to honorably accept the consequences of their actions, and 'go down with the ship,' so to say."

MYSELF: "Please continue your story, krac."

KRAC: "The dream explained their situation, and Fenry was sympathetic to the hrok'dok. So he kept them hidden, and they hatched a few days later. He got food for them, and spent months carefully tending to their needs, slowly losing himself in his service. Soon though, they were too big to fit in his closet, for the length of an adult hrok'dok is about eighteen to twenty feet, occasionally more, and he had to let them out into his room. Things starting going to hell at that point." *The krac smiled and laughed.* "Fenry's mother walked in to clean his room, screamed at the sight of the hrok'dok, and was promptly ripped apart and eaten. My memory is cloudy at that point, when Fenry was swallowed by the Blood. I just know that things really fell apart, that the hrok'dok started killing people and biting them, and soon, everyone in Shallow Springs was either a krac or dead."

MYSELF: "Then the military stepped in at some point, and discovered the kracs? You know the colony was nuked eventually."

KRAC: "They captured me shortly before that happened. I played the part of insane young boy who just survived an unusual incident. The next day, after my rantings and ravings, they decided to sanitize the colony."

MYSELF: "You convinced them to destroy your own people? What about your masters?"

KRAC: "The masters escaped unharmed, long, long before the colony was sanitized. And I did it because the masters wanted me to. The 'Shallow Springs Incident' wasn't supposed to have happened. There weren't supposed to be sapients on the planet. The masters were fearful of the screaming female Perrachi, of all the other sapients that lived in Shallow Springs. It wasn't something they had encountered. You have to understand, they're still children. They won't be reproductive adults for five more years (Qom's note: Shallow Springs occurred approximately three years ago), and they won't be full-fledged adults for another two decades after that. The masters couldn't have a colony full of witnesses to their existence. So I convinced the military the only option was thermonuclear."

MYSELF: "Ok... So where are the hrok'dok now?"

KRAC: "I don't know. I was unable to hear them speaking to me once they left in the ship they took from the colony. I have no idea where they went."

MYSELF: "Well thank for your time, krac... Now, I have to wonder, why did you tell me all this?"

KRAC: *The krac blinked* "You have to find them, Chief Investigator Qom. They cannot be allowed to become extinct. And I have to make sure you do..."

MYSELF: "What do you mean make su- oh shi-" *The krac leaps across the table, his beak wide open, fangs that shouldn't exist for his species extended towards me. Claws have extended out of his hands, things that also shouldn't exist for the Perrachi. Needless to say, I'm scared ****less at this point. I fall back in my chair, kicking the table up instinctively, sending him slamming against the roof. When he hits the ground, he simply starts running towards me. The krac is unusually fast and agile. I kick the little demon in the face, but it keeps coming at me, snapping with its fanged beak. It latches onto my leg with its claws, digging in. I try to shake the creature off, but its grip is like steel. The damn thing is unusually strong too. I can't get it off, and it sinks its fanged beak into my leg. I can feel something being injected into me as the guards come storming in and stun the krac into submission. I realize I now carry the Blood...*

---

I'm so, so tired now... I haven't slept in at least two days, but I can feel the changes already. Please, if the Blood swallows me, someone kill me... I can't stay awake any longer.

Damn, this is good. I voice acted the perrachi just for fun; the whole thing reminded me of The Dark Knight. Looking forward to more!

One question, though: What is the protagonist? We never find out many details about his species.

I assumed it was understood he was a Perrachi as well. I suppose that will become more clear in later segments. Chief Investigator Qom is central to the entire organization. He ends up being one of the rare ones that the Blood merely enhances, a hrak, a worthy one, for reasons that only the Blood knows.

Well, that was... utterly disturbing.


People are so gonna freak out once this thing goes public.

One thing I'm curious about, though. Do these dreams require a specific type of neural network, or do they also work on machines?


This is truly engrossing. Can't wait for the next entry.  :)


PS. What happens when the target is a hive-mind or a gestalt of two or more melded minds?

Oh...cool! That's pretty awesome. I'm not sure if this counts as fanart, probably not. Just remember that perrachi can fly. I myself forgot for years, and as a result I put in nonsensical details like corridors and hallways in their starships. Why would you have those if you could fly? But of course it's not like you put in anything like that. I like the little details, like how teeth are seen as unnatural and the terms hatchlings and eggs weren't very odd. Seemed like the guy relied on his legs a lot, though. I'll look forward to more of these unscrupulous hrok'dok characters!

The Blood doesn't spread to machines or crystals, just organics and bio-tech people.

I would assume the mind would be ripped from the hive-mind and form its own krac, and both minds would be consumed if they were in the same body.

Interesting.  :)

Man, this is cool! I skimmed over this earlier, but now that I actually sat down and read it, fully interesting!

Document: Report on the Chief Investigator's Dream

Submission Date: 1/2/1

Submitter: Head of Hrok'Dok Studies, Chief Investigator Qom

Submission:

Ugh... Last night was **** up. It was the worst and best sleep I've ever gotten in my life... Now I feel like I'm fluctuating between the worst hangover ever, and feeling like I'm on top of the world. I'm guessing it's part of the Blood screwing with my nervous system, the hormones and nerve impulses... Parts of my body will sometimes twitch without me moving them. It's disconcerting to say the least. The Blood assures me that this is entirely normal, that it's repairing damage, super-charging my brain, strengthening my muscles. I woke up not having to wear glasses anymore. That was amazing...

Is it traitorous to feel... better... with this stuff in me? Is it wrong? Am I going against my entire species by wanting others to feel this way? The damn voice in my head assures me that this isn't so, but I'm not sure how trustworthy the Blood is. It says I'll never die a natural death now, that I'll be a God among Perrachi. So many benefits, but again, at what price? Has my soul been traded for immortality, for biological perfection? Damn it, be quiet! That's better... Now, to record what happened during my dream.

---

I passed out in my chair after finishing my first report, and immediately slipped into deep sleep. I found myself in Shallow Springs, before it was turned to ash. I saw my people screaming and trying to fly away from the kracs, some even trying to run. Let it be noted that the Blood enhances everything about a species. Running is highly unlikely to work, or flying. Those damn kracs flew faster than our fastest competitive flyers. They were hunting down everyone, snapping with those unnatural fanged beaks.

Then I felt a presence behind me and turned around, finding this huge, huge freaking serpent creature behind me. Needless to say, I expelled a few dream liquids. I was frozen as it brought its eyes down to my eyes, and it boomed, "HRAK! You are the greatest hope of the hrok'dok, Qom. I come bearing an offer that you have no choice but to accept, but it is still an offer nonetheless." I felt that the creature smiled, but in no way as a Perrachi does. When a hrok'dok smiles, apparently it opens its mouth and bears all of its fangs. Scary as hell, and something that could easily be mistaken for a sign of aggression. I gulped and said, "What's the offer?"

The hrok'dok smiled again and said, "I offer my services to you, immortality, strength, the works. Everything a hrok'dok receives. In exchange, you agree to be known as a Hrak, a member of the Hrok'Dok, for you too can be a Hatchling of God. I'm a bit of an equal opportunity employer, heh heh heh. It even makes sense for you, since your race is born from eggs, hah! But as a hrok'dok, you must protect your own people, and bring them here to safety."

The choice probably seems obvious to some, but it was a hard one for me. Do I forsake my entire past, my people, to become a Hrok'Dok? Or do I stand by my people and accept death? Were the Blood and the hrok'dok really as dangerous as I feared, and knew? I don't think I'll ever know if I made the right choice, but I accepted the Blood's offer. It proceeded to show me the 'Glory of the Dominion.' It showed me the carefully cultivated paradise worlds that once existed in the original galaxy the hrok'dok lived in, the incredibly powerful ships that traversed and policed the expansive Hrok'Dok Dominion, the hrok'dok in their 'purest' form, infused with incredible technology that seemed to give them abilities such as telekinesis, telepathic command over kracs(The Blood corrects me now, it says that all those with the Blood can communicate with others that have the Blood. The hrok'dok do not use such 'primitive' methods as 'speech' to convey information to one another, apparently.), and other abilities.

The 'Pure' hrok'dok look like they're laced with lines of energy that pulsate between a number of colors based on what ability they're using at that time. I asked the Blood if it could recreate these strange technologies in the current hrok'dok. It stated, "I'd need the hrok'dok to ingest a number of elements, particularly elements usually considered dangerous to organics and especially rare elements, and access to a large power source. Purification is both a lengthy and painful process, and hrok'dok have to earn the right to become Pure. The Pure could be thought of as the highest members of hrok'dok society, the ultra-leaders. They were my right hands, listening to me constantly, following my orders to ensure the success of the hrok'dok. And if they didn't follow orders, I killed them. Simple as that."

Finally, the Blood showed me a vision of the future. I don't think it was a literal, precognitive vision of the future, more of a "what could come to pass" kind of thing. But... my God, it was... horrifying... and yet thrilling at the same time. I saw the Blood spread throughout the Perrachi, saw it reveal itself when it had taken control of most of the populations. I saw our governments bend their knees to the hrok'dok, the reunification of the Perrachi... And it was glorious. We accepted the Blood, and were enhanced by it. We took our revenge on the bastards who broke us apart, smashed their armies with our new strength and unity. The Blood instilled chaos within our enemies, and we swept over them. More and more species were added to the Hrok'Dok, and we continued to expand at almost an exponential rate. We crushed the Photos Empire, enslaved the slaver Core Combine, exterminated the dangerous Wexxians, conquered the Goonals and the Binos and all those races. The Hrok'Dok took absolute control of the galaxy, and I stood alongside the Galactic King and Queen. The feeling was indescribably, incredibly, ludicrously amazing. The glory was immeasurable, and Blood flowed everywhere. And, at the same time, I've never been more horrified in my life.

---

So, am I a traitor to my own species, or their salvation? Their end or their new beginning? Can the hrok'dok live in peace with the galaxy, without trying to conquer it? I honestly have no idea. I both relish and hate the idea of galactic conquest, of taking our revenge on those who defeated us, but reducing many to the state of kracs. I don't know what I am anymore. A Perrachi, or a Hrok'Dok? I know most of you probably think I'm some kind of lunatic... But this is real. The danger is here. The Blood is spreading. All I can do is write this report, and hope that someone reads it. It's the least I can do. Strangely, the Blood hasn't said anything about me writing this report and posting it. Is it mind-**** me? Just playing head games? Is it lying to me? I can't tell. Maybe I am crazy. Anyway, time to post this thing...

Yep. That seals it.

Qom's headed for the deep end alright.

Is it evil for me to actually want to get samples of every species getting infected by them? I wonder how annoyed the Combine Overlords will be by this if this spreads to their place.

Also, I wonder what would happen if th Blood meets the Infection. It'll be pretty interesting, that's for sure.

Raz, I think you really nailed the psychology of an average perrachi. I loved that bit about revenge on the bastards who tore the unified species apart and all. Seemed a bit ironic how he talked about enslaving the slaver Core Combine, but I suppose it's more like poetic justice.

Of course hrok'dok would be totally incompatible with non-carbon-based species. Because otherwise that would be silly, so they just try to exterminate them. Right? I really don't see a batarian snake fusing with a living crystal.

Pretty much exactly UFO. The Wexxians are immune, powerful, and therefore a threat that must be hunted down and exterminated like pests.  :P

This is truely awesome!
Speaking of the Infection, this is sorta like how I wanted the Infection to be. Of course, if you've read about it, I failed miserably.
Still, this is aweeeesome.

Or, you know, the other self replicating semi-mechanical blood-themed mind gestalt* around here.  :P
We'll see which comes out on top in the end.


So, who else among our kinds would be 'worthy' of enhancing, I have to ask

How does the take-over work? Does it implant in your mind or what? What does it do to your body and how does it change it? What biologies could it or couldn't ot infect?** So the blood is sort of the spawn of the Hrok "masters", or am I missing something?



*(Two minds? try twenty billion!)

**(Just thinking cause I don't think either of my main races would be quite compatable)

Worth isn't based on anything in particular.

The Blood is actually ancient nanomachines that may or may not have been created by the hrok'dok, with the purpose of keeping them alive indefinitely and furthering the aims of the Hrok'Dok. The nanomachines spread throughout the body, moving quickly to the nervous system, where they figure out how the brain and mind work and began causing dreams and hallucinations to convert the creature to their cause. If they resist, the Blood swallows them immediately by removing their personality and replacing it with itself. Effectively, all kracs are actually the Blood pretending to be someone else, or playing mind games with a certain investigator.

Once in control, the Blood reworks the genetic code and causes growths and disappearances of some organs, usually the ones dedicated to maintaining the immune system, because the Blood functions as the perfect immune system. The usual growths involve some method of quick injection, i.e. fangs, strengthening of muscles, appearance of natural weapons, etc. Occasionally, the Blood decides to so radically alter an organism, that it becomes impossible to identify was it was before it became a krac.

As for what can be infected, anything biological goes. Natural immune systems are totally ineffective against it, either because they can't recognize it as even being there, or because the Blood simply defeats whatever gets in its way of bodily domination. If a white blood cell were to attempt to stop the Blood, it would simply tear through the cell and continue on its way. Lacking blood slows the process, but it's inevitable. The only thing the Blood doesn't attack that is biological are simple lifeforms lower than animals that lack control systems; i.e. plants, fungi, and bacteria.

And I'm pretty the Blood would win against any other nanobots, simply because it's highly intelligent, extremely adaptable(self-modifying) and coordinated in its offensives, and has a history of defeating other civilization's nano-defenses, which became widespread in the other galaxy in an attempt to prevent the spread of the Blood.

Just wanna point out that plants do have control systems.

They're just very, very, very, very depressingly slow.

So, planimals probably count as viable hosts as well.

I realize that, but they won't hit plants that are specifically plants, like flowers and such.

I see.

I should point out that perrachi have two plant species and one fungus species as client races, all capable of quick thought/movement. On a plant-animal reversed world where the only animals were like coral or barnacles, don't you think the dominant plants would find a sentient animal hard to believe?

Oh, and I think that there could exist a sapient bacteria colony that functions as a hive mind. Just saying. I mean, if we have silicon-based biology it doesn't seem too far-fetched by comparison.

Raz actually did one like that back in the old Kosmosis.

Can't remember the name, though.

Ok well if it's biological and sapient then...

So the Blood isn't even slowed by natural immune systems, and other nanosystems barely serve to slow them, from what I can gather. What about organic things like mutagenic substances? How well would the Blood manage to counter them? I'd think an active mutagen would note the Blood's entrance and quickly manage to work up something, for lack of a better word, "super" enough to stop it, even to the extend of sending it's host comatose to do so.

Not feeling it anymore... Sorry.

Whuh?

Much of my interest/motivation/mojo has disappeared from RP. Trying on another site, but things are a bit chaotic in my life.

This documentary idea seems promising. I'm sure you'd be great with that! Government coverups of mysterious abandoned laboratories, all that crazy modern horror game stuff! Trust me, with creativity it's either a vicious cycle or positive cycle with emotion. If you're depressed you don't feel motivation which makes you more depressed, etc. So if you don't fix things the pit just grows deeper. Dang, now I feel like a corny self-help book - which are ironic, because it's supposed to be self-help, not book-help! Where was I?