The Immortal regulars quickened their pace toward the welcoming sight of the dropship.
"C'mon, we're almost there!"
But the Brootalz began to appear from the woodwork and gleefully fired upon the survivors.
Ending the shard-carrier's life in a hail of bullets.
They hooted and hollered in delight as the soldier collapsed in a pool of his own blood, the shard clattering to the ground nearby.
The lead regular either didn't notice his comrade going down, or was too focused on his salvation to care. But the Terrorkhan Liutenant wasn't having any of that.
"Hey! What gives?!" The soldier yelled as the dropship floated further away, as if to keep the regular from boarding.
“Get your ass back there and grab that shard, soldier!” Th0rn yelled back,
"or so help me I'll shoot you myself!"
The scene behind the soldier made Th0rn trail off in sudden astonishment.
"Oh, shit."
A hand the size of a minifig gingerly scooped the warhead shard from the pavement, the eerie glow emitting from around the skull serving as a significant distraction.
As the immortals watched in horror, Efferus’ clawed hand grasped around the shard with a tender curiosity about the hulking beast.
He held it up to better examine it in the light, as arches of pure green transparent energy danced down his wrist and started up his arm.
Meanwhile the Emperor-class dropship's cannons hummed to life.
"Sir, whats it doing? Should we shoot it?"
Th0rn leaned out the troopbay and scrutinized the scene.
"Well he's certainly a big enough target ain't he? The shard'll be fine, so fire all-"
"-Wait hold your fire. What the hell is going on?"
A radioactive surge began to envelop Efferus, who gritted his teeth in discomfort.
Efferus and the warhead shard exploded in a vibrant flash of bright green. Th0rn nearly dropped his rifle in surprise as he watched, an expression of sheer shock under his faceless helmet. Neither him nor the dropship had even begun to open fire. Whatever happened had to have been something the warhead shard had done. Maybe it was some defensive measure? Why was the explosion such a strange color?
* * *
Every atom, every molecule in Efferus’ body screamed as they were relentlessly torn apart. It was a pain that no brootal had probably ever known before, and he couldn’t tell if his roars of torment were his own or the warhead shard he clutched in his hand.
Bright green energy enveloped them both, holding them in a radioactive embrace that silhouetted the inevitable mutation. Soon the screams morphed from two voices into one, bones cracked in sickly sinewy fashion as limbs shifted back into place. Some armor plates popped out of place while others adapted the transformation and changed shape entirely.
Soon the radiation dissipated an altered figure now stood in its place. It stood on all fours, no doubt winded from the painful transformation that transpired, its great torso heaving in and out as its altered lungs took in the ashen air of the city. The warhead shard was nowhere be seen, but as the brootal warlord stood back up the surviving Immortals knew instantly what happened.
"Lord Warhead? Is that you? ...are you okay?"
Slowly, shakily, the giant stood back up on his feet. The gnarled, dull-eyed face of the a Brootal warlord had all but melted from the bone, leaving his skull completely exposed. Green flames roared to life at the top of its helm as dim green orbs flickered within otherwise empty eye sockets.
One of Efferus’ arms had been completely reformed into something more skeletal and somehow bulkier. The once grey armor plating had been blackened, though parts around the brootals’ hand still retained some of its original anatomy. Its claws were but sharpened bone, curling and uncurling into a boney fist as if to test the strength of the joints. Though much of the warlord retained his original form, the transformations were alarming enough to be able to tell: Warhead shard and Brootal warlord had become one.
Efferus examined himself, puzzled at the new sensations he had felt.
“What… happened to me?”
“AYE LIKE EET!”
"Lord Warhead?" The soldier's voice was tiny and afraid.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes," The Warhead shard gained control of Efferus, but only temporarily. He flexed his sinewy claws and glowered at the soldier beneath his feet.
"But I'm... we're.... not Warhead anymore."
'WE... ARR... EFFERUS!!!"
The abomination lifted its leg and crushed the immortal regular underfoot, turning the soldier into a red puddle that oozed out from beneath the monster's heel.
The nearby dropship’s engines roared to life as the pilot inside seemed to panic and lift off the city streets, Lieutenant Th0rn shakily activated his long-distance communication device. "
This is Terrorkhan Lieutenant Th0rn! Get me Lord Warhead right fucking now!"
"It's about the missing shard on Planet New Yor-"
-CCRRRRAAAASSSHHHH!
FWWWOOOOSSSHHHH!!
"Lieutenant? Lieutenant?" A voice crackled over the device before going dead.
Efferus watched the dropship plummet to the ground before something came over him and he soon followed suit. Debris rained down onto the street as Efferus collasped, shoulders quivering with unfiltered rage. His head still burned with war and now every fiber of his being sceamed for it. But war in who’s name?
The Immortal Empire had barely held unto its borders during Ragnablok, though no one admitted it. Thus proving that even the mighty Immortal Legion can be defeated. But the Brootalz? The deaths that the greenskins suffer are countless yet they never falter, they always come back bigger and tougher. Every ‘loss’ suffered is only a speed bump to the ramshackle Brootal war machine. Their victory is inevitable. The Brootalz are eternal. The warhead shard in Efferus saw that now, and felt himself being consumed by the aspirations of an entire species.
"Now you understand...." Cooed a voice from behind him.
Efferus spun around and instinctively reached for his mace, but something stopped him. A force behind his understanding willed him to freeze in mid-step. The Brootal warhead craned his neck to peer in the direction of the voice, eyes flaring with rage and confusion.
The figure was tall, even taller than him. Something about its shape seemed strikingly feminine, in some twisted way. It was more a delicate mockery by the way plantlike vines had contorted and constricted around one another to procure the figure. Even the snakelike lower half was covered in creeping flora.
Her claws were elegant but sharp, and Efferus could make out appendages growing from her back that resembled tree branches. Her face was mostly obscured by what could only be assumed as hair, red eyes fixated on the warlord.
“What… are you?” Efferus finally managed to utter, though half of him already knew the answer.
“I,” cooed the voice again,
“am the one who plants the seeds of war. The voice in the heads of trillions who oblige without question. And you…” The creature slithered toward him, the sound of rustling plant life growing closer and closer.
“…You should not exist. You are an abomination. An atrocity even to my standards."
"You’re… perfect.”
The plant creature raised her hands so her palms were facing forward. She leaned in and exhaled slowly which caused a small cloud of leaves and pollen to disperse toward Efferus. Before he could interject, he felt his limbs getting heavier and he slowly succumbed to a deep, deep slumber.
"W-what...."
...
Amid the wreckage of his only way back home, Th0rn awoke from unconciousness.
Painfully he sat up and looked toward the streets, expecting the abomination to be standing there waiting.
But there was nothing.
[[ End Part 2 of 3 ]]
