“Then what?” Mendez snapped, cradling his bandaged hand.
The fight was chaos. Tola’s frag grenade took one Gestalt at the knees, but the second charged Mendez, its blade-arm punching through his stomach. Mendez had time to look down, shrug, and press the detonator on the satchel charge he’d been carrying. The explosion vaporized him and the Gestalt. Shrapnel tore through Tola’s leg, sending him down into the pink muck. rimworld fleshmass nucleus
Tia unholstered her charge rifle. “We cut out the heart.” The journey to the Nucleus was a nightmare of wet steps. Each footfall squelched. The trees were now hollow, their bark replaced by a translucent membrane filled with swirling spores. The air hummed the psychic drone, but up close, it had words: Join. Dissolve. Become. “Then what
There were three of them. Former colonists—from a settlement that must have been here before. Their bodies had been repurposed: arms fused into scything blades of calcified cartilage, ribcages splayed open to reveal lungs that now sprayed clouds of corrosive mist. Their faces were still recognizable, stretched over bone, mouths frozen in a silent, ecstatic scream. Mendez had time to look down, shrug, and