Warhammer 40: Doom

Chapter 281 Great Father & Nurturing Mother
While the city war raged fiercely, the area beneath the city remained eerily calm.

If we could penetrate and scan the entire planet, humanity would discover something terrifying—the world has been hollowed out, and beneath the surface lie cocoon-like tunnels filled with silk threads.

The passageways were interconnected, and there were countless filarial offspring and pseudo-fathers, as well as "pseudo-mothers" of centipedes with ovipositors. The underground scene was harmonious, completely unlike the bustling scene on the surface.

After many twists and turns, the governor traversed countless silken passages and wandered through the maze-like corridors before finally arriving before his parents.

He unzipped his robe and knelt reverently inside the cocoon. The skin on his back split open layer by layer from the midline, revealing the transparent silkworm's body.

Here, it no longer needs to disguise itself as a human; it has returned to its real home!

"Great Father! Nurturing Mother!" It said no more, its nerve tendrils connected to the fine threads, expressing the reverence from its soul through mental fluctuations.

Before the governor, who was bowing in worship, two incredible individual filarial worms appeared as if deities had descended to earth.

The nurturing mother below is like a centipede, an arthropod with a long, slender body. Within her transparent body, there is a colorful energy, as if a universe is born and destroyed within her.

The mother has pairs of nerve tentacles on both sides of her body, neatly arranged. The tentacles are connected to the silk threads of the cocoon, and her will extends to all the nests along the silk threads.

Her head is a loving face, kind and beautiful, with no blame in her eyes, only the pure love of a mother for her child.

On the back of the nurturing mother, the great and loving father embraces her, their two tails intertwined, the root of life sown within the mother's body, together nurturing countless offspring.

On the body of the loving father are countless surging eyes, permeated with colorful hues, capable of seeing through everything.

His head still had sharp teeth and mouthparts, but inside grew a human face, exuding both majesty and tolerance, much like the stern but all-encompassing father in a human family.

They engaged in intercourse without restraint in front of their offspring, constantly sowing seeds of life, with insect eggs emerging like a tide, multiplying into new life.

The ruler was intoxicated; it sensed this scene and its mind was intoxicated by life.

Since thousands of years ago, parents have been embracing each other so closely. It is in this eternal reproduction that they have gained wisdom and driven the filarial worm species to seize human living space.

Now, facing the invasion of humans, the parents showed no panic, their confident demeanor clearly indicating they had a plan.

"My child~"

The loving mother's words were conveyed through her nerve tendrils, full of doting affection, without a trace of blame for the ruler.

"I am... my beloved mother." The governor returned to his mother's embrace, surrounded by maternal love, his consciousness feeling as if it were soaking in a hot spring, warm and relaxed.

“You need not be alarmed,” the loving mother reassured her child, explaining the next steps: “Infiltrating humanity is not urgent for now; your father and I have new plans.”

She used her psychic power to transmit a plan into the child's mind: the filarial race would continue to survive according to the will of their great parents.

The governor understood, and the grand plan emerged in his mind, unfolding like a scroll.

The loving father and mother prepared to abandon the ground. Taking advantage of the human bombing of the surface, they ordered their kin to block all ground passages and cease direct conflict with humans.

After a brief war, the two creators of their race realized that the filarial worms could not defeat the well-prepared humans on the front lines.

The current strategy is to leverage the decisiveness of "protecting and cutting off the tail" in human culture, and at a certain cost, make humans believe that filarial worms have been eradicated.

After humans leave, the filarial worms return, infecting humans with even greater caution.

At that point, things will fall into place naturally, and the surface humans who come to colonize will also have navigators, allowing the filarial worms to roam freely in the void.

After reviewing the ideological blueprint, the governor found the plan to be feasible.

To avoid humans, the race has blocked a 20-kilometer-thick passage on the surface and is hiding deep underground, beyond the reach of detectors, to evade human extermination.

The only problem now is how to convince humans that they have destroyed the filarial mastermind.

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Perhaps knowing what his son was thinking, the loving father, who had been silent all along, spoke up. His voice was heavy and hoarse, which greatly encouraged the governor.

“I have created two bodies that will make humans think that we are standing in front of them.”

"Great and merciful Father!" The governor prostrated himself, shouting in human language, "Your foresight is boundless; under your guidance, our race is destined to soar to the stars!"

Upon hearing such praise, the loving father smiled on his solemn face, and all the thousands of bright eyes on his body revealed a look of compassion.

As the Ghanaian filarials plotted their escape, the ground war progressed smoothly, with the legion advancing to the city's second ring road, nearing the city's administrative center. The battle intensified, and the battlefield was devoid of human hosts, filled only with pseudo-fathers and pseudo-mothers, using their flesh and blood to withstand human attacks.

Unfortunately, they lack long-range guns and cannons, and their biological weapons are no match for explosives and artillery.

Inside the command center, Doom's expression grew increasingly grave as he awaited the arrival of the real enemy.

The legion's attack went exceptionally smoothly, encountering almost no strong resistance. The filarial worms launched a frenzied counterattack, which seemed like the last hurrah of a race facing extinction.

They were fearless of death, as if they were risking their lives to protect something important, refusing to yield to human bombs.

"Extend the artillery fire," Doom said, his eyes flashing coldly as he marked the location on the holographic map, "Destroy the Flarval Administrative Center."

He never believed that an ambitious race with such limited resources would be so easily subdued by the alien leader.

As the Primarch gave the order, various heavy artillery pieces were aimed at the city center, using the wrath of the god of war to pound the aliens' weak defenses.

The shield generators have already been breached, leaving the alien city wide open, allowing artillery and missiles to strike directly into the heart of the city.

Boom!
A barrage of artillery fire! Supersonic shells roared through the atmosphere as they hurtled toward humanity's enemies!

Boom!
Another massive artillery barrage erupted as the Iron Hand Legion unleashed its fury upon the aliens.

The earth trembled, and the explosions came like a tsunami. Inside their power armor, the Space Marines could feel the vibrations from the intense bombardment, causing their vocal cords and eardrums to vibrate.

The mortal auxiliary soldiers knelt on one knee, lowered their bodies, and opened their mouths to avoid having their eardrums shattered by the sonic booms generated by the intense artillery fire.

Under such a massive bombardment, no carbon-based life form could survive; only extraordinary life forms would survive.

The entire city was deathly silent; there was no more hissing or wailing of the filarial worms, which had been blown to pieces and whose bodies were buried in the rubble.

"Ka~ka~ka~"

Painful sobs echoed from the ruins, a grief so profound that even ordinary people couldn't help but shed tears upon hearing them.

"Alpha-level psionic fluctuations detected!" Sophia reported immediately. The holographic map showed a psionic barrier appearing in the city center, saving several buildings from the artillery fire.

Doom knew that what he had been waiting for had arrived. He raised his left arm, retrieved his shield from the dimensional space, and prepared to head to the battlefield.

“Brother,” the holographic communicator popped up, and Ferrus’s serious, square face appeared, extending an invitation with a hint of a smile: “Interested in coming over?”

Seeing him fully armed, with a firearms backpack on his back and Iron Hand carrying the Broken Furnace, looking ready to wreak havoc, Doom smiled and took the super shotgun hanging from his waist.

His eyes narrowed, and he said with murderous intent, "I couldn't ask for more!"

At the forefront of the battle, soldiers set up teleportation beacons, and the two imperial offspring, accompanied by the glow of teleportation, stepped into the front-line battlefield.

Felus was surrounded by the Primarch Guard, a hundred carefully selected Morlock Terminators representing the Legion's highest combat strength.

They wore the Legion Iron Hand insignia on their right shoulder armor and the Quadruped insignia on their left shoulder armor, their steps were extremely heavy, and they carried various custom weapons, guarding the Primarch on both sides.

Doom's entourage was much smaller, with twenty Doom Warriors and twenty Imperial Guards entering the arena. Although fewer in number, their combat power was by no means weak.

The black-armored warriors remained silent, silently lighting up their dimensional blades, activating their composite shoulder cannons, and deploying into a guard formation.

The leader was Obelisk, a tall man with the Mark of Destruction on his left shoulder, the Nur Sword Orchid on his right shoulder, and the Lightning Eagle on his chest, representing his participation in the War of Unification.

The golden-armored warriors were the most dazzling, wielding halberds bestowed by the emperor himself. Odysseus, the captain of the shield guards, held the Eagle Banner, his red cloak was exceptionally bright, and his greatsword in his right hand was wreathed in lightning.

The mortals knelt down; having witnessed such a scene in their lifetime, they would have no regrets.

Legendary warriors, surrounding the godlike imperial offspring, launched attacks against humanity's enemies.

These men, who shed blood but not tears, shed hot tears on the battlefield. Even if they died at that moment, it would be worth it!

Doom and Feralas exchanged a glance, gripped their weapons, and said in unison, "Destroy them!"

(End of this chapter)