Warhammer 40: Doom

Chapter 374 Gray Gu
Losing its planetary shield, the fist-sized force field container slowly fell into the unprotected planet. Its outer shell broke open 300 meters above the surface, releasing its internal carrier.

It was a mass of grayish-black lead sand, like a ribbon falling into the water, changing shape wildly with the ocean currents, never the same for a moment.

To the naked eye, its surface is as fine as silk, its texture as dense as mercury, and it floats in the atmosphere as if weightless.

From a microscopic perspective, the interior of the floating lead sand contains countless tiny machines—these nanomachines are only one hundred nanometers in size, appearing light gray, similar to spiders in the macroscopic world.

"Release them quickly!" Onboard the Glorious Old Days, as the nanomachines landed on the ground, Harlan impatiently urged Gela, "If you can't bear to part with them, then put them down and let me do it!"

Harlan, who had always been keen on unleashing devastating weapons, couldn't contain himself when he saw Gela hesitate and urged her repeatedly, disregarding her heavy mood.

Grala subconsciously took a step back, and seeing the white-armored warriors eager to try, he no longer hesitated and activated the nano-disaster controller.

"Target: Jungle World, primarily inhabited by humans, discover unknown psionic alien species and local ecosystem species."

The nanomachines were powerful; once released into the planet's atmosphere, they immediately detected nearby species and identified the specific species to be targeted.

"Please select a species to destroy." The controller projects an image, awaiting the user's selection.

Gera sighed deeply, his expression complex, a mixture of grief and vengeful satisfaction. He gave the controller the order: "Eliminate humans and aliens, and preserve the complete ecosystem."

"Destroy command confirmed. Begin execution immediately." Upon receiving the command, the controller's projection disappeared, and no further movement occurred.

"It's already started." Just as Gra was feeling lost, Li Tang's voice drew his attention to the command tower.

On the holographic projection of the main star, the red markers representing nanomachines began to move.

Everyone stared at the holographic projection, observing how this creation of the golden age operated, until its goal of destroying the entire world was achieved.

The nano-plague received an extinction order, rapidly spreading through the air and disappearing from visual observation as if it had never existed.

From a microscopic perspective, nanomachines, like invisible waves, have begun their secret invasion from a microscopic level that is difficult to detect.

A tiny, spider-like machine searches for steel and usable resources, disassembles itself using a few mechanical legs, and replicates itself in three minutes.

This cycle repeats itself, from 1 to 2, from 2 to 4, from 4 to 8...

The humans, now soulless, are unaware of the arrival of the nanomachines and wander through the broken nest.

Nanomachines don't miss any resources. They silently and easily penetrate human skin to enter the microscopic level and capture iron in the human body.

Iron is drawn from the blood, and the blood can no longer carry oxygen. The person who has lost their soul feels suffocated and begins to gasp for breath.

However, the cold air rushing into the lungs could not alleviate the deadly pain of oxygen deprivation.

As the nanobots proliferate, the condition worsens: brain hypoxia causes blackouts and tinnitus, and dizziness becomes increasingly severe; the heart becomes unstable and convulses due to lack of oxygen, and multiple organs in the body stop functioning.

The disoriented person collapsed to the ground, silently closing their eyes. The systemic collapse of their organs irreversibly took their life.

Ten minutes after the nanomachines entered the body, vital signs completely ceased; after thirty minutes, the body began to shrivel, with lead-colored liquid flowing from the blue blood vessels.

Sixty minutes later, the human body broke open from the inside out, and billions of tiny machines devoured the remains, completely annihilating the life form and leaving no trace.

Three hours after the invasion began, the planet remained calm, but a gray mist rose from the nano-plague release zone and continued to spread outwards.

Wherever the gray mist passed, steel began to slowly melt away, and the soulless fell in droves, all turning into nanomachines.

In some dark corner, Lady Clara hides, waiting for the human fleet to leave orbit.

They know perfectly well that it would be too costly for humans to spend so much effort hunting them across the entire planet.

Humanity has only two choices: either abandon this world and leave, or completely destroy the planet.

The first option is self-evident: they don't need to worry about being cleared out. After humans leave, they can eat the last scraps and then leave.

The second option is different: if humanity chooses to destroy the world, then it should open a portal and leave this planet.

They simply need to wait quietly and observe how humans choose to respond; the initiative is in their own hands.

In the darkness, many Lady Krak lurked in the shadows, using psychic abilities to spy on the human fleet in orbit.

Suddenly! A woman named Clara felt a sudden alarm; a psychic warning signaled that she would die within ten minutes!
Terrified, it sat cross-legged within the magic circle, using its spiritual power to prophesy and seek the cause of its death in order to find a way to survive.

For some reason, perhaps due to the poor air circulation in its cramped hiding place, its breathing became unconsciously rapid, and it felt a vague sense of dizziness.

With a long sigh, Lady Clara's diamond-shaped mouth opened and closed repeatedly, her mouthparts flying through the air as she whispered psionic incantations to predict her death.

The incantation flew out and merged into the void, and a psionic light mirror appeared before its eyes. Looking into it, it was immediately taken aback.

A slender limb caressed a smooth brain, and a thousand questions flooded in. The omen of death was not pointing towards the human fleet, but rather originating from within himself?
It felt that the prophecy of its impending doom might be wrong, so it cast the spell again, its breathing quickening.

The prophecy was consistent with what had just been said; the psychic mirror still showed him sitting firmly at the center of the magic circle.

Did I kill myself?

The first prophecy may be wrong, but the second prophecy with its extended chanting will never have a problem. But why would the omen of death originate from oneself?

While it was racking its brains in confusion, it suddenly felt its breathing become much more rapid than before, and it experienced an ominous dizziness...

Is it poison?

Lady Clara was horrified by her own guess and immediately chanted a spell to heal herself, but the spell failed.

Halfway through reciting the incantation, it realized it had forgotten the spell!

"Something's not right!" it roared in alarm, standing up from the center of the magic circle and discovering various unsettling anomalies.

Rapid breathing, weakness in the limbs, and memory loss all indicate that I am currently under attack.

What was it? Startled, it rushed out of its hiding place, only to find that the outside world was still the same, with only misty fog covering the mountains and the air still fresh.

Then its hind legs went limp, and it rolled down the hillside into the valley, its mind a complete blank, its memories beginning to dissipate.

Before closing its eyes, it only sensed that the fog today was a little cooler than usual when it adhered to its body.

A few minutes later, the body was completely dead, but Lady Clara's powerful spirit stayed by the corpse and refused to leave.

Before it dissipated, it had many questions in its mind: why did it die?
Then the doubt was resolved.

The corpse quickly shriveled up, was slowly swallowed by the flowing lead-colored substance, and then disappeared into gray mist.

Only then did it finally understand. Human attacks had not ended; they had unleashed new forms of attack, invading from the imperceptible microscopic realm and silently killing macroscopic beings.

The all-knowing soul began to form hand seals, preparing to unleash a spell to notify its unsuspecting kin. However, its consciousness suddenly went black, and it vanished completely from the real universe.

Lady Clara's soul, now without a physical body, shines like a beacon in the Warp, attracting countless hunters to feast upon her.

Lady Clara never imagined that these creatures, which devoured souls in the real universe, would become human food after their deaths...

Ten hours after the release of the nano-disaster, the number of nanomachines surged exponentially, and the gray mist spread rapidly, enveloping the entire planet.

The sudden changes at the micro level finally led to a direct effect at the macro level.

Human nests melted away like ice and snow, without any earth-shattering events, just silently "melting," releasing more gray mist.

All industrial facilities and man-made objects were completely devoured by the swarm of nanobots and assimilated into even more nanomachines.

The gray fog thickened and thickened, eventually forming a massive storm that ravaged the planet Grava, penetrating every nook and cranny and cleansing every microscopic corner.

Lady Clara had nowhere to hide. If a nanobot entered her body, death was inevitable, and her physical body would be gradually consumed.

In the subspace that overlaps with the real universe, countless demons await the release of souls, rushing forward to tear them to pieces and feast on their delicious meal.

The alien race was utterly annihilated, body and soul!

“It’s terrifying…” On high orbit, Grallah witnessed everything from the bridge, his voice hoarse as he exclaimed in horror: “Silent and painful death, silent and stealthy, arriving without a sound.”

"How insidious and vicious!" Harlan said dismissively, but his eyes remained fixed on the scene, watching with great interest.

(End of this chapter)