Warhammer 40k: Starting as a Rogue Trader

Chapter 140: Nydus Worm

On their first day on Malfi's surface, Norris and the Ghosts followed a sewage pipe that connected the hive city to the wasteland, making their way deep into the Malfi underhive. Their ability to phase-shift allowed them to ignore most terrain.

Having lived through the Genestealer Cult incident on Agathos, Norris's first worry was whether the underhive here had been completely taken over by Genestealers, just as it had been back then. Those creatures were much harder to deal with than Chaos cultists; their perfect unity and fight-to-the-last-man spirit would make any operation incredibly difficult.

However, Norris glanced at the Ghosts beside him and the backpack on his own back, and felt a little more at ease. Inside their packs, Zerg eggs lay quietly, waiting to be hatched.

Norris had seen the planet that the Zerg now occupied. Lucan had named it Char, just like the Zerg homeworld in StarCraft. The memory of the planet-spanning swarm and the Leviathans floating in the void was still deeply etched in his mind.

Norris then thought of Kerrigan, the girl who was the true ruler of this terrifying race. Anyone who met her would see only a lively and cheerful young girl. Only when she was controlling the Zerg did she reveal her queenly aspect.

As Norris began to explore the underhive, he discovered that the situation here was hardly any better than a GSC infestation.

"Does the governor here not send people to periodically clean out the underhive at all?!"

Norris couldn't believe what he was seeing. Even though the area they had explored was just a tiny fraction of the whole, it seemed there were no normal underhive settlements to be found. Nearly every hab-block was steeped in some form of Chaos worship. Norris even spotted a few hereteks from the Dark Mechanicum and, after tailing them, discovered a blasphemous factory. Its profane production lines were consuming human lives, turning them into weapons or converting them into corrupted combat servitors. From time to time, mutants were dragged in to be sacrificed or subjected to horrific biological modifications.

The existence of Chaos cults in an underhive was normal; it would be strange if there were none. Even on Holy Terra, in the shadow of the God-Emperor himself, Chaos cults festered in the depths. But under normal circumstances, the Adeptus Arbites or the hive's rulers would periodically send teams to purge the underhive, suppressing the cultists and mutants to prevent them from growing into an overwhelming plague.

But this place showed no signs of any such cleansing. The only law was the endless conflict between cults of different gods and tribes of mutants, all vying for control. Governess Glydus was simply letting them run rampant, allowing these cults to grow stronger.

In half a day, Norris was astonished to find that he had already seen the five mainstream branches of Chaos worship, and even some Chaos Undivided cultists, which was a rare sight among common heretics. The proportion of Chaos psykers and sorcerers here was also frighteningly high.

The entire Malfi underhive was like a living museum of Chaos, with different cults of competing philosophies existing under the banner of each dark god. Regardless, the wanton destruction wrought by these cults had thrown the underhive into a state of unimaginable chaos. Atrocious scenes were everywhere, leaving Norris momentarily unsure of where to even begin.

What shocked him most, however, was the sight of soldiers in PDF uniforms openly conducting trade with these heretics. All sorts of supplies were being transported here, used to fund these very cults.

Norris and his Ghosts did not attack these traitors. Instead, they began to search for an uninhabited area suitable for the Zerg to grow. The good news was that the underhive was massive, with more than enough empty zones to hide the eggs.

Before they reached a critical mass, the Zerg were not strong; they were, in fact, fragile. If they were discovered too early, Norris had no confidence that the basic Zergling units he could hatch would be able to withstand a siege by hordes of heretics. Hatching higher-tier Zerg units took time, and Lucan couldn't afford to wait.

"Lord Norris! This area is suitable. We have scouted it, and there are no heretics nearby!"

"Excellent! Let's begin!"

Norris and his team took off their backpacks and placed the Zerg eggs within an abandoned network of pipes.

At that same moment, Kerrigan, who was at Lucan's side, sensed the status of the eggs.

"Father, Norris and his team should have finished placing the eggs. I can sense that they are eager to break out of their shells."

Kerrigan's body had now grown to the equivalent of a ten-year-old girl. The ever-increasing number of Zerg continued to strengthen her psychic and physical being. As the Zerg numbers grew, the hive-mind network became more and more tangible, allowing Kerrigan to remotely incubate some strains of Zerg. At this point, if one were to name the chief psyker of the Mongorte Dynasty, it would undoubtedly be Kerrigan.

"Kerrigan, hatch the eggs."

"Understood, Father!"

As the hive-mind network transmitted Kerrigan's command, the eggs before Norris's eyes hatched into Drones. Soon, a great Hatchery began to take shape in the depths of Malfi's underhive.

This was the first time the Zerg had truly taken root on a human-controlled planet in this universe. Even on Agathos, there were no Zerg; although the populace could be told the creatures obeyed Lucan's command, their appearance was simply too terrifying, and human acceptance of such beings was far too low.

Creep began to spread throughout the pipes, consuming metal, abandoned industrial waste, and the various mutated creatures of the underhive as nutrients.

According to Lucan's plan, the Zerg this time did not follow their normal development cycle of producing Drones and various combat-strain buildings to slowly build up their forces step-by-step. Even for the Zerg, reaching a scale sufficient to influence the course of the war through conventional means would take a very long time. As their presence grew, they would inevitably be discovered, leading to a war with the underhive cults.

So this time, Lucan had Kerrigan hatch not a sea of Zerglings, but a very special kind of Zerg. All biomass and energy were used to produce a unique strain known as the Nydus Worm.

Although in their normal setting, these creatures, like living tunnel-boring machines, used their incredibly strong muscles and sharp teeth to dig underground tunnels to create a rapid transit network for the swarm.

However, with the blessing of the System, the Nydus Worms once again displayed their in-game effect. Two Nydus Worms could be linked without a physical connection, allowing for the direct transport of the swarm, even across planets. If not for the fact they could only transport ground units and only Zerg units, the Webway of the Old Ones could have been retired.

However, through Lucan's testing, he found a very fatal flaw. While they could ignore terrain and distance to link two points, the farther the distance, the fewer units the Nydus Worm could transport. Interstellar transport would continuously drain the Nydus Worm's lifespan, its body gradually losing vitality. For stable, long-range transport, a Nydus Worm required a large number of Queens by its side to constantly restore its life.

But even then, the Nydus Worm had a limit. Once it was reached, no amount of healing could restore its life. Lucan suspected this had something to do with the nature of the Warp in this universe.

At this moment on the planet Char, a massive Zerg swarm was already waiting to be summoned. Giant Nydus Worms had been gestated, waiting only for their counterpart on Malfi to be hatched.

☆☆☆

-> SUPPORT ME WITH POWER STONE

-> FOR EVERY 400 PS = BOUNS CHAPTER

☆☆☆

-> 20 Advanced chapters Now Available on Patreon!!

-> https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Inkshaper

(Just remove the hyphen (-) to access patreon normally)

If you like this novel please consider leaving a review that's help the story a lot Thank you