In the fire-bathed side hall of the Phoenix Palace, Soshyan, who was wearing a long robe, stared at the thing surrounded by four Phoenix Forbidden Soldiers in surprise, and then looked at Veronica, who was wearing a wide-sleeved long skirt next to her.
"They're not mistaken, are they?"
Veronica covered her sleeves and chuckled, saying:
"I didn't believe it at first, but that's what it said. After inspection, the druids also confirmed that it has a high degree of similarity with the Tyranids' genetic sequence, and we can basically conclude that it is the same species."
"hiss..."
Soshyan took a breath, walked down the steps, came to this thing and looked at it carefully.
At first glance, it looks like it evolved from some kind of reptile. It is almost three meters tall. It is covered with blue-gray skin with thick scales. Its lower body is that of some kind of quadruped, with four stocky and strong legs and a body with raised scales.
The tail has two short spines extending from the back to the end of the tail. The abdomen is covered with some kind of scarlet device, making it look like it has a big red belly. The upper body is approximately human-shaped, with two strong arms and a face.
A respirator mask originally covering the upper body has been removed, revealing an animalistic face and sharp teeth protruding from the gums. Two small white eyes carry cunning wisdom and fear. The back of the neck is covered with a metal armor plate, which is always connected.
Some kind of raised device on the back.
Soshyan walked around it twice, but still couldn't see any trace of it being related to Tyranids. It even used technological items. Although gene stealers would also use them, Tyranid creatures like gene stealers
The characteristics are still very obvious.
Could this also be a parasitic type of gene stealer?
Or maybe some kind of alien infected by genestealers?
Then, Soshyan picked up a photo, which was of the Tyranid Tyrant chained to an anatomy frame.
"Is that you up here?"
The beast blinked, looked at the photo in Soshyan's hand, and then answered in a slightly strange but clear Ada language:
"it's me."
Soshyan walked across from him and placed the photo next to its face.
"Yeah?"
"yes."
After saying that, it turned its head and glanced at the tyrant.
"At that time, I was still relatively thin."
Soshiyang suddenly laughed. This thing actually had a bit of humor. He didn't even believe that this thing was Tyron.
"This is not you."
"You said it's not me?"
"no."
"I said it's not me either. How could such a brainless beast be me."
Soshyan threw away the photo, and it burned into smoke in mid-air.
"Then what exactly are you?"
"Back to Your Highness the Phoenix King, I am an archivist, a free treasure hunter and mercenary."
"I mean, your race."
After a moment of silence, the self-proclaimed archivist replied:
"Once upon a time it was Tyron."
"Hey, I didn't understand what you said. What does it mean to have been a Tyranid? Can your race still change at any time?"
"It's not difficult to understand. I was indeed created by the Hive Mind, and was once controlled by its pheromones. But a piece of good luck allowed me to escape from this shackles. I am able to examine myself and reason.
Being able to fight and develop the power of my soul, I was naturally unwilling to exist as a tool and return to the digestion tank to become a puddle of biomass, so I escaped and began to live for myself. I began to learn
I am fascinated by the knowledge of various civilizations in the galaxy. I named myself Archivist because this is my goal, to record the traces of civilizations that exist now or have existed in the past, and to build my big museum."
After listening, Soshyan became even more curious.
"You escaped the control of the Hive? You seem to have mastered psychic powers? Why would the Tyranids create such... unstable existences like you?"
"Because its brainless beasts are useless except to devour and fight, but we are different. Even if we are controlled by pheromones, we can still think and learn. We can communicate with other races, act as ambassadors and intelligence agents, and use the minimum
Limit consumption to disintegrate all resistance in the path of the insect nest. We are creatures that fight with wisdom."
Soshyan nodded thoughtfully and whispered:
"But wisdom is a forbidden fruit. Once you swallow it, you will no longer be willing to be manipulated. But why are there almost no records about you, whether it is the Empire or Ada?"
"After a collective awakening, I planned an operation with other similar people who were interested in independence. We used a unique way to attract the attention of the human empire, allowing the fleet to be discovered in advance, and then faked the weakness of human defenses.
We received false information to lure the fleet to launch a general attack in advance. As a result, the Tyranid fleet was crushed by the Human Empire, which was well prepared. We took advantage of the chaotic opportunity to escape from the control of the Hive Mind. However, after escaping, we were also attacked by the Human Empire.
The pursuit can only be dispersed, leaving a regular meeting place. According to human chronology, it should be the M38 period, which was three thousand years ago. It was probably because of this behavior that the Hive Mind was fully aware of
We are uncontrollable, so we changed our strategy and used gene stealers, which are weaker, but more stable and better-controlled 'agents'. Facts have proved that it is indeed an extremely effective strategy."
"No wonder, the first contact with Tyranids in the empire's records was five hundred years ago. Obviously, there was no concept of Tyranids in any contact before that."
Soshyan then circled around the archivist again, but something still felt wrong.
"If you are really created by Tyranids, why are your physical makeup so different? There are no claws, no tentacles, no chitinous carapace...Does the Hive know how to disguise itself so as not to be exposed in advance?"
At this time, Veronica also came over and said:
"Arch Druid Vampanog said that a considerable part of its genes are significantly different from the Tyranids' sequence. Based on this, Vampanog came up with a conjecture that it was indeed Tyranids using biomass.
It is manufactured, so in terms of 'material', it is indeed Tyranid, but its structure is likely to come from a creature that was swallowed by Tyranid, and Tyranid 'copied' them with biomass according to the template of that creature.
, so this completely different physiological structure is formed.”
"That makes sense..."
Soshyan looked back at the archivist.
"Looking at how calm you have been since you came here, are you sure we won't hurt you?"
The archivist replied in a sullen voice:
"I also know a lot about Ada. As long as they are not the sadists in Comoros, most Ada can actually be called friendly, at least compared to humans, whether they are Ark Ada or Savage Ada
, will not attack a stranger who is not hostile at will. Your moral standard is still considered high in this galaxy."
"Ah."
Soshyan smiled and said to his left and right:
"Did you hear that? This person is so natural and unpretentious. No wonder he can be the messenger of Tyranids."