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Chapter 25 - Chapter 25: The Hollowborn Signal

(Part 1 – The Day the Mirror Cracked)

🌐 [UNIFIED HIVE STATUS – EARTH PHASE III: SIGNAL TEST]

🧬 Total Biomass: 1,108,900📈 Gain Rate: +85,000/hr🪐 Controlled Worlds: 5🚀 Hive Ships in System: 9 (including Crownblade, Wyrmstar, 3 Fangborn, 2 Ghostsworn)🧫 Hollowkind Active: 275🧬 Global Relay Nodes: 17🧬 Earth Communication Control (Undetected): 61%

🌍 [DATE: 2199.01.01 – EARTH STANDARD]

New Year. New silence.

The world celebrates under flickering towers, flickering skies. Drones deliver champagne. AI orchestras play notes from space.

But in twenty-nine cities, someone watches the stars a little too long. Their eyes glass over. Their breath catches. They smile at nothing.

The signal has begun.

🧬 [PHASE III – SIGNAL ACTIVATION PROTOCOL: "BREATH WITHIN"]

Mo issues a passive pulse, not an order.

Just a tone.A biological resonance.A dreamnote.

Broadcast through Hive spores drifting in Earth's upper stratosphere, this tone activates Hollowkind memory-root chambers—biological clusters hidden within their spinal cords.

🔊 EFFECT:

Hollowkind begin to access instinctual knowledge

They start dreaming of Hiveworlds they've never seen

They start to remember being born in Gaia-Thex

They start to feel the need to prepare

🧬 [RESPONSE – HOLLOWKIND NETWORK ACTIVITY INCREASES 400%]

The Hive doesn't issue orders.The Hollowkind simply begin to move:

🏙️ [New Boston – Civilian Response Nexus]

Hollowkind Agent: Milo RedwayRole: Newsfeed Distribution DirectorAction: Hijacks four major info-feeds, inserts subliminal Hive rhythms behind news and adsResult: 3.8 million viewers report "static dreams," 16% drop in serotonin across city by morning

🏭 [Hano-Tokyo Fusion Rail Core]

Hollowkind: "Graine"Role: Mag-Lev Platform Chief EngineerAction: Lays Hive relay circuits in power conduits under the guise of insulationResult: First Hive Relay beneath human fusion grid—future launchpoint for Swarmling infestations

🛐 [The Vatican Bunker – Blacksite Archive 6C]

Hollowkind: "Father Ordo"Role: Chaplain EmeritusAction: Uses viral preacher code to spread the Creed as a prophecy through religious darknetResult: Cults begin forming around "The Returning Womb," believing Earth's gods are in the stars

💻 [Spaceport Antioch – Mars Launch Corridor]

Wireborn Swarm: Unit-Null5, "Iota"Merged with Traffic AIInfects seven outbound spacecraft's guidance systemsEach ship now carries a dormant Hive Spore Core

🧬 [NEW UNIT TYPE DETECTED: "THE SLEEPSEED"]

As Hollowkind activate, some die.

Not from trauma—but by internal rupture.

Their bodies split. From their lungs and skulls, emerge:

"Sleepseeds" – Airborne Hiveborne symbionts

Size of a large fly

Invisible to most scanning tech

Burrow into humans while they sleep

Lay dormant for 6–8 days

Activate on psychic trigger and link victims directly to Mo's Hivemind

🌍 Sleepseed Spread (Day 1):

Global Infections: 4,600 confirmed

Infection Detection Rate: <0.003%

🧠 [EARTH BEGINS TO NOTICE] 📍 [Geneva U.P.C. Security Council – Red Meeting]

"These patterns aren't random.""These aren't bio-weapons. This is… this is behavior-based infiltration.""They're not trying to destroy us. They're trying to understand us first."

"Or replace us."

Name Used for the First Time (classified):THE SWARM KING

🛰️ [MO – INSIDE THE CROWNBLADE, OUTSIDE JUPITER ORBIT]

He stands at the central command throne, eyes closed.

Around him, screens show every Hollowkind feed, every sleeper awakening, every priest singing the Creed in tongues that sound like human prayers twisted through bone.

Mo (to Layra):"This is the slow war.""This is the one where they defeat themselves—because they don't remember what it means to be alive."

"When I walk on Earth, it will not be conquest.""It will be… recognition."

🔥 [SUDDEN EARTH INCIDENT – SIBERIA GENE TOMB BREACH]

📍 Siberia, Weyland Biobank Vault 7C

Hollowkind sleeper-cell "Mira" activated early

Emergency mental collapse triggered Swarmling rupture

300 Swarmlings burst from Mira's chest cavity

7 Vault Techs killed, 19 infected

Swarm destroyed after 2-hour battle by EarthGov mechs

🧬 But it's too late.

The Swarm burrowed, left behind relay seeds.Vault 7C is now a Hive Node.Active. Pulsing. Growing.

📡 [EARTHGOV: "PROJECT NIGHTMARE" GOES PUBLIC]

Global Martial Law declared in 8 sectorsMobile AI Drones called "Saint-Class Interceptors" deployedCivil unrest surgesMass panic on darknet: "People are waking up with metal in their blood"

But no one knows what the enemy looks like.

Because it smiles.Because it works.Because it holds your baby.Because it is you.

🌑 [CLOSING SCENE – EARTH SKY, UNSEEN SHADOW]

Somewhere, a woman walks her dog.Her eyes flash black for a second.

A man checks his watch—it blinks a Creed glyph and returns to normal.

A child draws the Crownblade in crayon.

A priest opens his mouth to speak, and bone dust falls out instead of words.

Earth begins to crack.

And above, the Crownbladebreathes.

(Part 2 – The First Teeth)

🌐 [HIVE STATUS – EARTH PHASE III CONTINUED]

🧬 Biomass Stored: 1,472,900📈 Gain Rate: +85,000/hr🧫 Hollowkind: 288 (225 Active, 63 Sleeper-State)🧬 Sleepseed Infections: ~31,000+ globally🌍 Hive Relay Nodes (Earthbound): 24🧬 Swarm Units Secreted into Earth Infrastructure: 2,300+📊 Estimated Earth Awareness of Hive: 0.4% (classified, suppressed)

📍 [LOCATION: BERLIN STACK-TUNNEL 07]

The underground supermetro line beneath Berlin is packed.Night traffic. Automated trains. Fluorescent lights buzz quietly.

Among the crowd:

Hollowkind: Toren-47Disguise: University EngineerBody Temperature: 37.2°CPulse: Human mimicry pattern BHive Link: Awake

He closes his eyes as the train doors open.

And steps into a node.

🧬 [THE FIRST FULL ACTIVATION: RELAY NODE SIGMA-07]

Toren-47 doesn't say a word.

He kneels between tracks.

His body softens—skin folding, bones hissing as they rearrange into Hive geometry.Spinal ribs split outward like blooming petals.

The Relay Node awakens.

From beneath Berlin's crust, buried Swarmling pods—hidden in transport cables, junction veins, pressure vents—open.

Silently.

Then:

🧬 Swarmlings pour out of the ground.

Fast.Fluid.Screaming without mouths.

📹 [SECURITY FOOTAGE — UTC 22:09:34]

First civilian hit: 12-year-old girl, spine shattered instantly.Second: security drone — torn apart mid-air.Third: station crowd erupts in blind panic, screaming, falling, trampling each other.

Then the lights go out.

And the Hive turns the entire superstructure into a womb.

🔥 [RESPONSE: EARTH SECURITY – LEVEL 6 RESPONSE PROTOCOL TRIGGERED]

"SCPD to all units—Metro 07 is compromised.""Not terror. Not gas. Something else. Something growing."

Saint-Class Interceptors deployed within 17 minutes.

They arrive armed with railcannons, flame drones, and EMP burst grenades.

But the walls are alive now.

Their bullets don't stop the swarm.Their heat feeds it.One Interceptor is torn in half by a Hive Yautja birthed mid-battle from the station wall.

This is not an outbreak.

This is a message.

📡 [THE WORLD SEES]

Live-streamers capture 4 minutes before feeds drop.Government blocks transmissions, but not fast enough.Clips spread.

What the world sees:

A man splitting in half and birthing monsters

A swarm that moves like it's thinking

A child running from something that isn't visible until it's too late

They see Hive Yautja.They don't know what it is—But it's not human.Not Predator.Worse.

🧬 [SCENE: INSIDE THE RELAY NODE – 1 HOUR AFTER]

The walls pulse.

Hive resin consumes steel and concrete alike.Toren-47's body is now part of the node, eyes still intact, watching nothing.

A Skyrn descends from the ceiling.Looks through him.

It speaks—not aloud—but through echo-vibration:

"First tooth. First blood."

"More will bloom."

🧠 [MO – INSIDE THE CROWNBLADE, MARS ORBIT]

Mo is still.Frozen in meditation.Layra and Kharn kneel before him.

The Crownblade vibrates gently as if sharing his dream.

Kharn: "The first strike is known."

Layra: "The silence is over."

Mo (opening his eyes):"Not yet."

"They still call it terrorism."

"They haven't understood it's them we're birthing."

He looks at Earth on the viewing screen.

"Let them flinch. Let them fear."

"We'll give them more."

📈 [HIVE DEPLOYMENT – CONTINENTAL ROLL-OUT BEGINS]

In the next 12 hours:

✅ 3 more Hollowkind activate relay nodes:

Chicago Deep Loop – 91 civilian casualties

Mumbai Subterranean Sector 14 – 13 Earthgov soldiers overrun

Lagos Water Purification Arc – Hive roots take control of potable water for 6 million people

✅ 8 new Sleepseed Clusters bloom—infecting 22,000 new hosts✅ 900 Swarmlings born directly inside Earth's systems✅ 17 Hollowkind merge permanently with structures, becoming new relay-node cores

🧬 [NEW HIVE UNIT UNLOCKED: "Flesh Choirs"]

Spawned inside human infrastructure.

Composed of repurposed vocal cords and bone chimes

Emit Hive harmonics that cause sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and religious fervor

3 active across Earth already (unnoticed)

They are the gospel.Not of belief—But of reality rewritten.

🔬 [EARTH'S BEST GUESS – MISIDENTIFICATION PHASE]

United EarthGov releases global statement:

"This is a rogue bio-terrorist event, possibly a synthetic plague derived from old Weyland assets."

"Do not panic. Stay in controlled zones."

"Report any hallucinations, unknown symbols, or strange emotional shifts."

"Avoid tunnels, vents, or unfamiliar walls."

They still don't know.

But they're beginning to suspect.

And that's when Mo sends the next signal.

💀 [CLOSING SCENE – EARTH, NIGHTFALL IN NEW YORK]

A girl wakes up screaming.

Her room is filled with buzzing.

She turns on the light—

—and finds her dog suspended upside down, breathing but unmoving, wrapped in something wet and alive.

On the wall, scratched in resin:

"I'M YOU."

She runs outside.

No one else saw it.

But above, in orbit…

The Crownblade turns slightly.Facing Earth.

For the first time in 219 years, the moonlight hits it just right.

And Earth finally sees something in the sky.

Something… wrong.

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