Conversion

My soul, if such a thing exists, is gone. My mind, which I know full well to exist, has changed. Changed in that it has been corrupted. Something festers within my consciousness, poisoning my blood and wrapping my bones in shackles. Slowly but surely, like the breaking of waves on a shore, my spirit is stripped from me, the grains of sanity being consumed in the ocean of madness.

No, not madness. Something worse...

It began so suddenly. Like Fortuna, like Katina, they descended on Corneria. A coupling of machine and monster, they cut down all in their path. The lucky ones, all things considered. And as for the unlucky ones, those like myself, we were twisted until we became unrecognisable. And after that, we joined in the killing.

Loyalty...that is all that drives us. Lasers, screams, death...It's as if Corneria itself is crying out against that which assaults it, as if the planet is a mother attempting to protect her children. It will do her no good though. This isn't mere conquest waged by Venom. No, it is far worse. Darkness has come to Lylat, extinguishing the light of civilization. It kills me to know that I'm part of this taint.

Well, technically it isn't killing me. Though I wish this were the case...

I feel thirsty. Not from need of water, but for something more. Something that does not stem from whatever remains of my own desires but from the thirst of an entire species. A single desire to consume, to assimilate, to evolve. They bring pain to those who oppose them, but this is not their intent. Pain, death, terror...these are merely the symptoms of the disease that besets Lylat rather than the disease itself. And like a cancer, it will continue to multiply, its desire never satiated.

I receive word from the pathogen's nucleus. Reinforcements are coming to this world, however futile the attempt may be. Antibiotics are useless and it is too late for immunization. Nonetheless, the injection has already begun. A single ship has made planetfall in the vicinity of members of their kind...no, my kind that serve to block the prey's radar. And surging forward with my comrades, I seek to bring the intruder into our fold.

Not by my will. But theirs.

It's a useless endeavour. The prey, so solitary, so composed, stands his ground, firing at the infected. Blue lasers tear through us, dark blood filling the streets despite his weapon's cauterizing effects. Blood flows freely...Corneria's blood. Blood that is no longer clogged by that which would hinder the progression of natural life in its own manner. And despite the roars of the greater whole, despite the hatred emanating from a distant world far beyond this star system, despite the knowledge that it is too late for me...

...I welcome it.