Rimworld Fleshmass Nucleus -

“Don’t look into their eyes,” Tia whispered. The Gestalts turned in unison.

Tia dragged herself out of the pool, her legs leaving ribbons of skin behind. Tola was already crawling toward her, tourniquet in hand. rimworld fleshmass nucleus

Tia was alone with the Nucleus.

There were three of them. Former colonists—from a settlement that must have been here before. Their bodies had been repurposed: arms fused into scything blades of calcified cartilage, ribcages splayed open to reveal lungs that now sprayed clouds of corrosive mist. Their faces were still recognizable, stretched over bone, mouths frozen in a silent, ecstatic scream. “Don’t look into their eyes,” Tia whispered

It was beautiful, in a terrible way. A spiraling obelisk of chitin and throbbing scarlet flesh, thirty feet high. Veins as thick as a human torso radiated outward, burrowing into the earth. At its base, a shallow pool of digestive fluid bubbled, half-dissolved megasloths and raiders floating within. And guarding it: the Gestalts . Tola was already crawling toward her, tourniquet in hand

“We can’t outrun it,” Tia said, standing. “The shuttle fuel is contaminated. The river is clogged with gill-growths. This whole valley is becoming one body.”

She sprinted into the Gestalt. Its blade-arm missed her spine by a centimeter. She slid, feet-first, into the shallow pool at the base of the Nucleus. The digestive fluid burned through her pants, her skin, down to the muscle. She screamed.