They found the Nucleus in a blasted crater where the old geothermal vent used to be.
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. rimworld fleshmass nucleus
Tia looked down at her hands. The skin between her fingers was weeping a clear sap. She’d stopped trying to wash it off. She looked at the others: Mendez, the farmer, now missing three fingers he’d hacked off after they sprouted tiny, toothy mouths. Little Whiskers, the colony’s tame megasloth, had grown a second, weeping eye on its flank. They’d had to put Whiskers down. They found the Nucleus in a blasted crater
Then she jammed the thermo lance into the soft underbelly of the Nucleus—where the veins met the main trunk—and pulled the trigger. Their bodies had been repurposed: arms fused into