Striders

Classification: Celeripteryx

Common Name: Strider

Type: Ag’nagaruth Possessed — Predatory Form

If Husks are the slow tide of the Ag’nagaruth, Striders are the blade hidden inside it.

Where a Husk overwhelms through numbers and persistence, a Strider kills through speed.

They are faster, more coordinated and far more aggressive than their shambling counterparts. Their bodies retain more functional musculature, but that remaining structure is twisted into something built almost entirely for pursuit. Limbs lengthen. Joints contort. Fingers harden into hooked talons capable of ripping through armour, bulkheads and flesh with terrifying ease.

A Strider does not wander. It hunts.

Their movement is often the first sign of their presence. Survivors describe flashes at the edge of vision, impacts against walls, claws scraping across metal, then silence. They can cross corridors in moments, scale surfaces that should offer no purchase and attack from angles that conventional soldiers are not trained to defend.

Unlike Husks, they rarely approach directly.

They circle. They test. They wait for fear to do half the work.

The most disturbing thing about a Strider is what remains of the person it once was.

The transformation does not always erase the human silhouette completely. Fragments remain in the shape of the face, posture or ruined clothing. That familiarity makes them worse. For a fraction of a second, the victim may recognise something human.

Then it moves.

The eyes glow with the same cold luminosity seen in other possessed forms, but brighter and more focused. In darkness, they appear less like dead lights and more like targeting markers.

Their senses are acute. Movement draws them. Noise provokes them. Panic attracts them.

Once they commit to an attack, they rarely break pursuit.

Striders are especially dangerous aboard ships and inside dense structures. Ventilation shafts, maintenance tunnels, broken ceilings and exposed service routes become hunting paths. Security teams can hold a corridor against Husks.

A Strider simply finds another way in.

They are also believed to be more susceptible to further mutation than the Husk base form. Under prolonged Ag’nagaruth influence, some develop increased limb length, additional appendages, reinforced musculature or other predatory adaptations. These evolved variants are significantly more dangerous and may no longer resemble their original human form at all.

Individually, a Strider is dangerous.

In packs, it becomes a nightmare.

One distracts. Another flanks. A third attacks from above.

They do not need military training to behave tactically.

The corruption gives them something worse.

Instinct.

Humanity learned quickly that walls are not safety. Speed is not escape. And silence does not mean you are alone.

Because when the lights fail and something starts moving above the ceiling—
it is already too close.