Once they caught up with you and attached themselves to you, death was the only outcome left.
Sometimes, you would not even know how you had died.
Because a single nano-unit entering your body could instantly break down your flesh to rapidly manufacture thousands upon thousands more, devouring you until not even your bones remained.
They knew all too well how terrifying this method of attack was, because a branch of the Insect Race within their own Flesh God Cult used precisely this horrific mode of invasion.
But the Mechanical Nanostorm was even more terrifying than an insect swarm!
Because it annihilated you on an even more microscopic level, at a scale you could not even see!
"No! We absolutely cannot sit here and wait to die!"
"Broadcast the news of the Nanite Storm invasion immediately! Use Cursecraft Shockwave against those Nanite Swarms!"
The commander roared, and the deputy commanders around him immediately began adjusting the Aberration Fortress's deployments.
Because he was afraid.
He feared that those Nanite Swarms had already invaded their Aberration Fortress, and that they simply lacked the means to detect them and issue an accurate warning.
Because when they encountered that [Aberrant Whale], they had already spent two minutes there.
"I hope it isn't what I think."
Terrified, he hurriedly used his authorization to activate monitoring across the entire Aberration Fortress, trembling as he did so.
He knew there was no way to detect the nanomechanical swarm directly.
He could only examine the damage to the Aberration Fortress and use that to infer whether it had already been invaded.
The scan proceeded rapidly.
"Flesh main body section normal."
"Rest Area normal."
"Flesh Core Area normal."
"Warning, abnormal wear detected on the flank of the fortress's outer wall!"
"Warning! Abnormal wear detected in the passage between the