"Unclear."
"Don't you 'unclear' me, Abathur. Tell me, what exactly is in need of clarification?"
"Events predicted by organism Xeroth: implausible. No logical connection found."
"Alright you overgrown slug, let me put this to you in words you'll understand. If something like this happens one more time, organism Xeroth is going to impale organism Abathur. See the connection now? No personal overlord next time, and I'll make sure you meet the Overmind again."
"Unclear."
Oh, how I wished I could stab something just then. If only I wasn't being suffocated from all sides by chittering, purple acid-sacs of death. They clamored on, seemingly unbothered by the cramped environment of the overflowing ventral sac. At least the overlord seemed to share my discomfort, not that it made me feel any better knowing that I would be taking a dive into a searing lake of lava if the old brain-blimp decided its cargo was not worth the trouble.
Abathur couldn't take a hint. Despite being a diabolically clever and ruthlessly efficient engine of genetic terrors, the swarm's evolution master seemed to possess absolutely no faculties of inference. "Make me ride in the baneling bus again, and you'll be meeting your dead maker," had seemed like a pretty non-unclear statement to me at the time. Apparently not.
"I'm going to kill you Abathur. I'm going to kill you."
To my disappointment, I didn't sense any fear over our connection. Maybe I wasn't being convincing enough.
"What? You don't think I'll do it? Well believe it buddy, there's a reckoning coming for you if I don't start getting some first class space fare post-haste. How would you like it if I shove my protoplasm down your throat and morph a few barbs to rip out your precious internal strand weavers?"
Even with his limited emotional expressiveness, Abathur sounded smug. "Organism Abathur exceeds organism Xeroth. Body irrelevant, only essence matters. Organism Abathur's essence: secure. Multiple contingencies in place. Cannot kill."
Of course. Abathur was currently the oldest living member of the zerg swarm. He possessed far more power than he usually let on. His psionics were subtle and organic, akin to the brand practiced by the late cerebrates. I had witnessed Abathur reconstitute dead zerg with nothing but a thought, and fill structures with so much vital energy that they withstood a barrage of bullets and siege tank shells without losing so much as a drop of blood. On a daily basis, Abathur micromanaged seed broods spread across the sector, and extracted the information contained in essence telepathically over great distances. It was no surprise to me then that he would be able to transfer his own essence into another body if need be.
The evolution master was cunning, and brutally efficient. Had he possessed even an iota of initiative, it was likely he could have taken the swarm for his own after the Overmind's demise. Fortunately for the now rather humanized queen, Abathur was only interested in his work, and left the conquering of planets to the less enlightened. Unfortunately for poor old me, he was completely uninterested in the comfort of his tools. Hence the current situation: not enough oxygen, too much baneling.
I had been created a little over a year ago. Abathur personally crafted my essence by modifying the then-new changeling genus. My protoplasm had been stabilized by a high-dose infusion of jorium. A moment after my conception, I had my first experience with Abathur's obsession with efficiency. Upon emerging from a cocoon, the first words I heard were, "New strain: metamorph. Modified changeling. Jorium requirement unsustainable, inefficient. Unsuccessful."
Fortunately for me, it wasn't my design that Abathur deemed a failure, but my production cost. Had it been any other way, I would have been dissolved in one of the reclamation vats, instead of being sent across the sector doing errands in the name of evolution and the swarm.
In this instant however, I was becoming increasingly concerned that being dissolved was my inevitable fate, given the constant pressure of the bloated "hunter strain" banelings piled around and on top of me. My fears were seemingly unfounded however. Even though banelings looked like balloons, they luckily didn't pop like them. Their carapaces were well adapted to a little squishing.
Not a moment too soon, the overlord opened its sacs and dumped its cargo onto the fleshy surface of the juvenile leviathan Abathur had left me with. Sighing in relief, I brushed the creep off my body and made my way to the nerve center to inform Abathur I had arrived. Luckily the worm didn't hold grudges, let alone understand the concept of a grudge. Had I made the threats I had in the overlord to another sentient zerg, things would have been a little awkward.
When I did reconnect telepathically with my creator, he surprised me. "Have considered request. Additional overlord deemed acceptable."
Now, I'd seen some things in my year of existence. Serving as Abathur's personal essence collector and assassin, I had traveled across the sector, infiltrated dozens of Terran and Protoss scientific facilities, and consumed some rather eccentric individuals. Nothing would have prepared me for this.
"I'm sorry, there must be a nebula between us or something. I could have sworn you just…"
"Will repeat. Additional overlord deemed acceptable for future planetary extraction. Cramped environment unconducive to metamorph's digestion mechanism."
Well at least he wasn't doing this out of altruism. Apparently being crushed by hunter banelings didn't help me assimilate the Terrans I had consumed on Scoria. One of the more interesting aspects of my normal set of duties on a given essence run was the consumption of nearby sentient life. By assimilating essence into myself, I could grow stronger and extract knowledge and memories from the one consumed. I never quite understood how this worked. Abathur had explained to me something about essence transcending genetics and nervous system function, but it didn't really help, given that my understanding of essence itself was still shaky.
Still, he had given me an inch here. Maybe I could take advantage of his generous mood. I had been preparing a little argument in my head from the moment the overlord had taken me from the surface of the volcanic rock. I feigned entitlement, saying, "About time you decided bringing one more overlord wasn't so inefficient, considering the queen just blew up half of our successful specimens to see what they could do. Where's the efficiency in that?"
Abathur's usual monotone had a slight flavor of regret mixed in. "Queen requires demonstration of strain viability. Does not accept verbal description of augmented strain characteristics. Must obey."
"Alright I get it, not your fault. Don't sound so sad. You'll actually make me feel sorry for you, and by the Overmind, I don't want that! Still, even if it didn't help my digestion, what's the harm in bringing an extra overlord when we have plenty?"
"Organism Azara not designed for brood control. If leviathan attacked, will require overlords to coordinate defense. Also, Xeroth brood's purpose requires frequent deep space travel. Must conserve energy. Planetary stops inefficient." Abathur drones on. Of course, there's no point arguing with a thousand-year-old zerg mastermind. If only I had known that before devouring one too many rebellious terrans.
Oh well, at least I'd still get the overlord, even if I couldn't feel self-righteous about it. "Alright, I understand. Thanks for nothing. Final count of hunters is 34, could have had almost double if Kerrigan wasn't so keen on blowing up that command center. I could have done that myself, you know."
"Number irrelevant, only…"
"Only essence matters, yeah, yeah. Anything more I can do for you?"
"Presence required. Queen's leviathan, traveling to planet Zerus. Home of primal zerg. Will require samples. This, your function."
With that, Abathur cut the connection, leaving behind the coordinates of this "Zerus" place. I felt a presence behind me and instinctively morphed a little taller, broadening the shoulders of my current humanoid form. It was a silly instinct, but given the amount of terrans I'd consumed, my subconscious couldn't help trying to impress Azara, even though her being female started and ended with her voice, just as my gender was just a byproduct of the fact that I encountered and consumed male terrans more than females.
Azara lowered herself into the nerve center of the leviathan. Her tranquil voice clashed with her fierce appearance and sharp impaling tendrils. Like a terran adjutant, she cut no corners, immediately getting down to business.
"Would you like the leviathan to warp to these coordinates?"
"Yes, thank you Azara. It seems we're going to be working up close with the boss bug," I muttered with distaste. I felt uncomfortable with the fact that we were going to be on the same planet as Abathur. I always got this feeling that he would have me dissolved if he found a more "efficient" use for my essence and its precious high jorium content. I figured that if I kept myself useful and halfway across the sector gathering essence, I could avoid that fate.
The good thing about Azara was that once there was nothing around to trigger her advisor instinct, she wasn't completely emotionless. Sympathetically, she reassured me, "I doubt you'll have to enter the pit. Abathur's more than capable of extracting information telepathically, especially over a distance as small as a single planet."
"I certainly hope so."
"Aren't you excited to meet the queen? It is our first time, after all."
I chuckled wistfully. "I doubt she really knows much of my existence. She's probably peripherally aware of me, but I'm not important enough to really deserve her attention. I'm just another one of Abathur's experiments, and an unsuccessful one at that."
It was the truth. If the universe were a bakery, Abathur would have his hands in every single pie. One would expect nothing less from an organism with the mental capacity of a cerebrate that spent every fiber of its consciousness finding opportunities across the sector to improve the swarm. In any case, his work was too extensive for Kerrigan to keep tabs on. She would review the highlights once in a while, but not much more than that.
Seemingly unphased by my pessimism, Azara went on to say, "I wonder if I will meet Izsha. There are so few of our type in the swarm."
"You do have a pretty niche role," I agreed. Azara was some form of advisor strain based on the new type of queens as well as some other organisms. She specialized in compiling data from multiple sensory inputs such as overlords and the leviathan, and distilling them into useful tactical bites. However, as Abathur had mentioned, her ability to micromanage zerg was limited. As such, there were only a couple others like her, such as Izsha, who advised the Queen of Blades directly and even stored her memories and schemes. Usually, broodmothers were considered a more versatile and efficient use of essence.
I was glad to have Azara with me though. Broodmothers were just too bellicose for me, always vying for dominance and rambling on about whose will was the strongest. No, Azara was mild yet competent, and I wouldn't trade her for any juiced up broodmother, hyperactive ovaries or not. My missions usually didn't require a swarm to be birthed on the spot anyway.
No, I was a more subtle agent of the swarm. I worked mostly alone, helping my master chase perfection on distant planets, hunting exotic species, impersonating the latest genius scientist… these were the things I was good at. Fighting on the forefront of Kerrigan's personal brood? Not so much. To my dismay, I was being taken from my comfortable perch in the shadows and thrust right into the heart of the swarm.
Alright, well I hope you enjoyed that. Please review and feel free to PM me any questions you might have. Here's a few notes about the story and where it's headed:
-Xeroth is the main protagonist, and his physiology is somewhat inspired by the prototype games. Just think: durable changeling. As for what he goes around looking like, it changes but I'd say he spends most of his time as a large humanoid. Facial features are up to your own imagination. He could look like you, for all I care.
-The story will take place during the whole Heart of the Swarm timeline at least, and will maybe go on, depending on how people like it. However, don't expect a novelization of the campaign missions. You might see some evolution missions though.
-This isn't a romantic fiction. Xeroth might flirt around with Azara once in a while, but that's just part of his personality and is nothing serious.
-I will interpret Kerrigan as she appears in the game. I won't try to make her a hero, as she certainly doesn't come off as one.