Wow! Just a day and the response has been pretty darn awesome. Here's hoping you continue to enjoy!
Primary Hive Cluster on Eris, moon of Char
Char System, Koprulu Sector
Zagara 'watched' the billions of Zerg on Char, musing; something she would not have been able to do before her rather brutal...enhancements at the hands of Abathur, and at the behest of the Primal Queen of Blades.
Her Queen had shown a remarkable amount of what the Terrans called 'good will', by entrusting her to protect, improve, and watch over the Zerg fortress world of Char, while Kerrigan explored the past of the Xel'naga, currently on Zerus. If Zagara had more than just a couple of facial muscles, she'd sneer. Zerus was such a soft, easy world. The Swarm was much more suited to the inhospitable environment of Char, where it could thrive, always changing, evolving, improving.
The Koprulu sector had been somewhat...tranquil, of late, and Zagara was quickly growing restless. While she grudgingly accepted that the assault on Korhal, and the subsequent destruction of the fallen Xel'naga could not have been achieved without the aid of the Terrans and the Protoss, she still could not quite understand why they didn't assimilate their former allies already; some lingering Terran sentiment in her Queen, most likely.
Mind your thoughts, Broodmother. And your perimeter; there are contacts at the edge of your system, chided the deceivingly sweet voice of Izsha, the Queen's advisor.
Zagara growled back at the annoying entity mentally. Obviously, the Zerg had a very good reason not to have developed the ability to muse on their own. A mental probe at the Overseers littered around the system gave back the image of a huge fleet composed by some kind of synthetic starships of oddly organic design. They were many, but were all significantly smaller than even the smallest Leviathan at her command. Stimulating the hundreds of hatcheries on Char Aleph, the enormous reinfested platform above Char came to life with a vengeance, every kind of Zerg flier rustling up into a frenzy, hundreds of thousands more awaiting inside developing eggs.
Zerg! Heed my call! Defend this system with claw, acid and spines! Tear these intruders apart! For the Queen!
The chittering, roaring, growling and howling of hundreds of billions of Zerg shook the land and skies above the volcanic world, and the barren moon Zagara was commanding the battle from. The Queens and Broodmothers under her command rang with a single psionic cry: The constructs will be destroyed!
Forty Leviathans from the planet's two hundred and fifty formed into something resembling a fleet, staying in high orbit, where the spore cannons dotting the volcanic landscape would still be useful. The smaller intruders were faster, closing the no man's land between them and the Zerg quickly. As soon as they got within range, mechanical plates at their front shifted, revealing a pulsating, red 'eye'. Some Corruptors, also entering combat range, unleashed their parasite spores, hurtling towards the larger craft. The effect was instantaneous, as the projectiles' damage caused the starships' atomic bonds to become slightly looser, and thus more vulnerable to the swarm of Mutalisks that had come from behind the larger flyers. Glaive wurms were shot, bouncing inside their targets, even leaping to nearby ones when possible. Dozens of the constructs fell before shooting even once.
After the initial attack, the red, blue and purple vessels fired back, red lances of superheated material burning through scores of the lighter Zerg flyers and even taking down a Corruptor or two.
Zagara's hyper-advanced brain analyzed the initial engagement's result. 172 dead Mutalisks and 62 downed Corruptors for the price of 38 of the smaller warships. If the Broodmother could've, she would have smiled. The losses were more than acceptable, and easily replenished. In fact, the Larvae on the platform were already beginning the morph process.
As the larger constructs approached, their fleet configuration shifted, the smaller ones slowing down to provide cover to them, and the larger ones opening small launch bays and releasing hordes of small, eye-like interceptors. Zagara commanded her Leviathan fleet to begin production and disgorging of the Scourge within, ordering the small flyers to ignore the smaller ships and head straight for the larger, more valuable ones. Her Mutalisks provided a covering screen, flying alongside the suicidal creatures and taking shots at the numerous interceptors. Vipers joined the fight, spearing the smaller vessels (frigates, she thought) through and using their insanely powerful muscles to pull parts of them away from the relative safety of their formation.
The enemy retaliated, the already known thermal lances reminiscent of Protoss Colossi from the frigates joined by the much more powerful attacks of the capital ships, shot from the tentacle-like protrusions at their bow, and two even stronger emitters mounted between three of the limbs. Hundreds upon thousands of Zerg fell, but it was clear to Zagara that whoever had deemed this attack worthy, had never faced the wrath of the Swarm. As her Leviathans got in range to commence bio-plasmid bombardment, and the first Scourge and Spore Cannon globs began to hit her enemies, Zagara could only feel satisfaction.
