Chapter 01: The Awakening

Part 02: Strange

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There she stood. In front of one of those fleshy walls in a huge "room". Ahead of her laid a whole bunch of bodies, limbs, organs and metal parts scatter everywhere. The floor was covered in blood from both humans and Zerg, slime, oil and faeces. It looked like a dumping place for organic and mechanical waste.

Wh..what has happened here?!

Amy could see that most of the Zerg bodies were either burned or penetrated by a couple of bullets. Their "faces" grotesquely deformed by either pain or external forces. A lot of those bodies laid in front of a large hole in the wall. Half a circle, at least twice as high as a human and a couple of metres wide. It seemed this was the entrance to this room.

Maybe... I can leave through there.

A glimmer of hope sparked in the back of her mind. But looking for a way to get there she was still staggered by the huge amount of death in here. Next to the Zerg there were different bodies on the floor. All of them were covered in a red armor of – now quite used and deformed – metal. One of them laid only a couple of metres between Amy and the possible exit. Its shoulder part and helmet were both very spherical, typical for that suit. The orange visor usually covering the face of the 'Marine' inside was cracked open. Still from her point of view she couldn't see his face but she knew he was dead judging by blood spilled all over his upper body and the half of a claw that stuck inside his chest. The heavy chest-plate was scatter with scratches and bumps one could barely recognize the "tattoos" on it. Amy had seen some pictures of those suits of 'Terran' engineering. The soldiers used do put decals or tribal marks on chest, shoulders and visor as some kind of war paint.

The limbs looked more like a robotic version of human limbs littered with joints, valves and tubes. She remembered those were mostly cover by a similar plating as the chest. They seemed to be ripped off of this suit.

Probably during the battle. But why are there 'Dominion' forces in this... hole of Zergs? And why am I in the middle of all this.

Amy recognized the red primer color on the armor to be the typical red the forces of the Dominion Military uses. The Dominion was the ruling party in the Terran sector to which Amy's home world counted to. She had heard that the Dominion focuses quite heavily on military forces and hadn't had the cleanest ways of dealing with criminals. But still, for her experience they did a good job protecting the people.

So... if the Dominion fights the Zerg here they must have been a threat to people. Wait... was there an attack...? Hmm...

She tried to remember what happened before she awoke here.

Its... all just... blurry... There were... news... about a new... Zerg threat... th..th..the-

"Queen of Blades..."

The name slowly left her lips. Although much was hazy inside her mind she remembered her name and also her face as clear as day.

She! She is responsible for all this! She is the one controlling the Zerg!

She shivered just at the thoughts about this... demon. She had seen a picture of her in the news. For a Zerg she looked quite human with a female face and curvy female body covered in Zerg plating. Amy froze...

Am... I... something... like her?!

Another shiver ran through her body.

No! I am still me! I hate the Zerg! They are disgusting! I..I can't be such a monster...

She shook her head in denial and disgust. She noticed a strange rattling around her head during that movement. Curious she ran her hands through her hair – or at least what she thought has been hair.

"Wuaah!"

She couldn't help but release a short screech. Her legs conceded a little so that her knees bumped into each other.

Her hair didn't feel like human hair anymore. It felt like it was build out of many small segments of tubes. She took a longer strand of "hair" and held it in front of her eyes.

Noooo... MY hair...!

Tears started to blur her vision. She had always loved her hair. But now, now her bright orange-red hair was just a bunch of loose spidery legs in a dirty, orange, light-brown color still covered in some slime. It reminded her of the chitin legs of some insects.

A little sob left her and the tears ran down her cheeks.

Why... ... Why my... HAIR! Leaving those meat bags on my chest untouched but ruining my beautiful mane!

She sniffed and let her long strand sank down on its usual place on her left shoulder. At least it seemed that it still had the same form than before. Most of her hair used to be just as long as to cover her ears while on longer strand from the back of her head ran down to the front of her left shoulder. Only now she noticed how stiff and cold those felt on her skin.

Why am I this monster...? Well... I won't be able to answer this myself...

Amy didn't wanted to go on but she knew she had to. With still wet eyes she continued to look around now focusing on the Zergs. She eyed that creature a few metres in front of her. The body laid on its right side with the back to Amy. What seemed to be its upper body had burning marks all over it as it might had experienced an explosion from a close distance. Its small left arm with a huge talon at the end was broken multiple times and hung loose down the back. Traces of blood ran down here and there from where a deeper wound gaped. Its presumable lower body was ripped of by the explosion and laid few metres to the left. It was more like the body of a really big snake but also covered in the brown scales and covered in blood.

Hmm... I think... those are called... "Hydralisk"? Either the explosion or that thing must have hit me when I awoke. So... I must have been over there...

She slowly took her first steps. A little shaky she made her way around the Hydralisk careful not to touch anything. A few metres further there was a pool of the same slime she was covered in when she got conscious. In the middle was a fleshy stump with an empty sack attached to it. The sack look like a deflated fleshy balloon in pink and green with veins running all over it. It was ripped open and leaned over towards the Hydralisk.

It looks like something was in there. But I don't think THAT came out of there. Could... could it be... I... I was in there?

She fringed at that thought.

Di..did they breed me? Or was that a prison? Marinated me? No...

"Hahaha..."

A hysterical laugh echoed through the hall.

I don't think the Zerg are so fancy to marinate their prey. No... they must have kept me in there to... well... change me... I think I should leave...

She took another quick look through the hall. Lots more dead and mutilated bodies laid all around the room. She didn't recognize any of them. On one hand because she didn't know much about the Zerg on the other hand they were partially devastated and clumped up so that she didn't know where one body ended and the next began. Here and there she could spot more dead Marines usually surrounded by a couple of blasted Zergs.

Amy turned around and looked for the exit she spotted earlier. She slowly made her way to it passing more corpses. She could see into some of the helmets of the marines. Their faces where disfigured and cover in blood.

Th..they must have died in horrible pain...

She tried not to think about it. Her own pain was still present in the back of her mind and she was still shaky on her legs. Slow but steady she made her way to the exit. In its front were a whole lot of dead Zerg creatures supposedly protecting the entrance against the attacker. Those creatures were smaller than the Hydralisk more of the size of a large hound or big wolf. Four legs and a big jaw full of sharp teeth, they looked terrifying. Their bodies were studded with many fangs and sharp hooks.

Those are 'Zerglings'. 'Small and fairly weak yet dangerous when encountered in numbers.'

Came a saying into her mind while looking around.

"These ones are definitely 'in numbers'."

She carefully threaded through the heaps of lifeless flesh. It still felt strange to walk or even move in her new armor clad limbs. She was still clumsy and not used to have such a bulky left arm. At a larger step over some fangs she nearly fell to the ground as she underestimated the weight of that arm. When she found some ground to stand safely she stopped and took another look at her arm.

That arm seems to be quite heavy. But still... I don't really notice its weight. I believe my legs are rather heavy, too... It doesn't feel any different than before all this... Well except for the shells and scales.

Now looking at her torso she noticed the slime and fluids slowly dried on her leaving a crusty layer on her skin.

"Uach..."

First... I need to clean myself from all this... mess... And then... something to put on... seem to be a good idea. Then I'll think about what this is about...

Making some clothes out of the remains of the Terrans wouldn't work. She didn't like the thought of defiling the corpse of a deranged, grotesque Marine corpses. Also those platings were mostly deformed or even destructed and it wouldn't be easy to craft fitting cloth. Nor had she the knowledge to work those metals. And searching the Zerg bodies to find someth-

NO! No! Nonononono! I am wearing already enough of this... Zerg stuff...

So... better move on… yes…?

Some last looks on her left hand, she was still confused why this monstrosity of a hand moved at her command and felt so natural. She moved her fingers once more, lowered her arm and continued her way to the exit.