'I'm sending more zerglings to you now.' Ryril mentally told Derrick through the psionic connection that they established between each other. Eight zerglings burst from their eggs created from the larvae and ran out to join the fight with Derrick.
'Alright, they have a bit of cover down this long hallway leading to the command bridge so I'm going to need something with some range.' Derrick replied a little more than one hundred yards away from her using the same psionic link with their minds.
'What happened to disabling their engines?'
'I got confused about the layout of this ship, I have a general idea of where to go to get to the main engine room but it's in the opposite direction of the bridge. If we head over there then it's much easier for them to cut us off from each other, so we're going to change the plan a little bit.
'I understand, I'll make a few roaches to assist you.'
'If you can send a hydralisk that would be better. I don't want a bunch of lose acid destroying something important in here.'
'I can only make zerglings and roaches right now. And because we don't have the proper structures connected to the creep, the roaches will be very few in number.'
'If that's the case then we can use them as a mobile shield; their armor is going to be more helpful than their acid bile.' The tone of his voice was a good indicator of how stressed he was starting to become. 'We've been firing back at each other for a little while and none of the zerglings can get through without being mowed down. I still have five over here from before and three more bringing a few bodies back to you but we'll wait for those roaches.'
Ryril looked back at the larvae and gave a mental command for three of them to start morphing into roaches. They created a space for themselves and began to secrete a mucus around them, encasing themselves into a cocoon that pulsed every few seconds and was visibly becoming larger. 'I have three morphing in now, they will be with you shortly.'
'Sounds good, just be careful about some of these guys making it to the hangar, there are lots of different passages they can use to slip by us and get to you.'
The crew of the ship already sent multiple counterattacks against her to cut off reinforcements. It would be in the form of three or four-man teams keeping her and the new Zerg she was hatching inside of the hangar. Because of her armored carapace, she could take several sprays of gunfire without suffering major damage. It allowed her to close distances to the attackers and engage them at a close distance.
Derrick told her that it was likely that there were cameras watching her from inside of the hangar. After giving a brief description of what to look for she scanned the room and found two of them in the high corners of the area and quickly destroyed them by firing spines, a projectile that was built into queens and broodmothers, at the device used to spy on them.
The main door to the hangar opened to let the three zerglings and the bodies they dragged into the room. Ryril quickly assisted them by grabbing one by the arm while one of the zerglings dragged the corpse by the legs.
A noticeable crackling sound was coming from one of the walls behind her. All of the Zerg turned around and saw some of the steel frames start to glow bright red. Ryril had no idea what was causing the wall to act like that. The cautious part of mind made her describe what they saw to Derrick.
'Get to cover now!' He yelled into her mind.
That section of the wall exploded into the room with a bright flash, sending small shards of shrapnel in every direction. The queen and her zerglings dove behind the crates quickly enough to avoid being hit by the projectiles. Through the eyes of one of the zerglings, Ryril could see three armored figures entering the room with their guns drawn.
She recognized the marine armor of two of them but the third one was much different than the others. It stood at least three feet higher than them and it didn't carry a gun either. The arms of this Terran were massive and had what looked like small cannons for hands. The last noticeable difference was the color; the marines had a blood-red paint covering them with many dents and scratches but the large one was black from head to toe without a single flaw in the armor.
Ryril commanded the zerglings to circle around to pick off the marines, she wanted the big one for herself. Like a well-coordinated pack, her minions jumped from cover to cover, forcing the Terrans to change the direction of their fire so that while one zergling was distracting them another would be able to get closer.
The large black armored Terran just followed the zerglings with its eyes, not shooting at them or commanding the marines. He was following the pattern that the Zerg were making and waiting for the right moment.
Just before one of the zerglings leaped from behind a crate, the Terran brought up his hand and fired an impact grenade from the cannon-like arm into the predicted spot. The projectile collided into the hind legs of the Zerg and caused a small explosion that took out one of its legs along with half of its hip.
The zergling was thrown to the ground from the impact and screeched in agony. It tried to crawl away but was finished off by the two marines gunning it down in a hail of bullets.
While not ideal, its death allowed the other two to come around and tackle one of the marines and bring the others attention to them. As the one marine was taken to the ground, one of the zerglings leaped off of it and pounced the other.
The large Terran spun around and was about to fire at the zerglings but then spun back around after seeing Ryril charge him in the corner of his eye. His first shot narrowly missed the enraged Zerg as they collided into a boxing match of claw and steel.
Ryril's plan was to offset the Terran's balance with as many rapid strikes as she could but her opponent was able to block her attacks with its large mechanical arms and was even able to push her back. It didn't stop her aggression though, even when it had the chance to fire a grenade at her chest. She was much more heavily armored than the zerglings. Even though the explosion was very painful she was still able to close the distance between them with her quick pacing.
This time she brought one of her clawed-appendages from above and struck the Terran in the head plate. The strike didn't puncture the armor but it left a small dent and the impact to the head knocked her opponent off balance but was still standing. Another strike brought him down to one knee.
Ryril raised her claw high into the air for a finishing blow but right before she swung she felt the life of one of her zerglings expire. She looked over to her right and saw the second marine that her zerglings attacked throw it's bullet-riddled, lifeless body off of him before bringing his gun up to kill the second zergling that was clawing away at his fellow marine.
In the brief moment that her attention was taken away, the Terran in front of her was able to bring his left arm up and fire into her chest again. Her armor wasn't as effective as it was before; some of her carapace cracked from the impact and blood started to seep out of her.
The human then brought up his right arm and fired into one of the upper joints on her most forward left leg, cracking the bone and tearing some of the flesh away. The next one completely severed it from her body.
The pain raced through her entire body and for the first time in her short life she started to panic and fear for her life. She reached her mind out and tried to search for Niadra to give her comfort but only felt the emptiness of space and felt alone for the first time as well.
The black-armored human was able to stand up with the assistance of the marine. After helping his leader, the marine ran over to Ryril and brought his gun up to align the barrel to her head. Ryril was in too much pain to try to react and save her life; all she was able to do was stare into the face shield of the marine that was about to kill her.
"Stop!" The larger human commanded. "You kill the eggs before they hatch, I'm going to kill this bitch."
Lowering his gun, the marine replied, "Yes captain." The human then ran over to her unborn children and started to fire into one of the eggs.
The queen watched as the bullets collided with the egg and after a few quick burst of lead entered into the cocoon and killed the roach inside. She could feel the child's pain more so than her own and with one last boost of strength she brought her head up to fire a spine into the marine to save the other eggs.
"Not so fast there!" The human said as his arm connected with the right side of her head, breaking and severing the outer mandible from her jaw. He brought his arm underneath her neck and raised her head so that he could stare into her eyes after lifting his face shield, exposing his head. "When done with that fucking ghost, I'm going to mount your head in my wardroom."
The human brought his other arm up and slammed it into her already broken and bleeding chest, causing Ryril to collapse to the ground. She looked into the eyes of her killer and accepted her fate.
She felt a sudden jolt through her body. A zergling collided with both of them and took down her opponent before he was able to deliver the finishing blow. Four more zerglings passed her and helped tackle the human to the ground. This got the attention of the marine, he turned his gun to help the other Terran but was also taken to the ground by three other zerglings.
A familiar presence was pushing against her mind, it was Derrick, 'I sent the Zerglings back when I saw you were in trouble. Didn't expect that they would have a marauder suit onboard.'
'Is that what I was fighting, a marauder?' Ryril replied with a relieved voice.
'Yeah, they have heavy armor and hit hard but when by themselves, they can be taken down by zerglings pretty quickly.'
Ryril looked at her zerglings and saw it firsthand. The marauder wasn't able to raise it's face shield and had to use one of his arms to protect his face from the claws and teeth.
Summoning her strength, Ryril was able to stand up on her remaining legs. iStop.' She commanded her minions. The zerglings stopped attacking the marauder and hopped off of him but some of them kept hold of his arms and kept them in place. "This one belongs to me." Placing one leg in front of the other, she stumbled towards the Terran even tripping a few times because of the missing leg.
Blood was covering one of the marauder's eyes but he still kept them open as he watched the queen standing in front of him. Ryril took her blood covered hand and hooked it inside the suit by his head and kept his armor still. With one swift motion, she raised one of her long claws from her back and embedded it into the human's skull.
The marauder shook violently inside his suit as the claw dug itself deeper into his body. Blood started to pour from his mouth and pool inside of the suit and after a few seconds of convulsing, his body stiffened and fell to the ground.
Satisfied that the threat was finally vanquished, Ryril took a moment to calm herself. All of the remaining zerglings formed a circle around her in a defensive posture to protect their leader in case if another threat revealed itself.
Blood still flowed out of her leg and chest plate. She would have to focus her regeneration on those areas to keep herself alive.
The roach eggs started to pulse violently. The membrane surrounding them started to grow thin before bursting open, freeing the two roaches from their natural prison and into the world. Both of them resembled turtles in their appearance, they had dome-like shells with spikes of their backs and their heads protruded out of the front. That was where the similarities ended, they had six legs that kept them low to the ground along with two arms on their shells that extended out into blades.
Snapping their jaws at the air in anticipation, they took off down the hallway to Derrick by Ryril's command. After allowing herself a moment to lower her body to the ground she contacted Derrick, "The roaches are done, I'm sending them to you right now."
'Sounds good, how are you holding up?'
"The marauder almost killed me, I have to stay back and heal."
'Do you need me to come back?'
"Us queens can heal ourselves, just take the ship."
'I killed another two and their starting to slow down but I'll still need to wait for the roaches to make progress. Just leave a few of the zergling to keep you safe and send the rest my way.'
Ryril gave the silent command and half of the zerglings chased after the roaches.
The new Zerg warriors reached the ghost within three minutes of being sent out. Derrick was relieved to see them and with their arrival, he was finally able to push through the passageway. Using the training that Ryril gave him, he searched through the minds of the roaches. Their minds were unique to the zerglings but still had the same structure. Focusing on the order that he wanted to be carried out, he pressed it onto the Zerg in front of him.
The roaches pushed through the zerglings and stood side by side then started a slow march through the enemies' fire. Derrick crouched down behind them and ordered the nine zerglings he had left to do the same. Bullets ricocheted off of the armor of the roaches and into the walls and ceiling.
Zergling hide and claws surrounded him on all sides, tightly packed but still moving in unison with the roaches. The roaches out in front used their bladed arms to cover their eyes from getting hit as they reached the end. Zerglings jumped across the backs of their living shields and pounced onto the enemy, two of them dying in the process.
Pushing his way through the roaches, he saw that his Zerg had already killed the pirates. Three Terran bodies were found ripped apart by the relentless zerglings who were already eagerly waiting for Derrick to give them the command to press on.
Placed about fifteen feet in front of him was the door leading to the bridge, on the wall to its left was another door which would traditionally lead into the captain's quarters and directly opposite was another that probably belonged to the second-in-command. He was going to enjoy having a larger room to himself.
The two roaches lined up in front of the group again to serve as a shield. Zerglings lined up behind them in a tight semi-circle to defend their leader and to pounce on the enemy if needed. Because this was the bridge Derrick ordered the Zerg not to attack unless if they were attacked first. If some of the more vital equipment was destroyed then it could mean that they would spend several days trying to fix it. The leaders of this ship would also likely be inside and he would need to use them in order for the rest of the pirates scattered throughout the ship to surrender.
It was locked. Derrick pulled out a small device and placed it on the center lock, fastened it in place, pulled a metal pin and lowered a small lever that it was keeping in place. It was a breaching device that was used on Ryril but was designed to break locks on doors, not crumble thick walls.
The device went off three seconds after he ducked down behind the roaches. A loud pop echoed throughout the area and left a charred hole where the explosive used to be, its remains smoking on the floor.
Roach blades pried through the door and forced it open in one swift motion. Revealing themselves to the enemy but didn't receive the bullet fueled welcome they were used to. Instead, they entered a room full of human that were astonished to see Zerg on their ship and being lead by a human. Thirteen pirates occupied the bridge and its consoles.
'More zerglings are ready for you.' Ryril informed Derrick through their mental connection.
'Keep them with you for now. If going to give as many of these guys a chance to live before we start searching the rest of the ship.'
Derrick cleared his throat before addressing the crew, "This is how it's going to go: this is my ship now and you are now my crew. Obey my commands and I can guarantee that neither myself or the Zerg here will harm you; go against us and we will not show mercy. Whoever is in charge is going to take a trip with me to the engine room and the armory which I'm sure that has more of your men inside. "
Expressions varied between the crew from looks of despair and hopelessness from the ones hiding in the back to the enraged men that stood before him. Derrick's eyes locked with one of them who stood a full head higher than him with a neatly trimmed beard that connected his sideburns. The man stood in between him and the rest of the crew, a sense of authority loomed over him.
"I'm guessing that you're the Captain." Derrick challenged with a slightly muffled voice from his mask.
The man spat at the ground in front of Derrick, missing his foot by inches. "I'm the first mate. Your queen killed our Captain, you've killed our best raiders and for what? Some broken scavenger out in the middle of nowhere? Did these Zerg run out of children to feed on or is this some kind of Dominion experiment?"
"What I'm doing out here is none of your concern; I needed your ship but I had to kill a few of the meaningless human life in the galaxy to do take it. You and all these ships out here take over any vessel within three systems of here and kill, rape, or make slaves of anyone in them and bid on their ships."
The pirate took a step forward towards Derrick causing the roaches to do the same with a low growl to escape deep within their throats. "This is our ship and we would rather die than see it taken from someone like you. I would bet that you're infested underneath that suit."
With that comment, Derrick raised his gun at the man's chest. "I'm giving you one chance to contact the rest of the crew onboard and tell them to surrender."
"Are you deaf? We don't deny the lives we live, but we live them as men, free from the boot of the Confederacy than the United Earth Directorate and now the Dominion. And we will never bow to anyone ever again!"
"So be it."
Two zerglings advanced towards the man and made quick work of him after knocking the human to the ground. He struggled very little under the weight of the small Zerg and the jaws that clamped around his windpipe.
"Anybody else not want to be a part of the crew?" He didn't need to ask to know their answer. "I thought so. Now I need two volunteers to go around and gather the rest your men anybody not on the main deck in fifteen minutes with be hunted down and killed and I also want a complete headcount."
Only a few seconds went by before Derrick had his volunteers. He took a roach and three zerglings with him, leaving the rest on the bridge until they got a firm grip on the situation and began their sweep of the ship for crew members.
Ryril was told to stop making more Zerg. They started out with fifty larvae and were down to eighteen left. Throughout the day four of them were made into roaches and twenty-eight of them were made into sets of zerglings. Of the fifty-six zerglings that were hatched only thirty-six remained along with all of the roaches.
From the moment the doors to their dropship opened to when Derrick gain control over all of the ship's crew took fourteen hours. After clearing the ship the total count came to forty-two members were left alive. It took him several hours to search the ship for weapons as well and to either lock them away from the crew or take parts away from them to make their weapons completely inoperable.
Derrick told her that in one of the cargo holds he was able to find a substantial amount of minerals which ships like these would use as currency rather than traceable credits. This brought some relief to her because Niadra would be able to convert it into its original state of biomass and use that to nourish the Zerg on the Protoss ship.
She collected the remaining larvae and swept the remaining creep back into the crate they brought them in. The life-threatening wounds that she had were healed but it took all of her energy to do so. Because of this, she was only able to clot her leg where it was severed and was still bleeding from where she lost her right mandible. Perhaps in time she could grow her leg back but until then she knew that it would be difficult to fight alongside her fellow Zerg.
A slight vibration started throughout the ship as the engines came back online. A few minutes later Derrick came through the hole in the wall that was made from the marauder. She rose on her remaining five legs at his presence, trying to maintain some sense of dominance to the Terran that saved her life with the forces he sent back to help her.
The ghost approached her and inspected her face and leg. "Are you ok?" He asked.
"I will live, I just need some more time for the hole on my face to close."
"I can take care of that, just wait right there." Derrick walked back onto the ramp leading up to his dropship and started grabbing some supplies from cabinets and drawers and them all into a blue sheet. When he came back he set the cloth sheet down on a box that was waist high and unrolled it.
Laid out were gloves, alcohol pads, water, two syringes, scissors, forceps, suture material, and a tube and bottle of liquid that was unfamiliar to Ryril.
"What are you doing?"
He removed the gloves to his armor and put on the new gloves after cleaning his hands. "I'm going to close the laceration on the side of your head and you don't have a say in it, now come over here and crouch down so that I have a better angle to work on it."
Ryril reluctantly lowered herself and turned her head to the side. She kept a watchful eye on him as he started cleaning the area with the water.
Next, he filled one of the syringes with the liquid from the bottle and brought the needle to her face. "Ok you're going to feel a little poke and a burn but it should be numb afterward."
"What is that?" She asked as the needle pierced the flesh on the inside of the open flesh followed by the burning sensation he warned her about.
"It's called lidocaine and it's a numbing agent." He removed the needle and recapped it while setting it back down with the other supplies.
"How long until we get back to Niadra?"
"Well it took us about ten hours to get here and guessing how much the Protoss ship had been drifting, I would say about six hours since well be moving much faster in this."
They continued to talk to her while he worked. He explained how he was able to convince the crew to work with them and that he intended to keep his word about not harming them as long as they followed his orders.
After he was done suturing her face they spent the next couple of hours talking about different what the next step was. Ryril was adamant about killing the rest of the crew after they found a planet and allowing Derrick leave in his ship as was promised. It took a little bit of convincing to change her train of thought and she agreed to wait until after speaking with Niadra.
After a few hours, they were starting their approach on the Protoss ship where Niadra was still trapped. The plan was for Derrick and Ryril to use the dropship to ferry the rest of the Zerg off of the ship while leaving their forces with the rest of the Terrans just in case they tried to run.
A very worried expression started to take form over Ryril as they got closer. "Something's wrong." She stated to Derrick.
"What's going on?"
"It's Niadra, she's not answering me."
"What do you mean?" He replied in a very confused voice.
Ryril kept silent and extended her mind out to the Zerg still with Niadra. She kept searching their minds and seeing through their eyes but was unable to find her. She commanded them to go to her chambers and see what was going on. After a few seconds, one of them made it to the charred corpse of the broodmother.
Fury poured throughout her body as she ran to the dropship and tried to pry open the doors. "We have to get onboard now!"
"Are you going to tell me what's happening? At least let me open the hatch."
The door was barely halfway opened before she started crawling inside. "We have to go now!"
"Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on Ryril. I'm not going in there blind."
"A Protoss killed Niadra. One of them is still alive."
One more main character to introduce, can you guess what type of Protoss warrior it is? After the next chapter the crossover will really start to pick up with them landing in Westeros.
