Chapter 10: Chamber of Snake-Rats
A while ago, zerglings were hatched to help reduce the giant sand snake corpses into manageable chunks of meat, so that the drones could carry the nutrient rich gore to the hatchery in the underground cavern. The flesh would be redistributed and re-purposed as the muscle, fat, bone, ligaments, nerves, blood, skin, veins and carapace of the future zerg spawn. Alas, without any minerals or vespene gas to rely on, alternative resources were deemed a necessity. The zerg would even consider self-cannibalism a method to convert the resources used to make one organism, or several, into a different combat strain.
And with many of the giant sand snakes culled after a decisive battle, the creep spreading efforts were significantly easier.
The spine and spore crawlers would move up in pairs. The spore crawlers would detect the underground shifting of any hidden foe, letting the spine crawlers know when to react violently to a perceived threat. There were a few spine and spore crawlers dedicated to the protection of the underground hatchery, in case the snakes tunneled deeper in the sand and circumvented the detection range of the spore crawlers that fielded the creep expansion. As the creep grew, covering more ground and gaining new land to potentially extract minerals from, it would give more areas for the spine and spore crawlers to root into.
Several groups were sent out into the underground village with more protection this time around. There were five groups scouting the city, and each group consisted of six zerglings, two drones, and an overseer that would occasionally deploy changelings into areas that might be possible ambush locations. So far, the attacks enacted by the current slithering residents of this underground village were varied, but the spore crawlers were effective in rooting them out, and the spine crawlers penetrated the sand to wound and kill the giant sand snakes that thought they were safe from being hunted themselves. The only casualties that the zerg suffered after that major battle were the changelings that were sent to scout undiscovered terrain, or to draw out any sand snakes that might still be hiding.
Once the cubed spiral structures outside the wall were sufficiently searched through by the zerglings, drones and changelings, the buildings would then be slated for deconstruction or infestation. No matter how ancient the bones, the genetic information the bone marrow contained would be sufficient enough to gestate infested gilanians. Infested spirals would dot the cavern, and they would soon be accompanied by their zerg neighbors.
But there was a lot of ground to cover still, and there were still many mysteries to investigate. The drones' pincers were able to carefully handle objects with care, but complex tools and sensitive equipment required dexterous hands to use them. The zerg queens only had two clawed fingers to work with, so their ability to interact with gilanian technology was slightly limited. Thankfully, Kay had the necessary digits on his hands to expertly wield whatever gilanian-made tool or object that was in this tomb. He was thankful that Virid didn't change the biology of his hands to be bone-tipped tentacles or scything claws.
One of such marvels that the gilanians made was a small children's toy. A remote-controlled miniature flying machine of triangular shape was carefully inspected by Kay's hands. He didn't know where the remote control for the thing was located, but he could tell that it was a toy due to the small pictures and drawings that was drawn onto the thing. Of course, it could be fitted with a camera and might be used for military uses, but even kids need something to entertain themselves until they grow older. At least that is what Kay assumed.
Several piles of reclaimed technology had formed around Kay as he was investigating a long lost culture, sitting in the center between the piles. After poking into the machine guts of the miniature flying machine, Kay assembled it back together and settled it back down. "Hard to imagine what the culture of another species was like when all you have to work with is cobwebs and corpses."
Virid, taking no interest in the plundered baubles that Kay was insistent on investigating, hissed her complaint. 'The metal in that device could be used to strengthen our force's carapace.'
Kay sighed. "No respect for the dead. ... But I suppose you're right. We need everything we can get." He threw the gilanian toy plane at a pile that contained other gilanian children toys. At least he assumed that they were toys. Plastic, rubber and latex can be converted to biological materials, and it was a feat that the zerg can easily accomplish in an organically possible way. As the drones got to work sifting the neatly organized piles of recyclables, Kay stood up and turned his gaze toward the central tower of the underground village. "... But I wonder what we can get in there?"
Virid turned her gaze to where Kay was mentioning and sighed. 'That is something I have no interest in. Proceed at your own will. I still have duties to attend.' Virid replied, tending to a new hatchery that was forming.
Kay sighed and nodded, proceeding forward and going toward the underground tower, forgetting about the piles of technology that he had spent many hours sorting through. And soon, those piles would dwindle to nothing as the drones carried the ancient relics for deconstruction and material redistribution at the hatcheries.
The tower in the middle of the cavern was definitely a large structure, making Kay assume that it once served some purpose long ago. The cubes that formed from the many spirals interconnects between the various spiral staircases, and that many cylindrical shapes connected to each cube horizontally. It was a safe assumption to assume that those spirals and cylinders enabled a means to access the different cubes within the tower.
Kay investigated the base of the tower and looked at the impressive indent on the tall wall. The colossal sand snake's strength was surely impressive, but Kay would prefer not to tangle with another one if the battle could be avoided. At least for now.
But at the moment, the wall was weakened enough for Kay to make his own entrance with ease.
"Group one, with me." Kay said aloud when he clawed a new opening for himself. At his command, one of such groups that was scouting the underground cavern village met up with him as he finished creating the entrance. As he stepped forward, the zerglings, drones, and changelings followed after him, while the overseer remained outside as lookout.
As he ventured into the halls of the tower, Kay took his time to carefully take in any details and clues that mentioned or documented the dead tribe's past. A dead city had so much history, and preserving history was something almost each and every human excelled at. Or in Kay's case at the moment, understanding the history of the lost culture using what information that was available and in his grasp.
From his understanding on the information relating to the underground village, this tower happened to be where the warriors and the high-classed citizens lived.
A zergling stopped its gallop at the front of a fancy white door with several inlaid designs. Upon clawing its way through, it found itself in some kind of room where every piece of furniture was gilded with precious metals, and the walls looked as though silvery crochet was used to design or paint everything. Accents of gold was also present on nearly every surface. Could this signify that someone of noble birth lived here? The zergling didn't care as it was joined by two other zerglings, using their claws to make gashes in the furniture. One of them even started nibbling on the gold accents of some of the furniture to see if it really was gold. Alas, it was only gold plated. There was twelve other cubes that had rooms like this.
Another room consisted of weapons of various make. Many of the weapons were of medieval design, consisting of swords, maces, axes, knives, morning stars, and javelins, and many more that were stored in weapon lockers. Other weapon lockers contained ranged weapons that consisted of crossbows both small and big, bows of various sizes, and even small arms weapons that looked to be the shape that was similar to pistols. Some of the other heavy duty weapons, like heavy machine guns, semi-machine guns, and rifles, had their own dedicated weapon lockers. Two zerglings and a drone broke into the armory and were tasked to bring all of these metal-rich weapons outside. More drones would be needed to carry the sweet loot to the hatchery. There were twenty nine cubes that were armories. The cots within them suggested that the warriors slept near their weapons.
Kay was followed by two zerglings and a drone as he traversed the highest part of the tower, having already went through many cubes and the rooms they contained. He eventually happened upon the largest cube of this tower, and looked into the darkened chamber inquisitively. Kay had no trouble seeing in the dark since he had already adapted to the low light conditions of the underground. And since he was zerg now, the adaptation came quickly. The room was very wide, with several gray walls that had seven large painted faces. Seven chairs was located at the center of this large room, surrounding a septuple sided table.
"... Some kind of conference room?" Kay said to himself, taking a chair for himself and sitting in it. The chairs had a very ornate design to them, but Kay felt as though that he was missing a few pieces to the puzzle of understanding this room's significance.
'Pointless for the zerg.' Virid said, using the awareness of Kay and the zerg that was with him to inspect the room and provide her opinion.
Kay nodded. "Yeah yeah. Why need a conference room when all the zerg can communicate through telepathy?" He said, leaning back in his chair. The chair, however, was not designed to be leaned back on. Kay felled backward as a result of his carelessness.
'Have you searched through the entire building yet?' Virid asked Kay.
After picking himself up and setting the ornate chair back upright, he replied. "Uh... Yeah, I think so. Why? Is there something you want to do?"
'Demolishing these buildings and claiming the minerals and metals.'
"Oh, ever the simplistic zerg desire. Virid, where is your sense of curiosity?" Kay asked Virid.
'The swarm does not become curious. We search for resources and enemies. We find new territories and claim them as their own. We evolve and acquire traits from other organisms.'
"My gosh, you lack the vision to see a whole world of potential possibilities! I know that the zerg are supposed to be a dangerous force of nature that consumes all in its warpath, but you are making yourselves out to be a simpleminded hivemind race of insects. If you keep going on like this, then you can't improve as a collective."
'Do not mock the swarm! What good is this 'vision' you speak of anyway? It sounds like something that would be very pointless to us since the overseers can see invisible enemies.' Virid hissed.
"Virid, Virid, Virid." Kay said in a disappointed way. "Wrong kind of vision. Leaders of all kinds have a lot of vision, and it is through their vision that they make important decisions when leading their troops into battle. The point of having vision is to determine the best strategy using all of the pieces on the battlefield to your advantage, and to use the pieces that your enemies don't see to their disadvantage."
Virid paused. '...Interesting. So this 'vision' lets me see potential tactics and strategies that can be used against our foes?'
"Well... That's one way to put it."
'Could you teach me vision?'
"Hmm..." Kay paused before answering Virid. "... I guess I could. Can't be any harder than programming a computer."
'Programming a what?'
"Computer."
[Computer system activating. State your command.]
Kay froze for a split second before wildly turning his head. "... Who is there?"
'... Is someone with you?' Virid asked.
[Query detected. I am the artificial intelligence programmed to be an information repository for this facility.]
"... Really? How do you know how to speak my English language?" Kay said to the voice that seemed to originate from the entire room. Even the zerglings sniffed the air to try and find the new person. Alas, they smelled no living thing nearby.
[Query detected. Audio from current user language matches Earth English. Usage of the Earth English language suggests that you are an earthling. Analyzing. Analysis incomplete. New species detected. Accessing data banks for specie information. Data not found. Submitting query to anonymous information network.]
"Okay okay okay, hold up." Kay said, raising his hands for the voice to stop as he tried to think for a question that would not have this... thing... go off on a tangent. "Let's take this a few steps at a time. Can you tell me who you are, please?"
The computer voice seemed delighted to answer. [Query detected. I am the artificial intelligence programmed to be an information repository for this facility. My personality designers modeled me after a late chieftains daughter, whom had died abruptly from a fast-acting disease from five hundred and ninety ni-... Correction. six hundred years ago. Designation: Maiden.]
'This 'Maiden' sounds like an adjutant. Shall we dissemble her?' Virid asked, seemingly hissing at what might be a threat.
Kay shook his head, thinking very hard at Virid about how bad that idea was. "Uh... Kay. Maiden? Do you know where I am?"
[Query detected. You are currently in the underground village of the Hidden Water Spring Tribe.]
"Kay. What happened to the villagers?" Kay asked Maiden.
[Query detected. Accessing memory banklsssklsssklsssklsssklsss... ... ... Memory files have been encrypted. Access unavailable to certain files.]
Kay stared blankly at nothing before nodding his head. "Kay... How about the files we CAN access? Care to peek into those and share them with me?"
[Command detected. Accessing unrestricted memory files.] A wall had lit up with blue light behind Kay and the zerg in the room. They all turned to see several words in Gilaish. The accenting was different from what Kay understood, but it seemed as though the computer program called 'Maiden' was translating the ancient words into modern English. [Access complete. Three files detected. First file name: Some Hope for the Lovechief. Data type: Word document. Made by: Warchief Contyan. Use artificial intelligence for text-to-speech translation?]
Kay nodded. "Yes please! Go ahead, Maiden."
[Command detected. Accessing document. Document reads: Kragnon, if you get out of your cold-pod and read this, know that I want to personally say to you that you are a fucking idiot. But if the others really believe that you are the only piece of shit that can save this world from that monster's wrath, then I suppose that you are the person to do it. But the village has been invaded by the shryik serpents, and restoring our numbers through natural population breeding will not restore our village to its full luster. Damn those shryiks. In any case, if you read this, then this means some gilanian or other miraculous miracle saved your sorry ass from an eternity of waiting. Eternity sounds like a hot goddess, and I recommend seducing her immediately. Grab that tail for me. Anyway, it's time for me to try and kill these invaders like an honorable fighter. It's how I would want to go. Goodbye forever, but I'll see you again when you die too. With tolerable respect, Warchief Contyan. End document.]
Kay nodded as Maiden finished. "Contyan seems like the kind of guy I'd love to meet. Too bad that won't ever happen now. What about the two other documents?"
[Query detected. Second file name: Log Entry 1. Data type: Video. Made by: Lovechief Kragnon. Third file name: Resurrection Instructions. Data type: Word document. Made by: Lovechief Kragnon.]
"Can you play the second one? The log entry?" Kay asked.
[Command detected. Accessing video file.]
The blue lightened wall suddenly bursts with several colors that took shape of times long past. Kay could see several types of broken pods, but one of them seemed to be intact. An albino gilanian stood and faced Kay, or rather, the camera's perspective, and wore what looked like a white lab coat. After fiddling with the camera from outside its perspective, this albino gilanian began to speak. [Hello, world. This is Lovechief Kragnon speaking. After much deliberation, the council has decided that I should be the one to enter the cold-pod and enter a hyper-stasis method of hibernation. I'm actually very honored. ... But at the same time, it pains me to know that the people I know right now will grow older without me. But I have been known to melt icy hearts before, and melting Gollog's heart would be a great challenge for me. Contyan, as always is an ass.]
[Are you talking bad about me again? Fuck you!] A paper ball smacked into Kragnon's face.
He paused for a few seconds, glaring at someone off-camera before continuing. [And, as expected, our Thoughtlord is nowhere to be seen, and we had to make due with his apprentice. Apprentice Greeh might not be my first choice for a candidate for becoming the next Thoughtlord, but... She is very inquisitive, and willing to learn everything. Maiden is pretty much teaching her everything she knows. Heh. I think her friend would love to peek into the information index. What was her name? Pwaf? Or is it Pwanth? Eh. Questions for another time.]
The gilanian named Kragnon sighed before shifting his expression to a more serious tone. [... But Gollog needs to be stopped. I hope that with my diplomacy, we might be able to change his heart and prevent him from destroying our home, and other gilanian settlements. Everyone has the right to live with the freedom they fight for, and we will claw for it when our freedom to live is challenged. That is the natural law of this world. His perverted technology has extended his life to 'immortal' status, and now he proclaims himself as a 'holy' emperor. The 'Immortal Golden Star Emperor'.] Kragnon looked away and nodded. [But if that fails... I can convince his men to rebel and strike him down. The only way that society can return to the way it was is either through social reform or through his death. A great challenge awaits me. But I can get myself to be ready for then. End log entry.]
And with that, the video finally ended.
"Fuckin hell." Kay said aloud, sitting back down on the chair he had fell from.
'Cold-pod? Would that mean there is a gilanian survivor that is still alive?' Virid interjected.
"Hmm... You could be right."
'Is there a chance that this Kragnon can be found here? Ask this 'Maiden' that.' Virid asked.
Kay nodded and looked up. "Maiden. Is that Kragnon guy still alive?"
[Query detected. Analyzing cold-pod conditions. Condition: Green.]
Kay nodded. "I'm thinking we should wake him up. I want him to answer a few questions I have about this place."
[Command detected. Command denied.]
Kay cocked his head and his brow furrowed. "Excuse me? Why can't we do that?"
[Query detected. Resurrection of Lovechief Kragnon is restricted. Condition of restriction: File name 'Resurrection Instructions' has not registered recent access after appointed time limit restriction. Condition of time limit till restriction lift: Complete.]
"Huh... So you have to read the document first before we resurrect your Lovechief?"
[Query detected. Confirmed.]
Kay rolled his eyes and scoffed. "Yeesh. Sounds like someone wanted to be thorough once nap-time's over."
[Assumption detected. Confirmed.]
"Kay then. I guess we can wake up this guy by following some directions. I got nothing better to do anyway. Open the third file please."
[Command detected. Accessing document.]
Kay leaned back in his chair again, but was careful not to tip over and fall that time. The process of reviving the lovechief, as described by this Maiden computer, sounded very complicated, but he was sure that Virid was listening intently to Maiden's explanation on how this Kragnon character can be revived. And judging from the size of the document, he might be sitting there for a good while.
'... This might take longer than I would have wanted.' Virid complained.
'Let me do my homework in peace please.' Kay telepathically replied back, trying to learn everything about the revival process. So much for assuming Virid becoming interested about learning this revival process.
This had went on for several hours, but Virid kept herself busy with the other queens. Kay, on the other hand, was patient. And since he had transformed into a zerg organism, he could wait until the universe completely cooled and experienced its heat death. Zerg immortality had that advantage. He would wait and learn about this world until he was ready to act.
Elsewhere, a gilanian research facility was in a complete uproar. They couldn't believe it! The organisms that they pulled out from the void were somewhere else in the world! But what was worse is that the image that was sent onto the anonymous network for community analysis had a completely new face for them to research. It was definitely similar to the organisms that attacked the inside of their base that escaped to somewhere else on Kiln. Worse still was that these purple and beige bug creatures were now greener, and at a facility they didn't recognized. But they recognized the chairs that was in the image. Somewhere, an old-styled council chamber had those purple and green creatures inside, and that would mean that they were in a major city!
The researchers in the research facility would have to warn everyone about this breach of security.
A/N: Might give this zerg crossover story a break. Now I want to go back on my Overlord/Saints Row fanfic. :V