Commander Grant's POV

The reports were coming in by the hundreds. A massive swarm of bio-krawl had mobilized from their base on Meido. Their heading was completely different from their previous offensive movement. This time, they were headed straight towards Genshi.

"Commander, are you there?" Professor Wright's voice came through my desk speakers. "We've got a situation down here. The bio-krawl have generated several large structures along the sides of the volcanoes near Genshi's second landing site. It's only a matter of time before they launch an assault like the ones on Ziba's moons. I'm afraid we don't have enough ships for a full evacuation."

This could've been my chance to find Rallen and Jeena, but my own hypotheses caused a deadly hesitation. "I'll send all patrols in that vicinity to your aid. The Special Forces should stay put, though. I don't want a surprise attack on Kollin."

It was my own fault. I thought those two were behind all this. If they had been, we might've stood a chance against that swarm on Genshi. As it was, our adversaries showed no mercy, no sign of slowing down until every living thing on Genshi had been devoured. This was war, and we were losing...

Queen of Blades' POV

"Understand this, Prince of Stones," I explained very slowly to my new subordinate, "you are a great general of my Swarm. I expect you to act as such. Any sign of disloyalty, and you'll be food for the underlings. Understood?"

"Yes, my queen," the newly infested Terran replied with obedient rigidity.

"Excellent," I grinned. I couldn't let another of my high-blooded brood generals to abandon my Swarm. "Your first task is simple. I want you to find and capture your predecessors. Bring them to me, alive! This should be a good chance to test those pets of yours."

"I shall begin my search immediately, my Queen," He replied with a nod.

As he turned to leave, I found myself inhaling deeply almost out of reflex. The familiar scent of volcanic ash filled the air. What a lovely reminder of home! I then called down a nearby overseer. "Report, Vassal, how go the battles across the planet."

"My Queen, the roaches have proven an invaluable asset to our campaign due to their ability to tunnel, but the Guardians seem to have become obsolete," The overseer reported. I wonder why that would be. "The Terrans possess a flying craft, similar to the phoenixes belonging to the Protoss. These ships not only have the ability to strike hard against the defenseless Guardians, but also are able to annihilate mutalisks before they are allowed within range."

"That girl's creations seem to be our strongest weapon against these Terrans," I thought aloud. "Send a message to the brood mothers. No more shall we produce mutalisks and Guardians. We must begin work on our new corrupters, as well as the brood lords they become."

"It is sent, my Queen," The overseer hissed as it rose to flight level once again. Its eyes began furiously blinking, sending the new orders out to the hive clusters.

This was war, and we planned to win.

Rallen's POV

I woke up on a soft bed, covered in warm blankets. My arms were lightly wrapped around something even softer than the pillow under my head. My nose brushed up against some sort of silky material that sent shivers down my spine. Good shivers. I leaned my head forward until my nose and mouth brushed up against something solid and smooth. I gingerly extended my lips and gave this soft something a long kiss.

"Good morning to you too, Rallen," Jeena whispered. She turned around so that our faces were only a few inches apart. It was then that I noticed that her ribcage was open and a few of her carapace fragments were loose and rattled slightly as she adjusted her position. "Did you sleep well?"

"Uh... yeah... I slept great, thanks," I replied embarrassedly. "Uh, Jeena, your... ribs are open." I kept my eyes locked on hers as I said this.

"I know," she said with a smirk. "Do you want me to close them?"

I thought for a minute before replying the negative, and she pulled herself closer to me as our lips met. I wrapped my arms around her to pull her closer. I suddenly became aware of my own loose carapace fragments, more specifically the ones on my lower body. What happened last night, exactly?

"As much as I'd love to stay in bed all day," Jeena said after pulling away from me, "We've got work to do." She got up out of the bed, which I now saw was just another one of those tumor-like growths in the floor, and walked over towards what I assumed was the exit. She began carefully clicking her ribs into place.

"What kind of work?" I asked. "I thought we were just hiding here until the war out there died down."

"That's the problem, Rallen, it's not going to just 'die down' unless somebody does something," she retorted in her matter-of-fact tone. "We are that somebody... I think..."

That wasn't the most inspiring statement, but I'd follow her anywhere, so it didn't really matter whether she was right or not. She moved towards a flap of skin on the wall that peeled back to reveal the brightly colored sands of Nessa. I followed Jeena out of this opening and took a look around. There was nothing but sand and sandstorms for hundreds of miles. One of those large, balloon-like zerg sunk down towards us and dropped off a queen.

"What's the present status of the Queen of Blades?" Jeena asked the queen in a serious tone.

"The main Swarm has mobilized. The Queen launched a full frontal assault on this system's first planet, using mostly your creations in battle. This has left their original base in this system completely open to attack, but has greatly improved the Swarm's position. Their numbers have also increased exponentially," the queen finished its report and relaxed its spindly legs once it had finished speaking.

"Alright, Rallen," Jeena sughed, turning to me, "looks like we've got a busy day ahead of us."

"What are we gonna do, exactly?" It was a legitimate question. We were two renegade mutants with a fraction of an army at our disposal. If the NPP found us we were as good as dead, but for some reason Jeena insisted on going up against an entire swarm.

"I can hear your thoughts, Rallen," Jeena glared at me. "You seem to forget that we have infested prizmods, both of which are stocked with hyper-evolved spectrobes. I think either one of us could take a brood on our own, but that's not what I've got planned for today. We're going to seek out an alliance with the humans."

Cyrus's POV (wow this chapter jumps around a lot)

The last crew of miners had just returned from the far side of the planet with a shipload of less than precious gems. This was to be expected by this time of day, but that didn't stop me from chewin' 'em out.

"You morons really think I want Attack-C minerals?" I shouted at the captain. "And what's with this Corona-B? It's got a huge crack down the side!" It was only 'bout six millimeters long, but no flaw escapes me. "Yer completely useless! Tomorrow I'm sendin' you out first thing in the morning." This was met with a collective groan from the miners. "Well it's not like you got anything better to do tomorrow."

The miners continued grumbling as they returned to the colony, leaving my factory workers to transport the minerals into a nearby processing station. I grinned at the clockwork of my perfect industry. Then something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Something was raising a dust cloud in the desert, and it was moving this way.

"What is it, Boss?" One of the colony's patrolmen asked when he looked out and saw the cloud.

"I don't know," I responded, "and if it doesn't involve me and/or money, I don't really care."

As I turned around, I heard a loud crashing noise. The patrolman shouted, "boss, look out!"

...

I woke up in a daze. All I could see were two shadowy people standing over me. "Oh, good, he's waking up," one said in a familiar, girly voice. As my vision cleared I began to see smudges of pink and red on top of the figure's heads.

"You two NPP brats again?" I meant it more as a statement than a question, but it came out as a question.

"Well... sorta," The boy said. What was that kid's name again? Raffi? Randolph? Robert?

I rubbed the confusion out of my eyes with one hand. "What d'you mean 'sorta'? Either yer them or yer-" I cut myself off when I saw the two of them clearly.

They weren't human. Not anymore, at least. The girl had a second ribcage wrapped around her body and the boy had huge plates sprouting out of his back and shoulders. What happened since the last time I saw them?

I think this story's drama is fluctuating... whatever that means... We're not really sure of half the stuff we type into these computers. The other half just creeps us out. I'm speaking for my self, by the way; the other four probably understand these rambling stories.

We don't own Spectrobes or StarCraft.