Alive and Well
When Ellie arrived the screaming had stopped, so that was a bonus. Unfortunately Terra was awake and freaking out. Syra was trying to calm her down but Terra either couldn't hear her or wasn't listening. She was to busy staring down at the Zerg carapace that covered the front of her body.
"Out of the way." Ellie growled as she walked over to the twins.
"Ellie she won-" Syra stopped as Ellie punched Terra in the face.
The girl blinked a few times then looked around blankly.
"Ellie? Syra?" She asked.
"Terra!" Syra cried as she threw her arms around her sister.
Ellie took a step back, just out of Terra's reach, and watched as Syra celebrated her twins revival. She also saw money changing hands among the other squad members.
"How'd you do that?" Alicia asked.
"What? Oh getting her to calm down? I saw Jim do that in the bar when Tychus was getting angry. Solid blow to the face and the big guy calmed right down. Don't know what to do when she notices the chitin again." Ellie said.
It took another 30 seconds for Terra to notice the chitin again and instead of freaking out she glared at Ellie.
"I would've rather died!" She growled as she swiped at the girl.
Ellie was out of reach but still backed up slightly. Then she threw up her hands.
"Wasn't my call. Only my idea." Ellie said defensively.
Terra took a few seconds to process that then looked at her sister.
"You let them do this?!" Terra roared at Syra.
"It was better than losing you! After what happened to Mom and Dad you should know that!" Syra roared back and her electronic voice box crackled with static.
The two sisters gave each other deadly glares and the others watched, waiting for one to give. Eventually Terra turned her head away. Terra tried to get to her feet but she was still in her Marauder suit and the servos had stopped working after she had been blasted. She groaned as the attempted movement caused the metal rods fused into her body to flare up in pain.
"Well it didn't fix everything did it?" She growled.
"We had to wait for the mutation to finish. Now we can cut you out because you can heal the damage." Alicia said.
"Fine. You guys are leaving though." Terra said to the male members of the squad.
The grumbled but turned and walked out into the main cavern. As they exited Alestra came in. She walked up next to Alicia and Ellie.
"She is responding well?"
"Just a bit angry. Well maybe more than a bit." Ellie said as Terra started yelling about being stuck in her suit.
"I see… well I should introduce myself." Alestra said as she walked over.
Terra looked terrified when she saw Alestra but a few minutes of reassurance later she calmed down again and Alicia and Alestra began to work on removing Terra from her suit. Ellie walked out to where the guys were and leaned against the railing next to them.
"Hey, how're you guys doing? Need any food?" She asked.
The raiders held up plastic tubes and she grimaced. She had tried the energy paste that the soldiers ate in the field and it was revolting. Zach looked like he was starving but he had found a pen and a pad of paper somewhere, probably from the ships. He was sketching something and when Ellie tried to sneak a peek he closed the pad.
"It's not ready yet." He said as he walked a few feet away and started sketching again.
Ellie crossed her arms in annoyance and walked back down to the bottom of the cavern. She wandered through the stalls long enough that the cavern lit back up to day brightness. She eventually found Olette's stall again and the female roach waved when she saw Ellie.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" Ellie asked.
"Oh you know, other than still getting used to talking, fine." Olette said in Ellie's voice.
Ellie's mouth fell open as she heard Olette speak. It wasn't like an impersonation it was her voice.
"That's weird. You sound just like me." Ellie said.
"Yeah I believe Alestra will find a way to adjust my vocal cords so that I sound like I do in my head." Olette said with a terrifying smile.
"It's got to be strange with what you sound like when you think and how you sound." Ellie said.
"Yeah well I can deal with it. So what's going on up there?" Olette asked.
"They are getting my friend out of her Marauder suit. She's not reacting well to being partially infested." Ellie said.
"Huh, I can get that. Your memories do show how the Terrans view Zerg. I'm not sure I can understand how you felt when it happened." Olette said.
"Yeah I don't want to go back there. Being in that chrysalis…" Ellie shuddered at the memory.
"Well I have something set up that you might enjoy." Olette said as she climbed over her stall counter and stood next to Ellie.
Ellie took a good look at her now that she was fully visible. She had three eyes and mandibles on either side of her human like mouth. Her general form was a well built human female roughly six feet tall though she had parts that made her easily identifiable even from a distance.
Where her neck connected to her shoulders, a guard like protrusion came off, similar to how a roaches head was sucked into their body like a turtle. The gray hard exoskeleton covered most of her body and she had four fingers on each hand. Her legs bent backwards at the knee and she bounced slightly whenever she walked. Her feet were shaped similar to tennis shoes, no toes but flexible and tough.
"Done staring?" Olette asked.
"Uh yeah. Sorry." Ellie said.
"Don't be. I don't look like any other creature in the colony. Even other mutant roaches." She said as they began walking.
"Really? None of them are like you?" Ellie asked.
"Not a one. Most of them walk kind of hunched over and have four arms. I chose differently." Olette said as she lead Ellie up to the cavern's second level.
She walked up to a cave entrance that was ten feet tall and just as wide, much smaller than any of the other cavern's she had seen so far, and the two of them entered it to find a few other mutated Zerg standing around.
"Ellie, these are the other species leaders." Olette said and the other Zerg all stared at Olette in surprise at hearing her speak.
"Yes I can talk. Go ask Alestra when she gets done helping the Terran. For now let's get to what we came for." Olette said.
The biggest Zerg stepped forward and rolled it's shoulders. It was the same one that had carried Terra down into the Caves. Ellie thought for a moment trying to remember what Olette had called it.
"You are… U, right?" Ellie guessed.
It nodded and tapped it's head. Ellie tilted her head in confusion.
"He wants you to link up with them so they can talk to you." Olette said.
"Oh, uh how do I…?" Ellie asked.
"How did you communicate with Alestra when you first met her?" Olette asked.
Ellie focused for a few seconds and reached out with her mind. She felt all the mutants in the room and gently touched their minds. A buzz ran through her mind as she felt them. It wasn't like they were one creature but it was an intimate feeling, almost like a family.
'You are the one who freed us from the Swarm, yes?" A raspy voice asked in her mind.
Ellie looked at each of their faces trying to figure out which had spoken. She stopped on a lean figure who had long spindly arms that ended with half formed claws instead of proper hands. It had the same dreadlock like hair that Ellie did but it's reached down almost to its knees. It stood up straight but seemed to have some sort of growth on its back, which bulged out a few inches. It's face had only eyes and all five of them watched her with interest.
'Uh yes. That was me.' Ellie said.
'Then we owe you our thanks.' It said bowing.
The others either bowed or nodded to her. Olette clapped her hands.
"Okay, now let's get to the fights!" Olette said.
"Fights?" Ellie asked.
'What was it? Me vs Hyl?' A deep booming voice echoed through Ellie's mind.
The big guy shifted so that Ellie could see his face. Two orange eyes peered out through an armor like face. A hole for its mouth revealed a mouth like a junk crusher from hell. At least three rows of razor like teeth were inside. The rest of his body looked like a solid mass except when he moved when you could see the body move, it made him look like the worlds largest action figure. Six very large thick fingers were on each hand, four regular fingers and two thumbs. He stood across from another vaguely human creature.
It's head extended far above and back from its face. It's mouth also went very far back, almost to its neck, giving it the appearance that its jaw was hanging unattached. Two slits opened where it's nose would be. Two red eyes stared out with far more intelligence than one would expect. It's arms were very odd. One was human like, with five fingers, but the other ended with a bone like appendage that held a razor blade like bone to it with a few fleshy strings. It's body had a series of holes along its rib cage and it stood on two legs with a lizard like tail.
'I'm not losing this time U." It said in a hissing female voice.
'We'll see Hyl.' U said as he smashed his hands together.
There was no buzzer or signal, the two of them just began moving suddenly. U charged directly for Hyl and she ran to the side and the holes in her torso shot out a few Hydralisk spines. Most of the spines bounced off U's armor like shell but one stuck into his shoulder joint and he growled in pain. Hyl ran up behind him quickly and leaped onto his back. She used her claw arm to hold on by his neck and she grabbed the razor bone and held it to U's throat.
'So big guy, give up?' She asked as the bone cut into U's shell.
'Yes.' U said sadly.
Hyl released him and he walked over and slumped against the cavern wall.
"So Ellie want to try?" Olette asked.
"Heh, no way. I'm not that good." She said nervously.
"Oh come on. You can do it." Olette said.
"Fine. I'm not at my best right now but I'll try." She said as she stretched her arms.
One of the hunched over twins walked up to her.
'I am Zed. May I be your opponent?' He asked.
"Sure." Ellie said.
She cracked her knuckles and neck as they walked to the middle of the cave. Zed was about ten feet away and Ellie extended her blades.
"Ready?" She asked.
He nodded and they ran at each other. Ellie was trying to hit him with the flat edge of her blades. But he was far to fast for her to hit. He leaped over her and weaved around her strikes with ease. Ellie began to get frustrated very quickly and she retracted her blades and tried grabbing him. She scratched his arm and smiled.
'Gotcha.' She said.
'Tch.' He replied.
Zed scratched her repeatedly on her stomach and arms. When her blood was running out on the stone floor he stopped.
Ellie was gripping her stomach as it flared in pain with every breath. She hobbled over to where Olette was standing and grimaced at the Roach.
"Ow." She said.
"Yeah, Zed is the fastest in the colony. Nobody keeps up with him except other Zerglings." Olette said.
"Thanks for the heads up." Ellie mumbled as she sat down.
She looked down to see her wounds already closing up. It was still strange to be able to watch her body heal itself so quickly. She groaned as her head started aching again.
"What's wrong?" Olette asked.
"Whatever Tosh gave me to help with the backlash is wearing off. Ow." She said as it throbbed.
"What's Backlash?" Olette asked.
"Urgh, it's a build up of Psionic Energy in the brain. Any time someone use Psionic abilities a bit of the energy remains in the brain. If you get to much built up, say fighting an Archon, then it will forcibly discharge. Leaving the person with a splitting headache for a few days. Ow." Ellie said.
"Simple explanation?" Olette asked mimicking the question Ellie had always asked teachers.
"It's my brain having an electrical heart attack." Ellie grumbled even though she knew it wasn't accurate.
"Gotcha. Huh…" Olette said staring off into space.
A few seconds later she looked over at Ellie.
"Alestra's coming down here. Your friend… Zach wants to speak with you." She said.
"Why didn't she just tell me?" Ellie asked rubbing her temples.
"She said something is interfering with your psi abilities. Maybe I'm dumb but it could be your backlash." Olette said.
"Maybe…" Ellie growled.
They watched the others fight for a few minutes and Ellie began to notice that they all fought using styles she had seen in training videos or cheesy movies that had survived from earth. Zed was like a ninja, he avoided all of his opponents attacks and struck when he could. Jace, the freaky clawed creature, preferred to fight from a distance and throw glaives at his opponents. U simply charged and tried to crush them. Then Olette stepped in. She would dive underground and attempt to drag her opponent after her. If she couldn't, such as with U, then she spit acid on them. Ellie was particularly glad she hadn't fought Olette.
Alestra and Zach arrived a few minutes after the last fight when all of them were sitting around, wounded or exhausted. Alestra walked past Hyl who's bone arm was in pieces that were slowly growing back together. Zach however looked horrified.
"She says it looks worse than it is." Ellie called over to him.
He hurried over to her alongside Alestra. She had healed the scratches from Zed and was now only dealing with her Backlash.
"So what did you want to talk about she asked.
"He has a request." Alestra said.
"I listened to you. Thought about it. I'll do it. But I have questions for you two." He said.
"Very well." Alestra said and Ellie nodded.
"The biggest question that I have is how do we stay ourselves? I mean whenever Terrans get infested, they aren't people anymore, they're more like zombies than anything else." He said.
"True. That has always been a problem for the swarm. I was wondering that to. I mean Kerrigan and I are still ourselves, somewhat." Ellie said.
"That was a problem that only the swarm had. They seek control of their Broods. Humans are far to independent to be successfully assimilated without breaking their will or removing everything but basic motor functions. As such, I simply refrained from modifying the Terrans minds. Well, other than adding them to the Psi network." Alestra said.
"So no modifications?" Zach asked.
Alestra placed a finger against his forehead. He backed up quickly but a spark passed between her finger and his skin.
"What did you do?!" He asked frightened.
'Hey Zach, don't freak out okay?' Ellie said Psionically.
Zach gripped his head and looked over at Ellie.
"Did you… what the hell?!" He cried.
"Hey guys, you can talk to him now." Ellie called out to the others.
They obviously had a lot to say as Zach started spinning around looking at the Zerg. He gripped his head.
"What's happening?" He asked.
"They are talking to you Psionically. That was the extent of my mental modifications to the other two. You can shut out their voices if you focus for a few seconds." Alestra said.
Zach stood very still for a few seconds then breathed a sigh of relief.
"Silence." He said happily.
"You said you had other questions, what are they Zach?" Ellie asked.
"Well…"
And that's the opening for a Q and A. Any questions so far about what's going on, Lore or anything that's happened, I will answer or attempt to with the least amount of spoilers possible, if any. Also thank you all for following this story, I honestly did not expect anyone to actually like this when I originally posted the idea. See ya.