A new day is dawning, a night come and gone. My Mutalisks were so effective with their Glaive wurms carving out huge swaths of monsters that My Hydralisks and Zerglings were practically relegated to back up, facing down the Endermen and the Creepers they'd taken to transporting into my buildings.

Thus begins week 3 of my stay here on Minecraftia. I can hardly believe it's been so long, but it has according to my little calendar in the corner on my light ball. I glanced over at the Nether Portal still steadily dripping Zombie Pigmen onto the Creep from high up. No change there. Really need to find a more permanent solution to that problem. It'd be just my luck that Blazes would start popping through within the next couple of days.

A quick cursory sweep of my Hive Cluster shows everything is going alright. Turning my attention to Fort Artemis shows that it too is also going well. I spare a few moments to say hello to Lord Julian. It's just a simply exchange of pleasantries, but he does mention a visitor from one of the neighboring city-forts who showed interest in the 'monster' flying over Artemis, the monster being my Overlord, and why they hadn't shot it down yet. Julian did his best, but with the visitor having left earlier this morning, at least one other Fort City should know of some of my Zerg soon. Considering the chances of hostility that I may get, I'm not sure how to feel about that.

Getting my usual morning rituals out of the way, I contemplated what to do now. My Swarm has 10,780 Bio Energy available. The way I see it, I have three options. I could expand the Swarm by creating more Hatcheries and such, I can advance my Hive Cluster's tech level by placing down the buildings needed to upgrade my Lairs into Hives, or I could try my hand at evolving the Swarm some more with the Evolution Chamber. I have some ideas for evolving the Swarm, but honestly, I'm not really sure how to implement them. I have the idea of a Zerg that can shoot out water to take care of any Blazes and Endermen, but other than this Zerg sucking up a huge store of water from a river or ocean, which isn't really viable, I don't see how to go about it.

I shook my head. If only I had a Cerebrate or two. Maybe they could figure it out? I'm really hoping a Cerebrate would have a better understanding of biology and genetics, especially in regards to the Zerg themselves. I bet if I'd given one of them the idea for glowing grass growing out of the Creep, they'd have been able to make it glow AND taste good.

Having thought that, and realizing that 10K Bio-Energy a day is probably enough for now, I decide to try and unlock the ability to build a Cerebrate. According to the build list, it requires a fully upgraded Hive Cluster, with all upgrades finished and everything. I've no idea why that's necessary before I can build a Cerebrate. Maybe once I make one, I can ask? It'll be nice to have an actual Zerg to talk to. Julian's alright, but there's only so much I can tell him. It's not that I don't trust him, I just have a healthy respect for operational security and need to know. Julian doesn't need to know the entire inner workings of the Zerg. Sharing that just doesn't seem very intelligent.

Decision made, I started implementing the changes. First order of business is getting a Queen's Nest set up so I can upgrade my sole Lair into a Hive. I contemplate turning all the other Hatcheries into Lairs in the meantime, but decide to hold off on that until I'm sure I'll have enough to cover all the upgrades to the Swarm or not. I order a larvae to morph into a Drone.

One hour and 400 Bio Energy later, 450 if you include the Drone, and I have a Queen's Nest sitting next to my Spire. From an aerial view, my Hive looks like half a circle, with most of my buildings starting from the south end with the Evolution Chamber and working my way counter clockwise with the Spawning Pool, Hydralisk Den, the Spire, and now the Queen's Nest. I'm not exactly doing it on purpose, but that's just the way it looks now. I should probably get to finishing the ring of Creep Colonies to complete the ground defenses anyway. I've put it off long enough as it is.

With the Queen's Nest finished, I gave the order for the Lair to morph into a Hive. The building then bloated up into a pulsating sac of flesh, not unlike a brownish black raw heart sitting on the ground. I'd prefer the membrane like sac it originally grew in any day really. I guess I'm just going to have to get used to it since the Creep Colonies upgrading into Sunken Colonies did the same thing.

With the Hive morphing, I'm now down by 500 more Bio Energy, leaving me with 9,880 Bio Energy. Plenty for the rest of the buildings and Upgrades I hope. I've an hour and forty minutes until the Hive finishes and I can put up the last two to three buildings though. Until that point, I start looking into getting the upgrades out of the way.

I ended up choosing to get the first level melee attack upgrade from the Evolution Chamber, the Burrow ability from another of my Hatcheries, the muscular augmentation from my Hydralisk Den, the first level flyer attack upgrade from the Spire, and the Spawn Broodlings ability from the Queen's Nest. All told, it comes to a total cost of 1,650 Bio Energy, and some of those aren't going to be complete for at least four hours. On top of that, that's only a small fraction of the upgrades available to me currently. The Evolution Chamber alone has 9 upgrades, but it can only do one at a time, and six of them are dependent on a previous upgrade being complete. Long story short? It's going to take a while to get all the upgrades finished.

Nearly two hour's later, my Hive finally finished. Compared to the Hatcheries next to it, the thing is freakin huge! Nearly twice the size of the Hatcheries! Those tusks towering over them with what almost look like ribbed spikes and dragon heads topping them are almost too much. All four are actually swaying slightly with the natural movement of the Hive, and they seem to be keeping vigil over the building almost. It gives me an interesting idea of natural defenses for the building actually, especially if those dragon head looking things are fitted with Hydralisk spine launchers. I mark the idea on my list for later.

With the Hive done, a number of options are now available. First things first, I order up three new Drones for 150 and have them build a Defiler Mound, Ultralisk Cavern, and a Nydus Canal for a total of 1,000 from that alone. With 7,030 Bio Energy left after that, I started up the upgrades available now that I have a Hive.

By the end of the day, I'd gotten the Overlord Antannae upgrade from the Hive, the Zergling Adrenal Glands upgrade from the Spawning Pool, the Ensnare ability and Gamete Meiosis Upgrade from the Queen's Nest, the Plague and, reluctantly, the Consume abilities as well as the Metasynaptic Node upgrade from the Defiler's Mound, the Anabolic Synthesis and Chitinous Plating from the Ultralisk Cavern, the second level of flyer attacks and started the third at the Spire, and same for Melee attacks at the Evolution Chamber. The lot cost me a whopping 5,925, leaving me with 1105 Bio Energy.

I'm honestly shocked I was able to get so many done. I just kept the upgrades rolling through the day. Whenever one finished, I started up the next. I never thought that would have me end up finishing all available upgrades to the Swarm barring the ones going one at a time at the Spire and Evolution Chamber.

I said 'reluctantly' earlier. When it came time to upgrade the Defiler to be able to use the Consume ability, I almost didn't do it. If it weren't a requirement for a Cerebrate I wouldn't have. The idea of a Zerg eating more Zerg just to get a small boost of energy really disturbs me. Bad enough the Creep is eating the flora, as well as the splattering fauna from that stupid Nether Gate, but Zerg eating Zerg? It's no wonder Kerrigan got rid of Defilers by the time the events of Starcraft 2 came around. Though I find it somewhat ironic she has something against cannibalism among the Zerg, but is fine enough with kamikaze techniques to the point of making it a staple of her army.

Over time as the upgrades finished, I noticed as the various buildings sent out pulses of psionic energy and quite a number of my Zerg swooped down to eat pieces of Creep. It came as a surprise for me that once the Burrow ability completed at the Hatchery, I ended up as one of the Zerg targeted by this psionic energy pulse. With it came a crawling sensation underneath my skin and an almost overwhelming urge to go eat some Creep, though I could tell I'd be able to ignore it if I wanted, though it wouldn't be very pleasant until whatever the Burrow ability is changing in me finishes.

Grimacing, I had my Overlord drop me on the ground, wincing as the light hit my eyes, which had grown used to the darkness inside the Overlord for so long. Pulling up a patch of grass and Creep, I ate it as quickly as possible. Once I did that, the crawling sensation under my skin intensified for a moment, then finally subsisted. I quickly got a drink from the river to wash the taste of grass from my mouth. I nearly made to change the Creep back to having no grass right then, but I quickly discovered to my dismay that while the Evolution Chamber is busy upgrading the Swarm, I wouldn't be able to access the Genetic Library in the meantime.

Frustrated, I got some more water to finish rinsing the taste out. Once satisfied, I turned my attention to the changes in my body curiously. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be any change at all. But looking closely, I noticed that the skin over my muscles has actually darkened a little. If I weren't so familiar with my own body, and weren't already as pale as I am, I might have never noticed. I removed my shirt to see the same change, however slight. Feeling the places, I quickly realized it isn't the skin so much that's changed, but the muscles underneath.

Before, I lead a fairly sedentary life style with brief bouts of muscle use for carrying things and pushing heavy objects around. I couldn't claim to be overmuscled by any means, but I did have at least a bit of definition. Now, my muscles have just the slightest size increase, still not enough to give me much definition, but where before pushing on my flexed muscles felt like hard rubber, now I feel like I'm pressing against solid steel. I can even feel some kind of ribbing underneath the skin on the muscle itself. It's kind of creepy to be honest.

Curious to how the Burrow ability works, and why it made this change, I activated the ability. Suddenly everything is dark again, and if I'd blinked I might've missed it. Somehow I dropped into the ground almost as if the surface I'd been standing on turned into water for a moment. Attempting to unburrow had me climbing out of the ground so fast it was almost too fast to follow. I had to burrow and unburrow a few times before I finally started to get an inkling of what's going on.

Evidently activating the burrow ability causes my new muscles to shake so fast that the ground literally shakes apart underneath my feet. Unburrowing is essentially the same thing, though I can't figure out how vibrating fast would cause me to shoot out of the ground when it previously had me shooting into it.

Calling a Zergling over, I checked its scythe like claws. Again, there's no real appearance change, but knocking on the claw itself shows that it's denser and a bit heavier than before. The Zergling almost seems a bit twitchier as well. The blade seems just as sharp as before though. I'm figuring it'll be the same for the Mutalisks attacks. I don't dare handle them though, since the acidity of the glaive wurms would probably melt my arms off.

I'm tempted to create a Queen or an Ultralisk just to see what they're like, but with only 1,105 Bio Energy left, and the upgrades I still have left to finish, I decide to hold off on that for now. I do at least finish the ring of Sunken Colonies surrounding my initial Hive Cluster. Between 4 Drones, 4 Creep Colonies, and 7 upgrades to Sunken Colonies, the lot cost me 850 Bio Energy, leaving me with a paltry 255 Bio Energy. Nowhere near enough to start more upgrades when the current ones complete.

I wandered over to my three new buildings. I gave the Queen's Nest a cursory once over, but I don't see any way inside it, same as the Spire. The Hydralisk Den at least has an opening, but it only amounts to a cave full of side tunnels that I think the Hydralisks can slither through if they wish. The Ultralisk Cavern is pretty much just that, though I'm surprised that it actually extends underground by quite a bit. You could probably fit three to four Ultralisks in there. As for the Defiler Mound, I'm at once revolted and intrigued by the building. It's sort of like if you took a Spawning Pool and piled up black sludge and random tunnel like chitin up, then add a dash of orange tendrils snaking everywhere, you'd get this place. The tunnels I can see actually look big enough for me to fit into, but the black ooze and orange… things wriggling about have me steering clear of the place. For all I know, this is where the Defiler's Plague ability is stored. Considering in game the stuff takes you down to only one hitpoint, I don't even want to imagine how that translates to real life. With my luck, it'd probably be similar to all the plagues of Moses combined and about as pleasant.

Giving the Defiler Mound a wide berth, I approached the Nydus Canal, one of the more mysterious buildings of the Zerg. It's a lot bigger than I expected it to be. I suppose it does make sense since it's supposed to be able to fit Ultralisks, which are roughly twice the size of an Elephant (which makes me wonder just how an Overlord is able to carry two of the things with no difficulty). Currently, there's a white film over the sides of the tall cylinder like building. There's a green light shining from the building through the white film, and the closer I get, a tingling feeling travels across my skin. It's weird, and makes me shiver a little from the feel of it. I'm almost tempted to place its counterpart nearby, just to see what would happen, but that just seems a waste to me.

That's when I notice something odd. There's no command to build the Nydas Canal's counterpart in its command list. This is the first thing I've seen about my Zerg that's been blatantly different from normal Zerg, apart from the use of Bio-Energy instead of Vespene and Minerals. If there's no counterpart to be built, then how would a Nydus Canal be able to link to another and transport Zerg to it? Is this building going to be useless now? I really hope not.

I'm tempted to see if I can get past the white film, but decide against it. Instead, I spend the last few hours of daylight starting new upgrades as others complete till nightfall. Once again, monsters show up in force, and once again my Mutalisks keep them at bay. Endermen start getting creative by teleporting Creepers on top of buildings rather than in them where my Zerlings are waiting, but some redistribution of some of my Zerg takes care of that issue.

It's… odd though. Throughout the night, my Zerg can feel a tremor through the ground, like some large monster stomping around randomly. I can't even imagine what it could be. Maybe a giant Zombie wandering around? But I figure I'd be able to see something like that on the horizon. I'm a tiny bit worried, but when nothing showed up, I eventually gave in to my tiredness and went to sleep.

-END CHAPTER-

AN – I'm going with the explanation that the muscles vibrate at a higher frequency when burrowing than they do while unburrowing. This causes the ground to maintain some solidity and causes the ground to force the one vibrating upwards, kind of like a dog shaking itself will send dirt scattering off it. As for the Nydus Canal… well, I'm sure some of you can guess. For those who can't, I won't spoil it.

Overmind Matthew
PSI Energy – 50/50
Status – Normal

Abilities
- Burrow – Active – High vibrations from muscles allow user to drop below ground level to hide
- Spawn Hatchery – 50psi – 12 hour build
- Regeneration – Passive – Heals anything not instantly fatal; time needed depends on extent of injury.
- Anaerobic – Passive – No longer requires breathable atmosphere to survive.
- Temperature Resistance – Passive – Currently able to survive temperatures between -450 and 118 F.
- PSI Regeneration – Passive – Regenerate energy at .5 points per second.

Zerg Swarm
Bio-Energy – 255/Income rate – 10,680
Support – 133.5/334

Entities
1x Quad Hive Cluster w/ 1 12x SC Ring (1x Hive-3x Hatchery)
20x Hatchery
1x Defiler Mound
1x Evolution Chamber
1x Hydralisk Den
1x Spawning Pool
1x Spire
12x Sunken Colony
1x Queen's Nest

60x Overlords
35x Mutalisks

12+33+2x Zerglings
20x Hydralisks

Swarm Upgrades

Burrow
Defiler Consume (ugh…)
Defiler Metasynaptic Node
Defiler Plague
Flyer Attack 1,2,3 (3 in progress)
Melee Attack 1,2,3 (3 in progress)
Overlord Antennae
Overlord Ventral Sacs
Overlord Pneumatized Carapace
Zergling Adrenal Glands
Zergling Metabolic Boost
Hydralisk Grooved Spines
Hydralisk Muscular Augment
Queen Ensnare
Queen Gamete Meiosis
Queen Spawn Broodlings
Ultralisk Anabolic Synthesis
Ultralisk Chitinous Plating
Custom Upgrade – Glowstone Green Grass Creep

Friends/Allies/Vassals

- Lord Julian of Fort City Artemis (Vassal)

Objects added to the ZGA

Human hair (Overmind)

Strand of cotton thread (from shirt)

Grass

Tree

Obsidian Shard

Coal Shard

Stone (Rhyolite) Shard