Chapter 37: Outbreak

The research station, S-01, was a testament to what the gilanians' scientific endeavors alluded to. It was a place where scientific experimentation could be carried out without repercussions to morality or social standing. Emperor Gollog would not care what your past was, so long as your skills were put to good use. Deviation from the work that a slacker was assigned to would have him branded as a rebel, and forced to partake in medical experiments like all other criminals. If evidence of sabotage was detected, then all scientists, and any individuals working with them, would be sentenced to death, or interrogated. Mostly, the punishments would mostly involve medical experimentation.

Commander Faddoh had a wide grin on his face after he left the containment chamber fifteen minutes ago. Three new zerglings to experiment on means he could work on his research three times faster. And then there was the doppelganger that he also captured! He was a very happy commander, and he decided to boast that achievement to everyone in the city. And he knew just the person he would like to share this information with first. Everyone else would come second. "Kralluf! I have some good news! Will you be able to keep yourself awake long enough to hear my news, before falling back to sleep again?" he said, taking out a plastic sheet as he was walking through the halls of the S type research facility.

[GhhhHhhHh... DON'T... tAlk to Me. I'M... iN... PAIN... VoICeS... SO MANY VOiceS... caN'T THINk... CAn't... Ah... ugH... wHERE Am I?]

Faddoh shook his head. He almost pitied the gilanian. "You are in a hospital, Kralluf, getting your body fixed up. The medical micro-machines will help revert your biological status back to being a regular gilanian. The metal plate in your head and several other cybernetic attachments had to be removed for your safety. I apologize for the pain, my friend, but we couldn't risk using painkiller medicine in fear of the zerg parasites and viruses adapting to the treatment."

[HUgH... GrH. AahhH... it's... oKAY, FaDDOh. nNM! At lEAsT... aT leAST I KiLLeD thaT FuckeR... THe rigHt wAy... hAvE i TOLd you? KoH... hAve I ToLd yOu m-hMmn...mY hUntiNg SToRy?]

Faddoh sighed and smiled. "You can tell me the story later. Sounds like you need to rest."

[hRrh... RigHt. REST. neeD reSt. paiN iS... toO much. HaRd... TO... REST... I NeeD to... pASS oUT.]

"Try and sleep, my friend. Dream of better places, like a forest with all the baby animals you could ever hunt." Faddoh said, closing the communication link. His smile continued for a few seconds before a depressed frown corrupted his face as he put away the plastic sheet. "... We might have to kill you, or move your consciousness to a new body if the medical micro-machines do not work. I only hope that the modified retrovirus restores your DNA to the way it was before."

After a saddened sigh, the copper commander continued on to his office. A set of ornate doors of copper and green, which had a placard that said 'Office of Commander Faddoh' installed on the door, opened automatically to him. Within the room, several collections of computers dotted the inside, and several copper robots were found, some were in the process of being deconstructed, while others were being built. It had the theme of a mad scientist that had the hobby of a mechanical genius.

But before Commander Faddoh could enter into his office, the voice of a gilanian had cut him off from his attempt to enter it. [Uh... Commander Faddoh? I hate to interrupt you, but there seems to be an error with the surveillance cameras?]

Faddoh sighed. "Within which rooms?"

[Uh... All I have right now is the camera numbers. I have F12-234, F12-235, and F12-236 that are saying that they have been deactivated. Was there supposed to be maintenance happening this early?]

"Not this early, you idiot, the timing is way off. Maintenance drills are issued on days that are on every second prime number. With that said, do you know which days we issue maintenance and repairs on?"

[Uh... On the 3rd, 7th, 13th, 19th, 29th, and 37th days of every month?]

"Correct. Now answer me this... Is the maintenance issued so early in the morning?"

[Uh... Maintenance starts at 60% wane of the daylight cycle at Empire Capitol, so... I guess not?]

"That is also correct. It is already the seventh day of the hot season, but I have given no orders to begin the maintenance procedures this early. Standby while I connect to the facility's machine mainframe." Faddoh paused for a little bit, and his mind interacted with the facility in a way that only he could ever do. But really, any witness on the outside of this interaction would only see a copper robot muttering to himself. "Let's see... Hmm! Looks like the cameras in one of the slave containment rooms were shut down. Have you tried reactivating them?"

[Uh... Yes, I have. But when I tried to, I get the prompt that the command is locked. I even tried submitting a query in asking who made the command lock, but I had no luck.]

"Locked, huh? Let me see for myself." Faddoh said, grumbling. "T'gai, who has issued forth the camera disable, and information command lock, of the surveillance cameras in one of the slave rooms?"

[Query detected. That information has been locked by a password set by Commander Faddoh.]

Faddoh sighed. [Alright then, smarty AI computer, how about this: Commander Faddoh master command activation, priority maximum, initiate. Command activation key code is 92846739620284956315. Accept command override?"

[Command override detected. Override accepted.]

"Excellent. Now unlock that password for me, please."

[Command detected. Information lock lifted by override command. Shutdown has been initiated by the command of Commander Faddoh.]

Faddoh raised his eyebrow. "I did no such thing! Where was this command issued from?!"

[Command detected. In slave containment chamber four on the twelfth floor.]

Faddoh paused. "... I remember being there, but I did not issue such commands. Reactivate the camera feeds that have been disabled by my commands."

[Command detected. ... Failure detected. Unable to activate camera feeds.]

Faddoh shook his head in frustration. "What?! ... Wait... What are the conditions of the containment cages that I placed the zerg in?!"

[Query detected. One zerg organism remains contained.]

If Faddoh could panic, he would. However, panicking was a mortal trait. But at that very moment, he was feeling very mortal. "COMMENCE QUARANTINE PROTOCOLS!"

Rickey the changelisk had to practice his patience, but he also knew that he had to act soon. After regaining his health, and reacquiring minerals back into his body by feasting on a zergling limb, Rickey went to work. He clutched at his own neck and started softly whispering to himself. "See... you... again... Grck... See you... again... *cough* ... See you again... soon. Hrhh. See... You again soon. Close... See you... again soon. Hmmph. See you again soon. ... Perfect." Rickey said quietly, doing his best to shift his windpipe to emulate the tone, pitch, and verbal inflections that matched Commander Faddoh. After finding the accent that resembled Commander Faddoh's way of speaking, Rickey enacted the next part of his plan. "Computer, deactivate all cameras in this room. Open all slave containment cages in this chamber, except for the one containing the zerg doppelganger organism. Prevent all personnel from accessing the information that pertains to the current commands issued, including myself, and password lock the information that only I can access through a password. The password is: For the swarm."

[Commands detected.] A few seconds later, the cameras stopped and appeared to power down. Once they were down, Rickey started picking up his bone blades and threw one at the nearest camera through the bars of his cage. The blade impacted the wall, which prompted the changelisk to adjust his aim. After throwing a second and third bone blade, he finally struck through the lens of the camera with a fourth. After the destruction of one of the cameras, Rickey aimed at the second and third cameras and struck through them, using only one throw of a bone blade to each surveillance device. After that, Rickey was left with three bone blades, plus the one that was within his right arm. He carefully tucked each bone blade into his body after disabling and damaging the cameras in the room.

The zerglings that were released from the cage next to him gingerly stepped forward, sniffed around for several seconds, then trilled excitedly as they tasted freedom. Emulating the voice of another individual was a trick that was hard to do, but the changelisks have managed to achieve this skill, with a little practice. In fact, the infested gilanian known as Polteg had used this same trick to leave the slave cage he was stuck within, and he used that advantage to destroy the inner radio transmitter and energy generator inside Research Facility B-22. This time, however, Rickey's strategy was going to proceed slightly differently, compared to the method used by the past infested gilanian.

And this tactic hinged on Rickey staying put where he is. After all, Faddoh was expecting to contend with only three escaped zerglings.

Once Commander Faddoh initiated the quarantine lock-down, all doors, both inside every room of the infrastructure, and the main gate that was the only way inside and out, was forced closed. A heavily geared security team was eventually summoned to enforce the quarantine procedures, and they waited at the front of the entrance that led into the research facility. Several scanners have been constructed outside the entrance of the facility, and a cordoned area was created to help prevent any individuals from leaving the defended perimeter without being scanned first. The only person that was exempt from entering the scanners was Commander Faddoh, since the scanners are not designed to scan robots.

The lights had darkened to half of their luminescence, and a speaker system activated. It was the voice of Commander Faddoh. [Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of Research Facility S-01. Certain dangerous specimens have escaped containment, and are now loose in the facility! As such, this has prompted me to activate this facility's quarantine containment protocols. If you find these specimens, consisting of either the zerg organisms known as 'blade hounds', or the 'doppelganger', then you are to report your sightings of these creatures to the security detail. In doing so, it will help assist them in tracking down these zerg organisms, which will eventually lead to their re-capture. However, in order to leave this facility, each one of you must submit yourself to being scanned by one of the scanners that have been deployed in the quarantined perimeter. If you are clean of the zerg infestation, then you are free to leave. But if you are infested, or have been injured in the presence of a zerg organism, please submit yourself to further testing. The quarantine protocols will remain in effect until the zerg organisms have been captured, and all gilanian personnel have been scanned. If you have detected any odd behavior, or strange incidents in the last hour, report to the security detail or higher commanding officer. As of now, the security teams are deploying and entering into the facility. Keep yourselves safe until the security team reaches your location, and calmly evacuate the area with an escort that will be sent for you. If you are in danger of being attacked, then please move to a different area and find a safe location to protect yourselves in, until help arrives. That is all.]

After the announcement, a group of gilanian soldiers opened up the front entrance into the facility and gingerly made their way inside. Their weapons consisted of spiked tower shields and pistols, whilst the soldiers behind them bore short-range weapons, similar to shotguns or battle rifles. After sneaking into the main hallway, one of them made a tactical gesture to everyone behind himself, prompting them to stop. After a few seconds of pausing, he brought his left wrist to his face. The soldier's left wrist looked like it had a high tech device that curved around his arm. After a cursory glance, the soldier talked at the device on his wrist. "This is security team leader Qailos, reporting to Commander Faddoh that the halls are populated with gilanian scientists. They're all sitting."

[Very good.] Commander Faddoh's voice said, communicating to Qailos. [Gather all scientists and direct them to the cordoned area outside of this facility. The security stationed in the cordoned areas will scan them for possible infections or zerg exfiltrators. I shall inspect the conditions of the modified containment cages that contained the zerg organisms, and see what went wrong.]

Qailos shook his head. "Sir, I recommend sending an armed escort to provide you protection."

[Nonesense, Qailos! I have came prepared for this scenario this time. You go ahead and do your the job you're paid to do.]

Once the comm link was terminated, Qailos shook his head before he barked his orders. "Alright you scaly sons of bitches! These lab-coats will need a safe trip out of here! I want teams consisting of six members each, each one with an assigned squad captain, and I want each team to either breach into every quarantined room, providing overwatch to dangerous areas, or tracking down the zerg jags to contain them! Once you have been assigned a squad number, continue inside! Go go go!"

Teams consisting of six members each were formed and deployed within the research facility, splitting off in different directions as they methodically checked every area for dangers and zerg presence. Room after room, the security teams went into each one to look for any signs of zerg, and for any signs of trouble. Wrenching metal was heard from within one of the rooms. "Hey, I hear something from this room. Sounds like a loose animal."

Qailos smirked. "I need two teams to form up here, one for capture, one for support. If the jag tries to bite you, you are authorized to use lethal force."

The security teams lined up at the door with the scratching sounds coming from within, and they prepared to breach into it. One officer fiddled with a panel that was on the wall next to the sliding doors, and the door slid open when his job was complete. "Door's open."

"Grit your teeth and move in." Qailos whispered, and the capture team slowly entered the sealed room with caution.

Many of the rooms that they had opened in a similar fashion revealed several scientists that had stopped their work, electing to either sit down, create barricades in case the zerg decide to breach into their rooms, or play board games. Many didn't have access to their technology either because the computers they were working with stopped functioning, or the scientific equipment were powered down due to the lack of energy being supplied to them. When such rooms were unlocked, the captives within were escorted outside of the cube to be processed, scanned, and then released.

But this room in particular had a completely different scene within. Blood covered the floors and walls, and gilanian scientists were found to have much of their flesh ripped from their broken and splintered bones, with their clothes reduced to barely recognizable shreds. Even the bones were broken apart by what looked like powerful jaws! They found no survivors in the room. All they did find were chewed and eaten corpses, metal that was gnawed off from the tables and equipment, and a meter tall hole that was wrenched open and on the side of the room. Screaming could be heard from the hole a few seconds later.

"Quick men! To the next room!" Qailos ordered. They ran and assembled quickly to the next sealed chamber, and they heard screaming past the copper doors. The next room became silent a few seconds before the breach was made. Two teams entered the room to find it in the same condition to the destruction they saw before. After looking around for a few seconds, they discovered more meter tall holes on the sides of the room, and more bodies. Qailos sighed and brought his wrist up to his mouth. "This is Qailos again. Looks like the escaped jag zerg have entered into the fifth floor and are eating the scientists in the sealed rooms. They appear to be making their own entrances into adjoining rooms."

[An awfully long way from the twelfth floor...] Commander Faddoh said from the com link. [Be weary, containment and scientist recovery teams. These blade hounds seems much more dangerous than before.]

"Alright..." Qailos nodded. "Alright everyone, listen up! There is zerg loose in the fifth floor of the research station. I want everyone here right now to contain the blade hound jags. We found some half-eaten corpses, so we'll need a cleanup crew after this mission. This is security team leader Qailos, over and out."

A sudden sound forced everyone with a gun to aim at the direction of the disturbance. After a brief lapse of focus that came after an adrenaline rush, they took a second to realize that a utility locker was responsible for making them jump. Everyone looked at one another in puzzlement, only to realize that the locker made that same sound again. A soldier was chosen to approach the locker, and he knocked onto its doors. "Hey. Anyone in there?"

"No."

The soldier raised an eyebrow, but then knocked on the utility cabinet again and spoke calmly. "Listen. We're going to transport you to a safer place. Come out and we won't shoot you."

"No."

"... Uh. Right. Well do you mind if we open the cabinet doors?" The soldier asked.

"No."

"... Okay then. Since you consented, I'm opening the door now."

"No." Once the soldier had opened the locker, the resident inside started screaming incoherently, throwing a battery at the closest soldier. "NO NO NO NO NO!"

"You gave me permission to open the locker! Captain, you heard him consent, right?" The volunteered soldier complained.

"NO NO NO!"

Qailos shook his head, pulling back the soldier that opened the utility cabinet. "Acute stress reaction, soldier. He's in shock. He's not comprehending us right now." He pointed to the panicking scientist inside the utility locker. "Force him onto a chair. I have a few questions for him."

"NO NO NO NO!" The panicking scientist, which bore several blood splatters on his lab-coat and torn fabric, struggled under the strong grappling might of the soldiers that detained him. After being forced to a chair, the scientist tried to run back to the locker, only to be forced back down again. "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

Qailos came up to the scientist and smacked him in the face with a hard-hitting backhand. The scientist quickly had went quiet after feeling the impact sting his scaly face. Qailos finally breathed in and sighed, enjoying the quietness that followed before he broke the silence with a question. "What is your name?"

The scientist was quiet for what felt like an eternity to everyone there, but the length of the pause lasted for about five seconds. "... T... Talkud."

Qailos nodded. "Tell us everything, starting from when this shit happened. Begin when you feel comfortable, Talkud."

Another five seconds passed before Talkud started talking. "We... We never stood a chance. They came through the wall, like... like they clawed right through it. One of them nearly cleaved my head off, but a friend sacrificed himself so I could live. I think I heard his limbs and head being hacked off of his body and dropping to the floor. I hid in the utility locker and watched everything happen from there. I knew it was a bad idea for Faddoh to bring those things here. I just fucking knew it."

Qailos shook his head. "Don't change the subject. Continue with the story, or I will slap you again."

Yet another five second pause happened before Talkud continued. "I watched from the safety of the locker, through the hole slits. I had to stand up on my toes to see through them. I saw the blade hounds run out from the hole in the wall. There... There were so many."

"How many did you see?"

"I counted eight but... Oh god."

"..." Qailos raised his left wrist up again. "Commander Faddoh, how many zerg jags had you brought into the research facility?"

[I had only brought three blade hounds, plus the doppelganger. Why do you ask?]

"Our panicked scientist friend is saying that there was eight blade hounds that attacked and ate his friends."

[The camera surveillance system will be the judge of that. What room are you in?]

"Uh... Hang on." Qailos quickly left the room to look at the room number. He quickly went back inside again, and reported to Commander Faddoh. "We're in room F5-233"

[Alright, let me see... Hmm... Hmm?... Uh... ... ... WHAT?!]

Qailos' ears hurt like hell when Faddoh screamed through the communication channel. "Commander Faddoh, sir?!"

[HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?! HOW IS IT THAT THERE ARE SIXTEEN OF THEM NOW?! I THOUGHT THAT THEY NEEDED A ZERG NEST TO PROPAGATE THEIR NUMBERS?! ... Qailos, I need you to deal with this new development and find out where these blade hounds are coming from. I need to talk to someone.]

"Sir?" Qailos asked. He did not get an answer back.

"That's not the worst of it." The panicked scientist said, clutching his face as he leaned forward.

Qailos turned to the scientist. "What happened next?"

"They... They killed my colleagues and dragged off their bodies. They bit and clawed at the corpses, but... they didn't eat them. But I saw them turn into something else. They formed... They formed an egg around themselves."

Qailos sighed. "Does that mean there are bursters rolling around in here too?! Dammit!"

The panicked scientist shook his head. "No. They turned into something smaller. They... They looked like little worms with huge pincers for mouths. They drank the blood and ate the flesh of my colleagues. I even saw a blade hound try to feed it strips of metal it gnawed from one of the chairs. It looked like it was so hungry during its feasting as it kept making that scream. It was like it demanded food. It formed an egg around itself after it ate so much flesh and metal. After that... two more blade hounds took its place, fifteen seconds later."

Qailos looked at the scientist with a stern glare. After several seconds of analyzing the panicked scientist, he concluded that he was either high on something, or was telling the truth. He placed his left wrist up to his face again. "Commander Faddoh, be advised. Our panicked scientist thinks that these blade hounds can enter back into their larval stage. He described that its larval form looked like a worm that has large pincers. It turned itself into an egg, and two more blade hounds hatched from it fifteen seconds later."

[I went through the surveillance feeds, Qailos, and your scientist friend is telling the truth. This is most troubling news indeed... I'm afraid that the objective is no longer containment. Qailos, you are to instruct everyone that they are no longer tasked with capturing the escaped specimens. You are free to hunt and kill these monsters. Repeat, hunt and kill all blade hounds you find.]

"Acknowledged." Qailos said, nodding again. "Alright everyone! Our mission is no longer containment! Kill all the jag zerg you find!" Everybody hooted at their new orders when he issued them to his teams. Qailos on the other hand grew more troubled. The detail about the zerglings being able to double their number every time they feed was a piece of information that he would have wanted to know sooner. But alas, these zerg creatures seem to have the unusual ability to evolve at a rapid pace that outclasses every other organisms ability to adapt. A predatory hiss from a zergling broke his contemplation of the moment. "GET READY, MEN! OPEN FIRE, AND FIRE AT WILL!" He shouted, readying his shotgun-like weapon. The other security officers steeled themselves in a similar manner as they formed their firing lines. The hunt was on.

The quarantine security teams assembled their firing lines and aimed in every direction at the fifth floor. On the twelfth floor, however, Commander Faddoh was putting the limits of his robotic copper body to the test. After blasting though the hallways of the twelfth floor and finding the door he needed to enter into, he accessed the side panel next to the door and prompted it to open. He stepped inside of the room, which was the same room he had transported the zerglings and changelisk into, which were contained with modified slave cages. He looked at one of the cages and noticed that it was empty. Worst yet, the cage once containing the zerg had no signs of forced entry that suggested an inside job. But Commander Faddoh finally figured it out. Somehow, the changelisk was the central suspect to this mystery, and it was he that let the zerglings out.

But in the cage next to it was Rickey, still residing inside of it and waiting patiently. Commander Faddoh hissed and slammed one of his six robotic fists onto the cage, causing it to zap the resident inside of it. "You released the blade hounds. Didn't you?"

After Rickey received a shock, he shook his head and laughed. "Heheheh... How did I give it away?"

Faddoh banged the side of the cage again, zapping Rickey once more. "Don't be coy with me, Rickey. I have reviewed the surveillance recordings and have concluded that you have emulated my voice to trick the computer AI T'gai. A neat trick, but now I demand to know what your plans are."

Rickey chuckled even more. "Hahahaha~! Commander, do you think to torture information out of me? I am here by the will of the swarm, and I am a dispensable pawn that can be casted away like reducible garbage. You have sealed your fate the moment you brought us into your home, and you only sealed it further by displaying loyalty to Emperor Gollog, and his empire."

Faddoh punched the cage's bars, zapping Rickey yet again. "Tell me something I want to hear, or this conversation is over."

Rickey laughed as he was electrocuted. "HAHAHAHAHAH~! Ah... Fine. My master wishes for me to tell you the truth, since he found you pitiable."

Faddoh paused, but he stepped back and grumbled. "Let's hear it then."

Rickey slowly slithered closer to Faddoh and leaned onto the cage. "I lied about losing cohesion of my form. I could maintain any disguise indefinitely." He said, slowly turning back into the form he was first seen in. The changelisk, in the guise of an artillery operator once more, had a sinister smile that grinned impossibly wide from ear to ear.

Faddoh huffed. "A silly clever lie, but you could also have tried to escape from here due to your cleverness. Why remain here?"

"Because my master wants me to be here."

Faddoh snorted. "Then he is the more clever ringleader than you, I suppose. But then for what reason have you remained here?"

Rickey chuckled again. "Hahahaheheh... To tell you that he is coming for you."

Faddoh stared at Rickey and shook his head. "Then that will be his doom. Once we eradicate the blade hound pandemic in this facility, I will personally kill you with my own machine hands. It's apparent that acquiring zerg specimens for testing purposes is too much of an effort to maintain. A shame, really."

"Just in this facility?" Rickey said with an even wider grin.

Faddoh paused. He then briskly walked up to the cage and reached for the disguised changelisk, grabbing him and bringing him closer to himself. "... What do you mean by that question?"

Rickey didn't cease in his wide grinning. "Another thing my master wants to tell you: We changelisks can also modify our appearances to assume a disguise of another organism. It doesn't even have to be a gilanian. Just something of similar size."

Faddoh stared at Rickey for a long time before he figured it out. "... One of the blade hounds was a doppelganger this whole time? Then... then you smuggled one of the blade hounds out of the facility?!"

Rickey nodded. "And us 'doppelgangers' can also self terminate. After I am gone, you will be seeing my master soon. But before I go, he wants me to tell you that he is coming for you right now. Goodbye, Faddoh. It's been fun being the antagonist to your story." He said, smiling and then reducing himself to a messy red fluid right before the commander's eyes.

Commander Faddoh shook his three pairs of arms and flung off the protoplasmic fluid. After shaking much of the liquidated changelisk off, he sighed. "... I have... seriously... underestimated the zerg."

And that was when he heard a fell, distant roar below his feet.

A/N: Seriously though, you can't out-think the swarm.