Matilda began making her way to the center of the Leviathan holding areas. The Queen's plans felt strange to her. She mulled over the reasoning that the Queen had used, but regardless of the number of ways she tried to consider their situation, she never could discover why the Queen would act as she chose to. The Queen valued the inhabitants of Israel for some reason, but Matilda could find no area in which Israel could better the Swarm.
So fierce was the Queen's desire to protect the insignificant nation that she was willing to leave the Leviathan in a place where it could be destroyed instead of fleeing to the stars until a greater force could be brought to bear. The Queen was fixated on protecting that worthless country even though they had nothing to offer the Zerg any longer. Israel could not protect the Swarm, so the Swarm should not-
Matilda cut herself off from that line of thought as she neared her destination. The Queen was wise. She would not fail.
Matilda began forming her chrysalis.
Her frustrated thoughts were soon silenced as her body began to be unmade.
May oversaw the loading of the American prisoners into Overlords. The captain had refused to leave the submarine even after she had sent Zerglings to intimidate the sailors, and many of the crew had followed their captain's example. May was not certain that her Zerglings would be able to drag anyone out without killing them, so she let them stay in spite of their uncertain fate.
Upon landing at a compound north of Tel Aviv, the few prisoners who chose to leave were unloaded, much to their relief, and handed over to the Israelis who were none too pleased to have custody over Americans. A tenseness hovered around the compound that left May feeling uneasy.
May approached a displeased Amos. The man's face almost looked disfigured, so deep was the furrows in his brow and the frown upon his face. Twisted, not in anger, but in severe displeasure and discontent. May began to question her involvement with Israel as she approached the man she had been working alongside for months.
She had neither the time nor the desire to contemplate what was already done. There would be plenty of time for that later.
May stopped within comfortable speaking distance with the man, but neither spoke. Amos brought his hand to his chin and began stroking his beard, his eyes scanning over May's body. May realized that she was not the only one contemplating the wisdom of past choices.
"You have a plan?" Amos asked abruptly, breaking the tense silence.
"For now? Yes. For this time next month? No."
Amos went back to his contemplative silence.
"If it works, and Israel is willing to go along with it," May added, "then Israel and the Zerg will be safe indefinitely."
Amos' eyebrows rose slightly. "What's the plan?"
"The Leviathan above Jerusalem is capable of interstellar travel. We leave and take whoever wants to join with us."
Amos' face darkened as May spoke.
"We can rebuild on another world and return with reinforcements to keep Israel defended. In our absence, the Zerg already here can help protect Israel."
"Israel is not just the people that live here, dragon." Amos answered softly. "We've fought and died for this land, not because we have nowhere else to go, but because God gave us this land back after two thousand years and we will not leave it. You've done more for Israel than we could repay in a lifetime, and for that we are grateful."
Amos sighed and cast his gaze towards the ground.
"If you value your...people," Amos continued, "then I suggest you leave before this mess comes crumbling down on top of the both of us. We really would sacrifice anything for Israel. For that reason, we must dissolve this alliance that we have shared. It was decided months ago that if you were attacked by anyone other than our current enemies, we would disavow you and your kind.
"Do not mistake this separation for animosity. We will make sure to tell our children and their children about you and your kind for so long as we are here to remember what you've done for us. To the outside world, however, we will have to make you a villain."
May was simultaneously surprised and comforted by Amos' words. She had feared that Israel would resent her involvement in the war upon the revelation that she was now an enemy of America, but instead they were grateful. She would prefer that they keep her as an ally, but they could be trying to kill her, so May decided she would take what she could get.
"Will the rest of the world buy it?" May asked.
"Probably not." Amos stated plainly, "We have been working too close together for too long, but we have few other options."
"What if your people actively took up arms against us?"
"You want us to attack you?" Amos asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Do it. If you can spin a story to the world, then we can act it out for them to see."
Amos tilted his head slightly. "Why do you even care about what happens here? We aren't your people and we have next to nothing to offer you. It doesn't make any sense."
May shrugged. "This is your land, isn't it? I don't like thieves."
"Our enemies claim that this land is historically theirs, just as we do." Amos countered.
May furrowed her eyebrows. She had not considered her own motivation for helping Israel, only acting in the moment. It had been her kidnapping that had brought her to helping them, but she was not particularly set on getting revenge. Israel had been a means to an end, but that had failed.
Perhaps she was helping them as some form of repentance for having tried to use them for her own gain. It was a valid possibility, but the time for introspection could come later.
"I don't know that backing out is an option for you anymore, dragon." Amos said as the silence between them grew uncomfortable. "Let's just focus on what is ahead of us."
May nodded. "The Leviathan will stay above Israel for a couple of days, during which Matilda and I will be evolving to better suit the needs of the Swarm. After our metamorphosis, we will leave all of our forces behind to protect Israel while the Leviathan...leaves."
"Your forces will have to go with you." Amos pointed out "You would have no reason to keep them here if your intent is to flee."
May sighed and drooped her head. "Right. That was part of the plan before all of...this. Everything is such a mess."
"Where will the Leviathan go?" Amos prodded in an attempt to steer the conversation.
While May did not want to tell anyone where she was going, she wanted to give Amos some certainty. He deserved that at least.
"We plan on jumping to nearby star systems until we find a habitable planet."
May let that hover over them for a moment. She could not read Amos' face, so she continued.
"Once we find a place to stay, we will build up our forces and return to reinforce where it is needed."
Amos breathed in deeply. "Where will you be during all of this?"
"Wherever I am needed" May answered. If all went well, she would be able to return to being human...ish and find out who was behind the attacks on her Swarm.
"I need to know as much as possible if we are going to put on a convincing show."
May nodded. "When Matilda finishes her transformation, I will go up to the Leviathan and begin mine. Matilda can oversee our retreat. It shouldn't take long to tell her what to do."
Amos nodded. "I am going to gather everyone needed to work out the details for this. I'll send someone to let you know when we are ready."
Consciousness returned. Feeling did not. Matilda could neither feel nor see nor hear. Slowly, an intense discomfort began to overtake her body. It was not painful, but it was like an aching itch that had been festering for days. Her fingers twitched. The itch in her fingers lessened. She would go mad if the unrest continued to fester. She moved one of her legs slightly. The ache in her leg lessened. A pattern of relief. Matilda began willing her body to move, but her will was mostly ignored. Where her demands were met, her body felt relief. Her mind gradually gained control of her body, and soon she was convulsing wildly to relieve her aching itch.
A claw struck something hard, and Matilda's eyes shot open revealing the dark green walls of her chrysalis. She remembered. She awakened. She wanted nothing more than to break out of her shell. The itching ache was at the back of her mind, but had not gone away. Nothing more than the open air would relieve the itch, for her carapace had yet to fully harden. She knew this in the same way that she knew that May was the queen. It was ingrained in her being.
Matilda threw herself at the chrysalis that contained her, and it broke apart like a fragile eggshell. The thick albumin around her began to flow out and air began to flow in. Matilda clawed at the shell with all of her might until the walls began to collapse and the flow of the liquid dragged her out.
As her lungs filled with oxygen, she felt her mind connect to that of her Queen. More than that, she could feel the Queen's physical presence.
"Welcome back." The Queen said softly. "Are you ready to get to work?"
"I am ready, my Queen." Matilda said through their link.
"Good. We need the rest of the world to think that we have been holding Israel hostage. The idea is that we have taken all of Israel back in order to use the land to build a new Hive Cluster. The Israelis will soon begin to attack our forces, and we need to make it appear as if we are fighting back for a brief time before retreating back to here.
"Just send some Zerglings their way as a distraction while the rest of our forces pass over their heads in Overlords. We aren't trying to overrun them, only to keep them occupied. With that said, if your Zerglings do make it to the Israelis, do not make them hold back. Be careful in how many you send. Too few and it will look like we aren't even trying. Too many and we run the risk of severely weakening their ability to defend themselves once we're gone.
"While this is going on, position the Leviathan over the Mediterranean and make sure that our forces avoid passing over any cities. That is where the most resistance will be, and we are more likely to take losses there.
"Use our forces to protect the Leviathan until I have hatched, then I will jump off and you will take the Leviathan and our forces to the nearest habitable star system to form a new Hive Cluster. Do you understand?"
"I do, my Queen."
"Then I will see you in a few days."
Matilda exited the room, leaving the Queen to begin her metamorphosis, and made her way to the Leviathan's head. From there, she began sifting through thousands upon thousands of minds, waiting for the moment to come.
The new Broodmother did not question the Queen's plans this time. The time for questions was gone. The Zerg's only ally was about to turn on them, or vice versa more accurately, and such was according to plan. The reasons were no longer important, only ensuring perfect execution.
Broodmother Matilda began analyzing the Israeli defences from the Overseers in orbit, estimating how many Zerglings would be needed to just reach the Israelis in different locations. The Israelis were likely to attack her military forces first, leaving the Leviathan alone. As such, she began searching for Israeli caravans meant to reinforce critical points near the border.
The caravans were quick to spot from orbit. Israel was a small country, and there were few places for such movement to hide. To her surprise, however, the caravans were moving towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. A check on the border cities proved them to be almost entirely vacant. It seemed that the Israelis were set on defending in only the most valuable or favorable of locations.
Matilda ordered the Leviathan to hover over the Mediterranean. Israel's Air Force was scrambling airplanes and helicopters from airports across the country. Matilda was mildly thankful that they did not have an aircraft carrier.
Matilda ignored the Mediterranean Sea completely. Israel only had one corvette left, and a handful of submarines that she chose to keep in the back of her mind. The vessels were unlikely to be involved in the coming conflict in any serious way. Their armaments were likely not designed to target aircraft.
Matilda sensed slight surprise from the Leviathan. It had been hit with something. Overseers quickly turned their attention to the Leviathan, only to find over two hundred missiles of various sizes headed towards the Leviathan from near the coast on both the north and the south sides. From the inland east, there were hundreds more.
Matilda scrambled Scourges to intercept, but four more had impacted by the time the Scourges had left the Leviathan. Hundreds of Scourges screeched through the skies within seconds. The next missiles were smaller than the first five that had hit home, exploding once near a Scourge. While the damage from a single missile was not enough to significantly injure a Scourge, there were well over a hundred missiles, all of them fairly close to one another. Dozens of Scourges fell to the wave of smaller missiles, but there were hundreds of Scourges, and the loss of the few was hardly felt.
Matilda took this as her que and ordered Overlords with Mutalisk escorts to be sent out to collect the majority of her ground forces. Simultaneously, groups of Zerglings were ordered to make their way towards Israel's main defensive positions. The remaining ground forces were ordered to meet the Overlords roughly halfway.
More missiles reached the swarm of Scourges within a few seconds, and the Scourges attempted to block them as they had done the previous ones. The second wave of missiles, however, were larger and simply plowed through much of the swarm until they struck the Leviathan with minimal effect. The armor was cracked in a few small places by the missiles, and Matilda almost felt bad for the Israelis. They were horribly outmatched.
The Scourges were ordered back into the Leviathan as the hundreds of missiles roared in from almost all sides. The smaller missiles that would have injured a Scourge hardly scratched the Leviathan, and the larger ones were not affected by the Scourges at all. It made little sense to waste the Scourges over something so trivial.
The flurry of missiles struck, and a strange silence hung over the skies after the smoke and noise had cleared. Matilda figured that the Israelis had run out out of ammunition. In the meantime, the setting sun made the smoke trails turn orange. Matilda idly wondered why the sun was relatively dim and orange in the morning and evening but bright and white during the day. Perhaps it could be exploited to use the sun as a weapon somehow. Perhaps the Queen would know.
The incoming missiles continued well into the night, with volleys coming in every half hour or so. Artillery had since joined the bombardment, to little effect. There were a few times in which several missiles would strike the same place in short succession, resulting in the Leviathans armor to be broken away. Unfortunately for the Israelis, the wounds began to heal within minutes and the armor had mostly healed itself by the time the next wave struck.
The Zerglings sent to the Israeli defences had done as planned, acting as a distraction while the main forces skirted around the defences on board Overlords. The Zerglings would have likely broken through had it not been for the aircraft that swarmed in to bomb and shoot the little things like fish in a barrel. By morning, all remaining Zerg forces were either on board the Leviathan or dead at the hands of the Israelis.
The Israelis stopped firing at the Leviathan a few hours before morning, either due to a lack of morale or a lack of ammunition. They had not been idle, however. Several missiles had been fired from Israel into the skies above. Their targets were unclear until they began exiting the atmosphere. Shortly thereafter, Matilda's Overseers, her eyes in the skies, had been taken away. There were a couple of reserve Overseers on board the Leviathan, but they had been shot down shortly after they were ordered to leave.
However, Matilda remained calm. There was little need for them at this point since the Israelis had brought nothing to bear that could truly harm the Leviathan. She had made sure to keep the Leviathan close enough to the land that the use of nuclear weapons would result in fallout across much of the small country.
She wanted to survive, after all.
By noon, the Israelis had still not fired any more weapons at the Leviathan, and the mammoth creature had fully healed what little damage it had suffered. Matilda had to sacrifice a few Ultralisks for the biomass needed, but they would not have been useful anyway. Further evidence that the Israelis were useless as an ally. The whole of their might could not break through the Leviathan's outermost defences. She had not even truly counterattacked.
A couple of hours past noon, more missiles began making their way towards the Leviathan. Unlike the previous missiles, however, these missiles were coming from the west and there were many more of them than there had been before. Matilda suspected that a power other than Israel was at play, for the Israelis did not have the ocean going fleet necessary to pull off such a maneuver. Curious, Matilda sent out a hundred Scourges to follow the trail and find out where they had come from.
The missiles impacted, causing only slightly more damage than what the Israelis had due mainly to the higher number of them. The Scourges were intercepted by missiles fired at them from beyond visible range, and three of the hundred were critically injured by the resulting blasts. The remaining ninety seven continued onward towards the source.
As the Scourges continued onwards, more missiles began pouring in from the north, south, and east. Without Overseers, she could not easily find out where they came from. Uncertainty begat doubt, thus Matilda sent out Mutalisks to fire on the missiles in the hopes that they would detonate prematurely.
While the Mutalisks that were sent north and south encountered no resistance other than the missiles, the Mutalisks sent inland quickly came under fire from smaller anti aircraft missiles and heavy machine gun fire from troops on the ground. Given that the land forces were not the target, the Mutalisks opted to spread themselves thin and avoid the fire as best as they could, focusing on the missiles targeted at the Leviathan.
Many of the missiles were intercepted, and the few that made it through had almost no effect, as expected. Matilda wondered if the little creatures would ever tire themselves out.
Dmitry glanced up at the strange sight before him. The ugly floating mass of flesh had been pummeled with an obscene amount of explosives over the past couple of days, yet it sat as if hung on a string above the Mediterranean Sea in no worse of a condition than when the bombardment had begun.
Much of the city had been evacuated, though evacuating a population so large was bound to take time, and many people would refuse to evacuate. As such, Dmitry and his team would occasionally encounter a few civilians. The idea of immediately knowing friend from foe would have been a dream for any soldier, but the Zerg made many a soldier question whether that was a dream or a nightmare.
It was early morning of the third day of the "war" against the Zerg. That is what it had been titled by most governments involved. Typically, war involved two sides fighting.
It had not taken long for many governments to realize that the Zerg were not going anywhere or even doing anything. The Russian Federation had been caught up in its own internal issues before someone eventually decided to pull the trigger on an operation to investigate on the ground. Three days was too long in Dmitry's mind, but it would be less than unhelpful to voice it.
Their objective was as simple as it was vague: find out what the Zerg were waiting for. The team made their way down the nearly vacant streets of Tel Aviv for hours, searching for anything out of place.
As it was nearing sunset, they heard a disturbance, the sound of voices loudly talking with some laughter mixed in. As they exited the shadow of a huge hotel, they could make out a park where the sound was coming from. Dmitry recognized the language as English, and, based on their sheer loudness, assumed that they were Americans.
Walking around some bushes next to the street revealed a large park with evenly spaced trees and an extreme absence of grass. A group of American soldiers were merrily eating and talking at the tables, and a few had elected to sit on the nearby play equipment.
One of the Americans noticed them, and soon the whole group was looking their way. One of them stood and waved them over, shouting in broken Russian.
"Hello, friends. We waited for everyone. Sit down and rest." He said gesturing to the nearby open tables. "For adults there is a shadow, and for children," he gestured to the group sitting on the play equipment, "a playground."
Most of the team grinned at the jab, and a couple of the Americans on the playground noticed, promptly gifting their fellow American their middle fingers.
"We will eat here and see what we can learn from the Americans." Dmitry told his team.
Many of the Americans returned to their talking as he and his team approached, though in more hushed tones than before.
"Are you looking for nothing too?" The American said in Russian as the team began sitting down and unpacking their food. "Because this is what we, the British, Canadians, French and everything else have discovered. You will if you continue the search. Here we find nothing, as elsewhere. Why work to find him when he is here too?"
"How long have you been looking?" Dmitry asked.
"About two days. Although the French came here before us. Britain got here after us. How long have you been looking for?"
"I can't tell you."
"Keep yourself, I don't care. Eat good food you want to exchange for trash?"
"Trade bread for bread?" Dmitry asked as he held up his crackers in a sealed wrapper. After the trade, both parties were disappointed when they opened their new packages to find that they had traded their flavorless crackers for flavorless crackers.
The rest of dinner, Dmitry listened in to the Americans' conversations while pointedly pretending to be purely prodigiously putting down pre-prepared provisions. The Americans probably assumed that there were English speakers in his team, but there was no need to be vocal about it.
Unfortunately, the most important thing that he learned was that little Susie from Iowa got a kitten for her birthday last week.
After dinner, Dmitry took his team to the far side of the park and they prepared to break for a couple of hours. Dmitry glanced at the night sky before closing his eyes, giving him no new revelations. The massive creature in the sky had not moved all day.
The Russian camp was 'woken' by Americans shouting on the other side of the park, quickly followed by one of their own shouting. Few of them had actually slept. In the chaos, hardly anyone caught all of what was said, but the meaning was clear: Get to cover and prepare for contact.
Adrenaline was being freshly dumped into everyone's veins as the sound of an incoming projectile filled the air and the soldiers scrambled to get behind the nearest tree they could find. The resounding boom was not nearly as impactful as any of the soldiers had braced for. Though the ground did shake, the impact was not an explosive one.
As the dust settled and anxious tension replaced complete chaos, the soldiers began poking out from behind the trees. Flashlights cut through the night as shouts meant to ensure that everyone was okay echoed off of the surrounding buildings. Between the Russian and American camps, in the middle of the park, a clearing had been made by the impact. Both sides nervously approached the crater, neither the Americans nor the Russians willing to rush towards it, but neither wanting to get to it last either.
Both teams reached the crater at the same time, filling it with light from all angles. Within, a mass of broken flesh lay mutilated and spurting blood in several places. A large chunk, the size of three fully grown men, shifted. Dmitry glanced over to the Americans who appeared just as on edge as he was.
A blood covered hand reached around the chunk of dead Zerg, followed by another. With a grunt, a very blood soaked human pulled itself out from under the flesh. Dmitry shifted his grip on his rifle, all but certain that the creature in the crater was not actually human.
At the center of the crater was a very naked woman. For most of those present, the blood and gore surrounding her/it was more than enough to dispel any of the usual thoughts accompanied by such a sight.
The creature had not noticed the roughly twenty five soldiers pointing guns its way.
"Identify yourself!" One of the Americans shouted in English, startling it, causing it to jump and take notice of the very nervous soldiers pointing their rifles at her.
The creature stiffened and its hands moved to cover itself, but there was no other indication that it had heard them.
"Who are you?" Dmitry shouted in his native tongue, hoping that the creature was simply unable to understand English.
"Tell us who you are!" One of the Americans shouted in some Middle Eastern language, probably Arabic from what Dmitry could tell with his limited knowledge of the subject.
For nearly a solid minute, members of both groups shouted at the creature trying to get it to identify who or what it was, and none were met with any response. The creature did pick up a piece of...dead something...to try to cover itself with. It did not help much.
"Vasin," Dmitry called without moving in the slightest, "I need your blanket. Go get it."
"Yes, sir." Vasin called back, promptly running off.
Whatever sort of creature this was, Dmitry did not want the Americans to have it. If the Zerg were capable of emulating a human, then Russia would be the ones to know about it first. Nobody moved after Vasin left, and the creature seemed more focused on covering itself than in killing anyone...for now. He had been briefed on the Zerg, and though they were resilient, the Russians had found that their hard outer shells were what made them tough.
Though he was not sure how easily the creature in front of him would be able to kill him, Dmitry figured that they would be able to blow its brains out if it tried anything.
Vasin came running back a few moments later with a blanket that he had found while searching the city. Taking the blanket from Vasin, Dmitry lowered his rifle and began to make his way into the crater.
Everyone tensed as he approached the creature, and it eyed him warily as he approached. Slowly, Dmitry lifted up his arm to offer the blanket to the creature. He was too far away for it to reach, forcing it to come to him if it wanted the blanket.
With only a little hesitation, the creature took slow, deliberate, and exaggerated steps to close the distance, regularly glancing up at his team as it did so. Once close enough, it slowly reached out and took the blanket from Dmitry and began covering itself.
The Americans, presumably waiting to see if the creature was going to try to kill him, slowly began stepping down into the crater once the creature was wrapped in the blanket. Immediately, Dmitry's team turned their attention and guns towards the Americans, halting their advance.
"We're taking the creature." Dmitry stated loudly in English while gesturing to the creature to come to him.
"It is the property of the US government. It belongs to us." An American argued before addressing the creature directly. "Come with me and you will be safe."
For the first time, just loud enough for everyone to hear, the creature spoke in English.
"I'm going with the Americans." It said before leaning towards Dmitry and whispering, "You're better off without me."
The creature, apparently having made its decision, turned around and walked over to the Americans. About halfway there, it looked up at the massive creature in the sky and stared.
Dmitry risked a glance, but soon turned his full attention to the flying monstrosity as it began to move upwards. Though its size gave the illusion that it was moving slowly, it soon began to approach the speed of sound. Though difficult to make out specific features, even with a full moon, the overall shape was hard to miss as it slowly shrunk into the sky.
Though distance was difficult to determine for a myriad of reasons, the creature was quite high in the atmosphere when night abruptly turned to day. Everyone shielded their eyes from the sudden flash of light, only to watch in awe as it soon faded to a bright and eerie blue glow in the sky.
The blast was far away from the creature, the glowing ball soon turning to a blue ring of fire. Only a few seconds after the first detonation, a second flash of light lit the sky once more. As everyone's eyes recovered a second time, the second glowing spot in the sky was revealed to be dimmer than the first had been. The creature had been struck, yet even still it continued its upward trajectory.
A third, fourth, and fifth flash lit the sky in rapid succession a few seconds later. Two having struck the creature and one detonating far away. Smaller flashes began lighting the sky in large numbers, little more than firecrackers compared to the might of the nuclear weapons that had struck before.
Dmitry saw movement from the corner of his eye, though it hardly registered. Three more large flashes erupted over the course of several seconds, one striking the creature, one detonating very close to it, and a third detonating far away. Dmitry soon lost count of the number of nuclear weapons that detonated, not focusing on counting in any way shape or form.
Dmitry felt the earth shake below him, but only had the time to glance down before the ground fell away. He only had a moment to panic as the very air seemed to crack and hiss around him. His last breath was stolen from his lungs by the rushing air, and darkness enveloped his existence.
A/N: This was actually meant to be the last chapter of book 1, with an epilogue followed by chapter 1 of book two. I am posting this now, however, and I will not be posting chapter 1 of book 2 (due to me not being happy with various elements of it) unless things calm down considerably where I feel comfortable working on it. I may post the epilogue depending on a myriad of factors.
In light of recent events, I do not expect to finish this story. I had been planning to work on this regularly after graduating this December, but if my country continues down its current path then working on this story may become a luxury that I will not have time for for quite some time. I aim to focus my time for the foreseeable future on helping my family and community. I do not consider myself as being involved in either side of this ideological war, but I do not expect to be allowed to remain neutral as the rhetoric and behavior becomes more divisive and extreme.
I understand that this may be considered overly dramatic by many of you, and hopefully this ends up making me look like an idiot. I recently tried writing some more, but I can not focus on it. I can not lose myself in entertainment of any kind these days.
I am sorry to inject reality into a medium that we so often use to escape the stresses of the world, but I did not want to abandon you and this story with no explanation as to why.
To my fellow countrymen, stay safe and godspeed.