Chapter 3: Hunting Party

Kay didn't remember much of his past. The void was thanks to that. Since it had dissolved and ate away at his mind at a slow rate, it now left him with less of a history than any human adult would be comfortable with. The zerg queen that had saved him, now known as Virid, was able to supplant him with brain matter and the brief information she glanced through the zerg hivemind psionic network. The brain tissue was replaced, but lacked the former terran's many past memories. It was only through zerg regeneration that Kay would live his life without suffering a hemorrhaging brain or mental retardation. But much of his history was now blanked, thanks to a battle with a god called Amon. Much of his short-term memories still persisted, but much of his long-term memories were now gone.

But now he had to deal with a recent nuisance. Specifically, three lizard-man hunters that were maintaining their distance from the overlord that they had attacked, following it closely. Their tongues flicked quickly as they sampled the air, watching the blimp creature with hungry eyes. It would stand to speculation than these types of hunters specialized in using poison to hunt their food. They didn't seem related to the lizard-men in sterile white cloth that Virid mentioned, but there was little to no evidence that would suggest a connection.

Kay shook his head, still running forward to meet with the trespassers. He could sense that the zerg combat organisms that were closest to the hunters were one of the zerglings. He sighed heavily as he proceeded forward with his enhanced inhuman speed. "Have one of our zerglings get ready to try and drive off these intruders. If the zergling can't cut it, then we will have to bring in all of the other fighting zerg too."

'We shall meet these foes in combat. Our forces may be limited, but our claws will rend their flesh!' Virid said through the hivemind network.

"Actually, Virid, I was hoping to chase them away." Kay said, getting closer to the lizard-man hunters at breakneck speeds.

'A dangerous strategy. They would return to their people and warn them of our presence.' Virid hissed.

"And what would they say about us if we kill them and let their people notice that their hunting party has not come back? What would happen if they found out that we struck the first blow? It would give them an excuse to hunt down what remains of your swarm!" Kay said, seeing and closing the distance to the wounded overlord above him. "If we can't resolve this in a peaceful manner first, then we might be forced to take prisoners for interrogation."

'... An acceptable strategy. I shall let you determine this outcome.' The queen hissed. She sounded impressed, yet dejected by Kay's alternate strategy.

And that was when Kay finally saw the lizard-man hunters for himself. True to the overlord's mental image of the lizard-men supplied to the connection to the hivemind, its shared findings to the rest of the swarm were faultlessly accurate to Kay's firsthand experience. Kay could see that these hunters were exactly like what the overlord had observed. The flags they wore seemed ornate in design, and their weapons appeared to be hand-crafted from strong materials. Their armor seemed crude and old, but could mean that Virid's assumption that their equipment was ceremonial could be correct. However, just as he was able to get in range to see them with his own eyes, these hunters would be able to see him as well. They immediately raised their weapons and pointed them at him, of which he noticed that each lizard-man carried four sets of weapons on themselves. He could see one of them in particular taking out its primary ranged weapon and aiming its crossbow at him. The two others mimicked their supposed leader and unsheathed their armaments in turn. Kay immediately raised his hands high up in the air. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa! Whoa! Whoa. Whoa. Whoa... Listen. I don't know what kind of purpose you guys are here for... But I must warn you that any further aggression to us will result in a dangerous outcome for all of you. What do you say?"

The lizard-men paused, their aim drooping to the ground slightly and cocking their heads in confusion. One of such lizard-men, the one wielding the crossbow at the front of their party, clucked and hissed its language to the other hunters for a brief moment. Kay frowned, since he had no understanding of their language. However, he did remember some of his training in his former life. It has something to do with being a spectre. ... Oh yeah, the spectre's were psionic spec ops soldiers. Kay had almost forgotten that. But using psionics to retrieve information from a mind was dangerous, and could reduce the mind of the person he's reading to a brain-dead state. But there was another problem. He wasn't sure if his mind was healthy enough to use psionic abilities effectively. For the moment, Kay decided against using his psionic powers, or whatever mental abilities that might have remained.

"Uh... Kay... You." Kay said, pointing at the crossbow wielding lizard-man. "Shot." He gestured as though he was firing a weapon. "Overlord?" Kay then pointed at the retreating overlord.

The crossbow archer lizard-man let his weapon droop down fully and held it by one hand, while his other hand made several gestures as he clucked and hissed his lizard language more openly to Kay. The lizard-man gestured to himself, pointed to his weapon, made a shooting sound as he mocked firing his weapon, then pointed at the overlord that was getting away. Kay wasn't too sure, but it felt as though this hunter had intent on hunting the zerg organism. But the good news is that these reptiles seem to understand gestures and charades well. However, when the crossbow archer clucked again, it and its fellow hunters attempted to circle around Kay to get back at hunting the overlord.

Kay shook his head, then ran to the front of the hunting group again. "Okay okay, stop that!" Kay said, waving his hands at them to halt. Once he had their attention again, he tried to explain through gestures once more. "You." He pointed at the lizard-men. "No." He smoothly waved his left hand to his left and his right hand to his right. "Shoot." He mimicked firing a crossbow. "Overlord." He pointed at the overlord. He paused before beginning again. "You." He pointed at the crossbowman again. "Put weapon." He pointed at the crossbow. "Down." He then mimicked carrying something and slowly putting it to the ground. He paused again. "But." He said, telling them to wait for further gestural communicative signals. "You." He pointed at the archer again. "Shoot." He mimicked firing a crossbow again. "Overlord." He pointed at the overlord in the distance. "Fight. Hiss." He said, trying to spread his hands and claws out as threateningly as possible, baring his teeth, and fanning his bone-wings out.

The lizard-men backed up when Kay showed them his aggressive display. The three lizard-men grouped up and clucked with one another for a brief moment. Kay wondered if the message he was trying to relay to them had actually gotten across this time.

After a moment, the lizard-men broke up their huddle. The crossbow archer clucked and hissed more loudly, bringing out a long, curved sword and stabbing it into the ground. His reply seemed more authoritative sounding. The lizard-man pointed at Kay, then at itself, and then stood in a stance that seemed to be similar to some kind of martial art style that Kay was unaware of.

"... Are... Are you challenging me?" Kay asked incredulously. He slumped his posture a little when he realized that this really was actually happening. "Ugh. This feels like I'm trying to talk to deaf, feral children. Deaf, feral children that are scaly, dangerous, and speak a reptile language. ... I think I'll just show you guys how much damage I can do. I'll then let you decide what to do next." Kay looked around for a target to showcase his strength to the lizard-men before him. He spotted a lone rock the size of two bowling balls after a cursory scan of the immediate area. Perfect. He quickly jogged to it and picked it up effortlessly, and then jogged back to show the lizard-men his small boulder. "Alright gents, listen up. For my first trick, I want you to weigh this small boulder in my hands." He said, presenting it to the lizard-men.

They stared at Kay, hissing to one another softly. They were confused by Kay's actions.

"... No takers? ... Yeah, it does look a bit heavy. Let me make the pieces smaller." Kay set the stone down and placed his fist upon the stone, getting into a combat stance as he did so. He took a deep breath a few times before slowly raising his fist to strike the large rock. There were a few clucks of curiosity from his audience, but they were silenced again when his fist was brought down to strike at the large rock. As a result, the rock had broken into several shards and pieces from the resulting punch! After Kay had demolished the big stone, he picked up one of the biggest pieces that was still intact, which was no bigger than a coke bottle, and held it in front of the lizard-men. "Alright! You have seen what I am capable of! Whaddya think? Thinking about stopping this madness and going far away from here?"

The lizard-men, especially the crossbow archer, stared at Kay with bewildered eyes. The crossbow archer reached out for the piece of shattered rock, while Kay allowed him to take it from his hands. After poking and pressing the broken stone piece, he dropped it and hissed at his teammates. After some heated clucking from his other two subordinates, they eventually quieted down and started backing off. Once they were far enough away, the two lizard-men that was with the archer lizard-man turned and ran off. The crossbow archer, on the other hand, stayed where he was. He returned to his original combat stance, except this time taking out a knife from his person and pointing it at Kay. The crossbow archer hissed again.

"... You are still demanding a challenge from me? ..." Kay looked down and sighed deeply. Even after trying to communicate to these creatures, this one was still trying to stir up some trouble! Does this sapient reptilian really want to fight him? After a few seconds of muddling through his thoughts, Kay nodded and made up his mind as well. "... Kay. I guess I'll give you your duel. But if you tap out in time, you might be spared." Kay said, backing up and away from the broken boulder pile. After distancing himself a few feet away from the small boulder shards, Kay then hunched over and extended his hands out, making sure his fingered claws had a wide space in between each splayed finger. Kay had also kept his wings folded behind himself. Such a biological weapon had an incredibly long reach, able to strike at least three yards away, and Kay decided not to use them so as to keep the fight fair. Since the crossbow archer had elected to use a knife, Kay figured that he would use his claws in place of a knife for this duel.

After a ten second pause, the leader of the hunting party sprung forward to swipe his knife left and right in speedy lateral arcs. Kay, easily dodging these bladed attacks, and was slowly understanding his own physical abilities and strength more and more. With but a simple fist, he was able to shatter the earthen object easily. It was like smashing a metal glove through pottery with a forceful knuckled collision! But in this bout, Kay was testing his own reflexes against the reptilian knife wielder. After dodging twenty knife swipes, Kay moved in with his claws and lashed out in a single calculated attack. The attack managed to tear right through the archer's armor, cutting through the wraps, ties and wire hooks with ease.

With one attack, the lizard-man's right arm had its armor torn off, with five distinct lines of red that started to paint his black and yellow scales with dripping scarlet. After a pregnant pause in combat, the archer slowly looked at his torn arm armor and pawed at his nicks. The archer stared accusingly at Kay. Kay only shrugged in response. "Hey. You wanted this. There is always that chance to back out now, you know."

The archer hissed loudly and charged forward, trying to rush Kay in an attempt to test his defenses. The attack worked, as his blade found a soft spot and made a centimeter deep cut. The blade itself was twenty or so centimeters in total length, but the actual damage that he had done did little upon Kay's carapace. With two single motions, Kay used a downward claw attack that had grazed the archer's face and body, which had also severed his chest armor from his person. Another blow was an open palm strike, knocking the archer back, only to roll onto his back and face and then back again. After a brief pause, the archer got up and coughed, shakily standing back up and going back into his combat stance.

Kay shook his head and sighed. "Look, I'm stronger than you, and you already know this by now. If we keep fighting, you're just going to embarrass yourself into the next life! ... That is... if you believe in such things. Do you have a god? Or religion?" Kay asked. His words were falling on disinterested ear-holes, as the lead hunter launched into another attack.

Each time the blade made contact with Kay's skin, ... er... carapace... the more the knife seemed to dull with every strike. It was only after one heavy attack that he tried plunging his dagger into Kay's abdomen and found purchase, the lizard-man screeching its war cry all the while. The blade managed to somehow lodge itself in the cut seven or so centimeters deep. A simple backhand attack pushed the archer away with great force, but Kay looked down at his own wound with impunity. At least the lizard-men did not poison their daggers. Perhaps they only use poison for hunting?

With a simple yank, the blade was removed from his now noticeably new orifice. He sighed, a slightly pained groan escaping his breath. "Ugh... Pain. I think I remember how this feels. Not good, but... Helpful. I nearly forgot how pain felt." Sure enough, the carapace that had prevented the knife from doing too much damage was already mending at astonishing speeds. What might have took a stitching and then several days of rest for the flesh to mend and leave a scar, literal seconds are passing as the wound visibly closed till it completely vanished. Kay looked back up to inspect his reptilian duelist.

This had astonished the archer to abated clucks and hisses. Now with no weapon to speak of, the reptile clenched its own fists and walked forward. Was a dissatisfied scowl playing across the lizard-man's face? After delivering a punch to an eye socket, the archer went for the knife and tried plunging it into Kay again. This had only made Kay grow more mad as the duel continued.

"Okay, it feels obvious at this point that you're trying to kill me. I'm gonna hold back on you no more. If it's a duel to the death you want, then it's a duel to the death you're gonna get." The former spectre casually reached toward the archer's neck. The lone lizard-man flinched back a bit, but his throat was eventually grappled, forced into Kay's clutches. It was then that Kay started squeezing. The lizard-man's breath was felt from within its throat, eventually evolving into a wheezing strain, then choking, and then silent pressure. The archer kept trying to punch everywhere he could reach, aiming and hitting mostly Kay's face with pitiful flailing.

Kay lazily pulled his fist back and gently collided it with the archer's face. Kay could have sworn that the lizard-man was smiling, his grin somehow saying something else. Truth be told, Kay was not sure on what the lizard-man was thinking, or whatever might have happened on the lizard-man side of the conversation. But really, the lizard-men persisted to intrude into their territory and try to take down one of his overlords. Kay wasn't even really sure if zerg meat was safe for them to eat. Cooking would probably stop it from trying to infect a host to assimilate into the zerg swarm, but there was no way to be sure, and that he and Virid would not allow it.

Kay sighed as he lazily pulled his same fist back and then performed a powerful right hook into the archer's jaw this time. The blow was so impressive that it managed to sever the lizard-man's skull from his neck, leaving the bottom jaw mangled. Kay sighed, dropping the now lifeless corpse. "Well... That was kind of... overkill."

'You are a commander of this swarm now.' Virid stated. 'The swarm follows those who are strong, and those the swarm chooses. An infested psionic terran would prove useful in finding strategies that would strengthen the swarm. I would have difficulty surviving in this world were it not for a commanding input guiding this small brood.'

Kay chuckled. "Hahaha! So you just needed someone who was sapient to make the tough choices. Choices that a simple zerg queen couldn't do on her own! In a way, that's kind of makes you seem rather submissive."

'Don't toy with me. I would rather build the swarm than entertain frivolous thoughts.' Virid warned.

'We agree with the one that is the queen, Virid.' One of the overlords said. 'The We must become stronger. There are less of We. We need to be more to carry the commanding We's voices to the rest of the We.'

Kay nodded as he picked up both the ruined skull and the body of his defeated dueler. "Alright, alright, I get it. Yeesh. Between the queen that turned me into a zerg commander out of the blue, and the overlords with their cryptic third-person talk, I'm feeling like I'm basically here as an advisor that gets the chance to pull the metaphorical trigger."

'Metaphors or not, I have now decided that you are disrupting and distracting our efforts to return to the main zerg forces. You leave me little choice, Kay.'

"... Wait, what?-OW!" Kay cried out as his ankle felt a deep pressure being forced onto it. He turned around to see the cause of the pain right behind himself. "... Oh fuck me sideways."

Biting down on his ankle with dangerous force was a zergling that gnawed his carapaced flesh. If there was one zergling, there was typically another one somewhere around. This one in particular had a dangerous set of teeth set between two tusks that curved slightly inward towards its mouth, which were cleverly disguised mandibles. Though it was somewhat bipedal in shape, it was more closely likened to a big dog having given birth to ugly pug babies with bug wings, tails with a small barb on their ends, and prehensile dorsal attack-claws on their backs. The attack-claws on top of the zergling was its most dangerous weapon, as they provided it with another kind of attack to pair up with its other dangerous weapons, its short forearm claws and a maw that could bite and pull chunks out of their foes. 'Obey!'

"LEGGO!" Kay kicked his leg and punted the meter tall zerg twelve meters away. He saw its brother come to its aid, sniffing at his kicked sibling before turning to Kay and hissing at him threateningly. Kay huffed, turning and continuing to drag the corpse of the fallen lizard-man towards Virid's position. Those little monsters can be savage when they needed to be, but they knew well not to attack when their prey in question was already aware of them. And he knew that they would wait until his guard was down to strike again. And they knew that he knew that. And he knew that they knew that. In all honesty, having a collective telepathic link with all nearby zerg organisms is a jarring experience. On the other hand, it was something that seems easier to accept when one experiences this telepathic sensation as a zerg organism. However, there was a reason why Kay was bringing the dead body with him. "And here I was, trying to give you a present. But as a result, I got rewarded with your wrath. Unbelievable!"

'Why would you give a present to me?' Virid asked, very puzzled by Kay's actions, if he heard her mental tone right.

"I was hoping that we could get an evolution chamber created so we can analyze these lizard-men's... Uh... Essence? Or is it DNA? I can't remember which." Kay said, coming back to the creep fields. They seemed to have expanded a bit.

'I was planning to. Planning to make the evolution chamber, that is. However, without an Evolution Master, we would not know where to start. Analyzing and weaving that creatures essence is counter-intuitive to us. We would be more efficient by improving the strains we have available.' Virid dryly said.

"Well how did the Queen of Blades make one of those Evolution Masters then?" Kay asked, finding a large, pulsating cocoon that seemed to have something swimming in the middle.

'The creature known as Abathur was made by the Overmind. It was said that the Evolution Master we know of was created with all strains that were ever assimilated into the zerg swarm, with all genetic information merged into himself. He would weave and analyze all gathered essence from within his very being.'

Kay nodded. "Oh. Kay. What do we need in order to make one for our own purposes?" He asked, dropping the body and setting the skull of the lizard-man on the corpse's chest.

'We need a lot more resources than what we have now.'

"How much more?"

'Significantly more.'

"... Kay." Kay said, sitting down on the creep. Despite the rather gross looking surface of the creep, it was actually quite soft and malleable. It was much like a mix between a wet waterbed and a water-drenched memory foam mattress. The surface even felt cool to the touch! It was a welcome reprieve from the hot dry environment and the harsh desert sunlight that bombarded them.

'The hatchery is almost done. I would normally command you to tend to it if you were not a command creature, but I will allow you the choice to decide instead.'

Kay looked up at the sky. "Huh. ... Well, there's nothing much else to do anyway. I guess I can help around."

'I appreciate the help.' Virid emerged from the ground next to the cocoon that was gestating the hatchery, removing herself from her underground hiding place. But Kay knew that she was already there. Hivemind telepathy certainly has its perks. She must have went into hiding when the lizard-men had approached their territory and attacked an overlord, deciding to hide until the right moment to attack presented itself.

Kay nodded, getting up and approaching the cocoon that was about to hatch. He decided to let the body of the crossbowman stay where it was. The cool of the creep should keep the heat of the sun from making the corpse rot too quickly. Once the hatchery was made, then more work could be done to help the hive-cluster embiggen and form into a larger structure. "Welp. Looks like it's going to be a big skirmish for us. And all with no mineral deposits or vespene gas to capitalize on. Heh. How fucked are we?"

'... I fail to see your humor in this.'

"Ah whatever. Just call me an optimistic pessimist."

A/N: So uh... How do zerg start a game with no minerals crystals or vespene gas geysers?

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Screw it. I'll just, uh... make stuff up within given reason I guess!