Chapter 6: Infestation
"Stop struggling and keep still!" Kay said, trying to restrain a lizard-man that was currently having several seizures and convulsions. Gagging and choking sounds struggled out of the lizard-man's mouth as several parts of his abdomen and chest started swelling. Surprisingly, the lizard-man somehow had a pool of strength that Kay wasn't aware of. He would have commanded several of his drones to restrain the soldier, but he wasn't sure if the drones would be injured by his episode. Once Kay lost his patience and released the lizard-man from his hold, the lizard-man soldier continued to convulse on the spot. At least he was in a safe area to spasm as much as he wants, being inside of the red cave and on the patch of sand that Kay had originally awoken on. By Kay's mental command, the creep had receded to let the lizard-man rest on natural sand. "Just what the hell is your problem? Virid, any advice?" Kay said, turning to the queen that had joined him in the cave.
'The hyper-evolutionary virus is making the necessary biological changes to his body. He will become part of the swarm very soon.' Virid said, hovering over him and inspecting the infestation process.
"I know that." Kay said, huffing. "I was planning on using the infestor to infest this guy. In fact, I thought THEY were the main method zerg infestation spreads! I mean... Did you put the HEV in him while I wasn't looking?"
'Were his wounds dragged across the creep?' Virid asked, turning to Kay.
"Uh..." Kay wasn't sure. "... Maybe?"
'Then he has already contracted the hyper-evolutionary virus. Many of the strains, including the creep itself, contains parasites and bacteria that carries the hyper-evolutionary virus. The symptoms normally include lethargy and discomfort, mentality being decreased over time, and then despondency developing later. But after twenty-four hours, physical changes will develop inside the body, creating various tendrils, tentacles, and spines that are eventually pushed outside the epidermis.' Virid turned to face the lizard-man that was still having his fit. 'This organism seems to develop symptoms that are quite different from any terran or animal that has contracted the HEV.'
Kay noted that the lizard-man's convulsions were lessening now, and that a new light of consciousness was appearing in the sea of mental awareness. It was small, but growing bigger. It contained very different thoughts than what Kay had expected. "Well, we're going to get acquainted with our 'friend' very soon. Try and be polite."
Virid stared at Kay, unamused. 'They attacked our forces deliberately. Polite conversation is not required.'
"Whhhh... Doowh." It was then that Virid and Kay looked upon their newly infected victim with impunity. It grumbled, sitting upright and rubbing its body and head with its injured hands. "This... Ow... This pain. Oh... It passed. I think? What was?..." The soldier looked around, then frantically crawled away on his back after seeing Kay. "FIEND! Stay back! Whatever magic you conjured will not sway me!"
Kay was rather surprised. Through the newly developed hivemind connection, Kay could see the lizard-man's thoughts. His memories. His secrets. His hopes and dreams. The information this soldier's mind contained helped to paint the picture of what kind of world that Kay was on. But Kay wanted to take time on probing and dissecting the soldier's thoughts. Even with the language barrier lifted, effectively cutting out the middle-man of trying to learn a language, learning the culture of another race was a different hurdle to overcome. Thankfully, zerg infestation had the perk of assimilating not only genetic information, but mental information too after linking with the zerg hivemind. Kay tried his hand in speaking the lizard-man's language, which was slowly assimilated into the hivemind network. Kay learned that it was a language called Gilaish. "Please... Calm. Needed... To... Learn. Talk." Kay said with difficulty. He needed to get used to talking in another language.
The lizard-man looked up at Kay incredulously. "... What kind of trickery is this? A bug-man that can talk? I guess Captain Raxa was right to suggest that you might be smart, but I didn't believe him."
"Raxa? Is that... Your commanding... officer?" Kay asked.
The lizard-man paused before nodding. "Yes, but... How do you know the language of the common folk? You are not of the Gilanian people."
"No. I am not. I am... Terran. Well... No. Not... Terran. Not anymore. I am... zerg now." Kay replied.
The soldier shook his head, his eyes frantic and changing between staring at Kay and Virid. Mostly looking at Virid since he had not seen her before. "Zerg? Is that what you are? What is... THAT then?" He asked, pointing at Virid.
"Also zerg." Kay explained. "Zerg queen."
The soldier's expression became incredibly puzzled. He turned his gaze to Kay again. "What does that make you? A zerg viceroy? A zerg ambassador?"
"I... have joint command of zerg." Kay replied. He leaned down to take a closer look into the lizard-man's eyes. "Your name?"
"... Rothef. Ah~!" Rothef clutched his head, pain surging within his brain. Kay could tell that Rothef was in pain because he was connected to the zerg hivemind. "Wh... Why do I hear voices?!"
"Because you are... part of the swarm now." Kay said, solemnly.
"...What? I am part of what?" Rothef replied incredulously, feeling dumbfounded.
"A... virus took root in you. Opened your mind... to us. Your thoughts are ours now. We know what you learned... in your past. You are now part of the zerg swarm. I am sorry."
"...What?!" -BOOM-
Before Rothef could say anything more, he suddenly exploded and showered everything around himself in shrapnel and gore! Kay and Virid stepped backwards in surprise, looking at the armor that once contained a body, now splattered by a spontaneous explosion. The brain and body was beyond recognition, and they could tell that Rothef, the only Gilanian they have ever communicated clearly with, died. "What the fuck just happened?" Kay said in English.
'He exploded!' Virid replied, also surprised by the sudden event.
"I know that, but... How?" Kay said, still confused.
'Well... The body is partially here still. I suppose giving the cadaver an autopsy will give us an answer?' Virid suggested, poking at the bloody giblets that slid out of the ruined armor.
"That is a good idea. Do you have a scalpel?" Kay nodded, agreeing with Virid's idea.
'You can use your claws.' Virid suggested.
"Ah, hahahah no." Kay said, turning away.
'Why not?'
"I don't like getting gunk under my nails!"
'Don't be difficult. I didn't hear you complain when you clawed at the intruders earlier.'
"That was different. I was protecting the hive cluster. You can do it, since you seemed to be the one to suggest giving our poor lad here an autopsy. Also, you're type of zerg to not complain about such things anyway."
'... Remind me to have the zerglings punish you later.' Virid hissed, slowly approaching the Gilanian soldier's body and posotioning it to lay upright.
Kay felt like looking away when Virid's claws dug into the late soldier's armor, ripping it apart to reveal the steaming ambrosia of guts and flesh that lied underneath, mixed around violently thanks to the unexplained explosion. Sounds of wet flesh being pulled and ripped apart was heard, and Kay didn't want to be aware of what was happening next to him. In fact, he was actively blocking his connection to Virid. If there was one thing that Kay was starting to remember about himself, it was that he didn't like gruesome and gross details.
After several minutes of moist disheveling, Virid had stopped. 'I believe I understand what killed Rothef, our first infested Gilanian.'
"Killed, huh? So it wasn't a spontaneous explosion that did him in?" Kay questioned, turning around. He wished he hadn't since he was now seeing a lizard-man's insides messily pulled out of his body and scattered across the sand. If he could throw up at the sight of so much liquid crimson and exposed shredded flesh, he would.
She plucked out a piece of armor, making the metal snap loudly as she did so, and showed it to Kay. 'Small explosive charges were attached to the inside of the armor and helmet. I can only assume that it is a countermeasure of some kind.'
Kay's eyes widened as he heard this information, taking the piece of metal and inspecting it for himself. The metal was part of the breastplate, and it seemed to have become warped by a powerful explosive force that blasted inward, from inside the armor itself. Some meat was still clinging to the ruined silver and blue breastplate, emanating the smells of raw flesh and overcooked barbecue. "... Countermeasure. ... Would this mean that they, um... thought that one of their own was captured? Maybe they decided to end him after they realized he was being interogated?"
'They have no reason or evidence to suggest such a possibility.' Virid figured. 'The other corpses did not explode.'
"True, but why would this one in particular explode, and why now?" Kay said, tapping a foot and rubbing his chin furiously.
It was then that Virid made the theory that Kay dreaded. 'Perhaps there was a video or audio transmitting device we have not detected on his person?'
"... Ah shit. That would mean that whoever was listening knows that we can peer into their heads through the infestation, as I had described in their language. They saw that as a security risk and decided to sacrifice one of their own to prevent more information from leaking." Kay dropped the ruined breastplate and face-palmed.
'Then we have no choice. We must adapt. They have spied on us, but we can spy on them as well. We shall morph another overseer and use changelings to our disposal.' Virid said, clasping her two-fingered claws together.
Kay sighed. "We may have to. What does a changeling do again?"
'Changelings are covert organisms produced by overseers. They can assume the disguise of an enemy and infiltrate their defenses.'
"Any caveats to know about before we use them?" Kay asked, turning to face Virid.
'They have a short lifespan and refrain from attacking publicly. Once they have taken a form, it is permanent until they expire. Otherwise, they cost only energy when spawning from the overseers.' Virid answered.
"... Yeah, that doesn't sound too good to me. I'd rather have a changeling that cannot expire, and be able to change disguises when its needed." Kay said, shaking his head.
'Such a creature has a high risk of capture, should it be discovered.' Virid stated matter-of-factly.
"Then I would probably create a psionically commanded mutation that makes the changeling self-destruct, like using a... code word of sorts. Or something." Kay took a deep breath and sighed. "... But I guess it'll have to do for now. We know their language and some of this world's history, but we still know so little."
'Then I recommend an underground approach as well. Once we have a roach warren developed, we can silently move roaches stealthily to any neighboring locations or facilities. Our changelings will find their populations, and the roaches will scout their defenses.'
Kay turned to Virid and nodded. "Sounds like a good enough plan. We just need more accelerant to spawn the roaches we need. Huuuuuuuuh..." Kay exhaled and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What I wouldn't give to have an evolution master at our side. Maybe he can figure out how to deal with our lack of minerals and vespene gas?"
'We will need multiple evolution chambers to gain the power to create one. The minimum is five.'
Kay's face had a puzzled look to it. Turning to Virid, he wanted to know more. "Five? That seems like an abnormally large number of evolution chambers."
'As I said, we need significantly more resources.' Virid said, leaving the sifted-through corpse at the red cave and going out into the desert night air. 'But on a side-note, an infestor has been born, and a roach warren is currently developing.' She said, leaving the red cave finally.
Kay nodded, deciding to follow Virid out to see the infestor for himself.
He emerged from the red cave and found himself in the dark desert environment yet again, the creep itself looking black, yet shiny, in the night. He proceeded to the hatchery where two queens were taking turns injecting hormones into it, promoting rapid growth of the larvae. Yet another queen was emerging from the hatchery, whilst a larva had already cocooned itself in preparation for its next stage of spawning.
Kay then looked over the other zerg bio-structures that had erected themselves around the hatchery.
One of note was the evolution chamber. It appeared to be that of a languid monster that had decided to lie on its side, not minding that it was letting its intestines trail out. Its ribs were poking out from its sides, and its 'face' was heavily overgrown with extra flesh and large pustules. It had already finished mutating the zerg's defensive and offensive capabilities, and was now working on the next step of mutations. At least the overlords can develop ventral sacks again.
Next to the evolution chamber was the spawning pool, which helped assisted in the spawning of zerglings, queens, spine crawlers and spore crawlers. The bio-structure was large, and that many 'teeth' dotted the top of the walls that contained a pool of bubbling green liquid. It was similar in shape to an inflatable pool one might keep in one's backyard. However, the zerg version of such a 'pool' was vastly different in both several ways in details and purposes, as described in the beginning of this paragraph.
The infestation pit was also very different, looking like the underside of a large, triangular insect, with its spiked 'legs' gently swaying in the air. The overall shape of the bio-structure was unusual, since it reminded Kay of a kind of fat crustacean. Perhaps appearing to look like an overgrown and widened horseshoe crab? If Kay remembered correctly, this bio-structure was purposed in unlocking the genetic codes of the infestors and swarm hosts.
And finally was the roach warren. It was taking its damn time gestating and developing. In fact, it shouldn't have taken too much time since it was a structure that didn't require any accelerant to create! However, Kay was patient to let it develop, and was eventually rewarded by its gross visage. It looked like a giant head, with several tusks and horns surrounding its face and four eyes, its... 'tongue'?... acting as steps that lead toward its untrustworthy maw and into the thing's throat.
A slurping gurgle sound broke the silence, bringing Kay's attention away from the bio-structures he was inspecting. Alas, it was the infestor!
This creature in particular was odd, since its 'face' consisted of a large plate of chitinous and moldy looking carapace, supported by a rather large squishy stomach that contained... glowing jelly? A small thorn was located on the top of its head, but he knew that it would be ineffective against anything... yet. Despite its many stumpy legs, the infestor was actually the perfect unit to use against infantry. Appearances aside, Kay addressed the burbling infestor. "Alrighty. Ready to eat some dead bodies, infestor?" He asked.
'Food?' The infestor curiously asked, seeming interested to eat something after it was newly spawned. Kay knew that the infestor was interested because of the hivemind network he shared with it.
Kay nodded at the creature. "Alright then. Go and eat, boy! Go get it! Go!" Kay said, pointing at a direction to a location where he and several zerglings had vanquished several gilanian soldiers earlier before.
'Food!' the infestor excitedly proclaimed, scuttling forward on the creep and licking its mouth with its several tentacled tongues. Once new DNA had been absorbed by the infestor, it can then replicate infested gilanians for the swarm's needs. Since there were no marines to consume and summarily infest, Kay knew the infestors would have to improvise to spawn infested units.
After that, a new cocoon had opened next to Kay. Upon turning around, he saw, with great surprise, that it was a zerg roach. Kay had nearly forgotten how fast the zerg could grow!
The roach had a round, stocky body that was supported on four tough legs. It has sharp sickles on its back, similar to the placement of the attack-claws on a zergling, yet sharing space with other thorny spikes on its back carapace. Coupled with its tough carapace armor, its powerful sickle-claws were just as powerful to its devastating ranged attack, an acidic spitting projectile that can melt armor, infantry, and hope. Due to the placement of the roach's three-eyed head, it was incapable of aiming its projectiles upwards to target airborne enemies. As such, because its head was positioned so close to the ground, the roach was mainly effective as a heavily armored anti-infantry unit.
Kay was clasping his hands together subconsciously, thinking of the most evil ways he could use a roach. "Alright, little buddy. Since you're pretty freshly developed, why not go and assist the infestor?" Kay said, turning to point at the infestor that was leaving the area.
'Assist? Accept. Going.' The roach telepathically sent to Kay, only to go after the infestor and follow behind it.
Kay nodded, also deciding that having a hydralisk assist them both would also benefit the small squad. 'Oh elderly hydralisk? May you kindly assist the infestor that will be eating the corpses, please?'
'Hiss.' The hydralisk slithered quickly, joining up with the infestor more faster than the roach could. Kay couldn't really figure out why, but he was getting the impression that the hydralisk that had survived the void didn't like him very much. Kay would have asked the hydralisk about it, but decided otherwise since it obeyed his command anyway. ... Well... Technically, Kay 'asked' the hydralisk to assist the infestor, if he recalled.
And since he was sending zerg to assist the infestor, he might as well get two more zerg to help protect it. Kay didn't have to look too far to find the pair of zerglings that was always close by to him. He turned to them, but was slightly hesitant when he didn't see them at first. "So uh... fellas? Want to assist the infestor?"
The zerglings he mentioned came out of hiding to approach Kay, snarling. 'No. Obey. Virid. Orders. Punish. Kay. Disrupt. Punishment. Protect.'
... If Kay caught that correctly, the zerglings that survived the void were ordered by Virid to punish him if he were to stall or prevent the zerg from doing what it naturally does. Such as stopping their attempts to return to the main hivemind or disorient a hive cluster. Although, to Kay's surprise, it kind of surprised him that Virid would also order these two zerglings to protect him as well. Rather odd! Kay waved his hand dismissively. "Okay, I guess I'll get two other zerglings to do the job instead. Bug off." It couldn't be any more simpler, since there were two other zerglings that were already near the corpses of the slain soldiers.
The two zerglings near Kay hissed softly before leaving his sight, but not out of his awareness. Kay sighed, but he knew that they were just following Virid's commands. Even so, Kay wasn't very sure how they could obey such a command when they spoke only one word sentences, and had such simplistic intelligence.
But then there were other sights to see, such as the spine and spore crawlers that was situated between and around the main zerg bio-structures. He counted at least 15 of them, and the number was still increasing.
The spine crawlers were long tendrils that sprouted out from a fleshy and thorny doughnut shaped base, where the tendril tips were affixed with a sharp piercing barb. The spine crawler's main body had six symmetrical legs, and the central body contained the rest of the tendril that was coiled within itself. Only when it has rooted itself in creep that the impaler tentacle is anchored and primed, ready to unleash its ultimate defensive ability: Attacking ground-bound intruders with the power of impalement.
The spore crawler is similar to the spine crawler, being a static defensive structure that can move and only attack when it is rooted. Unlike the spine crawler, the spore crawler has the power to launch caustic seeker spores that was easily attracted to foreign vibrations in the air, flying at anything that does not belong to zerg, and are otherwise not allies to the zerg. The large, tubule, thorny structures that gets around on six symmetrical legs had a habit for being defensive against air units. They also have another ability that the spine crawlers lack. The ability to detect cloaked enemies when rooted. That, or perhaps finding hidden things that couldn't normally be seen by sight?
Honestly, Kay wouldn't know how the biology of the zerg works. No matter how hard scientists tried to research and explain the mysteries of this rapidly mutating collective of several assimilated species, their science would be challenged by the zerg's naturally affinity to rapidly evolve. Any sane scientist would give up instantly. In fact, some yokels would settle for calling the zerg 'space aliens using bullshit bio-magic', and many would consider that to be the zerg in a nutshell.
Kay sighed in relief. He was VERY glad that the zerg were on his side. Or at the least not killing him. But still, he felt like he had to find some means to gain control of the area he is in. With the infestor already at his side, he can use him to spearhead other areas outside of zerg territory. And hopefully, with more roaches at his disposal, with their tunneling claw mutation already achieved, he can covertly move about the land and find out more of the surrounding geography stealthily.
Since the hive cluster already has a powerful defense set up, the zerglings can be used for more aggressive reconnaissance. But for the moment, movement will have to be limited to changelings, burrowed roaches, and burrowed infestors.
There was still one glaring problem that Kay and Virid were suffering from as they took their time staying in the summit's caldera. Resources. With the creep fields constantly expanding, it would enable the drones more area to acquire more bio-matter resources economically, slowly increasing the income of bio-matter as the creep expands while more drones would spawn to collect the nutrients stored within it.
Then there was the need for vespene. Or to a lesser degree, the alternative resource called accelerant. The extractor, a bio-structure that looked like a giant pair of pincers jutting out from the ground, as a pus-bubble forming middle processed metabolized gas, collected only a trickle of accelerant from the freshwater spring. It would be used as the necessary catalyst to form the more powerful zerg strains and mutations, such as roaches or developing a stronger carapace.
Kay sighed, feeling dilapidated and worn. "Virid?"
He could hear Virid also sighing, but more in annoyance. 'What?' She questioned back.
"Hell is here."
A/N: I'll reread everything again and try to detect any misspellings. But if you find them for me, I would be very appreciative for your efforts. :3
Kind of got out of hand with Kay describing how every zerg monster looks like in this chapter. Sorry about that. XP