Chapter 9: There Are Literal Snakes That Are Actually in the Sand
A zergling had split off from its group and was now suffering from the consequences of traveling alone. A small amount of free will was given to the zergling to investigate the surrounding environment at its leisure. It figured that by spreading out further, the reconnaissance forces could cover more ground more easily than before. But it hadn't expected to run into an ambush in this abandoned underground city.
The only things that the zergling was able to see before it died was teeth erupting from the ground, enveloping and sandy darkness, and then searing, slicing pain.
At the very moment the lone zergling died, all zerg organisms within the cavern stopped their searching to look in the direction of their deceased comrade. The death was unfortunate, but informative. The zergling's death informed Kay and Virid's brood that there was something in the cavern that was still alive, and it perhaps was that something that eradicated the gilanian population in this underground village. Perhaps the cause for Hidden Water Spring Tribe's doom?
Kay already left the cubed spiral structure as another zergling was sent out to seek out the ambushed zergling. Once Kay sided with Virid after a brisk sprint, he noticed that the sent zergling was beset by the same fate. An eruption of sand and teeth, followed by agony and darkness.
Kay cocked his head after a brief pause. "... Well that's fantastic." He said sarcastically.
'I don't see how this is fantastic.' Virid replied, already laying additional creep tumors.
"Guh." Kay said, shaking his head and walking away from Virid. That noise was still so disturbing to him, but zerg instincts were kicking in and deadening his senses to her tumor laying. Still, there was a new issue that needed to be dealt with. "Does this mean we found whatever made this underground village a ghost town?"
'It would seem so.' Virid said. 'I recommend infesting these creatures. If there was one, there are bound to be more. And if there are more, we can acquire genetic samples from each organism.'
"Kay, we can do that once we get our own evolution master. But for now, I'm guessing we should take this attack as a grain of salt and proceed further cautiously." Kay said, taking the reigns of commanding the zerg forces and ordering them to attack these new foes, while Virid did her own thing. Whatever Virid was doing, Kay felt as though it would be important in the future.
Further into the large underground chamber the zerg groups went, careful in their scouting patterns, despite their trepidation. However, to call it trepidation was inaccurate. Zerg were never ones to become afraid of something, or to give in to fear and run away from a fight. Instead, the drone and two zergling groups scouting the underground village chamber had something likened to cautioned curiosity.
No more than eight minutes had passed when a group was finally attacked, this time within the hexagonal farm plots that had been long abandoned. Another zergling had succumbed to a similar fate to the first casualty, but at least it was accompanied friends to witness its death in detail. This time, the killer was revealed.
This recently slain zergling was ambushed by a giant snake that had erupted from the ground from underneath its prey. The giant sand snake, unlike most of its non-related cousins, had many rows of edged, pointed teeth that not only directed its prey down the gullet, but also shredded its meal should it struggle. The snake was big and long, erupting out of the ground at around the height of nine meters. The attack was so fast that it managed to rip off the zergling's dorsal attack-claws. It messily gulped the zergling once it stopped thrashing, and then looked onto the other surviving zerg. Its eyes were small, but the tongue danced out of its narrow, pointed mouth to taste the air, sensing more food to hunt. Its scales were thorny and streamlined, which could suggest that it used its scales to sift sand around itself and burrow underground. It hissed a challenge to the surviving zerg group.
The remaining zergling of that group screeched madly, matching the giant sand snake's challenge. The zergling tried to rush at the enemy and attack it with attack-claws, forearm claws, and its own teeth. Sadly, the zergling's attack was countered with a sudden impaling strike, which revealed to be the giant sand snake's spiked tail. The countering attack managed to pierce and impale through the zergling's belly and separated its spine, turning its third victim into a paraplegic. But even when half of its body no longer functioned, the zergling still tried to fight! The zergling's forelimbs still functioned enough on their own to strike at the embedding tail that went through its own belly, while the attack-claws tried to bend themselves sideways to saw at the base of the tail spike.
The giant sand snake grumbled, flicking its tail and launching the impaled zergling several meters away. Despite the few scratches and cuts its tail received, the sand snake shrugged off the pain and slithered after the drone that was left alone. The drone instantly burrowed itself into the soft, yet ancient, tilled farm soil. The sand snake lapped its tongue at the space that the drone once existed in, and then started burrowing its snout into the soil that the drone was under. When it disheveled enough soil and found the drone underneath, its maw opened up and bit at the defenseless drone, pulling a pincer off of it and eating the limb.
This predatory action was not tolerated by the zerg.
One zergling from each group diverted their efforts and formed a ring around the giant sand snake after it had appeared and ate one of their brothers. When enough of their numbers were present, the zerglings rushed at their new enemy. It was at that moment that the snake made a shrilling sound and thrashed wildly when new attackers came upon it, their claws and teeth tearing into its scaly hide. The sand snake buried itself into the sand three seconds later, the only evidence of its existence was several drops of blood that stained the tilled soil.
All was silent, except for the zerglings that were digging after their quarry, trying to uncover the sand snake that burrowed underneath for safety. This had went on for a couple minutes before the zerglings gave up and sat still. If that sand snake decided to feed again, then the zerglings would be ready.
Except the zerglings were suddenly picked off rapidly by several tail spikes that shot out of the ground, impaling the zerglings and pulling them into the farm soil. Fifteen seconds later, the entire zergling attack formation was gone.
The drones that headed the reconnaissance groups retreated back to the creep fields, the zerglings splitting away from them and forming a defensive perimeter at the edge of the creep that continued to slowly spread itself at its own pace. Kay growled in frustration, who was obviously unhappy. "Dammit. We can't fight something that can burrow under us and attack at their leisure. That's usually something WE do."
'The drones that have returned will transform into spine and spore crawlers. We shall have a hatchery dedicated as a forward base here.' Virid said.
Kay turned to look behind himself to see what Virid had meant. Several cocoons, embryo-like in appearance, had began to form. Several of the drones that had returned were also forming into cocoons themselves, which Kay could tell were forming into spore crawlers and spine crawlers. There was one cocoon that was the largest of them all, which was a visual telltale sign that THAT cocoon in particular was forming the new hatchery. Kay sighed. "Would be nice to have a counter against these damn, huge-ass snakes."
Virid shook her head. 'I would prefer not to use too much accelerant for making an army of banelings, but I believe they would be very useful in our current predicament.'
Kay turned to face Virid. "Banelings?" A shudder went up his spine when he said that word. "I think I remember those, but... I kind of forgotten. What are they again?"
Virid sighed before turning to Kay to explain what banelings are. 'A baneling is a creature that morphs from a zergling. With enough bio-matter and accelerant, it would result in the creation of a suicide creature that explodes in a shower of super-heated acid when attacked, or coming into physical contact with a hostile force. Perfect for dissolving the walls of a fortified fortress, or set as a deadly acid trap that can kill an infantry force.'
"Wow!" Kay said in a whisper. It was a shame that he had forgotten about the awesome power of the banelings! However, he wanted to be patient, so he allowed Virid to continue.
'But banelings are slow and weak, and that they require to be close to their enemies to deal any sort of damage. We would also need a baneling nest to morph zerglings into banelings.' Virid explained.
"... Still, I'm kind of curious to see what a baneling looks like." Kay said aloud, sounding impressed. "Think you can make a baneling nest so I can see a baneling for myself?"
Virid gave Kay a deadpanned stare before sighing. 'It is a misuse of resources... but we may have a need for banelings in the coming future. You may direct one of the drones for this purpose, and morph a single zergling into a baneling to see one for yourself. But now, I must divert my attention elsewhere.' Virid replied, turning away to watch the newly developing hatchery.
Kay sighed, deciding to look for a drone that was doing nothing at the moment. Thankfully for him, there was no shortage of drones that was freed from their current task. He chose the nearest one closest to him. "You there. Morph into a baneling nest." he said, pointing at the drone.
The drone turned to him and paused for a moment before gurgling happily and forming a cocoon around itself. 'Baneling nest!'
Kay smiled, knowing that they would soon gain the means to summon any number of banelings, and at any time they are needed. For now, however, Kay would have to be careful in producing too many at once. He didn't want Virid harping on him for misusing resources anyway.
But just as the cocoon formed around the drone that would morph into the baneling nest, the other cocoons that were at the edge of the creep and surrounding the hatchery opened to reveal several spine and spore crawlers. Kay finally understood why Virid laid those creep tumors. She was establishing a defense in case the zerglings were ineffective in combating the giant sand snakes. The spore crawlers would be effective in detecting the sand snakes traveling underneath their territory, while the spine crawlers would penetrate the sand and fend off any intruders that would try to fend off the intruding zerg.
As the hatchery emerged from its own cocoon, Virid went to it and performed her larval injection duties. It would be important to acquire more overlords and combative zerg organisms to help remove the snakes filling the cavern. Judging from the many spiked tails that penetrated the many zerglings that came for the surviving drone's help, it wouldn't be too outlandish to theorize that there were many more sand snakes infesting the underground city.
One of such snakes was investigating the creep that was growing over the sand, but its curiosity was rewarded with an impaling tentacle, courtesy of a spine crawler. Thanks to the spore crawlers that detected the snake, the spine crawlers were able to zero in on the intruder on creep established territory. Twelve seconds later, the spore crawlers detected more disturbances under the sand and dirt of the cavern, triggering the spine crawlers to start defending themselves and their charges. The zerglings also helped in defending the expanding creep territory, striking at the sand snakes that surfaced to attack. The giant snakes were easily countered by a quick dodge, and then followed with a flurry of savage and animalistic zerg emotion made physical.
From the initial attack, Kay figured that the giant sand snakes hunted like a pack. It would explain the sudden deaths that the zergling posse suffered en mass. And with one of these giant sand snake's blood being drawn, they would no doubt become riled into a frenzy when the smell of gore was detected. From the onslaught that the giant sand snakes were giving to the zerg defenses, Kay began to understand that they are not too keen on losing their territory. But even then, the dietary needs of such large creatures came into question. Why would they make this underground village their den when the food source was already gone? It could mean one of three things. One: there was still food to be scavenged. Or two: This cavern happened to be the perfect breeding spot that they protected. Or three: they went into hibernation after they ate everything, and had only just woken up because their nest was disturbed, hoping to find the prey that entered the giant sand snakes' home.
After only four minutes of trying to fend off the zerg, the giant sand snakes withdrew and retreated. Kay immediately knew that something was up. Thankfully, overlords have emerged from their eggs and were now flying within this cavern. It was not common to see a giant inflated organism hovering inside an underground cavern, but control had to be maintained. After all, the more zerg organisms there were, the more overlords were needed to relay psionic control over them. And since the zerg needed help to detect the snakes in the sand, morphing overseers seemed like the most obvious tactic to employ! The hatchery was already producing overlords, and Kay decided to capitalize on his nearby resources.
"I think we need about five overlords to volunteer morphing into overseers." Kay asked, looking up at the overlords above him.
'...The We are indecisive on which of us would volunteer.' They burbled and grunted indifferently.
After a moment of hesitation, Kay sighed and shook his head. "Alright then. You, you, you, you, and you, morph into overseers and send out changelings into the cities. One of you can go into dangerous territory to investigate, so I choose... YOU for that task." Kay said, pointing to one overlord in particular.
The overlords grunted in approval and cocooned themselves. All Kay had to do now was wait.
However, Kay's patience was further rewarded when he noticed that a baneling nest had already appeared from the embryonic cocoon it had formed from a while ago. The nest itself looked like a heavily carapaced 'hand' with a green fleshy middle. A slimy web dripped from the carapace fingers and down onto a collection of pustules, of which Kay could only guess contained the genetic information that enables the morphing of the banelings. He was unsure how the baneling nest's 'hand' floated, but he could guess that it was filled with hydrogen or helium. Chalk it up to weird zerg biology to ignore the natural laws of physics and general relativity.
"Moment of truth. Can a zergling come here please?" Kay said aloud.
A zergling came as Kay asked, cocking its head curiously. 'Commands?'
Kay smirked when he issued his command to the volunteered zergling. "Morph into a baneling. I want to see what one of them looks like."
The zergling excitedly nodded and cocooned itself right in front of Kay. Mere seconds had passed before the baneling emerged from the cocoon that once enveloped the zergling. The baneling looked like a zergling with four, thick crab legs and huge, green pustules that was on its back. Its abdomen and backside consisted entirely of a giant green pustule that looked taught and fit to burst at a moment's notice. Kay felt that the acid inside it would have a very violent reaction with everything it touched once released. It would result in the baneling's death, but at least it will cause a massive amount of damage when guided to its enemy correctly.
Kay looked at the newly formed baneling up and down before commenting. "You look a bit... I dunno... Doofy looking. ... But I guess that could be useful for lowering someone's guard in their first encounter with you."
'Boom?' the baneling telepathically asked, its acidic payload sloshing around languidly.
Kay nodded. "Yeah. Go ahead and 'boom' yourself on a giant sand snake." He pointed at a direction. "Keep going that way and make some trouble."
'Boom!' The baneling scuttled off, making his way off of the creep claimed territory and into more dangerous sandy areas.
And it was at this moment that the overseers were done morphing, and they proceeded on their ways in different directions. Four overseers decided to take positions near the creep. They would generate changelings to safely send out and investigate the further territories without any loss to resources. One overseer in particular had decided to follow after the baneling that embarked on its suicide mission.
After a few minutes of travel, the scuttling baneling didn't find any opposition to explode itself onto. Somehow, just as the giant sand snakes appeared, they had just as suddenly disappeared. The baneling even reached deeper into the underground cavern than any of the drones or zerglings had ever reached, or that it itself had ever reached in its past zergling life, even reaching the circular wall that was at the center of the cavern. At least the overseer that followed it would witness its death once the giant sand snakes came back for a third round of combat.
A slight tremor broke the silence, the overseer and the baneling stopping in their tracks to investigate the sound. A little more than a minute had passed before a larger rumble broke the silence further. A pillar of scales emerged thirty meters away, erupting from the ground with well over twenty meters of serpentine height. It turned to face the overseer and the baneling that seemed to have wandered into its territory. Like the nine meter giant sand snakes, this one hissed a challenge to the intruders in its territory, albeit more lowly. And more loudly.
The overseer deposited something onto the ground and started flying away, while the baneling started crawling toward the colossal sand snake. The snake took a brief pause to analyze the creature that decided not to run away from its apparent hugeness, as though confused by its determination. After some hesitation, the colossal sand snake launched a tooth-filled strike at the approaching baneling. The colossal sand snake's attack killed the baneling quickly, but caused irreparable harm to itself in turn. It growled and roared madly, shaking its head and thrashing its face onto the defensive wall, making it crack in several places. The acid had wounded its mouth to a great extent. Almost half of the colossal sand snake's jaw had dissolved due to its attempt to kill the lone baneling, and now it suffered from its severe injury.
Despite the major wound that the colossal sand snake suffered, Kay recognized the enormous sand snake as a major threat. The more immediate problem was forming an effective counter-offense in time. "BANELINGS BANELINGS BANELINGS BANELINGS BANELINGS BANELINGS BANELINGS!" Kay shouted, turning to Virid when the overseer was clearly away from the overgrown serpent.
'Ohhh... So much for reserving accelerant for an evolution master.' Virid said in a disappointed tone. Nearly all of the zerglings that either came from the surface, or were spawned in the cavern, had simultaneously formed cocoons around themselves. It was obvious that the greatest threat to this zerg brood was the biggest sand snake that they had ever encountered.
"And that would amount to nothing if we don't protect our drones and hatcheries from that thing!" Kay yelled, pointing at the direction of the colossal sand snake.
Virid nodded. 'I have ordered some of the queens from the surface to come here. Their healing abilities and defensive capabilities will be needed.'
Kay sighed, looking back to the direction where the colossal serpent still remained. It tasted the air around the clump of pulsating protoplasm. Once the changeling decided to move away, it prompted the colossal sand snake to snatch it up, despite the disfiguring mouth it now sported. "If this thing starts coming our way before we're done preparing, we might as well be in a world of trouble."
Several minutes had passed, and gentle silence filled the air again. Even when more overlords dotted the air, and more spine and spore crawlers were created on the territory claimed by the spread of creep, Kay and Virid knew that it was only a matter of time until the sand snakes decided to redouble their efforts to rid the zerg from the home they took for themselves. The wait was agonizing, and the brood had to spend much of its stored resources to prepare for the coming attack that they knew would occur, sooner or later. Overall, it was an agonizing wait. But still, patience had rewarded Kay in the past he vaguely remembers. He could gamble to wait even more.
After half an hour of time had passed, the attack happened.
The colossal sand snake slithered forward, its body making deep lines in the sand as it passed. From what Kay could judge from its path, it was either following the overseers scent, or the scent trails of the zerglings and drones that had retreated to the established creep territories. A few changelings died in its path, but it continued on until it reached the edge of the established creep fields. When it strayed too close, the spine crawlers that were in range launched their defensive attack in hopes of warding off the colossal sand snake. After the first three attacks, it started to dodge the impaling tendrils and retreated back to relative safety. Out of attack range of the spine crawlers' reach, the colossal sand snake took a brief pause. It was then that Kay was beginning to understand that this creature was not only huge in size, but it was also ancient and intelligent.
"Is Mr. Half-Jaw here thinking up something?" Kay wondered aloud. He saw the colossal sand snake in its entirety, and he guessed that the beast itself must have been around ninety or a hundred meters long! There was no way that something this big could exist here without a food source to derive from, Kay figured.
Virid looked up at the huge serpent. 'It knows not to intrude, or the banelings would take it down.'
Kay looked at Virid, but then returned his gaze back at the bigger snake. "It learns?"
After around twenty seconds of pausing in what seemed like a tactful manner, the serpentine beast reared its head and bellowed out a deafening, rumbling roar that shook the cavern walls. The sound was loud and impressive, but it soon dawned on Kay and Virid that it also had some strategic meaning.
It was a call to battle.
Another twenty seconds later, several more sand snakes erupted beside the colossal sand snake that called them. There were tens of them, and they all slithered onto the colossal snake in an unusual manner. They licked at its scales as a heavy scent filled the air.
"... Uh. What?" Kay replied.
Was it actually a mating call?
The colossal sand snake then did something else that Kay hadn't expected. It charged forward and into the attack range of the spine crawlers, using the smaller sand snakes that were slithering all over it as living armor! Whatever kind of attack that the spine crawlers or the banelings tried to counter, it was to a new strategy that they were unprepared for. The banelings did most of the damage to this living armor, burning and dissolving each giant sand snake in half or turning their heads into soup, sloughing off the colossal sand snake's armor. The spine crawlers managed to distract the snakes making up the armor of the colossal snake, and were quickly taken out by either other spine crawlers focusing their attack on them, or a baneling that got lucky enough to face a lone giant snake that diverted away from the colossal snake.
But alas, the colossal snake was making an effort to attack the spine crawlers while its living armor of giant snakes protected it from the banelings. To Kay, this could only mean that these giant sand snakes and their colossal 'friend' were definitely intelligent.
There were now fewer banelings than what was needed to take down this monster of a threat. It would threaten the forward zerg base in the cavern if it wasn't dealt with in time, and Kay felt sure that that would happen soon.
'The queens have came to defend our forces.' Virid announced. As she said that, several queens came crawling out of the entrance into the underground village, spreading themselves out and surrounding the colossal snake, its living armor already stripped away to a significant degree. The queens fired their spines at the giant sand snake's living armor, forcing them to peel off of their master and making the colossal sand snake more vulnerable to damage. Only two queens ended up being devoured by the sand snakes, both by a giant and the colossal, but the queens were plentiful and was able to slay the foe with superior numbers. The hatchery remained untouched and undamaged, and was now being fed with a supply of nutrient rich creep, now collected by the few remaining drones that now occupy the cavern.
Kay exhaled and flopped onto the creep, feeling drained. "Hooh! That was close!"
Virid hissed. 'You could have joined the battle, you know.'
Kay raised his hand and held a finger up. "Here's the thing: We didn't know what we were facing. You think I could stand up to all those snakes at once? No way! Besides, you didn't do anything too."
'I was busy tending to the hatchery.' Virid replied.
"We both have our excuses."
'Must I fetch the zerglings again?'
"... Shutting up now."
'... Do you still want to investigate this village cavern?'
"Hmm? Oh. Yeah. Just give me two minutes and I'll get back to that."
Virid shook her head and continued to tend the hatchery. Three other queens joined her, and they took their turns injecting hormones to promote larval growth.
And once Kay recovered from that near loss, he would continue investigating the mystery that is the Hidden Water Spring Tribe's underground village.
A/N: To the random reader that wrote this: I don't know what to say, other than you're too descriptive about zergs, and its a bit slow. Also, technologicaly advance-ish lizard people? Weirdly shape moon? This is a crossover right? Can you please tell me what you used?
Answer: I'm sorry about the plot being a little slow, but being descriptive is the hallmark of good story writing. You gotta paint the picture with words somehow! Not only that, but the gilanian species, Virid and Kay, are the OC's in this story so far. But the technology is derived from something else that I would only hint about at the moment, and that tech would give you the hints needed to figure out what universe Planet Kiln takes place in. Only one other person I know of has figured it out at the time of writing this. :3