Chapter 14: The Flesh Scientist

The joint-commanders of the zerg swarm on planet Kiln were feeling overwhelming and underwhelming emotions.

Virid was perfectly calm about the situation, being the underwhelmed party in Kay's opinion. Kay was the one that was having a plethora of confusing thoughts running through his head, whilst also feeling happy that he is going to get an evolution master on his side.

Once the sun went down, the cocoon started to crack open little by little. From it emerged a slug shaped body with many spindly spidery arms. Four of such arms seemed to be used for grasping, whilst another four were specifically made for either combat or for stabbing and injecting something into a victim, or siphoning something out of a victim. Little legs dotted the sides of the 'slug-footed' lower torso, while the upper torso sported a giant bulbous head with several cysts on the sides, with the face having four eyes and a sideways mouth. This evolution master came at a close second in terms of ugliness, almost surpassing the changeling in every respect.

In fact, this organism looked more dangerous than a changeling! Kay looked up and down at the monster that was before him, drinking in every visual detail that he could see. "... So uh... Virid? Is this what that Abathur guy looked like, back in our sector?"

Virid was present when the evolution master hatched, and she checked the health of the organism thoroughly before making her statement. 'Yes, Kay. This organism has Abathur's appearance. But this is not him, though this one has been spawned for the purposes of assisting us.'

"... I am born." It said with a deep, graveled and guttural voice.

Kay stepped back and stared at the new creature. "Huh! Already speaking English, I see. That's... surprising."

Virid finished grooming the newly born evolution master and stepped back, coming next to Kay. 'The hivemind link enables information to be stored and accessed by all members of the swarm. This one is drinking every available piece of information that you, I, and all active organisms in our brood have learned. Vital knowledge is collected and shared, but things like random trivia and personal experiences are often kept for the individual.'

Kay nodded. "Care to explain how it can talk?"

'It has a mouth, for one.' Virid deadpanned.

Kay rolled his eyes. "Now you tell me." The slug organism turned around to look at everything, it's tiny eyes scrutinizing everything before setting his gaze on Kay. Kay didn't know what to say within that moment. "Euh, you are one UGLY mother fucker."

If the thing could tilt its head in confusion, it would. "... Mother... Fucker? Don't understand. Need explanation."

"Uh... Yeah, no. Maybe later." Kay turned to Virid. "Is his head broken?"

Virid shook her head. 'Abathur also has a similar speech pattern. It could be that this speech pattern has been imprinted into The Swarm at a genetic level. Key genetic codes would be safely stored within every drone, hatchery and larva if they are considered valuable. When a genetic mutation is seen as viably important in the active organisms, the mutation slowly bleeds into the Swarm's hivemind, acting as a library for stored genetic information, which will strengthen the swarm. This is a method of evolution that is deemed the fastest and most efficient by Abathur himself.'

Kay shook his head at that thought. "Man. The zerg get more and more scary every day."

The evolution master fidgeted on the spot. "Query. Born recently. Have no purpose. Only directive: Help swarm. Need assistance?"

Virid stepped forward. 'We require more resources for a battle that is coming to our territory. There is no minerals and vespene gas deposits on this world, and the Swarm on this world adapted with great difficulty. However, gilanian technology may hold the answer to our resource problem. There is a device called a 'manifestation altar' that can provide alternate materials similar to minerals and vespene gas. Reverse engineering it may be key to acquiring unlimited resources.'

"Location of altar?" The evolution master asked plainly.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hang on. Can't we give you a name first? I mean... It is your birthday after all." Kay said, interrupting Virid and the new evolution master's mission of potentially destroying gilanian technology.

The evolution master stopped and turned to Kay. "Name unimportant. Swarm important. Must help swarm."

Kay rolled his eyes. "Kay... Well um... How about this? You can help the swarm by a degree, if you help me by helping you gain a new name. How does that sound?"

The evolution master paused. "... Fails to see need for name. However, if gaining name assists swarm, then will accept name."

Kay clapped his hands together. "Kay, um... I'm kinda drawing on a blank here." He said, pausing awkwardly.

'I suggest the name Corvurn, and be done with it. May we continue to the altar?' Virid impatiently suggested, already scuttling to the closest manifestation altar. For convenience, the altar that the zerg were given permission to use was on the first floor within the underground village's central tower.

Kay stared at Virid with annoyed eyes as the newly anointed 'Corvurn' followed after her. He sighed after nine seconds before following after them.

Once they reached the tower and went inside, Corvurn watched the drones requesting hydrocarbons and pure ore metals from the manifestation altar. Ever since the decline in the bio-matter resource economy, the altar was creating more metal based resources to make up for the decline in resource production. "Query. Manifestation altar?" Corvurn asked, pointing one of his four grasping claws at the machine. Once Virid nodded, Corvurn slithered to it and looked at it from every direction possible, pushing past and disrupting the drones' duties. After the inspection, Corvurn grumbled. "Altar non-organic. Machine operated. Difficult to replicate function."

Kay sighed. "Well, there's that hope gone."

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?" A yell brought everyone's attention to an albino gilanian. Kragnon was staring at Corvurn with great concern.

Corvurn turned abruptly and stared hungrily at Kragnon, then started to approach him. "Lifeform detected. Unknown essence. Extracting samples."

Kay didn't know what kind of samples Corvurn wanted from Kragnon, but he acted on the occasion and quickly stood in front of Corvurn. "CORVURN, NO! He's not to be harmed!"

Corvurn stopped. "Not swarm organism. Contains unknown essence. Require essence sample. Testing can assist Swarm."

Kay shook his head. "Not this one. Any other gilanian corpse I would be fine with, but this one is off limits. He's labeled as an allied non-zerg organism, and he is not to be wounded in any way."

Corvurn stood there for several seconds before returning to his original task, which was inspecting the altar. Kragnon decided to break the silence that followed. "Kay. What the fuck is that?"

Kay stared at Corvurn for a few seconds before replying to Kragnon. "Our evolution master. He was recently born a couple minutes ago, and apparently doesn't understand the concept of 'polite discourse'."

Kragnon looked at the slug creature up and down several times before shuddering and turning to Kay. "Master or not, why the hell is he looking at my altar like that?"

Kay sighed. "He's trying to figure out how it makes metals and hydrocarbons."

"... Why?" Kragnon asked.

Kay shrugged. "Blame Virid. She told him about it."

Kragnon looked at the other creature intruding into the tower. "Is this the 'Virid' you have told me about?"

Virid turned to Kragnon and made a small hiss. "I am Virid, yes."

Kay slowly turned toward Virid and slowly blinked, staring at her with surprise. "... Virid."

Virid turned to Kay. 'What is it?'

Kay waved a gesture to Virid. "You just talked. Like... AUDIBLY talked."

Kay could tell that Virid was quickly becoming annoyed. 'I am aware.'

Kragnon looked between Kay and Virid with a confused expression. "... I think I'm missing something here."

Kay nodded at Kragnon. "I think you and me both!" He then turned back to Virid. "Virid, why didn't you tell me you could communicate through sound?"

Virid trilled lowly, who was obviously annoyed by this line of questioning. 'There was no need to communicate through sound. The hivemind connection is the only efficient method.'

"Efficient or not, I think this was something I would have liked to know about beforehand!"

'There was no point in telling you this beforehand. If you had learned of my ability to speak audibly in stead of telepathically, then our exchanges would take significantly longer.'

"Now you're just being cheeky!" Kay groused.

'I can't be cheeky. I don't even have a mouth.' She hissed.

"Quit changing the subject!" Kay barked.

Kragnon raised his hand sheepishly. "I think I understand what is happening here, but can we not use telepathy to the only non-telepath here, please?"

Kay turned to Kranon and nodded before turning back to Virid again. "Alright Virid, here's a new rule. Any time we are face-to-face like this, or when you're in the company of friendly non-zerg, or friendly non-telepathic non-zerg, then you are to limit your communication abilities to using only vocal noise, unless it was for something important or urgent. Understand?"

Virid paused for several seconds before hissing loudly. "As you command."

"Uh, quick question if you don't mind." Kragnon asked meekly. "But uh... How are you talking without a mouth?"

Virid looked down at Kragnon, her gaze making him shrivel slightly. "I have no need for a mouth. I have psionic abilities capable of exciting and manipulating the air to produce sonic vibrations of specific wavelengths. Just as I can control my exhalations, so too can I exchange words in verbal dialogue at the same time."

Kay nodded. "In short, complex zerg biology."

Kragnon paused and nodded his head too. "... Well... C-can you tell me why your... 'evolution master' there is looking at my manifestation altar like a ceremonially prepared krell?"

Virid hissed again. "Corvurn is investigating the properties of the manifestation altar. He wishes to replicate its abilities using an organic process."

Kay raised an eyebrow at Virid, then turned to Kragnon. "Would you mind if we let Corvurn reverse-engineer your altar tech, Kragnon?"

Kragnon scoffed. "Go ahead, and good luck with that! If the Technochief of this village was still alive, he could probably be able to help you. I only have my computer tell me how to fix them whenever they break. I don't have the technical knowledge to know how they work."

Corvurn stopped his analyzing of the altar and slithered toward Kragnon, apparently overhearing the conversation. "Non-swarm organism. Query. Computer helps you fix altars? Can computer explain functions? Explain materials required for object and resource synthesis?"

Kragnon stared at the slug monster for a long time before saying something. He sounded a lot meeker than normal. "Uh... Yes?"

Corvurn caressed his grasping fingers together. "Require access to computer. Must learn about altar. Reverse engineering of altar required."

Kragnon turned to Kay to give him a worried expression. With a nod from Kay, Kragnon slowly sighed and shrugged before turning around to lead Corvurn to the council chamber. "Uh, sure. Corvurn, was it? I'll show you to Maiden, this tower's artificially intelligent computer interface. You can ask her as many questions as you need, but I'll have to ask you to not disclose our transfer handle if you're going to access information from the information network. My name is Kragnon, by the way. Lovechief Kragnon."

Corvurn followed after Kragnon. "Current conversation unimportant. Swarm evolution important. Computer access required. Information regarding altar functions, mechanics, properties, designs, and materials needed. Must research and analyze. Proceed with haste."

Kragnon slowly nodded before picking up his pace into a jog, with Corvurn matching his speed despite being a slug-footed monster.

Kay crossed his arms and nodded. "So uh... I guess that went well. For a second there, I thought Corvurn was looking to eat him."

Virid hissed. "He was going to take samples from Kragnon."

Kay turned to Virid and paused. "... I can't help but notice how you veiled that. Was he really going to eat him?"

Virid took her turn to pause. "... He was only going to eat a small part of him."

Kay raised his hands in a defeated gesture. "Now you tell me!"

Virid paused again, but then decided to scuttle back to the underground hatchery. "Kragnon should be fine in Corvurn's company. In the meantime, I have work to do. We must focus our efforts preparing our defenses."

Kay looked down at the ground before nodding. "... I don't really have anything to do for the moment, so... I'll help you out." Kay offered, following after Virid.

The preparation for the coming battle was going along well. The cover of night didn't stop the swarm from swaying or expanding, since they had adapted to forgo sleep completely. Sleep was now something that was considered habitual instead of being something that was necessary. However, getting enough sleep was very unlikely when the telepathic voices of the Swarm often keeps the brain awake. Mental exhaustion often became a problem for any creature forced awake for long periods of time. The zerg, on the other hand, found that mental exhaustion could easily be abated with simple rest. It wasn't as efficient as sleeping, but resting was better than nothing.

As nydus worms popped out of the ground one after another, ten kilometers away from the first hive cluster, queens emerged from these nydus worms and deposited their creep tumors, which had began spreading more creep as a result. Several overlord groups eventually met with the queens near the nydus worms that were laying the creep tumors, whilst another group of queens and overlords focused on expanding the creep fields outward from the first hive cluster.

It took several hours, but several kilometers of land that was once bare of creep was now blanketed by a layer of oozing nutrition fit for only zerg consumption. There was still some uncovered ground when midnight came, but the creep-less grounds soon became part of the zerg territory, extending their controlled lands to twenty kilometers in diameter. Several spore and spine crawlers had been situated around the nydus worms, while dedicated hatcheries were created beside each of these evenly-spaced nydus worms.

The creep around each nydus worm had been extended by five hundred square meters, which ensured that whatever ground-bound hostile force tried to focus on the nydus worm wouldn't advance into zerg territory without being witnessed by the zerg hivemind. Not only that, but several more drones had mutated into spine and spore crawlers between the nydus worms in a circumferential pattern. A giant circle of anti-ground, anti-air, and cloak detection was eventually created.

It was thanks to the expansion of creep that the drones gained more areas to collect nutrient-rich creep from. However, the drones were suffering from a lack of numbers. The hatcheries quickly became busy as queens were either spawned or moved into the area. Larval injection incited the hatcheries to produce larvae, and the larvae would eventually morph into more drones, overlords, and other zerg strains.

Five more nydus worms were created, each five kilometers away from the center of the hive cluster and distanced evenly from each other. Drones emerged from those worms and went to work collecting nutrient rich creep, feeding it to the worm they arrived in. The nydus network was vomiting copious amounts of nutrient rich creep, and the drones within the main hive cluster area went to work collecting the collected creep easily. But once the hatcheries were morphed next to those new nydus worms, the collection of nutrient-rich creep became even easier.

Once the drones started focusing more on creep harvesting, the production of bio-matter was skyrocketing, and the supply of bio-matter becoming moderately plentiful. However, accelerant production remained the same. Even with two sources of volcanic gas being capped with extractors, and even when manifested hydrocarbons being provided by one of Kragnon's manifestation altars assisted in accumulating more accelerant, using the nydus worms to extend the zerg territory enabled for a rapid harvest of bio-matter. As of now, Kay and Virid's brood had the ability to produce a roach every eighteen minutes.

With that said, the only organisms that had no need for accelerant for their spawning were the drones, zerglings, queens, spine crawlers, spore crawlers, overlords and hatcheries.

The drones were the only vulnerable and important organisms that needed to be sheltered from the coming battle, and they would need to quickly burrow when they start sensing danger coming to them. However, they would be necessary for replacing any destroyed bio-structures, so a group of drones were chosen to be burrowed near the nydus worms in case they needed to replace what was destroyed.

Zerglings could be produced en masse, and very cheaply. They would become the primary, fast-acting defense for the entire hive cluster. Once the static defenses have been set up, much of the primary defense will consist mostly zerglings. In fact, A LOT of zerglings. Kay was hoping for an entire ocean full of them!

Zerg queens could provide ranged support from behind the zergling forces, or help defend and heal strategic bio-structures or combat strains. The zerglings might be slightly expendable, but the queens were six times more expensive than a single zergling, and required more time to gestate. Their inclusion into any foreseeable battles would have to be limited. Their transfusion ability would be quite beneficial to zerg bio-structures. Using their transfusions on zerglings would be quite wasteful, since zerglings could regenerate to full health on their own.

The spine and spore crawlers forming the massive defensive ring around the main hive cluster would be the first line of defense. Since Kay didn't know where the attacking forces would strike from, he figured that creating the ring of crawlers would ensure that no enemy force would burrow under, fly over, or walk through without being detected. Not only that, the spore crawlers that make up the ring of crawlers would stop any invisible intruders. Coupled with the tendril barbs of the spine crawlers, or the aerial-denial seeker spores of the spore crawlers, no one should get past without suffering sever injuries or losing casualties first. Unless they had satellites that could attack the zerg from orbit. Kay doubted that, but his doubts have been proven wrong before.

The overlords were going to be tricky. They had no means to fend for themselves once the battle comes, but the overlords with ventral sacks could provide a slow means of transportation. However, such transportation wasn't really needed since the nydus worms provided a fast means of transport anyway, and the creep acted as a giant sensory organ for the swarm. The creep even had filaments that enabled the zerg to skate across its surface, boosting their speed as they traveled. But the creep also had another function. If an animal or a warrior so much as step on the creep, or fly over it, then all of the zerg will become aware of the intrusion.

The overlords will be supplying synaptic control to all of the zerg forces, so there will be a need for a great number of them. With their abilities to provide synaptic control, provide a carpet of creep, and are help to transport combat strains after growing their ventral sacks, overlords would provide certain niche strategies that were easily overlooked. Sure, the overlords were vulnerable floating blimps, but their inclusion into the Swarm had granted them the means to traverse the vacuum of space.

The small number of roaches would have to be managed carefully, and only be deployed in areas where certain defenses had an obvious weakness, or where an attack had weakened their defenses. They were perfect as anti-infantry, but would need to burrow to avoid enemy air forces. As such, being led to battle by a queen or two would assist them greatly, since the queens can provide them an efficient means of anti-air cover. However, Kay and Virid had no idea how powerful their enemy's air units would be.

The twin zerglings, elder hydralisk, single infestor, and the only overseer on the surface would have to be dedicated to a special forces group, taking part in tactical excursions and special covert operations. Kay imagined that they would be mainly used in disabling or assassinating important targets. Despite the infestor having an excellent survival record, and the elder hydralisk and twin zerglings being the most experienced zerg organisms, (not counting Virid), and the overseers ability to detect hidden enemies and create changelings, their group happened to be incredibly small. They'd have to be used carefully if they were to survive. Hopefully they would bear many successes in an otherwise impossible mission.

Somehow, Kay and Virid's brood managed to accomplish their goals in setting up an effective defensive strategy once it became morning. It gave them extra time to create a thicker defense, produce more overlords, zerglings and drones as a result. The drones were directed to the ring of crawlers, which then promptly morphed into either another spine crawler or another spore crawler. Several more hatcheries were created near the main hive cluster, whilst a queen, sometimes two, tended to each hatchery. The lair, the center of the main hive cluster, would be tended by four queens. Virid had decided to command the zerg in the relative safety of the underground village, its own hatcheries being able to provide additional assistance in replacing lost zerg strains.

But then there was another problem. The deteriorating overlord that had two sick queens within its ventral sack. The queens kept each other healthy, and kept the overlord they resided in from dying, but no one knew what kind of affliction effected these diseased zerg strains. The zerg had the ability to adapt to any illnesses, but that logic had failed when that hunter introduced that poisoned crossbow bolt to that overlord, which was now affecting the overlord and the zerg within itself! Kay hoped that when Corvurn finally had the free time to spare, he would tell him about the poisoned overlord. Aren't the zerg supposed to be crazy adaptive?

But as of then, Kay and Virid were going to prepare against a siege.

Corvurn was looking through many diagrams involving the manifestation altars. As he perused through many designs and how they worked, and how the mechanisms and machinery had fitted with one another, he was slowly beginning to understand the properties of the gilanian technology. However, Corvurn also found out that the altars uses special elements and a type of fluid that the zerg were unable to produce by themselves. But these elements and fluid could be produced by the altars paradoxically. He just needed to figure out how to create an organic compound similar to the elements and fluid the altars used, and then design an organ that biologically simulates the ability to force protons, neutrons, and electrons to turn into tangible resources. In short, use zerg bio-magic to turn energy into matter.

That was when Corvurn got an idea.

"Kragnon." Corvurn growled, turning to him. The lovechief looked like he was about to up and leave until his name was called.

"Uh... Yes?" He said, rubbing his tired eyes. He had spent the whole night answering Corvurn's questions regarding gilanian tech, and sometimes answering his queries on the nature of the world's politics.

If Corvurn could smile, he would. But smiling was not beneficial to the zerg swarm, so it was a useless gesture for him. "Reverse engineering of altar required. Permission for deconstruction and reverse-engineering of altar?"

Kragnon sighed. He was not willing to anger the zerg over such a simple sounding request. "... If it's only just one manifestation altar, then I'm fine with it. But you are only allowed to dismantle the altar on the first floor."

Corvurn slithered out of the council room. "Needed only one."

A/N: I'm going to see if I can write double the amount I normally write for this story tomorrow.