Chapter 18: Trojan Zerg
Once the nydus worm popped out of the sandy ground and made its terrible war cry, it vomited several queens, zerglings, hydralisks, banelings, and drones several seconds later. Chemically stimulated peristaltic travel is, by far, the fastest way to travel!
Three drones took positions adjacent to the nydus worm and formed a fleshy cocoon around themselves. Becoming a hatchery would enable them a means to create zerg organisms here, rather than rely on the nydus network for zerg unit transportation. The zerglings joined the victorious zergling and feasted on the corpse of the previously slain shryik serpent. Many of its organs were consumed, but the victorious zergling kept the jawbone as its trophy. The queens started laying their creep tumors around the nydus worm and congregated near the soon-to-be-formed hatcheries. Some of the drones will assist in collecting the resource pods that is produced from the resource tumors, but most of them will be turned into spine and spore crawlers to help defend this forward base. The banelings were positioned further away, either burrowed or un-burrowed, from the future emplacements of the spine and spore crawlers as an early defense against both ground-bound enemies and burrowing shryik serpents. Swallowing a baneling whole would be the last thing that a shryik serpent will ever do. And to add to an already impressive air defense that the spore crawlers provided, the hydralisks could shoot down nearby fliers with pinpoint accuracy. In summation, the forward hive-cluster became quickly well protected from both ground and air forces.
Unlike the main hive cluster that had a plethora of overlords floating around, this hive cluster would spawn no overlords, or any air units for that matter. Air units that can be seen above the pillars would turn them into a target for the empire gilanians, and overlords hovering over the hatcheries would reveal the hive cluster to the zerg's current main enemy on Kiln.
But then there was another problem. The scientist robot... thing... said that he implanted some kind of tracking device on the victorious zergling. He also said that he would start tracking the zergling in the morning.
Kay sighed as he walked back and forth. "Oh yeah. I almost forot about that."
"Forot?" Virid asked, peering out from behind the hatchery she was tending. "Do you not mean 'forgot'?"
Kay rolled his eyes. "Yeah yeah. That's what I meant to say."
Virid crawled toward Kay and cocked her head. "Is there something you want to inform me about?"
Kay nodded, turning to Virid. "Remember that zergling that got captured by that scouting desert platform? Well, I told the zergling to break out of its cage and find a place for a nydus worm to be summoned at. I directed it to kill a shryik serpent on its own, and we now have a forward base in a place that the gilanians call 'Whisper Stones'."
Virid directed her attention to the far-off location of the Whisper Stones hive cluster. After focusing on it for a few seconds, she turned back to Kay. "I recommend morphing a few overlords in the new area."
Kay shook his head and smiled. "And give away our position to the gilanian empire? Nah. No air units for the moment. I want to have the element of surprise for as long as possible before I try and capture their scientist commander."
Virid cocked her head even further. "You found a gilanian scientist?! Why haven't you told me about this?!" She asked, almost hissing and trilling her surprise.
Kay shrugged. "You looked busy with the other queens, setting up all those resource tumors and injecting hormones into those hatcheries. I didn't want to disturb you."
Virid stared at Kay intently, and he could feel her mental focus probing his mind. Kay was resistant at first, but he allowed her to psionically probe his head. After several seconds of mental probing, she sighed before speaking. "Return the zergling to the cube structure it was taken to."
"Why?" Kay asked.
"If the scientist discovered the hive cluster, then he would contact The Crescent Arms Division and warn them of its location." She answered.
"... Oh. I see now." Kay replied, looking down and placing a hand to his chin. "If we did that, then it would take the empire gilanians longer for them to find our secret hive cluster. We'll have to be quick then."
Kay and Virid redirected their focus on the far away hive cluster, now that a plan had been quickly formed. The cloud of overlords redirected their mental power to transmit their control to the tagged zergling, whilst the weaker signal from the zergling was relayed and concentrated on at the same time.
The victorious zergling received its orders. Carrying the bloodied jawbone of the shryik serpent, it ran in the dark of midnight with nothing but the glow of the moon to guide it. Thankfully, the faraway overlords that witnessed the zergling's survival saw through its eyes and remembered the terrain well. It was a simple matter to find the way back to that copper and green colored cube. The zergling panted noisily as it held the jawbone in its mouth, but it wasn't willing to part with its precious trophy. It went up to the structure and decided to claw at it viciously, making several long gashes in the copper colored metal.
Several seconds later, several sand-board riding gilanians, wearing orange and green uniforms, flew out of the cube structure and circled the zergling that dared attacked their base. They gave the zergling a wide birth, but circled around it and pointed their alien pistols, SMGs and assault rifles at the beast.
One of them fished out a radio from their person. "Commander Faddoh. Forward research cube B-022 has been attacked by a blade hound. Orders?"
[Oh really?! So early in the morning too!] Faddoh's voice rung from the radio. [What is the light cycle again? Looks like it's about... 32.229% waxing. Hmm... I'm going to mark this in a note and continue with my research. ... And... Done! I wonder if it's the same blade hound that escaped yesterday? Uh... Oh, it is! Very interesting! This also might need to be noted! Anyway, here are my orders, gents. You are to contain that rascally little blade hound and bring it into the cube research facility in a contained condition. I have constructed a cage where this dangerous little varmint will find it difficult to escape from this time around! I'm sure that our little 'patient' is eager to see what kind of procedures I'll be giving it.]
The gilanian holstered his radio and retrieved his capture noose. "Alrighty fellas! Trap that jag and bring it into the facility!" Once that gilanian gave out the order, the other gilanian sand-boarders brought out their capture nooses and tranquilizer rifles. The zergling stood its ground, angrily hissing as it was challenged by the trapper team of the copper science cube.
The zergling was eventually put down when a tranquilizer dart struck its mouth. The zergling had wizened to the tactics employed by the capture nooses, and had opted to strike any that got near its limbs or face. This had made it more difficult for the trapper team, so they had to take more risky actions to ensure that the beast was captured. Sadly, their efforts got one of them killed and another wounded. One gilanian trapper in particular was unlucky enough to be chased right into a wall, which crashed and broke his sand-board in the process. The zergling dropped its trophy to bite at the neck of the screaming gilanian to make him stop complaining about the broken bones he received, and killed him. The wounded gilanian suffered a crushed collarbone when he decided to leap off of his sand-board to tackle the zergling to the ground. It gave the other trappers scant seconds to use their capture nooses on the surprised body-slammed zergling, force its jaw open, and deliver a tranquilizer dart into its maw.
After 'passing out', and being transported into the copper cube facility afterwards, the zergling was put into a large cage with several grills that surrounded it from all sides. The interior was orange and shiny, with hints of glowing green patterns that lined the wall like inset lighting fixtures. The walls were lined with many cabinets, filled with vials of things, machines, and boxes that stored scattered folders.
Faddoh was busy talking with his trapper team in front of the zergling. He was rapidly shaking the leader trapper's hand. "Well done! Well done! I am very proud of the work that you have done, capturing that blade hound and bringing him here! Wait a minute... Is it a him, or a her? I'll find that out later. Anyway, I want to thank you for bringing it here. I'll take over with my science team. You may continue to stand guard in any area you see fit. Oh, and thank you, thank you, THANK YOU a hundred times more!"
The trapper pulled his hand from the machine's grasp quickly. "Enough of that, you geek. We're not paid enough to be your nannies and animal wranglers. Let me be clear to you that we are only hired to be your bodyguards. Nothing more. Now leave us alone so we can get on with what we are hired to do." After saying that, the trapper leader and his fellow gilanians, or 'bodyguards' as they called themselves, left Faddoh's company.
The machine, if it was even possible, looked dejected. "Hey now! I payed liters of water for your services! If I wasn't so short-staffed here, I would send a complaint to Kralluf and have you replaced in the next minute!" The gilanian bodyguard showed Faddoh a rude gesture. "OH DON'T BE CUTE WITH ME! Gaugh... Some people have no respect for science nowadays." Faddoh said, turning around to look at the zergling. "... Hmm... At least I have a specimen to analyze. T'gai. Message the biology division in cube facility S-01 that we have a live blade hound for analysis and research."
[Command detected. Sending request for resources.] Said a very monotone and low baritone voice. The zergling would have looked around to try and find the source of the voice, but it knew that it still needed to pretend to be passed out.
After several more seconds had passed, part of the room glowed with blue and white light as the sound of an activating MEM device was heard. Orange and green coated researchers rubbed their tired eyes as they walked off the MEM device's shift platform. One of them spoke up. "YAWN! Okay, Commander Faddoh, we're here. What do you need."
"Ahem!" Faddoh said, tapping his mechanical foot and crossing his metal arms. The LED face contorted into a frown.
They all groaned before standing at attention and saluted. "Head scientist of the biologist department, Doctor Hektar. Reporting for duty, sir."
The LED face turned back into a smile. "That is a lot better. Now then, you are given a very special task, and that task is to analyze this creature here." Faddoh said, gesturing to the zergling. "This breed of creature has been given the name 'blade hound'. It was coined by Commander Kralluf, if you didn't know. Anyway, you are to analyze its behavior, biology, socialistic capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, and possible unseen abilities that we have not yet detected. I shall leave this creature to your capable hands."
Hektar grunted. "What about the sample acquired from the 'melted' gilanian I heard about? It's a popular topic of discussion back at the science headquarters."
Faddoh emoted something that seemed to be similar to a sigh. "Ah yes, that. Sadly, I have come across some difficulty in delivering the samples. No matter how many times I tried to send a sample to the main research facility, I always end up finding something wrong with the MEM device's transmitter. I can't tell you how many times I modified that MEM device, the same one that you have used to get here I might add, trying to send that melted gilanian sample. I tried turning off the safety functions, increasing power, changed resolutions several times, found out a way to make a new form of plastic, and calibrated the microbial sifter. It's like the corpse fluid just doesn't want to be transported, or is simply too complex to simply turn into energy for transfer. I am completely stumped!"
The head scientist nodded. "Yeah, that is odd... Can't we just analyze that sample at a forward facility instead? I mean, we could requisition any equipment we might need in order to analyze the sample on site right here."
The commander glowed a smile at Hektar. "Very well! Since you have provided an alternative solution to that pesky problem of mine, then YOU can be the one responsible for researching the samples! I, on the other hand, shall be busy researching the blade hound!"
Doctor Hektar stared at Faddoh with wide-eyed disdain. "Whah~?! But... Sir, I was requisitioned for the analysis of the blade hound!"
Faddoh dismissively waved his metal hand. "I have the right to change my orders around however I see fit. Pray that I don't alter them further." Faddoh turned around and searched for something on a shelve before picking out what was stored there. "Now then! These five little vials contain the liquefied remains of an unnamed gilanian soldier. I need you to find out what, and which, elements of the poison are responsible for the destabilization of the body. In short, find out what had transformed the victim into a liquid state." Faddoh said, giving the five vials to the head researcher.
Hektar glumly accepted the vials and sighed. "Fine. I'll get a microscope and see what I can discover."
The commander pleaded his fingers. "Excellent! Oh, and use the manifestation altar to make and provide a few necessary tools for your team too." Faddoh then turned to the other scientists. "Your head scientist will be working on a different project on his own, at the moment. As of now, you are to work under me as we delve into the scientific understanding of this creature we have captured! We don't know if it is a boy or a girl yet, but we hope to find out soon. I shall have the privilege of giving this creature a fitting nickname. Raise your hands if you all agree to the name of 'Blixon'! We can change the name later to 'Blix' if the creature happens to be female." After the biologists raised their hands, Faddoh grasped his metal hands together. "Good! Good, good, good! I shall also count that as volunteering to retrieve a blood sample, in case you didn't know. You may use the bodyguards' capture nooses to subdue the beast. The electric cage controls are found on the side of the entrance. It WILL turn on if the sensors inside reads fast movement, any slamming on the sides, or registers any damage the cage receives. The cage itself is a modified slave containment unit, so don't mess around with the advanced controls, or let the beast out. With that out of the way, I want to see your notes once the light cycle waxes 50%, so don't dawdle!"
One of Hektar's scientists raised their hand. "Commander Faddoh, sir? I believe it's already around 45% in the light cycle, sir."
Faddoh paused, and then face palmed. "... Oh, I am such a motormouth! Well... Make a single page report on what you think of Blixon's name then. And maybe put some theories or assumptions into the mix. After that, I want you to research the HELL out of that organism! Now get your info-squares and start writing! I'll be busy sterilizing the inner environment of my lab to help assist in your research. After the report, however, I want you all to do what I had described prior. Begin!"
Once the scientists dispersed to their corners to start writing their impromptu reports, with Commander Faddoh getting to work on cleaning up the research team's work space, the zergling, given the name 'Blixon', yawned and got up. Blixon had decided in that moment that it wasn't going to pretend to be tranquilized anymore. It looked around in this new environment it was in, and saw that it was strewn with several equipment that was haphazardly placed everywhere. It was a cluttered and messy chamber, but Faddoh was slowly reorganizing everything for his guests.
Kay and Virid were getting the impression that the prisoner of science, now named Blixon, was going to stay there for a long while.
Meanwhile, the zerg creep had extended by several more meters at the primary hive cluster. However, the creep tumors that developed and grew the creep were identified and blasted with artillery. The short-range accuracy of the artillery shells could blast creep tumors at an effective range of 350 meters away, but were incapable of hitting burrowed creep tumors with accurate success. The perimeter defense that surrounded the zerg territory also more than tripled in size, and Kay could tell that the desert platforms now numbered around three thousand outside of zerg controlled territory.
Kay theorized that the size of the zerg organism would give them a bigger target to blast, so the artillery crew could easily adjust their weapon's firing distance. The spine crawlers, the largest ground-based organism that Kay and Virid's brood could employ, was easily killed when artillery fire was focused on it. Using its corpse as a ratio, Kay estimated that their range would drastically change when they have a larger target to focus on. They killed the spine crawler at their effective distance of 600 meters away.
And that was when Kay figured out an effective plan to counter-attack the desert platforms right back!
Thousands of hydralisks and roaches were being hatched by Kay's command, and they were all being directed toward the edge of the zerg established territory. A few of the zerg organisms were sent forward and sacrificed to test the desert platforms' effective artillery ranges. After the death of five hydralisks, Kay had discovered that the desert platforms would fire on the hydralisks when they got 420 meters close.
The hydralisks buried themselves under the creep, but were also given the order to wait until they were needed, or ambush any light excursion force that decided to venture into their territory. There hadn't been an excursion force yet, but the hydralisks would still be prepared for such a tactic. The roaches would burrow their way forward and proceed to get as close as possible before the gilanian empire's seismic sensing equipment detected the roaches and directed their automated turrets to fire ground-penetrating bullets at them. The roaches managed to get as close as 100 meters before they were targeted and fired upon by the turrets. Once the effective range of the sensors were memorized, the roaches would burrow-move just out of sensor range of the seismic sensor system and wait, like an underground mob of shoppers during Black Friday, waiting for those 80% off Wii-U's.
But the hydralisks were still key to a long ranged defense, simply because they can fire at targets that were half a kilometer away.
And the roaches would provide an effective defensive front, since their heavily carapaced armor would protect them and absorb damage.
But the real backbone would be the zerglings.
They had already been amassed to tens of thousands, and they were already speedy little monsters. The roaches could absorb much damage before dying, but the zerglings would be used as the main meat-shielding cannon fodder unit. And, if they needed to, they could turn into banelings and shower their enemies in super-hot acid in a one-shot attack.
The overlords increased in number drastically when more zerg organisms were produced. The cloud hanging above the hive cluster grew tremendously large, increasing by 1.8 times its size. Several more hatcheries had also been produced to account for the increased production of zerg.
Despite the fact that Kay could upgrade his only lair into a hive, and in effect, be able to access the mutations and powerful units that could turn the tide of any battle, he knew that he needed to adapt slowly. Kay knew that Emperor Gollog had several aces up his sleeve, and Kay didn't know all of them just yet. Instead, Kay had to wait with a featureless poker face. He will not flinch when Gollog shows his four-of-a-kind, but instead will smile at him when he revealed his royal flush near the end, and deal a gratifying blow to the prideful emperor.
... Since when did Kay learn poker?
In a soft bed, Kragnon was waking up after a long sleep. He needed some rest after he had been constantly looking over the shoulder of that... thing... from yesterday. Its main interest was looking at all complete DNA sequences of each animal for several hours, then looking at the composition of several different types of gilanian technologies.
He dressed himself in his normal attire, consisting of a red overshirt that had the symbol of the Hidden Water Spring Tribe's emblem of leadership on it, padded leather pants that was built for mobility instead of comfort, foot-wraps that covered his digitigrade feet, and a short-range wireless earpiece that had a glass semicircle cover his right eye. All of it was eighty years older, but it still felt serviceable. He rubbed his sleepy eyes after a night of much needed sleep. "Ghmn... Maiden. What is the time?"
[Query detected. It is currently ten seconds from 65% waxing of the light cycle. Morning alarm imminent.]
A blaring klaxon broke the silence of Kragnon's room, lasting five seconds. Kragnon covered his ears and allowed the klaxon to cease before speaking to Maiden again. "Alright then! Hoh. Nice to know that I slept so well, I woke up before that alarm clock did its job! Anyway... Maiden, can you tell me what Kay has been up to?"
[Query detected. Organism designated as Kay has been standing next to several unidentified organisms. He has left the underground village, but returned shortly after.]
Kragnon nodded, activating his glass eye device. "Calibrate my info-lens. Show me the outside of the tower."
[Command detected. Calibrating.]
Kragnon was able to see that there were more organisms outside of the tower than usual. He sighed. "And now there is more of those things. ... I think it's about time I had a talk with Kay."
Kragnon walked down the spiral staircase and made his way to the base level of the tower. After deploying the staircase/ramp that went over the wall, Kragnon stopped at the edge of the ramp. He saw the ground writhing as the purple ooze tried to climb up onto the platform he was on. He saw in the horizon several shapes and shivered when their eyes focused on him. A zergling decided to skitter up to him. This made Kragnon take a few steps back. After several seconds passed, the zergling sat on the ground and looked at Kragnon intently, making an inquisitive bark before being silent.
Kragnon stood where he was. "Uhh... Hello there, little, uh, zergling, was it? I wish to have an audience with your master, if possible. Could you call your master? Or... Do I just talk to you?"
The zergling barked and trilled, wiggling in place.
Kragnon paused. "... Right. I think we need to establish some means of communication if I ever have the need to talk to you through your... zergling. What would you say if you wanted to say yes?"
The zergling pawed at the ground and trilled.
"And what would you say if you wanted to say no?"
The zergling swiped at the ground and hissed.
"Scary. If you wanted to say maybe?"
The zergling snorted and laid down.
Kragnon nodded. "Alright, alright. What if you don't know the answer to my question?"
The zergling cocked its head.
"And if you don't want to answer my question?"
The zergling turned around and sat, facing away from Kragnon.
"Alright! It's simple, but it gets the point across pretty quickly. Anyway, is Kay available?"
The zergling turned to face Kragnon, and then pawed the ground and trilled.
"Can I have an audience with him?"
The zergling pawed the ground and trilled again, and then ran off in a direction. Half a minute later, Kragnon could see Kay coming into view. As Kay approached, he had several other zerg organisms following after him. Kay raised up his hands to greet Kragnon. "Hey, you're awake! Slept well?"
Kragnon smiled, waving his own hand at Kay. "I slept well enough. Woke up a few times when I heard growling outside of the tower, but it's better than being in a cold pod, let me tell you."
Kay chuckled. "Heh. So, any reason why you wanted to talk to me?"
"I was just curious. How many of your zerg organisms are there?" Kragnon asked.
"... You want me to count just the mobile organisms, or do you want me to count the immobile ones too?"
Kragnon crossed his arms and sighed. "Make a rough estimate then. I promise I won't scream at you, like when we first met."
"Uh..." Kay did some rough math in his head. "... Close to a hundred million?"
Kragnon paused and paled. "... A-A-A-A-A-A HUND-*COUGH COUGH COUGH*" Kragnon started coughing, choking on his own words.
Kay sighed. "Kinda started yelling at me there. You need a drink of water or something?"
After clearing his throat, Kragnon shook his head. "Where in the hell do these beasts come from?!"
"From a hatchery of course." Kay said, pointing to a pyramid shaped structure behind himself. "It pretty much produces hundreds, if not thousands, of zerg larvae every day. And that is without the assistance of a queen injecting hormones to help it produce more larvae."
Kragnon paled even more. "... I don't... even KNOW how to react to that. This must mean that your zerg forces are much more abundant on the surface!"
Kay nodded and smirked. "Pretty much, yeah."
"Then Gollog is going to start blasting your forces apart, using the power of the sun. Not even zerg can withstand such an attack." Kragnon said, slouching and shaking his head. "I don't think they all can evacuate and fit down here."
Kay rubbed the back of his head. "Um... About that, he already did attack us with his orbital laser."
Kragnon looked up at Kay with a deadpanned stare. After a long pause, Kragnon breathed in deeply. "... Kay. I think it's about time I get up to current events."
A/N: I think the title is witty. Don't you guys think so?