Chapter 30: Major Battle 4: Activation of the Kiln Keepers
Kralluf ran forward and down the sloped desert platform, whilst the ultralisk that he had been hunting ran up the tilted desert platform in order to meet Kralluf in combat. They both bellowed their war cries to each other before initiating glorious melee. The escaping gilanian soldiers Kralluf had brought might have said that the scene was a glorious depiction of man vs beast. But alas, they were too busy fleeing through the MEM devices to take notice of the epic battle behind them.
The mighty ultralisk swiped its massive Kaiser blades at the incoming commander, each blade capable of ending a naked human or armored gilanian in one severing slice. Kralluf quickly lowered his profile and leaned backward, letting gravity do the work as he slid under the ultralisk's blades. The blades grased through the flooring of the desert platform while Kralluf quickly stood up and struck at the ultralisk's right foreleg, making it buckle over, only to give Kralluf a window to quickly struck its right hind leg right after. The ultralisk fell onto its right side and grunted, surprised that it was countered so easily. "KINETIC BLAST!"
After hearing that shout, the ultralisk rolled over onto its back and onto its left side, completely avoiding Kralluf's attack. The ultralisk wasn't designed to roll over to dodge a deceptively small opponent's strike, but in order to survive, one would have to perform different kinds of strategies that could be considered unconventional from the norm, such as Kralluf's incredible blow. Still, the ultralisk managed to evade Kralluf's attack, flattening various items, crates, and equipment in its combat roll, and getting parts stuck in its crevices and carapace. The ultralisk countered with a sweeping blunt strike of its left Kaiser blades.
One of the Kaiser blades were struck and shattered, but another blade managed to trip Kralluf, which had sent him sliding all the way down the platform. Once the ultralisk awkwardly righted itself up, it turned to face Kralluf, growling menacingly. kralluf slowly got back onto his feet and grunted. "Damn. You got some moves, I'll give you that." Kralluf positioned his hammer and stepped onto it, and then pointed the handle towards the ultralisk while he muttered to his axe. "Issue advanced voice command function bind, labeled 'Hard Launch Blast'. Upon function bind activation, initiate kinetic launch. Next, initiate multiply density, times one hundred, after fifty milliseconds. Next, initiate kinetic impact upon attack. Next, negate current density multiplication and current velocity by command function bind 'revert'. Save advanced voice command function binds."
The ultralisk tilted its head. That didn't sound good, whatever it had meant.
Kralluf took in a breath before positioning himself. "HARD LAUNCH BLAST!" Kralluf was sent toward the ultralisk at a blurring speed. The ultralisk tilted its head at the right time, and a third of its cephalic shield on its head was turned into carapace shrapnel. If the ultralisk hadn't moved its head in time, it would have had its head turn into and exploded firework display of viscera and gore! "REVERT!" Kralluf shouted, righting himself upwards and landing softly on the ground. He threw his hammer around and pointed its handle at the ultralisk again. "HARD LAUNCH BLAST!" Another attack was initiated by Kralluf, and he managed to hit the ultralisk on its rear, forcing the massive beast to fall forward on its face while its ass was blown in half.
A significant shift was noticed during this fight. Apparently, the 'kinetic impact' attack that kralluf used requires his voice to activate his hammer's power. The ability to change the mass, velocity, and density of himself and his hammer was an astounding technological power. In essence, the commander of the Crescent Arms Division is turning himself into a cannonball that became heavier as he traveled through the air. If the ultralisk doesn't do something quickly, then it would soon die by a hammer that was being wielded by a flying lunatic!
"REVERT! KINETIC LAUNCH!" Kralluf launched himself high into the air, covered in red blood and some guts that used to belong in the ultralisk's lower intestines. After reaching a certain height, Kralluf pointed himself, and his hammer, down towards the wounded ultralisk. There was a savage grin painting his face. "KINETIC IMPACT!"
The ultralisk moved backwards suddenly, letting Kralluf land on the tilted desert platform, making a huge hole upon impact. Violent metallic creaking was heard. Slowly and surly, the creaking became louder until the snapping of metal ceased the creaking noise, and the entire desert platform evened out, followed by a soft thud that kicked up sand and dust. The ultralisk's cephalic shield was already healing and regenerating, but the siege breaking beast was already suffering grievous wounds. Apparently, the other ultralisk that assisted in attacking Kralluf's desert platform was also attacking the wheel towers, which forced the platform to the ground. Kralluf had struck the blow needed to finally force it down.
The other ultralisk stepped onto the desert platform and proceeded to graze the top part of the vehicle, wrecking many systems and abandoned turrets placements with its Kaiser blades and stomping feet. The hunted ultralisk would have wanted to join in with the other ultralisk, but Kralluf was currently the bigger threat. "HARD LAUNCH BLAST!" Another hole was blasted in the desert platform, and the attack originated from underneath. The hunted ultralisk turned around to see the hole that had appeared, but it contained no commander within. The hunted ultralisk looked up to see Kralluf aiming his hammer at the other ultralisk, surrounded by shrapnel and machine guts that belonged to his custom desert platform. "HARD LAUNCH BLAST!" Kralluf sent himself toward the other ultralisk, which imploded and exploded its entire head, killing the beast. Once the rain of blood and flakes of carapace had ceased falling, followed by the dust settling, Kralluf stood up from the insta-gibbed head of the ultralisk and craned his neck. "Revert." He turned toward the hunted ultralisk with a grunt, a sinister smirk dancing across his mouth again. "Want to end up like your buddy?"
The ultralisk looked as though it was sneering at Kralluf. It then turned away to look at something up in the sky. Kralluf was hesitant, but he turned to look at what the ultralisk was looking at. What he saw surprised him. It was something that Kralluf had never faced before, looking like a bug thing, with big arm-looking things, and wings, with a thick tail. The zerg's viper strain.
Kralluf cocked his head at the thing. "... So what are you, exactly?"
Kralluf received his answer via a blinding cloud that blurred his vision, limiting his sight of the ultralisk he had sought to kill.
Kralluf waved his hammer around to try and clear away the cloud. "GAGH! GODS-DAMMIT, I HATE THE ZERG! KINETIC LAUNCH!" Kralluf launched himself out of the cloying mist that limited his vision. His aim was good, and he found himself in the perfect trajectory, right toward the ultralisk he was hunting. Kralluf smiled dangerously again, focusing on only hunting his big game at the moment. "KINETIC IMPA-UAGH?!"
Kralluf was pulled out of the air by an incredibly prehensile tongue, disorientating him to such a degree that he flailed and rotated as he fell. He fell to the sandy ground, unable to cancel his current velocity in time to limit his impact to the terrain. Kralluf slowly emerged from the crater he made and shrugged off the sand he accumulated. "Gods-damned it, what the hell? It makes green clouds, then it has that tongue thing. Might as well take you down now. HARD LAUNCH BLAST!" Kralluf sent himself toward the viper in the sky and went through the flying zerg organism, destroying its body and making its arms and wings fly off in random directions.
Once Kralluf landed safely again, he dusted off the giblets and blood of a recently slain zerg from his silver and blue armor. He then turned to try and find the ultralisk he was hunting. However, instead of the lone ultralisk that he had hunted, he also saw a queen assisting it. The queen trilled and fussed over the ultralisk, and Kralluf could have sworn that the ultralisk was healing faster than normal. The ultralisk shook itself and grumbled with renewed vigor, almost looking completely rejuvenated! After that, the ultralisk gazed at Kralluf and sneered, growling lowly and stomping its right foot again.
Kralluf sighed. "Gods-damn, where did that caretaker come from?! ... Eh. No matter. I can still kill you in one blow. HARD LAUNCH BLAST!"
[Energy warning. Battery is low. Unable to comply with commands.] Kralluf's hammer seemed to have said.
Kralluf looked at his hammer and growled. "Dammit." The ultralisk plodded forward, whilst the queen held her position. Kralluf awaited his fate as the ultralisk came closer to him. Once the ultralisk was mere meters away, it stopped and stared at Kralluf with hungry eyes. Several seconds had passed, and Kralluf was starting to become impatient. "... What are you waiting for?"
The ultralisk growled.
"... You're waiting for my turn, huh? You want me to make my next move?" Kralluf asked incredulously.
The ultralisk growled again, as though replying to Kralluf.
Kralluf was utterly dumbfounded. After a lengthy pause, he then started chuckling. That chuckling then developed into a full-blown laugh. "Hahahahaha what haha kind of monsters are you?! Hahahahaha~!" After several seconds of laughing, Kralluf eventually calmed himself enough to talk to the ultralisk further. "Hoooh~... Alright. Here's a move that's going to make you scratch your head. KINETIC LAUNCH!" Kralluf sent himself into the air and above the ultralisk once more. However, Kralluf did not shout out 'kinetic impact' when he reached the peak of his launch height this time. Instead, he fell straight down onto the ultralisk.
The ultralisk positioned its Kaiser blades and tried striking at the falling commander. The blades struck at nothing, and the commander somehow managed to fall right into its opened mouth. The ultralisk was surprised with what it caught in its maw, but it chewed a few times, its snack screaming and grunting as it did so, and swallowed Commander Kralluf whole. Once it ingested its prey, the ultralisk roared a mighty roar in triumphant victory.
"DETONATE!" The ultralisk's insides exploded, separating the beast's lower torso in half. The ultralisk grunted in surprise when its face was planted onto the ground again, whilst its rear legs and buttocks flailed and twitched. After a few more grunts as the ultralisk tried to get up, one final, low gurgled groan marked the final noise it would make before it died. Kralluf picked himself up from the shredded intestines and stomach lining, but he fell back down again as he became covered in another layer of red, stomach bile, and creep. His legs and arm were very mangled, and his eyes were bloodshot, but he laughed, hitting one of the internal organs that was closest to him with a fist, using an undamaged arm. "Hhahahaheheh, take that you fuck! Oh! Ow. Oh, it it hurts to laugh. So worth it though!"
Kralluf couldn't help it. He gloated with a broad smile with as much pride that his ego could allow. He hunted the most dangerous organism that the zerg were able to throw at him, and he survived not one, but two ultralisks. He even forced his hammer to explode the insides of the monster he didn't properly kill the first time around! Now that he did, he could finally tell his tale with confidence. But his expression changed when he saw a queen crawling onto the downed desert platform and approaching him. It seemed to have difficulty trying to get to her prey.
Kralluf used his good arm to crawl away. "Gheh. Sorry, but the arena is closed. Come back next light cycle." Kralluf said, struggling to get as far away from the queen as possible. The queen still crawled closer to Kralluf, even shooting an acid spine when she thought she had a shot. Kralluf unholstered an energy pistol from his person and shot back at the queen. The queen ducked out of the way of the energy projecting weapon after a bony wing got burned off. The exchange went on like this until Kralluf returned to the command center on his custom desert platform. He went to a surveillance terminal and pressed a few keys using the hilt of his pistol. He then crawled over to a MEM device, sitting onto it and putting his working arm near its terminal. He shot at the queen a few more times when it tried to enter the command center, trying to keep it out of the tent as much as he could. "You're not getting into here, caretaker. Invade this place and I'll beam your head right off, bitch."
The queen trilled angrily.
[This is Commander Ralkan, at Empire Capitol. Who is making this call?]
"This is Commander Kralluf. *cough* I killed my prey that got away." Kralluf said, sounding weak.
A sigh was heard. [Dammit Kralluf, you always bite off more than you can chew. You sound hurt.]
Kralluf spat a little bit of blood beside himself. "Just get me the access code to the shadow location."
[Kralluf, why on Kiln do you want to go there?!] Ralkan asked.
"Because one: I am in need of medical attention. I am close to dying. And two: it's the safest place to be once the Kiln Keepers are activated. But enough stalling. Give me the damn access code now." Kralluf said painfully.
There was a pause. [... Alright Kralluf. Access code is... Gold. Gold. Silver. Copper. Onyx. Gold. Iron. Iron. Onyx. Opal. Window of opportunity is at... fifty two seconds.]
Kralluf inputted a series of keystrokes at the MEM device's terminal and sighed in pain. "Aaaaaand that's done with. Ow, fuck."
[Now that we got that out of your way, what is the extent of your injuries?] Ralkan asked.
"I got chewed up by the razor fiend. But I killed it right back when it thought it killed me." Kralluf shot his energy pistol at the queen trying to get into the command center again.
[I hear weapons fire... Kralluf, are you still engaged with the zerg?!] Ralkan yelled.
"A caretaker is trying to kill me. Her fat ass seems to be slower off the purple ground stuff." After that sentence, Kralluf was whisked away someplace else, thanks to the activation of the MEM device he was sitting on.
[Dammit Kralluf! These things are smart! You should have told me that they were there, or I would have messaged you the code sooner! ... Kralluf? Kralluf! Kralluf, are you there?]
A queen's trill answered back.
[DAMMIT KRALLUF!] And with that, the call was disconnected.
"Shadow location?" Kay asked no one in particular. He was currently sitting crisscrossed on the creep, looking at Empire Capitol in the distance. He had returned from his meeting with Kragnon and had ended up watching the ultralisk fighting Kralluf's desert platform. Thanks to the assistance of a queen, another ultralisk, a few mutalisks, and a single viper, Kralluf's hunting party managed to kill the wounded ultralisk they were tracking, but at a heavy cost. Even Kralluf was greatly wounded in the end, and ended up retreating from his own desert platform. Kay sighed when the battle finally concluded, but new questions had spurred his brain into trying to think of what their answers were.
Virid shook her head. "It seems important. However, we have no idea what this 'shadow location' is, so we can't draw conclusions just yet."
Kay grunted as he got up, stretching his legs and arms. "Well, you're not wrong. Though I can't help but be curious about it."
Virid rolled her eyes. "Since this distraction has been rectified, we should focus our attention to more important matters. Our creep has spread far. Should we lengthen our tactical pause even further?"
Kay shook his head. "I think we have waited long enough. The dawn is going to cause us problems if we procrastinate any longer." Kay took a few steps forward before thrusting his hand toward the awaiting capitol. "FIRST WAVE, CHARGE!"
And with that, the zerg initiated their attack on Empire Capitol.
The guards stationed at Empire Capitol were assisted with more men, which consisted of many Crescent Arms soldiers and Torus Chain guards that had gained some experience fighting the zerg forces from previous engagements. Anti-riot bots lined the outside, top, and inside of the city's wall. Several magic wall projectors were placed at the front of the major gates that led past the wall, and several more automated turrets were placed at the front and on the sides of the gate. Heavier man-operated turrets were also installed on the sides of the wall itself, which were instructed to focus-fire on any large threats that would threaten to destroy the capitol's defenses. Anti-air turrets were installed on the inside of the wall, and several artillery cannons were put in place behind them. A hundred or so desert platforms have been created, and were quickly populated by soldiers that operated them. Dune boats populated the outside and inside of the city, and combat fliers buzzed hurriedly around in the airspace that belonged to them. There was a strange machine that was at the center of the city, however, which appeared to be the last of the assistance that Pallax would lend.
It resembled a large octahedronal structure with large cannons, large turrets, and several large anti-gravity thrusters that kept the massive machine afloat. Its tips seemed to glow with a red light, and several large golden rings, with a line of red going through their middles, orbited around the scarlet luminescent points. Both Kay and Virid had no idea what this floating machine does, but its largeness has given it an intimidating look. If there was one significant detail that was stressed to be pointed out about the large machine, it was its apparent largeness. The machine seemed to be five hundred meters tall and four hundred and fifty meters wide, with each of the rings appearing to be either fifteen or twenty meters in diameter, but it was hard to tell since they seemed to shrink and grow in size constantly. Whatever it was, the Golden Star Empire's guards and soldiers called it... The Pinnacle Superior.
With their forces amassed, the empire gilanians felt well protected. But they had seriously underestimated the numbers of the zerg.
The first force that came were the zerglings, since they were the fastest out of all the zerg ground strains. The automated turrets, heavy piloted turrets, and artillery installations quickly killed several scores of zerglings once they came into their range. The zerglings quickly perished, but each one that had died was quickly replaced by another, and they succeeded in rapidly gaining scant inches of ground after every death. But their progress had stopped when they neared the anti-riot bots. Kay felt like he would call them 'anti-rioters', since he thought using 'bots' at the end of their name might be redundant.
The anti-rioters fired our their ranged weapons, which were nothing more but precision rifles that had the capacity to injure a runaway criminal, or take down a serious target that was slated for lethal termination. When the zerglings got closer, the chest plates of the anti-rioters opened up, revealing some kind of electrically arcing battery. This arcing battery then produced a rapid jolt of electricity that launched and stunned several zerglings. The automated turrets, and the anti-rioters, were then able to exterminate the electrocuted zerg forces at their leisure. But the zerglings were not deterred for long, and they continued to rush at the wall with careless abandon.
Dune boats ran over zergling after zergling, its various turrets firing off at any nearby zerg organism that dared get too close to them. Despite their heavy trapezoidal frame, and several turret emplacements, they were the first casualties, and they were surrounded by countless zerglings. The armor of the dune boats were peeling off by the collective swarm's efforts until the driver and turret operators inside the vehicles were exposed. They met their death with screams, followed by messy lacerations and severed limbs.
The roaches and hydralisks came into play next, followed by the mutalisks overhead. The roaches took the brunt of the damage of the automated turrets, and burrowed into the ground to retreat and restore their health. Many automated turrets and anti-rioters had suffered under the painful burn of the roaches' acidic spittle, and many of the defenses melted as a result. The hydralisks, on the other hand, were barely just out of range of the automated turrets and the anti-rioters, and they added their contribution to whittling the gilanian defenses further.
The mutalisks flew overhead, attempting to provide even more of a cluster-fuck to the battle. However, the anti-air automated turrets shot down these enemies, dropping them out of the sky before they had a chance to unleash their glaive wurms. With the airspace well defended, the mutalisks were unable to provide much to the fight, so they were held back until the anti-air was dealt with. Besides, they were merely performing a flyby to test the air defenses. They held off their attack until a window of opportunity presented itself.
But there were three other strains that were unflappably useful in this conflict. The infestors, the blightbringers, the swarm hosts, and the brood lords. The infestors and blightbringers unleashed their eggs, creating infested gilanians with the new aberration additions to their biological armaments. As of now, their left hands, or right hands, were mostly unaffected by the changes of the zerg's hyper-evolutionary virus. Instead, these gilanians were modified to carry firearms into battle, ranging from pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, machine guns, and various other ranged weapons that required one hand to pull the trigger and fire. Their other arms still had the venom-propelled, compacted-fang launchers, with dangerously clawed hands that could maim in close quarters combat. It increased their damage-per-second ratio by single digit percentages, sometimes double digit percentages depending on the weapon they carried, and it was an edge that was needed in this fight.
The hydralisks and infested gilanians may focus on the errant surveillance hover-drones and tiny spy fliers that tried to fly over the zerg forces, but they were indispensable as a force that can attack both land and air units. The infested gilanians could risk getting mulched, while the hydralisks could stay back behind the expendable and sacrificial pawns.
The locusts came in droves, but they were limited in attacking only ground bound enemies once they swooped to the ground. Theoretically, they could use pressurized glands that could launch acidic spittle to attack both land and air targets, but that was just a pipe dream to Kay. It couldn't hurt to ask Corvurn to try and find a way to implement this. Or perhaps find a way to quicken their incubation to make the locusts spawn faster? A good idea. They were as free to produce as the infestors' infested, and the swarm hosts stayed behind the line of infestors, hydralisks, and roaches, adding to the hording swarm of the zerg organisms. The locusts that flew in the air would be used to focus on enemy air units. But the line was still unbroken, since the combined efforts of the automated turrets and the anti-rioters managed to stall the incoming swarm of zerg, despite the occasional destruction of an anti-rioter or an automated turret here and there. As more and more zerg were gunned down and killed, a wall of dead zerg flesh began to form, and the zerg organisms tried to swim through, or walk over, the hill of corpses that grew in size over time. Alas, the defenders were unprepared for the zerg's next strains to be included into the fight.
[NEW CONTACT! NEW CONTACT! PREPARE THE ANTI-AIR DEFENSES!] [It's too far from their effective range. Our shots will have a high chance of missing.] [It's launching something at our defenses at high speed!] [Say again?] [It's launching some... gliding things. They're attacking our anti-riot bots!]
The brood lords came into play, changing the flow of battle to the Swarm's favor. The broodlings it sent were able to fight the anti-rioters at close quarters. Many of the robots did release their arcing payload at their new enemies at the same time, but more broodlings were still being sent onto them. Many of the anti-rioters didn't have a chance to unleash a second electric stun attack before they were dismantled and destroyed. With more targets to focus on, the automated turrets fired at the broodlings. It gave a chance for the roaches and hydralisks to destroy many of the turrets and anti-rioters positioned on the outside wall.
[These jag zerg are destroying or front-most defenses! Commander Ralkan, what are our orders?!]
Ralkan's sigh was heard. [Issue artillery strikes outside the city walls, and try not to hit our own defenses. If you get new artillery installations set up, have them start firing as well. I order you to fire at will, and fire rapidly. You have my permission to use napalm rounds on the enemy.]
[Yes sir!]
After that order was carried out, things changed greatly for the zerg. The ground was covered by great swaths of chemical fire that singed and cooked its targets. Many zerglings suffered and were weakened by the flames, only to be terminated quickly by the automated turrets, and a few gilanian soldiers and guards that joined in on the fight. The desert platforms and installed artillery stations fired napalm round after napalm round at the ground outside the wall. Many zerg organisms, mainly the zerglings, infested gilanians, and the locusts, suffered greatly in their approach to the wall of Empire Capitol. Still, the broodlings were sent at the wall, one after another, mostly bypassing the napalmed ground. Bodies piled up more and more, resulting in an inferno that barbecued large hills of flesh that mixed with the smell of chemicals.
[Watch your fire, artillery teams! Your payloads are landing a little too close to the wall!] [Acknowledged. Readjusting aim.] [Many of our automated turrets are overheating, and many of our anti-riot bots are down and out of commission. I predict the jag zerg are going to bypass our wall's defenses within an hour at this rate.]
[Commander Pallax.] Ralkan's voice sounded through the radio. [May I recommend that now is the time to unleash your war machine?]
A sigh was heard on the other end. [Very well. Activating Pinnacle Superior's long range armaments. Warn the men to get off of the wall in twenty seconds starting now. Loading particle warheads in missile and shell projectiles. Firing in fifteen.]
After twenty seconds of time passed, the golden war machine launched several missiles from its missile pods, and fired several shots from its canons. The damage that those shells had caused were horrendous. Hundreds of zerglings and other zerg strains perished when a shell impacted them, and more than a thousand were obliterated by the destruction caused from a single missile. The explosions were horrendously loud, and impressive to witness.
Kay shook his head. "Alright. I'm getting pissed."
Virid stared in awe. "That war machine is much more troublesome than I predicted. Pallax also said that it uses particle based weapons."
"So that's the kind of damage those particle missiles can deploy. It's a bit worrisome, but we can manage. I think it's time to morph plenty of spore cannons on the moon, and fire them at that gold eyesore." Kay said, almost growling. "And while we're at it, why not deploy the rest of the forces?"
"The sun hasn't come up yet. There is still time to keep sending our hordes." Virid added. "Sending in the other swarm strains shall help us take this city."
Kay nodded, thrusting a hand at the capitol. By his command, the other zerg strains that were waiting were deployed.
A rumble in the distance added to the already cacophonous war zone, and it wouldn't be long till new pieces came into play on the battlefield. The first that arrived were the high-flying zerg organisms. The vipers flew overhead the various zerg strains on the ground, protected by flocks of mutalisks and corruptors. Once the flying zerg neared the wall, they created a blinding cloud that disabled the targeting systems of the automated turrets and anti-rioters. This managed to tilt the battle to the zerg's favor considerably.
[ANOTHER NEW CONTACT! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?] [Stop screaming into the damn radio!] [Sensor equipment have been disrupted! Automated turrets and anti-riot bots are falling quickly! The wall perimeter is being taken over!]
[Dammit.] Pallax said. [The particle weapons must have agitated the zerg enough for these new monsters to come out. I don't have enough warheads for the whole swarm, and I brought the maximum amount that Pinnacle Superior could carry. I'll have no choice but to switch to high-mass shells and kinetic missiles soon.]
[General Pallax, this is Commander Ralkan. If things get too difficult for you, I request that you exfiltrate the area and retreat to a safer location.] Ralkan urged.
[I'm controlling Pinnacle Superior from a safe location, Ralkan. Remote control technology is not exactly that hard to operate. Especially since you use that tech all the time.] Pallax stated.
[Uh... Yes general, sir.] Ralkan replied sheepishly.
[I have also gained recent information that Commander Kralluf has fought with one of the new organisms and has returned with significant injuries. Since he has made the discovery of these creatures, he has proclaimed the name of these monster 'cloud lickers'. And, as per usual, Faddoh is bitching about not discovering the species first. But in light of recent events, a new organism has appeared on your doorstep, so it's up to you to name them.] Pallax said.
There was a pause. [... I suppose I'll call the littler organisms 'scratchers', and the flying things 'scratch launchers'.] Ralkan suggested.
[Good names. I'll transfer this information to Faddoh. Oh, and Commander Ralkan?]
[Yes sir?]
[I'll provide as much support with Pinnacle Superior for as long as I can. If it can't protect this city, you're on your own.]
[... I'll see what I can do, sir.]
Once the conversation between Ralkan and Pallax ended, spores rained down from the sky and struck the golden octahedron heavily. Each blow pushed the war machine to the ground and made heavy dents into the golden metal, destroying a golden ring in the attack. [... What? Pinnacle Superior is registering damage. Ralkan, can you confirm the attacker?] Pallax ordered.
There was a pause. [... I see... green blobs falling out of the sky. I don't see any zerg organisms producing the attack, sir!]
[... What kind of new madness is this?!] Pallax shouted aloud in rhetoric.
The remaining rings hovered over the octahedron shaped machine and emitted a translucent, static surface. Once the rings projected a magic wall above the Pinnacle Superior, the spores launched from the spore cannons on the moon were rendered ineffective. But most of its many cannons and missile launchers suffered damage to the point of making them inoperable. The Pinnacle Superior was now damaged and weakened, and began firing ammunition to lesser effect and at a lessened rate of fire.
The ultralisks and banelings were summoned in, and they were demolishing the wall that was in the zerg swarm's way. The banelings would create a tunnel of acid through the wall, enabling the smaller organisms to pass through the sizzling holes, and there were more holes being bored through the wall still. The zerglings flowed out of the acid-made holes with savage intent. The automated turrets set up on the inner side of the wall made short work of the zerglings, but more kept coming through newly erupted entrances. But the ultralisks, true to their professions of being siege-breakers, cut into the giant thirty meter tall wall with their Kaiser blades. The banelings weakened the structure of the massive wall, whilst the ultralisks broke through and absorbed the damage of the defenders that tried fending them away. With the combination of the blinding clouds, provided by the vipers, and the corruptors coming into the mix to caustically spray on any mobile structure, or attack any flying and/or massive units near their airspace, proved to be a truly dangerous combination for all empire gilanians. Nevertheless, the zerg would become a troublesome force, especially if they reached the golden war machine.
A few vipers used their unusually long tongues to pull a desert platform closer to the fight, jolting everyone from their positions. [FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK AAAH! *static*] [Did those flying things pluck a desert platform off of the ground?!] [Dammit! Be advised, everyone! The new flying organism identified as 'cloud lickers' can lift an entire desert platform from its current position and bring it to a different location!] [WAGH- *static*] [So they make clouds and lick their targets to death. Cloud lickers, everyone.] [Cut the damn chatter and send in the anti-air fliers!]
The anti-air combat fliers had been pulled back simply because of the hydralisk spines would have shot them out of the sky, but they flew toward the incoming enemies that had already breached the city's airspace. However, they were not only brought down by the hydralisks' spines, but also by the mutalisks' glaive wurms and the corruptors' parasite spores. Even the vipers provided air support by launching parasitic bombs at unfortunate groups of fliers, damaging clumped air units that wore down their defenses, and even destroyed them when it was too late for them to notice.
[Anti-air is ineffective! Permission to sound the retreat, commander?!]
Ralkan grumbled through the radio. [Fine. You retreat while I maintain position here. Pallax, you have the war machine. Please use it, sir.]
Pallax huffed. [Acknowledged.]
The zerglings swarmed in from everywhere, and they seemed to do the most damage than any other zerg strain. The soldiers and guards manned their positions faithfully, but they were overrun by the claws and teeth of the zerglings. They didn't even had the chance to evacuate! Artillery installations became quiet when the swarm visited them, and they were eventually toppled over by the ensuing infestation and chaos. Strangely, the cylindrical buildings were protected by magic wall technology that prevented the zerglings from tearing an entrance into them. Kay would have liked to know what was inside of them, but he'll have to figure that out later. Besides, the ultralisks were busy with something else. Destroying the wall that kept much of the zerg outside of the capitol.
Once the wall was sufficiently destroyed, the zerg focused on the last problem that was in the vicinity. The war machine, Pinnacle Superior. Since it was off the ground, many of the ground-bound zerg strains were unable to fight the floating machine in melee combat. But anti-air was not an obstacle for the zerg.
Hydralisks began moving into the area and started firing their spines at the floating machine. [War machine, Pinnacle Superior, has made contact with the enemy. Engaging.] The machine responded by emitting lasers from its bright red points and golden rings. These lasers worked similarly to the energy pistols wielded by the high ranked officers, but were more overcharged than the advance firearms. The instant these lasers touched a hydralisk, they vanished in a flash of light and dust. After a few seconds of zipping from one target to another, the lasers adapted to sweep across the lines of hydralisks in quick circular motions. It still had five rings at its disposal, and one of them were committed to emit a magic wall above the Pinnacle Superior, blocking the spore bombardment.
Though such an attack prevented the hydralisks from getting too close to the golden eyesore, the mutalisks and corruptors came into the mix and changed that. The mutalisks fired glaive wurms from their ovipositors, but the worms and the mutalisks were quickly struck down by the lasers emitted from the points of the giant golden octahedron. The Pinnacle Superior started suffering major damage when the corruptors flew close, their parasite spores boring deep holes into the massive, floating machine at worrying speeds. And to make matters worse, the hydralisks were getting close enough to launch their needle spines again when another ring was blown to pieces. [Slayers are more troublesome than I thought. Thinning the herd.]
To try and counteract this, the war machine known as Pinnacle Superior fired several shells and missiles onto the immediate area, reducing the zerg population by several hundreds. Two rings floated to the floor and danced on top of one another, each ring emitting four lasers that shot out in four separate directions. The lasers became hard to dodge, and many zerg forces that were horizontal to the ground fell by many hundreds more, escalating to a thousand an more. It was an anti-infantry attack that had the bonus of killing and destroying many ground assets, and it devastated the incoming zerg.
But two thin tendrils shot out of the ground and stabbed into these two rings, making them stop. They then faced upward and started twirling rapidly, like they were coins spinning on a flat surface. The two rings then emitted four lasers each and fired straight above, hitting the anti-air rings and striking the magic wall projecting rings. After that, the bombarding spores, launched by the spore cannons on the moon rained down on Pinnacle Superior unimpeded and continued damaging it further. [Dammit! Spawners are overriding two of my annulus nodes. Destruction of the Pinnacle Superior is imminent. Sorry Ralkan. You're on you own from here on out.]
Once the remaining golden rings were sliced in half, and the underside of the golden war machine was attacked by its own weapons, the great machine suffered greater damage at a highly accelerated rate. Once sufficient damage was applied to the floating war machine, the Pinnacle Superior abruptly fell from the sky and landed hard on the ground, splitting into wreckage and spilling ruined parts everywhere. Spores continued to hit the junk pile that was once the Pinnacle Superior, and it was a minute later that the bombardment finally stopped. Spore-covered broken machine parts dotted the area where the war machine used to be, and the zerg organisms sifted through the wreckage to find survivors to prey on. Sadly, there were none, but the destruction of the powerful anti-siege unit was assured.
Once the battle was over, the creep, queens, and overlords quickly entered into the area. Once the queens helped in depositing their creep tumors, the overlords picked them up and transported them to areas further into the city. Once the overlords traveled a sufficient distance, they deposited queens, drones, and creep, while the queens deposited their creep tumors, overlords already providing them a place to place their creep tumors on. Once the queens deposited their creep tumors, they re-entered the overlords they were traveling in and went on their way to areas further into the city. This was the most efficient method to spread creep, and the city's massive inner grounds would be covered in it half an hour later.
But by then, the sun would start its rise above the horizon and expose the zerg to a dangerous attack they had no protection against on the surface.
But to counteract this, selected overlords carried queens and drones away from the destroyed city and flew off in separate directions. Truly, the zerg were monsters that cannot be permanently contained. Especially now, since the queens would help field more hatchery clusters and new nydus networks, helping to connect the swarm to new territories and spread their forces. This would be a war that Gollog's Golden Star empire would never win.
A minute later, with the overlords already leaving for new territories to infest, a new type of threat appeared and arrived from the north. The overlord managed to get a good look at this new force before it was destroyed in a hailstorm of energy emitted attacks. Two meter tall humanoid robots on digitigrade legs, with chromatic angular metal surfaces, and with eyes that blinked red, strode forward with slow machine movements and robotic determination. Half an hour from now, they would reach Empire Capitol if their progress was unimpeded. They looked like an endless army, their shiny metal surfaces seen from several kilometers away from the overlord's perspective. Once they saw the overlord over themselves, they aimed their hands at it. [Target detected. Annihilating.]
Minutes later, a small contingent of forty zerglings met up with the approaching robots. All of the zerglings vanished when the energy weapons were fired at them, but three or so zerglings managed to attack and damage the front-most row of chrome robots. [Targets detected. Annihilating.] said the robots before the zerglings were dealt with.
After that, more zerglings, joined by mutalisks, were sent after the approaching robot army. [Targets detected. Annihilating.] Beams of energy was casted in several directions, instantly killing zerg organisms in scant milliseconds of sustained fire. Yet this did not deter the zerg, or the approaching robots that kept walking forward. Row after row of the chrome robots fell under the combined efforts of mutalisks and zerglings. But still, the chrome robots kept marching forward, and they continued to gain ground.
But when the roaches, hydralisks, and brood lords entered the fray, the chrome robots began to lose ground quickly. Even the zerglings started holding their forces back since the broodlings were less costly to produce than they were. This battle went on for half a minute before the chrome robots began to change their strategy. [Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy. ... Analysis complete. Adjusting strategy.]
The first ten rows of robots crouched down and duck-walked forward, enabling the firing squad behind themselves to direct their fire at the forces ahead. They aimed their weapons at the brood lords in the sky, and the brood lords retreated to safer distances, yet some did perish. The chrome machines kept on in their march, and they proceeded forward. If a squatted robot was disabled or destroyed, a robot eleven rows down, or more, would mimic the robots in front of it. Whatever these robots were, they happened to be dangerous and adaptive.
But could they out-adapt the zerg?
Ravagers, lurkers and banelings came into play next, and they unleashed their destructive attacks on their new metal enemies. The lurkers' subterranean spines shot from the ground and impaled a line of chrome robots, whilst the ravagers' corrosive bile splashed and damaged, destroyed and disabled several at once. They were even assaulted by the banelings that rolled into them, melting several of the new metal enemies.
[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy. ... Analysis complete. Modifying equipment. Adjusting strategy.] The chrome robots paused before stepping forward, and they began targeting the burrowed lurkers and banelings, and focused their fire on the ravagers. The army of chromatic robots slowed in their progress, but they adapted their zerg killing capabilities to strike at burrowed zerg. The chrome machines continued forward, but at half their normal speed.
Several nydus worms erupted behind the zerg lines, and several ultralisks and queens emerged from the mouths of the emerged nydus worms. The ultralisks roared in anger and stomped forward, meeting the chrome robots in combat. Each swipe of the ultralisks' devastating Kaiser blades slew several scores of the chrome machines, and the queens provided quick healing to the ultralisks, or would send acidic spines at any chrome foe that got too close to them. The line of chrome robots receded heavily very quickly, and the zerg were beating the chrome forces back. Ultralisk hide was tough, and the queens that healed the ultralisks switched partners every now and then to keep the siege-breakers consistently healthy.
[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy. ... Analysis complete. Deficient unit formation. Modifying equipment. Adjusting strategy.] Several of the chrome robots rose out from their ranks and flew in the sky, the sounds of tiny turbine engines emitting from their feet as jets of flame billowed out from them. They formed a loose wall formation of flying chrome bots and they fired down on the ultralisks and any zerg organism in the sky. Despite the fact the tactic limited the anti-air capabilities of the robots behind this wall formation, the loose nature of this flying vertical wall formation enabled them to attack enemies on the ground more liberally.
But the zerg had the means to fight air units. The corruptors flew in to savagely attack the airborne chrome machines, and they fell quite quickly. But once the chrome machines focus-fired on the corruptors as well, a change of strategy was desired by Kay and Virid's brood. Vipers came into the battle and unleashed their parasitic bombs on the amassed floating walls made of chrome robots, whilst also unleashing their blinding clouds on the ground forces. The flying robot walls quickly fell, and another wall of chrome robots were quickly formed three seconds later, only for that newly-made flying wall to fall from the lingering effects of the parasitic bombs. The blinding clouds also helped to obscure the ground force's vision and detection capabilities, limiting their means to attack their zerg foes.
[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy. ... Analysis complete. Deficient unit formation. Deficient unit composition. Upgrades required. Requesting additional assets. Unable to advance with current composition.]
And that was when the sun attacked.
Or to be more accurate, the sun had emitted that same smiting attack that Gollog had summoned on several occasions before.
[Unknown annihilation detected. Unknown method. Analyzing method... Analysis incomplete. Sending Kiln Keeper variant: Intelligent Automaton, for analysis.]
The line of ultralisks, queens, and several other zerg organisms had perished in a span of time that was only seconds long. The smiting laser continued on its warpath as it vaporized the zerg army. The laser didn't intrude onto the city grounds of Empire Capitol, but it did continue its spreading over to the main hive cluster at Red Mountain in the span of several seconds. Thankfully, the smiting laser did not chase after the overlords or any other zerg organism that decided to fly or run away from the city this time. But the laser did seem interested in striking patches of creep infested ground that covered an area equal to 100 square meters. The zerg were now trapped within the city with no way back to their main hive clusters. At least a few drones were fortunate enough to morph into hatcheries within the wall, and several more drones were produced to morph into more hatcheries. A single hatchery evolved into a lair, and then into a hive minutes later.
As of now, the zerg within the city appeared to be isolated.
A few minutes after the destruction of Pinnacle Superior, an ultralisk used its Kaiser blades to open an entrance into the cylindrical towers, completely overpowering the magic wall technology. The zerglings, roaches, hydralisks, changelisks, and a few queens and drones filtered into the new entrances to take a look inside. What they found surprised them.
The upper sections of these facilities contained many barracks, warehouses, and factories that specialized in creating weapons and vehicles. Five floors down past the base level of the first floor of these towers, the underground infrastructure opened up into lavish living conditions of grey walls, floors, and ceilings. Yellow drapes, carpets, and patterned decorative wall inlays decorated much of the inside of this structure. It had a similar design of a fancy, lived-in mansion, bearing the colors of the Torus Chain division.
More floors down, and the lavish turned into something more mundane. Many of the floors below the lavish mansion section consisted greatly of an underground city. The upper floors had lesser lavish designs to them, which was mainly where the aristocracy and the rich lived. Further down, the middle class lived in cubical enclosures that once had gilanians living in them. Several underground parks, hydroponic farms, and perpetual motion generators were kept in great condition till they were subsequently abandoned. Below the middle class sections of this underground city resided the slums. Sewage treatment, corpse processing, and drug manufacturing facilities were located here, and many of the living conditions this far down in the underground city structure were either deteriorating or deteriorated. Several tents and makeshift huts were placed wherever there was available ground, and sometimes there were tents on top of tents. It was an eerie sight.
A skitter of life happened across the corner of one of the zerglings' eyes, and the surrounding zerglings gave chase. Passing through several tented areas, the zerglings chased down their skittering and unknown quarry, cornered a short creature to a wall, and got close enough to see what they were chasing.
A small gilanian child in brown rags and a tattered scarf was backed against a wall, holding a metal pipe in front of itself. It was with an elderly gilanian that was missing an arm and part of his face, also dressed in brown rags. The old gilanian was pushing a cart with various parts and pieces contained in its basket, and it suggested that he and the child had been looting the empty houses and nearby tents. The child waved its pipe in a threatening manner. "Stay back! Back! Go away!"
"Paug, be careful. I have no knowledge of these beasts!" The elderly gilanian said in a raspy tone.
"First, it was dwarf shryik serpents, then it was that damned curfew, and after that it was the evacuation, and now we got monsters we don't even know about looking like they want to eat us. I think we're past the threshold of being careful, old man."
"If I still had my good slapping hand, and didn't have my arthritis, I'd bend you over my knee, young Missy!"
"... Well, they seem to be keeping back. But for how long?"
"I can find out for you, if you leave me behind."
"Fat chance, old man. You helped me hatch in this world. I think it's only fair I die by my foster guardian's side."
A changelisk slithered through the gathered zerglings, stopped in front of the two gilanians, and looked at the both of them. The two gilanians inspected the new creature curiously, but also with frightened apprehension and caution. It was then that the changelisk changed into the form of a fancy purple and green suited gilanian. To the further surprise of both the gilanians, the shapeshifter spoke to them. "I do apologize for disturbing you. We were just in the middle of trying to find a certain commander in this abandoned city. Perhaps you can direct us to where we can find him? He goes by the name of Ralkan, and my masters wants him either dead, or infested." He said with a friendly smile.
"I... Uh... Eh... What?" The child replied dumbly.
The old gilanian walked forward and pointed at the fake gilanian. "Who are you?"
The disguised changelisk sighed. "Oh dear oh dear, I am sorry for not introducing myself. Uh... Oh, how embarrassing! I don't even have a name prepared! Lets see uh..." the changelisk looked around to inspect his surroundings. "We're near some tents. Looks like they're made of cotton. Could Mister Cotton be a good name for me? Hmm... No. Sounds too simple. Uh... Mister Hobo? Ooh, that sounds way too simple too, and rather degrading. Dear oh dear um... Oh!" The changelisk clapped his hands together. "How about you call me Mister Shifter! Sounds good? I think it does. Sometimes, you have to think outside the box to get the ideas you need!"
The gilanians stared at Mister Shifter. The elder gilanian shook his head. "Let me restate my question. WHAT are you?"
Shifter smiled. "Alien. Specifically, a conglomerate species that is known collectively as 'the Zerg Swarm'. I am part of the Swarm, these zerglings you see besides me are part of the swarm, and anything that looks beige, violet, forest green, and could eat your face as a snack, would potentially be a zerg swarm organism!" Mister Shifter directed toward himself. "I am what is known as a changelisk. I change into different forms to suite my needs and the needs of my masters. How do you do?" Mister Shifter said, bowing.
The two gilanians blinked. The child gilanian turned toward the elder. "Is this fruit cup for real?"
"PAUG!" The elderly man shouted. The child retreated back. After giving the little lass a stern glare, the elderly man came forward. "I must apologize for my adopted daughter. She sometimes forgets her manners. To answer your question, we were doing fine until the evacuation was put in effect. We didn't have enough vouchers to buy our way out, so we resorted to looting the empty houses. Hopefully, we can find a MEM device that can transport us once we gather enough marketable items. I have no name, since I was born without a father, or male parental figure that watched me hatch from my egg. But I do go by the nickname of Old Man Oldie."
"Hmm!" Mister shifter said, putting a hand to his chin. "I suppose you are not a threat to our brood. But then again, I have no choice but to ask. Are you loyal to Gollog and his empire?"
"Fuck that guy!" Paug shouted.
Oldie stared at Paug with a threatening glare. He then turned back to Shifter. "I'm afraid I must share in the little miss's opinion. ... Even if it's not the kind of language that children at such an age should speak."
Shifter nodded with a smile. "Good answer. I suppose I wouldn't need to kill you both then."
Oldie sighed with tiredness. "Well uh... I thank you for sparing us then, Mister Shifter. You say that you are trying to find Commander Ralkan?"
Shifter walked up to Oldie with excited eyes and a great grin. "You know where he can be found?! Please tell me! Tell me tell me tell me please! Please tell me, so we can kill all empire gilanians in our wake!"
Oldie held up a hand. "Please calm down, sir! I'll tell you! I have reason to believe that he's at the lowest part of Empire Capitol. Heard rumors among the homeless that there is a tough impenetrable bunker underneath the lowest part of the slums. The bunker looks like a giant black ball. I'm not sure if it rolls around or not, but that could be just speculation. It's also where the impaired ghetto is, and there is a lot of starving and disabled gilanians down there."
Shifter nodded and shook Oldie's hand. "You have our unending gratitude. Thank you so much! In return of your kindness, perhaps you would like zergling bodyguards? I can offer a couple to you now, if you like?"
Oldie shook his head and retracted his hand. "Er, no no no. I think we shouldn't bring them with us. They'll attract too much attention otherwise. Anyway, we should be on our way. I heard that Citadel Gargantua is one of the few cities that Gollog hasn't tainted yet, so me and Paug are going there."
Shifter tilted his head and smiled. "Is that so? Coincidentally, I know a friend that's there. He and his lady friend can give you a nice place to stay, if you let them. All you have to do is ask around for a 'Johnny', and you'll be set."
Oldie paused before nodding. "I'll consider it, Shifter. Thank you. Let's go, Paug."
Shifter nodded again. "Very good! Run along then!"
Paug nodded at Oldie and turned to Shifter. "Mister shifty, please be careful with the tards, junkies and hobos."
"PAUG!" Old Man Oldie shouted at the little lass.
"SHADDAP!" Paug said, yelling back at her parental guardian. She turned back to Mister Shifter. "Some are good, but many won't take kindly to your zergy thingies."
Shifter neared Paug and knelt down, patting her head. "How about this: the zerg will only kill the ones that are bad, evil, and violent. Does that sound better?"
Paug shook her head. "Killing is bad, no matter how you word it. Just don't let someone from a gilanitarian rights organization hear what you did, or what you said out loud. Buh-bye!"
And with that, the duo left the changelisk and the zerglings to their own devices. Mister shifter reverted back to his changelisk form and slithered away, followed after by several zerglings.
Further down the levels, access to different floors or areas became very deteriorated, and signs of activity became more deplorable. Leaky pipes from above drizzled down to the lower levels, and disrepair was heavily abundant in the lowest levels. Much of the cubical rooms were much smaller, and many of them were boarded up. Inside of almost all of them contained rotting furniture, rooms that fell in due to infrastructural failure, or were simply filled to the brim with so much trash.
A drug abuser was seen lazing about, a blazed look on his face as his mouth congealed foam, leaning on a wall that had graffiti that was a gang sign of a drug house. A set of empty, unlabeled pill bottles littered the floor, and his shirt looked like it was often used as a bib to keep his drool from overflowing. The zerg stepped over, or in the hydralisks' case, slithered over, the junkie without a problem. The drug addict finally decided to relieve himself of urine and then slumped to his side, falling asleep right then and there. The smell was terrible, but the zerg payed no attention to the detail. In fact, they continued to ignore the junkie.
"Gabban?" Someone was wandering in the ruined halls of some nursery. "Pwij?" The zerglings entered into the dilapidated children's center and saw a teenager with a severed arm in one of his hands." Gabban?" His rags were bloodied, but he didn't seem injured. "Pwij?" Once the gilanian turned and saw the zerglings down the hall, he stopped. When one of the zerglings took a step forward, the teenager started running in the opposite direction. "GABBAN! PWIJ! GABBAN! PWIJ! GABBAN! PWIJ! GABBAN! PWIJ!" the teenager gilanian quickly disappeared from sight, never to be seen again.
Another gilanian was seen in a local shelter, which had seen better days. The food pantry was cleaned ages ago, and the gilanian that inhabited it looked fat and sick. He carried brown rags as his clothes, had several items on the floor next to him, and had a tall machine that connected his chest with several medical tubes embedded at his side that pumped something into him. He was tending a cooking fire, roasting a severed gilanian arm that was stuck onto a spit. However, when he saw the zerglings and other zerg organisms coming into the shelter to investigate the aroma of barbecue, the fat gilanian stood up and backed away from them. He tripped on the machine that was next to him, and fell over. He tried to crawl away, but a heart attack stopped his attempt at escape once the machine fell down and broke. The zerglings poked at his body a few times before taking a small bite of his flesh. After ten seconds of inactivity from the corpse, the zerglings decided that the dead body was safe to eat. It would be the last time the soup kitchen would house hungry patrons.
Further down into the dilapidated hellhole, a queen was laying her tumors down to enable quicker transport of the zerg organisms. They finally found a patch of dirt that was exposed, letting a nydus worm obtain that spot of ground around a minute later. A hatchery was morphed, and some spine and spore crawler organisms were morphed to defend the hatchery. But the prize was finally found, as a giant black sphere was located at the bottom-most part of the city. Feces and trash lined the lowest floor of the city, and sometimes odd, half-eaten gilanian corpses dotted the ground. It was a graveyard of the forgotten, and the hopeless.
But the zerg had found the bunker, and it would be put to the test to see how impenetrable it actually was.
Zerglings claw and bit onto the surface of the huge spherical shaped thing frantically. Their claws almost did next to nothing except make small dents. The roaches fared better, especially when they concentrated on a single spot. The black surface eventually gave way to raw metal that bubbled silver and orange. After sustained fire for several minutes, and helpful scratches from a zergling on a couple occasions, a hole was bore through the three meter thick metal. The air was heavily polluted with a metallic smell, but the zerglings filed through when the sizzle and bubble of metal quickly stopped.
The bunker was fashioned similarly to the mansion-like floors, to the rooms that were five floors below the military levels. Grey walls with yellow glyphs and patterns were found inside of the bunker, and music could be heard emanating from the inside. Following the musical notes, the zerglings sneaked their way inside and silently looked for the source. Sure enough, they found Commander Ralkan leaning onto a music playing device. The tone of the music was sad, but bombastic. One of the zerglings growled.
Commander Ralkan looked up at the zerg forces with a glazed look in his eyes. He then looked back at the music device, apparently disinterested of the zerg that barged into his bunker. A changelisk crawled forward and assumed the disguise of a carapaced, bone-winged form that belonged to Kay. Not-Kay walked forward and stopped, now more than a meter away from Ralkan, and crossed his arms. "Finally found you. Did you know that your city is messy as fuck?"
Ralkan immediately reached for something close to him and threw a glass mug at Kay. It had hit Kay on his shoulder, making his arm appear to be heavily lopsided and stretched like silly putty. "I DON'T FUCKING CARE! LEAVE ME ALONE!"
Not-Kay positioned his arm back in place. "I can't do that. Not yet anyway. Not until you, Gollog, and everyone that is loyal to Gollog's empire has been punished for attacking me and my brood."
Ralkan panted, then turned back and continued leaning on his music-making machine. "Why go through the effort? Gollog can't be killed anyway. Believe me, many people tried."
"If I can't take his life," Not-Kay said with a predatory grin. "then I will settle for everything else he has."
Ralkan sighed. "If you could accomplish that, then you truly will be left alone on this world with the immortal. If the Kiln Keepers can't vanquish you, then the world will be destroyed."
Not-Kay nodded. "Quick question about the Kiln Keepers, Ralkan. Are they two meters tall, have chrome armor, red blinky lights for eyes, can make lasers shoot out of their hands and mouths, can fly, and are less awesome than the zerg?"
Ralkan turned to Kay with a furrowed, yet surprised expression. "... How did you know how they looked like?"
"My zerg are fighting them right now." Kay answered.
Ralkan paused, before sighing and returning his gaze to the music playing machine. "So you have came here to kill me?"
"Depends on you. Want me to wait till this song is over?" Kay asked.
Ralkan scoffed and smiled. "This song has about a minute left."
"Make the time you have remaining count for something greater than yourself." Kay said, crossing his arms. "I recommend surrendering if you want to live."
Ralkan paused for a good ten seconds before going toward his desk. He then casually picked through its contents to equip some items onto his person. After acquiring several knives and two pistols, he got his energy pistols ready and pointed them at the Not-Kay. "I was born in this city, and I will die in it. If I would be made into a corpse, then so be it. I would rather die a noble death than suffer at the hand of my master. But with that said, I have but one humble request."
"Which is?" Kay asked.
"Give Gollog hell." Ralkan said in a grim tone.
Not-Kay smiled. "That request can be granted." Kay waved his hand forward, prompting the zerg forces to attack.
A/N: Bad fanfiction idea: Rick and Morty / Xavier: Renegade Angel.