Chapter 39: Cubes of Copper
Zerglings ran into the front lines in a mass of flurried claws. The gilanian defenders had resorted to using grenades, both concussive and incendiary, but they had ran out of those thrown explosives a while ago. The roaches were dangerous in their ability to melt established defenses or circumvent vital choke points that were not sufficiently protected by a seismic sensor. And because they had hard shells that provided them extra health, and had the ability to regenerate faster while burrowed, they were indeed quite horrible for the empire soldiers to deal with. The hydralisks were the worst, since their needle spine ranged attacks could strike from longer ranges. Worse still is when the roaches provided cover for the hydralisks, enabling them to snipe at their targets with leisure.
The battle changed in favor for the zerg when the zerg combat strains started evolving. Banelings, ravagers, and lurkers were now fighting Empire City's defenders. The banelings were able to kill multiple groups of soldiers in wide splashes of acid. Since the empire soldiers did not wield power armor, their life expectancy was cut even shorter. The ravagers were able to hit tougher enemies using globs of corrosive bile, which proceeded to splash several enemies and kill them with each cast. Areas with low-hanging structures sometimes made it difficult for a ravager to attack groups of enemies, and enemies hiding under roofs were a brief pain, that is until the roofs were dissolved into nothing. The lurkers provided subterranean spines that shot out from the ground in droves, preventing dedicated platoons from cutting into weaker zerg formations and flanking the swarm's push into the city. They were also efficient in attacking enemies that were past walls or obstructions, thanks to their targets being triangulated by another zerg organism that were either hiding in the ground or behind a corner.
The battle raged on like this for several minutes, and the strategies that the gilanian lieutenant, who tried to issue his orders to his troops as efficiently as he could, were readily intercepted by an eavesdropping changelisk in disguise. Established footholds that was formed by his directions were eventually overran with the march of the swarm, killing and chasing away the soldiers that failed to protect their defenses, and much of his chagrin was because of his military already making a retreat from the city. But as the zerg kept on fighting and gaining more ground, the Golden Star Empire army forces that tried to protect the city continued to fall as the strength of the swarm pushed their defenses over.
Before long, the zerg eventually came across their main goal. The cube research facility known as S-01.
Zerglings gnashed their teeth on the hastily erected chain-link fence that consisted of the divide that separated the quarantined area from the rest of the city. Commander Faddoh had took to an active role trying to eradicate the zergling epidemic within the copper cube facility, and his contribution to eradicating the containment breach within the research facility greatly assisted the culling of zerg within. The zergling population had reached an all time high of eighty four, and the inside of the research facility became a hazardous environment. But Faddoh had bolstered the morale of the soldiers issued to the task of cleansing the quarantined area, as he provided manipulation fields to halt the zerg from overcoming the teams of soldiers. Sadly, he had been too distracted to catch up with current events, and he had horribly underestimated the speed of the infestation, both inside the research facility and within the city. He completely overlooked the second wave of zerg organisms that eventually reached his facility.
Kay walked up to the chain link fence near the front entrance of this facility. It was a poor material to use, but it was efficient enough to keep civilians from breaking out. Zerg claws were able to slice through it easily. After making an entrance for himself, Kay stepped through the hole and onto the established quarantined perimeter and huffed. "Alright Faddoh, you shiny orange-ish brown tin can. Where are you?"
The soldiers firing their weapons at the gathered zerg outside the perimeter did their best to try and protect the quarantined area. When they saw Kay, one of them barked into their handheld radio. "COMMANDER FADDOH, ZERG LEADER KAY IS HERE! REPEAT, KAY IS IN THE QUARANTINED AREA!"
[Good. Send him inside.]
"... SIR?!"
[Be a good gentleman and let him inside. We have the blade hound pandemic within S-01 under control.]
"Uh... Yes sir. Uh... Excuse me! Bug-man!" The gilanian soldier called out.
Kay narrowed his gaze on the soldier. "The hell do you want?"
"Uh... Commander Faddoh wants to see you inside the facility." He answered. "... Don't kill us please."
Kay raised an eyebrow, then smirked. "... Since you are so polite, I guess I can spare you. ... But that mercy can change, so don't rest on your laurels just yet." Kay said, walking past the polite soldier, and the other defenders that backed away from Kay's presence. 'Virid, you have command of our brood. I'm going to hunt for a robot.'
'Stay cautious. Faddoh is a commander, like Ralkan and Kralluf. Expect this one to have a few tricks up his metal sleeves.' Virid replied.
Kay nodded as he continued into the building.
After walking past the frightened soldiers, not daring to attack Kay in fear of what he could do to them, Kay casually made his way into the main hallway of Research Instillation S-01. Kay remembered that the insides looked much more cleaner than before, thanks to the perspectives provided by the changelisks and zerglings that have loosed themselves in this facility. Blood from the duplicated zerglings, and blood from the soldiers tasked to contain the zerg pandemic, mixed together in messy puddles found throughout the first floor. Soldiers that looked like half-eaten corpses, and zerglings which were riddled with bullet holes, populated the halls and many of the chambers. Kay even saw a random orange coated scientist sprinting from one hallway to the next, completely covered in blood as he was chased by a limping zergling.
Kay would have asked for directions to Faddoh's office, but the comm system blared before he ever got the chance to. [Ah! The infamous Kay is here! Welcome to my facility! ... You ARE him this time, and not a doppelganger taking his place? ... You know what? That was a trick question. I know that you are the REAL Kay.]
Kay raised his eyebrow, looking up and around at the voice that was everywhere. "I uh... Didn't say that I was."
[Ah, but I did modify some of the cameras in the hallway you're currently residing in. They now use the scanning equipment parts that the scanners are also using. See, the scanners are but prototype detection devices, which happen to be cheap and easily producible machines that can be made from a simple manifestation altar. You seem to have two types of skeletons, one endo, and another exo. I wouldn't be too surprised if you also happen to have a hydrostatic skeleton within your body too, but I suppose performing a biopsy on you would reveal that answer.]
Kay frowned as he walked through the hallway, feeling the carapace scales on the back of his head prickle. "You know... I kind of wished that I had a changelisk take my place instead."
A laugh could be heard. [Ho ho ho ho~! Changelisk, doppelganger, whatever you choose to send in, it wouldn't matter! You are about as much of a guest as any other person I have invited into my home! You should feel great pangs of privilege within yourself, as you stumble in my humble halls! And to make sure nobody else intrudes into our time together, I have erected a magic wall outside and inside all sides of this facility. Even underneath the floor!]
Kay sighed as he peered around a corner, then took a turn into another hallway. "Yeah? Well I'm not too fond of a madman that has a madhouse to play with to his disposal. If I were to, let's say, be a rude guest in your research labs, what would happen?"
[A good question. If I were to be a gracious host, then I would have to show you an example of what I would do to such insalubrious guests. Feel free to make an example of yourself, and I would punish you accordingly!]
Kay scoffed. "I ain't some stupid sapsucker. I'd rather meet with you and get this over with. ... Oh, and continue trying to kill Gollog."
[You seemed to have forgotten that Gollog cannot be killed. You do realize that he is an immortal?]
"I can also settle for taking down his empire as a secondary objective." Kay said, rounding another corner and finding more bodies of zerglings and silver uniformed gilanian soldiers. There was so much death in these halls.
[Oh I don't doubt that! You antagonized Emperor Gollog with such a threat, and he is still seathing over it! So much so that he unleashed the Kiln Keepers in response to your antagonism. Though your major weaknesses are still a far flung dream from being understood, but it doesn't mean small glimmers of those dreams cannot be grasped. Enough dawdling! Lets do some experimenting! I wonder if you can sense this neural oscillator from this distance?]
A gentle ringing noise could be heard in Kay's mind. He immediately turned to look at the disturbance that was at a distance away, up two levels and through several walls. "... Is that where you are?"
[Such an immediate response from that range! I must admit, this data is quite beneficial.]
Kay ran up a couple floors and went down several passageways, eventually coming into a room that was purposed for storing old tools and materials that would be recycled at a later time. Kay saw that there was a copper robot holding up a device that looked similar to the one that was used in Rickey's company when he contained the changelisk in a modified slave cage. But Kay growled once he realized that this robot was very much different from the one that Rickey once saw. It looked thinner and with a gangling appearance, with some copper panels that were missing from its arms and abdomen. "Beneficial or not, it's annoying the hell out of me."
The copper robot's LED face lit up into a jovial smile as he fiddled with the device in his hand. "Is that so? I apologize for inconveniencing you. But even so, you must live through all forms of inconveniences when you are inside of a lab. Now then, please be patient and allow me to change the settings on my oscillator."
Kay walked up to the robot. "Actually, I wanted to meet with you so I can tell you, in person, to stop this research."
The robot shook his head and grinned, chuckling. "Ho ho ho ho ho~! Oh, but as a scientist, I must grit through every challenge and accomplish the goals I set myself out on! I have made several developments in the scientific community, and I am well known throughout the world due to my contributions! I can't simply stop this research when I have already discovered so much!"
Kay stopped in front of Faddoh, glaring at him venomously. "Even if I asked politely? What if I said 'please stop?'"
Faddoh sighed and smiled. "I regret to inform you that my answer would still be no." Faddoh said, bringing up the device to activate it again.
Before Commander Faddoh had the chance to turn it on, Kay suddenly yanked it out of Faddoh's metal grasp. "Then you give me no choice but to do this." Kay said, crushing the neural oscillator into broken parts.
Faddoh chuckled. "Choice is just an illusion for the disillusioned. It is through science that we can see the truth in things. In fact, it enables us to see the truth in ALL things."
Kay's mind started ringing again, a slightly different tone making his head feel woozy. "Gh~. You made another one?"
Faddoh nodded. "Of course I did! Why should I risk having all of the krell eggs in a single basket? I'm smart enough to know that I don't need to risk everything on a single project, when I have so many disposable robotic bodies at my disposal!"
Kay sighed, readying the sharp points of his wings. "Then forgive me as I do this to your 'disposable body.'" Kay's wings aimed straight and true into the LED face of the commander of the Cube Research Division. After pulling his sharp wings to the sides, Faddoh's robotic body was split in half from the torso. It fell back defeated, but Kay felt that this quarrel wasn't over.
[You might not be so easily forgiven, Kay.] Faddoh's voice said through the comm system. [Remember when I said I would punish you if you acted like an unruly guest within someone's home? Allow me to demonstrate!]
The walls opened up to reveal several automated turrets, numbering thirty two in total, with eight on each side wall in the room Kay was in. They all aimed down at Kay with mechanical precision, threatening to shoot down the zerg organism that dared attacked their robot master. Kay stepped back a little as he saw these weapons train their sights on him. "... Uh... Shit?"
[Shit indeed!] The automated turrets opened fire on Kay, which pelted him with several different types of ammo. One seemed to be normal bullets of moderate caliber, denting his carapace dangerously. Another type of ammo used was incendiary, which burned the left side of his leg and torso. Yet another ammo type consisted of a sticky, inflatable balls that grew in size, which did their best to immobilize him. And a fourth ammo type were cryo rounds, turning his flesh brittle, hard, and painful for a split second.
Kay leaped out of the door of the room that tried to attack him. He recuperated outside of it, standing far away from the entrance to the storage space used for equipment and recyclables. Kay shook his head and chuckled, clawing at an inflatable ball and making it pop loudly. "Fucking hell! Like I said before, you're a madman playing in his own madhouse!"
[Semantics, really. Tell me, how are you feeling right now?]
Kay shook his head to try and get rid of the grogginess in his brain. "Makes me feel more determined to try and eradicate you."
[I meant what are you PHYSICAL symptoms?]
Kay power-walked forward to where the source of that oscillating signal is coming from, which was two more floors up. "I'll show you physical." Kay said, gritting his teeth and growling.
[Then let us up the frequency and see what the results are.] Kay's mind became more blurred as he reached the location of the annoying psionic emitter, or 'neural oscillator' as Faddoh called it.
Kay crashed through the next room containing the psionic emanations, which happened to be a large restroom this time. Kay had a hard time standing up since the closeness of the frequency was effecting his equilibrium. "Grrhf... Fuck that thing, and fuck you."
Faddoh, bearing a new robotic form that looked two feet shorter than before, which had thick feet that Kay did not understand the purposes of, chuckled again. "Ho ho ho ho ho~! I'm sorry to inform you, Kay, but robots can't breed. Or attempt procreation for entertainment, for that matter. But please, describe all of your symptoms to me. I do love to acquire data from the perspective of my test subjects!"
A kinetic blast launched from Kay's mind, directed from his opened palms that were vaguely pointed toward Commander Faddoh. His vision was blurred however, which caused him to miss Faddoh an hit the restroom mirror behind the Commander, making it explode into several shards of reflective glass that flew in all directions. Faddoh was pushed forward, which resulted in an awkward, unbalanced gait that fell onto Kay. They both fell over onto the ground as a result. "Gh-! Stay still, you fucker you." Kay said, groggily.
Faddoh seemed to laugh at the explosion of psionic power and shattered mirror that pushed him forward. "Ho ho ho ho ho~! Quite interesting! I think this setting has a more inebriated effect on your mind! And speaking of matters of the mind, what was that attack just now?! I have never seen such an ability befo-"
Commander Faddoh was quieted when a fist punched through his LED face and into his chassis interior. Kay then began to pull out several wires and several ruined machine parts. After another punch was delivered to the oscillator, Kay's head cleared up in an instant. "Guh. Oh. Ah, that's better."
[As I was saying, I have never seen such an ability before! Is it some form of telekinetic attack?! A psychokinetic projectile?!] Faddoh said through the intercom system again.
Kay got up from the ground and shook his head. "Oof." Kay said, going to a sink to douse his face.
[Or... You know... Don't answer me. Here. Let me help clean you up.] Water suddenly jetted into Kay's face, making him lurch backward to avoid the sudden rush of cold fluid. The door behind himself closed shut as the restroom quickly filled with water, with even the toilets jetting more water than the sinks in the restroom. Kay shook his head again, only to realize that the water was moving past his knees.
"What the fuck?!" Kay replied as the water's level went past his chest and made him float. The air quickly vacated the restroom as it filled completely with water, trapping Kay in a restroom-shaped aquarium.
Kay was in no danger, since the zerg can easily adapt to many different kinds of environments, including under the water of many lakes and oceans. Faddoh was probably hoping to drown Kay using the flooded restroom. Kay slowly shook his head, casually swimming to the door and slashing at it with his claws and wings. An electric shock pushed him back, which made him convulse for a split second. He grunted underwater, and decided to attack the door from a distance instead. A hole formed in the door as he launched energy blasts through the water, but Kay received another shock that stopped his attack. An underwater growl emanated from Kay, frustrated as he realized that the restroom might have hidden surveillance cameras, and that the water in the room was being electrified as a means to pacify and contain Kay.
Kay readied his stance, aiming his sharp claws at the door that was in front of him. He then launched forward in a powerful strike that damaged the sealed door greatly, heavily pouncing onto the mechanism that sealed him inside, even when his own movements were greatly slowed down by the flooding water in the bathroom. After that, Kay instantly shifted and pressed himself forward using his own psionic powers, which resulted in the door bursting open from the double attack as his claws propelled forward. He struck into and through the metal door. Many gallons of water spilled from the restroom, but it couldn't contain Kay for long when he finally made his own exit. He spat out toilet water once he got back up from the flooded ground. [What marvelous strength! Not only do you have incredibly powerful muscles, but also a determined willpower. Shame that you didn't drown in the lavatory, or my job would have been so much easier.]
Kay sighed. "Getting real tired of this game of ours, Faddoh. What's it going to take to get you to realize that I, or the zerg, don't like being played with?!" he said with a low roar.
A chuckle corrupted the air. [Ho ho ho~! Oh, but I am having so much fun! I will see what kinds of combinations of oscillations will do to you, and you can be sure that I will go through several iterations to acquire the most optimal results.]
Kay started chuckling as he heard another psionic frequency tickle into his mind. "Heheheh~." He went into a jog as he followed the frequency to the next destination. "Pffahaha~." Kay traveled another two floors up, following the psionic emission to a lab filled with many vials and beakers that were filled with various fluids. "Hahahahaha~!"
Kay found Faddoh in yet another copper robot body, whose appearance looked more animal than humanoid. It was similar to a tauric gazelle that had one of its arms ruined beyond repair, and the horns were replaced with yet more arms. "Hmm. It seems as though different frequencies have different effects on your mood. Zerg organisms sure are strange!"
"Hahahahahaha~!" Kay laughed hard, having a hard time trying to get close to Faddoh. He didn't know what was funny at the moment, but he had already deduced that the cause was coming from Faddoh's oscillator.
Commander Faddoh pranced around in his animalistic form, keeping away from Kay's grasping reach. "I see that this oscillator also affects combat ability to some degree. Quite interesting!"
"Hahahaha-what you ne-heeheehehee-ed is to die! Hahahahaha~!" Kay chortled, smiling like a maniac and laughing uncontrollably. He tried to catch the galloping copper deer, but it evaded his clutches every time he got close.
Faddoh shook his head. "Robots cannot die, you giggling buffoon. Now, can you promise me to calm down if I turn off this oscillator? I wish to talk to you about the test results I am observing."
"Hohohoho~! You-hah, you-hah, you c-hah-n eat a fucking turd you dipshit! Hahahahaha~!" Kay replied, taking a beaker and throwing it at the bounding robot.
The vial missed, but the robot slipped on the fluids and landed on his side, getting his legs tangled in two stools. "Gah! ... Well I might not appreciate your humor, but I sure can tell you that I hate being the butt of a joke!" Faddoh complained.
Kay laughed and laughed and laughed as he walked toward the gazelle robot, mounting its side and leaning onto the torso. "Ha ha ha hahahahahahaaah~! Ahah, aha, ahah, ahah make it hah stop! I hahaha can't feel my face! Hahahahahahaha~!" Kay raised both of his fists up and pounded them downward onto the robot, while also slamming his fists into the oscillator with righteous smashing.
[As amusing as that was, it looks like all my research is not going along as I intended. Hmm. Perhaps I should increase the power and shorten the wavelength?]
Kay was able to get deep breaths into his lungs as he was freed of his laughing fit. "Hawh~! Oh~! Oh gosh, my sides were starting to sting too! Hooh! Damn it, that was painful!"
[It's good to know that I can cause some damage to you.]
"Hoooh... Fuck you, Faddoh. Oh man. I think all that guffawing cleared out all of the bathroom water in my lungs." Kay said, feeling relief.
[Well, you have been given a moment's respite. Lets see if this new oscillation frequency has a greater effect on you.]
Kay's mind suddenly felt pain spearing into his head. He clutched his head as he tried to scream in agony, but no scream had came out. He tried to walk toward the noise, but his equilibrium was affected again. He bumped into several tables and chairs, knocking down several beakers and vials in his sudden clumsiness.
[Ooh, this looks like a very favorable result. May I share my insight with you? I think I will. It would appear as though that one can potentially overload the neural oscillations within your brain, simply by increasing the oscillator's power and wavelength. I have now concluded that certain patterns of different oscillations seem to affect the brain of the typical zerg organism. Since this has a great effect on you, I do believe this will have an even greater effect on your zerg monsters.]
Kay struggled to proceed toward the painful psionic noise as his knees shook rapidly. He felt winded once he reached the staircase. Apparently, the oscillator was another two floors up from where Kay was. He tried to scale the steps, but he found difficulty getting one foot up at a time. The psionic emission grew more worse as he scaled the staircase.
[Having difficulty getting to where I am? Not to worry. I'll come and meet you.]
Kay's mind was flooded with exponential pain as Commander Faddoh came closer. The pain had became so bad that he lost his footing and started falling down the staircase. After a while of tumbling, Kay finally came to a stop at the bottom staircase on the last floor. "Gh... Fuck."
Some minutes had passed before Faddoh entered Kay's vision, his mind splitting into a horrendous headache of incredible proportions. This time, Commander Faddoh was in the six armed combat robot that he used to capture the changelisks and zerglings. Faddoh got down on a knee and inspected Kay's crumpled form. "Tsk tsk tsk. Look how the mighty have fallen. I must say, you look far less impressive like this. But I suppose it's to be expected when someone like me has the upper hand against you. Now then! Could you tell me what you are currently feeling?"
Kay clutched at his head since he was in too much pain to answer. Spit frothed from his mouth as he tried to talk, but the proximity of the oscillator made it too unbearable. Kay had to act fast.
Faddoh prodded Kay's face for an answer. "Come on, give me your input. Here, let me ease your pain a little." Faddoh adjusted the neural oscillator in his hand, and Kay's headache was reduced to seventy percent to what it was before. After that, Faddoh resorted to prodding Kay again. "Now tell me, please! What does it feel like to be in your current condition?"
Kay clenched his teeth as he summoned all the willpower he could. "That... That I feel like falling..."
Faddoh's green LED face raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Interesting... But not really. You did tumble down several flights of stairs, after all."
"And..."
Faddoh tilted his head. "And what?"
"And... And you're..."
Faddoh blinked.
"... And you're going... to fall with me." Kay said with a strained smile.
A rumble was heard from all directions, but Faddoh didn't notice it when he was listening so intently to Kay. The rumble shook everything in the facility as the quaking became louder and louder. Outside of the facility, several nydus worms in close proximity to one another erupted from the ground in unison. The simultaneous roars they made were cacophonous, hurting the ears of those nearby, and spelling disaster to a monumental degree.
The ground under the facility suddenly shifted. Crumbled rock and decorative pavement cracked and crumbled as the nydus worms surrounding the research facility had loosened the structure's foundation and floors beneath itself. After a few seconds of silence, the facility finally shifted downward and tumbled down several levels that were carved through by the nydus worms. The magic wall kept its shape in its plummet, but the insides were shifted around violently and destructively. During the fall, the commander of the Cube Research Division had lost his latest neural oscillator. The psionic signal it produced no longer made its psionic emissions, which supposedly meant that it was destroyed. As the facility kept falling through level after level, the magic walls gave out once the power that generated them had started malfunctioning. The inside of the facility experienced a complete blackout.
The facility finally settled as it fell to the final floor. Several seconds had passed before Kay shakily got up. He felt as though steel rebar had punctured through his abdomen. Kay sighed as he got up from the shifted furniture. He did not find an intact copper robot anywhere, but he knew that it must have been damaged beyond repair since he was unable to hear him after the facility had fallen. A light emanated from the distance as copper colored doors were forced open by claws. Zerglings, roaches, hydralisks, and Virid wandered into the ruined facility, taking great caution if they happened upon any copper and green accent colored robots.
'Kay! Are you alright?' Virid asked, sounding slightly worried.
'I'm fine. That was too close for comfort.' Kay said, as he got up and limped forward while he was holding his arm.
Virid nodded. 'If you require healing, I can assist you.'
'Eh... A quick transfusion then. But after that, I want one group of zerg analyzing everything they can in this facility. And another group storming Gollog's castle.' Kay ordered.
Virid trilled excitedly, pleading her thin, yet clawed, fingers together. 'Good. The emperor will know fear today, as well as everyone else belonging to their pathetic empire.'
Kay sighed as he looked down. Much to his surprise, he actually did find a piece of rebar jutting out of his gut. He carefully grasped the metal rod firmly and eased it out of his stomach. Once it was removed from his abdomen, Kay took a deep breath of relief. 'Well... Faddoh is somewhere around here in this mess. Destroy all the robots and prevent him from switching to another robot body.'
Virid nodded. 'Shall we storm the castle, or heal first?'
Kay grunted as he continued on his way out of the research facility. 'A quick heal first, and then we start storming.'
Truly, the zerg were dangerous monsters.
A/N: Ugh, it's late. Might come back and review this chapter after I sleep.
EDIT: Back, and corrected a few mistakes.