Chapter 46: A Cyborg Unleashed
A rumble shook the entire underground cavern that once belonged to the Hidden Water Spring Tribe. The tower that pulsed red light, which had existed there a long time ago before it had ever glowed that threatening crimson color, was now forced to demolish itself with the hidden explosives that were placed within the walls and supports of the structure. Debris fell and exploded onto Kay's face as he shielded his head with his arms and wings. The moment that he felt the Not-Kay changelisk fall, due to the gravity shifting during the tower's self-destruct, he knew that it, and the tower, was starting to fall.
"FUCKING SHIIIT!" Kay responded, turning away and making for the closest wall at the base of the tower, while Not-Kay did the same by using his bone blade to carve an exit out of the shaking council chamber.
Kay's claws were slashing at the wall with unprecedented speed. Even his psionic powers enhanced his attempt to evacuate the tower's base as quickly as he could, which strengthened his claws. He sent out rending energy out from his claws that sliced through the wall with great ease, but the destruction of the tower was happening faster than expected.
The zerg organisms of various casts and strains within the underground chamber looked up at the tower in awe and in curiosity. Even when several explosions rocked the entire tower into ruin, they felt no fear as rocks and pieces of concrete, metal, wood, and junked technology rained down on them. But there were a few overlords and overseers that have been selected to fly closer to the retreating swarm commander and the disguised changelisk.
A kinetic blast had finally torn an opening for Kay to leave from, and he took the quickest exit out of the underground tower. Not-Kay, the changelisk that had entered into the tower using Kay's appearance, emerged from the hole he created in the highest part of the tower. He saw from high up that several explosions damaged and destroyed the tower at worrying speeds. As an overseer flew close to Not-Kay, while Not-Kay took in a long breath and exhaled. "Just to let you know, I'm sorry about this. HUP!"
Not-Kay jumped directly onto the overseer, nearly stepping onto its eye. 'The We are unfamiliar with this behavior.' The overseer complained as its commander lookalike started riding it. A heavy rock punctured into one of the overseer's eyes, and it screeched in pain.
Not-Kay almost fell off of his 'ride' when the overseer was struck by the falling stone. "Less complaining, more surviving! Move left!" Not-Kay shouted, seeing a falling boulder descending on top of his position. He grabbed onto the antennas and tried to force his mount to go where he wanted. The overseer turned sharply, but Not-Kay anticipated the aerial maneuver and leaned with the overseer, resulting in the both of them dodging a large piece of rapidly descending roof. It was then that Kay realized that the cavern's roof was also being detonated, resulting in a massive cave-in that would bury the entire village, and the zerg.
'The We believe this place cannot support us anymore.' The overseer that Not-Kay rode on said, seeing several more rocks from above falling downward fast.
"I can't agree more! That, and Kragnon is going to get super pissed about this! And please shut up! Right! Right!" Not-Kay shouted, directing the overseer's movements to veer away from more falling earth. Again and again, Not-Kay was using the overseer to dodge the chunks of cavern that was falling down on his head with frantic purpose. But as more detonations above was seen and heard, more earth fell into the cavern with such torridity that it was akin to the strength of a raging waterfall. Kay was forced out of the wall via another explosion, pushing him out of the tower. He shrugged off the damage and looked up at the mass of soil, sand, and rock falling towards him. Even the changelisk in his image, riding on the overseer, had difficulty surviving. They became smothered by the dense land from above. He understood then that he couldn't possibly be able to dodge every piece of shifted detritus.
'Kay.' Virid telepathically said to Kay. 'You can live through this.'
'How?' Kay instantly asked back, the world around him seeming to slow.
'By breaking through your boundaries. Overcoming your limits. Achieving greater feats. Adapt. Evolve. Survive. You are part of the Zerg Swarm now, and you are the joint commander of this brood. I command you to push through this obstacle.'
Kay felt Virid's will flood into his mind, and she shared her thoughts with him. In that instant, Kay understood what Virid wanted him to do. A sense of confidence filled his body, but that confidence was not his own. It was Virid's, and she believed that Kay was able to survive a little dirt falling onto him. Kay took in a deep breath as he kept his gaze upward. "... Kay."
He brought his hands together and pointed his palms upward. He focused his mental acuity as much as he could, and attempted to surpass his own psionic limits. Much of the smaller falling objects were diverted out of the way easily, but larger objects shifted only slightly from their descending path. Kay's psionic power was creating a conical area of force that helped push away the crumbling cavern from landing on him. The soil piled up onto the creep and zerg bio-structures with a fatal weight and speed, smothering and crushing everything at the bottom of the cavern. Even the system of tunnels that lead out of the underground village had chain-reacted with the collapsing tower, making them fill with heavy gravel and sand.
But tried as Kay might, the ground above filled the chamber with a rapidity that proved to be too overwhelming. Kay struggled as he underestimated the shifting land above him. He couldn't dodge every obstacle falling down on him, and he was struck by several rocks and small boulders. A boulder had finally struck the overseer, and Not-Kay was jostled off of the aerial zerg. But Kay continued to focus on the ground falling on top of him. All Kay could see was sand, and he could feel the ground piling higher and higher all around himself. A small glint of light was seen overhead, but Kay was already hip deep in the ground. He waved through the several tons of shifted sand and rock, whilst the sand that was still collapsing into the cavern. It was all piling on top of him, but it gradually became less violent as time went on. The volume of the underground cavern was already filled with so much of the above terrain that it had crushed many zerg organisms that couldn't escape the collapsing underground cavern village.
The falling sand had slowly receded, resulting in a giant hole in the ground that billowed a large plume of dust, which exploded into the air. Light and sky could be seen past this hole, but powdery and silty dust still clung to the air. The air was thick with dust near the bottom of this remade chasm, made by hidden bombs that Kay had failed to detect.
Kay, on the other hand, saw only darkness with his eyes.
He was still conscious, but he was also suffering from the crushing pressure that was caused by the ton of sand pressing down on him. But as he felt the world around him become still, he knew that pain was just his body telling him that he was still alive. He willed his muscles to vibrate as he began pushing his hands upward, and then began swimming through the very sand that had surrounded him. Digging through sand was a lot different from tunneling through packed dirt, Kay soon realized. Creep could give some structural stability and prevent a tunnel from collapsing, but Kay was not able to create a tunnel through sand, for he had no creep to use. Several minutes had passed, and Kay's claws finally felt cold water.
Kay emerged from the sand and found himself in a pool of water that was quickly rising. He saw ripples above him, the source coming from the edge of the pool. Smoother ripples enabled him to see that part of the wall was disheveled, just enough to allow water to fill the cavern. This cold spring water must be connected to the spring at the surface, which was the spring that had been glassed over several times already. The fluid felt rejuvenating to Kay as he squirmed out of the sand and swam through the cool liquid. Once he breached the surface of the water, he took in a deep breath of rejuvenating air, paused for several seconds, and then started laughing to himself. "Ha ha ha ha hahaha~!"
'Why are you laughing, Kay?' Virid asked. She almost sounded puzzled.
"Ha ha ha ha~! Ah... Do you really need to ask that when you can telepathically read my mind?" Kay said, lying on his back in the refreshing water.
'... I thought it would only be polite to ask. I must be picking up on some of your terran habits.' Virid said, almost hissing at herself in annoyance.
"Well, to answer your question." Kay said, feeling his adrenaline returning to normal levels. "I'm just overflowing with joy."
'I see... Anyway, I must report that Pallax has ceased in his movements and entered into a cold pod. He has remained stationary, but the hive cluster at Whisper Stones has detected Pallax at the edge of their territory. He is there as well.' Virid reported.
Kay breathed in deeply and sighed. "Fuck, I completely forgot about him. Hmm... So we know that Pallax is near the center of the planet, but knows full well that his 'double' is going to take the potential backlash once the shit hits the fan. Is the fake Pallax asking for an audience?"
'Yes. Shall I send a changelisk in your likeness to give him an audience?' Virid asked.
Kay shrugged. "Might as well. We already know that he's going to betray us, or lie to us, or do something similar. The worst case scenario that I can imagine is the hive cluster at Whisper Stones becoming annihilated. But since we have grown underground at an exceptional rate, I doubt a single hive cluster being removed from the playing field is gonna hurt us. Just in case, we'll tell Pallax that if the hive cluster is attacked in any way, then we'll target Gollog's castle, regardless if Kragnon gets caught in the crossfire."
'... Kragnon would not approve of this strategy. I believe he would disapprove of us causing any harm to him, or to any innocent gilanian that remained in that city.'
"It's called a bluff, Virid." Kay said, feeling the ripples lap onto his body. "But we will also make good on that bluff if I find out that Kragnon WAS harmed in any way."
'How do we find out if Kragnon ever was harmed?' Virid asked.
"Either I use my psionic abilities and carefully read his mind, or I infest him using the hyper-evolutionary virus and get him to talk that way. I'd prefer the former, but we don't exactly have a lot of time to do everything at once."
'It appears that we do not. The intelligence cores, this 'cybernetic mech' Gollog mentioned, and the potential attack at whisper stones are all daunting challenges.' Virid stated.
"Heh." Kay chuckled. "It's a good thing that the zerg love to be challenged."
A low rumble was heard from the mouth of the hole, far above the pool of water that Kay waded in. Dust was flown into the mouth of the vertical hole, and a metal dome could be seen leaning into the recently made entrance. Kay had no idea what this... thing was. He could see two blue lights emanating from a silvery blue hemisphere, while the hemisphere was attached to some box-like fixture as its base. Kay thought that the structure looked very familiar for some reason.
Kay felt like he paused for a long time, if twenty seconds could be compared to the eternity he just felt. But alas, Kay's mind was still processing the image of the giant metal dome. "... Uh."
"Hey, motherfucker." Kralluf's voice said, emanating loudly from the hole's entrance. A giant silver and blue robotic arm had intruded into the hole's entrance, and the palm started glowing a dangerous red energy that was pointed at Kay. "Guess who's back in the fight?"
Kay instantly reacted by swimming quickly to the nearest dirt wall. He never thought that his muscles could vibrate so intensely, and he thought his muscles would pull themelves apart as he tried to escape this unknown threat. A ball of energy erupted from the giant robot's palm, and it glassed the sandy walls as it dropped through into the hole, approaching Kay. Kay felt as though his feet were nearly burned off as he retreated into the earth, but he also felt relief after surviving the attack. The pool of water forming at the bottom of the sinkhole had completely evaporated, and the resulting explosion forced much more soil and sand to fill the hole even more so, followed by an explosion of steam rushing out of the ever-widening hole in the ground.
Kay deeply burrowed through the dirt and sand, feeling pangs of agitation course through his blood and mind as he retreated from this new foe. Sadly, after a few more seconds of tunneling and burrowing through the underground, Kay finally pieced together what was happening. 'Virid, bad news. Kralluf is in a mech.'
'I noticed. Shall I send reinforcements?' Virid asked.
A louder rumble was felt, and Kay had no idea what the new and improved Kralluf was planning. 'Send as many as you think I need. What the fuck is he up to?'
A metal hand plunged through the soil and grasped at Kay. He didn't have time to react as his body was squished into a vice-like grip. The robotic extremity yanked Kay straight out of the ground with an impressive force, and it held his limp body in the daylight. Kay shivered a little before he looked up at the giant machine that pulled him from the sand and soil. The giant robot that was colored blue and silver looked somewhat similar to a Kiln Keeper, except it was built stockier, and was many times more larger than the Kiln Keeper's Peace Keeper robot variants, being around a hundred and twenty-ish meters tall. A few seconds passed before Kay spoke. "... Can I still guess who's back in the fight?"
The giant robot was still. "I'll give you one guess to figure out who I am."
Kay slowly sat himself upright and looked up at the huge robot. "... I want to say Kralluf. Or should I say... Mecha-Kralluf?"
The robot seemed to nod. "Heh. Mecha-Kralluf. I actually like that."
Kay sighed. "So uh... I take it that Gollog has ... somehow... got you into this mechanical robot thing. ... Right?"
The robot nodded again. "Yeah he did. He even painted it so that it would represent the colors of the Crescent Arms Division. I could have gone a different way, but he insisted on the design."
"Huh... So... how did you get this new mech body? I can't imagine finding something like that in a bargain bin." Kay said.
"Ha ha ha ha! Ah... no. After I got infected with some kind of flu sickness, my brain was transplanted into this new body. And I have to admit, I have NEVER felt better than I did before!" Mecha-Kralluf said with gusto, flexing an arm without any visual emotion.
Kay nodded, gulping. "And I have something to admit too. I wouldn't like my chances if my zerg ever faced off against ten of you at once."
Mecha-Kralluf looked back down at Kay. "Well you got just one of me, and I have been ordered to take you down and everything else in my way. Nothing personal." Mecha-Kralluf said, closing his mechanical hand around Kay to crush him.
Kay pressed against the fingers that tried to squeeze the life out of him. Kay found the task difficult, but creaking metal could be heard from the joints in Mecha-Kralluf's metal grasp. "Gr... So you think that... urgh, that just one of you is all it takes to take me down?"
"Pretty much." Mecha-Kralluf said, increasing the strength in his hand. "I mean, look at you now! Barely even able to lift a digit to save your own life. Even a razor fiend would put up more of a tussle than you. And here you are now, under a thumb and about to be turned into a gross smudge in my new hands."
"Graaah~! Ahh~! Yeah? Well... I have something that... that you don't have!" Kay strained, feeling his arms and legs starting to buckle.
"Famous last words I'll have to remember you by. Goodbye, bug-man beast-master Kay. I won't miss you."
Before the final blow was struck, a bio-static field enveloped the mechanized commander. A leviathan had warped directly over Mecha-Kralluf before the fatal blow ended Kay, saving him from annihilation. Kay rolled out from under the massive thumb that clunked heavily where he once stood. As Kay ran down an arm, the leviathan manipulated one of its tentacles to the elbow joint of the giant robot. Kay looked up at the massive mechanized commander and sneered. "As I was saying: I have something you don't have, and it's my Swarm!" Kay leapt off of the arm and landed into the tip of the leviathan's tentacle as it opened widely, similarly to the maw of a nydus worm.
Once Kay went into the tentacle, the leviathan ascended into the air while it dropped several drop-sacs, which contained several kinds of zerg organisms. Some had landed on the mechanized commander. The sacs made small welts into the metal surface of the giant enemy, but they did little damage after they collided onto the mecha commander. It was after the drop sacs had landed that they revealed a more deadlier enemy that started doing significant damage to Kay's current threat. The hydralisks latched their scything claws onto the surfaces they collided with, and fired their spines at any fixture that was a possible weakness. The roaches did not latch onto the giant mech as they collided with it, but they focused their acidic saliva on his feet once they landed on the ground. The zerglings were frantic to claw at the giant cybernetic commander, even as they collided and fell onto the cyborg's armor.
But once the bio-static field dissipated, Mecha-Kralluf shook himself free of the latched hydralisks and stomped the zerg on the ground. He then turned around and looked up at the floating leviathan. He created a huff, as though in annoyance. "What the hell, Kay? Is this another one of your monsters? Fuck, this one looks like it ate a lot of vegetables growing up!"
The leviathan opened its mouth, which revealed Kay standing within it as he stared down at Kralluf. "You're being awfully campy." Kay said sarcastically. "But no matter what you try, you're going to wish you hadn't attempted to kill me."
"If you stand still long enough, I will!" Kralluf said, quickly swinging both arms and sending balls of energy toward the leviathan that saved kay. The balls of energy collided with the leviathan, and it roared in great pain as its flesh disintegrated and burned away. The attack was impressive, which reduced the mass of the creature to a quarter of its size. However, the leviathan still floated, and it turned away from the mechanized commander in an attempt to flee. "Eh... Looks like one more shot should ground you. This is gonna be easy." Kralluf said with a bemused tone.
Another leviathan had warped right above Mecha-Kralluf and showered him with another bio-stasis field, enabling the wounded and fleeing leviathan to gain more time to flee. The assisting leviathan then proceeded to strike at the massive mechanized cyborg commander, using both tentacles and swarming bile. Mecha-Kralluf was certainly large enough to be struck by both air-to-ground and air-to-air attacks. To make matters worse for the cyborg commander, a bio-plasmid discharged erupted onto his chest and forced him to fall onto his back.
Mecha-Kralluf groaned as he sat back up, his chest looking like a large amount of acid had tried to eat through it. "Okay, maybe not. Activating magic armor, and activating regenerating dermal plates and chassis." He growled. The massive cyborg got onto his feet and leapt, with agility and speed that was unexpected and incredible, onto the leviathan that attacked him. The leviathan newcomer warbled a confused growl as a giant mech jumped onto its back and started to literally punch, rip, tear, and laser the floating monster it rode on. The hundred and twenty meter tall mech commander seemed to be heavy enough to force the five kilometer long leviathan to dip slightly down to the ground. The damage done to its flesh was also causing it to deflate as it started to lose its vital lifting gasses, causing the leviathan to descend more quickly. The leviathan responded by launching mutalisks, brood lords, and scourge from its body.
The mutalisks and brood lords gathered around the mech commander and launched their payloads, consisting of acid coated glaive wurms and clawing broodlings. The scourge were their own explosive payload as they emerged out of the leviathan, and they impacted with the metal commander relentlessly. But no matter how many attacks that the zerg used to try and counter the commander, Kralluf had erected a barrier of magic wall technology around his person, which greatly protected Kralluf. A layer of invisible armor made many of the attacks bounce off, or cancel completely. Even the damage done onto Mecha-Kralluf's chest seemed to be closing and mending. Kay guessed that it was the ultimate result of gilanian micro-machine technology that was repairing the damage done to Kralluf's new body.
Mecha-Kralluf grunted as he waved his arms around to swat away the mutalisks, brood lords, broodlings, and scourge that assailed him. After an agitated grunt, he brought his metal hands together and started focusing red energy. "Okay, that does it. Boom time." As more of the energy collected, it grew and grew in size until it looked to be around forty five meters across. Mecha-Kralluf then slammed the large ball of energy into the leviathan. The leviathan's main body evaporated, as well as several kilometers of sand and soil below it and the cyborg giant. Mecha-Kralluf fell through the hole he made, which was deeper than the other hole that was the result of the destruction of an underground city. Kralluf continued to fall through the hole for several seconds more as he passed through a column of super-heated gasses that were ionized to an unknown nth degree. "... Do I regret supercharging that last energy attack? ... Nope. ... Nope, I do not regret it."
Once Mecha-Kralluf landed at the bottom of the deep hole he made, the molten vertical tunnel of glass that formed into a glowing chimney of dull tones of red and orange. His mechanical body impacted the ground with a shattering thud, making parts of the wall around him fracture and fall. With a groan, the mechanized cyborg commander got up and shook obsidian shards from his metal person.
The giant cyborg sighed. "Alright then, how deep did I go? ... Five miles? Huh. I guess I overestimated my attack. ... You want me to stand here? Why? ... Eh... Fine. So you want to know how deep can my seismic scanners go? ... Oh. Okay, I can just call them scanners then. ... I don't like it when you say stuff like that. How far? ... No way, that deep?! ... DEEPER?! ... Oh gods... ... Alright then. Where is the priority target now? ... Wha~? How did he get there? ... Grah, fuck it. Must be more zerg shenanigans. ... You think it has something to do with those new zerg? ... Pfft. Gollog's calling them by that name now? Lame. ... Don't worry. I'll get there before Kay plans something, or makes a new zerg monster that somehow eats our planet, or whatever. Over and out."
Mecha-Kralluf straightened his legs and aimed his arms upward. His feet then started pluming smoke as boosters from underneath started lifting him into the air. The zerg caverns that Mecha-Kralluf blasted into had revealed several scores of zerg organisms, and they were brought from their disturbed nests in the hopes of punishing the intruder that disturbed them. As the giant cyborg commander flew past, the zerg used their projectile attacks to fire potshots at him as he flew up and through the deep, laser-made chasm. After five miles of traveling straight up, Mecha-Kralluf flew out from the borehole he created and was flying high into the sky, eventually becoming so distant that the zerg organisms at Red Mountain had difficulty keeping track of the fleeing mech commander.
After a sudden feeling of vertigo, followed by the sound of an explosion, Kay felt like his nose burned. It is true that most, if not all, zerg organisms had a pungent smell to them. Oftentimes, the zerg partially smelled like rotting flesh, noxious mold, and body odor. Kay didn't really mind it much since he kept himself downwind from their smelly odors most of the time. But since he was inside of a leviathan that had saved him from complete destruction, he was now constantly upwind of this smell. It was disturbingly pungent, with the added reeking scents of bile and internal organs. He couldn't help but cough a few times. "Ugh... And I thought zerg smelled bad on the outside!"
He could almost sense Virid rolling her eyes. 'Don't tell me. Is being inside of a leviathan making you queasier than stepping on a creep tumor?'
Kay shook his head and gingerly stepped on the soft, spongy floor. "Believe me, Virid. Compared to what you described, this is a CLOSE second."
'You are safe. Unpleasant conditions within the leviathan notwithstanding, Kralluf has became a most unpleasant enemy of late.' IVirid reported.
Kay nodded. "Yeah. That medical operation Gollog mentioned happened way quicker than I anticipated. We need to deal with Mecha-Kralluf right now, or we're going to have problems in the future. ... So uh... Where is this leviathan taking me?"
'To the hexagon moon. I doubt that the mountain-sized commander will find you there in time. Brace yourself for a short-ranged warp jump.' Virid warned.
"Warp ju-?" Before Kay could ask, another sudden sensation of movement had made him lose his balance temporarily. The 'explosion' that Kay had heard recently before didn't exactly sound like an explosion the second time, but it sounded similarly like an violent 'whooshing' that was both abrupt and sudden. The next sensation that Kay felt was more weightlessness. His feet no longer made contact with the smooth surface of the 'floor' he was on."... Oh. Warp jump. Kay."
'The swarm would not be able to expand their numbers to the farthest reaches of space if it wasn't for the leviathans' help.' Virid informed.
"I kind of feel... Weightless. Is this normal?" Kay asked, floating in the air within the leviathan.
'The leviathan did make two warp jumps. Its mental energy must be greatly spent after delivering you there. It took one jump to create a straight path to the hexagonal moon, and another to orbit above its surface. Give the leviathan some time, and it will generate a low psionic field that will simulate artificial gravity.' Virid said calmly.
Kay could feel his body slowly righting himself. His feet touched the fleshy ground and he felt the pull that normally accompanies the natural downward force on a planet, or other celestial body. "Hmm. Much better. The smell is still a little... strong."
'Then lose your nose through forced evolution. You don't need your sense of smell anyway.'
Kay sighed and shook his head. "I'd rather keep my sense of smell, so no thank you."
'Very well.' She replied, indifferent.
Kay noted that there was a wall with many pointed spikes covering it. He knew that he was in the leviathan's mouth since he had watched Mecha-Kralluf destroy another leviathan from it. Next to it was what looked like a miniature spawning pool, which boiled a green mist into the air. Once he approached the spiked wall, it opened up to reveal an unusual sight just beyond it. A thin layer of psionic energy, which flattened and strengthened a layer of saliva to act as a window, enabled Kay to see outside of the leviathan and see the surface of the hexagonal moon with his own eyes. As Kay saw through the eyes of the other flying zerg here, Kay also saw that the creep had completely covered the entire surface of the moon. The white light it produced was now making everything a dull purple color. "... Looks like Corvurn's been busy."
'... We have a problem.' Virid interupted.
Kay paused before he sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fucking hell! What now?!"
'I believe Kralluf is approaching your position.' Virid reported.
"... What?!" Kay exclaimed in surprise. "But I just got here!"
'AND he is approaching your position.'
Kay reached his hands up to his head and rubbed his forehead. "Oh man! How the fuck does one fight a giant metal mech that can blast a ten kilometer deep hole in the ground, and can chase a target outside of a planet's orbit?"
'... I don't honestly know how to answer that, Kay.' Virid replied.
And that was when the zerg saw the approaching threat, which alerted Kay. Kay felt his heart tighten, since he knew firsthand the kind of strength and power that the mech commander was capable of. "... And I hope that I come up with a good plan in time."
A/N: I wonder if Talion from the Middle Earth games can dominate zerg organisms? '3'