Chapter 59: Inside the Tomb
Outside of Kay's temporal tomb, the zerg have begun to adapt at a rapid pace. Corvurn Junior's spore pods contained various mutations and strains that were quite beneficial to the remaining commanders of the zerg swarm, and they capitalized on their uses. Apparently, Corvurn Junior had a lot of time to himself to develop and unlock the strains and mutations that were needed for the swarm. And they were sorely needed.
The predecessor to the current queens in the zerg swarm flitted within the sky, thanks to the creation of the brood queen's nest bio-structure. The brood queen's nest looked very much like a mound of flesh that had fused into the ground and with the creep, which sprouted a circle of spikes on top of itself into a crown-shaped pattern. The genetic information it contained would be used to spawn the brood queens at the hatcheries, lairs, and hives, making the impressive air-force that populated the skies improve with lethal diversity. Their use of acid spores on any enemy flying in the air would prove useful to the zerg, but the brood queens also had several tricks up their sleeves, so to speak. The brood queens had a plethora of skills and abilities that made them formidable, despite being such a weak creature to easily take out of the fight. They could create creep tumors on creep, implant parasites into their enemies, implant temporary ocular symbiotes that could detect hidden enemies in their allies, rapidly mutate an opponent to death and spawn a pair of broodlings from the corpse, emit a viscous web that slows enemies in both speed and attack, (with the added bonus of revealing cloaked assassins,) and could infest buildings. The infestors had the ability to produce virophages that could accomplish the same goal in a wide area, but the brood queen could intrude into a damaged structure and infest it at a terrifying speed, taking only seconds of time. Their appearances varied widely apart from the queens that evolved after the Brood War, since they used their delicate webbed crab legs to keep them afloat, and used their enlarged bony wings to propel themselves forward in their flight.
Another strain that was added to the zerg swarm was another flying organism thought to be long lost, which had evolved from the mutalisks. The devourers. Resembling mutslisks, except beefed up to become stronger, yet moving somewhat slower, is yet another flying zerg strain that would attack air units with corrosive acid spores that melted their mechanisms, but also thinned their defenses. It that wasn't bad enough, this acid could be splashed onto its enemies in a wide radius that affected both air and ground units, which reduced their defenses and attack speed. The corruptors may be incredible against enemy air or against massive enemies, but the devourers surpassed them as a more advanced heavy assault flier. However, with such a powerful zerg strain's superlative ability to increase the damage intake of its enemies, either by attaching acid spores into their armor and hulls or splashing acid to reduce their defenses and attack speed, would mean that the devourers would become more destructive when they are aided by other zerg air units.
A bio-structure that had a puckered, yet fanged entrance, surrounded by sturdy spikes and useless webbed limbs that circled its base, and topped with a huge oblong dome of heavy carapace, unveiled another strain that the zerg could use. The impaler den unveiled the impalers, which was another kind of evolution that the hydralisks could achieve. The form of the impaler was similar to the lurkers, except they had broader spikes and heavier carapace, which made their legs look shorter and stockier. There was little physical differences between the lurkers and impalers, yet the impalers had an attack that was primarily focused on machines and mechanical vehicles. The lurkers had subterranean spines that could whittle down infantry, but the impalers had piercing tentacles that could penetrate through vehicular hull and metallic armor with ease. They would become a definite threat to the Kiln Keepers, or any mechanized foe for that matter.
But alas, that wasn't the end for the evolution of the hydralisks. A select few of the hydralisk population in the zerg swarm began mutating into bigger, stronger, meaner beasts that could attack with much more force. Their increased size would be intimidating to any foe that would dare provoke the zerg, and their spines became ever more lethal due to already existing mutations. The hunter killer strain was the result of harsh adaptation over a length of time, and the few hydralisks that survived the battles they were sent to, and killing the enemies they were sent against, prompted the mutation to occur. It was an eventuality that could not be stalled.
And still, yet another strain became available to the zerg swarm! The nydus network had been given an unusual mutation because of this new strain, but it had enabled further subterranean offense for the zerg forces. When the nydus network had generated enough energy, it could send a worm with burrowing teeth to quickly breach an area on enemy occupied ground, constrict whatever enemies that its maw had entrapped, and then crush them in a grizzly demise. It was an effective method for attacking any terrestrial enemies that was within the zerg swarm's awareness, even if it had no way to attack any enemy that was safe in the air. But even then, it was an attack that had to be calculated, as enemies could predict the rumblings of the devouring maw and sidestep from being harmed. If they were quick enough. That, and this kind of attack could only be pulled off within a kilometer's distance of the nydus worm.
But the greatest strain that had graced the zerg swarm was actually of a small sized bio-structure. This strain resembled a glob of green liquid that sloshed and gurgled silently, was contained by many strands and tendrils of flesh, and was hidden under the ground with a carpet of creep that it generated. However, it had the adaptations and abilities that preceded many others that the zerg lacked. One of which is the ability to have it placed on ground that did not require creep growing on it, yet could produce it once placed. Secondly, this creep could be placed on any ground that is within the zerg swarm's awareness. The toxic nests would prove incredibly deadly when used in conjunction with any enemies that carried zerg parasites, since the parasite could convince a parasited gilanian to spit onto a floor, and the toxic nest could form fifteen seconds later. The toxic nests were also incredibly deadly acid-filled mines, which could easily replace the already dangerous burrowed banelings, if not also replacing the overlords' creep generating abilities. The downside to using toxic nests instead of banelings was their usage. An army of banelings could be quickly spawned, but the ability to generate toxic nests required time and patience. It was an especially prolific strain that could spread creep to far distances, and it only needed the concentration of a zerg commander to promote the strain's growth. It was the perfect weapon for sabotaging an enemy base from vast distances, and without ever having the need to set foot in their territory in the first place.
But Kay would not be able to experience the joy of having these strains within his swarm, for he was forced to be apart from it.
After a rush of vertigo, followed by the sudden noise of low and high pitched noises, Kay was within a dark, dimly lit dome. There was mostly low pitched noises that filled the air, but that began to fade when Kay adjusted to the noise. It sounded like one continuous note in an orchestra, except it did not produce a sound. Kay grunted as he slid off of the hatchery he landed on. He rubbed and patted his chest and abs to make sure that he wasn't mortally wounded again. Whatever mortal wounds he expected to see on his body, he found none. Even the hole in his left breast had disappeared, which had gladdened Kay.
The very moment that glowing sword made that mortal wound upon his body, he could feel zerg instincts kicking in afterwards. It felt like his body moved on auto-pilot after escaping an apocalyptic explosion, directing him to the first hatchery that formed in the underground chamber, which had already evolved into a hive a brief while ago. He can't quite make out what he saw within the hive since it all happened so quickly, and that he was slightly in shock at the time... but he thought he saw a pool within the hive itself. Slowly, he remembered digging up and through some underground orifice that lead to a chamber of crystal clear water that bubbled, but it felt as harmless as a comfortably hot jacuzzi. Materials from outside of the hive had seeped through the walls and slowly sunk into this pool, disappearing into a sphincter that was surrounded by tentacles with razor sharp teeth and suckers. They seemed to rip apart whatever materials that came close to their touch before they passed them into the sphincter that they guarded.
Several glowing veins pulsed with a dim brilliance, which flowed along the walls and above this pool of water, the 'mouth' at the top of the hive, and then into five giant sacks filled with developing larvae, the wombs that created the creatures that formed all zerg strains. The broodlings inside of these wombs seemed focused on taking care of the larvae within them. Kay was unsure what kind of organ was responsible for spawning a queen within a hatchery bio-structure, but he didn't need to find that out at the time. Kay was worried when he floated near the tentacles at the bottom of this crystal clear pool, but their teeth pulled away when he came close, and was assuaged by their careful touch across his wounds and body.
Kay shook his head, trying to forget that memory as he walked away from the hatchery he had landed on. He noticed that the area around himself was devoid of many things. One of which was his psionic connection to the zerg swarm. He couldn't sense anything around himself. Not Virid, Othafurn, Corvurn, or even the pair of zerglings that had followed him around on infrequent occasions. All he could sense was the larvae that was at the foot of the hatchery, the hatchery he landed on, and not much else. Everything appeared darker. So much so that his light sensitive eyes were straining to detect other light sources that were produced within the underground chamber. Alas, all he found were statues and still shapes.
He felt a coldness within his mind. He never felt this alone before. All he had for company was the hatchery with the larvae it produced, and even that was obscenely lonesome. At least it had an abundance of resources stockpiled before this... suffocating darkness enveloped Kay. He sighed when he decided to try and plan a way out of his new predicament. "Kay... Lets try spawning a queen and some drones." Kay directed his will at the hatchery, and it obeyed his overriding command. Several of the larvae had ensconced themselves in a protective cocoon, while the innards of the hatchery was slowly creating and spawning a queen. Seconds later, three drones emerged from their cocoons, followed by a queen half a minute later. They circled Kay, but also took curious glances around themselves in the environment they were in, uncertain of their current fate.
Kay clapped his hands together. "Alright then. Until further notice, I am going to name the second-in-command queen 'Queenie' until we find a way to reconnect with the swarm. Queenie, you are to lay four creep tumors in an adjacent pattern and create a resource tumor. That way, we can grant ourselves a means to create more resources overtime." He then pointed at one of the drones. "You. Go and scout our surroundings. CAREFULLY."
'Me scout!' The drone gurgled as it floated eagerly away, completely careless of the possible dangers around itself. After hovering several meters away from the hatchery, the drone seemed to be perfectly fine as it traveled this unusually dark expanse. However, that changed when the drone wheezed and hissed. Its pincers were missing when it backed away from... whatever the hell caused its pincers to be removed from the drone. 'No good! Got attacked! Stealthy blade?'
Kay walked to the drone and kneeled down to inspect its wounds, but saw that its stumps had already coagulated and were healing over. "Hmm... Sit tight back at the hatchery then. Queenie, tend to the wounded after you're done making that resource tumor." Kay audibly ordered, looking toward where the drone had been wounded and inspected the space. "I need to look at something."
'Careful. No engage in combat. We might be in ambush.' The queen warned Kay, which then went to the drone to inspect its damaged pincers.
Kay blinked a few times at the newly spawned queen. Her means of communicating were... strange. It could be because she too was removed from the hivemind intelligence that the collective zerg swarm shared, but he couldn't be sure. He shook his head as he turned around and headed for the place where the drone was wounded. He took careful steps forward, reaching his hands in front of himself in case he had to defend from an invisible enemy. His heart was unsteady, but he kept walking ahead with slowed caution. Kay suddenly pulled his hands back when a few digits of his fingers registered pain. "GAH, FUCK!" When he inspected the damage done to his own fingers, he saw that they had been cleanly sliced off of his hand.
'Is trouble here? Are swarm in danger?' Queenie asked Kay, looking over to him as she guarded the wounded drone that slowly healed.
"Hrrn... Yeah, I'm fine. My fingers were just lopped off." Kay replied, clutching his wounded hand. The pain quickly subsided as his stumped digits lengthened into fingers at a slow pace. He looked upward at the space before him, noting that the fingers that were sliced off of him had completely disappeared. The same could be said for the pincers that the drone had lost, for they too were not found. Kay carefully probed an intact pinky into the space before him and took careful note of his sharp nail on his pinky. He slowly reached his hand forward till something happened. His eyes widened when something did indeed happen, and he saw his sharp nail start disappearing right before his eyes. He retreated his nail to allow it to grow back to full sharpness before trying to poke at the invisible force that harmed him and the drone. "... So weird... This is like, um... Some kind of unreality wall. Whatever matter passes outside of it, it just ceases from existing. What was this called again? ... Oh, I remember now. It's a time dilation field."
'This good not. We without swarm.' Queenie sighed, petting the drone as it was slowly recovering from its wounds.
Kay stepped back and tried to see if his eyes could detect what kind of properties made this wall so dangerous. All he saw was empty space, which separated himself from the rest of the underground cavern. He found nothing, but he knew that the danger was there. "I don't like this any more than you do. I'm not sure if we can even do anything against it." Kay said, sounding somewhat frustrated.
'Can try. Make hole past danger. Or use zerglings to claw at.' Queenie suggested, pointing a clawed finger at the space past Kay.
Kay sighed. From what he noticed, being apart from the psionic connection might explain her odd way of communicating. "Let's not get too crazy. I think the best thing we can do in this moment is to find out how far this time dilated wall reaches. Generate some creep tumors and see how far we can spread them from our hatchery."
'As you command.' Queenie replied. After a few seconds, she had skittered over to where Kay was and laid yet another creep tumor. After waiting for what felt like ten seconds or longer, the creep tumor had fully formed. Once it had formed, it had sent out a slithering creature out from itself to create yet another creep tumor, resulting in the creep tumor to regenerate the cocoon around itself to prime its creep tumor generation ability again. When the cluster of boils formed again from the two creep tumors, they sent out their inner occupants to generate more creep tumors further from themselves. When these creep parasites tried to create a tumor from outside of the supposed safe zone, the creep parasites screeched and ceased from existing. '... Me noticed something. Creep on ground beyond not wavy. Creep we is standings on much wavy.'
Kay looked down at his feet to analyze Queenie's discovery. Apparently, she was right. Somehow, the creep that was beyond the dangerous space that removed the drone's pincers and Kay's fingers were eerily still. The creep that Kay stood on was acting as it should, which slithered across the ground in the mindless fashion that it so often does. Even when Queenie had made the observation of the two kinds of creep, Kay was looking at a landscape that made him uncomfortable to bear witness to. "... This must be the effects of the time dilation field."
'Should I the continue with the creep tumors?' Queenie asked Kay, tilting her head.
Kay paused before nodding his head. "Might as well. I, on the other hand, am thinking that an overlord might be needed." He said, turning around and heading back to the hatchery. There were newly birthed larvae that awaited for his commands, and one of them were selected to transform and spawn into the zerg's most well-known psionic relay organism. Once the cocoon had formed, Kay looked back at the creep tumors that were forming a ring within the safe zone. The creep tumors still tried to expand into the motionless creep outside of the time dilation field, but the creep parasites disappeared all the same. A tight ring of tumors began to grow closely to the edge of the time dilation field, resulting in creating a visual marker that tells those within the ring how far they could walk before the dilation field starts to unmake the physical matter of their bodies.
A brief passing of several seconds later, an overlord was eventually spawned. It floated high into the air, but that had turned out to be a mistake. Before it could rise any higher, the top part of the overlord's bulbous back was sheared off, forcing it to release its helium gasses and plummet near the hatchery and larvae. 'The We has been wounded.' The overlord relayed to Kay and Queenie, its pincers trying to stabilize itself when it tried to get up. Having lost its helium sack, the overlord was made crippled and stuck on the ground.
Kay sighed. "So the time dilation field is above us too. ... Bitch and a half." He said and slouched.
'... I think that overlord need hover very low or will be hurt and fall again.' Queenie said, looking up above herself.
'The We will hover below the dangerous area.' The overlord said, scrabbling at the creep on the ground around itself. It's bulbous body that used to contain its precious lifting helium was slowly growing back. It will be able to float again, but it would take a while for it to recover from its wounds.
As Queenie tended to the crippled overlord, Kay sat down on the creep to consider his options. "Hooh... Kay, let's rethink on how we can get ourselves out of this mess. There's got to be some kind of way we can find out what is creating the time dilation field around us. A dilation emitting device would be the most likely culprit, but... the trick is to find out WHERE it's placed. If my math is correct, the dilation field is covering about... two hundred meters in diameter. Since this dilation field is a sphere shape that is surrounds us, and its current height is half of its width, then that would mean we have a volume of free space that is about... uh..."
'Sixteen million, seven hundred and fifty five thousand, one hundred and sixty point eight cubic meters of available space that is safe for We to occupy.' The overlord answered.
Kay looked at and nodded at the crippled zerg. "Thank you, overlord. I didn't know you could perform math so well."
'The We are proficient in many forms of mathematics, like geometry, algebra, and calculus.' The overlord said. It was starting to become lighter, as newly generated lifting gasses slowly helped it off the ground.
Kay sighed. "Well we can try to math our way out of this, or we could use an overseer's vision to look at things with critical eyes. Once you're flying again, I need you to morph into one. Understand?"
'We obey.' The overlord said, which now started to hover up above the hatchery. Once it equilibrated itself in the air, the overlord formed a cocoon around itself to slowly transform into an overseer.
Kay stood back up and looked up at the developing overseer for a few seconds before looking down at the idle drones. Kay pointed at one of them. "I guess you can go ahead and gather from the resource tumor. There isn't really anything else to do since we're stuck in here, until we figure out a way for us to leave, that is."
'Me gather!' One of the drones exclaimed, going to the resource tumor and picking one of its budding legume-shaped resource pods to transport to the hatchery. With the available space that Kay's zerg are allowed, they won't be able to generate resources prolifically or quickly. But at least resources were being generated within the time dilation field.
After a brief period of time had passed, an overseer replaced the overlord when the cocoon that floated above the hatchery exploded open. The overseer shifted its gaze in all directions, its vision being able to metaphorically cut through the invisible and hidden. After a concentrated analysis of everything around itself, the overseer did find one thing out of place and cloaked from the normal spectrum of light. It directed its attention at a curious box that was hovering over the hatchery. 'We have discovered something.' The overseer said, pointing a pincer at the unusually hidden object.
Kay looked up at the object that was revealed by the overseer. Strangely enough, it looked very much like the device that the era agent known as Bubbles had thrown. For all he could tell, Kay believed that the object he was seeing was actually that very device responsible creating the time dilation field around himself and the hatchery. Kay placed a hand onto his chin and took his time to think of a plan to turn off the time dilation field generator. "... Queenie, see if you can use your acid spines to hit that out of the air."
Queenie looked up at the floating device for a few seconds before flinging her wings, sending acid-filled spines at the floating device. Sadly, the acid spines that were sent at the device never impacted it. After flinging twenty or so spines at the device, Queenie stopped to inspect what damage may have been afflicted to the device, only to find none. '... This bad. Box thing not get damage. I is thinking that it outside time dilation field thingy.'
Kay paused for a few seconds before he came up with an idea by himself. "Let me try something." He raised his hand up at the device in the sky and unleashed an energy blast at it. Several blasts of energy seemed to have made contact with the device, but it still showed no visible damage. After sending a few more blasts of energy at the floating device, Kay paused to look at his attempt to dismantle their only obstacle. "... Well that's all I got."
'The We find this troubling.' The overseer said, sounding as though he was losing hope.
Kay rolled his eyes. "Yeah no shit, Sherlock."
The overseer blinked its many eyes several times. '...The We are unaware of what this Sherlock is.'
Kay rolled his eyes again and explained. "Oh... It's just an exaggerated expression that terrans use sometimes. It's usually used as a form of sarcasm for someone that has stated the obvious. I think the name came from a fictitious detective from some famous mystery novels or something. I never read any of the books, but the expression is pretty old and used quite often."
'We see... We thought it was a new name for this One.' The overseer said.
Kay sighed, but then began nodding. "Hmm... I guess we can call you Sherlock. I'll admit that It's actually a very fitting name."
The overseer bowed. 'Then I shall be known as Sherlock.'
Kay directed his attention at one of the idle drones that had nothing to do. "And one of you will be called 'carbonation extractor' next. Any volunteers? Raise your pincer if you want to volunteer." The two drones that were currently slacking off looked at one another in uncertainty. One of them dared to raise a pincer into the air. Kay clapped his hands and pointed at the drone that raised his pincer. "Congratulations for volunteering! Now go and turn into a carbonation extractor right there." Kay said, pointing at a spot close by.
The volunteering drone floated to the spot that Kay pointed to and formed a cocoon around itself, which would soon morph into the extractor strain that carbonates useful hydrocarbons that the hatchery could use. Queenie, on the other hand, slowly became anxious. 'But how is we to do the escape from the time dilation? Are we the stuck here?'
Kay paused for several seconds before sitting back down on the creep, feeling an exasperated breath leave his lungs. He began to understand what happened to him, and he could feel himself losing a small portion of his hope and spirit when the thought came to him. "... I don't like this any more than you do, but... I think we're stuck here."
A/N: Seriously though, the devourers are much more dangerous when being assisted with other zerg air units. :V