Chapter 62: Sitrep

The events that led up to what transpired at the black glassed crater, a geological location that had completely replaced Red Mountain, thanks to the energy plant that was produced from Kay's temporal tomb, was an oddity that was a mystery for Kay, the remaining zerg, and to many people on Kiln. Even the Golden Star Empire were also just as mystified by what had occurred before Kay's reemergence. Even their super satellite's sensor arrays that were focusing on the location Kay was once held in was somehow overloaded with so much sensory data that it triggered a system shutdown. At least that's what Kay figured. Nobody had answers, and that didn't sit well with the high ranked soldiers and officers. Apparently, the zerg that surrounded the energy flower became incredibly docile after the energy plant supposedly vanished. The cause for the disappearance of the energy plant or the sudden docility of the zerg was unclear, but the Kiln Keepers and Golden Star Empire soldiers did their best to clear away the zerg organisms without further difficulty or risk of further fatalities. Even the ultralisks that were always angry seemed to shy away from the empire's forces and their mechanical friends. That changed when both forces made their way to the center of the glass crater and found something that was once there.

One of such officers was a surveillance commandant, dressed in a grey and yellow uniform and silently sighing for every minute that passed. He knew that with every passing minute, the sensor array continued to remain nonfunctional, which only made his superior officers become further displeased. He didn't know what caused the sensor arrays to malfunction just after they discovered the 'discovery', as the higher ups have nicknamed it, but there was something that had caused all of his current problems, and he wanted to find out what had caused them. At least the anomalies it produced ceased, and the energy plant was no longer providing a vacuum for the zerg to breed in since it disappeared after the 'discovery' had supposedly manifested itself into existence afterwards. The surveillance captain that outranked him, and left him in charge of the surveillance deck he was stationed in, was bickering with some technicians, possibly shouting at them to work faster so that the sensor array and its system of networking sensors would work as intended. Apparently, the sensor computer system thought that it was being hacked into, and it decided to lock its systems and forced itself to shut down.

He was currently stationed in a room with several surveillance terminals, operated by several surveillance officers that manages the surveillance feeds that the sensor array network provided for them. It was but one of several dedicated installations that watched over the surface area of Kiln, and each of these 'surveillance decks' which overlooked several kilometers of land numbered in the thousands, each one able to constantly survey and analyze a hundred thousand kilometers of land. The room was somewhat dark, with many of the overhead screens and monitor terminals, which showed the topographical map of Kiln's surface, provided the only light for the room.

One of the ensigns that recently transferred from the Crescent Arms Division smacked the side of his computer screen in frustration. The commandant looked over at the disturbance. "Stupid fucking thing. Work." The ensign hissed, looking as though he was starting to lose his patience. He wore a silver and blue uniform of a lesser rank than the commandant.

The commandant came over to the ensign and looked down on his workplace. "Hitting the technology won't fix it or make it work faster."

The ensign suddenly turned around and looked up at the commandant, paused, sighed, and then went back to looking at his surveillance terminal. "Sir. Sorry sir. It won't happen again, sir."

"As you were, and at ease. The captain's not here to babysit you lot, so I'm in charge until he's done thumbing around for answers. Have you familiarized yourself with the surveillance terminal's controls yet?" He asked, looking at the other ensigns that were either idling or trying to figure out the problem from their ends.

The ensign he was talking to shook his head. "Actually, sir, I just transferred here today."

The commandant raised an eyebrow. "That accent... Are you a Crescent Arms soldier? In a Torus Chain job position? They didn't demote you, did they?"

The ensign lightly chuckled and shook his head. "No sir. Ever since General Pallax's had ordered to pull all Golden Star Empire resources and personnel from containing the zerg within the vacuum anomaly entirely, a lot of soldiers have been left without any work to do, save for instances where a zerg nest crops up, or where possible zerg activity is reported to be occurring at. I decided that I would ask permission to transfer myself to a surveillance job. In doing so, I hope that I can increase my skill experience in other fields before applying myself to higher responsibilities."

The commandant nodded and smiled. "Lofty goals. Lof-tee goals. Keep working with that mindset and you will get promoted in no time." He stretched out his hand toward the ensign. "Commandant Ooris."

The ensign exchanged the handshake offer. "Ensign Xalan, sir."

After the handshake, Ooris pulled his hand back and straightened his posture. "An ensign, eh? So then... Have you familiarized yourself with the controls and our protocols?"

"Yes and no, sir." Xalan said in embarrassment. He went to the controls of the surveillance terminal and played with its controls. "I know that I can focus the search image to inspect five square feet of land, and can zoom out to encompass sixty thousand square miles of land. There is an overlay that places icons on the map that helps us detect movement, fluctuations in enemy formations, color changes, thermal imaging, and uh... something about detecting external neural oscillation fields."

Ooris shook his head, not noticing that Commander Ralkan had entered into the room. "If you're going to be working for us on this surveillance deck, you need to learn how to use certain abbreviations when reporting any anomalies or uncouth activities to your superiors. First off, don't say 'external neural oscillations' when you detect them and need to relay your findings. We say 'ENO fields'. It's a short abbreviation, and it would definitely quicken the Crescent Arms Division and Kiln Keeper's responses against any zerg organism activity."

"ENO fields? Hm... I'll keep that in mind, sir." Xalan said, nodding. He too didn't notice the commander eavesdropping on their conversation.

Ooris sighed as he looked over the other surveillance officers that were trying to find a solution to their current problems. "From what the eggheads at the Cube Research Division uncovered, these zerg organisms is commanded by a type of telepathic network, and they believe they use these ENO fields to communicate with each other. To put it simply, if a blade hound is hurt, then other blade hounds will instantly know that one of their kind has been attacked, similarly to how marchers (ants) uses pheromones to govern and warn the nest of any intruders and threats. But the scientists also discovered several different kinds of ENO fields, and found out that it has certain frequency patterns and frequency intensities that guides and governs the zerg organisms."

"If you don't mind me asking, sir, but why does being able to detect different kinds of ENO fields have to do with telling where our boys in silver where the action is going to be at?" Xalan asked.

"It has to do with life-or-death situations." Ooris answered. "Each zerg organism is able to produce a signature ENO field frequency that informs its position to other zerg organisms, which is produced from the mobile zerg. Oddly enough, the bio-structure nests on the surface can also produce ENO fields too. The scientists say that several kinds of ENO fields exists in varying intensities and frequencies, and that they are oftentimes produced from the drifters and oculars, but they postulate that they are also relayed from them as well."

"I see." Xalan replied, nodding as he slowly understood how the sensor array worked. "So how varied are these patterns, and how intense can these frequencies get?"

Ooris snorted. "You're an inquisitive talky type, for sure." He held up his fingers and pointed at them. "Let's see uh... Offhand, I know that there are several ENO field patterns that we have translated. From what the scientists told me, there are two types of patterns. One is called ENO command fields, and the other is ENO communication fields. Oftentimes, the drifters use the communication fields to speak with one another, sometimes across great distances. However, the ENO command fields are very specific, concise, and direct. They happen spontaneously, but our sensor array does have the ability to detect them and give us a sense of what the zerg organisms are planning. From Faddoh's current sensor update, I guess we have detected about... forty types of ENO command fields, I think?"

Xalan widened his eyes. "That many?"

Ooris nodded. "Indeed. And we have discovered that around twenty of them relates to ordering the floaters to turn into one of several types of nest or sub-nest bio-structures. But to add to the confusion, we can also detect sub-frequencies within the ENO fields, which I suppose acts like an identifier. To me, it just sounds similar to caller identification, like when you have been called by people that you have listed as annoying relatives that love to gab and talk with you. But anyway, there are lesser sub-frequencies that are usually low intensity and produced by nearly every zerg organism. The relay sub-frequencies, which is produced by the drifters, oculars, and certain nest bio-structures that often ranges from low to medium frequencies. And then there are what we call the commander sub-frequencies, which are always high intensity. So far, we have detected three distinct commander sub-frequencies that the scientists believe to originate from zerg command organisms."

Xalan looked down at the ground in surprise. "... Would that mean there are three other bug-man beast-masters to worry about?"

Ooris sighed. "Maybe. Maybe. The sensors that are unaffected by the system shutdown are doing what they can to cover the blind spots in our sensor network, so we only have what is available to us. The sky rings will take their time to shift and eventually cover over any blind spots, but at least we can still alert the troops on the ground of any zerg ENO activity."

"I'm sure they'll appreciate our assistance, sir." Xalan said with a smile and a thumbs up.

Ooris nodded back. "So are we beginning to see past the blind spot in our sensor network yet?"

Xalan checked his surveillance terminal's monitor. "Uh... It's about fifty seven percent covered, sir. The sensor system repair seems to be progressing, at fifteen percent complete and rising. ... Hmm. This is not good. An under beast has surfaced at the center of the black glass crater. Several nest bio-structures detected, both wriggler spawning and undefined. Heavy zerg ENO fields detected. Looks like a high intensity sub-frequency is directing the zerg organisms."

"Show me the sub-frequency." Ooris ordered. Xalan was quick, but he had located the sub-frequencies that was detected over the emerging infestation. Ooris looked at the terminal's monitor and frowned. "... There is some atmospheric interference, but it seems to be the type-1 sub-frequency. So the 'Breeder Demoness' is taking back her lost territory, eh?"

"Demoness, sir?" Xalan asked.

"A nickname we use with this kind of sub-frequency." Ooris said, backing away from Xalan's surveillance terminal. "It often appears within areas that the zerg want to infest. The other two sub-frequencies are type-2 and tybe-3, otherwise known as the 'Abductor Lord' and the 'Absent Inquisitor' sub-frequencies. Any zerg organisms following the type-2 sub-frequency have the horrible habit of turning into war claws or dread maws, but only if a battle draws on for a long enough time. Thankfully, the sky ring defense system are able to take them out just as quickly as they appear, save for any war claws that burrow under the ground in time. The type-3 sub-frequency is more uncommon, but it has a habit of surrounding doppelgangers or individuals that have been reported surviving an attack from a flier caretaker, or several flier caretakers. Oddly enough, there have been reports of voices plaguing certain individuals that survived a flier caretaker attack, which otherwise prompts odd behavior, incessant questioning, and dubious activities. Many of them have been quarantined, and many more have been executed since the discovery of the brain leeches that were found attached to their brain matter. It kinda looks like a carapaced fish with spines and a sucker on its head. Anyway, once the brain leeches insert themselves into a potential host's brain, it affects their vision and sight, making them hallucinate that they are talking to someone or seeing objects and people that were never present. In some uncommon cases, however, their were people who had visions that are said to be so much more vivid and violent that it resulted in the hosts developing insomnia, schizophrenia, or suicidal tendencies."

Xalan blinked a few times as he turned around and stared at his commandant. "... I... Never thought that the zerg had such a creature at their disposal! Wouldn't any biological contact with the zerg result in zerg infestation, sir? You know... contracting the zerg virus and then transforming into a zerg pawn organism hours later?"

Ooris nodded. "Yeah, it's a kerfuffle of a thought alright. The few surviving gilanians that have been confirmed having the brain leeches in their skulls are subjected to permanent containment, followed by ongoing testing. However, research into the brain leeches proved to be a great boon to the empire. The sensor network's sensor system was further enhanced to detect the zerg's ENO fields, thanks to the autopsy analysis of the zerg's brain leeches."

Ralkan sighed. "This is old news to everyone."

Ooris looked back behind himself, stammered, and then stood at attention. "COMMANDER ON DECK! TEN HUT!" Every officer in the surveillance deck moved out of their seats and saluted to the commander of the Torus Chain Division.

After a cursory glance at all the people standing and saluting to him, he made a small smile and hand-waved at them all. "At ease and as you were, gentlemen and ladies. I came here to supervise the repairs, so I thought to come and see if we have any coverage on the black glass crater." Ralkan said, stepping forward and looking up at the screens.

"Yes sir." Ooris said, already noting that the officers in the deck were working more quickly than normal. Ooris silently wished that they could work this fast when he was commanding them. "We are beginning to gain coverage of the black glass crater, sir. We also discovered that the zerg organisms are rebuilding their nest structures at the center of the crater."

Ralkan sighed. "Ugh. And we just secured that area too. Do we have any idea on what happened to the ground crews?"

Ooris turned to Xalan. "Ensign Xalan, you're up."

Xalan nodded and looked through several locations in the black glass crater. "Uh... It appears as though that all of the assembled Kiln Keeper machines and empire soldiers maintaining the defensive perimeter around the discovery were decimated, sir. Unknown causes."

Ralkan shook his head and grimaced. "Whatever happened there created an external neural oscillation field strong enough to overwhelm the sensor arrays that were being focused on that location. Is there any way we can retrieve any visual data? Specifically, the last saved images that the sensor's were able to save before they were forced into a lockdown and shutting down?"

Xalan paused before he answered. "... Yes sir. I can requisition for the last images that the sensors were able to... capture... uh..."

Ralkan turned to Xalan and narrowed his gaze at him. "Is something wrong?"

Xalan blinked a few times. "... A type-2... No... A type-2 and a new sub-frequency is currently enveloping our deck right now."

Ralkan sighed and hissed. "Then why haven't the alarms alerted us?"

Xalan shook his head. "The event that caused the sensor system blackout must have also affected the internal sensors of the sky rings. I never thought that ENO fields could be powerful enough to trigger an internal system shutdown too..."

"Hmm... I highly doubt that." Ralkan said, placing a hand to his chin and looked as though he was thinking. "... Just to be safe, I want everyone to evacuate to the infirmary to get tested for brain leeches. You there." Ralkan said, pointing at Xalan. "You just transferred from the Crescent Arms Division today, correct?"

Everybody groaned, while Xalan nodded. "Sir, yes sir."

"Then you'll be first in line." Ralkan then walked to, opened, and stood by the only entrance into the surveillance deck. After a brief and awkward pause, Ralkan hissed and began roaring. "WELL?! GET TO THE INFIRMARY NOW, OR I WILL CALL IN THE SHADOW ASSASSINS TO PUT YOU ALL TO DEATH! MOVE IT! NOW!" The surveillance officers hurried their evacuation of the surveillance deck and filed out of the room, with Ensign Xalan at the front of the line. As the officers finally left the surveillance deck, Ralkan stepped forward and accessed one of the surveillance terminals, making the image focus on the center of the new zerg infestation. Ralkan stared at the image for several seconds before sighing. "... After twenty years... Why did that energy plant disappear only now? What caused its disappearance? Is this the spider slug's doing?"

Sadly, Ralkan wouldn't be getting his answer as he asked that question aloud to nobody. However, just because no one had parasites in the surveillance decks, didn't mean that a powerful mind couldn't eavesdrop on a distant conversation.

Kay sighed in exasperation. "Twenty years? I was stuck in the temporal tomb for twenty years?" He was currently surrounded by several types of queens, ranging from the regular queens, large queens, and a single huge queen. He thought that the huge queen was Virid at first, but her mental pattern was quite different when he checked the huge queen's mind. He could sense that Virid was currently residing on the moon, but upon learning about the capabilities of the Golden Star Empire's 'sky rings' made him nervous, and he thought that contacting Virid would somehow make the gilanian empire in the sky rings want to translate the communication link between himself and Virid. Their ability to detect these 'ENO field frequencies', or however they called it, appeared to be an incredibly dangerous advantage over the zerg swarm. It appeared as though a lot had happened in twenty years. "... Huh... For some reason, that doesn't seem right."

Corvurn, who oversaw the queens taking care of Kay, grumbled. "Mental power analyzed. Increased. Intriguing. Able to focus on minds from great distances. No parasites infested gilanian hosts."

Kay turned to Corvurn with a puzzled look. "What are you talking about?"

"Command organism Kay able to eavesdrop on conversation. Gilanians contained no parasites. Able to overhear conversation without using parasited hosts." Corvurn explained.

Kay nodded absently and sighed. "... Yeah. Now that you mention it, I can hear their minds from so far away. And on top of that, I didn't even need a parasite to listen into their conversations. So weird..."

"Must test. Explore limits. Experiment mental reach. Request. Focus on swarm parasites?" Corvurn asked.

"Parasites?" Kay closed his eyes and focused on the closest parasite victim. "Hmm... Oh... Oh wow." Kay said, seeing through the eyes, and hearing through the ear-holes, of a gilanian child that was under the cover of some metal roofing, being escorted by a tall gilanian woman in frilly clothing on a busy street with tall buildings. As the child looked at the buildings, Kay surmised that the child was residing in what appeared to be a much older version of Gargantua Citadel. There was certainly less poverty in the streets, but there was also an absurdly abundant number of metal spires and metal roofing that covered the top of many buildings. "Citadel Gargantua certainly looks more developed. And I didn't know we had new kinds of zerg strains too. Pretty neat! ... More importantly though, why is this child gilanian infested with a parasite?"

Corvurn seemed slightly hesitant to give his answer. "Parasites discovered years ago. Empire gilanians began exterminating parasite hosts. Developed psychological tactic. Children gilanians targeted for parasite infestation, youth hosts least unlikely to cull. Public culling resulted in outrage of surrounding population. Years later, developed method to remove parasites. Small risk to permanent brain damage. Rare chance for death. Technology unavailable to nonaligned populations. Only available to empire populations. Nonaligned populations now adamant against joining empire gilanians. Heightened chance for empire gilanians to dissent from empire."

Kay sighed as he focused on his location and sternly stared at Corvurn. "We're infesting kids with parasites now? Man, that is a whole new low, Corvurn." Kay said, shaking his head.

Corvurn shook his head. He seemed indifferent. "Psychological tactic. Nothing more. Prevented gilanian empire soldiers from further intervening in nonaligned gilanian populations. However, resulted in many empire gilanian populations migrating to empire orbital defenses. Proved difficult to infest empire gilanians with parasites."

Kay's hand reached for his face and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fucking fantastic." He said with dripping sarcasm. "So have you attacked the orbital defenses and found out how well defended it is?"

"Defenses, automated. Can predict air strain flight patterns. Largest swarm attack wave launched from hexagonal moon, fifteen billion. Leviathan and behemoth strains, kept in reserve. Used for fast transport in and out of defenses. Point defense, dangerous. Magic wall technology prevents entry. However, leviathan strain able to bypass orbital defenses. Temporary measure. Allowed command organism Othafurn to reconvene at command organism Kay's position." Corvurn answered.

Kay growled and craned his neck. "After I have been stuck for twenty years in that temporal tomb, you are telling me that you didn't find a way to defeat Gollog or annihilate his empire? Why?"

"Command organism Corvurn Junior explained." Corvurn explained. "Temporal tomb needed to decay naturally. Allow itself to short circuit. Said it key to victory. Followed plan."

Kay paused for several seconds and sighed. "Dammit. Even when I finally came back to the zerg swarm, it's only to find out that we don't make any plans to proactively fight Gollog's empire. If what you say is true that he's built several super satellites that can ensure a stalemate between his empire and our forces, then I don't see how we can defeat him without some kind of super weapon of our own to use. I mean... How the fuck are we going to win now?"

Corvurn paused for several seconds, seeming as though he was hesitant to answer. "... Unsure. Was hoping progenitor evolution master contacts swarm in future. Explains plans further."

Kay huffed, then turned to look at the lying form of an unconscious Othafurn. The queens vomited their transfused healing fluids onto her form, but she was still showing no signs of recovery. After several seconds of hesitation, Kay turned back to Corvurn. "So what have you developed in the twenty years I was gone? What happened when I was locked away from the swarm?"

Corvurn pleaded his fingers together. "Not many changes. However, command organism Kay unavailable to learn of mutations and adaptations. Developed several advantages, but haven't implemented. Will take time to explain."

Kay sighed and sat down on the cool creep. "Well go ahead. I got all the time in the world."

And so, Corvurn tried as best as he could to recall the events in the past twenty years. For the swarm to fight against the Golden Star Empire for o long, there had to have been many recent historical events that Kay needed to learn about.

A/N: You know what sounds amusing to me? Kobolds from a Dungeons and Dragons setting becoming space explorers and populating planets, plaguing the natives with their antics. :P