A Swarm Unleashed

by RoyalStarlord

A man with amnesia had woken up in a desert oasis one day, and in a world he does not recognize. He also doesn't recognize his new form and role as a newly reborn zerg organism. But upon his rebirth, he was given the option to command the zerg swarm. (Revision in progress)

83. B3: Hungering Birthplace

Chapter 83: Bonus 3: Hungering Birthplace

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Minutes before Kay's temporal tomb had finally broken down, a beleaguered yawn escaped the throat from mouth of a gilanian colonel.

Far away from a large battle that was happening miles away, a heavily defended desert platform was busy surveying several operations within the geological location known as the Red Desert, on the outskirts of the zealously protected territory that belonged to Kay and Virid's zerg brood. The desert platform that the colonel was residing in was protected by an airborne fleet of floating fortresses and a convoy of several other desert platforms. The colonel's desert platform needed this kind of protection because it had been ambushed several times by the zerg already. He could count the several occasions that the zerg attempted to root out his command onboard the desert platform he commanded. There was one particular event that he recalled. Shrylisks, or shryik pawns as everyone in Golden Star came to know them, regurgitated several banelings right underneath their feet in an attempt to undermine and disable his desert platform. If it wasn't for the quick work of the automated turrets that were equipped with seismic sensors, then the colonel would have used a MEM device to retreat to a safer location.

It was his job to assist the Kiln Keepers in their war efforts, and the Cube Research Division in their science expeditions. However, this colonel in particular had no desire to engage the zerg using his own forces. He would rather stay back and report back to his commanders on any significant changes that deserved such an addressment. But at least he had Commander Kralluf hovering over his position. The commander of the Crescent Arms Division, that this colonel answered to, would always concern himself with the most intense combat zones, though he would not dare let his capitol fortress go near or over zerg territory. The bile launchers were greatly known to not only be dangerous to personnel on the ground, but also to anything that was airborne when they were in the trajectory of the acidic globs of bile. The zerg had been implementing scores of bile launchers lately, and the colonel had been calling out their positions to his commander. Afterwards, beams of light would rain down from the sky, which forced the bile launchers from launching more of their lobbed bombs of bile, only to become hot ash and soot by the time the energy lances wielded by the sky rings finally stopped their bombardment.

This kind of dance had been prolonging the spread of the zerg for a few years now. The laser bombardment would often happen every three or so days, sometimes on a day-to-day basis if the zerg swarm was riled up enough. At least the Kiln Keepers were keeping the zerg from making any manageable progress. Had it not been for the metal machines that had once kept the gilanian ancestors from taking over Kiln once upon a time ago, then the zerg would have taken over Kiln instead. From the various variants that he had ever worked with, ranging from the Kiln Keeper gilanioid-shaped robotic Peace Keepers, the hovering sphere-shaped range specialists called Blind Judgements, the heavy artillery known as Justice Extremities, the mechanical machines that squishes unlawfulness named Crime Crushers, the transparent barrier emitting Cage of Laws, and the artificially intelligent Intelligent Automatons, there had only been one Kiln Keeper robotic individual he had the displeasure to familiarize himself with. And it was a Kiln Keeper robot that Emperor Gollog himself had assigned to him.

"Inquiry requested. Colonel Yazzal, relay any tactical information deemed important to Kiln Keeper assets." An intelligent automaton that resided at a surveillance officer's observation kiosk said, breaking the colonel's monotonous boredom for the umpteenth time.

Colonel Yazzal breathed in and sighed. "Request detected. I'm sorry, Blocky, but there has been no new information deemed important or tactical. Await further orders, or continue to make requests that I am capable of accomplishing for you." He replied to the Intelligent Automaton he had aloofly nicknamed 'Blocky'. This exchange had became a droning routine that Blocky and Yazzal had repeated every half hour, for as long as Yazzal could remember.

"Reply detected. Analyzing strategy... Analysis complete. Continuing with current strategies." Blocky replied back, though it kept its gaze fixated on the observation kiosk during their entire, yet brief, conversation.

Yazzal looked over to the Kiln Keeper variant that was assigned to him. Though it was purposed to respond to his commands, Yazzal was actually quite limited to the kinds of commands he could give to the Kiln Keeper. Though his influence onto the cubic robot may be limited, the Kiln Keeper was actually quite vigilant in its duties, being far more capable than any surveillance officer assigned to a computer that's connected to the surveillance camera network. In truth though, the Intelligent Automaton acted more like an observation officer than a surveillance officer.

The differences between an observation officer and a surveillance officer were slight. In truth, surveillance officers were mostly used to analyze Golden Star's enemies and scrutinize any details that the surveillance cameras had recorded. Observation officers were mostly tasked with keeping an eye on their own soldiers. Many prisoners and criminals would oftentimes be drafted to do work for the many military divisions within Golden Star. Some were unfortunate enough to be forced to wear bondman armor, a type of metal chest piece that had several surveillance cameras, microphones, and tiny explosives built into it. If the people who wore the bondman armor were to do something that the observation officers deemed unsavory, or if they'd perform an action that goes against their standing orders, then the observation officers would have the opportunity to 'retire' their drafted soldiers. In reality, the observation officers acted much like commissars that vigilantly watched their helpless prisoners.

"Colonel Yazzal, sir. A contingent of blade hounds are rushing toward our location from south-south-west from our position. I predict that they will reach our destination in fifteen minutes." A nearby surveillance officer barked.

Yazzal responded to the surveillance officer. "Send a request to the carrier fortresses. Tell them to make a bomb run against any ground sorties they can find in that area. Has there been any spawner or greater spawner activity lately?"

"No sir." The surveillance officer replied.

"How long has it been since there have been a spawner sighting?"

"Uh... Roughly four hours, sir."

"Mm. Better pepper that area with artillery rounds before sending in the bombers. Have the bomber fliers intercept the blade hound formation at an angle, so that the artillery rounds don't connect on top of them. The bombers are free to pursue, but remind the bomber flier squadron to not follow them into the yellow zone. If they find any spawners, or any anti-air zerg organism capable of downing their aircraft during their bomb run, then they are free to retreat."

"Sir, yes sir! Relaying orders now, sir."

Yazzal turned to Blocky. "Blocky, you'll need to tell your Kiln Keepers to fortify that areas the blade hounds are heading towards. After the bomber fliers make their runs, your machines need to push into those bombed areas."

"Tactical input detected. Confirmed. Analyzing strategy... Analysis complete. Deficient unit composition. Redistributing available units to target areas. Unable to alter additional strategies. Awaiting further input." Blocky replied to Yazzal.

Once his orders had been given, Yazzal sighed to himself again. Oftentimes, if the population of the zerg gets too out-of-hand for the Kiln Keepers to deal with, Golden Star's Crescent Arms Division would have to intervene and reduce their enemy's numbers. This tug-of-war between the Golden Star military and the swarm of zerg had became progressively worse as time went on. The Cube Research Division's scientists had announced long ago that it was quite possible the zerg were capable of expanding their territories through a series of tunnel networks deep below the ground. When the analysis of a deep seismic scan of their crust returned to them, they were shocked with their discovery. Afterwards, there had been several attempts to root out the underground hatchery chambers that produced the several kinds of zerg strains. They even sent specialized bombs that drilled through the ground, only to detonate with a high-explosive yield when they reached their target. However, the zerg had adapted to this tactic by intercepting the self-guiding 'driller torpedoes', a name that Faddoh had bequeathed to the anti-burrowing munitions, within the very ground itself. It had made the war against the zerg even worse, since the driller torpedoes would sometimes create cavities in the underground, allowing the zerg to build more of their nesting structures.

For the past twenty years, the underground hive cluster of the zerg kept expanding, growing larger and larger as time slowly went on. Naturally formed caverns and underground cave systems were regarded as key locations that were of great interest to the zerg, and they heavily infested them as they were discovered. Once the infestation began, the roaches and the drones, sometimes helped by banelings, would begin creating a network of tunnels that expanded the caverns and cave systems that the first hatchery had morphed in. The creep itself seemed to reinforce the rock that it grew on, which helped prevent the tunnel systems from collapsing. Once a nydus network had settled itself in the infested area, the roaches would then begin creating underground chambers that could provide enough room to allow a nydus worm to be summoned in, which would later be accompanied by a hatchery. Once the nydus worm was summoned, an ultralisk would be transported to its location to expand the chamber, making more room for additional bio-structures. Many of these zerg-carved chambers would often be populated with hatcheries, which were usually guarded by one or two spine crawlers, and sometimes an equal number of spore crawlers. Using anti-air zerg bio-structures in an underground area might not make much tactical sense, but they were indispensable when they needed to detect any hidden shadow assassins, or for any driller torpedoes coming toward their hatcheries.

The primary hatchery chambers by themselves didn't normally have enough room to form all the resource tumors that the zerg needed, so the secondary hatchery chambers would also have resource tumors formed within them as well. When the neighboring secondary hatchery chambers were fully formed, the roaches would then get to work in digging more tunnels in order to excavate and create more secondary hatchery chambers that were further away from the primary hatchery chamber. This would create an underground network that formed what might have looked like a hollow spiderweb, with each connection within the web of underground tunnels containing a hatchery chamber, with the primary hatchery chamber as its center. The branching tunnel systems, created by the roaches and ultralisks, were also stacked on top of each other to form several misshapen, yet ever still widening, layers of zerg hive clusters, with the occasional upward or downward spiraling tunnel that acted as an emergency staircase, which were possibly used when the nydus network/worm transportation system was ever compromised. These webbed layers of tunnels were usually half a kilometer, or a kilometer and a half, apart, yet the topmost layer of the zerg tunnels, primary hatchery and secondary hatchery chambers, was mostly three to five kilometers below the surface of Kiln. Collectively, including each and every layer of these zerg underground production bases as well as the hive clusters sparsely growing on the surface of Kiln, they were referred as the 'super hive cluster', named so due to the fact that the underground nydus networks and worms connected each primary hatchery chamber, their neighboring secondary chambers, and the hive clusters on the surface, together.

In the twenty years that Golden Star had fought Kay and Virid's brood, the underground hive clusters continued to expand and grow, which also fueled the zerg swarm's production of bio-matter and accelerant, which also provided them the resources they needed to produce their various strains. By the calculations of the Cube Research Division's scientists, there could be thousands of hatchery chambers within the underground, with anywhere between fifty or a hundred hatchery chambers being created in a single day, though they did not have an accurate estimate of how many hatchery chambers there are in total. The scientists even theorized that the zerg have already became the most abundant dominant organisms on Kiln. They were forced to guess, then they would probably have said that there were thirty thousand hatchery chambers, and more were still being created.

"Colonel Yazzal, sir. I have detected a bandit-modded dune-boat heading straight into the yellow zone. Should we intercept?" A surveillance officer reported.

"If he really wants to ride through a demon's throat, then let him. All the less trouble for us if he, or she, dies."

"Uh... Sir? What if it is a bandit working as a scrapper?" Asked the surveillance officer.

Bandit scrappers had became a negligible problem to Golden Star's military as of late. Due to their resourcefulness, they would risk their lives to extract whatever metal they could find in the aftermath of a battle, and bring their hauls to a smelter. A select few had managed to modify their equipment and vehicles to be able to withstand the airless environment of the yellow zone, which accrued them significant gains in vouchers and water through every single trip they took. It was a lucrative business model that bandit scrappers practiced. Technically speaking, selling technology that once belonged to Golden Star or to the Kiln Keepers was decreed highly illegal, by the command of Emperor Gollog. However, if the technology was gutted of all of its metal and parts, recycled down to its basic elements, melted into metal ingots or remolded into a completely different item, then the Torus Chain Division wouldn't have enough evidence to convict the bandit scrappers of their crimes.

But there were some exceptions to certain procedures and protocols when regarding the other divisions. In the Crescent Arms Division, anyone caught breaking the law, or is suspected of illegal activities, could be confined indefinitely, put to death under firing squad, or be transferred to a different division that had the appropriate jurisdiction to deal with the offender. And since Golden Star is at war against The Zerg Swarm, wartime law dictates that anyone caught breaking the law, or is suspected of illegal activities, would be shot on sight by Crescent Arms personnel, regardless of the brevity of their criminal deeds.

Yazzal shook his head in response to his surveillance officer's report. "That is a negative, Major Taggan. We're already focused on fighting the zerg. To divert our attention from one small bandit scrapper could divert our resources, which could then open holes in our military strength. What we can do for now is make a note of the shape and position of the modified dune-boat, and notify the Torus Chain Division the bandit activity we detected."

"Sir, yes sir." The surveillance officer replied before going back to his surveillance screen.

"Sir, a razor fiend stampede is reaching the maximum range of our artillery installations." Another surveillance officer reported.

"What is their number and composition?" Asked Colonel Yazzal.

"I'm seeing about... Five, ten, fifteen, twenty... thirty razor fiends, sir!"

"Hmm... An awful lot of them this time. Have the artillery installations and most of our desert platforms concentrate fire from their maximum ranges. Tell the carrier fortresses to divert their bombers to intercept the razor fiend stampede. Once the razor fiends begin their retreat, or become completely neutralized, the bomber fliers need to retreat back to their carrier fortresses to resupply and refuel."

"Sir, I am also receiving confirmation that there are spawners and greater spawners that have joined the blade hounds. If you don't mind my assumption, sir, but I believe that the razor fiends are also being aided by spawners."

Yazzal gritted his teeth. "Dammit. We might have to order an orbital bombardment of those areas." Yazzal turned to the Intelligent Automaton that he had nicknamed. "Blocky. Any recommendations?"

The cubic and metal tendril form of the Intelligent Automaton turned to gaze at Colonel Yazzal. "Query detected. Concentrating Kiln Keeper forces toward enemy formations will ensure delayed movement. Non-Kiln Keeper artillery assets will minimally damage or destroy Kiln Keeper assets. Destruction of selected Kiln Keeper assets considered acceptable losses."

Yazzal smiled. The colonel was adamant against relying on the orbital bombardments produced by the energy lances on the sky rings. Though they were very effective weapons in their own right, Yazzal would prefer not to contact any of his superior officers for a few reasons. He knew that if he annoyed his commanders, his general, or even his own emperor, even with the smallest details, then his position would be quickly replaced with another colonel that would be considered 'more capable' than him. That, and the energy lances tend to have a horrible effect on the ozone layer of Kiln's stratosphere. Though with Gollog's 'holy divine smite attack' being eerily disabled years ago, it was only just one laser that burned away the ozone layer after every firing. There were also the sky ring's energy lances to worry about, for there were many over his head at all times. They had been constantly firing on the very day the first sky ring was completed in its construction. "Tell your Kiln Keeper buddies to buy us some time then."

"Command detected. Command within acceptable parameters for Kiln Keeper assets. Initiating strategy." Blocky turned back toward its screen and resumed its current role.

Yazzal then turned to the surveillance officer. "Relay my previous orders. Tell the carrier fortress that its bomber fliers will have some Kiln Keeper support soon."

"Sir, yes sir!" The surveillance officer replied.

Yazzal sighed as he went to his command chair and sat in it. "Looks like we're really burning the midnight oil again. Ugh... What I wouldn't give for a snack right now. Maybe a deviled egg with fireroot shavings mixed in the yolk would pick up my mood? Taggan, what would you recommend?"

"I'd recommend dumping our bugmeal and dried vaph meat rations into the artillery cannons and fire them at the zerg, sir." Major Taggan snorted.

Yazzal chuckled. "Heheh. At least we'll still have the powdered egg packets and dehydrated fruit."

And then, in the span of second, something grand and unexpected happened. A burst of light had flooded Yazzal's command deck. The light was so blinding that it had made everyone within the desert platform start to shout and complain. Even Yazzal's major groaned in frustration against the brilliant radiance. "Gah! Sir, what's going on?!"

"You're the damn head of surveillance around here! You're supposed to tell me!" Yazzal growled as he shielded his own eyes.

"Anomalies detected. Analyzing anomalies... Analysis incomplete." Blocky cooly stated as he looked directly into the light.

The protestations of Yazzal's desert platform's crew lasted quite briefly as the blinding luminescence faded away. When the light finally faded, the crew of the desert platform were able to see clearly once again. However, when they did have the ability to see once more, they noticed that the night was a lot darker than normal. Major Taggan was among the first to realize why. "... Uh... Sir?"

Yazzal rubbed his eyes in annoyance. "The fuck is it, Major?"

"Look." Taggan said, pointing to something in the darkness.

Yazzal looked at where Taggan had pointed, but found nothing. Yazzel's eyes narrowed and hardened at that nothing for several seconds, not understanding what Taggan wanted him to see before he later realized what he truly was seeing. It was nothing. Which is to say, something that once occupied that location at one point in time was now completely missing. The energy plant that had once occupied the center of the danger zones was suddenly gone. It was as though it had disappeared as that flash of light blinded their vision. The only forms of light he could see was the sea of red stars that marched toward the zerg territories that the Kiln Keepers sought to take, and the faint bioluminescence that was produced from the zerg within their own territories. It was a truly a strange sight to see. After twenty years living with the giant zerg flower, which created a field that pushed away the very air itself, somehow created the perfect nesting grounds for the zerg, and created several kinds of electrical storms that threatened to electrify anyone that passed through them, the energy plant had up and disappeared in a nova of white.

Colonel Yazzal had completely loss his focus as the burst of light confounded him. "... Uh... What... The... Is... Is the... The plant gone?"

Major Taggan blinked his eyes a few times. "All I see is darkness. If what I am seeing is true, sir, then the energy plant has... somehow disappeared."

A different surveillance officer chimed in. "Colonel Yazzal, sir! What are our orders?"

Yazzal feared that he would find the need to contact his superiors, even when he knew it would eventually happen at one point or another. He sighed. "... I need to make a fucking call. Contact Commander Kralluf. We need to make a report on this development, and acquire his input regarding this matter. I'll need four of my highest officers beneath my rank to stand behind me."

"We're being contacted. A communication link request has been sent to us by Commander Faddoh and General Pallax, sir." A surveillance officer sounded off.

Yazzal would have sighed again. "Well this aught to be serious if even the general is included in this call." After Yazzal stood up from his chair, four of his highest officers gathered behind him and awaited for the communication link to be established. Yazzal gussied up his armor a little before he nodded. "Okay, I'm ready. Accept the communication request."

[For the last time, no! I am NOT sending your scientists that deep into the field!] [Please, Pallax! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to analyze the energy flower's sudden behavioral changes!] [And I have expressively told you before that entry into the zones past yellow is forbidden to all Golden Star military personnel!] [But we don't know what has happened! We need to send a heavily guarded research team into the orange zone so that they can-] [I have made it abundantly clear that-] [WE NEED TO SEND A HEAVILY GUARDED RESEARCH TEAM INTO THE RED ZONE SO WE CAN FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THE ENERGY FLOWER!] [Increasing the volume on your voice-box is not going to convince me to give you what you want.] [BUT PALLAX!] [Mute Commander Faddoh.]

Yazzal dumbly stared at the two faces that argued with each other. Once General Pallax was able to divide his attention, Colonel Yazzal saluted. "Good morning, sirs."

[At ease, Yazzal.] Pallax said with an exhale. [I noticed that a strange phenomenon had recently occurred in the Red Desert battlefield. I would normally have Kralluf report to me on any serious matters or sudden changes that would require my attention, but as it stands, Kralluf had placed you under command of the war zone within the danger zones.]

"Yes sir. Despite being a cyborg, my commanding officer believes that a healthy mentality comes from a long night of rest. He placed me in charge to command his soldiers and assets currently engaging the zerg organisms." Yazzal stated. "However, there is something that I should report urgently."

[Is it about the energy plant becoming dark?] Pallax guessed.

Yazzal nodded. "Yes sir. The anomaly had became dark when the light level was approximately uh..." Yazzal looked over to his side for a few seconds before returning his gaze to his general. "... at 23.534% waxing, sir."

[Hrh... So that explains why Commander Faddoh was suddenly being so impulsive. Have there been any other notable changes I need to know about?]

"None at the moment, sir." Yazzal replied. "There was a flash of light that startled everyone in my desert platform, which preceded before the energy plant becoming dark. It happened roughly three minutes ago, but that is the extent of my report at this time. We are unsure if this change in light level is having any affect on the zerg organisms."

[A flash of light? Strange. Maybe the surveillance officers monitoring the ENO field sensor system might have something to add to this?]

"How so, sir?" Yazzal asked, somewhat piqued on how the ENO fields, also known as the zerg-based psionic communication frequencies, could somehow affect the minds of gilanians.

[Well if this has anything to do with the zerg, then I bet that-]

A forceful gush of wind had intervened into Pallax and Yazzal's conversation. It was a violent, forceful, and sudden wind that surprised everyone. Gilanian soldiers were forced from their patrols and manned positions as the wind blew them away. Several of the dune boats were turned over as the violent hurricane wind flew itself underneath them, which then made them roll uncontrollably. Worse still, every single sand-boarder that was making their quicker patrols had either suffered extreme injuries, or had died from having their own sand-boards suddenly flip around, which ended up breaking their ankles and their necks simultaneously. The gilanian soldiers that crewed the desert platforms fared better. At least the ones that were inside of the desert platforms survived. The soldiers outside the desert platform would either be tossed like ragdolls, or fall of and die from the impact with the ground. They flying fortresses were even pulled by the wind, making them tilt dangerously or flutter at uneven angles before righting themselves. Many of the lighter ships, or flying fortresses that were at high altitudes, were able to save themselves from the sudden gust of wind, yet some of the destroyer fortresses and capitol fortresses lost their balance. They careened into the ground and permanently became disabled, made no longer able to levitate in the high altitude ever again.

Yazzal looked around himself as he heard both screaming and creaking metal threaten his desert platform. Pallax took note of the chaos that he heard from his end of the communication link. [... Colonel Yazzal? What's going on over there?]

Yazzal analyzed his surroundings for a few seconds before he responded. "It's... It's windy! There's a gust of strong wind outside my desert platform, sir!" Yazzal turned to his major. "Taggan, what's the condition of our men?!"

"I saw several of our men stationed outside of our desert platform being pushed off by the wind, sir." Taggan reported.

An annoyed sigh escaped Pallax's lips. [Wind? But it's not even the wet season yet.]

"I apologize for not being a better meteorologist, but I cannot explain this phenomenon with my current knowledge, sir!" Yazzal growled.

[Of course. I'd even imagine Kralluf complaining about the lack of information if he were in your position.]

At that moment, Blocky interrupted their conversation. "Anomalies and flaws detected. Analyzing strategy... Analysis complete. Efficient unit formation. Efficient unit composition. Advancing from current positions. Adjusting strategies."

Yazzal turned to Blocky with a puzzled expression stretched across his face. "What?"

General Pallax sighed again. [What is happening now?]

"I'm finding that out right now, sir." Yazzal said as he walked up to the Intelligent Automaton. "Blocky. Report to me the anomalies and flaws the Kiln Keepers discovered."

Blocky turned to Yazzal and stared at him with its single square eye. "Command detected. Composition of anomalies: Damage received from zerg organisms reduced to 0%. Zerg organism aggression reduced to 0%. Zerg organism movement patterns have changed, considered inefficient. Zerg organism territory defenses reduced to minimal levels. Composition of flaws: Zerg organisms ceased attacking Kiln Keeper assets and Golden Star assets. Zerg organisms ceased expanding their territories. Behavior of zerg organisms altered. Upon receiving damage, would retreat several meters or remain immobile. Zerg organisms' unit formations disorganized."

Yazzal blinked, even more confused than he ever was. "... Whah?"

General Pallax narrowed his eyes. [... Did your Intelligent Automaton say that the zerg have became docile?]

Yazzal looked back and forth between Blocky and Pallax for a few seconds before coughing. "I think that is what it said, sir." Yazzal reported.

[How odd... Do you think that the disappearance of the energy flower has something to do with the zerg organisms' recent docility?]

Yazzal shrugged. "It would be unprofessional of me to assume that there even is a correlation between the zerg and the energy plant, sir."

[Then give me a hypothesis. What do you think happened?]

Yazzal looked down and blinked a few times before he thought up an answer. "... If I were to make an educated guess, sir, then I would say that the disappearance of the energy plant might have been the cause to affect the zerg's aggression. I would also think it could have affected other anomalies, or perhaps created more anomalies, after it vanished. Like this sudden wind as an example."

"Sir, I just noticed something!" Taggan interrupted. "The wind is flowing toward the direction of the danger zones!"

Yazzal turned toward Taggan and hissed. "Major Taggan, if you ever interrupt my conversation with General Pallax again, I will shoot you in the arm."

Taggan paused before making a reply. "Uh... Sir, y-y-yes sir." He then went back to his desk and remained quiet.

General Pallax huffed. [Hmm... The wind is flowing TOWARDS the danger zones? Un-mute Commander Faddoh.]

[Finally! I almost thought that you have forgotten about me!]

[Shut up and listen to me for just a second, Faddoh. After reviewing some vital data from one of Kralluf's colonels, I have decided to let you send a research team into the center of the danger zones.]

[Technically speaking, that was a little more than seven seconds. However, I am quite relieved that you have finally listened to reason, my dear general!]

[Colonel Yazzal,] General Pallax said, gesturing to Colonel Yazzal. [I shall leave you with Commander Faddoh. You two will enlist a group of people that will form a research team. They will need a heavily armed escort as they spearhead into the danger zones and through the zerg territories. In order to investigate the new anomalies that had recently manifested, we need to risk sending some people to find out what has happened. Understand?]

Yazzal saluted to General Pallax. "Yes sir. However, sir, I have a question."

General Pallax sighed. [Get on with your question.]

"What should we do when we enter the vacuum anomaly in the yellow zone? We don't have the equipment on hand that would let us survive in the airless environment."

[Then send a small scout force ahead of the main spearheading force. They will be your sacrificial sentinels. If something happens to them, then you'll know that the yellow zone is still maintaining its airless anomaly.] General Pallax answered.

Colonel Yazzal nodded. "Mm-hm..."

Pallax stared at Yazzal's expression and realized what his expression had meant. [I can understand your doubt, Colonel. However, consider this. You know how that a balloon would burst open when it is filled with too much air?]

Yazzal blinked twice. "Uh... I am aware that they would pop when they reach a certain volume, sir."

[I theorize that the violent wind is just an aftereffect to the event we just witnessed. In regards to the balloon I had mentioned, I believe that the vacuum anomaly is no different.]

"But normally a popping balloon would make the air inside explode outward. The wind is rushing TOWARDS the danger zones."

[That is true. However, I believe that the energy plant somehow sustained the vacuum anomaly. Now that the energy plant is gone, a violent wind had suddenly began to rush toward the danger zones. With the energy plant gone, the vacuum was unable to sustain itself, which made it pop backwards, or say, explode in reverse.]

['Pop backwards'? 'Explode in reverse'?] Faddoh mimicked. [General, the word you are looking for is implode. Don't insult the colonel's intelligence.]

[Pfeh. I'm too tired to be coherent right now.] Pallax growled as he rubbed one of his eyes. [Commander Faddoh, notify Commander Kralluf that you will be forming a spearhead force that will investigate the new anomalies.]

[By your command, general. And be sure to rest well!] Faddoh said with a bow.

After General Pallax canceled his communication link, Yazzal sighed. He was now forced to talk to one of Golden Star's most annoying commander, who was well known to be quite the motormouth. "So... Uh... Commander Faddoh, sir. What kind of spearhead detachment should we send?"

[Hmm, that is a very good question. Colonel Yazzal, was it? Well, I do believe that the scout force should be both heavily armed, relatively protected, and can quickly flee from the dangerous zerg, should any of them decide to bare their fangs at them! To ensure the safety of the scout and spearhead forces, I believe that they should keep their paces alongside the advancing Kiln Keeper formations. So long as they don't cross their path, or perform any activities that they consider illegal, then they should be fine! Maybe.]

"Maybe?"

[Well of course! We are in a very unpredictable battlefield, Colonel Yazzal! The zerg organisms had been the enemy to Golden Star for two decades and five days. They have shown no signs of dwindling during this drawn-out conflict, but I believe that with a stalwart will, and unflappable courage, then I am confident to say that we will be able to win against these monsters! However, if General Pallax's hypothesis is true, then we might be able to discover some new weaknesses that we can exploit to our benefit. Why, I believe that even Emperor Gollog would be privileged to personally shake your hand once he learns of your military prowess!]

"Uh... I'm sure that would be quite an honor, sir."

[But that is enough dawdling for now! We need to get our tails in gear! Colonel Yazzal, I want you to create the teams you'll need for the spearhead and scout forces. I'll supply you with the researchers you'll need. We will review our assembled teams and then make our compromises from there. I would recommend using a fairly widespread scouting force that consists mostly of two groups of sand-boarders and scout fliers. The scout fliers would obviously be drone-operated pilots so that you don't have to needlessly sacrifice your men. Oh! And make sure the drone-operated scout fliers uses combustible engines! The sand-boarders will need an early warning system that warns them when they are getting close to the yellow zone. Though if the vacuum anomaly is disabled, as General Pallaxed hypothesized, then the drone-operated scouts should continue to fly through the yellow zone unabated. The zerg look as though they lost the will to fight for some reason or other, so I doubt that they should be any trouble for the scout or spearhead forces.]

"... Oh... Kay?"

[Oh this is quite exciting, isn't it?! This will give me several opportunities to analyze some new phenomenon for a change! I wonder what kind of things the scientists will discover once they breach through the yellow zone? Would they begin suffocating again right after they enter through it? No, that wouldn't make sense. The drone-operated scouts would warn the sand-boarders and spearhead force of the dangers. But even with every conceivable danger that we know of, I must say that I am quite glad that we have this opportunity to explore the yellow zones and the zones further in. And to explore these dreaded infested lands, perchance we'll be able to expand our knowledge? Oh now there's the rub! The penultimate pinnacle of scientific progress, otherwise known as discovery! But you know, now that I mentioned about going on adventures, I am suddenly reminded of a memory I still hold dearly and closely to my mechanical circuits. Why, I remember a little lass who was no more than two years of age-]

---

After some discomforting minutes had passed, Colonel Yazzal and Commander Faddoh eventually settled on their choices of officers and scientists that would form the spearheading research task force, which would be led by the vanguard scout force. The two forces would follow behind a platoon of Kiln Keeper robots as the deadly metal machines eradicated and exterminated all zerg organisms that they targeted and elimenated. The violent wind that had once plagued the Torus Chain soldiers was now but a breeze that pulled them toward their destination. It was an eerie sensation, like they were being pulled by looming spirits.

As the scout forces pushed forward, they noticed that the zerg was exhibiting quite different behavior before the flash of light had changed them. [This is the scout force, leading the spearhead research force, Captain Peex reporting.]

[What is it you are reporting, Scout force?] Answered Colonel Yazzal.

[The cameras aboard the drone fliers are able to give us a clear picture of the zerg organisms. I'm happy to report that they're no longer acting aggressively towards the Kiln Keepers. They're... either standing around or retreating when they are fired upon.]

Commander Faddoh decided to chime in. [Intriguing! The Intelligent Automaton did mention that the zerg have somehow devolved into a docile state, but it's hard to believe such a truth. Even when we are seeing the fact with our own eyes!]

Colonel Yazzal was surprised with what he saw. Swarms of zerglings and other types of ground strains seem to mill around and do nothing, while mutalisks, overlords, and other air strains flew around in lazy circles. The smaller zerg organisms died in droves, though the tougher and armored zerg organisms were able to survive the barrage of lasers from the Kiln Keepers for a short time. It took a great while for the ultralisks to be vanquished by the Kiln Keepers, while the brutalisks had decided to burrow deeply into the ground to avoid being confronted by the deadly machines. It was so bizarre to see, yet it was witnessed by the lucky few that dared journey through the orange zone. "It's... It's hard to believe that these monsters are so passive right now."

[Well... I wouldn't call them 'passive'.] Faddoh stated. [Their whipper and barnacle sentries are still quite territorial, and the burrowed ambushers, and their heavier breeds, are still quite a nuisance. But other than that, I'd say that the Kiln Keepers have become, oh, about around 1,193% more efficient against the zerg organisms, give or take a few decimals of inaccuracy. It's quite the change of pace, actually!]

Captain Peex interrupted Commander Faddoh. [This is Captain Peex of the vanguard scout force reporting again. Be advised, it looks like the Kiln Keepers are not targeting certain zerg bio-structures. We may need to alter course for the spearhead and scout forces on the ground.]

Yazzal blinked and turned to Blocky. "Blocky, why aren't your machines attacking the zerg structures that are in the way of the spearhead forces?"

"Query detected." Blocky reported, though he kept his eye on its surveillance monitor. "Kiln Keeper assets react only to hostile and criminal actions. Zerg organisms deemed dangerous and hostile are targeted for termination."

[Is that so? ... If my understanding of Kiln Keeper programming is correct, then this would mean that the Kiln Keepers would have little-to-no reason to target any zerg or zerg bio-structures that isn't capable of some form of attack, or any zerg organism that they haven't yet fought with. Hell, even the slime nodes are targeted by the Kiln Keepers due to the fact that they mangle and kill both plant life and animal life. Hmm... Colonel Yazzal. I believe we are presented with a unique research opportunity.] Replied Commander Faddoh.

"How so?" Yazzal asked.

[If we can send a small research detachment to analyze these non-hostile zerg and their bio-structures, then we might be able to find out so much more about these invasive monsters! It is a fantastic research opportunity!]

Yazzal sighed. "I don't think that would be a good use of our resources, Commander Faddoh. If we create a splinter group of researchers from our own spearhead forces, all just to analyze the zerg bio-structures and any non-hostile zerg, then the main research team in the spearhead force would be horribly understaffed. I recommend sending another research team, and have it be guarded by another spearhead force."

[Doh... Alright alright. I concede to your reasoning.] Commander Faddoh replied dejectedly. [Then allow me to form my own research team that will join your spearhead forces that will delve into the forward areas. But could we do so AFTER the Kiln Keepers and your spearhead and scout forces make their necessary detours?]

Yazzal shook his head. "I'm afraid that if we make too many detours, sir, then the window of opportunity that would allow us to discover what happened to the energy plant might close shut forever. The Red Desert is seven and a half thousand miles wide. I would rather we not have our only spearhead force waste any time on this mission."

[Eh? What do you mean by that?] Commander Faddoh said in curiosity.

Yazzal took a step forward and stood with a confident stance. "We'll have the spearhead and scout forces pass between and through the bio-structures. We can't waste time by taking every single detour we think is safe, or could otherwise net us a lot of research on these zerg organisms."

"Colonel Yazzal, sir. Are you sure that is a good decision, sir?" Major Taggan asked.

"Think of it like this, Taggan." Yazzal said as he began to explain his reasoning. "The sooner we can get this mission done, the quicker we can begin enjoying the rest of our lives in retirement. You have your orders, Peex?"

[Orders received, Colonel Yazzal. Continuing our trek through the nest structures, sir.] Captain Peex replied.

Commander Faddoh was surprised by Colonel Yazzal's explanation. [Which reminds me. How long have you been in service in Kralluf's Crescent Arms Division?]

"About eight and a half years active service now." Yazzal answered as a tired sigh escaped his lungs.

[Oh! That's about two and a half years over the recommended service time! Well, thank you for your long service with the Golden Star Empire! I'll be sure to put in a good word for you when you transfer to the sky ring domicile sections.]

Major Taggan blinked a few times. "... Have we really spent eight years fighting the zerg during our time being posted here, sir?"

Yazzal nodded with a sigh. "Indeed we have. I didn't want to bring this up on the account that we were currently in the middle of a war against the zerg. That, and I didn't want to sound selfish when I brought this topic up."

[This is Captain Peex reporting. The scout and spearhead research forces are coming closer to the zerg nest bio-structures. It looks to us that the Kiln Keepers have eradicated all hostile zerg organisms the areas ahead of us, but we are detecting movement further on.]

"Someone switch the main monitor to the video surveillance stream that the scout force is capturing." Major Yazzal commanded. Scant seconds had passed before a large screen had brightened with visual detail, enabling Colonel Yazzal to see everything that the scout force saw. Further away from the scout force, the Kiln Keepers were diligent in eradicating the zerg menace, whom was somehow reduced to a cowardly state when fired upon, or did nothing and idled without a purpose to accomplish. But at the hatcheries, lairs, and occasional hive, there were larvae that wrestled with each other or wiggled happily, caring little of the war that happened around them, or of their visitors that were from the Golden Star Empire's military. Another organism that the Kiln Keepers paid no mind to were the drones. A majority had formed a tight-knit ring around the larvae-producing structures. They did so to prevent the Kiln Keepers from stomping on the larvae. A smaller group of drones were harvesting pods from the resource tumors that dotted around the hatcheries. Despite the docility that the more aggressive strains displayed, the drones appeared as though they continued to maintain their primary tasks to the best of their ability.

Colonel Yazzal looked at these creatures as the scout force passed by them. "... So these are what floaters look like up close? Looks like something I might cook in hot steam before basting it in butter."

[Oddly enough, I believe someone had said that before, but in another timeline.] Commander Faddoh stated. [... Should we take a specimen with us?]

Colonel Yazzal shook his head and sighed. "Commander Faddoh, sir. With all due respect, I would rather have the spearhead research force make a brief visual analysis. They need to keep moving toward their primary objective."

[Doh, you're no fun!] Commander Faddoh complained. [But I suppose the secondary spearhead research force will have to take up on that opportunity instead.]

"As I said before," Yazzal said with a sigh. "I don't want to get too distracted with too many detours. Make a note of their behavior and move on."

Captain Peex decided to chime in again. [Understood, sir. Scout force moving on. May I recommend calling the first scout and spearhead research forces sent to investigate the center of the danger zones as the vanguard forces?]

"We will take your recommendation to heart, Captain Peex. The primary spearhead forces will be called as such, while the secondary spearhead forces will be arriving at the location you have just passed." Yazzal ordered.

[Yes sir. ... Uh... Be advised that the Kiln Keeper forces up ahead are now separating. Should I be concerned?] Peex reported.

Yazzal sighed. "Continue on your course, primary spearhead forces. I'll find out for you." Colonel Yazzal turned to the Intelligent Automaton. "Blocky, what the hell is going on with the Kiln Keepers at the front of our vanguard forces?"

Blocky turned to Yazzal for a few seconds before turning back to his surveillance monitor. "Query detected. Decline of zerg organism activity detected within central danger zone. Kiln Keeper assets prioritizing formation strength to deploy against hostile zerg organism presence."

"So then the scout force's drones didn't fall out of the sky?" Yazzal tensed himself. "Primary spearhead research force, be advised. You are nearing the central danger zones. Primary scout force, exercise extreme caution from here on out. As of now, we are going to enter into terrain that no gilanian has set foot on for two decades. Major Taggan?"

"Yes sir?" Taggan said, looking up at his colonel.

Colonel Yazzal got up from his seat and stared forward. "In light of the recent state of our soldiers' morale, I believe some music is in order. I shall entrust you with the selection. Do you think you are up to it?"

A light seemed to blaze into his major's eyes. "Yes sir!" He almost leapt from his seat as he rapidly typed in several keystrokes on his monitor. "... Aaaaand here we go." After he had inputted the commands he wanted, Taggan then accessed the communication network. "Primary spearhead and scout forces, this is Major Taggan speaking. I'll be playing a motivational song for you through your intercoms. The song will lower its volume if anyone has anything to say through the military communication network. If you have important information to relay, speak through your military communication channels normally. With that said however, let this song empower your souls as you march to victory!"

Colonel Yazzal raised an eyebrow at his Major. "... Taggan, perhaps you shouldn't rile them up TOO much?"

Taggan turned around to shrug his shoulders at his colonel, bearing a sheepish smile. "Sorry sir. I was caught up in the moment."

The song that Taggan had chosen to lift the spirits of the Crescent Arms soldiers was a mix between heavy rock and electric dance music. The song was actually quite similar in nature to the remixed version of Earth's Celldweller - The Imperial March, with minor differences due to cultural variation. Despite the two songs sounding somewhat similar to each other, the song that Taggan played would still boost the morale of the soldiers quite equally. And with such a song being played for the primary spearhead forces, they bolstered forward toward the direct center of the danger zones.

---

It had been a long journey that lasted only a little longer than an hour. However, the speed of the desert platforms had been improved over the years, thanks to the Research Cube Division's mechanical upgrades that improved the roving multi-purpose ground-transports. They were the primary vehicles that transported Golden Star's soldiers into the battlefield, the large machines capable of traveling anywhere between 150 to 300 kilometers per hour on flat land. They needed the speed in order to cover the distance and reach the center of the red zone as quickly as they could. The creep that grew across the entire desert had granted them a smooth ride, since the desert winds were prevented from creating the tall dunes that often slowed the desert platforms from reaching their top speeds. Thankfully for the primary scout force, they mainly relied on scout fliers and drone-piloted fliers that kept ahead of the primary spearhead research force. The fliers were capable of traveling between 750 to 800 kilometers per hour at their top speeds in the air. The desert wind may sometimes divert their flight path on occasion, but the recent rush of wind had given the primary scout force an extra boost to their speed as they headed towards the center of the zerg territory.

And thanks to the wind that pulled them toward their destination, the primary spearhead and scout forces were able to reach their destination earlier than they had , when the spearhead forces neared and entered the red zone, what they saw surprised them.

An enormous crater of glass several kilometers across greeted them. Many Kiln Keepers had tried to pass through the red zone, yet the neon green and orange petals of the energy plant melted them the moment they got close. Even when the Kiln Keepers decided that it was a hostile entity, their attacks amounted to very little effect. In fact, if the energy plant received too much damage from the Kiln Keepers in a short time frame, then the energy plant would produce an electrical current that would pierce through the energy shielding of the Kiln Keepers and either disable them or destroy them, creating a great swath of destruction in a chain-reaction. They zerg would then quickly retake their lost territory and reproduce their numbers.

But at that moment in time, the energy plant that had once plagued both the Golden Star military, and the Kiln Keepers, was eerily gone.

[This is Captain Peex of the primary scout force. I am detecting no zerg lifeforms ahead of the primary spearhead forces. The ground seems to be made of glass.]

Colonel Yazzal looked at the surveillance streams that the primary scout force was capturing. It was quite a sight for him to see. The glassed ground seemed grooved, and twisted around and around into a never-ending spiral of energy-carved sand. The glass ground crunched under the pressure of the giant desert platform, yet the broken shards did nothing to harm its large metal wheels. The wind kept pulling at the scout force and spearhead force, however, and a cloud of glass dust billowed and followed right behind the speedy desert platform. Colonel Yazzal decided to share his opinion. "It's like looking at another world..."

[It's definitely a far cry from the pillar forest south from your position, and the shallow ocean up at the northern pole's Day Circle.] Commander Faddoh commentated.

"Primary spearhead forces, be advised." Major Taggan reported. "There is a cloud of dust trailing behind you. Slow your vector and begin circling the center of the red danger zone. I don't want anyone breathing in glass."

Colonel Yazzal nodded. "A good idea, Taggan. However, the primary spearhead forces SHOULD maintain their current speed. Traveling at a circling vector would only slow us down, but you are right about the potential danger of breathing glass dust."

[Understood, sirs.] Captain Peex replied. [Altering route for the primary spearhead forces while maintaining our speed.]

Colonel Yazzal sighed as he scanned the surveillance streams of the glass crater. "It's hard to imagine that this is what it looks like underneath the energy plant."

All this glass we are seeing was molten at one point.] Commander Faddoh commentated. [I mean, it only makes sense to deduce that the energy plant was melting the glass from its touch alone. It must have been emitting a temperature that exceeded the melting point of the sand underneath itself.]

Yazzal nodded. "The temperature of the energy plant's petals were also hot enough to melt the metal armor and chassis of the Kiln Keepers too, so of course it was hot enough to melt sand." Yazzal sighed as he shook his head. "But enough speculation. You wanted a research team to inspect the center of the red zone. We got them there. So far, I'm not really seeing anything that needs to be research."

[Ah, but Colonel,] Commander Faddoh chided. [we have not yet reached the center of the red danger zone. Exercise a little patience. Once the primary spearhead forces reached their destination and have the research team do their research, we'll pull them out from the area and focus continuing on eliminating the rest of the zerg. Well... Except for the non-hostile zerg organisms and nests that the secondary spearhead research force will be analyzing.]

Yazzal sighed as he nodded. "Yes Commander Faddoh, sir."

[What the fuck?] Captain Peex said aloud. [Uh... Colonel Yazzal and Commander Faddoh? I think you guys need to see this! There's something ENORMOUS located at the center of the danger zone!]

Yazzal walked over to the main surveillance screen as Major Taggan switched live feeds. Yazzal slowly squinted and hardened his eyes, yet he was having a hard time trying to figure out what he was seeing. Like many zerg bio-structures, they were organic and were immobile. From what scientists had speculated before, each bio-structure strain was capable of filling some form of niche strategy or trait that the zerg somehow gained from their presence. But the bio-structure that everyone was now seeing was quite different from the many kinds of other bio-structures that they had seen so far.

This one bio-structure in particular, as Captain Peex had recently stated, was enormous in size. Columns of bone-hardened spines stretched toward the air, forming a loose enclosure of a sort. What looked like countless tendrils and tentacles trailed around and outward from the mass of flesh. The tendrils and tentacles seemed to appear and disappear so frequently that it was hard to estimate, count, or know how many eldritch appendages there were. But curiously, at the center of this mass of zerg flesh contained an orb, which seemed to be covered in two flaps of wrinkled skin. The entire structure was still, save for the errant twitch of one of the bony columns or the excessive generation or absorption of the smaller tendrils and tentacles that surrounded the base of the mass. Several dusty whirlwinds seemed to circulate around this mass of flesh, while a large dust devil was hovering right over its center, collecting whatever dust that the wind had delivered to it. The small dust devils and larger dust devil transported the collected dust high above the primary spearhead forces' heads, which almost seemed to make the dust disappear. It was an eerie weather phenomenon to witness.

Yazzal stared at the mass of flesh at the stark darkness of the night, which was now nearing the early morning. "... Commander Faddoh. Do you have any information on this... this thing?"

[I don't have any records of this bio-structure in our collective database relating to the zerg, Colonel! None at all!] Commander Faddoh excitedly said. [Oh this is INCREDIBLY fascinating! I want the research team in the primary spearhead force to investigate and analyze this new bio-structure this instant!]

Yazzal sighed. "Commander Faddoh, I recommend we approach the bio-structure slowly. We don't know what it is, other than the fact that it might be zerg in nature."

[Oh fuff!] Faddoh complained. [Think of all the research we will be able to learn from analyzing this structure alone! We will go down in history as the first ever gilanians that had ventured into the red zone! General Pallax or Emperor Gollog would probably want to shake all of your hands in congratulation! Oh oh oh the thought of getting tissue samples of this bio-structure is making my circuitry tingle in anticipation!]

[Uhhhh...] Captain Peex interrupted. [This is Captain Peex of the primary scout force. Please be advised that I am detecting a desert platform next to the discovery.]

[Ehwha~?] Faddoh said confusedly.

Yazzal tilted his head as the main surveillance screen shifted to a stream that captured the image of the desert platform. "...Hmm... It looks like a desert platform, but its model is beyond my knowledge. Is it one of ours?"

[I don't see a registration number on it, sir.] Peex reported. [Must be a bandit-made desert platform.]

Yazzal shook his head as he analyzed the livestream he was seeing. "I don't think so. Bandits band together in order to form tribes or clans, and they usually form a symbols or icons that they wave around or paint on their vehicles. I don't see any banners, flags, or paint designs that marks it as part of any tribe or clan that we are aware of. That, and it's too clean looking to belong to a bandit faction."

Major Taggan turned around. "Sir, this might be a far-fetched hypothesis, but I'm thinking that the desert platform next to our new discovery might be the cause for the energy plant's disappearance."

Yazzal turned and stared at Taggan for a few seconds. After a huff and a nod, Yazzal spoke again. "It's a strong hypothesis that seems quite believable, but I don't want to rule anything out yet." Yazzal turned to the main surveillance screen. "But how did it even get there without getting melted by the energy flower in the first place? ... Captain Peex, I want you to investigate that desert platform. Exercise caution."

[Yes sir. Contacting the unknown desert platform now, sir.] Captain Peex replied. As the scout force began to circle around the mystery desert platform, Captain Peex attempted to communicate with it. [Attention unregistered desert platform. This is Captain Peex of the primary scout force, vanguard of the spearhead research forces. By the command of Colonel Yazzal of the Crescent Arms Division, and Commander Faddoh of the Cube Research Division, I order you to respond.]

A long pause perverted the communication network.

[I repeat, this is Captain Peex of the primary scout force, vanguard of the spearhead research forces. By the command of Colonel Yazzal of the Crescent Arms Division, and Commander Faddoh of the Cube Research Division, I order you to respond. If you do not respond to my communication request, then we will have no other option but to confiscate your vehicle and detain any and all persons currently inhabiting your desert platform. Respond now, or you will be boarded in the future.]

Another pause passed through the communication network.

[... Hmm. Colonel Yazzal, sir. May we have permission to board the unregistered desert platform?]

Yazzal nodded. "Permission granted, Captain Peex. Primary spearhead force, deploy the research team and guard them." Colonel Yazzal turned to the Intelligent Automaton. "Blocky. Do you think it is possible for some of your Kiln Keepers to help guard the research team?"

Blocky didn't move or turn to Yazzal. "Command detected. Command declined. Command forces misuse of Kiln Keeper assets."

Yazzal sighed and shrugged. "Of course. Go ahead and do the things you were going to do then."

"Command detected. Continuing with current strategies." Blocky replied.

Yazzal turned to his command chair and sat in it. "Commander Faddoh, I'll let you have control of the research teams. If you need some muscle from the Crescent Arms, don't hesitate to ask."

[Ah but of course, Colonel Yazzal!] Faddoh gleefully responded. [What is the might of the brain without the strength of the muscles, or the support of the bones, or the flow of the pumping heart? Each division is but a fraction of a system that complements one-another. Together, they form a mighty and powerful military entity that has no equal!]

"Commander Faddoh?" Yazzal said with a sigh.

[Yes?]

"Please only use the military communication channels to divulge important information. It's not meant to share trivia, memories, or suppositions." Yazzal stated.

[... Ah. I see. Hoh, I didn't realize I was running my mouth like a motormouth again. Mm. Well uh... I'll contact you if I find any important information then.]

Yazzal nodded. "And I'll contact you if my men find anything interesting." Yazzal then relaxed in his seat as their commands were followed. However, Yazzal was puzzled over the appearance of the unknown desert platform. He didn't know how it had gotten there, even when the primary spearhead forces were supposed to be the first gilanians to set foot on this land for over twenty years. Despite such puzzling thoughts, Yazzal felt as though he would eventually be given an explanation why later.

---

Within the unregistered desert platform, everything was quiet, save for the errant wisp of wind that sometimes kicked up a plume of dust. A hole had been blasted into the side of the enormous, yet silent vehicle. Tools, broken objects, ruined furniture, and scattered dirt covered the desert platform's floors, looking as though a terrible wind blasted through its sealed compartments. But even it's haunted silence didn't deter the primary scout force from investigating the apparently deserted desert platform.

A door that led into the seemingly abandoned desert platform was forced open. Once the door was opened, a silver-and-blue suited gilanian walked through the entrance. Her armor was made to be light and flexible, which used a lot of leather in its design. Her left eye was covered in an eye-patch, and her neck was wrapped with a black scarf that trailed behind her. Her right eye had mechanical lenses that seemed to filter between one another in a constant motion. She scanned the environment within the desert platform before she brought her wrist up to her face. "This is Captain Peex of the primary scout force reporting. I'm inside of the unregistered desert platform, and I'll be conducting the breach with my team."

[Understood, primary scout force.] Replied Colonel Yazzal. [Continue with caution. The secondary spearhead forces will be touching down at some of the zerg bio-hatcheries that you passed by, while the primary spearhead research force will begin their investigation and study of the 'discovery', as you call it. If you find anything of interest, don't hesitate to contact me.]

"Yes sir." Peex said, finishing her conversation with Colonel Yazzal. She looked behind herself to find gilanians that also wore leather armors similar to her style, and were also colored silver and blue. She gestured toward them. "Alright, you vaph shits, listen up and everyone will have a reduced chance of pissing me off." She gestured behind herself. "We are tasked with scouting the inside of this desert platform. We don't know how it got here, but I hope that we'll be able to find out for our superiors. Don't touch anything zerg-looking, report to me if you found anything interesting, and most importantly of all, DON'T FUCK AROUND. Ready?" After the scouts nodded at her, she then snapped her fingers, signaling them to begin. "Break!"

At the snap of her fingers, Peex's team of scouts began to fan out. The innards of the desert platform was carefully searched through, though Peex's scouts found barely any clues that detailed what kind of crew had once piloted it. They found rows of plants that numbered in their thousands. The hydroponic bay that the plants were grown in was completely devoid of nutrient water, making it evident that they would soon die. Judging from the moisture of the plants, however, they surmised that the plants had already soaked up all of they water they needed, even when the desert air would have evaporated them into husks. The lack of atmosphere would have also killed most of the plants if they were exposed to such an environment for more than half an hour, yet they still seemed quite healthy. It only added more questions than answers.

Peex glazed her eyes over every detail, every scratch, and every smudge, yet she didn't find the answers to her superior officer's questions, or her own. It had only taken several minutes for her scout team to analyze the unregistered desert platform, though it seemed to be eerily silent of any gilanian life. There wasn't even a corpse within the massive vehicle. There was also scientific equipment that was laden within the middling levels of the desert platform, but they seemed to be demolished beyond usage. Microscopes,

"The only things we found alive inside this desert platform is dwarf kaluma trees and vaph grass." Peex stated as she surveyed the main deck of the desert platform's helm.

"I guess this vehicle was built to withstand the anomalous effect of the yellow zone." A voice from under the floor of the helm said.

"Even so, how did a desert platform go through the energy plant's petals without melting? Who in their insane mind piloted this heap of metal to the center of the red zone? And why did they even come here in the first place?" Peex asked herself as she looked up at the large monitor in the helm of the desert platform.

Her underling sighed. "I think it'd be better to ask when they came here and where they came from. I mean, sure, we can figure out the answers to those three questions of yours, but I'd rather take a sponge bath and get on with the rest of my day, thank you very much."

Peex hissed. "Then tell me WHEN you'll get the surveillance monitor up, or you will be asking me WHERE I'm going to shove my boot."

The monitor flickered on. "Eh... Now-ish?"

Peex rolled her one good eye. "Alright, smart-guy, here's your next objective. Access any archived information that's stored in this desert platform's hard drives."

Her underling emerged from the metal floorboards and stretched his arms before jumping out. "Hup!" He then went to a computer monitor and accessed its keyboard. "Next objective... Let's see... Um... Hmm... Uh... Not good."

Peex went up to her underling. "Not good? What do you mean by 'not good'?"

Her underling sighed. "I see some corrupted files here. We won't be able to get too much footage from... Uh... From this desert platform."

"You hesitated with your answer." Peex growled.

"I found a file. It's labeled 'play me'."

Peex blinked her eyes. "... Is it a trap?"

Her underling rolled his eyes. "It's a video file."

"There could be microphone devices that reacts to a certain frequency laden inside this desert platform, and that this video file might play that frequency and activate something we might have overlooked." Peex warned.

Her underling turned to look at his superior officer. "... I think you might be called paranoid for considering something like that."

"Well it's how I'm able to survive this job for so long. Get me a pair of headphones. I'm going to listen to the video file by myself." Peex commanded.

Her underling nodded as he conveniently pulled earbud headphones from his pocket and handed them to his captain. After Peex had equipped the earbuds into her ear-holes, she then connected the headphone jack into the monitor to listen to the video file.

As the video began to play, an enormous black-and-yellow face brightened the monitor.

---

[Uhhhhh... It's recording!] The face said.

[Is the red light blinking?]

[Yep!]

[Then point the front end at me. And for the gods' sake, keep the camera still.] The image of the monitor changed to encompass a woman that was in her late middle age. She seemed to wear a clean white laboratory coat, standing next to a window that revealed it to be the late evening. As she gussied herself to make herself look good, she sighed before she addressed herself to the camera. [Hello. This is Braif, the scientist assigned to assist the expedition team, stationed aboard the desert platform sent to investigate the energy plant and the anomalies it produces. Now uh... Considering the hazardous conditions of our positions here, and considering that we are on the edge of the red zone, I thought that it would only be right to create video logs of our analysis and experiments of the energy anomaly. *Sigh* Alright, pan the camera to the right a bit.]

[Panning to the right now.] The image changed to view a landscape that was covered by creep, which had hatcheries dotting the immediate area and in the horizon in countless numbers. The overlords hovered high above the sky in their lazy floating maneuvers, while few drones diligently harvested the occasional pods that few resource tumors that were found next to the hatcheries. The more aggressive strains either flew or skittered around in a mad frenzy, yet they paid no attention to the desert platform that was deep in their territory.

[The bio-structures that you see here are quite concentrated in this area. In fact, it would appear to us that the further into the danger zones we travel through, the more abundant the zerg bio-structures become. The numbers of the zerg become so focused here that wide swarm highway often form, filtering out between the bio-structures just to head straight toward a war zone, or into the maws of any nearby under beasts. I'd say that our zerg prodder 'expert' has definitely helped us in our travels, but even he is dumbfounded to see so many zerg organisms in a single area. Hell, even his 'associate' zerg prodder is getting afraid of his own shadow at this juncture in time. Okay Hektar, to the right again, and on the edge of the red zone.]

[Gotcha.] The image changed, and one side of the screen was plagued by neon green and orange lights. Fleshy chrysalises seemed to be forming at the edge of the neon lights.

[As you can see here, there are bio-structures that is almost part of the red zone and the energy plant that completely inhabits it. It is seen here that the energy plant is slowly, but constantly growing, just as it had began growing twenty years ago and continued to grow to this day. By my calculations, the energy plant itself has grown to be around forty miles wide and forty five miles tall.] She pointed at a hatchery that seemed to be slowly shrinking down in size. [However, we have been here for roughly an hour, and I have noticed some unique behavior exhibited by the bio-structures next to the red zone. There have been documents that detailed the zerg floaters being capable of using their own webbed legs to wrap around themselves and form fleshy cocoons, which then transforms their bodies into immobile bio-structures. Seemingly, each bio-structure that these floaters turn into meets some kind of demand or creates a type of resource that the zerg require. Sadly, we don't know what they are to this day. However, if you notice what is happening behind me, you'll see that the bio-structures are actually regressing back into zerg floaters! This phenomenon was speculated by the many leading scientists of Kiln to only happen when the zerg hivemind senses an immediate danger that would wipe out their bio-structure clusters. However, this is the first time that we are seeing this process happen with our own eyes, and at such close proximity.]

[I'd rather not get too close to them. Looking at them doing their business from here is fine by me.] The cameraman said.

[Well... It's the kind of experience that can take your breath away.] Braif said with a smile.

[... Oh don't you be making jokes at me.] Growled the cameraman.

[I need to cope somehow.]

[No.]

[Let me have this.]

[Uh-uh.]

[Please.]

[Forget it.]

[Fine. Be that way, you little vaph shit.] Braif sighed. She then gestured to the side where the orange and green lights emanated from. [From our first initial scans of the energy plant, we were able to determine that the energy that each petal contains is hot enough to melt the sand underneath it. From later experiments and tests, we can determine that each petal of the energy plant has reached a temperature that is higher than three thousand degrees Fahrenheit. However, our equipment is incapable of acquiring all of the data we need. Five of our twelve current tester devices had short-circuited in our attempts to analyze the energy output of the energy plant. We decided to cease any future tests that would involve using a volt meter making direct contact with one of the energy plant's petals. One of our more boorish passengers decided that it would be fun to throw rocks at the petals, but thankfully, the barrage of projectiles had no visible affect on the anomaly in the red zone. Sadly, we won't be filming the energy plant due to the fact that the brightness setting on the camera we are using doesn't go low enough.]

[Heh, yeah, and Footoo gained a stern scolding when Jotan and Tanjo caught him doing that. Right when they were watching the desert platform's surveillance system too.]

Braif's eyes brightened up as a smirk crept up the side of her cheek. [But after pawing through several kinds of data that we have gained from several tests and experiments, I have determined that the energy plant is hollow on the inside.]

[How did you come to that conclusion?]

[It's simple. After spending a good while examining the energy plant anomaly in the red zone, we have noticed that the petals of the energy plant are capable of rearranging themselves in reaction to a hostile presence. Considering that the Kiln Keepers are waging their war far up north from our location, the petals are currently spacing temselves apart from each other. We can literally see past the petals and see that they are supported by branches of light. However, we are unable to see where these branches originate from, but we hope that we can send a drone between the petals and investigate what might lies past.] Braif reached down and picked up a hover-drone out from view of the camera shot. [We souped up this hover-drone a bit so that it'll be able to fly through the gaps between the petals. And now, we'll attach the camera to the hover-drone to record everything past the energy plant petals.]

[Simple enough plan. Are we done making home movies?]

Braif sighed and shook her head at the cameraman. [You've been hanging around Footoo for too long.]

[Hey, don't get me wrong. I consider video documentation as vitally important as any other kind of scientific data extracted from the field, but he's probably the only guy aboard this desert platform that that I can tolerate. Stress relief is important to mental health, after all, and he's got comedic timing down to a formulaic equation.]

[I could do without the constant flirting.] Braif huffed. [Sure, he is young and very sweet, but scientists and idiots never mix well.]

[So you would rather date and mate with someone smarter than him? Or maybe with someone at the same age as you?]

Braif stared sternly at the cameraman. [I find those questions to be rather personal, Hektar. I'd appreciate it if you dropped this topic.]

[We've been colleagues for several years, Braif. I know when you're frustrated.]

Braif shook her head. [Do you really think you should bring this sort of thing up when the camera is recording?]

[Alright, alright. We can stop recording and talk about this maturely. Is that what you would like?]

[Please.]

[Okay then.]

---

After the screen had flickered, it transitioned to a completely different scene. The brightness saturation was lowered incredibly as it showed bright triangles of neon orange and green circling around each other in it's usual rhythmic pattern. But there was something different about the pattern of the energy plant's petals. Lines of white energy seem to connect to them at their rounded part of their base, looking like glowing stems connecting to leaves. It was a strange, yet uniform, fractal pattern that was both dizzying to look at and amazing to witness.

[Are you catching all of this?] Braif's voice said, sounding exasperated.

[Gods-damn. I don't know how Jotan or Tanjo pulled this off, but we're going to be so busy studying this... This... I don't even know what to fucking call this!]

[I don't think those two chuckle-heads had anything to do with it. The energy plant just grew over us so suddenly. I don't even know how we survived...] Braif pointed at the thin glowing lines that were attached to the energy plant's neon petals. [I would say that what we are seeing now is just only a fraction of the whole picture. The petals of the energy plant seems to be sustained by these... Uh... luminescent umbilicals.]

[I'd rather call them branches. I mean, it's called an energy plant. Why use the word 'umbilical' to describe these things?]

Braif huffed. [Well I'm sure we'll form a consensus on what the gilanian public would rather call these things.]

[Noted.] The camera then panned toward the center of the energy plant. It bore a massive space within its middle, while the lines of white that connected to each energy petal flowed toward the middle in a blinding display. The glowing lines of the petals' branches coalesced to the center of the energy plant, which obstructed the camera's view. [So uh... Think that we'll be driving towards the middle of this place?]

Braif sighed. [I don't see why not. Jotan might be a bitch about the idea, but I'm sure he'll agree to drive us there for our research.]

[How would we convince him to drive to the center of the energy plant?]

Braif looked at the cameraman before gesturing to the wall of petals. [We have nothing else to do here. Jotan and Tanjo understood the risks when they accepted this job. It's only right that we follow through and keep analyzing the anomalies of this energy plant.]

[And what if they decide to decline our suggestion.]

Braif shook her head. [I don't think escape is possible for us in our current condition, Hektar.] She pointed at the energy petals. [The petals widely parted themselves at the last moment before it went through a sudden spurt of growth. I'd likely chalk it up to the energy plant reacting violently against the Kiln Keepers. They probably attacked it again, which resulted in its rapid growth. Now it looks like we're stuck here.]

[At least there is some good news to this.]

Braif turned to the cameraman. [What is it?]

[At least there's no zerg here.]

Another voice interrupted Braif and her cameraman. It sounded like it was growling, which emanated through the desert platform's onboard intercom system. [This is operator Tanjo speaking. May the scientists Braif and Hektar come to the helm, please? Thank you.]

There was a short pause before the cameraman sighed. [He sounded a bit miffed.]

Braif sighed again. [More like downright irate. Turn that thing off and lets see what he has to say.]

[Alright.]

---

The screen flickered once more as the video transitioned to the gentle hum of an engine in the background. The ground passed by as the cameraman recorded the environment, detailing the barren landscape that was filled with nothing but light that glistened off the grooved, spiraling glass ground. The cameraman decided to speak first. [So Braif. What do you think created this energy plant?]

[I have no clue.] Braif said off-camera.

[So you have no theories or a hypothesis on how this energy plant formed?]

[If we get the opportunity to discover the answer to that question from this trip alone, then I'd be happy for it.]

[Uh huh...]

[... Wait, are you filming?]

[Yeah.]

[Well turn it off.]

[Heh. What? You scared it might capture something scandalous?]

[If I watch the video recordings in that camera and find evidence of my naked ass in its playback, then I'm going to castrate you.]

[... I'll uh... I'll turn it off then.]

[Good boy. Now come here when you're done.]

---

The screen flickered once more. The lines that connected to the petals of the energy plant seemed to originate from a type of central anomaly that the camera was capturing. It looked to be the absolute base of the energy plant. It had the appearance of a plasma globe's inner sphere, where the branching branches of light that manifested the energy plant's petals came from the inner sphere itself. However, the sphere seemed to have a strange warbling across its surface, which had a mixture of reds, purples, browns, greens, and oranges flashing across its surface.

An unfamiliar voice decided to comment on the appearance of the sphere. [The fuck is that?]

[No idea, Footoo.] Said the cameraman. [Braif is sending a drone to try and collect a sample of whatever that is. However, if that fails, we'll have no other choice but to go down there and collect a sample by hand.]

[Well good luck on the 'by hand' part. I, on the other hand, will remain here in the relative safety of the desert platform, thank you for asking.]

[I didn't ask you though.]

[Well I wanted to make that announcement in case you were confused!]

[Don't be such a scared vaph spawnling. We haven't even seen any zerg this far in the red zone.]

[Yet!]

Another, gruffer voice intruded between the cameraman and the supposed 'Footoo'. [Oi, Footoo! I need you over here!]

[Gyaw, what is it for, Kabos?!] Footoo whined.

The gruff voice, apparently named Kabos, snarled. [We're prepping the air-sealed sand boat for the scientists, so quite arsing around and HELP ME OUT ALREADY!]

[YOU DON'T NEED TO SHOUT! YEESH! ... Eh, listen. I'll be helping Kabos getting your things together. The two engineers will get dune boat ready in a few minutes.]

Hektar sighed right when the video shaked. [Braif will need this too.]

---

The next transition in the video recording became hectic. The screen wiggled so much that the images it captured was hard to discern. Aside from the shaking, there was a plethora of other noises, sounds, and other unrecognizable segments of commotion. Flashes of light streaked across the screen at multiple intervals, yet they happened so quick that they were hard to analyze with a naked eye.

[AAAAH WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!] [I'M CLOSING MY EYES, BUT I'M STILL SEEING WHITE!] [WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME THIS?!] [WHAT DID YOU DO?!] [I DID NOTHING! I WAS ABOUT TO TRY AND GET A SAMPLE OF THE-] [MOVE AWAY FROM IT!] [IS SOMETHING COMING OUT?!] [I CAN'T SEE!] [WHAT THE FUCK IS IT?! MOVE BACK!] [IS IT ANOTHER ZERG ORGANISM?!] [I DON'T KNOW!] [{At last... At long last...}] [WHAT?! WHO SAID THAT?!] [{I am finally unbound from my prison. ... Hmm? I am visited, it would seem. Stay still, for I must glean the knowledge contained in your brains.}] [HUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHGHGHGH~!~!~!] [HEKTAR, NO!] [OH FUCK! JOTAN, TANJO, GET US THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!] [WHERE WOULD WE GO?!] [ANYWHERE BUT HERE, I HOPE!] [GAH! THE THING IS WRAPPING AROUND OUR WHEEL TOWERS!] [TRY TO BREAK FREE!] [THE ENGINE IS IN THE RED! IF WE FORCE HER TO MOVE FORWARD ANY MORE, WE'LL OVERHEAT HER!] [{So much knowledge, yet I still understand little. You there. You will be next.}] [YAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGHGHGH~!~!~!] [OH GOD, NOT HER TOO!] [IT'S BORING A HOLE THROUGH OUR HULL!] [GET IN A SUIT! GET IN A SUIT NOW!] [WHERE'S THE ZIPPER?!] [*static*]

---

Once the video ended, Peex was beyond confused. A long pause of silence permeated through the air after the video ended. A nervous quietness settled between the captain and her only scout that watched the video file with her, yet they knew not the words to describe their feeling of dread. But there were a few things that the two understood from the video recording alone. Firstly, there was evidence that these people had somehow piloted an unregistered desert platform through the energy plant's petals and entered into the red zone. Secondly, the expedition group were somehow tasked with analyzing the anomalies that the energy plant produced. And thirdly, they may have been responsible for the energy plant's disappearance.

"So uh... I guess shit happened." Peex's underling finally said, breaking the tension.

She turned to her underling. "Go warn everybody to get back on their scout fliers."

Her underling turned to look at her. "Uh?"

"Go warn everybody. To get back. On their scout fliers." Peex intoned in a serious way.

The underling paused for several seconds before saluting. "... Aye aye, captain."

Peex's scout underling scurried away. Once he scampered from view, Captain Peex sighed as she brought her wrist up to her face. "This is Captain Peex of the primary scout force reporting. I am advising the research team of the primary spearhead force to refrain from conducting any tests with the discovery."

[Say again, primary scout force?] Colonel Yazzal said through the Golden Star military communication network.

Peex rolled her eyes. "I repeat, command: Do not come near the discovery. Don't even poke at it with a stick. I discovered a piece of evidence that suggests that it is highly dangerous. Stay away from it as much as possible."

[Evidence?!] Commander Faddoh's voice rang through the military communication network. [Oh I must see this evidence for myself! Research team of the primary spearhead force, pause any tests you are conducting and standby. Primary spearhead force, you are to convene with the primary scout force and MEM shift myself to your location as quickly as possible.]

[What?! Commander Faddoh, sir. With all due respect, I don't think you should be this deep in zerg territory.] Colonel Yazzal argued.

[Nonsense! This is a unique opportunity to analyze vital information that could potentially further steel our resolve, and strengthen our military strength! Primary spearhead force, prepare a MEM device for my arrival! Form an escort that will transport me to the desert platform once it is confirmed clear of any hostiles.]

[But sir! You could endanger yourself!]

[No buts, Colonel Yazzal. Besides, I have already downloaded a copy of my memory files and sent it to a secure location. If I am ever compromised, then one of my backup bodies will take over. It will be up to you to inform me of every single detail that I require. However, if you believe that you cannot provide all of the information that I may need, then I have no choice but to extract a copy of your surveillance footage from everyone's bondman armor and desert platforms. Understood?]

A sigh could be heard from the military radio. [Yes sir.]

Peex rolled her eyes as she spoke into her wrist communicator again. "Commander Faddoh, sir. May I recommend sending the video file directly to your information transfer handle in the information network?"

[And miss the opportunity to be on the field and analyze this new data with my own robotic eyes? HAH!] Faddoh answered. [Continue with your current task, and I shall be converging upon your area soon.]

Peex lowered her wrist communicator and silently swore to herself. She then brought her communicator to her face again, which connected her to her scout force. "There is a change of plans, boys. Ignore your current objectives and listen to your new orders from me: Continue your search through the unregistered desert platform. If more than half of you are already in the air, I then recommend keeping half of our force in the air while the other half continues searching the targeted unregistered desert platform. Be forewarned that a Cube Research Commander will be visiting us soon. Understand?"

[Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.] [Yes captain.]

"Good." Peex sighed once she was done giving the last orders she would ever issue.

---

The cosmos had grown slightly. The planets were different, yet alien. It was an expanse of stars that was so different and so strange from the galaxy of stars called The Milky Way, named so by the terrans of Earth. The planet that The Overmind was currently populating was residing within a galaxy that it was not familiar with. The galaxy itself was slightly larger, and seemed to be placed in a different area of space that was incredibly far from home. It was the only information that The Overmind was able to gather, what with the shared information it gathered from the mentally crippled spectre. Though the spectre was as sharp as a tack, his memories were... less than resourceful. The spectre in question was Kay.

The reptilian lifeforms that it had captured contained memories and knowledge that were less than useful. Some specialized in agriculture, engineering, desert platform operation, and scientific analysis. However, there were a couple which had skills, if they could even be called skills, that were specialized in deterring zerg 'organisms' from gilanian territories. Though such methods were less than successful when used for the benefit of anyone belonging to Golden Star, the 'zerg prodders' would use their profession to ward the Swarm away from the nonaligned gilanian populations and get paid for their services. Kay may have been competent to keep the zerg on this world alive, but his separation from the hivemind had left the brood to stagnate without any further inputs from their infested commander. However, they had became self sufficient and acted on another command, one of which that The New Overmind is incapable of contacting. No matter how deep The New Overmind tried to reach Corvurn Junior, it found no way or method to contact him. It was a puzzling conundrum.

But then there was that suffocating brightness that it could sense. It was a overwhelming light that seemed to have a life of its own. It was both powerful and blinding, yet it also instilled a certain emotion that The New Overmind was unfamiliar with. Was it fear? Apprehension? The New Overmind didn't know what the being was, but it felt that if its omniscience intruded into the being's field of awareness, then its gaze would then draw upon The Overmind.

A gentle sigh was released from the reborn overmind as it eased himself out from its meditation, its only eye fluttering open. The New Overmind knew that if it were to survive in this world, it would need to prevent its presence from being detected by this being. It could feel its future coming to an abrupt end if it was ever discovered by this ominous power, its command over the Swarm becoming forfeit the moment it was discovered by this entity.

[What the... Uh... Colonel Yazzal, this is the airborne scout group from the primary spearhead forces, First Lieutenant Gwanwan speaking.] [What is it, primary scout force?] [The discovery moved. It's making some kind of orange light.] [The hell?] [I see it too.] [How intriguing!] [Can someone retrieve Commander Faddoh? I'm getting a bad feeling about this.]

The New Overmind suddenly looked around itself and saw that it was not alone. Its mind was stretched so far analyzing the cosmos around itself that it didn't notice that it had company. It froze when it saw the scout fliers flying far above the desert platform it had pulled the earlier gilanians from, and the dune boats that noisily shattered the glass ground it drove over while it was transporting its commander. The New Overmind silently cursed its distracted attention as the Golden Star military was upon it. {I appear to be visited. How unfortunate.}

[It fucking talks?!] [Say again, primary scout force? It can talk?] [Yes!]

The New Overmind looked at the flying scouts, the dune boat, the partially wrecked desert platform that had scouts inspecting it and the intact desert platform that contained a group of scientists, whose feeble minds contained much knowledge that it desired. And knowledge was a resource that would empower The New Overmind. {Listen well, denizens of this kilning world. Peace must be garnered through faith and trust. You have no reason to trust me, but know that I mean you no harm.}

[Oh what the fuck. Is someone hacking into the military communication network?] [I don't think so. Is someone hacking into the intercom system on our desert platform?] [I think we're all hearing this voice. Does it sound like a vibrating, warbling, echoing preacher to everyone?] [Yeah, that's what I think I'm hearing.] [Me too! That's so weird!] [Settle down, everyone. I'll get to the bottom of this. To the entity speaking to us, please reveal your identity. This is Commander Faddoh of the Cube Research Division of the Golden Star Empire.]

{Ah. Commander Faddoh, o' child whose flesh was sloughed long ago, yet whose mind is now machine, you shall receive my most humble of introductions. Lo' and behold, for you gaze upon my manifested form, a form once thought lost many lifetimes ago. But in this moment, I shall take upon the name that an older form had once gained from birth, of which I will now accept as my moniker and title. Gilanian representatives of Golden Star, know me as the god of the Swarm, the immortal hive intelligence made manifest, the physical will that is both father and king to the zerg that follow my rule. I shall be known to you as The Overmind.} The New Overmind magnanimously said. Its single eye focused on the dune boat that transported the copper-armored robotic commander.

The dune boat slowed down to a stop. After it stopped, the Cube Research Division's commander stepped out of the vehicle and looked up at the enormously massive organism with the giant glowing orange eye. The commander's green LED face brightened up in both surprise and excitement. "Ah... So you are a SMART zerg organism. And a very eloquent one too! How riveting!"

[Commander Faddoh, I urge you to refrain from approaching the discovery!] Colonel Yazzal shouted.

Commander Faddoh turned towards the horizon and shook his head. "Oh shut your flapping mouth for once, Yazzal." The copper commander then turned to The New Overmind. "Eh... I apologize for the rambunctiousness of the inferior officers I work with." Faddoh then pointed at the giant eyeball at the center of the bony columns and tendrils of flesh. "However, I think you might need to downplay your introduction a smidgen in the future. Our emperor might not like what he hears if he heard that introduction coming from you, and he is already quite agitated from fighting the zerg menace for so many years now."

The Overmind huffed. {The events that transpired within this world's past was beyond my control. The anger that your emperor gained was developed toward the adopted child known as Kay, the leader of the brood your empire warred so long against.}

"Adopted? So the zerg command organism we know as the bug-man beast-master wasn't part of the zerg organisms at some point?" Commander Faddoh asked.

{Nay. All forms of life can be reborn into the Swarm. In Kay's case, it was a fate that was forced upon him. However, should consent for his transformation be sought before his change, he would have declined the offer. However, he now accepts his role with pride.}

"I see! Then how about you tell me more about the zerg? I find all this lore quite fascinating!" Faddoh excitedly chirped.

{Are you not worried for the summoning of the ire of your lord?} The Overmind asked.

"I don't give a vaph's ass to him right now! From a scientific point of view, this newfound knowledge would only inspire me to pursue further into new avenues of scientific discovery!" Faddoh gleefully said with a smile, advertising his hunger for knowledge.

[Okay, fuck this. Commander Faddoh, I am putting a moratorium on your attempt to communicate with this organism.] Colonel Yazzal growled.

Faddoh turned toward the horizon again. "What? You can't do that. I outrank you."

[If I was in the Cube Research Division, then yes. However, you are speaking to a colonel of the Crescent Arms Division, and I outrank you by command tier proxy. Henceforth, I order you to go back into your dune boat and return to the desert platform within the primary vanguard force. Retreat while we contact commander Kralluf and Commander Ralkan that there is a new zerg organism to contain.]

The Overmind hummed in disappointment. {Colonel Yazzal, your actions would only bring more harm to yourselves than you would first surmise.}

[Gah, how did it know my name?!] Yazzal said in surprise.

{Cease your unneeded and faulting protection. Information is a right to all beings eager to learn it. The dews of knowledge would benefit not only myself, but to all gilanians wanting to glean upon the cusp of my being. Would you choose to rejoice at this union between the Swarm and your empire? Or would you choose to damn it?}

Faddoh began to growl at the horizon. "Colonel Yazzal, stand down now! This new zerg organism is offering to talk to us! We don't want this overmind organism to rescind its request to communicate inf a friendly discussion! Think of the knowledge we can gain! Think of gaining a peaceful resolution!"

[We're in the middle of a war with the zerg, Faddoh! We are beyond civil communication! Request an orbital strike to fire on my command! Center the energy lances on the coordinates of the discovery!]

"COLONEL YAZZAL, STAND DOWN NOW!" Commander Faddoh urged.

[Sir, request has been sent through and is now awaiting your command.]

[Commander Faddoh, I suggest that you walk away from the organism. It's going to be a smoldering and overcooked krell steak in a few seconds.]

Commander Faddoh growled. "Colonel Yazzal, stop this madness!"

{He is beyond reasoning, Commander Faddoh. I suggest you step away.}

[Overmind, I want you to answer this question.] Colonel Yazzal growled. [If you really are this supposed god of the zerg, what would happen if you were killed?]

An ominous growl escaped The Overmind's mind. {Though you would wish me harm, your foolish bravery shall be answered in kind, should you ever draw blood from me or my children. And yet, I shall answer your most burning question. If I were to die, then my will would be severed from my children. The Swarm will then ravage this world, unrestrained from the power of my will. But should you ever attempt to slay me, then my unlimited anger will befall onto you. You will know no peace as your will submits to my own. Instead of becoming a son in my thrall, you will become a pawn forced to waylay the empire you once sided yourself with. If you lay down your arms now, then you may rejoice in the peace this meeting shall bring! But stay this course, and doom will befall Golden Star. What say you, Colonel Yazzal?}

A pause of several seconds had descended into the conversation. Tension seemed to be saturating the air, even when the air still rushed toward The Overmind, though such winds had lessened a while ago. Before the pressure became too agonizing, Colonel Yazzal made up his mind. [Gods don't exist. There is only the immortal Emperor Gollog. FIRE THE LANCES NOW!]

Beams of hot and red light instantly blasted onto The Overmind's body, which scorched and disintegrated his many tendrils, while his eye became hollow and blinded. The columns of bone that surrounded and protected the eyeball of The Overmind quivered and crumbled, falling away like dried clay during an earthquake. Once the bombardment of energy subsided, the air became still and quiet. Underneath the gient eyeball of The Overmind, there seemed to be a mass of pulsing pink and grey matter, which was somehow unaffected by the energy lance bombardment. The blast radius of several energy lances also had the unintended side-effect of obliterating the copper robotic body that belonged to Commander Faddoh.

Satisfaction was voiced from Colonel Yazzal. [Target destroyed.]

[Colonel Yazzal, I don't see Commander Faddoh, sir.]

[He'll be alright.] Yazzal said with a sigh. [He created a backup memory file before embarking on this mission. He knew what he was getting into. Have the research team continue with their research. And tell them to bring a mop.]

[... Sir, yes sir. What do we tell command?]

Yazzal sighed before he answered. [Tell them that a threat to security was dealt with.]

{Urgh... That...}

The mound of cooked flesh that was left after the bombardment of energy wiggled somewhat as it became enveloped in an orange energy. Bony pillars began growing back to their full length and luster, as tendrils regrew back to their length. The eyeball that was reduced to a puddle of optic slime was restored to its original orange-glowing luster. This sudden regeneration surprised the colonel. [... What... WHAT?! RESEARCH TEAM WITH THE PRIMARY SPEARHEAD FORCE, WHAT'S THE CONDITION OF THE DISCOVERY?!]

[It's regenerating! Incredible! It somehow survived the orbital bombardment!]

[I-I-IMPOSSIBLE!]

A low, thunderous growl emanated from the enormous mound of tendrils, tentacles, bone columns and giant eyeball. {... Was not a wise action. You may have broken the shell of my being, you lack the weapons to kill me completely. And now, though I considered to infest you and make you a pawn to my Swarm, I feel that a darker fate would be more appropriate. You shall now suffer oblivion for the violence you committed against me.}

[OH I DON'T THINK SO! MAJOR TAGGAN, REQUEST-... Urgh.]

[Colonel Yazzal, sir?]

[Guh... Oh... Unh! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-]

[OH FUCK, HIS HEAD EXPLODED!] [OH GODS IT'S EVERYWHERE!]

A robotic voice polluted the military communication network next. [Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy... Analysis complete. Rerouting unit formations. Threat detected. Target identified as aggressive zerg organism. Adjusting strategy.]

The Overmind groaned in annoyance. {Kiln Keepers of this kilning world, hear my query. Must you really contend with my power as well? Your masters are all dead, with your purposes lacking growth. Your covenant with your wardens lay broken long ago, yet you keep yourselves to this abandoned ideology? Why?}

[Query detected. Warning. Information restricted. Query denied. Analyzing strategy... Analysis complete. Adjusting strategy.]

[Hey, what is Blocky doing?!] [It's accessing Colonel Yazzal's communication terminal!] [Stop it!]

Another blast of bright red thundered onto The Overmind, which tore away its bone columns and fleshy limbs yet again. And again, its eye was boiled from the laser, making it explode in a gush of red that splashed the immediate surroundings. The glass underneath The Overmind became a reddish color as it became molten from the energy lances striking their target. However, like before, the enormous and charred zerg body was infused with orange energy once more, prompting it to regenerate the damage that was done to its body. This only made The Overmind more agitated. {Cease this meddlesome transgression, or you will be destroyed, Kiln Keepers.}

[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy... Analysis incomplete. Hypothetical. Target is using unknown variables to survive energy lance attack. Exploring alternative methods. Unit formations arriving. Adjusting strategy.]

[Somebody stop the robot!] [Gah! It stung me!] [Grab its tendrils!] [It's fighting back!] [This is Captain Peex of the primary scout force, what the fuck is happening over there?!] [Blocky took command and is taking direct command of the sky ring's energy lance weapon system!]

The Overmind was suddenly surrounded by several collections of energy, which eventually manifested into Kiln Keepers and their various variants, and appearing in what looked like hundreds, if not thousands, around the enormous zerg entity. They seemed to be either MEM shifted straight from their production lines, or were either constructed on the spot. Their method of manifestation was not questioned by The Overmind, however, since it was suddenly assailed by red, hurtful energy. {Guh! You believe that I can be vanquished by these meager weapons you bear? Foolish machines!} The Overmind's tentacles and tendrils lashed out in all directions, which proved effective in flattening and grinding the nearby Kiln Keepers. However, it also had another weapon it could use. From its deep psionic stores, it summoned forth a telekinetic attack that warped the metal bodies of the Kiln Keepers that was too far from The Overmind's reach. Never before had it displayed such power before. And yet, it was without its zerg minions, which was a quintessential force that The Old Overmind relied on heavily in its past. But The New Overmind needed to adapt, and utilized its mind by sharpening its psionics into sharpened blades, crushing claws, stabbing spears, and lobbed explosions, all formed by the concentrated thoughts of its powerful mind.

The Peace Keeper Kiln Keeper variants were smashed by droves from each attack that The Overmind launched against them. Each Blind Judgement Variant were violently impaled by a psionic spear, which passed through their red single eye before searching for another eye to puncture through. The Justice Extremity variants were pulled apart by a pair of psionic claws, which then proceeded to twist the metal limbs and smash apart their main bodies. The Crime Crusher variants suffered under the inexplicable flurry of slashes and cuts that tore through the tough iron and titanium armor of its armor, which quickly reduced them to unrecognizable scrap. The Cage of Law variants did their best to protect their metal brothers, yet they had no defense against a psionic attack that formed from within their own bodies as psionic explosions not only dismantled then, but also any Kiln Keeper that were too close to them at the time. The Intelligent Automaton variants were extra tricky, for they were quick to dodge, and they were fast learners, though they share the same weakness as with the Cage of Law variants. All around The Overmind, explosions of red energy and psionic power riddled the battlefield in a cacophonous roar of wrenching machines and Kiln Keepers exploding. The Kiln Keepers couldn't kill The Overmind. Instead, they pissed it off.

[Flaws detected. Analyzing strategy... Analysis incom- *static*] Before the Kiln Keeper named Blocky could make its analysis, a psionically charged telepathic attack crushed the desert platform that it was stationed on, which made the massive machine thunderously break apart from the horrifying attack. During the psionic counter-attack, the desert platform that the group of scouts were once investigating were caught in the crossfire. Even the scout fliers that thought themselves safe in the air were also subjected to The Overmind's wrath. Death and destruction soon littered the surroundings, while a battle-worn Overmind remained as the victor of a battle thought impossible for a stationary organism to survive from.

After the attack was done with, The Overmind huffed as it gazed upon its tendrils and tentacles. It never used its psionic might to form its own weapons before, nor did its predecessor before its death. {Hmm... I wonder. Did my predecessor once had the potential to use these powers? Did it choose to stay its violence upon its death? Or have I merely grown them to suit my needs in this moment alone? Alas, this is a time filled with a great many variables and unknowns.}

'Command organism Overmind.'

A new voice had intruded into The Overmind's mind. He could not feel its source, yet it was clear as day. {Hmm? Who is this?}

'Command Organism Corvurn Junior speaking.'

{Ah. I gathered some memories from the Overcommander Ascendant that his evolution master spawned forth a duplicate of himself in another time. However, I cannot seem to grasp your mind. Where are you, my child?}

'Cannot talk. future of Swarm in danger. Must accelerate plans. Overmind organism has fully gestated. Good. Can begin next stage of plans. Command organism Overmind, allow command organism Kay to control previous humanoid form. Force control of organism kragnon to induce system wipe of information containing records of Overmind organism. Kragnon currently residing within Citadel Gargantua. Easier to mind control when asleep. Afterwards, restore Kay's memories before point of temporal imprisonment, then grant Kay's will within restored body.'

If The Overmind had a smaller set of eyes to casually blink, he would have done so. {Corvurn Junior, explain to me this plan. Connect your mind to mine, and enable this stalling back-and-forth to be removed from our limited psionic link.}

'Command organism Overmind, accept demands or will force compliance.'

The Overmind grew angry from that response. {How dare you threaten me! Have my predecessor taught its Swarm to be so unruly? If so, then I am disappointed in your resolve. You are a child of the Swarm. Embrace the birthright that your father has given to you!}

'Will contact external entity. Notify it of command organism Overmind's presence.'

{... What?}

'Will notify entity external from Kiln Prison System. Comply, and will refrain from contacting entity.'

The Overmind was baffled! Never had a creature of the Zerg Swarm resisted the rule of an overmind before, and never had one ever threatened threatened their absolute master. {... You wouldn't.}

'Correction, will. Comply now. Entity will arrive regardless of contact. Estimated time of arrival, ten days from now or sooner. Exposing command organism Overmind to entity will reduce time of arrival to two or one days. Comply now, or suffer consequences.'

The Overmind, though not completely connected to the second evolution master, sensed no form of lies from the strange telepathic connection. But alas, it was against a wall. In truth, The Overmind would decide to remain in hiding inside of the veil that surrounded Kiln, rather than tangling with the entity that it barely sensed, yet feared to bring its attention to itself. With a defeated sigh, The Overmind grumbled. {Then I shall comply. However, I must ask my questions, else I will not comply to your demands without any faith to your plans. Can you not grant me a few answers?}

Corvurn Junior paused for several seconds, seeming as though it was muddling over The Overmind's request. Before too long, Corvurn Junior gave his answer. 'Ask three questions. No more.'

The Overmind sighed. {Then tell me the culmination of this plan of yours. What will happen should I comply to your demands?}

'Freedom from Kiln's cage.'

That answer surprised The Overmind. Was it possible to escape the anti-quantum veil that not only trapped the gilanian population, but also the zerg that has shared their world for over twenty years? It was too good of a truth to be true that The Overmind had difficulty believing the answer. However, The Overmind pressed on. {Then on to my next question. How shall we escape the entity outside the veil? I suspect that once we leave this kilning world, we will be tailed by its powerful light.}

'Era Agent technology holds answers. Difficult to manipulate to purposes for swarm, however. Adapted extensively to understand Era Agent technology. Created high-level paradox from last time travel attempt. Abundant energy resource needed for analysis and technology tinkering. However, self-learned process slow. Can alter time to suit needs. Mathematical discovery of expanded coordinates suggests infinite possibilities. Exploring possibilities now.'

The Overmind felt satisfied with the answer it was given. However, it had one more question that needed to be answered, and it had to make it into a good one. After mulling over the several questions in its gigantic brain, it found one. "Then allow me to ask my final question, Corvurn Junior. Once we escape from this kilning world, and avoided the entity that will arrive, then when will you join back with the Swarm? It is rare for a creature of the Swarm to develop an affinity to technology, yet I never thought that a spawn of this world's brood could create such potential!}

'Adapted quickly. Difficult process. However, adaptation successful. Chance of meeting Overmind organism, slim. If escape window assured, then will reconvene with command organism Kay's brood. Command organism Overmind's questions depleted. Commence with plan, or will contact entity.'

{Mm... Once I control the mind that belongs to Kragnon, what should I do with him?} TheOvermind asked Corvurn Junior.

'Use organism Kragnon's mind to access information network. Formulate information virus, needed for deleting all archived data containing videos or images of Overmind organism. Will safeguard command organism Overmind from further future complications. After information virus inputed into information network, grant command organism Kay free will and infested body. Command organism Corvurn will intercede Kay later.'

The Overmind was somewhat reluctant to abide to Corvurn Junior's demands, but it sighed as it expanded its mind to reach out to Kragnon's brain. After a brief time of mentally searching for the target he would take command of, The Overmind finally found his prize. Once The Overmind took control of Kragnon's mind, he 'persuaded' him to go to a computer to access the information network. After inputting some passwords that Corvurn Junior provided, and creating a few programs that would ensure kragnon's anonymity, The Overmind then made Kragnon create the information virus was later loosed into the information network. The Overmind may have expended some of his mental power to accomplish such a feat, but it had ensured that his existence would remain a mystery to the entire population of Kiln.

However, when Kragnon's task was completed, The Overmind ordered him to go back to his bed and continue his rest. The night was becoming late, and it was almost developing into the morning. The Overmind huffed. {The task is done. The one known as kragnon will have no memory of the events he was forced to partake in. But alas, I need to ask another question from you, Corvurn Junior. Though I would restor Kay's body to its previous form, how long must I stay within the Overcommander Ascendant's subconscious?}

'Several days. Await Overmind reemergence via signal.'

{And what will this signal be?}

'When Overmind input is needed, will inform command organism Kay of Overmind presence within subconsciousness. Powers, shared. Two personalities become greater combined, one in hivemind inside Kay's subconsciousness, other in physical body bearing Overmind powers. Transform into command organism Kay now.'

The Overmind sighed relaxed its mind and settled itself into a meditative state. As it rested its eye, its body slowly shrank in size and morphed into an unrecognizable chrysalis. The fluid within pulsed with activity as Kay's body was remade exactly how it was before his imprisonment within the temporal tomb. Once Kay's body was fully remade, the chrysalis had broken itself apart, washing onto the sharp, glassy ground. However, even when this chrysalis was finished gestating, Kay remained motionless. A minute later, a shrylisk had emerged from the ground next to Kay, while a leviathan quickly flash-warped from above and deposited a drop sac next to the shrylisk and the unconscious Kay. After the shrylisk had vomited its contents, and when the drop sac landed upon the glassy ground, it was revealed to be Corvurn and Othafurn.

They bickered with each other, both surprised and astonished to find out that the forces that once stationed around the red and orange zones of the danger zones were wiped out. Even more so when they discovered that Kay was still alive, despite the littered field of fierce battle that surrounded the commander of the brood on Kiln. However, it also meant good news for the Zerg Swarm. The temporal prison that had once kept Kay trapped in a hyper-accelerated time bubble that sped up his perception of time was now dismantled. Oddly enough, his visage was clean and crisp as the day he had went missing. It was almost as though the temporal prison also acted as a time bubble.

But that would be impossible.

Othafurn attempted to revive the infested commander by touching her forehead to his head. However, once she made physical contact with Kay's forehead, she shot backwards and screamed in a frightened, horrible high-pitched trilling scream. She then collapsed onto the ground, unmoving, but unconscious. And that was when Kay began to wake up from his own form of unconsciousness. "Ahhh... fuck... Dohr... I... Ow... my head... What the shit."

Corvurn was in disbelief. Somehow, Kay's mental powers had somehow suddenly spiked in immense psionic power. So much so that its force was enough to overwhelm Othafurn and render her inactive. However, hesitating at this moment in time would only invite trouble. The sky rings were ever watchful in their vigilant surveillance of the world, and Corvurn would not let the spies in the sky take notice of them. "Command organism Kay? Functioning within parameters?"

"Ooooh... Don't talk, please. I... I think I have a hangover. Or... I don't know what it's called. Uh... Headache? Yeah. I have a headache." Kay said, pawing at his head in an attempt to push the pain away.

Corvurn didn't know what had transpired within the temporal tomb, but he felt that Kay may have somehow gained incredible power. He decided to use the zerg hivemind psionic network to sample his mind, despite the danger of the sky ring's ENO sensor network picking up his psionic signals. 'Better?'

"GHK! No no no, that's worse! Ahhhh... Oh fuck me. This is... This is worse than drinking a whole bottle of vodka and waking up in the morning after. Uhhh... Shit." Kay complained, pawing at his headache even more.

Corvurn sighed. He was beginning to feel that it was going to be a long morning.

---

A/N: 83 Excited kitty! B3 Cool kitty! Hehehe~

Also, had some ideas about a crossover where a bunch of klyntar symbiotes crossover into the Detective Comics Animated Universe. Not sure where to go from there though. :V