Disclaimer: Science is defiance of existence by means of organizing resistance of all established reality by means of logic and particularity. This is not that, so don't depend on it to write your essays. If you do that, you're screwed, and no, not in the fun way. Also, don't own it.
(Transitiooooonnnnnn, transition! Transitiooooooonnn, transition! What? Yes, I already used this Fiddler on the Roof reference. So what? Look, you try coming up with 26 jokes about transitions and see how far you get. I dare you.)
Or you could admit defeat, and just stop. ~f
Catalyst
Thane stood in the center of his clearing, gazing up at the night sky. His face pointed straight up, examining the night sky with an experienced eye. To someone who did not know him, the centaur elder appeared to be completely unaware of the world around him. Milano, however, knew better. Thane was perfectly aware of him, and when he wanted to talk to Milano, then he would let him know.
After a few minutes, Thane spoke, without looking away from the stars. "Are you going to continue to wait over there like a newborn foal, or are you going to ask whatever question is burning you up, Milano?"
Milano stepped forward. "Who says I have any questions for you, Thane? Perhaps I simply wish to enjoy the piece of the meadow?"
Thane snorted. "No one ever bothers me unless they want something. Nobody has any patience for me unless they have patience for my answers. Now stop being coy, and tell me what's burning you up so much," he said.
Milano took a deep breath. "What is that... thing leading the acromantulas?" he said after a moment of hesitation. "Have you ever heard of anything like it?"
"You were one of the ones sent to talk to them, weren't you," Thane said. It wasn't a question. "What do you think?"
"He...it, was dismissive," Milano said, thinking back to his brief encounter with the creature. "I felt as if was only just paying attention to us, just sizing us up for the kill."
"So it was an acromantula," Thane said impatiently. "What made this one so special?"
"Whatever that thing was, it wasn't an acromantula. It was different. It stood on two legs, and it talked without a rasp. In some ways, it looked more like an ant than a spider," Milano elaborated.
"By the sound of Pan's flute!" Thane exclaimed. "Albus Dumbledore must have been right about the acromantulas, then. Those ants have taken over the colony. That is unfortunate, but not unexpected. We should still be able to deal with them."
"I wish I could be so sure," Milano said. "That thing could have killed us. Everything I know about acromantulas told me it should. But it just let us go!"
Thane finally looked down towards Milano. His distress from just thinking about the creature was written plainly on his face. Thane sighed.
"I wish I could tell you there's nothing to worry about. But even the stars, from Alpha Centauri to Tarsonis, scream of nothing but spiders. There is something brewing here, that much is obvious," Thane said somberly. Seeing that Milano had panicked even more from this, he added. "But we will emerge victorious. As long as our gaze is to the stars, and we listen to what they say, the acromantulas have nothing we cannot know."
Unnoticed by either of them, an ant scurried away from the clearing, hidden by the blades of grass beneath their hooves.
(Transition)
Abathur no longer sat at the Slytherin table during meals. Instead he chose to sit with the human, who he had learned was called Luna, at the Ravenclaw table. It was much more efficient to take in biomass and discuss runes at the same time. Luna almost always had some idea, whether through familiarity with tradition, or her own, far more interesting innovations. Abathur nearly considered harvesting her essence; she clearly had some trait that gave her an advantage over the average human. It more than made up for her habit of spinning off on random tangents. Fortunately, today's discussion had been quite productive so far.
"Possible to add dubar to activation sequence?" Abathur pointed to a dense square of runes linked to a larger set lower on the food-stained paper.
"I guess that could work, but why would you do that?" Luna said as she peered at the rune scheme.
"Would allow for greater effect. More power in activation," he said.
"No, because that would send too much power into that cluster and blow up the whole thing." Luna said. "Do you think the easter bunny is actually a platypus?" Productivity had been nice while it lasted.
"Unsure of difference. Variation, relevant?" he asked.
"The easter bunny is the one that hides eggs all over the world for children to find, but platypi are the only mammals that actually lay eggs, so it seems like they would be much better suited for it. Maybe the muggles who saw it didn't know the difference?" Luna pondered.
Abathur considered the question. "Single organism, unable to provide necessary amount of eggs. Harvesting eggs of others, greater reward. Simpler, more efficient."
"That's a good point. Where is the easter bunny getting all these eggs?" Luna thought out loud.
Abathur tried to think of a way to redirect the conversation back towards a more productive topic. Unfortunately, he couldn't think of any. Once Luna started on a random theory, Abathur had yet to be able to stop her. Even with his emotional insight, almost all attempts Abathur had made to predict or manipulate Luna had failed completely and utterly.
Abathur idly let out his senses, determined to squeeze something out of the undoubtedly long explanation. Almost immediately, he had to stop himself from transforming. The sheer amount of hostility in his vicinity shocked him.
"Maybe the rabbit is holding all the platypi as slaves, and forcing them to lay eggs for him to hide all over the world. And the reason that all the platypi people ever see are all in Australia, is because the easter bunny has never, in recorded history, been to Australia!" Luna exclaimed triumphantly. "It all makes sense!"
Abathur had felt hostility from humans before. There were others, students suspicious or hostile towards him. He had been sure to avoid them as much as possible, and fortunately, nothing had ever come from them. But this was far more than he was used to.
"But why Australia? What makes the easter bunny avoid it so much? Aside from the absurd number of dangerous creatures, there's nothing there that would keep the easter bunny away. Unless..."
Even more surprising, most of it wasn't directed at him. Almost all of the enmity was directed towards Luna, growing even as she continued to speak. How could that be?
"The platypus have an organization, maybe without a cool acronym, filled with secret agents all around the world, all for the purpose of defending Australia from the easter bunny, with all his evil inventions and insane number of backstories. How are the platypi able to stay this organized, and this formidable?"
Luna was a terran, he was sure of that, even if she was different from the others. So the animosity couldn't be because of inhumanity. Not unless... Much of the reign of the second Queen of Blades was spent fighting against one specific faction of the terrans, the Dominion, and she even went out of her way to avoid attacking those not part of the Dominion. Why had there been such a divide among a single species to begin with? The zerg had been split by external trife, the protoss were united, but what about the humans?
"Maybe this organization has branches in Muggle governments, and they recruit all kinds of animals to fight for them. They could even build robot owners with super advanced technical skills to distract anyone looking into them from their 'pet'. Then they could track the easter bunny all over the world!"
A chilling thought struck Abathur. Humans might not accept variation even within their own species. They were actively stalling their own evolution, suppressing traits that could be beneficial to the species, rejecting them. No wonder their essence was so pathetic, if this was how they treated evolution!
"But the platypi are still trapped in Australia, so they can't be making much progress. It's almost as if, any time the battle goes one way or the other, some ridiculous circumstances just set everything back to where they started!"
Well, if the terrans weren't going to take advantage of the traits within their own genepool, they could hardly complain if someone else laid claim to them.
"But that situation couldn't be very stable. One way or another the tide would tip. Really, something like that could only last a summer, at most. I'll have to tell daddy about this before it over!" Luna finished.
Not to mention Luna had very useful insight of this planet. "Interesting. Look forward to reading."
Especially if these platypi were as dangerous as she said. That could be very, very useful, assuming he could find this Australia place.
"Thanks, Abathur. You're the only one who's actually interested in these stories," Luna said, smiling.
(Transition)
Abathur perched himself in the webs stretched overlooking his developing Hive cluster. He had finally finished work on a centralized reproductive system, a living structure that could steadily produce eggs to morph into whatever strain he needed. It was no hatchery, and definitely not producing larva worthy of the Swarm, but it would do for now. The newly dubbed ritholisks wandered around and rooted themselves into the resource rich creep, drawing in resources to create the eggs of the next generation of slowly evolving Acromantula.
Considering what he had to work with, Abathur was very proud of the final result. The ritholisks had a much wider base than the base acromantulas, with legs and eyes distributed evenly in a ring along their dome like bodies. They were massive, more than twice the height and width of Aragog. An orifice on their top spat out the eggs, where they rolled down onto the creep, or onto the sticky coating covering their carapace. Mobility was a necessity with his position still so tenuous. This way they could move at a moments notice, taking their young with them. With a bit more work, they may serve as primitive swarm hosts, albeit ones with a much lower rate of birth, but the stored eggs should compensate for that.
But the ritholisks themselves weren't the most important part. It was their eggs. Abathur now had a reliable means of creating more test subjects, more things to experiment on, without fear of running out. That meant more experiments, more progress, more evolution, and that he was getting closer and closer to not having to hide.
Already, eggs were beginning to cover the ground as Abathur built up his production, begging to grow or to be experimented upon. With this supply, new strains would be ready very, very soon. Then he could begin a more effective method of evolution.
Evolution by force.
Scourge: The aptly named baneling of the sky, scourges bring massive amounts of destruction to any fleet foolish enough to come too close. Blind, living bombs, a single scourge is capable of annihilating a smaller ship, while swarms of them are known to destroy massive capital ships in an instant. Scourge have many different means of growth, and their role has changed a great deal since their original development. Scourge were originally spawned two to a larva, much like zerglings, but have since been produced by specialized nests, or as living missiles from a leviathan. More recently, they have been phased out of most broods in favor of the more reliable corruptors and vipers. Zagara remains one of the few zerg who regularly employs scourges in her forces. Despite their lack of staying power, scourges are powerful weapons, catalysts to moments of unparalleled destruction.