public class Chp34 {
public String endingStandard = "Also, don't own it";
Disclaimer Chapter34 = new Disclaimer();
("Well, it's not normally thought of asscience")
.println( () + endingStandard);
}
But I still have to admit computer science has its own special appeal. Still none in Catalyst though. Also, don't own it.
On an unrelated note, did you know that Catalyst is actually book length at this point? Not a long book. And I suppose the transition jokes and creature descriptions at the bottom add a couple thousand words. But still, damn.
It really does sneak up on you, doesn't it? (For those wondering about the computer code mumbo jumbo, it's not a glitch. Strandshaper's just a nerd.) ~f
(Transition: The process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another. Such as changing a simple divider into a recurring joke. That, is the ultimate transition. Except for maybe the really important ones like from war to peace or depression to prosperity and all that. But this is also one of the ultimate ones.)
He's getting a big head again. *fetches shrink ray* ~f
Catalyst
The Swarm had never made a thorough examination of the terran prison system. They just hadn't needed to, really. They knew the basics, of course. They took the non-conformists of their species and either replaced their memories before sending them into combat, or just sent them into combat as they were. Considering their average lifespan on the frontlines was measured in seconds, it was a rather efficient method. It removes weakening elements and provides cannon fodder, all at the same time. While the strategy was of no use to the Swarm, they had still taken a note of its efficiency, before focusing on more important matters. There was never a pressing need for the details.
Currently, this oversight was causing Thenabar no small amount of distress. He had been in this cell for several days. He had no way of knowing whether or not this was normal, he had no idea what to prepare for, and he didn't even know when Dumbledore would come to see him next. He was entirely without information, and he despised every moment of it. Even worse, he was perfectly capable of just turning into something small enough to escape and returning to the Forest. The only thing stopping him was the Evolution Master's orders, and those was absolute. Still, Thenabar found himself hoping that something would happen soon.
As if summoned by his thoughts, there was a knock at the door of his prison. A second later, Dumbledore walked past the threshold. Thenabar took a quick glance at his surface thoughts. He was taking a moment to check the... monitoring wards? Oh, he had put them up yesterday. Thenabar hadn't noticed them at all. For that matter, he hadn't been aware wards could accept sensory input. The Evolution master would be pleased.
"Hello, Thenabar." Oh, right. He was here. Thenabar honestly wasn't sure what to do with him. Manipulate him, eliminate him, infest him, the Evolution Master didn't have an endgame in mind. Right now, Thenabar was more a proxy than a pawn. Which meant he didn't have any specific orders to follow, and needed to determine his own path to the objective. What a novelty.
"Headmaster," Thenabar replied, then paused. What exactly did he want to do here? He had already shown himself to believe that the headmaster had wanted to kill him, but repeating it after the multiple denials would paint Thenabar as either deaf or an idiot, neither of which was particularly appealing. Then again, humans were disturbingly slow to change their minds. He could pretend to be a fanatic, that would work. "Are you here to kill me?"
A wave of melancholy washed over Dumbledore. Thenabar really wished that would stop happening, it always screwed with his hormonal systems. A weakness of baseline boggarts, perhaps. He would mention it to the Evolution master later.
"No, I am not, Thenabar. And I really do wish you would believe me when I have no plans to harm you," Dumbledore responded.
"Then why come here? You don't like talking to me, and, actually, the feeling is mutual," Thenabar shot back. He was still supposed to be in the sullen prisoner phase, after all.
"I was wondering if you'd be willing to answer some questions for me." Thenabar decided to stay silent. Of course he wasn't. Did the human honestly expect to get anywhere with this? Unfortunately, Dumbledore seemed to take his lack of protest as encouragement. "Questions about Abathur."
"What do you want to know about him?" Thenabar asked, somewhat surprised.
"There are a great many things," Dumbledore said. "I would appreciate knowing where he came from, what he and his kind can do, or any other information you can provide."
"Interesting. I'm not going to tell you any of that," Thenabar said.
"Would you prefer to exchange information then?" Dumbledore proposed. "If you will consent to share information with me, I will in turn tell you whatever you wish to know."
Such a foolish suggestion. Anything Thenabar wanted to know, he could likely pull straight from the old man's mind, and...vice...versa. That was odd. Why hadn't Dumbledore invaded his mind already? For all their other flaws, humans were not known for overlooking the tools they had on hand. Thenabar attempted a deeper look in the humans mind, only to be stopped in his tracks. A barrier, stronger than Thenabar had thought possible from a human, blocked every entry point beyond surface thoughts. Well. Perhaps an exchange of information would be more beneficial than he had thought. No reason to tell the truth, after all.
"What do you know that you think I care about?" Thenabar asked.
"Would you perhaps like to know how Abathur came to dwell within you?" Dumbledore said.
What? "How do you know that?" Thenabar demanded.
"So you would like to know," Dumbledore said. "I do believe I can help you with that, provided that you help me."
"Fine," Thenabar responded. "You first. How did the Evol- how did Abathur get here?" A quick glance at the headmaster's mind showed he had not missed the slip-up. Unfortunate.
"Very well. To understand why Abathur was brought here, you must understand exactly what the last war against Voldemort was like..."
By the time Dumbledore had finished story, Thenabar was silent. There were all sort of disturbing implications wrapped up in that story. If the Evolution Master was summoned by a ritual that had such immense range, they could be hundreds of light years from the Koprulu sector, and by extension, the Swarm. It could take them centuries to return, and that was assuming they could even get ahold of any essence that would let them make the journey in the first place. If not, recreating leviathans, or some acceptable alternative... honestly, it might be faster to let the Swarm come to them. Unless...
"What do you mean, Abathur's body was scattered when it came through?"
"Well, I couldn't say precisely, as I wasn't there. But from what Mr. Byhumorn told me, parts of his body were grafted onto the participants, including him." Dumbledore said. "From what I saw of him, that seems quite accurate."
"Do you think I could meet him?" Thenabar asked.
"I could ask him. I have no way of saying whether or not he would agree," Dumbledore said. "But first, I believe it is your turn to answer one of my questions."
Oh. Right. "What do you want to know?" Thenabar asked resentfully. He didn't plan to properly cooperate in the first place, so he let his reluctance to part with the Swarm's secrets show clearly.
"What exactly is Abathur?"
Well, that was irritating. He definitely wouldn't be answering that one truthfully. The absolute last thing the Evolution Master wanted was to give Dumbledore any information about the Swarm.
"He's never told me," Thenabar lied. "I know he comes from somewhere far away, and that his magic is incredibly different from yours. But aside from that, no idea."
"In that case, I believe we are done for today," Dumbledore said, sighing. He turned towards the door and made as if to leave. "Oh, and Mr. Jaren? Please do try to tell me the truth next time." And with that, the human closed the door behind, leaving behind a dumbfounded Zerg.
(Transition)
Abathur suppressed the urge to sigh as he saw a section of the webbed tapestry before him fall away in flames. It really shouldn't be doing that. He had already woven fire resistant materials throughout the genes forming the acromantula silk, even made them toxic just to keep their evolution going. And yet, the runes he engraved on them still somehow caught fire. Every time. And while that did have interesting military applications, Abathur was more interested in making them work as intended.
If he still had access to the castle, he could have studied the textbooks, sought an answer in class, or pursued any number of other sources. It would have been difficult to hide his intentions, but that was still much easier than figuring it out on his own.
Abathur sighed again, and ordered the Hive to create several identical replacements for the burning section. If it kept burning before it finished, then all he needed to was make several identical parts. His course decided, he stepped back and let the Hive perform their duties. Within a few minutes, the webs had been repaired and reinforced. Abathur gathered his power, and prepared to feed it into the tapestry.
"What are you doing, Abathur?" Luna's too-cheerful voice came from behind him.
Abathur didn't turn around. "Experimenting. New ward design. Must test."
"Oh? What's it's supposed to do?"
Abathur had finished charging the rune scheme, and the power was flowing through the runes, causing them to emit a faint glow. "Transform viruses in target to hyper-evolutionary strain. Result, rapid infestation."
"Really? Cool! How did you transfigure something so complicated?" Luna asked, coming up close to read the runes.
"Complexity, creates issues?" Abathur responded. The rune's glow had become more focused, more intense.
Luna nodded, nerve cords bobbing lightly. "Professor McGonagall said you can't transfigure anything too complex, like something as small as a virus, or for some reason, food. Daddy says that the Ministry made that last bit so that it would be harder to resist the Rotfang conspiracy."
"...Did not account for." The glow in front of him had began pulsing, glowing in an ever quickening rhythm. The light became more and more intense. If he looked closely, Abathur could see heat waves emanating off parts of the web.
"How did you make the ward work then?" Luna asked. As if on cue, several sections of the rune scheme burst into spectacularly colored flames. "Oh."
"Will correct later," Abathur turned to face Luna, ignoring the flames burning behind him. "Have greater priorities."
"Are you going to put that out?" Luna asked, peering around Abathur.
"Will extinguish self. Other activities planned," Abathur said. He gave one last glance to the burning wreckage, before turning and walking towards the edge of the hive cluster, motioning for Luna to follow.
"Connection to Swarm, underdeveloped," Abathur said as he led Luna through the inner reaches of the forest. "Requires unacceptable effort. Must be strengthened."
"So you're going to put me in another cocoon?"
"No. Psionics, fragile. Could destroy ability. Alternative methods required." The duo had slowed down after leaving the creep, and Abathur had slowed their pace even more. There was no need to rush.
"So are you going to ask the unicorns for help?" Luna asked.
"Unicorns, capable?" Abathur asked, surprised.
"Well, I don't think so, but they're the only ones in the Forest I could think of," Luna explained. Her gaze hardened "Well, aside from the centaurs, and we already eliminated those."
"Alternative methods required then. Practice, most efficient method," One of his dragons soared overhead, confirming the location of their targets. They were exactly where he had expected, still lumbering about, exactly as they had been the last time he had checked. Abathur sent an order to a ritholisk to make its way to them. The lumbering soldier factory should make its way there just in time to meet them. "Commanding Swarm, chosen approach."
The ritholisk lumbered out of the trees, and into view, escorted by a group of smaller teralings. The ritholisk immediately planted itself into the fertile soil, causing creep to spread out like a living flood.
"Mountain trolls nearby. Essence, useful to Swarm. Eliminate. Acquire. Evolve," Abathur instructed.
Luna grinned, and Abathur could practically feel her adrenaline glands begin to pump. Her tentacles were thrashing madly, stabbing at the air. By all appearances, she appeared ready to take on every troll in the area single handedly. It was exactly the response that Zerg were supposed to have. For the second time in an hour, Abathur resisted the urge to let out another sigh. "Clarification required. Do not fight. Direct teralings to target."
One of the teralings stepped forward. It was the smallest of the acromantula derivations, only a fraction larger than a zergling though its legs resulted in a much wider ground profile. But it could easily climb vertical surfaces, and its fangs it had were still more than enough to pierce most natural armor. Really, it was a crude zergling with a bit of venom and improved climbing capability. For now, it would be adequate. Unfortunately, Luna didn't seem to share that view.
"But Abathur, I could get them all by myself. I don't need anything else! They would just get hurt," Luna protested.
"Your role: Commander. Provide greater strength to Swarm when in command than in combat," Abathur said. That, and he didn't really need more data on her combat capabilities. "Requires practice."
"But they'll get hurt!" Luna said, gesturing towards the teralings.
"Irrelevant. Soldier strains, replaceable. You are not."
Luna opened her mouth as if to argue, but closed it just as quickly. For a few seconds, she sat silent. "Alright," she finally said. "I'll do it."
"Good."
Once Luna began actually commanding the Swarm, Abathur couldn't help but admire her ruthlessness. The teralings were easily able to evade the mountain trolls wild swings, and the few that were hit were replaced by five more within seconds. Really, it was far from a fair fight. The mountain trolls were slow, stupid, and few in number, and the teralings were anything but. But Luna still took the time to make strategies, to flank the trolls and attack where they were blind. Several trolls were annihilated before the rest even realized the teralings were there.
There was still room for improvement. She attacked them on their turf, when it may have been the smarter move to lure them onto creep. Often, she would attempt to direct one specific teraling at the expense of losing control of the rest, when it would have been perfectly fine on its own. But that was all to be expected. Abathur had seen similar mistakes in immature cerebrates, they would correct themselves in time.
By the end of the battle, the mountain trolls had been annihilated. Abathur would send the Hive to collect their essence later. But first, Abathur focused his attention on the now exhausted Luna.
"Mission, completed. Congratulations, appropriate."
Even tired out, Luna was able to give Abathur a tired smile. "How did I do?"
"Adequate. Room for improvement," Abathur said. "Will practice further."
"Alright," Luna responded. "Tomorrow, then?"
"Acceptable."
Ultralisk: Like basilisks, but more...ultra. ~f
Ultralisk: There is big, and there is massive. There is immense, gargantuan, titanic, enormous, and every other kind of 'big freaking beast.' Then, there are ultralisks. Among the largest of the Zerg strains, the ultralisk is an elephantine creature, equipped with two pairs of mono-molecular kaiser blades, each capable of cutting through neosteel like cheap plastic. Even more impressive than its weaponry, however, is the ultralisk's sheer durability. It can brush aside heavy minigun fire just as easily as it slaps aside the Viking that fired them. It is capable of withstanding direct hits from protoss disruptors, whose power is comparable to nuclear weapons. It can charge through the flames of a Colossus or shrug off the explosive shells of the mechanical Thors. No matter what is thrown at an ultralisk, the beast will keep going, often by sheer momentum. It is a brutal tank, capable of taking any damage and giving it right back. If there is a foe that an ultralisk can't cleave through, the Swarm has yet to encounter it. And even in the event of the discovery of such a being, it is unlikely that the hypothetical brute would be a serious threat. After all, a single ultralisk's devastation is never the only threat the Zerg have to offer.