You should probably read this if you are reading as I post. If you read the last chapter before this chapter came out, then you need to read this. The last chapter had some errors in it, and thankfully, you guys noticed and let me know about them. I have gone back and fixed the errors, and I edited the non-story, bold portion of the last chapter. Here is what I added to that part. It explains all of the changes that I had to make to fix the errors in my previous chapters.

To justriedabook: First, I don't really know what I was thinking when I made Roaches that small. More than likely, I was not. I wish that there were some cinematics with Roaches in them. Gameplay is far from a reliable source for scale lol. Don't worry though, I went back and changed it.

Second, chapter six has part of a news clip that explains that I.S.I.S. went from a terrorist group to a coalition of nations. I just now went back and had the news clip explain the situation in more detail. It was easy to miss before, but now it should be easier to take note of. You probably don't want to go back and find the part I changed, so here is what has happened.

In real life, I.S.I.S. wants to destroy Israel, but they are not a direct part of the governments in the Middle East. This story is set just a little bit in the future, and in this future, I.S.I.S. ideologies have so permeated the Middle East that I.S.I.S. members make up the majority of government positions in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon. These nations have formed an alliance whose main goal is to take over Israel. In other words, Israel is being attacked from all sides by an enemy with vastly superior numbers. A worst case scenario. (Well, I guess it could be worse if Turkey joined, but if they did, I doubt that Israel would be able to hold out long enough for the Zerg to make a difference.)

Next, Extractors. I had meant to explain why Extractors work differently in the story than in the game, but I guess I didn't. I just went back and edited chapter 6 to add an explanation of how it works. I was in a pickle about how the Zerg were going to grow without Mineral Formations or Vesper Gas, so I had to make Extractors work differently. Thanks for pointing that out! BTW, Extractors in this story send out things like tree roots to collect minerals, water, ect... from the ground. Before you say anything about the Marie Byrd Lands having no natural resources, I would like to note that there is lots of oil in that area. Nobody can collect it though because it is to cold to harvest and locate.

Finally, about May using psionics to fly, May is still figuring out what she can and can't do. As time goes on, she will begin to realize her potential.

To Arachnodon: 1. I didn't make it very clear in the story, but only May's wings have changed. I just went back and edited it to clarify that. So, my bad.

2. I know that the Zerg are much more powerful canonically, but I didn't want the Zerg to be able to curb stomp absolutely everything. I am trying to make individual Zerg units less powerful, but greater in number. I did, however, just change a little bit to make the Roach a bit tougher than before. Given how I was off on the size of Roaches, I think that a larger Roach would be able to take more damage.

5. I just went back and changed the summary. Thanks for letting me know!

To everyone else, thank you for reviewing! Your feedback is what makes me want to keep writing. I hope you guys keep pointing out errors/things that make no sense/unclear wording/ect... I can't make anything better if I think everything is perfect already!


May sat down with her back against one of her Roaches. The Roach's armored side was not the best backrest, and the hard, rocky ground was not the most comfortable seat, but it was all that she had. She had planned on sitting there for a while, so she positioned her Roach between herself and the evening sun.

Sitting in the shade of her Roach, May closed her eyes and began analysing the Zerg DNA within her. She began looking for sections to improve or change, but no such opportunities showed. For a while, May searched for even the slightest mistake or even something that seemed to be odd. However, all of the DNA was in perfect order and condition. It seemed that the Zerg had been perfect from the start.

Getting bored of the Zerg DNA, she began to let her mind wander. As soon as she relaxed her focus on the Zerg DNA, something caught her attention. There was a large amount of DNA that she had overlooked. It was completely separate from the rest of the DNA in her, and as she began inspecting it, May found that it seemed extremely structured.

It became apparent almost immediately that this was not Zerg DNA. The Zerg DNA was flexible. It could be picked apart, mixed, and altered with extreme ease. The DNA that May had just discovered was quite the opposite. In this DNA, every strand relied on another for its meaning. Any time May tried to figure out the purpose of a strand of DNA, she found that she had to first understand the purpose of some other strand.

May also found that all of the strands of DNA she tried to figure out were the basis for several other strands, and that in order to understand the base strand, she also had to understand the strands that the original strand was the base of. Just trying to figure out a tiny bit of the DNA made her head spin. She continued trying to find even a small amount of DNA that could be understood on its own, but it was to no avail.

May sighed and opened her eyes. As much as she wanted to know how the newly discovered DNA worked, she also needed sleep. May had been studying the DNA for so long that the sun had long since set behind her.

After sitting for as long as she had been, May stood and stretched in the cool night air outside of Israel. May walked around the Roach that was her old backrest, and laid down on the opposite side of where she had been sitting. Having no blanket, May relied on her Roach for any warmth she might need as she drifted off to sleep.

Night came and went, and May got as much sleep as possible. Her forces would be arriving shortly before sunset. Through the day, May was trying to figure out the odd DNA within her. It was so unlike the Zerg that she had a hard time wrapping her head around it. It had some sections that seemed familiar somehow, and other sections that she could not even begin to comprehend. With the Zerg, she could see a section of DNA and know immediately what it was for, but with this DNA, the opposite was true. Frustrated by the confusing DNA, she gave up...for now.

May returned to the conscious world and turned her face to the sun. She felt the warmth on her face and smiled. It was strange; she had expected this place to be extremely hot, but it was surprisingly cool. The air was dry, and May was used to the fairly high humidity of her homeland. With less moisture in the air in the Middle East, the ninety degree weather felt cooler than it normally would have in most of America. Although the air was cooler, the sun was hotter. Its effects seemed amplified in the acrid climate, and May figured that her Zerg DNA was the only thing that had kept her from getting sunburned.

She only had an hour until her invasion. Her Zerglings would have arrived hours ago, but May wanted all of her forces to arrive at the end same time, just in case something went wrong.

While May waited for her army, she began to plan the invasion. At first she wanted to surround the city and take it over, but she decided that there was no long term advantage that she could gain from holding a city without a Hatchery or Nydus Worm to provide reinforcements.

If she was not going to take the city, then she would need to concentrate her forces on breaking through the I.S.I.S. lines. With this in mind, she decided to use her forces like a spear. She ordered her army to change its formation. She kept the majority of her Zerglings in the front, and had the rest create a thin barrier around the Roaches and Hydralisks. Instead of lining up her forces like a massive wall, she shaped her advance to be like a spearhead with three layers. Hydralisks were at the core of the spearhead to provide covering fire. Roaches surrounded the Hydralisks with more in the front than the back; they were meant to shield the less armored Hydralisks. The Zerglings, due to their small size, expendability, and speed, were in the front to clear buildings and tight alleyways so that the Roaches and Hydralisks were free to deal with major threats.

The three layered triangle of Zerg swarmed over the horizon as they arranged themselves into May's desired formation. She could only see the front of her army because of the massive amount of dust they churned up. If she didn't know better, she would have thought that there was a dust storm coming...and an earthquake.

The thundering of hundreds of feet pounding over the dry arid land shook the ground. Likely, the soldiers within the city would feel her army's approach before seeing anything. She prepared her Roaches and got one last look of the city from the Overseer as her forces neared.

May quickly realized that she would not be able to keep up with her much larger underlings on foot. She considered trying to fly over her army, but it would leave her open to gunfire. Having no other choice, May climbed up onto the back of one of her Roaches. She held onto the few spines on the Roach's back as her Zerglings began swarming around her.

As soon as she was at the center of her spearhead formation, May ordered her Roach transport to run with the Hydralisks. Holding on was difficult, but she managed to quickly find a reletively stable psoition to ride in.

May had a hard time seeing through the dust that was being stirred by the Zerglings around her, but she continued with her swarm. As soon as her spearhead of Zerg began entering the city, her formation, for the most part, fell to pieces.

Her Zerglings swarmed through the largely empty streets. The triangle formation was almost entirely nonexistent, but the layers of Zergling, Roaches, and Hydralisks remained intact. At first, there was little resistance to the Zerg's arrival, for she mostly encountered civilians who were foolish enough to go outside in the middle of a warzone. She had to micromanage the Zerg at each encounter, quickly deciding who was and was not a threat. Luckily, no civilians were trampled by the massive stampede.

Several dozen enemy infantry, five armored fighting vehicles, and two more mobile artillery were taken out within a minute of charging through the city. The city was very large, and May's "small" army was not in a good position to do anything other than what May had already planned on. Breaking through to Israel.

May tried to keep her forces as contained as possible to minimize casualties. At most, her army covered a four to five block area, and May tried to keep it that way.

While keeping her formation tight, May monitored every human encounter through the eyes of her Zerglings. She wanted to make certain that no Israelis were attacked, but she had yet to came across any.

May and her forces continued through the city with little difficulty; any resistance was eliminated so quickly that, as far as May could tell, no alarms had been raised.

About halfway through the city, the swarm encountered a tank with about a dozen infantry around it. May immediately ordered the Zerglings to make room for the Roaches and Hydralisks. The tank didn't even have time to finish turning its gun towards the wave of Zerg before it, and the men around it, was doused with corrosive acid and shredded by one foot long, toxin covered, serrated spines.

By the time her swarm was nearing the side of the city that faced Israel, there was a significant amount of resistance. May could hear machine gun and tank fire ahead of her. The Zerg had finally reached the front lines.

Although May was near the combat area, the enemy had not yet been alerted of their presence. The buildings gradually became less frequent and several had a small amount of land between them.

Ahead, tanks and infantry could be seen fighting what May assumed to be the Israelis. The infantry were all near walls or barricades that lined the streets and buildings while the tanks sped around the battlefield, only stopping to shoot.

Although few in number, the Israeli military was far better trained, had far better equipment, and were far more motivated. If Israel lost, there would be no terms of surrender. Only genocide.

Several of the enemy soldiers saw May's swarm approaching and warned the others. These Saudi Arabians were not going to be taken by surprise like the ones before had. There were over a dozen tanks, and they all turned to face the thundering cloud of Zerg that churned dust into the air.

Then they fired. The explosions sent Zerglings flying and made Roaches stumble. Some got back up, but others did not. Luckily, none of the rounds reached the Hydralisks, and as soon as the Hydralisks were in range, they began shredding the tanks.

The Israeli soldiers, deciding to take advantage of whatever was distracting the Saudi Arabians, began to advance. With the Saudis distracted, the Israeli soldiers carefully began whittling away at them. Had they been able to see the monsters that were attacking the Saudi Arabians, they might have decided that the Zerg were their main threat. However, a cloud of dust had been kicked up by the tank fire and Zerg stampede preventing the Israelis from seeing what was attacking the Saudi Arabians.

The Saudi Arabian tanks prepared to fire a second volley of high explosive rounds into the murderous dust cloud that threatened to overtake them. Only half of the tanks that fired the first volley survived long enough to fire a second.

Machine gun fire cracked through the air, and explosions shook the earth as the second volley of tank rounds impacted the Zerg wave. The Zerglings reached the infantry as the Roaches came in range of the tanks, melting their armor and turning metal into sizzling puddles of acid. The third volley of tank fire never came, and fifteen tanks lay mangled, melted, and shredded on the battlefield. As the tanks were being destroyed by Roaches and Hydralisks, the Zerglings were tearing up the few infantry that remained in the area.

A massive dust cloud obscured the entire battlefield as all machine gun fire came to a halt. Although the distant cracks of machine gun fire and booms of armored vehicle fire could still be heard, the immediate vicinity was disturbingly quiet.

May ordered the Zerg army to a halt once all of the I.S.I.S. forces in the general area were annihilated. She dismounted her Roach and stepped towards the place that the I.S.I.S. troops had been shooting before her arrival.

She could not see much through the dust that had been raised by the fighting, so she was not exactly sure where the Israelis were. As the dust began to clear, she saw what used to be a suburban-like community covered in craters and destroyed buildings. She looked closer and saw that there were people behind the pieces of building using them as cover. There were also several tanks and armored fighting vehicles, but it looked like most of them were badly damaged and being used primarily as cover.

May looked behind her to find that her swarm was still blocked from view by the dust. Acting out of caution, she decided that it would be a good idea to keep her Swarm hidden until an alliance could be made. She had yet to even speak to an Israeli, and revealing the Zerg to the Israelis, or anyone else, was not something that she wanted to do until she was officially at war. Thus, May ordered all of her forces to burrow before the dust cleared, and she gave the order in time for the Zerg to remain unseen by the Israeli solders.

Then she realized that she must have been a strange sight. A military force was just wiped out, and once the dust cleared, only she could be seen. She chuckled to herself.

"Hello!" May shouted in Arabic as she waved her hand in the air, "I am May!"

"Where did you come from?" One of the Israelis asked with a yell, while he kept his rifle pointed at May.

"Back there."

May replied as she used her thumb to point behind her.

Several of the Israelis looked at her with suspicion.

"What killed the Saudis?" One of the Israelis asked.

"Something in the dust. I could barely see anything." May replied. She did not want to lie, but she did not want to tell the truth either.

"How did you get here, and where are you from? Your accent is Iranian, but you dress like an American."

"I was kidnapped from America, and learned Arabic since I have been here."

Several of the men began talking in Hebrew, and May could not understand them. After several moments, the man who spoke earlier motioned for her to come to them.

"Put your hands on top of your head and come to us."

May did as she was told and walked toward the Israelis. She noticed that all of the Israelis that she could see had their weapons pointed at her. When she came to about five yards away from the men, the man motioned for her to stop before he spoke again.

"Do you have any weapons on you?"

"No."

"Keep your hands on your head and come with me," The man said, "Intel says that the Jordanians will arrive soon to reinforce...what we thought was going to be the Saudi Arabians."

"Okay." May said as she cautiously approached the Israeli.

"I'm Noam. Do you have an I.D.?"

"Um," May had not seen her purse since she was kidnapped, "no."

"Why are you here?"

"I was kidnapped, but I escaped and walked here."

"Your name is May?"

May nodded.

Noam led May to a building some distance away from the front line and brought her inside. The two walked up to a man sitting at a beat up desk who Noam saluted. Noam and the man at the desk spoke in Hebrew, at least May assumed that it was Hebrew, for several moments before Noam saluted again and walked out.

"Put your hands down." The man at the desk commanded in Arabic.

May put her hands back down to her sides and stood awkwardly as the man scrutinized her.

"Are you thirsty?" The man seated at the desk asked. He was outfitted similarly to the soldiers, but he wore no helmet and his rifle was leaning against the desk instead of being slung over his shoulder.

"Um..." that was random, "no."

"You just escaped from I.S.I.S., walked through a desert and a city filled with Saudi Arabian and possibly Jordainian soldiers to the front lines of a war, and when you get here you aren't thirsty?"

"I took a canteen with me." May said as she twisted and pointed at the canteen tucked into the back of her pants.

The man sighed and rubbed his face. "How long have you been walking?"

May thought back on the last few days. "I was walking for about a day and a half, but I took a break yesterday and-"

"When was the last time you ate?" The man asked, cutting her off.

"I don't know when the last time I ate was," May replied with an attitude. "I was kidnapped, drugged, and woke up tied to a pole. How am I supposed to know how long I have been gone?"

The Israeli snarled slightly before looking down at the durable looking tablet on his desk and mumbling what sounded like "Americans."

May was not entirely sure how she had gone without eating for so long. The last time she ate anything was in America. Maybe Matilda would know.

"Matilda?"

She called in her mind.

"Yes, my... Yes?"

"Why am I not hungry?"

"There is biomass within you that is left over from your creation of the first Hatchery."

"Thanks."

That was not exactly something that she wanted to tell this guy. She wondered how long she could-

"Hey!" The Israeli said as he snaped his fingers in front of May's face. "Why were you kidnapped?" The man asked.

"Oh, sorry. Um...I was kidnapped because...I am not a...normal...person."

"My wife isn't normal, but she isn't wandering around a war zone. You didn't answer my question."

"I am not normal because I..." May paused and tried to think of a decent explaination.

The man, who clearly had lost patience, grumbled something before yelling something in Hebrew. A soldier walked through the door moments later and saluted. The man at the desk gave him some orders in Hebrew before turning his head back to May.

"Follow this man." The man said impatiently.

The soldier turned to leave, and May followed. As she exited the room, she took one last look at the ill tempered Israeli. Only then did she notice the dark circles under his eyes. He looked tired.

The Israeli soldier took May to a Humvee and told her to wait before he walked off. Several minutes later, another Israeli solder walked up to her.

"T'h May?" He said as he approached her. She could tell by his tone that he was asking her a question, but she was not sure what "T'h" was supposed to mean.

"I am May." She said in Arabic.

The newly arrived soldier said something to her in Hebrew while he motioned for her to get into the Humvee.

May got in the passenger seat, and the soldier got in to drive. He started the Humvee and drove off.

"Are we going to Jerusalem?" May asked as the front lines of the war slowly disappeared behind her.

"Tel Aviv." was all that the man said.

May assumed that she was going to Jerusalem and settled into the uncomfortable seat. After watching the lanscape became boring, she decided to look over her Swarm.

Matilda had been busy in Broodland. There were several new Extractors and a new Hatchery. A Spire was on the way, and her Lair was evolving into a Hive. Surprisingly, the forces that May took from Broodland had already been replaced. She knew that the Zerg were efficient, but this was amazing. It seemed that the Zerg grew at an exponential rate, the bigger they became, the faster they grew.

May was dissapointed to find that her American Lair had been destroyed shortly after the Nydus Worm from Broodland surfaced. The Nydus Worm had also been killed after Matilda escaped through it. All traces of the Zerg presence in America had been erased as far as May could tell.

May looked over her forces burrowed on the battlefield that she had just left behind. Thankfully, the Jordanian reinforcements had not yet arrived. May wanted to move her forces to a better location, but she did not want to reveal anything to the Israelis just yet. They would see more action soon if May had anything to say about it.

May considered ordering an increase in Roach production. Their tunneling ability would soon become invaluable to the Zerg once she became fully involved in the war. However, because she was not yet at war, she decided that it would be better to grow the Swarm economically until the war began. If her theory on the way the Swarm grew was correct, she would be better off in the long run this way.

Thus, May ordered Matilda to morph Hatcheries and technology structures until otherwise instructed. She also ordered Matilda to prepare thirty Nydus Worms and send them to the borders of Israel. However, she had the Nydus Worms wait a couple of miles beneath the ground instead of surfacing immediately. That way she could quickly deploy her forces anywhere once the Swarm was ready.

After she finished managing the Zerg, her thoughts drifted to what the Israeli soldiers she had just left behind might be thinking of the situation. From their point of view, the forces the they were engaging had been wiped out by something in a dust cloud, and when the cloud cleared, only May was left. Imagining what they must have thought happened made her smile.

For the remainder of the trip, May telepathically discussed what should be done next with Matilda. They decided to keep the Zerg a secret as long as possible. May figured that revealing a race of incredibly dangerous creatures that were controlled by a single person could not be safely done alone. They needed someone important to represent them to the world. Israel needed help in a war. They decided that her best option would be to make a deal with Israel by trading military support for political support.


A whole week between posts. :( Sorry guys. My brother is getting married Friday, and...nevermind, y'all have lives of your own to worry about.

So...I figured that if the Zerg are going to be a nation, then they are going to need an awesome flag right? Well, I have created seven potential flags for the Zerg and posted them on DeviantArt under the name "bcpowerhouse." If you search for my name in DeviantArt, then all seven flags should show up. Let me know which one(s) you like by either reviewing or sending me a PM.

If you like flags as much as I do, and want to send me a flag that you've made...I am not sure how you would do that. I don't think that FanFiction permits people to send links that lead to somewhere other than FanFiction. Maybe you could post them on DeviantArt and PM me your DeviantArt username. I am not entirely sure.

A few of the flags are based on Israel's flag, and one of those is VERY similar to the flag that Israel's air force uses. (The flag labeled "Monarchy of the Zerg" is probably my LEAST favorite if that means anything to you.)

Yeah, I probably could have gotten this out sooner if I had not done the whole flags thing, but after taking up Vexillology as a bit of a hobby...I couldn't resist. If you knew what that meant without using Google, then you probably like flags too! (Or you saw the TedTalk about flags)

I plan on making whatever flag you guys choose the new coverpicture for this story. The current coverpicture I am using was not made by me. In fact, I am not entirely sure when I put it on my computer. It has been sitting in my pictures folder for who knows how long, and I probably should not have it there to begin with because I cannot give credit to whoever made it.

If you guys see any other errors that I have made, or if y'all are confused by the wording of some things, please let me know. "There is no other way of guarding oneself from flatterers except by letting men understand that you will not be offended if they tell you the truth." - Niccolo Machiavelli

Thanks for reading, and have a fantastic day!