A trio of elite overlords appear over Coruscant, quickly activating Toru's quirk and slipping through the orbital defenses. Moving swiftly outside of normal traffic lanes, they reach their first destination quickly. A single Broodmother is dropped into a quiet alleyway and the overlords quickly depart, going down. Within a few hours they are below any sentient settlement and their cargo of queens, drones and infestors is released. A drone quickly begins growing a hatchery while the rest begin collecting scrap. The queens scan the area while the infestors mind control several local monsters that got too close, forming a temporary defense while the swarm expands.
Meanwhile the single broodmother finishes ascending the many steps outside the temple, her strange appearance and obvious difficulty climbing attracting a small audience of otherwise bored initiates and temple guards.
"State your business." A guard asks curiously as he looks up at the face of the enormous being.
"Broodmother Ecumenopolis, Zerg Swarm's ambassador to the Jedi." The broodmother says in her dissonant voice.
"We were expecting someone different." the head guard says as he marches beside the door guard.
"Yes, the Overmind and his advisors are abnormally human-like compared to the majority of the swarm, queens and broodmothers like myself are far more typical." Ecumenopolis replies politely, her personality based off of a protocol droid and the few ambassadors Nezu had met. She didn't have many abilities, but could create changelings for infiltration or as servants to assist guests. She also had the standard larva and creep creation of all Broodmothers allowing her to create some nonlethal zerg such as resculings and spider roaches to defend herself and others. Her own combat ability was standard nonlethal broodmother, with tranquilizer spines.
"We must apologize, your quarters will not fit someone of your size. We will arrange housing outside the temple until this can be rectified." the head guard explains while bowing his head.
Ecumenopolis waves him off before explaining: "I have no need for sleep like most organisms, I will merely explore your wonderful temple until my quarters can be provided."
"Our thanks. Please follow this padawan, she will lead you to the council. They wish to speak with you immediately." The head guard says while gesturing to a young human that had just arrived.
As they walk through the temple the padawan gladly points out interesting rooms and provides as much explanation as she could while maintaining a hurried pace. In the end Ecumenopolis gets a longer tour than planned when the padawan leads her to a human sized elevator instead of the larger one needed for Ecumenopolis' great size.
Once they reach the council chambers Ecumenopolis has to duck through the doors as they were rather small for her.
"Ecumenopolis, representative for the Zerg Swarm, here to see you masters." the padawan says with a bow.
"Thank you padawan, you are dismissed." a bald dark skinned man says and the padawan bows before leaving the room.
After introductions and general pleasantries the conversation finally becomes productive, not that Ecumenopolis minded either way as she was born to deal with the many tedious aspects of diplomacy.
"Your presence in the force, strange is." Yoda says, breaking his silence.
"Please elaborate, I may be able to explain." Ecumenopolis says diplomatically.
"Much life and yet not light, nor dark. Very young you feel." Yoda explains.
"I am but a few weeks old." Ecumenopolis says, "and perhaps you feel the swarm, it is alive and tends to be neutral."
"Feel this from the Overmind I did not." Yoda says.
"The Overmind is far older than I, his psionic abilities could easily disguise his presence. Where I have no need for such things." Ecumenopolis explains.
"Hmm. meditate on this I will." Yoda says.
"I feel we should be concerned by her young age." Ki-adi Mundi says arrogantly.
"Her species clearly matures quickly, we should not judge. Or perhaps young Grogu should be a padawan as he is old enough in years?" Plo Koon argues.
"I am a broodmother, we hatch fully matured after a week. Or we can slowly mature from queens over a year depending on experiences." Ecumenopolis explains.
"Interesting." Plo Koon says.
"As insightful as this discussion has been, we have much to discuss today." Mace Windu says.
"Indeed, but first, as I am residing here, may I learn of your emergency evacuation plan?" Ecumenopolis asks.
"Emergency evacuation plan?" Mace asks.
"Yes, you are in the middle of a war. The enemy could strike at any time. What is your plan to get non-combatants and guests like myself to safety?" Ecumenopolis asks.
"We don't need one." Ki-adi Mundi says, "no one would attack the Jedi and any that would be no match for our many Jedi Knights."
"Perhaps, but you have many younglings here and many maintenance and cleaning staff that need to be protected." Ecumenopolis argues.
"That is something we will consider." Plo Koon says kindly.
"The swarm would be glad to assist. Our Heroic brood and Old Guard Hero brood specialize in rescue operations. They would be glad to assist in the defense of the innocent." Ecumenopolis offers.
"We will consider this as well." Mace says. "But now let us speak of the war."
"Anakin and myself are more than pleased with the swarms help so far." Obi-wan says. "The Overmind was instrumental in defeating the traitor Krell and saving many clone lives."
"We only ask for you to rely on us more." Ecumenopolis says, "The Overmind could have done more if only he was asked."
"Indeed, perhaps a demonstration would be helpful." Obi-wan says.
"Your next assignment will be finding the people of Kiros, perhaps allowing the swarm to lead will prove fruitful." Plo Koon suggests.
"Indeed, it should be excellent for judging the swarms' unique abilities." Mace agrees.
"It will be done." Obi-wan agrees, "If nothing else the clones could use some time off."
"The swarm has one request, the planet Geonosis. From what the swarm has gathered the garrison there has been struggling, perhaps transferring the planet to swarm control could ease the manpower drain." Ecumenopolis says.
"Yes, since the second battle and the brain worm mess the garrison has been stretched thin and is in a constant state of high alert." Mace says.
"Will the swarm have trouble with these mind control worms? The garrison is forced to wear isolation suits as a precaution, I am concerned a purely biological force will be vulnerable." Plo Koon questions.
"While a valid concern, the swarm is experienced with mind control, and has its own defenses. With the power of the hivemind and our hyper-evolutionary virus no biological mind control stands a chance." Ecumenopolis explains proudly.
"Let us hope your arrogance doesn't force a third battle." Ki-adi Mundi says.
'Ironic for him to say that.' Izuku says over the hivemind to the many witnesses.
"Nevertheless, I feel we must take this risk." Mace says, "the council allows this transfer of control."
Within hours of the orders arriving on the planet, the garrison is packed and ready to go. No clone or other Republic personnel wanted to spend more than an extra second on this wretched planet.
As the first Republic transports take off, a Broodmother walks into the main base escorted by an assortment of hydralisks, vile roaches and raptorlings. This was the first broodmother of Momo and Kyoka's siege brood. She would be in charge of occupying the planet. This would be a test based on lessons learned from the Wookies on Trandosha. Momo decided to join the group, but only to comfort the Republic forces with a human-like face.
"I assume I will be transferring control to you." A Republic non-clone general says towards Momo.
"Indeed." The Broodmother answers, "The swarm will relieve you. Best of luck on the front."
"Anywhere is better than this hell hole." the general says before turning to one of his aids. "Show them around the base." and then he turns to another aid, "Prepare my shuttle, we are leaving at once."
Momo stays behind as the Broodmother is led away by the unlucky aid. 'What is the plan with this planet anyway?' she asks over the hivemind.
'Simple,' Nezu replies. 'Training and testing.'
'And it is a staging point for our eventual war on the Hutts. Tatooine is right next door and will be our first target.' Izuku adds.
'I will be working with an Evolution Apprentice and hopefully some scientist recruits to see if the swarm can terraform planets.' Melissa says.
'Couldn't we do that on Mars?' Momo asks.
'Not without endangering our people on the planet.' Melissa says.
'But there are billions of sentients on this planet as well.' Momo questions.
'They are all underground and should be fine.' Nezu says.
'If you say so.' Momo agrees hesitantly.
'Once you look through what we have learned about them you really wouldn't care that much.' Izuku adds.
'I will do that, but it can't be that bad.' Momo sends before closing off the conversation so she could focus on managing her new broodmother, Geonosis. 'We really need to work on better names.' Momo thinks.
A few days later, Momo is mostly done learning about the Geonosians. 'These insects need a good squishing.' she thinks.
"Your infiltration is unnecessary." Izuku says tiredly after hearing the Jedi's plan. "You will just get noticed and captured." He and his chosen team of Ochako, Mina, and Eijiro had been sitting in a conference room aboard Anakin's Venator for hours and were tired of Jedi 'plans' and 'tactics.'
"We need to know where the colonists have been taken!" Anakin shouts angrily, not liking Izuku's obvious dismissal.
"The swarm already knows." Ochako says. "Our changeling infiltrators easily obtained the information at a few local cantinas. Which, I must note, wasn't a place you were going to look."
"Dunkards and drug addicts can't be trusted." Anakin argues.
"Yep, they can't be trusted to keep their mouths shut." Mina adds.
"Let's just move on." Izuku says sternly before Anakin could protest again. "We have two planets. The colonist's leader is on Zygerria and the rest are in a prison on Kadavo. Neither planet has much in the form of orbital or even planetary defense. These scum rely on slave shields to avoid attack."
"So we need to infiltrate them." Anakin says smugly.
"You Jedi and your infiltrations, why the Republic turned you into generals instead of special forces is beyond me." Izuku says irritably.
"There will be no infiltration." Ochako begins, "We will use deception to free the slaves."
"How will you deceive them? An invasion is rather straightforward." Ahsoka asks.
"Simple, they don't know the swarm exists." Izuku says with a slightly evil smile. "We just tell them we plan to consume their planet and they won't even bother to use slaves as shields. Since they will believe we intend to eat all of them dead or alive."
The Jedi in the room seemed rather disturbed by this plan, but at the same time knew it was solid.
"The hard part will be finding something to say, but I think Mina has some ideas from old science fiction." Ochako says, causing everyone to turn to the pink menace, who had a mirror of Izuku's smile on her face.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Obi-wan and Eijiro say simultaneously.
"We are the swarm. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will be consumed. Resistance is futile." Izuku's voice drones emotionlessly across all frequencies several minutes after three leviathan's emerged above both targeted planets.
"If they attempt to contact us, simply repeat the message." Izuku instructs as the leviathans begin unleashing swarms of corruptors and mutalisks to engage the fleet of slave ships that should begin fleeing soon.
Predictably countless messages came from the planet, everything from demands to leave to desperate pleas for individual lives. But most transmissions were despicable attempts to buy lives with slaves.
Once the first wave of escape attempts were either destroyed, if full of slavers or boarded if slaves were detected, a leviathan decended on the capital. Drop pods fell in swarms as the leviathan's tentacles tear apart any large ship in range and scourge clear the skies of any small craft or fighter. The defenders could only look on in terror as hatcharies and then even lairs and a few hives grew rapidly only a few meters outside their maximum gun range. Moral dwindled as zerg armies literally grew before their eyes. And then the bile launchers opened fire.
Obi-wan, Anakin, Rex and Cody could only watch in shock as mighty walls and powerful defenses melted away in minutes before an unending flood of raptorlings charged. The enemy had naively gathered at the many holes in the wall, but the raptorlings leap right over the undefended intact wall and flood the city as Omega worms emerge at every town square. The armed defenders are now surrounded and isolated as swarm queens and hydralisks emerge from the zerglings and begin picking them off.
"Ochako, you really need to add roaches to your brood. Without you to lead there simply isn't armored support. Queens are too slow and are a bit too expensive to use as shields for hydralisks." Izuku says calmly as the slaughter continues. The Jedi turn, but are unable to understand the alien language they are using so return to their gawking rather quickly.
"I created my brood thinking I would always lead." Ochako argues, "I didn't expect to have a deception where we couldn't show any semblance of humanity."
"Fair, but it's not like having roaches will slow anything down, if anything they give you more flexibility to lead attacks without being limited by your brood." Izuku argues.
"But then my brood won't be any different from Blitz.: Ochako whines.
"Flanking and encirclement will always be a good tactic, no need to dismiss it just because Mina thought of it first." Izuku says sternly.
"Fine, I will consider it." Ochako relents, before turning to focus on the many other sieges on planet.
"Message from Eijiro, prisoners secured. Ahsoka is with them and queens are providing medical aid." Izuku reports in galactic basic, shocking the Jedi and clones.
"That's good news, if shockingly fast." Obi-wan comments.
"It is called blitz brood for a reason." Ochako says.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka is on the ground near the freed colonists struggling for air. "What... kind... of... attack... was... that..." she manages between breaths.
"A slow one." Mina says looking fresh as ever. "We should have taped you to a zergling or left you with Eijiro, my attacks are usually around 90-100 kph."
'That was slow.' Ahsoka thinks in shock as she remembers sprinting as fast as she could as swarms of zerglings ran around her and a pink menace taunted her while skating backwards on a steady stream of acid.
"Anyway, it looks like the second wave of escape attempts are launching." Izuku reports.
"They seem desperate enough to try to flee in real space." Obi-wan observes.
"Too bad it won't work." Izuku says as overlords begin opening wormholes for individual corruptors to appear behind the fleeing ships.
"Not holding back at all here are you." Obi-wan says sarcastically as the ships plummet to the ground in flames or are left drifting in space within moments.
"You haven't seen anything yet." Izuku says cryptically.
"The swarm has no love for slavers, it is our ultimate goal to purge them from this galaxy." Ochako clarifies with a fire in her eyes.
The rest of the battle didn't last long after that and Count Dooku would arrive to an empty planet with no trace of either the Zigerrians or the slaves. Though the planet would soon be resettled by some of the slaves after they recieved proper healthcare and training. They would have the honor of testing some of the new biodomes and prefabricated housing created by the swarm for aid purposes.
"We need to rapidly ramp up production." Melissa says as she stands inside the small conference room added inside Mei's lab where she has gathered Mie, Izuku, Ochako, Momo, and Kyoka who would have been eavesdropping anyway. They were all dressed casually, to the point of any non-swarm member assuming this was a slumber party rather than a high level meeting if they entered.
"Leviathan's take time to grow, we've prepared more planets but it simply isn't a fast process." Ochako says.
"Until we develop a proper evolutionary plan, the swarm simply won't be able to efficiently control space." Izuku says sadly.
"Then we can do that now." Kyoka says. "What do we need?"
"We need to look at our tactics and potential tactics then add categories and roles for strains. Then we fill in the gaps with new evolutions." Ochako explains.
"Once the base strains are completed, they will be turned over to the broods, where variants can be evolved and shared." Izuku adds.
"Can you explain the swarms' current tactics?" Kyoka asks. "Besides just overwhelming numbers."
"Sure, leviathans and overlords jump into combat and dump fighter strains. These provide escort as leviathans close distance and tear ships apart with tentacles." Ochako says.
"We have two distinct leviathan roles, either a carrier or a massive missile barge. Carriers have the fighter strains: mutalisks, corruptors, and devourers depending on brood. These carriers tend to have a small ground force available to assist in planetary invasions and boarding while Barge types are full of scourge and combine them with bile swarms to deal devastating damage over a short period of time." Izuku explains.
"And that's just the freshly grown leviathans." Momo adds. "They spawn at around one kilometer and slowly grow over time, or faster if fed and enhanced by psionic energy. Once they pass four kilometers they gain bioplasma and biostasis type attacks."
"How large can they get?" Kyoka asks.
"No upper limit technically, but the resources required to keep them alive increases exponentially so I've limited them to seven kilometers. That is more than large enough for almost any operation." Izuku answers.
"Except your personal leviathan is much larger." Ochako says.
"You have a personal leviathan?" Momo and Kyoka ask.
"Yes, I've been growing it for some time now. It's both a secret weapon and an experiment to see if leviathans gain more abilities as they grow larger." Izuku admits.
"How big is it?" Kyoka asks excitedly.
"That's a secret, as is its current location. It used to be on Venus but I moved it just before the invasion." Izuku says.
"Anyway, I think we should switch tactics and keep the leviathans in the back in most cases. Unless we need to board something it's a bit too risky to fly them into close range against this galaxy's ships." Ochako suggests having seen several space battles and understanding the insane power of turbolasers at close range.
"Makes sense, we need to keep them practically out of visual range as their turbolasers will tear us apart if they can hit us. We don't have shields to keep them at bay like common ships have." Momo agrees.
"What do you mean by shields?" Ochako asks. "Turbolasers just weaken over range right?"
"A bit, but it's mostly their effect against shields is reduced. They can still glass a planet from high orbit." Momo says, "fortunately since they know they can't get through shields they haven't bothered to create targeting systems for long range."
"That's lucky, but it also means we need to figure out how to deal damage as well." Ochako sys with some worry.
"Our fighter type strains are actually quite effective as we can fly through shields and do direct hull damage." Izuku explains, "In fact all our leviathan attacks can get right through shields as they don't have enough kinetic energy to trigger particle shields, and would probably break right through those anyway."
"The only problem is that it forces us to either fight at point blank or extreme range." Momo observes.
"Yes, so our main priority will be filling out the fleet with mid range strains." Izuku says.
"We can leave the mobility and armor to Abathur, but we should decide on weapons." Ochako says.
"We have several options. We could create strains that just launch scourge, banelings or bile swarms." Izuku begins.
"Missile type basically." Melissa says.
"Yes, missiles. Or we can choose to accelerate a mass or shoot a laser." Izuku finishes.
"We should have a mix, but having a main type is probably the best option." Momo says.
"Yes, we already have leviathans pumping our missile type strains, so our mid range should be either mass or lasers." Melissa argues.
"You're probably right. We don't know what we will encounter out there in the long run, so diversifying our weapons seems like a good idea." Izuku agrees.
"Or not, since we can always rely on our tried and true overwhelming numbers tactics." Kyoka argues.
"Also true." Izuku says.
"I think we should just go with lasers." Mei says, breaking her silence and proving she was actually paying attention instead of working on something else with another body.
"Explain." Momo asks.
"If we find anything our scourge and bile swarms can't handle it will be because of strong point defense right?" Mei asks.
"Most likely yes." Momo agrees.
"So then projectiles will fail there as well." Mei argues.
"Possibly." Momo admits.
"There we go, we need to beef up Aoyama's laser. Perhaps find a better way to deal with the byproduct. Probably experiment with the Tibanna gas that this galaxy considers a miracle fuel." Mei says.
"Seems simple enough. That's the plan." Izuku says.
Kyoka quickly moves closer to Momo and pats her on the back. "I know you spent all that time creating a bio-coil gun. I'm sure it will be useful eventually. You should mention it now." she whispers.
"Before we move on, I have developed a bio-coil gun using Kaminari's quirk along with Tetsutetsu's quirk and a few other electrical quirks we have gathered. It may be useful for something someday." Momo says quietly.
"Impressive." Mei says with genuine curiosity.
"Indeed, It will be added to this meeting's notes. I'm sure future inventors in the swarm may find use for it." Izuku says kindly.
"I did have an idea for an accelerator baby to get my satellites into space before I joined the swarm." Mei says. "Maybe I can work on that now that the space elevator project has hit a dead end."
"The space elevator is a dead end!?" Everyone shouts.
"Yeah, I could build one, but it would ruin basically all satellite altitudes below geosynchronous." Mei says matter-of-factly. "And yes, that includes building it at the poles." Mei adds, cutting off Kyoka's comment.
"That's unfortunate." Momo says sadly.
"Yeah." Kyoka says.
"We can still build them on Mars and other undeveloped planets, but if there is an existing satellite network, it just isn't worth the effort to move everything and all that debris." Mei says.
"Well, while we are here we might as well talk about mega-projects." Izuku says, interrupting additional questions about the space elevator.
"We are basically done talking about space combat." Ochako agrees.
"The trade hub you proposed is easy enough. I've done sketches and figured out some logistics." Mei says. "It's too dull for me though, so we should leave it to Melissa and Ochako's parents."
"My parents?" Ochako asks.
"Sure, they know what it takes to build a shopping area. That's all this really is in the end, a mall at a Lagrange point." Mei answers. "In more interesting news I have the basics of the Swarm Forge project." she says with new enthusiasm before sending a memory of her plans via hivemind.
"That's interesting. Gaining energy from the sun to gain fuel for Creation, and using queen transfuse fluid to speed up infestation." Ochako says.
"It doesn't say how big it is though." Kyoka observes.
"I don't know that yet. We have to make choices based on our current ship types." Mei answers.
"While we haven't finished assimilating all the technology we have gained from the ships we've bought and captured. And we need to add the Mon Calamari's plans and theories."We can still agree that the current vessel sizes should be fine. Any one off flagships should be assembled publicly for propaganda while any superships can be built in pieces then assembled nearby." Melissa explains.
"But aren't Terran ships much smaller than most of this galaxy's designs?" Kyoka asks, implying that they were at a disadvantage.
"Terran ships are weaker, but their systems are also denser. With some work we can maintain that density and be more space efficient." Melissa explains.
"Not only are smaller ships harder to hit, but we can benefit from being underestimated." Momo adds.
"Excellent." Izuku says, "Mei, build the Swarm Forge with space to build the 1000 meter Alexander class in one go, with a margin of safety of 200 meters."
"It will be done, Overmind!" Mei says with obvious joy, sprinting out of the meeting like nothing else mattered.
"Should we stop her? She's barely dressed!" Momo says, as they watch Mei exit her lab in nothing but half buttoned overalls.
"Not worth the effort." Ochako says calmly, "She gets so focused on her work she sometimes burns her own clothes off and stays like that for days. Everyone on Mars has seen more of her than they would like at this point anyway."
"She's a brilliant mind, but she has her quirks." Melissa says kindly, earning her a wave of sighs and groans.
"Sometimes the Melissa Shield is All Might's secret love child theory makes sense." Ochako says with a groan.
'Did someone say secret love child?' Shoto asks over the hivemind.
At this point the meeting had to be adjourned for the day, as everyone needed some time to cool off.
Meanwhile in Mina's secret lab:
"I see you've set up SwarmMina and begun adding cat videos. Good, people love cats and the galaxy needs to know this." Mina says her secret team meets. "And Swarm'o'pedia is going well. You've even added a swarm only section with unit descriptions, that's useful. You should send the swarm only technical stuff to the new Swarmnews. They can send out the internal swarm newsletter more efficiently and maybe even expand into video based content."
"Your genius knows no bounds." the Evolution Apprentice says, trying to use some lines from the minion self help book it had found.
"I know right. That's why I need to find a member of the swarm for a second limited access section. This one will be adults only on SwarmMina." Mina says with a less than wholesome smile and excessive enthusiasm.
"I have a bad feeling about this." the general studies historian says.
"Those feelings aren't bad!" Mina says, "It's only natural!"
"This one is confused." the Evolution Apprentice says.
"It's time for adult videos!" Mina announces.
And so begins the path that would eventually lead to Mina becoming a saint on Zeltros.
AN: At last, I finished another chapter. Wanted to have this done for the second anniversary of its start, but I was very busy with the end of my vacation happening right as my job ramps up again. It should settle soon enough, but the new race swapped starcraft campaigns have kept me busy.
Anyway, let's answer some questions/comments: Izuku and several others know most of what Mina is doing, basically it's just don't interrupt your ally when they are having a stroke of genius. Mina rarely shines outside of her personality so letting her achieve something like this is great for both the swarm and her confidence.
No, despite the existence of an 'underwater' map in Starcraft versus, the three races can't actually fight underwater as normal. That's just map flavor, basic physics says projectiles are slower or just stop, lasers are refracted and acids dissolve. I'm sure the protoss would do well enough, as would the others if they needed to but by default no. But the swarm adapts as all things do.
In other news, the clone wars is actually nearing its end on the swarms' behalf. With few exceptions the interesting battles have gone by. Season 5 doesn't have much for the swarm to do and season six has even less. Of course the swarm will be there for season seven, as that is the climax of the war and will lead to the end of this arc. We all know what's coming, the question is what will the swarm do and what does the future look like?
Once the swarm began expanding underground Inko knew the swarm would need administration. As it grew beyond the Sol system and met a populated galaxy she realized administration would be the largest and most important brood. At the top sits Inko herself, answering only to the Overmind himself; she manages the innumerable colonies of the swarm. Rei sits at the head of Colonization brood, the largest sub-brood of administration and in theory it's only combat brood. Once a planet has been deemed worthy of colonization and is not a threat worthy of a proper combat brood under Overqueen Ochako nor a puzzle for Nezu's politics, Rei or one of her broodmothers moves in and begins a hive. Once the planet or other body is stable, Inko sends in an administrative broodmother who will manage the planet till the end of time itself. Combat broods may sponsor planets near their battlefronts and allow the administration to grow specific combat strains as reinforcements, but most planets will spend their time just processing interesting minerals and maintaining a large population of drones and larva. Administration also works with Nezu to create internal newspapers, process reports and generally manage the infinite needs of infinite worlds. Occasionally administration will support research by providing prepared planets of any number of experiments and subjecting zerg strains to all kinds of conditions to promote evolution on Abathur's request.