Darren woke up again, this time in response to a poking at his consciousness. It wasn't a stabbing pain into his head, more like how a pet tries to gain the attention of its master just to know it's being paid attention to. He opened his eyes to see something absolutely shocking making him stand straight up in an instant.
The small mass of flesh had been replaced by a towering building made of flesh and bone. Five mouth like openings were separated in a circle by five bone like protrusions that pointed towards the sky. At the top sat another mouth with five more bone like protrusions that seemed to be breathing in tandem with the building's movements. Darren couldn't believe his eyes though with what he saw.
That's a freaking Hatchery from StarCraft! What the hell!? He ran from one end to the other around the Hatchery and back to where he started. As his thoughts ran at what he was seeing, he felt another poke at his consciousness stopping him from making more thoughts about the situation. He focused more on the poking and found that it came from the direction of the Hatchery. He sensed concern radiate from the building as he inspected it. Instinctively he sent back reassurances that seemed to please the building as it started to, in lack of better words, "breathe" happier.
Darren calmed down again as he started to decide what to do. He then noticed the ground under him and was slightly awed. The ground was covered in a purple mass that stretched out toward the trees on the edges of the clearing. He focused on the creep below him and felt the creep pulling nutrients from the soil and enhancing the few trees that it touched near the clearing. Unlike how in StarCraft the creep would make the plant life wither away, this creep seemed to be helping the trees become healthier and in turn pull in more nutrients leading into a healthy symbiosis.
He stopped focusing on the creep and decided to begin recounting everything that he could about the Zerg from StarCraft and what goals to set for himself now. First, he needed resources and while nutrients from the earth around him would work for now, it wasn't a long-term solution in case of emergencies and just in general. Second, he needed a way to defend himself from attacks. He didn't know where he was, and it was safe to assume that everything wouldn't be peaceful forever. And that brought him to the last problem, figure out where the hell he was. Everything looked normal so far, but, if this wasn't Earth than he needed to know everything about the area fast.
Darren began to focus inward on unit making. He knew that larva from the Hatchery would be able to turn into a variety of things but first he needed drones or maybe an overlord or two. He found he could also order zerglings as well without the need of a spawning pool.
Well, Darren thought to himself, I'll take what I can get. He focused on making some drones first to scout out the area on the ground and put in an order for two overlords along with some zerglings for good measure. Some larva fell from one of the openings in the Hatchery and began to curl in on themselves while an egg grew around them. Darren sat down and began to wait as the eggs gestated.
After about 30 minutes the first eggs began to hatch. Three drones and eight zerglings cracked out of the eggs, and with a quick mental order from Darren, they lined up in front of him. The drones were flat creatures with membrane that seemed to slightly hover above the ground with two pincers in front and a bug like head in front. The zerglings stood on four legs with two arms like protrusions that arched from their backs towards the front and ended in sharp points. They looked like plate covered, bug like dogs with a long reptilian tail at the end and a dangerous looking mouth with sharp canine teeth.
A quick feel with his mind brought to light some interesting things about the mental facilities of the units in front of him. Drones felt empty and subservient, awaiting their next orders while zerglings felt like excited dogs ready to run at a moment's notice.
I want two zerglings to go with each drone as they scout for more resources and the last two zerglings to scout the general area. No sooner than he gave the order did the units go to please their master. The lone zergling pair shot off quickly while the drones were escorted by their zergling pair.
An hour later the two overlords finished gestating and floated above the Hatchery. They looked like large ten-foot-tall bulbous creatures with two overly large pincers hanging from the front and legs uselessly trailing under them. They felt perpetually bored just floating around the area looking at the area around them.
One of you go north and I want the other to go in the opposite direction, Darren ordered as the overlords followed the directions.
Darren began to scan the area again until he felt a prodding from the lone zergling pair. He focused in on one of the two and soon found himself looking through a new pair of eyes. But before he had time to marvel at that he noticed what the zerglings were looking at while hidden in the bushes.
A small six-year-old girl was huddled against a tree trapped by what seemed to be a bear sized wolf with blue fur as it growled at her. She had blond hair and pale skin with blue eyes. She shook I terror as the bear wolf stalked closer to the girl. Her eyes squeezed shut as she curled to the ground as she screamed.
"Help me!"