Chapter 3: Establishment
Note: This chapter contains quite a bit of gore. If you're squeamish about that sort of thing, then frankly, I'm impressed that you still chose to give this story a read. However, you just might want to skip this if you're faint of heart.
Also, forgot to say this already:
Starcraft is the rightful intellectual property of Blizzard Entertainment, and RWBY is the property of Rooster Teeth.
Now, on to the story!
Some Time Later…
Yang awoke with a start, her heart racing. What in the name of Oum was that? Some crazy dream about a psychic worm monster that had claimed that it wasn't a hallucination and making a deal with it to control a swarm of giant monster-bugs from outer space? Wow, she really was going crazy at this rate.
As she rubbed her eyes with her remaining hand to clear the sleep out of them, however, Yang immediately noticed something odd. She was not a morning person, practically a zombie when she woke up and taking a few hours or so (or a couple cups of coffee; no wonder Ozpin and Oobleck were always sipping the stuff, although how the former man wasn't bouncing off the walls like the latter remained a mystery to the blonde firebrand, and probably always would) to not get the irresistible urge to strangle anyone who had the audacity to suggest that it was a 'good' morning. Now, though, she felt much more alert, more energized than she had any right to be at this hour, like she could go out and run laps all day.
OK, something is seriously wrong here. Yang thought as she sat up. Why do I feel, well, awake? She should be barely able to open her eyes right now! Maybe that vivid dream had had some reality to it after all…
Yang snorted a bit-the first time she had laughed in weeks. Yeah, right. The last member of a race of psychic alien murder-bugs just so happens to land on Patch, close by to my house, and picks me, of all people, to rebuild its entire species. That sounds like something straight out of a bad fanfiction, for Oum's sake. She grumbled to herself. Still, the blonde brawler was unsure; the dream had felt extremely real. The burning agony permeating throughout her entire body that was the conversion process and the feeling of the Successor's weight on her leg were still fresh in her mind, more so than any other dream she had had over the years. (Even that particularly strange one where she had killed another punch-happy girl in a bar... what had her name been, Tina or Tiffany or something?)
Ah, what the hell. Might as well try it-it wasn't like she had anything to lose from this. Yang squeezed her eyes shut and placed her index and middle finger to her left temple like a telepath in a Saturday morning cartoon, sending out her mental summons to the creature-it had said that it had turned into something called a Drone, didn't it?
Uh, hello? Anybody out there? Drone, answer me. Your leader, the new queen of the Swarm, has need of you.
She waited for a couple seconds for something, anything to reply, but nothing did. Yang sighed to herself in dismay, flopping back down onto her bed. So much for the power to get revenge, then.
And then, something replied.
"What is your bidding, My Queen?"
Yang jumped a little bit at the voice and bolted back upright again, her head swiveling from side to side to locate the source of this new voice. She would find nothing; w hatever the mysterious speaker was, it wasn't too close by, and it had echoed in her mind just like the Successor's had.
This voice, however was quite different from that of the creature that had first contacted her. While the Successor's voice was smooth and whispery, almost seductive, this one was gravelly and several octaves lower. Its tone was blunt and mechanical, while the Successor's was soft and suave. And, of course, the Successor hadn't obeyed her freaking orders.
"Alright, who or what the hell is talking to me in my head now?" Yang shouted to the empty air, her remaining hand balled into a fist.
"I am a Drone, My Queen; a simple worker bred to build and gather materials. You called for me, and so I respond. What is your command, My Queen?"
Well, that answered that question, she supposed. But there was still one more thing to know...
"How am I supposed to command you when I don't even know where you are?" Yang replied, her voice somewhat calmer now and her hand returning to her temple.
"I am approximately half a kilometer northeast from your current location, My Queen." The Drone replied. "Close by the wreckage of the drop pod that brought the Successor here. It is not a long journey; you should be able to arrive in approximately two minutes and thirty-six seconds with your new capabilities."
"Hang on a minute, what 'new capabilities'? Am I going to start growing wings or something now?!" Yang asked. She remembered the shadowy form of the Queen of Blades; while her skeletal draconic wings did look undeniably cool, they would probably just get in the blonde brawler's way.
"The Successor's mutagen was incapable of causing any extreme changes to your physiology, My Queen; too much initial modification would have destroyed your mental capacities and left you a mindless husk. As such, it merely connected you to the zerg hive mind and worked to optimize as much of your anatomy as it could; among such optimizations were increased endurance and speed."
Hmm. So the Successor had kept its word that it would make her stronger, after all. The only question now was…
"Approximately how long was I out, Drone?" Yang inquired. "And what have you been doing while I was being... converted?"
"You have been unconscious for approximately 18 hours since your indoctrination into the Swarm, My Queen. While you were out, I have been cannibalizing the remains of the drop pod; the biomass contained within it is just enough to construct a Hatchery."
"Wait, wait, wait, slow down a minute. Biomass? A Hatchery? What are you talking about?" Yang asked; the information dump was already going a bit too quickly for her liking.
"As your former species builds with wood and stone, the Swarm builds with flesh and chitin, My Queen. Drones consume organic material and use it as raw materials to metamorphose ourselves into structures. Hatcheries are the backbone of a zerg hive; they are sites of production for larvae, which all zerg organisms develop from. Each creature requires a certain amount of biomass to mutate it from a larva; unfortunately, there simply isn't enough leftover biomass in this drop pod to allow for anything besides the construction of a Hatchery."
"Alright, I'm heading to your location now. Is there any way that I can locate you?"
"You should be able to feel my presence lingering in the back of your mind, My Queen. Focus on it, and you'll be able to follow it to my location. Oh, and My Queen?"
"Yes?"
"Those strange gestures are unnecessary for communicating with me. You do not need to keep your hand to the side of your head like that."
Yang's hand dropped back to her side embarrassedly-she had had her index and middle fingers on her left temple for the entire exchange. "Uh, thank you. You are dismissed." She turned to the edge of her bed, preparing to swing her legs down onto to the ground, when the reality of the situation finally came down upon her harder than Nora's makeshift melon-hammer had during that food fight so many months ago.
She was no longer a human being anymore-she had just willingly signed away her humanity in a deal with an alien monster to become another of its kind. What's more, the Drone had called her its queen. She was freaking royalty! Growing up, Yang and Ruby had never been too interested in being princesses or anything of the sort, but now, the blonde powerhouse was giddy at the very thought of it. And why wouldn't she be? She was now the monarch of a species of extraterrestrial killing machines that combined the savagery and numbers of the Grimm with organic equivalents to technology beyond anything that Atlas' military scientists had ever come up with. Weiss would be practically glowing with jealousy right now if she knew; well, that or faint the second she saw the Successor. Yang chuckled again at that, but her expression quickly sobered as another realization came down upon her. What would people think when they learned about this? To the rest of Remnant, she was already a dangerous individual, thanks to the fiasco at the Tournament; the Swarm would only hammer that image home. She could be arrested for amassing an army; dissected and experimented on to see how her new anatomy worked; or worst of all, hunted down like a Grimm, seen as just another monster to be tracked down and killed.
The blonde brawler smiled darkly at that. Like anyone would be able to stand against her for long. The memory of the Swarm tearing into the human forces like wolves among lambs was proof enough of what the zerg could do. If the world saw Yang and the-no, her Swarm-as monsters, well,then she would show them just what her monsters could do.
Her mind made up, Yang rose from her bed and stood up for the first time in months, only to immediately grab the side of her bed to steady herself as her legs wobbled and threatened to give out underneath her, her long period of lethargy having weakened them slightly. After a few experimental steps forwards to acclimatize herself with solid ground again, Yang quickly got dressed in her regular attire-well, as quickly as she could with just one arm-and headed out the front door. Standing on the front porch, she closed her eyes and tried to zero in on the location of the Drone-her Drone. Sure enough, she could feel its presence in the back of her mind after a couple seconds of searching; far back enough that she wouldn't notice it when not actively thinking about it, but still easy to quickly access when she needed it.
Focusing on the Drone's mental presence, Yang concentrated, mentally reaching out and grasping hold of it, and… there! She couldn't really explain it, but every instinct in her body pointed her to the northeast, into the forest. Relaxing her mental grip, the blonde brawler took off at a run into the treeline, ignoring the light snowfall around her. It was time to meet with her new subject.
Several minutes later, the new queen of the Swarm arrived at the edge of a large clearing, strangely not out of breath from the constant sprint she had been travelling at or feeling the chill of the snowy wind whipping around her. Chalking up her lack of fatigue and newfound cold resistance to the zerg genetics now flowing through her veins, Yang stepped out of the leafless woods and into the clearing.
The space was quite a large one; big enough to safely land a midsize aircraft, although Yang guessed that, judging from the dozen or so fallen trees dotting the clearing, it used to be quite a bit smaller. In the center of the clearing was a large crater, with a few tattered remains of what must have been the Successor's 'drop pod,' as the Drone had called it, lying in the center. What it once looked like, Yang couldn't tell; anything that could have provided a guess as to its original shape had been consumed by the creature that was also in the crater and in the process of finishing up the last scraps.
That must be the Drone, then, Yang thought to herself as she looked at the dining creature-her psychic lead pointed her towards it as if a flashing billboard floated above its insect-like head.
About six feet long, the creature looked quite a bit like the Successor in general shape, at least due to the fact that both zerg had segmented worm-like bodies, but the resemblance ended there. Four segmented legs grew on each side of the Drone's body, connected by a membrane of skin that continued past the last pair of legs to about a quarter of the way down the tail, forming a pair of slowly beating wings that kept the zerg aloft a foot or so above the ground. A pair of lobster-like pincers were situated at the front of the body, flanking the head; similar in shape to that of a Deathstalker, minus the bony armor plates, the face sported six bright yellow slit-pupiled eyes, with a horizontally-aligned set of jaws, armed with several dozen small sharp teeth, sitting between a small pair of mandibles. Said mouth and mandibles were currently busy tearing up the chunks of drop pod as the pincers tore apart larger chunks and brought them up to the face, shredding them into a fine paste before swallowing the now-pulverized material.
Yang looked on at the slightly disturbing display, but felt no trace of fear or disgust: the Drone's eating habits were messy, but the zerg creature had nothing on Ruby when she had gotten the scent of a plate of fresh cookies. Besides, the creature had obeyed her orders beforehand without question-no use in fearing something that was willing to do what she wanted.
"All right, Drone, what's the situation? How much biomass do we have?" She asked, striding up to the lip of the crater as the Drone finished chewing up the last of the drop pod.
"The drop pod contained approximately enough raw materials to construct a Hatchery, but not enough for anything else, My Queen." The Drone replied, turning to face her as its gravelly voice resonated in her mind. "Suggested actions: Consume additional biomass until resources are sufficient to produce one or more additional Drones. More assistance is required for attaining additional biomass; this world is lacking in the materials found on all other planets the zerg have colonized."
"Wait, what kind of 'materials?'" Yang asked, more than a little worry evident in her voice. Did the zerg need some kind of alien metal alloy to even reproduce? What if they could only eat some kind of unique chemical compound and her Drone was going to slowly starve to death?!
"On almost all other worlds that the Swarm has visited, two materials were extremely common; a light green gas known as vespene and a light blue crystal stronger than most metals. I can assure you, My Queen, that zerg do not need these materials to create more of us," it added, sensing its queen's distress, "They were simply extremely laden with energy, making them extremely efficient sources of biomass. Without such materials, biomass acquisition will be a slow process."
Alright, that wasn't so bad; the news that the absence of these space minerals wouldn't spell doom for the Swarm was a relief to the firestarter. However, this lack of biomass was still a significant setback: it was midwinter on Patch, and the vegetation of the forest had withered away months ago, while almost all of the animals had either gone into hibernation or migrated to warmer climes. It would be very difficult to scrounge up enough organic matter just to produce another Drone, let alone an entire army.
Yang spent several minutes lost in thought while the Drone glided out of the crater and started gnawing through the bark of the nearest felled tree, her eyes wandering in the direction of a nearby town and resting on the windows in the distant houses, lit by Dust crystal-powered lights.
Wait a minute; that's it! Remnant may not have vespene gas or space diamonds, but it did have something close-Dust crystals! Weiss' many lectures on the colorful minerals had been practically engraved into Yang's brain by this point, but her constant mentions of the raw power that they contained were now practically echoing in the blonde's mind.
Snapping out of her trance, the blonde brawler turned back towards her Drone, which had been making significant progress on the dead tree while she was thinking.
"Keep working on these dead trees; I think that there just might be a resource here that can work as a replacement for that stuff."
"As you wish, My Queen."
Yang gave the Drone a nod, then turned and dashed back to her house; like almost every household on Remnant, her family had a good-sized cache of Dust crystals on hand for use as ammo in case of Grimm attack and a backup power supply. Ruby had swiped a large portion of those crystals before going off on her quest, but her dad had restocked since then. Unlike her sister, however, the blonde firebrand didn't need a large amount of Dust-just four or five crystals would be more than enough to test whether or not they were a usable resource. Heading directly for the kitchen, Yang opened the cabinet under the sink, taking a single crystal of each primary color; red, blue, green, and yellow. She didn't bother with taking any more; too much missing Dust would raise suspicions from Uncle Qrow and her father, and she could not risk them finding out about her new insectoid minion.
After carefully placing the volatile minerals in a knapsack-there was no way she could carry all of them with one arm-Yang returned to the clearing as quickly as she could, only feeling slightly winded when she arrived; by then, the Drone had broken down about half of the tree it had been gnawing away at when she had left, small splinters on the ground being the only sign of the tree's previous size. As it heard its queen's footsteps on the ground, it stopped and turned towards her as she approached, watching closely as she gingerly placed the four crystals on the snowy ground in front of it, explaining what the strange new objects were as she did so.
"Here; these are Dust crystals, a resource found on this planet. I don't know how well they stack up to those materials you were talking about, but they're packed with raw elemental energy; red crystals contain fire energy, yellow ones are earth, green is air, and blue is water. Almost every piece of tech we have here runs on this stuff, but be careful when you eat it, it's got quite the kick-my sister once blew up a crateful of the stuff just by sneezing on it."
Nodding once to convey its understanding, the Drone glided over to the Dust crystals, picking up an oblong green air crystal with one of its pincers and scrutinizing it momentarily before biting off the tip, its powerful jaws easily grinding the gem fragment into powder. The minute it swallowed the fine dust, the zerg's eyes seemed to brighten like miniature suns for a few seconds as the raw, untapped primordial energy surged through its hovering body, almost causing it to drop the crystal in its claws.
"My… My Queen, this 'Dust'… it's incredible. The energy contained within this single crystal… it is several times greater than a similar amount of the resources I spoke of!" So great was the zerg's surprise at this that it actually dropped its monotone for a minute for an awed tone, as if it were speaking before a god, before composing itself again. "Ahem… anyway, My Queen, these crystals are more than sufficient sources of biomass. With them, we will undoubtedly have more than enough biomass to not only create a Hatchery and several more Drones, but a Spawning Pool as well."
"A what now?" Yang asked. Didn't the zerg say that they just needed a Hatchery to start making Drones?
"A Spawning Pool, My Queen; another zerg structure, necessary for converting larvae into Zerglings, the mainstay of the Swarm's forces." The Drone clarified, sensing its mistress' confusion.
"Ah, alright. Finish up the rest of those crystals, then, and create a Hatchery."
Its orders given, the zerg turned to the rest of the energy-rich stones, quickly crushing the gems between its shearing jaws and the latent energy within them rushing through its body. After consuming the Dust crystals, the Drone then descended to the center of the crater, folding up its webbed legs and touching down on the ground, ready to begin its transformation.
The zerg's jointed carapaced cracked open along the spine, revealing pulsating bright orange flesh that immediately began to rise, expanding like a balloon being filled with a swarm of flies. Farther and farther outwards the churning mass expanded, soon filling the entire crater with a pulsing bright orange dome as if an enormous pimple had sprouted on the face of the world. It stretched taller and taller until it was the size of a small house, then suddenly halted its advance. As Yang watched, the surface smoothed out, solidifying and taking on a plasticy sheen, while an enormous dark object, jagged and mountainous, began to take shape underneath the skin from the dark outline of the Drone's original body.
Suddenly, the dome's skin began to creak; viscous amber fluids began to leak from hairline fractures, and the shape began to scrape the top of its prison. Then, the thing burst like the colossal pimple it bore such a close resemblance to, painting everything within a 15-foot radius with orange amniotic slime; Yang just barely managed to jump backwards out of the way to avoid the impromptu shower. Any feelings of disgust were immediately forgotten, however, the blonde brawler's mouth hanging open at the sight of the structure that had pushed its way out of her Drone's body.
The Hatchery was shaped vaguely like the pyramids she had seen pictures of in books about Vacuo, but it was composed of rough black-and-purple flesh instead of smooth sandstone bricks. A ribbed tube-like structure, almost like an organic covered slide, ran down each of the four edges, ending in a circular mouth-like hole at ground level wide enough to accommodate an Alpha Beowulf, while five enormous bony spires, one in the middle of the base of each side, reached skywards before curling inwards towards the center like enormous claws. Finally, at the very top of the structure sat a circular maw, ringed with mandibles that looked like smaller versions of the giant spires and equipped with dozens of long, curved fangs.
Alright, it's official. I have the coolest minions ever.
As Yang looked on, greyish-black slime oozed out of the mouths of the tubes, coating the ground around it and spreading like a liquid, soon covering all of the ground within a 45-foot radius around the zerg building. As it oozed under her feet, Yang noted that the tainted ground didn't really feel slimy at all; it just felt a good bit softer and springier than the frozen soil she had been standing on mere seconds before. Furthermore, as she walked towards the Hatchery, the slime seemed to actively assist her movements, bunching up underneath her foot and pushing it forwards each time she took a step.
It recognizes me as its Queen, she thought to herself, the boost provided by the zerg-tainted ground propelling her to the organic structure noticeably quicker than she would have gone otherwise. As she crouched down and peeked into one of the still-trickling holes, a flicker of movement suddenly caught her eye, and she felt a new presence suddenly insert itself into the Swarm's hive mind.
A worm-like creature, about as long as her forearm, half-slithered and half-slid out of the tunnel, only stopping when it bumped into the side of Yang's foot and fell over onto its back. Hundreds of tiny caterpillar-like legs flailed at the air frantically in a vain attempt to right the creature, while a long thin tail whipped around and the insect-like mandibles on the head, which looked a little too big for its body, snapped at the empty air, while little yellow eyes glared at the offending foot that had dared to knock it over.
Yang giggled a bit at the ridiculous sight; this must be the larva the Drone had mentioned before. Reaching out towards it, she gently righted the little zerg with her hand, petting its insect-like head as she did so. Knowing that the being standing before it was its queen, the larva scuttled/slithered closer to her, looking up expectantly for her command.
Standing back up, the firestarter looked down at her subject, her face becoming serious once again. "Alright, larva, welcome to the Swarm. Your orders? Mature into a Drone, after you're finished, start breaking down those fallen trees around the clearing."
Immediately, the larva slithered off a little ways from the Hatchery before standing stock-still and curling itself up into a ball. The zerg-slime underneath it quickly rose up around it, wrapping it up in an egg-shaped cocoon that quickly shifted color to a toxic green, with spiny struts emerging to hold it steady. The cocoon immediately began to grow in size, pulsing as the seconds passed until it was about the size of its new ruler before stopping. As Yang watched, she felt several more presences enter the hive mind; four more larvae were sliding out of the Hatchery. An idea suddenly struck her; reaching into the hive mind an grasping hold of the worm-like zerg's consciousnesses, she issued a single one-word mental command to the little creatures; it was all she needed for this test.
Come.
Immediately, the blonde brawler heard the tell-tale slithering-skittering of the four larvae. With surprising speed for their size, they gathered around her, one or two rubbing their small heads against her ankles. With a grin, Yang sat down on the slimy earth-it was much more solid than she expected, almost like sitting on hard rubber-and gathered up the small creatures into her lap like she did with Zwei sometimes-Qrow and Taiyang had taken the dog along with them, hoping that he would be able to pick up Ruby's scent. Stroking all four of the creatures, she quietly whispered praises to them for their obedience, similarly to how she and Ruby had done with the corgi when he was a puppy. The larvae seemed to appreciate this praise, rubbing up against her legs like serpentine many-legged cats. Despite their wormlike appearances and wickedly sharp-looking mandibles, the creatures' presence was comforting to Yang; after months of solitude, the presence of creatures that actively showed affection towards her did wonders at helping her out of her still somewhat depressed state.
After a few minutes of much-needed cuddling, Yang stood up again to address the quartet. No more larvae had been 'birthed' from the Hatchery while she had been playing, no doubt due to a lack of enough biomass to produce them.
Instead of verbally communicating, however, the blonde once again tapped into the hive mind to give the newly-born creatures their orders, issuing her commands telepathically.
Three of you, mutate into Drones. One of your siblings is currently transforming already; when you finish, three of you are to set yourself to the same task as it. The last one, stand by and wait for further instruction.
Immediately, the larvae scuttled off and became encased in the zerg-slime, beginning the process of pupating into mature Drones. As the support spines rose around the last one's cocoon, a cracking sound, almost like that of an eggshell breaking, reached Yang's ears. The first Drone had finished mutating, and was now halfway out of its cocoon. Hauling itself out with its pincers as if it were some kind of insectoid seal, the zerg shook off the slime from its wet leg-wings and took to the air, hovering just above the surface of the ground for a couple of seconds before gliding over to the half-eaten tree that Yang's first Drone had been eating while she had been gathering Dust crystals, resuming its predecessor's task. After a few minutes, it was joined by three more, their combined effort soon reducing the tree to splinters. The four zerg then glided back to the Hatchery, regurgitating the chewed-up wood pulp into the organic buildings' mouth-holes before heading towards another downed tree to repeat the process. As Yang watched, muscles like conveyor belts immediately began ferrying the chewed wood mess upwards, towards the central mouth at the top.
She now turned to the last Drone and gave it its first and final orders-verbally this time.
"You, mutate into a Spawning Pool in the area that your siblings opened up."
The zerg clicked its mandibles in understanding, gliding over to the spot and laying itself down on the ground, its armor splitting just like that of the Drone that had produced the Hatchery. The great cyst-like structure was somewhat shorter this time, only about 15 feet tall, and the Spawning Pool that burst out of it after a few minutes was radically different in structure from the Hatchery.
The Spawning Pool was a huge pool of bright green liquid raised to about the same height as Yang's waist, the rim ringed with sharp upwards-pointing fangs. Taking up about half as much space as the Hatchery, the grey-black slime began to spread again, covering all of the ground in a 15-foot radius around the Spawning Pool that was not yet caked in the goo. When Yang poked her index finger into the pool's 'water' experimentally, she noticed that it was actually quite warm.
The zerg-infested blonde turned back to the Drones; it and its brethren had returned to the Hatchery to regurgitate the remains of the second dead tree into it. As they did so, four larvae slid out of the mouth-like openings, slithering around the structure that had birthed them.
"You there, how much biomass do we have at the moment?" She asked a passing Drone.
"Enough to spawn six or seven Zerglings, but an Overlord will be required before we can create any more than three, My Queen."
"An Overlord? I thought that I was your leader."
"You are, My Queen, but you can only hold so many zerg under your control-you are only one organism, after all. Overlords serve to strengthen the entire hive mind, allowing more zerg to be brought into the fold. Without them, any additional zerg you create will be crazed and feral, killing everything around them before dying."
"Alright, so if I make any more zerg without ths Overlord, they won't be under my control and go to town on everything around them. Got it. I want a larva mutated into an Overlord immediately or as soon as we have enough biomass, whichever comes first. As soon as that's done, have the rest mutate into Zerglings. We'll need defenses of some sort in case Grimm start attacking. I'm going to help you guys gather additional biomass."
"Understood, My Queen. It would most unfavorable to suffer an attack by the local fauna before we have adequate defenses." The zerg replied. As it turned to the half-destroyed tree, followed by its queen, a larva cocooned itself and began the mutation process, while the remaining three slithered to the Spawning Pool, scrabbling up the walls with their dozens of tiny feet and sliding into the greenish contents, cocooning themselves as soon as they submerged.
With Yang helping out, the gathering of biomass became much quicker; the Drones used their pincers to cut the dead trees into smaller pieces, which the blonde then carried over to the Hatchery in between dragging over several more fallen trees from farther away. Despite only having one arm, the newly infested human could easily bear the same amount of materials as two or three Drones, but she began to falter after about 15 minutes-going for several months without regular meals had taken its toll. As she dumped her pile of wood chunks into the Hatchery, one of her Drones glided over to her.
"My Queen, your assistance is most useful-we now have enough biomass to mutate almost two dozen Zerglings. However, you need to eat something-you appear to be suffering from malnutrition, and seem to have been for almost two weeks now. The Successor's mutagen may have kept you operating for a while, but you most consume something soon."
"Don't worry about me, Drone, I'm fine. As soon as the Overlord and those Zerglings hatch, I'll send them out to search for something edible." Yang brushed off the zerg's inquiry-she didn't have the time to grab something to eat now. As long as her hive was unprotected, they were still at risk from a Grimm attack; her well-being could wait until the zerg had adequate protection. "Also, have the rest of the larvae turn into Zerglings as well." While she and her Drones had been pulverizing trees, six more larvae had been born-they were now all right on Yang's heels, following her around like ducklings around their mother until she got too far away from the Hatchery, at which point they retreated back into the organic structure.
Before the Drone could answer her, the sound of cocoons cracking filled the air; the four larvae from earlier had begun to hatch.
The Overlord was the first to break free from its cocoon, which had grown large enough to comfortably hold an Ursa Major. An enormous body shaped like the abdomen of a spider was held up by two enormous balloon-like sacs of lighter-than-air gases growing from the sides of its body, with two rows of dagger-like spines running down the back and dozens of segmented tendrils dangling underneath. A pair of large dangling pincers like those of a Drone flanked the creature's tiny spider-like head, which was armed with a pair of short stubby mandibles. The bulbous creature slowly rose into the air until it was comfortably hovering about 50 feet above the Hatchery, impassively observing the clearing below. Yang gazed in awe at the giant zerg organism for only a couple of moments before dashing over to the Spawning Pool to observe the hatching of her first soldiers.
The three Zerglings were just beginning to push their way out of their cocoons as the blonde brawler ran up-just as she arrived on the scene, a scythe-like limb burst its way out of its shell, tearing a considerable hole in it before the entire creature pulled itself out, covered in the fluids of the Spawning Pool.
The Zergling looked like a lizard the size of a Great Dane at first glance, but its legs were held directly underneath the body, with its two-toed dinosaur-like hind legs being larger and stronger than the three-clawed forelimbs, which were held off the ground in a bipedal position when it stood still. The body was covered in chitin plates, with tough leathery hide covering what parts of the body not protected by the armor plating, while the tail was armed with short, sharp spikes along the sides with a single spike on the very tip, and two insectlike wings grew from just above each hip, standing upright instead of being folded down vertically. A pair of insectoid limbs tipped with scythe-like claws sprouted from where the wings would be on a Griffon and arched over the creature's lizard-like head, which sported a short muzzle filled with sharklike teeth and a pair of inwards-curving horns where the mandibles would be on an insect-as Yang watched, the horns slowly opened and closed, causing her to realize that they actually were mandibles. Slit-pupiled eyes glowed yellow as the monstrous creature stared directly at Yang, leaping out of the Spawning Pool to stand before her, soon being followed by another Zergling as both hunkered down to the ground in a gesture of submission. The third, however, still struggled to get out of its cocoon, snarling in vain as it flailed at the unrelenting confines of its shell.
As soon as the sound of the creature's thrashing reached Yang's ears, she leapt into action. Vaulting herself into the Spawning Pool with her remaining arm, she waded through the knee-deep slime, quickly coming to stand in front of the cocoon. Slamming her fist into the plastic-like material, she opened up a decent-sized hole in the chrysalis, prompting the Zergling inside to poke its head and a foreclaw out of the chrysalis. Yang placed a hand on the creature's head, cooing words of encouragement to it.
"Come on, little guy. Push; you can do it. Push."
Seemingly given strength by its queen's words, the Zergling, which Yang noticed was a bit smaller than its brethren at about the size of a wolf, began hacking away at its prison with renewed vigor, tearing at the shell with gusto. Soon, it was free of its constricting cocoon, although a piece of the shell still clung to the top of its head like a little hat.
The blonde giggled at the creature, which tilted its head quizzically and gave a whine of confusion in response, making Yang laugh even harder. After a few seconds of uncontrollable giggling, Yang knelt down in the slime and placed her hand on her soldier's snout.
"There you are, little guy. Come on, let's get you cleaned up."
Slogging through the Spawning Pool's nutrient-rich sludge, both Zergling and infested human quickly exited the living pond, almost immediately being replaced by six larvae. Wiping the slime off of her shorts and legs, Yang then started cleaning off her Zergling, flicking the goop and the piece of cocoon onto the slimy earth, which quickly absorbed it like soil soaking up water.
The zerg-infested ground reminded Yang of a question she wanted to ask. Turning back to the Drone, which had been at her side the whole time, she issued her telepathic query.
I've been meaning to ask this; what is this slimy material that's covering the ground around the hive?
"That, My Queen, is Creep; one of the most simple zerg organisms. It serves to provide nutrients to all zerg structures; all buildings but the hatchery must be built on it. It also recognizes non-zerg organisms that tread upon it, slowing them down while boosting the speed of all zerg that travel on it."
Well, that explained why the ground had actively helped increase her strides, now that Yang thought about it, but the mention of nutrients reminded her of another question she had been meaning to ask it.
"If creep feeds the structures, then what do you and the other zerg eat?" She inquired. The endless hordes that she had been shown by the Successor were impressive, but the issue of feeding such a huge army had not gone unnoticed by the blonde.
"Typically Creep and the bodies of fallen combatants, but zerg can safely digest almost anything organic; the conversion process most likely passed that ability to you in part."
As soon as the Drone mentioned digestion, Yang's stomach loudly voiced the fact that it had not been properly fed in weeks with a guttural roar. She grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head with her hand. "Alright, alright, I'll go get something to eat. What else do you think we're going to need here?"
"An Evolution Chamber would be most useful for strengthening the Swarm in the long run, My Queen. Its construction will also spawn a unique type of zerg responsible for evolving the Swarm."
"Evolving? You know what, never mind. As soon as another larva is born, have it mutate into an Evolution Chamber while I'm gone. I'll get the information from this new guy later. If anything unfamiliar gets too close, tell me as soon as possible."
Its orders received, the two zerg parted ways-the Drone to the rest of its kind, and the queen turning towards the woods and telepathically summoning her Zerglings. As soon as the wolf-like creatures joined her, Yang headed into the leafless woods, her reptilian hounds' noses to the ground as they began the search for anything edible, with the smallest one staying right at its mistress' heels.
(Warning: There be gore in this section! Skip it if you're squeamish!)
After about ten minutes of fruitless searching, one of the Zerglings barked to signal that it had found something; an entrance to a rabbit burrow. As the rest of its brethren zeroed in towards it, the alien got to work; it foreclaws tore into the earth with incredible speed, sending dirt flying up in showers behind the zerg as it rapidly uncovered a warren of about a dozen very surprised rabbits. Letting out a chittering screech, the predatory alien immediately plunged its head into the newly-dug hole and began to slash and stab into the pit, tearing into the animals with murderous gusto.
Yang stared at the sight in horrified fascination; the Zergling used its scythe-like limbs to cleanly decapitate several rabbits in a single stroke, biting the head off of another and its foreclaws quickly tearing through the earth separating it from any of the bunnies that tried to disappear further underground. It wasn't really the deaths of the rabbits themselves that unnerved Yang: as someone who had spent her entire life training to fight the creatures of Grimm, she knew firsthand of how cruel nature could be. No, it was how the Zergling was killing its prey that startled her. Unlike the wild swings and relatively uncoordinated attacks of the Grimm, the wolflike zerg was dispatching the rabbits with brutal efficiency, almost methodically, each one of its strikes coordinated to deal the killing blow and its attention entirely focused on its task, completely ignoring all outside distractions. The creatures of Grimm fought like rabid animals, and, to be fair, so did the Swarm, but the aliens coordinated and directed their savagery, tearing into their enemies with both cold methodicality and animalistic bloodlust.
And they all answer only to me, Yang thought to herself. She had definitely made the right choice by accepting the Successor's offer-the Swarm was not the kind of foe she ever wanted to face on the battlefield.
Its rabbit-slaying finally completed, the Zergling scooped up two of the least-mangled carcasses in its jaws and trotted over to Yang, dropping them at her feet like a trained retriever and looking quite pleased with itself.
"Um… thanks." Yang said uncertainly, glancing at the gory mess that still sat in the unearthed burrow. "You and the other Zerglings can finish up the rest of that, but let this little guy," she gestured to the smaller Zergling at her feet, "get the first share. He needs it the most."
With a bark, the other two Zerglings, which had been watching their sibling's actions with considerable interest, dashed over to the hole, the one responsible for the carnage quickly joining them. The three zerg plunged their heads into the bloody pit and tore into their first meal as if it was their last, with the smallest of their number digging in first as per Yang's orders. The blonde brawler herself cautiously picked up the two dead rabbits with her remaining hand and looked them over-the animals' heads had been sliced cleanly off by the Zergling's scythe-like blade, and blood was freely flowing from the neck stumps onto her hand and the snowy ground at her feet. Yang knew that she should be gagging at the sight, but there was no feeling of disgust in her mind; instead, she only felt the gnawing hunger that she had been ignoring for weeks growing stronger and stronger. Any fleeting thoughts about making a fire or cooking the rabbits faded away as she unconsciously licked her lips.
Screw cooking, she needed to eat now.
Yang's jaws opened wide, quite a bit wider than they could before, and revealing teeth that were much sharper than they had been prior to her transformation, as she stuffed one of the dead rabbits into her mouth, biting it in half with a crunch that should have been sickening, but only served to further fuel the Huntress' hunger. Her fang-filled jaws easily snapped the rabbit's fragile bones and tore through its fur and skin, shredding the upper half within seconds and sending streams of blood running down her chin like some film vampire that had just made its kill. As soon as she swallowed her mouthful of still-warm rabbit, she picked the bottom half of the body out of her hand with her teeth and tossed her head back to properly get it into her mouth and tear it to shreds like she did the other piece.
The next dead rabbit was in for a worse fate. Chomping down on the torso of the small corpse, she yanked her head upwards while quickly pulling back her hand, tearing the rabbit's body in two gory halves and speckling Yang's entire front with dots of scarlet. Tossing her head back and slurping up the bifurcated corpse's trailing intestines into her mouth, the blonde powerhouse's new razor-sharp teeth tore apart the rabbit's body like a paper shredder just like the first one before gulping it down, the bottom half soon following its fellow portion down her throat.
Her hunger sated, Yang wiped at the copious amounts of blood around her mouth with the back of her hand and knelt down to let her smallest Zergling lick the appendage when it walked over to her. Her actions betrayed nothing about what was going on inside her head; the Huntress' mind, now free of the ravenous hunger, was reeling in shock from what she had done.
She had just consumed two raw, freshly killed rabbits, fur and all, as if she were a starving animal, tearing through the flesh with razor-sharp teeth that she had definitely not had before being converted to the Swarm. Just to check Yang experimentally ran her tongue over said teeth-yes, they were definitely sharper than they were before her transformation. What if she got sick from eating that raw meat, or got some kind of disease from it? Oum above, what was going to happen to her next? Was she going to devolve into some kind of beast? Was... was this power even worth it?
Alright, that's enough! Yang shook those worrying thoughts from her head. What's done is done; I can't change what I did now. The Successor told me that the deal would come 'at the cost of what I am' - I knew what I was getting into before I made that deal, I can live with the consequences. Besides, the Drone did say that I should be able to digest this stuff. I'll be fine.
There were still a few bits of rabbit flesh stuck between her teeth; Yang's tongue unconsciously busied itself with prying them out as she walked back to the hive with her Zerglings, lost in her thoughts.
The first thing Yang noticed when she got back was the titanic cyst that signalled the development of a new structure-the Evolution Chamber, no doubt. The second thing was the six new Zerglings that were just now shaking themselves dry of the Spawning Pool's fluids. Yang looked to the three zerg at her side, their mouths coated with dried blood from their meal. The trio was staring at the newly-spawned pack with more than a little bit of longing; the smallest was actually giving her its best shot at puppy-dog eyes, or at least trying to. Yang smiled and shook her head-she was the big sister of Ruby Rose; she had long since built up an immunity to such stares over the years. Although the Zergling was undeniably giving its all, it was trying to attack an iron wall with a nail file.
"Go on, you three; go join the others." She made a 'shoo, shoo' gesture with her hand, and the three zerg creatures immediately dashed off to the rest of their kind, barking and grunting to the six other Zerglings. Yang stood there for a minute or so, watching the pack mingle with a faint smile on her face. Y'know, that does kinda look like fun…
Her grin widened. Eh, screw it; when in Atlas, do as the Atlesians do, as the saying went. She dashed towards the throng of Zerglings, plunging in and pushing through until she was at the center, petting every zerg she could get her arm around. Soon, the group resembled nothing so much as a huddle of reptilian puppies being fawned over by their mother, as the new queen of the Swarm made sure that each and every one of her soldiers, the finely-tuned killing machines of the zerg Swarm, knew what if felt like to be scratched under the chin and behind their horns.
After about a half hour of much-needed cuddling with her Zerglings, Yang heard the telltale creaks and cracking sounds of a zerg structure about to burst free from its cyst-like cocoon. She stood up, much to the disappointment of her brood-some of the Zerglings whimpered like puppies as she rose.
"Oh, relax, you guys." She said, patting the smallest Zergling on the head. "I just need to check up on something, alright?"
Walking towards the nearly-complete structure, the blonde brawler stood at a safe distance as the Evolution Chamber's cocoon exploded in a shower of slime.
A large structure roughly the same size as the Hatchery, the Evolution Chamber was roughly shaped like a croissant, and divided into two sections: an enormous roughly spherical mass of misshapen flesh with spikes jutting out at random intervals was joined to a rough cylinder supported by a rib-like structure around the outside, with a series of stubby segmented tentacles lying on the ground on the opposite end, curling inwards towards the spherical mass.
Yang walked towards the Evolution Chamber slowly; reaching out with her mind, she could sense the presence of the unique zerg inside. Standing in front of the large curve of the somewhat crescent-shaped building, she issued her telepathic summons.
Come to me. Your queen requires your presence.
Immediately, a previously-unseen valve on the roundish end of the Evolution Chamber opened like a giant mouth, and one of the strangest-looking creatures Yang had ever seen slithered out. A 15-foot-long sluglike lower body supported a barely humanoid torso, which was in turn topped with an enormous bulbous lump like a deformed mushroom cap on its back, with dozens of semi-transparent light green orbs embedded into the sides. The actual head of the creature was tiny and spiderlike, resting directly underneath this huge bulge, giving it a hunchbacked appearance. Four small bright green eyes stared directly ahead, while the enormous horizontally aligned mouth, filled with razor-sharp teeth and lined by several pairs of little mandibles like insect legs, ran from the mouth all the way down to the chestd. Four bony arms each tipped with three-clawed hands steepled their fingers together as if in prayer, while four long spindly limbs sprouted from the lower body and arched over its head, each limb ending in a scythe-like claw as large as the blade of Crescent Rose. The entire creature towered over her, standing at least eight or nine feet tall, including the enormous hunchback thing, with its limbs adding another three or four feet.
Yang kept her face neutral as she addressed the greenish-grey zerg. "Who are you?"
"No name. Made from essence of Abathur, Evolution Master of Swarm. Predecessor served Overmind, than served Queen of Blades. Now successor serves new Queen of Swarm." The creature's somewhat masculine voice was guttural andlow-pitched, staying at a total monotone as it talked-verbally, Yang noted-its clawed hands motioning to bring its point across.
"Then it looks like you serve me now." The blonde replied coolly. As she spoke, her mind coiled around the creature's presence in the hive mind-not tight enough to actually do anything to the Evolution Master, but just enough to make it clear who was in charge. "Now, calling you 'Abathur's successor' is going to get real old real fast. How about I just call you Abathur as well?"
"Proposal is acceptable." The newly-named Abathur slithered a bit closer to Yang, staring intensely at her. "Examining genetic sequences of organism Yang Xiao Long… Fascinating. Species similar to Terran in general makeup. More efficient in places, but not significantly. Minimal biological adaptation in certain areas, but others dramatically different. Must take sample for further examination." He-or at least Yang guessed that it was a 'he'-muttered, reaching out for her blonde hair… only to find himself grabbed roughly by his thin wrist and dragged down to look Yang in the eyes, which were beginning to turn bright red.
"Don't. Touch. My. Hair." She snarled, her hair glowing bright yellow and starting to stand on end, her grip tightening around the zerg's wrist until she started to cut off circulation before letting go.
Abathur quickly shrank back from his queen's furious visage, hands raised in the air and head bowed submissively, waiting for a minute or so to allow Yang to calm down before continuing. "Sole purpose is evolving Swarm. Collect essence. Spin strands and sequences. Can view work in Evolution Pit, assign creation of specific units, repair organism Yang Xiao Long."
Yang looked at the Evolution Master quizzically. "What do you mean, 'repair' me? And what's this about essence?" She asked.
"Swarm's greatest strength is adaptability. Gather genetic material of organisms. Incorporate into zerg genome. Strengthen Swarm. Adapt to environmental obstacles, weaponry of opponents."
Yang's jaw hung open. She knew that her Swarm was already extremely dangerous, but now she was being told that they could actually adapt to become more deadly?! Oh, this was going to be fun. As she digested this information, Abathur continued.
"Organism Yang Xiao Long missing right grasper limb. Good. Original poorly designed, minimal biological adaptation. Can replace. Will create new one, better."
The news snapped Yang out of her shock, only to send her right back into it as she processed this new information. "Wait, are you serious?! You can give me back my-"
Before she could finish, a bone-chilling howl sounded on the wind-a howl that Yang knew all too well. Of course. Of course they would show up eventually.
The Drone's voice in her head didn't even get to finish its telepathic alert before the blonde powerhouse cut it off. "My Queen, we are-"
"Under attack, I know. I heard the howls. You and every other zerg besides the Zerglings, retreat to the Hatchery, now."
"Understood, My Queen." The Drone replied, cutting off the psychic conversation. Abathur slithered back into the Evolution Chamber, while Yang dashed towards the edge of the clearing, her nine Zerglings right behind her. Two more howls joined the first; the Grimm had arrived. It was time to test the might of the Swarm.
Alright, finally got this chapter done! I'm sorry that it took so long to put up, but the descriptions for the various zerg buildings and creatures, especially Abathur, took a really long time to write. They look awesome in-game, but to describe what they look like in words is an absolute bitch. Abathur's minimalistic style of dialogue was also a bit tricky to write, although I think I'm starting to get the hang of writing him.
I apologize if this chapter seemed a bit slow; the next chapter is definitely going to be more eventful. Also, thank you so much for the reviews! It really makes my day to see how well my story's been received! If you have an idea for a new strain of zerg or type of Grimm, have some tips on how to properly describe zerg, have an idea for the story, or just want to say that you like Bloody Evolution, just leave a review! I've actually gotten some very good questions and ideas from you guys so far!
Alexkehling: Yeah, there are still other zerg; basically, the Successor ended up on the other side of the galaxy from the Koprulu sector. The hive mind only has so much of a range, after all. Besides, the Successor was engineered to be totally separate from Kerrigan's Swarm-even if it was close by, it wouldn't be able to communicate with its former zerg-friends.
Halo is bad ass: Good name idea! I was actually thinking of something very similar-Queen Inferno. However, I might use your idea instead! Thanks!
DeadRich18: I hope that I lived up to your expectations with my interpretation of your idea!
MEleeSmasher: I'm not sure about bringing back Pyrrha; her death was pretty damn thorough. I suppose that she could perhaps be brought back from her essence and made into a zerg creature, but I doubt that there would be any essence left of her body. RT was meticulous with her death, I'll give them that.
: Does this chapter answer your question?
GrandMaster of fiction: I'll see what I can do. The spinoff series would divide a lot of my attention from this story, however, so I'm going to keep it on the backburner for a while until I've got some more meat to this story.
5 Colored Walker, mysterioustgexpert, FanficCrossoverMaster15, PsionicShadow, alexkehling, and Magisking: Thanks for telling me about the weird formatting issues with Chapter 2!
And to everyone else: Thank you so much for the support!
Edit (March 21, 2016): I changed some of the wording in the chapter to make it a little bit more clear. Also, reworked some of the Drones' dialogue, as per Magisking's complaint that they sounded too intelligent. I tried to inject a lot more technobabble into their speech; I imagine them as speaking sort of like Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory or maybe Mr. Spock. (Note: I've never seen a single episode of Star Trek, so correct me if the latter comparison is untrue.)