Tier 1 Branch 2 Chapter 4 Version 2

SpectroCraft: Hostile Takeover

When Nova and the two natives left for the third planet, Kollin or something, James Raynor decided to strike up a conversation with his old friend Matt Horner.

"Hey Matt, you ever stop to think about the size of this place?" Jim asked in a sort of dazed voice.

"It's a big ship, Sir, but you can walk from one end to the-" Matt was cut off by Jim's laughter.

"That's not what I meant," He began to explain. "This galaxy is huge. Whenever we think we've seen it all, we find something new and completely unheard of. This Solar System was marked as uninhabitable, yet here we find five planets that support human life... Right when the erg arrive, no less."

"It's an odd coincidence, sure, but why do you care? Just so long as we get the Zerg outa here, it doesn't matter why they came," Matt replied.

He was right. The important thing was keeping this system from ending up like Haven. The infestation could not be allowed to spread to a populated area. Jim stood up and decided to go pick a fight with Swan.

On his way down the Hyperion hallways, Jim noticed a large, muscle-bound man thundering down the hall with a cigar in the corner of his mouth. He looked oddly familiar... but he couldn't be. He was dead.

The large marine continued to storm down the hall towards the ship's cockpit. Tychus Findley broke the door down with a single, heavy-footed kick.

"T-Tychus?" Matt stuttered. He looked as if he had seen a ghost. Probably because Jim had killed Tychus months ago and left his body on a planet that would burn it in a few days. "How the hell are you still alive, and why are you on this ship?"

"Damn, Matt, if you're gonna get so riled up just 'cuz I look like a dead convict, maybe I shoulda chose a different form to take," after this strange statement, Tychus began to melt. There was no other way to describe it, he was just... liquefying. This new liquid Tychus shaped into a bipedal mass and solidified again. He now had a thin beard and grey hair, square shoulders, and an imperial cloak.

"It's a changeling! Quick, somebody shoot it!" a crewmember shouted as he drew his own weapon. The Form of Arcturus Mengsk was quickly turned into Swiss cheese by a volley of bullets from the humans around him.

"You humans will never learn," The strange creature said as morphed again into a large, amoebic creature with two wildly waving arms and faces growing down its back. "I am no changeling of the zerg's. I am a Swamorph. The most advanced of the krawl genus. Now, step away from the controls, Matthew."

"Not happening, slimeball!" Jim shouted as he fired a marauder cannon from down the hall. The missile lodged itself in the Swamorph's back shortly before exploding. Pieces of the krawl went in every direction. "Got 'em!"

"Think again human," The voice seemed to come from every individual part of the now broken Swamorph. "You just made this several times easier for me. I hope you like being taken over by force!"

The assorted pieces of krawl goo then seeped into the cracks in the interior of the ship. This was not going to end well.

Nova and the two natives returned a few hours later to find the entire crew of the Hyperion crammed into the Armory. They were presently working on making sure the walls had absolutely no cracks in them. Swan was bolting down loose suspension rigs that should've been checked on a long time ago. Jim and Matt were helping set up turrets near weak spots. Kerrigan, who had recently recovered from the artifact's shockwave, was helping other ghost operatives set up a radar system to detect cloaked units.

"Are we expecting an attack on the armory?" Nova asked nobody in particular as two tanks switched into siege mode.

"No, we're expecting an attack on us from inside the walls, and the armory is the safest place to be during an attack like that. At least, that's what our fearless leader thinks," Swan said in agitation. "I don't like the idea of having every Terran on board this ship inside my armory."

"Who's attacking us? How'd they get inside the ship?" Nova asked, shocked.

"It calls itself a krawl," Jim said as he walked up to the group. "More specifically it called itself a Swamorhp. It has the same basic abilities as a changeling, but it took several shots from pistols and a shot from a marauder cannon and was able to get right back up. Worst of all, it's body regeneration is exponentially greater than that of the average Zerg."

"That's because it's not a Zerg," Jeena joined the conversation with a correction. "If it said it was a krawl, that probably means it was a krawl, but it's not one I've ever heard of. That would explain its immunity to your weapons."

"So you know what these 'krawl' are?" Jim asked. "I thought it was just some rogue Zerg faction."

"The krawl devour planets. They live to fight. Anything they kill, they eat," Rallen bluntly stated. "The simple fact that this krawl told you what it was is a bad sign. Most krawl don't have brains and aren't able to talk because of that. We may be dealing with a high krawl."

A loud metallic bang was heard from the front wall. A large dent had formed in the part of the hull just behind the console. A Goliath was sent to the site. Another sound came from the door and two more from the opposite wall. The Armory was for research, not weapon storage. There just weren't enough guns to aim at ever bump in the wall. Then the wall gave way. Two bright blue lasers fired through the hole and struck the waiting siege tanks. The form of a Blovaser stepped through the wall.

"I suggest you run," The cybernetic krawl snorted as it sprouted four immortal arms.

In the panic of every man, woman, and machine sprinting for the door while also trying to fight off the ultimate immortal, nobody noticed seven new recruits enter the mob.

"Ready to raise some hell!" a hellion driver said as he drove from the other side of the armory. The tiny ATV fired its high propulsion flame turret at the creatures shoulder cannon, burning it to a smoldering crisp. "Put that in your tailpipe and smoke it!"

The newly fried outer shell on the krawl's shoulder began to crack. Once the charred flesh had completely worn away, the gun started to regrow.

"Uh... I'm in a heap of trouble!" The driver shouted as he tried his best to refry the cannon. One immortal blaster turned from terrorizing the crew to face the tiny car. In three shots, the vehicle and its driver had been blasted out of existence.

"Get the firebats in here!" a marine shouted over the chaos of the fleeing crew.

"Ready to Roast," The devil Dog in command of the firebat division said. The firebats didn't have an easy time of getting to the Swamorph. They had to dodge lasers of different magnitudes while stumbling around debris in bulky metal suits. Once they got to the creature, however, the tables turned. The skin of the creature was quickly turned to ashes by the eight surviving bats, and when the charred flesh fell away, they didn't leave any time for the creature to regenerate.

Nearly a quarter of an hour later, the firebat squad clanged through the ship to the cantina. The entire crew had rushed there as fast as possible.

"I'm telling you gotta let me go back there, I can fight them!" was the first thing the firebats heard when they entered the bar. A redheaded kid was arguing with Lieutenant Kerrigan.

"I don't care if you can fight them, we've got it covered. Besides, I'm not gonna let a kid onto a battlefield where there are crazy arsonists and Ubermortals," the lieutenant, whose hair was died red, replied.

"I take offense to that," the devil dog breathed.

Ignoring the implied arsonist, Rallen continued his argument, "that wasn't an ubermortal, or whatever. That was a krawl. By burning it you probably just made it mad."

"Just to let y'all know, the armory has been cleared of Zerg and or krawl, so feel free to check the armory console... or whatever the hell it is y'all do in that room," one of the rookie bats said loudly enough to get his superiors' attention.

Later that night, seven crewmembers met in the privacy of a siege tank's cockpit. They were all there to discuss the events that had unfolded earlier that day.

"It's obvious that this ship is not going to be easy to take by force," said the short, blonde man in the red coat. "And if we're missing the link that holds us together as a being, then it will make things increasingly difficult."

"On the contrary," a tall man with dark hair and a creepy smile argued. "I think being separate entities will make this objective much easier to reach."

"I agree. When we were all controlled by a single mind, our transformations were controlled, but now we have freedom to morph as we wish. I can be what suits my persona while you all do something different," the skinny redhead in the back said loudly.

"I think I like you just fine as a human," a dark skinned man with beady eyes said as he examined her form from a distance.

"Jokes aside, what are we gonna call ourselves?" a pale woman with slanted eyes asked the group. "We can't very well go around calling ourselves 'Swamorph 1' and 'Swamorph 2.'"

"Sure we can, we'd just be very conspicuous," another woman, with bright green hair, said.

"Shut up, all of you!" the dog in the driver's seat snarled. "If you guys want names, I'll give you names! You're stupid, you're crazy, you're delusional, he's jackass, she's kamikaze, you're bigmouth, and I'm awesome. Happy?"

After the nervous silence of waiting to see if any of the other crew members heard this loud ranting, the group started thinking of better names for themselves.

The sort blond guy said, "I'll be Edward."

"Itzuki," the creepy smile guy stated while raising his hand.

"I guess Candice sounds like a good name for this body..." The skinny redhead suggested.

"Let's see, something stupid. Something that will draw attention away from me while still making me noticeable..." The dark skinned guy thought out loud. "I've got it. You can call me Brock."

"Cho," The pale woman said immediately after Brock had finished.

"I feel like doing something stupid, something that will draw attention away from you guys... I'll be Miku," the green haired girl explained.

"I'm Brian," The dog stated dully.

"Brian?" Edward asked in astonishment. "You could pick any name in the world, and you chose 'Brian'?"

"This coming from a guy who named himself 'Edward'?" Brian countered.

"Touché," Edward shrugged.

The seven crewmembers then returned to the sleeping quarters. The next day would hopefully be a big day for them. They were better off without the mind that controlled them.

On the floor of the armory, all the ashes of the recently defeated Swamorph began cluster in a corner.

LOL I hope you guys got all the references in that last scene. It's no fun if nobody gets it.

Once again I thank 92drakdragon for this idea.

I own none of the referenced material or either of the obvious materials. I'd prefer it if you didn't sue me.