I couldn't have been asleep for more than an hour before I was woken up by an awful noise. I stiffened, wide eyed, praying that'd been the remnant of a nightmare.

The noise comes again. A shuddering moan. It's distressingly near and unfortunately very familiar.

A clacking noise like bones smacking together cinches it for me. Zombie moans? Skeleton bones rattling? Those are sounds I've heard a million times before while playing Minecraft!

I groaned inwardly. Why Minecraft? Starcraft I could at least handle by itself, but Minecraft too!? Shouldn't the land be blocky and have things floating in the air, defying physics if this is Minecraft? Another moan jerks my attention and I followed the sound of the Zombie as it stepped past my shelter. I hear the thwip of an arrow firing from a bow. Panicking, I immediately drop, but no arrow pierces through my shelter where my head was. What was it firing at?

A noise of distress from my Hatchery answers that question. It's shooting at my Hatchery. That skeleton is shooting at MY HATCHERY! I almost see red, but thankfully, when I get angry, I grow cold and analytical. Unfortunately, or fortunately as the case may be, I realize quite quickly there's nothing I can really do against Zombies or Skeletons. I could have run out there in a rage and tried to kill them all, but what would that accomplish? Me full of arrows, and possibly turned into a Zombie myself. My regeneration might keep me from being killed, but I don't want to test if I can regenerate from a lucky shot in a place that could kill me instantly, like my head, or if regeneration will protect me from zombie-ism. Closing my eyes, I turned my gaze to the Hatchery, particularly its hit points, and I sigh in relief. It's hardly being damaged, so it should be fine.

Quietly, I stay where I am, shaking in repressed anger and wishing there was something I could do. I've never liked feeling helpless. I clench my fists as I hear an explosion and the ground shakes lightly. Creepers. That did a bit more damage to the Hatchery, but nothing it can't regenerate from.

Never again. As soon as the Hatchery is done, I'll get some Zerglings and set up some other defenses. But that will require resources. I can only guess that the resource required is the same one listed under my stats, which is Bio Energy, whatever that is. Hopefully I can figure it out quickly. I do not want to leave my Zerg, or myself, defenseless and helpless ever again.

Hours pass as I listen to various monsters pass by. A large collection has surrounded the Hatchery and are trying to beat their way in. A useless gesture. I could try and sleep, but their noises are enough to wake the dead, no pun intended. I can't help but feel a slight vindictive pleasure as the occasional explosion from a Creeper kills off a chunk of the undead. A steady staccato of arrows sound off, but they're mere mosquito bites compared to the armor piercing spikes of Marine Impaler rifles the Hatchery is hardened to defend against.

I pass the time by watching the Hatchery's progress bar, ticking down the time till it hatches. I know it can't defend itself, but I'm fairly certain I'd at least be safer inside the Hatchery than outside of it. Plus with some larvae available, I can finally start working on figuring out what Bio Energy is and get some defenses set up.

I freeze and I swear my heart skips a beat as the tell tale sound of an Enderman teleport sounds extremely close by. Not Enderman… of all creatures to be around, why them? They're the hardest of Minecraft creatures to defend against as well as almost impossible to escape from. I can only hope the tall ugly kleptomaniac doesn't find an interest in my shelter. The whole thing would probably collapse, and I'd have to run then.

I thought that too soon. Almost immediately after, black scaly arms punch through my shelter and rip a chunk out. The whole thing quickly destabilizes and collapses over on top of me. I lift my head in fear, only to hear and see the sound of my salvation.

With a great splattering noise, the hatchery bursts out of its cocoon and I can't help but take a moment to look at it in awe. It must be at least five stories tall, with the four tusks at its corners standing even taller above that. In the dark of the night, the black chitinous armor I can see by the light of the moon looks incredibly ominous, and would probably give most intelligent beings pause at the sight of it. Ok, I take back what I said about Zerg being ugly. Badass is more like it.

My brain finally catches up with the situation at hand. Thankfully the Enderman is gone. To my benefit, the monsters here seem to be just as singleminded as they are in the game, so none of them have switched targets to me. Unfortunately, this doesn't mean I can't be targeted by new monsters. I feel the blood drain out of my face as a moan sounds off close to me. I whip around and see a Zombie coming out of the treeline near the river and starts heading straight for me!

I scramble up onto my feet and take off as fast as my legs can carry me. Adrenaline pumps into me as I realize quickly that with all the Zombies swarming the Hatchery, there's no way inside. I worry for a moment what to do, before my I realize my problem is already being answered. A purplish grey ooze has started to slowly spread from the bottom of the Hatchery. It's like molasses, only much faster. It latches onto the row of Zombies by their legs and pulls them down, oozing over them. I falter for a moment, then remind myself that I'm the Overmind, so Creep shouldn't hurt me… I hope. However, the Zombie behind me will. So will the Skeleton if I don't start running faster! I reflexively duck as an arrow whizzes by my head and ruffles my ear. I freaked out a tad and ran even faster.

To my relief, the Creep flattens out for me as I approach, making a path to the closest door. I didn't think I could move any faster, but once my feet touched the Creep I did. It's like its spring boarding me forward in the direction I want to go. As soon as I reached the nearest door, it expanded open and I nearly barreled inside where it contracted closed right behind me. I braced myself against the slightly squishy wall and leaned back to catch my breath. I haven't had to run like that in years! Heck, I'm not even supposed to run at all! Though I suppose Zerg regeneration does trump old military medical issues, even something as painful as chronic shin splints.

I turned back to the door, a little surprised that I can't even hear the monsters outside anymore. What I do hear is an almost throbbing sound, like a heartbeat, as well as a slight stretching sound like pulled rubber. I try to figure out where it's coming from, only to realize the walls are expanded and contracting slightly, almost like breathing.

Looking around, I appear to be in a short hall, sloping down into a bowl shaped room. Stepping into it properly, I look up at the highly sloped dome like ceiling. The walls have a rib like quality that goes all the way up to a spot on the ceiling that looks like another opening, though I don't know what it opens up to. To my relief, nothing appears to be slimy at all, just soft, though it does feel slightly familiar somehow. Thinking back, I realize it feels just like that time at the dentists when they were doing a cleaning, and during a break my mouth felt dry, so I touched the roof of my mouth. That's what it feels like. Has the same general color too, though there are darker veins beneath the skin, pulsing in time with the throbbing. Is it a heartbeat? It's kind of soothing actually.

Despite the flinches of pain the Hatchery is broadcasting, it still manages to send me a burst of warmth, as if welcoming me home. I smile and pet the wall. I frown then, as I realize there's something different about the connection to the Hatchery. Frowning, I slide down to a seat as I focus on the connection between us.

In an instant, the view around me changes. It takes me a moment to look around before I realize what happened. I'm seeing everything from the Hatchery's point of view. It's incredible. It's like I've been blind before, and now suddenly I can see. I can see all around me all at once, in complete 360 degrees. I can even see the Hatchery itself from an outside perspective; though I can't even begin to figure out how that's possible, considering the Hatchery doesn't even have eyes to see with in the first place! Well, none that I can tell anyway.

It takes me a moment to realize that I can actually move this viewpoint around, almost like a free flying camera, only I can still see in a 360 degree arc all around me. In my excitement, I look around faster and faster. I find there's a limit to how far I can travel beyond the sight range of the Hatchery before everything starts to become fuzzy, but within that range, at the speed I'm moving my sight, It's like I can actually see everything all at once!

Once the novelty of it started to wear off, I realized with a start that if I opened my eyes, I could still see everything from the perspective of the Hatchery. It's a bit jarring, but I find if I focus on one more than the other, I can seemingly switch between the two fairly seamlessly.

It's at that point when reality catches up with me, and I realized in my bid to see everything that I'd also seen the same Enderman that'd taken a chunk from my shelter. To my shock though, it hasn't reacted at all. Does it only react to being seen if it's a physical eye or something? That doesn't even make sense! Shaking my head, I decide to just count myself lucky that I don't have an Enderman warping into the Hatchery and shrieking at me. It's bad enough that all these monsters actually look scary, rather than their benign blocky counterparts in the game.

And doesn't that just beat all? Minecraft. That actually explains a few things now that I think about it. The lack of animal sounds, or even bugs or birds is not natural. I hadn't thought much of it at the time, but now… There's no place on Earth that's utterly silent like that. But that means… I'm not on Earth anymore. A thousand thoughts flitter through my mind at that thought. Denial is a big portion of it. A quick glance up on my newly dubbed mental map settles it though. Those aren't Earth constellations.

I don't think I've ever been more lost. I might've lost myself to despair at that moment if not for the Hatchery sending me another well timed burst of love and concern. I can't help but pat it again in appreciation, and the walls quiver at my touch. Grinning, I firm my resolve. So what if I'm not on Earth? This changes nothing. I was already planning on going out there to explore. This just means that I might find Earth out there too.

That settled, I laid down on the floor. Kinda wish I had a bed, but this is far better than laying in dirt, that's for certain. I eye the pit in the center of the floor. Light is shining out of it, making it the only light source in the room. Curious, I pull myself up, despite my muscles starting to feel the fatigue from the hour of the night and the adrenaline crash. Pulling myself to the lip that I'm glad will keep me from rolling into the pit in my sleep, I look down inside. There's some kind of liquid at the bottom. It's a pool.

I looked more closely at the command list for the Hatchery that appeared when it was born that I'd only glanced at in passing earlier. Among the commands, other than ordering Larvae around, setting up rally points for different units, and an order to evolve the Swarm with the ability to burrow for 300 Bio Energy, there's also a command to fill up my PSI energy instantly, at the cost of Bio Energy, at the Bio Energy Pool inside the Hatchery.

Immediately upon thinking of the command, the greenish white glowing liquid flowed upwards into easy reach. I think if I want to use this, I have to drink it. That's kind of creepy though. The look of it reminds me unerringly of Mako. I doubt it's the same thing though. At least I hope not. Turning my attention away, I noted that the liquid receded back down to its original depth.

Curiosity satisfied, I curled up in the recess between the lip of the pool, and the incline of the bowl. I find it far more comfortable to sleep on a flat surface than a slope anyway. Twisting around to get more comfortable, I ended up kicking off my shoes and socks, then after thinking about it, I pulled off my shirt and bunched it up to use it as a pillow. I left my shoes strewn at my feet, for lack of a place to put them away. Finally satisfied, I closed my eyes and drifted off almost instantly.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind Matthew
PSI Energy – 50/50
Status – Normal

Abilities
- Spawn Hatchery – 50psi – 12 hour build
- Regeneration – Passive – Heals anything not instantly fatal; time needed depends on extent of injury
- Anaerobic – Passive – No longer requires breathable atmosphere to survive
- Temperature Resistance – Passive – Currently able to survive temperatures between -450 and 118 F
- PSI Regeneration – Passive – Regenerate energy at .5 points per second.

Zerg Swarm
Bio-Energy – 0
Support – 0/11

Entities
1x Hatchery

AN – I should mention here that I'm not too fond of the appearance of the Zerg in Starcraft 2. They looked a lot cooler to me in Brood War, so most, if not all appearances of anything Zerg in this story starting off will appear as it does in Brood War, with few variations.