A sound of distress over the mental link jolted me awake. Sitting up, it took me a few seconds to figure out what was going on. Now that I'm awake, my Overlord is pinging me with warnings and my Evolution Chamber is sending messages of pain over the link. Sending my sight outside, I gawked at what I'm seeing.

The number of monsters outside looks to have doubled from last night. Endermen are trailing after the Overlord, trembling in what I can only assume is rage. Zombies and Skeletons are everywhere. Spiders are covering my buildings and biting in random areas. All the while, Creepers are coming in from the shade of the trees and making a beeline for the closer target, the Evolution Chamber, their explosions taking out a number of Zombies and doing a bit more damage than I expected.

Unlike the Hatchery, the Evolution Chamber doesn't have nearly as many hitpoints as the Hatchery does. Worse still, since the number of Creepers has effectively doubled, they're overwhelming the Evolution Chamber's ability to regenerate itself. I clenched my fists as another explosion hit the chamber and took another chunk of HP with it. What should I do? I don't have any warrior Zerg to send out there and try to distract the enemy, not that it would do any good. With the sheer amount of monsters out there, I'd need to create a greater force or my Zerg would simply be overwhelmed, and that's not counting what an Enderman could do. I find myself very fortunate that the Endermen are focusing on the Overlord and not ripping chunks out of my buildings.

While I brain stormed ideas to try, I watched the enemies continuing to pour in. I noted idly that the amount of monsters didn't seem to be increasing at all. More monsters only seemed to be showing up to replace the ones getting killed. There's a limit to how many monsters can be around? Interesting, but nothing I can use. The Creepers that are blowing up aren't affecting the Creep thankfully. I wonder at that for a moment. Why would the Creep be undamaged while the Evolution Chamber is getting hurt? Can I use that?

An idea sparked in my mind. If the Creep can't be damaged by explosions, maybe I can form walls with them? Before I can even think about how I can accomplish such a thing, the Creep starts to recede from the treeline as bulges of Creep start to form up around the Hatchery and Evolution Chamber. Is it responding to my will? That's awesome! Or maybe it isn't. The Overlord has stopped and is directing its attention towards the Creep. That would make sense, since the Overlords are known for micromanaging the Zerg more effectively in Starcraft lore. I guess the Overlord is the one responding to my will then.

All of the Creep ended up receding to the growing walls. The monsters are starting to mill around outside trying to get in. Will it be enough? My heart sank as the monsters found parts of the wall low enough to climb over. With the wall funneling the monsters, the Evolution Chamber isn't getting hit quite as hard as before though. Will that be enough? A few minutes later showed that it isn't. While it is getting damaged slower, the Creepers are still damaging it enough to counter the Chamber's regeneration. The building is even starting to bleed a little as it slowly fails. I think the counter I'd been assuming are hit points is actually the measurement of the building's ability to regenerate the damage being done to it. Makes a lot more sense, for all the good it does me.

Frustrated, I took a breath to calm down a little. No use asking why the wall didn't work. It's still partially effective. Maybe the better question to ask is how to make it more efficient. I can't move the walls closer to the building unfortunately. They're already as close as they can get. Maybe if I shore up the walls around the Evolution Chamber, and leave a break near the Hatchery, the monsters will switch targets and hurt the Hatchery for a while while the Evolution Chamber recovers? Then I can keep switching off when the Evolution Chamber heals back up!

Quickly, I give the Overlord the order to do just that. A section of the Creep Wall drops on the far side of the Hatchery from the Evolution Chamber, and the parts of the wall around the Evolution Chamber that were low enough for the monsters to climb over are now higher. Unfortunately, there's still a part of the wall on the far side of the Evolution Chamber from the Hatchery that just won't raise up high enough. I tried making the gate on the far side of the Hatchery wider to give the Creep Wall more material to work with, but it didn't change anything.

I felt frustrated. Why won't it work? If more material for the Creep to use won't work, then what's the problem? I felt stumped. At least the walls are doing a fairly good job of funneling the monsters. The Hatchery is still getting damaged, but at least with no space between the Walls and the Hatchery, the only way for monsters to get at the Evolution Chamber is that lower part of the wall, which has slowed them down considerably. The skeletons and spiders aren't affected by this, but the Creepers now have to push through all the Zombies choking up the funnel point. Everytime a Creeper gets close enough, it blows up, killing the surrounding Zombies, and maybe one or two Creepers, leaving the way open for more monsters to come rushing in.

I think I preferred the monsters just disappearing like they do in Minecraft though. Unlike the game, a Creeper blowing up doesn't just disappear, nor do the Zombies getting blown up. Instead, body parts are getting flung about, black ichor oozing out of them, and the Creepers are leaving behind a greenish residue all over the blast site. Thankfully, the Creep is absorbing it all up at a steady rate, though the… stuff, getting blown away from the wall is still sitting there unfortunately.

After a few minutes I start to relax just a little. While not the perfect defense I was hoping for, the Creep Wall is doing an excellent job of funneling the Zombies and Creepers. It's just enough that the damage done to the Evolution Chamber and the regeneration it has are cancelling each other out. It's not perfect, but it does allow me to wait till daytime when the monsters will stop regenerating due to all the light.

On the downside, the Hatchery is now taking a bit more damage than before. It's not enough to overwhelm its regeneration thankfully. Unfortunately, now I have two Zerg crying out in pain over the link. The Hatchery had been before, but not nearly as much as the Evolution Chamber had been. I've done all I can to help, but it doesn't seem enough! My Zerg are in pain and there's nothing I can do to help! I hate feeling helpless.

A nudge to my side startled me and I opened my eyes. The Drone nudged me again. I can feel its concern for me over the link. It wants to help too, in its own simple way. I got down on my knees and hugged the thing for all I'm worth. There's no really good place to hug a Drone, so I had to make do with a spot between its sail and foreclaw. I can't even get my arms all the way around it. It helps though. I don't like it, but there's no use fretting over things I can't control. It still hurts, and I can't help but wince a little each time my buildings take a hit, but holding onto the Drone is helping. I end up wrapping my arms around a claw and do my best to wait it out till sunrise. I don't think I'll be getting back to sleep anytime soon.

Time passed, and midnight came, along with another boost to my bio energy count.

Zerg Swarm Bio Energy +300
Bio Energy – 335

Now that's interesting. Last time I got 310 Bio Energy, now I'm only getting 300. Why the change? At least I'm a bit more certain that I'm getting Bio Energy every 24 hours, or however long a Minecraft day is. It certainly feels like 24 hours. Is there anything I can do with 300 Bio Energy right now to help? I could create six Drones or three Overlords. That would require leaving cocoons out for the monsters to hurt and possibly destroy though.

Speaking of which, where are the Larvae? A quick look around my mental map shows them resting just inside the tubes leading to the outside. Now why couldn't Larvae do that in game? Constraints of the game engine, or did just no one think of it? It does make a lot more sense, rather than leaving the larvae out to be shot at and somehow have impossibly high armor and hit points. I notice that they still do have high armor, but at least it makes sense in a way. All they are is compacted armor and some DNA. There's a lot less flesh to shoot at there. Still, I'm a lot happier with having the Larvae inside rather than out there getting hurt or worse.

Not willing to send the Larvae out means I have no recourse for creating more units for now. I could send my Drone out to create a building, but that just leaves another Cocoon open for damage and possible destruction, never mind that there's no open Creep to grow a building on anyway. 300 bio energy and I'm still stuck waiting.

Sighing, I settle in once again to wait till morning.

-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 – 335
Support – 1/16

Entities
1x Hatchery
1x Evolution Chamber
1x Overlord
1x Drone