It didn't feel like any time had passed when the first explosion went off and one of my new, as of yet born, Hatcheries squealed in pain over the link. Annoyed in general, I turned my gaze to the mobs outside. The Creep Wall had formed back up, but thanks to the extra space the three other Hatcheries take up, the wall on the far side of the farthest Hatchery from mine now has the same problem the Evolution Chamber did before. The wall is too low, and now mobs are climbing up the low wall to assault my Hatcheries.

Checking the progress bar of the Hatcheries shows that there's roughly an hour left until they're done. With the large amount of monsters around now, will they survive an hour? Paying close attention to the monsters pouring in and at the HP counter, I sighed in relief. Yes, they'll survive, though they'll be worse for wear. Unlike the Evolution Chamber, which was only a single target, the Hatcheries are three targets and a lot tougher. They'll make it through.

Just in case, I watch and wait to see if anything changes. While I wait, I'm reminded of a similar mission in the first Starcraft that's similar to this. The player has half an hour to survive the Zerg until evac can arrive for the civilians you're protecting. The turn about is interesting, since it's the Zerg I'm protecting now, rather than the Terrans. Unfortunately, unlike with that mission, there's nothing I can do here except wait.

And wait I did. For all the danger the Creepers and monsters here pose, they're rather boringly predictable. Zombies swarm up, start getting sucked into the Creep Wall, Creeper gets close, blows up, Zombies dead, rinse and repeat. I started watching for variations in deaths and counting how many Zombies the Creepers are killing to see if they can break their own record to wile away the time.

Finally the Hatcheries finished and the Creep wall shored up rather dramatically high. Wait's over then it seems. Ah well. The Creepers never did get past 8 kills in one blow. They're all milling around the base of the wall, trying to get in. I'm honestly surprised they haven't tried climbing over themselves to do it. I'd be in trouble then, but instead they're just milling around like a crowd, stupidly trying to find a path in when none exists.

Snorting, I laid back down. I'm not tired at all, but I've literally nothing else to do. I've slept so much, it's eluding me now. I simply laid there, and let my mind blank, staring at the ceiling. I used to do this when I was a kid on Sundays, counting the popcorn ceiling since there was nothing to do. It was dreadfully dull. Unlike then though, feelings of love and warmth are still pouring in from the other Zerg. It's rather peaceful and relaxing, taking the edge out of doing nothing rather nicely.

Midnight came and went, jumping my count of Bio Energy from 10 to 360. Once again, the incoming amount of Bio Energy has changed, and I don't really have any idea why. I guess it depends on where the Bio Energy is coming from. Either some cosmic entity is doling it out like an allowance, or something I'm doing is increasing it somehow. The only thing I've done so far though is build some buildings and spread the Creep…

I blinked as an odd idea entered my mind. Light seems to be a big deal on this world. Light determines when and where the monsters spawn and where they can move. Is it possible my Creep is absorbing the light? Like some kind of giant biological solar panel? Despite how silly it sounds, it does seem possible. Solar powered Zerg. Not even the Protoss did that! Wait, yeah they did actually. I sat up and blinked. It said rather specifically in the Starcraft history manual that came with the game (Which I practically memorized when I was a kid) that Protoss eat starlight. That's why they don't have mouths. If the Protoss, a creation of the Xel'naga can do such a thing, why wouldn't the Zerg, another creation of the same beings be able to as well? Though that wouldn't explain why I'm running completely off solar energy when the Zerg from the game needed Crystals and Vespene gas to build anything.

Too many questions, not enough answers. I laid back down and stopped worrying about the origin. Now that I've got an idea of where my Bio Energy is coming from, spreading the Creep just became a top priority. At the same time though, I have to balance that with the fact that Creep currently destroys the environment. I guess this doesn't really change anything then. I'll just finish up creating a fully developed Hive Cluster, and then we'll go from there. It'll just take some time. I snorted. Even when out of the military, I'm still following the adage, 'hurry up and wait'.

Stretching a little bit, I let my mind drift again and passed the time waiting till sunrise, drifting in and out of consciousness, and letting myself relax in the constant stream of love flowing from the Zerg to me and back. I don't think I'd be able to survive without it anymore.

-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 – 360
Support – 0/19

Entities
4x Hatcheries
1x Evolution Chamber
1x Spawning Pool
3x Creep Colonies
1x Overlord