Episode 48- Where some progress is made.

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Everything here was disgusting. Zerg mass covered every inch of the floor. Almost everywhere she could see some of those small dog like zerg laying about, every single one watching her as she walked past. The other shambling infected were disgusting, overgrown by tentacles and zergy meaty matter. Those cracks in the skin here and there that glowed with yellow light were just ugly.

In passing, she saw that some of the rooms were in poor shape, with some scrap just thrown close to the wall. Surprisingly, the lights in the corridors were mostly untouched, and some power flowed through them. Most of the walls and ceilings were also free of any biological matter.

And of course, there was her guard. She didn't look half bad… though again, maybe that's just her disgust towards any male was speaking. Sure the arm was overgrown, and there were those cracks all over her face glowing yellow, but she looked more like a victim than a monster.

Also, no marine armor. So, no additional zerg flesh between the head and ceasing. The zerg 'hair' really looked like dreads, and the teeth… some weird mesh between the human molars and zerg's needle like teeth.

Together, they were walking through the corridors, she needed to know all the possible ways to escape after all. The infected woman beside her was sometimes easier to drag around, and sometimes it was like trying to move a mountain. It all depended on her current stance. If her guard had 'head in the clouds', then it was perfect. But sometimes, she would stop and stare at her, with more or less intensity. Weird thing was, the staring was almost exclusively directed at herself. Her guard sometimes spared a glance at some zergling, and practically never at the other infected.

The captured, infected and jailed pilot had the weird feeling that she would get along pretty well with her current escort, at last if she regained her mind like the smug leader of this place claimed.

Wit was given a brief laydown of the whole base, and the sections it was separated into. In time, this patchwork of everything would be separated into districts. For now, they were a loose gathering of quarters.

The warrior quarter, it was home to protoss equivalent of barracks, just more dignified. And better looking. A few forges were strewn about, to help the protoss with repairing their equipment or replacing it with a new one. Currently, zealots were the only infantry units deployed by protoss forces. That didn't mean there wasn't other types of weapons or armor available, just nobody used them.

Not far from it was a High Templar quarter, much smaller, and with only two archives in between the small housing. In the future, it would delve into something impressive, but for now it was necessities only. Any equipment needs would need just a short trip to the warriors quarter.

At the edges of those two quarters, was situated a warpgate complex, where protoss were constantly going through. There also was an increased presence of pylons as safeguards, to avoid any tragedy if something bad happened.

Practically at the other end of the big settlement, there were the robotics quarters. There was a semi-separate section dedicated to putting the seriously wounded protoss into the dragons, but the rest was just a mesh of all the buildings needed for creating the necessary equipment. A lot of gleaming, gold assembly lines were producing the components needed for the later machine production.

This mash of building further diverged into two separate ones, one responsible for the ground robots and the ones needed for aerial vehicles. The latter seemed to be the main focus of the expansion, because new buildings were being erected left and right. It probably has something to do with the giant skeleton of a carrier that was slowly being put together on a nearby hill. The production of scouts, on the other hand, was put on hold. After reaching a certain number, the Khalai decided to focus all their efforts on the ships dwarfing the terran battlecruisers by magnitude of six? Seven times bigger?

The Starports were hovering in the sky, at a healthy distance at last. If not for their massive size, they would probably resemble small golden rings from this perspective.

Finally, there were the quarters of 'the rest', so mostly a space to live in for all those engineers, architects, smiths and researchers. There were no civilians around, mostly because the Khalai didn't have a chance of anything like that. Every free hand was more or less drafted, usually to act as technicians or just help the rest. Among all those buildings, there were a few labs, which acted more like a temporary storage for the experiments that survived, and were put on hold.

Right now, Wit was following his guide to one of those labs, some looks sended their way by a few protoss. It's not like see-through 'nerve-cords' were common. Anyway, floating around was nice at all, but Wit still had one of his legs completely barren from knee down. Something to cover it would be very much appreciated.

And the Nerazim, you ask? They had their own mega city Talamatros, and remained mysterious for the time being. This dire situation wasn't the best one for exploring a completely alien metropolis, after all.

Those not so poor zerg. The next base was, contrary to common expectations, even easier to deal with. Despite their target being on higher elevation, the Siege Tanks still did an excellent job at pounding the zerg to the ground. The few pathetic fliers were instantly shot down, making this particular victory almost effortless.

Right now, their whole assault force was establishing itself at the newly relinquished cliffs. The heavy fortified zerg hive before them won't stand a chance, either. The remaining flesh structures at their backs were currently exposed to scorched earth policy. Seems that in this particular mission, Firebats were just janitors cleaning the rest of the filth the main team left behind.

Jaruga, still on top of her furry friend Miko, who was still on top of some tank, was looking warily at the very, very big Ultralisk. Those particular zerg weren't seen in big groups, but maybe because they were big enough to just crush a common Siege Tank with their foot.

Normal marine ammunition did almost nothing. Firebats usually didn't have the occasion to do anything. Goliaths weren't any better. Vultures and Wraiths? Puh-lease. That always left only the Siege Tanks to do all the work. It would still take a lot of time, and ammunition, but with perfect position…

Technically, Battlecruisers could deal with them in a few laser shots, or just one well aimed Yamato but… They almost always were swarmed with the zerg fliers, and all out aerial battles would soon follow.

The nukes also were an option, but the time it took for the miniature warheads to hit usually was too long and would miss entirely. The few occasions they did hit the target, wel… Ultralisks usually survived the first one, especially they weren't at the point blank of the explosion.

And Jaruga herself? Mostly useless. Her fire in the shape of arrows would do very little damage, or maybe even none at all. Her blade? Nothing more than a needle. Her grenades? Despite being potent, their Area of Effect was too small to do any significant damage. All the other weapons on the boat? Same thing, with something of that gargantuan size… When it came to her colony as a whole, probably only Smothership would be able to deal with it. And not with the usual bombardment of everything explosive one can think of either…

Looking down on her previous resting place, Nahida could definitely tell a LOT happened, a lot that she didn't have the slightest idea about.

From the aptly named Smothership, she could see the remains of the fighting rainforest, the rivers and lakes, and of course the giant desert separated from the rest by a long mountain range. She could see the pyramid looking like a pointy hourglass, and the giant ethereal three furthest from everything. Besides that? Ocean, and nothing more. The rest of the world was… missing. Also, the further the giant ship sailed away, the smaller the planet looked.

What's worse, only pyramids remained to give testament to the civilization existing in the past. The gargantuan tree that the biggest city around was built upon was missing, and only a hollow trunk remained. And judging by the lack of any other gigantic remains, it fell before this rise of the forest. The other city of the past, this one nestled in another hollow tree, was also nowhere to be seen. Although, the giant trunk was still there, unmoving like a stone.

And, there really wasn't a forest to speak of anymore. The green battlefield remained as a silent testament to the forest's will. Hearing a trio of steps, she turned her head towards the interesting people she didn't get to meet earlier.

The smallest of them, even shorter than herself, began. "Sorry about the sorry state of your home, but I didn't know there was anything besides flora. And I didn't know that those zerg in particular would be so vicious. Back home we usually eliminated them as fast as we could, for obvious reasons.

Nahida looked at the pink haired girl, shaking her head a little. "You still did a great thing. You could ignore this empty world completely, but you still came over to help. You, and the rest of your… companions? Family?"

"You could say both." Her taller sibling gave her a soft elbow. "Ah right, introductions, I'am Pixie, this is my slightly older sister Ixie, and my adult sister, Trixie."

Ixie added "There is also Dixie, but she remained at home." Turning towards her younger sister, she nodded her head towards one of the ship's doors. "Now, let's get you back to the bed, before you faceplant again."

"I'm fine." Judging by her wobbly legs and bloodshot eyes, she was anything but fine. Instead of arguing, Ixie just gently shoved her forward, resulting in the smaller figure falling flat on her face.

"Now that we established you are not, let's get you back to the bed. You're exhausted as it is, we don't need you catching some sickness or other stuff." Not listening to her little sister's weak protest, she just threw her over the shoulder, and disappeared in the ship's passage.

"Is this a wailing of the damned? Sigh of the cursed thrice over? Cry of the unholy? Shout of the lost? Elegy of pain? Or maybe the loud whispers of the fallen?"

The nearby zergling that was his audience just kept looking at him, its eyes featuring a thousand mile stare. Not expecting any response, Dobromir continued forward. For some weird reason, he was hearing some psionic wailing for some time now. It started very softly, and he ignored it at first.

But right now? After quickly excusing himself, he left and started searching. Those sounds weren't a banshee scream quite yet, but for something to send out signals of anguish so powerful…

He already checked half of the base, but the discordant sound didn't help to pinpoint its source in any way. What's more, it seemed that the rest of the zerg didn't hear it. Zerglins remained completely at ease, and said he didn't hear anything.

Finally, after some more wandering, Dobromir found the pair of the infected warden and prisoner. Both were looking at something, which in case of one of them was a pretty rare show of focus. "What. Is that?" Said the prisoner slowly.

Walking around them, Dobromir was met with a somewhat familiar, and very very sad sight. A creature, very loosely resembling a cat, was trying to crawl forward. Its mouth was loose and triangular. One of the eyes was shut, and both had different sizes. But the most horrible thing? Only one of the front legs was semi alright. The rest of the mangled form looked to be broken, melted and slashed many times, only to regenerate to receive the punishment again. One sorrowful eye was looking at them, with a sad, mournful look.

Wiping the tear from his eye, and overcoming the tightness in his throat, Dobromir walked forward, and kneeled, looking at the sad creature. "So even the depths of the Abyss spit you out, huh?"

The pathetic whine only barely resembled a cat's meow.

"Come over here, give me a hand." The infected guard dragged the prisoner after her, and directed by Dobromir, took the mangled form with her meaty arm, hugging the creature to her chest. Her eyes, so often unfocused, now displayed a surprising sign of intensity, looking at her commander.

"If there weren't a moment before, now we can feel good about being cursed by zerg infection. Because in some cases, zerg are the only miracle we have left. There are some diseases among humans that after a long, long time were finally dealt with. But in this case? No Terran can hope to help this poor creature. Not even my Mother."

With gentle motions, the two infected with serious faces carried the poor creature between themself. Behind them, the prisoner was being dragged along, full of conflicting emotions, and some small doubts.

"That's really, really convenient. Terrans didn't develop the art of weaving a fabric from a self fabricator quite yet. But maybe the earth did…" Wit was musing out loud, watching the machine create a sock for his leg. One clog for his foot was ready, just lacking a bit of small rope as a finish.

His guide/new friend has led the two of them to the mostly unused part of the forge complex, the civilian one. It didn't create weapons, or armor, it didn't assemble any components for the advanced robots. This forge was weaving cloth together, creating simple elements for clothing, and could forge non complex accessories. Like the golden ends for protoss nerve cords, acting mostly like jewelry.

When the fabricator had done its job, Wit put on the long sock, tied the rope between the holes in the clog, and put the metallic slipper on his foot. The new parts were clashing rather horribly with the rest of the clothing, to tell the truth. Where most of it was grey, the sock was bright blue, and the slipper was pure protoss gold.

"Oh well. Now, to really test those limits." Wit tapped the screen, and created a new project. This process could be done both manually, and with the help of the mind. For Wit, it was rather obvious what to use.

After some time of watching the little shroom focus intensely on the screen, the female protoss walked and leaned to watch and… Found a skeleton. A Terran one if she was not mistaken. The general outline was ready, but part by part, things were changing. The bones forming the back were bent a little that way, also a little other way… The fingers were changed from equal length to different ones. The feet were changed a few times over, one time they were too short, the other time too thick, it seems the author wasn't perfectly aware of how it was supposed to look.

Her mycelium nerve cords were telling her of… rising excitement? Opposite to protoss communication, she didn't have the chance to not listen. In this small network, she was constantly receiving a certain feedback from the… main host, let's call it. Morbid curiosity kept her eyes glued to the screen, watching the human bones taking a more sophisticated look by second.

For Wit, it took the longest to shape the skull so it looked somewhat right. After finishing, he saved the file as 'beta human skeleton', and immediately set it to production.

"Mmm… Why?" she asked, it still felt weird, actually having the capacity to project her thoughts.

"You'll see, you'll see." So they stood there, and watched as the golden bones took shape. Considering the many elements, it took more time than the simple orders. But it still was a protoss machinery, there was no failure to be had here.

When the assembly ended, and the artificial bones just kept floating there, Wit detached certain balls of spores from the psionic amplifier, and started putting it, one by one on the skeleton.

When the skeleton had the little balls attached all over, Wit started the process. Nature could always find a way, but this case required firm guidance. Slowly, the balls shrunk, and started elongating. The female protoss witnessed how her new nerve cords were probably formed.

The thin and almost see through strands of mycelia started weaving itself across the bones, connecting to one another. When it seemed that it was all over, Wit extended his hand, and touched it. Now, this was a moment when a real magic happened.

For the last zerg hive… a rather rare tactic was used. Instead of just guarding the tanks with standart forces, the captain decided to play on the defensive. Considering the zerg codenamed 'guardians', Terrans would have the range disadvantage for a change.

Some way from the zerg base, ERK's hastily put up a line of bunkers and anti-air turrets. The bunkers were packed to the brim with marines, and the missile turrets were spinning furiously. Using the defenses as shield walls, the rest of the marines were also waiting for the enemy to come. Not far behind, the Siege Tanks were waiting for the orders to pound another base to the ground. Goliaths were standing behind the tanks, somewhat like a last line of defense. Finally, the wraiths would this time act on the sidelines.

Jaruga, still sitting on her furry friend Miko, who was still standing on some tank, watched the proceedings. This time, the Captain really showed that he cared about the lives of his soldiers. No charging, no mindless shooting, oh no, the soldiers were being put to a good use.

When the orders sounded throughout the commons, the Siege Tanks waited a few seconds in silence, and then a great many booms sounded mostly at the same time. The zerg base was outside the standard range of the Siege Tanks, and they could raise their Crucio cannons only so high. Instead, the pilots kept overcharging their cannons, sending their explosive shells so much further. Of course, there was no avoiding the drawbacks, like the fuel consumption increased by 500% or the abyssal aim. The standard calculating equipment of the tanks worked only to the max range, so the pilots were pretty much just shooting blind.

Some shells hit the zerg, through most overshot or exploded just before the zerg base. Pilots showed that they weren't solely reliant on the automatic calculation, as the next salvos started mostly hitting what they were supposed to hit.

As expected, all the zerg began pouring out of the base. Unluckily for them, the spider mines deployed earlier by the Vultures started bursting out of the ground, and then the zerg bits started flying every which way thanks to the explosions.

Siege Tanks soon started focusing on the bigger Hydralisks, and the marines kept mowing down the Zerglings. Mutalisks were shot out of the sky quicker than ever before, with the combined missiles of both static and mobile defenders. In the distance, the biggest threat started to slowly appear.

Thankfully, those flying crab like zerg were rather slow, and unguarded. Like an oil press, the invisible Wraiths swooped in, and wiped them out. Only to flee equally fast as some overlords started appearing. Then they get close enough to be shot down by the defenders, and the whole cycle begins anew.

Jaruga was, as usual, shooting her fiery arrows, mostly at the landbound zerg. Thanks to this very comfy strategy, no soldiers died in this fight. It would be very, very different if there was something actually controlling those zerg.

Author's empty promises:

I'll try to not add any other characters from other universes. At last, not permanently. Only OC's from now on. Of course there will be Ciri, but only for a very short moment.