starcraft: dilation

blood, sweat, and tears

I stand and wait as a mass of zerg surround me. They are all staring at me as I can see some of them moving around outside of the hive. The rains finally letting up to so I can see further but my beacons down and my com links are still reseting. "I have arrived terran." I look around as I see a massive queen approuching me closely. I lift my visor as I get a good look at the thing. She's nearly three times the size of a normal queen. "Greetings terran. I am brood mother nakara and I lead this brood." She gives me a little bow as I'm astonished at her sheer size. "You do not speak?" I snap back as I shake my head. "Sorry. I've never been this close to a queen before, let alone a brood mother." She lifts four sets of hands as she lays one of her hands on the other, making it look like she's praying a little bit. "We brood mothers remain hidden as if we perish, our broods will become feral for a short time before we reconstitute at our primary hive." Sounds about right. Guess that's why they always have a few queens around to keep the brood in check just in case if something dues happen and they need to fall back and recover a little bit. Guess it's my turn to introduce myself. "General sheep. I'm a ghost opritave who was tasked with protecting the outpost that was astonished on this rock nearly a year ago." Nakara's stair is soul piercing. "What is the main purpose of your occupation on this planet? From what I have seen, you have remained in your walls the time you've been here." I lift my rifle as I slide it down my back as the magnets check it. I let it go as I let my arms fall to my sides. She doesn't even flinch at this. I can also feel her rummaging through my mind to. Guess she can read my mind just as much as I can read hers. "You remain alert dispite lowering your weapon?" she looks down at me. "You terrans have always confused us." Nakara turns and looks at a hydralisk as it backs off. "Us?" She looks back at me. "You mean the swarm?" She gives a slight nod. I can tell she knows I'm searching her mind to. "The swarm has consumed countless terrans and yet, even with the 'viral infestation' as you call it, we still don't understand terrans fully." I remeber reading some of the old battles when the sworm first reared its ugly head. They consumed millions of people and targeted alot that had phyonic potential. "You also know that we tried using you terran to fight the protoss becuase we velieved only you terrans had the phyonic potency to harm the protoss." Yeah. She starts to remeber stuff from previous zergs lives. I didn't know they could do that. I can read them like picture books. "When the overmind was still in control, he believed it to." From what the archives have...Rayner wrought down that the overmind was fixated on consuming the protoss. It was like...we got in the zergs way. "After the overmind was defeated, the old queen of blades hunted terrans to give to hee evolution master to experiment apon."
"I know. I've had the...displeasure of fighting infested before. Whatever you unleashed on those colonists....it turned them into mindless monsters." I get flashbacks of when I went to Mar Sara and discovered a infested colony. "We did not understand terran biology. After an old infested reached out, we slowly began to understand you terrans." There's an 'old' infested? "What do you mean?" Nakara bows her head a little bit. "We did turn countless of your people into us but the new infested you fight are not our doing. It is the infested admiral of the old UED fleet that was distroyed many years ago." Stukov? How the hell did he end up in a hell like that?! "The queen of blades forbid experimenting on terrans shortly after she returned to her true form. However, stukov continued his. It is unfortunate he cannot forget the past or move on from it but I assure you, the sworm does not infest your people. Over queen zagara continues this dispite now commanding the swarm now." As Rayner once said. Old habits die hard. "I did not bring you here so you could insult the sworm terran. It is time we discus what the next actions will be if you want to save your allies." Right. "Why have you astablished a base on this world? Why do you remain when it is clear the feral zerg here attack without end?" Guess it's better to go with the devil you know rather than the devil you don't. "We received reports about a massive mineral mine that was abandoned after the kel'morian combine retreated when the sworm came back and started attacking 3 Years after the brood wars." Nakara gives me a focused look. "Your greed still shows, even after the end wars have finished." I note Nakara's change in demeanor. "Unlike the kel'morian combine, we're here on a humanitarian mission." Nakara pouses for a second. "After only about a quarter of the fleet came back from wherever they went, the dominion was struggling just put themselves back together just to start rebuilding. But when we hit our lowest and finally got back on our feet, the protoss faction, the tal'darem attacked several world and decimated even more of the population becuase the defenders of man wanted to take over the dominion." I remeber fighting in that war. "After I came back from a 9 month long mission, the defenders of man fell and Valerian managed to rally the people again. He called on rayners raiders, the part that remained with Jim, and asked us to supply them with resources they could use to rebuild. Our reward? Our own worlds we can build on and call home and finally sit down and take a breather." Nakara looks around at her brood as it's clear thier feeling what she's feeling. "Even the swarm was broken after the fall of Amon. When over queen zagara was the only one of many brood mothers to return, she commanded us to astablish hive clusters on baren worlds and new worlds the terran dominion and the protoss would not have. We also needed to bolster our numbers back to what they were." The fights we've all been facing have taxed everyone. "One of the many world's is this world we currently stand on. I was the only brood mother who would rebuild on this world. My brood was once numberless and held many strains that aided in many battles. Not only have the numbers of my brood fallen so low, I've also lost many powerful strains that I struggle to recover." That gives me an idea. "The forces we have here aren't strong enough either. We got lucky when the medics we have decided to come with us. Out of what we could have gotten on this mission, the people we have here can't even do much agenst the feral zerg here. I can't tell you how long we've been living on a mirical." I look up at Nakara. "The protoss got here not even 5 days ago and thier just now getting defenses up to protect themselves but I haven't even seen thier base yet. All I know is that the base they have is small. They don't even reach half of the man power we have and if we put our forces togeather, we still wouldn't even reach a fraction of what the feral zerg have been throwing at us." Nakara's mind starts to rush around. "Have you managed to discover the mines your searching for?" I shake my head. "We were lucky have found the cluster we set our base up at. Those fields didn't last long though." Nakara straightens up a little bit. "I believe I have already discovered your mine, terran." I shoot up with suprise and excitement. "The mine is far away in an old colony that the feral zerg has infested. They use those minerals to send the endless attacks you've been defending yourselves from." That explains alot. "That means the feral zerg have multiple hives witch complicates things alot." I fold my arms as I try to think. "To your suprise, terran, the feral zerg have hardly touched the rich mine. The futher you venture from thier main hive, the more docile they become but the closer you approuch them, they send as many zerg to crush what is getting to close." Damnit! "That means they've got something thier protecting...and it's big if thier using everything they have to kill us." Nakara nods. "It is fortunate that I am here then." I look up at nakara. "This old feral colony is a old brood of the long dead ceribrate named krother. He was one of many ceribrites that merged togeather in the attempt to forge a new overmind when the old one was distroyed by the protoss. After the fledgling was felled, his brood was the only one to have escaped the queen of blades control." A old ceribrate? How are there still broods connected to those things? "Shouldn't those old broods be dead by now? How the hell is this one still alive?" Nakara notes my sudden aggression. "The broods amon controlled durring his war were broods of ceribrates that managed to survive. He uplifted them as he did long ago but few did not follow his commands and he left them to suffer." That means the zerg that attacked durring all of that...they must have been so old. "Over queen zagara learned of thus only recently. I find it unfortunate that my brood was amongst the few who discovered one of these broods. Even now, they attempt to forge a new ceribrate with little success. It is my task to distroy the brood or bring it back into the fold." At least I know now. "So you want to take control of this brood?" Nakara pouses for a moment. "If it is possible, then yes. If they do not come back into the fold, they must be slaughtered to the last." Then it looks like we have commen ground at least. "Than it looks like we can meet in the middle." Nakara tilts her head a little bit. "I want the minerals to help supply the rebuilding of distroyed worlds so we can start to recover, the protoss want this brood distroyed since thier danger clearly has cought thier attention and you want to at least try and absorb them but if you can't, thier complete annihilation." Nakara straightens up. "What are you getting at terran?" I let my arms fall. "If I convince the others, we all can launch an attack on their main hive, giving you some time to at least try and take control of them but if you can't, the hive will be distroyed, giving the protoss some piece of kind and allowing us to start a mining expedition. Either way it'll a win on all sides since you can go in after they've been distroyed and take of thier strains." Nakara takes a moment to think. She didn't think about just killing them and taking thier essence. "Either way, I will gather enough biomass to recover lost strains and allow my brood to recover for some time before we are called apon again." Naksra is liking this plan alot. She looks around at her hive as I see the her hive start to shake violently as it it starts to deflate. She looks back at me. "Convince your allies, and I will aid you terran. So long as you leave me and my brood in piece when this is over, I will leave your people in piece." Looks like I just got us another ally. The storms clearing up to. "Sheep...repeat...do you..." I lift my hand and press a button on my visor as it comes down. "Sheep...are you there?" It sounds like Warfield. "I read you general." The static slowly starts to clear up. "Thank God! We're under attack...now! We need back..." damnit. "Is that your allies terran?" I let the button go. "Yeah. It sounds like thier being attacked by the feral zerg again." I look up at nakara. "Alert your allies. I will send my brood to aid in thier defense." I hesitate. "If we are to win, you must alert your allies to not harm my brood, terran." I note her change in attitude. I turn around as I start to rush out of Nakara's base. "General field, do not attack the purple zerg. General Warfield do NOT attack the purple zerg, do you copy?!" I draw my rifle as the static clears up a bit. "What?! Purple zerg!" I look up as my visor is completely active again. I look out and see zerg poping out of the ground as I see many diffrent types of zerglings, hydralisks, and a small pack of mutalisks that are all rushing to the protoss outpost. "I manage to get some back up! Just make sure you don't attack the zerg with purple skim and eyes!" I rush ahead and join the relatively small army of zerg. "I don't know what the hell your talking about but I'll pull everyone back and provide covering fire! Just get your ass back here! We haven't been able to land out buildings and were losing men out here!" I pick up my speed as I activate my cloak. "I'm on my way now General! Just don't piss off our new ally! We need her if we're going to attack the feral zerg!" The storm is clearing but this next fight isent going to be so clean.