Catalyst

Chapter 13: A Matter of Scale

The game played in the tunnels had intrigued Abathur. The various units, moving and attacking in specific patterns, as well as the strategies that had been used, all seemed to combine into an interesting game. After some quick questions, he had learned its name to be "chess", and that Ron was apparently quite good at it. Abathur had sought him out, requesting a match between the two of them. And so, the two of the, had set up in the Great Hall, Ron with black, Abathur with white, the pieces set up in neat rows. It promised to be an intriguing match. Ron was experienced in the game, in the tricks and traps inherent in the rules. He had played this game many times before. But Abathur was a commander of the zerg, controller of a thousand real life battles, often with forces that he had himself created. He was an expert tactician, with centuries of experience.

Naturally, that meant the rules of chess were completely absurd to him.

"No you can't make more pieces! What you have is what you're stuck with!"

"Illogical. Inability to reinforce, resultant in definite loss. Mutual destruction, or death for victor at next battle. If ability to reproduce, non-existent, species is doomed. Long term survival, impossible"

"Well, you just can't okay? Can we play now?" Ron asked, frustrated by the conversation. Relenting, Abathur made the first move, a pawn forward by two. Ron followed suit, and the game commenced. So it continued for several rounds, until Ron once again noted a problem.

"You can't just move the knight forward, you have to make it go another space to the left or right," he objected.

"Incorrect. Pieces, bishop, rook, queen, have shown ability to stop movement along path. Must also be ability for knight. Trait common to all forces," Abathur shot back. The knight itself looked back and forth between them in confusion, moving uncertainty between one tile, and another to its left.

Ron seemed about to burst into another argument, but then opened his eyes wide, before sitting back with a smug look. "I see what you're trying to do here. Well, you aren't going to make me angry for this. I'm onto you, Abathur."

"Not intention. More efficient methods to cause anger. Could mention sister reproducing for greater potency. Less effort, more effective," said Abathur dismissively.

Ron gaped at Abathur, opening and closing his mouth soundlessly for a second, before returning his attention to the board and calling out his next move. He didn't notice that the knight remained in the same position.

The battle between white and black continued. Ron was experienced, executing numerous strategies, clearly well practiced and well done. Abathur was in no way laying done to die, deploying numerous defenses, and several well placed, unique, offenses, ceasing any possibility of direct assault. Unfortunately, Abathur was used to much greater resources, and the ability to reinforce them, a quirk that resulted in a tendency to lose pieces much more liberally than Ron. In a war of attrition, Abathur was clearly losing, and it wasn't too long before Ron had cornered the king.

"Checkmate. That's game, mate," Ron said.

"Clarification required. Is term 'checkmate' or 'gamemate'?" Abathur asked.

Ron blinked. "Its checkmate. You lose."

"Forces, still on field. Elimination of enemy forces remains possibility. Game, not over," Abathur refuted.

"Yeah, but you lost your king. So your forces don't have a leader."

"Can create new ruler," Abathur stated. He picked up the king's blade, and handed it to the queen, who appeared happy with her new weapon, placing both blades in readiness. "Queen, superior ruler, greater combat ability, demise less likely. Can reform forces, eliminate opposition. Will be greatest ruler."

Ron wasn't really sure what to make of this.

(Transition)

There was something in the walls. Abathur could feel it, he could hear it, the whispering, slithering slide of flesh on stone. He could feel its mind, old and primitive, but hungry, bound to something else. Most importantly, he could sense its essence, powerful, unique, and plentiful. He wanted it. He wanted to consume it, to take its flesh, splinter its bones. Granted, that would be a lot easier, if there apparently wasn't several feet of stone between them protected by Overmind knows what magic, not to mention still being stone, which is hard to break. Well, hard to break without drones, roaches, nydus, ultralisks, or other creatures, but still hard. With the direct approach infeasible, Abathur was forced to resort to simply following the essence around the Hogwarts corridors, often having to run to keep up.

It wasn't long before Abathur ran into Harry. Both of them looked at the other in surprise, before Harry asked in a startled tone, "Did you hear that?"

"Unsure of subject," Abathur replied, scanning the walls for any hint of his creature.

"The voice in the wall!" It was talking about how it was hungry, and going to kill!" Harry practically shouted.

Abathur's eyes snapped to Harry. The only organisms in the area were Abathur, Harry, and the creature Abathur had been stalking. It hadn't been making any sound loud enough to be distinguishable to terrans from background noise, and it certainly hadn't been talking. A cursory look at Harry's essence didn't show anything particularly special, aside from the markers Abathur had come to associate with psionics. It could be telepathy, put something told Abathur that there was now another thing to keep an eye on.

Harry and Abathur were immediately joined by the other terrans, which immediately rushed forward into the corridor, met with a paralyzed feline. While his camouflage was transfixed by the writing on the wall, Abathur was examining the cat. Paralyzed, practically in hibernation, no normal functions, it wasn't quite like anything else Abathur had seen before. The closest analogy would be that of the Arbiter, but even that wasn't quite right. It was almost as if the cat was more stone than flesh.

At this stage, most humans would have felt fear, apprehension, uncertainty. Abathur only felt glee.

(Transition)

For the ant colony, there was no warning, nor did they expect one. Competition was a fact of life among their species, and if another colony desired their territory and resources, any battle would be a surprise. There would be no quarter, no mercy. It would be a fight to the death. So when the strangers smelling of another colony attacked their supply route, each ant instantly retaliated, biting at their opponents. Jaws were thrust between the foes, madly biting at their legs and necks. It seemed a standard conflict, until the foes struck back.

Their jaws ripped through the defending line as if they were all but nonexistent. One of the attackers was blocked by the defenders jaw, but bit through it and the head behind, killing the ant instantly. Their armor deflected the mandibles striking at them. The few ants that managed to try, quickly had their surprise taken advantage of, with jaws and claws slashing through the exposed flesh.

The battle, if it could be called that was over in minutes. The supply line was decimated, with the spoils of war taken by the zerg hive. The few remainders of the ants limped home with devastating wounds. Unnoticed, an ant with far less wounds with its fellows, seemingly identical, crawled back to the colony, carrying an unseen infiltrator. Within minutes, the spy found its way to the queen, taking a quick nip. Within hours, the queen was remade with the pain that gave strength. Within days, the Hive doubled in size. It would not be the last time this strategy was used.

Swarm Host: The swarm host is a creature with varied roles, many of which have changed with the creature itself. At its core, the swarm host is a creature with no weapons of its own, instead spawning locusts, small, high damaging ranged units, to attack on its behalf. The locusts themselves vary, some flying, some ground units, some transitioning from one to the other. Because of the variance in locust types, the role of the swarm host has varied, sometimes acting as semi static defense, sometimes as a powerful harasser, other times as the main weapon in a war of attrition. Swarm hosts can also spawn their locusts while burrowed, a useful ability in the defensive role. While the use of swarm hosts has varied, none can deny that they are a very effective tool in the right hands.

If you like this story I suggest going to the original source here
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12515480/1/Catalyst

And if you want more like this I suggest going to the original author of this story Strandshaper's home page here
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/9294091/