starcraft: dilation

no hope

I stay seated as the drop ship lands and the back opens. "How can we fight what's immortal?" Warfield runs on as she stands infront of me. "What the hell sheep?! You use every nuke we have and don't reply! You better have a damn good explanation!" I let my head hand. "Get kalas and nakara." I get up as I look at the hunters as all of us are shaken. "What the hell is going on?!" We get off the ship as I walk out to see kalas and nakara are already here. The hunters wall up to kalas and kneel infront of him. "Executor. We have failed." I walk up to kalas. "On the contrary my brothers. The zerg hive has been distroyed." Warfield turns me around. "Talk! You just left us nearly defenseless to the next attack! We're sitting ducks right now!" I don't know what to say. "Rise my brothers. You have done well." I shake my head as I undo my mask and let it hand. "No Executor. We have failed. The zerg are still being controlled and failed to eradicate them. We will accept our punishment for such a failure." I don't believe this. "General sheep. You mind is chaotic. You must explain what you have discovered. "I look at nakara. "We're not fighting feral zerg." I look at kalas as the hunters stand up. "Our discovery is dire." I take a few steps back as I grab my visor and take it off. "That's impossible. This brood is erratic." I take in a deep breath as I gather myself. "Unfortunately...we have been deceived." I look at warfield. "This brood...its being controlled by a ceribrate." Everyone freezes. "Impossible. All ceribrates were distroyed shortly after the brood wars concluded." I look at the hunters as kalas is frozen. "It is true. It reconstructed itself infront of our very eyes after Sheep distroyed the hives." I look at nakara as what it said rings through my mind. "We could hear it's commands. The last thing it said is stuck in my head and I don't know what to do." Nakara takes a few steps twords me. "What did it say terran?" I take in a deep breath. "For the overmind." I can feel the fear take over nakara instantly. Nobody knows how to react to this. One of our biggest fears came true and we have no clue to even handle it. "I fear our repreave will not last long." I look at kalas. "If it truly is a ceribrite commanding this brood, it will rebuilt quickly." I try to get myself together. Millions of things ring in my head. Wait. Nakara said she lost her strains. maybe. I look at nakara. "Didn't the old swarm use animals to evolve instead of evolving from specific senerios?" Nakara lifts her head. "The old swarm was when the basis of the current swarm was built off of." I remever seeing the green blood. Those claws to. They weren't as serrated as alot of the zerg we see now. I look at nakara as alot of her wounds haven't healed yet. "Stay still." I walk to nakara as I look at her wounds. "What are you doing tarren?" She pulls back a little bit. "Just stand still. I need to check something." I get close to her as I look at a deep cut. It's nothing to her but she hasn't healed from it yet. Normally a brood mother would have healed from something like this. I look closer as it looks like her carapace is rotting. "What do you see sheep?" I look at her other cuts and see their all the same way. "look." I point at the wounds. "Nakara's wounds. They look like their infected with something." Nakara turns her head. "Impossible. I would have healed fully by now." I can see the same green blood deep in her wounds to. "Look. There's something in the cuts." I wipe a small drop off as I show it to warfield. "This stuff was leaking from one of those new zerg strained we fought." Kalas and nakara come down to look at the fuilid. "I knowtised it to. When we cut it down, our blade began to mouth function." I look at nakara. "Did any of this stuff show up on any of the zerg you fought before you lost your hive?" Nakara looks closely. "Yes. This liquid poured from their claws." Maybe she didn't lose her strains. "I need you to bring her head lower." Nakara pulls back. "What will you do to me tarren?" I wipe off my hand. "If my theory is right...you'll be able to fully recover and get your strains back." Nakara takes a moment. She doesn't want to do this since she's still weary. "What will you do once I'm left vulnerable?" She's rightfully concerned. "We've helped you this far. All I ask is you keep fighting with us until we take care of that thing." Nakara lowers her head slightly. "I need you to trust me on this. Whatever that ceribrate did, it's affecting all of us and if I'm right, you'll be able to figure out how to counter it." The current zerg swarm has adapted quickly in the past few years. When the queen of blades came back, they evolved so fast in a year that it's impossible to study a zergling without years of testing now. "Sheep is right." We look at kalas. "Dispite our fears, you have remained allied with us for some time now. I trust in his skills. If this leads back to amon, I fear we all need to adapt as you do. We must come togeather and fight as one once more." Nakara gives me a stern look...I think so anyway. "Make it quick." Nakara lowers her head to my level. "I'll try to. It won't be pleasant for either of us." I slowly lift my hand and place it on her forehead. I close my eyes and focus as hard as I can as I reach into her mind. I dig as deep as I can as I try to find the genetic makeup of all her zerg. She's trying to cut me off the deeper I go as I'm only getting the base forms. "I need you to open your mind to me, nakara. I have to see everything." She hesitates. Melding minds with a zerg...its never happened between two parties consentingly. Its always been forced on one or another. With phyonics as powerful as the both of us...we can find a way to fix all of this. I can feel nakara searching my mind to. I open mine as she does the same. I'm overwhelmed with knowledge as I get every single strain as I can see something is blocking her from healing and creating her zerg. She hasn't forgotten. "Alright...here comes...the painful part." I force my way into her genetics as I fight the poison and genetic blockers as I force her to evolve a way to counter the poison the ceribrate made. I feel a massive shock to my system as I feel a massive shift in her mind. I open my mind as my body goes completely numb and I fall to my knees. "Sheep!" Nakara pulls back as she feels the shock to as her struggles to process what happened. I must what little strangth I have left to stay up as in help up by warfield. "What did you do?!? I take in deep breaths as my whole body feels like it's being electrocuted. I can't stop shaking. "Sheep? Are you alright?" I shake off the jolt as I can bearly breath. "Sheep? Look at me. Are you okey?" I look up at warfield as I fall back and struggle to process what happened to me. I shake my head as my mind is spinning. "Nakara. Your wounds." I slowly look up as nakara examines her body. "Your...your healed?" Nakara looks at me as she gives me a greatful nod. "I am. I also learned what that ceribrate did to me and my brood." Nakara lifts her hands as I can see the green fuilid leaking from her claws. "It is a poison. It blocks regeneration and functionality of all weapons." She looks at the fluid closely. "It is not the overminds design." Looks like she got alot more out of it than I did. "Then why created it?" I look at warfield. "Mobius created it." I slowly stand up. "They created it while under amons thrall." We all look at nakara. "Great. Back to him again?" Nakara flicks her hands to get the fluid off of her. "It appears amon reincarnated one of the overminds greatest ceribrates to do his bidding. It is how he was able to control as many as he did while inhibiting the protoss." Damn. "Witch ceribrate?" Nakara looks at me as she tenses up. "An old ceribrate named daggoth. One of the many ceribrates that attempted to fuse togeather in order to create another overmind whitch was distroyed when karragen rested control of the whole of the swarm at the end of the brood war." What? "You have to be kidding me? He could revive them?!" Nakara shakes her head. "Through mobius corps, he managed to re-create his genetics and convince him the overmind created him and served it. He did his bidding in the name of the overmind amon posed as." He really was a pain in everyone's ass to. "Now daggoth believes the overminds death happened as he remembers and seeks to gather as many zerg as possible to fuse and become another overmind and restart the end war." Another end war? "Like that'll ever happen." Nakara glares at warfield. "This daggoth is infused with void energies no known to us. His is now immune to all conventional weapons and cannot be distroyed by the dark Templar." So...he's really immortal now? "There's must be a way. The original ceribrates were not impervious. They held a unique regenerating abilities yes but they could still be distroyed. The great worrier Fenix proved as much long ago." That's right. "This is true however daggoth now has a better healing factor will generate from any damage he sustains however, there is a way he can be distroyed but it will not be easy." At least there's that. Let's hope blood hunters use the same void energies as the old dark Templar. "We use void energies. Our abilities are far stronger than our naraziem counterparts." I look at nakara. "Your dark Templar weapons and energies will not harm the ceribrate. Not this time, protoss." Seriusly? "You have to be kidding me. If what I've heard it true, we don't have anything that's strong enough to distroy this thing!" I look at warfield. "We have more advanced weaponry since then. Hell, even the protoss managed to make weapons since then to." I look at kalas as he's frozen. "If that thing can bleed, we can kill it. Nothing is invincible." I look at nakara as I gather myself. "Sheep is correct. Daggoth does not possess the same abilities as the old swarm. He simply possess a stronger carapace and a faster regeneration." Good. I'm still suprised that nuke didn't do as much damage as it could have but now it doesn't have a base. It'll take a while but it will send more attack again soon. "We need a plan of attack. We may not have the time we believe we do." We all look at kalas. "This is true. I am sensing daggoth's brood is shattered however he will recover." I reach out. I can sense it to. His phyonic power is constant now. He's not holding back anymore. I can sense large armies but thier converging at the old hive. "How long do you thing we have?" He's not moving his forces out witch tells me he's not taking any chances. "If we are lucky, 3 hours." No. That's not right. "That doesn't give us enough time to do anything." I take in a deep breath. "No...we have longer." I can hear his commands some how. He struggling to recover. "How can you tell?" I look at nakara. "Focus. I don't know how but I can hear his commands. He's struggling." Nakara concentrates. "You are right. He may not have full control of this brood." His brood. That's right. "Speaking of brood, how's your brood recovering? Are your forces strong enough to scout out a few places?" I can sense nakara's focus drift. "My brood is far from recovered however I can send out some to ensure we know where daggoth's remaining brood is. With any luck, I may be able to spawn zerg from then as well." Really? "Didn't the swarm evolve to be better than the 'old' swarm?" I look at warfield. She still doesn't trust her. "Mind your tung terran. I dare not question overqween zegara's reintegrations and you will not question my aid unless you want me to aid daggoth and his cuase." I stop warfield from speaking. "That's enough warfield." She gives me a death glance. "Are you questioning a superior officer?" I shake my head. "I'm stopping said officer from making a mistake that'll get us all killed." I pull warfield away from the group. "What is wrong with you? How can you trust the zerg like this?" I pull my mask off so it stops hanging. I look at warfield as I'm done with this bullshit. "You need to calm down." She pouses. "I know what happened to your father but it doesn't give you an excuse to antagonize a brood mother who's willing to work with us to take out a ceribrate that's trying to follow amon. Do you even understand what could happen if this thing is allowed to evolve into a new overmind?" She shakes her head. "I don't care. The zerg killed my whole family. I refuse to work with thier killers." I grab warfields suit as I pull her down to look at me at eye level. "The old swarm were slaved to amon. When karragen came back, your father refused to evacuate with his men. You don't have to make the same mistake trying to avenge them agenst the wrong zerg swarm. Nakara is not our enemy. She's done nothing but help us." I take in a deep breath. I let her go as she takes a moment. "If you need to take a moment to rest and recuperate, I'll make sure your men live through this." Warfields thoughts are jumbled. She exhausted and can't think straight. "That's actually a good idea." Warfield gives me a confused look. "Take a few hours to calm down and gather yourself. Take a nap to. It's been a few days and knowing you, you didn't sleep the hole time." Warfield losens up. "Sheep is correct." We look at kalas as he approuches us. "You have not rested for some time. I agree with sheep that if we do not trust nakara, we will fail here. We need nakara's allegiance to succeed in destroying daggoth." Warfield takes in a deep breath as she looks at me. "Don't worry. I'll make sure our defenses are good. With kalas's help, we won't need to set up patrols. If we're going to get attacked or going to get attacked, we all need to be rested and be able to do anything to get through this." Warfield nods. "Alright. I'll be at the command center. Call me if anything goes wrong." I nod. "I Hope we won't have to. Even you need to rest and I'm not going to keep you up and risking your health even more." Warfield lowers her head. "Come, friend sheep. Let us forge a plan with nakara." Warfield walks away as I whatch her movements get more stiff. She's been up for days. Let's hope we all can get some R&R  soon.