THE INFINITE BROOD (Starcraft/Supreme Commander Crossover Quest!)

You snorted quietly, looking right at the screen. "Seems to be the Zerg are circling the drain."

Sarah and Daggoth's attention both focused on you with laser sharp edges. You could tell Sarah was ready to hiss at you - but she let you play out your line. Just a tiny bit. Like a proteins cube, tossed into the refished oceans of Earth. Even if half the shit you pulled up still hard barcodes on it and faded, splotchy corporate logos from the pre-Quantum era. You cocked your head at Daggoth - feeling very...Zergy at that gesture. It was almost Cr-like.

"I mean, I kicked your ass so hard on Aiur you don't have a single bioform on the homeworld of your enemy," you said, smirking. "Protoss can rebuild faster than you can, if this is how your organization looks like. I kinda expected a hive mind that made the whole Koprulu Sector quake in their boots would be better able to handle this shit."

Daggoth hissed. "She didn't tell you."

Sarah frowned, but Daggoth cut her off before she could say anything.

"When the Overmind died, it brought an end to the whole Swarm - the Psi Disruptor? It's nothing. A trifling toy. An annoyance next to the loss of our leader. Without the Overmind, the Cerebrates are dying."

"My heart weeps," Sarah crooned.

"It should, hybrid," the Cerebrate that would be Overmind pulsated with anger. "Without the Cerebrates for direction, the Broods will fall into disorder. Each clade will be a clade with their own song - and the overlords context will only provide better ground for disunity. Insults that could be ignored when they are the buzzing and hissing of gnats instead cut to the bone when they're understood. Without guidance, the grand experiment will fall to pieces. Our true future will fall to the wayside. And you two...you...vermin will be hunted like rats and vivisected by the scientists of our enemies."

He sounded positively gleeful at that idea.

You narrowed your eyes, slightly. "So, you hope to become the new Overmind. To sustain the Swarm. And you're chasing after us instead of offering an olive branch?"

"You cannot trust this so called Queen," Daggoth murmured. "She's a liar and a traitor. She will cut you free and leave you to die - as she left us behind when the Overmind was slain. Oh, yes, Kerrigan. I felt your withdrawal at our moment of greatest need. If you had reached forth your mind, if you had come to Aiur when the wound was open and raw, then the Swarm might still have had a chance to succeed. Instead, you hid. You hid like a coward."

Sarah snorted. "You forget what the Overmind told me when I was newly hatched: I am willful. I will find my own way. Now, you complain that I found it?" She smirked, slightly. "It is rather gratifying to hear that you're dying, though."

"Dying. But not dead. And if you seek to rip the swarm apart, then we will adapt," Daggoth said. "I tell you now...if I lose? You lose. If I win, you lose. The only way you can ever hope to survive is to come crawling to me on your hands and knees like a dog and beg me for the collar."

Sarah smirked. "That's not happening."

You leaned in slightly - wanting to try and wring more information from the writhing, pulsating brain. But Daggoth hung up the connection with a psychic whipcrack that stung your temples...but something in your words had bit him deep, had pushed him to admit more than he would have. He had tried to hide it under his bluster, but you felt it as the connection died. He was afraid. He was afraid and he was looking for...a strange scent tingled on your tongue. You bit your lip.

"...did you...scent that?" you asked.

Sarah grunted. "No. But you are twined with Cerebrate strands - there may be a connection I lack." She regarded you. "May I?"

You frowned. Connecting with her this way, you knew you'd never be in charge. It wasn't like that wild, bone-cracking sex you'd had, where she had been on the bottom. Just like back on the E1. No. If...she connected with you now, with you ...here...then she'd be in charge. But you were increasingly sure that what you had scented from Daggoth, that...fleeting taste...

It was something.

It was something big.

You ducked your head forward, then mumbled. "Do it."

You watched the pulsating floor. Sarah's green feet came into view - those delicate toes. You remembered kissing them, when they were pink and human. A finger caught your chin and she lifted your head up. Your eyes and hers met as she looked down into your eyes. "Shhh..." She whispered. "Don't fight."

You fought. It was instinctive - your mind bristled at the connection of thought to thought. Invisible fingers sank into your gray matter and you...realized now, that there was a wild difference between the gentle song of the Swarm, of the pressure of context, of the mere driving pleasures of hormones and new nerve endings. This was something cold and alien on a deeper level, probing, deeper, deeper...and then she jerked back, drawing her hand away and frowning.

"...no," she said. "No, no, that's impossible."

"What is it?" you asked.

Sarah clenched her hand, frowning.

And...you felt that thing she touched - that scent - flowering along your tongue. An image came to mind, drawn into your thoughts the same way the smell of coffee and leather would bring you back to the E1 conference room, and the soft sound of Matt Horner's voice. Your eyes closed and you saw what the scent conjured: A man, goateed, smirking, dressed in a red great coat, holding a world between his fingers...

"Mengsk," you and Sarah said at the same time.

"There's no way he'd ever ever ever accept a diplomatic envoy from a fucking Cerebrate. Would he?" you asked, lifting your head. "...he offered one to the Protoss."

"And to the UEF," Sarah murmured.

"I mean, if I had my way, I'd have him fucking shot," you said, bitterly. I'd have the chance if some Bitch of Blades hadn't fucked me over.

"Shot?" Sarah crooned, quietly. "I want him the way he left me. Surrounded by smoldering ruins, with an empty magazine and a combat knife and..." She shook her head, her eyes focusing. "If Daggoth was planning to send an emissary, he'd want someone talkative and-" She frowned, then barked out a laugh. "And flexible oh my god he has to be so mad."

You frowned. A faint song came into the room - the sound of alarm and warning.

"And here come Daggoth's forces..." Sarah murmured, then waved her hand. The crystal projected the star system of Char - and you could see his swarms. One was winging straight to you, but several others were sweeping wide, rushing towards the gravitationally stable points that the Leviathan needed for their quantum jumps. It was all Greek to you. Sarah, though, seemed to have a better handle on space battles than you. "...it looks like if we run, then both of the wings will hit us. But...if we circle around and head for the Lagarange point..." Her finger thrust out. "I don't think he thinks we'd be so stupid. But Daggoth doesn't know this Leviathan like I do..." Her hand caressed the wall, gently. "Abathur has improved her jump warm up considerably."

You nodded.

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HEAT 5/6

[ ] Rush for the Lagarange Point (start a danger 10 battle immediately at 5 heat)
[ ] Push for the outer system (start a danger 15 battle at 0 heat)
[ ] Write In