Cacophony (A Zerg ....Presidency Quest? In 40k??)
- Thread starter Dapperlad1
- Start date
- Crossover Mature Sci-Fi
Honestly I don't think this will interest you.Now there are two of them?
Understandable but at least StarCraft 2 ended on a decent note than continue like WarCraft did with very convoluted expansions if you know what I mean.
Although I am not sure how strong Xel'Naga Kerrigan is if she were on 40k universe. Probably on the level of Living Saint if I'm generous or a local god in her own right.Now there are two of them?
Xel'Naga Kerrigan is easily a minor chaos god. If not a full blown one. I mean our collective swarm mind can destroy daemons which is pretty insane already. And the Queen of Blades can easily overpower us. Then Xel'Naga Kerrigan is two power boosts on top of that.
I think it looks like this.
Terran Kerrigan (Beta Psyker) > Queen of Blades > Primal Kerrigan > Overmind > Xel'Naga Kerrigan
Last edited:
Term 5
- Location
- Albania
- Pronouns
- He/Him
@Arcanestomper @Stalin_McRally @gale @Princess Scribe
Four minds awaken again. Three of them are now ancient to the Swarm, with Zhakarov as the first mind returning to his duties, observing the universe with the keen eyes of a scientist. Zigzy glares in many faceted evolutionary senses, trying to tease out the essence of the Zerg Swarm and its new surroundings by will alone.
Zren shivers with fury, looking out at the enemies of the Swarm, possessed of the instinctual drive to crush them, but restraining himself in the moment. Finally, a new mind also awakens. Pulled from the ranks of Infested, Lilith's psychic eyes blink open, observing reality from the billion eyes of our unity.
In the hatcheries themselves lurks a presence, its very existence potentially a hanging blade or a rescuing sword. It would take a mere effort of will to produce the Queen of Blades, revive her in this new era to once again be the tip of the spear.
Yet still, Overlords caution to her power, her rage and fury, her downfall. Terrans lurk in their cities and from communications are preparing something called "atomics" in the city, hoverwings observing rocketry components assembled from scrap and salvage being turned into towering missiles.
The Priest in orbit remains, having moved to where our Creep is densest, flying on the edge of the atmosphere for a deadly-close look at our ecology. We must expand, grow to defeat the enemy, before they adapt to us.
Four minds awaken again. Three of them are now ancient to the Swarm, with Zhakarov as the first mind returning to his duties, observing the universe with the keen eyes of a scientist. Zigzy glares in many faceted evolutionary senses, trying to tease out the essence of the Zerg Swarm and its new surroundings by will alone.
Zren shivers with fury, looking out at the enemies of the Swarm, possessed of the instinctual drive to crush them, but restraining himself in the moment. Finally, a new mind also awakens. Pulled from the ranks of Infested, Lilith's psychic eyes blink open, observing reality from the billion eyes of our unity.
In the hatcheries themselves lurks a presence, its very existence potentially a hanging blade or a rescuing sword. It would take a mere effort of will to produce the Queen of Blades, revive her in this new era to once again be the tip of the spear.
Yet still, Overlords caution to her power, her rage and fury, her downfall. Terrans lurk in their cities and from communications are preparing something called "atomics" in the city, hoverwings observing rocketry components assembled from scrap and salvage being turned into towering missiles.
The Priest in orbit remains, having moved to where our Creep is densest, flying on the edge of the atmosphere for a deadly-close look at our ecology. We must expand, grow to defeat the enemy, before they adapt to us.
Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Oh also just so this doesn't seem like an out of nowhere reversal of position Dapperlad has told us that reviving Kerrigan will not result in her immediately taking over the swarm.
She might be curious and see how far we go, and also check out the 40k galaxy in her spare time.
Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Warsaw
Time to evolve a new biogun to bring down ships.
- Location
- USA
Zren: Queen of Blades wishes to break them herself.
Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Well, no my campaign promise was "to bring them into our folds," and then later I added "kissing on the lips" to my platform.
God willing I'm going to keep my platforms goals, related, talking to Kerrigan about colors. How do we feel about Hot Pink?
God willing I'm going to keep my platforms goals, related, talking to Kerrigan about colors. How do we feel about Hot Pink?
- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
ok...so you guys despite the warnings are allowing the nukes to go as well as making the queen of blades without some form of mental defense if she is unstable...
whelp this is going to be interesting in the Chinese terms.
whelp this is going to be interesting in the Chinese terms.
The siege, infestation, and conquer of Anastasia von Ultimar
Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The Unity asserted it's will and the order rippled through the swarm. Hatcheries shivered as the central, largest hive swarms with minute, carefully shaped biomass forming a feminine shape, carapace resting and interspersing through Terran morphology. In both reality and hive space, she pulls herself loose from a gleaming chrysalis, flecks of green and purple ooze slipping from her body. The woman takes two more steps forward, eyes flaring open in displays of power. Bladed wings push out of her back with a wet tearing noise, and her influence is impossible to ignore.
Sarah Kerrigan, The Queen of Blades:
"There it is." The Queen of Blades whispers, "Life." She scans through the swarm, taking every viewpoint to ensure she knows the situation. But upon grabbing the swarm and attempting to control it, she encounters resistance, the presence of the Quartet bucks her command and forces her to engage with them. A void of black forms the presence of conversation, the Queen of Blades puts a hand on her hip, glaring in the psionic ethereal. "And who are all of you? Cerebrates?" Wings flare aggressively, the psychic might of this colossus rumbling to the surface.
Zren:
The will of a cerebrate named Zren, pushes forward, , "We all are not all Cerebrates my Queen. Some Infested Minds, others are memories of Sequencing, rest of us. We are War, minds of lesser queens and cerebrates. And those descended from them." Zren, had a different approach the cerebrates, trying to appear minimal, and unthreatening. The Cerebrates had long since won the ire of the Queen. It was them, that had once torn apart her swarm.
A distaste is present as she intakes Zren, but its nowhere near violent.
Lilith von Illar:
"Go away Zren." The Latest of Unity had a voice like a babbling brook, high, sweet, and constant. There was something... Odd, about this one. An intensity that would be disquieting to any other than a Queen. "Well, I'm Lilith! One of the many Zerg under your command. We woke up here a bit ago. How are you doing today? If that's too personal, I have a number of status reports and situational observations whenever you're ready." The psychic shape pushes closer towards Kerrigan, and tries to assert it's shape, trying to get in the way of other member's of Unity to be more seen then the others.
"Would you look at that." She stares at the first codified presence, "A Terran, strong enough to buck me." Inspecting Lilith with a keen eye, she eventually nods.
The Queen of blades now focused entirely Lilith,"Enlighten me of what my Swarm has been up to, would you."
Her essence felt fervorish under her gaze, under her Queen's gaze. Some long lost memories and fantasies returning to her mind. Pretty. Nope, shut that down. Pretty. Mommy? No. Shut that down. Lilith realized that maybe her queen was polite and wouldn't peek into the thoughts too much.
Her lip quirks at Lilith, an almost wistful look on her face as she says, "Pig." Starting to tap her foot impatiently.
Lilith's essence was still manic, and erratic. Constant streams of random sounds and discordant thoughts. GLORY, GLORY, WHAT A HELLUVA WAY TO DIE, GLOOORY GLORY, WHAT A HELLUVA WAY TO DIE. "Right, yes of course. So, We got in a bad tiff, and had to make an emergency jump, what you feel now is it. We've got something like 2,000 hatcheries total There's one remaining Terran city on the planet, which"
More thoughts bubble interrupting her own speech. You know, I wonder if we'd ever considering actually making restaraunts? Is that still a thing? How do I eat even? "you know not great, We infested the terran populace, so we have a bit more then 3 billion biomass to work with, but not any minerals. The city keeps gassing us in the mines, but we've got a reservoir to help with that. The only thing we can actually make our corruptors and a mineral enhanced roach that can walk through an artillery barrage. Soon we'll be able to outnumber the terrans here by orders of 2 magnitudes."
"From what I can tell," You know, I wonder if I should take up painting? Paintings' cool. Where would I get paint though? Ick. "The terrans here are terrible. Like on just a basic level. They constantly execute each other with more ruthlessness then I've ever seen. They seem to be holding back their own help just to study us, and from what gleaning we can do on a psychic level, they're just constantly forcing each other to starve." Honestly, really sad, I thought the EDF was terrible...
"We suspect they have a way to detect parasites, and are just executing the infested on site." Actually, I don't think I've ever seen any Zerg eat a snack. Does that mean the tongue is vestigal? Tongue... Ok, that one goes back in the deck thank you Lilith mind, you once again are of zero help.
Kerrigan listens to the absolute barrage of thoughts, arms crossed and wings folded behind her. She studied Lilith intently trying to see something... More. After the wall of noise is lowered to a dull set of rambling, she sighs, "Never is simple whenever I'm gone is it." The hive-space transforms into the vision of the Hoverwings, displaying the city in great detail, including the "atomics" being constructed deep within it. "We'll have to bring down their walls. Rip apart their weapons and tear that ship out of orbit."
She sweeps her vision back across the gathered Quartet, "I've decided not to kill you, don't make me regret it." Blazing orange eyes simmer down to merely glowing as she then says, with a curious look on her face. "Are you all just... stuck in the hive?"
Zren answered, "Yes my Queen."
Lilith ignored Zren entirely, her essence trying to nearly shout over him to pull back the Queen's attention. "I don't know! My first priority was bringing you back, everything else took a back seat to that. The Overlords were a bit cranky about the idea, but you know, they're kind of older fuddy-duddys." Lilith's energy, even in the psychic maelstorm could best be described as "chaotic and exhuberant." If the surrounding psi were purple, her own would be a bright cottony almost smothering pink.
Kerrigan gave Lilith another look, more appreciative "I'll remember that loyalty, hard to find any day." In taking what she had been shown, the entire swarm felt the psychic power within her rumble, shifting arcs of Essence tracking before suddenly halting. "I want the Swarm gathered before the fortress, I'll be at their head and shatter the tall walls. With them destroyed, we can get to the missile before its complete and then reprogram it to hit their own ship."
She speaks this as if its sure to happen, no authority under this burning star above except her own.
"Thy will be manifest." Zren maintained dutiful and acquiescent.
Another voice, Zhakarov is ingrained, pulling themselves together before his Queen, "How much of the swarm do you want devoted to this assault?" His presence in the swarm is intertiwned like essence, but instead of forms it is simply layer after layer of information about the morphs down to the smallest larva.
Internally, Zren felt fear as Zhakarov approached the Queen. Be careful it thought to itself. Zren had much respect for Zhakarov, his age, and his wisdom.
"Bring half the infested. And the Mutalisks...and Roaches. You can keep the rest." Zhakarov interested her, a dispersed essence even beyond many of the minds here, but that interest didn't extend past somatic as she appraised the members of her swarm.
He nodded, and immediately began to spread orders through the swarm, relaying numbers and analytics to the Queen. "Assault Group: 1,250 Hiveguard Mutalisks, 1,250 Hiveguard Roaches, 43,000 Regular Mutalisks, 9 million regular Roaches, 10,000 Overlords, 387,160,222 Infested Terrans. Additionally 1,000 Corruptors to assist the missile assault. If this is insufficient we can produce more regular roaches, but our Liquid Vespene and Mineral production is insufficient to produce more Mutalisks or Hiveguard strains." With a mumble of discontent he added,"To clarify this planet is devoid of Vespene gas or Minerals. We are making due with biomass and local substitutes. This is straining our ability to produce strains that match the abilities of the Swarm before our arrival here."
"We'll make due." The Queen of Blades responds to Zhakarov's numbers, twisting on a heel in both reality and hive-space. "The Swarm has to expand, being bound to one world is risking the extinction of Zerg."
Lilith's distant chattering that had been almost entirely contained as an internal dialogue with herself, popped. Her mind once again loud effervescent. Oh, that's a good point, bring that up "Also you should know, we do elections now!" Don't wait for a reaction, just power through "So it might end up not being us, or your orders might filter through or be carried out by other Zerg. Of course, you can always speak to the swarm directly and let your will be known but if one of us has to split off or is barred from communicating, well that's outside of our control! But now you know, so if it comes up later it'll be less of a shock!" Lilith made sure to give her best winning smile, or the psychic equivalent. Two thumbs up for good measure!
At the mention of elections, she frowns, "Now that's just silly." And you feel her presence extend, gripping onto all of you harshly, every inch of your beings in her grasp. She experiments, a rather, odd feeling on the Quartet's end, like a grand hand trying to place you somewhere. "I am the Queen of Blades, none shall dispute my rule." She hisses out as the hive doesn't accede to her demands immediately.
The quartet's psychic weights increase, bound to her by shimmering tendrils and being held down. The hivemind can still be felt shivering at unity's presence, unable to cope forever, but what time it had may be far, far longer. The aggravation that came off Kerrigan is palpable, shaking hive-space and making every zerg creature suddenly thrice as aggressive. "This selection is durable. I can't tell why it was evolved, but its as core to the Zerg now as Essence itself. If I tore it out, I'd destroy the Swarm."
Kerrigan does not seem overly happy at this, but glares at the city in the distance. Somewhere to release her fury.
Lilith gets pinned, and desperately tries to keep the thoughts in this time. She's starting to remember why she became infested. Still, she was at least half correct, the sunken colonies were terribly fun before the acid started. "Yep! Big fight coming up, so it seemed prudent, while I'd never tell you what to do, if you're willing to let me advise I personally would experiment a bit in case your limits may have changed. You could even be stronger then you expect!" Do zerg kiss? Is that why— goddamnit brain "Anywho! I think my purpose was Diplomacy and getting us Big and Swarm-y again" Swarmy? Christ. "I don't think I can go fighting, but I'll be rooting for you!"
"I don't have limits, Lilith." Kerrigan confidently stated as the assaulting swarm gathers for her. "But that's a good point, you do need bodies so I'm not talking to..." She stares at the vague psychic images, "Theoretically living things." Then she added, "After I shatter the city, bring me to Abathur. I'll put him to work."
"I don't know who that is!" Lilith said with oblivious mirth. "We haven't found a genome with... That!"
Kerrigan closes her eyes, sighing, "Of course you don't," but despite herself, she allows a wry smile. It falls away as she re-focused herself, "I'll get on it myself then, find Abathur, if anyone survived with you all, its him. Scour the tunnels you've dug, he is hiding far beneath."
"You got it ma'am, er miss?" Mommy? Shut up brain. Please!
"You must have had a strong will before the infestation if this much of you survived." Kerrigan replied, shaking her head at Lilith's behaviour. "Go with Queen."
"Of, course my Queen!" Despite the smile, there was a panic desperation in Lilith's voice trying to think of a reason for her Queen to say, "Have you thought about colors for the chitin? Presentation matters!"
Questioned on colour theory, she wonders. "Green and purple always works, suppose I could personalize it. I remember a brood that was this violent pink, it must be in our Essence to do that."
"Oh like this?" Then Lilith shot forth a violent shade of magenta.
She winces, "God-" Blinking her eyes after being forced to observe that mental image in the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum, she said, "Yeah, like that. I'm leaving."
The Queen almost ran off, speeding away from the odd essence, immediately trying to shove it away from her thoughts.
On the battle lines the swarm gathers hundreds of millions of infested Terrans backed with a core of specialist warforms at the behest of the Queen of Blades. Separating the specialist forces into broods, she moves to the head of the Swarm, striding out in the line of fire as the Terrans begin to pour fire into the Swarm in a wall of laser streaks, screaming bolts and roaring bullets that fill the air with enough ordinance that it begins to wobble with heat haze.
"Throw everything you have at me! You'll die screaming anyways!" Her psychic roar rattles the battlefield and the entirety of the city, making Terrans cry out in pain and lose focus, shots becoming notably wilder and less accurate.
Straining her whole body, a purple glow forms, actinic bolts of lightning stretching from Kerrigan whilst she lifts off the earth to float above the rushing swarm. With a final cry and wildly glowing purple eyes, apocalypse comes. A psychic storm of matter unfolds amid the Terran defences. The entire eastern face of the wall is rendered into undifferentiated matter as flensing blades of force rip the blood from bodies, yank stone into glass and carbon and annihilate all sensical matter. Half a kilometre of the city is caught in the unfolding chaos before Kerrigan lands, ceasing the storm's progress and letting it fade.
"Go! Rip them to pieces!" Her command carries through the entirety of the horde as infested mutates rush into the city like a horde, forcing the battle to turn to brutal hand-to-hand. Claws rip into long coats as the enemy Terrans die silently and with no visible fear, but the citizens are another matter entirely.
Dragged out into Creep at the command of the Queen, they are forced into Creep to be infested. She strides through the city like a raging Goddes, ripping entire skyscrapers down and even catching a shuttle that attempts to escape with telekinetic force, dragging it down to the surface after she detects an impressively powerful psychic inside it.
Ripping the rear door open, she slaughters the security inside and dominates the other psychic in a battle of wills, ordering it to be unharmed and recovered. It is brought to a hive cluster and then left there as infestation begins with slow tendrils of creep swallowing her. It appears in hive-space barely conscious, rapidly awakening and resisting infestation.
A whisper in the backs of the Quartet slithers from Kerrigan, the angry hiss of a woman in battle. "Make her accede, she is their communications."
Anastasia Von Illar nee Ultramar:
Snapping back to awareness, Anastasia panics in the infinite black void, her psychic power giving her staying power and mental durability, leading to terrible damage starting in her body as the corruption cannot be denied. "Where am I!" She screams to the void, "Answer me xenos!"
Lilith formed immediately in front of Anastasia, pushing herself into something more human, and shapely. Her appearance delicately crafted for comforting allure. "Hi, whoa, hey. Very intense! Welcome Anastasia, we're the Zerg and we are just going to be poking around a bit, and maybe having a snack." Her eyes lit up, as she saw Anastasia's rapt attention with the mention of food.
Then Lilith turned around, touching her chin as if deep in thought, "Actually, that's probably not super re-assuring. Any-doodle. You're in a calm, safe place, no-one wants to hurt you yet!" Lilith's mind was unable to stop from wandering over to Kerrigan rampaging through the city, "Ok, maybe that's not entirely accurate, but still. How are you doing today!?"
"Who-What are you!? What have you done with me?" The soothing acts and words of Lilith, the intentional or unintentional clumsiness with her speech all add to something of a calm to her. After all, how could someone so disjointed be dangerous.
Glowing orange eyes snap to the ephemeral form of Lilith, her mind reaching out to the space around and attempting to format it, make it understandable. Opulent tabards fell from stone-cut walls, a fireplace burned bright and warm, beating away the cold. Anastasia displayed significant psychic training moreso than power. Even Lilith felt the need to disassemble her form, though it was easily ignored.
Well that's interesting, Lilith thought to herself. "Well, we're just a big 'ole family over here, so we like to be super-duper welcoming. I wouldn't worry about that, what I'd like to do is get a bit of information about the universe. We've just become friends, I'll start. I'm a Leo, I went to Tar... something university. I eat well." She saw that same rapt attention at the words.
The psyker stopped, shaking her head confused. "I-Leo-what?" Then in reality, a tendril had found its way into her brain, delivering a shock of dopamine that arrests her stress hormones.
Lilith trudged on, as if she hadn't noticed "We have lots of leisure time, and am thinking about taking up painting, or basket weaving. What about you? What's your home life here like? Who are you, whose Anastasia?"
"I am a noblewoman." The answer seemed to be an afterthought as Anastasia tried to clear her head.
"Hey, we're an aristocracy too, look at that, we've got common ground!" Lilith crooned with a high pitch squeal,
Then a confused shock overtook Anastasia, her essence-form rushing forward in the liminal space, "I must-I must get back to the shuttle, the sub-sector must be warned!"
"You know, I could probably help you do that! Who would we be warning!" Lilith tried to match the confusion, "The guy up in the sky whose been delaying help while you starve? Or would there be other people?" She put a gentle hand on Anastasia's shoulder, showing her the Zerg's vision of the floating ship in the sky. "Or, if you don't want to talk about that, because you know. gruesome right? I notice you have psychic training, I'll be honest, I'm a little jealous." Before Anastasia could get a word in, Lilith made a beautiful golden apple, and a small chalice of a sweet smelling ambrosia. "I'm so rude, are you hungry? Do you want something to drink? You could sup with us, and then later we could talk more."
She stares at the offered food, and an immediate spike of suspicious paranoia overrode hunger her thoughts begging her to eat, tendrils had infested much of her neurons. She tried to resist, A trick, a daemon?
"I-" Her eyes longingly stare at the food, emaciation evident in her features, a body that was, several hundred thousand calories ago, an hourglass being now at odds with many other bodies of "nobles" acquired, suggesting her social position is lesser in some way. "I am cursed with the sin of being a witch." The topic shift is to maintain her focus, refusing to fall into the pit of hunger in a display of self-discipline.
"Cursed?" Lilith's face falls, and then suddenly, they're sitting very close next to each other, by a fire. "That's awful," Lilith pulls out a second apple takes a bite of it, the crunch almost has bass that you can feel, and the resulting bite is wet, and glistening. Her mouth is filled with food, and her voice a little choked as she said, "Gosh amazing."
Anastasia's heartbeat races as she stares at Lilith chew, mouth flooding with desire for anything.
The other woman pretended to not notice, "You know, it's odd to me that you'd be called cursed, while being the only one here that seems to have a gift. Sometimes the easiest way to keep someone powerful in line, is to make them think something is wrong with them. Now, the Zerg we don't really have cursed people. Everyone, from the smallest little larvae, to the biggest flying overlord pulls their weight. We each our gifted in our own ways. When a Hydralisk is better, comes out stronger, well we just give them a better job!" She gives another warm smile, "It's our gifts that make us special. I'm not going to force you to do anything, I couldn't even if I wanted too." Not quite true, but it'd be best to give this a shot anyways... "I was being honest, I just want to make a friend. You don't have to take the apple if you're not hungry." Lilith puts a warm offering hand. "It's a grim, dark universe, I just want to give you a bit of light."
The fire crackled, and the liminal space Anastasia had felt so warm and comforting. Her brain was a cavalcade of emotions as the infestation had finally quelled most of the anxiety. Taking away her stress. She reaches a hand out nervously, looking almost scared. "This-this isn't a trick, right?" Anastasia's voice is trembling, you get shots of memory, feeding on something called corpse starch when the Kriegsmen commander would show her the kindness of leaving a box of them before her isolated chambers. Of hateful abuse, of months of pain, of a moment of purest agony.
Her hand is on the apple, but her binding, her programming is forcing her to distrust.
Oh my god, why would they do that to someone. Lilith's eyes water a bit, and she takes the hand, "No, honey, of course not, you'll be one of us. Equal." A tear runs down her face, shocking Lilith. The woman seemed... To need something "The Zerg keep our promises. I can't think of many times the Queen of Blade lied to anyone. We're happy here, well fed, strong. We have elections! I was voted on a very important platform." Oh god, Kerrigan please don't look too much into the platform She put a hand on the apple. Lilith's hands are soft, tender, they send tiny sparks of excitement, she pushes the dopamine drip just a little harder. Tries to see if she can find oxytocin. "You're ok. We're ok." She closes her eyes and smiles. Pushing the neuropeptides deep.
Anastasia takes the bite, utterly terrified in a way even infestation can't control, but acquiescing. All sensation of hunger is halted, the oxytocin dump makes her lean into Lilith like a dear friend or lover as in the real world her flesh is torn and remade for the Swarm. She looks up with eyes whose orange glow is only intensifying as her skin turns to carapace. "I'm scared"
Lilith's voice is low, almost sultry. It slides over Anastasia's senses, dulling everything it can. "I know baby, it'll be ok." Then, Lilith gives her a warm, tender kiss. "You'll be ok, you're strong. We're going to make you better."
Its not slow, the process well honed and done by the Queen of Blades almost automatically now. In minutes she's no longer human. Essence interlocked with Zerg until she was a perfect, immortal being. Her psychic strength retained and enhanced by careful manipulations. Purple carapace splits over her skin, her hair maintains its long flowing nature but her body fills out, assembling to the image of herself she so desperately wanted returned.
A slow smile stretches over her face, accompanied by a laugh as she looks up. It carries on for longer than a sane woman would laugh before settling into a giggle. Looking up at Lilith with adoration, she said gleefully, "It's amazing. I can't hear them anymore."
"My word woman" Lilith said taking her in, "Well look at you. Hear who? I wasn't lying, we only just got here from another uh..." She thinks for a moment, "Galaxy? Galaxy I think, tell me everything. I don't even know where we are right now."
"Them!" She excitedly says, almost bouncing, "The monsters across the veil!" Memories of a thousand screaming whispers at night, of no peaceful moments to be found. Of casting her mind into what may as well be hell to bind to others like her, to speak to them.
"They're afraid, they don't come near!" Anastasia's practically shouting, happier than Lilith had ever seen someone ever be. So excited that she needs time to calm before realizing you had another question.
After a moment's calming, still smiling she answers, "You are on Illar, in Segmentum Ultima at the far end of the Ultima Sector."
"The space of the Imperium of Man, which stretches from one end of the galaxy to another." All her words carry much context the swarm didn't have, something they'd have to ask for lated, you imagine. Nevertheless, if it was accurate, these Terrans had more thoroughly dominated the Galaxy than even the Protoss ever did.
Quickly, Lilith gently reached out to Kerrigan, to momentarily send a message. "Sorry to interrupt, I know you're like super busy. If you see a cute girl, can you just stick me in there. Any of them honestly, as long as they're attractive. If I was picky, I was a 10 on Tarsonis, but you know, not picky."
Currently lifting a field commander by the throat, she pauses. "You do know your essence is still in the hatcheries, right?" And then the commander unbundles the grenades in his coat, screaming "Ave Imperator!", blowing the Queen through a wall with minor shrapnel injuries. She growls at that, reaching out and sparking a razor-storm of zerg microbes to shred any living thing in the bunker she was just in.
Lilith grimaced, "Sorry, no. I'll work on that then."
As Kerrigan laid sieged to the city, time continued to pass. The essence of Unity, and the now re-built Ana mingling and conversing. As Anastasia's body reformed, there was a hiccough and she found herself in real-space once again. She had quickly accustomed herself to her surroundings.
The scene switched, as they all were moved as essence to real-space deep in the hive. Anastasia blinked, at the passing, shocked by the instant flicker of transition. She looks around until the colossal image of Zren comes into view, eyes wide with some shock. The giant cerberate, like a mammoth slug filled her vision and she had to crane her neck upwards to see him "A-ah, hello?"
It was Zren. "Greetings young one. I wish to speak with you fully." He said, his voice was oddly low and subtle for such a form and body.
"Go ahead, ask your queries." She answered, not scared of the monstrous creature, merely confused at what Zren wants. The interconnected parts of the swarm filled in context for her, assuaging doubts and worries with answers.
Zren was ancient, knowing old ways and tradition. "First I wish for you to understand the Covenant you have made. The Swarm shall keep you alive as long as you can reach it. If you were more powerful I would offer the eldest Covenant we have." Zren would say. The word Covenant seemed be very powerful to him, resonating deep intertwined with his connection to the now dead Overmind.
"Alright, I understand that-I think." Anastasia murmured.
The Cerberate acknowledged her statement, and went on to her own business. "Now onto questions. We have been lost for so long. The galaxy and you Terrans have changed much. If you have questions I am more then willing to answer."
"Uhm, I think I know most of what I need too, Lilith was..." She recalled the memory and is giddy again, "Enlightening."
Hearing her name, she flit to the real-space. There was the projection of a smile, a wink, and two finger finger-guns.
Anastasia Blushed at the attention.
"She does fill a room." Zren commented. Lilith wasn't sure if it was a compliment or an insult. "Now onto business. This Imperium of man. What can you share upon it and the creatures beyond the Veil as you call it."
"The Imperium is, well, the realm of mankind. It rules the galaxy at the providence of the God-Emperor whom governs from the Golden Throne on Terra herself. It is master of a million worlds, souls beyond counting in its borders." There's spikes of fear in her voice as a realization sinks in, "We provided the dyes for the Novamarines! They will surely notice our worlds lack of shipments in bare years!"
Images of falling pods full of what she calls "Angels of Death", of war against a threat of claws and teeth and biology much like the Zerg, yet different.
" We have to prepare! Find shelter!" The certainty of defeat in her spirit is worrying, even with what she has seen, there is no doubt these "Novamarines" would be victorious.
"Calm young one." Zren had tried to help her the best he could. But this wasn't his field by any means.
"Hey whoa! We'll be ok, it's a marine right? We've been doing just fine against marines." Lilith tried to give her a light touch on the shoulder, but without a body, it wasn't effective.
They are demigods, their armour unbreachable, their strength inviolable!" Vivid memories from the perspective of a child, of men taller than any human kicking over whole tanks and withstanding seas of claws on a screen. Of starships firing down with munitions that bloom like Tarsonis did. Only Lilith being present keeps Anastasia from descending into utter paroxysm.
Her fears were dismissed with a snort from Lilith, "Ok, well let me show you an Ultralisk!"
Then she wrapped her essence around Ana, "We're working on different matters of scale love. It'll be fine." Lilith shot Zren a mental note to maybe not mention we can't actually make those quite yet.
Calming down, she nodded, "O-okay, yes, we, we can win." She Shifted topics for her own sake, "The Warp is what lies behind the veil. A place of laughing daemons and thirsting gods, seeking souls. What do you wish to know of it?"
"We have killed such things before." Zren offered memories of killing Protoss.
She watches the memory, but shakes her head, "I'd rather not think of such things if its all the same. Can we change topics?" She had begun to become nervous as memories were repeatedly given without asking.
Lilith jumped in, shooting Zren a look as she changed the subject again, "Really quick, do you think we could just keep sending the dyes? Once things are a bit quieted down?"
"Well.... I suppose I could send an all-clear?" She wonders, "My fellow astropaths may just chalk up my changes to an accident of the warp."
"Great! Wunderbar even! I'll let our Queen of Blades know that she should keep the factories up so we can send the die, maybe we send one of my Zerg Succubi ideas over, and we'll just keep the gravy train right on running!" Then she swapped her attention to the greater swarm, pulling at the Queen's attention. "Hey Lo– Lady... of Blades," she stumbled over her words, "Just a thought, quick mental note, if you see any dye factories, keep those standing please."
"Fine." She growled as an ambushing tank has blown a rapidly regenerating arm off.
It's for diplomatic reasons, and staying hidden! Anyways, you're doing great! Exes and Ohs!" Lilith clenched her teeth a bit, not smooth.
Zren reverberated as Lilith flitted around, "The creatures inside of it. What are their capabilities? We have shattered one who tried to take over one of our morphs before. But they likely have other abilities."
"They're endless, they cannot die, only be dispersed until you cannot see them. The Neverborn hordes of Chaos." Even the mention of that sends a ripple out from her, some cosmic things eyes briefly turning upon this gathering before looking away. She ignores it, likely used to the feeling.
However Lilith, when the eyes turn, puts her fingers over her lips and sticks out the visage of a freakishly long tongue, before making a vulgar gesture with her will. The Zerg will not be intimidated.
"The weakest among them can overwhelm an armed man, the strongest are as if gods, reshaping worlds in their tread." Nightmarish flashes of messages received of dying worlds, of the sky breaking into blood, of the earth rising in vicious tendrils, of the very flow of time breaking.
Zren spoke with authority, and left no room for doubt, "They can die. Their Essence is reachable." The fact was immutable. "But this provides useful context that I shall supply to the Queen of Blades."
Meanwhile, Lilith sent her Essence to a sequencer, a Zerg capable of crafting with flesh, capillary, and ligaments, as an engineer with solder, wire, and tape.
The Zizgy One:
The Zizgy One's essence gathers, swirling in colorful patterns, as it prepares to process the thoughts or constructs presented to it.
"What concept or idea are you seeking assistance with, young one? Your form."
"Ok, so tenta—" She stopped for a second, "Ovipositors, some blades between the forearms in case I need to get into hand-to-hand combat, and shoulder-mounted venom flingers. More importantly, and something that we've not really focused on, is aesthetic." Lilith imagined a Terran, of the femme-presenting gender, "Do you see how she's wide in the pelvis, and round at the sternum? That's important. Reeeeally important. She's got to be hot."
"Eyeballs at chest height? The humanoid form must have hidden advantages yet not explored, perhaps lost with the infection process! Must devour, dissect, know!"
"Nonono, eyes where the eyes normally are, Zizgy. Wait, focus, FOCUS, we want the standard Terran shape, with all the Zergness on the inside so I can pass for Ter—"
"Flittering and stretching violently as it processes millions of infected minds with its queries. Ah. Not optics. Disappointing yet exulting! Must purge lesser concept... Terrans of this world seem to agree that 'battle sisters' are attractive, yet never met one. Curious."
Well that sounds interesting Lilith peers into what a "battle sister" is. She tears deep, not only into what they look like, but who they are, what they represent in the Terran consciousness.
"Actually, yes, these battle sisters are exactly what I mean. You've got it, my apologies. You're a genius."
Lilith is pacing now, getting worked up into a fanatic fervor. "Also, some sort of... Pheromone, so people around me feel love-y."
"Terran olfactory systems are terribly ineffective for transmitting pheromones. Changeling psi-emission analogues are more effective if courting in hard vacuum."
"If you can do it as well, can you poke around Kerrigan's essence and figure out if she ever dated girls at the academy? She's got to have memories of preferences somewhere."
Lilith pauses as she realizes she had just overstepped her bounds, craning her mind to the psychic swarm listening for even a whisper that she might have been heard. "Don't tell anyone that last part. Don't make me look like one of her exes either, just... Forget that last part."
"What is the purpose/function of this ovipositor? Larvae grow in sizes beyond what could conceivably be held inside what passes for normal human volume. Arm blades more straightforward."
Lilith stops for a moment, thinking really hard. "It's for..." She elongates the word, landing on the 'r' for more than a few seconds. "Guarding behind me! Yeah, it's so I can be battle efficient on all sides, of course!" She lets out a nervous laugh, I can't believe this is all working out for you Lilith. They said you could never look like a girl in your doujinshi, but look mom! Wait. No actually don't look mom. Sorry. "But if I could still lay eggs with it, that'd be a dream." Lilith bit her tongue, "Infestation has to start somewhere, right? I need to find a way to do it fast in liminal space. Instantly even to the outside world."
"Entanglement must be destabilizing. Or I might have pruned some memory of what was conversed for my ontological integrity of mind. Ovipositor... for infestation?"
She nodded. "For infestation, yes. Large thick stingers." Lilith said with glee. "This new unit should be able to infest but keep everything hidden inside until the time is right." She makes a kind of clicking sound, "Part of this is fear. To know the unknowable comes for them."
"It doesn't lay eggs... I will consider these two different requests. Zizgy will submerge, disperse, and work." Zizgy leaves for the evolution pits to study and think.
Lilith spends the rest of her time staring at her idol, sometimes letting her presence get uncomfortably close. Never interrupting, just... Watching. Watching for seconds that stretch to minutes, to hours, days, possibly even years if time would allow. In her mind, she is filling notebooks with sketches and paintings. Never quite expressing the feelings or giving them shape, but silently observing with a big, almost terrifying grin. With teeth now very sharp and claws that stretch for miles.
"Your efforts at romance would likely go better if you studied her mind rather than her body."
"I don't disagree with you, Zhakarov, but if I go poking around while she's in a war zone and I get caught, I feel like I'll be heinously flogged. Not in the fun way either."
"But my-oh-my-oh my! Do I want a peek when I get a chance. Just a tiiiiiny little peek."
Sarah Kerrigan, The Queen of Blades:
"There it is." The Queen of Blades whispers, "Life." She scans through the swarm, taking every viewpoint to ensure she knows the situation. But upon grabbing the swarm and attempting to control it, she encounters resistance, the presence of the Quartet bucks her command and forces her to engage with them. A void of black forms the presence of conversation, the Queen of Blades puts a hand on her hip, glaring in the psionic ethereal. "And who are all of you? Cerebrates?" Wings flare aggressively, the psychic might of this colossus rumbling to the surface.
Zren:
The will of a cerebrate named Zren, pushes forward, , "We all are not all Cerebrates my Queen. Some Infested Minds, others are memories of Sequencing, rest of us. We are War, minds of lesser queens and cerebrates. And those descended from them." Zren, had a different approach the cerebrates, trying to appear minimal, and unthreatening. The Cerebrates had long since won the ire of the Queen. It was them, that had once torn apart her swarm.
A distaste is present as she intakes Zren, but its nowhere near violent.
Lilith von Illar:
"Go away Zren." The Latest of Unity had a voice like a babbling brook, high, sweet, and constant. There was something... Odd, about this one. An intensity that would be disquieting to any other than a Queen. "Well, I'm Lilith! One of the many Zerg under your command. We woke up here a bit ago. How are you doing today? If that's too personal, I have a number of status reports and situational observations whenever you're ready." The psychic shape pushes closer towards Kerrigan, and tries to assert it's shape, trying to get in the way of other member's of Unity to be more seen then the others.
"Would you look at that." She stares at the first codified presence, "A Terran, strong enough to buck me." Inspecting Lilith with a keen eye, she eventually nods.
The Queen of blades now focused entirely Lilith,"Enlighten me of what my Swarm has been up to, would you."
Her essence felt fervorish under her gaze, under her Queen's gaze. Some long lost memories and fantasies returning to her mind. Pretty. Nope, shut that down. Pretty. Mommy? No. Shut that down. Lilith realized that maybe her queen was polite and wouldn't peek into the thoughts too much.
Her lip quirks at Lilith, an almost wistful look on her face as she says, "Pig." Starting to tap her foot impatiently.
Lilith's essence was still manic, and erratic. Constant streams of random sounds and discordant thoughts. GLORY, GLORY, WHAT A HELLUVA WAY TO DIE, GLOOORY GLORY, WHAT A HELLUVA WAY TO DIE. "Right, yes of course. So, We got in a bad tiff, and had to make an emergency jump, what you feel now is it. We've got something like 2,000 hatcheries total There's one remaining Terran city on the planet, which"
More thoughts bubble interrupting her own speech. You know, I wonder if we'd ever considering actually making restaraunts? Is that still a thing? How do I eat even? "you know not great, We infested the terran populace, so we have a bit more then 3 billion biomass to work with, but not any minerals. The city keeps gassing us in the mines, but we've got a reservoir to help with that. The only thing we can actually make our corruptors and a mineral enhanced roach that can walk through an artillery barrage. Soon we'll be able to outnumber the terrans here by orders of 2 magnitudes."
"From what I can tell," You know, I wonder if I should take up painting? Paintings' cool. Where would I get paint though? Ick. "The terrans here are terrible. Like on just a basic level. They constantly execute each other with more ruthlessness then I've ever seen. They seem to be holding back their own help just to study us, and from what gleaning we can do on a psychic level, they're just constantly forcing each other to starve." Honestly, really sad, I thought the EDF was terrible...
"We suspect they have a way to detect parasites, and are just executing the infested on site." Actually, I don't think I've ever seen any Zerg eat a snack. Does that mean the tongue is vestigal? Tongue... Ok, that one goes back in the deck thank you Lilith mind, you once again are of zero help.
Kerrigan listens to the absolute barrage of thoughts, arms crossed and wings folded behind her. She studied Lilith intently trying to see something... More. After the wall of noise is lowered to a dull set of rambling, she sighs, "Never is simple whenever I'm gone is it." The hive-space transforms into the vision of the Hoverwings, displaying the city in great detail, including the "atomics" being constructed deep within it. "We'll have to bring down their walls. Rip apart their weapons and tear that ship out of orbit."
She sweeps her vision back across the gathered Quartet, "I've decided not to kill you, don't make me regret it." Blazing orange eyes simmer down to merely glowing as she then says, with a curious look on her face. "Are you all just... stuck in the hive?"
Zren answered, "Yes my Queen."
Lilith ignored Zren entirely, her essence trying to nearly shout over him to pull back the Queen's attention. "I don't know! My first priority was bringing you back, everything else took a back seat to that. The Overlords were a bit cranky about the idea, but you know, they're kind of older fuddy-duddys." Lilith's energy, even in the psychic maelstorm could best be described as "chaotic and exhuberant." If the surrounding psi were purple, her own would be a bright cottony almost smothering pink.
Kerrigan gave Lilith another look, more appreciative "I'll remember that loyalty, hard to find any day." In taking what she had been shown, the entire swarm felt the psychic power within her rumble, shifting arcs of Essence tracking before suddenly halting. "I want the Swarm gathered before the fortress, I'll be at their head and shatter the tall walls. With them destroyed, we can get to the missile before its complete and then reprogram it to hit their own ship."
She speaks this as if its sure to happen, no authority under this burning star above except her own.
"Thy will be manifest." Zren maintained dutiful and acquiescent.
Another voice, Zhakarov is ingrained, pulling themselves together before his Queen, "How much of the swarm do you want devoted to this assault?" His presence in the swarm is intertiwned like essence, but instead of forms it is simply layer after layer of information about the morphs down to the smallest larva.
Internally, Zren felt fear as Zhakarov approached the Queen. Be careful it thought to itself. Zren had much respect for Zhakarov, his age, and his wisdom.
"Bring half the infested. And the Mutalisks...and Roaches. You can keep the rest." Zhakarov interested her, a dispersed essence even beyond many of the minds here, but that interest didn't extend past somatic as she appraised the members of her swarm.
He nodded, and immediately began to spread orders through the swarm, relaying numbers and analytics to the Queen. "Assault Group: 1,250 Hiveguard Mutalisks, 1,250 Hiveguard Roaches, 43,000 Regular Mutalisks, 9 million regular Roaches, 10,000 Overlords, 387,160,222 Infested Terrans. Additionally 1,000 Corruptors to assist the missile assault. If this is insufficient we can produce more regular roaches, but our Liquid Vespene and Mineral production is insufficient to produce more Mutalisks or Hiveguard strains." With a mumble of discontent he added,"To clarify this planet is devoid of Vespene gas or Minerals. We are making due with biomass and local substitutes. This is straining our ability to produce strains that match the abilities of the Swarm before our arrival here."
"We'll make due." The Queen of Blades responds to Zhakarov's numbers, twisting on a heel in both reality and hive-space. "The Swarm has to expand, being bound to one world is risking the extinction of Zerg."
Lilith's distant chattering that had been almost entirely contained as an internal dialogue with herself, popped. Her mind once again loud effervescent. Oh, that's a good point, bring that up "Also you should know, we do elections now!" Don't wait for a reaction, just power through "So it might end up not being us, or your orders might filter through or be carried out by other Zerg. Of course, you can always speak to the swarm directly and let your will be known but if one of us has to split off or is barred from communicating, well that's outside of our control! But now you know, so if it comes up later it'll be less of a shock!" Lilith made sure to give her best winning smile, or the psychic equivalent. Two thumbs up for good measure!
At the mention of elections, she frowns, "Now that's just silly." And you feel her presence extend, gripping onto all of you harshly, every inch of your beings in her grasp. She experiments, a rather, odd feeling on the Quartet's end, like a grand hand trying to place you somewhere. "I am the Queen of Blades, none shall dispute my rule." She hisses out as the hive doesn't accede to her demands immediately.
The quartet's psychic weights increase, bound to her by shimmering tendrils and being held down. The hivemind can still be felt shivering at unity's presence, unable to cope forever, but what time it had may be far, far longer. The aggravation that came off Kerrigan is palpable, shaking hive-space and making every zerg creature suddenly thrice as aggressive. "This selection is durable. I can't tell why it was evolved, but its as core to the Zerg now as Essence itself. If I tore it out, I'd destroy the Swarm."
Kerrigan does not seem overly happy at this, but glares at the city in the distance. Somewhere to release her fury.
Lilith gets pinned, and desperately tries to keep the thoughts in this time. She's starting to remember why she became infested. Still, she was at least half correct, the sunken colonies were terribly fun before the acid started. "Yep! Big fight coming up, so it seemed prudent, while I'd never tell you what to do, if you're willing to let me advise I personally would experiment a bit in case your limits may have changed. You could even be stronger then you expect!" Do zerg kiss? Is that why— goddamnit brain "Anywho! I think my purpose was Diplomacy and getting us Big and Swarm-y again" Swarmy? Christ. "I don't think I can go fighting, but I'll be rooting for you!"
"I don't have limits, Lilith." Kerrigan confidently stated as the assaulting swarm gathers for her. "But that's a good point, you do need bodies so I'm not talking to..." She stares at the vague psychic images, "Theoretically living things." Then she added, "After I shatter the city, bring me to Abathur. I'll put him to work."
"I don't know who that is!" Lilith said with oblivious mirth. "We haven't found a genome with... That!"
Kerrigan closes her eyes, sighing, "Of course you don't," but despite herself, she allows a wry smile. It falls away as she re-focused herself, "I'll get on it myself then, find Abathur, if anyone survived with you all, its him. Scour the tunnels you've dug, he is hiding far beneath."
"You got it ma'am, er miss?" Mommy? Shut up brain. Please!
"You must have had a strong will before the infestation if this much of you survived." Kerrigan replied, shaking her head at Lilith's behaviour. "Go with Queen."
"Of, course my Queen!" Despite the smile, there was a panic desperation in Lilith's voice trying to think of a reason for her Queen to say, "Have you thought about colors for the chitin? Presentation matters!"
Questioned on colour theory, she wonders. "Green and purple always works, suppose I could personalize it. I remember a brood that was this violent pink, it must be in our Essence to do that."
"Oh like this?" Then Lilith shot forth a violent shade of magenta.
She winces, "God-" Blinking her eyes after being forced to observe that mental image in the entirety of the electromagnetic spectrum, she said, "Yeah, like that. I'm leaving."
The Queen almost ran off, speeding away from the odd essence, immediately trying to shove it away from her thoughts.
On the battle lines the swarm gathers hundreds of millions of infested Terrans backed with a core of specialist warforms at the behest of the Queen of Blades. Separating the specialist forces into broods, she moves to the head of the Swarm, striding out in the line of fire as the Terrans begin to pour fire into the Swarm in a wall of laser streaks, screaming bolts and roaring bullets that fill the air with enough ordinance that it begins to wobble with heat haze.
"Throw everything you have at me! You'll die screaming anyways!" Her psychic roar rattles the battlefield and the entirety of the city, making Terrans cry out in pain and lose focus, shots becoming notably wilder and less accurate.
Straining her whole body, a purple glow forms, actinic bolts of lightning stretching from Kerrigan whilst she lifts off the earth to float above the rushing swarm. With a final cry and wildly glowing purple eyes, apocalypse comes. A psychic storm of matter unfolds amid the Terran defences. The entire eastern face of the wall is rendered into undifferentiated matter as flensing blades of force rip the blood from bodies, yank stone into glass and carbon and annihilate all sensical matter. Half a kilometre of the city is caught in the unfolding chaos before Kerrigan lands, ceasing the storm's progress and letting it fade.
"Go! Rip them to pieces!" Her command carries through the entirety of the horde as infested mutates rush into the city like a horde, forcing the battle to turn to brutal hand-to-hand. Claws rip into long coats as the enemy Terrans die silently and with no visible fear, but the citizens are another matter entirely.
Dragged out into Creep at the command of the Queen, they are forced into Creep to be infested. She strides through the city like a raging Goddes, ripping entire skyscrapers down and even catching a shuttle that attempts to escape with telekinetic force, dragging it down to the surface after she detects an impressively powerful psychic inside it.
Ripping the rear door open, she slaughters the security inside and dominates the other psychic in a battle of wills, ordering it to be unharmed and recovered. It is brought to a hive cluster and then left there as infestation begins with slow tendrils of creep swallowing her. It appears in hive-space barely conscious, rapidly awakening and resisting infestation.
A whisper in the backs of the Quartet slithers from Kerrigan, the angry hiss of a woman in battle. "Make her accede, she is their communications."
Anastasia Von Illar nee Ultramar:
Snapping back to awareness, Anastasia panics in the infinite black void, her psychic power giving her staying power and mental durability, leading to terrible damage starting in her body as the corruption cannot be denied. "Where am I!" She screams to the void, "Answer me xenos!"
Lilith formed immediately in front of Anastasia, pushing herself into something more human, and shapely. Her appearance delicately crafted for comforting allure. "Hi, whoa, hey. Very intense! Welcome Anastasia, we're the Zerg and we are just going to be poking around a bit, and maybe having a snack." Her eyes lit up, as she saw Anastasia's rapt attention with the mention of food.
Then Lilith turned around, touching her chin as if deep in thought, "Actually, that's probably not super re-assuring. Any-doodle. You're in a calm, safe place, no-one wants to hurt you yet!" Lilith's mind was unable to stop from wandering over to Kerrigan rampaging through the city, "Ok, maybe that's not entirely accurate, but still. How are you doing today!?"
"Who-What are you!? What have you done with me?" The soothing acts and words of Lilith, the intentional or unintentional clumsiness with her speech all add to something of a calm to her. After all, how could someone so disjointed be dangerous.
Glowing orange eyes snap to the ephemeral form of Lilith, her mind reaching out to the space around and attempting to format it, make it understandable. Opulent tabards fell from stone-cut walls, a fireplace burned bright and warm, beating away the cold. Anastasia displayed significant psychic training moreso than power. Even Lilith felt the need to disassemble her form, though it was easily ignored.
Well that's interesting, Lilith thought to herself. "Well, we're just a big 'ole family over here, so we like to be super-duper welcoming. I wouldn't worry about that, what I'd like to do is get a bit of information about the universe. We've just become friends, I'll start. I'm a Leo, I went to Tar... something university. I eat well." She saw that same rapt attention at the words.
The psyker stopped, shaking her head confused. "I-Leo-what?" Then in reality, a tendril had found its way into her brain, delivering a shock of dopamine that arrests her stress hormones.
Lilith trudged on, as if she hadn't noticed "We have lots of leisure time, and am thinking about taking up painting, or basket weaving. What about you? What's your home life here like? Who are you, whose Anastasia?"
"I am a noblewoman." The answer seemed to be an afterthought as Anastasia tried to clear her head.
"Hey, we're an aristocracy too, look at that, we've got common ground!" Lilith crooned with a high pitch squeal,
Then a confused shock overtook Anastasia, her essence-form rushing forward in the liminal space, "I must-I must get back to the shuttle, the sub-sector must be warned!"
"You know, I could probably help you do that! Who would we be warning!" Lilith tried to match the confusion, "The guy up in the sky whose been delaying help while you starve? Or would there be other people?" She put a gentle hand on Anastasia's shoulder, showing her the Zerg's vision of the floating ship in the sky. "Or, if you don't want to talk about that, because you know. gruesome right? I notice you have psychic training, I'll be honest, I'm a little jealous." Before Anastasia could get a word in, Lilith made a beautiful golden apple, and a small chalice of a sweet smelling ambrosia. "I'm so rude, are you hungry? Do you want something to drink? You could sup with us, and then later we could talk more."
She stares at the offered food, and an immediate spike of suspicious paranoia overrode hunger her thoughts begging her to eat, tendrils had infested much of her neurons. She tried to resist, A trick, a daemon?
"I-" Her eyes longingly stare at the food, emaciation evident in her features, a body that was, several hundred thousand calories ago, an hourglass being now at odds with many other bodies of "nobles" acquired, suggesting her social position is lesser in some way. "I am cursed with the sin of being a witch." The topic shift is to maintain her focus, refusing to fall into the pit of hunger in a display of self-discipline.
"Cursed?" Lilith's face falls, and then suddenly, they're sitting very close next to each other, by a fire. "That's awful," Lilith pulls out a second apple takes a bite of it, the crunch almost has bass that you can feel, and the resulting bite is wet, and glistening. Her mouth is filled with food, and her voice a little choked as she said, "Gosh amazing."
Anastasia's heartbeat races as she stares at Lilith chew, mouth flooding with desire for anything.
The other woman pretended to not notice, "You know, it's odd to me that you'd be called cursed, while being the only one here that seems to have a gift. Sometimes the easiest way to keep someone powerful in line, is to make them think something is wrong with them. Now, the Zerg we don't really have cursed people. Everyone, from the smallest little larvae, to the biggest flying overlord pulls their weight. We each our gifted in our own ways. When a Hydralisk is better, comes out stronger, well we just give them a better job!" She gives another warm smile, "It's our gifts that make us special. I'm not going to force you to do anything, I couldn't even if I wanted too." Not quite true, but it'd be best to give this a shot anyways... "I was being honest, I just want to make a friend. You don't have to take the apple if you're not hungry." Lilith puts a warm offering hand. "It's a grim, dark universe, I just want to give you a bit of light."
The fire crackled, and the liminal space Anastasia had felt so warm and comforting. Her brain was a cavalcade of emotions as the infestation had finally quelled most of the anxiety. Taking away her stress. She reaches a hand out nervously, looking almost scared. "This-this isn't a trick, right?" Anastasia's voice is trembling, you get shots of memory, feeding on something called corpse starch when the Kriegsmen commander would show her the kindness of leaving a box of them before her isolated chambers. Of hateful abuse, of months of pain, of a moment of purest agony.
Her hand is on the apple, but her binding, her programming is forcing her to distrust.
Oh my god, why would they do that to someone. Lilith's eyes water a bit, and she takes the hand, "No, honey, of course not, you'll be one of us. Equal." A tear runs down her face, shocking Lilith. The woman seemed... To need something "The Zerg keep our promises. I can't think of many times the Queen of Blade lied to anyone. We're happy here, well fed, strong. We have elections! I was voted on a very important platform." Oh god, Kerrigan please don't look too much into the platform She put a hand on the apple. Lilith's hands are soft, tender, they send tiny sparks of excitement, she pushes the dopamine drip just a little harder. Tries to see if she can find oxytocin. "You're ok. We're ok." She closes her eyes and smiles. Pushing the neuropeptides deep.
Anastasia takes the bite, utterly terrified in a way even infestation can't control, but acquiescing. All sensation of hunger is halted, the oxytocin dump makes her lean into Lilith like a dear friend or lover as in the real world her flesh is torn and remade for the Swarm. She looks up with eyes whose orange glow is only intensifying as her skin turns to carapace. "I'm scared"
Lilith's voice is low, almost sultry. It slides over Anastasia's senses, dulling everything it can. "I know baby, it'll be ok." Then, Lilith gives her a warm, tender kiss. "You'll be ok, you're strong. We're going to make you better."
Its not slow, the process well honed and done by the Queen of Blades almost automatically now. In minutes she's no longer human. Essence interlocked with Zerg until she was a perfect, immortal being. Her psychic strength retained and enhanced by careful manipulations. Purple carapace splits over her skin, her hair maintains its long flowing nature but her body fills out, assembling to the image of herself she so desperately wanted returned.
A slow smile stretches over her face, accompanied by a laugh as she looks up. It carries on for longer than a sane woman would laugh before settling into a giggle. Looking up at Lilith with adoration, she said gleefully, "It's amazing. I can't hear them anymore."
"My word woman" Lilith said taking her in, "Well look at you. Hear who? I wasn't lying, we only just got here from another uh..." She thinks for a moment, "Galaxy? Galaxy I think, tell me everything. I don't even know where we are right now."
"Them!" She excitedly says, almost bouncing, "The monsters across the veil!" Memories of a thousand screaming whispers at night, of no peaceful moments to be found. Of casting her mind into what may as well be hell to bind to others like her, to speak to them.
"They're afraid, they don't come near!" Anastasia's practically shouting, happier than Lilith had ever seen someone ever be. So excited that she needs time to calm before realizing you had another question.
After a moment's calming, still smiling she answers, "You are on Illar, in Segmentum Ultima at the far end of the Ultima Sector."
"The space of the Imperium of Man, which stretches from one end of the galaxy to another." All her words carry much context the swarm didn't have, something they'd have to ask for lated, you imagine. Nevertheless, if it was accurate, these Terrans had more thoroughly dominated the Galaxy than even the Protoss ever did.
Quickly, Lilith gently reached out to Kerrigan, to momentarily send a message. "Sorry to interrupt, I know you're like super busy. If you see a cute girl, can you just stick me in there. Any of them honestly, as long as they're attractive. If I was picky, I was a 10 on Tarsonis, but you know, not picky."
Currently lifting a field commander by the throat, she pauses. "You do know your essence is still in the hatcheries, right?" And then the commander unbundles the grenades in his coat, screaming "Ave Imperator!", blowing the Queen through a wall with minor shrapnel injuries. She growls at that, reaching out and sparking a razor-storm of zerg microbes to shred any living thing in the bunker she was just in.
Lilith grimaced, "Sorry, no. I'll work on that then."
As Kerrigan laid sieged to the city, time continued to pass. The essence of Unity, and the now re-built Ana mingling and conversing. As Anastasia's body reformed, there was a hiccough and she found herself in real-space once again. She had quickly accustomed herself to her surroundings.
The scene switched, as they all were moved as essence to real-space deep in the hive. Anastasia blinked, at the passing, shocked by the instant flicker of transition. She looks around until the colossal image of Zren comes into view, eyes wide with some shock. The giant cerberate, like a mammoth slug filled her vision and she had to crane her neck upwards to see him "A-ah, hello?"
It was Zren. "Greetings young one. I wish to speak with you fully." He said, his voice was oddly low and subtle for such a form and body.
"Go ahead, ask your queries." She answered, not scared of the monstrous creature, merely confused at what Zren wants. The interconnected parts of the swarm filled in context for her, assuaging doubts and worries with answers.
Zren was ancient, knowing old ways and tradition. "First I wish for you to understand the Covenant you have made. The Swarm shall keep you alive as long as you can reach it. If you were more powerful I would offer the eldest Covenant we have." Zren would say. The word Covenant seemed be very powerful to him, resonating deep intertwined with his connection to the now dead Overmind.
"Alright, I understand that-I think." Anastasia murmured.
The Cerberate acknowledged her statement, and went on to her own business. "Now onto questions. We have been lost for so long. The galaxy and you Terrans have changed much. If you have questions I am more then willing to answer."
"Uhm, I think I know most of what I need too, Lilith was..." She recalled the memory and is giddy again, "Enlightening."
Hearing her name, she flit to the real-space. There was the projection of a smile, a wink, and two finger finger-guns.
Anastasia Blushed at the attention.
"She does fill a room." Zren commented. Lilith wasn't sure if it was a compliment or an insult. "Now onto business. This Imperium of man. What can you share upon it and the creatures beyond the Veil as you call it."
"The Imperium is, well, the realm of mankind. It rules the galaxy at the providence of the God-Emperor whom governs from the Golden Throne on Terra herself. It is master of a million worlds, souls beyond counting in its borders." There's spikes of fear in her voice as a realization sinks in, "We provided the dyes for the Novamarines! They will surely notice our worlds lack of shipments in bare years!"
Images of falling pods full of what she calls "Angels of Death", of war against a threat of claws and teeth and biology much like the Zerg, yet different.
" We have to prepare! Find shelter!" The certainty of defeat in her spirit is worrying, even with what she has seen, there is no doubt these "Novamarines" would be victorious.
"Calm young one." Zren had tried to help her the best he could. But this wasn't his field by any means.
"Hey whoa! We'll be ok, it's a marine right? We've been doing just fine against marines." Lilith tried to give her a light touch on the shoulder, but without a body, it wasn't effective.
They are demigods, their armour unbreachable, their strength inviolable!" Vivid memories from the perspective of a child, of men taller than any human kicking over whole tanks and withstanding seas of claws on a screen. Of starships firing down with munitions that bloom like Tarsonis did. Only Lilith being present keeps Anastasia from descending into utter paroxysm.
Her fears were dismissed with a snort from Lilith, "Ok, well let me show you an Ultralisk!"
Then she wrapped her essence around Ana, "We're working on different matters of scale love. It'll be fine." Lilith shot Zren a mental note to maybe not mention we can't actually make those quite yet.
Calming down, she nodded, "O-okay, yes, we, we can win." She Shifted topics for her own sake, "The Warp is what lies behind the veil. A place of laughing daemons and thirsting gods, seeking souls. What do you wish to know of it?"
"We have killed such things before." Zren offered memories of killing Protoss.
She watches the memory, but shakes her head, "I'd rather not think of such things if its all the same. Can we change topics?" She had begun to become nervous as memories were repeatedly given without asking.
Lilith jumped in, shooting Zren a look as she changed the subject again, "Really quick, do you think we could just keep sending the dyes? Once things are a bit quieted down?"
"Well.... I suppose I could send an all-clear?" She wonders, "My fellow astropaths may just chalk up my changes to an accident of the warp."
"Great! Wunderbar even! I'll let our Queen of Blades know that she should keep the factories up so we can send the die, maybe we send one of my Zerg Succubi ideas over, and we'll just keep the gravy train right on running!" Then she swapped her attention to the greater swarm, pulling at the Queen's attention. "Hey Lo– Lady... of Blades," she stumbled over her words, "Just a thought, quick mental note, if you see any dye factories, keep those standing please."
"Fine." She growled as an ambushing tank has blown a rapidly regenerating arm off.
It's for diplomatic reasons, and staying hidden! Anyways, you're doing great! Exes and Ohs!" Lilith clenched her teeth a bit, not smooth.
Zren reverberated as Lilith flitted around, "The creatures inside of it. What are their capabilities? We have shattered one who tried to take over one of our morphs before. But they likely have other abilities."
"They're endless, they cannot die, only be dispersed until you cannot see them. The Neverborn hordes of Chaos." Even the mention of that sends a ripple out from her, some cosmic things eyes briefly turning upon this gathering before looking away. She ignores it, likely used to the feeling.
However Lilith, when the eyes turn, puts her fingers over her lips and sticks out the visage of a freakishly long tongue, before making a vulgar gesture with her will. The Zerg will not be intimidated.
"The weakest among them can overwhelm an armed man, the strongest are as if gods, reshaping worlds in their tread." Nightmarish flashes of messages received of dying worlds, of the sky breaking into blood, of the earth rising in vicious tendrils, of the very flow of time breaking.
Zren spoke with authority, and left no room for doubt, "They can die. Their Essence is reachable." The fact was immutable. "But this provides useful context that I shall supply to the Queen of Blades."
Meanwhile, Lilith sent her Essence to a sequencer, a Zerg capable of crafting with flesh, capillary, and ligaments, as an engineer with solder, wire, and tape.
The Zizgy One:
The Zizgy One's essence gathers, swirling in colorful patterns, as it prepares to process the thoughts or constructs presented to it.
"What concept or idea are you seeking assistance with, young one? Your form."
"Ok, so tenta—" She stopped for a second, "Ovipositors, some blades between the forearms in case I need to get into hand-to-hand combat, and shoulder-mounted venom flingers. More importantly, and something that we've not really focused on, is aesthetic." Lilith imagined a Terran, of the femme-presenting gender, "Do you see how she's wide in the pelvis, and round at the sternum? That's important. Reeeeally important. She's got to be hot."
"Eyeballs at chest height? The humanoid form must have hidden advantages yet not explored, perhaps lost with the infection process! Must devour, dissect, know!"
"Nonono, eyes where the eyes normally are, Zizgy. Wait, focus, FOCUS, we want the standard Terran shape, with all the Zergness on the inside so I can pass for Ter—"
"Flittering and stretching violently as it processes millions of infected minds with its queries. Ah. Not optics. Disappointing yet exulting! Must purge lesser concept... Terrans of this world seem to agree that 'battle sisters' are attractive, yet never met one. Curious."
Well that sounds interesting Lilith peers into what a "battle sister" is. She tears deep, not only into what they look like, but who they are, what they represent in the Terran consciousness.
"Actually, yes, these battle sisters are exactly what I mean. You've got it, my apologies. You're a genius."
Lilith is pacing now, getting worked up into a fanatic fervor. "Also, some sort of... Pheromone, so people around me feel love-y."
"Terran olfactory systems are terribly ineffective for transmitting pheromones. Changeling psi-emission analogues are more effective if courting in hard vacuum."
"If you can do it as well, can you poke around Kerrigan's essence and figure out if she ever dated girls at the academy? She's got to have memories of preferences somewhere."
Lilith pauses as she realizes she had just overstepped her bounds, craning her mind to the psychic swarm listening for even a whisper that she might have been heard. "Don't tell anyone that last part. Don't make me look like one of her exes either, just... Forget that last part."
"What is the purpose/function of this ovipositor? Larvae grow in sizes beyond what could conceivably be held inside what passes for normal human volume. Arm blades more straightforward."
Lilith stops for a moment, thinking really hard. "It's for..." She elongates the word, landing on the 'r' for more than a few seconds. "Guarding behind me! Yeah, it's so I can be battle efficient on all sides, of course!" She lets out a nervous laugh, I can't believe this is all working out for you Lilith. They said you could never look like a girl in your doujinshi, but look mom! Wait. No actually don't look mom. Sorry. "But if I could still lay eggs with it, that'd be a dream." Lilith bit her tongue, "Infestation has to start somewhere, right? I need to find a way to do it fast in liminal space. Instantly even to the outside world."
"Entanglement must be destabilizing. Or I might have pruned some memory of what was conversed for my ontological integrity of mind. Ovipositor... for infestation?"
She nodded. "For infestation, yes. Large thick stingers." Lilith said with glee. "This new unit should be able to infest but keep everything hidden inside until the time is right." She makes a kind of clicking sound, "Part of this is fear. To know the unknowable comes for them."
"It doesn't lay eggs... I will consider these two different requests. Zizgy will submerge, disperse, and work." Zizgy leaves for the evolution pits to study and think.
Lilith spends the rest of her time staring at her idol, sometimes letting her presence get uncomfortably close. Never interrupting, just... Watching. Watching for seconds that stretch to minutes, to hours, days, possibly even years if time would allow. In her mind, she is filling notebooks with sketches and paintings. Never quite expressing the feelings or giving them shape, but silently observing with a big, almost terrifying grin. With teeth now very sharp and claws that stretch for miles.
"Your efforts at romance would likely go better if you studied her mind rather than her body."
"I don't disagree with you, Zhakarov, but if I go poking around while she's in a war zone and I get caught, I feel like I'll be heinously flogged. Not in the fun way either."
"But my-oh-my-oh my! Do I want a peek when I get a chance. Just a tiiiiiny little peek."
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Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Removed and changed to prose.
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Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Anyways, please vote me in next election if you can, so I can continue to keep my campaign promises.
Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Do we have any questions about the world we want answered by the way, I've got someone I'm giving a little pep-talk too. By pep talk, I mean I've made a new friend, the communications officer of the who-ever runs this shindig.
Princess Scribe
A swelled-headed, gossipy, coquette gadabout.
- Location
- Venus
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's what the diplomacy skill is for.
Things "Across the Veil" are scared of us, I think me specifically, because I've been on my hot girl shit. You're welcome. We've probably got an in with Psykers willingly join us if we offer.
Things "Across the Veil" are scared of us, I think me specifically, because I've been on my hot girl shit. You're welcome. We've probably got an in with Psykers willingly join us if we offer.
- Location
- Albania
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The players in control get the results to their actions before the thread does, often enough.