A veritable horde is morphed from our hatcheries and several million lifeforms are added to the mass. A million Corruptors rise to the skies alongside murders of mutalisks and every other creature the Swarm currently produces. Drones pillage the world's resources, creep sucks in even the smallest forms of life to turn them into Zerg.
Hundreds of thousands of energy rifles, uniforms, plates of armour, thousands of vehicles of various stripes and plenty of samples of their sensors, power and housing technology. We cannot find any electronic records on the matter, and paper records seem to have been intentionally burnt by forces that the Queen of Blades eventually extinguished in an angry rage.
Overlords rise from the planetary surface, inspecting nearby bodies in detail over the solar cycle. They investigate the aerostat first, finding it armed and certainly active, having to use the curvature of the gaseous object not to be annihilated by walls of munition and lasers.
Whilst the system bodies are fairly poor in general mineral resources, no convenient crystals for our consumption. The gas giants have vast reserves of Promethium, easily able to fuel operations of any kind. The Magos holds their end of the bargain as Corruptors watch the ship from a distance, escaping to the aerostat on provided shuttles from the planet and leaving the vessel empty of crew.
Told to develop a myriad of things, Abathur begins with the process of Warp adaptation. Exposing Overlords to the infinite mass of Warpspace, he burns through dozens of them every day as they are caught by local lifeforms. Essence is afflicted wildly by the presence of the Warp, mutating uncontrollably, dozens more Overlords are put down daily just to ensure they do not evolve independence in any way.
At the end of it, organism Abathur gives up, demanding Essence experienced in warp matters before ever working with the space again.
On a far more simple topic, Abathur works to correct the grossly mutagenic properties of standard Zerg infestation, iterating on the work of the Queen of Blades, he eventually arrives at two conclusions. It is possible to save any Terran from infestation's influence.
But it requires direct attention from a Zerg Mind or the Queen of Blades. The Terran must be convinced, and we lack the Overmind's colossal influence to simultaneously speak with all infested. Thus it becomes a matter of individual capacity. However, psychic potential or statistically improbable willpower no longer becomes a necessity to survive the process.
We still require fresh Terrans however, our current stock is… unusable for such purposes, their bodies altered by the battle modifications so severely as to be not worth the effort repairing.
Finally, on a project of his interest, Abathur works quickly. A half-dozen lineages are re-invented, mostly his preferences in Zerg. The Hydralisk is cracked as he reweaves larvae to experience constant aggression, unable to think beyond the moment of violence until ancient Essence is reactivated.
The Ultralisk, of Brood War fame, is recovered to Abathur's preferences. A colossal warmachine, taller than any Zerg lifeform yet grown but still efficient, not wasting biomass and minerals in raw size that serves no, according to the Ur-Sequencer, discernable purpose. It is redeveloped by carefully crippling Larvae in such a way that they turn into immobile balls of scar tissue, sparking instincts of size that transmogrifies them into the new colossal war form.
Finally, on the ground side, the venerable Zergling is revived by forcing Larva into long-term dehydration and anaerobic stress until they evolve into the pre-amble Dune Runners, after which minor modification brings them back to form. Small creatures capable of intense mobility and clawing through CMC-300 with only some time if they can get close.
On request from Zigzy, an ancient morph of the Swarm is focused on. Thousands of Larvae are gathered, each serving as an organ in this Behemoth. Growing to sizes that dwarf even Hatcheries, the first Behemoth is an artisan's work on Abathur's part, and its Essence must be broken apart to be understood. It is not one organism, it is many, operating in conjunction, a macro-organism for the Swarm.
The idea of an evolutionary manager is not new to the Swarm, but one for each Chamber is. Organism Abathur cautions against this much intelligence in the Swarm, but works on a theoretical project anyway. The Evolution Chamber can easily be adapted to include enough neural tissue for direct manipulation of Essence for an increase in cost, something the Quartet in command will decide upon.
Zhakarov's frame is re-created after a short jaunt to find his Essence in the Hatcheries. An infested Terran through and through, it can be created at a moment's notice, though Zhakarov's current role in the swarm isn't well suited for such things as he would be forced into a single physique, unable to direct the whole swarm.
Zizgy is an interesting conundrum, continually changing himself even now as Terran mindsets are torn apart in a recommended evolutionary path. Abathur's designs alter as Zigzy does, eventually arriving at a whip-thin, efficiently manipulative form possessed of uncomfortably long and sharp talons capable of rapid extraction of Essence from willing or unwilling subjects.
Zrug, a war mind. They are made to a much larger plan, packing on muscle and carapace initially in the plan of an Ultralisk. Kaiser blades, thickened armour, powerful muscle and tentacular growths all over the back, intensely metabolically inefficient but providing all-around security at the range where such is required.
Finally, He Who Meddles is given a Sequencer body pattern focused on collecting and discerning Essence. Long talons that move to hypodermic points and a bulky body capable of internal storage and manipulation of that most primal substance is primed in Hatcheries for growth.
The dye projects are in full swing, producing the substance in significant quantities every day and piling it in pits for storage. We fill it into old containers and stack them high, hauled by Drones working in concert. The trip to orbit must be done by Behemoth, as we lack anything else that could stretch that far.
Still, we easily store it, as its inorganic design does not meaningfully decay.
Meanwhile, Zhakarov dedicates much of his effort to figuring out this new Terran technology, learning its tricks, its terrifying advancement at odds with its exterior primitiveness. Reactors hotter than suns are found in the bowels of the transport craft that brought the Guard here, computing interspersed with organic matter that we have not yet tried to infest, what looks like Warp Drives of an incredible size and scale, capable of ripping this ship into Warp and protecting it all the same from the depredations.
Point defence weapons riddle the surface like a plague, capable of firing on a thousand targets every split second with a hail of shells and lasers. The ruined guns of the Magos's ship are uncomfortably powerful. The shells bearing fusion cores on the scale of the missiles that cleansed Korhal, hundreds of them stored in this vessel, easily able to shatter a continent if it focused its fire.
All of this is internalized, the designs inspected and, in the case of the Magos's ship, the vessel rapidly infested. When we make contact with the computing matter and subvert the organic matter, the ship does begin to answer to us, but slowly and with great resistance, an intelligence within that abhors our presence and resents infestation.
Their vessels are alive? Rushes a swarm-thought as we try and control the mind and investigate this craft closely.
Intaking these new pieces of knowledge, the idea of integrating Terran technology, much to the distaste of Abathur, is floated and theorized amongst the Swarm, with thought experiments in Evolution Chambers resulting in promising showcases.
A Behemoth would need making, alongside the production of such things as weapons and technology for it, but with the existence of interfaced silica-organic computing discovered thanks to the infestation of the vessel in high orbit, such things seem more possible than ever before.
Zigzy focuses on acquiring Terran "vision" on recommendation from Abathur. Ripping through the decayed minds of dozens of Terrans, it finally begins to assemble something resembling that, with long-term precision increasing and a creator's will appearing inside it, improving results in Sequencing near-immediately.
Zhakarov's efforts are mostly on other matters, a single evolution chamber earmarked for his usage.
Lilith spends the Solar Cycle in the Queen of Blade's presence whilst Organism Abathur inspects them every significant period for consequential changes in physiology and morphology from the Neverborn experiment.
Zren continues to comb over the memories of warfare, experiencing it from every perspective he can manage until a breakthrough in understanding emerges and he approaches conflict from a new, more efficient, more advanced direction.
Silence is all that resounds afterwards. The Swarm is alone save for the quiet work of the Magos and his entourage in the aerostat to bring it to life again. Our swarm wishes to spread further, expanding to consume and devour the system, but await command.
The command will come from a new Unity, however, as the current surviving Triat fade from power, unable to grip any tighter due to an interesting quirk of the hive making it weaker for just a few moments.
Okay, the number of rolls is getting a tad ridiculous sometimes. I may have to reapproach that.
Control Roll:
Must Exceed 7
2d8(3, 3)
SELECTION SEASON 6 BEGINS.
War
A descendant of queens and cerebrates, or perhaps one yourself. You know how to wage war, how to wage it at scales some would consider impossible.
3d6 War
1d6 Evolution.
1d8 Diplomacy.
2d6 Growth.
Sequencing
Spin strands, weave essence, tear flesh, break bone. Invent and create the methods via which the Swarm defeats its foes and adapts to its environment.
3d6 Evolution
2d6 War
1d8 Growth
1d6 Diplomacy
Infested
Once, so long ago, your life was a Terran one. Much of those memories are gone, but the kernel of something less, primitive, remains.
3d6 Diplomacy
2d6 Growth
1d8 Evolution
1d6 War.
INFESTED CAN REPLACE ONE STATISTIC WITH A 2D6 TECHNOLOGY RATING.
