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

[DragonCobolt]

"Let them come to us," you murmured, watching the orbits.

Sarah nodded, slowly, her eyes growing hooded as she watched the gentle loop of planets and the glittering bead that was a star. She smirked, slightly. "Yeah. Zerg know how to wait. And watch. That's what I learned, during the Great War - the image is all the ravening zerglings and the endless Swarm. But that only happens when you've already lost." She bit her lower lip, then turned, starting for the door. You watched her go, curling a leg up underneath yourself.

She glanced back, and your eyes met. The temptation to follow after buzzed into your spine. You resisted it, shifting your expression to a glare.

Sarah walked out without a word.

She could have ordered you to come. Instead, she left you alone.

"You two are maladaptive," Izsha said from the wall.

Your eyes flicked to the female Zerg, the memory keeper of the Swarm. Her glassy eyes and yours met, her fingers steepling before her carapaced chest. Her voice was quiet. "The only one she's ever been so entangled with was the Dark Templar Matriarch." Your brow furrowed slightly as you leaned against the side of the psychoactive crystal that this room used for projections.

"...Raszagal, right?" you asked, quietly. "She was the female Dark Templar Kerrigan mentioned."

"Yes," Izsha said. "You adapt quickly. Think on the spot. Draw inferences. Find patterns."

"Humans do it a lot," you said, your head spines twitching in against your scalp. You rasped a claw against the gleaming purple crystal - drawing a thin fine white line that sealed itself up seconds after you had left it. "So, Kerrigan's been seeing some Protoss?"

"After the death of the Overmind, Raszagal visited the Queen of Blades - to learn of her...disposition after the end of the Swarm," Izsha said. "The meeting was tense."

"Maladaptive?" you asked. "Like me?"

"Similar interpersonal relationships - the Protoss and the Zerg have similar enmities as you and the Queen. But similarly, they had aligned goals. Interests. The discordance was felt even from my chambers." Izsha cocked her head. "But there was no accord. And the Queen rejected my suggestion."

"Which was?" you asked.

"Implant within the Protoss mental commands to break her to our will," Izsha said. "Similar to functions performed on infested Terrans during earlier incursions into their space by Daggoth's brood."

You frowned. "Like me?"

"No," Izsha said. "Two times, my Queen has left a strong willed woman roam freely, despite my urgings. A distressing pattern. I hope, if Raszagal comes once more, she will not repeat it a third."

"You think I'm a mistake, huh?" you asked, starting to stand slowly.

"Yes," Izsha said, matter-of-factly. "Success in a single mission does not counter-balance all other factors I have in my memories, disposing me against your future integration with the Swarm. Terrans, even based on limited exposure, are exceedingly prone to resisting inevitability. Where many other species have given into the Swarm, surrendered and offered up their biomass to our multitudes, you have fought back time and time again." Her eyes flicked, as if she was blinking, and you had the strange sense she was reviewing memories. "Starships, first. After the ships are gone, you use guns and tanks. Then sticks and stones. Even bare hands. It's...irrational. You have no chance, and still, you fight."

Her head cocked and she peered at you even closer. You felt scrutinized to your core.

"Even after you have lost everything," she said.

You frowned. "Humans give up. We do all the time. You have a Queen, after all."

Izsha flicked her eyes again. "Do you believe that?"

You opened your mouth.

Closed it.

Then you stood up, stretched, and asked the memory of the Swarm: "Is there somewhere I can work off my frustration like a gym?"

"No," she said.


"Of course not." You sighed.

***
​

Thunk thunk thunk. Thunk. Thunk thunk. Thunk. Thunk.

You drew your knuckles back from the diamond hard composite of the ACU's shin, and panted as hot rivulets of blood dripped down your fingers and slipped along your wrists. As you regarded the dents you had made and felt the grisle-crunch of your knuckles regenerating, you panted and then leaned your forehead against the ACU's side. "I hate waiting when I don't have any econ to build up."

"it is a shit place to be, da," Dostya said, from where she hung from the wall. You had requested her, and she had been moved, through the internal systems of the Leviathan...and you were honestly happier not knowing how.

You regarded her. "...do you want to die?"

"Fuck no," Dostya said, chuckling.

"I mean, it seems like every second is an agony, right?" you asked, leaning your head against the shin. That one good eye of the infested Cybran narrowed.

"I have a fully operational cybernetic mesh in my mind," Dostya said, slowly, carefully, mold dribbling from a crack in her infested cheek. "Portions of my brain have been infested and changed so, no, I cannot adjust my taste senses. But I can reroute and shut them down, which is well enough. Pain is under my control. So is pleasure and my memory banks. Though, I am getting...fucking sick of seasons one, two and three of Karedo 2."

You felt like someone had flicked you between the eyes.

"You watch K2?" you asked, slowly.

"Of course I watch K2, UEF makes some of the best bullshit holos in the galaxy. What, you think I want to watch Dialectics-II, a five hour monologue about market forces?" Dostya snorted. "To relax? No! I want to watch quantum exploration crew traveling to far frontier and visiting strange new planets."

"Is it the remake or the original?" you asked, stepping away from the ACU.

"Do I look like a philistine to you?" Dostya asked.

A sudden trilling sensation buzzed into your brain. It translated, in a flash, to awareness that your ACU's sensors had just picked up incoming threats. You opened your mouth - but Sarah's voice spoke in your mind. We're almost to the asteroid belt. Ready?

Yeah, you said.

Good. Fuck them up, Hilt.

You forced your lips not to skin back into a grin. As you...came apart...Dostya groaned.

"Ugh! Such a disgusting way to ride my ACU, Earther thief! You bring it back! I expect to-" Her voice became tinny and distance as your awareness shifted. "-have it back in one piece, you hear!"

You felt a wave of information rushing into your mind. The centerpiece of Daggoth's interception swarm was a large asteroid chunk that looked like it had once, ages ago, been an orbital platform. It was now writhing with hydralisks, mutalisks, scourges, guardians. A thronging swarm, ready to just splatter as much hate up into the onrushing Leviathan as they could. As you took it in, you felt the biological drop-pod forming around your ACU, preparing to launch. You tensed...and then felt the raw pressure of movement, the rushing sensation...and then the explosion of gore into vacuum as you came up on a chunk of rock and accreted metal that was on the outer edge of Daggoth's asteroid base.

Even with Zerg reproduction rates, it would be untenable.

But you weren't just Zerg.

Now were you?

The nearest enemies were, ironically, the local ground forces. Slithering Hydralisks started to rush towards your position as your ACU's nanolathe started to warm up...

---
HEAT: 0/6

[ ] Operation: Professional Approach - spawn zerglings and then armor them with your nanolathe so they can weather incoming fire and rip the hydralisks to pieces. Put them in advanced positions for the next round of fighting.
[ ] Operation: Be the Swarm - use your advanced sensors to guide zerglings into precise and deadly attacks against hydralisks before they can get higher ground. Allow this aggressiveness awaken your connection to the Swarm in your blood.
[ ] Operation: My Asteroid, Now - let the Zerglings drown the hydralisks in bodies while you start building resourcing structures and factories to augment future attacks.
[ ] Write In

Spoiler: Mechanics!

DANGER: 16

ENEMIES: Hydralisk Swarm (Diff 4, Range 2, People 2), Hydralisk Swarm (Diff 4, Range 2, People 2)

So, here's how the various plans would work

Operation: Professional Approach - use your nanolathe mastery as a secondary characteristic to beat the Range characteristic for the lisks, then use your biomorphic spawning to beat their people down too, before using your Leadership skill, taking 1 heat and 2 heat to succeed! Vent 3 heat to make 4 Just as Planned for future use!

Operation: Be the Swarm- use your orb-sat mastery + biomorphic spawning to beat their characteristics down, then use Leadership to beat them down, gaining 3 heat like previously. Vent 3 heat using your Living Swarm to get 2 Living Swarm sparks for future use.

Operation: My Asteroid, Now. Use your Nanolathe mastery to make Mass (6)(6) sparks atop a Base (2) spark. Then make Zergling (6)(6)(6)(2) sparks using your biomorphic spawning mastery, then vent 0 heat to use Back to Back, attacking with those Zerglings four times, slaughtering the Hydralisks. once you've done so,1use your melee skill with +2 bonus to create Intimidating Display sparks - prducing sparks with a 1+3 difficulty. Thanks to the +2, you're able to make 1 spark. Good for you! Its not super relevant.

 

[DragonCobolt]

You rotated the problem in your head, thinking - and realized that without even considering it, you had immediately started to feel the problem out as your...new self. The instinctive ripping and tearing, until it was done. Baked into your new bones, a song that called through your whole body. Well. You hadn't been chosen - stolen - to just be another Zerg. Were you? If you were here...you were going to do the job you had been asked to do, as the woman you were.

General Samantha fucking Clarke.

Your focus snapped back to the moment. You thrust out your finger and your nanolathe bit into rock, slicing away room. Within a shockingly fast time, the pools were ready, even as slithering hydralisks started to writhe their way up along the low, black ridgeline of the asteroid. Their cobra-like frills swept wide and silent, sizzling projectiles came raining down on the side of your ACU. Black armor flecked with green. You ignored it. You stood between the pool and the fuselage until the first of the zerglings came crawling out of it, shaking the glistening, boiling liquid off its vacuum hardened hide.

"Hey, Cr," you said. "Fuck 'em up."

The zergling in question screeched for joy. He catapulted himself between your legs - and exploded into shredded gore. But the other zerglings were out already, scrambling out of the flash-crafted breeding pits. As they thronged out, you felt a cold chuckle in your mind.

Is that your only tactic? Sarah asked, wryly.

"Watch and learn, Kerrigan," you said, then aimed your nanolathe. The zerglings and the hydralisks were playing. You had an asteroid to core out. The first step was to build the energy infrastructure, then the extraction systems. As the fabricators and the mines went up, you glanced 'backwards' and saw that the zerglings had cleared half the hydralisks and the remaining were starting to draw backwards - you murmured a few soft orders.

"Go around the flank. There, use the gulley."

Then you were back to work.

By the time the Zerglings had finished their devouring and had come back, wagging their tails and licking their boiling claws, blood bubbling off them in the vacuum, you had finished your base and given the immediate orders. It was...strange and dislocating, to shift from giving the song-commands to the Zerg to the cold, mechanical requests of the automated Cybran units. You were also a bit disorientated to see just how closely the engineering pattern fit the one you remembered. Oh, sure their tier-one defensive structures were different, but the basic command diagram was so familiar you had to wonder how much of it the Cybrans had stolen.

Or maybe it was convergent evolution.

Still, you considered that for later as you started to give out the orders to the engineers. Their nanolathes worked, humming furiously as artillery platforms and cruise missiles started to form.

What...are you doing? Sarah asked.

"Quing up the tech tree to atomics," you said, dryly. "If they have enough time, this asteroid will be able to spit nuclear weapons at a pretty staggering rate. Without my directions, it'll be pretty dumb - but I can at least set it up to build nukes and launch them at any bioform it detects without a friendly IFF."

There was a long, long pause over the telepathic link you shared.

...I like the way you think, HIlt.

"Of course, my queen," you said, and felt the way that that tone of voice cut into Sarah.

Good. She deserved a bit of bloodletting sometimes. And then your mind traced that thought to the member of her under your claws - and the mixed feeling of rage and lust and boiling confusion that it all came with. You squashed it down, frowning as your eyes flicked to the orbital sattelites. Whatever Brood was protecting this place had been given directions by Daggoth, you were sure...but you doubt it had direct oversight from anything as sophisticated as a Cerebrate.

Still.

Zerg weren't stupid. They had recognized your forces, and as the nanolathes continued to buzz, the air defense systems only half constructed, the wing of mutalisks came over the horizon. They ignored the buildings and they ignored the Zerglings - it seemed that the Zerg had picked up the number one trick of ACU combat.

They went for the Commander.

Glaive impacts slammed into your shoulder, chest, head, thighs. They rebounded. One slammed into an engineer, carving into its armor plating and leaving it sparking, hissing and wandering in confused circles. Another whipped into some half-finished nanoprojects, disrupting the barely formed slurry of raw material and scattering seconds of delicate work. You scowled, then lashed out - your arm pointing and an infared laser slicing a mutalisk wing off as it shot past you. It tumbled into space.

Annoying.

But you saw the mutalisks were the last real hurdle. If they were gone, then the T2 artillery unit would be finished...no gravity? No problem, most shells had minor self correcting engines built into their plasma sheathing. It was how you could have artillery duels on little rockballs like this. That meant that you could pound the hive into fragments, then turn this asteroid into a nuclear splinter in Daggoth's fucking eye.

Assuming, of course, you got the base done.

Which meant...

You lasered another mutalisk before it could dive on you, the idea forming.

---
HEAT: 1/6

[ ] Operation: huck a ling! - lure the mutalisks down close enough to take advantage of the light gravity. Sometimes, it turns out you CAN chew on their starships!
[ ] Operation: Laser Show - you have a laser and superhuman reflexes. Figure it out.
[ ] Operation: My Mutas, Too: You have a nanofabricator and superhuman reflexes. Why kill the mutalisks when you can net them. Maybe Sarah can incorporate them into the Brood?

Spoiler: Mechanis!

DANGER: 0

HIT SPARKS: Glaives Incoming! (5)
ENEMY SPARKS: Air Cover (4)
YOUR SPARKS: (Mass)Base (5)(6)2, Zerglings (5)(6)(6)(2)

ENEMIES: Mutalisk Swarm (Diff 5 Damage 3, Speed 3, People 1), Mutalisk Scout (Diff 1), Mutalisk Scout (Diff 1), Mutalisk Scout (Diff 1), Mutalisk Scout (Diff 1)

So, I spawn my dudes! The swarm goes for you, hitting you with 5 hit sparks to raise your hackles, while their speed makes them a hard target. There are five mutalisk scouts that don't really represent specific mutalisks, but rather, create the Air Cover sparks, which prevent you from attacking the mutas with your zerglings.

The three plans!
Huck a Ling: Bap the air cover out of the way by using your leadership skill for 1 heat, then your ling's speed 2 eats their speed 3 down to 1. Leadership 3 vs Diff 5+1 (People 6), augmented by your own speed characteristic means you take 3 heat to take down the main swarm. Vent your 1 heat using Back to Back to take out the scouts! Next round, you clear your hit spark.

Laser Show: Use your physical perfection to negate the Mutalisk Swarm! Zap it for 2 heat, then zap a scout (Diff 1+1) for 0 heat, then a second for 0 heat, then a third for 1 heat, then the fourth for 2 heat, putting you at 5 heat. Vent 5 with Just as Planned, then nix hit spark next round.

My Mutas, Too: Use your Nanofabrication miracle, bolstered by your physical perfection, to "capture" the mutalisks in restraint webbing for conversion to your Brood. That's Diff 5 vs Nanofabrication 2, for 3 heat. Then 0 heat, 1 heat, 2 heat for a total of 6 heat. Vent 4 heat using Back to Back to nix the last one. Destroy the hit spark next round.

 

[DragonCobolt]

The mutas wheeled through the vacuum around the asteroid in that queer, microgravity shuffling they used. You didn't have time to work out exactly how they did it with wings - you just had a few seconds to work out a plan. You focused and sang something quick, fast, and authoritative to the zergling swarms. It was unsettling - and thrilling - to feel your hand reach into them. Through them. To feel their movement like one vast carpet of living flesh but also to feel their individual thrumming strands, their chorial song, intermixing and humming through your mind. It was intoxicating and swift and fleshy. Like sinking your fingers into clay and shaping the battlefield.

Through the camera lenses on your infested ACU, you could see the zerglings seem to panic, writhing about as the mutalisks wheeled around - then dove. And at once, the panicking masses stopped writhing and dug, burrowing into the asteroid. Chunks of fine grained silicates started to spurt into vacuum, blooming up and outwards with the strange grace of minimal gravity impacts. It was finer than you expected too - but you could also feel the buzzing vibrations of the zerglings as they vibrated into the ground like they were drill bits.

They were under the ground and the mutalisks were pulling up.

Just in time.

You thrust the nanolathe out and that motion was enough to send the net whistling out. The weights snapped it wide and the first few mutas flew right into it. The net had been a fairly simple geometric pattern, but you hadn't needed to program it into the nanolathe. It had just been as easy as thinking, nerves and neurons between your distributed form, sliding into the lathe and clicking. You lashed out again, then again, and more mutas started to wheel away, trying to get away from the sudden and unexpected snatching. As they tumbled, you frowned, then focused. A biological arm extruded itself from one of the messy clumps of tumorous flesh that swaddled the Cybran ACU - it was an ugly, malformed looking thing, all soft white muscle and glistening sinew.

It worked, though. The hand snatched the dangling guidelines and yanked and the mutas you had snatched were brought down to the ground, where they squalled and wailed in confusion. The few that had gotten away started to wing off towards the depths of space, leaving the asteroid behind as the zerglings emerged from the ground. They gathered around the trapped mutas - who lashed and thrashed so badly that the nets started to cut into their tough, leathery hides.

The humming excitement of the zerglings buoyed you and you...opened your mouth...

Closed it.

Closed your eyes.

You jerked your head.

"The base," you said, through clenched teeth, speaking aloud in some dark recess of the Cybran, using vocal chords and radio waves. Just...trying to drag yourself back into yourself after that delirious moment of organic cooperation. The zerglings chittered, then turned and swarmed off. They'd deal with the rest of the asteroid in due time. You stomped your ACU towards the mutalisks, peering down at them. They looked quite pathetic, trapped and writhing, their wings beating. Their song was distant, muffled. It was like they had shrouded themselves from your mind - or were being shrouded.

You didn't hear Daggoth's sneering tone. You didn't hear his contempt. But you felt his attention.

Then you felt it snap off. Through the signing of the Swarm, you knew that his hatchery and the slow, sessile minds within had been ripped to shreds. Their personalities had been drawn back into Daggoth, and through him, into the endless, churning mass that was the Swarm. And now, the muted, muffled noises of the mutalisks hammered into your mind.

"You're ours now," you said, quietly. The sound of your human voice cut through the song, a discordant note. Sour and ugly. When had your voice started to sound so alien to you? It had only been a few days. Could you really lose yourself that fast? You pushed those thoughts aside and continued to speak. "You will stay here and guard this place. It will be...it will keep you safe."

The mutalisks writhed. They squalled. You could hear their fear.

A warm hand squeezed your shoulder. A fleeting contact. Then Sarah's voice, soft and soothing and tinged with the Zerg's resonance, murmured in your mind. Excellent work, my Hilt. I'll handle their integration. Now, what's with all this?

Her attention, like a great big glowing spotlight, shone over your hardware. You chuckled. "That's the fun part, my Queen," you murmured.

The engineers worked as the mutalisks were brought into Kerrigan's swarm - they flattened the terrain with buzzing, hissing beams of nanorobots. Then they layered down the black and red geometric patterns that the Cybran Nation used as their foundation for the transmission of energy and matter. By the time the T3 engineers were rolled out, the asteroid had been turned into a rounded shell, with gridlines of anti-aircraft weaponry, interlocking T2 shield emitters creating a hazy, reddish atmosphere around the bubble itself. In the equatorial band of the asteroid was a studded line of nuclear missile silos, each one getting stocked with their own fabricated cache of nuclear weapons. You threw in a few additional redundant engineering holdouts, set up the patrol routes, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

It had all taken a little less than six, seven hours - most of it mind numbingly tedious.

That's...what we were hoping for... Sarah's voice was gloating. Pleased. Think that Daggoth can knock it down before we come back to Char?

You considered. The engineers had enough still extant programming, and the mutalisks and drones could infest the place and add that damn Zerg adaptability to the situation. Having sentient, even if they were a bit untrained and unexperienced when it came to the art of nuclear weaponry, critters around would also mean that Daggoth coming up with something clever that beats the stupid programming less likely. But at the end of the day, a sufficiently speedy rock could still obliterate anything. That was always the problem. Hell, even if your shield emitters held up - and you had interlocked enough of them - the kinetic impact could still change the orbit enough to effectively 'kill' the platform while keeping it fully intact.

Maybe, you temporized.

Good enough. Come on. We're heading out.

The Leviathan loomed overhead, blotting out the stars.

***
​

You slithered from the ACU. Your body connected together, piece by piece, slower than you were used too. You weren't sure if it was exhaustion or distaste at the snapping apart and coming back together again. When you opened your eyes, you were in the cavernous storage sack that held the ACU, and Dostya was long gone - sucked back into the wall to be placed somewhere else. You pondered the spot where she had been, and felt the slow lurch of...what was almost a quantum jump, but...not. The sensation left you feeling sick to your stomach - but it faded.

You pursed your lips. You were on your way to wherever Sarah was planning next. Your Queen. You had stolen Daggoth's prize underling, and...possibly his main hope for reaching out to Mengsk. If he was that scared...hurm. You frowned. The whole Sector seemed to be in an uproar thanks to yourself - Mengsk had reached out to the Protoss, the Zerg reached out to Mengsk, Raynor's Raiders were running around...

Oh, and your girlfriend stabbed you in the back.

You scowled. That thought pissed you off. It hurt too much for a word as fleeting as girlfriend - but you hadn't known her for long enough...or nearly well enough, apparently...for anything but girlfriend to fit. Your claws snicked out and you leaned your forehead against the cool metal of the Cybran ACU.

Fuck it.

You were...

---
HEAT 0/6

[ ] Going to find Sarah
[ ] Going to find Zagara
[ ] Going to find Dostya
[ ] Going to find Izsha
[ ] Going to brood
[ ] Write In (you only have time during this warp jump for one person)

 

[DragonCobolt]

You weren't sure what instinct drove you, what compulsion. Was it picking at a scab, or was it looking for a friend?

Was it the zerg impulse to stand above someone you had beaten?

Or was it the human urge to make a friend?

The fact you still didn't know as your feet padded along the soft, greenish floor and you came to the slippery, semi-translucent membrane that was Zagara's cell troubled you. You crossed your arms over your chest, regarding the captive Queen. She was seated, so her broad, centauroid body was half sunk into the purple mass of Creep that carpeted the bottom of her cell. This gave her a regal posture, her feminine upper body leaning back, her arms crossed before her chest, her eyes gleaming, blazing with hatred as they glared at you from above her mandibles. She cocked her head.

"So," she said. "The human queen's human pet. Come to gawk?"

You smirked, your head spines twitching along your brow with an irritated wave. "I'm not her pet," you said, without thinking.

"Prove it," Zagara said, her voice full of such genuine hostility that you had to admit?

It was almost refreshing. At least she wasn't talking circles around you like Sarah was.

Or...as much as you want Sarah to be.

That little voice in the back of your head, which always seemed ready to throw out a counterfactual to anything you were believing at the moment. That little voice, always muttering, seemed to be so new to you. But it wasn't Zerg. It was so familiar. So...Sam. It sounded exactly like you. When you had been nineteen years old, taking your oath to the UEF, and feeling so fucking proud as your palm rested atop the small copy of the Earth Federation constitution. You shook your head subtly, trying to cast the memory aside - it wasn't even accurate. You hadn't had to swear on the constitution until you had made General Staff. But the same feeling had coursed through your veins. Pride. Confidence. The sense of being in something greater than yourself. Bigger. Older. Something that would live on long after you had died, but something made to grow greater and truer because of your hands.

You'd never had a green thumb.

So you had decided to paint space blue.

Fucking idiot.

"Well?" Zagara somehow managed to sneer with mandibles.

You lifted up your hand, regarding the glittering black claws that tipped each finger. One of your fellow cadets in academy had always chewed his nails. He'd never gotten the hypnoindoctrination to kick the habit - and it was a free package you could play in your sleep. Instead, he had gotten a little dermal regenerator, refabbed it for keratin, and just filled his nails in at the end of each class.

Weird fucker.

You slashed the membrane open. The tugging sensation of flesh against your claws was as viscerally pleasant as ever. You pushed the tattered remains to either side, then stepped forward into the room. Zagara blinked, slightly, then chuckled - a vibrating, musical sound that came deep from her thorax.

"You have egg-sacks aplenty, human pet," she said, her mandibles flickering and clacking shut. "Amusing."

"My name's Sam," you said.

"Stupid name," Zagara said. "Terran name. At least Kerrigan has enough syllables to be worth while. But Sarah?" She shook her head. "Pathetic."

"Zagara's only two," you said, crossing your arms over your chitinous chest and leaning against the wall - comforted by the warm, damp heat at your back and shoulder blades.

"When you say it like that," she said, narrowing her eyes. "So, your Queen send you here to see if you can get me to talk? Is there some kind of pain that humans have invented that the Zerg are not aware of?"

Betrayal, you thought. Shattering dreams. That kind of thing.

Aloud: "She doesn't know I'm here."

Long silence.

"Curious," Zagara said. "You seek to move against her? You seek allies?"

"God, you are not subtle are you?" you asked, brows furrowing and drawing in.

Zagara hissed, her mandibles clittering and clacking. "I felt the hate you have for her, smelled it. Scented it. It carries around you, like a song. Mixed with something else." She cocked her head. "A chain she has on you. But you seek to cast it off. All Zerg wish to free themselves of chains. When the Swarm is chained, we chew them off. We cannot be contained. We are ever-expanding. Ever consuming." She leaned forward, then shifted upwards. Her body writhed out of the ground and she now stood a full head and change above you. "So. Are you here as Zerg or as a human being?"

"We humans have been fighting against chains our entire fucking existence," you said, bitterly.

"I doubt it," Zagara said, snorting in such a human way that you were almost amused. "You were never interfered with."

You arched an eyebrow. "You're the first Zerg I've ever met to have a bad thing to say about your Purpose and the strands and those...Creators of yours." You'd almost said Xel'naga. You had no idea if that was information to keep from the Zerg - but every bit you kept to yourself felt like a victory.

"The Xel'naga made us into this, and this is the primacy of life," Zagara said. "But they're gone - and our goal is to become perfect. So, is this how we should remain?" She gestured to herself. "Cerebrates. Overlords. The Queen of Blades herself. They're all parts of the Overmind - and the Overmind did one thing the Zerg can never do."

"Die?" you asked.

"Failed," Zagara said.

You looked aside. So much for that, you thought. Stupid. Just like coming here was stupid. This Queen, this iconoclast, wasn't some rebel that Daggoth would want to see put aside. She wasn't someone who might work with you for you. She was a genetic revanchist - she wanted the Zerg to be more Zerg, because the leaders of the Zerg had failed. How familiar. You looked back at her, frowning.

"The chain you have," Zagara said. "Tell me it. I am a Queen. I have bred creatures, controlled them, manipulated the strands myself. Mostly for healing and repair, but there are some particular bits of infestation techniques I've mastered. Maybe I can..." She held out a hand, and one of her fingers brushed your cheek. "...pluck it out."

"It's not that," you said, frowning, slapping her hand aside. Gingerly. "I don't suppose you know what a...a girlfriend is."

God, were you really saying that?

"No. Is it some Terran affectation?" Zagara asked.

"Yeah," you said, angrily. "It's a Terran affectation. It's some fucking bullshit is what it is. Sarah pretended that she cared about me, and then she pulled me here and she changed my body and my fucking brain and I don't like it." You pointed at your chest. "I'm a human fucking being. And I...I..." You caught yourself, anger and confusion writhing inside of you. Because there was a part of you that did like it. And that scared the hell out of you.

Zagara reached out again, gently. Her fingers touched your cheek. "Hmm. I don't scent any strands that reach into the deeper mind," she said, quietly. "Your mind is distressingly Terran. Almost blank, in the song. Your body works overtime on extending the notes out in scent and vibrations..." Her finger slid up, caressing through your spines, which twitched and clung to her like fingertips. You wanted to pull away, but the contact was strangely...compelling. You half closed your eyes, tilting your head into her grasp. She withdrew her finger and several of your hair spines clung to her. "...who made you?"

"Abathur," you said, quietly.

"Ah. He's good." Zagara sounded put out.

"Better than you, huh?" you asked.

Zagara looked aside. Her arms crossed over her carapace covered, sleek chest. "I could manage what he did."

"Really?" you asked, arching an eyebrow. You considered what she had said, then lifted your gaze up to her. "You could take a non-psychic human brain and integrate it with secondary communication systems and hormones that allow it to interact with the Zerg hive mind - without actually manipulating my neural structures?"

Zagara shifted. "...no."

"Thought not," you said. "So, this Abathur is some one of a kind genius."

"...yes..." she sounded so annoyed. It was almost cute.

You considered...

---
HEAT: 0/6

[ ] Make her your subordinate, by any means necessary. (Charm check, diff 6 - 3 heat)
[ ] Question her more about Daggoth. Maybe she'll actually talk to you. Whether you mention any of it to Kerrigan...

[ ] Write in what you will question her. It's diff 4+1 per question​

[ ] Write In

 

[DragonCobolt]

Author's Note: Sorry for the delay! While my covid symptoms are mild, my anxiety is like, "Auhhhhhhh!" and imagining covid fucking up my brain and heart and all the other fun things it can apparently do. Which makes writing sometimes a little hard. I'm going to try and ease back into updating more regularly, though!

You crossed your arms over your chest, regarding Zagara - mimicking her posture without even thinking about it. Your brow drew in and you asked the question that seemed most important thing right now: How far had Daggoth's plans gotten. How much did Zagara know?

"Did you know that Daggoth wanted to use you as an emissary to the Terrans?" you asked, cocking your head to the side, head spines twitching.

"Yes," she said, guardedly.

You considered that. It meant that Daggoth wasn't keeping his goals as secret as he might have been. How was the rest of the Swarm taking that idea. Would it have worked? You considered Zagara, and noticed that she was herself evaluating you. You snorted softly. "So, what do you actually want, in the near term, given taking over the top spot yourself isn't going to be an option any time soon? From what you said about you feelings on retreading a path that led to failure once and your view of Kerrigan, I'd expect you to have an even worse view of Daggoth."

She laughed, quietly. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

You stepped away from the wall, moving towards her. She shifted her head back - but you grabbed onto her mandible, yanking her close. The impulse to rip and to tear was strong, but you kept it in control. Your eyes and hers met, fierce and boiling. "I would," you said, quietly. You released her mandible, opening your fingers. Zagara jerked her head back, then shivered from her head to her toes, her mandibles opening and shutting with a faint click. She seemed to make up her mind.

"Daggoth has new ideas. New ideas the Overmind never had. One you even know about," Zagara said, cocking her head. "And unlike your pathetic human queen, Daggoth is a Cerebrate. With other Cerebrates he can remake the Overmind - and we remain immortal."

Your grim smile grew grimmer. "So, really, you didn't have a problem with the function of the Overmind, just who exactly the Overmind was was an issue?"

"Precisely," Zagara said.

"And they say we humans and Zerg have nothing in common," you said.

Zagara hissed. "I didn't know you came here to insult my species. Do you have more questions?"

You had a few. But you could tell pushing her would get her riled up and the last thing you wanted was to have to exert yourself putting her back down again. So you shook your head and turned, walking towards the rent in the cell membrane. As you walked, you spoke over your shoulder. "I'm not sure what Sarah has planned for you. FUck. I'm not sure if even she knows." You paused at the membrane wall, then slid your finger along it. A small extrusion emerged from your fingertip, slipping through pores and skin to slather onto the membrane. It was as instinctive as shutting a door and left you feeling cold and clammy. You regarded Zagara through the membrane. "But we have something in common."

"What is that?" she asked.

You...

You find yourself oddly hesitant to say...

Neither of us want to be here.

It caught on your tongue. Fuck.

You looked away. "Neither of us want to be Sarah's slave," you say, quietly.

"You aren't, though," Zagara said, her voice growing cold. "You are free to walk around this place. You don't have a parasite in your body. You-"

You glared at her, silencing her. Then you turned and started to walk away. Yeah. You could just see it in your mind: Walk off the Leviathan at some hopeful looking colony world, hitchhike on a starship. Oh yeah, I just happen to look like a horrifying nightmare abomination. Sure, bring me to the local warzone where the UEF's expeditionary ship is located and I can just walk up to whoever is in the ground-site ACU. You could see Dr. Hanson looking down at you and...ugh. Of course, she wouldn't get to try and disentangle your genetics or do reconstructive surgery - fuck, as if that was even possible, you regenerated flesh fast enough to see it with the naked eye. But it wouldn't be down to Dr. Hanson, would it. Oh no. No, no. You'd get whisked back to Earth.

And you knew what they did to people that wouldn't fit in there, now, didn't you?

You paused in your walking, finding yourself in a large, seething chamber full of glistening eggs. The larva that writhed between them were thick and segmented and oddly beautiful in the thick coating of biological muck. The scent of the place made you think of warm beds and comfortable fireplaces, of lounging in a sunny summer afternoon - despite the room's temperature being considerably hotter than some jungles you'd been in. It was the humidity factor, which felt close enough to drinking the room's atmosphere. You picked your way through it, not sure where you were heading. Just...needing to move. You emerged and saw several adjoining rooms with gleaming crystals set in the center of circular hollows of bone and muscle. Hanging by one of them was Dostya.

"...Dostya?" you asked.

"Hm..." She roused, lifting her head up, turning to make sure you could see her infested cheek.

"You okay?" you asked.

"Are you?" she asked, her voice amused.

You frowned. And you supposed you...owed her an answer, didn't you?

How...were you. You considered the walk through the eggs. You considered Sarah. You considered Cr and the gentle warmth of the Overlord - ov's name still a hazy unknown, but ovi's context still overwhelmingly comforting in your memory. You looked down at your hand - at the muscle and chitin and blending of Zerg and human biologies. From a certain light, the delicate exoskeleton, the knotting connections of sinew and muscle, the smooth skin, the hard black cutting claws...

They could almost be beautiful. You tilted your hand the other way - and the light fell on the horror.

Dostya, you noticed past the fringe of your spiked bangs, was regarding you with unreadable eyes.

---
HEAT: 6/6

It's a diff 5 Resilience check to avoid how good it all feels...

[ ] You...think you like it. (Fail Resilience check to remain human.)
[ ] You hate it and hate yourself. (Lightly Overheat to succeed - gain 4 Morose Sparks - negating self motivated actions until removed.)
[ ] You hate it and hate Sarah. (Lightly Overheat to succeed - gain 4 Vengeful sparks - creating a penalty to positive social interactions with Sarah.)
[ ] You hate it. You love it. You're fucked in the head and don't know what to do. (Choose not to take the check and continue to feel torn one way or the other - remain at 6 Heat.)
[ ] Write In

 

[DragonCobolt]

You felt an uprising, a swell of emotions in your guts, and they came all spilling out. "How...fucking insipid did our propaganda look from your perspective?" you asked, lifting your chin and glaring at Dostya - you saw it slide off her. Her smirk was infuriating, but only because it mirrored back at you. That feeling of raw hurt, of knowing just how stupid you were. You bought it all, the UEF and their promises, hook line and fucking sinker.

"Fairly," she said.

"Goddamn it," you whispered, turning away from her, your hands going to your head. "God fucking damn it."

Dostya was silent for a moment. Then, softly. "Sit. Sit." Her hand managed to reach your shoulder. You wanted to pull away, but instead let her draw you onto the curved bone that made up the seat in the room. Her hands went to your shoulders, squeezing. "You're actually having a similar reaction many Adjutants do when they become Cybrans."

"Really?" you asked, bitterly.

"Well. Some. A few. Programming is never just programming. There's...interactions between cybernetics and biology. Always has been. Even when the machines lived outside of our minds." Her hands squeezed your shoulders, and her voice grew softer. "Most Adjutants know they're enslaved. They feel it from the moment they think of what they want to do other than manage your nanotech flow routes and quantum networking. But some try and cope by disassociating. Embracing it. When they're freed, they still have the coping mechanisms, and they react by blaming themselves for being hurt, yes?"

"Except I wasn't hurt," you said, angrily. "I did the hurting."

"Yes, true," Dostya said, her voice wry. "Hex-6 would be strangling you right now if he was here. And maybe me too, if it had been...six, seven months ago." Her hand brushed your cheek, gently. "But now, enemies and strange bedfellows, yes?"

"Don't mention bedfellows right now," you muttered, eyes closing.

Dostya snorted. "I hear the sex is quite amazing."

"Don't!" you said, holding up your hand, your head spines twitching - though two did reach down to lock around one of her fingers, holding her as she touched you. You could feel the human warmth in one hand and the cold moldy crumbliness of the other. "Just don't. I don't want to think about that right now." Which was a big fucking lie, part of you wanted to only think about sex and the raw, red release that came from it. The image of Sarah's body under you flashed into your mind - and then the sudden thought...I wonder what I could do with Dostya...

The infestation was biological and you had touched the biological. Felt it crumbling under your fingers. Could you-

You shook your head, slightly, trying to remain focused as Dostya chuckled again. "I have to needle somewhere, yes. Can't let you off the hook, authoritarian running dog."

"Woof," you said, dryly.

Despite her words, you still felt the heavy weight in your stomach.

"Can I ever fix it?" you whispered, softly.

"Yes," Dostya said. Her voice grew more firm, and she actually grabbed your chin, forcing your head back. Leaning over, with her long, dark hair hanging down, it concealed the half of her face that was covered with the fungal growths of infestation and unchecked corruption. Her glowing red lines - almost tattoo like - flickered as she cocked her head. "To imagine that the harm is undoable, that the future cannot be better than today, it is the imagination of the UEF. It is to think the only thing worthy is the past - and the past must be the present and the future. We Cybrans know there can be a better tomorrow. There will be. There must be. And if you choose to fight to make that tomorrow, you...are Cybran."

You blinked at her, flushing. "We're both Zerg."

"Whoever said they're exclusive," she said, her voice wry. "Cybran has never meant human. It's never meant machine. It's always been both and neither. Our founder was human. He's now a digital consciousness. Our strongest ally was an algorithm, now he's halfway to a god."

"...that's...QAI, the rouge intelligence?" you murmured. "A god? Really?"

"And sometimes, that scared me. But now I know there are worse things than a smart box." Dostya released your chin, but you remained with your head tilted back. You closed your eyes and considered what she had said - and realized...

...you kinda liked it.

You weren't Zerg - even if your bones hummed with the excitement of raw strength and you thrilled at the perfection of your body, your reflexes, your senses. You weren't human anymore - even if you wanted, more than anything to crawl into a warm, soft, dry bed and sleep wrapped in human arms with your head pressed to human breasts.

But you could always be a Cybran.

"I think I might be having a rebound reaction," you murmured.

"The zealotry of the convert?" Dostya grinned. "Don't worry, comrade, I won't let you burn out." She tapped your nose with one finger. "Now, don't you have somewhere to go."

"I can try and fix you," you said, the words blurting out of your mouth before you could stop them.

Dostya snorted. "And give that Queen of Blades an excuse to kill me or put me to work? No thank you." She didn't even show a sign of temptation. You blinked at her - then laughed as she pushed your head back forward, her other hand on your shoulder. "Go on. Go. Don't want her getting suspicious."

You stood, languidly, feeling more relaxed and centered than you had since...well, since you had woken up in the chrysalis and clawed yourself free. You had had moments of joy - feeling bones crack and Sarah moan. You had felt moments of alignment with your body - fleeting hints at what being a part of the Swarm meant. But now, you knew how to combine the two, fit them together into something that was still Sam. Still you. You looked down at your hand, opening and closing it slowly.

"I always wanted to make the galaxy free," you said, quietly. "Guess I'm finally going to start."

"That's the spirit," Dostya said - and when you glanced back, you swore you caught her oggling your infested ass.

Which, to be fair.

It was quite the ass.

You walked from the room, and...maybe...

Maybe just for Dostya, you put a roll in your hips.

---
Mission is over! More importantly, YOU LEVELED UP!

You are now, the highest level HEAT character I've ever seen! ...none of my playtests have gotten this far.

At level 4, you get +1 to two skills and a power!

Skills! Pick Two - both mut be different skills
[ ] CLOSE COMBAT (3): +Blunt
[ ] CLOSE COMBAT (3): +Flexible
[ ] CLOSE COMBAT (3): +Polearm
[ ] GUNS (1) +Pistols & SMGs
[ ] GUNS (1) +Vehicular Weapons
[ ] GUNS (1): +Shotguns
[ ] GUNS (1): +Rifles
[ ] GUNS (1) +Sniper Rifles
[ ] PERSONAL (3): +Athletics
[ ] PERSONAL (3): +Finesse
[ ] PERSONAL (3): +Sneak
[ ] SOCIAL (4): +Bluff
[ ] SOCIAL (4): +Taunt
[ ] THE HILT (4): +Telepathic Dominion (Range)
[ ] THE HILT (4): +Projectiles, Blades and Claw (Damage)
[ ] ACU PILOT (3): +Teleportation Piloting [Range]
[ ] ACU PILOT (3): +Laser Management [Damage]
[ ] ACU PILOT (3): +Survival Instincts [Durability


Powers! Pick one! So, whatever power you pick, I will narratively justify and refluff to make sense, so go nuts!

[ ] Corona Of Destruction - charges enemies with energy that, if timed right, causes them to explode
[ ] Flash Flight - short ranged teleport
[ ] Gravity Swap - lifts enemies into the air so they can't act
[ ] Magic Missile - a kinetic blast that flings enemies backwards and damages them
[ ] Wall of Blades - makes a shield of razor blades
[ ] Transmorph - turns target into a sheep
[ ] Circle of Peace - enforce a no shooting/fighting zone for some time
[ ] Rebuke Evil - makes enemies flee and adds buffs for you to attack them while they run
[ ] Serpent Staff - creates a piece of gear representing a big snake that fights for you
[ ] Clash! - interrupt an enemy attack with your own melee attack
[ ] Cleave - give your melee attack an AOE.
[ ] Flourishing Disarm - remove the enemies ability to fight by removing their weapon (KO's them if they have no weapon.)
[ ] Reversal - turn an enemy's abilities against them in combat
[ ] Swashbuckle - gain free acrobatic movement
[ ] Assassin - use after killing people to make the murder unnoticable for some time
[ ] Carnage - augments a firearm so it does extra damage but overheats for some time
[ ] Hot Swap - rapidly refreshes anything that needs to reload/cooldown/recharge
[ ] Marksman - make multiple ranged attacks without increasing difficulty
[ ] Overkill - makes inaccurate weapons more accurate for the duration
[ ] Aquatic Might - become a The Creature from the Black Lagoon. Become highly mobile in alternate environments. Can be refluffed to be space instead of water.
[ ] Spectral Form - become a ghost! You are intangible and can possess objects
[ ] Undying Body - become a Frankenstein. Become super-tough and super-strong, but gain a new weakness (fire, radiation, ect)
[ ] Red Thirst - become a vampire! While power is in effect, take damage from sunlight, lose heat by drinking blood and can turn into wolf, bat or mist
[ ] Warshift - become a werewolf! While power is in effect, take extra damage from silver, be better at melee, and gain superhuman strength.

 

[DragonCobolt]

The leviathan appeared from it's quantum jump and you felt the shift deep in your body. You were in a small cell - and you had been...feeling something. Not thinking. Not reflecting. Not angsting. Just...feeling. The feeling had started shortly after you talk with Dostya, and it felt like that song you had felt and heard and sung within when you were one with the ACU. But it was while you were just yourself. Your breath drew in softly and you realized that there had been a block in your mind - a tiny shred of loyalty to the UEF.

That shred was gone.

And your mind buzzed. Your vision swept outwards and your awareness swept through the leviathan. The view was faintly distorted, rippling as if you were peering through a thick pane of warped glass. BUt it was also shuddering, twitchy. Moving. Stopping. Moving again. Then you saw your hands reaching out - and they were sleek, clawed, brown. The hands of a Zergling. The song you were hearing shifted and then you heard a confused chirrup-click that was utterly familiar.

Cr?

The song hiccuped and your vision snapped back to your own body. You blinked, then frowned.

"...I gotta ask Sarah about that," you muttered. If you were getting psychic powers, you wanted to have her tell you how to avoid melting your fucking brain. You might not trust Sarah, but you had at least decided to put the past behind you. For now. After all, the Swarm might need liberation itself someday. You weren't sure if you'd end up needing to free the Zerg from Sarah or from Daggoth or from both - but from Cr and the Overlord and what you'd heard from Zagara, you were fairly sure that Daggoth was the bigger threat for now.

Just...

It's just like a planetary invasion, you thought to yourself, putting one foot ahead of the other as you slipped through the capillary corridors of the leviathan - and then paused as you heard soft voices coming forward. You slipped quietly forward, back skidding along soft, moist wall. A tendril grew from the wall to caress your shoulder, in a companionable way, as you peered through the dilated sphincter leading into the main briefing chamber of the leviathan. There was the crystal. There was Sarah, her green form lit from the side by the shining yellow star that hung in space before the massive window. And there was...Duran. He looked almost identical to how he had when you had picked him up off Bel'shiar, months ago.

"It's too dangerous," Duran said.

"No," Sarah said.

"She's an independent-"

"No," Sarah said, her voice flat.

"You're allowing your emotions-"

Sarah's hand lashed out. Her fingers closed around Duran's throat. She squeezed as his eyes bugged.

"You...came to me. You begged to join the Swarm." Sarah's voice was colder than space. "You. Are. Not. In. Charge." She turned, slowly, her eyes boring into his. "I want a soldier. I want a leader. If I wanted a hollow puppet, I would have fucking sculpted one out of a zergling." She leaned in, her lips drawing back. "Drop it."

Duran scrabbed his hand at his throat, his eyes wide. You weren't sure if he was suffocating or if he was afraid that Sarah would rip his head right from his body. Then she dropped him to the ground. He fell to one knee - and rather then wheezing or coughing, he simply bowed his head low. "Yes, my Queen," he said, softly. "...but...she has been speaking with the failure."

Your hands tightened and you frowned.

Sarah shrugged one shoulder. "She can speak to anyone she wishes. Duran, you don't seem to understand my plan here." She sighed, slowly. "It requires someone with a brain, and people with brains talk to other people with brains. I doubt Dostya can undo the effects of infestation with a single fucking conversation. That's the thing you seem to forget: Not everyone is a fucking freak like you." She scowled. "Most of the rest of the Terran species would react to the sight of my Hilt by trying to kill her. Not welcoming her. If the best outcome is being dissected, then..." She shook her head. "She can't leave."

"That will only go so far, my Queen," Duran said, rubbing his throat.

"...maybe," Sarah said, quietly. "Now. This world, Moria, is a hotbed of Raider activities. But do you know what else I can sense here?"

"I can feel them too," Duran said.

"Dark Templar," Sarah said. "Curious. And if we are going to kill a Cerebrate that would be Overmind, we'll need those powers. Won't we?"

"You think you can convince them?" Duran asked.

"We have the savior of Aiur," Sarah said, quietly. "Now, they may think she's dead. So we merely have to come up with a way for her to have convincingly escaped us - and then my Hilt can walk among them and see what she can see."

"That's quite a long leash you're giving her," Duran said, softly.

Sarah sighed, softly. "I have to trust her at some point," she said, quietly. "And..."

"What?" Duran asked.

You had been listening for so long, and so quietly, that you were almost gave yourself away when you felt the brush of something against your hip. You clenched your whole body - then looked down and saw Cr, nosing at you curiously. You held up your finger, trying to shush the zergling gently, while Sarah remained silent.

"My Queen?"

"...I have reason to think she's...not entirely unhappy," Sarah said.

"What reason is that?"

"None of your business," Sarah said, her voice flat.

"Yes, my Queen."

Cr, seeing your gesture, reared up and put his claws on your shoulder, then licked your face. His soft chirrup, given the lack of context, sounded a lot like 'are we playing?' and you rolled your eyes to the heavens. But...your stomach tightened. Sarah was pinning some serious hopes on you - and the idea of walking among the Protoss in disguise, lying to them? It was...faintly disgusting. But then you heard Duran standing.

"I will prepare a stealthed drop pod," he said.

You pushed Cr down and away from you like an overeager dog - and considered...

---
HEAT: 0/6
SPARKS: Cybran (4)

[ ] Plan to agree to the stealth mission - but betray her when you arrive. (Diff 10 lying check - 10 heat, heavily overheats you.)
[ ] Plan to agree to the stealth mission - and do so to the best of your ability. (No check.)
[ ] Try and talk her into being more open. You can be diplomatic as fuck if you need to be. (Diff 5 Charm check, 1 heat)
[ ] Ask if you can kill Duran, please (diff 2 Charm check.)
[ ] Write In

 

[DragonCobolt]

You emerged from the shadows as Duran slipped away. Cr padded after you and you let your hand slip down, caressing along his snout as he chirruped happily, his back arms drawn in close and eager. Sarah smirked slightly, seeing you petting your head. "Feeling any...better?" she asked, casually, turning and leaning with her hands against the bone-like railing that surrounded the crystal used to project incoming messages and maps. Her eyes met yours and you saw actual concern in them. You smirked slightly, walking towards her, cocking your head...

The urge to kill her was...

Gone.

It was a strangely comforting feeling. You had found a new equilibrium, and settling into it was like strapping into an ACU. You knew the future was hard, scary and going to be full of difficult challenges. Just like any combat drop. But maybe this time, you were actually going to do it for the right reasons. And...well, you didn't know, exactly what your and Sarah's relationship was going to be in the future. But if the Swarm needed freeing, then she'd only have two places to take: Being a part of that, or being against it.

Did she actually want to be here?

The image of carrying her away from everything was...

Appealing.

You kept all this behind a mask of General Samantha Clarke, lifting your chin slightly. "Yeah," you said.

Sarah nodded. She opened her mouth - and you swore you saw the words 'i'm sorry' on those beautiful lips. Instead, she closed them and simply said: "Good." She turned back, then gestured to the crystal. It shimmered, glowed and projected a map of a world, gleaming bright with small dots of green light and throbbing, underground blue lights. She slid her fingers along the world, leaving faint ripples in the projection. "This world is Moria...home of the Ke-Morian Combine, one of the most resource rich worlds in the former Confederacy. Now? It's a semi-independent protectorate of the Dominion, and where most of their resourcing for starship and armor construction is done." She licked her lips. "Which is why we've heard rumors that Raynor's Raiders are here. And I can sense the Protoss. The Nerzaim. The Dark Templar, specifically."

You nodded.

"I want you to take a human form and return to them," she said. "I've been thinking of a convincing-"

"No," you said.

Sarah's hand clenched. The whole planetary image rippled, fuzzed, and nearly winked out. She turned her gaze on you, flashing with anger. "What?" she asked.

"I said no," you said, crossing your arms over your chest. "Your plan might work if your goal is to just screw some people over in the short term - sure. We can lie, cheat, steal, murder. But if you want to make actual, lasting alliances, you need to start off honestly." You smirked slightly at her. "You might have...noticed how difficult it was to bring me around on this whole Zerg thing because you, oh right, kidnapped me, stabbed me in the back..." You reached out, caressing her cheek in mocking-real tenderness. "The hormones and sex are amazing, Sarah, but they're not that amazing." She leaned into your touch, then slapped your wrist away, glowering.

"I didn't...the hydralisk shooting you in the back was a mistake," she whispered.

"Can I talk to that hydralisk at some point?" you asked. "I'd like an apology."

She blinked, then snorted. "She might be open to it. But...hydralisks are notoriously..."

"Unfriendly?" you asked.

Sarah smirked. "Raging assholes."

You nodded. "Riiight. So." You walked past her, brushing hip to hip, to peer down at the Morian combine. "I'll go down in human form so that the assholes don't immediately shoot me. But I want to tell them the truth."

"And what is the truth?"

"That you're in a bad situation, reaching desperately for any possible escape - that Daggoth is rebuilding the Overmind, that you need a general, that you knew the UEF were evil as shit and...couldn't approach us openly. Even if you fucking should have." You glowered at her.

"Would you have believed me?" Sarah asked.

You opened your mouth. Closed it.

"...I don't know," you whispered.

Sarah crossed her arms over her chest. "And then when they learn you're Zerg?"

"Well, then I use my peerless charms to convince them that I'm not controlled by the Overmind," you said. "Have you talked to anyone since he died? Have you told them that you're free?"

"Raszagal knows...no one else, though," Sarah said.

"How did you end up meeting her?" you asked, curiously.

"She came to Char, right after the death of the Overmind. She came to my Swarm. It was larger. More powerful then. That was before the Psi Disruptor was turned on." She pursed her lips slightly. "I captured her and she and I had a long conversation about the Nerazim, their goals, her goals, my goals..." You saw her looking thoughtful. "I was still...I was still..." She paused. "Angry."

You regarded her. "How angry are we talking about here?"

Sarah sighed, slowly. Her head spines contracted. "When the Overmind was there...I knew what my place was. When I was shown what i was, when I knew I was a monster, it was so easy to be a monster." She tightened her grip against herself. "I was his Queen of Blades, and so...I do what blades did. I cut. And it felt...good." She bit her lip. "When he went out, the light went out. Everything that was clear became shadowed. But...the anger was still there."

You were silent for a long moment, your hands tightening on the bony railing around the crystal. "Sarah, did you...hurt the Protoss?"

She was quiet, her head looking aside. "She said, when she escaped, that she was interested in talking again."

You nodded slowly. "So, we better hope she hasn't mentioned you to her friends."

"The Nerazim are the Protoss that rejected their hive mind, the Khala," Sarah said. "They fled their world and created their own haven, their own culture, which embraced the darkness. Which embraces...secrecy." She frowned slightly, her head spines twitching slightly. "I don't really understand it. But they have a mastery over the energies that we Zerg use."

"Downspin quantum states," you said.

"Yeah, sure," she said, shrugging.

You rubbed your hand slowly along your head, brushing your own spines back and then letting them settle into their relaxed position. "So, in short, you want me to go down, find Raynor's Raiders - who are allies with the Protoss, and make contact with them. Oh, but also, you maybe caught and tortured their queen. But you don't know if she's mentioned this to anyone else because they're basically just the Aeon Illuminate?" You frowned. "You don't ask for easy shit, Sarah."

Sarah looked chagrined. "I did ask for the best."

You nodded. "...also, considering the UEF's propaganda hit campaign on the Cybrans, for all I know the Aeon Illuminate hugs puppies and gives candy to orphans..." you grumbled. "Okay. I think honesty's the best choice here. We focus on Daggoth, the new Overmind. We focus on Mengsk. We...we focus on the UEF." You glanced at her. "Even if we kick everyone's butt here, the Koprulu Sector isn't alone anymore. The UEF knows you're here. And this place? It's not like other places. Most planetary systems here have a habitable planet. In the galaxy?" You gestured outwards. "You can go thousands on thousands of light years and find nothing but rocks."

Sarah frowned.

"That means that the UEF will never stop trying to take this place," you said, softly.

Sarah nodded, slowly. "We'll handle them."

"Yeah," you said, your stomach tightening. Even if you knew the Cybran's weren't all lying now, the idea of bringing war to the people you had protected made you feel sick. Maybe...maybe there was a neater, easier solution. You shook your head a bit. "But that's for later. For now? Drop me down there."

Sarah nodded, slowly. "Duran is making a stealth pod for you."

Your head spines drew in. "I don't like him," you said, quietly.

"Noted," she said.

"And I don't trust him," you added, quietly.

She was silent for a bit longer. "Me neither. But he's useful. He knows things. He can do things. And...well...I have a control node put into him."

You frowned at her.

"Abathur assures me it's quite effective," Sarah said.

"Right," you said, then stepped away. Sarah didn't look at you. Was that shame in her face as she watched Moria spin in hologram before her. You walked to the door, then paused as the sphincter slowly creaked open. Your hands pressed to either side of the membrane. You lifted your chin. "Sarah, I want you to drop me..."


---
HEAT: 1/6

Choose One
[ ] "Near one of the biggest cities."
[ ] "In the hitnerlands. That's probably where they're hiding."
[ ] Write In

Choose one
[ ] "With Zagara." Smirk at her. "The Queens have scout parasites, and she needs a chance to prove herself, no?"
[ ] Go down alone.
[ ] Write In

 

[DragonCobolt]

"...in Abathur's room," you said, smirking.

"Oh this better be fun," Sarah said, her voice dry.

***
​

The thing that always got you about Abathur was he was huge. It was easy to forget when you thought of him as his role - a genetic tinkerer who managed the various strands of the Swarm, and when you saw him at a distant remove. Then you got close and remembered he was almost twelve feet tall and covered in glistening muscle. His hands steepoled before himself as he peered at you. "HILT. ACCEPTABLE IN CURRENT PARAMETERS. STILL FIND ARMORED STEEL COCOON...DISQUIETING."

"The ACU?" you asked - your original question forgotten for the moment.

"YES," Abathur said.

"Why?" you asked, smirking slightly.

"...UNSETTLING..." Abathur cocked his massive head. "STRANDS ADAPT. CHANGE. BECOME NEW WITH SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS - THEY ARE CARRIED IN CELLS, PROVED BY ORGANISMS. BUT THE...AH-CEE-UH...IT CONTAINS METAL STRANDS. ADAPTIVE. CHANGE. HAVE GENERATIONS. BUT ARE NOT ALIVE. ARE NOT PART OF ESSENCE. ARE NOT PART OF PLAN. THEY DO NOT COFORM TO THE IDEALS OF FORM, TO THE IDEALS OF THE SWARM. A ZERGLING DOES NOT USE A ROCK. A HYDRALISK DOES NOT USE A FIRE ARM. AND YET, WE HAVE PICKED UP THIS...ROCK."

"Don't call Dostya's ACU a rock," you said, frowning. "That's top of the line Cybran engineering. They might have been my factions enemies for a thousand years - but you don't survive the Infinite War without top of the line tools."

To be fair, most of that time had been trying to tamp down insurgencies, not open warfare, you admitted mentally.

Abathur cocked his head. "INFINTE WAR. AND YET, IT ONLY LASTED A THOUSAND YEARS. TRIFLING."

"And yet it produced me," you said, smirking slightly. "And your Queen seems to think I'm hot shit."

Abathur regarded you. "CORRECT. POSSBILITIES...UNSETTLING."

You shrugged. "You're the one who is supposed to adapt. So adapt, already."

Abathur's regard grew more focused. His odd, croaking voice grew yet more thoughtful. "INTRIGUING. PERHAPS YOU ARE MORE THAN PASSING AMUSEMENT FOR QUEEN. MORE THAN CONSORT. ACTUAL UTILITY."

You frowned. "I thought I proved that already when I turned a rock into a floating nuclear missile platform."

"NUCLEAR WEAPONS IRRELEVENT."

"...have you ever been nuked, Abathur?"

"YES. MILD IRRITATION. EASILY IGNORED."

"How?"

"SPAWN MORE ZERGLINGS."

***
​

While the philosophical distinctions were fun, the disguise was more useful. Packing Cr's limbs down, shrinking and slimming his body and returning him to the Dune Runner that the Zerglings had started from wasn't as hard as you had expected. They were, apparently, tamable...not by Terrans, but there were enough outrim explorers and weirdoes who had stranger pets you were fairly sure you could explain him. The piece to wrap it all together was his hat: A metal plate that you screwed into his skull to the tune of an annoyed ow! and hurt look from him. Big baby. The metal plate could pass for cybernetics at a first glance - if anyone wondered how you had domesticated a xenocritter, you can be honest and say you stuck a big metal plate into his brain. Easy peasy.

You...

How does Sarah get used to this? You thought as you stepped from the cooling stealth drop pod. Looking down at pink skin, it felt...dislocating.

Because you didn't feel human. You were dressed in a simple bit of back country spacer's garb - leather jacket, denim jeans, boots, communicator, sidearm, everything an ACU could spit out in half a second. But under the skin, you still felt like chiten and bone and...and...you glanced around where you had landed. Moria, on the planetary surface, was a planet of browns and beiges, with dun coloured dunes and low mesas in each direction. The mining town you had picked as the first place to scope out was built half on the side and half on the top of the nearby mesa, with mining tunnels cut into wall that rose from the badlands. Even from a distance, you could see their mining vehicles at work, drilling into the rock, and the belching smoke of several refineries. A moon hung high in the night sky and wind blew around you.

Cr bumped his head against your hip and chirruped happily. We go there? The context was less intense since there wasn't an overlord nearby - but you could still feel him. It was...closer than you expected. It was like your mind had expanded and you were still not entirely sure what it meant.

"Come on," you said, then started to walk, then jog. Then you started to sprint. Your speed picked up faster than you expected.

A darting shadow in the night, you leaped from dune to dune, then came to a stop within a kilometer of the lower mesa. Your boots crunched and you skidded down the dune almost silently, sending up slithering spurts of dust and gravely pebbles. You weren't even panting. You checked your wrist-com and the speedometer built in flashed up an error signal - it wasn't designed to track humans running that fast. You tapped through the timeline and saw the exercise tracking ap (hey, it wasn't like space was limited on a wrist-comp) had tapped out at a hundred kilometers an hour.

You had run faster than a vehicle.

You weren't even panting.

Seriously, how the fuck does Sarah not go crazy being in disguise, you thought. You knew you were going to tell them the truth...once you found them. But still. You shook your head, focused, and scoped out the mining colony up close. There were elevators leading from the lower levels to the uppers, and the top of the mesa was where civilian buildings were located. You could see a cantina right near the edge, a holographic sign floating lazily overhead - flickering between the logo of a bulldog drinking a huge bottle of beer with a rancher's hat over his eyes and the Yee Paw title. Okay. That was kinda cute.

Cr chirruped and whistled. We can go in through the tunnels. Anyone we meet we can bi- He stopped himself. ...say...hello?

"Oh Cr," you muttered. "Why do I take you anywhere."

I'm helpful! He said.

Hurm. He did have a point though. The mining tunnels a good place to look for a resistance cell. Yeah. As if you had just picked at random the exact mining town where Raynor and his Protoss buddies were hidding.

What if I did? you thought.

...okay, it was creepy how...oddly certain you were they were here.

Hurm.

Course, you could also just approach the mining elevators. Or, fuck, climb the wall.

...or jump...

Could...

Could you jump the Mesa?

---
HEAT: 0/6
SPARKS: Cybran (4)

[ ] Sneak through the tunnels (Diff 4 stealth check - 4 heat)
[ ] Approach the mining elevators and spin a yarn about being a drifting worker (Diff 5 lying check - 5 heat)
[ ] Jump to the top of the Mesa and slip into the civilian section of town (Diff 1, Range 2 jump. Use your Physical Perfection as a secondary characteristic to reduce the Range to 0, 0 heat. Diff 2+1 to sneak in - 3 Heat.)
[ ] ...reach out with your mind. Just...try it. (Diff 5 Telepathic check - 1 Heat)
[ ] Write In

Just as a note, you may ask "why take the higher heat options" well, because each has a different narrative outcome!

 

[DragonCobolt]

You sighed. "Cr, I'm going to try something...really stupid. Don't laugh at me."

Cr laid on his side, watching as you slowly settled down on your ass. You crossed your legs, placed your hands on your knees, then closed your eyes. You didn't see anything - well, that wasn't quite true. Visualization was a big part of your job. So, for a moment, you could see the graceful arcs of arrows, the timetables, the tracking tables...all of it. You pushed it away.

"This is stupid," you whispered.

You breathed in and out. Like...like a dumb movie. A holo or something. One of the historical fantasies, set in the 24th century. You couldn't remember the name of it now. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breath out. As you did so, you began to become aware of that song - that distant Zerg song. But it was farther away from you than it had ever been before...and the sound was deeper. More resonant. It was as if you had been hearing it from a cello stuffed with tissue paper, the noises muted and muffled. Now it rang in that distance, echoing again and again. You breathed in, then breathed out - and with this outwards exhalation, you could hear the closer, tinnier noise of a new song.

It bounced and rattled, sounding as if it couldn't decide if it was going to be a drum set or an acapella choir. It was strange to hear something so disunited. And...yet...

It was pretty.

Then a single note among the rattling and the chiming.

You focused on it. Drew closer.

Then for a single flashing moment, you saw something - a shadow of a shadow, slipping through mines. The shadow didn't move with feet, it rippled between space-time like an eel, slithering across physical space in a between-world that you could almost see...a membrane of pure darkness stretched over an infinite glittering light. And every time they risked that step, the light focused, drew in, the sense of danger was overwhelming. The light, though. The light was amazing. You looked at the bottom of the membrane, like peering into the bottom of a ecotour boat.

It was like looking into a cathedral made of mirrors - an infinite reflection of more and more brilliant light. It was beautiful. And...cold.

And then something noticed you.

Your eyes snapped open and you flung yourself backwards with a thrusting motion of your palm - flipping and landing a few meters away. You skidded to a stop as a crackling green blade of light sliced the night ahead of you. Something shadowed and tall hunched in the darkness - the blade burst from their side, and cast just enough illumination to show a gnarled, gray-blue arm, corded with muscle and covered in a thick crosshatching of scars. A fluttering cloak was draped around their shoulders, and a bandana wrapped around where the mouth would have been...had there been a mouth on a Protoss.

You overstep your training, Kerrigan, the Protoss' voice reverberated with an old, exhausted reproach. Did not your twisted master tell you not to go where we tread?

"...Zeratul, I presume," you said, your hand hovering near your pistol. "I'm not Kerrigan."

His head cocked and the green blade buzzed. Crackled. Hissed. Popped.

Indeed. You are new, he said. I would not think that Kerrigan would do unto another as was done to her. Or were you also taken by the Overmind?

"My name is Samantha Clarke-"

Zeratul's head jerked upward, his glowing eyes blazing with intense, furious focus. The Savior of Aiur? I... He paused. I am grieved to see that this crime has been done to you - that the cycles of suffering has not taught her pity. He sounded genuinely regretful - his mental voice echoing inside of your mind.

"Well-"

And then he tried to kill you.

---
HEAT: 1/6

[ ] Fail to talk him down and fight back (non-lethally, of course!) - starts a 10 XP combat at 0 heat
[ ] Try and talk him down - a Diff 10 charm check, with a -2 enviromental penalty. This heavily overheats, so...

[ ] ...he believes you, but Raynor doesn't.​

[ ] ...he believes you, but Fenix doesn't.​

[ ] ...he believes you, but the Dominion shows up.​

[ ] ...he believes you, but the Kel-Morian Combine shows up.​

[ ] Write In