《The Fourth Faction》 Chapter 01 - A new beginning AN: ¡­ 1, 2, 3, 4, and now a fifth fiction... Expect slow releases after the first few chapters, I have to focus more on my first 3 stories, especially the first... You should recognise my source of inspiration after reading 2/3 of the chapter :D. ****************************** A lone scouting and exploration spaceship of human origin was traveling in the galaxy. The crew was composed of 2 teams, when one was in cold hibernation, the other was active. The spaceship came across a planet in the middle of a war. A war wich oppose 2 aliens species. The active team observed the situation from afar. Both sides were evenly matched, but already greatly weakened and about to destroy each other. It looked like the final battle, and it ended in mutual annihilation. The planet was ruined, most of its surface had become completely unhinabitable. The crew of the human spaceship decided to land at a certain location, where some remains of the alien species and their technology could be retrieved. They had to be quick because the cnditions on the ground were worsening very fast. After hastily recovering whatever they could, as they were leaving, reinforcement from both sides appeared from the subspace near the orbit of the planet, and immediately started fighting each other. The lone human ship was caugh in the middle of the battle, and as it was about to desperatly jump away from the system, it was hit by a powerfull energy beam fired by one side toward the other. It created a critical overload of the sub-space engine. While the front half of the ship was destroyed, the other was randomly launched in the subspace. It caused the content of the ship to be bathed in particles from the energy beam, coupled with subspatial radiations. The mutilated spaceship exited the subspace in a deserted area, and crashed on a frozen world, a planet completely covered in snow and ice. Even though it was only half of the spaceship remaining, some of its systems were still functional thanks to fail-safe. It tried to stop its high speed dive, to slow down and reduce the angle of descent using the remaining thrusters (AN: to think I had written proppeler before... What a terrible vocabulary mistake, a proppeler on a spaceship in a sci-fi fanfiction...). With the front half of the ship gone, the remaining half couldn''t see where it was going. That led it on the side of a mountain. By sheer luck it broke through a thin layer of ice and rock and slid into the steep and deep tunnel hidden behind. It came to a stop 500m inside the tunnel. The entrance had collapsed shortly after. Because the tunnel was barely large enough for the ship, and its walls were uneven, the ship broke appart even more, and some of the things it was carrying got ejected, including a certain container. The container continued to tumble down the tunnel for another 200m before coming to a stop at a wide, even place. It was broken and released it content, 7 pale purple and ovale shaped objects that rolled on the ground for a bit. They were eggs. Thanks to the layers of protection build in the container, most of them were still in a good state. The thin paterns on their surface were pulsating, indicating the things inside were still alive... And they were reaching maturity. ------- His consciousness was hazy, and he couldn''t keep it for long. He couldn''t feel anything either. It lasted for a little while... He started to feel things again, though he couldn''t see, hear, smell or even breath. He knew he was in a tight, damp and warm place. It was odd since the last place he remembered being in was a cold metallic coffin full of mud and water. He tried to move around, but was shocked by his condition. He couldn''t feel his arms and legs, instead he felt dozen of weirds small limbs when he tried to move them. His neck felt nonexistent, he couldn''t blink. His whole body felt weird. It wasn''t his original body, he realised that. He started to panic, he wanted to get out of this prison he was in to see what had happened to him. But he was too weak. He then realised he wasn''t alone. He could feel a domineering presence very close to him, as if just above him. That terrified him. But he also noticed that presence was focused on something else. He could feel something similar to resignation from it. Then a little later, it disappeared. He could feel some tremors as well, but even those ended after some time. It had become very calm. He was wondering what had happened, but he could guess there had been some kind of big incident, and that the domineering being had died. All that was left were some weak presences, barely perceptible, and even those were slowly disappearing. He started to get anxious again, he wanted to leave that accursed prison, he tried again and again, but couldn''t do anything. He was despairing when he felt new presences, but not like the ones he felt before. The moment he though that, he realised the presences he felt before got some kind of fmiliar feeling to them. There was a sense of kinship. The new presences were differents, like there was something missing. The feeling was more akin to be aware of someone in the same room as you, but outside of your field of view. They got close to him, and he felt his prison being carried. They were taking him somewhere, along with a few of what he considered to be his companion of misfortunes, the weak ones from whom he felt some kinship. He could tell they were put together in some place, some kind of vehicle as he felt the familiar sensation of leaving the ground, like in an airplane. Not long after, he felt another domineering presence. It suddenly appeared, and it felt incredibly distant. But it was getting close really fast. Then he started to feel other kin-like presences getting closer, a lot of them. He could tell now, that they were hostile to something. Then he started to feel the vehicle they were in doing some maneuvres, probably evasive ones. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. They were in the middle of a battle. He cringed at that realisation. Something weird had happened to his body, and people were at war around him. He was half panicking and desparing at his situation. Suddenly he was hit by a weird and powerfull shockwave, he felt like his body was burning, and at the same time his whole body was kind of schoked, like an electric current passing through him, but different. It nearly made him faint. He remained conscious enough to feel the violent tremors of the vehicule he was in. He knew it received a critical hit. The tremors never stopped. The burning sensations weakened rapidly after the initial surge, as for the shoking feeling, it turned into a wak tingling sensation. He felt his body had grown a bit and become stronger. He also could still feel the presence of his 6 companions of misfortune. Their weird trip continued that way ------- He had the time to think. He had to accept the idea that his body was no longer human. He had though of the last things he remembered before losing consciousness and awakening in this weird body. He couldn''t remember everything, not even his own name, but he remembered his end. He was driving during a stormy afternoon. He was with his friend. There was a landslide, his car was caugh in and pushed out of the road, bareling in the middle of a river of mud, rock and tree branches. The car was rapidly being filled with mud and rock, and it got worse when it landed in what should have been a small stream, but which was now overflowing with raging waters. Water and mud filled his car, and his lungs and the lungs of his friend. His car was turned upside down, slowly scratching the bottom of the stream, being crushed by the weight of the mud and rock pilling above, and forbiding any kind of escape for them. They were buried alive, suffocated by water, mud and rocks. They had died. He had died. And now he was alive. There was only one explanation to what had happened: he was reincarnated into another life form, and he was a larvae in an egg. He realised that his race was a race with some kind of telepathy ability since he could feel the minds of his kin, and other minds. His race was at war with another, and he was, along with 6 other eggs, in a mean of transportation that was heavily damaged and heading toward an unknown location. As for the mean of transportation used, it was probably a spaceship, due to the lack of gravity. After what felt like 1or 2 days of travel in those uncomfortable conditions, there was another big tremor and things got eerily calm. Later, he could feel some slight vibrations. Their intensity rose to a scary level until it calmed down a little. He started to feel the pull of gravity again, they had entered the atmosphere of a planet. But it was clear the spaceship was barely contollable. After a few minutes, there was a strong impact followed by powerfull tremors again. They had crash landed. Then he felt the container he and his 6 kins were in being thrown away. It tumbled over a long distance before stopping. He felt his egg roll away before stopping. Unexpectedly, he didn''t become dizzy. However, he noticed that the minds of 2 of his kin had disappeared, they died during the crash. Another was severly weakened. The last 3 were alright. He got really scared for a minute. The idea that his friend who died with him may have been reincarnated in one of them crossed his mind. But he could do nothing to confirm it. Though they had survived the crash, their future was still uncertain. Shortly after, he felt it, he had grown enough. He could tell that the egg was changing, getting ready to release him. He struggled for a bit and the egg burst appart. Finally, he was released from the constraint of the shell. For the first time he could see around, breath and smell. After a few seconds of excitement, he got disappointed. His vision was a bit blurry, but he could tell he was in a cave, with crystals on the walls that provided a bit of light. There was plenty of smells in the air but he could barely tell what was what. And it was very cold. Looking around he could see the other eggs scattered around. He tried to move toward them but his body was too slow. He had a look at himself, as best as he could. He really was a larvae, with a dozen of small insectoid legs. He was disgusted by what he had become. Then his gaze fell on the remains of his eggshell. He saw some kind of squirming purple moss on it, and it was already starting to take root on the ground. For some reason, looking at it made him feel hungry. He wanted it to grow more.Then it hit him. Purple moss with incredible growth speed. Larvae in an egg. Domineering presence. Telepatic ability. Those things reminded him of a specific race. An alien race from a video game. ''¡­ Holy shit... I was reincarnated into a zerg... I''M A FUCKING ZERG!!!'' ****************************** AN: Yep, protagonist got reincarnated in the Starcraft verse :D. Though it is an alternate Starcraft verse, there will be small modifications concerning the races, the timeline and some events. Hope you enjoy!! Chapter 02 - Starting from the bottom AN: Enjoy the second chapter of this starcraft fiction ****************************** ''Holy shit, I was reincarnated into a zerg... I can''t believe it. Instead of a human, an elf or a demon from a fantasy word, or even an animal, I was reincarnated into a zerg... What the fuck am I supposed to do? How am I going to survive? I''m just a lowly larvae for fuck sake!! I can''t do anything!! Larvae can turn into higher zerg through mutations, but how the hell am I supposed to do that? It usually is a higher ranked zerg that decide things, it''s completely different than just clicking with the mouse on the computer! Worse, the only thing available to me right now is being a weak drone...'' He was lamenting on his situation. In the game, it was technically the cerebrates and the Overmind that decided the mutations the drones should take. The drones could turn into overlords, but the overlords were just there to help direct the units, they didn''t control the mutations. And only the Overmind could make cerebrates. He didn''t even know how to mutate, and couldn''t control his 4 kins. Or so he though at the beginning... ''Right, zerg are supposed to be kind of mindless, just killing instinct and blind, absolute obediance to the ones above. But that''s not the case with me... I have my own will, I can feel the minds of my kin, so maybe I can impose my will on them... But can they even understand me? Even if they can, even if I can order them around, it''s not like they will mutate into what I want because I told them to... Haaaaa, I have no choice but to try it.'' While he was thinking, the others 4 larvaes had gone out of their eggs and were slowly crawling around. He started to focus his mind on them, and infusing autority in his thoughs, ordered them to come to him. He didn''t know if it worked, but after a few seconds, they turned toward him and started to crawl in his direction. But he was also disappointed, because if his friend was there, he would have replied back, asking what he wanted. His friend wasn''t the kind to just listen and follow strangers. And in this situation his friend would have been talkative instead of remaining silent. ''Ok... So I can order them around, that''s one good thing to know. But what about mutations? We can''t survive as mere larvaes. No, maybe we can because the creep that was on our egg shells is still growing and we can feed on it, but I don''t want to spend the rest of my new life as a fucking larvae! So, how do we mutate? Probably by releasing some kind of hormone that will activate a certain part of our DNA, thus releasing another kind of hormone that will provoke a transformation in our cells? Damn, those biology lessons feel so far away... Hmm?'' As he was thinking about the workings of their bodies, he got the feeling he knew what to do. ''¡­ Could this be, perhaps, instinct? The information hidden within the DNA? Just like some animal do what they must to survive, like those turtles digging the ground to get out of the hole their eggs were left in and moving toward the sea even though noone told them to do that? Ha, hahahaha! I now know how to mutate! Hahaha!'' ''The bodies of larvaes really are impressive in a sense, they can act on their own genetic code... Ok, I have 4 larvaes under my control. Since that''s the case, I may not be forced to follow the paterns of the game... The Overmind is a rigid ruler, but I don''t have to be as rigid as him... Hmm, but it looks like I still have some limitations, and I can''t break them that easily...'' He believed that the larvaes held the full potential of zerg evolution, and that each time an individual evolved, the roads open to it would greatly decrease. If he wanted to get the best evolution for himself, he had to remain a larvae while experimenting with the others, all the while keeping a firm control on them. But keeping them under control would probably be hard as a simple larvae, so he still had to change. More cerebral capacity without losing the larvae potential for evolution. Larvaes could evolve into overlords, who had control capacity. He had to unlock it without blocking his path for evolution. He decided to put it aside, and concentrated on the larvaes. Before evolving, they needed food, they needed more creep, but there wasn''t enough yet. He decided to sacrifice the injured larvae. Even if they were underground, it was still very cold, and even if the zergs as a whole were tough, the larvaes were still weak. He ordered 2 of the larvaes to kill the wounded one, and gave them the instruction to mutate into drones. They would use the corpse of the deceased larvae as material. The 2 larvaes executed his order, and soon enough got warped into cocoons which spread over the dead one. ''Ok, now that they are mutating into drones, what to do? Logically speaking, I should make a hatchery, but in the game it keep spamming larvaes without the player control. But I also need the hatchery to spread the creep... Or not... The creep colony can do the same. Also, usually, the creep can''t grow without the hatchery, but here it is growing... Because I want it to grow!! In the starcraft lore, the creep is sensitive to psionique emanations. It''s responding to my will!'' The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. ''A hatchery will be too much of burden on my control ability, but a creep colony should be fine. I will use it as shelter as well. As for the second drone... In the game, to make a better unit I would need a spawning pool and an evolution chamber. I would also need gaz and some crystals, but they aren''t necessary in real life it seem. As for the spawning pool and evolution chamber, they probably produce some hormones that allow higher mutations, something like that... '' ''Hmm, with those, I should be able to completely break away from the rigid path used by the overmind, and make my own zerg sub-race. With the creep extending and the colony as home, I will be able to think about what kind of zerg I will make in a safe environment. Wait! I would still be lacking larvaes for experiments... So I''ll have to make a hatchery in the end... Maybe I''ll be able to reduce the amount of larvaes generated? Well, first let''s see what my drones can do.'' A while later, the drones burst out of their cocoons. He still had perfect control over them. Focusing heavily on one of them, he started to think about how to make it mutate again, and soon enough he got his answer. Even better, he would be able to make something new. There were several hormones that could be released, each with a particular function in mind. The barrier between specific buildings was broken to a certain extend. Focusing on the drone, he took control of its body, but it was an incredibly hard task, more than he imagined. It was completely different from just giving orders. He was going to mutate the drone into a completely new kind of building, a building with the functons of the spawning pool and the evolution chamber. With that building he would be able to make many experiments to find the best path for himself. He started the mutation, then retreated with the drone and the remaining larvae at a safer distance. The ground around was already covered in creep, but it was still a thin layer, a small amount. It would still take some time until the organic building was completed. For the second drone, he wanted to mutate it into a creep colony with the birthing function of a hatchery, hoping it would restrain the production of larvaes. Following his instincts, he guessed that it was doable and ordered the mutation after sending the drone some distance away. It took around 8 days for the modified creep colony to be finished. Just like he expected, compared to a hatchery the amount of eggs generated was reduced. But he also realised that he needed the hatchery to have access to more of the zerg genetic library. The last larvae and himself managed to survive during that time, though they were severely weakened. They took refuge into the new building, which he called the ¡°Fort¡± because it was originally a defensive building. It was probably bigger than the original one, and probably generated more creep s well. That was good enough for him. The other mixed building, which he called the ¡°Genesis core¡±, was completed in thrice the amount of time used for the first. It was also quite big, probably 100m in cimcumference. Since both buildings were living zergs, he still retained a minimum of control after the mutation. That building was used to not only look for genetic traits and to generate specific mutations through different means, but also to assimilate other races. However, a specimen must be inside to get a mutation or for assimilation. He did nothing but make experiments on every larvaes for 7 weeks until he got a good grasp of the mutations available for him. Like he hoped, he would be able to increase his control power without losing much of his evolution potential. He didn''t want to make overlords yet, fearing he would lose control to them. Within the genesis core, his larvae body got surrounded in a cocoon. He could feel some of his body slowly being eroded before falling into unconsciousness. 9 days later he woke up, feeling stronger, his mind sharper and clearer. He still looked like a larvae for the most part, but dark brown and red, bigger, with 24 strong legs and 2 pincers that could be used like arms. He had taken traits from both a drone and an overlord. He was an oversized larvae with pincers and a better nervous system, and called himself a ¡°Grand lord¡±. ****************************** AN: There won''t be much action until the mc is done designing and making his own zerg subrace, and then start expanding. The "slice of life" tag is for the development before the action. Chapter 03 - First assimilations AN: ¡­ It is necessary for the future... ****************************** After mutating himself, the grand lord brough the remaining larvaes into the genesis core and mutated them. The end result was a bigger and stronger drone, and on his back 2 new limbs similar to the back arms of a zergling, but with pincers instead of scythes. It was a strong zerg worker with 4 arms. The Grand Lord experimented on this kind while searching for a mutation for himself. He made it for the sake of exploring the remain of the spaceship that brough him here, and carry things. So they climbed the slope. ''There is only the rear part of the ship? The rest is nowhere in sight, probably broken the moment we entered the tunnel, or even before that. I guess I was very lucky, it''s in a terrible state...'' On the way up, he had seen a lot of scattered items and bodies. The corpses were aliens, some were zergs, and in a very poor state, but the cold kept them from degrading too much. He ordered his worker to bring them to the genesis core for assimilation, hoping something could be salvaged. That was one of the greatest traits of the zergs, assimilating other species for the best parts of their DNA. He didn''t know if that species had anything good, at least he hoped it had something usefull aside from their 3 arms and legs constitution. There was a very low humming sound, indicating the power source was still functioning.He entered what looked like a breach in the cargo bay. His container was probably ejected from there. There were many containers, and a vehicule that confirmed his previous assumptions considering the race who owned the spaceship. In the cargo bay there was a vulture and another 4 wheeled all terrain vehicule. Everything was written in some advanced form of english, but still understandable. He ignored them for now and explored the rest of the ship. He was looking for human bodies to assimilate. The locking system in the whole ship were down, all rooms were easily accessible. He found a reinforced room near the destroyed section of the ship. There were 7 coffins-like objects in there. He quickly recognised them as some kind of hibernation capsules. 4 of them had a malfunction and let their content die, but the other 3 were still active. One of them kept the man inside in total hibernation, but the other 2 were kept in some kind of artificial coma, and they were slowly running low on air and nutrition. One of them caugh his attention. Inside was a beautifull silver haired woman with a tanned skin, and a certain presence. ''¡­ This one... It can''t be... A psionist? Even though the zergs had some basic ability, it wasn''t on the level of the protoss or even the human psionists, they could only use it for communications! That was why the overmind was so adamant on having Kerrigan in the game! And here I got my hands on a psionist! This one will be carefully assimilated... Hmm, I can connect with other zergs, but can I connect with a human mind? Let''s try with that guy first.'' The result was a failure. He couldn''t connect with his mind, thus couldn''t get informations out of him. After observing the apparels, he noticed that they could be disconected and moved. He did so with the first male and had his workers transport him carefully to the genesis core. He followed behind. Once in the genesis core, he forcefully opened it and his worker took the poor man out, placing him in an assimilation cocoon. The apparel was then put in another assimilation cocoon. He wanted to know the primary mecanisms used in the machine to feed the sleeper, and also know the composition of the products used to keep him alive to reproduce them. He carefully conveyed his will to the genesis core. The machine had to be gently probed and analysed to make an organic copy, for the psionist woman. He went back to the ship. The hibernation capsules used some kind of supply cartridges, so he replaced the empty ones from the blond''s capsule with the usable ones from the broken capsules and the supply crates in the cargo bay. According to the display, a cartridge would last around 15 days, and a single capsule could hold a few supply cartridges. There were plenty of spares, so the woman would survive for quite some time before running out of materials. And since the man was still in cold hibernation he wouldn''t use anything. That was very good for the Grand Lord, that left him a lot of time to make preprations. Back at his base there were larvaes about to hatch. He wanted to use them for more experiments. He didn''t want to have each drone go through the evolution chamber to turn into a zergling or a hydralisk or something. He wanted to make a building that would only produce the said units. Using them, and the following ones, he made experiments for 6 weeks. The end result was a special drone, which he called the ¡°zerco¡±. That drone would then turn into zergling colony. The zergling colony was a small creep colony that would automatically make 9 zerglings and 1 zerco drone. The zerglings and their zerg colony would always be in contact. If a zergling died, the zerg colony would spam a replacement. The zergling colony would also have the ability to shoot spikes at a distance as a defensive mecanism, and it could attack both ground and air enemies. The grand lord decided to make it to explore some of the tunnels. Since there was light, breathable air and water, it was fine to assume that there would be other life forms underground. And since the tunnels were big, there would probably be big life forms as well. The zergling colonies would be used for basic defense and expansion. Designing them was relatively easy since everything aside from the spike launcher was already certified parts of the zerg gen pool. They were just assembled in a different fashion. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. 113 days after the crash, with the human race assimilated, the Grand lord''s own knowledge about humans, and the basic mechanisms of the capsule understood and replicated, the last 2 humans of the ship were brough into a special room in the genesis core. It was about time since the capsules had used almost all the supplies left. There were 2 organic capsules in the room. The first one was for the psionist silver haired woman, the second one was for the still hybernating man. After carefully opening the capsule of the woman, she was striped naked and put into her new capsule. The great lord was amazed by her beauty. She was gorgeous, with well sized and shaped breasts and buttocks. Even though he was ogling her, he didn''t get excited, a reminder of the difference in species. But he didn''t mind. She would be kept alive, probed, analysed and used for a while before being slowly assimilated, especially her nervous system. She would become a template. As for the guy, his organic capsule was made with the intent to connect with his brain. The Grand lord wanted informations, and he intended to forcefully read them from the mind of the sleeping man. Once in their respective capsules, a transparent lid closed them. A weird limb like a palmed hand covered their noses and mouths, and from the palm, 2 tentacles emerged, going down their throat up to the stomack for the first, and in the trachea for the second. 2 tentacles moved toward their crotchs, one entering in their assholes and the other, warping around the penis for the man. For the girl, one part went into her vagina, and inside it warped around the cervix and opened up, sending 2 thin tentacles in the womb, toward the ovaries. The other blocked the pee-hole. A thin tentacle with a needle at the tip pierced their necks. In the man''s capsule, another hand-like, thick tentacle masked the eyes. Other tentacles with aiguilles stabbed various parts of their bodies. Then, their organic capsules were filled with warm water mixed with other elements. Those tentacles would allow them to breath, feed them, take care of their body wastes, and collect some seeds to artificially breed a humans with psionic abilities, the poor guy will be sucked by a zerg tentacle and he will enjoy it without knowing it. A hundred wombs were prepared for that. The 2 humans would be kept alive until a decent amount of babies with psionic abilities were born. The tentacle on their neck infused them with chemicals to keep them in the coma. The others would analyse their bodies functions and chemicals thanks to micro tentacles, and keep the muscles from withering. The thick tentacle above the man''s eyes slowly dissolved the man''s eyelid, then the eye, the optic nerve. It took over the occular cavity, then it extended thin tentacles toward differents parts of the brain, slightly digging into it, or deeper for some to reach certain areas. They were connected to an isolated hybrid human/zerg brain, and the Grand lord connected to it to probe the mind of the sleeping human. It took some time, but he was able to get some informations from him. ''That''s a little surprise. The year is 2432, the humans shouldn''t have made any contact with the zerg yet, no wait, this was the first contact. And if my memory isn''t wrong, there is still a little less than seventy years before the main events from Starcraft. I have many years to prepare before the humans, zergs and protoss clash against each other. But now, the overmind is aware of the existance of humans. So he will soon search for them, and then learn about the human psionists.'' ''However, I have the edge here. I will develop zerg psionists before the birth of the Queen of blades. Thinking about it, I liked Kerrigan, mainly because I had read the book Liberty''s crusade. I also liked Raynor, and of course Michael Liberty himself. I wanted Jim and Kerrigan to have their happy ending. But if I give them that, the future will become a bigger unknown. I could also steal her from Jim, she''s hot! ... No, let''s forget that idea...'' ''Also, things may move slower or faster than in the game. I wanted to stay hidden underground, but I''ll have to move out to get informations. I''ll have to take the risk to have my place found. I can''t stay hidden because I know there is more to the story of the zerg and protoss. I didn''t play all the games and read all the books, I only know the first game, its expansion Brood wars, and the first 3 books. My friend played Wings of Liberty and Ghost, and read other books. Thanks to him I know that there is a dangerous evil mastermind behind the zergs initial actions. It is necessary to stop him, and it having me on the board would raise the chances to defeat him.'' The Grand lord copied as much informations as possible from the man into the isolated zerg brain, like downloading things into an external hard drive. With that knowledge he was able to shut down the power source of the ship. It would be usefull later. But even though he was being carefull, reading the guy''s memory, the process was still forcefull, slowly damaged his mind. After 3 months, his mind got destroyed and he became a vegetable, just good enough to have his sperm squeezed for breeding. ****************************** AN: Poor guy. Good thing he isn''t aware of his fate. Chapter 04 - Experiments and exploration AN: ... (when the author has nothing to say on the author''s note...) ****************************** When he wasn''t reading the mind of the man, the grand lord was making experiments for the sake of his new breed of zerg, and for his final form. He started by working on the means of information gathering: the sensory organs. He focused on the eyes and ears. Eagles can see far, flies are good at seeing fast movements, and there is a crustacean that can, on top of the regular light, see in the infrared and the ultraviolets. Materials, solid, liquid or gaz, are medium for vibrations, for sound transmition. Some animals can hear ultrasounds, bats can use sound to grasp their surroundings, submarines use sound as well for detection. Light and sounds travel at high speed, they are the fastest mean to gather informations, and can be used to gather information from a good distance as well. The sense of smell and taste are good to know the composition or to identify materials, liquids or gaz. They require a certain proximity with the source or a slow medium like air and water. What the grand lord want most is gather informations from a distance, at least for himself. He wants performant eyes and ears. Besides, for battle he would first observe things from a safe distance before joining in the fray. Besides, for him, the senses of sight and hearing were better suited to track movements, especially the fast ones. For him it was essential for battle. He wanted to get the best eyesight possible for himself. He won''t stop at just one pair of eyes. He wanted to see infrared, visible light, and ultraviolets. Some of his breed of zerg would perceive lower or higher frequencies light waves. As for visual acuity or movement perception, he can''t have both and would need to find a compromise. For hearing, he would used the human auditory organ as the base, and extended the range of the frequency it could perceive on the higher end. However, high specs sensory organs would lead to a higher amount of informations for the brain to process. So he would need to develop sensory organs that would analyse part of the information before sending it to the brain. According to his own knowledge, which was basic as he wasn''t really interested in biology, humans eyes do a bit of it, and some animals do even more. In fact, he had part of the solution on hand. It turned out that the overlords had excellent sensory organs. That would make things easier for him. ------- Using the results of these experiments, he made new zercos. They would give birth to zerg colonies with better far sight and motion perception, and zerglings with infravision and good motion perception. The zerglings also got an improved sense of smell and earing. Overall their senses were improved by about 10%. The previous 3 zerg colonies he made and their zerglings were disposed of, and replaced by the new ones. Then he actively started to expand his territory with them, but he focused on the smaller caves. He made a few overlords to oversee it, with stealth and caution as a primary rule. The temperature grew as the zerglings moved away from he base. The reason for this was a river of magma, around 3 hours away from the base. It was on much lower ground and flowed away from the base, so the grand lord didn''t really worry about it. There were also natural chemineys which kept the dangerous gaz from accumulating in the tunnels. Thanks to the previous lava deposits, the water seeping through the rock and the crystals giving light, some kind of primal vegetation grew in several caves. The exploration teams found a few underground rivers, some cold and other warm. Following them, they reached caves with a more abundant vegetation, and found animals for the first time. The were halfway between rodents and lizards, the size of a cat and feeding on the plants. They had a predator, a creature halfway between a lizard and a spider. It stayed on the walls or the ceilings of the caves, and attacked the unaware ones. Because its bite was poisonous, the Grand lord had the zerglings capture a few of them and bring them to the genesis core for assimilation. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. After several days of exploration they didn''t find much more. But at least, the Grand lord was sure that the area around his base was safe. His territory extended to several tunnels, with the creep completely overtaking them from the ground to the ceiling. There were zerglings colonies guarding them and the zerglings made regular patrols outside of the territory for more safety. ------- Each month a new foetus would be added in one of the 100 wombs, and it would take several months until the first one reached maturity. The grand lord used this time to make more experiments for the sake of his future body. As a former human, he wanted a humanoid body, but more performant than a human one. He also intended to have 2 tentacles on his back instead of wing-like limb like the queen of blades. The ability to fly with wings was very tempting, but he wanted something more usefull for direct combat. He though the wings would take too much place and be too much of a burden, and didn''t think he could make wings with high enough performances to avoid shoots from anti-air defensive systems. There wasn''t many places to take cover in the air after all. It may be fun with no enemies around, but in the battle field it wouldn''t be good. Besides, the overlords didn''t need wings to float, though they were quite slow. He intended to find a way to make them faster, and use it for himself. He wanted to make more powerfull muscle tissues, stronger bones, and a more resistant and insulating skin. A human body can definitly survive in space without protection for more than 20 seconds, maybe even twice that time. He wanted to last a lot more than that, and for that, the cover, the skin, was the most important part. He wouldn''t need a complex digestive system like the ones from the humans to get nutrition, the creep was already doing most of the job. He also intended to make himself a secondary brain. Zerg have great regenerative ability, but a bad hit to the head would be an instant game over. So he would make himself a secondary brain in case the main one was damaged or completely destroyed. That would give him the chance to retreat and recover. Of course, that second brain would be well protected as well. He would probably place it in the tummy since half of the digestive organs would be gone. And if the head is completely gone, he would lose his eyes and ears. To compensate for that he would need secondary sensory organs to work with the second brain too ¡°see¡± and ¡°hear¡±. He decided to leave it for later, but he would definitly have back up sensory organs. More importantly, there was something he didn''t want to part with: the big potential for evolution and improvement. For that, he already had a base, the larvae body and the genesis core. This organic building is made solely for the sake of pursuing evolution, and the larvae body had the capability to alter its own DNA. He intended to make himself a special organ he would call ''evolution core'', an organ that would keep the differents paths of evolution open for him. He would use the genesis core to find the best traits of a newly assimilated life form, and insert them into his evolution core. Only after getting his humanoid body would he decide on a true name for himself. Even though most of the experiment he conducted were for the sake of creating a body most suited to his tastes, the results could be used to design new zergs. He choose to keep the zerglings, but the others ones would be completely differents. He wanted to make a whole new breed of zerg, more like a cousin race. Same origin, but different in many ways. He already had some basic ideas, and they would slowly be solidified with time. And unlike the zergs, he didn''t want to limit himself to organic creations. He wanted to develop technology alongside, and mix the 2 as much as possible. ****************************** AN: By the way, the comment on the previous chapter was helpfull for one of the following chapters I had started writing Chapter 05 - Alpha AN: warning... ****************************** 10 months have passed since The grand lord captured the 2 humans. When the man didn''t have his balls squeezed dry, many chemicals would be tested on him, to see their effects on his muscles, organs, and nervous system. As a result, his body was slowly but surely deteriorting. The grand lord estimated that he would be dead after another 13-17 months, and he intended to use this time to try to create a mind from scratch. The man was restrained, and no longer kept in coma. Every days, the grand lord would try to build a mind from scratch, trying to impart specific knowledge and notions to the guinea pig. The progress would be slow. But he also gained a lot of experience with triffling with a human brain. He intended to try to read the woman''s mind in the near future. Her childrens, the 9 babies, were growing in the incubators. The first and second ones had passed the birth stage and were growing peacefully. The others were still developping. Since the incubtors had a transprent lid, the grand lord could see them growing, and he was quite impressed by the view. But he was disappointed because it would still tke several years to see if they inherited their mother''s psionic ability. Because of that he was working on a mean to make them grow faster without manipulating the DNA. He had isolated growth hormones and was developping more potent ones. ------- ''Hmm, my experiments to build a mind from scratch are going well so far... This mean I could try to brainwash her. It would be better if she shared the informations willingly, and even better if I could observe her while she use her psionic abilities. I will need her to believe that I am her master, and that she is willing to do anything for me. I will need her to be absolutely obedient. I''ll have to be very carefull, I believe that people with psionic abilities would have a stronger will than others, especially those like her willing to travel in unknown parts of the galaxy with a single ship.'' And he did just like he planed after another 2 months of preparations. He made an organic adaptator, that warped itself at the back of her neck and carefully sunk a tentacle in her cranium. Like it did for the man, it split and connected to keyspoints of the brain. But unlike with him, the connexions were much safer. The adaptator was for the sake of being able to communicate with her even if she was moving round. He gently whispered inside the woman''s mind that he was her absolute ruler, that she liked to serve him and obey him, that she would happily do anything for him. He whispered this to her mind many times per day for 2 whole hours. He wanted her to believe that following his will was her greatest goal and joy in life. He wanted her to believe that regardless of what she was taugh, regardless of morale, only his will mattered. It lasted for several weeks. Then he decided to slowly reduce the dosage of the chemical keeping her in the coma. Each day, there would imperceptibly less than the previous, but the result would show after a dozen of days. Slowly, her mind became more active. The first time she became aware his presence in her unconsciousness, she resisted instinctively, but only for an instant due to the surprise and quickly calmed down. Even unconscious, her mind had become accustomed to his alien presence, and accepted it. Each day the suggestions sunk deeper and deeper in her soul, to the point she absolutely believed in it. After 2 more months, she had fallen. She was completely his, and after a bit more than 14 months he released her from unconsciousness, and from the organic capsule. She exited it in her birthday suit, as beautifull and gorgious as ever. She had lost her tan a bit, but it gave her a different kind of charm. Seeing him, she put a knee on the ground and bowed deeply. ¡°Greetings master! Your servant is greatly honored to see you. Your will is my command and my law.¡± ''Rise. From now on, your name will be Alpha. Serve me well!'' ¡°Thank you for granting me a new name master. I will serve you to the best of my abilities!!¡± ------- Alpha lived in the genesis core. A room was made for her, with something like a bed, a toilet, which was a kind of chair. When she sat on it a tentacle would go in her ass to clean it while another would go to her pee-hole, just like in her organic capsule. When hungry, there was some kind of straw on the wall in a corner of the room. She would drink water and nutriments directly from it. The shower was almost normal, when she pressed a sensor, water mixed with some kind of soap would fall from above for a bit, then clear water would fall for a little longer. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. She had to help take care of the babies, help cleaning them. They needed some stimulations so their intellect developped well enough. The grand lord believed that wihtout that he might fail to notice any psionic potential within a subject early enough. They were called Gipi with a number by order of conception, from 1 to 14.The older one was Gipi 1. As for gipi, it was short for Guinea Pig. Even though they were technically her childrens, she had no attachment to them. For her, they were just precious tools for her master. When she wasn''t taking care of them or sleeping, she was sharing her knowledge with her master, and helping him in his analyses. She would go back to her capsule, with all sorts of tentacles wirgling in her and around her. She would do psionic exercises in differents conditions, as much as what was doable within the genesis core. She also helped getting a maximum of datas from the back up computer of the spaceship. Those informations were put in another special brain, whose sole role was to hold informations in its memory. Alpha received soldier and engineering teaching, and all that knowledge was transfered into 2 other brains. The first for anything in relation with fighting, weapons and tactics. The second for anything related to science, computing and engineering. With the help of the drones, she did some maintenance on as many parts of the ship as possible. The Grand lord wanted as many systems as possible still functional. He intended to fuse it with a gigantic zerg later to make his first spaceship zerg later in time. After 6 years, it was now the year 2438. The male human has died long ago and been assimilated. His sperm had been preserved some time before his death so it could be used even after he was gone. Alpha had to spend most of the time dealing with the 67 children and finding those with psionist ability. Their number would be kept at a maximum of 100, more would be too much trouble. She had to play with them and keep them from hurting each other. She taugh them how to speak, count, and obey the Grand lord, but nothing else. The psionic power usually awakened between the third and the tenth birthday according to Alpha''s knowledge. She had awakened on her fourth year. Among the 67 children, 2 were confirmed to have psionic ability, 2 girls. They would be kept alive until they reached puberty, then they would be put in artificial coma just like Alpha and used to breed more babies. The Grand lord hoped to get a boy with psionist ability, so he could use him along with the other 2 psionist girls to breed more psionist babies. Then he would be able to pinpoint the parts of the DNA likely to give psionist ability. With the increasing number of children, the Grand lord developped some lodging for them using his fort as a base. The new building could shelter 100 people. Of course there were no individual rooms or restrooms, and no distinctions between boys and girls. They were still guinea pigs. The older ones would leave the genesis core and settle in this new building the Grand lord called the barn. ''¡­ My sensitivity really decreased compared to when I was human. Here I am, breeding children to enhance my power and the strenght of my future branch breed of zerg. I''m keeping those children obedient, ignorant, and happy about their fate. The psionists will be used to breed more psionists, then killed by assimilations. The others would be used for others experiments or manual labor, then disposed of when they will no longer be usefull, just like I get rid of some of my kin members... I guess I''ll find some other uses for the survivors of the experiments later, I can''t allow myself to become completely pragmatic and heartless...'' ****************************** AN: Well, I already gave a warning in the synopsis Chapter 06 - First specimens AN: ... ****************************** Some of the children without psionist ability were used for experiment with minds. The zerg had no real self-awareness, aside from the cerebrates and the overmind. Without those, the zergs are mindless killing beasts. The Grand lord wanted to make administrators, just like the Overmind created cerebrates. He wanted one to help with general management, and one for defense and war. Those 2 would be his queens, the ones with the highest authority after him. After those 2 he also intended to make more administrators. The zerg, without the management of the cerebrates and the Overmind, are mindless bloodthirsty killing beasts. He wanted the member of his race to have more self-awareness, a minimum of individual personality. If for a reason or another, a group found themselves without any administrators, they wouldn''t turn into a chaotic mess. For that, he needed to engrave into his race something akin to pack mentality. He wanted both pack mentality and hive mind, so even if a group was separated from the rest they would survive on their own and still remain loyal to the rest of the race. During all those years, he made experiments on sensory organs, muscles, bones, exosequeletons, skin, scales and other thing. He was still unsure of what would be the appearance of his queens, administrators, and other members of his race. As a former human, for him and his queens he wanted a humanoid appearance. As for the administrators and the rest of his race, he didn''t know. He liked the idea of making differents monsters with differents specs, for differents uses. But he also though that wouldn''t set him appart from the other zergs enough. Also, he wasn''t sure what kind of mean of reproduction to use. Still having the whole differents individuals come from the larvaes, or having more specific larvaes born from eggs from specific breeding queens. Or maybe ad sexual or asexual breeding. He wanted to keep a good control on the number of members of his race. The biggest advantage the zergs had over the other races were their overwhelming number. He wanted to restrain that as well to a certain extent since that also made them kind of destructive. Finally, he was a former human. He grew up with games, movies, series, novels, music, arts, sports, clothes, cooking... He still missed all of those things a lot. The zergs had no culture, all they did was stay idle or kill. He wanted to change that. He spent quite some time on one of the basic part of the zergs, the creep. It was a symbol of the invasive nature of the zergs, consumming everything, rocks, plants, growing over water. And always the same color. Boring. The Grand lord was developping a new creep. The new one would be less invasive, looking like short and soft lawn and it would have random patern on its surface from different colors depending on the composition of the ground. More importantly, it would also grow plants and trees, all with some red, blue, green or yellow small bioluminescent bulges. Using its sensitivity to psionist emanations, it would be possible to decide the place they grow and what to grow to a certain extend. ------- ''Humm, it''s already been about 9 years since my rebirth... Things are going along well for now. My new creep was really a good idea, much more pleasant to the eyes. But there is still no other psionist among the Gipis aside from those 2 girls. Alpha is 32 this year, I guess I''ll keep her alive for another 8 years before assimilating her. The 2 psionist girls will take over her work afterward... I''ll have Alpha teach one of them what she knows about fighting and weapons, and the other she will teach her what she knows about engineering.'' ''I should also seriously decide what my race will be like. I already decided there would be the humanoid branch and the monster branch, with the humanoid branch having self-awareness close to that of a human, and the monster branch being a bit less than the humanoid branch. As for the administrators, I''ll just make humanoid ones for the humanoid branch and monster ones for the monster branch.'' ''Hmm, Starcraft was made by Blizzard... Maybe I should use elements from Warcraft or Diablo as source of inspiration? Should I make a mix between the dranei and the night elves or something like that? Wait, since I''m an alien, then maybe I should make predaliens or something like that, they would make good soldiers. Let''s focus on the monster branch, it''s more fun. I''ll use them to expand my territory while assimilating other life forms, and when I''ve secured a large enough area, enough time would have passed for me to be fixed for the humanoid branch.'' The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.------- First, the Grand Lord remodeled the zerglings so they would look more like felins, and the end of its elongated tail was akin to a spiked mace. People would still be able to see the similarities between it and the zerglings, but wouldn''t confuse one for the other. He decided to rename them zercons. They were his base ground unit, and to complement them he developped a base aerial unit. He got inspiration from the fly and the dragonfly to make them. They were a hybrid between an insect and a lizard, around 125cm tall and 225cm long. They were fast flyers, able to make sharp turns and hover, but couldn''t fly backward. They could see in the visible and infrared spectrum with their third eye, the other 2 eyes were more like fly eyes, specialised in motion perception, and only able to see in infrared. They possessed small and sharp poisonous scythes on their forward pair of limbs as weapons. He named this new unit the flycon. He then modified the ¡°zergling colony¡± into a ¡°micon colony¡±, with zercons generated in the lower floor and flycons generated in the upper floor, 9 of each. Of course it would also generate 2 micon drones. Now, his basic defense building also housed his basic ground and air units. Once he was done developping them, he actively started to expand toward all tunnels that didn''t go over a certain maximum size, to avoid coming into contact with a big and strong life form. Even with the zercons and the flycons cautiously scouting the tunnels and caves, the Grand lord though they weren''t stealthly enough. So he started working on a stealth ability mixing that of a chameleon and the theory developped to make clothing with invisibility system. He wanted the skin to be like that of a chameleon, but at certain places there would be small eyes. What those eyes saw would be displayed on the skin on the other side of the body. Those eyes would see in the visible and infrared specter. The body would have a variable temperature, adjusting to that of the surroundings. However, since he had no chameleon or something similar around, he would have to work on it from scratch. It would be the same for the body temperature control ability. He would also need to make a good nervous system to link the eyes with the related parts of the skin and issue the right commands to change the appearance of the skin. It would probably be possible to even change the texture of the skin to a certain extent. It would be used for 3 stealth units: a ground unit made for infiltration, an air unit made for scouting, and a space unit made for observation and information gathering. Since he was living underground, he also developped a zerg specialised in digging the ground. The zerglings and hydralisk already have that ability at a basic level, using vibrations. For the mocon, as he named it, it was pushed further. It looked like a 50cm thick, 300cm long caterpillar, with 6 front limbs to dig the earth, and spike all over its body to help move around the ground. The mocon has 3 pairs of eyes, 1 that sees in infrared, 1 that sees in xrays, and 1 that sees in gama rays. X rays and gamma rays pass through solid objects, meaning through rock as well. It also has a strong sense of smell and taste to indentify the minerals. It was clear that the area of the ground he was in had an incredibly large amount of caves and tunnels, and that they spread through a very wide zone. He though that some interesting places would be inaccessible without digging th ground. He also wanted to collect valuable minerals. The mocons were deployed at the edge of the territory covered by the creep, and started to dig in directions differents from where the tunnels led. Some of them were used in the inner territory to look for concealed caves and cristals. One was used to dig a small tunnel leading to the surface. He was also interested in the surface of the planet. The sensors present in the rear part of the ship were able to do a basic analysis of the planet before the crash. So he knew the surface of the planet was covered in ice and snow, and there were no traces of advanced civilisation on the surface. He needed to explore the surface and observe the space around the planet, because at a point in time he would need to leave it. He would need to,make some kind of spaceport at a suitable place. Lastly, the place he currently was had volcanic activity. A single eruption could destroy everything, and he wanted to avoid that. ****************************** AN: If you have ideas for the kind of zergs he can make (though I have some ideas already)... Chapter 07 - Ressources and new breeds AN: Enjoy ****************************** At the start of the tenth year, the Grand lord had started a special building: a workshop. The workshop would be used to craft basic and intermediate tools. With those, he would slowly expand the building and the range of objects created in. From there he would be able to later grow it into an industrial complex. Along side he would develop a research laboratory. He had selected 2 wide caves in his territory to make them. The Grand lord knew he was lucky to have landed where he was. This volcanic area, even though potentially dangerous, was very rich in minerals, metals and other organic ressources. He would make the first workshop near the dreaded magma river to use its materials and heat. Then he would make the second and third ones in the designated caves. Part of their construction materials would come from the first workshop. He had to develop heat resistant drones to make it. He also ordered Alpha to teach childrens starting from 8 years old more about science and technology. Some of the non-psionists would become workers in there. Until then, she would be the one working there with some drones. Afterward he started to develop his first humanoid zerg, a zerg made to work in the workshops, and in the future, work in the industrial complex and laboratory. They would have 4 arms, 2 superior strong arms, and 2 nimble inferior arms. Those arms would have 2 joints instead of a single (so 2 elbows). They would have 2 opposable fingers on both sides of the hand, like a human having a second thumb instead of the little finger. The tip of the fingers wouldn''t be round but pointy, without being sharp. On each hand, there was a finger with a special enlarged tip, simply called sensor tip. It was slightly similar to a tongue, with both sense of touch and taste, but it went further. The pores of the skin could perceive smell as well. Just before the wrist, there was a small mass of neurons, directly linked to the enlarged tip with a specialised nerve. It was to treat part of the informations from the sensor tip to lighten the load on the brain. With it, the selection of good quality materials at the beginning of the working chain would be more likely, and the differents basic items made would be of higher quality, as more imperfections would be noticed and dealt with. A little more than 11 years after his rebirth, the 3 workshops were done, with Alpha helping out with their management as she was a former engineer. The first workshop near the magma river was turning into both a generator and refinery, using the heat to generate electricity, and refining ores and minerals. The other 2 workshops were still in their early stage, barely equal to an auto repair shop or a small analysis laboratory. It was worse than those available on frontier planets. But it was a nice beginning. The new zerg he developped to work there were called techys. The Grand lord managed to give them a sketchy mind, geared toward fast and carefull crafting. He also gave them the knowledge of english, this way they could understand Alpha''s instructions. They were quite intelligent, but only concerning their field. And they were still lacking in personality. They were good workers, but nothing more. And they didn''t need more, at least for the time being. ------- Among the Gipis, the Grand lord selectionned 2 other children who would take over Alpha''s work as a guardian and teacher for the kids. She was 34, and he wanted to assimilate her before her body started to deteriorate. She only had 6 years left until then. The 2 psionist girls were now 9 and 10 years old. They would soon reach puberty, and be put in artificial coma for farming. Alpha was already teaching those 2 in more depth about everything she knew before her end. Even though the Grand lord had total control over them, he was still wary of any incident occuring. He wouldn''t relax until they went trough the same brainwashing as Alpha. A few children got killed while he was experimenting with their minds. Some other broke down. They were kept alive because they were still children of Alpha, their seed could still give birth to a psionist. The Grand lord remembred reading somewhere that genetics had a part in the development of personnality, and believed that a certain brain structure would lead to some traits being dominant. He wanted absolute loyalty toward him to be a natural trait of his species. Then he would be at ease giving them individuality. Since he was going to make 2 queens and plenty of administrators to help manage the race, all with intelligence and individuality, he wanted to erase the risk of them turning against him (or against each other). He also wanted to make bodyguards for them and himself, something akin to both a knight and a ninja, lurking near in the shadows, watching their backs. The most important part is that he wanted all of them to have psionist ability, of course the Grand lord wanted such a powerfull force to be tightly controlled. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. That was why experiments with the mind were necessary, and he would later go deeper alongside experiments with the brain. He believed that a certain trait would be dominant with a certain neural patern in some part of the brain, and that that certain patern could be genetically reproduced. He though that his constant meddling with the brain and the mind in a growing child would generate the right patern on the related parts of the brain. He would then remember the patern for the differents traits and try to reproduce it in experiments. ------- 4 years have passed, it was now the year 2447. The 2 psionist girls were in artificial coma since a years ago. The Grand lord was almost done with their brainwashing, and would release them after another 4 years. He took more time with them and would keep them unconscious longer because he feared that puberty would have an effect on the brainwashing. Also, since they reached puberty, their eggs have been used as well for breeding. A male psionist appeared, 7 years old. After 5 years, he too would be put in artificial coma and his seed would be used for breeding. The Grand lord''s territory grew a lot during those 4 years, it was twice larger. He even found a large source of vespene gas. This gaz was a valuable ressource in the game, and it was just that important in reality. It was a highly energetic ressource, especially usefull for advanced technological product, or to increase the metabolism of the zergs, especially the big ones. Though there was a lot of gas, the famous crystals from the game were lacking. They were necessary to developp strong scales, carapaces, scythes and teeth. And terrans used them to make armors and hull for spacecrafts. The Grand lord was always on the tight rope with the management of crystals. There were some scattered in the area, but no big deposits. And a large part of it was used in the experiments. He had sent several groups made of zerco drones, flycons, micons and techys to search for crystals veins. They were exploring beyond the frontier of his territory, in uncharted lands. With the discovery of the vespene gas, the Grand lord started to research bigger zergs, and quickly developped 2 of them thanks to his prior experiments. The first one was a ground unit based on the centaur, but with a hybrid scorpion-horse body instead, the front and rear legs made for running speed, the side ones for stability and manoeuvrability. It had 2 pair of arms, 1 pair with scythes, like a hydralisk, the other pair with big hammer heads. The tail was very flexible, with poisonous pincers at the tip, the exosueleton was as tough as possible, and resistant to high temperatures and corrosion. This unit, named berkan, was made to pierce the enemy frontlines, as tall as a hydralisk, but stronger, faster and tougher. The second one was an aerial unit to replace the devourers. They looked like the dragons from skyrim, with tough scales. The Grand lord though that the devourers weren''t agile enough, that was why he selected that form. Just like the devourers, they could shoot acide with their tails, and they could also breath fire from their mouth like dragons. Fire against infantry units, acide against armored units. It could use its hind legs, spiked tail, or its mouth full of sharp teeth for close range attacks. The unit was simply named skyrim. As he made those 2 new units, he also made the buildings that would produce them. For the berkan, a berkan den with similarities to a hydralisk''s den, and for the skyrim, a lair which looks like a mix between a greater spire and a queen''s nest.With those 2 units slowly increasing in numbers, his fighting force would greatly increase, and he would expand his terriotry with more vigor. His one of his primary goal was to be the dominant species in this planet''s underground, and he believed he was on the right track. ****************************** AN: As I said in the first chapter, there will be slower releases from now on (It''ll most likely between 3 and 5 chapters per month). You can still expect another chapter this week. Chapter 08 - Gipis and leviathans AN: I was supposed to finish this Saturday but I got sidetracked. ****************************** The Overmind and his swarm had left their homeworld in search for the Protoss. On his way, he found several alien races he and his swarm attacked and eradicated. During his last assault against a slightly resistant race, he found something unexpected. An alien ship had just left the ravaged surface of the planet. The ship was too different from the other constructions of the race he was fighting. The Overmind though that the species to which this spacecraft belonged must have been spying on them, and they had recovered something from the planet. Unfortunately for them, they chose to move without being completely certain the fighting in the area was over. They were caught between 2 mighty forces ready for a final, brutal battle. It was obvious that they wanted to flee from the area, and the Overmind though that they would try to go back toward their territory. That was why he got one of his behemoth to focus its senses on the unknown spacecrft. Behemoths were a space species that could navigate in the warp space, the space used for faster-than-light travel, and they could make precise calculations to get to their destinations. When the ship tried to jump into the warp space, it got destroyed and the entrance of the warp space got disrupted, but the behemoth caugh on the general direction the ship originally wanted to go. The Overmind sent several scouting units toward that area to find the territory of this unknwon species, to find the terrans. However, unknown to the Overmind, the explorators traveled following a curved path supposed to bring them back into terran territory after some time, not a straight line. Finding the terrans would take longer than what the Overmind expected. ------- Year 2452, 20 years have passed since the Grand lord''s reincarnation. He kept on improving the quality of his equipment, especially the medical one. He used it to analyse the brain of his psionist humans. They numbered 6, with Alpha, the first 2 girls, the young guy, and 2 new additions, a boy and a girl. Afterward, Alpha had been assimilated, and the Grand lord has been very thorough when it came to her nervous system. Though he was no longer human, he still felt very heavy. Though his body limited it, he still had feelings. He had gotten attached to this beautiful woman, the first person with whom he could talk, and also the person who brough within his reach the psionist potential. With the help of a Techys, after producing the necessary materials, he made a big painting of her, and a life sized sculpture. He put the painting in his resting area, and the sculpture would be put in the starport he planned to build in the near future. The 2 eldest psionist girls were renammed Beta, 19 years old, and Gamma, 18 years old. Though both of them had knowledge in fighting and engineering, Beta was the fighting specialist and Gamma the engineering specialist. Beta was helping develop weapons in the second workshop, which had turned into an small industrial complex, while Gamma helped make better tools in the third workshop, which had turned into a small research laboratory. Both buildings had been continuously upgraded during the years and had reached the standards of the terran confederacy. The third psionist, the boy, was named Delta, 12 years old. He was currently in artificial coma. The last psionist children to appear were 10 years old, a girl named Epsilon and a boy named Zeta. The Grand lord decided that from this point he would only use the psionists to try to breed more psionist. As for the non-psionist children, they would still be used for cerebral experiments. To g further, he decided to do something he was reluctant to do at the beginning: infesting them. By infesting them, he would bring them closer to the zerg, and the results of the experiments would probably be more significant. He would also have infested mate with each other and see what kind of offsprings would come out of it. He did so with some of the gipis above 15 years old. The infestation process turned out to be very difficult for them. Some died just from the pain, while for other, the body couldn''t bear the burden and broke down. Only 8 subjects survived the change. Unlike in the game, the process was very risky for the subject. And the infested humans would degrade over time. They didn''t even last a month, not long enough to carry an offspring either so the idea was swiftly buried. He had a limited amount of time to work with them, and he was worried the continuous degradation of the bodies would have a significant impact on the result of his experiments and observations. He couldn''t allow himself to fully rely on them. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.------- Thanks to the explorations he ordered, he found several sources of vespene gas and deposit of crystals. He made small bases near them, with creep roads and micons colonies at regular intervalles between them and the main settlement. With the increase in ressources, he started to work on the type of zerg that would allow him to leave the planet and travel in space. He already had a base for that as the overlords were originally a space-faring species. Their sharp senses, and their large, complex brain could allow them to travel with uncanny precision within the warp space. But their low speed was still an issue. That was why the Grand lord wanted to developp technology, so he could merge the zerg with fast flying machines. The end result would be something similar to what he had seen in a sci-fi serie back in his previous life. In this serie, the hero was a human who traveled with other aliens in a living spaceship called Moya. In that serie, that race of living ship was called leviathan. It sounded just fine for him. So he started working on this race of space cruisers. The remain of the spacecraft that brough him here would be used, and he would get inspiration from the creep as well. A basic structure would be built, then the leviathan would grow on top of it starting from a special egg that would become its core, and finally fuse with the basic structure. But before using the only piece of spacecraft he had, the Grand lord choose to work on something smaller. There was an old vulture in the cargo bay, and it could be easily reproduced in the industrial complex. It was nothing like what was available in the game, it was more of a prototype, and didn''t go over 70km/h. But it was enough. It was used as a base to make a hovering car, hovercar for short. Only the frame and critical systems such as the hovering system were left. On the other hand, using the overlord and the creep as base, the Grand lord started to design the organism that would grow over the frames of the machines. His creep could already change color depending on the composition of th ground and spam zerg plants. This feature would be pushed further, to grow special muscles, organs or cover depending on the material it was growing on and using other stimulis. 20 years had gone by, and less than 50 years remained before the war. He still didn''t know how was the rest of the planet he was in, and even more important, he didn''t know where the planet was. However there was one thing certain for him, he was very far from the terran territory. He only spent 2 or 3 days in warp space after being recovered by the human crew on the alien planet, he couldn''t have gone far from there. Reaching the place where the action would take place was bound to take years. The Grand lord needed a solid idea of how long it would take. That was why he reported most of his efforts on creating the leviathans. Besides, he would be able to use the result to make fast flying units equivalent to the terran wraith, or bomber. It could even be used to make a ground unit akin to the terran siege tank or the protoss dragoon. He would first make small scouting leviathans to find the terran confederacy, then he would make fighters and bombers. Still, to stay on the safe side he would have to pursue his research on the cloaing system he had though of. He didn''t want his scouting vessels to be noticed by anybody. That complicated the design of the hull of the leviathans, but the end result would be worth the effort. Afterward he would make the big ones: the cruisers-type, carriers-type, and his flag ship, one of the 3 battlecruiser-type leviathans he intend to make. The cruisers would be made specifically for air and space battle, only carrying weapons, fighters and bombers. The carriers would be specialised in all units transport aside from the fighters and bombers. As for the battlecruisers, they would hold within them a downsized version of the fort and the genesis core. They would also be equiped with the strongest long range weapon he will be able to develop. ****************************** AN: ... *scratch his ass while reading a xianxia novel* Chapter 09 - Xergans 1/3 AN: Been a while, sorry for the delay. Also, that gave me some time to think about what I wanted to do for the race (subspecies, equipment etc...). ****************************** Year 2462, 30 years have passed since the Grand Lord rebirth. During the last 10 years, there has been a lot of progress in many areas. But the most important progress was about the development of the humanoid branch. The Grand Lord had stopped breeding the humans. He had aquired enough data concerning the psionist ability, and would be able to generate psionists without human help. The remaining guinea pigs were used for military training. They spent their days simulating different kinds of battles in different kind of circumstances. The result of the training would be used for the humanoid breed of zerg. Beta received more training in tactics and strategies, while Gamma received some training in administration and management. Delta, Zeta and Epsylon received specialised training, Delta as a frontline soldier, Zeta as a sniper and artiller, and Epsylon was trained for infiltration missions. All that training was done alongside the techys. The most useless ones among the Gipis were training in music. Why? Because the Grand Lord didn''t want his race to focus on just working and fighting. He wanted his race to have a minimum of entertainment, to develop some culture. So he chose music. It was also because he loved listening to music in his past life. His zergs would be either training or doing scientific research during work time, and during leisure time they would be singing or dancing or playing musical instrument. Bback on earth, some animals already used some kind of singing or dancing as entertainment, so music could also be enjoyed by the beast branch of his zergs. During those 10 years, the Grand Lord also developped a new written and spoken language for his zerg. The written language was made of 40 characters including punctuation and numbers. There were also all the differents symbols used in science and music to convert. The characters themselves were inspired from elven characters and northern runes. The Grand Lord wanted the language to be beautifull yet strong, both on the paper and when spoken. All the things the Gipis learned was for the sake of training the first batch of the humanoid zerg branch. That first bach would be the instructors that would teach the following generations of humanoid zergs. The Grand Lord had prepared 3 sub-races for the humanoid branch, the first one would be an evolution of his Techys, the second one as well, but more suited toward combat, called Solchys. As for the last one, the Vahna, it would be an evolution of the Techys and Solchys, a kind of promotion for outstanding elements, the elites. The Grand Lord experiments on the brain and mind allowed him to ingrain loyalty and pack mentality in his zerg on a genetic level. It would be normal and instinctive for them. The humanoid branch would have a ranks system. The members of lower rank would naturally be loyal to the members of higher rank, with the Grand Lord at the top, followed by his Queens, the Vahnas, and at the bottom, the Techys and Solchys. There were already 2 ranks for the beast branch, the lower rank for the zercons and flycons, and the upper rank for the overlords, berkans and skyrims. Though of the same rank, the overlords have a higher status than the berkans and skyrims. ------- The humanoid breed was made based on the Elites from Halo and the Dranei from World Of Warcraft. Except for the head, the body was a mix of the 2. However, like the Techys, they had 4 arms, but human-like instead of ones with 2 elbows. The head was humanoid, with the flat nose of the navis from the movie Avatar, and they had thin mouth with thin lips. The skin was dark purple with some red and orange patern on the back of the forearms, the back of the neck, the ridge of the nose. The new evolution of Techys was still called Techys and suited for engineering, with a height of around 170cm. The second subrace was around 200cm tall, with a stronger and tougher body. It has a tail like the dranei, but slightly thicker, with a lengh of around 120cm. Both Techys and Solchys have tentacle-like hair like the Queen of Blades, but a lot thinner, with color varying from yellow, to orange, red, purple, dark blue and black. Their eyes would be black with colored irises, the same range of color as the hairs, but with green included. There were both men and women, and Techys and Solchys could mate with each other, the child being either Techys or Solchys. An individual would reach maturity after 10 years, and the female could only have 2 offsprings in her life. The lengh of the pregnancy is 3 months. The female has the possibility to keep her reproduction system inactive to avoid pregnancy, and only activate it when she wants to bear a child. Since it was already year 2462 and there was only a little more than 30 years left before The Great War, the Grand Lord had prepared 1 000 000 000 larvaes that were to be turned into Techys and Solchys. The previous techys would be upgraded, becoming the first batch of Techys and Solchys, and later the first Vahnas to see the light. The Vahnas would be 220cm tall, with a tail similar to that of alien, and finaly, psionist ability. Then there will be the queens, roughly based on the Techys for the first one, and the Solchys for the second one. The first one, the White Queen, 210cm tall, will have elaborate white tatoo-like markings on her skin, all over her body, with a tentacle growing from the base of her skull at the back of her head. It''s again something similar to the navis, allowing direct interface with the neural system of another organism. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. The second one, the Black Queen, will be 230cm tall, with elaborate black tatoo-like markings on her skin. She would have an alien-like tail, and also 2 thin and sharp tentacles on her back, reminescent of whip blades. The White Queen will absorb Gamma''s knowledge, and the Black Queen will get Beta''s knowledge. The 2 queens could also get offsprings, but not the same way as the Techys and Solchys. ------- The Grand Lord was already done preparing his own body. Before starting the mass creation of the humanoid branch, he wanted his own body to be fully upgraded. He didn''t want to show the future members of his race the pitifull appearance he had, that of an oversized larvae. As a ruler, he wanted to have a dignified appearance in front of his subjects, and in front of his queens. He would evolve from a Grand Lord to an Archlord. That was the name he chose for his humanoid form. He spent 7 months in a huge cocoon, his body slowly being remodelled from the bone marrow to the muscles, organs and nervous system. Unlike his first evolution, this second one was quite painful, it was almost unbearable during the first 4 months, when the most critical changes were made. The mental strain was incredible with the transformation of his nervous system. After that, he went into a deep slumber for the following 3 months. Finally, at the end of those months, the cocoon started to vibrate. At first it was small, producing a low humming sound. But it gradually got stronger and louder. Waves of psionic energy started to be emitted by the vibrating cocoon, with increasing strenght and frequency. All the zergs and the psionist humans stopped what they were doing, and at once turned their head in the direction of the genesis core. Finally, the cocoon burst appart, releasing a powerfull psionic schockwave that spread through the territory, numbing the minds of all living being and making the nearby caves shake. An imposing figure releasing a large amount of psionic energy slowly stood up. The Archlord had awakened, and all the zergs went into a kind of frenzy, affected by the powerfull psionic emanations of their leader. He had a height of 220cm, his body roughly based on the Solchys, with a high regenerative ability. He could regrow almost any part of his body if the vital organs were still functional. With his obsession over performants sensory organs, he managed to combine multiple lens to have the advantage of both compound eyes and eagle eyes whithout demerits. His eyes have sharp sight, excellent motion perception, infrared and ultraviolet sight. The irises were silver with rainbow hues around the pupil. He also got a sharper sense of smell and taste than humans, and a better sense of hearing. Human can hear frequencies between 25 to 19 000 Hz, but he could hear frequencies from 15 to 60 000 Hz. His sensory organs could block informations above a certain treshold, greatly reducing the risks of his senses working against him due to intense light, smell and loud noise. Those wouldn''t be able to significantly distract him or stun him. Like he had prepared, he had a back-up brain in the center of the torso, just bellow the chest, with thick bones and tough flesh protecting it. This secondary brain had a direct connection with the main brain, and it was used for storing memory and for motor functions, with basic thinking ability to be able to take cover and sneak away from the danger. But with his improved nervous system, this second brain increased his computing ability by a lot. It was also connected to 2 small echolocation organs around the hips to feel the surroundings if his eyes and ears were destroyed. Just like he had a secondary brain, he also had 2 secondary hearts, with a total of 3 hearts. They were smaller than a normal heart but still powerfull, with 2 on heach side of the chest and one near the hips. There were also valves at certain key points of his major blood vessels, they would close to prevent excessive blood loss in case of serious injury. Even though he was tough and could heal most injuries, it wasn''t high speed regeneration, he could still die of blood loss. For the muscles, he remembered reading a manga with a girl that had high strenght due to something called hyperion constitution. He worked on making dense muscle fibers with moderate weight. For the bones, they were reinforced with advanced fibers inspired from polymers and carbon fibers, and a better internal structure. He believed that there were no being of similar height and weight as strong and as tough as him. The skin was thick and dense, inspired from polymers, adapted for void exposure and resistant to extrem temperatures. It was tough enough to support high pressure, wether internal or external. From the top of his back there were 2 thick snake-like tentacle with a small brain, making them semi-intelligent. They were inspired from a game called The Darkness (AN: MangaManiac92''s idea. I had already though of giving him 2 tentacles on the back, but the semi-intelligent thing was the icing on top of the cake. Thanks!!). Their fangs could produce either toxic poison or paralysing poison. ¡°HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! ... Finally, I have acquired a proper form... Though it would take some time to get used to this new body. I feel good. Now I can get a proper name. For myself, and for my race...¡± I am Zal''Rus, Sovereign of the Xergans ****************************** AN: ¡­ Chapter 10 - Xergans 2/3 AN: ¡­ What delayed me the most while writing this chapter was... clothing... Had too much trouble deciding what to give and what they would look like, and what was the appropriate english term to use... Then there was chosing the right greetings... then I though ¡°Oh, fuck it!!¡± ****************************** I am Zal''Rus, Sovereign of the Xergans That single sentence and its meaning was sent to all the zergs-no, all the xergans, and the human psionist. As one, wherever they were, they all bowed down toward his general direction. Zal''Rus could feel each one of them, and it was an overwhelming experience for him. Without realising it, he had connected himself with every single overlord, and through them, he could feel all members of his race. ''It''s like my mind expanded using the powerfull brains of the overlords... I can feel so many of them, no, all of them so clearly, I can''t even put it into words... This is truly wonderfull...'' Afterward, he ordered all the techys to warp their work. It was time for them to be upgraded, and it was time to prepare the Queens as well. As the final preparations were being made, he reviewed the other things that had been accomplished during the last 10 years. ------- Weaponery for the humanoid branch had been developped. They were mostly mechanicals, but had some organic systems. A small nervous system coupled with a special eye were integrated on the weapons. The user could connect to that part and be able to perfectly know where the weapon was aimed. There was no need to hold the weapon near eye level to aim, thus more flexibility in aiming at moving targets or firing from behind a cover. The primary weapons were the Shrekar, the Kester and the Lankar. Then there were the secondary weapons, the Dromer, the Cremor and the Ockar. Finally, the back-up weapons, the Stinger and the Gaius. All the firearms use a magnetic acceleration system for enhanced power. The shrekar was the xergan version of an automatic 35 rounds battle rifle with a grenade launcher. Its fire power was a little above that of an assault rifle, but the firing rate was lower. The biggest threat of the zergs was their number, and Zal''Rus knew that amnution would be a problem. Thus he ordered the development of this weapon. It could kill using less bullets. The kesster was the xergan version of an automatic 12 rounds shotgun. It also possessed a retractable, vibrating 50cm long blade which could be used as a bayonnet. Of course it was made for battle in areas with restricted space like the inside of a building. Because of the restricted space, it would be possible for one to suddenly find himself in close quarters combat, thus the presense of the blade. The lankar was inspired from the jaffa staff in Stargate. It was a lance with a vibrating blade, but with a build-in semi-automatic plasma rifle in the handle. This weapon was developped for battles in defensive positions. It was also more suited to fight against zergs, especially hydralisks with their long scythes. The dromer was the xergan version of a machine-gun, with 3-barreled heavy machine-gun with specs similar to its terran counter-part. The cremor is a mini rocket launcher with a 5 chambers revolving cylinder. It''s halfway between a grenade launcher and a rocket launcher. Finally, the ockar is a sniper rifle with a high enough power to be used against lightly armored vehicles. Its cartridge hold 6 rounds. The stinger is a 14 rounds semi-automatic hand-gun. The gaius is a double edged weapon with a 70cm long vibrating blade and a 40cm long handle. It can be used with either 1 or 2 hands. It''s also possible to connect 2 gaius by their handle and obtain a double headed long spear, called the twin gaius. That weapon was made to deal with zergs and protoss on close quarters combat, but it''s also effective on terrans. During those 10 years, one of the most important thing Zal''Rus wanted to develop was completed. He was able to make the living spacecrafts, the Leviathans. Currently, he had made 2 of them. They were the size of a an exploration vessel, same as the one that brough him on the frozen planet. And they would soon be sent out. One of them would observe the planet and the stellar system, while the other would go for the Terran territory. Of course doing this without attracting attention would be impossible without the completion of the cloacking system. Unless one was deliberatly and precisely looking for some hidden spaceships in an area, it wouldn''t be possible to detect them. Also, thess 2 leviathans were equipped with the best sensors Zal''Rus could develop. Those 2 ships contained the navigation datas of the human ship, so completing their missions wouldn''t be a problem. Zal''Rus also developped several vehicles, all of which containing organic parts inspired from the Leviathans. Those vehicles were for material transport and public transport. He didn''t want to waste ressources making individual/private transports except for him, his Queens and the Vahnas. The military vehicles were designed more for defense than attack for the ground vehicles, and attack for the air vehicles. Finally, all the organic buildings were remodeled to look less gory. The Fort was upgraded into a Palace, with a small hatchery at its core. The evolution of the larvaes were altered as well. They would turn into Overlords, Rockon, Leviathan Core, Base Drones and Nest Drones. The base drone turn into either a Palace, a Genesis Core, an Extractor, a Generator, an Industrial Complex, a Scientific Complex or a Space Port. The nest drone turn into a Micon Colony, a Berkan Den or a Lair. Zal''Rus didn''t dare underestimate the Overmind. He was a grandmaster at controling the zergs. If the Overmind managed to capture a Xergan drone, it would be near the front line. The only buildings necessary near the front line were the micon colony, the berkan den and the lair. If a drone was captured, it woe a nest drone, thus the Overmind wouldn''t gain access to the buildings from the base drones and the informations they contained. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Clothing and apparels were made for the humanoid branch. The basic clothing were underwears, shorts and skirts reaching the knees, sleevless shirts or short togas for the torso, and sandals, shoes and boots. There were also some kind of vests, pants, dresses and coats, but they usually were for individuals of higher status. The more ornate they were, the higher the status. For everyone there were cloak for protection against the weather. Of course there were specialised clothing and armors for soldiers and engineers. ------- Within the main palace of the xergans, in its center above the hatchery, lay a special room. In this room that was as large as an auditorium, there were 13 cocoons disposed in a circle, with small containers in front of them. In the middle of the circle were 2 other cocoons, slightly bigger than the others, with a container near them. They were pulsing with life and radiated strenght. Zal''Rus entered the room and stopped in the circle, in front of the 2 main cocoons. He stayed there and waited, because he knew the time was coming. He wore black underclothes, silver boots with black linings, dark purple pants and full dress uniform with golden ornamental paterns, a thin, sleevless white coat reaching the knees with red linings, silver bracers with red paterns, and a regalia with 4 thin horns 15cm long pointing skyward. After several hours, the 2 main cocoons started to vibrate, and a few minutes later, the others 13 ones started to vibrate as well. The air was filled with a low huming sound and the cocoons started to release psionic waves. The first batch of techys had been released a few weeks before and had resumed their duties. However, right now, they had all stopped their activities and gathered in the main cave where the palace was situated. They knew their queens would soon emerge, and they were there to greet them. The first cocoons to be breached were the surrounding 13 cocoons. Within the span of a minute, they all burst appart while releasing chaotic waves of psionic energy. 13 Vahnas slowly stood up, 9 women and 4 men. They were special Vahnas that Zal''Rus made specially for him ad his queens. They got on one knee and spoke like one in the xergan tongue. ¡°We give our greetings to our sovereign.¡± ¡°Rise. You are the Guardians. In the near future, we will fight in a big war, a war that will decide the fate of our race. In light of the great danger we will face, you will become the last defense line, the final shield for me and my queens. You shall listen to noone but us.¡± ¡°Yes, my lord!¡± He turned toward the closest ones on his left, then the ones to his right, and finally the 5 at the back. ¡°The 4 of you shall serve under the White Queen. You, on the other hand, will serve the Black Queen. As for the rest of you, you shall serve me. For the time being, put on the items in the containers in front of you, our queens will soon emerge.¡± ¡°Yes, my lord!¡± (AN: From now on, when an alien race speak an alien language, I will write it in italics. If they speak terran, it will be normal, if they use telepathy, it will be bold) They swiftly put on the clothing and armors that were in the containers, then stood at attention. Nearly 15 min later, the cocoons of the queens finally burst appart, releasing yet another storm of psionic energy. Zal''Rus was stunned. Even though he was the one who designed them, it was completely different from seeing them face to face. He was still surprised by their beauty, as they stood in front of him I their naked glory. Despite their alien features, any normal man would find them extremely attractive, with gorgeous assets. His white queen had golden hair with emerald eyes, and his black queen had dark blue hair and purple eyes. After admiring them for a few seconds, Zal''Rus stepped closer to them. During that time, the other 13 people present in the room put their knees on the ground and bowed their heads. Noticing him moving closer to them, recognition flashed in their eyes. The 2 queens properly faced him, kneeled and bowed their head. ¡°¡°My lord!¡±¡±. ¡°Raise your heads, my queens. Finally, the day when you see the world has come. Your name shall be Jinly''Rus, White Queen of the Xergans. And you, your name shall be Kaehla''Rus, Black Queen of the Xergans. Together, you will assist me in leading our young but glorious race, the Xergans.¡± ¡°¡°We shall faithfully serve you to the utmost of our abilities.¡±¡± With a mental command, 2 of the females individuals on each side of the room moved toward the queens. They opened the containers near the quees and pulled out some clothing. They helped the queens dress themselves, and once they were done they returned to their former position. The White Queen had a white fitting dress, pants and bracers with golden linings and paterns, white boots, and a crimson red coat. The Black Quee had the same clothes, but with black instead of white. Both of them had a golden tiara with a purple diamond at the center, and gold and ruby earrings. ¡°Now come. Our people have gathred to greet you.¡± ****************************** AN: There is a third part. Chapter 11 - Xergans 3/3 AN: After that chapter we move onto something else. ****************************** On their way toward the gathering, the 13 gardians were given their names by Zal''Rus. They were not yet armed with weapons, but it wasn''t necessary for the time being. He told them that it was fine within their borders, but outside, only 1 or 2 of them should be visible at the queens side at any given moment to mislead the enemies who would come close enough to them. Zal''Rus had made a race that appreciated music, therefore, when the birth of the queens got close, he instructed the lead xergans and musicians to prepare for that day, and to prepare a few special musics. Zal''Ruse still had feelings for some things from Earth, thus he reproduced some of the music he liked back then. As the queens were about to be seen by their people, a music was played. It was the theme of an old sci-fi serie called Earth Final Conflict. He had decided that this theme would be used each time he or the queens appeared for a special event. After the introduction of Jinly''Rus and Kaehla''Rus, another music was played: the main theme of the game Civilization 4, and Zal''Rus decided it would be the national anthem of the xergans. Of course, he had revised the lyrics, and he found those musics fitting for the situation. After that, it was a musical festival, with a lot of singing and dancing. The most used musical instruments were percussions type instruments, chords instruments and flutes. Most of the time, percussions and chords were used for dynamic musics, flutes for calm musics. The dances were reminescent of contemporary dance and hakka, with some african, arabic and latin accents. The food wasn''t very varied. The xergans didn''t raise animals or harvest fruits and vegetables. Most of their nutrition came from the creep. However, when Zal''Rus modified the creep to make plants and fruits, the xergans got something they could cook. There weren''t many dishes to make, but nearly 30 differents ones were enough in Zal''Rus opinion. Though there was a severe lack of drinks, only water and a few fruit juices. After the festival, Zal''Rus, his queens and the 13 gardians went to their living quarters in the palace. The first floor was called outer sovereign quarter. There was a common room with 14 doors, 12 of them leading to bedrooms for the gardians, one leading to a big bathroom inspired from thermal resorts, and one leading to the floor above. The second floor, also called inner quarter, had a smaller common area and 5 rooms: a bathroom, a room for the last special gardian, 2 rooms for the queens, and the last for Zal''Rus. ------- The gardians were left on their floor, while Zal''Rus, his queens and his special gardian were on their own. ¡°Come. It''s been a long day, let''s enjoy ourselves in the bath before going to sleep...¡± When Zal''Rus proposed this, he didn''t have any ulterior motives in mind, but when he caugh up to the double meaning of his own words, his hearts began to race. In his previous form, he didn''t have any sexual desire. However, with the humanoid form, those desires of previous life were back. Because it was the birth day of his queens they were unconsciously suppressed, but now that they could relax, they were set free. ¡°It has been a pleasant day, but it was also tiring.¡± ¡°I think it''s normal to be a little exhausted after going to a festival on our birth day.¡± ¡°My lord, am I to join you and the queens in the bath?¡± ¡°Of course you are, Helion''Al! You are his special attendant.¡± ¡°I don''t see any problem with that.¡± Helion''Al was the name Zal''Rus gave to his fifth gardian. She was physically a little stronger and faster than the others, and even her status among the gardians was higher, though unofficially. For Zal''Rus, she was more than a bodyguard. She was also his secretary, driver and pilot, and the future captain of his personal cruiser. Zal''Rus was quite surprised by the question, and considering what he was thinking about, his excitement grew. And when Jinly and Kaehla declared their approval, his imagination ran a little wild for a second. However, even though he usually had a tight control over his telepatic and psionic abilities, a bit of his eagerness leaked. The 3 women didn''t miss it, so Jinly led him by the right hand and Kaehla by the left as they moved to the bathroom, closely followed by Helion. There was a dressing room at the entrance, and the 2 queens swiftly took of their clothes and jewels. Helion undressed Zal''Rus first before taking of her armor and clothes. While Helion was undressing herself, Zal''Rus put his arms around the queens waists and led them to the transparent shower room. They enjoyed the feeling of the water falling on their body until Helion came. Then, the 3 women patiently and carefully washed him, without leaving anything out. Helion washed his hairs, back and tentacles, while Jinly and Kaehla were on his sides, taking care of his face, arms, torso, and legs. They carefully handled his manly member together, and Zal''Rus was happy to have designed it to be more controllable than a human one. It was made of flesh and could be moved to a certain extend, unlike the human ones. No more risks of unwanted flag in front of other people, that highschool memory was a painfull and embarrassing one for him. As they washed him, they also rubed their skin and breasts against him. As the queens started to wash themselves with the help of Helion, Zal''Rus traced his hands on their back, though he had to be careful with the 2 sharp tentacles Kaehla had on her back, fondled their buttocks and breasts,and basically thoroughly explored their bodies with his hands just as they did while washing him. Afterward they went to the heated pool and relaxed in the warm water. They were seated in circle, with the queens on each sides of him and Helion in front of him. He admired their bodies, but his gaze would often focus on Helion. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ''She really does look a bit like Alpha...'' The reason he named her Helion''Al was due to her ressemblance with Alpha. It wasn''t intended, yet the person he chose to be closest to him looked like his beloved first servant. Since Zal''Rus himself was a reincarnated being, he wondered if Helion herself wasn''t a reincarnation of Alpha. It was only their first day together, but he was already deeply attached to her. He shook his head and decided to focus on something else. ¡°Jinly''Rus, Kaehla''Rus. We have to make preparations for a war. A great war that will start in around 30 years, and will involve 3 other alien races, including the one we originate from. As for why we must participate in this war, it is because the one at its origin is too dangerous to be left alone. We have to stop him. However, we are still severly lacking in numbers and ressources." The 3 women were lost their relaxed auras when he called the 2 queens by their full names. They were now intently listening to him. ¡°Jinly, we have to greatly increase our numbers and territory. I want the underground of this planet completely conquered by us, though I do not want the other life forms to be completely eliminated. I also want us to remain hidden, which is why I didn''t try to expand on the surface. This place is our homeworld, and I don''t want it to be attacked.¡± ¡°I understand, my lord.¡± ¡°Kaehla, along with our increase in territory, we must also increase our military power. Not only to protect our lands, but also to attack the enemies during the war that is to come. And before thinking of expending to other stellar systems, we have to make sure of any potential threats in their surroundings, so a lot of scouting will be necessary.¡± ¡°I will not fail you, my lord.¡± ¡°Starting tomorrow, and for the next 30 years, we will all be very busy.¡± Kaehla stood up from her place and moved in front of him and got on her knees, her 4 hands on his face and shoulders. ¡°My lord, Zal''Rus. Ever since the creation of our civilisation, you have been very busy. We are your queens, we are here to help you carry your burdens, and to assist you in any way possible. That''s why, do not hold back, and allow us to help you with your sexual needs. It is also a queen''s duty. And since we will be busy afterward, let us use this opportunity to please you to your heart''s content.¡± For those women who were born to serve him, there was no way they would stay iddle when they could feel the growing desire of their sovereign for them. There were no feeling of love between them, but there was trust, devotion and loyalty. And that was more than enough for them to give him their bodies without any dissatisfactions. Being desired by him was an honor, so was attending to his needs. When Kaehla kissed him, Zal''Rus completely stopped restraining himself. He pulled her close and hugged her tightly,, and in response she warped her arms around his neck and back. Her kissing was still akward, but he didn''t care. He continued to passionately make out with her, barely noticing Jinly and Helion caressing him from the side, as if uwilling to lose to Kaehla. Unlike humans, xergans didn''t need to work to make the girls wet. A woman could get wet just as fast as a man could get an erection. Within a minute, both Zal''Rus and Kaehla got ready, and he didn''t wait any longer. He plunged his erect penis into her wet hole and thrust it all the way to the back in one move, making her scream in surprise and pleasure. He furiously moved his hips, thrusting in and out of her as she tried to match his rhythm. Her tail was moving around wildly in the water, as a testament of the pleasure she felt. As for Zal''Rus he kept playing with Jinly and Helion breasts and groins with his tail and back tentacles. After thrusting in Kaehla for nearly 30min, they both came. As the Black Queen was basking in the afterglow, Zal''Rus was taking Jinly from behind, with just as much vigor as he did with Kaehla. Now both of his tentacles and his tail were focused on Helion. The White Queen didn''t have as much endurance as the other, and was done after 20min. Once Helion''s turn came, he almost lost himself in her due to her similitudes with Alpha. Even after releasing it once inside of her, he didn''t stop. Only after their second climax did he calm down a bit. But he still had enough left in him to take Kaehla from behind once more, then Jinly from the side. They lasted a little longer than the first time, and on the back of his mind, Zal''Rus wondered how long an experienced player would last in one session. After these 6 shots, Zal''Rus was exhausted, but he also felt a lot better. After cleaning themselves once more, they finally went to sleep. However, during their fun, they lost control of their telepatic abilities, and all could feel them enjoying themselves. The xergans would discover this later, but any first timer would always broadcast their play no matter what. ------- Year 2480, in a hospital of the Terran Confederacy. ¡°So doctor?¡± ¡°Congratulations. It''s a boy.¡± ¡°How does it look?¡± ¡°According to the results of the exams, there is no problem with your pregnancy. Morever, both you and your husband are in excellent health and there is no record of genetic disease in your families. In a few months you will give birth to a healthy baby." "That''s good to hear." ****************************** AN: For those who don''t know, please listen to the intro, outro and instrumental of Earth Final Conflict. The last 2 are just a variation of the main theme, with small modifications, but still enjoyable (at least for me, I often listen to them in that order). Chapter 12 - Lien Qui Nash AN: May be the last chapter of the month ****************************** ''Can''t breath... I''m being crushed... It hurts... I don''t want to die... NOOOOOOOO-'' ¡°-WHAAAAAA!! WAAAAAAA!!¡± ''HAAAAA!! Haaa!? What? Air? I can breath?'' ¡°Whaaa! Awaao!¡± ''What the? I an''t speak? What the hell is wrong with my voice? Why can''t I speak words? Where is the car? The water and the mud? Wait, I''m being carried? Was I rescued? In what kind of state did I end up?'' ¡°Wha awaawa¡± ¡°Congratulation mrs Nash. Your healthy and cute little was safely delivered. Here, I''m calling your husband now.¡± ''Wait? What? What did I just hear? And what''s with that weird english? Boy delivery? What''s going on?¡± ¡°Thank you very much. Hi my little boy, I''m your mother. Aww, he is my little baby.¡± ''No way! Am I being carried by a woman? Wait, who is your little boy? What, I can''t properly move my body, I feel so weak and heavy! Hey, I think I can open my eyes... Argh, the light is too strong!'' ¡°Khunying, are you alright, how is the baby?¡± ¡°We''re fine Kito. Come! See our little boy!¡± ¡°Ho ho ho, so this is our child eh. Hello little one! You still haven''t told me what name you chose for him. Come on!¡± ¡°Yes, yes. His name is Lien Qui. Hello, and welcome to the world, Lien Qui Nash.¡± ''¡­ Holy shit? ¡­ You''ve got to be kidding me?'' ------- After the first 3 days, Lien Qui had to accept his situation. He really had died at that time with his friend. They had gone to a small gathering of highschool friends in the mountains. A storm hit the area on their way back, and a landslide pushed them in a stream where they drowned in water and mud inside the car. His friend had died, and he had died to. But unlike his friend, he was given a second chance at life. Despite his interest in mythology, he wasn''t a religious person, nor did he believe in reincarnation. He never though that after being reborn, he would still keep some of his past life memories and knowledge. It actually helped him understand the situation he was in. On the second day after his birth, he was finally able to open his eyes and see his parents. His father was a man of african origin named Kito Nash. He was well built, with light brown eyes and a shaved head. His face was above average, with a manly charm. His mother was an asian beauty, with dark blue eyes and long black hairs. For an asian woman, she had a nice pair of breasts. She was called Khunying Nash. Lien Qui was a former caucasian, and he never imagined he would someday be african or asian, or in his case, both. He never even though he would have an asian or an african wife. In his mind, he always saw his future with a caucasian woman. Now, in his new life he was completely cut from his caucasian origins, which made him a bit sad, and also hammered the fact that his old life was over. The surroundings told Lien Qui that quite some time had passed since his death. The english language had evolved, including some spanish and chinese elements in them as far as he could tell. The hospital was also full of advanced machinery, holograms and other impressive piece of technology. ------- As a baby, Lien Qui spent a lot of time sleeping. On a certain day, he happened to be awake during the time his parents were watching a news report. ¡°... One of today''s news ... crash of a cargo ship on Tarsonis suburbs shortly after its take off from Tarsonis Starport, killing hundreds of ...¡± ''.. Tarsonis? Hey, hey...'' Lien Qui was about to doze off when the familiar name completely awoke him. He strained his ears, trying to take as much informations as he could from the news reports. The terms ¡°Tarsonis City¡± and ¡°Terran Confederacy¡± came out a few times, and when he heard the year ¡°2480¡±, his heart sank as he realised the truth about his situation. ''Haha, hahahahahaha.... I wasn''t reincarnated in my own universe, but in the universe of a game I played with my dead friend... Starcraft... And I was born just at the right time, 20 years before the Great War that will involve the humans, the zergs and the protoss... WHAT KIND OF SICK JOKE IS THAT??!'' Over the next few days, he tried to hear as much about the news as he could when he was awake. Having caugh a glimpse of some news about Korhal in the economy section, and heard the name ¡°Umoja¡± at another time, he was sure there wasn''t any mistakes in his assumptions. ''It''s like I''ve been reincarnated in this world just to participate in the war... Is this the will of some kind of god or superior being? For fuck sake, the zergs are a fucking scary bunch!! And the Protoss are planet destroyers! And here I''m born right before all hell got loose... Just what am I going to do with this new life of mine? I barely reached my twenties in the previous life, and here again my life will be threatened my I reach my twenties...'' Lien Qui continued to think about the future while he had time. He could just be a normal citizen and avoid the flames of war. But he also knew that the Terran Confederacy and its successor, the Terran Dominion, were led by indivviduals that didn''t care about people, only about their own interest. ''The Confederacy had kidnapped countless civilians and brainwashed them to increase its military might. And more of that would happen with the arrival of the zergs and the protoss in the sector. There is no guaranty that I, or my family, will remain safe as the politicians try to keep the number of troops. Besides, in the game, we only experienced key events of the war. Many planets had fallen due to the war, conquered by the zergs on the ground, and burned by the protoss from beyond the clouds. Many planets whose name I don''t know, and I may be living on one of them. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. To ensure our safety we would have to go on the other side of the confederacy, far away from the zergs, protoss and other humans. However, the far away worlds would also be a great target for kidnapping to add troops, just like this Starcraft book, ¡°Speed of Darkness¡±... But running away doesn''t sit well with me.'' Lien Qui had always liked action in his past life, in either what he read, watched or did. He always liked thrilling experiences. I practiced martial arts for the thrill of battle. Motocross, mountainbiking, skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, rafting, parkour, paintball. He had tried many kind of extreme sports, starting in middle school, and never really dropped any of them. Thinking about all the things he did in his past life, he didn''t have the heart to hide in a hole. The Great War to come may be a frightning period, but somewhere in his heart, in his soul, it was equally a very interesting and exciting event. He had played several war games and fist person shooters for the same reason he had practiced martial arts: the thrill of battle. After getting over the shock of his reincarnation and realising where he was, his spirited self started to surface again. And it wasn''t like he was completely helpless, he had 20 years to prepare himself. Nash, Lien Qui Nash. This name will become as well known as the soon-to-be notorious Mengsk, Liberty, Raynor and Kerrigan. He will become a hero of the human race. ------- ''But every hero must start somewhere. I can train and study hard, but I must not attract the attention of the confederacy fuckers. Trying to gain their favor may sound like a good ieda at first, but like Liberty said, their war cry is ¡°Where is my part?¡±. Many people would try to take advantage of young me, and jealous people would hinder me or threaten my life, or the life of my parents. No. The Confederacy is too much rotten, I would be used to harm the citzens in one way or the other, and that is something I don''t want to do. I''m not a fucking bastard, and I won''t work for those bastards. Besides, being with them mean that they will have an eye on me, and that would limit me. But I will still need money and equipment. And the best way to get them without the Confederacy''s notice is using dark channels. And in my eyes, the guys of the dark side certainly wouldn''t be more trustworthy than the confederacy... Hacking. With hacking, I can steal both informations and money. I was just an above average college student doing communications studies. But next to that I made money through programming. I sold web sites, and sometimes gave a hand to small starting companies with some small softwares. As a baby, I already know the basics of programming. And if it''s true that baby learn quickly, I will become a top class hacker in the near future. If it doesn''t work, well, I still have plenty of time to think of a plan B. After all, I won''t be able to do anything in that newborn body. Several months stuck doing nothing interesting and having my butt wiped for me... Definitly the hardest period of my life.'' ------- During the next few months, Lien Qui learned a bit more about his surroundings. His father was the chief of security in a commercial building, and his mother was a manager in a clothes shop in the same building. They lived in an appartment around 30 min away from their workplace, with a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and 3 bedrooms, though only 2 of them were used. The appartment was on the 7th floor of the building, and the view was rather nice, with a park and a river nearby. They lived in the city of Beshkno, one of the 2 major cities of the planet Azuke. The planet didn''t have much mineral ressources, the local biosphere didn''t have anything special. At least, the planet was good enough for farming, and there was some interesting sightings places. Most of the income came from tourism with some beautiful landscapes, and entertainment. And by entertainment, it was for the most part adult entertainment. The people of Azuke were ranked in the top 5 of the most attractive people in the Terran Confederacy. Most of the people there were a magnificent blend of african, asian and caucasian blood, though around 80% of that blood came from asians and africans. Beautiful eyes, beautiful skin, charming features, good body proportions. The hosts, hostesses and prostitutes of Azuke were among the best in the Confederacy. It was an appreciated destination for holidays. Azuke was also a place where people could leave old or unwanted equipment or vehicles and purchase new ones. At least for the few systems nearby that used it as a transition point. It was something that greatly pleased Lien Qui. Though Beshkno didn''t deal with it, there was the nearby industrial town of Wenonah. Lien Qui marked it as the place where he would prepare his equipment for war. During those months, he also though that along with informatics, he should also learn as much as he can about physics and technology. He though that after nearly 500 years, the development of the technology was somewhat lacking. There were several things he wasn''t satisfied with concerning the things available through the game, and he wanted equipment more suited to his tastes and needs. He though that, maybe, he would be able to make better use of the current scientific knowledge with ideas from his former world. ****************************** AN: For those who though of guyver armor, I already intended to make armor with living parts, just like the ships and the weapons, but nothing near gyver level,it''s too op. Chapter 13 - 5 years AN: Hi, it''s been a while ****************************** After 2 months, Lien Qui''s mother, Khunying, resumed her work in the clothes shop. Thus, Lien Qui was taken care of by one of their neighbors. Diana King was a 30 years old housewife with a 8 year old daughter named Sophia. The husband and father, Daniel, was an attorney. They lived on the same floor, and they were aquitances of his parents. Since Diana was a housewife and already had experience taking care of a child, and since they all lived at the same place, she readily proposed Lien Qui''s parents to take care of him instead of having them look for someone else. She didn''t mind at all since Lien Qui was a calm baby that only cried when hungry or dirty. It was also entertaining because he seemed to be very curious and receptif as well. Lien Qui had to act his part as a baby. He couldn''t move much, so the only way for him to learn anything or distract himself was to show some interest for anything. And he wanted to do so without tiring his caretaker. Show some spirit for something, then be calm and focused. And smile and laugh. It scored some points. However, Lien Qui didn''t get to learn anything noteworthy for his future projects. He did learn some interesting things about his parents and his neighbors. Diane and him had something in common. They liked action. Diane always watched channels about action movies and extrem sports. She looked normal, but the truth was that she was kinda hotblooded. Lien Qui though that maybe he could use her later for some logistic job. He though that maybe he could use her husband through her. For an attorney, he was a surprisingly good man. Something that seemed to be rare in the Terran Confederacy according to him. The books ¡°Liberty''s crusade¡± and ¡°Speed of Darkness¡± didn''t give him a positive picture of the Confederacy. Because of that, Lien Qui didn''t trust half of what was said in the news. And that irritated him even more because he couldn''t use the internet to make his own research. And even then, he was anxious about it because back in his previous life there was already a lot of misinformation. He was grateful to the fact that the really interesting informations would be well protected, but he would still have to search a lot. ----- Lien Qui spent a lot of time doing some physical exercise. He knew babies bodies were weak, so he went easy on his training. Usually, babies make their 1st steps between 9 and 12 months, and they are able to walk well around 14-15 months old. Lien Qui made his first step at 9, but could walk well enough on his first birthday. His first step was as big an event for him than it was for his parents. So bg in fact that he cried from happiness. His parents went from happy, to worried when they saw their child crying, to shocked when they realised that he was both laughing and crying. They had never heard of any 9 month old baby litteraly crying from happiness. Even though they were happy for their son, that scared them a little. When Diana heard about it she burst out laughing and gave him a big hug. She had noticed that he was quite activ for a baby, so she joked, saying that Lien Qui was probably frustrated from staying on the ground while everyone around him were moving on their 2 feet. It wasn''t far from the truth. Shortly after starting to walk, he also started to talk, to the great joy of his parents.Though he held back a lot, at 1 year old he could talk much better than any kid his age. With mobility and speech, Lien Qui Nash felt a great sense of freedom and accomplishement. He had spent already too much time restrained. But poor Lien Qui had only crossed the 1st hurddle. He had enjoyed being taken care of by Diana. But with him reaching 1 year old, it was time for him to go to the preschool. He would have to play baby with other babies everyday for a while. Being surrounded by babies made him shudder in fright. He had dealt with babies before because of family members or friends of parents getting kids. He knew they could be quite annoying, and he was going to be thrown in the middle of a bunch of them. He was thinking that after preschool, there would be kindergarten, and then primary school, then secondary school. Thinking about all the time he would have to spent surrounded by idiot, ignorant, immature and na?ve kids, Lien Qui almost burst out crying. After his first day at preschool, he did cry at night in his bed. He was thoroughly depressed. One of the things that kept him from going mad was the television. It was possible to select some programs to watch aside from the regular ones. Despite having a young and tender body, Lien Qui would sometimes sneak out of bed at night and watch some of those on-demand programs. Mostly documentaries about space, about the Terran Confederacy territory, about physics, engineering, vehicles and weapons. And also some about babies and kids, to know what he shouldn''t show yet. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. He was thankfull that, unlike a web navigator, there was no history for the on-demand programms. They were part of the package, so no additional fee. But he only did it when he was certain his parents were very tired from their day at work. He didn''t want them to wake up at night thirsty, and see him in the living room watching something too advanced for his age. In fact, he would even pester them a little to make them more tired, though it also made him more tired as well. Due to that, he started to become one of those people that are bad with mornings. ------- At the age of 3, Lien Qui started to read. It was around a year earlier than the average, but it was still acceptable. He could be considered very talented, but not on the level of geniuses, though his parents, as well as Diana, started to see him as a genius. To that, Lien Qui didn''t know if it was a good thing or a bad thing. He just hoped his parents wouldn''t think of sending him in a place for genius kids, as it would put him under the observation of the Confederacy. Thankfully, Daniel was there to warn against that kind of idea before it could start to sprout in the mind of his parents. As an attorney, he had access to informations most people couldn''t, through contacts with people having a job related with law. Those kind of people would have gotten words about not so good activities from some people, including Confederacy dogs. Of course, people were smart enough to keep those kind of rumors from spreading to much. The fear of retribution from the Confederacy wasn''t weak. Thanks to that, Lien Qui started to calm down. He could see an ally in Daniel. At 4 years old, Lien Qui started to show interest to computers, so little by little, his parents would show him how they worked. Personal computer were now pads, though laptop still existed. However, they were high performance computers, the kind you wouldn''t use in a household, but in a technological workplace. Slowly, in secret, Lien Qui explored the capabilities of the computers. Using his own knowledge about programing, as well as what he could find on the web, he reviewed and improved what he could do. Sophia, Diana and Daniel daughter, was 12. For her birthday, she got her own computer. Whenever he could, Lien Qui would use it to train and gather informations. He had created a personal space on the web where he could store documents and informations. He could access them from anywhere. He also used it to train his proramming and hacking skills. When he reached 5 years old, Lien Qui realised that he could start with the serious work. Every new things he learned was easily assimilated. Lien Qui attributed it to his young brain. He had acquired serious programming skills, and it wasn''t all. His knowledge and understanding of science and technology had reached a level incomparable to that of his previous life, which was barely common knowledge. Finally, he had more creativity than most people in the Terran Confederacy. In hs previous life, he had read or watched many things in science fiction or fantasy. Usually, people wouldn''t care to much about it, just thinking that there were some entertaining ideas. But for someone who had been reincarnated in the universe of a video game, the world ¡°impossible¡± was losing a lot of weight. His thinking wouldn''t be as limited as the other. But to do more, he needed his own computer. Using his parent''s or Sophia''s had too many limitations. And if he asked his parents to get him one, they would undoubtly keep a good eye on what he was doing. Revealing his skills wouldn''t be a good idea at that age. He needed to obtain one without the other knowing about it. He couldn''t buy one because he didn''t have any money. He could try to make one, but he would still needs the parts. He would need to buy them. And people wouldn''t sell those things to such a young kid. He needed someone above 10 to12 years old. He didn''t know if he could trust Sophia enough to reveal his intelligence to her, he was worried she would let something slip. Waiting 2 more years was also an option, but not one Lien Qui would take. Being so restricted in his actions was very irritating to him. He needed to remain active, to use his abilities and improve them. He didn''t want to spend all his time acting like a kid, it was beyond him. He wasn''t like his lost friend, who could spend a lot of time doing calm things like reading or relax. ****************************** AN: See ya Chapter 14 - Body and mind AN: Hi ****************************** While doing some research, Lien Qui found out that it was possible to make anonymous accounts online without need for any kind of identity documents. Everything was done online. However, there was still the need of an initial payment before the full activation of the account. And it wasn''t cheap. It was nice to know, but that was something he wasn''t going to use until later. He temporary gave up on the idea of getting his own computer, and turned toward something just as interesting and important. Physical training. He was at the age where he could start to train in a physical activity without damaging his young body. ¡°Well. In the future I will have to fight against the Confederacy and the Zergs. And probably some Protoss as well, not everyone of them are Like Tassadar and Zeratul. If I find myself forced into a close quarter combat situation, I will need an efficient martial art. Even during the time of my battle preparations I will probably have to deal with some criminals or other annoying people. When dealing with someone or something that is trying to kill you, you must end the threat quickly.¡± ¡°Even more so in this world. I don''t need something flashy, but something quick and decisive. Muai Thai, a martial arts made for the battlefield. Krav Maga, a martial arts made to quickly kill enemies. Jeet Kun Do, ''minimal effort maximum effect and exterem speed'', fast and powerfull attacks, and disgards stiff stances for more flexibility and impredictability. Brazilian jujitsu, an excellent martial arts when it comes to pinning, holds and locks, but a little weak in throws I think.¡± ¡°But that is for unarmed combat. Here, I will mostly fight with guns. But then again, if I''m dragged in CQC a gun won''t help much. I will probably need a good weapon. Zergs exosqueletons are hard, so a blade won''t be very effective unless I can target the joints. A trauma weapon might be good but it will probably heavy and requiert to much momentum and energy... No, if zergs can pierce armor with their scythes, I can probably make blades sharp enough to do the same¡± ¡°So, I should also learn a weapon based martial art. Kenjutsu is quite attractive, especially since I find japaneses curved swords cool. Silat, eskrimas and kalaripayat also deal with weapons like daggers and short swords. Though I think they may not be well suited against zergs, maybe. There are also many chinese martial arts that deal with bladed weapons, but I''m not that knowledgable about them.¡± After thinking about it for a while and making some research on the net, Lien Qui found out that many mixed styles of martial arts were born. And many ancients ones were still preserved. He found a style that was based on muai thai with a few elements from silat and kalaripayat, making it more flexible and deadly. There was also a new form of jujitsu that had been developped, efficient in all throws, holds, locks and pinning techniques. Finally, he found a style of armed combat for short and long sword that mixed elements from western and eastern styles. Lien Qui decided that those 3 combat style would be the base of his own CQC ability. Especially because the school teaching them were close to his home and accepted students starting from 5 years old. ------- ¡°Mom, dad?¡± ¡°What is it, son?¡± ¡°I want to learn martial arts.¡± ¡°¡°...¡±¡± ¡°Sweety, why do you want to do that? You will get hurt you know? Besides, you''re too small, it''ll be too dangerous for you.¡± ¡°But I want to be strong. I want to be strong so nobody will bully me. And also so nobody will bully sister Sophia when I''m with her. Besides, men must be strong! Isn''t dad strong? I want to be even stronger!¡± ¡°... Hahaha. My dear little boy.¡± ¡°I already searched! I found 2 school that are close to the house!¡± ¡°¡°Two?¡±¡± ¡°Yes! And they take 5 years old students! A school for hitting and a school for holding! Holding is enough when there is only 1 bad guy. But if there are many, I can''t hold all of them with only 2 hands, I will have to hit them and knock them down!¡± Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. ¡°... He really though about it well Khunying.¡± ¡°...Well? Let me think about it...¡± ¡°Really? Then I''ll ask you again next week! Here, I even took the adresses of the school so you can look. I''ll be sure to train well!¡± ------- The following weekend, Lien Qui and his parents went to see the 2 martial arts schools and their instructors. Because Lien Qui seemed sure of what he wanted to learn when they were speaking with the instructors, both them and his parents were satisfied. They were convinced that Lien Qui wouldn''t stop after a few weeks or a few months. Kito and Khunying already knew that their son was very bright, and more mature than he seemed. They were worried because he was still young, be in the end, they relented. His lessons started the following month, 2 hours per week for each school, so 4 hours of martial art training each week. He didn''t tell them about the weapon school because he though there was no way his parents would allow their 5 years old son to learn to use blade. For the following year, his personal preparation plan consisted of training his martial arts, studying physics and technology, and training his hacking and programing skills whenever he could. The addition of martial arts training had a very good effect on his mind. He could finally indulge in some exciting activity. It lowered his stress and increased his focus for studying and hacking. He made a lot of progress in everything thanks to his maturity and stable state of mind. On his sixth year, he was finally proficient enough to hack into low security systems. Because he still didn''t have his own computer, it took a lot more time to infiltrate the targets. But at the same time he was learning to make stealthy, fast and decisive attacks on systems. He also made a lot of progress in programming the softwares he used for hacking. Hacking required a lot of scouting and the programmation of the infiltration software. Because he had little time doing the observation of the target personally, he made scouting programs. They would do most of the job and he would only need to look at the final report. What couldn''t be left to the software he would do it himself whenever he could. Both the computer of his parents and Sophia''s computer had spywares made by him. So long as the computer weren''t turned off, and connected to the net, the spywares would do their jobs. And since the computers were rarely turned off, Lien Qui could get good informations from them. As he improved his scouting softwares and spywares, he also imrpoved his attacks softwares from the data he received. He had infected many low security systems and computers with his programms, and he was slowly starting to set his eyes on medium security systems. After all, he had gained a great understanding of the architecture of the systems from this world. He felt greatly enlighted. That year, for Christmas, Kito and Khunying gave Lien Qui a computer as a birthday gift. It was an old model made for children. For Lien Qui, it was one of the greatest gifts his parents could give him. Certainly, the specs weren''t on par with the currents computers available, but it still remained a reliable machine. Once he received that computer, Lien Qui completely redisgned the system and the softwares. He simplified some parts and adaptated and improved some others. He implented his own security software, which was a modification and fusion of his best spywares and attack softwares. He added some layers of defense and concealment programms. He spent days building the defenses of his computers, and more time improving his attack softwares. He was going to make the first steps in building his rebel group: hacking a small bank and stealing money to open an anonymous account in a big bank... ****************************** AN: See ya Chapter 15 - G-Squad AN: Hi. Well, seeing the comments of the previous chapters, it looks like I didn''t do a good job with Lien Qui. Let''s put him aside for now then. Ah, I forgot. Italics is for alien language and bold is for telepatic communication ****************************** On this year 2486, a few things happened. But those seemingly little events would have a huge impact on the future of the whole Korpulu Sector and its surroundings. On that year, on the planet Azuke in the Terran Confederacy, a 6 year old boy finally got the first steps necessary to start his rebel group. On a remote planet, at the edge of the human territory, the Terran Confederacy discovered a zerg infection. At another remote corner of the Terran Confederacy, a cloaked organic spaceship silently made its appearance. On board were many members of a young alien race, and 5 members of the human race. The crew was observing the surface and surroundings of the planet with their sensors. They focused on the few and small settlements and installations, and their inhabitants. ¡°It match wih our informations. Captain Volkstaf, we found them. The humans.¡± Volkstaf was one of the first vahnar to appear on Frozen Eden. He was first trained as a soldier, pilot, then spacecraft operative like the rest of his crew. As the best of his group, he was chosen as the captain of Kharima, the exploration leviathan scheduled to scout the human territory. ¡°Good!¡± ¡°Doctor Ken''Sha, wake up the G-squad.¡± ¡°Yes captain.¡± On board of Kharima was a group of people who, despite not being of the xergan race, were well respected by the xergans. They were a group of humans raised by the leader of xergan race, Zal''Rus. They were the first instructors of the humanoid branch of the xergans, and they also instructed the first vahnas. Zal''Rus wanted them to infiltrate a few humans colonies to gather intelligence. After all, everything they knew about the Terran Confederacy was half a century old. The frontier colonies would have the least amount of security. Though they would also have a low amount of informations, at least they wouldn''t be as old as what he had. ¡°Officer Ranna, send the preliminary report home.¡± ¡°Arn.¡± Arn, was a term Zal''Rus introduced to the vocabulary of his armed forces, a small word to indicate that the order has been received and is going to be executed. It was the xergan version of ''aye aye'' or ''roger''. The opposite word was ''yern''. During battle, the simplicity of the word could make one gain a full second. And one second on the battlefield could mean anything. As for the message they sent back to Frozen Eden, it was just to announce the discovery of the human territories and their location. Along the way, they had left several communication relays. To avoid detection, they used tight beam emiters and receptors, and they were not placed in a straight line leading to Frozen Eden. Doctor Ken''Sha was the medical officer assigned to Kharima, a male vahnar. All officers aboard the leviathan were vahnar. The rest of the crew were solchys and techys, along with a few nest drones, rockons and overlords. Ken''Sha went into a special room in the medical bay and pressed a few switches on a panel. The 5 capsules that were faintly humming in the room started to make more noise. After nearly half an hour, the noise started to receed, and the capsules slowly went from a horizontal position to a diagonal one. Their cover slid open, revealing 5 naked humans, 3 women and 2 men of mature age. Beta, a 43 year old woman raised to be a battle specialist. Gamma, a 42 years old woman raised to be a research and management specialist. Delta, a 36 year old man raised to be a frontline soldier. Zeta, a 34 years old man raised to be a support soldier. Epsylon, a 34 year old woman raised to be an infiltration specialist. Technically, they should be 10 years older than that, but Zal''Rus put them in cryo-sleep, so they would keep their physical fitness for the infiltration of the Terran Confederacy. ¡°Commander Beta?¡± asked the doctor. ¡°Are you awake?¡± ¡°... I am¡± replied the woman in a tired voice. Anyone getting out of cryo-sleep would be weakened for a bit. ¡°Have we reached our objective?¡± ¡°Yes commander.¡± Beta slowly exited the capsule with the help of the doctor. He helped her to the side of the room where she could sit, and helped the other out of their capsules. ¡°Commander, sirs. We are now in year 2486 according to the human calendar, and we have just reached a frontier colony of the Terran Confederacy. At the moment, the captain must be searching for a good place to drop you down. Meanwhile, I will help you get back into shape. It shouldn''t take more than a day or two.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± After greeting the other officer of the ship, the 5 members of the G-squad, named as such by Zal''Rus because they were the most successful subjects among the gipsi, trained for 2 days to get rid of the post cryo-sleep weakness. During that time, the captain Volkstaf was monitoring the little amount of communications in the system and on the planet. Once the G-squad got done with their rehabilitation, they had a meeting with the captain Volkstaf. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°This small colony seem to be called Nergan. From what we could tell through our observations, they can''t really be associated with the Terran Confederacy as there seem to be little contact with them. As sovereign Zal''Rus expected, you will have to get down on the ground to get significant informations.¡± ¡°It will be troublesome¡± said Epsylon. ¡°In such a remote place, they probably know everyone well. A group of strangers like us, or even one person, can''t just pop out of nowhere. We will be very suspicious if we show ourselves. Recluse people can get really hostile with suspicious foreigners.¡± ¡°Then we won''t show ourselves¡± replied Beta. ¡°We will steal informations from their databanks and steal one of their spaceship. There must still be a functional one. If not, one we can repair. We will use that ship to move further into terran territory.¡± ¡°We could act as settlers tired of the recluse life style of the frontier world¡± added Epsylon. ¡°We would be able to enter the confederacy as group of mercenaries. If possible, we could enter through dark channels.¡± ¡°About dark channels, the Sovereign gave us some materials to trade if money was to become an issue. So the use of those channels shouldn''t be a problem.¡± said Volkstaf. ¡°For the time being, let''s get some basic informations on the ground¡± ordered Beta. ¡°We can discuss our following course of action later. Did you find a good place for us to land?¡± ¡°Yes, I found a spot not far from the main settlement. The colony is seriously lacking in defense and surveillance systems, and the place we choose is in a blind spot. From there, it should take you 4 hours to reach the main settlement.¡± ¡°Then we will drop down there at dusk, and reach the settlement when most people will be sleeping¡± said Beta. ¡°Gamma, make preparations to leave. The rest of you, get ready.¡± ¡°¡°¡°¡°Arn, commander!¡±¡±¡±¡± The preparations didn''t take much time. From the moment they started their trip, all the necessary equipment was prepared, and even before that they had made. All they had to do was make a quick review and inspection, and they were ready to go. The cargo bay of Kharima opened, and a dark ovale vehicle flew out and sped toward the planet. It was made like the leviatthan, based on the overlords. Because overlords could enter the atmosphere of a planet at slow speed, there would be no emission of light or heat due to air friction. With the camouflage, it could enter the atmosphere almost undetected. They reached the ground about 1 hour after sunset, then set off toward the main settlement. The planet seemed to be relatively poor, a somewhat aride world that would probably make Zal''Rus think of the system Sara. It was incredibly dark, with no moon, but the equipment the G-squad possessed allowed them to move without problem. The settlement looked more like an industrial one than an agricultural one. While being wary of any kind of surveillance and security systems, as well as occasional passerbys, they moved toward what seemed to be the administrative building. Thoug the xergan was a young race, Zal''Rus stole technology from the terran and continued to developp it. That included informatic systems. The xergans informatic system had become very complex and advanced. Especially since it had to take into account organic brains part of the network. Zal''Rus was certain that the xergans had reached a higher level than the terran in computing. Epsylon, as the infiltration expert, had no trouble hacking into the building system and allowing entry to the team. Under her guidance, they quickly reached the archives and server room. They scanned and downloaded as much informations as they could. About the map of the Terran Confederacy, the origin of the settlers and the conditions of their previous home. That colony was young, barely 10 years old, and had cut nearly all contact with the confederacy. The colony was made of religious groups that weren''t welcomed in the confederacy and tried to make their own utopia. Many of the vessels they came with had been dismantled, but there were a few still operational just in case. With all the informations the G-squad gathered, it wouldn''t be too hard to enter the confederacy territory and set hidden bases on 3 major locations. The system Sara, the system Antigus, and finally, Tarsonis. ****************************** AN: See ya!