Chapter 12: Sandstorm

“Master, I’ve analyzed the Chosen One’s Essence.” Izsha whispered into my mind as the wind and sand whipped my carapace. The sun was blotted out by the crazy sandstorm. I finally had to ‘wear’ my mask again, because it was just too annoying.

“Good job.” I followed the Zerg Drone that was skittering across the sands instead of floating, “What’s the verdict?”

“Relatively normal human genome. 23 chromosomes from his similarly normal human mother. The other 23 chromosomes are from another normal human father.” Although that might sound ‘normal’, it was actually extremely odd and unlikely in this Galaxy. As mentioned previously, most humans are not really that normal-looking on a genetic level. Both Shmi and Anakin are too ‘pure’. It’s unnatural.

“Have you figured out why his cells can hold so many Midichlorians?” Although I could analyze the tissue and blood samples myself later, I wanted her to get some experience and do the initial testing. She was only a few days old. No matter how much I’ve programmed her genes and transmitted information to her psychically, she still needs to learn some things on her own.

“No. His cells are ordinary in size, shape, function…” She skittered around the right side of a large rock and I walked around the other side, “I don’t understand what makes him different from the tens of thousands of other humans we’ve researched.”

“To be fair, we haven’t really researched them that thoroughly. Not really. What I have found is that different organs usually contain different quantities of Midi-chlorians per cell. Anakin for example, has over thirty thousand per cell in his blood, which is fucking impressive. But his actual organs and bones often have over forty thousand in most cells. Of course, this might go up and down as he ages and either becomes more or less attuned to the Force.”

I’ve done quite a bit of research on Ferroans, Langhesi and the various woodland creatures, or even the woodlands themselves. It definitely is possible to make someone Force Sensitive by simply transplanting the Midi-chlorians into their cells. You need to do it to ‘all’ of their cells though. All their cells need to have at least 7,500. That might seem like a lot, but even the average human has at least 2,500 per cell. There are also other ways to increase or decrease the Midi-chlorian count within your cells, including various types of radiation, toxins, stress, or even some metaphysical shit like doing ‘good’ or ‘bad’ deeds.

Sometimes the Force just likes somebody. Sometimes the Midi-chlorians decide to make a baby inside a random slave girl on Tatooine? I mean, theoretically it was brought on by Darth Sidious and Darth Plagueis fucking around and finding out that they can in fact artificially create a Vergence in the Force. Just that they didn’t really know where or when, or how it would turn out.

I don’t know exactly what they did, but I wouldn’t wanna copy their bullshittery anyway. Maybe I’m a little arrogant, but I know that I’ll probably create quite a few Vergences in the future. It’s not that impressive though. I know of so many fucking Vergences. In the grand scale of the Galaxy, they’re super rare and special, but realistically, there are still a lot of them.

“Master, was it wise to leave them behind with so little protection and surveillance? We didn’t even transform them into Zerg.” Izsha actually questioned my decisions, that’s a good sign. Although the Zerg are supposed to follow their Master, blind obedience is kinda useless for high-ranking members of my Swarm. Especially the ones that will be more like my own children than just some random biological combat robots.

“Anakin is a genius and he probably gets a lot of his talents from his Mom. I could make them Zerg, but I’m not omnipotent or omniscient.” I mean, even the real Xel’naga weren’t that overpowered, “With those books, my notes, those samples and that much money, they should be able to find their own way.”

“They might become our enemies.” She wasn’t wrong. Shmi wasn’t some kinda saint. She definitely did some fucked up shit to survive so long as a non-sexual slave. Likely betraying a lot of her former Masters or even killing them. But I wasn’t her Slave Master, we were more like Master and Apprentice. Hopefully not the Sith kind, because those relationships never ended well. Not even the similarly tragic Jedi apprenticeship program.

“If they become our enemies, then that’s just the way it goes.” Okay, I am pretty arrogant. “If Anakin Skywalker and his Mom can manage to beat me when I have an 18 year head start over them, then I deserve to lose this Game of Galactic Thrones.”

“Yes, Master.” Izsha didn’t bother arguing with me and just kept skittering ahead into the sandstorm.

We weren’t burdened by our luggage or a certain adorable kitty cat anymore. I was just gonna cocoon him, but he freaked out. Thankfully I have two useful Apprentices that can take care of the cat for a while… Also, it’s not like I didn’t leave any surveillance or protection behind.

“Stop.” I called out telepathically and the Drone stopped immediately. Then I caught up with her and knelt down next to a few rocks. There were cacti with special fruits growing out of them. Something the Jawas and Tuskens loved. Hubba Gourds… Of course, they weren’t the only ones interested.

Stolen story; please report.

“Underground.” Izsha stated as we both watched and waited for the creatures to emerge from the sand. Furry little black Womp Rats, which honestly just looked like regular rats with some lizard-like features. They didn’t notice us, even from such a short distance.

“It’s coming.” I warned my daughter and the two of us took a few steps back. The sandstorm covered up a lot of the vibrations and sound, so it’s not surprising that the dog-sized Womp Rats would miss it.

*Squeak~!* One of them freaked out and tried to warn the others, but when they didn’t react, it abandoned the tasty gourd and ran for its life! Smart, but unfortunately it ran in the wrong direction.

*Crunch~!* I could just barely make out the noise as the massive thick dark-scaled lizard chomped down on it from above! A two meter long rat was devoured by a nine meter long Dewback just like that. Not just one Dewback, there were five of them. The huge beasts had almost ox-like beefy bodies, super thick tails and enormous heads with tiny golden eyes.

“Wait.” I stopped the eager Drone from charging out there.

“So much Biomass.” Izsha felt disheartened because a dozen Womp Rats was actually a pretty huge quantity of meat. The Dewbacks were even bigger and beefier than bulls, standing at two meters tall at the shoulder. Their backs were covered in furry scales that, similar to their name, would accumulate some morning dew. Though if I had to guess, it was probably secreted by the creatures themselves since Tatooine was so damn dry.

“It’s okay. Dewbacks are very common, so are Womp Rats. Their Essence isn’t hard to gather.” But our real prey was a different matter entirely. The sand shifted underneath one of the Dewbacks and it let out a loud, low roar! Then a huge toothy maw emerged from the ground!

“Ooouuuuuouu~!” The Dewbacks cried out loudly and quickly scattered, while the surviving Womp Rats did the same! The colossal head was about the size of the entire Dewback! Those fang-like teeth tore and ripped apart the beast that struggled in its mouth, but that didn’t last long. Pretty soon the whole lizard was swallowed down the long, serpentine throat of an even bigger lizard.

“It really does look like a dragon.” I could see a blue scaly head with four gigantic horns curling back, those giant orange eyes following the escaping Dewbacks, unbothered by the sandstorm. That long purple tongue licked the blood from its lipless and noseless ‘snout’.

“Now, Master?” The tiny Drone was only a meter from where that enormous neck was protruding out of the sand. I closed my eyes and ‘felt’ the even more massive body lurking below the surface. It wasn’t a fully grown adult. Those could reach over 100 meters, which is insane to think about in terms of normal biology from my previous life. Even the Blue Whale rarely broke 30 meters long. This was the Galaxy Far Far Away though, not the Milky Way or anywhere near Earth.

“I don’t sense anything or anyone else nearby.” I was hoping there might be a ‘bigger fish’, but it looks like the 70 meter long Greater Krayt was gonna be the catch of the day.

“Hunting!” Izsha shouted in a raspy but high-pitched telepathic voice as she jumped up and latched onto the creature’s ridiculously thick neck like a tick! Those pincers that could tear through durasteel were actually having trouble piercing the blue scales and pink meat underneath!

“Roooaaaaaaaaaaaaah~!” Needless to say, the Krayt Dragon was not very happy. That huge neck slammed down towards the sand, trying to crush the little ‘bug’ that was causing so much pain and discomfort. But the little Drone just crawled around to the other side of the neck before the impact!

“It’s resistant to my venom and infestation, Master!” She shouted telepathically as I jumped up out of the way of the colossal neck that came swinging my way! I almost got carried away by the wind and sand, but I reached out and pulled myself onto the creature’s head with the Force!

“Aaarrrraraaaah~!” It screamed as my toe talons and claws dug into the meat on its crest!

“Raaaah~! Hahahaha~!” I couldn’t help laughing as I rode on the head of a motherfucking dragon! It dove down under the sand and the resistance was even stronger than the storm aboveground!

“Careful Master!” Izsha warned me, but I was already crawling around and hiding behind the dragon’s horns before it could headbutt those big-ass boulders! I ripped and tore at the flesh with my hands, long spiny tendrils emerged from my palms and started drilling down through the meat. The bone was so damn hard though. Like unreasonably strong.

“They’re not Star Dragons, but Sand Dragons are still pretty fucking overpowered, huh?” I looked over to the left and felt the giant object approaching me! I scuttled around the side of the horn as the gigantic tip of that insanely large tail stabbed behind the beast’s horns! Then I could feel Izsha avoiding a colossal claw that tried to scratch her out of existence!

“Master, what should we do?!” My cute little Drone girl was panicking, but I was surprisingly calm.

“Gotta go inside.” I knew they had some pretty strong acidic saliva and stomach acid, but their blood wasn’t quite so difficult to deal with, “You take the belly, I’ll go through the back.”

“I’ll try, Master!”

“Do or do not, there is no try!” I couldn’t help cackling out loud as I let go of the beast for a moment, allowing it to move ahead a few dozen meters and then latched onto the bastard’s upper back! The scales were so damn strong and considering they were meant to keep out sand or allow for the dragon to swim around down there, I’m kinda amazed at how rough and thick they were!

“Remember this, Izsha.” I clawed through the meat as the Krayt Dragon tried to scratch me out of its flesh! I was too small though and burrowed inside the monster’s back way too quickly… Once I was inside, I kept digging as the roars and movements reverberated. Then I told my daughter, “The bigger you become, the easier it is for smaller creatures to crawl around inside you… This is a weakness for individuals, but the Zerg aren’t alone. We are the Swarm.”

“I understand, Master!” She drilled through the meat even faster than I did, meeting me in the middle of the dragon’s torso. There was a massive beating heart nearby, not the only heart in the insanely large creature, but that didn’t make it any less vital. If we wanted, we could kill the beast easily enough.

“Are you ready, Izsha?” I caressed her adorable armored head and honestly, felt a little scared. She’s literally my child. I’ve only had less than a week with her, but it took me over a year to create and program her genes, even longer than a mother would carry a child. And way more complicated. Sixteen or seventeen years of training before that. Literally my whole second life has been dedicated to this moment.

“Sufficient Biomass, Metamorphosis possible…” Izsha wrapped her claws around me and nuzzled her face against mine, “Awaiting your orders… Father.”

“I love you, Izsha.” We hugged for a while longer, before she pushed me away and started drinking up the insane amount of blood around us. A few moments later, she excreted purple Creep all over her body and wrapped herself up in a cocoon that was bigger than me. This wasn’t a video game though. I swam closer to the throbbing, pulsating mass and placed my palms on it.

“Metamorphosis has begun.” She whispered into my mind with a somewhat shaky voice, “I love you too, Master.”