Chapter 15: Zerg Base

The sky was pretty pink, with a surprising amount of clouds. For a moment, I wasn’t sure I was actually still on Tatooine anymore. But then I noticed the two suns on the horizon, sinking down at about the same time. One after the other, a few minutes apart. As night fell, it was the perfect time to start constructing our base.

*Rumble~!* The dry and rocky ground cracked open in front of me, a massive toothy maw slowly emerging from the earth. We were basically in a small valley between several large black mountains. The Hatchery tunneled out of the ground completely, looking like a meaty purple and black hill under the pretty starlight. Well, stars, starships, space stations, you get the point.

“Okay, that’s… Yeah, perfect. Right in the middle.” I helped Izsha position herself right at the very center of the valley.

“We are ready, Father.” She whispered into my mind and I smiled wryly. This was it, the real beginning. Mos Espa was hundreds of miles away, but that distance was nothing when you consider that landspeeders travel through these mountains all the time at a thousand kilometers per hour. There are also loads of starships, satellites. We’ll be able to keep ourselves hidden for a short time, but it won’t be long before the war starts.

“Do it.” I wasn’t too worried though. This is Star Wars, not Starcraft. They don’t know what we are. Even if they knew, the Hutts would be trying to find a way to use or sell us rather than destroy us.

“Establishing Base of Operations. Now.” With her telepathic orders, a thick carpet of purplish-brown Creep started spreading across the ground. The black rocky surface was actually broken down and transformed into nutrients. We’re the Zerg. We don’t need a fucking oasis. We can survive anywhere, even on a fucking asteroid in space. Though I’m sure I can make the process easier if I capture a few of those Exogorths, or space worms. There are also Mynocks that look like bats and can live and fly around in space somehow. I need to catch a few of those fuckers for research. Not sure if they exist on Tatooine though.

If they are here, they’ll probably be in these mountains. Along with the Canyon Krayts, Tusken Raiders, Rancors and plenty of other prey.

“Hunting!” Lingling screamed excitedly as she charged out of the giant tube towards a Womp Rat in the distance.

“Master, we need to expand our pack.” Prima lumbered over to my left side and rubbed her scaly face against my shoulder.

“We gave you reproductive organs.” I rubbed my face on her cheek and she growled in irritation.

“That would be… Inefficient.” She pulled away from my side and grumbled, “I do not wish to become a Primal Hive.”

“I didn’t design you with that capability in the first place. Though I could definitely figure it out.” I looked over towards the four Drones floating around. This isn’t a game. If it was, then I’d be the developer. I programmed them to be like the Drones in the game, only able to transform into buildings or gather resources for the most part. But if I stepped in, I could easily transform a Drone into a Zergling or a Zergling into an ‘Infested Terran’. It’d just be a pain in the ass.

“Change is not always for the better.” Prima pointed to her Drone sister with her super long index claw, “They are different from us, Master.”

“I know.” I sighed as I watched Droanna chose a spot not far from us to settle down and spin a cocoon around her body. The Creep provided all the nutrients and materials she required, so the process was far quicker than what Izsha had to go through. Especially since Droanna wasn’t trying to turn into a Hatchery… A few minutes passed and her massive cocoon burst open, splashing green juices all over the two of us!

“She lives. But she is not an individual.” The lizard-ape walked over on all fours, while I got closer as well. There were lots of brown tubes reaching down into the earth, some connected to Izsha, while others reached down, searching for underground water sources and mineral deposits. Even with what little she had, it was still enough for the thick rubbery brown ‘mouth’ to start filling with toxic green sludge. At least, that’s what it looked like at first glance. The toothy maw was a Spawning Pool, while the green goo wasn’t dangerous to us at all. In fact, it was more like a hot spring for Prima and I to enjoy.

“She’s part of the Swarm. An organ of sorts.” I got comfortable inside the gigantic heated pool that used to be my daughter. Of course, it still was Droanna, but her mind… No, I guess she was always just an extension of Izsha. This is just returning to her mother.

“I am not an organ. I do not wish to become an organ either. I am an individual. A Hunter. Leader of a Pack.” She got comfortable next to me and her spines fortunately didn’t hurt the thick flesh behind us, “I can change, grow, improve… In my own way.”

“I know.” I sighed and caressed that smooth, scaly face, those three eyes blinking at me in turn, “You’re my child. No matter what. Even if you told me you wanted to go to Coruscant and become a Jedi, I wouldn’t stop you from trying.”

“That… Is not such an unreasonable decision.” Prima grinned, or maybe she was always grinning, maybe I should’ve given her lips? “I am a Youngling. I am Force Sensitive. The Jedi would not turn me away.”

“Maybe. But they’ll analyze your genes and probably keep records of shit that will end up on Palpatine’s desk sooner or later. I mean, he’s not Chancellor yet… But Dooku is also still a Jedi, and already working for him, probably.” I’m not sure the risk was worth the reward of placing a spy in the Jedi Order.

“Father, Anakin would make a much more reasonable spy.” Izsha whispered into my mind specifically, “Also… More trustworthy.”

“It’s sad but true.” I didn’t program my kids with blind obedience. Not even Izsha. That was probably a mistake. But it’s not that big of a deal either. They were just the first batch. Future Zerg will be less individualistic. More and more like cogs in the biological war machine.

With Prima, I hoped to create a Dehaka or Zagara type figure, but now that I think about it… Well, both of them weren’t really that trustworthy. With Lingling, I think she turned out kind of special, but it shouldn’t be a big deal. She’s just a Zergling.

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“Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for his Throne!” Wait, where the fuck?

I felt in her direction and saw a top-down birds eye view of her general vicinity. There were a bunch of Tusken Raiders using blasters or pointy sticks to attack her, but the purple bug moved so fast that she was like a blur to them. A claw slashed over and easily decapitated a man, then another stabbed through a female Tusken Raider’s back. A lucky shot hit that armored spiky black forehead, but the blaster bolt bounced off and flew up into the sky before fizzling out eventually.

Lingling didn’t show any mercy and I didn’t bother giving her any orders. She chopped off a few more heads and disemboweled a couple other people. Then she ignored their corpses, not even bothering to collect their Essence or devour their Biomass.

“Inefficient.” Izsha commented, “Two out of six were defective. We will do better in the future, Father.”

“You really don’t wanna know how many times I failed before I created you. No, I guess you already do, because I basically programmed my entire memory into your genome.” I sighed and watched my murder-hobo daughter heading in the direction of Mos Espa.

“We need more Overlords.” Izsha suggested.

“Yeah, we really do.” I forced the wayward Zergling to return, though she didn’t offer much resistance. Although she was a murder-hobo, that was actually pretty normal for Zerg combat units. Under normal circumstances, a little bit of autonomy was good. But you need a ridiculously overpowered motherfucker like the Overmind, who was actually controlled by Amon, to keep the Swarm in check. If not them, then you need a Queen of Blades. Or a Queen like Zagara.

“We need to give them less Midi-chlorians per cell.” She came to the same conclusion that I did. I mean, it would be great if we could make a whole Swarm where even a random Zergling like Lingling had the same potential for the Force as the average Jedi Knight, but the problem is that their supreme overlords were also on the same level.

“We don’t have to intentionally cripple them, but we can just leave it up to chance, rather than wasting so much time, energy and resources on each of them.” I had a dream of creating my own little team of Zerg Heroes, but the issue with those Heroes is that they’re totally unnecessary. Izsha is more like the Overmind and I’m somewhere between Abathur, Kerrigan and Zagara combined.

Oh well, you live, you learn, you evolve.

Speaking of which, I could see another huge organ cropping up nearby. It was Dronii. She transformed into an Evolution Chamber. It looked kinda like a big-ass glowing purple heart that was beating slowly. There were giant spikes poking out of one side and a brown rib cage covering another section. Lots of thick brown tubes were reaching into the Creep carpet, connecting it to the rest of the organs.

“I’ll give you a pack, but you have to actually be able to control them.” I ran my fingers through the green ooze and caught a handful of tiny black Larvae. Within a few seconds they curled up in cocoons and then the cocoons burst, revealing dozens of baby Primal Zerglings. They all looked very similar to Prima, but their Midi-chlorian count wasn’t much higher than a normal human and they obviously didn’t have nearly as much potential.

“Thank you, Master.” She bowed her head and let me dump the dozens of little sisters on her spiny black scalp, “I will protect and nurture them into powerful hunters.”

“I believe in you.” I patted her on the cheek and smirked, “I also believe in your subtlety and discernment.” I looked over and saw a huge spiny purple tube burst out of another cocoon in the distance. It looked a lot smaller in the game, but the Spore Crawler had to be capable of shooting acidic Creep at hypersonic speeds at aircraft in the upper atmosphere. Obviously it would be bigger in reality.

“What are your orders, Master?” Prima caught one of her sisters that fell off her head and put it back up there with the others.

“Search the mountains. Rancors, Krayt Dragons and Mynocks, especially Mynocks. Catch them alive if possible, but don’t make unnecessary sacrifices. If you lose members of your Pack, you’re gonna have to replace them yourself.” I rubbed her scaly neck and patted her beefy chest. No breasts, just solid muscle covered in incredibly durable scaly flesh.

“What about Minerals and other resources?” She purred softly, “What about the Tusken Raiders?”

I thought about it for a moment and told her, “I doubt there will be any kids, but assuming there are, try to capture them. The male adults are worthless. Females are more valuable, but also not a high priority.”

I know that for the most part, the ‘Tusken Raiders’ were literally mountain bandits. Generally adult men, with a few women here and there. They came to the mountains to prey on the people passing through the valleys. I’m sure they did have some villages and there might even be cave systems where they live, but they generally didn’t stay in this particular mountain range. It was just too close to Mos Espa and would make them an easy target.

“As you wish.” As she jumped out of the pool, I had to catch a few of the brats that slipped off her head again. I tossed them onto her spiky back, but their bodies were so small that those giant spines were just way too big to actually hurt them.

*Splash!* Before I had time to relax, a wild Zergling appeared! Specifically, Lingling, who swam over to me and growled in a high-pitched tone. Those mantis claws clamped down behind my shoulders and her huge maw opened right in front of my face! And then she licked me like a dog.

“Violence?” A simple one-word question. But the implications were obvious. She was full of energy and wanted to go around murdering some more people and/or animals. But thankfully she was still under my control for the most part. Puppy-like obedience, where she might listen to me or she might try to bite my face off randomly.

“Soon, Lingling.” I looked around the valley and saw a huge tentacle emerge from the last cocoon, towering nearly a hundred meters above the ground! It was almost as tall as the Hatchery and that was just the normal length. It could stretch much, much longer than that.

“Oh about I give you a mission?” I ran my fingers through the slimy water again, pulling another handful of tiny Larvae out of the Spawning Pool. They were immediately wrapped in purple cocoons and only took a few seconds to burst free, completely changed into cricket-sized purple and black Zerglings. They had wings just like their big sister, because why not?

“Massacre?” She asked hopefully.

“If you’re a good girl and kill the bad guys for Daddy.” I let the baby Zerglings fly over onto their sister’s back, “For now, guard the base. We’re very weak at the moment and need to make sure nobody attacks us before we’re ready to fight.”

“Always ready to fight!” She hopped up above my head and splashed my face with a bunch of green slime! Then there was a sonic boom as she buzzed her wings rapidly! She shot off into the sky before landing on a distant mountain top… Most of those tiny Zerglings were left behind, but they quickly trailed after her wake.

“We should remove her wings.” Izsha made a serious suggestion.

“We’ll see how she acts first.” I didn’t dismiss the possibility entirely, “Even if we got rid of the wings, she’d just burrow underground or maybe develop the ability to warp through time and space to go murder us in the past?”

“Father… You are joking, correct?” She thought I was kidding at first, but we both knew about the World Between Worlds, or Vergence Scatter. A temporal bullshit nexus that canonically exists within the Star Wars Multiverse.

“I’m just saying it’s possible.” I smiled wryly and leaned back, looking up at the night sky, “We need to control Lothal though… And actually, isn’t there some ancient bullshit on Dathomir that could let us teleport to different planets? We need to go back and pick up our luggage soon. The Evolution Chamber would be a good place to keep the genetic samples.”

“There are many Force Sensitive Younglings that would make excellent targets for assimilation.” Izsha reminded me of a certain little protagonist who was probably only a year old at the moment, or maybe she was just born recently? It’s hard to say.

“Ahsoka, Grogu… How old is Ventress now? She might still be on Dathomir? I’m not sure if she’s older or younger than Anakin.” I knew the canon and legends locations of various ‘protagonists’ at different time points, but if I start abducting them randomly, then the Jedi will probably notice. Maybe the Force will actively help or fight against me? It’s debatable whether my Zerg are in the best interest of the Force.

“We need to build more defenses before the night ends.” As she said that, I could feel Izsha spawning new full-sized Larvae. They weren’t given much special attention. With the potential to become many archetypes, but in the end, their destiny was to become Drones. Those Drones moved to strategic positions around the valley and morphed into massive structures. Mainly Spore Crawlers. The design was nice, because it didn’t limit them to one location. They could either uproot and walk around or even burrow underground if necessary.

There were also a dozen Spine Crawlers. Not all of them were the same exact size and their sizes weren’t static either. They could grow or even shrink depending on the circumstances. All Zerg structures were like that, because they’re all living organisms. It’s a weakness, but also a massive strength.

“Make some more Drones to gather resources.” I gave my firstborn an order, though it was a bit unnecessary. Then I closed my eyes and started relaxing a bit for real.

I wonder how Midnight is doing?