Chapter 3: Creep

Floating in the void, I could see countless stars around me in the distance. It was chaotic and confusing at first. But after a few moments, the distant stars faded into the background and I was able to focus on the lights around me. There was a small yellow light on my right, touching me with his warmth. Directly in front of me was a glowing red star.

I reached out and touched it, but the star shrunk down so small that I could easily hold it in my hands like an egg… Or a cocoon. She was sleeping inside. Resting and waiting for me to awaken her for the battle ahead.

“Yes, the Langhesi Forger is on board.” The voice was soft and feminine. Almost like a purr. I turned to the left and an image appeared before me. A girl with brown skin, small horns across her forehead like a Zabrak and big cat-like ears near the top of her head. She had long black hair that was pulled into a ponytail.

“Good, we’re two jumps away. Be careful.” Hearing the man’s gruff voice, the girl smiled.

“See you soon, Cas.” Turning off the little transponder, she frowned and looked over towards my direction. Standing up and looking at herself in the mirror, naked, showing off her mostly hairless feminine form. Then she grinned and started looking through her cabinets for something to wear.

“We’ve got a problem.” Another voice caught my attention and I looked down at the Rodian man who was polishing his shiny silver blaster. He was talking to someone in a Mandalorian helmet on a holographic projector, “I heard a rumor that the target is a Jedi.”

“He’s not a Jedi.” A woman’s voice came from behind that helmet, “Might be Force Sensitive though. We’ll need to act fast before the Jedi get involved.”

“Don’t we always?” The green-skinned bug-headed dude grumbled, “I got a bad feeling about this one.”

“You never do, Jak. And that’s why you’ve got that trashy reputation.” She sighed and told him seriously, “Listen, the client wants a pet-making slave, not a corpse. If you frak this up, Mandalore help me, I’ll kill you myself.”

“I know that, but Vhonte… This guy is dangerous. I can feel it.” The Rodian looked up towards me with his big black bug-eyes and I could see his antenna trembling, “I can hear that nasty bug crawling around again. I’m telling you, this job was a mistake.”

“Don’t be such a coward. When the time comes, I’ll handle the boy, you can squash the bug if it makes you feel better.” The Mandalorian chuckled and turned off the hologram from her end.

“Master.” Hearing Izsha’s voice, I opened my eyes and saw her staring at me from only a few inches away. Surprisingly enough, her breath didn’t stink. She didn’t really have a scent at all. The cat on my right was also nearly odorless. Why would I make him smell bad if I could prevent it?

“What’s up?” I looked down at my crossed red legs and ran my fingers over the hairless calves. My flesh rippled and writhed, hardening and getting darker. Until it was brownish-red, almost black. With purple lights appearing on the surface, blinking like little eyes.

“Hunt?” She was excited. After all, she saw those bounty hunters and heard what they said.

“Soon. Not in Hyperspace though.” I looked over at the window and saw the white lights zooming past, “They might have set explosives or something.”

“Yes, Master.” She was really obedient for a two day old child, but that’s the way Zerg are meant to be… Obedient to their Master. Unless the Master became too weak to control them, then they’d rebel in a heartbeat.

“It’s okay though. We have plenty of time.” I extended my left arm and ran my right hand from my shoulder down to my fingertips. The soft and squishy red flesh was rapidly replaced by hard, black, purpilish-black carapace. The muscles and joints couldn’t be too rigid. That would be kind of pointless. I did lose a bit of flexibility though and it wasn’t quite as ‘comfortable’ as my normal flesh.

“Do you need assistance?” Izsha turned her ass towards me and that little stubby armored tail opened up, leaking purplish ooze onto the floor that foamed upon impact. The ‘Creep’ rapidly expanded and bubbled up onto a small tumor with bony spikes jutting out of it randomly. Microtendrils started drilling down through the carpet and devouring it, even the metal flooring would be penetrated sooner rather than later.

“You can help with my back.” I didn’t really ‘need’ her help, but it was definitely faster and easier if she was involved in the process. Plus, it would give her some practice and training for later.

She was literally the Heart of ‘my’ Swarm. That’s why I gave her such an iconic name. Whether she can live up to my expectations is another matter entirely. Hell, being named Amon is one of the main reasons behind my decision to go balls deep into the whole Zerg aesthetic. Could have just been lazy and gone with Xenomorphs. If I gave the Xenomorphs guns and made them way more OP, then I could call them Tyranids.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Ow.” I groaned as my spine grew sharp bony spikes that pierced out of my back. Izsha smoothed them down a bit and they turned into armor plating. I used my gauntlet-like left hand to transform the right, the muscle fibers became much, much stronger, denser and more durable. Then the skin was hardened and turned into reddish-brown armor, with pitch-black nails on my fingertips. My chest was covered by throbbing purple carapace, my pectoral muscles were big but they didn’t look like tits. My abdominal muscles down to my crotch were quickly covered by dark-red armor and my squishy internal organs were protected a lot better. Sure, it didn’t look as sexy as abs, but my odds of getting disemboweled were much lower now.

“I guess I don’t need to copy the Queen of Blades too much.” I snickered and felt my throat tighten a bit too much. The armor on my neck was about to give me a panic attack, so I quickly transformed it back into my normal red flesh.

“Master, weakness.” Izsha warned me as she caressed the back of my head with her pincers. My short black hair grew rapidly and was quickly coated in purple creep that hardened and transformed into hundreds of thick dreadlock-like armored tendrils. I have no idea what purpose it served for Kerrigan, but for me, they could hold more neural tissue. Plus, more mass, more room for Midi-chlorians.

It should be noted that Midi-chlorian count is per cell, not per entire body. Anakin was so overpowered because even with the body of an ordinary human, his Midichlorian density was insane. About 30 to 40 thousand per cell. It affects how easily the Force can flow through his body and how much control he can exert over the Force.

Ultimately though, he’s only a human. There are races of the same general size, but with several times the density. If their Midichlorian Count is only half or a third of his, they could still theoretically be equal in terms of total Midichlorian Count, but is that what really matters? Nope, otherwise there are loads of ways to cheat and become the Chosen One.

“I’ve never been able to ‘force’ more than ten thousand Midichlorians into a single cell.” I sighed and touched my soft cheeks with my hard, dark-purple fingertips. My black claws pressed into my flesh but didn’t pierce my skin.

“We will Evolve.” Izsha floated above the snoring kitty and landed on the slimy purple creep in front of me, “We just need more Essence.”

“I know. I need more gene samples. Need to run more experiments.” I looked over to the window again and smiled, “Zonama Sekot was a great starting point. A relatively safe location at a relatively opportune time. I was able to learn a lot from Dad and Aunt Anyi, but I was also limited. Even in Starcraft, the Zerg still needed to find an overpowered Psionic prodigy like Kerrigan to create the Queen of Blades. Maybe I should go to Tatooine…”

“Tatooine has prey?” As her voice rumbled in my mind, I turned my head towards the door. She shot up off the floor and flipped around, embedding her pointy ‘feet’ into the ceiling.

*Beep!* There was a noise, followed by a cute voice, “Mister Kal, I’m sorry to bother you, but the other passengers have filed several noise complaints. Our sensors also detected damage to the ceiling and floor of your room. Please open up so that we can investigate.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry about that.” I snickered and stood up unsteadily. My legs felt a little weird. My toes wiggled a bit, my long black talons digging into the slimy purple creep on the carpet. It wasn’t quite perfect yet either. The Creep in Starcraft was supposed to make it possible for Zerg to easily glide across it or some such bullshit. I’ll need to work on that in the future.

“I’ll open up right away.” I looked over at Midnight and saw him looking at me curiously. Then he quickly scurried under the bed to hide. I walked over to the door and it opened automatically. A short human woman was standing there in front of me, blonde hair, blue eyes that were widened in shock. She pulled the trigger on her black blaster rifle and I felt a mild burning sensation on my abdomen, along with a mild shock. In fact, the heat that rushed across my face was a lot stronger.

“Aaah!” Then she was screaming on the ground with her hands and forearms mangled beyond recognition. A few big pieces of metal from the gun were also piercing her abdomen. Seriously, people are so fucking stupid sometimes.

“Frak!” There was another human, a guy in a gray and black outfit like the girl. They were security on this ship. I saw the two of them when I boarded.

“Seriously. Have you ever heard of trigger discipline?” I crouched down and saw the dumbass pointing his blaster at my face, “Do you want me to heal her or kill you? I can multitask.”

“Uh, no, go ahead.” The guy was smart enough to put his blaster pistol away completely, so he survived. I turned my attention back to the girl who I honestly couldn’t be bothered to find out her name.

“Let’s see…” I quickly and efficiently plucked the pieces of twisted metal out of her gut with my right hand, while using the left to rapidly repair the wound. Then I grabbed her wrists with both hands and she screamed even louder as the carbonized flesh peeled away, the shattered bones reassembled and aside from the hands that were completely gone, everything else was basically restored to normal. Almost as good as new!

“Aaaaaaah~!” Then she started crying and screaming again as I drew the biomass from her body fat to regrow her lost hands in a matter of seconds. She looked like she would turn into a mummy, but it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Just a matter of eating and sleeping a lot for a week.

“What’s going on?” The door next to mine opened up and a cute cat-girl poked her head out to check on the situation, “Never mind.” Then she disappeared back into her room a moment later.

“So anyway, my pet took a shit on the floor.” I stood up and grabbed the dude’s shoulder, dragging the terrified man into the room.

“I-I see that…” He swallowed loudly and then gagged a little when noticed the teeth jutting out of the pulsating purple flesh that was spreading rapidly across the blue carpet.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” I patted his shoulder and smiled wryly, looking up at the drooling black and purple Drone. The extremely acidic saliva dripped down and landed on the floor in front of us, burning a hole through the carpet and the surface of the metal beneath that.

“I’ll… I’ll talk to the Captain and explain the situation. Sorry for the umm, trouble, and disturbance. Have a nice day.” The security officer was so terrified that he almost left without his nearly mummified partner.

“Humans, fragile.” Izsha plopped down onto the carpet and then skittered out into the hallway like a spider. She leaned down and used her mandibles to pick up a bloody finger. She took a taste and then chewed it up, swallowing. After a few seconds she continued speaking telepathically, “Weak Essence. Low Midichlorian Content. Low nutritional value. Taste is… Adequate.”

“Pretty much.” I didn’t have much trouble getting human ‘biomass’ before, since they’re pretty common in the Galaxy. The Star Wars humans weren’t much better than the kind from my past life, except that they age a bit slower, can ‘potentially’ live a lot longer and on average have a lot of extra gene sequences taken from aliens. The odds of humans remaining ‘pure’ for tens of thousands to millions of years of interspecies contact is absurdly low. I would be surprised if there are any pureblooded humans in the Galaxy at all.

The only races that might be truly ‘pure’ are the ones that haven’t had contact with aliens yet. There were plenty of planets like that in the Galaxy. Completely untouched by interstellar civilizations.

“We should probably clean up this mess.” I looked over at the purple Creep that was devouring the carpet and took a few steps toward it. The meat churned and writhed, quickly getting drawn into my toes and crawling up my legs. Izsha also came over to help out, slurping up the Creep into her mouth.

“Maouu~!” Once we were done, Midnight came out from under the couch and started crying for food as usual.

“We don’t know what’s gonna happen, but it’s best to be careful what we leave behind.” I tapped my armored foot on the shiny metal floor and smiled at Izsha, “Can’t let them start making countermeasures for us already. We haven’t even conquered our first planet yet.”

“Yes, Master!”