Ch 3

Sunlight is streaming into my eyes. Blinking blearily, I woke up fully. The first thing I noticed is that all four entrances to the Hatchery are sitting wide open. Considering I'm on a Minecraft world, I don't find that very reassuring. My only solace is that the Hatchery wouldn't be sitting wide open unless there weren't any mobs around.

Getting up and glancing outside confirmed the lack of mobs. The pile of branches where my shelter used to be are sitting on top of the sprawling mass of creep stretching out everywhere. It looks like a mass of purple bubble gum stretched over the ground. It's kind of springy to walk on, kind of like those tracks they make for running that are like asphalt yet spongy. No wonder Zerg run faster on this if this is what it's like.

Interestingly, unlike what the game lead me to believe, the creep is not poisoning the local plant life. According to the game, creep is poisonous to soil and just about anything else that isn't Zerg. Well, my eyes tell me different. The trees, if anything, look more vibrant and green than before, alive and thriving. It's also having an interesting effect on the apple tree I ate at yesterday. Apples are growing and falling off, leaving a literal mound of apples sitting underneath the tree. Grabbing one, I ate it. It had to be the juiciest, sweetest, and most delicious apple I've ever tasted. Grabbing a bunch, I brought them back to the Hatchery, and ate my fill. That still left me a bunch left over.

On a whim, I took an apple by the stem and dipped it into the pool. The apple disappeared before my very eyes, almost like an instantaneous acid. Surprised, I dropped the stem, which also dissolved into the pool. Wary, I tested the water the same as I did yesterday with the same results. It still tastes like the purest water I've ever had. As far as I can tell, it didn't do anything, so why did the apple disappear? Oh well, at least it makes for a convenient garbage disposal. I'd rather not think of my best water source as a garbage disposal considering I drink out of it though.

Despite feeling odd about it, I chucked the rest of my apples and apple rinds into the pool. Each and every one of them disappeared, without effect. I spent a good chunk of the day testing this phenomenon out on different things. Leaves, sticks, water from the river, grass, dirt. Everything dissolved into the pool. How odd!

Other than this, there really wasn't much to do. I stripped and bathed in the river. I explored to the edges of the creep. Interestingly, the creep didn't cover the top of the water in the river, instead it covered the bottom of the river bed. The creep stretches quite far though. If I had to guess, I'd say the diameter of it all is roughly a mile. One square mile of creep for a single Hatchery. That sounds fairly convenient. Of course, I'm only guessing.

After a day of randomly gathering things to throw in the pool and exploring, I went back into the Hatchery at sundown to sleep. As soon as the light from the sunset had gone, the Hatchery sealed itself shut. I guess the mobs are back. I'm extremely grateful that I can't hear them from within the Hatchery though. That would be really bothersome. Closing my eyes, I went to sleep.

The next morning brought the same thing as yesterday with one small difference.

Zerg Mana – 635

What in the world? Where'd the mana come from? Maybe it came from my gathering stuff and chucking it in the pool? To test this, I didn't gather anything. When I drank from the pool this time though, I felt a flood of energy fill me, and more words passed across my eyesight.

Overmind Mana – 100/100

Zerg Mana – 585

Huh. So that's how I get energy from the Hatchery that was stated in that command list thing. Good to know I guess. If I want to make any more Hatchery's myself that is. I spent the day doing much the same as yesterday, though I did contemplate creating an Overlord to get a look around. Just in case, I won't until I've figured out if all that mana came from gathering or something else.

The next day, I woke up but the Hatchery still had its doors closed. Cautiously, I commanded one to open up and peered outside. A CREEPER! Panicking, I had the Hatchery shut closed again. Nothing else happened. In this lull, words appeared across my vision.

Zerg Mana – 1085

So I only get 500 mana this time? Maybe the gathering increased it to 635 last time, which makes sense since I didn't actually gather all that much, but if that's the case, then where did the other 500 come from? With no ready answer, I turn towards the more immediate problem: The creeper. Those things are pretty single minded, so it's probably still sitting outside the hatchery door waiting for it to open. I wonder if a larvae might distract it from blowing me up? Larvae don't react to commands to move though. I already tried that. I really need some way to be able to see out there!

An Overlord might do nicely for that though. Sending out the command, a larvae starts spawning into an Overlord. Five minutes later, and I've got one Overlord. Unlike the hatchery and larvae, this creature seems to have some intelligence. It responds to my commands well enough, and it has its command list like the others, mainly stop, move, patrol, pick up units, and deploy units. It doesn't have the ability to spew out creep like in Starcraft 2 though.

While exploring its commands, I accidently, er, push my mind forward to much? I don't really know how to describe what I just did. All I know is that I'm now seeing out of the eyes of the Overlord, and I can move it as if it's my own body. This is weird as all hell! Even more confusing it that it seems to have 360 degree vision. Considering I'm used to a little less than 180 vision, this is extremely disorienting at first. Testing different things, I finally figure out how to control my movement, though I'll be darned if I can describe how it's moving. Physically, there's something inside this Overlord that is somehow pushing and pulling the body in different directions, giving it the ability to hover at will as well as move anywhere it wants.

Floating upwards, I take a good look around. Forest as far as the eye can see. The river snakes on into the distance. The only way a Minecraft world would have areas as big as this in game is if you selected the option, Large Biomes. This is real life though, I think anyway, so I don't know if that's the case here or not.

Somehow I instinctively pull back to my body, having enough of being an Overlord. Only now I have something new. I can still feel the presence of the Overlord, just like the Hatchery and the larvae, only along with feeling the Overlord, I can still mentally see what it sees. So now in my mind's eye, I have the equivalent of the top down view from the Starcraft game, only it's from the point of the Overlord. That's useful.

Actually considering now I've got an Overlord, shouldn't my supply have-

Zerg Supply – 0/15

What the hell? NOW it tells me that? I figured that info would come to me at real time, not when I'm good and ready for it! Or maybe I can see it just from asking? 'I want to see my health'. Nothing. Maybe since I know already that I haven't been hurt, so it's still bound to be 100/100, that means the words won't inform me since I already know that? Weird. So working under that assumption, those words'll only flash across my eyes when I need to know something, but only if I don't know it yet, and only if it's something that it can inform me about, like mana or supply.

That's just an assumption anyway. Might as well go with it until something happens that proves it wrong.

Stepping outside, I look up at the Overlord floating up in the clouds. Seeing it that high made me feel dizzy. I'm naturally afraid of heights, so why wasn't I afraid when I was mentally the Overlord itself? I can't think of any definite answer to that, though it is possible that something about only mentally being in the Overlord cancels out the fear, or maybe knowing that I have complete control of the ability to fly negates the fear? That would suggest I only have a fear of falling, not heights itself though. I'd often thought that might be the case, since I have no problem in airplanes or rollercoasters. I'm only scared when all that stands between me and going splat on the ground is myself, and last I checked I don't have some unknown organ in my body that lets me control gravity at my whim.

Looking back down and waiting a moment for the vertigo to abate, I look over at the larvae. Well, at 500 mana a day, I guess it's time to get cracking at getting some drones to gather up stuff. The more mana the better, and since my end goal at the moment is to get back home, I need to become space faring as soon as possible.

Space. Now that I think about it, the idea of going to space is pretty exhilarating. Heck, now that I think back on it, just flying as the Overlord was extremely fun! It'd be more fun if I could fly on my own though. One of my alters has wings for practically that very reason after all. Heck, all of my alters have some form of flight now that I think on it.

That brings up an interesting thought though. With me being on a Minecraft world, and commanding the Zerg from Starcraft, it doesn't seem so far fetched that maybe I'll find Haven someday. That seems like a much more worthy goal to pursue than finding Earth, though I'd still like to find Earth if I can.

My goals set, I commanded the larvae to transform into drones. Once they'd spawned, I commanded them to begin gathering the trees that don't produce apples. At 50 a piece, I bought as many drones as I could. I originally had 1085 mana today. The overlord dropped it to 985. With 15 Drones spawned reaching my supply limit, that brings me down to 235 mana.

At this point I wonder if I should pop out another Overlord and get two more drones, or have one of the drones bring in a building or something? Checking their command list, the only things they can build at the moment are Hatcheries at 400 mana, Extractors at 100 mana, and spawning pools at 150 mana. I don't see the point of getting an extractor though. There wouldn't be any vespene geysers on a Minecraft world. For that matter, why would Vespene gas be so prevalent in that entire section of space that the Zerg would become dependant on it as a resource? Not every planet is going to have vespene after all. Then again, not every planet is going to have those weird crystaline structures that all the races gathered as a resource. I can only pray that I keep getting at least 500 mana every day, along with extra from whatever I gather, or else I'm going to be stuck. Unless diamonds could substitute as those crystals here? An interesting thought.

Back to the point though, should I grab a spawning pool and pump out some Zerglings? I don't know if I'll need to do that though, since I've already checked and the drones do have the burrow ability in their checklist. And besides, it doesn't seem like anything on this planet can harm the Zerg, other than the creepers.

Speaking of which, I winced as I became aware of one of my drones dying a violent death from a creeper exploding. Sighing, I create another drone and send it off to gather. Keeping an eye on my mental map provided via Overlord, I spent much of the rest of the day micromanaging the drones to keep them from getting blown up by creepers.

Now that I'm down to 185 mana, I figure I'll just get another Overlord in the sky and another drone out. That done, I'm now sitting at 35 mana. Not much, but hopefully with all this gathering going on, watching as drone after drone comes in and drops off a tree into the pool, watching it simply disappear, I'd soon have far more tomorrow.

I set one of the drones to gathering apples as well, though this doesn't work out nearly as well considering the drones are suited to picking up far larger things. On a whim, I command the Overlord to gather up the apples. It does so with its many tendrils and joins the long line of gatherers dropping stuff off at the pool, though the entrance stretching to accommodate the Overlord entering the Hatchery looks extremely awkward.

With two Overlords available, my mental map had doubled in size, or at least it did theoretically. Since one of them is set to gathering apples, it'd be more accurate to say that my mental map keeps increasing and decreasing weirdly. I'm starting to get used to it though, and find it extremely handy, considering I've avoided getting any of my other drones killed by creepers so far. Thankfully the spiders aren't a threat, even if they were only aggro in the dark, so some of my drones have racked up a few kills getting rid of them. I don't hold any hope for it mattering though. Monsters will spawn so long as there's darkness to spawn in. At least that's how it works in the game. With the Overlords out, I'll be able to see directly if that holds true or not.

When night falls, I order my drones into the Hatchery where they burrow. They're kinda creepy looking. Like tailless scorpions with two claw like mandibles, and hundreds of tiny legs, giving it the illusion of gliding everywhere. The two fins on it's back give it a vague bowl like shape on its back, which is what it'd been using to drag everything to and fro all day. It's hard to be afraid of them though. Just like the rest, they're like overeager puppies. Extremely affectionate, absolutely eager to please, and willing to go to any lengths to follow your every order, it's hard to dislike any of the Zerg when you can feel such things from them. If anything, I'm in seventh heaven, being the recipient of such amounts of good will and love and devotion. If anything, I want more of it! Another reason to expand the swarm if for nothing else. I just have to keep in mind the Zerg may feel this way for me no matter what I do, but that doesn't give me the right to callously disregard anything that isn't Zerg. In a way, I'm lucky I grew up human. The Overmind grew up to this. In this way, I can understand a bit where the Overmind was coming from. If this kind of unity and happiness is what you get for bringing more into the Zerg Swarm, you would naturally do everything in your power to bring anything and everything into this. It'd be doing all creation a favor to let them feel this kind of belonging!

Of course, I grew up human though. I understand free will above all else, and I wouldn't have it any other way for any creature, inspite of what I can offer them. Animals are one thing, but sentient life will be left alone and only offered the option to join the swarm. Just because I have a seemingly better option doesn't give the right to shove it down other's throats. I'm not some crappy religion after all. This is a way of life. Religion shouldn't be a way of life anyway. Religion has a higher purpose than that.

Speaking of which, I have to wonder what's going on for me at that front. I'm, hopefully, still a son of God, but I'm the Overmind now, and the Overmind is immortal. Does that mean I'm stuck from rising to Godhood with the rest of my brothers and sisters and rejoining Heavenly Father? This thought almost had me going into a depression, until a random thought had me remembering the story of the three Nephites. They're immortal too, but they'll still become Gods like they're Heavenly Father. Smiling at this in relief, I send a prayer of thanks for this bit of good will, and not soon after I fell asleep.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind mana – 100/100

Zerg Swarm Mana – 0/1,000,000

Zerg Supply – 15/20

Units:

1 Overmind

2 Overlords

15 Drones

Structures:

1 Hatchery