Ch 6

Yawning, I awoke with a stretch. I've got a small crick in my back from the odd angle I was lying in. A firm, but gentle twist soon had that taken care of, popping my spine satisfactorily. I took a quick scan of my mental map, which is quickly starting to become a habit. I mentally facepalm at the realization that I went to sleep having forgotten to order my Drones to burrow last night once they finished. Truly this must be why the original Overmind delegated to his Cerebrates that is if it even needed to sleep.

Unfortunately, Cerebrates won't be available until I've created a Hive. Something to do with the makeup of the Creep generated from a Hive rather than a Hatchery, plus a load of genetic information I can't make heads or tails of. I'm not too put off by it though. At the rate I'm going I'd put a fairly reasonable guess that I'll probably have a fully evolved Hive Cluster by the end of the week, even if the Zerg take longer to build everything than they did in the game. For all I know everything in the game was simply being viewed at fast forward or something. I know I wouldn't have found it very interesting to sit at my computer for days on end waiting for a building to finish completing. There are games out there like that though. Games that have you build little towns and the individual buildings, especially the higher end ones, would take days on end to finish. How utterly boring. Then again, I guess I have no room to talk, since that's all I have to do myself.

Shoving that rather depressing thought away, I stretched and stood up, before making a face. What is that smell? It only took a few seconds before I realized it's me. I've been wearing these same clothes for days on end, and I've neglected taking a bath since I got here. Grimacing, I realize that since I have no change of clothing to wear, I'm stuck with what I've got, and these clothes are starting to get a bit thread bare, especially the pants. The holes where some arrows had gone through the pant leg that first night have gotten bigger, having been torn further open by one thing or another.

Worse still is that the clothing stinks along with myself. For the first time I lament having better than normal senses, at least in the olfactory department. I need to get cleaned, which a good scrub can accomplish easily, but what about the clothes? I don't know how to manually wash clothing. With no soap, the best I could do is let them soak in the river with me, and then lay them on the Creep to dry, and pray the Creep doesn't find them tasty.

With that thought, I resolved to hang them on a tree outside of the range of the Creep. Speaking of which, I have yet to take down the Creep Wall even though the sun has finished rising. Ordering my Overlords to take care of the Creepers gets that task done in about a fourth the time it took with just one Overlord. That done, I had my hatchery lower the Creep wall and ordered my Drones back to resource gathering, which they happily complied. I'd feel bad about ordering them normally, but they're just as happy to do sit around as they are to work, so might as well not have them stagnate. Giving them orders isn't going to stop me caring about them after all.

I think I must've been broadcasting my feelings a bit there, because I suddenly got a wave reassurance from all of my Zerg reassuring me that they are happy indeed, and that I'm just being silly. Relaxing after having gone slightly tense from my previous thoughts of possibly taking advantage of my Zerg, I stepped outside and quickly made my way to the river. I suppose I could do my bathing near the tree line, but I can't shake the instinct of the Trees possibly hiding crazy suicidal Creepers despite my Overlords able to confirm that the closest one isn't even within fifty meters of this place. Unfortunately unless I want to lose my clothes, I need to be near the trees. I'd certainly feel better if I had a guard or something…

Better yet, why couldn't I just have a Drone do just that? Calling a Drone over, and absentmindedly ordering up two more with the resources available, I had it come nearby when I had another sudden idea. Why bother with the tree and any improbable Creepers hiding behind them if I just drape my clothes on the Drone? Another wave of doubt hits me wondering if that's not taking advantage of the Drone by doing such a thing.

I looked at the Drone I'd called over and bit my lip. Unfortunately without sentience I couldn't just ask the Drone if it would mind terribly if it just held on to my soon to be wet clothing until they're dry. Sighing in frustration, I kicked at the ground, feeling simultaneously stupid over considering the morality of using my Drone for something seemingly degrading, and feeling like a jerk for considering using my drone for something seemingly degrading.

A bump to my hand startled me from my introspection, and I refocused to see the Drone looking at me with what I think counts for concern since those are the feelings I'm getting from it. It's also confused, not seeing an enemy and wanting to know what's making me feel bad so it can rip it to shreds for hurting me like this. I couldn't help but snort at the irony of what my Drone would think if it could know that I'm the one making me feel like this.

The Drone butted it's head against my hand again and at this point I noticed a blob of shadow covering me, and looked up to see all four Overlords floating over me concerned, as well as looking about extra hard to identify what is hurting me. Turning to the rest of my Zerg, I realized they're all agitated as well, though the rest of my Drones are displaying it more by jerky movements and moving a bit faster as usual, trying to get me even more resources to pour towards more soldiers to attack our enemies. Even the Hatchery is standing poised, ready for orders to pump out the best warriors it has, which isn't much currently, but it's the thought that counts.

Touched, I smiled and sent feelings of reassurance to my Zerg which all visibly relaxed. Even the Overlords sagged a bit in the air before going back to their previous altitude. I found this a bit funny and chuckled, then ordered-no, I asked my Overlords to go back to their original positions, except for the one directly over me. The shade it's giving me is something I'm more than thankful for and I decided right then that maybe, it'd be ok if I was just a little bit selfish, so long as I don't go too overboard.

With a request sent to my Overlord to stay between me and the sun, I stripped out of my clothing, draped the clothes over my shoulders, and waded into the cool water. The Drone made to follow, but I asked it to stay on the riverbank. Well, it's more of a stream really, only being a meter deep and three meters wide, but it'll still serve my purpose. Kneeling down, I grabbed my shirt, and with no other ideas, I simply rubbed the fabric together on itself, hoping the water would do the rest. I can only hope this doesn't make my shirt thread bare. Worse still will be if it shrinks as it dries.

Doing the same to my pants, I then came to my underwear. Swallowing the slight revulsion of touching something that resides so close to my waste, even if I don't produce waste anymore, I still couldn't help the automatic instinctual gag. Biting the bullet, I dunked the underwear under the water and scrubbed it viciously.

As soon as I finished, I pulled them back up, only to eye the wide holes I left them from rubbing them together so hard. I'd forgotten that my increase in strength. Now the entire inseam of the underwear had split wide open. They're ruined now and won't serve any purpose at all!

Frustrated, I flung them to the side, where the Creep promptly ate them. My eyes widened. No! Dang it! I didn't want that to happen! At the very least I might have been able to try and fix them later if I ever found a substitute for needle and thread! Groaning in frustration at my stupid move, I put my face in my hands. Now I'm going to have to go commando! I hate going commando! Worse still if these pants shrink on me!

Shaking my head, I stood up, and made my way over to the Drone, hoping to salvage at least something out of this. My Drone is concerned again, but I reassure it that things are fine again, and the rest of the Zerg relaxed again. I've got to be more careful with my emotions it seems. It'd be really bad if my Zerg perceived my annoyance at something and slaughtered it before I had a chance to stop them. This just pushed home the point that I really need to get a Cerebrate or something similar. Truly I'd rather have a Broodmother from Starcraft 2, but with only creatures and evolutions from Starcraft 1 available, it seems I'll be stuck with the slug like Cerebrates for the time being. More importantly, if I have a sentient who can understand things beyond the instinctual, I won't have to worry about my Zerg spazzing out in reaction to my emotions anymore. That will have to be my next goal as soon as I get a Hive Cluster finished.

Draping my shirt and pants flat over the back of my Drone, I wonder idly for a moment when I lost my shoes. Thinking back, I wondered, did I ever have them? Come to think of it, I don't think I did. It just wasn't an important detail at the time I guess. Oh well. I like being barefoot better than wearing shoes anyway.

With my clothes taken care of for the moment, I ordered my Drone to back off a little ways so that it wouldn't fall under the shadow of my Overlord, and waded back into the water, where I promptly sat down and started scrubbing vigorously with my hands. After I felt as though I'd scraped myself raw with my nails, I simply floated there in the river, letting the cool water sooth my skin. It didn't remain irritated for long thanks to my fast healing, but this is still rather nice and relaxing. With my feet resting against the bottom of the river, I wouldn't have to worry about floating away either.

I spent a long while like that, just floating serenely in the water, not paying attention to anything. It's not often I attain such a peaceful state, and I'm loathe to leave it. Peripherally, I'm barely aware of my resources stacking up, and almost as an afterthought I'd occasionally order up a new batch of two Drones and an Overlord whenever the thought occurred to me.

It'd reached late afternoon before my stomach grumbling caused me to blink and realize I'd literally wasted the day completely away. I grabbed up a piece of Creep to settle my hunger, before checking on my clothes and finding them completely dry, and thankfully not shrunk.

Putting them on, I turned my attention to my Zerg and my bio-energy pool that I'd neglected in my peaceful state, and my eyes nearly bugged out.

Bio-Energy – 1433

Well that was unexpected. All that from only, what, 22 Drones now? And only 3 new Overlords. Man I really was out of it. What happened there? I barely increased the size of my Swarm at all! Eyeing the sun, I noted the time. Only a little over 3 hours left until sunset. Only one thing left to do then.

Quickly pulling aside three Drones, I ordered them to build up 4 more Hatcheries, close enough that there entrances would line up and it would only be a small step from one to the other. It'd be nice if they could be so close that the doorways wouldn't even need to close between the two, but that's unfortunately not possible. Perhaps I could form up Creep walls connecting the entrances between the four Hatcheries?

That thought brought me up short. If the Hatcheries are the ones producing the Creep, and all of them clustered like that together, that means each one is only putting out a little over a fourth of the Creep it usually does. That leaves practically two thirds of Creep generation that could possibly used as pseudo construction! Maybe the Creep walls could be kept up all of the time instead of part of the time, while still having enough Creep to cover the normal amount of land as well! Heck, that way, if it's done right, the Hatcheries could just bring down part of the wall rather than all of it to admit Zerg like an automatic check point!

I idly considered the possibility of turning the space in the center of the Hatcheries a center for Larvae, but then I realized if I ever ordered one to turn into an Ultralisk, it'd be stuck in that little space with no way to get out. Abandoning that idea still leaves me with the possibility of the walls being left up constantly, removing the threat of the Creepers entirely! And, if I surround the four Hatcheries with a ring of Creep Colonies, I could maintain another Creep Wall outside of that, possibly even larger since Creep Colonies are smaller but put out just as much Creep as Hatcheries do, meaning there'd be even more Creep to play with!

That's assuming this works though. I've got two hours to wait until I can even attempt to try out my ideas. Putting a ring around my Hatcheries sounds like a good plan though, especially if I put another ring around that. Slowly, with a few tweaks here and there, the setup for my completed Hive Cluster soon took shape. I'd simply alternate even Creep colony to be a sunken colony or Spore colony, for even coverage and detection, since spore colonies are detectors. Why Sunken Colonies aren't is a bit of a mystery to me that my Overmind knowledge can't explain. The how's are easy, but the why?

There are a lot of things about the Zerg that could be more efficient and versatile, that honestly just don't make sense. Like why the Overlords weren't dangerous in their own right, what with their tentacles that can pick up and chuck things. I'd bet a marine would think twice about shooting an Overlord if it could immediately swoop in and fling it away, allowing physics to crush the marine inside his own suit from the momentum, particularly the sudden deadly stop at the end. I doubt a Scout ship would consider a strafing run on a 'defenseless' Overlord if it suddenly finds itself grabbed by multiple appendages and tossed into its buddies, turning the lot of them into so much scrap. No, I never understood why Overlords never took advantage of their long limbs, dangling uselessly underneath them like so much dead weight. There's a reason why the Krakken and Sentinels AKA Squidies are considered so dangerous. If I could weaponize the ends of those appendages especially, then Overlords would be an extremely dangerous foe to go up against. Definitely another change I'm going to want to see about once I get the chance.

Making my way back inside my Hatchery, giving the closest Cocoon a pat as I walked past, causing it to shiver in pleasure/happiness, I regarded the depression I'd been using for a bed. Since I'm freshly clean, what do I do about any nastiness left behind here? I don't exactly have bedsheets I can just pick up and wash. Or do I even need to bother? Perhaps the Hatchery itself can take care of it?

Having no idea what to expect, I requested the Hatchery to clean the area where I normally sleep, sending it a mental image of possible body oils and contaminants I could have left behind after sleeping there without a bath for so long. Suddenly the floor of the Hatchery started undulating, and while I couldn't tell exactly what it was doing, I have a feeling the Hatchery is taking care of it. After a few minute of this, the Hatchery stopped, and the depression reformed.

Confused, I asked the Hatchery what it did. I got the graphic answer back that it detached the 'skin' there from the flesh of the hatchery, which it then used its muscles to move through the bio-energy pit which would absorb any contaminates from off the skin, and then moved the skin back in place, and reattached it back through regeneration. The whole process made my own skin crawl and I noted that sometimes there are things that I probably should just accept and not ask about for my own peace of mind.

Either way, I'm now more than assured that my sleeping spot is now clean, pushing aside the knowledge of what the Hatchery just did to get clean to the back of my mind hoping to forget the last few seconds entirely. Laying down, I turned my focus back to my Hatcheries and contemplated what I should do next. After a moments thought, and regarding the fact that I still have 538 bio-energy left, I wondered if I should start on the first ring of Creep Colonies now, or wait until morning. At a cost of 75 bio-energy and a build time of 20 minutes, I figured why not?

With only 19 Drones left, I bit my lip and reconsidered. Maybe I'll just wait until morning after all? I don't want to use up too many Drones after all. Having reconsidered, I simply spent the rest of the bio-energy on Drones. With 10 more finished before nightfall, bringing the total Drones up to 29, I settled back to rest for the night. I'm not particularly tired, but I'll still try to sleep come nightfall.

As soon as sunset started, I ordered my Drones back for the night and those that I couldn't fit behind the Creep wall, I had scatter around the Creep then burrow. I was interested to see that rather than digging down, they sort of wriggled in a way that just let them drop below the ground like it was water. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Even the game makes it look like they're digging in a way. Shaking my head, I reaffirmed that all my Drones are in place and raised the Creep Wall. I was a tad worried that with the other three hatcheries there, the Creep wall wouldn't be able to go as high and might prove ineffective, but thankfully that wasn't the case. It is shorter, true, but after waiting a moment to see, I was gratified to notice that the Creepers couldn't get past.

I noticed with interest that a giant spider had started making a beeline for the wall to the Drones I hadn't decided whether to have burrow or not. There weren't many spiders that even showed up the night before surprisingly. I watched as the Spider climbed over the wall and leapt down over the side at the nearest Drone. I was worried for all of a split second, before the Drone, with unexpectedly quick reflexes, turned towards the spider and peppered it with needles that pinned it to the Creep wall, which promptly absorbed the corpse.

I smiled. Perhaps the Drones can handle themselves against these creatures after all? I still don't like the thought of risking them against Creepers though. I'll leave that to when I get Hydralisks and leave the Endermen to the Zerglings. That decided, and starting to get tired, I closed my eyes. The Hatchery once again enfolded me in a mental warmth and security. I smiled and happily drifted off to sleep.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind Matthew

PSI Energy – 50/50

Status – Normal

Abilities

- Spawn Hatchery – 50psi – 12 hour build

- Regeneration – Passive – Heals anything not instantly fatal; time needed depends on extent of injury

- Anaerobic – Passive – No longer requires breathable atmosphere to survive

- Temperature Resistance – Passive – Currently able to survive temperatures between -450 and 118 F

- PSI Regeneration – Passive – Regenerate energy at .5 points per second.

Zerg Swarm

Bio-Energy Intake – 144 a day (1 point every 5 minutes)

Support – 29/31

Entities (Non Sentient)

1x Hatchery

4x Overlord

29x Drones