Ch 4

It took me a while to get to sleep last night. I spent so long brainstorming, fueled by the desire to never see any of my Zerg helplessly destroyed like that again. Eventually though, the adrenaline I was running on crashed, and I fell into a fitful sleep.

Eventually I awoke, once again with the rising of the sun, though this time not because the doors were open. Unlike last time, all the Creepers had impotently destroyed themselves trying to harm my Hatchery. I can't afford to do that this time, and there are around fifty Creepers either circling the walls or standing in place, staring at my Hatchery. It's a little creepy to be honest. Thankfully, with the rise of the sun, The Endermen took off, chasing the shadows over the horizon. That left my Overlords free to do what I was hoping to do last night.

While in game, Overlords were mostly helpless. In real life, one should never underestimate the power of prehensile tentacles. My Overlords fell upon the Creepers, careful to stay out of range of any explosions, whilst hitting them away with 12 highly muscled tendrils of death. The only thing that could make this more satisfying is if the ends of the Overlord's tendrils were spiked. Hmm… that actually doesn't sound like a bad idea. With a thought I called up a new window on my energy sphere and made a literal mental note to add that evolution to the Overlords at some point. It's only then I just realized what I did. I didn't know I could call up new windows like that! I'm going to have to keep that in mind. That'll be really useful for keeping track of things!

Turning my attention back to the Creeper massacre, I smiled as the last of the Creepers were smacked around. The last one was hit so hard it flew over the tree line and I couldn't help but shout, "Home run!" Chuckling at myself, I wondered if I'm not going a bit crazy? I suppose being all alone with no one to talk to can do that to a person. I suppose it's not all that different from before, since I hardly talked to anyone back on Earth, but at least I had the option to do so. Ah well.

With the Creepers gone and no other mobs within sight, I ordered the Overlords to lower the Creep wall, having figured out that it was them that had made its existence possible last night. I might not know how to get the Hatchery to raise and lower the Creep, but they do, and it's through them it can be accomplished. Thank goodness for Overlords, the Swarm's natural Micromanagers!

With the wall down, I immediately ordered the Drones to unburrow and start gathering resources. True to form, the Overlords made certain the trees were left alone, and with plenty of elevations in dirt and such, having built on a fairly low elevation area as far as I can tell, I have no end of resources. I'd consider just mining, but I don't want to run the risk of allowing the mobs a spot to spawn in during the day, so leveling the ground will just have to do.

With my resources now pouring in, I started pumping up my economy with five more Overlords and topping my Drone count at fifty for now. Unfortunately, with the bottleneck of only having three larvae at a time, I quickly started to get frustrated with how slow going this was. Putting the increase in Drones on hold for the moment, I waited till I had 1200 Bio-Energy, which honestly didn't take very long at all, then ordered three of my Drones to morph into Hatcheries.

That taken care of for the moment, I settled back to wait, idly chewing on a piece of Creep while I continued to pump out more Drones as fast as I could, all while watching this from the shade of the Hatchery. Two hours later, my extra Hatcheries have finished, built close enough to the original to form a square formation, with the entrances close enough you could almost step from one to the other.

With 12 Larvae to play with now, that removes the production bottleneck quite nicely, and new larvae are replacing the old ones faster than I'm raking in resources to build new units. Thanks to that, I reached my goal of fifty Drones just after midday. That leaves me with four slots of support from the Overlords open to play with. Not nearly enough I think. Waiting a few minutes till I had gotten 1200 bio-energy again, I pumped out 12 more Overlords. Now with 20 Overlords and almost double the support I had before, I started making more Drones, but this time a bit more slowly.

Enacting the plan I'd thought up last night, I started my new Drones on making Creep Colonies, forming a ring around the central Hatcheries right on the edge of the Creep. With each Creep Colony taking 20 minutes to complete at 75 bio-energy, I soon had a ring of morphing Creep Colonies with just enough space between each one for an Ultralisk to thread through.

As soon as the Creep Colonies had finished growing, I immediately spent the 50 bio-energy needed to morph each of them into alternating Spore and Sunken Colonies. Or I would have, but as soon as I tried the command, the Colony reported back in the negative, and that it would need a Spawning Pool to morph into a Sunken Colony. I'd forgotten about that part. And I can't make any Spore Colonies either without an Evolution Chamber. I realize that a full ring of Sunken and Spore Colonies, especially Spore colonies, is a little overkill, since Minecraft doesn't have any air units, but I'm not taking any chances. Not after last night.

Immediately, I ordered up two extra Drones, and then ordered two of my current gatherers to morph into a Spawning Pool and an Evolution Chamber within the ring. Interestingly, as soon as the Evolution Chamber started morphing, the psionic presence of my old Evolution Chamber attached itself to it, and the two essences mixed, becoming a tiny bit brighter before dimming back to its original glow. I can't even begin to guess what exactly just happened. Did my Evolution Chamber just go Archon on me? It doesn't really seem any different… Shrugging, I put it out of my mind.

As soon as the Spawning Pool and Evolution Chamber finished, I immediately started to morph the Creep colonies into alternating Spore and Sunken Colonies like I'd originally planned. Unfortunately this proved to finally reach the limit of my income, being unable to make anything more at the rate my Drones were raking in bio-energy, which is saying something since the Forest floor is really starting to look like an excavation site, though an odd one with mounds for the trees and their roots left alone. I've also exposed more than a few caves to the sun, along with mobs milling about in them, but my Overlords were more than enough to take care of those along with the sun naturally burning a lot of them away. I had more than a few close calls though with Creepers popping out of exposed holes to try and blow up my Drones. Some too close, but luckily Drones are far faster than Creepers and all but 1 got away. Before I even had a chance to be upset, the Drone had already been reincarnated with the new batch of Drones I was making.

Finally after commanding the last Creep Colony in the ring into a Spore Colony, I relaxed. I contemplated starting up the second ring I had planned, but I realized there just wouldn't be enough time left until nightfall to do it.

I sighed as I watched the Creep encroach upon the trees, slowly growing over and consuming them, even flattening down the mounds left behind. I knew it would happen, but it's no less troubling to watch. My only consolation is that I've hardly made a dent in the forest at all. Even with my Drones leveling everything but the trees, the only area affected is to the west of my Hive Cluster, in the direction of the mountains. Turns out This forest is hillier than I thought. The elevation is just so gradual it's hard to notice without deliberately trying to make the ground even with a certain point. It's certainly lucky that I had built my Hive in the center of a depression in the ground, so making it level with my Hive actually leaves me with a ton of dirt and rock to move.

With nothing better to do at the moment, I decided to create some Zerglings as backup for just in case anything happens. At 50 Bio-Energy for just two of them, and deciding to stick with the motto of staying over prepared, I pumped out 50 Zerglings. Unlike the Drones, the Zerglings are actually acting with the temperament I can feel from them, leaping about and playing chase. Seems these things really like to run around. Makes sense considering they were evolved from Dune Runners. I'm rather surprised though, considering most descriptions of the little things contain the words vicious and feral. These Zerglings are more like really fast puppies with large fangs. I immediately got to eat my words as with a cry, the Zerglings fell like locusts upon a stray Creeper, then immediately went back to playful after the danger had passed. Vicious and feral around anything not Zerg then.

With fifty Zerglings running around full tilt within the inner ring of the Hive Cluster, I quickly found myself nearly bowled over numerous times in quick succession. Wanting to get out from underfoot, I started climbing up the outside of the Hatchery. With as many ridges and handholds it has it was surprisingly easy to do and I was soon sitting on a natural alcove jutting over one of the entrances to my Hatchery.

I leaned back and spent the last of the day relaxing, secure in the plan I'd come up with, as well as the sheer amount of backup I'd established. As soon as the sun touched the horizon, I quickly ordered the Drones to burrow within the confines of the inner ring, including the majority of the Zerglings, leaving only a dozen running around to give them free space to easily maneuver. Granted, I'd just watched them move about just as fluidly despite their numbers, but I didn't want to take any chances.

As soon as my units were in place, I ordered my Overlords to form up the Creep Wall along the outside of the ring. The great thing about having so many Creep colonies to do this is that with so many of them overlapping Creep growth, they were actually able to raise the wall without the edge of the Creep receding any, just as I had hoped. This means I can leave the Creep wall up and have the Overlords act as gatekeepers, lowering and raising portions to enable free movement of my Zerg while hampering enemies at any time.

Pleased at my plans all coming together so nicely, I finally climbed down and went inside the Hatchery, taking a drink, and keeping an eye on my mental map. Keeping watch with my Overlords evenly spaced out to cover the most area, I waited and soon enough the first mobs started popping up, then more and more, until the ground was swarming with them.

I narrowed my eyes as I realized all of them were making a beeline to my Hive cluster. Now that is not typical mob behavior, unless their detection range is exponentially larger than it is in game. Especially considering they were acting more like their ingame counterparts last night. At least I think they were. My sight range wasn't quite so large with just one Hatchery as it is now with four hatcheries, twenty Overlords, and a large ring of Sunken and Spore colonies.

Soon enough, Zombies were breaking through the tree line and stepping onto the Creep. Immediately, tendrils of orange shot out of their nests and dove into the ground, spiking quickly through the earth to spear beneath their foes, sometimes with enough force to shatter mobs into pieces. I'd always wondered how Sunken Colonies did that. The inaudible high pitched whine that accompanies my Zerg burrowing answered that question.

Unfortunately, the mobs kept coming. Zombies were spawning in waves, and my Sunken Colonies were hard pressed to drive them back, slowly giving ground. I wasn't worried though. Even if they make it to the walls, the Zombies can't make it over them. There's something odd though… it took me a moment of scanning the oddly coordinates ranks of zombies before I figured it out. There's nothing BUT Zombies. Where are the other mobs? A quick scan of my mental map beyond the kill zone confirmed what I already suspected. No other mobs but Zombies are spawning in. Why? This is nothing like the game! This doesn't bode well.

A little more wary, I watched the oncoming wave, growing tired, but keeping myself awake just in case. Steadily, the line of Zombies pressed forward, further and further towards the wall. Finally the other shoe dropped and spiders started spawning in by the dozens, supplementing the Zombies, but I couldn't help but notice that the amount of Zombies spawning had dropped with the influx of Spiders spawning.

That clinched it for me. Whatever's happening, someone is behind this, driving the mobs to my door. They're not acting at all like a chaotic herd of dumb monsters, milling about only to follow you if they catch sight. No, these are premeditated moves from someone directing a horde. This world just got a bit more dangerous, and I suddenly don't feel quite as over prepared as I was before.

With my Sunken Colonies focusing on the Zombies, the Spiders started swarming in, climbing over and through the Zombie horde like they weren't even there. They would make it over my walls and do who knows what at this rate.

Luckily I can pick my targets.

I ordered my Overlords to have my Sunken Colonies concentrate fire on the spiders. The zombies gained more ground, but not a single spider made it very far once within range. The Zombies made it to the wall and started hitting and biting it to my surprise, but mostly it was to no effect. Even better, with them standing still now, the Creep slowly consumed them where they stood. Then Endermen started spawning in.

Interestingly, unlike the others, forming ranks as they were, the Endermen immediately reacted to the Overlords and milled about underneath them once more. I guess it's hard to give orders to creatures blinded by rage. Just what is so terrible about being looked at that an Enderman will freak out upon doing so? One of life's great mysteries I guess.

This is where things started going wrong though. With no prior orders not to, the Sunken Colonies started attacking some of the Endermen, and when you attack an Enderman it'll switch targets to the attacker. Suddenly I had Endermen within my walls reaching for, and pulling chunks out of, my Sunken Colonies. The effect bypassed armor and caused massive damage to my Sunken Colonies. Horrified, I frantically called for my Overlords to make sure no Sunken Colony's target Endermen. The damage was done though.

My only consolations is that, while damaged, none of my Sunken Colonies died, though it was touch and go for a while with one of them. It could've been a lot worse if not for the Zerglings getting the Endermen's attention. You couldn't ask for a better foil for an Enderman than a Zergling. Fast and agile enough to dodge the Enderman's grasping hands, and able to run around on all fours while the scythes on its back pick the Endermen apart. With the Endermen only able to do melee damage, and blinded by rage to only focus on one target whilst Zerglings are primarily pack hunters, many of the Zerglings ended up ping ponging Endermen around while the poor Enderman couldn't figure out which target to attack with so many to choose from!

No, it's simple to say that the Zerglings slaughtered the Endermen. Bolstered, by this, and feeling more awake than before, I ordered all fifty of my Zerglings up out of the ground and had the lot of them charge out onto the battle ground. Watching the Zerglings mop up the battlefield was amazing and entirely one sided. At this point, whatever strategy my unknown foe had dissolved, and myriads of mobs, including Skeletons and Creepers started showing up. I ordered the Overlords to have my Sunken Colonies prioritize Creepers. I was a little worried the skeletons might cause my Lings some problems, but I needn't have been. The Zerglings were running around so fast, most of the Skeleton's shots missed, and the few that did barely did any damage and healed right back up.

After watching a bit more of this one sided fight, including getting to see two Zerglings tear apart a Spider Jockey, I concluded there wouldn't be any more surprises tonight and settled down in the depression left from the night before. With a quick order to my Overlords to wake me if anything changed, I 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 – 12

Support – 75/114

Entities

4x Hatchery

1x Evolution Chamber

1x Spawning Pool

15x Sunken Colonies

15x Spore Colonies

20x Overlords

50x Drones

50x Zerglings

Swarm Abilities

- Burrow (Drone, Zergling, Hydralisk, Defiler)