Ch 5

The night passed by with no interruptions to my sleep. I woke up once again with the sun, or would have if the sky wasn't overcast with dark clouds. I looked up at the sky and smiled. I always liked it when the sky became overcast, though now the lack of sun bothers me a little. I'm not sure why, until I turn my attention towards the ground and realized that monsters are still coming. With no sun to burn them to a crisp, but just enough light to prevent them from spawning anywhere but in the side tunnels of exposed caves, I'm going to either have to give up a day of gathering resources, or I'm going to have to take a more proactive role in protecting my Drones.

Grimacing, I realized I couldn't wait. Whoever is driving these monsters, I can't let them have the advantage. Who knows what may come the following night? It just might be enough to overrun my forces this time. That means more Zerglings. Sure I have enough to assign one Zergling per Drone, but I'd rather have more than that, just in case. Do I even have enough to double the amount of Zerglings? I've got 755 Bio-Energy left from yesterday, and it costs me… I quickly did the math in my head. It costs 1250 Bio-Energy for 50 Zerglings. Great.

With a sigh, I set about making as many Zerglings as I could. 20 minutes later, I now have 30 extra Zerglings and only 5 Bio left. At least my Drones are still concentrated in one area, even if that area is twice the size of my Hive at the moment. My only consolation is that with the mobs pouring out of only three designated spots, since I'd only uncovered three tunneling caves, I can concentrate the main bulk of my force around those three spots.

Nodding to myself, I had my forces unborrow. It's a tight fit within the inner ring, considering the Spawning Pool and the Evolution Chamber take up a pretty good chunk of space. I really need to get to work on that second ring so I can have a place to put my forces, since I'd rather reserve the inner ring for the Swarm's tech buildings.

In no time at all, the Zerglings made it over the Creep Wall like it wasn't even there, but the Drones were stuck. Wouldn't surprise me if the only thing a Zergling couldn't climb was a sheer cliff face. They can swarm over just about anything else it seems. Drones aren't equipped like that, so I gave the order for the Overlords to start up their new role as Gate Keepers.

Immediately with parts of the wall lowered, the Drones filed out and the group headed out, with the Zerglings clearing the way. I spent the rest of that morning carefully managing my Zerglings, burrowing on occasion, and springing the Lings up when mobs passed, particularly Creepers, so they could be destroyed quickly. This worked for the most part. I still lost a few Zerglings if they weren't quick enough to take the Creeper out. The rest of the Mobs didn't stand a chance.

With my resource income once more prospering, I quickly morphed a new Drone and had it build a Hydralisk Den. Unfortunately I was never very good with multitasking in a game when something required my full attention, namely making sure none of my Drones or Lings die, and with the monsters pouring out in waves, trying to break through my blockade of Zerglings to get at my Drones, I can't really focus as much attention on my Hive as I'd like. I'd like to evolve the Hive more, but until I upgrade my Hatcheries into Lairs, there isn't anything left to build.

On the plus side, my Hydralisk Den just finished. On the downside, I can only support 12 Hydralisks before my support limit is capped. I really need more Overlords. I just hope I don't have a support cap of 200 like in the game. That would really suck. Regardless though, I'm faced with a choice. I could wait until I've got enough Bio to upgrade all my Hatcheries to Lairs, I could instead sink all that Bio into more Overlords and pump out a substantial Hydralisk force, or I could just morph one Hatchery into a Lair and spend the rest on Overlords and Hydralisks.

Actually, that last option seems like my best bet. Carefully choosing a Hatchery that I'm not currently in, since I really don't want to find out if I can drown in Zerg ambiotic fluid or somehow become a permanent part of the building, I waited a bit till I have enough Bio, and then ordered the Hatchery to become a Lair. Only an hour and forty minutes until it finishes.

That's when lightning crashed and the rain started. The sky suddenly darkened, making the ground almost as dark as night. I immediately knew what that meant, and eyes wide, I sent out the mental order even as I screamed out, "FALL BACK!"

Immediately my forces made a mad scramble back for the Hive, but for some of them, it was too late. Creepers started spawning in the darkness afforded by the lightning storm. I did what I could with my Zerglings spread out as evenly as I could among the Drones, but it wasn't enough for some of them. I lost 12 Drones and 17 Zerglings by the time they made it back to the safety of the inner ring. I had the rest of my Drones burrow, and my Sunken Colonies were working overtime to destroy the oncoming wave of Creepers, but just like with the Zombies, the lines were being pushed back.

The storm picked up even more, and rain started falling in sheets. Lightning lit the sky and touched down on a Creeper. I almost rejoiced until I noticed mother nature hadn't killed the Creeper. Instead it now glowed blue and crackled with energy. My eyes widened as I remembered lightning could charge Creepers. I'd never seen it before myself, but I knew it could happen.

I quickly had a sunken colony target it. As soon as it was pierced, instead of dying it exploded. The blast radius was three times as large, and it was powerful enough that it blew the Creep off the ground and left a crater underneath. My Sunken Colony shrieked in pain over the link, and its tendril sank back into the Colony, out of commission until it healed. My only consolation is that the explosion took out a large chunk of Creepers around itself.

Almost immediately another bolt of lightning struck down and charged another Creeper. Frantic, I realized I need some ranged attackers yesterday. With only one course left for me, I immediately had all of my larvae top out my support limit and morph into 12 Hydralisks. It's going to take 15 minutes before they finish. It's not much, but I don't have any other options. I certainly can't let a Charged Creeper make it to the wall! These are going to be a long 15 minutes…

With reluctance, I had a Sunken Colony a distance from the injured one attack the Charged Creeper. Once again it exploded and killed a number of other Creepers, but it also injured another Sunken Colony, and my first one hadn't finished healing yet.

With another flash and rumble of thunder, another Creeper was charged. My eyes widened as I started to recognize a pattern. As soon as one charged Creeper dies, another one gets charged. At this rate, all of my Sunken Colonies would be taken out of commission before even a full minute passed!

Ok, calm down. Gotta think. My land is starting to become pock marked, even if the holes are filling up with Creep. I need time. If I wait until the last moment before the charged Creeper gets close enough to damage the wall, that'll increase the amount of time until another charged Creeper appears, since it seems whoever my enemy is can only have one charged Creeper at a time. Plus, if I can pull it off, I could end up getting the Creepers to form a natural trench where they'll get stuck and won't be able to reach my Hive anymore! Sure that would make it hard for my Drones to reach the quarry, but then again, that's what Overlords are for. Plus, the Creep has already proven to be capable of forming walls. Why not a bridge?

That doesn't take care of the rest of the Creepers though. The fact that the charged Creepers dying takes out their fellows has slowed the rate that the Creepers are pressing forward, but they are still pressing forward. It'll just take them longer now. Will it be long enough? I honestly don't know. I can't even afford to try and get more Overlords now since between my morphing Lair and the Hydralisks, I'm sitting on only 5 Bio-Energy again!

With another BOOM, another Charged Creeper died, leaving a small crater just outside the wall. I noted with a wince that since this one was so far ahead of its fellows that it didn't take out any other Creepers either, negating the time advantage I thought I'd had, and with another crack of thunder and lightning, a new Charged Creeper lumbered forward towards my walls.

Closing my eyes, I realized I don't have any other options. With a sigh, I carefully picked my targets, and sent a single Zergling into each of the thickest knots of Creepers and had them unleash hell. Soon enough, four booms followed, and I lost four Zerglings, but the enemy also lost a good chunk of Creepers, pushing them just a little bit back. It's a play for time, and an awful one at that, but that's all I've got left.

Time and time again, when the Creepers started pressing forward a little too thickly, I sent a few more Zerglings out to thin their numbers. Their cries of pain tore at me, knowing that I was deliberately sending them to their deaths. At least they're not actually dying, if the extra glowing points of energy on my energy sphere are any indication. Deliberately causing them the pain still hurts though. I don't even want to imagine what death by concussive fireball feels like.

I was down to 9 Zerglings left when the sound of salvation came, with the splatter of Zerg Cocoons, and the feral roars of Hydralisks. Immediately upon birth, the lot of them moved to the tops of the walls in groups of three at each corner, and with thwips and spitting, rained spiked death upon the Creepers.

Smiling ferally, I spread the Hydralisks out evenly till they'd all taken the positions equal to that of a clock face. While they don't have the range of the Sunken Colonies, their speed makes up for it, holding the line of Creepers at the very edge of their range while the Sunken Colonies thinned their numbers. I was still careful to let the charged Creepers through, blowing them up at the very last minute with a careful shot from my Hydralisks, leaving my Sunken Colonies uninjured.

Hours passed like this, or what felt like hours anyway, considering the Lair hasn't finished yet. The trench around my Hive is really starting to form up nicely. After I judged it deep enough to stop the advance of Creepers, I let a few through that weren't charged to see what would happen. They fell in and started wandering around, trying to find a way out to get at my Hive, but none of them found one. I could see that a few tunnel systems had been exposed though, and more Creepers started filtering in from there, but they couldn't find a way up to my Hive.

Unfortunately, with the trench so deep, the outer edges of the Creep began to recede, since the Creep couldn't bypass the Trench. Thinking quickly, I ordered my Overlords to have my Creep Colonies form four bridges connecting across the Trench, each at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock position. It was slow going, and the threads of Creep sagged, but they finally reached the other side. The Creepers still topside were then funneled to those four bridges. I had a group of three Hydralisks from up at each bridge, and with the funnel going, between the Sunken Colonies and the Hydralisks, the Creepers were getting mowed down.

That's when Endermen started to show up. The influx of Creepers started to slow down with the incoming Endermen, making me realize there must be a limit on just how many creatures can spawn in, otherwise I would've been in big trouble already if any more Creepers had showed up than there already had.

The Endermen began to cause trouble for my Hydralisks, since I already had a standing order for my Sunken Colonies to not target them. Thankfully, ranged attacks don't attract Endermen. Unfortunately, Hydralisks look at their targets to shoot at them. Fortunately, the Overlords already had the Endermen tied up in that regard, already aggroing them instantly with their ability to see in all directions at once. The Hydralisks were simply causing them to warp around a bit.

Said warping around wasn't quite so amusing anymore though when an Enderman warped into the Hatchery right in front of me. It was too late for me to not look at it, but thankfully it was still targeting the Overlords and warped away. I quickly released the breath I'd held in a whoosh. That was too close! I then ordered the Hydralisks to not shoot the Endermen either. That thing was scary! Without the blocky low res look of Minecraft, those things are infinitely more scary with their glowing purple eyes and mouths, rail thin, and the screeching screaming noises they make!

Still though, with the Endermen around, less Creepers were spawning in, and I had a moment to breathe. Charged Creepers are still showing up, but my Hydralisks are just blowing them up when they come in range, what with the trench already formed up. The surrounding land is starting to get really pockmarked, but it's better than allowing those things across the bridge. Only problem is that between the bridges and the walls, The Creep hasn't spread very far beyond said bridges at all. Plus, the bridges only allow the Creep Colonies closest to them to push the Creep beyond the Bridges. The colonies farthest from them aren't able to put any Creep through to the other side of the trench at all.

Although… with the trench in place, the walls aren't really necessary anymore. If I drop the walls…

Putting thought to action, I ordered the Overlords to permanently drop the Creep walls. As soon as those flattened, the Creep spread a bit further beyond the trench, but not much. Only the edges of the Creep directly across from the bridge reached their original distance. Maybe once this is over, I can form one solid bridge covering the trench then. That'll allow me to form up the second ring, though this time I think I'll make them all sunken colonies. If only the Spore Colonies could target land! They would make for great mortar fire. I added that to my to-do list for later.

A sudden massive explosion shook the ground beneath my feet, knocking me over. What the hell was that!? Scanning around my mental map quickly, I quickly realized the problem. While I'd been focusing on taking care of the Endermen and Creepers topside, more Creepers had been pouring into the trench from the tunnels. Evidently they'd all just exploded at once, since the trench is now twice as wide and five times deeper than before, causing the bridges to snap. Worse still, some of the Sunken Colony's vulnerable undersides had been exposed! Those sneaky bastards!

Luckily, it seems to be a trick they can't replicate, since the tunnels they'd been pouring in from are too high, and the trench is too deep now for Creepers to drop down into. I guess whatever plan they had backfired. My grin abruptly disappeared as spiders started pouring in from the tunnels and Skeletons started shooting at the exposed undersides of some of my Sunken Colonies. While arrows can't normally pierce Zerg armor, the fleshy underside of the Sunken Colonies weren't meant to ever be exposed, and are only protected by a thin layer of Creep, which is minimizing the damage, but it's not stopping the arrows. My Sunken Colonies started targeting the Skeletons and Spiders, leaving the Creepers to the Hydralisks, which started to press forward again without the Sunken Colonies to thin their numbers.

I had wondered how the Sunken Colonies had been hitting the Creepers with the trench in the way. I got my answer as orange tendrils speared out of the walls of the trench to shoot into the other side of the trench wall before spearing beneath the Skeletons. The tendrils struck like snakes and I couldn't help but think how odd it was that they didn't just strike from above ground. A lucky arrow piercing a tendril stretched across the trench answered my question, as it quickly retracted. Evidently those tendrils aren't armored. Probably had to sacrifice the armor to allow them to move underground so fast. I'm just guessing, but it kinda makes sense, since armored Zerg in the second game move so slowly when underground, yet Sunken Colony tendrils practically swim through it.

Either way, I'm really starting to regret bothering with the Spore Colonies, what with no air units showing up at all. Sure, they're great for detection, but Minecraft doesn't have any invisible enemies, and unless the Enderdragon shows up, my Spore Colonies are useless… on second thought, I'm glad I have my Spore Colonies. Considering I just jinxed myself, I wouldn't be surprised if the Enderdragon showed up to harass me later, with the way things have been going.

That's if I survive till that point! With the Creepers at the bridges, I had my Sunken Colonies drop them, halting the Creepers in place. I immediately had my Hydralisks raining Spikes down on the Skeletons and what Spiders they could get line of sight on. I was then surprised by my Lair finally hatching. Only an hour and forty minutes had passed? It feels like we've been at this for days!

With the extra armor afforded, I immediately relocated to the Lair just in case. I made sure to use the entrance in the center of the ring of Hatcheries so I wouldn't expose myself to the battle. I may be the Overmind, but it would only take one stray arrow to take me out! Once there, I settled in for the long haul. My Colonies are still getting injured. There must be something I can do! Then I had an idea! I commanded my Overlords to have the Creep grow down the walls of the trench and thicken up over the exposed parts of the Colonies. I wasn't sure if it would work, but if the Creep can stack on top of itself to form walls and stretch across short distances to become a bridge, surely it can grow down a wall? Creep is more like a fungus after all, and fungus can grow on ceilings for crying out loud!

Sure enough, the Creep started, er, creeping down the wall, covering the exposed parts of my Defensive Ring that the arrows had been piercing and the Spiders had been biting at. With nothing left to aim at, the Skeletons changed targets to the Hydralisks, but where Zerglings were at most only lightly armored, Hydralisks are practically mobile tanks, with armor thick enough that the arrows actually ricocheted off, hardly even causing a scratch. The few that even made it near vulnerable parts were blocked by the Hydralisk's scythed arms.

The spiders became more of a nuisance though, climbing up the rest of the cliff to engage the Hydralisks in melee. Too bad for them those scythe arms aren't just for show, and Hydralisks were shredding the Spiders without even missing a beat in the staccato of their fired spines. It certainly helps that the Zerglings could then join the fray, even if there are only nine left, and tore apart the few spiders that made it past the Hydralisks.

The Creepers topside hadn't quite been as idle as I'd hoped though. With nothing targeting them, they'd quickly formed a thick ring around the trench, and quite suddenly, they all started pulsing and hissing. Before I could even blink or think to make an order, over a hundred Creepers exploded, throwing dirt and rock everywhere like shrapnel, and completely collapsing the far side of the trench.

The dust cleared to show that the collapsed trench formed a ramp of sorts down to the base of the trench and that it had collapsed all the entrances to the tunnels as well with all of the falling dirt and rock. Once again, Creepers started pouring from the trees, making their way down the decline, while my Hydralisks and Zerglings finished off the last of the Spiders. Together, the Hydralisks and Sunken Colonies targeted the oncoming creepers and laid waste to them, with Hydralisks killing any that became charged by lightning immediately.

It was at this point that the rain finally started to let up, and the cloud cover began to clear. The Creepers were still coming, but I still pumped my fist, shouting happily, knowing that no more Creepers would be spawning until tonight. It wasn't long after that before the last of the Creepers were gone.

At this point I noted that with all the damage to the terrain, the river that had run through my Hive had dried up, while the source of the river started filling up the base of the former trench with water. It's slow going, but if the water keeps flowing, eventually my Hive is going to be sitting on an artificial island in the middle of a lake, or more like a very wide moat. Can Zerg even swim? At least they don't need to breathe, so if they sink, I won't have to worry about them drowning.

The best part though would have to be the fact that water is a natural deterrent to Endermen, who were only of use in the battle because they could hide from the rain by standing impotently under my Overlords. I'm not sure exactly what my enemy was trying to accomplish by introducing those to the battle. I suppose they could have been of use if it hadn't been raining. More than that though, the water should slow the mobs down considerably, making it easy for my Hydralisks and Sunken Colonies to pick them off from a distance.

More surprising though, is the fact that it's late afternoon. As dark as it was, and with no other way to tell the time, I had thought that battle had gone on for days. I guess it's true what they say, a minute of battle can seem like a long time.

Now though, I've got a problem. Until that water fills in, my Drones are stuck, and the water slowing down mobs will probably also hold true for slowing down my Zerg. Plus, if Zerg sink rather than swim, I could send my Drones out to gather resources, but they wouldn't be able to make it back. It slowly dawned on me then that in just a few hours, my economy had been cut off at the knees!

- 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 – 5

Support – 66.5/114

Entities

3x Hatchery

1x Lair

1x Evolution Chamber

1x Spawning Pool

15x Sunken Colonies

15x Spore Colonies

20x Overlords

38x Drones

9x Zerglings

12x Hydralisks

Swarm Abilities

- Burrow (Drone, Zergling, Hydralisk, Defiler)