Symbiosis - Primal Zerg SI by abyss_kaiser

Another Primal Zerg SI fic this one is really focused on creating a biopunk civilization on Zerus

Words: 29k+

Links:

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/8912

Chapter 1

Humming escaped my throat as I stood at a bus stop, waiting for my ride home.

One arm held a bag containing several purchases I had only been able to get by coming down to the Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul M. area.), and I was riding a bit of a high from eating at a nice Japanese restaurant which was reasonably priced and specialized in warm seafood.

Digging a hand into my pocket, I looked over my pocket-watch for the time (don't judge me) and hummed again, before spotting the bus coming along.

Before it could arrive though, a truck coming down the road swerved toward me, and I lunged myself out of the way with a cry.

"Watch it!" I screamed, collapsing to the ground.

Shaking my head, I realized that somebody might be in trouble here.

Looking at the bus as it awkwardly parked at the stop, I groaned and made my way to the door of the truck to look through the broken window.

"Hey! You okay in there?"

Bringing my head into view, the door suddenly swung open, knocking me to the ground again.

Cursing, I looked up and saw a scruffy looking man drag me up by the collar just as I heard sirens wailing.

Oh shit.

"Don't struggle if you know what's good for you." He rasped, the unmistakable odor of alcohol on his breath making me cringe as he dragged me off away from the crowd.

"Stay back! Away or I blow his brains out!" He roared to the onlookers, and I froze as I realized there was a gun to my head.

Trembling as we were hidden in the shadows, the drunk criminal sneered around the corner at something.

"Damn cops everywhere." He muttered, Which didn't exactly fill me with relief, there still being a gun to my head.

"Freeze!"

The thug jumped and a loud bang echoed through the alley.

I sorely wished that had been the cop's pistol, but as my hands felt at my neck and I collapsed I knew it was a misfire from the stupid criminal, who was standing slack-jawed before the cop fired his own gun, the thug collapsing a top me.

The world around me began to fade even as the thugs body was roughly pulled from mine, and I couldn't help but stared accusingly at the younger looking cop. It wasn't his fault I was dying, but I couldn't help it.

I couldn't even say any last works with my throat ripped out, damn it.

…

It hurts…

I hate pain…

It fucking hurts…

Grumbling as I turned over in my sleep, I casually ignored how that sounded completely different than I expected to instead grab more of those delicious REMs.

Mm, tasty sleep.

Several times I felt the vague feeling of myself awakening, before I ignored the waking world with the supreme skills of a master procrastinator.

Yes, just another hour… then another, then-

SCREEEEE!

I screamed as I bolted awake, flinging myself away from whatever that noise was.

Burrowing into the ground as soon as I had shot through my cocoon, I burrowed deep and quickly ate a root that was in my way to grab the nutrition needed to fuel my escape and maybe get some Essense-

It was only when the Essense came into my body did I realize that something as off.

What, wait..

The fuck?!?

And why am I still eating this shit!

Swallowing the root instead of spitting like I meant too, I took a minute to process whatever the fuck was happening.

In the end, the Essense had given me all I needed to know.

The plant creature I had taken it from had a wide variety of traits that I instinctively knew to be very similar to my own, just extremely specialized towards gathering nutrients from the ground, drawing sunlight, and maintaining an extremely dense carapace-like bark alongside underground spiked tendrils to protect again other creatures feeding on it's roots….

Shit.

A thin tendril shot through my side, I screeched, screeched, before burrowing away from the plant/creature.

Even as I did, I realized I could take that tiny amount of Essence and use it to enhance myself in some way.

Pausing as the tendrils no longer were striking at me, I took stock of… my own Essence.

For some reason, I could recall perfectly how my new body was constructed from the DNA up. I marveled at that, the fact I now truly knew my physical form in a way technology likely would never match.

It almost came as an afterthought that all my traits should equal up to a roughly worm like thing with carapace, tiny legs, two beady eyes and three fangs forming a strange alien mouth.

Experimentally moving my bits around to figure out my new body, I felt strangely comfortable with it, despite the fact that I should be having the most extreme form of body dysphoria right now. I mean, a humanoid form sounds nice, but I can live with this.

Deciding that whatever had woken me up from my nice nap had to be dangerous, never mind the plant-creature thing, I needed any advantage I could have.

Probing at the fading Essence, I realized that many of the specialized traits it held would to me no good as it require a wide ranging foundation for them to be useful or even possible. A vaguely reptilian/insectoid thing can't just randomly grow armored bark, after all…

Why does that feel like common sense?

Anyway, I let it fade. There wasn't anything from such a dismal amount of essence I could use as I was now, so I decided I needed to forge a new way forward.

So I burrowed forth. Foot after foot of dirt being dug through even as I belatedly realized I should have suffocated by now.

Biology coursed through my brain as I realized that I had undergone a rapid mutation to survive underground. I was able to subsist on far less oxygen, but in return I could only move in short bursts and the mutation had cost me a lost of bio-mechanical fuel, in simple terms, which was why I had immediately started eating anything organic near me.

Wow, what the fuck am I?

Burrowing further, I suppose I needed a rest period now.

Stopping, my bodily functions slowing, my brain following suit, even as I remain partially aware of everything I could sense around me.

Seems whatever I am was a paranoid species.

I had no idea of what time was under the ground, even as boredom seemed…. Mostly, abated by my new brain.

I had spent about 20 "sleep" cycles down here, though from what I could tell this as nearly ten times as much as I would have normally had where I not using my current metabolism.

That didn't mean I had spent two days down here, no, it felt more like I had pend about a week, at least, from my very best guess, it could have been three days, it could have been two weeks, but I think I had it down a bit.

I spent the time burrowing, nomming on anything organic I could find and moving on.

Several times I had found more plant-creatures, who I quickly burrowed away from after getting a few bites in. I'd managed to use their Essence to make my own muscles more efficient, causing my sleep cycle to nearly halve in frequency as I moved along a bit faster.

I also found various bug-like things and rodent-like things worming their way down here. My former near phobia of bug-like things magically wiped away even as I'd rather have rodent.

I did get some small upgrades to my musculature form it, again better equipped for underground burrowing.

I continued this cycle for a fair while, before finally realizing I was about twice as big as I once was, with spiffy extended legs in my front that almost resembled two arms with two large claws on each, the claws fitted together nicely and were a bit long and wide, allowing for better burrowing and hopefully defense.

My other legs (four of them I believe) were simply longer now, with a sort of slime covering their carapace basically letting them slight through the dirt. The ends had an almost paddle shape.

Glancing upwards, I growled lightly in an attempt at a hum as I debated the idea of going topside.

I still had no idea where I was, but I knew that down here seemed to be safe, and that eating other things makes me able to make myself stronger.

Should I really go up?

Hmm.

A/N - I AM NOT DEAD! Only, you know…. Writing a story which isn't the stories I was working on before…

I do feel guilty, to anyone who reads my other stories, but those chapters are coming slow, the MCU story especially.

Anyway, been reading a lot of zerg/primal zerg SI lately, alongside actually getting Starcraft and playing it, and now I'm writing my own primal zerg SI because fuck it, i'z gotz the plot bunnies…. They shall be consumed, for the good of the Swarm-cough- i-ah-mean um,… me, I guess

Ah, and the reason why this is on QQ… well, that'll be a little while.