Ch 5

For the first time since I got here, I woke up feeling refreshed and well rested. No monsters interrupting my sleep, and having felt like I'd been cradled all night long by the Hatchery I'm resting in. Today's going to be a great day! I can feel it!

Making my way outside, idly noting the positions of any nearby Creepers, I pulled up a piece of Creep and munched on it as I made my way back inside as I mentally reviewed everything that happened last night. As I suspected, the Endermen basically continued to stand there until the sun came and teleported away from the light. With the Endermen though, I actually got to follow the path they left from their purple particle trails as they raced the sun towards the West, trying to stay in the darkness of night. If it weren't for my Overlord, I wouldn't have been able to do that.

I also noticed something new. In the game Minecraft, monsters weren't able to spawn within a certain distance of you. It's gratifying to see these rules still apply. If they hadn't, Creepers could have still spawned between the Creep Wall and the Hatchery and caused damage and pain, thus waking me up. I'm glad that isn't the case here. Unfortunately it seems this applies to me and not my Zerg, since the Overlord still had monsters spawning within that distance from it that wouldn't have been the case if it had been me in the Overlord's place.

Having finished my bit of Creep and the review of last night's events, I promptly ordered the Overlord to smack away Creepers like I'd done with it yesterday morning. It promptly did so, and after observing to make sure no problems cropped up, I turned my attention to the Hatchery and started the ball rolling on getting a Drone out.

Ten minutes later, and my very first Drone came into the world. I felt an immense feeling of pride fill me up and I called the Drone into the Hatchery so I could look at it. The Drone immediately responded, and ten seconds later, the Drone had stopped in front of me, standing still as if for an inspection. I gave it the mental equivalent of an 'at ease', and simply observed it as it moved around. I'd always wondered how exactly a Drone gets around since it doesn't have any easily observed means of locomotion.

Peering beneath it dispelled the idea of it having millions of legs or even the possibility of it hovering over the ground. Instead, I watched as its belly muscles pulled it around like a snake, while it's used it's dorsal 'wings' for balance and to help it move when necessary, much like a person would if they tipped over or such. Everything else about the Drone is about as expected. Its front claws are like that of a lobster, though far more sharp and pinched. I can only see four eyes, two of which are on the side of its head, and are red and bug like. I wonder what the point of it having two regular eyes and two bug eyes might be? It has two smaller mandibles and rows of sharp needle like teeth, which I assume it can spit out at high velocity, but obviously not with any great range like the Hydralisks.

As for the dorsal fins, the only purpose they seem to serve is for balance. Same with the tail wriggling like it does. All in all it makes me think someone took a lobster and a dragon then mutated the two together to get this. Scary and monstrous. Those are words that could be used to describe all Zerg. That's not what I see in my mind's eye when I look at the Drone, or the Zerg though. In my mind, I can see this creature's psionic presence. I can see its emotions and instincts. In that regard, the Zerg are more like ferocious puppies, loyal and with sharp teeth. Psionically, they appear as glowing creatures of light without form, similar to that of a Protoss Archon, but altogether different in appearance. For one, an archon is blue or red. My Zerg are yellow. I wonder if there is any significance to that. Putting the thought aside, I reached my hand out, and the Drone obediently came within reach. I petted the top of its head. The Drone made a crooning chittering noise as its front eyes closed and it leaned into my touch. I couldn't help but smile.

After a few moments of this, I focused on the Overlord to determine if the Creepers are all gone. They are, so I ordered the Overlord to oversee the Drone and have it start harvesting from the nearest largest rise in the land, while maintaining a distance from any cave openings just in case. My Overlord had already spotted several of them yesterday and is keeping an eye on them for any movement. Some of the caves show signs of activity, but nothing is coming out.

Satisfied, I walked out with my Drone, deciding to join it as it works. If danger comes, well I can just hightail it out of there with the Drone while the Overlord serves as a temporary distraction so we can get away. This is how I spent my morning. I tried to help the Drone on occasion, but it proved so dexterous with its front claws, usually my efforts got in the way more often than not. I watched in interest as the Drone dropped off the first payload of dirt and rock it had spun together in a glob of its own sticky spit so it wouldn't drop anything. It left the package, the size of a large arm chair, just inside the entrance of the Hatchery. The floor then moved on its own, pushing the package down the slope and into the green pit. This netted me five bio energy. Between that and the energy coming from the light absorbed by the Creep, by midday, I had three more Drones and another Overlord on the way.

At that point I had gotten tired of being under the sun and went back into the Hatchery. Despite the hours under the sun, and the known fact that I burn easily, I don't have even a slight sunburn from being outside. Just another blessing to crop up from my ability to regenerate it seems. It didn't even feel all that hot outside either, but I still would rather enjoy the cool air inside the Hatchery, which has been obliging in keeping the interior quite cool for me. Mostly though, I felt tired of getting in the Drone's way trying to help them. Better that I just leave them to it.

For the rest of the day, I relaxed, keeping an eye on things, and building more Drones and Overlords as the resources for them cropped up. Managing the Swarm is oddly relaxing and each little contribution feels meaningful this way. Especially since every new Drone and Overlord brought into the Swarm increases the size of my new family, adding another unconditionally loving member to it. As the day waned, I quickly realized at the rate I'm going I'm not going to have enough room for all the Drones to fit into my Hatchery at some point. I'm going to need to start planning for the future.

Currently I have 16 Drones and 4 Overlords. All in all not bad, and they're raking in so much bio-energy that if I wanted I could probably put out Drones roughly nonstop if I had the Overlords for it. The real trouble though is, that there's no way I could fit 16 Drones in here with me in the Hatchery. Certainly not comfortably anyway.

I really need some way for my Zerg to hide. It'd be nice if I had a lair, then I could just evolve the Overlords to be able to carry Zerg units. Thinking about evolutionary ungrades quickly reminded me that I already have one evolution available that could solve all my problems in one fell swoop! Burrowing!

Immediately, I focused my attention on the Hatchery and quickly determined it would cost 300 bio-energy. I don't quite have that yet, but I should in just a few moments. About 5 minutes later I ordered the Hatchery to activate the Burrow Evolution. Immediately, traces of red lines that look like veins behind the walls of the Hatchery started pumping slowly, before they picked up speed. It would take a few minutes, but soon the enzyme needed to stimulate the evolution within the Zerg would be pumped into the Creep, and at that point all the current Zerg would just need to eat a piece. After that, it would take an hour and forty minutes for the evolution to complete in each Zerg.

Sad to say, it won't work for me. I don't have the latent genome for it in my DNA strand like most of the ground forces of the Zerg do. It's no big loss though. While useful, I'm sure I can do without for the time being.

To my surprise, as soon as the Hatchery finished its job, I didn't even need to issue an order for my Zerg to eat some Creep. The Drones simply scooped up a piece of Creep and ate it automatically. The ones that weren't on the Creep at the time did the same as soon as they came on the Creep, not even stopping. I immediately realized from my latent knowledge that this is a programmed behavior in my Zerg. They're just responding to the scent of the Enzyme in the Creep and know to eat it as soon as they get the chance.

Now that I think on it, this actually explains why you have to spend resources to get the same upgrades every time you start a new mission in the game. Every new mission starts over with a brand new Hive Cluster that hasn't gotten those upgrades before, nor are they connected to a Hive that already has them. How very interesting.

Unfortunately, there is one downside to this. Night will have fallen before an hour and forty minutes has passed. I'm not sure what to do until that point. Casting about for some idea, I contemplate the possibility of making another Hatchery. While building one completely from Psi energy takes half a day, using bio-energy like the Zerg are made to use means a Hatchery normally only takes 2 hours to complete. Unfortunately that won't be fast enough either, though it's certainly something to think about for later. Until I get the three larvae limit for the Hatchery removed, more Hatchery's means more larvae, means I can put out more Zerg at a time.

I'll have to save that for tomorrow though. There isn't enough time to gather 300 more bio-energy for another Hatchery. Perhaps if I left just a bit of space between the Hatchery and the Creep wall, that would leave enough space for the Drones to wait in safety and not crowd the Hatchery. Plus, if they're outside, as soon as the Evolution completes, they can burrow immediately, thus solving the problem.

Seems like a good enough plan. As soon as the sun hit the Horizon, I recalled all my Drones, packing them as close to the Hatchery as possible, and ordered the Hatchery to reform the Creep wall. It was a tight fit, but it worked. With night fall has come a new influx of monsters, and more Endermen, though now they're all evenly distributed between my four Overlords. I simply had them take positions at the four corners of my Hatchery outside the boundaries of the Creep Wall, but still within the boundaries of the tree line.

After a few minutes to make certain nothing would go wrong, I relaxed, satisfied that another night would come and go without any complications. Truly this is a Minecraft world, since this is almost exactly how things would go in a game of Minecraft after having just started. Soon enough these monsters will be nothing but a mere nuisance, best ignored unless caught unawares.

At that point, I have to wonder… then what? After assuring the safety of my Zerg, what should I do after that? I don't really have a goal to aim for come to think of it. Keeping my Zerg safe is the biggest thing occupying my mind at the moment. It wasn't long ago when I first awoke on this world, that I was contemplating how to get home, but home is nowhere near here. I have no idea where Earth is from this point. It could be any one of those stars out there. Or for all I know, I've crossed the boundary's of dimensions or planes of existence, and my Earth doesn't even exist in this universe.

I suppose looking for Earth is as good a goal as any to shoot towards for the moment though. No idea what I'll do if and when I get there, but for now, just the goal of getting there is enough. That means I'll eventually have to make my Zerg space born. Now won't that be something? I imagine it's probably every little kid's dream to visit space at some point in their young years. I certainly wondered what it would be like. Now I'll get the chance to fulfill that dream.

Yawning, I turned and closed my eyes, dreaming of the stars and what might lie among and beyond them. Truly, trying to get to Earth is a good goal.

-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 – 16/31

Entities (Non Sentient)

1x Hatchery

4x Overlord

16x Drones