The Hunt

The Spawning Pool took shape within seconds inside the game. It was indeed a pool, but considering the spikes on the side and the green liquid in the pool, it was not one any sane person would want to swim in.

The Spawning Pool allowed Athena to produce two new Zerg units. The zergling and the queen.

Zerglings were the deadly hounds of the Swarm. Standing around one meter tall, zerglings were often deadly to enemy infantry and light armor due to their remarkable speed. Their razor-sharp teeth could easily tear through the CMC power armor of Terran marines and, with enough numbers, the platings of armored vehicles and light tanks. Their leathery skin made them less durable than most other zerg units, but they often made up for their lack of endurance by flooding enemy positions with overwhelming numbers.

Zerglings were spawned in pairs, with each costing 25 resources and 0.5 supplies.

Zerg queens, over three meters in height, were low-level commanders whose main duties included overseeing hive clusters and directing zerg units to battle. Of course, like all zerg units, they could fight when needed. Their claws could tear terran marines in half in melee and their acid spines could go through the armored platings of terran vehicles.

Queens had three active abilities. They could create creep tumors which allow zerg bases to expand their creep and turn the battlefield to their advantage. They could spawn larvae, which increases the larvae and thus unit production of zerg hive clusters. Finally, transfusion could rapidly heal the sickness and wounds of biological beings.

Each queen cost 300 resources and 2 supplies. Athena quickly noticed this was twice the cost of a queen in a Starcraft game, but she had expected some changes to the unit price. It would be absurd if she could produce a battlecruiser for the price of less than a dozen marines.

With the 50 resources she had left, Athena morphed one of the larvae into a pair of zerglings.

Resource: 4

Terran Supply: 0 / 20

Zerg Supply: 2 / 50

Protoss Supply: 0 / 20

This entire production sequence cost her almost her entire bank, but as two zerglings took form in front of Athena and next to the drone, Athena was quite certain it was worth it.

The pair of zerglings stared at Athena with their glowing yellow eyes. They were much smaller than the drones, which was to be expected. Sizes were hardly everything in war. The larger a unit was, the larger of a target it presented to the enemies. In fact, the small size of the zerglings made them particularly deadly in melee situations and during ambushes.

Athena glanced at the claws and teeth of the zerglings. She knew they could easily tear her Guardian power armor open if they tried, but she was hardly concerned. Just like with the drone, she could feel a link to both zerglings. This link allowed her to sense the zerglings. To communicate with them. To control them. The sharper their claws, the more helpful they were to her.

There were moments when Athena wondered what would happen if she suddenly lost control of these units, but given her current situation, it would be stupid for her to avoid using these powerful assets and get herself killed for sure just because these units could turn out to be problems in the future. So far, she had no reason to doubt the system and these units. Plus, what would be the point for someone to give her such powerful weapons, only to deceive her?

There were always risks that came with uncertainty, but these were risks Athena had no choice but to accept if she wanted to make it out of this jungle.

With two more bodyguards by her side, Athena returned to her journey.

Three minutes later, Athena's two zerglings turned into twenty thanks to all the kills on the way. With enough zerglings to keep her safe by themselves, Athena stopped wasting her already limited ammo on the local predators, opting to let the Zerg do the job instead.

And the zerglings quickly proved themselves to be well worth the money Athena spent on them. They hunted and killed with a level of coordination and efficiency rarely seen in common predators. They would act as one as they hunted, pouncing on a target from all sides and ferociously tearing them apart. No amount of fighting back from their targets could dissuade them from their goal. Everything about them was optimized for killing.

After the beast was slain, the zerglings would quickly abandon the corpse and move on. They didn't seem to need to devour biomass to continue moving and fighting.

As predator after predator was mauled to death by the zerglings, Athena put a halt on the unit production for the moment and started saving her resources.

Another minute went by before a dozen different alerts suddenly reached Athena through the link she shared with the Zerg units around here. All of them had the same message.

There was movement underground…

Athena froze for a brief second. Movement? Underground? That was when another message hit her. The movement was coming from behind her! Sensing the threat, Athena quickly snapped around and raised her rifle in that direction. At the same time, the pack of zerglings and the single drone, still under the orders to defend Athena, lept in that direction as well, ready to strike.

As Athena turned around, her eyes caught a glance of the ambusher, and her brain almost immediately connected the image of the ambusher to a single number, and with that number came information on the threat that just emerged before her. 112. Morgo - 112, a type of underground ambusher with impressive digging capabilities. They were known to hide in the earth until their prey move past their position. Once their prey had their backs facing them, the instances of Morgo - 112 would quickly dig their way out to the surface and…

Athena's eyes widened as she remembered more and more details about the beast that the Imperials have collected and stored in their database. Almost at the same time as she recalled the method of attack this type of beast adopted, her eyes caught a glance of something green.

Acid. Once their prey had their backs facing them, the instances of Morgo - 112 would quickly dig their way out to the surface and spit strong acid onto their prey. The Imperials learned the hard way that this acid could melt through armor and human flesh with ease. Forget about the Guardian class armor she was wearing now. Even the superior CMC armor of Terran marines likely won't be enough to protect her!

In a split second, before panic could fully set in, a familiar figure suddenly lept in front of Athena. Athena's eyes widened. She recognized the figure from the link between them. The drone! In the brief second before Athena would be melted alive, the drone placed itself between Athena and the acid-spitting predator and served as a human…Zerg shield.

As a beast over two meters tall, the Zerg drone was more than large enough to shield Athena. As the acid hit the drone, Athena, through the speaker built into the armor, could hear the sizzling sound of the corrosive acid melting through the drone's Zerg carapace. She could feel the drone being hurt, but even so, the drone simply stood there. Neither pain nor fear seemed to be a concern for the Zerg,

As the danger was deflected for the moment and Athena remained very much alive, the young woman stumbled a few steps back. Even for the old Athena, this would be one of the worst ways to die and enough to shake her for a while. Athena was willing to admit she really didn't want to be melted alive or have her armor damaged and suffer a slow death due to the local atmosphere.

Thanks to the drone, that wouldn't be her fate, for now.

But even as she stumbled back and took a breath of relief after the near brush with death, a part of Athena's focus was on a rather interesting question. The Zerg drone saved her. But…why?

She wasn't confused that it was willing to die for her. As moved as she was by the drone, she knew this was to be expected based on the few things she knew about this system. But…drones weren't the smartest Zerg unit out there. Athena gave the Zerg units the order to defend her, and they tended to do so by killing all the threats to her. This was what they have been doing the entire time, and there was no reason for changes in their behavior.

Even now, Athena watched as the twenty zerglings charge at the instance of Morgo - 112. None of them tried to shield her. Not because they weren't willing to die for her, but because their limited intelligence didn't think that far. If they were given the specific command to shield her, they would, but no such order was given.

So what was so special about the drone? Sure, it was the first unit she built, but so what?

Then again, this issue could wait. Athena glanced at the drone. It was still alive, but that was likely to change very soon. She could feel the drone getting weaker and weaker. Zerg units could recover from any damage, but right now the acid was likely still damaging the drone, killing it quicker than its regenerative tissue could heal.

The first thing Athena did was recall the drone into the game, hoping it would keep the drone alive, but as she opened the game again, she realized the drone's hitpoint was still dropping slowly. It was already down to 10 hp, meaning it would likely be dead in a few seconds.

Athena frowned. She really didn't want the drone to die. Even sentimental purposes aside, she wanted to experiment with the drone and understand why it was behaving smarter than the zerglings.

With that in mind, she quickly selected the Hatchery in the game and spawned a single Zerg queen. She didn't see the need for the queen until now, knowing she could always produce one when she needed its skillset.

300 units of resources quickly disappeared from Athena's bank account. Almost immediately, a queen dug its way out of the ground in front of the Hatchery. Athena wasted no time in ordering the queen to use the transfuse ability on the drone.

Since this ability was used within the game, Athena wasn't able to see the effect of the transfuse with her own eyes. All she saw was a game animation of the ability before the drone's hp returned to 40, the maximum hp value for drones.

Taking a quiet breath of relief, Athena deployed both the drone and the queen into her world once again.

"Greetings, my Queen."

"What…" Athena had to admit she was a little startled by the sudden voice in her head. It was a feminine voice that sounded incredibly familiar to her. After a brief second of blanking out, she turned to the source of the voice, the Zerg queen standing not far from her. For a brief second, she wasn't sure what the proper answer would be. "Ahhh…greetings?"

Even though she was well aware that the queen was under her command and would almost certainly do everything she ordered, Athena was still a little taken aback by the form of the queen. For one thing, the queen was so much taller than her, and even if she knew nothing about what the queen was capable of in the lore, it wasn't difficult to deduce the Zerg unit could tear her open without breaking a sweat if they were enemies. One could come to that conclusion with just a single look at the queen's multiple talons and thick armored plating.

More importantly, queens were much more intelligent and sapient than drones and zerglings. While there were still limitations to their sapience and intelligence, they were able to communicate psionically with non-Zerg beings and analyze data when needed. They often served as mid-level commanders in Zerg armies.

Athena had to admit she wasn't really paying attention to this side of the queens. If she knew queens could truly talk to her and potentially give her more information on both the Zerg and the system, or even just serve as an advisor she could chat to, she would have produced one as soon as she could.

"My queen." The queen turned in the direction of the ongoing battle a short distance away, its talons tapping. "May I assume command of the zerglings?"

Athena turned her focus to the battle as well. The zerglings were as ferocious as ever, but the battle was far from over. The instance of Morgo - 112 was perhaps the toughest foe she and the zerglings have encountered so far. Its claws were sharp and its armor was thick. More importantly, its acid could easily kill a zergling upon contact. Four zerglings were already dead.

The instance was injured as well, but it could likely still bring down a few zerglings before it fell. It was something Athena would like to prevent.

"Yes. Go ahead." Athena gave the queen the command before turning back to the fight with anticipation, wondering what difference the queen would make.

The queen's talons clicked on her armor once again before issuing a series of commands to the zerglings. She didn't have the information about the beast that was stored in the Imperial database and memorized by the old Athena, but she knew all she needed to know about her prey through the zerglings.

Almost immediately, the tactic of the zerglings changed. Instead of charging the instance head-on and trying to tear it apart through its thick armor, the zerglings quickly scattered and started running around the injured instance of Morgo - 112. Confused, the animal continued to spit acid at the zerglings in desperation, but all of these spits missed the mark due to how quickly the zerglings were moving. All they did was create sizzling holes in the grass field.

After a few acidic projectiles, the instance was clearly starting to get wary. It was still injured and bleeding from the zergling claws, and the acidic projectiles it shot out weren't free. They had to be produced, a process that took time and nutrients, neither of which it had plenty of.

As the coordinator of the hunt, the queen observed her prey closely. Whenever the instance tried to retreat, the zerglings would rush forward and leave a few bloody marks on its body. This would cause the instance to fight back with all the strength and acid it had left, only for the zerglings to quickly retreat.

It didn't take long before the Morgo - 112 collapsed on the ground, brought low by exhaustion and injuries. The zerglings quickly rushed forward one last time, and this time, the Morgo - 112 no longer had the strength to keep the zerglings from ending its life. The zerglings quickly tore the beast's body into pieces.

As the Morgo - 112 was slain, the queen turned back to Athena and gently lowered her head.

"I hope I have pleased you, my queen."

"Indeed you have…" Before Athena could finish, she was suddenly hit by another much-welcomed notification.

"Biological essence detected in contact with the host's unit…"

"Analyzing essence…"

"Analysis complete. Essence overlaps with Zerg genetic sequences…"

"Zerg structure Roach Warren has been unlocked…"