Star Wars: Evolution of the Rogue Zerg


Chapter 6: Part 1


Time Period: 30 minutes after lockdown activation


Tiborsis had always thought of himself as being a very special mutalisk. For one thing, after he was born he had decided to invest study into the usage of psionics alongside the huge amount of training for the inheritance of the Aerial Commander title. A psionically educated mutalisk had never existed before among the Rogue Zerg, so what Tiborsis accomplished was an achievement for his race in the first place.

So not only was his education high, but all the training he did amounted to more than the training of his peers, because who of all the mutalisks was chosen to inherit one of the highest privileges in Rogue Zerg society? He was. And all because he was the strongest and brightest.

And he admitted that he did let his arrogance get to his head. But he was absolutely sure that Karsona’s aerial guard needed no one else. He was even sure of himself as he psionically tracked the Republic general’s movements in the base. The general was strong, very strong; both psionically and physically. But it was no matter to Tiborsis as he hung from the enemy hangar ceiling. He knew that once the general arrived at this hangar, he’d be in for a fight. Because even after analyzing the immense strength that the general had, Tiborsis knew that he was STILL more powerful then the general.

“Your pride isn’t going to keep us Overlords from helping you fight the General,” Tiborsis felt the thought of Nibloth.

Tiborsis decided to speak with his mouth instead of his recently learned telepathy to remind the lesser Overlord who the commanding officer was in this conversation, “Of course, I’d expect nothing less from you. But I’ll say just like earlier that I don’t need any help. But since you keep insisting, I’ll let you help, and then kill you when we get back to the Hive Cluster for interfering.”

Even though Tiborsis outranked most lesser Overlords, his threats towards older Overlords like Nibloth usually didn’t work, “I’ll be one loss as opposed to four losses of everyone in here if I help,” Nibloth snapped back, “Your pride isn’t necessarily worth the lives of four zerg.” It was just like an elder to not care if Tiborsis was bluffing about killing him or not.

He didn’t care for the Overlords help. He was getting too excited about fighting someone on his level. Or, at least Tiborsis hoped that the Republic general was at his level. If he was, then this next battle would be one of the most delightful things Tiborsis would ever do in his entire life.

“The general approaches,” Tiborsis telepathically whispered excitedly to the Overlords as he sensed the immense dark, psionic presence slowly creep closer to the hangar. Even though he almost fell off of the ceiling for doing so, Tiborsis couldn’t help but grin with his ceiling clung mouth in ecstasy.


* * *

Gent opened his eyes with surprise. Had he survived that fight with that alien? Had he? He must have if he was breathing and looking at the hallway ceiling. A voice in the back of his head quietly whispered for him to stand up, and he followed suit. He was a bit confused as to why he had to claw out of a transparent, fluid filled sac before he could stand up and out of it, but he was wondering more as to why he was alive.  But he almost immediately got his answer as the voice in the back of his head quietly mentioned that Gent had been given new life. He was satisfied with the answer. New life, eh? What was this, some new Republic military project?

Gent wished he could take his helmet off as he scratched his head puzzlingly with his left shoulder claw. He looked around his surroundings as he shook fluid from his legs. He had been lying in his sac not too far away from a left turn in the hallway. Right after the corner, there was the open door to the secondary armory. But Gent immediately began to panic as he noticed a shadow of movement from inside the armory.  He quickly broke into a sprint on all four of his normal limbs towards the entrance to the armory. He could just barely stop his momentum as he skidded into the armory, only to see the backside of the horror he had fought what seemed like only a minute ago. A quarter of the stored weapons had been taken from their original places and scattered around the ground, and Gent noticed as he stood up and as the beast turned around that it was holding a DC-17 awkwardly in one claw, and a particularly large beetle in the other.

It hissed in happy acknowledgement to Gent, “I see, so you’ve finally awoken have you? Those drones are geniuses, eh?”

Gent waved his shoulder claws in an exasperated motion and growled with his vocal sac, “ABOMINATION! What do you think you’re doing in here?!” he began to break into a charge at the thing, but then was instantaneously soothed to a stop as the voice in the back of his head whispered that the being before him was a friend.  The hydralisk gave a rasping chuckle, “You startled me there for a second. From what I’ve read about infested humanoids, you would’ve blown yourself up to take me down with you. But apparently the mixture has made you somewhat loyal.”

Gent ignored what the hydralisk was talking about and spoke in a normal tone, “Wha… what the bloody hell are you doing in here?!”

The hydralisk reached behind itself to a pile of unseen weapons, picked one up and showed it to Gent. The DC-17 had had a seed of life put within it, for there was an organism sprouted out from within it, making the blaster more then just a piece of equipment. As Gent looked at it, he couldn’t help but marvel in such living beauty as the voice in the back of his head whispered lovely things about the miracle of life.

“If you’re confused, my name is Thurk, and you are my servant,” Gent could’ve guessed as much because he felt a connection of servitude to the hydralisk after spending a minute inhaling it’s pheromones.  And even though the voice in the back of his head advised against it Gent couldn’t help but ask, “What… what has become of the body of my brother, my lord?” at first, Thurk looked puzzled, but then took a breath of realization as to what Gent was talking about.

“No need to worry, he’s right here,” Thurk unhooked a moderate sized fleshy bag from his side and carefully dumped it’s contents onto the armory floor. Inside it were two adorable, new born broodlings! Each was the size of Gents head, which made them even cuter to look at. He couldn’t help but smile and coo a little bit as they scampered around blindly. Thurk continued, “They’re blind right now, but in a little while, they’ll be half your size.”

Gent didn’t care; his squad mate would have appreciated any rebirth like this. Not exactly the classic Mandalorian dream of death like their sergeant had planned for them, but this was an honor for both Gent and his squad mate to fight even more for the Republic!  But then Gent froze in contempt, realizing that his orders given by Jedi Master Rithcus were to kill the zerg. Thurk was his enemy. But why? He didn’t feel like an enemy at; he felt more like a squad Captain; a kindred spirit. But that was a ridiculous thing to think, Master Rithcus’s orders were absolute.

He put down one of the broodlings, and slowly, trying to not give away his intentions, stood up while Thurk tampered with another DC-17. Against the will of the voice in the back of his head, he quickly as possible lashed out with his right shoulder claw.  But the claw froze before it could jam itself into Thurk’s eye. With a cold sweat, Gent could barely keep himself from shouting at it to move, wondering frantically why his muscles had locked up and now weren’t responding.

Thurk didn’t move his head; he just turned both eyes to Gent, and then after half a minute of staring, gave a gleeful, almost maddening smile, “The drones really are geniuses. Heh, give it up, wretch; you’re a part of the Swarm now. There’s nothing you can do against us, so you might as well give up and accept the fact that I generously gave you life at the cost of your appearance and some of your will. Even if you could rejoin your comrades, would it be worth it? You’re a monster now, you’d be hunted, persecuted, and spat upon. Your purpose as a trooper of the Republic ended after I killed you and made you into a phoenix,” Thurk relaxed his smile a little bit as Gent relaxed his want to kill and began to despair, “But if it makes you feel better, you’re a completely different being now, so what you did in your past life doesn’t matter. You fulfilled your first purpose, and now it’s time for you to fulfill your next.”

Gent let the soothing voice in the back of his head relax his shoulder claw completely and drop to the ground. Gent dropped with it to his knees in despair. Millions of questions with no answers were racing through his head as he wished for his former ability to cry. He was disgusted at it all. But the more he thought about it, the more he knew he had to accept this unexpected addition to his life.

He shifted onto one knee, “What are your commands, Hunter Thurk?”

Gent heard Thurk hoist an infested blaster rifle over his shoulder and speak with relative satisfaction.

“That’s better,” Thurk mutters to Gent before giving orders.