Upon sundown, Praelis exits the hivemind link. After viewing and assessing the new strains, Praelis was delighted with the new assets acquired by the zerg especially the ultralisk, the infestor and the queen evolution path. Although the defensive structure strains would be extremely helpful in both offensive and defensive purposes, Praelis is just not that interested in it. The two structures, she observed cannot be improved that easily.
For the ultralisk and infestors, she already thought of improvements to make them far deadlier. Ultralisks could produce acid vapor and release it with every swing of the kaiser blades, weakening its enemies' armor while also increasing overall damage and adding a fear factor. Another improvement she imagined for the Ultralisk was to have smaller ultralisks reside within them and emerge when the ultralisk dies. It would take longer to morph but would be very effective if swarm tactics are required.
As for the infestor, Praelis imagined them being capable of releasing the zerg virus into the air by burrowing and absorbing nutrients from the soil. This would let unsuspecting enemies be infected much more easily since they can't tell where the infestor is exactly. Not to mention that the infestor burrows very quickly and can easily navigate through any subterranean territory, allowing them to evade any traps. Another modification she imagined is to have infestors be given long range flight capabilities.
The flight system would be modified to make the infestor move as fast as possible. Its purpose is to spray out spores of zerg virus from its abdomen like a farm plane sprinkling fertilizer to the crops. The spray would be very acidic but diluted to the point where it's invisible but acidic enough to allow the spores to penetrate armor. Another idea of hers is to have infestor corpses rapidly decompose into a cloud of zerg virus and infect its assailants.
As for the spine crawler and spore crawler, Praelis doesn't have much of an idea except for a larger version of the spore crawler to act as a long range anti air defense and artillery. However, that idea would be introduced in the form of spore cannons which the system had mentioned would be unlocked in Tier 5 alongside other things. The second in command walked around the hive cluster, monitoring the progress of this planet's colonization by the zerg.
So far, three hundred hive clusters have been established, each separated by 5 to 7 miles of creep carpet. Due to the purification process, all life on the continent had been eradicated, leaving behind a charred wasteland now covered in the purple gray color of creep. Thanks to the growth hormone and the extractors, which provide accelerants by harvesting vespene gas, the swarm is multiplying four times faster than before. Tier 3 and a half provided the Zerg with a 50% reduction in time needed to morph structures while reducing the morph time in units by only 25%.
This results in hatcheries and other bio structures being quickly established. Unlike Vanahim VII, the only nutrients present are in the creep covered ashes, so the zerg are not expanding as quickly as they are in Vanahim VII. There, the zerg has established 650 new hive clusters and currently houses 65% of the zerg population which presently number at around 550,000 zerg organisms and rapidly growing. Tier 3 also brings in upgrade for individual units that help them serve the swarm better.
Zerglings move 75% faster than before, allowing hunting and escort parties to mobilize much faster. Hydralisk spines are shot at faster speeds, increasing penetration force and accurate range by 50%. Larvae are much fatter and upon morphing, they secrete an enzyme that forces a large amount of energy to gather into the cocoon. This only applies when forming buildings and reduces build time by 25% and in total, reduces build time for all structures to only 37.5% of the normal time required and this is not counting growth enzymes and accelerants being applied.
Overlords are enlarged by 10% and their brain matter is increased in both density and complexity. This allows overlords to control 200 standard zerg instead of the previous 100 standard zerg limit. The upgraded brain matter brings a very useful side effect, psionic manifestation. With the augmented brain matter, the overlord's psionic capacity and ability is significantly increased. Heightened psionic capabilities allow the overlord to conjure portals for short range travel of up to 5 miles, allowing an overlord and its escort party to almost always teleport into another hive cluster.
This ability massively increases zerg expansion and development efforts in both worlds. The only limit to its short range teleportation is its range and its ten minutes cooldown. Tier 3 bestows roaches with a more potent acid that can evaporate into its surroundings if it does not corrode anything. This is effective against enemies protected by a heavily armored or corrosion resistant armor. As the acid would evaporate due to lack of reactions, it would melt or soften the armor of nearby foes or if their armor is made of anything softer than titanium, outright kill them.
The roaches also developed symbiosis with more types of microbes while also enhancing the softness inducing and motion capabilities of the current symbiotes. This upgrade allows the roach to burrow much faster and travel up to speeds of 100 miles per hour underground. With greater burrowing speed, it is entirely possible for guerilla tactics to be employed by roaches alongside faster zerglings. Queens are upgraded to serve as better hive tenders and guardians.
Brain matter is increased by 25%, increasing control from 20 overlords to 25 overlords and increased mental capacity, complex problem solving and processing ability. The strain's limbs are increased from 2 to 3 in order to give better comprehension. The queen's transfusion ability is upgraded to healing in an area of effect with 3 meter radius and a heal over time effect that lasts for 5 minutes. Heal over time effect can be stacked three times to heal small to moderate injuries but can mend severe injures and dismemberment to an extent.
Limb regeneration can only be done by the original transfusion, not the healing over time effect. Queens are given specialized microbes that calcify its burrowing spots, preventing burrowing and emerging from the same spot but allows Queens to survive light to medium orbital bombardment. The microbes also produce a special enzyme that masks life signs for an hour. This would let them rebuild their forces in secret while letting them deliver devastating counterattacks when their enemy's guard is down.
The queen's growth enzymes now work much more effectively when paired with vespene gas, causing morph time to be reduced even more to only 12.5% of the normal time required. Thanks to this, hatcheries only require 30 minutes to form, an hour and a half to become a lair and 4 hours to metamorphose into a hive, means that only 6 hours is needed to establish a proper hive cluster if both growth hormones and vespene bio accelerant is abundant for use.
As for the queen's offensive power, tier 3 sharpens and increases the production rate of the queen spines, increasing their overall dps by 20%. Queens are also provided heightened senses that allows them to correctly hear and feel things with greater range and accuracy. Overall, they are three times more useful than kerrigan's queen strain. As the sun sets on Kashrya, it concludes the first day of the swarm's evolution.
However, that does not mean that the zerg tire or rest, for the swarm has adapted to live without rest. Queens place creep tumors and command the growing , giving transfusions for healing or growth acceleration. Overlords carry drones accompanied by burrowing roaches, slithering hydralisks and running zerglings to locations where new hive clusters are to be established. By midnight, the zerg population numbers at 2.2 million.
the creator assigned directives to the queens to begin expanding beyond Vanahim VII and its system. Currently, overlords are the only zerg capable of space travel and FTL. They would take 90 hours to travel 300,000 km in space and an hour to move through a single light year in hyperspace.
A few hundred overlords were sent out from the atmosphere, drifting towards their many targets. Twenty seven of them are sent towards the Asuryan system, to the world of Kashrya for colonisation.
A week later, Kashrya
The planet of Kashrya now sports a creep covered continent, its gray and purple color visible from orbit. 1.126 billion zerg roam the creep covered lands, patrolling or morphing into structures. Over the last week, the zerg have established complete control over the nutrient rich but also charred continent. The creator has been with them for the last week, observing his swarm and occasionally aiding it by summoning minerals and vespene gas from the ground.
The zerg now number around 4.505 billion, with three fourths of them present in Vanahim VII. Unlike in Kashrya, the creep in Vanahim VII is rendered invisible as there is plant life to cover it and coexist alongside it. Creep is present in the empty, uncovered soil and unused space between plants. With the creep merging the local plant life into the energy collection system, the zerg of Vanahim VII grow and spread faster while the planet's wildlife prosper due to the nutrients the creep carpet brings.
In the third day of the week, the creator commanded Praelis to morph into a large queen alongside a hundred others to exert more efficient control over the swarm. Despite the creator being the hivemind's source, separation is possible. Zerg not under control would turn feral but would immediately be reconnected if a queen or its successive evolutions is morphed, depending on the feral brood's size. However, controlling a feral brood would be impossible as the creator's zerg are basically immune to all types of mind control else than the creator's hive mind.
During the week, the creator is bored after day 4 and returns to his creations to do more heavy tweaking since he found a lot of things to be 'less than perfect' in his eyes. However, he returned at day 6 and becomes bored again on day 7. Currently in his Goddess of Destruction Form, the creator is laying down on the creep carpet, basking under the sun. Its biological nature provides an oddly smooth surface to sleep on and an almost motherly warmth to it.
"Why is everything so boring right now? There's nothing to do except grow but even then, the swarm is still too weak to handle some of the things I planned." The creator had a whole list of plans to evolve his swarm with. From merging necromorph and flood DNA to unfucking the fucked up world of Warhammer 40K. Seriously, that world needs a ton of unfucking considering all the wars and shit going on there.
'Maybe, there is something to invade that's not too hard or against my intentions.' Searching his memory, he discovered the world of Gate: Thus the JSDF fought there. The world is weak, arrogant and has irresponsible super children called Gods. Especially the weird underworld goddess. 'What was her name again? Oh right, Hardy the loli hunter.'
I really don't understand and don't want to understand why she wants to marry the loli demigoddess Emroy. I mentioned loli because it's a description, I'm probably one of the last people who would turn into a lolicon considering that I'm aware of how fucked up people like that are. Back to invading Gate, the creator used his powers to whisper into Hardy's ears and subconsciously command her into opening a gate to Kashrya.
After confirming that his temporary mind control worked, the creator only needs to wait for the gate's arrival. Smelling the air, she sighed happily as the familiar sense of mana enters her nostrils. 'Haaa. I love the smell of curb stomping in the morning.'