Chapter 18: Rancor

  “Not very aesthetically pleasing.” Was the best way I could describe a Rancor. Maybe that was just my own personal perspective, but I think it was a fairly common sentiment across the Galaxy.

  “I agree.” My daughter, who was effectively a giant meat mountain, thought the same.

  “They do have some pretty big advantages of course.” I held the cute little baby Rancor in my claws as ‘she’ growled and swiped at my face, “The skin is coated in a slimy substance that helps deflect blaster fire and protects against instantaneous high heat. Their eyesight is decent at night, but poor in daylight. Could be upgraded easily enough.”

  The tiny Rancor squirmed and screamed as I warped her body to my whims. The eyes were raised, the nostrils were lowered, the head was protected by a few tan plates. The armor was thick and would protect her from heavy blows to the skull, not to mention blaster fire. Even a lightsaber would glance off, though it wouldn’t protect from superheated plasma over a long time. Not many things could do that. Even Beskar gets hot and melts eventually.

  “Speaking of Beskar, we really need to get some. And Cortosis is nowhere near as durable as Beskar, but it is useful in dealing with plasma weapons and force fields. That’s the trick after all. The reason Cortosis fucks with lightsabers is because it creates a power surge in the forcefield generator or whatever. Not because it’s just indestructible or magical.

  “This might seem really stupid, but most lightsabers aren’t even waterproof.” I couldn’t help remembering a certain Nautolan Jedi who had a ‘special’ lightsaber that could be used underwater properly.

  “The concept is interesting, but a plasma blade is still a plasma blade. Energy weapons involving force fields are actually quite common in the Galactic Republic and beyond. It is the Jedi themselves that are powerful, and the Force Abilities they wield.” Izsha commented as I continued altering the Rancor’s facial features.

  There weren’t enough teeth. Just a few fangs, the mouth was unnecessarily large. I shrunk it. Then added mandibles to the sides. The head was a bit too large, so I made the torso, arms and legs larger.

  “Umm, I feel like I’m just making another Primal Zergling.” I noticed that the Rancor was also ape-like, “Maybe I should just keep you ugly.”

  Maybe not quite so asymmetrical though. I reverted the baby Rancor to its original appearance. Correcting whatever damage I did to her genes, I decided to have a simpler, minimalist approach. She had three long fingers with longer white talons, the arms were long, while the legs were short, the shoulders were somewhat armored already, just like the back. The face was… Unpleasant, but intimidating at least. When people saw her, they’d know she was a fucking Rancor.

  “Now for the upgrades.” I kept the nostrils above her eyes, because that’s her natural appearance. Just evened them out a bit and made them look less lumpy. The head was also smoothed over a little. I casually gave her some long black hair for a moment, before removing that and replacing it with jagged purple spines that ran down her back. On her shoulders were also some spikes. I got rid of the pot-belly and replaced it with thick, powerful abdominal muscles. She also had bulging pectoral muscles now, but nipples were a little unnecessary. I didn’t even have nipples anymore.

  The thick and rough skin was powerful enough, a bit scaly. I picked her up and flipped her over, avoiding her whipping tail that was longer than before. I covered her groin with protective purple armor. She didn’t need to reproduce sexually, so I removed those organs. She didn’t need to excrete waste, so I removed her anus and a decent amount of intestines as well. She would become more efficient just from that upgrade alone. I improved her digestive system, including the stomach and lower intestines. Added in some symbiotic Zerg larva and other organisms inside her belly to fill out some of the wasted space. Then I placed her down on the hard black carapace-covered table and smirked in satisfaction.

  “Yes. This is it. This is my Zerg Rancor.” As I said that, she screamed at me angrily and jumped off the table to attack my face again.

  “Father, you forgot the most important part.” With Izsha’s telepathic words, the beady little eyes glowed bright purple. Then the brat calmed the fuck down.

  “Hungry! Angry!” She was part of the Zerg now, for real. The most important part was the mind being connected to the Psionic Network. And also being capable of connecting. She had maybe five thousand Midichlorians per cell, not particularly high or low. Better than the usual human at least, but it was kinda average for a Rancor.

  “What if we put a spore crawler on the back?” I picked up a little Drone off the table and rapidly morphed it into a generic purple and black Spore Crawler. Placing the bottom onto the back of the beast, the legs clamped down and the claws dug into the flesh. Causing the brat to scream in pain and discomfort.

  “No! Itchy! Annoying! Hate!” Little Rancor was kinda pissed off, but the real issue was whether her spine would be able to handle the pressure when the Spore Crawler actually fired at ful blast. On the small scale it would work fine, but once… No, I guess the Spore Crawler would never get anywhere close to the normal size, because Rancors only grew to about five or ten meters at most. I picked ten for the sake of simplicity. A small Spore Cannon on the back would provide anti-air capabilities or even potentially long-range artillery…

  “Master, my host is annoying.” Unfortunately whether it was the Spore Crawler or the Rancor, neither wanted to be attached to the other. They weren’t very compatible. It would be better to Morph them both from Larva at the same time if I wanted to have them be more useful together.

  “Father, perhaps we could try a plasma-based weapon?” Izsha lowered a tendril and placed a tiny Kryber Crystal on the table. The blue crystal was taken from a random piece of rock that was mined by Drones from the mountainside. It was small, but it could grow larger in the future.

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  “It could work.” I removed the Spore Crawler and tossed it away. Grabbing a tiny black Larva off the table, I fed it the Kyber Crystal and then warped its body rapidly. The toothy maw opened wide and drooled as I changed the internal organs drastically. It became more rounded and elongated. The inside was transformed into a straight and narrow tube. Coated with the heat-resistant slime of the Rancor on the inside, it would hopefully prevent it from overheating and exploding later. There was a forcefield generator to surround the plasma, a special gas producing organ or two, plus a chamber to fire up the plasma ball that would be surrounded by the forcefield. Everything seemed… Fine. But it could still explode.

  Fortunately it was so tiny that it shouldn’t do too much damage if it bursts during testing. The spines on the Rancor’s back were removed as it screamed, then I placed the little larva cannon along the spine. Umm, maybe I should’ve tested it before I connected it to the Rancor? Eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine.

  “Die!” The brat aimed the plasma cannon on her back at my face and fired… Or at least she tried to fire, but it took like five seconds to charge before it actually released a tiny plasma bolt that bounced off my left cheek and exploded a few meters in the air. Dealing precisely zero damage to anything or anyone.

  “We should destroy Rancor-1 before it becomes another Lingling.”

  “Izsha, Lingling is my cute and adorable baby Zergling. Sure, she might be a murder-hobo, but she doesn’t wanna murder ‘us’. I think this brat just needs to get put in time-out for a while.” I wasn’t too worried about a slightly disobedient Rancor child. She was basically a baby at the moment. She’ll grow up and learn better, because that’s what most animals do… They have to experience things on their own to learn and improve.

  Ultimately though, she was a combat unit. She was meant for warfare. Maybe she would die before her first birthday if she was unlucky. Or maybe she’d still be alive in a hundred thousand years? Who knows?

  “Anyway, for now… Zerg Rancors can be considered as Siege Units. Artillery with melee capabilities.” I tossed the brat off the table and into the tube at the edge of the room. I didn’t want her to fuck the place up.

  “What should we do with the originals?” Izsha was talking about the mother and son that we captured underground.

  “They’re already infested.” I looked through the eyes of a Zergling and saw the mother covered in pulsating purple tumors. Giant tendrils whipped around randomly. There were two right arms and the left hand was replaced by another Rancor head. It was chaotic and unnecessary, but that’s just how it goes.

  The child had long blades for arms, his body was elongated and more like a Canyon Krayt Dragon. The head was covered in armor and there were mandibles on the sides of the mouth. A casual attempt at creating an Ultralisk. A failure of course, but not totally useless. Plenty of data was gained. I learned a lot of lessons. And it’s not like the mother or son were dead or even brain-dead. Their minds were intact, their bodies significantly improved. They didn’t hunger as much as before, they weren’t as angry as before. They were somewhat content. Just relaxing calmly outside. Loitering around, sunbathing. Not really doing much at all, because they didn’t need to do much.

  Just like the Zerglings were loitering around and simply existing. They didn’t need entertainment, food, anything really. The only exception of course was…

  “Order 66!” Lingling screamed excitedly as she escaped from her tentacle cage, charging out of the underground prison and up towards the surface.

  “Oh for fuck’s sake.” I rubbed my aching head and debated whether I should actually top the brat or just see what happens…

  “In terms of strength, reflexes, agility and endurance, a Zergling far outclasses any human.” Izsha giggled telepathically, “Lingling isn’t helpless when it comes to Force Sensitivity and Abilities either. She could win.”

  “If it was one on one, maybe.” I smirked as I watched and listened to Prima chatting with Sharad Hett. The two of them suddenly stopped when they approached an ominous cave entrance on the side of a mountain which had lots of sharp white fangs. There was also a long, slimy purple tongue squirming around inside.

  “This is the entrance to your Master’s territory?” The dude was obviously skeptical and concerned.

  “It is a valley. There are many entrances.” My daughter explained calmly, “Although it looks like a mouth, it is mostly aesthetic in nature. There are no muscles or bones, just flesh, teeth and rock.”

  “I would argue that the tongue is a very powerful muscle.” Sharad approached the maw and took the hilt off his hip, “Something is coming. Something dark and dangerous.”

  “Unfortunately.” Prima sighed dramatically at the exciting shrieking that was coming from the spasming maw!

  *Tshhraoaar~!* The Krayt Dragon Pearl powered lightsaber roared as it ignited! Then he jumped upwards and swiped downwards, but still missed the supersonic Zergling missile! His body was blasted to the side by the wind as the sonic boom deafened both of them!

  “It’s… Kinda scary how a fucking Zergling can reach this point. She’s only a couple weeks old too.” I chuckled as I watched the little monster knock her sister flying into the mountain wall!

  “Is this a test sent by your Master?!” Sharad shouted as his lightsaber clashed against a mantis claw for a moment, before slicing through!

  “The way is open!” Lingling screamed into his mind, “All you know, all you hold dear, everything will burn to nothing!”

  “What the fuck is she quoting?” I couldn’t help wondering what the hell kinda genetic memories were planted in the poor kid’s brain by Izsha back then. Even she didn’t really know how her two daughters turned out that way, because those first few Larvae were kinda casually created.

  “Don’t let her get into your head!” Prima shouted as her body rapidly started transforming. Her back straightened up, her hind legs became longer, her massive arms split into two smaller ones. I couldn’t help remembering Dehaka for a moment, but Prima’s arms were a lot larger in comparison to the ancient and unnecessarily crippled old Zerg.

  “Embrace the Void!” Lingling screamed as she squirted ink everywhere! The black slime was blasted away by the Force before it could hit Sharad, but Prima was completely coated in the gunk. Instead of worrying about mildly acidic ink, the Primal Zerg girl darted over behind the Zergling and tried to grapple. Unfortunately, those wings buzzed and Lingling shot up into the sky like a missile for a moment, before turning and darting down like a bullet.

  *Tshaa~!* That red blade cut through one of her mantis arms, but a sharp blade-like forelimb plunged into the poor bastard’s chest! Then two hands grabbed her wings and another two grabbed her back legs!

  “Enough, Sister!” Prima screamed angrily and tore her sister’s wings and legs off!

  “Never enough!” Even though Lingling said that, she still carefully pulled her blade out of Sharad’s chest and fell to the ground. She dug into the black rock, quickly escaping underground…

  “It seems… I failed your Master’s test?” Sharad collapsed to the ground as his lightsaber deactivated. The gaping jagged wound in his chest was spurting out copious amounts of blood, not to mention the blood he was coughing up from his damaged lungs and stomach.

  “How could you fail?” Prima had a sinister grin on her pretty lizard face as she held the dying man in her arms, “My Master hasn’t even started running any tests yet.”

  “I didn’t design her to be so overdramatic.” Izsha grumbled.

  “I think it’s adorable.” I snickered and shook my head, “Prima, stop fucking around and bring the bastard here before he becomes one with the Force!”

  “Yes, Master!” She wouldn’t take long to get here. As for Lingling, she came back up to the surface to reattach her wings and limbs, then burrowed underground again. Who the fuck knows where she’ll go or what she’ll do now?

  “Whatever, she’s just a Zergling. What’s the worst she could do?” I mean, it’s not like she was a Drone or even a Primal Zergling with reproductive capabilities. A single Zergling would never be too much of a threat.

  I mean, it’s not like she could go find Abeloth’s planet and bathe in the magical bullshit godly waters that turned Abeloth into an Old God, right?

  “Father, perhaps you should stop giving her ideas and tempting Fate.”