Chapter 26: Infestation

  When I opened my eyes again, it was really dark. I was freezing, but that wouldn’t stop me from growing. A huge crab-like creature attacked me, but I slithered around and my mantis-like claws stabbed through the hard carapace! My tongue shot out and pierced inside, sucking up the goopy biomass inside. Within a few seconds, my body got bigger and stronger.

  I broke down the creature’s shell with my acidic saliva and made sure to consume as much as I could. Growing larger by the second. I slithered through the narrowing tunnels until I reached a super wide area. There were thousands of creatures that looked like bugs crawling around, devouring each other in order to get stronger and survive this icy prison world.

  I avoided a spike that flew over and slithered quickly along the lumpy tunnel. When I reached the beetle, I avoided a spike and stabbed my claws into its head! Although it had armor, my claws were strong and sharp enough to pierce through! Then I shot my tongue out again, penetrating its forehead and sucking out enough of the neurological tissue that it couldn’t fight back anymore. I didn’t have time to completely devour my prey though, because a dozen tiny beetles flew down and tried to eat us both. I killed most of them easily, but then a giant worm covered in deadly spikes came barrelling through the tunnel!

  I hissed and dug into the ‘ground’ in order to escape getting crushed. A lot of other creatures did the same, but many weren’t so lucky. It was a brutal world and it was hard to survive, but it was actually kinda fun.

  It was like playing a microbiological survival horror game. It seemed like a lot of time was passing from my perspective as a microscopic organism, but realistically, even after what felt like days or weeks, only a few minutes probably passed in reality. Maybe seconds.

  I hunted and devoured, over and over again. Slaughtering all the other parasites in order to become the biggest, strongest motherfucker in that icy hellscape. Once I was barely macroscopic, I started breeding out Zerg Larvae. Those Larvae consumed other parasites and microbes. Whether they were originally spawned from that random security officer girl or just random alien macrobiotic organisms from various sources, as long as they weren’t part of the Swarm, they were food.

  The war lasted what felt like years. Probably only a couple minutes in reality. I had plenty of time though. It was like a cheat-code to reality. Almost like Flash Time. Sure, I might not remember most of it at the end, but I’ll remember the important parts… And the research and work will be complete.

  “It’s time to free our Host. For the Swarm!” I ordered the final assault! Countless tiny Drones ate away at the Carbonite inside and outside of Eldra’s body! Some of them were sacrificed, but that was a necessary price for freedom and survival!

  I looked around the massive purplish cavern and clicked my mandibles in satisfaction. There were thousands of gigantic structures dangling from the ceiling and reaching up from the ground. Endless Zerglings and Drones were being Morphed from Larvae that the Hatcheries were spewing out. The Zerglings didn’t have wings, but webbed spiny dorsal fins along their backs. They were tankier and could swim, which was very important because the environment was getting a lot less frosty and a lot more swampy.

  “Core temperatures rising, Master.” One of my many Overlords sent me a message in a deep, rumbling telepathic voice.

  “Good, keep them rising steadily.” I scraped my claws together in front of my armored chest, then started walking over to the center of the room. It was starting to fill with amniotic fluid. A gigantic pillar reached up into the ceiling, but it was actually an enormous purple tentacle. Once I stood in place, the tendrils on the back of my long and armored head were merged with the smaller pieces of that gigantic tentacle. I started spinning a cocoon around myself using my ass. Then I could feel my body starting to break down. But not completely. My head and brain were still intact, just growing rapidly along with the rest of my soft and squishy body.

  The egg around me was also getting bigger. I could feel the war getting more and more intense. Eldra’s immune system was fighting against us, but we were winning. We were replacing her immune system with more efficient white blood cells and antibodies. Upgrading her lymphatic system and spleen. Bone marrow and thymus also needed to be repaired and improved. Cardiovascular functions were also improved. Although it took more effort, we also needed to protect and improve her brain and central nervous system without damaging her memories or mind.

  There was one piece of data that was more important than anything else. Something I figured out over the years that I spent conquering Eldra’s body. I was able to study her Midichlorians and compare them against A’sharad, Sharad, Shmi, Anakin and myself. Shmi and I had the ‘normal’ asexual Midichlorians. They had a hard limit of about 10k per cell, which was definitely useful and impressive. If I wanted, I could mass produce Force Sensitives powerful enough to become Jedi.

  But there was a limit imposed by the nature of the Midichlorians. Eldra, Sharad and A’sharad were different. Their Midichlorians were sexual, not as horny as Anakin’s for sure, but they were horny enough that they would stay together in a big old clusterfuck within those cells before finally having to escape at around 11k to 15k. It varied depending on the type of cell and the organs where the cells were located.

  In blood cells, which are the main method of testing Force Sensitivity anyway, Sharad was about 11k, while Eldra and A’sharad reached 12k. The difference though, is that Sharad had already reached his limit as a Human before, while Eldra and A’sharad were still growing. Especially A’sharad, since he’s literally a child. Eldra is still a teenager, but she’s only a Padawan. The important thing about the sexual Midichlorians is that their sex drive could improve, thus making them want to cluster together inside cells and yeah, bigger numbers, generally better connection to the Force.

  One thing to consider though is that Midichlorians are ultimately parasites. Just like the Zerg I’ve created. It’s fine if they can form a symbiotic relationship, but Midichlorians do require energy and nutrients to survive and grow. They can help the Host connect to the Force and gain energy/nutrients that way, which is great, but what if they can’t? Or what if their appetite becomes too strong?

  It always reminds me of the concept of a Wound in the Force. That asshole who used to ‘devour worlds’ or at least all the lifeforce on planets. But even after he turned into an inanimate non-biological object, he was still a Wound in the Force, so I might be putting way too much emphasis on Midichlorians.

  “Sector 9s cleared.” A feminine voice announced.

  “Sector 219b cleared.” A masculine voice spoke.

  “Sector 29178d cleared.” Another feminine voice. Most Zerg chose to sound feminine. Not really sure why. Most of them didn’t even have reproductive organs.

  One after the other, sometimes multiple voices at once were announcing that different sectors of Eldra’s body were being cleared of Carbonite and rejuvenated. As I got bigger, my mind seemed to slow down and all their voices blurred together. They were quieter, harder to hear. It reminded me of the Force, of the Midichlorians again, thousands of voices per cell, all crying out at once to try and nudge me in the right direction and help me understand how to manipulate reality to my will…

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  “Amon! What the frak did you do to me?!” Then I heard her voice again.

  “Amon! How is this supposed to help me?!” Eldra screamed as she was finally freed from that cold, metallic prison. I could see her kneeling on the cold ground with steam wafting off her bright-blue naked body. But she was mostly focused on her bulging belly.

  “Don’t worry. It’ll just be like laying an egg. I’ll make sure you barely feel a thing.”

  “Twi’leks don’t lay eggs! I don’t lay eggs! Damn it, Amon, I didn’t ask you to get me pregnant!” Unfortunately, her complaining was loud enough for the guards outside to hear something. A Weequay man and woman. Both with blaster rifles.

  “Echuta! Captain, this is Erla in the Brig!” The woman shouted into a communicator, “The Jedi broke free from the Carbonite somehow!”

  “And she’s pregnant!” The guy added on the side.

  “Blasted Jedi and their magic tricks!” The four-eyed blue bastard shouted angrily while smashing his fists onto his armrests in the hologram, “Fine, hurry up and kill her quickly before she causes anymore trouble!”

  The man swallowed nervously as he looked at the security terminal, “Uh, are you sure we shouldn’t-”

  “Are you questioning me?!”

  “No Sir, Captain, Sir!” The man responded immediately and then anxiously opened the blast door to our frosty prison.

  Eldra was still really groggy and I hadn’t gotten around to fixing her eyes yet. But the moment the door opened, she reached out and pulled the gun out of the man’s hand, aimed at his head and pulled the trigger!

  *Pew-boom~!* The fucking blast of a blaster was way more dramatic in such a confined space. Especially under such cold temperatures! The Carbonite-encased randos around us were shaken and knocked onto the ground. Obviously the dude’s head and half his torso was just gone.

  “Aaah~!” His boiling blood, entrails and carbonized bones splattered all over his partner’s face, causing severe burns. Eldra shot a blaster bolt at the wall and it bounced off, hitting the woman in the back, causing her entire chest to explode in our direction!

  *Woovh~!* There was a weird noise as Eldra Force Pushed the smoldering gore backwards, along with the two corpses! They smashed on the metal corridor wall and I couldn’t help asking, “Why didn’t you just do that in the first place?”

  “No backseat driving!” She shouted and slapped her belly, making me feel like I was in a dishwasher.

  “More like babyseat-”

  “Stop. Just be quiet, I’m trying to recover from Carbonite Sickness. Probably morning sickness as well.”

  I chuckled, “Don’t worry about that. There are countless little bugs crawling around inside your body right now that are making sure that you’ll be even better than before.”

  “Now I’m even more worried than before.” Eldra gagged and then vomited out a few squirming purple Larvae. Looking down at that, she started puking again, but this time it was mostly just bile. When she saw her stomach acid rapidly eating through the metal floor, she dry heaved for a while and finally rasped, “Amon. As a Jedi, I’m not supposed to hate. But if you turned me into one of your monsters…”

  “Don’t be so overdramatic.” I felt like my body was almost completely formed within the egg in her belly, so I started the evacuation procedure, “If it makes you feel better, I’ve improved your immune system to the point where I doubt you’ll ever get sick again. Don’t worry about autoimmune disorders either. I’m not a fucking amateur.”

  “Thanks.” She opened her blazing blue eyes and they were bright enough that they illuminated the whole room, “Why are my eyes glowing?”

  “I thought it looked cool.” Reminds me of Draenei, or Protoss for that matter. A lot of Zerg have glowy eyes too.

  “How do I turn it off-never mind.” Those eyeball flashlights were turned off and the room became dark again, only illuminated from the open door. She stood up off the ground and wobbled, “I think my water just broke.”

  “You’re going into labor, yay~!”

  “I don’t feel anything…” She looked down at the giant pulsating purple egg that plopped onto the ground, “I just laid an egg. This has to be a weird dream.”

  “You know what they say about dreams.” I snickered and sucked up all the nutrients I could from the egg. Causing it to shrivel and finally burst.

  “You only know if you were dreaming if you can wake up.” I spoke by vibrating the air in front of where my mouth would be, if I actually had one on my face. This body didn’t have a mouth or nose, just like a Protoss. Except I did have two mandible tusks on the sides of my cheeks or jaw.

  “I’d like to wake up now.” She fell down onto her ass and started trembling as she looked into my glowing green eyes, “You win. You’re better at mind games than I am. Congratulations.”

  “Don’t worry. This isn’t a dream or a nightmare. I really did save you.” As I said that, the Larvae she vomited earlier were munching on the mutilated carcasses in the hallway behind me. I could hear footsteps down the corridor, a lot of them. Then some alarms started blaring loudly.

  “Calm down Eldra.” She whispered to herself, tossed the blaster aside and knelt on the cold ground. The Twi’lek took a deep breath of the frosty air and coughed, but she somehow managed to enter a meditative trance.

  *Pew-pew-pew~!* Red bolts flew down the corridor and bounced off the carapace of the Larvae. One of the blaster bolts bounced into the room, so I waved my left claw and deflected it against the far wall. The explosion shook the room and was deafening.

  “Okay, I’m calm now. I can do this.” Eldra had a determined expression on her pretty face as she stood up off the ground, her Lekku shrunken from the cold. She looked over at the other people in Carbonite and asked, “Do you think they’re the rest of the crew of that ship?”

  “What ship? Oh, the one you tried to rescue? Maybe. Or maybe they’re just random unlucky bastards that got captured by pirates. Let me guess, you want me to help you save them?” I clicked my mandibles against my cheeks and opened up the toothy vertical maw below my humanoid waist. A bunch of tiny but fully-formed green Banelings emerged.

  They only had four legs, with pointy white claws on the ends. Similar to Sarlaccs really. Their flesh was rough like a Rancor, with a purplish hue. They had big fang-like teeth, with tusks on the sides of their mouths, similar to mine. There were also bony spikes that looked like fangs jutting out randomly around their bulbous bodies. There were glowing green sections that looked like balloons about to pop, especially on their asses. However, they were actually much more durable than they appeared.

  They curled up like pill bugs and rolled into the hallway. I could feel them rapidly approaching the pirates that were hiding at the end of the corridor. They were a little too small for the inaccurate pirates to hit with blasters. Then the three Banelings jumped up onto the bodies of their targets and started ripping their way inside, easily using their acidic bile to eat through whatever protective clothing and armor those poor bastards were wearing.

  “Aaaaaah~!”

  “Save me~!”

  “No-no-no~!”

  Ignoring the screams, I looked over at the naked Twi’lek girl who was checking through the Carbonite cards, “This girl is only a young child. We’ll save her first.”

  “We should leave them in Carbonite for now. Carbonite is a lot more durable than their squishy bodies.” I lifted my long, glowing green ass up and spewed a big purple creep cluster out of the end. The cluster rapidly spread the purple slime across the metal floor, eating through the material and growing faster.

  “How are we supposed to carry them?” She glared down at me, “I want to actually save them. Not turn them into monsters.”

  “Saving people isn’t as simple as just freeing them from pirates and handing them over to the Republic Authorities.” I looked at the two long clawed fingers on my right hand, “It’s like these claws. They look badass, but they’re way more inconvenient than having normal hands.”

  “Then why not give yourself opposable thumbs?” She rolled her eyes, “I understand that saving people isn’t simple or easy. I’ve been a Padawan for a decade now. I’ve been helping people, saving them, most of my life. Being a Jedi isn’t about taking the easy path though.”

  “Anyway, forget about them for now. I’m sure there are plenty of other slaves and prisoners on this particular ship. Not to mention the entire fleet or the asteroid base we’re approaching.”

  I rolled my shoulders, the long spiked carapace pauldrons feeling a little unnecessary. My long head was massive, with two huge horns along the sides, spiny horns down the center, with extra green eyes along the ridges between the spines and horns. My six spider-like legs were webbed with sharp and pointy feet. There were spikes all down my bulbous glowing green lower abdomen. My upper abdomen was covered in purple armor plating and looked somewhat androgynous.

  “I’m relinquishing control of this body back to our daughter, but I’m still here. Just need a more strategic perspective. First-person POV isn’t the best for a strategy game.”

  “Wait, what?” When she said that, my vision pulled outwards. Like I was looking down at the room from the ceiling, or a place beyond the invisible ceiling. I could see the little Larvae and Banelings tearing apart a dozen heavily armed and armored guards. They were so small that there really wasn’t much the pirates could do to stop them. Something to consider when creating units in the future is that bigger isn’t necessarily better.