28 Great Saintess Anastasia (1/2)

The primary hive cluster of Falmart is filled with writhing, squirming life, from the purplish gray carpet of creep to the large, carapaced and squid like form of the evolution chamber. In the game, the evolution chamber acts as a place for upgrades. In here, it has the same role but with different mechanisms from the one in the game. In the game, the evolution chamber upgrades the armor, melee attack and ranged attack of ground units divided into 4 levels.

Here, there are more options to this upgrade and even specific evolution paths for certain units. Entering pseudo tier 4 allows two evolution paths for each unit. The upgrades done by an evolution chamber will affect all hive clusters under a 500 mile radius, resulting in all zerg morphed from the hatcheries in range to have these upgrades. If the evolution chamber is destroyed, another one must be rebuilt but half of the upgrades will be removed as much DNA was lost during its destruction.

The upgrades available are maximum health, armor, regeneration, melee attack, melee attack speed, ranged attack, ranged attack speed and movement speed. Maximum health is increased by 15% per level, stacking up to 60% at max. The first upgrade requires 1,000 bio energy and each consecutive upgrade requires an additional 100% the previous cost. As for the upgrade time, the first level requires 12 hours and an additional 12 hours per level, upgrade times apply to all.

Note that upgrades can only be researched one at a time in each evolution chamber so having multiple evolution chambers are recommended during invasions and occupations. Armor is increased by 0.125 per upgrade, resulting in a total of 0.5 increase after all four levels are bought. A single unit of armor is equal to a half meter thick wall of neo-steel which is twice as hard as titanium. So, full armor upgrades will increase zerg armor by around the durability of a half meter thick titanium wall.

A fully armor upgraded zergling should be capable of resisting a few shots of titanium bullets before their carapace starts to crack. Regeneration factor is upgraded by 50% per upgrade, up to a 200% increase. The upgrade cost for regeneration and armor is 5,000 bio energy units, the cost doubles for every level and costs 40,000 bio energy units for level 4. Melee and range attack speed increase by 15% per level while melee and range attack increase by 0.75 per level.

Each point of attack is equal to a depleted uranium round bullet used by the standard Dominion Marine. A level 4 upgrade for both would result in 60% attack speed added by an extra 3 damage per attack. If these upgrades were applied to a zergling, the DPS of every zergling produced will be multiplied 2.56 times. As for movement speed, they increase speed by 0.5 points per level of upgrade.

Each point of speed is equal to a human's average walking speed. At full upgrades, the total movement speed added would amount to 2.8m/s or around 10km/h. However, the different physiques and movement methods of each zerg strain results in it taking 8 hours for the first level and doubling in time after every upgrade. Also, the upgrade cost is at 2,000 bio energy units and multiplies by 3 times after every upgrade.

These upgrades are why zerg on one planet may be stronger than one from another due to these upgrades. Each upgrade chain would take a total of 5 days to complete, not to mention that the upgrades only affect hatcheries in a 500 mile radius only. So far, the Feltamor brood led by Nesfel has upgraded movement speed and regeneration to level 1 after 12 hours of establishing and expanding into the world of Falmart. The Gods are indifferent to the expansion of the zerg, as Hardy and the other gods are none the wiser about the Swarm's ability to kill and assimilate far greater beings than them.

Beside one of the two evolution chambers on Alnus Hill is the infestation pit. The infestation pit is a crab like structure of flesh covered with hard, calcified carapace. It sports five pairs of large, claw like appendages on its size, making it look like a crab ready to attack and crush its foes. Here, one of the most sinister and disturbing creations of the swarm are produced, the Infestors.

The infestors are ten legged creatures derived from the borbu matriarch, an animal more like a colony than a single organism. The infestor appears like a fat tick armored with plates of brown zerg carapace and a mouth of tentacles below its glowing, yellow eyes. The creature has a pair of massive front legs with sharp ends, allowing it to burrow quickly and anchor the creature in place. Its abdomen is a massive purple sac protected by carapace above and below it, this portion maked up half of its size and contains its colony of zerg parasites.

Infestors are being morphed by Nesfel to create an endlessly replenishing army for her brood. They possess the ability to drag corpses into their sacs and mutate them, after that, they would discharge the mutating corpse inside a cocoon through its abdomen. Soon, the cocoon will burst and reveal the horribly disfigured, nightmarish form of an infested. Not only that, the Infestors can inject neural parasites through its mouth tentacles and control subjects from afar, allowing almost undetectable infiltration.

This will be the start of a long process of remote infestation where the host bodies of the Infestor's parasites will slowly be transformed into the infested. The changes are subtle, enhanced motor functions, heightened senses and later on, increased intelligence. Once these changes are complete, they will become intelligent Infested, beings similar to Alexei Stukov and the Queen of Blades but with the lack of free will. To make them even more deadly, the Infestors can spawn more infested, even without corpses as the DNA of the corpses they devoured and mutated are forever imprinted within the Swarm.

Devouring corpses requires much less energy and much less time than simply generating them outright. Despite all this, it would sound that Infested from corpses and normal people would be shambling cannon fodder, right? Mostly not, despite their lacking mobility, all Infested are capable of using tentacles to grab their opponents and if they carry weapons such as guns, they can operate it like an experienced soldier. Added by the fact that they can spew acid blasts and infect pilots of giant machines and wield those controlled machines simply makes them unstoppable if a pandemic occured.

This is why the protoss had to use purification, as the zerg can infest both the world and its people. Creep may recede but the infestation cannot be cured by any known method else than purification by fire. Nesfel decided to employ the new strain to terrify the empire as pride is their strong suit, therefore, it will be their greatest downfall. Once the slow moving Infestors emerge from their cocoons, Nesfel commanded them to charge ahead and begin abducting people for infestation.

The creatures scuttled away into the woods, leaving behind green, slimy trails filled with infestation virus to infest unsuspecting humans. With the infestors in the safety of the woods, Nesfel summoned her large army of 20,000 zerg and marched on to greet the incoming army. In an attempt to minimize losses, the Empire is focused on killing the zerg as fast as possible before they conquer and dismantle another city. Although a few nobles and a senate expressed their concern on fighting the zerg, the majority of the empire's upper management is still vying for war and conquest, still believing that the empire is invincible.

Senator Residence, Imperial Capital

Senator Anastasia Sparatus is not having a good day, in fact, the young senator is experiencing her first day of stress and extreme anxiety. Originally, the senator approved and supported the expansion of the empire despite how brutal it is. After all, resources are limited and expansion was the only choice they had to maintain peace and prosperity in the empire. She sent only a small group of thirty of her troops to conquer beyond the gate as she wanted to test the waters first.

However, the result of that brought deep fear into her heart. Hounds with claws that can tear up iron like a piece of paper, upright serpents shooting bone needles so sharp that it pierces through groups of men before stopping, turtles firing green sludge that melts anything it touches, even the trolls. She could imagine the massacre that is the first expedition. Every time she thought of that, she felt glad that she only sent a small fraction of her men, it lifted a weight in her heart that most of her men are still safe.

Unlike the other senators, her forces are mostly made up of her friends, her supporters and not mercenaries. She spent her money to charity and to protect the demi-humans or help their escape. Unlike the empire, they hold a special place in her heart as demi-humans were the one who raised her and adopted her from the orphanage. Her parents died wen she was only three years old and a month later, a lieutenant and his feline wife adopted her and raised her as if she were their own.

She had a talent in politics and was praised by her tutors about how fast she learned and the creative solutions she came up with for several problems. Because of her talent in politics, she decided to take a job in the government. To do so, she had to leave her family and head for the imperial capital to apply. Her decision was supported by her parents because they wanted her to choose her own way in life and not be stuck inside the city forever.

She was often mocked and underestimated due to her gender, but her talents quickly silenced her persecutors. Anastasia quickly climbed up the chain of command, eventually landing in the position of Senator thanks to her hard work and talent. Missing her parents in those years, she regularly wrote letters to them about her condition and she would receive theirs. However, when news about the zerg's current location arises, she despairs.

Her home city had been overrun and reports said that the walls were dissolved by the green sludge and its population was massacred by the combined assault of claws and a hailstorm of bone needles. After the first expedition force's annihilation, she immediately realized the gravity of this situation and had relocation plans ever since. However, her thoughts about escape were shattered knowing that her parents are most likely dead alongside all inside that city. Since these invaders are known to be an army of monsters, no other fate could have befallen her parents.