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A Hydralisk stores hundreds of its spines in the carapace plate on its head, and can launch it with sufficient force to rip right through a power-armored infantry soldier. Or a modern-day Main Battle Tank.

In reality, creating such a projectile is incredibly annoyingly ridiculously hard! Stopping power is velocity times mass. The mass isn't an issue on its own, super dense and sharp bones will do. But they need to be smooth and aerodynamic to fly straight, or else they are useless. They also need to be moving a fair bit faster than simple muscles — even engineered ones with the best Essence on hand — can do. This would be easier if some animal already had the Essence to launch armor-piercing spikes. But they don't! Because it's a horrible waste of nutrition that is completely wasted if the shot misses!

Urgh, I really want Hydras, but trying to reverse-engineer the concept into a functional Essence chain? Just bloody impossible.

The samples of Essence trickle in throughout the night. What interesting results too, among my favorites is the pretty blue-colored lobster that was almost stolen by a stray dog. It doesn't bring much new as far as Essences goes, but the color and finish on its shell are just gorgeous. I think I'm going to use that on ALL my organisms.

What to use for my first front-line combat organism? Equivalent to Zerglings, it needs to be… fast, cheap, and combat capable. There's a good number of Essences to choose from now, including several poisons, extracted from both spiders and a large brown snake — the last one cost me a few Ratlings to collect.

I spend a while tinkering with Essences to get the basic form down. At first, I started with canine and feline samples but then ended up switching to using a frog of all things as the baseline and just mixing in a fair bit of others as I go. I keep the frog's rear leg structure mostly as is, only altering it slightly to support keeping the body higher off the ground. Leaping is a good way for melee combatants to get into range, especially when many capes can fly. As a bonus, I add some cockroach Essence to give it wings. Not quite enough for full unaided flight — not with the mass of the organism — but more than enough for covering impressive amounts of ground very quickly when combined with the leaping ability.

I leave the frog's webbed toes intact as a bit of amphibious capability is not a waste, unlike Zerg in the game, I do have to contend with bodies of water. In fact… I weave in the Essence for rudimentary gills too, secreted away in two long frills along the back and hidden by a plate of carapace when not in use.

Front legs… large clawed toes or scythe blades like the original… decisions decisions. Scythe blades are much better for combat but carry a hefty cost. To remain sharp, they have to be sharpened regularly, which means they also have to constantly grow out to not be filed away to nothing. That's a fair bit more nutritional cost for upkeep, I'm not sure it's entirely worth the boost in pure shredding potential.

Or…. If I move the rear legs forward a bit, add a short muscular tail for balance, and the organism can avoid using its front legs for anything outside combat. That reduces the wear and tear on the scythes outside combat. Still have to be sharpened after use — a bit of feline instinct helps with that — but the nutritional cost over time is noticeably lower.

The head I keep is mostly canine in general shape, its jaws are a purely secondary weapon so there's no need to alter them beyond basic enhancements. Eyes I improve massively by weaving together Essences from a few species, the result can see well into both the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum. Ears… no, just pick up vibrations through the carapace. Enough for combat awareness without a massive open hole right to the brain.

The shoulder claws…. Later zergling specimens had simple stabbing appendages, but the originals had clawed hands there. Considering the Essence of functional bio-projectile weapons is still eluding me, the ability of my most numerous front-line combat organisms to pick up and use human technology is just too damn big of an advantage to ignore. Even if it does damage the aesthetic of a purely biological army.

Damn though, it looks silly with the extra arms just sticking out of the top like that… Maybe if I allow them to fold into the carapace when not in use… Creates weak points. How about if I scrap the top mounted limbs, alter the front legs to terminate in hands, and the scythe-blades are folded up along the forearm equivalent? When in combat, they swing out to position for chopping, stabbing, and cutting. Yes, that will work.

The result is… probably the finest bit of Essence weaving I've done, not relying on just preexisting structures, but truly creating something new.

This brings me to the last part, the carapace. What I've been using so far for the Ratlings has been fine — for non-combatants — but basic insect Essence will not do for combat forms. I need something that can turn at least small arms fire for a short time.

I'm kind of stumped on how to test for that for a while, till I remember there's a bunch of small firearms on the river boat. I push my experimental carapace Essence into a Larva, have it taken well away from my main chamber, and then… struggle with getting a bunch of Ratlings with no opposable thumbs to use a looted pistol to the Larva and not each other, an exercise in frustration since the recoil makes them drop the weapon and knocks them over half the time too.

The carapace I design is a layered structure of insect and crustacean exoskeleton, laced with iron deposits. Interestingly, the rock-flesh Essence from the dead cape — when grown into fibers — acts as a powerful strengthening agent, more so than I would have expected from its simple, rock-like appearance.

It's strong enough for my needs, and a bit of coloring Essence gives it a nice, shiny blue color. Not the best camouflage, but that's not going to be a problem in the long run.

I apply the Carapace Essence to the — I'm just calling it a Zergling — organism, and fold the growth patterns to create smooth blue armor over its body. Curves and slopes give it a bit friendlier appearance than traditional zerg — which were fans of random spikes, spines, blades, and other growths — but more importantly, it helps improve the armor by increasing deflection rates. Or at least that's my theory, I've lost too many Ratlings to friendly fire to keep testing. Any part of the body not covered in armor such as joints is instead covered by soft puppy fur. That one is entirely for aesthetic reasons.

The entire organism will scale up to about a meter tall when standing in its natural position, and pack tactics — extracted from the canine Essence — come naturally to them.

With the Essence completed, I order dozens of waiting larvae to cocoon up and begin the evolution process into my first batch of true combat organisms.

There's been a bit of sound on the riverboat, quiet sobs coming from the room with the cape, but no movement. Careful experimentation by way of placing piles of grass and leaves around the boat shows no increase in the strength of the liquefaction effect when the cape is awake, though the radius of the effect varies wildly.

I finally cave and have a small sample of the fluid brought to me. As I had figured, the fluid is indeed liquefied human. Mostly. There are other materials mixed in, I suspect organic fibers from cloths, leather the raiders were wearing, and so on. The Essence is shredded and useless, not a huge loss seeing as it's mostly human anyways. The fluid itself is composed of cellular fluids, the cell walls torn to bits, allowing all the organelles and other bodily fluids to mix into one syrupy sludge. It's also pure nutrition, with no need for jaws or stomach acids to process it first. Unfortunately, there's no way I can see to reproduce it without the direct use of cape powers.

I think I'm going to try and approach the cape. If I am unwilling to kill her — which I am — then recruiting her is the only option. I really don't want to have somebody else recruit her and then find myself going up against an area effect field tailor-made to melting my forces.

Step one, I have the Ratlings clean up the boat, both the raider corpse on the wires and the puddles of liquefied humans. The fluid is simply scooped up and dumped into the nearest sewer for the creep. The corpse is eaten. Quietly. Out of sight of the boat. I counted eight unarmed people in the boat, and with the cover of darkness, I take the risk of having the Ratlings dig out graves for the same. I might be wrong but I figure the unarmed individuals were the victims of the situation. The bones go in the shallow graves, hopefully going through the motions will help with a better impression.

Step two, I send Ratlings to try and find some human palatable food. Stores, hotels, and other places where one would expect to find food stores are a waste of time, those that are still standing have already been looted. Houses in the residential section give better results, not all have been looted yet. Unfortunately, I am not the only one searching for them.

I've got a trio of Ratlings searching a house — one in an upstairs bedroom for spare clothes, another ripping apart a home office for writing tools and paper. The last two are in the kitchen grabbing cereal and canned food when I hear the steps on the porch and hushed voices.

"Finn said this house was untouched, focus on edibles, but don't ignore the usual necessities. Shawn, you keep watch out here, and stay out of sight."

"Uh, why boss, this is too far from the river for them Hill bastards to bother us…"

"It's not just the Hill we have to worry about. Do you think any of the other groups would walk away just because we got here first? Besides…" His voice drops lower, not so much as to avoid being overheard, but rather in the way of one speaking of ill omens. "Finn told me he saw some rather odd tracks, not human. Figures there's probably one of them changer capes running around. Except there were too many for one cape, so probably some lovely gift that bitch left for us before she was chased off."

Shit, why the hell are human scavengers out at night? Gotta get everyone out. Wait no, maybe try contact? No no, Ratlings can't speak, and if the humans are concerned about Simurgh-based nastiness then they are likely to jump to the wrong conclusion if they see something that looks like a lovechild of a rat and a cockroach. Maybe I can take them out? I've got four Ratlings here… The wind is not good but now I'm focused on it I can smell four different people. That's bad odds with just Ratlings, and a survivor would sour any future contact.

Flee it is. I send the Ratlings for the backdoor, but just before they make it to the hallway, the front door opens. Ratlings claws tear at the floor as they stop. The backdoor is visible from the front.

"Shh. Did you hear that?" Asks a new voice, female this time.

"Yes. Something's in here. Lights on and weapons ready." Replies the voice of 'boss' in a whisper. A beam of bright white light stabs into the house, banishing darkness and shadows.

I look around frantically for a way to escape. Hell they know something is in here… make a run for the backdoor anyways? Still prefer to stay out of sight. I order both the Ratlings in the kitchen to leap at the window and smash through it, before making speed for the dim shadows of other buildings. The Ratling in the bedroom mimics them, smashing into a window, then contorting to grab the outside wall, its claws leaving grooves in the brickwork as it climbs to the roof. The last Ratling in the office charges at the window… and bounces off. What the hell? Reinforced glass? It's not even cracked.

"Stay together, we sweep the place like we practiced." Comes the whispered voice of the boss.

If they stay together, I might be able to sneak by them. I nudge the door open enough to peek out of the office, but no such luck. They seem to be in the kitchen but one's standing at the entryway and keeping an eye on the rest of the ground floor, his light sweeping around too quickly to reliably avoid.

I have the Ratling pull back into the office. If the door's out, and the window's out… footsteps outside the door. No time to look for a better solution. Human tendencies don't fail me now! Choosing a section of the wall right behind the door, I climb up to the ceiling and wedge myself in the corner.

The door opens, and light illuminates the room, sweeping across the desk, filing cabinet, and bookshelf. A moment later, a human form steps into the room, carefully sweeping his light around, while another watches his back. He checks the desk, as well as under it, and shines his light behind the bookshelf. Finding nothing, he glances over the papers scattered on and around the desk but takes no interest before withdrawing from the room.

He didn't even check behind the open door — which is good, as my claws were not gentle on the material while climbing — nor did he shine the light up even once.

I hear them prowling around the rest of the ground floor a bit before their steps take them upstairs. I waste no time withdrawing from the office. There's still a guard by the front door, I can smell him there, but he's not standing in the doorway or shining his light inside, keeping a lookout on the street instead. My Ratling departs through the kitchen window as did the others.

Once all the Ratlings are out of danger, I sigh in relief, or as close as one can get with spiracles.

How did they sneak up on me like that? I got careless. Didn't keep a lookout, and wasn't paying attention to the smells in the air. Was probably controlling the Ratlings too hard, their natural rat-based instincts would have noticed the intruders otherwise.

Why are they out scavenging at night? I don't know. I task a Ratling to observe them from a distance, with maximum stealth. What will they do, and where will they go? Obviously, they are from one of the local holdout enclaves.

Tracks. I've been extremely careful about veering clear of the survivor groups, and staying out of sight of the sky as much as possible… but that more often than not brought me to stick close to walls, trees, and anything to provide aerial cover. Exactly the places that have softer dirt and brush. Someone from that group's camp has some tracking skills and noticed.

At least the entire shitshow wasn't a complete waste. I've got no spare clothes, but I managed to retrieve a notebook, a pencil, and a can of food. Baby food apparently, when I examine the can. It'll do.

The Ratlings make it back to the riverboat well before morning. The room is quiet again, but nobody's left it, so time for step three. Or is it two-point-five? Writing a message! With Ratling Paws! And no opposable thumbs!

Screw this, I make an update to the Ratling Essence. Opposable thumbs. They are my drone-worker-scout equivalent, so it makes sense anyways. It won't help now, but at least with future versions, I won't have to suffer.

I consider removing the option from the Zerglings — I could even hotfix the ones currently metamorphosing — but the ability of my most numerous front line trooper to manipulate objects is too valuable, and I did spend a fair bit of time getting the hand-scythe joint to work, it would be a shame to lose that effort.

"Hello. Don't be afraid, I am a friend. I brought you food, must have been a while since you ate. I'm staying safe at a distance, is it possible for you to turn off your power completely? I too have a power so I must remain out of sight for now. Anything I can do for you? Just speak, I can hear. Return to your room and I will reply with another message."

It takes many tries and just before daybreak until I get down something along the lines of a child's scribble — miles ahead on legibility compared to the doctor-level writing of the previous attempts.

The sacrificial Ratling — amazingly it had begun recovering from the previous exposure — brings the note and ripped open can to the door. It slams its body against the door a few times, twice more when I hear movement inside, and then runs for cover.Last edited: Feb 16, 2023 Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:FijiPalma, dirge, bakapervert1 and 580 othersDaimoninFeb 8, 2023Reader modeNewAdd bookmark Threadmarks Mr. CloakOuterwear, Astrophage, advocate for Blank rights.Feb 8, 2023Add bookmark#123You know your handwriting is bad when the description is "miles ahead of a doctor's".

How illegable is it? Just slightly less then aneurism-enducing. Like Quote ReplyReport Reactions:Zwelovz, VoidBlood, FrequentFailure and 37 othersSkierusAn energy being, contemplating ROB'n people.Feb 8, 2023Add bookmark#124Really enjoying this I like where this is going