While Kerrigan and Sweetie did not see the events from beginning to end, knowing that Niadra destroyed the warp core of the Ark Ship was enough to reassure them that the ship was not going anywhere. Kerrigan had no doubt that Niadra had wiped out the Tal’darim.
Sweetie mentally told Lasarra that the deed was done and the Tal’darim would not make it to Slayn to report what had transpired and that they would be leaving Kaldir shortly.
Lasarra was relieved that her colony would at least survive the encounter. Though she still mourned the loss of the unfortunate Protoss who were aboard the ship at the time of Niadra’s rampage.
In the end, Lasarra thanked Sweetie and Kerrigan for sparing their lives and promised to not breathe a word of their involvement to Shakuras.
“How can you be sure that the Protoss won’t tell Shakuras?” Kerrigan asked.
“You should know that deceiving others outside of combat is considered dishonorable among the Protoss. They aren’t Terrans. With the story I gave them, they are telling the truth, they simply omit us. The Tal’darim did come, they did pillage their colony, and they left Kaldir.
“Besides, they also know my relation to Lyra. If they did anything that would put my life in danger, Lyra would hunt them down. And she would too. After spending over three years among the brutal Tal’darim, I have no doubt that she can be cruel when she needs to be.”
Kerrigan gave a slight smirk. “You Ponies are certainly full of surprises. Makes me think your world has plenty of useful essence.”
Sweetie frowned. “Perhaps, but I would rather keep my world as is.” Sweetie thought about something for a moment. “I just remembered, we did discuss a deal in exchange for my cooperation with your revenge plans.”
“Yes, we did. But you never told me what you wanted in exchange. What is it that you want?”
“I want my own Brood.”
With their business on Kaldir finished, the Leviathan turned away from the planet and moved to another world. Kerrigan had ordered Izsha to set course for the planet Char so she could reclaim the planet from the Dominion.
Kerrigan and Sweetie headed toward Abathur’s evolution pit because he had announced that he discovered some large-scale evolutions for the Roaches. After a lot of thinking about Sweetie’s request, Kerrigan was finally ready to respond. “You want to create your own Brood? I suppose it’s within your capabilities. But what would you do with it?”
“I’m not sure yet but I think that under the right guidance, they can do a lot of good.”
Izsha chimed in, “It is possible. The will of the Swarm is guided by their Queen. It becomes as she wishes.”
The rest of the walk to the evolution pit was uneventful.
In the evolution pit, Abathur emerged from his hole and waited eagerly for him to begin his presentation of the new Roach strains.
When they gave him the go-ahead, the two began to shift their vision toward the first of two testing locations, a concealed Protoss facility on planet Cantar. Abathur pointed out a species called a Scantipede that were known for being virulent parasites. The creature was captive in a biology research facility. A bunch of previously burrowed Roaches in the facility emerged and slew the guards before destroying the containment field generator for the Scantipede. The creature began attacking the guards to save itself.
The trait that was needed for the Swarm was the ability to plant parasites into the bodies of hosts which would explode from the host upon death.
Once the Roaches killed the creature, they devoured its corpse and acquired its traits. Once the essence was incorporated, the Roaches evolved into the Corpser Strain. The new Corpser Roaches attacked the rest of the Protoss within the facility, using the Roachlings that spawned from the corpses of Protoss and menagerie beasts alike. The demonstration ended once the facility staff were eliminated.
The next demonstration took place on planet Mehlus IV. Abathur used the Roaches in a microbe-filled pool to guide their evolution. The ones that survived formed a symbiotic bond with the microbes and evolved into a new strain, the Vile Roach. Abathur claimed that the acid saliva they produce could slow all forms of movement of their attackers. To Sweetie, this seemed like a combination of the old Queens’ Ensnare ability and the Devourers’ acid spores.
The Vile Roaches attacked the Protoss in the area. Their last words were complaints about their lagging attacks and sluggish movements.
Once the demonstration was over, Kerrigan was left with a choice. After some internal deliberation, she chose to let the Vile Strain represent the Swarm.
An hour later, Sweetie and Kerrigan felt the presence of Zeratul. When the Dark Templar approached the duo, Kerrigan prepared herself for a fight but Sweetie held out a hand to stop her.
“What brings you here, Zeratul?” Sweetie asked.
“I’m here to make sure you two are on the correct path,” Zeratul said.
~”Fear not, Zeratul. I shall guide them to the world that I was created upon. I wished to wait until Sweetie had discussed this with Kerrigan before I gave them the coordinates. However, the conflict between my consciousness and her’s begins to intensify. We must go to Zerus before it is too late.”~
Kerrigan and Zeratul were stunned by what they just heard: the Overmind just spoke through Sweetie. A moment later, Sweetie fought back and regained control of her body.
Zeratul was the first to speak, “The Overmind is controlling you?”
“Not quite, back during the Dominion invasion of Char, I had to take a huge gamble to prevent losing the Overmind’s knowledge and essence to the Xel’naga artifact. It involved it planting its consciousness and essence directly into my brain while the artifact destroyed the parasite.
“We have a plan to settle the issue I’m having with it and that involves going to Zerus. I was waiting for the Overmind to tell me the coordinates but it wanted to be sure that Kerrigan would seek the power of Zerus.”
“Hrmph...Apparently, it doesn’t know me as well as it believed. I have wanted the power for some time,” Kerrigan said.
“I see. As long as Sweetie is here to guide you, I know you will be on the correct path. I shall take my leave,” Zeratul said. With that, he vanished from the Leviathan and flew away on his Void Seeker ship.
After a minute of making sure Zeratul was gone, Kerrigan turned to Sweetie. “What is with the Protoss and thinking you’re my parole officer?”
Sweetie shrugged, “No idea. Could be that my reputation verses yours creates that illusion.”
Kerrigan sighed, “Anyway, I’d like to reclaim Char before we head to Zerus. Can your internal conflict wait until then?”
“I think so.”
“Good enough.” Kerrigan mentally communicated with Izsha, “Izsha, we’re going to Char. Send the Leviathan there.”
“At once, My Queen.”
In the time between the invasion and now, Warfield had built strong fortifications on a plateau. While Sweetie felt sorry for the old General, if he wouldn’t leave peacefully, she would have to deal with him, if at least to eliminate one of Mengsk’s pawns.
“So, who commands the remaining Zerg here?” Sweetie asked.
“One of the Broodmothers, Zagara, refuses to acknowledge either of you as her Queen.” Izsha said. “Before you can reclaim Char from the Terrans, you will need to bring her Brood back into the fold. Zagara’s Brood is currently huddled in Char’s acid marsh, where my Queen stored millions of eggs for future use. From the location of her hive cluster, it appears that she intends to gather as many eggs as she can. She intends to hatch them for her own by using a birthing pond.”
“Is there one such place for us to set up?”
“I have located one such place that will give us an equal chance as Zagara in obtaining the eggs.”
Kerrigan chimed in, “Sweetie, don’t steal control of her Zerg here. I want to prove to her that she stood no chance against us.” Sweetie shrugged in response.
“So, am I attacking or gathering?” Sweetie asked.
“Gathering. You had your fun with the Shuttle Bays, now it’s my turn. I will make sure she never leaves her hive cluster.”
While Kerrigan was morphing Zerg to help her prevent Zagara from leaving her hive cluster, Sweetie ran around the area grabbing eggs and giving them to Drones to put into the birthing pond. Zagara’s forces were all over the area and a number of Spore Crawlers were around to detect her presence.
Since Kerrigan didn’t want her using her control override on Zagara’s Swarm, Sweetie used her Psionic Lash to destroy any Spore Crawlers she saw then sniped the minions in their skulls.
With Kerrigan having progressively less difficulty thwarting Zagara’s attempts at the eggs and at the request of Izsha for some reason, Sweetie destroyed the Infested Command Centers in the area.
By the time Sweetie was halfway through the egg collecting, Kerrigan’s forces had grown overwhelming that she could have taken down Zagara’s hive cluster with what she had. Kerrigan had the same idea and waited for Sweetie to meet with her before they simply stormed Zagara’s hive cluster.
When Zagara’s hive cluster was decimated, the Broodmother emerged and yelled with an outraged tone, “You insult me by not even using the eggs you gathered?”
Sweetie chuckled, “So focused on eggs when you didn’t even realize that we were increasing our numbers without them. You’re not much of a Queen if you can’t even pay attention to all the necessary elements of the battlefield.
“It seems you still have much to learn if you want to lead anything, Zagara. So, I leave you with two options: die here or rejoin the Swarm and learn what it means to be a leader.”
Zagara growled in frustration. “How did I lose to a lowly Terran and...whatever you are…?” She paused for a moment. “The Zerg are led by force of will. Your wills are strongest so I shall serve you.”
Sweetie shrugged, “Good enough.”