//------------------------------// // 3a-For the Swarm // Story: Ghost of a Chance // by Boneguard //------------------------------// In the morning, everybody was preparing to move out. The Protoss were almost done recharging their shields and the Terrans were counting their ammunition, Niagra was ready to depart when Cranston approached her. "Yeah, well... hello your broodmotherness." he stuttered. "Speak Terran! I must leave shortly." she said. "Of course, you see, I figured you could use more firepower when destroying the hive, so I wanted to give you these bad boys" he said while showing her some explosives. "You insult me Terran!" "Wait, I personally modified this charges to contain a small amount of psionic energy that increases the blast tenfold, they can also be ignited by your psionic presence." Cranston explained. "Very well, give them to me." she said while tucking the explosives in some kind of pouch in her. "Captain wanted to know how are you going to destroy their base." Cranston said expecting an answer. "That is simple, every time i lose a minion, I can reclaim control of a feral one using my psionic energy. Go tell your Captain that I am leaving." Niagra finished. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ At that moment , Twilight Sparkle was analyzing the map of the Everfree Forest with the Princesses and her friends when the Wonderbolts returned to report what they scouted. "Your Majesties, we have returned from the patrol and we've found something interesting." reported Spitfire. "What have your Wonderbolts discovered Captain?" asked Celestia. "While we were flying this morning we have found two groups of individuals at what appears to be a battlefield, they weren't fighting each other, but it seems that they must be responsible for all the victims in the forest." Spitfire finished. "This is unacceptable! We must confront them immediately!" exclaimed Celestia. "With all due respect Princess, I think it is best to evacuate the forest as soon as possible, those creatures that got massacred didn't look like bunnies or little birds, this means that those we saw must be extremely dangerous." Spitfire contradicted. "She is right sister, the forest is too dense for an expedition to apprehend those criminals, we need the whole of the guard to be able to subdue them." Luna said. "You are right, we will pull everypony out of the forest and move our camp away from the forest and nopony is allowed to set hoof inside it" Celestia agreed. "But what about those animals?" asked Fluttershy shocked. Everypony looked at her until Rarity spoke up:"We're sorry dear, but it's too dangerous to rescue them." After Rarity finished the sentence tears welled up in Fluttershys eyes and she ran to her cottage shutting and locking the door after she entered. "Aww shucks! We'll never get her out of there and we must move to the safe distance." Applejack said. "Don't worry, I'll patrol from the camp to Fluttershy every hour" reassured Rainbow Dash. "Let's hope that those evil ponies won't even notice our camp or Fluttershys cottage." ended Twilight Sparkle sounding a little worried. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Niagra finally found her way out of the Nydus Network alongside her Roaches and Hydralisks. She looked a little worried at the size of the Feral Hive "I never thought i'll say this, but the Terran was right." she thought. She crept alongside the structures trying as hard as she can to hide her broodmother body, even though the diversion of the Terrans and the Protoss worked there still remained enough Zerg guarding their base to pose a threat to her plan. Niagra could see that the Feral Brood was evolving and improving its forces, she saw Spires, Infestation Pits and even An Ultralisk Den, "This will be more challenging, but at least I can take control of even more powerful minions." she thought while scanning for an opportunity to attack. When the guards comprised of Zerglings and Hydralisks split up, Niagra did not waste a second and she ordered: "Attack my minions, For the Swarm!" The Roaches disposed easily of the guards, but they lost two of them. The Swarm Queen was trying as hard as she could to mend Niagras forces, when suddenly the remaining forces left guarding the hive started making their way to her location. "One of them must have escaped and alerted the hive! We must hurry." she thought. Niagra planted some of the bombs on the structures as quickly as she while her minions were fighting. She saw that her forces were fighting a losing battle and burrowed in the creep, moving slowly beneath it to a safe place. After she sensed the last of her minions perishing she unburrowed near the Hatchery, she planted more bombs on it "The Hatchery, a Spawning Pool, a Roach Warren, a Baneling Nest and a Hydralisk Den are ready, now only the Infestation Pit, the Spire and the Ultralisk Cavern remain." Niagra thought as she made her way to her targets. She spotted a lot of Hydralisks, Roaches and Zerglings guarding the rest of the structures making an impenetrable defense, but Niagra sensed Banelings burrowed beneath the guards "Those Banelings are there in case the forces are pushed back, I'll make good use of them." She planned with satisfaction. She took control of the acid filled living bombs and detonated them thus eradicating the army and brought the survivors back into her fold. She planted the rest of the charges when suddenly she sensed a whole army making their way to her "They must have sensed the danger to the hive and are pulling back forces that have been sent to hunt down the Protoss and the Terrans, the blast will eradicate them, but I still sense a sizable amount of Feral Zerg attacking our allies, I must save their pathetic lives." she realized "If I overload the hive mind with my psionic powers it will exterminate any Zerg lifeform on the planet, including me... no matter, I'll return to the Hatchery to begin the siphoning". Niagra reached the Hatchery and took control of it and every other structure to provide her defenses, but in doing so she tired herself "I must take control of every Zerg I can in order to defend me even though it will exhaust me more and more, but I have to save our allies" she reassured herself. Niagra entered the hatchery and started the siphoning: "Defend me, my minions, show these Ferals the fury of the Swarm!" The Zerg under Niagras control did their best to counter the wave of the Ferals. Minions were morphing non stop from the hatchery to reinforce the front line, Feral Mutalisks were swarming the sky destroying everything that they came across, Infestors took control of Brood Lords to lay siege against Niagra, her forces were pushed back, but would not waver, clusters of Banelings and Hydralisks were holding the line against the unending Ferals. Ultralisks were wrestling each other for dominance and Swarm Hosts were spawning endless Locusts to attack their enemies. Niagra was in the Hatchery sensing the coming threat and almost done with overloading the hive mind, she kept her best units in reserve: "I am nearly done just a little more time do not falter, For the Swarm!" she said unleashing a Brutalisk and a very dangerous strain of Hydralisks, these almost pushed the attacking army out of the base before falling, now only Spine and Spore Crawlers were left guarding the Hatchery, after they nearly reached the Hatchery Niagra used what was left of her power to take control of the nearest enemy forces thus turning them against each other. Banelings exploded almost instantly eliminating great chunks of Feral Zerg. When they entered the Hatchery they only fought what was left of Niagras forces made only of Broodlings and Zerglings and a Hydralisk, they quickly fell leading an open path to the Broodmother. Niagra was finally done with her task and unleashed all of her psionic energy into the hive mind and detonating the bombs that were placed, she was surrounded by raw psionic energy that beamed up into the sky unleashing a maelstrom of energies eradicating every Zerg on the planet. Niagra fell on the ground lifeless while her body was swallowed by the explosion of the bombs.