Well, just when I get my school stuff wrapped up my computer decides to up and die. I don't know how long it will take to fix, but until that time I will be suspiciously absent. Send me a pm if you need me, I will attempt to check in regularly, but I give no promises. Have fun storming the castle!
@ Game: The Nirogg leviathans were actually a bit further out, and will take 4 turns to get into position. Otherwise Moz is all set.
@ Luna: I was wondering how long it would take you to join our merry band. Your character has my approval as edited, I hope that we can keep the characterization you did of Draal in your initial posts.
Before Razarac had arrived the Nirogg were clearly winning, having already isolated a Swarm Lord and eliminated it and holding more of the habitable planets. After Razarac, and the forces granted him by the Brood Mother, arrived in Karinth, it was a completely other story. Nirogg had managed to gather up a sizable force of its own, and a Gracken Leviathan had even been spotted skulking about the system, but now the fight had begun, and Razarac would be victorious. For the Brood Mother, and for his life.
He had commanded his three remaining Swarm Lords to lure out the enemy Leviathans, and finally had them exactly where he wanted them, in an asteroid field that orbited the system's largest gas giant. The ball of gas below was where the majority of the Nirogg forces were harbored, and so it was easy to bait the Leviathans into position, where the Serpentine forms of the Swarm Lords could easily maneuver, and where his Spores could strike.
His body lay dormant in the biological meteor as is streaked toward its target. The lead leviathan had already begun deploying Mutalisks, and attempting to strike its foes with it's mighty Tentacles, more often hitting rock then beast, when it noticed the object rushing toward it. It was too slow to maneuver and was struck soundly by the Spore, resulting in a gaping wound that spilled blood and flesh into space.
Razarac came back to his body and stood up in the enemy Leviathan. With luck, the beast would be ill equipped to handle his presence inside itself. All around him, the remains of the Spore had covered everything with Creep and Larva. Many of the Larva had already begun the process of morphing into higher strains, while many others burrowed into the soft flesh of the Leviathan to do the same elsewhere in the body. Soon the corridors of the monstrous beast would be filled with his little brethren, zerglings and banelings and Defilers to rip the creature apart from the inside. The first of the eggs hatched, and Razarac ran off at the head of his pack, looking for prey.
~~
Back in the asteroid field, the Gracken Behemoth rushed in to join the fray, and was almost immediately struck by another Spore. It, however, was fairing much better then the Leviathan, as it held within it's monstrous chambers an army of Roaches and Hydralisks. The battle raged inside the beast, and it struggled to remain in stable orbit above the gas giant. Meanwhile, the Nirogg commander attempted to execute the same tactic on the Fenrir Swarm Lords, but the creatures were far to agile to be easily captured. The beasts and meteors danced around the asteroids, the unscathed Leviathan struggling to keep up, until one of the Nirogg spores, deteriorating from the massive number of Spines and Acid symbiotes peppering it's surface, crashed violently into one of the larger rocks. The remaining spores immediately maneuvered themselves free of the rocks, and aimed themselves in system, toward the only world that Fenrir held. One of the Swarm Lords gave chase, while the other two closed in on the Leviathan.
~~
Below, a third Fenrir Spore burst to light as it collided with the atmosphere of the gas giant and disintegrated. The Nirogg brood roosted on enormously bloated biological platforms, kept afloat by carefully sifting the atmosphere of the gas giant, keeping and heating the lightest airs. The platforms wandered the atmosphere in loose formation gathering the precious gases and minerals from the air and acting as breeding stations for the local zerg. The invaders would not have an easy time taking this place, but that would not stop them from trying. Fragments of the Spore peppered one of these platforms, and drones began to take shape. Gathering in the precious proteins and enzymes from the atmosphere, the remnants of that spore that had carried them to this strange environment, they quickly formed together to create a hatchery. From there they would conquer.
~~
The Leviathan was holding its ground. Though outnumbered two to one, it was bred for battle. The Swarm Lords were bred for trickery and fleeing. The massive beast traded blows with the two giant serpents while their armies; his bolstered by that of his brother, now squirming in agony below him as his body was over run by the enemy's tiniest of breeds; fought around them in a vicious swarm of acidic death. His forces were clearly superior, as Devourers bathed the enemy in mutant spores and Corruptors shrugged off the enemy's most lethal attacks, the mutalisks worked themselves into a killing frenzy. The Nirogg had been bred better, stronger, tougher and faster then their adversaries. The Fenrir, however, fought dirty, flying in and out of the fray rapidly to return to the Queens aboard the Swarm lords for transfusion, and baiting the enemy into swarms of Scourge or close enough to be caught in a deadly plague. The Leviathan brutally pummeled one of the serpents, finally pinning it to a rock and tearing it in two, but in doing so it had exposed its backside to the battle, and a swarm of scourge attached themselves to his hide and detonated, tearing him apart. Severely wounded, it desperately navigated to attack the second Swarm Lord; but his intended target was far to swift, and nimbly remained behind him and spat at his fractured hide with vicious stinging spines. Finally, it's feeble last efforts failing him, the massive creature succumbed to its wounds and died.
~~
Razarac paused to consider the fight, as his brethren munched happily on the great Leviathan's nervous system, leaving it very much dead. Above him, the Swarm lord was cleaning up what remained of the Nirogg's air force. It pleased him that he had won the air battle against an opponent so clearly dominant in that area, however reports from the planet below showed that the Nirogg were far more dug in then he had anticipated. His army below had been contained to only one of the floating platforms by swarms of mutalisks, and his Overseers had shown that the enemy was operating out of a Great Hive, a massive structure designed to withstand a siege. On the planet, he was outmatched. To make matters worse, those enemy's forces were quickly making their way in system to Fenrir's only hold, and the defending forces would not likely be able to hold before the Swarm Lord arrived to help them, and even then would be hard pressed to defend. Lastly, the Gracken Behemoth was cleaning up what remained of the Spore that had struck it, and would likely be returning to the fray shortly.
Dejectedly, he gave the order to retreat and led his pack back to their initial beach head. There, the creep had gathered together into a massive cannon-like orifice and was gathering up the unused larva and creatures for travel. Razarac knew that the same was being done below on the planet, judiciously guarded by the Queens, backed by Defiler Swarms. When the last of his minions had disappeared, Razarac himself stepped in, and allowed himself to be cocooned for the journey. When that was at last done, the spore cannon fired it's package, and the spore once again traveled through space, quickly navigating itself in system joined by its fellow from the planet below. They would only be a few short minutes behind the enemy, and when that threat had been dealt with, they would be back.
SOA:
Operation: Meatgrinder
Outcome: Draw
Fenrir Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Swarm Lords, 300 supply.
Nirogg Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Leviathans, 50 supply.
Gracken Losses: 300 Supply
Fenrir and Nirogg will immediately pay for resupply. Gracken cannot, but will power on regardless.
This was in large part a demonstration. I wanted to show how some of my Flagships worked (the Spore isn't exactly standard fare, and both it and the Swarm Lords are not from the standard game) as well as demonstrate how a battle post should be. As I was fighting myself, no collaboration was needed (except for with myself). In other circumstances, all parties should discuss how the battle plays out, and then one party posts the entire thing. ((Just reiterating.)) Lastly, I felt that some friendly army trading was due.
Grell started awake still in his suit and standing. He quickly took stock of his surroundings: what looked to be an old civilian bomb shelter, covered with zerg creep which also held some of his marines, still unconscious, plastered to the walls. The pirate attempted to move step forward to check on his men, but found that he too was restrained by the creep and could not break free. A quick diagnostic of his suit revealed to Grell that his communications were non-functional. He was on his own.
Grell's eyes instinctively darted to the door in time to see a form run past. The pirate recognized the low-slung form of a zergling and immediately started looking for his gun. He spotted it, to his right, along with a neat pile of Gauss Rifles. When his eyes returned to the door a figure stood in it. "Finally. You wake up. It was getting difficult to keep the zerglings back. How are you fealing?"
The pirate studied the newcomer carefully before answering. It was infested, that much was obvious by the discoloration of its skin and the psionic tendrals in place of hair, pulled back from his face into a rough bundle at the back. The rest of his form was covered in stained and battered longcoat. Seeing that he was not in any immediate danger, Grell responded, attempting to keep his voice authoritative, "Pretty good, I see that im not mutilated or infested yet, so why dont you break the big news of why Im here then."
The infested frowned in disappointment and shrugged, before raising his hand to reveals the Data Pad and the external drive that Grell had salvaged. "Do you realize how long I have been after this?" He starts fiddling with the pad, clearly sifting through the files, "It was very kind of you to supply me with them. I thought I'd return the favor."
"Why that's mighty fine of you to do, kill my men, steal my stuff, and then you let me live. I have to say that's quite a way to repay me. Now why dont you just tell me the whole reason I am alive and well." he responded, as he tried to struggle his way free of the creep.
"I saved some of your men," the infested stated dejectedly, waving his hand about the small room. "Honestly, things got rather out of hand. I really have work to do to teach the zerg how to be subtle. I appologize for my failing."
Grell looked at the zerg in surprise. "So all zerg dont just murder everything in there path?" he let out a sigh, abit relieved that he and some others were still alive. "Now, what is it. . . you're after?"
"Have you read these files? This 'X-1' project is quite amazing. I do hope they are exaggerating about its abilities, though. Otherwise it could be quite dangerous."
The pirate set his mind through what he had read and went through, remembering nothing of the sort. "Well Im guessing you have, so refresh me if you would."
"These Auruleans are attempting to enhance their own soldiers using zerg and protoss DNA. They may even have been successful at least once. You know, I hate it when people ignore their history."
"So your saying this may actually work, and that it is a danger to you and all your zerg buddies. This merging of DNA though, would it not cause the man to be un like a human in any way or look, people dont just look at a half zerg leader and follow them to war or such. . ."
"Maybe, maybe not. It depends on which genes you spliced, and when in the developmental process you implemented the transfer. Certainly a new born hybrid would be quite a sight, but someone given gene therapy to say, increase their psionic abilities, enhance their skelital and musculatur and regenerative abilites, such a subject could look quite normal, for a time."
"Alright, so whats this have to do with me?" he said running over the possibilities through his head.
"You tell me. You came here for the data, after all. I assumed that you would have something to do with it."
"I took a job on it, snatch the data, bring it back, no questioning the reason, and no looking at the data. Seems like I was setup, sent right into your claws. I never got the full chance to read it, the data was encrypted. I would ask how you were able to do it, but that's a waste."
"Oh, the decription codes were on your data pad. You could have gotten the data from any terminal with this pad. Quite clever of you to take the drive, though. Gives you plausible deniability to your employers. I am called Orloth." The infested reaches out and lightly draws a line down the creep, which promptly splits open dumping Grell unceremoniously to the floor.
The pirate picked himself up, rubbing the goo off his chest and then stood there testing each of his limbs for weakness. He stretched his arms out, let out a yawn, and then finally faced the infested. "My names Grell, but seeing as my dogtags are gone you probably already knew that. Now, what is it you needed me for?"
"Information." Orloth paused thoughtfully, "I don't think your employers diliberately set you up. If I have been successful, The Coalition should have no idea that I am here, and any reports of zerg in the system would show minimal presence. If I have been unsuccessful, they probably wouldn't have sent you."
"A ghost, using wits to hide from his enemies, and be a valuable asset inside a system that no one knows about. If I had not returned, they could say the threat might still be there, yet still again if I go back, you might be in danger of me talking." He paused thinking of the zerg plan, and then of his employer. the bastard hadn't told him the system had been attacked by zerg, or of what magnitude. He scrubbed the thought. "So, what is the information you seek?" he said, abit of curiosity leading his voice.
"Oh, I don't think I'll be in too much danger of you talking. Either you will be leaving here without the inclanation or without the ability. Which it will be is your choice."
"You know, a simple pinky promise could have been enough."
"A pinky promise? We are down to simple logic, my friend. Why would you tell your employers about me, when they care so little about your life? It is in your best interests to keep me friendly."
"You knew I was not going to talk is that it, or is there some ransom you are going to use against me, though we both know you won't choose the first. Everyone knows I could make money off just the information you are here, so would I trade it? No, not without reason, but in the interest of your 'logic' let me here what you do plan to do."
"If I am not satisfied with your intentions by the time you leave here, I will erase our little chat from your mind. I would prefer not to do that, as you have been quite friendly, considering, but I cannot take chances at this stage. Besides, you are far more useful to me alive then dead."
"Then we can both agree on something. Now how about I make it easier on you to not take my life, somthing that could benifit us both. Im sure you can get were this is going."
"Yes, but I prefer that you are polite enough to state it."
"Ha, if you would like it then, I presume that we form an alliance. I can understand that you would like an outside connection, that and me having a zerg ally could benefit me in ways as well."
"'Form an Alliance.' Such a formal way of putting it. But if you insist, it will do. Your men will wake up shortly. Go well, Mr. Sharton." With a slight bow, the infested abruptly left the shelter.
~~
Mike was sitting in the command station of the Gnarled Wolf, attempting to coordinate search and rescue teams when the call came in. The Captain had been found. He along with eighteen other men had gotten nabbed by those damned dragonflies, and now were apparently just strolling back into base, with a couple of pilots from the downed medivacs as well.
"Somebody get the Captain on the speakers."
There was some shuffling as they swiftly go Captain Sharton to the Command Center.
"Mike! Damned its good to be back. No questions now, just give the order to pack up and go. I want to be on the first shuttle up."
"Yes sir, captain. Will you be taking command back when you get up here."
"I will not. I want you to get us back to Domus while I get myself good and drunk. Tell the barkeep to have my bottle of Tauren Whiskey ready."
"Yes sir."
SOA: Orloth has a little chat with Captain Grell, and then lets him and 18 of his (believed dead) marines and 2 medivac pilots to go free. The Gnarled Wolf will be immediately packing up to return to Domus.
~~ Sar Shar, Sharon System - Heart of the Themos Brood ~~
Aria strode through the warm, red tunnels of the Great Hive, trying not to let the dread and anticipation show in her pace and pose. Showing fear could be seen as a weakness here, it could mean an instant and irreversible death as the swarm instinctively eliminates the weakness in it's own being. No. She had to be cold, calm and in control; or at the very least in control. Some of the other brood leaders were never particularly cold or calm, but they made do by giving the air of total dominance, at least for a time.
The person Aria was going to visit held complete and total Dominion over the Themos Brood, a dominion which she had usurped by following Orloth's advice rather then her own orders. Honestly, why Orloth insisted on this charade of an argument, no one in Themos understood. Evolution supported the winners, not those who played fairly. Lilith had succeeded Baal as Master of the Themos Brood. If Orloth would just give in and accept it Themos would easily be the strongest of all the other Broods, but with his faction sealed away and neutral they were now reduced to paying tribute to another brood just to keep them from attacking. Tribute! That was not going to sit well with the Mistress Lilith. She may get points for talking her way out of a fight, that was what the Themos were known for after all, but tribute? Aria was as good as dead.
She tried not to let that thought overwhelm her as she stepped into the Central Chamber, where Lilith held... court. It reminded Aria of the stories of Hell that her grandmother had threatened her with. The chamber wasn't large, about the size of a holo vid theater, but that made what it contained that much harder to avoid. It was part torture chamber, part breeding pool, part brothel; the sights and sounds of which did there best to disrupt Aria's calm; all lit by the ambient, red light that filtered down from the mouth of the Great Hive and surrounded by its fleshy walls. And there, at the far side, atop of a throne that seemed to be crafted from the body parts of numerous species, sprawled the Mistress Lilith herself personally adored by three Infested.
Aria approached the throne and lowered herself into a submissive bow, almost curling herself up on the floor, face to the ground. After what seemed like hours the purring voice of her Mistress commanded, "Stand, Aria." She did so, and met the gaze of the Nightmare Queen, and time seemed to take a backseat as she felt the contents of her mind being sifted through as if it were a newspaper. In a few moments she had relived everything she remembered since she had last been in her Mistress's presence, the conversation with Orloth and her actions at Pern were gone over again in vivid detail. When at last she was released from Lilith's gaze, she dropped to the floor as if her strings had been cut and lay there panting, trying desperately to regain a shred of poise, and ounce of decency, while Lilith stood up and began to circle her shuddering form.
"It is good," the Nightmare Queen purred softly, "that you held the Brood's best interests at heart, or you would no longer be alive. However, considering your actions, I had hoped that such a loyal servant as yourself would have been Dominated and swayed by my enemy, rather then a willing accomplice in his scheming. That being said, you have revealed to me some of my dear brother's plans, and that is valuable to me." Aria felt a hand on her chin and her head was lifted up to once more look her Mistress in the eye, "I may have some use for you after all."
~~ Dalar, Dvergar System ~~
Orloth studies the pitiful collection of clues he had gathered. Cloning tanks, samples of protoss and zerg DNA, and a clipboard with vague references to test progress in an undecipherable medical chickenscratch. For the most part, the base had been picked clean before he had even arrived. Whoever had been at work here had been quite thorough in wiping every trace of their project before the zerg had even gotten close. The only thing they had left behind was their computer records, highly encoded and booby trapped as they were. The infested imagined that he had probably tripped an alarm with his meddling; it was only a matter of time before the system's previous occupants took notice. It would be prudent to leave well enough alone and continue to lie low; keeping his brood safely hidden until they were strong enough for what was to come, but his curiousity had grown into an obsession, and it would not be denied. Besides, it helped distract him from that other thing.
Just as his thoughts wandered dangerously close to that trap, another thought tapped lightly on his consciousness. His minions had spotted a ship. A terran ship. A Frankenstein's monster of a vessel that had nearly gotten smashed to pieces by asteroids upon its arrival. Nearly, but not quite. It skillfully maneuvered its way out of the field and began making its way for Dalar.
How convenient. Maybe he had triggered some alarm, or perhaps they were merely pirates here for the salvage. It mattered not, they would provide him with a convenient distraction from his thoughts for a time. "Who knows, perhaps they might actually be useful." The infested said to himself quietly as he instructed his brood to allow the ship to pass and keep out of sight.
~~ Karinth System ~~
The only reason Razarac realized his behemoth had exited warp space was the sudden, rapid influx of information into his mind. For a moment he was overwhelmed and paralyzed by the sheer volume of external images, scents, sounds and thoughts that were suddenly entering his brain. He saw through the eyes of hundreds, heard through the ears of thousands and thought through the minds of millions. He relaxed and allowed the flood of information to diffuse into him, content to witness the workings of the entire Fenrir Brood.
But gradually, the flow of information ceased, or rather, was relegated to the unconscious part of his mind. In its place stood a single separate entity, one which was made up of thousands of millions of smaller minds and was more fearsome and imposing than all of them combined.
{Brood Mother.} Razarac said, doing the mental equivalent of bowing his head. He briefly sensed satisfaction coming from Shaharaz but this was soon replaced by cold neutrality.
{I have granted you control of Karinth's broods, Razarac. Your goal is simple: destroy the Nirogg's presence in the system and claim it for the Fenrir. Do not hesitate, do not make mistakes. Do not even entertain the idea of failure for if it becomes a reality, you shall feel my wrath... if the Nirogg don't destroy you first.}
And then it was gone. The Queen of the Fenrir Brood disappeared from his mind, leaving behind only a fraction of itself.
Razarac did not waste his time. He immediately tapped into the mind's of the system's zerg and began to assimilate all their knowledge, both of themselves and the Nirogg. What he learned was not too promising. The Nirogg held the majority of the system and not only had enough forces to hold their ground in head-on battles but also had a separate force capable of striking the Fenrir where and when it was most vulnerable. The Fenrir were pinned down and outnumbered. But that was about to change.
Razarac ordered Pangar to make way for the only Fenrir controlled planet in the system while releasing five overseers into the cold of space with the aim of locating hidden Nirogg forces.
SOA: (Repost) Aria arrives in the Sharon system for her meeting with the Nightmare Queen. It goes better then expected.
Orloth directs his Brood to stay out of sight and out of the way of the Gnashed Wolf. He will personally be approaching the landing site (once it has landed) as stealthily as possible with a small force.
(Repost) Razarac arrived in Karinth. He was given control of the Fenrir Brood there. Karinth is looking to be a Meat Grinder soon, as the Fenrir and Nirogg position themselves for a battle to claim the system. Initial pokes have begun.
Razarac growled as one of the resident brood's zerglings came too close to him. He shook his entire body to warn the creature of his mood. But the zergling did not listen. It edged closer towards him, its purpose unknown to Razarac.
Razarac growled again, louder this time and the zergling stopped... and he pounced. His muscles flexed and he sprang at the intruder. The zergling yelped and tried to run but was too slow. His jaws snapped shut just as he landed on the ground, shaking it with the force of his fall. Then, he swallowed the zergling whole, not even bothering to crush its body with his inner jaw: the acid in his stomach would be more than enough to break down the corpse, for it was real acid, not the stuff of lesser creatures.
Satisfaction filled his mind as warmth spread through his body, a sensation he knew was connected to the rapid dispersion of the zergling's energy and nutrients through his body. He went back into the same prone position he had been in before the planet dweller's intrusion. He growled to scare of the remaining planet brood zerglings and closed his eyes.
He was a magnificent beast. A massive zergling, four of his lesser brethren in length and three in height, with wings twice as long, Razarac dwarfed most any zerg creature. And those he did not dwarf, he outmatched, outperformed or outran.
Flexible spikes covered his entire body, not for defense, but for the rapid absorption of water to aid his metabolism. His carapace matched that of an ultralisk's in strength but weighed no more than a zergling's. His claws, teeth and scythe-claw-appendages were sharper than a hydralisk spine and as sturdy as a kaiser blade. The constant secretion of small amounts of acid served to both make tearing enemy armor easier and to lubricate his own weapons for unhindered slashing and stabbing.
Of all this and more he was aware for Shaharaz had blessed him with sentience, a power he prized more than any other. He was the epitome of zerg: deadly, resilient, adaptable and ruthlessly efficient: the peak of evolution. And he was ready to act.
The Brood Mother's call had been heard and it was being answered. Razarac watched through an Overseer's eyes as the Fenrir Brood's forces departed the planet. The Fenrir spore sailed on ahead with its cargo while the two Swarm Lords that was accompanying them followed at a slower pace.
The plan was to have the spore land on the planet and create a suitable amount of chaos on the planet's surface. The Swarm Lords would use the chaos to find an advantageous angle of attack and strike the Themos in a favorable way. The knowledge that the enemy had at least one Battlecruiser with them changed Razarac's battle plan considerably. He had faced the terran counterpart many times and knew enough about the Themos version to know it would be a big threat.
They would have to destroy any battlecruisers before really attacking the planet and they could only do that if the fight favored them from the start. They would have to attack the ships from the inside and outside while defending their own ships from enemy flyers. It would not be easy.
One of the Spores would stay behind on Anna to guard the planet against counter attacks but would be called if help was needed. Dangerous as the attack was, Razarac was not willing to leave Anna unguarded.
Razarac let out a roar as the fury of the Fenrir Brood surged forward to prove themselves in battle.
~~
Aria's old Battlecruiser, the Rossvelt, returned to normal space in time to witness the Fenrir spore blaze into light as it began entering Mary's atmosphere, releasing the raw materials to start amassing a brood on the planet's surface. The Infested Battlecruiser in high orbit was joined by two other dark forms, maneuvering for position in preparation for a fight.
{Aria! Glad to have you back! Reinforcements have been called from Sharon, but your presence is sorely needed in the skies.}
The Infested directed her ship to join the other in the skies, and in quick bursts of thought relayed Orloth's insight to her brother and sister Prophets of Baal. In a discussion that lasted only a few seconds, and consisted of more emotion then words, it was decided. The battle would go on, but Aria was allowed to attempt to communicate with the Fenrir. Aria reached out her mind to the Fenrir, and traced their lines of command back to find its strongest will, its dominate personality, its Alpha Wolf. She found something, not too high, but definitely the driving force behind this particular attack. With an effort of will she stretched out her mind in an effort to communicate.
~~
Razarac felt a presence in his mind, totally alien to anything he had ever felt before. It was zerg, but it did not think like zerg. It gave an image of a smaller zergling, showing due respect to a larger zergling, and spoke {We recognize the dominance of the Fenrir Brood. We wish to discuss a cessation of hostilities.}
For a moment silence reigned and the Themos and Fenrir forces floated in space as if frozen.
{Brood Mother?} asked Razarac. All he got was a short instinctual answer that roughly translated to 'go on'.
Razarac ordered his own brood and the Fenrir forces to stand down but stay ready to attack in case the enemy was trying to trick them. Then he focused on the alien mind inside his own an probed it as he would inspect a lesser zerg. It did not recoil from him.
{The weak recoil. That is domination.} he said more through feelings than words. He felt the alien mind retreat away from his own somewhat and was satisfied.
{The weak show subordination to the strong in order to live. But subordination is not simply... peace without... consequence} his imperfect vocabulary was made up for by his ability to send images and feelings directly to the other mind. He felt the mind of the Themos agree to his statement.
{Who are you?} he asked.
{I am Aria of the Themos Brood, servant to Lilith, its leader.} came the reply and Razarac knew at once that he was talking to a halfling. An infested. Not a zerg. The information angered him.
{So the Themos rely on halflings to command. I am not surprised then, that you wish to end the... hunt before it is begun.} His words seemed to cause a reaction in the infested but whatever it was, the halfling seemed to repress it. This angered Razarac further. True zerg did not hide their emotions!
{You do not talk. Perhaps you fear my dominance or perhaps you seek my favor. I do not care which for both end in the same outcome if you truly fear our might}
{And that outcome is?}
{The Themos will surrender immediately and depart this world, leaving only a small force behind. You will redirect half of this planet's resources to the Fenrir Brood and cease all fighting with us. In turn, your existence shall be spared. These are the conditions of domination. You must give up land and rank to live. And if you do not, you have neither land, rank or life. Are our terms understood?} It was there again. The ancient instinct. He talked without thinking, driven by instincts and skills he was not aware of.
{Very well. The Themos brood agrees to your terms and they will satisfy them immediately. Since this is possibly the last time we will meet, I would ask of you to receive one our own as an ambassador to the Fenrir Brood so that future communication between our Broods can be quick and fluent.} The response came after a minute of silence during which the halfling had probably weighed up its options.
{Would this ambassador be a halfling such as yourself?} Razarac asked, full of suspicion.
{Yes. Is that a problem?}
{Only if you value it highly, for I will rend the flesh off its bones the moment it sets foot on our territory.}
{Very well. We will have to rely on other methods of communication in the future, then.} Aria answered, not in the least disturbed by the creature's words. But she was late: Razarac had already expelled her from his mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~EOM734 Single Star System, Ort cloud~~
Far outside the unnamed star, a rift was torn in the fabric of space, and a single leviathan glided out of the wormhole. This system had once been claimed by the late Cerebrate, Shuul, but it's location would make it an excellent target for the expansion of the Gracken Brood. That is, assuming the rival broods had not had that very idea first. That was why the creature had been deposited so far outside the usual realms of the Star, to not be seen by the enemy. It was purposed with carefully picking it's way through the system, to see what had been left here by the late Shuul, and if anyone else had been by to pick the bones; a task it dutifully began as the Wormhole closed.
SOA:
Reposting relevant data from previous game that I want to keep, with previous player's permission. If he doesn't pick it up, I imagine I will. I liked Raz.
Aria arrives in the Pern System just in time to stop fighting between the Themos and Fenrir broods. The Fenrir commander, Razarac, makes his demands, which are promptly met. Aria along with several Themos Armies will be headed to Sharon as soon as things are in order. The Fenrir and the Themos Broods are now ... not actively killing each other.
A Gracken Leviathan has shown up in the EOM734 system with the mission of looking for hostiles and scout for possible future colony sites.
"Come on, Orloth. How long do you really expect to hide out out here like this. What do you think you're accomplishing. Just come back to Sharon with me and rejoin the Themos Brood."
"I won't do that Aria, and you know that."
The creature Orloth was speaking to was once a beautiful woman, and held herself as one, but her features had been covered by the scars of infestation. Her entire body was covered in carapace the deep brown of a cockroach and her fingers ended in a set of wicked claws. Her hair had been replaced by a set of tendrils, used to amplify her already impressive psionic power and her eyes glowed with a dangerous orange light. The only part of her relatively untouched by infestation was the face, which was a pleasant oval of loveliness and cruelty that only hinted at the creature she had been before their former master had brought her into the Swarm.
Of course, Orloth himself was equally twisted by Baal's "gift" of infestation. Dark layers of Carapace covered his body like a suit of armor, and he had his own set of psionic tendrils carefully bundled at the back of his head. He however, chose to cover himself in a large, grey overcoat. He patiently tapped at the hidden blades within his wrists as he prowled the dark corridors of the abandoned terran facility, Aria in tow.
"Lilith won Themos, Orloth. Why do you fight that fact? Baal would not want us to be divided when the rest of the Broods are posed to crush us. Your defiance is admirable, and it would certainly be good reason for you to become second in command upon your return. So, what are you accomplishing out here that would warrant your continued defiance?"
Orloth stopped at a door set into the solid rock of the installation. The door itself was built and reinforced of metal, likely Vanadium, or some other super durable material. The infested quietly studied the door for a few moments, and then calmly tore it from it's frame and set what remained of the door carefully to the side, before strolling into the room beyond.
"My dear, Baal is dead, and I am reasonably certain he would not have wanted the other broods involved in a purely internal affair. Lilith won Themos, but she did so by involving those same broods who now wish to destroy her. What comes now is not my responsibility. If I were to ride to the rescue now, she wouldn't learn anything."
"So you are taking the high ground? You? That can't be the only reason. You and I both know you have nothing to gain out here and everything to lose. You can assist Themos without risking a backstab, and might be able to oust Lilith in the process. I just don't see what keeps you out here in the Coalition's back yard."
"A mystery, my sister." Orloth drawled, perusing the darkened banks of computer terminals that filled the room. "There is much that has happened in recent years that I wish to know more about, and under the eye of the Overmind and the other broods I would not have the leisure to pursue my investigations."
Aria shook her head in amazement as Orloth booted up a computer, seemingly at random and started sifting through it's contents. "Give me something, Orloth. Lilith will kill me if I come back empty handed."
Orloth paused concidering. "Draal and Zemreh are allied?"
"As far as we've been able to determine and we're pretty certain Fenris is involved too. They have been attacking us in Pern."
"Shaharas isn't allied with them. She is convinced she is the dominate evolution and wouldn't ally unless they submitted to her. And that is something the Cerebrates wouldn't do as they think much the same. I'd be willing to bet that they are fighting over the Nebula. If all three broods were attacking Themos it would be much worse then it is now." Aria frowned as Orloth paused to consider. How did Orloth know how the enemy was dispersed? Was he assuming or was someone feeding him information? "That may be your window. An alliance with Fenris."
"You can't bargain an alliance with Shaharas, Orloth. That creature is completely unreasonable."
"Only partially true. An alliance with Fenris would involve Lilith submitting to the Brood Mother's superiority."
Aria tried not to scoff, "You're kidding, that would work?"
"Shaharaz is a beast, an animal. She is clever but her understanding of social interactions is equivalent to that of canines. You acknowledge her as Alpha zerg and she will trust you. At least until such time as someone teaches her the concept of deception. The bigger question is whether Lilith would actually do such a thing. She is as proud as any Cerebrate."
"Lilith may not need to. I could act as emmisary for my Queen and return to Sharon with good news ... if you are right."
"I am right. I had opportunity to work with the Brood Mother some years ago, before Dras Lana."
For a while, both infested terrans remained silent, contemplating. The only sound in the darkened room was the clicking of Orloth's fingers on the keyboard of the terran computer.
"Lilith will not like me returning without you, even if I do manage to arrange a Fenris cease fire." Aria stated, probingly, "She does not like you being out here out of her sight. She is convinced you are up to something dangerous."
"I am up to something dangerous, but not to her. But she wouldn't believe that even if she were in my head." The terminal Orloth was using lit up a bright red and started beeping annoyingly. "Whoops."
"Whoops? Terran security got you beat?"
"No. Terran paranoia about to incinerate us."
"What!?!"
Orloth was already moving, glistening black blades extending from his wrists, he swiftly exited the room and opened a hole in the opposite wall of the hallway with one long slash, revealing a stary sky beyond. As the instalation began to depressurize, Orloth turned to Aria and extended his hand, {Please, my dear. I would be a bad host if I allowed you to be damaged by my blunder.}
Aria snatched Orloth's hand as a tendril reached through the gap in the wall and snatched the two Infested Terrans into the jaws of a serpentine zerg creature with dragonfly wings. The world suddenly became unreasonably bright as the corridor where they had just been standing was consumed by nuclear fire. Radiation warmed the zerg harmlessly as flocks of Mutalisks and Overlords swept in to inspect the hole that had been opened in the asteroid. {Who protects their computers with a Nuclear booby trap?} Aria thought, still stunned.
{My dear, I have been trying to figure that out since I got here. Shall I have you dropped off at your ship?}
{Um. Yes, I think that will do. Yes.}
{Then go well, Aria of the Themos Brood.} Orloth's gestures were lost to Aria as she was picked up by an Overlord and escorted by a flock of Mutalisks and Vipers to her ship, a monstrous old Battle-cruiser. It's hull gleamed dully with a strange light and bore the scars of many conflicts, and pock marks of infestation covered it's gun ports and docking bay. Orloth allowed himself to sit in the void for some time as Aria was deposited, unharmed and the Infested Battle-cruiser slowly turned and then jumped into warp space. Even then, the Infested allowed himself to drift, quietly pondering. As he sat there, the bright star of the anomaly entitled "Zeus's Fury" drifted across his vision. Orloth frowned at it. {What are you planning, my lord Overmind?} Orloth, thought, not expecting an answer. {Why is that storm so important to you.}
{You will find out, my child.} Came the distant reply. {Soon.}
SOA:
An intro to zerg politics. Aria's fleet is traveling from Dvergar to Pern.
Most of the time, it won't cost you anything to repair your flagship. It is assumed that that is done under the table. However, if you ignore maintenance, resupplying, refueling, etc as a factor then the GMs will start penalizing you for it. This rule is simply in place to "force" people to interact with other factions, and to penalize people for pretending they are completely self sufficient on their ship. It is done to promote RP. However, this rule should never come up if you are playing the game as intended, and actually roleplaying the effects of your actions appropriately.
Long Answer: As far as the rest of the sector is concerned, the zerg have turned inward after their defeat. Noone knows for certain why, but they are content to leave it be for now. Especially considering that many groups have decided to take advantage of the lull in fighting to carve out feifdoms of their own, thus causing drama. If certain people knew of the particulars of the Zerg infighting, they would definitely attempt to leverage that knowledge in order to either keep the zerg fighting as long as possible, provoke them into starting the next war preemptively or destroy the zerg (depending on further strategic implications of the given information). Thus, anyone willing to supply that information could likely be paid extremely well, but doing so carries a lot of risks.
Quick question for all you zergy peoples..... Why cerebrates? I wrote in the option to be an infested Terran as well as a sentient mutant, and everyone seems to prefer the lump of psionic flesh. I don't get it. At least HalfDead's guy is only a cerebrate on a technicality (having more in common with a zerg Hive then an actual Cerebrate).
I don't really understand your story. You throw a lot of information out there, but the only thing that is really relevant is that you held a stable position within the Gracken Brood until some young brat tricked you with poison and caused you to loose that position. Do I have that right? Where are you going with this?
Cerebrates are usually buildings and therefor have movement speeds of 0 as well as the Armored and Structure modifiers. If the unit is not a cerebrate, you can certainly be that speedy, but most Cerebrates are rooted to the ground.
I would like to know what weapon you have in mind. The DPS if to know how much it costs, but it should still be broken down into damage and cooldown from there.
Enhanced Carapace needs a radius of effect, I suggest 2. If you are mobile it needs a range, if you a structure it is ok for it to have a global range.
500 Damage is way too much for Creep Mortor, even if it is spread. I like the idea that you can summon creep on demand, it could be a cool ability, but the damage should be lowered to about 100ish. Or, as another option, it deals no damage and just summons the Creep for 25 energy, or you could have it to full AOE damage at a much smaller radius of effect.
Lastly, I don't think your army totals are right. Once you have purchased the 'tech' for that unit, you only need to buy the units at a cost of 1 point per 10 supply. I'm not sure what you did, but the units you bought should only cost about 5 points (unless my math is off somewhere).
For your abilities, take away the Health Cost of Overgeneration (I was pointing out Frenzy so that you could use it as a template) and lower the cost of it and Saliva to 50. I changed my mind on this one. Radius 3 is pretty big.
Lastly, tell me more of this mysterious Murkag. Can I meet him? What is he? Behemoth, Leviathan, Swarm Lord, some new evolution?
Once that is done, I just need to find the time to double check the point totals of you and Half (probably later tonight), and then both of you should be approved. Yay!!! I have Zergy minions!!! I am happy.
I can't really help you with that unless I know what you have in mind, which is why I requested a PM containing just that.
With the information I have now, I would suggest you ally yourself with the Gracken Brood. Draal has already been established (in the previous game) to be an extremely old cerebrate and will likely have some, if not all of the information you are after.
And remove the breeds known. The tech of your allies has no baring on the tech you currently possess. It is only relevant to you as what tech will be available for you to purchase from them.
That's funny, because my data says an unupgraded zergling has a speed of 2.9 and an upgraded speed of 4.7 with a 1.3 multiplier while on creep (making it around a speed 6).
Under my "Allowed units", the first option there is a Cerebrate, which I built to be an alternative to the queen. His first ability, fervor, looks remarkably like what you are going for. Just saying.
Regardless, I don't think speed should be a restricter on the use of this ability, there really isn't a point if you can smart target it, and it needs to have a range and radius of effect defined. Now, if it is a global effect... It's cost needs to be increased somewhat. Probably to 150, though I would much prefer it to have a defined radius of effect.
Parasitic Projectiles should not be permanent. It's a cool ability, and I like the support role of this character, but it should have a defined duration. Perhaps 30 seconds?
Saliva also needs a range and radius defined.
If you are going for more hit and run tactics, you should increase your ship's maneuverability (possibly trading places with Cargo as you aren't really using all of that space right now.
Lastly, the Avatar aspect is cool, but you still can't circumvent the death rules with it. If a hero unit dies you still need to pay in points to revive it. Having lore ready for its revival is nice, just don't expect a get out of jail free card for it. That goes for all of y'all's clever plans and such. Rules need to be respected so that no one gets ridiculously over powered (without earning it).
To buy the ability to build observers you pay their tech cost (which is figured by taking their mineral cost divided by 25 (1) and their gas cost divided by 12.5 (6) and their supply cost (1) and adding it all together (8).)(All the unit costs are in the big charts below the character creation charts.)
Once you know how to build a unit, you buy the raw materials and/or man power to create that unit at a cost of 1 point per 10 supply. So for every point you spend you could buy 10 observers.
I really like your character concept, but I don't see any connection to the Themos Brood in your backstory. Nor does it look like your character would have much reason to ally himself with Lilith, except for the tech that you seem to have without buying. Being allied to a brood does not automatically grant you their tech, it just states what they have ready access to for purposes of future purchases and strategic considerations. You will need to rethink your army selection with this in mind.
The Overmind has deliberately cut himself off from the workings of the rest of the Swarm. You will need to give me a pretty good reason why you and he are bffs.
You need Modifiers, probably Armored, Biological, Heroic, Structure.
A 0 movement speed does not refund you points. Sorry.
Mind Control needs some balancing. I like the idea of it being maintained but it's energy cost does not need to vary based on racial considerations. It does, however need to be much higher then in minutes. I would say have it cost 1 energy per second (or .9, which is the standard decay I think) per controlled creature, keep the initial cost, have it break if controlled units get out of range and make Psionic and Heroic units immune. This makes it usable for strategic defense, without it being game breakingly overpowered.
Also, Teleport: I like that you are having energy be the practical restriction on his movement, but it is always possible to upgrade your energy later in the game, thus nullifying this particular restriction. Therefor, I suggest you change the wording of this ability to cost All of Yi'fury's energy. This nullifies that scaling issue, while also keeping the use of Mind Control or Teleport a strategic choice. In addition, the target destination must have creep on it. Lastly, I think it needs a more zergy name, like Transplant or some biological lingo.
Finally, please fill me in on what you have in mind... either here or via private message. If you are intending to play a villain, I need to be able to give you room to be villainous.
I'm not sure what the other two think, but I'm not sure anyone's characters are fully finalized yet.
Also, your character can have a backup plan for when he 'dies' but that does not circumvent the death rules. Having that Dragoon is good, but you will still need to pay the 10% (either in points or in stat adjustments) to revive a hero reduced to 0 HP.
Please be patient with us on this. We weren't intending to commit to start this up until after we were all clear from school considerations and the Void of time created by the impending Diablo 3 release. Ya'll votes have been heard, but don't be surprised if the start up is a little staggered as a result.
That is a risk of having a large stockpile of energy. It is lessened by the Heroic modifier, but it should still be a consideration.
As I see it, a hero character has three options: Forgo the use of abilities and just go for full stats and passive abilities; this hero will likely be Immune to all energy considerations and can safely state his energy as '0' without anything to worry about. Use abilities, but have them all tied to cooldowns; such a character could also forgo energy, but will often be locked out of actions because they are on cooldown. Use abilities tied to energy; such a character has the maximum amount of flexibility in the application of his abilities, but risks being targeted by 'anti-caster' abilities such as silences and Energy drains (Mitigated by half because of the Heroic Modifier).
All of these are valid. But, power and flexibility should cost. This is how we keep some semblance of balance.
I apologize if I over explained. I have an awful habit of hitting people with a wall of text to explain rather simple questions.
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Well, just when I get my school stuff wrapped up my computer decides to up and die. I don't know how long it will take to fix, but until that time I will be suspiciously absent. Send me a pm if you need me, I will attempt to check in regularly, but I give no promises. Have fun storming the castle!
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@ Game: The Nirogg leviathans were actually a bit further out, and will take 4 turns to get into position. Otherwise Moz is all set.
@ Luna: I was wondering how long it would take you to join our merry band. Your character has my approval as edited, I hope that we can keep the characterization you did of Draal in your initial posts.
P.S. Nice horsey. Mine is still cooler.
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~~ The Karinth System ~~
It was glorious.
Before Razarac had arrived the Nirogg were clearly winning, having already isolated a Swarm Lord and eliminated it and holding more of the habitable planets. After Razarac, and the forces granted him by the Brood Mother, arrived in Karinth, it was a completely other story. Nirogg had managed to gather up a sizable force of its own, and a Gracken Leviathan had even been spotted skulking about the system, but now the fight had begun, and Razarac would be victorious. For the Brood Mother, and for his life.
He had commanded his three remaining Swarm Lords to lure out the enemy Leviathans, and finally had them exactly where he wanted them, in an asteroid field that orbited the system's largest gas giant. The ball of gas below was where the majority of the Nirogg forces were harbored, and so it was easy to bait the Leviathans into position, where the Serpentine forms of the Swarm Lords could easily maneuver, and where his Spores could strike.
His body lay dormant in the biological meteor as is streaked toward its target. The lead leviathan had already begun deploying Mutalisks, and attempting to strike its foes with it's mighty Tentacles, more often hitting rock then beast, when it noticed the object rushing toward it. It was too slow to maneuver and was struck soundly by the Spore, resulting in a gaping wound that spilled blood and flesh into space.
Razarac came back to his body and stood up in the enemy Leviathan. With luck, the beast would be ill equipped to handle his presence inside itself. All around him, the remains of the Spore had covered everything with Creep and Larva. Many of the Larva had already begun the process of morphing into higher strains, while many others burrowed into the soft flesh of the Leviathan to do the same elsewhere in the body. Soon the corridors of the monstrous beast would be filled with his little brethren, zerglings and banelings and Defilers to rip the creature apart from the inside. The first of the eggs hatched, and Razarac ran off at the head of his pack, looking for prey.
~~
Back in the asteroid field, the Gracken Behemoth rushed in to join the fray, and was almost immediately struck by another Spore. It, however, was fairing much better then the Leviathan, as it held within it's monstrous chambers an army of Roaches and Hydralisks. The battle raged inside the beast, and it struggled to remain in stable orbit above the gas giant. Meanwhile, the Nirogg commander attempted to execute the same tactic on the Fenrir Swarm Lords, but the creatures were far to agile to be easily captured. The beasts and meteors danced around the asteroids, the unscathed Leviathan struggling to keep up, until one of the Nirogg spores, deteriorating from the massive number of Spines and Acid symbiotes peppering it's surface, crashed violently into one of the larger rocks. The remaining spores immediately maneuvered themselves free of the rocks, and aimed themselves in system, toward the only world that Fenrir held. One of the Swarm Lords gave chase, while the other two closed in on the Leviathan.
~~
Below, a third Fenrir Spore burst to light as it collided with the atmosphere of the gas giant and disintegrated. The Nirogg brood roosted on enormously bloated biological platforms, kept afloat by carefully sifting the atmosphere of the gas giant, keeping and heating the lightest airs. The platforms wandered the atmosphere in loose formation gathering the precious gases and minerals from the air and acting as breeding stations for the local zerg. The invaders would not have an easy time taking this place, but that would not stop them from trying. Fragments of the Spore peppered one of these platforms, and drones began to take shape. Gathering in the precious proteins and enzymes from the atmosphere, the remnants of that spore that had carried them to this strange environment, they quickly formed together to create a hatchery. From there they would conquer.
~~
The Leviathan was holding its ground. Though outnumbered two to one, it was bred for battle. The Swarm Lords were bred for trickery and fleeing. The massive beast traded blows with the two giant serpents while their armies; his bolstered by that of his brother, now squirming in agony below him as his body was over run by the enemy's tiniest of breeds; fought around them in a vicious swarm of acidic death. His forces were clearly superior, as Devourers bathed the enemy in mutant spores and Corruptors shrugged off the enemy's most lethal attacks, the mutalisks worked themselves into a killing frenzy. The Nirogg had been bred better, stronger, tougher and faster then their adversaries. The Fenrir, however, fought dirty, flying in and out of the fray rapidly to return to the Queens aboard the Swarm lords for transfusion, and baiting the enemy into swarms of Scourge or close enough to be caught in a deadly plague. The Leviathan brutally pummeled one of the serpents, finally pinning it to a rock and tearing it in two, but in doing so it had exposed its backside to the battle, and a swarm of scourge attached themselves to his hide and detonated, tearing him apart. Severely wounded, it desperately navigated to attack the second Swarm Lord; but his intended target was far to swift, and nimbly remained behind him and spat at his fractured hide with vicious stinging spines. Finally, it's feeble last efforts failing him, the massive creature succumbed to its wounds and died.
~~
Razarac paused to consider the fight, as his brethren munched happily on the great Leviathan's nervous system, leaving it very much dead. Above him, the Swarm lord was cleaning up what remained of the Nirogg's air force. It pleased him that he had won the air battle against an opponent so clearly dominant in that area, however reports from the planet below showed that the Nirogg were far more dug in then he had anticipated. His army below had been contained to only one of the floating platforms by swarms of mutalisks, and his Overseers had shown that the enemy was operating out of a Great Hive, a massive structure designed to withstand a siege. On the planet, he was outmatched. To make matters worse, those enemy's forces were quickly making their way in system to Fenrir's only hold, and the defending forces would not likely be able to hold before the Swarm Lord arrived to help them, and even then would be hard pressed to defend. Lastly, the Gracken Behemoth was cleaning up what remained of the Spore that had struck it, and would likely be returning to the fray shortly.
Dejectedly, he gave the order to retreat and led his pack back to their initial beach head. There, the creep had gathered together into a massive cannon-like orifice and was gathering up the unused larva and creatures for travel. Razarac knew that the same was being done below on the planet, judiciously guarded by the Queens, backed by Defiler Swarms. When the last of his minions had disappeared, Razarac himself stepped in, and allowed himself to be cocooned for the journey. When that was at last done, the spore cannon fired it's package, and the spore once again traveled through space, quickly navigating itself in system joined by its fellow from the planet below. They would only be a few short minutes behind the enemy, and when that threat had been dealt with, they would be back.
SOA:
Operation: Meatgrinder
Outcome: Draw
Fenrir Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Swarm Lords, 300 supply.
Nirogg Losses: 1 Spore, 2 Leviathans, 50 supply.
Gracken Losses: 300 Supply
Fenrir and Nirogg will immediately pay for resupply. Gracken cannot, but will power on regardless.
This was in large part a demonstration. I wanted to show how some of my Flagships worked (the Spore isn't exactly standard fare, and both it and the Swarm Lords are not from the standard game) as well as demonstrate how a battle post should be. As I was fighting myself, no collaboration was needed (except for with myself). In other circumstances, all parties should discuss how the battle plays out, and then one party posts the entire thing. ((Just reiterating.)) Lastly, I felt that some friendly army trading was due.
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Grell started awake still in his suit and standing. He quickly took stock of his surroundings: what looked to be an old civilian bomb shelter, covered with zerg creep which also held some of his marines, still unconscious, plastered to the walls. The pirate attempted to move step forward to check on his men, but found that he too was restrained by the creep and could not break free. A quick diagnostic of his suit revealed to Grell that his communications were non-functional. He was on his own.
Grell's eyes instinctively darted to the door in time to see a form run past. The pirate recognized the low-slung form of a zergling and immediately started looking for his gun. He spotted it, to his right, along with a neat pile of Gauss Rifles. When his eyes returned to the door a figure stood in it. "Finally. You wake up. It was getting difficult to keep the zerglings back. How are you fealing?"
The pirate studied the newcomer carefully before answering. It was infested, that much was obvious by the discoloration of its skin and the psionic tendrals in place of hair, pulled back from his face into a rough bundle at the back. The rest of his form was covered in stained and battered longcoat. Seeing that he was not in any immediate danger, Grell responded, attempting to keep his voice authoritative, "Pretty good, I see that im not mutilated or infested yet, so why dont you break the big news of why Im here then."
The infested frowned in disappointment and shrugged, before raising his hand to reveals the Data Pad and the external drive that Grell had salvaged. "Do you realize how long I have been after this?" He starts fiddling with the pad, clearly sifting through the files, "It was very kind of you to supply me with them. I thought I'd return the favor."
"Why that's mighty fine of you to do, kill my men, steal my stuff, and then you let me live. I have to say that's quite a way to repay me. Now why dont you just tell me the whole reason I am alive and well." he responded, as he tried to struggle his way free of the creep.
"I saved some of your men," the infested stated dejectedly, waving his hand about the small room. "Honestly, things got rather out of hand. I really have work to do to teach the zerg how to be subtle. I appologize for my failing."
Grell looked at the zerg in surprise. "So all zerg dont just murder everything in there path?" he let out a sigh, abit relieved that he and some others were still alive. "Now, what is it. . . you're after?"
"Have you read these files? This 'X-1' project is quite amazing. I do hope they are exaggerating about its abilities, though. Otherwise it could be quite dangerous."
The pirate set his mind through what he had read and went through, remembering nothing of the sort. "Well Im guessing you have, so refresh me if you would."
"These Auruleans are attempting to enhance their own soldiers using zerg and protoss DNA. They may even have been successful at least once. You know, I hate it when people ignore their history."
"So your saying this may actually work, and that it is a danger to you and all your zerg buddies. This merging of DNA though, would it not cause the man to be un like a human in any way or look, people dont just look at a half zerg leader and follow them to war or such. . ."
"Maybe, maybe not. It depends on which genes you spliced, and when in the developmental process you implemented the transfer. Certainly a new born hybrid would be quite a sight, but someone given gene therapy to say, increase their psionic abilities, enhance their skelital and musculatur and regenerative abilites, such a subject could look quite normal, for a time."
"Alright, so whats this have to do with me?" he said running over the possibilities through his head.
"You tell me. You came here for the data, after all. I assumed that you would have something to do with it."
"I took a job on it, snatch the data, bring it back, no questioning the reason, and no looking at the data. Seems like I was setup, sent right into your claws. I never got the full chance to read it, the data was encrypted. I would ask how you were able to do it, but that's a waste."
"Oh, the decription codes were on your data pad. You could have gotten the data from any terminal with this pad. Quite clever of you to take the drive, though. Gives you plausible deniability to your employers. I am called Orloth." The infested reaches out and lightly draws a line down the creep, which promptly splits open dumping Grell unceremoniously to the floor.
The pirate picked himself up, rubbing the goo off his chest and then stood there testing each of his limbs for weakness. He stretched his arms out, let out a yawn, and then finally faced the infested. "My names Grell, but seeing as my dogtags are gone you probably already knew that. Now, what is it you needed me for?"
"Information." Orloth paused thoughtfully, "I don't think your employers diliberately set you up. If I have been successful, The Coalition should have no idea that I am here, and any reports of zerg in the system would show minimal presence. If I have been unsuccessful, they probably wouldn't have sent you."
"A ghost, using wits to hide from his enemies, and be a valuable asset inside a system that no one knows about. If I had not returned, they could say the threat might still be there, yet still again if I go back, you might be in danger of me talking." He paused thinking of the zerg plan, and then of his employer. the bastard hadn't told him the system had been attacked by zerg, or of what magnitude. He scrubbed the thought. "So, what is the information you seek?" he said, abit of curiosity leading his voice.
"Oh, I don't think I'll be in too much danger of you talking. Either you will be leaving here without the inclanation or without the ability. Which it will be is your choice."
"You know, a simple pinky promise could have been enough."
"A pinky promise? We are down to simple logic, my friend. Why would you tell your employers about me, when they care so little about your life? It is in your best interests to keep me friendly."
"You knew I was not going to talk is that it, or is there some ransom you are going to use against me, though we both know you won't choose the first. Everyone knows I could make money off just the information you are here, so would I trade it? No, not without reason, but in the interest of your 'logic' let me here what you do plan to do."
"If I am not satisfied with your intentions by the time you leave here, I will erase our little chat from your mind. I would prefer not to do that, as you have been quite friendly, considering, but I cannot take chances at this stage. Besides, you are far more useful to me alive then dead."
"Then we can both agree on something. Now how about I make it easier on you to not take my life, somthing that could benifit us both. Im sure you can get were this is going."
"Yes, but I prefer that you are polite enough to state it."
"Ha, if you would like it then, I presume that we form an alliance. I can understand that you would like an outside connection, that and me having a zerg ally could benefit me in ways as well."
"'Form an Alliance.' Such a formal way of putting it. But if you insist, it will do. Your men will wake up shortly. Go well, Mr. Sharton." With a slight bow, the infested abruptly left the shelter.
~~
Mike was sitting in the command station of the Gnarled Wolf, attempting to coordinate search and rescue teams when the call came in. The Captain had been found. He along with eighteen other men had gotten nabbed by those damned dragonflies, and now were apparently just strolling back into base, with a couple of pilots from the downed medivacs as well.
"Somebody get the Captain on the speakers."
There was some shuffling as they swiftly go Captain Sharton to the Command Center.
"Mike! Damned its good to be back. No questions now, just give the order to pack up and go. I want to be on the first shuttle up."
"Yes sir, captain. Will you be taking command back when you get up here."
"I will not. I want you to get us back to Domus while I get myself good and drunk. Tell the barkeep to have my bottle of Tauren Whiskey ready."
"Yes sir."
SOA: Orloth has a little chat with Captain Grell, and then lets him and 18 of his (believed dead) marines and 2 medivac pilots to go free. The Gnarled Wolf will be immediately packing up to return to Domus.
0
~~ Sar Shar, Sharon System - Heart of the Themos Brood ~~
Aria strode through the warm, red tunnels of the Great Hive, trying not to let the dread and anticipation show in her pace and pose. Showing fear could be seen as a weakness here, it could mean an instant and irreversible death as the swarm instinctively eliminates the weakness in it's own being. No. She had to be cold, calm and in control; or at the very least in control. Some of the other brood leaders were never particularly cold or calm, but they made do by giving the air of total dominance, at least for a time.
The person Aria was going to visit held complete and total Dominion over the Themos Brood, a dominion which she had usurped by following Orloth's advice rather then her own orders. Honestly, why Orloth insisted on this charade of an argument, no one in Themos understood. Evolution supported the winners, not those who played fairly. Lilith had succeeded Baal as Master of the Themos Brood. If Orloth would just give in and accept it Themos would easily be the strongest of all the other Broods, but with his faction sealed away and neutral they were now reduced to paying tribute to another brood just to keep them from attacking. Tribute! That was not going to sit well with the Mistress Lilith. She may get points for talking her way out of a fight, that was what the Themos were known for after all, but tribute? Aria was as good as dead.
She tried not to let that thought overwhelm her as she stepped into the Central Chamber, where Lilith held... court. It reminded Aria of the stories of Hell that her grandmother had threatened her with. The chamber wasn't large, about the size of a holo vid theater, but that made what it contained that much harder to avoid. It was part torture chamber, part breeding pool, part brothel; the sights and sounds of which did there best to disrupt Aria's calm; all lit by the ambient, red light that filtered down from the mouth of the Great Hive and surrounded by its fleshy walls. And there, at the far side, atop of a throne that seemed to be crafted from the body parts of numerous species, sprawled the Mistress Lilith herself personally adored by three Infested.
Aria approached the throne and lowered herself into a submissive bow, almost curling herself up on the floor, face to the ground. After what seemed like hours the purring voice of her Mistress commanded, "Stand, Aria." She did so, and met the gaze of the Nightmare Queen, and time seemed to take a backseat as she felt the contents of her mind being sifted through as if it were a newspaper. In a few moments she had relived everything she remembered since she had last been in her Mistress's presence, the conversation with Orloth and her actions at Pern were gone over again in vivid detail. When at last she was released from Lilith's gaze, she dropped to the floor as if her strings had been cut and lay there panting, trying desperately to regain a shred of poise, and ounce of decency, while Lilith stood up and began to circle her shuddering form.
"It is good," the Nightmare Queen purred softly, "that you held the Brood's best interests at heart, or you would no longer be alive. However, considering your actions, I had hoped that such a loyal servant as yourself would have been Dominated and swayed by my enemy, rather then a willing accomplice in his scheming. That being said, you have revealed to me some of my dear brother's plans, and that is valuable to me." Aria felt a hand on her chin and her head was lifted up to once more look her Mistress in the eye, "I may have some use for you after all."
~~ Dalar, Dvergar System ~~
Orloth studies the pitiful collection of clues he had gathered. Cloning tanks, samples of protoss and zerg DNA, and a clipboard with vague references to test progress in an undecipherable medical chickenscratch. For the most part, the base had been picked clean before he had even arrived. Whoever had been at work here had been quite thorough in wiping every trace of their project before the zerg had even gotten close. The only thing they had left behind was their computer records, highly encoded and booby trapped as they were. The infested imagined that he had probably tripped an alarm with his meddling; it was only a matter of time before the system's previous occupants took notice. It would be prudent to leave well enough alone and continue to lie low; keeping his brood safely hidden until they were strong enough for what was to come, but his curiousity had grown into an obsession, and it would not be denied. Besides, it helped distract him from that other thing.
Just as his thoughts wandered dangerously close to that trap, another thought tapped lightly on his consciousness. His minions had spotted a ship. A terran ship. A Frankenstein's monster of a vessel that had nearly gotten smashed to pieces by asteroids upon its arrival. Nearly, but not quite. It skillfully maneuvered its way out of the field and began making its way for Dalar.
How convenient. Maybe he had triggered some alarm, or perhaps they were merely pirates here for the salvage. It mattered not, they would provide him with a convenient distraction from his thoughts for a time. "Who knows, perhaps they might actually be useful." The infested said to himself quietly as he instructed his brood to allow the ship to pass and keep out of sight.
~~ Karinth System ~~
The only reason Razarac realized his behemoth had exited warp space was the sudden, rapid influx of information into his mind. For a moment he was overwhelmed and paralyzed by the sheer volume of external images, scents, sounds and thoughts that were suddenly entering his brain. He saw through the eyes of hundreds, heard through the ears of thousands and thought through the minds of millions. He relaxed and allowed the flood of information to diffuse into him, content to witness the workings of the entire Fenrir Brood.
But gradually, the flow of information ceased, or rather, was relegated to the unconscious part of his mind. In its place stood a single separate entity, one which was made up of thousands of millions of smaller minds and was more fearsome and imposing than all of them combined.
{Brood Mother.} Razarac said, doing the mental equivalent of bowing his head. He briefly sensed satisfaction coming from Shaharaz but this was soon replaced by cold neutrality.
{I have granted you control of Karinth's broods, Razarac. Your goal is simple: destroy the Nirogg's presence in the system and claim it for the Fenrir. Do not hesitate, do not make mistakes. Do not even entertain the idea of failure for if it becomes a reality, you shall feel my wrath... if the Nirogg don't destroy you first.}
And then it was gone. The Queen of the Fenrir Brood disappeared from his mind, leaving behind only a fraction of itself.
Razarac did not waste his time. He immediately tapped into the mind's of the system's zerg and began to assimilate all their knowledge, both of themselves and the Nirogg. What he learned was not too promising. The Nirogg held the majority of the system and not only had enough forces to hold their ground in head-on battles but also had a separate force capable of striking the Fenrir where and when it was most vulnerable. The Fenrir were pinned down and outnumbered. But that was about to change.
Razarac ordered Pangar to make way for the only Fenrir controlled planet in the system while releasing five overseers into the cold of space with the aim of locating hidden Nirogg forces.
SOA: (Repost) Aria arrives in the Sharon system for her meeting with the Nightmare Queen. It goes better then expected.
Orloth directs his Brood to stay out of sight and out of the way of the Gnashed Wolf. He will personally be approaching the landing site (once it has landed) as stealthily as possible with a small force.
(Repost) Razarac arrived in Karinth. He was given control of the Fenrir Brood there. Karinth is looking to be a Meat Grinder soon, as the Fenrir and Nirogg position themselves for a battle to claim the system. Initial pokes have begun.
0
~Anna, Pern System~
Razarac growled as one of the resident brood's zerglings came too close to him. He shook his entire body to warn the creature of his mood. But the zergling did not listen. It edged closer towards him, its purpose unknown to Razarac.
Razarac growled again, louder this time and the zergling stopped... and he pounced. His muscles flexed and he sprang at the intruder. The zergling yelped and tried to run but was too slow. His jaws snapped shut just as he landed on the ground, shaking it with the force of his fall. Then, he swallowed the zergling whole, not even bothering to crush its body with his inner jaw: the acid in his stomach would be more than enough to break down the corpse, for it was real acid, not the stuff of lesser creatures.
Satisfaction filled his mind as warmth spread through his body, a sensation he knew was connected to the rapid dispersion of the zergling's energy and nutrients through his body. He went back into the same prone position he had been in before the planet dweller's intrusion. He growled to scare of the remaining planet brood zerglings and closed his eyes.
He was a magnificent beast. A massive zergling, four of his lesser brethren in length and three in height, with wings twice as long, Razarac dwarfed most any zerg creature. And those he did not dwarf, he outmatched, outperformed or outran.
Flexible spikes covered his entire body, not for defense, but for the rapid absorption of water to aid his metabolism. His carapace matched that of an ultralisk's in strength but weighed no more than a zergling's. His claws, teeth and scythe-claw-appendages were sharper than a hydralisk spine and as sturdy as a kaiser blade. The constant secretion of small amounts of acid served to both make tearing enemy armor easier and to lubricate his own weapons for unhindered slashing and stabbing.
Of all this and more he was aware for Shaharaz had blessed him with sentience, a power he prized more than any other. He was the epitome of zerg: deadly, resilient, adaptable and ruthlessly efficient: the peak of evolution. And he was ready to act.
The Brood Mother's call had been heard and it was being answered. Razarac watched through an Overseer's eyes as the Fenrir Brood's forces departed the planet. The Fenrir spore sailed on ahead with its cargo while the two Swarm Lords that was accompanying them followed at a slower pace.
The plan was to have the spore land on the planet and create a suitable amount of chaos on the planet's surface. The Swarm Lords would use the chaos to find an advantageous angle of attack and strike the Themos in a favorable way. The knowledge that the enemy had at least one Battlecruiser with them changed Razarac's battle plan considerably. He had faced the terran counterpart many times and knew enough about the Themos version to know it would be a big threat.
They would have to destroy any battlecruisers before really attacking the planet and they could only do that if the fight favored them from the start. They would have to attack the ships from the inside and outside while defending their own ships from enemy flyers. It would not be easy.
One of the Spores would stay behind on Anna to guard the planet against counter attacks but would be called if help was needed. Dangerous as the attack was, Razarac was not willing to leave Anna unguarded.
Razarac let out a roar as the fury of the Fenrir Brood surged forward to prove themselves in battle.
~~
Aria's old Battlecruiser, the Rossvelt, returned to normal space in time to witness the Fenrir spore blaze into light as it began entering Mary's atmosphere, releasing the raw materials to start amassing a brood on the planet's surface. The Infested Battlecruiser in high orbit was joined by two other dark forms, maneuvering for position in preparation for a fight.
{Aria! Glad to have you back! Reinforcements have been called from Sharon, but your presence is sorely needed in the skies.}
The Infested directed her ship to join the other in the skies, and in quick bursts of thought relayed Orloth's insight to her brother and sister Prophets of Baal. In a discussion that lasted only a few seconds, and consisted of more emotion then words, it was decided. The battle would go on, but Aria was allowed to attempt to communicate with the Fenrir. Aria reached out her mind to the Fenrir, and traced their lines of command back to find its strongest will, its dominate personality, its Alpha Wolf. She found something, not too high, but definitely the driving force behind this particular attack. With an effort of will she stretched out her mind in an effort to communicate.
~~
Razarac felt a presence in his mind, totally alien to anything he had ever felt before. It was zerg, but it did not think like zerg. It gave an image of a smaller zergling, showing due respect to a larger zergling, and spoke {We recognize the dominance of the Fenrir Brood. We wish to discuss a cessation of hostilities.}
For a moment silence reigned and the Themos and Fenrir forces floated in space as if frozen.
{Brood Mother?} asked Razarac. All he got was a short instinctual answer that roughly translated to 'go on'.
Razarac ordered his own brood and the Fenrir forces to stand down but stay ready to attack in case the enemy was trying to trick them. Then he focused on the alien mind inside his own an probed it as he would inspect a lesser zerg. It did not recoil from him.
{The weak recoil. That is domination.} he said more through feelings than words. He felt the alien mind retreat away from his own somewhat and was satisfied.
{The weak show subordination to the strong in order to live. But subordination is not simply... peace without... consequence} his imperfect vocabulary was made up for by his ability to send images and feelings directly to the other mind. He felt the mind of the Themos agree to his statement.
{Who are you?} he asked.
{I am Aria of the Themos Brood, servant to Lilith, its leader.} came the reply and Razarac knew at once that he was talking to a halfling. An infested. Not a zerg. The information angered him.
{So the Themos rely on halflings to command. I am not surprised then, that you wish to end the... hunt before it is begun.} His words seemed to cause a reaction in the infested but whatever it was, the halfling seemed to repress it. This angered Razarac further. True zerg did not hide their emotions!
{You do not talk. Perhaps you fear my dominance or perhaps you seek my favor. I do not care which for both end in the same outcome if you truly fear our might}
{And that outcome is?}
{The Themos will surrender immediately and depart this world, leaving only a small force behind. You will redirect half of this planet's resources to the Fenrir Brood and cease all fighting with us. In turn, your existence shall be spared. These are the conditions of domination. You must give up land and rank to live. And if you do not, you have neither land, rank or life. Are our terms understood?} It was there again. The ancient instinct. He talked without thinking, driven by instincts and skills he was not aware of.
{Very well. The Themos brood agrees to your terms and they will satisfy them immediately. Since this is possibly the last time we will meet, I would ask of you to receive one our own as an ambassador to the Fenrir Brood so that future communication between our Broods can be quick and fluent.} The response came after a minute of silence during which the halfling had probably weighed up its options.
{Would this ambassador be a halfling such as yourself?} Razarac asked, full of suspicion.
{Yes. Is that a problem?}
{Only if you value it highly, for I will rend the flesh off its bones the moment it sets foot on our territory.}
{Very well. We will have to rely on other methods of communication in the future, then.} Aria answered, not in the least disturbed by the creature's words. But she was late: Razarac had already expelled her from his mind.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~EOM734 Single Star System, Ort cloud~~
Far outside the unnamed star, a rift was torn in the fabric of space, and a single leviathan glided out of the wormhole. This system had once been claimed by the late Cerebrate, Shuul, but it's location would make it an excellent target for the expansion of the Gracken Brood. That is, assuming the rival broods had not had that very idea first. That was why the creature had been deposited so far outside the usual realms of the Star, to not be seen by the enemy. It was purposed with carefully picking it's way through the system, to see what had been left here by the late Shuul, and if anyone else had been by to pick the bones; a task it dutifully began as the Wormhole closed.
SOA:
Reposting relevant data from previous game that I want to keep, with previous player's permission. If he doesn't pick it up, I imagine I will. I liked Raz.
Aria arrives in the Pern System just in time to stop fighting between the Themos and Fenrir broods. The Fenrir commander, Razarac, makes his demands, which are promptly met. Aria along with several Themos Armies will be headed to Sharon as soon as things are in order. The Fenrir and the Themos Broods are now ... not actively killing each other.
A Gracken Leviathan has shown up in the EOM734 system with the mission of looking for hostiles and scout for possible future colony sites.
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@TheAlmaity: Go
The bad news is that we've unleashed this monster on a new forum. We are all doomed. Enjoy the ride!!!
0
SOA:
An intro to zerg politics. Aria's fleet is traveling from Dvergar to Pern.
0
Most of the time, it won't cost you anything to repair your flagship. It is assumed that that is done under the table. However, if you ignore maintenance, resupplying, refueling, etc as a factor then the GMs will start penalizing you for it. This rule is simply in place to "force" people to interact with other factions, and to penalize people for pretending they are completely self sufficient on their ship. It is done to promote RP. However, this rule should never come up if you are playing the game as intended, and actually roleplaying the effects of your actions appropriately.
I hope that was clearish?
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@Mozared: Go
Sorry, I thought I had answered that.
Short Answer: Yes.
Long Answer: As far as the rest of the sector is concerned, the zerg have turned inward after their defeat. Noone knows for certain why, but they are content to leave it be for now. Especially considering that many groups have decided to take advantage of the lull in fighting to carve out feifdoms of their own, thus causing drama. If certain people knew of the particulars of the Zerg infighting, they would definitely attempt to leverage that knowledge in order to either keep the zerg fighting as long as possible, provoke them into starting the next war preemptively or destroy the zerg (depending on further strategic implications of the given information). Thus, anyone willing to supply that information could likely be paid extremely well, but doing so carries a lot of risks.
0
Quick question for all you zergy peoples..... Why cerebrates? I wrote in the option to be an infested Terran as well as a sentient mutant, and everyone seems to prefer the lump of psionic flesh. I don't get it. At least HalfDead's guy is only a cerebrate on a technicality (having more in common with a zerg Hive then an actual Cerebrate).
@Exaken: Go
I don't really understand your story. You throw a lot of information out there, but the only thing that is really relevant is that you held a stable position within the Gracken Brood until some young brat tricked you with poison and caused you to loose that position. Do I have that right? Where are you going with this?
Cerebrates are usually buildings and therefor have movement speeds of 0 as well as the Armored and Structure modifiers. If the unit is not a cerebrate, you can certainly be that speedy, but most Cerebrates are rooted to the ground.
I would like to know what weapon you have in mind. The DPS if to know how much it costs, but it should still be broken down into damage and cooldown from there.
Enhanced Carapace needs a radius of effect, I suggest 2. If you are mobile it needs a range, if you a structure it is ok for it to have a global range.
500 Damage is way too much for Creep Mortor, even if it is spread. I like the idea that you can summon creep on demand, it could be a cool ability, but the damage should be lowered to about 100ish. Or, as another option, it deals no damage and just summons the Creep for 25 energy, or you could have it to full AOE damage at a much smaller radius of effect.
Lastly, I don't think your army totals are right. Once you have purchased the 'tech' for that unit, you only need to buy the units at a cost of 1 point per 10 supply. I'm not sure what you did, but the units you bought should only cost about 5 points (unless my math is off somewhere).
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@Mozared: Go
For your abilities, take away the Health Cost of Overgeneration (I was pointing out Frenzy so that you could use it as a template)
and lower the cost of it and Saliva to 50. I changed my mind on this one. Radius 3 is pretty big.Lastly, tell me more of this mysterious Murkag. Can I meet him? What is he? Behemoth, Leviathan, Swarm Lord, some new evolution?
Once that is done, I just need to find the time to double check the point totals of you and Half (probably later tonight), and then both of you should be approved. Yay!!! I have Zergy minions!!! I am happy.
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I don't have a lot of time here, so I will address the major points I see for now.
@Ha1fDead: Go
I can't really help you with that unless I know what you have in mind, which is why I requested a PM containing just that.
With the information I have now, I would suggest you ally yourself with the Gracken Brood. Draal has already been established (in the previous game) to be an extremely old cerebrate and will likely have some, if not all of the information you are after.
This post from the old story best displays Draal's character and motives.
And remove the breeds known. The tech of your allies has no baring on the tech you currently possess. It is only relevant to you as what tech will be available for you to purchase from them.
@Mozared: Go
That's funny, because my data says an unupgraded zergling has a speed of 2.9 and an upgraded speed of 4.7 with a 1.3 multiplier while on creep (making it around a speed 6).
Under my "Allowed units", the first option there is a Cerebrate, which I built to be an alternative to the queen. His first ability, fervor, looks remarkably like what you are going for. Just saying.
Regardless, I don't think speed should be a restricter on the use of this ability, there really isn't a point if you can smart target it, and it needs to have a range and radius of effect defined. Now, if it is a global effect... It's cost needs to be increased somewhat. Probably to 150, though I would much prefer it to have a defined radius of effect.
Parasitic Projectiles should not be permanent. It's a cool ability, and I like the support role of this character, but it should have a defined duration. Perhaps 30 seconds?
Saliva also needs a range and radius defined.
If you are going for more hit and run tactics, you should increase your ship's maneuverability (possibly trading places with Cargo as you aren't really using all of that space right now.
Lastly, the Avatar aspect is cool, but you still can't circumvent the death rules with it. If a hero unit dies you still need to pay in points to revive it. Having lore ready for its revival is nice, just don't expect a get out of jail free card for it. That goes for all of y'all's clever plans and such. Rules need to be respected so that no one gets ridiculously over powered (without earning it).
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To buy the ability to build observers you pay their tech cost (which is figured by taking their mineral cost divided by 25 (1) and their gas cost divided by 12.5 (6) and their supply cost (1) and adding it all together (8).)(All the unit costs are in the big charts below the character creation charts.)
Once you know how to build a unit, you buy the raw materials and/or man power to create that unit at a cost of 1 point per 10 supply. So for every point you spend you could buy 10 observers.
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@Ha1fDead: Go
I really like your character concept, but I don't see any connection to the Themos Brood in your backstory. Nor does it look like your character would have much reason to ally himself with Lilith, except for the tech that you seem to have without buying. Being allied to a brood does not automatically grant you their tech, it just states what they have ready access to for purposes of future purchases and strategic considerations. You will need to rethink your army selection with this in mind.
The Overmind has deliberately cut himself off from the workings of the rest of the Swarm. You will need to give me a pretty good reason why you and he are bffs.
You need Modifiers, probably Armored, Biological, Heroic, Structure.
A 0 movement speed does not refund you points. Sorry.
Mind Control needs some balancing. I like the idea of it being maintained but it's energy cost does not need to vary based on racial considerations. It does, however need to be much higher then in minutes. I would say have it cost 1 energy per second (or .9, which is the standard decay I think) per controlled creature, keep the initial cost, have it break if controlled units get out of range and make Psionic and Heroic units immune. This makes it usable for strategic defense, without it being game breakingly overpowered.
Also, Teleport: I like that you are having energy be the practical restriction on his movement, but it is always possible to upgrade your energy later in the game, thus nullifying this particular restriction. Therefor, I suggest you change the wording of this ability to cost All of Yi'fury's energy. This nullifies that scaling issue, while also keeping the use of Mind Control or Teleport a strategic choice. In addition, the target destination must have creep on it. Lastly, I think it needs a more zergy name, like Transplant or some biological lingo.
Finally, please fill me in on what you have in mind... either here or via private message. If you are intending to play a villain, I need to be able to give you room to be villainous.
Edit: @yukaboy: Go
I'm not sure what the other two think, but I'm not sure anyone's characters are fully finalized yet.
Also, your character can have a backup plan for when he 'dies' but that does not circumvent the death rules. Having that Dragoon is good, but you will still need to pay the 10% (either in points or in stat adjustments) to revive a hero reduced to 0 HP.
Please be patient with us on this. We weren't intending to commit to start this up until after we were all clear from school considerations and the Void of time created by the impending Diablo 3 release. Ya'll votes have been heard, but don't be surprised if the start up is a little staggered as a result.
Edit again @ this post:@yukaboy: Go
That is a risk of having a large stockpile of energy. It is lessened by the Heroic modifier, but it should still be a consideration.
As I see it, a hero character has three options: Forgo the use of abilities and just go for full stats and passive abilities; this hero will likely be Immune to all energy considerations and can safely state his energy as '0' without anything to worry about. Use abilities, but have them all tied to cooldowns; such a character could also forgo energy, but will often be locked out of actions because they are on cooldown. Use abilities tied to energy; such a character has the maximum amount of flexibility in the application of his abilities, but risks being targeted by 'anti-caster' abilities such as silences and Energy drains (Mitigated by half because of the Heroic Modifier).
All of these are valid. But, power and flexibility should cost. This is how we keep some semblance of balance.
I apologize if I over explained. I have an awful habit of hitting people with a wall of text to explain rather simple questions.