Chapter 21: Overpowered

  It’s kinda ironic that I created the Protoss after the Zerg. Though I guess my version of Protoss is just a type of Zerg, but still. Their name means Firstborn, right? I guess in a million or billion years, nobody will really remember who came first though.

  “We will.” Izsha’s voice commented on my thoughts as usual.

  “I’m not so sure about that.” I soared through the sky as the wind whipped the transparent screen in front of me. The six purple tendrils whipped around behind my back like wings. They grew out of my shoulder-blade carapace to provide me with an anti-gravity field like what the Drones and Overlords use.

  “You designed me to preserve your memories for eternity. I will not fail in my primary purpose for existence.” She was still young. Hell, I’m still young too, but I’ve lived and died once already. I know how hard it is to actually hold onto something for a human lifetime. Not to mention some bullshit like millions of years. I can’t even imagine that, yet.

  “We’ll see what happens in a million years. For now, I’m gonna worry about the pres-ow!” I felt something pass through the tentacle on my back. Then I got hit by a few more tiny projectiles that left little pits in my armor!

  I could hear gunshots once I slowed down and stopped. The bullets pierced my shield easily since it wasn’t really meant to deflect solid objects or projectiles. At most, it was a wind-screen and could deflect energy bolts.

  “Seriously?” I looked at the angry Tusken Raiders who were shooting me with their ‘primitive’ Cycler Rifles. So-called ‘Slugthrowers’. They were surprisingly effective against energy shields and squishy flesh, while not being very useful against armored targets or anything that had electromagnetic deflector shields.

  “I always found it odd how solid projectiles were so rarely utilized in the Galactic Republic. Even if Droids and Clone Trooper armor could block ordinary bullets, you would simply need to use specialized projectiles designed to deal with specific targets. Fire a piece of Durasteel fast enough and it will deal with any armor that might exist.” Izsha had a point, but she forgot something important.

  “Money. Not that blasters are cheaper by the way. They’re definitely way more expensive. And that’s precisely why they’re so widespread.” I turned my head a bit, dodging the bullet that whizzed past my cheek. Then I pulled the Zerg-saber hilt off my right hip, igniting a purple blade that roared and hissed as it extended.

  “I suppose greed and the military industrial complex does tend to fuel a lot of inefficient and illogical decisions.” My daughter commented as I used my blade to try to block a bullet. As I expected, superheated gas and boiling metal came out the other side of the plasma sword. I mean, I knew it would happen, but I still wanted to test out the age-old theory of whether a lightsaber can actually block a bullet.

  “Ow.” I wiped the molten liquid off my cheek as the burnt flesh was rapidly healing. I got a little annoyed. A little angry. The rage flowed through me and then, the bullets stopped in mid-air. I glared down at the Tusken who were still shooting at me pointlessly and sent about a dozen rounds wheezing down through the body of one of them. Ripping him to shreds.

  Then I released some of the pressure on my lightsaber. The blade became much less focused and a lot weaker, but the length grew instantly to over a hundred meters! I condensed it and made it thinner, longer, then swiped it across and sliced a dude in half, along with the rocks he was using as cover. A big skinny line of glass also appeared in the sand below them. I swung my blade a few more times and thought it was kinda hilarious.

  “They’re so fucking dumb.” I almost felt bad for them. But if they’d attack me, they’d attack anyone. Regardless of whether they were an adult or a child. Allowing them to live would be like killing innocent people. Something that a lot of superheroes never really seemed to comprehend.

  “They are as intelligent as humans. Though that isn’t saying much.” Izsha giggled in the back of my head as I turned off my lightsaber. The super long blade took a long time to retract. It was important that it retracted and didn’t just dissipate, because the plasma itself was actually a physical thing that would need to be replenished. Not just a simple laser beam or whatever. Otherwise you could just let the gas escape in every direction like an explosion. Umm, also another reason why it’s important to retract the lightsaber instead of allowing the superheated plasma to escape randomly, huh?

  “Speaking of Humans, I think the Terran Dominion idea is pretty good. Can’t put all our Zerg Eggs in one basket.” I smiled wryly and floated down towards the desert below, where the remaining Tusken were fleeing on the backs of the cute and furry giant brown Banthas. They were sort of like mammoths, but they had curvy ram horns, long lizard-like tails that were covered in hair, plus there was no long trunk. Their faces were huge and they had wide mouths, big ears that poked up out of the fur near the bases of their horns. One interesting thing about them was their super long tongues that had grippy knobs and even breathing holes.

  “Protoss, Terrans, Zerg, but ultimately they’re all part of the Swarm.” She muttered in my head, “If they find a way to attack us through the Psionic Network, it would be problematic.”

  “That’s why the Terran Dominion will be a separate force. Something outside the Psionic Network. This is Star Wars, the Ghosts and shit could just be Force Users. It’s not even that difficult to create a Force User, just that we can’t mass produce Jedi Master level monsters. Not sure if we even should.” It wasn’t really necessary. If everyone was at that level, then it kinda diminishes the value and power of someone or something that can use the Force.

  “Clones or recruitment?” My daughter asked as I landed lightly behind the horrified Tusken man. The Bantha was freaking out as well. But no matter how much it bucked, I wouldn’t get knocked off the harness. The poor rider wasn’t so lucky though. Getting tossed out onto the sand. I picked up his gun, aimed and pulled the trigger.

  *Crack~!* With the loud shot, his head exploded pretty spectacularly. It looked like an old-timey lever-action rifle, but it was basically a 50 cal anti-material rifle. I tilted my head and avoided another headshot from up ahead, “A hundred quadrillion sentients. Fifty million inhabited worlds. More than half the population of the Galactic Republic is human. Not sure the exact numbers, but quadrillions of humans for sure. It’s wild that only three million Clones were needed for the Clone Wars.”

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  The more I thought about it, the more unreasonable it seemed. But it is true that every world had its own military for the most part. So the Clones were more like a mobile elite strike force. Their Star Destroyers and other extremely powerful war machines probably played a bigger role than their usage as disposable infantry units.

  “Should we create Terran Marines or Space Marines? How will we create the ships and other vehicles?” As she spoke, I reached out with my left hand and tiny tendrils shot out of my palm. The Tusken dude shot me in the chest but the bullet didn’t do much. Then the tendrils squirmed and his body was ripped into dozens of pieces. The tendrils shot back into my hand as I made a fist. The chitinous black plate on the back of my wrist lifted up and glowed bright-purple for a moment before a plasma bolt shot out. An instant later it passed through one Tusken’s back, then hit a second one and exploded. Blasting the entire upper half of his body into meaty chunks.

  “Space Marines are… Kinda garbage. Not that they’re weaker than Terran Marines. They’re definitely much more powerful. But they’re also just kinda overly complicated. They’re a lot like blasters in that sense.” I put away the bioblaster on my wrist and aimed the ‘simple’ Cycler Rifle at the last remaining Tusken man. He roared defiantly and fired a blaster pistol which missed by a lot. We were pretty far away after all. I pulled the trigger and his head exploded. The enemies were dead. But the Banthas… They would join the Swarm.

  I tossed the rifle aside and released hundreds of tiny flying scorpions. They flew over to the dozen Banthas and crawled inside their flesh. Mutating and transforming, infesting them… The Banthas stopped freaking out after a short time. Accepting their fate. Their minds were already connected to the Psionic Network. Their bodies would be transformed slowly afterwards. There was no rush.

  “Space Marines are fairly convoluted. However, the concept is still reasonable. In fact, Terran Marines are also genetically and cybernetically enhanced humans. Whether it’s Space Marines or Terran Marines however, they are still just infantry units. Their armor and weapons are more important than their bodies in most cases.” Without the armor, even the extremely powerful Space Marines would just get turned to mulch by their enemies.

  “I could make biological armor, but I feel like that would just defeat the point.” I smiled wryly as I floated up into the sky. I didn’t stop ascending. Moving faster and faster. The wind was blocked by my personal shield. The air got thinner and thinner, until it was gone. The twin suns tried to irradiate me, but the sunlight didn’t hurt or burn. I felt good. Warm and comfy, even floating in the void outside the atmosphere.

  “It would be counter-productive…” Izsha was silent for a while, as I kept drifting farther away from the planet, “As long as we have currency, we can purchase materials… No, we don’t need to purchase anything. We can mine and manufacture our own materials. We can create-”

  “Zerg structures that can act as manufacturing facilities. We can make Zerg specialized in creating non-Zerg buildings and structures. Terran armor, ships, everything… We can create Zerg who can create things. Well, either that or just assimilate people who know how to do that shit already.” I couldn’t help thinking about Anakin and his Mom.

  “What if we searched for the Star Forge?” She was obviously joking, “It would be safer to just capture a Trade Federation world where they construct Droids.”

  “Yeah, it’s really not that big of a deal.” I saw a Starfighter getting closer. It was gray and boxy. I could sense a few people on board, maybe a few Droids too, but that was harder to tell.

  “Although Zerglings, Drones and Overlords can fly, we do need to work on actual aerospace units like Mutalisks, Scourge, Corruptors and Guardians.” We didn’t need to follow the Zerg units religiously, but as a baseline, we might as well start there.

  “With Sarlaccs as a reference, we might be able to get some Leviathans. But I really do need to find some Mynocks to cross-reference some shit. Not sure if the silicon based lifeforms will be compatible with the Zerg though.” I couldn’t help thinking of Exogorths as well. Also silicon based, and if you find an Exogorth, you can find Mynocks in their stomachs.

  “Leviathans would be useful. However, we have not even conquered Tatooine yet. They are not a high priority.” Izsha sighed telepathically and asked, “Do you think I should remain a Hatchery or start my transformation now?”

  “We have ten other Hatcheries. There’s no reason for you to shackle yourself. If your new form isn’t perfect, you can always perfect it later. Just like mine is always improving… Changing. That’s just the way of the Zerg, right?” I dodged the giant blue plasma bolt and then ignited my purple lightsaber, deflecting another bolt back at the gun that fired it! The turret on the ship exploded, along with the dumbass inside the gunner seat.

  They tried to escape, but I was already on top of their ship in a moment. My toes dug into their hull as I reached down and punched my fist through the metal plating easily. Their air vented out of the ship rapidly, almost blasting me away. The humans inside were terrified, obviously, but there wasn’t much they could do to stop me from barging inside.

  It wasn’t like a sci-fi show where a little hole in the roof would suck everyone through and smash their bodies to paste. The PSI difference between inside and outside wasn’t that ridiculous. A piece of metal got stuck to the roof and blocked off the hole I made with my body.

  *Pew-pew~!* The woman with a cybernetic eyepatch fired at me twice with a blaster pistol. I deflected the bolts with my purple lightsaber. Killing her two companions. Then I reached out and her face was pulled into my hand.

  “No-no-no~! Please, spare-agggh~!” She gagged and choked as the centipedes, scorpions and other Zerg phenotypes drilled down her throat from my palm. I pushed her limp body off to the side as her stomach bulged rapidly. A moment later, dozens of black and purple Larvae emerged from her corpse. They devoured the biomass that was available in the Starfighter as the sirens blared constantly.

  “So do you think there might be some Exogorth-infested asteroids in this system? Or should I not even bother looking?” I watched one of the Larva spin a cocoon. The others just kept eating. Not just the people, but they also had some rations on the ship. Also some cargo, plenty of biomass, even some Essence we didn’t have before now. Random shit, fruits and veggies, random animal meats. Not particularly useful in terms of combat power, but maybe something to add to the garden later.

  “Father, if there were Exogorths near Tatooine, that seems like something that would be common knowledge. Someone in Mos Espa would know. Shmi might even know.” As she said that, the cocoon burst and a baby human girl emerged. The child had brown hair, brown eyes, tan skin. Rather than a newborn, she looked more like a toddler.

  The kid stood up easily and hopped up onto the pilot’s chair, not even bothering to look at me as she asked, “Where would you like to go, Master?”

  “Just take the ship back home. The Hypermatter will be useful when we figure out how to make biological Hyperdrives. The other parts could be taken apart and broken down or reused in the creation of the first Terran Command Center in the Garden.”

  “Yes, Master.” The little Shmi Clone had a slight smirk on her adorable face as she turned back around to pilot a starship for the first time. It was like she’d done it a million times before though. After all, Shmi was an amazing pilot. Almost as good as her son. And that’s without using the Force to cheat.

  “One major benefit of using Clones is that we can create them really fast, really easily, loyalty isn’t an issue, we can program them with knowledge and skills from their original or even from other people… I guess I could do the same to regular people too though.” I put away my lightsaber before I accidentally destroyed the ship. Then I walked over and sat down in the co-pilot seat. Watching the planet getting bigger rapidly. The ship had shields to protect us from atmospheric entry, so I didn’t need to worry about that hole that was barely covered by a sheet of metal.

  “They are resistant, almost immune to Zerg infestation. This will become problematic if they escape our control or if they get captured and experimented on by our enemies.” The Shmi Clones were literally only human. Even if they were birthed by Zerg Larvae, they were still human. And their immune systems were incredibly powerful.

  “They might be immune to infestation, but they’re not immune to bullets.” I rolled my eyes and reached out to carefully pat the little girl’s head as she giggled happily, “It’ll be fine. I’m not sure whether we should design them to self-replicate or simply breed to reproduce.”

  “We could make most of them infertile and then have Queens designed to reproduce.” Izsha gave a somewhat fucked up suggestion, but it wasn’t that bad of an idea.

  “Now I’m thinking about Xenomorphs…” I couldn’t help myself, “I mean, Xenomorphs are very similar to Zerg anyway. It’d be fine to use them as like… I don’t know, infiltration units? They’re kinda sneaky.”

  “Xenomorphs would be fairly easy to create. Would you like to create Predators as well? The Tusken would make a decent baseline to start with…” I’m not sure whether she’s kidding or serious, but it is true that Tusken kinda remind me of Predators. Predators are prettier though.

  “Anyway, I’ve been putting it off for a while now, but I should really go check up on my son.”

  “Anakin?”

  I sighed and shook my head, “Midnight.”

  The real Firstborn.