Chapter 20: Overlord

  “It feels kinda… Wrong, for some reason? I mean, I guess we don’t really know how the originals reproduce and shit like that. They do look very similar to a lot of Zerg as well. So… Hmmm, I don’t know. I think he looks badass though.”

  I looked at my new ‘Overlord’ that just emerged from his Zerg cocoon. He was a head taller than me now and I’m about seven feet tall. My body was bigger and bulkier, he was just taller because of his elongated and ridged head, plus the digitigrade legs. And that was with him slightly hunched over and his upper knee bent downwards. Blue skin, muscular torso, protruding hips, three fingers and a thumb, but that face was the most striking. No nose or mouth, just skin over bone. Those eyes glowed with a bright yellow light as his long tendril-like nerve cords danced around behind his back. He floated a meter off the ground and glared down at me.

  “Amon Kal… You are truly foolish.” He wanted to attack me, but he didn’t. He just slowly floated down and stayed there, his muscles flexed and then loosened. I could feel his emotions calming rapidly. His fury was replaced by serenity.

  “Why did you transform me into this form?” Even though he asked that, obviously he was able to see bits and pieces of my thoughts and memories. He was connected to the Psionic Network. But not everything was public knowledge.

  “It’s badass, right?” I smirked as he floated back down onto his feet, wobbling a little awkwardly for a moment before standing upright. When his legs straightened a little higher, he was even taller.

  “I wanted something cool, but also functional. So I went with this Protoss model I’ve been thinking about. Able to survive in a vacuum, doesn’t need to eat or drink, can withstand fucktons of radiation, even has a damn personal shield powered by a motherfucking Krayt Dragon Pearl! Telepathic abilities are way stronger than before, even your connection to the Force… Okay, well, maybe that’s about the same since I couldn’t boost your Midichlorian count any higher and you’ll have to do Jedi cultivation or whatever to get better at Jedi things… By the way, the color doesn’t have to be blue.”

  I poked his chest and then from there, the skin across his whole body turned as tan as the desert around us. I poked his chest again and he turned pitch-black, then purple and finally blue once more.

  “Can you give me my mouth and nose back?” He rubbed his face and then looked at his hands, “And my fingers.” Then he looked at his legs and feet, “I understand what you want from me, but this form is mostly unnecessary. There has to be a better way.”

  “Well, you can either look like this…” I raised my right hand and a massive purple Overlord floated down from the sky, “Or you could look like that.”

  “This is fine.” He decided not to turn into a giant lobster balloon with a spider-like head. Seriously, Overlords have long crab arms and legs, a big-ass, mostly-hollow torso that could fit an Ultralisk inside, then a spider-head with tons of glowing purple eyes and some antennae. Although I think they’re kinda cool and cute, it wouldn’t really be that beneficial to transform the poor bastard into one.

  “I’m still working out the kinks. They can’t travel through space or enter hyperspace… Yet.” I sighed dramatically and shook my head, “We’ll fuck that bridge when we find it. They can still fly and transport troops or materials though. As long as you ride inside the head, you can pilot it like a starfighter… Kinda. Probably, I don’t know, I’ve never really flown a starfighter before.”

  “You want me to ride in that creature and command your Swarm? To what end?”

  I shrugged, “Obviously you're not gonna be commanding the Swarm. You’re just an Overlord responsible for corralling the Zerg in a small area. In terms of hierarchy, you’ll be pretty low in the command structure, but you’ll still be above the basic Zerg units like Drones and Zerglings.”

  “But you’ll be below my daughters.” Izsha finally chimed in, making her presence known to the newbie.

  “Very well.” Sharad telepathically sighed, “What about my son and my Clan? Do you plan to transform us all into this… Shape?”

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Of course not.” I rolled my eyes, “A’sharad has way more potential than you. And he’s still just a child. If he wants to Ascend into a Protoss, it’d be better if he grew up as a human first. Besides, I need to run a lot of tests on him and it works best if he’s a human, so I have a better baseline to compare other human Force Users against.”

  Aside from Jedi, there were the Witches of Dathomir who were also human. Plus, there were plenty of other Force Sensitive human groups around the Galaxy. It’d be cool to find some Sith Purebloods to see just what the fuck makes them so special. That’s something for later though.

  “Anyway, the moral of the story is that you work for us now. Do a good job and you’ll be rewarded. Do a bad job and you’ll probably wind up dead before I get the chance to punish you…” I shrugged, “That’s about it. Any other questions?”

  “Too many.” He looked down at his crotch and asked, “Am I infertile?”

  “Hah~! Horny bastard.” I looked at his smooth crotch and explained, “You’re an Overseer, not a Hatchery. Reproduction isn’t something you need to worry about. If you’re that desperate, I can clone you a human body and you can use it to fuck whoever or whatever your lusty heart desires-”

  “No. This is fine.” He cut me off while raising his right hand, the air vibrated around him and his voice could be heard in every direction, “My only concern at the moment is my son and my Clan. Am I allowed to go to them?”

  “Go ahead.” I pointed to the sand dunes behind him, “Prima was supposed to go capture them, but she’s been hunting Lingling instead. Fortunately I have my very first Overseer now.”

  Dozens of dog-sized Zerglings emerged from the sand around us. They had wings, but they could still burrow pretty quickly and easily. Especially in sand. There were also a few larger Drones that emerged.

  “What stops me from taking my child and escaping Tatooine?” He glared down at me with his glowing yellow eyes, his voice reverberating in every direction, “Or simply killing you here and ending all of this madness?”

  “Aww, you’re so cute.” I floated up and patted his hard right cheek with my claw, “Even if I let you escape, would you really do that? Would you really run away and hide again? After gaining this much power and a method to seek vengeance for what happened to your family?”

  “Revenge is not the Jedi way.” He narrowed his eyes at me and used the Force to try to push me away, but he couldn’t anymore.

  “Okay, not revenge. Call it Justice, whatever. Those fucking pirates raped and pillaged on your world. Slaughtering millions. Kidnapping even more. Maybe some of your family members are still out there, getting used as sex slaves or working in mines somewhere? Meanwhile you’ve been out here, living your best life as a Tusken Warlord. Trying to make the Sand People play nice with the Moisture Farmers, but how long could that possibly last?” I sent some visions and images into his mind. Memories and things that Izsha kept stored for me. About the inevitable disaster that would occur when Jabba the Hutt decided to make the Sand People and the human colonists go to war so he could sell some old blasters.

  “Sharad, my father might be very forgiving and kind, but I assure you that I am not.” Izsha growled through the Psionic Network, “The Swarm has no need of traitors or defectors. If you escape, I wonder how many worlds will suffer in your wake?”

  “Seriously Izsha, you’re making us look like the bad guys.” I snorted and laughed, then dropped down to the sandy ground with a bounce. Spreading my hands, I asked, “So, what’s it gonna be? Run away like a pussy or accept your fate and make the most of it?”

  “Fine.” His eyes lost that ominous glow and returned to a tired brown, almost human appearance. His skin also shifted into a tannish color that blended in with the environment somewhat. Finally, he asked, “What about clothing? Am I meant to walk around naked as a punishment?”

  “Wear whatever clothing you want. Just cause I’m a nudist, doesn’t mean you have to be one.” I shrugged and pointed at the giant cockpit-sized head of the Overlord that was floating nearby. “Obviously your old Tusken outfit wouldn’t fit anymore, but you’re free to make a new one and wear it. I don’t really give a damn either way.”

  “Very well.” Accepting his fate, the badass Protoss of my own creation, walked over beneath the dangling legs of the Overlord and started floating upwards. There was a gaping slimy slit down the middle of the belly that accepted him inside. Following him, the Drones and Zerglings also crammed into the belly of the colossal beast.

  “It seems that everything is going according to plan, Father.” Izsha seemed pretty excited.

  “Pretty much.” I snickered as the Overlord floated up and away, then tapped my foot on the sand a few times. The ground vibrated and rumbled. A few moments later, I was lifted up into the air while standing on the head of an enormous purple-scaled Krayt Dragon. The beast’s many legs and super long tail were still under the sand, but just the head and neck along were massive.

  The long black horns sticking out from the dragon’s crown were aesthetically pleasing. The beast had three sets of eyes, in the event that some of them were damaged or destroyed. There were long tendrils dangling from her chin, with a big horn sticking up from the tip of her nose. I felt like she would look better with actual lips covering her giant fang-like teeth, similar to a more conventional dragon.

  Everywhere she swam through the sands, she left behind a trail of Creep under the surface. Creating massive tunnels that stretched for hundreds of kilometers through the desert. She released infrasound that allowed her to swim through the sand so easily. But it also had another effect.

  “Raooaaaar~!” The dune up ahead burst open and an even bigger Greater Krayt Dragon emerged! It had rough brown scales that had many craters and pits. The old man’s tiny red eyes stared at the two of us for a moment before it roared again, “Aaaaaarraaaaaaah~!”

  “Rah-rah go fuck yourself.” I raised my middle fingers at the horny bastard and then my daughter charged forward! She raised two huge crab-like arms up and bit down on the bastard’s throat before he could react! His body was much larger and he was definitely a lot older and more experienced. But that didn’t help him much. His forelimbs were clamped by those giant pincers, while her other feet ended in terrifyingly sharp and powerful blades! That dug into his underbelly, while her tail stabbed into his groin violently!

  Zerg Larvae, Zerglings and Drones were injected directly inside of his body! Eating the poor bastard from the inside out, while she was locking him in place and tearing out chunks of his meat to devour from the outside!

  “Hahaha~! Yeah, fuck him up!” I floated above the catastrophic battle, watching the two beasts toss and turn in the sand. A mixture of red and purple coated the dunes. The red was quickly swallowed up by the purple Creep though.

  An omen of things to come, I suppose.