>>12517127

Fuck yes, Zerg quest. Fun times ahead.

Also, no time-travelling Zerg goodness?

>>12517155
I'm thinking next week will be our Halloween Zerg Quest, with SPOOOOOOOKY ZERG!

Zime Terg are for some week when I'm too out of my mind to keep it together for a real quest. :D

>>12517247
i think you can sit that quest out, anon.

>>12517261
Depends on what's causing the problem.

Keeping it in reserve, anyway.

So, you guys just gonna wait for me to throw shit at you?

That never ends well, if you remember.

>>12517247

>Zime Terg

Why am I smiling so much at that silly pun? Is it perhaps my subconscious trying to tell me how awesome it'll be?

So yeah, just Bernie and myself for now? I would always kind of watch from the sidelines whenever the tactical minds would debate on action and throw in an idea for them to chew on. So...What's the status on Aiur out of curiosity. Can we have a rough estimate on how long it'll take the Protoss to retake the planet?

I'm prepared to try to make sexual innuendos, and hint at slapping penises on anything that moves.

Just to be safe, getting more people first may be useful and provide better ideas.

let's build a bernie?

i'm cool with letting psychozerg rampage around auir and plopping down emitters around cerebrates so they don't get horribly murdered while we reincarnate yours truly

>>12517280
i was trying to imply that you should let me handle the festivities

>>12517350
i think we stopped that.

vote berniebrate '11, btw

What about our new arbiter? Is there any way we could use it's abilities to speed up time on the zerg world and cause it to slam into auir before the protoss are ready?

>>12517324
The arbiter's sensors are substantially better than the carrier's were. It seems that the Protoss are refusing to use carriers to burn away the Zerg from orbit, insisting on ground combat. Since the Creep covered almost the entire surface of the planet, this means they will be at it for some time. Weeks, perhaps months. If the feral Zerg do less damage to themselves than they did last time they were without the Overmind's Voice, it could take up to a year and a half.

But they will regain the surface, if the Zerg are not brought under our proverbial thumb.

(Reminder: we had just started a bunch of colonies. If we want those back, we'll have to Emitter them up, too)

>>12517360
perhaps the arbiter could rewind time and tell you guys that the first one's the real one

it's an option

>>12517350
So, a quarter of the way through the first thread?

We quit that about 15 threads ago. Months.

>>12517360
Affecting gravity on a planetary scale is a bit beyond the scope of a single arbiter.

Get the arbiter back for study and mayhaps we should think on getting some psy emitters to Aiur. Even extracting force from Aiur would be useful to boost our brood or just to cause more havoc for the Protoss trying to re-take the planet back.

>>12517373

We leave the Zerg on Aiur.

We really can't afford to let the Protoss know we're still alive.

We SHOULD try to reclaim all of the colonies we had seeded towards Earth, though, that would be an excellent first step to rebuilding.

also, have Lab and Nargil pool their thoughts on general improvements to the Swarm, are there any nagging weaknesses that can be fixed?

We need to be stronger, faster, tougher, and only Nargil and Labbrate can rebuild us.

>>12517413
we could send a super-specialised team of zerg to round up the miscreants before recalling them to xenta and to a psi emitter, sounds like it would be a great plot for a movie

>>12517433

Bernie's Angels maybe? Oh wait, that's more of a series isn't it?

>>12517413
>>12517433
>>12517450

Guys, this is a really bad idea.

We're on the verge of extinction, and the Protoss think all the Cerebrates are dead. We can't afford to let them know we're still alive and operating.

>>12517450
don't pretend you wouldn't watch it

either way 12517431 has a good point; let them think they won.

how many psi emitters do we have/can produce? it might take a ridiculous amount of time to recover our expeditions anyway

>>12517466
I'd argue it's better if they know. As it stands, the Protoss on Aiur are united thinking they've defeated their foe. If they find out we're not dead, it is likely there will be Protoss eager to continue fighting us. This would split their forces from Aiur and if they were huge zealots in wanting to crush the zerg, it might damage some of the unity the Protoss have at the moment with some wanting to remain on Aiur while others hunt us down. It's all speculation of course, but I think it's worth considering.

That and I doubt Zeratul think's we're dead.

Nargil pauses momentarily when we ask about a strain designed to spirit away feral Zerg safely and quietly. It communicates to us that it can have a strain of overlord ready for this by sundown.

We fly the arbiter very casually out of the debris field. Jumping inside would be suicide. There is a lot of shuttle traffic, but the warships appear to just be patrolling the edges of the debris field, dispatching any Zerg that try to leave the thick area. We aren't immediately noticed, or contacted.

we should use the emitters to find our lost colonies.

who knows, maybe they're been growing without our advice?

>>12517466
>>12517470

I would watch that, I would watch the hell outta that. But still, Anon has got a point. We can't let the Protoss KNOW we survived, not yet. And even though it might take a long time, we should probably try to regain at least a FEW of our expeditions.

Were there any special strains of zerg on Aiur? Zerg "hero" units like hunter-killer hydralisks and such? Cause even if we can't retake control of the swarms on Aiur due to the need for secrecy we might be able to run a small rescue mission to retrieve certain valuable zerg units

Why can't we just start warping our broods over to the arbiter? We have a few seeded planets (I think) by now of reinforcements. Should just bring em over, let the arbiter recharge, and then repeat.

>>12517489

But the ground forces on Aiur aren't enough to beat the Protoss. Don't forget that they have the entire Protoss fleet in orbit around the planet too. If the fight suddenly gets organized, they'll just orbital the fuck out of us.

Them knowing about us is the worst strategic decision we can make at the moment. They're taking their time clearing the planet, that means they think the war is basically over.

>>12517489
>>12517528
>>12517511

we didn't really have any hero strains on Aiur, and the entire protoss army is present on the planet.

i doubt a single arbiter could warp in enough zerg to destroy even one ship in orbit, let alone retake the planet. plus, we need that arbiter for research.

>>12517496
can we retrofit existing overlords with mind control powers?

>>12517561

good future unit to have. we could mind control carriers and use them to orbital cannon their own ground troops. Would be a great power overall.

>>12517532
I agree with this, the toss are only doing things this way because the feral broods are not capable of true tactics, or of spreading like a controlled brood. Their world has already been devastated, and they want as much of it intact as possible, but that won't stop them from frying things from orbit if any sign of intelligence is detected. In fact they may use orbital strikes on the feral broods if for some reason it should prove too dangerous to wipe them out with ground forces.

Remember the protoss are only just getting stared with the liberation of aiur, we haven't seen the lengths they are willing to go

>>12517496
We begin loading Psi Emitters into overlords (Accountantbrate whines about us taking all its overlords, as usual, but it's really more out of habit than real objection, at this point) and send them toward our colonies. Many of them were still small. They may still be viable. Colonylord is hopeful.

Gorn suggests we send everything to Aiur, with all of our drones carrying one Emitter apiece, to bring the glorious battle back to life. Warbrate suggests taking an Emitter into the debris field, and taking air superiority while the cloud of death hides us.

Nargil has prepared ten recoverylords. It has equipped them with cloaking devices, though it still thinks our reliance on technology is...unholy.

Ah yeeeaaah Zerg quest. First time catching one of these threads in progress.

I say we should abandon anything on Aiur, can't do anything there without tipping the protoss off. if we can't find Kerrigan with the units at Char, get them out of there too in case the protoss decide check it out.

Throwing another vote for using psi emitters to recover any colonies that we launched earthward.

>>12517598

Fuck Nagril, it's served us well enough in the past.

I don't think we should bring the battle back to life, but to humor him, what remains of the Protoss force? Space-wise and Land-wise?

>>12517598

no! Tell Gorn to fuck off!

Trying to restart the battle is fucking terrible idea, WE LOST the first battle at full strength. We wouldn't have orbital superiority, our ground troops are running amok already and the protoss are already in position on the ground.

We'd reveal our continued existence in order to lose another battle and exhausting our remaining resources?

What happens when the Protoss counterattack?

We don't have any kind of defensive measures. Literally none.

They'd just send the Dark Templar here and slay all of us.

The arbiter gets a hail from a scout.

"Hail, arbiter! Are you alive? If so, rejoice! The battle is over! The Zerg are defeated. Come to the surface. Executor Aldaris will debrief you. He is the one who leads the Reclamation."

What shall we do?

(I'll be back in a minute. Gotta start the drinking. Can't do Zerg Quest without the drinking. You guys think Kingston's clever normally? Imagine if I were sober!)

>>12517598
Gorm is an idiot. They'll get blown up. Suggesting we go kill him.

Warbrate has a neat idea. Let's hide scourge and blow them all up when they try to leave. Could even use the arbiter to ferry more quickly/provide cover.

>>12517598
I think warbrates suggestion about the debris field has merit. The question is how many of the zerg in the field should we try to save? cause we can't take all of them, or it will look very suspicious to the protoss.

>>12517644
Let's send the arbiter down! We haven't been to a party in a while!

>>12517598

this is a bad idea. we should use those cloaked overlords to reclaim more colonies.

we should take a step back and find a new approach to take aiur.

remember, they already lost tsinoseng, and they can't warp in reinforcements and new buildings to any colony worlds they have.

once we get back to full strength, we should colonyseed like hell, and then make a concerted, overwhelming strike against every Toss colony at the same time.

Once those battles are over, we can focus on retaking Aiur itself, or just use zerg world to destroy it completely. holding aiur is only a symbolic gesture anyways, i'd much rather win the war entirely.

>>12517644
Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!

Ah, can we play dead? Or maybe we should make like we are heading to the surface and then warp out? Crap.

>>12517669
Wait, didn't they abandon some of their other outposts and crap to mass attack Aiur? We should claim those. More juicy, juicy Protoss tech to potentially take.

>>12517680
They'll think it's fishy! Let's go down and get absolutely hammered. It'll be fun, maybe we can get some psionic action.

Requesting psychic high five on the scout, in prospect for potential action with protoss. Place all the power of the Swarm behind our palm!

>>12517644

lol, what are the chances we can squish aldaris with the arbiter and blame it on an engine malfunction?

seriously though, can we say there's something wrong with our computer system, and our landing trajectories are malfunctioning? we need to go out-system to an orbital repair platform for proper repairs?

make sure we praise the day and shit as well.

>>12517698

lol, not sure what the Toss would do if a bunch of fleshlings got out and attempted to party with the Protoss High Council...

actually, i bet it would be like an awesome frat party. Everyone playing beirut, beer funnels, Zeratul macking on mad bitches, etc.

Make up something suitable to make it seem like we can't make it through atmospheric interface, and that we will be heading out for repairs. Then run like a bitch.


Also, on an unrelated note, we need more fleshlings, I think. And ridge scratchers.

>>12517644

Oh shit. First we'll

>Executor ALDARIS

WHAT.... HOW... BUT THAT DOESN'T..... GUH?


>Arbiter Actions

Okay, so the scout has hailed us and is asking if any protoss pilots are alive. That may indicate that there might be other Protoss ships out here that are functional, but not crewed by any living protoss.

Try to feign damaged autopilot... if that's at all possible.

>>12517725
We have an arbiter! Can't we push some buttons, cloak the fleshlings, and put holograms of Protoss over the top? It'll be a perfect scouting opportunity to find out who the movers and shakers in protoss society are.

>>12517737

Seconding the damaged autopilot thing, let's hope it works.

It would be nice to use this little break in the conflict to use Nargil and Labbrate to overhaul our genetics to improve every unit's performance.

I'm sure there are some tasty pieces of Protoss and Human genetic code we can use to our advantage. In particular, our overlords could totally have their psychic strength boosted with all the human and protoss DNA we've acquired.

I think mindcontrollords would be badass as well.

Oh, and for the love of God, send a cloaked overlord around the sector and try to figure out what the Confederacy has been up to all this time. Hopefully they're engaged in a bitter civil war with the Earth Directorate at the moment

>>12517785
I can't remember whether we killed the Sons of Korhal.

>>12517796
Yep, completely.

>>12517796
Yes. Yes we did. Every last one of them.

Unless I think Korhol's a good plot twist, later. Then we'll have missed some. >:D

>>12517745
We could pull that off on a comm channel, but we'd never convince a Protoss in person that a fleshling is a Protoss. If we land, we will lose our cover.
(Giving you guys a little more time to chat about this. It amuses me)

>>12517796

Well. We prevented their major power grab by preventing their Psi-emitter shenanigens on Tarsonis. And infested a major part of the Sons of Korhal's upper echelon, trolling Mengsk all the way.

Seemed so right at the time.

>>12517831
What if we just say we'll chill out up there, be all cool-like, get a clear space to warp out and say we'll teleport ourselves down in a little bit- And dump a good number of fleshlings to have a look and see if we can't assassinate someone.

>>12517831

Feign damage that prevents atmospheric interface, and then take us out of system, using suitably protoss-y language.

>>12517796

We did. Raynor, Mengsk, and Duke are dead. We had infested a pretty huge chunk of the Sons of Korhal before Kingston turned the Disruptor on, so the Sons are dead,

Unfortunately, Kingston used this to consolidate the Confedaracy and all the little Terran subfactions into one bighuge power. At this point in time, they're probably the most powerful of all three factions.

>>12517844

This is a laughably bad idea, man.

fleshlings are only good for rape.

feign atmospheric damage AND being on auto-pilot. We're simply warping back to the default repair station on some colony world.

>>12517831

I don't think we can pull a Han Solo on the arbiter. And as I recall, that didn't work real well on the Death Star either.

For the feigning damaged autopilot option, try to pilot the ship in random movements. Avoid obstacles as they come along, but appear aimless. If we have any infested protoss on hand, try to access their memories to see if they have any experience with salvaging damaged protoss craft or protoss autopilot AI stuff. It's a long shot, but it might be handy.

>>12517852
Oh no! Kerrigan will never be redeemed!

I still think we should at least dump some fleshlings to entertain Aldaris's guests before cheesing it. I don't even know what they're capable of, did you invent them while I was gone?

>>12517893

They're basically worthless in combat, and only good for the lulz of things. they're apparently the only Zerg unit that goes into a coma when not under psychic control, everything else goes feral and starts killing things.

but yeah, fleshlings piloting an arbiter would fall under the category of 'things that let the protoss know we're alive'. so we shouldn't do that.

...Do we know where any Ultralisks are? Feral or controlled, doesn't matter. We could recall them instead, and cheese it. They'll make a good mess.

>>12517938

We REALLY shouldn't let the Protoss know we aren't melting.

>>12517893
They produce their own creep. Otherwise they are mostly worthless, though that may change after Nargil completes it's research. Oh, also they can't be produced like normal zerg.

>>12517938
Thusly letting the Protoss know that the swarm is still kicking about. It would be best to just stay behind the scenes, and try to regroup as much as possible

Feign the arbiter being on auto-pilot or some-such.

>>12517852
>At this point in time, they're probably the most powerful of all three factions.

Boy, are they. We're in deep shit if we try to face them head on as we are right now. Yeesh.

>Raynor, Mengsk, and Duke are dead.

Poor Raynor died offscreen. Mengsk's alive, but he's probably doing sexual favors for Kerrigan, which can't be much better than death. Duke trolled Mengsk so hard that Mengsk flipped his shit and blew the back of Duke's head off with his pistol. I think it's one of the more epic human things we've had in the quest.

Anyway...

<><><><>

We pull up a holo-overlay on our comm channel, and simulate the voice of a nondescript arbiter pilot. "Glory to the Conclave! These damnable creatures have damaged my hull. I would not attempt an atmospheric approach. I will jump away for repairs elsewhere. Send Aldaris my best."

The scout pilot responds, "You are not the first to come out of the cloud too damaged to land. I believe the shipyards at Col'Athma are the suggested course for those too damaged to land. En Taro Feneschal!"

We turn, calculate the jump to Xenta, and leave. This situation is dangerous.

>>12517951
We could say sorry afterwards and claim that our recall system's borked. Or say something appropriate for a Dark Templar and hope they think Zeratul's responsible.

>>12517954
Indeed. Fleshlings are a dying breed of zerg, created through reproductive trials between cockalisks and female Terrans. Such trials have not occurred for a long time, and this thusly leads me to believe that there are few left. They are suitable for stealthy tasks, surveillance, and using Terran equipment.

>>12517977

You did NOT just have the arbiter go straight to xenta, did you?

ANYTHING coming to Xenta should randomwalk at least 4 jumps.

Secrecy is our armor, stealth our weapon.

>>12517977

Can we simulate a jump in the direction of this Col'Athma place, or only jump halfway there, and then jump to Xenta?

The time for little mistakes to fuck us over are done, seriously.

Okay, so.

We have an arbiter now.
We've sent overlords out to scoop up our expeditionary forces.
We're not doing anything for the ground forces for Aiur.
What to do? Let's start dissecting our Arbiter?
What other affairs of state do we have to worry about?

>>12517373
>But they will regain the surface, if the Zerg are not brought under our proverbial thumb.
I was wondering, do we have the means to produce Psi Emitters? Like the original, unalrtered, super Zerg-luring ones?

>>12518001
>>12518009
(My bad. Anyway, the scout had no reason to trace our jump or follow us. Assume I said we chain-jumped. Whatever. If somebody's following you, you'll probably know)

>>12517977
Wait, Feneschal? So her sacrifice actually completely redeemed her in the eyes of the protoss? Or maybe this is going to be like how Tassadars sacrifice inspired the younger protoss but upset the older ones?

interesting anyways

>>12518025
The originals are the same as the ones we're using. The other lured us through Kerrigan's psionic imprint. We're still not entirely sure why. Now that she's a part of the Swarm, her imprint no longer does that.

Anyway, these are imprinted with our psionic signature.

>>12518032
(Probably a little of both. Some of them are going to see that she saved their lives and allowed them to return in force. Others will just see that she ran, like a coward. Others will see that she single-handedly destroyed the Swarm. Oh, the debates the Protoss will have. They're still debating Adun, too. Anyway, everybody loves somebody who just died. People fucking love Michael Jackson, boyrape or none, now that he's dead)

>>12518082

Moving on:

We need to do the following:

Shore up the fleshling and infested terran ranks.
Get nomming some worlds for minerals/biomass
Create supertank that was mentioned before.
Find a way to replicate carrier beam weapon technology.

>>12518093
Voting we build a gigantic zergling which fires the laser beam from it's mouth.

>>12518082
Hmmm. Would it be possible to build a bunch of non-functional psi emitters, plant them in the renegade swarms on Aiur, and have the protoss discover them? Maybe try to convince the protoss that the terrans were responsible for luring the zerg to Aiur.

If we could somehow turn the terrans and protoss on each other, we'd have a chance to regain our advantage.

Anyone have ideas on getting the Terrins and Protoss to start fighting with each other? Maybe if we start doing isolated kidnappings of each race, expand our experimentation efforts on both races.

Maybe they will blame each other, allow us to observe them, gather new tech and bio strains based on our experiments of them.

>>12518082
When that Arbiter arrives at Xenta, have Labbrate begin researching and reverse-engineering the tech on it with a vengeance.
We took nukes, cloaking fields, and gauss weapons from the Terrans; now we need to take time dilation and shielding technology from the Protoss.

Have Colonylord and Accountantbrate prioritize getting Psi Emitters to the abandoned Protoss colonies that we had captured. Once those forces are under our control again, they need to lift off with all of the available abandoned Protoss tech. We can't afford the chance of a stray Protoss Scout coming to check some of their old holdings finding us.

>>12518111

Naw, the Protoss pretty clearly know it was who took Aiur.

We could totally do this on a Toss colonyworld though. In fact, that would be a great excuse to reclaim most of the Zerg going feral on Aiur. You get a gold star, Overlord 42!

>>12518120
I kind of like this idea, but how do we get the emitter past the protoss fleet?

>>12518111
If only that could work, I would be all for it. Sort of evil overlordy also.

>>12518111
No, because they would detect our delivery ship warping into the Aiur system.
But, if we could produce a powerful enough Psi Emitter that would put all of the feral Zerg on Aiur back under our control and lead them to a Protoss colony world, it might work.

Use a Terran battlecruiser, which warps in and activates the Emitter. The Zerg follow our commands and warp to an insignificant Protoss colony, destroying it before the Protoss arrive and warping back the bulk of the Swarm to Xenta to regroup.
Protoss believe Terrans are using feral Zerg as bio-weapon; Kingston was experimenting with just that.

We have one carrier still under our control over aiur once the arbiter has warped out right? Can we warp in a cloaked emitter overlord right as that carrier warps out? and ust the warp of the carrier to conceal the overlord? then we can take the emitter overlord into the debrise field and get som of our air forces back.

>>12518142
Don't we still have a terrain battle cruiser?
Can we like uninfest it. Send it carrying some non functional emitters to a protoss colony. When it is destroyed the Protoss will blame the Terrains

The damaged emitters will seem like the result of the crash of the cruiser. The more the Terrains deny it the more the Protoss will think they are guilty

>>12518093
Unless Nargil makes progress with them, fleshlings can only be produced by sex between fleshlings and/or Zerg with human stock.

Our infested human stock is down to one male ridge scratcher, one female ridge scratcher, and about a dozen factory workers that have somehow survived despite the odds on Xenta.

The tank is just "Cram all the best stuff into a tank and make it superawesomebadass!" I'm not doing it. Siege Cannon Ultralisks were stretching it enough.

We would need to disassemble one of our carriers to analyze the beam canon.

>>12518111
We could. Zeratul knows we did it deliberately, though, what with us taunting him and all.

>>12518121
The first colonies are returning to our control right now, actually. The smallest ones are unharmed. The larger ones are bleeding, but workable. Much work needs to be done to take back all of our holdings.

>>12518172

I LIKE how this man thinks, however, we'll need an appropriate number of properly infested(Read: normal looking) onboard the ship to make it look authentic.

>>12518172
The battlecruiser warps in at the edge of the system, and only sticks around long enough for the Emitter to bring the Zerg forces under our control, and for the Protoss to get a good scan of some Confederate technology (don't forget to be transmitting Confederate IFF transponder codes and some easily decrypted security comms chatter).

>>12518172
Would they necessarily detect it? We send the emitters inert, as they're going to be that way anyway, so they won't detect the psychic signal. As I understand it, Aiur is still a warzone, so slipping in a cloaked overlord or dropship or something shouldn't be too hard, unless I am misunderstanding the situation.

Zeratul knowing could be a big problem, though.

>>12518172

this plan would be badass.

i fully support it.

Makes it look like Kingston is using the feral zerg to soften up the Toss before expanding into their territory.

Holy shit, we could just lure them around the sector, destroying protoss colony worlds and then lure them ALL to the next one. we destroy all the toss colonies, rebuild our real forces, AND make use of all the feral units on Aiur.

PLus, the Toss get pissed at the Confederacy and they go to war, hopefully with a minimal amount of communication.

Oh, and we should glass a few Terran worlds with that Carrier we happened to have stolen.

Both sides are pissed, both sides are angry. We rebuild while they fight. This is perfect.

Also, we need to find Kerrigan immediately!

>>12518193
That's true, we'll need enough life-signs to make the Protoss scans of the battlecruiser look legit, and we'll need to have Nergil and Labbrate create a crew that can show up as Terran on Protoss scanners.
It shouldn't be impossible, since we have captured Protoss carriers that they can use to test their strains with.
They don't even have to look Terran visually; they only need to look like humans on Protoss sensors.

>>12518189

Can we at least upgrade our tanks with improved armor and shielding so they can be better force multipliers?

Also, I know that more fleshlings means we need humans. We also need more humans, period. Personally, I believe a backwater colony with <1 milion people should be more than enough bodies after collateral damage.

>>12518172
>>12518219
Better plans then mine.

>>12518205
A warp jump can't be cloaked, and can be quite easily detected by the sensors on Protoss ships.
The organic debris field might give us some cover, but I wouldn't depend on it.

>>12518120

The protoss might not want open conflict yet. Though they're not exactly as weak as they were at the start of Brood War, they still took fairly heavy losses in retaking Aiur.

Kingston will likely not want to upset the aliens who can scorch planets with capital ships unless he has a very good reason. Unless he starts acquiring a taste for protoss technology.

>>12518219

This is a good idea. Kingston WAS developing emitter technology, and the Protoss know it.

...Hm.

Maybe we could use our arbiter to make pretend protoss to attack the Terrans. We don't necessarily need to make it look as though the Terrans are casting the first stone; Hell, even if we legged it to a colony with our last carrier and started blowing some stuff up it could get the reaction we want.

>Lure the feral Zerg

Guys, we have no way to do this. The Emitters only lured us because Kerrigan's signature was wonky, and they never lured ferals. We could try to use a real Emitter to gain control of ferals and make it look like they're still feral and being lured around...

>>12518226
Our tanks are upgraded with low-level Protoss shields and cloaking devices, as are most of our troops. Much more than that, we haven't tried.

>>12518241
>>12518219

This is a great idea, but let's wait on it for just a little bit, so the Protoss have a chance to breathe, and we can scout out the Confederacy to see what they're up to.

>>12518241

you have a good point

but i still thing using the emitters to regather the swarm while masquerading as terrains is still our best shot of not being discovered. At the very least it will look like a Rouge Terrain faction doing experiments again.

Use the swarm to provoke the Toss and Terrains or bring them in a round about way back home to us, either is good

>>12518222
>>12518219
>>12518205
It won't work with Zeratul knowing about us though.

A better idea would be to stage completely seperate attacks against protoss rim colonies with zerg forces apparently controlled by a small terran base. It actually makes sense to, as without the overmind the zerg wouldn't seem to have any real driving intelligence.

Actually now that I think of it all the zerg kingston likely has in research labs will be much easier for him to control now.

>>12518269

Well, can we design an Emitter than say, fakes the Overmind's signature?

Worth a shot, at least.

>>12518269
We're not trying to lure feral Zerg around.
We're trying to gain control of them and make it LOOK like they're still feral but being baited around by a Terran Psi Emitter.

Have Artisanlord give us tips and instructions on acting, to make the deception work. It'll give him something to do and be happy about.

>>12518269

Ask Labbrate to begin prototyping upgraded models with full-strength shields and increased crew protection, and for him to include the relative cost increase vs. protection increase.

In addition, get Narqil on creating a strain suitable for factory work so we aren't ENTIRELY dependent on infested terrans for manufacturing.

>>12518235
We could still warp jump to a nearby spot, far from the range of their sensors, and slow-move in.

Unless we found a way to bluff Zeratul's knowledge though, that's not gonna work. What exactly did we tell him? Is it possible he may overlook what we said as bravado?

>>12518172
I like the plan, I just wanted to target Aiur because as
>>12518241
says, the protoss probably want to avoid war at the moment. If we could trick them into thinking the terrans were responsible for the zerg attack on AIUR, though, that would probably incite them to war regardless. That was my thinking, anyway.

Either way, I agree with the plan to try and use the psi emitters as a way to turn the protoss and terrans on each other. We need some cover to rebuild our forces and perhaps gain intelligence on the two sides.

I know our attempts of intiltration of the Confederacy have failed due to how police-state they've gotten, but maybe we could try Umoja and/or Moria?

>>12518289
Zeratul only knew that our Cerebrate form wasn't on Char; he doesn't know that we could break off from the Overmind and the Swarm.
All the evidence he has right now points to all Zerg going feral and being psionically cut off when the Overmind died. Unless we give him reason to suspect otherwise, he will think that we are dying on whatever hive-world we were taunting him from.

>>12518289

We do this. We need to infest some Terran borderworlds, give them fake emitters, and use our Zerg to make it seem like the Terrans are using the Zerg as shock troops.

Strategically, it's awesome. It's deceptive, it gets our presence a secret, and it creates hostility between Terrans and Protoss.

We could even steal Toss technology with the infested Terrans to provide motive, AND we get the benefits.

This whole plan might save the Zerg.

Might I also suggest we do what daddy wanted and try to get into contact with Kerrigan? The sooner the better methinks.

>>12518308
We aren't reliant on infested Terrans for factory work. That's just where our remaining Terrans are.

<><><><>

>Provoke the Protoss into attacking the Terrans

Warbrate gives us what seems like the psionic equivalent of a funny look at the thought. It reminds us that the Protoss are spending all of their resources in a glorious quest to regain their home. Now, the Terrans, it muses. THEY are locked down tight against an alien invasion, ready to leap at the first threat they see...and we have two carriers at the ready...

>>12518333
I don't think tricking the Protoss about Aiur will work, since it was pretty obvious that it was a completely Zerg operation.

As for Umoja and Moria, they've already been notified by the Confederacy about the Zerg, and from when Infested Raynor attempted to infiltrate the Protectorate, it seems that their defenses have been tightened as well.
Especially if Raynor went berserk or catatonic (when the Psi Disruptor came online) within view of the Protectorate.

>>12518341

Exactly, the best thing to do is keep our presence secret for as long as possible, and start infiltrating Terrans again.

For once, we have some time to work with.

We should use what few fleshlings we have left to infest Terran worlds with the super stealthy spores we developed and go from there.

We'd have to start with the Protectorate though, unless the Confederacy has eased up on its police state.

>>12518359

I think we should hold off on the attack right now.

Kingston is smart, there's no reason he might not try talking first and find out that we're behind the attack, especially if we try and make it look like a "zerg infestation so glass the planet" deal. And if he finds out, the toss find out, and get dark templar up our ass.

Careful with these quests threads. If the mod doesn't like it, he'll ban ya.

>>12518359
That'll work too.

Do we know of any planets where research is being conducted on controlling zerg? We send the carriers there and burn those facilities from orbit, killing zerg with little regard for terran life fits with the motivations of the protoss before we took Aiur.

>>12518388
That's why we don't glass the planet. All we need to do is target facilities where there are zerg.

>>12518359

Okay, this is our open.

We use those two carriers to attack a Protectorate world, but DON'T destroy it. Make it seem like some kind of reclamation, like the Protoss are just reclaiming some artifact and they couldn't bother waiting, so they just blasted the area and took what they needed.

In the confusion, we warp in cloaked overloads carrying fleshlings with our stealthy infestation spores. We infest up through the Umojan ranks, gaining control of their armies.

We then use our guys to start hostile action against the Protoss, possibly using our fake feral Zerg as shock troops.

For once, I feel good about a plan we've come up with.

>>12518394
I'd rage so goddamn hard...

>>12518395
This

but I still think, using battle cruiser with false emitters to fake lure around the feral zerg is a good idea. The protoss will think the terrains are doing more research and at least send some harsh words and warnings. Which will promptly piss off the tarrains. All the while we are recovering some of the swarm to act as our defense while we rebuild

>>12518410

You're missing the point. IF we attack with toss units, Kingston MIGHT end up trying diplomacy, which might end up with us being airtighted by toss and terrans.

>>12518395
I think this probably has the best chance of working, but we'll probably only get one or two shots in before the terrans have enough defenses to foil our carriers before any more world-glassing takes place. So we need to make our choices count.

Going for worlds with zerg on them (like the aftmentioned experimentation facilities) sounds like the best option.

>>12518359
Crazy enough to make something happen. Perhaps we can look for some random Terrans over on Aiur (should there be any), yell at them about the sacred planet, then burn them with the carriers. That could get them rifled up.

>>12518428

But if we use the Umojan Protectorate, Kingston won't have any direct power over the situation.

Unless Kingston annexed the whole Protectorate somehow, I think it's a good plan.

>>12518441
And as a bonus we hamper the terrans attempt to turn the zerg into a bio weapon.

Ok, guys. I'm going to go buy booze to possibly make money buying booze.

I'll be back soon. Very soon.

Don't worry that I'll forsake you. I shall return to you, my children!

>>12518457
Kingston doesn't have direct power over the Protectorate, but he most likely has spies that will tell him what happened.
While the Protectorate might attempt to fight with the Protoss, Kingston would likely attempt to open dialogue between the Protoss and the Confederacy. We can't allow that to happen.

>>12518501
Find something important to Kingston and destroy it with the carriers. Or something that's important to the rest of the Confederacy that would drive the people mad at its destruction. Even if he opens dialogue with the Protoss, there will be civil disorder over it if the rest of the population does not want that.

>>12518289

Alternatively, we could try another plan. It's a bit sneakier and admittedly more cowardly.

Firstly, we're a very weakened Zerg brood. An unconventional brood with great potential to evolve the Zerg in ways never conceived, but still a shadow of our former selves. We might have to consider pulling away our main forces from known space, and search for new species amongst the stars. We could see how tinkering with Zerg/Terran/Protoss hybrid psionic potential could work out, and perhaps try to evolve the Zerg command structure to make it less susceptible to psionic disruption.

HOWEVER, we can still continue on with the espionage angle. There are many Confederacy worlds, and merc havens / pirate planets besides that may not have as many infestation detection measures as the Confed core worlds do. We have Labbrate cooking up a deadly killing plague for protoss and terrans respectively; maybe we can also have him working on a strain of the Zerg hyperevolutionary virus that can *very* gradually infiltrate Terrans and activate a quick, virulent infestation at a psionic fingersnap.

Although this is borrowing heavily from Kel'thuzad's playbook, imagine what we could do if we could get subtly infested Terran proxies to pay smugglers to spread infected water into the Confederacy's agricultural systems. Let the virus hide in the food supply, have Terrans eat infested food a few years. Then when we are ready, we might have potentially *millions* infested Terrans spread throughout the Confederacy's territory.

Admittedly, the part about the virus is a bit of a pipe dream. But still, it's nice to dream.

>>12518519

You are a fucking retard.

The ONLY thing keeping us alive right now is that EVERYONE thinks we're dead/hiding like a bitch.

We CANNOT risk losing the only advantage we have on the off chance that we'll provoke a war between our enemies.

>>12518550
... Right. Using the protoss carriers to do that instantly shows the zerg are doing it. Guess we better never attack people, or people will know we're still alive!

>>12518538

I think regardless of any strategy we pursue, we should be constantly expanding colony worlds to unknown directions.

Each colony world should basically seed 5 more worlds, who seed five worlds, etc etc etc.

We should expand in every direction OUT of the Koprulu sector, while operating behind the scenes to manipulate the Terrans and Toss, collecting genetic data from every alien organism we come across to strengthen the Swarm.

Having huge armies that neither side would know about would awesome. Commanding our army thousands of lightyears away from the nearest Dark Templar sounds even better.

Oh, and as for our Protoss plague...maybe we should plant that data in Terran hands somehow. God knows, the Terrans will eventually deploy it or we should stage its deployment, and that will almost certainly start a massive conflict between the two factions.

>>12518519

Kingston is smart. If he's got any inkling about the major undertaking that the Protoss just pulled off, he knows that the 'Toss aren't too eager to get pulled into another full-scale war. He won't be above espionage and stealing protoss 'tech and hiring mercs to GET said protoss 'tech, but nothing that he can be directly linked to. A protoss attack on Terran space will look suspicious, no question about it.

Although perhaps we might investigate the option of getting unscrupulous Terrans to attack remote protoss settlements and scavenge technology. Get one of those subtle infestations on a moderately rich Terran in one of the more remote systems of the Confederacy, get him/her to discreetly hire mercs to do smash n' grabs on protoss fringe worlds. While we equally discreetly ship the protoss tech to Labbrate for him to study and peruse.

To me, it seems like the Zerg are still sinister infesting beasts to most of the Protoss. They may not suspect that the ZERG are doing semi-corporate sabotage; it fits TERRANS to a tee, though.

Also: I propose to get one of the less developed Cerebrates that survived Char to be taken under Nargil's and Labbrate's wing. We shall call him Internbrate, and reward him with a true name if/when he shows mastery over SCIENCE! Potential internbrate could be a good cross between Labbrate's scientific prowess and Nargil's bioengineering skills.

>>12518550
>>12518588
Of course, while we incite war, we have to continue to grow, expand, and consolidate our forces. It's just essential to mess up the terrans and protoss too, because otherwise they're going to be building up too, only from a stronger economic base (in the case of the terran, anyway). We need something to slow them down, like in-fighting or war.

We shot ourselves in the foot by breaking up the Sons of Korhol, really, so we have to make up for that.

>>12518633

Do what this man says.

>>12518635

I agree, but at the time it seemed like a smart move. Not really our fault I guess.

Also, for the love of God, can we PLEASE find Kerrigan?! She's up to no good, and the last thing I want to find out is she's founded her own renegade Brood.

>>12518633
How the hell is a protoss attack on a planet with zerg on it suspicious? The toss burned entire terran worlds because of zerg, it's completely in character for them.

>>12518671
Well, the anon collective WAS kind of getting encouraged to screw with Mengsk the whole way by the GM.

Overlords, if I, Newlord, may suggest something along a different line of strategy. Leading the Protoss to war with the terrans is a sound plan of action, but shouldn't our immediate plan be to replace some of the key resources we've lost? Namely, standard troops to defend our physical presence, fleshlings to use in our gambit, and more humans to construct our new devices.

I propose to you that we proceed with raiding the more remote colonies of the moria combine to acquire humans and materials. We then decimate these colonies with protoss carrier weapons to leave the appearances of a protoss reclaiming initiative. We harbor our best assets of stealth and work to establish our personal security then set a larger plan in motion.

A second thing to consider could be to utilize our tanks to make it appear that our "harvesting" of these colonies is human piracy. Either way, a diversion gambit suits our needs here.

>>12518701
Actually, we prevented Tassadar from burning Antiga to the ground. So the Terran experience with Protoss zealotry is limited.
This plan to get the Terrans riled up against the Protoss might not work.

>>12518379
Let's do this Genestealer cult style. Work within the system, drive around in darkened vehicles. Infiltrate society itself. Let's use the no doubt apparent 'these are the end times' mindset of the ever paranoid humans against them.

Of course we may need to breed them to act on their own, and with some sophistication.

>>12518710
But they still burned mar sara and chau sara or whatever those colonies from the start of the original campaign were called.

>>12518671

We must assume that Kerrigan is already going about her own business. Whether she thinks we're either dead or soon-to-be-dead, she is probably already gathering strength. She wasn't too crazy about sharing power in any shape or form too; another Brood War may be inevitable.

>>12518738
Won't know until we find her. The Overmind said our cooperating with her was key in our success so we should aim to get her on our side.

What no? No raiding? No harvesting humans? No rebuilding? Awww man I wanted to help.

>>12518771

The main synapse of Cerebrate Anon is currently out getting booze. The rest of us ganglia are taking this rare opportunity to convene and conspire!

>Find Kerrigan

You're being too vague, sirs. Find her, how? Send stuff to Char? Activate the Bat Signal?

>>12518701
(Canonically, they burned two worlds, and we trashed Tassadar's fleet as he was about to glass Antiga. The Confederates, as far as we know, have only seen the Protoss through the barrel of an orbital cannon)

Also, I have returned to you, my children. My booze is strong, as is my will.

>>12518783
Rare opportunity? Pish posh. I let you guys conspire all the time. Apparently, a lot of people get annoyed at how much I let you conspire (of course, conspiring where I can see you isn't TOO productive. Now I'm imagining you guys setting up exclusive channels to plot things where I can't hear. What madness!)

>>12518633

Basically, this should be our initial strategy. The Protoss should move to defend themselves and fruther hostilities. If they don't, we can accelerate the conflict with the carriers we have.

We should also give the Protoss plague to the rich business Terran we infest; we could have him "capture" a live Protoss, design it, and have him sell it back to the Protectorate or Confederacy. We can then use all that money to build bigger raiding parties, etc etc.

Meanwhile, we're stripmining worlds as fast as possible, and infesting pirates and borderworlds.

Again, we should try to find Kerrigan and offer to treat her as an equal.

Also, now is the time to start infesting all the Terrans who don't answer to the Confederacy. Pirates, criminals, underlings, etc.

>>12518783
That I see my fellow cerebrates, but what do you think of my plan of action that I propose, simply to better prepare us for the success in our venture to lead the terrans into war with the protoss.

I am pleased to learn that my over the top supertank was enough to get shields onto our tanks. I am pleased. Here's and idea for messing with the Confederacy, labor unions. Would have to start in the Protectorate or Combine, but if we could get regular work stoppages on the Confederate core worlds...

>>12518803

Start sending out cloaked lords to systemically search the sector. Her psychic signature is pretty distinctive.

Implement the plans here and here.
>>12518818
>>12518633

>>12518803
Formal proposition:

Get of one of the lesser Cerebrates that we rescued from Char. Have Nargil and Labbrate guide him in matters of SCIENCE! and ZERGBIOSTUFF! respectively. Call him INTERNBRATE until Labbrate/Nargil decide that he has graduated from Zergford University.

>>12518838

YES. Have Artisanlord teach him creative problem-solving as well. Don't forget to breed him a living "degree", a ridge scratcher!

So we're now up to 8 lesser cerebrates tehn? Dave. Flopie. Salem Saberhagen. Number 4, Paula, Wormface, Toaster, and Intern.

>>12518830
(They already had cloaks and shields, man. In fact, now that we've got a surplus of harnesses, we'll be back to having shields on all our units, instead of just those who got to the stash first)

>>12518838
We evaluate the Cerebrates, and choose the one that seems brighter. Labbrate seems uncharacteristically suspicious of the plan. Nargil just flippantly tells the youngster not to get in its way. Internbrate seems awkwardly out of place. From what our Terran memories tell us, this is pretty much what interns are like.

(You guys are set on the infestation gang war? How are you planning to start?)

I agree with sending out scouts throughout the sector, but I think that our Wraiths should be used for that job in Terran and Protoss space.
Simply because I don't want them even seeing a Zerg unit unless we want them to.

>>12518854

We should actually put all of our lesser cerebrates through Zergford. Have our specialists teach them their specialties. If the lesser cerebrates show affinity to one task over another, then they should graduate into that field (with a complementary ridge scratcher!)

>>12518851

Have him create a fully sapient, intelligent, but still very zerg-loyal ridge-scratchers from scratch as his graduate work!

Ridge-scratchers for everyone! Also infested terran template that we don't need to kidnap terrans for!

>>12518874
>Infestation to increase numbers
We need to identify an out of the way smuggler or pirate haven, blockade the planet, jam their communications, and forcibly infest all of the inhabitants.

Whatever happened to that experimental ECM system we captured way back? Is it operational? Can we use it to prevent a planet from calling for help?

>>12518854
(We had two lesser Cerebrates. I'll be willing to bend things to four, including Internbrate. You can name the other three as they gain a purpose, as has been our custom)

>>12518851
Artisanlord floats over Internbrate imperiously for several minutes, communicating Overmind-knows-what, before declaring that it can teach no more, and floating off. It mumbles something about an asteroid mural.

Internbrate seems even more confused.

>>12518874

I think the general consensus is using stealthy spores on backwater Protectorate colonies.

Use cloaked wraiths to transport the infection vector, use as little Zerg units as possible.

We do the same for pirate outposts and outlaw orbital stations.

Basically, keep infesting until we infest someone rich enough and powerful enough to start hiring large merc teams.

These merc teams don't have to be infected either; in fact, I would prefer if they weren't.

The teams should then begin capturing Protoss technology and units sneakily, we can research them. Onec we've acquired enough knowledge, start selling the info (and Protoss plague) back to the Terran factions.

It will get our Mercenary guy noticed, it will make him rich enough to be a minor power, and hopefully the Terrans will end up using the plague.

Meanwhile, our colonies are expanding in every direction, but AVOIDING THE PROTOSS AT ALL COSTS. Whenever the Protoss show up, we have to pretend to be FERAL. EVERY TIME.

My question is what are the limits of our creativity with improving our fledgling cerebrates to be? If there's some mutability issues I would like to propose we begin research into making our newest cerebrate something of a new breed. Psychic power is a weapon we've long ignored for a direct offensive power, I propose we develop a cerebrate that could be the delivery mechanism for a psychic virus capable of destroying the minds of those who oppose us.
We keep this weapon a secret and wait for the time when Zeratul sends his lackeys after us. A psychic assault will slay the weakling humans and bring their technology to our fore front while finally maximizing the greatest gift our capture of the protoss genetic structure has given us. Perfection of form... power beyond the material realm.

>>12518929

Addendum.

Now that the Sons of Korhal are basically destroyed, we should aim to fulfill their role. Let's not try to overthrow the Confederacy, like they would have, let's just become a trusted wing of the Terrans for now.

>>12518929
Blowing up a couple Terrans on Aiur more short-term, and we would see the effects almost immediately. Discounting the problems involved with infesting whole planets and hiring mercenaries.

>>12518929

The infestation spores should, ideally, be the ones used to infest Raynor & Co. But if possible, have Labbrate try to refine it to be more undetectable.

As for Kerrigan... that might be tricky. Consult Nargil for advice; he was the Swarm's tracker and hunter of hated enemies.

>>12518951

We're trying to avoid direct diplomatic contact between the Toss and Terrans. The last thing we need is for Aldaris and Kingston to start talking.

By using non-infested mercenaries, we ensure that both sides know a rebel faction is responsible. We can then use them to drive hostilities forward between the two sides.

>>12518951
>Blowing up a couple Terrans on Aiur
What the fuck are you talking about?
There are no Terrans on Aiur, and it's extremely unlikely that the Terrans even know the coordinates for the Aiur system.

If you were referring to the plan to use a Terran battlecruiser as part of a false flag operation, you should have been more clear.

>>12518929
And focus on stealing from sacred protoss worlds, just to be sure. Also I came up with a new idea, two actually, and they both involve vultures. 1) strap nukes to vultures, and 2) replace the legs of an ultralisk with a layer of slime and ion drives from vultures. High speed ultralisks and nuclear land torpedoes anyone?

>>12518976

lol, ion slime nukalisks?

We should make one just for the comedic value.

Umojan Protectorate worlds:
* Umoja
* Icarus IV

Infest which one?

>>12518936

Experimenting with psychics is never a bad thing. We can look into that with our infestation of core worlds.

A psychic virus might be a bit *too* implausible. But Cerebrates are essentially huge brains that communicate with psionics for *everything*. It might not be too much of a stretch to see if we can harness that brainpower into a more offensive aspect. Perhaps we can have Labbrate tinker with Psi-emitters to create a psi-disruptor that has detrimental effects on protoss psionics.

>>12518971
And the terran battle cruiser idea was stupid in light of the fact that we have two working protoss carriers we can use to stir up the terrans against the protoss.

Seriously, find a terran research facility with zerg and blast it from orbit. It'll piss them right off and they'll have no idea it was actually us who did it.

>>12518988
No nukes on the ultralisk, but I like you thinking. NUKES EVERYWHERE!!!

We require more information... population, standing arms, visible technology levels.... strip clubs?

>>12519007
Suddenly FIRST BORN MIGRAINES EVERYWHERE!

>>12519002

Which one has stricter security protocols?

I'm guessing it's Umoja, in which case we should infect Icarus IV.

Seriously, take no chances. Be extremely cautious.

How are our colonies proceeding? Has the second wave of colonylords been prepared for departure?

Alright, we've been at this for 3 hours now, with no end in sight.

I move that for the immediate future, we go ahead with sending our battlecruiser to Aiur, outfitted with more powerful Psi Emitters and with sensor bafflers and properly modified Zerg lifeforms to fool Protoss sensors into thinking that this is a legit Terran battlecruiser (use Protectorate codes if we have them, use Confederate codes if not).
We take control of the feral Zerg, make it look like they've been ensnared by the Terran Psi Emitter, and have them warp to some small Protoss colony world. Have them raze it, then the Zerg and the battlecruiser will disappear before the main Protoss forces can arrive.
We make it look like a rogue Terran element is attempting to use the Zerg as shocktroops with the Psi Emitter.
We periodically do this to keep the charade up, having all Zerg forces appear to still be feral.

Sigh, why did this come into my head. Why can I see the UED coming in an, relatively, peacefully annexing the Confederacy as easily as I see a messy invasion.

>>12519007
What I propose with our psychic virus is a new means of delivering our wrath to our enemies. But perhaps it is too unrealistic... too insane and mind boggling... but say we focus on fixing a different weakness we have, a reliance on terran technology... would it possible to create a biological version of their psi emitter? A Cerebrateling we keep in stasis and then deposit on a world? A psychic cry driving the feral zerglings wild? A different new means to ending our reliance on technology while still appropriating the principles and science we have gained from their tiny hominid brains.

Barring that... tittylings. The ultimate distractors.

>>12519039

We should wait on that until we've found someone on the Terran side who can have plausibly set that up.

We shouldn't leave any holes in this story, it has to be extremely believable if we want this to succeed.

>>12519002

I vote for going to Icarus IV.

Agricultural planet! We can have Labbrate experiment with a sinister and subtle zerg infestation virus there!


Other info: Umoja may be an official part of the Confederacy, but I'm guessing that they still aren't totally compliant to Kingston. If we're looking to stir up internal strife amongst the Terrans, that might be a good place to start. The Umojans in canon SC were seeking for peaceful contact with the Protoss also.

>>12519062
Agricultural huh... I'm thinking organized labor should come into play... yeah infest everyone and then make them go on strike. I assume this is the main food source for Umoja, so that could get interesting.

>>12519054

Cerebrate Anon has already said biological psy emitters aren't happening in this quest, sadly.

I think we SHOULD, however, work on alternate infection vectors.

What if we designed a virus or organism that didn't do ANYTHING immediately, just spread through out a colony very quietly. At our psychic command, it would activate and begin the infestation process.

That way, the infection could spread to everyone before infestation began, and when the process was remote activated, EVERYONE is infested in two days. During which time, we could fake some kind of communications error and blockade the planet, so no one gets in or out until everyone is under our control?

>>12519082
That would draw attention to the proposed infesation, which would be bad.

>>12519088

Yeah, solid point.

Also, where is the closest Terran pirate hangout? Once we have infected a rich enough Umojan, we can have him "hire out" the pre-infested pirates as mercenaries to do the smash and grabs on the Protoss.

>>12519082
We don't want to draw any more attention than possible to our operations. A labor strike would run counter to what we are attempting, which is a stealthy infiltration.

>>12519088
Then could we just infest enough people to start the organized labor movement. Please. I want communist SCVs.

>>12519039
That will not work.

The terrans don't even know where Aiur is.

We need to use our carriers against terran installations if we want to cause hostilities between the terrans and the protoss.

>>12519002
Infest Icarus IV. What version of the Infestation spore do we currently have available?

>>12519082

I was thinking more along the lines of having Labbrate and Nargil play around with the Zerg hyperevolutionary infestation virus. Make a waterborne version that infiltrates Terran DNA and gradually replaces key parts of it (without seriously developing mental/physical manifestations of infestation), see if it can use foodstuffs as a vector. Also see if we can remotely "activate" infestations if the virus is given enough time to cook in Terrans who consumed infected food.

>>12519113
Acute-takes a month
Mild-takes a few
OMG WHAT'S GROWING OUT OF YOUR FACE-a day
if I remembered right

>>12519102

There are probably enough mercs/pirates that would be willing to steal from remote protoss settlements for enough money, regardless of their infested status.

It would also leave less of a paper(?) trail leading to us.

>>12519007
Labbrate tenses all over at the mention of a Disruptor. We feel terror and repressed memory come through the psionic link.

>>12519033
Umoja has stricter security, not just because it's the capital, but also because Icarus is little more than a farm world. It is unlikely that anybody there will have the resources to hire our mercenaries.

We have regained control of all of our colonies. We have begun sending a new wave of overlords outside the Koprulu Sector, vaguely in the direction of Earth.

>>12519054
>bio-Psi Emitters

No. A thousands times no. Every thread since they first appeared no. I'm sorry if I sound gruff, but no. Every thread. No.

<><><><>

Reminders: We have a carrier in the debris field over Aiur. Its engines are repaired if we wish to bring it to Xenta for its much-needed repairs.

The field is full of the remaining air forces of the combined Swarm. It is full to bursting with shit too dense to detect individual units through. Warbrate thinks we should take an Emitter in there and gain control over the air forces incognito. Gorn thinks we should rush Aiur.

We have two carriers over Xenta, and two battlecruisers. We also have five infested Protoss. They're all just chilling.

>>12519128
woopse mild-takes a week

>>12519141
Have the infested protoss do 1 dance routine of our invention to be shown to artisanlord as a sign of our appreciation of him.

>>12519113
>>12519128
Mild would take a few days, alerting planetary medics that something's up, but yeah. This is basically it.

Could we stick a hydralisk inside a dragoon shell. Not for any military purpose I just want to see it done.

>>12519141

Move forward with infecting Icarus,

Even if no one there is rich enough, there has to be regular visitors from one planet to another. Use the infested on Icarus to start on Umoja.

Also, maybe our rich merchant guy can just be a pirate captain? Either way, we should infest pirates too, and use them to infest the people they raid. I'd like to have our new infiltrators be very spread out and in different parts of Terran space.

Bring the Carrier back to Xenta for detailed research and study. If necessary, give the same reasoning as the arbitor we already snuck out of there.

How is the research with the arbitor, protoss plague going?

Also, what do you think of the psychically activated virus (the PIV)? If it's feasible, begin research and production.

>>12519141
Would it be possible to warp in Cloak Overlords far enough out of the system that their warp jump would be undetected by Protoss sensors?

Also, besides our battlecruiser idea, does Warbrate have an idea on how to warp the Zerg aerospace assets out without arousing Protoss suspicions?

Could we rig a bomb to detonate as we initiate a Warp Jump, momentarily blinding Protoss sensors to the gravimetric readings of the Jump?

>>12519141
Bring home the carrier for repairs. We need to gather information in case we want to use our carriers against the terrans soon.

In the meantime, gather our psi emitters, just in case. Intelligence comes first, but we do need to get moving just in case Kingston is planning something. We need to one-up him.

>>12519196

Dude, we aren't warping shit to Aiur. Give it up. Any planned action would only let them know we're alive.

If they know we're alive, we lose our greatest asset right now.

I'd like to ask that we start devoting resources to capturing human specimens from backwater planets, and working on infesting them with minimal outer changes.

From there we can work on putting them back into human society, small planets, and studying human nature. The fruits of understanding our foes social structures could be beneficial.

>>12519141

>Carrier

Have it warp out as stealthily as possible for repairs.

I disagree with regaining control of forces over Aiur. Too many and the Protoss will know for certain that something's up. The Feral Zerg there will reinforce the idea that any remaining Zerg are feral, and thus uncontrolled and/or unguided by any sapient force.

>bio psi-emitters

Psi-emitters are basically stuff that lures Zerg to places or asserts control over Zerg. Cerebrates do that CONSTANTLY. It's like moving an arm or winking or grabbing something. A psi-emitter is basically a more sophisticated analogue of those toy robot claws/hands that you could wear over your arm and clench into various vulgar gestures.

Don't get me wrong though. A huge robot exoskeleton for our Cerebrates could be a potentially awesome thing.

>>12519195

Oh, and if I wasn't clear, use the slowest and safest infestation route.

I say we look to infiltrate Icarus IV. We use an undetectable, long-term strain that can be spread through the food that'll be shipped off-world to Umoja. Meanwhile, recall our units from Char and Aiur.

After that, we just lay low while building up resources, armies, and spreading the infestation virus.

>>12519196
Or we could just, you know, ignore warbrate and gorn. The protoss will have their hands full for a while cleaning up Aiur, so I think we should worry about the terrans.

>>12519164
Gorn watches in awe as our Protoss perform a choreographed dance for Artisanlord, who has just returned with a third small asteroid for its asteroid mural.

Artisanlord seems delighted. Gorn seems confused and disgusted. Colonylord uses one of its crab arms to scratch its head.

>>12519234
Looks like we need to teach Gorn about the joy of poetry.

So we are on our way to Icarus IV, what shall be the means of delivery for our virus, our forces, our infection? Shall we leave and agent to monitor the progress?

>>12519234
If we use the undetectable long-term strain of the infestation spore, how long will it take and once the infestation reaches critical levels will there be any noticeable side-effects?

If possible, I think we should get it both into the water and food supplies, so that when the crop gets shipped off-world, we'll also infect their customers.

>>12519291
Probably best to use cloaked Wraiths and our spore missiles.

>>12519301

Basically, it's completely undetectable. Once infested, the humans don't look any different at all.

And I definitely agree thar all food and water exported should be infected, would be an easy way to infect a lot of people simultaneously.

>>12519222

This.

If possible, have the Labbrate duo work on a strain of spore that is the most undetectable yet. If it takes a few months to grow, that's fine. However, try to see if he can design the infestation to lie dormant (and as undetectable as possible) until we trigger it specifically.

If we still have those frozen, dead protoss from the Arbiter ship, give them over to Nargil. See if he can salvage any useful biomaterial.

>>12519195
>Psionically activated virus

(I'm not sure how this would work at all. It sounds like you just want to be able to flip a switch and infest planets. That sort of mutation would definitely be visible to even a cutrate Terran futuredoctor with all his Terran futuredoctormachines. They'd begin work on a cure before we had even coated a single world)

The arbiter is docked on Xenta. Labbrate is having trouble understanding its internal geography and how it maintains the ratio of internal to external material, even with spatial distortion. Internbrate is trying to help, but Labbrate is having none of it.

>>12519196
Warbrate is sure that if we have our Psi Emitter-carrying overlord warp directly into the debris, the interference from the field will prevent its detection. It might take a couple of tries to keep the overlord from being pureed, but we have several to spare (Accountantbrate protests at this). Getting back out could be trickier.

Our carrier pulls to the edge of the field, piping a severely distorted message about retreating from the battlefield due to extreme damage. Before any other units can move to intercept, it jumps away.

<><><><>

>Infest Icarus

Good forest. Here's a tree: how are you going to start?

Speaking of, I forgot:

We delegate to the newly-homeless Citybrate to send a few overlords (Accountantbrate's carapace nearly turns red as it shouts) to search for Kerrigan.

>>12519322
That would work like certain viruses, which write themselves into the host's genome and only reactivate on a trigger of some kind.

If we're going to go ahead with the idea of infesting the Protectorate's food supply, we're going to need a very stealthy virus or spore to get past quality control. Not to mention be able to survive their food processing systems.

...I guess we could have Labbrate work on a new strain of wheat that has the spores built in and can survive being processed into cereal and bread...

>>12519328
The consensus seems to be the slowest, stealthiest method. Perhaps we could ask our subordinate cerebrates for advice on the specifics?

>>12519328

>virus concerns

D'oh. But it was worth a try.

>Internbrate/Labbrate shenanigens

Counsel Internbrate; suggest to him to appeal to Labbrate as a humble supplicant seeking mentorship from a superior Zerg figure. Still, that kind of moxxie is a good thing.

>>12519328
Are there any Terran worlds we know of with zerg on them?

>>12519328
While I am in favor of Warbrate's plan, it seems that I have been already outvoted by the rest of the Collective.

>Good forest. Here's a tree: how are you going to start?
Did Labbrate ever finish design and construction of those spore warheads for the Infestation Missile project? It was admittedly started before the Second Battle of Aiur, so it may have fallen by the wayside.
The warheads were originally intended to spread air-borne spores over a wide area, and could be shot from orbit.
We could simply take the warheads in a cloaked Wraith and have them open up on Icarus IV.

>>12519328

C'mon man, I linked you the plan twice already.

Use a cloaked wraith with fleshlings and spore missiles to infect a large water source on Icarus IV.

Also, send another couple cloaked wraiths to the nearest pirate base full of Zerg and spore missiles. If the missiles can be set to leak, just have them slowly spread the slow virus through the ventiliation system.

>>12519328

>Icarus

Scout out for remote farming settlements (yes, I know this is a farming planet as a whole, but still, there should be a backwater place that everybody shuns or nobody goes to). See if we can have a cloaked wraith spread spores into a lake or something.

Man... if we only had some sorta unit that was suited for these things... like an... Infestor... of some sort.

Do we still have the SC1 iteration of queens? If so, see if we can get cloaking harnesses on them and have them produce infestation spores.

>>12519382
We have no idea. Gorn seems to think a few of its zerglings were being held on Braxis, a Confederate world, but it's hard to remember, after being severed from its entire Brood.

>>12519366
We encourage Internbrate to keep at it. Labbrate throws a psionic glare at it. Nargil isn't paying attention. Internbrate feels excluded.

And who better to oversee and protect our shipping of infested brand cereal than specialized infested humans working under deep cover?

>>12519425

Hmm, well, once we get our infestations under way, we should try to get more information on Braxis and other likely locations where the Zerg are held.

>>12519425
We've pretty much got a plan for Icarus ready.
>>12519392
>>12519385

>>12519385
>>12519392
It did. We used them on Dylar to some success. They were not particularly subtle, however. In fact, they alerted Kingston to our spores immediately.

(Translation: You don't fire missiles full of bio-weapons at a planet's water sources and not draw attention to yourself. I'll do it if you like, but I'm not drunk enough for it to stay a secret...well, not yet)

>>12519410
There are plenty of remote farms. Our queens could easily be mutated to exude the infestation spores, and outfitted with a cloaking harness.

(This plan has potential. I hadn't thought of this)

>>12519431
Doesn't Braxis have one of the two crystals needed to fire up the xel'naga temple on shakuras? Say, we should take a look at Char for an anomalous energies from a crystal of some sort.

>>12519425

>Internbrate exclusion

Insinuate to Labbrate and Nargil that Interns can work on lower-priority projects.... freeing up Labbrate/Nargil to work on the hard sciency stuff while Internbrate shoulders most of the sciency grunt work!

Hopefully this will placate both of them while at the same time encouraging them to build up Internbrate's mental faculties.

>>12519426
>>And who better to oversee and protect our shipping of infested brand cereal than specialized infested humans working under deep cover?

Yes, we will set ourselves up as corporation that makes and sells cereal. We can call it Cere-O's, and it will have delicious overlord and zergling shaped marshmallows. This will be how we spread our virus.

>>12519468
Modify the plan to use Queens with cloaking harnesses; we have enough to spare at the moment.

Also, we weren't going to launch the missiles from high orbit; we were going to take just the warheads and either detonate them within a lake or just open them up to release the spores while the Wraiths fly around.

>>12519468

Alright, even better.

Send cloakable queens modified to exude the slow infestation spores in cloaked overlords.

Have them sit at the bottom of aquifers, and lakes, pumping out infestation vectors.

Develop an airborne variant, and dock a Wraith at a pirate station, and pump infestation vector into the station. Do this to all orbiting pirate hangouts for like an hour or two each time. We don't have to stay there too long, we just need to infect a couple people at each one. Then they'll go around and infect more.

>>12519478
Also that they should feel free to give internbrate projects with little to no chance of success

>>12519507

lol, like any grad student, he must have his ego ground to dust at every opportunity.

>>12519468

Have any of cloaked overlords scouring the sector made any progress finding Kerrigan?

>>12519468

>Queeny shenanigens

Scout out for good hiding places near the remote settlements where the queens can take shelter (and setup the shelther however they need to when away from a hive cluster for an extended amount of time).

Spread some of the subtle infestation spores (like the ones we used on Raynor & Duke) into the fresh water sources around the communities. We can't charge into this immediately, we should get some subtly infested scouts in the local communities and get a better feel for the planet.

It's starting small, like how we did on Xenta, I know. But it might be our safest bet.

>sporeno means

Exactly, captcha.

I wish to bug cerebrates about the start of this infiltration strategy. I think it has merit, especially combined with the infestation of water and food.

>>12519478
Nargil seems very intent on figuring out what kind of mutated circumstances made Warbrate. It barely even acknowledges us, or Internbrate, or Warbrate's insistence that it will not allow Nargil to dissect it. No, not even a little.

Labbrate's response can be best summarized as "I DON'T NEED ITS HELP! I CAN DO THIS MYSELF!"

>>12519498
>>12519500
We send out two queens. We don't want to make too big of an impact, after all. When they arrive at Icarus, they cloak immediately. One of them has to dodge very quickly to stay out of the range of a Science Vessel that is departing the system.

They descend toward the planet and begin pumping out their spores.

>>12519533
No luck so far. Perhaps she doesn't wish to be--

"No, I don't, Cerebrate. I've seen you overcome Gorn, Nargil, and the others. I will not be your puppet."

>>12519606
Oh hi sis. How're things with you? We've been trying to get a hold of you. And we would never try to make you subservient to us, that would after all be against dad's will.

>>12519606
Overcome she says. They joined willingly, not that they had anywhere else they could safely manifest.

>>12519606

Tell her we respect her potential, unlike the other Cerebrates, and that she's more useful to us acting on her own volition.

Make it clear that we view her as an equal, rather than as a servant to be obtained.

>>12519606

Also, progress on the orbital pirate base infestation?

>>12519606
Personally we could use your expertise in... infiltration.

>>12519606
Hey, did Kerrigen get her own cerebrate in our timeline? And if so, did it survive?

I'm of the opinion that we kill the shit out of her.

Too much trouble for too little return trying to return her to the fold. Pin her down and finish her before she becomes a nuisance.

Keep trying to find her.

>>12519648
Your plan is to dock a wraith piloted by a horrible hellbeast, pump spores into the air scrubbers for an hour, then take off?

Pirates aren't trusting folk...

>>12519638
>>12519637
>>12519631
"You really expect me to believe you're not just setting yourself up as the new Overmind, waiting to take control of my mind the second you can get a grip on it?"

Might also want to mention the Overminds last words. Also how the swarm is stuck between two extremely powerful foes and we must cooperate to ensure the swarm prospers once again.

>>12519606

Try to soothe Nargil's obsession with Warbrate by attempting to spawn another Cerebrate. Tell Nargil he can do anything he wants to the Testbrate.

Tell Labbrate that even the greatest researchers have assistants; it's just more efficient that way.

Query Accountantbrate over our resource economy and Colonylord about our colonial efforts? Still progressing well, and quickly? WE should try to double the amount of colonies we have every month...I want logarithmic growth outside the sector.

>>12519664
No, she is the will and testament of the Overmind. Even in death are we not here because of him?

>>12519665
If we were trying to set ourselves up as a new Overmind, we wouldn't of tried so hard to protect the Overmind or rejoined the swarm in the first place.

>>12519665
Hey, we allow a great amount of freedom to those with us. Just ask Artisanlord.

>>12519665

Well, the Queen ought to be accompanied by a ground invasion force, also delivered via cloaked Wraiths.

Basically, have the ground troops and cloaked Wraiths destroy all means of escape and communication, then hold everyone down for a good old round of infestation.

Then we can hide the Queen inside the orbital platform, and everyone who shows up for a drink or to organize the next raid gets infected with the slow variant.

>>12519665
Well despite Pop's legacy, I'd prefer making all cerebrates and Kerrigan stronger at once, creating a far more reliable structure of control and influence.

"Sister, is there no way we can work together? We've grown strong on our own, your strength would take us to new levels of power."

>>12519665
>>12519637

These two messages. Also bring up the fact that the Overmind's dying wish was our cooperation, rather than power struggle. Inform her that we are willing to work together if she is.

>>12519701
Right artisanlord, have him talk to her. She'll either determine that we're just crazy or that we're nothing to be worried about. So hopefully she will at least call us once in a while, like good family should.

>>12519665
"We only took control of the others because otherwise they would have died. We are not attempting to become another Overmind out of choice, but out of necessity in staying alive and keeping our brothers alive.
And no, we will not take over your mind as soon as you reach out to us; our Great Creator was quite specific that we should work with you, not overwhelm you."

>>12519669
Nargil considers for a moment, then asks us to relate in detail the events that led to Warbrate's creation. We do.

If it were a Terran instead of basically a four-story-tall slugbrain, it would be twirling its mustache in thought. It demands an overlord with a personality. Internbrate asks to help. Nargil accepts its offer as if allowing a child permission to go to the bathroom. Labbrate continues its psionic glare.

Colonylord is excited at its prospects. It has several promising colonies begun. Accountantbrate and Citybrate have begun taking over the more successful ones. Colonylord begins scouting for planets for the second crop.

>>12519745
I SAY WE GIVE HIM BERRNIELORD! DUN DUN DUN!

>>12519763

That's deliciously evil, I approve.

>>12519763
You know, that could work. And nothing of value would be lost.

>>12519745

Give Nargil what he wants.

Maybe it'll lead to Zerg that don't immediately go batshit without being under direct psionic control.

Also, how'd Kerrigan react to our peacemaking gesture? Make sure to imply that the Zerg cannot afford to work against each other, the enemy forces are too powerful.

>>12519745
Queue The Office shenanigans.

Also can someone fill me in on how we created Warbrate?

>>12519782
>>12519779
>>12519763
Oh, God.

What have I done?

>>12519809

You've created a thing of beauty, that's what. Accept it. Embrace it. Make it your OWN.

>>12519782
>>12519779
>>12519763
Are you actually serious? If Nergil's experiments succeed we're going to have to deal with a fucking Berniebrate!
We already had trouble controlling him when he just a damn zergling, and now you want to give that personality the psychic power to control an entire Brood?

I don't know if you're all retarded, ignorant, mad, or all three!

She has a point, though. We are doing exactly what she fears. Kinda hard to convince her that the truth is a lie.

>>12519836

Dude, a Berniebrate would be able to psionically RAEPRAEPRAEP.

I can think of only positive outcomes to having a trained Rapebrate under our command. Also, it will keep Kerrigan in line.

Give him the Berniester.

>>12519837

What the Hell are you talking about? We've swallowed our pride before, when we rejoined the Overmind. We can do it again! We can share power, we don't need to dominate Kerrigan, we can work WITH her.

>>12519836
Bernie wasn't that bad. We as a group we're the ones how decided to commit rape.
>>12519805
Warlord making love to queen Elizabeth I

>>12519861
Watch him terraform an entire planet into a giant penis and use it to ram other planets.

>>12519805
Warlord became very interested in Elizabeth the First, a queen (it's such a delightful pun!). They began flirting, touching, and floating around together. Warlord quit helping us plan our war, and began fornicating pretty publicly in the air with Elizabeth. At the point of...well, when they were continuing, they started mutating together. After a few hours, a new consciousness emerged: Warbrate.

(I admit it was all me, but considering what Bernie was up to at the time, it fit. Also, it kept people fucking interested.)

>>12519738
>>12519734
>>12519725
>>12519716
>>12519701
>>12519700
>>12519677
We placate her and replay the Overmind's dying speech to her. We try to soothe her protests, but she is very vehement. Finally, we decide to play our ace in the hole: we put Artisanlord on the line (figuratively speaking). For a few minutes, we hear nothing.

"You...bred a conscientious objector?"

>>12519837
We did those only because we would die if we didn't sever ourselves from the Overmind, and the other cerebrates were dying without a psionic controller.
Kerrigan obviously doesn't need someone to control her, so there's no need for us to try to make her our servant.

If she really wants to stay away, well, that's her choice. Ask her if she needs anything, and call us once in a while to let us know how she's doing.
Oh, and it would really help our plans if she hid our survival from the Protoss and the Confederacy; one thinks we're dead and the other is ready to kill us as soon as they have coordinates to bomb.

>>12519837

Not really, we literally saved those Cerebrates from death. They were melting because they couldn't survive without someone psionically directing them.

Kerrigan, like us, is psionically independant, so she should be treated like an equal, until she backstabs us, like she inevitably will.

>>12519836
It might make breaking our next batch of protoss prisoners easier. "Now are you going to foresake the Khala willingly? Or would you like to spend some more time alone with Bernie?

>>12519869
We're the swarm's best hope, though. We can still give the cerebrates equality under us, but it's pretty hard to operate without an overmind. And we are both the most powerful and most competent cerebrate. Do you really want Kerrigan to become the Queen of Blades and stamp out all cerebratekind?

>>12519881

Tell her that we run things a little differently than Papa Overmind did. Also, he's been very helpful in unexpected ways.

>>12519881
>You...bred a conscientious objector?
"If wasn't by design, of course, but we've found that it helps to have different perspectives when making decisions.
"Especially ones opposed to ours. Never know when you're making a stupid mistake and only someone opposed to you can point it out."

>>12519904

Yeah, but we can work together and utilize her independance; she can do things we can't, after all.

When the time comes, we'll eat her mind, but only if she makes us.

>>12519881
He writes play too. An paints. And he's creating a mural out of asteroids.

>>12519904
Personally I just want her to help infiltrate the Terrans, and then use her as a breeding pit with Bernie. Only good things can come of it.

First we need her to work with us though.

>>12519932

Throw this info in there too, I want Kerrigan speechless for at LEAST another minute.

>>12519881
>"You...bred a conscientious objector?"

More importantly, we let him remain a conscientious objector. And alive. Hell, we even let him indulge his creative whims.

Well if she wants to be the Queen of Blade, then we'll be the King of... Claws? Spores? Spines? Glyve Worms? Overlords? Something. And we shall rule the swarm together.

Splatter zergling across an old terran truck.

I call it art, and present it to Artisanlord.

>>12519961

SCIENCE!

Science and Rape!

>>12519951
Have Artisanlord show Kerrigan the Great Mural we constructed on Besilus, and the theatre, and have some spare fleshlings and Protoss sing the Saga of the Swarm.

If nothing else, I want her to view us as crazy and not much of a threat, with our art and songs and asteroid murals.

>>12519932
We can't actually see Kerrigan's face, but we can just imagine the look on it. She doesn't speak for a solid minute.

"What the hell are you?"

<><><><>

Nargil is waiting for its overlord. Are you guys serious about incarnating Bernie again for it?

>>12519956
Oh, and don't forget Artisanlord is older that Kerrigan. We were letting him do his thing even when the overmind was still around. Cause that's how we roll.

>>12519980
GIVE HIM BERNIE

>divlust these
YES, DIVIDE THE LUST AMONG THE SWARM

>>12519980
BERNIELORD! Seems fairly unanimous.
>>12519982
And also that Artisanlord started as a zergling.

>>12519980

"An individual. Do you want to cooperate or not?"

And hell yeah, give Bernie the living treatment.

>>12519980
Well I was under the impression that Nargil was going to dissect it.

>>12519980
Yes. Do it.

>>12519980
We were created by the Overmind to innovate the swarm for the better. It might seem odd, but we have done quite well co-opting terran technology.

>>12519980
You really shouldn't give people fire if you don't want them to build flamethrowers.

>>12519980
Tell Kerrigan that Artisanlord is older than her new self, and even under the watchful eye of the Overmind, we made sure to protect the individuality and uniqueness of Artisanlord.

As for what we are...we are what we have always been.

As for Nargil, give him an overlord that has developed some personality, but not Bernie. We are keeping that personality locked away until we have Kingston in our grasp.

>>12519980
>"What the hell are you?"

A cerebrate that has evolved past it's original purpose.

>>12519980
Though one could argue that I am your counterpoint in the swarm, your other half.

Yeah let's go with that. Two beings created by the Overmind with the ability to act independently.

>>12520024
I like this one.

>>12519980
How bad could it be?

BERNIELORD WHERE ARE YOU!!!!!!!!

Also Artisanlord has just come up with an idea for a rock opera about Kerrigans childhood, growing up a vespene gas miners daughter.

>>12520069

FUND IT.

It will be our "can we be friends" gift.

>>12520069
Though how a drone has a daughter I do not know. But, it was never going to be accurate anyway.

>>12520069
I'm 100% behind this.

>>12520009
http://palpnike.ytmnd.com/

(*sigh* I suppose this ushers in a new age of depravity for the Swarm.)

We look deep within ourselves. Near the core of who we are, buried beneath layers of restraint, is the section of our mind that was once the other half of our first zergling pair: Bernie.

The engineer of the cockalisks, the dicklings, and the true progenitor of the fleshlings, our fiercest and most depraved underling, rises quickly to the surface. For a moment, it threatens to overwhelm us, to assert itself not over an overlord, but over our own very consciousness. It has been buried for so long, yet it remains so strong.

We shudder with the effort of shunting it into an overlord. As soon as it drains from our central consciousness, we feel a weight lift from us. Our ridge scratcher is astounded as tension disappears from us.

What's done is done. For better or worse, Bernie is back.

"You sound...relieved, Cerebrate. Were you so frightened that I would wage war against you?"

>>12520069
Starring Dukemind as the drone!

Say could we put duke's mind in an overlord. Or overlay it on one of the lesser cerebrates. I want zerg with a southern drawl.

Hey, guys. Package just arrived for us.

>>12520086

"We are well aware of your true potential, but less knowledgeable about your motives."

Also, can I get some input on the pirate outpost infestation plan I have outlined in this post?

>>12519703

Move forward with it or not?

>>12520086
Paranoia has serves us well sister. But, even being worried about everything going wrong has not prevented several catastrophes.

>"You sound...relieved, Cerebrate. Were you so frightened that I would wage war against you?"

No. But I can't help but feel somewhat sorry for every other living thing in the galaxy.

>>12520086
Welcome back, Bernie. We have grand plans for you, our closest relative, our most dangerous weapon.

>>12520108
... what if Bernielord takes control of Nirgal... well, at least we'd have one more loyal cerbrate.

>>12520124
>Queen floating around in the small hallways on a space station
>ground forces
>Not sounding the alarm

Your plan. It needs work.

>"You sound...relieved, Cerebrate. Were you so frightened that I would wage war against you?"

I can't tell, is this supposed to be Bernie or Kerrigan?

>>12520086
>Were you so frightened that I would wage war against you?
"Well, actually it's because I just exorcised myself of a my rapist demons, and it's not my problem anymore. And yes, I meant rapist demons literally.
"You didn't think my fleshlings were produced by a sane Zerg mind, did you?
"Wow, now that it's out of my mind, I feel so...relaxed.
"Truth be told, yes, I was afraid. Mostly because it's part of nature to be paranoid, untrusting, and afraid. I should really have a psychiatrist-cerebrate spawned so I can talk out my problems and get some therapy."

Hopefully that will keep Kerrigan off-balance.

>>12520154
Doesn't sound like Bernie so I assumed Sarah

>>12520141

The Queen would remain in the Wraith until the ground forces have secured all the pirates.

Also, if the wraiths have already destroyed all the escape vessels and comm equipment prior to docking, who cares if the alarm goes off?

Read the whole thing, then critique.

>>12520158
Psychiatriclord! FUND IT!

>>12520158

I love this, say this, every word.

>>12520124
Your pirate outpost infestation plan doesn't really sound feasible right now.

I fully support putting Duke into another body; either an Overlord, or maybe into Siege-Ultralisk.
Or make him the controlling personality of our new like of ZergBolo supertanks.

The Protoss were having trouble fighting the combine zerg forces, and only won because of the loss of the Overmind, right?

Why don't we just emitter up Aiur, regain control of the swarm, and launch a vicious spearhead attack against the Protoss ground forces? By now you would expect them to be spread out and purging.

>>12520172
>>12520175
Do IT!!

>>12520108
We should assign one of the un-named cerebrates to do nothing but control Bernie. We can call it Counterbrate.

>>12520158
I'm not sure we want her to be THAT off balance. She may decide not to work with us for the complete opposite reason.

>>12520179
The protoss fleet in orbit of Auir is the problem. That and we can't get a good reading on anything due to all the crap floating around in space.

>>12520183
Just 1 cerebrate? Bernie nearly overwhelmed US, and you want to have just a mook cerebrate try to keep him under control?

No, at least 2 cerebrates, 3 to be sure.

>>12520179

Because the entire Protoss fleet is in orbit around Aiur, and a completely massive Protoss army is in the process of defeating the feral Zerg.

Also, by organizing the feral Zerg, we should the Protoss we're still alive. We don't want that. At all.

...So I afk for a few hours and you guys declare me an Overlord? Do you have a death wish or something?

Either way, are you guys still flapping your trap at Kerrigan? Can we kill her already?

>>12520183
Not counterbrate, but ENGLISHBRATE! A proper Englishmen, perhaps even a member of the House of Lords. Perhaps named Reginald even.

>>12520141

Oh, and are our Queens on Icarus settled in and sporulating nicely?

They try to cloak as often as possible, just to be safe.

>>12520192
All three of them then. We can call it Triumvibrate.

>>12520158
Worst idea ever. We need to hide Bernie from this bitch as long as possible.

Kerrigan seems to be touched that we thought so highly of her, and that we wished so fervently to fulfill the Overmind's last wishes, that she agrees not to run counter to our plans. She even promises to consider working in tandem with us. She is still unwilling to become part of the same Swarm, but this is more than we could have hoped for.

Bernielord springs, fully formed, from its egg. Its numerous tentacles throb as they are run over its form, like fingers running through newly-cut hair. Its voice in our mind sounds triumphant. It knew we couldn't keep it down forever.

Nargil impatiently awaits its subject.

Warbrate hovers away from Bernie. Accountantbrate shudders. Labbrate's ridge scratcher moves protectively between them. Artisanlord stops moving mid-brushtroke, as if it can avoid notice through stillness. Citybrate whimpers.

It's a shame we can't just merge Bernie and Artisanlord. What results might be almost normal.

>>12520202
Well an overlord that Nirgal will do... something to... I don't know what, but it should be interesting.

>>12520189
>>12520196
We still have our off-world planets, and an arbiter to warp in reinforcements, right?

We could go crazy production mode with scourge on the off-worlds, warp them in, and use them on the air fleets. Just throwing ideas out there.

>>12520202
We were obviously afflicted by temporary dementia. Hopefully you will die writhing on the lab table, rather than becoming a full sub-cerebrate.

And no, we are not going to kill Kerrigan unless she tries to kill us first.

>>12520218
Fuse the two zerglings back together? We did discuss that a long time ago, but never did. Also, we'd have to give up artisanlord to do it, and I don't want to have to replace him.

>>12520222
I'd be very surprised if she actually made a beeline for us. She'll probably try to kill us second or third.

>>12520217
Alright, we'll keep Bernie hidden from Kerrigan. Unless she backstabs us. Then we let Bernie loose on her like a tentacle monster on a Japanese schoolgirl.

Direct Bernie to Nargil.
And psychically put our head in our hands at the terror that we have once again unleashed.

>>12520217
I forgot, SEND HER A FRUIT BASKET!

>>12520221

My dream is to merge the Overlord and the arbitor's space bending technlogy, so that the interior of the Overlord is fucking massive, and the outside hasn't changed.

Three Overlords transporting 10,000 zerglings? Accountbrate and Citybrate would have a field day.

It would speed up resource collection, we could pack WAY more psychically active brain matter into each Overlord, and it would be incredibly confusing to Terrans if they were stasis'd by Zerg and 5 cloaked overlords delivered a massive invasion force.

>>12520247
Nargil is planning on merging Bernie with something.

Perhaps Ernie is the answer.

Who can say?

>>12520259
>>10,000 Bernielings

FTFY

>>12520259
Only if you modified the overlords to mine resources. Drone holds 8, TARDISlords hold planets.

>>12520217
Just ask Kerrigan to call us from time to time as to how she's doing, like good family. We'll always be willing to lend her some cash/minerals/vespene gas.

>>12520217
Nargil you have no idea what you are in for.

Maybe we should keep an eye on the two of them.

>>12520261

Hey, can you have Colonylord prioritize life bearing worlds as planets to colonize?

We need fresh genetics for the Swarm. Useful creatures must be out there for the plucking.

>>12520275
Don't interrupt the Bernielove, baby. He needs privacy to work his moves.

It's been proposed to give Nargil both Bernie and Artisanlord (the overlord formerly known as Ernie, Bernie's Good Twin).

This is a pretty hefty proposal.

>sure feivembi
YOU DON'T GET A VOTE, CAPTCHA!

>>12520279
But sadly for you Nargil does not have a penis to bite off.

>>12520217
Where is the nearest pirate base? Once Bernie is done with Nargil I say we send him there. Alone. Just to see what he can do, now that he's been resurrected.

>>12520289

HELL NO.

Artisanlord is our friend and comrade. He is invaluable and cannot be replaced.

>>12520289
Artisanlord stays free, but a clone of artisanlord I'd have no qualms over.

>>12520291
this is the shittest quest ever

>>12520293

I've been trying to infest a pirate base for the whole thread.

I will settle for raping a pirate base if need be.

>>12520289
No! No, lets keep Artisan Lord. Just give him Bernie, and lets be done with this. Let us reap both reward, and chaos.

Also rape.

>>12520293
That could be interesting... I wonder if her has infestation abilities similar to a queen now? I wonder what would happen if we let him do what he wants with a queen? Everything becomes chaos where Bernie is concerned.

>>12520289
When was THAT suggested?

>>12520309
The Bernie Uncertainty Principle or Schrodinger's Bernie?

>>12520289
No, Artisanlord is currently working on a personal project of ours, and is not available for testing.

>>12520304
Your plan is to cram a queen inside a wraith, a ship half her size, then attack this orbital platform with just the wraith, drop shock troops and have them hold Terrans down while the queen shoots them full of infiltration spores.

It doesn't make any sense, and I told you this. Modify it to something sensible, and I'll consider it.

Mind you, you're talking about a pretty goddamn public display that we're still active, while the entire rest of the Brood wants to lay low.

I vote I go and crash a pirate party. It seems like it could be fun. Can I bring a few bros?

>>12520322
Awaken my child, and embrace the glory that is your birthright. Know that I am a drone; the eternal worker of the swarm, and that you have been created to DANCE!

I seems to be coming along well

>>12520289
I don't think we should give up Artisanlord. How about a fleshling?

Or would that be like incest?

>>12520289
Bernie and Ernie where like the dark and the light perzergified.

Merge Bernie and Ernie= Zerg archon?

We direct Bernie toward Nargil. Internbrate follows directions and restrains Bernie. We feel a flash of rage from Bernie at this, but it knows what we're planning. It knows that this is a necessary evil.

Nargil asks if we have anything in particular we want it to breed with.

>>12520348
>Zerg Archon
I don't know what to say to that

>>12520346
Don't think Bernie would mind.

>>12520339
Oh god, I read that in the Overmind's voice.

Well, I'm giving up on rooting for an attack. And it's time for bed. Best of luck.

>>12520350
Defer to Nargil's judgement. It's the expert after all, and remind it of this.

I'm being restrained by an INTERN?! Oh ho ho there is no way in hell this is going to hold.

>>12520363
Remember that role is being done by Duke, but this is Artisanlord, so Duke gets lines straight from the Overminds script.

>>12520369
Why do I get the feeling that Nargil plans on breeding you with said intern.

>>12520350
A defiler, duh.

>>12520350
Suggest fleshlings, just for the hell of it. We start small.

>>12520378
Can I change my vote to this?

>>12520378

Bernielord's rage subsides.

>>12520350
Perhaps another Queen? See if we have the resource capacity to spawn one, and if the minerals are available, create it.

May the Overmind have mercy on our souls.

>>12520336

No, that's not my plan. Maybe I'm not explaining this well.

Multiple cloaked wraiths appear. In one, a queen. In the others, ground force of Zerg.

The wraiths proceed to destroy the docked shipsm, and comm equipment. So none of the pirates are calling for help, and none of them are escaping.

To everyone watching, this looks like delicious pirate on pirate action.

Now, the wraiths dock to the station, and the ground force invades. They kill some, and fleshlings and cockalisks hold down the rest and infest them. This has worked before, in the thread right after the Disruptor came on.

Now that the ground forces have infected and pacified the enemy, they get back on their cloaked Wraiths, and leave. The one queen sneaks onboard the station, and pumps out spores through the vents (after the scrubbers have been disabled if that's a huge deal for you). The queen stays there permanently. Now everyone who visits the station gets infected.

The last wraith leaves. To everyone watching, the raid is over. All the infested Terrans inside rig the evidence to look like a Terran on Terran conflict. We delete all tapes of Zerg, remove all evidence of Zerg. We watch as pirates flying to all kinds of outlying systems spread the infestion.

I didn't realize I was going to have to spell this out step by step, I thought it could be followed pretty logically.

A defiler squirms toward Bernie. Nargil instructs Internbrate to pick it up with one of its overlords. Internbrate lays the defiler between Bernie's tentacles.

Nargil has one of our infested Protoss inject them both with a mix of hormones and chemicals.

Bernie wavers for a moment as the defiler rolls over onto its back.

The scene very quickly dissolves into something horrible. We suddenly feel cursed by having three dozen eyes nearby. Everywhere we look, we see...

It's terrible.

>>12520390
Creating a single intergalactic vector point seems kind of stupid when we could just go kill the shit out of them the old-fashioned way.

>>12520350

Also, didn't realize Queens were so much bigger than a Wraith, but a stack of spore missiles rigged to leak works fine too.

>>12520399
Give Bernie a psionic high-five.

>>12520390
... but wraiths don't have the space to carry troops, They're a light fighter, it's basically just a cockpit, engines, and weapons.

>>12520390
Dude, wraiths are single pilot fighters.

>>12520407

>>12520400

Well, we are infecting Icarus too.

I honestly don't see the harm in this. It's a quick and easy way to spread the infection to multiple places quickly. It also gets us on the road to a rich Terran industrialist who can be infected for the Protoss smash and grab tech plan we talked about in the beginning of the thread.

>>12520390
You definitely are not explaining this well, because your unit designations are all wrong.
Wraiths are single-seat fighter-interceptor craft, and only half the size of a fully-grown Queen.
We would need to build dropships and Wraith squadrons, which can't currently be piloted by regular Zerg, and our main Terran technology production facilities on Antiga Prime have been abandoned because they've been compromised by Kingston.

We won't have the personnel or the vessels to pull off your plan for at least a month.

>>12520415
Why do people think that all space pirates lead to rich people? Sure it happens some times, but not all the time.

>>12520408
>>12520409

For some reason, I thought they had a cargo bay. I blame the painkillers.

Well, once we get a dropship or two then.

>>12520415
>>12520422
>>12520422

You know what?

Fuck it, just forget about it.

What happens now that Bernie gets laid?

>>12520431
Bernielord and the defiler smoke cigarettes?

>>12520407
>>12520413
(God, it was just beneath the surface the whole time, wasn't it?)

We try not to think about what's happening here on Xenta.

We focus on anything. The colonies. Colonylord has selected the second batch, and colonies are forming already.

The squelching sounds are--

Labbrate's work on the arbiter continues, but even to other Protoss, the ship is incomprehensibly complex. It thinks it could replicate the cloaking field, and is pretty sure that it can work the Recall function, though it doesn't think it will be able to replicate...

Since when do overlords moan?

NO! The queens on Icarus have piped spores onto numerous farm complexes. We estimate two hundred infected. The process is slow, but that's part of the plan.

Warbrate and Artisanlord have begun floating away from the scene as fast as they can, in opposite directions. They seldom agree, but on this, they are of one mind.

Finally, after what seems like decades, the two begin to merge. A new skin grows over them, and their forms blur into one another...

>>12520415
Just having the missiles leak their payloads into the space station isn't enough; environmental systems are designed to fight this exact sort of thing; the only reason we were able to Infest spaceships before, is because we compromised their environmental and air-filtration systems directly. Otherwise, our spores will simply be picked up by the vents and captured in the filters.

That's even assuming we have the fighters, dropships, and pilots for this plan. Fleshlings might be used as pilots, but they're already currently in use on our battlecruisers, repairing the captured Arbiter and Carrier, and working on our Terran production lines.

Also, you are suggesting that we attempt to interdict and blockade criminals whose sole specialty is in evading interdiction and blockades.

>>12520442
I fap to this.

Also ask Nargil how HE feels about what is happening.

>>12520442
That's not me, that's her.

>>12520442
... so does berniebrate get to fly, create dark swarms, spread plague, and eat other zerg?

>>12520442
I just wanted to use the psionic high five, actually.

I wonder if Labbrate could whip up some sort of hormone to wipe our memory of the event.

>>12520453
Nargil is taking copious notes. It feels completely dispassionate. These could be fruit flies mating, for all it matters. Catalog, mark for mutation, assimilate, repeat.

Gorn seems enraged that we're holding public fornication sessions when we should be throwing everything we have at the Protoss.

>>12520453
Nargil is probably trying to not think about what's going on in anything other than an objective and scientific way. I hope.

>>12520442
Is our first wave of colonies ready to begin war production and sending new Zerg units to Xenta?

Also, have Defensebrate given the production outputs of several of the Second Colonization Wave systems for the construction of orbital defense platforms on Xenta, and to begin mining the system with cloaked space mines and cloaked defense stations.

He just mad cos he hasn't gotten laid in forever.

>>12520466
Inform Gorn that we can send the abomination over to keep him company as soon as Nargil is finished with... it.

>>12520466
You know what, Gorn? Shut the hell up or Bernie will be fornicating with you next.

>1644 rhazing
That's right, Captcha, that will happen.

>>12520466

Tell Gorn that he should give into the anger....the hate. It makes him stronger!

But seriously, tell him he'll have all the time in the world to kill and destroy as soon as our armies are back.

>by the way, with our new colonies expanding, when WILL we be back to "normal strength"?

>>12520466
I reiterate my suggestion to teach Gorn poetry. It'll give him something to do between battles.

>>12520479
Something simple, like
Go kill the Protoss
Bunch of girls they is
Soon the Protoss die

What has become of our newest creation!?\

>committee phestly
You sure are talkative today, Captcha. Must be into the quest.

>>12520463
Sweet Overmind, if only. This will be burned into our memory forever.

>>12520457
Who knows? This sort of thing only happened once, and Elizabeth was no defiler.

The mass of flesh pulsates sickeningly as Bernie and its defiler fuse into Overmind-knows-what. After a few minutes, it swells horribly, and bursts forth.

Before us is a massive overlord, with pincers the size of a Terran car, serrated and dangerous. Behind it is a curved tail. Little pustules cover its underside, bloated with filth. Its mass of eyes look hungrily out at the world as the pedipalps surrounding its oral cavity lather one another with its salival fluid.

Berniebrate is formed. Let the Universe forgive us.

(In case you're not horrified by that mental picture, I want you to Google "spider mouth" and just browse the images for a while)

>>12520506

Oh god, what does he do?

>>12520506
Fuck the universe! Berniebrate, what is your desire?

>>12520516
He upgrades our fleshlings.

>>12520528
... maybe.

That seems like a good place to stop, since I think we've been in autosage for a while. The thread may die soon.

Archive:
http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/12517127/

I was planning on next week being our Spooky Halloween Zerg Quest, but I don't know. This is about the most horrifying thing I could have come up with...

>>12520506
I wonder... Our earlier tests seemed to show that female fleshlings were sterile, but I wonder if it was just that we were breeding them with the wrong thing...

>>12520506
What have you maniacs done?!
Overmind preserve us, and forgive us our sins...


Anyway, how about that defense plan from >>12520470
We should see if there's some small planetoids we can turn into new ZergWorlds.

>>12520539
Think more about the horrifying things he will do then. It's a perfect lead in.

Next week is Berniequest.

>>12520545
I'm trying so hard not to think about that. You don't even know.

>>12520539
Then let me remind you that we have yet to begin the new fleshling breeding trials.

I feel like the death of Zerg Quest may have just begun.

>>12520561
Nonsense! Bernie will irritate us after 2 or 3 thread, and then we'll dispose of him. A little bernie every now and then is a good thing I think.

>>12520564
Hopefully that's all he'll do.

I shudder to think what depraved monstrosities he will inflict upon us with his newfound power.

>>12520618
Just google pictures of spiders' faces, and imagine lust in those many eyes.

Now I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight.