Tuchanka

Kenax

Honestly, he couldn't just see what his master saw in this species.

Well not exactly, he could see why he would want to assimilate them; they were incredibly resilient that's for sure and their reproductive capabilities once unhampered by the Genophage was almost comparable to the swarm itself even if they matured at a far slower rate than even the heaviest of units.

But what he could not understand is why bother with mind-numbing diplomacy and clan affairs when a single brood could very easily overwhelm the entire planet without much issue.

"I think you already know the answer to that my child." came the telepathic voice of the overmind with no small amount of amusement

"Yes, my master we can't afford to reveal our true abilities too early. but isn't outright curing the Krogan of the Genophage however slowly doing exactly that."

"You are a smart one aren't you" he noted and the krogan imposter couldn't help but feel a tinge of happiness as he heard a tone of pride in his 'parent's' voice.

"The answer is yes and no; curing the Genophage is a rather obvious move but that's exactly the point. The majority of those who will learn of this will have one of two reactions: either they will outright not believe it or will be so terrified of the idea of a resurgent krogan that they will focus all their efforts on finding a solution to this. Either way, both of these camps will have their attention directed at the cured krogan and not on our little surprises."

Ah yes, the tunnels.

"Precisely, speaking of which I believe that everything is going well down under"

He had to know the answer to that didn't he, after all, he was the Overmind of the swarm and was psionically connected to every creature in it from the larvae to the Ultralisks.

"Oh I do indeed but I have my own reasons for wanting verbal confirmation, now if you will please ?"

"Of course, apologies my master; the digging is proceeding at a steady rate though we have been slowed down somewhat by the Thresher Maws either blocking our paths or causing tunnel collapses; we have been able to remedy this problem by using pheromones to drive them away or lure them near our clusters for assimilation."

"Good and how's Abathur latest addition to the swarm doing ?"

"The Infested Thresher Maws have been of great aid allowing us to expand our network at a rate of 25% faster than our initial expectations. At such speeds, I believe the entirety of the planet will be accessible to us through tunnels within two months."

"Excellent, so long as you keep a low profile and don't attract any attention. I don't know if the council outposts in orbit have any deep ground scanning capabilities and if they do I don't think we can fool them into thinking we are overactive threshers."

"As you wish Overmind."

"Moving on how goes the business with the other krogan clans."

Despite himself, Kenax sighed betraying just how tired he was of that part of his assignment.

"Our diplomatic efforts have been...mixed, to put it mildly."

"How so?" The overmind's tone was a mixture of genuine interest mixed with amusement.

"We continue to attract many female clans to our side with the promise of freedom from the Genophage and I shall be meeting with an envoy representing the majority of Tuchanka's female clans soon. I should note that they have already started producing hundreds of offspring which makes us technically among the largest clans on this planet, though none of them are combat-ready yet."

"I see, so what is the bad news ?"

"The male clans, on the other hand, have not been amused by Gataong's rise."

"I suspect they are not ."

"Aside from a few minor clans, we have yet to convince any of the male clans to join us, most believing that our promise of curing the Genophage is a lie or that we are agents of this Citadel Council..."

"They are not exactly wrong about the agents part but continue."

"To make things short we are currently at war with clans Weryloc and Urdont and have already had to fight off more than a couple of raids, though thankfully our intelligence indicates that both clans are focusing on eliminating each other before turning on us first."

"I suspect that won't be the case for long" the overmind spoke sardonically before transmitting information to his creation's mind, information straight from an STG base concerned with the changes the zerg have wrought.

"Ah! I see"

"Indeed, knowing how STG works and having overheard something about an attack as a distraction so you better have both the zerg and the actual krogan under your command be alert."

"Of course Overmind."

"Good, I will be in touch."

Overmind

Frankly, I only asked for a verbal report because I wanted to gauge Kenax's emotions on the subject but mostly for my amusement.

I am quite surprised that the lieutenants I created from scratch seem to develop more distinct personalities overtime much like those that were infested and allowed to retain their minds.

At first, I was worried that they might one day develop enough to think about overthrowing me but then I found out I could still control them whenever I wanted to and I would detect any treasonous thoughts through the hivemind before any of them had any chance of actually acting on them.

Even if I am wrong and one does manage to pull a Judas; then clearly I wasn't fit to lead the swarm any longer if things had reached that point.

Honestly, a part of me welcomed it. I haven't been the same ever since we got transported to this universe, the memories of before I can only remember as if I was seeing things in a dream. Being a zerg just felt "natural" to me back then, especially as the swarm grew in number; All my cares were "consume", "expand", "evolve" and just a little curiosity in seeing what the swarm can do. And then there was me committing genocide on my home planet.

No matter how hard I just couldn't summon any sense of guilt or shame about what I had done which in its own way was disturbing enough for me.

Am I even ME at this point? Or just some psychic construct with the original's memories and quirks?

This wasn't the time for an existential crisis so I focused my attention on the task at hand.

My Upgraded Leviathan was heading towards what I hope is the correct location of the planet the Leviathans are in ( I only dimly recalled that its name was 2181 Despoinia and I only had a vague idea of where it was but I had to try something). If I am wrong then we will just have to search the area.

And that was the moment I sensed a powerful psychic presence as the Leviathan exited from the Void into realspace.

"Overmind!" came the voice of Lara

"Yes, I have felt it too. This is the spot" I had no doubt, nothing else in the galaxy could produce such a thing, well except maybe a derelict Reaper (Assuming that's how indoctrination actually works)

No matter, time to have a little chat with the Cthulhu lookalikes.