Connection

Chloe entered her consciousness space in her original form. After briefly organizing things in the memory archive, countless silver threads extended from her pale back toward different stored memories.

This would place a greater burden on her brain, but it allowed her to consult more information at once, making it well suited to this critical race against time. After a while, she sifted out some useful information.

"Tube Forest? What's that?" A combat memory entered Chloe's mind.

In this memory, a Cerebrate used large numbers of defensive Zerg structures to withstand attacks from a superior enemy. The overlapping layers of defensive structures resembled tubes pointing toward the sky, which was why the tactic was called Tube Forest.

"When most civilizations are defeated by the Swarm, they are shocked by its sky-blotting numbers. This leaves them with the stereotype that the Swarm wins through the sacrifice of countless Zerg, buying victory with numbers. This is a misconception." After viewing Tube Forest, another combat memory caught Chloe's interest.

"The Zerg are simply very good at using superior forces to annihilate weaker enemies. Achieving this requires excellent command skills from the brains of the Swarm. These are my battlefield memories, which can serve as a reference." This was a combat memory left by a Queen.

In this Queen's memories, she deftly maneuvered Swarm forces to draw a powerful enemy around, wearing them down through harassment, surprise attacks, and other methods while keeping them from gauging the Swarm's true strength.

Then she seized openings to concentrate superior Swarm forces and devour the scattered enemy bit by bit. When the enemy had no choice but to gather together, she seized the time to expand the Hatchery and hatch more Swarm forces. In the end, she overwhelmed the enemy with an immense numerical advantage.

The third memory came from a Swarm scholar named Abaddon, who was highly skilled in genetics, plagues, and viruses. It did not need to defeat enemies head-on; a few cleverly employed microorganisms were enough to make them collapse.

This memory was the most valuable. Unfortunately, the current Swarm lacked that kind of biotechnology. Otherwise, she could simply release a few plagues and wait two days, and the Beast Tide would collapse on its own.

The Hatchery's level was too low.

The Swarm's combat experience consisted of memories and images, with very little explanation. How much a viewer could grasp depended entirely on their talent.

Fortunately, her earlier military education was an enormous help to Chloe, allowing her to at least understand how the Swarm fought and how it defeated stronger enemies with weaker forces.

At her current level of military skill, she was still some distance from those outstanding Swarm commanders, but the enemies she faced were far weaker than the steel giants, fortresses, and tanks in those memories.

Having built up some initial confidence, Chloe withdrew from her consciousness space. To save time, she had a Zergling carry her swiftly to the core of the Level Two Hive, where the Hatchery's brain was located.

It was an enormous chamber of flesh and blood, with pink flesh and blood vessels everywhere, bathing the entire space in a bright, fleshy red.

The largest part, occupying the most space, was the blood-red ball of flesh in the center, formed from four oval brains covered in deep folds and fissures.

Each brain resembled an enlarged human brain, yet was entirely different. A central nerve connected them into a single whole.

Before this enormous brain, Chloe looked tiny. The fissures in those brains alone could swallow her whole.

She touched the mucus on her face, which she had picked up while passing through the Hatchery's internal passages. Chloe said, "To improve our odds and increase my control over the Swarm, it's already too late for me to choose brain modification. The only way now is for us to temporarily become one."

The Level Two Hive's brain did not respond. A tentacle grew from the surrounding fleshy walls and reached toward Chloe.

Had this been several dozen days earlier, even Chloe herself would have been frightened by the sight before her. Now, she simply stood quietly and waited for it to happen.

The tentacle wrapped around her waist and placed her on the central nerve connecting the four brains. There was no suitable place to stand or lie down, so several more tentacles grew around her and secured her in place.

A transparent white syringe swayed before Chloe's eyes.

"Executor, what comes next will hurt badly. Are you ready?" the Hatchery communicated with Chloe through the Swarm Network.

Although the finger-thick white syringe looked terrifying and horrifying, Chloe still nodded resolutely.

The white syringe slowly moved behind Chloe and aligned itself with the junction between her cervical spine and brain. After wavering twice, the needle plunged in, its entire ten-centimeter length sinking into her brain.

The sudden, excruciating pain made Chloe want to scream, but everything happened too quickly, and the pain struck too violently. Her mouth gaped open, but only a few dry coughs escaped her throat.

The Swarm Network played a crucial role. Vast numbers of the Swarm poured their thoughts into it, helping Chloe share the pain.

Another half minute passed before most of that towering wave of pain finally subsided.

Sweat soaked all of Chloe's clothes, and droplets slowly dripped from her forehead, the tip of her nose, and her fingers.

She took two hard, gasping breaths, and a trace of excitement rose in her eyes.

With the Hatchery's brain supporting her, she felt filled with power, and even her perspective on the world had changed. Before, she had been observing the peak from the foot of the mountain. Now, she was looking down on the world from its summit.

With two Neural Thorns implanted, she could connect to at most two thousand Zerg units. Now, that number was twenty thousand.

"Hive Mind, give me your full support. Let these beasts that don't know their place see what numbers truly mean."

Purple psionic energy drifted from Chloe's eyes, almost tangible. Her voice also became ethereal and filled with power. If someone stood before her, Chloe could kill them with her voice alone.

"As you wish, Executor."

The Hatchery was a gigantic structure, already immense aboveground. Underground, however, it was even larger, with thick roots buried deep in the soil, absorbing water, minerals, and all kinds of nutrients.

The roots had also opened up vast underground spaces, where unhatched eggs were arranged in neat rows.

The Hatchery had produced all of these eggs in advance when energy was plentiful, and keeping them viable consumed very little. Whenever needed, they could hatch quickly and form a fighting force.

Once the order was issued, a pheromone spread throughout the space, and the eggs soon stirred to life. Zerglings and Needle Crawlers burst from their eggs in great waves, stretching as far as the eye could see.

Numbers against numbers, a tide to drown a tide.