A note from the author:

I see a lot of Gate fics and nearly all of them are essentially a rehash of the original story except with a few names changed. And sometimes they don't even bother to change the names and they still use Itami even though there is no Japan. This story will not be like that. The stations of canon will be out of sight from the very beginning. There will be no freedom and democracy brought to the Empire. The zerg don't do democracy.

I hope to make this story a unique take on Gate, one not bound by the need to follow the plotline of the original story.

Chapter 1

The screeches of zerglings filled the air as two armies clashed on the fields of Zerus. The mutalisks of the Zerg Swarm engaged in a vicious dogfight with the primal mutalisks of Yagdra's pack. The Swarm was surrounded on all sides as they struggled to fight off the assaults from Yagdra's pack which was seeking to overrun the primal spawning pool. The Swarm had to hold on until their queen could be reborn. The vast numbers of the primal zerg were threatening to overwhelm the Swarm, but there wasn't much time left before the Chrysalis would open. It seemed likely that they could hold on, but it would be close.

The Swarm's defenses around the primal spawning pool were meticulous. Zagara, who was aboard the Leviathan, was in charge of leading the Swarm during Kerrigan's transformation, and she had done a fine job. The ramps leading into the area were blocked off with spine crawlers. Behind the spine crawlers were several swarm hosts which produced expendable minions to help hold back the advance of the primal zerg. Of course, surrounding the vulnerable swarm hosts were groups of roaches and hydralisks which made up the core of the army.

The defensive arrangement was effective and already the had repelled several attacks by Yagdra's pack. Suddenly, Zagara received concerning information. It seemed that their drones that were collecting resources were being killed off. Somehow, attackers had managed to bypass their defenses. Zagara quickly focused her attention to try to eliminate the attackers which had emerged inside the base.

When the overlords reported what they were seeing, Zagara was shocked. They were being attacked by a bunch of terrans. How were terrans even on Zerus? These terrans also looked a lot different from the terrans the zerg were familiar with. Rather than wearing the power armor terran marines used, the soldiers appeared to be wearing some thin metal armor and holding shields. They were equipped with melee weapons and not guns. From a cursory inspection, it seemed that the combat capabilities of these new terrans were vastly inferior to the terrans of the Koprulu Sector.

The invading terrans also seemed to be accompanied by strange beasts. Some were large and physically powerful. There were some flying creatures that held riders. There were also some creatures that looked very similar to terrans but had exotic traits that set them apart. Zagara had never seen these creatures before and their full capabilities were unknown. She was starting to become somewhat concerned that the terrans had somehow surpassed the zerg in biological research. Also, some of these terrans seemed to be able to use some form of psionics as they could accomplish physical impossibilities such as summoning fire from nothing.

However, these terrans could not stand up to the zerg in an ordinary fight. The Swarm was used to fighting far stronger enemies. The "armor" worn by the terran soldiers was useless against even zerglings, whose claws had been designed to pierce neosteel. Even in a fight on an open field with both sides having equal numbers, the Swarm could easily overrun these weak terrans, not to mention the fact that the Swarm usually vastly outnumbers its opponents. Unfortunately, this was no ordinary fight. Although these terrans were weak, there were thousands of them and they had appeared in the back of the base where they began wrecked havoc with the Swarm's production. Several overlords had been killed by those flying creatures.

The worst part of the situation is that there were no forces in place to stop them, as Zagara had not anticipated that they could be attacked within their own base. Zagara quickly ordered the roaches and hydralisks to head toward the interior of the base to fight off the terrans. Unfortunately, it would take some time for them to get there. Time they didn't have as the terrans were already approaching the Chrysalis.

Zagara quickly conversed with Abathur, who was on site studying the primal pool. Abathur had figured out how to use the pool to spawn locusts. They had no other choice now, the locusts had to be used.

Once the locusts were unleashed, the terran soldiers were quickly dissolved by the acid spewed out by the locusts. Many of them screamed in terror as their doom descended from the sky. They began trying to run away, but the locusts were inescapable as they hunted down the terrans. Once the bulk of the terran army was cleared away, the roaches and hydralisks sent to secure the interior of the base were able to kill the remaining terran stragglers and secure the area that those terrans were using to enter.

There was a large structure standing inside the base. A large frame held an opening to another location, and it seemed to be like a protoss warp gate. The gate opened up to a large tunnel, which was currently filled with those strange terrans which were locked in combat with the zerg. The zerg reinforcements were quickly able to surround the gate and prevent any more enemies from emerging through it to attack the zerg base. The Swarm was also beginning to push forward into the tunnel, though progress was slow because the opening was narrow.

Then, a loud, booming voice was heard as Yagdra commanded his pack. "Destroy them! Wipe out the broken pack and kill that weakling that calls herself a queen! Show them the power of the true zerg!"

Immediately following Yagdra's roar, a huge wave of primal zerg began pouring out of the forest. While the Swarm was preoccupied with the gate, they were stuck in the front by a massive assault of primal zerg. Yagdra's pack was launching an all out attack against the Swarm. Zagara had not anticipated such a massive assault, and the removal of some of the defending units had weakened their front lines. A charge of primal ultralisks weathered the locusts made by the swarm hosts and the ultralisks broke through the spine crawlers.

The tide of primal zerg that flooded in behind the ultralisks began overrunning the defenseless swarm hosts. The defenders fought to their last to try to hold off the primal attackers, but with the frontlines thrown into chaos, their resistance was ultimately futile. The forces the Swarm had positioned on the front lines were more or less wiped out. All that was left were scattered groups of zerg that had been sent to clean up the terran attack. The remainder of the Swarm's forces rallied around the Chrysalis as the primal pack began closing in on all sides. For once, the Swarm was now the one being outnumbered, and they needed every last zergling to hold the line. Even the drones had been pulled away from mining in the last moments.

The Swarm fought with all of their might, but slowly but surely they were losing ground and soon they only had a fraction of their forces remaining. The remainder of the Swarm's forces that had come to guard the area were now gathered around the Chrysalis as Yagdra's pack closed in.

Then, a cracking noise sounded from the center of the Swarm's forces. A pair of wings poked out of the Chrysalis and began tearing it open. As the Chrysalis fell apart, Kerrigan emerged, now once again zerg, but primal this time and more powerful than ever before. Upon her emergence from the Chrysalis, a massive wave of psionic force emerged which was a conspicuous beacon that lit up the sky. For a moment, all on the battlefield paused.

Kerrigan unleashed her power, creating a powerful psionic storm which ripped apart a multitude of the attacking primal zerg. However, more of Yagdra's pack soon took their place as the primal zerg redoubled their attack, hoping to nip this threat in the bud. The battle resumed, with greater intensity than before. Rows of roaches and hydralisks shot at each other with their acid attacks and spines, and there were several ultralisks rampaging on the battlefield.

On the front lines, ripping through scores of primal zerg, was Kerrigan. At the moment she was in the middle of slicing a primal roach in half. One of Yagdra's hydralisks reared up behind her, before letting loose a volley of spines. The spines shot through the air, looking as though they would be able to bury themselves into the back of the zerg queen. Before they could connect, Kerrigan turned around. The spines, captured by her telekinetic grip, froze in the air before turning around and flying right back to the hydralisk that shot them. The spines pierced through the primal hydralisk's stomach, neck, and head. The hydralisk slumped to the ground, dead, but already Kerrigan had turned her attention toward another one of Yagdra's roaches.

Suddenly, the ground shook as an ultralisk approached. It was one of Yagdra's, which could clearly be seen because of how different it looked from a normal zerg ultralisk. It was less heavily armored, and lacked the Kaiser blades an ordinary zerg ultralisk would had. Instead, it used the claws on its front limbs to attack. In fact, it was quite odd why they were called ultralisks in the first place. The primal zerg clearly hadn't stolen it from them as they didn't even have ultralisks with them. Perhaps Abathur had named it an ultralisk just to establish somewhat of a rough equivalency between the primal zerg and the Swarm.

Kerrigan ducked to the left as the ultralisk brought its claw down. With a burst of speed, she dashed right under it and slashed at its underbelly, leaving a deep wound, before leaping away when the ultralisk brought its claws back. Shortly after she landed on the ground after leaping away, a primal zergling, which had snuck up while she was fighting with the ultralisk, leaped forward and bit into her right leg with its jaws.

Snarling in annoyance, Kerrigan reached down and tore the zergling off of her leg before throwing it at the ultralisk. The ultralisk paid no heed to the zergling, which was trampled under the feet of the massive creature as it charged forward. Kerrigan leapt up into the air as the ultralisk tried to swipe at her feet. The other claw of the ultralisk came in from the side, but she blocked it with her wing, leading to her being knocked to the side. However, Kerrigan's motion suddenly changed direction as she used her psionic power to propel herself toward the ultralisk, hoping to land on top of it.

However, this plan was soon abandoned as a pair of mutalisks dived down to strike at Kerrigan. She blocked the glaive worms sent by the mutalisks and landed on the ground on both feet. Immediately upon landing she dove to the side, narrowly avoiding another swipe from the ultralisk before sending a blast of psionic energy toward the mutalisks, ripping them apart.

The ultralisk once more charged toward Kerrigan, but before it could reach her, she burrowed underground swiftly. The ultralisk barreled over where she had stood and was confused with the disappearance of its prey. Then, the ground behind it shifted as Kerrigan emerged from the ground and leapt onto the ultralisk's back. After landing on top of the ultralisk, she charged up some psionic energy before blasting it into the beast below her. The ultralisk fell to the ground.

A veritable field of corpses surrounded Kerrigan. Already, hundreds of the primal zerg had died by her hand, but the tide of enemies seemed unending. Although Kerrigan's entrance into the battle had greatly boosted the Swarm's strength, they were still slowly being whittled down by the relentless attacks of Yagdra's pack. The few remaining hydralisks and roaches were beginning to fall, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of attacks. Zerglings weren't designed to survive very long, instead being a cheap and disposable unit used to overwhelm the enemy with numbers. However, in the current situation, even losing zerglings was a huge blow to the meager forces of the Swarm.

Though Kerrigan had been tossed into battle from the very moment of her rebirth, she still had the chance to appraise herself of the situation she was in as she received the reports from her Swarm. Eventually, she was able to find out what had happened to lead to the current predicament.

Kerrigan bemoaned their present state. Things had been going so well before. All the Swarm had to do was just had to hold the line until she returned. Unfortunately, things had gone awry with the appearance of that strange gate. It had caused great distraction to her forces and allowed the primal zerg to break through their defenses, resulting in much of her forces being wiped out. If the Swarm had still been whole when she had emerged from the cocoon, they wouldn't be in this situation.

Kerrigan was tempted to lambast her subordinates for their incompetence, but she had to admit that there had been no way to have prepared for what happened. The gate was truly something bizarre. Looking at Zagara's memories of the event, it seemed like they had been attacked by what amounted to medieval humans. They even had swords and shields! No one even used those nowadays.

What was more interesting was how the human armies had utilized what seemed to be dragons and ogres. It was almost like they had walked straight out of some fairy tale or something. Maybe they had walked out of a fairy tale, that would make as much sense as any other explanation. These humans couldn't have been from Earth, as Earth had long moved past such primitive technologies. Nor could they be from any other planet in the Koprulu Sector as she had not heard of any terran colonies living with such base technologies. Even if there had been an undiscovered lost colony that had somehow degraded to such barbarism, there would still be no way for them to travel to Zerus. How could those who didn't even have guns manage to travel across space?

Trying to figure out more about them could wait for now. What was done was done. Now, their position was overrun and the Swarm needed to evacuate. However, the Leviathan was unable to land because of the multitude of primal fliers in the area and because there was no safe landing zone. Kerrigan and her forces were stuck in the middle of hostile territory, surrounded by a massive army that was grinding them down bit by bit. What escape could be found in such a situation?

However, there was one last avenue open to them, but it would be a risky endeavor which would be full of uncertainty. There was the gate, a strange portal that was nearby which could take them away from this place. Currently, the tunnel was embroiled in a three way fight with the terran soldiers on one end and the primal zerg on the other end with a small group of the Swarm's forces stuck in the middle. Although things were bad for the Swarm's forces trapped in the tunnel, the narrowness of the tunnel meant that they were able to hold on for quite a long time. Also, if Kerrigan and her forces were to escape through the gate, then they would be able to hold off the primal zerg at the chokepoint.

After a moment of contemplation, Kerrigan decided on their next course of action. Remaining out in the open to fight the primal zerg would be useless as her army would slowly be killed off. Although she was powerful, even the reborn Queen of Blades could be worn down and killed if she was surrounded and tried to fight an entire pack of primal zerg alone. Not to mention, the other packs seemed hostile to her as well and she might have to fight through them as well.

However, going through the gate would be a huge risk. They knew nothing of the gate and how it functioned. Who knows what lay on the other side? If they went through, there was no guarantee that they could return as the gate could close without their knowledge. This would be a gamble, but they had no other choice.

Kerrigan spoke to Zagara telepathically, "I will have to take what remains of our army through the gate. Zagara, take control of the Leviathan and keep it safe. I will try to return once we have rebuilt our strength."

"As you command, my queen", Zagara replied. "I will do my best to keep the Leviathan and what forces remain alive."

After the decision was made, it was time for the Swarm to move. Kerrigan unleashed a psionic storm which fried a large group of primal zerg, leaving a gap in the encirclement. The Swarm took advantage of this gap and charged through. The Swarm fought a running retreat as they moved toward the gate and they were constantly harried by the primal zerg which were pursuing them. At one point Kerrigan had to use another psionic storm to clear out a group of primal zerg blocking their path. While it might have been possible for the Swarm to defeat them, it would have taken too long and led to the main force of Yagdra's brood catching up.

Finally, the Swarm reached the gate. This gate had been a cause of disaster for the Swarm, leading to their defensive lines being thrown into chaos. However, now it had become their salvation, the only hope to survive. However, there was a group of primal zerg guarding the gate which would have to be defeated. The Swarm charged forth and engaged in a fierce battle with the primal zerg. Now, the primal defenders were the ones outnumbered, and with Kerrigan backing up the Swarm, the primal zerg didn't stand a chance. Once the defenders outside the gate were defeated, the Swarm gathered to prepare to enter and fight the remaining primal zerg in the tunnel, and perhaps whatever lay beyond the gate.

After Kerrigan gave her final orders to the zerg which would remain on the Zerus side of the gate, she turned back to gaze over Zerus. Kerrigan hated that she was being forced to run away. Even with her newfound power, it wasn't enough to turn the tides of such an imbalanced situation. Kerrigan was enraged with this humiliation, but for the time being she would have to accept being on the back foot.

"I will return", the Queen of Blades declared. "And when I return, all shall know the fury of the Swarm. Savor your brief reprieve while you can, primals. You won't have very long to enjoy it."

After saying her piece, Kerrigan turned around and led the remainder of the Swarm through the gate. She was at the front of the charge, swiftly clearing out the remaining primal zerg within the tunnel as she tore them apart with her claws and wings or burned them the ashes with her psionic powers. Eventually, the entirety of their forces had entered the tunnel and soon they met up with the other group which had entered the tunnel earlier.

With all of their forces now together, the Swarm began pushing through to the other side of the tunnel, easily destroying the poorly equipped terrans. On the other side, the primal pack was now pushing into the tunnel, but Kerrigan held the line in defending against Yagdra's pack. In the enclosed space, the primal zerg could not make use of their numerical superiority and Kerrigan was able to dispatch them piecemeal.

Yagdra's pack continued to stream through the gate, but they never returned. Yagdra wanted to take things into his own hand and fight Kerrigan himself, but he could not fit through the gate. So, Yagdra was stuck waiting outside the gate and his subordinates continued to try and fail at breaking through.

The corpses of the primal pack piled up and soon the primal zerg had to dig through the corpses of their own brethren to even get through. As the tunnel clogged up, their rate of entry trickled to virtually nothing. Those that managed to make it through were killed almost instantly. Yagdra saw that further attacks were useless and only served to throw away forces for no gain, and thus he ordered the attacks to cease.

With the attacks of the primal zerg no longer a threat, the Swarm put all of its effort into pushing through to the other side of the gate. They trampled over the remnants of the human army which had went through the gate. The resistance of the primitive humans was futile as they were quickly devoured by the zerg Swarm. Eventually, the last of the humans had either died or fled and the Swarm charged forward undeterred, heading toward the light shining out of the end of the tunnel.

Finally, the Swarm emerged into a new world.