The fallen star
"Crap."
Jake, a 20 year old guy 1.80m tall, who has short black hair, normal skin, blue eyes, wearing his favorite blue vest and comfortable black trousers sighed as he took off his earphones.
Today was not his day, as he lost yet another Starcraft game. Out of ten games he lost eight. Deciding he totally needed a break, because he could swear all his opponents today were Korean players, he shut off the program and set his PC into standby mode.
It was a nice warm midsummer evening and he had spent already most of the day inside, so he decided he might as well get out a bit. He put on his sport shoes and got out of the house. Inhaling deeply the fresh air, he made his way towards a bunch of discounters. During the past few years one after another started covering the area, making it easier for people who didn't directly live in downtown.
Arriving in one of the stores, Jake immediately got himself milk and coke. (A/N: I know it hurts drinking both stuff at the same time, but it's good! I have issues).
He placed himself on a bench and just enjoyed the fresh evening air. Looking into the sky he thought about how much of hypocrite humanity is. There were good people out there, but most of them were suppressed by the ones with power.
Democracy was good and all, but it was slow. Giving one person the whole power however was always a bad idea. The people who could handle the power properly always didn't want it.
Incidentally he thought about the story of the video game he played just 20 minutes ago, Starcraft. He owned the one or other book about the game, providing some nice background story and side plots.
Terrans, well there's first a corrupt government, another corrupt government following the first, then Kel Moria which is yet another corrupt government and Umoja. From the little information he had, this government was actually okay, just not as big as the Dominion.
Then there were the protoss. Well, not the worst dudes, but still the government did want to kill the dark templers and not only banish them. Plus more than a bunch were stuck up, fanatic jerks who drug their own kind to serve a false god.
Finally the Zerg. Not much of a government there, because they're working in a hive mind. That's how they were born, well mostly. The primal Zerg ruled after the strongest is the boss. Actually he could find nothing against the Zerg, since they acted the most...natural. It was their nature to conquer, devour, assimilate and grow.
"Man, I need a second hobby." he sighed.
Just as he was about to get up from the bench, he saw something in the sky. At first he thought it was just a plane flying low, which happened regularly, since the next airport was just 50 km away. But on a second glance he saw that thing was far from being a plane. It was a ball of fire! An asteroid he realized and panicked instantly.
The ball of fire flew above him and headed straight for the hills. "What the fuck?" he asked and wondered if he had been seeing things. He was proven wrong when there was a loud explosion behind the hill, which temporary cost him his hearing. The ground shook and even some windows got broken.
People covered the area, wondering what exactly happened.
"Gotta check this out." Jake said to himself and headed towards the hills, his drinks completely forgotten. A few people started following him.
XIII
Ground Zero
"Holy macaroni!" Jake exclaimed as he saw the crater the meteoroid created. The grass was burned the trees were bent over by the shockwave, broken as if they were chopsticks. It didn't take long for cars to arrive at the area.
Jake was already halfway in the crater, when he saw something. There was a hole in the middle. He worked his way through the burned woodland and sure enough there was a hole there. He couldn't see how deep it went, but sure enough that rock got the record for drilling a hole that deep as the fastest.
Jake kneeled down and tried to make out some things. He used his phone as a flashlight, but didn't see much. A few other people gathered around him. "Anyone got a flashlight?" he asked.
"No." A man kneeled down. "What happened? Sounded like a bomb went off."
"Meteorite. Wish I had a camera." Jake replied.
More people arrived and the general 'cool', 'awesome' and so on talk started. Jake circled the hole a little more, dirt falling inside from his movements.
"Jake!" A voice called him. Looking up he saw his two Starcraft buddies Laura and Raymond coming down to him. Laura was a 1.86m tall girl, with red hair, green eyes, who wore a single red top, short blue jeans and black shoes.
Raymond had brown hair, which covered one of his eyes, brown eyes, his skin brown from his recent trip to the Caribbean's, he wore a turquoise polo shirt, brown trousers and grey shoes.
"What happened here man? Did you eat beans again?" Laura asked, snickering.
"Oh man dude. We told you to consult a doctor about this." Raymond or Ray for short added.
"I just can't help it I guess." Jake played along and all of them snickered. Then the three of them looked down the hole.
"How deep do you think this goes?" Laura asked after a while. Reporters and police started arriving at the scene. Ray and Jake both shrugged. "I don't think they'd let us be around for long, huh?" Raymond remarked as he saw the police coming down.
"Well at least something is happening around these parts without getting anyone killed." Jake thought about his neighbor who committed suicide the other week.
"Hmm..." Laura took out a small flashlight from her pocket.
"Why do you have that thing?" Jake asked. "Just bought it today." she replied. Even with the small flashlight, they couldn't see the ground. However they could see that it was rather spacious.
"Wow, look at this, guys." Laura exclaimed amazed by what she saw.
"Why's there a cave?" Ray asked. Laura put her flashlight away, seeing as it was no help in seeing anything. "Wait second, guys." Jake held out his arms. "If there is a cave under us" he pointed with his two pointer fingers down "and we're standing on the weakest spot right now..."
He couldn't say any more, since the ground collapsed under the three friends and with screams they fell down.
XIII
Cave
...
...
...
"Urgh..." multiple groans could be heard as the three friends slowly regained consciousness. "Guys?" Laura called out to the darkness, being the first one to recover. Under her exposed skin, she could feel that she was lying on a pile of earth. "Ray? Jake?"
"Yeah...?" the two answered almost simultaneously.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, soft landing. Ray?"
"Same here. Landed on a pile of dirt. Laura?"
"I could need a shower." the girl replied.
"Really? We fell down a cave and a shower is your biggest concern?" Jake asked into the darkness.
"How deep did we fell?" Raymond asked looking up. "I can't see the hole we came in through."
"Wait a minute..." Laura searched through her pockets and sighed in relief when she found her flashlight. The sudden light surprised the two boys. "What would you do without me?" Laura flashed around a little bit, blinding both of her friends in the process. She flashed around a little more and found out that the cave went a little deeper. Making a mental note, she flashed behind herself and found out why they couldn't see the exit.
"Looks like a slide. Climbing back won't be possible." she explained.
"So we have to wait for help." Ray concluded. Laura flashed back to her front. "How about we explore this thing a little bit more?" she asked.
"Are you nuts? We should wait for help." Jake exclaimed. "Not to mention we don't know if there's enough oxygen for us in there." Raymond pointed out.
Laura slowly got up and stumbled off the pile of earth she'd been laying on, her flashlight pointed to the ground. "Well, I'm going."
"Okay, okay, I'm coming. Just...gimme...a second." He grunted as he slowly got up and stumbled towards his friend. Raymond let out a sigh and got up himself.
"Stay close. I don't want any of us getting lost or fall even deeper." the brown haired male advised. Laura was now skin to skin contact with her two friends, but she didn't mind. It was best to stay close and when you can't see a thing, skin to skin contact was necessary.
"Shouldn't the meteoroid be nearby?" she asked.
"Well that thing got down sideways..." Jake pointed out.
Raymond disagreed. "Even if, something is wrong. It should have been right in front of us. Of course there's a possibility it got shred into a thousand pieces, although I'm no expert on that matter."
"That hole was pretty small now that I think about it." Jake said.
"Of course. That must be it. The stone landed and afterwards the hole opened. It must have rolled down, meaning we should-"
"Jackpot!" Laura cheered as her flashlight revealed a black stone, like it was burnt. It had the size of a football and a little bit of steam was coming out of it.
"Damn." Jake took out his phone and made some pictures. His friends copied him and soon you could hear the click sounds of cameras everywhere. "Looks like the cave goes even deeper." Laura examined with her light.
"We're not going any deeper." Raymond chided. "We found what we were looking for. Now let's go back, so that they actually can find and save us."
"Aww..." Laura pouted like a child, but knew it better. They were surrounded by earth, not rocks. The thing might collapse any second and breathing became harder with every second they spent there. Something wet, probably wet earth, already fell on her head, indicating the cave really could collapse any second.
Standing together the three friends turned around and walked back. Breathing became easier as they came closer to the exit.
"So and now?" Laura asked.
"Well...I got Risk installed on my phone." Raymond offered.
XIII
Ground Zero
"Phew." Raymond had been the last one in being brought out of the ground. He dusted of his pants and rubbed a part of the dirt off from his arms. He found himself in an uncomfortable situation as the reporters approached them and started asking him all kind of questions.
"Fuck you guys, I'm gonna take a shower." Laura showed them both middle fingers in an X shape, grinning into the camera and left. He and Jake burst out into a full laughter after seeing this and needed to support themselves on their legs.
"Anyways, I'm out too. Hey Ray, game later?"
"Yeah, later."
Jake forced his way through the reporters, ignoring the complaints of the ambulance people.
Raymond at least let himself check up and after it was established that he only had some scratches and bruises, he was free to go. Of course that meant facing off the press people. Being the most polite one out of the trio he decided to answer some of the questions.
"Yeah, so actually Laura and I walked up to my friend to inspect the hole. The ground...collapsed all of the sudden and then...we woke up in a cave."
He took out his cell phone and showed the photos he made to the press. "We think we found the meteoroid and decided to take some pictures. And the rest of the time we did nothing more than playing games on our phones.
Now, if you'd excuse me, but I could need a shower too."
Raymond didn't know how those reporters came up with even more questions, but he sure wouldn't answer anymore questions today. He was tired and needed a good game to calm the nerves after what happened today. If he was lucky he'd be able to catch the last bus to downtown.
That reminded him that he may be able to catch up with Laura who needed to take a ride too. Not as far as downtown, but still it would be more comfortable than 15 to 20 minutes walking. As it turned out the next evening Laura had taken a taxi.
XIII
Laura's apartment
Laura let out a sigh of relief when she finally was at home. The day had been exciting with the comet hitting earth and the cave, but waiting for hours to be saved sucked. At least no one got injured, so it was all in good fun.
Taking off her shoes, she immediately headed for the bathroom. She didn't have a big apartment, being a university student and financing everything from what her parents and other relatives saved up and what she earned from her job.
When she got rid of her clothes, she didn't notice that something that had been hanging on her back and hidden behind her muddy hair decided to let go off her and landed on the ground with a small thud. After taking her clothes off, she stepped into the shower, the warm water pouring down her dirty skin.
She enjoyed standing in the warm water for a little while before starting the tedious work of getting her hair clean. Long hair looked nice and all, but cleaning it up always took a while.
In the meantime her uninvited guest crawled towards the door of the bathroom, only to find it locked. Processing this new information, the tiny thing crawled into a corner, where it could hide behind a small shelf filled with towels. The thing learned that day that woman certainly take their time in order to get cleaned up.
Meh, am not in the mood for a game. Yeah, pizza, a cold drink and a good movie will do the trick now. Laura thought to herself as she stepped out of the bathroom with only a towel around her body.
"Where do I have...there we go. Why did I leave it here anyway?" Laura put on her bathrobe, instead of the towel and simply slumped down on the couch, only to remember she still needed to put the pizza in the oven.
Next she slammed herself on the couch, only to remember she still needed to put a DVD inside. "Oh, fuck it. Let's see what's on TV today." She picked up her the remote and hit the button. The Simpsons were on air and she could live with that, even if it was a modern episode.
Fifteen minutes later the smell of her pizza caught her attention. Grumbling she got up and took it out of the oven. She immediately returned, not even bothering cutting the thing. She just took a bite and put the plate down on the table.
She didn't notice her 'guest' crawling on the floor towards the kitchen. It needed nutrients and that fast. The meal the female terran made for herself was out of question, as well as the female terran herself. It had plans with said terran and it would be best to not get on her bad side.
It crawled under the table, desperately gathering all the crumbs it could find and made a little pile. Just as it wanted to start eating the pile there was a sudden gasp. Looking to the side, the small visitor found the owner of the apartment standing at the doorframe.
Laura's eyes were wide as she stared at the thing on the ground. "A larva?" she whispered. She closed her eyes, counted to three and opened them again. Next she pinched herself in the arm and looked up again.
"You're real? Or did I hit my head today?" she asked herself. As the larva didn't disappear from her vision, she kneeled down and carefully stretched out her arm towards it. The larva looked at the hand as it came closer and closer until it touched its head. Laura's eyes widened even more when she could actually feel the larva.
Her eyes drifted off to the small pile of crumbs next to the larva. "You're hungry, aren't you?" The red head realized. To her surprise the larva nodded. "Okay." She got up on her feet. "I'm either delusional or shit just got real. And in case I'm not delusional I'm about to do something really stupid."
She walked over to her fridge and took out some meat and placed it on a table. The larva watched her with interest as she took out a plate and a knife. With the knife she opened the plastic bag and then placed the meat on the table.
Some disturbing motherly instincts took over and Laura gently grabbed the larva and placed it on the table. "Uhh, should I heat it up?" To answer her question the larva devoured the meat within seconds, reminding Laura of the one mission in Heart of the Swarm, where you start as a Larva.
"Wow." Laura commented. The plate was clean, even the sauce was gone. Curiosity taking over Laura placed herself on a chair and placed her head on the table right in front of the larva.
"Hard to imagine you can transform into an Ultralisk and smash me with no effort whatsoever. Don't you little things need creep to survive?" she asked, slowly stroking the little thing over its back. The larva didn't object, on the contrary it seemed to enjoy it. "What am I going to do with you? Can you transform into a Drone?"
The little thing nodded. Laura raised an eyebrow. "Could you transform into a Hatchery afterwards?" The larva pointed at the empty meat package.
"Right. I don't think I have enough to replace 300 amounts of minerals. Not to mention we don't have that stuff here on earth. And we don't have vespene gas either."
It didn't seem to worry the larva. Laura looked up thinking. "I hope they'll play along."
XIII
In front of Laura's house
Jake drove up with his car, Raymond sitting on the side. Both seemed a little confused as to why Laura called them both to her apartment in the middle of the night. Luckily they had vacation and none of them needed to attend their jobs the next day.
"Alright, what's so...'important'?" Jake asked a little annoyed. Ray chuckled. "He lost. So what's up?"
"Upstairs." Both noted that Laura was unusual tense. They followed her into the apartment and into the kitchen.
"What the fuck?!" Both exclaimed, seeing something they shouldn't be seeing, because it was not real. At least not supposed to be real. It crept both even more out, when Laura let the larva climbing up her arm and onto her shoulder.
"You're not serious..." Ray began, but knew the answer already. Jake rubbed his temples. "That thing was in the meteoroid?" he asked.
"I guess." Laura shrugged. "I did feel something on my head one time, but I didn't think of it too much."
"I'm not gonna question why you didn't suspect anything." Jake looked directly into his friend's eyes. "I'm not even going to ask the why, the how and the where. I'm going to ask the are! Are you sure? Do you know what just might happen if everything gets out of control?"
"I think it is already out of control." Raymond remarked. "Did that thing infest you?" he was himself surprised as to how calm he was about this.
"Nah, it didn't. And yeah, I'm sure about this."
...
...
...
"Why the hell am I tempted to help you, instead of killing that thing?" Jake asked in all honesty. Raymond sweatdropped, although he had to admit this was just too good of an opportunity to let it slip. He himself was Protoss player and Jake a Terran player, while Laura was the Zerg player.
Maybe it was only the opportunity, maybe it was the chance to someday meet a real Protoss or to just travel into space, whatever it was, in the end he said. "I can't belief I'm saying this, but...I'm in."
There was a silence between the three as everyone awaited Jake's answer.
"I'm not in the mood to get ripped apart by some oversized insects. I'm in." Wherever that logic came from. Laura let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.
"Thanks guys, you're the best."
"What are friends for?" Raymond asked.
"Money? Sex? Not being the lonesome emo?" Despite it being not really funny all three laughed at Jake's words.
The three called it a night.
XIII
Raymond and Laura were alone in Laura's apartment, watching the Larva curiously as it seemed to sleep on Laura's lap. Jake was out with the money from all of them, buying meat for the little thing.
The red haired girl slowly stroke over the little thing's back. Said larva had spent the night with the girl on a side note. On the news Raymond's interview could be seen along with videos of the meteoroid that civilians had taken.
The larva itself seemed to be pretty interested in the television. The doorbell rang soon enough. Laura put the larva on her shoulder and walked over to the door.
"Barbeque!" Jake announced as he entered the apartment with two sacks full of meat.
"Still can't belief we're actually doing this." He continued as he placed himself on the couch, while Laura already fed the larva in the kitchen.
"You think she's infested?" Jake asked Raymond in a low tone. In response Ray held up his arms and let them land on his lap, signalizing he didn't know. "We can only wait and see, but considering we're trying to give birth to an entire brood, we already doomed humanity." He looked out of the window. "It's true what they say about us gamers. We're all ready for the asylum."
"It's my second home already." Jake retorted, trying to ignore the sounds of flesh being ripped apart coming from the kitchen. Raymond focused on the weather for the time being.
15 minutes later Laura came out of the kitchen with the Larva on her shoulder.
"Alright, we're ready to go to create our own swar."
"You sure we don't end up dead, after the first Zergling is born?" Jake asked.
"That just adds the thrill!"
Raymond and Jake sighed. If it wasn't a one in a lifetime opportunity, they would seriously reconsider if not kill the Larva.
"Okay, since we're doing this, where are we doing this?" Ray asked. "Huh?" Laura looked at him confused.
"We need a place where definitely no one would go to under normal circumstances. A place that is hidden well enough, so no one stumbles accidently over the hatchery." he elaborated further.
"Oh..." Laura dropped her head in realization.
"The caves from yesterday won't go..." Jake mused, his hand under his chin. He looked to the side on the couch and thought about all the places around town.
"I got it." He suddenly said, taking out his keys. "No shitting or pissing in my car. And also no creep, got it?" he asked the Larva, which nodded in response. With a raised eyebrow everyone left the apartment.
Inwardly the Larva was excited. Soon the swarm would be reborn and soon the swarm would have a new leader. The Larva looked at Laura as those thoughts crossed its mind. Or rather minds.