It had been almost three years since the United Earth Directorate and
Protoss forces had been diminished by the Zerg and their evil mutated
leader, Kerrigan--Queen of Blades--had promised that if the good Emperor
helped her defeat her enemies, she would give Mengsk back Korhal so he
could lick his wounds and rebuild his great "new" Terran Dominion. Now,
Emperor Mengsk was again betraying the Queen by trying to befriend the
Protoss and finally once and for all eradicating the Zerg filth from the
universe.
Captain Axis was ripped from his thoughts by an officer he had never seen before shaking him back to reality.
"Sir, there is an, uh, incoming transmission from Hyperion City on Korhal," stammered the rookie. "And it's from Emperor Mengsk himself."
"Thank you, private. I'll take it in here, " said Axis pointing off to an adjacent transmission room.
Axis stepped into the small room and sat down at a screen and flipped a large green toggle which generated the aged criminal's face on the screen.
"Why, good to see you, Thomas!, " Mengsk said.
"Hello, Emperor, " replied Tom with a definite sound of sovereignty in his voice.
"Now, now, Tom, don't take that tone with me. After all I did for you, you really shouldn't be acting so superior." Mengsk's voice stopped and paused waiting for the stone look on Tom's face to change. Unruffled, Mengsk began to explain the real reason he needed to talk.
"Of course you know about the peace talks down at the Senate, well, they are really not going our way. It seems that young Artanis has learned a thing or two about negotiating."
Tom kept a smile to himself best he could as he heard this news. It was wonderful to see Mengsk's own treaty backfiring on him. Maybe the old git would learn something, but Tom knew that wasn't going to happen.
"-it seems that, " continued Mengsk,"if I can't get my negotiating back on track this entire alliance will be on Protoss itinerary. Believe me, that cannot happen. This entire operation is too important to be ruined by the Protoss," the Emperor finished with pure disgust in his deep scratchy voice.
"Not happy to see that your perfect plan is going down the drain, Arcturus, " mocked Tom.
Ignoring the Captain's remark all together, Mengsk proceeded in his explanation.
"It seems that Zerg have taken an interest in the fallen Confederate home world, Tarsonis. I am giving you personal orders to go there and investigate the matter. You have clearance to use deadly force against the Zerg."
"Understood, Emperor. Axis out, " saluted Tom and he flipped the same toggle--now red--and the screen became once again black. He got up from his seat and slowly made his way out of the transmission room and to the lift. Already in the lift was a pretty brunette marine that saluted as Tom got into the chamber. She had medium size slug thrower hanging low at her waist.
As he left the lift and he was again standing on the bridge. He turned to one of the officers at the central console and said, "Ensign, prepare for sub warp."
"Course, sir? " questioned the officer.
"High orbit over Tarsonis."
"Yes, sir."
Axis felt the ship's engines begin to hum quietly and the ship began to vibrate ever so slightly as the Aries was carried swiftly in to sub warp speed. Tom watched the main screen full of stars and infinite space.
"I'll be in my ready room, Ensign."
As Tom entered his quarters, his eyes instantly fell upon his special class CMC-400 combat suit. This kind of armor was only given to people of high stature or rank as opposed to the standard marine CMC-300 suits. There were few differences despite the name. The special suit could run on its own power for ten days opposed to the three hundred edition's seven days. It could fully hide the wearer's heat signature and it kept the user cool all the time with it's built in air conditioner. The four hundred edition also gave high nuclear, biological, and chemical protection.
The Ensign's voice came through the ships intercom, "Sir, we're coming up on Tarsonis."
Not realizing how much time he had spent standing there pondering his suit's capabilities, Tom walked onto the bridge.
"Are there any other ships in the system, " asked the Captain.
Another technician answered, "No, sir. The large sensor sweep is picking up no activity around Tarsonis."
"Pull back out of orbit and hold there. In the mean time I want everyone in armor when I return, " ordered Tom to the entire crew.
He walked back into his ready room and walked up to his combat suit and began to put the it on, locking the suit around him at its intersections. He felt where the suit was tight to his skin and where it was loose. The tight parts were the suit would seal off the limb in a bandage so the limb could be lost, but the soldier wouldn't. The loose parts around his shins and shoulders were jam packed with equipment. Such as spare ammunition, first aid, sensor arrays, and drug packs.
Once Tom was fully locked inside the neosteel golem he flexed his entire body immediately recognizing the feeling of the armor. He heard the suits energy servos whine quietly as he moved his body parts. As he took a brisk and easy step forward he was suddenly very thankful for the cabled ligature which increased Tom's own strength eight fold.
The man stopped his admiration of the suit as the same Ensign he had talked to earlier came into the room. He was wearing a lighter CMC-200 suit with a small slug thrower on his hip. Tom suddenly thought about his own weaponry and turned around. Lying on the fake wooden panel was a C-14 Impaler. It was a gauss rifle that fired eight millimeter spikes specially designed to tear apart organic flesh such as the Zerg's.
"Sir, " the officer began, "the entire crew is suited and ready as you requested." He then left without another word with Tom at his heels.
Tom Axis looked at the large silvery planet of Tarsonis through the main viewing screen.
"Helmsman, take us into low orbit."
Tom felt the engines fire softly and the Aries jutted forward into the polluted atmosphere. Once the ship was below the clouds Tom could see the ruins of Tarsonis City and the confirmation of Zerg activity. It had seemed the Zerg hive was located in the United News Network building. There was thirty yards of apparent creep surrounding the entire building.
"What would be the most effective way of taking out that building, " inquired Tom.
"Working, " answered the technician, "A successful hit at the base of the building with a subatomic C class missile will topple the entire building in on itself killing anything inside."
Tom thought only momentarily before commanding, "Alright, do it."
A thin gray and white missile dropped from the belly of the ship and darted forward at tremendous speed toward the lobby level of the UNN building. There was a millisecond of silence before there was a roar of flame out of the bottom of the structure and as expected the top of the construct toppled in on itself like an overcooked soufflé.
The stone look on Tom's face appeared again, " Helm, get us out of-"
"-Sir, I'm picking up something very unusual, " interjected a technician, "It seems it's a distress signal coming from the hinterland, but that's not the unusual thing about it. They're using a frequency from ninety-six years ago, " reported the officer.
"Can we compensate to receive the transmission, " asked Tom.
"I believe so, sir. I'll put up the transmission."
One of the smaller screens on the wall flickered and came on. A man wearing colonial militia clothes mixed with heavy static yelled, "This is a full scale alert! We are under heavy attack by the Zerg forces! Our defense is broken! We require immediate evac! "
"We have a lock on the location, " said the Ensign.
"Get us there, helmsman! Full Impulse!"
Pulling off to the right the Behemoth-Class battle cruiser sped off at incredible speeds.
* * *
"SQUAD THREE AND NINE TAKE THE RIGHT FLANK! ! YOU THREE, TAKE THE BUNKER! ! FIRE AT WILL! ! FIRE AT WILL! !" yelled the same man from the distress call just as another enormous wave of zerglings and hydralisks rushed over the remaining marines. Blood and ichor splattering in chaos, the man ordered the final order.
"ALL UNITS, CHARGE! !"
The handful of armored marines rushed unquestioningly towards the hundreds of mutated xenomorphs. The two forces clashed wildly in a maelstrom of blood, and bullets.
The women and men of the militia fought bravely but, they all knew that they were no match for the Zerg. The man let off a blast from his gauss rifle and looked up. With roaring power and sound the Aries flew over the battlefield firing its blasters into the mass engagement.
"Deploy the A-17 Wraiths and the Drop ships, " ordered the Captain, "And open a channel to the squad."
"Channel open. They're listening, " answered the technician.
Tom looked at the ceiling and spoke, "This is Captain Axis. Retreat your men immediately too a safe distance. Our drop ships will be there to pick you up shortly."
Tom wriggled and flexed inside his neosteel exoskeleton. He liked the soft mechanical purr of the energy servos as they supported and sustained Tom's body.
Down on the planet, red as burnt sand, the Zerg were pressing barely on as best they could through a constant barrage of blaster fire, bullets and repeated explosions. The Zerg were being annihilated by missiles being launched from all directions. Crossfire and chaos mixed together in a storm of hell. In the midst of the rescue battle a tempest had blown in across the wasteland.
The drop ships fell from the, now pitch black and storm ridden sky, with a high pitched scream, louder than the lightning sprouting from the dark clouds. They landed--or rather hit--shaking the ground with a large thump that could've woken the dead. The loading ramp in the rear of the shuttle squeaked horribly as it lowered. Militia marines rushed up the ramps, some with shoulder plates burnt off by Hydralisk acid, others running nursing bloody arms. There were even army members limping with a leg that didn't exist past their knee. One marine stood out. He was lying at the bottom of the ramp. Both his legs and torso were inexistent. Below his stomach were strings and bits of red meat and a few inches of brownish vertebrae protruding from the rest of the man. He was screaming and crying not as marine of the Tarsonis colonial militia, but as a man. A person. A human. A child that had just fallen after his first try on a bicycle. Screaming for his mother to return him to comfort and safety inside her arms. Inside the neosteel shell of the drop ship another female marine saw that man in his pain. With a look on her face that could only be described as understanding, she pulled out her slug thrower and put the man out of his gory misery.
* * *
The sagging man from the distress call drank deep from his glass of cheap, imported brandy. Tom, still from inside the shelter his metal fort, walked through the doors to the empty meeting room.
"How many of my men did you get, soldier, " asked the man gloomily.
"Marshall, I would appreciate if you would address me as Cap-"
"GOD DAMMIT MAN! ! HOW MANY OF MY MEN DID YOU GET!!?" yelled the Marshall.
"Twenty-three."
Only silence.
"Twenty-three out of two-hundred and fifty-five marines, nineteen Arclite tanks, and a dozen Goliath walkers."
Raynor turned away from the observatory window, pulled a cushy chair out from the table, and sat down cradling his beverage like it was his first born. He took a deep breath, drank the last from his glass and refilled it. He took another deep drink and began.
"We were on a routine patrol, me and seven of my squad members. We had a tank for cover keeping' itself 'bout ten yards behind us. We were all jokin' around. There wasn't anything at all there to attack us. The planet was supposed to be uninhabited. There wasn't even a reason for a patrol, it just kept us from going insane. Anyway, we made our lazy selves go down to sector four of the city, over by the City Hall. Well, we split up in different directions and it hadn't been a minute before we heard rifle fire. We all ended up by one private. All he did was point down and there it was. Creep. Originating from an apartment complex. We just stood there in pure horror and shock before I called for reinforcements and right then, as if they had been waiting for that queue, the Zerg spilled out off the windowless holes and doorways in the building."
Tom kept his trademark stone face as he heard the terrifying news.
"We all immediately got in cover of the tank, which had transformed into siege mode, and we fired non-stop at the quickly scampering Zerglins' while the tank fired heavy shells into the brood. I gave the command for a full speed retreat. We didn't stop until we were back at the base. We were able to hold off the continuing Zerg waves of minions for over a day. We couldn't for the life of us get a response to our distress call, but 'bout an hour before you answered, the Zerg finally broke through the barricade. We were gettin' massacred."
Obvious tear drops were leaking from the Marshall's eyes.
"And ya know the thing that still cracks me up 'bout all this, " asked Raynor, but he answered his own question before Tom could even respond. "It's that the second Mengsk hears about this he's gonna be nukin' the whole damn planet over again! "
Tom found the remark amusing before he realized he had no idea what it meant.
"Again, Marshal?"
Raynor answered in an irritated manner, "Jesus name, soldier! Call me Jim. I hate all that Marshall stuff. It's a thing of the past now. I haven't been a marshall for four years."
Feeling a bit irritated by the entire conversation, Tom repeated, "What do you mean 'again', Jim?"
Raynor took a third swig from his glass and sighed, "Ne'ermind, Captain. If Arcturus hasn't talked to ya' bout all that yet, then I'm no man to tell ya'." He got up from his seat and rubbed his stomach, "Where's the galley on this bucket o' bolts. I'm starvin'."
Tom, very alarmed at the Marshall being so upbeat and cheery, was taken by surprise and it took him a couple of seconds to remember what a galley was. "Um, it's, uh, take the lift to level three and it's on your second right, " said Tom through his open visor.
Raynor brushed softly past Tom as he went out of the meeting room doors. Axis stood there running the conversation over and over in his mind. He's gonna be nuking' the whole damn planet over again! Tom decided he should go try and maybe get a little more information out of Jim before he checked the ship's records about the supposed Tarsonis nuking.
Tom walked out of the room and headed for the same lift Raynor had moments ago. Tom was ten feet away and the lift doors opened and he immediately recognized the brunette he had seen on the lift a couple of hours ago. She didn't smile, but quickly pulled the pistol from her waist and fired several rounds at Tom's chest.
As unexpected as the attack was, Tom could not duck in time and the CMC-400 shell took the hunks of metal. They bounced off as the suit was unsusceptable to small arms fire.
"HOLY shi-, " yelled Tom as he ducked frantically, spun and ran in the opposite direction. The miles of cabled ligature surrounding Tom's leg screamed as he ran.
There was one drawback to all powered combat suits. When large amounts of adrenaline was secreted quickly into the body, it would confuse the sensors strapped to each limb and suit would give off a sudden burst of unexpected energy to the wearer before it compensates.
Of course, not expecting the power surge, Tom overstepped and fell over against a large bulkhead in the hallway. He hoped he hadn't damaged the helmet but, that was the least of his worries. The woman was firing the slugs in his general area relentlesly. Tom felt at his own waist, but felt nothing. The one time he was unarmed he was being attacked by some maniac traitor. He cursed at himself for his stupidity. He got up and ran farther down the hall, the woman at his heels, pounding on doors yelling for whoever was inside to let him in.
Tom took a left around another pair of rooms and ducked mindlessly into a dark room. He heard the woman's metal clunking footsteps run past the room he was in. He couldn't see anything except for what seemed like repeating figures along the far wall. He reached for his backpack and pulled out a small flare and set it off. As his eyes quickly adjusted to the bright light he saw what was along the opposite wall from him. He had accidentaly fallen into one of the ship's many weapons bunkers. He reached for a Magnum-class needle gun and put it into his empty holster. He then slung one of the many gauss rifles easily onto his shoulder along with some extra magazines.
Tom walked cautiously out of the room as the flare, now lying forgotten on the floor, died out. He put the crosshairs of the rifle up to his eye and turned the next corner in the empty hallway. He looked over into the next corridor out of his gun's sight and saw the back of the brunette walking slowly down the hall away from him. He quickly, but silently turned and aimed the Impaler at the woman's back.
"FREEZE, " he yelled in his most intimidating voice.
The woman stopped dead in her tracks and dropped the gun. She kept quiet.
"Now, slide it over to me, " ordered Tom, loudly.
The woman put her booted foot over the gun and with a quick move of her leg the gun came sliding over to Tom, which left it at his feet. Tom, keeping the gun aimed at the woman's back, walked over to a comm panel and press the largest blue toggle.
"Get me a security crew down here to this panel's location."
He let go of the switch and walked up to the woman, still not turned around, and looked inside her helmet.
There was no face behind the visor. He reached inside the suit and felt nothing. The figure was nothing but a lifeless suit of combat armor. He swung the rifle around and looked down the rest of the empty corridor. Tom was breathing hard as the security team arrived.
"She's gone, " Tom breathed. "She's. . . just gone. "
He walked wordlessly past the confused security team, up the lift around a couple of bends and into his own quarters. Without a thought he unlatched the suit and pulled it off of his limbs, throwing each piece onto the floor. He didn't know why the sudden disappearance of the woman had affected him in such an odd way, but it had.
He walked into his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bunk. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them for almost a minute. When he opened them the woman was sitting on the small loveseat across the room. From pure shock Tom instantly fainted and fell to the floor.
When he awoke the first thing he saw was the woman's face hunched over him. From a defensive gut reaction, Tom threw a punch at the woman's face and she fell back before quickly getting back up. Tom got to his feet and backed a couple of feet away.
"Please," begged the woman, "I don't want to hurt you, just listen to me."
"Why the hell should I do that?" asked Tom. His eyes were red with fury and confusion.
"Just… listen, I was sent here by the Matriarch Raszagal. You could think of me as her alpha lackey."
This was too much information for Tom to take in all at once and he just couldn't accept the fact that a Protoss leader of such pacivity as herself would want him dead. Why did this Dark Templar want him killed? Why was he important? Why, especially, would she choose such a time as the present when the peace talks between the Praetor and Mengsk had just begun? A million questions were racing through Tom's head and they all needed to be answered, but there was no time to ask them.
"Then why the hell are not trying to kill me all of a sudden?" The question escaped his lips in one quick breath.
The woman shifted the weight from her left foot to the other before answering, "I can't… I can't explain why I'm not trying to kill you, it's just--" she stopped abruptly.
Captain Axis was ripped from his thoughts by an officer he had never seen before shaking him back to reality.
"Sir, there is an, uh, incoming transmission from Hyperion City on Korhal," stammered the rookie. "And it's from Emperor Mengsk himself."
"Thank you, private. I'll take it in here, " said Axis pointing off to an adjacent transmission room.
Axis stepped into the small room and sat down at a screen and flipped a large green toggle which generated the aged criminal's face on the screen.
"Why, good to see you, Thomas!, " Mengsk said.
"Hello, Emperor, " replied Tom with a definite sound of sovereignty in his voice.
"Now, now, Tom, don't take that tone with me. After all I did for you, you really shouldn't be acting so superior." Mengsk's voice stopped and paused waiting for the stone look on Tom's face to change. Unruffled, Mengsk began to explain the real reason he needed to talk.
"Of course you know about the peace talks down at the Senate, well, they are really not going our way. It seems that young Artanis has learned a thing or two about negotiating."
Tom kept a smile to himself best he could as he heard this news. It was wonderful to see Mengsk's own treaty backfiring on him. Maybe the old git would learn something, but Tom knew that wasn't going to happen.
"-it seems that, " continued Mengsk,"if I can't get my negotiating back on track this entire alliance will be on Protoss itinerary. Believe me, that cannot happen. This entire operation is too important to be ruined by the Protoss," the Emperor finished with pure disgust in his deep scratchy voice.
"Not happy to see that your perfect plan is going down the drain, Arcturus, " mocked Tom.
Ignoring the Captain's remark all together, Mengsk proceeded in his explanation.
"It seems that Zerg have taken an interest in the fallen Confederate home world, Tarsonis. I am giving you personal orders to go there and investigate the matter. You have clearance to use deadly force against the Zerg."
"Understood, Emperor. Axis out, " saluted Tom and he flipped the same toggle--now red--and the screen became once again black. He got up from his seat and slowly made his way out of the transmission room and to the lift. Already in the lift was a pretty brunette marine that saluted as Tom got into the chamber. She had medium size slug thrower hanging low at her waist.
As he left the lift and he was again standing on the bridge. He turned to one of the officers at the central console and said, "Ensign, prepare for sub warp."
"Course, sir? " questioned the officer.
"High orbit over Tarsonis."
"Yes, sir."
Axis felt the ship's engines begin to hum quietly and the ship began to vibrate ever so slightly as the Aries was carried swiftly in to sub warp speed. Tom watched the main screen full of stars and infinite space.
"I'll be in my ready room, Ensign."
As Tom entered his quarters, his eyes instantly fell upon his special class CMC-400 combat suit. This kind of armor was only given to people of high stature or rank as opposed to the standard marine CMC-300 suits. There were few differences despite the name. The special suit could run on its own power for ten days opposed to the three hundred edition's seven days. It could fully hide the wearer's heat signature and it kept the user cool all the time with it's built in air conditioner. The four hundred edition also gave high nuclear, biological, and chemical protection.
The Ensign's voice came through the ships intercom, "Sir, we're coming up on Tarsonis."
Not realizing how much time he had spent standing there pondering his suit's capabilities, Tom walked onto the bridge.
"Are there any other ships in the system, " asked the Captain.
Another technician answered, "No, sir. The large sensor sweep is picking up no activity around Tarsonis."
"Pull back out of orbit and hold there. In the mean time I want everyone in armor when I return, " ordered Tom to the entire crew.
He walked back into his ready room and walked up to his combat suit and began to put the it on, locking the suit around him at its intersections. He felt where the suit was tight to his skin and where it was loose. The tight parts were the suit would seal off the limb in a bandage so the limb could be lost, but the soldier wouldn't. The loose parts around his shins and shoulders were jam packed with equipment. Such as spare ammunition, first aid, sensor arrays, and drug packs.
Once Tom was fully locked inside the neosteel golem he flexed his entire body immediately recognizing the feeling of the armor. He heard the suits energy servos whine quietly as he moved his body parts. As he took a brisk and easy step forward he was suddenly very thankful for the cabled ligature which increased Tom's own strength eight fold.
The man stopped his admiration of the suit as the same Ensign he had talked to earlier came into the room. He was wearing a lighter CMC-200 suit with a small slug thrower on his hip. Tom suddenly thought about his own weaponry and turned around. Lying on the fake wooden panel was a C-14 Impaler. It was a gauss rifle that fired eight millimeter spikes specially designed to tear apart organic flesh such as the Zerg's.
"Sir, " the officer began, "the entire crew is suited and ready as you requested." He then left without another word with Tom at his heels.
Tom Axis looked at the large silvery planet of Tarsonis through the main viewing screen.
"Helmsman, take us into low orbit."
Tom felt the engines fire softly and the Aries jutted forward into the polluted atmosphere. Once the ship was below the clouds Tom could see the ruins of Tarsonis City and the confirmation of Zerg activity. It had seemed the Zerg hive was located in the United News Network building. There was thirty yards of apparent creep surrounding the entire building.
"What would be the most effective way of taking out that building, " inquired Tom.
"Working, " answered the technician, "A successful hit at the base of the building with a subatomic C class missile will topple the entire building in on itself killing anything inside."
Tom thought only momentarily before commanding, "Alright, do it."
A thin gray and white missile dropped from the belly of the ship and darted forward at tremendous speed toward the lobby level of the UNN building. There was a millisecond of silence before there was a roar of flame out of the bottom of the structure and as expected the top of the construct toppled in on itself like an overcooked soufflé.
The stone look on Tom's face appeared again, " Helm, get us out of-"
"-Sir, I'm picking up something very unusual, " interjected a technician, "It seems it's a distress signal coming from the hinterland, but that's not the unusual thing about it. They're using a frequency from ninety-six years ago, " reported the officer.
"Can we compensate to receive the transmission, " asked Tom.
"I believe so, sir. I'll put up the transmission."
One of the smaller screens on the wall flickered and came on. A man wearing colonial militia clothes mixed with heavy static yelled, "This is a full scale alert! We are under heavy attack by the Zerg forces! Our defense is broken! We require immediate evac! "
"We have a lock on the location, " said the Ensign.
"Get us there, helmsman! Full Impulse!"
Pulling off to the right the Behemoth-Class battle cruiser sped off at incredible speeds.
* * *
"SQUAD THREE AND NINE TAKE THE RIGHT FLANK! ! YOU THREE, TAKE THE BUNKER! ! FIRE AT WILL! ! FIRE AT WILL! !" yelled the same man from the distress call just as another enormous wave of zerglings and hydralisks rushed over the remaining marines. Blood and ichor splattering in chaos, the man ordered the final order.
"ALL UNITS, CHARGE! !"
The handful of armored marines rushed unquestioningly towards the hundreds of mutated xenomorphs. The two forces clashed wildly in a maelstrom of blood, and bullets.
The women and men of the militia fought bravely but, they all knew that they were no match for the Zerg. The man let off a blast from his gauss rifle and looked up. With roaring power and sound the Aries flew over the battlefield firing its blasters into the mass engagement.
"Deploy the A-17 Wraiths and the Drop ships, " ordered the Captain, "And open a channel to the squad."
"Channel open. They're listening, " answered the technician.
Tom looked at the ceiling and spoke, "This is Captain Axis. Retreat your men immediately too a safe distance. Our drop ships will be there to pick you up shortly."
Tom wriggled and flexed inside his neosteel exoskeleton. He liked the soft mechanical purr of the energy servos as they supported and sustained Tom's body.
Down on the planet, red as burnt sand, the Zerg were pressing barely on as best they could through a constant barrage of blaster fire, bullets and repeated explosions. The Zerg were being annihilated by missiles being launched from all directions. Crossfire and chaos mixed together in a storm of hell. In the midst of the rescue battle a tempest had blown in across the wasteland.
The drop ships fell from the, now pitch black and storm ridden sky, with a high pitched scream, louder than the lightning sprouting from the dark clouds. They landed--or rather hit--shaking the ground with a large thump that could've woken the dead. The loading ramp in the rear of the shuttle squeaked horribly as it lowered. Militia marines rushed up the ramps, some with shoulder plates burnt off by Hydralisk acid, others running nursing bloody arms. There were even army members limping with a leg that didn't exist past their knee. One marine stood out. He was lying at the bottom of the ramp. Both his legs and torso were inexistent. Below his stomach were strings and bits of red meat and a few inches of brownish vertebrae protruding from the rest of the man. He was screaming and crying not as marine of the Tarsonis colonial militia, but as a man. A person. A human. A child that had just fallen after his first try on a bicycle. Screaming for his mother to return him to comfort and safety inside her arms. Inside the neosteel shell of the drop ship another female marine saw that man in his pain. With a look on her face that could only be described as understanding, she pulled out her slug thrower and put the man out of his gory misery.
* * *
The sagging man from the distress call drank deep from his glass of cheap, imported brandy. Tom, still from inside the shelter his metal fort, walked through the doors to the empty meeting room.
"How many of my men did you get, soldier, " asked the man gloomily.
"Marshall, I would appreciate if you would address me as Cap-"
"GOD DAMMIT MAN! ! HOW MANY OF MY MEN DID YOU GET!!?" yelled the Marshall.
"Twenty-three."
Only silence.
"Twenty-three out of two-hundred and fifty-five marines, nineteen Arclite tanks, and a dozen Goliath walkers."
Raynor turned away from the observatory window, pulled a cushy chair out from the table, and sat down cradling his beverage like it was his first born. He took a deep breath, drank the last from his glass and refilled it. He took another deep drink and began.
"We were on a routine patrol, me and seven of my squad members. We had a tank for cover keeping' itself 'bout ten yards behind us. We were all jokin' around. There wasn't anything at all there to attack us. The planet was supposed to be uninhabited. There wasn't even a reason for a patrol, it just kept us from going insane. Anyway, we made our lazy selves go down to sector four of the city, over by the City Hall. Well, we split up in different directions and it hadn't been a minute before we heard rifle fire. We all ended up by one private. All he did was point down and there it was. Creep. Originating from an apartment complex. We just stood there in pure horror and shock before I called for reinforcements and right then, as if they had been waiting for that queue, the Zerg spilled out off the windowless holes and doorways in the building."
Tom kept his trademark stone face as he heard the terrifying news.
"We all immediately got in cover of the tank, which had transformed into siege mode, and we fired non-stop at the quickly scampering Zerglins' while the tank fired heavy shells into the brood. I gave the command for a full speed retreat. We didn't stop until we were back at the base. We were able to hold off the continuing Zerg waves of minions for over a day. We couldn't for the life of us get a response to our distress call, but 'bout an hour before you answered, the Zerg finally broke through the barricade. We were gettin' massacred."
Obvious tear drops were leaking from the Marshall's eyes.
"And ya know the thing that still cracks me up 'bout all this, " asked Raynor, but he answered his own question before Tom could even respond. "It's that the second Mengsk hears about this he's gonna be nukin' the whole damn planet over again! "
Tom found the remark amusing before he realized he had no idea what it meant.
"Again, Marshal?"
Raynor answered in an irritated manner, "Jesus name, soldier! Call me Jim. I hate all that Marshall stuff. It's a thing of the past now. I haven't been a marshall for four years."
Feeling a bit irritated by the entire conversation, Tom repeated, "What do you mean 'again', Jim?"
Raynor took a third swig from his glass and sighed, "Ne'ermind, Captain. If Arcturus hasn't talked to ya' bout all that yet, then I'm no man to tell ya'." He got up from his seat and rubbed his stomach, "Where's the galley on this bucket o' bolts. I'm starvin'."
Tom, very alarmed at the Marshall being so upbeat and cheery, was taken by surprise and it took him a couple of seconds to remember what a galley was. "Um, it's, uh, take the lift to level three and it's on your second right, " said Tom through his open visor.
Raynor brushed softly past Tom as he went out of the meeting room doors. Axis stood there running the conversation over and over in his mind. He's gonna be nuking' the whole damn planet over again! Tom decided he should go try and maybe get a little more information out of Jim before he checked the ship's records about the supposed Tarsonis nuking.
Tom walked out of the room and headed for the same lift Raynor had moments ago. Tom was ten feet away and the lift doors opened and he immediately recognized the brunette he had seen on the lift a couple of hours ago. She didn't smile, but quickly pulled the pistol from her waist and fired several rounds at Tom's chest.
As unexpected as the attack was, Tom could not duck in time and the CMC-400 shell took the hunks of metal. They bounced off as the suit was unsusceptable to small arms fire.
"HOLY shi-, " yelled Tom as he ducked frantically, spun and ran in the opposite direction. The miles of cabled ligature surrounding Tom's leg screamed as he ran.
There was one drawback to all powered combat suits. When large amounts of adrenaline was secreted quickly into the body, it would confuse the sensors strapped to each limb and suit would give off a sudden burst of unexpected energy to the wearer before it compensates.
Of course, not expecting the power surge, Tom overstepped and fell over against a large bulkhead in the hallway. He hoped he hadn't damaged the helmet but, that was the least of his worries. The woman was firing the slugs in his general area relentlesly. Tom felt at his own waist, but felt nothing. The one time he was unarmed he was being attacked by some maniac traitor. He cursed at himself for his stupidity. He got up and ran farther down the hall, the woman at his heels, pounding on doors yelling for whoever was inside to let him in.
Tom took a left around another pair of rooms and ducked mindlessly into a dark room. He heard the woman's metal clunking footsteps run past the room he was in. He couldn't see anything except for what seemed like repeating figures along the far wall. He reached for his backpack and pulled out a small flare and set it off. As his eyes quickly adjusted to the bright light he saw what was along the opposite wall from him. He had accidentaly fallen into one of the ship's many weapons bunkers. He reached for a Magnum-class needle gun and put it into his empty holster. He then slung one of the many gauss rifles easily onto his shoulder along with some extra magazines.
Tom walked cautiously out of the room as the flare, now lying forgotten on the floor, died out. He put the crosshairs of the rifle up to his eye and turned the next corner in the empty hallway. He looked over into the next corridor out of his gun's sight and saw the back of the brunette walking slowly down the hall away from him. He quickly, but silently turned and aimed the Impaler at the woman's back.
"FREEZE, " he yelled in his most intimidating voice.
The woman stopped dead in her tracks and dropped the gun. She kept quiet.
"Now, slide it over to me, " ordered Tom, loudly.
The woman put her booted foot over the gun and with a quick move of her leg the gun came sliding over to Tom, which left it at his feet. Tom, keeping the gun aimed at the woman's back, walked over to a comm panel and press the largest blue toggle.
"Get me a security crew down here to this panel's location."
He let go of the switch and walked up to the woman, still not turned around, and looked inside her helmet.
There was no face behind the visor. He reached inside the suit and felt nothing. The figure was nothing but a lifeless suit of combat armor. He swung the rifle around and looked down the rest of the empty corridor. Tom was breathing hard as the security team arrived.
"She's gone, " Tom breathed. "She's. . . just gone. "
He walked wordlessly past the confused security team, up the lift around a couple of bends and into his own quarters. Without a thought he unlatched the suit and pulled it off of his limbs, throwing each piece onto the floor. He didn't know why the sudden disappearance of the woman had affected him in such an odd way, but it had.
He walked into his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bunk. He squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed them for almost a minute. When he opened them the woman was sitting on the small loveseat across the room. From pure shock Tom instantly fainted and fell to the floor.
When he awoke the first thing he saw was the woman's face hunched over him. From a defensive gut reaction, Tom threw a punch at the woman's face and she fell back before quickly getting back up. Tom got to his feet and backed a couple of feet away.
"Please," begged the woman, "I don't want to hurt you, just listen to me."
"Why the hell should I do that?" asked Tom. His eyes were red with fury and confusion.
"Just… listen, I was sent here by the Matriarch Raszagal. You could think of me as her alpha lackey."
This was too much information for Tom to take in all at once and he just couldn't accept the fact that a Protoss leader of such pacivity as herself would want him dead. Why did this Dark Templar want him killed? Why was he important? Why, especially, would she choose such a time as the present when the peace talks between the Praetor and Mengsk had just begun? A million questions were racing through Tom's head and they all needed to be answered, but there was no time to ask them.
"Then why the hell are not trying to kill me all of a sudden?" The question escaped his lips in one quick breath.
The woman shifted the weight from her left foot to the other before answering, "I can't… I can't explain why I'm not trying to kill you, it's just--" she stopped abruptly.