"I am a soldier, and like any other soldier nothing really matters once we're out here fighting. We are the frontlines, the canon fodder, and the forgotten. By this point we have already accepted that we are dead. We are the Terran Marines, Firebats and Ghosts. Our duty is to defend our few remaining bases, our commanders, no longer care about us; the Zerg have already overcome most of the Terran and Protoss bases.
"My team and I have been selected to guard my home town. I remember it used to be a major tourist hot spot and great for shopping. All I see now are dead bodies and pain. I've seen too many good men die at the claws and mouths of the Zerg scum. I've even witnessed one of the infested Terran. Ironically he was my brother.
"When I saw my brother scream 'For the Swarm', then rush at us, I knew that would happen to all of us someday. Or we'd succumb to the venomous spit of the Hydralisks. Or maybe we'd get lucky and an Ultralisk would crush our body and soul before we felt anything.
"My only real question is how do our leaders know all of this information? I guess at this point it doesn't matter. If the Zerg managed to make a race as honorable as the Protoss hide, they could crush us Terran one day. Did we ever have a chance?"
"Would you stop your damn note taking? This is a war and we're on the frontlines!" a man yelled at me. I looked up at his him, hungry, thirsty, dieing. He looked like the rest of us. Terran's last defense.
"Sorry sir. I'm just recording some information about the war up until this point. I thought it might be important for-" He started yelling again, cutting me off.
"Our higher ups don't give a damn about you or your damn opinion! Now get out of that trench and get up here! We've got another wave of Zergling's to deal with!" I sighed, and crawled slowly out of the trench, my body aching. I just couldn't wait to see my brethren ripped apart by these freaks.
As I finally got out of the hole I looked up into the perpetual night, I heard something scream in the distance. "Get over here you idiot! Our men are dieing and you're just going to let that happen?" Of course I wasn't going to. I ran over to my commander, gun in arms, already beginning to aim.
I gazed over the cliff that lay before me, fifty some Marines and Firebats killing Zergling's, three times our numbers. Zerglings didn't take much effort to kill off though.
"The Overmind is getting crafty… Hydralisks are hiding just outside our marines sights." Our commander always watched up here, along with my team, of elite snipers. Some of the few trained to deal with surprise attacks. "Get your guns ready, they're mainly to the East with a few sprinkled along the Northern and Southern borders, most likely to guarantee the attack's success.
I followed through, I could see one through my scope already, and I shot it straight through the gut. A shot that would make any man fall. Zerg's were a wonder to science, however. It screamed in pain and rushed in prematurely, its fellow Hydralisks followed. I kept my sight on mine until they finally stopped within distance of our marines.
My team unloaded on them, soon the Hydralisk attack force was down to just three. I shot one straight in the eye, blood poured out as it bellowed in pain. It spit at one of the soldiers. That Firebat was a good man too, we all watched as his armor began to melt. He knew it was over. He continued burning the Hydralisk. Its skin peeled off, but the difference was nigh impossible to tell. Their muscles looked the same as the skin. Both Hydralisk and Firebat fell simultaneously. That man would not be recognized. He had killed at least a hundred before that one. We were close. He had a wife and three little girls. All died, at the hands of the Zerg. He vowed to kill as many of them as he could.
Who here couldn't share a similar story though? A punch to the back of my head awoke me from my day dream. "Mutalisks! Aim, don't think! Kill them!" I aimed up; we could all hear their giant bat wings. The Firebats below ran to cover while the marines aimed up like us. The missile turrets got them within sight before us and started firing. Our bullets followed the explosion.
One of the Mutalisks got it's wings blown off, it flew towards the ground with immense force, our men scattered, except one, the crazy bastard; he was always getting drunk and wasting bullets anyway. We all assumed he'd become infested, not crushed.
Our bullets quickly tore through the few Mutalisks. "The Overmind's not through yet. Ultralisks are coming. Fewer Mutalisks usually mean the Ultralisks are coming in, the excess resources allow for them to slightly splurge."
"How do all you higher up's know this?" He looked at me and glared. That glare that tells any lower class Terran soldier that they've asked something that a simple grunt doesn't need to know. His cold gaze was interrupted by a small earthquake.
"Here they come boy, guns at the ready. Aim for the middle of the head." We'd never trained with Ultralisks before, hell; I didn't even know what one of these damn things looked like. I could tell my brother's in arms felt the same way as I did, unprepared.
We waited, shaking every time another earthquake came forth. Dozens of earthquakes; we knew that they were coming in mass. The men in the frontlines were doomed. Damned fog of war, why was it always in affect.
Our wait lasted another ten minutes. Finally a single Ultralisk broke through the fog barrier, our marines unloaded on it. Zerg blood covered the area and men. It never stopped. It rammed its mighty tusk straight through three marines, all instant kills. My men and I continued to blast it from our spot on the cliffs. It looked at us, in blind rage. We knew it was coming for us when it began its march of death. The Firebats in front of it died, crushed beneath its massive hoof. A good chunk of Marines were also crushed, or half crushed. Crushed would have been better, the half-crushed laid there in pain, crying, yelling for help. Their cries did not matter. They were just Marines.
The Ultralisk finally reached us, our bullets still piercing it's skin. That muscle skin. This was the first Zerg trooper I'd ever seen up close. It truly looked like it had been twisted inside out. I sat there in awe of it. It stared back at me. It seemed like forever, though it wasn't. The Ultralisk finally roared and lifted it's mighty head, about to crush me.
That day… was the only day any commanding officer did anything worth remembering.
He pushed me out of the way, he took the blow, and he died, in my place. I am just a soldier, I should have died. His screams of pain made me wake up. Straight to the eye, I hit the beast straight in the eye and it fell. My men cheered the Marines cheered. The Firebats cheered. I stood up and walked to the edge of the cliff.
"Do you see any others? Do you feel any other tremors?" The Marines paused. A few minutes passed… nothing. A thought of fear crossed my mind. "MEN! BACK TO BASE!"
One Ultralisk, one diversion, we still had men back at camp. It was an obvious plan. The Overmind tricked us into thinking we had an army of Ultralisks to fight by making one walk back and forth out of our view, and then sent it in to attack.
All the while a Queen had been attacking our base. Sending in Broodlings and making our base take just enough damage to infect it.
When we arrived it was too late. My men sniped the few Broodlings, but the Queen emerged from the base, the now infected base. The Marines and Firebats knew what to do. The Marines and Snipers took out the fleshy blob of a Queen soon enough. The Firebats rushed into to start burning the base down and the Marines and Snipers soon changed their target from the Queen to the base.
It had to be destroyed before any other "Terrans" were made. We kept shooting, but before long we heard those words; those horrible, horrible words.
"FOR THE SWARM!" An Infected Terran ran at us, I hid behind some rocks, instinctively. The rest of my squad had never dealt with one of… these before. They stood there, confused at first, but their minds were quickly put to rest, six feet under.
I watched in terror as my men were blown to bits one by one. Luckily the infected ones never sensed me, and the Firebats blew up the base before too many were produced.
The Firebats started to walk towards me, and then the Zerglings came. I watched as more of my men were ripped to shreds, their insides and blood quickly covered their lifeless shells of soldiers.
When they were done the Zerglings looked for more survivors. They were even less intelligent than Infected Terran, so my primitive hiding spot protected me from harm.
I walked out of my little cave, to see all of my men ripped to shreds. None of them left. Their guns destroyed. Their suits did nothing to protect them. I was the last man standing.
-End Act 1-