By Dustin "Zvel-Haj" Herbert
Fenix, Zeratul, and other StarCraft related characters
are copyright of Blizzard Entertainment.
X, Zero, and other Mega Man X related characters
are copyright of Capcom.
Paul Wells and Red belong to Red Draco. If you
don't know who she is, then what are you doing reading this? Go read Bass
is Not a Fish RIGHT NOW!
For those who don't know much about StarCraft,
Zerg are buglike aliens, Protoss are psychic intelligent alies, and Terran
is another name for human.
Chapter 1: I'm a Mechanical Man
Fenix looked at his surroundings for a moment.
Large windows, 1,021st story living quarters in Aiur Square, everything
in the room plated with klaxxanite, and him, in his life support chamber.
No longer able to fight for the cause of Aiur after the battles on Shakuras,
he sits alone in his chambers reviewing all the old holotapes that he had
bought last month. I must find a way to get back in the battle.
He decided to read the daily information broadcast.
The first article would have brought a huge smile to his face if he had
had a mouth. The broadcast read:
Scientist Finds Way to Turn
Veterans Into Walking Machines
Researchers at the Shakuras
central laboratories have discovered a way to make an artificial shell
for severely wounded protoss war veterans. The shell is of a rather human
form, and only allows certain parts of the brain and body to be inserted.
Praetor Artanis thoughts on the subject were "This may or may not be used
in the war against the Zerg. While it may be of great value to the defense
forces, it is too costly a process to be mass-produced for long. We will
keep this project in mind if we see a need for it, but for now it will
only be used if volunteers are present." If you are interested in volunteering,
(Continued on page
A-10 under VETERANS)
He hit the auto-dial button on his videophone.
"Hello,
this is Executor Fenix speaking. May I have a word with the Praetor please?"
Artanis sat in his office reading various reports
on the situation with the Zerg. Things weren't looking good, especially
the report by Zeratul about the Hybrids that the Xel'Naga were creating
on several worlds through U.E.D. incompetence. I wish somebody would
call me about something besides the Zerg…
A far too familiar voice came over the videophone.
"Sir,
Executor Fenix is on line 60."
He must be practicing his telepathy in his
free time. "Thank you Rashalla." He clicked the tiny button
labeled "60" on the keypad to his right. Fenix appeared on the screen on
the opposite wall of the office.
Fenix bowed his head. "Greetings, Praetor."
"No need for the formalities, you are more
of a hero than I. How are you doing, old friend?"
Fenix slumped back in his hover chair. "Bored.
I long for combat as always. That is why I've called you."
"I'm sorry, but we've already discussed this.
You are in to unstable a condition to be in a Dragoon anymore."
"I remember that, but I have another option
to discuss with you. I read the DIB this morning."
"Are you really interested in going through
that process?"
"Yes sir."
"You do understand that the process may be
fatal…"
"Dying for the cause of the war, even for the
cause of science, is better than dying of old age."
Artanis thought to himself for a moment. I
should be careful of what I wish for. I think hearing that I may lose a
friend is worse than studying the Zerg attack plans. I do not, however,
want to see him die an unhappy old veteran. "Alright then. Meet me at the
Aiur Intergalactic Stargate at 5:00. I shall take you to Shakuras. I'll
see to it personally that you get the best service possible."
"Thank you sir. I'll see you there."
"Now relax, Fenix. You will hopefully awake
in a few days. Do you have any preferences for your new body?" Zeratul
said to his friend for the last time he would ever see him the same again.
"Hmmm…" Fenix hadn't thought of this. He
came up with something to his liking. "How about, black armor with a
helmet like that of the Ara. Do you have a weapon chosen for my new body?"
After taking a few short notes a scientist announced
"you
will have a miniature rapid-fire proton cannon on one arm."
"Very well. I will see you with again through
new eyes, my friends."
Fenix awoke with a strange beeping noise ringing
through his head. ??? He could not remember any languages. His mind
seemed to be completely blank. That soon changed. All of the sudden, billions
of thoughts went through his mind like a tennis ball launcher set on overdrive
pelting him with everything it had. Then, about 30 seconds afterwards,
it stopped abruptly. Who am I? Why am I here? What are these things
around me? Like clockwork, a voice in his head answered all of his
questions.
"You will remember who you are shortly. You
are in these laboratories as an experiment to turn a war veteran into a
war machine again. We are the Protoss. You were one of us, but now you
are more our creation than your old self. Do you have any recollection
of your past?"
"I have no past. I was just brought to life.
Why are the lights so bright?"
Zeratul turned around menacingly. He stared into
the eyes of a scientist standing at a computer typing furiously. "Would
you care to explain these last few words, Reiax?"
"Well, sir…" Reiax stuttered, "His memory
cells weren't exactly…compatible with his new self. Also, we screwed up
his fiber optic cables, so his brightness is turned way up. He can only
see with his psychic link, which won't last very long."
"WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!!? You mean to say he has
no memory at all of who he was?"
"Well, in a word, yes. He will lose his psychic
link soon, so we will need some Terrans in here momentarily." While
Zeratul turned around to stare at his former friend, Reiax decided to 'go
get a few Terran translators'.
Artanis burst in at that moment. "Good morning!
How are you feeling?" He saw Zeratul's glum eyes and new something
was wrong. "He did make it through the process, didn't he?"
"Yes, but he has no memory of his former self.
His eyes are screwed up to top it off."
"What will we do now?"
"Get some Terran translators. His psychic link
is fading fast."
Suddenly two scientists and a zealot burst in.
The scientists started to fasten something to Fenix's helmet. The soldier
bowed towards Artanis and handed him a holotape. "Message for you from
the R&D branch, sir."
"Thank you. Dismissed." Artanis turned
the tape on. It said the following:
Research and Development
crews at the Deriskolia Arbiter Tribunal have discovered an inter-dimensional
teleportation rift. Scouts into this new dimension have reported life forms
much like that of the Terrans. They are at war with a race called
reploids. Estimates say that this may be prevented if we limit the number
of humans produced, The chances would be decreased that these "reploids"
would ever be invented. We are very close to having another rift that opens
farther into the past of this dimension. We need your word on whether or
not this goes public and if so we need to interview you. The rift was in
the black hole charted as Cygnus X-1.
"Hmmmm, I think I may have an idea of what
to do with our amnesia struck friend…"
"Um, What is my name anyway?" Fenix called
out abruptly.
"Your name is Cygnus" Said Artanis in a
distant tone.
Zero was walking around the mountains and ridges
nearby the city. The upcoming battle was going to be extremely stressful,
so he decided to clear his mind by getting some fresh air. Suddenly, he
saw a shower of sparks come from mid air. Shortly after that, an orb of
swirling energy surrounded by a net of electricity ballooned out of nowhere.
A sleek, black form began to materialize in the center of this strange
sphere.
Cygnus came out of the rift, which closed behind
him. He had a lot of conflict in himself right now. He was full of hatred
from how his creators had stopped talking to him and cast him away from
them. Yet he had this urge inside him to fight for his home world, to which
he would never return.
This new world was magnificent. It was not as
dark as Aiur, whose skies had been corrupted by the Zerg attacks. Tall
buildings of all colors loomed over the streets, unlike the maze of yellow
in the remaining cities of Aiur. Children played merrily in the various
parks. This world did not at all seem to be in the middle of a war. Needless
to say, Cygnus kind of liked this place.
"That's one freaky teleporter you got there, Mack.
Where you from?" A voice called out behind him. "You look new. What's your
name, stranger?"
"I'm Cygnus. I am new to this world. Would you
mind telling me the common knowledge around here?" He said nervously.
The reploid blinked. "Ok… you are definitely not
from around here. First off, my name's Zero." Where have I heard that story
before? Is he another of the first generation reploids? Where DID he get
that teleporter? All these thoughts swam in Zero's mind until Cygnus broke
the silence.
"Uh, you wanna go to a bar or something?"
Chapter 2: You're Not on Aiur, Toto
"… Then, some of the reploids decided 'you know
what? I don't like humans. I think we should get rid of them.' And so started
the Maverick War." Zero said.
"So, there's civilians, Mavericks, Maverick Hunters…
anyone else? Are there any neutral militias, military police, bounty hunters,
…or stuff like that?"
Zero thought for a moment. "I honestly have no
idea. I tell you, if there were any bounty hunter groups when I was told
this stuff, I would've joined them. Not that I had a choice…" Zero looked
at Cygnus, who had an inquisitive look on his face. "Oh no. No. That's
a long story that I'm not going to get into. All I'll tell you is that
I've always had a thing for fighting and killing, but I was forced to join
the Hunters, and now I kinda like it.
"Hmmmm, I think I'll see what I can find on the
neutral armies. If I can't find anything, I'll probably come to you guys.
Thanks for the info though."
Zero smiled. "No problem. Hope I see you around,
Cyg."
Cygnus got up and left the bar. He decided the
best place to find out about underground organizations was dark alleys,
so he started searching for the abandoned district.
Zeratul was in the process of purposely getting
on the nerves of one of his subordinates, namely the one that was in charge
of the scouting into the new world. Everyone was wondering what had happened
to Fenix, since he had not returned from his trip into the new world. Communication
was impossible since he had lost his psychic link and he was in an alternate
dimension. "Is he back yet?"
"Not yet sir."
"Is he back yet?"
"No sign of him, sir."
"Is he back yet?"
"Not yet, sir."
"Is he back yet?"
"NOT YET, SIR!!!"
"Is he back yet?"
"SIR, NO, SIR!!!"
"Is he back yet?"
"NO YOU FREAKIN' RETARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"HEY!! You are required to say 'sir' to your
superiors. That's 5 demerits."
The soldier simply banged his head on his desk
once. Zeratul smiled. He really wouldn't take notice of the demerits. He
really did wonder what had happened, though.
Artanis had somehow found a way to get a day off
of his duties to relax and surf the holonet. He had every access code out
there, so he was completely unrestricted in his browsing. He was just poking
around through the current top-secret project pages when he encountered
one with a different code than "blizzard", which was the code for all known
top-secret files. He ran a code cracking prog that he had found on a human
site and was soon in. He read in anger the following words:
Project Eden
CODENAME: CROWDCONTROL
The elite covert
operations division on Shakuras has organized project Eden to prevent a
war in the future of the newfound universe that was discovered by the warp
rift technology engineers at the Deriskolia Arbiter Tribunal recently.
The time zone that we originally found was in a war between a race of super
beings and their creators: a race of human-like organisms. This new race,
known as the reploids, has superior strength, plug-and-play weapons modules,
and intelligence superior to that of the engineers who designed them. These
factors have been added together and we believe that the outcome looks
grim for these poor technology crazed creatures. That is where we come
in.
We have assembled
a strike team of several robots and Reploid-like units of our own. We have
sent them a few million years into the past of this realm. We found the
primary reploid manufacturing plant in their world, and have established
a base there. Our goal is to use a weapons satellite that we have named
Eden to wipe out the population of the surrounding territories every few
thousand years. We will also attempt to flood the world in order to overpopulate
the lands, causing mass confusion that might keep them either locked in
the dark ages or cause them to create interstellar technology. In the second
case, that will cause the humans and reploids to be somewhat separated.
If, by chance, we cannot prevent the creation of reploids, we have a plan
B. We will be assembling reploids and robots at our bases and outposts.
When the aforementioned war arises, we will be prepared to fight for the
humans.
The classes of
reploids and robots that we will be sending in can be found here.
For more information on the new realm, go to here.
Artanis clicked a button on his desk's keypad.
"Rashalla,
find me any telephone numbers on Shakuras containing 'Eden' in them. I
have found something quite objectionable…"
Chapter 3: Take Me to Your Steenkan Leeder!
Cygnus walked down the dark alley. One thing that
he noticed the cities had a small lack of was variety. Every dark alley
he had been attacked in so far looked the same. He had few scratches from
the various human and maverick attacks that had befallen him. It seemed
this new world underestimated him. He would soon find that this rigorous
procedure had a meaning to it as a huge shadow dropped down upon him.
"Nice. I've never seen a weapon like that. It
could use some adjusting, though," a low, gruff, and imposing voice rumbled
from behind him.
Cygnus decided that this was probably who he was
looking for. "Thanks. You might say I'm from way out of town. I just found
out about the war half an hour ago."
As Cygnus turned around he examined the huge figure
that stood before him. It was a reploid that stood at about 10 feet tall.
He had thick, heavy legs, a boxy torso, and his arms were muscular. On
one of these arms was a huge gun that had a barrel as long as Cygnus was
tall. He had a flat-topped haircut that was an understatement compared
to how battle-ready the rest of him looked. "Well, if you aren't in the
war and you don't have the cops chasing you, then you must be looking for
us. I'm Draconis, founder of the MRM. Mercenary Reploid Militia."
"Say no more, that's what I've come to this part
of town to hear. I'll join."
Draconis looked stunned. Either this guy is REALLY
from out of town, or he's hiding something. Then again, everyone's hiding
something. "Well, I guess you're in. Come with me, and I'll show you the
definitive vision of a bar.
Well, Draconis kept his promise. THIS is a bar!
Cygnus looked around at the various sights in this "Bar and Acquisitions
Center" that Draconis had brought him to. There were fights everywhere
and drunkards aplenty. Techno music was playing in the background, and
there was a small dance floor where a few people were busting a groove.
The bartender, Cyg was told, was a converted programming reploid from the
P.E. Nobody had told him yet what that stood for. The reploid was a floating
torso with multiple eye enhancements. He had makeshift arms added to him
and on each hand were tubes for filling drinks. Holovids were scattered
throughout the bar displaying either a sport or the news. One holovid in
a corner of the room was surrounded mostly by programming reploids and
was tuned into the Sci-Fi Channel.
Cyg kept scanning the room until his eyes set
upon a young reploid woman sitting alone at the bar. An occasional male
would attempt to flirt with her, but soon had an imprint of a wrench upon
his face. Wonder what she's doing here… Cygnus got up and walked
over to her.
"Hi, I'm Cygnus. What do you do around here? I
just joined up and am looking for people to help me out. I'm new to this
place and need someone to show me the ropes. I didn't even know about the
war until an hour ago." Cyg said this making a point not to seem like he
was catcalling her. The last thing he needed as an initiation into this
realm was a new facial feature.
"Tracy. What do you mean when you say 'this place'?"
Cygnus thought of how to put it. "It's a long
story, but I was basically born yesterday and had no memory implants. That's
the best way to prevent further questions."
"Ok… I am a mechanic and I recently got fired
from the Hunters for making certain 'adjustments' to their stuff. I didn't
wanna be with the Mavericks when it all goes down, so I found this place.
My brother Colonel and my sister Iris are gonna join the Hunters when they
get out of college, so I'll have some intelligence about the Hunter's plans
if I'm looking for a job. Having info is the best way to be recruited if
there's no jobs available."
"Cool. I'll have to remember that. So, you wanna
join my crew? I could use someone to fix me when I screw up." Cygnus noticed
the word "wanna" and instantly put it in his vocabulary. There were so
many words in this language! He thought that he'd never learn them all.
Sometime he had to sit down and read a slang dictionary.
"Hmm, I just got fired and now I've got the option
to join some newbie in a mercenary squad that will often be chased by my
former employees and one day my brother and sister… sure I'll join!" She
smiled and chugged the rest of her vodka. "What's the payment?"
Cygnus drew a blank. "Uhh… let's see… how about
all work expenses paid with 25% of the group's income? I don't know anything
about this stuff, so I'm just guessing."
Tracy was tempted to give this guy a run for his
money, but she had a feeling that she should play nice just this once.
"Yeah… that's pretty good actually… deal. Any sign up payment?"
"Umm… I don't have any money."
"WHAT?!?!?!"
"I told you, I'm new to this place!"
"Man, they don't give you any entry credits into
life anymore? I thought all factories did that."
"Like I said I'm not from around here."
"What, are you made in another universe or something?"
"You couldn't guess any closer."
At this she stared at him for a while. This will
be an interesting job. I have to fix up some alien reploid from another
universe. I hope he brought his schematics from Zircon. "Then I guess I
can't blame you. Where do you live?"
He only needed to look at her for a while.
Tracy smacked her forehead. "Oy vey! This is gonna
be a very interesting experience."
Zero typed furiously. Zero Hunter: Colonel,
stop the coup now!
His computer blipped in response. Colonel72:
Never. The two of them were in a 30-way StarCraft3 battle. Colonel
was massing forces to attack one of Zero's allies, Red. Colonel was also
allied with Zero, and Red was in control of a huge mineral deposit.
Zero Hunter: If that's your decision… Zero
selected 12 drop ships filled with reavers and right before he unloaded
them into Colonel's main base, he typed Zero Hunter: PREPARE YOURSELF!!!!!
"What are you doing? We have a war to prepare
for in two days and your fooling around?!!?!?!?!?!?"
Zero turned around. Paul was standing in the doorway.
"Oh, I'm playing over the holonet. So's Red. You ever played StarCraft3?"
"I had StarCraft when I was a little kid. I was
the next best in tournaments besides this old man named WarAxeChosen. I
wonder if he chose to live in a reploid or something…"
"They do that?"
"Oh yeah. Hey, there's a nuke strike over your
reavers…"
Zero whipped around. He tried to get them out
of range, but those reavers were to damn slow. Colonel simply Yamato gunned
every reaver once the strike had done its dirty work. Right as Zero was
halfway through the process of slamming his head on the table, he heard
the lovely sound of "Ion Satellite charged!"
Chapter 4: Baby Steps
"I know that the loss of the primary relay station
on Marionville Island is a sad day for all of us, but we must concentrate
if we are to avenge our comrades." This speech was being held in the great
hall of the Project Eden Headquarters – which was a maze of underground
palaces. "Tomorrow the Hunters will be engaged in a war with the Mavericks.
This will be our time to strike. The Hunters are sending every man they
have into the fray and their HQ will be undefended. It shall be crushed
into oblivion." Slowly a few robots started smiling. There were two humanoid
reploid brothers (one of which was giving the speech), and a few scattered
Juno and Zeus model bots. Two Trigger model bots were guarding each exit
and there were Prog reploids at the 5 computer ports along the walls. "The
loss of the Hunter HQ combined with the losses at the battle with Sigma
will ensure our long term goal, the eradication of all humans to save the
planet's resources from total annihilation and a peaceful world for reploids
to thrive in. Earth shall become Eden incarnate."
At this everyone cheered, except Deneb. This was
not Eden's objective! Eden was meant to protect humans and prevent overpopulation,
not to wipe out the humans. How could Sirius say that we were going to
kill all humans? Humans were officially expendable yet important. It finally
hit him. They had all gone Maverick. It is imperative for me to evacuate
the vicinity.
"Sup, bartender?" Cygnus was getting used to this
new language.
"Whaddya want youngin?"
"Do you wanna join a mercenary company?"
"Uh, I own a bar. I have more moola then you'll
ever get, newbie. Try my boy, in the back. He doesn't do anything except
screw around on the Holonet anyway." The floating torso pointed to a door
behind the counter and opened the tiny little door thingy that prevents
customers from stealing stuff. Cyg hopped over the counter before he noticed
the old reploid's generosity. "Kids these days…"
Cygnus looked around in the dark room to find
another floating torso thing jacked into a computer. Empty 10-W-40 cans
littered the floor, and the place smelled worse than it looked. "Uh… hey
there… you doing anything important?"
The reploid turned around. "Would I be in
a bar if I was?"
"You've got a point. Do you wanna join a mercenary
company?"
The reploid sat there like it was stoned for a
second, and then replied "yeah, sure. I'm not doing anything better. You
don't need to pay me, all I require is a computer with Holonet access."
Cygnus stood stunned. Getting a computer is gonna
be hard enough! "Uh, deal. First thing, find me a mission."
"Ok."
They sat in silence for a moment. "Well, anything
yet?"
"What, you mean now?"
"YES I MEAN NOW."
"Oh, ok."
"Hey, Zero!" Paul called as he ran down the hallway.
"What did I do now?"
"I've got bad news."
"All of our best men went maverick, morale is
extremely low, we have an all out war with the Mavericks tomorrow, and
YOU HAVE BAD NEWS!?!?!?!?!?"
"Outside sources indicate that an underground
terrorist group is going to attack the HQ tomorrow."
Zero's eyes grew wide. "WHAT? We can't leave anyone
behind! Not only would they feel left out, but we need all the help we
can get!"
An officer approached them. "Sirs, sorry to interrupt,
but I may have an answer to your problem."
Zero glanced at him. "By all means, tell us."
"Mercenaries, sir."
The floating reploid faced the computer once more.
"Ok, what do you want me to find?"
"A mission."
"What kind, crack head?"
