Beta reading by: Gene Este, SCUZ, Lucifer
Daimaou
Legal Crap: You will note that the Author of this
story, CINCADFDODT Admiral Johnathan Kelley, is a man of honor and integrity
and that as such anything in this fic that he does not own does not belong to
him. Everything else is claimed as intellectual property of Admiral Johnathan
Kelley. Were you to violate his unique outlook on copyright law he would give
you a lesson in honor and integrity by systematically beating your bones into
dust with an ice pick before disemboweling you with a spoon. You should trust
us when we say it will be a lesson that you will never forget, much less
survive.
Technical Side note: Please notice that I've taken the liberty of "creatively interpreting" the technologies and capabilities of the SC races, getting each one to fight harder, smarter, and to add to their overall badass factor. Futile attempts to lynch me for this will result in unfavorable encounters with a species more dreaded than the Zerg, more cunning than the Terrans, and more invincible than the Protoss, I am of course talking about the FFN admin. Enjoy…
"But at my back I always hear Time's winged chariot
hurrying near." - Andrew Marvell
I love the smell of Creep in the morning; it smells like
victory and indeed it had been, though a very costly one. Entire Broods had
been savaged, billions of minerals and other resources spent on rebuilding to
replace those that had been lost but in the end it had all shifted her way.
Despite the best efforts of two separate armies Aiur had fallen, been
abandoned, and now it lay before Sahra Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, as a
beckoning trophy filled with the secrets of the universe that the Protoss had
been hiding from outsiders ever since the day when the Xel'Naga abandoned them
to the Aeon of Strife.
Even now as her occupation began to take hold she was learning new and very useful things that Protoss civilization had left behind when it scurried from the planet like a frightened dog. Her ever-expanding fields of Creep encountered no resistance as they probed the nooks and crannies of Aiur. But even though the bulk of the Protoss had run there were still a few with the tenacity to stay and fight.
It seems so unfair for those poor
Protoss down there, I almost feel sorry for them…almost she smiled evilly
as a flock of Guardians lazily drifted over her head swirling the sand as their
wings beat the air for lift. Kerrigan made a point of having her minions fill
the air with their cry so that the Protoss would see them coming. She loved
watching the half-second of fear pass on the faces and in minds of the Protoss
warriors before it hardened into resolve and a need to take as many opponents
with them into the afterlife as possible.
"My life for Aiur!" Kerrigan heard the telepathic shout and knew that victory was at hand. Of the twelve remaining Zealots and one High Templar all charged into battle chased by the Guardians as they peppered the ground with lethal shots of condensed acid. Three Zealots lost their plasma shields halfway to the horde and immediately began to melt as the Guardians soaked them in corrosive chemicals. With his superior range the High Templar was the first to strike conjuring up a Psionic Storm to soften the Zerg ahead with the last of his energy and then the Guardians too then overtook him. The blazing blue streaks of energy arched from the heavens and roasted the Zerg within their chitin armor for a full minute before the storm dissipated leaving a horde that was now dazed and slightly confused.
With weakened enemies to pounce upon the Zealots tore into the assorted Zerglings and Hydralisks with an unholy fury literally ripping the Zerg apart with their Psionic blades and bare hands. But even with their superior weaponry and skill the Protoss were still outnumbered and slowly the brave warriors of Aiur were knocked off one by one as their shields gave way followed by their armor and then their flesh all the while fighting. In the end that small band of resistors had cost Kerrigan a total of fifty Zerglings and nearly twenty-five Hydralisks. She sent commands to nearby Hive clusters for the replacing of those fallen Zerg while at the same time summoning her right hand Cerebrate, Ko'z.
"Yes my queen?" Kerrigan turned at the telepathic call of a Cerebrate. Near the entrance of the canyon there was a mass of white flesh skittering across the ground on caterpillar-like legs with a slew of bodyguards in evidence. The security was standard since Cerebrates were still valuable assets and consequently very hard to come by. Kerrigan patted Ko'z as he finally came to a halt next to her.
"We encountered heavy resistance when trying to enter this area; you will accompany me to see what got them so revved up about defense." The Cerebrate jiggled like a bag of jelly for the physical response to a thought of agreement.
"Of course my Queen, Shall a Zergling be appropriate for
the task?"
"Cease your babbling and get on with it," Kerrigan answered with a threatening undertone. Ko'z was one of her most cunning Cerebrates but sometimes, especially in the presence of his Queen; he was just too damn timid to make simple choices. In response a lone Zergling stepped forth from Ko'z's private body guard and signaled it's readiness by beating it's claws on the ground and screeching. Kerrigan nodded and walked into the cavern with the Zergling in tow.
It was a few minutes before they happened upon anything
interesting. Suddenly without any reason the old black volcanic stones stopped
and the path was paved with crystals, not just any crystals, Kerrigan realized
at once, but Khayderin crystals, those very rare minerals that were capable of
storing massive amounts of power in their latent forms. "Ko'z, are these
what I think they are?"
"They are, my Queen and there appears to be a great deal of them," they pressed on down the tunnel of crystal very curious as to what lay ahead. They found it five minutes later when the tunnel emptied out into a massively large cavern. The walls soared upwards to form a dome and were styled after a honeycomb. Were it not for the rock this whole place was imbedded in it would have been open to the air. Kerrigan was in uncharacteristic awe of her surroundings.
There also seemed to be some sort of…energy pulsing
throughout the structure to keep the crystals glowing. The resulting effect was
that the entirety of the chamber was illuminated in an eerie dark blue.
Kerrigan followed the path the energy pulses took and her eyes settled upon he
one thing that was not made of crystal. The Zergling Ko'z had assigned as his
stand in for this venture was already there. Like all Protoss constructs this
console appeared to have been carved from golden lightning but at the same time
it looked extremely unProtoss in the control functions. Ko'z realized it first,
the Zergling
"My Queen, these scriptures are nothing of Protoss make. If I read them correctly they appear to be...Xel'Naga in origin."
"A Xel'Naga temple you think?"
"It appears to be so but for what purpose?" To answer his question Ko'z commanded his Zergling to begin tapping on the panel a specific set of sequences that asked for data retrieval. But the response was anything but data. All at once the pulsing energies solidified into a solid glow banishing the mysterious luminescence and replaced by a continuous stream of light, and with the light level increase so went an increase in temperature. Ko'z's Zergling screeched as the air began to burn. When vision was just barely impossible a low thrum began that shook the ground and made it difficult for the Queen of Blades to remain upright. For a brief second it seemed as if all sensations stopped while time froze in place, then the moment was over and Kerrigan found herself in the middle of what felt like a nuclear blast.
The light and sound was so intense that Kerrigan was forced to close her eyes and slap her hands over her ears. For what seemed like an eternity Kerrigan was deprived of any sense of the world around her. Then without any preemptive warning it all stopped. As she opened her eyes she found herself staring at the ceiling from the floor…how did I get down here? And up above the honeycomb was still there but now it was surrounded by air and not rock. Whatever the hell had just happened it'd melted the surrounding volcanic rock clean off exposing the Temple to open atmosphere. Kerrigan picked herself up off the crystal floor and looked around, the Zergling was now a melting pile of goo and her own chitin armor was slightly crisp, but otherwise nothing seriously damaged.
"My Queen, are you alright?"
"Yes, Yes of course! Ko'z what the hell was that?"
"It was a short-lived time rift! My Queen this temple
possesses the technology to bend time and space in a way that the Protoss could
only dream!"
The ambient temperature in the temple had returned to
"normal" and pulses of energy gradually replaced the dark bluish light
generated by the crystals. "Set up a base of defense for this area Ko'z," Kerrigan
ordered while smiling, "and immediately begin study of this new toy. I want
to make use of it as soon as possible."
"Yes my Queen," Ko'z accepted, already calling Drones from the nearby Hive Clusters to lay the foundations for a new defensive matrix.
*******************
Space, like time, was vast and unending, extending for as far as the eye could see and then some. Timely travel through the stars had always been thought to be an impossible process, and was, until the advent of warp technology. Now with the ability to reach any point in the galaxy within ones own lifetime humanity had embraced the stars building massive ships to ferry them across their domain. But ships were mechanical things and like all mechanical things they broke down. The mighty UED expeditionary force left Earth orbit and had taken only ten years to travel to the Koprulu sector because of improvements in warp engine design, but those same improvements had been hastily approved and several glaring errors were ignored.
One of those was their susceptibility to warp failure when near the gravitational field of a sun. It had only happened once but once was enough. The entire battle group had fallen out of warp with varying degrees damage. The Adjutant responsible for overseeing the ships to Koprulu deemed the event unworthy of waking any of the crews from cryo sleep. As soon as repairs were complete on the vast majority of the ships the UED force was under way again. But one fleet in particular had sustained more damage then the others, 7th fleet. When the rest of the UED ships went to warp they were still undergoing repairs and continued along that line for the next few months before finally chasing after their comrades.
The ranking officer of 7th Fleet, General Samson, had not been informed of this until a week before they were scheduled to drop out of warp when the crews were brought out of cryo-sleep. Samson's first action after hearing this was to shoot the Adjutant display screen in anger. 7th fleet was by no means vital to the success of the UED mission, being comprised of only three Armored Marine Divisions, thirty Wraith squadrons, ten Valkyrie squadrons, thirty Battlecruisers and half that number of science vessels. In short 7th Fleet was a light scientific support group whose mission revolved around collecting data on the Overmind when the UED managed to finally occupy Char, the suspected Zerg home world. Samson spent the remainder of his warp travel seething over the debriefing he would have to endure from that pompous bastard, Admiral DuGalle. However when 7th Fleet did finally drop out of warp they did not receive the welcome they had been expecting.
Not surprisingly their first contact with the Koprulu was
with a Zerg patrol force.
With a low supply margin and a mass of usable materials spread before them General Samson ordered an immediate salvage operation of the debris field in hopes of replenishing 7th Fleet's material losses and maybe finding out what had gone wrong. This entire sector was supposed to have been conquered by now or so the simulations had said.
General Samson strode across the bridge of the Centurion, 7th Fleet's command ship keeping his eye on the goings on. Though at the moment he would've preferred to sit the bulky nature of the CMC armor did not allow that. But Samson did enjoy the heavy clomping of his armored boots on the neosteel deck, which sort of made up for the minor discomfort. Outside the bridge viewing portals huge chunks of twisted, scarred, debris drifted by. Samson had no doubt that the Centurion's handlers were having a hell of a time avoiding collisions while they maneuvered to get good vantage points for the scanner techies that were flagging the best possible pieces of garbage out there for salvage. Naturally Samson was very surprised when one of the garbage chucks decided to answer back.
"Captain Myers!" One of the techies called to Centurion's master. Captain Myers pulled himself away from a progress report and went over to the source of the call, Samson in his wake.
"Report."
"Sensors indicate a functioning power source in the vicinity but we can't localize it. Too much interference from the debris sir." The Captain nodded as he examined the readout.
"Conn, bring the bow down 40 degrees and proceed at 1/3." The man handling the controls made the necessary adjustments. General Samson watched the events without saying a word. Myers could handle his ship without "adult" supervision. Besides Samson wasn't some stuck up fleet admiral who sat around and moved ships here and there, he was a Marine who got down and dirty.
"Aye sir, my bow is lowered 20 degrees and I am proceeding at 1/3," the man visibly frowned, "got some debris in our way sir. Compensating."
"Our forward cameras operational?" Samson finally decided to do something.
"Transfer the take to my screen." Samson ordered. A second later after the initial static had cleared it was replaced by the black and white image of the debris field. Just ahead of Centurion there were the remains of a Behemoth battle cruiser. Conn was doing his best to bring Centurion well below the debris so as to avoid collision. When Centurion cleared the debris to Conn's satisfaction the captain made another order suggested by Sensors.
"Conn bring the bow up 50 degrees and drop to one quarter."
"Aye sir." The screen in front of Samson showed the vast
emptiness of space soon replaced by a large black….Behemoth?
"Bring us to within 5 kay's," Myers ordered next, "Sir I expect you'll be wanting to send out a boarding party to look for survivors?" Funny as that idea seemed to some a ship in the condition as the one before them might have some breathable atmosphere and rations locked away in some deep compartment, and where there's living space there would be survivors, humans could be remarkably resilient when they wanted to be. A nod from the general was all Myers needed. "Chief!" He called next. A burly mass of a black man in armor emerged from the crowd of techies and acknowledged.
"Yeah Cap'n?" Master Chief Bond had, of course, listened in on his captains conversation, like the good Chief that he was, and had set up the necessary comm. link. It was his job to make the captains tasks smoother and to keep his and the XO's ass planted firmly in reality after all.
"Get me a link open to the officers quarters, Lieutenant Andrews." Samson ordered.
"Aye sir."
*****************
If I ever meet the guy who designed the crew space on a drop ship I'm gonna shove my boot so far up his ass…Sergeant Mike Baxter had acquired enough flight time in these uncomfortable drop ships to get him free vacation travel back on Earth for several lifetimes, if the UED would let him have it, and if he actually survived through this clusterfuck of an "expedition"
"Coming up on target Sergeant, ready your squad for entry."
Baxter chuckled darkly at that, sure, my vast and powerful squad of four.
His three marines stood as the drop ship angled itself parallel to the hull of the derelict, the process was known as "screwing", and closed in slowly. They were taking an emergency hatch in as opposed to the hangers to avoid blowing what little atmosphere remained in this Behemoth into the vacuum. A magnetic clump announced their arrival. Baxter checked that his squad had their face shields down and their gear properly stowed one last time before giving final authorization to the pilot before the air was vented to match the inside pressure.
"Squad, move out!" Baxter ordered. The hunt began.
The inside was surprisingly quiet and devoid of anything. Aside from the dim lighting, lack of substantial atmosphere, lack of crew, and full gravity this would've been indistinguishable from any other Behemoth in the fleet. Next to Baxter Cpl. Stevens tapped his neosteel-armored helmet.
"Comm check, you picking this up okay Lieutenant?"
"Transmission is clear, continue on to your objective." Lieutenant Bart Andrews answered from his station back on the dropship, watching the progress of his marines through their "hellcams" and an overlay map. The marines had just turned a corner and Fifty meters ahead their objective waited, a room where a system analysis had detected an active computer outlet.
"Hold up," Baxter commanded with a raised hand. His rifle ahead of him he took a few steps forward and stopped. In front of him was the slouched remains of a marine, from one the colonies the UED had hoped to bring under their control, Baxter managed to guess right away from the man's unkempt appearance. This one was the victim of stimpack OD judging by the vacant look in his eyes. Because the militaries around these parts relied on drafted criminals and murderers they put narcotics into the stimpacks to make the soldiers dependent upon them, and then added in a neural alteration, thereby ensuring total loyalty. Just one more reason to hate them Baxter thought. Like all UED Marines had immense professional disrespect for these men who fought for their daily dosages of drugs and not for their home.
"Just some old stiff Sarge," Stevens observed from behind. "pat him down for salvageables?"
"You kiddin?" Alden asked in surprise, "those bastards probably lace the MRE's with narcs too. Wouldn't do us good to be eatin that shit."
"I could do with a dose of unreality right about now," Anderson added in, "something's not right here, we're overlooking something."
"Maybe on the way back, right now let's just get to that terminal." Baxter said, pretending to ignore the privates. The marines pressed on down the rest of the long empty corridor and found their way into the room, and what a sight waited for them.
"Well shit…" Stevens breathed as he took a peek in. "Hey Lieutenant what ship are we on?"
"Unknown, it's IFF is out and the hull markings seem to have been blown off."
"Well sir, if I'm not mistaken, this dead body you should be seeing is DuGalle, That's means we're probably on the Alexander."
Holy shit that is DuGalle Andrews immediately saw through the hellcam, hunched over his desk in a pool of congealed blood and completely lifeless, a .38 pistol in his right hand and an unfinished glass of wine along with an old record player sitting behind him. His whole body was illuminated by a dull green glow from the still active computer screen on his desk.
"Dumbass must've shot himself," Alden remarked, " I mean I know them Navy pukes gots bad aim but Jeeesus!"
"Stow it private and get that uplink set," Baxter ordered. Alden obeyed without another word and pulled a small cylinder from his armored fanny pack. He then attached it to some of the exposed wire behind the terminal and set the cylinder down.
"Download starting Sarge," Alden reported while looking on the screen, "how's the uplink look elltee?"
"Coming through nice and clear, now how about finding the power source for all this, engineering is a dead zone and whatever's feeding this terminal and the 'puter core is coming from somewhere a hundred meters down the hall from you."
"Dibs," Stevens claimed first, "sorry admiral but I'll have to take my leave of you now," Stevens bowed to the corpse before departing and slowly making his way further into the bowels of the ship.
Like all marines Stevens loved his armor, he loved the added strength it gave, loved the accuracy of the fire, loved the optics, loved the multiple environment capabilities, and most of all he loved the heavy sounds of his footfalls on metal decks. Clump…Clump…Clump…he never got tired of it Clump…Clump…Squish Stevens froze in place; neosteel doesn't go squish...he thought. Under his foot a pinkish pulsating carpet of oozing flesh, better known as Creep, was slow worming it's way across the deck.
"Uhh Sarge, we aren't the only ones interested in this ship…" Stevens slowly began to back away, knowing that by stepping on the Creep he'd probably set off an alarm. A low liquid hiss from behind heralded that as true. Even with the added bulk of his armor Stevens was still dwarfed by the mass of claws and chitin blocking his only way out. It's angry hiss, impossibly loud in the depleted atmosphere, marked it as a Hydralisk even before Stevens turned to face it. It's two massive scythe claws were at it's sides and the chest cavity which housed the acid spine projectiles quivered slightly as the Hydra mulled for a brief second on how best to consume this Terran. Viewed abstractly one might think that this Hydra was inviting Stevens into a friendly hug, it was an offer Stevens couldn't refuse, trapped as he was and unable to kill the Hydra before it got him.
If there's one thing a Hydra would not expect a Terran to do in close quarters combat it would be to get closer, but Stevens knew a few things that the Hydra didn't. Stevens not only got closer, he moved up chest to chest with the Hydra to ensure his safety, too fast for the Hydra to react in time. The reason that Zerg were so good at penetrating armor was that they had evolved a muscular system that provided maximum force and leverage to the claws and anything directly ahead of them, by moving in close Stevens not only prevented the Hydra from getting enough leverage to hack at his armor but he also kept the chest plates that covered the acid spine launcher from opening. As a final defensive act Stevens latched onto the exposed muscles on the Hydra's arm, pinching a nerve that sent pain signals into the Hydras tiny little mind, causing it to spasm.
Stevens could feel the creature gnawing at the top of his helmet in anger but felt no fear over it; the Hydra's jaws were not strong enough to crack it open. But while he was safe from this Zerg there would be others, and they would be able to get to him. With all the strength he and the armor could muster Stevens pulled at the Hydra's muscles, intent on ripping them out. It took an agonizing three seconds before the flesh gave way. Now, with the Hydra preoccupied by even more pain Stevens could kill it. In one smooth motion Stevens leaped back and brought his Gauss rifle to bear on the creature, aiming for it's cavernous mouth. The last thing to go through that Hydra's mind was an 8mm spike. More angry hisses began to emanate from the Creep infested interior of the Alexander, the closest of all coming from a nearby corridor where the now dead Hydra must've come from. Stevens left a delayed fragmentation grenade behind as a surprise and bolted back the way he'd come.
The rest of the squad, having seen Stevens predicament on
the hellcams, was already lined up and moving back to the drop ship.
"Cover fire!" Baxter commanded. Alden and Anderson responded immediately with two 40mm grenades that impacted against the living wave of 'lings. Shrieks of pain and rage echoed within the confines of the hall as Baxter and Stevens ran back under covering fire from Alden and Anderson. Ten meters away from both of the privates backsides Baxter and Stevens launched their own grenades, the signal for the two privates to fall back behind them and repeat the process ten meters farther back.
The leapfrog maneuver was repeated over and over until they'd come within sight of the emergency hatch with the incessant tick tick tick of a thousand claws chasing after them. Lieutenant Andrews was standing in the corridor in full armor toting two Gauss rifles, he started his covering fire immediately allowing the marines to abandon their maneuvering and bolt for the drop ship. Andrews continued to fire until he saw each of his marines dive into the hatch, his good byes to the 'lings included a spread of 40mm grenades before dogging the hatch shut behind him.
The pilot was experienced enough to know that they had to leave fast, this Behemoth was obviously infested, and if the Hive within was advanced enough to spawn Hydra's there was a good chance there could be Mutalisks about. The pilot's suspicions were confirmed when she saw movement on the outside of the Alexander's superstructure. The drop ship detached itself from the vessel and sped off to Centurion five kilometers away. But looking back at the Swarm that was giving chase the pilot knew she'd never make it without some help.
"This is Delta one five, extraction complete but I'm being swarmed, I repeat, swarmed by multiple hostiles. Requesting Y-strike on the derelict dead aft of me."
"Delta one five, this is Centurion, Y-Strike approved. Be sure to duck commander." Captain Myers nodded to Bond, who in turn gave Tactical final authorization.
"Sir, Yamato cannon is charged and ready in all respects. We have a solution on the Alexander."
"Execute Y-Strike, now, now, now!" With such a dangerous weapon at their fingertips procedure was everything when using it.
"Aye sir" Tactical turned the appropriate release key and pushed the big red button. The interior lights dimmed a little as power was drawn from all over the ship and forwarded to the bow-focusing array. The ball of energy took a full two seconds to acquire the correct density and pressure. Then the magnetic bubble that held the energy burst, and a final directional push hurled the great glowing wave of orange destruction in the correct direction.
"Get that dropship stowed and radio the rest of the fleet that we're bugging out." Myers ordered.
"Course sir?" Conn asked.
"Anywhere but here." Samson replied. If the Zerg could
booby-trap one ship….
"Sirs, California reports heavy enemy contact at the
edge of the debris field, wait a minute," Communications listened hard into his
head set,
"We have to buy them some time to get free," Samson ordered next.
"Chief is that dropship stowed?"
"Aye cap'n."
"Sound General Quarters and announce the closest warp vector out of here to the fleet. We're gonna cover their asses until they escape." Bond did as he was told and watched the video screens as Centurion sped recklessly through the debris field to assist her sister ships. Bond got a good look at the Zerg force they were up against when they hit a clear area, sucks to be us…
*******************
It was dry here, he noticed, almost too dry. Such a thing would generate bad stalking conditions. Dust trails would be visible for miles and the sparse vegetation would crack and crumple at the slightest touch, making unnecessary noise that could alert their enemy and spoil the chance for tactical surprise. Their numbers were small and a victory could come only at a minimal loss of life. The ground breath his crouched form began to vibrate very gently as a sign that several large creatures were heading his way. His head came up slightly up out of the pile of dark sand he'd buried himself him in to sneak a very careful peek at what was coming.
The low light of the setting sun cast the landscape into a semi-dark hue that made spotting difficult unless situated along the horizon. But he had his heightened psionic senses to help him know where to look. There ahead was a small band of bug like nightmares alertly making their way across the desert. Five Hydralisks, Demon snakes, were leading about a miniscule pack of Disposers, Zerglings; it looked to be between fifteen and twenty, with an Overlord hovering nearby for over watch. He wasn't worried when the land based Zerg looked towards his position; it was part of the plan.
Hung in from of him on a row of poles were several chunks of tender juicy meat, soaked in blood and sprinkled with a few narcotic spices proven to be irresistible to the Zerg who, despite being very well nourished by Creep, loved meat that smelled like that. With large globs of drool dribbling from their mouths the Zerg broke away from the Overlord, who didn't seem to notice, and made a b-line for the meat. Upon reaching the dripping goodies the Hydralisks dominated the feeding frenzy, leaving the scraps for the Zerglings who were more than happy with what little they got. Wait for it the command was hushed to avoid Zerg detection.
The nearby Overlord finally noticed the desertion and
grunted like an annoyed parent, altering it's course to intercept the patrol it
was escorting.
"For Aiur!" The signal was given and the plan went
into action. From behind the Zerg four Dragoons leaped out of the sand and
fired point-blank at the Overlord, puncturing one of the gasbags used to keep
it afloat. With a shriek of pain the Overlord was consumed in a gas-fueled
fireball, killing it instantly.
The Disposers looked around in confusion. With the death of their Overlord messages from the Cerebrate had become fuzzy and leadership was supposed to go down to the Hydralisks, who now lay dead at their feet. This resulting moment of confusion worked to the attackers advantage. The Dragoons opened fire into the middle of the Disposers pack causing them to scatter on instinct. But as they ran they continually found themselves being cut down by some invisible foe before they could get far enough away to regroup and hit back. Those that ran in the direction of the Dragoons were killed with a simple crunch by one of the Dragoon's four heavily armored legs. In less than a minute it was over, the victory for this small skirmish went to the Protoss.
There was a shriek or rage from above signaled the arrival of
the expected response force from the soon-to-be-nonexistent Zerg Hive. A shadow
passed along the sand as three Mutalisks made their scouting run dangerously
low to the ground. With confirmed prey they turned around in mid-flight and
lined themselves up for their strafing run.
The Scout that had fired the anti-matter missiles wavered into existence, along with it's travel companions. Shuttles ferrying High Templar warriors raced towards the Zerg hive, landing and dropping their passengers quickly outside the perimeter. The Carrier Tassadar plodded slowly onward with it's Scout escorts and reached effective range of the Hive just as the High Templar opened up with a combined psionic storm. Whatever land forces the Zerg had had left were now roasting in their chitin. From the other three sides of the Hive three carrier battle groups converged, the Scouts launched themselves upon the Hive almost as soon as the storms had dissipated, making strafing runs into it's vital organs.
Perched above one of the Hatchery's a lone Queen, the leader of these forces since a Cerebrate wouldn't dare to ever set claw upon this rock, listened to the instructions provided by it's far away Cerebrate. Defends the Hive, kill the intruders; consume their remains, live for the Swarm. The Queen looked upon the invading Protoss Scouts and made ready to launch an explosive projectile of condensed sludge that would weigh them down and allow her time to muster what little forces she had left. Just as she had acquired her prey the remaining light of the day vanished as a golden cloud blotted out the horizon, the fighters had arrived. From all sides of the Hive the remote controlled fighter drones from the Protoss Carriers dove into the frenzy below with reckless abandon, making the Queen their first target.
With a surprised screech the Queen attempted to dodge but failed to even get off of the Hatchery before being enveloped in a blue firestorm of plasma, dead. Her nearby Overlord's met the same fate an instant later. Those Zerg left on the ground found themselves without a nearby leader, from light-years away the controlling Cerebrate gave up trying to send clear instructions to it's forces and decided to abandon it's children to their own intelligence, eager for the opportunity to study the Protoss in action. Leaderless except for the few remaining Demon snakes the Zerg ranks broke apart at the seams, they were now just animals defending themselves, hurling their bodies at anything they could see. But the Protoss were using only air power to nullify this Hive and as such the only ones who were capable of fighting back were the Demon snakes, strafing runs from the Scouts and repeated bombardment from the fighters soon made that threat nonexistent.
Abruptly the carnage stopped as the Scouts checked their ship chronographs and pulled out, the fighters in their wake. Everything in the Hive had been severely bombarded to this point, the Zerg remaining were hanging by their last thread, and now the High Templar were ready to cut it. Another combined psionic stormed was summoned, this time using all the energy that remained in their being creating a super cell type system that tore into Hive and obliterated everything in a bright blue flash. When the smoke cleared, a deep black crater had replaced the Creep that'd been there only a second before. This Hive had been purged.
The figure smiled in inwardly at the handiwork of his brethren. Duross was his name, and for the first time in many long nights he could rest a little easy. That had been the last Hive to be dealt with on Shakuras, and now they were Zerg-free yet again. But who knows how long that will last? Duross mused as he praised his fellow Protoss on a job well done. The veterans within their Dragoon's had performed exceptionally well and every Protoss this day was proud once again of their warrior heritage.
This battle had ended the third invasion attempt by the Zerg ever since they had first been driven from this world. No doubt the Cerebrate who had overseen this one was concocting another, just to test some new tactic and gather more experience in engaging his people, after all, it had more than enough resources for the task.
"Shataar," Duross placed a hand upon the shoulder of
his youngest warrior, a girl who despite her youth was shaping up to become a
powerful fighter, "You fought well today, have you learned anything new from
this experience?"
"Of course Duross, the Zerg were foolhardy to turn their backs on a treacherous old jackal like you," and such good humor too.
"You speak the truth young one," Duross turned to the
other Dark Templar, "and speaking of old…"
"I would just as soon treat my elders with respect,"
Nassadus, who was only a few decades behind Duross in age, spoke very
confidently "But then again you are more of a fossil then an elder."
"En Taro Adun Dark One," he greeted weakly, the effort from the battle was showing.
"En Taro Adun Templar," Duross greeted back, "what is it that you require?"
"The Matriarch requests your presence on a war council…"
"A war council?" Duross wondered, "For what
purpose, have the Zerg returned already?"
"I'm afraid I was not told, my instructions are to bring
you and your companions to the capitol."
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Admiral Kelley's Author's Notes: I know where this story shall end up if I continue on with it, I know what twists and turns will occur and which pieces of the plot to put where, what I don't know is weather or not I can entertain any sort of audience within this section. Thank-you for your attention and here's to hoping you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it.
*Salutes with a tin flask of Coke*
Till the next time,
Admiral Kelley out!
SCUZ's Beta Reader Notes: (N/A)
Gene Este's Beta Reader's Notes: (N/A)
Lucifer Daimaou's Beta Notes: (N/A)