StarCraft II
Ghosts of the Past
Four years ago…
"This is Kerrigan. We've neutralized the Protoss but there's a wave of Zerg advancing on our position. We need immediate evac."
"Roger that Sarah. I'll have dropships routed to you, ETA is…"
"Belay that order Commander. We're movin' out."
"What? You're not just gonna leave her there?"
"Uh… boys? How about that evac?"
"Damn you Arcturus! Don't do this!"
"It's done. Helmsman, set course and take us away from Tarsonis immediately!"
"Damn you to hell Mengsk! You can't leave Kerrigan and all those troops down there, not after what they did, what Sarah's done for you…"
"This is not open for debate Commander."
"Jim? Commander Connor? What the hell is going on up there?"
That was the last they'd heard of Sarah Kerrigan. The transmission cut out after that and even though Connor had sent him a dropship for him and Mike Liberty to go after Kerrigan, they'd never been able to get close to her last reported position. After that…
"Jim, you strapped in and ready?" That was Connor's voice over the comm. Dammit, but he was a mother hen sometimes! Former Marshall-turned-rebel-turned-outlaw James Raynor clicked on his headset and barked back, "I been ready ever since this damn attack started! Just get us down there and we'll do the rest."
There was chuckling over the radio and Raynor could imagine Connor, a tall man in light combat armor, with dark hair parted down the side and a week's worth of scraggly beard on his face laughing at the monitors in the Combat Information Center on the battlecruiser Hyperion.
"Wish I could be there with ya Jim."
"No you don't and you know it. Someone's gotta pick up the slack after we're done here."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Well, good huntin' out there buddy. Give 'em hell for me. Oh and tell Her Majesty I said hi."
Now I was Raynor's turn to grin.
"I'll do that."
The dropship that Raynor was sitting bucked violently at that moment and rolled hard to port and nosed down.
"Hang on to your pants boys, it looks like we're goin' in!"
Raynor rolled his eyes, damn drop pukes, most of 'em were crazier than stim-shot marines. The dropship came to a sudden bone-jarring halt and the ramp flew open.
"GO, GO, GO!" bellowed Raynor, popping open his harness and leaping to his feet, the servos in his CMC-660 Powered Combat Armor compensating for its own weight and allowing Raynor to move with all his native agility. Agile for a tank that is. The other marines in the ship did likewise and all of them charged down the ramp. What was beyond the ramp was something out of sci-fi horror movie of the worst kind. Creatures that looked like a psychopath's worst nightmare flooded towards them, screaming and snarling, all teeth and claws and blood-red eyes. Yep, just your typical Zerg suicide charge.
"Let 'em have it!" bellowed Raynor, though he really didn't need to with his armor visor down and his radio connected to all the other marines in this unit. But no matter how softly or loudly the command came, the marines replied with a hailstorm of 8mm supersonic spikes from their Gauss rifles, shredding the first wave of Hydralisks and Zerglings that were charging them. A deafening roar drew Raynor's attention to the left flank, where an Ultralisk swept a group of marines away in a fountain of blood.
"Get something heavy on that Ultralisk!" Raynor said over the comm. As he pointed his rifle at the rampaging creature. Unfortunately, all that did was attract its attention. As the huge four-tusked creature charged towards him and his men, Raynor stood his ground and emptied all of his remaining ammo into the creature but it just kept coming.
"No worries Jim, help's at hand!" said Connor over the radio. The Ultralisk was then engulfed in a storm of blue lightning that tore the creature apart, spilling its innards in a pool of green and red viscera. At the same moment it began to rain. Blue and orange bolts of light poured down on the Zerg assaulting the LZ, blowing them to pieces. Raynor looked skyward and could see the Hyperion, two other battlecruisers, three Protoss carriers and numerous Terran and Protoss fighters swooping down on the LZ.
"Now get to that hive cluster ASAP before this goes FUBAR!" said Connor.
"Hurry Jim Raynor, follow us!" called a new voice. Raynor turned to see his old friend Zeratul, the Dark Templar Prelate, surrounded by a cadre of Protoss warriors, including the High Templar whose Psionic Storm had taken out the Ultralisk. Raynor lifted his rifle in salute and turned to his men.
"All right boys, last one there has kitchen duty for a month!"
With a ragged cheer, the combined Terran/Protoss strike force started their own charge against the darkness.
Once inside the hive, Raynor couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, which they probably were. He didn't like doing this, it was drudging up memories of the last time he'd entered a hive. That had been when he'd found out that Sarah Kerrigan wasn't dead. Well, technically she wasn't dead. It was complicated.
"Arise my daughter! Arise-KERRIGAN!"
"By your will Father, I live to serve the Swarm!"
"Kerrigan? What… what have they done to you?"
"I am one of the Zerg now Jimmy and I like what I am. You can't imagine how this feels…"
"So what? You gonna kill me now darlin'?"
"That is certainly within my power. But you're no threat to me Jimmy. Be smart, leave here and never seek to confront the Zerg again."
"Doesn't look like we have much of a choice…"
"Jim, heads up!"
Raynor looked up just in time to be able to avoid a swipe from a hydralisk that would have decapitated him. He whirled around, aiming his rifle, but Zeratul's warp blade had already dispatched the snake-like nightmare.
"We are close," said Zeratul. "These Zerg are more evolved than the common strains."
Raynor stared down the tunnel they'd been traversing. Something stirred in the back of his mind, almost like the ghost of a laugh.
"Yeah, she's here all right."
The radios crackled and Jack Connor's voice cut through. "Jim, Zeratul, hate to rain on you're parade but we can't hold out much longer than ten minutes. If you can get to her, get going!"
"Right," muttered Raynor. "Okay boys, this is the part where I go in alone."
"Do not be foolish Raynor! You cannot hope to kill Kerrigan by yourself!" said Zeratul. Raynor was about to reply when their was a terrible shriek from the direction they came in and Zerg of all kinds, at least the kinds that could fit in this living tunnel, came racing towards them, baying for blood.
"No time for arguments! Get back to the ships! I'll take it from here!" Without waiting, Raynor turned and charged ahead, Zeratul and the others too busy with the Zerg to stop him. With his powered armor, he could run much faster than he normally could. He kept running, his breath loud and harsh in his helmet. Where was she? This tunnel seemed like it was going on forever! And then he was at the end. The tunnel opened into a large oval-shaped chamber with a raised platform in the center. There, upon that pedestal of actual living flesh, Sarah Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, Mistress of the Swarm stood tall and proud and staring right at him. Raynor paused, then strode into the chamber, rifle at his side, visor popping open with a whoosh. Kerrigan smiled at him, a cruel and merciless smile, yellow alien eyes shining bright.
"Jimmy, to what do I owe this visit?" she purred, her voice still not sounding much removed from when she had been human.
"You should know why I'm here darlin'. I'm here to collect on a promise and a buncha old debts." Memories came again, of a time on a blasted desert world and him standing over the body of a friend, whom Kerrigan had just slaughtered personally. He had glared up at her then with nothing less than pure hate.
"Don't look at me like that Jim. He went the way that all Protoss hope to go. In battle."
"He died because you betrayed him! How many more noble souls must you consume? How many more have to die in your mad quest for power before you realize what you've become?"
"Jimmy, you don't even know what you're talking about!"
"Don't I? I'll see you dead for this Sarah!"
"Tough talk Jimmy, but I don't think you have it in you to be a killer."
"I learned from the best. It may not be tomorrow, darlin'. It may not even happen with an army at my back. But rest assured: I'm the man who's going to kill you some day. I'll be seein' you."
Kerrigan threw her head back and laughed, her laughter echoing disturbingly in the wide chamber.
"Well I see you at least came with an army. But I think I might have let you in even had it been you alone or you and Jack. How is he by the way? I hope he's not on the Hyperion, it's not going to last much longer."
"Jack says hi," Raynor retorted bluntly.
"Perhaps he can come say that himself, if he survives the destruction of the ship that is," she responded, that damnable smile still on her face.
In response to that, Raynor pulled up his rifle and aimed it squarely at her. That sure wiped the smirk off her face.
"Come now Jimmy. You can't possibly hope to be able to kill me? Are you trying to stall for your allies? They aren't coming Jimmy. You're all alone now."
Not pausing to wonder whether she meant that Zeratul and the others were dead, Raynor opened fire on Kerrigan. It must have actually surprised her because she took a chest-full of spikes that knocked her off the platform, but after that it was like trying to hit the wind. Every time he thought he had her in his sights, she dodged, moving way to fast for anything normal. And then she was on him, her spike wings lashing out. He was just barely able to dodge it, but his rifle was sliced into bits. He pulled out twin shredder pistols, but a spinning kick from Kerrigan sent them flying. He took a swing at her but she seemed to flow out of the way and under him. Grabbing hold of him, she surprised Raynor by lifting him, armor and all, into the air and hurling him across the room and into the opposite wall with teeth-rattling force. Raynor tried to get to his feet, vision blurry and spotted with flashes. He could still see Kerrigan stalking towards him, slowly, seductively. Damn her, she was enjoying every minute of this!
"You were a fool to come here Jimmy. You should've stayed away." She said. Raynor found that he could no longer stand and collapsed to one knee as she drew near.
"I just wanna know one thing darlin'. Why."
"Why what?" she responded lazily.
"When the Overmind died on Aiur and you were freed from its control. Why didn't you just go back to the way you were?"
She gave a look that plainly said, are-you-kidding-me?
"I told you before Jim. I-am-Zerg! The Queen of the Zerg. The changes made to me by the Overmind were more than just changes to my body. Remember that I told you that I liked what I am? That wasn't just the Overmind talking. I LIKE being the Queen Bitch of the Universe and no one is going to oppose me," she said, her voice rising, those evil yellow eyes blazing. "Especially not you," she finished, spitting out those last few words.
"Didn't know I was your Number One Enemy," smirked Raynor, "I'm pretty high up there, considering I didn't do so good of a job of tryin' to kill you just now."
Kerigan returned his smirk with a razor-sharp smirk of her own.
"You're especially dangerous to me Jimmy because you remind me of the single thing that I lost when I became one with the Swarm. Because in all of this cold, merciless universe, you were the one thing that actually made me feel good about being human. And I hate it."
"I'm touched darlin', but this can only end one way. You made it that way when you showed me all those years ago when you killed Fenix and the others, that the woman that I…" dammit he had to say it now, or it made never be said, "that I loved really did die back on Tarsonis!"
Kerrigan blinked. Her smile faltered just a tiny bit. If Raynor hadn't have been standing as close as he was, he never would have caught it.
"So you finally admit it out loud? Cute Jimmy, it won't save you. But know that the sentiment is… appreciated."
"You're a sweetheart," said Raynor, happiness bubbling up inside him. For just one small moment he'd seen the woman that Kerrigan used to be. And that was enough. Raising his right arm, he pushed a button on the forearm of his suit. The techs had jokingly called it his 'Oh %$#!' button.
He never saw the deathblow coming. One moment she was just a few feet away from him and then she was on top off him, her spike wings imbedded inside of him. Samuel J. Houston on a bicycle, he'd never felt so much pain in his life! He toppled over, Kerrigan still clinging to him.
On the bridge of the Hyperion, Jack Connor stared at the screen that was alerting him to Raynor's signal.
"Dammit Jim, dammit, dammit, dammit!" He paused for a moment more than stood up. "Ah Jim, how did it come to this? Horner! Did any of Jim's squad make it back?"
"Zeratul and the strike team have returned but they don't have Captain Raynor with them!" his XO replied. Connor stood there a moment longer. Then he gave the order that he and Raynor had agreed upon earlier.
Back in the heart of the hive, Kerrigan cocked her head to the side as if listening to something.
"They're retreating? This was your whole plan? I'm disappointed Jimmy. I expected better from you and Jack and those damnable Protoss."
Raynor grinned up at her, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth. Though he still had Kerrigan's spikes embedded in his body and was in terrible pain, he was going to have the last word, dammit!
"Well it seemed like a good idea at the time."
"Indeed. And now here you are, dying. Pathetic. Any last words before you go Jimmy?"
"Actually… a small favor… can I get that… kiss we never shared before I go?" he asked, straining to speak through the pain and his rapidly failing body. Kerrigan smiled at him and it seemed to be a genuine smile that made her look oh so achingly like the woman she had been.
"A reasonable request. Let me see if I can oblige," she murmured as she bent down and kissed him deeply.
Raynor wasn't sure exactly how long the kiss lasted. It felt like it was going on forever. But then Kerrigan was pulling back, two delicate clawed fingers wiping some of his blood from her mouth.
"Mmmm… I'd forgotten how good that could feel," she purred.
"Yeah… but no offense… darlin'… but as a Zerg… you taste terrible!"
At that, Kerrigan laughed again, but this was the triumphant laugh of the victor over the victim.
"And your blood is the sweetest drink I've had in a long time. And now, for the last time, goodbye Jimmy." Raynor just started to laugh, as much as he could with his lungs rapidly filling up with blood.
"You don't understand darlin'. You're comin' with me. Or didn't you notice the fact… that I'm wearing firebat armor?"
Kerrigan had noticed that but what she really had taken notice of was that the armor had been equipped with the tanks but not the actual flamethrowers themselves. She glared down at Raynor, contempt edging her voice.
"Detonating the tanks won't kill me Jim. You really are a fool!"
"Give us… a little credit… we didn't… put liquid barbeque in those tanks… something a little more nuclear…"
Kerrigan's eyes widened and her mouth actually dropped open a little bit. Raynor smiled through his pain.
"You honestly didn't think I would go so far, that I would sacrifice my life to kill you, did you?" he taunted, drawing up the last reserves of his strength to say what he had to say before his broken body gave out entirely.
"Well, when ya get to Hell, be a little less prideful huh?" He collapsed back, giving into the inevitable, letting the pain blur away his vision until he couldn't see anything anymore. Kerrigan was about to leap of him and run but if what he said was true, then there was no way she was going to escape the blast. As soldier-turned Marshall-turned-rebel-turned-outlaw James Raynor's last breath bubbled out of his chest, the Queen of Blades sagged and peered down at his unseeing eyes.
"Well played Jimmy. Well played."
Then the world went white.
Jim Raynor didn't figure that he and Kerrigan would end up going to the same place when they died, if there was even a place to go to when you died. But as the life left his body and that body was consumed in a nuclear fireball, Jim Raynor found himself in a strange but familiar place. To him, it felt like coming home after a long, LONG day's work. And to his surprise and delight, Liddy and Sarah, the REAL Sarah, were there, waiting for him.
See ya, Space Cowboy!
Author's Notes: Commander Jack Connor is my version of the player-character from the Terran Campaign in StarCraft I. Also, Liddy, for those that may not know, is Jim Raynor's wife, who died before the events of StarCraft I.