As we watched the missile fall through the clouds towards the Overmind we all knew that it was over. After seven endless years of war against the infamous race called the Zerg controlled by a large creature called the Overmind , that had attached itself to the home world of the Protoss named Aiur, is finally coming to an end. Once the missile had made impact there was a bright light and a noise so loud it caused a crack in my inch thick glass visor on my battle suit. After the light had gone away we could see a large mushroom cloud that towered up over the ruins that was once the great and powerful Overmind.
A message came onto the communicator. The message said that everyone who survived the drop to regroup at the nearest safe zone for debriefing. My team and I made to the safe zone Alpha. We walked into the command center for debriefing. The commander said "So here's the news. The scouts have reported that all the Zerg forces have appeared to be retreating." "What does it mean sir?" "It means we've won soldier. It's over. We've come out as the dominant race." "What are we going to do now?" The commander said this with an expression on his face I had never seen there before. It was a smile. Then he replied with a, "Celebrate". For the next seven days there were celebrations and parties world wide all over the sector. This was the best moment in time for the human race and it would never be forgotten.
3 Years Later…
I am still a marine within the Terran forces. I'm on patrol on the once home world of the Zerg the planet Char. I was with my old team patrolling the deep valleys of the molten planet. As we walked single file through the valley, we heard the sound of rocks tumbling down the steep sides of the valley so we picked up our pace to avoid them. We continued on until one of my men, Thomson, told me he felt like he was being watched. I thought he was just hallucinating so I told him it was his mind playing tricks on him. When we got to the deepest part of the valley I saw some strange tracks on the ground. They looked fresh. Something had been watching us. I followed the tracks with my eyes and the seemed to go to a cave. As I looked at the cave entrance I saw something slither in at the base of the entrance. I couldn't believe it. Could some Zerg have survived the war? My answer was clear after my team and I heard a noise that raised the hair on the back of our necks. A high pitched squeal had echoed through the valley. The ground started to shake. I looked at my team as they looked at me. "Sir?" said Thomson. As I saw the fear on their faces I had finally realized that this was the beginning of the end. They came from everywhere. All of them had the look for a thirst of blood that nothing else could quench.
I acted fast. I threw a grenade back up the path we came from. The grenade went off and created a hole in the Zerg forces long enough for me to get my team and me through. I don't think we've ever ran so fast in our lives. We made our way back up to the shallower part of the valley with the Zerg still in pursuit. We were almost in sight of the medevac. We made our way over the hill and saw it take off due to the amount of Zerg attacking it. It had made it away from the threat on the ground but it flew right into a swarm of Mutalisks. We stood there and watched as our only means of transportation was torn to pieces by the ruthless beasts. It spun out of control and plummeted back into the valley. It hit the steep slope and exploded into a hot ball of fire then crashed into the dirt taking a few Zerg with it. "Poor bastards" I said under my breath. I heard Sarah our weapons specialist yell "Look out!" As I turned around a hydralisk swung at me and made its mark. "Dammit" It had cut open my breastplate. Thomson loaded his gun and blew it to pieces. They helped me up as Richard fended of the other Zerg forces. "Are you all right?" asked Sarah "I'm fine. We need to find some cover or those Mutalisks will tear us to pieces" "On it" replied Thomson.
We ran further up the valley until we found some rocky formations. "We'll take cover in those rocks over there. Richard! Thomson! Cover fire!" "Yes sir!" they replied in unison. We headed for the rocks then suddenly the ground erupted up from under us. "Son of a bitch." It's an Ultralisk. "Get to the rocks! Hurry!" I yelled back at Thomson and Richard as I got back up to my feet. Sarah and I maneuvered around the thing and made it to the safety of the rocks. "Strafe around it! I've seen one of those things take out a whole battalion, so don't get anywhere close to it!" I shouted at them. As they made their way towards the rocks Richard tripped. "Shit" I ran from the safety of the rocks towards Richard as he fell. I lobbed my last two grenades at the Ultralisk to confuse it. The grenades went off and I made my way to Richard. I helped him up as the Ultralisk went on a rampage. The thing just started swinging its enormous blade like tusks in all directions. Richard and I ran for the rocks dodging the mighty swings of the Ultralisk having a few close calls. We dove into the rocky formation within the safety of the large pillars of stone. My team and I ran deeper into the formations to get away from the Ultralisk. The large pillars were close enough together to where only Zerglings, the smallest of the Zerg, could get through so we would be safe from any air attacks. "Did everyone make it?" "All present and accounted for." said Sarah. "How many grenades do we have left? I used my last two on that damn Ultralisk." "I've got three." said Thomson." "Four here" replied Sarah. "Shit. I dropped my nades when I fell." said Richard. "We're not going back for them. It's too dangerous. Now you all get some sleep. I'll get first watch. Richard you get second." "Yes sir." "Goodnight everybody." "Goodnight" they said in unison.
It was the morning. "Everybody get up. We have to get moving. We're burning daylight." We began to make our way back through the pillars. We started moving back up hill. Every now and then we would hear the sound of Mutalisks flying overhead. We must have been walking for hours. "How far do these pillars go?" asked Sarah. "I have no idea but they'll end pretty soon. We're almost out of the valley." I was right. As we finally got out of the valley we saw the ending of the safety of the pillars. As we walked to the edge of the safety of the pillars we saw several swarms of Mutalisks just waiting for us. How did they know? Have they always known where we were? "Sir Look" said Thomson. "There nothing but plains out there. We'll get torn to shreds by those things." "Wait. What's that?" said Sarah. "Toss me the binoculars." Richard pulled out a pair of binoculars and tossed them to me. "Holy shit. There's a couple of siege tanks out there. Maybe we can hitch a ride. We'll be safe in them. The Mutalisks can't pierce that kind of armor." "Then let's go" said Sarah. "Thomson, throw a grenade at the mutas to scatter them so we can make a run for it. We'll just keep throwing grenades to keep them away." "Yes sir." Thomson threw a grenade and it worked as planned. The Mutalisks scattered and we began our long sprint to the tanks. "Here they come!" "Throw another one!" Thomson threw another grenade and they scattered again. "We're almost there!" Just then something came out of the ground. It grabbed Thomson. "Help me!" "Thomson!" "What is that?" said Sarah. "I don't give a damn what it is. We need to get Thomson!" I made a jump to grab Thomson's hand but I was just a fraction of a second late. Another one came out of the ground and stabbed Thomson through the chest and pulled him under. "Thomson!" "Sir. We have to keep moving! The Mutalisks are coming back!" I got to my feet and began to run towards the tanks. "Sarah hand me a nade!" Sarah tossed me a grenade. I threw it at the oncoming Mutalisks. They scattered once more. As we made our way to the tanks one of their hatches began to open. We ran in and it closed behind us. "Who are you and what is your squad name and number?" one of the men in the tank asked. "Bravo Zulu, squad 22495" I replied. "We are tank division 27369. We have lost contact with base camp. Do you happen to have a radio?" "No. our radio went down with our medevac" "Do you have any casualties?" I stopped and paused for a moment remembering the look on Thomson's face as those… those things pulled him under. I finally replied "Yes. One"
"We were heading towards base camp until we saw yall coming from those rocks over there." "Sir?" "What Sarah?" "What were those things?" "I don't know" the man that had asked me the questions looked confused then said "Those things are Mutalisks." I looked at him and replied "No. Not those. Something came out of the ground just before we got here and pulled one of my men under. I've never seen anything do something like that before." "What did it look like?" "I don't know. I didn't get a good look at it." "We have a camera surveillance system. We might have caught something on tape." The man walked to a computer on the wall. "Here, I'll play back the last five minutes." We all moved towards the black and white monitor watching closely. The man watched with amazement and curiosity and said "What the fuck is that thing? It just came out of the fucking ground!" "I know one thing for sure. It's too small to be a Hydralisk." I said "But it's too big to be a Zergling." said Sarah. "The man replied with a "One thing we can be sure about is that it's still out there." Another man from the front of the tank yelled back "Kyle! We have a problem!" "What is it Simons?" "We've got a damn Ultralisk coming our way. We're too slow to try to outrun it." "Siege up then." "Yes Sir!" The man named Simons pressed a button in the front of the tank. Once he pressed the button we heard the mechanics of the tank go into effect. Kyle and Simons put on a pair of headsets. Kyle tossed us some "You might want to put these on. It's going to get a little loud." We put them on and then the mechanical noises stopped. Kyle yelled to the front of the tank "Simons. Fire on my mark." "Yes Sir!" "Ready? Mark!" We heard a loud boom. The sound was so loud that it still hurt my ears even with the headset on. "It's a hit!" "Don't celebrate yet. Is it still standing?" "Shit. It still is." "Fire again!" We heard another loud boom. "It's another hit!" "Is it down yet?" "Yeah, I don't think it's going to get back up anytime soon." "Good. Get out of siege mode and get this hunk of metal moving. Message Tony and Mike to get a move on. We're heading to base camp." "Yes sir." Simons pressed the same button and we began to hear the tank's mechanical sounds once again. Kyle turned towards us and said, "You all should get some rest. It's going to be awhile before we get there." My fellow teammates have already fallen asleep. As I lie there I was still thinking about what had happened to Thomson. If I had just been a little faster I might have been able to save him. That horrible look on his face as they pulled him under, it just kept coming back. I couldn't rid the horrible memory from my mind. I tried going to sleep but it even haunted me in my dreams. As I slept what had happened kept repeating in my head. It wouldn't stop. The running, the screaming, the rumbling of the soil, Thomson. It kept playing over and over in my head like a broken record player, until I woke up screaming out his name, "Thomson!" It was night time and everyone had gone to sleep except for Simons. "You alright? You were talking in your sleep about something." "It's nothing" "You sure?" "Yeah, I just need some fresh air" "Okay." I climbed up the ladder and opened up the top hatch and looked outside. I looked at the stars as the cool air flowed across my skin like water does to limestone. I looked south and saw several lights in the distance. "What is that?" "That's Vigilance. That's where we're heading." I went back into the hatch and closed it. "How long will it take for us to get there?" "Two, maybe three hours. Go ahead and go back to sleep. It'll be light by the time we get there" "Okay. Wake me up when we pull into the gates." This time when I closed my eyes the horrific images were only a faint noise. For those few hours I could finally rest.
"Get up." I woke up with Sarah and Richard standing over me "What is it?" "We're there" I got up and headed towards the front of the tank where Kyle was. "Where's Simons?" "Outside looking for a safe route around the wreckage." "What wreckage?" "Well it turns out a large force of Zerg attacked here so now the whole city's gone to hell." "Where did everybody go?" "My guess is either dead or hiding." "Open the hatch I'm going out." "Okay." I headed towards the back hatch as I began to open. As I got out the hatch started to close. When I walked out I saw the burning rubble of the once prosperous city of Vigilance. "Simons." "What?" "Where are you?" "Over here by the gate." I walked over to the entrance of the city and standing there was Simons. "What's the situation?" "There's no way for the tanks to get through this wreckage. We'll have to walk on foot if we want to go any further." "Where do you think everybody went?" "My guess is somewhere by the embassy. I heard gun shots coming from that direction." "We should start heading there. Maybe we can get some details on what happened here." "Get your team ready." As I walked back to the tanks the hatch of the tank I was in started to open. Richard came walking out. "What the hell happened here?" "The Zerg. That's what happened" "Well damn. They got a little too carried away." "Get your gear and tell Sarah we're heading out." Richard walked back into the tank. Simons walked up behind me and into the tank. I followed behind him to the front of the tank. "Kyle. Bravo Zulu and I are going to head to the embassy. You stay here with Tony and Mike and blow up anything that has more than two legs or a tail that tries to get into the city." "Yes sir." Simons and I walked outside of the tank with Sarah and Richard waiting for us there. "Alright let's head out." as we started navigating over the wreckage I stopped and watched as the two tanks went into siege mode.