"We're being overrun!" Sarah Kerrigan shouted into her NepConX250 attached to her utility helmet.
A few moments of deafening battle ensued, the vicious creatures beginning to break through their first line of defense. By god, how many of them were there, she thought to herself? Bunkers crumbled, tanks went haywire. People died. So many people died, she watched in amazement and horror.
"Requesting immediate Dropship assistance," she then said into her radio, now a bit calmer than before.
A sloshing growl echoed to her immediate right. She whipped her head around to see one of them headed straight for her, in a full run. The C10-Canister Special seemed to aim itself as she fired it at the creature. The finger sized bullet punctured the thing right between it's red eyes. It staggered from side to side for a few gruesome moments as black blood shot out the wound, then lied on the steel floor.
Kerrigan turned back around to the heart of the battle. They were losing. Fast. A marine no more than twenty yards from her fell over dead as a kind of crystallized mass of organic matter punched into his armor and tore at his flesh.
"Guys?" she said with a tone of desperation in her radio, "how about that assistance?"
She listened. No voice came out of the speaker end. No reassuring words that help was on the way.
More and more of their enemy poured into their front lines; they slowly working their way through gunfire and explosive shot. The battle seemed to slow to a painful pace as she watched it. She also noticed painful details. The giants of their enemies, known as Ultralisks, plowed through building after building, their gargantuan tusks ripping through iron, concrete and steel as if it was wax paper. She looked to her left quickly, her hair flowing in front of her face. Dozens of the smaller Hydralisks stood in random formation, aiming their heads and spitting highly corrosive acids at whatever they could. The chemicals in the acid could dissolve the firmest of armor and the sturdiest of weaponry. Accompanying them were the even smaller Zerglings. They were only about the size of a dog, but their sharpened claws and fangs made up for their small statue.
She could only watch in amazement and terror as their enemy, known only as the Zerg, toppled structure after structure. Gunshots rang, cannons ignited, people screamed. She looked briefly to the sky. No Dropships. The last of their defense is all that remained; they weren't going to hold out much longer. Kerrigan fired a few shots at some close enemies; her lengthy observation moments before lasting only a few moments.
"Jim? Arcturus? What the hell is going on up there?" she breathed into the transmitter, trying to keep her voice as even as possible.
Still, nothing. Fear began to pang at her spine as she now saw their very last line of defense broken. Still, she fought alongside her fellow Terrans even as the monstrosities poured into the heart of their base camp. As Sarah shot again and again she began realizing something. The Zerg were completely ignoring her. Even as she fired upon one of the towering Ultralisks, of whom could rip her to shreds with just one effort, merely ignored her and attacked other things.
Building after Terran building fell before the overwhelming masses of their enemies. Finally, as the Command Center went down, it was just Sarah, a squad of four marines and a maintenance worker known as an SCV. They were completely surrounded. The Zerg took no extra time and quickly advanced on them. The SCV was the first to go. A small group of Hydralisks all aimed and shot their destructive spit at the machine, it immediately breaking down and the poor man inside left only to burn to death. They all fired their weapons, but to no avail. When one of them would fall, ten more would rise to take its place. An Ultralisk shot out what looked like a double pronged tongue from somewhere under it's tusks and grabbed a hold of two of the squad, their kicking and screaming bodies eventually being lost to whatever fate they befell. She cringed as she heard the crunching sounds of the thing chewing her comrades.
"Lieutenant!" the marine to her left shouted over the gunfire of their rifles, "there is no way out for the three of us."
She looked at him curiously as the Zerg rampaged on toward them.
"But there might be a chance for you," he said.
He dug into a compartment on the outer part of his armor. He handed her two syringes.
"Take one now!" he said, "Stim Packs. The only way you'll have the guts or the speed to get the hell out of here!"
He looked at her with cold gray eyes. She wished she could thank him somehow, for this daring act. Both her and he knew that he was going to die, right along with his comrade. They were willing to sacrifice themselves so that she could live.
"Do it now!" he screamed.
She obeyed, quickly shoving one of the vials into a compartment for safekeeping and taking the remaining one in her hand. Without any delay, she took the cap off of the needle and jammed it into her arm, pushing the yellowish liquid into her bloodstream. Her senses immediately sharpened many fold, almost to the point of a painful caliber. Her body felt lighter, somehow, like she could move with greater ease.
"There!" the marine said, his voice sounding piercing in her head, "a hole!"
He gestured to an area behind them, a few Zerglings being the only thing between her and escape. Freedom.
Both marines turned and fired at the weakened flank, the small Zerglings collapsing in pools of blood. Kerrigan wasted no time. She took off for the makeshift exit in the wall of enemies, before they could notice what was happening. Suddenly however, just as she had reached the hole, a Hydralisk sprang up in front of her, its orange tinted eyes boring into her. She quickly dragged her foot back ward and kicked the beast hard in its middle. It fell over with a frenzied scream, Kerrigan stepping on it on her path to escape. She then felt strong forces latch onto both of her arms and her back. She fought against the hold on her, the drugs circulating through her body combined with raw adrenaline mixing together to give her godly strength. She felt claws rip and tear at her armor and clothing underneath, acid burning her skin.
With one final muster of strength, she ripped free of the force holding her and ran as fast as she could. She heard screams and the rickety sounds of pursuit behind her, it spurring on her flee all the more. She felt herself run at unparalleled speeds, the ground feeling numb underneath her. At last, she thought, she was out of sight of those dreaded Overlords. The ones that could easily see her with their piercing eyes every time she activated her cloaking mechanism. She immediately brought her wrist out in front of her and jammed her fist down on the button. Once it had commenced, she took a hard right down a steel path that led to a larger platform, built by some unknown contractor somewhere in space. She felt bits and hunks of her armor slide off of her from her encounter and fall clattering to the floor, they running the risk of giving her away. She prayed that the hardware controlling her cloaking device remain in tact.
She took another right and ducked behind a corner of a large man-made wall. She pressed her back to the cold steel, her rising and falling chest the only company as she tentatively peeked around the side. They were gone. She had won.
Sarah would have celebrated had she not felt two things at that time. First, she hurt. A lot. She took her back away from the wall to see her own blood streaked across it; probably claw wounds from the relentless Zerg. Second, she was cold. She clicked off the cloaking to see that most of her armor had either broken off of her, or was too torn to hold in heat or protect her. With some effort and painful frustration of moving her injured body, she removed all the broken armor; her two combat boots, a functional steel belt and her right arm segment were the only pieces of her suit that weren't clawed, broken or burned by acid. Her clothing underneath wasn't too much better. Although most of her thick, woolen leggings survived, the standard issue insulating tunic she had on for warmth was mostly shredded. She took the tunic off and tore off what she could use and covered herself the best she could, being sure to wrap her injuries tightly. As she finished, Sarah leaned once again against the steel wall, her breath now starting to slow.
She huddled there, trying her best to gain as much warmth on this chilly platform as she could. Bruised, cold, burned and half naked, but still alive, Kerrigan sat and waited. For a sign, perhaps. For help.