Chapter One: First Contact

Emily doesn't talk much about the first contact she had with the aliens. With what happened out there on Chau Sara I had a devil of a time learning anything. What I do know is that she didn't have the faintest clue what she was about to see, or what she was going to get drawn into.

As far as she was concerned, she was on a routine pirate hunt.

-Liberty's reports, volume I.

From the gray steel bridge of the Battlecruiser Norad II, General Edmund Duke was in command. He looked through the view screen on the fringe world of Chau Sara. This kind of backwater was the last place he wanted to be at the moment. But it had been a particularly slow week or two, with most of the resistance groups being real quiet. Probably preparing for something big, though whatever it was Duke didn't know.

Either way that wasn't his problem right now. This was. Years of service in the Confederate armed forces. And his reward was a backwater post watching over fringe yokels. But he wasn't bitter.

'General Duke sir,' said an Ensign, whose name Duke couldn't be bothered to remember.

'What?!' he snapped.

The Ensign flinched at the words. 'We're receiving a transmission from the Magistrates Office in Los Andares. Should I patch it through?'

'Yeah,' said Duke, 'let's see what he has to say.'

On his screen appeared a middle-aged man with a mustache, and clad in an officer's uniform. It was a smart looking one, very clean and properly ironed. Duke disliked the man, though he wasn't sure why yet. He could find a reason.

'General Duke, it appears you've arrived just in time.' said Magistrate Collins of Chau Sara.

'Yeah, well, not much else to do since Korhal.' snapped Duke. 'Whadda ya want with Alpha Squadron?'

'As you well know, the renegades calling themselves the Sons of Korhal have been working for months to undermine Confederate Authority in the fringe colonies.' Collins paused, as if unsure of how to continue.

Duke did know that. The Sons of Korhal were the leading source of headaches for Confederate Generals. Himself included. 'Get to the point.'

'Well, they're on Chau Sara now, and I'd like to take care of them without involving the local militia.' continued Collins, glancing to one side. 'I'd rather not have any arrests if you take my meaning?'

So he wanted an example set. Was the militia that incompetent? Probably not, most militias didn't need much to turn a blind eye to the Sons of Korhal and other insurgent groups. The damn fringe yokels were all alike, didn't know where their loyalties lay.

'I read you.' said Duke. 'I'll get a company or two on it as soon as possible.'

'Good hunting.' said Collins, tipping his hat, before ending the transmission.

Duke sat back in his chair, reflecting on what he'd been reduced to. 'Ensign, start scanning the surface of Chau Sara for any sign of a base which isn't in the records. Start in the vicinity of the militia bases and move outwards. If it's painted red, that is where old Mengsk will be.'

'You mean Mengsk is here?' asked the Ensign.

Probably not. 'Just do it.' snapped Duke.

'Yes, sir.'

It took thirty minutes for the scanner sweeps to finish. During that time Duke reflected that he was getting older. And he wasn't advancing any ranks for his trouble. He'd stopped advancing a long time ago. He was at the end of his career, and here it was.

'Sir, here are the results we found.' The Ensign put them on screen. 'It looks like the Sons of Korhal have a base camp several dozen miles south of a militia base. It looks like a mining operation, and training camp.'

Duke considered the matter. This wouldn't need anywhere near the full strength of Alpha Squadron. Which was good since it wasn't here. 'Send down Lieutenant Swallow of Frontal Company. She can handle this.'

The craft shuddered as it entered the lower atmosphere. From her window, Lieutenant Emily Swallow looked out over the rocky sun-scorched wasteland. As they drew gradually nearer, she noted one of her marines praying to himself. Religion had survived the exodus from Earth. From there it had mutated into a variety of different sects. Emily didn't believe in any of them, she believed in the Confederacy.

The ship landed, kicking up vast clouds of dust around it as it gradually lowered down to the ground. The dropship doors opened up to reveal barren and windswept deserts around them. Alpha Squadron's finest disembarked from the ships and arrayed themselves in formation. The sun beat down on them, reflecting off their black visors. Even through her white, air-conditioned metal exoskeleton, Emily could feel the heat.

This was the sort of thing the colonists of the Confederacy endured. They dealt with it every day to increase the prosperity of the sector. They were a hardy lot, devoted more to simple pleasures than profit. Or at least that was what she read in her informational documents.

She turned her mind to the subject at hand. She could see the rocky cliffs looming over them some ways away. Duke had chosen to land his forces outside them, for fear of anti-air hidden in the rocks. So the rest of the way would be walked by her men.

Emily regarded the men and woman of Frontal Company. 'Alright troops, listen up, our scanner sweeps tell us there is a Sons of Korhal base over the next ridge. Our primary objective is to bring these renegades to justice. Then we'll show the people of the Confederacy that terrorism is not tolerated.'

'Yes, ma'am!' They answered with a salute.

'Theodore,' said Emily, 'I want you to take a few squads and scout the area ahead of us for any sign of resistance. Don't engage the enemy if you don't have to, and be careful.'

'Understood ma'am,' said the Second Lieutenant. 'I'll get right on it.'

He picked his men and moved ahead. Emily and her forces followed behind, their boots leaving great marks in the blasted soil. As they went, Emily wondered why it was that Duke had chosen to assign Theodore as her second in command. He certainly seemed to have high hopes for him. But Emily couldn't see anything about him which made him different from others. Many had been serving longer.

Then again Emily had not known him very long. No doubt things would become clear soon enough. There was always a purpose behind everything the Confederacy did.

Frontal Company made its way between the cliffs. Before long they were flanked by the rocky spires. It was an ideal place for an ambush, and Emily didn't like it. Looking around, she saw a way leading up onto the cliffs above. 'We'll get up there, and move along the cliffs as long as we can.

That way we won't be taken by surprise.'

Scaling the cliffs was made relatively simple by their armor. Though there were a few among her forces, who tripped and had to be helped up. Even so, they made it up to the top of the ridge. Swallow lowered her gauss rifle and scanned her surroundings for any sign of the enemy. She saw nothing, nothing but rocks and dirt.

And that more or less summed thing up for the rest of their journey. The sun began to sink towards the horizon, and before long it had dipped halfway down. As twilight fell over Chau Sara, Emily reflected that this was very boring and that boredom set her on edge.

'This isn't right, you know.' said Emily suddenly.

'What isn't?' asked Theodore.

'This is too easy.' said Emily. 'Other rebels do make this kind of mistake, but not the Sons of Korhal. We should have found some kind if resistance by now, a lookout, or a vanguard.'

'Maybe they got sloppy.' said Theodore.

'They have been here for months.' said Emily. 'At least according to the mission log. They must have had some sources which told them Alpha Squadron was in orbit. This is very unlike them.'

'Maybe it's some people using the Sons of Korhal's colors.' suggested Theodore.

'Maybe,' said Emily, but she doubted it.

She had a very ominous feeling. A threat was growing in her mind. The sense of danger only intensified as they came to the edge of the hills and saw the Sons of Korhal base camp. It was marked with their symbol, painted with their colors. It looked like a fairly well-developed base, but there was one problem.

There was no one in sight. The entire base looked empty. Here and there pieces of wreckage could be seen lying around.

'It looks abandoned.' said Theodore. 'You think they evacuated?'

'No,' said Emily, 'some of those buildings are portable.' She activated her vision enhancer on her visor and got a closer look. It was then that she realized that what she had thought was wreckage were corpses, a lot of corpses. She felt a prickling at the back of her neck as she returned her visor to normal and turned to Theodore. 'They're dead. Some of them anyway,' she paused, 'ready your weapons men and let's move. Scan for hostiles, and let's see what we can find.'

As they got closer to the buildings, they saw that they had been clawed and torn by something. The doors had been forced down, and most disturbing of all were the corpses themselves.

'These weren't killed by gauss rounds or flamethrowers.' said Emily.

'Siege tanks maybe?' suggested Theodore.

'The militia doesn't have siege tanks.' said Emily. 'And reports indicated that the militia had been compromised. And anyway these cuts aren't like the sort you'd see from shrap metal. It's like some kind of animal tore these people to bits.'

'It does look like claws now that you mention it.' said Theodore.

'This can't be, though.' said Emily. 'No animal alive could tear through marine armor.'

'Maybe, maybe not.' said Theodore.

Emily's danger sense was screaming. She felt as if the place they were in was about to come under attack. It was a sense she had learned to trust. 'Stay on guard. I'm going to have to call this in. General Duke needs to know about-'

'Sir, we've got incoming! And I'll be damned if I can identify em!' roared a soldier.

Emily rushed over to where he was and saw a great cloud of dust in the distance. In front of that dust were many small doglike creatures. They had massive bladed limbs on their back made for cutting and were moving as fast as a vulture.

'Those blades…' said Emily. Just like the ones that cut the bodies. 'Frontal Company form a battle line!

As the marines rushed to take positions in two ranks. One rank kneeled with their guns readied. The other setting their guns over their comrade's shoulders. Emily and Theodore stood at the end.

'We don't even know what they are.' said Theodore.

'They killed these people.' said Emily. 'I know it.'

The creatures were in range.

'Open fire!' said Emily.

There was a roar of gauss fire as every marine opened up with a hail of impaler rounds. The beasts screamed as they were torn to ribbons in seconds, yet there were always more behind them. For a moment, the approaching formation was held in place.

Then it began to advance on them. Emily had never seen anything like it. With every passing moment, the creatures lost more of more of their kind, but it didn't matter. They just pressed forward, not caring for their losses. As her rifle rattled in her hands, she felt cold sweat going down her face.

This wasn't natural. Even the bravest of marines would have broken after losses like this, and yet they kept coming. Finally the last of the creatures fell dead. Dead silence followed as Theodore moved forward to check the bodies. After a moment he walked back to them. 'What the hell were those things?'

'I don't know.' said Emily. 'Aliens I guess. What are our losses?'

'None, ma'am.' said Theodore. 'We got them all. I'd say we killed at least six hundred.'

Six hundred kills with no casualties. Good results and Emily was relieved no one had been killed. 'I've got to make my report to General Duke.' said Emily. 'He needs to know about this.' She opened a channel. 'General Duke sir, we've made First Contact with a new alien species.'

'First contact?' asked Duke. 'What are you talking about, girl?'

'They attacked us.' said Emily. 'They appear to be some kind of doglike creature with spines. We believe they slaughtered the Sons of Korhal base we were assigned to destroy. Our mission was complete before we even got here, sir.

'What are your orders?'

There was a long silence on the other end.

'Sir?' asked Emily.

'…Stand by for evacuation, I'll see what I can wrangle up about this. We may know more than we think.' said Duke.

'Yes sir.' said Emily. 'Swallow out.'

She looked to Theodore. 'Whatever it was, we're done here. General Duke is having us withdraw back to Alpha Squadron.'

'So it's someone else's problem then?' asked Theodore.

Emily didn't like the way he said that. 'Our presence is no longer required if that is what you mean.'

'Good,' said Theodore, 'I didn't sign up to fight aliens.'

Before Emily could answer a dropship flew overhead, painted all black with no symbols on it. It touched down near the base, and its doors opened. Out of it walked men in state of the art firebat suits. Behind them were goliaths and finally, there came a man dressed in the outfit of a ghost. He was dark skinned with no hair on his head. The right side of his head was cybernetic, with a gleaming red eye. They approached Frontal Company and halted.

'Recon squad Cerberus reporting.' said the ghost. 'We're here to oversee the extermination of these xenomorphs and contain the spread of any hostile infestation on this colony.'

'There must be some mistake.' said Emily 'General Duke never informed me-'

'We have our own orders, Lieutenant.' said the Cerberus Commander, sounding annoyed. 'We don't answer to the standard chain of command.'

Emily understood that there were things which the Confederacy had to do in secret. It was an unfortunate truth of war. She nodded. 'I understand sir.'

'By order of Confederate High Command, I am hereby requisitioning the use of your company.' said the Cerberus Commander. 'You will follow my orders as though they were those of General Edmund Duke. Do you understand?'

High Command? This must be very important. Swallow saluted. 'Yes sir, we won't let you down sir!'

'Good,' said the Cerberus Commander, 'when the dropships arrive they will be redirected to the LZ. Any further information is on a strict need to know basis.'

Authors Note:

This is what? The third time I've rewritten my Starcraft fic. Going back to Starcraft Precursor, I was personally dissatisfied with the story. It focused too much on numbers and not enough on people. The main character was not very compelling. There were far too many irrelevant subplots which didn't really come to anything.

Anyway this is my third, and hopefully final, rewrite.