Power Overwhelming
A/n: yeah, I know, I haven't updated in forever... Sorry about that. But here's this random thing from a about a year ago. It was half-finished when I found it again. I added a kind-of ending. I have a little more in mind, but i probably won't continue it unless provoked.
Corporal Jessye Marcum gripped his rifle tight in his hands, keeping a close eye on the ridiculously huge crowd of Zerg standing not too far in front of him. So far, the Zerg hadn't noticed him or the other 11 marines standing around him. Probably because the Zerg were already in quite an epic battle with some Protoss. From where he stood, he couldn't tell who was winning. Suddenly, his visor beeped. A small red light started blinking. Uh-oh, he thought. The red blinking light could only mean one thing... the commander wanted to speak to him.
"Commander?" he inquired roughly, hitting the button to patch him through. A readout in the control panel on his wrist printed out a small list of orders.
Engage Zerg. Attack anything that gets in your way.
"Standin' by." He said immediately. He and the other marines were already moving towards the battalion of Zerg and Protoss. Getting closer, they could see that the forces were far larger than they had thought. There had to be at least 50 Zerglings and hydralisks battling more than 60 Protoss. They were also close enough to see that the Protoss had teal etched into their armor and the Zerg had orange markings on them. Jessye faintly remembered something in the briefing about the teal Protoss disliking the Terran presence on... well, anywhere.
"Wonderful idea," he muttered sarcastically, not realizing he was speaking out loud. Man, this new commander's an idiot. He thought to himself. This isn't like the movies where the hero comes in guns blazing and doesn't get one freakin' scratch on him... on that note, he came in range of the battle and there was no time to think. He stopped and immediately started shooting at the nearest Zerg. Said Zerg happened to be a hydralisk and was not pleased at being shot at. It turned around and something green shot at Jessye.
Aw, gross! He thought in protest, as the green stuff splattered all over him. he didn't even want to imagine what it was. Then he blinked, staring down at his now-green combat suit. Shouldn't that stuff be... hurting me? he wondered. He experimentally shot at a nearby Zealot. The zealot looked over at him, obviously annoyed by his very existence.
"For Adun!" the zealot cried, running at him. Jessye raised his gun and fired rapidly at the zealot, who appeared not to notice and continued running at him. Extremely perplexed by now, he didn't even try to dodge the zealot as he plunged one of his knives into him. The knife didn't even leave a scratch.
Okay, this is getting weird. The zealot STABBED me and I'm perfectly fine? Nevertheless, he had his orders and continued to fire at the zealot, who continued to stab him. This went on for a good fifteen minutes before the zealot started getting tired. Jessye looked at his gun and realized he was almost out of ammo. He tried to shoot at the zealot one more time and heard a loud click. Scratch that. He was out of ammo. He threw the huge thing on the ground why do they have to make those things so kriffin' heavy anyway? He wondered, rubbing his sore arms. So they simply stared at each other, catching their respective breaths. The silence between them was, despite being in the middle of a battle, incredibly awkward.
"So..." he said unsurely. "Um... come here often?" he asked, wincing at how incredibly stupid he sounded.
The zealot gave him a measured look, trying to figure out if he was serious. "No. In fact, what planet are we even on?" a voice that seemed to come from nowhere answered. Jessye nearly jumped. Oh, that's right. Telepathy. They don't have mouths. he remembered.
"Uhh... New Ansion? That sounds about right. I'm Jessye, by the way." He added politely, reaching out his hand. The zealot stared at it, baffled by the behavior. "Uh, never mind. It's a human thing." He tried to explain.
"Ah. My name is Teledar." The zealot replied. "Nice to meet you."
There was silence for awhile. Teledar watched him curiously. "Is it true that your buildings can fly?" he blurted out.
"Uhh, yeah." He replied. Obviously, Teledar hadn't fought many Terrans. Or at least, not near any Terran bases. "But they're a huge pain. They're so ridiculously slow, and besides, the SCVs don't know how to build. If you damage them enough, they burn themselves down. Kinda sucks when you're inside of one when that happens." He was nervous. All of his friends were always talking about how he babbled when he got nervous. Calm down and stop babbling. You obviously can't die. He ordered himself.
"That sounds rather impractical." Teledar replied. "I'm rather glad we don't have to go through the whole building thing. It all just seems too slow."
"Hey, that reminds me," Jessye said. "I was going to ask my superiors, but, I guess you would know better than anyone. How do you build? I mean, all I ever see is one of those probes making this big blue ball and then eventually, poof! It's a big turret thing ready to shoot blue stuff at us. I don't get it."
"All of our buildings are already built. We just warp them in from Aiur." Teledar explained.
"Cool." He said. He blinked suddenly. "Hang on. We're supposed to be fighting." He said.
"Oh yeah..." Teledar said slowly. "Although it doesn't seem to be doing much good. I was battling these Zerg for about an hour before you showed up and started shooting me. That was rather rude, by the way."
"Yeah, sorry about that. We had orders." He explained. Teledar, being very experienced with the dilemma of having to follow orders, simply nodded. Jessye looked around. Most everyone else was still fighting, although some, like he and Teledar, had stopped to catch their breaths. There was one long line of ten marines facing off against a line of hydralisks near them, each shooting projectiles at each other. "What do you suppose that green stuff is?" he asked Teledar.
"I don't want to imagine." Was Teledar's reply.
"What happened? I mean, you would think that someone would have died by now." He said.
Teledar surveyed the battle, looking thoughtful. "Either everyone's weapons suddenly malfunctioned at the same time and became useless or we have acquired some sort of immortality." he said slowly.
"My guess would be the second one." Jessye said.
"So what do we do?" asked Teledar.
"Hey, how about we set up some impossible raid on the Zerg base. Since we can't get hurt, we could destroy the whole thing, just you and me. That'd be pretty nice. I'd probably get promoted to general, get my own battlecruiser... hey, you could help me pilot it. Be like my first mate. Whadya say?" he asked excitedly.
"The Zerg have this immortality, too, and it probably includes buildings," Teledar reminded him. Jessye deflated slightly.
"Yeah, you're right. Ah, what's so cool about battlecruisers, anyway, huh? I mean, besides the yamato cannon..." He sighed longingly, instantly depressed. Teledar's look softened.
"Hey, if you ever do make General, I would be honored to be your second-in-command." He said brightly, trying to cheer him up. Jessye grinned.
"Sure. I'm not dying any time soon, am I?" he added, chuckling.
An hour passed by. Most of the fighting had stopped due to the sheer monotony of shooting things that can't die. Teledar and Jessye were sitting on the ground, asking each other random questions. A few minutes ago, they had been joined by a young Zergling named Zeb. However, instead of talking, Zeb had contented himself in ramming his head into Teledar repeatedly. It was getting very annoying, especially since it didn't hurt one bit.
"How do you eat if you don't have a mouth?" Jessye asked.
"Nutrition patches. On our arms, where we need the most energy." Came the prompt answer. Teledar thought for a moment. "Can comm. scans work at any range?"
"Oh, yeah." He smiled. "We used it to scan a Terran base on a neighboring planet once. The results were... interesting." He said, laughing and wincing at the memory.
Teledar gave him a strange look. "I get the feeling I don't want to know."
"Hmm my turn again. How does the whole mind reading thing work? Can you hear everyone's thoughts all at once, or..."
"We can sense the minds of others with psychic abilities. You have to reach out to a specific entity in order to communicate with them."
"So you can sense Terrans?" he asked, confused.
"Sort of. It's very weak. Terrans have not yet fully developed the powers of the mind. But we can communicate with them. Obviously." He added. He gestured to the zergling currently attacking him. "The Zerg are the strangest to listen to. They're all thinking the exact same thing at the same time. But they also have independent thoughts of their own. That's how I knew his name was Zeb."
"Creepy." Jessye agreed. "So this Zeb guy. Why is he still attacking you?"
"They're under orders to attack. And keep attacking. The part of his mind that is Zeb wants to stop. Actually, he finds out conversation interesting. But there is another part of his mind that blindly follows orders."
"I see." Jessye frowned, addressing the zergling directly. "Well, Zeb, I suppose since you can't help it, it's okay. Doesn't hurt you anyway, does it, Teledar?"
"No." Teledar paused, as if listening. "Zeb wanted to ask me what the blue stuff was that shoots out of the cannons." He looked amused at this question.
"I second that question." Jessye said, a slight frown on his face.
They continued talking in that fashion, with Teledar translating for Zeb. Across the field, there were similar configurations of the races, and only the Zerg still fought, though in most of the groups, it was obvious that they didn't mean to, like Zeb. Merek, Jessye's second-in-command, was currently trying to teach a group of Zealots how to knit. Jessye cringed in embarrassment. He had told Merek to keep his needles in the base, but he still took it wherever he went. Well, the zealots seemed rather taken to the strange hobby. Two were already expertly weaving scarves, while a third held a lumpy mass that might have been a sock. Merek was currently working with the third. As they watched, a fourth hung a small colorful band on a nearby zergling's claws. The young zergling made a strange noise that might have indicated its delight.
In short, none of them had ever seen such a strange sight.
A/n: So review... ness. Tell me if you want to continue it or not.
--Snaitf
