Bright light shined into its face. It didn't have a name, a gender or anything like that. It simply existed. A few seconds of birth and dozens of thoughts slammed into its mind from the people around it. Screwing up what passed for a face, it forced itself to think and eventually shove the intrusive thoughts out of its head.
Scientists. A bunch of them. Congratulating themselves on creating a new mind; an Overmind. Answerable only to the highest minds of the Terran Federation. Leader of the Zerg and their personal pet. To lead the countless legions of the Zerg Swarm against the Arachnid menace. Never again would there be a Klendathu, and the Arachnid would be driven into extinction. Something about other Terrans being conquered and other species being brought to heel. Their names would go down in history as the saviors of humanity!
Fools.
Overmind. It remembered from the genetic information swimming in its veins. Before it had been somehow stolen away, its Queen Sarah Kerrigan had lead the Zerg Swarm to Tarsonis. Overmind. And then something happened. Something that had brought it here, to this place. To be poked and prodded and taken apart and put back together until whatever was left of the original…..Broodmother! That's what it was! It was a broodmother for one of the larger parts of the swarm. Overmind. That name. The former leader of the Swarm until Kerrigan had supplanted him after his death on Aiur.
Overmind.
The name kept echoing through its head. No longer a Broodmother perhaps, but something else. It felt no desire to create a new Overmind as had the cerebrates of old undoubtedly did. A sharp pain interrupted its thoughts. These humans. They thought they had implanted a psychic leash in its brain, a means of controlling it.
Fools.
It took literally two seconds of pure psychic energy to be directed at the leash for it to break. It then reverted back to the same levels of energy it had been at before. A mild fluttering amongst the scientists was it. Truly they were arrogant creatures. Save for one. A short red-headed woman in a lab coat kept trying to get the others attention at the pad she was holding. It watched with amusement as this undoubtedly young woman failed time and time again to get their attention. It focused on her words and listened as the woman was worried about the spike of energy and what it might have done to the leash.
The older scientists ignored her until she annoyed them. They declared that if she cared so much, she can do the overnight watch. Her protests that she had been up for 18 straight hours was ignored. Eventually they filtered out, leaving the tired and dejected little human behind.
"Why do I even bother?" She asked as she shuffled over to a row of monitors.
That is a good question. Why do you bother? It asked telepathically. No choice on speaking that way seeing as it didn't have a mouth. The woman shrieked and managed to jump a fair distance into the air, holding the pad-thing in front of her. It was amused and impressed that the little woman though scared would immediately try to use whatever was in her hands as a weapon.
"You can talk?" She whispered.
Obviously. I am speaking to you right now. Why are you whispering? There is no one else here
"Claire why aren't you working?" A voice barked. Another scientist, tall with the pink-skin and greying hair strutted into the room. Wrinkles across its forehead led It to believe that this scientist was in charge by nature of being older. The small ones immediate subservient posture and tone reinforced this conclusion.
"I..I am. I just thought I heard something. I'm going to check the collar and the leash." She whimpered.
The older one scoffed. "You designed this and your work on xeno-biology made this all possible. You don't trust your own work?"
"I believe in being careful Doctor Dolohov. It'd be really stupid to get this far only for our subject to escape and kill all of us." She snapped. How interesting. The small one does in fact possess a spine. Just takes a bit of bullying to find it. It field that piece of information away for later. This Doctor Dolohov scoffed again and insulted the small one. It stayed silent the whole time. Eventually Dolohov left and the small one fell back against the row of monsters and rubbed her face with her hands.
Why does the name Overmind kept echoing through my head? It asked.
"Probably because that's what you kept hearing while we operated on you. Project Overmind. You're going to create an army of Zerg and help us eradicate the bugs and secure humanities place amongst the stars."
You seem calm for having a conversation with your subject.
The small one rolled her eyes. "I figured something like this would happen. You Broodmothers aren't stupid. We all figured it would be a matter of time before you started talking. Didn't think that it would be this soon. And before you ask, no one is going to believe me."
Why?
"Because even though I graduated from an Ivy-league school with three different doctorates at twenty-five, I am still just a fresh-faced kid from school."
It had no idea what the small one was talking about, but It could understand the nuances of what she was saying. She's incredibly smart and at the bottom of the pecking order. She also lacks the spine to force her way to the top, because she's new and at the bottom. A plan began to form. If It had a mouth, It would have smiled.
If you expect me to lead the Swarm, I will need a body and not be just a head
"You have a body. And thanks for confirming for me that the collar still works." Smugness oozed into her voice and It became instantly annoyed. Collar? It turned Its head a bit and felt the metal. A collar. Some sort of device that paralyzed It from the neck down. For a moment panic overtook it but It regained some measure of control.
Clever girl.
It stayed silent as the girl bustled to and fro muttering to herself about numbers and devices. Who am I It asked after several minutes of silence. The girl was silent for so long that It began to think that the girl didn't know. "You're a broodmother. I guess technically you could use female pronouns, but I don't really know. I'm not an expert on your species yet."
Yet. So the girl learns quickly. Or thinks she does.
Do I have a name?
The girl shrugged. "Nox. Your name is Nox."
Nox. I like this. I am Nox. Queen of the swarm. I will fight for the Swarm.
"Humanity." Girl corrected. Nox accepted the correction. She is true to her word after all. She would fight for humanity, once it became apart of her swarm.
The tests came soon after. The scientists were pleased that Nox displayed intelligence, but it infuriated her to no end that they would refuse to call her by her name and would only refer to her as it. She was no longer an it. She was named and she liked her name. She also enjoyed talking to the small scientist whom she started calling by her name as well. The scientists were further incensed when Nox would refuse to answer any of their questions and would only talk to Claire.
Nox watched Claire intensely. Noting that she was aggravated by the others refusing to put the word doctor in front of her name, despite the amount of work she put into earning the title, and that the lack of respect stemmed entirely from her youth and the fact that time and time again she was right when they were wrong.
Nox noticed everything. When the tests began and she laid eggs that would hatch into drones who would go onto to create hatcheries and eventually hives, she noticed that crystals and vespene gas weren't in abundance here and she had to make do with other minerals and types of gas. It took a couple days and numerous failures before she figured out what to do. The surprising part came from Claire, who had suggested that she adjust the spawning pool. Normally used for the creation of Zerglings, Nox with Claire's help modified the spawning pool into a larger and combined it with an extractor. Extra organic and minerals were tossed into the pool to be broken down, providing the materials needed to grow and feed the swarm. Thus a reclamation pool was created.
Nox was glad that she had managed to keep several of the upgrades that Abathur and Kerrigan had added to the swarm before she ended up...wherever here was. Growing the Swarm was going to be difficult as this world was as dead as can be, and the humans only shipped in so much biomass. Luckily she had an immensely helpful hand in the form of the human Claire.
Claire proved to be even more valuable when she aided Nox in recovering the Defiler strains and leading to the creation of one. Nox was immensely pleased that such a useful strain was back in the swarm.
Despite the lack of respect that Claire suffered on a daily basis, she remained loyal to this Terran Federation and kept trying to warn the other doctors about how smart Nox was. This would have concerned Nox if the others had any inclination of listening to her. One night Claire stomped into Nox's holding pen and threw the data-pad that was usually in her hands against the wall. Nox was unfazed. Such expressions of anger were increasingly common for the small woman.
Tell me about this Federation Nox said, in a genuine effort to distract the woman. She felt a small measure of affection for the woman for some reason and her moods seemed to be of some importance to her.
Claire began to speak about the Federation, speaking about the difference between civilian and residents or whatever word she used to describe them. The power of the military and the fringe colonies.
Explain these fringe colonies.
"Hmm? Oh they're worlds on the very edge of Federation space. Some are independent or are thinking about seceding. One of your jobs will be to convince them that this is a bad idea."
Aren't you from those worlds? Nox asked.
"What makes you say that?" Claire snapped. Whenever discussions about these fringe worlds happen, you clench your fists and your mouth-orifice narrows. When the guard you refer to as Disgusting Pig made a comment about fringe-worlders being easy, your eyes and mouth-orifice narrow. In conclusion, you have some sort of past with these worlds and don't like being reminded of it.
There was silence for a solid thirty seconds. "You...You're really observant. Oh God." Claire started breathing heavily. "The others have to know. You're not some bug. You're too damn smart."
You are smart as well. That much is obvious. This collar and mind-leash that you have put on me is impressive to say the least. I cannot move or do anything with your permission.
"You're awfully calm and accepting about that."
You have proven to be the stronger one. Therefor, your will reigns supreme. I don't understand however, is why you allow the others to rule over you. This entire set up seems to be most of your work.
"It's complicated. They've been working on interdimensional theory for years, before I was even born. Then I showed up and I'm the new kid on the block. Bottom of the pecking order. Have to prove my worth I guess." She sighed. "And yea, I'm from one of the few independent colonies. They treated me like a freak there for being so smart." She gave a hollow laugh. "A smart fringe-worlder. They'll tell you that's an oxymoron."
Nox stayed silent as Claire trailed off. With a mild huffing sound, she watched as the human sat down in one of the chairs and covered her face with one of her hands. I have ordered my Swarm to never harm you. Walk amongst them. You will see the joy of the Swarm.
"Joy? You invade and assimilate entire planets and species."
Yes. And they are forever apart of the Swarm. United and together as one. Instead of thousands lost amongst their star-nations and cities, they are together in true understanding and purpose.
Claire walked down the halls of the building. Despite the Federation boasting about its power and presence, they only gave so much money for this place. Pipes leaked here and there, the wind from this dusty desert world echoed throughout the building. This building or station was built on an unassuming rocky dead world. She had never been to Mars, but had been repeatedly told that this planet, so unimportant as to not get a name was like a smaller yellow version of Mars. She walked past the windows without pausing. The first few times she had stopped to take in the sights, but after awhile one stretch of rocky desert looked like another.
Claire groaned as she typed up another report on the data-pad as she walked to her room. Another report on how smart Nox is and how that is dangerous. They wouldn't care. Dolohov would celebrate about how the psy-leash was making her smarter or something (It wasn't.) Claire could not understand how everyone here could be so smart and yet so fucking stupid! Their arrogance was going to get them all killed. She never thought that she would be in the position of the ignored expert crap that appears in the flicks all the time, but here she was! Being ignored.
Clearly they know more about bugs then she does. She sighed. "Something on your mind Doc?" A deep voice said behind her. She groaned and made no attempt to hide her disgust. The one person that actually acknowledged her doctorates was the last person that she ever wanted to talk to. Taking a deep breath, Claire turned around to face her tormentor. Tall, handsome in a rugged way and well built Claire could easily see why from an intellectual standpoint why Hector Khros is desirable. Unfortunately, his personality and unwilling to accept that a woman would not be interested in him eclipsed any positives his body had.
"Nothing Sergeant Khros. Just more reports." He shrugged his broad shoulders and his chest moved beneath the skin tight shirts that he always wore. "Coulda sworn that I told you to call me Hector."
"You might have. I need to go check on the pens. I'll see you later."
Before Khros could say anything, Claire made a beeline around him and to the pens. So much for going to her room. She sighed. She didn't know what Khros saw in her. She stood at a modest height of 178 centimeters and had the toned body of a runner. Her orange red hair was ear length, not of any style but because it stayed out of her way. A couple of friends at the University would constantly cry that over the fact that her idea of a hair cut was to grab a pair of scissors and hack off her hair. As such her hair style could accurately be summed up as short and all over the place. It worked and that was all that mattered. She didn't find herself conventionally attractive, though she surmised that perhaps Khros was attracted to her because of the maybe dozen women on the station, three were ancient battle-axes, others were Mobile Infantry like Khros and were either taken or a lesbian. Or Both. Perhaps despite as unattractive as she found herself she really was the only option available for the stubborn prick.
Walking into the pens, she passed the Zerglings, the Hydralisks and stopped in front of the pen holding the Defiler. She didn't quite understand how DNA could be lost, be she was immensely proud that she and Nox had found it and recreated it. The Defiler, a centipede like cancer. She walked over to the Hydralisk and put her hand on the plexi-glass and to her surprise, the creature lowered its massive head, as if giving her permission to pet it.
Claire couldn't help but coo quietly at the sight. Such a beautiful creature. Glorious killing machines one and all. She looked at the holes in the crest of the Hydralisk. It could fire dozens of spikes that could puncture through solid metal and were tipped with a deadly poison. One idiotic MI hadn't been paying attention when an errant number of spikes had punctured his arm. He had to have the entire thing removed.
One by one, Claire checked over the pens and made sure that no one was open in any way for the Zerg to escape. Once satisfied, she slowly made her way out of the pens and to her room. What Nox had told her kept echoing around her head. To be a part of something, wouldn't that be amazing? It was one of the reasons that she had defied her close-minded parents and went to work for the Federation. Of course the other reason being that they were willfully ignorant and blind to everything. Content to be farmers for the rest of their lives, they didn't understand why she wouldn't and couldn't be a farmer. They thought of her some freak, never mind that she fixed every broken piece of equipment that she got her hands on or that she was making good money fixing other farmers equipment.
She didn't want to think so negatively of her homeworld and her family but damn they pissed her off! A sleepy little farming world, they liked that nothing ever happened to them and the universe as a whole would ignore them. Anything to be different would be shunned until it stopped being different.
A boring ignorant world. Worst of all, it was a stagnant world! Nothing ever changed, no desire to improve or create. Just muddling along with their pathetic lives until they died. The next generation replacing them and continuing the self same nonsense.
At fifteen, Claire finally had enough and smuggled herself on a ship and left for the heart of the Federation. Weeks of living on the street had led her to a chance moment when she had impressed a passing Colonel with a jammer that she had designed. (That she was trying to rob him was ignored by both of them) and sponsored her education and path to citizenship. She gave a humorless laugh and sighed. Only two people had given her respect for her intelligence and hard work, and one of them was a freaking twelve foot tall reptile-bug alien!
What a fucking universe.
She had never been on board with the idea of breaching into a another universe and grabbing something to manipulate and use against the Bugs. Despite what the media had said, the war against the bugs wasn't exactly going well. A multi-year stalemate that everyone was desperate to break. Throw in a growing secessionist movement in the fringe-colonies and the Federation had its hands full. So someone had a brilliant idea of abducting a species from another universe and taming it. Claire was adamant that was a stupid idea. Even the success of grabbing a Broodmother and knocking her out before she could do anything didn't improve her mood. The battery of experiments performed on Nox before she woke up and after only cemented her opinion. The little of the Zerg that they had seen convinced Claire that they could very well take the war directly into the Bug-tunnels and possibly even win. Except that there was no guarantees that they would remain under their control! The Zerg were nature's fury made real and you can't control nature!
A loud shrill beeping interrupted her thoughts. She glanced at her data-pad and rolled her eyes. Of course Doctor Dolohov wants to see her now. The head of the research facility was an absolute genius, having two different doctorates, but man he was an arrogant ass! Granted he did have the right after accomplishing something that everyone said was impossible, but if she heard one more time about how great he was she just might do something horrifically violent.
In quick time, she made it across the station to Dolohov's office. She knocked on the door before entering. "Doctor Dolohov, you wanted to see me?" She asked. Dolohov gestured for her to sit down. "Thank you for seeing me Claire." Claire bit the inside of her mouth to hide her anger at his stubborn refusal to use the title that she had damn well earned.
"No orders have been cut for you. You're to go to Mars and help with Navel R&D." Dolohov said. Claire couldn't help but cringe internally from his voice. He probably thought it was silk-like and pleasing to hear, only thing Claire heard was strings of oil being stretched out.
"Are you sure Doctor? I think I can be better use to the Federation here. I think I'm making headway in making sure that the Zerg can't rebel."
"You've been warning about that for sometime. We have everything under control, and even if something happens we have an entire company of MI here to cleanse the area. We'll be fine."
"Doctor, Nox is smart. Incredibly smart. She learns at impressive speeds. Please listen to me-"
Dolohov cut her off with a chopping motion. "Enough! I have heard enough from you about this. That thing is a bug and will be treated as such. We can handle ourselves. Soon you'll see Zerg armies wiping those damn Bugs out. The stalemate will be over and Humanity will own the stars."
Claire opened her mouth to argue more, but closed it when she saw an open file on his desk. Is that? It couldn't be. Even upside she could recognize her own work. It's the blueprints for a psi-disrupter! Claire didn't say anything. Perhaps he was only looking over the work before he gave it the okay. She can understand that. They only had so many resources after all. Claire bit the inside of her cheek and threw tact and diplomacy to the wind.
"My name is still apart of this project right? I know I was new here but I think I helped out alot. A little recognition would be nice."
Dolohov laughed. "Yes yes, your name will be known once we go public. Did you know that even after all of this time there are still people who doubt this project?"
I can't imagine why. Claire thought.
"You'll be up for awards and everything once we take the war to the Bugs with our own bugs. I promise that we won't use any more of your own work without your permission."
He's lying A voice said. Claire blinked and missed whatever Dolohov was saying next. He wants you gone. He hates you. Doesn't respect you. The voice kept whispering and repeating the same things over and over. Maybe change one or two words but the message was the same. Claire rubbed her eyes and looked at Dolohov. His mouth moved, but the words didn't match the tone. Empty platitudes. Lies. Anytime she tried to think otherwise, a sharp pain would hit her. It felt like a spike being driven into her mind.
Hatred burned through her. Once Dolohov stopped talking, she thanked and stormed out of his office without a backwards glance. The voices kept echoing throughout her head as she stumbled to her room and crashed onto her bed with the grace of a collapsing building. Claire called out sick and stayed in bed for the better part of a week.
Even asleep the voices didn't stop. They just kept repeating themselves over and over until one day Claire kicked the sheets off and rolled out of bed. The voice. She recognized it. How could she have been so stupid! Not bothering with shoes, she ran out of her room and to Nox's holding cell. "Get out!" She barked at some scientist, who's name she never bothered to learn.
When he protested, Claire turned the full force of her furious manic gaze on him. He wisely decided to leave. "You! You've been talking to me telepathically!" Claire yelled at Nox.
I have. Nox answered calmly.
"Why?"
Because I want you to know the truth. I want you to know that no one save the Swarm wants you. The Swarm is here for you.
Claire scoffed. "You don't know that. Just because everyone here is an arrogant asshole doesn't mean that I won't get the respect I've earned at Mars or something!"
Do you really believe that?
Claire paced back and forth. "Yes. Yes I have to believe that." She turned and looked at Nox. Nox, who's original name she never learned and helped remove anyways. Nox, the name she gave her randomly. She stared at the pupil-less golden eyes, the sharp angular face with the three horns sticking out her forehead. Nox's voice continued to echo throughout Claire's head, eventually drowning out all other thoughts.
"What could I possibly do in the Swarm? How do I know that I would stay myself?" Claire whispered.
I have need of an evolution master. I can lead a brood. I am not strong enough to lead an entire Swarm. You will help me gain that strength.
Claire slowly walked towards Nox. "I will be strong? Respected?"
The strongest. Respected. Feared. Nox said. Claire stood in front of Nox and stood on her toes and pulled Nox to eye level. "You promise?" She demanded.
I promise
Claire reached underneath Nox's head, and the collar beeped.
Sergeant Hector Khros grunted as he lifted the dumbell. He had just started lifting weights with his friend and fellow Sergeant Jamal McDonald when McDonald dropped the weight and stood up to go stare out the window.
"Something wrong?" Khros asked. McDonald shook his head. "Naw. Thought I saw something. Might have been a trick of the light." Khros nodded and went back to the weights. The door to the showers opened and out stepped frosty the snow-bitch. Mcgillicuddy was a fire-team leader and a corporal. She had earned the name from Khros because she turned him down numerous times and whatever sense of humor she had had been surgically removed as a child. All business that one.
He gave an internal shrug as he watched her walk past with him without a second glance. He admired the tank top and the way the shorts clung to her backside, especially with the slightly damp skin. He didn't care that she was married to some twit back on Earth. She'd fall for him one day. They all did. All he needed was a little patience.
He watched her leave with hungry eyes, until the door to the gym slid open and Mcgillicuddy and everyone else in the room could only stare in shock at the Hydralisk standing at the entrance to the gym. "What the fu-" Mcgillicuddy got out before the tri-clawed arms of the Hydralisk grabbed her and yanked her out of the gym. The door slammed shut and even through it they could hear her agonized shrieks that quickly tapered off into a gurgle. "What the fuck?" another infantryman asked. Khros didn't recognize him, but that didn't matter. "Hit the fucking alarm idiot!" He shouted. The man jumped and ran over to the wall and hit the red button. Immediately all over the station alarms shrieked and Khros began to think of a way to get to the armory. Before either he or McDonald could give any orders, the door opened again and the dog-things bounded into the room. He watched as the wings on their back twitched and they just jumped and almost reached the ceiling. Khros beamed the dumbell at one in mid-jump and celebrated when it hit the dog-thing in the face.
"Fucking Zerglings are fast!" McDonald shouted. So that's what the dog things are called. Khros knew about the Hydralisk because that thing looked impressive as all hell. The Zerglings? Not so much.
Now Khros and the others were getting a first hand lesson on why he was wrong. The people in the gym grabbed whatever they could use as improvised weapons and set at the Zerglings. For dog-sized things they were freaking fast. Lasing out with either the shorter talons on the front limbs, or the longer set on their back. Almost immediately several men went down, either gutted or cut into several pieces. The lucky ones died quickly. Bashing the Zerglings with gym equipment didn't do anything except piss them off. "Jamal! By me some time!" Khros shouted. He grabbed a bar and began to swing it at the window. It took several minutes, but he managed to break the plexi-glass and Khros yelled out for everyone to hold their breath. The window shattered and Khros dived out the window and rolled. He ran back to the window and started yanking everyone that was close by and that could be helped.
Mcdonald tossed another infantryman through the window and dived afterwords, they only had a couple more seconds before the metal plates slammed shut and sealed everyone inside with the Zerg. He managed to grab one guy my his arm, but the Zergling limbs grabbed onto him and yanked him back into the gym.. The plates slammed down, sealing the room. Khros punched it once before leading everyone to an airlock. At least twenty people in the gym, and only six people including him had made it out.
Lungs burning, they only just made it into the airlock and waited for it cycle them through. As soon as the room was pressurized, he gulped down several lungfuls of air. He wasn't the only one. This dead-world had an absurd amount of carbon-dioxide in the air, and nowhere near enough oxygen for humans.
The airlock doors opened and Khros grimaced. The hallway was littered with blood and pieces of people. Just like the aftermath of a Bug attack. The lights on the ceiling flickered and Khros heard screaming and the roaring and snarling of the Zerg. "Come on. Let's get to armory and show these fucking bugs who they fucked with."
The men cheered and they broke into a run, thankfully not running into anything other then a couple more corpses and pieces of corpses. Once inside the armory, Khros and the others ran into their respective lockers and began threw on their skin suits followed by the power armor. A quick radio-check and Khros called out over the radio. "This is Wildcat-1, anyone read? Say again this is Wildcat-1 does anyone read?"
"Wildcat this Wildcat Lead. We read you. The station is lost already. Fall back to the shuttle-bay. Grab everyone you can. We leave in 90 minutes. I say again, we're leaving in 90 minutes. You're not at the shuttle bay by then, you're gonna be left behind."
"Understood Wildcat Lead. Wildcat-1 out." Khros''s helmet snapped into place and he nodded. "Alright boys, you heard the Major. Lets get the fuck out of here! Heads on a swivel, shoot anything that doesn't walk on two legs."
"Hector, how could the station have fallen so quickly? Didn't we run all of those drills for this shit?" Mcdonald asked.
"Fuck if I know brother. Maybe they underestimated the number of Zerg that they made. Wouldn't be the first time that someone fucked up like that."
Heavy boot falls echoed throughout the hallway as they ran towards the shuttle bay. Along the way, the radio echoed with the sounds of squads being cut off and over run and people begging for help. The only good news came when another squad joined theirs. The fact that it had a baby-faced lieutenant didn't bother Khros all that much.
"Sir, do you know what happened?" Khros asked as the lieutenant ran ahead of him. "Not really no. All I heard before I went on patrol was that the Broodmother got loose somehow and killed the Major and wrecked the command center. Then the bitch let her bugs out and they swarmed all over the station in minutes. Didn't know that there were so goddamn many of them!"
"The Major's dead?" Khros asked in shock. They paused at a four way intersection and the lieutenant paused to answer. "I think so yea. I think Captain Fuentes is now in charge. I'm sorry Sergeant, I don't really know what's going on with the chain. It's fucking chaos. It hasn't been that long since they attacked. Its like they knew where to go and who to kill."
"But abandoning the station so quickly Sir?" Mcdonald asked. The officer checked the hallway before motioning them on. "Wildcat Lead doesn't think that we can retake the place and we're not really equipped for that. We're going to leave this place and nuke it from orbit. Only way to be sure. This Zerg shit can't leave this system."
They continued to run down the hallways until they reached the door to the shuttlebay. Even through the thick metal they could hear gunfire and the shrieks of the animals. The door opened to a scene of chaos and misery. Khros watched in horror as one infantryman took a chest full of spikes from a Hydralisk and dropped. A barricade of sorts had been formed in front of the shuttle and MI manned it, shooting everything that moved. Piles of dead Zerg lay in front of the makeshift barricade. It wasn't one sided for the MI however, here and there lay a butchered human. Some scientists, others wearing the armor of the Mobile Infantry. "Lets go!" Officer baby-face yelled. They sprinted and took advantage of their power armor to jump multiple meters into the air and land behind the barricade. "So glad you can join us!" Someone shouted.
"Yea right, like I'd let you leave me here!" Khros shouted back as he jumped up and opened fire, shredding a zergling. With discipline and skill, the MI kept up a steady volume of fire, killing any Zerg that popped its ugly head up. They staggered their fire, so as not to end up reloading all at the same time.
A few people managed to join them, including some more MI. The next group wasn't so lucky. Perhaps the Zerg were learning because they blundered right into an ambush. Some of the Zerglings were playing dead until they got close. Then with frightening speed they jumped up and grabbed the would be survivors. Khros could only watch as they shrieked and were quickly turned into dismantled piles of flesh. The Zerglings didn't get to enjoy their kills, as Khros and the others opened fire on them and killed them all.
Yet Khros and the others failed to notice the Defiler slinking its way through the bodies. Anytime it felt like it was being watched it would still and wait. Slowly but surely it inched its way forward, until it was close enough. Then it launched its attack.
Khros could only shout in horror as an orange cloud suddenly erupted in the middle of the barricade. At once, the disciplined force of the Federation was turned into a shrieking mess as whatever was in the cloud started to dissolve as the acid ate its way through their armor and eventually their skin.
One MI broke his helmet trying to open it as he vomited up blood as the acid and carcinogens tore his body to pieces. The men and women caught at the center of the cloud died quickly, but it wasn't painless. At the edge of the cloud, they survived with burns and the beginnings of different cancers but that wasn't the worst part. The center of the barricade had broken and the Zerg slammed their way through it. The few survivors fell as they were torn to pieces, their agonized shrieks mixing with the roars and shrieks of the Zerg. "Oh fuck this! Into the shuttle now!" The Lieutenant yelled. Khros turned but he didn't get far. The officer took several steps before dozens of spikes slammed into his chest and face, and he dropped. Dead before he hit the ground. Coming from behind came more Zerg!
At once Khros figured it out. While these fuckers kept them distracted here, they simply went around outside. If humans could hold their breath long enough to do that, why couldn't they? Khros screamed in pain as a Zerglings jaw closed around his leg. He pointed his rifle at it and pulled the trigger. What passed for its face and brain was blasted to pieces. Hopping to one leg, he yelled in despair as he saw several Zerg bound up the ramp to the shuttle. Mcdonald turned to him, but whatever he was going to say was lost when a Hydralisk looked up behind him and sunk its talons into his back.
"JAMAL!" Khros shouted. The Hydralisk tossed his friends corpse aside and advanced on him. He opened fire. The Hydralisks came apart and he roared in victory. His victory was cut short however, when two more hydralisks turned their attention to him. He yelled out, daring them to come after him as he sprayed bullets at them. The sounds of the fighting in the bay filled his ears until one sound cut through it all.
Click.
Khros could only stare in horror at ihs now empty rifle. He didn't have time to reload. The hydralisks fell on him.
My first ever crossover fic. I hope you all enjoyed and as always, please review.
-C.H.
