Author's Note: Well here it is...chapter three! Still not one review though...;(. I mean it isn't hard people...just hit the review button and type down your thoughts. Well anyway a little more insight into this story. If no one has guessed by now everyone will know after reading this chapter that I am taking a different approach to starcraft with this story. Not just with the whole 1300 years thing but with the way the starcraft world is presented. If this was a movie it would be one of those seemingly billion dollar budget (but really just million dollar budget) movies that have baddass effects but focus more on the characters than the effects with those smart camera angles, fast zoom in close ups, and the shaded lighting (yes I am talking about the newer version of Battlestar Galactica o_o). I know that is kind of the opposite of what starcraft is about (starcraft 1 anyway, haven't played 2 yet) but give it a chance (and an honest review) and maybe you'll like the different approach. Don't worry, the action is still going to be there when it needs to be but it won't be there in every second and every sentence unless it (like it will in chapter four) needs to be. For now I hope everyone enjoys the boxed in tension building approach I took with this chapter and that if you do (or don't) enjoy it...give me a review and tell me why! Thank you ;_;
Chapter Three: Invasion
Interview 05: Tobias Johnson
"Dark and dismal...that's how the day was." Calm and resolved, the young man's voice did little to illustrate the horror his memory flashed in front of his eyes.
Lounging comfortably atop a lavish cushioned chair surrounded by what many would consider the finer things in life. Expensive furniture, plush carpets, and hi-tech entertainment devices. The cool breeze emanating from the air conditioning seemed to swirl into being above the chilled wine Tobias held lightly in his right hand.
"Did'ya ever notice that though? Every weekday is kind of like that. Dismal and dark. Always cloudy even though it isn't going to rain. It's like god is saying don't bother getting up today just go ahead and stay inside you don't have to work and your youngins don't need bother with gettin' any schoolin' today." Tobias lowered his head and his toothy grin shrank to a reserved smile. "I was always beggin' my ma and pa not to force me outta' bed. I would give em' hell every mornin'." It was almost unnoticeable save for the brief reflection off of the camera, a small sparkle behind his left eye. "But every weekend I was up and rollin' fer they even knew what day it was I'll tell you what. The sun was always shinnin' on the weekends. Cept fer when it actually was gonna rain."
Despite the pampered lifestyle screaming out around him; anyone who would later view Tobias in the video presentation would realize that wealth was not something he was born into. From the faded casual clothes he wore, the way he talked, to the way he carried himself not letting his impressive muscular physique decline in the slightest.
Tobias leaned back and his gaze glanced over the chandelier hanging from the ceiling of his home for a brief nostalgic moment. "Boy...I tell ya...I still member my last weekend back home...before the war started. It was bright as can be I'll tell you what!" Tobias slapped his knee in deep bellowing laughter. The whole gesture doing little to remove the small sparkle still glistening behind his eye. "Few days after that those Zerg bugs came crashin' down again. Almost right smack dab in the same damn ol' spot they landed in before! This time though there weren't just four o' dem lil' critters. There were thousands!"
Unconsciously, after completing all of the over the top backwater good old boy gestures he could think of to illustrate his tale, after setting down the glass of wine beside the coaster set out for him by one of his butlers, Tobias's hand came to a twitching halt over the custom slugthrower strapped to his right thigh.
"Tore through everyone and every thing they could get their claws and teeth on..." The glistening sparkle finally vanished as it almost unnoticeably fell from Tobias's eye onto the arm of his chair. "Tore right through...everyone."
The Invasion of Genseea April 8, 3856
7:00 A.M.
Hoak. The small backwater mining town on the small backwater mining planet, Genseea. No matter how brightly the planet's orange sun decided to shine, the weekday clouds refused to let its light beam down any encouraging warmth or comfort to the town citizens. Dark and dismal clouds circling what should be a bright blue sky was the age old indicator that today was a workday for Benjamen Johnson and another boring school day for his three children; Rebbecca, Tobias, and Benjamen Jr.
Two of the youngsters, to their credit, accepted their dreadfully drowsy awakening with little resistance. One however, as always, refused to be roused from his comforting sheets and pillows without the stern discipline demanding tactics only a father can give to his son.
As Tobias slowly began drifting back off to sleep after ignoring his mother's initial call and the sweet smell of fresh pancakes, his senses were too disoriented to register the object flying towards him through the air. The object, which turned out to be one of Tobias's sneakers, collided with the side of his sheet covered head and his father's voice boomed over his ear drums before the pain could register.
"Tobias! Get the hell outta that bed boy and get dressed!" Benjamen shouted with an annoyed glare covering his face. "Boy I tell ya you always get one lazy one! Mah daddy told me you always get one!" His hand gripped the brass doorknob and one last command escaped him before he shut the door. "Nah get up! You got some learnin' to do down at the school!"
"Ow!" Tobias managed before his door shut.
Roughly ten minutes later Tobias joined his family, who had already began eating at the table. As Tobias sat down to the right of his father he made an overtly obvious effort to display the annoyance he felt towards being attacked with one of his own shoes by rubbing the back of his head. "God dang it papa. Why you always gotta resort to usin' violence to solve problems."
"Because a good whack to the head will solve more problems than standin' around talkin' all day." Benjamen shot back.
"Mah teacher says violence duhn't solve anythin'." Tobias frowned, still rubbing his head, which had only really stung for about ten seconds after his shoe hit. His father hadn't thrown the sneaker that hard.
"Tell that to that bully that been pickin' on ya for a month before yo daddy taught you how to deal with boys like that." Benjamen said with pride, more so for how well Tobias fought the bully that was twice his size and three years his senior.
"Oh, Ben, don't encourage him. I'm still apologizing to that young boy's mother for how badly Toby beat him." Tobias's mother added.
"Yeah daddy. I mean I di'nt have much choice but to beat him once I knew how. Before I used to talk mah way outta trouble but once I was backed into the corner with the know how on how to get out everything was different." Tobias mopped.
Benjamen scoffed at the comments. "Aw shut up boy! The only reason you so bent outta shape is cuz that lil' girl you like was scared stiff after she saw how a real man is supposed to handle bullies." Benjamen emphasized his point by wrapping his arms around Tobias's head and holding him in a playful headlock. "Abigale, you keep that girly in touch with your feelins' stuff outta the boy's head!" He said smiling up at his wife.
"Daddy! Da...daddy lemme go!" Tobias screamed in protest.
"Not till you say it! Say uncle!" Benjamen clenched his left hand into a fist and rubbed his knuckles along his sons head.
"Hey since Tobias ain't gonna finish his breakfast before we go to school can I have it?" Benjamen Jr. asked with a sly smirk.
"No!" Tobias shouted.
"I suppose. Shouldn't let it go to waste." Abigale sighed. "Oh well. My mom said my life would be one big display after the next if I married a redneck."
"Mama!" Tobias screamed in protest.
"That's what you get for trying to stay in bed. This whole chain of events could have been avoided if you just..." Rebbecca wasted no time in getting her chastising licks in on her little brother.
"Shut up, Becky!" Tobias muffled into his father's arm while pointlessly trying to free himself.
A slight frown overtook Rebbecca's face as she watched Benjamen Jr. empty the contents of Tobias's plate onto his own. "Rebbecca. I told you it's Re-bbe-cca." Her arms folded across her chest. "Becky is a short and lazy way of saying my name. Just like the whole redneck language is short and lazy."
Tobias gasped for air after removing his nose from his father's armpit then glared at his sister while holding his father's arm back with both hands. "Well if the short and lazy skirt fits!" A muffled grunt followed his sentence as his face buried into his father's chest.
Rebbecca's eyes widened at the comment and her hand shot forward, wrapping around one of the many butter knives scattered around the table. No words escaped the until now seemingly mature young teenage woman, only a menacing glare beamed from her face as the knife slowly rose from the table, its tip centered on Tobias's head.
Another sigh escaped Abigale as she began gathering the empty plates from the table. "I don't know how mom ever did it. Living such a boring family life for all those years." Thank god I found you, Ben. A small smile peaked out onto her face while she watched as her at that moment, twelve year old husband released her eight year old son, who laughed along with his father.
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"Why the hell do they do it?" Tobias looked past the camera at the former reporter seated behind it. "I mean sure it's their nature an all. I get that. But why the hell would god, nature, whatever you like to believe, create somethin' so vicious? So thirsty fer the end of all life? Once they gather up everyone into their swarm there won't be any individual thought left. All life will be gone. There won't be a, Joe or Bob or Lucy. They'll just be a Zerg one, two, and three." Tobias lowered his gaze to the floor and in a fit of rage smacked the glass of wine across the room. "Benson! Beer!"
A tall distinguished man with dark gray hair wearing a black unimaginably clean butler uniform appeared on camera beside Tobias with a tray held out with his right hand and his left hand positioned behind his back. "Yes sir."
"Thanks ol' boy." Tobias grinned.
"Very good sir." Benson vanished from sight.
"Now." The snap hiss from the built in can opener atop the beer cracked into the air followed by a series of large gulps from Tobias's throat. "Where was I? Oh yeah! My last day ah school!" Tobias bellowed. "That's right man I ain't had no schoolin' since that day. Mah daddy would be proud." Tobias held up the view of his home with his arms before taking another swig of his beer. "All this money and not a day past the third grade!" Tobias's loud laughter almost seemed to send tremors through the camera lens.
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7:45 A.M.
The ride to school was a rare family event inside Benjamen's old faithful pickup. Usually it would be either Benjamen or Abigale that drove their three children to school in the morning. Today, however, was different. Due to the recent Zerg attack the mine had been opening later for the past few days as workers and families were given time to grieve and readjust. Abigale, a nurse at the local clinic, was given a special paid vacation due to her exceptional performance in the aftermath of the attack. At the protest of her fellow nurses and every doctor present, Abigale stole an ambulance and raced off towards the mines. With the help of her husband's S.C.V. she was able to load four miners, who were the only men fortunate enough to only be wounded by the Hydralisks into the vehicle.
"Junior!" Benjamen glanced back at his son.
"Yeah dad?" Junior looked up.
"I want you to look after your brother today." Benjamen said.
"What?" Junior and Tobias both asked.
"That bully might come lookin' fer revenge. I don't want him catchin' ol', Toby here off guard." Benjamen explained.
"What happened to the whole real man fighting thing?" Junior frowned.
Benjamen grinned. "That thar is fer first contact negotiations. A Johnson only fights fair once to let everyone know he can. After that the ol' if you mess with the lil' cub in the bunch the big daddy is gonna come'ah lookin' for some bones teh grind rule takes effect!" Benjamen emphasized his point by waving his clenched fist.
"I'm not his daddy!" Junior protested while Tobias only hid his face in his hands.
"Y'all know what I mean!" Benjamen returned his attention to the forest surrounded road.
"Ben..." Curiosity crept onto Abigale's face. "What's that?"
"What?" Benjamen glanced at his wife.
"That." Abigale pointed towards the sky.
Benjamen glanced up briefly taking his eyes off of the dirt road. Junior and Rebbecca both leaned forward placing their hands on the front seats of the truck and gazed up at the sky.
7:46 A.M.
Tobias frowned as he tried to see what had caught his families' attention. One of the many disadvantages of being so young was your height was something to be desired. Tobias placed his hands on his siblings' shoulders attempting, yet failing to move them out of the way.
"Hey. What'r y'all lookin' at? Lemme see!" Tobias demanded.
Junior glanced down at his younger brother frowning then after planting his right hand firmly on Tobias's face, shoved him back. "Get off me, squirt."
"Hey!" Tobias growled. The only thing his small eyes could catch a glimpse of before his brother pushed him was the time on the old green clock radio built into his father's truck.
7:47 A.M.
"Ben!" An unnerving fear flowed along Abigale's shriek. "Look out!"
"What in tarnation!" Benjamen's eyes widened. "Hold on!"
The red pickup swerved off the trail barely avoiding an impact with several of the trees that made up Galen Forest. A large white stone that had nestled firmly into the soil many hundreds of years before humans colonized its planet sat silently in the path of the red truck barreling towards it. The impact from the black wheel of the vehicle did little to harm or even move the boulder. The truck however, with a loud bang, slammed off and was launched to the left where a small deep ditch caught hold of the wheel and held it in place.
Benjamen exhaled the involuntary deep breath the impact gasped into his lungs and slowly lifted his head from the horn on the center of his steering wheel. With a painful turn of his head that allowed him a quick scan of his family registered their well-being in his mind. Seconds later his eyes widened as the object he drove off road to avoid filled his vision.
Tobias slowly lifted his head from his knees and gazed up painfully at his father, who was staring wide-eyed at something behind the truck. "Dad..?"
"Get down!" Benjamen screamed at the top of his lungs with a fear Tobias had never before heard from his father.
Three seconds later a violent rumbling shook what seemed to be the entire planet or at least the entire forest. Moments later a deafening crash and even more violent rumble exploded into the young boy's ears causing him to cover them in a vein attempt at blocking out the noise. Rocks, fallen branches, and a thick brown dust crashed through the back windshield of the truck engulfing the five humans inside. An unbearably putrid stench intertwined with the dust seeped into Tobias's nostrils nearly bringing up the breakfast he didn't eat that morning.
Tobias's father's truck was quickly becoming the worst and most hated place he had ever been in and escape began to dominate his mind. However, the small attempt Tobias made for the door handle was abruptly halted by his older brother, who held him down, ordering him to remain still. Tobias glanced up at his father who was too preoccupied with trying to restart his truck that had shut off after the impact to notice his youngest son shouting questions, begging for reassurance that everything would be ok. Tobias's gaze turned to his mother who was glancing back at the source of the explosion and at her husband, whom she was frantically urging to hurry up with the restarting of the truck. A quick glance to the right brought Tobias's sister into view, who was gazing out of the destroyed back window of the truck, her hands tightly gripping and her face half hidden behind the velvet seat. Suddenly her already unstable composure degenerated into an uncontrolled fit of terror as she began slamming her right hand against the backseat shouting, begging her father to hurry up and start the truck. Tobias's fear was about to reach its breaking point when finally, after a soothing plea to the truck from his father brought the vehicle back to life.
"Come on ol' girl...please...this is your family too." Benjamen turned the key and let out a large sigh of relief after feeling the truck come back to life.
Tobias braced himself as his father literally put the pedal to the metal and used all of the raw power his truck possessed to free it from the ditch and within seconds had the vehicle pointed back towards civilization. Hope began to flutter inside the young boy's chest. A hope that for the most part was mixed with a deep confusion. What could have caused everything that had transpired within the last few minutes? What had made the world shake? What had caused his family to become so terrified? More importantly, what was it his sister, mother, and brother were all gazing back at in fear through the destroyed back window of his dad's pickup truck?
What happened next would haunt Tobias for the rest of his life. The answer to the small boy's questions came with the unnerving sound of a large sharp alien object slicing its way into the back carriage of his father's pickup truck. Almost instinctively, after taking in the sight of the spike impaling the backseat of the truck, Tobias turned his head from the scene then covered his ears and closed his eyes. What he had seen was...what did he see? His eyes had taken in the full sight of the spike and the damage it had caused but there was something else that had happened. However, for some reason that something else wouldn't register in his mind. It was one of those strange human moments when something you should know somehow eluded your mind completely for whatever reason. What brought Tobias's mind back into focus was his sister's loud mortified shriek that forced his eyes open. Tobias had never seen the expression Rebbecca was wearing and knew that it was one she should not have. However, there it was and as he turned his head to the source of the expression, his mind almost went completely blank.
Benjamen Jr. gurgled then coughed up a mouthful of blood. The reddish liquid sprayed from the hole in his chest born from the large alien spike covered in a greenish slime and decorated the back of the front seats of the truck painting them a bright crimson. Tobias couldn't understand what was happening. His brother was still moving but in an awkward way. His body twitched and convulsed against the backseat, unable to remove itself from the velvet fabric due to the spike buried deep within its chest.
"Benjamen?" Abigale's pleading scream was distorted with pain. "Benjamen!"
"Ma...ma..." Benjamen Junior's last word was spoken in fear and confusion. "Mom...?" His agony filled eyes remained open as his head slumped forward.
"Junior!" Tears were streaming down Benjamen's eyes before he could speak. "Junior!"
Tobias glanced around the truck and again considered it to be the worst place he could be and wanted to escape. At the same time escape was the last thing he wanted. What Tobias wanted most was for the overtly lifelike nightmare he was having to end. This couldn't be happening. None of this could be happening. His brother couldn't be dead. Yet there he was sitting lifeless beside him with some weird spike sticking out of his chest.
"Shit! Hold on!"
Benjamen's voice snapped Tobias's attention to what he could make out from the front of the vehicle, which wasn't much considering how small he was. The only thing he could see was what looked like an endless shower of bright yellow suns falling down towards Genseea. His sister had taught him about the phenomenon once. It was called a meteor shower. Was that where the explosion came from? A meteor? If it was just a big hunk of space rock then why was his brother dead with a large spike sticking out of his chest? What was happening?
"What are we going to do!" Abigale clung to her husband's arm. "Benjamen!" She couldn't help glancing back at and calling out to her dead son once more.
"I don't know!" Benjamen hesitated for a heart wrenching second, his foot still planted firmly on the gas. "Fort Rambard! It's our only shot!"
"Ben it's five miles away!" Abigale shouted.
"Baby it's our only shot!" Benjamen glanced back at his children, wincing at the sight of his dead son. "You kids get on the floor! Get away from the seat!"
Tobias immediately obeyed his father, too scared to think about anything he was doing. Although a few seconds slower, Rebbecca eventually sunk down to the floor. However, her eyes remained centered on her lifeless brother.
"Now y'all don't worry about a thing. Don't panic. Yer ol' pa's gonna get us outah this mess." Benjamen promised them.
XXXX
"It just..." Tobias turned his eyes from the former reporter. "People say that pain heals." He took a long swig from his third can of beer. "I say that any sum'bitch that tries to explain how people normally react to disasters and the loss of family is a piece'ah dumb fuck shit!" His hand slammed the empty beer can onto the counter beside his chair and Benson instantly appeared beside him with another fresh can. "No one..." Tobias continued after cracking open the fresh can. "No on can explain what anyone is going through or how anyone will react to those kind of situations." He leaned forward and glared directly into the camera. "An no one ever gets over anythin' involvin' the loss o' family. The pain never subsides and it damn sure never goes away. It stays the same every god dang day."
XXXX
Five miles. His mom had said that Ft. Rambard was five miles away. How long had they been driving? Tobias knew that his dad's truck could reach speeds of up to one hundred and thirty miles per hour so he knew that five miles shouldn't be taking this long. Yet there they were still surrounded by trees not even on the main highway that led to the base. What made things worse was the constant growls and screeches Tobias heard emanating from outside the truck. Loud thumps echoed right beside the doors and every now and then something would bump against the side of the vehicle.
"Dad!" Tobias screamed in fear.
"Stay down and keep quiet!" Benjamen snapped.
Abigale turned and placed her shaking hand on Tobias's cheek. "It's ok baby. Everything's gonna be ok." Somehow she managed a soothing smile that brought Tobias a small sliver of comfort. "Everything's going to be..."
Her smile was always so beautiful, Tobias thought. No one could ever smile like his mom. Every time she smiled he wanted to smile and every time she wasn't smiling he smiled just so she would want to. In his mind there was something mystical about the effect her smile had on him and the world around him. When his mother had placed her hand on his cheek and gave him her soothing reassuring smile, Tobias knew that everything would be ok. Unfortunately for the young boy there was nothing mystical about his mother's smile. Like Tobias she was only human and regardless of how beautiful her smile was it could not stop what would happen a split second after her face formed it. A loud inhuman screech followed by the sound of wind gushing beneath two massive wings flowed into Tobias's ears. As the split second came to end his now widened eyes took in a horrifying sight just over his mother's shoulder. Two large spikes connected to an unbelievably large scorpion-like tail smashed through the front of the pickup truck. Just one of the spikes was larger than the entire truck so instead of impaling the two humans seated in the front of the vehicle it instead squashed them both between the remains of the destroyed windshield and the front seats.
The truck was lifted up off the dirt trail and flung carelessly into the air by the alien monster. After two minutes of sailing through the air Tobias could no longer hear anything. Not even the ear piercing shrieks from his sister. The only thing he could see was the last image he had of his mother smiling with her hand pressed tenderly against his cheek. The only thing that brought his mind back into focus with reality was the violent crash that followed the truck landing upside down beside the main highway. Usually not busy until at least an hour later in the morning, no other vehicles were traveling along the road. The red pickup had been launched at an angle and traveled on a low arc never raising above ten feet from the ground. When it landed the broken vehicle skid fifty feet along the grass before finally coming to a halt.
Tobias was frozen, almost pinned to the torn roof of the truck. Pure terror was etched across the boy's face. Slowly, his body began to twitch. After that his limbs began to tremble. Finally after nearly a minute certain sections of his body such as his arms or legs spontaneously began to jerk and convulse uncontrollably. Short helpless whimpers flowed from his lips as he lay halfway on the ground and halfway on his father's truck. Suddenly he felt two arms wrap around his small body and a loud fearful whimper escaped him along with several tears that streamed from his eyes.
"Shh..." Rebbecca's weakened voice flowed into his ears. "It's ok."
Rebbecca glanced around the destroyed remains of her father's truck, unintentionally giving her little brother a full view of the splattered remains of his dead parents.
"No!" Tobias shrieked into an uncontrollable fit of screaming and crying.
Rebbecca instantly turned Tobias's head away from the bodies and held him tightly, burying his face into her chest. "Shh..." She tried her best to imitate her dead mother's warm embrace. "It's ok baby." Her lips caressed the side of Tobias's head with an affectionate kiss as she rocked back and forth and rubbed his back soothingly. "It's ok."
Tobias's screaming soon ceased but his tears would not stop flowing as he held on to his sister not knowing what else to do. A familiar lullaby that his mother used to sing to him only a few years ago began to flow from his sister's lips. However, as if fate was determined to deny the boy any form of comfort a loud metal grinding slash echoed into Tobias's ears ending the lullaby two seconds after it began.
Rebbecca looked up in fear as the destroyed door of the destroyed pickup truck was ripped from its hinges by a hideously terrifying brown creature. The beast stood taller than the biggest dog Rebbecca had ever seen and snarled at the live meat in front of it as drool gushed in-between its razor sharp fangs.
Tobias slowly turned his head from the warmth of his sister's chest and stopped as his left eye took in the sight of the monster's two red eyes. Again Tobias pleaded with whatever was causing everything around him to happen to let him wake up safe and sound in his bed. He promised that he wouldn't give his dad a hard time waking up or upset his sister by reminding her that part of her heritage was rooted in a redneck culture. He promised that he would listen to his mother and try better to talk his way out of problems rather than resort to violence and he also promised that he would stick up more for his dad's way of handling things because at some point all bullies needed a good whack on the head.
Tobias's promises were in vein.
Rebbecca turned and quickly shoved her brother towards the opposite door in the back of the truck where her brother's corpse still clung to the seat. "Tobias! Run!"
A loud agonized scream from his sister shattered Tobias's fear. Rebbecca was the only family member he had left and he wasn't about to let some alien monster take her away from him. He reached out, tears blurring his vision and grabbed her forearm. All of his adrenaline induced strength did nothing to prevent the creatures from pulling his shrieking sister from his grasp.
"Rebbecca!" Tobias shouted through drool and snot as he continued to cry.
The monsters bit and clawed at the unfortunate young woman as she frantically yet pointlessly tried to scramble away from the beasts. "Run!" Was the last blood curdled scream she could manage before her body was literally ripped apart and feasted upon by the creatures right in front of her younger brother's eyes.
Tobias's eyes remained locked on the creatures fighting amongst each other over one of his sister's arms. It wasn't until one of the monsters' red eyes glared a hole through him did he turn and begin scrambling over his dead brother towards the other side of his dead father's pickup truck. However, before he could reach the handle he felt a sharp pain shoot up his left leg and screamed while tightly clutching the roof of the truck. As his eyes glanced back, Tobias caught a glimpse of one of the monsters that had one of its claws sunk deep into his leg. Tobias lashed out with his arms reaching desperately for anything to grab onto. The only thing sturdy enough he could manage to cling to was the spike still buried deep within his brother's chest. Tobias screeched in pain as the monster pulled with immense power at its potential meal lifting the young boy into the air. The only thing keeping Tobias alive was the spike flung from the monster that had murdered his brother and his hands were slowly beginning to slip.
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Tobias leaned back in his seat and for a moment, gently caressed his left leg with his left hand. "That was the worst day'ah my life." Tobias sighed. "Bad thing is." Tobias took a large gulp from his can of beer. "The day hadn't even gotten started yet."