StarCraft: Introductions
The orbiting space station was huge, much bigger than it had been during the UED war. Rebuilt and refitted it could now service almost the whole fleet, which was basically what Fawkes was looking at through the window. Arrayed below them in suspended orbit were 183 battleships of the UED. The former Eastern Contingent, or 'Easties' as was the slang for them among the UED forces, had surrendered. Their forces were melded with the UED, their government disbanded, and a new power sharing agreement had been reached.
The UED had a strange system of Government, based on a board of military and civilian leaders that promoted "enlightened socialism". Rather than the traditional way of separate but equal. The Western powers still maintained a President and Senate. But when it came to issues affecting the planet the UED was the final decision. Such was the case now.
This would be the first briefing of the UED Expeditionary force to the Koprulu sector. All ship captains, all 183 were summoned to the station. In the ships below them there were 336,000 sailors, 250,000 Marines, 75,000 civilians, and 20,000 scientists, government officials, etc. All heading out to the system. And no one knew why until now. The Captains had been briefed but the rest weren't. Now it was time to divulge why Earth was sending almost its entire military strength into an unremarkable system.
Fawkes and Trevers rode up the turbo shaft to the briefing room. It was huge, almost 2 football fields big. There were military men everywhere. Fawkes sighted Stukov and walked over.
"Good evening Admiral."
"Ahh, my trouble twosome..heh heh, do you know I still get phone calls from media about you two?"
"With apologies admiral," Fawkes said.
"It is no –" before Stukov could finish he was cut off by a young Commander.
"Attention on Deck! Commanding Admiral Gerard DuGalle!"
Everyone stood at rigid attention as DuGalle entered. He was the tallest man in the room by far 6 foot 8 inches, and had an imposing gait. He exited the turbo shaft and saluted them all. "At ease gentleman, continue."
People slowly returned to their conversations as DuGalle made his rounds through the crowd. He spotted Stukov and strolled over.
Fawkes and Trevers stood still as Stukov spoke. "Admiral DuGalle. I hope your flight from Earth was comfortable."
"Ah, Alexei, yes it was, yes it was." DuGalle looked down at Fawkes and Trevers, who suddenly felt very small.
Stukov – "Let me introduce you to Captain Fawkes of the Defiant and Commander – "
"Trevers, yes I know." DuGalle seemed to snort at them with contempt. "I'm concerned about the company you keep Alexei."
"Uh yes, heh heh, their bite is worse than their bark, Admiral. But I assure you -"
DuGalle just held up his hand. "I want to go over a few things with you before the briefing."
"Yes of course." The pair walked off as Fawkes and Trevers stood in shock.
"Good to know we're popular with our commander." Deadpanned Trevers.
"Just be glad we're under Stukov's forces now." Fawkes continued, "Because I firmly believe that man would have the two of us storm a regiment of Goliath's with our bare hands."
Fawkes looked around and saw Kevin at the far end of the room, who simply rolled his eyes and smirked. It was obvious he had seen the whole encounter.
The briefing started about an hour later. The Command Sergeant Major called the room to their seats. DuGalle rose and approached the podium. Somehow he reminded Fawkes of a Gargoyle parched over the crowd. His deep voice rumbled:
"Gentlemen. No doubt many of you are wondering why you're here. Some of you in this room were fighting each other a few months ago. Now, you are poised to leap into the blackness of space. I assure you this is not an exercise. Rather than have me tell you what we're up against let me show you. Please roll the tape."
The lights went dark as the video monitor changed from the starscape behind it, to white, then to some distant battlefield. There was damage all around a structure, what looked like a bunker. A voice came onto the recording.
"This is Bravo 213 to command, and any element. We have been overrun, repeat over run. The Zerg have broken through and we are in full retreat!"
Behind him chaos unfolded, Marines in badly damaged armor were firing relentlessly in front of them. Suddenly a huge explosion rocked the screen.
"Sergeant! They just took out bunker 4! Suicide attack, it -it looked human!"
The Sergeant started speaking again "Any friendly elements, any please respond! We are-"
"Here they come!!"
The video panned away as a dark cloud moved toward the bunker. It looked greenish black against the destroyed landscape. Out the blackness came the vilest creatures Fawkes had ever seen. It was hard to tell where one stopped and the other started. All you could focus on was teeth, tentacles, hooks, fangs, it was overwhelming. The Marines continued to pour fire into the cloud but it was already hopeless. "Oh God, we cant stop them!"
"Say again, Command, please help!"
Another explosion rocked the screen; the cloud, which had been advancing, stopped and seemed to look up. A strange blue green glow now descended, like rays of light through the storm. The first wave of the alien cloud suddenly exploded in a blue flame. There were shockwaves that knocked the cameraman down, he got up. And suddenly, materializing out of thin air were more creatures! These ones were different: Grey bipedal creatures with golden armor. They had what appeared to be blue swords coming out of their hands.
There were more shockwaves and explosions as the creatures charged the alien cloud! The Marines looked on as the whole spectacle played out before them. Suddenly they were firing again.
"Get out! Get out of the bunker!" The Sergeant yelled as the cameramen suddenly faced the door and ran about 100 yards. As he turned around the bunker exploded in a huge blue flame. The cameraman was knocked down with the Sergeant and the tape went dead. All of a sudden it clicked back on. It looked like the cameraman was focused on the Marine Sergeant who was crouched down in some bushes. The Marine spoke quietly "All my men are dead, wiped out one by one. Some were captured. They're hunting us now. I have no comms with Command or any other element. I'm down to 13 rounds and one grenade. Tell me wife I love her. Oh God, there they are run! No!!! They found ughh----"
The cameraman was sprinting as fast as he could as the camera bounced all over the place. What destruction you could see was terrible. What looked like the rest of the base had been completely destroyed. The cameraman was now breathing hard, but something that sounded like thumping on the ground, footsteps, hooves, who knew was chasing him. All of a sudden there were 3 huge steps and "ARRRggh!" the camera fell and crashed and looked back at the cameraman. There to the horror of all was decapitated, and then dragged off. The camera went dead.
The lights came back on as DuGalle paused to let it sink in.
"That was a data tape from a place called New Gettysburg in the Koprulu sector. Our best analysts say that occurred 5 years ago. The aliens you saw were of two species. The first was called the Zerg, the second you saw was the Protoss. Gentleman, we are not alone in this galaxy anymore."