Seige of Kalaina
Over Kalaina VI, the Panacea orbited. All around it, numerous battlecruisers and carriers laid waste to the Zerg bases below. From orbit, the great ships let loose their bombardment cannons, huge laser batteries. Streams of energy struck the battered Zerg base on the planet, liquidating patches of Creep and the occasional Zerg structural masses. From his command seat, Admiral Marcus Brightonn watched the destruction. His screens glowed bright with information and images of the Zerg Hive cluster. The stealth drones deployed had suffered no losses as yet, inorganic and small, they were undetectable by any Zerg life form thus encountered. But though his fleet could destroy the whole planet easily with their more devastating weapons, he wanted the planet captured and its resources put to their use. To his side, Commander Denoshin monitored his own set of screens, awaiting orders from his superior.
Marcus looked over the screens again and decided.
He spoke to Justin. "Tell the fleet that they are go for invasion. Cease orbital bombardment in thirty seconds after the Trentinos and Mediterraneans launch. And release the Blackwing squadrons for their planetary runs." The commander nodded and quickly went to work. In moments the fleet began to reposition, and moments after that, the dropships descended from the fleet to land their troops on-planet. "Any resistance yet?" Marcus asked, his eyes seeing the small glows of the dropships as they entered the atmosphere. Justin shook his head negatively. "Only token resistance, Sir. They haven't sent anything else after we destroyed the swarm of Mutalisks and Devourers they threw at us. Marcus nodded his head.
The sounds of sonic booms barely reached Jean's ears within the great dropship's bays. His team was all psyched up, in more ways than one, for the coming battle. Again, their mission was to pinpoint the center of the Hive Cluster for the tactical nukes to his, and kill any Zerg cerebrates. AS of late, they had been encountering much less cerebrates than they had. A thriving Zerg cluster no longer always had a cerebrate running it. It was just as well, since cerebrate directed clusters were more formidable than otherwise. He rubbed the rag in his hand over the barrel of his RailTech rifle. The rumbling stopped, telling Jean that they were through the atmosphere. The assault on Kalaina VI had begun, and it would not stop until the Velius forces had control of the planet.
The alarm claxons blared out loud in the cavernous bays of the dropship, a computerized voice counting down the time to drop-off. Unlike most of the past drops, this would be their first time to be involved in a hot drop, meaning a drop directly onto the frontlines of the battle. In this case, onto the would-be frontlines of the coming battle. The Trentino shuddered as the Zerg finally retaliated. The faint shrieks of Mutalisks and Scourges attempting to bring down the massive 400-meter crafts. Behind them, the even more massive assault dropships, the Mediterranean-class dropships of approximately 650-meters, awaited the smaller craft to stabilize a beachhead on the planet with their shock troops.
The heavy turrets of the Trentino slowly began to reply, and the heavy lasers began to spit out terra-joules of energy. Particle cannons, the siege weapons of the Tretinos powered up and blasted clusters of massed Zerg forces on the ground. Azure bolts of pure lightning coursed through the bodies of hundreds of Zerg life forms, shaving away the numerical superiority of their enemies. Outside, Jean could hear the sonic booms of passing Blackwing fighters, the backbone of the Velius Navy's starfighter fleet. In his mind he could visualize the streams of laser blasts melting hardened carapace, and salvos of plasma-armed missiles dealing death to the insects. With a shudder, the Trentino landed heavily on the ground. The cargo bay doors opened up quickly, showing lines of Zerg rushing towards a target within their reach. From within the Trentino, the first line of battletitans, or Titans, replied with a torrent of heavy machinegun and autocannon fire. They fanned out in a curve around the mouth of the Trentino's exit. Behind them the heavy Dragon-class tanks rolled out, laying down a punishing hail of fire, even more deadly than that of the Titans'.
The landing was often practiced, and it was carried out with precision efficiency. Like clockwork, the ground troops of the Velius Army, its marines and assault troopers, deployed to defend their ship. The cracks of a thousand new assault rifles and dozens of heavy guns let loose their destructive power on the Zerg. Cracked shells and organic matter fell to the ground, scorched and ripped to shreds. The howls of hundreds of zerglings and hydralisks arose again, as the main body of the zerg host rushed onwards to meet the Velius Terrans. A line of fire was laid down so thick that even those numbers of Zerg couldn't get close enough to use their numbers and melee abilities. The few who did were quickly taken down by supporting Shades, armed with their sniper rifles. The long-range sniper gun lanced out into the Zerg horde, the single kills not doing much to affect the tides of battle.
In the distance, large shadows appeared. The silhouettes of the behemoth Ultralisks came into view, the beasts charging at the Terran line. The thick armored carapaces of the ultralisks gave them enough time to close the distance of no-man's land between the Zerg and the Terran lines. The Terrans learned fast to though, and as the ultralisks neared the lines to strike, a new Terran unit stepped out to confront the behemoth. Standing 3 meters tall, the power-armor of the Velius infantry was equipped with both melee and ranged weapons. It was designed most importantly to stop the Zerg ultralisks, who were extremely devastating thus far. The ultralisk brandished its blades and struck at the power-armor, known more commonly as CybeRs, since it utilized neuro-cybernetic technology extensively. The CybeR stumbled backwards, barely able to keep in balance. As it backpedaled to keep upright, it revealed two long energy blades, of approximately 40 inches each. Based on the idea of the Protoss Zealots, the CybeR used Terran technology to emulate the Zealot's psi blades.
The CybeR's reply to the ultralisk's initial attack was equally effective, the fusion blades ripping a gash in the ultralisk carapace and sending it back a few steps. Cover fire from nearby marines and heavy troopers finished the giant off. The shield-troopers, trained to advance under heavy fire from enemy units, deployed. These infantry units carried light weapons, but had a heavy shield-projector. Once they neared the enemy lines, they deployed these screens, enabling hem to fire with near-impunity and let other units of more offensive power close. The few months of battle against the Zerg had let the scientific-military community have a vast field in which to play with. Hundreds of ideas were proposed, and the Velius forces had a plethora of new weapons in which to use against their foes.
Jean boarded his APC with his teammates. The new APC was now equipped with a special stealth-device. Its effectiveness in hiding against the Zerg would be tested now. Regardless of which, the Shade team didn't count on it working and had planned for them to get to the Zerg hive center with or without the stealth generator. To Jean's surprise, their driver and co-driver just happened to be the same who had dropped them off on the previous attack in which they had killed a minor cerebrate. He shrugged and took his seat. The hatched closed as the last of his teammates entered and took his seat. Jean closed his eyes and mentally hummed songs in his mind, attempting to soothe it against the thunderous voices of the Mjölnir artillery walkers and the heavy cannons of the Dragon tanks.
In the skies above Jean's APC, which was now speeding ahead trying to skirt the swells of the battle, the Blackwings of the White Knights twisted and turned. Here and there, the Blackwings blasted apart Zerg Mutalisks, who were no match for the fighters. Their agility and speeds were far beyond the Mutalisks, and their shields deflected any spore that managed to get near. It was with no little amount of skill that the Knights were able to use those advantages to the limits. "White One, you've got three on your tail!" The voice of Nick's wingman called out. Without any pause, he pulled back on his stick. His starfighter immediately pulled upwards, dancing to his touch. At a dizzying pace, he performed a series of loops, rolls and tight turns, trying to lose the trailing Mutalisks. A pair of red flares streaked at the Mutalisks following him. One missile missed its target, but the other caught its Mutalisk dead on. The carapace cracked, enabling the explosion to tear the creature in half.
"Thanks, White Two." He breathed into his comm. The pair behind him paused in their pursuit, letting him turn around to meet them head on when they continued onwards to follow him. A cascade of crimson laser bolts greeted his pursuers, who replied with a barrage of glaive wurms. The acid-coated projectiles splattered against his shields, who had not been touched since the dogfighting began. His lasers tore through the wings of one, while bloodying the other. Another torrent of laser fire brought the bloody one down, while his wingman took the disabled Mutalisk out. Nick glanced at the sensor screen below his cockpit's view screen. The dots of red signifying the Zerg units were plentiful, despite the efforts of his command and the craft of other Navy squadrons. The green dots representing Navy units were still numerous to an extent, and capable of holding off the Zerg threats from attacking their ground comrades.
Even now, a wing of Novastar bombers slowly descended beneath their fighter screens to assist in the ground battle, where the fate of the battle for Kalaina VI would depend on. He turned his attention back to the air battle. The toll on the Navy starfighters would eventually be to high to bear, he noted. "Watch your rear!" An unfamiliar voice called out to him through the comm gear. He was startled and immediately rolled his craft and dove. The call cam just in time as a quartet of glaive wurms streaked through where he would have been if he'd stayed on his course a moment longer. "Thanks." He breathed into the transmitter. The numbers of the Zerg were wearing him down. He pulled back up into the fray, lasers gunning with no reserve at bunches of Mutalisks.
Just as Nick reentered the fight, the Velius Navy's own version of the Terran Valkyrie came into range. Christened the Angel line of light frigates, the 65 meter long ships let loose with their arrays of infra-red guided missiles and multiple anti-fighter laser batteries. From each of the twelve craft that came down to support them, forty-eight missiles launched and over a dozen dual-barrel laser turrets spat out beams of pure power.
Jean slid to a half behind a slab of rock, the moist slime of the creep beneath him. His Chameleon combat suit was hard pressed to maintain the coloring of the Creep, uneven and of a vast multitude of reds and purples. His cloaking field stayed on as well, just in case. Using the scope on his sniper rifle, he saw the center of the Hive cluster. In the center of the Zerg colony-base, worker drones tended the Creep and the structures that fed on it. Here the Zerg extracted the nutrients and provisions it needed to grow its armies. Jean motioned his hand, visible to his comrades in their Shade-gear.
Their moved forward, quickly but stealthily. Meter by meter the edged forward. With his eyes Jean could barely see the groups of Zerg morphing from larvae, encased within hard shells. How they could grow creatures so quickly and so stable, he did not know. They don't have brains, those things, and that's how they do it. He mumbled to himself. The APC had been detected, the moment they crossed the Creep. It managed to bring them a short distance closer before Zerg forces began to harry it. It had been a long walk from there. Jean and his team moved closer again, dashing across sparsely covered landscape. No overlords? No control beings of any kind? We must be lucky. He peered into the distance around him. They were near the center of the Hives now, with smaller breeding hatcheries around it. No slugs to fry? Castor spoke into his mind. Jean cursed and motioned him to keep the telepathic conversations down.
It was too late though.
Jean felt a psionic disturbance nearby, another entity. He frowned as he scanned the environment. He saw nothing of any note, not even a hovering Overlord coming near. How peculiar. He shook his head and signaled again. They closed the distance in this manner, dashing then pausing. By this they covered the ground quickly. The base of the Hive was huge, the carapace of the thing thicker than a Dragon tank's armor. It was his first time to see one up close. With a few more hand motions he set their plan into place. The team spread out to let their demolitionist do his work. By themselves, they also planted their own bombs, planting them in a net around the Hive. It would be Victor's fusion bomb, or the covert-ops version of the yet undeployed Armageddon Sphere, that would be the big explosion.
A grunt behind him shook his nerve. He spun to see a quartet of Zerglings behind him, their claws clenching. The dog-like insects sniffed their air, their aura one of suspiciousness. Devouring Ones strain. He grit his teeth in a moment of trepidation. He quickly recomposed himself, knowing that they couldn't take him down now that he saw them. Such was his psionic strength. He tapped a message in code to his teammates, urging Victor to hurry with his bomb setting. A tapping through the short-range laser communicator greeted his message. In words, it was: "Victor here, bomb set, let's pull out." Jean breathed quietly, slowly backing away from the four Zerglings. They moved their heads abruptly, but didn't follow. A few moments later of tenseness, he was in the clear.
The Shade team moved out, the bombs quietly beeping, their synchronized time to detonation in progress. As Jean and his people left the Hive center, in the opposite direction from the battle lines towards the rear of the Zerg base, Jean felt a tingle in his mind. A feeling of amusement and contentment. IT was not one of his own feelings though, but someone else's. He frowned as he attempted to probe the mists of minds nearby. His men had not projected those thoughts, their minds that of seriousness and focus, even Castor's. The ascended the mountains behind the Zerg base, where a flight of Shadowblades waited for them. They reached the stealth crafts without incident, and the bombs detonated seconds after the Shadowblades lifted-off.
As the mushroom cloud of a particularly intense nuclear blast filled his gaze, focused down on the Zerg base, he wondered who had touched his mind so lightly. He knew that few people had the elan of using psionic powers other than the members of his team. Also, he knew the touch of his friend's minds, and the touch was not familiar. He turned his look from the devastation to the sky and the space beyond. His mind pondered the psychic touch. If not one of his own, then whose was the touch? It would be a challenge to find out, he mused.
Æxius gazed up into the darkness of space, his mind filled with the visions of battle. The Terrans of Velius had taken Kalaina VI in mere hours. Within the next few days they had slowly devastated the forces of thousands of Zerg on Kalaina IV and II. The Zerg stronghold on Kalaina Prime and Kalaina VI had been by passed, the Velius Protectorate forces had merely blockaded them, thanks to reinforcements from the other fleets of the Expeditionary Force. They had slowed their advance against Zerg forces, which were few and far between in their areas of advance.
His Watchers had kept track of the Velius Terrans, and on more than one occasion they had seemed to detect them. He smiled faintly. There is yet strength in the race of Humanity. The Protoss would not bear this burden of battle against the Zerg for much longer now, for here was a Terran power of magnificence and culture that may be able to unite the disparate, feuding colonial powers. The Terran Dominion would not be able to stop them from becoming the preeminent Terran power in the Koprulu Sector. His dark templar friend had left him in the meantime, to "seek the true powers of a Terran and unleash his might".
Indeed.
Æxius chuckled and slept, reaching into space. His mind slept again, and when he woke he found that a week had passed since his slumber. A full two weeks since the Terrans had assaulted the Zerg at Kalaina VI, three since they had fought the initial waves of Zerg when they appeared by the moon of Kalaina Prime. His mind swept the system, and the High Templar learned of the events that came to pass. They were taking Kalaina Prime, the final bastion of Zerg power in this system. He smiled again. His hands stroked the controls of his upgraded Corsair, and it jumped to life. The Protoss ship quickly turned around, heading for the small base he had made at the very edges of the Kalaina system, hidden by the technology of the Arbiters.
Congratulations, Terrans of Velius.
On the planet Kalaina VI, Jean practiced his sniping. His teammates had left the shooting range long since, satisfied with their practice. Jean wasn't. Not yet. Holographs of Zerglings and Hydralisks approached him from different sides, advancing on his position on the hill. His every shot struck down one of the foul creatures. With practiced precision, he reloaded magazine after magazine when one got depleted. He was in the best Shade team, and the leader of it. He would accept nothing less than excellent performance.
Curiously, he'd been practicing his psionic abilities as of late as well. Not just practicing to use them, but to push the limits of his powers.
