Waking Dreams
Ellie was extremely excited until the arrived in orbit above Meinhoff. When she saw her home world and the Zerg creep spreading across it she was stupefied. She collapsed into one one of the chairs on the bridge and held her hands against her head.
"What the hell is going on?" She asked.
"Jim. Someone's been blocking communications from the planet for the last few days. The infestation has spread to 78% of the planet. If it spreads at the current rate the entire planet will be over run in the next two days." Matt said reading one of the monitors.
"We won't let that happen. Locate the area with the highest concentration of survivors. I'll take some of our boys and establish a base." Jim said.
"What about...?" Ellie asked still in shock.
"You take a group of our boys down there and get your parents and friends. Then come meet up at our base. Alright?" Jim asked placing a hand on her shoulder.
Ellie snapped back to her usual self and nodded as she ran to the hangar. Swann was waiting with a Dropship.
"Alright Princess. I stocked this baby with all the supplies you could need. I even put your own Decals on it." He said pointing to an emblem on the ships wings.
She looked it over. It was green and black and had a Zerg skull with wings coming out from behind it.
"Made it myself." He said.
She gave him a high five as a squad of infantry (Reapers, Marines, marauders and Firebats) entered the hangar. They boarded Ellie's ship and she sat in the pilots seat. A visor came down over her eyes and a virtual image of Swann appeared.
"Listen up I modified this baby to read your thoughts so you can do all those fancy maneuvers that Banshees do. Just imagine the ships path and it'll get ya there." He said.
So Ellie imagined the ship taking off and exiting the hangar and the ship followed the course in her mind. Soon they were cruising above the surface nearing the city where she grew up.
"Alright boys. We'll be stopping by the school first. Captain Horner picked up human bio signatures inside. You all set up a perimeter and I'll go in to get them." She said over the intercom.
"Uh are you sure that's a good idea? Looking the way you do you might just scare them." One of the marines said.
"I'll be wearing my helmet. Plus my suit covers everything else. Here we go." She said as they landed in front of her old school.
It was a two story building and it branched out to form a square encircling a courtyard. The cafeteria was in the back forming another square. All in all it looked like a giant 8. Which is where it got its nickname. School 88.
"I'll go in. You all set up a defensive line. If I run into trouble then I'll contact you." Ellie said putting on her Spectre Helmet.
"Aye aye. You heard her boys." One of the marines said.
Ellie left them to sort out the details while she went inside. She had been here just a month ago. Taking classes, joking with her friends, going to dances… but all of that was a lifetime away now. The classrooms were empty and some had blood staining the floor. She didn't see any infested but she kept her guard up. As she walked the through the hallway leading to the cafeteria she noticed sounds coming from up ahead. Crying, someone yelling orders? How many people were still here?!
She opened the doors to the cafeteria and was met with half a dozen rifles pointed at her head. She resisted her instinct to attack and held up her hands instead. They took away her rifle and lead her through a crowd of maybe fifty kids to a blonde haired boy with dark gray eyes. Behind her helmet she grinned.
"Who are you? What does a Dominion assassin want with us?" He asked.
"Is that how you treat your girlfriend? Ryan Jeane-James Lewis?" She asked.
He was so shocked he fell backwards. No one but his parents and Ellie knew his second middle name. He leapt up and wrapped her in a hug.
"You came back. But how did you get here? Why? Can you at least take off the helmet?" He asked.
"My own Dropship. I came to get you all and my parents. And no I will not take off my helmet at least not in front of everyone. Somethings are better left unseen." She said.
She opened her comms and an image with Swann on it came up.
"What's up Princess?" He asked.
"I'm gonna need another two transports. I've got about fifty civilians here." She said.
"Alright I'll send'em down. And here's the coordinates for Jimmy's base." He said as he cut the line.
The coordinates appeared inside her helmet and she saved them to her suits memory.
"Alright. We need to get these people outside. I've got two transports on the way and we won't be able to avoid the Zerg detecting us for long." Ellie said.
"Got it. Alright everyone we've got a way out of here! Follow the combat squad and meet up out front!" Ryan yelled to the crowd.
There was much cheering as the group exited the cafeteria. Ryan and Ellie supervised and soon they were alone except for the group who had surrounded her when she first entered.
"So you recognize your boy but not us? Typical Ellie..." One of them said.
She looked at all of them and saw her old friends, albeit a bit leaner and meaner with a few more scars. Melanie the mother of their little group, Beth a big heavily muscled girl with a huge heart and Zach a quiet kid who was a genius. She wrapped her arms around all of them and smiled.
"I'm so glad you guys made it. Where'd you get the guns?" She asked.
"Well let's just say the Dominion could only retreat so fast. By the way, what made them come back?" Melanie asked.
"Actually I'm with Raynor's Raiders. They rescued me after I got kidnapped. After what I've seen the dominion do I would never work for them." Ellie said angrily remembering Agria.
"You were kidnapped?! By who?! Why!?" Beth asked angrily.
"I'll… explain later. Let's just say lots of people want my power." She said as she heard the ships landing outside.
When they got outside they found that the evacuation was going pretty well. Almost half of the civialians were on board and Ellie's guys were holding the line. But there was a Zerg… creature heading their way. It had four legs a humanish head and weird sac things on its back.
"Anyone know what the hell that is?" Ellie asked.
"We got word from the base. We're calling them Zerg Abberations!" Someone yelled over comms.
Ellie frantically looked around but nothing they had would bring that monster down quick enough. She sighed as she ran towards it. She leaped into the air and charged psionic energy in her fist. When she made contact with its face she released the energy explosively. The result was the creature literally exploding bit by bit. When she returned to her friends she was covered in Zerg blood.
"So let's get out of here?" She asked.
They were staring at her dumbstruck. She ordered her troops to get on with the civilians and took her ship into the air.
"This is all yours?" Ryan asked entering the cockpit.
"Yep. My own personal ship. I'm kind of like a junior officer for Jim. Still in training though." She sighed.
Soon she landed the ship in front of her house and she wasn't surprised to see a pile of Zerg bodies on their front lawn.
"What the hell? Who did this?" Beth asked.
"My dad I would guess. He wasn't just a grumpy old man. He fought in the brood wars. My mom was a Ghost and he was a Goliath pilot. They wouldn't go down easy. What about your dad Ryan? What did he do?" Ellie asked.
"Vulture Biker. Speaking of which… I'll be back in a few minutes. Gonna go get something." He said heading across the street to his own house.
"You three stay here. If you hear anything strange do not come inside. Understand?" Ellie asked.
They nodded but she knew they were lying. She headed inside and looked through the rooms one by one. When she got to her bedroom she found it was untouched by the carnage. She found the dog tags that her dad had made for her years ago and slipped them around her neck. Then she continued her search. Finding nothing on the first floor she headed into the basement. Once she was down there she flipped on the light and was faced with her worst nightmare.
Her parents were infested.
Dun-dun-dun. So yeah. New characters. They will be major characters so at least remember their names. This is the point where the story starts to get changed so be ready.