Starcraft: Contingency
Disclaimer: I do Not own Starcraft.
Warning: Spoilers for Heart of the Swarm contained herein.
Chapter 7: Long Live the King
-One week after the fall of the Queen of Blades-
Kestrel stood near the open mouth of her Leviathan as it flew toward her direction, inside the atmosphere of Char. She had recovered her connection with her Brood within the first day after the Queen had died, and her Brood had barley registered that anything had happened. She guessed it was the distancing that Kerrigan had tried to pattern on them was successful. She had delivered the thing she had thrown up to Abelard, who had examined it intently, but could not discover what it was, or why she had had it inside her. The materials were Zerg, but he could not identify the stains or the purpose of the organ.
Naturally, with the Queen cut out, Kestrel had tried other paths to find out what was happening, but all her lines to Char were not working. They were all giving her the mental equivalent of static. It took 2 days of trying before she had managed to punch through the static and contact the Cerebrate. His voice was scared, hurt, and weak, and she felt pity for the creature, rather than the disgust she felt she should, as a Zerg, feel. But she had liked the way the Cerebrate had treated her when she was still on Char. He had explained what had happened the best he could. A Dominion task force had dropped to the surface of the planet, destroyed the orbital platform hosting the majority of the Queen's personal air force, and then launched an assault on her direct Hive cluster. There was some kind of detonation, and then everything in its radius was dead, including the Queen of Blades. This was particularly troubling for the Cerebrate, as it needed to be bound to a higher class of Zerg over form to survive over long. With the Queen dead, Kestrel was the only one he could turn to, and she agreed. She loaded up part of her Brood that she could access close at hand, while ordering Eris and Cholus to load up their Broods and follow her when they could. It had taken two days to make the jump to Char, and the situation was much worse than se had thought it was.
Feral Zerg rolled about the landscape, tearing into each other in a mad orgy of directionless violence. The portions of the visible ground that weren't covered in creep were literally drenched in the blood of the dead and wounded. Again she felt sorry for the poor creatures. She hadn't been nearly as closely tied to the Queen as they had, and the stress of the severance had nearly broken her mind. She could only imagine the stress to these less mentally developed, and more dependant creatures. Quirxen appeared at her shoulder his eyes glowing faintly in the dim light inside of the great beast. True to his word, he and his other Templar had severed her with unquestioning loyalty, and had become valuable allies and comrades to her in the past year. The dark Templar had managed to even help her with some Protoss settlements, their natural ability to cloak ability allowing them to slip in undetected and sort out who could be trusted, and who needed to be cleansed. Outside of Willow, the even tempered Protoss was about the only one she considered a friend.
"I can still recall," the Templar said pensively, "when a sight like this would have brought me unbridled joy. The Swarm leaderless, hopefully due to our hand. The Queen of Blades dead, and the remaining Zerg fighting among themselves until they expired." He swept his eyes across the tortured landscape, and the millions of dead and dying. "And while I will not lie and say I do not derive any pleasure from this suffering, I do regret the Queens passing."
"Why?" Kestrel responded flatly. "From what you have told me, this should be one of the best moments of Protoss history." He cocked his head in the way that conveyed amusement.
"True, Matriarch. But the universe had much in store for your Queen." He had stated that before, but staunchly refused to elaborate on it. She knew he knew something... but as long as he was loyal, she was not bothered.
"For what good that did us." She sighed heavily. "Is everyone on your crew ready to go? They know that the Cerebrate and his Zerg are friendlies?" He nodded.
"Yes. We have our robotics set, and the living among our number are only those whom we can most trust." She could feel that he had no doubt in this, and she trusted his confidence. While the Protoss's injuries at the hands of the Swarm were too numerous for a real alliance to form, a few outspoken and radically minded of the firstborn race were willing to ally themselves under the grizzled warrior. A handful of Phoenix fighters were docked in the lower areas of the leviathan, and would be assisting the Cerebrates meager air forces while Emily covered him while he bonded to her, and loaded much of his remaining brood into her leviathan. Most of his brood survived, as he was located a long way away from where the Queens primary hive was, and what was now the Dominions headquarters on the planet. They were fanning out, wiping away the remaining Zerg as they went, but it would still be weeks before they would reach where the Cerebrate was.
But the Dominion wasn't the only one fighting for the planet. Many of the Brood Mothers that had retained their sanity were waging war against one another for control of the Zerg. Add this to the feral Zerg fighting anything that moved, and were literally everywhere, just getting to the Cerebrate would have been a problem. But luckily, the attack on Char had knocked out so much of the total air coverage in the area, that the leviathan could punch through with little difficulty. Kestrel looked down at the swirling chaos below, and noticed a clear line of Zerg moving toward where the Cerebrate sat. At the lead of the column, which they were roughly over, were two Ultralisk. The mainstay of the forces seemed to be Zerglings, though she could see pockets fo roaches among the swarming carpet of Zerg. She was going to stall the column, then bind the Cerebrate to her will, extract his troops, and leave this broken planet. She could feel the different Brood Mothers in the area, but she was unfamiliar with them, and they refused to bow to her will. So she would have to show them.
"Ready your troops, Quirxen. We shall sweep aside these lesser Zerg, and I will be relying on you to hold them at bay as I bond." He bowed without moving.
"Your will be done, Matriarch. We shall enjoy this exercise. We have not slaughtered Zerg if far too long." Kestrel snorted back a laugh.
"Well, now you will have your chance." She turned from the templar, and moved to the edge of the great creatures mouth. She turned her back to the opening, tilted, and fell.
Smoke whipped around her as she plummeted toward the ground. She tweaked her wings, the membrane spreading between the spokes, and she righted herself, oriented face down, and angled her wings to achieve terminal velocity. Wind whistled round her as she knifed through the air, and with only a slight change in her body's shape, she sliced clean through the back of the left Ultralisk, a concussive boom following a second behind slammed into the massive beast and brought it slamming face first into the ground, already dead. The force of Emily's velocity as she tore through it had liquefied that area she had contacted. She hit the creep hunched low, sliding in the goo for more than 200 meters in the lead of the column. She beat her wings once, spinning herself to face the now confused and angry Zerg while still riding the slide. She spread her wings straight out, halting all her movement and bringing her to a calm stand. Her Membrane retracted, but she kept her wings spread for effect.
"I am Kestrel." She said in a low, threatening voice that she also projected throughout the assembled horde. "And this valley is mine. Turn back, and you will be spared." She left her arms hanging at her sides, but her hands had curled into claws. The remaining Ultralisk roared and charged, the ground seeming to quake under its charge. As it closed within a reasonable distance, it reared back to the left, its Kaiser blades arcing to swat and tear her to bits. Kestrel took a deep, steadying breath, and leapt into the air, contorting herself into the space between the giant tusks. She landed lightly on the surface of the lower blade, pulling in her wings to clip into her back. As the blade closed with the beasts chest, she jumped and clung to its chest armor/ With a quick thrust of her shoulder muscles she launched herself up its front, buried her left wingtip with a quick snap into its throat. She swung her body around to the back of its head, letting her right wing strike out around and embed itself next to the left tip. She braced her feet, grabbed her wings, and pushed.
Slowly, her wings cut through the armor and muscle, until finally, with a wet squelching noise and geyser of gore, the head and neck slid off and the body sagged and went down. She rode it smoothly down, using her wings to balance. When the corpse settled, she flapped her wings to clean a bit of the heavy blood and sinew from them.
"I gave you a chance." She said, and turned to walk off the dead Ultralisk toward the Cerebrate. Drop pods began to rain from the sky, impacting around and even in the carpet of Zerg, and Kestrel's brood began to ravage the offending Zerg.
(...)
-Two weeks after the fall of The Queen of Blades-
The process of bonding with the Cerebrate was ... interesting. It was similar to the link she had had with the Queen, but she was the dominant in this link. It was similar too, to her link with her Brood, but the strength of the intelligence was so different than even her Brood Mothers, it was weird. It was as if a warmth had flowed into her mind into a crevice she was not aware of. He was relieved, to say the least, about having a stable bond again, and once he was joined, was happy about relocating to Bliss. He could still remember what it was like before Kerrigan had unified the swarm after the death of the Overmind, and he wanted to be well away from the Chaos. Kestrel stood in front of the huge, pulsing work-like creature, her hand pressed to its side.
"It is slightly odd, Cerebrate, standing in your physical presence." He gave a dry chuckle.
"I am sure it must be, my friend. I am most grateful for your assistance. No other Zerg would have ever come to my aid."
"True. Let us hope that leaving we with such silly sentimentality was a wise choice." She said softly.
"From my vantage point, it seems so. What are your orders, Matriarch?"
"We need to get you on the Leviathan. Can you move?"
'Not in this form. But I would need to conduct my Broods into their position before I shed this skin."
"Very well. My Brood had arrived in the majority. We will begin taking your defenses so you may load. I do not foresee and serious problems..." She paused as a sound assaulted her mind. It tapered down into a hissing voice brimming with rage, hate and satisfaction.
"Kestrel! I know you are here, little cricket." Emily's blood froze. She would recognize that horrible voice anywhere. "I can feel you, even if I cannot see you. Come and face me, you little bitch." She turned, and while he could not feel her exact position, he knew where she would be. Her, on the other hand, could feel him as a dark, pulsing beacon of hate.
"Why?" She projected. "I have no quarrel with you, Basilisk." He gave a slithering laugh.
"Wrong. The Queen is dead. I know you know it to, or else you would not have come to loot her Broods, as I have." She tried to project a negative response, but he pressed onward. "But there is only room for one of us here." She heard him growl, a deep, excited noise. "The Queen is dead. Long live the King." She would have no choice but to go and meet his challenge, lest he come to her/ She could feel the blanket of his Zerg, and knew if it came down to a numbers fight, she would lose. Her wings bristled at the thought, but she knew she needed the time.
"Load as much as your brood as you can. I will stall Basilisk for as long as I can. Once you get the majority, I want you to shed and load yourself. I do like my odds on this fight, and wish to have a prompt escape if necessary."
"As you command, Matriarch." She reached deeper in her mind, and connected to Eris, her chief Brood Mother.
"Eris."
"Yes, Matriarch?"
"I have encountered a hitch on the planets surface. One of the other Disciples is here, Basilisk, and he is impeding my work to extricate the Cerebrate. It is necessary that I confront him. You have proven a loyal, and trustworthy commander. I have strengthened our link, so if I should fall, control of my Swarm will revert to you."
"Thank you, Matriarch." Kestrel thought she detected a hint of real gratitude in the Brood Mothers mental voice. She had chosen the genes and traits most carefully when sculpting this Zerg, and it seemed to have paid off. I wish you luck. Slaughter the usurper!" Kestrel smiled in spite of herself.
"Very well, Basilisk. If it will sooth your childish ego to draw me out, I will comply." The noise he made was somewhere between a bitter laugh and a snarl.
"Come to me then, bitch, and I shall show you what it takes to lead the swarm."
(...)
-Meanwhile, in an Umojan Science facility-
Kerrigan was tired. Tired of the test. Tired of the Scientists. And tired of being looked at like she was a monster. Granted, she pretty much was, but still she was getting depressed by the constant creeped out treatment she was getting.
"It is to be expected, Sarah. All of these people, they know who you are." She sighed hevily, as the Queen of Blades, leaning against the wall in front of her, spoke calmly.
"I know, and I deserve it. But that doesn't mean I have to like it."
"Makes you miss home, doesn't it. Not questions, no probing. Just the quiet respect and obedience of fawning children. Sarah gave a huffing chuckle.
"When you put it like that, is does sound nice." He face clouded. "But that part of my life is over now." She glanced sharply at the other woman. "And making me pine for it isn't going to anything but make us feel worse." The Queen chuckled sadly.
"See? I told you your memories would begin to return, Sarah." She scouled up at her.
"Yes, and I am getting peices. But you're still here. Why?" Now the Queen sighed.
"I have told you, Sarah, again and again. We are one. I told you. I am what is left of the corruption that controlled the motivation you had while fully the Queen of Blades. I am your mind, existing free of the dirty canalization you had as a human." This was something new, and Sarah looked up, curiosity flaring.
"Wait. What do you mean with that." The Queen shifted, pushed of the wall, an walked over, sitting down next to her more human half. She took one of Sarah's soft hands with her own armored hand, and smiled at her.
"I am recovering memories as our mind readjusts from the trauma as well. I have an idea as to what we were back then, bases on my own colored memories. It was as if, I was you, but lacking all the little flavors that made you human. But I still possessed all the traits, and could use them as a chose, without being bothered by the petty feelings attached to them." She looked off in the distance, thinking. "It's like... I was you, all of you, but I could choose what parts to let have sway at any given time." Sarah caught the feel of what she was talking about, which, if she hadn't already been used to it, she would have found that catching her own memories coming from a fragmented part of her own consciousness odd. She relived some of the memories, sitting quietly, still holding her apparitions hand. When the memories faded, it was like had just lived again, and had an exact understanding of what she meant.
It was all of her, her intelligence, her shrewdness, her cunning, her drive. All of it. She was the monster, and she had liked it.
(...)
"Look! There's a spike in her levels." The technicians who had been monitoring her data for the last week had noted no irregular patterns until now. But the spike in activity was in an area of her brain that was not present in the human brain, and had been dormant since her waves patterns had stabilized.
"Is that... a bad thing?" The junior of the pair asked.
"I don't really know. But look at it if we overlay it with the carrier waves found in the Overlords that we have examined." The Lead tech typed a flurry of commands, and a second bundle of diagrams appeared on the screen. He manipulated the data until he had a similar, and larger spike that matched the one they were seeing in the subject. He eyed it curiously, then typed in and brought up a third. He clucked interestedly.
"Hmm. From the data we have been able to get, this..." he tapped the spike in the wave pattern. A single wavy line untangled itself from the mess and displayed more prominently. "wave here is the "sent" signal from a stronger Zerg intelligence. Now, on the Overlord, the cerebral cluster is the receptor for these signals. Now, assuming this is the same in the subject, this would mean she is receiving a signal. But based on the shape, and the strength of signal, this signal is not only emanating from her, but is her. Her signal is a match, in its current form, to the Queen of Blades we have on record." The junior tech looked pensive for a moment before speaking.
"So, then what the data is saying is, that the subject still is possessing of her Zerg communication functions in the brain... and she is receiving information... from herself? What does that mean?"
"It means," the lead tech said softly, "that Prince Valerian needs to see this."
(...)
Valerian Mengsk was weary. So much had been gambled on this grand, sweeping move. So many pieces had been juggled in the air, and he could almost feel the course fibers of the noose tightening around his neck. In retrospect, tweaking his father's nose at the fact the he was going to be neutralizing his greatest foe was a bad move. He knew that the elder Mengsk would be sending his own troops to eliminate Kerrigan, but he liked think he would have her... He didn't know. He had been allowing Raynor to take the lead on this operation. And Raynor was the topmost expert in Kerrigan, as well, and had proven to be far more of a man than his father had led on. But he understood why Raynor had to have been branded and pursued with such intensity. The only real surprise there was that Arcturus had ever let him flee at all, and not just had him executed as soon as Tarsonis feel.
Valerian had studied much about what would be required to rule once he succeeded the throne, and, as he saw it now, wisely avoided taking many of his father's practices to heart. While the endeavor to eliminate Raynor made sense, it was personal for his father. His wanted Raynor gone because he felt he had been personally betrayed by the man, after all he had done to throw off the yoke of the Confederacy. But Valerian would not make that mistake. The Emperor is the will of the people, and can afford no personal vendettas. He sighed, and brushed his nerves away. It was always unsettling, talking to her. She was just on a level so different from anyone else, it felt odd.
"Crank up the shield." The slanted shutter in front of the Prince moved silently upward, looking down into the cell with the bed where she was sequestered.
"I am getting impatient, Valerian." She said softly, and the noise carried softly into the observation room through speakers. She echoed her speech in his head, and he had a feeling that it was just because she knew it bugged him.
"And a good morning to you as well, Kerrigan." She stared up at him, her yellow eyes glowing softly in their purple rimmed hollows. She continued to stare silently, motionless, like a cat. "I fully understand your desire to regain some of your autonomy. But you must understand the great risk we took in retrieving you, and the possible risk that you still represent." Her gaze didn't shift.
"Where is Jim?" She demanded, low and dangerous. He sighed, thinking to himself that her behaving as a petulant child was not going to speed her time here.
"He was unavailable to visit. Despite his desire to see you, he is still in charge of a band of revolutionaries."
"One that will put you out of a job." She growled.
"We shall see. But that is not what I came to talk about today. The lab staff seems to beleive you are being contacted through your Zerg brain fuctions. I am curious as to what you have been receiving." She closed her eyes. She knew antagonizing the Prince would not benefit her. She took a deep breath.
"I haven't been receiving anything, Valerian. Not in the sense that I am connected with any of my... the Zerg. Iguess... it might be me regaining some memories. I still have no idea what went on while I was with the Zerg, but I can remember some stuff I couldn't before today."
"Well, it is nice to see you are recovering. What are your plans once you are released into James' custody?" She opened her eyes and fully looked at him now.
"Simple. I am going to kill your father."
"And the Dominion?"
"Is a tool for him to satisfy his ego. Any who get in my way will be annihilated. Those who don't are not my concern."
"I wonder, Kerrigan. You are still possessing a number of physiological changes that were an effect of your infestation. We would like to see if these organs would allow you some control over the Zerg, even in back in your human form." She glared at him, her derision plain to see, even to a non-telepath.
"I wasn't infested." Her voice held a shadow of the Queen's bestial fury in its low growl. "Infestation wipes the mind and creates a shambling war form. I was specially bred to be the Overmind's greatest creation, specifically to retain my mind and abilities."
"And did it work? Did you retain your mind?" She continued to glare at the young Mengsk, the shadow of her rage pushing under her consciousness, wanting to take control. She took a deep, steadying breath, fighting it.
"Like I have said, Valerian. I have no memories of my time as the Queen of Blades. All I really remember is being taken, then coming to in the Hyperion, and even that is still a little hazy. I would not even know how to go about controlling the Zerg again, outside of how I was used way back before the Sons of Korhal were a large movement." Valerian looked down at her, tapping his chin.
"Would you willing to try? I assure you that your cooperation in this matter would serve to expedite the time before we can release you into James Raynor's custody." She averted her eyes slightly, this effecting her.
"I can try." She said in a sigh, before bringing her eyes and full weight back to her voice. "But I warn you, Valerian. No one who is not Zerg will ever be able to control them. The Zerg may seem like mindless beasts, but they are a solid sentient species, Valerian, and they will fight until they are free. It's in their very beings. Don't make the mistake of trying to bend them to your will that your father made." She felt a slight twinge of anger and resentment in him at this, and felt that was a good sign.
"Thank you, Kerrigan. We will have some test set up, and I will let you know when we are ready for you." He gave the impression of a bow, though he did not move, and the partition again slide down to seal the observation window. Her barb about his father had struck deep, and an old saying played about in his head. There was a fine line between being confident, and being arrogant. And with the stakes involved being so dangerous, arrogance would have a disastrous consequences. His father's arrogance and need for petty vengeance had spawned his greatest enemy from his greatest ally, and poisoned many allies against him, and if Valerian was to be a good leader, he knew he needed to avoid repeating his mistakes. He sighed heavily, and moved to his next task, thinking to himself "Heavy lies the head that wears the crown."
(...)
- Back on Char -
A most un -Zerg like sensation crawled along Kestrel's spine as she waited to meet the approaching swarm of Basilisk. She was afraid. This uncomfortable realization was accompanied by a wash of shame, which in turn stoked the embers of her anger into a higher blaze in an odd circle. She knew she was much stronger than when she was birthed her, 4 short years ago, but she knew her strengths, and the thing that was coming for her was something she could not hope to match. She had been the first draft at the font of her Queen's experiments with Terrans, where as her adversary was the pure expression of physical perfection that could only be achieved within the swarm.
The horizon, as far as she could see, crawled with his brood, the entire line a chittering mass of deadly life. But the creature that came for her, moved alone, wanting to break her himself. Her first impression was that he was taller than she remembered.
He stood at about 8 feet, so that even at a mid distance, Emily found herself looking up at his face. The blood red eyes and sliver slit pupils glowed with pent up malice and an unquenchable thirst for blood. His dark brown plating was heavier than it had been, with deep black under plates adding to the total armor coverage. Large talons hooked from the tips of fingers and toes, and the elbow barbs had grown layers of jagged spines and sloped farther forward. Tusks had sprouted from two of the five mandibles that made up his chin, pointing up about 3 inches, while a pair of smaller teeth hung down from the point of the chin like a spike beard.
"Come, little insect. It is time you were crushed." His five mandibles moved like a solid lower jaw as he spoke in deranged glee, but parted as he hissed at her. His tail flicked lazily behind him. Kestrel's wings quivered, seeming small in the others daunting presence as she stood alone. Still about 30 yards separated the combatants, and Emily did not know much more than that she believed he would very likely be able to crush her if he could get a good grip on her. She chose to get the first strike in at least. She snapped her right hand up, shooting a pair of her barbed parasitic darts toward his eyes. He managed to bring his forearm up and block the projectiles, roaring as one of the sharp spines pierced flesh, but he was beyond her attempts to influence, and merely roared in anger and charged.
He was fast, closing in no time and leaping with a mighty slash which Kestrel had barly managed to dodge, raking at him with her wings, the tips striking sparks of his armor plates, but doing no real damage. His whipping tail caught her with a glancing blow to the shoulder that still managed to throw her off her feet and a few feet back. She rolled with the motion, just managing to dodge the hooked blade at the tip of the tail as it tore a chunk out of the ground. With the same move she bounce up, landing on her feet a dozen feet away. She leapt again.
She didn't like it. His overwhelming rage was blocking her ability to sense how he was going to move. All she could grasp for certain was that he wanted to make her suffer. She flapped once, pushing up and clear as the tail slashed, twisted and dove, slamming her knee into the side of his head, slashing as she whipped past. He managed to grab her outstretched wing as she pasted, but was unable to keep a grip on the hard, slick bone. But it still slowed her enough for him to bring his tail whipping around, slamming her in the gut and throwing her. Instead of getting tossed, she clung to the long, heavy appendage, and he beat the ground with it, spinning and flailing, trying to dislodge her. She hit the ground hard enough to make her plating crunch, even with the creep to soften the blows. Even with this pain, she knew she was safer here then where his claws could get her. He slammed her again, and quickly twisted and halted, the sheer force of the momentum change throwing her clear and bouncing like a skipping stone across the ground. She slid to a stop on her stomach, and shakily pushed herself up.
"Ugh... when am I going to win one of these?" She muttered to herself, before standing. Basilisk gave a hissing laugh.
"Poor little Kestrel should have stayed home. It would have taken longer for me to hunt you down."
"What purpose does this serve, Basilisk. I do not want control of the swarm!" She called through gritted teeth.
"Your lies do not sway me, little Kestrel. They is nothing here but feral Zerg for the taking. There is no other reason to come." He charged, and before she had a chance to move, his large hand gripped her throat, lifted her, and slammed her back to the ground, his face a mere 6 inches from hers. He was smiling savagely, his eyes shimmering, though she only recognized it as much because she could sense it. His horrible mandibles cold no longer form a human smile.
"But, I will make you an offer. Surrender your brood, and serve as my concubine, and I will allow you to live." She could clearly see what he imagined this to be like, and in an instant of revulsion so fierce she momentarily forgot her fear, she lashed out with the tips of her wings, stabbing at the soft regions near the elbow, tearing flesh and spurts of blood. He roared again, in pain and rage, his chin splitting in its many places in her face. As he lifted her slightly, she swung her wings back, dug the tips into the ground, and wrenched with all her might, jerking free of the monsters grip. She slid on her back when she landed for a few feet, flipped to her stomach, and attempted to flee. He managed to catch the outermost wing spur on her right side, and jerked hard, popping all the joints in her wing and pulling her back, before pivoting and hoisting the damaged spar, flipping her up over him and slamming her hard back into the ground. He released her wing, and she retracted it best she could, but the joints were all hyper extended and didn't respond with the speed she hoped for, and pain flared at every movement.
She curled in her limbs and rose to her hands and knees. She could feel the subtle shift in the beasts mind, like a tiny embankment crumbling away beneath the weight of a flood, as the pain stoked his rage and overwhelmed the meager, semi-sane portion of his mind. He rushed upon her, kicking out and catching her in the stomach plates, flipping her over in air, where she snapped her wings open, he damaged wing flaring with pain and not responding fully, throwing her off balance and landing her in a sprawl. The was a wet, sliding, slithering crunch noise as he summoned his bone blades. She pushed herself up, then threw herself backwards as he gave an upward slash with the now wickedly serrated blade. It was so sharp, and the cut so clean, she didn't even feel it at first. She just saw her left hand and forearm arc over her head in a spray of blood. Her eyes bulged and she fell backward, her arm, severed right below the elbow spurting weak blood as her systems closed of the clean sliced veins and arteries. She landed on her ass, stunned, watching the arm come up, and the slick bone, covered in Basilisk's own blood from his injured arm, glinting in the murky light. A dethatched part of her mind noticed that his blood was a sickly green, unlike her own, which was still a deep crimson.
Suddenly, as the blade arm fell, there was a flash of blue light and sizzle as the bone met resistance. Quirxen had appeared in front of her, intercepting the blow with his Psi-blade. He brought his other hand flashing up, rebuffing the stunned monster with a Psi Blast, before dancing forward, clashing again with the bone blade.
"Sereniya. Get the Matriarch to safety, I shall delay this beast." The thought was not directed at Kestrel, but she caught it none the less. A strong pair of mottled gray/purple hands hoisted her to her feet, before she tried feebly to shake them off.
"I did not call for your assistance."
"Do not argue, Matriarch." He shot back, dodging out of the way as the lizard swiped at him with his second blade and a rage filled roar. "Your life is too important to be spent here. We cannot allow this monster to take control of your portion of the swarm as well. Go." She hesitated.
"Very well." She let the female Protoss pull her away, where in Basilisk hiss/screamed in fury. He could not get around the more agile and calm adversary. As one, his swarm surged forward, as he was willing to lose the visceral pleasure of destroying her personally rather than let her get away. Not to be undone, Kestrel summoned her own brood, which had moved burrowed into range while she was getting her ass kicked. There were not enough to stop Basilisk's larger brood, but they would slow it down while she withdrew. The two waves of snarling creatures crashed with a noise so rending it could be felt as well as heard. She relented to the tugging alien, letting the taller being pull her away from the center of combat. Underlying the close in rumbling, there was a more distant, low growl.
Attracted by the conflict, numbers, and general psionic activity of the conflict, a number of feral Zerg charged the depression. Thousands of them. The crested and splashed down among the two controlled broods in waves, attacking in an undirected frenzy of violence. Kestrel now needed no further urging to abandon her hopeless conflict, the sheer number of feral zerg bearing down upon the arena not only dwarfed her own numbers, but even the superior number Basilisk had on tap. Not that that stopped him from trying to get clear of the more agile Protoss and murder Kestrel, but Quirxen was to skilled to allow that while he yet lived.
"Clear me a path." Kestrel said, indicating a path clogged with dueling Zerg that lead back toward the Cerebrates cradle. She folded her injured wing into its bracing as the taller being released her and, gathering her companions with a thought, and leapt into the fray. Kestrel lit her undamaged wing afire with a psionic fields, and rushed in as well, using the augmented blade wing as a cleaver to hue swaths of enemies back.
Matriarch! The Cerebrate has finished loading its brood, and had reconsituted itself aboard the Leviathan. Eris's voice rang through her head.
Excellent. I am working my way back for pick up. Have everything prepared to leave this planet. Her pain and weariness colored her mental voice.
Yes, Mistress. Also, your pet human relates that you should keep your head down, she has sent in some reinforcements. Before Kestrel could ask what she meant by this, she heard, over the drowning, screaming, chattering hoards around her, the drone of machinery. Over the low boarder of the valley, a full doze Banshee bombers topped, then dropped down, angling toward where Kestrel was fighting her way out of the depression. Exhaust trails ranged from the fan powered ships, blossoming into orange fireballs and raining gore as their bombs tore wide patches of Zerg to shreds, as the concussive waves knocked even more out.
There was a loud, furious roar behind the fleeing Zerg Matriarch, and with a mental jerk, she felt Quirxen fade from her consiousness, and she knew Basilisk was charging after her now.
Return to the Leviathan. She sent to her surviving Protoss, while turning her own paltry Zerg directly upon her antagonist, dragging a number of feral Zerg with them. At the same time, she reached out, and spoke directly into the mind of one of her Banshee pilots. Fly Low, and at me. She directed, and sprinted, noting the one ship break off from the retreating fliers as they banked. It adjusted its height until it hovered only about ten feet over the heads of the dazed and still battling Zerg, and flew straight at Kestrel, who was twirling this way and that, slashing back the feral beasts with her one good wing. Then, as the Banshee closed, she spun, driving back as many as she could, drawing out her injured wing, and jumped with one mighty, agonizing flap, making it a good 30 feet straight up, before coming down, and land atop the speeding air ship. She braced with her good wing as the ship gained speed and elevation as it again banked to head back toward the Leviathan.
Weary and sore, she looked backward to see Basilisk, running on all 4's like a beast. She could feel the pure, unbridled urge to slaughter that was his sole driving mechanism now that the Queen was dead. And ifs he had not been the focus of this singular drive, she would have pitied the creature. As it was, she got another terrible surprise instead. Suddenly his head snapped up, and he spit something that splattered across the right hand fans. The Banshee shuddered as fans hitched as what turned out to be a potent acid immediately began to chew through the metal. The ship listed to the side, and Kestrel prepared to leap clear. She extended her damaged wing, and was on the verge of leaping clear to painfully flap her way to another mount, when the fear of her valiant Banshee pilot pulled at her mind as she battled to keep herself out of the carpet of Zerg below. At her present strength, she doubted she could keep herself air born for long. She knew it would both be unwise, and un-zerg-ish to try and save this human. But also, she knew that doing things like that is what separated, and made her better than that deranged thing below.
She decided in a split second, dug her clawed hand under the canopy, and ripped it up and off. She then grasp the terrified woman by the back of her coat, and with a mighty flap, sprung from the back of the falling ship. Beating her wings hard, she could barley keep them aloft, with her injured wing, the extra weight, and the uneven load. The pain rivaled that of what she experienced in her second "birth" and for a second her wing failed, and she dropped a few meters before she could force the appendage back into compliance. Then, through the haze of her pain, she saw her salvation, and with a surge of desperate strength, threw the girl she clutched, who screamed shrilly as she fell the 5 meters onto the wide, flat back of a feral Brood Lord that was contentedly throwing its spawn into the melee below. She managed a hal fal/half glide, and alighted in a heap upon the slow to react beast, driving her parasitic spines into the flesh between armor folds, and dominating the simple mind. It had turned, spweing a thick cluster of Broodlings at the infuriated Basilisk, before gliding quickly up, clear fo the range of his corrosive spit.
The Female human sat up as she guess she was going to live at least a little longer, clutching a sprained wrist from the fall to her chest. Kestrel simply lay where she had landed, no longer holding the strength to rise, panting in pain, looking not unlike a smashed Mosquito.
"Are... are you alright, Matriarch?" The woman asked, her gratitude overcoming her trepidation at speaking to the silent, frightful entity that had allowed her to live and serve once the Zerg had overrun the Dominion base she was stationed out of on the planet of Aster when it had been taken. She did not reply at once, and when she did, it was mentally.
I believe I shall live. Even her mental voice had a tired, breathless quality to it. Barring any other encounters between now and docking. The Woman was at first taken aback with the words popping into her head, not having dealt with a telepath before, but she acclimated with the speed of the jet pilot she was.
"Thank you, for not leaving me to that... thing." Her voice did a fair job of convey the terrified revulsion she held.
Thank you... for making the bombing run that allowed me to break contact. She said her mental voice weak. The woman motioned the praise away, the realized Kestrel could not see the gesture.
"My pleasure, Matriarch." And she didn't know why, but she extended a few more words, even though it had appeared that Kestrel had lost consciousness. She had drawn a handgun from her waist holster. "And if the bastards do try something else, I got you covered." Over the horizon, the dark blob that was Kestrels command Leviathan appeared, the Brood lord under them bearing straight at it, and the pilot had never been so glad to see a massive Zerg in her life.
End 7.
Jeez, this one dragged on for ever (production wise, anyway.) Sorry bout that, folks. Got stymied and then school got ridiculous, and some other malarkey, and just... bleh. Anyway. I have... vauge ideas where the next chapter shall range, and I think some quality Hyperion time is in order, and possibly some more Kerrigan. (Also, have mostly read the Novel Flashpoint now, so I have a little more real data to feed from, and a good (in my opinion) little Valerian scene coming up, so... yeah. Thanks for staying around, guys and gals.
