They jumped into photonic flash and headed back for Tarsonis after leaving Zerus's atmosphere. My father called my mother and told her everything that had happened. When they landed in Kahol, my mother was waiting for my father, biting her nails and staring at the landing pad from inside the Confederate command center. She ran out to my father before he hopped off the dropship, wanting to wrap her arms around him.
"I'm so glad you're okay," my mother said muffling out the words from my father's shoulder.
A wet stain appeared on his shirt from her tears. He lifted her face and reassured her everything was alright. "Kiera, come on, we both knew that I was never going to get hurt, I got this bracelet that you made me," my father smirked while lifting his hand showing the bracelet.
She looked back at him, with tear drenched eyes, "Is this funny to you? You almost died Rye, almost died…"
My mother grabbed his hand and they headed back to the command center, excited to go home.
"Hey Rye," Nova said as she ran up to them. "Those creatures...those things, what were they?"
"The creatures... the Zerg, I have no clue what they are, but I promise you, I'll be studying the samples we got. I'm going to find answers," my father said.
"The Zerg...is that what we're calling those things now?" Nova wondered.
"Yeah, that's what I named those bastards. I figured that they originated from Zerus, and Zerg seemed fit."
Nova tried to fake a smile, but her mind was preoccupied by the faces of her late friends. "Whatever they're called, I swear I'm going to kill them all. Kepler was one of my closest friend...I can't get his face out of my mind...right before he died, he stared at me. Only if I was faster, pulling that trigger, I could've saved him."
"I'm sorry for your loss, but you did the best you could, you -"
"Well my best wasn't good enough was it Rye," Nova pointed out before my father could finish. "Sorry, I shouldn't lash out on you like that."
"It's okay Nova. I promise you, his life will save millions one day."
"I hope so...Also, I want to thank you for saving my ass, if you had listened to me and left, we all would've died for sure."
"Never leave a man behind right?" My father said. "There was no way I was going to ditch you."
A smile cracked through Nova's face, "Thanks again. I guess I'll see you around then? Later Rye."
"Bye Nova. Stay safe"
My father looked at my mother and let out a sigh of relief, "Let's go hunny, home is where I need to be right now. You have no idea how much I've missed spending quiet time with you."
Despite surviving Zerus, they were unable to wash out the horror from their minds. They couldn't stop the flashbacks and were consistently filled with anxiety. They've realized this was something that couldn't be forgotten; rather it was something they were going to have to cope with forever.
A half year after the treacherous mission on Zerus, word spread throughout the Terran colonies about the Zerg. The Terran had never seen extra-terrestrial organisms quite like them before. Their physiology and anatomy differed from all other species that they have encountered. The bodies of the two Zerg that died inside Nova's dropship were collected and placed inside two cylindrical glass tanks filled with clear fluid. My father studied them intensively, realizing their biology was a lot more complex than ours, specifically their brain, which had extra parts that extended out from the temporal lobe. He hypothesized the functions of each part, but knew that he couldn't know for sure without a live specimen.
A facility holding the cylindrical tanks was made public for anyone who wanted to see a Zerg, along with videos of those who made it back from the mission describing their experience and what they saw. The facility was created to dedicate those who survived the mission, and to raise awareness for the deaths of the six marines. Although the intentions were good, the Terran were more amazed at the Zerg bodies themselves, rather than honouring the ones that bravely gave up their lives.
There is something about who we are, always trying to fit in, following the trends, and not knowing why we do things except for the fact that's what everyone else is doing. How people reacted to my father's mission was a classic example of this ignorance. The Zerg soon became notorious throughout the three worlds and the facility became more of a business, rather than what it was meant for.
However, in the span of a year, things began happening on Tarsonis; anomalies that could not be explained. The crop yield greatly decreased for Canam and the reason why was unknown. Farmers tried to identify the problem. They examined their crops, but everything was normal. Also, there were no changes in climate around the area and a decrease like that should not have happened; unless they were missing something obvious. Farmers examined their fields, looking out for anything out of the ordinary. It wasn't an easy task, to not know what to look for. However, just before giving up, a few of them stumbled across subtle hole-like openings, almost like burrows.
The holes were perfectly circular and were identical in size to one another. What was even more peculiar was that there was a distinctive pattern that they created. An alignment of five to six of them radiated out from one much larger hole; approximately five times larger. The smaller holes were rimmed with elevated soil covered in ripped up plant roots and corn stalks that lay broken on top. Instead of soil surrounding the edge, the larger one had its soil piled up behind, similar to a hole a dog would make if it were to burry something.
My father's farm was no exception to the anomaly. When my father wasn't home (which was almost all the time since he was living with my mother), my grandfather would take care most of the farming. My grandfather is a man of always wanting to make the unknown known. When it comes to figuring things out, he won't stop until it has been resolved. He can also be very stubborn at times. He would deny any advice that he thinks would impede his progress even if it may prevent him from hurting himself.
So when he saw the holes on his farm, he was compelled to investigate what they were. The holes were large enough just to have him fit through. He carefully stepped into one and quickly realized that the ground hit the level of his chest. What was more fascinating was that the perfect cylindrical shape he had stepped into had a tunnel that intersected through the other holes. He slowly crawled through the tunnel, while taking some time at each hole trying to figure out if there were any differences. As he continued on, he arrived at the edge of the tunnel that was connected to a deeper and larger hole, around five times larger following the pattern that was observed in the other fields. He stepped down off the edge and he could no longer see above ground like he was able to with the previous holes. He also noticed a major difference in the sides of the larger hole. They were covered with indents and scratch marks and wasn't as smooth and perfectly carved as the smaller ones.
My grandfather had no idea what these things were. What added to the puzzle was the fact that they were only found on the farms in Kahol. Being the person that he is, he became obsessed in trying to find out what was responsible for ruining all this farm land. Following that day, He would go outside every night between 2 A.M and 4 A.M to see if he could catch something.
He went out one night, following his normal routine and sat on his porch staring into his corn field. Around 3:08 A.M he started to doze off and was startled when he heard rustling inside his corn field. He sprang up and started to record on his Spheroid, not taking the chance of missing whatever was causing all these problems. He quietly got up and shuffled closer to the corn field.
"Eek eek."
A creature jumped out of corn stalks, almost hitting my grandfather. Startled, he stumbled backwards and ran for the porch. He turned around to see if the creature was still there. He expected to see something big, but all it was, was just a Kretra nibbling on his corn (Kretras are native to Kahol and are small mammals that roam around at night looking for food).
He was heading back into the house, until the rustling continued from the corn stalks. Annoyed at the kretras, he picked up a rock on his porch and threw it towards the moving stalks hoping to scare them away. To his surprise, the rustling stopped.
All of a sudden an explosion of sound emerged as enormous spines came rushing out from within the ground piercing through multiple kretras. Squealing echoed through the cool night air as kretra blood spilt everywhere. My grandfather fell backwards, with his eyes wide open terrified from what he had just saw. He quickly turned around, got up to his feet and ran towards the house. He slammed the door behind him, and turned the lock, making sure it's secured. Trying to catch his breath, he peered through the side window beside the door. A gigantic creature climbed out of the ground, before scurrying towards its prey that it had just killed.
The creature had an appearance similar to a crab, with six legs that extended from its medial abdomen. Thick spines covered its carapace back, and its dactylus pinched its meal while mandibles retracted as dagger like teeth bore into kretra flesh. Its red eyes scanned the house while devouring the kretra and it momentarily locked eyes with my grandfather. He quickly turned his head away from the window and held his breath realizing that it might've seen him. When he looked back, the creature was gone. All that was left were holes in the exact pattern he had found before, with patches of broken corn stalks scattered on the ground.
