Chapter Nine: Backwater Station
Serena Calabas was completely insane. Oh she might seem perfectly reasonable and nice on the outside, but just think about it. Here was a member of a privileged aristocracy who was born in a test tube to get married and hang off someone else's arm. She could have had it all without ever having to work a day in her life.
That she instead went and got herself college degrees was perhaps not a sign of irrationality. That she took loans from the Kel'morian Combine to buy herself a position as Magistrate on a middle of nowhere colony under attack by aliens? That holds a certain madness in it.
Then, to top it off, upon arriving, she told these fringe yokels to get their act together and form an army and proceeded to lead from the front. The only thing more insane than Calabas herself is thus that it actually, kind of, worked.
Strangely enough, it isn't even the craziest thing she ever did.
-Liberty's reports, volume I.
Three days later, the construction of the camp had still not ended. Serena had been sending salvage teams back to the city to pick up what had been left behind for use in the construction. The refugee camp had almost become a city unto itself, albeit one with militia armed to the teeth standing guard on the edge.
Raynor was in and out frequently, and when he came back, it was with stories of the hunts. Sometimes he and his militia brought back the bodies of the zerg and it wasn't long before the people had gotten sick of the gray goop which was produced by the supply depots and began trying to eat the zerg.
Case in point the fact that Serena was munching on a fried zergling leg while Hector talked about the ongoing battle on the other side of the table.
'The battle with the zerg is going well,' said Hector. 'I think. I mean we're killing way more of them than they are of us. For every man who disappears or gets jumped the critters takes dozens of casualties.'
'It probably has something to do with the fact that our soldiers wear heavy armor designed to block bullets and withstand artillery fire, while the zerg have to get in close and slash us with claws.' mused Serena. 'Any sign of them exhausting their numbers yet?'
'No.' said Hector. 'That is what worries me. They just keep on coming. And the further we go into the wastes the more we find. Those hives in the reports? They're secondary colonies. Raynor thinks their main hive cluster is somewhere further on. Thing is, we've been running into new zerg strains.'
'What kind of strains?' asked Serena.
'Well, the dog ones are pretty easy to kill.' said Hector. 'Mostly only a threat if they catch you off guard, or charge at you in such numbers that you can't stop them. But there are new ones, I think they're called hydralisks or something, that was the official lingo I got when I ran it by Idlen. They're huge with scythe claws and they fire spines at us.
'They're a lot harder to take, and we've lost good men to them.'
'I see.' said Serena. 'Hector, get in contact with some people who know their way around machinery. You know, sensor nets that sort of thing. If we can rig up a proper com sat station we might be able to locate their primary hive and destroy it.'
'Shouldn't we leave that to Alpha Squadron?' asked Hector.
'Have you seen any white clad marines marching across the wastes to glorious victory?' asked Serena. 'No? Then we're going to operate on the assumption that we'll have to kill these things ourselves.'
'Couldn't you pull some strings?' asked Hector.
'You severely overestimate my influence with the Confederacy.' said Serena. 'Do you really think I'd be here if they liked me?'
'Good point.' admitted Hector. 'I'll get on it.'
He stood up and made his way out of the room. Serena finished eating her zergling leg, which tasted like chicken but what didn't? Then she cleaned up and began reading over more and more reports. At that moment the door opened, and Raynor entered, looking quite pleased with himself.
'Hey, what's up man?' said Raynor. 'Got yer refugees tucked in nice and tight. Provided we can sidestep anymore surprises from our Confederate friends and we can keep em away from those critters, they should have an easy time.'
'I wasn't expecting you.' said Serena. 'Prestor tells me that you've been-'
'Priority alert!' said her computer. 'Backwater Station under attack by unknown alien organisms. Distress beacon activated at 1220.'
Serena rushed to the com and was about to open a channel before another one came in. It was General Edmund Duke in all his usual glory. 'We've already received the distress beacon from backwater, and we'll take care of it. You just sit tight. You'll be notified if there is anything we think you need to know.'
It cut out.
'Damn,' said Raynor, 'listen, if we wait for Confederate reinforcements, that station's dust. I'll head out there now and do what I can. You send in some militia, and we'll save those folks. Trust me.'
Then he rushed out the door without another word.
'…Alright,' said Serena, 'I'm just the leader of Mar Sara if you want to consult me on my opinion.' She paused. 'Screw it.' She pulled out her cell phone and called Hector. For a moment there was no answer and then he picked up.
'Prestor here.' said Hector.
'Prestor put the comsat station on hold. I want you to mobilize the whole militia for a full-blown offensive. Get me your best one hundred men and tell them to stand by for further orders. And get my armor ready, I'm going hunting.' She paused. 'You are in charge of the militia while I'm gone. Tell Mesa Munroe that she is in charge of civilian matters. You two keep everything running, and I'll get back to you.'
Thirty minutes later a line of troop transports, which were in truth civilian transport trucks adapted for their purposes rode into Backwater Station. Far from being under attack, they found Jim Raynor waiting on his own with the corpses of several dozen zerg lying all over the place. As Serena and the marines rushed out with guns readied they halted before him.
Raynor smirked. 'Glad to see you, boys. Time to kick some serious butt.'
'What happened here?' asked Serena.
'Well I got here, I saw the zerg attacking, and I kicked their asses.' said Raynor modestly. 'I reckon it's a pretty good start to the day.'
'It is only a start.' said Serena. 'I want you to scout out the region east of here and tell me everything you find. In the meantime, I need to meet with the people here.'
'Right on,' said Raynor, before getting into his bike and driving off.
Serena approached one of the SCV crewmembers who were relaxing after their shift. 'You men, what happened here?'
'Well we came under attack.' said one. 'His in the command center, y'know. But Marshall Raynor took care of it. Sorry if you boys came all this way for nothing.'
'And why are you standing around?' asked Serena 'Get back to work.' She glanced to her marines, then back. 'And where is your militia anyway? They ought to have been standing guard.'
'Well most of the boys were off duty y'know.' said the man. 'It had been a real quiet week.'
'Well find them and get them into uniform.' snapped Serena. 'I want them all suited up within thirty minutes and ready to move out.' She then turned to face her militia. 'Alright men, fan out and secure the area. There may be another assault coming. You, what is your name?'
'Marsha Maine, ma'am.' said the soldier.
'Marsha I want you to take a friend and scale the cliffs to the north. Scan for hostiles but do not engage. Contact me as soon as you find anything. You understand?'
'Yes ma'am.' said Marsha. 'Fredrick, come with me.'
No assault came, and thirty minutes later when the militia had all been arrayed and added to her forces, Serena found this intolerable. 'What is going on here? I was led to believe this place was under attack?'
'It does seem a bit odd.' said a man. 'Most of the time when the zerg attack they send several raids after us.'
'This is Marsha,' said Marsha, 'we've found the zerg. Hundreds of em about a mile north of Backwater Station.'
'Can you escape?' asked Serena.
'Well sure,' said Marsha, 'they ain't doing nothing out here. Just milling around one of them creep colonies they build.'
'Okay, okay,' said Serena, 'let me think. Why are they just standing there? If they had come down here with that kind of force they could have wiped this place out long before we arrived.'
'I dunno Magistrate.' said Marsha. 'Maybe the Confeds have some kind of psionic dohicky which disrupts their psychic communications.'
'Leave the thinking to me, private.' said Serena, finding the idea interesting. 'Keep a visual on them and wait for our coming.'
'Roger that, Marsha out.'
Serena turned to her soldiers. 'You men, follow me. We're going into the northern highlands, and we're going to kill everything we find there. If Raynor gets back-'
As if on cue Raynor came over the hill and slid to a halt before them. His vehicle was scraped and damaged in many places, but he himself was alright. 'Hey man, took out a couple hundred zerg while I was out there. Set some spider mines and lured em right in. Bam!
'Then I got into a firefight with those hydralisk things. What is going on here?'
'Fix his bike up.' said Serena to an SCV crew. 'We were just about to launch an offensive north. Did you notice anything strange about the zerg you fought?'
'Now that you mention it,' said Raynor, 'those critters were real still. Didn't pay any attention to me until I got close. It was kind of weird, with them just kind of watching. How did you guess?'
'Because several of my militia have reported a similar situation north of here.' said Serena. 'Anything else to report?'
'Well, the sensors on my bike indicate that an area on the hills east of here has a perfect place for mining.' said Raynor, drawing out a sheet of paper. 'Here are the coordinates if you're interested.'
'Excellent work,' said Serena, before opening a communication. 'Hector this is the Magistrate, I want you to get together some mining crews to begin operations to the east of backwater station at the following coordinates.' She said the coordinates. 'You get me?'
'Understood,' said Hector, 'I'll arrange for a militia escort as well.'
'Good thinking, Serena out.' said Serena, before turning her attention to her men. 'Alright, ladies and gentlemen let's move out.'
They trod up into the northern highlands and as they did so and soon enough came to what appeared to be a tower of flesh looming over the horizon. Around it was standing hundreds upon hundreds of the creatures, standing absolutely still. Yet they were watching them as they moved forward. What was worst of all was the violet goop which covered the ground beneath their feet, extending to suck at the ground.
'What the hell is that?' asked Raynor. 'Looks like the ground there is alive.'
'I don't know.' said Serena. 'Hang on, I got a report on this stuff from your scouts. How did you not recognize it?'
'Listen, man, I run the militia.' said Raynor. 'I pride myself on leading from the front, but the bottom line is I have to do a lot of paperwork and give a lot of orders. Even I can't be on the front lines all the time.'
Marsha came up to them from behind a rock. 'Ma'am, I've been scanning the horizon with my binoculars. I can see a line of bunkers in the distance. We might want to check it out.'
'After we're done here.' said Serena. 'Alright ladies and gentlemen, fan out into a line two men deep. I want you to stand shoulder to shoulder. The men in front will kneel down and open fire and the men behind will fire over their shoulders when the zerg get to us.'
'That sounds like a fine plan to me.' said Raynor. 'But those things don't look like they feel like moving and we're out of range. You wanna advance a little further?'
'Actually, I have a better plan.' said Serena. 'While the militia hold here you will charge in and lure the zerg out piecemeal.'
'Not sure that's gonna work.' said Raynor.
'If it doesn't we fight the entire army like we'd have to if we used your plan.' said Serena. 'So it's no loss.'
'Alright,' said Raynor, 'but I'm not happy about this.'
The militia fanned out and took the position as Serena commanded. It was a bit awkward and Serena had to make several commands to make them all ready for combat. At long last, they were there and all their guns were lined down range.
Serena took her place beside them. 'Now Raynor!'
Raynor rode towards the zerglings and fired a grenade into the midst of one of them. A large portion of the creatures snarled and rushed after him, while Raynor led them away towards the militia line. Serena waited as he veered out of the line of fire at the last second, waited as the zerg rushed at them.
Then she raised her gun. 'Open fire!'
The blaze of gauss rifles, the rattling of impaler rounds being launched, the sound of the sound barrier being broken again and again. All these things combined into a symphony which played triumphantly as the front ranks of the zerglings were torn to shreds. The others soon followed, for the zerglings had no formation and came at them in a loose mob. In mere moments the whole of them were slaughtered.
Then Raynor rushed back and lured yet another group of them. These were eradicated in a flurry of shots. Finally, there were no remaining zerglings. Serena smiled. 'Good work everyone. Load incendiary rounds and open fire on that structure.'
Moving forward the militia did so. Within a few moments the building caught fire, and within a few more the smell of burning flesh was everywhere as the structure little by little collapsed in on itself. Serena breathed out and realized she had just commanded her first military action.
'Alright, good work people.' said Serena. 'Everyone advance on that line of bunkers of look for survivors. Raynor, take point.'
'Gotcha.' said Raynor.
As they walked, they passed a broken down and destroyed town. No sign could be seen of anyone alive within it. Past that the militia soon approached the bunkers, massive square structures that clung to the ground. They had been built of neo steel and were designed to withstand bombardments of all kinds. As they approached some of the doors opened and several dozen men emerged.
'Thanks for the rescue.' said one. 'We've been holed up in these bunkers for days hiding from the zerg.'
'Are you boys from Backwater Station?' asked Raynor.
'No, we're from a mining colony some ways north of here.' said the man.
'I didn't know there were any legal mining colonies north of Backwater Station.' said Raynor.
'Well you must have heard wrong.' said the man. 'Take it up with the Magistrate if you want to know.'
'Hmm, okay.' said Raynor, before looking to Serena. 'Magistrate, have you authorized any mining operations north of Backwater Station?'
'Of course not.' said Serena. 'There is a war on, and doing any work that far north would only result in needless death.'
'As opposed to sending mining crews to the east of Backwater Station.' muttered Marsha.
'It's not as far out.' said Serena.
'Far out or not.' said Raynor. 'This is mighty strange. You boys want to change your story? Or should I start making arrests?'
'I… uh…' the man faltered. 'Look we're not from Mar Sara alright. We're an Antigan Mining company. We figured that with the zerg invading and everything going crazy we could take some unclaimed mining sites, get ourselves rich and get off.
'Then the Confederates quarantined the whole planet and we was stuck.'
'Take us back to your base camp.' said Serena. 'I want to speak with your commanding officer about paying off his debt to society. Unlicensed mining on a planet's natural resources is also known as theft, and I suggest you cooperate if you mean to avoid a one-way ticket to New Folsom.' It felt good to threaten someone with indentured servitude on the worst hell in known terran space.
'Right, right, we'll take you there. No need to get angry.' said the man.
When they found the base, it was far larger than they had expected. It was equipped with two military barracks, and its command center was state of the art. The equipment they had was far better than what was available to the Mar Saran militia.
'These things have been out here a while.' said Raynor 'But they could be pretty useful.'
'Yeah, we uh… we lucked out and found an old base from the Guild Wars.' said their guide. 'We'd gone pretty heavily armed ourselves while we were at it. Anyway uh… the boss is over there in the bunker line that way.'
'Excellent,' said Serena 'lead on.'
When at last they came before the leader of the Antigan expedition the sun was setting on the horizon, painting the world in the colors of twilight. Serena knew that they could go no further together whatever the result.
The 'boss' was clad in a state of the art firebat suit and accompanied by many other firebats. There was a tense silence as the marines lowered their guns and the man approached. 'Need a light?'
'I'd much rather have your name.' said Serena.
'Gui Montag.' said the man, visor pulling back to reveal a sooty face. 'How can I help.'
'Well first of all,' said Serena. 'I want you to tell me everything you know about the surrounding areas, and the zerg.'
'Well north and west of here,' said Gui, 'there is mostly sheer cliffs. Only a small path leading up those ways which anyone can get up here. I have some boys guarding that route so the xenomorphs can't use it again.
'They slipped through down south in the night, heading somewhere. Haven't heard from em since.'
'They attacked Backwater Station south of here.' said Raynor. 'You boys should have been more careful.'
'Yeah,' said Gui, 'well to the east we've got bigger problems. Whole lot of xenomorphs tried to attack the bunkers. My boys and I fended em off, but they kept on increasing in intensity. Then they just sort of stopped. No idea why.
'Now we don't know what is going on.'
'I see.' said Serena. 'Then east is where we will head next. North of here is where the zerg's primary hive is located, at least that is what our scouts think. We'll save that for last.'
'East seems the right choice.' said Gui 'There was a Confederate research base in that region, actually. Real tight security, though I never got any word on what they were doing. A couple of small towns too.'
'Squatters?' guessed Serena.
'Well yeah,' said Raynor. 'sometimes folks who live in Tarsonis and other core worlds go out onto the fringe to try and start a new life, where you don't have to worry about ghosts on rooftops as much.
'We don't have all of them on record.' He paused. 'Have you boys heard any word from those towns?'
'Nah,' said Gui, 'only thing we've seen going west are xenomorphs.'
'You keep calling them xenomorphs.' said Raynor. 'Why?'
'That was the official name for em.' said Gui, looking a bit shifty.
'Not that I heard.' said Serena. 'In fact until recently I thought these things weren't supposed to exist.'
'Look,' said Gui. 'I'm not allowed to talk about it. I don't feel like getting shot through the head by a ghost, so I'm not gonna talk about it.'
'Fair enough,' said Serena, 'you can officially consider all of your earnings from the mine taxed in reparations for breaking the law. They and any further profits will be directed to my private bank account.'
There was silence.
'That's a little self-serving, don't ya think?' asked Raynor.
'What?' said Serena. 'I'm in debt to the Kel'morian Combine. If I don't make enough of a profit from this venture to pay them off I'm going to end up hanging from a street lamp somewhere.
Of course, if Mr. Montag were to provide me with information that may be essential to the survival of this colony, I might be willing to be more reasonable.'
There was a long silence as Montag thought about it. 'Alright, alright, you tell your boys to walk out of earshot, and I'll tell mine to do the same. And you didn't hear this from me.'
'Understood,' said Serena, activating the record feature on her marine suit, 'Raynor, tell the men to move away. You'd better go with them.'
'Alright,' said Raynor, 'you heard her men. They want to meet in private.'
When everyone was gone, Gui glanced around as if expecting to see a ghost watching him. He took the cigarette out of his mouth. 'Okay, some months ago I was involved in an operation to evac a Confederate facility on Chau Sara before it got nuked. Apparently, Magistrate Collins was undertaking some research on the subject. The xenomorphs were way thicker on Chau Sara than they were here.
'The Commander of Cerberus Squadron-'
'I've never heard of anything called Cerberus Squadron.' said Serena.
'That's because it's not official.' said Gui. 'They work black ops, making sure the Confederacy's dirty little secrets stay secret. Mostly they use the other Squadrons as muscle or recruit local forces. So obviously they wanted to keep things on the down low, but the xenomorphs had set up hive clusters all around the Flannum Institute. Thing is, Alpha Squadron was hunting rebels and had already run into some xenomorphs. So the Commander recruited an Alpha Squadron company, Frontal Company I think.
'I worked with Frontal Company to wipe out the primary hive clusters and then I went into Flannum Installation, did my job and got out.'
'What was the name of the Lieutenant in charge of Frontal Company?' asked Serena.
'Um… Swallow I think.' said Gui. 'Emily Swallow. Now that I think of it, I heard she acted as Ethan's right hand throughout the whole war. Ended up involved in the worst of the fighting and survived it all. Though her whole company got wiped out in the process. If anyone knows more than me it's her, cause she was there for the whole Chau Sara campaign working with Ethan directly.
'Ethan was my Commander in Cerberus Squadron.'
'What did you do after you finished your mission.' asked Serena.
'Well, I was met by this real shady fellow,' said Gui. 'Samir Duran was what he called himself. No idea if that was his real name, but Ethan took direct orders from him. Maybe he was calling the shots in Cerberus Squadron, not really sure. They like keeping people in the dark in that outfit.'
Serena blinked, unsure if she had heard correctly. 'Samir Duran?'
'Yeah, that was what he called himself.' said Gui, eyeing her. 'You know him?'
'I… my uncle works with him.' said Serena.
'It must be on something really important. He swore me to secrecy and politely suggested I retire.' said Gui. 'When someone in authority suggests you retire from Cerberus Squadron you do. No one stays in it very long. The Confederacy doesn't like people knowing too many of their secrets. When they ask you to retire, you retire and that's that. Otherwise, you disappear.'
'I see.' said Serena. 'The Confederacy clearly took a very active role against the zerg on Chau Sara. Why aren't they doing it now?'
Gui remained silent for a long moment. 'I don't know. What do you want from me? I was just muscle. Hell, Ethan probably didn't know a thing about it.'
'Why are you here?' asked Serena suddenly. 'If you knew the xenomorphs were such a threat-'
'The number of xenomorphs on Mar Sara is nothing compared to what Alpha Squadron faced.' said Gui. 'I figured that Alpha Squadron would come down here and wipe them out in a day or so and in the meantime my boys and I could strike it rich. Instead, they locked down all passage to and from the planet, and now they're just watching. Like they want to see what will happen.'
Something was wrong here. Serena could not put her finger on it. 'They already know what will happen though, don't they? They would have to have known about the zerg for some time before Chau Sara to be researching them. They had already seen what would happen in those worlds.
'So why lock down the planet? They could get a huge PR boost from wiping out the zerg, but instea,d they are just letting us do all the fighting-' A statement suddenly came to mind. 'Gui what do you know about how the zerg are organized? I mean how do they react to different combat situations? How do they communicate?' Idlen had given her the information, but she wanted to confirm it.
'Hell if I know.' said Gui. 'I wasn't on the ground much. I think I heard one of the scientists say something about a hive mind though. If you can find Emily Swallow she might be able to tell you better than I. Now if there is nothing else, I'd rather stop talking before my head gets blown off.'
'Right,' said Serena, 'I'll keep this to myself.' That sealed it then. The zerg had a hive mind, and the Confederacy was trying to exploit the fact.
She turned and walked back to Raynor, who looked at her curiously. 'What did he say?'
'If I told you that,' said Serena with a winning smile. 'I'm afraid I'd have to kill you.'
'Ouch,' said Raynor, 'so what is the game plan.'
Serena turned to see Gui approaching with his men. 'Alright, I'll allow you to keep half of your profits from this venture. The rest of it is mine.' She paused. 'However, if you assist us in our offensives against the zerg in this region I'll happily allow you to keep three-quarters of what remains.'
'You're the salt of the Earth, Magistrate.' said Gui.
Authors Note:
Okay, so Backwater Station will be taking place throughout several chapters I think. There is a great deal of content to be found in this mission beyond simply destroying bases, and it's kind of important to establish the relationship between Raynor and Serena. That and this chapter was really getting long.
By the way, you may have noticed that I am taking steps to make Serena's career more similar to that of the canon Magistrate. As things stand now, I'm pretty sure this all could have happened within the context of the original story.
Edit:
Okay, so it turns out that Gui Montag was supposed to be an Omega Squadron marine. My bad, I figured he had no backstory outside of the missions and that I could just make him the firebat who talks in Backwater Station. Too late to change it now.
