Chapter Eleven

Terran Commander Level Four

Status: Commander Variant CMC Power Armor: C-14 "Impaler" 8mm Combat Rifle 500/3,000

Abilities: Rally Cry, Shredder Grenade, Detector

Health: 550 HP: 45 HP Recovery rate per minute

Armor: +5

Energy: 200/200: Recharge rate 50 points every 1 minute

Personal Shields: 150/150: Recharge rate 50 points per minute

Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]

Terran Commander Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete

Requirements: 107/150 Hand Grenade Kills, 400/400 Rifle Kills, 2,162/2,500 Confirmed Kills, 3/5 Rescued Allies, 5/6 Commander Research Points, 0/10 Boss Kills, 1/3 Commander Mission

Blue Force Terran Level Four to Level Five [ERROR] Incomplete

Requirements: 152/90 Depots, 171/150 SCVs, 984/400 Marines, 182/85 Firebats, 30/25 Medics, 58/50 Vultures, 15/20 Hellions, 26/10 Science Facility Upgrades, 55/40 Zerg Bio Samples, 55/40 Protoss Crystal Shards, 65/40 Terran Research Files, 3/4 Rescued Allies, 6/4 Barracks, 3/5 Command Centers, 3/4 Factory, 0/1 Sensor Tower, 0/1 Armory, 1/1 Merc Compound and Terran Commander Level Five

Blue Force Terran Resources

Minerals: 315,450

Gas: 178,000

Merc Compound now capable of supporting [16 WAR PIGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [FOUR]

Merc Compound now capable of supporting [8 VANDALS] at Blue Force Terran Level [FOUR]

Merc Compound now capable of supporting [8 DEVIL DOGS] at Blue Force Terran Level [FOUR]

Terran Commander Level Four

Allies: Adjutant, Sgt. Casari [MARINE], Lt. Hismallen [VULTURE], Cpl. Hanov [FIREBAT]

Alpha base was already showing improvement, the Bunkers were about halfway finished along with a new defensive structure I was implementing.

Missile Turrets.

Costing the same as a Bunker with the same build time, these anti-air and detectors were the main staple for defense against flying targets and allows nearby units to detect any kind of Cloaked or Burrowed enemy unit moving within range of the Missile Turrets. Against ground targets they were defenseless, which was why I was having one built behind each Bunker to not only boost the protective anti-air bubble I was building around each base, but to make it that much harder for enemy units to target them without having to go through the Bunkers first.

All of my newest defenses would be finished before nightfall and that made me very happy due to the fact I had a sneaking suspicion that I would be needing such installations soon.

Alpha base concerned me the most, aside from the motely string of Bunkers spread out along the edge of the cliff and concentrated around the ramps leading up into the main area of Alpha, which was now getting kind of cramped with all of the buildings and troops wandering around, that and I was completely out of minerals and gas near Alpha. Most of the idle SCVs sitting around were divided up between Bravo and Delta before I went on a massive building spree in the small area when I had encountered Rouges in the Tutorial after placing a screen of five Bunkers and seven Missile Turrets along the edge of the cliff.

Having lost every single building and unit at Charlie base had been a massive loss of resources, that and I was going to have to wait for the replacement buildings to finish construction, which what was going on in the area I dubbed Alpha Staging Grounds.

Alpha Staging Grounds was big enough for two Command Centers, three Barracks and just barely two Factories to be built, the distance between some of the construction zones were wide enough for a single SCV to maneuver around it. Rather than build nothing but wall to wall Supply Depots until I ran out of room, I had decided to leave any kind of permeant expansion buildings to be built at the site of where I might have new bases and rather than try to remain in the area protecting a rather fragile building under construction for two days before said base would operational. Just like I had done when Bravo, Charlie and Delta were constructed, fly in the primary buildings, erect defenses within an hour and by then the SCVs would have gathered enough minerals and gas to pay off the cost of that base by then.

With that side project on schedule, I turned to the next project I was undertaking as I turned to look at the newest building currently under construction not far from my Science Facility.

At 500 minerals and 300 gas with an 18 hour build time required, the Armory could only be built once and I was pretty excited to get it in operation, a little feeling in the back of my head telling me that it would be important in the future. Considering that the Science Facility contained all of the upgrades geared towards buildings and ground troops, not counting the upgrades that required Research Points of course, no doubt the Armory would have goodies for my vehicles and hopefully aircraft.

Commander, would you like to review the Sensor Tower building que as well?

Oh yeah, that reminds me of the next super expensive and time consuming project of mine.

"Might as well," I sighed before turning around and heading towards my Command Center, "unless those things can pick up cable I still say they are a waste."

Commander, the function of dedicated Sensor Towers is to improve communications, detection and accuracy of system wide scanners in the event of combat, a single Sensor Tower would boost efficiency one point seven percent

"I know Adjutant, you haven't stopped reminding me since they could be built," I stopped near a Barracks and keyed my com unit, "let me know what they can really do."

Sensor Towers, when linked into a larger network of expanding bases and established Sensor Towers, have the advanced capabilities of connecting to satellites in orbit for a variety of abilities for the Blue Force Terran Commander to implement in both combat and non-combatant operations

"Such as?"

Com Sweep is the ability to take a brief scan of any given area within range of a satellite in the event the Commander would wish to perform advanced recon or to locate otherwise undetectable enemies

M.U.L.E. Delivery allows micro fabricators within any satellite to build an advanced version of the SCV and deliver to any designated destination via orbital re-entry pod, increasing resource collection and build time by 50% for 1 hour

Orbital Supply [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time

Kinetic Delivery Strike [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time

Rapid Troop Deployment [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time

Satellite Laser Bombardment [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time

Nuclear Missile Drop [ERROR] unable to access that function at this time

That is all Commander, is there anything else?

"Yeah, build one at each base for now and have one built when Charlie base has been reestablished," a new batch of Medics had just finished at the Barracks, "I'll be up in the Command Center in a few, have the others meet me there."

With that I could finally get a decent look at my Medics, up close and personal, had a feeling I would be seeing plenty of them in the near future if the last incident was any kind of indicator.

Medics were a slimmer and more smoother design of combat suit compared to Marines or Firebats, built for speed and strength in the event of moving wounded troops and rushing towards injured units they could heal. Painted a dull white with blue highlights, each Medic bore the typical Red Cross on each shoulder and chest plate to make them rather obvious. Upon the left arm was a modified combat shield that could protect the entire Medic from incoming attacks, though enough Impaler rounds, claws or plasma energy would wear it down and destroy it before the Medic itself would sustain damage. It was that I noticed each default Medic had servos designated to move any Marine or Firebat CMC armor, but anything bigger would be too heavy, so obviously I would have to upgrade them in the near future.

I mean yeah a Marauder was obviously bigger than regular Marines and Firebats, Reapers might be too heavy with that jet pack to fly up cliffs and stuff, but it says nothing about my Mercs and Allies.

Each Medic also came with 100 energy that had a heal ratio of 3 HP/1 energy and a recharge rate of 30 energy a minute, not bad, but I would need to implement enough Medics along with my ground troops in any kind of major fight, because once the Medics ran out of energy to heal my troops, then the massacre would begin. The way how Medics actually healed was rather interesting as well, on the arm opposite of the shield was this massive vial of glowing green liquid that turned out to be super advanced medical Jell-O that was pumped through the needle looking thing on the end of the vial. Once the Medic had jabbed someone with the massive syringe, the special emitter in the tip of the syringe would activate and force the medical Jell-O through while destabilizing it down to molecular form, effectively transmitting it through the wounded unit.

Which explained why Medics had energy, without it they would have to administer the medical Jell-O directly and with CMC armor and general mayhem going on when they would no doubt have to administer first aid, this method was obviously a lot more effective and efficient.

Watching some of my wounded troops that were being rotated out of the Bunkers getting healed also revealed another nifty feature about Medics, they could also repair segments of CMC armor through the use of pre-built Neosteel patches that would mold themselves over damaged areas of armor and form into pieces of the actual suit, something about Medics having specialized micro processers in their gauntlets or something that rendered the metal into the appropriate shape.

Medics were awesome.

It was then I got an up close and personal view of my other addition, Hellions, as one of them drove out of a nearby Factory and headed towards the other Hellions before I flagged it down as it parked itself in front of me.

Think Warthog from Halo, though armor plating covered the driver and passenger portion of the vehicle and instead of a huge Gatling gun hanging off the back, instead imagine an enclosed turret with a long nozzle sticking out of the top. Sitting on a squat four wheeled frame, Hellions had that rugged all terrain appeal and an engine that sounded like an effing jet taking off, much to my dismay I couldn't enter the vehicle or have the invisible driver get out either, yet another vehicle I wasn't allowed to drive.

The Hellion let out a short burst from the flamethrower before taking off, I'd guess it had twice the effective range of a Firebat, might be useful later on.

After stepping into the Suit Bay I noticed a battered looking Vulture parked across the room, no sign of Lt. Hismallen anywhere as I hurriedly got out of my suit and headed towards the elevator.

Commander, all current Allies accounted for, what are your orders

Looking around the main holo-table revealed Sgt Casari standing at ease facing the door, Cpl Hanov either savoring the taste or smoking his cigar off to the side and Lt. Hismallen in the flesh slouched against the nearby console.

He looked good for a guy who had nearly been on the verge of life and death, granted his jumpsuit was soiled with dried blood and some kind of liquid coolant from his bike, though I could be imagining things, but his did look a little pale and ragged.

"Alright gang," I felt suddenly tired all of a sudden, no doubt the adrenaline wearing off finally, "we managed to survive the worst thrown at us so far."

I brought up the stats detailing our losses from said Anarchy Event, "However we lost an entire base and nearly lost Alpha, granted we pulled through at the end, but we need to improve our defenses and strategy in the event something like that happens again."

Commander, it should come to your attention that Blue Force Terran had gone offline when your vitals flat lined some kind ago

"What!" I turned to look over at Adjutant's avatar, the real her being the electronics and computers embedded within the Command Center.

"You were killed by the Centurion exploding sir," Sgt Casari stepped forward, "for nearly fifteen minutes you were dead, until the healing nanites within your body kicked in and revived you."

Healing what again? "Adjutant, explain."

Upon the failure of your biological functions, connection to the servers and primary mainframe went offline resulting in the eventual reactivation of the Commander's Restoration and Repair Nanites to restore your biological functions and command signal

A grainy video appeared on the big screen, showing a different view of the fight from earlier, fast forwarding through the entrance of the three Rouge Terran Night Bosses and subsequent ass kicking before the video slowed down after the Centurion exploded.

I got the treat of watching myself get thrown backwards ass over teakettle and not moving, in fact nothing moved on the screen. The gunfire in the background had stopped, tracers and flames were no longer lighting up the night and nearly every single unit had frozen.

Code was flowing across the screen, brief flashes from other angles and views from other bases revealed the same thing, all of my forces had ceased to do anything, shoot, move or even defend themselves as the Rouges continued to attack. Not like they had earlier, no it was more like they were focused on taking out whatever had attacked them or something else that moved before the freeze. In fact after the initial destruction of the Bunkers and the units garrisoned within them, it was like the Rouges had forgotten my forces, recordings from Charlie base actually showed a three way brawl going on within my base that spilled over and leveled everything after the Infestor Lord showed up, video from Charlie base cut off from then on.

The view centered back on me laying on the ground and it was then I noticed something, three things were moving on screen, Sgt Casari, Cpl Hanov and Lt. Hismallen.

With the loss of the command signal, Charlie Base quickly fell and most of the defensive installations at Alpha Base were destroyed before the Commander's Restoration and Repair Nanites finished reviving you and thus restoring full operation of Blue Force Terran

That explained the four inch long gash in my chest plate I hadn't noticed until a Medic had walked up to me and demonstrated the repair ability they had.

I had died for crying out loud.

"I went down taking out approaching Rouges boss," Lt. Hismallen shrugged, "kept them away from you long enough for the nanite things to work and for you to get back up."

A video courtesy of Adjutant showed just that, a one-two combo from a couple Zerglings and a Protoss Zealot getting the last hit in resulted in Lt. Hismallen suddenly collapsing behind the controls of his Vulture seconds before a wave of fire killed off the survivors swarming towards him, Cpl Hanov shown doing what he did best for a few minutes before I could see myself start twitching.

It was also then I noticed Sgt Casari reaching down and yanking a shard of twisted metal out of my chest, the phantom pain enough to make me wince before everything started up again.

As in everything went back to normal and that was when I woke up.

"How?" that question was directed towards Adjutant before I snapped my head back around towards Lt. Hismallen.

"You died, didn't you?" Seeing the man nod had me reaching for a chair.

Each Ally contains the same Healing and Restoration Nanites as you do Commander, however theirs are not fully developed to the extent of yours, merely able to heal and restore the body until proper medical attention can be given

Well, this was all a bit much to take in all of a sudden, but I decided to take care of that later.

Much later.

"We now have a real game changer people, Medics and they are effective," Adjutant bringing up an entire roster of all Blue Force Terran units, "we were operating at nearly seventy percent and now that issue has been taken care of."

A real time video showed a single Medic healing a group of injured Marines and a Firebat that had come out of a Bunker, in less than two minutes all of the wounded were back at full health and stepping back inside the nearby Bunker, of course it may not have sounded like much, but the time and resources it would have taken to replace those units was shown next to the video, making Medics very effective.

"For every four infantry units there will be one Medic, giving enough of a ratio to be effective in short term engagements and brutal slugfests we're going to be dealing with in the future with all of the Night Bosses, Rouge forces, Commander missions and of course Anarchy Events." I swiped the screen in front of me until another window appeared, this one of the latest addition to Blue Force Terran.

"As for now, all Hellions will be operating alongside Vultures for fast moving close range support, integrating them with infantry will only rob them of their greatest asset, speed." A 3D projection of a Hellion was shown, if the data next to it was correct, that meant Hellions were just as fast, if not slightly faster than Vultures.

"Against Zerg ground units they'll roast anything that moves boss," Cpl Hanov stepped forward as the cigar in his mouth twitched side to side, "problem is they got no defense against fliers or ranged units, those flamethrowers are a lot more powerful than what me and my boys got though."

"What about Protoss?" I had a feeling the answer wasn't going to be pretty.

Cpl Hanov shrugged, "As long as they stay moving and out of range of any plasma strikes I don't see there being much problem, but again if there are any kind of fliers whatsoever then they are history."

"Hit and run tactics," Lt. Hismallen spoke up as he stood upright and walked closer, "they ride with us and get up close and personal while we hit from afar with heavier ordnance, sounds simple enough."

"They should avoid Rouge Terran forces," Sgt. Casari reached over and highlighted the projection so it stopped rotating and enlarged, "they have no armor plating to speak of that could stop actual spikes or shrapnel, but as long as they stay on the move they should be harder to hit."

"So we agree that Hellions are sticking with Vultures as vehicle support?" Nods went around the table as I brought up another screen.

It showed a projection of a Sensor Tower, real time video showed three were under construction, one here at Alpha and another at Bravo and Delta respectively.

"Adjutant seems pretty hard up for these things, guess we'll find out how effective they might actually be once they finish," the only available options were displayed, Com Sweep and M.U.L.E Delivery, better than nothing I guess, "aside from that we need to wait."

"Grab some chow and hit the rack for at least an hour, that's an order, we'll suit up and get ready for the night rush then." I watched as everyone filed out and left me alone.

During that time I checked the Science Facility console to see what, if any, upgrades were available at this time and I wasn't disappointed.

The second tier of upgrades for armor, movement, weapon damage, range and ammo capacity for ground troops were available at double the cost and time for upgrading, but each one of them was selected and placed in the researching que. It would take time for those upgrades to finish researching and then it would take just as long if not longer for them to be implemented into each one of my troops, but that would have to wait for later as I did some more exploring in the Science Facility menu.

Eureka.

Medic Auxiliary Power Cores Tier 1: Extensively for Medics in mind, this particular upgrade boosts contained energy in preexisting power cells by 50% with a 10% faster recharge rate. At the cost of 500 minerals, 250 gas and 5 hours, this upgrade is guaranteed to improve the overall effectiveness of Medics in combat.

Nice, things were looking up if I could apply upgrades directly to my Medics right after unlocking them, that and I couldn't help but notice that this was a tier one upgrade, methinks I could upgrade that particular feature several times after leveling up.

At least I think I can.

Regardless, there weren't any more available research upgrades in that portion of the menu and as much as I wanted to check out the Research Point upgrades and see what was available, food and sleep sounded much more promising and quicker to make me feel better as I powered down the terminal and went in search of food.

That and some shut eye sounded heavenly.