October 4th 3235, 1428 h
District 10- Residential Quarter D, New Mombasa
"Alright, Now that we've solved our water problem, let's continue on our trip." Chris said. The water was divided equally and it was to be rationed. Just then, Chris thought he saw something strange in the sky. "What the hell is that thing?" Corporal Binsati asked. "I don't know corporal." The captain said. He was looking up at a giant ship, which was easily visible in low Earth orbit. It was long like a Mobian ship, but it had no dorsal fins like the Mobian Space Yards put on their craft. Sally came up. "Uhh, Chris?" the human turned to her. "What is that thing?" Chris shook his head. "I don't know. Johnson!" The sergeant turned. "You ever see a ship like that?" sergeant Johnson shook his head. "Nope, not ever." He turned to the princess. "Sally, Is that one of your father's new chassis?" Sally shook her head. "Dad didn't say anything about new ships." Then he turned to the one man in the squad who knew much of what was happening. "What about you, Logan?" "I have." He turned looking at the ship. "That's a Protoss assault ship. They never travel alone so there must be more. "The Protoss?' Chris asked scared. "Well, that's it, game over." Carl said. "Shut up, Santorini." Johnson said. "Is it strong?" Ryan asked. Logan nodded. "They all have shields. They're tough to punch through so short of a nuclear strike, nothing's getting through to that thing." "How many troops do they carry?" Logan shrugged. "Don't know. Never actually seen a roster." "So how do we kill it?" Chaz said. "Well, considering that we 86'd the Air Defense turrets, the only way that's going down is if someone upstairs plugs it." "Well, maybe Andsworth can talk to it." Stacker said looking up to the ship. The sun gleamed off of it and could blind anyone who directly looked at the gold armor. "Thankfully, the Protoss speak English, but I doubt they'll be in the mood to talk. If they keep him alive for a few minutes, that would be a miracle."
A marine head a noise. "Sir, there's a noise back there." He said hooking his thumb over his shoulder. "I know, Lance Corporal. I heard it too. Ryan, Sally. On me." Three marines moved toward the sound in the shadows. A blue blade appeared in the darkness. A creature came out of the shadows. The marines started to fire. But the shots were instantly deflected. The marines continued to fire. The creature raised the blade and sliced through Ryan's 665. "Enough!" It screamed. Ryan stumbled and stared at his useless carbine. He tossed the rear half away and retrieved his second rifle from his backpack holster. The guns were still raised but no one fired. " Do not fire on me. I mean no harm towards you." The creature spoke from a face that sported no mouth. But its eyes flashed sometimes. Their golden radiance slightly chilling." Chris stepped forward after turning his safety on. "Are you…Protoss?" The creature nodded. "Indeed I am. I am Haalos. I am a Protoss warrior and I am 355 human years old." Chris was surprised. Humans generally lived to about two hundred years on average. Mobians to a minimum of two hundred and twenty. This Protoss was three hundred and a half years old and sounded like he was a twenty year old. "I see by your looks that you do not believe my age. Protoss may live to be a thousand years old, if not more. I am still considered 'young' for my race." "Fascinating. If only Tails were here." "Who?" "That's not important." Chris said. "You came from the ship above?" Haalos nodded. "Indeed. I arrived with several members of my clan as well. Three of them are down here. Daalos and Aalos." "Your clan?" Chris asked. "They are my brothers." Haalos said. "Why did you came and find us?" Sally asked. "Executor Zarok sent us to aid you in your quest to slay the Overmind." "Executor?" Johnson asked. "Our leader." Haalos explained. "Oh. Very thoughtful of him." Johnson said lighting up a cigar. "Consider yourself fortunate, humans. Zarok could've disinfested this planet hours ago." "Can we change the subject please?" Haalos nodded. "Agreed. I apologize for attacking you. It's just, the only humans I have ever met were Terrans and they attacked us on sight. You humans are…different." Chris nodded and said, "We apologize for attacking you Haalos. The past few days haven't been kind to us." Haalos nodded. "I understand your condition. Prolonged fights against the Zerg have often yielded deterioration of the mind." Chris sighed. "I haven't been feeling myself lately. I've done some things I'm not proud of." "Yeah, like to me." Ryan said. He opened his mouth to show where Chris had socked him and knocked out his tooth." Haalos then said. "At least you didn't have an energy blade with you." Haalos flicked his wrist to reveal a blue triangle of energy and sliced through a stop sign. The blade bisected he sigh efficiently and near silently." "Yeah, that could've done more damage." Chris said obviously. Haalos then stared into space. "What's wrong?" Sally asked the Protoss warrior. "My brothers are in danger!" Haalos cried. "We must depart now!" Chris shrugged. "Do as he says, guys." The entire unit fell into run behind Haalos. Chris received a beep on his now functioning datapad. It featured a typed message about the Protoss from Admiral Andsworth. "Great, now he tells us." Chris said stuffing it into his backpack.
107th Helljumper Division leader Shane Kanow fired his 665 on burst setting, his 5.56mm rounds peppering a Hydralisk into oblivion. His HUD showed that there was one behind him. He grabbed his Mark VII CANARMS Ontario Combat knife in its sheath. Kanow's hand swept backwards and he created a gash in the advancing Zerg's left side. The monster screamed loudly then was silenced by a three-round burst. Shane looked over a bunch of debris hoping to see help come, then turned to cap a few advancing Zerglings. Staff Sergeant Higgins of Third Squad ran up to Kanow. "Captain, can you trust in what the Protoss said? Can you be sure that the missing 182nd marines are coming?" "Higgins, I happen to trust Chris Vennettilli. He saved my life once. I KNOW he'll come." Higgins shrugged and fired a 000 slug out of his SPAS 24 Semi Auto shotgun. The pellets caught a Hydralisk in the head and blew it off. The blood spurted and caught Higgins in the faceplate. "Aw Jesus Christ!" Higgins cursed. "I just got my goddamned helmet waxed!" Kanow laughed as the Staff Sergeant tried to clean his faceplate. "Looks good on you Alvin!" "Falken izu!" Higgins said in the dialect of his homeplanet Constance. Shane decided to overlook the curse and sprayed the advancing Zerg with bullets. One rather strange ODST unorthodoxly tore a M114 LAAG off of the back of a Warthog and needed a buddy to hold onto the heat shield to keep it from flying away with recoil. Suddenly, they heard wings flapping. The Protoss, Aalos screamed "Mutalisk!" "What the hell?" Kanow asked. The wings grew louder. Suddenly, a creature that looked like a giant bat of Danntooine except with a mouth-like cannon on its tail flew in. From the cannon, it belched an object reminiscent of a ninja throwing-star out. The object flew and caught an ODST in the faceplate. Kanow couldn't see the blood, but he knew the inside was almost flooding with it.
Dozens of more Mutalisks swarmed in. Kanow heard a click and knew that a reload was needed. He released its clip and it fell to the road. He reached onto his belt to find a reload, but there was none. He desperately felt his magnetic bands on his back for an extra, no dice. He had used up all of his rifle grenades too. "Shit!" he cursed. "Higgins, you have a reload?" He called. "I just loaded in my last mag. "Shit, shit, shit!" he kept cursing. "Where in God's fucking name are you, Chris?" Aalos and Daalos turned their heads. "They approach." Aalos said. Shane could leave himself feeling relieved.
"Shane!" a voice yelled. Kanow craned his neck to see Chris standing in the sun. Just like an action movie. Kanow waved his hand and Chris ran down to meet him "Jesus, man, am I frigging glad to see you, sweetheart!" "Don't sweat it, Helljumper." Chris said shaking his hand and patting his shoulder. "Heard you got a rodent problem." Chris said pointing to the Mutalisks. "I got a team of exterminators on station. Want me to send them in?" Kanow smiled. "Naturally." Chris gave a sharp whistle. Johnson vaulted over a piece of debris. Carl, Lance, and Chaz followed. Bunnie and Sally came together. Logan accompanied the other marines, which were lead by Stacker. "Whoa." The white sergeant said shielding his eyes. "Those are some ugly birds." "Those are Zerg, Sergeant Stacker." Remus nodded. "I knew that, boy. Let's just kill 'em." The marines hosed down the Mutalisks with concentrated fire, conserving ammo and dealing punishment. One by one, the avian Zerg screeched and fell where they collided and crumbled on the roads. Almost an hour passed when the final Mutalisk was defeated, then a roar broke out. Kanow and Chris turned their heads to see a gigantic creature come from a side street. It was nearly fifty feet high and looked like an elephant. Only the tusks were scythes. "Ultralisks!" Haalos yelled. "Ultralisks?" Chris repeated. "Immensely powerful Zerg that tend to wipe out their prey using either their tusks or their feet." Then, the Ultralisk charged. "GET DOWN!" Chris ordered the troops.
The marines dug in and fired their rifles. The Zerg was about a few feet away when the leaped sideways to avoid its feet. "Ryan!" Chris yelled. "Stick that son of a bitch!" Ryan took out a few Adhesive Grenades. He primed them and, using the stick below the detonator, threw it at the Zerg where it stuck on its hide. The grenades exploded and the Ultralisk sent a cry of pain. Enraged, it charged again. It halted above Ryan and before it could swipe, it screeched again. Haalos and his brothers hacked at the Ultralisk with their energy blades. The Ultralisk swiped its claws and connected with Daalos. The Protoss warrior gave an explosive exhale and was flung away, the armor encasing his body protecting him from the claws. Daalos impacted on debris and the impact broke his spine.
His two brothers went to join him. "Keep firing!" Chris said. All the marines fired until their clips were empty. The Ultralisk didn't know what to do with all the humans firing at it. Suddenly, the creature reared up, gave a huge roar, and then fell down dead. The Marines cheered and fired three-round bursts into the carcass. "Captain!" Haalos called. Chris and Shane walked towards the trio of Protoss. "Is Daalos alright?" Shane asked. "Adun has surly blessed him. Were it not for luck, Daalos would be dead. But he cannot fight." Daalos looked at his brothers. "That was…unpleasant." The Protoss laughed. "Brother, you are alright then?" Daalos tried to stand up, but his injury wouldn't allow it. "I've been better." The Protoss said through pain. "I will need time to heal." Haalos nodded. "Very well. I shall inform Executor Zarok that you will need medical attention."
A few moments later, a blue light surrounded the injured Protoss. He was taken apart, molecule by molecule and brought to the Protoss carrier. "He's going to be OK?" Shane asked the Protoss. "He will recover, but he cannot rejoin us. That meeting with the Ultralisk was not what we expected. They have been known to destroy many warriors and Terrans. Like we said, that encounter was unexpected. We were lucky to get away with one injured Protoss." Chris checked his datapad to see if it was working. Still no luck." "How much farther to the Overmind?" Haalos looked at Chris, his yellow eyes meeting the Human's green ones. "Over a day at our pace. We should rest." Chris agreed. "Best idea anyone had all day."
At a campfire at 2123 hours local time, the marines needed a plan. "The Overmind is large, human. Larger than anything we've ever seen." Haalos explained. "There have been many rumored in the past, almost impervious to any type of attack." Aalos finished.
"But there's gotta be some way to defeat it." Sally said. "We know of no way." Haalos said. "Well, Sal, we'll find some way." Bunnie comforted her friend. "Ryan," Chris asked. "Hmm?" the weapons specialist answered. "Got anything in that pack that'll make a big boom?" Ryan smiled. "'Boom' is my middle name, Captain." He tilted the bag, spilling its contents: Two pistols, twelve clips for them, a M5A1 Semi Auto Carbine, half a dozen clips for those, three grenades, two health kits, a Girls Gone Wild VDISC… "Can I borrow that when you're done?" Johnson asked. "Focus, Avery." Chris said. While the marines looked through the Corporal's pack, Haalos was questioning Sally. "In all of my long years, I have never encountered a race such as yours. What do you call yourselves?" "Well, Haalos," Sally addressed the Protoss. "We call ourselves Mobians. We hail from the planet Mobius." "I was not aware such a planet existed." Sally shrugged, "Technically it doesn't. Its in another universe." "Is it now?" Haalos said intrigued. "I hope after our job, we can visit this planet of yours. You describe it as such a nice place." "That'd be good. We never get new races very much in our parts." "FOUND IT!" Ryan yelled holding up a small rectangular piece of metal with dials and buttons on it.
"Cool!" Carl said, "What is it?" "Idiot," Ryan began. "It's a fire transmitter beacon." "What does it do?" Chris asked. "Its sort of an orbit to ground bombardment 'bull's-eye' you could say. It tells one or more ships where exactly to fire on a orbit to ground bombardment." "What strings are attached?" Chris asked. "Well, we need to set it up manually. We have to plant it on that thing and set it off." "Lovely." Johnson growled and sucked on a cigar. "Wait," Chris said, "What if we can't plant it? What if it has too many minions or if it has weaponry?" "We have to try." Ryan said.
Half an hour later, Chris got into bed. It was warm. The military actually made duvets for soldiers in rough environment. The geese feathers supported Chris's weight. The captain nearly closed his eyes when a scream rang out. It was a Zerg voice, but it was far away with no chance of reaching them. The humans had good security, provided that the Protoss didn't seem to go to sleep. Just then, the tent doors zipped open. Chris reached for his Desert Eagle when he recognized the shadow. "Hi, Chris." The shadow said. "Sally." Chris yawned. "What time is it?" Chris rubbed his eyes, "What do you need?" Sally said, "Well, I've been hearing the frightening voices in the city, its just, I'm scared. Can I sleep here?" Chris sat up with a start. "You're scared?" Sally got angry. "I am if you want to make an issue of it." Chris raised his palms in defense. "I didn't mean that. Sure you can sleep here. There's only one bed though. I can go on guard duty." Sally then said, "No, I think one is fine." Chris was wide-awake now. Before he could say anything, another scream broke out, followed by hundreds more. Sally quickly kneeled beside Chris and hugged him tightly." "I hate them! I hate them so much!" she said on the verge of tears. "Its OK, Sally. I'm here." Chris said. "Lets get some sleep, you and me. I'll be right here." Sally nodded and slipped into the bed. She didn't take off her vest or uniform, just slipped in and closed her eyes. "I'm glad you're with me. You promise you won't leave me?" Chris smiled. "Not a chance, Sal." Sally smiled and snuggled close to the human. She felt him recoil slightly at her touch. Sally's warm chest fur brushed against Chris's side. He could feel her now-relaxed heart beating softly. "Good night Chris. I love you." She said just before she dozed off. Chris shuffled slightly. The three words just haven't stuck yet. He ruffled her hair and kissed her on the head. "I love you too, Sally. You're going to be OK. You're with me." He said and wrapped his arm around her into a soft hug. The Mobian relaxed to his touch. Chris closed his eyes and began to sleep.
Almost half an hour later outside, a marine decided to go for a smoke. The man walked into a back alley almost fifty feet away from the camp and lit a cigarette. He puffed on it and looked down the dark alley. The smoke rose in misty curls. He didn't hear the Zergling approach. The little creature bent its legs and prepared to pounce. The Zergling jumped onto the marine and instantly bit into the man's neck. A chemical in the teeth paralyzed the victim while another chemical flowed into the bloodstream that contained Zerg DNA. This was a virus of sorts that would assimilate the victim into the Zerg. The entire process was silent and the only ones who noticed anything were the rats in the gutters, confused by what was happening. The Zergling ran off, content that it had fulfilled its duty.
The marine grew inhuman. Its face distorted by the Zerg DNA. He grew claws on his body and the Zerg DNA made him strong. When the process was completed, the marine looked less human and more Zerg. He had a mental link to the Overmind too. "Rise my son." It whispered to him. "Rise, Private Connel." The Overmind whispered to Connel's mutated brain. "I hear you, my father." His voice rasped now that the Zerg had mutated his vocal cords and speech center of the brain. "What is your purpose, Connel?" the Overmind asked the mutated Marine. "To serve you, father." "Good, very good. But for now, gather your brothers, we must strike with a vengeance. The humans plan to harm me, and that I cannot allow." "I understand, father." "Go now, my son. Do as you are commanded!" The Overmind ordered. Connel walked with a slight limp away, checking to see if his pistol was loaded.
Chris heard things in his head: A voice stating things clearly, addressing them to many creatures. It made the captain toss and turn slightly. Sally had noticed this and opened her eyes. "Chris, what's wrong?" Chris opened his eyes. "Sally. I'm hearing things. I don't like what I'm hearing. It's like a nightmare." "Chris, don't say that. It makes me scared. Come on; let's get back to bed." She said changing the subject. Chris decided to accept the offer. His head settled on the cushion. Sally draped her hands across his chest. And caressed his face. The human instantly relaxed. "Relax, kid." Sally cooed. Chris closed his eyes. Sally snuggled close to her boyfriend's body to share his body heat. She sighed in satisfaction but was feeling a little warm. The princess slipped off her vest full of ammo and was left with a dark T-shirt. She also took off her pants, which left a pair of tight shorts on with a little hole in the back for her tail to go through. "Just relax, Chris. Nothing can beat us. After this, we're going to go on vacation and we're going to have a good time." Chris muttered subconsciously, "I'd like that." Sally chuckled and kissed Chris on the cheek. "Go to sleep, Chris. Go to sleep." And he did. Sally closed her eyes and fell asleep next to her love.
Chris heard the voice again all night.
