Chapter twenty-one: The barricade

He loved it. They were flying right towards their doom, right towards their death, and they did not even know what was about to hit them. He chuckled at the fact that his great barricade was mistaken for mere meteorites. He chuckled at the fact that they were heading towards a most burning death, composed of acid of all kinds. His fleet would make very short work of the Ganthritor, and the Uraj and the Khalis would float in space for the centuries to come.

"At last," T'rgashi thought, the First-Born will bow to me."

"Mffffff… try to push over a little more!" bleated Rodger.

Feodora laughed loudly. It felt great to fly with Rod once again. She truly missed flight, but the company she had was what she liked the most. The pair was all bunched up in the single cockpit, and much unwanted yet pleasant physical contact was involved. The fighter flew in the open space, amongst the thousands of millions of bright stars. The stars shone in unison, adding romance to the mission. Rodger continued flight with a joyful grin on his face, as his girlfriend's head plopped against his shoulder. Her smooth hair tickled his neck, and he started to chuckle, but quickly snapped out of his dreamy state, as he remembered the mission that was appointed to them. They had to detect meteorites that may cause danger to the Ganthritor, as it would pass through this unidentified sector.

Catrine soared right by a little blue planet, surrounded by numerous asteroids. Rodger quickly pressed the button to activate the stationary thrusters. He then took out a notepad to write the description and coordinates of the dangerous meteors. While he was at work, Feodora simply stared at the blue planet and sighed.

"It's beautiful… what do you think is on that planet, Rod?"

The response came quickly.

"Uh, I don't know, Fee-Fee… probably crazy women with three tongues that have an uncontrollable hunger for cod liver oil. The vegetation is probably tiny, and most of the animals are carnivores."

Feodora looked at him with owl eyes, showing her lack of comprehension.

"I just don't know, okay?" Concluded Rodger with a small smile.

Then the medic completely changed the subject:

"Rod? Do you remember Bur'klok?"

Rodger shrugged and nodded.

"Yeah, that little treacherous shit. He stabbed you, remember?"

Feodora shook her head, saying it was not Bur'klok the culprit.

"I found a bullet within myself. Bur'klok, having no knowledge on how to fire a gun, cannot be guilty."

Rodger glowered at the comment.

"Maybe he learned how, then!"

Although Feodora could have pointed out the fact that the proof of Bur'klok's guilt, the symbol on his psionic blades, was irrevelant, due to because they were not used during the abuse, she said nothing. She did, however, give him the bullet she found in herself. Rod looked at it, muttered a bit and stuffed it in his pocket to keep Feodora happy, and managed to smile himself. The cockpit then fell silent for a while, until Rodger finally stated there were no large meteors that could pose a threat to the Protoss warship.

Quite the perfectionist, Feodora scanned the horizon nervously with her emerald eyes, making sure Rod had made no mistake.

"Ha!" she yelled. "What about those?"

Rodger looked at where his girlfriend was energetically pointing. He grabbed some binoculars and looked. He saw several forms for sure. They did not look like scorched pieces of rock, though. They were far too numerous, and most especially, they weren't moving. Meteors always hover in space, either orbiting or floating around helplessly. Three of the strange forms seemed to become larger.

"They're heading this way. They aren't meteors, Feodora. I… I can't tell what they are." Rodger said, a tone of anxiety and concern in his voice.

He looked again, and the shapes became clearer. They were moving in a strange fashion, in a way that resembled birds flapping their wings. Rodger blinked heavily, wiped his eyes, and looked again. There was no mistake: they were flapping their wings, and they were coming closer. The strange shapes became clearer and clearer, and finally, as he thought he saw a tail that went upwards and reminded him of a scorpion's, the pilot understood. He yelled so loudly that Feodora gave a start and banged her head against the solid cockpit.

"Mutalisks!!"

Feodora didn't even have time to complain about her new headache. Her hand went for the radio emitter as fast as lightning and called to the Ganthritor.

"Mayday! Mayday! We may have a large force of Mutalisks heading this way! Mayday! "

Fenix's voice returned, with a certain tone of horror in his voice.

"Message received."

Meanwhile, Rodger had the time to take a second look at the Mutalisks, and was terrified as he noticed that the entire "asteroid belt" was consisted of flying Zerg creatures.

"Brace yourself, love." Quickly said Rodger.

The wraith became mobile once again, and it made a large U-turn to return to the warship. Dread soon filled the cockpit: the three Mutalisks had cut their escape route.

"Is it over?? Is this how we're going to die? Oh, Rod, I don't want to die! I still want to be with you…" moaned Feodora, on the edge of tears.

The feeling of sadness soon crept on to Rodger, as his eyes felt liquidy as well. He stroked his lover's long hair, and said:

"I wish it didn't have to end this way too," His other hand reached for Feodora's, and he continued: "It's been nearly only a week since you've been with me again, but that week seemed like a second. If I could turn time backwards, I would have stayed on Moria. I would have stayed with you, just you. The Ganthritor was too dangerous for us…"

Rodger suddenly halted and grasped his head toughly: T'rgashi was speaking to him.

"You fool. You could have not hoped to mount an attack against the invincible Overmind. Now, you will die, Rodger Hertubiz. Farewell."

The malevolent laugh was heard within the terrorized man's head. The medic, touched by Rod's words of love, but worried about his sudden halt, asked:

"Rod, are you alright?"

"It's nothing… don't worry…"

Rodger knew that he could not hide it forever, but now did not seem like the best time. The Overmind really insulted him that time, and he decided that he would fight until the bitter end. Catrine was outnumbered three to one, of course, but the dangerous acid was not yet in its systems. Plus, Captain Ray Aureus had often told him that Mutalisks' acid was not the best weapon to employ against fast moving wraiths. Rodger roared like a Zealot would:

"We're not done yet, Feodora! We have to fight!"

The young medic, believing it was hopeless, simply hugged Rod as tightly as she possibly could and then murmured:

"Do what you can…"

Under Rodger's grave frown, a small smile appeared, satisfied that his girlfriend was somewhat supportive to his aggressiveness. He hit the throttle, and at the same time, the foul Zerg creatures flew towards the fighter jet. Rod led the ship in a series of barrel rolls as the Mutalisks went in a fanatic chase after it, all in a line. As the wraith was being tailed by the three flyers, the pilot lowered its altitude by a few degrees and lowered the speed. The Mutalisks could not react in time.

They passed Catrine by a few meters, and now Rodger was in the offensive position.

"Die, you bastards!" howled the pilot as he pressed on the missile button.

Twin Gemini missiles were released from Catrine's imposing missile launchers and crashed right into the third creature's tail, exploding violently and killing it. Feodora did not look. The barrel rolls were already sickening enough for her. Rod fired again, but the remaining two Mutalisks dispatched, one went left, the other went right. Rod followed the one that went left. The pursued monster was trying hard to "shake off" his opponent, but the swift and skilled pilot followed his every move, attempting to lock on to it. The other flyer returned, and was now on Rodger's tail.

"Watch my six, watch my six!" Rodger repeated.

Feodora, confused, did not know he was referring to the ship's back. The Mutalisk behind the wraith kept launching his glave wurm recklessly. Rod was trying his best to avoid the projectiles while staying on the other flyer's tail. He suddenly had an idea. He lowered the throttle a bit to allow the Mutalisk behind him to come closer, and just when it fired its glave wurm, Rod made a summersault with his wraith. The acidic wurm collided with his own ally, and the Mutalisk that suffered friendly fire was missing a wing and flew in space, spreading life fluids in all directions.

Soon, Rodger returned and finished off the injured creature with his laser cannon. Feodora cheered wildly this time, and kissed her lover on the cheek. The celebration was short-lived, though, for the Mutalisk returned, infuriated at the tactic the human had just employed. The Zerg followed the wraith thoroughly and forced the pilot to head right into the small planet's orbital asteroid field.

"Ohmigodohmigodohmigod…" thought Rodger as he saw large rocks everywhere.

Feodora suddenly had an idea. She remembered that the olive-eyed man had often bragged the wraith's ability to cloak. A large black button on the control panel indicated the feature. Without hesitation, she hammered it. Catrine became as invisible as Zeratul. The Mutalisk, completely confused, kept flying forwards thinking the fighter was not far, but didn't see the meteor. The Zerg abomination crashed into it at at full speed. Its guts littered the little blue planet's orbit as well, and a large red mark decorated the meteorite, like some war medal.

"Genius! That was genius! Feodora, you astound me!" said Rodger, uncloaking the wraith, slightly away from the asteroid field, for he had flown out of it in safety.

He came upon his girlfriend with a series of embraces, but more then lips were involved this time. If the wraith had been a car, it would have been rocking insanely. The pair wanted the union of their lips to last forever, but after a few minutes, Feodora pushed Rodger back.

"The Ganthritor! We have to get back! The entire Zerg fleet is still after it!"

Rodger was a bit thwarted by the end of the "recess", but he knew the wise medic was right. He put the throttle back to full power and the wraith returned to the warship as quickly as the wind.

When the wraith docked once again, alarms were ringing inside the ship. Rod leapt out of the cockpit and helped Feodora come out too. The first soul they encountered was Trikko. He rushed towards them and spoke.

"Trikko told you the Zerg was near! Quick! The enemy fleet will be here in moments! Let's go to the command deck!"

The marine and the medic followed the creature down towards the command deck. They had never been in that room before. When they got there, Fenix greeted them. The Dragoon looked worried, but he was not the only one. Around the room, several groups, including Aldaris and Arcturus Mengsk, were busy pressing buttons and adjusting weapon systems. The large globe that was the ship's command area gave a view on the open space. Control pannels were in the room everywhere.

Uh oh, here they come now!" exclaimed Rodger as small brownish dots were distinguished in the horizon.

"What kind of weaponry does this warship have exactly?"

Fenix looked at Rodger, concern everywhere in his voice.

"We have about twenty Pulsary Laser cannons, but they're made to destroy slow moving transports, like Overlords, and capital ships… I'm not sure how well they will work against speedy enemies like Mutalisks."

The command deck's exit opened and Kurt and Josart entered the room.

"Rod!" called Kurt.

"This could prove quite lethal, so in case I don't survive this, I just wanted to say farewell."

Rodger smiled weakly at Kurt and nodded his head. He was still certain that they would win. He surrounded Feodora's shoulder with an arm as Kurt moved to be next to him. Josart, however, was frozen into place. Feodora looked at him and met his terrified glance.

"Hi…" she said, deciding to try one more time.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"

Josart yelled before sprinting as far as possible from the command deck. Kurt laughed and repeated Rodger's statement, saying this was very normal. Still, Lamont's presence troubled the medic, and she did not know what to think. It was not the time for thinking either. The brownish dots now showed very clearly the forms of many Mutalisks. Aldaris, as close as possible to the command glass, snickered evilly.

"We're in range. Battle stations! Fire!"

Several great beams of blue light, extremely thick and shining flew through the space. Numerous Mutalisks were reduced to pieces of ash. They flew wickedly, avoiding the vicious lights. It was difficult indeed for the lasers to reach the flyers, and many of them got at close range and lobbed their glave wurm at the warship. It bounced several time on its surface, but the defensive plasma shields foiled the damage. The Ganthritor had a very large amount of plasma shields, as such was very difficult to damage. The Zerg birds flew and flew all around, and fired. Hundreds of wurms hit home, but had little effect against the shield.

Occasionally, the laser beams would find a Mutalisk and vaporize it. It was very hard now, for only about thirty Mutalisks remained, and they avoided hanging around in groups. They flew separately, almost on their own. On the command deck, everyone seemed chilled.

"Shield percentage?" Aldaris called to a Zealot wearing earphones.

"89, Judicator."

At the response, the yellow-eyed Protoss laughed.

"Pathetic Zerg. Is that all you can do?"

The Zerg were merely playing with the Protoss. The real offence was making its way towards the warship: A few Mutalisks and a good fifty scourges. The Mutalisks howled in their high pitch voice, giving the lesser flyers an order. Half of the scourge flew high and the other half went straight. As for the ten leading Mutalisks, they joined their brethren in battle, although these new flyers seemed stronger and easily avoided the lasers.

Although it was very hard to target, the reinforcements did everything they could to fire at the command deck. Although the shield surrounded the entire ship, once it would be gone, if they could strike the command deck, everyone inside would be slaughtered by the projectiles. Inside the commanding space, nobody noticed the new smaller flyers, unknown to both the Protoss and the humans. They could hardly see them, for they were much smaller than Mutalisks.

"Should I direct the laser beams towards the new enemy?" asked the same Zealot who had made a report on the shielding a while ago.

Aldaris shrugged his shoulders and replied:

"Bah, they're very small. What could they possibly do against us?"

So the Ganthritor went on doing everything it could to hit the Mutalisks. It was a big mistake.

The laser cannons accidentally fried some scourges, but at least fifteen of the first half remained. They headed straight for the Ganthritor, then lowered their altitude, and flew at full speed, screeching defiantly. The fastest one made contact with the warship, and exploded in a green light that absolved much of the plasma shielding. The remaining scourge did the same, slamming themselves in the hulls of the ship and exploding.

The first half of the scourge invaders was no more, but the results were very disappointing for the defenders.

"Sir!" exclaimed the Zealot. "Our shields are down to 12!"

Aldaris, as well as the entire room, looked at him and gasped.

"We'll be taking true damage soon!"

"Target the small foes!" Aldaris exclaimed loudly.

Rodger, Kurt, Feodora, Fenix and Trikko scanned the horizon for more of the evil flyers.

"There does not seem to be any more." Quoted Kurt.

Fenix suggested leaving a few canons ready to fry any of the creatures that may attempt to kamikaze in the Ganthritor, and all agreed.

The scourges weren't gone though. They could not see them because they were so high up in space, in a straight line with the warship. The foul blind terrors headed for the top of the great Protoss vessel, where no canons could hit them. It was a good idea that the Mutalisks came up with. The screechers hollered for a long while before they crashed violently in the top of the ship. The blue layer of defence disappeared for good, and a few scourges even made a hole in the reinforced plating of the ship.

"Shield is gone!!"

Rodger nearly fell unconscious. Blasts now shook the Ganthritor hard. It was the Mutalisks' acid that actually began taking effect. Almost everywhere, the ship was taking shattering hits. Food spilt everywhere in the cafeteria. Large particles of ceiling littered the ice rink. Many fine crystals imprinted on the walls of the halls exploded into tiny fragments. Layers of petrid gases appeared from the Ganthritor's pipelines. In his prison, Bur'klok, the supposed assassin, sat in a ball in the corner of the room, protecting his head. The laser bars that formed his prison faded a bit, but the Zealot was too preoccupied by the attack to attempt an escape. He, as well as many other prisoners, thought his time had come. Even in the command deck, the glass that allowed the commanders to view the battle began getting flawed.

A particularly large blast sent Trikko, Kurt, Feodora and Rodger slipping away to the edge of the room, as the entire Ganthritor leaned to the left. In all the chaos, Fenix noticed the genuine barricade approach at the horizon. It consisted of over fifty Mutalisks and another dozen scourges. The Dragoon knew perfectly well that if those kamikazes made it home, it was all over for them. Even if they were somehow fried by the laser canons, the remaining Mutalisks would make short work of the warship. The lasers fried about nine of the incoming Mutalisks, but despair filled the command room. There was no hope.

"We're all goners!!" exclaimed Kurt as a bottle of rhum fell on his head.

"Trikko told you there were Zerg in the area!" the beast shouted again.

"Shut up!" retorted Kurt.

Rodger frowned at Kurt for the lack of respect towards his pet, but he knew he was probably right. It seemed hopeless. At a blinding speed, the scourges came closer and closer. Then they all exploded. Guided missiles had struck each of them. Everyone in the command deck rubbed their eyes and some pinched themselves to see if they were dreaming. It was no dream, for the scourges were no more. Arcturus seemed very calm about the happening. He pointed to the very left of the observing glass. Human capital ships, known as Battlecruisers, were coming, at least fifteen. They were the ones who fired those guided missiles and rid the Ganthritor of the scourges. That was not all. They also shot ATS laser batteries, which were just as accurate as a wraith's laser, but five times as powerful, albeit slower. Three shots of this laser would make a Mutalisk melt extremely fast.

The Mutalisks retaliated, moving towards their new opponents. Guided missiles exploded into action again. Each one found a target, and soon, all that remained of the blockade was blood and bones. Rodger walked towards the observing glass where Mengsk stood with a small smile and a chilled attitude.

"How… How did those Battlecruisers make it here?"

Arcturus looked at the marine and said with an evil grin:

"Oh, you remember that council reunion we had not so long ago, and I was trying to say something but I would always be interrupted? This was it. I was trying to add that I had called Battlecruiser reinforcements just before we left Moria."

Rodger saluted his Emperor militarily.

"You've thought well, my Emperor."

He then walked away quickly, to be with Feodora and Kurt, both on the edge of having a stroke. Trikko and Fenix seemed a bit calmer, and they chattered about the damage they may have taken. The sight was most pleasant to Rodger, for it appeared Trikko had made a friend during the strike on Braxis. He held Feodora close, and for a long time. Kurt smiled at him, and decided to leave the room. Trikko came close to his master with a grin and said:

"Trikko and Fenix will try to fix what they can in the Ganthritor. Trikko will see you later."

Rodger nodded happily. The metal arachnid and Trikko departed from the command desk as well. Rod was left alone with Feodora, for the Zealots were too busy making the damage bias. She felt a bit numb in his arms, however, and when he tried to back away, her eyes were close and her mouth was open. The marine laughed silently: his girlfriend had fallen asleep in his arms, probably exhausted from the emotion. He picked her up gently and took her to her room in the deepest of silence. When he rested her on her bed, he took a deep breath of relief; the Ganthritor had survived.