Valkyria chronicles is the property of sega
Star-craft is the property of blizzard
"Talk"
"Telepathy"
"SHOUTING"
~Radio~
Ok everyone I'm going to try something a little different with my writing in this chapter so yell if you don't like it.
Chapter 25 Delta team vs Zavara
September 7th Tuesday
Heavy rain fell from the dark cloudy sky making the dirt into mud and drenching the russian camp as over a two thousand soldiers ran around readying the weapons, equipment and vehicles for the next big push into Zerg territory properly timed with the other forces scattered around India. Normal'y the allied forces would just have bombed the zerg hive clusters from a distance but the zergs ability to quickly rebuild their hives made a armed presence on the ground necessary.
Jacob watched from the open'd flap door way of the command tent musing at the hundreds of new american reinforcements that had joined them recently, thinking that they may have a better chance with the increased numbers, but then he remembered that the Zerg will always have that advanted. Behind him Sargant Yarik, Mason and Cooper were standing around the display screen table discussing the route they would take to their next objective. It was somewhat pointless to give the destroyed towns names given they were wiped off the map by the Zerg Drones. In the past two months the Zerg have all but wiped out any and all traces of human habitation in southern India, and the allied forces were lucky to have the remenets of roads to travel over.
Jacob turned around and walked to his comrades standing around the display screen table.
"This route to the south west is crawling with Zerglings by what the drones are showing, as are the other two route's to the south." said sargant Yarik tracing his fingres across the screen.
"If we take the southeastern route we can meet up with the russian 12 armored division and then as a combined force push through to the next objective," Cooper purposed as the others mused at the proposal.
"Sounds good to me," Jacob said. "We just need to watch out for ambush's along the way."
The others around the table agreed and they made finally preparations to move out when a urgent call came in over the radio.
"Sargent Yarik we are getting a distress call from a squad of russian paratroopers that have landed in the remains of a village 75 miles to the south. They say they've taken heavy casualties," the radio officer reported.
Yarik and the other men around the table suddenly knew that something was off.
"Paratroopers?" said Mason. "Why the hell would high command drop paratroopers behind enemy lines. That tactic wont work against the Zerg what with them milling about the region by the thousands."
"Agreed," replied Yarik.
"You think it's a trap," asked Mark still in his bulky armor being the biggest member of delta team made it easier for him to wear the heavy composite armor longer then most.
"What if the zerg captured some of our troops and used their radios to call for help to ambush anyone who came?" theorized Mason.
Jacob thought over the information and the capabilities of the Zerg and came up with a possible answer. "What about Zerg parasites."
"Those little bugs that burrow into your head," said Mark.
"Yeah it would make sense if a few of our people were infested and taken over by them and forced to call for help."
"That could be true, but... what if it's really call for help." Yarik questioned.
Everyone thought the situation through.
"Even if it is a zerg trap with a few of our people infested with parasites there's nothing we can do to extract the parasites," said Cooper.
"Mmm yes but if it is really a call for help are we just going to leave them behind," said Mason as he looked on the map for the location of the distress call. "It's a little out of the way but its not a big detour, delta team could run by their and take a look while the rest of Yariks forces continue on to the objective."
"I could call for Hind reinforcements to aide you should it be a trap," Yarik added.
"And theirs a flight of reaper drones flying on patrol just 47 miles to the west, so we can call for reinforcements if we need to," noted cooper.
"Ok I guess were going then," Said Mark.
"Guess we'll check it out then," said Jacob as the other three ranking officers of delta team marched out of the command tent and gathered the other 46 members of delta team who were standing at the ready, all of them highly trained and skilled elite soldiers from a dozen separate nations.
Hours later delta team arrived at the coordinates of the distress call as Sarah and Randolph watched from the sat feed from the 'USS Ranger' now resting off the southern coast of India with a allied fleet that was still launching missiles time to time to support the infantry on the ground.
Jacob stood up from his strykers top hatch and looked around with his binoculars as the group of a dozen strykers drove into the clearing that used to be a sizable town but now it's a barren expanse of land cleared of all sigh's of human habitation like always whenever the zerg gain control of a given area.
"Well it seems clear," Jacob thought as Sarah's voice came in over the radio.
~Delta team the russian soldiers are pinned down by a group of hydralisk, 407 meters to your west in a gully, And also we checked with the russian command and they said the paratroopers deployed there were meant to scout that area ahead of a heavy troop drop, it was a new tactic to avoid zerg ambush's along the roads... or what's left of them.~
Jacob sighed somewhat relieved at the confirmation of intel but he wished the russians were more open with their troop movements.
"Delta team we'll split up and head to the designated position from two different directions, Mason take blue team and move around to the top of the elevated area to the east," Jacob ordered.
~Roger~
As they drive closer to the location Jacob saw the bodys of hydralisk and russian soldiers scattered across the area as he heard the sound of gunfire of in the distance, looking in that direction he saw just like Sarah had said a group of russian soldiers were pinned down in a gully by a tree line, battling against twenty of the new multi-headed Hydralisk.
Jacob and the others dismounted from the strykers and they dropped to a prone position and readyed their rifles aiming down the hill.
~So what's it look like,~ Mason asked over the radio as his group was at a higher elevation and saw red team stop and dismount.
"There's a group of russian troops pinned down by hydralisk, Jacob replied. "we'll render aide, everyone stay on alert for zerg ambushes and deploy the seismic sensors."
At Jacobs orders the members of delta team in the strykers jumped to action forming a defensive perimeter and the strykers deploying sensor units from their sides making contact with the ground and started measuring the local ground vibrations. As Jacobs and his squad engauged the Hydralisk.
As she flew over head Zavara watched from the eyes of the Locust scattered about the area as the human reinforcements fired down hill at the hydralisk felling them one by one as the humans flanked and attacked them.
"So I finally found you delta team," Brood queen Zavara said as she recognised the delta shaped arm patch the soldiers wore. She had given temporary command of her brood to Navash, while she hunted down the human special forces group she had fought against back in Hong Kong. Zavara wanted a little closer on the matter of who won that day and with a little convincing swarm empress Ellen let her under take this independent action but with limited forces.
Zavara intently watched as the humans of this elite group cut the hydralisk down from their higher ground while out flanking them and coordinating with the other humans in the gully, the hydralisk were hit from all sides and fell one by one and eventually the last hydralisk fell.
"Is that the last of them" one of the russian paratroopers said in relief as one of the members of delta team walked down the hill to speak with them.
"You ok" asked the member of delta team as he approached the russian troops.
"Yeah... were alive, thanks for the rescue" replied the russian trooper.
Delta team still taking a cautious approach keeped a eye on the russian soldiers.
"Your welcome, how many wounded do you have" the lone member of delta team asked.
"There... 'was' a hundred of us but now... just the twenty of us are left... plus seven wounded, we were hit almost as soon as we landed, and the dame bugs took our dead." the russian paratrooper explained.
Then a shadow moved over head and dived down towards Jacobs group at the top of the hill.
Zavara made a loud metallic clang as she landed on the stryker right behind Jacob and four other members of delta team who turned around, and fired at her. Zavara crossed her arms over her body and head as she was fired upon by the humans, but Zavara's psionically charged and reinforced atomic, molecular and cellular structure of her body easily resisted the force of the attack although it did do some minor damage but that was quickly healed.
Jacob and the others with him emptied their mags onto Zavara and loaded fresh ones and aimed once more at the winged and tailed humanoid figure standing atop the stryker as the gunners of the other strykers turned their gun turrets at the her.
"So your delta team," said Zavara as she uncrossed her arms showing her pale face to the humens.
"Hold fire," Jacob ordered as the others kept their guns aimed at the zerg. "who are you?"
Zavara chuckled a little. "I am brood queen Zavara of the Quelaag brood we've fight before in hong kong, and who might you be,"
Jacob cautiously replied. "Jacob... Jacob william, first Lieutenant of delta team."
"Hmm... well Jacob of delta team, Im here to get some closer on who the winner was from our... last little encounter back in Hong kong."
Jacob then realized that this Zavara was the same one who killed six members of his unit back in Hong kong and vary nearly killed Mason and Mark. "I see 'So' you want to settle the score huh."
"Yes," Zavara replied. "but seeing as this is a... personnel matter my forces have been... restricted, so this little dual will be a little more equal."
Jacob realized that there are things about the zerg that they still don't understand but he's a little greatful at the situation as it gives him and delta the opportunity to face off against one of the leaders of the zerg swarm in a more controlled situation rather than a random encounter on a chaotic battlefield and he knows Sarah and Randolph are listing in while they watch delta team from a satellite so he doesn't need to say anything, as he trusts they will send reinforcements if necessary.
"Ok were game," Jacob said as he gripped his barrett short rifle tighter.
Zavara gave him a smile and stretched out her wings. "Good, because i'm not going to hold back like before," with a powerful flape of her wings Zavara flew off into the sky.
Jacob and the others covered their eyes from the strong gust of wind created by the Zerg brood queen as she flew off, Jacob then got a call over the radio from Masons unit blue team.
~SHIT we've got zerg elites hitting us hard.~
Ten minutes before
Blue teams route around the dismantled town had been longer then Jacobs red team but they were higher in elevation on a small plateau and could see the rest of the cleared town and the others of delta team.
There was a continues echos and bangs of gun fire coming from a gully on the lower half of the area. Mason riding on his stryker was about to get on his radio when Sarah's voice came over the open comm and told Jacob where the russian troops were. Mason and his blue team watched their strykers as red team fought a pitched battle with the hydralisk and rescued the russian troops.
"Well they got to have all the fun, wise some zerg would show its face so I could blast its face off" spoke Mark as he hefted his upgraded M134 minigun that now fires the same mini rockets as the larger ship mounted vulcan turrets.
~Blue team im sensing zerg approaching~ Cooper called out over the radio from the rear most stryker in their group.
"You see anything" Mason asked.
~No but I know Mark just jinxed us again,~ Cooper jokingly replied and blue teams laughter was heard over the comms as members of blue team reacted to the joke. But Mason wasn't laughing and instead he ducked into his stryker and looked at the seismic scanner that another member of his red team was watching.
"...Anything" Mason asked.
"No noth," just then a number of blips appeared on the screen. "shit we've got vibrations to the north of our position and their moving toward us" The man said.
Mason gave a sigh. "Well you can always count on Mark to jinx a op, Red team we've got hostile contacts incoming from the north, keep your eyes sharp and weapons up." Mason warned.
Almost as soon as Mason said that ten hunter killers burst out from the ground a few hundred meters away.
"Contacts, contacts," cried a australian member of delta as he and others facing that way opened fire at the rapidly approaching elite zerg. The Hunter killers returned fire as while and evaded the barrage of high caliber gun fire flying their way, as they dodged side to side, shooting, burrowing and unburrowing, again and again with only minor injures as they move towards the humans.
"Aaah" cryed the british marine named Dean as he was hit in the mid section by a exploding spine and fell backwards, if he wasn't wearing the new armor he would be screaming as the acid ate through his organs.
"You ok" asked another marine by the name of Alex, kneeling down to help their fellow soldier while the rest of blue team continued shooting at the oncoming hunter killers.
"Ugh aaa... yeah... i'll live" The Dean replied as Alex got out a bag of white dust and scattered some of it on the acid eating through the armor and the two elements neutralised each other and as it did Dean saw another member of blue team get hit in the head and fell dead as the acid dissolved his head.
Dean turned his head to see the hunter killer responsible aiming his rifle and firing off three rounds hitting the hunter killer right in the front knee joint causing it to trip and fall.
Alex then turned around and both of them continued shooting at the downed hunter killer until it was a pile of flesh riddled with holes. Both the marines dropped their spent mags and reloaded. Then Alex helped Dean to his feet.
"Thanks, what's your name" dean asked.
"Alex... Alex summer" Alex replied as she raised her viser revilng to a surprised Dean that Alex is a women.
The two of them then reentered the fray of battle standing side by side firing at the attacking zerg.
"Red team this is blue team we've got contacts, SHIT," Mason exclaimed as a exploding spine hit the stryker next to him. "We've got zerg elites hitting us hard."
~Roger blue team were coming your way~ replied Jacob as Mson and his men fired on the hunter killers who were now taking cover behind some trees that were scattered here and there as they fired their spines from their horn like spikes on the sides of their heads.
Mason fried a full clip into a hunter killer to his left cutting its midsection apart and nearly severing its upper and lower half then he reloaded and noticed a hunter killer charging from his right just as a stryker blasted it with its triple barreled grenade launcher named the mk22 or the cerberus to delta team. Three grenades hit the hunter killer in the body and blasted it into a scattering of meat chunks.
"sigh. "Glad we get all the cool toys," Mason quipped as he aimed at another oncoming hunter killer but just as he was pulling the trigger the elite zerg stopped and burrowed kicking up a pile of dirt just as the 50 caliber round glanced off the back of its head crest.
Mason just reacted back swapping out his barrett short for a his custom uts-15 bullpup shotgun. He had cocked the hammer and loaded a round into the barrel when the hunter killer burst out from the ground just ten feet to his left. Mason turned and fired but the hunter killer had its armored head down and bashed Mason knocking him a few feet backwards and stunned him long enough for the hunter killer to step on his left leg. "Aaah son of a."
If the hunter killer put any more pressure on his leg it would have broken it, but instead the hunter killer raised it's right arm unfolding the shield like plate and the triple blades on the inner side. Mason saw this and aimed his uts-15 at the bladed arm flipped a switch, shooting off a triple shot burst of coin shaped scatter shot that ripped into the hunter killers arm.
The coins shaped rounds were more aerodynamic than the metal balls normally used by shotguns and held their group cohesion over a longer distance giving the new coin shaped ammo better accuracy and range over the normal ball barrings that scatter over a wider area. The coin shape also gives the new ammo a better damage on armor because their thicker from one side as they hit.
The hunter killer was stunned by the triple burst as almost a hundred coin shaped steel rounds ripped up its arm, but zerg have a much higher pain tolerance than any other life form so even a shredded arm was only a minor pain. The hunter killer raised its other arm to strike and Mason let loose another triple burst shattering at that arm too.
The hunter killer stumbled back finally freeing Masons leg and then he aimed at one of the hunter killers front legs and shot off another triple shot burst that ripped into the leg dropping the hunter killer to one knee. The hunter killer then shot a spine into Masons shoulder, his armor stopped the spine from penetrating but the blast of acid was eating into his armor. Mason aimed his uts-15 at the hunter killers head and unloaded the rest of his magazine.
"Son of a bitch why wont you die," Mason exclaimed as he dropped the empty mag and reloaded. As he did the blooded hunter killer stood back up as its injury's regenerating before Masons eyes. The blue team leader then rolled over and over gaining some distance from him and the hunter killer and he stood up and tossed a grenade as he dashed around to the other side of the stryker as the gunner inside was still firing at the other zerg farther away.
The grenade exploded as Mason got to the other side of the stryker and caught his breath for a few moments in his heavy armor suit, but then he heard the churning of dirt as the same hunter killer un-burrowed twenty feet in front of him. "Fuck me, you a tough bastard aren't you," Mason cursed as he noticed the horns on the hunter killers head twitch and he dropped to the ground as a barrage of spines hit where he was just a second ago.
Mason then aimed his uts-15 at the hunter killer and fired off the new mag but this one had a red and orange line running down its side indicating that it held 40mm grenades. The uts-15 barked three times and three explosions shells blasting the hunter killer backwards shattering its armor and body. Mason fired another three shot burst just to make sure its dead.
Mason then looked up to see the remaining hunter killers retreating as he stood there brushed and blooded but alive. Moments later Jacob and his red team arrived a little to late. "Oh now you show up" Mason complained as he wiped the blood from his helmet and noticed the acid had nearly eaten through his shoulder armor, he got out a small pack from his pockets and opened it up spreading it over the acid the white dust reacted to the acid and neutralized it.
Zavara watched from the eyes of her locust as the two groups of elite human soldiers regrouped, they had killed four of her hunter killers but she still had more forces to call upon.
A few minutes later delta team had formed a defensive perimeter and off loaded box's of ammo from the few apcs they had with them and the rescued russian troops got medical attention. Jacob and the rest of delta teams officers gathered to plane on how they're going to get out of this mess.
"What's the damage" Jacob asked.
"Well," said Mason as he rubbed the back of his neck. "We lost three of our guys and got a few of theirs, so there's that. But how are we going to get out of this little trap."
"We could just make a run for it, I mean our strykers are faster then them right" said Mark putting in his thoughts.
"No that won't work, more than likely they got Banelings borrowed at the roads into and out of here besides their not just going to let us leave without a fight," Cooper said voicing his thoughts on the matter.
"Coopers right," said Jacob. "if were going to get out of here we need to beat Zavara at her own game, Mason do we have that new MK1-LA gun with us?"
Masons head raised up thinking what new gun Jacob means. "Oh you mean the prototype yeah... we got one mounted on a stryker but the thing can't move when its powering the gun. to much of a power drain."
"Good then we may have a way of getting through Zavaras psionic defense," said Jacob.
Mark and Mason both raised a eyebrow at that. "Psionic defense?" asked Mason.
"Yeah... when Zavara showed her self we unloaded a few dozen rounds of our barretts on her but... she didn't even flinch, so I think she might have some kind of psionic based defense like the swarm empress has, remember the video of her attacking Raven rock base." Jacob answered.
"I see so that's why you want to use the prototype," Mason said. "but the hard part will be getting her to stay in place long enough for it to charge up. The things not small and she'll no doubt see it and blow it up if given half a chance."
"Correct that's why we'll need a distraction to keep her occupied" said Cooper.
Mason crossed his arms and sighed. "And I think I know we're this is going."
From where Zavara was standing the humans change the formation of their armored vehicles into a cross formation with every other stryker facing in the opposite direction which gives them a 360 degrees of firing lines in all direction. "Hmm smart humans but their is one flaw in your little formation," Zavara mused to herself as she looked at the center of the formation, she then caught her self and reexamined the situation and thought about why the humans would use that formation. "Clever, if I had attacked from the center with burrow they would have had me."
Zavara then replaned her next move as she watched the humans from the eyes of the locusts.
Mason watched the open area as the others readyed the trap they had gone over five times accounting for multiple outcomes and the current plane was agreed upon by the four of them and both Sarah and Randolph who has reinforcements at the ready just in case.
"Sigh, when the heck is she going to attack" " said Mason as he heard someone call out that they see someone, Mason turned to his left and saw Zavara just walking towards them. "Well... didn't expect that."
"Sir do we open fire" asked a delta team member.
Mason turned back towards the approaching Zerg brood queen and sighed "Open fire."
Mk22 grenade launchers, 50 caliber guns and and held grenade launchers all opened fire at Zavara as she made a slit smirk just as she started zig zagging side to side moving tens of feet with every dash as explosive rounds detonated and flew all around her as she evaded the barrage of firepower.
She then formed a blue orb in her hands and thosed both one after the other at the strykers which exploded as it was hit. Zavara then jumped up, the psionic energy in her muscles amplifying their strength and contraction speed allowing her to jump dozens of meters into the air.
Zavara then formed two more orbs in her hands and then shot them out at two more strykers as they changed their angle of fire up at her. The two blue orbs of psionic energy flew through the air at them as the strykers all moved in a counter clockwise direction and the two orbs exploded as they hit the ground. "Tch, they move fast when evading" Zavara thought as she landed and broke out into a sprint then she jumped onto the nearest stryker and started tearing into its drivers compartment and saw the human look up at her from the hole of torn metal.
Just then another stryker slammed into the stryker she was standing on and the kinetic force launched Zavara off and she landed in a roll and stood up a little angry at the sudden stop as the strykers continued to drive in circles around her. "Something's off" Zavara thought as her instincts an training told her something as off.
Then another stryker came from behind and hit Zavara just as she turned around grabbing the stryker by the front bladed plow and her feet carved two small trence's in the ground as it pushed her back. Zavara then unfolded her wings and pointed the clawed tips at the stryker gathering psionic energy onto the tips and then shooting them into the stryker the six mini-psi blasts cut the stryker in half and then Zavara dug her heels in the ground and lifted the front half of the stryker and threw it into another one.
"Dame" cursed Mason as he watched from his stryker. "Jacob if we're doing this we need to do it now."
Zavara then called her remaining Hunter killers that then un-burrowed a few hundred meters away and then charged at the circling strykers. "We got company incoming from the right flank," called Mark.
"Shit," Jacob cursed as he thought for a moment. "Ok Mark, Cooper head off those incoming zerg while me and Mason take on the queen bitch," at Jacobs orders two groups of the strykers broke off from the circling group and attacked the incoming hunter killers. While Zavara slashed the wheels of another stryker and then fired a psi-blast at another destroying it.
At the outer side of the circling strykers Jacob worked the controls of the MK1-LA railgun prototype, it was the first one deployed to the front lines mainly to test its functionality. Jacob worked the controls in the cabin while the auto stabilizing turret raised up and turned towards Zavara who blasted another stryker rolling it onto its side.
Zavara got a feeling and turned her attention to the locust eye view of the battlefield. From above she saw her hunter killers being engaged by a group of strykers that broke off from the main group, and around her the other strykers continued to circle around her, but then she noticed one stryker that was stopped and a turret on it aimed at her. "I see so the others were just a distraction."
In the stryker mounted with the MK1-LA railgun Jacob saw Zavara turn her head right at him in the gun sights and glanced at the charge level which read 64%.
"Shit Mason she knows buy me some time would you."
"*uck" Mason exclaimed as his stryker turned to ram Zavara but she saw it coming and jumped out of the way. Mason then told the driver to stop as he saw Zavara running straight for Jacobs direction. Mason popped the top hatch and started to control his breathing as he aimed his barrett short, he breathed in and out, in and out then he pulled the trigger and sent a round flying down range.
Zavara was running for the stryker that was holding still and then she felt something explode on her legs and she stumbled from the impact and blast sending her face first into the ground. Zavara quickly picked herself backup wiping the dirt off as her face, her eyes flashed orange with a glint of blue as she turned around and saw the human that shot her.
"OH... shit... me" Mason exclaimed as he saw Zavara fire a blue orb at him, Mason climbed out of the stryker jumping out just as the orb impacted the stryker blowing it up. Mason continued firing at Zavara as did other strykers taking pot shots at her.
Zavara dodged side to side in quick dashes and leaps as the humans fired at her and she closed the distance and the swung her clawed hand aiming to behead the human.
Mason saw the lightly glowing clawed hand coming and just fell backwards as it flew over his head feeling the wind pressure as it missed by scant inches. Zavara spun on her heel and lifted her right leg and slammed it down.
Mason rolled to the side, he wasn't evading but just moving, the zerg brood queens movements were just to fast to track or counter so he was just trying to keep out of arm's reach as he switched to his uts-15 bullpup shotgun, and aimed it at Zavara.
Zavara dodged to the side evading the shotgun blast, one of the coin shaped scatter rounds nicked her wing, and she then jumped up and brought her leg up as she fell and swung down as the human side stepped the slow falling attack rolling to the side, just as Zavara predicted he would do.
With a quick push of her bent leg Zavara launched herself at Mason smashing into him as he turned around, she lifted him up by the leg and slammed him down.
"Ah ugh" Mason exclaimed as the wind was knocked out of him and maybe with a few broken bones, he looked at the humanoid zerg and raised his uts-15 at her and she just grabbed it and with a twist jerked it out of his hand.
Zavara then flipped the shotgun around and grabbed its handle aiming it at its former user she smiled and started to pull the trigger lightly but just then another gun went off and a round exploded as it hit Zavara in the side of the head stunning her for a moment as Mason grabbed back his gun and made a hasty retreat gaining as much distance as he could.
"See I told you I could hit her" proudly proclaimed Dean as he lay pron on the top of a striker which like the others had stopped and surrounded the two while Zavara and Mason were fighting.
"Nice shot, but we have her attention now," said Alex as she aimed her barrett short at Zavara along with the other members of delta team and the strykers.
Zavara shook her head from the blast in the face looking around herself at the humans aimed at her, she then fully charged her body with psionic power making it glow more visible as she would prefurre defense over attack power given the situation. A moment later she was barraged by hundreds of and grenades and A.P.E.R. (armor piercing explosive rounds) and 7.62 rounds from M134 miniguns, the barrage continued for a full 30 seconds until Jacob called it off.
The dust cloud slowly dispersed and as everyone looked the lone seven foot armored humanoid zerg with her arms crossed and tail and wings folded, became visible as she was surrounded by a field of blast creters. "Aaah that could have been worse" Zavara said as she lowered her arms and flicked out her tail seemingly without any damage.
"*ucking what?,"
"How the hell!"
"Thats bull shit!"
"She should be dead after that?"
Said a few members of delta team as they stared in disbelief at how Zavara survived that barrage of fire power. Just then Zavara remembered the lone stryker and she turned around.
Charge 100% the capacitor gauge of the MK1-LA railgun prototype showed as Jacob aimed at the turning brood queen with the targeting screen, he then flipped the red safety covers over the firing button and pulled the trigger.
The moment Zavara looked at the lone stryker her instincts flared as her advanced senses felt the unnatural static charge in the air and she crossed her arms just as there was a loud electric snap and explosion in the air, as a 6 inch long 2 inch wide armor piercing tungsten dart was launched out at hyper sonic velocity and smashed into Zavara and continued onward kicking up a dirt plum behind her.
"Gaah... aaah," Zavara moned as the velocity impact of the railgun caused her to spin around and fall.
All of the delta team members there were a little stunned at the firing of the rail gun as the sound and flash of the barrel was enormous and aimed in their direction but after a few moments Mason, Dean, Alex and the rest of them recovered and just stared at the fallen body of the Zerg brood queen at she lay there still.
"Um... did we get her" said someone.
Then a soft laughter started, it was so low that no one heard at first but then it became louder and louder until everyone could hear it as it became a loud almost hysterical laughter and then it stopped as Zavara weakly stood back up and everyone could see the damage.
Zavara lifted her head up and looked at her right arm or where her right arm should be as it and a piece of her right shoulder was also gone along with her right wing, as even her psionic-armor was not strong enough to block the hyper velocity projectile. "Heh heh heh aah... that was fun... I think I feel... satisfied now," said Zavara in a pained tone as she was surrounded by un-burrowing hunter killers that were waiting in the wings.
"Zavara you've had your fun, time to come home," swarm empress Ellen who had been watching spoke into her mind.
"Yes my empress," the injured Zavara replied as she and the hunter killers burrowed away.
After another hour delta team regrouped and tended to their wounded but they got a transmission before moving out.
~This is general Lions to delta team come in.~ Jacob was a little surprised to be talking directly with the General but he put those thoughts away as he replied.
"General LIons sir I didn't expect to be hearing from you, what's going on?".
~There's been a change in your deployment orders, your being reassigned to work with another part of the invasion force for a different operation that's all.~
"I see understood sir," Jacob replied.
~Good, you'll be picked up by some of the new V-44 heavy osprey in just a little bit so be ready when they arrive,~ the general informed as he disconnected the comm line.
Zerg swarm primary hive cluster
South america
30 minutes later
The trip through space in a heavily escorted Harbinger was quick but still a hazard as the allied forces had greatly expanded their anti-orbital weapons array and Zavara had used up 44 scourges just shooting down the missiles that were fired at her, but she eventually reached the now heavily defended primary hive cluster that is now surrounded by hundreds of Glaive and Spine crawlers like every other hive cluster in south america.
In the northern section of the primary hive cluster rested a dozen 600 feet long oval shaped ribbed behemoth growth pods arranged in a circle around a chitin dome. The inside of which and lower levels of, hold a massive store of biomass and bio-energy to feed the equally great apatite of the behemoths as they grow which is far slower than other types of zerg dew to their far greater size. The two oldest behemoths had completed their growth a while ago and since then they have, like brood queen Kilysa, been watching and learning as the swarm battles the human allied forces and sometimes commanded zerg forces on different war fronts learning from their older and more experienced leaders. Solus and the two brood queens Nakool and Zavara, as well as being educated by the swarm empress herself.
Zavaras Harbinger descended down and hovered over the center dome in the middle of the behemoths growth pods and the middle ventral sac opened as Zavara dropped down to the dome and the Harbinger flew off.
"Lost a arm and a wing have you" said Ellen as she stood in her Praetorian bio armor.
Zavara kneeled before her empress and glanced at her missing arm and then back to her missing wing stump both of which have already begun to regenerate, before turning her gaze back to her empress. " Im sorry my empress, I acted rashly and selfishly just to sate my need to know who won and who lost" Zavara said explaining her actions.
Ellen breathed in and sighed as she was glad that Zavara was safe but disappointed that she didn't have enough self control or patience to not try and settle the score with those delta team special forces. "Im glad your safe but still disappointed in you Zavara, but at least we discovered that the psi-armor is still to weak to stop a round from a hypervelocity railgun shot, we'll have to do more extensive training to bolster its power" Ellen said.
"Yes my empress" Zavara said as she was still sulking a little after her loss to the humans.
"Anyway I want you to get yourself to the evo-chamber and let Abastein have a look at you, and then get yourself to the healing pools understood," Ellen said ending the conversation.
Zavara stood up walking across the curved dome and then jumped down sliding down the dome and back to the largest central dome of the hive as Ellen turned back to the two behemoths that were ready to be hatched from their pods. "It's time for both of you to come out" Ellen said as she sent a psionic command to the pods. The creep cells shoftend and the two of them began to split open along their length, the creep membrane folding to the sides, reveling both the completed and young behemoths. The air started to change its flow as the two giant behemoths raised up from the ground as they use their powerful psionic powers to warp gravity and propel themselves up, hovering at eye level of their master.
"Good now both of you should have more than enough experience from your big brother to make the jump to his location, fly up and out of the atmosphere and jump to his location" Ellen commanded.
The two young Behemoths did as commanded and tilted their bodys upwards and accelerated, quickly flying up and out of the Earth's atmosphere. Then they gathered their psionic power onto their front of their bodys while focusing on their points of origin and their destination in three-dimensional space then they opened two warp gates and disappeared through them.
After the two behemoths left Ellen returned to her chamber to prepare for her departure to India as there's a certain ship that's causing trouble destroying or heavily damaging entier hive clusters in one hit. "Marmota" the name escaped Ellen's mouth as she extended her bio armors wings and flew off.
Later in the evo-chamber Zavara was having her body examined by Abastein who implanted a few of his special parasites into the brood queens allowing him to more thoroughly examine her.
"Severe damage to right shoulder. Right grasping arm and wing gone. Will take two days in healing pool to regrow," explained Abastein as he then removed the parasites, as they burrowed their way out of the damaged area. Zavara sighed as the peresites came out and were gathered by their master. The brood queen glanced over to a cocoon by the chitin wall as she could feel the psionic power radiating from it as it pulsed with life. "Whats in their" she asked.
Abastein quickly glanced in the cocoons direction and then back to Zavara. "Project of Empress. Backup plan should she fall in battle or too injured to lead. Memory repository and replacement." the zerg evo-master explained.
Zavara walked over to the cocoon and placed her left hand onto its green transparent membrane. "Replacement?, Memory repository," Zavaras said in disbelief that anyone could defeat her empress, but still should the unthinkably happen it is always better to be prepared, at least that's what empress Ellen always says.
Abastein turned his attention back to the four changing Komodo dragons still in their pods and still incomplete as their essence is still undergoing mutation and modification as Abastein was still rebuilding their essence and integrating new essence into theirs. The process was a slow and long one as the changes as per the swarm empresses requirements that they have the ability to connect with the swarms hive mind but also have the ability to disconnect if they want to which complicated the process greatly but Abastein also enjoyed the challenge.
Outer solar system
Zerg colony
Titan
It had taken a bit of time but the zerg on Titan had fully adapted to the nitrogen environment but once that was done the zerg on the moon of Saturn quickly expanded across its surface like wildfire, as hundreds of new hive clusters were built and grown all over the surface and subsurface. It was then that Solus created a queens nest and turned one of the oldest queens into a brood queen although her job was simply to help him maintain control over the growing zerg population on Titan which has reached nearly 2 million.
The nameless brood queen stood before the hive in the main chitin dome of the primary hive cluster as she conversed with her master.
"Master Solus, another 20 hives clusters more have been completed and now our numbers have reached beyond 2 million," the brood queen reported.
"Good, our empress will be pleased with our work here. The progress on the new planetary terraformer system is coming along well with the aid of the new evo-masters, but will still take time to complete," Solus said as he floated over the orbiting zerg space platform now surrounded by swarms of hundreds of Mutalisks, Overlords, Overseers, Harbingers, Scourges and now two new Behemoths. "We should begin with the asteroid collecting operation, now that the first of my brothers have arrived. I leave command of Titan in your hands till I return."
Then Solus and the other two Behemoth's that have been loaded up with a Swarm crawler and dozens of drones flew away, then warping to another area of the solar system. Moments later the three Behemoths arrived at a 4 mile wide gray asteroid in the scattered asteroid belt located roughly between the orbits of the planets Mars and Jupiter. It is occupied by numerous irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids or minor planets.
The asteroid was orbited by a few overseers who served as beacons for the Behemoths. The asteroid like hundreds of others was tested by Drones and Overseers as to their mineral content, and this one consisted of both organic trace materials and others that the zerg swarm could process and use. In a wordless telepathic order from Solus the two younger Behemoths moved to the opposite sides of the slowly rotating space rock as it drifted through the black void.
The two Behemoths extended out their four nydus tentacles and opened their many fanged maw's that bit onto the space rock anchoring them to the asteroid. Then they opened up a few of their armored flapeds along their bodys belly and sides and out came a small army of drones and heavy drones as they landed on the asteroid. The normal drones started planting creep cores by the dozens while the larger heavy drones waited on stand by. Hours later creep had covered 1/5 of the asteroid in patches here and there, and they formed chitin domes, shortly after the domes were completed the swarm crawlers in the Behemoths released many of the giant larva and they moved through the nydus tentacles to the domes and then morphed into Digesters that bore their roots deep into the asteroid and started leaching minerals and processing them. This was the beginning of the zerg space mining operations.
Mars
Protoss settlement
secret meeting room
It had been a while since the uneasy truce between the protoss and their more war like Tal'darim counterparts but many still were not trusting of the Tal'darim and in a secret chamber Kaldalis and others meet.
"How long are we just going to let these Tal'darim occupy our settlement and do as they like?" asked a protoss worker one of few that were left in the settlement after most were sent to earth to work on the tal'darim ship with Lasarra.
"As long as it takes brother, we must be patient and wait for Kaldalis to say when it is time, he is our leader after all," countered another female protoss.
Than others started talking and shortly after the talking devolved into arguments and then Kaldalis decided to speak up.
"Silence," Kaldalis said calmly without raising his psionic voice and everyone stopped and turned to him." We must be patient, I have one of my agents searching for information we could use against the tal'darim... but it is difficult for him to get word to me given the tal'darim security."
Suddenly there was a knock on the false wall and everyone became nerves as they looked at the source of the noise. "Its me Rolana. Zerion is with me," Rolana spock through the wall as behind her, her brother looked out the door way of the outer room watching for any Tal'darim coming their way.
"Come in, quickly," said Kaldalis as he felt them through the khala connection.
A templar pressed a button and the false wall slid to the side and Rolana walked in and the wall slide back covering the opening making it look like a part of the outer rooms wall. Once the wall was back in place Zerion de-cloaked standing beside Rolana.
"Sorry for taking so long, I had to wait until a shuttle came back here," Zerion explained why he took so long to report back.
"That is not important now. What do you have to report," Kaldalis said.
"I meet Lasarra and scouted the Tal'darim ship, it is at least a few miles long given the map I was able to make of it," Zerion reported as he removed a date chip from the sensor unit and handed it to Kaldalis.
Kaldalis held the date chip in his hands for a moment before pocketing it. "Good work Zerion anything else."
"Yes the human Alicia... she is being held prisoner on the tal'darim ship and for some reason the tal'darim are draining her of her psionic power."
"Alicia?" Rolana said in surprise. " Why would they drain her of her psionic power?"
Kaldalis wondered that himself but whatever the tal'darim are planing it can't be good for anyone but them.
"This is a concerning development I know" Zerion said. "But I have a... idea to even the playing field against the tal'darim... although I doubt you will like it,"
"And what plan is that?" asked one of the protoss gathered.
"Rolana... do you remember Ellen." Zerion asked.
Rolana then knew what he meant by plan and shot him a look. "Your want to forge alliance with Ellen and the zerg!"
The other protoss gathered started to talk amongst themselves as they remembered the information gathered concerning the zerg swarm. "You can't be serious!" said one of the protoss.
Kaldalis held up his hand and spoke. "I know it is a... strange tactic, but let's hear Zerion out first."
The others calmed down as the looked to Zerion to explain himself.
"After having a look at the Tal'darim ship, I found thousands more tal'darim warriors in stasis, if we do fight back they will know doubt be awoken and overwhelm us, we... simply don't have the numbers to fight back and win..."
"But Ellen and the zerg do," Kaldalis said finishing the thought.
"Yes."
The other protoss in the meeting started to think more about the situation and their available moves.
"Well...," Rolana started." Ellen did seem a... reasonably person. Maybe she would be open to the idea... she wasn't openly hostile towards us. and she may view the tal'darim as enemy's as well."
"Hmm... very well. I approve of this plan," said Kaldalis. "Zerion I wish you safety and luck, en taro adun."
"En taro adun Kaldalis, Rolana" Zerion replied before he cloaked again and duparted.
After Zerion left the rest of the protoss left one by one over a hour as everyone returning to their work. Later Kaldalis, Rolana and her brother Roken meet in Kaldalises room as they looked over the map of the tal'darim ship Zerion had given them noting the locations of weak points and the locations of the sleeping tal'darim stasis chambers.
"The mape is quite detailed but still incomplete," noted Roken.
"Yes but now we now know more of what were up against," Rolana said.
"If we do make a alliance with the zerg it will be a strained one given what you two had explained about them," Kaldalis said as he noted the location of the power core.
Gallian prototype battleship Marmota
Allied fleet off the Western coast of India.
The wind swept seas of the West coast of India were calm and gentle in contrast to the war that was raged across southern India. Fleets of the global allied forces continued to fire off missiles and artillery as they support the assaulting ground forces.
Amongst the dozens of allied ships floating there was the Gallian prototype battleship Marmota. The hovering ship was far more stable then the other allied naval craft because it floated over the ocean waves instead of being battered and pushed aside by them. This stability allowed the V-44 heavy ospray to land far-more easily than on other ships and the Marmotas oversized stern mounted helipad also helped.
The V-44 was a larger and longer version of the twin engine V-22 ospray as it had a long thick body like a chinook but with four wings and tilt-rotor engine's like the V-22. The chopping noise of its copper blades drowned out the sound of the ocean waves as the V-44 deployed is landing gear and slowly lowered onto the Marmotas helipad. The rotor blades slowed their spinning as the rear ramp lowered and Jacob, Mason, Cooper, Mark, with Sarah and Randolph and the rest of delta team walked out from its cargo bay and were greeted by General Lions himself.
"General Lions?, I didn't expect to see you here," questioned Randolph as he shook the generals hand.
"Been a long time Randolph, anyway, I'm here to brief delta team on their next mission and to... introduce them to their new partners," explained the general as he turned around and lead them to the inner decks of the Marmota. Delta teams ranking officers followed General Lions while the rest of delta team were escorted to their assigned quarters.
"What do you think of the Marmota?," Lions asked as they made their way through the ships hallways.
"Well it certainly looks state of the art," stated Sarah as a few Marmota crew members squeezed past their group in the narrow hallway.
"How does something this big float like a hovercraft?" asked Mason.
"The Marmota is based off of the U.S. LCAC(Landing, Craft, Air, Cushion) and other similar tech, but on a much larger scale and with some of Gallias ragnit based tech as well" explained general Lions.
Soon they reached the bridge and were greeted by captain Julian Celestyn.
"General Lions, I take it these are the Delta team officers," captain Julian stated.
"Yes they are, Where are the others?" asked Lions as he glanced around the Marmotas bridge.
"Oh... their already in the briefing room, shall we," Captain Julian answered as he gestured to another hatchway and everyone followed the Captain and left the bridge moving down a level as they made their way to the tactical briefing room.
Captain Julian entered first followed by General lions as Randolph and the rest entered. As they did they saw along one wall of the room were two young darcsen girls in dresses, one with silver hair, and leaning against the other wall was a black armored alien with no mouth and gray skin, with his arms crossed.
"What... in the name off holy hell" exclaimed Mason as the alien in black armor turned towards the new arrivals narrowing his eyes.
"Delta team if you would take your sets" said general Lions as the ranking officers of delta team took a moment to get their barrings on the strange company in front of them but still they did as asked by the general and took their sets.
After everyone was setted general Lions explained. "In the past few months the nation of Gallia has made an alliance with a group of alien refugees on mars whos colony world was attacked by the zerg many months ago. They traveled through a device called a warpgate and were transported across the galaxy here to our solar system and were followed by a single zerg behemoth that started this whole invasion."
The members of delta team expressions changed looking a little more informed on the situation.
Sarah was deep in thought concerning the black armor of the protoss zealot as she unlike other members of delta team had read up on the starcraft lore so she recognizes that the protoss zealots should have golden armor, there was nothing about black armor. Sarah wondered what that meant since not everything matched the lore from the fiction game.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Lily said to the members of delta team. "Im princess Lily of the principality of Gallia and i'm here as the royal family's observer during the coming operation, and this is Aliasse, and the brooding one in the corner in Kainok the protoss representative." Lily said introducing.
The officers of delta team started to relax a bit more after seeing Kainok as General Lions and captain Julian walked over to the wall mounted display screen.
"Now then,"general Lions started. "everyone here will be a part of the coming operation to destroy the zergs main hive cluster in the formore city of Bangalore," general Lions said as on screen appeared a map of the now ruined city in southern India now a zerg hive cluster. "Our operations objective is mainly to escourt the Marmota to the hive cluster so it can use its main weapon the valkof to destroy the hive cluster from close range."
Captain Julian picked off from there. "We've already tried to hit the main hive cluster at range but swarms of scourges intercepted our shots causing them to detonate mid air before they reach the target."
General Lions cleared his throat before continuing. "Yes and that's why delta team is hear to provide a extra level of security. The Marmota will of of course be escorted by a large aircraft and receive support from the fleet here. Now any questions?."
Sarah spoke asking her question. "I take it that the main land forces invading from the north are a decoy of sorts?"
"Yes in a way,"Lions replied. "Given the most recent satellite date the majority of the zerg land forces are busy fighting the allied forces in the north, leaving their main hive with a diminished defense force."
"But how are we going to get this ship to the enemy's base," asked Mark.
"My people provided anti gravity pods for this ship, allowing it to travel overland," Kainok explained finally speaking up.
Everyone took a moment to take in the information as Kainok continued. "We also have reason to believe the empress of the zerg will appear during the attack, she has often come to turn the tide of battle."
"What Kainok says in the truth," Princess Lily explained standing up. "We believe if we push the zerg forces hard enough then Ellen, the zerg empress will show her self."
"And i'll have to fight her." Aliasse said in a low voice as Lily sat back down beside her.
"Aliasse here is a valkyrur," Lions explained. "And we believe that 'Ellen' the leader of the zerg swarm is also a Valkyrur which maybe how she gained control of the zerg behemoth that followed the protoss through the warpgate on mars. I've seen the powers of a young little Aliasse here... so believe me when I say the only thing that can match a valkyrur is another valkyrur."
Jacob whos been listening then voiced his thoughts."So the allied air and navy forces will give backup to the Marmota as it makes its way over land and us of delta team are to act as guards if any zerg get on-board. We'll make our way to the main zerg hive cluster in India and destroy it, then if the empress, this Ellen shows up... 'Aliasse' will engage her by herself without backup?" Jacob said recapping the briefing.
"She will not fight alone," Kainok spoke up. "I will act as her backup. You humans can only render long ranged support, but I can fight along side Aliasse."
"That's right Kainok being a protoss is the only one who can give Aliasse back up in the field, he has been her sparing partner for the past few months so he can keep up with the speed and power of a valkyrur," Lily explained with a sour tone to her voice that only Sarah and Aliasse picked up on.
"Well if everyone understands the mission we should all get some rest and prepare for the operation tomorrow" said captain Julian as everyone took their time and filled out.
Ahour later Sarah knocked on Aliasse and Lily's room.
"Who is it?" Lily asked.
"Its me Sarah, im delta teams data analyst."
Lily opened the door and let Sarah in closing the door behind her.
"Miss Sarah is it, was there something you wanted?" Lily asked.
"Well..."Sarah started as she look over at Aliasse sitting in the bottom bunk bed" I noticed your tone before, Do you not trust Kainok?" Sarah asked.
Aliasse didn't react at first just sighing. "Yes I... don't fully trust him."
"I see, there's something... off about him, normily protoss armor is gold but his is black," Sarah stated.
"Miss Sarah there is something you should know." Aliasse said biting her lower lip as she thought but something told her she could trust this Sarah.
Aliasse sighed and explained everything concerning Zerion and what he told Aliasse about his encounter with Azrumath and Kainok's betrayal.
"Aliasse!"Lily said shocked that Aliasse hadn't confided this to her as they were supposed to be close friends, "If you knew this why didn't you tell me."
"Sorry but I... I was a little scared of him when I found out that he was the same person that hurt Zerion."
"Girls,"Sarah said in a serious tone. "I think we should keep this to ourselves for now.
End chapter