I stared silently at the Terran base for a moment. Then I shook myself out of my melancholy. I wasn't dead just yet.
"What are they doing, Abathur?" I asked telepathically, referring to the SCVs currently poking and prodding at the Xel'Naga artifact.
"Calibrating," he answered. "Artifact energy will annihilate even Queen when complete."
I groaned. "I suppose it was too much to hope they'd prefer to transform us into Terrans rather than kill us. It's not like we were friends with Valerian before infestation."
"Can reverse, finish work," Abathur offered. "Must reach artifact."
I nodded. "That's our only chance. Easier said than done, though."
"Cerebrate!" Stukov's voice chimed in. "The Terran fleet has descended upon my forces. They are rescuing Warfield. We must flee."
I swore. "Guess they finished destroying my remaining mutalisk nests. Regroup with Kerrigan and I, Stukov."
"Affirmative."
. . .
Soon, a healed Kerrigan, Stukov, several Abathurs, Zagara (who had finally arrived with reinforcements from Moria after sensing our attack), and myself all regrouped outside the main hive. By this time, the whole of the Terran fleet held position above the artifact, and they had several layers of defensive bunkers and siege tanks protecting their base.
"This is it, gang," I began. "They finish charging that artifact, and we're dead. We destroy enough of them to get an Abathur to the artifact, and we win. There's no second chances. We flee, they'll just pursue us. We have no other choice. It's time for an all-in attack. No more reserves. Call all of our forces here, from across the planet and the sector, anything that could conceivably arrive before that artifact finishes charging. We're gonna launch everything at them, as soon as possible. We'll kill them, or they'll kill us. Understood?"
The Zerg leaders uttered various sounds of acknowledgement. "What's our strategy?" asked an angry Kerrigan, a fire simmering beneath her eyes.
"They have air control," I replied, "but thanks to you we still control the underground. We'll be shuttling reinforcements here through our Nydus worms. We can't attack in just one massive wave, or they'll detonate the artifact prematurely, like they did from the dropship, and we'll lose all our minions. So we'll attack in several waves, one after the other, eating at their defenses until they cannot withstand us any longer. We'll each oversee one of the waves and retreat when things get too hot. Once we force them to use the smaller artifact pulse, all of us who weren't wounded by it will attack at once, while it's still recharging. Understood?"
Kerrigan nodded. "My forces will go first," she declared. "Like Stukov, I've been working on an evolution or two myself. They may not be ready, but there'll be no time for more testing if we lose here."
"Very well." I took a deep breath. "Positions, everyone. It's time to write history.
...
I waited as long as I dared, giving us as much time as possible to gather our forces. Finally, I gave the order. "Attack!"
Suddenly, Nydus worms erupted all around the Terran base, and Kerrigan's forces immediately began spewing forth and rushing towards the Terran fortifications, accompanied by Kerrigan herself. Siege tanks thundered as hundreds of shells launched at her swarm, followed by the buzzing of bunker gunfire and battlecruiser laser blasts.
Kerrigan's zerglings were swiftly torn apart, but her ultralisks stood firm. They were the prototypes Kerrigan has mentioned. She had been impressed with the Torrasque on Braxis, and apparently had worked with an Abathur to recreate its power in her own ultralisks.
Something in its design had changed along the way, however. Under the persistent hail of gunfire, even the Torrasques started to fall. But instead of crashing to the ground as a lifeless corpse, the damaged Torrasques pulled their bleeding limbs close to their body and formed a cocoon around themselves. Within that cocoon their body regenerated, and after a few minutes, out popped the Torrasque again, fully healed.
It was a powerful tactic. The Terrans had never seen such a creature before, and they didn't realize what was happening at first. While some Torrasques cocooned and regenerated, healthy Torrasques rushed forward and occupied the Terrans' attention until they were forced to retreat and regenerate, at which point they were replaced by the newly repaired Torrasques they had defended.
The Torrasques had sacrificed some of their damaging potential for the sake of this incredible defense, however, so they didn't make too much progress in destroying the Terran fortifications on their own. Following the Torrasques, however, a constant stream of zerglings and hydralisks charged at the Terran fortifications, taking advantage of the distraction the giant hulking Torrasques presented.
Furthermore, Kerrigan herself fought viciously, withstanding dozens of tank shells and throwing out psionic storms of awesome destructive power.
Against a less experienced commander, this strategy alone would have been enough to overwhelm them, or at least force them to use the artifact again if they could. But the rescued Warfield realized what was happening surprisingly quickly. The tanks swiveled, their massive cannons targeting the Torrasque cocoons now, rupturing them before the mutated ultralisks could regenerate. The bunkers ignored the massive beasts bearing down on them and targeted any zerglings or hydralisks in range. And the battlecruisers… the battlecruisers rained relentless hellfire down across the battlefield.
It was too much. Finally, Kerrigan retreated with any surviving Torrasques, clutching at cracked and bleeding parts of her exoskeleton.
A sizable amount of the Terran fortifications had been destroyed. But a lot remained, including the entirety of their fleet.
"Zagara," I messaged telepathically. "You're up."
"Our enemies will feel the wrath of the Swarm," she replied.
More Nydus worms erupted from the ground, and hundreds, no, thousands of zerg began to pour from the worms' depths. Zagara had taken a liking to one of Abathur's recent evolutions: the baneling. A seemingly endless stream of the explosive creatures rolled steadily towards the Terran fortifications.
Accompanying them were towering masses of flesh the Abathurs on Moria had named 'abberations'. They were built from scavenged biomass from animals and dead Terrans haphazardly thrown together and infested into an enormous and tough creature. I doubt I would have approved of their creation had I been present on Moria at the time, but as long as they were not created from Terrans who could still be infested normally, I couldn't reject using them. They were too effective.
The aberrations shielded the banelings, their towering bodies soaking up the tank shells, providing cover for the banelings to reach the Terran base intact.
In addition, hundreds of scourge followed the army, streaming from all over the map towards the Terran fleet.
It didn't take much more than a direct tank shot or battlecruiser blast to destroy a baneling or scourge. But there were just so many banelings and scourge. The Terrans couldn't stop them all.
Once they reached the base, the explosions started. The destruction happened so quickly, I couldn't keep track of it, but once the dust settled, a significant portion of the Terran fortifications had been blown away. Pools of acid swirled where garrisoned bunkers once had stood, and many battlecruisers lay crashed on the ground in balls of fire and twisted steel.
It was over much more quickly than Kerrigan's assault had been, and yet had been even more effective.
"Good job, Zagara," I communicated telepathically. "Stukov, what do you have for me?"
"The Apocalisk is repaired and ready for another round," the infested Terran replied. While he spoke, the Apocalisk unburrowed and joined infested vehicles and starships amassing at the edge of the enemy base. "And a while back I recovered something from deep space. The infestation process isn't fully complete, but it's far enough along to help here. I give you… the Alexander!"
A massive battlecruiser warped on top of the Terran base, followed closely by Stukov's infested army charging in. I recognized the battlecruiser. It was DuGalle's flagship, where Stukov had spent so much of his time when human. Now it was covered in zerg biomass, attacking with both Terran laser cannons and Leviathan-like weaponized tentacles. It was ridiculously armored, and took up all the Terran fleet's attention while Stukov's infested vehicles and starships rushed in firing on the bunkers and tanks.
The hole in the defenses left by Kerrigan and Zagara's attacks gave Stukov some room to maneuver. The battle lasted a while, Stukov's forces destroying Terran fortification after Terran fortification, before Warfield's forces finally dealt enough damage to force Stukov to retreat before he lost everything. The Alexander warped away just in time to avoid engine failure and a violent crash, and the Apocalisk similarly burrowed and retreated, bleeding profusely.
The enemy was hurting just as much. And now it was my turn. While the others had attacked, I'd been preparing.
"Are you ready, Abathurs?" I inquired, asking all of the many Abathurs hiding in the hive cluster's main evolution pit.
"Affirmative," they chorused.
"Then launch the attack!"
With the Abathurs' help, at one point over the previous couple years I'd evolved a new miniature zerg organism to implant in larger organisms: a symbiote. My goals had been primarily medical and recreational: a symbiote controlled by an Abathur could regulate hormones, harden carapaces, and even take excess biomass from the environment and use it to repair its host. Still, the theoretical combat advantages were obvious. Time to see if the theory could translate into reality.
Nydus worms, dozens of them, erupted directly underneath the Terran base, and immediately began spitting out streams of symbioted roaches and hydralisks. They were quickly followed by a cloud of overlords flying into the base, dropping the symbioted zerg they carried.
It was overwhelming for the Terrans. My minions were everywhere, and they weren't going down easy, as the symbiotes would repair most of the damage their hosts took. The Terrans steadily lost ground, bunkers, battlecruisers, siege tanks, and repairing scvs alike all succumbing to my onslaught.
Suddenly a massive energy wave burst from the base, spreading out and annihilating every Zerg in the area. All was quiet again in the Terran base, save for the crackling of the fires.
They'd used the artifact. My forces were depleted, but now the enemy was vulnerable.
I gave the order. "Now! Hit them with everything we have left!"
Roaches, hydralisks, zerglings, banelings, nydus worms, ultralisks, lurkers, infested, even drones, overlords, and, most terrifying of all, Kerrigan herself - all rushed into the damaged base.
If the Terrans could weather this onslaught, that would be it. We would have no more forces to throw at them. They'd win.
But they couldn't weather the onslaught. Their base was in shambles, and even this small remnant of my army was overwhelming. Kerrigan alone would have been difficult for them to stop. Fully healed once more, she leapt from tank to marine to scv, sinking her winged blades deep into flesh and steel, ripping apart battlecruisers and everything else in sight with vicious storms of psionic energy. The tide of zerg rushed over the Terran base, leaving only ruin and destruction in its wake.
Finally, Kerrigan reached the pedestal where the Terrans had placed the artifact. Whatever scientists or SCVs had been working on it had fled. Kerrigan walked up to the artifact calmly, paused, and then spoke up, trepidation apparent in her voice. "Guys? Didn't they just discharge the energy? Why does this thing feel ready to explode?"
An Abathur spoke up. "Premature energy discharge miniscule relative to potential. Must activate immediately. Alternative eradication of Char-based Zerg. Tunneling."
A nearby overlord began to spill creep onto the charred ground beneath it, and in seconds an Abathur erupted from the newly-moistened ground. It was an evolution of normal Zerg burrowing the Abathurs had been working on, dubbed "deep tunneling." The speed at which Abathur could traverse the underground using this new evolution was ridiculous, especially considering his bulbous body built for manipulating DNA, not crushing rocks.
Abathur slithered rapidly over to the artifact, placing his spindly hands all over it. "Recalibrating," he announced.
"Oh no you don't!" cried a woman's voice, and Abathur disappeared in a sudden burst of light and sound. Vaporized.
It was Miss Shotgun Ghost. She uncloaked, her bright blonde ponytail waving proudly in the ash-ridden wind, staring defiantly at Kerrigan. "I want you to know the name of the woman who will end you, monster. I am Nova Terra. My orders are to keep you away until that artifact finishes charging. I will not fail."
Kerrigan screamed and leapt at Nova, bladed wings outstretched. The ghost cloaked, and Kerrigan met only empty air. A shot rang out as Nova emerged nearby and fired her shotgun at Kerrigan.
I swore. "Burrow another Abathur over there immediately!" I ordered. Then I commanded every nearby Zerg to help deal with Nova, including multiple overseers.
Kerrigan screamed and I felt some of her pain as another shotgun blast pierced her exoskeleton. "You will pay!" she shouted as she leapt at Nova again. She should have gotten the ghost, but Nova… teleported? Yeah, she was in reach at one moment and far away the next. That wasn't cloaking. That was teleporting. But how? I thought only the Protoss knew the secrets of teleportation.
No matter. This game had to end. I ordered several of my minions to stand between Nova and the artifact. A replacement Abathur swiftly unburrowed behind my makeshift barrier and began to work on the artifact. Meanwhile, I threw waves of disposable minions at the ghost, trying to keep her attention.
The crack of the shotgun announced the deaths of a full control group of zerglings and hydralisks, even as Nova teleported again to avoid Kerrigan's pounce. She was staring at the barrier, I could tell, trying to find a weak point, a place where she could teleport across without immediately dying. She would find none.
Another control group of minions died in a flash of heat and light. Nova's attention was divided too much. Kerrigan sensed her distraction as she glanced again at the barrier of ultralisks, lurkers, and other zerg, and took advantage of it.
Kerrigan roared and threw out enormous tendrils of psionic energy, transforming the very creep and volcanic rock underneath her feet, pulling them up in strips and spikes around Nova. Nova did not sense what was happening in time to teleport. The strips of infested rock pulled her towards Kerrigan like a grasping claw, even as the creep-covered stone spikes erupted from the ground, penetrating her suit and flesh. "Aaaaah!" Nova screamed in pain as she was impaled through the legs, arms, and back by the spikes, pinned in place.
Kerrigan sauntered up to her and reached out her hand towards the face of the grimacing ghost biting back tears. "Fool girl. I would kill you now, but infestation awaits you. I will enjoy seeing your resistance broken."
"Zero time remaining," the Abathur at the artifact cried out. "Calibrations barely sufficient. Must activate immediately or face annihilation."
"Wait," Kerrigan shouted. "She'll get away!" But even as Kerrigan protested, the telltale wave of blue exploded from the artifact. I didn't even have time to sense the pain of the remaining zerg minions around the artifact before their flesh was vaporized and their consciousnesses blinked out of existence.
Kerrigan and Nova were hit by it too and faded from my awareness, and the wave kept coming, annihilating everything in its path. It approached my hive cluster. Had the Abathur succeeded? He said his calibrations were "barely sufficient," but could he have been wrong? No time left to doubt - here it comes!
The blue wave of energy smashed into me and everything immediately went black.
