The Reckoning – 7

The marine screamed as a scythe burst through his abdomen from behind. It then travelled upward towards his head,destroying the CMC armor suit and splitting the marine's body in half in the process. Warm blood splattered all over the place. Some of it landed on top of his comrades who at that time were in a complete shock. The poor marine's scream began to fade moments later. His body limped and toppled forward. In his place stood a creature unlike anything they had seen before.

As soon as the emotional shock subsided, the soldiers began to pelt the creature with everything they got. The creature roared as bullet upon bullet penetrated its carapace, drilling deep into its skin. Acidic blood flowed from every wound onto the floor. The neosteel floor hissed as the blood ate its way into it.

"That Zerg should not have survived in this force field!" said one of the marines as he continued firing. "Something had gone wrong!"

"Now is not the time to think what's right or wrong, private!" said the other. "Even if the force field isn't working on this one we still have bullets. Just use it!"

The shooting continued for minutes and yet the creature showed no sign of weakening. It simply stood there, a willing receiver of every bullets the Dominion soldiers sent its way. It took a while before they realized the bullets aren't working so they changed tactics. One of them took out a grenade and pulled out its pin. "If this doesn't work, nothing will!" he said.

But before he could do anything else, the creature suddenly charged towards him. It wrestled the grenade from the soldier's grip. The grenade flew into the air, landed on another marine and exploded on impact, killing the marine. The shockwave from that explosion threw everyone but the creature off their feet and the creature took the opportunity to kill. It sliced and crushed its every opponent one by one. The sheer ferocity of its attack was unmatched by any of those soldier. It was a bloodied fight and in the end, the creature was the only one left standing.

The creature raised its scythe, now covered in warm red blood once belong to those marines. As if it evaporated into the air, the blood began to seep through into every pores scattered throughout the scythe and at the same time, all the bullet wounds littered throughout the creature's body mend itself.

"Essences flow," muttered the creature. "Wounds heal. Will need more."

He turned his attention towards the Swarm primary hive. From afar, he saw that the Dominion had begun its heavy assault on the Zerg base, pounding it with everything they had. The psi destroyer force field meanwhile was getting stronger and its reach became wider by the minute. Any hapless Zerg trapped in it turned feral and started to kill each other which were basically the direct result from the severance of their psionic link by the force field itself. The creature could see that the situation had become critical for them.

Noises were heard from the ventilation duct from which the creature came out and moments later, a pack of Primal Zerg emerged from it. They converged around him, waiting patiently for his next command.

"Plan must be improvised," the creature said. "Cannot follow the Queen anymore. Cannot wait for the Swarm to arrive. Destroy the power link ourselves we must."

"No more essences to absorb. No reason to follow plan. No reason to destroy the powerlink," said one of the Primal.

The creature turned towards the Primal. "The Swarm provides the means to the essences. They provide the protection. The Swarm lives, we will live. The Swarm dies, we will die. Honor the arrangement we must. Destroy the powerlink we will."

No more persuasion was needed. The Primal pack immediately began their work on the psi destroyer powerlink and minutes later, the powerlink banished in a glorious explosion. The creature then observed the effect of their attack. From his Zerg eyes, he could see that the psi destroyer force field weakened greatly and its coverage substantially reduced, just as the Queen of Blades theorized. All the Zerg that was formerly trapped within the force field immediately reorganized themselves as their psi link restored.

The creature somehow knew that situation won't be long. The Queen of Blades had warn him of the possibilities that the Terran will try to find a way to restore the powerlink to the psi destroyer. She made it clear to him that all three powerlinks must be destroyed. The Primal however didn't have any psionic link with the Swarm which would mean that communicating with Kerrigan the 'normal' way won't be possible. However, the creature knew that the Queen was monitoring the mission closely so he threw his thought to her, "First powerlink has been destroyed. We shall proceed with the next one."

"You have done well, Dehaka," Kerrigan gave her feedback."Proceed as planned and make haste. I shall send the Swarm to attack the psi destroyer generator the moment it goes offline."

Dehaka ushered his pack back into the ventilation duct. They shall be on their way to their second target but before he entered the duct, he turned back to have a glimpse at the Zerg primary hive.

The Zerg and the Terran collided in fiercest battle he ever witnessed and from afar within all the chaos, he could see the Queen of Blades leapt high up into the air and dived towards her enemies.

Battlecruiser Whitestar, Korhal IV high orbit,

"It finally begins," whispered Jor-el. "The Battle of Korhal."

From the holographic image, she could see the head on collision between the Dominion and the Zerg Swarm. She knew it would happen one way or another. It was unfortunate however. Jor-el was hoping for the climax to only happen after her main priority achieved. That was not the case. The evacuation was still ongoing. Granted that the fiercest battle exploded within the eastern region of Augustgrad outskirt, well away from the landing platforms her troop set up, she knew that it won't be long before the fight spread to other regions.

That psi destroyer took her by surprise. She saw the effect it had on all the unfortunate Zerg that got trapped within its force field. But instead of the feeling of relieved, knowing that some means were available to effectively defend themselves against the Zerg, she was overwhelmed by the feeling of anger. For the last few months the terran sector was inundated by the Zerg attacks. Millions and billions were killed. That psi destroyer would have made a lot of differences. Billions of innocent lives could be spared. They could have mount miniature versions of it in their own battle cruisers and use it against the Zerg. Hell, the Char assault would have been a lot easier by using it. They would still have more than half of the fleet once that assault ended. Unfortunately, she had no knowledge of it before. She wondered if General Tabascus was aware of it. Still, it was clear to her now on what kind of priority the Emperor had in mind and it did not concern the well being of everyone else except him.

"Madam?"

"What is it?"

"We detected unusual civilians' movement somewhere near the Imperial Sector," said her assistant.

"Put it on the hologram."

An image appeared. Jor-el eyebrows furrowed. "They're heading towards the Imperial Sector. Those escort marines. Are they ours?" she asked.

"It's hard to tell, madam. Most of our troops are concentrated within the city and its outskirts near the landing platform," came the reply.

"I have only one directive given to all of our men down there," said Jor-el. "and that is to move all the city's inhabitant they could find away from the city and the Imperial Sector and bring them towards the extraction points. Those marines near the Imperial Sector are clearly not ours."

"Our responses, madam?"

Jor-el thought for a while. "We need all of our troops to help with the evacuation. Even now we're already way behind schedule. But we still need to pull those people out. We can't leave them. We're not going to allow the Emperor holding them as collateral."

"Collateral, madam?" her assistant raised his eyebrows.

"Didn't you notice the Zerg movement since the start of the invasion?" asked Jor-el. "They purposely avoid all the civilians, concentrating instead only on the military. The Emperor might have seen this. My guess is that he is planning to use it to his advantage."

"Would that stop the Zerg?" asked her assistant, knowing what General Jor-el was implying.

Jor-el shook her head. "No. It will delay the Zerg but it won't stop them. The Zerg would still plow through those people if they have to and we're not going to let it happen." She then turned towards her assistant. "We don't have the manpower to deal with this kind of problem but there is someone who can. It is time to call in the prince."

Hyperion battle cruiser, Korhal VII lower orbit…

"Proud Dominion Citizen.

At long last, our nightmare is over. The lawless terrorist James Raynor is dead.

With his death comes a new era of peace.

The Protoss have retreated from our Dominion and the Zerg threat has been removed.

Their Swarm is shattered and leaderless.

Soon we will eradicate every last Zerg on Char. In short, we have won.

Our peace and security is assured.

Good night, my faithful subjects."

Click.

"For those of you who don't know me, my name is Matt Horner and Jim Raynor was my commander and forever, my best friend.

He lived a life that was full of pride, joy, and happiness. A former farm boy, a Confederacy marines, a Marshall and finally the leader of the Raynor Raiders.Often we forget that those who are the happiest in life also hide their pain the best. As happy as he seemed, he was no exception.We never got to tell Jim just how important he was to us, although I know in my heart he felt it.

We say that the hour of death cannot be forecast, but when we say this we imagine that hour as placed in an obscure and distant future. It never occurs to us that it has any connection with the day already begun or that death could arrive this same afternoon, this afternoon which is so certain and which has every hour filled in advance.

When I sat down to write this speech, there were so many beautiful things that I wanted to say about Jim that I didn't know where to start. None of us have had easy lives by any means, but this is by far the hardest thing I've ever had to do.Although incredibly difficult, this reminds me not to feel sorrow for his death, but instead to feel grateful that his presence had blessed our lives. We are all better people today because he was part of it.

Jim was not only beautiful on the outside. He had a beautiful soul. He saw the beauty in others, always taking his time to form his own thoughts and opinions about the people and things around him.I know there is something that he found to love in every one of us.

When I first found out about his death I found myself asking: "Why? Why him? Why not take the lives of others whose only bent towards the destruction of others? Why took away all the good and honest people such as Jim?" Then I remembered that death and living wasn't within the powers of anyone of us and I reminded myself that he no longer has to endure the pain of this world. We all must find peace knowing that he is still a light in our hearts.

Words cannot describe how much he will be missed.I feel like we still had so much left to teach one another and so many more inside jokes to create.I had always thought I'd be able to see him achieved whatever it was he wanted to achieved but alas.We must remind ourselves that when we look for him, we can look to the stars at night and we can look into the eyes and hearts of everyone here and find a little piece of him.In that sense he will live on forever in our hearts.

I am honored to be his friend and his second in command.

Jim, your life with us will always be remembered. You have been the perfect gentleman to everyone you came across. They'll always remember you for the different things you are to them. It is painful to lose you now Jim, but God knows what's best. We wish you farewell.

I will leave you with these last thought.

Tell people you love them more times than you think they should hear it, especially if you think they already know.Learn to appreciate the good times, because you never know when they will be your last good memories of someone."

Click.

The data pad screen went black.

Raynor lay back against the chair. His eyebrows furrowed. Apparently a lot of things happened during his absences. His 'death' and Sarah returning into the Zerg fold were some of them. He began to wonder though on whether there was any connection between the two.

He sighed. His eyes wandered around his quarters. It was previously inhabited by Mengsk and was four times as large. He decided that he didn't really need all that space and it would be better off to donate all the unused spaces for other purposes. He didn't really mind sleeping in a confined space. At least he got a roof on top of his head and something soft to lay his back on. For the last four years that quarters, mainly the Hyperion, was his home. It was a sentiment shared by Swann as well. Come to think of it, the Hyperion had indeed become into some sort of orphanage for all the Raiders crew, who like him, had lost everything.

So much for restarting his life all over again. So much for dreaming of a small house with white fence with Sarah waiting for him at the door everyday. So much for the dream of a child or two if conditions permit, who would run towards him every time he arrives home.

Raynor stretched his arms and legs. For many hours he did nothing but lying on the medbay bed. He was bored but for a while he could do nothing as Nova stayed beside him. She was so adamant in making him stayed in his bed and would only allow him to go the toilet. His chances came when she went back to her room, stating that she needed to freshen up and will be back as soon as possible. Raynor sneaked out of the medbay and immediately made his way towards his room. Locking the door from inside, he took the time to access his own data pad. Catching up with events prior to his return could at least take his mind away from current situations. At least that was what he hoped for. Clearly, he was wrong.

Sarah returning into the Zerg's fold was something he would never have expected. She had shown every sign of despising the Zerg ever since she was freed from the infestation. That behavior was apparent especially during her stay at the Umojan research facility. It was at this point that Raynor began to wonder if it all were just for show, that he didn't really brought her back. Or did something really happen back then that caused her to do the unthinkable?

Raynor stared at the data pad in front of him. All of a sudden a realization came to him. That data pad represents only the tip of the iceberg. The rest lies inside the Hyperion command bridge.

Raynor stood up. He knew now on what to do.

If only it would be that easy to get out of his room though.

Raynor jumped back as the door opened. Nova was right in front of him.

"Nova!" he exclaimed. "How long did you stay behind this door?"

Nova didn't answer. She walked right past Raynor and sat on his bed. Nova didn't look up at him. Instead, she was more content in keeping her head down and staring at her feet.

"Nova?"

Still no responses.

Raynor pulled out a chair and sat in front of her. "Hey, what's wrong? Is there something you wanna talk about?"

It took a while but her eyes did finally met his gaze. "There's-, there's something I have been meaning to tell you," she said. "I don't know how to begin but-…" She went silent. Once again she stared at her feet.

"You've been keeping this for a long time, haven't you?" asked Raynor. "Something really serious, I take it?"

Nova slowly looked up. She nodded.

"Alright. Lets hear it."

"I-, urm… its about me and… something which is… oh God I don't know how I'm going to say this."

"Just say it, darlin'," encouraged Raynor. "Just spit it out. You don't have to be shy."

But Nova shook her head and went quiet.

Raynor sighed but at the same time he understood the reason why. "Okay. I'm not going to force you to tell me what it is in your mind. Perhaps you're not ready. Perhaps this isn't the best time. You can tell me all about it once this is all over or anytime you think you're ready. You told me once that it's not a good thing to keep things bottling up inside of you and I'm going to say the same to you. Don't keep anything worthy of sharing."

"Well you hardly shared anything with me," retorted Nova.

Raynor chuckled. "Yeah, that is true. Look, I tell you what. Once this is all over, we're going to have a long talk. I'm going to tell you everything about me but only if you tell me everything about you. Deal?"

Nova smiled. She nodded. "Okay."

"Alright." Raynor then stood up. Nova's eyes followed him. "I'm going to the bridge. Get some rest while you still can and be prepared. I have a feeling that we'll join the battle pretty soon. I'm going to need all the help I can get."

Once again she nodded.

Raynor then took leave, leaving Nova alone in his quarters.

Hyperion command bridge…

It had been a few hours since they arrived at their designated destination and since then both Valerian and Horner kept a close watch on the invasion.

Valerian for one sighed with relief. The evacuation ran without much hindrance. Granted the evacuation process did run at much slower pace than what he and Jor-el anticipated, he was glad that Sarah Kerrigan kept her words. She set up her base away from the border of the city and although this was not discussed before, she did carefully routed all of her Zerg away from the civilians. There were indeed quite a lot of close calls, but none of them resulted in any major casualties on the terran side. That was more than he could ever hope for. Unfortunately, parking their battle cruiser at a much farther distances means that not much battle information flowing towards them. They couldn't observe the battle in details. From what he could gather, based on what he saw from the Zerg movement, something did went wrong with the Swarm on the surface of the planet but he couldn't pinpoint what it was. It was something that Horner saw as well.

"The ground battle had begun. You know, captain," Valerian spoke. "This may not be an appropriate thing to say, but I do hope Kerrigan would make it through."

"That is an inappropriate confession alright," said Horner. "But there's no turning back now. If Kerrigan lose this war, your dad will gun for our head next. I don't think he would be as forgiving as he was before."

"Yeah, he won't be as forgiving," Valerian agreed. "What do you think will happen after she wins?"

Scratching his chin, Horner answered, "I think she will leave. There's no point for her to stay once she got what she wanted."

"You sure she'll leave?"

"Unless she plan to turn back on her words," said Horner. "Remember that she did give you her blessing and the only way to reinforce that is to leave once she got what she wanted. If she stays, that blessing would be pointless."

Valerian thought for a while. "I have to confess that I was surprised when she gave me that. I thought she won't want another Mengsk to rule."

"There's a reason behind everything that happened, Valerian. Kerrigan has her own reason to do that," said Horner.

"Which has something to do with Commander Raynor, perhaps?"

Horner shrugged. "I don't know. Could be. Maybe. Kerrigan is the only one who knows the answer to that question."

Suddenly they heard a voice coming in from behind. "The answer to what question?"

Both Valerian and Horner spun around. Jim Raynor was right behind them.

To be continued….

A/n: It's me again. The one and only!

A lot of you guys pointed out the various grandma (grammar, get it?) mistakes within the previous chapter. I looked back and I was like YIKESSS! After popping my eyes back in their sockets, I decided to set aside some time to do a little bit of corrections which will happen sometime later. And yes I did once use a beta reader. Unfortunately things got in the way which means that our 'marriage' didn't last so now I'm back to being single. Another thing is that I'm having trouble with the file transfer from doc to this website. Some words tend to get lost in the transition and I had to do correction over and over again. First time, second time, fine. Once you did it like five times, you'll ended up yelling 'fuck it all!'

Anyway nothing much happened within this chapter. It's a little bit short. Things may get interesting starting next chapter though. I hope you guys could still find some enjoyment reading this story. And thanks for all the reviews. I really appreciate it.