Author's Note: Hey, new update. Hooray. Some stuff happens in here that should be exciting. I'm not really sure if it will or not, so let me know if you've got the time to hit that little review button. Remember, all author's love reviewers. Hopefully, I'll even get my shit together and respond to them. I really need to get on top of that....anyway, on with the show!

StarCraft: Brain Storm

Chapter 36: The Trial

Jim sat in the cantina on the Tarsonis at a small steel table in the corner. There was no drink on the table, as Jim had never really been a big fan of that particular habit. However, he was clearly far from a saint as evidenced by the near-filled pack of cigarettes before him. Presently, one of the thin white tubes was dangling between his fingers.

It had all but completely been converted to ash, leaving behind a stub. On the cantina's television was the Kel-Morian News Network, alternately known as both 'Bullshit Central' and 'The Boring One'. Why it was on was beyond Jim, but he was watching it nonetheless. No one else was in the place, so he could have changed it if he really wanted to.

Not changing it would be something Jim Goss would regret for a long time.

"And in other news, General Stephan Morganholt of the 3rd Interstellar Security Fleet has captured one of the rebels associated with the action two days ago at Mar Sara. We now go live to the front, where General Morganholt is about to carry out the sentence as proclaimed by Article 17B of the Company's policy book."

At the mention of the Mar Sara raid, Jim sat forward with renewed interest. The spick-and-span Combine reporter faded away, and in his place was the desolate looking interior of a Battlecruiser's cargo hold. Two Morian marines trooped into the hold, holding between them in steel gauntleted hands the fragile form of Toji Suzuhara.

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Toji stood on wobbly legs, looking at the marines around him through blood-smeared vision. He had just gotten off the horn with Mike when the Kel-Morians had shown up. They'd blown through the airlock and chased him down, eventually cornering him in the bridge. After capturing him, they'd tortured LNN's headquarters location out of him.

Following that, they had held a military trial and found him guilty of breaking a whole slew of laws. Which, in accordance with his sentence, would be read aloud for the cameras in a few moments.

A man with the nametag Morganholt and a General's rank stepped forward, looking totally displeased with the situation at hand. Maybe Toji was hallucinating from the Stim packs that had been used to loosen him up during the interrogation, but he could have sworn the General's impassive face actually frowned.

"Toji Suzuhara, you have been convicted of treason, conspiracy to commit treason, being an accomplice in sabotaging Company equipment, murder, and multiple counts of openly promoting free will. Punishment is death by firing squad to be carried out immediately," read Morganholt, "Boys, get him into position."

The two marines holding Toji muscled him up against the nearest wall and left him alone, taking care to get out of the firing area. Six more marines stepped forward, Impalers held at their shoulders.

"Ready!" a younger man, probably Morganholt's second-in-command, shouted out, "Aim!"

Morganholt still hadn't taken his eyes off Toji, even as he had moved back out of the way. "Do you care to say anything before the sentence is carried out?"

"Toji Suzuhara for LNN news. Back to you, Mike," he recited dully, as it was the only intact phrase he could remember after the Combine's brutal interrogation.

It was a fitting epitaph for a man who had lived his entire adult life in the pursuit of telling people what was what in a fair and unbiased manner.

"Fire!"

One of the marines fired at the beginning of the command word, exactly one hundred milliseconds before the rest of his teammates. The spike hit Toji in his left shoulder, ripping the limb off in a spray of vivid red. The impact kicked Toji around so that he could see his own arm pin up against the hold's wall, wiggling as if to wave goodbye to its former owner.

Then the rest of the spikes hit him in the back, ripping clear through in jets of blood, skipping Toji forward a foot. His feet touched ground and he wobbled before falling on his back, looking up at the cargo hold's lights as his life fluid pooled around him. Then the darkness closed in and Toji Suzuhara slipped away into the embrace of death.

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The on-screen image flicked back to the anchorman, who was still smiling the same cardboard smile. "Now how fantastic was that? Corporate justice in action, friends. In other news, Terrazine production is at its peak despite the rebels efforts on Mar Sara. Next, we go to the lower districts of Moria, where Company rations have been increased exponentially. Tom?"

Jim cursed under his breath. He'd left Toji on The Gunner's Dream to get back at him for all his bitching. He'd never once wished anything more than a little bit of loneliness on the reporter. But hindsight had made his mistake clearly visible in typical 20/20 fashion.

In Jim Goss' mind, the options for correcting this issue were slim. In fact, there was only one real option: kill Morganholt himself. Preferably at close range with a sharp object, so he could see the man's eyes roll over in death. The fact that the general in question was in charge of the fleet chasing them only served to streamline the task.

Jim put out his cigarette and stood, heading to speak with Bill about the strategic problem of getting back at the Combine motherfucker.