StarCraft: Brain Damage
Chapter 38: Army of Two
A Mutalisk flew past Jim and Nick only fifteen feet away from them, a homing missile hot on its tail. Jim didn't dare fire at in not because the missile had the situation under control, but because he didn't want the recoil to hurl them off into space to never be heard from again. Suffocating when his oxygen tank ran out in the middle of a cold dark vacuum wasn't exactly the way Jim wanted to go out.
"Uh," he heard Nick say over the proximity COM, "Where should we hit it?"
Jim looked down and scanned the lumpy surface of the transport. After a second he saw a small orifice-like area open, allowing a Mutalisk to fly out. Slowly, the door closed behind it.
"There," Jim said, pointing at the area he'd spotted.
Nick didn't respond and instead gunned his jumpjets toward the spot. They rocketed between two Mutalisks just before a laser blast tore through both the creatures and sent them off course into the side of the Shogoki. When they were within range, Jim held his rifle out straight making sure that the recoil would be directly into his six o'clock and do no more than slow them.
He fired and the rounds hit the closed orifice door, irritating it enough to open and allow them in. Instantly, the gravity provided by the ship hit them and they collapsed to the ground. Jim placed his boot on Nick's knee and pushed himself up off of the determined force of the magnet attached to his teammate's chest.
He turned and helped Nick up before untying the nuke from his leg, casually tossing the fire hose off to the side in the process. Jim looked around and noted that every surface was covered with creep and didn't dare open his visor, not really wanting to smell it at the moment.
"Do I need to keep this magnet on?" Nick asked, irritated at how it stuck out of his chest.
"Yeah," Jim replied.
Before Nick could ask why Jim had slammed the nuke case one-handed into the magnet, which was only happy to hold it in place.
"Next time-" Nick started but was cut off by a loud shrieking Mutalisk that slashed through the air above his head and out the orifice behind them.
"Center of the ship," Jim said, "Now."
The two men started off down the corridors, checking corners but not being overly stealthy about it since time was a luxury they couldn't afford. Jim poked his head around a corner and spotted a group of five Zerglings hopping around in a huddle and it looked like they were eating something. With no time to sneak past, both the Terran soldiers jumped out of cover and aimed their weapons at the Zerglings.
Before they could fire, however, a Hydralisk popped out of the ceiling creep and thrusted its upper body toward them. Jim and Nick both jumped back a step, avoiding the creature's scythe arms just in time, their tips coming mere inches from hitting Jim's face. They both fired their weapons of choice as fast as possible and turned the Hydralisk into what looked like a bloody light fixture hanging from the ceiling.
The original five Zerglings spun around at the sound of weapons fire and began their run down the corridor. Jim fired a grenade out of his Impaler that blew up against the first Zergling's face, engulfing the others around it in the ensuing fireball and hot shrapnel.
"Clear," Jim said, stepping over the remains of the Zerg and moving on toward the center of the transport.
Nick didn't reply as he followed close behind. The two moved at a brisk pace down two more slimy corridors before they came to a closed orifice. Without hesitating Jim put a double tap into it, driving the obstacle open in irritation. On the other side contained a long tubular hallway. Dotting the ceiling, floor and walls were what looked like fleshy pods.
The sides of the pods were semi-transparent and through them the two Terran could see movement, spines and jaws and tails writhing within.
"Let's find another way around to the center," Nick suggested quietly.
He wasn't sure why, but something about the pods made him want to whisper.
"No, there's no time," Jim countered.
"How do you know?" Nick asked.
"I don't," Jim confessed, turning on his radio.
"Shogoki here," Katsuragi said into his ear.
"How long before we're out of missiles?" Jim asked bluntly.
"Estimated," she paused for a minute, most likely checking with Hyuga, "Three and a quarter minutes at this rate."
Jim shut off the COM and turned to Nick. "No time," he said and ran off through the pods.
Nick saw the first few Jim had passed opening before he too began to run. He caught up to Jim easily considering that the Marine was pumping rounds into the pods as he ran, causing shrieks from the Zerg within. Sneaking a quick look over his shoulder, Nick caught a glimpse of one of the creatures coming out of the pods.
He only registered a bipedal mess of spines, spikes and mayhem before being forced to look back at where he was running. In front of him, Jim put a trio of rounds into the door at the end of the hall and it opened squishily, allowing the two men to charge through it and into an open area deep inside the transport. Before Nick could do anything else, Jim ripped the nuke off of his chest and stuck it into the creep at their feet.
He popped the lid and entered a five-digit code followed by a countdown for thirty-six hours. Then he started pushing it under the creep as far as it would go, obscuring it from view by any passers by. It still was sticking out a bit, but they had to assume it would be okay.
"Come on, let's get the hell out of here," Jim said and started running back the way they had came.
Right before he shot the orifice leading to the pod-hall, he thought differently about it and looked around for another exit. It was then that he saw something standing at the center of the room. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be an infested Terran. More importantly, an infested Ghost Terran. Even more importantly than that, it happened to be the same Ghost that Jim had shot in the shoulder so many weeks ago in the bunker on Tarsonis.
Searching his memory, Jim found the name that Asuka had given him.
"Hey Traz!" he shouted, "Turn around!"
Traz heard his voice, wondered who could have called it, and turned around just in time to catch an 8mm spike in the gut. He doubled over in pain and clutched at the spike, his back spines curling around his body protectively. Jim tracked him down and squeezed the trigger.
Nothing happened.
"Fuck!" he shouted in anger, his voice cracking.
"We've gotta move!" Nick shouted and grabbed him by the arm.
"No God damnit wait!" Jim protested, trying to stop the Reaper from pulling him any further.
Unfortunately he was also fiddling with the Impaler in his one free hand and couldn't put up much of a resistance against Nick engaging his jumpjets. The two rocketed down the disgusting halls of the Zerg transport; Nick opening doors with his pistols as they went. Eventually, they found one that led out and jumped it, not waiting to check the seals on their suits.
Without using the magnet, the two floated freely of each other and though they were going extremely fast, Jim felt like things around him were moving slowly. A Mutalisk formation soared below him, crossing the beautiful view of Aiur below. Cloud formations moved gently across the surface of the world and crisscrossed the vast oceans and ruined cities majestically.
And then something big and red filled his view: the top of Flyboy's dropship.
The next thing Jim felt was a dull thud as he hit the top of the dropship headfirst. He looked up, saw that the same thing had happened to Nick and managed to laugh a little bit at the sight before passing out from the trauma to his head.