StarCraft: Brain Damage
Chapter 53: Battle at Mar Sara
"Hold that thought Katsuragi," Jim told the woman he was talking with and turned to Kahn, who had recently emerged from inside Frankentank, "Kahn, did you start the Siege Tank?"
"No," Kahn replied.
"Then what the hell's that vibrating?" Jim asked.
Looking around, he saw a group of Zerg emerging from the ground outside the perimeter.
"Oh shit, all units open fire!" he shouted and pulled his rifle up into place.
Mana opened fire before anyone else, letting roar with a hail of ninety 8mm spikes in three seconds, shredding a cluster of Zerglings. In a flash of light and roar of jets, Nick landed next to Jim with his scythe pistols out. A burst of fire later and a Hydralisk collapsed into the dirt with a series of holes gushing blood out of its elongated head.
Nanius let out a mighty battle roar and launched himself off Frankentank, through the air and into a group of Hydralisks that had emerged from the ground a few feet away from it. One swung at him with its scythe arms. Nanius ducked beneath the swing and lashed out with a flurry of stabs at its midsection, slicing through its carapace and spilling blood onto the ground.
A final strike brought his right psi blade through the creature's chin and into its brain before exiting the top of its head. By bringing the base of the blade up, Nanius effectively split its face open. Another Hydralisk stabbed at him from behind, and due to his heightened senses he was able to dodge it in time, grab the arm and throw the creature over his shoulder.
It snarled and Nanius plunged his left blade into its forehead and killed it with a brain shot. The third of four total Hydralisks in the group slid into place in front of him and displayed its array of acid spikes ready to launch. Another slid up behind him, putting an arm around his throat to hold him in place. Just before the first Hydralisk fired, Nanius broke free of the other's grip and dove to the right, allowing the spikes to slice into the other Hydralisk and kill it.
A napalm rocket hit the remaining Hydralisk from Frankentank, blowing burnt carapace all over Nanius. Standing, the Protoss Zealot heard Jim shout, "All squads fall back to the dropship! 1st and 2nd squads hold the line! 3rd squad retreat!"
The Zerg were practically crawling over each other to get a bite out of the few Terrans in the destroyed camp. Zerglings and Hydralisks composed the majority of the force, leading Jim to feel slightly relieved that this force wasn't a newer bred one. If that were the case then he was sure Banelings would have been involved in the attack.
"3rd squad! On me!" Mana shouted and started walking backwards to the dropship, all the time keeping up her fire on the attacking aliens.
"Ultralisk!" shouted Labonte, ceasing fire to point at the lumbering behemoth.
This cost him dearly as a Hydralisk to the opportunity to cleave his head from his shoulders. His body hit the ground just as the Ultralisk busted through what little chain link fence was still standing after the Battlecruiser flyby and the initial Zerg wave. It headed straight for the Frankentank, as if on a mission to destroy it and quell the danger it posed.
"Kahn get the hell out of there!" Jim shouted over his radio.
Frankentank instead rushed the Ultralisk, its frontal spikes stabbing into the creature's legs and locking it up on the front of the tank. The Ultralisk howled in pain and fought back, bringing one of its tusks down into the front portion of the tank where the driver's seat was.
Inside, Kahn leapt back out of the seat just before the tusk destroyed the console. Rolling to his feet, he ran back into the gunner's seat before the turret and swung the two main 90mm guns into line with the Ultralisk's head. He loaded a shell into each and pressed the firing trigger. The first shell shattered one of the Ultralisk's tusks and sent fragments of it raining down onto the bloodied dirt below.
The second shot grazed its head, making it even more pissed than it already was. With another of its three remaining tusks, it slashed at the turret. It stabbed into the tank and Kahn dodged it again, this time landing just below the hatch. He was about to stand and try to get out through the hatch when the Ultralisk picked the tank up over its head using the two tusks it had jammed into the vehicle.
The sudden inversion made Kahn face plant into the closed hatch. Ignoring the pain, the Ghost wrenched the hatch open and fell out onto the dirt, which had by now turned into a kind of reddish brown clay from all the blood that had been spilt on it. He had just begun to stumble to his feet and make his way out from under Frankentank when a Zergling landed on his back.
He rolled over and held the creature away from him, allowing a half-second burst of fifteen Impaler rounds to yank it out of his grasp and send it careening away through the air. Jim yanked him to his feet and tossed him back toward the dropship with his left hand, while launching a rocket out of the underside launcher on his Impaler with the right.
The rocket hit the Ultralisk in the other eye, totally blinding it and causing it to let out an earthshaking roar. Thinking he'd solved the problem, Jim turned to run for the dropship. Hearing a metallic groan, he turned and saw Frankentank flying through the air straight at him. Thankfully, Nick boosted into Jim and pulled him out of the way before the massive vehicle hit and rolled thirty feet to an upside down stop.
The two men got up and moved toward the dropship once again as the blinded Ultralisk cleaved its own fellow Zerg apart in its rage. Reaching the ramp, Jim saw Mana and Jones laying down covering fire against the unstoppable tide of alien flesh. Nanius helped both him and Nick onto the craft, one hand to each.
Once they were on, Mana hit the ramp toggle and continued to fire even as the ramp closed. A Hydralisk's arm got caught in the door just as it shut, losing it in the process.
"Flyboy go!" Jim shouted.
"I'm going! I'm going!" the pilot replied, hitting the ignition and blasting the dropship up into the air.
The shrieks of the swarm died away after a moment and all that was left was the roar of the craft's engines.
"Hey! We'reā¦fuck," Flyboy said.
On his display was a patrol of seven Mutalisks.
"We're gonna die!" he shouted in panic.
"Get a hold on yourself, Flyboy. Its all good," a voice said over the COM channel.
"Maverick?" Flyboy asked.
Two Wraiths flashed by and engaged the Mutalisks with their air-to-air missiles.
"Situation under control, just get back to the Shogoki alright?" Meatloaf put in from his Wraith.
"You got it!" Flyboy said and adjusted course straight for the light Battlecruiser two miles away.
