Chapter Seven: Mining Operation
Serena Calabas had decided on a change from the usual.
The surface of Mar Sara was remarkably similar to what it had been before Tassadar reduced it to a smoking ruin. For one thing, the zerg had not had nearly as massive a presence. And that presence had been reduced. A critical mass of zerg bodies had been unleashed during the final stages. But the geography of the planet was unchanged.
Initial reports about all life being extinguished were mere Confederate propaganda. Propaganda no one had time to disprove in all the chaos of the invasion. The oceans of Mar Sara were fine, and many structures were still standing. By all accounts, Tassadar seemed to have been very precise in his attacks,
But that was neither here nor there.
For now, Serena looked down the wastes with her helmet visor shut. It had been some time since she'd last worn a marine suit, and getting used to it was difficult. Still, it was entertaining to learn a new skill. Most of the plans had already been put in motion. With no major army to fight, being on hand to look at things was more valuable than being accessible. Her com was still open in case of emergency, of course.
"All right, boys, we're on the clock with this operation. So get working," said Raynor as the SCV crews set to work on a mining site. As it turned out, Tassadar had targeted zerg hives for the most part. And zerg hives were almost always set up near large mineral deposits.
So simply by going to those hives, they could harvest from them fairly easily. Even now, the SCV's were mining away at mineral formations.
"Remember that Mengsk can't spare many troops," said Raynor to his men. "So we'll have to make good use of the ones we have. Stay frosty and near the medics."
"I'm just glad to be out of the command center," admitted Serena.
"You don't usually leave it, do you, Commander?" asked Raynor.
"I have to remain on call," said Serena, checking things. "Hmm, sources indicate that we've got mineral deposits all over this area. As far as we can tell, Tassadar's bombardment scattered some major crystal formations. We'll start here."
These readings turned out to be correct. The scalding of the surface had turned up many smaller mineral patches. It had also scattered many larger ones. These had taken root and grown in the psionic environment created by the barrage.
And then came the call.
"We've got zerg!" said a marine.
"Open fire," said Jim.
And they did just that. Waves of zerg, several hundred, rushed at them in droves. When Serena had first come here, such an amount would have sent men running. Now, however, no one even flinched as they mowed them down. Several more came out and were gunned down as well.
This invasion had made men of the entire sector if nothing else. They were already laughing and joking. And so things went for the next few days while they awaited new colonists. Several more ships arrived and shored up the colony. Their men were ensuring things were running fine. But 'fine' wasn't good enough when you had a quota as large as Arcturus had given them. It was doable, but Serena suspected he half-hoped they'd fail.
But Serena received more calls from above. "Jim, we've got more transports of workers coming as we speak. We need to secure the area as best we can and clear out these zerg."
"Doesn't sound too hard," said Raynor, eyeing the enclosed cliffs. "Still, there are some open areas out there. Good place for an ambush if the zerg unburrow. No chokepoints."
"Let's start north of here then," said Serena.
The journey north was a blur. The men now and then spotted isolated pockets of zerg and mowed them down. No one was killed, owing to the superior armor they had now. Marines went clad with better weapons and armor than before the zerg came. After all, the zerg weren't going to accept a bribe if you lost.
So you had to win.
That meant every marine had to count.
Several more outposts were marked, and colonists arrived. But what surprised Serena was that there were actually large clusters of trees here or there. They were actually in far greater numbers than they had been before the bombardment. They were not precisely beautiful, but they were a welcome change.
"It's been less than two years, and the forests are regrowing," said Raynor. "The bombardment must have sent their sprouts all over the place. God bless genetically engineered trees, I guess."
"Well, that's nice to know. It'll make our job easier," said Serena. "I think it's due to a lack of pollution. Terran vehicles burn a lot of fuel, and engineered forests grow up drenched in the stuff. These ones have had several years with no industry or pollution of any kind.
"It's possible that they've taken advantage of the opportunity. Which means they'll do a far better job of processing pollution now."
Several more skirmishes were fought. Meanwhile, troops were dispatched to southern regions with orders to clear the zerg. A few men died, but the numbers paled in comparison to their kill count. These zerg had no direction, no plan, and no hive cluster, so they were baited and destroyed.
All in a day's work, in the end.
Serena, however, was not content with that. More shipments of refugees were arriving, more than expected. For now, Mengsk was only sending skilled workers. And so she had to make sure there was room to expand. So, she led a force north with Raynor to scour the north and here ran into several ultralisks.
Parthian tactics proved helpful. One line of marines kept it pursuing them while the others shot it. It wouldn't have worked in a larger battle, but here it was quite effective. And more zerglings and hydralisks were slaughtered as they found abandoned communities. These Serena marked for salvage crews to check through them. They were a lonely sight, isolated settlements which no one had lived in for years. Now and then, they found skeletons that had been picked clean.
"Well, we did do a number on them, Serena," said Raynor.
"None of these zerg will ever be brought into the broods of our enemies," noted Serena. "Isolated like this, they are easily hunted. But if Kerrigan had gathered them to her, they could make a critical difference." Then she looked through her binoculars and saw a familiar sight. She wasn't sure why. "We'll move toward that structure over there. Some salvage teams might be able to find something of value there."
As she got nearer, Serena realized this was one of the manmade fortresses Idlen had set up. She'd made her stand here against the zerg and defeated a zerg hive cluster. It had seemed like a victory until even more zerg were sicced on them out of space.
"I remember this place," said Raynor, noticing a neon sign entitled 'Joey Ray's.' "I used to drink at that bar. Guess Tassadar didn't do as good a job glassing the place as I thought."
"He did a perfectly good job of it, Jim," said Serena. "My guess is that he chose to avoid destroying things he didn't have to. He focused on the major hives, and that was enough. Let's have a look inside."
Most of the communities they'd visited had been rotted and falling to pieces. But Idlen's old fortifications had stood the test of time. It seemed he'd spared no expense on making them. There were one or two broken walls or ceilings where the zerg had gotten in. But it was pure neo-steel and could be repaired.
"...This structure could be useful as a base of operations," said Serena. She was scanning her flashlight through a darkened room. "Sweep the floors, and let's move."
Only too well, Serena remembered the last sight of this place as they'd fled with all the survivors of Mar Sara. Below them, an unending tide of zerg finally got past the spider mines. But they'd arrive too late. They had lost their hive and failed to destroy the terran force. And later, Serena would return the favor many times on Antiga Prime.
But it had not seemed like a victory then. Everyone had been desperate, just trying to stay alive. Only they had stayed alive; they'd outmaneuver the zerg in a fighting retreat. And for every empty victory, the zerg one, they suffered a grievous defeat. Tassadar was always there to glass them. If the strategy had been continued for a few years, they could have bled the swarm white.
It seemed like such a long time ago.
Before the Fall of Tarsonis. Before the Dominion.
A zergling leaped out of a hole and rushed at Serena, only for her to blast it down. Another was gunned down by Raynor, who checked the vents. "Check your corners people, there are zerg here."
"...I killed it," said Serena.
"Yeah, so?" asked Raynor.
"The first time I saw one of these zerglings, it was horrific," said Serena. "It nearly ate me. "Now I can kill them without flinching. The whole sector is like this now."
"So, zerg invasions are the new normal, then?" asked Raynor.
"They may not be for long," said Serena. "The UED and Kerrigan may double K.O eachother. If they devastate each other's fighting power while we bite little pieces off, this war could end."
"Well, it's something to hope for, darling," said Raynor. Though neither of them believed it would happen. "Alright boys, this is Jim. We've secured one of the facilities, and you can stand by to begin salvage operations."
"Ma'am, we're seeing a major decrease in mineral finds in this location," said a man over a communication. "This place may be tapped out. I mean, we haven't run out yet, but-"
"We'll tap it out later," said Serena. "Move to one of the new areas and begin mining. Efficiency is key.
"Once the easy finds are gone, we'll salvage the pieces. Jim, you and I will head-on and see if we can't clear out more of these zerg. If we hunt down enough of them, it should make any plans to recreate a zerg hive here difficult."
"Back to war, huh?" asked Raynor.
Serena smiled. "This is pest control."
And so it went.
Just like old times, Serena and Raynor crisscrossed the surface of Mar Sara. They hunted more and more zerg while directing new colonist efforts. The more ground they conquered, the less enthusiastic Serena became. She reflected that things really were just like old times.
"Do you think we're stuck in a rut, Raynor?" asked Serena suddenly while they were eating dinner.
"What do you mean?" asked Raynor.
"We started off fighting under Arcturus. Our goal was to sabotage the zerg and his terran rivals," said Serena. "Only for him to turn on us and us to make an alliance with the protoss. Then there was a whole showdown, and now things have come full circle.
"I'd hate for this cycle to become a habit."
"Well," said Raynor. "Logical thing to do is break it, I guess."
"How?" asked Serena. "Blowing up Tarsonis didn't stop it. The fall of Aiur didn't stall it. The conquest of Korhal didn't either. Neither did enslaving the Overmind.
"All of these events were supposed to be masterstrokes that ended the war. All of them, though, ended up playing into it. Every war leads to another war."
"Maybe quit while you're ahead," said Raynor. "Kick the bad guys of your territory, accept a draw and call it quits."
"But they'll come back, won't they?" asked Serena. "Don't you have to ensure they don't destroy you when you're weak again?"
Raynor fell silent.
"Incoming message from Arcturus Mengsk," said the computer.
Serena sat up and brought it through, clearing off the fried zergling wings as she did. She did her best to straighten things out and saw Mengsk appear. He looked better and not in a good way. A lot of old self-importance and fire had come back to him, and he looked every bit the magnamonious general.
"Commander, Nova tells me that you are halfway to meeting your quota. Keep up the good work. Refugees across the sector are counting on you," said Arcturus.
"I'm well aware," said Serena.
"On that note," said Mengsk. "We've got word from the protoss thanks to Raynor's contact. Their capital city of Telamatros has been destroyed. Their Matriarch has been kidnapped. Apparently, Kerrigan is bargaining with her to force the Dark Templar to help her out."
"Even with the Dark Templar, she'll have serious problems," said Serena. "For now, we must attend to the refugees that are arriving. Jim, I want you to get some good men who you trust to orient these people about colonizing this place. I doubt that all of them have experience in this kind of world."
"Well, that makes sense," said Raynor. "Wish me luck."
There were other things they discussed. Many smaller plans to help the colony be reformed, with defensive techniques. Even so, as it progressed, Serena began to view the entire thing as hopeless. Depending on who won the conflict, all these preparations would amount to a speedbump at best. Or, more likely, a starving colony after the UED or Kerrigan wiped out Augustgrad again.
The city was in no shape to resist another determined attack. Mengsk would abandon it in a heartbeat. Meanwhile, time ticked by, and the resource quota got nearer and nearer to being fulfilled. But never near enough.
"Commander, we're half out of time," said Raynor in private. "We'd better hurry up if we're going to make our quota. I mean, we're expanding fast, but I feel like we ought to try and beat the time. It'll let us get back in the field."
"The quota is well in hand, Jim," said Serena. "And establishes proper defenses in Mar Sara is being in the field. Denying this world to Kerrigan also denies her the broods on this world.
"What I'm more concerned about the battle between Kaloth and the UED. They are still tearing eachother apart. But the moment one of them kills the other, we're going to face a very powerful enemy."
"Don't worry too much," said Raynor, shaking his head. "Whoever wins will have to disperse their broods to attack the sector. We can grind them ground gradually, like Zeratul, Tassadar, and I did on Char."
"And how did that confrontation work out?" asked Serena.
They'd nearly been killed off before Judicator Aldaris, and the Protoss Armada arrived. An armada that had been dispersed into many different planets of protoss. All with their own loyalties and plans.
"Well, we've got more practice at it now," said Raynor. "I mean, we were grinding her down little by little until the decisive battle-"
"That's it!" said Serena suddenly.
"What?" said Raynor.
"We can't beat the zerg in a war of attrition," said Serena. "When they put their full force against us, they always overwhelm us. So we only win low-priority battles with them since they don't care enough to give it their all."
"So what?" said Raynor. "How does that help?"
"So, what if we only fight low-intensity battles?" asked Serena. "Engage them on expendable worlds, bleed them white. Then you flee while keeping the army intact. Establish powerful strongholds in the terran worlds. And get the colonial militia to make their life unpleasant.
"That's what we've been doing until now. And it worked fine until Tarsonis. It's only once we try to throw down with the entire swarm that everything goes south."
"...I see what you're saying," said Raynor. "The zerg always win big battles. So what we gotta do is make it, so those battles ain't decisive, and then bog them down in a lot of small defeats. They won't think the defeats are a big deal, but it'll take a big toll on them over a few years."
"It already has," said Serena. "They simply haven't figured it out yet. Their definition of victory is seizing ground, and they don't understand anything else. They assume that the Psi Disruptor of the Second Overmind is their main problem. The zerg are good at winning that major battles, but they don't understand little things.
"So let's use that."
Raynor sighed. "Personally, I'd rather they keep killing one another until the end of time."
"No argument there," said Serena.
The mission, which was almost a vacation, continued.
The quota number got higher and higher, and they were well ahead of schedule. Little by little, all their statistics lined up. And even now, more was being produced.
Sitting in the command deck of the Hyperion, Raynor sat back. "... It's done. The mineral quota has now been shipped. Arcturus should be sending us a message of congratulations soon."
"I say we make the call now," said Serena.
"Well, we've managed to start the resettlement process," said Raynor. "A lot of folks have taken to hunting zerg too. They make good eating if you fry them, so long as you avoid the poisonous bits."
"Then we may make it through this after all," said Raynor.
Arcturus Mengsk soon enough made his appearance and seemed exceptionally pleased with them. Serena did not blame him; approval ratings were at an all-time high. And no one dared question the necessity of the Dominion. Meanwhile, his Empire was just as strong as ever, at least relative to his enemies.
Mengsk was stronger than he'd ever been by virtue of all his enemies having been weakened more. Serena couldn't wait to see how he blew it this time.
"Excellent work, Commander. You've paved the way for the refounding of the Dominion," said Mengsk.
The rest of the call wasn't relevant after that—the usual formalities.