CHAPTER SIX

"What do you make of this, commander?"

The officer moved a flash-light over the walls, the illumination catching on rock, and the glint of glowing crystals, which had drawn his attention. Jim came to stand by him.

"Looks like this thing has been capturing asteroids, so they can harvest the ore and minerals."

"What, like some kind of "harvest moon"?"

The marines laughed. Raynor stroked his short beard.

"Not a bad name for it, Chad," Jim knew all the marines personally. "I think that's what we'll call it." He flicked open and shut a lighter on one hand, glancing down the tunnel, the humid fog limiting the illumination beyond two hundred yards. "Bigger question is where are the harvesters?"

"Maybe this thing does it all by itself?"

"Or maybe its just a transport. Maybe this whole thing is just a giant drone, bringing these back to a hive?"

Jim didn't like the sound of that. "In which case, we better get the Hyperion moving outta here, pronto."

Jim turned as he heard someone call his name. A marine was making his way quickly, trying not to stumble in his power armour.

"The sergeant's missing!"

(*)

They forced their way through the Hyperion – it responded easily to Jim's command codes. He made a face at the mess inside, one left by humans, not aliens. Oddly, the zerg seemed to have left it entirely alone, taking no interest. There was no visible infestation, everything seemed in working order. Somehow, the zerg were simply not roused by it. See something new every day, I guess, Raynor thought to himself, as he lowered the extra shielding on his combat visor. If he got hit by an acid spray at close range, he didn't want to be standing there with only one layer between him and whatever was out there. There was only so much that experience would cover in a situation like this, the zerg were nothing if not frightening in their capacity for intelligence, cunning, and most of all, adaptability.

There was a low thunder, and then a sudden roar, as the Hyperion's engines came to life, and the engineers got to work. Raynor had got what he needed when they stopped planet-side, enough to get it safely and quietly to a starport they had waiting for them. Couldn't make a long jump, but maybe enough to get out of the zerg's hair.

And he watched the Hyperion begin to move, slowly against the alien environment as Swann's crew cut it out of the entrapping substance – seeing from a remote view how the walls moved slowly in the view outside the observation windows, he had to appreciate the sight. He was monitoring every inch of this operation for the slightest sign of something going wrong. He hadn't come this far by being sloppy and failing to notice when something was off. But so far, so good.

The anti-gravity generator seemed to be functional, creating a field around the ship that gently moved it into position. Not easy for such a large vessel, but between him and Horner, they got it where it needed to be. And for a moment, Raynor felt joy, a feeling in him reacting to the sight of it standing free, proud, in the centre of the alien tunnel – ready to move out at last.

You did good, old girl, he said silently to himself.

Even the massive battlecruiser seemed somehow small against the vast ribs and muscled alien flesh, something like cartilage but not quite, that made cavernous walls so large Jim suspected it functioned like some kind of starport. Could probably house millions of mutalisks in these tunnels. He shuddered to think about it. Zerg took the whole thing to a whole new level, there was never a time when he discovered something about them that he was left with a good feeling.

Except one, maybe. You could win. And they got stupid around a psi emitter. Pity he didn't have any of those with him.

First thing he was going to do when the Hyperion was jetting out of here, was make sure to leave behind a few nukes. Take this whole thing out. If the Zerg started filling up Koprulu with more of these things, with armies to match, they'd be in even more trouble than they were now.

Swann had fitted the bays – Raynor would give the order as they left.