A Legend of Space

A Legend of Space - Chapter 2
By Tag

His eyes widened in surprise as the Gauss "Impaler" rifle slipped from his grasp. The Hydralisk's murderous claws were retracted from the lifeless body, the corpse's face frozen in its last few agonizing moments. Driven by the lust for blood, the Hydralisk sprang over the blood-gushing cadaver. With unbridled ferocity it struck out; left!, right!, the viciousness of the attack leaving the Marines stunned. The havoc and chaos wreaked upon the troops drew other Hydralisks in, and soon they swarmed around, outnumbering the soldiers by at least five to one.

"Fall back!" The commander shouted over the screams of the soldiers and the garbled cries of the Hydralisks. The next moment he was silenced, staring uncomprehendingly at the Hydralisks pine growing out of his neck. The frenzied aliens leapt over him as he fell and advanced on the terrified troops. The Marines continued to fire at the aliens but to no avail, for the majority of the bullets merely ricocheted harmlessly off their exoskeleton, a measly few finding their mark. The scent of the blood of their own brothers only served to drive the Hydralisks to higher heights of madness, though, and they continued the onslaught.

Sarah Kerrigan laughed, watching the attack from a safe distance from where she straddled a Mutalisk in the air. "Give up yet, worms?" she screamed maniacally, amused by the helplessness of the soldiers.

Even as their numbers dwindled, some Marines valiantly screamed back unprintable obscenities, but Jeff, who was not really as patriotic a Marine as he should have been, panicked, and struck his nearest companion down with his rifle before throwing it aside.

"I surrender!" His unusually high-pitched voice was heard over the anarchy of battle. His compatriots froze in horror, and even the Hydralisks stopped, blinking their eyes in apparent confusion, while looking up to their mistress Sarah Kerrigan for a command.

"Ah, good," Kerrigan drawled, descending from the height she rested at to the ground with ease, and dismounting the Mutalisk, waving it away dismissively. "I see at least one of you has some sense in him."

The surrounding Marines loaded their rifles with an ominous-sounding click, but Kerrigan's green-hued lips merely curved upwards maliciously. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, darlings..." At a snap from her mutated fingers the Hydralisks gathered together, spines, claws, and acid-tipped teeth at the ready. "If one of you even thinks about shooting at me these boys will fill you so full of needles you'll look like a porcupine, only you'll be a lot deader. Now did I hear one of you say you surrendered?"

Jeff stepped forward, shaking from head to toe. "That would be me, ma'am..."

"I see," Kerrigan nodded slowly. Another smile spread across her face, this one disarmingly sweet. "So you want to join my ranks, is that it?"

Jeff bit his lower lip, but his expression was invisible behind the windshield of his hostile-environment suit. With a short, despairing glance at his former comrades, he nodded.

Kerrigan continued smiling as she moved closer to Jeff, and also as she ran him through with her lengthy claws. He dropped to the ground with a short gagging noise.

"Then let it be known," Kerrigan sneered at the dying Jeff, "that the things I, Sarah Kerrigan, Queen of the Zerg, hate the most, are treachery and failure." Spreading her arms wide to the Marines who were trying their best to look indifferent, she smiled once more. "But if it would come down to treachery, let it also be known that Sarah Kerrigan will not hesitate to trick and betray. Lay down your arms, my dears, for you are now prisoners of war. Tomorrow we head for the fringe worlds." An evil glint flashed in her eyes as she watched her minions scurry about, disarming the cowed soldiers. Today the fringe worlds, tomorrow the universe.



- I admit it: These two parts were originally written as school assignments and had no connection to each other at all. However, I think they coincide quite nicely, so I'm just slapping 'em together to see how they look.