STARCRAFT
The Lands of Doom
Chapter 2
Emperor Alard's Diary
November 15
Day 5, Lands of Doom Campaign.
"I have suspected that the Zerg will come to Sector 8 somehow, seeing that this Sector contains the most valuable resources, all in very large numbers. But there's something that came into my mind as the campaign begun- I began to realize that they had colonized each planet in a very short time, and it seems that they weren't looking for resources. I believe that this must have something to do with the new Brood Queen. Who could she be…Kerrigen's breed?
"I'm so glad that I managed to rescue Jim Raynor from his death, and returned Fenix back to his original form. The plan to form the 'Knights of Sector 8' is working perfectly. The Protoss leaders have agreed to continue the project.
"In the meantime, I still need to find out who's behind the Protoss attack back in the Great Lands."
Operation 2: Search & Rescue
The Lands of Doom Campaign
Day 1
Location: West Reach, Ras Khandark
Population: 100 Terran occupants
Capital City: None
Mission Objective: Alard's fleet has lost contact with a small Terran facility in the West Reach. The fleet believes that the facility has been infested by the Zergs. Thus, a large company of Terran marines are assigned to search for survivors there and to secure the area as possible. Meanwhile, a group of three High Templars who was sent by Protoss Government a week ago-to explore the area- were MIA. Fenix is assigned to find and rescue them.
Five Dropships dropped the marines onto the dirty ground of the West Reach. Fenix was joining the company too, but he seemed to feel uncomfortable with the crowds. Jim Raynor led the company, thus he ordered his men to walk quickly towards the appointed area, instead of running. They could be visible to the Zergs if they didn't pay full attention while running. They were still unfamiliar with the place.
"This is the fleet speaking, the area has been located. It's to your east, the coordinate is…" Raynor heard the voice through his COM link. It was a female voice.
"Understood. Is there any way that we could reach the area safely?" Jim asked.
"We're still scanning the area. Just use your intuition," the voice was clearer than before.
Jim sighed in disappointment, "Whatever."
Fenix laughed while nodding his head, "You're not handling it like a true warrior. We hunt for Zergs like honored beasts."
Jim waved his hand forward with his eyes fixed on his men, "Let's move out."
The others nodded, following him from behind. Jim wielded his Gauss Rifle tightly, and walked towards the designated area. Fenix was far behind him, minding his own matter with the missing Templars. Fenix scanned the area for any signs of his comrades, though he could see nothing but plains in front of him.
Their movements became faster as they could see some Terran Structures just a few kilometers ahead. The structures were established on lower ground, making Jim harder to look for any sign of Zerg infestation there.
"Hey gurl, can ya tell me if there's any Zerg unit inside the compound?" Jim contacted the fleet through his COM link.
"This is the fleet. We've found survivors inside the appointed area. I believe that the place is not yet infested. The monitor shows no Zerg activities there. But please be extra careful- because they might be hiding underground."
"Thank you for your concern, gurl. Maybe we'll have dinner after this?" Jim lowered his voice. He could hear the girl's sigh through the COM link.
"Whatever."
They've encountered nothing since they came here. The Terran compound was surrounded by canyons, and the marines started to run on the slope to reach the wall of the compound. The first squad consisting eight marines, secured the top of the front wall. They all stood in ready- in case of a sudden Zerg attack. Meanwhile, the second and the third squad, each with the same number of marines as the first one, secured the corner of the front wall. The remaining fourth squad guarded the entrance, and some of them entered four bunkers, which situated in front of the wall.
Jim jumped down from the top of the wall, and began inspecting the compound. A Command Center was constructed at the rear of the compound, and its view was blocked by four supply depots and a barrack on Jim's right. Everything was in good shape. As he walked, he could see no one there. The place seemed to be abandoned. But where could the survivors go?
It could be possible if they were captured by the Zergs. But the place seemed to be clean, and he could see none of the Zergs' traces or bloods.
Then, he walked towards the back of the Command Center. Suddenly he saw three men -all in white uniform- were leaning against the building. Seeing their faces, they seemed to be terrified by Jim's appearance.
They were the scientists who were supposed to be working on the 'project' with the Protoss allies- which Emperor Alard had mentioned during a meeting a few days before. He didn't tell the members of the meeting about what the project was all about, only he said that both Protoss and Alard Forces will prevail if the plan was succeeded.
"What are you guys doing here? Hiding from the Zergs?" Jim grimed while he shrugged.
"We were planning to activate the self destruct sequence of the front wall. We've had enough with the Zergs," one of the Scientist explained.
"And you guys are trying to take evasive action by hiding behind this building?" Jim pointed his finger at the Command Center.
The other scientist nodded, "I believed that we won't live for along time. Please. Order your men to get the heck out of this miserable place. You're not going to win against the Zergs!"
Jim turned to look around, and then turned his face back at the scientists, "I don't see any Zergs here. We haven't encountered any Zerg since our arrival here. The fleet officials said that there was supposed to be an active Zerg area around here. But I didn't see it."
Suddenly, the third scientist turned wild. He ran around and sometimes crawled, and then he took out a gun from a black metallic belt of his. He pointed it at his ear. "Everyone here is going to suffer. I'd rather die now than to live to suffer like my comrades."
Jim tried to convince him not to blow his head off. But Jim seemed to be ignored. "I'm not letting you die now. You'll have to go through the officials first. A dropship will pick you up," he said. Then, he reached his COM link and contacted the fleet.
"We've found the survivors. I repeat… we've found the survivors. I'm requesting for an immediate pick up." Jim said.
The fleet responded a short while later. "The dropships will arrive at the LZ in thirty minutes. Gather all your men at this location. Your mission is accomplished."
"But… what about Fenix?"
"We'll assume the High Templars as dead if Fenix can't find them in the next thirty minutes. You need to inform Fenix to make a quicker search."
Fenix was already beside Jim. He had searched inside the Command Center, and found out that the place was in a mess. He told Jim that most of the people inside the building had killed themselves. Fenix saw a commander with his head on the floor while sitting on his chair.
Jim changed his mind of inspecting the buildings. He asked Fenix if he had found any other survivors, but he shook his head. Jim was getting really confused. The Zerg didn't seem to attack them, but why did they feel so terrified that they had to kill themselves? Jim went silent for a while to figure it out.
But he had no time. A marine- under his command- informed him that a small group of eight Zerglings were on their way to they compound. A few minutes later, another marine dashed to get him and informed him that the Zerglings were outnumbering them. But still, they didn't reach the compound.
Then, one of the marines from the third squad cried, "They're coming!"
Quickly, Jim headed towards the top of the wall with his Gauss Rifle ready. His rifle's ammos had been modified to better quality bullets. A single shot from the Gauss Rifle could penetrate a Zergling's leg- which normal rifle took more than a round of bullets to make that happen.
Jim lifted his right hand upwards as he stood amongst the line of marines. "Get ready people. We're going to have some real fun."
The Zerglings gathered at the slopes, and then galloped forward towards the wall. The bunkers were already standing by. The enemies were less than 400 meters ahead.
"Hold your fire," Jim ordered. His men didn't say a single word. They were all concentrating at the Zergs below, with their Gauss Rifle ready. Each of them aimed at one of the Zergling, which was getting nearer.
"Hold…" Jim made his word clear to his men, so that not they would waste their bullets firing at the Zerglings which were out of their range.
The Zerglings were getting closer. They were in range at this time, but Jim still told his men to hold their fire. He knew that his men would not have the Zergling precisely aimed at this range. As the galloping Zergling began to jump towards of the bunkers, Jim cried and put his right hand back to his rifle to trigger it.
"Fire!"
The marines inside the bunkers started firing at the incoming Zerglings. The first Zergling stumbled as it got shot through its legs. More Zerglings were coming, and they all headed towards the bunkers. Meanwhile, the marines above them kept firing at them. The first pack of eight Zerglings was down. But then, another group of eight Zerglings appeared.
A few minutes of battle had brought the second pack of Zerglings to death. But then, another group of eight Zerglings appeared.
A short while later, the fourth pack of eight Zerglings joined the party. More packs of Zerglings followed the fourth after a few seconds. Later, the front compound was swarmed by the Zerglings.
The bunkers couldn't hold the Zerglings much longer. Packs of Zerglings continuously appeared from the higher ground, making impossible for the marines to kill them all.
Jim ordered the marines inside the bunkers to evacuate and head towards the top of the wall. Most of them managed to get out of the bunkers. But still, some of them couldn't make it. Their legs were grabbed and torn apart.
Jim came up with an idea while he was firing at his targets. He ordered the forth squad to reload their ammunitions while the others were still firing. As Jim and the others were out of ammo, he ordered the fourth squad to take on their places. The fourth squad began to attack the enemies while the others tried to reload their ammos.
Emperor Alard had known this all along that he would not send firebats into the scene. He knew that the firebats wouldn't last for a long time handling this much of enemies. Unlike marines, they will have to take concern of their flamethrower. If they couldn't burst the fire anymore, then they would die. The emperor was the one in charge of sending the marines into the system. No one knew why he would want to send a large number of marines just to make a search and rescue operation.
Ten minutes before the dropships arrived. Hydralisks were approaching. They couldn't hold it much longer. The incoming Zerglings were moving like a flood. They managed to get to the top of the wall. The defending second squads couldn't take them all. 4 were dead out of eight. Jim couldn't help them.
Meanwhile, Fenix stabbed the Hydralisks which were already inside the compound. As he finished stabbing six of them, he suddenly heard someone calling his name.
The Templars.
He dashed to get out of the compound, and killed every Zergling which stood in his way. He ran forward, not knowing where he was heading. Then, he was gone. Jim frowned.
"That was quick," he murmured. He believed that his Protoss friend had forgotten to search for the missing Templars.
The word was becoming clearer through his mind. Fenix knew they were calling him. They seemed to be in deep trouble. He didn't know how they could communicate with him telepathically- as Templars didn't have that kind of ability, but he didn't care. All he needed to do was to save them. He tried to find a way to get them, and he used his instinct to do that.
Ahead, Two Sunken Colonies detected his appearance, and quickly dug the ground with their tongue-looking weapons. They popped out from beneath the Zealot's legs, and stabbed the legs.
Fenix didn't mind the attacks. He continued to run and hit the Sunkens in front of him. They were easy opponents for him. He gave them just a few stabs before he continued running, leaving them dead.
More sunkens ahead, but he ignored them. He could sense that he was near to the Templars, and he didn't have time to fight against them. For him, time was the most valuable thing after his pride to serve his kind.
Two minutes before the dropship arrived. Fenix had finally met with his objective. The Templars were just a few miles away from him. They were surrounded by gleaming blue barriers, which had made them harder to move around. Fenix turned on his psi blades and cross-sliced the barriers as he reached closer. The barrier was destroyed permanently.
One of the Templars turned his face to him. "Fenix… you've come here to save us?"
The other turned to look at Fenix, too. "We have urgent news to tell you."
Fenix shook his head. "What is it?"
"Traitor… there's a traitor among us," the third one answered as he glanced towards Fenix.
Later, Jim could see five dropships above him. They tried to evade the Hydralisks' attacks- which mostly hit their engines. Jim tried to cover them as he fired at the Hydralisks, but there seemed to be no end to it. He ordered his men to head for the ships.
Jim had lost twenty of his men, and he couldn't forget how they were slaughtered by the Zerglings. The Hydralisks' arrivals were just to back them up. They did most of the damages to the marines. Most of the marines were wounded, but there was no medic to treat them. Jim wondered why Alard didn't send any medic for the mission.
The scientists were already on top of the wall, with three marines covering them. The marines had saved them from the Zerglings just a while ago, as the enemies scattered and galloped inside the compound, searching for prey. But since then, the marines were out of bullets.
Jim grinned as he was going to get out of the miserable place. Hundreds of Zerglings had invaded the front line. The bunkers were completely destroyed, and his men were in trouble. He grinned, yet he felt sad that some of his men couldn't end this mission alive.
He didn't want to come back to this place again. He would never come back to this place again.
Day 8
Location: Research Room, Venus Cruiser in Alard's Fleet.
"May I have these reports?" Jim asked the scientist with white coat and a short blonde hair at the corner of the room. He was preparing some kind of chemical in a bottle which was gleaming in blue. He appeared to be working alone.
The scientist fixed his glasses and turned to look at Jim. Jim was holding a document he had taken from the top of a locker at the rear of the room. "Sure."
Jim quickly thanked him and headed back to his room. As he walked, he began inspecting the content of the document. It was already been copied from the original one. The scientists had kept it from the Emperor, as he held the original one. Jim didn't care how they managed to make a copy of it. What he wanted was their corporation. They had been hiding something from him since he was saved by them during the Brood War- but now that he managed to solve some of his past time's puzzles, he wanted them to give almost all information they had in their hands, as to pay for what they had done to him. He was given a 'treatment', which almost cost him his life- and made him strong as a grizzly bear, with eyes like the wolves. They didn't regret giving their secrets to him, only that they were afraid if the Emperor found out about this. They had enough with secrets. Even the Emperor was hiding something from them. He fixed his eyes on the words written inside the document…
July 3, 1600 hours
West Reach Compound, Ras Khandark.
"We have finally succeeded in the first phase of the Alard-Protoss Project. The Psi –Force Generator seemed to be working perfectly. In the next three days we will begin constructing the Robotics Facility in Orion System. But what bothers us now is that the Zergs are playing tricks with us. Recently, a group of operators and officials inside the Command Center discovered hundreds, maybe thousands of Zerglings, Hydralisks, Ultralisks and even Mutalisks surrounding this compound. But the weird thing was, they just moved around the higher ground and didn't attack us. All of them were gone in the next morning. We began to get worried- as if we were having nightmares seeing them acting like that everyday. I'd hope that the fleet will aid us with its army, so that the Psi-Force Generator would safely be transported into the fleet. We are also desperate in getting out of this 'spooky' place. "
At the end of the report, there was a message in red saying, "Please send this report to the right man of the Emperor a.s.a.p."
To be continued…
[Keep r&r…Thank you!]