Chapter 9: The Beginning of the End
Jim Raynor walked over the blue-purple slimy wet creep. Sneaking past its prodding sunken colonies as carefully as he could with his state-of-the-art fashioned ZPI marine armor, he was somehow undetectable. The ZPI armor, which stood for Zerg Pheromone Inducing armor, was a scent camouflage that registered him as a zerg creature. But, as resourceful as the combination of tech and chemistry ingenuity could be, it was unfortunate however that there weren't many available, seriously limiting the size of the force which could infiltrate the base. When Raynor was deep in the Zerg hive, his com-link vibrated as someone told him through the communicator,
"Sir! This is pilot GS-3. Get out of there! Kerrigan ain't in the base. She KO'ed my colleague pilot GS-1 and stole his ship. She seems to be headed towards Arenil. I'm going after her in cloak. Over and out."
"Damn it," Raynor swore under his breath. He switched on the wide-band frequency and commanded, "Boys, get outta there, now!"
Raynor quickly exited the hive and capered to the opened creep field. Somehow, his footsteps were slowed. He looked down and eyed disbelieving at creep. It was sprouting out tiny tentacles, trying to penetrate his leg armor. "What the hell?" he muttered, grabbing his handgun into firing position and locking on with an audible click. He was about to shoot, until he realized that it was harmless. Oddly enough, he prompted himself to study it. The tentacles' needles oozed yellowish goo on his titanium shoes. It wasn't acid, because if it was...he wouldn't be walking now.
As he thought harder for a minute or two, it finally hit him; the creep was nurturing him. The yellowish substance was some kind of zerg protein. The creep thought of him as a zerg. It was creepy all right.
The spooky part was how the hell he figured it out in the first place. He didn't remember himself being a scientist, but then -- here now. He was grasping at the zerg nutrient-dispensing tentacles. Thinking about his men, he quickly com-linked and instructed them to stay calm and continue on their exit.
After reaching a safe distance from the zerg base, he and his men grouped together. Raynor called the arbiter pilot and said,
"Commander Raynor here, tell Artanis that Kerrigan's heading towards Arenil and in the meantime, beam us out of here, will you?" he added.
"Understood, Mr. Raynor." The arbiter pilot answered, as Raynor and his men disappeared into the swirling blue recall energy anomaly.
Raynor arrived back at the place he first arrived in the base. Then, he radioed Kealer.
"Immediate evac, Lieutenant! Kerrigan's going towards Arenil. Go there now!"
"Arenil? Kerrigan?" Kealer said, surprised. "Yes, sir!"
They reached Arenil half an hour later, after ghost ship (GS) 2's pilot carried the pilot of ghost ship 1 inside his own ship and left towards Arenil. When Raynor arrived on the lush green planet, he glimpsed a couple of his wraiths as well as the pilot of GS-3, who was trying to stand up. He said,
"OOOh ouuuchh "
"What happened to you?"
"Ohho oosh ..s-s-she kicked me uhh"
"What do you mean? Where'd she kick you?"
"Oooh, y....you don't want to know, sir..."
Raynor's eyes widened, then he blinked. "....I... see...," he replied with a large grin on his face 'my kind of girl' murmured with a soft chuckle, then he shook himself. "Christ! Snap out of it!" He looked up again and said, "GS-3. Did ya see where she went?"
"I-I c-coo-ould uuuh have s-sworn s-hhe went S-Sout--th, sir."
"err...good work. Zero Three... Get back to base and have the medics see...the...err...the point of impact."
"WWWHATTT??????"
Raynor then quickly recalibrated his wristband. "Kealer, ETA?"
"Two hours, sir."
"Good. Kealer! Prep up the guys. We are goin' Kerrigan hunting."
In the middle of a beautiful forest, Kalis was angry. If it was only his call, he'd incinerate Arenil with at least ten thousand terran Nukes, just to insure Kerrigan's death. But he had orders, strict ones, not to kill her. "Why do I always have to obey? I hate this..." He thought as he brought down a large tree with his energy blades, sending it timbering inches away for Jim Raynor. He was interrupted in his thoughts by the clearly annoyed terran Commander, who approached him and said, "Listen, Kalis. I know you hate Kerrigan, but if you try to kill her, I'll kill you myself. Understood?"
"Yes." Kalis said bitterly.
"Good. Be ready at 2000 hours, because you and I will be in the search party."
"Why wait until then?"
"So Kealer and the rest of the crew can arrive and cover our asses -- we'd better be ready, just in case Kerrigan's luring us into a trap. Come right now, I'll brief the plan to you on the way."
Raynor led Kalis to a quickly built camp, barely made up of a few tents. Kalis followed Raynor into a medium-sized tent. When he was in, he saw the rest of the extraction crew who seemed to deftly sprint into a ritual salute. Raynor returned it and went to the center of the tent and started the briefing:
"Ok, guys. Here's the situation: Kerrigan is on this planet, and I've got solid info that she's in the southern woods – for some reasons. We have to find her, and use any non-lethal ways to bring her back to our main base. Any questions?"
A ghost spoke up, "Do we have to expect a zerg assault?"
Raynor answered, "A trap? Maybe. We gotta be ready for anything. I don't know why she left her base, but there's a good chance she's got a surprise attack force somewhere on this planet, so stay on your guard."
Another ghost asked, "Any reinforcements?"
Raynor answered, "Yes and no. Our main assault force will join us shortly, but they will only stay behind as backup just in case there would be a zerg offensive. For the mission, we're on our own."
The first ghost spoke again, "What weaponry will we have available?"
Raynor said, "When our main force will arrive, you'll be able to get tranquilizer darts, to use on Kerrigan, and carapace-piercing canister rifle bullets for any other threats."
A dark templar spoke, "You mentioned that we would have to use non-lethal ways to bring her back. Can we hurt her enough for her to fall unconscious?"
"Though it is not preferable, you can do so." Raynor said, particularly disapproving that solution.
Kalis was a bit happier than before. Albeit he couldn't kill Kerrigan, at least making her suffer a grievous concussion or perhaps comatose her, either one would suffice...for now. He didn't hear the rest of the meeting as he was thinking up possible tortures for Kerrigan and when he was listening again, it was only to hear Raynor say, "Be ready for departure at 2000 hours. You're dismissed."
When Kalis left after the meeting, he did a little jog around the quickly built camp, during which he thought about how he was going to act. As he was about to do his last round, he saw a small gathering outside the compound. There were terrans who seemed to be watching the sky and waving upwards, then it dawned on him -- the main force had arrived. A large spacecraft, approximately half the length of a battlecruiser, landed on the grassy landing field that was a forest opening. Immediately, he went to the ordinary pig-iron colored cargo ship and picked up his life-saving Protoss plasma shield battle armor from a special radiation containment box, which he had left behind because of the loud static noise it constantly triggers on dropship radiation monitors. He put them on and headed in front of the tent in which the briefing had been done. He didn't want to be late. To his surprise, the ghosts of the extraction crew were already there, waiting. One of the ghosts asked him,
"He he... Since you're a protoss, I can't read your mind, but since you're already there, I suppose you want to get Kerrigan out of commission as soon as possible. Right?"
Kalis answered, clearly annoyed, "What if I do?"
The ghost answered, "Then you're like us. I heard you want to kill her. Can you tell us why?"
Kalis cast an angry look at the ghost. If only that man would have realized what he had asked, before a solid Protoss bare knuckle connected with his face.
Flashback
"We need those reinforcements, Kalis!" A voice had yelled in Kalis' mind.
It was a big battle. Fenix was under heavy assault from zerg units, and so was general Duke. But the former was most important to Kalis, as he and a group of zealots under his command were heading to reinforce Fenix's base.
"I'm going as fast as I can! Try to hold for a few more minutes!" Kalis answered to the voice, which belonged to Fenix.
"I'm trying!" Fenix replied. "But those zerg are outnumbering us! We need your help now!"
Kalis continued to run towards Fenix's base, his men close behind. Then a zerg aerial unit flew above him. He ignored it and continued to run. But seconds later, he and his men were trapped in some sort of gooey web. The aerial unit in question was a zerg queen.
"Curse those wretched things!" Kalis said, trying to free himself from the web, which ensnared him tightly, preventing any movement. Unfortunately, the web was too strong to be cut. He was less than a mile from Fenix's base. Fenix once more talked to him,
"Kalis! What are you doing??? Where are you, for Adun's sake? AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!" Fenix was interrupted, as an ultralisk tore his dragoon shell casing. Kalis watched in horror as Fenix, one of the great Protoss heroes, bled into a pool of blue liquid before his very eyes.
After Fenix's death, Kalis felt anger fill him, like never it had before. A powerful psionic wave surged through him as he psychically yelled, "Curse you, zerg! Curse you, Queen of Blades! You'll pay dearly for this!"
Ashamed of not having been able to save Fenix, Kalis deserted the protoss army, thinking he didn't deserve to be in it. Now, he only had one true purpose: Revenge. That's what made him join Raynor's raiders. That's what motivated him to keep fighting day after day. He was now filled with rage; a rage that could only be stopped by Kerrigan's death.
Flashback end
Kalis didn't look at the time, and before he knew it, it was 2000 hours, point at which Raynor arrived, shortly after the dark templars. Raynor raised an eyebrow at the fallen nose-bleeding ghost operative and looked at the eye-glowing Kalis. Suffice to say, he understood more than the hapless ghost operative that if Kalis had not held back his full Protoss strength, he would be calling for a body bag instead. He looked atrociously tense as he said, "Guys, it's time to go. And can someone get a medic to take care of that nosebleed?"
"This is it." Kalis thought. "Payback time. Kerrigan, get ready to pay for all those wasted lives. Even if you don't die, you'll live enough suffering for a lifetime."
Jim Raynor walked over the blue-purple slimy wet creep. Sneaking past its prodding sunken colonies as carefully as he could with his state-of-the-art fashioned ZPI marine armor, he was somehow undetectable. The ZPI armor, which stood for Zerg Pheromone Inducing armor, was a scent camouflage that registered him as a zerg creature. But, as resourceful as the combination of tech and chemistry ingenuity could be, it was unfortunate however that there weren't many available, seriously limiting the size of the force which could infiltrate the base. When Raynor was deep in the Zerg hive, his com-link vibrated as someone told him through the communicator,
"Sir! This is pilot GS-3. Get out of there! Kerrigan ain't in the base. She KO'ed my colleague pilot GS-1 and stole his ship. She seems to be headed towards Arenil. I'm going after her in cloak. Over and out."
"Damn it," Raynor swore under his breath. He switched on the wide-band frequency and commanded, "Boys, get outta there, now!"
Raynor quickly exited the hive and capered to the opened creep field. Somehow, his footsteps were slowed. He looked down and eyed disbelieving at creep. It was sprouting out tiny tentacles, trying to penetrate his leg armor. "What the hell?" he muttered, grabbing his handgun into firing position and locking on with an audible click. He was about to shoot, until he realized that it was harmless. Oddly enough, he prompted himself to study it. The tentacles' needles oozed yellowish goo on his titanium shoes. It wasn't acid, because if it was...he wouldn't be walking now.
As he thought harder for a minute or two, it finally hit him; the creep was nurturing him. The yellowish substance was some kind of zerg protein. The creep thought of him as a zerg. It was creepy all right.
The spooky part was how the hell he figured it out in the first place. He didn't remember himself being a scientist, but then -- here now. He was grasping at the zerg nutrient-dispensing tentacles. Thinking about his men, he quickly com-linked and instructed them to stay calm and continue on their exit.
After reaching a safe distance from the zerg base, he and his men grouped together. Raynor called the arbiter pilot and said,
"Commander Raynor here, tell Artanis that Kerrigan's heading towards Arenil and in the meantime, beam us out of here, will you?" he added.
"Understood, Mr. Raynor." The arbiter pilot answered, as Raynor and his men disappeared into the swirling blue recall energy anomaly.
Raynor arrived back at the place he first arrived in the base. Then, he radioed Kealer.
"Immediate evac, Lieutenant! Kerrigan's going towards Arenil. Go there now!"
"Arenil? Kerrigan?" Kealer said, surprised. "Yes, sir!"
They reached Arenil half an hour later, after ghost ship (GS) 2's pilot carried the pilot of ghost ship 1 inside his own ship and left towards Arenil. When Raynor arrived on the lush green planet, he glimpsed a couple of his wraiths as well as the pilot of GS-3, who was trying to stand up. He said,
"OOOh ouuuchh "
"What happened to you?"
"Ohho oosh ..s-s-she kicked me uhh"
"What do you mean? Where'd she kick you?"
"Oooh, y....you don't want to know, sir..."
Raynor's eyes widened, then he blinked. "....I... see...," he replied with a large grin on his face 'my kind of girl' murmured with a soft chuckle, then he shook himself. "Christ! Snap out of it!" He looked up again and said, "GS-3. Did ya see where she went?"
"I-I c-coo-ould uuuh have s-sworn s-hhe went S-Sout--th, sir."
"err...good work. Zero Three... Get back to base and have the medics see...the...err...the point of impact."
"WWWHATTT??????"
Raynor then quickly recalibrated his wristband. "Kealer, ETA?"
"Two hours, sir."
"Good. Kealer! Prep up the guys. We are goin' Kerrigan hunting."
In the middle of a beautiful forest, Kalis was angry. If it was only his call, he'd incinerate Arenil with at least ten thousand terran Nukes, just to insure Kerrigan's death. But he had orders, strict ones, not to kill her. "Why do I always have to obey? I hate this..." He thought as he brought down a large tree with his energy blades, sending it timbering inches away for Jim Raynor. He was interrupted in his thoughts by the clearly annoyed terran Commander, who approached him and said, "Listen, Kalis. I know you hate Kerrigan, but if you try to kill her, I'll kill you myself. Understood?"
"Yes." Kalis said bitterly.
"Good. Be ready at 2000 hours, because you and I will be in the search party."
"Why wait until then?"
"So Kealer and the rest of the crew can arrive and cover our asses -- we'd better be ready, just in case Kerrigan's luring us into a trap. Come right now, I'll brief the plan to you on the way."
Raynor led Kalis to a quickly built camp, barely made up of a few tents. Kalis followed Raynor into a medium-sized tent. When he was in, he saw the rest of the extraction crew who seemed to deftly sprint into a ritual salute. Raynor returned it and went to the center of the tent and started the briefing:
"Ok, guys. Here's the situation: Kerrigan is on this planet, and I've got solid info that she's in the southern woods – for some reasons. We have to find her, and use any non-lethal ways to bring her back to our main base. Any questions?"
A ghost spoke up, "Do we have to expect a zerg assault?"
Raynor answered, "A trap? Maybe. We gotta be ready for anything. I don't know why she left her base, but there's a good chance she's got a surprise attack force somewhere on this planet, so stay on your guard."
Another ghost asked, "Any reinforcements?"
Raynor answered, "Yes and no. Our main assault force will join us shortly, but they will only stay behind as backup just in case there would be a zerg offensive. For the mission, we're on our own."
The first ghost spoke again, "What weaponry will we have available?"
Raynor said, "When our main force will arrive, you'll be able to get tranquilizer darts, to use on Kerrigan, and carapace-piercing canister rifle bullets for any other threats."
A dark templar spoke, "You mentioned that we would have to use non-lethal ways to bring her back. Can we hurt her enough for her to fall unconscious?"
"Though it is not preferable, you can do so." Raynor said, particularly disapproving that solution.
Kalis was a bit happier than before. Albeit he couldn't kill Kerrigan, at least making her suffer a grievous concussion or perhaps comatose her, either one would suffice...for now. He didn't hear the rest of the meeting as he was thinking up possible tortures for Kerrigan and when he was listening again, it was only to hear Raynor say, "Be ready for departure at 2000 hours. You're dismissed."
When Kalis left after the meeting, he did a little jog around the quickly built camp, during which he thought about how he was going to act. As he was about to do his last round, he saw a small gathering outside the compound. There were terrans who seemed to be watching the sky and waving upwards, then it dawned on him -- the main force had arrived. A large spacecraft, approximately half the length of a battlecruiser, landed on the grassy landing field that was a forest opening. Immediately, he went to the ordinary pig-iron colored cargo ship and picked up his life-saving Protoss plasma shield battle armor from a special radiation containment box, which he had left behind because of the loud static noise it constantly triggers on dropship radiation monitors. He put them on and headed in front of the tent in which the briefing had been done. He didn't want to be late. To his surprise, the ghosts of the extraction crew were already there, waiting. One of the ghosts asked him,
"He he... Since you're a protoss, I can't read your mind, but since you're already there, I suppose you want to get Kerrigan out of commission as soon as possible. Right?"
Kalis answered, clearly annoyed, "What if I do?"
The ghost answered, "Then you're like us. I heard you want to kill her. Can you tell us why?"
Kalis cast an angry look at the ghost. If only that man would have realized what he had asked, before a solid Protoss bare knuckle connected with his face.
Flashback
"We need those reinforcements, Kalis!" A voice had yelled in Kalis' mind.
It was a big battle. Fenix was under heavy assault from zerg units, and so was general Duke. But the former was most important to Kalis, as he and a group of zealots under his command were heading to reinforce Fenix's base.
"I'm going as fast as I can! Try to hold for a few more minutes!" Kalis answered to the voice, which belonged to Fenix.
"I'm trying!" Fenix replied. "But those zerg are outnumbering us! We need your help now!"
Kalis continued to run towards Fenix's base, his men close behind. Then a zerg aerial unit flew above him. He ignored it and continued to run. But seconds later, he and his men were trapped in some sort of gooey web. The aerial unit in question was a zerg queen.
"Curse those wretched things!" Kalis said, trying to free himself from the web, which ensnared him tightly, preventing any movement. Unfortunately, the web was too strong to be cut. He was less than a mile from Fenix's base. Fenix once more talked to him,
"Kalis! What are you doing??? Where are you, for Adun's sake? AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!" Fenix was interrupted, as an ultralisk tore his dragoon shell casing. Kalis watched in horror as Fenix, one of the great Protoss heroes, bled into a pool of blue liquid before his very eyes.
After Fenix's death, Kalis felt anger fill him, like never it had before. A powerful psionic wave surged through him as he psychically yelled, "Curse you, zerg! Curse you, Queen of Blades! You'll pay dearly for this!"
Ashamed of not having been able to save Fenix, Kalis deserted the protoss army, thinking he didn't deserve to be in it. Now, he only had one true purpose: Revenge. That's what made him join Raynor's raiders. That's what motivated him to keep fighting day after day. He was now filled with rage; a rage that could only be stopped by Kerrigan's death.
Flashback end
Kalis didn't look at the time, and before he knew it, it was 2000 hours, point at which Raynor arrived, shortly after the dark templars. Raynor raised an eyebrow at the fallen nose-bleeding ghost operative and looked at the eye-glowing Kalis. Suffice to say, he understood more than the hapless ghost operative that if Kalis had not held back his full Protoss strength, he would be calling for a body bag instead. He looked atrociously tense as he said, "Guys, it's time to go. And can someone get a medic to take care of that nosebleed?"
"This is it." Kalis thought. "Payback time. Kerrigan, get ready to pay for all those wasted lives. Even if you don't die, you'll live enough suffering for a lifetime."