The Corta

Authors Notes: 'Just a note to all you critiques out there, I am not a major in English, and I'm not even in college! I hope you enjoy the read, I know I had fun writing it, and I hope you don't mind some minor errors I missed while proofreading it, thank you and have fun.

Disclaimer: Blizzard Entertainment is sole owner of Protoss, Zerg and Terran; I personally own nothing except the fictional race, Corta, and this story.

Chapter I - Red Fog Rolling In

In the K-Sector; at an unknown planet far off from Char, Aiur and Tarsonis, I buckled over onto my knees and dry-heaved. Merely thinking of the ordeal sent my insides spinning out of control.

"WHY!?" I yelled, enraged at what I knew "Calm down, Mr. Brorey. It's going to be alright." The man was walking slowly, pacing back and forth. His fine shoes clicking filled the echoing room. Giving me the impression of a metronome, and the repetitive sound had almost a calming affect on me.

"Why have you done this? Why did you do that to all those people?" I asked him, still somewhat nauseous. His only response was, "Fun." I felt a deep resentment well up inside me. If I hadn't been handcuffed, I would've strangle him myself, "You destroyed that colony for your own amusement?" I asked, he replied, "No, not quite like that. What I did do, however, was save many lives." "By destroying them?" "Absolutely." At that point, I jumped up, but the guarding marines both aimed their rifles right at me. "You're an evil man, Searle, and you will pay." "That's a little cliched, don't we think?" he then laughed and walked out of the prison cell.

"You, sit down." Grunted the marine, I obeyed as the other marine un-cuffed me. The two marines then exited the cell, closing the door behind them and locking it.

I paced the small prison cell; the familiar clicking of shoes against metal echoed in the cell once more. Buzzing swirls of thoughts and emotions circled my mind, amidst the confusion of what happened the past few days; I tried to remember, but it all happened so fast, too fast.

Planet: Gisala- White Sand Beach- Terran Colony- 800 Hours

The colony was relatively small. Marines and SCVs were going about doing their duties. Some marines were inside their bunkers, and the others were patrolling the parameter of the colony. The most of the SCVs were hard at work at the mineral line, harvesting the majestic blue crystals. The rest of the SCVs were busy with other tasks, such as building a refinery and some supply depots. I was part of a group working on a supply depot. We had almost finished when someone noticed it.

One of the SCVs was welding pieces of metal together when he looked up, "Wow, does that fog look weird to you guys?" I looked up and tried to see what he was talking about. At first glance, it simply looked like a discolored fog rolling in on the small white sand coast. The others agreed, "Yeah, weird. It's all red, wiggy." I studied the fog as it came ever closer. It was billowing forward, creeping along the sky. It was definitely red, and I hadn't seen anything like it before. I spoke into my headset, "What do you think it is?" Someone started to answer, but before he could even finish his words, a stream of ruby red smashed into one of the SCVs reducing it to ashes. Right away my radio was overloaded with horrified gasps and someone screaming, "Wilson's down! Wilson is down! What the hell is going on her-" Another streak of ruby red death powered itself towards another victim, striking him down with ease.

From there, it was complete and utter chaos. I didn't have one single clue as to what was going on. I could remember that I saw others die right in front of my eyes, after that I seemed to slip away from reality. A deafening roar filled the radio as I flew off of the place where I was working. I landed hard on the ground and retreated behind the barracks. I felt a rush of air pass me and I looked up at the wall as they started to glow red and then bubble. Half of me wanted to see what was going on, but the other half won, and I jetted away from the barracks. As I turn to see what was happening to it, it was obliterated by one of the ruby shots coming from the fog. I flew forward in shock, watching the fog nearly on the coast. I then saw another ruby red streak, coming straight towards me. I couldn't think, I was a deer staring at oncoming headlights. At the last second, instinct kicked in and I smashed the controls to strafe left as the red streak hit one of the gas tanks on the back of the SCV, exploding violently. I ejected myself from the former space construction vehicle, which was now a ball of flame. This all happened in a matter of moments.

I hit the ground and rolled up, looking around in a panic. My eyes drifted towards the Command Center, and I saw a dropship picking up marines and colony leaders. I ran toward the dropship as the last of them boarded the vessel. The marine standing at the door pressed the close button, and the ramp began to seal itself. I launched myself into the air in a mad dash to save myself. I landed onboard right has the loading ramp sealed itself. I looked around in the dim light and tried to see what was going on inside. Right in front of me was the silhouette of a marine raising his rifle, "Lights out, worker boy" The butt of the rifle immediately connected with my face, and I was knocked unconscious. I couldn't even guess how much time had pass before I came to. When I did finally wake up, my head was throbbing. I opened my eyes and looked about. It took awhile to adjust to how dark it was in the compartment, but I heard talking. "What are we going to do with this worker that jumped onboard?" They must have been talking about me. "We have to keep him contained or else he may leak information." Contained? I didn't like the sound of that. I tried to move from the small chair I was seated in, but my hands and feet were fastened down to the chair with braces.

I struggled a bit more and then gave up. The men were still talking, but quieter now, and I now could only here parts of the conversation. "He.There.Alive." Were they still talking about me? I worried that they might decide to get rid of me, so I struggled more. My attempts were futile, however, as the braces wouldn't budge. The voices faded out of earshot, and I was left alone in the small room with nothing but my thoughts.