Starcraft: Clash Potential

By Seraphilim

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Prologue: Pledge of No Allegiance

Mission Two (First Half): Endaris Revolt

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After the Warspite made it's escape from Tarsonis, the soldiers who were rescued from the planet were inducted into the ranks aboard the ship, having nowhere else to go. Janus was assigned back to a good old infantry position. Since there were no open pilot position in any of the Wraith squadrons, Terry was assigned to the same squad Janus was in. The Warspite, along with two other battlecruisers – the Andar and the Prosecutor – made headway for Dylar IV, another Confederate-controlled world.

In just a day, news of what had happened on Tarsonis spread like wildfire throughout the Confederacy, the Umojan Protectorate, and the Kel-Morian Combine. Taking advantage of the situation, several radical groups began to copy-cat the actions of the Sons of Korhal. One such group were rebellious soldiers dissatisfied with the Confederacy's lax reactions to alien threat stationed on the asteroid base Endaris, which was in close orbit to Tarsonis. Confederate command - what survived of it - realized the coup when proper communications with the base failed. The Warspite and it's fleet were deemed to be the closest Confederate force, so they were ordered to take back Endaris at all cost. Rear Admiral Goro Nagare immediately had the Warspite fleet turn for the asteroid base and prepare for battle. Intelligence was that Endaris had self-sustaining power, and also had at least one battlecruiser and several squadrons of Wraiths for protection. Amidst a war meeting between the commanding officers aboard the three Confederate ships, it was decided that they would use overwhelming force to decimate Endaris' space protection, and then land troops to retake the installation. There was also one extra bit from command: don't allow any survivors, NOBODY. It was instinctively obeyed by almost all of the soldiers participating in the mission.

Terry was not one of them.

"So, Janus, what do you think about that kill 'em all order? I'd think if I were tryin' to save one of my bases, I'd try to rescue any friendlies."

The two men, along with several squads of marines, were preparing to board the dropships that would take them to Endaris once the Wraith squadrons finished their job. Janus, holding his C-14 gauss rifle with one hand, shook his head.

"Not my job to think. Besides, I figure that the rebels probably killed anyone who didn't join them. And if there are survivors, well… I'd try not to kill them myself. I get this bad vibe shit whenever I gotta kill some guy who ain't even fighting, or he surrendered already. And don't get me started about killing civvies. That leaves one helluva bad aftertaste…"

Terry, holding his own rifle with both hands, was silent as Janus spoke. Glancing around at the other soldiers nearby, Terry took a step closer to Janus before speaking.

"Janus, I didn't tell you what Squadron I'm from, did I?"

Janus glanced over at the slightly shorter man, raising an eyebrow curiously. "Uh, no, you didn't, but what's that got to do with…?"

"I'm from Epsilon. The science junkies. The guys involved with genetic research and all that shit. And I heard of Endaris before. That's an Epsilon base. A research base."

Janus turned to Terry, confuse clear on his face. "Epsilon? Why didn't command tell us that? But, I still don't get what's so important about…"

"They're hidin' something. It could just be my mind, but something tells me there's some fucked-up shit going on here…"

Janus shook his head as the signal was given to board the dropships. "Terry, you're being paranoid. We're not gonna have some military underhand scheme or some shit to worry about. This'll be a simple clean sweep."

The taller of the two soldiers was both right, and wrong. The mission would be a sweep. But it sure wasn't going to be clean.

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"Admiral, we're nearing Endaris. Picking up multiple signals. Looks like one battlecruiser and several flights of Wraiths. There's a lot of asteroids out there too."

Goro Nagare nodded at the helmsman's report. "Take us on a steady course through the asteroids. Shoot down any asteroids that come in front of us. Have the Wraiths go forward and begin the attack."

"Yes, Admiral."

Looking at the viewscreen, Nagare tapped his fingers idly on the arm of his chair while he watched the Wraith squadrons zoom forward. Within moments, flashes of white, orange, and red began flicking in his view; the battle had started.

Three Confed Wraiths banked left as two rebel fighters zoomed by.

"Blade Group, let's take 'em in the ass."

"Got it!"

The three fighters swerved about to land on the rebels' six; they opened fire immediately, but the rebels were dodging the missiles expertly.

"Keep on them, they'll get hit sooner or later."

"Lead, we've got three bogies coming in twelve o'clock high!"

"Wha… Shit! It's a rope-the-dope maneuver! Blade Two, Blade Three, break!"

The three Confederate fighters separated quickly, but Blade Three succumbed to the storm of missiles from the descending rebel Wraiths. The pilot who had shot Blade Three down grinned to himself, but suddenly his fighter erupted in a flash of super-heated gas and metal; one of the turrets on the Andar had nailed him in his brief lapse.

On the Prosecutor, one of the radar operators peered at an anomalous signal on her screen. Several white blips that represented asteroids were moving closer from behind the three Cenfederate battlecruisers. It took her just a moment more to realize that the asteroids were moving on a collision course for the Behemoth-class ships.

"Captain! They've got remote asteroid bombs!"

"Helm, evasive action! Warspite, Andar, incoming from behind!"

The Prosecutor was already banking to the right when the Warspite and Andar began to evade; the Warspite pulled up, the Andar pulled right. The captain of the Prosecutor sighed in relief when he saw the asteroids aiming for his ship speeding past. Unfortunately, such relief was short-felt as the Andar suddenly rocked with explosions on her stern and starboard. The stricken battlescruiser was impacted by several more asteroid bombs before she ripped apart amidships, gas, air and people expelled from the breaches in the hull. A moment later, the ship exploded, spattering the nearby Warspite with molten metal debris. Nagare watched mutely as the Warspite's sister ship faded into bits of debris.

"… Helm, keep us moving forward. Target that battlecruiser with the Yamato cannon. Captain Grey, follow suit."

The Prosecutor's skipper, younger than Nagare, gave an affirmative. The rebel battlecruiser was staying close by Endaris, using the base's anti-air defense turrets for protection and shooting down any confederate Wraiths that strayed nearby. As the Warspite and Prosecutor neared, their Yamato cannons charging, the enemy ship began to turn towards them, the air-to-air turrets opening fire at the incoming vessels. Both Confed ships slowed to a stop before coming within range of the asteroid base's anti-air turrets.

"Fire," commanded Admiral Nagare.

The two Behemoth ships released their charge on the split second the words let his lips, the orange-red bursts of energy sailing out and impacting the rebel cruiser. The double Yamato shot was nearly enough to damage the battlecruiser severely. The rebel ship, utterly in ruins, lost all power to its engines and began to be drawn into the very weak gravitational pull generated by Endaris; the gravity of the massive half-natural, half-artificial asteroid was non-existent unless one was as close as the rebel ship. The battlecruiser collided with the base, erupting into a massive blast of gas and flames that vanished as soon as it appeared.

"What's the current situation?"

"It seems all rebel air power has been utterly smashed. We've suffered a loss of one battlecruiser and four Wraiths."

"Very well. Prepare for bombardment of Endaris' tertiary docking bay. Let's clear out those anti-air so our dropships don't drop like flies."

"Yes, sir."

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Mission Two (First Half) Complete

Begin Mission Two (Second Half)

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Yay, got the next part out. Next mission is where things get sticky, like Terry prophesied. Expect to see some installation warfare.