It doesn't think. It doesn't feel.
It doesn't laugh or cry.
All it does from dusk till dawn Is make the soldiers die.
-Onean children's rhyme
"Go go go!" yelled Dominique.
The terran troops went out onto the plain of ashen ground seeing the Draco Brood spread across the field waiting for the first move. Both sides had roughly the same number and power. Only a few on both sides knew what was before them. The siege tanks prepared for the onslaught and went into siege mode and the ultralisks moved their massive legs for readiness. All was quiet until the first attack was made.
The first move was made by a restless hawk as he pulled the trigger of the rifle just missing a zergling's head. A group of the new breed of the little devils burrowed and tunneled towards the group. A science vessel then targeted them and put a cloud of radioactive gas above them. Although they were burrowed the gas leaked through the tunnels and started eating away at their carapace. Some still lived and killed a few marines before being killed by a siege tank shell.
The battle raged on for two hours never subsiding on either side. Most of the casualties were of zerglings and marines. Kenna killed a few hydralisks and barely missed a pair of claws that came jutting out of the ground. A firebat scorched the ground at Kenna's feet.
"Toasted that little bugga'." laughed the firebat, and moved on to the front lines.
A group of wraiths came in only to find 11 mutalisks blocking their path. The impact of the missiles soon killed a mutalisk but the glaveworm eventually wore out an engine of a couple of wraiths and fell to the ground. One of the wraith pilots ejected from the ever plummeting ship and to his dismay fell into a group of hydralisks.
A queen appeared out of nowhere and ensnared a group of 5 wraiths and flew away gathering energy for another attack. Zach started pelting a group of Zerg with bullets and reloaded.
"Crap, one clip left."
The last burst of bullets killed a couple of zerglings and a hydralisk. Zach threw his rifle to the side and unsheathed his sword.
Meanwhile Kenna was firing at an ultralisk with a group of ghosts as he saw a figure in the distance. It was a ghost with an odd mask fighting an ultralisk himself when the behemoth hit the soldier's leg with the blunt side of its massive blade. Before the final blow was hit a goliath shot the behemoth with its gattling gun. The ultralisk let out a low growl and collapsed onto the ground. After Kenna and the group he was with destroyed the monster, he went off to see what had become of the ghost in the distance. He saw him limping across the field with his C-10 rifle in one hand and the other helping his shattered leg move with him . He stopped looking as a sudden shove from one of his comrades pushed him onto the ground. While Kenna got up from the ground he saw that a lurker spike had gone through the soldier. He saved his life. With a rage he ran towards the pile of earth that appeared to be where the lurker was. Kenna took out a grenade he had found on the ground and threw it onto the pile. With a massive explosion pieces of the lurker started to seep through the ground, some coming down with the debris.
Near the third line of marines and ghosts was Pierce. With his rifle he shot a few zerglings in the eyes but was having trouble with the mutalisks. They were swooping down and firing glave wurms into the troops. Several marines went down with a sudden scream. Pierce aimed at one of the wings and fired. The mutalisk started to have trouble maneuvering with its ripped wing and crashed into the ground in front of him. He took out an explosive shell from his pocket and loaded it into his rifle. Raising it to his shoulder he shot it at the head of the bat like beast blowing off pieces of its head. Pierce turned his attention back onto the oncoming horde of zerglings.
Wolfe was with his fellow fighters in the wraiths firing at units below them. Smithry gave orders to the fighters over the radio and told them to help out a group of marines with a mutalisk problem. Wolfe got his missiles ready for the dog fight. The squadron flew to the area while about twelve others stayed behind to help the troops. At the site they saw a group of devourers waiting for them. They quickly flew towards them and shot globs of acid at the ships. Wolfe dodged one of the globs, but a few were not so lucky. One of the wraiths had an engine malfunction which a part was blown off, sending him to the ground. Another pilot was panicking and ejected the wraith only to find a scourge heading towards him. The last wraith hit by the acid heard the explosion and went into a frenzy. He flew his burning ship into the mouth of the beast. The explosion killed both the wraith pilot and the devourer. Smithry was giving more orders when a group of scourges came up behind them.
"They're actually smart! Shit, come on guys lets give em' hell anyways." yelled Joshlow.
The scourges sped towards them while the devourers were coming closer and closer, preparing for the next attack. The squadron shot a barrage of missiles at the scourges destroying all but one. In the cloud of smoke Smithry didn't see the destruction that was coming. The blind creature rammed its body into Smithry's ship and sent a large wave of fire around it. He started to check the damage onto his ship and got an idea. He started to fly upward into the sky to smother out the ever engulfing fire.
"Wolfe," said Smithry on his crackling radio, "do you read me."
"Yes sir, is everything okay?"
"No, I'm going down-" static "I am putting you in charge of the squadron, I send you the best of luck, good bye."
With those words Smithry sent his wraith into a barrel role towards the ground below him, the ship was burning slowly with the scourge parts acting as a sticky fuel. He headed towards the pack of Zerg below him.
"Nooo! Sir, you can't do this. You still have a chance..." said Wolfe.
Wolfe watched as his mentor's ship was plummeting down. There was a small flash below him where he crashed.
The third line of troops were having trouble with the Zerg ground troops coming upon them when a fiery wraith crashed twenty yards in front of them killing several hydralisks and hidden lurkers. The missiles in the wraith cooked off causing the explosion to be large, which knocked out a nearby ultralisk. Pierce glanced at the wreckage and continued to shoot at the zerglings.
It soon became dark and fighting had become difficult for the Terran forces. The generators were being fixed in the colony after a mishap with a zergling. Later some ghosts came in and told the troops what they had hoped for. A shipment of nukes had come in and were ready to be used, but could not be done till morning when it was easier to aim, for their safety. Flares were used by the medics to light the battle. There were so many Zerg that a few of the flares landed onto them and caused a commotion.
In the foul ranks of the creatures a few were blinded by the bright light and attacked the units that the flares stuck to. "Fred" was in the group but never seen the battle yet, it was his turn to fight now. The Zerg base was building slowly from the lack of resources and sent some overlords to scout out a new planet to build a base. From the scouts they discovered that a group of battlecruisers were headed for Crio, but would not come for about four more days. There were orders from the Overmind to attack the forces. It was dark, but they could still see better than the Terran.
"Okay troops, we're not going to wait here for them to come. Tonight for safety reasons we will only have grounds troops, no flyers should be sent out. Now go and give em' what they deserve!"encouraged Dominique.
The forces went forward and battled through the night. The casualties of both sides were high, but the spirits of the Terran troops rose as they saw the red glow of the rising sun. They knew that a nuke would be used.
A ghost specialist was ordered to guide the nuke in the mists of the enemy forces. As he cloaked he was backed up by others. The science vessel in orbit of the planet held the nukes and was ready to fire. As the ghost set his sites at a point in the ground his hopes dropped as an overlord was coming his way. Before he could call for back up a pair of claws came out of the ground and shredded his legs. He started to crawl away when the zergling unburied with its fierce eyes. He knew his life was over...
"Fred" finished off the ghost, slashing at his head and torso. "Fred" then burrowed down again and went towards the group of marines.
Zach knew something was wrong when he didn't here a loud explosion. He didn't see anything but knew an enemy force was coming. Maybe it was the new group of zerglings he heard about. He jumped back as a claw came out of the ground and started firing. A group of fourteen zerglings unburrowed in the middle of the troops causing havoc. The marines fired blindly killing six of them but injuring their own comrades. Zach unsheathed his sword ready for the melee. He rushed towards one and slashed it in two, while one leaped on top of him from behind. Before the zergling got its claw into his armor it fell onto the ground with a bullet between its eyes.
"Thanks Pierce, I owe you one."
"No prob Zach."
The battle that day went on with no word of the nuclear strike situation. The science vessel had a stroke of bad luck and had a computer malfunction. It was unknown of what happened but one person did.
Kenna was walking through the barracks where they housed the injured soldiers and saw something surprising. He looked at the same ghost that had been injured on the field walking around with no trouble.
"Hey nurse." said Kenna.
"May I help you sir?" asked the medic.
"What is the condition of that ghost over there?"
"Oh him, we started operation on his leg and refused to take painkillers. After we finish replacing the bone with artificial structure he simply got up and started walking away. Usually it takes about a week for them to walk right again."
"Thank you."
Kenna walked up to the ghost hoping to know if he was okay.
"Hello sir, are you okay? I saw you the other day in battle with a shattered leg." asked Kenna.
"It was nothing, just a simple break. I've had more than that done to me." said the ghost with a Russian accent.
"Excuse me, but I'm wondering why didn't you simply cloak? It would of helped you more. By the way, what are you called among the troops?"
"For the first question I don't have one. Some people don't see me as a ghost or any unit. I had extra armor added to my suit and replaced my C-10 rifle ammunition with grenade shells. And for the last question, people call me Socrates, named after a famous philosopher."
"Huh, never heard of him. Good to see you're...um, doing well. My name is Kenna, I'm the Lieutenant of the colony troops."
"See you on the battlefield."
The third day had come with fewer casualties, both sides were tiring with less and less forces each day. The science vessel still had troubles with the computer. Hidden behind the moon Mrodeg a Protoss observer was watching over the Terran vessel. On a distant world was a Protoss base unknown to their species. This day they had an army building up.
Sir, we have come as you commanded. What is happening that we do not know about? asked a zealot to the dark archon.
There is word that the Zerg are back and they are currently in a battle with the Terran. We will be going there soon.
But why? The two forces will destroy each other!
Still, one race will be victorious and would endanger us, we must destroy them both.
Shall we speak with the Khala followers?
No! Those traitors would help the Terran scum. They exiled us many years ago, and I am not willing to be allying with them! The psionic energy went around the dark archon causing the zealot to walk back.
Tria , said the dark archon get the dark templar prepared.
Yes SeAn.
During the night a group of marines were infested by a queen. A group of medics gave them tranquilizers to prevent them from self-destructing. Mr. Stools was asked to create a serum to cancel out the affect of the infestation. After a rushed night and three pots of coffee, he made what was believed to be the antidote. Before it was tested though, one of the infested marines woke up and caused a chain reaction of explosions, killing them and the guards.
There were rumors in the camp that queens went into the base overnight and had the ability to infest terrans without taking over a command center. It was also said that the colony scientist created an antidote in a matter of only seventeen hours. He was thought as nuts and was ridiculed of lying and waking the infested marine up, causing the explosion.
The fourth day was no different than the second, but it was said there was another queen attack on rank three. When Pierce heard this he rushed to the suspected place of the ambush. He feared that Zach had been infested. When he came there he saw that the infested marines were tied up and out cold. Mr. Stools looked as if he hadn't slept for a while and was about to inject the serum into Zach. Pierce watched the process as he looked at the equipment readings.
"What are those machines doing?" asked Pierce.
"Oh, these? These things say if the patient has any active Zerg DNA left. It shows here that...it worked. The chemicals that cause the kamikaze attack are gone! Quick Zephyr! Give all the patients this." said Mr. Stools excitedly.
As Zephyr gave the serum to the rest they all woke up simultaneously. They still looked the same as an infested terran, but acted differently. They got up and started growling and walking back and forth. They were confused and ferocious, the antidote took out the kamikaze properties but did not fully take away the Zerg DNA. The last one to get the antidote jumped into the air and tore of Zephyr's arm. The rest of the infested terrans piled onto him and ripped him to shreds. Pierce just stood their looking at the havoc and slowly took out his gun. Mr. Stools was scared stiff and didn't notice Zach getting up. He took his now mutated arm and slashed at the scientist, only to find a shield protecting him. Mr. Stools realized what position he was in and ran for his life, leaving Pierce alone. Pierce began to shoot at the infested terrans killing all of them but three. Two of them jumped towards him only to find nothing but thin air. Pierce was cloaked but didn't have much energy left. He killed the two infested terrans, but hesitated in shooting Zach. Zach was gathering the medical supplies like a demented squirrel. He then burrowed into the ground with the serum and left. Pierce stood there shaking staring blankly for twenty minutes when the rescue squad finally came and found him standing there.
The zerglings stopped in their tracks paying no heed to the stinging bullets on their carapace. They felt the anger from their controller as the Overmind turned his attention to the moon Mrodeg.
A group of scouts sent from SeAn were passing behind the moon. They were sent to check on the observer and sabotage the science vessel. After gathering the data from the observer they went to disable the engines of the ship. One of the scouts became cocky and decided to shoot the engines instead of the virus. The other scouts realized what he was trying to do and yelled at him.
You poor excuse for a pilot, your going to get us killed!
After the pilot finished his sentence the other one fired at the scout to disable it. To their dismay the ship malfunctioned and the photon torpedoes drifted towards the science vessel. When it hit the ship started to implode onto itself, then releasing the massive energy from the nuclear blast. The scouts were flung away from the force of the blast, the EMP from the nuclear blast knocked out their shields and systems, they were sitting ducks. Along with that the explosion had hit the moon Mrodeg, causing small pieces of it to fall toward Crio.
Pierce saw a large flash in the sky and became bigger and bigger. The EMP from the blast knocked out the Terran base's electrical systems and machines. The pieces of Mrodeg rained down from the sky pummeling the battlefield. Massive amounts of Zerg were layed in chaos as the pieces fell. The battle had stopped as the Terrans were unable to use their mechanical units, and the Zerg had become confused as the pieces fell onto their units and structures.
The first battle had ended.