"Ignorance is bliss."
On a nearby uncharted planet, a massive group of overlords lifted out of the atmosphere accompanied by a group of mutalisks. On the other side of the planet a group of Protoss shuttles entered the atmosphere.As the ships decended onto the planet the dark templar aboard the ships prepared for the march. They landed aproximately 75 kilometers from the Zerg colony on Jigao and unloaded the full twenty units.
Why do we have to go so far Rath? we could've at least landed a bit closer. said one of the dark templar.
Even thought their units left to that other planet doesn't mean they don't have units protecting them. Also our observers have found that this is the best approach, for their are only a few overlords. replied Rath.
But what about the mutalisks. Surely those will give us trouble, why are we not equiped against them?
All of them left gaurding the overlords that our sensors picked up while we were landing. You don't have to worry about anything.
They took the long march underneath the green sky. The air was stiff and it was hard to keep the same pace. Rath made the group quicken their pace.
After an hour of running they arrived ten kilometers from the base. Each step was made with caution and haste as they approached the organic mat of creep. They arrived at the first Zerg structures. All they could see was a group of three spore colonies in a row. An observer was sent in behind them to check for any hidden units. No lurkers were found on the scanner, but a mass of organic forms were detected about twenty feet from where they were standing. Rath sent in a few units to check to see if it was clear.
We see nothing. Maybe its the cre-
The dark templar's words were cut off as a sickle came out of the ground and cut him in two. A few more went in to check to see what happened. They too were dismembered. The observer was brought in as close as possible without being shot down.
Everyone, make a rush to the spore colonies and attack each one at once. ordered Rath.
The group of dark templar ran toward the structure and slashed it simultaniously. After only two minutes of fighting half the group was destroyed and the spore colonies were abolished. The observer was sent in and detected a group of burrowed zerglings. The dark templar rushed in and started to slash at the underground fiends, but to their surprise they moved underneath the ground. Nowhere had they learned that zerglings could do this. They continued fighting untill all zerglings were destroyed. Rath's remaining group was nine. Eleven of their soldiers died from only eight Zerg weaklings. They arrived at the main site. There were no spore colonies detected and all seemed strangely quiet. Rath went in ahead of the group when a blade went up right in front of him. The observer was sent in hurryingly to help them detect the underground menace. They destroyed their opponents with only two casaulties this time. The Zerg base on Jigao was demolished. Rath was coming back with only six troops by his side. As they made the long march to the shuttles they saw the creep slowly back away and die off.
"My leige, our base on Jigao was destroyed!" said Darigaaz.
"YES I KNOW." replied the Overmind.
"But why let this happen?"
"UNLIKE MY PREVIOUS SELVES, I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING. YOU WILL SOON FIND OUT."
"Very well my leige. I will trust your judgement."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Oh.....are we there now?"
"No!"
"How 'bout now?"
"FOR THE LAST FUCKING TIME NO!"
For the past five hours a seige tank driver named Jasper was asking the passengers of the drop ship the same question over and over again.
"Are we ther-" said Jasper.
"You finish that sentence and I'll kill you." responded James.
"Hah, that really showed 'im" said Nick jokingly.
"Shows what you kno-"
"Are we there yet?"
"SHUT THE HELL UP!!!!!"
"So Pierce, tell about everything that has happened over the years." said Mark as he sat down.
Pierce and Mark were sitting in one of the barracks, the others were either being healed or telling war stories.
"Well, ten years ago I decided to joing the forces. During that time I studied the twentieth century, which was the time of the space program and great wars. I became the best in the simulations in my group and was ordered to train as a marine. I decided to practice my sniping skills, but the guns used by the marines were very inaccurate. Since it was peace time we had nothing else to do, but just about a few months ago I was informed of a new infantry known as Hawk. They were experienced snipers who used a knew C-10 rifle that dealt more damage to enemies and could fire extream distances. Two weeks ago I was called in to train under hawk known as Kenna. I didn't know there was a battle coming. The upside was I made a new friend named Zach. He was kind of crazy but was funny. But," Pierce took a sip of water that was next to him, "he was infested."
"I'm sorry to here that. What happened next? For I see there is still hope in your eyes."
"The scientest Mr. Stooles created a syrum that could reverse the kamikaze effects, hopefully destroying the Zerg DNA. Although it stopped the explosion part, it made the infested marines, including Zach, to become more Zerg then men. I was nearly courtmartialed, but if I or Mr. Stooles captures a live specimen, then he could reverse the Zerg DNA completely."
"I see. A lot has happened."
"You still have to tell me how your life has been."
"I continued my studies in the battlecruiser technology after one of the rebellions. I became an experienced pilot and was assigned the position of commodore of a fleet. The rest I do not wish to talk about. So there you have it."
"It was nice speaking to you again, I am going to go out for awhile."
"So long."
Socrates was sitting silently next to a holo-vid. Kenna walked up and sat on the otherside of the machine.
"So what are you whatching?" Kenna asked.
"Cheers." Socrates replied.
"What?"
"Cheers, an old show from the twentieth century."
"How did you get the holo-disk of that...never mind."
Kenna knew the answer as he saw the scientis walk among the troops. He looked a little more crazy than usual. Probably from his recent faliures.
"Hey Socs, I have a question...," Kenna asked as he looked around at the tired troops away from the lives they once had, "what made you go into the forces?"
"Nothing to tell, nothing to know."
"Surely you joined for some reason."
"When I was in my late teens I signed up to be in the military. They saw me as a promising canidate as a ghost. When I was going there on a science vessel one of the radiation tanks exploded. My armor protected my body, but the radiation caused my eyes to lose all sight."
"That must've been rough."
"It was more than a blessing than a drawback. Without that happening I wouldn't be the telepath I am today. From the sudden blindness I practiced my abitlities and was able to shoot a moving target far away without sight. The problem was I only knew where the target was going. I couldn't sense if it was now or later. That is one of the reasons why I can't shoot targets remaining motionless. I married a scientist from Crio, and as a gift she gave me a mask. It hooked to my nerv system above my eyes and allowed me to see images as if I had night vision. My psychick abilities became latent after my new sight. We had a wonderful time, but our mariage ended abruptly. One night we went on a shuttle to Earth. I decided to get up from my seat with no reason in my mind, and as I did I saw the engines malfunction. The explosion tore a part from the ship, and a barrier was created to shield the other passengers. Me and a few others survived, but my wife did not. After that my abilities seemed to return. I decided to become a semi-ghost unit. I decided to disarm the cloak on my armor and added extra explosive grenade to my rife. During those years I tested my abilities more and more, but it only increased the distance between the future and reality. When I heard that Crio required some reinforcements I joined right away. I just wanted to go where my wife grew up."
"That is a sad story."
"Don't worry about my life, worry about your own. There are going to be a few more surprises in this war. Some you won't expect."
"But how can anything else happen? Its not like the Protoss are going to show up and destroy us."
"You are half right."
Socrates got up from his seat and walked off. Kenna sat and wondered what he meant by "half right". As he sat there he looked at the holo-vid screen. He whatched the remaining part of the episode befor heading to his barracks.
Khell, it seems that SeAn has made his first step in battle. A small group of dark templar destroyed a Zerg base on a planet close to Crio. He is preparing something. That is why I called you in. We are going to send a force of our people against him. said Naenoi.
What about the battle on Crio? asked Khell.
We have to worry about our own problems at the moment. You will be heading the scout fleet to Jigao, the area where the Zerg base was destroyed. Most of the battle will be faught there.
Yes executor.
"OUR FORCES HAVE ARRIVED."
The overlords were barely noticeable in the dusted sky as they came in. They unloaded a group of fourty-seven hydralisks, aproximately a hundred zerglings, twenty lurkers, ten difilers, and several heavily armored ultralisks. Besides the ground units there was a group of over sixty mutalisks covering the space above the base.
"How did we get such a large amount of units?"
"ON JIGAO A GROUP OF WANDERING ZERG WERE FOUND UNDER THE HILLS. THE ULTRALISKS AND MUTALISKS LIVED IN THE CAVERNS. WE DID NOT DISCOVER THEM UNTIL ONE OF OUR UNITS STUMBLED UPON THEM. IT RAN ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BASE ON JIGAO AND I WAS ABLE TO BRING THEM UNDER MY POWER."
"That seemed lucky."
"IT WAS NOT...LUCK AS YOU SAID. I KNEW THEY WERE THERE FOR AWHILE."
"Of course my leige."
"Now lets see hea. If the colony's generator is connected with the battlecruisers it might be possible to recollect all the energy lost by the EM-"
"I'm the scientist here." interrupted Mr. Stooles, "Now if we connect the generator to one of the vessels we could get the energy back and be able to run our factories."
"Shut yer pile hole Stooles." said the mechanic angrily.
The generator to the colony was connected to one of the battlecruiser's large engines with a large cable wire. When the vessel was started the energy from the engine started to recharge the colony.
"Well Stooles, if your so smart how will we fix the other mechanical units that are still screwed up from the blast?" asked the mechanic.
"Well, um, you see-"
"You simply charge the machines with a large amount of energy at once. It will-"
"Charge the thing to the extreme causing it to come back like a hearbeat." said Mr. Stooles.
"Man I hate you."
"Sire, one of our overlords has detected a group of dropships heading for Crio." said Darigaaz.
"HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR THEM TO GET HERE?" asked the Overmind.
"About a day and a half my leige."
"SEND OUT ONE OF THE MUTALISK GROUPS."
"Yes sire."
The group of dropships were jetting towards Crio as fast as the engines could move. After sixteen hours of being confined in the dropship James and Nick went at eachothers throats with insults while Jasper just sat there and asked the same question over and over again. The pilot saw something in the distant void. It looked like a brownish mass coming towards them. A sudden flicker of red light appeared on the radio.
"Attention all dropships. There has been a sighitng of a group of mutalisks in the distance coming for us. All mercenaries that are able to fight must do so. I will do as much as I can. I am Gary signing out." said Gary over the radio.
There were estimated to be a total of around fifty mutalisks, while the mercenaries equiped for space combat, mainly wraiths, were a small twenty-seven. The side bays of several dropships opened letting the wraiths prepare for the battle. The large mass of Zerg came into view and were coming at an alarming speed. Within seconds the battle had begun.
"I wish I could be out there fighting. I'd kick their ass!" said Nick.
"Yeah, right." snickered James.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I'm just saying that you can't do it."
"Well I could, but all I've got is my vulture. What good will that do in space?"
Jasper just sat there pondering while the two continued to argue. He got up and went into his seige tank and hacked into the dropship's computer system. He ordered the computer to open the airlock and prepared for a ride of his life.
"AIRLOCK OPENING" issued the computer voice over the intercom.
"What the hell?!" said Nick and James in unison.
Nick scrambled into his vulture and drove it into a narrow hallway to escape the coming rush of air as space and the inside met. James went into his goliath and put the mech's gun arms into the overhanging girdirs. The airlock opened with a earie silence as Jasper in his seige tank were sent into space. The dropship pilot started to panick when she found the airlock in the holding bay to be open. After a few seconds of confusion she closed the doors. As the artificial gravity came back Nick came out of his vulture. The paint was torn completely from his machine. James stumbled out of his goliath to see that it was all in one piece.
"Why the hell did Jasper do that?" asked Nick.
"Beats me, but at least he's gone." replied James, "Hey, looks like your bike needs a new paint job."
"Shut up."
As they stood there there was a slight rumble and the one of the goliath's legs toppled off the joint and crashed to the ground.
"Ha ha, looks like your goliath needs a-"
"Dammit shut up!"
Out in space the battle continued. Several wraiths were completely destroyed, but not without destroying twelve mutalisks.
"Well, it looks like we're losing the battle boys." said the mercenary wraith captain.
"Hey cap, whats that over there?"
"I don't know. It looks like a....seige tank?!"
Jasper was twirling into space with nothing to stop him, that is, until he ran into a mutalisk. Its carapace was crushed and left it floating in space while Jasper routed his guns forward and fired. The shot went through several mutalisks and propelled him backwards. He turned his guns again and shot it to stabilise himself.
"Identify yourself soldier. What are you doing?" asked the captain.
"I'm flyiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing." answered Jasper.
He fired another shell and it ripped through another group, killing five. As he was propelled back again a mutalisk came from behind and spat a glave wurm at him. He rotated the cannon and hit it into a mutalisk next to him as if he had a baseball. His tank started spinning from the hit and he couldn't stablilise. He fired again without aiming, killing another six mutalisks and sent him off into the colorless voide.
"Pilot, come in....come in..." said the captain.
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-" said Jasper over the radio.
The distance between Jasper and the fleet increased and he lost radio contact. He continued spinning into space, yet he was still laughing.
"Captain, what just happened?"
"That crazy seige tank just pulled off the stupidest stunt I've ever seen. Yet it saved us all. How many enemy units are left?"
"Only about fifteen sir."
"And ours?"
"Seventeen."
The battle soon ended when the remaining mutalisks were killed.
"Well, looks like that annoying bastard is gone for good." said James.
"You said it." said Nick.
Gary sat in his chair with a blanket over his head when he heard a voice on the intercom.
"Sir, the enemy force has been eliminated."
"What?!" said Gary unbelievably as he took the blanket of his head, "it has?!"
"Yes sir."
"But how? I'm not doubting your teams experience, but-"
"There was a seige tank that came out of nowhere and killed twenty some enemy units."
"Whu....how....nevermind. I'd like to talk to him."
"You can't sir."
"Why not?"
"He is spinning aimlessly into space at the moment."
"Well, did you get the pilot's name?"
"I ran a computer check on his seige tank and found his name to be Jasper."
"Jasper eh....I think I might know his brother." click "Secretary person." said Gary over the speaker on his dropship.
"Yes sir?"
"Get Casper on the line please."
"Yes sir."
A marine walked up to a ghost that was laying down agianst the wall.
"Are you Casper?"
"Why yes, yes I am."
"There's a call for you from the Commander."
"Oh, really?" Casper picked up the intercom, "Hello?"
"Hello Casper, I want to inform you on your brother Jasper."
"What about him?"
"He helped us in an unusual way, he-"
"He fought in space using his seige tank."
"Ye-yes he did. He is also currently spinnging somewhere in space."
"You mean..."
"Yes, he's lost in space."
"I don't know why that sounded so cheezy, but thank you for telling me that."
Casper shut of the machine and sat back again. He had a feeling that his brother would be fine.