"The price of doing nothing exceeds the price of taking action."
-President George W. Bush
"Okeedokee everyone," anounced Gary over the intercoms of the dropships, "we are going to be arriving on Crio in a few hours. So....GET READY!"
There was a bustle of mercenaries in the dropships getting ready and starting up their machines. James was still trying to connect the leg of the goliath while Nick was repainting his vulture with the finishing touches.
"Ha, how's the leg thing going James?" said Nick.
"Shut up Nick. How's the painting going Nick?" said James as he went into the cockpit to check the condition of the goliath.
"Good, its done. Just goes to show you that I'm better than you."
There was a loud bang and a bullet went right into the engine of Nick's vulture.
"Oops." chuckled James as he removed his hand from the trigger.
"Dammit James!" yelled Nick.
"Ha, now whoes the better one?"
After another hour of arguing Crio was finally in veiw.
"Jeez, what a frikkin' dump." said one of the mercenaries.
"Hey, you know what?! Why are we doing this. If we aren't getting anything out of this why fight?" asked the other mercenary.
"Yeah. What the Crap! Hey, pilot. Stop this dropship."
"Attention dropship thats turning around for some reason." said Gary over the intercom. "What is the meaning of the stoppingness?"
"We're leaving!" replied the dropship pilot over the intercom.
"Oh no your not!"
"Yeah, we are."
The remaining wraiths popped up in front of Gary's dropship.
"Like it or not sir, we're leaving." said one of the pilots.
"Why?" asked Gary.
"Cuz we're not gettin' anything out of this mission."
"I thought we already settled this."
"We changed our mind?"
"It took you two days to change your mind?"
"It took you two months to remember your own birthday."
".....Touché. Well, what do you want in on for the mission then? We have to do this anyway. And the original plan was to take their stuff after the battle."
"Lets take em' over!" said the pilots in unison.
"Ummm, I don't kno-" a ATF laser was shot under the wing of Gary's dropship, "Kay."
The mutalisk had finally arrived after its journey from its mission. The bits of the ultralisk were given to the drone. It let out a sticky sack over it and lifted it with its mandibles. It carefully brought it in front of the Overmind and Darigaaz and then zoomed off.
"EXCELLENT, IT HAS ARRIVED." said the Overmind.
"How is this supposed to help us my leige?" asked Darigaaz.
"JUST WATCH."
An infested terran went to the sack and clumsily took a syringe from the group of material that Zach had gotten in the beginning. It clasped it in its stubby claws and took some of the juicy remains into the syringe. The same drone came over with an egg casing. The infested terran took the syringe and insterted the contents into the egg. The Overmind then ordered the infested terran to take a peice of its organic tissue. With a careful push it inserted the tissue into the egg casing. A few electrodes from the set was connected to the casing. In the background Zach sat curiously watching. The power was turned on with the help of some vespene gas and a deep red glow came from the egg. In a matter of minutes the casing had grown twice its size. A large group of the Jigaoen zerglings surounded the egg sniffing with joy. With a loud sploosh the ultralisk had emerged in its emensity. After several moments of silence it let out a loud rumble and the blind ones followed where ever it went. When the large behemouth went past Zach it stopped. It sniffed the air and let out a low grumble. Zach returned the unfriendly desture with a snarl, and the ultralisk continued on its way.
Fred lifted its head and scented the thing it only knew in its past genes. He leaped with pride and celebrated with the other zerglings, blind and unblind, with a few slashing contests.
Zach continued to sit in the distance and burrowed into the ground. Whenever he closed his eyes memories of a long forgotten life flashed in his mind. Each image of a terran made him twitch in the ground. Confusion filled his dim thoughts as he saw himself as a terran. For a split second his human self came into being, but stopped as soon as the voice of the Overmind went through his head. The images stopped and he blinked a couple of times, forgetting what had just happened. He couldn't help but feel that something was missing in his life, as if fighting and eating wasn't his purpose. He closed his eyes in a meditation.
Over in the colony a large group of people saw the army of dropships decend upon the homefront.
"Heh, we could just use the dropships themselves to take out those Zerg. Look how many there are!" said a civilian.
The dropships landed onto the hard ground and out came Gary with arms spread.
"Greeting inhabitants of Crio." as Gary spoke the other mercenaries came out with their weapons pointed at the people. "From this moment on we will be taking this colony over."
"No your not." said Mark whaking him upside the head.
"Okay." said Gary.
"Listen up Mercenary SCUM! After you help us you will be recognised as a free colony on Ridak VI."
"Boooooooo." sait the mercenaries in unison.
"Alrtighty then...men?"
With those words a group of battlecruisers hovered above the landed dropships with lasers ready.
"Ummm...hurray for Crio. Long live that guy that threatened us!" cheered Casper.
"Huzzah." sighed James.
"Man that was pointless. I can't beleive all the mercenaries we traveled with are such morons." said Nick.
"Yeah I know what you mean. I'm standing right next to one."
"Shut up."
Rath was walking among the many cloaked figures in the clouded city. The structures on Dgaha were ancient, some beleiving to be there during the times of the Xel' Naga. Rath had so far gathered a large force of about a hundred dark templar, with some thirty-two dragoons to back them up. Far away in the distance were the carriers with final touches being added. Corsairs flew overhead with a fleet of shuttles behind them. The totals were around fourty carriers and about a hundred and thirteen corsairs along with twenty-three scouts. With a rush of air the shuttles began to descend, with probes being loaded into the back. A tall dark templar came out of one of the shuttles and made her way to Rath.
We have a mission ahead of us, gather up the rest of our people and lead them into the shuttles. We are taking Jigao in the name of SeAn. said the dark templar.
I see. I will gather up the others as ordered. I will see you on Jigao I suppose? responded Rath.
Maybe, I might be needed elsewhere if there is still time till the battle....I hear rumors that you know one of the wretched Khala followers personally. Are these rumors true?
What you heard was useless information, after being treated like dirt by them I have left my past behind me. And the one I knew is dead to me.
I see. My name is Dardja in case you want to know. Lead your troops to the shuttles Rath, they are leaving soon.
Dardja then turned around and dissapeared into the crowd. Rath surveyed the dark templar and other ground units around him.
Everybody, war is upon us and death will come quickly to the Khala! Now, we must travel to Jigao to set up a base of operation. We will be stationed there. To the shuttles! ordered Rath.
Dardja walked into the room which held SeAn and Tria, bringing in a holo-disk with needed information.
Greetings Dardja. said SeAn.
Greeting Lord SeAn. It is an honor to be in your presence. responded Dardja.
I see you have brought the information I seek.
Yes, although the Zerg can scent us, I and a few of my fellow co-workers have found a way to stop them from finding our ships.
So this will work only on our ships?
Yes, the large amount of energy and toxins would burn our skin. But, the large amount of power in the sheilds on our flying vessels are strong enough to withstand it.
How does this work per say?
Its a mixture of a high concentrated amount of energy and the fluids found in a Zerg egg. With the mixture it creates a kind of scent block, using the energy so it can merge with the sheilds.
And how did you and the others get your hands on the so called Zerg fluids?
About seventy years ago when there were rumors of a zerg-protoss hybrid we rushed in a panic to find if we could find how they did it, being the scientists that we are. After taking some Zerg egg casings we rushed to our planet to run some tests. Then when funding was cut we let the project drop.
It is peculier that we have not heard much of this so called "hybrid" these past years.
Nobody knows, it's a mystery Lord SeAn.
I see. I thank you for your valuable efforts. Send a message to all workers to mass produce this anti-Zerg scent shielding.
Yes SeAn.
As Darjda left the room SeAn went into a deep meditation, thinking about the battle ahead and the certain victory against his enemies.
The Terran base on Crio was full of activity as the Mercenaries fixed up their machines. Stories of the valient, yet crazy, seige tank operator caused much wonder and disbeleif. The ones that listened to it (which were about five) simply shrugged it off, except one. After lugging around a zerg queens for about several hours, It made Kenna happy just sitting down to a story. He listened to every word, and then laughed his head off in the end with tears in his eyes.
"Hey Socs, did you here that story about the seige tank guy Jasper? He's crazy go nuts!
Too bad he's dead though." said Kenna to Socrates.
"I don't believe he is dead." replied Socrates.
"You think he plays an important role in these series of events?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure."
"What do you mean maybe? Didn't you say you knew the future?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"Hmmm. Well, okay. I wonder where that nutcase is right now...now...now...now?"
"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee gasp eeeeee
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....Wow, saying we for several hours sure does take a toll on thee lungs. Hmmm, I wonder where I be? Where are the other guys? sniff I'm all alone, no one to annoy...no one- oooo a mutalisk! Hi! bye! Me go fast W007!"
"Did you hear something?" said Casper.
"Still mourning over the loss of your bro Casper?" asked Gary.
"No, I have a strange feeling...that he is still alive."
In his courters in a battle cruiser, Mark was looking over some of the reports about the events that had occured during the battle. It was remarcable of how many people had lost their lives in only few days of fighting. He read the part about the nuclear strike that was waited for on one of the days, but it never took place. It wasn't because of the ghost being killed too soon...it was because of a malfunction in the science vessel. He was surprised that they hadn't looked into it any further. Mark sipped the cup of coffee in his hand and read on until it abruptly stopped in mid-sentence...probably because of the confusion caused by the explosion and the falling of debree. While lifting the cup of coffee he heard a beeping noise and spilled it on his lap.
"Damn," said Mark as he turned on the intercom, "yes what is it?!"
"Commodore Mark, I have a job for you and some of your scientest's on board."
"Is it about the event with the science vessel?"
"Um, er, yes. You see, we haven't had the time to lead a research team to see what had happened, but since you are here I thought it might be a wise decisision in what caused it."
"A faulty wire perhaps?"
"I don't think its that simple, after the failure of the launch communication with the craft was lost. An the day before it was in excellent working condition."
"I see, so you want me to find peices of material that were probably vaporised in the blast."
"Not exactly, you see, a black box on the science vessel was highly protected in a casing of lead and other material just in case any event like that had happened. It holds all the data about any objects in the present vicinity, something our scientests could not detect by the normal instruments in front of them."
"You think it might have been sabotage? By the Zerg?"
"That's what we are concerned about. Since if it was a Zerg there would be no evidence but the black box, since the radiation would definately destroy all traces of it."
"So you're saying it might have been destroyed by, the Protoss?"
"Yes, that is one of the major scenarios."
"It would be difficult to find that box, since of course it was propelled from the blast, and would never stop unless it hit something."
"We have a machine to track its cereal number, hopefully it will help you."
"Indeed."
"One more thing."
"Yes?"
"If you find any possible wreckage, please notify me. Signing off."
With that Mark turned off the intercom. He stood up and walked to the lavatory with a clean pair of pants.
Khell was pleased with the force that they had so far, but it troubled him to think that SeAn and the other banished ones had more time to build up forces throughout the many years in the depths of their world. He looked at his scout and thought of the upcoming battles, the lossed lives, and the opening of a new chapter in Protoss history. He wondered about the war plans and what to do in a battle situation. Since they fought around Jigao, it was safe to say where the battle would be held. But another thing that concerned him were the Terran, not to mention the Zerg. Would they get in the way? And what about...? Many questions plagued his mind.
Khell, you are troubled with too many variables of war. Take a rest before the battle, you will need the strength to command your squadron. said Executor Naenoi as she walked about inspecting the ships.
I cannot rest until everything is set right. responded Khell.
You know that could take awhile. Think about the ones you are leading to battle. They need a commander in top shape, and as the Executor of New Aiur, I command you to rest.
As you wish your majesty. said Khell sarcastically.
Khell went to his courters in one of the nearby structures and went into a meditation, hoping that everything will turn out right in the end...
There were now a total of about twenty-seven carriers to lead the battle, each one holding eleven fighters. The commanders of each fleet set out to prove their worthiness to their race, as Tassadar had once done more than seventy human years before them. For each carrier were two scouts, and for each scout there was a corsair, so to make a balanced force.
The ground troops were being brought together in a reasonable army. Veterans of wars passed willingly discarded their bodies to become dragoons, totaling about fifty or so dragoons. Eager young protoss who had missed the chance to save their home world Aiur in other battles went to trane in the art of using their psionic powers into blades, to become the stepping ladder of the force, the zealots. Many preperations were made with reavers and observers to back up the army, and about ten arbiters for defence capabilities. Every day the computer systems had to be shutdown to cool, for they were producing non-stop. Many talented Protoss who served in the battles against the Zerg long ago were the high templar, using their psionic powers in the most powerful ways. Some merged together to become the fabled archon, but only a few could do so. It numbered a mere ten archons. Orders were being given on the boarding of shuttles and the path that was to be taken for battle. They would enter some warp gates and travel to the outskirts of Jigao. They would then wait for enemy forces to arrive on the planet and then they would enter the planets atmosphere and start the battle from there. The protection of the known universe against the dreaded SeAn depended on them. There was no telling what horrors SeAn had done in the centuries of isolation.
Sir Khell, Squadron Alkes is set, we await your command to proceed. said one of the carrier commanders.
I'll notify you amediately when everyone is ready. replied Khell.
The numerous shuttles were filled with troops, each warrior with a faceless expression of greef, and some with an aura of exitement. Khell leaped into his scout and ordered the command for his squadron, along with the other vessels. I bright blue light shone as the ships lifted off and shot into hyperspace, each glare of the wormholes gleaming across the ships. The second battle was about to begin.