Chapter IV: An Ever-Present Enemy

As Private Rensha Souryo slowly opened his eyes to the ear-piercing noise of a high-pitched tone, it suddenly dawned on him that the alarm was sounding. Hastily jumping out of his bed, Rensha forced his eyes to quickly get used to the blinding yellow light that flooded the room along with the continuous flashing of red that signified something was wrong. Very wrong. Bodies scrambled around as men everywhere were awakening to the alarms themselves and rushed out of the barracks to investigate.

Grabbing the nearest private by the arm, Rensha tried to shout over the loud noises that filled the room and the adjacent corridor. "What the hell is going on around here?"

"I'm not sure. All I know is that I'm heading to the armory to grab my gear. My guess is that the Zerg are probably headin' this way." With that, the private ran out of the room and into the hallway that lead to the exit of the barracks.

As if to answer him, an automated female voice suddenly spoke over the intercom. "All marines report to your stations. This is not a drill. I repeat, all marines report to your designated stations. Code Red. I repeat, Code Red."

Damn, the Zerg are coming, Rensha muttered under his breath. Quickly strapping on his army boots, he headed down the tight hallway and into the darkness of night as he exited the barracks that housed the tired men of the small, Terran Dominion-controlled outpost of Sector 23, which was stationed on the backwater planet of Keyant. Why Emperor Mengsk had wanted to have a base way out in the outer sectors was beyond anyone at the outpost. Yet the officers obeyed their Emperor and the facilities had quickly been erected and the base was operational within days.

Even though the darkness prohibited most of his sight, Souryo instinctively darted towards the armory station that was located only a couple dozen yards away from the barracks. The armory station was where all the weapons, armor, and ammunition were stored. There the marines, firebats, and specialist ghosts could outfit themselves with their proper attire.

As Rensha hurried along, marines all around him were rushing to their posts to begin their defensive setup. There were a few officers who were still in their nightclothes as they barked orders to their subordinates.

Large, round bunkers dotted the perimeter of the outpost, their field of vision giving them a complete 360-degree field of fire, while keeping the men inside safe from enemy fire. To back up the bunkers, large air-to-air missile turrets stood guard against any potential air-threats. These lethal weapons have two large missile pods mounted on a solid neosteel pillar that could swivel the turret in any direction.

Soon the private had gotten to the armory and headed inside, only to be greeted with an even more hectic place. Military personnel were bustling around suiting up in their own armor and grabbing their weapons. Running to his station, Rensha quickly located his own combat suit, the battle-worn, gray, neosteel armor hanging on a rack with dozens more similar to it lining the wall.

Countless drills were spent in these bulky armor suits. The gorilla-shaped neosteel armor was difficult to learn in, yet Souryo soon enough got the handle of it and was now able to run about with ease. Suiting up in less than three minutes, Rensha quickly checked the diagnostics of his suit through the image projected on his visor, with all systems showing the green light. He then headed over to the weapons cache and grabbed one of the standard issue C-14 "Impaler" Gauss Rifles. Checking the ammo load of his weapon he looked around at his surroundings.

Firebats at a different station were outfitting themselves with their own CMC-660 Heavy Combat Suits, similar to the CMC-300 models that the marines wore, with the 660 suits being more durable, yet with less versatility. These suits also allowed the firebats to outfit themselves with the Plasma-based Perdition Flame Throwers, which were mounted under each arm of the firebat.

After grabbing his weapon, Rensha hesitated slightly when he saw a few of the marines grabbing small needles and inserting them into a small compartment underneath their right arm. These needles, called stim-packs, hold inside of them a powerful mixture of synthetic adrenaline and endorphins couple with a powerful psychotropic aggression amplifier. When the pack is administered, it provides the user with greatly enhanced speed and reflexes for a short time. Rensha decided, as usual, to bypass that particular station, because there were numerous cases where the recipient, after taking the shots, had later side-effects such as insomnia, weight loss, tremors, grand mal seizures, mania/hypomania, paranoiac hallucinations, severe internal hemorrhaging, and cerebral deterioration. Why the government would allow the use of such drugs was beyond Rensha. He preferred to not use the packs, for he relied on his own strength and not something artificial and, not to mention, damaging from a drug.

Heading to the doorway that lead back outside, Rensha passed by a station in the corner that was much smaller than the other stations, yet it always gave chills to him when he saw it. It was there where the ghosts outfitted themselves. These agents are psionically-enhanced humans, the epitome of the human race. Born with special telepathic abilities, they are continuously drafted into the military, once their abilities become known. Going through the toughest training in the entire Marine Corp., only very few pass the training, or worse, go insane from the constant bombardment of unending toil. Because of their tremendous power, Psychic Dampeners are surgically implanted into the agents to keep them under control of their leaders.

Souryo soon found himself back outside the complex and into the misty night. Looking for a commanding officer, he spotted a very nervous looking Captain near the barracks. He headed towards the man to find out what exactly was going on, and where Rensha's unit should report. When he reached the Captain, he snapped off a quick salute, which the officer did not reply.

"Reporting for duty, sir!" Rensha shouted over the noise, yet could hardly even hear his own voice himself. "Where do you want me to deploy, sir?"

The Captain seemed oblivious to Rensha's question, staring past the private to where the sounds of battle began to rise. "My god, there must be thousands of them! They are coming from all directions! We cannot hold off an assault of this size! I tried contacting Emperor Mengsk to send reinforcements, but ever since he made that damn coalition with the UED and the Protoss and made that final assault on the Zerg stronghold, I haven't been able to reach him at all. The damn communications must be down again."

Private Souryo tried one more time with his question. "Captain, where do you want me stationed?"

The Captain suddenly fell out of his small trance and focused in on the private standing before him. "What unit are you with, private?"

"Squad 6A of Delta Platoon, sir!" Rensha shouted out.

"I believe your unit was posted to cover the eastern side of the base near the command center. Hurry and get to your post. And just pray I can reach the Emperor before it is too late."

"Yes sir!" was Private Souryo's reply.

Quickly heading towards his station hoping to get there before the bulk of the Zerg forces arrived, he happened to glance up into the night sky. Up in the blackness of night, the dotted glistening lights of the stars began to rapidly dissipate with the appearance of numerous caliginous objects directly overhead. They had already arrived.

The familiar high-pitched shrieks in the air behind Rensha lured him to look back and notice the familiar A-17/B Wraith fighters fill the night sky with their presence as they raced off towards the ever-growing hornets nest in the air. A few shots began to pierce the night as marines opened up with their Gauss rifles, with the repetitive boom of the arclite siege tanks growing steadier as they began to hail fire into the mist ahead. It at first looked as if the marines were shooting at nothing, but as Rensha glanced closer he could now see various dark shadows luring in the mist ahead advancing at a rapid pace.

Realizing the fact that he was standing in the open, Rensha Souryo immediately searched for his unit, locating them in the trench ahead of him. Hastily reaching the safety of the barbed wire lined ditch, Rensha jumped down into the gap, the muddy water splashing as his armored boots hit the soft earth.

"It's about time you showed up, man!" shouted one of the marines next to him.

"Yeah, we thought you skipped or somethin' when you heard the Zerg were comin'!" shouted another.

"What, and let you guys have all the fun?" laughed Rensha.

"Hell, boys, if you shot as much as you talked, we'd have annihilated every last zergling in this solar system!" shouted their Sergeant who was in the trench a few men down from Rensha. "Now shut the hell up and start fighting!"

Unable to pick any clear target because of the thick mist that concealed their enemy, Rensha made a few short bursts into the fog, hearing a couple deafening shrieks as a few of the creatures were pierced with the deadly 8mm spikes of his Impaler. Darkness itself seemed to move as the growing tidal wave of Zerg creatures began to become ever more visible as they approached the nervous forces stationed at the outpost of Sector 23.

"Come on, I got me some Zerg to fry!" shouted the marine next to Rensha.

"My god, look at them all! We'll never be able to take on this many Zerg!" said another farther down the line.

"Ah, shut up, Johnson. You fresh fish are always so paranoid."

Before long, definite figures could now be picked out, which brought forth the full fury of the marines' Gauss Impaler rifles. As wave after wave of the small, dog-like zergling were cut to shreds and numerous of the large cobra-like hyrdalisks were blown away, the Terran forces began to cheer in victory from the slaughter they were handing out. Artillery fire from nearby arclite tanks decimated the swarms of zerg, blowing huge chunks in their ranks, with the marines annihilating whatever remained.

Suddenly a few zerglings burst through the barrage of spikes, landing in the trenches and began to savagely attack the brave human defenders, using their deadly tusks located on their head and the large claws on their feed to slash at the armor of the marines, trying desperately to break through the hard shell of neosteel. Fortunately, a nearby firebat fried the creatures, along with the battered corpses of the few marines to a crisp before the zerglings could do anymore damage.

At first it seemed to Rensha that they were winning the battle, as the zerg swarm seemed to be unable to gain any ground, but that opinion quickly changed when a very large creature appeared over a supply building to the right of the marines located inside the trench. Rensha immediately recognized the large flying crab as a Guardian, and knew that the vile acid it spewed forth from its mouth decimated ground targets with deadly accuracy.

The marines, suddenly realizing the danger that they were in, turned their weapons to bear on the large creature flying above them. A few of the men even began to scream with rage as they administered their stim packs. But it was too late. Amidst the heavy wave of 8mm spikes, the hard-shelled Guardian spewed forth its toxic green liquid onto the unfortunate marines. The Terrans screamed in agony as the acid ate is way through, bringing the men to a slow, painful death. Rensha instantly jumped and rolled away from the trench, avoiding the deadly toxins.

Three wraiths suddenly strafed in low, and let loose a flurry of laser fire at the Guardian, shredding its carapace to pieces. Yet the damage had already been done to the forward lines. With Rensha's unit nearly decimated from the guardian's attack, the lines began to fail, with numerous areas beginning to swarm with zerg as they overtook the trenches.

Spotting one of the large, round bunkers to his right about twenty-five yards away, he immediately headed towards the safety of the large neosteel structure. Upon reaching it, he cursed and slammed his fist upon the small console at the doorway as he realized the marines inside had locked it. Pounding on the door and shouting with all his might, Rensha tried to get the attention of the men within. Yet with the noise of battle deafening the men and the thick neosteel plating blocking most of Rensha's shouts, the marines had no idea of Rensha's plea for entrance.

After finally realizing the uselessness of his banging, he searched for an alternate spot for cover. Scanning his surroundings, Rensha glanced up into the night sky, noticing that the wraiths were being overwhelmed by the continuous onslaught of the Zerg mutalisks and devourers. It suddenly dawned on Souryo that the D-71/M Missile Turrets were lying dormant on the battlefield, their missile tucked away within their pods.

These older model air defense turrets were the only things Emperor Mengsk could spare for the outlying base on Keyant. The D-71/M, apart from the newer, automated D-71/MA, had to be manually turned on from inside the Command Center, which was stationed at the eastern section of the outpost. Why they had not been brought to bear upon the Zerg air forces baffled the young private. If the base was to have any chance of surviving this assault, the missile turrets had to be activated.

Spotting the Command Center only about a hundred yards away, he began to dash towards the large, cylindrical object emerging from the ghostly fog. The Command Center was the basic control center of every standard base. Equipped with a miniaturized factory able to produce the versatile SCVs for the gathering of precious minerals and vespene gas, the Command Center was also equipped with various radar equipment and scanner devices to monitor the base and its surroundings, along with four massive jet propulsion systems capable of relocating the Command Center to another spot if needed. Also inside this particular Center was the command console for activating the much need D-71/Ms.

As Rensha hastily made his way towards the slowly growing figure of the Center, a pack of deadly Goliath-class Walkers with their twin 30mm Autocannons and Hellfire Anti-air Missiles lumbered their way across the battlefield, shredding countless zerglings and hydralisks to shreds. A lone Ultralisk, the mammoth-sized creature with two bone-like scythes, began to slice its way through the group of Goliaths, toppling two of them with ease. With the help of two Arclite Siege Tanks, the remaining Goliaths put the Ultralisk out of commission.

A small collection of Vulture Hover-cycles raced their way towards the Zerg army, nearly clipping Rensha along the way, and began blasting away zerglings after zerglings with their Anti-Personnel Fragmentation Grenades. Their fast speed kept them from being harmed by the Zerg, yet when a large force of hydralisks intercepted the swift vehicles, their deadly needle spines made short work of the hover bikes. The large Arclite Siege Tanks seemed to be the only things that were able to hold the unstoppable Zerg forces at bay, with their 80mm cannons for short-range defense and the large 150mm Shock Cannon used while in siege mode decimating wave after wave of Zerg.

By now Private Souryo had covered nearly half the distance to the control center, only to run into more trouble. A pair of zerglings had broken through the carnage and had spotted the fleeing private. Noticing the two beasts bearing down on him, Rensha quickly turned himself around, bringing his lethal Gauss rifle to bear upon the unfortunate zerglings. Unleashing a deadly wave of spikes, the creatures were soon torn to shreds and lay on the ground before the victorious private.

But unbeknown to Rensha, another zergling appeared from behind a small group of metal containers and was racing towards the unsuspecting marine. Suddenly hearing a hideous shriek behind him, Rensha turned around and was greeted by a large smash to the chest as he was knocked to the ground, losing his grip on the rifle as it skidded away on the mud-slicked earth. The zergling was on top of him, making it high-pitched screech as it began to viciously claw at Rensha's armor. Souryo tried to heave the critter off of himself, but the zergling was too heavy and too determined. Fear began to overcome Rensha as he frantically tried to free himself from the zergling's deadly hold as it continued to hack away at the badly damaged combat suit. Finally coming to his senses, Rensha reached down to his side and pulled forth the compact needlegun that every marine carried as a sidearm. Thrusting it up to the zergling's abdomen, he pulled the trigger three times, blowing apart the body of the zergling as it howled in pain from the sudden attack.

Rolling the dead body off of himself, Souryo struggled to stand upright. Red and yellow lights flashed continuously inside his helmet, signifying the zergling had done a significant amount of damage to the suit. Breathing a sigh of relief as the servos in the legs and arms continued to work with ease, he continued on his run towards the very near Command Center.

With the building only twenty-five yards away, Rensha started running even faster to reach his destination. It was then when three hydralisks appeared from behind a nearby building to Souryo's right and began to race towards him, their blood red eyes seeming to stare straight into Rensha's soul. Spraying a few spikes randomly in the direction of the hydralisks, Souryo continued to push forward to the safe haven of the Command Center. However the hydralisks were gaining rapidly on the terrified marine, even though Rensha was in a full sprint.

Finally the private reached the large, neosteel door, after ascending the small platform that led up to the Command Center. Quickly punching in his level 1 security clearance code, Rensha took a quick glance back as the doorway began to open. The hydralisks were nearly upon him. Squeezing himself and his battlesuit through the halfway opened entrance, Rensha turned and hastily slammed his heavily armored fist down upon the button to close the door. As the hatch came to a close, large "pings" hit on the outside as the hydralisks' poisonous needle spines peppered the front of the entrance, which was followed by a few large thumps, scratches, and high-pitched shrieks as the hydralisks tried desperately to get inside.

Private Rensha Souryo breathed a sigh of relief.

He was safe.

For the moment.