Chapter 7: A battle ends...but the war's just beginning
The soldiers dashed quickly inside of Fenixburg, looking at the great capital city…and its even greater threat. Some of the soldiers looked as pale as death. One of them blurted out, "My family…can't let 'em die like this…" Hugo slapped the soldier's helmet. "Hey, you idiot, they're evac-ed already…"
"Shut up, they're right in front of us!" Jason yelled. The soldiers silently moved behind a building. Harold looked at the enemies through heat-vision goggles. "Fifty, sixty at max…" Jack shrugged. "Can't believe how sadistic they are…sending cloaked troops to attack civs…goes against the laws of war." Hugo smirked. "Bah, they're probably just testin' us here. How much do you bet that those guys'll bail out the second they see us arriving?"
Harold was about to answer to that, but he was cut short when he saw something in the distance. Hugo looked at the sky, where overlords, mutalisks and guardians started to mass. "Zerg…" He said, almost smiling. Harold cleared his throat. "Hey, aren't they…our allies?" Jason laughed. "Them, our allies? Supposed to be." A firebat shrugged and prepared his flamethrower.
Jason took a deep breath and adjusted his radio. After audibly clearing his throat, he spoke, "HQ, this is Sergeant Jason Garner. We have cloaked enemies in front of us, near Fenixburg. Believed to be part of the enemy attack force. Also confirming Zerg massing up near the city. Awaiting orders."
The radio crackled to life. "This is HQ. Please repeat." Jason frowned. "This is Sergeant Jason Garner. We have cloaked enemies in front of us and Zerg right over us, dammit!" Jason heard a few surprised exclamations from HQ. "Sergeant, we do not detect any Zerg signatures near Fenixburg. Is this a joke?" Jason cursed out loud. A mutalisk was barely a few hundred meters over him.
A man uncloaked besides him. Tall, his skin a pale white, he took a deep breath before speaking. "Relax, Sergeant. I'm taking over right now." Jason frowned. "What the hell are you talking about? And who in hell's name are you?"
Hugo smiled and looked at the man. "So, Terry, what's going on?" He asked telepathically. The man didn't even look at him as he answered, again through his thoughts. "Hugo, I need to shut that idiot up. I'll explain later." Hugo grinned and walked forward, while Jason was almost yelling at Terry. The angry sergeant was interrupted, though, as Hugo took him by the collar and slammed him against the wall of the building behind which they were hidden. He smirked and started twisting Jason's arm. "Sergeant, we're tired of hearing your stupid voice. LA FERME!" He yelled angrily. Jason started muttering curses under his breath.
Terry was about to say something, but stopped as the ground under him shook. "What the…" His eyes widened. Jason suddenly heard a technician's voice in his comm.-set. "Sergeant, we've detected the Zerg force. Get far away from Fenixburg; reinforcements are on the way!"
"Get your hands off me!" He yelled at Hugo. The ghost looked at Terry, who nodded frenetically. Jason looked at everyone. "We're getting outta here! Go towards the hills behind the city!"
No one needed to hear that twice. Everyone started going away from the city, and Terry had his fist raised in the air, like a signal. Jason saw that and cursed out loud. "Stop that, you goddamn moron! You want them to follow us?" Jack grinned. "Just what we needed." He was looking behind him, at a group of hydralisks that had suddenly turned away from the battlefield to follow them.
"Go, go, go! We gotta lose these critters!" Jason yelled. He looked forward and smiled. Siege tanks and goliaths were moving in towards Fenixburg. Jack had a wide smile all over his face. "Reinforcements!" He yelled. The others nodded, but their race was cut short by an ultralisk, whose tusks were only meters from the terrans. Wordlessly, they all drew their weapons and aimed it at the beast. Terry took a deep breath. "What are they doing? They should be here right now…" He said, looking around.
Suddenly, the Ultralisk started screaming in pain, surrounded by strong psionic storms. It struggled to get free, but it was too late; soon it fell to the ground, burnt to the very core. "Come on, on se dépèche!" Hugo said. The hydralisks behind them were getting closer. "Get out of here, all of you!" Terry said. He turned towards the hydralisks and turned his heat-vision on. He smiled. "John, Tarrat, I'm leaving them to you." Two of the hydralisks nodded. Terry smirked. "How does it feel to be disguised as an hallucination, John?" The hydralisk shrugged and turned back to the battlefield. "Now, be careful; the Zerg aren't pushovers." It nodded and dashed back into battle. Terry turned around and followed the other terrans.
Captain Firley, leader of Jupiter squadron, looked at the battlefield, tense. "What are Zerg doin' here?" He asked. "They're…wrecking the city?" One of the wingmen asked, seeing an ultralisk crash through a house. "All right, Jup squadron. Let's give those things hell." Captain Kenny Firley said, "Those are OUR houses down there." He added. The two other members of Jupiter squadrons answered in unison, "Roger that, Jup-leader. Jup 1 and 2, engaging."
As he engaged the Zerg, Captain Firley noticed something strange…"Hey, what's goin' on?" the squad leader asked, looking around. Hydralisks and Zerglings were attacking…each other? "Did Kerrigan just go insane or something?" He looked at his radar…the Zerg and the terrans were the only ones left in the radius of the city. "What the…where'd our targets go?" Someone asked. Lieutenant Firley looked at his radar…there was still one unknown signature left in the radius of the city. He looked for that last one. Suddenly, he spotted it. It was unconscious. He took a deep breath and spoke. "Unconscious bogey at 12 o' clock. Prepare for…"
Unfortunately, he was suddenly interrupted; a hydralisk had just fired a spine towards him. It hit the right wing of his wraith. "SHIT!" He yelled, trying to maintain balance. He looked under him for a second. There were Zerg everywhere. Taking a deep breath, he took a pistol from his pocket and pressed on the "eject" button.
John looked at the crashing wraith and its pilot, under the disguise of a hydralisk. He looked at the disguised Tarrat, who looked at the wraith and shook his head. Taking a deep breath, John said, "Drop my disguise. That pilot won't trust a 'Zerg', or whatever those are called, protecting him." Tarrat shrugged, and John was soon dashing towards the wraith pilot, undisguised. The Zerg tried to lash at him, but he was so fast that no claw or spine managed to hit him... "haha…so that's what he meant by focusing my energies in my legs…" he thought, blessing the advice that Tarrat had given him back as they had arrived... He soon arrived to the point where the pilot landed. The ejected seat was right in front of him, but where was the pilot? A Zergling suddenly charged towards him, and he deftly jumped to avoid it. Then, he spotted him. The pilot. He was only a few meters away, but he was surrounded by Zerg, a small firearm the only thing protecting him from the ravenous beasts. The hydralisks and Zerglings surrounding him, strangely, were just standing there…It was like they didn't want to attack him. As they saw John, however, they charged in unison…in the opposite direction. Actually, the Zerg were all rushing away, away from the city and on overlords. 'They're…leaving?' John thought.
"Phew…glad that's over." The pilot said. "Looks like they were our allies after all." His legs were a bit wobbly. He chuckled and sighed, obviously relieved. However, as he saw John, he leapt back in fear. "Wha-what are you?" He asked, hesitant.
John shrugged. "I'm one of you…or rather I was." Captain Firley raised an eyebrow. 'One of us? Yeah, right…' The trained pilot took his pistol and pointed it towards John, his hands shaking. Before he realized what was going on, though, John had slashed the pistol in half, his claws missing Kenny's face by inches. John grinned and looked at the pilot. "Terry had a similar face when he first saw me like this. You're afraid of me, aren't you?"
He then had a good look at the pilot's face. His eyes widened. Suddenly, an image flashed through his mind; the image of the same man, standing in a different uniform, his face looking much younger… "You…" John started. The pilot took a deep breath. His whole body was shaking now. Another image flashed through John's mind; A hangar. The man was there, climbing in a wraith, a look of panic on his face.
John shook his head. "…that hangar…" Kenny breathed heavily. "Wh-what hangar?" John gave him a cold glare. However, before he could speak, a vulture bike stopped between the two, with Terry in the driver's seat. "Let's go!" He yelled, pointing towards the back of the bike. John nodded, got to the back of the bike and sat down. "He-hey, what're you doing?" The bike sped off, John giving Kenny one last pensive glance.
Kenny's radio crackled to life. "Jup-leader, this is Jup-1. Come in, Jup-leader!" Slight chuckles were heard in the background. Kenny looked above. His wingmen were lowering their altitude, almost directly over him. He sighed. "This is Jup-leader. Hey, you guys, I know you're laughing your asses off, but how about calling me a freakin' evac?"
Looking at the speeding bike, he frowned. That being's face looked strangely familiar…
"YOU CRAZY BITCH!" Dan yelled. "DO YOU REALIZE THE DAMAGE YOU DID TO THE CITY?" Kerrigan, communicating through the monitor, sighed. "Those buildings were in my troops' way." Seeing Dan's anger, she sighed. "Am I supposed to care about your stupid homes?" She grinned, "I got what I wanted, so who cares if a few straw houses go down along the way?"
Dan took a deep breath and suddenly raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
Kerrigan stayed silent, though giving Dan an amused look. He repeated his question. "What do you mean, 'you got what you wanted'? ANSWER ME!"
Kerrigan shook her head. "For a general, you really don't know how to act diplomatically." Kerrigan's mocking tone made Dan clench his fists in anger. "Besides, general, I don't have to answer to you." She added, coldly. Dan shrugged. "Then, this discussion is over."
Kerrigan chuckled. "I agree. Goodbye, stupid terran." She concluded, shutting off her side of the communication monitor.
The monitor was turned on again, this time showing a marine. "Sir, that ghost's back. He's got some…thing with him." Dan shrugged. "Let 'em in." He took a deep breath and walked out of the room, leaving behind a buzz of comments from the technicians.
Just as he came out, he saw Kalis, his arms folded, a strange glow in his deep blue eyes. "Don't worry." Dan said. "I'll watch 'em carefully." Kalis nodded and spoke telepathically, "I don't want them killing more innocents, neither Protoss nor terran…" Dan shrugged. "Me neither, man. Me neither." Waving the Protoss Ambassador goodbye, he walked towards the exit of the command center. While walking, he saw a window. He stared at the city of Fenixburg; at the far east of the city, some crumbled houses and buildings were still smoking. "Damn you, Kerrigan…" He muttered. "DAMN THIS WHOLE STUPID WAR!" He yelled out loud, punching the wall of the hallway. Tears almost filled his eyes when he thought of the people who'd now be homeless… hopeless… like he had once been.
Twelve years ago…Mar Sara, Backwater station
Dan was partying around with the other soldiers of his base. His promotion to the rank of Corporal had gotten everyone into a joyful mood; booze was flowing, people were singing and laughing, and the station's second-in-command, who had improvised himself as barman, was mixing and serving drinks frenetically, a wide smile on his face. He loved mixing drinks. In fact, when a marine just wanted beer, he laughed and called him a wuss.
Dan was playing pool a bit, some of his friends playing cards right besides him. "Hey, guys," Dan started, "Look at this!" He put a can of beer on his head. "I bet I can nail the 8 with that can on my head!" Already, people around him started betting. "Betcha 5 credits that he nails it." "10 that he misses." "25 that he spills the beer all over his shirt."
Dan laughed. He was about to speak, but suddenly, a marine, the only one assigned to guard duty, came bursting into the room, making Dan jump in surprise, spilling the beer all over himself. One of the marines laughed. "Ha! What did I tell ya?"
The marine shrugged. "Damn it, guys! Party's over!" He yelled. The second-in-command smirked behind the bar. "Hey, bob, who're you kiddin'?" He pointed towards a seat at the bar. "Wanna drink? You can have a bloody mary if you want."
The marine shook his head violently. "No, no…I'm not kiddin', you guys! Come out and look at this!" He pointed towards the sky. Dan walked towards the academy's window and stared outside, wondering what could be wrong. Immediately, he saw it; Chau Sara was on fire! His eyes widened. "oh HELL no…" He said, clenching his teeth. He ran outside, pushing the marine aside, and stared at his home planet, dumbfounded. He was speechless. This couldn't be… "mom, dad, Christie…" He muttered. The patrolling marine walked outside, followed by most of the soldiers who, a few seconds ago, were still partying and laughing. All of them remained silent. They knew that this young rookie was from Chau Sara, knew that his parents and his girlfriend were there, probably burning alive...and so they watched this man's whole life burning away right in front of him. Dan started yelling as loud as he could, cursing everything from his luck to his life, barely holding back his tears of pain…until they flowed out of his eyes like a river of sadness…
The following hours passed like a blur. Alarms echoed through the small base. People carried Dan and shoved him into his uniform. Some alien species was attacking, but he didn't care about anything anymore; he barely even moved, giving only a mere shrug while most of his comrades were torn apart by the species he'd later know as the Zerg. He even remained emotionless as some Marshall named Raynor arrived to rescue the base's survivors. Even if he were alive, his soul was dead…he'd lost his family, his love…Sadness and anger was all he had left…
Dan shrugged at those painful memories. He didn't have the time to be sentimental. He looked outside again and took a deep breath. He continued walking on, realizing that this war was just beginning…
Kerrigan smiled and patted a Zergling's head. She turned towards what it had brought back. In a chrysalis lay one of the Thanatians, unconscious. The Queen of Blades twisted her lips in an evil smile. "Rest while you can…my new minion…"
End of the chapter
Author's note: I know, I know, I took a LONG while before updating. Sorry about that. I'll try getting faster...a LOT faster...but I'm also working on another little Starcraft fic. Might post it here soon.
