Imperium by Forever Jake
Chapter Five
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"The first of the heavy support groups are arriving now, General."
"Good! How are the smaller ships faring?"
"Minimal losses, sir. They seem to be coping well against the thickening enemy forces."
"Alright, have the newly arriving firepower form a perimeter around the most probably descent vectors. I don't want anything getting through to the surface."
"Pull the lighter forces back as well?"
"Only a little; let the wraiths and valkyries keep flying circles. I want them ready to take out any more mutalisks that come out of warp so the larger ships are free to fire on the overlords and guardians."
"Good, sir."
"About how many unfriendlies have come out of warp so far, Captain?"
"115, sir – about 80 of ours already in-position."
"Just keep reinforcing those descent vectors. Things are going to get heavy soon."
--
Thoth had a clear image now of the space over Korhal; he could see the swarming Terran ships as they scattered and swirled, thinking themselves brilliant in their artificial chaos. They performed the same pseudo-random maneuvers over and over and over until they were no long arbitrary; merely without direction. The human commanders no doubt presumed their walls of careening fighters would block the Zerg from penetrating to the surface, but they were fools. They would see what true chaos meant.
Thoth focused in on the larger Terran vessels, the battlecruisers and missile frigates that waited behind the screen of wraith fighters. The command ships seemed to be stationary, idle... as undirected as the rapidly flailing squadrons of smaller ships. They were the weak points here. They were where Thoth's agents would strike hardest.
Without a mouth, or eyes, or any sort of bodily expression of any kind – without even a body in the traditional sense – Thoth smiled. It was all so easy.
--
On the deck of a battlecruiser called Protector, a helmsman sat in his chair, his fingers and eyes anchored on his computer monitor. The screen of smaller fighters, his instruments told him, seemed to be working rather well; thus far, none of the Zerg's haphazard mutalisks raids had been able to punch through. Back behind the wall, though, stuck on the bridge of an untapped battleship, 'standing by', the helmsman was getting bored.
"Update on enemy presence," came a voice from his computer; one of the commanders from the Norad III.
"Little change," the helmsman replied, yawning. "Roughly 170 units on radar, 96 of what we've got. Most of 'em are holding back now, they've figured out not to try the screen." There was a pause, doubtless as the man on the other end relayed the useless information to his superiors.
After a brief moment, the computer fizzled to life again. It was not the same voice that spoke to him this time, however.
"This is General Duke. Would you repeat that information?"
"Uh, yes, General. Zerg population has grown to roughly 170, mostly mutalisks and the odd overlord, versus our 118 fighters and 60 capitals. They've stopped sending fodder into our screen and seem to be holding back, out of range."
"Helmsman, are your weapons systems online?"
"We've been keeping them on standby, sir, to conserve energy."
"Well power them up to full working level, and do it fast. Relay that order to the other command ships as well."
"Yes, General. Um, General, might I ask what for? The Zerg are keeping out of range, we'd have to move closer to engage them."
"Just follow orders, helmsman, and if you survive you'll be debriefed following the battle." The sound fizzled away again; Duke had left the computer. The helmsman's fingers moved lazily over the keys, activating the Protector's weapons systems and duplicating the order for the rest of the heavy support.
Futile, isn't it? he caught himself wondering. They're still too far out of range. What's the use in bringing the weapons systems up already? There's nothing to shoot at. He shook his head as he finished queuing up the laser batteries in the rear of the ship.
--
On the other side of the planet, on the bridge of the Norad III, Duke was pacing again.
"How many of our support capitals are in place?"
"Still four of the ten groups in transit, sir – forty more ships, in all. 60 support and a little over a hundred fighters in place."
Not enough, he though. It's too late. They're just not getting there fast enough...
"Sir! The enemy numbers coming out of warp just spiked – they've got over one thousand units now!"
"We're outnumbered at least nine, ten to one, then. Alright, this is it – order all ships stand by to engage."
"But sir – we haven't a chance!"
"We also haven't a choice," Duke whispered. The commander's face was pale. "Make the order."
--
The helmsman fell out of his chair.
Over eight hundred new Zerg arrivals had just emerged from warp, and more were still coming, feeding immediately into the churning mass that sat just outside the wraith screen. There had to be close to three hundred of them now, waiting, watching.
The voice from the computer was shouting something, but he couldn't make it out. It sounded urgent, frightened. But the helmsman, down on the floor, couldn't move to pick up the receiver. He just kept staring, his eyes glued to the radar report on the screen as the numbers of Zerg kept rising up, up, up.
--
Thoth roared through the minds of his endless warriors. They sat there, a mere thousand or so bodies, tiny next to the millions and billions of servants at his command; yet they were frightening, terrifying, to the paltry humans that buzzed like flies above the doomed world of Korhal. The Zerg forces moved together in a great sphere, a single mind, a single entity.
Then they moved.
All at once, a single great order moved like lightning through the mind of each individual mutalisk, overlord, guardian and scourge. Bound like molecules in a giant bullet against the scattered Terran defenses they surged... down, down, down towards the surface of the world.
--
A bowling ball falling through a glass table would have been comparable to the Zerg against the Terran defense.
The Zerg crashed through the screen of wraiths and valkyries, and even as the mesh of tiny fighters contracted against the enemy force, the aliens penetrated further, further, further in past the broken wall.
--
End of Chapter Five
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