Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft, Blizzard Entertainment does, and in a way, Blizzard owns this story as well, so I am kind of working for them. Kind of.
Author's Note: This first chapter is just a set-up. The ones that come later will be darker, more violent, more viscious. So enjoy! (For reviews, please point out what you liked and didn't like so I can improve, thanks)
STARCRAFT: FRONTLINE
Chapter 1: The Trenches
TAUR SARA CONFEDERATE MILITARY OUTPOST"Get your asses out of bed marines," sergeant Ajax Carter yelled as he walked into the barracks dorm.
Private Danny Henderson groaned, and groggily opened his eyes. He blinked a few times and lightly hit his head against the wall. That woke him up, and he swung his legs out from his bunk, which was really a cubicle in the wall with an uncomfortable mattress on it. While in the armory, lockers were assigned to each marine, the bunks were a free for all grab, so you slept in a different one every night.
As the marines woke up, they filed into the fair sized kitchen, where they would grab their breakfast rations. Danny sat beside private Kenny Dawson, who ate his gray sludge without a sound.
"Jesus I wish we could some new orders, there's nothing on this fucking rock worth defending," Kenny said suddenly, Danny looked over at him. The man was of an average marine build, with a shaved head, just like every other marine in this barracks, and the barracks on the other end of the compound.
"This is an agriculture planet. Lots of colonists here, but there a few miles away from here. You know that Kenny, that's why we're here. You should also know that the confederacy doesn't have this planet in their books, and we haven't sent a message for about a month now. We should get some fresh blood out here though, so we can get back to civilization. I need to see Miranda again, last time I saw the kids they were five and two. Now they're eight and five," Danny said.
"Our term of service ends next week. We can go home, same with a shit load of the guys here," Kenny said, spooning more of the sludge into his mouth.
When they finished their morning meal, which was only a few minutes, the marines were herded to the locker room, which was right at the entrance, because the rest of the barracks was too small to move around in power armor and wielding rifles.
A few technicians helped marines into their bulky armor, but once inside, they easily picked up their C-14 impaler gauss rifles, and loaded them. The weapon would not be usable by someone out of the armor, but a marine was able to wield it like a normal rifle.
The marines exited the barracks, and the graveyard shift marines went in to get some needed sleep. The marines went to the bunkers, and into the trenches dug around the outpost. Others prepared to go out on patrol with the vulture hover bikes that they had stored by the machine shop.
Danny glanced over to the command post, which was horribly understaffed. There were a few SCVs working, but they were only gathering a little vespane gas from a nearly depleted geyser. There were also a few under stocked supply depots around the yard. But Danny's interest was solely in the trenches and bunkers, backed by a single missile turret behind each bunker
Danny was positioned in the bunker on the northwest corner. He felt a little adrenaline pump through his veins when the vultures started up, but when they passed to pilot around in the wilderness, Danny felt fatigue creep back over his mind.
Marines assigned to the bunkers were considered lucky because they would be able to get at least another hour of sleep, and so that's what Danny and the three other marines did, the set their rifles against the gun racks, and laid themselves on the cots that bunkers had in case of a siege, and slipped into sleep.
The roar of a vulture woke Danny up. He blinked a few times. The vultures were back. Had he had slept in that long? He blinked a few times wondering why the other marines hadn't woken him. He looked around and saw that the other marines in the bunker were waking up as well.
"Holy shit, we slept for a while," one of them said, who Danny identified as private George Mendel.
Then Danny realized he only heard one vulture. Four had gone out on patrol, and they always returned together. Danny checked the time display on the inside of his helmet. The vultures had only been gone twenty minutes.
Danny was immediately awake, and when he jumped up, the others in the group found the same answer by themselves. They ran to the door, but Danny looked out the firing slit out into the barren landscape. He could see Mt. August in the distance, and the occasional tree and patch of thinning grass. Beyond that though, he saw smoke from the where the nearest colony would be. St. Jacob's Haven was what it had been named by the enthusiastic colonists who were finally free of the Confederacy's grip… almost.
Now though, it was in flames, or perhaps it was a crater. Danny stared in shock. Nothing ever happened way the hell out here. Were the confederacy under attack? Was it a rebellion?
Then something caught Danny's eye. He wasn't sure what it was, but he had seen it flying above Mt. August. Unconsciously he reached for his gauss rifle, and picked it up. He held it close to him like it was a piece of the true cross.
Then the three other marines moved away from the door, and sergeant Ajax entered the bunker. He looked around, and shook his head in disapproval, though the sergeant never approved anything. Unless it was fighting.
"The scouts have reported in. St. Jacob's Haven has been torn apart by an unidentified alien species. Yes Klien, alien, shut your hole. The other scouts were attacked, and killed by multi legged creatures. The survivor also said they were gathering to attack us, so be ready, no slacking," and with that Ajax left the bunker.
The marines stared after the sergeant, but then they snapped out of their stupor, and grabbed their gauss rifles. They positioned themselves by the firing slits, and braced themselves for combat.
It was about a half hour later when the creatures began to skitter towards the outpost. There were hundreds of the creatures. Most were the four legged creatures that had attacked the vultures, they also had an extra two limbs on their fronts tipped in deadly claws, and they had pointed snouts, almost like a dog from hell.
Others though had snake like bodies, and two scythe like arms and with a long broad head. Then there were the screeching things that looked like giant mouths with wings.
"Jesus fucking Christ what the hell is this?" the marine named Klien said, his gauss rifle resting against the metal bottom of the gun slit.
"All marines, do not fire until you have a clear shot," Ajax commanded over the communication network.
Danny counted to thirty seconds, by then a few of the marines with the best aim were firing. Once Danny reached thirty though, the creatures were too close for comfort. He squeezed the trigger of his rifle, which immediately began to jump in his gauntleted hands. Metal spewed forth from the muzzle of his gun, smashing through the hordes of alien monsters, but despite loss of limbs they would continue crawling, spreading their blood across the ground.
"What the hell are they?" Klien cried out, his fingers jammed down on his rifle, trying to kill as many of the things as possible.
It was at that moment that Danny realized something horrible. Their bullets were designed to maim, not kill. They were designed to main so that more men would be taken from the battlefield to help their wounded comrade, but these things had no care for their fellow warriors, or for their own wounds.
"This is going to get bad," Danny muttered, just as he heard the missile turret lock onto one of the flying things. The missile flew from the turret, and impacted with the creature. It exploded and its blood flew everywhere, and what was left of its corpse dropped to the ground like a stone, crushing a few of the dog things.
After that, the missile turrets were having trouble keeping up with the flyers, who began to spit some kind of acidic spore at the Terran defenses. One hit the bunker, sizzling through steel, but it also bounced off, and went straight through a missile turret's base, then hit one of the marines that had just been leaving the barracks, cutting through a section of his armor, and biting into his flesh. He screamed, and fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
Danny stared through the rear gun slit for a few seconds before turning back to face the creatures. He reloaded his rifle, then started firing again, screaming out his fear now. One of the snake things reared up, exposing a hood like object under its head. It shot out needle like spines. One of which flew through one of the windows of Danny's bunkers and stuck into a man's chest. He looked down at it, amazed that it hadn't carved through his armor.
Danny glanced at it, then looked up when he heard sizzling. The steel was being peeled away by the acidic assault of the flyers.
"Get out, into the trench," Danny yelled out, and the marines, especially Klien, didn't need to be told again. But as they were running out, one of the snakes fired again, and its quill passed through the glass, bubble like helmet of the marine who had a spine in his chest.
Danny looked back, and saw some of the dogs things crawling into the bunker, tearing the steel away from the gun ports, and they crawled in. Danny aimed his rifle at them, and fired. The ammo counter on his rifle was quickly running down to zero. When his magazine did empty, he automatically reached for a new one, and loaded his weapon, then began firing again. Alien blood sprayed out across the ruins of the bunker, but Danny kept firing, more creatures were climbing in, hoping to get into the trench from the side.
Then the drone of a dropship sounded from overhead, and Danny heard Wraith fighters fire missiles into the flyers before turning their burst lasers into the ground units, who were torn apart.
Danny looked back to see two dropships land. One opened, and two Goliath walkers stepped out, their auto cannons immediately began firing into the alien horde, blowing them apart. Danny laughed, they had been saved. The confederacy had finally…
Danny looked back at the Goliaths and dropships. He had expected to see the white coloring of the alpha squadron, instead they were colored red and black. Danny frowned. He didn't like this.
After a few blood minutes, the battle was over. Danny looked around. Many of the confederate marines had been killed in the battle, before the strangers had come to rescue them. Amongst the dead was Magistrate Keyes, who had been in charge of the outpost, leaving Ajax in command. The sergeant walked up to a man in an magistrate's uniform.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"I am Commander Holland, in command of the battle cruiser Bronze Horizon, and the 36th Korhal Marine battalion, loyal to Emperor Mengsk of the Terran Dominion," the officer said.
"Emperor Mengsk. What's happened to the confederacy?" Ajax asked incredulous.
"The corrupt confederacy had been overthrown, so that leaves you and your marines two choices. Join or die," Holland said.
Ajax looked at the other marines under his commander. They all gave him slight nods. They lowered their rifles in a non-threatening position. Ajax looked at the white armor they all wore, then he turned back to Holland.
"Join," he said.
"Good, I glad you see things our way. Now get your men on the dropships, we don't have much time. The Zerg have overridden much of your planet already. You will get more information when we get back to Bronze Horizon," Holland said, and he turned on his heel and marched back into the dropship from whence he came.
Danny looked around at the outpost that had been his home for the past three years, then stepped onto the dropship. He would get to see his family.