Lonerboi: Thanks for all the praise, dude! I'm getting smothered in thumbs ups LOL Anyway 'splash #' is what a pilot says whenever he gets a kill. Example:

Tom Cruise chases down a Mig and fires a missile

Tom Cruise: Fox One!

Mig explodes

Tom Cruise: Splash One!

Tommy kills another Mig

Tom Cruise: Splash Two!

Get it? Oh, and 'Fox #' is used whenever a pilot fires a seeking missile. Oh yeah, sometimes, pilots just say 'Splash!' dunno why, though… I think it's for when they kill a ground target, but not sure.

Disclaimer: Plot and Chars belong to me! Starcraft stuff doesn't…

Chapter 7: Side Effects

They were in the holopic theatre, again - the one on Vraxia, where his first kiss had been given to him. Here, they were kissing again. The smoothness of her tongue was luscious, and the sweetness of her saliva was enchanting. Her breath was like a succulent mist upon his cheek. Their arms were around each other and they staggered down onto the nearby chair.

She was so fine, so slender; it was as if she was made of silk. He was caressing her thin body. It wasn't as curvaceous as it should, she was thin and rather straight, but it felt so delightful to embrace. A moan escaped her lips and he stroked her fine hair. She breathed faster as the passion of the kiss grew. He needed to stop before she would get overwhelmed. He lessened the pressure of the kiss and slowly moved back. Her eyes were still closed and her lips were still groping for a mouth that wasn't there; she was still trying to kiss him.

He touched her cheek to try and get her to open her eyes, but she was still trying to kiss someone that wasn't there. This was odd. He watched her curiously and was, to his shame, a bit put-off by her behavior. She looked strange from his point of view; continuing to pursue something that wasn't there. He had broken the kiss so that she would not be overdosed, in a manner speaking.

Why hadn't she snapped out of it yet? He gently brushed her cheek again, in an attempt to get her back to reality. He wanted her to wake up and open her eyes, but she still moved around and kissed the air. He was out of options. It was disgusting for him to watch her act this way. He moved in closer, since he had no other option. He opened his mouth and gave her the kiss that she was asking for.

This time he didn't let up, he tangled his tongue in her mouth and forgot about being gentle. She was smiling while she kissed him back, and she squirmed when his hands went for her private areas. They continued to kiss, not caring about tender in their actions. They didn't let up for a second. It was what she wanted, and she rewarded him with all the passion and love she had for giving it to her. They only parted when the kiss was complete.

This time she opened her shining eyes, and lighted the room with her wonderful smile. He smiled back at her, and now they were truly happy…

"Jia…" said Tyler, softly.

Tyler jumped out of bed and banged his head on the bottom of the top bunk. He yelped and writhed in pain. He looked at his hands that were clasping his forehead and saw a trickle of blood on them. He cursed and tried to get out of bed, and as he did so he bumped into something – no, someone. His vision was still obscure so he couldn't tell who it was.

"Sorry, mate" said Erika.

"Get me some bloody ice, will 'ya?" he replied. Erika walked to the nearby replicator as Tyler nursed his forehead.

"Must have been some dream, bro" she said, as she handed him the ice pack.

"You don't wanna know…"

"Jia again?"

"Damn it! Is it that obvious?"

"You talk in your sleep" she told him. He groaned and rolled over back on the bed.

"See; even your sub-conscious knows that you miss her" she said.

"Yeah, well what does my sub-conscious know?" Erika laughed at that statement.

"It knows how to give you five hundred kills in the flight simulator, duh!" she said, jokingly.

"And that's all it should know. What business does it have moving into my love life, eh?"

"That's what it's paid to do" she said, with a chuckle.

Tyler curled up in bed as his head throbbed some more. He wondered if his head would ever get some rest. For three days it had to put up with memories of Jia, arguments with Erika (about Jia) and now this. Erika had finally decided to tone down her aggressiveness in pestering Tyler about Jia yesterday, once she realized that Tyler was being deeply hurt by them. Nonetheless, his head still hurt.

"Why'd you wake me up, anyway?" he asked.

"We're launching in an hour for the brass' operation" as she sat beside the bunk.

"Ugh, don't they have enough bloody squadrons?"

"The Clarkson lost half of it's squadrons in the space battle, we're just filling their spot until after the operation"

"But it's not our fault that they had incompetent pilots" he sneered. Erika looked at him thoughtfully.

"You don't want to go because you'll leave Jia…" she teased. Another ugh was given by Tyler.

"Alright, bro. Just keep thinking about this, okay?" she said, when Tyler sulked again.

"I'll get the squad ready. Be in the hangar in thirty" she said, while patting Tyler on the shoulder once more and leaving.

Tyler got out of bed and grudgingly suited up in his flight jacket. His dream was still fresh in his mind. Maybe he was wrong in his decision, and maybe Erika and Jia had been right all along. But what could he do now? Every second that Jia was not with him, he doubted himself some more. He cleared his mind of Jia as he prepared for the coming mission.

The briefing was predictable and standard. The 'elite' squadrons of wraiths would swoop in first and clear a path for the dropships. Then, once the green light is given, the battlecruisers would move in while being screened by the other squads and bombard the zerg outposts while the dropships would go through the secure path cleared by the first squads and drop the ground troops that would reinforce the HQ. Tyler found the only interesting part when the good general was informing the pilots of new information about the zerg.

"We've mostly discovered stuff about new zerg ground critters; not anything you flyboys need to know about. Just stay away from the spike shooters and you'll be fine" he said, while Tyler rolled his eyes.

It was night time when the Atlas' were flying in a wedge formation in front of the dropships. They were low and hugging the urban jungle that was now defiled with the purple creep; the signature of the zerg's filth. If you looked at Vega from space the entire northern hemisphere was purple, and so were a couple of other planets in Directorate space. The zerg had not only struck here, they were striking everywhere. The Directorate was forced to evacuate all its citizens to the inner rim worlds, so as to slacken the already tightly strung defense fleets.

"Attention all escort; you've reached the failsafe. Everyone get to your designated positions and load up" instructed mission control.

Tyler directed his squadron to move in between the flights of dropships and they hovered in place. The Atlas', the dropships, and the various other squads waited patiently for the call to move out while the forward squads cleared the way. Tyler grew bored easily; the fatigue from his personal life was taking a drastic toll on his flying ability. He wondered if he would be able to stay focused and come out of the battle alive. He grew more worried as he realized that, since he was now a major, he was responsible for the lives of sixteen pilots (fourteen when you deduct the casualties of the space battle)

The sound of the go was like an echo in the distance. He barely felt any feeling towards the battle – he barely felt anything at all. He tried to shake himself to consciousness, but all it did was make his head hurt some more. As they flew head first into a huge furball Tyler grew worried. He couldn't get his focus and he knew the results wouldn't be good.

"Eris, you read?" he said, tuning a private channel with Erika; when pilots wanted to address each other personally and not by designation, they had to use callsigns, since saying real names on a military channel was taboo.

"Copy, Aries, what's up?" she replied, also tuning a private channel.

"I can't get myself focused"

"Huh?"

"I'm not thinking straight" he explained.

"Oh God… How bad is it?"

"I can barely understand my HUD"

"Now… of all times?"

"I can't help it…"

"I bloody told you that your break-up with Ji - her would do this!" she scolded.

"Blast! I don't need a lecture!"

"Alright, fine… just concentrate on staying alive – I'll keep the squad safe" she said.

"Bloody hell… I'm sorry about this, Eris…"

"Just fly as you normally do…"

"Roger…" was all he could say.

They were nearing the HQ now, and sure enough they could see the flames of battle up ahead. There would thousands of zerg charging up the HQ's defense walls. The buildings in the base were burning as they were bombarded by the guardians. The hydralisks were raining spikes that would decapitate anyone that had their head out too high.

But still, the Directorate forces held their ground. The siege tanks were tirelessly firing and reloading in a monotonous system of labor. The goliaths were lined up and providing the marines with much needed cover along the trenches. The overlords were being shredded to pieces by the missile turrets as they made suicide runs to try and drop their forces behind the defense walls.

The wraiths that had gone ahead were already furballing with the mutalisks at low altitude. The battlecruisers were lumbering forward to move into position where they would begin their high altitude bombardment. Tyler shook himself to focus; a pocket of mutalisks were flying nose to nose with the force of dropships. He struggled to focus his mind into aiming. He fired off a burst and missed. Wurms and tracers mixed for a moment and then generated fireballs at each side.

Tyler yawed hard to get another snapshot on one of the mutalisks. He fired and missed again, though it was a hard shot. The wraiths tried desperately to spin back around before the mutalisks got to the dropships. They primed their missiles as the science vessel got its bioscanner running. The missiles chased down the horde of zerg that were bounding towards the helpless dropships.

The lead dropships erupted in flames as the surviving mutalisks still managed to blunt the tip. Then the wraiths showed their superiority in speed to the mutalisks and ripped through the tightly clumped horde, lasers blazing. Soon the path was clear for the dropships. The escorting wraiths dove down to join the furball below as the dropships began to land.

The marines launched themselves out of the ramps and hit the ground running. Most of them were mowed down by spikes, but the rest replied with their own volley of bullets. The marines who had been in the siege from the beginning got a moment to breath, before being forced back into hell by their commanders. The battlecruisers tore a gap in the steady stream of zerg reinforcements by their relentless bombardment. The zerg that were laying siege to the base were beginning to thin out.

The goliaths took a step forward and the marines stimmed up and followed. With one final devastating attack run that decimated the forward ranks of zerg from volunteer squadron of wraiths, the ground troops rushed forward. Firebats lead the way out the gate and marines retook the defense walls. The firebats were cut to shreds, but then rose up and replied with a raging inferno.

Once the marines mounted the walls, the zerg were either pushed back or killed. The goliaths marched out of the gates and lined themselves in front of the walls and rained 20mm death upon the zerg who were still fighting. Up in the sky the mutalisks were being played with. Various squadrons were now helping strafe the remaining zerg ground forces, since the furball was practically won.

It was almost too easy; once the reinforcements came,the battle was over in an hour. The remaining zerg, who were caught in between the angry marines on one side, and their burning base on the other, were promptly cut down. The zerg threat on Vega was now gone. The marines who had been stationed on HQ from the start spat on the zerg carcasses as the others cheered.

Tyler hated himself as he landed. Out of the turkey shoot he had earned himself a mere two kills, while Erika had gotten seven. That brought Tyler up to only ten kills which was a mere double ace, while Erika already had eighteen. He had also embarrassed himself in front of his squadron. He swore he'd make up for it someday, but all he wanted to do now was sulk.

He watched the tired marines file back to the barracks' to get cleaned up, while the one's who were wounded were tended to in tents that were pitched in the blood stained field. Tyler was extremely disappointed in himself. He wished he could be like the cheering marines, but he had shamed himself in front of his peers.

Erika approached him and grinned. He grinned as well, to his surprise. It was comforting, knowing that no matter what Erika would always stand by his side through thick and thin, just like when he had stuck with her on the streets of Vraxia.

She led him to his quarters on the Clarkson. This was a rickety old ship; it took a lot of damage to life support systems in the space battle. He slumped on to the bed while she handed him a stress pill. He gulped it down gratefully.

"You know what I'm gonna say, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, yeah, I know it's 'cuz of Jia" he said, massaging his temples.

"No…" she said, he looked at her quizzically. She stuck her tongue out at him and laughed.

"I am a triple ace!" she said to his face. He laughed with her.

"Who's the almighty god of destruction now?" she teased.

Her playfulness cheered Tyler up. They continued teasing until a knock came from the door. Erika whispered a 'hope you feel better' to his ear, since she had to report to debriefing anyway. She opened the door for their guest and left. After that Jia stepped in the room.

"Feeling alright, Tye?" she said nervously.

"What the – what're you doing here?" he asked, not really caring about the answer.

"I was let aboard while you were at briefing" she explained. An awkward silence followed.

"Listen, Jia, I know that – "

She suddenly cut him off by pulling a party popper from her pocket and littered the room with confetti. Her cheeks glowed scarlet as she said, nervously 'Happy ten kills!' Tyler's jaw dropped in surprise. Had the shy and self-conscious Jia just do what Tyler thought she did?

"I got you a present…" she said, taking out her small backpack, while her face glowed red the whole time. She was doing what Tyler thought she was doing!

She pulled out a sculpture of an eagle from her bag. Tyler was stupefied; he was being thrown as ace's celebration, just like when he had given Jia her birthday celebration. He was entitled to one when he had gotten five lightning bolts, but that was delayed due to today's operation.

He took the eagle silently, mouth still open. It was a mean looking eagle. Its wings were folded indicating that it was diving and its claws were outstretched. He noticed that there was a piece of paper taped to one of the wings. He pulled it free and read it. Thankfully, unlike the poem he had written, this was written in English.

You should know my love is true

And when you sleep, I want to be with you

You think of me as sweet, but now we've gone sour

I can never be complete if I don't see you by the hour.

His eyes watered as he read. He looked at Jia; she was sweating and was blushing very intensely, just the way he looked when he had given her the dog on her birthday. Now they had switched roles. She looked at him with pleading eyes. This was definitely her last attempt at getting Tyler back. Tyler's reaction to this would be final, and could never change.

She looked at him, patiently waiting for an answer. It was like his dream; Jia would always try to kiss him, even when he wasn't there, and she would only stop when he would kiss her back.

Tyler struggled as a war was fought inside him, one that was bloodier than the battle for Vega HQ. But only Tyler could decide which part of him won…

Hey 'fellas. I'm sorry if this chapter isn't as good as the rest. I'm tired and I need a break from writing. Like Tyler, I have my own Jia to occupy my mind. I'm gonna take at least a week off from writing, okay?

In the mean time, please; send me all the comments, questions, suggestions, corrections, and even flames, if you want, and anything else you have to say. I'll be sure to answer all of them when the next chapter comes up. 'Till then…

--NaytchX