I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 12: Eclipse
The hike back to Raynor's ship was rather short. I noticed that not only that his ship was a battleship like the ones I had destroyed before, but also that they had crashed next to what looked to be a small village. Needless to say, I wanted food first before asking about the village.
"Good lord, I don't think the entire Terran Dominion could eat as much as you in one day!" Raynor exclaimed as I polished off what his replicators had spewed out. He had trouble getting them online and claimed that his ship was too broken down to function correctly. Supposedly he had a huge problem with fused circuits and because of that, not even the main computer would operate.
I grinned slightly and rubbed the back of my head, "Yeah, I haven't eaten very well for a while. So what's with the village? Is it abandoned like it seems?" I asked.
"Pretty much. Other than an un-powered ship, they only had a few little trinkets here in there. Nothing much to write home about on this planet…they must have been here long enough though because they even had a model of this solar system. I've been wondering myself about that spacecraft," Raynor replied as he put his fingers to his chin in a thinking posture.
"Well, can't you use your power cells on that ship and get outta here on that one?" I asked.
Raynor shook his head, "No, the designs are different, and I don't think I have a way of adaptation either. Believe me, I already thought of that one."
"We'll maybe we could take a look around and see what we can find," I suggested.
"Good idea kid," Raynor said, picking up his gun.
We exited his ship and headed for the village. While I insisted that I would be fine on my own, Raynor didn't want to split up. Humph, maybe for his own safety with the Zerg here and all. We came to some sort of small tower that had been built much like a grain silo, perhaps for storage. It was dark and dank inside, and in the middle there was some kind of water well. I dropped a small and weak ki blast down into the hole to check it out. I observed two things when I did. First, I made out the visual of several hundred skeletons at the bottom, human looking. The other thing was a shriek of pain that sounded just like the aliens I just fought.
"Those things must be all over the place underground," I noted.
"I think they are, we only noticed them in that cave. But that place was huge, so I'm sure they could easily spread out after dark. If there was a night on this planet..." Raynor grunted.
"There isn't a night?" I asked.
"As hard to tell as it is, this is a binary star system, and no doubt you've noticed a bit of heat here as well. There is always a sun up above the ash clouds, and you've seen how sensitive they are to light. They probably couldn't even move around the shadows very well," Raynor explained.
"I wonder what happened here then. It looks like whoever had been here ran in there to hide from them, except they ran right into a trap. But why would they need to, even with the ash clouds covering the planet, light would still be abundant," I said, glancing around the dungeon like room. I spotted a small model over on a desk and walked over to it.
"That's the model I told you about. It even has a date on it, about twenty-seven years ago according to this." Raynor scrutinized it, glancing at a plaque inscribed on its surface. I turned the windup on the side and watched as it rotated around as the planets did so. I noticed a counter on the side that had read zero, but then it started counting years as the planets slowly revolved. There was a small blue flag on the gray ball of the model, signifying Char itself. There were two planets closer to the suns, and three farther, making six total in the system. I watched the model twirl around as the counter slowly counted. Raynor was busying himself by perusing the surroundings, some dents and such on the tower's wall.
"Well there was definitely a fight here. It's academic to know who won," he noted.
"Hmmm...yes. That's pretty obvious," I answered. I turned back to the model, and saw that a large planet closer to the larger star was now in front of Char, between it and one of the suns. It was big enough to perhaps block out both suns completely for a noticeable amount of time before moving past enough for the sunlight to reach Char again. The larger planet was much bigger than Char by several scales, kind of like Earth compared to Jupiter. On the other side, another bigger planet was moving into place with Char at the same time. I read the counter, it read twenty-seven years. Aw...crap. I saw that Char lined up with the planets momentarily before moving past again. So that's how they were killed, an eclipse of both of the suns! Raynor seemed to notice my distress but didn't say anything.
"How long ago did you say this was dated?" I asked to double check.
"About twenty-seven years. It's about a week or two shy, I think. Why?"
"I believe I know what happened to those people," I said as I glanced at Raynor, "Are there running lights on that thing?" I asked while pointing at his ship.
Interlude 12.1 –Deception-
"Argh, where is that boy now?" Kerrigan griped as she oversaw the finishing touches on the Cerebrate's base. Overhead, the clouds had turned slightly darker, but she paid it no mind, this place was always covered with clouds. As a few drones carried the Cerebrate's living form in and put it into place at the bottom of the primary Hive cluster, Kerrigan began to receive a telepathic call. It wasn't aimed for her, but anything the Cerebrate was involved in, she could pick up as well.
"Cerebrate, I trust your settlement is complete by now. I certainly hope so, for battle awaits us soon!"
Kerrigan scowled at the voice of Zasz, "Yes it is complete, now bug off Zasz! Worry about your own lands!"
"Why Kerrigan, I didn't realize our conversation was being disgraced already. I expected another minute before you pushed in. Quite edgy today, aren't we?" Zasz coolly asked.
"Like you would know," Kerrigan thought quietly.
"You are giving the boy too much cushion, too much freedom. He will break away eventually and we will be forced to kill him! It will be such a waste."
"That is none of your business Zasz, so I suggest you stay out of it before I decide to send him after you!"
"You know, the Overmind wouldn't like such insubordination from his top agents," Zasz added, catching Kerrigan a bit off guard.
"What are you talking about now Zasz?" Kerrigan fired back, quickly recovering from the veiled suggestion.
"I know of your plans to overthrow him! Don't deny it, you plan to use the boy to do so. Fat chance he'd be able to pull it off anyway, you might go far...but not far enough!"
"I don't know what you are suggesting Zasz, but I am not trying to overthrow anybody. The Overmind is my father now, and I am completely loyal! Get off my back!"
"I'll be watching you carefully, my dear." With that said Zasz's voice vanished, and Kerrigan's mind cleared, only to be filled with questions from a different source.
"How is it he came to know all of this?" the Cerebrate asked.
"I do not know, I'm not completely sure that he knows all of that or if he's just guessing at it. I propose caution nonetheless. Be wary of any transmissions or orders that come through or from you!" Kerrigan glanced at the sky and saw it was getting dark enough to be considered twilight. She heard a shriek of some kind in the distance, and it chilled her to the bone.
"Prepare our forces Cerebrate, we need to find Verto!"
-
Raynor kicked the side of the computer panel in frustration. We had hooked all of the power cells up, but it was for nothing when the computers didn't come on. He tinkered with it for about an hour, but the only thing we got was the replicator for our meal, and a few lights.
"Blasted thing is too damaged from the crash, damn this piece of shit!" he cursed as he relentlessly beat it with a steel pipe lying nearby.
"Take it out on something else," I suggested, chuckling slightly.
"Well, you got a good idea? That eclipse is gonna happen any time now!" Raynor said in annoyance.
"According to the model, I'd guess it's only going to last at least a day, give or take a few hours. But still, it's gonna get a little hairy if many of those things come out for a chat. I hope you got plenty of ammo for that gun!" I said.
"Not as much as I'd like, nor as much firepower as I would have if I could get this ship up and running. But I think I could get my bike going. Only problem is that it will drain the power cells a bit, and the concussion grenades are too powerful. The ion engines take a lot of energy to run at top speed. What I get for getting the most advanced vulture bike that there is. I mean some of the things I've had to deal with..." Raynor dragged on about his top of the model bike, I tuned out, seeing that it was already growing dark outside. Then I heard a loud shriek from outside.
"What the hell was that?" Raynor asked.
"You're asking the wrong person, but I'm going find out," I said as I headed straight for the exit to the ship. Raynor was hot on my tail, but I noticed he quit bothering to warn me about being careful.
Outside, it was very dark compared to before, much like early morning or late evening. I looked over to the nearby hills and mountains to see a dark and black cloud growing there. Only it wasn't a cloud because it had tiny gaps between tiny shapes and was funneling out of the mountains like smoke, a lot of smoke. Oh boy.
"Holy shit, how many are there?" Raynor asked. I didn't answer, but I did turn my head enough to see that they were coming out of hills behind where the ship crashed as well. I did a complete circle of the scene and saw what I feared would happen. They were everywhere in the air around us, and were quickly coming in.
"Aw crap, we're surrounded!" Raynor pointed out.
"Get inside the ship!" I ordered.
"What?! Hell no, kid! You're coming with me too!"
"I'll do much better out here without your help, now get in!" I roared back, catching his attention before he got inside and shut the huge steel door.
"Here we go," I whispered, powering up. The light my aura emitted wasn't enough to scare these things apparently, because they were still coming in fast. That and I wasn't at Super Mystic, a transformation that I still needed to work on. Without much practice with Psi and with the current limitation, I wasn't going to be able to jump right to it anyway. They were so thick that soon I couldn't see the sky. That didn't matter at this point, it was nearly pitch black out there. Ahead of me, the creatures landed on the ground, hissing as they stalked forward. One then rushed in from the air, about taking my head with it had I not ducked. The ground in front of me then exploded, and I saw a Zergling sitting there from a freshly dug hole. It was Letch, and I had been wondering where he had been. He growled at the oncoming aliens, and readied himself to attack them, or defend me. I looked back up to see that the aliens were scattering around more, and only a few thousand were sticking around. Letch then leaped at the lead alien; it stepped back and slashed with its tail. Letch took the blow as he pounced and landed on its back and chewed on its neck. It dropped instantly and Letch leaped at the next one. Guess I don't want to be a party pooper. I fired a ki beam into the air and witnessed its effect. Right away there was massive amounts of screeching going on, before several aliens fell from the sky in random places. I grinned, this was going to be very easy. Then I launched a storm of ki blasts into the sky and all around. The effect was so very satisfying.
-
"You can come out now," I shouted in the dark halls of the ship. Raynor's small ki was just inside a bunk room of some kind, but by the time Letch and I got in there, I couldn't tell if he'd been hiding under a bed or not.
"You toasted them all already?" he asked in surprise.
"No, a lot of them left. I think they decided not to mess with me too much after the first few thousand were wiped out easily," I grinned slightly.
"Damn I wasn't sure cause I heard em pounding on the outer hull," he said in wonder.
"No, that was the bodies that dropped on it. We are clear for the moment," I informed him, giving Letch a pat on the head. Raynor followed me back outside as I observed another cluster of aliens moving about above us. They flew down and landed about twenty feet away. Raynor cocked his machine gun and unloaded on them. I could see the bullets impact the aliens, or in this case bounce clean off.
"Damn...did I get any?" he asked.
"No, I don't think it even bruised them. Their skin is way tougher than any Zerg's, or your bullets aren't worth a shit, take your pick," I grunted.
"This baby has taken down tons of Zerg, so it ain't that. But could you do something about these damn things?!" Raynor panicked slightly as the aliens dived forward.
"No problem," I said, drawing back to fire a beam. I was hit suddenly by a wave of pain in my subconscious. I knew it was there because it didn't affect me physically. I could feel the Zerg fighting these creatures all over the planet, and losing. My momentary lapse continued until one of the aliens slashed across my left shoulder just shy of my neck. I didn't even realize it until I was on the ground and bleeding badly while Raynor was beating the thing over its head with the butt of his gun. It knocked him aside, but then got its head chewed in half by Letch.
"OWWW, you little bastards!!!" I screamed. I saw more aliens coming straight at us, as if my blood had got their attention. I fired off a big ki ball into the air, either killing them on the spot, or incapacitating them. I moaned in pain for a few minutes while Letch patrolled around me.
"You ok, kid?" Raynor asked, helping me sit up.
"Does it look like it? The damn thing about cut my shoulder off, and...what the hell?" I suddenly asked in the middle of my tirade. My shoulder hardly hurt at all now, and it being mostly dark I couldn't see it very well.
"What?" Raynor asked. I lit another ki ball and held the light to my shoulder. The wound was still very much there, but the deepest part of it was already healed, and it was slowly filling in with tissue again. It was primarily normal tissue-normal for a Saiyan anyway- and it was filling back in. Only on top did I see Zerg skin and bone coming back in. Which reminded me, my arms were almost totally green now with all kinds of new blood veins.
"I think your infection is getting worse," Raynor noted.
"Is it Captain Raynor or Captain Obvious?"
"Well what are you going to do about it?"
I thought it over, "Something crazy, but it might work."
I sat down cross-legged and concentrated on my energy. I could barely feel my Psi at all, and it felt as if it was being pushed into the depths again. I remembered how much of a pain it got to be trying to find it before, and I didn't want to revert to that. I opened my eyes again and put opposite hands to my arms and shoulders.
"Whatcha doing kid?" he asked.
"Shhh, be quiet for a few minutes. I'm gonna try and isolate the infection with my energy," I said. I pushed with my ki to get a hold of my Psi again, as it was getting very difficult. Since Zerg blood and my ki seem to strengthen each other as they did with Borgos, I figured Psi was the only answer. Then I pulled hard on the Zerg skins covering my arms and shoulders. It hurt like hell, but they ripped off and I discarded them aside with a few loud groans. Letch came up with a distressed look in his eyes. After I pushed down the urge to scream, I noticed my Psi was much more open to me. I turned on my sword, so to speak, and used it to burn off the Zerg tissues that I could see on my limbs. Pain increased everywhere, but so did my Psi energy.
"Wow, that's one way to do it," Raynor said as I powered back down.
"Yeah but it won't last, and holding onto my Psi energy exhausted some of my power in the process. I'll try to subdue it a bit more later, wish I had thought of that sooner," I said, shrugging slightly.
"Psi energy, like the Protoss?" he asked.
Doh, I guess I didn't explain that well enough. I ignored Raynor as my senses then perked up to sense a large pack of something coming our way. But judging by the way Letch didn't react, it wasn't the aliens. I lit another ki ball and kept it lit, seeing instead a bunch of Zerg coming in by air and ground. They surrounded the area, but did not get very close, more like they were securing the area. An Overlord dropped out of the sky and Kerrigan hopped out of it, giving me a stern look.
"And just where have you been Verto? With all of these blasted aliens running about we could easily lose you somewhere!" she claimed.
I cocked an eyebrow, "And the downside of this is?"
Kerrigan gave a small smile before putting Zerg queen bitch mode back on display, "And why is it you've shredded your skins and coverings. They will heal you quickly!"
"Because I don't need them or want them. Tell your master just that!" I shouted back. While Kerrigan and I were having the fake argument, Raynor was reloading his machine gun, but then did a double take as he walked up and saw me talking to Kerrigan.
"I suppose you want to go home in a coffin, well that's just fine with…Jim?" Kerrigan said when she saw him. Her eyes were wider then dinner plates, and Raynor's reaction wasn't much different.
"Goddamn...Sarah? What did the bastards do to you Sarah?"
-
I sat off to the side as Raynor and Kerrigan chatted for an awfully long time. I personally didn't think they would speak a word to each other without the gun at least going off, but nothing happened at all. As this was happening, I took note that many of the aliens were beginning the come back our way, no doubt the Zerg noticed this as well, because they were moving around in a semi circle in preparation.
"Hey guys, could we save the reunion for later?" I asked over my bloodied shoulder. Raynor and Kerrigan glanced up just as I fired a ki beam into the sky above, revealing a lot of the aliens. The Zerg then attacked in the skies above as well as on the ground around us. I couldn't see hardly any of the battle, just the sounds of shrieks and hisses from either species. Then mental anguish and pain as Zerg fell.
Kerrigan glanced over, "They need your guidance!"
I stared at her hard, "Guidance? What they need is to stop dying and driving me insane!"
"Didn't you realize by now that you can control them, or at least command them?" Now that sounds all too familiar.
"And how am I to do that when I can't see that much of the battle?"
"You must see the battle without using your eyes!" she said. I stared at her like she was crazy, Okay, that made sense.
"Argh, I'll help you! Sit down and close your eyes! I want you to concentrate on your surroundings with your Psi. You'll know it when you see it in your thoughts." she said. I did as she ordered, opening my comforting Psi fully to me. This gave off an illuminating effect, which caused Raynor to ask why there was suddenly a blue sparkly light coming off my skin. To focus, I used a similar method of meditation that Piccolo taught me to use that focused my energy so that I could sense everything around me in perfect detail. It sounded so close to what Kerrigan was talking about that I should give it a shot. At first I saw mostly blackness and heard everything else, as one would with their eyes shut in the dark. Then I sensed alien clashing with Zerg, momentary flashes of light blue and purple entered my mind.
"You're almost there, just a little more," she said, though I barely heard her now. I opened my eyes again, or so I thought. This time I saw a lighter blue in the air, and Kerrigan and Raynor were no longer there. In the distance I saw black splotches of something fighting purple splotches. I tried to get up to move over there, only to discover that I was already there as soon I willed myself to move. The splotches refocused into the aliens, and now I could see their full shape without light. They were just as hideous as before, even now as I could see their true shape. The purple ones became Zerg, mostly Zerglings on the ground, and a few flyers in the air. There were more Zerglings than aliens, but the aliens were by far superior in speed and strength. One of them was holding off ten Zerglings on the ground by itself. I saw that whenever an alien or Zergling took a nasty hit, it flashed bloody red for an instant. Some Zerglings turned a deeper shade of purple when it took damage, and if it died it simply vanished from my view. The same for the aliens only it was a deep shade of blue.
"I see them. How do I control them again?" I asked aloud.
"Just give em sort of a mental shove for what you want them to do, they'll do it," Kerrigan suggested. I snorted at her vagueness, but tried it anyway. I noticed that only two Zerglings from the pack were attacking the alien on the end of the ground line, but it was pretty close to dead. Another next to it was fighting with six Zerglings. With my thoughts, I told two of the six Zerglings to help with the alien on the end. To my surprise they listened and moved down to attack.
"There, you got it!" Kerrigan sounded pleased. Come to think of it, that was pretty easy. I turned in my mental state and saw everything in the battle around me, even myself. It showed Kerrigan knelt down next to me, Raynor observing along with Letch. It was odd to see myself from a third person point of view. I was sitting Indian-style in meditation, and a navy bluish flame was coming off of me like I was powering up, only I knew I wasn't really. Then I glanced up and saw a few aliens coming down on me from above. I jerked my arm straight up and ki blasted them, watching myself do it as well. The aliens fried on impact or by the passing of the beam, whichever. I waved my hand slightly in front of my face, getting an odd chuckle from Kerrigan.
"Kind of different to see yourself this way isn't it?" she said.
"You could say that," I said as I watched my own lips move from several feet away. This would be handy on the twin terrors when they're getting prank happy.
"This is similar to how a Cerebrate controls the battle...strategically anyway. Not everything can be predicted, just acted upon," she said. As she said that, I motioned the Zerg guardians in the air to lend air support to the Zerglings and large Hydralisks on the ground. The Guardians started getting attacked, so I mentally signaled the Mutalisks and kamikaze scrounges to help out, as well as the hydras to spit their needles at the attackers.
"Wow, you're a quick learner," Kerrigan said, sounding slightly amazed. Yeah, came with the practice. In no time flat the Zerg forces were starting to pound out the aliens due to my influence with their tactics. Knowing Zerg offences and weaknesses were a plus at that point. Soon the aliens were for the most part, dead, and it had saved me a great deal of ki power. I thought up an idea and thought it a few times so Kerrigan got the drift. I suspect that big ugly is responsible for my power suddenly vanishing along with the sudden Zerg tissue growth. Well, I think I now know a way to keep my Psi power higher than big ugly will allow, and keep myself from being you know what. Kerrigan nodded ever so slightly.
A/N: Another new ability which I will call Spiritual Vision. Sort of like a sixth sense, but I'd say Verto is up to like eight or nine senses now, consider this another one when he gets in a bind.
Next time on DBV: The war for Char continues as Verto easily shreds the legions of aliens with his energy attacks. As the eclipse comes to an end, a larger alien emerges from the mountains and is completely immune to light. Verto fights against this beast and is beaten around badly. The Zerg nearby are also ineffective against this monster. Injured and exhausted, can Verto summon the power needed to slay this monster? Tune in next time!