Chapter 2: Mission Impossible
High orbit above abandoned world of Chau Sara
The Valkyrie-class missile frigate Bloodwrath descended slowly into the ashen world of Chau Sara. Five Gryphon thrusters on the ship's back quieted as the three-man crew brought the two boosters on-line, slowing the rapid, dangerous descent towards the barren world.
Inside, two UED Infiltraitor agents sat, their faces bogged down with deforming contraptions of humanity's technology, looking at the various screens and controls with recognition.
"No bogies in sight," the main pilot said. Colonel Marco Fernandez, one of the Ghosts, smiled sadly, shouldering his standard C-10 canister rifle. His sad smile was twisted into a defiant smirk by his headgear, with one eye hidden under a device.
The UED Expeditionary Fleet under Admiral Gerald DuGalle was not completely destroyed, unlike what most of the factionous governments of the Koprulu Sector thought. Before and during the UED invasion, the Earth Military Intelligence Center, (EMIC), had inserted agents across the worlds, to mingle and learn more about the capabilities and colonists of the Sector. They also gathered intelligence on the Protoss and Zerg.
The agents, known as "Infiltraitors," or just 'traitors because of their ability to carry out successful sabotage missions, were trained to work as normal, ordinary people, as well as dynamic politicians and leaders within the Sector. They were servants, scientists, mercenaries, soldiers, senators of the Confederacy, and so on. Many were executed when the UED invaded, by moles placed by the governments of Koprulu, but many escaped. Together with the UED Occupying Forces spread along the system, they survived, grouping together and waiting for Earth to come back, and finish the job. The UED Remnant's job now was intelligence gathering and sabotage; which was why Fernandez and the other Ghost were sent to Chau Sara.
Lieutenant Min Verdi sat next to Fernandez, her black hair contrasting sharply with her Caucasian features. She 'powered up,' a Ghost term for embracing their inner psionic power to get a boost of energy. She felt a rush of energy surge into her muscles, like a stim, though not physically damaging as one.
"Everyone with a restraint on?" Zhukov asked over the intercom.
"That's a roge, Captain. How long until drop?"
"About fifteen minutes, Colonel. Enjoy the ride while you can."
Zhukov would drop them on the Zerg infested world, lifeless of humans. The Protoss did a good job of incinerating everything, for cities were in smoldering ruins and life was almost terminated. A few managed to scrap a small living there, but most humans died. Or so it was thought, Fernandez wondered.
Intel from the remains of EMIC in the world of Brontes had briefed the two Ghosts of a strange occurrence on Chau: only a few days ago, a Wraith patrol found evidence and ships heading towards Chau that someone was living there. Though rumors were rampant that the Confederate Remnant infested worlds previously thought to be unlivable courtesy of Protoss and Zerg, Chau Sara was incinerated so nothing except Zerg and critters could live. Human activity on a dead world was very interesting to the UED.
"And," General George Burlington said, as he pointed to a map of Chau, "what better place to hide than on a Zerg-infested world that no one lives on? If people are going there, they are certainly hiding something or someone. I want you two to find out what."
Verdi sighed, as she intricately wrapped her long hair into a topknot so it wouldn't get in the way. I've got a bad feeling about this...
"C-10?"
"Check."
"Ammo?"
"Check."
"Sensors and mini-cam?"
"Check."
"Comms. device?"
"Check, Lieutenant. Relax Min, it's just a recon mission. We'll be out of there in no time, and you're scheduled to head back to Earth in a few weeks, when the next fleet arrives." They had recent a report by UED Remnant High Command that a smaller fleet would be coming from Earth via jump gate to secretly reinforce the UED forces.
She smiled. "That's what's worrying me. I'm not sure if I want to go back."
Fernandez smiled back. Young and eager to be the best in her job, he thought, surveying her lovely face. Not bad looking either.
"Son of a bitch!"
Fernandez immediately realized he had kept his thoughts unshielded, so that the other psychic Ghost could read his thoughts. "What? I didn't..."
But Zhukov had uttered the words. Verdi looked through the cockpit, to see two red dots on the HUD. Missiles.
"Two missiles from Chau locking on us when we entered atmosphere. Whoever's here really doesn't want to be visited." The pilot managed a weak smile, and then her eyes widened. "Brace for impact!"
The first missile struck the tail of the frigate, blasting it away from the mainframe. The second scored a direct hit, right into the boosters underneath the ship. The Bloodwrath tumbled into the demonic, arid world.
New Providence, Umojan Protectorate Capital
Umojan Military Intelligence Ghost Training Center
Lieutenant Jakk Jayce hesitated as he looked at the bomb, inside the dark room. His psionic intuition was telling him not to try to defuse it. The timer, marked by a red LED light displayed another fifty seconds until the bomb exploded. I have to, Jayce thought, arguing with himself. It'll blow me up if I don't.
Not if you run, his intuition shot back.
The Ghost commando ignored his psionic sense. Which wire. Red, blue, or yellow? His wire cutter moved towards the red. 30 seconds to detonation. White, his intuition said.
Are you ready, Jayce? They are coming soon. A Protoss Templar, hovering above him, looked mildly interested at the device, but then scanned the doors.
"Hold on a sec, Aragas."
We do not have a 'sec.'
Jayce decided the yellow was the best to cut. I never liked the color yellow anyways...oh shit.
Immediately the timer showed zero seconds. Detonation. Jayce closed his eyes.
Lights turned on. A woman, graying, but with a hawk like expression and sharp eyes showing none of her fifty-eight years of age, stepped into the room with a sigh, slamming the door behind her.
Another day training to be a Ghost; or, at least, the vision of what she wants every Ghost to be: her. Jayce thought, mentally letting out a long sigh.
"That's the fifth time, J.J."
"Yes ma'am."
"You-" she pointed a long index finger at his chest armor. "-are a part of an elite, counter-terrorist, counterinsurgency team dedicated in removing terrorists with a head shot. But why the hell can't you even defuse a bomb?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Don't 'yes ma'am' me Jakk. If you die out there, it's not my goddamn-"
"Alise."
"Yes, Commander McAllen?"
"Leave the boy alone."
A man, only a few years older than Jayce but aging at a pace faster than a Wraith could fly walked into the room, carrying a manila folder. Oddly, his graying hair matched in well with his sharp, emaciated features, strands of graying hair muffling his eyes under those thick spectacles. Was this really the man who had successfully initiated the drive to eradicate the Overmind and its Cerebrates from Aiur?
"How's it going, Jakk?"
"Fine, commander. Doing just fine," Jayce said, frowning. I've been in this damn Ghost program five years and all that old granny can do is curse me to pieces.
"You ready for a mission as part of the new team?"
Jayce nodded, crossing his arms.
"This-" he thrusted the folder to Jayce, "-is your first mission for CHIMAERA."
"Yessir."
"Ethan, help me knock some other words into this boy. The only things he can say are 'yes ma'am' and 'yessir.'"
"I can't make him do anything. He's a Ghost. He can do whatever the hell he feels like now." McAllen smiled slowly, revealing more wrinkles in his face than Jayce cared to see. God, I hope my psionic powers don't make me age that fast.
"What's the plan?" Alise Cameron asked. Jayce looked back at her. A legend of the Umojan Intelligence Services.
She was the first female Umojan Ghost to graduate from the rigorous training program all military agents went through; but she had further increased her celebrity-like status in the military when she infiltrated a Confederacy base once thought to be impenetrable and learned about the Zerg. It was Cameron who had advocated for a defense build-up against a Zerg invasion. That defense spending also went into good use when the UED invaded Umoja and was pushed back with heavy losses, making the Protectorate's planet one of the few remaining worlds outside of Earth, Protoss, or Zerg control. Now retired, she thought she could make her nephew as legendary as her.
Only thing she's forgot about me is that I'm a guy, not a girl. Jayce mentally sighed, and opened the manila folder.
"You're kidding," he said as he finished reading. McAllen smiled.
"I'm too old to kid, Jakk."
"Get into Chau Sara? You're crazy. Chau Sara has been home to Zerg since the beginning, when they invaded. Infiltrating it will be suicidal!"
McAllen frowned, looking at Cameron. "Tell him."
She sighed, and crossed her arms. "You know why Chimaera was formed, Jakk? You know why you were suddenly picked out of the dozens of Ghosts worked for Intel and chosen to lead this group?"
"Of course not. Every time I try to ask, all you do is tell me to shut my fat mouth." His aunt ignored him.
"A few months ago, we noticed a strange, new black market for various nuclear equipment and psionic emitters springing up all over Koprulu. Things like plutonium, uranium, and nuclear fission reactors previously used by the Feds were being stripped out of their facilities and sold. And there was only one buyer." She looked at her nephew
"You know who I'm talking about."
Jayce nodded. "Kliven Strom."
"Right. Strom has been buying everything that he needs to make large, tactical nukes that the Feds launched on Korhal. And Intelligence, once they've found out, wondered: Why? What good would having nukes be if Zerg only mutated to nasty new creations when you nuked them? Why try to find the pieces of the second Ion Cannon if the only good it's going to do is wipe out a starfleet that you might need against a Zerg incursion?" Cameron paused, looking at her nephew with a deadpan expression.
"We didn't find out until Strom and his men broke into our own nuclear storehouse and stole everything we had."
"You do now?"
"Yes. He wants, first of all, every superweapon ever made in the entire galaxy. He's collecting them like holocards: nukes from our store, Kel-Moria Combine, and Remnants of the Feds, as well as Dominion stores. The Ion Cannon parts from various Zerg infested planets, and," Cameron sighed, "a biological weapon the Feds developed in the early stages of the Zerg invasion."
Jayce, for the first time, hardened, and twitched. What the hell could a disease do?
Cameron read her nephew's mind.
"Back when the Zerg first started encroaching the outskirts of Confed space, the Feds found out about these...Zerg, and started to experiment with the ones that were captured. Most experiments were done by the military intelligence arm of the Confeds, the Nova Squadron. Now, this way before the Zerg actively scouted Koprulu. This was only half a decade after the Guild Wars, when the Feds were reaching the pinnacle of their power. So this virus isn't old. In fact, it's pretty old; Mengsk's former partner, Cal Luke, was assassinated using this stuff."
She paused, reflecting over her data.
"'Anyways, one of Nova's experiments lead to an interesting discovery: Zerg have a nasty reaction to a biological weapon the Feds were developing called Pandora. The virus-based weapon was first designed to kill political targets unsuspectingly, but Hauler, the former commander of Nova Squadron, found out that Pandora kills Zerg too: rapidly spreading quickly through broods of Zerg, attacking their immune system, and metabolizing their bodies until they were dead. Then the virus looks for a new host, especially if it's Zerg." She paused again, handing her nephew pictures.
"These are fairly new pictures of what Zerg look like after they've been attacked by the virus."
Jayce held back the urge to vomit. He felt sorry for the Hydralisk...almost. Though of bad quality, the pictures clearly outlined the shape of Hydra: long, slithery tale, twisted human-like skull, two distinctive scythes. But that was it: it was only an outline, the bare essentials of something that was once alive. The rest was eaten away, consumed until all that was left was a skeletal outline of a creature.
"Jesus." Jayce turned to his aunt. "Why the hell aren't we letting this terrorist do this?"
Cameron smiled grimly. "Though the Feds found the Zerg and experimented with this virus on them long before other intel agencies knew what was going on, they were forced to develop another version of Pandora. After the Sons of Korhal gained too much influence over the Sector, after the Protoss incinerated Chau and Mar Sara, Pandora was modified to be a weapons of mass destructions against all alien invaders, Zerg and Protoss alike, as well as fellow human beings."
At the word "Protoss," Aragas shifted slightly in his robe.
Are you sure of this, commander?
Cameron, hiding her surprise at the silent Protoss still in the room, nodded. "The honored Zeratul has told of me that though looking vastly dissimilar, the Zerg and Protoss were made by one alien species, who implanted to genetic fundamentals in both species. This Pandora evidently does something to metabolize both Protoss, Zerg, and Terran since they have similar structures. We are all highly-developed creatures, and this virus finds some way to attacks all of us."
Aragas nodded. So it is.
Cameron turned back to Jayce. "So the Feds, knowing it was do-or-die for their government, made a massive store of Pandora at a secret facility at Dylar XI, far from any terrorist or Zerg activities. They were about to activate it when their plans were terminated by an uprising on that planet. Are you getting this?"
Jayce nodded, not believing what he was hearing. A biological weapon used to wipe out everything...
"Wait, why would Strom want to wipe out Zerg, Protoss, and Terran? And if he has this, why hasn't he activated it yet?"
Cameron gave a small smile. "Good questions. Kliven-" she sighed once before continuing "-basically wants to start his own master race by eliminating everyone without psionic potential from the universe and starting life again with 'purebred' human race of highly developed psionic intellect. There's only about a hundred other of these madmen that agree with him."
"Eliminate everyone." Jayce repeated, blankly.
"Yes."
"And you want me to stop it."
"Not at the moment. Jakk, I haven't answered your other question yet."
"Why hasn't he activated it?"
"Because he needs to metabolize the virus itself. It's the only way to make it work and kill everything. And the only way he can do that is through a hybrid of Zerg/Terran, Terran/Protoss, or Protoss/Zerg...thing. Early on, Nova Squadron had the resources to successfully capture and use an Infested Terran without making it blow up. We believe they left quite a bit of this 'hybrid metabolizer' around, but Hauler was smart enough to realize its potential and destroyed it. There's still plenty of unactivated Pandora virus around; Strom's been collecting it but he only needs a metabolizer. Now, only infested Terrans have been made...yet... and the only infested Terrans that don't automatically blow themselves up are Sarah Kerrigan and Samir Duran. Duran vanished, so only Kerrigan is left."
Jayce's mind whirled. "Are you saying that he's going to get Kerrigan's blood or something?"
McAllen, from the back of the room, nodded. "Yep."
"So he's got to kidnap the thing that's keep at least half of the Protoss and Human races in terror, while the other half is dead or maimed?"
McAllen nodded again, with an irony that this wasn't any concern...to anyone that didn't live in the universe. "Believe me, commander, he probably can. With a few other Ghosts. These were fresh students, eager and well trained, out of Tarsonian Military Academy. They're fascist about creating a 'pure' world, free of Zerg and Protoss, free of human trash. No one without psionic potential should even been living, because they're not developing the evolutionary process of humanity." Cameron nodded slowly. "They've got a shot at capturing Kerrigan.
"And you want me..." Jayce closed his eyes before saying, "...to protect Kerrigan?"
McAllen and Cameron both nodded and shook their heads. "Not at first. We don't know how much time we have before Strom will do it. He's collecting other superweapons first. No, we're sending you to Chau Sara for a different reason: his base is located there. You will infiltrate it and find any information you can concerning anything about this group he's gathering, and why the hell he wants to play God for."
Am I involved in any of this activity, Commander Cameron?
Jayce whirled around, looking at the slim but huge form of the Protoss. Even with his size, it was easy to lose the Templar if he stood so still and breathed so quietly. Not that Protoss had noses, Jayce reminded himself.
His aunt nodded. "We hope you will be going with J.J, Ambassador Aragas. If you wish."
Aragas nodded. I wish it so.
Cameron nodded. "Jayce, we're also giving you a nice vehicle we put together specially for this mission."
"Let's boogy then."
For the boss of the Chimaera Counterinsurgency Team, the fun was beginning.