Chapter 4: In Need of a Friend
Chau Sara
"What do you feel, Aragas?"
A psionic presence weakening about three klicks north of us, Commander.
J.J. sighed. He was afraid Aragas would feel the same weak, small presence, but it was strong enough to launch a cry of help and appeal into Jayce's mind. A trap? Probably.
"You want to go?"
I am not the Centurion leading this mission, Lieutenant Jayce. You are.
The Ghost turned his back against the Protoss, in the cramped VSV, and powered up the hovercycles on the bike.
"Let's go."
Aragas provided the post of a sentry as they traveled to the signal point, and Jakk's mind wandered, looking at the desolate and ruined Sarian landscape. Zerg and some radical terrorist faction were the only things left; the rest was a whirlwind of memories, only real because of the skeletons of cities and humans that roamed the plain. The badlands were deaf to the troubles, gently sloping hills unspoiled even by the decimation of Protoss and Zerg. It was a land only for stoics and ghosts, those untroubled by the death and pathetic nature of humanity on the planet.
As Jayce's eyes blurred into focus, Aragas had already answered his question as he spied the black structure straight ahead. A ship, the Protoss said, as a heightened sense of curiosity mixing with readiness for their mission encompassed the Protoss.
"Crashed. UED markings, a Valkyrie-class frigate. Looks fairly new because of the smoke. Want to go investigate?"
Of course, lieutenant.
The bike hummed again, repulsors, glowing light blue, lifted the bike a half a meter off the rough Sarian terrain. With one hand steering the bike, Jayce grabbed the MECH-OP lens from a pocket under the seat of the bike, snapping it on his right eye. Colors and objects changed into a weird array of colors, with the cold metal shaded a tint of blue, while things giving heat produced a light orange. Useful little gadgets Intelligence gave us.
He was right: it was a new wreak, with smoke billowing out of it and a light, weakening heat signatures inside. Either an engine or a person slowly dying.
"Someone might be alive still," he murmured, almost to himself. They reached the ship in due haste, awed by the massive wreck. Though only holding a crew of five, the Valkyrie-class missile frigate held enough AS-9 Halo missiles to cripple a flight of Mutalisks or smash holes in a battlecruiser. The ship, nose crumpled by impact, billowing black smoke, was a black, injured animal on the flat, landscape, voracious with Zerg.
Jayce got off, bike hovering in the air as he jumped off, cocking his 9mm pistol. Humans could be alive, but the possibility of the humans being feasted on by Zerg held a pit of sickness in the Ghost's stomach.
"Cover me, ok? The psionic signals coming from inside could be a sham for ambush."
Or for capture. Our mission's objectives might lie inside, Aragas responded, as he cloaked.
Jayce nodded, and powered himself for the jump to the gaping hole on the ship's side. Closing his eyes, a surge of unnatural energy overcame him, as he jumped twice as high as a normal man could do, neatly and silently landing by the hole, fragments of metal and electronic intestines waving wildly around. A red light appeared as the Agent peered into the abyss. A woman's slim body, and the decomposing remains of another body caught his eye. Jesus, that girl is still alive...
He jumped down, careful not the rock the precarious position of the ship anymore than needed. The insides stunk with the gross reminder that humans were as organic and susceptible to the conditions as anyone. But the young lady, a Ghost, Jayce noted with a small surprise, breathed shallowly, as he felt her weak pulse. Her struggle to get out was complicated that one leg was caught between the ribs of the ship.
She was a Ghost, Jayce noted, and she could still be dangerous. Before he could do any attempt to disarm her, one of her hands came up, a pistol suddenly pointed to his head. Weakly, and with obvious pain, she uttered a curse:
"Fuck you."
Jayce could have disarmed her easily, but Aragas was quicker. A hand came up, invisible, to snatch away the gun, and another came to the throat of the Agent, as she let out of small gasp and fainted. The Dark Templar's blades came dangerously close to the woman's throat.
"Aragas! Be careful. She might be useful," Jayce said. Even though she was weak and famished, the unconscious girl was not bad looking. "Let's get her out of her. A UED agent might be useful for intelligence." Not to mention as a fine date once she realized I saved her life.
Aragas nodded, and poked his head out of his ship. But he didn't get out. Instead, his head ducked inside the interior of the ship, and he looked at Jayce with the utmost sincerity and innocence. We cannot get out.
"Why not?" Jayce asked, jumping to see the outside for himself. As he did, he caught the slightest glimmer of a creature burrowing outside. Once burrowed, a long patch of earth erupted violently out of the ground, with spikes protruding from out to the Vulture bike. Spike after spike rammed into the metal skin of the hovercycle that was hovering only a few inches off the terrain, puncturing the soft metal and making a useless fragment out of the machine.
"Shit," Jayce muttered. The rescuers had become the marooned.