Chapter Nine: Apocalypse Now
"At my signal, unleash hell."
General Maximus, Gladiator
Protoss Task Force, entering road to Overmind
Above, the Observer watched with interest at the mass of Zealots and armor entering the one of the two canyons that began at the Protoss base. Thousands of Zealots in golden armor, highlighted with red, green, and blue tips, moved as rain splattered on their bodies.
A thousand paces lead the armored, deadly snake of Protoss into ridges encrusted with Zerg defenses, on either side of them. Zerg bristled, almost jeering at the Firstborn to come and fight.
A large group of Reavers, caterpillar-like robots, shot balls of energy simultaneously. Instantly, the Scarabs formed into one, rolling itself onto the steep walls of the canyon and up. Detecting the Zerg on the top, the Scarab broke, releasing a torrent of expanding energy into the fray. Zerg flesh became atoms, and atoms lingered in the moisture soaked air for a millisecond before they split into molecules, and molecules disappear into nothingness. Hydralisks snug in their burrows vanish, and Sunken colonies meant for ambushing unsuspecting warriors evaporate as the armored snake moves slowly to the next targets.
Zealots rush forward, intent on their next targets, slowly moving towards the Overmind. Scouts, Arbiters, and carriers blasted at more Zerg positions above, as Zerglings cringed inside their burrows. Slowly, the Protoss rage and fury came a step closer to the nemesis. Rain and blood splattered the ground.
Losses of valuable equipment weakened the allied forces, though it did not hinder the planned operation. Terran forces, ambushed by thousands of Zerglings emerging from the underground, lost a large portion of siege tank shells, used for breaking up massed enemy attacks. Dozens of starfighters, mainly the C/F-17H Wraith and A-3 Gravedigger were broken beyond repair by Zerg claws. Two Behemoth-class battlecruisers were damaged badly as well, no longer ready for the call of duty as Zerglings mangled their crews. Even the Protoss, who were well aware of the danger of ambushes, were caught with their psi blades down as dozens of Reavers and armored exoskeleton Dragoon suits were mutilated beyond repair, giving Khalai workmen more duties.
Tassadar and Raynor, the respective supreme commanders of the allied camps, knew they could not wait any longer to end the siege of the Overmind. Already, broods in other Aiuran provinces were working hard battling Protoss forces. Loss of equipment was acceptable, even though the armories of the Protoss and Terran were already severely depleted.
As the Terran and Protoss armored columns, supported by their fleets, marched into the four roads, highways to the Overmind. They knew the dangers of being undersupported by armor. Nevertheless, companies like Zulu and Yankee marched into the battle.
At Terran designated road ALFA, some kilometers southwest of the Overmind
Spearheading an assault meant being the first to enter the road. At a signal, an armored convoy of marines, firebats, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and infantry support vehicles rumbled to life, entering the canyon-like path. Columns of lightly armored marines lead the way in blue coated CMC-300 suits, marching in the damp, wet Aiuran monsoon season.
Like the Protoss, the Terran armor encountered their first redoubt only a few hundred meters upon entering ALFA. And, like the Protoss, the defense of Spore and Sunken colonies were poorly defended by Hydralisks, and long range Zerg weapons were no where to be seen. The M-25 Arclite tanks dug in, lifting two massive "feet" on both sides of the tanks and ramming them securely in place in the moist Aiuran ground. A wave of shells, superheated and dense, were fired. Colonies became smoldering wreckage of Zerg waste, as the heat alone from the shells melted the hardened carapace of Zerg buildings. Hydralisks were unaware of a massive foray of tanks, APCs, and infantry bearing down, as the Overmind's fleets of flyers were being decimated by flotillas of Wraiths and battlecruisers.
Dozens of Hydralisks melted instantly in their burrows, in liquefied slogs of flesh when tanks, supported by a scanner sweep of a COMSAT station, found the hidden predators. Zerg who did respond to the defense of the colonies were mutilated by concentrations of high-density titanium bullets, fired from Zulu.
As the firefight subsided, companies of marines, followed by their supporting artillery, moved up the ramp, onto the plateau above, exiting ALFA path like a car does through an exit ramp when leaving a high speed highway. The commanding officer gave a thumbs up signal at Nacdle, who nodded, as he saw the man kick the carcass of a Hydralisk. Now if the rest of the ramps could be this easy, he thought.
Like arteries, smaller ramps that all lead to the Overmind's bastion-like plateau ran in mazes at the battleground. Tassadar and Raynor decided to capture each of the ramps, securing high ground, and using the troops to encircle the Overmind. The rest of the massive convoys would enter the four larger ramps that were the closes to the Zerg entity, effectively sealing off any hope of a breakthrough by Zerg. But the Overmind watched and waited, content on letting the ignorant Terran and fury driven Protoss get closer. For the hundreds of thousands of Protoss and Terran troops closing in, the Aiuran monsoon's refreshing rain would be the last peaceful thing they would feel before the storm set in.
Lieutenant Jones opened his visor, looking up, awed by the sight of dozens of starfighters and bombers flying overhead. Larger, slower shapes of battlecruisers and other capital ships trailed slowly, all heading for their sorties over the Overmind's main defenses on the plateau.
Wings of Mutalisks and Scourge came to meet the fleet, followed by a declining number of Overlords. Jones had chatted with Wraith pilots back at the camp, where they joked about something called "Overlord Hunting," which was essentially picking off the giant, bloated, brain shaped creatures one by one. But most of the Overlords today were clustered around the disappearing number of Hive clusters around the Overmind, seemingly waiting to do something.
As the two fleet battled only a few kilometers above and ahead of him, Jones watched, followed by his squadron of men. The ships and flyers were fighting just like the massive space battle during the Cerebrates attack, but the Terrans were not as overwhelmed as they were up there. But the ships and Zerg were a lot closer to home. Jones didn't like the idea that a flaming Wraith or broken Muta could streak down and ruin his day. And the thought of having an entire battlecruiser crash down on the slow convoy was even worse.
Damn Nacdle! We should've picked the option to ride on the APCs. A squadron of Rhydon Armored Personnel Carriers had been assigned to Zulu's men, but Nacdle, as company commander, turned the offer to ride in the clanky, clumsy vehicles, citing only that Zulu could run faster on foot leading the pack. Yeah, right, Jones thought, as he turned around, looking at the armored line of men and vehicles. They were probably dragging the whole army assigned to ALFA down. The honor of a company leading a whole task force into battle, like Zulu was, did not comfort Jones. For him, it was a death sentence: if Zerg attacked, they would attack the front, straight towards Zulu.
Further up the column, Nacdle smiled as his psionic mind picked up several derogatory mutters about him from Jones.
You'll find out why we aren't in the coffins on wheels soon, he thought, as he listened to a marine complain.
"It's like this, Captain," Corporal Deek Samson said, hoisting his gun. "The more we're walking and not taking any casualties from the bitches we're fighting, the more shitty I feel, cuz Zerg ain't nowhere to been seen, and we're just cranking their buildings into Zerg heaven. So the closer we get to the Zerg boss, the more my kidneys start to act up. Now, don't you think that the Zerg are gonna launch some massive assault on us once we get close enough? Cuz if they do, my pants are going to be springing leaks ten feet high. That's all I have to say about this whole goddamn mess."
"I've got your point, Corporal. But all you got to do is remember this," Nacdle said, pointing to the tanks. "Stay close to the armor. Watch them do the dirty work. See the fireworks from our ships? And once we get close enough to the Overmind, then we'll worry. And also, don't mess up, ok?" He turned closer to the young, recent recruit of Zulu. "Because if you do, we're all fucked. Remember that."
Tanks, seeing another infestation of Zerg by another minor ramp, dug their "feet" into the ground, to prevent the recoil of the massive shock cannon from blasting the tanks apart. Another wave of incoming shells decimated the colonies guarding the ridge. This time, Hydralisk unburrowed as a supporting Overlord coordinated the attack. Marines, walking on the side of the armor, tripped and fell as spikes poked through their armor. Then the Zerg warriors suddenly became topless, as Infantry Support Vehicles nicknamed "Goliaths" spewed rounds from their twin autocannons, separating torsos from tails. Hydralisk tails, like worms, wriggled their life out as the rain pounded above.
Teams of infantry, accompanied by armor, rumbled slowly onto and up the ramp, to the plateau. Another successful exit and ridge taken, as the encirclement of the Overmind was almost complete.
Jones breathed a sigh of relief as the convoy got smaller and but faster. Much of the infantry and armor were already setting up positions around each Hive cluster guarding the Zerg entity, securing more points with help of air support. Two more ramps awaited ALFA task force. One was the exit ramp Zulu would take to secure their designated position. The rest of the convoy would exit the main ramp.
And then what? Jones didn't know. The only thing he knew was that the Zerg were going to take a hell of a beating.
Protoss Task Force, traveling on road to the Overmind
To the Terran troops that had survived against the Protoss, they were known as "Zealots." Furious, deadly, and mighty, Zealots were feared as much as they were deadly. Their melee weapons, deadly psionic blades that could easily melt metal and carapace alike, were powered by only the Zealot's mind. If the Protoss psyche was ready to fight, they could channel the deadly blades from their imagination into reality, augmenting and decreasing the length of the blades that extended from their wrists.
Legions of these honor-bound, ferocious Templar were massing against the Overmind, streaming through ramps and two roads connecting the Protoss base to the plateau where the creature lay. And with them streamed a long road of their armor: Nas'tal Dragoon warriors, Reavers, and even High Templar who could channel the most arcane and lethal psionic powers.
Ramis, a Zealot of the Itas Legion, calmly used his melee blades to slice the abdominal of a Zergling open, as he converged up a ramp. Behind him, a Dragoon walker unsheathed a bolt of anti-particle energy, banishing a Hydralisk's existence from their homeworld. Below, in the canyon deep road, legions of Protoss, golden yellow armor contrasting with the dark days of the monsoon season, advanced upwards and forwards to other ramps, streaming as one long, deadly snake.
Ramis looked further up the ramp. Zerg structures were being wasted by a knot of Reavers, as Zealots provided escort by fighting the Zerg who were almost willingly wanting to die.
Are the Zerg getting soft? Ramis asked to a fellow warrior, almost incredulously, as he swept off the legs of another Zergling.
We must be getting better at this, Daki, a Nas'tal warrior Ramis was cooperatively working with said. His pale head enclosed in a liquidy solution swiveled, and he concentrated an anti-matter particle at the legless Zergling. Instantly, solid carapace was converted into atoms of carbon and nitrogen, as the Zerg was diminished into a pile of nothingness.
As he moved onto the ramp, Ramis looked at the wide plateau stretching for kilometers around; as Zerg and Protoss already on the plateau did battle. Ships, both of Protoss and Terran design, moved fluidly against Zerg counterparts, the hundreds of colonies that were covering the plateau's ground, which had consumed what nutrients the fertile soil had to give. Ramis narrowed his eyes as he saw Terran troops move up their respective ramps, already as close to the Zerg beast as Itas Legion was.
Those Terrans are advancing on the Overmind as fast as we are, Daki noted, looking at the siege tanks and troops guarding a ridge, on the opposite side of them. Separating the Protoss and the Terran was a wide expanse that made up the plateau; on it were pot holes where Terran bombers missed their marks, and the carcasses of Zerg structures and troops.
Terrans! They fight with weapons that mutilate the essence of life itself, shredding flesh as if it is a toy. They harbor no respect for life itself.
And you say we do, Ramis? Daki watched with Protoss amusement as Ramis neatly ended a life of a lone Zergling with a blow to the head.
Ramis didn't answer his question, but instead looked at the already darkened, rain-heavy sky, towards the Overmind's massive fortifications.
Look, Ramis said, pointing towards the Overmind itself. A cluster of dark clouds hovered above it, moving towards Itas Legion and the four canyon paths at a quickening pace.
Storm front moving in, Daki responded, though he noticed the doubt in his own thoughts. He swiveled his head around to get a better look at it.
No, Ramis said. His psionic message came like a hiss. Zerg. They have lured us in and are launching their own attack.
Above Zerg airspace
Captain Tommy Alexander led the 252nd "Black Flight" Wraith squadron. His squad were painted a pitch black, melting perfectly in with the dark horizons that hung over the battlefield. They were carrying out a sortie against the Zerg.
Their job was to protect the slow, lumbering "Gravedigger" aircraft, ugly, blunt nose things that carried heavy payloads of "Zerg Buster" ordinance under its massive wings.
Alexander's eyes narrowed as he looked through his cramped cockpit window. Another storm front was moving in rapidly. But his one seemed too fast, too sudden, materializing out of nowhere, and heading directly towards the Terran/Protoss assault.
"Black Prince, Black Prince, this is Bravo flight. You looking at those clouds, squad leader?"
"Roger, Bravo-oh-one. Ever seen anything like it?"
"No sir. I'm not much of a gambler, but I'd bet anything out friendly neighborhood Zerg just kinda got active again. Think our bombing woke them up?"
"Looks like it's so," Alexander muttered. He flicked his weapons to life.
"Alright, Black Flight. Time to par-tay. Lock your missiles on the Zerg coming this way and charge up those lasers."
The clouds moved faster towards them. Up ahead, Bravo flight dropped their payloads of "Buster" bombs, blasting another string of undefended, helpless Zerg defenses, only a few hundred meters away from the Overmind's final fortifications.
The clouds moved past the ships, Hundreds of dark shapes, without wings, floated with the space surrounding them, not sparing a glance to the menacing starfighters with hook-tipped missiles. Communications between the Wraiths broke down into vulgarities:
"Holy shit, what the hell are those things?"
"What the hell?"
"Mother of god!"
It was Alexander who realized that the new type of Zerg flyers, small, fast, fleshy organisms that had tusks sprouting out of their mouths, weren't trying to kill him or his flight. They were all heading straight towards the ground troops.
"Lead, have we ever been briefed on these things?"
For a second, the Black Flight Leader was speechless. Then he targeted a missile at one heading towards him.
"Yep. They're called Zerg." He triggered his missile.
The streak of the Gemini missile was too fast for the naked eye to catch, but the Zerg flyer was even faster. From its mouth, the thing vomited a green, liquidy goop. The missile halted suddenly, hanging in the air for a millisecond before plunging to the ground in a steep dive.
The cloud of strange, new Zerg moved forward, sending a wave of panic through Black Flight.
Near the Overmind, low orbit
Aboard the bridge of an Aerosmith-class assault cruiser, the captain of the ship watched with nervous satisfaction as forward batteries blew away large chunks of grotesque flesh from the head of a Spore colony.
Similar to Bravo flight, the cruiser's job was to clear out any random colonies still left on the Overmind's plateau that a stream of Protoss and Terran troops were entering. Infantry and armor blundering into some stray Sunken colony or wasting time on killing a Spore colony was something command didn't want its troops to deal with, so several ships were assigned the task of clearing out anything the bombing runs missed.
The captain, as he looked around in the bridge, noticed his crew was dead tired; they had been destroying Zerg for a few hours now, and had used up almost all of their rationed ordinance. He frowned as he looked at the navigation officer looking at something. The man was looking at something on his screen, perplexed.
"What's wrong, lieutenant?"
"Bogies sir. Hundreds of them, heading towards ALFA and BETA ramps, as well as Protoss troops. They should be passing into our point of view now."
The commanding officer turned around, watching as groups of Overlords hovering past his light, spindly ship. The captain's frown deepened. Overlords hadn't shown any kind of activity since the fireworks started going off; they were content with cowering near the Overmind or directing failing resistance at the snakes of Protoss and Terran troops. The jellyfish shaped creatures usually jammed signals and communications in groups of ten, but these clustered in groups of fifty, so they weren't being the pesky things they looked like.
A single shot would kill four of five of them, since they were clustered so closely, and the captain was tempted to score more kills. He thought better of it, knowing his payload of missiles was depleted, as well as the energy used to power laser batteries.
"Looks like that group of 'Queens' we passed a few minutes ago weren't the only thing the Zerg are sending," the navigations officer said, with a bit of a grin. "The Zerg are so defeated their sending their noncombatants into battle!"
A science vessel team had identified the tusked, black cloud of creatures for the ship, but the commanding officer shook his head when the captain asked what they could do. The captain was perplexed. What the hell were the Zerg doing?
The Overlords passed the ship.
The captain did not realize the danger of it; he had been on duty too long. In fact, much of the Protoss/Terran forces had been lured into a serenity they could not feel, as they plundered deep into the Zerg territory, easily slaughtering any defending Zerg with light casualties. The Overmind knew this, knew that the Protoss, with their unquenching fury and their Terran allies would penetrate deep into his dominion. But he held his troops back, luring the allies into a huge trap that was starting to form. Overhead Aiur, the storm grew in ferocity.
At AFLA Road, approaching exit ramp for Zulu
The gunner of a M-21 Rhydon Armored Personnel Carrier knew something was awry when he heard the unmistakable sound of hard flesh hit the flat-topped APC. He got up from his seat behind the driver, slowly unscrewing the hatch on top of the vehicle, and poked his head for a look.
A moment later, he fell back, headless. A marine, sitting in the back, vomited. The driver screamed as a head of a Hydralisk poked into the vehicle from the hatch, a sickle-arm clutching the APC's side. The other sickle smashed its way into the APC, easily carving the steel and titanium armor. Marines fired their guns, in a panic, at the Hydralisk and the driver. Zerg and human flesh became intermixed; the ammunition the gunner carelessly placed inside the vehicle exploded.
Outside, Nacdle watched the APC explode, taking the eight marines, driver, and Hydralisk in an inferno of flowery, blooming fire, balls of heat igniting fuel and shells. The long snake of men and vehicles hissed to a stop. Zerg emerged from the path forward of the troops, as well as the top ridges, high above the Terran. From underneath tanks and armored vehicles, more Hydralisk appeared, unburrowing, only to see that the Terran vehicles were above them. Even this didn't deter the Zerg. Raising their arms, they sliced through the bottom of the tanks, spilling mechanical organs and fuel out.
Inside another APC, marines were screaming as a razor sickle sliced through metal and flesh underneath their vehicle, unmindful of the blood flowing out of a stump of a marine's foot.
Infantry scrambled out of Zerg-infested APCs, shouting for siege tanks to give them supporting fire. A tank commander, receiving a wave of calls for support fire, curses, and shouts of dying men, panicked, already under increasing pressure. He ordered his gunner to fire straight at an APC, as Hydralisks rampaged inside. Marines, too close to the vehicle, shrieked unhumanly, clutching their unprotected faces as skin blistered off due to the super-heated air from the blast.
Nacdle ducked at a blow aimed to separate his head from the rest of his body. His light armor saved him, as he flexed away from the blow by the Hydra. He backed away, firing a grenade. The Hydralisk caught it in its mouth, as marines behind Nacdle fired a salvo of spikes. Meaty chunks of flesh exploded from the Zerg creature, as Nacdle watched grimly at the rest of the task force dying under the sudden wave of Zerg. He knew the game the Overmind played with them was up. Any discipline and cohesion that the Terran troops could muster was rapidly being vaporized by a well-executed Zerg attack. A surge of sudden battle fatigue overwhelmed the captain, as he put his hand painfully on his helmet, trying to stop his head from exploding. He fought it down, using his psionic energy to give him a boost of energy. Won't have to keep my secret for long anymore...he thought, looks like my end's coming.
The Zerg were indeed perfectionists in psychological and physical warfare. The carnage and the devilry of the Zerg made men whimper, and the slaughter and mutilation made it worse. As Nacdle looked on, Terran and Zerg forces mixed in flesh and blood, as gallons of crimson blood was stirred with light red Zerg blood. Men were screaming, officers screamed and shot at their own troops to control them, and tanks fired too closely, incinerating Terran and Zerg alike. It was what Terran and Protoss commanders feared most: a total breakdown and loss of cohesion and control through a strong, surprising, and deadly Zerg counterattack.
Nacdle gritted his teeth. The Zerg were bastards, alright, and they needed more lead in their systems to calm them down. The captain began to shout an order, but his psionic sense tingled with sudden alarm. He turned around, his back to the canyon's massive walls now, and looked up: there, hovering and looking at the carnage at glee were flyers, their mouths secreting juices and chemicals. Nacdle had only seen them once before, in a briefing before he arrived at Umoja: Queens.
They struck.
The Queens targeted the men below, emitting a projectile at tanks, APCs, and Goliaths below. Like a scene from the pits of hell, the projectiles enveloped the host to form cocoons, each sprouting a mouth. Mouths ate through Terran armor, fuel, plastic, and flesh, metabolizing anything and everything in its way. As soon the Terran thing infected was devoured, the cocoon burst along the seams, the Terran metal and flesh fueling growth for two Broodlings that spawned out of the hellish scene. Tanks became two massive Broodlings, as marines screamed, yelled profanities, and loosed a maddening salvo of gunfire upon enemy and allies.
Nacdle had a hard time controlling his men, as some were being encroached upon on all sides by dozens of Broodlings. He looked up again, wanting to vent his rage at the Queens and Terran ships that were supposed to be providing desperately needed air support. Where are they! Surprisingly, none were left. In their wake was dozens of hovering Overlords. Overlords...oh shit.
At BETA Road, approaching final ramp to the Overmind
ALFA task force was not the only one caught in the trap of the Overmind. Protoss were battling furiously to repel an underground Zerg assault, as most of the Terran/Protoss fleet was being beset on all sides by the fortifications the Overmind massed along its inner ring of defenses, less than five hundred meters away from the beast itself. As cries for help by Protoss and Terran troops came over the intercom, ships were racing back to the overwhelmed troops inside the four canyon paths.
"Bloodfest" was the motto of the 241st Infantry Support Battalion, a squad of Goliaths that provided the extra punch for marines and firebats. The massive M-28A3 Goliath walkers helped provide the cover for infantry, and it could operate in groups efficiently. Efficient as they were, no one was prepared to provide support to infected Goliath walkers, as they were being metabolized. Caught without warning, large groups of Queens descended down on the unwary Terran armory and troops, making Broodlings out of smoldering remains of armor and men.
"Flash", a call name for one of the Goliaths, watched in a wide-eyed horror as one of his lead Goliaths was encrusted by a projectile, which preceded to eat the machine and human controlling it bit by bit. It exploded, hatching two Broodlings in its wake.
From the skies above, a large group of overly bloated Overlords, almost pregnant with their loads, descended on the Terran army. Like giant dropships, they opened their stomachs, dropping down Zerg warriors wrapped in a gelatinous bubble. The Goliath pilot looked at them with horror and curiosity as a thousand rifles went up, blurring bullets into the massive bubbles. In some of the sphere, oddly deformed shapes of Zerglings could be seen, features disfigured by the liquidy insides of the bubbles. In other giant spheres though, massive, elephantine like shapes were writhing with battle anxiety. The Goliath pilot suddenly realized the importance of killing the airborne Zerg before they were on the ground. He lifted his autocannons up, and stared as the Zerg started to land. Too late!
Like giant, biological bombs, the bubbles exploded, sending a mass of sticky, white, jelly-like fluid out, sticking on marines' armor, preventing them from moving their guns, and their feet, useful when fleeing for their lives. "Flash" watched as the Zergling that "hatched" out of the bubble preceded to maul ten marines to death as their guns hung uselessly at their sides, stuck in gelatinous material. The M-28 captain also realized that his death was not far, but at least he would see his own killer. The autocannons, pointing rigidly to the sky filled with Overlords and Queens, were no help at the massive elephant creature rampaging towards the Goliath. Beady eyes pointed out at the Goliath pilot, as he closed his own eyes.
ALFA and BETA roads were awash with the blood of humanity.
Antioch Province, Aiur, outside the main Protoss Praetorian Guards Legion
Like a signal, the Guardian's last lob of acid smashed the Khaydarin Crystal Pylon powering the photon cannons. The image was frozen in time, as the automated defenses stopped firing at the incoming Zerg, and as they inundated the fallen Protoss defenses, running past Zealots in red armor, dead not from a Hydra's needle spine or a Zerglings voracious claws, but from exhaustion. For more than a hundred hours a Zerg Cerebrate and Brood, upon a desperate message from the Overmind, pounded away at the weakening Guards' Defenses in the Antioch sector of Aiur, a few hundred kilometers away the Zerg entity. The Praetorian Guards Centurion, foolish enough to think at an already weakened Legion could hold back against a full might of a Zerg Brood, had issued to call for reinforcements, when the Zerg pressed their onslaught. Too late.
Even when reinforcements were called, none were available, now it was too late. Zerglings, faster than their Hydralisk and Ultralisk cousins, ran with the full host of the Brood, loaded in hundreds of Overlords, heading straight towards the massive battlefield centered around the Overmind. Another nasty surprise was about to await Raynor and Tassadar as they rallied their troops.
Overmind's Plateau, Itas Legion
Ramis heard the unmistakable sound of rumbling. What the sound meant did not worry him; he had plenty of experience fighting Zerglings. It was where the sound was coming from: from the back of the Templar armies on the plateau, from the original starting point the Protoss host had departed. Now two forces of Zerg were coming at the warriors on the plateau: from the north, where the Overmind lay, and from the south, where a massive deluge of yellow colored Zerg were advancing.
May the Gods preserve us, Ramis murmured psionically to his fellow Zealots, how could they have done this?
Let us not worry about that premonition now, one of the other Zealots thought to Ramis. Look, Terran warriors are coming to greet us. He pointed to the west, where heavily armored firebats with plasma-based fuelpacs on their backs jogging towards the Zealots. The commander spoke up.
"Alright, looks like we're all in this together now, boys," squadron commander Hancock said, lifting up his visor and greeting the Zealots in the only Protossian he knew. "En taro Adun."
The Zealots nodded back. Are you prepared for this attack, human commander? Ramis thought. Hancock nodded, and spoke back to the Zealot even though it appeared all was silent between the two races as they stood there, battle raging. "Most of the Terran troops that had made it up on this here plateau have moved into easily defensible positions, like those bomb craters." Hancock pointed at the craters made by the Gravedigger bombers. Terran marines were already safely snuggled into some of them, blasting at Zerg.
Do you expect us to cower in those holes?
"If you want to survive for any extended amount of time."
Ramis hesitated, but realized the Terran's wisdom. The slaughter of more Protoss would not help inhibit the Zerg advance.
Lead on.
Hancock had the strangest feeling of deja-vu as he led his men and Protoss troops to craters. He was going to be holed up again.
Aboard the command ship-carrier Gantrithor
The Executor of the Allied Forces watched solemnly as the Zerg turned out its final, cunning attack against his people and his friends. Protoss forces had met similar fates when the Terrans had been ambushed by Queens and Overlord dropping troops. Instead of a mass aerial assault, the Protoss blundered into a huge wall of Zerg. The Overmind had practically threw every expendable Zerg into battle against them, surprising and driving back the Protoss. Only in sacrificing their lives had the Protoss stemmed the advanced.
Sacrifice...why didn't I think of it before? Tassadar wondered, almost awed by his own stupidity and shortsightedness. The Protoss and Terran troops had been already sacrificing too much as they fought against this burgeoning terror spreading through the galaxies, and here he was, the Gantrithor only a few short minutes away from the creature...through his mind, Tassadar relayed a message to the Dark Templar Envoy, Zeratul. If the Zerg were to fall soon, his ship and him would do it. He just hoped he'd lived long enough to do it.
AFLA Roadway, Zulu Company
Nacdle, being the intrepid captain he was, stepped over a carcass of a Hydralisk with his gun blazing, and knocked out another Zergling. Besides him, his company was in shatters, as they huddled around, wondering what the hell they were here for. Jast, a medical corpsman, was busy patching up men, screaming for more supplies under a cover of a burnt tank. Jones and his men, almost out of ammunition, were gathering up as many guns as they could from the dead.
After the Queens and Overlord drops, Zulu found itself cut off from the rest of the convoy; the drops by the Overlords had come in the front of the line of armored vehicles, directly behind Zulu, which was spearheading the faltering assault. A massive pile of burnt vehicles and men stopped Zulu from rejoining the rest of the assault. Nacdle ordered his men to fight through the waves of Zerg separating them and the rest of the troops, else they would be cannon fodder for Zerg.
Deek Sampson, the green marine that had warned Nacdle about his gut-feelings about Zerg, was babbling through his ICD non-stopped to the rest of the company, annoying and pissing of the rest of the men. "I'm telling ya Cap'n I told yuh guys this was gonna happen, I swear I knew this shit was gonna happen to us; why in this Godforsakenplace doesthishafta happen-" He gurgled, blood spewing out of his cracked visor, and fell. Nacdle watched with the slightest tinge of emotion before screaming for a medic and resuming firing.
The ICD in his helmet crackled.
"Captain Nacdle, that you?" Colonel Barry Dawlson of the 2nd Battalion, 12th Regiment, 1st Airborne Assault Division popped up in a holo in on the side of Nacdle's helmet.
"I'm here, sir."
"You boys still trying to fight your way to us?"
"Correct."
"I've got a new assignment for you: take the second to last ramp you're supposed to be on right now, before these bitches dropped on us. You're not really any use here."
"Sir, my company's not really a use anywhere. I've got numerous casualties, nowhere to move them, and I've barely got any ammunition and no armor."
"Then get the men that are still fighting up, gather some weapons and ammo, and run the hell out of here. You'll be surrounded by Zerg if you don't. We're giving you two shots from siege tanks to clear your way, and then get the hell to the next ramp."
"Yessir."
"What's going on, Nacdle?" The captain turned around to see Jones look at him, through his visor, cold, hard black hiding his face. Nacdle smiled underneath his helmet, seeing the Jones still had lost the respect for him by addressing him as an inferior.
"We're moving up to the next ramp, but don't go charging up the damn thing yet. The Gravediggers might not have taken out everything and there's a buttload of Zerg rampaging on the plateau."
"On the plateau? Now? I thought the infantry and armor was taking care of things."
"Colonel Dawlson told me the opposite," Nacdle said, lying. The only way he knew thousands of Zerg were coming from unsupported backside of the allied troops was because of the sudden pulses of psionic energy the Zerg and Protoss momentarily gave off as they died.
"When it rains, it pours."
Nacdle shook his helmet free of the heavy, drenching, Aiuran monsoon.
"Let's hope the downpour isn't that hard."