-1Starcraft: Takeover
Paul Franklin
Original Concept courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment ©
Chapter 8: Execution
"God damnit, these guys are persistent." Richter wiped his brow with the sleeve of his uniform, then decided that the uniform itself was too drenched with sweat to make any difference and stripped it off. As Richter took a hold of the controls of his Goliath, a blast of flame flashed in front of him, followed by the charred and bloody remains of a pair of Zergling landing on his windshield with a sickening "splat".
"Watch your back, commander," Asuka said. "I'm pretty sure you don't watch me to take over this army just because you got killed by a couple of Zerglings." Asuka went back to his squadron, which was guarding a group of Marines by attacking up close while the Marines pelted the oncoming Zerg flanking force with high-powered rifle bullets.
Richter thanked the Firebat, then called up Stickaz on the radio system.
Stickaz was none too pleased.
"The fuck did you take Asuka's squad for?" Stickaz yelled at Richter as soon as he saw the commander's face appear on his HUD. "You know he and Quiksilver work well together, and I probably wouldn't be lying in a shithole of Zerg right now if you'd left him and taken some other squad."
"Shut up and listen," Richter said. "I need you to lure the Zerg into range of the Siege Tanks and -"
Stickaz's face obviously showed that he knew something that Richter didn't. "Uh… sir?" Stickaz said, his voice wavering. "Half of our Siege Tanks are fragged."
Richter went livid. "How in the FUCK did you let a bunch of Zerg kill off half of our best defensive force! They're fucking TANKS! You don't just go and blow up a tank!"
"You do if you're a fleet of Guardians."
Richter let loose a string of curses before regaining his composure. Typing a message to Stickaz using his onboard keyboard, Richter formulated a new plan with hopes that he could keep the Zerg at bay.
"Ok," Richter began, "Here's the plan." The message appeared on Stickaz's HUD. "I need you to go to those coordinates and stage an assault on the Zerg outpost positioned there."
Stickaz thought for a second, then pulled up his map. The coordinates in the message, 64.83/44.30, were fully visible, including the area within a 10 mile radius of the coordinates. "How the hell can we know where this outpost is?" he asked. "We haven't sent any scouts out there, to my knowledge."
Richter filled Stickaz in to his plan - send up the 53 GRSITS satellites, transmit a message to nearby colony planets, and wait for the arrival of reinforcements, all while staging an attack on the Zerg base using the Ghosts, Medics, and a nuclear missile. Richter's intention for sending Stickaz to 64.83/44.30 was to draw some of the frontal Zerg attack force away from the Terran base, as well as aid the Stealth force headed for the Zerg base.
"Oh, I see now." Stickaz, looking at the map, came to a realization as he zoomed in on the base. "So that's what makes this outpost so important to your strategy…"
"Bingo," Richter confirmed. "The Nidus Canal at that base happens to be the only one that leads directly to the Zerg base. There are 3 other Nidus Canals stationed in the vicinity, but none of them will take you directly to the objective. Your job is to lead the Stealth group to the Canal and aid them in storming the base. Take Noog's squadron and -"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute here," Stickaz protested. "You want me to take a group of Marines through a Nidus Canal to the Zerg base? That's suicide! You're throwing away a perfectly good plat-"
"Silence," Richter roared. "Don't you think I know that!" The commander looked away and closed his eyes for a second, then focused on Stickaz again. "This is the only way our plan can succeed."
Stickaz swore, then broke the connection. II can't believe it/I Stickaz thought. IRichter's gotta be out of his mind…/I
After a small prayer for his men, Richter went back to his firefight.
---------------------------------------------------------
Noog and Boxo were taking a short rest inside of their bunker. While the Zerg onslaught on their defensive position had stopped momentarily, they knew they needed to keep alert. Noog decided that he was going to go outside and keep a lookout as the SCV they had been grouped with repaired the damage dealt to the bunker.
As Noog was crawling out of his bunker, Stickaz roared up to him. The dust cloud generated by the Goliath's wheels was enough to knock Noog off his feet.
"Jebus, man!" Noog cried. "Watch where you're driving that damn thing!"
Stickaz looked at the Marine with grim sarcasm. "If you need a reminder," Stickaz said, "I Iam/I licensed to drive this thing. I know what I'm doing, and I'm damn good at it. Now call up your 'toon. We're heading for these coordinates." With that, Stickaz relayed the message that Richter had sent him to Noog.
Noog merely looked at the message in disbelief. "Shit," he exclaimed. "He's sending us in there to die!"
"Nothing you can do about it, though," Stickaz replied. "If it'll buy us time, we're gonna do it."
"Who's coming with us?"
"Your 'toon, me and 3 other Goliaths, Neeko and 5 other Medics, and Zanzibar and Revillo. They're all we need to execute this plan."
Noog scoffed. "He expects 24 people to take out the Zerg base? He's fucking insane." Even as he protested, though, Noog rang up each of his other platoon members and explained the situation to them. All of them, though with many complaints, agreed, and in 3 minutes, they were all in formation, replenished with ammo, and ready for action.
"Better watch out," a voice said, seemingly from nowhere. "Don't want to get killed from inattentiveness, do we?" All of Stickaz's and Noog's men spun around as Revillo and Dwarf deactivated their cloaking devices. Neeko and her medics came out from behind a nearby hill and strolled over to the group. After a good laugh, the group got serious.
"We need to be careful," Neeko said. "My men can only heal you so much, and if you get damaged," she added, looking at Stickaz and his Goliaths, "they won't be able to help you. We're medical officers, not mechanical engineers."
"Don't worry," Stickaz said smugly. "We can take care of ourselves. It's you who needs to be careful. You're absolutely vital to this mission, as are the other boys here."
Revillo gave a short recap of the plan. After about 5 minutes, the group set out towards 64.83/44.30 and, hopefully, victory.
---------------------------------------------------------
Ben had had enough. Lounging around the base, not being able to do anything without Littleman's scrupulous criticism, feeling helpless - he wanted to act, and he wanted to do it now, before his sanity began to wane. He looked over at the communications controls, then decided to call up Ganja.
"What is your bidding, High Templar?" the general asked. "I am humbled to -"
"Can the sarcastic formalities, Ganja," Ben snapped. "We're mobilizing."
"Mobilizing?" Ganja couldn't understand why Ben was being so hasty all of the sudden. "We don't have enough troops to mobilize an attack force against the Zerg."
"I don't care," Ben said. "We moving out. If Littleman tries to stop me…"
Ganja gave a small sigh. IHe's acting like a child again… This is exactly what they sent me to prevent./I "Ben, you just need to wait a little bit longer. I've almost assembled a fleet capable enough of defending against the Zerg. We have a sizable force of Scouts, Arbiters, and even a few Carriers, though we really need to research a way to transport them faster. Maybe a way of condensing their mass into a single dense form while warping, and then…"
"Ganja, you've gone off on another tangent." Ganja had a bad habit of taking his thoughts about star flight and warp-travel and running with them. While he had a brilliant mind, he sometimes couldn't keep a handle on it. "We've got enough Arbiters to conceal a sizable air force. With my cloaking ability, we should be able to sneak around and cut a swath through the Zerg defenses at this outpost." Ben sent a set of coordinates to Ganja's computer, where Ganja uploaded the file and peered over it.
"Interesting…" said Ganja.
"What is it?" Ben asked. "What's so special about those coordinates, other than the fact that they're nearby and hold a key Nidus Canal?"
Ganja couldn't conceal his laughter. "You must not know what I know then. I've been keeping an eye out on the Terran positions." A map came up on Ben's screen. A small line of red dots was moving towards the coordinates that Ben had sent to Ganja, in the midst of which was concealed a small yellow pip.
"You've got a scout trailing them?" Ben couldn't believe the audacity of the Terrans. "Why don't they have any detecting technology with them?"
"They do," Ganja said. "They have a satellite array around the planet. We tried to take one down earlier, but…"
Ben's face showed a look of pure confusion. "When did you do this?" he said. "And where did you get permiss-" Ganja's façade gave away everything Ben needed to know. "Littleman authorized it, didn't he?"
"Yes," Ganja replied, "but we failed to destroy the satellite. Apparently it has a high-powered force field surrounding it."
"What exactly do these satellites do?"
"They capture an image of anywhere on the planet and send it the Heads-Up Display of any Terran authorized to use it. Their technology can even detect hidden Observers… and you."
IAnother problem to deal with…/I thought Ben. II'll have to deal with those later./I "Well, in the meantime, we need to move at once-"
"Not so fast," Littleman said, stepping into Ben's quarters.
Ben grimaced. "How long have you been listening?"
"Long enough to prove you guilty of treason against the Conclave. Sieze him!" With a motion of Littleman's arm, a group of Zealots stormed into the room. Ben applied his stealth ability, but it was too late - the Zealots stormed on top of him, holding him fast to the floor.
Littleman strode to the now visible Ben and loomed over him. "I managed to overhear you as I was heading to the Gateway," he said. "No doubt my guest is waiting for me there already, but I'm sure he'll understand when I tell him of the nice rat I've caught." Littleman grinned at Ben, lying helplessly on the floor. "You, my sly, sneaky friend are to be detained in the imprisonment sector until the end of this assignment, when you shall be warped back to Aiur and placed on trial for high treason and conspiracy to overthrow the Conclave. You have no more authoritative power here." Littleman gave a last smug expression before leaving the room.
Ganja could only watch on his view screen as Ben was carried off. After the Templar was out of sight, Ganja switched back over to his map and began formulating a plan. II/I will Iget you out of there/I he said to himself, Iand we're going to make sure Littleman pays for your humiliation./I With a glance at the map, Ganja noticed that his Observer was still trailing the Terrans when, all of the sudden, the screen went dark. IWell/I he thought, I looks like they're using their surveillance satellites to a fuller extent now./I As he gave an order to another one of his Observers, a sharp knock came to his door.
"Come in," Ganja said, unlocking his quarters. Even as he did so, Ganja gripped the hilt of his plasma blade, ready to activate it the second he felt he was in danger.
The door opened to reveal a group of 6 Zealots. The Zealots swarmed into the room and surrounded the general.
"You are under arrest, by order of High Templar Littleman," one of the Zealots said, "for conspiracy with the High Templar Ben to overthrow the Conclave. Please do not resist, as force will be used if necessary in order to -"
The Zealot did not get to finish his sentence. With lightning fast reflexes, Ganja dashed at the Zealot, bashing him in the stomach with the hilt of his plasma blade. He activated the blade as it was pressed against the Zealot's abdomen, sending a burning wave of flesh and bodily fluids splattering against the wall. Ganja withdrew the blade, leaving a sizzling ring in the Zealot's midsection. Two more of the Zealots rushed forwards to attach Ganja, but as they approached, Ganja ducked underneath one of them, slicing its leg off and kicking it into the carcass of his comrade, followed by a kick to the chin of the second. The second Zealot was unlucky enough to have his head flashed off at eye-level, followed by a second slash from his right shoulder all the way across his chest. He fell to the floor, a heap of smoldering organs and armor. Ganja walked over to the crippled Zealot, who had crawled behind his dead compatriot. Ganja simply thrust his blade through the chest of the dead Zealot. When he pulled out the plasma blade, the dead Zealot slumped over, revealing the crippled Zealot, now with a simmering slash through its face.
Ganja turned his attention to the remaining three Zealots, all of whom were too stiff to move.
"See what has happened here," Ganja said, "and remember it. Littleman is trying to take over this base." Ganja walked over to the trio. "Join forces with me. Help me free the High Templar Ben, for he is guilty of no crime." The general looked each of the Zealots in the eye. "To whom do you bestow your honor? To me, Ben, the Conclave, and to Aiur, your mother world, or to Littleman the conspirator, who's intents are to stage an offensive against the Conclave once he has taken this planet?"
The three Zealots started to believe Ganja. Though Ganja could not be sure of any such conspiracy on Littleman's part, his hunch could not be far off. "Go and round up your remaining troop members," he said. "I am placing you three in charge of your troops as of now. I hold you in the highest regard, and you shall be my leading commanders in the upcoming struggle. Now go!" With that, the Zealots left Ganja's quarters, off to collect the force that would aid Ganja in his rescue attempt on the imprisonment sector.
Deactivating his plasma blade and placing it at his waist, Ganja turned towards the door of his room. IFrom now on, Littleman/I Ganja thought to himself, Iit's a whole new battle, and it's not going to be your victory./I