So, here's a shocking peace of information that will probably deeply disturb you: I really like Starcraft's story. That might be the reason why I have decided to write fanfics about this story. However, from time to time I recieve notes from people who, how shall I say it? "Hate Starcraft in an almost unhealthy fashion"? And they never get tired to point out all the logic flaws in the original story. Like how the characters are over-the-top, how they don't act like real people, so on, so on.
The thing is: In which story do the characters actually act like "real people"? Do you think Star Wars became such a huge success because the characters act like "real people"? Or that Captain Kirk or Picard in Star Trek became such icons because they act like "real people"? So what if a game that's basically one huge sci-fi-opera has some logic flaws. I think the people who want to discuss those thing with me only want to nitpick. And worse, they want that everyone shares their point of view.
That doesn't mean that there aren't things that bother me. There are some loose ends that make me wonder what happened to this or that. Usually those are things or people in the original story that we never hear of again. So yeah, you will probably see a lot of those things in the next couple of chapters.
Like always, you don't have to agree with me. But if you want to read something different, write it yourself and stop telling me that I should change it.
Thanks for bjlu0900 for being such a great beta-reader!
Chapter 8
How the hell did this thing end up here?
''Wow. Those are a lot of weapons..." Dan Bowski mumbled as he looked around. He pointed his flashlight at a huge piece of metal right in front of him and blinked a few times. "Is that a tank? Like...a real tank?" Unsure of what to do next, the Marshal just stayed where he was and looked around. There wasn't just one tank, but at least half a dozen. While he was impressed at first, Bowski soon noticed that these machines were all useless. The turret of the first tank lacked a cannon, and the one behind that had its threads removed, as well as the cannon. It was pretty obvious that someone had decided to de-militarize these tools of war at one point.
Just in order to be sure, Dan walked up to the first tank and decided to take a quick peek. He climbed on top of this huge tool of destruction and when he looked at the space behind the turret, his suspicions were confirmed.
"I suppose that's where the engine was located." he mumbled and shone with his flashlight into the empty pit that once had housed the mentioned engine. A faint smile appeared on his face when a realization hit him.
"What're you smiling about?" Paula asked from behind him.
"You are the psionic. Can't you tell?" he retorted.
"First you tell me that you want people to respect your privacy, now you're asking me to do the exact opposite? Yeah, right. Fat chance." the young woman mumbled.
Touché.
"It's just...funny." Dan explained. "They probably de-militarized these tanks a thousand years ago. And you know what? They did it the exact same way we do it nowadays. Funny. Either the people from back then were a lot cleverer than we think, or we are a lot dumber than we like to believe."
"There's a third option, you know." Paula said and the Marshal looked over his shoulder.
"Really? What would that be?"
"People are people." she told him with a faint smile on her lips. "No matter the time or place." And that actually drew a chuckle from his chest.
"Yeah...guess I can't argue with that logic, girl." he mumbled. For a second it seemed as if Paula wanted to complain that he had called her "girl" again, but then she noticed the distant look on Dan's face as he brushed with his hand over the turret of the tank. The way he looked at it almost seemed...gentle? Kinda weird if you think about it, this was still a tank. There was nothing soft or gentle about it.
"Well, everyone has a fetish I guess." Paula mumbled, and when Dan looked at her again, she could see the frown on his face.
"What did you say?"
"Nothin'!" she cooed and turned away. The hangar was huge. And full of equipment no one had bothered to remove.
"So many tools of destruction." she whispered and walked through this forgotten boneyard. There weren't only tanks. One corner of the hanger was filled with what looked like parts of power armors. It was a rather eerie sight; a pile of armored arms, legs, chestpieces and helmets.
"Just add some creep to it and it looks like Char." Paula mumbled and shook her head in order to get that thought out of her head. Behind her, Dan climbed off the tank and decided to follow her.
"Hard to believe they used stuff like this back then." he mumbled. "And then...what is that?" the Marshal asked when he pointed his flashlight at something that looked like a huge robot. Paula, who had spotted something very interesting, stopped and turned around. When she noticed the object of Bowski's confusion, she couldn't help but smile.
"That's a goliath." she explained and walked up to the man and the machine. "It was a dedicated anti-air-platform. Highly mobile and flexible too."
"Huh..." was all that Dan could say. He placed his hand on one of the huge legs of the machine and looked upwards. The machine was easily twelve feet was just out of reach. If he would jump, he probably could touch it, though.
"That looks like one of those robots from the cartoons I watched as a child. Sword Horseman and the Stellar Marshals. Best show ever." he chuckled.
"Oh God, please tell me that you just made that up." Paula groaned. "Wait, you watched cartoons when you were little?"
"Why does that surprise you?" Dan asked back.
"It's nothing personal, it's just...weird." Paula mused. When Bowski heard that, he turned around and looked her straight into the eyes.
"Why would you say something like that?"
"Because..." she sighed. "...people seem to enjoy watching shows or movies, or even holo-novels. Yet when there's a real adventure right in front of them, they act as if they want to be anywhere else."
"Perhaps because it's no fun to risk your own skin if you can relax and watch it from your couch?" Dan suggested.
"Pah!" Paula shot back. "What's the point of living, then? If we follow that line of thoughts, then we never fall in love, because we are too scared of being rejected. Or worse, we decide to skip out on all the fun, while we remain hidden from the world and act as if we aren't part of it." The last part was just a whisper, yet when Bowski heard that, he looked at her with a confused expression on his face.
"Say what?"
"Nothin'!" Paula muttered and turned away. For a moment it seemed as if she was angry. However, this time Dan was pretty certain that he wasn't the reason for her anger. Maybe it was something between her and Sirella? The Marshal shook his head and turned his attention back towards the goliath while Paula turned away and checked out the rest of the hangar.
"To think someone would actually sit inside this thing and pilot it into battle." Dan muttered. There was no way to deny it, this thing did fascinate him. It was like in all those shows he had watched as a kid.
"Guess someone is a mecha-fan!" he suddenly heard Paula sing from the other side of the hangar.
"Get out of my head, dammit!"
"There's nothing to be ashamed of, Dan." the young woman giggled. "Everyone has a fetish!"
"Is that so?" the Marshal replied and turned away from the giant robot. "And what would your fetish be, huh?"
"Chocolate cake. And this baby over here!" she told him. When Dan heard that, he frowned and walked into the same direction she had vanished. It didn't take him long to find her, however.
"What is that?" Dan muttered as he looked at the machine Paula was standing next to. There was a faint smile on her face and she brushed with her hand over the cold, metallic surface of the object as if she was enjoying a fond memory. "Is that...some sort of missile?" the Marshal mused, which caused his companion to chuckle.
"Heh. You know, that's not even that far from the truth." she explained. "This, my friend, is a vulture-bike." Bowski noticed the "my friend"-part but decided to say nothing. Instead, he stared at the machine and frowned. Sure, there was a seat. And with some imagination, you could call the thing in front of it a windshield. But aside from that?
"Looks like a missile with a saddle on it." he mused, which caused Paula to laugh out loud.
"Ha! Now you got full points, mister! That's probably the best way on how to describe what a vulture-bike is."
"A... vulture-bike?" Bowski wondered and frowned. "No wheels. Quantum displacement?"
"Nope." Paula replied. "Nothing so fancy. Antigrav." When the Marshal heard that, he looked at Paula in disbelief.
"Antigrav? Are you kidding me? What else? Is this thing powered with coal?"
"Nuclear fusion-cells." Paula told him. "You might want to step back a little. If someone forgot to remove the cells when they demilitarized this thing, then we probably already earned ourselves a deadly dose of radiation."
"You're a bag of fun, Kerrigan." Bowski growled, not believing one word of what she had just told him. However, when he made a step backward, just to be certain, Paula couldn't help but grin. She didn't show any hesitation and climbed on the heavy machine. She sat down on the seat and put her hands around the throttle. The goofy grin on her face turned into a gentle smile.
"Would be one hell of a gift..." she whispered to herself.
"What did you say?" Dan asked her and she looked at him. For a second, she seemed to be unsure of what to say next, but then...
"My father, he...once owned one of these things." Paula told him.
"He's into oldtimers?" Dan mused. That question caused Paula to snicker.
"The only oldtimer he's into nowadays is my mum." she said. "Wait, that came out wrong..."
"Can't imagine that someone who still has all marbles in the right place would be so stupid to ride such a thing." Dan mumbled. "How fast do they go anyway? Because this thing looks, well, fast."
"Up to 370 kilometers per hour, depending on the terrain." When Bowski heard that, he looked at Paula in disbelief.
"Okay, now you're making fun of me. There's no way that you would ride this thing that fast." the Marshal declared. "Would it?"
"Heh, if you're nice to me, then maybe I'm gonna take you for a ride one day." Paula beamed. "Yeah, this baby would make an awesome gift. If not for my father, then at least for my uncle. He loves to tinker with old tech."
"You know, now you sound as if you have only come here in order to hunt for souvenirs." When Paula heard that, she blushed and waved with her hand.
"What? Pffff! Nooo? Seriously, that's probably the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard!" And then she turned her head away and bit on her lip.
"Well, whatever." Bowski growled and shook his head before checking out the rest of the hangar. "Just so you know, if there is any radiation down here and I turn infertile, I will haunt you for the rest of your life."
"Last time I checked you still needed a girlfriend for that sort of fun." Paula shot back. "Also, I'm pretty confident that I can outlive you." And then she blinked a few times and looked over her shoulder. "Wait, did you just try to flirt with me?"
"Sorry, you're not my type." Dan shouted over from the other end of the hangar.
"Too energetic and beautiful?"
"Too annoying and insane."
"That's not what a lady wants to hear..." Paula mused and-
"And what the hell is this?" Bowski suddenly muttered and the young woman frowned when she heard that. Paula sighed and climbed off the vulture-bike before following Dan's voice. To her, this place held no secrets. At least that's what she thought. But when she reached Dan and looked at the vehicle that occupied the other part of the hangar. As she lay gaze upon the machine, Paula's eyes widened in surprise and disbelief.
"How the hell did this thing end up here?!" she asked herself and...
...didn't believe what he was seeing.
"How?" was the only thing Jim managed to mutter.
"I know." Rory Swann said with a big, fat grin on his face. "Tell me you're not impressed, Cowboy."
"I'm not impressed, Swann." Jim growled, and the grin on Swann's face became even bigger.
"Yeah, I thought you'd be...wait a second, what?!" the short engineer asked. "That was retho...rata...robic-"
"Metaphorical." the former Marshal of Mar Sara educated his Chief Engineer. "The word you're looking for is "rhetorical". And no, I'm not making fun of you. Just what in damnation were you thinkin', Swann?!" When he looked at the engineer, he could see the confusion on Swann's face.
"Uhm...seriously, what?" the dumbfounded engineer wanted to know.
"I want to know what in hell you were thinking when you decided to waste our resources for this...this..." Jim shouted and pointed his finger at the dark object standing in the middle of the hanger.
"Masterpiece?" Swann offered.
"Piece of trash!" the younger man snarled. The proud expression on Swann's face vanished and was instead replaced by utter disbelief.
"Trash? Did you just call this baby trash?" He sounded as if Jim had just insulted his mother in the most horrid way possible.
"Yes, Swann! I can't believe you wasted our precious resources to make this thing pretty again! We are stretched thin as it is. You are bitch-moaning about not having enough spare-parts, and what is it you're doin'? You're wasting them on this thing!" Jim barked and stomped with his foot on the ground. "Dammit, Swann! You should have talked with someone about this! Asked for permission first!"
"Who?" Swann shot back. "The boyscout? Aw, never! He's too busy admiring himself in the mirror, with his shiny uniform."
"He's still the XO of this ship, Swann. And I'm done telling you to show him proper respect!" Jim explained and gritted his teeth in frustration.
"Aw, come on! That boyscout hasn't even three hairs grown from his chin. He's not-"
"He's my second-in-command, Swann." Jim growled. "And when you joined the Raiders, you agreed to follow not only my orders but that of my officers as well. And Ma- I mean, Captain Horner's orders were clear; not wasting any resources unless absolutely necessary." And then the Commander of the Raiders pointed once more with his finger at the dropship standing right in front of them.
"This! Is! Not! Necessary!" he snarled.
Instead of wavering, Swann just grabbed into his pocket and pulled a flask out. Jim was no angel, by no means. And he had started to drink more alcohol than he should in the last couple of weeks. It all had started after Tarsonis. Well, he had enjoyed a good drink before, but after losing the planet, things had become increasingly difficult. Both on the battlefield...
...and elsewhere.
Swann took his sweet time emptying his flask, and when he was finally done, he decided to grunt and belched like a true space-hobo. If he would have farted, Jim would have thrown him out of the next airlock immediately.
"Must admit, Cowboy, I'm disappointed." Swann then declared. "Thought you'd be a bit more grateful. And that you would recognize a piece of art when you see it."
"It's a dropship, Swann." Jim growled. "A goddamn dropship! If there's one thing that we can always replace, then it's a damn dropship. Every goddamn outpost and their grandmother have at least half a dozen of those. I wouldn't be so angry if you had decided to fix some of our tanks. Or the Hyperion. Or...well, anything but a damn dropship!"
"Like your vulture-bike?" Swann chuckled.
"Watch it, Swann." the former Marshal of Mar Sara shot back. "There are two things a man should never do: Insult someone else's mother and make fun of a vulture-bike."
"Huh, never heard of that second rule before." the short engineer mused.
"If you want to ride with the Raiders, then better get used to it. That rule is sacred."
"I keep it in mind." Swann replied with a dry tone in his voice before he stretched his limbs. "Anyway, once you see what I did to this baby, you will beg me to forgive you."
"Forgive me? For what?" Jim wanted to know.
"For being an unbeliever." Swann declared. "Come on, let me show you what I did to your new personal shuttle!" When the short engineer stomped towards the dropship, Jim frowned and wondered if he could just throw him out of the airlock and claim it had been an accident.
"Personal shuttle?" the former Marshal muttered. "Dude, I got a personal battlecruiser!"
"Aw, quit'yer'bitchin' and check this out!" the engineer replied. Once they reached the dropship, Swann put his hand on the cold metal of the hull and looked over his shoulder. "Can you see it?"
"You painted it black. Great. I'm so impressed." Jim griped. "Did you do that all by yourself or did you require our entire engineering-staff for that?"
"Got, who took a shit in your coffee, Cowboy?"
"You did."
"Eh, take a closer look, dammit!" Swann barked. "You see this?" Jim was about to turn away, but then he sighed and squinted his eyes. Since the dropship had been painted black, it was hard to tell any difference when compared to any other dropship. But the longer Jim looked at it...
"Did you add armor-plating to this thing?" he wondered.
"A-yup!" Swann said with a proud grin on his face.
"Great." Jim muttered. "Give me a blowtorch and I can do that myself. No reason to brag about it. Also, are you insane? Additional armor turns this thing into a pregnant whale! These damn dropships are already sluggish as hell. So, congratulations on making something bad even worse."
"Nope!" Swann replied and pointed with his finger at the two large engines. "Guess what? I managed not only to add armor to all the critical parts of this baby, I was also able to increase the thrust by roughly 25 percent. How about that?" Okay, that did sound impressive. But Jim wasn't willing to show that to Swann.
"I don't even want to know how you managed to make this thing go even faster." the younger man mumbled. "Let me guess, you removed the shielding around the reactor, right?"
"No. But hey, that's actually a pretty good idea." Swann said. "The radiation shouldn't bother you, right? I mean, since you already sit all the time on that damn vulture-bike, which is powered by nuclear batteries. Your little swimmers must be dead by now anyway, amirite?"
"I think my little swimmers are just okay. And we will never have this conversation again, Swann. Never!" Jim growled.
"Tsk. You're almost as bad as that boyscout. Almost." Swann sighed and pointed his finger at the dropship. "So, in order to sate your curiosity, I tweaked the engines. I removed some parts here, added some there, rebuilt the engines from the ground up. You know, the usual stuff."
"Why do I have the feeling that this thing runs with booze now?" Jim whispered. However, Swann didn't seem to have noticed that comment.
"The armor was reinforced everywhere where it counts." the engineer explained. "Should come in handy especially during re-entry. This baby can outrun anything when doing a combat-drop. You will be the first one to hit the ground. Even 'dem Protoss will have a hard time catching up with you in this baby!"
"You know, I think I don't want to find out wherever this is true or not." the Commander sighed. "Especially now that we found some friends among the Protoss."
"Yeah, well, they only cook with gas, like everyone else."
"Sounds like someone's jealous."
"I prefer my tech not to glow all the time." Swann growled.
"Yep, definitely jealous."
"Aw, zip it! Come on, gonna show you the rest!" the short engineer barked and walked over to the backside of the dropship. The rear hatch was open and so Swann and Jim entered the dropship. Only then the Commander stopped and looked around with an expression of amazement on his face.
"What the hell is that?!" he wondered. "Swann, what did you do to this place?"
"Pretty neat, huh?" the engineer beamed and stretched his arms out. "Yeah, looks nothing like a normal drosphip, huh?"
"No, it doesn't." Jim agreed. A dropship usually had only one mission: To deliver goods or troops. However, that didn't mean that it was a spacious ride. Oh no, far from it. Sure, if there was only one person inside, things were pretty relaxed. But if you carry a bunch of soldiers wearing heavy combat-armor, things get really cramped. The inside of this dropship was different, though. Jim looked around, and for a moment he thought that there was something wrong with his eyes. Maybe this was some kind of optical illusion?
"How...did you do that?" he asked with real curiosity in his voice.
"Heh, knew you would be impressed!" Swann chuckled. "Well, I don't want to bore you with all the details. Let's just say I removed a bulkhead here, added some there, and whoops, there we go! You wouldn't believe how much you can do with one of those babies. They beg to be modified."
"You can fit a whole platoon in here." Jim mumbled, clearly impressed.
"Yeah. Or a complete emergency room." the engineer suggested and the Commander looked at him.
"Say what?"
"That's a funny idea I had a while ago. Tremmer, one of the combat-medics, watched me ripping out those seats. And then she suggested that someone should put a field hospital on it. Kinda like the idea." When Jim heard that, he looked around and squinted his eyes.
"You know..." he mumbled. "...I have to agree. That does sound like a solid idea." How many soldiers died on the battlefield because they didn't get proper treatment? And we're not talking about stuff a medic can fix. The rate of survival of a wounded soldier usually climbed drastically if he or she could be treated within 30 minutes or less after receiving a critical injury. "You could relocate the field hospital almost immediately should the situation arise."
"Yeah. And imagine what you can do if you have three or four of these things. Could save a lot of lives." Swann mused. Suddenly Jim was all ears. He wasn't so thick that he couldn't see the benefit of such an idea.
"I'm gonna talk with Matt about this. I'm sure that he will like the idea as well." Jim said.
"Ugh, the boyscout? Why, can't our Commander make any decisions on his own anymore?" Swann griped.
"Your Commander likes to inform his second-in-command about a good idea his chief engineer proposed to him. Got a problem with that?"
"Nope." the short engineer growled. "Does that mean you're cool with it?"
"Hell no." Jim replied. "I'm still gonna roast your ass for doing this without talking to either me or Matt first."
"Aw, come on! This is-" the engineer tried to defend himself, but then he was cut short by Jim.
"I'm serious, Swann!" the younger man barked. "Just because you have a good idea doesn't mean that you can just go ahead and do whatever you want to."
"That's how we did it on Meinhoff all the time and-"
"Well, you ain't on Meinhoff anymore!"
"So I noticed." Swann mumbled. "Come on, Boss, this is bullshit! You know I would never screw things up on purpose. But I saw a chance and I took it. Isn't that what the Raiders are all about?"
"No." Jim replied. "That's not what we are all about. You should have run this idea by me first. And so far, I'm not overly impressed. So, if this is all you came up with, then-"
"Oh, you want to see something impressive?" the engineer growled. "I'm gonna show you something impressive!" And with that, the shorter man stomped towards the cockpit. Jim sighed and brushed with his hand over his head. He didn't want to sound like an ass, but if this outfit was supposed to have any chance of standing up against Mengsk's newly founded "Dominion", then they had to act less than a bunch of rednecks and more like professionals.
"Swann! Don't make this any harder! You know I'm right and-"
"Get over here and look at that!" the engineer barked from the cockpit and Jim sighed once more. He decided to not escalate things any further and walked over to the cockpit. When he entered it, he realized that this place had received a whole lot of Swann's love as well.
"Holy...those are a lot of monitors." Jim mused as he looked around. Swann leaned against the pilot's seat and had a cocky grin on his face.
"Pretty nice, eh'? Took me four whole days to get all the wiring right. There are still a few gremlins in the system, but nothing I can't fix."
"Just what is this stuff?" Jim asked.
"Ehehehe...the wet dream of any good commander in the field." Swann explained. "That, my dear Commander, is a TB-8-24." When Jim heard that, his eyes widened in surprise and he looked at Swann in utter disbelief.
"What?!" he gasped. "Are you shittin' me? A TB-8-24?"
"A-yup!" Swann replied. "The finest the late Confederacy has to offer. Latest model. And not the light-version either. Oh no! This is the real deal."
"H-how...?" Jim stuttered.
"How did I manage to get my hands on one of those? Or how did I manage to squeeze this baby into the dropship?" Swann asked.
"Both."
"Heh. You can offer me a drink. Then I'll tell you." the short engineer declared. The proud and smug grin on his face was almost too much to tolerate, even for Jim. Still, he couldn't deny that what Swann had done was pretty impressive.
"So, this thing is working?" he asked and looked at one of the monitors.
"Would I lie to you?"
"Occasionally, yes." Jim replied. "It just baffles my mind that you managed to squeeze all that tech in this tiny cockpit!"
"Well, it ain't that hard if you know what you're doing." Swann explained.
"So, you know someone that smart?" the Commander teased him.
"Oh, harr harr. Someone's trying to be funny." the engineer shot back. "Trust me when I tell you that this baby is fully operational. You can coordinate an entire battlegroup with this thing."
"Great, now we only need a battlegroup." Jim chuckled, yet even he had to admit that this was one hell of a surprise. TB-8-24 was the name of a command-and-control-computer. One of the best, maybe the best out there. Not only could it be used to coordinate an entire battlegroup, but with this baby Jim could coordinate troops in a way no one could imagine.
"Heh..." the Commander chuckled as he brushed with his fingers over a keyboard right next to the pilot's seat. "...the Magistrate from Mar Sara I used to work with used a TB-6-20. Almost bitchmoaned about how ineffective this thing was. He always said that working with this thing was like playing a really bad video-game."
"Well, this thing is like a good video-game." Swann explained. "Even got real 3d-graphics."
"Hah! Next thing you tell me is that I can check the status on more than 12 units at the same time." Jim laughed.
"Up to 36." Swann informed him. "Oh, and that's not all of it. This thing also has a jammer hardwired into it. You can put marmalade over all the sensors within one klick."
"As long as it isn't made of alien goo, that is." Jim mumbled. "You think this thing could affect the Protoss?" When Swann heard that question, he shrugged his shoulders.
"Dunno. But maybe it will give them one hell of a headache. Might want to warn your new pals about it. You know, before you make them mad."
"I'm sure to keep that in mind." the Commander replied and then he shook his head in disbelief. "Okay, I admit it. Color me impressed, I did not see that coming. Could you do that to another dropship as well?"
"Are you crazy?" Swann gasped. "You think that TB-8-24 fell out of the sky and that there's an endless supply waiting for me to salvage it? Sorry, Boss, but right now this baby is one of a kind."
"Damn shame." Jim mumbled. "But hey, you could do the same thing to the hull. You know, add armor and remove the stuff inside. I like that idea of putting a field hospital into one of those things. It could save a lot of lives." When Swann heard that, the smug grin on his face vanished.
"That sounds like extra hours to me..." the engineer growled.
"Yeah, well, consider this a fitting punishment for doing this without running it by me or Matt first. Serves you right."
"Curse you. And just when I wanted to show you the really cool stuff that I added!" Swann barked.
"Jeezus, Swann!" Jim groaned. "You just told me that you added one of the best battle-computers known to man into this thing. What else did you do? Put some nukes on it?"
"Naaaa, tried that. Let's just say that the idea had a lot of flaws." Swann muttered and walked over to the pilot's seat. He turned it around and presented something to Jim.
"Is that...?" the Commander asked with a baffled tone in his voice.
"Yup. Made it myself. Designed even for zero-g. Had to come up with my very own anti-slip covering. Even if you pull 9 g's, this thing won't let go. Oh, and it will stay cool no matter what." Swann explained with a proud tone in his voice. All Jim could say was...
"Swann, you're a genius!"
"I know, right? I don't understand why no one thought about adding a cup-holder before. That way you don't have to hold your beer in one hand while flying this thing with the other!" But Jim was barely listening. All he could do was to stare at that cup-holder in awe.
"This has to be the single greatest invention since they discovered fire." Jim muttered.
"Teh, don't blow your mind just yet, Cowboy. There's more."
"What?!" Jim gasped. "More?" And then Swann leaned down and opened a small hatch right next to the cup-holder. And when Jim looked inside, he realized...
"Is that...a mini fridge?!"
"Yup." Swann replied with a fat grin on his face. "To keep your beer cool even during the heat of a combat-drop. Are you impressed or are you impressed?"
"Hot damn. Can you install one of those things on the bridge of the Hyperion as well?" Jim wanted to know and the grin on Swann's face became absurdly wide.
"I thought you'd never ask!" The engineer turned around and walked towards the exit while waving with his mechanical arm. "I'm gonna get started right away! Just wait and see, once I'm done there will be cold beer on every deck! EVERY DECK, I TELL YOU!" And when Jim followed Swann outside, he had to admit that he liked the sound of that.
"Boy, I can sure use a cold beer right now!" Jim mumbled. Yeah, he totally had to go to the cafeteria. And when he stepped out of the dropship...
"How...?" Paula whispered and Dan looked over at her.
"You look surprised." he stated the brutally obvious. But even than the Marshal had to admit that seeing Paula Kerrigan surprised was nice for a change.
"How did this thing end up here?" the young woman muttered as if Bowski wasn't even present. He watched how Paula walked over to the dark dropship and brushed with her hand over the belly of the machine while standing beneath it. Dan noticed the almost gentle expression on Paula's face as she moved slowly around the huge vehicle.
"I thought Mum took you for a ride..." Paula said with a quiet voice.
"What did you say?" Dan asked, not understanding a single word.
"Nothing." was her only reply. And then... "Guess I don't know everything about this place. Someone has to explain this to me."
"Just what are you talking about, Kerrigan? Make some sense, for crying out loud!" Dan protested, and only then did Paula blink and shook her head.
"You're right. Sorry, got carried away." she muttered and walked over to the rear of the dropship. Ignoring the Marshal's ranting, Paula walked up the ramp and entered the vessel through the rear hatch.
"Goddamit!" Bowski barked behind her. "Stop that! Don't just go inside, you don't know if it's safe!"
"Oh, it is totally safe, believe me. And you want to check this thing out." Paula told him. Great, more cryptic talk. Just what he needed. Unfortunately, there was little he could do about it. By now Dan understood that it was pointless to argue with that woman. That frustrating, irritating woman that didn't seem to care about all the important stuff, yet seemed to be fascinated by the things no one cared about. As they entered the dropship, Dan couldn't help but shudder at the eerie sight. They had been walking through a dark and empty ancient battlecruiser for hours now, but the insides of this dropship were so different.
"I don't like this..." the Marshal muttered. Sure, he had his flashlight. And the weird crystal Paula had brought along sure was helpful as well. But even then, Dan couldn't shake that eerie feeling. The corridors of the battlecruiser had been narrow, yes. However, they had also been long. There was plenty of space, even if most of it was shrouded in darkness. The insides of this dropship felt...claustrophobic.
The Marshal wasn't afraid of tight and confined places, but he couldn't deny feeling a bit, well, nervous. Well, there was probably nothing to be afraid of. There was no way in hell that there could be something down here that was still a threat. Aside from nuclear fusion-cells that might leak their load and radiation all over the place. So, all he had to do was to calm down and-
Clink!
"Huh?" Bowski muttered when he stepped on something. He pulled his foot back and looked down. "Is this...a bullet casing?" he whispered and knelt down in order to pick it up. It was indeed a bullet casing. And only then Dan realized that there were many more bullet casings lying all over the floor.
"What's that?" the Marshal said when the trail of bullet casings led him to a gun locker. There was only one gun inside. It looked like a rifle, a sniper rifle to be exact. "Now that's one hell of a gun." he muttered and brushed with his finger over the tool of destruction.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Paula suddenly yelled and Dan looked at her in surprise. The young woman stormed towards him and pushed him aside. He was about to ask her what this was all about when he noticed the pained expression on Paula's face.
"What's the matter with you, Kerrigan?" he demanded to know, yet Paula didn't even bother answering his question. Instead...
"That's the one she used...when they hunted her." Paula whispered. "It's still here." There was something truly awkward about this situation. Dan watched how his companion brushed with her finger over the rifle in an almost gentle fashion, yet the expression on her face was filled with sorrow.
"Would make for one hell of a souvenir." Dan joked. He wasn't even serious about that, yet the moment those words left his mouth, Paula's hand jerked back and she made a step backward.
"No..." Her voice was but a whisper. "...it would be a horrible present. She wouldn't like it one bit."
"She?" Bowski wondered. "Who's she?"
"Nevermind." Paula answered and turned away. It was almost as if the sight of that weapon had touched something inside her. Was she...upset?
"This is wrong." the young woman explained when she walked away from the gun locker. "This thing shouldn't be here."
"The gun?"
"This whole vessel."
"Why?" Dan wanted to know, but that's when he noticed something in the corner. At first, he thought it was some trash someone had left here, but when the light of the flashlight and Paula's weird crystal fell on it, he suddenly noticed...
...rips...
...claws...
...and sharp teeth.
"KERRIGAN, WATCH OUT!" he barked, grabbed Paula by the arm and pulled her back. He pulled his gun out and pointed it at the dreadful creature cowering in the corner, ready to open fire.
"It's dead." Paula just said with a calm tone in her voice and freed herself from Dan's grip. "You don't have to kill it again." Her calm yet sad voice confused the Marshal even more. He kept his gun pointed at the creature lying in the corner of the dropship. At first, he had problems to make out any details. Aside from all the claws and teeth, of course. But the longer he stared at it, the more features he could make out.
The creature was dead. Probably had been dead for a very long time, it was just a mummified husk. Still, the head sported some impressive teeth that looked razor-sharp. It had the size of a big dog, including a strong and thick tail covered with barbs and thorns. It had four legs and two more limb-like claws sprouting from its back. Dan had never seen a creature like that before.
"What...is that?" he mumbled. Paula sighed and walked over to the corpse. "No! Kerrigan, don't!" he warned her, yet she didn't listen. Instead, she knelt down right next to the creature and placed her hand on its head.
"That..." she mumbled. "...is a Zergling."
"A... Zergling?" Bowski gasped. "As in... Zerg?"
"Yeah..." Paula's voice was but a whisper. From the head of this creature sprouted two horns. Though it was actually only one since the second one was broken off. Dan wondered what kind of opponent could do something like that. The entire creature didn't look like an animal, but a beast from a cheap horror movie.
"So that's where you ended up." Paula whispered. "She always wondered what happened to you." Again, who was Paula talking about?
"That doesn't make any sense." the young woman said again.
"Well, at least we can agree on that." Bowski mumbled. "I don't want to sound rude, but could you please start making sense?" And then he added an almost pitiful "For once?"
"Zerg back then were driven by only one imperative." Paula suddenly explained. "Everyone served the Swarm. They were all like the cells of your or mine body. But...they weren't all mindless drones. Some Zerg possessed individuality. Character. And even a simple creature like a Zergling could feel something like kinship." Dan decided to stay quiet as he watched how Paula was petting the dead creature as if it was just that: a pet. Even though he was certain that this thing had to be dead, he wouldn't even touch it if his life depended on it.
"Just what are you babbling about?" Dan growled. However, instead of answering his question, Paula just pointed with her other hand at the door leading to the cockpit.
"You might want to check the cockpit. I think I sense something on the other side of the door." she told him.
"Something?" Bowski asked. "Like...a living Zerg?"
"Don't be ridiculous. I'm pretty sure it's the reason why we came down here." Paula chastised him. "Just go." There was something strange about the way she acted. Suddenly she seemed so...sad.
"Are you sure? Kerrigan? You okay? If you-"
"Just go!" she shot back. And then her eyes wandered back from the Zerg over to the sniper-rifle still resting inside the gun locker. For a moment Dan wondered if he should pull the plug now and take her back to the surface, but then he just sighed and stomped over to the door that led to the cockpit. The Marshal stopped in front of the door and studied it. It wasn't locked. He grabbed the handle and pushed it open. And when he did-
"Janic-"
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" a woman suddenly screamed from the cockpit and Bowski's eyes widened in surprise and shock. Something flashed in the darkness and he managed to duck just in time before the pipe smashed into his head.
"Whoa! Stop it! It's me, Marshal Bowski!" Dan shouted and jumped back. He pointed his flashlight at the attacker and raised his other hand in order to show that he was meaning no ill intent.
"Ho! HOOOO! Janice, calm down!" he screamed when a young woman stepped out of the cockpit, a long pipe in her hand, using it as a club.
"Stay away! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" the young, dark-skinned woman screamed. Her eyes were wide open and she looked as if she was in shock.
"Janice! It's me, Marshal Bowski!" Dan barked again. "You're safe! It's okay, just put down the pipe! Everything is fine now. Just calm down!" The young woman stopped and blinked a few times.
"Ma-Marshal?" she stuttered as if she only hadn't even recognized him until now. Dan lowered his flashlight in order not to blind the young woman. Paula's weird hovering crystal produced enough light for them to see each other.
"It's okay, Janice. You're safe now. We're gonna take you back topside and then-" Dan tried to reason with her, but then she catapulted herself forward. For a second, he thought that she wanted to attack him, but then she dropped the pipe and slung her arms around his chest.
"THANK GOD!" Janice sobbed. "I was so scared! So scared! There was this light! And then that voice! And I thought...I thought that someone was making fun of me! But then it chased me and I...I..."
"Janice, stop! Wait!" Dan said. "Light? Voice? What are you talking about?" However, the crying woman was clearly in a state of shock. She looked up at him with tears in her eyes.
"There is something down here! I know it! This place...this...it...I..." Janice stuttered. Dan looked over at Paula, who didn't even seem to care about the fact that the other woman was having a meltdown right now. She was still busy staring at the dead Zergling with the broken tusk and the ancient rifle.
"Kerrigan!" Dan then barked. "Come on, let's go back topside."
"You go ahead." was her only answer, which caused Bowski to frown.
"Are you insane?" he growled. "I'm not gonna lose another person down here. You're coming with me, end of story." He could see how Paula opened her mouth. No doubt she wanted to tell him that she didn't intend to follow his orders, as usual. But then she looked at the rifle once more and she winced in discomfort. It was almost as if the mere existence of this ancient weapon caused her physical discomfort. As if it reminded her of something that she would love to forget. And then...
"You're right. Let's go." she whispered, got back up and simply walked out of the dropship without looking even back. Dan blinked a few times in surprise, not expecting this kind of behavior from her.
"Please...please, there's something down there! I want to go! I...I..." Janice hyperventilated, and the Marshal realized that all other questions had to wait. First, he had to take the young woman back topside.
"Come on. Let's get you out of here." he growled and slung his arm around the young woman that was shaking like crazy. Paula was taking point while Dan was making sure that Janice was not getting lost again. However, on their way back up she wouldn't stop saying the same thing over and over again.
"...the voices...they called for me...there's something down there!"
And while Dan knew that she probably had just imagined things...
...he couldn't help but feel worried.