I blinked and shielded my face from the scorching sun. Looking around, I grimaced as I realized I'd somehow popped up in the middle of nowhere in some wasteland.
Looking out across the dusty flats, I spied something in the distance. I couldn't tell exactly what it is, but I think it might be people? Whoever they are, they're not heading this way. They appear to be heading towards a pass between two cliffs.
I frowned as I wondered for a moment whether I should practice caution and avoid the group, or throw caution to the wind and try to make contact. For all I know, these could be bad guys, and the last thing I need is to get myself killed.
Not like I really have a choice though. It's either make contact, or stay in the wasteland.
Moving forward, I sighed as I wished for some cover from the glaring sun, which, now that I've noticed, is just off enough for me to be pretty sure I'm not on Earth. Great.
As I continued after the group heading towards the pass, I noticed they stopped and had met up with something else. Now a little closer, I could see that the group appeared to be mostly blue in coloring, and judging from the glint of the sun, were armored in some fashion.
As I continued closer, I noticed that the thing that the group had stopped at was now moving. Pausing, I squinted under the harsh glare and noticed with a bit of alarm that whatever it is, it's heading right towards me!
With nothing else for it, I continued heading towards the thing, which grew closer and closer. As it did so, I studied it as it resolved into a man in some denims, a dusty jacket, some armor, and a helmet, sitting astride an honest to goodness hover bike with what looked like a jet engine built into the back, and what looked like some kind of launcher on the nose.
Once the bike was close enough, I stopped, and the man braked to come close enough for shouting distance.
I nearly fell over though when a familiar voice shouted, "Hey, whatchyall doing all the way out here?"
James Raynor?! #$%! I thought to myself. The last place I want to be right now is Starcraft! I'm gonna end up dead inside of a week, or worse, if I'm not careful!
Aloud, I shouted back, "I honestly don't know! I'm not really sure where 'here' is!"
"Huh. Well this here is the colony world Mar Sara and I'm a marshal in these parts. Name's James Raynor." Raynor said, coming a bit closer so we didn't need to shout anymore.
"Matthew. No last name. Is there any chance I could hitch a ride to civilization?" I asked.
Raynor shook his head, "Only room for one on this Vulture. Tell you what though. You can follow along with the local Magistrate's boys and I'll take you to the same place we're headin, the new garrison and the camp for the relocated colonists since the Confederacy put this planet on lockdown. Once the lockdown ends, we can probably find you a way off this dust ball."
I nodded, even as I gulped as the information he gave me told me exactly where I am. Or more precisely, when I am, and it's not good. Right back at the beginning of the Starcraft 1 Terran campaign. Unfortunately for us, there's already Zerg on this planet, and that lockdown isn't getting lifted any time soon. If I want to get off this rock, I'm gonna have to stick with the colonists. I just wish I could think of something here I could get that would give me an edge here, but unfortunately for the most part I'm just generally screwed and need to focus on survival.
Following Raynor, and the group of marines and SCV's, we headed south towards a Command Center I could now see in the far distance now that we're past the pass. We were ambushed by Zerglings on the way though, and I made use of my Assault Rifle to fight them off. Of course, compared to the marine's burst fire spike thrower gauss rifles, and the Vulture's spewing of fragmentation grenades, my gun was doing jack in comparison. Still, it was better than nothing I guess.
Eventually we made it back to the base, and I got directed to a nearby prefab shanty town full of colonists, while Raynor said his goodbye's and rejoined the garrison to build up some forces for defense.
This is where I ran into my first snag. I didn't have any identification on me except for what stuff I did have. I ended up having to spin a story of getting knocked out on board a ship in space, then waking up here on Mar Sara. It was better than saying that I'm planet hopping everytime, especially since I'm pretty sure I would've run into a lot more trouble if I tried to tell the truth in this case.
While I was taking care of that, Raynor and the Magistrate's forces went out Zerg hunting. They eventually found an infested command center, or so the rumors say which I can confirm from memory. Upon destroying it to stop the Zerg from hounding us, the lot of us along with Raynor was threatened with arrest.
Thus lead to the current predicament. The Sons of Korhal have made contact and have promised aid in evacuating the planet. We just have to hold out till the dropships get here. In the meantime, the garrison has been running full tilt trying to get everything ready. CMC Power Armor and gauss rifles were being handed out like candy, and we all were expected to do our part for the defense.
Thus it was that I found my bag, armor, and stuff, all packed away in a crate that I would be picking up later and sitting in a bunker just behind the front lines in a suit of CMC power armor, firing a C14 Gauss Rifle into any Zerg I saw. If not for the armor deafening the noise, I probably would've gone deaf from the three other rifles shooting. Thankfully one of the lot was an actual marine, and quickly had us firing two at a time so there'd always be an outpouring of burst fire.
A few times the bunker came under fire, and a few times Zergling claws nearly swiped us from reaching through the viewports. We all had a timer counting down to the Sons of Korhol arriving by this point, and at the fifteen minute mark, one of the others actually lost their gun to a Zergling attacking lightning fast through the viewport. They would've lost their arm too if not for the marine's quick thinking in firing at the viewport and severing the gun suddenly while I grabbed the unfortunate conscript and pulled them back. Good thing the bunker had spare rifles and almost ludicrous amounts of ammunition. We weren't going to be running out anytime soon.
Eventually, the countdown did hit zero, and the reinforcements from the clearly red marked Sons of Korhol sprayed a line of suppressing fire as we were all immediately ordered to make a tactical retreat to the dropships. We did just that, and I grabbed the crate carrying my stuff that I'd left nearby and ran towards the dropship as fast as I could.
As soon as everyone had gotten aboard the dropships, they all peeled away from Mar Sara, and I sighed in relief. Eventually we docked with one of the Sons of Korhol's larger repurposed civilian ships and processed to our own rooms for the duration. It was a convoluted process, but basically the Sons were offering to drop people off at a planet from which they could leave to their own particular destination... or they could enlist to help the cause. The amount of propoganda about it was nearly ludicrous, taking advantage of the people's near death escape to point out the dangers of the Zerg and that with the Sons they could not only stay safe but strike back at the enemy, and other such things.
I wasn't pulled into that kind of thing, but it did make me wonder about my options, as I sat in my bunk. I'd already returned my CMC armor and rifle when asked, and took my crate to my assigned bunk, which was shared by four others at any given time, and I redressed in my UNSC marine armor, packing everything back the way I had it before this mess started.
On the one hand, I could get dropped off on a planet, and... hopefully find one that'll end up surviving the coming Zerg, the Terran civil war, and the Protoss on top of it all, killing Zerg and Terran alike as needed. I have no idea what planets, if any, were untouched by their First Great War, so I'm at a bit of a loss there.
On the other hand, I could stay here with the Sons, probably be enlisted as a marine, and get killed fighting the Zerg or Terrans or Protoss, or discovered by Mengsk and one of his ghosts and captured and pumped for information and/or tortured until the week is up.
Ok, put like that, I think I'll take my chances with getting the heck away from these guys and keeping a low profile. So I did just that, opting to leave the fleet, and feeling as though I was only able to breathe freely once I was finally on the dropship heading down to the surface of the planet X4342665. I suppose it figures that with enough planets, some would generally have designations rather than names I suppose.
Making it down to the surface, I learned that the next transport scheduled to stop by would be here in a month. So, along with the few others who came with, I could either rough it out here, or barter passage with any of the rougher ships that came through, assuming shipping stayed normal at all with the looming war on the horizon.
On the fontier like this, news was somewhat slow in coming, so I only learned two days after the fact that the Protoss had soon descended on Mar Sara and carved up its landmass in order to sterilize the planet of Zerg. If I remember correctly, this would be the last planet Tassadar would do this to before he wouldn't be able to take it anymore and would take the fight directly to the Zerg rather than destroy human planets wholesale. Surprisingly decent of him, but not very pragmatic considering the enemy they face.
I ended up staying on that nameless planet for four days before I was able to barter passage to the Umojan Protectorate. I couldn't remember if they had any issues with facing the Zerg, or if they had any particular evil to them, but at the very least, what I do remember lets me know that they survived the war at least. From what I've read up, Umoja sounds like a good place to hole up for now, though considering the amount of time it would take to get there, and the roundabout way my ride was doing it, I might not actually see the planet before the week was up.
I say barter, but for the most part, I basically just impressed the captain by showing him what I could do with my weapons, and he hired me on for the ride over as both security and temporary crew. It wasn't a glorious job, but it would do. I mainly kept to myself for the most part, not interacting with the others, and I quickly gained a reputation of being a quiet loner.
Just as I had thought, the week ended before we even reached Umoja, and it was some relief that I welcomed the darkness even as I prayed that the next universe wouldn't be some place worse.