Magistrate to Commander
Chapter 5: Antiga prime
"Magistrate, Arcturus Mengsk has requested your presence on the bridge." The Adjutant's voice startles me awake.
"I'm up, tell him I'll be up in half an hour." I force myself upright, how long did I sleep for?
"He's giving you five." The Adjutant replies.
"Five half hours? He's generous." I joke as I get out of bed and changing into my uniform as quickly as possible. "Can you tell my guard to get me something I can eat on the move?"
"Yes, Magistrate."
It's strange, having a bodyguard who's also a personal servant… I don't know if that's in the job description but I'll take advantage of it if I can.
Two minutes later there's a knock at my door. "Let him in!" I try to say with a toothbrush in my mouth.
My personal guard enters the room. "I didn't know what you wanted other than 'can be eaten on the go' so I got you some breakfast burritos of varying types." Kaleb says flustered, he must have been sprinting.
Rinse and spit. "Thank you Kaleb." It's a plate of seven wrapped up tortillas, two of them have rice spilling out of them.
"I did what I could." Kaleb salutes and stands at attention, puffing out his chest with pride.
"Thank you." I pick up the plate and balance it with one hand, with the other I pluck part one of my breakfast and quick march out. "I'm needed on the bridge." I say in between bites.
Kaleb nods and falls into step behind me. "I don't think you should be wolfing them down." Kaleb warns me. "Don't you have asthma? If you eat to fast won't you-"
"I'm not made out of glass Kaleb." I reassure him. "Hold the lift!" I call out, increasing my pace.
"Morning magistrate!" It's one of the hyperion's few scientists. "Thank you for getting the data disks for us, we're still finding more stuff on it."
"You're not… manufacturing anything from those plans right?" I ask, dread creeping down my spine.
The lift doors close. "No, right now we're just analyzing the plans and theorycrafting how they work." He assures me.
"Those disks have a weapon that should never be used." I tell him.
"You must be referring to the Psi Emitter, a chilling yet fascinating discovery." He doesn't sound disturbed. "What else have the Confederates been working on? A way to disrupt the Psionic Link the Zerg share perhaps?" And then he dissolves into technical scientific speak that I'm nowhere near intelligent to understand, but I know it revolves around the Zerg… I think. Unsure how pasta is involved with the intricate bioelectric communication system the Zerg share with a lord who decided to give himself a promotion.
The lift door opens and I charge out, already biting down on the second part of my breakfast. The rice is glued together by hot sauce and ghost peppers, what sadist was assigned to be my personal bodyguard?
"The Commander's expecting you." One of the marines by the bridge entrance tells me. "Your guard can wait out here with us." He stops Kaleb from entering.
"I'll be here when you leave!" Kaleb salutes as the door shuts behind me.
Raynor's not here yet. "I thought I was the one going to be late." I say finishing the burrito that wants to watch my mouth burn.
"Greetings Magistrate." Mengsk greets. "You're late."
"Woke up five minutes ago, I hope you don't mind, commander."
"Wake up sooner next time, you take orders from me now."
"Yes sir." I nod. What's the shipboard time? I feel like I get up pretty early.
Mengsk clears his throat. "You and Captain Raynor have done well, Magistrate." Mengsk praises.
"If the facility wasn't abandoned I imagine that we'd have had a much harder time than what we did end up facing." I agree with the captain.
"Regardless." Mengsk continues. "I believe our efforts have weakened the Confederacy's grip on the fringe worlds, but our job out here isn't done yet." Mengsk straightens his collar and clears his throat. "Lieutenant Kerrigan, my second in command will elaborate."
The holoscreen flickers and becomes a 3d model of a soundwave. "I'll get straight to the point, our sources tell us that Antiga Prime is ready to begin open revolt against the Confederacy." Good news. "Unfortunately the Confederates seem to be aware of this as well, they've stationed a large detachment of Alpha Squadron under the command of General Duke."
"Duke." I crush the burrito in my hand, sending most of its contents to the floor. "That hypocrite arrested my men for breaking Colonial law while he was breaking it in turn." My voice is dripping with venom.
"It will be your job to free this colony and show our good intent to the Antigan people Magistrate. Lieutenant Kerrigan will help you deal with Duke's Officers."
"I look forward to working with you, Lieutenant." I tell Kerrigan.
"Likewise."
"The rest of the Confederates are yours to deal with." Mengsk tells me.
"Oh it will be my pleasure." I wipe my hand off with a napkin.
"See you planetside." Kerrigan's transmission ends.
"The Lieutenant will give you more information when you reach the ground, dismissed."
When I leave my bodyguard is replaced by a marine who's painted his armor questionably. "Magistrate!" And it's Kaleb.
"Kaleb?"
"Y-yes, magistrate?"
"Why pink?"
...
"I... wanted my armor to be a mixture of the standard Sok colors.. And yours." He chuckles embarrassed.
"Hot pink though?" I raise an eyebrow.
"I wasn't the one who painted it, but there's no time to file a complaint."
"You are going to be made fun of for the entire mission, I hope you are aware."
Kaleb sighs. "I know sir, I know."
I clear my throat. "Who all volunteered for the Antiga Prime mission?" I ask, intentionally changing the subject.
"Numbers or names?" Kaleb's glad for the subject change.
"Names of officers, numbers for the rest."
"Graves Herold-"
"Graves is alive!?" I say with a start.
"You know him?" Kaleb asks.
"He was my only officer prior to the holdout in Mar Sara City." That's one familiar face.
"We also have a dropship pilot on the list."
"Good, I didn't want mengsk to have to assign me a couple."
"Why?"
"Personal preference."
Kaleb shrugs helplessly. "We have eight marines on the list… and a few 'Viper Gang members'?"
"Psychotic vulture riders." I say with a groan, our mission is to ensure that the antigans see us as friendly, not unstable man children.
The suit assembler lets me go and I take the first few steps carefully. "I don't know if we'll have enough space for four vultures on a single dropship."
"We'll take what we can and leave the rest." Hopefully it'll be none of them.
"Prioritizing…"
"The marines."
Time for me to suit up.
"Pleasure serving under you again, Magistrate." Graves gives me a salute.
"I'm glad to have someone competent to lead the troops."
The Hyperion intercom pipes up. "The Presence of Captain James Raynor has been requested on the bridge." The ship's adjutant announces across the entire ship.
What did he do now? "You did well enough getting our people off of Mar Sara, Magistrate." Graves praises me.
"I'm just lucky." I brush it off.
"Sir, there's a line between luck, and natural talent." The Sargent's faith in me is surprising.
"Let me know when we cross that line, okay?"
"You crossed that line when you got a fourth of Mar Sara's people offworld." Graves chuckles at my realism. The soldiers surrounding us cheer in agreement.
They can believe whatever they want. I turn my back to the applause and enter the dropship, the cockpit opens up automatically and I enter. "Thank you for volunteering, miss?"
"Aaila." Aaila lifts her shades and her cap.
"No." I shake my head, lifting my visor.
"I only accept payment in chestnuts, and it's due upon the mission's completion." She's being sarcastic.
"Maybe as a bonus, but definitely not as the main payment." I compromise.
There's silence for a time. "Sounds like the best deal I'm going to get." Aaila sighs. "What is the main payment if it's not chestnuts?"
"My gratitude."
"Great, that's as bad as being paid in exposure!" Aaila throws her arms into the air exasperated. People take payment in 'exposure' as opposed to 'credits'? "Strap yourselves in boys." She says into the ship's coms.
"Is that standard for pilots to say?"
"You'd be surprised at how many people need to be told to strap in before they actually do it." Aaila scoffs. "We're going from orbit to the ground in thirty minutes, how fast do you think we're going?"
"Are there actually people that-"
"Yes!" Aaila virtually shouts, initiating startup. "I went to jail because some moron didn't buckle in and ended up getting thrown around the shuttle going from orbit to a shuttle terminal." She rants, her controlled fury going into the dropship's controls.
"How?!"
"He claimed I remotely unbuckled his seat and locked it, what's worse was that some of the passengers claimed to have seen it happen." I can hear the hatred in her voice, but then softens up. "My boss tried to defend me, said that the seats are designed to automatically unbuckle in the case of an emergency, but the pilot has no ability to effect the seats themselves."
"Sounds like he was trying to save his company's reputation." I say sympathetically.
"Maybe, but that was all I had…" Aaila sighs. "Tell me you're strapped in." She doesn't look over.
"I'm not an idiot, give me some credit." My turn to scoff.
"Good, I don't want to get kicked out of the Sons of Korhal for 'killing the Magistrate' because you earned the darwin award." Her chuckle is hollow. "Didn't mean to dump all that on you, thinking about that guy made me mad."
"I'd be furious too!" I say quickly, and then sigh. "How long until we get to the ground?"
"Depends on how much resistance we face."
"Keep external coms open, we have an agent on the ground and I'd like to find her."
"Gotcha." She flicks a switch and a red light turns yellow. The shuttle shakes suddenly. "Missile turret, taking evasive action!"
We spin around randomly so fast that my stomach is starting to match Antiga Prime's current situation. "This is Kerrigan, what's your situation?"
"I'm going to assume you're the agent we're looking for." Aaila says through grit teeth. "A missile turret's got us locked, we'll have to back off until it's dealt with."
"Gotcha, sit tight and watch the fireworks." And she cuts off the transmission.
A missile explodes in the air near us, buffering the hull with shrapnel. "Too close for comfort." Aaila spins the craft to the side expertly as another missile explodes where we just were.
It feels like an eternity spent avoiding the missiles, and it feels like we're getting hit more often than not, whatever this thing's made out of I'm thankful that it's held out for so long.
There's an explosion, and not of the missile variety. "We lost an engine, I have to bring us down!" The cabin light turns red and we nosedive towards the ground in a desperate attempt to outrun the unrelenting missile swarm.
The explosions stop. "Impact in three." Did we slip beneath the missile turret's minimum altitude targeting system? "Two." Did Kerrigan destroy the turret? "One."
A little of both, as we touch down I can see a pillar of fire emerge from what I assume used to be the missile turret." Anyone alive in there?" The coms crackles one last time before the transmission cuts.
"I'll check on the passengers." I get out of my seat, using the walls as a focal point for my sense of balance. "Everyone still-" My own vomit interrupts me, and these suits aren't equipped to handle it. "Everyone still in one piece?" I don't dare bring my hand up to wipe my mouth, the hydraulics in these suits can easily break bones.
"Don't mind him, he passed out from the action." Graves says patting a limp marine on the shoulder, his visor is down so I can't verify that, and even if I could I can't see properly through the vomit.
"Everyone at the ready, we march immediately."
"I'll need a few soldiers to keep me company while I scope out the damage." Aaila requests over the ship's intercom. "If I need to repair anything, I'm making the Confederates pay for it."
"Three men stay back and bodyguard the pilot, the rest with me." I order. "We move out now." I hope you're nearby Kerrigan, I don't think we're equipped to find you.
Natural light spills into the dropship as the door lowers, Aaila leaves the safety of the cockpit. "Good luck, cowboys." She watches us go. Three soldiers stay behind while we march away from the dropship.
"Where to?" Graves asks, settling into step next to me.
"We find Lieutenant Kerrigan, she has a better grasp on the situation."
"Do we know where she is?"
"Right here." Kerrigan uncloaks in front of us, and I am left speechless. I'm now angry that puke is blocking half of my vision of one of the most beautiful women that I thought they existed on posters and in movies.
Kerrigan scoffs and rolls her eyes. "You're a ghost, aren't you?" My visor blocks how red my cheeks are, but nothing can hide my embarrassment from a ghost.
"Yes." She's already dismissed me as a hopeless smitten man.
I cough in an attempt to recover. "Mengsk told me you'd have more info when we reached the ground."
Kerrigan tosses a holo projector on the ground and a map appears, several red and white spots dotted here and there. "Each one is a base, White is Confederate and red is Antigan."
"That's about as many as I expected." I walk around the projection with my hands behind my back. "Based on the size, is this one the main Antigan military base?"
Kerrigan nods, walking opposite the projection from me. "It's surrounded by a detachment of Alpha squadron, but the antigan's fortifications are on the high ground."
"That would be the ideal location to start the revolution." I put a finger over the dot in question. "provided we can get the Antigan's support."
"I took the pleasure of scouting out each of the bases before you arrived." Kerrigan states. "The Confederates have networked missile turrets around the base, given that it has a starport."
"Have you been able to see what's inside the starport?" It's possible we can get fighters, and having air superiority makes me happy.
"No, I don't know if they have wraiths."
She's still reading my mind, I feel like my privacy is being breached. "Regardless, having the largest military installation on the planet will make taking the rest of the world much easier."
"If I can get into the command center I can take out the confederate officers in command."
"What's stopping you?" I look up from the map.
"The networked missile turrets, the confederates will know I'm there long before I can reach the antigan base."
"You'll need a distraction, which is where we come in."
"Viper gang rules!" Four vultures come flying out from the Dropship's vehicle hatch.
"Which is where they come in." I correct myself. What better way to keep a military unit distracted than with psychopathic Vulture pilots?
"The Viper Gang?" Kerrigan asks with concern.
"Gang Members from Mar Sara, they only ride Vultures and they've been able to successfully race through seven military installations for the fun of it."
"Seven different instances? How incompetent were your men?" Kerrigan scoffs and I give her a blank look. "In the same race?!" She exclaims.
"The only men I had access too were marines, and it's stretching it when I say that we did catch a couple of their number." I explain. "If I had Siege Tanks, now that would have been a different story altogether." If the Confederates didn't abandon my people to the zerg, it would have been a different story.
"You think that they can keep the Confederates distracted long enough for me to get through?" Kerrigan asks doubtfully.
"I don't think, I know they can. Viper Gang! I have something you want to hear." I call out to the vultures.
Only one of them comes to hear me out. "Yes boss?"
"How would you like to maintain that tradition of yours where you race through military bases?" I offer.
"Boys!" The Viper Gang member calls out, and the other vultures fall into line. "Our Magistrate here is letting us race some stiff suits!"
"Yeaaah!" one of them revs the engine.
"I'm going to lead us there, and then start you off."
"I dig it!" More engine revving.
"Are you sure that's a great idea, Magistrate?" Graves asks with great concern.
"The best, as long as the viper gang doesn't turn on us this should be the easiest revolution to kickstart ever." I boast, puffing my chest out, which doesn't translate well in marine armor.
Kerrigan and Graves are both skeptical, and the vulture gang are now racing around us, howling in anticipation.
Author's Notes: Thank you for reading! I don't have much to say other that I'm probably not going to be doing Author's Notes anymore, unless something happens that needs to be said, but other than that I hope you enjoyed and hope you'll stick around!