Magistrate to Commander
Chapter 17: Remnants of the Ravaged World
The dropship shakes, my goliath's shock absorbers minimize the throttling I take, but I can feel the battle going on as we're on our way to the ground.
Kare's sitting next to me in the goliath's cockpit, cleaning her rifle as silent as a grave. We touch down. "Kare?"
She looks up at me.
"What're we going to be seeing in the Academy?"
"Depends on what the Zerg haven't eaten."
"What're we most likely to see?" I correct my question as the ramp lowers for the Goliath to leave, I can see Marines lining the ramp, keeping the perimeter clear.
"Ghosts, scavengers, pirates, dominion soldiers, confederate soldiers who believe you're still a traitor… and automated defences." She lists off the possibilities as I walk the mech out of the Dropship.
Explosions shake the ground as Siege Tanks open fire. "Talk to me Jackson, how close are we to the target?"
"City to your east, main entrance is an abandoned warehouse." Saura answers.
"Zerg are pulling back to protect the Cerebrate and the egg, I've never seen so many!" Jessica states.
"Fall back to the Marauder and Jormandr, the Zerg will overwhelm you faster than you think they will." I warn.
"You heard the Magistrate!" Saura barks.
The transmission cuts as Jessica starts talking back.
"Alright, any sight of Greg and his men?"
"Dominion Battlecruiser on approach." The Marauder reports.
"Jormandr engaging."
"Negative Magistrate, but I'm seeing a city overrun with Zerg." A Siege tank operator reports as another shell is fired.
"The Dominion are already here." Kare says climbing on top of the Goliath, and then cloaks.
Ghosts. "Weapons free." I tell the squad. "Jackson we're going to secure a forward position, once it's ours I want a base dropped for us."
"Understood, SCV's are building."
"Move out." I order, and the ground shakes as the convoy mobilizes, the last of the dropships take off for the Jackson, her wraiths strafing the skies and keeping Zerg fliers busy.
"Dominion Siege tanks moving into position on the high ground to our south." The mobile Adjutant informs me.
"Double time it, I don't want to be in range when they start firing." The Zerg start pouring out of the city to greet us. "Don't stop, we need to get inside the gates before we're annihilated!"
I can hear Kare's rifle, how she can aim up there surprises me. Wraiths flyby overhead, shooting into the city before a cloud of scourge chases them off. "Strike one Zerg hive Command, we will continue to provide aerial support."
"I read you!" I shout as the wraiths cloak to lose the scourge, the cloud moves erratically around an overlord, forcing the unfortunate wraith to decloak.
"Something can still see me!" The wraith states worriedly.
"Cluster rockets loaded, mind the shrapnel." I inform the wraith, firing into the cloud above. "Locate the Zerg… Sensors, and take them out." I order the Armada.
"Engaging emergency warp, watch out ground forces." The Jormandyr warns.
"What's going-" A Yamato blast cleaves through the clouds, through the Zerg and strikes the ground with enough force to make the ground shake.
"Are you alright down there?" Saura asks.
"We're alright, it hit the city though." I say as Kare climbs back into the cockpit.
"Dominion Ghosts have been dealt with."
"We're about to see more, don't let your guard down." I say, she already knows this, but it needs saying regardless.
"Doubting my abilities?"
No.
"Jackson here, we have visual on Greggory's forces, they're enroute from the south, but Zerg forces are closing in." The Jackson informs us.
"Give them some cover, we're in the city."
"Structures enroute."
A familiar roar emanates from farther inside of the city.
"I'll need some flying bricks for the Ultralisk we're about to encounter." I don't think there was a weapon in the Confederate's arsenal able to punch through it's armor, short of dropping a building on them of course.
"There isn't." Kare informs me.
That's what I thought. "Form a perimeter! We need a foothold and the Zerg will fight us tooth and nail."
"Jormandyr returning from emergency warp, we'll be unable to make another warp until the drive's repaired."
"More warp signatures detected inbound, if it's Dominion reinforcements we won't be able to hold for long." Jessica warns.
"Can you speed it up, Max?" Saura asks with strained politeness.
"If you want to ask the Zerg to let us past, I'm more than willing to let you." I retort.
"We can't wait for the base to arrive, I can take a small team and infiltrate the Ghost Academy." Kare offers.
"Do it, the Dominion really want what's here, and we can't let them have it." The side door opens, and my bodyguard hops out. "We can't spare much, the Zerg will be unrelenting."
"Understood."
"Siege tanks get on those walls and provide artillery support!"
"Moving!"
The first buildings land, no command center yet, and a transport unloads SCV's. "SCV's get some bunkers set up, we're sitting ducks out here in the open!"
"Roger!"
"Give the engineers cover marines!"
"Smoke em!" Firebats and marines rush ahead of the defensive line being set up.
"Sir, we could use some of these buildings as garrisons!" A marine pipes up.
"Excellent idea, once the bunkers are finished, get to work fortifying some of the buildings."
"Yes sir!"
"Magistrate, we've encountered an Ultralisk and are taking refuge in a parking garage, it knows we're here." Kare radios in.
"Drop a brick on it."
I look up and see several bricks coming down, I know they're bricks because I had Simmons paint bricks on the chosen buildings.
"What do we need to do?"
"Same as a nuke, paint the target and a brick will be by… I hope."
"You hope?"
"It's not like we had time to test these, Adjutant await 'brick' targeting."
"Searching… Target acquired, 'Brick' deployed." One of the bricks takes off and starts moving.
"It's on it's way, time to crush the bastard." I can't help but grin as I watch the brick take off, my Goliath's auto targeting taking over for me while I watch the spectacle.
The brick flips around and powers into the ground beneath it, I can hear the aftermath.
"-ax? Max can you hear me?" Greggory asks on the local coms. "We're at the randevou, where the hell are you!?"
"I can hear you! We're in the city fending off Zerg, I think we beat the Dominion here!" First good news since we landed.
The command center lands, and I take my Goliath off of auto target.
"Alright Adjutant, what are we looking at?" I ask, entering the holo room as it powers up, a pair of marines are standing guard right outside… just in case.
"No hive cluster detected in city limits, Nydus Worms are transporting Zerg forces directly into the city from the hive cluster."
"Take out the worms take out the supply lines, You listening Kare?"
"Yes Magistrate, secondary priority set."
I can see where they are on the holo desk, and the Academy's secret warehouse entrance is highlighted in yellow, the Nydus Worms are highlighted as orange. "Kare, it looks like there's a Nydus Worm inside the warehouse, I'd say brick it, but I don't want to collapse the Academy entrance."
"We don't have the firepower to deal with it, can we get some artillery support?"
"Open the warehouse up without collapsing the only entrance we know of and I'll gladly authorize an artillery strike."
"Understood."
"How's the gate looking?" I turn my attention to the main gates of the city.
"Not much resistance sir!" A siege tank replies.
"I want bunkers set up, just in case."
"Hey Max, the Zerg are falling back." Greggory says, sounding confused.
"What?" This goes against all I know of the Zerg. "Zerg don't give up, they run at you until you choke on the bodies."
"They're returning to the hive, any thoughts why?" Greggory shrugs on the holo.
"The egg!" I move the Holo screen over to the main hive cluster, the largest hive to date, and the egg on the perimeter. "They're pulling back to protect the egg, we can use this to our advantage." And already I can see how.
"Omega Squadron is yours, Max." Greggory says.
"Protect the base and meet me in the Command Center."
"Incoming Transmission." The Adjutant says, and Duke's face appears on the coms.
"You have guts boy, coming back here."
"What? You honestly thought I'd let the Dominion have free reign on the Ghost Academy?" I scoff.
"I should have shot down your transports while you were leaving Mar Sara, boy." The General says through clenched teeth. "You've been nothing but a pain in my ass."
"And I should have left you to die in Norad Two, but no, Mengsk wanted you in his army despite knowing how we thought about you." Bitterness fills me mouth.
"Men I want those rebels wiped out, there's nowhere for them to run."
"Four Dominion Battlecruisers have warped in!" Jessica shouts alarmed. "We're outnumbered two to- Protoss ships just warped in, attempting to hail our friends."
"Making allies with aliens now, rebel?" Duke spits. "You truly are desperate, the Dominion will wipe you-"
I manually end the transmission, I was getting tired of the senile's ranting. "Let's hope it's Tassadar."
"They're rejecting our hails, I don't think they're Tassadar's." I watch as the dots in orbit continue to move.
"Are they really on our side?" The Jormandyr asks.
"What's going on?" Greggory steps into the room.
"Protoss just warped in, we're attempting to make contact." I tell him.
"Protoss?" At first he's confused. "The Zerg, right… they're going to Glass the surface soon."
"Hopefully they'll wait until we're offworld before doing that."
"Well they aren't shooting at us, I think that's all we can hope for." Saura notes.
"Our warp core is still damaged, the extent of it is still being surveyed, it will take time." The Jormandyr informs us.
We're not leaving anyone behind. "Keep us updated, I want to know the moment we can leave."
"Will do."
"Explosion detected."
I bring the holo back to the city, the warehouse hiding the Nydus Worm is gone. "Roof's gone." Kare states.
"A promise is a promise, Siege Tanks be ready to receive target, Adjutant scan for 'paint'."
"Scanning."
"Painting the target."
"Scan complete, relaying Coordinance to mobile artillery."
"Collateral is my favorite kind of damage!"
I can feel the artillery firing, and it doesn't stop for a good minute, pausing only when Kare's team repositions. "Target eliminated, let's hope the entrance is still in one peice."
Without warning, the team vanishes from the holo. "Kare? Kare, can you hear me?"
Nothing. "Commander Greggory Reikson reporting for duty, sir!" The Commander salutes me.
"It's been a few years since I've last seen you, man!" I give the commander a friendly slap on the armored shoulder. "We'll have to catch up another time, we have Dominion to deal with."
"My last orders were to destroy an R&D site, we took the liberties of pilfering some schematics." he says with a grin.
"No way."
"Yes sir!" He pulls out a container, and within are a dozen or so data disks and petri disks. "This is everything from the site, blueprints, research notes, samples, the bigger stuff is outside."
"We'll have to find an egghead or two to make sense of all this." Mar Sara was a colony with a focus on farming, and Antiga Prime was a trade center… We may have to go to Deadman's Port to find someone.
"Warning, Dominion Dropships are touching down outside of artillery range." The Adjutant alerts us.
"Greg, I want you reinforcing the gate, the Dominion cannot have access to through this gate while we're still here."
"We'll hold the line." My friend nods.
"Take one of the vacant consoles to direct your forces while I direct the rest of the Armada from here."
"On it." Greg rushes to a console, and suddenly this is feeling more like a command center than it ever has before.
"Marauder here, it seems like the Zerg are moving the egg, they've noticed the Protoss blockade."
"Make them stop, if the egg leaves they'll have no reason to hold back."
"We'll handle it." Jessica offers.
"Incoming Scourge." Saura informs the captain.
"Shit! Recall all air superiority fighters and defend the battlecruisers!" Jessica barks.
"Engaging Yamato Cannon, going to wipe the hive out of existence." Jormandyr says, and I move the holo back to orbit. "Firing."
The largest Zerg bio-signature I've ever seen suddenly warps between the battlecruiser and the hive. "What the hell is that thing!?" The Marauder shouts as the Jormandyr discharges.
The Yamato cannon doesn't cut through the new bioform, but it slowly falls to the planet. "I think you killed it, Jormandyr." I congratulate the Battlecruiser, knowing full well that it can't hear me.
"Dominion ships are moving around the protoss fleet." The Marauder informs.
"Kare, what's your status?" I ask.
All I get in reply is static, hopefully we'll hear from them soon.
A series of explosions go off in the city. "What just happened?!" I demand.
"Several government buildings just went up in flames, it has to be the Dominion trying to wipe out anything we could find!" Saura exclaims.
"Isn't the Ghost Academy below ground?"
"No, it's hiding as one of the core buildings, it's still up but who knows for how long."
"Sir, my men have engaged Dominion armor!" Greg calls out.
"Are they making headway?" I turn my attention to the Commander.
"No sir, we've already deployed our anti armor, it'll take a lot more than a blitzkrieg to break us."
"Keep it up Greg, we won't be here for long."
"The Zerg have engaged the Protoss, Dominion forces are maneuvering around the confrontation."
"Refrain from using your Yamato Cannons, we can't afford having any of our ships stuck recharging, how's the Jormandyr faring?"
"It's still drifting, Behemoth Class ships take longer to recharge than Minotaur Class ones." Jessica notes.
"This is Kare, we need immediate extraction." Kare's voice suddenly crackles to life. "The Zerg are pouring into the Academy, we got what we needed and are ready to leave."
"Hold on-" I move the holo back to the city. "Okay Kare, I have a fix on your location, transports are inbound."
"We ran into what was left of a Black Ops unit, they've agreed to work with us in exchange for transport offworld."
"Excellent!" How can I say no to the Confederate's Special Forces? "Adjutant, I want a dozen transports enroute to the Agent's location, take them straight to the Jackson."
The command center lights flash red. "Warning, Nuclear launch detected." A large red X appears over the holo representation of the Command Center.
"Where's the nuke coming from!?" Greg shouts.
"Adjutant!"
"Nukes are enroute from silos located on Tarsonis, first missile ETA: one hour." The nukes start appearing on the sensors, flashing bright red. "Comsat station online, scans available."
The walls and gate to our west immediately rule it out, we have an active sensor net around it, so whoever it is, is painting the Command Center from inside the city.
I move to tap the hologram where there's a grouping of tall buildings, seems like the most likely location, but I have a gut feeling that he's in the nearby ruins. "Scan here." I tap the blast zone of one of the Yamato cannons, part of the wall is missing.
A tiny red dot appears, surrounded by many roaming purple ones. "Psionic signature detected in scan radius."
And then it runs. "We're too late, it has a fix on the Command Center." I say, and the Adjutant highlights the estimated blast radius of the first nuke, which easily covers the entire base.
"Can we move base and avoid it?" Greg asks.
"Don't look at me, I don't know how a nuke works!"
"Evacuate the area, we have what we came for." Saura chimes in.
"Get us the hell out of here!"
"Dropships enroute, have everything ready by the time they get there." Jessica says calmly.
"You heard the woman!" I bark at Greg.
It's pandemonium, communications are lit up like a christmas tree, a chorus of sergeants, engineers, and pilots talking over one another.
"Warning, connection lost to perimeter missile turrets, they have opened fire on the incoming transports."
The Ghost got em. "Shut down the sensor grid, without eyes they can't fire."
"But we won't be able to see either." Greg objects.
"I know that, but we need those transports!" I snap back, disconnecting the mobile adjutant from the command center. "And we're done, get us out of here commander!"
Greg grabs his rifle and we hurry out at a brisk pace. Wouldn't do any good to survive the nuke storm only to die of asthma.
"All aboard." Aaila says through the dropship's loudspeaker, dropping the vehicle bay ramp for my Goliath to enter. "Buckle up, be ready for some chop." Greg heads up to the infantry hold as more personal flood into the dropship.
The skyscrapers off in the distance explode in fiery fury, and collapse to the ground. "Ghost Academy destroyed." A new voice joyfully says on local coms.
"Thanks for the ride, Magistrate." Who I assume is the Black Ops Commander speaks up on the same channel.
"No one will be left for the Zerg, not again." I say solemnly. "Jackson, has the egg managed to get offworld?"
"We've lost visuals sir."
"Where did it go?"
"It disappeared when the massive zerg appeared."
That doesn't bode well. I plug the Adjutant into the Goliath. "Incoming transmission."
"You think you've won, but not only did we reclaim every nuke on this rock, but you've only taken the scraps we've left behind." Duke informs me.
I frown as shockwaves from the first nuke detonating resonates through the dropship. "Don't underestimate us, General, we took the Hyperion, we took Dylar, and soon enough we'll take Korhal as well, for everyone you've killed!" For Serah.
"Command center destroyed."
"You can't hide behind your protoss allies forever, you and your rebellion will crumble before the Dominion." Duke promises.
"I'm winning this war, Duke, for everyone you've killed playing with the Zerg." I vow. For Serah, Mengsk will pay.
"Transmission terminated." I close my eyes and take a breath.
"Is the Jormandyr still recharging?"
"No word from- Jormandyr! Status?" Saura changes attention from me to someone on another console.
"Magistrate, the Jormandyr's Warp Drive's still damaged… And the Dominion are warping out?"
"Dylar!" I can't help but exclaim.
"Do you think they'd immediately go there?" Jessica asks.
"I don't know, but we can't leave the Jormandyr alone or else the Zerg will swarm them, we wait here until it can warp." I say through grit teeth. Good luck Raynor.
Massive Props to I3lood_Knight for not only helping to write this, but also helping me to get back into writing again