Chapter Six

Veronica Barns

Central Zerg base, Planet Char

0550 Hours Local

Kerrigan attacked me again and again with psychic blows, and under each one, I felt I knew what an egg must feel like before it gets cracked open. Another kick cracked open part of the Hydralisk's side, and I nearly blacked out from the pain. She was about to hit me again, but in pure reflex, I blocked her attack. Looking into what was once a human face, I got the Hydralisk's needle spines ready, and I fired off a salvo!

The spines blasted out of their chest cavity and at point-blank range, Kerrigan had little time to react as they blasted away speeds that rivalled the high-velocity rounds on most fighter aircraft. At ranges, those spines normally embedded themselves into flesh, steel, concrete or some other material and shattered on impact to inject a virus that would kill any living thing in a matter of days if not treated extremely quickly.

At point-blank range though, the spines had no chance to shatter and instead punched several fist-sized holes right through Kerrigan! She looked down at the normally fatal wounds in disbelief and I took that opportunity to slash at her with the Hydralisk's scythes. I must have hit her across the head with the dull edge of one of them because she seemed to pass out a few seconds later. When she did, all the Zerg around me simply stopped what they were doing, and went onto attacking each other!

Time to go, I thought. And I tried to pull myself away from the wounded Hydralisk and go back to my own body. The pain from Kerrigan's attacks was getting worse, and I was starting to wonder what would happen if I died in this body.

I shuddered at the worst-case scenario at being reincarnated as this monstrosity, and tired again to push myself away from the Hydralisk.

Captain Felix Graff

Above Korhal, Tarsonis

1456 Hours Local

The SU-37 'Terminator' off to my left was a thing of beauty; Sharp edges, smooth curves, and sleek deadly weapons. I smiled behind my oxygen mask, knowing that I was also flying one of those planes. The BAF, Belkan Air Force, had decided to pair me up with Rainer Altman, a former ace of the Belkan War, and now referred to as Gelb 1. I was Gelb 2; although I had the feeling I could outmanoeuvre him. I was about four year younger then he was, and for a fighter pilot, a simple difference in age can mean a world of difference.

I checked the positions of the squadron that had been assigned to watch, Wizard Squadron. I easily saw their four F-16XLs on my radar, but I had a harder time seeing the YF-23s because of their stealth capabilities.

"AWACS, where are the Wizard Squadron Black Widows? I can't find 'em on my radar."

"Bearing Three-Four-Zero, high. Distance: 1.5 miles. Over." AWACS SkyEye replied.

I looked in that direction, and sure enough, I saw them: four black specks a mile and a half away. Right where they were supposed to be.

The mission was to simply fly around, out of range of ground-based fire, and observe the city defences. So far, the defences included several small-scale tactical nukes, and a fleet of ships identified as 'Battlecurisers'. We could easily have taken out the nukes, but the Battlecurisers were another story entirely. They were large, heavily armoured and they packed A LOT of firepower. More then enough to bring each of us down in only a few shots.

"Gelb Squadron, Wizard Squadron," the AWACS said as we began another pass of the city. "We've detected several military aircraft inbound on vector 090 at ten miles, closing fast. Believed to be new-type hostile aircraft. Please confirm and set weapons for Condition Tango. Over."

GREAT! I thought. Condition Tango was the new Soviet term for 'Fire only if fired upon'. That was one of the worst conditions for a pilot going into possible combat because it meant that the other guy had a free first shot. The bogeys were in sight now, and with my sharp eyes, I saw that there were only six of them, and I could make out that they looked very similar to the Protoss Scout fighters. Although they may sound like they were just for recon, they were actually heavily armed high-speed fighters that were estimated to be as good, if not better then, the SU-37 'Terminator'.

The enemy fighters closed so fast that I almost missed them when they passed right through out formation, and went onto our six. The one trailing me triggered the missile lock, and I jinked hard to avoid it.

Veronica Barns

Central Zerg base, Planet Char

0610 Hours Local

Eventually, after a while of slithering, I made it out of the Zerg base, but my wounds were getting to be a bit too much for me to stay awake. It wasn't that they hurt, far from it, but it was the simple fact of blood loss that was doing me in. I was getting tired and taking in more ragged breaths trying to fight off shock. Suddenly, I was wracked with immense pain as something heavy and fast-moving slammed into me.

I was thrown back from the sudden impact and I heard some kind of unnatural squealing sound, then a few clunking noises. Too dazed to even see straight, I tired feebly to lash out at what had just hit me, and then I heard: "Holy shit! That's the biggest one you've ever hit Charley! It's the biggest one I've ever seen!"

"I've seen bigger, trust me kid." There was pause, then: "hmm… this thing looks like it's about to become a Hunter-Killer. Must have killed a helluva lot of things in its lifetime and seen a lot of battles. We should take it in to be studied."

"Are you sure that's a good idea, boss? This thing seems to be still alive, and if it's gonna become an HK soon, shouldn't we kill it?"

"Still too young, if we study this thing, then we can make a bio-weapon that'll kill off ALL Hydras. Normal or HKs. We take this thing in, got it?"

"Yessir, I'll make some room on the truck bed."

I heard some clanging sounds, and eventually: "okay, drag that thing over here and let's get the hell outta here! This place is makin' me nervous."

I dimly recall being dragged slowly onto something, and then I started moving even though I was too dazed to do anything more then a reflex action.

Nicky Hammond

Arkbird

70 miles above Basset Space Center, Osea

2311 Hours Local

We had received orders to go back to the Ace Combat Universe to pick up some things from the Mass Driver. It's how we got all our supplies—food, water, and other basic necessities like that—but this time was different. As we went down to the pick-up altitude, I wondered what the SSTO craft would bring us this time. I wondered this as I Changed the wolf in me hating the confined space of the Arkbird, but loving the fact that for once I was experiencing gravity again. Apparently wolves hate being in a Zero G environment. You learn something new everyday I suppose.

Anyways, I heard the dull pinging noise that informed everyone that the SSTO was now safely attached and we could unload its cargo at anytime. It also let the crew of both craft know that in a few minutes, we'd be going back up into space and starting to do a gravity-simulating spin.

I walked over to the cargo bay, and tried to focus my vision enough so I could see what was being unloaded. I smelled food, so I knew that it must have been the weekly re-supply shuttle, but then I also saw a sort black egg-shaped thing being handled with extreme care. I got closer, and saw that as well as that thing, there was the replacement Remora UCAVs.

My focus was on that egg-shaped thing though. I tired to sniff it, but got nothing other then the metallic scent that came with almost everything onboard this spacecraft. Following the people handling the thing through several passageways, they loaded it into a sort of tube. I started to focus on the speech that the crew of the SSTO were saying.

"Okay, that's one of them, where are the other three?"

"Probably being held up by some kind of delay. After all, they're more used to working in XB-0 then in this thing."

"Yeah, that's true. Although what I can't understand is why the XB-0 can't do this. Nukes on the Arkbird? Whatever happened to its clean reputation?"

"That disappeared as soon as the laser got put onto this thing. Besides, you heard the report: the AA defences are too heavy to allow the XB-0 to get close enough to attack the Zerg base, so we gotta hit them from this thing."

Nuclear weapons? HERE? On the Arkbird? My blood ran cold, and I felt a shiver run through my body. Nuclear weaponry that can be used from space was always one of my biggest fears. Now, the SOLG had already actualized that nightmare, but this was completely different. I lived on the Arkbird; the SOLG was just a weapon. A remotely controlled gun in space. But now… I shuddered, and left to see how many bombs were actually going too loaded into my home.