Haven Colony
1:14 PM – Local Time
Nova, Ace, and a squad of Nighthawk forces were traveling north, away from the Jamestown Outpost and the Griffin, following a road leading North. A handful of Militia Marines were following along with them. They'd been marching north for about ten minutes now.
"This doesn't feel right." Nova muttered.
"Problem, Commander?" Ace asked.
"A Protoss Observatory built in secret? That doesn't sound like the Protoss. Even the Tal'darim aren't that sneaky." Nova said as Ace looked forward for a moment before looking back at her.
"Maybe it's those Dark Templar guys. You never know when those creeps are lurking around." Ace replied but Nova didn't seem convinced.
"I don't think the Protoss are involved at all. I can usually sense some kind of psionic presence when Protoss are around. I'm not getting anything." Nova said as Ace looked straight ahead.
"Stay frosty boys, I've got a bad feeling about this." Ace said as they continued to march.
…
The Griffin – Bridge
Meanwhile
Corporal Song was at her station, monitoring the deployment of the Nighthawk troops and the mobilization of their SCVs as they collected vespine from a nearby refinery. She was monitoring the deployment as Reigel entered the bridge with Morales close behind.
"Welcome to the bridge, Lieutenant." Reigel commented as Hana looked over her shoulder at the two as they approached the main console in the center.
"Getting the grand tour already, Reigel?" Hana asked with a smile.
"Lieutenant Morales wanted to run a few scans with the Griffin's sensor array. Ah, Lieutenant Rosa Morales, this is Corporal Hana Song, our acting pilot and adjutant." Reigel introduced as Morales gave her a cordial nod.
"Hey, didn't you win the Umojan Gaming Tournament a few years ago?" Rosa asked as Song's eyes lit up.
"Yeah, that was me. You watch the UGTs?" Hana asked but Rosa shook her head.
"No, I just saw you in the newsletter." Rosa replied as she and Reigel approached the front console.
"Oh." Hana muttered, lightly crestfallen.
"What scan did you want to perform?" Reigel asked as Rosa produced a data disc.
"This disc contains the information on the virus. I want to see if we can detect it with your scanners, see how much of the colony is infected." Rosa said as Hana cleared her throat.
"Uh, just curious, how do we know you didn't bring the virus onboard?" Hana asked as Reigel took the disc and plugged it in, starting to configure the sensors.
"I've been sealed in my armor since I arrived on Haven and I passed through the standard decontamination procedures when I came aboard." Rosa said as Reigel pulled up the sensor displays.
"Running a scan on the base here as a control. No contaminants here. Scanning Colony Site One…Mmm." Reigel grimaced as they saw a big blob of red representing Site One, showing a 99% infection.
"All of the people who were clean were sent here to the base. I think sites two, three, and four will be just as bad. Site One was the first place to report the virus." Rosa reported.
"Site Two is infected as well…wait a minute." Reigel said as he looked at the sensors again, zooming them out to display a view of the colony from overhead with all of the colony sites and Jamestown Outpost highlighted and notated. Site one was in the center with two and four to the northeast and south east respectively, and site three to the west while Jamestown Outpost was to the northwest of site one and northeast of site three.
"And you say site one was where the virus was first reported?" Reigel asked as Rosa looked at him.
"I think we're thinking the same thing. Pull up file Rosa-6 from the disc. It's the infection report logs. I've been wanting to run this analysis for a while. I just haven't had the equipment to do it." Rosa said as Reigel pulled up the logs, running them through the computer. The display then showed a simulation of the virus's spread, starting at site one, the virus infecting nearly half of site one before spreading to site three, an arrow pointing towards three from site one. Site four was the second site infected, another arrow pointing to it from site one. Finally, site two was infected and now it was only a matter of watching the infection rates increase in the four sites. Jamestown Outpost remained uninfected.
"That is not good." Rosa said with a grim expression.
"No, it's not." Reigel said as he zoomed the view out to show a larger view of the area around the base.
"Running a scan to the north." Reigel said as yellow circles started appearing on the screen in areas to the north for a moment before turning blue, indicating no detections, as the sensors swept across the area. Finally, after several scans they found what they were looking for.
"There, that's where the virus came from!" Reigel commented, as Morales looked closer at the screen. At the same time, Hana's console started beeping.
"That's where the Protoss base is?" Morales asked.
"That's not Protoss." Reigel replied.
"Uh, Reigel, we've got company in orbit! That science vessel from the Dominion, I think it's here!" Morales said as Reigel pulled up their long-range scanners.
"Wait, something's not right. That ship isn't registering as Dominion. Its transponder is identifying itself as the Malthael." Reigel said as Hana's console started beeping.
"It's firing some kind of missile! It's headed straight for site one!" Hana reported as they saw the missile, being represented by a dotted red line from the science vessel, head straight for site one. They all held their breath as the missile impacted near the center of site one. They looked out the Griffin's windows towards the site and just saw the white contrail from the missile in the distance but no explosion.
"What happened? No explosion." Rosa said, confused but an alarm started going off on Hana's console.
"What the-…Reigel, I'm picking up a massive number of Zerg bio-signatures coming from the site!" Hana reported as Reigel and Morales both turned back to the display, looking at the sensors which showed a flashing red circle showing a rapidly declining number of infected but a just as rapidly increasing number of Zerg.
"Mother mercy, it's not an infection…it's an infestation!" Rosa exclaimed as Reigel turned to Hana.
"Get Nova on the comms, Corporal." He said as Hana gave a nod.
"I'm on it!" she replied.
…
Back north of the base, Nova and her forces were trekking through a wooded area, marching towards where a clearing large enough for a base or outpost to be located. As they approached, they heard the sonic boom of something overhead. They all turned and saw a contrail flying rapidly in from orbit, headed straight towards the surface.
"What was that?" one of the marines asked.
"Looked like a warhead of some kind." One of the Marauders commented.
"A missile, fired from orbit, but no explosion?" Ace muttered in confusion.
"Something's happened, I can feel it." Nova replied in a low tone as her comms crackled to life.
"Nova! It's Reigel! Please respond!" Reigel said over the comms.
"Reigel, what's going on?" Nova asked.
"A science vessel dropped out of warp and fired a missile at the colony! It's caused some kind of reaction in the infected! It's turning them into Zerg!" Reigel exclaimed as Nova's eyes widened.
"Did you say Zerg?!" she asked. Now Ace and several of the marines were looking at her.
"Morales believes that the missile was carrying the catalyst to activate the virus's true form! It's an infestation virus!" Reigel reported as Nova sensed something behind her. She turned back to the north, scanning the brush ahead of them before seeing a glint of light flashing in the bushes, her eyes widening again.
"Take cover!" Nova yelled just before the sound of gunfire filled the air, bullets spraying through the woods. The marines took cover, firing into the bushes. Nova quickly cloaked, disappearing as Ace took the lead.
"Light 'em up boys! Marauders! Smoke 'em out!" Ace yelled, the marauders moving forward and firing a few grenades into the bushes, one of them exploding and launching a Terran Marine into the air. The marine had white armor with the Angel insignia on it.
"Oh hell it's those Angels! Let's send 'em to hell! Firebats, turn and burn!" Ace ordered, the Firebats unleashing jets of napalm into the brush, igniting it and forcing several Angel Marines and a few marauders out of the brush. Some of them were suddenly shot dead by perfect headshots, seemingly from out of nowhere.
"I think we know whose base we were coming up on!" Ace said as one of the Angel Marines took aim but his rifle only clicked repeatedly as he ran out of ammo. Ace quickly shot him in the legs before grabbing him and dragging him behind their lines.
"You've got ten seconds to talk before I tear your skull from your head and beat you to death with it!" Ace roared at him with his rifle trained on him. The Marine's helmet remained sealed but he silently flipped him off. Ace was about to pull the trigger but his rifle was suddenly pushed away by an unseen force.
"Wait!" Nova ordered over the gunfire behind them, decloaking as she knelt down towards the marine's face, the marine just grunting in pain from having his legs shot out. For a few seconds, Nova, Ace, and the Marine were silent while the Nighthawks gunned down the remaining Angels. One of the Nighthawk Marauders, one of the Hammer Security marauders judging by his armor, quickly approached.
"Captain, area's secure but I don't know for how long. We lost a couple of men but their casualties were heavy." The Marauder reported.
"Good work. Take a defensive position and be prepared to fall back to base. I have a feeling we're gonna be needed back there ASAP." Ace said as the Marauder turned to where Nova was kneeling over the wounded Angel, both silent.
"Uh…What's goin' on?" the Marauder asked.
"Quiet. She's interrogating him." Ace replied as they both watched the two. Finally, Nova stood up.
"Horseman One." Nova muttered softly.
"Commander?" Ace asked as Nova turned back to him.
"Order the men to fall back! Double-time it back to base! Hurry!" Nova ordered, Ace giving a nod.
"What about-." Ace said, motioning to the prisoner just seconds before Nova blew the prisoner's brains out with a pointblank shot to the head with her rifle.
"No prisoners needed. I got all we need from him. Now let's move!" Nova replied as they started running back towards the base.
…
Back at the Jamestown Outpost, the Nighthawks and Militia Marines were scrambling to shore up their defenses as a second missile from orbit hit the third colony site. Morales was out on the field, helping to corral the civilians into the med barracks and into the militia Command Center.
"Come on people! Let's move!" she yelled. Her radio then came to life.
"Lieutenant! We've got a disturbance at the South gate!" Hana reported.
"Copy that, Corporal! I'm on my way!" Morales replied, hurrying towards the base's south entrance. The entrance was marked by a pair of bunkers, which were flanked by a pair of missile turrets. There were several soldiers with their guns trained on a group of civilians on the road ahead of them.
"What's going on here private?" Morales asked as she approached.
"These civilians are coming in from the third site! They haven't been cleared!" one of the marines replied. Morales gave a nod and stepped forward.
"Stand by." She said to the men as she approached the civilians. She was about half-way to them when she stopped.
"Help us! There's something going on at our colony site!" one of the civilians said, one of them coughing heavily for a second.
"I need to scan you to make sure you're not infected, hold still!" Morales said as she raised her shield towards them, a device on the front of it opening up, allowing a blue scanning beam to sweep up and down them. The beam then turned red as it continued to sweep over them, causing Morales to sigh heavily in frustration.
"I'm sorry, you're infected. I can't let you in." Morales said as she started to step back.
"Please! You have to! We could die!" one of them begged. They suddenly heard the sonic boom of another missile breaking through the atmosphere.
"Incoming!" one of the Marines exclaimed as they all looked up, seeing the missile headed straight towards the outpost.
"Take cover!" another of the marines yelled just as the missile came screaming low towards the base, but as it neared the ground, it started releasing a plume of orange-red gas, spreading it over the base before the missile impacted harmlessly in the dirt. The marines and the civilians within the base looked around in confusion. Morales and the marines at the south gate though suddenly heard a horrified screaming coming from the infected civilians. They all turned and saw the civilians writhing in pain and agony as brown and red growths started forming on them, their skin turning an unnatural shade of brown or purple. Morales kept the scanning beam on them as they mutated, sprouting long wriggling tentacles or sharp bone claws on their arms.
"Mother mercy." Morales gasped as she backed away just as the newly Infested Terrans stopped their writhing and turned towards her, starting to shamble uncontrollably towards her. Morales quickly raised her grenade launcher, firing a spinning orange metal sphere which exploded on impact, reducing the Terrans to a shower of lumpy purple gore before she turned and ran back behind the line of marines.
"We need to get out of here!" Morales said into her comms as she ran for the nearby starport.
"We need to wait for the Commander to return!" Reigel replied.
"Don't worry, I'm a Medic, and we don't leave people behind!" Morales replied as she saw her Medivac sitting the base of the starport. On the Griffin's bridge, Hana made a nervous gulp as she saw a swarm of red dots, each one representing an infested terran, moving towards the base from the first and third sites.
"Uh, Reigel?!" Hana said as Reigel stood at the forward console, a screen showing a live feed of Dr. Hanson inside of the Command Center of the second site.
"Doctor, you need to leave! These missiles are triggering the virus! It's turning everyone infected into infested!" Reigel said as Hanson coughed.
"I'm already getting people onto the evacuation transports as fast as we can, but I don't know if we'll make it in time! I'm transferring command of the militia base to you and Commander Terra. If you lose contact with us, leave!" Hanson ordered. Hana's console suddenly beeped.
"Base command acquired! We have control of all outpost structures-." Hana said before her console started beeping an alarm again, causing her to pale.
"-Another missile incoming! It's headed straight for site two!" Hana exclaimed as Reigel looked out the viewports in time to see the missile's contrail coming down towards the surface from orbit. He turned back towards Dr. Hanson on the screen, Hanson looking around in concern.
"What's happening?!" she asked, as screaming could be heard off screen. Hanson suddenly grabbed her stomach with a look of pain, doubling over below the screen as she screamed in agony. Reigel could do nothing but look on in horror as Hanson's screaming was soon joined with the sound of ripping fabrics and flesh before falling silent. Reigel and Hana looked at the screen in visible fear before suddenly a heavily mutated Hanson burst up from the floor with a feral roar. Her face had split open below the nose with mandibles over her jaws and her eyes glowing orange. The feed suddenly went to static for a moment before cutting out completely. Hana put a hand to her mouth.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." She muttered.
"Hold it in, Corporal. We need to leave, sound the evacuation, now!" Reigel ordered as Hana gave a nod.
"On it! All personnel to evac stations! Repeat, all personnel to evac stations! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!" Hana ordered.
…
Meanwhile, Nova, Ace, and the rest of the Nighthawks were hurrying back towards the base as the first of the Infested Colonists started to cross their paths.
"Mother mercy, they're infested!" Ace exclaimed before Nova took aim and fired at one of the infested, shooting it in the head and killing it instantly.
"Running fire, people! We can't afford to get bogged down!" Nova ordered as the Nighthawks opened fire, killing the Infested as they kept running. As they rounded a bend in the road, they heard the sounds of engines firing up ahead of them. They looked ahead at the base and saw the Command Center, Factory, Starport, both Barracks, a pair of Hercules Transports, and the Griffin lifting off and heading for orbit.
"They're leaving us behind! What the hell!" Ace exclaimed.
"Guess again, Ace!" Rosa's voice said over the radios as they heard a set of engines getting closer. They looked and saw a Medivac come roaring in low, moving into a hover mode in front of them with is boarding ramp lowered. Nova smirked as she saw Morales at the controls.
"Come on! We don't have all day!" Morales yelled as Ace turned to the rest of the Nighthawks.
"You heard the lady, everyone onboard!" Ace yelled as they rushed to board the Medivac, firing at the approaching Infested. Finally, the surviving soldiers were aboard.
"We're in! Go!" Nova yelled as the ramp slammed shut, the Medivac lifting off and rocketing after the fleeting colonists. Nova hurried into the cockpit, as they started catching up with the fleeing buildings.
"Can we signal the Griffin?" Nova asked.
"Already patching them through." Morales replied.
"Nova to Griffin, do you read me?" Nova asked as Reigel appeared on the monitor.
"Loud and clear. We need to find a place for the civilians." Reigel said as Nova gave a nod.
"Talk to Graven and see if he can arrange some kind of pickup. What about that Science Vessel?" Nova asked.
"Untouchable. It activated a defense matrix as we broke atmo. It's defenseless but we don't have the firepower to pierce that matrix." Reigel said as Nova scowled at the science vessel through the cockpit windows.
"Leave it be for now. The civilians take priority. Standby with the decon-crews and ready the forward bay for us. We need to dock as soon as possible." Nova said as Reigel gave a nod.
"Crews are standing by." Reigel said as Ace walked into the cockpit.
"So, what happened down there? Did the Angels do that?" Ace asked as Nova turned and leaned against the wall of the cockpit with a sigh.
"When I psionically interrogated that Marine, he revealed that the virus was part of the first phase of the Angels' plans. They've successfully weaponized the Zerg Infestation Virus." Nova said as Morales turned towards her.
"Wait, you mean that the Angels willfully infested those people?" Morales asked as Nova gave a nod.
"That's right. But that was just a test. Now that they know it works, they can move ahead with the real Operation." Nova said as Ace scowled.
"Horseman One." He muttered.
"The name makes sense now. The First Horseman of the Apocalypse: Pestilence and plague." Nova said.
"Which means the next step would be the Second Horseman." Rosa said as Ace and Nova looked at each other, both knowing what this meant.
"War."
End Chapter 4