Chapter 13: The Psi Disruptor
The Psi Disruptor was some distance from Tarsonis City, built close enough to be convenient while hidden enough from prying eyes. Now, the area was filled with the zerg infestation which had settled down and entrenched itself after the invasion. As the UED force drove toward their target, Roland looked out the window of the vehicle in silence.
His aide noticed the unusual mood that had befallen his superior. "Roland, do you think something will go wrong on this mission?"
Roland was tapping his finger on the armrest. "It's not that something might go wrong, Hector. It is already going wrong. This whole thing is a mistake. The Psi Disruptor is in and of itself a weapon against the zerg, only the zerg. It has great potential in facilitating our victory, but the admiral seems to think that it is too large of a risk should it somehow be stolen from our control and used against the zerg we seek to enslave."
"You think he is being too cautious?" Hector asked.
"Caution is important. But there are multiple things to be cautious of," Roland said. "By reducing the risk of other people disrupting our control over the zerg, we then run the risk of not being able to take control of the zerg at all. Defeating them may not be so simple and there may be additional complications that we didn't predict. Destroying the Psi Disruptor is not caution, it is recklessness."
Hector nodded. "I can see your point. Have you tried to persuade the admiral?"
"Not even Stukov was able to get through to him," Roland said, shaking his head. "I would have no chance. Duran tried to claim that believing that we need the device is equivalent to doubting our capabilities. Ridiculous. It is one thing to be confident in yourself, another is to think one invincible. No one can say that they are assured of victory when anything could go wrong."
"You have a plan then?" Hector asked.
"Unfortunately, this is not a matter I alone can influence," Roland said with a sigh. "But there is a hope that things could turn out differently."
"I will keep an eye out then," Hector said as the vehicle came to a stop.
They stepped out next to a cluster of abandoned buildings. From another vehicle, Duran emerged. "We are here, captain. We just need to start up this old command center and it will be a perfectly good base for our operations."
The codes that the Old Families had provided proved useful, allowing them access to facilities and giving them total control to reactivate the base while the soldiers worked to secure the perimeter.
"How much zerg are there in this area?" Roland asked.
"Our scanners indicate there are multiple hives in the region, Captain," Hector replied. "Taking them all out will let us secure this area."
"Let us get started then," Roland said as he studied the maps. "Send the bulk of our army here. The siege tanks will be in a good position on this tank to bombard the hives. Be ready to deflect any counterattacks."
While the army moved out, from within the command center Roland ordered the vulture groups to place mines in certain areas to intercept any reinforcements sent from the other hives. Meanwhile, the tanks began to lay siege on the zerg hive. The explosive shells landed on the creep, battering the fleshy buildings as well as the myriad zerg which had been stirred to activity.
One of the scouting vultures spotted an incoming zerg attack heading through a pass between two cliff faces. As the vulture fled back to base, Roland dispatched a group of marines to counter the assault. As the zerg ran in, the spider mines exploded, killing most of the zerglings and some of the hydralisks. Before the zerg could regroup, the marines attacked, directly shooting the hydralisks and picking off any remaining zerglings. The hydralisks began shooting back, but as they forced their way through the chokepoint they were faced with overwhelming firepower. Their initially substantial numbers soon evaporated as they continued to charge ahead.
Not long after the zerg attack force was cleaned up, another group of zerg was detected coming from another direction. The marines began quickly moving to their next destination to fight back the next attack.
A large flock of mutalisks began flying in, taking a direct route toward the tanks. When the zerg were spotted, Roland dispatched a group of valkyrie frigates to intercept the mutalisks. The many missiles tore through the tightly packed mutalisk swarm. The zerg were ill prepared to deal with the valkyries, having never encountered them before. With the bulk of the swarm shattered, the wraiths were able to begin chasing down any stragglers that escaped.
With the external threats dealt with, the tanks were able to continue in their methodical assault, destroying all the zerg within range while their guards repelled any zerg that made it through.
Once the zerg hive was dealt with, Roland sent orders for the army to move onto the next hive. Meanwhile, he began examining the files in the command center. This facility which was near the Psi Disruptor had been part of the Confederate research program into the zerg. It had access to numerous files detailing what had taken place. Access to all of the top secret files could be found here.
The army arrived at the next hive cluster, which was located on top of a cliff. The siege tanks entrenched themselves below and began bombarding the edge of the cliff to clear out a landing zone while the UED fighter aircraft kept the skies clear of any zerg. Then, dropships ferried the army up to begin the next assault, while another force stayed below to react to any other zerg attacks. The zerg defending the hive were primarily fliers, but after the first assault had decimated their numbers, the remainder were easily suppressed by the UED forces.
By now, the zerg in the remaining hives had been whittled away by the battles and the path forward was clear.
"Hector, handle the troops for now. I'll be taking a look at some of these documents," Roland said. "Inform me if anything comes up."
Roland let himself turn his attention away from the screens monitoring the ongoing battle, trusting his men to be able to deal with the remaining opposition. He remained undisturbed until finally there was an incoming communication.
"We have destroyed the last of the zerg hives," Hector said. "Now it is just clearing out the remaining zerg so that we can secure the Psi Disruptor."
"Very well then," Roland said. "Tell Lieutenant Duran that I need to meet with him immediately regarding a topic of the utmost importance and confidentiality."
The next interruption came a short while later.
"Captain, we have reached the Psi Disruptor," Hector said. "But the vice admiral's men have shown up and they told us that they will be handling the Psi Disruptor. How should we respond?"
Roland smiled. "Let them take care of it. You may all return to base now. Rest assured that we have done our proper duty to ensure that the Psi Disruptor is being properly disposed of as ordered."
It wasn't long before Duran arrived at the command center.
"You called for me, Captain?" Duran inquired. "I expect that this matter is as important as you say to justify pulling me away before we could complete our mission."
"Rest assured, the Psi Disruptor is being demolished as we speak," Roland said. "As for why I have asked to speak with you, I have come across some very disturbing information. Regarding you, personally."
"I assure you Captain, I am nothing but perfectly loyal," Duran said. "You must be misinterpreting whatever information you have found."
"I think it is all quite clear," Roland said coldly. "Do you deny being involved, quite deeply in fact, with the Confederate research program into the zerg? You had a supervisory role and your name is on many of these reports."
"Of course, I was a part of the group researching the zerg," Duran said. "We sought to better understand the aliens so as to best know how we could deal with them."
"You say that, but it was clear that your motives were anything but good," Roland said. "These proposals to test the capabilities of the zerg by unleashing them on civilian planets, your own people. And for what? There is hardly any value in watching zerg devour a planet of unarmed civilians, or at best ragtag militia. It seems like a decision made of pure sadism, of wanting to watch a planet burn. That is to be expected though, considering what the Confederacy was like."
"That decision was most unfortunate," Duran said. "But the order came from above and the rest of us could do nothing to oppose it. We did not have the authority to countermand such a directive."
"Then why did you continue working here?" Roland asked. "At no point did you raise any objections, and it seems you continued to work just as enthusiastically as before. In fact, it was not long afterwards that you proposed studies on how to modify these zerg, making even more deadly killing machines."
"There is hardly any point in resigning in protest, it would make no difference at all," Duran said. "Rather, it was best to continue working as best as I could. It was all very interesting after all, studying the zerg and learning what makes them tick. It was truly a marvel to see them the first time. As for the experiments, the higher ups wanted it to be used as a weapon and improving them is consistent with that goal. Besides, you are hardly in any position to talk. Your Directorate is also planning on making use of the zerg, just as the Confederacy did."
Roland bit back his lip. "Our goals are completely different. We seek to shackle the zerg so that they may never be a threat to humanity ever again. If we must use them to fight other threats to humanity, then it is better they die than our soldiers. On the other hand, your Confederacy wanted a loosely controlled attack dog. One that was only aimed at terrorizing other humans."
"Is that all?" Duran asked. "Bringing up old news; it is all in the past now. You and I both know that the admiral won't care at all for this. I served the Confederacy loyally before, and now I shall serve the Directorate."
"Do you really have nothing you say for yourself, Duran?" Roland said slowly.
"None at all," Duran replied.
Duran was glad to be away from that nosey captain. For a moment, he had been concerned that Roland had found something more concerning, possibly requiring him to kill the captain to cover up. But it turned out to just be some trivial thing that would hardly be of concern to anyone but the idealistic. Which it seemed that the captain was. Duran pondered what Roland might think if the Directorate was to take the same path of the Confederacy.
In any case, he had much more pressing business to attend to. While the rest of the army was busy packing everything up to prepare to depart, he was here in an abandoned communications terminal. Inputting the necessary codes, Duran began a secret call offworld.
It took some time for the call to be answered. Clearly he wasn't being placed very high in priorities and sometimes he wondered whether it was even worth the hassle to deal with such a troublesome individual. But the potential benefits were worth it, for now.
Finally, the transmission connected with a communicator far away on Char.
"What is it Duran?" Kerrigan asked. "I am dealing with some irritants right now."
"I am aware. After all, I oversaw the attack on your hive clusters on Tarsonis personally," Duran said. "But there was a reason for it. The UED had found a device known as the Psi Disruptor, which would disrupt the zerg hivemind and throw them into chaos."
Kerrigan's eyes narrowed. "You must see to it that the device does not become operational," she said forcefully.
"Of course, I was able to convince Admiral Dugalle that the device was a threat to their plan to use the zerg, and it has now been destroyed," Duran said. "The UED seeks to bring the zerg under their control and use them to take over the sector. So, I framed the Psi Disruptor as a threat to them."
Kerrigan laughed. "How ambitious of them. Those fools will never even make it past the starting line. They won't have a dream of taking my zerg. Let alone defeating the rest of the sector. Good work Duran. If you continue doing as well as you have, then I will deign to allow you to take control over several systems after I shatter the Dominion."
"You are most generous, my queen," Duran said. He waited until Kerrigan ended the transmission, and then began removing his traces from the communication system.
After the mission, Dugalle met with Stukov in the privacy of his office. Dugalle was seated behind his desk, elbows on the table and fingers locked.
"I have just received a report from our ships which were spying on Char," Dugalle said. "And I fear that I may have erred in my judgement. Our mission has been compromised."
"Gerard, what has occurred?" Stukov asked with concern.
"The Overmind is dead," Dugalle said. "Our observers report that a great battle has taken place. Protoss and zerg fought together and killed the Overmind. We are not sure of who is in control of the zerg now, but with the protoss involved, our original plan of taking over the zerg may not be viable."
"We still have options," Stukov said. "Even with the Overmind dead, we may be able to capture some cerebrates and exert control over the zerg through them."
"But how many cerebrates will we be able to capture?" Dugalle asked. "And who knows if the protoss have some way of controlling the zerg. They could render our entire operation moot. And if they defend the zerg then we may not even make it far enough to attempt to capture a cerebrate anyways."
"This is problematic," Stukov admitted. "We will have to think of an alternative plan."
Dugalle sighed. "Things would be easier if we had the Psi Disruptor. We would be able to sweep the zerg aside and render them moot. I have made a mistake, Alexei. I was affected by hubris, thinking that the plan we had was sufficient. And in my haste I have discarded a potent tool."
Stukov paused for a moment. "Gerard, I have something to tell you."
"What is it, Alexei? There is no need to be so cagey with me," Dugalle said.
"The Psi Disruptor has not yet been destroyed," Stukov said. "I wanted to examine it a bit first to glean some useful knowledge. So, I sent my own men to secure it and told the captain that I was demolishing it."
"That is fortunate news," Dugalle said. "But this also means you went against my orders. I was quite clear that the Psi Disruptor was to be destroyed immediately. Examining its function would have been just as dangerous if the information was to be leaked."
"I had to take matters into my own hands," Stukov said. "I knew that destroying the Psi Disruptor was a mistake, and now we both know it was a mistake. Saving the Psi Disruptor was the correct choice."
"I know, but the fact remains that you disobeyed me, Alexei." Dugalle let his eyes drop downward as he paused. "I am old now and time has taken its toll. My decisions may be flawed and I have grown more stubborn as a result of pride. I should have listened to you rather than making a hasty decision. It is times like these that show I need someone to look over what I do, and oppose me if I am taking the wrong course."
Dugalle took his arms off the desk and leaned back. "Now, we must think of what to do next. If we go on to battle Mengsk and capture Korhal, then move onto Char to face the zerg and the protoss, I am afraid that even if we succeed, we cannot hold what we have taken. Not while having to fight the protoss and not having full control over the zerg."
"Perhaps we must be more flexible," Stukov suggested. "Our primary mission is to neutralize the alien threat to prevent any threat to Earth. Subjugating the colonies is a secondary consideration, one that was thought to help facilitate our primary objective. But with our original plan no longer viable, we have to rethink our strategy. We cannot fight everyone alone."
"Divide and conquer," Dugalle muttered. "An old stratagem from the dawn of warfare. We may have to fall back on that then. Ally with lesser enemies to fight the greater enemy. Then in time we may bring them into the fold as well. The choice is clear then. We shall try to induce the Dominion to join with us to bring the fight against the aliens."