Chapter 16: Answering the Call
An explosion rocked the city block as yet another building collapsed to the ground, killing both the soldiers inside along with the zerg fighting their way up. While the gunfire from that building now ceased, the zerg were still occupied in assaulting the neighboring buildings. The Dominion soldiers bunkered inside the fortified structures were fighting to their last, determined to take down as many zerg as they could before they were overrun. For several days their sacrifices held back the zerg advance and killed hundreds of zerg for each man lost, but as effective as it was, it was only a delay.
The swarm was within sight of the imperial palace, yet their queen hardly felt any excitement at all. As she waited within her hive that was erected in the city, Kerrigan wished she could relieve her boredom by personally scouring the irritants from those fortified structures, but after the second time they blew up the supports and dropped the building on her, she found it too tiring to even do that and resigned herself to simply observing.
Now, they were finally approaching Mengsk's last stronghold and she hoped the wait would end soon. With Kaloth about to finish dealing with the resistance outside the city, victory was close at hand. Kerrigan left her hive to walk to the front lines in anticipation for the final assault. Outside the stout walls of the palace were rows of bunkers along with trenches that had been dug over the past few days. The remaining siege tanks were concentrated around the palace, defending several key chokepoints leading into the area.
She calmly gazed over her surroundings as she began her stroll, knowing that her zerg had cleared the area already, leaving nothing but collapsed buildings and burned out husks behind as they removed anything that could be a threat. There was no rush as Kerrigan knew the zerg victory would be inevitable, sooner or later she would win. The ruined streets were still, with none of the bustle that a city would have. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted several corpses not covered in power armor or military garb. They were the bodies of homeless men who had been neglected when the military had repossessed civilian buildings and sent the occupants to an underground shelter. These stragglers preferred to hide away and had no desire to fight the zerg and as such they were ignored by the swarm. But nonetheless it seemed that this group had died from falling debris.
Kerrigan turned her gaze away from the scene and began to hurry to the front. The zerg were finally running into proper resistance as they reached the core of the imperial district. The first few zerg that approached were blown to pieces by the siege tanks and bunkers while the rest retreated to regroup and mass up.
The zerg rushed forward, assaulting the bunkers while mutalisks braved the missile barrage to dive the tanks. The Dominion soldiers rushed back and forth in a hurry as they tried to address all of the threats they were faced with. The mutalisks were driven back and the initial zerg push repelled, but more kept coming as the soldiers pushed their weapons to the limits firing off as many shots as they could.
From a short distance away, Kerrigan focused her attention on the main threat and unleashed a psionic storm on the cluster of siege tanks and the marines guarding them. The vehicles were torn to shreds while the marines were fried. Her zerg rushed forward once more, yet she still felt nothing. There was no satisfaction in slaughtering faceless soldiers, nor did the frustration that had built up lessen. The surviving defenders fled, retreating toward the palace. She could still see the building where her enemy was staying, still out of her grasp.
However, she knew his days were numbered. Although the defenses were solid and her swarm had taken a beating, she knew that the situation was in her favor. Even if this assault did not break them, her own reinforcements coming from outside the city would eventually overwhelm them through more waves of attacks. Through her connection to her myriad minions, she could feel her net closing as the zerg approached the palace from multiple sides as the defenders fled. Bit by bit, they were getting closer and she could feel each victory as her minions advanced. Then, that connection was broken.
It was unlike anything she had felt before as the link to her minions was being torn asunder. Kerrigan fell to one knee as it felt like knives were being stabbed into her head when she tried to extend her mind out to its fullest extent to reassert control. She withdrew control over the fringes to bring the strain back down to a manageable level. Already, the minions she released were running rampant under the effect of whatever it was that was actively interfering with her control over the zerg. There was something that could do this, the Psi Disruptor that was supposedly destroyed.
Kerrigan gathered what zerg she could and began withdrawing. In the present circumstances she was unable to contact her cerebrate, but she knew that they must regroup if they are to address this new threat. With some effort, the zerg minions were corralled and gathered up for the retreat. Some of them got lost along the way while others were killed as the Dominion began launching probing attacks, with vulnerable creatures like the defilers taking especially high losses. But the zerg were eventually able to achieve cohesion and begin moving away from the Dominion's stronghold.
As she walked alongside her zerg, the mind of the Queen of Blades was occupied by only two things. The constant effort to keep her minions in line and anger. To have her chance at revenge be snatched away and for her to be forced into a retreat when she was at the gates of her objective was something almost too much to bear. She was so very tempted to ignore it all and continue to press the attack with what forces she had left in the hopes of winning in one swoop.
But she knew the situation was unfavorable and if the Psi Disruptor was in play, there may be reinforcements coming to support the Dominion. Even if she were to succeed in killing Mengsk, but still died here, that would render all of this pointless. There was nothing she could do not except to take this loss, as much as it grated on her. She would avenge this humiliation one day.
The city with its many narrow streets and buildings was not somewhere she wanted to be trapped in, so Kerrigan took the remainder of her minions to withdraw from Augustgrad. But on the way out, they encountered more terran soldiers, these with different markings.
It was only a small detachment and when she led an attack, the enemies immediately began to withdraw. However, it was what they represented that alarmed Kerrigan. The United Earth Directorate was here. Their army was entering the battle against her and this was a fight she was not ready for. She knew she had to get back in contact with her cerebrate and combine their armies.
The zerg army took the quickest path back to their hive clusters, passing by the rocky hills surrounding the city while the UED detachment continued to harass the zerg as they pulled back. As the zerg passed through the last valley before the open plains, the enemy emerged into view. Sitting at the mouth of the valley was what looked like the main UED army.
Kerrigan paused for a moment as she surveyed the situation. A pitched battle was the last thing she wanted right now with her still struggling to adapt to controlling the zerg in these conditions. The enemy numbers were substantial and she knew she couldn't guarantee her victory. Though it would be ideal to be able to avoid the fight and take another route, the longer she waited the more time the enemy would have to secure territory and obtain reinforcements. She would need to fight here and the only way past was to break through.
One flank of the army appeared to be rather vulnerable and Kerrigan thought about sending everything forward to achieve a breakthrough in the weaker portion. But given that the deployment of the army seemed to overall be competent, such a weakness seemed out of place. It was suspicious, too suspicious. Kerrigan instead ordered her army to attack the center, sending forth the tide of minions against the enemy lines.
The artillery fire from the tanks was lighter than it could have been, and Kerrigan noticed the dispersed deployment. Her zerg were making decent headway, the ultralisks succeeding in breaching the outer defensive lines, with the zerglings and hydralisks beginning to flood through after them. She followed and entered the fight, determined to make this breakthrough succeed.
The terrans began falling back as the zerg advanced, the bombardment from the tanks whittling away at her forces. However, they weren't breaking, instead just withdrawing to secondary defensive lines. Kerrigan urged her zerg forward to keep up the pressure. Then, the resistance began to stiffen. The marines stood their ground at the bunkers while the tanks continued to provide support. As the attack stalled, the zerg on the left flank of her army suddenly found themselves being pressured.
With her army buried into the enemy's center, their right flank began swinging around to envelop her army. The zerg on that side were disintegrating under the intense attack the terrans launched. Seeing this, Kerrigan had her zerg begin shifting away and instead push at the enemy's weaker left flank. However, the reason for the sparser concentration on that side became clear as her zerg were being decimated by spider mines. Her attempted maneuver had simply let the terrans gain more ground and now her army was almost completely enveloped. There would be no retreat now.
The enemy artillery was still the biggest threat, but with the tanks being spread out she couldn't try to destroy them with one blow and she didn't have anything else to counter them. Her army was pinned down and a breakthrough was looking increasingly unlikely. As she looked around at the battle, all Kerrigan felt now was fear.
Her army, and herself as well, wasn't going to be able to keep up the fight for much longer. Kerrigan's expression darkened as she realized she was beaten and there was only one option for her to get out of this now. She, the Queen of Blades, would have to flee from these terrans. Gritted her teeth, she took one last look around her. Then, she slipped behind her minions and vanished from sight as she began to move toward the relatively open area on the enemy's left flank. It was simple for her to avoid the mines and the remnants of her army were making a stand to tie down the enemy for as long as they could.
As Kerrigan made her escape, she finally ran into the UED soldiers guarding the area. Part of the way through her journey through the minefield, several of the tanks had begun bombarding the general area she was in. It was only a minor irritant for her as she was quick enough to avoid any direct hits and she could shield herself from the shrapnel. But it was clear that they were onto her.
When she approached the dug-in defenders, they began firing at her, with the missile turrets informing the soldiers of her general location. With all of them focused on her, it was like there was a wall of bullets coming toward her. She ducked behind a large cluster of rocks as she prepared her attack. She unleashed a psionic storm of the soldiers in front of them, opening up a gap in the line.
A grin crept up on her face as she observed her handiwork, but just before she was about to start moving forward again, several tank shells exploded behind her, knocking her into the rocks and cracking her armor. Kerrigan grimaced in pain as she spent a bit more of her energy to heal her wounds and she quickly began moving before the tanks fired another volley.
She dashed through the area between her and the UED forces, zig zagging to avoid the mines and the shots from the tanks. The surviving UED marines were still shooting at her and she needed to divert some attention to blocking those bullets as well. Once she began passing through the breach she formed with her psionic storm, the rate of fire lessened as the soldiers didn't want to shoot at each other with her in the middle. Once she passed through and began escaping into the distance, the UED soldiers resumed their attacks, but by then it didn't matter anymore.
Finally, Kerrigan arrived at the zerg's primary hive cluster on the planet.
"Kerrigan, you are safe," Kaloth said. "I had been concerned when I was unable to contact you and many of our minions began going out of control from whatever just happened. And the army I sent out was repelled by a new terran army."
"It must be the Psi Disruptor." Kerrigan's fists clenched. "Duran said he had it destroyed. But here the UED are now, and they clearly have it."
"Do you think he has been working against you?" Kaloth asked.
"Oh he very well might be now. But there is no point in telling me about the Psi Disruptor and then lying about destroying it if he merely wanted to deceive me," Kerrigan said. "He's just incompetent and clearly someone ran rings around him."
"Whatever the cause, we have a disaster on our hands," Kaloth said. "All of the forces the other cerebrates dispatched are totally out of control, I can't contact any of them on Char, and I doubt they can contact their forces here. I could barely keep control of my own brood as is. And there is a fleet in orbit that is currently in the process of destroying the fliers we have."
"The situation is untenable. We have to leave." Kerrigan's face was twisted into an ugly contortion as she gritted her teeth in rage. "Damn it all! I was this close to finishing things. Arcturus was in my grasp. And these interlopers from Earth had to come and do this. I'll see them dead for this."
Then, the rage drained out of her. "But for now we can't do anything here. We have to rebuild and come up with a countermeasure to the Psi Disruptor. Otherwise we don't have a chance."
Kaloth could sense the bitterness in Kerrigan's voice. "The zerg will overcome all obstacles. Things will not end here."
Kerrigan nodded slowly. "So, how are the preparations for the evacuation going?"
"I'm having a rearguard delay the UED forces to buy time," Kaloth said. "We will be ready to leave soon."
"Captain, report on your situation," Dugalle said.
"The zerg army has been defeated," Roland said. "However, due to the interference of other groups of zerg we were unable to stop the zerg leader from escaping. We are currently engaged in attacking their main hive cluster, but it appears that the zerg are making preparations to escape. Will the fleet be able to intercept them?"
"Unfortunately, we must first deal with the multitude of zerg fliers in orbit," Dugalle said. "We will be unable to prevent the zerg from escaping. However, we have still won a great victory here and saved the people of this world. Good work, Captain. You are a model that all of our officers should aspire toward."
"Thank you sir," Roland replied.
With the battle being wrapped up, Dugalle opened a communication line to Mengsk.
"As promised, the Directorate has answered your request for aid and defeated the zerg menacing this world," Dugalle said.
"I thank you sir," Mengsk replied. "We are grateful for your help in protecting humanity."
"Now, in accordance with our agreement we will need you to provide your armies to support us," Dugalle said. "The zerg have returned to their nest on Char, and we must purge them to ensure they will never be a threat again. And as the rightful caretakers of mankind, the Directorate will assume full authority over this expedition and we will expect all terran forces to answer to our chain of command in order to ensure an orderly assault."
"Very well then," Mengsk replied. "I will be glad to pledge the Dominion's support to you in this endeavor. The Dominion's armies are quite adept at fighting the zerg as we have ample experience in this matter. I expect that you will find us to be quite the asset."
Dugalle smiled. "Excellent. There is just one other simple matter to take care of. As our armies have secured Korhal, we will be maintaining a garrison force here in order to ensure the safety of this planet and protect it from any threats to either the Dominion or the Directorate," Dugalle said.
Mengsk paused. "While I appreciate your concern for our security, Admiral, I assure you the Dominion is more than capable of holding its own against the zerg. You must understand that the zerg's successes in the streets of Augustgrad meant little to me. The Dominion has been holding out against such odds since Mar Sara. Korhal would have endured and so would I." Mengsk steepled his fingers and his face adopted a severe demeanor. "Your no doubt well intentioned offer might lamentably be interpreted by some as an occupation. Given the history of Korhal there may be some associations with the legacy of the Confederacy. And ordinary people would not understand the necessity of your alliance with the remnants of the old regime. A misunderstanding would be unfortunate."
"I certainly commend you on your concern for public safety and the risks to our image," Dugalle said, maintaining his smile. "But for now, the time has come for us as nations and individuals to put aside our long standing feuds and unite. We are after all on the same side."
Mengsk's expression stiffened ever so slightly as he heard his past words be employed against him. The brief lapse passed as Mengsk smiled. "Well, far be it from me to inspire division within our ranks. Since you have shown such interest in fostering cooperation, I think it is only fair for us to send advisors to accompany your own men to better cultivate relations as well as provide valuable advice about conditions in the sector."
"Very well," Dugalle nodded. "Then let us give a toast to our victory over the zerg and the continued prosperity of all mankind."