Please be sure to read the author's note at the end, there's a lot to look at.
Chapter 2: Fleeing the Familiar
Whatever the effect that the Overmind's death had had on the Swarm, it didn't diminish their deadliness by much. With so much of the Zerg's strategies based on chaos and overwhelming numbers, there was little real difference between the Zerg led by their original master that we had fought for so long and the masses of flesh and carapace that crested over the horizon at full speed, converging on our lines. While new screeches told me that Sarah's broods had met the enemy, there were still more than enough of them that had bypassed her forces and ran straight into the Protoss lines surrounding the transit route. As ever, the photon cannons and reavers met the initial thrust, but even they would be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of bodies being piled against them. However, this was to be expected; Artanis and Kaldalis had deliberately positioned primarily static and expendable forces to help bleed the Zerg. The detonation of the spider mines that our Vultures had added to the defences was distinctive, even with all the other noise coming from the newborn battlefield. Even so, I knew that the attack would be on us soon enough. With the prospect of their hated enemy escaping their reach, the Zerg would not stop until they had seized the warp gate, and the biggest obstacle to that was us.
Calls of 'Lock and load!" echoed up and down the lines around me, as tens of thousands of soldiers readied their weapons for the combat about to strike down at us. But the Zerg wouldn't catch us unprepared. Glancing at a nearby battlefield tactical display, I watched the Zerg overwhelm the expendable defences and combine their swarming masses to envelope us. Within seconds, the leading edges passed the outermost of a set of circles on the display, signalling the beginning of the engagement for us. Precisely on cue, detonations rang out in the recognisable pattern of orbital bombardment. While most of the orbiting fleet was occupied in keeping the Zerg distracted from the evacuation efforts and protecting the Spear of Adun and the other evacuation ships, a significant portion of the Terran warships, and no small number of Protoss warships as well, had been kept in reserve to assist with the ground defence. Bulky Terran battlecruisers, paired with sleek Protoss warships, rained hellfire down on the beleaguered Protoss homeworld, specifically the areas currently playing host to the Swarm infesting the planet. The orbital fire wasn't going to stop all the Zerg though, but we'd never expected it to. While the energy reserves of the ships were immense, they weren't infinite and they still had to reserve enough energy to be able to defend themselves. For this reason, the ships were firing in battlegroups, rather than all together, so that they could maintain both a fighting edge if they were attacked and not exhaust all their capacity at once. As one battlegroup weakened their reserves and were forced to abandon their attack, another took their place, allowing for a reduced, but steady, rain of fire to be hurled into the Zerg's ranks.
Despite the violence being visited upon them, the Zerg still made ground on us. While they weren't moving at anything like the pace they were, due to them being exterminated in their millions, there were still at least tens of millions of the critters hell bent on our deaths bearing down on us and soon enough, they crossed into firing range of the siege tanks, Temeraires and reavers supporting our defensive positions. With an exhaustive roar, all of them went active in sequence, spitting explosives into the Zerg's path in a steady and effective rain of death. Like the warships above, however, they needed to conserve their ammunition to a degree. With resupply proving difficult to achieve so soon after such a series of battles, there simply hadn't been time to replenish everything on the ground to the same levels as we would usually expect a ground force to possess. As a result, slowly but relentlessly, the Zerg continued to close on our positions.
As the Zerg crossed the penultimate circle surrounding our defensive fortifications, I switched my attention from the tactical display to the battlefield. Drawing my trusty M12 Penetrator, I activated my own comms. "Snipers; engage priority targets. Take them down." I ordered, even as I sighted in on an approaching Ultralisk. Beside me, Nova sighted in on her own target and all along our lines, Ghosts and other sharpshooters followed suit. While our own contributions to the battlefield weren't as flashy as our predecessors, there was no doubting the effectiveness of our efforts, as critical Zerg units, such as Ultralisks, Guardians, Overlords, Queens and Devourers were abruptly removed from the terrain in front of us in a very permanent fashion. Thankfully, large supplies of ammunition for small arms weapons had made it planet-side, so none of us were holding back. No doubt we would have to eventually slow our rate of fire so that our weapons didn't overheat completely and damage themselves, but for now we were firing with full abandon.
Sooner than I might have hoped for, the rattle of Gauss rifles, the roaring heat of flamethrowers and the spark of the entrenched photon cannons altered me to the fact that our final lineup of units had entered the battle. This was no time for theatrics or anything fancy. Quite simply, this was a straightforward, but devastating, grind to the death. Either we would have enough firepower and manpower to hold out against the massive Zerg assault, or we would not. In any case, we still had some reserves left to commit to the battle. Most of our mobile mechanised forces, and all of our close range air forces remained available to be committed to the battle, waiting for the best point to contribute their considerable firepower. Because of this, I had left overall command of the battle to Artanis and Selendis, trusting their instincts and understanding of the battlefield over my own at this point. Their view of the big picture, and their stake in the battle ahead, certainly outweighed mine.
At this point, it was a case of point and shoot. Nice and simple, as well as therapeutic in a way. Not that I wasn't taking this seriously, but shooting Zerg was a lot easier than dealing with some of the politics and sheer stupidity that any campaign had. In all honesty, at times I felt that fighting the Zerg was less dangerous than the politics and competing egos from any strategic meeting.
Soon enough, even the prepared ammo of the front-line troops began to run low and units started to rotate between the front lines and the holding areas behind them, throwing fresh forces into the battle and giving the original troops time to rest. By this time, the piles of dead Zerg were starting to obstruct the lines of sight for our sniper units. Not that this made any difference to the Zerg, who either clambered over or flat out stomped their fallen units into the ground as they charged towards the same fate. The Zerg were employing a tactic that most Terrans had abandoned over 5 centuries before; charging into our defences and hoping that we ran out of bullets before they ran out of bodies. The problem was, with the Zerg's superior numbers and thick carapaces, they might actually succeed if they found the right spot to breach.
We had anticipated as much when planning our defence, which was why it was the Terran forces that primarily held the Warp Gate. It was, surprisingly, the Protoss forces that concerned me most. Much of their foot-line soldiers utilised primarily melee weaponry and in my opinion, if the Zerg were that close, there was already a major problem. One protoss warrior was easily a match for a single Zerg, with the obvious exception of the Ultralisks, but they couldn't watch or defend against every direction at once. Even on their homeworld, the sheer number of Zerg meant that the Protoss simply couldn't rely on eliminating the Zerg before they came into close quarters range. On top of that, their primary ranged support forces were either the large and bulky (though admittedly heavily armoured) dragoons which were easily outflanked by the Zerg at close range, or the powerful, but vulnerable, High Templar that simply couldn't defend themselves at close range, unless they sacrificed themselves to form the Archons that was the Protoss's final resort for ground warfare.
Mulling over the issues at hand, Nova and I made our way towards the nearest command centre. As we entered, a tactical display showed the overall picture of the battle for us. It was concerning, to say the least. While there were no breaches in our lines as of yet, the Zerg were pushing heavily on every flank. All that it would take for them to break through was a mistake somewhere, and that wasn't a question of if, but when. Sarah's Zerg were holding much of the onslaught back, but even she didn't have the sheer numbers to do so forever. We needed a change of strategy, and fast.
At that moment, the comms lit up, and Jim's familiar voice came over the channel. "Jason, you free?"
I sighed. "As free as anyone is right now, Jim. Nova and I are in one of the command centres, I'll patch you through." A quick moment's work on the console rewarded me with Jim's image beside the tactical display. "What's up?"
"I've been looking over the Zerg attacks and I'm not much liking what I'm seeing." He said bluntly.
"Can't imagine why, Jim." Nova replied. "Still, I'm not sure how we could be doing all that much better. We don't exactly have a huge amount of options right now."
"That's the thing. Matt and I have a couple of ideas, but they ain't going to be easy to pull off."
Nova and I exchanged glances before focusing our attention back on Jim. "Alright Jim, we're listening. What do you have?"
Matt and Jim's plan was both painfully simple and suicidally bold. For all that the Zerg had overwhelming numbers on their side, we still had sufficient command of the local airspace that they couldn't land their forces with Overlords or even their drop pods without taking prohibitive losses, even for them. That meant that they had to get their forces to us overland, in the same way that we had to evacuate the Protoss civilians overland. While their Nydus canals meant they could bypass at least some of that distance, they hadn't managed to establish creep close enough to our lines for them to be able to use those effectively.
As such, the primary limit on their ability to overwhelm us with bodies was the terrain. Even the Zerg had limits on how quickly they could scale a steep slope or, in some cases, sheer cliff faces, particularly since we controlled the paths upwards. To get around this problem, the orbiting fleet's scanners showed that the Zerg had carved multiple tunnels leading from the plains below to the plateau large enough to carry many of their forces, including the larger Ultralisks. If we could bring down the tunnels, then we might be able to limit their numbers on our position long enough to get everyone off world. The suicidally bold part came from the fact that we would have to break through the Zerg lines attacking us to do it, and somehow get enough explosive power into the tunnel to collapse it in a manner that the Zerg wouldn't be able to dig out quickly.
In short, we needed to sneak through a massive assault force and get a damn nuke into each tunnel, and in a manner that would have to be near simultaneous in its timing.
This wasn't going to be an easy sell to our allies, I reflected as I set up a connection with the other commanders. As the four of us began to brief the other commanders on the proposed plan, it was obvious that the Protoss were especially unhappy with the idea.
Artanis's eyes narrowed as Jim finished his explanation. "That is a dangerous plan, to say the least, Captain. With how stretched we are already, how do you propose to get your Ghosts close enough to be able to guide those weapons into place?" I could see his disgust at the idea of using such 'primitive and dirty weapons' on the sacred Protoss homeworld. To be honest, I didn't much care for the idea either, but if the choice was nuking the planet or civilians being slaughtered, then it was a fairly easy choice for me. Then again, I might well have had a different opinion if it was my homeworld being nuked.
Jim grimaced. "The only real option we have is for the fleet to engage in more extensive orbital strikes, try and clear the way for a strike team to be landed. For that, I was hoping that we might be able to utilise your warping tech to get in close."
Selendis looked more thoughtful at that. "It could work, though I am not keen on the use of your nuclear weapons. Are there no other means we can utilise?"
Matt shook his head. "Not unless you have something with a sufficiently large blast radius that can at least turn corners somewhat. A surface detonation wouldn't be enough to collapse it sufficiently, the explosion has to be inside the tunnel for it to work. That leaves a missile or someone carrying a bomb into the tunnel, which would be even more dangerous. Even destroying the lower end of the tunnel wouldn't be enough, it wouldn't take a lot of effort for the Zerg to clear it out."
Sarah's voice suddenly came over the comms. "It's a good idea Matt, but there's one concern I have. What are multiple explosions deep inside the plateau we're currently operating on going to do to the rest of the plateau?"
That was another valid concern. While the nukes we carried weren't exactly Apocalypse-class weapons like those that devastated Korhal, there wasn't really any such thing as a small nuke. The smallest of the tactical nukes issued to most strike forces, and so those available to us, were in the approximately ten kiloton yield range. Even these weren't exactly small weapons, and several of them going off underground might cause some serious destabilising effects to the landscape above, to put it mildly. But Matt was right, the explosion had to be inside the tunnel to stand much chance of collapsing it thoroughly enough to actually slow the Zerg.
Jim was the one to reply this time. "It's a concern, no doubt about that sweetheart. But this is our best shot at slowing down the Zerg enough to be able to actually evacuate everyone. We can't speed up the evacuation any more, so we have to slow the attack force down. If there's a better option, let's hear it."
Nova and I exchanged glances. There was only one other explosion we had seen that could do the kind of damage required, but I was damned if I was going to ask her to try and get inside the tunnel system and release a psionic explosion. That was suicide, no way around it.
"How many would we need to get this done?" I asked. The plateau had some size to it, if we could confine our attacks to some of the more outlying tunnels, then we might have a shot of pulling this off without collapsing our own positions.
Matt adjusted the tactical displays, now synced to the Hyperion's own, and four points began to blink. "These four are critical. If we can deal with these, the primary avenues of attack would either be destroyed outright, or the resulting blast waves would do serious damage to the nearby tunnels. They're closer to the edge of the plateau, so it should, in theory, have a smaller impact on us. We also think we can steer where the main power of the explosions will be by timing them appropriately. If we do it right, the majority of the blast force can be concentrated away from the base."
"It will not be simple to coordinate that." Artanis pointed out.
"No, but it's doable. The missiles have a delay that can be adjusted mid flight, so we can correct it as we go. Again, it's not simple, but it is all possible to achieve." Matt countered.
"They are still going to be near-surface detonations, however, are they not?" Lasarra entered the conversation. "You will not be able to steer the missiles through the tunnels for very long."
That was a problem. The tunnels weren't going to be near vertical. While it was possible to make the missiles descend on a target at angles other than vertical, nuclear missiles were not exactly known for their manoeuvrability, and slowing them down sufficiently to be able to navigate the tunnel system just wasn't possible.
Matt winced. "You're right, we can't. But there isn't really another delivery system we could use. Even loading up the shuttles again with the explosives from the Reavers, like we used on the Overmind's base, wouldn't be able to penetrate fast enough."
"And we do not have the time to convert them for such actions once again. Not to mention that the Zerg would be on the lookout for them this time, even in their current state." Artanis commented gloomily.
Nova's eyes suddenly narrowed and her focus sharpened on the display. "What about removing the warheads from a few of the missiles? Can we do that?" She asked, her expression reflecting the impression that she was chasing an idea down the rabbit hole. I glanced at her, following her train of thought and blinked as I arrived at her conclusions. My focus snapped back to Matt and Sarah, arguably the two best experts we had on the nuclear weapons we had.
Sarah began to nod slowly as she considered the angle Nova was following. "It's doable. They need to be removable for maintenance at the very least. The problem is rigging up an alternate detonation method and working out how to transport the warhead to the target."
Nova grinned. "That part at least is easy. We have these beautiful new fast transport vehicles after all."
Jim began to match Nova's grin. "The Warhorses. If they can carry half a dozen Marines in full armour, they have to be able to fit in a warhead, those aren't that big any more. Rig the control systems to the Vulture training simulators and we can drive them in without risking anyone. Even rig up some escort vehicles to make sure they get there."
Lasarra was clearly beginning to come on board. "We can even warp them into close proximity from the Spear of Adun. A surprise attack that they will never see coming."
I nodded. "As much as I hate having to use nukes, especially here, I haven't got a better idea. We've still got a lot of civilians to get out and I'd like for us to get offworld too. That has to be our priority."
Artanis finally nodded, albeit very reluctantly. "You are correct. The fleet will begin bombardment around the Zerg routes, both entrances and exits. The more we can slow them, even temporarily, the better the chances of deploying those weapons."
"Appreciate it." Jim replied. "We'll get to work on getting the vehicles ready. There isn't going to be a lot of time once we play this card, so we'll have to move fast."
That was true on all counts. With how hard the Zerg were pushing, there was a definite countdown to get this done. "You've got 6 hours, Jim. I don't think pushing past that is doable." I ordered. "You're leading the driving team, I assume?"
"Naturally." Jim's confidence wasn't misplaced, he was the best Vulture driver we had.
"Pick your team and get this done. We've got one shot at this. Whatever you do, don't miss."
The next six hours were hell. Even with the added fire support from the fleet, the Zerg pushed us close to the limit. All of us took our turns on the front lines, though never all at once in case they overwhelmed the lines and took out a large portion of the command structure. While we were able to get additional ammo and supplies from the fleet through heavily escorted supply runs, we couldn't run as many as we would have liked without taking away from the defence capability of the ships overhead. Even efforts to transfer supplies to the Spear and warping them down simply weren't happening fast enough to completely keep up with the rate of usage on the ground. Several times, I had to call the Stingrays in orbit down to undertake close-air support operations to throw the Zerg back enough that we could patch defences back up and give the soldiers time to recover.
Three times the Zerg almost succeeded in breaching our lines and overwhelming the still extensive civilian evacuees. Three times, only the desperate efforts and sacrifices of our three forces managed to force them away.
Finally, a sustained volley of fire from the fleet concentrated around the tunnel exits signalled the beginnings of Jim's operation. Not choosing to rely on the tactical display, I raced for the nearest high sniper's nest and trained my M12 on the area where I knew that one of Jim's teams would be warped in once the area had been cleared. Sure enough, a blue glow shortly heralded the arrival of the strike force. Half a dozen Warhorses, escorted by a dozen Hammer and Shredder variants ahead, with half a dozen standard Vultures behind the lot, designated to drop spider mines once in the tunnel to discourage further pursuit. Even with my best efforts, I couldn't pick the Warhorse carrying the warhead, but then, that was the point. We didn't want the Zerg to be able to identify it either.
However, the orbital fire, while having caused extensive destruction to the Zerg forces in the area, had not destroyed them entirely. Even as the survivors reorientated themselves to the newly discovered threat, reinforcements from below began to flood upwards despite the continued orbital bombardment. The stunning amount of firepower on display and the sheer stubbornness of the Zerg, continuing to push forward through the rain of death was impressive, even to a grizzled veteran like me. Using the M12's immense penetrative power to deadly effect, I worked on helping to clear the path ahead of the task force, at least until the tunnel entrance. Once they were inside, they were essentially on their own.
With a roar of engines, the task force leapt forward, engaging the Zerg directly, though more often than not, they did so by running straight over the smaller Zerg ahead of them and dodging between the larger varieties that could shrug off the physical impact. While firepower could clear the way, speed was far more critical here.
The Zerg, leaderless or not, recognised the danger. They threw everything they had at the group. Hordes of Zerglings darted at the vehicles, crippling a pair of Hammers. Hydralisks perforated the leading edge of the convoy, disabling another Hammer and a Shredder. An Ultralisk simply crushed a decoy Warhorse flat before it could dodge. Mutalisks chipped away at their outer perimeter, causing critical malfunctions and then destruction of several more vehicles.
It wasn't quite enough.
Battered and smoking, the task force entered the tunnel mouth and I heard the roar of engines die away as they accelerated down the ramp inside. Nova, who had been monitoring the tactical display while I sniped, came over the comms.
"All forces, brace for detonation!"
The winding paths meant that there wasn't much of a window for the explosions to be in the right place. But, thanks to the robotic guidance, Jim's expert team and Jess's computation capabilities, each vehicle could be adjusted to suit, making sure that it was in exactly the right place as they got deep enough.
It took twenty seconds for the various vehicles to blast through and reach the detonation points. Those twenty seconds felt like an eternity. The Zerg knew the threat they were under, but the sheer devastation they unleashed before they were cut off was immense. While massive numbers of Zerg were clearly throwing themselves underground to try and deal with the task forces, far more tried desperately to break through our lines. Visibility, we wavered, struggling to hold. Then, there was a muffled boom beneath our feet and a pillar of flame and smoke blazed out from behind the Zerg. Seconds later, the ground behind them simply fell away, complete with swarming Zerg, as the results of the detonations made their presence felt.
As the dust and rumbles of the explosions and the screeching of the Zerg faded away, the landscape revealed itself to be drastically changed. The flat plains that had dominated the plateau previously had been swept away, completely smashed to pieces. The various paths that the refugees had used to get had survived, just, but I could see rock falls close to some of them that had at least partially obstructed the routes. Slowly, I activated the comm.
"Artanis, please tell me that was enough to get everyone out."
Artanis's reply was unsteady, but clear. "I believe it will. But we cannot afford to waste any time. I am sending the remaining refugees through now, but you must keep them safe."
"Got it." As I closed the channel, I glanced at my hand briefly, then paused and took a closer look.
It was shaking.
I exhaled uneasily. This whole debacle on Aiur had been a nightmare of a mission. So much had gone so wrong and what was worse, I didn't have the time to try and work out where to go from here. With an inward snarl, I forced my thoughts down. We had to get everyone out. Only then would we have the luxury of planning things further and, maybe, working out how to keep everyone alive and safe. Maybe the cold feeling in my gut would prove to be nothing.
Somehow, I wasn't expecting to be that lucky.
Compared to the last several hours, the next few were comparatively peaceful. We even managed to get small amounts of sleep as the Zerg attacks were far less intense than we had previously seen. What ground remained outside of the terran battle lines was heavily occupied by Sarah's Zerg forces. Access had definitely become a problem for the feral Zerg and we reaped the benefits from that. Quietly, we had held the Zerg back as the remaining Protoss civilians filed through the warp gate behind us. As their numbers dwindled, I began to hope that we might actually manage to get the job done without any further issues.
Naturally, that's when the Zerg decided to take things back up a notch.
Loud screeches announced a massive air attack as the Zerg dived towards our lines, bombarding our positions. Despite our own defences, the damage they inflicted was terrifyingly effective, punishing us for allowing our guard to drop. Even as I snapped my rifle up to re-engage, the earth beneath my feet alerted me to another problem as it began to shake.
Whipping around, I beheld several Nydus Canals breaching throughout our base, throwing our carefully considered and prepared defences into chaos. All around, I saw more evidence of Zerg ambushes becoming evident. One thing was now certain. We couldn't keep holding this position any longer.
Snarling, I keyed the comms to live. "All forces; fall back immediately. Protect the remaining civilians. Air forces, clear the skies and cover our retreat. Mechanised units; leapfrog back to defend, protect our artillery. Snipers and heavy infantry, take those damn Nydus Canals down, now!" Thankfully, despite the shock, enough discipline remained that the troops were able to regroup and coordinate to clear a path out. For the moment, they would be fine.
Switching channels, I contacted Artanis and Sarah. "We need some help here! The Zerg are going to overwhelm us without support. We have to fall back towards the warp gate. Get those civilians out of here, we are out of time!"
Sarah didn't respond verbally, but a wave of Mutalisks and Scourge swept through the skies, screeching into battle with their fellows, giving us some slight relief.
Artanis's voice came back firm, "Hold a little longer, Commander. We are almost done." A loud crackling suddenly interrupted his speech and when his voice came back, the calm he held was no longer present. "Commander, the Nydus Canals have made the ground surrounding the warp gate unstable. It is beginning to fail!"
"What happens when it does?" Jim demanded.
"The best situation is that it simply falls apart. But it is far more likely that it will detonate." Artanis shouted. "If it does, the blast radius would destroy the rest of the plateau."
"Artanis, how much room is left on the fleet and the Spear?" I called. "Can we evacuate everyone onto the fleet in time?"
Artanis considered our options, using the Spear's systems to calculate the answer. "It will be close, Commander. But I fear we have no choice."
"Agreed. Jim, get those skies cleared and dropships down here. We need to get everyone we can off-world while we still can. Executor, what's the time-frame on a possible detonation?"
"Projections from Researcher Lasarra give you two hours, IF it suffers no further damage."
I wasn't going to hold my breath on that particular occurrence happening. "Sarah, start pulling your forces back towards us. We need to keep our losses to a minimum, this isn't our last fight."
Finally, Sarah replied, "Jason, you know I can hold the line longest."
"No one's expendable here, Sarah! We have to stay together, I'm not leaving anyone behind today!"
I felt, more than heard, her scream; and a blaze of psionic energy poured skyward, swatting a large chunk of the attacking Zerg out of the skies above us. She was slightly out of breath when she reconnected, but not much. "It's hard for me to focus my power away from any friendlies around me when you're so close to me, Jason."
Jim and I snarled in immense but impotent anger. Immense because, once again, Sarah was choosing to risk herself rather than accept help from others. Impotent because she was right.
"You better be on one of the ships leaving this place Sarah, because we're not leaving until you're gone, even if we have to drag your arse on board!" Jim echoed my thoughts perfectly.
"I'll be there. You've never let me down, trust me to return the favour."
Trust. That's what it ultimately came down to. Did I trust that Sarah could continue to control her mind and not succumb, either to the alien influence on her mind or the overwhelming attacks on her position?
"All right Sarah. But Jim's right, you better be on one of the flights out with us." I replied, secure in my faith in her.
It cost us precious time, lives and materials to reform a solid defence whilst still under fire, but eventually we succeeded, even managing to still keep the remaining civilians safe, now being evacuated directly to the orbiting fleet rather than risking issues with the warp gate. The heroic efforts of the fleet ensured that much of the mechanised units, particularly the vital Temeraires and siege tanks, were safely escorted to the new lines, which was just as well because we desperately needed the firepower.
For ninety minutes, we duelled with the Zerg forces to the point of near exhaustion. Our forces were being forced to the brink of their limits, yet we held, against all the odds and despite overwhelming odds. Even better, we were able to prevent any further damage to the warp gate. Finally, Artanis contacted me with the best news I could have heard.
"All civilians have been evacuated. All forces, commence your withdrawal."
Brilliant news to be certain, but evacuating our forces still wouldn't be easy. The Spear of Adun, despite its awesome capabilities, still had its limits, especially with so many of its systems still not at full functionality. While it had, in conjunction with the rest of the Protoss fleet, successfully extracted our strike forces after the fall of the Overmind, it wasn't fully recovered from that effort and it has also extracted its fair share of civilians as well. What that meant is that we had to rely far more on the old extraction methods of shuttles and dropships than we had with the Overmind, all while aware that the warp gate was potentially nearing a detonation.
As ever, time was not on our side.
With desperate, superhuman effort, we cleared the skies for the transports, holding back the Swarm as the extraction effort got underway. It didn't matter to anyone whose transports they boarded. Marines and Zealots clambered uncomfortably into Overlords, while Zerglings leapt into shuttles and Ultralisks climbed laboriously into dropships, much to the distress of their pilots. Still, in good order, our forces filed, whilst still under fire and defending themselves, into the various ships and raced for the safety of the fleet above.
As Jim and I had promised, we, along with Nova and Tychus, stayed on the ground fighting until Sarah joined us, shaking her head with a mixture of fondness and exasperation. "Satisfied, boys?" She asked playfully.
"Now, yes." Jim snarked back. "I think we've worn out our welcome. Let's get the hell out of here."
A loud whine suddenly began to make itself heard and our attention was drawn towards the now furiously sparking warp gate. Before we could truly react, another ship that I'd never seen before raced out of the sky and pulled up in front of us. Twin points extended forward from a comparatively short circular body, before trailing off to finish in a powerful looking engine core, with the distinctive construction style that so many Protoss ships wore so well. Even among Protoss ships, though, this was graceful; and clearly built for speed and agility. Swinging vertically, it opened an access ramp and a familiar voice called out to us.
"Get on board! There is no time left!" Zeratul's voice called out to us urgently.
None of us hesitated, sprinting forward and leaping on board. Behind us, the hatch began to reseal itself, though as I glanced behind us, I saw enough to see the remaining defenders snatch places aboard the other transports and hurl themselves skywards. As we screamed away, fire from the orbiting fleet lanced down at the warp gate, pushing it past its limits. Though the hatch sealed before I could see any more, I was rewarded for grabbing at the nearest solid object a few seconds later as the shockwave from the exploding warp gate struck the ship. The room shook crazily for a moment, but the ship's shields and hull clearly held and moments later, the shaking subsided and we all breathed a sigh of relief.
A door in front of us opened and another familiar figure appeared. While still clearly pale compared to normal, it was a relief to see him standing, compared to when we had last seen him.
"I take it, Commander, that that was what you Terrans might call a tough day at the office."
None of us could help the chuckle that escaped us at those words. Tiredly, I slid down the closest wall and gazed at the Protoss Executor I so respected, even if I hadn't always shown that. "You're damn right, Tassadar. You're damn right."
(Author's Note)
So, yes, I'm not actually dead. I am sorry for how long this has taken, but this chapter has quite literally fought me tooth and nail for over a year. A year that has been incredibly full and busy in and of itself. It's had its highs and lows, like I'm sure you've all had as well, but I'm hopeful that things are on a definite path upward. Having said that, I'm still not 100% happy with this chapter and I might end up reviewing it in the future, but I've been trying to get this done for so long, that I didn't want to make you all wait any longer and I wanted to move on from Aiur as well.
Before I continue to explain on that, I have two pieces of exciting news for you all. Firstly, as some of you may have noticed already, I now have a discord server dedicated to this series! I'm pretty regularly on there and there's a fairly good community around as well, so if you are interested, you are more than welcome to join. The invitation link is on my profile (obviously, you'll need to remove the spaces), so feel free to jump in and say hello.
The second newsflash for you is something that I think a lot of you have been looking forward to. Ilya's long time project in turning WODF into a custom campaign for Brood War is finally live! I cannot recommend enough that you play this incredible campaign! You can get the download links for the mod from the discord server above. This has been a labour of love for both him and I for years and it's great to finally see it come to fruition. Ilya's still updating it based on feedback from the people playing it, as well as new features that are being added to it, which is one reason why the download links are on the discord rather than here. I will warn you, the difficulty is challenging, but there's a number of youtube playthroughs covering much of the campaign, and it will eventually cover all missions. Currently, it's available in both English and Russian, with Korean being looked at as well. I'd like to thank Ilya for all of his immensely hard work in bringing this vision of mine to life, and also his friends in the Starcraft modding community for all their hard work in testing and providing feedback on this mammoth project. Many of them are also on the discord, so feel free to have a talk to them as well.
Now, in regards to this story, I'm going to be returning more to some of the roots of this story for a while. It seems to me as though I've been writing massive combat sequences or the leadup/aftermath of them for a while, particularly on Aiur, which has taken up a substantial part of recent events. While this is as it should be, I'm keen to go back to some of my earlier style. This isn't going to say that I won't be writing large scale sequences again, I have at least a few planned for this story, but I think a change is best for the moment. Jason's not going to have an easy time of it through the Brood War and the action will be back.
There's also been some complaints about Jason always 'having a trick up his sleeve' to get out of a situation. While I'm not going to say that this is going to go away entirely, most of the tricks that I want Jason to have already have been introduced in the story. Spoiler alert, they aren't always going to work either. Make of that what you will.
Now, I don't believe I've made a secret that I dislike the plot of BW more than most of the rest of the series, so I am keen to push ahead and get through this and onto WoL. How that fits in with my increasingly busy timetable I have no idea, but I will be working on it. I also have plans for a separate offshoot story that is going to cover oneshots or short stories that don't really fit into the rest of the storyline. At the moment, I intend that to mostly cover between Brood War and Wings of Liberty, but if the muse strikes, I might go back and add some for the rest of the series as well. Regardless, I won't be starting that until this story is done, unless I do get an idea for a story earlier in the timeline.
Now, reviews. Again, I will be covering those from WODF first, then this story.
WODF Reviews:
ShadeslayerX, I felt that Nova didn't exactly deserve that in here, she gets a pretty rough run in canon (like 95% of the Korpulu Sector). Having said that, she's going to have a bad time at SOME point in the future.
An amused reader, I'm so glad you noticed! As it happens, that WAS a deliberate nod to the game and I'm not sure that many, if anyone else, has noticed.
Guest, I'd have preferred to deal with this via PM, but obviously not a possibility with a guest review. I'm sorry you feel that way, but I stand by my choice. I don't claim to be a good writer and I'm writing this for my entertainment just as much as anyone else. You're entitled to your opinion and I'm entitled to mine.
Warlord, I'm glad you enjoyed the whole story and very grateful you made it to the end of WODF, it's a major epic!
Dasgun, not exactly sure how you want me to respond to that, or even what you meant.
Ming-Yao, I'm glad you like it.
I can understand what you're talking about and it's a valid point. I struggled with that as well for a while. But from Louise's point of view, the fact that she couldn't save anyone, meant that everything she'd suffered and gone through, all the lives she'd taken and torn asunder, was ultimately, at that point, for nothing. The fact that her strength, paid for with the blood and suffering of not just her, but billions, couldn't make a difference? That would haunt anyone.
ShadeslayerX (again), I'm glad to hear that reaction. I did try to make things unexpected.
Lastful, we've already discussed this via PM, so I won't rehash things here. All I'll say is that, yes you make some good points on how things could have been done better which I hadn't considered until you raised them. Ultimately though, this is a chapter I like a lot, Jason isn't a perfect commander and will make mistakes and I've no desire to rewrite this chapter to cheapen the experience of escaping Char.
WTDL Reviews:
Morrom, it's good to be back. Hopefully the next wait isn't as long as this one.
firetemplar, I do try to please.
Deathknight, I'm glad you've enjoyed this headlong trip down the rabbit hole. Hopefully, this chapter lives up to your expectations.
Capo, you're right, in many ways this is the tipping point. Puppet-masters rarely like other people messing with their plans. So, while things are smooth now, they aren't going to stay that way forever.
inphernalmenace, it's definitely going to change a lot of things. A lot of things will be better, but not everything. I'm not going to be ramming the influence down everyone's throats, but it is going to be there and it DEFINITELY is going to have an influence on events.
Aberron, I'm glad you enjoy everything so far. Hopefully, this continues to live up to what you expect.
Eliminator, I'm very glad you enjoy this. Your thinking here aligns with mine quite well, as I'm sure you've guessed. I do the best I can with what imagination, knowledge and skill I possess. Hopefully people enjoy it like you do, but it doesn't bother me if they don't either.
I think that wraps this chapter up. Hopefully you all enjoy this, please feel free to follow, favourite and review. I hope to see you on my discord server and please try out the new campaign. I'll try not to keep you waiting so long.
Until next time.
