Chapter 21: Lending a Hand
SCVs were hard at work constructing a series of bunkers and walls surrounding an encampment that had more or less sprung up overnight. A truck drove through the gate, passing by the workers who were still focused on their task. As the vehicle pulled in and came to a stop, Jim Raynor walked out to meet them.
A man stepped out of the truck. "Mr. Raynor, I'm so glad that you could come to help."
"I'm just doing what any man should. And please, call me Jim," he replied. "Come sit down with me."
They walked into the newly built command center to continue their discussion.
"My name is Henry Grant, and I'm the head foreman here on Krydon," the man said, introducing himself. "Normally I don't do much besides mediate disputes between different mining groups but when that person came to us and said that there would be zerg coming, we all got rather scared about things. With the help of your folks I hope we can make it out of this alright. The more the merrier, though I have to say your choice of helpers was a bit off putting."
"We're gonna need all the help we can get," Raynor replied.
"I'm still afraid the protoss will decide to melt the planet like they did to the other colonies. And I'm not even gonna get started about the zerg."
"Don't worry," Raynor said. "I know them and they're here to help by deploying ground forces. Plus, with the state their fleet is in, they probably won't be destroying planets anytime soon. As for the zerg, they're here to fight a common enemy and every shot they take is one not heading for one of our boys."
Henry sighed. "I know, I know. I've heard the reasons. But it still makes me nervous."
"Everything will work out, I promise," Raynor said. "Now, I'll tell you a bit about how I'm fortifying this place and afterwards I'll call up my old friend to coordinate tactics. I just wanted to make sure I've cleared everything with you."
When the zerg came, they were ready. As far as the eye could see there was zerg coming at them, but the almost rhythmic barrage from the tanks thinned them out so that the defenders atop the walls could hold back the tide.
"Hold the line, men!" Raynor shouted. "The people of the colony are counting on us. Don't let a single zerg through."
An ultralisk crashed against the gate, sending tremors through the walls and ground.
"Take it out, damn it," Raynor yelled as the creature continued to bash against the fortifications.
Several bombs were rolled off of the wall, exploding as they landed next to the ultralisk. The massive creature let out a final scream as it died.
"Good work men," Raynor said. "Now I want y'all to keep your eyes peeled and stop the next one before it gets so close."
Suddenly, a flock of mutalisks were sighted and everyone began ducking for cover. After withdrawing to the inside of the command center, Raynor continued to observe the battle as he watched the mutalisks be driven back by their air defenses. But it was too soon to celebrate as there was still more zerg coming.
Then, he noticed that he was being called. "Raynor here," he said as he picked up the transmission.
"How's your situation, Jim?" the voice at the other end asked.
"We're holding," he replied. "And we'll keep these zerg away. But we're going to be pinned down here for a while."
"That will be sufficient for now," they answered. "My soldiers and the militia we trained here can cover the most critical areas."
"How are the others doing," Raynor said.
"I've given them their orders and as long as they carry them out we shouldn't have a problem. I already told you before that I'm not a huge fan of this help. But if they are doing what they're supposed to I'll take it," they said.
"Well, is there anything else you need me to do?" Raynor asked.
"Just keep holding back the zerg in your area, Raynor. I'll handle the rest."
"There's never a dull moment around here is there?" Kerrigan mused to herself as she watched a flock of mutalisks driven off by her own zerg. "It's a pity I wasn't able to get the enemy cerebrate to stop the attack; it didn't even respond to me. I suspect the UED has employed their own measures to control them more tightly than mere fear."
"It would have been better if we could have resolved this in another way. Now we've been dropped right into a warzone," Kaloth said. "The enemy zerg here are quite numerous."
"There are a lot of minerals here. This mountain, Selim's Rock, is a major mining site. That's why they wanted us here," Kerrigan said. "It'll be enough to support our forces while denying the resources to the enemy."
"I can't argue against the strategic value of the orders we were given," Kaloth said. "But at the same time that means we will bear the brunt of the fighting and take the most losses. It is clear that they have given us the most dangerous tasks because they hold the lives of zerg as having lower value than theirs."
"They aren't really wrong," she said with a shrug. "We can replace losses much better than them. And I can tell that the others aren't exactly the most fond of me. There's no room for us to complain. The Magistrate's plan is airtight and strategically sound, with no visible flaws, as expected of them. It isn't even as though they are seeking to waste our forces, since each task they assign has valid importance."
"Then we simply need to complete the objectives as efficiently as possible. They can hardly complain if we don't lose as much as projected," Kaloth said.
"I'll be counting on you for that then," Kerrigan replied.
The cerebrate paused for a moment. "There is a disruption with our drones that are mining in the mountain. They've come across some existing tunnels and are now exploring them."
"There are tunnels already down there? There must have been an existing mining operation in this place then," Kerrigan said.
"You are correct," Kaloth said. "In fact, the drones have just run into a group of armed terrans in the tunnels and are now being shot at. What do you want to do with them?"
Kerrigan let out a sigh of frustration. "I'll go down there and sort them out."
She followed the tunnels down to where the fighting was taking place. Though it wasn't really much of a fight. The miners were simply chasing after the drones and shooting at them while the zerg workers were skittering away as quickly as they could. She ordered a group of hydralisks to get down there and form a wall to scare off the terrans. However, they didn't back off and instead shot at the hydralisks too. The hydralisks had to be restrained from instinctively returning fire.
"Stop shooting!" Kerrigan shouted out when she arrived at the scene.
The miners kept on shooting, killing more of the hydralisks.
"I'm not here to fight you, so put your weapons down."
The men didn't stop, though one did speak up. "Hey, maybe we should call a timeout. These zerg aren't shooting at us after all."
"Shut up and keep shooting," another man said. "This is just a trick to get us to let down our guard so they can kill us. They must have invented some kind of talking zerg."
Kerrigan stomped forward to get to the front. "Look if I wanted to kill you all you'd already be dead."
Upon seeing her appear, the miners turned their guns to shoot at her. But they found their guns yanked out of their hands by an invisible force. The weapons fell to the ground, finally silent.
"Can we finally talk now?" The irritation in her voice was clear.
"Who the hell are you?" someone asked.
"You can call me Kerrigan. I'm the one controlling these zerg here. We are not trying to fight you. We are only trying to fight the other zerg that are attacking your planet."
"But aren't you both zerg?" the man in the front asked. "Why would you be fighting each other?"
"I can ask the same thing about why the Confederacy and the Kel-Morians fought each other in the Guild Wars," Kerrigan said. "All that you need to know is that I'm on your side right now. The only thing I need is to be able to mine the minerals around here without my drones being shot at."
"And why should we help you?"
Kerrigan swallowed down her retort that they should listen because she could have them all killed, since that probably wouldn't go over too well with them. "Because I'm here to fight your enemies too."
"So what? I've never listened to that enemy of my enemy shit," the man replied. "We've had a bunch of cave ins in the past few hours. I bet that's your fault with all the digging your creatures have done. Now my daughter is missing since she was playing in one of the tunnels that caved in. You zerg are the ones invading this planet and I sure as hell ain't gonna let any of you have these minerals. "
"Don't lump me in with them," Kerrigan said. "I'm not just here to kill people."
"Oh really? How many people have you and your zerg killed in the past? I'm willing to bet it's quite a few."
The miners took Kerrigan's silence as confirmation. Then, it was like a dam broke open as everyone started venting. When what was once an evil faceless entity was now personified in an individual that could be shouted at, everyone had their own piece to say.
"I had a cousin on one of the colonies the zerg attacked. They never found his body."
"I moved here after the zerg attacked my home. Everyone I knew died and I was the only one who made it out. Every day I wonder why only I lived."
The outpouring continued without end and Kerrigan took a step back as she was at a loss as to what to say. She resorted to skimming their surface thoughts to see if she could find out what to say to calm them down. But all she saw was a sea of anger that had built up within them with no outlet and she quickly withdrew from their minds as she was shaken by the overwhelming grief and rage inside.
A gunshot rang out and she caught the bullet in her hand. She saw that a man had picked up his weapon from the floor. With another wave she had the guns pulled away again and this time out of reach. Then she had the hydralisks form a wall while she withdrew from the scene in the hopes that they would calm down once they no longer had someone to scream at.
Kerrigan sat down in the dark tunnel and thought about how to handle the situation. She believed that the miners were being too emotional to look at the bigger picture right now, but at the same time she had no way to refute what they were saying. Their anger and hate burned as hot as anything she had ever felt, and they had good reason to be angry having lost so much. Though that didn't change the fact that they were impeding the defense of their planet, it was understandable that they would have doubts about all this.
Then, one of her minions noticed that there was a person alone in a tunnel the zerg recently dug into. It was a small girl and Kerrigan recalled the person mentioning that they had someone missing. She immediately began thinking of how to leverage this new development in order to resolve the conflict. It would certainly provide another opening for her to engage with them, and the adults would likely be unwilling to engage in heavy vitriol in the close vicinity of a child. Furthermore, if she left a positive impression on the child then that would be helpful as well, so she would have to put on a good act. With the new plan rapidly forming, she began walking toward where the drone had spotted the child.
The child was startled by the drone's appearance and she cowered away from it as it approached. The drone stopped in front of her and waited, staring ahead blankly as it followed its orders to stay in place. After a minute of nothing happening, the child got up from the ground and started walking around the drone. When the drone turned to face her, she froze again. But when it continued to do nothing, she relaxed and continued walking.
The drone followed the child as she began walking. The girl paused and turned around to see the drone come to a stop at the same time she did. As she walked, she could hear the drone following her at a constant distance like a dog would follow its owner.
"You are like a pet," the child muttered.
"Indeed," a voice came from behind the child. "You could say that it is my pet."
The child slowly turned around and froze as she looked up at the strange person standing behind her, a mixture of human and zerg.
"Hello there little girl," Kerrigan said.
The girl backed away slightly, eyes filled with fear.
"Do not be afraid," Kerrigan said. Still, the girl didn't calm down.
Kerrigan was somewhat frustrated to see that her attempt to act friendly wasn't working, so she decided to switch tack and began thinking about what people were supposed to do in a situation such as this. Then, she thought of her next idea and she very very carefully picked up the girl and held her in position approximating that of a hug.
The child continued to whimper for a bit, finally calming down when she realized that nothing was happening to her.
"What is your name, little girl?" Kerrigan asked.
The child looked up at her with wide eyes, feeling both curious and nervous. "My name is Annie Grant. Who are you?"
"You can call me Sarah." The zerg queen patted the child on the shoulder and set her down on the drone, which began carrying the girl back toward the miner base. "So, what were you doing down in the tunnels?"
"I was playing and my ball rolled into a tunnel," she said. "Then there was a bunch of shaking and rocks fell so I couldn't get back."
"Well you'll be okay now," Kerrigan said. "Let me bring you back to your parents."
"Okay," the girl said. "So, what are you? You look different from other people."
"It's a long story. I was once a human like you. Then I was betrayed and captured by the zerg. They made me what I am now."
"You've lived an interesting life then, miss Sarah," the kid said.
"That I have." Soon they walked past the pile of guns from where the confrontation with the miners happened and then they reached their base. The miners had returned to rearm themselves but now they were staying put rather than venturing out. Kerrigan picked up the child and walked toward the miners' encampment.
Upon seeing Kerrigan approach, the miners raised their guns, but then soon lowered them when they saw her holding the child in front of her, interpreting this as her using a hostage.
"Annie!" A man called out as he ran forward. "What do you want?" he asked Kerrigan.
"I'm just here to return your daughter to you," Kerrigan said. "I found her alone in the tunnels."
After being put back down, Annie ran over to her father, who grabbed her in a hug.
"Are you okay, sweetie?" he asked.
"I'm okay." She nodded her head vigorously. "The nice weird looking lady found me and brought me back."
"Well, thank you," the man said tersely. "Is that all?"
"I just wanted to reiterate that the other zerg on this planet aren't going to be so considerate," Kerrigan said. "So if we end up driven away by them the outcome won't be good for you. So, I'm asking that you stay out of the way while we mine the minerals here. If you need more reassurance you can just call up whoever's in charge of this planet."
"Our comms are down, I haven't been able to call up my brother since we got the evacuation order," he said.
"Oh, what happened?" Kerrigan asked. "If you were told to evacuate then why are you all still here? It certainly would have made my job easier if this place was empty."
"We heard that zerg were going to be attacking so we were told to pack everything up and get to a more fortified area where they are gathering everyone on the outskirts," he said. "But there was an earthquake that collapsed the entrance to the cave. You see, this town was built entirely underneath the mountain in the large natural cavern that was slowly expanded over time by mining. But when the entrance collapsed we were stuck in here, and part of the landslide buried our communication terminal that links us to the outside. So we weren't able to tell anyone we were trapped."
"I see, well I can pass on a message then telling them where you are," Kerrigan said. "I can have a new exit dug out but I don't recommend leaving right now. It's a warzone out there and I can't guarantee your safety."
"We'll be fine staying here for now," the man said. "The mountain is a safe place to hole up so just leave us alone and we can handle ourselves."
"My zerg will be conducting mining operations throughout the area and I expect that your men will stay out of our way."
"So you can steal all of these minerals out from under us, you mean," the man replied. "How are we going to earn a living after this blows over?"
"Just be glad you'll live long enough for that to matter. Now, are we clear on what is going to happen?" Kerrigan's eyes gazed sharply at the man, barely making an effort to conceal her irritation.
"Not like we've got much choice," the man said as he turned away. "But we better not see you around here anymore."
"I'm glad we understand each other now," Kerrigan said sarcastically.
Several days of fighting had gone by and the fighting was beginning to slacken. During their downtime, Raynor talked with Artanis about the ongoing battle.
"They really threw a lot at us, even sending more broods to attack," Raynor said. "But we were able to hold on and we've gone from losing ground to clawing it back now that we took the upper hand."
"We fought well," Artanis said. "It will not be long now before we prevail."
"Things did work out well," Raynor said. "I had been a bit worried that we might have trouble but things went as well as we could hope."
Suddenly, an urgent message came in. A fleet of terran ships had warped in over the planet.
"Well, guess I jinxed it."