Episode 18- The future decided by the present.
.
"First, you gave Tarsonis into the claws of the zerg, and now you want to sent Kerrigan to fight protoss, and without the aid of the army?"
"I have utmost faith in Litenaut Sarah."
"Bullshit. Kerrigan do you hear that?"
"I do, and I will depart immediately. Arcturus knows what he is doing and I wouldn't want to disappoint him now."
"I didn't take you for a martyr".
"Don't worry Jim, I'll keep her safe".
So it comes to this. Dobromir sighed, and opened the storage of his ship. His mechanical bull self-imploded from overheating in one of the longer missions. It wasn't surprising, considering its size and status of prototype. His two metallic cats were rendered useless from all the damage. The mechanics on hyperion didn't have the time or resources to learn how to repair it, so the remaining mounts were bunched up and put under the deck.
It has come to this, a situation where the leader of riders didn't have anything to ride. It was time to suit up more than ever. His standart heavy plate armor with crystal underlines here and there was scratched in few places, but remained mostly undamaged. His other weapons broke down or were lost in the midst of the battle, leaving him with only a lance, a thick one at that. His laser musket was too fragile too and was destroyed by some stray hydralisks spikes. On the other hand, Dobromir taken from the hold a big rectangular wall shield, also with some crystal on the edges, practically unused.
Rumaggin further he noted a complete lack of explosives or other useful gadgets. But, somewhere at the complete bottom, he found something unexpected. It was a banner, a big one at that. The small flag at the tip of his lance was lost long ago, during some skirmish. This big boy required holding it in one hand. Or did it? Dobromir smirked, an idea coming to his mind.
"-the protoss doesn't want to destroy only the zerg but the whole planet too. When I'm done with this, we will talk further".
"I understand. Successful hunting, kerrigan".
The ginger in question sighed, and turned her gaze towards the sky. Her and her troop were waiting for their last member, who was running a little late. But considering his combat capabilities, it was worth the wait.
And there it was, his air boat was roughly in the right place. A few minutes later he landed, and shut his engines off.
This time, Kerrigan witnessed the man jump down from the boat with a wall shield as big as himself, the lance he was so rarely using, and no mount. As the rider without a ride walked in their direction, she saw something completely unexpected.
"What kind of useless brainstorming gave you that idea?"
"You mean this?" Dobromir asked, pointing at his back where a big flag on an even bigger pole was slowly flapping on the wind. The fabric proudly displayed his colony, showing a big tomato on a black background. It wasn't a simplified tomato, no, it was big, ripe, very detailed, and almost looked ready to eat.
"I mean, I just found it in my storage and thought, why not? By the way, what you see right now are the only things I have available for use, so why not?"
Another sigh, this time a stronger one.
"Don't care, let's just… get on with it." With that she and her troop started walking in the direction of the protoss, the man with the hulking equipment hurrying along, it wasn't so easy without any mode of transportation.
"Something doesn't feel right here" mused Dobromir, and indeed it wasn't. They established a base close to the zerg, and then fortified it to the nines. Empty barracks stood as barriers, creating narrow corridors that ended with bunkers full of soldiers. Missile turrets were built everywhere in the camp, and all the mechs were roughly in the middle, just waiting around.
The zerg attacked with a few zerglings, always less than ten, lone mutalisks that didn't survive a second and the usual flying queens that tried to make life harder.
The protoss sended two melee warriors, at last the lack of any shooting made him think so. As soon as their shields depleted, they teleported away. Well he thinked it was teleport, what with the glowing hexagonal lights.
"Something fishy here", he repeated, "They aren't attacking as". Some shooting and dying zerg were heard in the background.
Seeing Kerrigan's raised brew, he added "not really, can you honestly say this is a zerg attack? There were even more of them when we were rescuing Duke, and compared to Mar Sara it was nothing."
"I don't know, and don't care. Let's just finish our mission and get out of here, fast."
"Mmmm, eeee, I guess, let's get going then."
They gathered all of their machines, consisting of eight vultures, four goliats, two siege tanks, and three wraiths. Most of the marines and firebats remained to defend the base, and their rear with it. Maybe twenty soldiers in standart armor went with them, plus two firebats deemed unlikely to be useful against a super advanced race of space aliens, i.e. protoss.
The position of their two bases was already scanned by the command center extension, so the group walked towards their first destination.
They met with two protoss warriors standing around, and before the task force could blast them into oblivion, one voice gained their attention.
"Wait, let me fight them, alone". It was Dobromir, of course.
He was met with a look of annoyance from Kerrigan, and a question. "Why?"
"To test my equipment, and… I probably won't have a chance like this another time."
"Just make it quick".
He at last tried to make it quick, that is. Walking in all this armor and with big weapons, his speed was limited. Soon the two protoss saw him, and started charging in his direction. They did so with their energy blades already glowing, so Dobromir somewhat knew what to expect. Because the protoss certainly wasn't prepared for their weapons to slide along his armor and shield, instead of slicing right through him. They also weren't prepared for their opponent to use his own mass against them, smashin one protoss with his shield, and bouncing the other off his chestplate.
Both warriors were thrown back some distance, but were quick to get back on their feet. Second later only one remained standing, because the other had his legs swiped over by lance, and then smashed his head against the ground, leaving him unconscious. The other tried to avenge his comrade, and lunged against the human, but he certainly wasn't expecting to be welcomed with open arms, leaving him in bearhug, with him slowly being crushed. He tried to break free, but his assailant made a coconut move, conking their heads together.
Dobromir lifted his shield and lance high, celebrating his victory. The two knocked out protoss soon disappeared in flashes of teleportation.
It was almost too easy. The group made it close to the protoss base, which was on higher elevation, and prepared. Mostly the siege tanks entered their proper states, and vultures strewed about their mines. The rest of the troop made a line, with marines at front, tanks in the back, and goliats one their left and right. Kerrigan stood somewhere among the troops, and Dobromir with the two firebats protected their backs. Or, more accurately, didn't have anything to do.
The rest was rather obvious, some scans and wraith scouting, and the bombarding began. This lured the protoss out rather quickly, and only some random balls of plasma from the four legged crabs? tried to hit them. Lucky terrans, only one goliath's leg got destroyed, without any harm to the pilot, who now stood on the back of the troop. The melee protoss warriors didn't stand a chance against the mines, so no terran skewering happened.
After that, they advanced up the ramp, and immediately made a turn back, considering something was shooting at them. Quick cooperation between tanks and wraiths made quick work of them, and soon they advanced again. Nothing else attacked them, so they set about destroying the buildings. That is, until the assistance arrived.
They group didn't expect for some protoss to simply drop by, so some poor marine was skewered, only to make way for the next objective on the way, a certain ghost.
Kerrigan tried to evade the swipes of the energy blade, but unfortunately received some deep cut to the side. Just as the protoss prepared to end the pained ghost, he was skewered from behind, instead.
"You alright?" Asked dobromir, as the body on his lance evaporated in a weird flame. Certainly different from teleportation, but still weird.
"I will be…" She looked at the wound, it was somewhat deep, fortunately not damaging anything important. "At last I won't bleed out", she noted, seeing her blackened skin.
The rider without a ride looked back, and all the new arrivals were swiftly dealt with, thanks to the mad scramble of the soldiers.
"I may know something about wounds, but I certainly don't know about alien weapons. You better return to the base, I will deal with the rest."
"If you are sure, I am just… tired now." Seems all those months of intense and rather often happening fights against both confederacy and zerg really tired her out. It also could have something to do with certain cowboy, and something more than obligations to mengsk, like living a happy life.
.
After receiving information about their newest scans, Dobromir sended all the marines, goliats and firebats back to the base, together with Kerrigan carried by someone, and this one pilot without machine. He himself hopped on a tank, and together with the rest rushed to the second protoss base. Seems it was empty.
It was mostly empty, the two melee protoss were quickly dealt with by a pack of speeding vultures, and the two turrets/cannons? by tanks. After confirming with another scan, they set about destroying the protoss base, without any more obstacles. After it was done, only one thing remained, get out of here.
"This is Kerrigan, we neutralized the protoss but now a mass of zerg is rushing towards us, we need immediate evac!" Silence met her, she shot a few zerglings that tried to rush her, and barely missed a poisoned spike, after which she blew the hydralisks head to pieces.
*Klik, klik, klik* her ammo was out, touching her comms again, kerrigan asked "Eee, boys? What about evacuation?" She was met with further silence. "Commandor? Jim? What the heck is happening out there?" further silence. She looked around, and having that feeling of unease she flipped her visor on. To her eyes, zerg were shown. One after another, zerglings, hydralisks, more and more, rushing towards her. Feeling the end coming, she gave up, throwing down her visor and rifle, looking towards the sky as the swarm began circling around her. Just a moment before she lost the awareness of the world around her, she heard a faint "Kerrigan" shouted by a person much younger than her, and definitely more crazy than her. She lamented the loss of such a promising kid, just as nothingness claimed her.