Episode 15- The scent which travels far.
Rufus stood upon the deck, slowly twirling his awesome mustache, and watched a few scientists scurry over to his boat. Size of three wrights, it was a standard battle vehicle developed by the second generation, with a few turret stands along the deck and additional space below, creating a two story star sailing vessel called cucumber.
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The number of people that came was less than hoped for and more than expected. Mostly because among them was one familiar face.
"Young Stetmann eh? Certainly didn't expect to see you here".
"I would tell the same, if not for the ghost impaled by lance. There is only one small group of lunatics using them, and all live on Po'midor."
The older man grinned, and said "Your auntie will be overjoyed to see you".
"Don't remind me". Sighed the young genius, one hand on his face.
The few that followed him, mostly because of his assurances of familiarity with those people, started climbing up the ladder, all the time looking with interest and confusion upon the vessel they were boarding.
"You are probably familiar with our next target, Antigua Prime"
Dobromir leaned over the table, Arcturus directly before him, Jim on his right and Magistrate on the left. "Isn't it heavily monitored by the Confederacy now? I don't think there are enough of us to take them down."
"Soon enough there will be. The Antigian people have enough, and are ready to join us, if only we give them help."
"And how are we supposed to do that? Those dung born are everywhere." Replied Raynor.
"You will meet with my agent at a designated position. Magistrate, this time you go with them".
"Me? But I am not a soldier, or any kind of warrior."
"And I'am not expecting it for you. There will be a base to organize." It was said with a small grin from Mengsk.
"We are here, according to the coordinates at last, but where is our contact?"
The group consists of Raynor on his vulture, Dobromir on yet another mount, a machine sabertooth cat, twenty marines and the Magistrate in his own marine suit with a gun, which he barely knows how to use.
The cowboys question was answered by the rider, who lifted his helmet up and took a big SNIFF. Followed by two others, to finally give the answer: "I know that smell. Ok, more like a stink, a very familiar one."
His whole group just looked weirdly at him, with confused stares all around.
Looking at his comrades faces, he said "I mean our contact, a certain unwashed ginger is already here." He sniffed once more, and pointed his finger at a certain place "She's right here", he exclaimed, and just after that, a ghost appeared, with not only red hair but red face too.
"How did you find me by smell? I am certain my suit is air tight". She tried not to show too much embarrassment, especially with something like that hanging over her head.
"And skin tight to boot I see."
"Pigs, the lot of you." Saying that her face became even more redder, and she tried not to hide her assets with hands, it would be a show of weakness.
"Anyway, answering your question, the smell of psychics, especially as powerful as you, alway lingers, and even spreads around. And, we met before, don't you remember? I found you be the smell then, now is no different. Washing yourself would make you untraceable."
"You…!" She made a few strange faces, memories of that happenstance resurfacing to the forefront of her mind. Now, her face was steaming, there is nothing quite like doubling the embarrassment.
"What do you mean, you met her before?" Raynor went from ogling to wary glances, he had reasons to distrust psionics, painful reasons.
"A, you know, when I visited the ghost academy on tarsonis. Dreary place that one, if not for my intervention and this ray of sunshine over there, I would practically call it a cemetery."
"And why were you there?"
"What else? To destroy some equipment, steal research, bring general chaos and mayhem, and sniff out some interesting individuals."
"How did you get in?! The security there is of the highest sort!" The twitching eye certainly portrayed his calm demeanor, as in lack of thereof.
"Invited, of course! Unfortunately, for them that is, my potential is only for finding other psionics, scale 3 if I remember correctly, and my mom is too influential, so not only they had to let me go, they also had to deal with the aftermath."
"What scale?"
"You don't know?" he turned towards the listening marines "you?" shrugged shoulders or no reaction was his answer.
He took a water bottle, drank from it, put it back, and turned towards Jim, again.
"So Psi Index, PI for short ranges from 1 to 10. 1-2 normal humans, 3-5 limited powers, mostly sensing other psionics. 5-8 Teeps as in telephats, your typical ghosts and lastly 8-10 Teeks, very rare, very powerful and can have telepathy."
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"And what about her?" Raynor pointed with a motion of his head. The ginger was calming down, mostly listening in silence, already knowing all about it.
"I mentioned she is the strongest no? Her scent was practically overpowering everyone else, so I can say she is ten out of ten.
Unease showed on Raynors face, sentiment not shared by the rest of the group who just nodded, together with some "yes" here and there.
"And the mission?" It was the only voice of reason, which was the Magistrate, still feeling rather uncomfortable with a gun in hands.
The female ghost perked up, "I need to get in the command center, but they have turrets to detect me. You will be my escort." Even if she calmed down, it seems her rosy cheeks would remain for quite some time.
"Wait, one last thing!"
"What now?" A bit of irritation was heard in her voice.
"Your name." It was said with a grin on the rider's face.
"Kerrigan, Sarah Kerrigan."
"Anti-air turrets! They have sensors that can detect land and air units, and that is the reason you are here."
*BOOOM!*
"You mean this pile of scrap?". Dobromir practically throwed his grenade halfway through Kerrigan's talking.
"Most will be outside your throwing range, so don't act cheeky. Let's get going".
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They crossed some distance before the next obstacle appeared, in the form of wraith. Kerrigan quickly disabled the machine, only for it to explode a second later, shot by a red beam. She turned back, watching as Dobromir swiftly turned a crank on his laser musket ten times. His weapon practically thrummed with power, and even the marine on the back of their group could faintly hear it.
"What is that thing?" The ginger wasn't happy her lockdown was practically wasted.
"Laser musket, seeing how many flying enemies I meet, it was a wise precaution."
"You know what? I don't care, let's just go."
.
Suffice to say, they met some stray vultures or wraiths, but arrived at the destination rather quickly. There was a base upon a cliff, with the ramp blocked by bunkers, together with turrets, which were spinning like drunks.
"Okay, there are too many of them, so what now?" Asked Raynor.
"I need to get inside the command center" Replied the ghost.
"I have an idea!" Everyone turned towards the rider, who was still comfortably sitting on his catty mount, with his ranged weapon held loosely, depowered.
"I am already terrified." The deadpan voice of the ginger didn't deter him in the slightest, and even gave him more confidence.
"So, I go from left, Raynor from right, we get close enough to destroy the towers, then retreat towards the rest, who are staying at distance and shoot loosely towards them. The path will open for an invisible lady, and that's it."
"Eeee… I guess? Could work."
"Now, get to work"
"Right away sir!" Magistrate was already performing his base commander duties. He was waiting for the command center to clean up.
The bunkers at the foot of cliffs were nothing more than piles of scrap, together with its residents. The former turrets, now a bunch of twisted and scattered metal, have fallen under the Plan, having been destroyed by grenades from Jim's bike and an overpowered firework.
The cowboy in question was organizing soldiers, and the rider and ghost didn't really have anything to do.
.
"How does the zerg smell?"
"Huh?" It was followed by the last wraith destroyed, the wraith raids coming from time to time to harass them. The camp was hive of activity, some soldiers defending the place and others hurrying for the incoming assault on the confederates.
Dobromir and Kerrigan were mostly left to their devices, being specialists they wouldn't be really useful on the front. So they focused on defending the camp, and generally just waited for something to happen.
"They smell the same, which is weird."
"What do you mean?"
"My smell is mostly a psionic detector, but every terran smells different. On the other hand, all the zerg have the same smell. Well… not exactly, the ones I met on my homeworld were of different variety than those on Mar Sara. Considering that the zerg I met aren't psionics, then the smell must be coming from their handlers. If I sniffed a zergling from real close, like a nose almost touching carapax, I would probably smell its real scent, much like a normal human. My knowledge pretty much ends here.
"Now it makes more sense."
"Executor Tassadar, I have the report from our observers".
The protoss in question was watching as Mar Sara was purified from life, mostly of the zerg kind. Considering all the terrans already left, and the bugs in question didn't dug its roots very deep, he decided on a softer move. Chau Sara, unfortunately, was so heavily infested that destroying the planet was the only option.
Turning towards his soldier, he gave the impression of being ready to listen.
"We discovered more infestations, but fortunately they are very small and will be easy to destroy without purifying the whole planet."
"And what of Them?" His voice had much more echoes than normal protoss, probably because of his status as High Templar, one of the strongest Psionics among their people.
"Them? You mean… ah, Them. The terrans are surprisingly still holding strong, their primitive weapons are still enough to easily slay most zerg. But Executor, there is something unusual about their planet."
"Please elaborate".
"There are some strange disturbances that affect any psionic close enough to the planet, and zerg are almost cut off from their overlords."
"Intriguing, but we don't have the time, maybe after eradicating all the zerg there will be a chance"
"May the Khala guide us, towards a brighter future."