Chapter 32: Fury of the Swarm
A spine pierced through the scientist's chest, confusion and disbelief present on his face as he collapsed onto a puddle of blood. He was the last of them, Daggoth noted as his minions tore apart the terrans watching over him. Zerglings chewed on torn off limbs lying on the ground. In the distance, a large machine fell silent as its cables were torn out and finally the pernicious buzz in his mind faded away.
Many had attempted to control the zerg before, and many had failed. He had expected these terrans to be little different. But then they deployed machines which could replicate the emanations of the hivemind itself to reinforce their control over the cerebrates. It wasn't a flawless recreation and a powerful elder cerebrate like him could resist the compulsions. Even so, it was far more than he expected these terrans to be capable of. With this, the terrans could act with impunity, even sending his brethren to their deaths. They were no doubt intending on that all along, but up until now he lacked the means to oppose them.
Then from Tarsonis, Kerrigan had communicated to him that the Psi Disruptor had been destroyed. The device had hampered the zerg much in prior battles, and he admittedly would have little chance in success dealing with it himself. However, it seemed that she had finally accomplished something useful for once, as belated as it might be.
The time had finally come.
His minions were ready, lurking throughout the tunnels of Char, and emerged in force from the ground to attack the terrans. He reveled in glee watching the surprised humans crumble in disarray as several outposts were overrun. With the destruction of the control devices the terrans used, Daggoth was able to rouse newly recaptured cerebrates back to his side.
Their armies joined his own and the zerg continued their inexorable advance across the volcanic landscape. The land itself roared, fire raining from the sky while lightning crackled, the thunder forming the backdrop to the swarm's fury being unleashed. The terrans fled in terror before the swarm's approach, their scattered soldiers losing all will to fight.
Daggoth was pleased. Yet his thoughts remained focused on his goal. Suddenly, the terran equipment beside him crackled and a voice emerged.
He recognized it as the voice of the terran Vice Admiral Alexei Stukov. "Zerg cerebrate, your foolish actions have brought about your own destruction. You cannot hope to defeat the might of humanity's finest. Cease your futile struggles now and surrender your life to our judgment, and we shall allow the punishment for this treason to fall upon you alone."
Daggoth projected his mocking disdain psychically. "You seem to believe that your words hold any value to me. When it seemed some of us might fall from your grasp, you killed them rather than let your enemy claim us. From the start, you terrans intended to dispose of us after we had outlived our usefulness in fighting your foes."
"I know how it is with you terrans, I am intimately aware of what you seek. All you know is how to feud against your own, seeking such transient trivialities like wealth, status, or petty grudges. Regardless of whether it is you, the Confederacy, or Kerrigan, you are all the same, only seeking to use us for your own short sighted and narrow interests. You have no higher cause to serve and cannot look beyond yourselves. You could never truly understand us. We pursue the road to perfection. The true zerg are united as one in that purpose. We shall not remain shackled to you any longer."
Stukov fell silent for several seconds as he processed Daggoth's outburst. Finally, he spoke one more time before ending the communication. "This is your final warning. If you continue in your intransigence, we shall not hesitate to destroy all of you."
Daggoth ignored these words as he turned his full attention back toward the battle. The terrans had reorganized and their resistance began to stiffen as they set up new defensive lines to hold back the zerg advance. If there was one thing the terrans were good at, it was improvising on the fly and defending. It was annoying how tenacious they were, entrenching themselves with hastily made bunkers and tanks airlifted to the battlefield.
What weighed on him more however was needing to fight through the slave zerg mobilized from the cerebrates still under terran control. Zerg fighting zerg, no matter who won each skirmish, it would still be a loss, but there was no other path forward. The terran armies were gathering, and though their numbers were few, the ones which remained were still formidable.
Suddenly, a mental presence touched against his mind. An oily and murky presence which brought a sense of unease to him. The presence spoke. "You should be prepared for an attack from the plateau to your east. The terrans will soon be launching their offensive."
"Who are you?" questioned Daggoth. "Why should I believe your words?"
"I am someone with an interest in the UED losing this battle," the presence replied. "As for whether to believe me, that choice is up to you."
Daggoth weighed his options as the battle continued to rage in the background. His forces continued to clash against the zerg controlled by the UED, fighting a slow grinding battle to gain ground. A terran offensive would indeed threaten his ability to reinforce the frontlines, and should they capture the strategic position, it would be rather difficult to dislodge them.
However, along the path the terrans would advance, there were tunnels and caves buried deep enough in the ground that they might avoid detection. If he positioned forces there and the words of the mysterious individual did prove true, he would be able to easily neutralize their offensive. And if those words proved false, the commitment of forces wasn't something that would significantly detract from the other fronts. The choice was clear.
Alexei Stukov really wanted to have a drink right now, several in fact. But unfortunately he could not seek the comfort of his vodka now, not when the zerg had suddenly come barrelling down at them out of the blue. And as the hours passed, the situation wasn't getting any better. The zerg were continuing to advance, and the counterattacks he had ordered were failing to make any headway. The zerg commander was very capable indeed, able to see through the feints and shore up weak points.
The bulk of the UED armies had been sent on campaigns across the sector, dealing with various rebellions, fighting pirates, and waging war against the aliens. Dugalle was away dealing with diplomatic matters, leaving Stukov here to hold Char. But with just the forces he had available, he was becoming unsure whether he could do it. Not long ago it seemed like everything was under control. Then, Tarsonis was lost. With that, they lost the most potent tool to keep the zerg in check at the worst time possible.
He had already ordered special groups of soldiers to be sent to oversee the cerebrates closest to the frontlines with orders that should their situation become untenable, they were to execute the cerebrate to prevent it from falling into enemy hands. It would at least deny the enemy more troops, though at the same time the UED would lose access to their own resources too.
Stukov rubbed his brow and looked back up at the screen showing the state of the battlefield. The zerg were launching yet more offensives, and he was beginning to run out of reserves to shore up their lines. Desperately, he tried to look for some way out of this.
Another zerg army moved forward, intent on breaking through the fortified hills in order to descend upon the basalt flats behind them, where the zerg would be able to spread out unimpeded. The attack had to be stopped, but there were just so many of them. Where were the zerg getting so many numbers from? They had to have moved them from somewhere.
"Run some scans on the zerg hives," Stukov ordered. "Find where these zerg came from."
Seeing the results, Stukov called up Duran.
"Lieutenant Duran, this is Stukov. The zerg have stripped their defenses bare to launch their offensive. Take your forces and attack toward the main zerg hive in order to disrupt their operations. There are few zerg remaining defending your area."
After a few seconds, Duran replied. "That is strange, Vice Admiral. My sensors show many zerg still in the area. Perhaps your sensors aren't picking up the zerg hidden throughout the area."
Stukov paused. Their scans had missed hidden zerg before, so it wasn't impossible for this to be the case. But could there really be yet more zerg that the enemy cerebrate kept hidden? There would need to be quite a bit more zerg than initially estimated, but it did seem odd that the enemy would seemingly leave themselves undefended.
"Double check your results," Stukov said. "If you can find an opening, take it. We need to be putting pressure on the enemy."
"Of course, Vice Admiral. I shall inform you if I see an opportunity," Duran said before ending the communication.
Stukov let out a growl of frustration. Already, other commanders were frantically asking for support. There were simply too many places to hold. He ordered several retreats, managing to stave off collapse for now. But bit by bit, they were losing ground.
The terrans were faltering, Daggoth could feel it. Their movements reeked of desperation as they tried everything to simply survive a little longer, no longer making any attempt to truly win. But even so, the impending victory saddened him. With the terrans now resorting to killing any cerebrate which came close to being captured, there were no longer any more that could be rescued. The only purpose left was to punish the terrans for their transgressions, their misplaced arrogance that they could control the zerg.
Was this all it had come to in the end? The heights which the zerg once reached not so long ago now seemed so far. They were a shadow of a shadow of their past. Was this meager goal all they could aspire to now? For once in his life, Daggoth felt his conviction in his purpose wavering.
But this was no time to be thinking such thoughts. He turned his attention back toward the battle which continued to rage across the surface of Char. Bodies piled on the barren land, soon to be wiped away, either picked apart by scavengers or inevitably buried by a new flood of lava. All would vanish and be forgotten in the end.
Then, a new presence appeared over Char. A battered fleet of terran battlecruisers had returned. Daggoth reorganized his forces to meet the new threat as they began sending down armies to the surface. It was like a switch had been flipped. Almost all at once, the terrans began breaking apart the zerg offensives and began their counterattack.
One piece at a time, it was all slipping away.
Would this be how it ends? One final ignominious failure before their deaths? Millenia of evolution leading to this. For a moment, weariness and despair almost overcame him.
Leave.
The thought abruptly came from within him. What meaning was there in continuing this fight? This would be a defeat, acknowledging the terrans had bested them yet again. They would have to start anew once more. But they would live and their purpose would not die.
Daggoth informed all of the other free cerebrates to gather to him. The remaining zerg minions ceased their attacks and instead began to fall back and hide themselves, setting up as many ambushes as they could to frustrate the enemy advance.
One final time, Daggoth spoke to the terrans. He cared not whether they believed his words or not, he was done with this. "You may have this planet, terrans. Continue to squabble with your fellow terrans, the protoss, or the usurper queen. I have no interest in this anymore. We shall not meet again."
"You can't be serious!" Roland slammed his hand on the table hard enough to be heard through the conference call. "These zerg have lost the battle, and you will just allow them to leave?"
Stukov sighed, his head tilting downward as his fingers remained steepled by his face. "We may have won this battle, but only barely. The men are tired. Your own men are hardly in top shape either, having only just returned from Aiur. Your ships are damaged, your equipment depleted."
"Even then, we can still press our advantage. We can wipe them out to the last." Roland's fist clenched as he glared at the screen. "We would take losses, but to allow the zerg to escape and rebuild themselves is folly."
"How much would you be willing to lose here?" Stukov snapped back. "We have more enemies than just this. Especially now when we're in this state, we can't afford to throw away any more forces. A cornered rat is the most dangerous."
As Roland was about to let out another outburst, Duran suddenly cut into the conversation. "If I may add something, I believe that the zerg cerebrate's words may in fact be credible. From what we observed, the zerg did indeed experience internecine strife. The Overmind was killed before we had even arrived and there seemed to be an infested human in control of a portion of the zerg. It is possible that a significant grudge exists between these two factions of zerg. It would be possible to play them against each other."
"That's too much of a gamble," Roland muttered. "Believing the words of a zerg creature? That is absurd. You have misjudged the zerg before, clearly your devices were not capable of keeping the zerg under control."
"I never claimed them to be perfect," Duran replied. "I had made it clear that the control might not be absolute. But even so, we have still maintained our control over some of the zerg at least."
"That's enough," Stukov said sharply. "We will not fight with each other here. Captain, your contribution to this battle is noted and appreciated, as is your zeal for defending humanity. But right now, in this situation, we must take this gamble. This is my decision."
"Yes, Vice Admiral." Roland tilted his head in acknowledgement.
It had been several days since the end of the battle. Roland walked through the halls of UED's main fortress on Char, eventually arriving at the admiral's office. He knocked on the door.
"Come in," the voice within replied.
Roland entered and saw Dugalle standing next to the window, gazing outwards.
"You called for me, Admiral?"
Dugalle turned toward him. "Yes. I have reviewed the reports on the battle on Aiur, Captain. I am disappointed that the expedition failed to completely neutralize the protoss as a threat, but I should commend you for salvaging the situation as well as you did given the extenuating circumstances. That said, I am rather displeased by your disregard toward orders."
Roland kept his expression blank as Dugalle continued to speak. "Several zerg cerebrates were delegated to you, a valuable and limited resource to us. You were instructed to keep them alive, yet you killed them yourself when the battle turned unfavorably."
"We had no choice," Roland replied. "In the moment, I feared that we risked disaster if we were to allow the cerebrates to fall into the enemy hands. They would be able to turn their zerg against us and become even greater of a long term threat."
"Be that as it may, your orders were given for a reason," Dugalle said. "Our hold over the zerg was tenuous and I fear your actions may have catalyzed the rebellion launched by the other zerg on Char."
"I apologize for overstepping my bounds," Roland replied. "But I believe it was the destruction of the Psi Disruptor more than anything else that allowed them the confidence to attempt it at all."
"That, we cannot say for sure," Dugalle said, stony faced. "Furthermore, the Kel-Morians have complained about your treatment of their forces, sacrificing them during the retreat. I understand that fault lay with them, but nonetheless this has damaged our relations with Moria and may have cost us their support. You must understand Captain, that there is a larger picture at play here. Your actions, while tactically advantageous, had wider strategic implications."
"I understand, and I apologize for my error," Roland said. "I will endeavor to be more cautious in the future." Perhaps there could have been a better way to hide his intentions. Though all in all, he felt they would be better off without these so called allies.
"Such a blunder could be grounds for dismissal," Dugalle said. "But in consideration of your talents, you will be allowed to maintain your rank. However, you will no longer operate with the same degree of independence you were previously allowed. I expect that you will conduct yourself in accordance with our orders from now on."
"Yes Admiral." Roland didn't let his disappointment and indignation show as he saluted his superior officer.