Episode 36- One of the most important points in the history of Koprulu Sector.
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"Well I guess all I have left is to see this through. The zerg have taken everything from me: my home, my family, my friends. I know that nothing I do can bring those things back, but I'll be damned if I just sit on my hands and wait for the end. I want a piece of 'em alright. I'm in.
"Then let our actions speak for us! For Adun! For Aiur!"
"For Po'midor! I guess. And, some plans Raynor? Or do we just charge in, guns blazing?"
The Protoss already disconnected, so this one was heard only by the man in the special Vulture, hovering close by. "No, I want us to live through it. Me, you, and my men. Despite my words, I still think there is some future ahead of us."
"Soo…"
Raynor turned his head, looking down on his short conversation partner, "We establish a solid base, bring all of our troops on the ground, and keep the ships close by. Then, we advance, slowly, without risks."
Wit nodded his head, which looked a little like shaking a parasol. Coupled with the whooshing sound, the ridiculousness bringed a hint of a smile on Jim's face. "Well, it seems you don't need me specifically, so I'll just go around, helping where I can."
Raynor watched his retreating form for a moment, before looking at his base, which was already expanding by a mass of bunkers, paired with magazines and barracks to create a barricade. He then looked back, at the purple mass of moving zerg. It won't be easy, but it will certainly be worth it.
"Commander?"
"Oh, it's already bearable, good." Dobromir let out a sigh of relief. Seems the infected decided to forgo his voice chords for now, communicating only via mind. "Say, how is your memory? Why are you calling me commander?"
"I- I don't. I can't, remember anything. I call commander, feels right."
"Your mind was destroyed by the virus, after all. But, some human sensibilities remaining is a good thing. Now, tell me, what is this base lacking?" He showed with his hand, doing a full circle.
looked at the gigantic command center, then the two hatcheries, and the… twenty? pools. He remained silent, but his mind went into overdrive, the new part of his brain sparking like a fizzle cracker. "Defense?"
Indeed, the only defense was provided by the zerglings, lazing around and the infected, shambling around. All the other zerg hives have at least a few spine crawlers, but not this one.
"Yes! Defence! Now, I want you to think, how to rectify this problem? Think among the Terran lines, not the zerg's."
"Eee… Hmmm… Bunkers?"
"Okay, bunkers sounds good. But let me rephrase myself. What would a Human build? Without the access to the right tools or materials."
That made think all the harder. The emphasis on Human didn't escape his mind. His brows furrowed, his face contracted. And finally… "Walls?" It was like an epiphany. The face marred by infection brightened considerably.
"Exactly! Walls! Now, I have a task for you. Build one. A short one, for the start. You will need not only to build them, but also make them usable for zerg."
"Ehrm…" He instinctively reached out to scratch his head, but touched only a part of his broken marine helmet. "Work, work…" And Mr. Bit wandered off. His mind is already filled with zergy ideas, but to squeeze some terran ones as well…
"Look at him go, such dedication to his job." Dobromir looked lazily over his camp, same old same old. Then the gigantic Command Centre… he barely got any work done, it was just too monstrous. He looked into the distance with unseeing eyes, thinking. "What to do now…" His gaze landed on his boat, which stood perfectly in the middle of the camp. "You know what? Of course I know. I talk to myself after all. I got a 'Made in Abyss' to watch, it looked mildly interesting."
"Zerg snuck on our backs! Protect the siege tanks!" Someone shouted, oth through commons and normally.
Wit, who already stood on the rear end, turned around. And sure as hell, a small group of zerglings were rushing towards their precious artillery. A few marines started rushing over, shooting with small success considering their distance.
The pilots quickly changed their machines into tank mode, and started rolling away. Unfortunately for them, not fast enough. Unfortunately for zerg, Wit was fast enough.
Rushing towards the vehicle furthest in the back, the young envoy jumped in the last second, avoiding being crushed by the tires. His footsteps thudding, he quickly arrived at the back of the tank and quickly whipped out his long ass clockwork arrow sword. Just fast enough to impale the zergling that was trying to slash while making a jump forward. The carcass quickly slid off his piece of steel, just in time to slash at the next candidate.
It would probably look more like a dance of death, if it wasn't this small guy just swinging his sword at the closest charging zergling. Because of the tank constantly moving, the zerglings didn't have a chance to surround it. They tried to jump over, but Wit made quick work of them.
Initially, the group split to charge at the tanks at once, but one part was mostly cleared out by the marines, leaving only a few survivors. The other flank was taken care of by the group of Vultures. The ones riding it used their standard grenades, and weaker pistols if the zerg was already on the tank.
Finally, the mad rush stopped, with a last zergling slashed in half. The tanks stopped a moment later, and the whole group started to gather mostly together.
'Hiss', followed by the 'clunk' revealed the woman who was sitting inside. "Thank ya for saving' ma ass out there. I would be a scrap of metal otherwise."
"Glad to slash some bugs apart, that's all." He tried to shake off the blood on his sword, with mixed resultats. He turned around, showing his mask, and some orange ichor on his hat.
"As good a reason as any other. You can call me Hammer, because I strike my enemies with the strength of one!" She extended one of her fists.
Looking at the woman with short pigtails, a rather sizable helmet, and oh irony, TANK top, he just shrugged, bumped the extended fist, and simply replied "Wit".
"We will have to meet after the battle! A, but the boss man is almost here!" And indeed he is, Raynor was among the Vulture team, and now all of the group gathered loosely together.
"Okay, listen! Marines, you remain here and protect the artillery! I'll send your way reinforcements. Tanks, just be more focused into one group, less distance between each other." Raynor received some noises of affirmation, then with a hand signal, he speeded away together with his Vulture squad, to help his other soldiers.
Wit looked around, shrugged his shoulders and exclaimed "I'll go too, I want to see the big showdown from up close."
"Just don't die on us bro!"
Soon after, the perfect harmony of explosions and exploding zerg was heard again, as the Siege Tanks mercilessly pounded the purple mass.
"Ughhh… sleeping not on the bed isn't doing wonders on Trixie's back." She moved this way and that, followed by soft 'crack's, mostly from around her neck and shoulders. "Okay, now Trixie is prepared. Let's see what the ocular contains."
"That's certainly not any Coprulu sector Terrans, that's for sure. If Trixie remembers correctly… around Augustgrad there are maybe ten battle cruisers. But around Earth? In the whole system there is… What, hundred…? two hundred…? Wow."
The image was shown with the setback of twenty minutes, but still. Agustgrad was one planet, with one space station, the rest of the system was mostly empty, with maybe some mining stations here and there.
But the Earth? The Solar System? Not only Earth was populated, but also Luna(moon), Mars, and even some of the many moons of Saturn. Four big space stations surrounded the Earth itself, which one at last was a gigantic dockyard, the size unseen in the Koprulu sector. Thrown over the rest of the system were countless other small stations, probably serving purposes ranging from waste management, through mining to food growing.
And let's not forget the countless smaller ships, flying all over the system. Overall, it looked like a big, mostly disorganized bee hive. If into the consideration would be taken all that belongs to the new Dominion Empire, it would probably only reach half of the Magnificent Solar System. And let's not forget that the True Human Empire also colonized a few other systems.
Trixie let out an explosive 'sigh', leaning back. "Even if it would be just a movie, I'd be still darn mind blowing, and breathtaking. And to think, Trixe sended those two to meet only a thousandth of the whole might". Trixie shivered all over, nothing bad would happen, of course, but the scale was overwhelming.
Now, to infiltrate the Earth itself, or at least one specific place. Trixe will see the fabled land of her ancestors, with her very own borrowed little spy's network.
'Inhale', a moment of stillness, 'exhale'. "There is nothing quite like a breath of fresh air, yes yes." Another breath exercise followed, stopped by… "Kerrigan, I can Smell you, not from afar, but still." He turned around, facing the queen. She walked silently up to him, unseen, unheard and ignored. But not unsmelled. Dobromir thrust dramatically a finger forward, his hand shaking. "Admit it, I am the only source of entertainment you have!"
She shrugged her shoulders, "I can't deny that." She was a Zerg, and among, well, a friend? All pretenses could be thrown aside, and be forgotten. Kerrigan could be just herself.
He retreated his hand, folding them both behind his back. "So, what reason do you have to come before me this time? Or maybe you need some help with Abathur and creativity?"
"No, I am doing just fine on this front. But, don't you know what is happening right now?"
"Enlighten me, oh Queen of the Blades, revered by none, and feared by few!" His words had more bite to them than usual. The bravo and seemingly good humor left him today, it seems.
Kerrigan, choose to be above pettiness, just this once. "The Overmind is being attacked."
"Oh, finally."
Now this statement right here. She knows something is wrong, well… more than usual at last. Also, Kerrigan just couldn't ignore the fact that "You are shaking, and your eye is twitching."
"Whatever do you mean?! Do you see this hand!?" He whipped it forward, shoving it almost against her face. "Is it shaking?!"
Looking at the tremors, Kerrian then peered closely at his face. Both of his eyes were violently twitching, the usual yellow vapor which leaked from his eyes was replaced with weird small thunderbolts. Also, his breath becomes more rapid, making his inhaling and exhaling so much noisier.
"No, your whole body is. What happened, to the Hydralisks poisonous spike!" She was proud of that one, unfortunately Dobromir wasn't paying attention.
He looked with a hollowed stare in the distance for some time. After minutes of silence, he turned back to her, their eyes meeting. "You just… have not seen, what I have seen."
"I have seen my share." She replied, folding her hands over her chest.
"Do you watch Anime?" "No…" "Did you explore the green site?" "Noooo….."
"Then…" He slowly put his hands on her shoulders, gripped tightly, and shouted "THEN YOU HAVE NOT SEEN, WHAT I HAVE SEEN!" Now he was shaking her, instead of himself.
Kerrigan quickly pushed him away. It wasn't painful or anything just… His eyes. They turned into very thin slits, but at the same time glowed more powerfully than ever. Let's not forget the small thunders, which sparked all over him now.
Ignoring everything and anything, Dobromir tried to hold himself together with hands, now shivering like crazy. "Y-you think turning into a zerg was traumatic?"
"Well-" "IT WAS NOTHING! Why does life like to throw traumas at me at every corner?! Is it so hard to make a story without inflicting one?! And why is it so good, despite everything?!" Now he was shouting at the sky, shaking his fists at it.
Suddenly, he fell like a puppet, with his strings cut. He hugged his knees to his chest, holding them with both of his arms. "Luckily, I still have my little ponies, oh yes! MYY PRECIOUS!"
Kerrigan took even more steps away from the catatonic man, and desperately searched for someone who would be more qualified to help. She found the zerglings, the fruit of THEIR labor, and establishing eye contact, gestured towards Dobromir.
The Zergling rolled her eyes, and slowly walked towards him. Kerrigan just gave a two thumbs up, and ran away as quickly as possible, leaving a dust in her wake. The giant zergling put one of her scythe limbs behind Dobromir's back, and started leading him back towards his ship. Only self-therapy would help in this case.
"Tassadar…" Every Terran could hear it through their comms, Raynor said it after all. No one else was privy to the dialogue that went through the commanders, and only less than half heard the barely heard word.
'Slash, slash, pierce' Wit was silently narrating to himself, standing together with other soldiers and stopping the endless tide of the zerg. Having an earpiece, he actually heard it, the voice mired with sadness. Not like he had a lot of time to contemplate, the Terran offensive stopped at cliff ramps, and just continued to massacre the zergy tide. The line was a little short on firebats, so Wit was slashing apart any zergling that had gotten too close. Any flying zerg was outside of his capability, the same as hydralisks. Together with the giant Ultralisks, they were mostly taken down by the Siege tanks or Goliaths. The Hyperion itself too was giving its own support, shooting the biggest targets.
Between vigorous sword weaving, Wit, with his peripheral vision saw a certain golden object closing in on a certain gigantic mass of corrupted flesh. Still, he was surprised. The giant explosion that took away everyone's sight for a few seconds was expected. The zerg going wild, was also expected. The zerg going into a frenzy and killing each other, that was completely unexpected.
After a few minutes, the frontline stopped shooting. Wit looked behind, at the marines standing ready, just a little confused. He looked left and right at his first line comrades, the Firebats were standing at the ready but… the targets just killed one another, leaving nothing for them. The artillery went silent, together with the big guns from above.
"Everyone! Those monsters will focus on us sooner or later. Retreat! We will regroup with the protoss, then decide what next!"
All the soldiers looked between themself, at the massacre, and started slowly back away, cautiously. Ziemowit was slowly walking backwards, looking at the boiling mass. In the far distance, the golden warriors mirrored their actions, supported by their majestic carriers.
For the Raynors group, unfortunately only Hyperion counted as 'Big Guns'. There was no other battlecruiser in their small fleet, only some bigger transport ships. The aerial fighters, like wrights, were too small in number to do much.
Even if Terrans as a whole had other warships than just Battle-Cruisers, Raynors rebels were very poor in that regard.
After putting some distance, the soldiers started running at brisk pace, there was no time to waste. Raynor and his vulture riders were roughly around the edges of the troops, watching for any unexpected ambush.
In a record time, both Terran and Protoss forces embarked at their ships, at hightiled out of there. Just in time too, because the remaining cerebrates were slowly regaining control over the zerg.
"Keep your footing!" 'swish, swish, thud!' With a groan, for the umpteenth time Mina landed on her back, with a sword pointed in her general direction.
"Why do you keep aiming at my legs?!"
"Where do you think a zergling would be aiming at?"
"Yeah, but what about the whole rest!? A hydralisk would be much taller than me, or a Protoss zealot! They wouldn't strike low!" In the background, a certain red tail with a white tip slowly swayed back and forth.
"Honestly, you shouldn't pick a melee fight with anything besides a zergling, taking in account your advantageous position."
"Then why are you teaching me to fight at all? And with a spear of all things?" She slowly stood up, pain flaring all across her body. Even if her sparring partner was mainly aiming at her legs, it didn't mean she wasn't wacked in other places too.
"So you, and I, won't experience the devastating effect of entropy. You know how it is, I have nothing to do, so I just laze around all day. Until one day, you need to run! And what happens then? You are out of breath, your legs are about to give up, tragedy."
"I… well… then how am I supposed to fight?"
"First and foremost, safely. You are my pilot, and this boat isn't made for being in the middle of a fight. If there is some small group of zerg on the ground, you can shoot at them with something, but that's it."
"Then what about the protoss?"
"It would be better if we both avoided fighting them as much as we can. The shield of this boat is rather weak, I don't know if It could stop even one plasma ball from a Dragoon."
Mina fell silent. Her spear was still held firmly in her grasp. The giant fox was still watching them with a swaying tail. Their small ships still drifted slowly through the cosmos and her teacher still had this… specific outfit, together with the saber in her hand. "Ehhh…" Deciding to keep looking at the cosmos, she started to yawn. Only to abruptly stop as she… picked something? It was feeling like a sound wave crashing against her ears, almost unpleasant. She whipped her head in all directions, before finally seeing it.
Seeing her reaction, the other two followed her gaze. A great distance from them, across the starry cosmos, a hole slowly started appearing. It started growing bigger, and bigger, not stopping it's growth for a second. Finally, the distinctive ripple of Terran ships warping through space appeared.
"Okay, normally, the ships would already be here so…"
"That's our target, finally."
Their furry companion let out a high pitched bark, following their conversation. Finally, their long wait reached their end. Now, it was time for even more politics.
Author's here:
The Anime part should be obvious, for everyone who watched 'One of Those'.