Episode 37- It changes everything… and nothing, at the same time.
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"We should destroy those nydus canals so as to stem the flow of zerg from them."
The group did just that, charging the few zerg and their buildings on the way. The myriad of psi blades, and one metallic made a quick work of them. Like a storm, the didn't stop for a moment, still charging forward.
"En Taro Adun, there is no time to waste, we must join our brethren in battle!" Together with the rest, Wit joined in on the massacre, killing zerglings left and right. This wasn't any kind of distinguished battle, just part's of zergs flying around. And the occasional protoss vanished after being dealt a fatal blow.
Wit was mostly acting between and behind the warriors clad in gold. Which was rather easy honestly, considering he was almost one third the size of a typical Zealot. During, and after the battle he could feel their gazes directed at him, but only for a moment. An almost silent murmur at the back of his mind would sound from time to time, signaling their connection to one another. Among other things, they probably shared among themselves who this runt was. And during a battle, the sounds raised to a roar of waterfall, so deafening they were.
How does the little shroom know? It was rather obvious, considering the lack of a mouth, speaking directly to someone's mind bypassing the problem of languages and the… Duh, PSI blades. How does he hear the indications? Probably something along the lines of his Brother, who can smell psionics. Adding the next to zero percent chance that his nature wasn't involved, and there you had your answer.
After dealing with the current group, they keep charging forward, joined by some lost Dragoons. And Wit had to beat the ground with his feet mercilessly, just to keep up.
'Yawn!' He stretched every which way, but no creaking was heard. Being a zerg had its perks. "I haven't felt this relaxed in years. Now, I think my Architect would be right around… those walls." And he walked over, passing around or over all those lazybones. After some maneuvers, he finally walked close enough to see the details.
It wasn't one wall, but three. They were single, not too long fragments, but big enough to give the idea how they would look on a bigger scale. "Commander!" Happily cried the Infested, hurrying over to him. "I made walls, ready for your inspection!"
Dobromir looked at him, the smile on his face and the glowing eyes… probably mirrored how he felt right now. "Alright! Good work, mister Bit, I'll get right over to it."
The first wall was more like a… piece of skin stretched between two poles? But it was Zerg, so more like two giant bone pillars with a thin piece of meat serving as a wall. "Hmmm…" He took out his ax and quickly made a chop, meeting little resistance. He looked back at him. "Now, explanations?"
"I-I can make it thicker, as thick as it needs to be!" The infested was surprised by his actions, but only a little. It was his commander, and you don't question your superior.
"Mmm… No, the zerg mass would just go in every direction, and that's not a wall. Now, to the next one…" A dozen steps further, and he met a wall of… well, bone. It looked sturdy enough, but… Dobromir took another swing, this time he was met with a 'Crack!'. The wall held still, and remained mostly undamaged. "It looks good and all but, I guess it's rather slow to repair?" A nod was his response. "How much did it cost? Tell me the number in hatcheries."
"Two…"
"I know that walls aren't cheap but daym… It's sturdy, and I can't say anything more positive about it. Next." The last one was a mix. The bones created a square with an X in the middle, with zergy flesh between. It looked better than the first one, but still. Last swing, to seal the fate of them all. He cut deep, but didn't get through. "I see improvement but… Our biggest obstacle are the Siege Tanks."
"A, ehm…" The infested looked concerned after hearing that. It was the painful truth, but walls were mostly useless against them. Creating one from flesh and bone strong enough to withstand the bombardment won't be so easy either.
"Don't worry, I have just the idea. Create a wall, but instead a one big frame, shape the bones to be small hexagons. Fill the inside with flesh, and then repeat. The next layer would have to be different, so they aren't a big singularity, if you know what I mean."
A noise of partial understanding was heard from his companion, who already started to imagine his next work.
Dobromir looked last time over the three walls. The first one was practically a torn fabric, slowly flapping in the wind. The second was like a rock, barely touched, but probably easy to destroy with explosions. The third… would probably stop the marines or hydralisks bullets/spikes for a short while, before falling apart.
"Repurpose those walls in your project, I have to go see Kerrigan".
After some careful maneuvering and a very, very generous application of her magic, Trixie finally let out a 'Sigh' and slumped. Getting past all those defenses and detection was keeping her at her tiptoes, with every muscle fiber tensed. And don't forget the Sweat! Trixie took her cape and wiped off her wet forehead.
Looking at it, she declared "I have to wash it soon anyway." Quickly unbuckling the clasp, she threw it away. "Now, to really find a way…" Seeing the Earth from so close and yet so far made her… a lot of conflicting emotions. Already on edge, she quickly powered up her Tablet, and looked at the map. "Mhm, that's a good start, now to find the magic users…"
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"WAIT STOP!" Everything freezes in place. A man quickly barged in, mostly covering the image behind him. His whole appearance was mostly wild, with an overgrown, unkept beard, hair that looked like blown up by the wind, and a few leafs in both. His glowing, purple eyes and wild swinging of arms gave him a very… peculiar, and striking appearance.
"Dear Audience! I forgot to tell you a very important part of history!" He put both of his hands on his face. "It's very important for the Trixie story arc, so I Will Tell You Now!" He threw his hands to the sides, with a crazed grin on his face.
Which quickly turned neutral, and the man himself, in a scientist garb, started the lecture.
"In 2229 the whole Earth united, after a lot of chaos and tribulations. Let's skip to the important part. There was this guy obsessed with the benefits of exploration, so he took a lot of Criminals slated for execution, took the ones that would survive the journey, stuffed them into cryogenic sleeping pods, loaded them on super carriers, and sent them into the cosmos. The ship's AI went further than expected, and thus our ancestors landed in Koprulu Sectors, coupled with data banks wiped clean, by said AI. Additionally, all those people were enchanted by special drugs, genetic manipulation or cybernetic implants. The important part? Only the memory of Earth remained, with no other records of any type.
On the other hand, the Expeditionary Force was sent after hearing about the Aliens, because before that, Earth didn't care about some distant colonies. How did the Earth get to know about the aliens? You will soon find out."
As quickly as he appeared he disappeared. A line was shot, landing at his feet. Quickly gripping it, Stetmann vanished with an "YYAHOOOOooo!".
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Returning to Trixie.
It… took some time. After taking a look from above, she sent her little spying eye over. Have you seen all the scenes in the movies, where objects were flying from or to earth and started burning? Well, it didn't happen this time.
"So slow, really? Uh, I gues I willa just have to wait." Not wasting any time, she whipped out her tablet. A little niggling on the back of her skull told her it won't be a short wait.
'Zwoom!' 'Thud!' Zeratul was showing his pro level battle prowess like it was nothing. The giant head of ultralisk fell to the ground, causing a minor earthquake. The appearing and disappearing shape of Void Templar was slaughtering those lowly creatures mostly with single, well aimed slashes.
The whole mostly golden group was still mostly charging forward, with the never ending almost audible whispers in the back of Wit's mind. Rather soon, they found another group, this time with an archont and two high templars.
"En Taro Adun, Zeratul! This is all that remains of our forces in this province. We have found the warp gate, but there is a sizable force of zerg blocking our way."
The whole group stopped only for a moment, to use the support of a shield generator. It would be probably a perfect occasion for Wit to regain his breath, but honestly this action was mostly a reflex, not something his special body needed.
A few minutes later, the gold & blue wave crashed against purple, sweeping all the infection away. The few groups of flyers that tried to attack them quickly were taken down by the psi storms, or lightning from the powerful Archon.
"Admiral, someone is hailing us!"
The rather old but excluding strong presence man looked down at his terminal for a moment. "Elaborate."
A small icon of the speaker appeared on the edge of his screen "Sir. The source seems to be a small flying object and… they are giving the spy authentication codes. I think they are our informants from this sector."
"Call vice-admiral Alexei over, vodka is not a good reason to miss even the smallest duties." He put his hands behind his back, looking with the thousand yard stare into nothing in particular. "I want this object shown on my screen."
"Right away, Admiral." A minute of silence passed. Finally, a live camera feed was shown to him. It first showed the vast empty space, before zooming in. Additional minute or two was needed to sharpen the view.
He looked at it for a moment, before giving up, and looking at nothing in particular, again. "Describe it to me."
"Admiral. It's a primitive space boat, with a solar sail. In fact… It looks like a wooden boat, like from the Earth's past. I don't know how they keep the air in, but I guess it's the only advanced technology they have."
The Admiral just let out a grunt of affirmation, and silence overtook the room once again. ' Pwhss… thunk', but only for a moment. With heavy steps, the last participant to the party arrived. "You called, Gerard?"
"Alexei, my friend. Seems our informants showed up personally." He pointed his finger at the screen. The younger man looked at it, before leaning in more and more, almost touching the screen with his nose.
"It brings back memories… of fishing and drinking vodka! But a wooden boat in space… that's a novel sight."
Mostly ignoring the comment, the Admiral said "Answer their hail, and connect them to our safe channel."
"Yes, Admiral." This time, the subordinate anticipated this order, and in just a few seconds the screen raised up, and angled down, to stop at the perfectly straight angle. Seconds later, the image clearly showed a… fox. They looked at it, she looked at them, and let out a single high pitched bark. With a little commotion, a woman and a girl in her teens quickly rushed over.
"Oh, Admiral DuGall! I was worried you wouldn't pick up the call!"
Both sides experienced a little shock. From the small boat, Mina didn't know anything about a giant force they were supposed to meet, and now she was seeing an Admiral! On the other side, they at first ignored the woman who was wearing mostly normal clothes, consisting of pants, a tank top and a jacket.
No, the real deal was the rather weirdly dressed teenage girl, the broad curved sword resting at her hip, and the giant Fox just behind her. They didn't have this perspective earlier, but now… The girl stood just before the uprightly sitting fox, while the top of her head just about reached the lowest part of the white chest fluff.
Before the two men on the screen before her could reply in any way, she continued. "My name is Bogumila, and I am a representative of your Spy Network in the Koprulu Sector."
Stikov let out a quiet "Heh, sounds familiar". The Admiral ignored him. "And why did they send you out? Why didn't they appear themselves?"
"Well, you see Admiral, Mom is just Scientist, she doesn't DO the talking and Dad… is trying to deal with the sudden influx of people in our Colony, and sometimes he's too busy to sleep."
"Ehh…" The silent sigh of expression left the boss man's mouth. He wasn't young, so he was socially permitted to sigh a lot. "Irrelevant. I order all of you to immediately join us, on behalf of UED."
"Of course but… there is a small problem, Admiral. My, or rather our colony is on the other end of the fresh Dominium. The only way we can really help you, is information. And other small ways, of course."
"It never can be easy… you and your ship will join us permanently, until I said otherwise." Turning around, the old Admiral stalked off.
Stukov looked at him for a moment, before turning back. "Girl, you know that The United Powers League… or rather, the freshly reorganized United Earth Directorate, banned any modifications to the mind and body, by its mutations or unnecessary cybernetic prosthetics?"
She looked over at herself, then with a critical eye she scanned Mina. "Nope, I see no unnatural enhancements on humans." She looked back at him with a smirk. "Anything other than Human was never mentioned," the fox agreed, adding her own happy sounding yip.
"Smart girl." He looked over his shoulders, but his friend was still nowhere to be seen. "What does this part of the galaxy have to offer? I am afraid my stash of vodka won't last long enough."
Now, her smirk delved into a full scale grin. "My thirsty friend, I have a WHOLE CATALOG which I can show to you. As a side note, most high grade and high procent drinks come from my colony…"
'Swisshh… shink!' "Woah!" 'squish'. To tell the truth, the squish was more like a feeling than a sound. Ziemowit quickly rolled on his back, and looked at the source of his fall. His left leg ended at knee, the rest taken off by the wickedly sharp spine of hydralisk, embedded in the ground very close to him. He quickly looked around and sure enough, his leg laid a little distance away. 'Squish' This time somewhat audible sounded off, as some protoss warrior pulverized it with a single stomp.
"Ally Wit, are you alright?!" The young Artanis quickly kneeled beside him, shielding him from damage from both allies and enemies. The shroom person looked at his shroomy leg, which wasn't even bleeding, another perk of his fun-gui nature.
"I don't think I would be able to run at all, at least I ain't bleeding to death."
"I am afraid I can't help you much in the middle of a fight."
Looking at the de facto giant, he replied with a smirk "Oh, there is at least one small thing."
"Heyyyy! Little Queenie!" Her shoulders immediately bunched up, but she didn't turn away.
"Yaghrrrhrhr! Why must you torment me so! Are you some ghost from the past, here to mock my existence!?"
"So you have personality disorder too? Because, if you can remember, I was at the academy only for a day."
'IInnnhaaaleee' 'Exxhalleee' "What do you want this time?" Silence, a few very silent steps, and two hands landed on her shoulders. She jumped a little, but tried to not show any weakness, remaining seemingly indifferent.
That is, until she felt a breath close to her ear, and a whisper "Tell me your planssss", this time she really jumped away, and if not for her bony wing blades she would probably topple over. She quickly turned around, only to find the smirking man.
"I… erhm… damn it. The leftover Cerebrates are coming together to form a new Overmind, and I will need the Protoss help to deal with it. They are converging onto the Char as we speak."
The smirk vanished from his face, which after a while became a little green. "The stronger Cerebrates already smell like vomit of some corrupted beast, but after their union…" 'Blegh' "Absolutely disgusting! Riveting, I can't stand it. How do you expect a person as sensitive as me to survive this?"
'Feh', "Sensitive, right. Anyway, the moment some of the zerg get on the planet the protoss are running away to, I'll leave immediately."
"Wait, what about your forces? And your transport?"
"I'll leave them there, and just take local hives as needed. I still couldn't manage to take over a leviathan, so I'll just Overlord Spaclines."
"Those floating blobs of flesh? Come on Keri… Tell you what, I'll pack my forces real quick. Come over, and I'll let you fly in a really dignified mode of transport worthy of the queen."
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Author dribbles:
I'll cut it there. I had a shitty week, filled with disgusting, and overly time consuming bureaucracy. That's why this chapter is showing this late.
Anyway:
I forgot/skipped some missions in the Terran and Zerg campaign, and you know what? I decided to make it count. Remember the mission when you are guarding three passages with Kerrigan and her forces, eliminating all the escaping Protoss? Yeah I forgot it, so let's say actual consequences (or lack thereof) will be shown in a chapter or two.