In his Goliath, Craig had an entire view of the world; all on a handy touch screen. He could contact the advisor in any building, at anytime. When in control of the battle, he could get immediate feedback from the troops, a very important thing in some of the recent battles with the protoss, who are louder than anything you’ve ever heard. A carrier can be heard from 500 miles away, and still be loud enough to block out the barking of one of those stupid dogs they brought bring from earth, just 2 feet from you.

The 5 gallons of water in the goliath quickly refreshed Craig, who drank 3 gallons of ice-cold water in record time. He should have felt alone, but after drinking the water he didn’t. Something just didn’t feel right. Not knowing what it was, he turned his map screen off, and went back into the window screen, setting the goliath to walk straight back to camp, no stops, didn’t want any trouble.

Craig wondered if he would still be needed at the battlefield. Ironically, over him flew 6 dropships. He immediately called in to them, and asked if anyone could give him a update on the battle, It had been nearly 2 days since his last transmission. Silence filled the radio waves. Deafening silence. Craig wondered if his radio was broken, but dismissed that idea when he realized that he could still get his touch screen up, which was almost non-stop getting information from the Command Center, which he had forgotten about. He turned on the touch screen, letting his Goliath ride on without him looking out.

Coming up behind him were 14 huge balloon like things. They seemed to be following the Dropships, almost like they we’re on a mission. The putrid balloons had several tentacles apiece, each holding onto what looked like snakes and dogs. Unaware of the impending danger, Craig flipped into another one of the Goliath’s many screens, this one a very strong radio transmitter. For some reason, the Zerg Overlords did not drop their cargo, ending Craig’s life, but instead, they moved on following the shiny black dropships as much as possible, almost as if they were controlling them.

The radio transmission had worked, and Craig had gotten a dropship deployed. On either case, he could keep going, to avoid whatever it is that felt so strange earlier.

He had just gotten transmission that the Protoss Carriers had been warped to the other side of the base, and he was needed. His dropship had never arrived, but he did see several heading back to the battle ground. The base was now within his visible range, and he could see 4 remaining carriers batting away at the Machine Shop where he planned to have his Goliath repaired. Wasting no time, he took manual control of his Goliath, and pulled back onto his window view, allowing him the best accuracy on the Carrier.

Before he could even step past the main bunkers, emptied to aid in the battle, 20 small almost rodent like animals began flying towards the carriers. Behind them were 3 Zerg Queens, 6 dropships, and 14 Overlords, all carrying Hydralisks and Zerglings, ready to ravage the base. The rodent-like things screeched their way across the base. The Carriers tried to escape, but to no avail. They killed one of the rodent like things before the Carriers all exploded at once, the rodents had Scourged themselves into the Carrier’s Hull.

Startled by the zerg, Craig got out of the goliath and sprinted to the bunker, where he could stand a chance. Getting to the bunker was only half the battle, as he soon realized. The hydralisks unloaded right on top of the bunker destroying the goliath first. The 6 Dropships had been taken over by the Zerg. 4 ghosts in the lookout tower next to the bunker fired lockdown missiles at the Dropships, preventing the lurkers probably within them from ravaging the three infantry squadrons stationed there. The 2 other Dropships, contained 1 lurker, and 12 lings. Craig was stunned. He couldn’t beat this alone. But it was too late, the hydralisks were already spitting on the bunker, burning away the concrete ceiling.

Things looked grim for Craig. He shot at what he could, but he couldn’t kill the Hydralisks and Zerglings fast enough. Looking around the bunker for anything he could use to kill the Zerg, he discovered a hole. Thinking back to his training as a marine 10 years ago, he remembered that each bunker had an underground shot way to the Command Center. Each hole was big enough for 4 people to ride through it. The car wasn’t there, but the Command Center was close, and this was desperate. He got in, and started through the hole. No sooner then he had been 5 feet through, the bunker exploded, destroying all of the expensive computer equipment inside, and collapsing the hole behind him.

Desperately wanting to avoid the Zerg, he used the only thing he could get at, a bar torn off of the car at the end of the track, to pry open the door into the Command Center. Seeing that the 2ft yellow rod was not going to get the thick iron door to budge, he started to scrape away at the metal, so that he could manually turn the lever allowing him access to the Command Center. When he did finally get the door open, it was too late. Zerg Carapace was already forming itself over the wall, and the remaining Terrans were streaking down the hallway, screaming "SACRAFICE ME!"

The main Command Center of the Mariya mining operation had been infested by the zerg. The walls were becoming darker and darker. The door behind Craig had been sealed closed forever, covered by a thick bug-like carapace. His only choice was to run. As fast as he could, Craig sprinted towards the large automatic doors, hoping to get to them before he was sealed forever in the hands of the hellish zerg.

Outside wasn’t much better. The blood of Terrans’ everywhere. No way for Craig to get out. All that remained standing and un-infested was the starport at the edge of the base. He could see one wraith floating bye, but it might not be capable of flying. "What do I have to lose?" thought Craig. Before the zerg could spot him, he made a beeline for the wraith next to the starport.

Once there, he made a quick investigation of the wraith. Never before had he actually flown one, alone, but for a while he was part of the group that produced them, so he knew the standard wraith pretty well. The cloaking device seemed to be malfunctioning, and the main battery was quite weak, but it would be able to get him out of there fast. Hopping in, he noticed several Terrans were still alive, though badly hurt, laying on the ruins of the bunker #1 at the north end. Having no choice, being the soft-hearted type, he ran over, and pulled the 14 men to safety, loading them in the cargo bay of the wraith. One of the people he noticed, was completely covered in hydralisk parts, but he didn’t have the time to clean them off.

The wraith flew fairly well, but was dragged down by the additional weight of the soldiers he was rescuing, so he wouldn’t be able to achieve top-speed, even though he wanted away so bad. He had decided to check out the other mining operation, which probably still had several SCV qualified units, so that he could get "his" wraith repaired.

Halfway through the flight to the second mining operation, he realized he was flying one of the most advanced fighters in the history of the human/terran race, without a single lesson. He must have some sort of inherent flying ability.

Stricken with problems today, Craig should have been dying on his feet. Instead, he was here flying a wraith over a 2000 mile stretch, with 14 unknown passengers. Completely unaware that just over the next sand dune was a thriving Zerg Hive Cluster.

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There you have it, my fiction. What’s taking you so long to delete Before dark, johnny?