"You know we should start a seniors tour like in golf. Over 30 only and sucky players welcomed."
-T.T.Boy
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| Crisis on Arridas - 04 (Stemming The Tide) | | | Author: | | | IP: | 63.baltiXXXX | | Date: | 07/26/00 10:07 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 7, Min: 7
Lifetime Rating for Moogle: 7.2500 |  | Here's something funny I said while getting my arse kicked today. Maybe if I'm lucky it'll get put on the random quote generator. :P
"And so the noble Probes, their Nexus destroyed, valiantly charged towards the Terran Command Center, inflicting several casualties... among the ranks of millions of microbacteria along the building's walls."
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Crisis on Arridas
A StarCraft/Brood War Continuation (sort of) fic
04 – Stemming the Tide
By: Moogle (tealkeeper@yahoo.com)
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Disclaimer: StarCraft, Brood War, and all related characters, concepts, and locations are originally created and copyrighted to Blizzard Entertainment. Any new characters, concepts, and plot are that of the author, Moogle. No money is being made off of this fiction.
AN: Thanks to everybody for the good reviews and e-mails so far. I hope I can keep improving this fiction as it goes on and on. Feedback keeps this project moving along faster, so if you would like to minimize the amount of time between chapters, e-mail me! :D
* * *
Some days, the base could go without even hearing a peep from Stephen Lansing as he secluded himself to doing his research. Other days, they couldn’t not hear him if they wanted to. The previous couple of days had been the former, when the hectic conditions made them almost forget they had a scientist working on something. And then there were days like the current day, in which they were awakened before dawn to the screaming of the excited genius.
The men not on duty were all asleep, to be awakened usually in about fifteen minutes, when the good doctor decided that they needed to arise to hear of his discovery. As he went screaming and yelling through the living area of the base, some of the men would have sworn he’d been getting into the stim pack substances.
It took a few gunshots near the feet to finally silence the excited scientist, but the sleep the men wanted and needed badly was lost as there were only another thirty minutes or so until the reveille would have been sounded. Resigned to the lack of sleep, the men awoke and got ready for their duties hoping the day would be considerably less action-packed than the previous one.
As always, the first task was to secure the perimeter and ensure that no Zerg was hiding in rubble or under hills or somewhere else where they could ambush hapless soldiers. It was only a few minutes into the stepped-up patrol when the base was declared clean, so the rest of the plans could commence.
There really weren’t any plans that particular day, except to rebuild the parts of the base that had been either severely damaged or destroyed by the Zerg assault the day’s prior. Overall the damage was fairly minor, as the Zerg hadn’t even penetrated the perimeters of the base with their attack. There was some damage to the flank protecting the mineral field, but that was about the extent of it. A few bunkers had been destroyed entirely and some turrets damaged beyond repair, so those were the first to be replaced.
Mack Kilimaro, who was still overseeing the defenses by that mineral field, decided not to rush the re-construction. He’d been awoken early as well and could relate to the tired men. The firebat was popular with his men because he didn’t treat them like slaves, even if he did threaten their lives occasionally. For awhile he’d actually considered thanking Hawkins for finally getting his ass around to setting up the fire pit, which was done on the eleventh hour considering it was the next day when the Zerg arrived. But then Mack remembered that would require him to leave his post, something that was both against orders and against Mack’s personal wishes. So he simply let it pass, and it was eventually forgotten.
At least, Mack would have liked to forget it, but events later that day surged it back to the front of his memory.
In the meantime, however, someone needed to deal with whatever it was that the good doctor had discovered that caused him to go screaming through the base at any old time of day. Fortunately for that task, there was Colonel Erai Nalkri, the only soldier in the base who could officially order the scientist to shut up.
Such an extreme measure was not necessary, though, because Erai wanted the good doctor to start talking. While it was rumored that the man was a little unstable, it was that supposed insanity that made him such a good researcher and scientist. As was once said long ago, “The difference between insanity and genius is measured only by success.”
Stephen Lansing certainly had plenty of success to his name. And that wasn’t even counting his latest discovery, which was finally explained in front of the commanding officer and Dimitri Pyakov less than an hour later.
“Doctor, I do hope you have a good reason for waking the entire base up early this morning. While I may not do anything to you personally, some of the men were right pissed off…” Erai sternly lectured the excited scientist. He knew it was more of an informal request, as there was nothing Erai was going to do to the most intelligent man on base, but he wasn’t sure how many of the men were hating the loss of sleep.
“Erai, the loss of sleep will be insignificant in the grand scheme compared to the gain of knowledge.” Stephen said simply. “We’re now inside the Zerg MIND.”
The other two men sat silent for a few seconds. Dimitri spoke up. “Pardon, comrade? Inside the Zerg mind… I do not understand.”
“Our research has finally paid off. You know, of course, about our experiments, right?” Dimitri nodded, so the scientist continued. “We’ve been using the corpses of the dead bastards to pick through the psionic link receptors. They can’t think for themselves, but they remember what they’ve been told. Using the device Jennifer and I have invented, we’ve tapped into that thought history. We know the orders the Cerebrate has been giving out. Hell, we know it’s damn name. Gornog and his Midnight Brood. For the first time since we’ve been here, we can actually plan out some genuine strategy.”
A pause as his words impacted. Erai’s face was mixed with amusement and confusion. What he understood amused him, and obviously what he didn’t, confused him. That he and his men might finally get off of that accursed rock with their lives was all that needed to be understood. As if he didn’t have it already, Stephen certainly had the complete cooperation from the command staff from that point on.
The Ghost, Dimitri, was another story entirely. To him, it was like the enemy finally had a face. Since they’d been on the planet, Dimitri had felt as if it was a huge game of psychological warfare – himself against the Zerg Cerebrate. Things like the raid on the now-destroyed hospital, and the attack on the hill while it had been loaded with Spider Mines, only served to further strengthen the belief Dimitri held. He could finally be useful again. While Canister Rifles were worthless alone against the Zerg’s tough carapace, there was another battlefield entirely for Dimitri and the few remaining Ghosts to then combat in – the war over tactics.
“What exactly have you learned, Doctor?” he calmly asked.
“That the equipment works. The decoding of the receptors into coherent thought is going well, however it won’t finish until this afternoon, about eight hours from now. We’ll be analyzing it in the mean time.” Stephen said, the aura of his discovery nearly being killed by the neutral tone of his voice. The scientist wasn’t one known to be optimistic. He’d believe they survived the encounter when they were safely travelling OUT of the system altogether.
“My men and I will help; we’ll be there within minutes. Pyakov out.”
If Erai didn’t know any better, he’d have thought he detected a hint of excitement in the voice of the Ghost, but that certainly couldn’t be possible from such a trained military killing machine. Stephen also took the time to blink out of the ersatz meeting, leaving Erai alone with his thoughts. A thought occurred to him. Since they might finally learn things about the Zerg that had never been learned before, and it would be a great benefit to them tactically, they might finally be able to win their way off that rock.
He tapped down on the communications panel so he could reach Mack at the perimeter. “Command to Kilimaro.”
“Yo, Mack here, what’s the deal?” Came back the curious reply from the Firebat. It was almost instantaneously, causing Erai to shudder at how bored the warrior may have been.
“Order some of the SCVs to start building a Starport.” Erai ordered.
“What? Why? Don’t forget about the Sc –“
Erai cut him off. “Don’t ask questions, just do it. I’ll explain later. In the meantime, get a Starport built and make sure it stays functioning. It’s almost as important as holding the mineral fields. Command out.”
* * *
Though he may have had doubts inwardly about the orders that had been given to him, Mack wasn’t one to disobey direct orders. He never blindly followed them, either, but he’d be willing to give his superior the benefit of the doubt.
“Well that was sure an odd one…” he muttered to nobody in particular.
“Hmm? What’d he want this time, Mack?” a voice next to him asked. He knew who it was without turning; he recognized the voice instantly.
“He wants a Starport built. Now.” Mack said, his voice sounding distant. It was obvious he was thinking about something. What, however, Jaclyn didn’t even dare speculate. “And before you say it, yes, I tried to ask him why, but he wouldn’t say.”
“I’m sure he has his reasons…” she said softly, trailing off as she usually did.
Mack again nodded, appearing to be lost in thought. The Medic idly observed as he managed to get the order through even in his distracted state.
Her best guess as to why he was acting as he was would have been that Mack was thinking about the horrors of war and his many brushes with death. She would have been wrong in assuming that. While the Firebat had indeed come closer to death in the past than he would have liked, it was not what was keeping him off in the clouds.
Mack was lost because he was sorting out his thoughts on Jaclyn herself. He was trying to figure out why, ever since the hospital had been destroyed, she’d been with him every waking hour of the day. They never even spoke that often, yet still she would follow him. What did she want? Why him? What kind of companion was he?
It should be mentioned that there was some small history between the Medic and the Firebat. They were never an item, though if you asked most of the men in the Battalion at the time, each would tell you he thought the two were.
The particular event that started it all was on a planet officially known as Char. Though to any human being who has fought on it, it is quite simply known as Hell. Fighting the Zerg was bad enough, but then half of the time they ended up fighting the environment, too.
The battle really wasn’t a major one. More accurately it would be called a skirmish. Two patrol forces clashed, and that was the extent of it. On the patrol were fourteen Marines, eight Firebats, and two Medics. Mack, who was then just a lowly Corporal, and two of the Marines were playing rearguard for the others. Things were going fine until they were suddenly being rushed from behind by a score of the little dog-aliens. (Mack was later educated to learn they were officially designated Zerglings, but men in a battle zone have little care for what they’re called so long as they are dead.)
Without a ranged weapon, Mack was forced to wait until they were right up close to him to do anything about it. The two Marines had only gunned down a pair of the Zerglings before it was Mack’s turn to take over. He fired up a stim pack, feeling the concoction of chemicals surging through his veins. It only increased his lust for killing. As soon as he could see them, Mack began sweeping the flame-thrower in a ninety-degree arc, burning anything that came in his path. He never turned to notice his two Marine companions had been torn to shreds; he just kept burning. Charred Zerg flesh eventually exploded under the heat. Little pools of blood were all over the ground. He smiled as he saw them all dead. It felt good.
Mack had little time to reflect on his small victory. The screams of his other comrades alerted him to something else being afoot. With almost no effort he spun around and ran towards the sounds. It was only seconds later that he saw the others of his patrol exchanging shots with Hydralisks. Or at least, what remained of the patrol. All of the other Firebats were on the ground, awash in Zergling blood. Silently Mack thanked them for dying fighting.
Things continued to get worse as he looked. Two of the Marines fell, their armor pierced by the deadly spines generated by the Zerg. One of the Medics was totally defenseless. His stim still affecting him, he screamed out and sprinted towards her, tackling her just as the spines flew over her head. Without even stopping to hear her thanks, he charged into the beasts before the effects of the stim pack wore off. Paired with the anguished fire of five Marines, it wasn’t long before they’d taken out the entire enemy.
A searing pain had then shot through Mack’s body. He looked down and distantly noted there was a spine sticking out of his armor, going through his leg. The Medic he’d saved was at his side almost instantly, removing it.
Later he learned that if the spine hadn’t have been removed within minutes, he’d have died of toxins in his bloodstream. He supposed he owed some thanks to the Medic, but how does one thank a Medic for doing her job? Mack never really decided, because the woman seemed to decide for him. The woman, of course, was Jaclyn Krah, then a mere assistant Medic who was out on her first real patrol mission.
Nonstop she’d annoy him when she wasn’t working on a patient. In hindsight, he realized she really wasn’t so bad to be around, but to say that would require apologizing, which Mack quite simply would do. In the past, he’d requested she be assigned away from him, which hurt her greatly then but her job at the hospital got her over it.
‘The more things change, the more they stay the same.’ Mack thought to himself in the present. Then he realized she was saying his name.
“What was that?” he asked, startled out of his reverie. He’d have to think more on that later.
“It’s time for the mid-day meal. Figured you would want to come.” She smiled at him as she started walking out.
“Yeah.” Jaclyn was in front of Mack, so she couldn’t see his face. If she could have, she might have noticed the slightest hint of a grin.
* * *
The construction SCV units in the Aquaritia Battalion weren’t famous for their speed and design in other parts of the Dominion, however, within the battalion itself they were well known for building things in speeds faster than thought humanly possible. As a result, by the time Erai, Dimitri, Stephen, and Jennifer were in the research labs about eight hours later, two lone SCVs had completed the building. Looking out windows on the southern part of the labs, they could see the completed Starport to the southeast.
That, however, was not the primary focus of the meeting. Already they had passed the verge of the greatest scientific discover in the history of the Koprulu sector. The goal then was to find a way to use the information that Dimitri and Stephen had spent the past eight hours gathering.
“Here is a summary of the notes, comrade. Please, take a look.” Dimitri stated, handing a bunch of papers to the Colonel as he walked in.
Erai peeked over to a jumbled mess of about five hundred sheets, with various yellow highlight marks all across them. He shuddered for a second as he realized those were the unabridged version of Zerg psionic discussion. As he accepted the papers from the Ghost, he took a seat at the circular table in the room they were in.
He was nonplussed as he sifted through the first couple of papers he held. It was things he had already known: the name of the Cerebrate commanding the Brood, the name of the Brood itself, that Kerrigan was in charge of the Zerg as a whole. Things started to get interesting as he read the first words on the third page. Hardcore evidence of the Zerg having essentially quantified the entire human race.
In that instant he learned more things about the Zerg than had ever been learned about them combined. It contained things as general as ordering the Brood to contain the Terrans, to things as specific as how many seconds between waves during assaults. He discovered that when a Cerebrate orders a Brood around, it gives the orders to the entire Brood. However, it only applies to specific units. For what reason that was he couldn’t guess, but it sure made things a hell of a lot easier. There was more stuff in there than they’d ever have expected to find from just one solitary Zergling. In detail was just about everything the Zerg brood had done since the Terrans had appeared on the planet; Erai assumed that must have been when the particular Zerg corpse they were holding had been spawned.
He stopped reading for a second to consider the minimal knowledge he’d had of Zerg infrastructure before. All of the ugly Zerg constructs had their own little names that they’d been dubbed by the ground troops. Erai personally just preferred to call them “piles of shit”, because both from afar and up close, that’s what they looked like. The only ones which really mattered during assaults were the two types of Colonies, which were quite easy to identify considering they attacked back, and the ones unanimously decided to be the Zerg version of the Command Center. Aerial surveillance had always shown all of the larva and spawning eggs within close proximity to that building.
From a purely intellectual standpoint, the Zerg were actually quite a fascinating species. Of course, that was offset by the fact that they were presently being led by a crazed bitch, and that they’d nearly wiped out humanity, and that they’d brought the Protoss down on all of them…
The Protoss. They were another story entirely, Erai knew. He’d heard about Chau Sara and Mar Sara and was right pissed off considering Mar was his home, but he didn’t buy into the shit Mengsk had spewed at them about the highly advanced aliens. Perhaps they did condemn millions of humans to their deaths, but all the same they waxed BILLIONS of the Zerg. He’d also heard they had a strong code of honor, which was told to him directly by James Raynor himself. Their old Captain had disappeared right before the botched assault on Char, but he sent a message to his comrades in the Aquaritia Battalion with some notices.
The message from Raynor had explained a lot of things – his experiences with the Protoss on Aiur, his being sold out by Kerrigan and the death of the noble Fenix. Erai happily noted that Admiral Duke had been killed; the man and Erai had never gotten along. It also told them to get out of the Dominion as soon as possible, because Mengsk was a cowardly swine. This Erai had already known, but he wasn’t willing to incur the wrath of Mengsk by defecting. Hell, where would he defect? He was stuck on the middle of some damned planet, surrounded by Zerg.
But, back on the subject of the Protoss, Erai knew he’d never obey an order to attack them. Fuck Mengsk, he thought, we need all the allies we can get against the Zerg. An enemy of the Zerg is a friend of ours. They’d all heard what the Protoss had done to the UED blockade at Braxis. If he weren’t in the middle of a war zone, just thinking back and remembering it would probably have made him laugh.
The other occupants of the room all observed Erai curiously as he leafed through the pages, wondering what each change in face meant. None were more curious than Dimitri, however. All day he’d been foolishly wondering about running a personal war against the Zerg, since he knew he was the superior tactician amongst them. Foolish to Dimitri himself because he hated to get his hopes up about anything; too many times in the past he’d done just that and only been hurt in the end.
His own train of thought was interrupted as the entire room seemed to be filled with noise when Erai screamed out.
“Oh, shit!” he shouted angrily. The papers dropped from his hands to the floor, seemingly in slow motion.
“What? What the hell is wrong?” Jennifer asked in disbelief.
Erai picked up the last sheet of paper and pointed at something towards the bottom of it. “There are orders for an attack to be commencing…”
The ground rocked and suddenly the comm unit Erai always carried around was awash with activity. “…now.”
Stephen and Jennifer ran for the last sheet of the long unabridged version, while Dimitri and the Ghosts scrambled to read the one Erai possessed in disbelief.
“Every spare man out to the mineral defense lines. If we lose that complex, we lose.” Erai ordered into his comm unit. He then turned to the others in the room. “Dimitri, you and your men do the best you can. Just work as a team, one C-10 might not be worth much, but six of them are. Stephen, Jennifer, you two…”
“We’re fighting with you.” Jennifer spat. Stephen looked at her in surprise. He’d been about to say the exact same thing, but he was surprised that his partner said it.
Erai looked at the two of them and did a double-take. He wasn’t about to turn down any help, so he simply nodded. “Come on. Suits are this way.”
The three took off down a corridor, hoping they wouldn’t be too late to help.
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