"With experience, you'll learn exactly how far you can go against a DT rusher. Then you'll be able to kick him in the nuts."
-Heartcutter
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| SILENT WITNESSES PART V | | | Author: | | | IP: | 155.176.XXXX | | Date: | 02/12/01 10:02 | | Game Type: | Other | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 5, Min: 5
Lifetime Rating for TheVictim: 6.8333 |  | I thought that this might seem a bit short, but the end of this episode seemed appropriate for a break, and has some character and plot development.
SILENT WITNESSES PART V
For Darrin and Riley the dropship ride back to Beta base was spent in silence, interrupted by short bouts of turbulence. Darrin looked out a viewport at the small white star that served as the sun for HD144168. It had almost set. Darrin looked out at Harle and the other marines on the ship. They did not look back. Perhaps they were tired, mourning, or just wondering if what Darrin was looking for was worth the price they had been forced to pay. Darrin was beginning to wonder himself. He doubted if the data he was collecting would yield any clues to the fate of DuGalle and the rest of the UED fleet that was dispatched. If the previous UED fleet was destroyed by the Zerg, then maybe his research could help them avoid suffering the same fate. The overly territorial leftovers of the Confederacy were not of any help. Darrin had already collected evidence that the Zerg broods residing on this planet might be under their control. They had assisted in the attack on Alpha base, which was now being rebuilt.
Riley looked a bit tired out, a delayed side effect of tissue regeneration. He did need it though. Small cuts and a few not so small wounds had peppered his body. What remained of Riley’s custom SCV had been piled in with them, along with his sensor drone. The machine lay still at Riley’s feet. Darrin felt some conversation might ease the tensions, or at least get him some information.
“What is that thing anyway?” Darrin asked Riley, darting his gaze down at the sensor drone.
“You could say it’s an old friend.” Riley replied. He loosened his straps a bit and leaned over toward the SCV, retrieving a small headset with a visor. He handed it to Darrin. “Put this on.”
Darrin put on the headset and flipped the visor over his eyes. He noticed there was a microphone pickup on the earpiece as well. A view from the drone was superimposed over his vision.
“What is the mic for?” Darrin asked. The reply was a bit unexpected. Text filled his field of vision, Darrin reeled a bit from the ghostly green characters appearing before his view.
IT IS FOR TALKING TO ME. I AM STILL WITH YOU, DARRIN LACROSS.
Darrin knew what he was talking to. He began to feel a bit uneasy. He turned to Riley.
“You were supposed to scrap this thing.” Darrin commented. He suddenly realized the machine was listening. “No offense to you, of course.” He added.
NONE TAKEN. I EXIST FOR A PURPOSE, AND SO DO YOU.
“I was able to make other arrangements.” Riley replied matter-of-factly.
“How? Admiral Hadrick himself gave the order. There is no one in the UED force here that outranks him.” Darrin asked, a bit puzzled. Chief Harle’s glance shot towards them from the front of the ship.
“Like you I have a specific mission that needs to be completed. Our goals are not too far off from each other. I can’t say much more than that right now. Let’s just say I made previous arrangements and leave it at that.” Darrin explained. “The probe and observer are going to help us both.” He added. Chief Harle appeared as if he was about to speak, then he turned away again. Darrin glanced back at the machine. It looked a bit larger than the probe in the lab. More ghostly green text flashed onto his visor.
YOU NEED TO DISCOVER HOW THE ZERG ARE GROWING MORE POWERFUL. THEY THREATEN THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF AIUR AS WELL AS TERRANS.
“It is saying I need to find out how the Zerg are growing stronger.” Darrin relayed to Riley.
“It wasn’t until the attack on Alpha base that I realized myself they were a bit stronger. It’s no secret now that I have had some combat experience. The Zerg we fought today were stronger, faster, and a lot more resilient than they were then. Their power has grown that much in only a few weeks.” Riley explained. Chief Harle glanced over once again.
“I think the samples I collected can tell us something about how they are increasing their strength.” Darrin replied. He looked down at the flat black finished machine again. “What did you do to the probe?” He asked.
“I convinced it that we would need to modify it to look like something else so as not to draw fire in combat. In the process I managed to combine some of the elements from both the probe and the observer. I merged the two shield generators so the unit can withstand a bit more damage than the probe alone. The cloaking field from the observer can still operate, but the probe and observer combined have too much mass for the cloak to stay on for long, the cloaking unit drains the shield when it is on. It is also a bit slower, the gravitic drive was optimized for the mass of the observer. It suffers a bit with the extra mass. It can still outrun this ship though.” Riley explained. “The Protoss have extraordinary craftmanship, but they have not fully realized the potential of their machines.” He added.
“At least they can build a machine that can think without having it blow half of them to hell.” Darrin snapped. No human needed to be reminded of the reason why there were no autonomous machines used in combat anymore. “Is this thing still armed?” He asked nervously. Harle was still watching and he appeared nervous as well.
“I’m afraid so. I couldn’t remove the warp field generator without totally disable the drive system. As far as I can tell, it has access to several warp ID tags as well as its inherent offensive capability. Not only that, I had Bartleby dig up another Scarab drone from the disarmed ordinance. See that hemisphere under the unit?” Riley asked, pointing at the probe. “It has one in there. Like it or not, it is going to be our combat support when we can’t get any help from command.” Riley added. Darrin stared at the machine.
“It could kill us all right now if it wanted to.” Darrin stated, looking down at the machine.
I SAID I WOULD NOT DO SO BEFORE I WAS REBUILT. YOU MUST SURVIVE. I WILL HELP YOU.
“Oh, how refreshing, it’s saying it won’t kill us because it promised it wouldn’t” Darrin relayed, sarcasm evident in his voice.
“Unlike us, the Protoss machines do not appear to be able to lie.” Riley replied. This did nothing to appease Darrin’s uneasiness.
“It killed one of its own. A ‘Son of Aiur’ died because of it.” Darrin accused. “As soon as it finds out what it needs to, it is going to kill me like it was supposed to do the first time!” He vented. A loud ‘sprong’ erupted from the machine. It levitated a bit higher from the floor of the dropship. Chief Harle reached for his canister rifle, keeping an eye on the proceedings. Riley did not appear to be concerned.
THERE WAS NO TIME. G’THARR WOULD HAVE DONE THE SAME THING GIVEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES. I DO NOT KNOW WHY HE WAS SENT FOR YOU. I AM SURE YOU ARE OF MORE VALUE TO THEM ALIVE.
“Back off, Harle. It won’t hurt anyone.” Riley snapped. Chief Harle slung his weapon, but still appeared wary of the machine.
“It says the ‘toss think I would be worth more alive than dead now. How do we know for sure?” Darrin asked, his voice was still shaking a bit.
“Keep the visor. It is linked directly to the observer’s optics. You can see what it is doing at any time and it can’t turn it off.” Riley suggested, still unconcerned.
“Even when it is cloaked? How can optics pick up anything through a cloak. It can’t be telepathic like a ghost!” Darrin asked. When he had studied the Protoss he had avoided specific study of their machinery, the riddle of how it can see through the cloak had not even been considered by him until now.
The Ghost program needed telepaths for covert operations involving personnel cloaking due to the simple fact that light passed right through the cloaking field and did not register on the retinas. Any normal person could use personnel cloaking, but being able to see would be a problem. After entering the Ghost program, telepaths were trained to use their clairvoyant abilities to the utmost. The process involved focusing sensory information from the area around them onto their retinal tissues. Something resembling normal vision could be obtained. Occular implants were developed to enhance the effect, allowing for a larger field of vision. When sighting for tactical nuclear weapons, this was an obvious benefit.
“That had me going for a while too.” Riley admitted. “I found a tiny warp field generator that essentially teleports photons from just ouside the cloaking field, reads their wavelength and vector, then discharges them on the same vector, much like the sensor pod on a Wraith, but much more compact with virtually no delay.” He added. Riley was relieved that the discussion had turned technical, it was beginning to ease the tensions in the crowded dropship.
“I’ll keep an eye on it. Heck, I can use it to keep an eye on a lot of things.” Darrin conceded. The probe emitted an upbeat ‘sprong’.
They soon arrived at Beta base. Another morning of debriefings would follow. Mention of Riley’s activities during the Zerg attack were few, and glazed over very quickly. Whoever Riley was, Darrin imagined he carried quite a bit of weight within the UED. After a much needed day of rest, he would research his samples in earnest.
When Darrin returned to his lab at the Beta installation’s science facility, he noticed an SCV crew finishing up construction on a Physics Lab. He thought that this was particularly odd since they had just finished the science facility a couple of weeks ago. Darrin wondered why one was needed now.
The Physics Lab typically housed facilities for building particle accelerators necessary for the drive and weapons systems of battlecruisers. The massive battlecruisers required antimatter drives and the devastating Yamato cannon was nothing more than antimatter bottled up in a magnetic enclosure until it could no longer be contained. The antimatter was then hurled out of its containment towards the target in a decaying magnetic bubble, which broke up on impact.
Particle physics was not Darrin’s field, but even he was able to tell that this was no ordinary physics lab. Curiosity and his inherent opportunism overrode his fear of the Protoss machine he was in constant contact with. He asked it to cloak and inspect the construction more closely. It found that there was a hard line conduit that ran directly to the Engineering Bay. This was very odd. His suspicions were confirmed when Riley emerged from the Engineering Bay to survey the work. He asked the probe to move in for a close up. Riley was carrying a large polished steel cylinder. It appeared very heavy, Riley was carrying it with both arms. For the first time he was actually thankful for having the probe around. Maybe he could use it to get some answers that he would not otherwise get the chance to, thanks to his silent witness that would never leave his sight, even if it killed him.
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