EPT+ Show Spoiler +
Although I hadn't touched battle.net until 2007, I played the single-player campaign way way way back in 2001 and again in 2003. In 2007, I had a renewed interest in StarCraft, and decided to start making maps. I was horrible at it. I had an idea for a new campaign, and was planning to make it a playable story. I had a pretty good handle on story-writing, but writing missions... not so much. So, I've decided to share that story the best way I know how: good old-fashioned pencil and paper, but made of pixels. This is basically my fan-fiction which takes place after the events of StarCraft: Brood War.
Falling wrote a really cool blog which basically was sort of a "here's what the Star Wars prequels would look like if I wrote them" type of thing. It actually got me really inspired. I know the prequels get shit on all the time by critics, but I thought they were "okay". Episode III was probably my least favorite one, but I really didn't think about all the flaws in the movies when I first watched them. I read a lot of negative reviews online, and I kind of agreed with most of their criticisms of the prequels.
StarCraft 2 has a similar lore problem: the new story is full of a bunch of fucking garbage. However, I am not arrogant enough to style this as a "replacement" for the SC2 lore. SC2's sequel story has a lot of problems, but I would submit that every story can be picked at for flaws.
A lot of stuff from the original StarCraft story wasstolen inspired by other sci-fi lore, like Starship Troopers, Aliens, Star Trek, Warhammer 40k, and... Rush? A lot of 90s pop-culture made it into the game, such as ice-skater Nancy Kerrigan's last name. I kind of like this concept, as long as it's not overbearing. Everyone gets the nerd-giggles when they hear references to stuff they know, but at a certain point, it goes too far. Also, it works better in a video-game setting, because you're invested mentally into playing the game, whereas with a movie or story, you wouldn't have anything to think about except for what you are seeing and hearing. If I get too crazy with the pop culture references, it's because I don't know where the line is.
But yeah, this is basically fan-fiction. I'm just a sci-fi nerd and I'm a huge StarCraft fan, so why not? gl hf gg no re
Falling wrote a really cool blog which basically was sort of a "here's what the Star Wars prequels would look like if I wrote them" type of thing. It actually got me really inspired. I know the prequels get shit on all the time by critics, but I thought they were "okay". Episode III was probably my least favorite one, but I really didn't think about all the flaws in the movies when I first watched them. I read a lot of negative reviews online, and I kind of agreed with most of their criticisms of the prequels.
StarCraft 2 has a similar lore problem: the new story is full of a bunch of fucking garbage. However, I am not arrogant enough to style this as a "replacement" for the SC2 lore. SC2's sequel story has a lot of problems, but I would submit that every story can be picked at for flaws.
A lot of stuff from the original StarCraft story was
But yeah, this is basically fan-fiction. I'm just a sci-fi nerd and I'm a huge StarCraft fan, so why not? gl hf gg no re
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/Ylirepm.jpg)
Larger image: http://i.imgur.com/Ylirepm.jpg
Nearly a year has passed since the United Earth Directorate's fleet was defeated above Char by the Zerg forces covering the space platform.
The Terran race in the Koprulu Sector lost nearly half of its total population since the first appearances of the Zerg, Protoss, and the United Earth Directorate. Terrans in this sector were far-removed from Earth, but the fact that the self-serving autocracy ruling the birthplace of humanity would send such an overwhelming fleet ninety-thousand light-years across space alarmed the entirety of the Terran populace. Fiercely valuing their independence from the world they had left behind as prisoners, a movement sprung up among the various Terran worlds to protect their place in the galaxy from all invaders. The masses of the Zerg had been significantly reduced by their defeats, but they remained in combat with Terran forces at the edges of Terran space.
The Zerg continued to attack ships and raid space platforms, but seemed reluctant to launch a full offensive. A council of Terran leaders met and concluded that it was likely that the Zerg were in a rebuilding phase, and if they failed another offensive, their numbers would be too thin to fight against both Terran and Protoss forces. The number of Protoss vessels in the area were few and far in between, and were no longer considered a significant threat. However, due to the scorched-planet policy that had been implemented during their arrival, Terran public opinion was largely anti-Protoss.
Arcturus Mengsk, although he returned to Korhal to re-declare himself Emperor of the Terran Dominion, the legitimacy of his rule was called into question by other powerful Terran leaders, who now believed that Mengsk was no longer capable of providing protection from outside invaders. Mengsk's new empire was somewhat smaller than what he inherited from the Confederacy; Korhal had been resettled by Mengsk after his ascent to power, but was once again mostly a desert wasteland, and although Artesia Prime, Sonyan, and Tarsonis were once huge centers of commerce and industry, they were sparsely populated. These four worlds were the extent of what became known as the Korhalian Dominion, whereas the other Terran worlds formed the Nationalist Alliance. Mengsk, perturbed by the defiance of the remaining Terran worlds turning against him, declared war on the Nationalists, but with little consequence.
The war ended when the ruler of the Tyrador system, Archduchess Viviana I of Tyrador IX, met with Mengsk and negotiated a full peace treaty. The terms of the peace treaty were largely unknown, but it was known that Viviana was appointed to her position by Mengsk to replace the Confederate governor there. When the colonists on Tyrador IX and Tyrador VIII turned against their former Emperor, Viviana held onto power by promising to oppose his return to power, and by signing this treaty, she declared that Mengsk would no longer pose a military threat to the Tyrador system, freeing their forces to concentrate on repelling the Zerg.
Attack on Brontes
Brontes was once a busy hub for trading until it was overrun by the Zerg in year 2499. The entire population was either evacuated or turned into food for the Zerg after the local defense forces were overpowered by the huge numbers of Zerg warrior broods. The Protoss and Dominion forces had conducted bombardments on Brontes over the course of the first war, but the Zerg had reclaimed the planet as a jumping-off point for launching raids into Terran space.
In order to break the deadlock and boost the morale of the Terran population, the Nationalist Alliance devised a plan to attack and recapture Brontes. The Nationalists contacted Arcturus Mengsk to join the attack, but he refused to participate.
In the void of space, a sizable armada of Terran ships began to congregate above Brontes. The ships stayed outside of the range of the Zerg spore colonies, which could hurl globs of highly-destructive acid into space. The Zerg scrambled waves of scourge to ram the Terran ships.
Aboard the command ship, the Agamemnon, Admiral Darius Nelson oversaw the fleet's operations, and Commander Jacquelyn Hale coordinated the ground forces that were preparing to land. Admiral Nelson was inexperienced, but was an avid gambler in his spare time, and his willingness to take risks concerned his superiors, but many of his exploits in the war came from the high reward returned from taking high risks. He was the architect of the Brontes invasion plan, and this bombastic man commanded great respect among his subordinates.
"Valkyrie squadrons A and B, cover our battleships, y'all." He barked into the commlink. "Need y'all out front-and-center, ay-sap."
"Of course, my dear." The valkyrie squad leader replied.
The valkyrie pilots press their triggers, unleashing a massive salvo of HALO cluster rockets into the incoming mass of scourge. The rockets burst open and the explosions vaporized the scourge. Bits of bloody scourge body parts were all that were left of the wave of Zerg kamikaze warriors, which drifted serenely towards the Terran fleet.
"Good shootin'." Admiral Nelson said, adding, "Capricorn, what we got on radar?"
The captain of the science vessel, Capricorn, replied back, "Another wave of scourge, sir. I estimate around five thousand or so."
"Roger that, Capricorn... you heard the man, boys and girls. Keep that suppressive fire on them. Don't matter to me if they wanna die out here or down there!"
Both valkyrie squadrons circled back around to get between the capital ships and the scourge. There were around seventy valkyries in each squadron, which was more than enough to hold off scourge that were coming from only one direction. A swirling mass of scourge rose up from the planet's low orbit, towards the main battle fleet. Once again, thousands of HALO rockets decimated them nearly effortlessly.
"Gimme the news, Capricorn." Admiral Nelson called out.
"Scourge clear, no further activity at this time. It may be too soon to predict if they will launch another wave." The Captain replied.
"Nah, I know the Zerg well 'nuff to know that they jus' messin' us around. We gotta git in firing range of them spores. They gonna want to protect them spores."
"Admiral, we are detecting scourge activity incoming from the planet."
"Roger that, Capricorn. No problem, we'll just play janitor and mop 'em up until this mess is cleaned right up."
The Zerg continued to launch waves of scourge from the planet for the next two hours, which seemed to be useless against the large number of missile frigates covering the battlecruisers. However, as time passed, the number of rockets available began to dwindle.
"Admiral, this is B leader." A valkyrie commander called out.
"Nelson here, what's up?" The Admiral replied.
"We are low on rockets, less than 10% remaining."
"All right, copy that, B leader. B squadron, rendezvous with Base 1 for resupply. A squadron front-and-center, all ships prepare to fire."
From aboard the Agamemnon, Commander Hale turned to Admiral Nelson and remarked, "From our reports, they shouldn't have enough scourge to be able to keep this up. This doesn't make sense."
"What don't make sense?" The Admiral asked rhetorically, adding, "They're scared. They ain't seen a fleet like this in years and don't know what to do, so they're buying time and trying to wear us down."
"With all due respect, Admiral, I agree with you on that, but let's say we take this planet. What is it to them? It's only significant to us. If they lose it, they will just have the next planet to prep from."
"Yeah? Whatcha thinkin', Commander?"
"I think either two things: first possibility is that the Zerg are just stupid, and are wasting a huge number of their forces when they can't afford to do so, or their numbers are greater than what we're estimating."
"Yeah, I see your point, Commander, and I'm considerin' it. Believe me, I don't wanna put our boys and gals down there if they ain't gonna win. If things get too hot, we'll pull back, I promise you that, but listen... I ain't one to think Zerg are dumb. I'm thinkin' that they're thinkin' ahead, and want us to think 'hey, the Zerg wasted all their scourge in one battle and are weak now' so we go rushin' into some fight foolishly later on. It's Sun Tzu 101. Act weak when you're actually strong. Now, we know the Zerg can be strong, so how can they make us think they're weak so we slip up? That's what I'm thinkin'."
As the next colossal wave of scourge closed on the Terran fleet, every ship sent out a blaze of fire to meet them. Then the first one got through. Slamming itself into the right-side engine of a battlecruiser, the scourge burst itself into a massive explosion that ripped apart the engine, and sent shards of metal flying.
The metalic female voice of the adjutant reported to Admiral Nelson on-board the Agamemnon. "Intimidator reporting damage, Admiral."
"Christ..." Nelson muttered, before radioing the Intimidator. "Captain Dawson! You there?"
The Intimidator's captain transmitting back, "Yes sir, diagnostics showing engine failure on the top right burner."
Before he could respond, Nelson saw a flash of light, then a fireball bursting forth from what was a ship seconds ago. Just like that, another series of hits occurred, three in a row on three different ships, sending them into flames. The fire would feed off the oxygen from inside the vessel, and a serious breach would often mean the crew was doomed to suffocate or did from an extreme change in pressure if they did not get their emergency gear on in time, or eject.
The adjutant reported again. "Admiral, I am reading seven valkyries offline, three wraiths offline. Damage to Intimidator and Judgement."
"Capricorn, gimme some news." Nelson called out.
"Airspace clear, Admiral."
Nelson turned to Commander Hale. "What do ya think?" He asked.
"They're going to keep coming, so if we're going to do this, we've got to just go or it's going to get worse and worse as we lose more ships." She replied.
"All right..." Nelson said, nodding ever-so-slightly. Then he called out, "All big boys get ready to fire them yamatos. We're gonna hit the spores at the LZ, and B squadron should be back to escort the dropships down by the time we kill 'em."
48 Hours Earlier
All of the Alliance's military leaders were seated in a luxurious auditorium located in the Umoja High Council building for a briefing. The fear of the Zerg, the fear of the Protoss, the fear of Arcturus Mengsk, and the fear of another huge invasion created the unlikely alliance between Tyrador, Umoja, Kelanis, and Moria. Politics threatened to tear the uneasy alliance apart, but for the time being, their military forces were cooperating for a combined offensive.
While the military leaders were content to meet together in person, the politicians chose to attend the meeting via transmission. So, from a large screen at the front of the room, the Chairman of the Umojan Council was broadcasted from a secret location. "Salutations, ladies and gentlemen." He said, speaking softly. "As you know, these are trying times for our species as a whole. Our division, while it is not without legitimate reason, has imperiled this sector of space. There are many undiplomatic invocations I could speak of to renew our squabbling, but frankly, I'm old enough to know better. It's funny... being 'old' used to mean getting to the age of 80 or 90 or 100. How many of you will make it to 40? Or to 50? The sad fact is, our old habits are killing this generation faster than you can be born, and your children will likely continue to pay for the sins of our fathers. If there is a path out of this vicious cycle of hatred that keeps Santa Muerte employed, it will be on all of you to set the example... to lead the way. We are the first united fleet from our sector to confront this despicable enemy..."
While he spoke, someone in the room shouted, "Where's the 'Emperor'?", referring to the fact that Arcturus refused to assist the Alliance in their attack.
"Please." The Chairman urged, "We're here to fight the good fight. We're here to answer the call of our citizens and colonists who are demanding action. If there is a Good Lord somewhere, he will set aside a special place in Hell for cowards who would rather hide in their holes while we bleed for the whole of humanity. Beyond that, there is nothing more we can do except to move forward, and we will, regardless of which now-irrelevant faction decides to join us or not. Therefore, I give you Commander Jacquelyn Hale. I ask that you give her your full attention. Godspeed, fellow Terrans."
The screen went dark, and murmurs began circling the room. The room fell into a hush again as the Commander took the stage. Hale was an imposing figure that shattered any sexist notion that a woman could not command a corps. She stood 6'4 without her battle armor, and had a reputation for dealing out harsh discipline among her subordinates who fell out of line. The soldiers would refer to her as "The Cold Bitch" behind closed doors, but never if they thought someone were listening to such talk. She managed security forces for the Kel-Morian Combine for two years, and was considered to be the highest military official in their armed forces, although, because Kel-Moria employed a large number of mercenaries, paramilitary, and militia forces, the hierarchy of command was somewhat vague.
"Thank you for being here." Hale said to the room. "Admiral Nelson has drawn up plans for a massive, two-pronged attack on the Zerg stronghold of Brontes. The proximity of Brontes to Umoja makes this an important strategic mission in order to create a buffer between the Zerg and this planet. Our scouts have provided us with a rough estimate of the enemy forces in the area. There are no Protoss in the area, and the total number of Zerg on the planet is probably less than one million. Still a dangerous number of Zerg to deal with, especially when we factor in that many of the Zerg are some of their stronger strains of warriors, such as ultralisks. However, we will not need to put two million men on the ground, and suffer one million casualties in order to retake the planet.
We managed to gain vital information from Confederate defectors, and UED prisoners-of-war, about psionic experiments being conducted by these governments. It is not yet known when the UED became aware of the existence of the Zerg, but from we can gather, the Confederacy knew about the Zerg as far back as ten years before they landed on Chau Sara. They developed a particular weapon of interest during this time: A device that can emit psionic waves deep into space. The Zerg seem to be controlled by psionic links. The warrior broods you see are controlled by local overlords, and the overlords are controlled by an intermediary mind called a 'cerebrate'. The cerebrates are connected directly to the Zerg Overmind and direct a majority of the Zerg's military operations.
According to the intelligence we've received, if a cerebrate is disabled, the entire brood that they command will go dark from the Overmind's control, and with no mind control, the Zerg will do what they do best: kill. They'll begin randomly attacking each other, and if there is nothing to kill, they'll start running for kilometers until they find something to tear into or die of exhaustion. They're like chickens running around with their heads cut off, albeit somewhat more dangerous. Our ghosts have located the cerebrate on Brontes, and our operation will concentrate on disabling it.
+ Show Spoiler +
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/HJYgwkV.png)
Task force A will land near the cerebrate, and will use the entirety of our air support to assist A in clearing a small area. Most of the Zerg will rush to that landing zone because of its proximity to the cerebrate. This is, essentially, part of Admiral Nelson's plan. Task force B land opposite-side to the cerebrate, and will set up heavy defenses, then switch on the psi emitter. This should pull the Zerg on the planet away from the cerebrate long enough for our scientists to administer pacifying drugs to it. Since B will need to hold off the Zerg for an extended period with little to no air support, their group will be composed of 70% of our total forces. This plan requires us to be absolutely precisely coordinated. There is no room for dissent or second-guessing, or we're going to fail, and a lot of people are going to die for nothing. That being said, I have complete confidence in Admiral Nelson. I give the remainder of our time to him."
Commander Hale stepped to the side, and Admiral Nelson walked onto the stage. In a short time, he had risen through the ranks of the Umojan Naval Wing through acts of heroism and bravery. The loss of several command ships meant that the Naval Wing's command structure had a severe void of superiors, and Darius Nelson was a prime candidate to become an officer. Under the Nationalist Alliance, he seemed to care very little about political disputes, and would lead mixed squads from different forces into battle with no bias. Although he was an Umojan, he gained the respect of the Kel-Morian Combine by directing operations that prevented Arcturus Mengsk from seizing mining platforms that were vital to the Combine's operations, using Umojan forces.
A powerful group of space-faring pirates called the Dark Star Commune had been conducting terrorist operations, and seizing cargo from Tyradorian ships until Nelson used a small group of his personal escort fleet to kill off a large pirate fleet. He then went to Umoja to request an operational force be given to him to quell the Dark Star Commune, and he was given a limited number of ships. Despite being outnumbered, he took the pirates by surprise and took control of their homeworld of Destaris, and handed control of the planet to the Tyradorian government.
He began to work in a similar manner against the Zerg, halting their encroachments into the remaining Terran space. Nelson became so well-respected among the Alliance's governments that he seemed to transcend politics, and he was promoted to admiral over the unified fleets, and he quickly began to speak of a possible victory over the Zerg thereafter.
Speaking to the gathering of leaders from the Alliance's various armed forces, he said:
"From the day we first walked the Earth in the mud, we've fought each other. From birth to death, every day is a fight for us. So this ain't nothin' new for us. We survived the damn saber-tooth tiger on Earth, using some sticks, and now, we just got ourselves some bigger saber-tooth tigers and some bigger sticks. So the fact that we fight with each other ain't gonna stop us. It's gonna make us stronger. If the Zerg want a war, well... we're good at war. We're damn good at it. It's time to realize we can tango with these beasts, startin' today.
People told me 'you can't win a fight with Mengsk' and by faith, I set our flag down on those mining platforms myself. I saw it before it happened. By faith, I said that we don't have to bow down and pay out bribes to terrorists, and I went to their house and kicked down the door. When everyone was saying 'retreat from the Zerg', I had faith and took them on. Now, I know I keep saying 'I', but I also keep saying 'faith'. You know what gives me faith? You all do. I hear about all the things that humanity can't do, and I just don't accept that. You saw how the United Earth Directorate man-handled the Zerg, and we can do that too. There's nothin' stoppin' us except for naysayers who think the Zerg are geniuses for beating us when they don't have any technology. Well, I say the Zerg ain't geniuses at all. It's easy to be a genius when you have infinite soldiers to win every battle for you, and they don't have that over us anymore. We're smarter than they are. We have to be if we've lasted this long.
Now, I promise you, this ain't gonna be easy, but we have to do this. Not for our flag, or insignia, or our planet. We're doing this as Terrans... just Terrans. Not all of us will be coming home from Brontes, but to all the cowards who would rather hide and stay in bed will consider themselves cursed that they could not be there on the day, because the day is coming where you young men and women from all over the sector will stand together and take our rightful territory back from the Zerg and say to them, 'no more'. And what do we need from Mengsk? For him to send us a few second-hand wraiths. No sir, you can keep them. You're gonna need them for when your people see you for the snake you are and put you down. But for us, we are gonna set the foundation of a Terran nation that is going to survive this test that the universe has laid before us."
Task Force A
On-board a dropship, a group of marines were sitting, but waiting for the ship to drop them into a warzone. The squad leader spoke first. "You boys ready to get some Zerg blood on your helmets?"
"Yes sir." Private Alvarez replied.
"We're going to send these fuckers a message today."
"Hell yeah, sir. I can't wait to pump some lead into these lizard-looking sons of bitches."
"That's the spirit, Alvarez. We've all been waiting for this day for a long time. 'Course, some of us might not come back. Hell, none of us might come back. There ain't no turning back now."
"Sir, I have a feeling about this one. We're coming back. And you're going to marry that Ophelia girl you can't stop talkin' about."
"Damn straight, Alvarez. And we're going to make the best-looking goddamn babies in the galaxy. Probably the smartest, too."
"Sure you will."
"Don't gimme shit, Alvarez. You know I'm the prettiest one of you ugly sons-of-bitches."
"Ha, that's a g-"
Then an acid spore slammed into the dropship and it exploded. Hundreds of dropships were racing towards the surface as spore colonies sent up gobs of acid into the atmosphere to intercept them. In retaliation, gigantic blasts of energy were being hurled down onto the planet from the Terran fleet, turning the surface into what looked like an inferno from above. At some point, some squad leader likely made a bad pun like "expect the landing zone to be hot". Moments later, the first few ships made contact with the surface and marines jumped out and immediately began firing. Every twenty seconds or so, another group of dropships would set down, and drop off soldiers and supplies. One of the ships dropped an SCV and some metal that the SCV began assembling to make the first bunker.
The loud BRRRRRT of machine gun fire continued as the marines lay down suppressive fire into the oncoming Zerg forces. From above, a floating group of guardians began blasting away at the Terran landing zone. Goliath pilots took aim and fired missiles that locked onto the heat signatures of the giant space crabs. Plumes of smoke puffed out of the guardians as they took the missile hits, which sent them crashing directly down to the surface. Because of the intensity of the fighting, the ground forces immediately felt overwhelmed by the numbers of Zerg swarming on them from all directions. "Are we even getting air support?" one of the goliath pilots asked over the radio. "I can assure you, you are." Commander Hale replied from the Agamemnon.
The battlecruisers were, indeed, creating a 'ring' of fire around the landing area, but some Zerg units were still slipping through. Despite a minority of the Zerg making it through, their numbers were still enough to seem overwhelming to the ground forces, who were essentially holding down the triggers to their guns. The Captain of Task Force A was Tiberius Davis, who urged the ground forces to keep the comm channels clear of useless chatter. "Clear comms, the BCs are doing what they can. Things are gonna be hot for a bit, so hang tight." Davis called out. "Yes sir, roger that." The goliath pilot replied. Moments later, an ultralisk ran into the clearing, and rammed its head into the goliath, sending it tumbling down. Davis turned his gauss rifle and began firing at the ultralisk from about 100 meters away. "Ultra at our 4, prioritize." Davis called out. Everyone nearby turned and opened fire on the ultralisk, which rampaged around in pain before coming to a halt. The ultralisk let out a resounding death-cry before slumping over onto the ground, motionless. A squad of zerglings got through and pounced on some of the marines near the edge of the perimeter.
"How long till those bunkers are done?" Davis asked the SCVs.
"ETA 12 minutes, sir."
The squad of zerglings was now lying dead, but several dozen marines were taken with them. The stench of dead Zerg was something of a health hazard in such battles, with their innards releasing a gas that was not breathable for terran beings. This became problematic for marines who were accustomed to fighting with their face shield off. The face shield was like the seat-belt of the Koprule Sector. Commanders would stress again and again the importance of it, but many soldiers preferred to fight with their face exposed because it would cause claustrophobic feelings to arise. Several marines were instantly knocked out by the fumes.
A medic came running up, and began dragging one of the unconscious marines to safety. "Someone help me out here!" she yelled, but there was little chance that anyone would hear over all the gunfire and radio chatter. Besides, not even one soldier could afford to put down his gun to move the bodies of troops that were too stubborn to use their face shields in the first place. This became immediately evident when a hydralisk came storming forward towards the medic, and opened its hood to shower her with acidic spray. She raised her shield to deflect the acid, but a single shell smacked the hydralisk in the jaw, tearing the jaw off completely. The creature reeled back in pain, and the next shell lodged itself into the hydralisk's brain before exploding. Breathing heavily, the medic lowered her shield, and began pulling the single marine to safety for a minute before realizing he was much lighter due the bottom half of his body being dissolved by the acid. She dropped the top half of his body, and ran off to find someone else who had a higher chance of surviving.
The horizon around the landing zone became shrouded by dust and debris in the distance from the battlecruiser bombardment. Streaks of red light would fall from the sky, and crash to the surface, throwing up plumes of smoke and dust into the atmosphere. A good deal of the gaseous substance was actually made of Zerg that had been literally vaporized by the intense heat from the cannons aboard the battlecruisers. This drastically reduced visibility at the landing zone due to airborne particulates being kicked up by the impact of each blazing pillar of fire sent down from heaven onto the Zerg.
Task Force B
On the other side of Brontes, Task Force B landed with minimal resistance. They were able to easily begin setting up a defensive position around the psi emitter, which was not switched on yet, but the SCVs at the site were assembling power generators to get it online as soon as possible. Great care was taken to ensure the safety of the psi emitter itself, as the cost to construct one was nigh-on astronomical. Both the Confederacy and United Earth Directorate had an abundance of money and resources to build such weapons, but the corporations in control of the Kel-Morian Combine had to scrape together extra funds for their already-massive defense budget. Both corporations had been working together for quite some time, pooling their resources to build larger military forces than they could individually, but their stockholders saw this as a detriment to potential profiteering. The CEOs of both companies had to fight with their respective boards of directors in order to create more experimental weapons, such as the psi emitter and psi disruptor. Nevertheless, the weapon was built, amidst strong opposition to its construction. The psi disruptor's handlers knew that their futures would be gone if anything were to happen to the device. The executives of the Kel-Morian Combine would put huge bounties on the heads of anyone who tampered with the psi distruptor, because if it failed, the board of directors would riot.
Once the psi emitter went online, everyone knew that it would give an order for the Zerg to move towards it. The Zerg would likely tear through anything in their path to get to it, and once they reached it, would destroy it. The entirety of the local Zerg forces would converge onto their position once it switched on, and they had to hold off the Zerg until the cerebrate was dealt with. After the cerebrate was no longer capable of controlling the Zerg, it would not take the pressure off of Task Force B, because the Zerg forces would be thrown into a frenzy, and they would still be attacking, although they would begin to attack each other as well.
"I need a status on the psi emitter." Commander Hale requested, calling Task Force B.
Captain Leonard Molyneux reported back, saying, "It'll be up shortly. These power generators are taking a bit longer because the terrain at this site is very troublesome. We're making due though, ma'am."
"Can I get an ETA? A is getting their shit kicked in."
"I want to say 20-30 minutes."
"It'd better not take 30 minutes."
Captain Molyneux let out an exasperated sigh. "Damn it, Jackie. I'm an officer, not a miracle worker. I command men, not the laws of physics."
"Get it done."
Hale was irritated by Molyneux's disrespect, but she realized that the united armed forces were not used to working together fully yet, and that the situation was already stressful. Regardless of these factors, no Zerg were assaulting Task Force B's position, and there was nothing to hinder their progress. It was apparent that there was likely some disorganization among Task Force B, but the battlefield was not the appropriate place to take disciplinary action for such a minor infraction of protocol breaching. Such things could wait to be handled later if the end result was dissatisfactory.
Task Force A was having difficultly establishing a secure perimeter at their site, as the bunkers, turrets, and other defenses kept being destroyed before completion. Most of the siege tanks were dropped off with Task Force B, who were anticipating needing the heavy firepower more for later. This put a heavy strain on A's position, despite having all the air support they could ask for.
The battlecruisers were being battered by spore colony fire, despite being covered by a good number of escort ships. Several dozen escort ships had been knocked out of the sky, and seven battlecruisers were already knocked offline since the beginning of the bombardment. The forces at the landing site of Task Force A reported seeing a crippled battlecruiser burning up as it entered the atmosphere and fell out of the sky. It wasn't long before the Agamemnon was hit by a scourge, although it was not a crippling blow. The explosion rocked the crew of the command ship, temporarily throwing everyone to the deck or against a wall. The crew recovered quickly with no major injuries, but the situation was a delicate one, where time was of the essence. Waves and waves of Zerg warriors threw themselves into the landing site of Task Force A, and while most of them were being mowed down by gunfire, small numbers of them kept getting through and were slowly whittling the Terran forces down.
Every minute that passed felt like an hour to Commander Hale. "Where's the psi dis?" Captain Davis called out.
"It's on the way, sit tight." Hale replied.
"We're-" Captain Davis replied, but was cut off and his transmitter died, presumably destroyed by a Zerg warrior that got through to the Captain.
"Captain Davis? Captain Davis!?" Hale called out, receiving no reply. "Goddamn it..." she whispered, and wanting to strangle Captain Molyneux. If he were there in front of her at that moment, she would have done everything in her power to make sure he never walked again.
As a running joke among the united forces, there were betting pots for which faction would betray the others first. Beyond being a mere joke, though, there was always a concern that someone would refuse orders, or worse, simply take their forces and leave the battle if things got bad. There was an unhealthy air of distrust among the military leaders towards each other, not out of disrespect, but because they knew the politicians might give a secret order to their particular military forces. Not a single faction leader wanted to emerge from this battle significantly weakened, so a secret retreat order may have been planted to any faction's forces, which their forces would almost certainly follow. Nelson and Hale simply hoped that this was just an unwarranted fear and that nothing of the sort would happen. Still, the unusually long delay for the psi disruptor's activation had Commander Hale's mind wandering into how to deal with a situation of that sort, which would almost certainly get a majority of the engaging forces killed.
Then, a beam of light; Captain Molyneux called back, "Psi disruptor online, Commander Hale."
"Hit the switch." Hale replied.
The psi emitter sent out the first pulse of psionic energy, which the Zerg warriors recognized as an order, and they began moving in the direction of the origin of the pulse. Almost as suddenly as it started, the battle at Task Force A's landing site ceased. The Zerg began running away from their position. An eerie silence fell over the battlefield, and the dust finally began to settle, restoring visibility, but revealing a grim sight: thousands of dead Terrans for hundreds of meters around the perimeter of the base.
Captain Davis was alive, and a medic was attending to him. His transmitter had been melted by hydralisk acid, and he received minor burns to his torso from the acid that had bored through his armor's plating. "I'm fine, really." He said to the medic, adding, "I just need a radio."
Task Force A began to move out, and within the hour, reached the location of the cerebrate. Medics quickly began hooking equipment up to the gigantic slug-like creature in order to pump drugs into its system. The creature rumbled and made low roaring sounds, but after some time, it began to react to the nerve agents and it began making something like a purring or growling sound. The medics poked needles into the creature to test if it was still conscious, and it responded as if still conscious, but with heavily delayed reactions. They also took measurements of the cerebrate's 'pulse', and sliced it open to take samples of its blood.
Not long thereafter, Commander Hale's ship descended to the surface, and she stepped out to get a look at the beast that they had captured. The soldiers nearby saluted, and pointed to where Captain Davis was. He was in a wheelchair, smoking a cigarette and watching the medics work on the cerebrate from a distance. Commander Hale approached him and said, "Good to see you, Captain. I was worried for a moment there that you didn't make it."
"Yeah, I was worried about that, too." Davis replied. "But, the Good Lord decided not to take me today. So, we have our own pet slug now."
"Well done. This is a huge victory for terrankind... you realize that, right?"
Davis just stared ahead blankly, and put out his cigarette. "If that's what you want to call it... letting this piece of shit live..."
"Davis, this has to be done."
"I don't see why we don't just blow it to Kingdom Come and be done with it."
"That won't work. Otherwise, why wouldn't we just hit it from space and spare ourselves all this trouble?"
"Well... the UED wanted to control the Zerg... what if one of our people wants to do just the same? What if..."
"Davis, if some politician wants this thing as their personal pet is their problem. If they want to control the Zerg to unleash on other Terrans... then we know who our next enemy is. But right now, we have to do what we need to do, and I'll tell you this -- let's say we stacked dynamite on top of this monster, and blew its guts all the way back to Umoja. Guess what? It would just regrow itself out of nothing, as if we were never here. As it stands, we don't know how to kill a cerebrate. So have yourself a drink and take a minute to appreciate that you led the Terran force that captured the creature that has given us our first victory over the Zerg."
