StarCraft II: Broken Wide

The only thing I didn't like was the ending. It made it seem like the Terran would kill Ayers for just being a witness, which doesn't make sense and is not practical in any way. The Terran are definitely not good, exemplified by their constant apathetic abandonment of their troops to zerg forces (it's like the trademark of the Terran race) but what, they were going to execute Ayers and the other guy just because they're "evil" or something?

Makes no sense! What possible gains could they have from killing/locking away

I am of course referring to this:

I also know that I'm not going to see the end of this flight, that you're just the first and gentlest of the Dominion interrogators who will be visiting me. I've known ever since you brought me onboard with Lieutenant Orran. He's not going to see daylight either, is he?

Perhaps she is delusional... I guess she could just be exacting revenge, which is understandable but still kind of lame.

EDIT: Oh wow she took down the whole damn battlecruiser. Shit!

EXPLODING MEDICS!!!

the fleet was listening and observing the entire time right? well, now they have survivors, first hand sources to the zerg experiment. thus, they would be valuable intel, and if they were allowed to go free, they could easily tell anyone and everyone what the terran fleet was doing (by not helping or responding to distress calls)

As you've rightly pointed out, it's not the human race as a whole that are evil, at least in this universe. People like Raynor would never exist otherwise. But the Dominion is that corrupt. They're the horribly immoral set of Terran that left a small dispatch of civilians to be overrun, despite being wholly capable of saving them. Now imagine, are a corrupt set of officials, motivated by gaining information at the extent of human life, really going to let an intelligent, articulate survivor run around after she was a part of one of their 'experiments'? All signs point to no.

She rightfully guessed the Dominion weren't going to let her see the light of day again.

The most logical answer I can think of is that she went mad. She lived a disturbing experience on the colony. They were stranded there for so long without any hope that they end up thinking up stories and growing them beyond reality. She made them worse than they actually were because of what they did to her platoon and that colony. I would be pretty pissed to. It's also possible that the chemical of the first explosion did something to her.

Yes, she clearly was taxed mentally, as shown by nearly breaking down in tears. But she has no reason whatsoever to lie. No profit, mentally or financially, while there's a good reason for her not to trust the Dominion at all. Hence, a good reason for her to react the way she did at the end. Also, from a reader's perspective, remember this is supposed to explain how the Baneling came into being. It'd be pretty pointless writing that log if it were all overblown heresy.

And the chemical explosion having an effect on her is unlikely. There's absolutely nothing within the log that supports that idea, and in game the Baneling only explodes.

Hmm interesting ideas guys, I see where your coming from and I partially agree but I see the Terrans in a different view than you guys. I don't see them as 100% satanic evil, but more of an "ends justify the means" kind of evil. They were willing to sacrifice a colony because of the potential gains they could achieve from doing so. This is definitely not right, but you can see the reasoning behind this. It's very Terran like of them in doing so. It just seems a little overkill of them to kill the only two survivors, even if they had valuable information of a corrupt government experiment. Letting them die to the zerg is one thing, but a coldblooded execution of their own people is another and it should be harder to get away. But then again, they are in space and.... no one can hear you scream. Ohhh so cheesey.

I must admit I've only played the campaign and never read any of the books so I don't know the full lore of the Terran empire but I didn't get the feeling that they were so evil, the video of the Battlecruiser general shooting himself after what he's done comes to mind. He's the symbol of the Terran for me, sure he's done bad things, been corrupted but he's still human and still has morals.

But yeah I can see the flipside of it, and it really doesn't seem like TOO much of a stretch for them to kill her now when I really think of it.

blowing herself up.

I didn't mean she lied. I mean that during her time on Cork, she lived frustrating, disturbing and traumatizing experience. When she realized that the fleet brought this on them, she focused all her frustration on them. Maybe they weren't going to torture her or kill her, but she had so much hate focussed on them it blinded her common sense. She was out for someone to blame for all the misery they went through; those six despairing months. In short, she was dellusional.

Anyone else find it odd that 1 small pustule of a baneling 1-shots a BC, while it takes 8+ full banelings to kill a marauder, maybe being inside was enough... but still

A group that you point out knowingly left survivors under life-threatening duress for months isn't going to mind killing an articulate and intelligent survivor. It creates an unnecessary loose end. It's much easier to pop a bullet in her skull, even if they don't torture her to assure they got all the information they can out of her, than leave her to tell the tale. That's far from a delusional conclusion.

Remember, it's mentioned throughout the story that there was nothing stopping the Dominion from saving them. Four days. That's all it would have taken to get those civilians and marines out. But, as you pointed out, they were forced to stay for months. I just don't understand why you think it's any stretch of the imagination. Her life, and those of all her comrades, were clearly expendable. The Dominion didn't care. Only when those lives meant recovering vital information were survivors sought out. Killing her after they got that information is no issue whatsoever for such a corrupt group.

Mmmm, taste like pepper!

1. You are correct that there is no 100% proof that she would have been tortured. But you're implying that it's unlikely, which is naive, considering what we know of Dominion officials. It is likely when you consider that they're fine with giving an entire group a death sentence. Also, you already concede that they may have a reason to beat information out of this bitter individual. Especially when that information is something they want.

It's cruel to leave people to die like that.

But the Dominion still did it.

They do not care about cruelty, if it leads to results. You implying they wouldn't be fine on those grounds makes no sense whatsoever.

2. The Dominion officials clearly consider certain people expendable, as I've said repeatedly. It is far from pointless to kill her, so your claiming otherwise is outright confusing.

Once again, if you put someone through that, you are not going to let an articulate and intelligent survivor run free to spread the tale to journalists. That would potentially start a campaign that would do nothing more than spread support for Raynor, an enemy that the Dominion are trying to keep people from finding sympathy for. This woman could easily be too bitter to intimidate into silence. But a bullet through the head is something she won't be able to argue with.

They have reason to kill her, and are fine with being cruel.

Ayers sort of became a baneling herself, though of course not literally. She becomes the monster after having seen the monster, so to speak. Also, the captain was prepared to let people die because he wanted to let the banelings develop and see them, and as an answer to this, Ayers shows them to him up close.

I also like to read the story as a tribute to the medic unit that we all love (when playing terran) and have to say goodbye to soon. Speculating that the terran command got rid of the medics because of this incident would probably be a little far-fetched though...

The one thing I didn't quite get is what the mold had to do with anything. The zerg forced themselves to mutate in order to break the cask, right? Was the mold just put in the story to show how the zerg absorb biological features or is there more to it? It seems to me they wouldn't have needed to get into the cask to get the mold since they already had it when Ayers collected the zerg remains.