High above the Terran world of Korhal, trouble was brewing. The UED has
taken most of
Terran Dominion space for its own, seeking to finish Arcturus and claim
this territory as their
own. The Zerg swarms, led by Kerrigan, have come to seek revenge against
Arcturus for his long-past betrayal of Kerrigan on Tarsonis. Finally, the Protoss have also
brought their own massive
fleet of warships, intending to finish the Terran Dominion, which has
caused them much annoyance.
Of course, none of these factions know the others are coming as well. Each
believes it will be their sweet triumph, no one else's. They're all in for a shock...
-1-
Two massive battlecruisers punch into real space just outside the Korhal
system. The gleaming logo of the UED was plainly visible from kilometers away in the crystal void of space. Following the battlecruisers come a fleet of wraiths, dropships, and even the occasional airborne building being tugged by a utility craft. Inside the lead battlecruiser, Admiral
Pietrov took in the sweeping spectacle of the Korhal system on his viewscreen.
"Yes, we'll come in in Mengsk's sensor blindspot behind this
asteroid belt," he said,
magnifying the image and pointing for the benefit of his crew, who already
knew anyways. The good admiral loved to review his strategies many times, so it was all the officers could do not to yawn out loud. "Then, we'll set up a base on this moon, here," he switched
the image to that of the lunar surface, "and then commence the invasion. Any questions?" There were, of course, none, which pleased the admiral to no end. "Such a quick crew," he said, smiling.
The grueling briefing continued, detailing for the fiftieth time their
planned beach heads and attack prongs. The crew gazed longingly out the various portholes, deciding that
sub-light speed simply wasn't fast enough when they were traveling with the admiral.
Finally, the admiral shifted his attention away from the briefing for a
moment. The crew would
have been relieved, but they already knew what was coming next. "Admiral
Smith, report," Pietrov said into the communications equipment next to him. The image of Pietrov appeared on the comm screen in the other
battlecruiser. I'm going to have to kill whoever gave this fool access to the communications equipment, Admiral Smith decided. She sighed inaudibly and prepared to give the windbag another status report, which she did, like clockwork, every day at around 16:00 hours. Their status, of course,had
not changed since their departure from Earth two months ago, but Pietrov apparently needed the affirmation that his fleet had not contracted Centauri Fever, or plunged into a black hole. Idiot,
thought Ms. Smith.
"No change in status, sir," she said, trying very hard not to put a
sarcastic tone in her voice.
"Ah, very good then!" said the ever-smiling admiral. "I'll check back in,
say, thirty minutes. Now that we're in enemy space, we must be so much more cautious!" Smiley's
face blinked off the comm screen. Admiral Smith sighed.
-2-
Deep within Ceres, the largest asteroid in the Korhal Belt, Prelate Zeratul
thought deeply. How, he wondered, shall I proceed? One thing was certain: he needed a better second-in-command.
The wiry figure accross the room looked up, as if he knew he was being
thought of. "Um, i-is something the, ah, matter, prelate?" he asked.
"No," said Zeratul simply. He tried to keep their conversations small; the
other's whiny voice caused within Zeratul what to humans would be considered a migraine headache, only worse.
"A-are you sure? I... ah... am always open if you... um.. want to talk
about, well... you know..."
"I said no."
"Ah, I'll just be going then..."
Zeratul watched his Praetor depart and wondered how in Aiur's name this
weakling had been promoted into the top echelon of the Templar caste. Yet another benefit of being a dark one, thought Zeratul. With the annoyance gone, Zeratul turned back to his silent contemplation of his battle plan.
The Ceres asteroid contained more than met the eye. Inside, the Protoss
had assembled a large, gravitic emitter, which Zeratul intended to utilize to decay the orbit of Korhal's moon, cracking the crust of Korhal and making it completely uninhabitable for centuries. Zeratul was interrupted from his chain of solitary thought by an alarm klaxon.
The face of his Praetor filled his comm screen that sat upon his desk.
"Ah, sir? Sensors have, ah, picked up... a fleet of Terran s-ships,
heading i-inbound. T-they don't appear to, um, belong to the Dominion. I t-think they're on an
attack vector."
With his message delivered, the Praetor left Zeratul to his brooding, afraid of the sinister look Zeratul had adopted while the whining voice had stuttered its message.
Doubtlessly some weak Terran faction, seeking revenge for some attrocity or
another, Zeratul thought, perhaps I should allow them to weaken Arcturus's defenses first. Yes, that would do nicely. -3- A Zerg swarm descended into low orbit of Korhal, completely undetected by
Terran and Protoss alike due to the psionic powers that emenated from their leader. Kerrigan smiled as the desolate world of Korhal stretched out below her.
He is in the palm of my hand, thought Kerrigan with a diabolical smile. All I must do is...
Her thoughts were interrupted when a hydralisk chrashed into the chamer
behind her. Her blades stretched involuntarily, impaling a servant-drone that had been working diligently behind her.
"I told you, NEVER sneak up on me like that!" she bellowed.
The hydralisk cringed visibly, then spoke in its rasping approximation of a
voice.
"My apologies, your emminency. There is a... a bit of a situation outside."
Kerrigan envied the dead overmind's ability to communicate with its minions nonverbally. Who could tell how long it had taken this messenger to reach her?
"Well? What
sort of situation?"
"A fleet of Terran warships has entered the system. The defilersestimate it will arrive at this world in less than a day."
"Hmm... Mengsk may be more wiley than I remember."
"Ahem."
"Sorry, carry on."
"Thank you, most wise Queen of Blades. We do not believe these to be
Arcturus' ships. They bear different markings than Mengsk's fleets, and seem to be flying directly in line with the Dominion's sensor blindspot."
"Interesting. We shall have to watch and wait to see what develops. We'll
not advance any further until we see what the newcomers are up to."
"Understood," said the hydralisk as it ducked out of the chamber.
Kerrigan paused only to kill the moaning, wounded drone at her feet before
she was back to her plotting. -4-
Arcturus Mengsk sat behind his great desk, totally ignorant of all the
forces arrayed against him.
His secretary's voice came over his speaker, strangely quaky.
"A m-mister Raynor to see you, s-sir."
Arcturus barely had time to stand bolt-upright before his door shattered
into a thousand pieces. In stepped the last man he wanted to see: Jim Raynor.
"Long time no see, buddy," said Raynor, bringing his still-smoking rifle on
a bead with Arcturus's chest. "Thought you were through with me, didn't you?"
Arcturus stuttered for a moment, then replied, as smoothly as possible,
"Jim, so very... pleasantto see you again. I..."
"Shut up. I didn't come here just to talk, you know." Arcturus relaxed
visibly, so Raynor put his finger on his trigger.
"No, I've come to warn you. I don't know why,
except that you're the only hope for the Terran heritage. I've been painted an outlaw by SOMEONE," Jim said, firing a shot that crumpled one of Arcturus's potted plants. "... and you're the only other Terran with a fleet. Now, whether you know it or not, there are currently three invasion forces
poised to sweep in-system within a day. Now, I happen to know, through some recon of my own, that your fleet is not only marginally stronger than any of their fleets alone, but also is currently off-duty, vacationing and such. You've got one day to get ready for the apocalypse. I suggest you use it wisely. I may decide to help. If you're lucky."
Arcturus at first thought the message ludicrous, then realized that Raynor
wouldn't have busted into this office except to either deliver a very important message or to kill him. Which was still a distinct possibility. A roar resounded through the building, as an invisible ship, most likely cloaked, hovered outside the office's panoramic window. Raynor shot out the glass, then jumped on board, vanishing into thin air.
Mengsk looked around his ruined office, and shuddered. -5-
Admiral Smith was awoken from her sleep with a jolt. A very, very large
jolt. When she opened her eyes, she saw a damage indicator flash on beside her bed. She glanced at it once, did a double-take, and then zoomed out into the corridors, dressed in only a robe. She ran with surprising speed, and reached an escape pod just in time. The pod zoomed away from the battlecruiser, and Smith gaped at the horrendous damage.
Just as her damage indicator had said, the ship had been split in half by
some unexpected attack.
She shielded her eyes as the two halves of the ship were drawn together by
their gravity and exploded briliantly against the blackness of space. "Well," said Smith to
herself, "this will certainly make Pietrov want a status report."
She almost smiled, imagining the shock forming on Smiley's face, then
suddenly realized the gravity of her situation. She hit the comm unit, willing to brave the onslaught of the status report to save her life. -6-
Raynor smiled as his ship, the Hyperion, jumped to hyperspace. The
explosion of the Dominion's vessel had been terrific. That's all the help Arcturus needs from me, he thought, as his ship plunged through space.
He almost smiled when he thought of their destination, their colony. He
could only hope that it could stay hidden for at least enough time to experience some peace.
Raynor was sick of all the fighting. Time for a change of venue, he thought.
-7- Smiley was indeed shocked at the sudden loss of the capitol ship. He
greeted Smith as she stepped from her escape pod.
"Ah, nice to see you never abandon your professional image," the admiral
chortled in good humor, as he always was.
"Shut- I mean, ha ha," Smith said with great restraint.
"Well, the ship responsible appears to have just jumped to hyperspace. We
did claim a half dozen wraiths that were escorting it, but it and most of the ships with it made the jump," the admiral said, still maintaining his light tone of voice.
The journey proceeded as quickly as she could have expected on a ship with
Pietrov, Smith decided. Before long, the fleet settled down on the moon of Korhal, where the admiral unveiled something he had somehow managed to keep a secret, which the crew and Smith were very impressed with.
"This," he said, "is the key to Korhal," chuckling at his alliteration,
"This baby can ionize that atmosphere. Nothing will be able to get off the planet, and nothing in. Except laser beams."
Smith was indeed impressed. Was there more to this admiral than his
pompous routine and old humor? Nah.
"Well," said Smiley, turning to his crew, who involuntarily cringed,"let's
try it out, shall we?" -8-
Kerrigan smiled as the first of her overlord teams descended into the
atmosphere. She had decided the invading Terrans too slow to wait for. These overlords carried a very special cargo indeed: her contingent of hunter-killer heavy assault troopers.
These warriors were among the finest ever produced, capable of... Suddenly, something was wrong. The higher atmosphere of Korhal turned a
distinct electric blue, and electric sparks coursed through it. Kerrigan watched on in silence as said electric sparks ripped into the team
of descending overlords, and she was suddenly glad she had remained behind instead of leading her troops down. The overlords' shreds were fast dissolving now in the frenzy of blue lightning that now covered Korhal's atmosphere.
"Damn," Kerrigan said. -9- "Damn," muttered Zeratul. The invading Terrans had unexpectedly set up base on the moon of Korhal. Zeratul couldn't proceed with his plan until they moved.
He sighed. Though he had no qualms over killing a few extra Terrans, he
knew the whiney Conclave would think his actions barbaric. He therefore decided to not execute his plan just yet.
Instead, he took up his great blade and sought out a shuttle. -10-
Mengsk almost smiled when Raynor's prediction turned true, then slapped
himself for smiling at a time like this.
He could not escape while the atmosphere was ionized as it was, and the
bombardment from the moon continued. He had not bothered to prepare for this sort of attack, and for this Mengsk slapped himself again. He could do little more than wait now, and see what may happen. -11-
Kerrigan arrived on the moon, by herself, within the hour. She crept under
a cloak of psi into the heart of the Terran installation, where she found a scene of remarkable chaos. A heavyset man trailed by a slender woman, both in Admirals' uniforms, walked by, and Kerrigan followed.
"I don't care how many 'sightings' we've had," said Pietrov with icy
coldness, "We will NOT abandon this base."
Smith cleared her throat, stunned at the change that occured within this
man whenever he swung into action. His humor and air of pompousness had evaporated in an instant, and replacing them was the hardest, most grueling commander Smith had ever served. "Ah, sir,
I-I think you should reconsider..."
"I will NOT reconsider, Smith. Now, you go and see to this," Smiley
paused, as if disgusted, "this ghost, or I will have your head delivered to your family in a water pitcher!" He was yelling now, at the top of his lungs.
Smith turned, shocked, and darted away, down the hall. Pietrov paused for
a moment, then smiled and walked, humming, down the corridor.
Psychopath, thought Kerrigan. Still, this was an interesting turn of
events. Some one else had gotten here first, to terrorize the Terrans. Kerrigan had intended only to destroy the weapon that had eliminated her hunter-killers and perhaps torment the Terrans for a short while, before she continued her invasion. Now, she had something more important to see to.
She found her way to the command station, and was shocked with what she
saw. The monitors and control panels were almost all smashed, having been repaired as best as possible by the Terran engineers. The damage was done in lacerations, single strokes of some sort of blade. Kerrigan was taken aback. Could it be... Protoss? -12-
Zeratul felt his mind being probed. He reflexively extended his own
probes, and was shocked by what he sensed. A powerful psionic entity was here, on this very moon. In fact, Zeratul estimated, not more than two hundred feet away. He stood from where he had been resting, in a darkened corner of a comm room. He sensed that this entity... was Zerg. Kerrigan? Impossible! Or was it? He saw all that Kerrigan had hidden from him until now: her
fleet, her troops, poised to invade Korhal. She was, undoubtedly, Zeratul thought, here to drive off the Terran interferers, just as Zeratul had come to do. He sent a quick, quiet message to his base on the asteroid as he ducked into the corridor, unsheathed his great blade, and made for the
source of the psi emantations.
The annoying voice of his runt Praetor crackled in his ear, "Ah, come again?"
Zeratul repeated his message, quietly, hoping this lad wasn't deaf in
addition to being stupid.
"S-say what?"
Zeratul stepped into the Terran command room, taking a moment to admire his
handiwork. Then, he whispered his order again, scanning for the psi-wielder. He spotted Kerrigan before she spotted him. Good, he thought, I can do
away with her before she even knows what hit her.
He glided silently accross the metal floor, blade at ready, Kerrigan still
unaware of his presence. "S-sir? I didn't copy th-that... cou-">
"You FOOL," Zeratul bellowed as Kerrigan (and around ten puzzled terrans)
turned towards him.
Hs chance for a quick kill thwarted, Zeratul brought his blade around into
a defensive posture. She instantly brought her ghastly weapons to bear upon the darktemplar. -13-
Admiral Pietrov stood, puzzled, in the command room. He and many marines
had gathered at the door, listening to the sounds of battle coming from within. There was nothing to see, however, save the occasional sparks as one of the
invisible combatants scraped a wall.
"Sir, what should we do?" asked a marine.
The admiral thought for a moment. "I suppose," he began, "we'll just have
to open fire."
"Do not cross me, human," said a deep voice from within the battle, "or you
shall regret it."
The admiral stepped back. "Open fire," he yelled, gritting his teeth. He
pulled his special-issue pistol from its holster, and himself fired the first round into the invisible chaos. All around him, marines fired volley after volley of minigun rounds into the command room. The sounds of the battle within diminished, or perhaps were simply hidden by the roar of the marines' attack. -14-
Kerrigan and Zeratul were no longer inside the control room, however.
Kerrigan, having been shot in the leg, had torn through a wall and escaped. Zeratul had simply walked past the Terrans and back into the corridor. He could hear the Terrans continue their bombardment of their own command
room as he walked back towards his shuttle. The Terrans had attacked him; he could justify killing them now.
Kerrigan was livid. She found the ionizing device and minced it into
scrap, then proceeded to leave the wretched Terrans to their own devices. She mobilized her entire force, and prepared to destroy Mengsk and then proceed to destroy the other, new Terrans who had shot her.
Arcturus, seeing the ionizing field dissipate, immediately ordered his
fleet mobilized. He watched out the broken window of his office as a long procession of gleaming vessels shot into the depths of space.
The good admiral Pietrov, having finally calmed down, ordered HIS entire
fleet mobilized. He took his seat in the great flagship of his fleet, and prepared to enter battle. All elements were aroused; the time of Korhal's apocalypse had come. -15-
The Dominion fleet first engaged the Zerg. They caught the Zerg just as
the first overlords were preparing to descend to the planet. Swarms of mutalisks met swarms of wraiths, battlecruisers soon followed.
From out of nowhere, the UED task force made its presence known, downing a
Dominion battlecruiser and swarming wraiths.
Admiral Pietrov smiled wickedly as his yamato blast reduced the dominion
vessel to its component atoms. He wondered how the massive Zerg force had hidden from him and his troops for so long.
Admiral Smith was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. "Smiley" had turned
out to be one of the most demanding commanding officers in battle, and even more unnerving, he was the most painfully cordial person of all time in any other situation. He was her
worst nightmare.
Smiley was currently barking orders to his crew, cursing the Zerg and their
mutalisks. Suddenly, an indicator beeped on next to Smith. Asteroid collision
imminent, it said. But the mass of said asteroid was greater than any asteroid Smith had everseen.
Almost as if...
"Sir!" she shouted, "The moon's moving!"
He stared at her a moment, then realized she was right. A great shadow
fell over all of the fleets as the moon loomed above. Smiley was screaming orders now, trying desperately to get his precious fleet clear of the moon's fall.
The Dominion fleet did not escape the moon. Smiley saw in horror as the
ships were smashed behind him, and stepped up his desperate gambit to survive. Smith saw what the Dominion had done wrong: it had told its wraiths to stay
with its battlecruisers the wraiths could have easily made it away if...
Smith suddenly stood and ran from the control room. No way was she going
to die out here. She made it to the hangar, shoved the techs out of her way, and climbed into a wraith's cockpit. She didn't bother with pre-flight checks, but instead revved the engines and roared out of the hangar.
The stars were mostly clocked by the looming lunar surface. Smith had no
time to gaze, however. She punched the throttle and screamed away from the moon. She passed over the lunar surface at a fair distance, passing one particular area that was red with zerg blood. She shuddered, but saw that not all the Zerg had been killed. A single overlord flew away,
but then suddenly, it disappeared into nothingness. Strange. Smith looked back just in time to see Smiley's precious ship detonate, the flash illuminating at the victors of the battle.
A small Protoss fleet appeared in the flash, apparently having been painted black to avoid detection. Actually, it wasn't so much a fleet as it was a shuttle and two escorting scouts. The three ships opened a warp gate, leaving the devastation behind.
Smith tried desperately to reach the warp gate before it closed, but instead
almost collided with the dead body of a thin, wiry Protoss. Strange.
Defeated, she decided she would at least watch the spectacle, then attempt to find a way home. -16-
Arcturus Mengsk sat, face buried in his hands, as he knew it was all over.
His fleet lost, he could not escape. And with the moon coming down, well... that was hopeless as well. He sighed as a black shadow fell across the cityscape outside his office Suddenly, he heard a voice call his name.
"Yo, Arcturus, you want to leave or not?" Raynor? Couldn't be. Then again...
"Jim! What are you doing here?!" Arcturus was strangely glad to see the man he had betrayed.
"I just can't stand to see you go like this Arcturus. I know you, you've
got some skills. I'm in need of some prospectors such as yourself."
"But where, Jim? The UED has this entire sector covered," Arcturus said.
"Let's just say," said Raynor, "that we don't need to live in this sector
anymore. You coming?"
"Yes, Jim. I'll go." -17-
A single wraith shot past Smith. This one was of different markingsthan those of the Dominion, and Smith could see another man packed in behind the pilot. The wraith opened a warp gate, which is strange because wraiths aren't normally capable of opening warp gate, and vanished inside.
Smith was elated, quickly programming her computer to take her back to
Earth, and decided she had never enjoyed a gut-wrenching hyperjump so much.
|
