Sensor Ball |
Searching the Brazos' stores, Reagan equipped himself with another two packs of the useful sensor balls, leaving six in the store. He also was handed a portable power generator of Protoss design, modified to produce Imperial standard voltages; a fascinating piece of equipment, he was at first glance utterly unable to tell how it worked.... |
Squads of Protoss and InSec troops were sent to retrieve the three remaining troop landers once belonging to the Tokarev. One of these had already been stripped of its' autocannon, but the others were still armed, and once some ammo had been reloaded, were ready to ferry the human part of the strike force to the caves at Wounded Knee.
Sergeant Hanmore and his surviving troops were determined to go in with the Protoss. As the sergeant put it, "we've lost more friends to these things than you have." Some of the Marines pointed out, rather tactlessly, that the Protoss warship had killed even more, and they themselves had accounted for a few. The Zerg, however, represented a valid target for the InSec's revenge, and the point was accepted.
Tamara and Zip declined to go. This operation was a military strike, not one in which their talents would be much use, and they would most likely get killed without achieving anything.
The Marines looked to Lt Stalker for his decision. He shrugged; "We're committed now, we might as well help where we can," he said, "anyone who wants to volunteer is welcome. We could do with battle-testing these new gadgets." Uriah, Reagan, Verral, Jacques and Dead Ted volunteered to go in with the strike force.
Stalker pulled Verral aside as the meeting broke up. "There's almost no chance of this ever being officially confirmed," he said, "but I'm breveting you to Sergeant." Verral looked at him a moment. "Do I get a pay rise?" he asked. Stalker laughed, and clapped him on the shoulder. "We can't pick up our pay at the nearest Naval base," he said, "we'll have to go 'shares' like a mercenary outfit."
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Soon, two imperial APCs and ten Protoss shuttles - commanded by Artanis - were hurtling across the treetops away from the starport towards Wounded Knee caves, 400 miles away. The Esrator's densitometers had mapped the caves pretty accurately, producing a rough layout, but as Cassandra had found, the Zerg themselves had something strange about them which prevented them being scanned from a distance, and there was no clear idea as to the cave's contents. |
Artanis |
Wounded Knee Caves |
On arrival at the edge of the forest, the shuttles fanned out and landed. About a mile away, they could see the cave entrance, with the Creep spreading outside it in a fan; numerous Zerg were patrolling it, both on the ground and flying above, and several of the ominous "lumps" of the type they'd fought in the forest along with some similar objects of a different type. Artanis' pseudovoice rang in the Marines' heads; he explained that the first type were known as sunken creep colonies, and were primarily a defence against ground forces, and the others were spore colonies, designed as a defensive measure against airborne attacks. Jacques used the APC's autocannon to wipe out the slow-floating Overlords, and took a heavy toll of the other breeds, but it was clearly going to be a slow process clearing the entrance. |
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[1] The Marines suggested orbital bombardment to open the festivities, and the Protoss commander duly obliged with a shattering barrage of energy fire which completely wiped out the outer defences. Huge ragged holes appeared in the Creep, but the watching troops could already see them beginning to heal. The shuttles swooped into the cave mouth. |
Overlord |
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[2] Skimming through the winding passage, the shuttles rounded a corner to discover a pair of colonies, one of each, placed ready to defend the way. The spore colony, now in range, unleashed a fusillade of energy blasts, targetted at the approaching shuttles. Uriah, piloting the lead APC, activated the craft's defences, and the anti-laser aerosols and smoke discharged to block the incoming attacks, while Jacques hammered at it with the autocannon. Unused to lasers, the Protoss were startled by this, and Uriah receieved a query from Artanis as to whether their craft was damaged. In fact, other than a slight dent in the hull, the APC was untouched. |
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One of the Protoss shuttles was less lucky, and went down in a trail of smoke, making a controlled crash-landing. Instantly, the zealot and dragoon troops on board sprang out and attacked the two colonies, making fairly quick work of both the sunken and spore structures. Uriah looped his shuttle back and picked them up, and carried on after the rest of the Protoss shuttles that had passed him by. |
Further down the passage, the Marines found the Protoss shuttles had landed in a large open area [3] just before a place where vertical rock pillars prevented the craft going any further[4] . They had already subdued the colonies there, and were mustering ready to attack the main caves.
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Mentally howling their battlecries, the Protoss warriors plunged through the rocky archways and into the cave, hurling themselves upon the fighting Zerg that were massed there to meet them. Accustomed to the psychology of fighting sentients, the Marines were nonetheless rather startled by the ferocity of the Protoss fighters. For all they were an urbane, civilized, sophisticated, advanced race, the Protoss were born warriors with a deep love of a rucking good brawl. |
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Ultralisk |
The Marines found themselves in the midst of a savage, boiling melee, with Zerg and Protoss leaping and slashing with acid, spines, blades and energy on all sides. For the first time, the Marines got a close look at the huge Ultralisk breed of Zerg, a creature the size of an elephant with armour and massive slashing blades. |
Reagan used his backpack RAM launcher to wipe out a spore colony. When he looked away from the targetting display, two huge Ultralisks were bearing down on him. Verral came to his rescue, using his own launcher to drop one of the giants, then himself needed assistance as three Hydralisks closed in on him.
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With a desperate burst of speed and agility, he hurled himself to the ground out of the way, as Jacques turned the blast of his flamethrower on the creatures. Two turned furiously on him, but the third continued to attack Verral, finally overwhelming his Protoss shield and penetrating his armour to lightly wound him in the chest. Between them they finished the creatures, with Jacques' lightsabre delivering the killing blow. |
Hydralisk |
Reagan had fought his way through to where Uriah was, but quailed for a moment as two Ultralisks and a Zergling bore down on him. Uriah, who was concentrating on Mutalisk flyers and Ultralisks, took out one of the giants with his fusion gun, leaving Reagan time to line up his backpack and blast the second Ultralisk.
Defiler |
Off to the right, Jacques caught sight of a different type of creature, one he'd seen before. Rearing, the scorpion-like monster shot something that struck one of the InSec Marines, who screamed as his torso exploded, warping and mutating into two small, Zerglike creatures, killing him instantly. The spawned creatures leaped off to attack a Protoss as the parent creature sank back out of sight beyond the melee [7] . |
Regaining his feet, Verral found himself surrounded by three Hydralisks and a Mutalisk. His legendary luck deserted him at last, as one of the Hydralisks scored a major hit on him, driving a deadly spine into his right eye. As he dropped, Jacques wiped two out with his flamer, and Reagan fired at the last one - which was poised to finish the downed Sergeant off - with his autolaser. He scored a hit, but the weapon crackled and died. Desperately, he blasted the creature with his arm laser, and it keeled over - fortunately not on top of Verral - and died.
As Maid Marian dashed forwards and started trying to staunch Verral's terrible wound, all the humans in the cave heard a pseudovoice echo in their minds. While those of the Protoss were alien in tone, this was far stranger, and somehow unspeakably vile.
"Join me, Humans. You have nothing in common with the arrogant Protoss; they will use you and care naught as you are slaiughtered. Join me; together we can ravage the cosmos for our gain. Join me, and find my lost seeds"
