The Cleansing of Sirnoth

(Wounded Knee Caves, Sirnoth/Elchev, 081/1106)

Artanis and Uriah to the rescue (click for larger image!)

Opening her medical kit, Marian set to work, shooting stabilizing drugs into the fallen Sergeant to try and keep him alive until he reached the APC. Passing Verral's and his own RAM backpack launcher to other willing wielders, Uriah bent and easily lifted Favager's unconcious body with his enhanced battle armour. Trailed by Maid Marian, he set off to carry his comrade the half-mile to the parked APC, where the medical facilities existed to keep Verral alive until the strike force returned to the starport.

Returning to the fray, he found that the human-Protoss alliance had gained significant ground, though at considerable cost. The Templar warrior Artanis, in command of the Protoss force, was pushing his perimeter of fighting Zealots outwards, with the giant Dragoon walkers spaced between them to provide covering fire, and the smaller, more agile humans firing from behind that. Jacques, who had assumed command of the Human troops with Verral's fall, was ranging along behind the line, operating as a floating reserve and diving in when a gap was broken through the ranks.

As they fought, the vile, corrupting mindvoice of the Cerebrate (who they now knew -somehow- was named Grikala, rang like thunder in their minds, begging, cajoling, demanding, ranting. Although they had already considered it, all of a sudden it became vitally important somehow that they locate the "missing two Ultramarines".

With Uriah back, he and Reagan joined Jacques in the rear, using their backpacks to take out especially large and dangerous-looking Zerg breeds - especially Ultralisks! - before they reached the battlefront. Jacques, struck by an idea, then collected Dead Ted and an InSec trooper, returned to the APC and started dismounting the Autocannon mounted in its' roof cupola.

As they fought on, Reagan spotted an odd-looking flying Zerg, skulking along at the back of the Zerg force. He recognized this as what the briefing notes the Protoss had provided described as a "Queen". Flying low and slow to the ground, it suddenly swooped up into full view, and performed an extraordinary convulsion, looking almost as if it was vomiting. A tiny speck seemed to be ejected and shoot towards the battle at immense speed, but no-one could keep track of it. Alarmed by this, Reagan lined it up with his sniper's rifle, but the process of a snapshot with this wasn't familiar, and he only managed to drill through the creature's bat-like wing as it dipped down out of sight again.

Snapping the display for his RAM pack onto his visor, he hastily designated the last known position as a target and launched a full salvo of four missiles. A considerable explosion from the target area sent bits and pieces flying in all directions; though he was not able to prove it afterwards, he was pretty confident he'd stopped the thing.

Over on the opposite side of the fight, Artanis winced and clapped a hand to an arm. It felt as if something had bitten him... He shook his head and turned back to the fray.

Returning to the cavern lugging the Autocannon, Jacques clambered up to a high ledge, followed by his two loaders. Setting the weapon up as best they could, cannibalizing a chunk of Dragoon casing as a tripod, they connected the ammo feeds and started hosing HEAP rounds into the Zerg forces.

This tipped the balance, and suddenly, the Zerg were retreating. Disturbingly, they didn't rout, or flee, or lose morale; they withdrew, rallied and reformed. The Zerg retreated to the archway seperating the outer cave from the inner, where the Cerebrate must be. Then the invaders, also regrouping, moved forwards against them. As they did so Artanis unleashed one of his newly-learned Templar powers, and a Mindblast wrought havoc among the clustered monsters. The cave they moved through was carpeted in the Creep, and dotted here and there with the weird Zerg "structures". Reagan made sure to destroy immediately a Hatchery they passed on the way forward.

It was a massacre now. Jammed in between the walls of rock, the Zerg couldn't manoeuvre properly, and the attackers ripped through them. Finally, at the far end of the cave, the ugly, humped form of the Cerebrate came into sight. Pulsing and moist, the giant brain lay helpless, surrounded by the Spawn which were its' only defence and support. Leading his small band of High Templar, Artanis slashed and crushed his way through to the thing, and their mystic mental energy tore into the beast at the same time as their own mind-shields blocked it from its' regenerative power.

The end came quickly. With a subhuman moan, the Cerebrate slumped and died. Instantly, pandemonium broke out, as the Zerg spawn in the cave instantly went completely wild, attacking humans, Protoss, each other and even walls with equal ferocity but no co-ordination. The central mind was gone, and after that the mopping-up was easy. When the shuttles lifted from the cave mouth an hour later, and the Esrator rained high-energy destruction to collapse the caves forever, there was not a single Zerg remaining alive in the cave complex.

(High Orbit, Sirnoth/Elchev, 084/1106)

In the cool, antiseptic white of the Brazos' sickbay, "Bloody" Morgan was working to save Verral Favager's life. Slowly and carefully, he extracted the razor-sharp Hydralisk spine from the Sergeant's eye, then cleaned out the socket, before preparing the terrible wound for regrowth. At last, Verral was ready, and the doctor slid him gently into the regrowth berth, set the controls, and left him to it. Eleven days and he should be as good as new.

Sadly, he'd been unable to do as much for Ted "Dead Ted" Horwood. The jovial Marine had been struck by a Mutalisk's acid blast, and had been dead before he hit the ground. Sergeant Hanmore had survived, but only three of his men were left; their half-armour and ACRs were no match for the Zerg, and Hanmore formally requested Stalker for permission to try and match up combat armour parts from the dead Marines to try and outfit him and his men.

Morgan had already managed to track down the strange parasite implanted into Artanis by the Zerg queen, and - with the aid of the Protoss' own medics - had determined that it was broadcasting a very subtle signal on the Zerg psionic frequency. Analysis of this seemed to indicate that not only would it allow the Zerg to locate the infested individual, but it would probably broadcast the sensory impulses of that individual to the Cerebrate - allow it to see what he saw! Once found, it proved reasonably easy to destroy, however.

Meanwhile, the Marines and the Protoss were debating their next move. Three days of sensor sweeps had shown the few surviving Zerg simply lying down and dying; the Creep was dying back everywhere, as it had started doing in the cavern when the Cerebrate was killed. However, there were no signs of the Ultramarines everyone was now sure were loose somewhere. "Maybe they're hiding in the ruins of Elbane Base?" suggested Reagan.

Elbane (click for larger image!)

Discussing it, it occurred to the Marines that, though the facilities for creating Ultramarines were here, there were absolutely none for making their armour. The prototype they'd found showed that there must be such somewhere, though.

Brazos and Esrator (click for larger image!)

It was clear, though, that Sirnoth was cleared of the Zerg, and that if the Esrator wanted to remain incognito, it was time to leave. Aldaris had studied the star charts, and decided that he would take the Esrator to the Cheltac system; uninhabited and unregarded, it would be a perfect place to hide a capital ship for an extended period while the humans went ferreting for the locations of the other Zerg nests that so certainly existed somewhere in this subsector.

It was also conveniently two parsecs from Bremerton, the first port of call. Brazos could comfortably ride in one of the Esrator's shuttle bays for the Jump to Cheltac, and then make the leap to Bremerton without having to pass through another inhabited system. This also solved another problem, which was that Cheltac had absolutely no wilderness refuelling potential.

This decided, the mighty Protoss warship jumped for Cheltac, and the allies settled into refitting and recuperating from their recent trials. Artanis, aware of the problems the humans were having with their limited shield life, made them aware of their own latent psionic powers, and offered to give them what training they could take in the skills of shield recharging. Jacques, Reagan, Hanmore and - after his emergence - Verral, accepted and began studying the strange rituals under the eye of the Protoss hero.

Tamara and Zip had been offered the chance to be dropped off somewhere, but both had voted to come along on the mission. Zip was a trained trader/broker, and Tamara, as well as being good in a fight, was a skilled pilot; both could pull their weight. Was there a tiny glance at Jacques as Tamara announced her decision? He couldn't be sure.

(Outer System, Cheltac/Elchev, 091/1106)