StarCraft

by Timothy Zahn

  Because that, realistically, was where this was going. It had been marginal even before the devourers took out their air support. Without the phoenixes and their firepower, they simply didn’t have the numbers to hold against the expected horde of zerg. Especially not with psyolisks messing up everyone’s focus and attention.

  But as he’d told Emperor Valerian, fighting was their job. Sometimes it was to fight a war. Sometimes it was to fight to keep a war from happening.

  Whether that was still possible was another question. Personally, Cruikshank was convinced that Zagara had betrayed them, and that treachery had in fact always been her plan. He had no idea what she’d hoped to get out of this scheme, but he had no doubt that the end result was going to be a brand-new war.

  But none of that was his concern. Maybe Valerian was being played for a fool; maybe he knew something Cruikshank didn’t. No matter. Cruikshank’s job was to fight where and when he was ordered, and to leave policy to his emperor.

  He rather hoped he and some of his force would live at least long enough to see the end of today’s events. But if emperors didn’t always get what they wanted, colonels could hardly expect to, either.

  “Colonel, we’re in position,” Goliath Four reported. “Also, I’m picking up some treetop movement about a klick into the forested area. I think that’s probably our zerg.”

  “Roger that,” Cruikshank said. “Okay, everyone, this is it. Dig in, lock and load. And if we don’t see another sunset, let’s at least see this field soaked in zerg blood.”

  They were about a kilometer from Point Three, and had slowed their mad dash to a more controlled and hopefully quieter jog, when out of the corner of her eye Tanya saw Ulavu suddenly break step. Are you all right? she asked. What is it?

  A second later a distant buzz appeared at the back of her brain. Never mind, she added. “Whist, we’ve got psyolisks.”

  “Yeah, I got that,” Whist said, his eyes on Ulavu as he slowed to a halt. “How bad is it?”

  “Not very,” Tanya said. “Just a hint. They’re probably all inside Point Three. You’re not feeling anything at all?”

  “Nope,” Whist said. “Nice to see that there’s something that isn’t dumped in double helpings on marines. So either they know we’re here or they’re about to. Guess it’s time to break radio silence and see if Cruikshank’s come up with any other little chores he wants us to do.”

  “We’re going to turn off the psi blocks?” Erin asked, looking around uneasily.

  “We’re not,” Whist corrected. “I am. They’re supposed to have a range of fifty to one fifty meters, so I’ll go about forty, shut it off, and keep going until I’m far enough from Dizz’s to get a signal.”

  You should not go alone, Ulavu said, and Tanya could sense the pain beneath his voice. It is not safe.

  “I agree,” Dizz said.

  “So do I,” Tanya seconded. “The psyolisks might not be close, but there could be other nasties around.”

  “Point,” Whist conceded. “Fine—we make it a twosome. Dizz, you have the other block, so you’re out. Ulavu’s in no shape for a stroll, and anyway needs to conserve his strength.” He cocked an eyebrow at Tanya. “That leaves you and me. Care for a stroll in the garden?”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” Tanya said. “Lead on.”

  “The rest of you, sit tight,” Whist said, checking the mag and safety on his C-14. “You see anything that isn’t us, shoot it.”

  The psi blocks turned out to be better engineered than even their creators had realized. Whist and Tanya had to go nearly fifty meters past the theoretical cutoff point before Tanya’s heads-up display indicated a call from the Hyperion.

  But it wasn’t Colonel Cruikshank who was waiting at the other end. “Are you all right?” Admiral Horner asked.

  “Mostly, sir,” Whist said. “Dr. Wyland’s got a cracked rib, and we’re low on ammo. Other than that, we’re ready to tackle Point Three. Any new orders?”

  “No new orders, but new information,” Horner said. “About three and a half hours ago, we dropped a psi emitter fifty klicks east of you to try to draw off the zerg around Point Three.”

  “And then someone nuked it,” Whist said. “Yeah, we noticed.”

  “We nuked it,” Horner said. “We saw your dropship get grabbed by those mutalisks and thought taking out the emitter would at least keep them from dragging you any closer to it.”

  “It mostly worked,” Whist said. “Thanks for the thought.”

  “You’re welcome, Sergeant,” Horner said with just a touch of sarcasm. “The upside is that a lot of zerg were pulled away from Point Three. The downside is that a sizable number of them appear to be coming back at a high rate of speed.”

  Tanya frowned. “Why would they do that?” she asked.

  “Because we think some of the psyolisks got drawn away with them,” Horner said. “At Points One and Two they used normal zerg as a screen against attack. The psi emitter pulled the screen away from Point Three, and they’re rushing to get it back in place.”

  “Terrific,” Whist growled, craning his neck and peering through the trees to the east. “How long have we got?”

  “More than you think, less than we’d like,” Horner said. “Colonel Cruikshank has set up a Dominion–protoss battle line in a choke point about fifteen klicks east of you to try to slow them down.”

  Tanya looked at Whist, saw her own surprise mirrored in his expression. “Did we have that many marines and mechs aboard?” she asked.

  “Not even close,” Horner said heavily. “On top of that, all three of their ships were hit on the ground and put out of action. We couldn’t warn them about the attack because the psyolisks can apparently knock out long-range comms. The protoss’ warp fields are also down—probably another psyolisk effect—so that particular route in or out is gone. Unless the zerg numbers are a lot lower than we’re expecting, Cruikshank’s force is going to be overrun within…well, not long.”

  “I see,” Whist said, his voice deceptively calm. “So our job is to get in, get your samples, and get the hell out before everyone gets killed?”

  “Basically,” Horner said. “Provided you don’t go rushing in like maniacs and get you and your team killed along with Cruikshank’s. That won’t help anyone.”

  “I think I can guarantee there’ll be at least one survivor,” Whist assured him grimly. “Let me give you a quick rundown.”

  Tanya listened as Whist summarized the team’s data, conclusions, and speculations. “Interesting,” Horner said when he’d finished. “Seems a long way to go just to get the adostra pods destroyed, but it doesn’t contradict anything we’ve heard up here. Any thoughts as to who’s behind it?”

  “Well, the pool of zerg who can think for themselves is pretty shallow,” Whist said. “We’re thinking Abathur, with Zagara as close runner-up.”

  “That’s about where we’re sitting,” Horner said. “Except that it appears Zagara sent us a devourer with a pair of psyolisk corpses to examine, so we’re thinking she’s a more distant runner-up.”

  “Handy,” Whist said. “Learn anything interesting?”

  “Cogan and her team are still digging,” Horner said. “I’ve sent you a data drop with everything they’ve found so far. It could be a diversion, of course. But since it’s not a trap, and we can’t figure out how Abathur could force a devourer to obey him this far off the planet, that leaves Zagara as gift-giver and Abathur as manipulative bastard.”

  “Sounds logical,” Whist said. “We’ll keep that in mind.”

  “But we still need adostra samples,” Horner added. “So I’d better let you get to that. Good luck, Sergeant, to all of you.”

  “Thank you, sir. We’ll check in again when we’re finished.”

  Whist keyed off the comm. “Okay, psi block’s on,” he said. “Let’s collect the others and get this show back on the road.”

  They retraced their steps, moving as quickly as the trees and undergrowth allowed.
“I assume you realize the psyolisks don’t have to keep any of us alive anymore,” Tanya said. “Slaughtering us and Colonel Cruikshank’s team will probably be enough reason for Hierarch Artanis to destroy Point Three.”

  “Yeah, I know,” Whist said. “That’s why I said we were going to get this done before everyone gets killed. That includes Cruikshank.”

  “I thought you didn’t like him.”

  “Of course I don’t like him,” Whist said. “He’s an officer. What does that have to do with anything? Listen, I’ve got a question for you. Remember how the tree palisade was set up at Point One?”

  “Of course,” Tanya said. The tension of upcoming battle was starting to dig into her. She forced it back. “Designed to be pushed out from the inside.”

  “Right,” Whist said. “But who was supposed to do the pushing? The psyolisks?”

  Tanya frowned. The psyolisks were lethal enough, but they didn’t have nearly the body mass it would take to knock over trees that size. “I don’t know. The adostra, maybe?”

  “They’re even smaller than the psyolisks.”

  “Maybe they get bigger.”

  “That much bigger?” Whist countered. “Remember the size of the trees, and the size of the pods. Unless adostra eat lead bricks, they’re never going to have the mass to push them over and get out.”

  “Maybe they aren’t meant to get out.”

  “Then why did Zagara design the palisade the way she did?”

  “I don’t know,” Tanya snapped, feeling the tension trying to turn into the red haze of anger. Why was he arguing with her at a time like this?

  “Yeah, well, I think maybe I do,” Whist said. “Remember Zagara talking about how the adostra can stimulate life and growth and all that? What if they can also go the other way?”

  Tanya shook her head, still fighting the haze. “You lost me.”

  “Say you can help a tree grow big and strong,” Whist said. “Say you can also make it wilt or go all puny and withered.”

  “Okay. Scary thought, but okay. And?”

  “Now suppose you can make it grow or wither on just one side.”

  Tanya caught her breath, the haze and frustration fading as she finally saw where Whist was going. “You make the leaves and branches on the cavern side wither,” she said. “That puts all the weight on the other side. Enough weight, and the whole thing snaps off at the base.”

  “Opening the way into the big wild world,” Whist said with satisfaction. “So it makes sense to you, too?”

  “I suppose,” Tanya said, still trying to work it all through. “But what’s the point? What do the adostra do once they’re out?”

  “How should I know?” Whist said. “Head out into Gystt to plant apple seeds or burp out unicorns or something. My point is, if that’s their exit strategy, they can kill, or at least choke off life. And if they can do that, we might just be able to grab ourselves a new set of allies.”

  “Oh my God,” Tanya breathed. “If that works…but do we really want to go down that path?”

  “If it keeps us alive?” Whist retorted. “Hell yes.”

  “I mean do we want to introduce the adostra to the idea of killing?” Tanya persisted. “Do we even dare do that?”

  “Again: hell, yes,” Whist said. “Besides, they have to kill the trees to get out anyway. Right?”

  “They have to wither them on one side,” Tanya corrected. “Not the same thing. In fact, now that I think about it, that could be more a test of control than it is of power.”

  “Fine,” Whist said. “Power, control—whatever. The point is that their lives are on the line, too. If we can clue them in, they might be able to help us.”

  “Any idea how we might do that?”

  “My money’s on Ulavu,” Whist said. “If the psyolisks and adostra all work off xel’naga psi, and Ulavu’s the one the psyolisks hit the hardest, I figure he’s got the best chance of talking to them.”

  “And persuading them to kill,” Tanya said. “And to kill only the psyolisks and not us. This is a very dangerous can of worms, Whist.”

  “Well, we don’t have to decide yet,” Whist said. “Matter of fact, if the psyolisks are on top of their game, we may not ever have to decide.” He looked sideways at her. “They still thumping around your brain?”

  “Some,” Tanya said. “Not so bad that I can’t control it. You may be wrong about them hitting Ulavu the hardest, though. I get the feeling that they’re spreading it out more or less evenly among the five of us. It’s just that you, Dizz, and Erin aren’t affected as much because you don’t have psionic capability.”

  “I don’t know,” Whist said doubtfully. “They gave you a pretty good wallop back there at the beginning.”

  “Probably because I’m the only one wearing ghost armor and they figured I was the biggest threat,” Tanya said. “After that first battle Abathur might have decided I wasn’t any more dangerous than anyone else, so he started spreading out the attack to try to slow all of us down equally.”

  “So you’re thinking he doesn’t know about you or Ulavu?”

  “I’m hoping that he doesn’t,” Tanya said. “I guess we’ll find out in a few minutes when we see if he’s changed his strategy any.”

  “I guess,” Whist said. “Gotta say, it’s sure a nice change to surprise every new batch of zerg we run into. Dizz? We’re coming in. Hold your fire.”

  A minute later they’d rejoined the others. “Any problems?” Whist asked.

  “No, it’s been quiet,” Dizz said. “You get through to Cruikshank?”

  “I got through to Horner,” Whist corrected. “Cruikshank’s doing a Horatius at the bridge fifteen klicks from here to hold off the zerg that the psyolisks are bringing back from the psi emitter crater.”

  “Great,” Dizz said. “I don’t suppose you had time to give Horner a summary of our thoughts about psyolisks and Abathur and all?”

  “I gave him the high points,” Whist said. “We’ll see what he and Valerian can make of it. Everyone ready to do this?”

  “As ready as we’re going to be,” Tanya said.

  Yes, Ulavu confirmed.

  “Probably not,” Erin admitted.

  “Well, look at it this way,” Dizz offered. “They’re probably not ready for us, either.”

  “That’s the spirit,” Whist said. “Let’s get in there and wrap this up.”

  “And if you’ve always wanted to go out with memorable last words,” Dizz added drily, “this would be a good time to come up with them.”

  —

  “Here they come,” Goliath Four reported tensely. “Looks like…Seems to be all zerglings.”

  “Got a couple of ravagers hanging back at the tree line on this side,” Goliath One added. “Not moving.”

  “I see them,” Cruikshank confirmed, checking the range. The bile globs that ravagers could launch were nasty weapons, but at the moment those particular zerg were theoretically out of range of the battle line. He thought briefly about spending a Haywire missile to see if he could take out one of them anyway, but he decided to wait until they were closer.

  Especially since this first wave looked like it was designed to test the battle line and make the Dominion forces spend ammo. Better to hold off until he could get an assured kill.

  He frowned as he studied the enemy configuration. Perhaps more specifically, the wave seemed designed to test the protoss section of the battle line. While the flanks certainly weren’t being ignored, the majority of the charging zerglings were headed for the Templar and the Nerazim in the center. “Alikka, I don’t suppose you happened to bring another of those disruptors with you?” he asked.

  There is one, Alikka answered. But we are already too close to the enemy for its use. In the open, this one would devastate all within a three-kilometer radius.

  Cruikshank nodded. He’d guessed from the blast at Point Two that the protoss had improved the yield on the things since the Dominion had seen them in the war. Nice to have it
confirmed, though. “Understood,” he said. “We’ll save it for our endgame. Last protoss standing, and all that. What about those sentries?”

  The impact from the devourer warped the casings for their disruption beam projectors and damaged their zero-g engines. The crew is working to repair them.

  Great. “Tell them to hurry,” he said. “Marines, keep your fronts clear. Goliaths, support the marines, but send whatever you can spare into the center. Reapers, support the center. Stay behind the protoss and out of my line of fire, and hammer the zerg in front of them. The last thing we want is them turning one of our flanks.”

  He got a quick string of acknowledgments, and as the reapers took to the air and everyone else opened fire, he sent a careful look along the tree line at the far end. Somewhere back there were the psyolisks that were driving the attack.

  But wherever they were lurking, they were staying out of sight. Luckily for them. He turned his attention back to the battle, picked a spot where the zerglings seemed particularly clumped, and sent a couple of plasma slugs into their midst. A handful of the beasts exploded into blood and shards, joining the scattering of other zerglings lying dead with gauss rifle spikes in them. “Ease back your center fire,” Cruikshank ordered as the zerglings closed on the line. He didn’t want a misplaced shot or shattered pieces of zerg hitting the protoss. “Clear flanks and watch for the second wave.”

  In front of him, the center of the line erupted in a blaze of shimmering fire as the Templar activated their psi blades and the Nerazim ignited their warp blades. Cruikshank held his breath…

  And with a cacophony of screeches from the zerg and an answering chorus of psionic war cries from the protoss, the battle was joined.

  Cruikshank had seen protoss in battle before, but the sight never failed to fill him with grudging awe. The Templar and the Nerazim spun and writhed like dancers trapped in an insane choreography, their blades flashing and circling, sometimes blazing extra bright as the wielder’s battle fury surged, sometimes vanishing briefly as the focused energy disappeared deep inside an enemy’s body. Each protoss had become an island now, surrounded by swinging sickle limbs and waving clawed tails and ever-growing piles of carcasses at their feet.