Chapter 341 – When Quantity And Quality Collide

December 15th, 2499

11:57 SCT

Dropship 36

Wasteland Evacuation Zone 

"We need to go! Our escorts are pulling out." The pilot said to Emily. The woman was visibly nervous and shaking. Not that she blamed her, they could see the destruction happening to the base outside of the viewport; well, what was left of the base. The Zerg were rampaging through the prefab structures, setting the place ablaze.

Emily clenched her fist in frustration; this situation was wearing on her mind even more than combat did. Despite the fact that she was the very woman saving her life, every instinct was telling her to kill the terrorist pilot sitting in front of her, but she fought her mind's conditioning, telling herself that she wasn't the enemy here; the aliens were. That she wasn't the one in charge of the terrorist, just someone who got swept up into the organization, possibly against her will. It was very taxing, and she wasn't sure what she should be thinking anymore; she just wanted the Marshal back, to give her orders to follow, to have a chain of command again, no matter how odd it was.

"Not yet. We are missing people. Get me a line to your commander." Emily ordered, gripping the back of the woman's seat with her CMC suit's gauntlet. She and the newly promoted Marshal Diaz were the last ones to board the vessel, the final dropship, but the Magistrate and Marshal Wayne had yet to return to the camp.

Will he mind if I just call him John? He is my boss now, so maybe that would be seen as unprofessional, but he gave me several orgasms as he healed my body, so it isn't like this is a normal unit relationship. No. That life isn't for me; I'm a Confederate-...a soldier that supports Confederate citizens...Gods, I need a smoke.   

"Fine. Just a sec." The pilot replied, hitting a few buttons on her console and speaking into her helmet mic. "This is Rusty Bitch to the Cormorant. I have the last of the Mar Sara militia loaded, but I got a request from one of their officers down here. Can you put the CO on?"

"This is First Officer Horner. What is it, Rusty?" A male voice came across the speaker. The pilot handed her a radio handset.

"Sir, my name is Captain Swallow. The last of my soldiers are loaded, but our Magistrate and one of our Marshals haven't returned from their mission yet. I'm requesting air coverage to continue while we either wait or head towards Turtle Bay and meet them in the Wastelands."

"Mission to Turtle Bay? Wait... Diamodred, your Magistrate, went after Kerrigan?"

"Yes. That was several hours ago. They are both very resourceful people, so I assume they are already on their way back. "

Or dead, but I'm not willing to entertain that yet! He is just too strong to die that easily.

"You know what they say about assumptions, but...the Zerg have pulled back most of their forces to engage the Protoss. Damn it, Mengsk is going to give me hell for this, but I'll attach a squadron of Wraiths to escort you in that direction. If you encounter more than mild resistance, pull out immediately. You got thirty minutes, Captain. I won't lose any of my people on a doomed rescue mission, you hear me? Mugga, take off and head in that direction; your escort will be with you shortly. Remaining dropships, get up here as soon as possible. Horner out."

"That damn pretty boy is always giving me the deadly assignments. Buckle up, Captain, we're out of here." The pilot said, gesturing to Emily to sit in the co-pilot seat. After giving the passengers a brief heads-up, she activated the dropship's thrusters. A few moments later, the ship was flying over the encampment, giving Emily a good view of the chaos below.

Thousands of Zerg were levelling everything that the colonists had built over the last few days, with more funnelling in from the wasteland every second. If they had still manned their defences, they might have held the tide back, but not for very long. 

"There are no Mutalisk..." She said after a few moments, wondering what happened to all the flying Zerg.

"You do have a lot of turrets down there still. Whatever is controlling them probably didn't want to lose any more."

"Controlling them?"

"Controlling, giving orders, whatever you want to call it. Just watch them maneuver on a fleet scale, and you'll see in a couple of minutes that, while the individual Zerg might just be a stupid animal, something is moving them around; something quite intelligent."

"Really? It was hard to see that on the ground."

"That's fair, I do have the advantage of being able to watch everything from a distance in this boat most of the time. Not much need for a dropship in an orbital fight unless they plan on doing opposed boardings." The woman said, then turned to her and extended a hand. "Flight Sergeant Patricia Mugga."

"Captain Emily Swallow, C-" she replied, taking her hand and giving it a light shake while biting back the part where she said she was a Confederate. That didn't matter right now. Right now, this was Terrans vs. Zerg, and this woman was a fellow Terran helping her out. 

"Smoke?" Patricia said, offering her a coffin nail. "It will help take the edge off."

"Thank god! I mean, yes please."

They lit up as they monitored the horizon and the ship's sensors, both ignoring the flashing 'No Smoking' sign on the overhead console. A quartet of Wraith fighters joined them a few minutes later, and after some back-and-forth on the radio, they fanned out looking for people, bikes, or large robots travelling across the wasteland a kilometre or so below them. 

She grew more nervous with every passing minute, unsure what she would do once their clock ran out. 

Meanwhile

"Right Torso Damage: Critical. Damage to Internal Structure. Jump Jet Offline." John's least favourite feminine voice said, letting him know things weren't going well. Not that all the other flashing lights on his console didn't already tell him that. 

"Oh, shut up, ya damn clanker," John said, twisting the Timberwolf to the side and letting loose another volley of LRMs at the cloud of Mutalisk above him, followed quickly with a burst of laser fire. Heat washed through the cockpit as the large lasers finished off another pair of flyers, but it didn't seem to make much of a dent in the swarm they ran into on the way back to the evacuation site. 

Their attacks were initially ineffective against his mech's ferro-fibrous armour, but absorbing repeated volleys of acid from the flyers weakened it enough that the damn little worms they shot started to chip away at his protection. If there was a silver lining to this situation, they were focusing their attacks on him, leaving the lightly armoured Suzy Q alone.

"Heat Level: Critical." The computer said again, and he cursed, wishing he had the coolant vest he had looted from Mia right about now. Immune to fire damage didn't mean he wanted to sit in the sauna this mech had become with repeated laser fire. Still, it was better than the Jenner by miles.

For her part, Aqua flew around the edges of the battle, sniping off the Mutalisk weakened by his LRMs with Suzy Q's medium lasers, then darting back away from the swarm. He had to admit, she had taken to using the light mech very well, using its speed and mobility to the best of her ability. She still needed to work on her aim, but that would come with time. 

He quickly thumbed through the DEN screen after firing his LRMs again, looking for something that would work better against these flying units, but most mech weapons were designed to fight other Mechs, not flocks of giant flying shrimp. He saw weapons he didn't recognize, but he had no idea what they did or whether they would be effective in this situation.

Wait... Swarm LRMs? 2000 Gacha tokens? Screw it, let's try them.

He swapped the LRM ammo out as he activated his two remaining jump jets, sending his mech to the side just as another concentrated volley of acid worms slammed into the ground at his feet. Several hit his mech's legs, but the armour held, giving him a moment's respite while his missiles reloaded with the new ammo. 

"Are you okay, John?" Aqua said over comms. 

"Just peachy, darlin'. Remind me to upgrade Suzy Q the next time we get some downtime. It's probably hotter in there than in my mech right now."

"Will do. Sarah got someone on her comms a moment ago; reinforcements and our ride off world will be here shortly."

"Thank god for small miracles. Okay, going to try a new weapon... keep picking off the wounded." He replied, coming down from his jump. He twisted his torso toward the centre of the nearest Mutalisk swarm and released his LRMs.

40 missiles shot into that crowd of over a dozen Zerg, exploding like he had just tossed a giant frag grenade in their midst. The missiles that missed circled back and slammed into another target, causing more flesh and ichor to spray around the battlefield like the most macabre fireworks display ever witnessed. He held his lasers to give his struggling heat sinks time to vent more of the excess heat, using his machine guns instead. The 20mm chainguns mowed through the screaming Mutalisks, turning their already damaged bodies into swish cheese. Very bloody swish cheese. 

Laser fire came rapidly from the Jenner as Aqua polished off the remaining Zerg from that group; she used them in chain-fire mode (one at a time) instead of groupings like he usually did, but it was effective for taking down already weakened targets. 

*PSSSSHHHTTT*

His celebration was cut short as a wave of acid hit his viewport from another group of Mutalisk that had opened fire on him, blinding his vision for a few moments. His sensors were still operational, though they had taken some damage as well from repeated acid attacks. He slammed the throttle forward, not wanting to remain an easy target for the other groups. 

There are at least twenty of the damn things remaining, if not more. Just where in the hell are they all coming from?

"Aqua, can you see where they are coming from?" He voiced the question.

"Not directly. A bunch came from a ridge about a kilometre to the east, but they've really been coming from all directions. Jump!"

He slammed his foot pedals at the warning, sending the Timberwolf airborne again. They hadn't fully recharged since his last jump, so he leapt only about 50 yards before coming back down in a lumbering gait. He twisted and fired his LRMs nearly blind, his sensors not giving him great returns on the sheer number of fleshy Zerg flying above them. That didn't seem to bother his new LRMs much, as they homed in on their targets, savaging yet another group.

"Right Torso Damage: Critical. Engine damage detected."

Another wave of heat washed through the cockpit as his 300 XL engine took a hit, the near-constant splashes of acid quickly eating away at his internal structure. He turned that torso away from the bulk of the Zerg and aimed with his torso-mounted medium pulse laser and machine guns, opening up on anything that looked like a target in their firing arc. The green acid from the earlier attack was finally washing off his viewscreen, the ferroglass holding up better than the armour around it. Still, he couldn't keep this up for much longer.

If I could only put Divine Shield on the whole mech. I mean, I could dismount and fight them with magic now that I've had time to recover it all, but if they outranged me, that would be a death sentence. I could get on my bike and make a run for it, but that is slower than these things can fly. 

He considered hopping in Pelican for a moment, but squashed that thought immediately. It was already damaged from a barrage of laser fire, and he didn't want to trap those people in this world. That would be even worse than what he'd already planned. 

Suddenly, Suzy Q flew in front of him, the smaller mech eating a barrage of acid that might have ended his fight. Nearly unscathed, the acid covered its torso and legs, bubbling as it evaporated off the overheating mech. That didn't stop her from sending a volley of missiles into the swarm, the inferno rounds decimating anything they hit. 

If the range wasn't so crappy, I would replace some of my lasers with flamers. Those would make short work of most Zergs. Probably should do that before I go to HOTD anyway. Not much point using even medium lasers on zombies. 

"Thanks!" He said, letting loose more LRMs once they reloaded, then following up with more machine-gun and pulse-laser fire. He held back using his arm-mounted lasers for now; his heat sinks wouldn't be able to keep up with all the waste heat if he used them with engine damage.

The Zerg kept dying, but reinforcements kept coming in. They were making a dent, but it would only be a matter of time until-

"Light'em up!" A voice said over the open comm line, and suddenly another wave of missiles slammed into the Mutalisks from behind, knocking a few of them out of the sky. Four Wraith fighters blew past him a moment later, the strange-looking 'T'-shaped spacecraft sowing more chaos in the skies above.

The arrival of reinforcements seemed to confuse the beasts, and John used their moment of distraction to stop and take aim, snapping off shots at a pair of uninjured Mutalisks with his large lasers. The blue beams cut the two beasts in half and clipped a few more in the process. He then switched to the machine guns and pulse laser, perforating another flyer. Heat washed over him as he continued his assault, the damn computer lady not shutting up about how hot his mech was running. 

Aqua did the same, her green lasers lashing out one after the other, each dropping a Mutalisk. Over a dozen still remained, but with air support, the fight looked a lot less one-sided. 

"Lieutenant Kerrigan, this is Whiskey Two Alpha. Head two clicks to the north; a dropship and an armed contingent are waiting for you, though I don't think it's going to fit those rides of yours. We'll provide cover as best we can, but there are more coming in on radar."

"Roger that, Whiskey. Do what you can, and avoid those attacks if at all possible; that acid is wreaking havoc on even our heavy armour; those fighters will just fall apart." Sarah replied as John angled the Timberwolf north and sent the heavy mech forward at a gallop. He might complain about the heat, but this beast was just as fast as the Charger was, and actually had weapons other than its fist. Those small lasers didn't count. Suzy Q booked it ahead at an angle, and Aqua twisted her torso hard to the side so she could still shoot at the Mutalisks behind them.

"We're aware, Ma'am. The fighting has been bloody in orbit, and we- our unit has already suffered a few losses."

"I- I'm sorry to hear that."

"No worries, Ma'am." The pilot replied professionally, then added something a little more personal. "Everybody's gotta die sometime, right, Red?"

"Right. Still, thank you for helping get these people off world. Now let's get out of here." 

"Wilco, Ma'am. Watch yer asses; Whiskey is coming around for another pass."

John was only half paying attention to the comms, his focus more on his sensors as he tried to get another solid lock with his LRMs without hitting the incoming Wraiths. Without an IFF tag, the aircraft were giving him more solid returns than the flesh of the Zerg, and his locks kept sliding off and targeting the harder targets. 

They made their pass; their missile barrage didn't seem to have the issues he was having, and more Zerg flopped to the ground. He slammed his foot pedals again, spun the mech 180° in the air, and let loose another wave of 40 missiles into the centre of the mass of flapping winged shrimp, letting the weapons onboard sensors deal with the targeting issues.

He tried to land, but with the damaged jump jet, he didn't have enough juice remaining to spin all the way back, so he stumbled and slammed to the ground at an awkward angle. He bounced around in his harness as the Timberwolf crashed; thankfully, his neurohelmet kept him from rattling his brains too much when he smashed his head against the headrest.

"Right Arm: Armour Compromised. Right Leg: Damage Critical. System Offline."

"Yeah, yeah. I should have known better than to try something fancy with a nearly broken machine." He grumbled as he stood the mech up, cursing a bit more with the loss of one of his heat sinks in his legs. More acid splashed the back of his mech, weakening the armour back there but thankfully not breaking through.

"JOHN! Are you okay?!? Do I need to come over there and heal you?!?" Aqua screamed over the comms, her voice thick with worry. 

"I'm fine... just tying my shoe. Shoelaces are tricky when your mech doesn't have hands," he quipped, excaliburing his large laser into the ground and pushing his mech upright. 

"Not funny. Hurry up, there are more coming!" She said, firing lasers over his mech's head and dropping another Mutalisk.

"Right."

They charged off again at a reckless pace, sniping at their pursuers when they had the opportunity, but otherwise stayed on track. With air cover from the squadron of Wraith fighters, they made it to the dropship a few minutes later. 

It was a standard Quantradyne APOD-33 dropship that the Confederacy used; it reminded him a little bit of his Pelican, albeit smaller and unarmed. A dozen marines decked out in armour surrounded it, all with their Impaler rifles aimed at the sky. 

A familiar black suit was walking behind the men, shouting orders and directing their fire. One of the Mutalisks following them decided to go after the soldiers on the ground, firing its acid slug at the men. The damn thing ricocheted between several of them, spreading its acid around, before exploding on Emily and sending her flying backward. 

Before he could do anything, she stood up, raised her rifle and shot at the Mutalisk. A moment later, the rest of the men joined her and riddled the beast with depleted uranium rounds. He spun his mech around and let off one last volley of missiles and lasers, trimming their numbers down and forcing the remaining few to pull back. However, to his dismay, he saw another black cloud of them approaching on the horizon.

{Hurry up! We need to go!}

I'll be right down!

He whipped off his Neurohelmet and climbed out of the still sweltering cockpit. The outside of his mech looked even worse than his system indicated; most of the armour was now pitted and melted in places. The right torso now had dozens of holes, with green engine coolant leaking from several of them. The drop ladder had melted away as well, which would normally make him have to lay the mech down so he could climb out, but they didn't have time for that.

Cycling water magic and pushing his Ki into his legs, he leapt off the cockpit and dropped four stories, slamming into the hard-baked ground in a superhero landing. He placed his hand on the mech and channelled magic into it, shrinking it back to pocket size, then ran for the dropship.

"ON TO THE SHIP! GO! GO! GO!" Emily shouted as he approached, waving the men to start loading onto the vessel. Her armour, though damaged, appeared unbreached by the attack, so he nodded his thanks and rushed past.

Aqua and Sarah had already boarded and were strapped in at the far end of the bay. He sat beside Aqua and let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding. 

"Holy fuck! That was bloody insane!" He let out, the day's events slamming into him all at once. He was tough, powerful even, but these Zerg were endless. 

How in the hell am I supposed to stop these bastards?

A few minutes had passed since they took off, the dropship and its escorts clearing the atmosphere without further issue. John checked on everyone once they levelled out and the ship's artificial gravity kicked in, then sat back down beside Aqua. 

On her other side, in place of Sarah, sat Arnold, debriefing Aqua on how the rest of the evacuation went, so he left one parallel mind to follow that conversation while he checked in on Emily on his other side. "You good?"

"Yes, Marshal!" She said, her voice sounding chipper again, not that that was any surprise. 

"Did you use your stim again?"

"Not this time, see?" She said, opening her visor. Her gray eyes looked normal this time, though he thought he could see great pain and frustration behind them. "Don't worry, you don't need to leave me in an infirmary for a month."

"Why- oh, right. I nearly forgot about that." He chuckled. "You can just call me John, you know. I have no idea what is going to happen next, but I doubt being the Marshal of a planet solely inhabited by Zerg will mean much any longer." 

"How did you know? Were you reading my mind?"

"Know what? And no, not this time. I don't like to pry into people's personal thoughts if I can help it."

"Oh, I- never mind. John... I am having some problems... my mind... isn't happy about the situation we are in. I know what's right and what's wrong, but my priorities keep changing, and it's changing how I think... this ship, these people we are going with, they are terrorists! I know they just saved everyone, that these Zerg are the greater threat, but I just want... to lash out at them." She said, the happiness in her voice wavering for a moment.  

"Hey, just hold it together for a little longer, okay. We will figure something out." He replied. He hoped the Sons of Korhal doctors could fix whatever the Confederacy had done to her brain, though at the same time he had a small concern that the murderous psychopath would return. He didn't sense that person inside of her, but he had no clue how the Resoc program actually worked.  

"Of course! I'm just glad you're back and safe." She said, her voice steady again. Then she added in a whisper. "Can you please massage my temples again later? It really helped a lot."

"Sure. Just remember, if you have a problem, you come to me or Aqua first. That's an order." He said with a smile.

"Magistrate Diamodred and Marshal Wayne, please report to the cockpit ASAP." Their pilot's voice came over the intercom, interrupting any further conversation.

"Huh? Wonder what that's about. Hang tight, I'll be right back." John said to Emily.

The two of them moved forward in the ship and stuck their heads into the cockpit. It was smaller than the Pelicans, with two seats in front and just enough room for someone in power armour to squeeze in behind them. The pilot was in the right-hand seat, while Sarah was in the left. 

"What's the problem?" Aqua asked, sliding in front of him and kneeling between the two seats. 

"Look," Sarah said, pointing towards the planet and-

"The hell is that?" John asked, looking at a massive golden... flying saucer? It was circular anyway, with three triangular protrusions along the disc’s edge. It was mostly golden, but had a blue dome of energy over the bulging structure in the disc's middle. And it was huge, incredibly huge.

"Not sure, but it's bigger than anything in human fleets by a large margin. It's about... three kilometres in diameter, and nearly one kilometre tall at its thickest point in the centre. And its power readings… they are off the chart. These Protoss don't really do half measures, do they?" Sarah replied as she looked at the sensor readouts, seemingly as awed as he was at the massive golden vessel.

"But what are they doing?" He said quietly, watching the ship as theirs quickly moved past it towards the awaiting Terran fleet. No one had an answer. 

Suddenly the blue energy shield flared, and a massive golden energy beam shot out of the bottom of the ship and slammed into the planet's surface, right where Mar Sara City was. Where it used to be.

No one said anything. No one needed to. Like on Chau Sara, the Protoss were exterminating the Zerg infestation with extreme prejudice.

Glassing a world in a bath of golden fire.

Alec's words, once forgotten, came back to John's mind at the sight.

"Death is inevitable."

At this moment, watching a world being turned to glass and ash, he could do nothing but agree.