//------------------------------// // Liberty: Invasion Part 2 // Story: Starcraft: Warriors of Purity // by Xarmar13 //------------------------------// Escorting Warfield back to base was slightly difficult since they had to defend the General the whole way because he lost his weapon and was walking around poisoned by Hydralisk spines. Eventually, and as a blow to Warfield’s pride, Sweetie had to carry the grizzled veteran the rest of the way to base while Lyra cut a path for them. After a slow journey, Sweetie handed Warfield over to the medical teams for treatment. Warfield, however demanded that they simply amputate his arm and let him back on the battlefield. Once the Medics finally got Warfield to calm down, he finally acquiesced to the Medics and agreed to have a procedure done to replace his irrecoverable arm with a prosthetic. While Warfield was complaining, the others decided to watch the news from the command console. Lockwell reported that the Zerg were withdrawing most of their forces back to Char. Everyone figured that Kerrigan was taking this battle seriously. While everyone was fighting their hardest to drive the Zerg back, one fact could not be disputed: taking on Kerrigan’s hive would be too much for the Dominion force the way things were going. Something needed to be done to weaken the Zerg forces near Kerrigan’s primary hive cluster. Sweetie called for a meeting between the leaders to hear their suggestions. “Y’know, I’ve been thinkin’,” Tychus said. “‘Scares me more than the Zerg,” Raynor quipped. Tychus ignored Raynor’s jab, “We’re gonna have to take out those Nydus Worms before we can make a move on the main hive. Them Zerg burstin’ up under us wherever they please ain’t exactly conducive to our health and well-being.” “True. Facing an army of Nydus Worms is a stress attack waiting to happen,” Sweetie said. “Well, placing charges at the right spots in their Nydus network could flood the whole system with lava,” Raynor said before looking at Warfield. “What’s your take, General?” “It’s dangerous, but it could work. Bigger problem’s still their fliers. Even if we could move our units forward, we can’t provide adequate air cover while the skies are contested.” “Any suggestions?” “Intel shows eighty percent of the Zerg fliers nest on an infested platform hanging in low orbit. We take that down, we’ll own the air.” Tychus chimed in, “Hell, if this platform’s so important, why not just nuke it?” “The nests are burrowed deep into the superstructure. Surface detonations won’t do it. We’d need to land a strike force on the platform and take it apart piece by piece.” “What if we take the tunnels and the platform out?” Sweetie asked. “We don’t have time to do both. We could if I weren’t going to be out of commission for a while for the procedure.” “Actually, we do. Raynor can lead a small group into the tunnels and plant the charges. I can take command of the strike force and dismantle the platform. We conduct these missions simultaneously and we will be in a much better position for the final push.” “Huh, never considered that. It’s bold but it should work.” “This guy is a General?” Sweetie thought. Raynor gathered up Tychus, Swann and Stetmann for their operation. Warfield put together the strike force to accompany Sweetie to the platform while Sweetie convinced Lyra to go with Raynor to make sure he doesn’t get everyone killed. Sweetie landed a Dropship near an area that would be ideal for a base location. A hive cluster was holding the location. Sweetie needed to take it out before the strike force arrived. Taking control of every Zerg in the hive cluster, she ordered the creatures to attack their own hive cluster before making them retreat to another location on the platform. The strike force arrived soon after to establish their base. During the briefing, Raynor pointed out a series of coolant towers that were keeping the active reactors in the platform at a safe temperature. Taking out the towers would cause the reactors to overheat and meltdown, annihilating each platform and every living thing on them. Defenses were set up at each of the area’s chokepoints: Bunkers, Siege Tanks, Missile Turrets and a Psi Disrupter to slow Zerg attacks. The Zerg were sending every strain they were currently using. Sweetie took control of Brood Lords to keep them from striking the defenses from far away. Sweetie ordered the construction of a number of Ghost Academies in order to load them up with Nukes. A large number of Vikings and Banshees were built for an eventual air strike and were supported by Hel’s Angels, Dusk Wings and Jackson’s Revenge. Meanwhile, Sweetie made a move against a small hive cluster south of the base. She leveled the living base with the Nukes she ordered. After, she ordered the nuked area to be claimed for its resources. A large group of Marines, Medics, Firebats and Reapers were rallied to engage the first hive cluster that was protecting the first coolant tower. In the chaos of the attack, Sweetie loosed her current stock of Nukes against the tower. When the structure toppled, the reactor began growing unstable. Sweetie ordered all troops to withdraw from the platform section. Not even a minute passed before the section was shredded and full of holes. Lyra joined Raynor, Tychus, Swann and Stetmann for their adventure into the dark, dangerous and lava filled caverns beneath Char’s surface. “Alright let’s keep this quick and easy. Move out,” Raynor said. Up ahead were some Zerg that were conveniently set up in a line. Lyra wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was going through their heads at the time they set up such a formation. But she did know what went through their heads once Raynor tried out his Mark Twelve Penetrator Rounds on them. The next group was Lyra’s prey as she used her Storm Charge that sliced through a pair of Spine Crawlers and fried any Zerg that survived the initial strike with electricity. Tychus demanded the next group as he wanted to try out some Shredder Grenades. The blast was wide and took out a whole cluster of Zerg. Lyra took out the next group which featured a number of Spine Crawlers, and Roaches as the big threat among them. Raynor detected a large number of Zerglings ahead. Swann deployed his Flamin’ Betty flame turret to roast the Zerg. Raynor and Tychus supported the turret with their own weapons. Warfield let the group know that there were some squads in the caverns that needed rescuing. Finding the group shortly after the transmission, the Zerg between the squad and Raynor’s group engaged his group. Lyra snuck past the Zerg and sliced the tentacles off the Spine Crawlers among them and stabbed each one with their own tendril. The squad of Marines and a Medic were very thankful for the rescue. Swann and Stetmann were expressing their fear just before a large number of Zerg surfaced. Swann quickly reacted by deploying Flamin’ Betty. Raynor and Tychus fired their special rounds and Lyra butchered the group that surfaced behind them. .Just before the first fissure, four Nydus Worms surfaced. Tychus threw a grenade at two of them while Lyra cut the heads off the other two. Swann planted the first nuclear charge on the first fault line. A defensive perimeter was made to defend the charge long enough for the device to activate. Lyra personally defended one choke point while the others coordinated their attacks against the Zerg from the other two. Zerglings, Hydralisks, Nydus Worms carrying Broodlings, Aberrations and Roaches were the aggressors until the charge was ready to detonate. Once the device was ready, everyone ran deeper into the caverns to find the next fault line. The explosion caused the caverns to rumble briefly. Before moving on to the next platform section, Sweetie made sure there were adequate defenses to protect the mining operations south of the main base. She had a few Vikings protect the defensive position to deal with Brood Lords. While this was happening, a number of Banshees and Wraiths moved against another small hive cluster west of the base. After that brief attack, the ships moved against the larger hive cluster. Surprisingly, the hive cluster had very little to offer in terms of air defenses. With only a few Spore Crawlers and Hydralisks to protect them, the ships simply ignored the Zerg and assaulted the coolant tower. Victorious after one of the easiest aerial strikes a pilot could imagine, and after saying that it was too easy over the radio, the ships returned to base. Just as Sweetie figured would happen, Murphy struck. This time in the form of a number of Zerg flyers entering the vicinity of the platform. One among them was a massive strain of Zerg that was previously unrecorded. The Overmind assured Sweetie that the creature was of the largest Zerg strain in the Swarm, so they didn’t come any bigger. Sweetie knew that there was going to be a huge fight on their hands as she and her forces were about to contend with a Leviathan. Lyra and the others emerged from a tunnel into another section of the caverns. The first thing they came across was an Infestor with a number of shambling infested humans. The current section of the caverns were filled with countless infested humans. Lyra doubted that every one of them were in the cavern when they were captured, meaning that the Zerg had been taking prisoners from their invasion and taking them to Char for infestation. The group continued pushing their way through hundreds of infested humans. Their slow movements made dealing with them easy targets for Flamin’ Betty and Raynor’s Penetrator Rounds. Tychus opened holes in the human swarm with his grenades. Lyra finished the rest off with a Storm Charge. Warfield alerted everyone to another group in danger. After a sarcastic remark from Tychus, the group charged forward and quickly eliminated a pair of Nydus Worms sending Broodlings at a pair of Firebats and a Medic. Just like the last one, the Dominion squad was grateful for the rescue. The squad also warned of a large number of Worms in the cavern ahead. Just like the Firebat warned, numerous Nydus Worms burst from the ground in the serpentine-like cavern, releasing countless infested against the group. Lyra moved ahead and slew each Worm one by one. At the start of the second bend, an Ultralisk surfaced just in time for Lyra to return and slice off the beast’s blades, then legs, then thrust her bane blade into its face before using her warp blade to run a cut along its massive head. The group reached the second fissure and Swann placed a charge as they prepared to defend it. The procedure was the same as before, Lyra defended one choke point, the others defend the rest. Infested were coming at them in droves while Banelings added to the fun. Lyra had to kill the Banelings from a distance so she used Psionic Storms to cause the swollen creatures to burst prematurely. Raynor soon told everyone to get clear so they entered the next tunnel that would take them even deeper into the fiery caverns. Dealing with a massive Zerg like a Leviathan was going to be a challenge. Sweetie wasn’t about to try and control such a creature. Instead, she had a large number of Vikings and Wraiths constructed to reinforce the ones she had to take on the Leviathan. For good measure, she also ordered a number of Battlecruisers constructed to help deal with the creature. Setting an intercept course for the Leviathan, the ships prepared themselves for a tough battle. When the massive beast noticed them, it deployed a number of Mutalisks to try and even the odds. The Mutalisks were shot down quickly but the Leviathan launched a powerful attack that took down a Battlecruiser. The beast’s tentacles began impaling ships one by one while taking the firepower of the ships as well as it could. Soon, the Leviathan succumbed to the constant barrage and fell onto the platform with a ground-shaking crash. During the battle, Sweetie took a large number of infantry with her to the hive cluster at the southeastern end of the platform, taking out another small hive cluster along the way. The platform section carried heavy air defenses with several openings for Mutalisks to emerge. With a more balanced defense of Spine and Spore Crawlers defending the hive cluster, getting to the next coolant tower might pose a small challenge to Sweetie if she didn’t have infantry with her. The infantry escorted Sweetie near the next coolant tower before she began launching several Nukes at the tower, taking a few Zerg with the strikes. Sweetie and the infantry retreated to a staging area and awaited the ships that survived the Leviathan attack and prepared to take out the last tower. The next section featured more infested except these were still hatching from Zerg eggs. The first bunch of eggs they came across all hatched as if to ambush the group while an Infestor was deploying more infested. Fighting through more infested eggs, Tychus was getting irritated at whoever was causing the eggs to hatch as they conveniently arrived. Warfield alerted the group once more of another group in danger. A squad of Marines were being attacked by an unusually large Ultralisk. The overgrown behemoth began digging at the rock wall that separated the Marines from a brutal end. Lyra brutally murdered the massive Ultralisk just like she murdered the last one. She then dug through the rocks to find the squad completely stunned by what the Unicorn did. “You are one scary badass, you know?” one said. Lyra giggled at their comment. The group quickly arrived at the last fissure. Once Swann deployed his last charge in what appeared to be a room with many infested eggs, a loud, feminine screech could be heard. A very large Zerg surfaced. It had a large segmented head, long tendrils and a long body with six legs that were held together by membrane. The creature also had black dreadlocks. The creature was referred to as a Queen, though Lyra was unfamiliar with this variety. The Queen was personally hatching eggs and sending more infested against the group. Lyra was not going to let her continue so she jumped on the Queen’s back and started cutting her legs off. The Queen bucked Lyra off before the Pony Templar grabbed onto her dreadlocks and ran her warp blade through the Queen’s chest. The Queen screamed in agony and tried to burrow to escape but didn’t count on Lyra holding on to her. By the time the Queen surfaced, she collapsed into a motionless heap. While the threat was neutralized, a large number of Nydus Worms emerged and unleashed Zerglings on the charge. Having no time to waste, Swann deployed Flamin’ Betty to keep the Zerg busy. It was time for a mad dash to the exit. Sweetie gathered all of her forces that were mustered for one all out attack against the last coolant tower. She also called in every mercenary group that she had not called in yet. The army charged forward and into the lower area where the tower was. Sweetie took control of a number of Brood Lords to use against the tower. Ultralisks were turned against their former allies. The Zerg were easily overwhelmed and were unable to prevent Sweetie or her army from getting to the last coolant tower and toppling it. Once the destruction was confirmed, everyone evacuated the platform section, returned to base, then finally boarded transports that would return them to the surface of Char. Lyra’s group ran as fast as they could to outrun the rising lava. Zerg constantly got in their way to slow them down. Through snipes, grenades, turrets and Lyra’s power, the group quickly got past the Zerg defenses and outran the lava flow. Everyone cheered when they managed to escape the caverns alive. With their objective accomplished, everyone returned to the main base. Lyra was eager to hear how Bon Bon fared in her attack on the space platform.