Chapter 008
Starcraft: Queen and Country
By Wanderer D
Chapter 008
2504, Koprulu Sector, Hyperion █
The large screen in the engineering bay lit up and most of the mechanics and engineers stopped what they were doing to look at it.
The logo for UNN spiraled on it for a few seconds before it faded onto the news anchor's desk, showing a blonde man with a mustache in a red suit. He smiled a dazzling smile at the camera. Several images of blasts and blurry creatures filled the small screen behind him as he started speaking.
"Hello, I am your host, Donny Vermillion, with the latest news. Reports are still coming in from the various worlds on the edge of Dominion space. This new incursion by the Zerg seems to have caught many planets by surprise, and we are still waiting for additional information.
"Our very own Kate Lockwell is on site in one of the many evacuation ships that have arrived into the safe space within the Dominion. Kate? I image everyone is terrified of this new random attack, on top of Raynor's terrorist maneuvering?"
The screens behind him shifted to the picture of an attractive young woman with an intense look on her face, before the screen grew up to show her standing next to several civilians.
"Hello Donny, the people I have spoken to are understandably shaken by the appearance of the Zerg, the death of so many neighbors and families, and the loss of their homes. This Zerg invasion is as brutal as you can imagine, but not all seems hopeless. While most of the planets attacked this time incurred losses counting in the millions, we do have reports that in at least one world, a large group of civilians were apparently spared by the Zerg and allowed to leave."
In a small screen appearing to the top left, Vermillion's face scrunched in confusion. "Surely there is more to it."
"We do know that retired General Horace Warfield was on site, and he reported that one zerg—"
"And there you have it folks," Vermillion interrupted, the screen going back to him. "Dominion General Warfield saved the civilians of the planet he was in. Unfortunately, that did not prevent the zerg or Raynor from taking advantage of other, less lucky worlds. We will be back, with more news."
There was a lot of muttering from the people in the room, until the boss cranked up the volume from his speaker.
"Alright everyone," Rory Swann called out to the engineers, "we need to get this shit together! Just got word from Horner that we're on a pick up mission to Mar Sara! You know what that means!
"The boss is coming back!" one of the the engineers cheered, echoed by several others.
"That's right! We're getting the cowboy back! So let's get started on getting them upgrades ready. I'm bettin' Raynor's equipment hasn't seen a mechanic in four years!"
There was plenty of good-natured chuckles to that, and Swann's eyes scanned the room quickly, noticing their newest addition. "Hey kid, you've ever seen a Zerg Swarm before? Why don't you take a break and join Matt on the bridge? It's a sight."
"I don't know sir, you might need—"
"Bah, we can handle this. Go over. I'm sure Stockmann is already there and he'll need a bodyguard to stop him from breaking something important."
"Fine."
Swann snorted, looking back to the rest of his crew. "Kids these days."
2504, Koprulu Sector, Mar Sara █
Sweetie stood on one of the outcrops overlooking the well-defended base she was supposed to take over. Somewhere in there was a device her queen wanted, and it was Sweetie's job to get it.
Unfortunately, these terrans were much better prepared than the ones from before. Their base had a solid perimeter, enhanced by a precipice which created natural barrier, and they had built several bunkers right on their side of the bridges, cutting off most of her swarm's overwhelming power and creating choke points that would allow them a much stiffer resistance.
Sweetie made a mental note. She needed to get some more mutalisks in there, but her troops were being unusually slow getting to this side of the planet.
The terrans also had turrets, and way too many soldiers spread around for the initial groups of zerg she had come with to make a quick job of it. Izsha had said it was mostly a civilian planet with little to no Terran army presence... but these guys were tough! It was clear that whoever was in charge had been anticipating combat sometime soon. It was too early for the Dominion to have sent troops here, so it had to be a local warlord or something.
Sadly, this wasn't a battle she could win with just numbers, quite yet. She sent a host of zerglings to test the Western bridge, watching as they crossed and started attacking the bunker, but they were predictably decimated before much damage could be done to the terran structure, and it didn't take long for the terrans to send one of their construction vehicles to go and fix it.
Until more zerg were sent, she had to keep them occupied.
She tuned her senses, using her magic to try and hijack the radio signals, just like Kerrigan had shown her.
"...come on boys, let's help them out!"
She got a hint of a voice, and turned to look down at a group of terrans that ran out of their encampment, shooting her zergs on the way to rescue a smaller group that was just about to be overwhelmed.
A part of her was confused. But another understood all too well, and once the realization came to her, she grinned. "Oh, if this is how you want to play, Terran, then that's the game!" she said, giggling.
She let her mind into the zerg swarm, quickly sending more zergs and hydralisks to create distractions at the base. She moved quickly, skittering with all of her speed and assisted by bursts of energy and her wings to where she would be needed next.
James Raynor smirked as the newly added troops joined his forces. Only a few more minutes to go. Even if he wouldn't admit it to the others (especially not Tychus), he had missed the feel of his armor, the sound of servos and stumping whenever he ran, the additional strength, and yes, hunting down Zerg.
He let the new troops go ahead, following at a more sedate pace. The other bridge was under Tychus' supervision, and whatever his friend wanted to pretend to be, he was not the type of idiot that would let the zerg overrun him. He passed the bunker they had built close to the bridge itself, his smirk turning into a grimace when he noticed the acid and claw marks on the walls.
Still, his voice didn't falter as he added some energy to it, "Keep fixin' those bunkers, boys! Medics! Take a quick look at the gang I just brought home. Make sure they're ready for what's comin'. Got a feelin' that we don't have much time before our friends pay us another visit."
He tried to focus on the here and now, forcing his mind to analyze the setup he had to try and control the next wave of zerg, but his imagination wasn't going to let him go that easy, apparently. Even as he directed his troops, and ordered things built or reinforced, his thoughts kept spiraling away from his current situation and into the reasons behind the sudden attack.
'Why the zerg? Why now? Is Sarah behind this? And if so, again, why now?'
The sound of salvo made him grimace, just as a communication window opened in his visor, showing the disgustingly smug face of his good friend, Tychus. "Damn, Jimmy, these zerg friends of yours really don't like giving up."
"I told you Tychus, it ain't as easy as you thought it would be."
"Damn right."
"You need any help?" Raynor could hear the screams of dying zerg from the communicator.
"Nah." Tychus' voice was nonchalant. "I've got this. Them critters are tough, but I'm tougher."
"Make sure you don't let that tough head of yours get too inflated. If you need help, you ask, got it?"
"Aww Jimmy, I didn't know you cared."
"I don't, but we need the cash and, unfortunately, you're our contact. So, do us both a favor and stay in one piece, would you?" Raynor replied, unable to hide the mirth in his voice.
"Roger that, Jimmy."
Trusting his friend to hold his side of the base, Raynor turned his eyes to the Western Bridge, where another small swarm of zerg was now advancing.
There was something different.
The way these zerg were moving was not normal. They were staying just within range to draw attention, but they weren't swarming the bridge like before.
His eyes narrowed. "What the hell are you bugs planning now?"
It didn't take long for the turrets to kick in, drawing his attention, but just as he looked that way, the swarm next to the bridge attacked en masse, led by something he had never seen before. Almost horse-like, except for the wings and scythes, this new zerg moved incredibly fast and with a lot more agility than the zerglings.
It was past the barracks in seconds, its scythes literally bisecting a marine that tried shooting it instead of running or dodging. His troops didn't have time to follow the strange zerg, as the swarm was immediately on them, and they were occupied.
"Crap." Raynor started running towards the new zerg, which was heading towards the turrets. "We need reinforcements on the West Bridge! There's a new type of zerg with them!"
"Stay away from that!" he shouted, shooting at the agile zerg, trying to land a hit. And hit he did. Just as the creature reared back to strike at the turret, his gun blew one of its scythes off at the joint, making it scream in pain and turn to face him, a glare on its otherwise cute face.
"That hurt, you meanie!"
Raynor hesitated for a moment, and the next he was rolling out of the way, trying desperately to avoid the wild single-scythe stabs of the creature. "What the hell?!"
"Why don't you surrender?" the creature shouted. "You stupid terrans have to make everything so difficult, don't you?"
'It speaks!' he thought. "This is a bad sign. Who are you?" he asked, slowly getting up, weapon ready. His visor reported that troops were coming. "What do you want? Are you behind the zerg attacks?"
The creature snorted. "I'm Sweetie Belle, and I'm following the Queen's orders." She tilted her head. "You're the guy that went to rescue the other terrans."
"Jim Raynor." He narrowed his eyes. "So you said Kerrigan sent you?"
"You really can't win," Sweetie replied, "so why don't you just give up? I'll let you guys leave."
Jim snorted, carefully stepping aside, with the zerg imitating his moves in the opposite direction. "As if, Sweetie. We both know this can only end one way, and it's with one of us dead."
"It really doesn't have to," Sweetie said as the scythe that Raynor had blown off slowly regenerated right in front of his eyes. "Give me the alien device, and I promise you all can leave the planet."
Raynor's smile didn't fade under his helmet, but his eyes became colder. "If you want it, then it means it's definitely not something I want you to have."
"Oh, come on!" Sweetie whined.
"Sorry, darling, but you can't have it."
The Sweetie creature stopped, eyes wide. "My sister used to say that…" she whispered, before she shook her head. Then she jumped to the side, far and up, her legs slicing into the metal of the side of a building and holding it there and away from the smoking crater where she had been standing just seconds before.
"Well, well, Jimmy, still a hit with the ladies, eh?"
"Tychus," Raynor grunted with a nod. "Took you long enough."
"And I brought the cavalry."
"We're here, sir," Matt's voice came on the radio. "Prepare for evacuation."
The trio looked up as a huge ship came in, shooting at all the zerg in the ground. Not wasting a second, Raynor and Tychus shot at Sweetie, but she had raised a shield of some sort.
"Gah! Why can't we solve things peacefully!" she shouted, running and skittering and dodging bullets.
"Try not killing everyone on sight!"
"You shot first!"
"Why are we talking with a Zerg?!"
Sweetie's shield withstood several shots before it finally fizzled out and she landed in a ready position across from them. But it was too late, the terran constructs had begun flying away, taking with them the alien artifact.
"Oh, horseapples."
"Better luck next time, Sweetie." Raynor said, retreating to get into one of the dropships.
"Oh, you better believe it!" she shouted, not bothering to chase them.
She sighed. The Queen would not be happy.
End Chapter
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
864 users online
464,764 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Excellent work!
"Word just got word
She moved quickly, moving with
servos and stumping when he ran"
Few errors I found.
This is a weird story, but i cant stop reading it.
So this is right at the WoL Start. And sweetie the one who, oh, oh my...
And huh, I can see that for him. So, is he going to be catching sight of Sweetie then I wonder?
And of course, raynors view to the new guy.
I remember playing this mission...
This is so dang good!
During the last mission, one thing I was worried about for this story was that Kerrigan would make an unrealistic number of exceptions for Sweetie Belle's failures/unwillingness to butcher Terrans and achieve objectives. But here, I would actually tell Sweetie that she doesn't have to be too afraid. Once she mentions to Sarah that JIM of all people had taken command of things, she'll probably be way more forgiving. Or at least lost in thought, much to the confusion of Abathur and whoever is in Zagara's role right now. Maybe Izsha might understand? Anyway, it would make a good contrast to Sweetie Belle, who obviously hasn't been trying hard to let go of her own past life.
Will we know more about Twilight's role in the next chapters?
I’m guessing Gallus is the one on Hyperion then. So it’s basically gonna be a race to get the artifacts first between sweetie and raynor.
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/413/624/8eb.jpg
Sadly, diplomacy requires both sides to be willing to come to the negotiation table. And it's not like Sweetie came in peace; just because those marines aren't storyline characters doesn't mean they're not people. Including the one she sliced in half.
This will be awkward indeed. Especially when Gallus sees what's become of Sweetie, and vice versa. And I can only imagine what Raynor makes of the chatty Zerg-horse.
9443436
To be fair, they probably did open fire as soon as they saw zerg approaching. And if they hadn't been attacked I could see Sweetie ordering hers to secure the artifact and ignore the terrans.
We don't know everything that's going on, but I think is't possible that this could have ended peacefully if they weren't fighting over the artifact.
9443206
That or she'll escape her punishment and start her own swarm. That happens to the zerg semi-regularly.
9443012 Fixed! Thank you! What did you think of my Raynor rendition? Does it sound like him?
9444088
Quite! I rather like the banter you had between him and Tychus, though that last scene was a little... rushed imo.
9443436
9443336
I am not exactly sure Gallus is the 'New Kid' mentioned in the Hyperion.
We last saw Gallus traveling through a magical Portal to a Protoss ship. While the Protoss consider Jim Raynor a friend, they will fight him, as they show in Safe Haven. The SC2 Cannonical mission choice and thus probably the way this story will go Allies is not the term I would use for Raynor's Raider's/Protoss relations, so I would question how Gallus got on the Hyperion.
Although admittedly he was with Zeratul, who has proven time and again that nothing is secure from his ability to sneak.
HOWEVER, even if this were the case, how does he look human? No one reacted in any manner that would suggested that the "New Kid" looked Alien, so clearly if the 'New Kid" was Gallus, he clearly is somehow disguised as a human.
Now admittedly, Wanderer D is using Dark Templar magic to make Gallus look human, however from what little the lore states on Dark Templar powers, the DTs use of 'The Void' to cloak can be described as 'bending light and merging with shadows.' This would have to be turned into full Illusion magic to work, but doesn't effect the story setting enough to be a big deal... still this doesn't sound like something Gallus can just pick up in a few months.
9444280
I'm still leaning for the kid to be Gallus. Mainly the reason why is the story specifically went out of it's way not to tell anything about his appearence or even species. Of course I could still be wrong but with implications there I dont think I am.
9444382
If it is the case I am hoping for some kind of explanation how at the very least, an untrained Psion has come so far so quickly. Sweetie at least has some practice with Magic. Gallus should know nothing about the Void, Psionics or the like. Even if he had latent Psychic abilities, it would take time to be able to to use them to such a degree he looks like a human.
Being honest, I would prefer it to be Gallus is with the Protoss and someone else from Equestrian with the Terran who actually has some magic. I mean attempted rescue mission has to happen at some point.
Starlight Glimmer (Or Sunset Shimmer if they someone confirmed the presence of humans before sending the rescue mission) would likely be the best choices for such a job.((Assuming 1) You could keep the Crusaders away from saving Sweetie Belle, and 2) That Twilight Sparkle is to busy to go personally))Edit: Also Twilight, someone with confirmed Illusion magic is a Main Character in this story as well, and thus far hasn't gotten much of a mention. Thus I remove my Sunset/Starlight theory and replace it with her.
WITH THAT SAID, their is a problem with that idea, and thats the fact that WoL's campaign barely features the Protoss a fact Blizzard was criticized for and they acknowledged. (This is why HotS and LoV are considered the better campaigns) . So unless Wanderer D plans to deviate from Cannon somewhat substantially, Gallus wouldn't see much action for the first part of the story.
I hope this new kid is Gallus.
Critical hit right to the darling.
9444746
I would've given bonus points if you used a rarity icon on that last bit
This is really good! By the way are we going to find out what twilight and co are doing to find sweetie?
Hi I just want get you a link full of Starcraft stuff for you to use. It’s full of calcs and feats from Starcraft.
https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/starcraft-source-thread.230914/
This story is incredible! Characters, knowledge of both universes, everything works so well! I really hope to see the sequel soon! Great job sir!
Okay. This is fun.
This gave us two fascinating perspectives that we never get for video game stories. The first is in the Hyperion drama showing us the lives of NPCs before the protagonist charcater comes around to them. The second, and was most fascinating to me, is the commander of the enemy forces in the starting level of the campaign; who are always destined to be on the easiest difficulty, and get completely crushed. Although with Wings of Liberty, the challenge of making them seem threatening isn't as daunting because that level ends with the Zerg in the ascendancy anyway.
So this is pre-zelnaga-purged Kerrigan swarm huh? Still under the influence of Amon. Then Sweetie is definitely running with the wrong crowd. I just hope she isn’t on Char when The Raiders hit it. Or is, perhaps the artifact would restore her like it did Karrigan?
Also, where is Gallus?! Is lover-bird still rocking it with Zeratul, or is he somewhere else in the sector?
Welcome to war, Sweetie Belle.
This will be one hell of a campaign!
Love it ♡
9442985
Priceless banther
9443078
Very entertaining
9443165
Guess Jimmy will have to play on hard/brutal with Sweetyling around?
9443173
Moderate/normal/hard/brutal?
Did you know the hidden easter egg with the Minotauer in one of the Toilets? I'm not shitting you, literally a Minotaurian in Battlearmor evac into a a toilet near the Zerg Hive if i remember correctly and if you click on it a countdown starts. After clicking it 3-4 times it launches. First time i see it i laughed so hard the Zerg overrun my lower defenses.
9443175
Good? Most excellent!
9443206
Good points. Raynor tricked Kerrigan multible times in SC1 so thats quite realistic...
9443336
Would explain why the Zerg are basicly on almost every Artefact mission. Two Queens are double the trouble and can search for stuff seperately.
9443364
Very nice edit!
9443436
This is where the fun begins...
Yeah... Friendship has it tough on a intergalactic battlefield...
9443775
Agreed, unfortunately is Sweetyling the exception and not the rules
Sweetyling... What is more deadly i wonder?
Her weaponised cute attack
Or
Her Scyths?
9444088
Absolutely, loved the banther. Can we get more of it in future chapters please?
9444093
Kinda the theme of the mission. What was it? 10 Minutes to evac?
I wonder if Sweetling meet the Minotaurian easter egg Space Marine. Priceless in the real game, epic fitting in this story crossover!
The drama Queen vs the Zergling Queen.
9444382
Besides Gallus surviving instead of ending up like Quantum minced meat is one hell of a Chekov Gun...
9444471
Well 'The Void Seeker' has cargo space as shown in one of the missions before the LOV campaign shows, so a short flight might fix that...
9444746
One line that hit harder than the Marine Guns ever could punch into her defenses...
9445281
What a epic meeting in the future...
9457108
What can they do? Space Age isn't even reached yet...
9461659
I hope WOL / HOS / LOV & NOCA's campaign are covered at the end
9511003
Also they only had to survive 10 Minutes... Nydus worms are a bitch to counter...
9699279
Indeed... Friendship takes a backseat, still let's not count it out yet...
Okay so this is at the beginning of Wings so that means Karragin hasn't gotten her big upgrade from Zeraus.
Double 'the'.
Ha-haaa! Raynor and Sweety just meet one another. The rivalry starts here ♡
11797786
She still needs to be purified before returning to the Swarm on her own terms.