Wall-ins. So frequently used that they’re hardly even annoying, just expected.
The thing at the bottom of the ramp though? Not so much. It can pretty much be assured that no marine ever knew the word ‘chauteuse,’ what colour that was, but that was the colour of the pony pacing hopefully below them.
“Sarge? Saaaarge?” A marine called from his spot behind the depot.
“What?”
“There’s a unicorn...”
“That has to be the dumbest, most insane-oh nevermind she’s right there. I see.” The sergeant was another marine, and of the two guarding the spot had the higher tolerance to alcohol. This may or may not have been directly related to his promoted status whether as a cause, an effect, or even both.
He cuffed his fellow and pointed. Lyra beamed. “Kind of our groupie, but take it from me, she’s good.”
“So can I come in?” she called up. The supply depot, a barracks and attached tech lab made up the obstruction; an unintuitive but effective use for the buildings. The lights on the tech lab lit up; machinery began its busy whirr.
“You know we’re kind of in the middle of something, yeah? Might not be the best time for-”
“Early double expand four gas hive rush,” she said merrily. “Probably trying a timing mutalisk harass into blorbs.” She looked to befuddled marine. “Oh, a rookie, right. That’s broodlords to you.”
“How-” the marine began, but was shushed. Lyra only shrugged.
“I can be hard to notice like that.”
But...”
“I don’t see how, I mean, bright green isn’t really a stealthy colour, but something works.”
“But...zerg!”
“Eh, don’t worry about” the unicorn muttered, giving a little gesture as if to say ‘eh, don’t worry about it.’ Which is what she did say. Precisely that. “Oh!” she shouted, her eyes bright and wide. “Can I do the thing can I do the thing can I do the thing! Please?”
The sergeant only chuckled, his fellow marine gawked near-silently. “Fine, go crazy.”
With adulations of ‘yay,’ Lyra sauntered up the ramp and stood before the supply depot. The squat square sat, until the unicorn boldly declared for it to lower. Servos whirred into action, bringing the flat roof of the structure down flush with the ground in a whoosh of steam and air.
Lyra stepped atop it. “Raise!” and it did, the whole thing flinging her high up over it. “Wee!
Lower! Raise- Wee! Lower! Raise-Wee!” The unicorn did silly flips and poses as she bounced over thirty feet into the air. Workers from the mineral line peeked from their tasks to watch.
“Do a backflip!” one called out.
“Do a barrel roll!” another shouted. She did both, and more, to everyone’s great pleasure.
Then the zerglings showed up.
“Waitwaitwait I totally got this!” she shouted. “Lower!”
“No, no! It needs to be up! Up! Raise, Raise!” It didn’t. The savage little beasts were tearing up the ramp, a hop, skip and jump from Lyra. A skip - they were right on top of her now, how was she only smiling?! - and a jump.
“Raise!” Lyra howled out gleefully. Screaming zerglings - they’d been screaming before, but instead of the ‘rawwr we’re crazy mofo nasty’ screams these were ‘omgomgomg this is bad’ screams befitting small-minded terror.
Up they all went, scrabbling and twisting through nothing, full of panic. Lyra pushed them back with skillful, deft movements, so that as they came down the zerglings fell outside the wall-in. Lyra landed lightly atop it.
“Ha!” she shouted victoriously as scuffling zerglings picked themselves up from the dust.
“Shouldn’t we be shooting or something?”
“Nah.” The barracks comprising the other half of the wall lit up, adding its lights of business to the lab’s.
They charged the wall again, only to have Lyra’s timing put them through the same flying expectations. After the third time, the sergeant was feeling downright sympathetic. Motivated by such feelings of mercy, he raised his gauss rifle and fired.
The bullets smashed on rock and the beasties scattered.
“Git outta here!” he called after them. Giggling and short for breath, Lyra jittered off to the command centre in search of a cool drink.
“See you later, Lyra.”
“Keep it real, bro.”
Then the tech lab dinged a notification and a combat shield grew into existence from nothingness at his left arm.
The unicorn disappeared around a corner, and more or less right than the third marine spawned. “Anything happening?” he asked.
“Pretty much just what you’d expect,” said the sergeant. “Zerg going on air, I hear.”
The second marine only gawked, but sort of wanted to weep a little bit too.
That was amusing. *wheeeee~!*
Although that's actually a scary thought - upgraded zerglings with wings gliding down from Ultra backs, Overlords, or high ground Nydus Worms. Like one-way reapers, but mineral only!
1740415 Typo corrected!
I don't play terran, I don't even particularily like them (I'm about 60%-40% Protoss-Zerg) but whatever way you slice it, they're getting the short end of the stick here.
We've got Oracles which look to be really fun, and Tempests which are damn beautifully blunt, not to mention the mothership does-everything core. Or Swarmhosts and Vypers.
What do Terran get? Banelings on springs, more or less. and While I think the MMM with a heavy dose of Helbat could be more applicable than seen so far, it still leaves them out to to dry.
Siege tanks are in a tough pinch >.<
I HATE THEM...BUT GODDAMN I RESPECT THEM - so it's enough to leave me wondering.
1742901
nonono, 23 RANGE. You seen the new Hots Units? The tempest is basically the epic old little spunky corsair if it went away for a ten year montage and took a boatload of steroids. It spawned with FIFTEEN range, and had an upgrade called Grativy Sling that increased it to TWENTY THREE They changed it so that it gives additional damage vs massive.
Tanks do as much damage as they ever did, and are still, I believe, the only unit to have group smart-targeting.
Great story. With these last two chapters, I've noticed a new direction in your writing. Now we have stories shared between ponies and units, as opposed to one character trying to outdo the other, or a pony taking the place of a unit (though it might be cool to see a unit take the role of one of the ponies on an average day in Ponyville).
1795066
I hadn't thought of that last bit
Well... um...
Ok, you've convinced me. This story is great, and I've only read the Defiler chapter. The humor in this is wonderful, and the analogies make me laugh. I'd laugh if I wasn't in a lab, honest.
Fantastic writing, ambion. Fantastic indeed.
Equestria. Home to many diverse beings, creatures both sapient and not, some capable of inspiring great growth in plants while others wield the awesome powers of Reality. Such a country is expectant of many strange things due to these circumstances, but none stranger than what occurs in a little hut a mile away from Ponyville.
In said hut, a human and dragon sit in front of a computer, navigating through a website that has revealed to the dragon many horrors, but many laughs and great things. Entire worlds waited for him beyond the monitor's glow, but they navigated to one story in particular...
"Ok, first thing's first, what the heck is Starcraft?"
Starcraft? It's an RTS, one of the greatest RTSes ever made. To ask what it is is to insult Starcraft.
"That doesn't tell me what it is."
Alright, alright. Starcraft is a Real Time Strategy game based around the trials of three factions, the Terrans, Protoss and Zerg. The Terrans are like me; humans, but they're all part of a military under the leadership of the Terran Dominion, headed up by Emperor Arcturus Mengsk. The Protoss are an extremely advanced society of psychically-enabled aliens. Every single member of said society is capable of some form of psychic ability, so think about a thousand Twilights.
"I'd rather not think about that, thanks."
Fair enough. The Protoss are extremely advanced, wielding technology often spoken about in science fiction novels; storms conjured from the mind, blades made from coursing energy, sleek ships wielding the power of monstrous weapons, even walking mechs.
The Zerg are the infectious, ultimately destructive alien species of Starcraft, aiming to assimilate the universe's advanced races and bring them all into its fold under the leadership of the Overmind, an enigmatic leader with great intelligence, and a connection to every single one of its troops through a complicated network of Cerebrates and Overlords. The Zerg is currently lead by Sarah Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades. She was previously a Terran Ghost, a human psychic, who was infected with the Zerg hyperevolutionary virus and turned into the perfect Zerg soldier. She broke away from the Overmind's control, however, and lead the forces of the UED, as well as Zeratul, towards killing the Overmind under the guise that it would throw the Zerg into disarray. She could then get them under control and eliminate the threat altogether.
"But it didn't work out like that."
If there's one thing you should know about a Ghost, it's that you never let them persuade you into doing anything. Kerrigan is the greatest example of a deceptive bitch. Too bad Raynor has such a massive crush on her, even as the Queen of Blades...
"Alright. So, this story is about...?"
It's about Equestria and Starcraft butting heads like two angry bulls at a rodeo.
"Huh. Alright... hey, the first chapter's about me! Wait, what's an Ultralisk?"
That'd be the Zerg monstrosity capable of cutting down about twenty ponies in a single swipe.
"Holy guacamole!"
Yep. Shall we read?
"Uh, I d-don't think I wanna read about me getting beat down by a monster..."
Ahhh, don't worry! It'll be great!
*Spike reluctantly nods his head, and Steel clicks the link for the first chapter...*