When I see a world untouched by war...

by StreakTheFox

Part 1

-:|Part 1|:-

Purple is such a nasty color.

This was all the Ghost allowed himself to think as he stared over the boulder he was crouched behind. Past the boulder, across a field and beyond a canyon lay a sickly lavender mass of flesh that threatened to pour over the cliff. The mass that pooled over the soil seemed to ooze a fog that lingered just above the surface, and had a pungent smell of dead creatures and fungi that the Ghost would be able to smell from where he was were it not for his mask. But even still, he knew what Zerg creep smelled like. He remembered it from when he narrowly escaped Tarsonis while it was being overrun by the Zerg. And here they were, once more, on the planet of Mar Sara.

This is not what he wanted. This is not what he planned for. He knew what the creep meant, he knew all too well. And from where he stood he could see it travel over a large hill with cliffs on either side, making whatever lay beyond hidden by the landscape. But he was no fool, he just hated the look of that color.

It was really the only emotion he felt, really. The Ghost Conditioning - as it did for most Ghosts in training - left him mostly emotionless. He felt little, regardless of what it was he did. He knew what his job was; The Dominion's personal tool of death to be used how they see fit. He knew his mission as well, to assassinate Raynor before he got off the planet. He was prepared to infiltrate his camp. He was prepared to do the deed, and then follow up with a hasty escape. He was prepared to set down his life in an effort to eliminate the target designated by his superiors.

But nothing had prepared him for the Zerg.

The only emotions he felt when he actually felt anything was either hate, anger, or the feeling of satisfaction he got when either his target, or the subject of his rage was put down before him. Satisfaction. That was the feeling he enjoyed the most. After all the fighting, after all the tactical maneuvers and dedication to the mission, the thing that pleased him the most was at the end of the day, he could go back to his base knowing he completed the job. He was satisfied. His superiors were satisfied. But The Dominion... The Dominion was never satisfied. After all he would do, they would tell his superiors to make him go out and kill more. Not that it bothered him, really, but that it took away his feeling of satisfaction. How could he be satisfied if he knew more was to be expected of him?

So here he is, looking at the disgust change to the landscape that he knew would mean intense complications for him and his mission. He sighed inwardly, taking a moment to collect himself before continuing on his way to the outpost of Raynor’s Raiders. He ducked down low behind rocks and small embankments to keep himself concealed, and used his cloaking when necessary. He wasn’t any unusual Ghost, in all actuality. Yes, each Ghost was slightly different from another in their own little way, but the vast majority of them were very similar to one another. The only exceptions to this were the rogues, and the very skilled of his kind who were actually able to keep their names.

Names. To have a name was to be seen as an individual, a working piece separate from all others in their own way. But the Ghost here was not one of those things. He was part of the Dominion, just an appendage to act in a manner of their choosing. He didn’t have a name, only a code by which he knew assimilated himself into the Dominion’s archive. Q6793O. That was his name, as far as he was concerned. That, or simply Ghost.

So there he was, traveling to his destination which was still several clicks (1 ‘click’ is 1 Kilometer) away. He looked over the horizon, seeing multiple mutalisks fly up into view, heading towards something in the direction he was going. He expected the to simply be on their way to attack the Raider’s outpost, and in truth, he was right. But what he didn’t expect was to see a giant cruiser drop down from orbit, the fires of re-entry still licking at its hull as it began to unleash a devastating flurry of ordinance on whatever was around it. A few blasts of superheated plasma hit some of the mutalisks as they began to swarm the craft, but most were pointed towards the ground, along with a single ray of pure energy from the front of the craft.

A Battlecruiser, the Ghost sighed out loud at the thought, no longer caring for stealth as he watched the battle in the air. Wonderful. And I bet Raynor is on his way inside the thing right now. Sure enough, he could see a single mass of dropships, along with several floating structures making their way up to the ship. But the worst part of it all was that his craft had already left almost half an hour ago.

It was things like this that angered him, that made him rage. There as his target, somewhere aboard that ship and probably about to fly off to safety - and to another world - while he was left behind to fend for himself against the Zerg. Not only would he fail his mission, but he would also most likely die, either by the Zerg or by the Protoss when they come to purify the planet again. He would fail, and then he would die. First he would be rendered ultimately useless while shamed by failure, and then he would be left to die. Alone. Not even as a tool, not anymore.

He couldn’t accept this. It made him angry. No, infuriated. He would have broken his C-10 Canister Rifle in half from the sheer rage building inside him were it not for the narcotic injection systems feeding him a drug to calm him down. But even still he could not help but feel intense negative emotions course through him. The only difference now was that his thoughts were more... calculated.

The drugs, while making him less angry, meant he was more calm... more calculated. He looked around, searching for something which he knew might just be present around the nearly barren world. It was a long shot, but he remembered a certain Top Secret species that liked to come to this world specifically, mainly due to how much it resembled their home. He looked behind him, nothing over the hills or around the shrubs of the desert there. He looked to his sides, seeing nothing on either path of the trail. He looked forward once more, over the canyon, seeing the creep still present, though with more Mutalisks flying out of their hive that he knew was just over the hill in the distance.

The Ghost noticed then that the Battlecruiser was starting to pull away, its cargo already loaded inside. He cursed his luck, knowing time was short on his end. He looked around more, trying to figure out where he hasn’t looked... until he realized the one place he overlooked. Past the field was a canyon... it as a longshot, but he had to try. He dashed out of cover, moving as fast as he could towards the canyon. He slung his rifle on his back, knowing he would have to use his hands for what he was about to do. As he was only a few steps away, he noticed a group of ten zerglings rushin over the hill on the opposite side of the canyon string straight at him. They screeched, they slobbered, they all gave their own battle cries as they hungered for the Ghost’s flesh. Bastards, he swore to himself. You won’t stop me!

He knew what he had to do. And though he could feel his trigger finger twitch and his hands grip around a rifle that was not present, he knew he needed both hands free. It was imperative, for if he did not have full control, he would die. And so, after those last few steps, he jumped.

And there it was.

Down in the deepest part of the canyon was what he was searching for, what he had prayed to exist. He could recognize it anywhere; its lime green, rectangular body with a white top. The door on one side with air vents on the other three. The way it seemed to stick out from everything else in the landscape.

A porta-potty.

But not just any porta-potty, a Tauren porta-potty. And it was there, all for him. All he had to do, was get to it.

And thus his freefall began, his body shifting in the air so that his head was pointed straight down, his arms stuck to his sides to make him move like a giant, speeding bullet. As he fell further the sides began approaching him, and it was then that he reached out his arms. In all he only fell for a couple seconds, and every move the ghost had to make was incredibly quick and precise. His hands hit the very steep side of the canyon, instantly curling up and allowing his body to tumble over against it. His body rolled, curled into a tight ball while his hands grabbed onto his shins to keep his form.

Another few seconds passed, and then he was launched into the air. He caught a glimpse of the canyon side, noticing that the slope abruptly ended and turned into a straight drop. He also caught sight of the ground, it was very close, only about 30 meters away. In the next moment his arms let go and reached out as his body flung open like a frog in mid-leap. He was belly-down, looking straight at a rocky stalagmite sticking up in the middle of the canyon.

Fortunately for him, his launch had led him straight towards the very top of the rock formation. He cupped his hands and grabbed around the peak of the stalagmite, swinging his body around the side. His hands slid against the rock in the next instant, allowing his body to rapidly reduce in speed at a smooth, controlled rate while swirling around the body of the rock. His arms were soon holding around it, applying enough pressure to keep himself attached to the rock while still sliding down further. Finally, after another look down to the ground, he noticed he was only a few meters away. He kicked his feet off the side of the stalagmite, allowing him to fall the rest of the way to the bottom of the canyon, landing on his feet.

But he wasn’t alone. The zerglings were far more nimble as him, and though they didn’t perform a leap of faith like he did, they were already almost to the base of the canyon simply by leaping down and using their beastly appendages to slow their descent enough to provide control against the incredibly steep slopes. And already three of them were just about to the bottom, right where he was.

The Ghost backed up, pulling his C-10 Canister Rifle off of his back and taking aim. The porta-potty was almost right beside him, he could see it from the corner of his eye. But still, he didn’t want to take chance of the zerglings damaging it while he was inside. Using his psionic abilities to grant him precision aim, even against the fast-moving zerglings, he popped off three shots. Each shot went into one of the eye sockets of the three lead zerglings, penetrating into their brains and killing them instantaneously. Their bodies slumped dead and fell the rest of the way down the canyon, landing harshly against the floor near his feet.

He used his scope to look up at the remaining lings, noticing them only halfway down the canyon, taking their time to be more careful. Perfect. The Ghost turned around, opening the door of the porta-potty and entering quickly. At first glance, it looked like a perfectly normal out-house. And for a moment, the Ghost doubted his decision. However, jutting out from the side near the toilet opening was a lever. A small, almost invisible lever that looked like it would belong to a normal toilet.

And then it occurred to him. A lever to flush a toilet would never be found inside a porta-potty, unless...

He put his finger to the lever and immediately pushed down, and then the small, seemingly plastic structure came to life. the whole thing shook violently as thrusters popped out from its underside. There was an intense rattling, the Ghost assuming it was the thrusters powering up while a control panel and viewing screen popped out of the toilet and come up to his face. The toilet seat split in half and shifted around, swinging behind him and forming into a more suitable seat. The screen flickered to life, showing the view of in front of him as the white panel above turned transparent, allowing him to view what was directly above. And finally, the control panel itself lit up, all the buttons and controls becoming illuminated just before the boosters fired up.

Outside the remaining zerglings reached the bottom, and instantly sprang towards the little structure to attack. They saw the Ghost enter it, they knew he was inside. That was all the incentive they needed to rip it apart to find him. Only, just as their long talons were about to rip into the porta-potty’s rapidly vibrating side, the whole thing came to meet them... in the face.

The porta-potty launched into the air in a blast of fire and exhaust smoke, smashing into the one zergling that had managed to find itself a split second away from tearing into it. The ling yelped out in surprise and pain, falling back into the canyon as the makeshift spacecraft flew into the sky.

On the interior of the toilet ship was the Ghost, his hands glued to the one control stick jutting out of the control panel. As he looked up he noticed the Battlecruiser was directly above, but flying by at a rapid pace. All around were mutalisks, so many mutalisks. They were all desperately trying to attack the giant cruiser in an effort to bring it down.

A beeping noise came from the view panel in front of the ghost, and then an outlined image of the Battlecruiser popped up in red. Several more symbols and boxes of words popped up rapidly, but one line caught the Ghost’s attention out of everything else.

Hyperspace Jump Detected...

That was not good. If the Battlecruiser jumped into hyperspace before the Ghost could get to it, he would lose them forever. He looked up, spotting a gap in the ship where a piece was blown off. If I can just direct this craft into that gap, I could ride the hyperspace jump and end up wherever it goes. Sure, it was a bit of a longshot for the Ghost, but it was his only option.

He began to tilt the porta-potty’s trajectory, bringing it right up alongside the Battlecruiser. All he had to do was outrun it just a little bit to reach the gap in the armor on the midsection of the ship. It was coming closer, only a few more seconds and he would be upon it. The sounds of the battle outside filled his ears, but he drowned it all out as he got closer and closer.

The gap was right there, he knew he would make it now. Just another few seconds and he would be there, he would make it to his objective. He would follow the ship to where it was going, he would land where it would, and he would eliminate the target. He would be useful, he would be a good tool for The Dominion. He would be satisfied. And for a moment, a smile came across his face.

And then the Battlecruiser jumped, without his craft being in the gap. But still, the porta-potty was caught in the hyperspace field that surrounded the larger craft... but only just.

Off they went, away from the Zerg and to a safer sector of space. Only, the Battlecruiser took this route. The flying out-house, although it was granted a jump through hyperspace, was not tied to the Battlecruiser for very long. It veered off in the middle of the jump, taking its own course through space to somewhere unknown. It ripped its own hyperspace tunnel, traveling many millions of times faster than the speed of light to a destination unknown. It sped across the solar system, across the quadrant, across the sector, and even across the entire galaxy. And by the time it finally found an exit, only a split second after entering hyperspace, it was nowhere within the chartered sectors of space.

Inside the craft the Ghost lost consciousness from the unstable fling through time and space, and ended up laying curled up on the floor. The sudden jolt of being ripped from its usual course through hyperspace should have blown the craft into oblivion, and it would have or any other Terran craft. But the porta-potty was of Tauren engineering, a much sturdier construction that rivaled that of the Protoss. But even still the craft was damaged, its engines shutting off as soon as it re-entered regular space.

And thus, there he was. Floating unconscious through space inside of a high-tech portable latrine made by a race of intelligent cows. The systems inside were still active, but were glitching out to the point where they were no longer usable. And yet, even so, the systems were able to detect something. Past the random codes that sputtered through the system, and through all the random symbols and alert messages that popped up on the main screen, a notification found its way to the front. It was a circular image, one with a text box describing it. It was attempting to alert the pilot of something outside, a giant cosmic object that was just beginning to be illuminated on the craft’s side by the sun it orbited.

The craft was heading straight towards an unknown planet. A planet... with life.

~~~

A quote by lizard4231:
"The character is essentially a highly trained special forces operative that serves the combined entity of the entire human race in a war against a horrifying alien species that utilizes evolution to hone its body and take over the universe (the zerg) and a highly technologically advanced alien species called the protoss, who's only goal is to eradicate the zerg by any means possible. The main character is called a "Ghost", and is able to flag tactical nuclear strike targets (although it must be known that the ghost does not have a nuclear device himself, he simply can request a strike from his base). Ghosts are excellent snipers, and are trained to lose literally all emotion other than a small, acceptable amount of pure hate for anything that stands in the way of the Terrans, or their ruling superpower the Dominion. There, now you have all the info you need: ruthlessly efficient, mechanically enhanced sniper/supersoldier, with extensive and grueling physical and mental training, trained to hunt and kill aliens and human rebels (Raynor and his Raiders are examples of these) alike."

http://www.fimfiction.net/user/lizard4231 (His profile)

Thank you for the contribution!

Comments

[1I1I1I]

a tauren outhouse? oh lawdy...

[TheObserver]

A space porta potty made by intelligent cows.... awesome

[Dr Hammer]

Normally a Ghost 2 shots to kill a zergling, even with upgrades, but as you said, he is different....

[The Tainted One]

1521400 Snipe in SC2 one-shots a Zergling.

[Kishin]

One "click" is not a kilometer. The proper grammatical term is a "klick".

I like this though. I always was a fan of Spectres, but (I already read Ch.2) this is going to be epic. I know it.

Watched and liked. Oh and congrats on the feature!

[NightmareKnight]

What is this from? And this story is breaking the rules. I honestly don't care, but I felt like you should know.

[Discorded Q]

Sure, it was a bit of a longshot for the Ghost, but it was his only option.
He began to tilt the porta-potty’s trajectory...

You keep referencing longshots but never play on it.

Add something in between... Like:

...Sure, it was a bit of a longshot for the Ghost, but it was his only option.

After all, longshots are what he's best at.

He began to tilt the porta-potty’s trajectory...

[Dead_Page]

The ultimate in tribal cow engineering. Seems legit.

[Harbinger_Gunship]

Lol a easter egg being used to chase after a battlecrusier Good move good move

[The Gargoyle]

Looks Promising!

[matangadijolachanga]

more.....*calculating*.
anyways good stuff i will follow you up.

[Muhanoid]

One more Ghost story! Wait a second...
Looks very similar to this one from start.

Reading more...

[Visible spectre]

something to listen to while you read!!

[Potato Pride]

A super advanced outhouse made by intelligent cows? Has to be the best thing I've ever read

[Odd_Sarge]

1521341 Truly, intelligent space cows can create many things, because, they imagine.

[the other sans]

He expected the to simply be on their way
a group of ten zerglings rushin over the hill
opposite side of the canyon string straight at him

1. Them.
2. Rushing.
3. Staring.

And yes, many people have mentioned but I will say it again... using the easter egg to lay the plot Now if only there were mentions of Murloc Marines and such

[IndexOutOfBounds]

you mispelled "quote" at the end

[Dourden776]

i have a feeling this story starts in Zero Hour, that one mission when you have to hold off the Zerg, because in the Zerg base you can find a porta-potty that a tauren marine climbs into and flies away in.

[Fire Blitz]

AHHH Planet Equus