Hello Again!
Here is the second chapter to my story. I know that I am
forgetting a lot of things that I mentioned in my original
post for this chapter, but I do not have my computer right now,
and so cannot research into everything that should probably be
said. When these chapters are archived at the web site, I'll
have more complete Notes for all of ya to read.
I am told that the repost of the prelude and first chapter
contained many strange symbols, due to Word and its text
conversions. Let me know if they appear here as well!
That being said, lets give this a try....
WARNING: Spoilers for the game Starcraft lie herein, at least up to
the end of the Terran campaign. If you have not completed this
campaign and you do not want to know what happens (although I plan on
changing some things), then do not read this story!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma 1/2 nor any of the characters thereof.
I do not own Starcraft, nor any of the characters therein. I am using
these names and characters without permission, but I am not doing so
for profit. Please do not sue me!
Chapter 2
It was nighttime. The black sky was ablaze with thousands of
stars that shone their light with implied serenity. It was a time for
rest and relaxation, to be safe and secure in your bed and home. But
on the Confederacy's home world of Tarsonis, that was not to be.
Kerrigan was running. A frantic scramble over the barren, broken
ground that comprised most of this part of Tarsonis. Fear, so strong
that she was nearly gibbering with it, raced through her veins.
Another rock, another boulder, jump the crevice, duck behind another
hill, another mountain. She had been running this way for hours, and
was definitely feeling the effects. As she bodily hauled herself onto
a high rock shelf, she had to pause for the first time, to catch her
breath. And with the respite, reasoning and comprehension slowly
returned to her tired mind. The fear began to lessen, but not by
much. Standing up, she hugged herself close to the face of the hill
and looked back in the direction she had just come from. In the
distance she could see the rebel base of New Gettysberg burning,
destroyed by the Zerg. When her heart rate had diminished and her
breathing was no longer as labored, she could only mutter one thing.
'Damn you Arcturus!' Then she was off again, climbing the hill to
reach the higher mountains that lay beyond.
They were out there, she could feel them. Four packs of Zerg
spread out behind her in a fan-shaped pattern, with the two on the
ends moving faster than the two more directly behind her. Soon the
two faster moving ones would be beside her and she would be boxed in.
*And then what?* she thought to herself. *Worry about that later
girl, its time to GO!* And she started running for the foothills that
were just before her.
Suddenly the ground in front of her started to shake, and a brown
shape burst through the rocky soil! The monster shook off the dirt
that clung to it and stared at Kerrigan with solid red eyes. Before
it had time to take a single step however, Kerrigan had unslung the
rifle that was strapped to her back, and had launched a canister. The
small can flew through the air and impacted directly on the creature's
forehead, exploding violently upon reaching its target. The Zerg's
head exploded along with the projectile, and the rest of its body
ruptured, staining the ground with blood and gore. Pumping another
round into the rifle's chamber, Kerrigan held her breath and tried to
determine if any more aliens were burrowed into the ground she was
headed for. If there were, they were too well hidden for her talents
to discover. Moving slowly over to the body, she stood over it and
examined the carcass. It was a Zergling. About half the height of a
grown human when standing, the brown alien jumped more than ran on two
powerful rear legs. Its two forelegs, if they could be called that,
ended in large, downward-curving scythes made out of bone, razor sharp
and strong enough to cut through most metals in just a few hits. Two
smaller arms extended upwards from its back and ended in claws that
were equally as sharp. The whole body was covered with a tough
carapace. While moving, the Zergling could cover ground very fast,
with its long flat head low to the ground, and its balance kept by a
large tail that extended behind its legs. Its head, if it still had
one, would have had many sharp teeth, and several horns growing from
both the top and the sides of its skull. The weakest of the Zerg, the
Zerglings nevertheless could do a lot of damage in a short time when
in large groups. *And,* she thought while looking around, *they are
always in large groups.* She had just seen an entire military base
reduced to flaming rubble under a swarm of such creatures.
A soft beeping from her arm caused her to glance quickly at her
wrist, where a small power indicator was flashing a number. *100,
huh?* she thought, looking back towards the pass she wanted to take
into the higher mountains. Thinking about the surprise she just had,
she made her decision and pressed a button on her wristpad. And then
she disappeared. Her footsteps, however, could be heard running along
the path and into the foothills.
An Hour Later, In The Foothills Of The Highridge Mountains
Sarah Kerrigan, ex-second in command of the rebel group known
as the Sons of Korhal, was crouching down into a natural ravine,
peeking over one side in an attempt to see any Zerg that might be
heading her way. In order to conserve and replenish her suit's power,
she had turned off the cloaking field and was once again visible. But
the time she had spent undetectable and been well spent. She had been
able to gain some ground on her pursuers for a short while, and she
allowed herself to rest in this easily defendable location for a few
minutes. She now had a problem though. The Zerg that had been
following her were still out there, closing in, but now she also felt
more small packs nearing her location. And these were from the front.
Boxed in, she was desperately trying to think of a way out of the trap
she was in.
Twenty minutes later, she was even more confused. They had her.
They had to know they had her. All they would have had to do was
swarm in and she, possibly the last surviving human on the planet,
would be dead. *So what in the hell are they doing!?* The Zerg had
surrounded her location, albeit at a great distance, and had been
slowly closing in from each of the compass points, when suddenly they
stopped. *Why? What are they up to?*
Breathing deeply, Kerrigan closed her eyes and let her mind reach
out, trying to discover what was going on and, perhaps, where a hole
in the noose might be so that she could escape. What she felt was
that three of the small packs of aliens, the ones to her South,
Southwest, and Southeast, had broken formation and were grouping
together to the South. Another strange thing is that this newly
created pack was slowly becoming smaller. *Are they burrowing?
Killing each other?* She could not understand what they were doing.
The small packs to the East and West had broken in two and the newly
created parts were slowing moving their way to fill the gaps the SW
pack and the SE pack had left. At the speed they were going, it would
take several minutes at least to reach those areas, but that was still
not enough time for her to take advantage of the shifting pattern.
*Not Zergling, otherwise they would be almost there by now,* she
thought, turning pale at the thought, *must be something bigger.
Hydralisk, maybe Ultralisk.* Things were not looking good. *If I
stay here, I'm dead. If I go out, I'm dead. Either way, I'm fucked.*
She paused for a second and chuckled bitterly to herself. *Well, I
guess that's what is supposed to happen to martyrs.* She knew that
with her gun, suit, and assassin skills she would take down a good
number of enemy. She also knew, however, that there were always more
Zerg. Clenching her rifle tightly she stood up and started running to
the Southeast, hoping that she might reach the gap before the slow
moving Zerg could fill it up. 'Arcturus, you bastard!' she shouted as
she pressed the cloaking button again. *Sorry, Jim.* she thought as
she disappeared. She did not need her mental powers to know that she
would not make it in time. She just wanted to get this farce over
with.
She covered even less ground than she had figured before she was
stopped. A powerful wave of _something_ slammed into her mind and
physically knocked her to the ground. She was vaguely aware of her
suit shorting out as she quickly began to loose consciousness.
Fighting back the blackness, she forced herself up into a sitting
position, and then into a shaky standing one. 'What the hell
was that?' she asked herself out loud. 'It came from the South...'
Pushing back a massive headache that was starting to form, she let
her senses range out to the South and gasped at what she felt.
Absolutely nothing. The Zerg that had been grouping there were
totally gone, and so were the packs that had been headed for the
Southeast and Southwest positions. She briefly considered the
idea that they had simply gone underground, but rejected it,
for that would not explain the power that had knocked her down. No,
she had a feeling that those Zerg were no longer an issue. Not one to
look a gift horse in the mouth, she quickly picked up her rifle from
the ground and ran as fast as she could towards the now wide open
South. A quick check while running filled her with relief as she
discovered that her suit had merely been drained of power rather than
seriously damaged. And thus she escaped the first trap and headed
deeper into the Zerg infested mountain range.
Two Hours Later, Deep Into the Highridge Mountains
*Damn. You. Damn. You. Damn. You. Damn. You. Dam*--pick
yourself up. Damn. You. Damn. You. Damn. You.* 'Damn' for left
foot, 'You' for right. *Damn. You.* It had become a mantra. *Damn.
You. Damn.* Something to keep her mind off of what she was doing.
*You. Damn. You.* Something to keep from thinking about her legs.
*Damn.* How dead they felt, how heavy. *You. Pick yourself up.*
The problem was *Damn* it was getting harder *You* and harder *Damn*
to think *You* and to do. *Pick yourself up. Pick yourself...*
Kerrigan sat against a small boulder near which she had
collapsed. Just as the sun was peeking over the horizon, she had
climbed onto a natural, six-pace wide ledge that wove around the
midsection of a jagged mountain. She had been following this trail for
the past hour; trying to find someplace, anyplace, where she could
hide until she was rested. Her tired mind was unable to concentrate
enough to scan the area, and her exhausted muscles protested even the
simple act of breathing. She sat for a minute with her eyes closed and
her head bowed. Then she forced herself back onto her leaden feet,
using her rifle as a cane. She had started to carefully move her way
down the trail, when a huge shadow engulfed her from behind. Quickly
turning around, she came face to face with one of the things she most
did not want to see.
Nine feet tall, the creature had a serpentine
body in the general shape of an upright S, the top part of which was
flared and encased in a natural armor-like carapace that extended up
into a dull point at the apex. The neck was protected by a swept back
carapace plate which extended from the back of the alien's head.
These carapace plates were studded with thousands of small needle-like
projections which, she knew, could be shot with great force at any
target on the ground or in the sky. The two eyes in its face were a
solid gold color, and the wide mouth's lower jaw was comprised of a
slightly oversized set of mandibles. Its inner mouth was studded with
sharp teeth of course. Two arms came from under the natural armor,
double jointed, and ending in long, thin blades made from bone and
enamel, much like two long, deadly teeth. Most of its body was brown,
except for its underside, which was a light gray. It was a Hydralisk,
one of the more dangerous breeds of the Zerg. The Hydralisks had a
reputation of being particularly sadistic when killing an enemy with
its needle weapons. The two beings, the powerful killing machine and
the exhausted human, stared at each other from a distance of about ten
feet, neither one moving. And then Kerrigan acted, as well as she
could. Panic and despair flooded her mind as she forced her screaming
muscles to lift the powerful rifle up towards her shoulder...but she
did not get a chance to even lift it an inch off the ground when one
of the powerful blade-arms swung out and smashed broad-sided into her
chest, flinging her back into the side of the mountain. The last
thing she saw as the world started to go dark around her, was a bright
red and black blur fly past her, towards the advancing Hydralisk.
Her last thought before losing consciousness was *Why didn't it kill
me?*