SpecOps: Stories
New Beginnings
SpecOps: New Beginnings starts just before the destruction of the Overmind. It shows how several of the SpecOps characters met and details some of the events that changed their lives, as well as bridging the gap between Starcraft and Brood War (the way I think it happened! :P ). Enjoy!
Introduction: My Life for Aiur
On the viewscreen, chaos reigned. A group of Protoss dark templar hacked away at a bleeding sunken colony, its tentacles flailing around, desperately trying to ward off its attackers. A pair of Terran siege tanks were firing point-blank range at an attacking Zerg ultralisk. Zealots and marines, firebats and dragoons, templar and ghosts stood shoulder to shoulder against the Zerg swarms. In the air, wraiths and scouts danced a lethal ballet with mutalisks while carriers and battlecruisers fought valiantly to eliminate large strategic
targets like spore colonies and struggled to survive against the intermittent packs of flying bombs known as scourges.
As he shifted his gaze away from the aerial battle and back to the ground action, James Raynor was appalled at the massacre. The two siege tanks he had seen only seconds before were gone, their burning hulks still being hacked to pieces by the ravenous swarms. The ground was saturated with red Terran and blue Protoss blood, clashing sickeningly with the purple of the mold-like Zerg creep.
Yet despite the carnage, Raynor could almost taste victory. The Overmind was already under direct fire from the air, and the warriors on the ground were closing in rapidly as Raynor’s monitor indicated that the Hyperion’s energy banks had finally charged to the required level.
“Raynor to fire control,” he called over the comm. “Ready the Yamato Cannon.”
A handful of heartbeats later, his monitor glared confirmation that the weapon had acquired its target. “We’re ready, captain.”
“Fire!”
The entire bridge shook as the massive weapon charged. With a great shudder, the Hyperion loosed a beam of pure energy that struck the nightmarish Overmind just above the ground. A small mushroom cloud arose, illuminating the newly-formed hole in the exterior “shell”. Several crew members whooped in delight and leapt from their stations.
“All right, kids, well done. But save it for later. Game faces on.” Raynor did his best to suppress a large grin himself. “It’s far from over.”
. . .
Zeratul ducked as a large tentacle swung over his head. Within seconds, the dying colony could fight no more, and he and his brethren pressed in and finished it with their blades. He had organized this group of his dark templar followers to hit strategic targets like the now-dead colony, with a group of dragoons lending cover fire and fending off counterattacks while they decimated their targets.
And so far, we have done well, he thought. The Overmind loomed above them, very close now. Soon, vile beast, soon....
Zeratul’s thoughts were interrupted by a sense of immediate danger, and he swung around, cleanly slicing a lunging zergling in two. Behind it came a pair of hydralisks, and Zeratul rolled to the side as a hail of needle spines hit the ground where he had stood moments before. As he came back up, he saw that the rest of his brethren were similarly engaged in close-quarters combat with the Zerg.
And as he spun away from another suicidal zergling, it hit him: the dragoons. He furiously searched the area around him, and there they were, their shattered exoskeletons lying nearby. Without their cover fire, Zeratul and his group were vulnerable, and that was not a good position to be in in the middle of a Zerg hive cluster, especially this one.
“Not this close,” he said aloud to the swarms, “to fail now.”
Zeratul raised his fists and looked up at the Overmind overshadowing them. You will feel my blades, he thought.
And loudly commanding his remaining comrades to do likewise, the veteran dark templar charged at the menacing nightmare that was the Overmind.
. . .
I never would have imagined Terrans helping to save us, Fenix thought. Thank the gods they are.
Up above, Captain Raynor’s ship roared as it fired its...how did they say it? cannon?...at the Overmind, scoring a direct hit. The explosion left a large pit in the behemoth’s exoskeleton...no. It was an actual hole. Thank the gods for this help indeed.
“Woo-hoo!” Apparently the Terrans on the ground had noticed the hole, also. Those who were not actually firing, and even some who were, momentarily lifted their guns into the air, and even their leader, a Terran named Brockman, shook his fist in what Fenix had come to understand was a human sign of jubilation.
Fenix was leading the main ground assault, and most of the Protoss and Brockman’s Terrans still remained together with him, maximizing their effectiveness and survivability. But as of late, they had gained very little ground. The Overmind, undoubtedly sensing the grave threat that this attack posed, had recalled nearly all the Zerg swarms to defensive positions all around itself, and Fenix’s forces had now fought to a standstill with them. It had become a battle of attrition, and the enemy still had many more fighting units to lose.
“Praetor!” Fenix spun towards the source of the warning cry and saw a large pack of zerglings charging directly at him. Knowing he was outnumbered, he fired anyway as rapidly as possible, taking out the lead pair before the rest were upon him.
And in a flash, Nelgala and two other zealots rushed in from the side and struck the oncoming creatures, his old friend throwing himself directly in front of Fenix and striking two zerglings simultaneously. A third slammed into Nelgala, its already lifeless body nonetheless enough to knock the veteran warrior backwards. Fenix slew another zergling as it charged his friend, again stopping it as the last second.
And for the moment, it was over. “I thank you, old friend,” Fenix told the still unsteady Nelgala.
“And I, you,” the zealot replied. “It is good to join you in battle once more, though it is much different.”
“Indeed.” Last time he had been with Nelgala was at Antioch, when the Zerg were still new arrivals on Aiur, and when he still had psi blades of his own.
“Praetor, look!” One of Nelgala’s zealot companions directed Fenix’s gaze past the battle around them...
...to the Overmind, where he could make out a group of dark templar ripping directly into the gigantic entity’s side where Raynor’s ship had left it vulnerable. As he watched, Fenix saw that their blades had begun to strike deep. Red blood flowed from the Overmind’s wound under their assault.
This did not go unnoticed by the Zerg. Whether by desperate command from the Overmind itself or by instinct, the swarms around the Overmind, including those engaged in battle with Fenix’s forces, abandoned the fight and converged on the new threat the dark templar posed.
Leaving the Protoss and Terrans here a clear path to the Overmind themselves.
Brockman saw it first, and ran ahead with his Terran comrades, shouting out over his shoulder for the Protoss to follow, and some did without even waiting for their praetor’s command.
“The time has come,” Fenix told those around him. “Let us rid our homeworld of this abomination once and for all. For Aiur!”
Less than a minute later, he laughed victoriously as he scored his first hit on the Overmind. Only a few minutes after that, all that remained of the formerly thick and seemingly impenetrable shell was a few shards of hardened bloody skin covering an obviously gravely wounded Overmind.
And then, Tassadar’s voice came alive in his mind. “Executor, the Overmind has been weakened...” Tassadar must have been addressing everyone; even though his message was directed to the commanding executor, the Protoss and even the Terrans around Fenix cocked their heads slightly to listen. “...but I fear we have sustained severe damage ourselves.” Quite true, Fenix thought, as many of the warriors that had been at his side just a few minutes ago now lay dead at the base of his dragoon walker.
Tassadar continued, and Fenix was taken aback by what he said. “I will steer the Gantrithor into a collision course with the Overmind.”
. . .
No!
Raynor shot out of his command chair and stared out the viewport.
To see the bright blue glow Tassadar’s carrier igniting its engines in the distance.
“If I can channel enough of the dark templars’ energy through the hull of the Gantrithor, I should be able to bring to bring swift death to the cursed abom....”
The rest of Tassadar’s speech was a blur as Raynor went numb. There had to be some other way...but he knew that there wasn’t. Despite their accomplishments, the Terran and Protoss forces had been decimated, especially those in the air. The heavily-damaged Hyperion was one of only a handful of remaining ships still intact. Down on the ground things were a little better, but only a small group of survivors now retreating from impending explosion remained out of what had been a massive army.
And now the Gantrithor was almost upon the doomed Overmind. Raynor watched as the remaining Zerg shifted their attention to the new threat bearing down on them.
Up above the Overmind, the sky had grown dark. A swirling, howling whirlwind quickly began to materialize.
I guess Tassadar managed to gather some serious dark templar energy. “Helmsman, move us back a bit, out from under that storm.”
“Aye, cap’n.”
The Hyperion and her fellow ships moved away from the Overmind as the now barely-functional Gantrithor nose-dived towards the monstrosity.
And exploded...no, imploded...with a brilliant white and blue flash that forced Raynor to look away.
By the time his vision cleared enough to look again, the Overmind, and Tassadar, were gone.
__________________________________________________________
Chapter One: The Wake of the Beast
Two Nights Later
The victory Jim Raynor had tasted earlier was now realized, but sour in his mouth as he strode through the first truly combined Terran and Protoss base he had seen. Missile towers and bunkers were illuminated by the pale blue glow from the crystalline pylons, generating psionic power for the main defense of photon cannons. Reavers and siege tanks held position behind them, ready to deter any incoming Zerg. Goliaths and dragoons patrolled the perimeter, vultures laid down mines, and small observers scouted for any sign of approaching enemies. The order was so rigid and the teamwork so well-coordinated that it seemed as though the two races had always worked together.
Raynor walked by one of the several campfires spread throughout the base. His men had introduced the simple custom to their new Protoss comrades the previous night, and the Protoss had quickly accepted the idea of sitting around the flames and swapping stories, drinking a strange brew called taru-dun while the Terrans sipped on coffee and hot cocoa. Some of the Terrans lifted their mugs in salute to their commander, followed a second later by the Protoss. Raynor grinned and nodded back, absently wondering if the Protoss would imitate jumping jacks for the sake of blending in with their new confidantes.
He continued on to the center of the camp, where a nexus rose above the rest of the buildings around it. As he approached the large structure, Raynor couldn’t help but marvel once again at its great craftsmanship. The Protoss still made their buildings mostly by hand, unlike the Terrans which had long used robots and automated construction facilities to assemble their structures. Only in the field were SCVs employed for such a task. Raynor greatly admired not only the speed with which the Protoss could build such an awesome building as a nexus, but how well-built and simply elegant it was. More than just being a control facility like a command center, it was a work of art.
He greeted the guards outside the main entrance and continued inside. Here, things were not as spectacular, but nonetheless pleasing to the eye. The hallways were wide and open, several of them made large enough to accommodate the great dragoon walkers. The walls were smooth and polished, yielding a distorted reflection of Raynor as he walked along towards the elevator.
Here, Raynor smirked. After all the amazing things in this nexus and the seemingly huge gap between Protoss and Terran technologies, the Protoss used elevators, just like humans. It could easily have been built by humans, with “up” and “down” buttons outside and floor buttons inside, he knew. It was funny just how much the two races did have in common. Like our common foe, the Zerg, he thought with a frown. Raynor hit the “up” button and waited.
The elevator arrived seconds later, and the lone occupant, a zealot, greeted Raynor with the usual “En Taro Adun”. Now if Raynor understood this greeting properly, his response would be quite good. If not...let’s just hope I am, he thought. He looked the zealot in the eyes and replied, “En Taro Tassadar.” The zealot blinked and looked at Raynor for a long moment. His face stretched in what Raynor had come to recognize as a smile and asked him for his floor. Raynor replied and leaned back against the side of the lift.
Tassadar.... Raynor replayed the final few moments of that battle over and over in his head while the elevator rose. The clash of forces. The weakening of the Overmind. The final message and noble sacrifice of his friend Tassadar...friend? As good a friend as you ever had, Jim, he thought.
Tassadar was still in his thoughts as the elevator doors opened on the top floor.
. . .
Raynor strode down the final hallway and finally arrived at his destination. He put his hand over a certain panel and the doors in front of him slid open.
Inside was the nexus’ main conference room, or “tryst room”, as the Protoss called it. Right at the top of the nexus, just under the large khaydarin crystal on the top point, the immense room had windows on two sides. The centerpiece was a large table in the center, but unlike the Terran idea of a long, rectangular conference table, this one was circular, with a large khaydarin crystal imbedded into the center.
The room’s decorations were quite ornate. The floor was a polished, yellowish metal looking to be gold, though Raynor couldn’t recall offhand whether or not the Protoss had access to the expensive metal. The walls were also brightly polished, with Protoss engravings in several spots.
Embedded into one wall was two large tanks, almost as high as the ceiling. They were filled with some sort of murky, bluish fluid. Curious, Raynor walked over to one of the tanks to get a closer look.
Before he reached it, the doors swung open, and he spun around to see two Protoss walk in.
The first, a zealot, strode in with his head held high, still young, strong, brave, and more than a little overconfident. He glanced over at Raynor and lifted his hand momentarily in a typical Protoss greeting, which Raynor awkwardly returned. The zealot then threw a quick glance at one of the tanks and continued into the room, making room for the second Protoss to enter.
This Protoss was slightly taller than the zealot. His slightly hunched stride and tattered robes gave evidence of his greater age, though the fire in his eyes showed that he was just as capable a warrior as his younger companion. His greeting, a mere nod, only exemplified his contrast with the other Protoss, for he was a dark templar.
Raynor returned the nod. “Hello, Zeratul.”
“En Taro Adun, Commander Raynor,” Zeratul replied. “I apologize for our delay in arriving. Nelgala and I were required to attend to other matters for a few moments.”
Raynor’s neck tingled. “Anything wrong?”
“Perhaps. One of our observers scouting beyond the camp has vanished. It may be a simple communications problem...our transmissions have been prone to disruption lately, presumably due to the psionic disturbances wrought by the death of the Overmind and the Zerg’s attempts to psionically reestablish some semblance of order. Or it may be...something else. Regardless, we have other matters to discuss. Thank you for joining us.”
Zeratul, Nelgala, and Raynor all took seats at the table. It was then, as Raynor slid into his chair, that he caught a glimpse of movement to the side. His hand instinctively slid to the pistol at his side, and he turned, half-crouched, towards the motion he had seen...
...and his eyes came to rest on the tank Nelgala had looked at before.
“What is wrong, Raynor?” Nelgala inquired, looking quizzically at the human.
“What’s in there?” Raynor asked rather loudly, pointing to the tank as he stood all the way up.
After a brief moment of silence, a new voice chimed in, slightly distorted as though it was being spoken from underwater. “En Taro Adun, Raynor. I apologize for not speaking before, but it is difficult to talk or hear without the aid of my dragoon’s auricles.”
“Fenix?”
“Correct. I am he,” the distorted figure said through the thick blue preserving liquid.
“I brought him here before Prelate Zeratul and I were called to other matters,” Nelgala explained. “My apologies for not informing you.”
“Quite all right,” Raynor replied, back in his normal, relaxed state. He took his seat, threw one more glance at the tank, and turned to his two Protoss companions.
Zeratul spoke first. “As you know, Commander, the death of the Overmind has not devastated the Zerg as we had hoped it would. The swarms still run rampant all across Aiur, and though we have been granted a brief reprieve, the vile creatures have begun to reorganize.”
“Reorganize?” Raynor repeated. “Without the Overmind? How?”
“We are not certain,” Zeratul replied, “but they appear to be working together again. They are no longer fighting amongst themselves, and already, we have heard from several Protoss bases that have come under very organized Zerg attack.”
“And now you fear that the Zerg will attack us?” Fenix spoke up.
“I am surprised that they have not done so already. The Zerg concentration around us is some of the heaviest on all of Aiur.”
“Because this is where the Overmind was, before Tassadar killed it,” Raynor added.
“Precisely,” Zeratul nodded.
“The disappearance of the observer we spoke of earlier was not the first,” Nelgala said to Raynor. “We have lost two other observers very recently.”
“You think the Zerg are responsible?” Raynor asked.
“Yes, I do,” Zeratul said. “I believe they are testing our defenses, looking for weak points to attack.”
“And I am inclined to agree,” Fenix agreed. “The Zerg used the same strategy prior to their attack on Antioch. When they struck, it was at our weakest point.”
“But I still don’t understand...how can they do this without the Overmind?” Raynor asked again. “I thought the Zerg were mindless without that Overmind to control them.”
“As did we, but it appears that assumption was incorrect,” Zeratul said with a hint of sadness. “It is highly possible that there are still a number of powerful cerebrates that have begun to control the Zerg on their own.”
“Or it could be that they really can act on their own,” Raynor pointed out.
“Perhaps. It is definitely a matter we must investigate further,” Zeratul said. “But, we have more immediate concerns. If the Zerg are preparing to attack, which I believe they are, then we must be ready for them. Fenix, I believe it would be wisest for you to have overall command of the defensive forces. Commander,” he turned to Raynor, “I believe it would be easiest if your forces remained under your direct command. They are not yet...comfortable with us, it seems.”
“Yeah, so I can tell,” Raynor agreed. “Sooo...it’s up to Fenix and I to set up our defensive strategy?”
“You are both much more experienced at such things than young Nelgala or I.” Raynor noticed a muscle in Nelgala’s face twitch at the mention of his being “young”. He chuckled inwardly as Zeratul continued. “I trust you have several ideas...how do you say...’cooking’?”
At that, Raynor couldn’t keep himself from laughing. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“What is funny?” Zeratul asked, confused.
“Nothing,” Raynor waved his hand dismissively.
Zeratul gave the Protoss equivolent of a look of confusion, but turned to Fenix and continued. “Praetor, my brethren and I are, as always, at your disposal. I have recently contacted several more of my brethren that have been fighting elsewhere, and they will be joining us shortly, assuming they can find safe passage through the Zerg.”
“Excellent,” Fenix replied.
“All right, gentlemen,” Raynor leaned forward. “Let’s figure out how to plug our defensive holes, shall we?”
. . .
Outside the base, the Zerg were indeed busy. Being careful to stay out of range of the patrolling observers and science vessels, they had established a sizeable hive cluster. It was well-defended with sunken and spore colonies, but really just a staging point.
Unbeknownst to the Protoss and Terrans tightening their defenses, a large army of Zerg warriors was approaching that very staging point. They did not understand the concept of revenge, but they knew very well the concept of killing. In their small minds, they concluded that there was much killing to be done where their Overmind had been slain.
Kill, they thought as they marched on. Kill kill kill....
__________________________________________________________
Chapter Two: Advancing Nightmare
The Next Day
Go back...to the SpecOps stories page.
Or go back...to the SpecOps main page.
© 1999-2001 Seawolf
Send any comments to me, J. Ryan Evans (Seawolf) .
This page is
graciously hosted by 
Visit them and you can get your own free home page