starcraft: dilation

United Colors

I continue to stand over the map as its impossible to tune out the arguing. "We must strike decisively. With our renforcements, we are able to withstand the brood, no matter the adaptations." I study the map as the ravens are giving us live updates as they happen. The main hive cluster is growing rapidly. "We cant just throw the rest of our resources at the main hive cluster. You've seen what this brood can do. They'll sloughter us before we can even step foot into the main hive." I whatch as the hive thrungs of life. The movement is sporadic, uncoordinated. "Warfield is currect. My brood alone cannot withstand a froce that large. Dispite my best efforts, my brood has not recovered enough to face the enemy in a final assult." I look around at the large hills, small canyons and weaving terrain. "My forces alone can withstand thier standing forces. With what we have gathered, there largest threat are the Ultralisks and Brood Lords. Even then, I we can handle them well enough." I pull up the most resent report as I get a list of all the units that comprise the Ceribrates standing army. "Not without support you cant. My Vikings can cover the air but my Banshees are still grounded. Im having to scrap them and make sure the other ones can still fly, let alone carry missiles." I shake my head. "Nothing will work." I stare at the current plan as this'll just get all of us killed. "Finally. Someone who understands." I pull up more data and previous movements reports as I bring up all the paths and movement data. "A forward assult will just get us all killed. Im not even sure if a nuke can take out half the standing forces inside the main hive. We got lucky the first time but that things learned." I point at the overlord movement patterns. "Its spread its eyes and ears out more, covering over 120 miles in every direction. Itll see us comming hours before we even fire the first bullets." I look at Kalas. "We cant attack in a frontal assult." I look at Warfield. "But we can just sit here and let it recover. We have to do something instead of sitting here and arguing." I look back down at the map. "With our standing forces, a frontal assult is impossible, even if we hit hard and fast. With Nakara's brood still struggling to recover and our facilities not getting the repairs they need, we're virtually at half strangth across the both of our armies. Kalas however, you have automated buildings that require no attention. Thats our biggest advantage right now." I pull up our location as theres just as much movements in our base, if not more. "Look. We've been scrabbling to recover and thats pushed all of us to the edge. I can think of 4 companies alone that dont need to be on standby. Even the protoss need to rest for large battles. First things first is we have to focus on repairing and rebuilding. Barking and ordering eachother around is making things worse." I look up and bring up graphs of current standing power. "We have more tanks and ship but what about the people? Thier to exhausted to drive or fly around. They keep falling asleep and causing more problems." I bring up some of the reports on Kalas's people. "Its effecting your worriers to, Kalas. 'Zealots freezing up on whatch.' For starters. 'Stalkers not conducting reconicents.' Is another. Each report is saying that more and more people are at thier absolute limit. I take alot of the blame for not taking a moment to think but we're shooting ourselves before we even have a chance to get back up. We have to slow down and give ourselves a chance to properly recover and gear back up." I push the reports away as i bring up the movement reports I was just looking at. "The Ceribrates forces are facing the same thing but not as much. Its been hudding everything in the main hive for days now. Its main hive isn't even at half strangth yet. We showed it we can sneak in and do more damage than anticipated and with our latest sneak attack, its become more conservative and hasnt sent out an attack in a while. We're wearing down the standing force little by little but its not enough." I move everything out of the way. "We have to keep launching small, desicive sneak attacks with our best people. Me and a small squad of dark templar cant do much but give me a squad of ghosts or spectors or a squad of vikings and ill give you targets. Harassment and desicive blows will win this war for us. Not throwing eachother at the enemy until everyone is either dead or dying." I push myself off the halo projector. "We have to stop the bullshit and think about eachother. With the dominion fleet still days away and Kalas's small reinforcement groups, we dont have much until our factories and star ports are fully repaired and Nakara's brood fully recovers." I stand my ground as Kalas and Warfield take a momeny and review everything I pulled up. Warfield reads the reports as Kalas studies movement patterns and current enemy disposition. "Once again, Sheep is the only one speaking the truth. My brood is not ready to conduct assults. My hydralisks are bearly birthed and my queens are echousted. My standing force is all I have currently. I cannot and will not risk my brood for futhur futile gains." They keep on forgetting that the sworm isnt truly endless unless the whole sworm is present. A small brood can only handle so much. "Warfield, you said it yourself. We couldn't handle much before but now we're broken and bearly standing. Everything I've done was to give you the time and chances to recover. Not only did you push your men harder then they needed to be pushed, you set up guards that are completely unnecessary." I look at Kalas. "And Kalas, youve let your pride blind your judgement. You continued to send out large force after large force, bleeding yourself while the chances of regrouping and recovering flew by." I plant my fists onto the projector. "Everything I have you has been for nothing and im pissed off! Not only are we weaker than before, we brought Nakara and her brood down with us and nobody said anything and ecnored all the signs! Thats why we're in this mess! Nobody took the time to THINK!" I lower my head and take in a few deep breaths. "If I new about our current standing force, I wouldnt have gone out and risked more lives. I wouldn't even have done out last time if I knew what was going on inside our own lines." I push myself up. "If nobody is going to let our men rest then consider yourselves releaved. Go to bed tonight knowing a Spector is taking full operational control over this shit show." I shake my head and turn around. "I make it my mission to try and get everybody home alive. If you dont think thats the best thing then stay out of my way. I wont let anyone else's sacrifices be in vain." I walk out. I cant let these mistakes go unpunished. Things are going to get changed TODAY. I walk out of the command center and look at the two guards. Johnson and the Zealot are still standing here. Guarding what doesnt need to be guarded. "You two, with me." They both look at me as the Zealot lowers his arms. "We have orders for General Warfield, Sir." I shake my head out of anger. "She's been releaved. Im in full command now. Either fall in with me or stand here, guarding the command center that doesnt need to be guarded. Its your choise." Johnson steps forward. "Im not going to argue. If you have a better way of making sure we get through this, im all for it." We both look at the Zealot. "Your choise bratha. Stand here, waisting away for follow the General. We could use your help." He looks at me. "If my aid is requested, I will leave a friend behind. You have my blades commander." Both of them walk up to me. "Whats your name worrier?" He lowers his head slight. "Second Judicator Kalistres." He return the slight bow. "Gather your command structure and meet me by the nexus point. I wish to adress issues that have been brought to my attention." He nods. "It will be done." He turns and walks away as I look at Johnson. "Whos your company commander?" He shifts a little bit. "Currently, 1st Luetanant Fieldier. Captain Holler died from his wounds yesterday." I shake my head. More lives waisting away. "Im sorry to hear that. He was a good man." Johnson chuckles. "I dont think 'good' is the right word." I lift my head out of suprise. "He was a great man and a damn good commander. He stood hydralisk spikes to the chest to protect a injured private. Dispite his wounds, he told the medic to check everyone else. A hellva officer. If it were up to me, I would've stood infront of all of em just to give that man more time in the spotlight." I can help but smile. "A damn good man indeed." He nods. "Same thing, I need to talk with everyone in the chain of command. Anyone from sergeant all the way to colonel. Can you help me get them to the nexus point?" Johnson nods. "You got it boss. Where you heading off to, if its not to much to ask?" I shake my head. "Im going to make sure the SCV's have a proper priority list. The factories and starports have been down for to long. We need to get them back up and producing in full swing in the next few hours or we're done for." Johnson nods. "Sounds good. Ill contact you as soon as I start heading for the nexus." I nod. "If anyone gives you any trouble, tell them to talk to me." He laughs. "You got it!" He turns and walks away as i turn and see a SCV pilot standing behind me. Cigarette in his mouth, warm drink in his hand and a wrapped up left arm to finish. "You got a list of us, Sir?" I nod. "Sounds good. Get out here boys! We finally got new orders!" I whatch as all of the SCV pilots walk out as alot of them are limping, tired and fed up with running around. "Why havent any of you been seen by the medics yet?" The man infront of me chuckles. "Haven't been told to go see them yet. Me and the boys have been working non stop ever since we moved to this shithole of a base." I fold my arms. "Why doesnt anyone listen?" I shake my head. "First off, everyone is going to get seen by the medics immediately after this conversation. No if's, and's, or but's about it. Understood?" They all nod. "Good. Right now you guys are our best home of getting things back on track so in relying on you to get things fixed." He nods. "First, whats our stockpile looking like? How much spare do we have?" A diffrent pilot walks up. "All in all, we either fix all the factories or star ports. There's not enough for both on hand. We'll have to gather more just to get enough to repair all of our facilities." Not good. Its a start at least. "Alright. First, let's get the factories repaired and running at full power again. Those tanks and widow mines are going to be the essential for our defenses and future fights." I whatch as the pilots dont even Wright anything down. "Next, we need a good stockpile. If you can spare the time and strangth, gather some resources here and there and get more SCV's out and running. Dont push yourselves to hard anymore. Get sleep. Get food and water. Working ourselves to death is out of the question now. If you can do shifts, more power to you but nobody is going to work double or triple shifts anymore." They all nod. "Good. Haven't slept in days." I nod. "After we have a good stockpile and more SCV's up and running, start working on the starports. If we can get those back up to full power in a few days, we'll have everything we need to build up a fight force. If we're running low on resources, do what you can and get back to mining. Once the starports are up to full, let me know what the next thing that needs to be adressed. Any questions?" I wait for someone to step up. "We got a plan for getting off this rock?" The pilot infront of me folds his arms. "The dominion fleet is still delayed. For now, we're stuck here. Im going to make sure we have transport off this planet if things keep going south. We've lost to many good people and ill be damned if more people die due to stupid decisions and mistakes." The pilot nods. "What of the Zerg? Are they going to betray us as soon as I wipe out the other brood?" I shake my head. "No. Nakara has promised to help us so long as we help her. So far, we failed to do that. Right now my soul focus is on making sure we properly recover and get back on our feet as quickly as possible." Some of the pilots start to whisper. "Nakara and her brood wont betray us. I promise she'll continue to help us as long as we keep helping her. What we all right now is to keep fighting and wipe out the other brood so we all can go home. If nothing else, you can trust me to make sure we all get off this planet alive. I wont let you get pushed around anymore. That, is a promise." They all straighten up. "When do you want us to start?" I smile. "Are there any standing emergencies?" One of the pilots step forward. "Just some checks on the cannons." I nod. "That all?" He nods. "Alright. Who thinks they can get started tomorrow?" They all pause. "Tomorrow? Like, tomorrow morning?" I shake my head. "Any time tomorrow. You still need to go to the medics, get patched up and get some rest." I whatch as all of them take a moment to process. "If we have the rest of today and tomorrow morning to get patched up and get some sleep, I dont see why we couldn't get started tomorrow after lunch." I nod. "What do you guys think? Some drinking, some shut eye, more drinking then work?" Everyone nods as the man infront of me looks at me and smiles. "Sounds like we got us a good plan, Sir." I smile. "Good. Now go get yourselves checked out. I dont want to see anyone wearing a makeshift bandage tomorrow. You get me?" Some of them laugh. "Sir, yes sir." The man infront of me straightens up completely and salutes me. "Thank you for giving us a chance to rest, sir." I return the salute. "We need everyone right now. Working ourselves half to death wont help anything." He smiles. "Now thats a commander I've been looking for." They all dispers and start heading twords the medical tents. "We finally got some time to get some sleep! Let's not make the boss wait boys!" I shake my head and whatch them walk away happy. Couldn't ask for a better outcome then this.