Shattered Prophecies

Chapter 4

Char

'What is it now? Grievous asked very nervous. Char was supposed to have been secured and yet even his only planet that he had conquered was still challenging him. That will soon change though...
'My lord, a massive army of Zerg has materialized from the ground. It is advancing fast on our position!
'Command the Invisible Hand to bombard our surroundings and send 5 dettachements around to hold them off!
'But sir, that would be sacrificing half our forces!
'It shall work! Do as I say!
'Yes General! the droid nodded obediently.
Grievous clenched his fists and walked towards the tactical table tbat was set in the Command Centre. It displayed the fortress New Kolurd on holo and the large army that was surrounding it. They must have been hundreds of thousands coming!
Grievous seriously considered preparing himself to flee but he decided to give a shot at defending himself with the little he had.
'Sir!
Grievous turned quickly to the droid.
'Spit it out!
'The Invisible Hand is assaulted by many squadrons of flying zerg. The flagship can defend itself but they won't be able to help us.
'Fine! Grievous roared. We shall so this the hard way then! Take all our forces and minimize the perimeter. We must use the envoirment to our advantage!
'Sending the orders right now!
The General turned back to the table and watched as the first wave was hitting the walls hard, even with the constant fire of the auto turrets of New Kolurd.
'Any idea what Broodmother is leading this force? Grievous asked the droid.
'No sir! Our intel is reserved to this fortress and the ship for now.
'Argh!

It had been 1 hour and the outer sector had been breached and overrun. So had the second level. There had remained only the Command Centre and the protective ring that surrounded it. Grievous had set the Soulless One to be ready for fly off before returning to the hall.
'My lord! the magnaguards greeted him.
Grievous placed his hands behind his cloak was continued walking to the main entrance of the Command Centre.
'Tell the droids to pull back from this door! He commanded through the commlink. The intentional opening would allow him to fight the zergs with more forces on the other sides.
'Roger roger!
Grievous picked his lightsabers and dettached his hands. It was going to be a hard fight. The magnaguards activated their staffs and the super battle droids armed their wrists. The General let his cloak fall on the metal ground and took a defensive stance, most unusual to him. Then, he waited. In the room, his breathing was the only thing that pushed the image back into reality. Then, growls from outside the door came. And then the door started to crack and break as the zergs attacked it. Before long, through a scar of the metal, a Zergling rushed inside straight into the General. The Kaleesh used his talon to put him on the floor and crushed it. Then another one came. And then the door crumbled leaving way for multiple monsters to attack. Grievous started spinning his lightsabers , creating a deadly line of defense along with his magnaguards. Behind, the droids started sending rockets, missiles and blaster bolts into the zerg swarm. They were coming 20 at the time, charing into Grievous and dying, but with every beast, the General was starting to feel overwhelmed. He had been pushed back a few steps by the constant attack. His magnaguards were holding the line as well, but they were taking hits , now and then. Grievous tried calculating how many zerg there were, they already killed a few tens of thousands outside, maybe one hundred. But there were still 3 to 4 more that number.
Grievous continued spinning his weapons until from the swarm appeared a familiar figure. He couldn't recognize it right away, but then as she approached slowly, he saw that it was Kerrigan.
Grievous felt betrayed in that very moment. He, who had allowed her to live, was now destroying his last stronghold in the sector?
'Kerrigan! he thundered very angry.
He stopped his defense and went straight on a dark charge, slashing away everything that went into him. The Queen of Blades noticed he was coming towards her and her eyes started glowing yellow. The sign made Grievous jump up as he realised she was going to use the Force. She did, crushing the ground where the General had been. Grievous crashed a few steps away from her and entered a whirlwind that desintegrated every zerg around him. Kerrigan held her hand towards him, but Grievous had been faster and threw a lightsaber in her direction. She was forced to stop her attack and dodge, but the weapon barely touched her shoulder, burning it. She screamed in pain. Kerrigan returned quickly to see the General try and impale her in that moment. She ducked very fast but the cyborg's talon kicked her right in the face, making her fall on her back. Before long, she saw as two lightsaber were crossing around her neck right into the ground, melting it. The hot plasma was so close to the woman's neck, she was feeling as she was burned.
'Order your forces to retreat! Grievous shouted , very intimidating. I will slice your neck in a few seconds if you won't!
Kerrigan tried to replicate, but she sensed as the plasma was coming closer by milimeters to her skin. Defeated, she sent a mental order to her zerg to retreat to the mid level of the fortress.
'Done! she replied.
'Good... Grievous stated very satisfied. A magnaguard approached him and the General picked the staff with his fourth free hand.
'I want the Zerg out of my fortress, bitch! he ordered very threatening. You will face very severe torture if not cause death is too forgiving for the likes of you!
'I won't... she tried to say, but then she felt her stomach poked by the staff energized with electricity. The surge made her shriek in pain. And to make matters worse, she had to control herself not to struggle, for the twin lightsabers were still crossing her neck very close to the skin.
The staff went away and she started breathing heavily.
'Well? Grievous asked glaring intensely into her eyes.
'You can...
The staff returned to her, making her scream in agony.
'Neutralize her! he ordered his guards and they all poked her body with the staffs.
The pain had become so unbearable, but she couldn't die because the General knew where the limit was. He let her suffer for a few minutes before leaving her unconscious.
When her body stopped answering and her voice faded, Grievous ordered the magnaguards to pick her to the shuttle.
'Get her in the flagship quickly!
'Sir, what about the droids in the outer ring? the droid asked?
'Do you wanna know how they are going to get away from here? Grievous asked as he approached the annoying droid.
'Yes, there is only one shuttle and your...
'Like this!
The General smashed the droid's body with his fist, leaving broken parts of it on the floor. Grievous retrieved his fourth lightsaber hilt from the ground and walked fast to the Soulless One as the zergs were rushing to their queen. He jumped in the cockpit and blasted away in the air, shooting a few zergs before speeding into space. The shuttle was protected from this point, because if it was destroyed, the queen would die.

Char's orbit

It had been a really long fight out there in space, as thousands of zerg flyers known as Mutalisks were attacking ruthlessly the capital ship of the Confederacy. When the General exited the atmosphere of Char, angry by the ultimate destruction of his short-lived base, he immediately noticed that a large organic creature, almost the size of a munificent class destroyer was orbiting away from the battle, sending continuous forces towards the fight. He contacted the Tactical Droid from his flagship.
'Yes General? he answered very calmly.
'Why haven't you informed me of that big ship that keeps reinforcing their strike forces?
'General, it had recently appeared from the atmosphere. I assure you it was not there a few minutes ago.
'They must be coming with all they have for her... Prepare to jump into Hyperspace when the shuttle reaches your hangar !
'Where to , General?
Grievous thought of a close secure location quickly, but nothing came from the Koprulu Sector.
'Search for a nearby planet and just go there. Send me the coordinates when you choose one.
'But what about you sir? the droid asked concerned.
'I shall be fine. We shall meet soon.
'Roger roget! the droid nodded and closed the commlink.
While the tactical droid was busy with the fighting around the ship, he failed to see that the zerg leviathan was coming fast towards them. Grievous feared that in their desperation, they may even crash themselves into the ship, crippling it forever. He would try and buy the Invisible Hand time to get out of there safely. So, the General pulled away from his course and sped up towards the leviathan. He started sending out his ships's missiles right into the creature's face. Firstly, the Mutalisks simply bypassed him but when he hit the leviathan hard, the big zerg was cut off from his main point of interest and stopped his advance. Almost instantly, several mutalisks exited his insides and flew towards the General, ready to destroy him. Unable to kill them, the kaleesh was forced to evade their attacks at first, pulling his ship up and letting the mutalisks pass under him. Now he had the leviathan in his face and the zergs roughly behind him. His eyes analyzed quickly the Invisible Hand's position, and realised that they were ready to jump into Hyperspace. Deciding not to prolong the distraction, he let out a few more missiles and sped up under the leviathan as fast as he could.
A few explosions made the monster shriek in unexpecting pain, forcing Grievous to be more carefull around it's belly. After a long run, he exited his vicinity and disspaeared in the vastness of space as his flagship did a few minutes earlier. He quickly checked the commlink to see the coordinates where the Invisible Hand had flown.
'Time to make our escape... he muttered to himself as he clicked a few buttons and stirred the ship.

Shakuras

Grievous exited the Hyperspace after 5 minutes of waiting. The first sight of the planet before him announced him of enemies. The surface of the planet was heavily iluminated and from the orbit he could see tiny ships coming towards him. He wondered where the Invisible Hand was... it took him little time to contact the Tactical Droid:
'General?
'Where in the galaxy is the ship? he asked , looking very carefull at the unknown ships that were flying towards him. They were cautious as him.
'The initial planet was occupied by what we believe to be the third race of the sector, the Protoss. We were forced to flee much further.
'Why didn't you announce me? he asked the droid very angry.
'It... I thought I informed you.
'You clearly didn't!
Grievous quickly pulled his eyes into the windows when he saw warping from space a very huge fleet of golden ships with blue energy covering their insides. He was impressed by their apparition. Their armada was comparable to one of the Confederacy's own ones.
'Why aren't your coordinates still here? the General asked exasperated.
'We did sent them. The communications may be jammed.
'But how are we still...
It took a few seconds for the sound to turn into an annoying buzz.
'Argh! the General growled.
The Soulless One quickly turned from the Protoss and started speeding towards the edge of the system. Looking in the computer, he observed a strange type of ships powering up.
They must be preparing to shoot him. But the distance between them was still very great... The Protoss ships released speheres of energy that flew through space much faster than the General could grasp. He tried to avoid them but one still did hit him. It deactivated the Soulless One's systems, but in that moment, Grievous felt how he couldn't move his hands. Then he realised that his body must have been deactivated too. Not even his vocal emitters worked. He could only breath and look around with the corner of his eyes. How pathetic of him...