A Ghost Story - Starcraft FanFic

Chapter 2

It must have been at least a couple of hours since Lt. Vesper exited the drop ship. 

While she could have received a precise chronocheck from her combat armour's AI she usually didn't bother herself with such minor issues during a mission. There was always a good chance she could have other things with which to concern herself with, like staying alive. 

Plus faceless techie that programmed the armour's AI spent a little too much time giving it a surly attitude, so Vesper and her suit weren't on speaking terms anyway.

To avoid having her combat armour issue another warning regarding her aggression inhibitors, she contented herself with thoughts of exactly what she would do to the techie when she finally located him or her. The tingling buzz at the base of her skull let her know that the suit registered her violent impulses.

Sharon stayed low as she approached the bluff so she didn't give away her position. The only Zerg Overlord she had seen was roughly fifteen minutes after the shuttle jockey punched max afterburners away from the LZ back towards base. She had spotted the behemoth with her ocular implants and figured that it was a response to the shuttle's arrival. 

The Ghost picked a meandering path towards the east, making a concerted effort to work toward higher ground while trying not to encounter any enemy patrols.

Sharon's mind wander back to her time in Ghost combat training and the gruff advice of one of the instructors. 'Personal cloaking doesn't make you invincible'. Sharon always firmly believed that the instructor's array of cybernetic replacements added weight to that advice.

Reaching a position on a ridge that allowed her a good visual, Sharon got her first view of the Zerg outside of her Intel package. She made out six of the evil looking, upright slithering, cobra-hooded Hydralisks and as many as eighteen of the lizard/wolf hybrids known as Zerglings. She watched as the Hydralisks took up defensive positions at the access point to the mineral deposits and burrowed underground. 

The majority of the Zerglings formed a rough skirmish line behind the now hidden spine-spitters and they too decided to play in the dirt. That left four of the alien creatures which decided to prance around chittering.

Sharon crawled back from the edge of the ridge, thoughts swirling. She was stunned to see for herself the obviously well thought out and coordinated defensive tactics of the Zerg. Despite reading all of the material on the enemy her clearance could get her, she had found herself thinking of the Zerg as a motley collection of oversized garden bugs.

"If I survive, I'm going to make a stop at the recruitment office in my sector to strongly impress on them the need to add a little reality to their recruitment vids," Sharon whispered through gritted teeth.

The specialist crawled back to the edge of the ridge and once again activated her ocular implants while activating a scrambled ComSat burst back to HQ.

"Commander, this is Lt. Vesper. Zerg forces in entrenched position at resource coordinates. Recommend SatScan at beacon location... hold transmission!"

The chattering of the visible enemy forces increased. Sharon dialled back her ocular implants in time to see the arrival of one of the floating behemoths Intel termed Observers. The underside of the Living Blimp parted to reveal slick membranes that deposited two more Hydralisks and one larger creature.

This larger creature was unlike anything that Sharon had been briefed on, in fact she doubted that HQ or even High Command had caught wind of this new addition to the Bug forces. Sharon thought to herself that this new beastie looked like a pincer-less, giant crab, and she wondered about its capabilities.

"Commander this is Vesper. I've sighted an uncatalogued Zerg unit, only one of its kind so far seen at this location sir. Other enemy units have --"

With a swiftness that was startling the new Zerg unit burrowed underground. Moments later one of the local wildlife scurried across the desert sand only to erupt in a cloud of dust and oddly coloured blood as a flurry of spikes radiated from the last known location of the unknown Zerg creature. Another last minute flurry of spikes greeted the spasmodic twitches of the lobster-like critter, escorting its spirit away from this mortal coil.

The insistent blips of her com-unit tore Sharon back to the real and away from the horrific spiral of her thoughts. As a Ghost she was intimately acquainted with the power and devastation of a well executed stealth attack. However, seeing the Zerg utilise similar tactics so efficiently was... disturbing.

"Sir the enemy has an all new attack unit, looks like a giant crab snas pincers, but shoots spikes underground while burrowed. I repeat, while burrowed. I suggest additional recon to determine number and location of addition forces. Please advise, over," Vesper stated.

"Lieutenant, send immediate com-burst with updated Intel. Await SatScan in 300 seconds and transmit new Intel after scan. New orders and deployment will follow, Command out," came the oddly modulated voice of the HQ AI.

The fact that she received her interim orders from the Command AI probably meant that the RC had other things to worry about. And the delay on the SatScan probably meant that the scanner was also in use. Telling herself that she was over-thinking the situation - a bad trait for a grunt like herself to start adopting - Sharon sent off the encrypted data burst on all Intel she had gathered so far.

"Great. Only another 260 seconds til the scan," she muttered as she hunkered down in the shadow of a rock formation and glanced warily around herself.