| Welcome to the Fanfiction Federation. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. When you do register, there will be no e-mail telling you that you got accepted by the admin. So check back later to see if you have. You will be accepted within the day. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| U.E.D Subject C.R.Y.0; A venture into the realms of Science Fiction. | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 8 2013, 02:51 PM (416 Views) | |
| Fellgrave | Mar 8 2013, 02:51 PM Post #1 |
![]()
Hidden in the Shadow of Omega
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Yeah, this is a oneshot, I may come back at some point, but for now, this is how it will stand. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Huh, well this is inspired by Cryo by Omniscientearl, except with Starcraft instead of Mass Effect. Before you ask, Kerrigan still becomes the Queen of Blades, and etc. etc. Thus, the events of Starcraft, Starcraft Brood War, the various novels, and everything else occur normally. The only major changes will be noticeable once things hit the start of Starcraft 2. The only difference is that Mengsk has to find a new personal assassin. XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX And then, upon looking into her eyes, I understood. Within them there was no longer anything. No pain. No suffering. No love. No compassion. No hope. All those things had been consumed. Only power remained. How beautiful. -Arcturus Mengsk on the subject of Ghost X41822N- XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX Hidden Sons of Korhal Laboratory somewhere on Tarsonis. "Dammit, fall back to the Main Labs! We can seal the blast doors and hunker down in there 'til back-up arrives!" The few remaining marines nodded and followed their blonde haired leader's orders quickly, laying down heavy fire against the advancing Zerg swarm as they did so. November 'Nova' Terra grimaced as another one of her soldiers fell to the attacking swarm. It was supposed to be a quick and easy retrieval mission, go in, grab the subject and get out. Unfortunately for her and her team, Mengsk had neglected to mention the time-frame for the rest of his plans concerning the planet. Raising her rifle she popped off a quick shot that splattered the brain matter of an approaching Hydralisk against the walls. The only reason her and the men under her command had lasted so long was thanks to the fact that the narrow corridors of the laboratory complex made the Swarm's great numbers a weakness rather than their greatest strength. More than one hallway had ended up completely blocked by a mountain of Zerg corpses. Once again, Nova wondered just what it was that Mengsk needed her to retrieve so badly. She knew that it had something to do with an old UED research project he had 'liberated' from one of their labs, but the specifics of it were never mentioned. And so she and her men had been fighting, and dying, their way through the swarm in the hopes of reaching something none of them knew a single thing about. The lab was hidden underground, beneath a skyscraper for one of Mengsk's front operations, and was comprised of miles of tunnels connecting to a gigantic central building constructed like an inverted spire right below the public's noses. She had heard that someone had asked why it had been built in such a strange design, and that Mengsk had actually smiled, a real, honest smile, and told them that it was his way of honoring a classic. He refused to say anymore on the subject after that cryptic little remark, and no-one else ever brought the subject up again. Of course, considering the sheer magnitude of the facility, it was no surprise to Nova that they had been working on certain experiments that might not be well accepted amongst the general public. Among those experiments happened to be several based around captured Zerg subjects. Nova shook her head as she knocked a leaping Zergling from the air before he could land on the back of one of her few remaining soldiers. It was also no surprise to her that some of the subjects had been waiting for the invasion to hit Tarsonis, the subjects breaking out of containment before seizing control of the facility. One of the projects had been on the adaptation and integration mechanism of the swarm, and when the subject they had been researching on escaped, all hell broke loose as it turned the environmental control and vents into a delivery system for an improved version of Zerg infection that quickly worked it's way through all the workers in the lab, transforming them all into in twisted and horrifying mockeries of humanity. Nova let out a small sigh of relief, the only relaxation she would allow herself, as the solid blast doors slammed shut on the approaching swarm. Even as she slipped down the wall she had taken to leaning against she was preparing herself for when combat would resume. After all, it would only be a matter of time for the doors to break, as she could already hear the sound of one of the Zerg's heavier breeds thundering through the hallways. Not for the first time, she cursed Mengsk and whoever it had been that inspired him to name the research facility the "Hive". You would think that after having met and studied the Zerg someone would have seen the whole connection and changed it, but...no, that was something for a later time. She shouldered her rifle as she took in the remaining members of her command as they spent a few moments recovering. Huddled around the walls furthest from the large blast doors, the section of the facility they were located in possessing only the one gate to the rest of the facility, which was, all things considered, a rather small thing to be thankful for. Nova let herself give a quiet and bitter chuckle as she observed her team. A small squad of marines whose names she still didn't know; a medic whose nervous twitching seemed to be the first signs of a nervous breakdown; a firebat, someone she was more than glad to have with her in the close confines of the tunnels, even with his lack of concern for those who were nominally his allies; and herself. If she hadn't already begun to break through the conditioning and mental reprogramming Mengsk and the Confederates had given her, after more than a few missions from him had committing acts that anyone else would have found reprehensible, her current situation would have most certainly started the process. Her memories of her past were still locked away beneath hundreds of hours of work by the best agents of several sides, but she didn't need them to know that unless something implausibly fortuitous occurred within the next few minutes, she and her men would be dead. "Sir! I mean, Ma'am!" Nova blinked and looked up to find one of the marines waving at her from down the hall. Seeing that he had her attention, he began to gesticulate energetically towards something out of her sight. "Ma'am, you have to see this! I think I found what we're looking for!" Her eyebrow quirked upwards as the young man gestured for her to follow him before he vanished down the hallway. She groaned as she got to her feet, her body sore from the wringer it had been put through. Turning the corner, she stopped as her vision was filled with an immense white expanse. The hallway she had just come through had opened into a large vault, of which only half could be seen, the other half blocked by several massive walls, connected to the hallway by means of several walkways that were suspended almost twenty metres above the floor. The walkway separated off into several paths that all connected to the wall, each one leading to a large gate painted over with warnings. The marine that had called her over was standing off to one side near one of the gates, plugging away at one of the terminals. Nova began to move to join him, only to stop as she heard the sound of an incoming transmission begin to ring over her earpiece. She was tempted to let it go, considering the fact that it was most likely to be Mengsk, as he was the only one who knew where she was, but her remaining programming was still strong enough for her to be forced to answer the call. "I see you have reached the objective, well done agent." Mengsk's voice crackled over the com-link She was tempted to offer some sort of biting retort, but she held her tongue, unwilling to let slip the fact that Mengsk's iron grip on her soul was weakening. "Your mission specifics have been updated, including a map to your extraction point. Upon arrival there will be transport ready to retrieve your team and the objective. Don't disappoint me agent." For a moment Nova just stood, part of her mind ready to curse Mengsk to the bowels of hell for eternity, while the other part wanted nothing more that to sing his praises for giving her a way to escape from the deathtrap that Tarsonis had become. Instead she settled for checking the escape route before she turned to face the objective, more accurately, the security that surrounded it. According to the schematic included with the updated mission docket, the exit was conveniently placed behind the objective, which itself was protected by massive walls of neo-steel the size and thickness of three marines. As she checked through the data packet she had received she was more than a little frustrated to notice that the Omega level clearance codes she needed to release the gates were missing. "Marine, I hope you're an officer in disguise, because it seems the commander has failed to supply the necessary passwords to get through the security." The marine looked up from the terminal with a thoughtful look on his face. "Sorry ma'am, I'm just plain ol' Jones, but I think I might know something even better." Nova blinked in surprise as the marine hastily moved back towards the hallway, his eyes scanning the room in front of the blast doors before settling on where a marine was working the firebat's open gauntlets. "Hey Genius, get over here, I got a challenge for ya!" The marine in question looked up briefly from his work, his eyes covered in a Ghost's multi-optic visor, and offered a quick nod before turning back and quickly finishing up the last few welds and repairs before placing his tools back into the small bag that hung off his back. "Ma'am, meet Genius. He's one of the smartest guys I ever met, and there ain't a system he can't get into our out of." Jones introduced Nova as the other marine entered the room, her eyes taking note of the piece of Ghost equipment with curiosity as to her knowledge, no Ghost would ever willingly give up a piece of his equipment, and no marine would ever be allowed to keep such a critical item, at least, any normal marine. As the marine came closer Nova noticed the jagged scars that crisscrossed his face, none of them natural, or at least no naturally evolved creature had been their source. A Zerg beast had made them, though from their age, that shouldn't have been possible, the scars already white with age even the Zerg had only been discovered at most a couple of years ago. "What are your orders commander?" Nova blinked in suprise at the robotic monotone with which Genius spoke, somehow, it was quite fitting. She shrugged and gestured towards the terminal and sealed doors. "We need a way through there,and we need it before the Zerg manage to break down the blast doors. Get to work." Genius nodded and offered a mechanical salute as he pulled out a keyboard, properly sized for his armoured fingers, as well as a thick band of fiber optic cables, cables which, to Nova's growing curiosity, appeared to be high quality nano-weave, each of the fibres that comprised the individual cables narrower than a human hair, and more expensive than an production model Arclite Siege Tank. With surprising dexterity, the marine carefully fed the cables into the terminal's access point, making sure they were in place before he flipped open a small flap on his gauntlet to reveal a keyboard sized for a marine in power armour, as well as a small screen that displayed a quick scrolling cascade of numbers. Without even pausing to orient himself, the marine immediately dove in, his fingers flying across the keys as they beat a staccato beat in the quiet of the lab. His rhythm broke for a moment as a tremendous impact caused the entire facility to tremble and shake. Jones leaned over and whispered something into Genius' ear, the hacker nodding and quickly typing in a line of code. Almost instantly one of the terminal's monitors turned on, though instead of it's normal password locked screen, it displayed various security feeds. Private Jones leaned closer, his eyes darting from display to display until he found the feed for hallway outside the lab's blast doors. "Oh, oh SHIT." The blood had drained from his face as he turned to face Nova as she leaned against the wall next to the room's entrance. "Uh, you might want to go warn the boys, we gotta lot of fight comin' our way." Nova nodded and as she left the room, she heard the private shout as something caught his eye. "Is that a fuckin' Ultralisk?" XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX Nova grimaced as she and the last few marines, even less in number that when they had retreated into the lab not even an hour previously. As much as they all wished he wasn't, Jones was right, and they received about 200 tons of pure biological fury right in the face. The Ultralisk had sheered through the blast doors as if they were wet paper, and though it could fit its own massive bulk through the substantially smaller entrance, it had opened the way for the hordes of zerglings and infected lab personnel. Her eyes narrowed as her finger teased the trigger of her personal issue C-20A prototype canister rifle, the high-powered precursor to the HEV commando rifle, the gun bucking against her shoulder as the canister round left the barrel with a flash as the excess electrical energy was dispersed from the circuits, the round traveling through the air with thunder on its heels as it super-heated the air behind it as cut through a line of infected at high-hypersonic speeds, the shock-wave liquefying their bodies it passed through them. The canister reached the point of maximum speed and traveled for a metres more before it's internal sensor detected the beginning deceleration, the small chip triggering the the minute detonator inside the ultra-pressurized canister of liquid promethium and ethylene oxide mixed with powdered aluminum. Nova had a grim smile on her face as the miniaturized fuel-air bomb exploded, sending fragments of metal burning so hot they burned blue-white. Unfortunately, though that one shot eliminated nearly four dozen Zerg before the explosion alone, the swarm was essentially endless, while the supplies of ammunition for the Terrans were not. The gaping hole was immediately filled as more Zerg flowed into it like was already done to less than a dozen of her Gehenna rounds, and while she still had the normal rounds for her rifle, both in sniper and assault settings, her remaining allies were not so lucky. "Commander! Genius is through, we got our ticket outta this joint!" Jones words were a welcome relief and electrified Nova and his fellow soldiers. Nova turned and gave a terse nod to the remaining soldiers as they slowly backed down the hallway towards the vault. Just as they were about to turn the corner, there was a thunderous impact that nearly knocked Nova off her feet, followed by the sound of collapsing stone. Her eyes wide, the elite Ghost turned to find the impossible. Through sheer brute force, the Ultralisk had broken through the two-feet of blast-crete wall and into the lab, crushing several hapless infected underneath it as it did so. Nova's eyes flicked down to her wrist mounted readout and cursed, her rifle was still cooling down after firing that last round. She gave the juggernaut one last look, the beast giving its head a shake as it recovered from the damage it had caused itself in breaking through the wall, before she quickly fell back to the lab. She raced down the walkway towards the door where her remaining troops had gathered, her eyes narrowing as she saw the images of Zerg on her heels reflected on the mirrored visors of the marines. With a twitch she peeled off to the side, one grabbing the railing of the walkway for a moment, long enough for her to use her momentum to become airborne. Beneath her the Zerg were sliced down in a barrage of depleted Uranium bullets. She hit the ground and rolled forwards to minimize the impact from her leap, getting to her feet and bringing her rifle around just in time to snap off another shot that cleared the walkway and the a good portion of the hall as well. "I've bought us some breathing room!" Nova faced the hallway as she waited for the swarm to regroup and charge again while she barked orders to the marines behind her. "Get that door open before they send in the big one!" The first of the Zerg emerged from the hallway and found itself abruptly missing its head, having had it turned into a crimson mist that filled the air thanks to one of Nova's less powerful SSE rounds. Behind her, the gate opened with a loud hiss of pressurized hydraulics. She could hear the receding sound of heavy metal boots on neo-steel and blast-crete as the marines retreated. She pulled back herself, just in time to catch sight of the Ultralisk emerging from the hallway as the heavy neo-steel gate slide shut. She didn't relax once the gate had closed, as the doors to main labs had been even thicker, and as she took in her supply of ammunition, she noticed her hands possessed a slight blue-ish glow. Surprised, she looked around and found that the glow wasn't exclusive to merely herself, in fact it permeated the entire room, and as she searched for the source, she found her marines staring at something in slack-jawed awe. Floating in the center of the room, suspended above the floor via experimental anti-grav generators, was a massive monolith of ice, its surface covered in condensation and trails of mist. There was no doubt that this was the object they were sent to retrieve, however, considering the fact that it was the size of one of the old Hercules cargo-ships, there was no way in hell that they were getting it out. She sighed as she felt the ground begin to tremble beneath her feet, the Ultralisk obviously drawing nearer and nearer to the gate. She checked her ammunition one last time before turning to her soldiers. As she began to address them, she uploaded the packet she had received from Mengsk to their heads-up displays. "All of you, I'm sending you the escape path. I'll give you the time you need to get out. Understood?" The marines, and the sole firebat, exchanged looks, though the effect was somewhat lessened as they all still had their visors down. One of them stepped forward and opened up his helmet, one hand running through grey hair streaked black by greased fingers. "Uh, ma'am, we all appreciate the offer, but we can't run, not knowing that you're down here fighting for us." Nova smiled at the gesture but shook her head sadly. "I'm sorry, but that wasn't a suggestion. I'm ordering you to try and get out of here alive." The marines continued to look uncertain and she pushed forwards. "Besides, most of you are running low on ammo, just like me, but what I have can do a lot more that any of yours. This is my mission, and I have a responsibility to see to it that all those under my command come out unscathed. I've failed so far, so at least give me the satisfaction of having done my best." The grey -haired marine nodded, his eyes somber as he began to head towards the exit on the opposite side of the room, only to wheel around and offer Nova a salute, his action followed immediately by the others. Nova looked surprised for a moment before a smile ghosted across her face, her own hand rising in a salute of her own. Nova took up a position in front of monolith and directly across from the gate, her rifle readied in hand, and her mind focused. The sound of hissing hydraulics and pressurized air cut-off as the last of the marines closed the escape door behind them. Nova bowed her head as she consigned her soul to yomi, in hopes of Lady Izanagi accepting her soul with open arms. Religion was foreign in most soldiers, though the common troops put a great deal of belief into the Old Earth Norse religion, and Nova was a peculiarity among the atheistic Ghosts with her following of Neo-Shinto, thanks in part to an encounter with a traveling priest on one of her missions. Her eyes closed as she began to drop into one of the breathing exercises taught to all members of the Ghost Academy, her mind clearing of all thoughts save one as she readied herself for combat, her soul burning with energy that flooded her body and brought life back to tire limbs. Her hands moved with a cold mechanical efficiency, efficiency earned from years upon years of practice, loading and readying her rifle. The gate began to shudder as the Ultralisk on the other side began to hammer away at it, the metal slowly beginning to bow outwards. The structure of the gate failed spectacularly, torn out of the wall mountings in an ear-piercing shriek that was drowned out by the triumphant roar of the Ultralisk. The slab blew past Nova, the wind from its passage ruffling her hair slightly before it collided with the frozen monolith. The swarm wasted little time as they flowed into the room, the faster Zerglings and Hydralisks weaving around the ponderous Ultralisk with ease. The first of the smaller Zerg to clear the door had its torso blown out as it leapt forwards, the Hydralisk behind collapsing bonelessly to the ground as it empty eye socket wept blood. The butt of her rifle slammed against her shoulder once, twice, three times, and more until she lost count, the Zerg swarm dying in droves in front of her. For every half a metre the swarm managed to gain, they paid for it with dozens of quickly cooling bodies, but if there was one thing that the swarm had in abundance, it was bodies to sacrifice. Nova's mind had become focused to a razor's edge as she methodically dealt death with a pull of the trigger. Her sole thought had become a mantra, her psionic nature taking it and the power she was putting into it, and broadcasting it to the entire facility. Had any of the scientists, of either the Confederacy, or the Sons of Korhal, been present they would have died from intense and instantaneous cerebral hemorrhaging as Nova calmly obliterated every measure of psionic potency recorded. And in her focus, she failed to notice how her power reached out, called out, shouted itself out into the world around her. And though all were unaware, there was someone listening. Nova's power, focused around her one sole thought, resonated with something, a being made ancient by a strange twist of fate. Something heard her thoughts, and it found within them something familiar, something powerful, and something incredible. Her thoughts reached a crescendo as the Ultralisk decided it had waited long enough and began to charge. Her focus never wavered, her hand steady and her eyes clear, her gun rising into position. And as she pulled the trigger, she shouted her mantra aloud, for the entire world to hear. "I WILL NOT LOSE!" And the world shattered around her. XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxX Yeah, so the initial idea for this was good, but I couldn't come up with what to do next, thus, the one shot nature. Kind of a shame, I really liked all the sci-fi elements I got to experiment with in it, like Nova's gun and the Gehenna rounds (Can you say OP?). |
![]() |
|
| « Previous Topic · Previews · Next Topic » |









2:53 PM Jul 11