Back on the surface, McGuire watched as the Ghost abruptly ceased aiming at the massive structure. He turned his laser sight off, seemed to fiddle with his weapon, and turned to McGuire. It appeared by his demeanor that the business here was done.  

“Wha--but, wait a second—uh—what the hell is going on???” he finally stammered.  

“You have standing orders to deliver a package to the heart of that structure,” said the Ghost. “Obey them”.  

“But—what? Hey, what did you just do? And….” But he was cut off.

“You will speak of nothing you have seen here. You were not here. You did not see a Ghost. Anything you see while you are in that crater also does not exist.”  

“What crate—hey!” McGuire tried to protest as the rest of his men looked up at him from the ditch below. But the Ghost suddenly disappeared, as though he had never been there. Shocked, McGuire thought he saw a blur of motion, like a heavy spot in the air, but it was no use. The Ghost had completely vanished. Then he heard Rommel’s voice from below.  

“Oh shi—TAKE COVER!” was all he uttered.  

McGuire looked straight up and saw what Rommel was referring to. The sky suddenly erupted as though a massive fist had punched through and torn a hole in it. A massive ball of radioactive fire plunged from the heavens, heading straight down towards the ground, and not very far away from them at all.  

“VISORS DOWN!” McGuire cried as he leapt from the top of the mound down to the marines below.

The marines huddled on the ground, their flash visors closed, and awaited the impact.

Two more massive fire balls erupted from the sky in quick succession right after the first one. They hit the ground one right after the other.   

The impact was tremendous. The ground trembled under them so violently that it seemed as though it would crack and crumble away. The great blast was so loud that it overcame their battle armors’ noise dampers, and a mighty roar shook their skulls. The light was so tremendous that it even penetrated their super protective visors, leaving behind spots in their retina for a few minutes. Then, just as suddenly as it had happened, the horrible blast ended.  

The marines remained where they were for a moment, hunched over, futilely clasping their armored hands to their helmets. Slowly, McGuire came to his senses and rose.  

He looked around him, and everything seemed somehow different. The sky, which had just previously been an impenetrable steel curtain of gray clouds, was now broken and disheveled, the clouds swirling and raging above them, the sky finally penetrating the screen at random times. The landscape, or what McGuire could see of it from the corridor, seemed to be on fire. Smoke rose from everywhere and as he turned towards the large mound that blocked the path and the massive structure behind it, the surfaces of everything seemed to glow orange. Yet the sun could barely be seen; its only representation a large glowing spot who’s light shone through the clouds.  

Slowly, cautiously, the other men began to get up. Deciding to let them get oriented, McGuire walked towards the mound and began to climb it again.  

He was not prepared for what he saw.  

The massive, living mass that had dominated the entire view from that perch was gone. The three great, spike laden spires were burning and leaning at odd angles. One had collapsed completely and simply lay inside the massive crater that had replaced the multi-skyscraper-sized structure.  

Most of the area around the crater, easily the size of several city blocks, was, in fact, burning and the crater seemed to be expelling an incomprehensible amount of steam and smoke.  

“What happened?”   

McGuire jumped in surprise at the sound of the voice. He turned to see Highwind standing right next to him, his eyes fixed on the scene before them.  

“Wha—what was that Lieutenant?” he asked.  

McGuire could only keep staring.  

“I have no idea son,” he turned back and looked down and saw that his squad was ready to move again.  

“But we got a job to do. Alright boys, lets move out!”   

Adam La’Ser stepped in to the special executive briefing room aboard the U.S.S.S. North Dakota and stopped for a moment to allow his eyes to adjust. The room was dark, very dark, with nothing but a dim red light illuminating its interior. There was a steel round table in the center of the room and ringing it were about seven or eight comfortable looking chairs. Three of them were occupied.  

Commodore Chambers sat at one end of the table. The other two COs were sitting at the opposite end with one chair in between them. Adam took the liberty of occupying it.  

Across the room, the large blast doors that he had stepped through began to shut. He saw as they closed that their were actually four or five doors layered on top of each other. They closed and sealed with a resounding thud. Two marine guards in full battle armor stood guard inside the doors, there visors down. Adam could tell by the insignias on each marine’s right shoulder that they were Theta Force.  

“Welcome, Commander.” Chambers said. “Before I begin, I must alert each of you that any words spoken in this room are priority-one classified. Nothing that is said here is repeated unless in the presence of a approved superior officer.”  

That sounded strange to Adam. What exactly did Chambers mean by an “approved” superior officer? Adam got a sinking suspicion that this meeting had the signature of the Office of Military Intelligence written all over it. The meeting was kind of strange anyway. All three COs had been pulled away from their capitol ships while a major engagement was going down as well. Something felt very wrong about all this.  

Chambers’ voice and demeanor were also different. He was usually a friendly, if stern fleet officer who accomplished everything in an efficient yet pleasant manner. His face was now grave, his voice quiet and all too sober.  

“Also understand that this operation is under the observation of and is, in fact, being  controlled by OMI. I have standing instructions that anyone who violates the security measures set down by OMI will be guilty of treason and promptly executed.”  

Oh. That’s why he was so grave.  

“As you know,” he continued, “We were sent here with specific orders to secure this planet for the Alliance Expeditionary Force. Our rivals at the UED seriously botched up the job of bringing this hellhole under control. They are attempting to rectify things, but that will take time. Too much time. It is in the best interests of both the Alliance and, in fact the entire human race, that we enter this system and bring things under control. We have hit this colony with overwhelming force and, in time, victory will be ours. But make no mistake. The Zerg are in fact the biggest threat that humanity has ever faced.”  

Chambers paused to let that sink in. Each one of the COs were stone-faced. Adam was sure he mirrored their expressions. They had been surprised to hear they would see combat. They had been shocked to learn they faced the Zerg. But Adam was beginning to feel as if this was all just the tip of the iceberg.  

“In exactly twelve more hours, the Unity’s battle group will enter this system. It is of the utmost importance to our entire campaign that this planet is under our complete control at that point. No zerg can survive. I repeat: not a single zerg can survive.”  

Somewhere outside the armored room, bombardment batteries continued to pound down on the planet’s surface. The muffled sound of their thudding reports continued to echo dully through the room, often punctuating Chambers’ pauses.  

“Interspersed amongst the regular landing crews, a squad of Theta Force members were aboard the New Jersey IV,” Chambers continued. “They alone were briefed that they were engaging the zerg and none of the other ground crews knew until they were in their dropships and heading towards the planet. However, their knowledge of what would happen was even limited. For example…”  

Chambers gestured, and a large hologram came to life in the center of the table. It hovered over a large depression in the center of the table, and detailed the entire combat zone, including a highlight of area on the planet’s surface where the zerg colony was located, a place now referred to in the battle reports as Bug City.  

“I’m sure you were all under the impression up until Touchdown that this planet has never been inhabited by humans,” he said.  

“As I’m sure your battle reports from our boys on the ground have indicated, this is not so. There was in fact a Terran colony here once, and a rather prosperous one at that.”  

“But how?” the carrier’s captain asked. “Why? The reports indicated that no one, not even the UED or the Korprolu factions knew of any terran encampment here. And it’s too far away from anything to be a regular Terran shake and bake colony.”  

“That is correct, Captain,” said Chambers. “Indeed, this colony’s history does raise many questions. Unfortunately, most of the answers are classified.”
 

Adam was waiting for that. He began to realize that this meeting was going to raise a lot more questions then it answered.  

“What I will tell you is this. At 0030 hours, a Ghost operative was transported from this ship to the New Jersey IV and placed in one of its remaining secure area cryo sleep units.”  

Adam was shocked. That was the special visitor Chambers had put on his ship??? He suddenly felt resentment for his old friend blossom in his gut. What the hell was he doing? Why was a Ghost on his ship? At least that explained why he never heard another word about the extra visitor after the person boarded and was secured.  

“That Ghost has gone down with the troops, and is presently at the proverbial heart of Bug City, along with the Theta Force squad.”

Outside in the corridor, two technicians walked past the massive blast doors of the meeting room. Two mini guns popped out of the ceiling and tracked their movements. Neither flinched, as they had walked this way many times, and knew if they didn’t move towards the door, they’d be fine. Each one walked down the hall and out of sight, without even an inclination that there was anyone in the room at all……

A tone beeped from somewhere in the room, breaking the quiet.

“Speaking of the devil,” Chambers said.  

The COs looked around, quiet confused. What was going on now? 

“Excellent,” Chambers said in to a device on his wrist. “Initiate now.”  

He looked to them, and to Adam and the Dragon Maw’s commander in particular.  

“Your command crews have been linked through the command channel and are presently under my command. We have just received a signal we were waiting for. In a few moments, the mission will be beginning its final stages.”  

Adam began to become very agitated. What was this man doing with his ship?  

“Roger that,” Chambers said to his wrist again. With a flash, a previously unseen screen appeared on the wall opposite the blast doors, giving a full view of the planet’s surface and the space and ships around it.  

“Fire.”  

Before each person’s eyes, the various Battlecruisers on the screen moved in to an awkward position. Massive balls of energy began to collect at their bows and in three consecutive blinding flashes, the three ships each blasted, massive radioactive balls of fire and death down at the planet.  

A voice chimed in through the room.  

“Yamato barrage away,” there was a pause, and then, “Firing solution correct and holding. We’ll have contact in three…..two…..one.”  

On the view screen, three consecutive flashes that were very much visible from space lit up the planet’s surface.  

“The final phases of the operation are about to go under way. I cannot tell you anything else. I apologize for any confusion you might have. All I can tell you is to remember what you’ve seen here, and stay sharp. Now, return to your capital ships and continue with the operation as planned. Dismissed.”  

And with that, the three bewildered COs got up, saluted, and left the room. The blast doors opened for them, but the Theta Force guards made no movements to indicate they even knew they were there. The three captains exited the room, and went their way back to their respective ships. Not a single word was spoken between them.  

The Vultures screamed through the colony. They banked around sharp turns, tore through corridors, popping off grenades at anything that stuck its head out.  

Pierce raced along, the sheer force of his present speed pushing him back in to his seat. One of the guys ahead of him banked off suddenly towards a wall, but just before he hit, he expertly adjusted his bike so instead of hitting it, he went up the wall, zooming across it at an angle and flying in to the air above the edge of the structure before coming back down towards the ground.  

“Wooooohoooo!” someone exclaimed over the com.  

Suddenly some of the snake-like spine throwers poured out of a hole in a wall up ahead, apparently intent on cutting them off.  

Someone laughed. Tommy just gunned his bike forward, weaving in and out of his comrades. Three of them took point and dove straight towards the offending zerg. As they neared, the snakes prepared to emit their spines. The three hover bikes just lobbed half a dozen grenades at them and the hapless zerg were still exploding as the Vultures roared by.  

People often chastised the Vulture pilots. They said the bikers treated combat like a game. That they treated everything like a game. The pilots answer to that? Damn straight.  

Another pilot pulled off the wall-flying-trick, so Pierce decided to debut his skills. He yanked his bike towards a wall and zoomed right up and across its surface. He crested the edge and flew through the air for a second, before coming back down and gliding down the wall to the level ground.  

“Alright, bring it on!” someone else screamed. Pierce jammed his bike straight across the path and began to ascend yet another wall on the opposite side.  

He thought a little as he ascended. They were actually doing something aside from joyriding. Their mission was technically to scout out ahead of an advancing platoon of marines that was assigned with the task of securing this particular region of bug city. The vultures were to sniff out any resistance ahead of the main marine formation and eliminate any small groups of hostiles that came their way, in order to soften up resistance. Pierce was just thinking about how much of a cakewalk those guys would have when he crested the edge of the wall……  

And looked down to see a horde of the spine spitting creatures sitting on top of it. They looked about ready to bring him down hard as he descended, too.  

Having no time to think, Tommy reacted by yanking out his submachine gun that was strapped next to his right leg and sprayed the zerg, disrupting them long enough to get back out of sight.  

“Holy crap,” he exclaimed.   

“What?” someone said. The other pilots hadn’t expected to hear anyone sound worried. They were expecting a pushover mission….  

“There’s mad spitters up top of that roof back there,” he said as the offending building quickly shrank behind them.  

“Those marines r’gonna be sawed up!”  

A gruff voice answered him, serious and determined.   

“Alright boys, lets do this. We gotta head back to slow down the footies and spread the word over the com. We’re too far out back here.”  

As one, the Vultures spun around a corner and were soon rocketing back the other way. Tommy Pierce began to feel anxiety in his stomach. If they didn’t get back in time, those marines would be in some hard-core trouble.  

A massive red lightning bolt slammed in to the ground several “blocks” away from them, raising a massive pillar of dirt and debris. The Vultures just sped on by, intent on reaching the marines in time. “This is Vulture unit…” the squad leader was saying. Apparently, they were in com range.  

“Be advised, there’s a whole truckload a zerg spitters on a rooftop at coordinates…” 

But Tommy wasn’t listening anymore. Some movement up ahead had caught his eye, not that far from the zerg-topped building…. 

“McNair, you see that man?” he asked.  

“Uh, where dude? Oh, wait, I think I see it…”  

Suddenly, Tommy realized what he was seeing and panic spiked through him. 

“SPLIT! Their tryin to cut us off!!!” he cried.  

Vulture pilots learned that when your in the field where everything moves so freakin fast, you never ever hesitate. Without asking, the squad began to split up in to the adjacent corridors to try to get around what was now visible as a massive zerg blockade up ahead near the building. If they had kept going, things would’ve been over for them real fast.  

“They’re everywhere! Where the hell did they come from???” came a voice over the com. 

Indeed, their weren’t any more blockades, but the place was suddenly crawling. Tommy got a sinking sensation that the zerg didn’t want them to get back to sound the alarm. It didn’t seem possible, but…… 

“We gotta get reinforcements, there’s no way through this!” came another voice. 

Tommy screamed around another turn. The Vultures were breaking and weaving at high speed, trying to avoid the zerg that now seemed to be around every bend. Tommy just narrowly dodged a spitter as it launched a barrage of spines at him. Then, something caught his eye….. 

“Yo lead!” he called over the com. 

“What???” the squad leader called back through clenched teeth. 

“Can you get the squad to point A, seven—grid, uh,” he dodged a hopping zerg that was leaping for him as he sped around another turn. “uh, grid C???” 

“Yea, I guess, but if there’s no reinforcements there when we get there were screwed!” he said. 

“It’ll be there, I got an idea.” 

“Uh, roger that, I guess.” The squad leader said. 

Tommy suddenly changed his course and felt almost faint as the forces on his body seemed to collide. He gunned his engines and sped back the other way, towards the area where the last spitter had almost pasted him. He reached the place and….there. He saw it. 

All of the walls around here were mostly vertical, so if you ran directly in to one of them, you’d crash, instead of gliding up side-ways like they’d done before. But one wall at the back of a dead end ally was shaped in a sloping fashion. Tommy gritted his teeth, and bore down on the throttle as he sped towards the mound. A hopper appeared out of the ground ahead of him, but he yanked out his gun and shot it in the face before it could even move. And then he was already past it. 

He hit the mound, and raced straight up its slope, cleared the edge…… 

And began to fly way over the heads of what must have been hundreds of zerg on the other side. 

Time seemed to slow down. The zerg looked up at him eagerly. He wouldn’t clear them all. And even if he did, he knew the impact would likely destroy him and his bike anyway. So, he reacted, and hoped for the best.

He jammed down on a button on his console and felt three consecutive thuds as his bike ejected his three spider mines. The mines were supposed to be set near the ground, not at this suicidal altitude. The mines flew down almost all the way, and their computers realized that they were going to be destroyed un-detonated on impact. So, programmed not to waste themselves even if their deployer did, the mines exploded. Right in the face of the sky-gazing zerg. 

As Tommy fell rapidly towards the ground, he felt the explosions hit him somewhat and slow his descent. He killed the power to his engines and poured everything in to his hover pads.  

Then he reached the ground. He crashed in to the surface with a bone jarring thud. He felt as though he would just fall apart at any second. But he didn’t. And after a moments hesitation, he realized that his bike was still running.  

Tommy spun his head around and saw the surviving zerg turn towards him with what seemed to him to be very hungry, very angry expressions on their faces. Without even taking his eyes off them, Tommy gunned the engine and flew off and away from them.  

He sped around a couple of corridors then came out on to the main “road” that they had been taking when they had passed that notorious building. He didn’t have much time: the others would be at the spot he’d designated soon. 

Then, to his utmost relief, he saw it. The marine force they’d been scouting for. To his great joy, he saw that the marines had even managed to pick up a siege tank somewhere along the way, and they now surrounded the vehicle as they marched down the corridor. 

“I’m from the advance unit!” He cried as he approached them. “We’re in big time trouble, and there’s an ambush waiting for you up ahead anyway. You gotta get over to point A, seven—grid C!!!” he said. 

A startled voice answered back as he circled their formation. 

“Uh…..oh….ok. Uh, thanks, you got it. We’ll head their now,” Whoever Tommy was talking to had taken in the sudden information and seemed to be getting his head together. 

“Alright Marines, you heard him! Lets double time! Lets save us some bikers!” 

And with that, the marines broke off from their regular course and headed towards the area that Tommy had told his buds to meet for reinforcements. He just hoped they got there in time. The marines could run faster then a normal person do to the enhancers in their powered combat suits, but Tommy rocketed ahead of them anyway. 

When he reached the spot, his heart sank as he saw that no one was there. But as he sat there and wondered what he had done, he suddenly heard the familiar drone of Vulture engines in the distance, and his hopes began to rise.

Their not here yet! He thought. The reinforcements might get here on time after all!

But even as he thought this, he heard a muffled sound from behind him. He spun the bike around on its axis and came so stare a large spitter right in the eye. 

Startled, he simply slammed his hand down on the console and a grenade popped right out of the front of the bike and hit the thing square in its center. The spitter exploded, and Tommy breathed for a second, shocked, and somewhat taken aback by how close he had skirted death. Again. 

The Marines and their handy little tank arrived shortly thereafter, as did the Vultures. The zerg were quick to arrive on the scene as well, but the combined force of the hover bikes, the tank, and the marines was more than enough to keep them at bay as more and more troops advanced farther and farther in to Bug City.  

Another bombard shot flew down on some hapless target somewhere in the distance, and for the first time Tommy began to wonder when bedtime would be……

The Theta Force squad trekked across the blasted, burning wasteland as they approached the crater. Their weapons were held at the ready, but all of them kind of doubted whether they would actually encounter anything living.  Sanchez and O’Reilly reached the edge of the crater and gave the all clear. 

The rest of them neared it and peered down. 

To McGuire’s shock and surprise, the crater was not just some blasted glass factory. While all of the structure about his level had clearly been disintegrated, what they stared at now was a massive, steaming pit that was filled with rows and rows of vein-covered, gelatinous sacks that could only be eggs.  

The men crossed over the lip of the crater and began a trek down to its center, where the nav indicated that they should place the package. All around them were rows of pulsing, throbbing eggs. Millions of tentacles, some as small as electric cords and some as large as sewage pipes, ran their way through the whole mess. And the ground was covered with what seemed to be several very thick layers of the purple moss stuff that Sanchez and Highwind had noticed earlier.  

They reached the center of the crater, where they found a large, gaping hole. 

“Hmmpf.” Crazy Hawk snorted. “This must be why we still gotta place the package even after command blasted this thing. There’s probably a lot more of this kind of stuff down there.”  

“Yea,” McGuire agreed. “Well, lets get to it then. Set this thing and let’s get out of here. I don’t know about you but I’m getting sick of this place.”  

The rest of the squad agreed with that whole-heartedly, and Highwind pulled out the package.  

A plasma bomb, worth 20,000 pounds of TNT, all in the size of a large lunchbox.  

JoJo and Yuizaki quickly got to work. They set the bomb and secured it right on the inside of the hole, so that it would blast both the stuff in the crater and whatever was down in the hole. They had no idea anymore whether they were standing on ground anymore or just more zerg bio matter. The large structure that had once stood here might have been disintegrated, but anything that could take a bombardment like that and still preserve whatever it was sitting on was not to be taken for granted. JoJo set the time and stood up.  

“We’s best be goin now mon.” he said in his heavy, monotone voice.  

They immediately complied, and quickly ran back up the crater’s slope towards the edge. As they neared the top, something caught Highwind’s eye. He and O’Reilly turned, and before their eyes, a pair of sharp blades seemed to sprout out of one of the eggs, as though it had erupted from within. A second pair slid through the egg’s sides, and suddenly the thing exploded. Where it once stood, two of the hopping, slashing zerg warriors stood in its place. They looked hungry.  

O’Reilly reacted instantly. He leveled his rifle and blasted off a couple of bursts at the creatures. But several shots went astray, ripping and tearing some of the eggs around the two creatures. Those eggs abruptly exploded and there were suddenly a lot of newly hatched zerg standing there.  

“Run!” came a voice from above them.  

The two of them snapped in to action, running up the hill as fast as their feet would carry them. The zerg closed from behind in hot pursuit, but the marines were soon over the crater and making a bee line for the area from whence they had come.  

They climbed back over the mound and in to the corridor where they had found the Ghost earlier. They began to run out of that corridor and head back the way they came, when things went terribly wrong.  

A large, spine spitting creature was suddenly towering over them. Given no choice, Sanchez stopped running and fired up at the thing, getting it squarely in the midsection. Then they were everywhere.  

The zerg came out of nowhere and everywhere at once. They poured over the walls and out of crevices. The Theta Force squad had no choice but to hold their ground and fight. They fired in bursts(except for Rommel, he just blasted everything that moved) incapacitating first, then immediately finishing off each zerg as they came at them.  

Highwind was knocked to the ground. He couldn’t tell what was going on, all he could gather was the constant rattle of the weapons, the perpetual muzzle flashes, and the sounds of his embattled comrades calling out to one another.  

“Behind you!”  

“Get that one!”  

JoJo was standing near Highwind. He was gunning down zerg with frightening accuracy, when suddenly Highwind heard a sound from behind them. One of the walls had opened up and growling could be heard from within.   

“Headshrinker!” Highwind cried out to JoJo using his other nickname.  

JoJo swung around and saw the newly formed hole in the wall, and promptly emptied his clip in to it. The growling stopped, but as he reloaded, two hopping zerg appeared at the top of the wall above them. JoJo raised his weapon, but the creatures hopped down, knocking both Highwind and JoJo down and landing next to them. Sanchez turned around and blasted the one near JoJo in the face at point blank.  

Crazy Hawk turned to get the other one, but realized that at his angle he couldn’t hit the thing without shooting his comrades too. Acting on instinct he suddenly yanked out his massive combat field knife and stabbed the thing in the face, burying the blade with such force that he slammed the alien in to the wall behind it. Still holding the thing to the wall, he leveled his rifle at its stomach and put a burst in to it for good measure. He yanked his knife out and sheathed it, but turned to see a spitting creature on the verge of impaling him with a volley of spines. But before it could fire, it was blown away as JoJo was suddenly back on his feet.  

The desperate fighting raged on, and Highwind got to his feet and scrambled away from the hole in the wall, fearing more zerg would come out of it. He reached the center of the area they were boxed in and turned to see a hopping thing about to lunge on him. He frantically yanked out his sidearm and shot the thing in the leg, stopping it momentarily. But he turned around to see that while one wave had come over the mound and turned the marines attention one way, a whole horde of spine creatures had formed at the other end of the passage and were about to do them all in. He had no time to think, only react. He swung his missile launcher around and aimed it at the center of the horde and just pulled the trigger. He was knocked off his feet as the missile exploded several yards away.  

He quickly glanced up to see that he had at least done the trick: the spitting monsters were all gone. 

Just as Highwind was basking that success, six or seven hopping things jumped down from the walls and landed right in front of him. Still on the ground, and with no effective weapon at this range, Highwind suddenly thought himself doomed. Just then, Rommel, who was standing over him with his back turned, spun around and decimated the zerg with a storm of bullets from his eight barreled weapon.  

“Lieutenant!” someone shouted. “We gotta evac! NOW!”  

“Roger that,” McGuire yelled back, seeing their opening in the brief reprieve that Highwind’s missile had bought them.

“Fall back, fall BACK!” he yelled. The marines happily obliged.  

They ran for what seemed like forever, running and shooting and never looking back, the zerg hounding them every step of the way.  

“I almos forget,” Yuizaki spoke up as they fled. “Bomb go off right abou now.”  

Both the squad, the zerg that were chasing them, and anything else not planted in the ground suddenly toppled over, as the largest, loudest, and most earthshaking explosion yet rocked the entire colony. The men could do nothing but squeeze their eyes shut and hope for it to end as the massive bomb tore into the planet itself.  

Suddenly, it was over. 

McGuire tried to get up. He knew he had to. The zerg would recover before his men. He had a duty. But he just couldn’t move his limbs. He was just too shaken. He heard a scraping sound behind him and knew the end was near. Then, suddenly, a massive vibration shook the earth ahead of him. McGuire raised his head to see the towering figure of a Goliath walker standing over him. The mech’s two massive Auto-cannons suddenly exploded to life, and McGuire knew that without a doubt, the zerg weren’t coming for them this time.  

More Goliaths joined the first, and soon, as the Theta Force guys began to come to their senses and stand up, infantry, vulture hover bikes, and tanks began to role in to the area. He turned around to see a gargantuan, black column of smoke rising in the distance, and the marines around them cheered.  

Bug City was theirs.

Somewhere, in a dark, unknown place in the massive zerg compound, the Ghost lurked. He was very close now. The zerg’s defenses around the hive had been broken. They would be pouring the last of their resources to this last spot. But it was too late. He had already reached the chamber. He stopped just outside, crouched and cramped in the dark tunnel and waited.  

The earth shook. The tremors would’ve certainly brought the cavern down were it not for the zerg bio matter holding it up. He knew without a doubt now. The Hive was destroyed.  

He burst in to the tiny chamber. Two zerg had been guarding the bright glowing object at its center, but their demeanor suggested they now no longer knew what to do. The Ghost shot them both. He walked up to the glowing thing and took out his PsiBlade. He swiftly cut the tendrils keeping it in place and secured it. He turned and began to weave his way out of the tunnels. He had the prize, now he was out of here.

Finally, the report came in. Bug City had fallen.  

A great cheer went up amongst the bridge crew, and Adam immediately got on the ship-wide intercom and said.

“Attention. We have just received word from the surface. Victory is ours.”  

Even from the bridge, Adam could hear the cheers resounding throughout the ship’s frame. A squadron of wraiths flew across the view screen in a tight formation, doing a victory roll.  

“All bombard laser batteries: cease fire.” He ordered. The marines would now conduct the extensive mop up on the surface.  

“Aye Aye, captain.” Lt. Mihen said.  

The Unity Battle group would be here soon, he knew. Soon, their would be debriefings a new missions and a hundred new worries. But as he looked out upon his celebrating bridge crew, he knew: now was a time for celebration.

Deep within the vastness of space, the great, terrifying voice rumbled for its mistress.

“My Queen,” it said.  

“Yes?” the sharp, snide voice of its master responded immediately. That was unusual. 

“The colony has fallen, my Queen,” it said in a subdued way.  

“It was to be expected. No matter,” said its mistress. “And, what of the artifact?”   

“They have taken it also, my Queen. Contact was lost right after the hive ceased to perform its vital functions.”  

The voice of its mistress sighed.  

“Ah well, things like this happen. We will prepare our forces, and watch, and wait. Time is with us, mind you,” she said in a sarcastic, mothering way. “Soon we will test the mettle of this new force. And soon after that, we will wipe the galaxy clean of all who have opposed us before! These new invaders from earth will soon learn why their brethren failed.”  

“Yes, my Queen” the other voice said, almost quietly.  

“Very soon….” she whispered. “You’ll see, Araq. Very soon, you’ll see…..”