"Don't think you can outlast your enemy in a stalemate, especially if he has a cable modem. = )"
-Macdonough
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| I Dream of Ghosts Chpt 1 | | | Author: | | | IP: | 149.168.XXXX | | Date: | 07/16/02 11:07 | | Game Type: | Starcraft | | Labels: | none | | Report Rating: , # of Ratings: 1, Max: 3, Min: 3
Lifetime Rating for Zephyrus: 4.2000 |  | Sean and his squad of six ghosts were on route to a remote planet. His mission was to locate and destroy a rebel terran base. He had briefed his men about the importance of destroying this rebel base, which had been set up to test a psi-emitter. Command had briefed him that, since it was a newly set up base, they had little to no detection abilities to discover cloaked ghosts. This meant no science vessels and missile turrets, and a prime target for ghost squads. This also meant they had little to no time to complete the mission.
Sean kept a close eye on his squad of six. He wanted them to be the best, and he made sure that they were. Today though, he kept his eye on the new recruit. He was fresh from ghost training, and had no combat experience. Usually you suit up and get comfortable before you get on the dropship. The new recruit was still fiddling around with the ghost mobile suit. Lighter and more expensive then the already insanely priced marine heavy armor, this suit had an environmental system, AI targeting system, PCD (Personal cloaking device), and many other “non-factory” parts.
Sean thought to himself, “This is going to be one long training”
With a sigh Sean refocused his attention on the rest of his squad. He knew of the subtle prejudice that occurs within the ghost squads. The new recruit was a natural born ghost, and he had never actually seen battle before he started his training. Marine turned ghost always looked with slight envy/respect for the natural ghosts, who were discovered soon after birth on well-funded planets and sent to train as a ghost if they wanted at an early age. Sean was not so lucky, but as he thought about this, he snapped his attention back to his mission. That was for another time.
Having gone through the initial phases of nervousness, each person develops a different way for preparing for battle. Sean’s squad members were no different, each were doing something different. Some was smoking (a common one), some were praying/meditating, and yet others were just joking around trying to stay light hearted. Of course, then we have the new recruit
Chirp! From the pilot cabin a voice came over his suit speakers on the command line, “Sir, we have reached our landing site.”
Sean responded, “Thank you, we will begin unloading, please open the bay doors in 30 seconds” Over the squad line he said, “Attention!” The chatter over the com line died immediately. “We have reached our landing site, hook up!”
The squad responded, “Yes sir!”
At that moment the bay doors opened exposing the dark night. The squad turned on their helmet lights and illuminated the seven dangling lines that had been dropped as soon as the doors had completely opened. Sean and his squad hooked a buckle to the rope, and repelled down at the same time with one swift motion. The new recruit was a little slow, but landed efficiently with no issues.
Over his command line he said, “Retract the ropes and head on out”
The pilot responded, “Yes sir, and happy hunting sir!”
Sean watched through the trees as the dropship quickly retracts the repelling lines, close the bay doors, and head out. He watched his men cradle their C-10 Canister Rifle, these deadly rifles can shoot impressive distances, but lack firepower. Knowing that this mission was going to be easy, Sean wasted no time in getting the troops ready, he wanted to be done and out of here as soon as he can.
“Men, PCD on and head out.” He said in a commanding tone. “You.” He pointed at the new recruit, “Follow me and stay close.”
His men slowly faded from view. To the naked eye one could not have possibly hoped to see the seven cloaked ghosts. The AI in the suit keeps a close link with the other suits, and with what looks like a slow screen refresh, the clear helmet drew in the other members of the squad. His men had fanned out and was heading towards the waypoint set by command. As standard procedure there was no communication over the com, and they moved with extreme speed and mobility towards the waypoint.
Splat! Sean knew all too well from battles gone by what that sound meant. He had just stepped on Zerg creep. Mind racing, his suit flared into a series of procedures, he was injected with an agent to calm his mind and adrenaline to accelerate his body. He turned around, grabbed the new recruit and yelled into his com.
“Take cover!!! Zerg alert!” He shouted.
His men dove for cover in the forage and waited. It was perfect timing, a patrol of zerglings marched through, close enough to touch. Sean sighed. Unfortunately for the rebel base, their psi-emitter worked. They had under-estimated the speed of the Zerg response and strength of their little science experiment. This ultimately caused their doom. Their job was done, there was no way they could penetrate this base with all the overlords around.
“Men, we have seen enough, lets head out.” He said sadly.
Even though he was sent to destroy the rebel base, he felt sorry that the people who manned the base had to die a far crueler fate. He knew that the Zerg were merciless and their razor sharp claws made mince meat out of whoever had taken up arms. Far crueler was when there would be a queen present, and it would infect Terrans and turn them into walking bombs.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! WARNING, OVERLORD DECTECTION HAS OCCURRED! OVERLORD DETECTION HAS OCCURRED!
“Shit!” He cursed, “Move it men lets get the hell out of here!” Over the command line he yelled, “We need a dropship to get us out of here now!”
His men started running back towards the drop point. He lagged slightly behind to see that no one was left behind. He glanced back, what he saw made him curse even more. An overload, it was floating 10 yards over the trees and had dozens of tendrils hanging from the main body mass. As he watched, the overlord unloaded infected Terran suicide bombers!
He turned and ran harder. He looked back again after sever minutes, the overload was out of sight now, but the suicide bombers were following without fail.
“Men, lets take them out!” He said into the com.
This is when reality left. He was suddenly looking at his body in third person. Looking back at the bombers, he noticed two were mistakenly familiar.
“NOOOOO!!!!!!!” He shouted.
It was his parents. His parents had always been researchers, trying to find the next best thing to win the war for Terrans. How they became this rebel group he did not know, though he started to suspect that was a lie.
He yelled and tried to stop his body, but it was no use. The cool expression and stalwart him, the body mindlessly mowed down his parents and the other kamikaze infected Terrans.
Sean woke with a sweat.
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