Galactic Dawn: Running Story of the Starcraft&Metroid Campaign, 2006.

Log 10: Factions

The Optimus strode easily across the skies of Shakuras, playing in the silent electro-psionic winds and bobbing gently on the still blue air. The team had done some legwork on some doctors Banity, and had decided that the one they were to meet was on Shakuras' western continent, a pathomorph by the name of Fkakkalak. Those who were in the know about scientific journals and research, Tam, Jargenduv, had noted the disconcerting fact that the name Fkakkalak appeared next to "phazon" in many places. They had had time to do this search while T'Aiur and Laharl searched for willing recruiter's surgeons to perform zealot leg enhancement surgery and some other equipment.

Laharl: Tam, I think we should wait to find this Doctor Banity until after another meeting.
Tam: What other meeting?
Laharl: I have found a rare opportunity to improve our fighting power, but the offer has a half-life.
Tam: I don't know why you're asking me. If you decide to go off on your own then the Khalai will kick us off the planet.
Laharl: I wanted you to know that I was looking out for our best interests. Besides, you may be more interested than most in this acquisition...a ship of sorts.
Tam: You're going to buy another ship?
Laharl: No. A striker.
Tam: Infantry personal flight apparatus, pathomorph technology: why are you bringing this up now.
Laharl: Like I said, a rare opportunity. Here are the coordinates (hands over a datapad).

The team diverted, and soon arrived in a town linked to other parts of civilization by remote only. The merchant shop of Damnamon stood between two tall blue cliffs, itself looking for all the planet like a temple as old as time itself, although from the reviews, Laharl had gathered that this pawn broker was one of the more busy on Shakuras, especially after the recent march of the Prelate Zeratul off to war on distant sectors.

Damnamon: Greetings, Chac Laharl. You arrived in good time.
Laharl: I would like to negotiate the price of the Striker Jetpack.
Damnamon: No doubt, but in this case, the price is not as interesting to me as the cost.
Laharl: The cost?
Damnamon: Yes. What I require is trade more worthy than currency. I need your team to retrieve something I left behind in the war twenty years ago. I was once a fighter like you, you understand.
Laharl: Twenty years is but a breath in a warrior's life.
Damnamon: And an eternity for a philosopher. The Prelate understands the good I can do for the Khalai here in my own shop, so certainly you can accept that I am no longer willing to venture into the wastes by myself, nor take up my blade again to put it to our enemies.
Laharl: Your life is your own. What is this thing you left behind?
Damnamon: Let's call it a "widget," it will look like this (hands over a datapad). You will find it next to the wreckage of a great battle to the northwest. I'm not sure exactly what's living around there now, but being well away from civilization and untouched for so long, I can only assume some of Shakuras' more ferocious beasts patrol there.
Laharl: My blade is yours. We shall return soon with your widget.

The team followed Damnamon's coordinates and soon had the wreckage in sight. It had been a massive battle, spilling parts of Protoss ships and husks of zerg carapaces over dozens of square miles. The task of searching this pile looked daunting, but not as threatening as the black wings streaking up from behind. The kakkaru in this area had grown to gigantic size and developed a predatory nature, seeing the Optimus as a flying egg, full of tasty food. Tam swung hard about and fired the ship's rifles and rockets to distract and damage the beasts. The rest of the team took turns at the turret pods, harrying the winged titans with weapon's fire. Tam fired another volley and sent one of the pair hurtling to the ground. Moltar aimed a shot and shoved a C-10 canister down the kakkaru's throat. The beast's head burst and the body fell limply to the ground. The third broke off pursuit and the team continued to land in safely on the ground.
After hours of peering through the wreckage and getting nowhere, the team reconvened to discuss a new strategy. Tam had chosen as a landmark for this meeting a distinctive-looking shard of a pylon. It was the only one they had seen, and served well for letting everyone meet up again after long hours of search.

Just as he began to speak, the pylon revealed its true nature, and the ground rumbled beneath their feet. Tam stumbled as up from the soil rose the shard as a perfectly hewn prism of ice with two round and glowing red eyes. There was a ripple in the air, and half of the team felt a painful shock of cold sweep over them. The team returned fire, some blows cascading off the ice golem's facets, others jilting it as it floated above them. T'Aiur attempted to attack with his perdition flame throwers, but as he did the golem retreated to the air and fired shards of ice at him. Elric remembered the formation to activate the plasma beam, and blasted the ice golem back to the ground. Laharl dove in for the finishing blow, and the golem split into pieces and shuddered on the ground.
The team took a collective breath, and Tam began to speak again, only to be struck in the back by a lucent blue beam and fall to the ground covered in frost. The golem was now two smaller pieces, each with a single glowing eye. Unable to leave far from the ground, the golemtwins frosted and shocked the team on the ground, only to be melted and blasted apart by the team's retaliation.
Tam decided afterward to skip the speech, and keep searching.

The team reconvened at the ship and related their finidings. All together, four of them had found what they thought was the widget, all of which looked much alike. T'Aiur had also found a device he thought was a psishield generator, but which didn't interface with any suits he had previously seen. Elric had snuck into a crawlspace and discovered a small cave beneath the wreckage. Inside had been a device upon a pedestal that resembled the technology of the predecessors of the modern races, the ancient and mysterious Xel'Naga. Exactly how many more secrets lay buried beneath the battlefield-graveyard the team would never know, although the land had suggested that it had much more to say to the hardy and willing. For now, the team made their weary way back to Damnamon to deliver his widget. On the way, Laharl did some testing and discovered which one of the four was the correct one to deliver. He let Jargenduv have the rest to tinker with, although they did not seem particularly interesting to him.

Elric became restless without knowing exactly why. Her stomach had been turning more and more since finding the comm scrambler beneath Shakuras. She approached Jargenduv, who also seemed to be growing turgid and grumpy and who was at the time tinkering with some of the widgets and the comm scrambler.

Elric: Hey, Jarg', is there a vision (television) in this ship or something?
Jargenduv: What? Don't bother me with that now. I don't know...check the cargo hold.
Elric: Geez, fine!

It had slipped Jargenduv's mind that there was a surprise in the cargo bay, and that Tam had asked them to keep Yuki out of there for the time being. The scream of horror that came a minute later reminded him of this.

Yuki peered through the cargo hold as Jargenduv had suggested. She mused at how most of the hold was full of supplies and equipment looted from BSL, and how one of these containers had once held her static form. Where would she have been without these people who were brazen enough to lash out against a tyrannical giant? Yuki had later heard that the company had uses for human bodies other than personnel, and was thankful she had not ended up in the freezer section of the human resources department. There was a device in the corner that resembled a vision, and perhaps she would find a way to beat her increasingly bored mood. On closer inspection, it wasn't a vision at all, but rather a stasis cell: how forgetful she had been to not recognize the cell from which she had earlier emerged and collected herself around threatening but sympathetic strangers in this ship's crew. There was something in the cell, however. A puzzlement, as Yuki remembered taking all her stuff out already. The window was frosted over, and the shape hard to see. She wiped her hand across it.

Dark skies cloud her sight,
Tragedy takes human shape,
Or at least the head.

The whole ship heard her scream as Yuki grabbed at her head in horror, the sight of her father's severed head with bits of mechanisms sticking out here and there resting gently in temporal stasis burned forever in her mind as the memory of her first encounter came flooding back. To see the history of this head, the once noble benefactor and revenant patriarch turned into a massive abomination in that mechanical chimera. Her heart burned with the hot sands of Korhal where the creature had emerged wearing her father's face. Her eyes swelled with acidic hatred of everything. No one to blame. She pined for hatred. She hated pining. She gasped and could hardly breathe.

Tam left the helm (straight and level flight wouldn't require his input for awhile) and discovered the team crowded around Yuki, who was shivering on the floor next to a small puddle of her own vomit. Tam cleared the rest of them away and took Yuki to a crew hold and cleaned her up, explaining his theories about what had really happened and why he hadn't given up on finding Orson Elric and why she shouldn't. Tam felt a nagging doubt even while he talked, as the strongest evidence for the case was still bobbing in the stasis cell in the next room. Yuki Elric finally fell asleep, and Tam took the helm again, noting on his way that Jargenduv seemed to be overtired, too. He had fallen asleep through all the screaming?

Laharl delivered the package, which Damnamon opened (the team hadn't discovered how) and inspected and mused over. Laharl took as compensation the striker jetpack, and the team went next to a recruiter named Gau Stunos who had agreed to perform the enhancements on the team's pair of protoss warriors.
Tam sat idly for a few hours while the surgery went on. He hoped to himself that Drs. West and Banity were men with plenty of time on their hands, as this interlude seemed to be panning out into something more serious. He and the rest of the crew had slept. Elric and Jargenduv had not yet awakened. He decided to take the vial Dr. West had given him to Banity himself, and to hell with being found without his escort for an hour. Recent developments had lessened Tam's resolute and reverent nature: he was interested in effectiveness now. Maybe this meeting would prove swift.

Moltar joined Tam in the meeting with Dr. Banity, (who by felicity lived in the same town as the recruiter Gau Stunos) who would periodically shiver all over his body and wiped his hands across his face while speaking. He was large but hunched and shriveled, and tended to repeat his last words as if trying to rehearse them correctly. Tam presented the vial as instructed and requested the doctor take a look at the jar of secret sauce to determine its authenticity. Banity excitedly promised acquiescence and rushed them along out the door, letting out what he may have thought passed for a giggle. Moltar and Tam were mixedly pleased, this mission would mean a windfall for the team's bank balance, but what kind of people were they working for?

Other names and potential jobs they had learned about echoed in their heads. Optogenic solution on Antiga Prime. A man named Dr. Romulus Romanovich who studied cataclysms and migratory patterns. Summit meetings. Escort missions. And of course, the orders from the Prelate himself for the aid of Laharl, and therefore the rest of the team, as they were not about to abandon him to the military.

Tam collected the team and left for Korhal again and Dr. West. Upon their arrival, Laharl asked to make this trip brief as he had to report to another recruiter about duty assignments from the Prelate. Tam agreed, and noticed at the same time that Elric and Jargenduv were still asleep. They seemed unhealthy, and Tam diverged for a moment to a nearby hospital to leave them before meeting with Dr. West.
The journey had taken them many hours of the day, and Tam was relieved to finally see Dr. West and collect payment for the journey. Dr. Banity appeared as well, chuckling to himself and shivering. Dr. West explained that his science group had connections with important and secret philanthropic organizations, and that this vial had been the key to many of their recent discoveries. This new means of travel represented a potential threat to macrosociety, and Dr. West suggested that the team do more jobs for him to try and squelch the threat. Tam declined, saying that he had other team members to worry about and needed some down time. He found himself almost relieved to have this excuse. Secret organizations? New means of travel?

The team left Korhal for Shakuras once again, trusting their two to the capable hands of the medical health professionals in the hospital in Brason. Laharl reported in and discovered his duty was to report to on outpost on Kyrador (the protoss name for the planet Braxis). Jocoth, who had met Laharl, told the team that they could all be mercenaries for the Prelate if they wished to stay by their comrade in arms. Jocoth seemed to know about the comm scrambler that they had discovered, calling it a "disruptor," and suggested a few names of those who would be in the know.

Jargenduv opened his eyes. All around him was white. He had felt this way once before, but this time was different. The room was quiet, and he saw people in bunny suits walk back and forth holding charts or pushing carts filled with hard to see objects as they passed. One noticed him awaken and approached.

Bunnysuit: Please, try to remain calm. You're one of the only survivors.
Jargenduv: Uhh..what?
Bunnysuit: We found you on the outside in the wake of the holocaust. Countless lives were lost, but you, you survived.
Jargenduv: Where am I, where's Chocolate and Yuri?
Bunnysuit: Please, try to remain calm. You're safe now.

The man left, and Jergenduv felt perplexed.

Yuki opened her eyes. All around her was white. She felt cold and naked, and looked around to discover the hospital gown. The room was quiet, and she saw people in bunny suits walk back and forth holding charts or pushing carts filled with hard to see objects as they passed. One noticed her awaken and approached.

Bunnysuit: Please, try to remain calm. You're one of the only survivors.
Elric: What the hell is going on here?
Bunnysuit: We found you on the outside in the wake of the holocaust. Countless lives were lost, but you, you survived.
Elric: I'm gonna pound your face if you don't tell me where Moltar and Jargenduv and Maddocks and...
Bunnysuit: Please, try to remain calm. You're safe now. And I'm sorry about your friends. You were the only survivor.

The man left, and Yuki felt furious, frightened and pained. It was difficult to move.

In another hour, or what felt like it, she awoke again and the dead quiet had taken over. There were no longer men in suits, or anyone else walking past, and she felt well enough to move. She stood and walked around, looking up and down the corridor of hospital beds. She met Jargenduv, who had apparently shared the same fate, and was just as confused as to what was going on. He produced a clipboard he had found which bore standard medical charts and a mysterious calculation at the bottom that read "Yuki Elric: Compatability 99.999%"

Just then, Tam burst through the door on the opposite end of the hallway. T'Aiur and Laharl followed, as did Moltar. They quickly related the tale of how they had come:

"We left Shakuras with instructions from Laharl's recruiter, who seemed interested that you in particular should work as a mercenary for the protoss. They seem to like your style and choice of prey. You'll have to tell me about that sometime. When we got back to Korhal, there was a blockade in the sky, a fleet of Luminoth ships called 'The Paladin's Aerie' who were talking about a disaster on the surface of the planet involving the zerg and some shifters and who refused our entry. I told O-mot, their liaison, about our involvement with a name he brought up: Dubrensk, and he let us through the blockade. When we got to the hospital, they didn't have record of either of you and so we found one of the nurses on duty and interrogated her in a broom closet. She told us about a group named 'The Antigans' who had essentially purchased your corpse from the hospital. They took you here, to Moria, to this underground laboratory. My guess is that they saw us coming and beat it."

Just then, an alarm sounded and a timer appeared on some previously unseen ticker screens in the corners. The klaxons blared as the warning of station self-destruct sounded. The team ran and boarded their ship to watch the lair explode in a fiery inferno. The mansion of a man they had learned was named Barnabus swift stood nearby the explosion, its facade unchanged by the burning blast.

The team left for home, and discovered over the next few weeks in their respite a kind of present for each of them. Moltar had inhereted an estate. Tam had procured a license for their team to be an official mercenary organization, and had been granted amnesty by Intergalactapol for previous misunderstandings. Laharl got a package from Dr. West, and didn't tell the others what it was. Jargenduv received a package from Science Team containing a new multi-bot to aid him in battle. T'Aiur got a package from Septoth, who had recently raided some supplies and fobbed off on him a small arsenal in lockdown rounds, even some for the ship. Elric passed the time in searching for clues to her father's past, and did not see the gift she received in the fruits of her search.

That gift would receive her in the coming days.

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