First off, anyone who has ever claimed that Ghosts were the greatest unit to use against swarms of Zerg without detection abilities should throw themselves into a fire, and die horribly! The reason for this? Simple really.

A single massive shot rang out, and a Zergling that had launched itself from a burrowed position, not five me from me saw the creature continue its short flight in death to collide with the ground. Following that, multiple other Zerglings launched themselves out of the ground in the direction of the fallen Zerg.

That, that was the fucking reason, these bastards detected the vibrations in the ground somehow when you walked near them and would suddenly jump out at you. I’d damn near died multiple times, very well may have if not for a mishap during the first encounter where I fell on my ass. I was still cloaked, so they couldn’t see me, but the fuckers just launched at me anytime I moved.

With them in a borrowed state, the ground blocked my infrared vision so I couldn’t use that as a map. It had the added problem of making me utterly give up on using that Nuke. I wasn’t going to go even deeper into Zerg land over there, just for a bonus objective, when moving a short bit out of the base was already all but a death sentence. I’d find another use for the Nuke.

I’d been out here twenty minutes or so and went through an entire clip. Half of it in sheer panic before i managed to regain a semblance of calm. I was making slow, but steady progress to the marker on my built-in mini-map as well.

Another step, another quick roll forward and a quick shot at the launched Zerg. This time a Hydralisk. Out of curiosity, I decided to think about my personal kill objectives.

Zergling Kills - 674/500

Hydralisk Kills - 521/500

I blinked at that, mostly because I had reached the goals. Though I Wasn't that surprised. Afterall, there were only a hundred of us in that defensive line with thousands of Zerg barreling down on us throughout the day, not to mention destroying that bridge filled with the fuckers.

Another shock was the count had gone past the bonus objective. Did that mean it was cumulative? The more I killed, the better the rewards? At this point, it didn’t matter, but it made me curious as all hell. Another reason to make it through this and see just how The System rewards this crap.

I was maybe half a click from where the newly spawned people should be. Hiding in a crumbling building, the C-10 rifle propped up while I searched the area for any possible threats, visible ones anyway. I’d also taken the time to turn off my cloaking since I was hidden in the building.

The area around where they should be appeared clear, but there were a lot of buildings surrounding the area as well, it blocked my few. The infrared vision showed around eight heat signatures moving slowly in a pattern through the scope as well.

A quick glance up, to avoid the trope of dying due to a commonly seen negligence when knowing the enemy had air units show the sky clear of all but a few Mutalisks flying around, their screeches echoing distantly.

Taking a deep breath, I activated the cloaking ability and moved out. Moving slowly, and carefully toward my objective. I encountered two more Zerg ambushes, the last one having a few Hydralisks in the ambush. The big, spike spitting bastard, fell slowly to the ground, three holes in its body while I breathed heavily, dry firing. Another clip down, I had one left, FUCK!

Steadying myself once again I entered the clearing that should hold the men I was hunting for. What I saw, was a bit disconcerting. Around the area were small flames littering the ground, some bullet holes in the buildings and a multitude of charred bodies that appeared to be Zerg.

The reason? Two vehicles about the height of a Hydralisk, large enough to hold a single person in the driver seat, and maybe two on either side if it was moving. I almost wept with joy, Hellions, it was really Hellions! These fire spewing mechanical speed demons were the living embodiment of Zergling destruction.

“Holy shit…” I breathed, deactivating my cloaking ability out of habit, only to be met by screaming from just behind the massive back tire. A male voice, command clear in his tone.

“Who the fuck are you!? Get down on your knees or I will open fire!”

Lt. Fernando

A named Marine? No time, I responded as quickly as I could. “Easy Lieutenant, I’m Commander Fern from the evacuation point. I’m here to respond to your distress signal. How many others do you have with you, and are they travel ready?”

A long, heavy moment hung in the air as he digested my news. It went on long enough I thought he didn’t believe me and I was about to be killed out of fear.

The moment passed though, and I let out a breath I had no idea I was holding until that moment. “Commander! You are a sight for sore eyes, I got seven others with me, one injured. Myself included three Marines from the DF (defensive force), two Hellion drivers, and two Medics. We’ve been held up in this clearing for days waiting for aid.”

Days? The fuck? Nevermind, something to do with the Tutorial and its own story I guess. “Good to know you lot are alive, get loaded up. How fast can you go? We have...twenty minutes to make it across that bridge before a massive wave hits my boys back at the base, cutting us off until they get wiped out.”

He moved out, followed by the others, one of the Hellion drivers was the injured party, leg injury. He was being treated by two women. Of course, Medics were female in this game. I just didn’t expect that to stick, maybe just coincidence as well. Checking the names of the men there, Fernando aside, they read as more advanced versions of my own Marines.

Regular Militia

Militia Medic

Hellion

I’d have to figure out these ranking systems, though it may be completely different outside of the maps I get sent to, knowing how they grew and obtained some form of strength would only be a benefit. Because just looking at the two Regular Militia, and Lt. Fernando, I knew they were a hell of a lot better than five of my men at the base, or how they were at first anyway.

I nodded, the Hellion drivers got into their vehicles, and I saw the Marines load up, one two each Hellion, with a Medic behind them. Fernando went on the other side of the right Hellion, leaving me an open slot on the left one.

I blinked, climbing up on the big vehicle. The fact I felt really, really, exposed was a constant tingling worry. Once we got moving though, following my directions back to base, I saw most of that worry wasn’t warranted.

I should not, the Hellions were a lot bigger than you’d think, roughly the size of a large four-door truck, letting them just ram into Zerglings as we went. When Hydralisks showed up, flamed belched forth in a stream of heat and death while we fired into the inferno to kill them quicker.

The speed as well, what took me over forty minutes took these vehicles ten to get to our location. The problem with this was I did notice damage being sustained from the Zerglings we ran over, and the Hydralisks when they launched a spike before being set on fire.

The looks of the boys that had originally thought it was another Zerg wave started cheering like you wouldn’t believe. The sight of Hellions alone lifted their moral like nothing I could ever do would. We slid past the Auto-Turret, which had started firing just as we slid past at the few dozen Zerg that had followed behind us, having survived our random burst of fire at them to lessen the trailing swarm.

Coming to a stop, I hopped down and called out my main fighting force. “Goose! Reynolds! I’m back with gifts!”

They already knew, kinda hard to have missed it. They ran up all the same though, then did the damndest thing. They saw Fernando, rather the red stripes on his armor and saluted as best they could. “LT!!! You made it?”

The laugh that accompanied that was a deep one. “Aye! But a lot of others didn’t. Fucking Zerg over-ran our position in a matter of hours. General Decimus fell in the last push buying time for me and a few others to make it. I have no clue how many others got through to a safe location.”

That last part was sobering, it also showed an entire depth to the map that I didn’t think of before, I had always just taken the game lore for what it was, never thought much more about it. “I’ll find any of them that made it through over the course of the day. No matter what, I will get them all Lt. Fernando.” my steady reply had the Marine eye me a moment before nodding.

“Sir, if you’ll let me I will happily take charge of these boys. Hold the line while you save as many of our serving men and women as you can.” I blinked. It couldn’t be that easy, right? Something was going to go horribly wrong now, I had a gut feeling about that one. I agreed all the same though.

“They’re all yours Fernando, keep them safe, and hold this position.” Shortly after that, we spoke a bit longer while Fernando set up a defensive line that just full on put mine to shame. I chose to think it was all the Hellions addition, and the Auto-Turret as well. It was in no way because he was a better soldier. Nope, denied.

When the next wave came, all two thousand of the running fuckers, they were met by a hail of bullets from the boys and turret, and steady streams of flame sent out between bursts of rifle fire.

I hated to admit this, but Fernando made holding that single kill point look like a gentle summer breeze, tinged with the stench of burning flesh and filled with the dying screams of the Zerg. Of course, as expected, everything went horribly wrong shortly after the first explosion was seen to have gone off just over the bridge, a Mutalisks charred husk falling from the sky. Looking up, all we saw was a wave of black swarming toward out turrets and defensive line. Fear locked in, but I hefted my C-10 rifle, with the larger range and higher accuracy and did my best to start thinning the numbers, hoping that it would be enough.