Shadows from the Badlands

The world around him shifted suddenly, startling Michael from his sleep. He was still resting on Dash'rs lap, in his quarters presumably in the Protoss side of the base. Around him lights were flashing, and his sleep deprived brain interpreted them as the flash of cameras for several moments, until he felt the anxiety rolling off of the Protoss underneath him.
"Whats going on Dash'r," the lights he had noticed were flashing rapidly over the doors leading in and around the spacious quarters.

"The base sensors have detected several incoming craft, of Terran design. It is believed that they are from the Dominion."

Michael's debriefing had included very little information on the Terran Dominion, leaving it vague whether it was the legitimate government, a rebel faction, or if Raynor's people were the rebels. "How many? And is that a bad thing? I still haven't gotten caught up with the local politics."

Dash'r cocked his head, listening in on the psionic broadcast going out over the entire Protoss base, before answering, "There are only eight transports, which would normally not be a concern with the amount of forces combined in this one location, yet it means more are likely to come. We will need to evacuate this base."

"Can you take me back to my quarters? With something like this happening people might wonder if I gave this place away if they find out I'm gone." Michael said, weariness tinging his voice and mind. He was doubting that he would ever be fully welcomed here, as the human in the Protoss base, or the UED in the local Terran base. "How long have I been asleep anyways?"

"Less then three hours, and if you face any issues from the other humans, find one of there psionics and wait for me. Any psionic will be able to vouch for your intentions." As Dash'r finished speaking he wrapped Michael in a tight embrace, and he felt the world around him tilt and shift, as whatever Dash'r did brought him back to his own dingy quarters. Inside there was the more familiar flashing lights and alarms as the indication that something was wrong.

He winced as the noise hit his ears, and tightened his own embrace of the Protoss warrior, letting their emotions mingle for a moment, "Ill be seeing you soon." he stepped back and Dash'r faded from view. Michael turned and exited his room. The corridor was deserted, but in the back ground he could hear the rapid treading of boots, soldiers responding to the alarm. He made his way in the general direction of the noise, until he found himself in what looked like a briefing room. There appeared to be little or no organization, just a variety of people milling about, waiting on something or someone. He turned to the soldier nearest him, "Whats going on?"

The soldier glanced over, and his face closed off, having recognized Michael as someone who was still not fully trustworthy. "A Dominion scouting party is about to land just outside our air defenses. If you had anything to do with this," the statement was punctuated by a finger jabbing him in the chest, "Then we will find out, and then your toast."

Michael's hot reply was cut short by the radio coming to life, relaying a feed from the helmet on the first soldiers to approach the seen. The audio crackled with static "Teem three, we have visual on the incoming drop, no hostile fire yet." On the screen Michael could only make out the incoming ships in the darkness because of their engines flaring as they landed. The ground team immediately opened fire on the unarmed craft, and the muzzle flashes blinding the camera. Only a brief "Oh shi..." punctuated the camera feed dying. The other feeds became active on the monitor, but in less then five minutes, with receiving no indication how, the entire squad had gone silent.

Another team took over the transmission, the on screen identifier identifying them as 'squad five.' The video highlighted there cautious approach to team three's last known position, and their slow approach was taking advantage of all the cover available.

He hear the radio crackle, sounding like the Raynor guy giving orders, but he couldn't make out was was said over the din of the room. On the screen, the soldier transmitting the video crested the hill, and they all looked out over the darkened valley where the transports had landed. Only the pale glow of the cooling engines could be seen, and the room around him had gone silent.

"Switching to infrared," intoned the quiet voice on the video feed. Still, only the vague outlines of the ship were visible, coupled with the scattered corpses of team three, cooling in the night. The camera panned left and right, "Switching to UV."

"Fucking hell," the sudden outburst from Michael seemed to shock most of the room, many having never seen the creature that were now approaching the team investigating the landing zone. Michael could see at least three hybrids moving towards them, and the fire team had opened up with all they had, blinding the cameras. "Wheres your weapons," he asked, loudly, turning to the man nearest him.

He looked dumbfounded and shocked, "What the hell was that?"

Michael resisted the urge to shout at him to get moving to whatever they used as an armory, "That was a hybrid, and only one of them was all it took to wipe out colony of a thousand or more. Now, soldier, where are the weapons here, 'cuz we're gonna need them," Michael said softly, talking slowly as if to a small child.

The marine finally jerked his head and the entire assembly of soldiers trotted out of the room. Over the stomping of feet on the metal floor, Michael could hear cannons opening up in the distance. He followed the to an armory, and looked on as the soldiers assembled their gear. Some of it looked like they had either copied it from the Directorate, or the Directorate itself had done the copying. With his own gear having been damaged, first by having the neck supports crushed around his throat, and the likely having it cut off on the way to surgery, he was in need of a spare.

Fortunately someone seemed to realize this, and directed him to the back of the room. It was their older equipment, kept around for spare parts or emergencies. The first of the soldiers had started filing out as he found a set that looked usable. A little heavier then his old armor, and having reinforced joints and artificial musculature. He had played around with an almost exact replica at one point, and he knew it's systems well enough that he would not be a liability.

As he finished attaching the last peice of armor, he yelled trying to catch the attention of a straggler, "What frequency are we on?"

"308 MHz," was all that was said as the last marine trotted out of the room. Michael grabbed up a simple rifle, different then anyy he had used, and as many packs of amo as he could before trotting after them, following the marksdisplayedd on hisHUD..

Outside, the battle was reaching a fevered pitch. The hybrids, of which Michael could now see at least 9, had congregated at the edge of the Terran base. Even with the combined firepower of all the soldiers, the outer defenses were still being systematically wiped out. As he ran towards the fight, he watched helplessly as a massive tank was thrown into the air, tumbling end over end, before landing on a domed structure that Michael thought was one of the command centers. He aimed at the nearest creature, sighting in on it's head, and depressed the trigger. It's shields had already been stripped by the combined firepower being directed at the, but it's hide was still deflecting most of the impacts of the rounds. Through his sights he could see a soldier in bulky red armor explode as he was stepped on. One of the creatures fell, crushing a number of soldiers underneath it's bulk.

A metallic scream had Michael jerking his head upwards as aircraft finally entered the fray. At first Michael thought they would be impervious to the attack from the creature, until one of the ones at the back started chucking debris into the air. Knocking one after the other out, their flaming debris damaging more buildings.

Michael had gone through almost half of his ammo, and more then a third of the human defenders had fallen when the Protoss arrived. Lightning flashed, and Michael thought it was some sort of psionic attack that he had heard mentioned. Two more of the creature fell under the additional fire, when the command frequency crackled in his ear, he didn't recognize the voice, "Additionall landing ships in bound, evacuate the base, repeat, all personal get to the evac point, air support will hold them off." as hee spoke massive energy blasts coming from above the clouds beganimpacting inn and around the hybrids. Small fighter craft launched from the massive Protoss ships joined the fray.

A ship landed near him, and marines began streaming from the forward positions towards them. In the distance Michael could see additional ships launching from the Protoss base amidst massive blue explosions, and Michael was reminded that the Protoss base, and Dash'r,had likely come under attack at the same time. He turned and ran to the nearest transport, trusting that since he could still feel the connection he had with Dash'r that he was still alive and safe, and that in the confusion of the evacuation, that it would not take too long.

As the ship shuttered and lifted off the ground, Michael could see out of the still open hatch as more Hybrids streamed into the base, some of them glowing a pail blue, and launching psionic attacks at the fleeing ship. There was a flash of light from the base as a self destruct activated, vaporizing everything in the area, and he hope, taking out a good chunk of the hybrids.