Starcraft- Countdown to Genocide Excerpt

Rated M for Mature due to strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. 313

Part 1

“Yo, Philly man.”

“Yeah?”, Philosophy murmured, continuing to focus on the dusty transmitter laid out in pieces before him.

“I think we’re running out of time, man. You better hurry up. Check it out.” Bruce said, and nodded at the dirty window that took up most of the wall on the left side of the room. Philly turned his attention away from the transmitter to squint out through the window, and there in the distance, maybe only a few thousand yards away from the little house, was a black sea of rapidly approaching Zerg.

“Sh*t.” Philly cursed under his breath. “We gotta hide. Look up stairs for some kinda cellar. Ya know, like the ones that fold out in hallways an’ stuff. I’ll check down here.” Bruce nodded and grabbed his ‘spiker, than left the room and disappeared around the corner. Philly glanced out the window at the growing black swarm in the distance one more time before grabbing his own ‘spiker rifle from its place on the ground and double-timing out of the dusty old room. As Philly briskly walked down the hallway checking the various rooms that lined it on his way to the kitchen he could faintly hear Bruce’s large mass stomping around on the floor above him, though the noise was quickly starting to become drowned out by the low rumbling created by the stampeding Zerg. Judging by how loud it was, Philly guessed that they had maybe a minute and a half before Zerg were, perhaps literally, swarming up their asses. That thought in mind, Philly quickened his pace to a full grown frantic sprint, running down the long hallway to the Kitchen, then upon finding nothing ran back into the hallway and double checked all the rooms. On his way out of the last room he nearly shot Bruce out of surprise upon running smack into him. The large corporal’s face was drenched in sweat, and panting. Philly imagined that he looked similar.

“Any luck? There ain’t sh*t upstairs.”

“No, nuthin’ down here.” Philly answered grimly.

“F*ck. That’s it. We are f*cked . “ Bruce exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air, nearly smacking Philosophy in the face in the process. Philly said nothing, his brow creased in frustration and focus, something hard to do with the low rumbling turned massive booming with the close proximity of the Zerg. It didn’t make any sense. The sh*thole of a planet was a breeding ground for tornadoes. Because it was made up mostly of plains, there were hardly any places that didn’t get run over by tornadoes and wind storms and the like. What kind of house in such an environment wouldn’t have some sort of underground cellar thing?

“Man… they’ll be here any second. We are f*cked man! Can’t we hide out in the back or sumthin?” Bruce demanded, a note of hysteria starting to thicken in his voice. Philosophy shook his head.

“ Nah man there’s nuthin… in… the back…

Crap!

“Dammit go to the back go to the back!” Philly hollered, already sprinting back to the kitchen and thus the screen door that led to the backyard. “It’s in the backyard, man!” With Bruce tailing close behind Philly blazed into the kitchen and ran straight through the sliding glass door, which had no chance of stopping the momentum of a 200 pound man encased in strength enhancing power armor, and into the backyard. The yard itself, if it could be called that, was square shaped and had a perimeter of about thirty square feet. In the far left corner of the yard, right next to the fence, was a large metal door that was raised about three inches above the dirt floor. Philly bolted for the door, trying to keep from panicking at the sound of the Zerg, probably 'lings, breaking down the doors of the house behind them and running through it. They had maybe ten seconds…
Philly grasped the steel handles attached to the door and pulled upwards with all of his enhanced strength, flinging the metal door open and revealing a wooden shaft, with ladder equipped, that led about ten feet into the earth to a cramped wooden bunker.

“F*ck, get in man get in! If one of those little bastards sees us it’s over!” Bruce yelled and shoved forward, nearly pushing Philly into the shaft. It wouldn’t have mattered though, because as soon as Philosophy had the door open he practically dived into the shaft, in a brief millisecond free fall before hitting the wood ground roughly. His armor protected him from the fall but not from Bruce’s big ass landing on him. Bruce reached up, grabbed the inside of the handle of the metal door, closed it and locked it just as the Zerg barreled through the house and across the backyard, going right through the fences and off into the plans beyond. “Don’t… make… a sound.” Bruce whispered, and put his index finger against his mouth for emphasis, though it hardly mattered as any noise they made was instantly drowned out by the inhuman shrieks of the even more inhuman Zerg, and the resounding thunderous noise they made as they stampeded overhead. To the two Confederate marines it felt like the Zerg stampeded forever. Every now and again one of them stopped to scratch at the metal door out of curiosity, much to Philosophy and Bruce’s terror, before scampering off. For over twenty minutes they swarmed, and then there was only silence. Scared sh*tless, the duo waited an additional thirty minutes before cautiously lifting up the metal door and peaking their (Philly’s) head out the top.
The house had been reduced to a pile of splinters. Something big had gone right through it, probably an Ultra, causing the entire middle section to cave-in on itself. Most of the fence boxing in the backyard had been knocked down in the Zerg’s mad flurry. Philosophy couldn’t comprehend the logic, personally. The house was situated right smack in the center of nowhere, the nearest geological structure, a mountain, being at least two hundred miles away. That being the case, why do the Zerg decide to go right through the one building as opposed to around it? It wouldn’t even slow them down…

“Is the coast clear man? Can you get your ass outta my face? I’m getting claustrophobic down here!” Bruce growled, obviously feeling cramped in the narrow shaft. Philosophy crawled out of the tunnel and stood up to his feet slowly, his rifle raised to take out any Zerg that may have been hanging around for whatever reason. Seeing none, Philly dropped his rifle and fell backwards onto his ass and let out a deep sigh of relief that he didn’t notice he had been holding in. A moment later, Bruce did the same. The two sat there on the dusty dirt floor and wallowed in their sense of relief silently for several minutes before Bruce stood up and stretched his arms.

“As fun as that was,” Bruce said, “It’s hot as f*ck out here. Let’s go.” Philly nodded in agreement and stood up, grabbing his gun. Looking out in the distance, he could faintly see in the distance the large dust cloud kicked up by the mass of Zerg; bounding toward whatever trace of human civilization they could find.

Civilization…

Philosophy looked up at the sun, which was beginning to set. It was directly behind them, and almost directly behind the herd of Zerg, which meant they were heading east.
“Hey Bruce, isn’t Sarim to the east from here?” Philly asked, realizing that their base of operations was probably about to be next on the Zerg’s hit list.

“Yeah. It is… oh. “ Bruce said, piecing it together himself. “Sh*t.”

“Yeah.” Philly said grimly. “We better move our asses.”

Chapter 2

Fueled by the nearly limitless stamina granted by their power suits, Philosophy and Bruce jogged at a steady pace through the desert for nearly three straight hours before stopping. A Marine’s power armor enhanced his physical abilities a hundred fold, allowing him greater strength and agility (As much agility as a multi-hundred pound, bloated suit could allow), and enough stamina to keep him jogging briskly for hours. It was dark now, meaning it was much cooler, and the duo would have continued their trek for at least another hour had it not been for the fact that they had been running behind the Zerg all this time, and for whatever reason, the Zerg had stopped. Philosophy had been running alongside his comrade with his mind mostly drifting in another world when Bruce came to a dead stop and flung his hand out, smacking Philly in the chest and nearly flooring him.

“What was that f”- Philly began to demand, but he was cut off.

“Shhh! Idiot!” Bruce whispered, and pointed his finger. Following the direction of Bruce’s finger, Philly could faintly make out a sort of edge in the ground where the grassy plain transformed into a leathery looking, purple-ish floor. It was creep.

Sh*t.

Apparently the Zerg had decided to stop and set-up camp, meaning they weren’t too far from the Sarim base. The creep itself was less than a hundred feet away from them, which was a good thing. The Zerg tended to have sentries burrowed at the edge of the creep, acting as early alarm systems if anyone attacked the Hive. Bruce must have realized that setting foot on the creep was a quick way to have the fury of the entire hive unleashed on their asses, which inadvertently meant doing so was just an even quicker way of ensuring their deaths. In Philly’s personal, probably elitist opinion, he was a much, much smarter person than Bruce. At least, he had him beat in terms of book smarts. He had been a Lawyer for Christ’s sake before his involuntary “enlistment” into the Confederate Navy. Unlike Bruce, however, Philosophy didn’t have the experience of fighting on the front lines of every major war in the last ten years. Bruce had fought the Zerg before, and he knew quite a bit more about their habits then Philosophy did, Philly had to begrudgingly admit.

“So like, what do we do?” Philly whispered. Bruce appeared to ignore him, saying nothing for a full minute, instead surveying the landscape.
“I guess we just… go around.” Bruce eventually answered. Philly frowned. You didn’t have to be a combat expert to know that that was a stupid plan. When your enemy outnumbers you ten thousand (at least) to two, and moves a hell of a lot faster than you, cutting ahead of them in a race to the same destination is simply asinine.

“That’s retarded.” Philly said. “ You’re retarded. If we go ahead of them once they start moving out again they’ll catch up to us and kill us.”

“Well sh*t. What’s your plan then *******?” Bruce growled under his breath, just barely loud enough for Philly to hear him. That was a good question. What was his plan? Philly looked around in circles, also surveying the landscape. The Zerg had decided to camp next to a wide river that eventually ran right next to Sarim. The river was on the right of the Hive, and would take at least five minute to swim across, maybe even longer due to the weight of their armor. They couldn’t risk getting caught out there. So, nowhere to go there. To The left of the base… Philosophy had no idea. There was no telling how far down the creep and the Hive extended, perhaps miles.

F*ckin’ Zerg man…

The Zerg don’t have morale, don’t have any lazy workers or fighters, none of its ilk have ulterior motives. Every member of the Zerg assimilation toiled tirelessly toward whatever goal their leader set forth for them. A city wide hive Hive could be built in a few days.; an army could be built in a matter of hours. It was insane. Philosophy sometimes wandered what hope the human race, or any race for that matter, really had. He had heard of the Protoss, and their raping of the infested colony worlds, and frankly found it to be ridiculous that the two humanoid races didn’t form some form of alliance. The Zerg clearly were the biggest threat in the galaxy.

Philosophy was brought out of his thoughts by an elbow to the ribs.

“Jesus. What?” Philly demanded, annoyed.

“Um. You have a plan, smartass? Mine ain’t good enough remember?”

“Oh. Right.” Back to the Hive itself, there was no telling when it ended. Following the creep from a distance, while plausible for awhile, was doomed to fail. It was only getting darker, and pretty soon they wouldn’t be able to see the creep at all. Stumbling around in the darkness a hundred feet from a Hive filled with creatures that can see in the dark and are eternally hungry is begging for a bite in the ass. Thus, they only had one other option…

“I think we should backtrack and find a place to hideout, man. After the Zerg move on and its daylight we can work our way around the base.” Bruce scowled at the suggestion.

“And what, leave Sarim to get f*cked by the Zerg?”

“If we go now we’ll never make it. Probably last an hour before we get killed.”

“And if we don’t Sarim won’t get any warning at all.”

“They won’t get sh*t either way. If we try to sneak past now we’ll get ripped in half and they’ll get sh*t. If we wait until tomorrow we’ll live but the Zerg’ll hit ‘em and they still won’t get sh*t. Either way Sarim’s f*cked.”

“And we’re just going to hide out while they’re getting slaughtered? That don’t sound right to me.”

“Look, you dense mother*cker!” Philosophy’s voice rising to just a bit louder than a whisper out of irritation. “We don’t matter. If the guys at Sarim won’t make it without us two there then they won’t make it at all. Us being there won’t make a damn bit of difference and you know it.” Bruce said nothing in response, instead grinding his teeth and continuing to scowl. Bruce knew that Philly was right, but he’d didn’t want to accept it.

“Alright? Seriously. Even if we wanted to get there before the attack which, in all honesty, I don’t because I like living and I like having all of my limbs, we can’t. As we stand here bitching at each other it’s getting darker and darker and pretty soon they’ll be able to see us but we won’t be able to see them. How far do you think we’ll get before they find us and f*ck us up, huh? We’ll be dead and Sarim will be screwed and that’ll just be that. The outcome won’t be any different, man. Sarim’s just gonna have to fight this one without us.” Bruce looked at Philosophy for a few more moments, disagreement still having hold of his creased features, before he exhaled in a sign of admittance.

“Fine,” He said. “So what’re we gonna do, find a place to bunk up?”

“Yeah,” philosophy answered. “Then tomorrow morning we’ll hump it to the camp and look for some survivors I guess if there’s no more Zerg around, try to find a radio, go home. You know?”

“Yeah.” Bruce said simply, then turned around and started to walk back on the direction that they had come from. Philly shook his head; the big bastard’s feelings were hurt, and ran to catch up to him. When he caught up he said,

“Why are you all bent up about it, man? I thought you were the guy who didn’t give a sh*t ‘bout nobody.” Bruce thought about it for a few seconds before telling him that he was that guy still, and that he was mostly just worried that the radio would be pieces before they got there. At that Philly stifled a snicker.
Self-centered bastard...

“And by the by,” Bruce said. “Call me dense again and I swear to black Jesus I’ll rip your head off and shove a zergling up your ass."