StarCraft 1. Chapter 1

Starcraft: Defenders of Shakuras

Chapter 1: A New Enemy

Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft. It is the property of Blizzard Entertainment, the wonderful designers who made this unbeatable game.

Author's note: This story takes place approximately a month after Broodwar.

**Date:Unknown location, Koprulu Sector, one month after Broodwar**

The _Hyperion_ cruised through the darkness of space. After the battles in which Kerrigan had taken control of the remaining Zerg broods and wrested control of Aiur from the stalwart Protoss, the other two species had retreated to their base defensive planets. Unfortunately for the Protoss, their new planet, Shakuras, was inhabited by their former brethren, the Dark Templar. This caused some discord among the telepathic aliens. They had been raised to believe the Dark Templar were just as bad as the zerg.

After a rebellion launched by the disgruntled Judicator Aldaris, things quieted down and the Protoss reunited and merged into the powerful race they were meant to be.

Captain Jim Raynor sat in his lavish quarters. The Hyperion had originally been the flagship of Arcturus Mengsk, the emperor of the Terran Dominion. When Jim had left Mengsk, he had stolen this ship and several others. Unfortunately, the others had been overrun by the zerg when Raynor had attempted to rescue Kerrigan from Char.

Raynor sighed. He missed the human Kerrigan. For a time, he had entertained fantasies that she could be saved until she brutally murdered his good friend Fenix the Praetor. Those memories were too painful for him to think about for too long. Now was the time for business, not thoughts. He walked over to his comlink and activated it.

"Bridge, this is Captain Raynor. Have you detected any nearby planets that are habitable?"

"No, sir," Matt Horner's voice sounded tinny over the comm. "However, we have located a group of ships. They seem to be dead in space. There are three Terran Battlecruisers, a Science vessel, and three Arbiter Warships. It looks like they've been EMPed."

Raynor sighed again. "Well Matt, I guess we should send some troops to check the interior of those ships. If they're still space worthy, I would like to add them to our fleet."

He considered his deployment options. The _Hyperion_ carried five hundred combat ready Marines. The other ships Raynor had in his fleet, _Idealism_, and _Painful Memory_, were back at his asteroid base that currently orbited the burned out remains of the planet Mar Sara.

"Matt, I will be going to search the vessels one at a time. We'll start with the Protoss vessels, then move on to the Battlcruisers. All of the Marines will accompany me. Tell them to prep for possible zero-G operations. We'll be boarding within the hour."

"Yessir," Matt replied.

As soon as the Captain issued the order to board the dead ships, every Marine was already on the hangar deck next to one of the ten dropships and suited up for combat. Each Marine had a C-14 Gauss Rifle, powered battle armor, oxygen tanks that created air from carbon dioxide and other cases, and ten stim packs, which were stimulants injected into troopers that made them fight harder and faster and even more brutally. By the time Raynor arrived with his own gear, every Marine was practically choking on his excitement.

"Okay, troops. Let's go board those ships. Stay frosty and be prepared for anything. Once we're aboard, we'll split into four groups. Report anything even remotely suspicious and if something jumps at you shoot first and ask questions later." Raynor concluded his speech. "Alright. Let's get going."

The boarding process was by-the-book. The dropships, with the troops safely esconced inside them, flew over to one of the Arbiter warships. As the flotilla of dropships neared the ghost ship, the four A-17 Wraiths that had accompanied them maneuvered in near the hull of the Protoss warship and breached the section with precisely four Hellfire missiles. Objective accomplished, the Wraiths broke formation and dropped behind the transports to shield them from any sneak attacks. The Hyperion itself moved over the dead Arbiter to provide cover form any potential attacks from above. Unfortunately, the Terran pilots had forgotten one direction: below.

Unseen by any of the Wraiths or dropships, a zerg brood accelerated toward the unsuspecting Terrans from below. The brood consisted of several Overlords carrying numerous warriors within their ventral sacs, and their escorts of about ten mutalisks and twenty or so of the suicidal Scourge. As the dropships maneuvered into the breach left by the fighters, the Overlords moved into the breach. The other airborne zerg attacked the Wraiths quickly and quietly. But the Wraiths refused to go down without a fight.

"Holy crap, I've got one on me!" Flight Officer Robert "Bob" Sucuesta cried as he steered his craft through a dangerous turn along the contours of the Arbiter as he attempted to dislodge the mutalisk from his back. The zerg was determined, though, and duplicated his maneuver perfectly.

"Hold on Bob, I got ya!" The voice rang in Bob's ears as he identified the voice. The speaker was Captain Alexandra Chen. As Bob flew along the Arbiter, he saw Alexandra's Wraith plummet toward the mutalisk and fire off three Hellfire missiles. The alien monstrosity exploded into a cloud of blood and gore. Bob clicked his comm, a way of silently acknowledging the rescue.

Then he turned to look at the dropships. What he saw froze him. The overlords had deployed their deadly living cargo, and now sought to flee the area. Meanwhile, the remaining three Wraiths engaged the zerg flyers. One pilot was too slow, and a scourge smashed into his cockpit. Meanwhile, the _Hyperion _was coming about and deploying the rest of the three dozen Wraiths it had in its hangar.

Captain Chen took command of the remaining Wraiths. "Okay, people, we've got to help those dropships escape the zerg in that Arbiter! Go in for a strafing run, but blast any debris in your way!"

Three affirmatives followed. As one, the Wraiths broke and headed for the breach in the Arbiter. As they flew in, Bob realized the situation had escalated.

Three dropships now were burnt hulks. The other seven had put down and disgorged their Marines. Bob could see Marines in battle armor firing madly at voracious zerglings as the small creatures scrambled to attack. Hydralisks fired their needle-sharp spines into the Terrans. Fortunately, those were the only genetic warrior strains the overlords had brought.

Captain Jim Raynor slapped a fresh clip into his gauss rifle and continued firing at the advancing zerg brood. "We need more men up here!" he yelled at the dropships. Ten troopers ran up to Raynor's position and began firing at the zerg as well. As Raynor watched, a Wraith fighter soared in, and careful not to hit the dropships or Marines, unleashed a massive barrage from his laser cannons and missile launchers. The zerg fell back for a moment to reassess the situation, which was all the Marines needed to rush into their dropships.

"Get us out of here!" Raynor yelled at the pilot. He nodded and the ship rose. It rotated and flew out of the Arbiter with the other six dropships behind it.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: A Desperate Defense

**Date: unknown location, Koprulu Sector, one month after Broodwar**

As the dropships blasted out from the crippled Arbiter, Jim Raynor glanced out the porthole in his dropship. He could still see several hydralisks in the bay slithering around. Mutalisks and scourge flew around the Arbiter, not pursuing.

"Huh." Raynor thought. "I wonder what they think is in there." The seven remaining dropships flew toward the_ Hyperion_ and dampened down their engines. The battlecruiser's main hangar bay opened to receive them.

"_Sir, it's good to see you. What exactly happened in there?" _Horner's voice came in over the comm. Raynor sighed.

"We were ambushed by a brood of zerg. Fortunately, the Wraiths held them off long enough for us to escape. We lost three dropships in there."

"_Yes, sir. Come on in. After we've checked everyone's condition, we can decide what to do next."_

Kerrigan touched her genetically modified finger to the newly born Hatchery. This structure was the heart of any zerg hive cluster. Should the Hatchery fall, the zerg hive cluster's ability to produce new warriors would fall as well. That was the reason why the Hatchery was surrounded by dozens of sunken colonies and spore colonies, as well as many of the more powerful zerg strains.

Kerrigan completed her inspection and turned to the overlord that floated patiently by her side. "What news do we have of Jim Raynor and his confederates, the Protoss?"

The overlord responded, "Mistress, we have heard rumors of Raynor's fleet drifting between planets, but we have not heard or seen any interaction between him and the Protoss."

Kerrigan smiled. "If they are not united, it will make them so much easier to hunt down. I want a full brood sent to dispatch dear Jimmy. Meanwhile, have two other broods attack the planet of the Dark Templar, Shakuraus or whatever it's called."

"Yes, mistress!" The overlord replied, and flew off to carry out her orders.

­­­­e maintance bayrders.rk Templars.raction between him and the Protoss.

Raynor strode down to the maintenance bay on the _Hyperion_. He was bored and needed something to do. He had decided to work on his Vulture hoverbike.

As Raynor entered the maintenance bay, people glanced at him and shouted out greetings. The bay was filled with mechanics and machine drivers working together to repair their vehicles.

Raynor strode past a line of Goliath heavy assault walkers and came to a stop near his personal Vulture. It was painted green and was equipped with a fragmentation grenade launcher as well as a Spider Mine dispenser with three mines. He took out a spanner from the tool kit he carried in his Vulture and opened the rear engine cover. He carefully eased the spanner in, probing for any anomalies or warped engine parts. Finding nothing, he straightened and walked over to the grenade launcher. He made sure that the launcher wasn't clogged, then dropped the spanner in the toolbox and walked over to the sonic sink. A quick sonic blast cleared his hands of the grime that had stuck to them when fixing the engine.

Raynor was just about to head up to his quarters to take a nap when the _Hyperion_ shook. All of a sudden Matt's voice boomed over the loudspeaker. _"We are under attack by zerg forces, possibly an entire brood! All hands to battle stations! This is not a drill! Repeat, this is not a drill!"_

When the loudspeaker fell silent, Raynor was already running up to the bridge. He needed to direct his men. Even though there wasn't much a single Battlecruiser and three dozen Wraith fighters could do against an entire brood. He guessed he just wanted to take them with him.

Horner was already bellowing orders by the time Raynor burst on to the bridge. "I want Inferno Squadron focusing fire on those mutalisks! Shadow Squadron, cloak and shoot down overlords attempting to approach us! We can't let them board!"

"Good job, Matt. I'll take it from here." Raynor said. Horner stood up from the command chair and saluted. Raynor sat down and immediately began issuing orders.

The battle was not going well. Already, the mutalisks were closing in on the _Hyperion_, despite the efforts of Inferno Squadron to keep them away. The overlords though slow, bulky, and therefore defenseless against the newly upgraded Gemini Missiles of Shadow Squadron, were the only zerg who could detect the cloaked Wraiths, and were spotting for the mutalisks and scourge. Already, Shadow Squadron was down to eight pilots as they attempted to defend themselves and defend the _Hyperion_.

"Deploy Stalker Squadron to assist the Shadows. Meanwhile, have us come about to utilize all of our weaponry on those zerg." Raynor ordered. The fighter coordinator and the weapons chief acknowledged their orders and set to them. Raynor felt the shift of gravity as the cruiser slowly came about.

Bob Sucesta, now Commander of Stalker Squadron, shot out of the hangar with his squadron on his tail. "Okay, Stalkers, our mission is to assist those Shadows. We need to keep those zerg off them while they shoot down those overlords." The squad acknowledged, and they veered toward the embattled Shadow Wraiths, which were being hounded by a pack of twelve mutalisks. Bob set his finger on the missile firing button and waited. One of the mutalisks twisted away from a laser burst…right into Bob's sights. He pressed down on the firing button. A pair of Gemini missiles streaked toward the mutalisk and detonated, reducing the vile abomination to a cloud of blood and tatters of skin and bone. The mutalisks recognized the new danger. They split, half coming around to engage the new arrivals. Bob changed weapons and fired his lasers rapidly into the approaching zerg. The mutalisks, however, were not without their own weapons. One zerg opened its maw, and launched a yellow projectile at Bob. He jinked left and dodged the deadly projectile. The mutalisk opened its maw again, but was then vaped by a laser burst.

Bob activated his radio. "Nice shooting, Five."

The other pilot responded with a comm click. The other four mutalisks veered off as the full brood slowly came into view.

Bob felt his throat tighten. There were at least twenty more overlords, escorted by three dozen zerg. They couldn't win this fight. He steeled himself and prepared to go out fighting. Suddenly, Captain Raynor's voice came over the radio.

"All craft retreat! Get your butts back into the hangar. We have about a few minutes before those things reach us. Hurry, and we might not be spending the rest of our lives as infested Terrans!"

The Wraiths turned and flew back toward the hangar. Bob was last. He saw the fighter in front of him dock. He prepared to follow, only to see a pair of scourge through his rear sights.

Bob Sucesta screamed. Then, that was the last thing he knew.


End file.

StarCraft, Adventure