THE INFINITE BROOD (Starcraft/Supreme Commander Crossover Quest!)

From orbit, the world that had once been the center of power in this region of space looked like a gravestone. The upper atmosphere was heavily dusted with grayish particulates, and regions of the single massive continent that made up the core of the world's livable mass looked like they had been cratered significantly - and the portion of the terminator that sliced between dull brown deserts and rolling hills and the oblique night side showed where those craters still glowed in the dark. There were three orbital defense platforms that had been simply abandoned in slowly decaying orbits - each of them encrusted with signs of war.

You might never have seen battle in space, not properly. But enough worlds had orbital infrastructure that suborbital combat had shattered. You recognized the hazy glittering shroud of shattered solar collectors and armor plating, the tumbling of steelplast and reinforced asteroids.

Then...

Then there were the signs of war that were entirely unfamiliar.

"What the hell is that?" Matt muttered, while Dr. Hanson brought the telescope view closer. You were hunched forward and watching the screen and frowned as you saw one of the slowly tumbling defense platforms had brought its dayside view into light, showing what appeared to be an...infestation. That was the only term you could give it. Biological growths, chitenous and fleshy, spread along the entire structure, webbing together components that should have drifted. Writhing masses of something moved just beneath the skin that stretched over bony structures and extrusions. Then you saw, zipping around it, small glider-winged...fighter...

"Those are alive," Dr. Hanson whispered. "Those are biological starship."

"How the hell are they flying?" Matt asked.

"I have no idea, Major," Dr. Hanson said, shaking her head slowly as she did so, frowning a little bit. "But they're doing it. My long range scans say they're rich with a...hmm...that looks almost like bi-glyonucleate explosives. Contained in body sacks and...Christ, they're not spaceships. They're biological cruise missiles." She turned in her seat, looking at you. "If, say, half a dozen of those struck the E1, we'd be facing hull breaches across the whole ship."

"That must be why the Dominion task force is an AU away," you said, frowning as you reached down and brought up the orbital display. The Terran Dominion had a pretty sizable formation of ships in the solar system, and a deep space station - a healthy distance away from the former capital of the Confederacy of Planets. If these 'Zerg' could breed living cruise missiles, you could see why. "According to our estimable confidant, there are six Behemoth class battlecruisers. Cutting edge as of ten years ago, beginning to get phased out. Six wings of Wraith interceptors in support, and an entire combat battalion of infantry, walkers, armored and the ability to drop them all on Tarsonis if required. They're keeping watch on the feral Zerg and possibly building up to land on the planet."

"With those in orbit, can anyone have survived on the planet?" Matt asked.

"Beginning a scan for that," Dr. Hanson said, lifting up the intercom for the forward operations deck. As she spoke her quiet orders, you turned to face Matt - and tried to ignore your political officer looming in the room.

"According to the Terran Dominion, the Confederacy was breeding zerg as a bioweapon - then it got out and they got a few million people eaten alive by them," you said, arms crossed over your chest. "Seventy percent of the planetary population didn't get off world before the cordon was thrown around it. There has to be some survivors, right? The zerg can't have eaten everyone."

"Hmm..." Matt frowned.

"We are detecting human biosigns!" Dr. Hanson said. "And...near human biosigns."

The voice that spoke next was neither you nor Matt. It was Gabriel Tosh, stepping away from where he had loomed and taken notes for the political bureau. "Ghosts?" he asked, cocking his head.

"I...don't know, they're not similar enough to the only Ghost we've scanned," Dr. Hanson said. "Deploying orb sats."

"Keep them well out of the same plane as the zerg bioforms," you said, immediately.

"Yes, General Clarke," Dr. Hanson said.

You all watched. Waited. And the OrbSats started to throw information back - which was immediately assimilated and coalited by Lieutenant Stukov. You had to admit, you hadn't been sure about taking one of DeGalle's most loyal officers on, considering how you'd ruined DeGalle's hopes of turning the UEF's armed forces into a space-based warfleet. But Stukov worked hard, diligant, had a keen tactical eye, which was why you felt your stomach do a little flip as he swore in Russian, before switching to English. "I don't think they're even partially human, doctor."

The view from orbit was faintly hard to parse. The ground looked ashen gray in some spots, bruised purple in others. Then the cloud cover shifted and you realized the purple bruising was flexing slightly. You leaned in closer to the screen and, seeing where rocky protrusions and bits of rubble peeked out, you realized what it was you were looking at. The ruined city that the orbsat was peering down at was covered with a pulsating, growing mass of living tissue. It was like the infestation in orbit, only expanded to a vaster, more horrible scale. And growing among the purple flesh were organic structures of bone, chitin and twitching, glistening muscle. They all had large, obvious veins that flowed from the structures and into the purple material. Among the structures roamed creatures - some swift, darting, some slow and lumbering, some gliding along on wings and bulbous air sacks.

And among them?

People. Human people. They slouched here, there. Some moved into ruined buildings, then emerged from them. For a moment, you thought they were going about their days...and then you realized that their actions were the thoughtless, wandering stupidity of a stroke victim without a medevac.

"Zoom in," you said, quietly.

The orbsat got a better image. The man that was slouching from side to side was covered in pustules. Organic growths. His left arm hung lower than right - the angle didn't give you much more view than vicious ripping claws.

Your lip curled, slowly.

"Major Horner," you said, quietly.

He glanced at you. What he saw in your eyes made him blanch.

"We're ending this," you said.

"Of course. Uh...we need to secure a sample adjutant from the wreckage," he said, gulping. "The orbital station might be a better choice - high tech, high concentration. And you can always get pulled out in a hurry."

You frowned.

---
What is your plan?

[ ] "No. We're going to burn it out at the root." [Land on planet, classic battle!]
[ ] "Good thinking. Prepare a boarding team." [Attack the space base, installation mission!]

Yes, you can do an installation mission! Mechanically, they're equally as dangerous - it's just do you want to build bases and units, or blast more personally? ...since, like, it's a Starcraft quest. You HAVE to do a installation mission at some point!