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

You frowned. You only had a few hours. So, you better work fast. You tapped at the controls, brought up your orbsat, evaluated the distances between yourself, the hives, the possible human contacts. You zoomed in and took in the area where the humans were situated: It was an old facility that sprawled near the outer edges of one of the cities, surrounded by heavy bunkers that looked designed to keep just about anyone or anything that tried to enter the facility without permission well out. The people who had evacuated there had actually done what they could to ensure that the place was almost impossible to attack from the ground: They had blown the roads, and actually cut open what seemed to be a geothermal power plant that hooked into a vespine gyser, which now spurted greenish smoke into the trench between the entrance and the bunkers - and that roiling mass of gas looked thick enough and heavy enough to smother anything that went scrambling inside.

You were pretty sure the Zerg could survive in space - but it was one thing to be vacuum resistant, it was another to wade through caustic chemicals. And if they had been smart, they could have rigged it with flamethrowers or something to touch it off and turn it temporarily into a fire-wall.

Smart guys.

Your view panned back to the facility and you saw that there was that curious blue and red flag that the Confederacy of Planets preferred - apparently, they had pulled it from an antecedent state that they had in the databanks. The boxy structure in the center, though...it didn't look sturdy enough to survive a orbital getting dropped on it.

"Are there any working comnets there?" you asked.

"Not ones strong enough for broadband transmission. But our orbsats could beam a quantum signal down there, and see if there's anything that picks up generalized EM frequencies," Stukov said, his fingers already clattering away at his keyboard. "We have it, General."

"Pipe me through," you said, eyes flicking to your clock.

The screen buzzed and a picture in picture of an exhausted looking fortysomething man appeared in the screen. He scratched some grit from his eyes - then did a movie perfect double take. His hands gripped either side of the camera and he gaped at you. "Oh my god, Confederate reinforcements. Did you pick up my message? Did General Duke send you? I- no, wait, he died at Antiga...maybe Warfield?"

"I'm not affiliated with the Confederacy," you said, frowning slightly. "Have you heard of the Terran Dominion?"

"...Dominion? No, we've been trapped here since the Zerg attacked. No communications have reached us - we've barely managed to survive. I'm...Dr. Philips, Dr. Trevor Philips, Confederate BioWar Department. We evacuated as many people in here as we could, mostly other research staff, a few of the Marines, some of our families." He looked grim. "We have no idea how the Zerg managed to attack. Hell, we had no idea that they were capable of space flight. We..." He realized he was talking too much. You frowned, slightly.

"You...were part of the team that weaponized them?" you asked.

He looked aside.

"Fuck," he whispered. "If Tarsonis hasn't been reclaimed by the Confederacy...if there's...there's no Confederacy, is there?"

"No," you said, simply.

"Then fuck it. Yes. We were part of the team studying Zerg for their warfare potential. It was...elegant. A bioadaptive lifeform that could create and launch armed invasions, if brough to planetary surfaces. They could wipe out the military assets on the planet in hours, then be commanded to shut down. Confederate military could clean them up, be seen as heroes. It'd prevent another Guild War. Another Korhal, another..." He put his hand over his face. "We thought that it was breached containment at first. But they were coming from the sky. First New Gettysburg, then South Chattanooga, then..." He trailed off.

In the silence, he lifted his head from where had bowed it. "Who are you, then?"

"I'm General Samantha Clarke, United Earth Federation," you said - making Dr. Phillips' jaw drop. "We're here to secure this sector from the rule of the Terran Dominion and Emperor Arcturus Mengsk-"

That produced a reaction. You had expected that much. What you hadn't expected was for an unhinged giggle to escape his lips. His eyes bugged and he put his hands over his mouth. He turned around, walked away from the camera, walked back. "Mengsk? Of the Sons of Khoral? My...my RA has a fucking poster of his face on her wall!" He thrust out his hand, gesturing to the side. "Arcturus Mengsk, the democratic reformer? The terrorist?"

You shrugged one shoulder. "I wouldn't know. I just got here."
"He's Emperor now?" The man looked almost hysterical. "W-We've only been out of contact for eleven months! Maybe a year at the most! I...I..." He put his hands over his face.

"I need exact numbers of your people," you said, figuring that giving him something solid to talk about would help.

"Sixty eight scientists, five hundred civilians, maybe...thirty eight marines, and...uh, four firebats." he paused. "We had...six but...two of them started killing people." His eyes looked haunted.

You arched a single eyebrow.

Dr. Philips didn't elaborate. "And, uh, we have several hundred bioforms in cryogenic storage. We believe they're part of what's kept us safe. The Zerg are a semi-hivemind. Even quiescent, they emit signals to one another - and since the Zerg haven't bothered us beyond a few mineral sniffing patrols, it must feel like we're some kind of quiescent hive. That's actually the basis of Project 2, or, so the rumors went. Of course, if Project 2 worked, then...then we wouldn't be in this situation." Seeing your expression, he sighed. "An attempt to build a psionic disruptor, I think."

So, somewhere on this planet, there was a psionic disruptor? You filed that away. "Any adjutants?" you asked.

"Uh..." Dr. Philips seemed completely nonplussed. "Y-Yes, three. Why?"

You nodded, considering.

And the timer ticked down.

Three hours, fifty minuets to go.

---
HEAT
5/6

STICKY SPARKS
Economic Outposts (3)

BASE
Economic Structures (Work[Waste]: None | Sparks: None | Adds: +3 (Nanofabrication)

SPARKS
Damage 5 (Damage 6 (Damage 6 (Yamato Cannon 1)))
Just as Planned 2

So, statistically speaking, the survivors of the Confed Biowar Division are a People (3) at Range (2)! Their cryogenically stored Bioforms are Mass (5), but represent an incredibly wealth of knowledge about the Zerg - literally, every kind of bioform they could breed in captivity, in cryogenic storage, just waiting for Dr. Hanson to examine!

Here's some choices!

[ ] Operation: Go Loud - drive a path to the humans by punching your way through. Build your defensive force fields to block the incoming orbital drop, then punch the Zerg in the fucking jaw. (begins a Danger 15 battle with 3 Just as Planned Sparks after negating the Yamato Canon incoming)
[ ] Operation: Flight of Angles - use your nanofabrication miracle as a secondary characteristic to make grabbing people easier: This will negate the range 2 and bring the people characteristic down to an effective (1). This means you're facing People 6 (Difficulty 5) using your Organizational Expertise 2 skill. Tap both just as planned sparks for +2, giving you an effective 4 skill. Take 7 heat to succeed - pushing you to 6 overheat.
[ ] Operation: We Can't Save them All - as Flight of Angels, but only rescue the families - as that's only People (2), you will only need to gain 1 heat, putting you at 6/6.
[ ] Write In