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

You narrowed your eyes. "And what do you ask in return? Hmm? What-"

Danger.

The instinct roared through you as you tensed and flung yourself aside. The ground humped and burst open as an ultralisk bigger than anything you had ever seen in your life came surging out. It was the size of a Monkeylord - and three times as fast, sending chunks of dirt and rock flying. Boulders the size of houses slammed down around you as the immense beast roared down at you, mandibles spreading. Its back puckered and biological drones came slithering out - feathery, tendrily things that whipped out through the air. You slashed out with your psi-blades, cutting one down, then another, but each time you slashed one down it exploded in a spray of greenish glop that hissed and splattered the ground. You danced backwards, focused purely on survival for the moment, before coming to a stop a few dozen meters away.

The Monkeylord was far off. This fight was going to be too fast for them to get involved.

"...you dick!" you shouted at Daggoth. "That's fucking war crime, that is!"

He didn't even have the decency to fucking respond.

Earth.
T-Minus 300 seconds.

The top commanders of the UEF were shouting at one another, and President Riley was beginning to realize that consensus wasn't coming. Or, at least, not coming fast enough. He twirled the medal of valor between his fingers, frowning intently. General Hall slammed his finger into the countertop, glowering. "Fletcher, listen here, if we obliterate the Aeon Homeworld and the Aeon Queen isn't on it, then the surrounding Aeon planets will have a cause to flock to for generations - a figurehead to lead them. And worse, it'll be a figurehead that has an entire fleet of experimental warships."

"Those ships are pathetic in a straight up fight," General Fletcher said, waving his hand. "We can shoot them down with interplanetary missiles."

"You presume a hell of a lot," Hall snapped.

"Oh, do you think she's gone full De Galle on us?" Fletcher shot back.

The ghost of the disgraced officer suddenly felt rather heavy in the room. Riley faintly remembered him - something about building a fleet of interplanetary starships? He frowned, then shook his head. "We can't risk it," he said.

The collected generals turned to him. "Sir, I-" Fletcher started.

"We can't," Riley said, then stood. "If General Clarke was still with us, maybe. I'd trust her to lead a counter-insurgency, considering the talents she showed in the Koprulu Sector. But she's not with us. And we...will still have Black Sun once we've located the Aeon Princess and her fleet. Once we have a target, we can still fire the weapon."

"This is a mistake..." Fletcher said. "Sir, they must know that something is about to happen-"

"And they're going to try and attack Earth? Our most heavily defended planet?" Riley shook his head. "If they try, they die." He paused. "Just in case, General Hall, begin preparations for a planetary defense program to be implemented. Fletcher, I want you ontop of working up a plan on what to do with this fleet of CZARS when we find them."

He tapped on the com in the center of the meeting room table. "Dr. Narud, come in."

"This is Emil," a cheerful older voice said. "We're about two hundred seconds away from activating the Black Sun project."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Narud. We're scrubbing the attack," Riley said.

"Beg pardon?" Narud sounded faintly confused.

"We've decided-" Riley started.

"I'm sorry, Mr. President, I cannot quite understand. You appear to be breaking up," Dr. Narud said. His voice sounded oddly...amused. Like he was just barely able to hide his laughter. Riley's brows drew in and he frowned.

"Dr. Narud, this isn't funny. Power down the Black Sun device immediately," he said.

"If you can hear me, know that the powering up cycle is going exactly as planned, Mr. President."

Riley frowned, then turned to one of the techs in the room. The tech, who was already typing. He frowned. "Uh, sir, everything's fine - but...the power signature is ramping up past the planned levels. A fifty percent spike." HIs eyes widened. "Sir, the power conduits for the Eurasia grid are switching on. We're getting brownouts across China and Japan."

"Son of a-" General Hall snarled, actually striding for the door. He reached it, then turned back to the President. "I'll handle this."

"Do it," Riley said.

"...sir, I'm detecting alien bioforms in the Black Sun chamber!" The tech said, his eyes widening. "They're...they're... that's impossible..." His eyes widened more, his fingers freezing.

"What?" Riley and Fletcher went to his side.

The screen showed the alert - and the cross-referenced data thrown up by the Adjutants that were hooked into the system. The flashing red and black indicator was clear.

"...Zerg?" Riley asked. "How the hell did-"

The distant sound of gunfire began to echo throughout the bunker.

"Get an ACU here stat, we need to shut that system down!" Riley snapped.

The timer continued to tick down. Second by second.

You glowered at the ultralisk.

Daggoth was working on something, and you had to kill him before he did it. The psychic energy he was building up was unmistakable. So, you just had to kill something the size of an experimental combat robot with your bare hands.

Fuck it.

It was the sixth weirdest thing you've had to do since you came to this stupid, backwater, fucked up part of the goddamn galaxy. Easily.

You squared your shoulders.

---
HEAT: 0/6

So, for those who want to write in but find mechanics confusion: The Tarrasque is a lot like Fenix - he's multiple parts, sharing the same durability. You can focus fire on a part to disable it, or if you kill the central body, you kill it!

[ ] Sprint up towards the creature, leap onto its back and start ripping the spore launchers out before they bombard you more - then hang on for dear life as you drive it into a hole and trip it up on its own weight.
[ ] As above, but slash off a scythe. Then take cover under its belly, so the spores have to hit the legs if they want to hit you.
[ ] As above, but slash its Achilles tendons with your psi blades. Then, when it tries to bite you with its scythes, dive so that incoming spores hit said scythes.
[ ] Write In