The End War - A Starcraft Commander Quest

[Halt]

Ward decided at last. He was a Commander first, and his job was to lead Alpha Squadron's Fleet. There were many more capable men and women no doubt taking charge of the defense down in Korhal, or so he hoped. If there weren't the capital was well and truly screwed, but that didn't change the fact that for him to be in a position to help anyone, he had to figure out just what assets he had to offer.

"Adjutant, contact Commodore Knox," Ward said. "I want to know how the fleet is doing."

"Establishing contact, please stand by," the Adjutant said.

Ward tapped his fingers against the neosteel table impatiently as a secure line of connections was established. One would think with all the advances in Terran technology and the needs of a sector-wide government, instantaneous communication across space would have been solved by now.

One would be dead wrong.

As he waited for the commlink to be established, he mentally reviewed the plan he'd committed to. Moebius Corps' anti-air elements were massing at Platform 8, next to an EMP scrambler. Considering the nature of Ward's forces at hand, victory in the next engagement could decide the Battle of Sky Shield decisively.

After all, the enemy wasn't in the habit of retreat, so if he could wipe out the entirety of their anti-air elements, Alpha Squadron could roll over the ground elements in any of the other platforms with little opposition beyond some stationary missile turrets.

Dancing around those was a specialty of Ward's veteran pilots.

On the other hand, if he failed to break them, there'd be countless more skirmishes ahead of him.

The current plan called for a slow but steady push into enemy territory, using the lone siege tank that remained under his command to level the missiles turrets and bunkers near the EMP scrambler from a distance. Meanwhile, his infantry elements, and his vikings and liberators, if need be would protect the tank until those defenses fell. His force would slowly push into the enemy position, putting more and more pressure on them, and were this any other army, he'd count on them to break.

But these "followers of Amon" were no ordinary army. It remained to be seen whether their commanders had any head for tactics, or if all they understood was brute force.

The tactics laid out were fairly standard terran "slow-push" doctrine popularized during the Brood Wars when pushing into entrenched zerg positions. Only two factors complicated the plan potentially.

First, the existence of an enemy battlecruiser to provide air support. He didn't know whether Moebius had access to yamato cannon technology or had seen fit to equip it with one. If it did, it might be capable of sniping the tank from a distance which would be… disastrous. Otherwise, he'd cout on his smaller, more maneuverable ships to win the sky.

If he had to bet, he'd always bet on his men.

The second issue was one more unique to the current field of battle. The EMP scrambler had a deleterious effect on terran technology, and there was no telling how dangerous it could be his own air elements if they strayed too close. Nova had mentioned it could remove cloaking, so the wraiths and banshees with him would have to be careful or lose their most powerful defensive asset.

That severely limited the mobility of his mobile assets, but it was not an impossible obstacle.

"Secure communications established, Commander. Patching you through now," the Adjutant announced.

"It's about damned time," Ward grumbled. "Commodore Knox, do you read me?"

"Commander Ward?" Knox's voice came through his intercom. "How goes the battle down there?"

"Over half the platform is safely in friendly hands, and we're making preparations to take the other half. If all goes well," Ward said, "we should be ready to cover the fleet's approach in an hour's time at the earliest. What of the space battle?"

"It's been a slow fight," Knox said. "The enemy is engaging cautiously."

"That only makes sense. We have the bigger fleet," Ward said.

"Yes, well, we might have a problem soon though," Knox said. "We've been detecting incoming fleet signatures rapidly approaching our position. They appear to be protoss ships."

Ward's brow shot up. "Protoss? Here?" There was no way that was good. "I thought they were all caught up with their little reclamation campaign. What brings them this deep into terran space?" And, more importantly, just how badly were things going for the Dominion that they'd managed to penetrate this deeply without being intercepted beforehand?

"That's what I heard too," Knox said. Ward could hear the grimace in her voice. She understood the dangerous situation the fleet suddenly found itself in, especially if the protoss turned out to be hostile. While a truce was technically in place, who knew if the xenos would hold to that with the Dominion currently in disarray? They were only ever allies of convenience after all… "Sir, what are your engagement orders?"

Ward ceased his finger tapping on the table and entered into deep thought.

If the protoss were friendly, firing on them would start a war the Dominion could not afford to get into with the chaos. However, if they were enemies, they'd be able to severely damage Ward's fleet if he didn't strike first. Once those carriers of theirs got into range, they'd make a right ruin of their battlecruisers faster than hungry piranhas going after a corpse.

They could try hailing them, of course, but it wasn't as if the concept of lying was beyond the aliens...

[X] Consider the protoss as friendly
[X] Consider the protoss as hostile

As Ward shut off the call with Knox, he switched channels on his earpiece. "Begin the assault. Let's show these traitors why the Dominion isn't to be trifled with."

In the distance, the roar of shellfire sounded like thunder, and each explosion struck like lightning. Ward knew from experience that every strike would annihilate just about anything any of the three races could field, barring a few mechas or those thrice-damned ultralisks.

Terran structures, reinforced with neosteel as they might be, were no exception to that. It just took a few more hits to level was all.

The start of his attack would also signal Nova to begin pushing into her platform of choice. That would tie down whatever forces Moebius had and split their attention between two fronts, exactly as planned.

The battle continued for several more minutes, and Ward watched tensely as friendly and hostile markers on his holographic display were wiped off… but quality soon began to tell as the rate at which enemy markers were disappearing was a good deal faster than his own troops.

By his eyeball estimate, there wouldn't even need to be a whole lot of refit and repair needed after this battle, allowing him to blitz through the rest of the platform with ease when this was done. Of course, a more cautious commander still would, but, well, caution hadn't gotten him this far in life.

For once, a military plan survived contact with the enemy.

"I'll be damned," Ward muttered to himself as the battlecruiser fell apart to the shrieking missiles of his vikings.

[X] Blitz the rest of the platform. Make them fear the skies once more! (-20 Stress)
[X] Roll into platform 6, give Nova a helping hand. That's what friends were for right? (-10 Stress)
[X] Refit and resupply (+20 Stress)

 

[Halt]

"Moebius Corps really is filled with a bunch of crazies," Ward noted, watching as the last of the hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned black-trimmed marines kept fighitng instead of withdrawing. Their commander, this Amon fellow, really had no sense if he was throwing away lives on a battle already lost.

What was more shocking was that those men hadn't run of their own volition yet, considering he'd left a small escape route open for them. It was a trap of course. He had no intentions of letting his enemies reconsolidate and be a future threat to his own men, but there was no way they could have known that.

Battles were won and lost on morale. This was the first time he'd ever witnessed a force fighting to the death when there was an option not to. They seemed much more like zerg than terrans in that moment.

If the rest of Amon's lackeys behaved similarly, doctrine would have to adapt. Thankfully, over a decade of war with the Queen Bitch of the Zerg had already prepared the Dominion to fight enemies like this.

"Commander Ward?"

Ward glanced behind him to see Reigel, the dark-skinned scientist approach. His two cybernetic arms made no sound when he walked—the sign of well-made and expensive prosthetics. Even the late General Warfield's wasn't of this quality … although Ward supposed having a cannon for an arm required a lot less finesse than lab work.

"You have something for me?" Ward asked. That was fast. The scientists had barely had an hour to get to work. He doubted their lab was even done setting up yet.

"I think it's better to say that you have something for me," Reigel said, smiling wryly. He tilted his head to the holographic display Ward was studying. "The EMP scramblers have all been seized or destroyed, yes?"

"Just destroyed," Ward corrected. "What of it?"

"I would like your permission to loot them for parts," Reigel said.

Ward's brow rose. "I'm not entirely sure I'm authorized to do that."

Reigel laughed. "We woke up to a new sector today, Commander Ward. Do you think that after this, after all that's happening, anyone will care to look at what really happened to some missing technology? That anyone will care to admonish you?"

"I am still a commander of the Dominion, and sworn to Emperor Valerian," Ward said, frowning at him.

"You really haven't realized yet, have you?" Reigel asked. "The entirety of the Koprulu Sector is under siege by Amon. I've picked up on that much."

"What of it?" Ward asked. "We've been under siege before, by the zerg, by the protoss."

"But not by fellow terrans," Reigel said. "If Moebius has thrown their lot in with the enemy, as well as a portion of the Dominion military—and you know they have, otherwise Korhal wouldn't even be under threat right now—then Valerian is facing a civil war. We are entering a time of strife, of war, of the strong."

"Speak clearly."

Reigel sighed. "Any commander who survives the coming days with an intact force will struggle to find resources and supplies. The Dominion's logistics have been shattered by this attack if we accept that this attack is not limited to Korhal, but is occurring on many other planets as well. Soon, Valerian's own legitimacy will be put to question."

"He is still the Emperor."

"Is it titles that honor men, or men that honor titles?" Reigel asked. "What is an Emperor who cannot defend the Dominion? Arcturus Mengsk understood that."

"You are dangerously close to speaking treason," Ward warned. Wasn't this man supposed to be working for the Emperor?

"Is it treason to speak the truth?" Reigel asked. "I didn't realize Valerian had become his father. If he had, I wouldn't need to be saying any of this."

Ward remained quiet.

"The fact of the matter is, Emperor Valerian was never all too popular with his own brass. General Davis comes to mind. We may see half the Dominion break off from the other half soon, if Valerian cannot get things under control. The people will obey whoever it is that can bring about security in this time of uncertainty, and the only people who can are the people with armies." Reigel's stare turned piercing. "People like you."

"So what? Are you telling me to break off from the Dominion?" Ward scoffed. "That'd be suicide. People need to band together to fight off threats, not fall into infighting."

"I'm not telling you to do that," Reigel said. "No, I'm merely saying that if you were to give a less than legal order, such as dismantling the EMP scramblers, there'd be little political will to gainsay you."

Ward considered it. "What is it you want with those scramblers?"

"To turn them into more useful weapons than stationary emplacements," Reigel said. "It'd be much easier to refit them than to make new ones, especially considering the logistical problems the Dominion is about to face. I may be a genius, but I'm not a miracle worker."

"And you're so eager to arm me with new weapons because...?"

Reigel laughed. "I'm a scientist in a time of war. How else do I prove my value to you?"

"There's one little problem with what you're suggesting," Ward said. "Nova Terra does not answer to me. She answers to the Emperor, and may take issue with what we do."

"You have the larger force," Reigel said simply. "Hers took quite the beating."

"Moderate losses," Ward said. Especially compared to his own, which were relatively light. "But still very much combat effective. Plus, she's a ghost. She could probably kill me with a napkin if she wanted."

"Then convince her that it's for the good of the Dominion," Reigel said, shrugging. "What good does it do anyone as a bunch of scrap metal on this platform? Isn't there some obscure Dominion war requisition law you can quote at her?"

Technically, there was. God bless Arcturus Mengsk.

"What exactly can you do with those things?" Ward asked. If he was going to risk potential treason, he was going to damn well know what he was getting out of it.

"All sorts of things," Reigel said. "I could equip some of your ships with EMPs like the ghosts use, or design blueprints for a static defense. If you want something flashier, we could build a large EMP that could be deployed from orbit."

[X] Loot the broken EMP Scramblers
[X] Leave them as they are

The strafing runs he'd ordered hadn't stopped since half an hour ago, and Moebius Corps remaining forces in the last platform they held, the last half-ruined base of theirs, was taking a severe beating. It was an almost paltry affair seizing the last two atmospheric stabilizers, and Sky Shield was no longer playing at the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, Korhal edition.

As if the nuked wasteland of a planet needed it. Did the universe just hate the people who lived there or something?

But because they couldn't have nice things, or even a moment of peace, more bad news followed.

The protoss were hostile, which did no good for his stress. He was going to have to take up yoga or something before this war was over.

The sole point of good news was that they seemed more interested in killing each other than killing terrans, although that didn't mean much to Ward. When were those thrice-damned lasers coming back online so he could let Knox pull back the fleet?

[X] Let Reigel help
[X] Let the Moebius Research Conscripts help
[X] Let both help
[X] They cannot be trusted

As for the fleet, he'd have a hard time giving them any orders with his holographic display having a lag time of about ten minutes. Which admittedly was not impossible to deal with given the time spans involved in space combat, but it certainly wouldn't help.

[X] Trust that Commodore Knox can handle it
[X] Ward should take command

QM Note: You will be able to vote on the space battle regardles of what vote you pick here.

 

[Halt]

Knox's jaw dropped as the first of the protoss ships emerged from deep space. It was a sleek golden giant, larger than any ship she'd ever seen, and shaped like a particularly stab-happy pyramid with its sharp tip.

Please don't be hostile, Knox thought to herself. Even if that thing weren't armed with nightmarish protoss technology, it's size was not something she'd want to try to take down. It's debris would be enough to seriously damage Korhal if it fell into orbit, and after all the trouble Commander Ward had gone to to save Korhal from going the way of the dinosaurs too...

Lances of red and gold lasers streaked out of it … but not towards them? Something was pursuing it. It took a few minutes for them to see that it was fighting other golden-colored protoss ships that she was all too familiar with.

The Golden Armada.

During the Great War, a massive protoss fleet had tried to go all Death Star on Chau Sara, although they didn't so much explode the planet as incinerate it of all life. They proceeded to do the same to Mar Sara, Antigua Prime, and supposedly, the old Confederate capital world of Tarsonis.

Ever since then, terran naval commanders had been wargaming for a situation like this. It wasn't this fleet itself which had done the deed—Dominion Intelligence suggested this one was a new construction, but it was no doubt capable of the same destruction if given the chance.

If the large protoss ship was fighting the large protoss fleet, that suggested a civil war of some sort. How that was even possible was beyond her as the protoss supposedly never suffered from civil wars thanks to their telepathic links to each other, which honestly sounded like a nightmare.

Hanging around ghosts was bad enough, but imagine having an entire civilization being able to read your mind.

How young protoss boys ever managed to masturbate in peace, she'd never know…

"This is Knox to all ships, mark the giant protoss ship as Arkship, and pursuing fleet as Golden Armada."

"Confirmed," the Captain of the Circe answered. The rest of the fleet captains followed suit. "Are we to consider both hostile?"

This is way above my paygrade, Knox thought.

[X] "The enemy of our enemy is our friend." Of course, it wasn't clear to her which one was friendlier, but opening a communication link could fix that? Hopefully?
[X] "They're all xenos." Getting involved in a protoss shootoff sounded like a bad idea, and besides, it wasn't Dominion policy to be fighting the civil wars of the protoss for them. The more of the protoss that killed each other, the less she'd have to deal with in the next war with them and that was only inevitable in the Koprulu Sector.

Commander Ward had mentioned that the Sky Shield's defense lasers were still being worked on, but once they were online, the fleet could position itself within its firing range. That would give them a massive advantage in this battle if the protoss attacked into their position. Unless the enemy was an idiot, they wouldn't do that.

Of course, if too much of the fleet got wiped out before the lasers could come back online, there was a very real risk the protoss could overrun their orbital position even with Sky Shield providing firing support.

Knox took in a deep breath, and exhaled. "Our first priority has to be keeping this fleet together and minimizing casualties," she murmured to herself. That's what Commander Ward would have said if he were here. If the fleet fell apart, or was no longer capable of combat after the battle, things would be getting much, much worse for the Dominion. Second, and slightly less important was not allowing the protoss ships to bombard Korhal with their planet-cleansing lasers.

Losing the capital planet would be catastrophic, as Tarsonis had proven to be for the Confederacy.

It was time to go on…

[X] The Offensive. The enemy was clear now, and while they were busy shooting at each other, they weren't shooting at Alpha Squadron. No better time to begin firing.
[X] The Defensive. Protoss ships were far superior to terran ones, one-on-one. Best to let them come to Knox on prepared ground … er, space.
[X] "A Creative Maneuver". Improve the firing arcs of the fleet.

 

[Halt]

The sound of a C-20A Assault Rifle being cocked was unmistakable. It seemed counterintuitive that the primary weapon of the Ghost Program would have such a distinctive sound considering they were supposed to be an infiltration and covert operations unit, but that was "a feature, not a bug", as the engineers liked to say.

The ghosts weren't just a tool of assassination, but a method of instilling fear on the elites. After all, anyone who was anyone knew what a mysterious gunshot wound through the back of the head probably wasn't a suicide despite what the media might say. Such jobs were pointed messages at every general, admiral, politician, magnate, and would-be warlord in terran space.

"Tread carefully. You might be next."

It was a sound that Ward found himself subject to, and it was not by any means a pleasant one.

"You haven't shot me yet," Ward said. "So there's something you want."

"Call off your men," Nova replied, a hint of steel in her tone. For him, this was life and death. To her, this was a tuesday.

"From what?" Ward asked.

"Don't play coy, Ward," Nova said. "You're looting the EMP scramblers for parts."

"I am," Ward admitted. "Is that something you need to be concerned with?"

"That technology belongs to Emperor Valerian," Nova said. "You don't have the authority to take it."

"I work for Emperor Valerian as well, Nova," Ward said. "And in case you haven't noticed, we're at war, facing an unprecedented—"

"—an unprecedented crisis, a catastrophe that could mean the end of human life, the apocalypse," she answered in a bored tone. "I've heard it all before. People have been using those same excuses since the Confederacy to justify what laws they're breaking."

"But I'm not breaking any laws, am I?" Ward said, grinning to himself. He turned around to face her, only stopping when she pressed the barrel of her rifle against the back of his head. "Emperor Arcturus Mengsk's Directive on Emergency Military Acquisitions was never struck down. I'm invoking it."

"Search and seizure of all weapons owned by the enemy of the Dominion," Nova recited. "The operative word there is the enemy's, Ward. Not your own Emperor's." Her voice turned cold. "Unless you're planning rebellion."

"If you really think that, you wouldn't be standing here having this conversation with me," Ward said. "You'd just have shot me and be done with it."

She breathed out. "I'm not in the habit of killing competent officers unless I have to," she said, damning Valerian's "humane ghost program" with those words. A true professional would have done the job already. "Explain yourself. You can't possibly think those EMP scramblers aren't the Emperor's when they're attached to his own orbital defense platform."

"They're broken, and of little good to anyone up here," Ward said. "This attack on Korhal isn't just limited to Korhal, in case you haven't figured it out. This is playing out all across the sector, and my men are going to need any and every weapon they can get their hands on to win." He pointed a finger out into deep space. "Out there are the protoss, some of which are now headed our way. One-on-one, their ships outclass ours in every way imaginable, but the most damning thing about them are their shields. EMP technology on my ships will even that playing field and give me the means to punch above my weight class."

"The law is clear."

"Then shoot me!" Ward roared at her, turning around and looking her dead in the eye despite the fear that he felt. "If I have to die to give my men a fighting chance, I will." If she shot him, command would fall to Isabelle, and she'd realize the potential of those weapons as he did. So would the rest of his command staff.

Nova couldn't kill all of them, and she couldn't take his army on with hers after the losses she'd suffered.

He closed his eyes and waited for the end.

Only it never came. When he opened his eyes once more, she was giving him a contemplative look.

"Not going through with it?" he asked.

"You know I can read minds," Nova said, huffing. "You're not wrong that I can't kill your entire command staff."

"So what now? Going to torture me until I give in? Go into my mind and control it?"

"You've been on the internet too long," Nova said. "Only someone with psionic potential to match a protoss templar can exhibit that kind of control. The torture is an idea, but I doubt Valerian will be any happier with me if I kill a high officer without leave."

So she'd been bluffing the whole time?

"I was," she answered absently, casually just reading his mind.

"What is it you're so worried about?" Ward asked. "If you really thought this was treason, you'd have just shot me." Ghosts weren't that soft-hearted, even the new ones, and Nova was an elite among elites judging by what little Ward knew of her.

"The EMPs can remove cloaking," Nova said. "Proliferating that technology poses a danger to the Ghost Program, and if you're going to be arming your ships with them, that means miniaturization, weaponization, and an entire factory line dedicated to its production. Wide scale adoption would be inevitable."

"I didn't think ghosts were allowed such independent thought," Ward said.

Nova smirked. "All part of Valerian's humane ghost program."

I suppose there are some upsides to it, Ward thought. A mindless drone wouldn't be much of a commander, and good ones were hard to come by.

"I hear your concerns, but frankly, it's not my problem," Ward said. "You can bring it up to the Emperor."

"How about a trade?" Nova asked.

Ward blinked. "A trade?"

Nova nodded. "Give up the EMPs, and I'll give you something just as good."

"I'll need something more concrete than that," Ward said, not letting his eyes betray his interest, although by the widening of her smirk, it seemed his best poker face was not match for bullshit telepathy.

"Or your poker face isn't as good as you think it is," Nova said.

Lies and slander. That he lost more money than he made was besides the point.

"Your arsenal is severely limited at the moment," Nova continued. "Ships, even cloaked ones, don't exactly go unnoticed when they're shooting missiles and exploding buildings. You need boots on the ground."

"I have marines and marauders for that," Ward said. "As well as a few widow mines and hellions."

"To conduct raids with, not for true stealth operations," Nova said. "I can talk to a few people, get you limited ghost recruitment rights to expand your arsenal."

Having ghosts on the field would be invaluable for scouting, and finally let him use some tactical nukes too, which was nothing to scoff at. It was firepower, just less directed at the protoss and more directed at everyone. Plus, ghosts came equipped with EMPs too, assuming they didn't die before launching them which was always a risk considering how expensive it was to equip one.

"If you're looking for something flashier," Nova said, "I have access to schematics for some of the latest battlecruisers."

"The Gorgons?" Ward asked.

Nova bobbed, a strand of light golden hair swaying from the motion. "It's not the complete schematics," she warned, "but it'll give you enough to jumpstart your own research into it. Last, but not least, automated refineries."

"That doesn't sound as impressive as the other two," Ward admitted.

"Resource extraction is hardly sexy," Nova said. "But it'll help you get more vespene."

If it meant he'd never have to hear "You require more vespene gas" from the adjutant because a raiding party had wiped out his SCV teams, it might well be worth it.

It was hard to judge if any of those would be a match for the EMPs, but keeping the ghost in front of him happy was an unspoken upside to accepting the offer, especially if he ever planned to work with her in the future. Given the current shitshow, that was probably inevitable.

[X] No, keep the EMPs
[X] Limited Ghost Recruitment
[X] Gorgon Schematics (1 / 3)
[X] Automated Refineries

There was no "up" in space.

It sounded silly, but the entire human frame of reference for people who'd lived their entire lives in the comforting bosom of gravity simply didn't apply. Even comparisons to "ships" and "naval tactics" considering the naming scheme spacecrafts had employed was a misnomer for those still operated within the confines of gravity. Comparisons to planes would have been even more laughable considering those were all designed to reduce air drag which … did not exist in space.

As far as Ward could tell, the sleek designs most ships took on was purely an aesthetic choice, not an engineering one.

So if there was no up in space, and the cardinal directions of north, east, south, and west, made even less sense, just how exactly could ships navigate without reference?

The answer, which every space cadet had to be taught, were the stars. Any planet of worth orbited a star, beginning with Mother Earth in the Solar System. While there were certainly rogue planets which had not fallen into a star's orbit, and by pure statistical certainty at least some of those had minerals and vespene and other precious elements, the fact that it was hurtling uncontrollably through space meant it could hardly be inhabited.

Wouldn't do the mining guilds much good if the things they were trying to get back home flew further and further away with each minute.

So as a rule, any planet worth a damn orbited a star in a star system, and as a military man, he only fought where there was something to be fought over. It was for that reason that the vast majority of space combat occurred near planets.

A little known fact about planets orbiting a star was that they all tended to orbit on the same plane, known as the orbital plane. It was still a shitload of space, but it provided a neat and relatively unchanging reference point in the vastness of the cosmos. Unless there were mitigating circumstances, ships tended to prefer to move on this orbital plane because straying too far meant dealing with a lot more asteroids and comets than one needed to.

Moving towards the central star of a system was referred to as moving starward, and moving away from it as anti-starward.

Planets also tended to orbit their central star in the same direction. Thus, movement following the planetary trajectory was referred to as orbital, and its opposite was anti-orbital. Degrees would be interjected as appropriate.

Thus, the giant protoss warship and the armada of smaller and ostentatious golden ships it warred with moved starward, twelve degrees anti-orbital. In other words, right fucking at them.

So far, the reference points discussed had assumed that space was a two dimensional plane, when it was, in fact, at least three-dimensional space. It was this third axis which Knox was now abusing. The last reference point found its answers in the asymmetrical design of terran ships.

The flagship now had an "up" so to speak, which was really just an arbitrary designation, but it was one that everyone in the fleet understood. Whichever side the flagships' command hull was closest to was "flagward" for the entire fleet it commanded, and "anti-flagward" its inverse. This system had served terrans fine since they'd arrived in the sector.

"But what if two fleets need to coordinate?" one might ask.

That was usually when disasters occurred.

Ward could see on the delayed holographic display that Knox had ordered the battleships to begin spreading out flagward and anti-flagward, providing them more angles from which to fire on the rapidly approaching protoss ships. They were maintaining their position relative to Korhal otherwise.

The danger of maneuvers like this was that an opponent that expected it could pick off the flanks if they approached from the right angle, but that was true of any space formation. Fortunately, the protoss seemed too busy killing each other, which suited Ward just fine.

When they finally entered the effective kill range, a grunt standing on Sky Shield would have been blinded if they looked into space as dozens of ships dared to rival the brightness of a white star. Intense plasma gathered at their prows as power flowed from the ship's cores and an intense magnetic field was used to focus a controlled nuclear explosion into a cohesive beam of energy. It was the pride of the terran navy, the Yamato Cannon, and it required its own conversion generated and a dedicated fire-control station manned by nearly 100 gunnery specialists.

That was how the battle for Sky Shield ended, not with a whimper, but with a bang.

The release of the Yamato Cannon shots decimated several of the pursuing protoss carriers which had been tagged as "hostile", if only because they had no idea who they were and they would not respond to any hails. The larger protoss ship, named the Spear of Adun, was under the command of Hierarch Artanis, who was known to the terrans as the nominal leader of the protoss.

Why he was being pursued was beyond them beyond "Amon", but that was a good enough reason for Knox, so it was enough for Ward. Besides, at least he had the courtesy to pick up when called and wasn't that a massive step up from the average protoss prick?

After being thoroughly raked over, the protoss beat a hasty retreat beyond the edge of their firing range, giving them enough time to bring Sky Shield's guns back online. It was a simple manner of backing up the fleet within range of it, and Ward was confident the combined protoss and terran fleets could face Kerrigan's swarm with the amount of firepower between them.

...Not that he would ever tempt fate by saying it aloud.

This Artanis fellow was kind enough to warp down onto Sky Shield where Nova and Ward were waiting for a joint conference on what to do next, which was how Ward found himself seated across the tall mouthless alien with an elongated face and freaky glowing eyes.

This day was just getting weirder and weirder.

Behind him was Commodore Isabelle Knox as his second-in-command, and Artanis had brought along a fellow named Karax, his "Phase-Smith", which as best as Ward could tell was like a chief engineer.

Nova, typical for a ghost, didn't have a second.

"Greetings, Friend Ward, Friend Nova," Artanis said directly into their minds.

As if Nova's casual mind reading wasn't bad enough, to which she only smirked slyly at him.

"Ah, my telepathy is causing you discomfort," Artanis said. He paused for a moment, and then the sound started coming out from his throat. "I have switched to my mechanical voice box if that will put you at ease."

"Much obliged," Ward said. As far as protoss went, Artanis was proving the most polite of his race.

"We don't know much about what's going on planetside at the moment," Nova began. "Best as we can tell, there's fighting going on all across the planet. Two particular hot points have been identified here and here."

"Both of those are near Augustgrad," Ward recognized.

Nova nodded.

"This would be typical of Amon's preferred strategies," Artanis said. "He has a predilection for striking at leadership."

"The first near the Imperial Palace of Augustgrad," Nova continued, "appears to be centered around some shard-like structures Moebius Corps is raising. We have no idea what they do, but they can't be anything good. As for the second at Bennet Port, Moebius appears to be preparing to leave the planet with some sort of artifact."

"That would explain why the protoss fleet pursuing Artanis backed off," Ward said with a spark of realization. "They can't afford to begin taking losses now if they're meant to distract us when the extraction begins."

Artanis nodded. "A sensible deduction."

"Without more information, I think it's safe to assume we need to deal with both problems," Ward said.

"We don't have the troops for that," Nova said. "It's going to be a while before I'm ready to move out again with the losses I suffered."

"Perhaps I can be of some assistance then?" Artanis asked. "It is, after all, why I came here."

"While we appreciate the offer, I'm surprised that you don't have your own planets to defend," Ward said.

Artanis fell silent. "It is a dark day for my people. Amon's corruption runs deep through our Khala. It is how he has turned them against me and bids them to do his will."

"Mind control?" Ward asked. He turned to Nova. "I thought you said that kind of psionic activity was impossible."

"For a terran," Nova said. "They're protoss."

"More than that," Artanis added, "Amon is a dark god. His psionic potential is beyond even that of us protoss."

"Alright," Ward said, not quite understanding. "Well, if I take one of these, can I ask you to handle the other, Artanis?"

He nodded solemnly. "You can count on me."

"You won't be entirely alone whichever one you pick," Nova said. "We've spotted allied forces in both locations still fighting."

"That's good to hear," Ward said. "We'll need to keep the majority of our space faring elements up here though, to keep the Golden Armada honest." According to Artanis, this wasn't even their full fleet, and it was already looking more than a match for any of the standard Dominion fleets. Wasn't that the stuff of nightmares?

[X] Augustgrad
[X] Bennet Port

AN: This wraps up the first arc of our quest at 15k. Standby for some appendix notes.

 

[Halt]

Arc 1 of the Quest did not focus a lot on base building in favor of tactical engagements. Arc 2 will be our tutorial on base building and the more macro aspects of the quest.

Here is a snapshot of what your options look like at the start of a mission. Two factors dictate things.

1) Resource Generation (which can be banked up) which is an abstraction for mineral / vespene harvesting.
2) Infrastructure (barracks, starports, factories, tech buildings, additional command centers).

Turns indicate how many phases it takes to complete construction or production.
Now, because the early macro part of Starcraft is probably the most boring aspect of it, I have decided we are going to streamline that process a bit.
Your votes on how you want the macro to go can be several turns in advance. For the first vote, it must cover a plan of at least five turns in advance.

Any complications that arise (such as being attacked to a degree that disrupts the plan) will give you the option to amend the current plan as needed, but it will otherwise play out automatically. Hopefully, that means we don't get stuck with five updates where it's just base building, which would not be great for a narrative.

Units below are meant to be understood as being produced in batches (so a marine would be a whole company of marines being deployed, not just 1). Exceptions exist for capital ships.

When more supply is needed, units can be "decommissioned" from the field. Narratively, this means units have been sent back to the fleet, not friendly-fired like one would do in the game.

Available Resources Per Turn (1)

• Expand Extraction Operations (1/3) (1 Turn) - Increases Number of Resources Generted Per Turn by 1 (Can Spend 1 Resource on this each turn)
• New Extraction Location (2 Turns) - Increases Maximum Resource Generation Per Turn to 6, Increases Resources that can be spent improving Resource Generation by 1
• Expand Production Facilities
  • Barracks (0) (1 Turn)
  • Starport (0) (2 Turns)
  • Factory (0) (1 Turn)
• Produce Units (0/10) - No Production Facilities
• Expand Research Facilities - No Production Facilities
  • Tech Lab (1 Turn)
  • Armory (2 Turns)
  • Fusion Core (2 Turns)
• Fortify Area (1 Turn) - No Barracks, Must State Area
• Field Upgrades (3 Turns) - No Research Facilities
  • Unit Specific Upgrades
  • Ship Weapons Upgrades (0/3)
  • Ship Armor Upgrades (0/3)

Tier 1 - Cost 1 Resource, 1 Turn
Marines
Marauder
Hellions
Widow Mines

Tier 2 - Costs 2 Resrouces, 1 Turn
Wraiths
Vikings
Medivacs
Banshees

Tier 3 - Cost 3 Resources, 2 Turns
Liberators
Ravens
Corvettes

Tier 4 - Costs 4 Resources, 3 Turns
Battlecruiser
Strikecraft Carrier
Gorgon

A Note on Automated Refineries Nova is offering
-Given the primary benefit of this is that it helps ramp up the economy, as well as saves you supply since you won't need SCVs to harvest, atuomated refineries gives the following benefits:
1) Increases Unit Cap to 11
2) Grants you an additional resource for the first turn

 

[Halt]

Mission: Sky Shield
Time: 8 Turns
Ally: Nova
Result: Victory

Combatants

• Friendlies
  • Commander William Ward - Blood Hawks Expeditionary Force, Alpha Squadron [Light Losses]
  • Commodore Isabelle Knox - Blood Hawks Fleet [Insignificant Losses]
  • Hierarch Artanis - Spear of Adun [Still powering up, might need a new paint job]
  • Nova Terra - Special Operations Detachment [Moderate Losses]
• Foes
  • Moebius Corp Expeditionary Force [Wiped Out]
  • Amon's Golden Armada - [Light Losses]

Assets Acquired

• Reigel
• Conscripted Moebius Foundation Research Team
• Automated Refineries

Stress Tracker (35 / 300)

• Base Stress (+30 Stress)
• Repair and Refit Craft (+15 Stress)
• Blitz the rest of the platform (-20 Stress)
• Protoss Surprise Attack (+20 Stress)
• Battle Results - Victory (-10 Stress)

Trait Changes

• Gained "Strike First, Strike Fast, No Mercy" - Ward has a noted predilection towards aggressive tactics on the battlefield. Gains more stress the longer he delays and builds up.

Doctrine Changes

Additional Vote Options

Given Ward's low stress level, Ward can opt to spend some time implementing additional doctrine on the Blood Hawks. Of course, that won't be a painless process for him.

"Strike First, Strike Fast, No Mercy" Doctrine

• The first three combat units can be deployed instantly anywhere on the map with no build time (but you must still pay the resource cost)
• Forces perform better the earlier one attacks (the tradeoff being one would have a smaller army to work with).
• Future improvements to this doctrine allows for a combat bonus that activates from the turn of first offensive action instead of from the first mission turn.
• +50 Stress to implement

[X] Adopt "Strike First, Strike Fast, No Mercy" Doctrine
[X] Pass

AN: Note, prior vote is still open, but Automated Refineries seems to be winning by far. I will update this sheet as neceessary.

 

[Halt]

02: Arrival on Augustgrad​

For the second time in four hours, Ward found himself on a medivac transport heading into yet another hot zone. At least this time, they weren't in such a rush that they had to enter deployment through a dogfight and the Blood Hawks Fleet was able to liberate a landing zone with liberal use of munitions.

Unfortunately, most of the fleet was needed in a standoff against the Golden Armada to ensure they retained sufficient control in space. Not much point saving Augustgrad if Amon's lackeys retook Sky Shield and sent it hurtling down their heads again.



The base which Ward had established was situated to the southwest of Augustgrad, nearly opposite the Korhal Palace.

"Overhead flights indicate that three locations appear to have the greatest concentration of Moebius Corps' forces," Adjutant said. "These are marked P1 to P3 on your holographic display. Coincidentally, the shard-like structures have also been spotted in those areas."

"So whatever it is they're up to, they seem to have a vested interest in defending those structures," Ward said. "That means we have an interest in taking them down. Has reconnaissance been able to spot any other points of interest?"

"There have been reports of fighting deep within the heart of the city, but we have been unable to identify which force it is or make contact," Adjutant said.

"Are they doing okay?"

"Their defensive lines appear stable with only minor changes since we began reconnaissance activities in the area," Adjutant said. "To our immediate east, designated as E1 on the map, Moebius Corps appears to have a forward base from which they are operating from. It appears to be a new construction and is lightly defended for now. This would be an ideal location to expand resource extraction operations once we have secured it."

"Duly noted," Ward said. "Anything noteworthy about the enemy?"

"They appear to be using a heavy mech composition near the shards," Adjutant said. "In the denser urban areas, they've deployed infantry with only lighter mechanized elements and are engaged in door-to-door street fighting."

Ward winced. "That's going to get bloody fast for us." If this were an enemy city, this wouldn't be difficult at all as infantry wouldn't be able to stand up for long to a high intensity aerial bombardment.

The problem, of course, was that this wasn't an enemy city. The civilians that lived here were citizens of the Dominion. Bombing it indiscriminately would be a scandal as bad as Tarsonis was for Arcturus Mengsk. Relaying on his own infantry to clear the city section by section would be slow going, however. Perhaps if he managed to link up with the allied forces in the area, they'd be able to provide a better solution for him?

Before anything could be done however, he'd have to set up a base of operations. Additional ships and personnel could be deployed into the area, but without the proper logistics in place to support them, they'd quickly run out of steam and Ward wasn't in the habit of letting his men down like that.

Perhaps the only spot of good news to this was that he now had an expanded arsenal to work with, rather than being limited like he was on Sky Shield. His ground arsenal was, admittedly, nothing to brag about with a composition heavily around marines and marauders, some scouting hellions, and widow mines for added defense. His fleet tended not to carry any of the heavier mechanized assets around like thors or siege tanks in favor of more air power, and that might come back to bite him today.

But to compensate for that lack of mechanized ground assets were two air support ships. His raven was outfitted with air-to-air repair functions and defensive drones on top of its standard detection array, making it an excellent support vessel for his ships. It meant there wasn't much of a need for his aerial assets to have to return to base once ravens were mixed in with them.

Corvettes, on the other hand, were a new addition to the fleet and not one many other terran commanders thought to use as of now. It was his chief offensive support vessel, armed with anti-armor missiles, minesweeping lasers, and had the ability to deploy forward turrets. If he were expecting combat with the protoss, it was these ships he'd also be relying on to shoot down the small and fast interceptors that came with every protoss carrier as their rapid-fire lasers had proven quite proficient at that task in prior tests.

He might even be able to deploy a battlecruiser should infrastructure permit, although not calling in too many so as to not overly weaken his space fleet would have to be kept in mind.

Ward very much doubted Moebius Corps would have anything that could take down one of those save another battlecruiser, and he would have seen those by now if they had any. Even one would ensure he had free reign over the skies of Augustgrad.

5-Turn Macro Plan:

Resources Generated Per Turn: 1/3
Resources Available: 2

Expand Extraction Operations (1/3) (1 Turn) - Increases Number of Resources Generated Each Turn (Max 1 can be invested in this action each turn)

• New Extraction Location (2 Turns) - Increases Resource Generation Cap to 6, Increases maximum resources that can be spent on extraction operations to 2
• Expand Production Facilities
  • Barracks (0) (1 Turn)
  • Starport (0) (2 Turns)
  • Factory (0) (1 Turn)
• Produce Units (0/11) - No Production Facilities
• Expand Research Facilities - No Production Facilities
  • Tech Lab (1 Turn)
  • Armory (2 Turns)
  • Fusion Core (2 Turns)
• Fortify Area (1 Turn) - No Barracks, Must State Area
• Field Upgrades (3 Turns) - No Research Facilities
  • Unit Specific Upgrades
  • Ship Weapons Upgrades (0/3)
  • Ship Armor Upgrades (0/3)

Notes:
*Numbers in parenthesis indicative of current state of base (e.g. 1/3 means you have 1 command center, and are only mildly saturated)
*Production of units is in groups of units e.g. a squad of infantry, a flight of ships, a company of vehicles
*All macro actions require resources, including expanding
*Resources can be banked to be spent on a different turn
*Expand extract operations can be taken before clearing enemy units to tick down the turn thanks to being terran (floating CCs). It does not grand any additional resources until new base is secured however.

Action Plan:
[X] Prioritize the first shards in section P1
[X] Prioritize expanding extraction operations in E1
[X] Establish contact with allies in B2, using ships to bypass clusters of enemy defenses to do so
[X] Take a defensive stance
[X] Write In. You can vote to move out once you have army units produced.