Bane 14

“Up and at’em, kiddo! We’ll be at Tarsonis in less than an hour,” the words intruded my dreams, along with the light TJ had turned on before speaking. I fought the voice that blurted into the darkness, urging me to wake up; I never seem to get enough sleep.

“C’mon, Reece! This is getting old… The capt’n isn’t gonna be happy if you’re still lounging around when we’re all ready to go!” TJ said again. I didn’t care; they would have to dump me out of the bunk this time-there was no way I was getting up. Finally, TJ’s exasperated words of defeat announced my victory,

“Screw it! I did what I was supposed to do; I’ll let the Boss decide what to do with you.” I faintly recall the sound of the foot steps and the door to my quarters opening. The lights shut off automatically as TJ left and that was all it took; I was gone again.

“Where’s the kid?” Boss asked as TJ entered the equipment room alone. Everyone looked totally different in their leisure clothes, Joe even had his infamous pair of sunglasses handy for the trip to Tarsonis.

“Reece refused to get up,” TJ reported with a bored tone.

“Oh well, leave em’ here.” Boss said calmly. Most of the squad began to pick up their assigned bags and turn for the airlock, leading to the waiting dropship, but TJ stopped and spoke up again,

“What if the kid wakes up and starts wandering around?”

“Good point,” Boss noted, setting one duffel bag on the steel grated floor and walking over to a panel next to the airlock.

“Hey, kip,” He said to the small keypad after holding one button down.

“What’s up Cap’?” Came the static ridden voice.

“Reece won’t get up so we’re leaving em’ here. I don’t want the kid causing any trouble while we’re gone, so set a level two lockdown when we take off,” Boss said confidently. The panel on the wall responded almost as fast,

“Sure thing.”

Immersed in this wonderful, new world of dreamless sleep, I didn’t think I would ever want to wake up, but eventually I was led back to consciousness by a familiar sensation; hunger.

I sat up groggily in bed and was blinded by the automatic lights. I rubbed my defenseless eyes to shield them from the bombarding light and swung my feet to the floor. Reaching to the metal, bedside table, I sleepily snatched the remote up and flicked on the holoscreen. It flashed to life, displaying some women in front of a big map, pointing out multiple weather systems. I was mindlessly stared at the screen, pulling my boots onto my feet, when I noticed the TNN logo at the top of the screen.

“Tarsonis New Network?” I asked the empty room. I finished lacing up my boots thinking, ‘wow, we’re already at Tarsonis! How long did I sleep?’ before I finally remembered that TJ had come in and tried to wake me twice for just that reason.

“I wonder why everyone’s so excited about going to Tarsonis,” I asked myself out loud again while flicking off the holoscreen and tossing the remote to the bunk. Out of all the planets in the korpral sector, Tarsonis has taken the most heat from its long history of wars, yet civilization returns again and again to start over. The planet is greener than Korhal and has a few large cities, but nothing that really holds any value-that I could think of. If I had given it more thought, I would have figured out that they were probably there on business again, but I shrugged the thought off as another hunger pang reminded me why I even bothered getting out of bed this morning in the first place.

“Wait a minute…” I said as the door to my quarters slid shut behind me. There was one way I could find out exactly what they’re doing, if Joe left his door unlocked again. My room was the last one on the row, so that made Joe’s three doors down. Just like last time, the place was unlocked and I was granted access at the push of a button. The lights came on automatically, once again, and I strode over to the metal nightstand where Joe’s open crew’s log awaited me. Going straight to the messages screen, I found that two new messages had been received and read already. I opened the newest one, entitled Weapons Trade. It read,

“Hey, Joe, doing alright, man? Try not to think about her too much, it’ll only bring you down. Afterall, business must go on. Speaking of which, where all gonna head down to Tarsonis to sell those plasma rifles to our rebel buddies. You ought to come with; some fresh air will do you good. Besides, why would anyone visit the most laid back planet this side of the sector without having a few drinks?”

“So,” I said out loud while setting the crews log back on the nightstand, “That’s why they were so intent on leaving early.” I set Joe’s log back to the screen it was originally on and put it back on the table without much more thought on the subject, until I went to the door. Nobody told me to stay here; In fact, they never laid out any ground rules to begin with.

After leaving Joe’s room, I turned and walked for the short hallway that lead to a single door, that seals the crews quarters. At first, I began to wonder what kind of ships they have spare in their bay, but then I remembered breakfast, too.

“Meh! Tarsonis can wait,” I said out loud to the empty room, announcing my decision. I thought I had everything figured out, but when I hit the button to open the door, a deep buzzing noise came from the panel. In confusion, I pressed the button again, getting the same results. A few moments passed as I thought of what I could do, when suddenly static erupted from the speaker on the panel, and a voice broke through it,

“Hey kid, where you going?” The sound of another voice took me by surprise; I didn’t think there was anyone else on board besides me. I hesitated, staring at the panel, trying to figure out which button would allow me to reply, when the static-ridden voice came again,

“Push the yellow button to talk,” was all it said. I immediately found the right button and depressed it,

“To the kitchen, or where ever you guys keep the food around here. Why are the doors locked?” The speaker on the panel brought me the voice once more,

“Because the Cap’n ordered a lockdown, but I don’t see any harm in you getting a bite to eat. The mess wing is down the hall, to the left, four doors down-I’ll unlock the right doors for you.”

“Thanks,” I said to the speaker, after holding down the button. After a moment’s wait, the speaker box crackled to life again,

“Okay, the door’s unlocked, kiddo. Go knock yourself out.”

“Forgive me for questioning you again, Rakeem, but why do you insist on saving this creature, even against direct orders from the Matriarch?” The tall protoss student asked while motionlessly watching a small hologram that projected from a panel, displaying the nearby stars and planets passing by as a tiny figure of the Kalimar rested in the center.

“Dair’sar, your leader Zeratul may be wise, but one cannot sit idle on the same planet for over a century and still be all knowing about the universe. At first you, yourself, doubted even the existence of this hero. Do you still feel no different now that we have found it?”

The student hesitated, lost between thought and the hologram before him,

“Indeed, I do feel…compelled to know why a simple zerg specimen has apparently been gifted with a free will and intelligence, but I still don’t understand your logic. This being you claim to be a Hero is nothing more than a beast created solely for the purpose of destruction. How can one possibly believe that this Bane is capable of, or even willing to protect life?”

Rakeem did not grow angry with his students assumptions, the words only added to the Temlpar’s resolve,

“Because I have witnessed this with my own eyes,” the teacher answered calmly. Silence held the control room of the Kalimar for a moment, but it was broken once again by the prodding questions of a student,

“Tell me of this time, again, Rakeem; so my faith can be renewed.” At this point, Rakeem would have sighed with exasperation, as the Terran’s do, but the teacher retained his stature,

“Over a century ago, not long before the disappearance of Kerrigan, my brethren and I were ordered to investigate the zerg infestation on the Terran planet of Tarsonis. Along with the task of smiting any zerg presence, the conclave bid me to bring back with me, a number of the Terran vessels for research-to gauge the possibility of a threat from these new beings. Upon arrival of the ruined planet, I found that life had returned, despite the punishment from Tasadar’s mighty fleets. But all was not well. The majority of life there was zerg, followed by a single, yet sizable, settlement of Terrans. As ordered, I commanded my ships to destroy the zerg infestation there, but consequently, the city itself was totally incinerated in the blast. Upon personally moving to the surface with a small regime of zealots, we proceeded to capture the remaining aircraft in the area for research when I found the ruined form of our hero amongst those of the slain zerg. At first, I was appalled to find the body of a hunter killer still alive and was about to order it to be slain, but something in the back of my mind said otherwise. To this day, I’m not sure whether it was luck or the power of the Khala that bid me to do what I did, but I knew then that this was a being of destiny; thus I ordered it to be brought aboard my ship with the Terran vessels.” Rakeem paused momentarily to adjust the Kalimar’s speed slightly before continuing,

“Little did I know; a single Terran was captured along with the hero, and, together, they escaped our ship.”

The student was still not satisfied, “How does this signify the hydralisk we have found as being a hero?” Rakeem continued,

“Because, my impatient Dair’Sar, the next time the hydralisk and I parted ways was in death. The noble creature sacrificed its life to save the remaining Terrans and I from the ravaging swarms of the zerg.”

The Templar’s student was now enthralled in the history lesson,

“Tell me of that battle, Rakeem. I wish to know every detail.” Rakeem’s psionic laughter rang in the control room,

“Perhaps another day, Dair’Sar. For now we must focus on-“ a sharp bleeping noise sounded twice from the controls, ending the idle conversation. Dair’Sar turned from the holographic projection of the Kalimar to investigate the odd interruption.

“We are closing in on the Terran planet, Tarsonis, we’ll be coming out of warp space any moment now,” the student reported calmly from his new post.

“Ah, then it is time to hail the cerebrate so it can find this Terran and we can continue on our mission.” Rakeem said vigilantly, “Speaking of whom, where is Bane?”

“But you have your plasma shields for protection; while I have only my carapace to take the blow of your warp blade. This ‘sparing’ test, as you call it, sounds unnecessarily dangerous.” Teilon and San’Dreale stood and listened to my words without moving, nearly as still as the stone walls and floor of their ‘training room’. Ignoring me, San’Dreale closed both eyes, focusing his thoughts for the deadly warp blade. Buzzing and crackling to life, a curved beam of light grew from the templar’s right hand, which was hidden beneath the tribal robes. San’Dreale held the blade up and finally turned to me,

“If what Rakeem has said about you is the truth, then you should have no fear of us.” Some of the tribal robe he was wearing fell away from the hand that the held the blade, revealing a wrist shrouded in some kind of metal contraption. I took note of this immediately,

“You require machines to wield these weapons?” I asked suddenly, although being somewhat off-topic. Teilon was the one to answer this question,

“Yes, cerebrate. Only the oldest and wisest of our race is capable of maintaining the power required for a psionic weapon, much less a blade of this size.”

“Well,” San’Dreale interrupted suddenly, “Shall we begin?”

“Don’t let me stop you,” Teilon announced, stepping back to lean against one wall of the training room and watch.

“But what if you-” I began to say, but the sound of a warp blade cleaving the air interrupted me in mid-sentence. A slight pain began to throb from my left shoulder and I looked down to find a tiny slash in the carapace where San’Dreale had judged our distance perfectly. Any closer and the blade would have severed my arm.

“Alright,” I said with an involuntary growl, throwing one blade at the Templar’s throat, “Let’s begin!”

With blinding speed, San’Dreale flipped his warp blade around in a circle, where it collided with my offending scythe and knocked it away. Still recovering from the speed of the counter, I was a little slow to respond to the warriors next attack. San’Dreale made a lunge for my chest with the point of the blade, which I managed to knock away with my left scythe. At the same time, I made a long, horizontal swing with my free blade that would have toppled the Protoss, but San’Dreale was expecting this and ducked as I made my counter. My scythe cut the empty air just before the templar leapt up again with a swift diagonal slash of his warp blade. I managed to keep clear of the swing, or so I thought, until I discovered yet another gash in my carapace, just below the scythe joint this time. San’Dreale had stopped attacking when he noticed that I was injured again, but had begun to back away when I looked up. This was only a training drill, but I could not stop my vision from swimming in a bright red hue as I focused on the careless Templar again. With a fierce snarl, I dove for my enemy. This time, I was the aggressor as I made a wicked swing for San’Dreale with my left scythe. The templar knocked the blade away with practiced speed, but my right was already there again, closing the warrior’s window for a counter attack. While forced to block the second swing, I pressed the attack. With rage adding to adrenaline, my third swing was too quick for the occupied templar to block, and a bright blue flash met my eyes. San’Dreale’s shields saved him from the crippling damage my scythes would have caused, but he faltered to the left from the force of the impact. Instinctively, I was ready to dive on my enemy and deliver the finishing blows, but I sensed something behind me and I turned just in time to see Teilon’s blade coming for my midsection. With an outraged snarl, I threw my scythes into the blades path, catching the beam of light between them before it could meet my augment.

“Two against one isn’t fair game,” I said as Teilon struggled to free his warp blade from my lock.

“Indeed,” the young templar agreed, pulling his weapon free with one final jerk. Sparks flew and fell to the floor as the warp blade ran the length of my scythes. Another psionic voice from behind suddenly finished for Teilon,

“No one ever said that all battles are to be evenly matched.” San’Dreale was back on his feet with warp blade at the ready behind me.

Tiny particles of bone showered to the floor as sparks in a brief flash when my right scythe moved into place just in time to stop San’Dreale’s long blade from cleaving into my augment. Using a likewise maneuver with my left, I simultaneously blocked Teilon’s swing for my throat. The blades crackled wildly as my sparing partners held their weight against me from both sides, attempting to keep me pinned, but, due to the fact that my physical strength is easily twice that of the beings fighting me, I quickly turned both my scythes in opposite directions, throwing the blades clear of my body momentarily. Teilon was young and fast, thus the first to recover, but I was ready for the blow and knocked the offending blade away with the closest scythe. San’Dreale’s blade was now back again, coming for my face, but I wasn’t there to receive the punishment. Lunging backwards with a powerful thrust of my augment, the blade only wiffed the empty air, leaving the templar confused as I dove forward again, throwing both blades at my ‘enemy’ in a scissor-like motion. A bright flash of blue plasma shields was my reward for a successful blow and the templar was sent stumbling to the stone floor once again. Unexpectedly, a sharp pain took my backside as Teilon’s swift blade ran across my unguarded side, and now it was I who was sent stumbling. I didn’t falter, however, and spun on my tail with the momentum, throwing everything I had into my left scythe. As I had sensed, Teilon was hot on my trail when I stumbled, ready to deliver another blow, when my surprise retaliation came for him. The flash of the dying plasma shield was blinding, but the sound of Teilon’s body colliding with the wall of the training room assured me that I hit my mark. Panting heavily, my vision returned to normal and I was able to watch the two templar rise to their feet again, releasing their concentration for the psionic weapons they held. The crackling blue warp blades each receded to the hand from whence they were held, and the room fell silent, save for the monotonous drip of my blood running down my backside to the stone tile below my tail.

“You are a formidable opponent indeed, cerebrate,” San’Dreale’s voice showed no fatigue, unlike the physical signs of exhaustion that the templar’s body presented.

“You two aren’t that bad yourselves, but If you ever hope to-” I stopped in mid-sentence as the door to the training room slide open with a sudden hiss. Dair’ Sar stepped in the doorway, nodding to each of his brethren before speaking,

“Tarsonis is nearly in range. Rakeem requests a briefing with you before venturing to the planets surface.”

Cold oatmeal was hardly the kind of food I was thinking of, but it was the only thing in the fusion locker that was already prepared. It took ages to find silverware and to top the lousy meal off, the location of the sugar remains a mystery to this day. Needless to say, I was more or less sick of breakfast at the moment and ready to skip the whole thing. After shoving my half eaten bowl of chilled gruel aside, I got up and walked to the door. It opened with a hiss, allowing me to step into the hallway.

‘Let’s see,” I thought out loud, “Which way did we go after making the fajita’s?” Now I remembered, talking always seems to help me think. Turning up the hallway, I began my search for the ship bay. As far as I could remember, It had to be on the opposite side of the ship, judging from the distance TJ led me yesterday. I retraced my steps through the twisting hallways, always trying to keep my heading whenever possible. Finally, the hallway came to a corner and I could no longer go forward. After turning the corner, I had at last found what I was looking for. The thick, steel blast-door was built into one of the ships bulkheads at this point, making it a very tough seal to crack if you had to get through without the combination. I was about to press the green button on the panel to open the door when I remembered that it was locked. Hope began to fade as I tried to stare down my new obstacle, but then I remembered what I found in Joe’s log the other day.

“Four…Four…Five…Seven…one..” I said the numbers out loud as I keyed the combination into the panel and pressed the open button. The panel emitted a satisfying ‘Ping!’ and the door rose up slowly with a whine of hydraulics.

As I stepped through the door, I was faced with yet another wing of doors, each leading to different rooms. Working systematically, I tried the first door on the left, finding that it was the airlock room that I first arrived here in. After putting the code in for the second door, I had, at last, found what I was searching for. The lights flickered on automatically, gleaming off the freshly painted hulls of two wraith fighter jets and an armored dropship. One spot was empty, probably where a ship was parked before Boss and his gang of cohorts left with it. There was one smaller dropship on the other side of the hangar, but it appeared to be older than all the other ships combined. I walked up to the shining, armored dropship parked in the center of the room and jumped up to the door and grabbed the handle, but it didn’t swing open as I planned when I pulled on the latch. It was locked.

“Damn,” I swore, looking behind myself nervously, as if someone could catch me at any moment.

 cast
Bane
Reece
Morkaleb(Unrevealed)Twelve centuries, 8 months and 13 days of research and psionic bio-genetic enginering.

Good protoss
Rakeem
Dair'Sar
Teilon
San'Dreale
Kalimar-Rakeem's carrier ship.

Good Terrans

"Boss" Steven Collins Captain of the outlaw terrans
Mosely-Works for boss, has speech inspediment
TJ-works for boss, short mexican one
Joe- works for boss, doesnt trust Bane as much as the others. Clare(dead
pilot) is girlfriend.
Kip-works for boss, pilots the Mark II