The sound of gauss rifles firing rang through the forest. In the body of one of the Terran marines, Athena watched as Decima soldiers in light red armor collapsed in front of her one by one, the golden lioness sigil on their chests stained red with freshly spilled blood.
A few minutes ago, two platoons of Decima soldiers were deployed by gunships and armored transports to an open field near the forest. After some preparation, the hundred or so soldiers made their way into the forest. It was a good thing they were ready for combat, because they came under fire far sooner than they expected.
Unbeknownst to them, their movement had been tracked by a Zerg roach lurking underground. One of the platoons arrived at the open field ten minutes before the other, and one of Athena’s patrolling roaches saw it. As a result, Athena had more than enough time to mobilize her Terran marines and meet the Decima soldiers head-on in the forest.
Almost immediately, the heavy firepower from the Terran marines began tearing the Decima soldiers to pieces. Every burst of gauss rifle shots meant the fall of at least one Decima soldier. Nothing could effectively shield the soldiers against the hypersonic bullets of the C-14 Impalers. Not the trees. Not the armor. Not even the bodies of their comrades.
To their credit, the Decima soldiers performed a lot better than the first platoon. Their position was far better than the first platoon, and they had much greater numbers. Even as many screamed and died, others began putting up a good fight using their impressive arsenal.
Athena was observing the battle from behind the Terran lines. She watched as, in front of her, a Terran marine advanced toward the Decima position. His combat shield was carefully positioned so it covered most of his body from incoming fire while still allowing his gauss rifle to spit fire at the enemies. Bullets landed on his armor and shield alike, but the marine hardly seemed fazed at all. After gunning down several Decima soldiers, the marine caught the attention of the enemies.
“Incoming!” There was the sound of something piercing the air, followed by the marine's warning. At the same time, the marine raised his combat shield to completely cover himself. The next second, a Decima suicide drone, packed with explosives and controlled by drone operators in the two platoons, smashed straight into him. The resulting explosion tore the marine to shreds. Even the combat shield and the CMC power armor couldn’t protect the marine from such a blast so close to him.
Pieces of shrapnel hit the marines in close proximity but failed to reach the bodies beneath the armor.
Another Terran marine not far away collapsed without a word, his helmet and skull both blown open by a high-caliber sniper rifle. Two more marines in front of Athena were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. They were tossed into the air and were dead before they hit the ground.
Casualties were rising for the Terrans, but it was to be expected. Decima Royal Legion soldiers weren’t exactly the best soldiers in the galaxy, but then again Terran marines were simply the cheap cannon fodders in the Terran army. They were the expendable grunts that, in lore, were often deployed by the thousands. Casualties were to be expected.
As the gunfire continued, Athena contemplated the idea of producing and deploying more Terran marines to join the fight. However, to do so, she would need to return to her own body. It was something she had discovered while practicing possessing the bodies of her Terran units. She could only produce units and deploy them into her surroundings in her own body. In other words, there were limitations that kept her from simply hiding her own body somewhere safe and always using Terran units as avatars.
The next second, just as she was still pondering the need to call in reinforcements, Athena suddenly found herself back in her own body in the blink of an eye.
“What the…” She whispered to herself, ignored Adrianna’s confused look, and closed her eyes again. As she did so, she realized she could no longer sense the marine whose body she was in, nor could she sense the presence of three other marines. This time, she took over the body of another marine, and she quickly realized what happened.
Not far away, a portion of the Terran firing line had been utterly destroyed. Multiple marines were dead, and their armor and weapons were shattered.
At the same time, at the Decima lines, there were flames and screams, as well as loud curses that Athena could hear even from her own position. Someone was very angry...
The culprit of these two attacks wasn’t any Terran weapon, nor was it the suicide drones or rockets of the Decima platoons. Instead, the attack came from above. Athena looked up and could distinctly see two Decima Overwatch class gunships and the missile pods beneath them.
It seemed like, in their desperation, the Decima troops had called in air support on enemy targets who were extremely close to them in an environment where gunships’ scanners had trouble telling friend from foe. It turned out the Decima commander was a bit too optimistic. Perhaps he trusted the pilots too much. Perhaps the gunship pilots were nervous. Or amateurs. Or they just made a mistake.
Either way, the result of this gamble wasn’t a daring, film-worthy maneuver that destroyed all enemy forces but left all friendlies unharmed. Instead, out of the two air-to-ground missiles fired, one landed in the middle of the Terran marines and the other hit the two Decima platoons.
On one hand, this helped Athena realize getting killed while possessing the body of a Terran unit would leave her unharmed. On the other hand, this friendly fire finally broke the already wavering Decima forces.
As the Decima soldiers turned and fled without a care in the world, the Terran troops, without even needing an explicit order from Athena, turned their attention to the gunships. The two gunships were still hovering in the air at a relatively low altitude. It seemed like they were unsure of what to do next. Should they wait until the friendlies were all gone and keep firing? Maybe they could pretend like the friendly fire never happened? Perhaps the pilots were busy wondering if they would be court-martialed for this absolute disaster.
The next second, the remaining Terran marines started shooting. This time, they were shooting upward.
Athena watched in awe as storms of gauss rifle rounds, shot from three dozen C-14 Impalers, ripped through the two Overwatch class gunships hovering at low altitude. The gunship pilots were caught off guard as well. Normally, scattered squads of Imperial survivors would have limited anti-air firepower. Most of the time, they had no choice but to flee from the gunships. After chasing relatively defenseless Imperials for so long, the pilots had grown overconfident. As bullets ripped their aircrafts and their bodies into pieces, the pilots realized, all too late, that this was different. These enemies were…special.
As the gunships fell out of the air and crashed nearby, Athena remembered that as general-purpose infantry units, Terran marines also had quite the anti-air capability. As a matter of fact, they were the only anti-air units in the Terran infantry, not counting ghosts. In a Starcraft game, enough marines could gun down armadas with a stunning level of ease.
In this world, they wouldn’t be shooting down enemy starships or starfighters ever, but against un-shielded gunships or dropships that were flying too low, a group of Terran marines could teach them a lesson.
As the dust settled, Athena turned to the marines.
“Look for survivors. Split up any survivors and interrogate them about anything they know. Their unit. Their base of operation. The garrison there. Everything.”
“Yes sir.” One of the marines nodded before asking. “Are we allowed to use, uh, rougher methods, sir?”
Athena paused for a second. If she was the Athena who just found her way into this world, her answer would likely be a maybe. At least that was what she said when the Zerg queen offered to torture Corporal Huo for her. Now? After spending six months in this universe, she was changed by everything she saw and heard her. She wouldn’t be going around torturing and killing people for fun, but when the survival of her and her friend depended on it, she was fine with getting her hands a little dirty.
“Avoid these…rougher methods, if you can, but do whatever you have to to get the intel.”
“Yes sir!”
Athena nodded and returned to her own body. As she opened her eyes, she was a little surprised to see what Adrianna was doing.
“So, uh…can I see your weapon? I don’t think it’s any type I’ve seen before, and I’ve seen a lot of weapons.”
In front of her, Adrianna was trying to start a conversation with one of Athena’s Terran marine bodyguards. By now, Adrianna had realized that these marines were indeed friendlies. Not only so, but they also seemed to answer to Athena and were willing to fight and die for her. This made Adrianna…curious.
“For the third time, no.” The Terran marine simply shook his head, annoyance in his voice. Unlike zerglings, these marines had their own thoughts and emotions. It was just that as Starcraft units, they were physically incapable of disobeying or betraying Athena.
“Fine.” Adrianna sighed. “Any chance you’ve got booze?”
“I do, but they’re not for you.”
“Hmmm…what a shame.” Adrianna shrugged, not that she really wanted to have a drink at a time like this. She was just bored and wanted to start a conversation.
Athena smiled to herself. She had always known Adrianna was talkative. Ignoring her for now, she quickly went over the gains and losses of the previous engagement.
She initially summoned 50 marines. After the two skirmishes, she now had 34 left. 16 marines had died to the two Decima platoons and the pair of gunships. Unfortunate losses, but acceptable.
In turn, they had defeated another two platoons. A significant portion of these two platoons lived. According to the resources she received, Athena calculated that a total of 65 Decima soldiers and pilots died in the previous engagement.
As of now, she had around 13,000 units of resources. Enough to produce hundreds of marines if she didn't have to worry about the current supply cap, which was at 80...wait, why did that say 130?
Oh…
“Human technologies detected in close proximity to units…”
“Analyzing technology…”
“Analysis complete. Technologies show resemblance to Terran engineering…”
“Terran structure Barracks - Tech Lab has been unlocked…”
“Is everything alright, Athena? I…I’ll be honest you’re scaring me a bit.”
Not far from Athena, Adrianna raised her eyebrows. She accidentally saw Athena’s expression and was surprised to see the utter excitement on her face. Adrianna had been with Athena for months, but this was the first time she had seen her captain, former captain, so thrilled. Athena was a good person, make no mistake, but she was often a serious woman. Seeing her so excited was almost unnerving.
“Oh everything’s alright. In fact, I’d say things are going perfectly.”
Adrianna was right. Athena was absolutely thrilled, and who could blame her? This was the first time she had unlocked a new building in six months! When she was on 9A2-C-8, she did her best to go to every location she could in an attempt to unlock new structures, Terran or otherwise. None of that worked, and for a while she almost became desperate. Thankfully, it seemed like the Decima troops here and the weapons they carried were enough for a fresh unlock!
A number of the Decima arsenal were outdated or modified Imperial weapons, but the Kingdom of Decima had its own research and manufacturing systems. The Overwatch-series gunships, for example, had been used by the kingdom before it became an ally of the Imperium. Most likely, contact with these new weapons helped unlock the Tech Lab to the Barracks.
Giving her friend a wide smile, Athena opened the game again, clicked on the barracks, and produced a tech lab. The cost of the building itself was negligible. After the tech lab was produced, Athena clicked on the barracks again. As expected, two more Terran infantry units were made available in the barracks.
First, the reapers.
Reapers were terran light infantry units armed with jetpacks that allowed them to jump up and down cliffs and traverse more difficult terrain. Each reaper was equipped with dual P-38 Scythe gauss pistols to gun down light enemy ground targets and KD-8 charges designed for building demolition. Reapers were trained in hit-and-run skirmishes and close-quarter combat. They were also known to use combat drugs to improve their performance in combat and heal their injuries.
Also…another weapon the reapers had was the KD8 charges, which in Starcraft games were infamous for knocking enemy units, mostly zerglings, around while doing almost no damage. Athena wasn’t too sure how effective they would be. Most likely she would find out soon enough.
Each reaper cost 120 units of resources and 2 supplies. Expensive, but expected.
The next was the marauders.
Marauders were the heavily-armored support units that were often deployed to take out heavy ground targets. Their power armors were the 5-4 Armored Infantry Suit. When used together with kinetic foam, these enhanced armors could keep the marauders alive against much more punishments compared to the marine’s CMC armors. Their main weapon was a pair of Quad K12 grenade launchers designed for armor-piercing roles.
Each marauder cost 200 units of resources and 2 supplies. Each marauder cost the same as a Zerg roach. While marauders are easier to kill than roaches, they were capable of doing a lot more damage.
There was only one Terran infantry unit left to unlock. The ghost, which required the ghost academy. Athena didn't even want to think about how much a ghost would cost, considering canonically ghosts were elite, invisible, psychic assassins who could often go toe-to-toe with Protoss warriors with centuries of experience. How would she even be able to unlock the ghost academy? Were there psychic individuals in this galaxy?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a squad of Terran marines.
“Sir, there is something you will want to know. It’s about where those, uhh…”
“Decima.” Another Terran marine sighed and reminded his comrade.
“Oh, yeah. It’s about where those Decima soldiers came from. It’s an airfield called…shit I really shouldn’t be the one doing the reporting.”
“It’s called Airfield Sigma, sir.” Once again, the second marine stepped forward and helped his buddy. “That’s where the 4th Mechanized Regiment of the 14th Royal Decima Legion is stationed at. From what we learned, right now it's quite a vulnerable target.”
Athena’s eyes lit up and her grin grew even wider. It seemed like her reapers and marauders would get their chance to shine soon enough.
The sound of gauss rifles firing rang through the forest. In the body of one of the Terran marines, Athena watched as Decima soldiers in light red armor collapsed in front of her one by one, the golden lioness sigil on their chests stained red with freshly spilled blood.
A few minutes ago, two platoons of Decima soldiers were deployed by gunships and armored transports to an open field near the forest. After some preparation, the hundred or so soldiers made their way into the forest. It was a good thing they were ready for combat, because they came under fire far sooner than they expected.
Unbeknownst to them, their movement had been tracked by a Zerg roach lurking underground. One of the platoons arrived at the open field ten minutes before the other, and one of Athena’s patrolling roaches saw it. As a result, Athena had more than enough time to mobilize her Terran marines and meet the Decima soldiers head-on in the forest.
Almost immediately, the heavy firepower from the Terran marines began tearing the Decima soldiers to pieces. Every burst of gauss rifle shots meant the fall of at least one Decima soldier. Nothing could effectively shield the soldiers against the hypersonic bullets of the C-14 Impalers. Not the trees. Not the armor. Not even the bodies of their comrades.
To their credit, the Decima soldiers performed a lot better than the first platoon. Their position was far better than the first platoon, and they had much greater numbers. Even as many screamed and died, others began putting up a good fight using their impressive arsenal.
Athena was observing the battle from behind the Terran lines. She watched as, in front of her, a Terran marine advanced toward the Decima position. His combat shield was carefully positioned so it covered most of his body from incoming fire while still allowing his gauss rifle to spit fire at the enemies. Bullets landed on his armor and shield alike, but the marine hardly seemed fazed at all. After gunning down several Decima soldiers, the marine caught the attention of the enemies.
“Incoming!” There was the sound of something piercing the air, followed by the marine's warning. At the same time, the marine raised his combat shield to completely cover himself. The next second, a Decima suicide drone, packed with explosives and controlled by drone operators in the two platoons, smashed straight into him. The resulting explosion tore the marine to shreds. Even the combat shield and the CMC power armor couldn’t protect the marine from such a blast so close to him.
Pieces of shrapnel hit the marines in close proximity but failed to reach the bodies beneath the armor.
Another Terran marine not far away collapsed without a word, his helmet and skull both blown open by a high-caliber sniper rifle. Two more marines in front of Athena were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. They were tossed into the air and were dead before they hit the ground.
Casualties were rising for the Terrans, but it was to be expected. Decima Royal Legion soldiers weren’t exactly the best soldiers in the galaxy, but then again Terran marines were simply the cheap cannon fodders in the Terran army. They were the expendable grunts that, in lore, were often deployed by the thousands. Casualties were to be expected.
As the gunfire continued, Athena contemplated the idea of producing and deploying more Terran marines to join the fight. However, to do so, she would need to return to her own body. It was something she had discovered while practicing possessing the bodies of her Terran units. She could only produce units and deploy them into her surroundings in her own body. In other words, there were limitations that kept her from simply hiding her own body somewhere safe and always using Terran units as avatars.
The next second, just as she was still pondering the need to call in reinforcements, Athena suddenly found herself back in her own body in the blink of an eye.
“What the…” She whispered to herself, ignored Adrianna’s confused look, and closed her eyes again. As she did so, she realized she could no longer sense the marine whose body she was in, nor could she sense the presence of three other marines. This time, she took over the body of another marine, and she quickly realized what happened.
Not far away, a portion of the Terran firing line had been utterly destroyed. Multiple marines were dead, and their armor and weapons were shattered.
At the same time, at the Decima lines, there were flames and screams, as well as loud curses that Athena could hear even from her own position. Someone was very angry...
The culprit of these two attacks wasn’t any Terran weapon, nor was it the suicide drones or rockets of the Decima platoons. Instead, the attack came from above. Athena looked up and could distinctly see two Decima Overwatch class gunships and the missile pods beneath them.
It seemed like, in their desperation, the Decima troops had called in air support on enemy targets who were extremely close to them in an environment where gunships’ scanners had trouble telling friend from foe. It turned out the Decima commander was a bit too optimistic. Perhaps he trusted the pilots too much. Perhaps the gunship pilots were nervous. Or amateurs. Or they just made a mistake.
Either way, the result of this gamble wasn’t a daring, film-worthy maneuver that destroyed all enemy forces but left all friendlies unharmed. Instead, out of the two air-to-ground missiles fired, one landed in the middle of the Terran marines and the other hit the two Decima platoons.
On one hand, this helped Athena realize getting killed while possessing the body of a Terran unit would leave her unharmed. On the other hand, this friendly fire finally broke the already wavering Decima forces.
As the Decima soldiers turned and fled without a care in the world, the Terran troops, without even needing an explicit order from Athena, turned their attention to the gunships. The two gunships were still hovering in the air at a relatively low altitude. It seemed like they were unsure of what to do next. Should they wait until the friendlies were all gone and keep firing? Maybe they could pretend like the friendly fire never happened? Perhaps the pilots were busy wondering if they would be court-martialed for this absolute disaster.
The next second, the remaining Terran marines started shooting. This time, they were shooting upward.
Athena watched in awe as storms of gauss rifle rounds, shot from three dozen C-14 Impalers, ripped through the two Overwatch class gunships hovering at low altitude. The gunship pilots were caught off guard as well. Normally, scattered squads of Imperial survivors would have limited anti-air firepower. Most of the time, they had no choice but to flee from the gunships. After chasing relatively defenseless Imperials for so long, the pilots had grown overconfident. As bullets ripped their aircrafts and their bodies into pieces, the pilots realized, all too late, that this was different. These enemies were…special.
As the gunships fell out of the air and crashed nearby, Athena remembered that as general-purpose infantry units, Terran marines also had quite the anti-air capability. As a matter of fact, they were the only anti-air units in the Terran infantry, not counting ghosts. In a Starcraft game, enough marines could gun down armadas with a stunning level of ease.
In this world, they wouldn’t be shooting down enemy starships or starfighters ever, but against un-shielded gunships or dropships that were flying too low, a group of Terran marines could teach them a lesson.
As the dust settled, Athena turned to the marines.
“Look for survivors. Split up any survivors and interrogate them about anything they know. Their unit. Their base of operation. The garrison there. Everything.”
“Yes sir.” One of the marines nodded before asking. “Are we allowed to use, uh, rougher methods, sir?”
Athena paused for a second. If she was the Athena who just found her way into this world, her answer would likely be a maybe. At least that was what she said when the Zerg queen offered to torture Corporal Huo for her. Now? After spending six months in this universe, she was changed by everything she saw and heard her. She wouldn’t be going around torturing and killing people for fun, but when the survival of her and her friend depended on it, she was fine with getting her hands a little dirty.
“Avoid these…rougher methods, if you can, but do whatever you have to to get the intel.”
“Yes sir!”
Athena nodded and returned to her own body. As she opened her eyes, she was a little surprised to see what Adrianna was doing.
“So, uh…can I see your weapon? I don’t think it’s any type I’ve seen before, and I’ve seen a lot of weapons.”
In front of her, Adrianna was trying to start a conversation with one of Athena’s Terran marine bodyguards. By now, Adrianna had realized that these marines were indeed friendlies. Not only so, but they also seemed to answer to Athena and were willing to fight and die for her. This made Adrianna…curious.
“For the third time, no.” The Terran marine simply shook his head, annoyance in his voice. Unlike zerglings, these marines had their own thoughts and emotions. It was just that as Starcraft units, they were physically incapable of disobeying or betraying Athena.
“Fine.” Adrianna sighed. “Any chance you’ve got booze?”
“I do, but they’re not for you.”
“Hmmm…what a shame.” Adrianna shrugged, not that she really wanted to have a drink at a time like this. She was just bored and wanted to start a conversation.
Athena smiled to herself. She had always known Adrianna was talkative. Ignoring her for now, she quickly went over the gains and losses of the previous engagement.
She initially summoned 50 marines. After the two skirmishes, she now had 34 left. 16 marines had died to the two Decima platoons and the pair of gunships. Unfortunate losses, but acceptable.
In turn, they had defeated another two platoons. A significant portion of these two platoons lived. According to the resources she received, Athena calculated that a total of 65 Decima soldiers and pilots died in the previous engagement.
As of now, she had around 13,000 units of resources. Enough to produce hundreds of marines if she didn't have to worry about the current supply cap, which was at 80...wait, why did that say 130?
Oh…
“Human technologies detected in close proximity to units…”
“Analyzing technology…”
“Analysis complete. Technologies show resemblance to Terran engineering…”
“Terran structure Barracks - Tech Lab has been unlocked…”
“Is everything alright, Athena? I…I’ll be honest you’re scaring me a bit.”
Not far from Athena, Adrianna raised her eyebrows. She accidentally saw Athena’s expression and was surprised to see the utter excitement on her face. Adrianna had been with Athena for months, but this was the first time she had seen her captain, former captain, so thrilled. Athena was a good person, make no mistake, but she was often a serious woman. Seeing her so excited was almost unnerving.
“Oh everything’s alright. In fact, I’d say things are going perfectly.”
Adrianna was right. Athena was absolutely thrilled, and who could blame her? This was the first time she had unlocked a new building in six months! When she was on 9A2-C-8, she did her best to go to every location she could in an attempt to unlock new structures, Terran or otherwise. None of that worked, and for a while she almost became desperate. Thankfully, it seemed like the Decima troops here and the weapons they carried were enough for a fresh unlock!
A number of the Decima arsenal were outdated or modified Imperial weapons, but the Kingdom of Decima had its own research and manufacturing systems. The Overwatch-series gunships, for example, had been used by the kingdom before it became an ally of the Imperium. Most likely, contact with these new weapons helped unlock the Tech Lab to the Barracks.
Giving her friend a wide smile, Athena opened the game again, clicked on the barracks, and produced a tech lab. The cost of the building itself was negligible. After the tech lab was produced, Athena clicked on the barracks again. As expected, two more Terran infantry units were made available in the barracks.
First, the reapers.
Reapers were terran light infantry units armed with jetpacks that allowed them to jump up and down cliffs and traverse more difficult terrain. Each reaper was equipped with dual P-38 Scythe gauss pistols to gun down light enemy ground targets and KD-8 charges designed for building demolition. Reapers were trained in hit-and-run skirmishes and close-quarter combat. They were also known to use combat drugs to improve their performance in combat and heal their injuries.
Also…another weapon the reapers had was the KD8 charges, which in Starcraft games were infamous for knocking enemy units, mostly zerglings, around while doing almost no damage. Athena wasn’t too sure how effective they would be. Most likely she would find out soon enough.
Each reaper cost 120 units of resources and 2 supplies. Expensive, but expected.
The next was the marauders.
Marauders were the heavily-armored support units that were often deployed to take out heavy ground targets. Their power armors were the 5-4 Armored Infantry Suit. When used together with kinetic foam, these enhanced armors could keep the marauders alive against much more punishments compared to the marine’s CMC armors. Their main weapon was a pair of Quad K12 grenade launchers designed for armor-piercing roles.
Each marauder cost 200 units of resources and 2 supplies. Each marauder cost the same as a Zerg roach. While marauders are easier to kill than roaches, they were capable of doing a lot more damage.
There was only one Terran infantry unit left to unlock. The ghost, which required the ghost academy. Athena didn't even want to think about how much a ghost would cost, considering canonically ghosts were elite, invisible, psychic assassins who could often go toe-to-toe with Protoss warriors with centuries of experience. How would she even be able to unlock the ghost academy? Were there psychic individuals in this galaxy?
Her thoughts were interrupted by a squad of Terran marines.
“Sir, there is something you will want to know. It’s about where those, uhh…”
“Decima.” Another Terran marine sighed and reminded his comrade.
“Oh, yeah. It’s about where those Decima soldiers came from. It’s an airfield called…shit I really shouldn’t be the one doing the reporting.”
“It’s called Airfield Sigma, sir.” Once again, the second marine stepped forward and helped his buddy. “That’s where the 4th Mechanized Regiment of the 14th Royal Decima Legion is stationed at. From what we learned, right now it's quite a vulnerable target.”
Athena’s eyes lit up and her grin grew even wider. It seemed like her reapers and marauders would get their chance to shine soon enough.
