Starcraft Co. 10- Siege
The target list the UIC handed StarCraft Co. after Kestral contained plenty of bad options. One stood apart. A colonial city on the fringe world of Delos had stopped responding to government communications three weeks earlier. The first reconnaissance team sent to investigate never returned. The second remained far enough away to transmit images before disappearing. Those images changed the nature of the operation completely. Delos hadn't simply been overrun by Zerg. Someone had fortified it with them. The city had once housed nearly eighty thousand people, built around a mineral-processing industry that had gradually declined as richer deposits were discovered elsewhere. Now creep covered entire districts. Sunken colonies protruded from streets and plazas, their subterranean tendrils extending beneath structures that had once housed shops and apartments. Spore colonies surrounded the city in such density that aerial reconnaissance could barely approach. Mutalisks and scourge nested among the taller buildings while hydralisks patrolled streets alongside armed Terrans. The latter answered the most important question raised by the reconnaissance photographs. This was not another Kestral. The Zerg hadn't conquered Delos alone. Renegade Terran forces were working with them.
UIC intelligence connected several of the humans visible in the reconnaissance footage to the clandestine research network StarCraft Co. had already encountered. Scientists moved openly between Zerg-controlled facilities. Armed guards occupied buildings beside hydralisk nests. Communications intercepts suggested that the city had become an enormous experimental complex, with its surviving population serving as raw material. The researchers were attempting something the commander had only seen mentioned in recovered files: deliberately incorporating Zerg genetic material into human subjects. Most died. Some didn't. The ones that survived were no longer entirely human. The briefing included footage of one captured by a reconnaissance drone. It still wore the remains of civilian clothing. Its body had swollen grotesquely beneath patches of Zerg tissue, and sacs filled with volatile chemicals bulged beneath its skin. When several other infected prisoners tried escaping from the building, the creature ran toward them and detonated. The explosion killed everyone within several meters. The commander watched the recording twice before closing it. An infantry assault into Delos would be suicide. Marines could handle zerglings and hydralisks, but not if any civilian-shaped figure emerging from an alley could turn itself into a bomb.
Air power was equally useless. Spore colonies saturated the entire city with overlapping anti-air coverage, and swarms of scourge nested beneath that protective umbrella. Battlecruisers attempting bombardment would have to remain high enough that accuracy became unacceptable. Wraiths and Valkyries would be throwing themselves into a defensive network specifically evolved to kill them. Orbital bombardment could erase Delos completely, but the UIC wanted the research destroyed and whatever data remained recovered. There might also still be uninfected civilians somewhere inside. StarCraft Co. needed something capable of fighting through a fortified city without getting close enough for the city to fight back. The commander chose artillery. StarCraft Co. had been expanding aggressively under its new UIC retainer, and Delos became the first major deployment of its armored ground forces. Siege tanks formed the center of the operation, supported by Goliaths, marine detachments, medics and a large contingent of SCVs. The tanks would kill anything stationary from beyond its effective range. Marines would protect them from creatures that managed to close the distance. Goliaths would provide mobile fire support and, more importantly, keep the sky clear. SCVs would repair everything that survived long enough to be repaired. It wasn't elegant. After Kestral, the commander had developed an appreciation for plans that didn't need to be.
The armored column landed almost thirty kilometers outside Delos and advanced until reconnaissance identified the first defensive line. Zerg growth covered an abandoned industrial suburb ahead, with sunken colonies embedded between ruined warehouses and hydralisks occupying the approaches. Several spore colonies rose behind them. The tanks stopped. Stabilizers descended. Siege assemblies extended. The first salvo landed seconds later. Delos shook. The sunken colonies never came within range of anything they could kill. Siege shells fell among them one after another, tearing enormous craters through creep and pulverizing the biological structures beneath it. Hydralisks charged after the first bombardment and discovered the second layer of the strategy. Marines waiting ahead of the artillery line opened fire while the tanks continued shooting over them. Zerglings emerged from ruined buildings and maintenance tunnels, only to run into overlapping rifle fire. When mutalisks appeared above the skyline, the Goliaths acquired them before they reached the tanks. Missiles climbed into the sky. The survivors turned back toward Delos. Then the tanks advanced several hundred meters and did it again. That became the siege. StarCraft Co. did not storm Delos. It dismantled it.
Every defensive position received the same treatment. Reconnaissance located Zerg structures. Tanks deployed beyond their effective range and bombarded them until nothing remained. Infantry moved forward and cleared whatever survived. Goliaths watched the sky. SCVs followed behind the formation, repairing armor, recovering damaged vehicles and maintaining the supply route stretching back toward the landing zone. The advance was measured in blocks rather than kilometers. It was slow, repetitive and brutally effective. The renegade Terrans attempted to stop it. Their scientists had soldiers of their own, although most appeared to be security personnel rather than experienced military forces. They established firing positions inside buildings and used Zerg organisms as living defensive screens. The commander responded by refusing to play their game. If a structure contained armed resistance, the tanks shelled it. If a laboratory was judged valuable enough to preserve, ghosts or marines approached only after every surrounding defensive position had been destroyed. Several researchers were killed attempting to flee between facilities. Others fought alongside their guards and died with them. The deeper StarCraft Co. moved into Delos, the more evidence it found that the entire city had been converted into a laboratory.
They found surgical facilities filled with restraints large enough to hold struggling adults. They found containment rooms coated in blood and creep. They found human bodies with Zerg tissue growing through their rib cages, some dead and others still alive. One laboratory contained dozens of incubation chambers, only three of which held recognizable human forms. Another had been studying whether infestation could be accelerated by introducing specific Zerg tissues directly into the bloodstream. The scientists' records were meticulous. Survival rates, aggression levels, metabolic changes, neurological degradation. The commander ordered every intact data system seized before the buildings were destroyed. The infested Terrans appeared more frequently as the siege moved inward. At first they were easy to handle. They charged openly across streets, grotesquely swollen bodies making them obvious targets. Marines learned to shoot them at long range. Tanks destroyed concentrations before they could move. Nobody allowed one anywhere near the formation. Then StarCraft Co. discovered that the creatures could burrow.
The first ambush happened on the second day. The armored column had cleared a broad avenue leading toward the city's industrial district. Reconnaissance showed no movement. Tanks came out of siege mode and began advancing while two marine squads moved beside them. The ground beneath the third tank erupted. Three infested Terrans surfaced almost simultaneously. There was no warning. The first detonated beneath the tank's tracks. The second emerged among the marines and exploded before anyone could fire. The third reached another tank before the Goliath behind it managed to shoot. The street disappeared inside overlapping explosions. When the smoke cleared, two siege tanks were wreckage. A third had been thrown partially onto its side. Most of the marines escorting them were dead. The surviving SCVs moved forward to recover whatever could be saved while the rest of the column stopped immediately. The commander reviewed the recordings. Nobody had made a mistake. There had simply been nothing to see.
The next advance began with a Comsat sweep. Orbital scanners saturated the route ahead with active sensor pulses. Buried biological signatures appeared beneath streets, inside courtyards and even beneath buildings StarCraft Co. had already cleared. Some had apparently remained underground for hours waiting for the armored column to pass. The commander marked every contact. The siege tanks fired. Entire sections of roadway erupted. Infested Terrans surfaced into artillery fire or died underground. Marines followed carefully, shooting anything the bombardment exposed. From that point forward, no armored movement occurred without a scanner sweep preceding it. Comsat coverage became as important as ammunition. Whenever the scanners were unavailable, the column stopped. The adaptation infuriated the defenders. StarCraft Co. could tell because their tactics became increasingly desperate. Infested Terrans were buried farther ahead of the defensive lines. Hydralisks tried approaching through sewer systems. Zerglings were released in enormous waves whenever the tanks deployed. On the third day, several dozen scourge descended almost vertically through the city's anti-air umbrella in an attempt to strike the artillery column. Goliaths filled the sky with missiles while marines scattered beneath them. Most of the scourge died. Three reached the ground. One destroyed a Goliath. Another detonated against an already damaged siege tank and killed the SCV crew repairing it. The third missed everything and exploded against an empty building. The tanks kept firing.
By the fourth day, ammunition had become the limiting factor. StarCraft Co. had brought enough ordinance for what planners considered a prolonged engagement. Delos consumed it at a rate nobody had anticipated. The siege tanks had fired thousands of rounds. Some barrels required replacement from continuous use. Entire ammunition carriers returned to the landing zone empty only hours after arriving at the front. The commander requested orbital resupply. Cargo transports began descending around the clock. Shells came down by the thousands. Replacement barrels. Goliath missiles. Gauss ammunition. Spare armor. Reactor components. Medical supplies. Fuel. SCVs unloaded the transports and immediately sent the supplies forward. The logistics operation became almost as large as the battle itself. At any given moment, some tanks were firing, others were moving, others were being repaired and still others were waiting for ammunition. The siege rolled onward. Block by block, Delos disappeared behind them.
The outer Zerg defenses were destroyed first. Then the industrial districts. Then the residential sectors that had been transformed into breeding and experimentation facilities. Every few hundred meters the tanks deployed again. Stabilizers slammed into pavement. Targeting systems calculated trajectories. Barrages landed beyond visual range. Sunken colonies vanished beneath explosions. Spore colonies collapsed into burning masses of tissue. Renegade firing positions disappeared along with the buildings containing them. StarCraft Co. learned to recognize the moment a defensive sector was breaking. Zerglings stopped charging in coordinated waves and began appearing individually. Hydralisk fire became sporadic. Mutalisks abandoned the area rather than contest the Goliaths. The Terran defenders usually ran first. The mercenaries rarely pursued them. There was nowhere left to go except deeper into Delos.
On the fifth day, the column reached the central research district. It was the most heavily fortified section of the city. Creep covered almost everything. Sunken colonies existed in layers. Spore colonies filled rooftops and plazas. Reconnaissance identified hundreds of Zerg organisms moving among fortified laboratory buildings. The commander counted the available artillery and ordered another resupply before beginning. They waited six hours. Then every functioning siege tank deployed simultaneously. The bombardment lasted nearly three hours. There was no subtlety left. Shells fell continuously across the defensive network. The first line of sunken colonies disappeared. Then the second. Renegade troops attempted to move between buildings and were caught in the barrage. Zerglings charged through the explosions and reached the marine screen in scattered groups. Hydralisks fired blindly through smoke. Goliaths destroyed mutalisks attempting to approach above the rooftops. The artillery kept firing. SCVs moved between tanks while the bombardment was still underway, conducting emergency repairs beneath the thunder of outgoing rounds. Ammunition vehicles arrived from the rear and unloaded directly beside the guns. Empty racks were filled and emptied again. Eventually the defensive fire stopped. StarCraft Co. advanced.
The remaining resistance was vicious but fragmented. Marines cleared laboratories while Goliaths moved through streets behind them. Comsat sweeps exposed buried infested Terrans before they could repeat the disaster of the second day. Several emerged anyway and detonated under fire, killing soldiers unfortunate enough to be nearby. One destroyed a damaged tank before its crew could evacuate. Another killed an entire marine squad when it surfaced inside a building the soldiers were clearing. But there weren't enough of them anymore. The central laboratory fell shortly before sunset. StarCraft Co. found the scientists attempting to destroy their research. They had already wiped several servers. They did not finish the rest. The mercenaries seized the surviving data systems and killed the personnel defending them. The commander ordered specialists to copy everything before demolition teams began working through the facility. What they recovered confirmed that Delos had been one of the network's primary human-infestation sites. Thousands of civilians had been used as experimental subjects. The records also showed that the work had been improving. Early subjects almost always died. Later subjects survived longer. Some retained enough intelligence to follow commands. The commander thought about the creatures buried beneath the streets waiting for tanks to pass over them. Then he ordered the laboratory destroyed.
The siege ended on the sixth day. StarCraft Co. had fired more artillery ammunition during those six days than in every previous ground operation combined. Several siege tanks had been destroyed. Others required complete overhauls. Multiple Goliaths were gone. Entire marine squads had been lost, most of them to infested Terrans that had managed to emerge close enough to detonate. But Delos was clear. The Zerg structures were dead. The renegade research teams were destroyed. The spore network was gone. UIC aircraft finally entered the city's airspace without being attacked for the first time in weeks. The commander stood beside one of the surviving siege tanks while transports descended over the ruined skyline. Its barrel was blackened from thousands of rounds. Armor plates had been replaced so many times that almost none of the exterior matched anymore. SCVs were already working on it.
A UIC officer approached and looked across the city. “You know how much ammunition you used?” The commander glanced at him. “You said whatever it costs.” The officer stared for a moment. Then he laughed. The invoice was extraordinary. The UIC paid it. More important was what StarCraft Co. recovered from Delos. The conspiracy wasn't simply breeding Zerg anymore. It was merging them with humans, developing organisms capable of infiltration and deliberate self-destruction, and learning how to control the results. The Hunter Killers at Kestral had already demonstrated that ordinary Zerg could be improved. Delos demonstrated that humans could be changed too. The commander added the recovered research to the growing intelligence archive. Then he opened the next target file.