Starcraft Co. 13- Mining Run
The UIC considered Erebus finished. The renegade forward base had been destroyed, its enthrallment technology captured, its battlecruiser seized, and the dormant swarm beneath the canyons reduced to scattered remnants that could no longer be converted into an army. StarCraft Co.'s official orders were to recover its personnel, load the captured equipment and withdraw from Protoss space before someone noticed that a Terran military force had spent the better part of two days fighting on a world humanity had no legal claim to occupy. The commander agreed with almost all of that. Erebus was finished as a UIC operation. StarCraft Co., however, had noticed something during the fighting that hadn't appeared anywhere in the intelligence briefing. The planet was rich. Geological scans of the canyon systems had revealed deposits of khaydarian minerals, crystalline formations extraordinarily valuable for their unusual energy-conductive properties and correspondingly difficult to obtain within Terran territory. The deeper scans revealed deposits large enough to justify commercial extraction, and someone was already extracting them. Several Protoss mining operations existed across the twilight belt, scattered far enough from the canyon system that neither the renegades nor the dormant Zerg had disturbed them. Intelligence identified the operators as an independent Protoss tribe with little meaningful connection to the Protoss homeworld. They had no fleet in orbit beyond a handful of local defensive craft, and there was no indication that reinforcements would arrive if the mining sites were attacked. There were also substantial Zerg populations still nesting on the surface, particularly around mineral-rich areas outside the underground swarm StarCraft Co. had destroyed. The commander looked at the casualty reports from Erebus, then at the projected value of the mineral deposits, and decided the company could afford to remain on the planet a little longer.
There was no UIC authorization for what came next. There wasn't supposed to be. The Council had hired StarCraft Co. to prevent the renegades from capturing a dormant Zerg swarm. That contract was complete. What an independent private military company chose to do afterward, several systems inside Protoss territory, was something the UIC could truthfully claim it had never ordered. The commander sent the Council's liaison team home aboard the first transport carrying captured technology. Then he issued new orders to the remaining force. Siege tanks, Goliaths, infantry, SCVs and enough logistical support to sustain a temporary base would remain on Erebus. Their objective was a Protoss mining installation eighty kilometers east of the renegade ruins.
The Protoss saw them coming. That was unavoidable. Photon cannons guarded the approaches to the mining site, their crystalline structures arranged around the perimeter beneath overlapping shield fields. Behind them stood dragoons and zealots, with probes continuing to work the mineral fields as though the Terrans approaching across the plateau were merely another environmental nuisance. The commander had spent enough time fighting Zerg to appreciate the difference. Zerg defenses could usually be manipulated through instinct. The Protoss understood exactly what siege tanks were. It didn't help them. The tanks deployed outside photon-cannon range. Targeting systems acquired the nearest battery, calculated firing solutions and opened fire. The first shells struck shields rather than structures, brilliant flashes illuminating the permanent twilight as Protoss energy fields absorbed impacts that would have pulverized conventional fortifications. The tanks fired again and again until shields flickered, collapsed and exposed the structures beneath them. Protoss dragoons advanced immediately, attempting to close the distance before the artillery could dismantle the entire perimeter, while zealots followed behind them with psi blades burning. StarCraft Co. met them with infantry and Goliaths. Marines focused their fire on individual dragoons rather than spreading ammunition across the formation, medics kept wounded soldiers moving, and the Goliaths used their heavier weapons against targets whose shields absorbed ordinary rifle fire too efficiently. The tanks continued bombarding photon cannons behind the battle until the defensive network collapsed.
The Zerg arrived halfway through. A surface nest disturbed by the artillery sent zerglings pouring across the eastern approach, and for several confused minutes all three forces occupied the same battlefield. The zerglings attacked whatever was closest. Some crashed into the Protoss flank while others reached StarCraft Co.'s infantry. The commander immediately pulled the marines into tighter formations and let the problem simplify itself. Protoss zealots carved through zerglings while Terran rifles fired into both. Dragoons turned to engage the swarm and exposed themselves to Goliath fire. By the time the Zerg were dead, the Protoss defensive force had been reduced enough that StarCraft Co. finished it within minutes. The mining installation fell before the end of the operational cycle, although on Erebus the distinction between day and night meant little. StarCraft Co. did not destroy the infrastructure. SCVs moved onto the mineral fields almost as soon as the final photon cannon stopped firing. Terran engineers adapted Protoss extraction equipment where possible and replaced it where necessary. Cargo transports descended behind them, and within hours the same soldiers who had spent the previous day exterminating tens of thousands of Zerg were standing perimeter duty around a mining operation that technically belonged to someone else.
The first loads confirmed the commander's gamble. The ore was exceptionally rich, and geological teams soon found more. One promising deposit lay several dozen kilometers south, isolated from the Protoss installations but surrounded by biological signatures. Rather than immediately pressing toward the next Protoss position, the commander diverted several dropships carrying marines, firebats and SCVs to investigate. They found a surface Zerg colony sprawled across the mineral field. Creep filled a shallow basin around the crystals, with spawning pools nestled between rock formations and several hundred zerglings scattered across the area. Compared with what StarCraft Co. had just exterminated beneath Erebus, it was barely an infestation. Marines occupied the ridges overlooking the basin while firebats advanced below. Zerglings charged uphill through overlapping Gauss fire and walls of flame, never reaching the SCVs waiting beyond the perimeter. Within an hour the nest was gone. The spawning pools were demolished, the creep burned back far enough for mining equipment to operate, and SCVs moved onto the khaydarian deposits before some of the Zerg carcasses had stopped twitching.
The Protoss responded to the seizure of their original mining installation with a counterattack before StarCraft Co. could finish establishing the second site. Zealots and dragoons approached from the east, apparently expecting to catch the Terrans dispersed between mining operations. The commander had expected exactly that. Dropships rapidly concentrated infantry at the threatened position while siege tanks deployed behind the perimeter. Zealots tried closing the distance through artillery fire, and dragoons returned fire from range but discovered that range belonged overwhelmingly to the tanks. The surviving Protoss withdrew after taking heavy losses. StarCraft Co. did not pursue them. The commander had no reason to chase an enemy away from valuable ground when another valuable piece of ground was sitting undefended nearby.
Reconnaissance found a third mineral deposit north of the occupied base. This one was larger and considerably more dangerous. Hydralisks nested among the crystals, while several dozen zerglings were buried beneath the surrounding creep. A science vessel detected them before the landing force approached. The commander sent two marine squads and a firebat detachment under defensive matrices directly onto the edge of the field while dropships remained overhead. The hydralisks emerged first and concentrated their spines on the shielded infantry, wasting their opening volleys against the matrices while the marines established firing positions. Firebats moved through the zergling clusters once they surfaced, and the science vessel irradiated a hydralisk near the center of the formation. The creatures packed around it began dying before they understood what was happening. Twenty minutes later the field belonged to StarCraft Co. Another SCV team arrived. Another mining camp appeared. Another stream of khaydarian ore began moving toward orbit.
By then the Protoss understood that StarCraft Co. was not merely occupying one stolen mine. The Terrans were stripping Erebus. The next counterattack included Scouts. The fighters swept over the plateau expecting to attack vulnerable ground forces and instead encountered missile volleys from dispersed Goliath teams. Several Scouts broke through and destroyed an SCV line before Wraiths arrived from StarCraft Co.'s temporary airfield. The fighting lasted long enough to convince the commander that the Protoss were not going to accept the theft of their mineral fields indefinitely. StarCraft Co. could defend the captured deposits, but maintaining permanent defenses across Erebus would eventually consume more resources than the ore justified. Instead of waiting for the Protoss to assemble another attack, he decided to remove the force launching them.
Reconnaissance had located the Protoss main base against a mountain range east of the mining region. It was far larger than the outposts StarCraft Co. had attacked so far. Photon cannons protected the approaches. Gateways and robotics facilities indicated the presence of substantial ground forces. Scouts patrolled above it. Intelligence identified zealots, dragoons and reavers, along with something StarCraft Co. had not yet encountered in significant numbers: high templar. The commander spent several hours studying combat footage before attacking and reached one overriding conclusion. The templar died first. StarCraft Co. had learned from the Zerg that some targets mattered far more than others. A hydralisk was dangerous. A Hunter Killer was more dangerous. A scourge near a battlecruiser was more important than either. Protoss high templar occupied the same category. Their physical bodies looked almost fragile compared with zealots and dragoons, but intelligence reports describing psionic storms made it clear that allowing them to approach massed infantry would be catastrophic.
Before the assault began, however, another geological survey changed the schedule. A rich khaydarian deposit had been identified inside a narrow valley west of the Protoss base, and reconnaissance found a substantial Zerg nest occupying it. This one included both zerglings and hydralisks along with several sunken colonies embedded around the mineral formations. The commander decided there was no reason to leave a hostile force sitting behind his planned approach, particularly when eliminating it would pay for itself. Siege tanks were diverted from the assault column and deployed on a ridge overlooking the valley. The sunken colonies never had an opportunity to fight. Artillery tore them apart from outside their range while marines waited for the inevitable countercharge. Zerglings poured out of the valley first, followed by hydralisks, and ran directly into prepared firing lines. The engagement lasted less than forty minutes. SCVs arrived behind the combat force, established another extraction camp and began mining while the tanks rejoined the formation heading east. What had once required an entire contract had become something StarCraft Co. did on the way to somewhere else.
The assault on the Protoss base began with artillery. Siege tanks deployed along two approaches and opened fire on the outer photon-cannon network. Protoss shields flashed continuously beneath the bombardment. The defenders responded faster than they had at the mining outpost. Dragoons and zealots emerged before the first battery fell, supported by reavers whose scarabs tore enormous gaps through Terran infantry formations. StarCraft Co. immediately spread its marines. Goliaths concentrated on the dragoons while siege tanks shifted fire onto the reavers whenever targeting solutions allowed. Then the templar appeared. The first psionic storm killed almost an entire marine squad. There was no projectile to dodge and almost no warning beyond the templar's movement. Energy simply erupted across the formation, burning through armor and flesh before the soldiers could escape. The commander immediately ordered the infantry back and marked every templar on the tactical network.
Ghosts went hunting. Cloaked operatives moved around the edges of the battlefield while tanks and Goliaths held the Protoss front. One templar died without seeing the shooter. Another detected the ghost approaching and began forming a storm before concentrated rifle fire from a supporting squad killed him. A third disappeared behind a defensive structure before the ghost could acquire a clean shot. Then two high templar merged. The commander watched their bodies dissolve into psionic energy and combine into something considerably larger. Nobody in StarCraft Co. had fought an archon before, and the first one nearly broke the assault. It moved through Gauss fire as though the rounds barely existed, shields absorbing punishment that would have destroyed a vehicle. Its psionic attacks struck entire groups at once. Marines scattered. A Goliath fired continuously until the archon reached it and tore the machine apart. The commander ordered the infantry away from the creature and concentrated the siege tanks. Artillery shells began landing around it. The first detonations stripped away sections of its shields. The archon kept advancing. More tanks fired. Goliaths joined them. The creature became a sphere of brilliant energy beneath the bombardment, moving forward one step at a time until its shields finally collapsed. The next salvo destroyed it.
After that, StarCraft Co. knew what to do. Templar were killed before they could merge whenever possible. Archons that formed anyway became artillery targets. Reavers received concentrated tank fire. Goliaths and Wraiths kept Scouts away from the siege line. Marines stopped trying to defeat zealots individually and instead drew them into overlapping firing zones where entire squads could concentrate on one warrior at a time. Medics moved constantly behind the formations, pulling soldiers out of the line before Protoss weapons finished them. The Protoss fought magnificently, but it wasn't enough. StarCraft Co. had spent months learning how to reduce stronger enemies into manageable problems. Ultralisks had taught them not to fight mass with mass. Cressida had taught them to prioritize threats. Kestral had taught them to improvise. Delos had taught them what sustained artillery could do to a fortified position. Erebus had taught them how devastating defensive matrices could be during an assault. They used all of it. Science vessels projected matrices around infantry teams crossing exposed ground. Siege tanks dismantled defensive positions from range. Ghosts infiltrated ahead and killed templar. Goliaths handled Scouts and provided heavy fire against dragoons. Marines and firebats cleared structures after the defenses collapsed. SCVs followed immediately behind the advance, repairing damaged vehicles before they could be lost permanently.
The Protoss base fell after seven hours. StarCraft Co. did not occupy it. There was no reason. The commander ordered the remaining military infrastructure destroyed, along with anything capable of quickly rebuilding the defensive force. Gateways collapsed beneath demolition charges. Photon cannons were shelled into fragments. Air facilities burned. The surviving Protoss withdrew into the mountains rather than continue fighting for ruins. StarCraft Co. returned its attention to the mineral fields, but the destruction of the main base did not mean the planet was completely pacified. Geological teams continued searching while the combat forces reorganized, and they located two additional deposits occupied not by Protoss but by isolated Zerg colonies. One was little more than a spawning ground filled with immature zerglings and was cleared by a pair of marine squads without casualties. The other had grown around a network of caves and contained hydralisks, zerglings and several ultralisks. Rather than send infantry into the caves, StarCraft Co. placed tanks overlooking the entrances and used small teams to provoke the creatures into emerging. The zerglings and hydralisks came first and were annihilated by the infantry screen. The ultralisks followed and walked directly into concentrated siege fire. One survived long enough to reach the tanks and destroyed a siege engine before Goliaths and marines brought it down. By the end of the engagement, another mineral field was secure and another SCV detachment was already descending toward it.
For the next two days, the company became a mining corporation with an army. SCVs worked continuously across a patchwork of captured Protoss sites and former Zerg nests. Cargo ships landed empty and left heavy with khaydarian ore. Newly secured deposits came online as quickly as crews could reach them. The remaining Protoss launched several small raids but never assembled another force large enough to threaten the operation. StarCraft Co. responded only when necessary. There was no reason to chase survivors through mountains when the company's objective was sitting stationary beneath its mining equipment. Every hour they remained on Erebus, another shipment went into orbit.
Eventually the commander decided they had stayed long enough. The holds were full. The captured battlecruiser was ready to travel. The enthrallment technology had already been removed. The company's personnel had been fighting almost continuously since arriving on the planet, and remaining longer increased the possibility that the independent Protoss tribe would find allies willing to answer its requests for help. StarCraft Co. dismantled its temporary facilities, loaded the surviving equipment and abandoned anything too cheap to justify carrying. The final SCVs left the mineral fields aboard the last transports. From orbit, Erebus looked exactly as it had when they arrived: a dim world of endless twilight, canyons and mountains beneath a dying red sun. Somewhere below, scattered Zerg still survived beneath collapsed tunnels. Protoss survivors were emerging from the mountains to inspect what remained of their settlements. Across the twilight belt, empty mineral fields marked where Terran machinery had extracted as much as it could carry.
The commander looked at the cargo manifest. Thousands of tons of khaydarian ore filled StarCraft Co.'s transports, enough to justify the entire unauthorized operation several times over and provide raw material for the company's increasingly ambitious research programs. The UIC had paid StarCraft Co. to come to Erebus and destroy a threat. StarCraft Co. had done that. Everything afterward had been profit. The fleet entered warp with its holds full.