>Last time on Freelance Ghost Quest: You asked more questions at the war meeting, met the Protoss who’ll be in charge of the Omega and made polite conversation with High Templar Varas who’ll be accompanying you on the planet. The fleet jumped, the attack commenced, and you’re aboard a shuttle now with Siladus, Sextus and Varas.

“Siladus, what are we going to face down there? I’ve fought my share of zerg, but nothing on this scale.”

“If all goes well, we won’t face anything until we reach the cerebrate.” He replies. “It’s foolish to count on best-case scenarios though. We’ll most likely face loose zerg, stragglers still rallying to help defend the hive the rest of our forces are attacking. A pack of zerglings, a group of hydralisks, that kind of thing. I doubt we’ll have much more, but if if our luck runs out, we might face an ultralisk. Their air support should be tied up sufficiently that we won’t have any trouble there.”

You look at Sextus. “What do you think? Like old times?” Sextus gestures something back, which you decipher to something more or less meaning “Yeah. It’ll work.”

A broadcast in the Battlecruiser warns that you’re under fire, but almost at the landing zone. You feel your shuttle starting to fly, so you guess that you’re now splitting off from the main ground force.

“So, do we have any reasonable way to get out of there once we kill the Cerebrate?” You ask.

Varas replies. “Once its control is gone, we should have a much easier way to rendez-vous with the ground force. They’ll be pushing towards us as much as they can once they notice zerg behavioural changes. We should mostly sit tight and carefully inch back to the main attack force. By that point the fleet in the air should be finished so they can cover us from any additional forces.”

“Of course,” Siladus interrupts, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy, so I suspect that by then we’ll be playing it by ear.

Well, it’s good to hear there is some form of plan, though of course Siladus has a point.

>Any more questions before you land?
>1. Write in.

>>35813567

>No matter how this will go, I'm glad that I got to work with people like you. It's a nice change compared to most of my service.

>>35813631

(I had half mind to add that we'll have a drink afterwards to celebrate, but...)

>>35813631
>>35813684
Writing.

“No matter how this will go, I'm glad that I got to work with people like you. It's a nice change compared to most of my service.” You say. Sextus nods. “Once this is all over, I’ll buy you all a drink.” Siladus laughs, Varas isn’t too sure how to react.

An alarm suddenly beeps above you, and everyone stands up. A few moments later, you feel the shuttle land, and the loading hatch in front of you opens. You see a stretch of dark rocks in front of you. There are several small canyons heading roughly towards your objective, but there is also a straight path, obviously used by the zerg, seeing all the tracks. To the left of your landing zone, a battle rages, and you can make out the Omega blasting several ground targets. Overhead, you can see flashes of blue and green through the clouds from the aerial combat.

Once you’re all out of the shuttles, they depart for the main ground force. Siladus double-checks all the men you brought with you, and Sextus sticks close to you. Varas approaches you. “Hmm, what do you think? The main road will be the fastest, but it’s almost guaranteed we’ll come across zerg that way. The canyons are a lot more low key, but they tend to zig-zag. It’ll take us longer, and we might lose time by getting lost.”

>1. The main road. If you meet any zerg, you’ve got enough firepower with you to take them down fast enough for it not to matter.
>2. The canyons. There’s a lot less chance to be detected, but it’s a lot slower.

>>35813993
>>2. The canyons. There’s a lot less chance to be detected, but it’s a lot slower.

>>35813993

Are the zerg aware that we're in the area now? If not, it might pay taking the canyon route...

On the other hand, there are people around fighting and dying to give us time...

I'm leaning in favour of taking the main route unless the Zerg have missed the shuttle's arrival completely.

>>35814083
You do not think your group has been spotted yet. The main force is purposefully drawing the zerg's attention.

>>35813993
>1. The main road. If you meet any zerg, you’ve got enough firepower with you to take them down fast enough for it not to matter.

>>35813993

>2. The canyons. There’s a lot less chance to be detected, but it’s a lot slower.

Don't want to alert the Cerebrate that there is an infiltration team in it's house...

>>35814200

I think I'll go with the canyons then.

>inb4 it turns out it's an ultralisk cavern
we could possess it, right? And then ride it to battle!

>>35814315
>>35814208
>>35814034
>>35814083
Canyons it is then. Writing.

>>35814409
You'd notice if the terrain is fleshy. Right now you're on solid rock, there's not even creep yet.

“Let’s stick to the canyons. The longer we stay unnoticed the more chance we have of reaching the Cerebrate. If we get spotted it might realise what we’re doing.”

Varas nods, and heads to Siladus to inform him of the choice. Sextus is sent out in front of your group to scout while invisible. A moment later, Siladus takes point. Behind him are a group of six zealots. You are next in line, followed by two dragoons, a reaver, and finally another six zealots. The canyons are wide enough for the dragoons and the reaver to pass through, but sometimes Sextus comes back and makes you take a different route because they won’t fit. Thankfully, you don’t have to backtrack that much, but it still takes away precious minutes of your time.

Give me some d20’s. Best of first three.

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>35814526

ghosts of Aiur and Terra guide us

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>35814526
pathfinding

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>35814526

Then Suddenly; Banelings. Hundreds of them...

>>35814585

Well let's hope this roll was for no more than a handful of them.

>>35814571
>>35814581
>>35814585
Ok, writing, sorry about the delay.

>>35814585
>>35814581
>>35814571
I go take a shower and look what you get yourselves into.

>>35814855

At least we're not in the open. I mean, how bad can this be?

You’re making a decent amount of progress, when suddenly you halt. There’s rumbling slightly ahead, and Sextus uncloaks in front of Siladus. You see him make a few gestures, and suddenly Siladus’ voice sounds in your head. “Zerglings up ahead, coming our way. Small pack, only twenty or so.”

He starts giving orders, and three of the zealots from the rear move up front, and so do you. Varas is standing there too already, and he looks tense. In front of you, the canyon widens until it’s roughly thirty metres across, and you see several side-paths branching off from the open space. Siladus directs you and his troops to the three paths the Zerglings will emerge from. He orders Varas to throw down a Psionic storm the moment they emerge, and his zealots to charge what remains of them. Sextus will be in charge of hunting down any that attempt to escape.

>How are you going to deal with this?
>1. Hang back, let the protoss deal with it.
>2. Take out your C10 and help them from a distance.
>3. Add your own psionic assistance with Matter Bombs.
>4. Go into the melee with your psi blades.
>5. Write in.

>>35814810
>>35814855
>>35814880
It was a random encounter roll. A bit higher and it would have been beneficial.

>>35814970
>4. Go into the melee with your psi blades.
Need some experience against the Zerg with them, to be honest.

>>35814970
>>2. Take out your C10 and help them from a distance.

>>35814970

Use psionics to throw any zerglings that escape from the storm to throw them back in.

>>35815001
>>35815124
psi blades and zergling throwing is what i am voting for.

>>35815001
>>35815101
>>35815124
>>35815169
Allright, throwing and psi blades it is. give me some more d20's/

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>35815306

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>35815306

>>35815340

well fug

>>35815340
Shit

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>35815340
>>35815374
I need one more roll. It might be a 20 and cancel the 1.

>>35815520
i tried but it just didn't happen

>>35815520
>>35815503
Ah, nvm. Well, crit fail. Writing.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>35815554

BANELINGS

Not long after you’re all in position, the Zerglings appear. Once a handful of them have left their paths and entered the clearing, a storm of psionic energy appears around them. The first five zerglings manage to get through alive, though heavily wounded. You aim to fix that. You draw upon your psionics, but just as you’re about to push the zerglings back, they jump forward much further than you’d have thought possible. Their jump brings them right in front of the zealots, who charge them the moment they land. Using your psionics now would cause too much collateral damage. You also lost precious time in the confusion, and it takes a few seconds for you to dissipate the energy you gathered before you can join the zealots in combat.

You’re glad to see that the next wave of zerglings were fried in the Psi storm, though once it ended the rest immediately joined in. You see one of them spontaneously exploding after hearing a C-10 rifle click. It doesn’t seem like any of them are trying to get away then.

You head into the fray, but it’s mostly ended by then. It weren’t that many zerglings to begin with, but it seems the surprise jump got some of the zealots confused too. One of them got his arm wounded, and another one is bleeding slightly from his forehead.

You fall back into formation and push on, silently hoping that the short skirmish hasn’t attracted any other zerg attention.

A bit later, You stop again. Siladus explains that the canyons stop, and that you have to cross a band of creep to get through now. You head to the front and check it out yourself. There’s a small stream of zerg creatures passing over the creep highway, heading in the direction of the hive the ground forces are attacking. It seems that it’s the tail of the reinforcements, as you can see large groups already much further. In front of you are just a group of hydralisks and zerglings. Luckily the structures providing the creep road are not the defensive variants, so they won’t provide you any trouble when you cross.

It’ll still take a while before they are past and far away for you to safely cross the road.
>1. Wait for them to pass before moving on.
>2. Engage them. With the Reaver and dragoons providing fire support you should be able to get through them without too much trouble.
>3. Write in.

>>35815864
>>1. Wait for them to pass before moving on.

>>35815864
>3. Write in.
let half of them pass so that you'll have to deal with less enemies and still give the ground forces some respite.

>>35816016

Seconding. Even if some of them turn around to join the fight, it will take them a while to do so and we will have had the jump on them.

>>35816016
>>35816126
Writing

You suggest to Siladus to let half of them pass and only then attack. It’s a compromise between speed and stealth. You’ll have to fight less of them than if you’d charge now, but you’d lose a lot less time than if you’d let them all pass.

He agrees, and you lie low while your fire support gets into position. You have stroke of luck in that the last part of the canyons curve a bit before they end up at the road, so your dragoons will easily be able to pop in and out of cover. Varas informs you that as long as any one of the protoss has a visual on the enemy, the Reaver won’t even have to come out of cover to launch its scarabs at them.

The Zerg are going at a considerable speed on the creep, which you can see writhe just right to aid them in their movements, but still it feels incredibly slow to wait for them to pass. Finally, the order to attack is given. Varas opens with another Psi storm to catch the bulk of the forces, and at the same time, the dragoons step out of cover and start firing. You see a glowing ball of light fly past you, manoeuvring between the troops, and it explodes in the middle of a large concentration of Hydralisks, taking them all out in a single blast.

In a few seconds, the zerg pack in front of you lost over a third of its fighting force. You see some of those who were already further away turn back, but most of them seem to continue to the hive cluster. In front of you are about thirty zerglings and at least ten hydralisks. You see some scourge fly overhead, but those doesn’t pay any attention to you whatsoever.

>1. Support fire with the C-10.
>2. Charge alongside the Zealots.
>3. Long range psi-support with Matter Bombs.
>4. Write in.

>Siladus is good enough of a commander to let the Scarabs avoid friendly fire, so once the melee starts it will hold fire.

>>35816469
>>3. Long range psi-support with Matter Bombs.

>>35816469
matter bomb the hydralisks and after running out of juice start shooting with the c10.

>>35816469

If the hydralisks are in position where scarabs will take care of them, go in melee and help zealots with weeding the trash.
Otherwise take them out with matter bomb(s)

>>35816469
>1

>>35816531
>>35816564
>>35816590
>>35816678
Gimme some D20's

Rolled 5 (1d20)

>>35816708
Nat 1 here i come

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>35816708

For Love, Freedom and Tomatoes!

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>35816708

>>35816758
Well that was a bit... Average

>>35816748
>>35816754
>>35816758
Lower dc met, writing.

>>35816784

I hope we'll be in better shape when we get to the real thing.
Or, barring that, that our buddies topside roll better in the distraction battle.

The zealots charge, and you see the hydralisks taking aim. You don’t give them the chance to fire. You throw out several matter bombs in their ranks, not really meant to kill them, but mostly to throw them around and prevent them from firing. They’re in disarray, and the Zealots meet the zerglings on the front. They’re badly outnumbered though, and while the Dragoon fire support helps, the reaver can’t really help them without blowing them up alongside the zerglings. With your last remaining energy, you throw another two matter bombs in the tail of the zerglings, taking out another handful.

Another Scarab passes you by and explodes in a group of hydralisks you maimed, finishing them off while you grab your C-10 and provide covering fire for the Zealots. The hydralisks will have a harder time taking down the zealots now that there’s zerglings in the way of their line of fire.

>Psi points: 0/7
>Regeneration starts next turn.

Roll me another set of d20’s for your c-10 fire.

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>35816959

Rolled 1 (1d20)

>>35816959
Please let our aim be true

>>35817016
Dratz...

>>35817016
>>35816959
This is why you don't use crits with a 1d20 system.

Rolled 13 (1d20)

>>35817016
Fuck

>>35816987
>>35817016
>>35817059
Critfail. writing.

>>35817058
I've explained myself several times already when it comes to that.

>>35817092
>I've explained myself several times already when it comes to that.
And I'm pretty sure those explainations were lacking and refuted, then ignored under the banner that it was slowing the quest.

>>35817016

>we accidentally a templar

>>35817154
More like
>Our attack fails
>The enemy suddenly gets buffed for no reason
>Our allies get hurt
Like it did last time. Despite that making no sense at all.

>>35817154
I guess our C10 considers all protoss to be the enemy... good C10

You take aim at some of the lone remaining hydralisks, but a sudden pressure takes priority. You roll to the side, away from where the pressure came, and come face to face with a Zergling. It seems to have broken through the Zealot lines and thought you easy prey. You quickly change its mind by ramming a psi blade through its chest when it tries to jump you again.

You look back to the rest of the battle and see that it’s going fairly well. Some of the zealots went down, but they’re just finishing the last zerglings attacking them now, and the hydralisks are being target-fired by the dragoons. The reaver expends one last scarab to catch a small group of zerg approaching from the main force to the left. You only manage to down a single hydralisk with your C-10 before it’s over.

The wounded are quickly attended to, but it seems that in most cases they’re either unhurt, their shields having taken the brunt of the damage, or dead. Only one of them is heavily wounded, and his emergency beacon is activated, teleporting him back to the fleet. From what you understand of the process, it’s highly traumatising and painful, and thus unsuited for a regular retreat, but it’s still miles better than leaving a heavily wounded person lying there alone.

You lost three zealots, plus the one that was teleported back. The remaining eight look unfazed. They’ve been through this before. The group continues on its path. It shouldn’t be much longer before you reach the cave. And indeed, not five minutes later, you discover the entrance that was spotted from orbital images. There might be more active resistance from here on than just roaming zerg.

In the dark cave tunnels, your time perception goes to hell. When you think you’ve been walking for over an hour, your clock tells you you’ve only been inside for ten minutes. After a while the cave starts to light up a bit though. You’re not entirely sure why until you hear a soft squelch from under your feet. You just got onto creep, and it seems to light the tunnel in a ghastly dim purple light, intensifying the deeper you go in.

A bit further, the tunnel broadens into a large cave. You can make out a pair of smaller zerg buildings in the distance, identifying one of them as sunken colonies and the other one as a spore colony. Your stealth will be useless as long as that last one’s alive.
Around it is an assortiment of Zerg ground troops. You even notice the forms of three humanoid things. They seem to be wearing marine armour, but tentacles pop out of unexpected places. You’ve heard of that happening, and what they do in combat. They don’t look friendly.

>Psi points: 7/7

>Plan of attack?
>1. Let the Reaver target the Sunken Colony, you focus on the infested terrans and then aid in the rest of the fight.
>2. Let the Reaver focus the troops. once most of them are down, everyone can focus on the Sunken colony.
>3. Write in.

>>35817574
>>1. Let the Reaver target the Sunken Colony, you focus on the infested terrans and then aid in the rest of the fight.

>>35817642
No one else wants to contribute? I was thinking this would be the time to come up with big battle plans. I'll give it another 5 minutes and then I'll start writing.

>>35817864
Having two critfails in a row generally turns people off of a quest.

>>35817574

Oh shit. Don't let the exploding people into melee range.
>Let the Reaver take out the sunken colony

>>35817574
If we take down the spore colony from a distance, We can follow up with a cloacked psy blade charge. Might actually do something ourselves this time

>>35817938
another idea...
>Matter bomb the humanoids.

>>35817938
It's quite sturdy though, and attacking it will draw their attention. It won't go down in just a single Reaver hit.

>>35817642
>>35817932
>>35817938
>>35817975
Very well, writing.

The Reaver opens the assault. The first scarab zooms through the ranks of Zerg and explodes at the base of the Sunken colony, taking out two hydralisks who were standing too close. You’re too far away for the colony to reach you, so the Zerg start moving towards you. The Infested terrans are fast, but they’re bunched up, and fairly weak in the armour division. A single matter bomb takes out two of them, and you follow up with a well placed C-10 shot to finish off the last one.

The swarm of zerglings behind them is caught in another psi storm, but Varas is starting to look exhausted. He doesn’t have that much more in him it seems. Sextus launches a hellfire grenade in the middle of the approaching zerglings while you lay down more supporting fire with your C-10, mainly aiming for the hydralisks. Finally, the zerglings arrive at your position, and the remaining hydralisks are in position to fire on your group.

>Psi points: 4/7

>1. Go in and use your psi blades.
>2. Use a psi Shriek. It’ll give the zerg pause and will allow your allies to kill a lot of them uncontested (uses up all 4 psi points).
>4. Get to the front and unleash a kinetic wave to shred the first wave of Zerglings, then go in melee.
>5. Hang back and keep sniping the Hydralisks.
>6. Write in.

>>35818210
>erm, that actually should have been 5 psi points remaining.

>>35818210
>>2. Use a psi Shriek. It’ll give the zerg pause and will allow your allies to kill a lot of them uncontested (uses up all 4 psi points).
Kind want to try it out.

Won't it attract some more sensitive zerg from further off though?

>>35818210
>2. Use a psi Shriek. It’ll give the zerg pause and will allow your allies to kill a lot of them uncontested (uses up all 4 psi points).

>>35818282
Sounds awesome, second this

>>35818210
If we can regenerate any more energy, lets go with
>4. Get to the front and unleash a kinetic wave to shred the first wave of Zerglings, then go in melee.

otherwise:
>5. Hang back and keep sniping the Hydralisks.

>>35818282
It's only 30 meters range. You might not even get all the hydralisks unless you manage to get through the waves of zerglings. It'll be more flashy than your matter bombs, but you're already fairly close to the cerebrate so you don't think it won't matter that much.

>>35818323
You regenerate 1 psi point every turn, starting on the turn after you first used a psionic ability.

>>35818282
>>35818297
>>35818310
Very well, writing.

You dash forward to the Line of zealots now just coming into contact with the Zerglings, and actually jump over one of them. You land in the middle of a group of Zerglings, which promptly turn to you. Before they can attack however, you let louse a psychic shriek, focussing so you do not affect your allies.

For a moment, you can feel something strange. You can feel ‘cords’ of psionic energy attached to the zerg here. They all lead deeper into the cave, but not much further. Millions of other cords are strung overhead. Those closest to you are severed as the energy of your psionic shriek hits them. Time seems to slow down, and you can feel their minds going through confusion, uncertainty, a feeling of void, and suddenly, a raw animalistic mindset takes over.

Time speeds up again as all around you, the zerglings stand still for a moment, start looking around, and then attack the closest living thing, whether it be Protoss, Hydralisk or Zergling. The zerglings behind you have been shredded by the zealots, but three of those in front of you are still focussed on you and attack.

>Psi points: 6/7

Roll me some 1d20’s to dodge.

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>35818548

Let's see if our self preservation is as bad as everything else...

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>35818548

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>35818548
come, be dodgey

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>35818548

>>35818596
>>35818686
>>35818710
Upper DC met. Writing.

You take a quick sidestep and dodge the first one. By the time the second Zergling jumps you, you’ve activated your psi blades. You dodge and swipe the air where you were just standing, bisecting the creature. You check the first zergling behind you, but the zealots are taking care of it. The third zergling hesitates, which is all the opening you need.

The battle is heavily in your favour thanks to your shriek, but you can slowly feel the psionic cords trying to reattach themselves to the Zerg. Over half of the zerglings are dead though, and at least half of the remaining zerglings will be killed before the Cerebrate can retake control.

The half dozen or so Hydralisks pose a bigger problem. They’ve managed to take down one of the Zealots, and are now focussing on one of the dragoons. To make matters worse, they’re most likely hanging back far enough that the Sunken colony would be able to reach you if you go into melee with them. Speaking of which, it seems the Sunken colony just ate a third scarab. One more and it’ll go down, from the looks of it.

>just noticed I forgot to take the psi shriek’s cost from the total last time. It has been corrected.
>Psi points: 3/7

>1. Use your C-10 to take out the hydralisks.
>2. Use matter bombs to take out the hydralisks. They’re spread out so it might be a bit inefficient.
>3. Finish the Zerglings in melee first, By the time you’re through the sunken colony will be down and the hydralisks will be easy pickings.
>4. Write in.

>>35818933
>1 Use the C10. Just make sure that we're not in direct contact with any zerglings

>>35818933
>>3. Finish the Zerglings in melee first, By the time you’re through the sunken colony will be down and the hydralisks will be easy pickings.

>>35819122
>>35819130
Tie. If there's no new vote in 3 minutes I'll roll for it.

>>35819122

This. Give them something to think about before they take that dragoon.

Rolled 2 (1d2)

1 = >>35819122
2 = >>35819130

>>35819383
Never mind the roll. We got ourselves a vote.
>>35819380
>>35819122
C-19 it is then.
Roll me some d20's

Rolled 17 (1d20)

>>35819398

Shoot to kill.

Rolled 2 (1d20)

>>35819398

Rolled 15 (1d20)

>>35819398

>>35819418
>>35819421
>>35819458
Upper DC met.

The zealots advance their formation, and you take a few steps back to stay out of the melee while you take your C-10 rifle. You home in in the hydralisk closest to the dragoon they’re attacking and pull the trigger. Were it not for the sound of battle all around you, you’d have heard a satisfying pop as the C-10 canister is lodged into the hydralisk’s skull at high speed and then explodes, vaporising most of the creature’s head.

You don’t stand around waiting though, and immediately move to your next target, where a similar action occurs. By the time you eliminate the third, another of the remaining hydralisks has been taken down by the dragoons and another one felt a similar fate to those you already killed, but this time at the hands of Sextus. The last two hydralisks die almost perfectly in sync as both you and Sextus blow off their heads.

Looking around you, you see that the battle is as good as done. One of the dragoons was damaged pretty badly, but your actions saved it. Only a single zealot died, with one or badly wounded but still in fighting condition. Siladus informs you that the Reaver is starting to run low on ammo though, and is lacking the resources to produce more scarabs.
The Spore colony is quickly dealt with, and you press on into the cave.

>And that’s it for now folks, it's getting pretty late for me.
>Thanks for sticking around, next thread will be following Tuesday again.

>>35819720
cheers OP cya!

>>35819720
Thanks for running, supervisor.

>>35819720

Cheers for the thread OP!

Looking forward to The Happening!

>>35819720
Night