It Was a Pleasure to Burn

It Was a Pleasure to Burn

Fire washes the skin off the bone and the sin off the soul. It cleans away the dirt. And my momma didn't raise herself no dirty boy.

VI - Unlikely Allies

__________

After four days, the howling storm clouds lifted from around the small, semi-subterranean outpost on Braxis. Due to the extreme cold, the mechanisms that opened the thick gates refused to function, and would take a day to thaw. When the weather was good, Braxis had some of the most awe inspiring vistas in the Koprulu Sector. The plain the base bordered was filled with rolling dunes of freshly fallen snow and ice, and far off in the distance the Cryoblade Mountains could be seen. The plains also sported a bizarre formation of snow dunes in the center that had stumped geologists and cartographers alike for years. While it could not be seen from the ground due to its size, from an aerial view one could easily see the word "Blizzard."

After several hours, the meteorological sensors above the surface gave the all-clear.

A certain communications officer had begun to fear the worst ever since the beginning of the storm. When a storm hit on Braxis, anyone outside had little to no chance of surviving if they didn't have shelter, food and water. Being the dispatcher as well, he had developed a personal relationship with many of the troops that went out on patrol. It was rare for the patrols to report anything out of the ordinary, but when they did it was always, "I saw an ursadon!" or something else ridiculous along those lines. But, there was only one person who would say stuff like that, and at present his survival was in question.

You had better not be dead, Caulk, the communications officer thought, It'll get boring around here.

The firebat was an oddity. Caulk was one of those individuals that refused to be fully grown, yet at the same time outclassed nearly every other soldier in the Dominion. He was often accused of being bipolar or having dissociative identity disorder. In truth, Caulk was none of these, he was just weird. One moment he would go from making light-hearted racial jokes, and the instant someone went too far he would become gravely serious.

Most of Caulk's off-time was spent plotting pranks on the senior officers. The communications officer had lost count of all the times he had been on the receiving end. Annoying as it was, the pranks were always different, and each hilarious in their own right. Once, he had placed pennies on, literally, every flat surface in the Colonel's office. There was another instance where he placed boxes at high-traffic locations throughout the outpost labelled: "FREE BOUNCY BALLS!! TAKE ONE!!" Needless to say, the Colonel was not satisfied with the outcome.

Now that the storm had passed, the radio would be able to send and receive signals without all the interference. The communications officer immediately attempted to contact Caulk. His already deep concern was not allayed by the fact that his radio signal was reading: "out of range."

"Command to patrol seven-nine, what is your current position, over?" The communications officer already knew it was a lost cause. He just had a small glimmer of hope that there was just the slightest chance that Caulk might still be alive.

*...Bzzzzzzzt...*

The officer slumped in his seat. I guess we'd better sent out a search party, the officer thought, We might at least be able to find his body.

The officer began replaying the audio logs from Caulk's patrol four days ago. He smiled when he got to the quick verbal sparring match that had taken place between the two on that day. He finally stopped when he got to the last transmission. In it, Caulk had said that he had arrived at rally point tau, and was going to pursue an unknown entity.

"Rally point tau... where is that..." the officer muttered to himself as he pulled up the regional map. He froze when he realized that it was the chasm that everyone spoke bad about, the one that some of the more superstitious types had claimed to house a demon. There was every chance Caulk could have taken shelter in the chasm, but whatever he was pursuing could be just as likely for being responsible for his death. Pulling up Caulk's GPS tracking records for that day, the officer found that his signal suddenly disappeared at the end of the chasm.

What could have done that? One would have had to go underground for that to happen. The only logical explanation that the officer could come up with was that there was a cave of some nature at the end of the chasm, and that Caulk had decided to enter it.

The officer scoffed. Dammit, Caulk. Even in death you can make my life a pain in the ass.

As much as Caulk was able to piss everyone off from time to time, he was still looked up to as one of the best on station, second only to the local Ghost operative. Their lives might be simpler with him gone, but none would deny that his skills were invaluable. They needed to get him back.

With a sigh, the officer got up from his chair and walked to the Colonel's office.

"What do you want, Archie?" the Colonel asked. Given his experience, the Colonel was able to speak phrases that would normally be considered rude in a polite manner. Archie had tried it before, but he hadn't quite been able to pull it off.

"Caulk is MIA, sir," Archie stated bluntly. Everyone on the station knew Caulk. He was almost like a celebrity, but unlike singers and such, he had earned his fame.

"Caulk? Dammit..." the Colonel growled, "He's the one guy here that can fight worth shit. How soon can we send out a search party?"

"No sooner than one day from now, sir. The gates take a while to start functioning after the storms here."

The Colonel groaned. Being stationed on Braxis was nice in that there was plenty of peace and quiet, but if you weren't careful, everything would freeze up. Everything needed special attention, even the most robust of machinery.

"Alright, as soon as the gates start working again, we're sending out a search and rescue team. We leave no one behind."

~~~

*Notice to Phi Squadron, you are to be deployed for a search and rescue mission for firebat unit Caulk as soon as the gates are functional. Expect to move out by mid-day tomorrow.*

A listening observer drone picked up an intercom transmission sent throughout one of the two smaller Terran bases. Its simple artificial intelligence deemed this message as being of worthy note, as there had been little activity of interest taking place on the abandoned Protoss colony lately. The observer passed the short message along to the local Daelaam fleet fragment.

Executor Imorin jumped in surprise when her console made a loud beep! with the arrival of an audio log. At first, Imorin thought it might be a message from one of her superiors. She was almost disappointed when it turned out to be little more than a recording from one of the small bases on the ice-world Braxis, as the Terrans called it. Before the temperatures of the world dropped, the world had once been called Khyrador by the Protoss inhabitants.

The Terrans are fools to believe that they can settle there, Imorin thought, But I must admire their resolve.

Imorin despised having a fleet in this system. The Terrans, in all their strange ways had somehow managed to quell the vast majority of the Zerg Swarm. While this was a good change for all life in the galaxy, it certainly made Imorin's job quite boring, and was only punctuated by this ignored star system. Despite not having any reason to have any sort of feelings for the Terrans, Imorin felt genuinely proud for the accomplishments of those primitive beings that had recently become such a thorn in the Protoss' side. She also felt sorry for the poor individuals that had to be stationed on Khyrador. They not only had the same boredom issue that she had, but they also had to worry about the devastatingly cold temperatures.

This intercom message did not seem like it would be of much significance, but it was rare that a search party would be deployed for only one individual, be they Terran or Protoss. Curious, Imorin attempted to access the terminals on the small outpost that the recording originated from. "Attempted" was the word, as the systems were heavily encrypted and used an incredibly archaic form of coding by Protoss standards. After a long period of attempting to crack the encryption and a string of vulgar words that Imorin had discovered on the Terrans' "internet," she was finally able to breach the firewalls. The Protoss fleet commander never would have guessed that there was such value in learning about the Terrans and their technology during her time at the Academy.

Reading through the database, Imorin found a file of records pertaining to a firebat unit dubbed simply as "Caulk." Figuring that this was who the speaker on the intercom was talking about, she began reading through his file. Imorin had once observed a platoon of Terran troops in combat with the Zerg. As she recalled, the firebats were the ones that were armed with plasmathrowers that could decimate small groups of zerglings. This "Caulk" had a record as long as Imorin's flagship. What she was most impressed with was the mention of his single-handedly defeating a Zerg Torrasque. She had lost multiple cohorts of troops just to bring down one of the monstrous creatures.

What puzzled Imorin the most was thinking of what could cause "Caulk" to suddenly disappear. The warrior was obviously worthy of the highest of commendations in the Daelaam military as a result of his accomplishments. So what could possibly be capable of defeating him in combat? There was definitely nothing currently residing on Khyrador that could be capable of that, save other Terrans. Desertion was also out of the question, as there had been a frightening storm taking place that Khyrador was famous for. Nothing would have survived without proper shielding in those conditions.

Curious, Imorin began examining Caulk's latest movement records. He had apparently been exploring a very deep but narrow canyon that was shrouded almost completely in darkness. She traced his footsteps until they came to the end of the canyon, where they abruptly stopped.

A tunnel, perhaps? Imorin considered, That seems to be the only plausible thing that could be responsible for this "Caulk's" disappearance. The question that now arises is what caused him to stay there?

Imorin was conflicted. On one hand, she could take the safe path and stay away from Khyrador so as to avoid detection by the Terrans, who would undoubtedly see it as an act of aggression. On the other hand, she and her subordinates were bored with this stagnant position.

As the Terran saying goes: "Let's mix things up a little."

Imorin marked the location of Caulk's last known location and was about to contact Aldarix, a centurion who was her personal cohort's second-in-command, when a thought came to her.

Why is this Terran worth searching for?

She wasn't sure. Something about him in what she read made him seem profoundly unique. She had never met or heard of anyone who displayed even remotely similar characteristics. This thought lingering in her mind, Imorin called Aldarix in his post halfway across the ship.

*En Taro Adun, Executor. What do you ask of me?* came Aldarix's voice. Aldarix was old, even by Protoss standards, but time seemed to not affect him. He began service in the military almost eight hundred years ago, and was now a widely respected individual. Despite almost a millennium of experience, he had chosen to forgo politics, and instead remained as a powerful psionic warrior on the front lines.

"Aldarix, assemble the rest of the cohort and acquire a shuttle for us. We are going down to the surface of Khyrador."

*Khyrador? Why are we risking detection by the Terrans? They will see this as a threat to their territory should they discover us.*

"I will explain on the way, Aldarix. I am only sending out one cohort for the very purpose of avoiding detection."

Aldarix laughed at that, *I knew there was a reason you were chosen for this position, Executor. You are a far more efficient leader than I could ever be.*

"I shall meet you in a moment. Ensure that my troops are prepared."

~

When Imorin entered the shuttle bay she immediately noticed a line of ten zealots standing shoulder to shoulder, as well as an elegantly garbed High Templar standing before them. Once they noticed her entrance, the zealots snapped to attention and shouted their usual address to their superiors, "Issah'tu!" as a whole.

Aldarix acknowledged Imorin's arrival with a simple nod. He turned to the line of zealots and ordered, "Everyone aboard the shuttle," to which they complied.

Turning back to Imorin, Aldarix said, "Now, for what purpose are we embarking on this... excursion? I hardly think that Khyrador contains much of interest, especially now."

Now that she had to explain herself, Imorin found that she was somewhat uncomfortable with the idea. "An observer drone sent me a recording of an intercom command sent out by the commanding officer of one of the smaller Terran outposts. It said that they were preparing to deploy a squadron to find one of their missing soldiers."

"I... see. I take this to mean that you want to investigate this yourself, no? What is so special about this one Terran?" Aldarix sounded skeptical, but that was understandable. Had she been in his place, Imorin would have thought much the same thing.

"This Terran is something else. From what I have read, he would be considered a legendary warrior had he been born Protoss. I am curious as to why he has disappeared, as it seems that there is little that would be capable of defeating him."

Aldarix laughed and said, "So, you are intending to find this Terran under the justification of investigating an unknown entity on Khyrador, hm? Ah well, at least we will have something to occupy ourselves with for now."

Before Imorin could voice her rebuttal, Aldarix had already boarded the shuttle.

If only you knew what I know.

~~~

Archie was angry. After the Colonel had ordered Phi Squadron to prepare for deployment, he had turned to Archie and said, "Welcome to Phi Squadron, Lieutenant. You're the new first officer," and handed him the respective nautilus shell decal to put on his armor. He knew how to fight, and was quite adept at it in truth, but that did not mean Archie liked it. This was just one more way that Caulk could make Archie's life a living hell, even when he was gone.

He had been sent off to the barracks to be outfitted with his standard-issue CMC-300 power-armor that the marines traditionally wore, which now sported a nautilus shell decal. Archie hated it. It was bulky, cumbersome, slow, and you couldn't scratch, something that Archie needed to do really badly right now.

Interestingly, the gates had resumed functionality a few hours after Archie had finished suiting up. This phenomenon left everyone in the base scratching their heads. Why didn't it take as long for the gates to thaw? The answer struck Archie as clear as day. The storm didn't last nearly as long as they usually did here on Braxis, four days as opposed to a week, so it only made sense that the gates wouldn't take as long to thaw.

Notwithstanding, that just meant Archie would have to go out in the cold a day earlier. Grumbling, Archie looked around the massive hangar bay that had the colossal gate on one end and various doors to all parts of the base on the other. Lining the walls were indentations that housed fighter ships, bombers and drop-ships of various types. Siege tanks and Goliath siege walkers lined the floor around the walls.

Archie noticed a large platoon of various types of units standing next to the gate. Amusingly, the different types of troops all grouped together and appeared to ignore all the others. Here, a circle of ten marines, there, a cluster of five jet-pack wearing reapers, and next to the group of marines was a trio of marauders, soldiers that wore similar armor to the firebats, except their armor was black and they were armed with concussion grenade launchers instead of flamethrowers.

Archie was working is way to the group of marines to check in with the Captain when he noticed a lone, lightly armored soldier standing off to the side. Begrudgingly, he realized this must be Davis, the base's Ghost operative. Ghosts were the closest things the Dominion had to psionic soldiers. They were capable of turning invisible for short periods of time, had the ability of telepathy, and in some cases possessed varying degrees of proficiency in telekinesis. Ghosts were often used as spies and assassins, and sometimes they would be ordered to paint targets for tactical nuclear missile strikes.

Ghosts were generally despised by the troops that knew them, not because of their cold-blooded tendencies for killing, but because of their constant, stuck-up behavior. They always seemed to believe that they were superior to the standard Terran, and acted the part. It certainly didn't help Davis that he was completely loyal to Mengsk, whereas everyone on station, including the Colonel, was fiercely anti-Dominion.

Resuming his course towards the cluster of marines, Archie picked the Captain out of the crowd.

"Captain, Second Lieutenant Stuart Archer reporting for duty, sir," Archie said with a quick salute.

The Captain was less than thrilled with Archie's appearance. "Lovely. They give me a techie as a first officer. Do you even know how to use that thing, son?" he said, pointing at Archie's rifle.

"Uh, yes sir."

"Good. If we run into any trouble out there, shoot Davis in the confusion."

Archie blinked. That wasn't the remark he was expecting. He was anticipating a stinging insult at his lack of combat skills, not an order to kill Davis. Admittedly though, Archie had every intent of carrying out those orders.

Good riddance, I say.

"With all due respect, sir, since he's a telepath, don't you think it would be a bad idea to say that out loud?"

"Son, I've been giving this order to my boys for the past five months. He knows."

"Then... why hasn't he been killed yet, sir?"

"Because we haven't run into any trouble," the Captain stated matter-of-factly.

As if on cue, the massive gate began to open, hinging outward along the top. Everyone stopped talking and began exiting through the massive aperture, the reapers zipping out ahead of everyone else to scout the way. As Archie was stepping into the snow, however, the fifth and last reaper came up alongside him.

"Yo, Archie, why're we lookin' for this guy anyway? He's just some nutjob pyro that got lost out here in the snow," the reaper said in his guttural voice.

"'Cause this 'nutjob pyro' is the only soldier worth crap around here." This conversation could get old. Fast.

"Yeah? And what makes 'im so special, eh?"

"He can kill and survive at the same time. Something you idiots seem incapable of."

"We c'n survive if we want to. It's jus' way more fun ta get right in them bad guys' faces."

"Undoubtedly," Archie said with a bit of finality.

The reaper harrumphed and shot ahead to join the others. Phi Squadron continued on their way to the chasm Caulk had disappeared in. When the narrow canyon came into view, Archie saw a small, yellow and blue craft emerge from the chasm and fly speeding into the upper atmosphere, and eventually disappearing. Archie recognized that design of ship.

"Captain, there is a Protoss presence here. I just saw their ship."

Upon hearing this, the Captain swore and said, "Double-time, ladies!"

That said, the squadron broke into a run towards the chasm.

~~~

The shuttle drone had dropped the cohort right at the point where "Caulk's" path had vanished in the chasm. As Imorin suspected, there was a cave at the end of this canyon, and she had no doubt that this was where he had gone. Before she began leading the way into the tunnel, Imorin looked down the canyon, and felt a chill course through her. Something about this place seemed wrong in some way, but she could not quite put her finger on it.

Shrugging it off, Imorin led the way into the tunnel with Aldarix at her side, and the rest of the cohort stepping in unison as they followed her. Because of the dark, Aldarix had to generate a psionic lantern over the cohort. After a time, the walls smoothed, and their footsteps began to make a metallic clack when they struck the floor. Imorin began to become impatient, wondering if the corridor would ever end, when it opened into a massive room that was illuminated with a bright light upon their entry.

Imorin examined the room. Lining the walls were dozens upon dozens of what she immediately recognized as ancient Xel'Naga warp gates.

"Well, Executor, I believe we have found the cause of our Terran's disappearance," Aldarix said with a touch of humor, but Imorin could tell in his voice that he was just as awestruck as she was.

"Indeed. I wonder why a place such as this has avoided mention? Surely there must be writings of it somewhere."

"There must be some mention of this place in our archives. Never before has such a large collection of Xel'Naga structures been found."

Imorin examined one of the warp gates and said, "Is there any way you could see which one of these the Terran used?"

Aldarix rubbed his chin. "I believe I can, if you are willing to wait a while. It will not be an easy task."

"We will wait."

Aldarix sat down on the floor and closed his eyes. His body began emanating a blue aura and levitated into the air. Imorin was familiar with this. It was similar to meditating, but one's mind was working far harder than any other situation.

As Imorin waited, she began to become aware of a shuffling coming from the tunnel she had just come through. Choosing to ignore it turned out to be a mistake on her part, as she turned around just in time to see a jet-pack-wearing-Terran shout: "HERE COMES THE PAIN!" and flew straight at her, smashing its boot into her face.

Imorin staggered backwards from the blow and observed the Terran before her. It was wearing a lighter form of armor than most Terran warriors did, and had a massive rocket-pack on its backside. In its hands were a pair of large, one-handed weapons that it was already raising to open fire at her. Before it could, Imorin activated her psi blade and plunged it into the Terran's chest, making it collapse to the ground in a heap.

"Aldarix! Prepare yourself for battle!" Imorin shouted, snapping Aldarix out of his "meditation."

A moment later, four more of the flying Terrans emerged from the tunnel, weapons blazing. The plasma shields on every Protoss in the cohort lit up, but were able to hold against the hail of bullets. The Terrans made a crucial mistake of touching down to attack, and they each paid for it in blood when the zealots charged to cut them down. One of the flying Terrans managed to fly away, though it was missing an arm. Aldarix grabbed it with his psionics and smashed him into the ground, from which it did not rise again.

During the distraction, the cohort failed to notice a group of ten red-armored marines and three black-armored marauders enter the room, which all began firing on the cohort. These troops were far more coordinated than any that Imorin had seen. They focused their fire on one zealot at a time, and brought down three before they even reached the squad, their suits warping them back to the ship before they could sustain much bodily damage.

Aldarix was trying in vain to generate a psionic storm on the Terrans without harming any of the other zealots. Imorin decided she should try and contribute to the fight some, and noticed one Terran in particular that appeared to be giving orders. Working her way to behind the Terrans by sneaking behind the warp gates, Imorin was able to charge forward and attack the commander directly.

Unfortunately, the commander saw her coming and began firing at her, the bullets bouncing off her shields. Realizing that its weapon wasn't doing much good, it stopped shooting. The commander pressed a button on its weapon and a large bayonet jutted out of the end.

"DIE, YOU COLD-BLOODED, ALIEN FREAK!" the Terran roared as it charged at her. It slashed its weapon at her, giving Imorin a small cut on the arm. The Terran had over-committed in its attack, however, and was thrown off balance, which Imorin took immediate advantage of and brought her psi blade across its back, cutting its form in two.

Another Terran in the rest of the group had watched this happen, and yelled, "Captain!" It was at this moment that Imorin noticed that her cohort was being held at bay by the Terrans, whose numbers had been reduced to six marines and a single marauder. Something unseen was there, however, and was wreaking havoc on Imorin's cohort.

They must have one of their Ghost warriors with them, Imorin reasoned grimly.

Her attention was then brought back to the Terran that had watched her kill the commander, who was preparing to open fire at her.

~

Archie had been in a few fights before, but this one was one of the more brutal. There was no cover for both sides, and they were both low on numbers. This couldn't be a pleasant situation for anyone, be they friend or foe. Amidst all the commotion, Archie hadn't noticed one Protoss sneak behind the squad until he heard the Captain yell an incoherent phrase. When he turned around, he saw an especially odd-looking Protoss slice the Captain in half with its plasma-blade or whatever the hell they called the things.

"Captain!" Archie yelled, though it was more of an exclamation of bewilderment than anything else.

Archie began raising his weapon as the strange Protoss looked up at him. Before he could open fire, Archie looked around for a moment and saw that the Terrans and Protoss were locked in a stalemate. The marines and remaining marauder were keeping the Protoss at bay quite successfully, but each time they drove the zealots off, the High Templar in the distance would have a clear zone to send a wave of psionic electricity through. The instant it started this, the marines would open fire at the Templar, whose shields withstood the attacks, which caused the zealots to charge in to attack the marines. This trend was repeating itself constantly, and while the two sides were wearing each other down, at this rate there would be nothing left of each side when this was all said and done. And Archie still couldn't find Davis so he could shoot him.

It took a moment for him to realize it, but since Archie was first officer according to the Captain, who was now dead, he was in charge. Archie took a moment to get his thoughts together. Judging by the uniqueness in its armor, he presumed that this strange Protoss before him must be the commander.

Dammit, I can not believe I'm doing this. "Cease fire! Truce!"

The marines and remaining marauder stopped firing and turned to face Archie.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" shouted one of the marines.

"We're not getting anywhere with this! We're just tearing each other apart!" Archie yelled back. This was a delicate situation that could go south very easily.

Archie stepped tentatively towards the presumed Protoss commander. One thing that he had forgotten was that Protoss were tall. They stood at around three meters as opposed to a Terran barely reaching two. Nervous, he said, "Are you in charge here?"

He was surprised when he heard- no, thought a response from the Protoss. He had to remind himself that the Protoss communicated through telepathy.

"Yes. I am Executor Imorin and I am in command of the fleet in this star system. And you are?" Archie was sure by its "voice" that this Protoss was a female, which would explain why it looked peculiar compared to the others.

"Second Lieutenant Stuart Archer. I'm first officer of this squadron and now that the Captain's dead, that puts me in charge."

"I see. Is there a reason as to why you have called a truce? Few Terrans would take that course of action."

"Neither of us is winning here. If this keeps up, we'll just cut each other to ribbons. There should be a way we can solve this without further conflict, right?"

Imorin nodded. "I would suppose you are correct. I feel that this small altercation is but a reflection of the conflict between our two species as a whole. We are achieving little more than mutual destruction."

Archie smiled behind his visor. "Good, we at least agree this far. Now what are you people doing here, may I ask?"

Imorin shuffled her feet, seemingly uncomfortably before saying, "You are searching for one of your own warriors, yes? I read his documents and was curious as to what might have caused a warrior of such acclaim to suddenly disappear."

Archie was surprised to hear this. "Wait, you're telling me that you were looking for Caulk too?"

"... I also got very bored with not having anything to do out here," Imorin said hesitantly. This statement almost made Archie burst out laughing.

"Alright, I'll tell you what. We can do a lot more good working together than fighting each other. We'd be honored if you would aid us, Executor Imorin," Archie said in as diplomatic a voice as he could muster.

"We would gladly offer aid where needed, Lieutenant Stuart Archer, and- what is this?" Imorin asked. Upon hearing this, Archie had held out his hand for a handshake.

Archie dropped his rifle and facepalmed with his now free hand. "It's a handshake. It represents an agreement or understanding between two people."

Imorin simply stared at him incredulously, but then decided to play along and took Archie's hand, at which they shook.

"... So you came here because you were bored?" Archie laughed, "I think we're gonna get along juuuust fine."

~~~

A shiver went down Caulk's spine, causing him to tremble violently.

Using his suit's built-in megaphone, he shouted, "HEY! GET SOMEONE IN HERE!"

Within five seconds of shouting this, a golden-armored guardspony entered the room. He was clearly hesitant by the looks of his eyes, but he walked with resolve.

Lowering his voice, Caulk said, "Go outside and tell me if you see any flying pigs out there."

The guardspony simply stared at him blankly.

"Er... 'Flying pigs'?"

"You heard me," Caulk said nonchalantly, "'Cause I'm pretty sure Hell just froze over."