Fan Fiction!

The novel's title: A Seemingly Small Battle

Prologue: Sometimes the small unknown battles of the war in Koprulu sector hold the most diabolical stories. This is the story of a young Terran Dominion army who finds a story worth mentioning in a small, seemingly useless battle. . .


Chapter One
It was a dimly lit tactical room, filled with small video displays glowing softly on the walls, some not showing anything but static displays. The lieutenant's orders were to deliver the latest battle reports to the General. He felt his legs shaking as he stepped up the short steps to the General's command seat.
The General was a much revered man, who's wary eyes and quiet voice showed the years of experience beneath the cold steel of his wits. The younger more inexperienced troops felt he was nothing more than an over confident man who thought far too much of himself and not of the men under his command.
However, the lieutenant knew otherwise.
"The latest battle report from the front line, General," the lieutenant said, straightening into parade ground posture, and handing the General a data pad over a tactical display between them. The floor under him vibrating slightly as the engines of the massive battle cruiser transported them to a small, third rate planet.
The General accepted the data pad with a slight smile, and looked up at him from the depths of the comman chair. "Is there anything else, lieutenant Lolstra?"
Lolstra tensed, "Uh, yes sir, actually there is," he said quietly. "Permission to speak freely?"
"Granted, of course, lieutenant."
"I was wondering, why is the Dominion sending us to a grubby third rate planet, sir?"
The General snorted, reached out again and took a cup of some strong smelling liquid from the small round table beside the general's command chair. "It appears that the Zerg are on the move again," he said, then took a sip from the cup. "Here, and here," he said again, pointing with a light pen to the tactical display. He pushed several buttons on the side of the screen, and a planetary display appeared of the region that Lolstra recognized as the planet that they were being deployed to.
"As you can see, there have been some very interesting happenings in the past few weeks," he said, sipping from the cup again before setting it down on the round table. "Especially here, according to Admiral Tupoley's recon report."
Lolstra looked up, "Tupoley?" he inhaled sharply.
"Yes, quite odd, isn't it that Admiral Tupoley's recon fleet was in the area just when it happened?" he smiled slightly in the depths of the command seat.
"What type of planet is this, so that I may begin preparing the troops?" Lolstra asked, dropping the subject, he didn't like it when the General acted like this, and he especially didn't like it when he got back onto the subject that he tried to lose.
The General, of course, knew that. "It's mostly temperate forest," he said nodding. "What is your take on the Tupoley situation?"
Lostra sank, and clicked his teeth together. "Tupoley is under suspicion for helping the UED in it's acts of terror against the Dominion. For him to be giving the Dominion such information definately could be a ploy to get back into good standings with us."
The General nodded approvingly. "It is an interesting concept, isn't it?" he reached out and turned the tactical display off. "However it has no basis, or proof. However, Tupoley is still there, so tell the men to be ready for anything, you never know with the good Admiral."
"Yes sir, I'll do that immediatly."
"Very good, we will be arriving in approximately sixteen hours," The General said quietly. "Dismissed."

"ETA, fourteen minutes, twelve seconds, lieutenant Lolstra," the young ensign said from the crew pit in the front of the battle cruiser's bridge.
Lieutenant Lolstra gazed down into the pit at the ensign who gave him the report. "Very good," he said, handing the data pad back to another ensign to his left. "Any sign of Admiral Tupoley?"
The ensign in the crew pit looked at his display, looked back up at Lolstra. "Yes sir, the Admiral's recon fleet is in far orbit of the target planet, shall I hail them sir?"
"Yes," Lolstra nodded, and headed aft to his command chair in the center of the bridge. "And go to yellow alert," he called back over his shoulder.
He got an acknowledgment, and the black screen on the floor of the bridge in front of his command chair lit up with a stand by signal. "To Admiral Tupoley, this is Lieutenant Lolstra of the Battle Cruiser Adamant. Please respond."
Lolstra held his breath for a moment, and then let it out as an older man with thin, whispy white hair appeared on the screen in at the base of is feet.
"I am Admiral Tupoley," the other nodded, his pale blue eyes glittering with the movement.
Lostra regarded the man with added appreciation now, before he was nothing but a name in the Dominion battle reports. "Good morning, Admiral," he nodded.
"Good morning to you, too," Tupoley said. "What can I do for you, lieutenant?"
Lolstra nodded quickly, "I need a tactical data dump on the planet, ah, Strato Five I believe it's name is," he said, looking the tactical display in the front of the bridge.
"Very well, that is the planet we are orbiting currently, but of course you know that already," Tupoley said, with obvious sarchasm.
"Yes," he said, biting down on his lower lip. It was very bad form to bite back at a senior officer. But perhaps Tupoley's power ring in the Dominion had eroded enough that he could make a snide comment back. But Lolstra decided against it, he hadn't gotten this far in the military by making snide remarks to senior officers.
"Here is the tactical information, lieutenant," Tupoley said.
Lolstra looked up from the video display to the communications officer on the right side of the bridge. The comm officer nodded to him, and gave him a thumbs up signal. Lolstra nodded back.
"Very well, Admiral," Lolstra said, returning his gaze to the video display. "We have gotten it, the Adamant will be entering orbit withing ten minutes."
"Very good," Tupoley said, nodding. "We will be awaiting your arrival."
"Of course, Adamant out," Lostra said. The video display winked out and Lostra stood and straightened his lieutenant's tunic. "Helm: enter standard orbit, out of weapons range of the Admiral's recon fleet."
The helm officer looked up, "Yes sir, sir?"
"You have your orders, ensign," Lolstra said, letting his gaze fall on the ensign.
"Aye sir," the esign said and turned back to his helm console on the left side of the bridge.
"Lieutenant Junior Grade, you have the comm," Lolstra said turning his gaze to a young man with extremely blond hair standing behind the command chair.
Why must we constantly deal with these people, Lolstra asked himself as he walked to the aft of the bridge towards the General's tactical room.
Somehow, he knew, that Tupoley was probably more dangerous than the Zerg that were on the planet below. Either way, it meant bad news, and that he was probably not going to be getting much sleep for a while.

"I see," the General said nodding, and sipping his strong smelling drink. "Tupoley is definately up to something, then. Our task at hand seems to be exactly what it is."
"Yes sir," Lolstra said. "Sir, exactly what were the Zerg doing down on the planet?"
The General looked up, smiled and sipped more of his drink. "The movements have been odd, to say the least," he said, tapping a few buttons on the tactical display between them. A multi-colored map appeared on the screen, bathing the General's face in light, revealing his calm features, sharp chin and blue eyes.
"As you can see, there are currently two Zerg encampments," the General said. "One slightly to the north, and one deep in the forest. I am wondering what the one in the forest is hiding from."
"Us, sir," Lolstra said, looking up from the map.
The General shook his head. "No, hiding in that type of forest is not advantageous to hiding from orbiting ships. No they are hiding from something on the ground."
A thought struck Lolstra, "The other Zerg encampment?"
"An interesting concept, lieutenant," the General nodded. "Perhaps a renegade group of Zerg?"
"It is a possibility," Lolstra said. "When I was serving under General Duke, we spent a lot of time attacking Zerg that had broken away from Kerrigan."
"I am wondering if this is indeed the case here, then," the General said, nodding again. "We should examine this immediately, never the less. Prepare a landing force, lieutenant, we will leave as soon as it's ready."
Lolstra nodded, "Aye, sir."

The drab colors of the dropship bulkhead dully reflected the bland light of the comm panels splayed around the General and Lolstra. A variety of sounds echoed around the small, hot, stuffy room. The marine sitting across the way, cocking his rifle. The blood-shot eyed troop commander talking quietly to his men.
And, of course, the sound of air rushing past the hull metal of the ship.
"What do you think, lieutenant?" came the General's voice from beside him.
Lolstra shook away his quiet musings and looked at the General. "Again I say, sir," he said, tightly gripping the reassuring metal of the heavy blast pistol in his right hand. "We should have put more into this raid."
The General chuckled softly in the back of his throat. "You have this over-riding sense that this is indeed a raid, lieutenant."
"Then what are we doing?"
"Simple, we are contacting the Zerg, perhaps running some recon on their positions and actions," the General looked at him palming the pistol. "Are you nervous?"
"Of course not, sir," Lolstra objected. "And sir? Contacting the Zerg?"
"Yes, lieutenant," the other said, readjusting his own blast pistol in it's holster. "We are going to try and contact them, among other things, we need to know precisely what has happened, and what better source than the creatures that it happened to?"
"Sir," Lolstra said, his mouth going a little dry. "They are nothing but purile, disgusting animals. You cannot simply walk up to them and start asking questions."
"You must learn to question Dominion propoganda more often," the General said quietly. Quiet enough, Lolstra noticed, to keep the lower hands across the room from eavesdropping into the conversation. "The Zerg are actually quite intelligent creatures, capable of making independent decisions. It is just the over-riding call from the Cerebrates that keeps them in line."
"What are you saying, sir?" Lolstra said, not quite believing his own ears.
The General looked up, his grey hair looking not much more colorful than the bulkhead behind him. "Simple we need to--"
"General Lionel?" the pilot said from the cockpit at the front of the room. "We are landing now sir."
"Excellent, commander," the General said looking at Lolstra. "Are you ready, lieutenant?"
"Yes sir," Lolstra said, standing up, as the muffled thuds of the drop ship landing vibrated the floor plating beneath Lolstra's combat boots.
"Very well, open the hatch," the General said again, standing up himself. "Troop commander, are your men ready?"
"They are, sir," the commander said, straightening up to parade ground posture.
"Exellent, then let's go," the General said, unlocking his pistol and motioning Lolstra to do the same. "Good luck, men, fight for the Dominion if the Zerg decide they don't want us here."
The room echoed with the acknowledgements of the men to their leader. There were muffled clicks, as the whole troop readied their weapons.
"Lead the way, troop," Lostra said, gesturing towards the open hatch, with the bright sunlight shining through.
There was acknowledgements and the troops walked disappeared trough the hatch, and Lolstra followed with the General following behind. He stepped out off the ramp. . .
. . .and walked into the most peaceful, beautiful sight he had ever seen.
They had landed in an open meadow, surrounded on all sides by dense temperate forest. The meadow was covered completely in a light green grass, with a slight breeze blowing across. Buzzing insects were going about their limited tasks, as a warm sun blazed down on the scene.
Lolstra shook away his musings again, realizing that he was near a colony of the most dangerous enemy man had ever known. And he hadn't gotten this far in his military career by being caught dumbfounded by the beauty of his surroundings.
"Quite nice, isn't it?" the General said, looking around as he stepped out into the sunlight.
"Yes," Lolstra said, pushing past several marines to the troop commander. And stopped short when he heard a tell tale hissing sound. The last thought he remembered is how the Zerg are completely oblivous to the beauty of their surroundings. . .