Chapter Five

THE LARGE ENGINEERING

Six hours later, they were fleeing for their lives.

Marines were backing up into ramps – the evac Raynor promised - firing their gauss rounds at the ape-like figures that swarmed toward them. Most practised against zerg assaults, this was one thing they were at least prepared for – although it was hard to say who could be prepared against overwhelming numbers against a ground position with no fortifications.

Then they toppled as the ground began to quake, and human and strange humanoid alike were tossed about willy-nilly. Stetmann noticed with satisfaction as the ship's blasters came online. The apes had better footing than the marine, but the ship was unfazed by the turmoiled ground, and chased them off with mechanical precision.

Something was emerging from the planet itself. All senses were disoriented, it took several looks, and panicked wonder, before he could even guess as gauging the monolithic sight in the distance. Not merely a few miles high – it must be over the horizon – to see it like that at this distance, it must be hundreds of miles high.

This world was larger than most – although its density scans had been unusual. And now they knew why. This hadn't been its original size at all. The Xel'Naga had built some kind of planetary terraformer into its heart – to shift continents, expand the mantle and crust. It must have drawn in asteroid mass – but this system was empty – perhaps there still wasn't enough – or this was where it ended.

He heard Raynor's voice coming in over the comms and he scuttled into the drop-ship, his hands groping for the terminal to call for the evac.

"What the Hell is that?!" he heard Raynor asked.

"No idea sir, but we have to get off the planet." He heard himself reply.

The quaking did not slow, but Stetmann managed to gain a sense of orientation – bit by bit, his crew were getting into their dropships and off the ground. Even that didn't entirely free them, as the air itself buffeted around them – but they were managing the ascent.

Eventually, Stetmann was looking back at the ground with a queer feeling – so much of it displaced. The prison moon New Folsom had taken generations of dedicated mining operations to make into the desolate last end for convicts it was now. This planet had changed shape in a day. Perhaps its programming had not been complete. Perhaps it had simply been waiting for additional mass to enter the system, over thousands of millions of years, and then scooping it up again. And somehow, he had activated it.

The gunships had survived, surprisingly – Jim Raynor would find a small addition to his fleet at least, if he could wrest them away from Mira Han.

The stone glowed in its science pod. That was something different. That had been an agent of life – the two meant to go together. Perhaps it was a defense mechanism he had triggered.

He stared.

It gave him a chill feeling. Like… destiny… but misplaced. Maybe a portent of things to come.

He put down one note… "unsuitable for colonisation"…

THE END.