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+--- Thread: Episode VIII, Coruscant: Part 1 (The Hero This City Needs Quest) [M] (/showthread.php?tid=1298)
Episode VIII, Coruscant: Part 1 (The Hero This City Needs Quest) [M] - Sarah Kerrigan - 05-24-2017
Kerrigan gritted her teeth in exasperation, as the rain pitter-pattered softly off of her carapace. Not even the rain was allowed to sit upon her magnificent form, and she noticed a few different passersby following the rain’s example and avoiding contact with Kerrigan as much as possible.
It could have been the palm-sized bursts of greenish-yellow electricity that sparked all around her. Or it could simply be the angry scowl Kerrigan had chosen to wear as she walked down Coruscant’s city streets.
She’d won. She hadn’t destroyed Darkshire, but she’d won. Her zerg had taken the chance to rampage. She’d dealt a crippling blow to one of her eventual enemies. She’d ruined the morale of the fighters that defended it, ruined fortifications that might take months to repair, improved her own prestige and “clout” in the omniverse proper, and tested the new capabilities of her swarm and their opposition. Every one of Kerrigan’s expected goals had been achieved.
That didn’t take away from the humiliation, the pain, or the chilling rage that now powered and focused Kerrigan’s every move. She was willing to accept a defeat at the hands of a being with the power and experience of Strazio Rockwell, but the fact that the worm known as Hiro took so much of the credit for his pitiful efforts…
Sarah’s glare turned to a wicked grin. The things she would do to that miserable excuse for a fighter…
Well, Kerrigan mused. she couldn’t have the pleasure of that until she finished with her next piece of business at the very least, now could she?
Kerrigan had spent a good amount of time in the nexus, after her angered revival, checking and re-checking everything the Omniverse had… of value, that is. Anything that was related to Guu was fairly quickly discarded after the pointless nature of her postings was apparent, for instance.
What she had figured out, however, especially after seeing the limitations she currently held as a new prime, was that she simply couldn’t overpower these fools with just her weakened swarm, at least as it was now.
To that end, she would need to slowly strengthen herself, taking what Omnilium and other resources she could siphon from around the area, and it seemed the Empire had the rainbow-colored currency to spare.
Past that… well, that all depended on the events of the next few months. Between whispers of dark power and teams of primes being dispatched practically everywhere, and this upcoming "Dante's Abyss", Kerrigan supposed she might have to lay low for a brief while, until the Omniverse's guard was considerably less tight. Still, she had a plan, she had the time to empower herself, and she had the location for a new hive cluster already planned.
Now, she just needed to actually enact her plan, and with the current state of the Omniverse, as long as she was careful, it would be easier than taking candy from a baby.. Sarah’s glare snapped to a chilling grin, far too quickly to look natural on her features. She’d walked all the way from the nexus to here to work on the first part of her plan: Menial as it would be, it appeared she was going to have to work to curry favor with this “Empire”, in order to gain access to some fraction of the resources they had to offer.
The mere idea of it formed like a hot coal of anger in the pit of her stomach, but for now, she’d play the part of an eager prime looking for a spot of worth in this city. Someone who was fully willing to work for Palpatine, not looking forward to the day she could force him to kneel..
Meanwhile, Kerrigan had been informed by her former compatriot Sabrina (who had, regrettably, vanished off the face of the earth, at least if Kerrigan’s repeated attempts at calling her meant anything.) that Tier 7 was still quiet, barren, and dark.
A perfect place to carry out some of her more pressing experiments, especially with her need to discover new and effective ways to make use of Omnilium, and merge that understanding with the Zergs biological perfection.
A wicked grin crossed her face. Really, she was just recycling some wasted trash, in the end. Perfectly acceptable in the Empire’s eyes.
RE: Episode VIII, Coruscant: Part 1 (The Hero This City Needs Quest) [M] - Sarah Kerrigan - 06-18-2017
“Come on, Brianne, what’s the problem?” The greasy bastard asked, and Brie could swear she smelled the alcohol on his breath.
She knew she’d fucked up the moment she came down to tier 5. Things weren’t safe down here. Things weren’t well down here. But she’d heard there was a deal on some drugs that weren’t exactly easy to get in tier 4. So she’d put on some pants, put up her hood, and came down here in hopes of getting what sounded like a cheap deal.
The jackass in front of here looked like he belonged in a bad movie. White suit, pink shirt, boston accent, and way too much hairy chest exposed for her liking. And he was touching her. Right in front of a crowd of people.
“Listen. You came down here to get drugs? Vinnie can get’cha drugs. Vinnie owns this section of tier five. Right, guys?” The asshole waved one hand to the crowd, some of them nodding nervously while others just - walked away. Meanwhile, Vinnie’s hand snuck down in and under her blouse, and Brianne realized she’d fucked up. She’d fucked up so bad.
“I-I don’t need no drugs. Just… just lemme go, okay?” she whispered. Goddamnit, she’d fucked up, and she could feel his cold, slimy hands snaking around the curves of her body, and all she could think was how wrong this was, and how fucking twisted a town she actually lived in if everyone just looked away from all of this. A hand started to creep down her skirt, and she shuddered.
“Help! Someone, please help me! I’m being mol-Mmmmphh!”
Vinnie covered her mouth before she could get anything else out, and she could smell the stench of piss and cigarettes and god knows what else on his filthy hand.
“Hey, shut up, no one’s plannin’ on helping ya here. Just lay back and let it happen!”
Brianne threw a wild elbow back at the fucker, and she could feel her elbow hit something soft. Vinnie yelled something incoherent in pain, and with his grip loosened Brie ran forward. She couldn’t see much on the street - everything was smoky, neon signs and lights were fucking everywhere, but none of it actually made anything visible or sensible! Tears filled her vision, and she made do with running towards the thing with the fewest lights around. Maybe she could lose him. At least long enough to call the stormtroopers, or her brother. Just someone, anyone, to get her out of this fucked up situation.
“Hey, don’t you fucking run away from me, you big-titted bitch! Get! Back! Here!”
Gods, she was dead if she stopped. Why the fuck did she come down to this old, barely functional shithole! Was a few shitty uppers worth it. Her vision blurred as she just kept running. Fuck. She didn’t know where she was going. She didn’t know if she could lose this asshole. She was going to fucking die down here!
She kept running and running, ‘till she knew she was in a less used part of the city-world, and the lights started to be replaced by near pitch-darkness. Awesome. She didn’t know where she was, but this guy couldn’t see either, right? As she looked around, she realized she’d been running for a bit - couldn’t see a damn thing.
She hadn’t stopped running, though, and reality hit hard. Her head smashed into the rock, and her blackened world went spinning as she flipped up and onto her ass. Something sticky covered her head, and it took her a moment to realize it was her own blood, spilling down her face and coating her eyes.
“No! Shit! No! Please! I just wanna go home! I jus’ wanna go home!”
“Shut up, you fucking tease.” the darkness behind her answered, and Brianne tried her hardest to get up, to stop this asshole, to do *something* to get out of this situation.
Instead, when she turned around, there was Vinnie with the flashlight pointed right at her face. Brianne teared up when she saw the shadowed features of the fucking killer in front of her. Whoever he really was, he was fucking pissed.
“Please.. Just… I wanna live. I’ll do anything, just don’t kill me, god, please, just don’t kill me. I’m so-”
Brianne wanted to apologize more, to do something to get away from this fucker, but her words caught in her throat. Not because of Vinnie pulling out a switch-blade. Not because of the fucking mental expression with the too-long smile that made him look more like some killer clown than a regular person. Not even the fact that her hands were covered in her own blood, and she’d just now gotten to see it.
Eyes. Golden, piercing eyes. Right behind Vinnie, and filled with hate and malice and what she could only call pure evil.
“F-f-f-f-f-f-fucking monster.” Brianna mumbled, and Vinnie just chuckled.
“That’s right girl, I'm your monster-” Vinnie’s words died as clawed hands suddenly closed over his throat, and the gangster’s flashlight went spinning around as it flew through the darkness like a strobe light, and the gangster was pulled.... somewhere into the darkness. Brianne wished it hadn’t. She could catch glimpses, but never the full picture. Scythes of bone, claws that ended in sharpened tips, and lines of drool that fell to the floor from oversized teeth. Chittering, screeching, hissing and roaring, a madhouse of predators and they were all clustered in this alleyway.
“Oh.” She heard in the background, and she thought she heard it from Vinnie. It was hard to recognize it without all the bravado, all the fear that had replaced it. “...No, please, I can-”
VInnie’s voice broke into a high-pitched scream, punctuated with the noise of ripping, tearing flesh, and Brianne scrambled desperately back, trying to push against the brick wall at her back. Vinnie’s screams just kept getting louder, and she wished, god, she prayed that someone, something, would get her out of here.
Eventually, Vinnie’s screaming ceased, leaving only the sound of ripping, snapping, and tearing at flesh and bone, and the gibbering of some unknown monsters, and Brianne huddled against the back of the wall, silently crying, and hoping that whatever the hell it was would just go away.
It felt like hours before she finally heard it. A sudden screech, and the scratching of claws against asphalt. Then, footsteps, dashing away from her. She thought she saw a flash of red eyes, but those eyes turned away from her, as she heard whatever that thing was grow more and more distant.
She didn’t dare to believe she was safe, not yet, at least, but as the minutes passed, hope grew in her heart, and she put one hand against the brick behind her to support herself as she got to her feet, walking as carefully as she could towards what she was pretty sure was the way she’d came from. She had no idea what the hell that monster was, but at least it had saved her life. Brianne had no illusions it was some sort of hero, however.
As she kept walking, lights, and civilization came into view, burning brightly like a beacon. She had gotten to safety, or at least, relative safety. That monster might be strong, but a lot of people here had a piece on them and wouldn’t think twice about shooting some sick fuck like that. There was a difference between a criminal and a creature like that.
One thought kept ringing in her mind though, and as she kept walking, she scratched at the back of her neck anxiously, only to notice…
Bumps. Ridges. teeth.
What. the fuck.
“And what could that possibly be?” A distorted, layered whispered into her ear.
Brianne turned around to try and scream, and was greeted with two yellow eyes, glowing in the darkness.
Then, everything faded to black.
RE: Episode VIII, Coruscant: Part 1 (The Hero This City Needs Quest) [M] - Sarah Kerrigan - 06-18-2017
Sarah held her chin up with one hand as she smirked amusedly at the wreck of a man before her. Vinnie Alabaster. Small-time kingpin in this area of coruscant. User of quite a few dangerous drugs. Seller of quite a few more. Responsible for eleven murders, massive amounts of stolen imperial omnilium, and a silly amount of assault charges.
This seemed to be his first attempt at rape on record, which lent Kerrigan belief that this might have actually been his first try. Vinnie Alabaster didn’t get away with things because he’d hidden what he’d done. He got away with things because no one with real power had much time for Vinnie Alabaster. In truth, even Kerrigan hadn’t really had his eye on him - she was on her way to tier seven, trying to find some useful candidates for her various projects. Chancing on his encounter with Brianne was complete happenstance.
Still, he had two qualities which Sarah had found very useful. The first was his minor bounties. Kerrigan required omnilium, and while stooping so low as to beat on street thugs was a little beneath her, she’d already caught him, and with her dataverse connections, looked up the basics on his criminal history. Power was power, even if the source might be undignified. So, he was, at least, worth a little omnilium to her.
The second thing was that he’d inadvertently shown a weakness in Kerrigan’s psyche. She’d found Chara off-putting. She’d found Hiro irritating.
When she’d seen what Vinnie had been attempting to do? She’d found him disgusting. What was left of her human side had immediately found the cowardly creature worth her hatred. It was a weakness she’d need to work on in the future. She was beyond human morals and discussion. Understanding them was important for killing off the monkeys that were now inhabiting the lands that were the Zerg were meant to rule, but being influenced by them….? It was a problem.
Here, though, she’d turn it into a means of mental recovery, and as Vinnie awoke with an awkward grunt, hanging from the purple cocoon she’d planted at the top of this creep-covered abandoned apartment, Sarah’s wings shivered in anticipation. The other gang members she’d encountered on the way, running to back their leader up, she’d blessed with mere capture and unconsciousness, but Vinnie? She’d created new regenerative serums, a new result of her omnilium experiments. It was an attempt to restore her old regenerative abilities, from before she’d become what she was. It required extensive testing, however, and this criminal seemed the perfect subject.She’d spend a few hours of enjoyable, relaxing fun with her new companion, testing it’s limits, before finally handing him over to the imperials.
Vinnie should really thank her, really, she’d brought him back from certain death. That her own subjects had brought him to the point of certain death in the first place was irrelevant.
Instead, Vinnie screamed, and Kerrigan delighted at hearing his terror so keenly before the first cut was even made. His own pathetic nature and general repugnance made his screams taste so much sweeter to her.The perfect stress relief.
RE: Episode VIII, Coruscant: Part 1 (The Hero This City Needs Quest) [M] - Sarah Kerrigan - 06-18-2017
“So… You’re telling me you just happened to damage his lungs to the point of rendering him mute in the battle then, miss?” Officer Antilles asked with a harsh tone.
“I apologize for the excessive force. He was faster than I expected, and I reacted on reflex. Perhaps with rehabilitation, he’ll regain the ability to speak.” Kerrigan stated smoothly.
“We have witnesses that show what Vinnie was doing beforehand, and I won’t deny that we’ve been after him a while. Still… color me less than convinced by your story.” Antilles stated with a glare. Kerrigan’s smile didn’t fade. She knew his type - indeed, it was the same as Raynor’s. He didn’t just want crime dealt with. He wanted it to happen in the right way. And to his human morality, what Kerrigan had been doing clearly wasn’t the right path.
Though, on the other hand, he could smell her out at a glance, which was far better than what Jimmy had ever managed to do. He deserved praise, but he was in her way, and the only reason Kerrigan didn’t consider killing him is because she knew exactly what happened to people like him in the Imperial system already. He’d use this exact same tone with the more corrupt officials in his city, she knew, and someday the city would respond to his attempts at justice by swallowing him whole.
Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a blonde girl in a red hoodie. “Excuse me?” The woman asked with a smile. “My name is Brianne. I just needed to come here to give the police my report and-” The girl stopped for a second as she recognized and then smiled at Kerrigan “-To thank the person who rescued me. Did… did I come at a bad time?”
Sarah answered before the Officer could. “Me and the good Officer here were just speaking about eyewitnesses to verify my version of events. I’d say you came at the perfect time, wouldn’t you, mister Antilles?
The Officer scowled at her for a moment, but he caved as he realized that, whatever his thoughts on Kerrigan, this put her in a position of truth, at least potentially. Which meant his further questions would be useless, at least the ones meant for her. “Very well, Sarah Kerrigan. You’re cleared for now. If we find your tale to be truthful after further questioning, we will send you a reward to collect at any Coruscant bank in the 'verse. Thank you for your time.”
Sarah smiled, and walked out of the building.
A few hours later, Brianne walked out of the Imperial police station calmly after giving a report about the heroic efforts of the prime that had saved her from the man known as Vinnie, walking with purpose to a quiet area a few blocks away.
The moment she saw Kerrigan leaning against the stone wall, her face changed from one of calm admiration to a large bow, crouching on the ground. “I have done as instructed, my queen.” She stated with a dull monotone.
Kerrigan chuckled. “I don’t recall adding such theatrics to your movements. Since the parasite works off of your own mental state, I guess I’ve picked up quite the weird one. You’ve done your work well. Continue with your previous civilian life as normal. Clean yourself up. Reduce your drug intake gradually - slowly. We wouldn’t want to attract undue attention, would we? I will have need of you later, but until then, keep your nose out of trouble.” Sarah added with a smirk. “And be sure to share any relevant information you find.”
“Understood, Queen of Blades.” Brianne stated simply. She’d been given a newer, less extensively controlling form of parasite - Kerrigan had made sure to keep it a small, unobtrusive specimen. She needed stealth, and so her infestations from here would have to be designed to allow the target more independence, even at the expense of sapping their willpower and lowering combat capabilities. At least, within Coruscant.
She smiled. The zerg were terrifying masters of evolution, and as the top of their food-chain, she was no different. She saw what she needed to do now in order to conquer this place. The zerg could not simply consume and take what they wished here. They needed to evolve to new heights. Fortunately, that was what they were best at.
“Go. Fulfill your duties.” The Zerg queen stated, walking to tier seven without giving the woman a second glance. She still had so much to do here, and so little time to do it.