The Desert is Cold in the Dark [Dark Data]

[Jim Raynor]

Jim stared at the cracked tiles around their feet. How'd such a little guy manage to do that?
 
"Geez kid. Remind me not to get on your wrong side."
 
The inhuman hissing of the priests redirected Jim's attention to where it needed to be. While the shockwave had displaced them, none of them seemed badly damaged, rising to their feet. The red of their eyes flashed beneath their charcoal hoods, their long and spindly arms raised in preparation for their next attack.
 
"Ogong, you seem to know a bit of magic," Jim said, his rifle trained on the priests that slowly advanced on them, his barrel flicking between each of the dozen. "What was that ... malaise before? I didn't wanna shoot 'em. I didn't wanna do anythin'. That ain't like me, 'specially in a life or death situation."
 
Sun Ogong held his magic staff at the ready. "Some sort of dark magic. Nothing I know how to do." He shuddered. "Or would want to know how to do."
 
"Great. More hocus pocus. Don't suppose there's any way to stop it?"
 
"You have to fight real hard. That's how I broke out of it."
 
Jim humphed. "Guess killin' 'em's the only way to be sure."
 
Even in the blackness of the temple, a deeper ebony rose from the priests' gnarled hands. Thin, wavering tendrils of the darkest smoke swirled about. The sight drew Jim's gut tight. He had no inkling what they were planning, but it wouldn't end well for them.
 
Jim's mind raced for a plan. Outnumbered, blocked off inside a foreign temple, and in the dark, the odds weren't with them. But Raynor had been in worse scraps than this. There was a way through, and he would find it. He sweated as the priests skulked forward, their crimson eyes blaring in the shade of their cowls, like tiny flames set against the midnight sky.
 
Inspiration struck.
 
"Don't mean to point out the obvious," Jim said. "But that spinnin' ring over there's probably a gateway to wherever we need to be. And these fellas are gonna stop us from gettin' there if it's the last thing they do."
 
"So what are you thinking?" Somerled said. "Sounds like you have a plan."
 
Jim chuckled. "Not so much a plan as a hail mary, but it's the best chance we got." He looked to Sun Ogong. "Kid, you still able to conjure up some fireballs?"
 
The monkey boy nodded. "Mmhmm."
 
Jim flicked the switch on his C-14 Impaler rifle. A new cylindrical attachment lowered from the bottom of the weapon. "Good. I'm bettin' that these creeps ain't use to seein' the light. I'm thinkin' we should reintroduce 'em."
 
Ogong smiled. "I like this idea. I'll hail Mary too!"
 
"Once they're good 'n' distracted, attack," Jim said. "Take as many as you can, but focus on gettin' to that portal on that dais back there." His two allies nodded. "OK. On my mark."
 
One of the priests made an inhuman snarl and thrust its hands forward. A freakish black bolt of energy raced towards Jim. He ducked in time as it sailed over him, then jumped up and pulled the trigger as three grenades arced towards his foes.
 
"Now!"
 
"Taewuhrah! HWA!"
 
Sun Ogong birthed a ball of flame in his hand and hurled it at one of the priests. The brilliance of the fire lit up the entire temple, ephemerally exposing the cracks and blood that littered the walls and floor. The priests immediately halted their spellwork, the unworldly black steam evaporating from their hands as they rose them over their blood red eyes, screeching.
 
The fireball connected with one of the priests. His tattered robe instantly lit up, the hungry flames draping over him. A piercing shriek left its lips as it crumpled in a blazing heap. The other priests shuffled away from the pyre of their fallen member, the heat and light distressing to their cold and pallid skin.
 
Somerled managed to utter "Good hi-" before Jim's grenades erupted, ripping the sandstone apart and filling their ears with a cacophonous boom. Tiny pebbles fell over them as they recovered from the shockwave, a shroud of smoke blocking the view of the evil priests. Their voices were not so easily hidden; judging from their terrified and enraged screams, they were alive but ticked off.
 
"Let's go!" Jim shouted above the ringing in his ears. "Stay near me!"
 
Jim charged into the curtain of smoke and burst out the other side with his two allies in tow. Two of the priests had been caught too close to the blasts and lied in bleeding, twitching piles. The rest were disoriented, stumbling about and grabbing onto the temple walls and columns for support, trying to right themselves after a sensational overindulgence of their senses. Jim saw the metal ring in the distance, the purple etchings throbbing to an unheard beat, and the velvet tear in space at its centre.
 
"There!" Somerled pointed to the dais.
 
The trio sprinted towards their only chance at salvation. Three priests stood between them and their objective, quickly snapping out of their befuddlement. Their heads jerked upwards at the sound of their footfalls, and they growled like something approximate to a wild bear.
 
"No time! Take 'em out!"
 
Sun Ogong was already in mid jump by the time Jim uttered the obvious. Yeo-Ee-Pil slammed into the priest's jaw from the side, expertly guided by the monkey boy, and dropped the target like a sack of bricks. Somerled threw a knee forward, driving it into the next priest's stomach, and followed up with a sharp backwards smash of his elbow into the priest's skull. The last dark minister stood in front of Jim and screeched as the bayonet deployed from the terran commander's rifle sliced easily through its desiccated skin and exploded out its back. Shaking the dying creature loose, he rejoined his allies in a mad sprint for the portal.
 
With a handful of steps left to take, Jim felt his body slowing, like the air around him was thickening. He pressed forward, hoping to power through whatever effect was befalling him, but the more strength he applied against the unseen pressure, the more resistant it became. Soon even lifting his foot inside his armour was a chore, which then became an impossibility. His entire body was frozen mid lunge, left leg on the ground, right leg bent at the knee. Both Sun Ogong and Somerled had suffered the same fate.
 
"No!" Jim said through clenched teeth. The violet light of the portal spilled over the dais. "We're ... so ... close!"
 
"What ... happened?" Sun Ogong strained. "It's like ...  I'm stuck in ... rock!"
 
"I think ... those guys ... might know," Somerled said.
 
Jim craned his eyes about and spotted the reason. The remaining priests stood with arms raised. Dark light suffused their clawed hands as they chanted some unknown and grating language. More magic. Great.
 
"Heh. I'm ... outta ideas. Anyone ... got any ... bright ones?"

Words: 1,173

Jim used: Grenade Launcher, Bayonet
Sun Ogong used: Fire: HWA

Six of the twelve priests are dead. Six more remain and have frozen us in place with a combined spell.