Every animal had long since gone into hiding. Flames raged unchecked across the landscape, and the piles of scorched corpses and twisted metal bore witness to the devastating ferocity of the war. The ancient temple echoed to the pounding footfalls and maddened roars of a large group of zerg ultralisks as they charged towards the human bases, eager for blood. A deadly confrontation was about to begin . . .

I pressed the conference button, and the holographic images of my four main commanders appeared above my console.

"I’m sure you’re all aware of the situation, gentlemen. If we want to stop the ultralisks,we have to move fast. Here are your assignments. Raphael; Take your boys and mine the Base Delta area and the Base Alpha ramp. I want to be able to walk to Delta on mines without ever touching the ground. Got it?"

"Got it." "Good. Now, Darrel."

"Yessir?"

"Siege up on the cliff edge. Make sure you have some cover for Delta Base, but don’t sacrifice ramp defense for that. Get some men up on the cliff over Beta, too. And hurry."

"Sir! Yes sir!"

"Raymond, Charles, take your men and support Darrel. If the cliff defense falls, we’re finished."

"Yes, sir."

I turned back to the main display screen and watched as every soldier available moved into defensive positions, and smiled savagely. I might die today, but I’d take a few of the zerg with me to the grave.

"Sir? We’re picking up large heat sources approaching Delta base. Their numbers seem to tally with the last known ultralisk group."

"Good."

The ultralisk group charged forward, directly towards the apparently undefended new outpost. But as they reached the perimeter, dozens of Spider mines locked on and rose from the ground in a wave, skittering to meet the wall of bone and flesh charging forward. Unfortunately, two ultras had gotten ahead of the rest, and ninety percent of the mines struck only those two. They were shredded instantly, but at the cost of letting the others through relatively unscathed. Two bunkers put up little resistance, and the fourteen surviving ultralisks slammed into the mining base, killing every worker almost instantly. The command center lifted off, and the ultralisks howled in fury as they saw their prey escaping. Then thoughts of the command center were driven from their minds by the first tank shells crashing down on them, and the maddened beasts turned towards the narrow pass that led to the two remaining human bases.

"Here they come, boys! Get ready!" The defending marines opened fire, pouring uranium-jacketed bullets into the lead ultralisk. Several of the monsters fell under the brutal combination of tank shells and gauss bullets, but ten survived to rampage over the gory wreckage that had once been three bunkers and attack the base. Fortunately, all the workers had already been evacuated to the human main base, and the ultras found nothing but a refinery still on the ground. Ignoring the structure, ten ravening ultralisks turned towards the ramp and charged.

All hell broke loose as the first ultras hit the ramp. A hail of bullets struck the first of the monsters, and explosive shells crashed down on them, sending splatters of gore flying as the behemoths roared in pain. Then the mountains of flesh and bone hit the defenses, and the carnage of a moment before seemed almost pleasant. The metal plating of the twin bunkers was shredded like tin foil, and the ground was painted red for a hundred yards as eight bleeding, berserk ultralisks smashed through them and attacked the marines behind. Soldiers were picked up and sliced in pieces by the monster’s massive jaws, flung like ragdolls in all directions, flying over the cliff and crashing to the ground as the seemingly unstoppable brutes tore through them. Volleys of tank fire were killing the ultras, but they tore through the marines regardless and charged for the tanks, leaving a wake of destruction behind them.

I stared at the screen as the ultralisks hit Darrel’s tanks, and swore vehemently. There were only a few ultras left, but they were still more than enough to tear through the rest of my base, and taking off would be useless. The zerg would simply send flyers to chase me, and flying buildings were too slow to flee. I cast a helpless eye towards my three starports . . .

And my expression suddenly changed as three sets of pulsar jets lit up, propelling three massive ships into the air. The engineers had just set a new time record, and just incidentally saved all of our lives.

A bleeding hulk staggered out of the hell behind it, massive chest heaving as it drew breath. Near to death, carapace smashed in a dozen places, the beast merely waited to catch it’s breath before charging back into the fray. But something made it pause. A shadow passed over the sun, and the ultralisk looked up at agiant machine looming over it. A pinprick of light showed up clearly against the bulk of the battlecruiser . . . it was quickly getting larger. The ultralisk wondered dumbly what it could be.

A four terawatt laser bolt smashed into the ultralisks head, incinerating it instantly. The three remaining ultras paused a moment, as if pondering the smouldering corpse. They held still a second too long.

The Cerebrate was momentarily in shock. This was not in the plan at all. The humans were supposed to be reeling, hurt, and starved for resources. Instead, they had not only utterly crushed the ultralisks that should have destroyed them, they were now approaching the main Hive Cluster with a fleet of battlecruisers and various supporting units, something for which the Cerebrate was totally unprepared. Fortunately, they were still almost a day away, giving the Cerebrate time to muster defenses. Larvae spun their eggs, beginning the transformation into hydralisks. This battle must decide the outcome of the war. If the human fleet was defeated, they would be easy prey for the Cerebrate’s brood. But if they succeeded . . .

No. They would not succeed. The Cerebrate would not allow itself to contemplate death. The Swarm would be victorious. Always.

I smiled wolfishly from the deck of my new flagship, which I had christened "Liberation." With the ultralisk threat put down, I was confident in the superiority of my forces. The Hive would fall, and I would finally be able to raise the city I had dreamed of ever since landing. On the other hand, if we were defeated . . .

No. We could not lose, not after such a massive investment. Hundreds of soldiers had poured out their blood for this planet, and I would carry through. This was my world, and I would be victorious.

Always.