Everett looked at the squad sitting around him. He was a little curious about what the marines and firebats thought about the mission, but not enough to switch off his neural inhibitor. After all, they where marines, so it's not like their thoughts would be all that interesting. When your thoughts are controlled by a chip in your head, they're rarely interesting. He was much more interested in the medic but he knew enough about her already that he wouldn't bother reading her mind. There wasn't much point in listening to the pilot either. Her mind would be full of details about the flight, instructions from command, and little else. Pilots where the most interesting people to talk to because of their intelligence, but when they where on a mission, they were completely focused.
Mostly, Everett was just bored. Mind-reading was usually something he only considered when there wasn't anything else to do. When they landed, he'd go to work and he'd have fun. It was a pretty simple mission, but one that he was sure to enjoy. Approximately 6 hours ago, a Dominion Comsat Station had picked up a new rebel base on this planet. They'd been fighting the rebellion here for the past week, but this latest development was a chance to seriously hurt them. If the resources they'd claimed could be taken by the Dominion, their growth would slow, while the Dominion would tighten it's hold here. Right now, the base was just starting, and it's defenses would be low. If they could strike quickly, they could take it out now. Or at least, that's what the marines had been told.
One of the dropships alarms started going off. A green light filled the passenger cabin, and the alarm wasn't designed to be annoying so much as simply make you aware. They'd reached their location, and deployment would begin soon. He looked out the window next to his head and watched as two of their wraith escorts disappeared. The other two would be on the other side of the ship, along with the other dropship. He quietly checked with Command again to make sure all the preparations had been made. Then he followed the Medic out of the dropship, and entered the battlefield.
Right before the battle began, the base had been scanned a second time. The siege tank in the other dropship had been deployed and started pounding on the only tower as soon as it was in range. The two firebats had started working on the comsat station, while the marines, goliaths, and wraiths started attacking various targets. As soon as he left the dropship himself, Everett activated his suits cloak and then started shooting at one of the enemy medics. A barracks had also been constructed, and a small defensive force had been trained. Taking out the other marines would be a lot easier without the medics there.
Suddenly he heard a voice in his headset. "Ghost, two enemy dropships have been sighted on the southern end of the battlefield. They appear to be heading towards the command center. Lock down the left one and then move away and begin Operation Guiding Light." Everett looked up and saw the dropships. They both had the red hand and whip that marked them as the disloyal remnants of the Sons of Korhal. He smiled and then fired the lockdown missile. Guiding it with his mind, ensuring it's accuracy. He saw the energy field expand around the target and then smiled again when he noticed all the missiles heading towards the other dropship. The rest of the team had been notified and the goliaths and wraiths had started shooting in the hopes of destroying it before it could drop off it's crew. Not that it really mattered.
Following his orders, Everett ran away from the battle. He didn't run far though. He just had to get out of the blast radius, then he turned around. His mechanically enhanced eyes could still see everything clearly, and the bottom of his display showed that his target was far enough away. After ensuring that he still had enough energy to pull of the mission, he alerted Command. They gave him the go-ahead, and he aimed his rifle at the enemy command center. The seige tank had already started firing at it, and signs of damage where beginning to show. A small red dot appeared on it from his rifle, and he wondered if it had taken enough damage for the nuke to destroy it. Everything else was guaranteed toast, but command centers where built to be tough. About the only other things that would be safe where the two dropships that they'd flown in on, since they had retreated to pick up reinforcements for the second half of the battle.
It wasn't long before the call came over his headset from the orbital satellites. "NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED." It was impossible for them to determine who had launched the nuke, but they could pick up the signature and it was better to be alerted to all incoming nukes than to risk missing an enemy launch. Of course, both sides new who had launched the nuke. The rebel forces began trying to back away from the battlefield, but the troops that he'd flown in with continued to attack them, make a full retreat unsafe. Of course, all of the Dominion soldiers would be killed too, but they were replaceable. In fact, a larger team was already on it's way although they were taking their time so that the command center that was being flown in wouldn't be left behind.
When the nuke came down, just about everything died. The siege tank was safe because it was so far out of the blast radius, and the enemy barracks barely managed to survive, although it was burning so heavily that it wouldn't last much longer. The command center went down though along with all the SCV's that had been trying to repair it. None of the infantry of either side had managed to escape though, and the dropship that had been locked down was caught in the blast as well. All in all, a beautiful strike. Everett spent a moment admiring his work before climbing into one of the dropships that had flown back around to pick him up. As he left, he informed command that he'd been successful and was heading back to base to rest for his next mission. He looked out the dropship window and smiled as he saw their fleet moving into position of the now charred battlefield.
It was a sure bet that the Sons of Korhal would launch a counter attack, but they would have a hard time retaking this base. Two battlecruisers had moved in, along with several wraiths and valkyries. He even noticed a science vessel floating in front of the command center. There where several dropships there, and he new that at least one was loaded with scv's. Yes, the Sons would launch a counterattack, but they'd find a surprisingly prepared force ready to defend against them. It was too bad that he couldn't watch, but he wouldn't be much use in a large battle. As a ghost, he was much better suited to small, tactical efforts.
((I love Starcraft. This scenario isn't entirely accurate, because I know I'd personally never use a nuke to take out a minor base. I always saved them to soften up much more heavily defended locations. It's a lot more likely that I'd use that backup force at the end as the main attack and then fly in some SCV's to build a command center after I took it. I just wanted to write a story about a ghost.))
