Checked up and ready to go!

((A little starcraft story to celebrate HotS release. This is actually based off of the Zergling Evolution mission (second half) but I'm putting character into the very little dialogue in this brief mission. ))

Planet: Astrid III
Outpost: Kilo
Time: 13:10

"Read it and weep, you mother fuckers." Roades exclaimed as he began bringing all of the chips on the table toward himself. "Read it and fucking weep!"
"Roades, kiss my black ass. Ain't no way in hell you have this much luck without cheating." King threw his cards onto the table and lifted his cigar to his mouth.
Roades grinned and rose his whisky to his mouth, "Do not worry, I will use it to buy you something nice." He winked and knocked the rest of his drink back.
The gathering of six all laughed in unison, the air fogged with smoke and the table littered with assortments of booze. Two of the group made their leave, heading for their racks. Only three of the remaining four actually played the card game. The rookie had to watch, "that's the rules." they told him "until you're officially part of the 'forgotten few'." Astrid III was never a dangerous planet but it did have a zerg presence, though small in number. Due to their feral nature, they would rarely spot one and orders had them to stay put to 'monitor the planet'. The marines knew it was horse shit; hell, even their lieutenant knew they had been given the worst detail he could have hoped for. They did as they were ordered up into Corporal Daniels was killed, slaughtered by a pack of zerglings whilst emptying his bladder in the treeline. Since then, the lieutenant had scouting parties sent out - convinced that a hive was located nearby. The marines all knew he wanted to snag a hive because it'd mean his ticket off the backwater planet.

Their game continued for another hour before any interruptions. King had gone all in and lost out to Private Turner and so decided to start showing the rookie how he can hold a cigar with the end of his gun. All of a sudden, the rec-room alarm began to sound and the rookie was the first out of the door - eager to prove himself. King's first reaction was to check the time; it took him a few seconds to register that this was not a drill. Turner was the first to grab his gear and head for the door, with Roades on his heel. King knocked back the rest of his drink and extinguished his cigar before following his peers.

King came out onto the compound and realised that this was definitely not a drill; Outpost Kilo had mobilised. King approached the lieutenant who was already conversing with Roades.
"I need your Thor prepped and ready. I will be taking my strike team to deliver an initial blow, I'll need your mech to rain fire down upon them when I send word down the comms." The lieutenant was smiling as he spoke, a rare commodity for a man whose flustered face seemed almost permanent at times.
Roades saluted, a grin still across his face. "Sir, the big boy and me will have those bugs begging for surrender before they can say-"
"What bugs? You found zerg?" King interrupted Roades, a common occurance.
"Found a hive, Private. A God damn hive."
The lieutenant turned on his heel and began barking orders to his strike force. Turner was manning the bunker and Roades was sprinting towards the mammoth mech, a veteran of drunk driving, which left King on Rookie sitting. He turned to the man, practically a boy coming to the most fucked up scenario of 'bring your son to work day'. He saw that the kid was frightened. That's natural, he thought, he's probably never even shot that rifle of his. He watched the lieutenant heading out - a formidable force alongside him, enough to deal with ferals. No words of encouragement came to his mind to help ease the Rookie's fear. He began to think about himself and how he was feeling. He was neither excited or nervous; he was, simply, drunk.

The compound was silent of words but heavy with the sounds of last minute fixes being done to the vikings, of which were grounded. Gunshots echoed in the distance, cannon fire shortly after. The comms sparked up and every man in that compound was overwhelmed by the words which none of them had expected. Not here, not on Astrid III. The lieutenant's voice ballowed down the radios, "there's just too many of them!" - followed by an even more daunting silence. King noticed that every second that passed felt like minutes, is this adrenaline kicking in or am I just too fucking drunk to notice? He let out a brief laugh. His grin kept his aim steady; the same could not be said for the Rookie next to him, who was audibly weeping. A new sound filled the air: as if millions of grasshoppers were scurrying through a field. It steadily became louder... and louder... A sudden screech filled the air: in a blink of an eye, the bunker at the entrance of the compound was covered in vicious, mutated zerglings. Gunfire was drowned out throuh the delighted screeches of the wave of predators rushing down against the ill prepared outpost. King witnessed Turner trying to run from the barely visible bunker, only to get torn apart by the onslaught.

"They're everywhere!" someone screamed down the comms, the chambers of the viking's weaponry made his voice intelligable to decipher. He could recognise the voice that responded though, "Then shoot everywhere!" , Roades had fired up the cannons of the Thor and was now decimating the opening of the compound with promised rain of fire. King turned to give the Rookie an order but saw that he had had dropped his gun and began to run towards the treeline. King raised his gun and began to unleash every bullet he had into the flowing Zerg force. He was backing away as he fired, the main focus of the Zerglings was now on the Thor. Soon enough, that fell too, crashing down upon the swarm, so much for his luck, only to implode and decimate an even greater amount of Zerg that were caught in its blast - Roades fiery eulogy. King knew it was lost and had only one thought; run.

Almost as soon as the thought came, he was hot on the heels of the Rookie - following his footsteps through the shrouded trees. He couldn't say how long he was running for, or when he had dropped his rifle, but he kept going. He heard a scream to the east but his feet wouldn't stop. A second scream had him halt. He changed direction and made his way towards the clearing where the screams were coming from. He noticed the cliff side was less than fifty feet ahead of him but only midway to it, the Rookie was being mauled by two zerglings. King drew the pistol from his suit and put every bullet in the chamber into both of the critters. Their bodies slumped beside the Rookie; King approached and opened his visor to get a better look at the boy. He was gargling blood and his face was pale. It took King a moment to recognise that the Rookie was missing everything from below his torso. He watched as the kid took his final breath, the forgotten few would be remembered as nothing more than a misfortune of underestimation. He heard the swarm approaching from behind. They would be on him soon and he would not be able to outrun them. He ran toward the edge of the cliff, with every intention of finishing this on his own terms but as he drew closer, he noticed that it wasn't as steep as he had initially thought and instead of falling to his death, he tripped and rolled his way down from peak to bottom. His arm had was dislocated and armour had dented in on his left hand, crushing three of his fingers. He groggily pushed himself forward, only able to let out a wheeze for his pain. As he regained his vision, he noticed that he was no longer surrounded by trees. A reddish, grey ground with hellish ant mounds stood before him. A putrid, deathly smell had filled the air.

He was being stalked by the zerglings now. He was on their territory and they were taking their time, crawling towards him - their web had caught a slippery fly and they were savouring every moment. King raised his good hand and placed the still clutched pistol against his chin.
"Fuck you." He forced the words from his mouth. His finger pressed down on the trigger. Click. He pressed down again. Click. Tears filled in his eyes, his hand finally began to shake. A delighted screech filled the air, the sound of scuttering followed shortly after and then the swarm were on him.

Updated.