Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Athena’s Plan

As she heard the faint sound of gunshots through the thick steel walls of the detention center, Athena drew a deep breath. She knew what she was going to do would be far from ethical. A lot of people, both traitors and loyalties, would soon die at her command. Fathers. Sons. Husbands. In a sense, she cared about them, but she cared about herself even more. 

The only thing she could promise these rebels was that one day, she would topple this corrupt and sickening Imperium, replacing it with a world where human lives meant something more than numbers and statistics. One where people could once again be valued and respected. One similar to her own.

Unlike these rebels, Athena actually had the means to realistically achieve these goals. 

For the past few hours that she was imprisoned, the zerg detachment in the jungle has been hard at work. After the hatchery was successfully morphed, it immediately started spawning new zerglings and queens. Since it took place in Athena’s world and not in the game, it took time for queens to be spawned and for larvae to be born and morph into zerglings. 

It was only thanks to the durability of the single queen that the tiny zerg force survived the numerous predators attracted to that location. As more and more zerglings leaped out of their eggs and joined the battle, the situation finally started tilting to the zerg’s side.

By the time reinforcements were spawned, the original zerglings and drones were down to 2 crippled zerglings and 1 drone just inches from death. The queen lost one of her claws to an instance of Morgo - 281. As things became safer, Athena ordered the remaining drone to morph into a second hatchery and half of the available larvae to turn into drones. The drones have been growing in numbers and adding to Athena’s mineral count ever since then.

As Athena opened her game interface again to prepare the units she needed to take over the outpost, she found herself staring at quite the resources.

Mineral: 4,584

Vespene Gas: 2,193

She already had 10 drones, 5 zerglings, and 1 queen with her. Athena thought about it before adding 1 queen and 50 pairs of zerglings into the production tab. 

Mineral: 1,934

Vespene Gas: 2,193

She was saving some of the minerals for potentially unlocking and building terran units. Among the units she did produce, most of them were zerglings. These smaller units would be deadly in the tight confines of the research facility. Queens were a little too slow to operate on their own. They mainly served as bodyguards and meat shields for Athena herself. 

Just after she made up her mind, the door to the detention center buzzed and opened once again. This time, there were several pairs of footsteps.

The door to her cell slid open, and Athena found herself staring at six rebel troopers, all in power armor. All but two of them were holding onto Defender automatic rifles. These rifles were larger and heavier than the Defender-S variants designed for non-armored soldiers. They were also much more powerful. 

Part of the reason why the rebels were so successful was because they managed to secure the power armors in time. The loyalists’ small-caliber firearms could rarely punch through the Guardian-class power armor while the Defender rifles could tear through unarmored soldiers.

The two exceptions were machine gunners carrying Purifier-class light machine guns. Well, the classification of light machine guns simply meant they could be carried by a single trooper in power armor without slowing the trooper down. It was still twice the size of a Defender-class automatic rifle. These machine guns were deadly at close range. A volley from them in point-blank range could rip a Blackbuck apart. 

Leading the squad was Sergeant Madison of the 1st Platoon. He was a well-loved NCO who Athena talked to a few times. It was a pity he turned out to be a rebel as well. 

The Sergeant didn't say anything. He didn't know Athena enough to feel sorry about killing her. He simply stood silently as the other five rebel soldiers raised their rifles and took aim at Athena. Neither the sergeant nor his men expected any danger to come from Athena. 

Yes, they knew Athena likely single-handedly killed nine rebels, but that was out there in the field and Athena had the element of surprise. The toxic atmosphere of Morgo IV gave skirmishers a great advantage. One good, non-fatal shot on the armor could lead to a painful death from the toxic gas all around them. 

Now? Now Athena was in a cell, unarmed, unarmored, and restrained. Even the best soldier put into a situation like this couldn’t do anything but accept their fate. 

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The next second, 30 zerglings and 2 queens materialized all around the squad of six confident rebels. 

The human screams and the sound of teeth tearing through human flesh were brief but loud. The zerglings swarmed the riflemen while the two machine gunners each received an acidic spine to the face. Soon, only one of the rebels was alive. Sergeant Madison. He was alive but crippled, with his right arm torn off by one of the zerglings. It would only be a matter of time before he bled out on the ground. 

A few of the zerglings dug their claws into one of the dead rebel troops who had a PEI mounted on his arm. The zerglings shoved the trooper’s body closer to the cell Athena was in. Athena reached her arm out and tapped a few keys on the PEI. The device was already in the detention center control interface, and Athena was able to unlock the cell to her door. 

After she left the cell, a few zerglings started clawing at the door and the bars of the cell. This continued for a few seconds before the zerglings retreated. 

All of this seemingly random behavior served a reason. One that Sergeant Madison would never live to understand. 

“Listen, sergeant.” Athena knelt down beside the dying man, the hideous-looking zerglings and queens making a way for her as she moved. “As difficult as it is for you to believe, I am not your enemy. I don’t want you to tell me who your leader is or who recruited you or why you are doing this or what your plans are. I don't want to know. Just tell me who the hell you really are! The Guard? The Liberation Army? Or some mercenary company or pirate?”

This was a question Athena has had for way too long. This entire time, after so much back and forth, she still had no idea who was so hell-bent on killing her. The least she deserved was a name. 

The sergeant looked as confused as Athena, but ultimately, he sighed. He would be dead soon anyway, and from what he saw, Athena definitely was far more than a loyal trooper of the Venya Imperium. The Venya Imperium was known for its research of bioweapons, but the beasts that just tore his men apart were more advanced than anything the Imperium had. If the Imperium had these weapons, they would be using them on the battlefields against the Republic of Dorn or the Salin Empire, not here on a random research outpost in the middle of nowhere, defending a random trooper. 

Plus, after this rebellion, it would only be a matter of time before the Imperium found out who was behind this. They expected to be discovered when they started this mission. None of that would be relevant to him either way.

“We are members of the Venya Revolutionary Guard.” He finally whispered. 

Athena nodded and got back up. As she silently ordered a zergling to put the sergeant out of his misery, her head was turning. 

The Venya Revolutionary Guard, commonly known simply as the Guard, was a partisan group within the Venya Imperium that was supported and funded by the United Republic of Dorn. The Republic helped train and arm the Guard so that it could help distract the Imperium and sabotage its war efforts. The Guard was mainly composed of Venya citizens turned insurgents who harbored grudges and hatred against the government for one reason or another. This helped better conceal their identity from the watchful eyes of the Imperium. 

The Venya Liberation Army, or simply known as the Liberation Army, was similar to the Guard with the only difference being that it was backed by the Salin Empire instead of the Republic of Dorn. 

Neither the Guard nor the Liberation Army was a threat to the Imperium on the battlefield. It was their covert sabotages, infiltration, and assassination that made them an issue for the Venya Imperium. Both factions were thorns in the Imperium’s sides. Both were labeled as terrorists by the Imperial government. Being discovered to have aided either faction was punishable by death.

The Guard had more influence in Imperial Sector 9A2, which was adjacent to several Republic sectors. 

From Athena’s perspective, whether it was the Guard or the Liberation Army didn't matter. Whoever they were, they had to die. She just wanted to know exactly who she was killing. 

Athena gave a silent order, and one by one, the zerglings poured out of the detention center into the corridors. As the first way of zerglings left, more appeared around Athena. This continued until all 105 zerglings she had were racing toward different parts of the outpost. Some had their distinct instructions, such as securing the garage, the armory, and the security center. Others were simply ordered to cause as much chaos as they could. 

As all the zerglings were gone, Athena returned the two queens to the game before slowly venturing out of the detention center. She noticed a dead sentry at the gate, likely a loyalist assassinated by the Guard fighters. Athena picked up the sentry’s Defender-S automatic rifle and was glad to see it was still working. Slowly, she stepped into the hallway, acting like an Imperial loyalist trooper who was lucky enough to escape her cell in the midst of the chaos. 

This was Athena’s plan of getting off this rock and keeping herself from being purged by the Venya Imperium. She couldn’t prevent the rebels from acting, so she had to prove her loyalty to someone. This someone turned out to be Corporal Kendrick. She has already proved herself to him when she exposed the rebels. Now, she just had to make sure both he and her got off this rock alive.

For multiple reasons, the Guard rebels in the base had to die. In addition to posing a threat to her life, they also posed a threat to Corporal Kendrick. If Corporal Kendrick died, who would vouch for her? Plus, the security center must have been the first target of the rebels. If someone saw her control the zerg units from the security cameras, well…that would be bad and she had to tie up these loose ends. No one, neither the Imperium nor the Republic, could know about her zerg units. The garage and the armory must be under their control as well, and Athena needed access to those locations to hopefully unlock terran structures. 

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