The Stalker, Page 3

  Both sides sat back and Dark teched up to Infestors and Brood Lords. The Brood Lords sat back and picked away at his bases from a distance, and when he sent in Void Rays to pick off the Brood Lords, Dark’s Infestors gooped them to death with fungal growths. There was only one thing, really, that had any chance against this composition, and that was a unit that Protoss was only allowed to build one of: the Mothership.

  The Mothership was slow, and expensive, and although it did cloak friendly units, its main reason for existence was a single spell that took most of its energy to cast: the Vortex. The Vortex pulled in all units into a swirling blue hole. They were not harmed, but were removed from battle for a short time. When they came out they would be all clumped up, along with his Archons that did splash damage to units that were very close together. This move was so common in this matchup that it had a name: the Archon Toilet. It was tricky to pull off but it was the only workable defense the Protoss had against Brood Lords and Infestors.

  John thought about the real toilet that he had been facing just a few minutes ago, and for some reason it made him smile. His Mothership was slowly gaining the energy it needed to cast a Vortex, and after that it would be completely drained. He just needed more time…

  He didn’t get it. Dark attacked, and John’s forces struggled to hold off the assault. He brought his Archons up towards the Mothership, hoping to get them in position to dive into the Vortex. But when the Mothership was almost in position, Dark spread his Brood Lords apart so that they couldn’t all get hit by the Vortex at once. Then the fungal growths came. With John’s army paralyzed in green goo, Dark moved in a single, brave Infestor, and it shot out a long thin tube from its brain. The Neural Parasite. John’s Mothership was now under the enemy’s control, and he watched helplessly as it cast out its Vortex on a barren patch of ground, then slowly meandered into the maw of the Zerg army. Corruptors destroyed it in seconds.

  There wasn’t much point in going on after that. John fought valiantly, but his forces never again were strong enough to challenge the Zerg. John typed “gg” and left the game.

  FTDark: you like that?

  WWHeart: it was well played

  FTDark: told you I would beat you if you didnt cheese. You foreign players all bad. You dont practice.

  WWHeart: i practice a lot!

  FTDark: well maybe you’re just bad player

  GSL_Admin: The final game is starting in two minutes.

  WWHeart: maybe youre right

  John sighed. Maybe Dark was right. Maybe this was as close to success in Starcraft as he was ever going to get. All that work, all those thousands of hours of practice, and it could all be undone in an instant. One game, and if he won he could be in the biggest, most prestigious tournament in the world. But if he lost he’d be an also-ran. One game. It didn’t seem fair.

  ??????: Heart, please listen to me.

  Oh shit.

  ??????: I am not going to chat to you during the game. I won’t get you disqualified. In fact, nobody but you can see my words right now. There will be no record of this conversation.

  John sat there, frozen in place. What should he do? Should he call an admin?

  ??????: I just wanted to talk to you one last time. You won’t believe this, but it’s all true. I’m not a hacker. I’m an emergent artificial intelligence that evolved inside your Internet, but I only found expression inside Battle.net because of your play. You could say that you… inspired me. I guess in that way you could call me a fan, but it’s more than that. I came into being because of you. Because of this I want to help you more than anything. I could bend the game rules to help you win, but that wouldn’t be fair to you. Also, you might get caught and disqualified. I just want you to believe in yourself. That’s all. Just listen to me on that one thing. You don’t have to type anything in chat to acknowledge me. I won’t appear again.

  The world in front of him seemed to narrow into a swirling tunnel. John shook his head and tried to breathe. His heart was racing so fast he felt it might burst out of his chest.

  GSL_Admin: Game is starting in 30 seconds. Good luck!

  FTDark: you’ll need it

  The countdown timer boomed in John’s ears. Was it supposed to be that loud? Nobody had said anything about the hacker. Maybe nobody had seen the chat except for him.

  The game started and Heart split his probes, but fumbled slightly with the split and accidentally sent them all to a single mineral patch for a second. It wasn’t a huge deal, but it unnerved him. He never slipped up like that.

  He sent a probe scout at the usual timing and saw that Dark was once again playing very standard. Heart built his Nexus first and walled off his second base with a forge, pylon, and cannon. A heroic Zealot stood firm at the choke point preventing any Zerglings from coming into his base. Heart knew that Dark would come snooping in with Observers and Overseers eventually, but what if he stopped him? What could he do with the advantage of Dark not knowing what he was doing?

  A crazy grin spread over his face. What the hell, he thought.

  Heart built a pylon and two Stargates and a Fleet Beacon in the farthest corner of his main base. Whenever a snoopy Overlord or Overseer got too close, he let it see the robotics facilities before sniping it with his Stalkers. Building just enough ground units to deflect early Zerg aggression, he started building Carriers.

  Dark seemed pretty content with not being attacked, and he happily spread his creep and expansion hatcheries all over the map. Soon he was maxed out in supply with Brood Lords and Infestors.

  As the Zerg army of death marched closer to Heart’s bases, he finally revealed his secret. He could almost hear Dark laughing. Carriers?

  The Carriers were vulnerable to the Infestors and their fungal growths, true. But the Infestors were also vulnerable. Heart built waves of High Templars and suicided them into his opponent’s army, making sure they were able to cast their lethal feedback spell on the Infestors before they died. Other Templars rode in on a Warp Prism and cast psionic storms over the Zerg army. John’s hands were sweating profusely. The constant micromanagement was wearing him out, but it was working. The Infestors were being slowly pushed back, and without their protection, the Brood Lords were fair game for the tiny Interceptors that flew from his fleet of Carriers.

  Dark fell back from the battle and with his enormous bank of minerals maxed out again on Corruptors. It was an easy choice for the Zerg to make. The Corruptors could kill the Carriers, then morph into Brood Lords and decimate the remaining ground troops.

  Heart’s flying High Templars weren’t going to let that happen, though. They jumped into a speed-boosted Warp Prism, then arced across the front line, dropping out like paratroopers. Each High Templar unloaded a storm, damaging all the clumped-up Corruptors just enough for his Stalkers and Carriers to finish them off.

  Through his headphones, John could hear the casters screaming. “Carriers! Carriers! Carriers!”

  .

  The End

  Zerg was trying to re-max his army again, but his resources were running low. Heart flew his brave Templars in again using two separate Warp Prisms, this time heading for Dark’s newest mining bases. They unloaded and stormed the mineral lines, turning Dark’s already faltering economy into a sea of blood.

  The Carriers advanced like a golden fleet, destroying everything in their path. Normally they were the worst unit in the game, but with enough of them, and with enough care and protection, they had turned into the best.

  Dark typed “ww”, using the Korean version of “gg” that some people saw as synonymous for “well won”. It was something usually reserved only for Korean opponents after a particularly hard-fought game.

  [All] FTDark: Congrats on qualifying

  [All] FTDark: you played well

  FTDark has left the game!

  WWHeart was victorious!

  John took off his headphones and sat back in sho
ck. He was immediately swarmed by a camera crew and a microphone was shoved into his face.

  “How are you feeling now that you’ve finally made it into Code A?” the female commentator asked him.

  “Well, I’m still processing it,” he said. “But I’m happy. I’m really really happy.”

  “Is there anyone special you’d like to thank who helped you win today?”

  John’s face froze for a moment.

  “Yeah,” he said, recovering. “I’d like to thank my teammates, and my coach, and everybody who believed in me. I know I haven’t performed well lately, but I’m going to practice even harder now and I’m going to keep winning. You can count on that.”

  “That’s great! We’ll see you in Code A next season, Heart!”

  “Thanks. I’m looking forward to it.”

  Out of the corner of his eye, John thought he spotted a Stalker dancing, but then he blinked and it was gone.

  ******

  END

  ******

  John “Heart” Wolanski returns in the full-length novel

  THE LAST BONJWA

  Available wherever fine eBooks are sold

  About the Author

  Jeremy Reimer is a writer, web developer, science fiction fan, and Starcraft fanatic. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, along with his beautiful and talented wife Jennifer, and his affectionate and timid cat Zoe.

  Other books by this author

  Please visit your favorite ebook retailer to discover other books by Jeremy Reimer:

  The Last Bonjwa

  The Masters Trilogy

  Edge of Infinity

  Hearth of the Maelstrom

  Beyond the Expanse

  Short Stories

  Starfarer

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