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"Yes, sir. Sergeant Foster Cray, 934th Marines"
"Nice to meet you, Sergeant. And I should have mentioned that's former lieutenant. I've been rotated into the reserves, and you probably hate officers anyway, so let's skip the sirs and saluting, okay? And call me Dizz."
- Dennis Halkman conversing with Master Sergeant Foster Cray(src)
Dennis "Dizz" Halkman (possibly a false name) is a terran reaper. He possesses a short and thin stature, with a strong grip and an "aw, shucks" demeanor.
Biography[]
Early Service[]
In his early life, Halkman was an arsonist and a criminal. He had seen multiple court proceedings in his lifetime, and learned from there how to mimic lawyers. Eventually, his crimes caught up to him, and he was sentenced to serve in the Dominion Reaper Corps.
Halkman served in the 122nd Reapers. During either the Second Great War or the End War, he was in the Northwoods Forest on New Sydney when his unit supported the 934th Marines as they flushed out zerg from the area. One of their number, Boff, clipped a tree during the battle, and nearly collided with the marines on the ground. He was impressed that the marines managed to keep their focus during the incident.
The One-Day War[]
Augustgrad[]
In 2511, as the Dominion celebrated the sixth anniversary of the End War's conclusion, and Halkman, now a lieutenant, was in Augustgrad, where he met Master Sergeant Foster Cray. They reminisced on the New Sydney battle, and Halkman revealed that he was no longer part of the Reaper Corps, but had instead been transferred to the reserves.
He stepped in to defend Cray when he was confronted by Sergeant Stilson Blumquist, who was leading training exercises with a group of reapers, and sought to punish Cray for "interfering" with the exercise, trying to cover his men's inexperience. Halkman put on his lieutenant's bars and pulled rank on Blumquist, making him look like a fool in front of his men. Blumquist and his reapers blasted off, and Halkman revealed to Cray that he'd waited for Blumquist to dig himself a hole before he stepped in. He reflected that he'd seen too many sergeants and lieutenants lead people to their deaths through their own incompetence, and expressed his hope that by the time the next war started, men like Blumquist would have desk jobs. He admitted to Cray that he had no doubt that another war was coming. The two headed down to the officers' club.
Gystt[]
After Emperor Valerian Mengsk was called to the planet of Gystt to undergo talks with Overqueen Zagara of the Zerg Swarm and Hierarch Artanis of the Daelaam, Halkman and his reapers were called in to support the Emperor, alongside Cray. As the two were the only ones with experience in jungle combat, they were assigned to a team that would survey the planet and entertain if Zagara's claim of peace were genuine. Assigned with them was Tanya Caulfield, a ghost, Ulavu, an exiled protoss researcher, and Erin Wyland, a xenobiologist. Halkman was the ranking officer of the mission.
Halkman and his team landed on Gystt, but shortly after investigating the surrounding area were ambushed by zerg. However, due to their psi blocks they were able to ward them away. When they contacted Valerian for an explanation, Zagara explained it was an isolated incident and would not happen again if they kept moving. Soon they came across a strange structure made from the local flora, and while investigating were attacked by a second ground of zerg. Halkman and his team were forced inside. Once in, Halkman gave command of the team to Cray, an act which confused the marine as to Halkman's true intentions.
In the structure, they encountered strange, cobra-like zerg they nicknamed psyolisks, but were named the chitha. These zerg overwhelmed Caulfield with a psychic attack, but thanks to the intervention of Ulavu who revealed himself as a Nerazim, they were able to hold out against the attack. Halkman agreed to keep Ulavu's true identity a secret from Caulfield, and they proceeded into the inner chamber. In there, they found a new, strange zerg breed located in sacs. After fighting through more chitha and Caulfield revealed her pyrokinetic psionic powers, Halkman revealed his arsonist origins, and came up with a plan to use his grenades, zerg corpses, and her psionic powers to ignite the chamber and kill the zerg creatures. The plan went off without a hitch, and the survey team burned down the sacs.
This however caused a diplomatic problem, the sac creatures, known as adostra, creatures made from the essence of the xel'naga, and could not be reproduced. They were the ones who spread life into the planet, and Zagara denied any knowledge of the existence of the chitha. Valerian ordered the group to secure the third nest of adostra and ensure that it was not destroyed.
Halkman and his group left in a dropship, but it was quickly seized by mutalisks and dragged toward a psi emitter deployed by the Terran Dominion fleet. Halkman was able to use his jump jets to fly outside of the dropship and engage the mutalisks, helping to release the ship from their grasp. They were able to destroy them and land the dropship before a nuclear missile destroyed the psi emitter. The team then walked to the third nest.
Inside, Halkman and his crew met more resistance. He made note of a hole in the ceiling to Caulfield, which she interpreted as him hinting she should escape through it. The group found a biomechanical device similar to a terran communication device, and the group speculated that it was used by the zerg evolution master Abathur to control the chitha. The nest then came under siege by more zerg forces, and thanks to the quick thinking of Wyland the group was able to use fire to ward away the zerg. Wyland was injured in the attack, but the group managed to pull her out of the flames.
Soon, Zagara and a protoss force arrived, providing support. Valerian offered to discuss the situation aboard the Hyperion with Zagara, which in reality was a ploy to find Abathur's true location; the seventh leviathan that had been landed on the surface. The survey team accompanied Zagara onto the leviathan, and discovered Abathur and his allied queen Mukav. Halkman used his experience in courtrooms to bait out Abathur's true intentions, causing a brawl between Zagara and her allies and Abathur and his allies. Halkman engaged Mukav, who was killed by the combined efforts of the team, and Halkman utilized an ultrasonic device installed in his jump pack to disrupt the communications of the chitha swarming into the room, slowing them. Yet the endless tide began to overwhelm them, and in a last ditch effort, Caulfield overloaded her neural inhibitor and incinerated the chitha in the room.
Later, after the battle, Cray and Halkman shared a drink in the Hyperion officer's bar. Halkman discussed the conflict, and he revealed he had been assigned to the Zerg Compliance Ground-Force Unit. The two made a toast to those lost in the One-Day War, and the lives saved by the war they prevented.[1]
References[]
- ↑ Zahn, Timothy (November 8, 2016). StarCraft: Evolution. Del Rey Books. ISBN 0425284735.