AU (Alternate Universe). A Starcraft story was fine and stuff, but I found it quite disappointing at some points (As much as I want to bring Zeratul back in this AU, I kinda liked his death, redemption and leading his people into brighter future with his own death. Quite Dramatic, won't you say?). I changed the story a little bit to be more "positive".

War with Amon has ended, the fallen god has fallen to the unified power of the Koprulu sector, Zergs, Protoss and Terrans fought together versus the gigantic power of the god, and they won. A great price has been paid, many have died but life in Koprulu carried on.

Protoss have formed a full military alliance with Terrans, in the process, Terrans and Protoss alike learned a lot from each other, cultural exchange was made, colonies of both Protoss and Humans were in progress, and some of Protoss technology allowed to do some scientific breakthroughs for Terran Science.

Protoss have rebuilt Aiur with a great help of Terrans and Zergs, Queen of blades have withdrawn all zergs from there, which were rouge in past now were in swarm hold once again. Terrans were giving all the resources that Protoss needed. When Aiur was rebuilt, the second Shakuras was formed, but not as dark templars hideout, but as second Protoss Colony with Matriarch Vorazun as its leader and representative.

Artanis Remained on Aiur as Hierarch and leader of remaining Daelaam. He ensured Alliance and technological exchange with Terrans as a token of gratitude for helping them in fighting Amon and helping in rebuilding Aiur. Most Protoss didn't agree at first, but then they noticed the hidden "nobility" of Terrans, accepting them in process.

Terrans rebuilt their sectors after the war, the destruction Amon caused was counted in trillions of credits, but Terran succeeded in rebuilding capital and main colonies. Zergs gave Terran their old worlds so they could colonize them again, while Zerg would only have Char and Zerus.

Rule of the new emperor, Valerian Mengsk gave people hope of everlasting peace and prosperity, though his rule met with small opposition from General Davis. Emperor nearly lost his throne, and Davis almost succeeds if not for an elite ghost, Nova Terra. She disobeyed the order to bring her back killing Davis in the process, but after small intervention from Raynor, and what's more interesting, her former friend, Gabriel Tosh. Nova was pardoned and returned to the ranks of elite ghost unit.

Matt Horner became trusted advisor and friend to Emperor Valerian, one of best admirals in the noted history of Terran Dominion. His unparalleled skills were enough to put down Tal'Darim fleet, including city-sized mothership. His reforms were enough to put back Terran Fleet back on the foot, making it once again formidable force in the galaxy.

Hyperion was rebuilt, the looks were the same, but armory was not, from 40 laser batteries there were now 240 giving a new potential in orbital bombardment and space battles, Nuclear arsenal was added to improve siege possibilities of Hyperion, Reckoning class nuke was enough to eradicate any fortress or city it would hit, even Protoss shields or Adaptation of zergs would not be enough to last it. Yamato cannon was upgraded from old designs to improved Yamato MK5 which was enough to put down Leviathan or Mothership with 2 shots. Hyperion was now fourfold bigger than the previous model, making it a new Admiral class ship. The crew remained the same, of course, new personnel was recruited to maintain a lot bigger ship now.

And there was James Raynor… His story was long enough, but still few chapters left to tell about his past… and the future. Buckle up, grab some good scotch and enjoy.

Koprulu Sector

Korhal Orbit, Hyperion

4 Years after War with Amon.

Raynor was at the orbit of the Korhal, acting as patrolling force around the planet, nothing special. A normal job while he had nothing else to do. Down there in Augustgrad, Valerian Mengsk and Matt Horner were giving a speech about old War that happened 4 years ago. Of course, it was a grand celebration for both Terran and Protoss, even if those 2 were celebrating this event in a different type of manner. While Terran made it loud and grand, Protoss were a lot more humble about it.

So the Celebration was going well, Raynor could watch it all from the screen, Valerian loved to show his kindness and prove he was not his father, so he always went soft when in public. But when it was about war and possible deaths. Then he was one of those people Raynor would not anger.

Valerian had his own charisma too, his father used false promises and threats, while Valerian used honesty and humbleness. He didn't give any false informations about the current state of the situation, he always said what was true. And Raynor respected him for that.

The deck of Hyperion seemed to be bored. No wonder, when most of their mates were celebrating and toasting the deaths of their comrades. They had patrol duty, while no one would even dare to attack them.

The navigator was annoyed by all that. "Man! Why do I we always get patrol duty?" He asked the second navigator

"I don't know, its peace anyway, even zerg are sitting in one place doing nothing." He crossed his arms looking at incoming info.

"Quiet! Both of you!" Said a tall man, who was checking the data on his datapad. It was an officer, below Raynor but still, he had huge authority over all the crew. Raynor, of course, didn't mind their small talk, he would rather be in a pub drinking whiskey now.

Raynor just took out his Hip Flask and said to officer calmly "Let them, Andrew, they're just talking, that's it."

"We're on patrol duty, sir! We should keep the-" He as cut with the look from Raynor, shape as razors, and that meant only one thing 'Shut it'.

"Patrol duty that may be, but doubtfully someone will attack us right now, not when there is 2000 battlecruisers on orbit and about 50 million soldiers on the planet surface. Relax Andrew, that's an order." Said Raynor, as he put his legs on virtual map table.

Reluctantly officer nodded and returned to his spot, where with an angered look he observed a lot more talkative crew. Raynor just smirked with a chuckle.

As he was about to drink some whiskey he had in the hip flask, a red alert appeared on his screen. "What the?!-". He couldn't believe what he just saw, a red alert, right here on Korhal, the second most protected planet of Koprulu Sector was under attack. He received the call from Matt while whole crew was taking Battlestations. On his screen face of his old pal appeared "Matt? What the hell is happening?"

"We have no idea…" Said a bit confused. "We were about to finish the speech and this thing appeared right in the middle of Augustgrad" Next to his face appeared a picture of an old building, looked similar to the gate, what's more, strange it arose out of nowhere. The gate itself was tall, but not tall enough to fit a thor in it. Maybe 12 Meters.

"What is that thing?" Raynor was confused too "Is it Protoss tech? Doesn't look like one too."

"We have no idea Commander" Even if Raynor was not commander anymore, Matt used his old title anyway. Old habits die hard. "Augustgrad guards are securing the area… Wait a second. We're detecting life forms coming out of it!" That didn't mean anything good to Raynor. What's worse communication died right away after first life form passed.

"Damn! Andrew! Tell all available squads that I need them all armed and get to hangars, prepare all medivacs to deploy!

"Sir? Shouldn't we-" Again the look from Raynor "Right away sir!"

"And get me armor while we're at it…" He walked out of the command center.

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'

As the 20 medivacs left the Hyperion Hangar the communications were back. Matt explained that from 'gate' appeared odd creatures, with humans. What's more interesting those creatures looked like hybrids between humans and animals. The whole unit in medivac just looked at them with awe. But it got even more interesting, the humans wore plate armors and had medieval weaponry.

"Those guys have bloody swords! Unbelievable!" One marine laughed.

"Look at those guys! Freaking minotaurs!"

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"I am afraid not gentlemen" Answered Matt "They tried to attack citizens and even if we have the technological advantage, the guarding marines have a problem with holding them back."

"What? With all due respect Admiral, but marines have gauss rifles that shred anything and those guys have… swords." He tried to hold back his laugh. Like the rest of the team.

"Even so, we got about 500 marines there, while the enemy attacked in large numbers.

"How large?" Asked Raynor.

"Our scans show us about 30 thousand lifeforms"

"30?!" Raynor shouted confused "How the hell they got 30 thousand enemies on Korhal with such primitive tech Matt?"

"We do not know Commander" Grand Admiral just sighed "But we know one thing, they're hostile and must be eradicated before they kill anyone, for now, the explosion from this thing killed and wounded many.

"What's the casualties?" Raynor expected a small number, but it was not.

"about 500 hundred dead. 600 wounded" As Matt read aloud the report. We expect more soon, but none of the marines fighting right now got wounded, only citizens." He said shaking his head with a sad look on his face.

"Damn!" Raynor punched the wall of medivac "Pilot! What's our E.T.A?"

"One minute Sir!" She answered as fast as she could.

"Matt, what about other units? I can't believe the military wasn't prepared for something like that!" Raynor was furious.

"No, we weren't, we had 500 marines and other personnel just to keep peace and engage any terrorist forces that would happen. But this? This isn't something you can prepare for. But if that will put some rest on your mind we sent alert to all personnel right now, we got armored divisions, air support and few contingents of soldiers was sent to assist.

"Do we know their E.T.A?" Raynor asked again.

"They are in the middle of mobilization, so my guess is 20 minutes."

"Alright Matt, we will try to hold them off till cavalry will arrive." He assured his friend.

"Good luck commander, Horner, out." The transmission was ended.

Raynor mind was racing with thoughts, medieval weaponry? Fantasy like creatures? That's too much for him. Way too much.

"We're landing Sir!"

"You heard her boys and girls!" He shouted to squad "Ready yourselves, protect civilians!" The ramp opened showing the chaos around them "Move! Move! Double time!"

Everyone in medivac ran out, showing the Marines shooting at invaders. Every medivac was now emptied and it gave solid 200 soldiers right now. Raynor immediately gave orders to all other squad leaders "Everyone, follow me and secure any civilians you see! Move it!"

They ran in wedge formation covering right and left flank, rushing towards the line of marines that deployed some bunkers and was shooting with all they got. As they get to them, Raynor was greeted by one of the soldiers. A big man in red armor, firebat.

"Commander Raynor! Long time no see!" He greeted happily with a shake of the hand.

"Miles! I thought you were done for good on Char!" He greeted back with a great smile on his face.

"That was but a scratch Commander. Damage would be lethal for anyone but me, but they repaired my stomach right after Char. And I was ready to carry on my duty.

"Glad to hear it, we will chat later old buddy, but now we need to kill those bastards before they do any more damage." He said with a confident tone.

"I couldn't agree more Commander, but we need backup, they keep swarming us, screaming something in the odd language. And I can't understand shit."

"Matt, you heard that?" He asked through communicator built in his suit.

"I did Commander" He answered "We got ghost teams on translating this language, it will take some time but we got enough of samples-" He was cut by Miles shout.

"MORE OF THEM COMING!" He shouted so loud that no one even needed a communicator to hear him. A huge wave of enemy warriors was coming towards them "Commander! My men, scp's and anyone who's under my command are now yours!"

Raynor nodded "Do we have any siege tanks?" Miles just shook his head. " Damn! Matt! What about those armored divisions?"

"Halfway towards the rendezvous point, ten minutes."

"Alright, everyone! Form a double firing line!" Enemy soldiers were close enough, marauders with firebats ready and towering behind 2 lines of marines, ready to explode stuff with punisher grenades and roast it with a liquid chemical merge of happiness from firebats. "Light them up!" Raynor shouted to his comm and so 700 marines and marauders started shooting, a wall of light and falling shells of ammunition were echoing in streets of augustgrad. Shredding the enemy like nothing, leaving massacred dead bodies on the streets. Raynor shouted again "Hold fire!" And so they did.

Few survivors were screaming something in their language. Were they calling for help? Insulting the enemy? No one will know since firebats went forward to finish the job. The remaining survivors were covered in a chemical flaming spray of firebats, ending their suffering instantly. As they returned to the formation, another wave of warriors rushed at them, now instead of small wave, it was everything they got.

"Open fire!" Raynor shouted at his communicator. Everyone obliged to order and done so. The enemy fell like flies, but still, it was not enough to kill them all. "Stand your ground! Do not give them an inch!" Raynor shouted again, firing his gauss at minotaur-like creatures. Marauders were shooting their high explosive grenades which torn apart all of them, destroying their formations and leaving them shattered. The situation was getting worse and worse until a barrage of rockets landed on the enemy, devastating them in seconds. Behind them appeared a gigantic war machine. And that meant only one thing.

"THOR IS HERE!" Another deadly barrage of 250 mm cannons landed on the enemy, destroying the whole formation like nothing. Killing thousands in seconds.

"Commander Raynor, the cavalry has arrived, give us targets," Said the incoming Viking pilot.

"Glad to see you boys, transform and give us solid covering fire here on those coordinates, we must assist the citizen" Responded Raynor

"Roger that Commander, you heard the man! Begin the raid!" 20 Vikings landed before the line of marines, a giant 10 meters mechs started shooting with their Gatling cannons, explosive ammunition merged with Gatling gave a lot of collateral damage and anti-personnel potential.

The battle didn't even last 10 minutes since all enemy forces were shredded to pieces, leaving only a few survivors which were taken as hostages, and eventual source of information.

Marines helped to gather wounded citizens to medivacs for fast transport, the ones that were gravely wounded, had to be healed instantly on the field by battle medics, to be in shape to at least survive to the closest healing facility before dying. The whole augustgrad was covered in massacred bodies, Terran citizens and enemy bodies laying on each other, hard to identify with anyone in such mess.

By the time all the forces arrived in Augustgrad, including a battalion of medics, 40 thousand marines and rest of armored divisions which included thors, siege tanks and goliaths, air units and support units, the area was being secured while searching for remaining survivors.

When the rabble was removed by scps by the damage that was made by explosive weapons of terrans, and all Terran citizen bodies taken while enemy bodies were burned by firebats. "Bloody mess" All Raynor could say.

Bunkers were set around the gate, and siege tanks to eventually eradicate any threats instantly after they again pass through it. After what happened here, Terrans will be a lot more cautious now.

Raynor just stood around of collected dead bodies, children and adults alike. He saw this image more than he would like, Brood Wars, Fall of Aiur, Amon War… He saw too many dead in his lifetime.

A medic walked towards him and hear her Miles still clad in his firebat armor, looking still at the datapad. "Too many dead, a surprise attack that killed many…" She said with a sad look.

"No one saw that coming Layna, we couldn't react fast enough. Especially today." He assured her.

Both stopped when they saw Raynor, instantly saluting. "At ease... " He said in low voice. But then he noticed her "Nikara? What are you doing here?"

"Healing the wounded, I thought it's obvious commander" The smirk appeared on Layna face.

"That's not what I meant, last time I saw you was before the second great war" The frown appeared on Raynor's face.

"l was hiding, or did you forget that most of the heaven devils had few enemies, and biggest of them was Arcturus?" She said simply.

He didn't forget that most devils were hiding because of their old sins, one of them at least had one. Especially him and Tychus. "I did not forget." It was all he said.

But all he cared was an explanation on how those fantasy like guys got here. And how so many people died, it doesn't seem to be likely that nearly 600 hundred dead died from swords, not to say about another 500 wounded.

As he was to ask something, he was a ghost, which just appeared right before him. He hates when they do that, can spook everyone.

"Commander Raynor," He said simply "Emperor Valerian demands your presence, its most of importance. Your transport is on the way." Then he cloaked again disappearing into thin air.

"I hate those guys," Muttered Blaze "I never get used to it"

"Nor do I, well then mates. We will talk later, haven't seen you for a while so you probably have some nice stories to tell." He then turned to his armored vehicle which just arrived.

"See you later Jim!" Nikara waved her hand as she turned back to treat wounded.A

As Raynor took to sit in armored transport, putting his gauss rifle in the front of him, all he said was "I am getting old for this."

'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'-'

Raynor as soon as got out of his CMC armor he went straight to the imperial palace, but not the throne room but interrogation chambers, not a pleasant place, not with all those spectres and ghost's as interrogators. Their PSI abilities can breach any mind, doesn't matter if it's Protoss, Zerg or Human, all minds will eventually surrender.

PSI abilities give a lot of useful skills, taking control of other beings, lifting something that weight is tenfold bigger than the user, and reading minds. Of course, the list is a lot bigger, but those three are the most used abilities that ghost and spectres use.

As Raynor was lead by two Marines into the main interrogation chamber, where Emperor Valerian was observing one of the invaders. The translation was not fully complete, so on screen was appearing a translation in real time from one of listening ghosts. From what they learned from both mind reading and "normal" talk was that they were expedition force, but the truth was that only a few commanders had been told it's actually an invader force to conquer what was on another side of the gate. As everyone was aware, they picked the worst possible place to invade. Valerian, Matt, and Raynor were listening, but not believing at all. "A portal between worlds?" Matt muttered under the nose "I understand Protoss can do that, but they have a technological advantage which surpasses ours by… A lot." Then he looked at the armored soldier in primitive half-plate armor "And they? I am not even sure if they reached the gunpowder technology."

"Not to mention the bloody minotaurs" Raynor grumbled aloud.

"This seems outlandish to everyone gentlemen," Valerian said, looking at the ongoing interrogation, where a soldier looked like a legionnaire from Roman Culture back from Earth. "But we can't forget that many citizens died today, and we're not sure if it was their job by creating this gate, or if it was something controlled by someone else. That reminded me something" Valerian put finger on his ear, contacting the interrogating ghost. "Nova, ask him about the gate, who created it, and why." The ghost received the order and nodded.

"Nova is interrogating him?!" Raynor nearly laughed "Oh I feel sorry for him already."

"She's the best at it," Valerian said confidently. "But her ability for carrying a high-priority task is found to be lacking in her previous missions." He said with a sad look on his face.

"You're still angry after what she has done with Davis?" Raynor asked with a frown.

"I am not angry at her," He sat on one of the chairs still looking at the screen of interrogation. "I am disappointed at her."

"She killed a 'unstable' lady, which was a danger to your rule and people alike." Matt pointed out. "Maybe it was a necessary evil?"

"No evil is necessary." Valerian just Sighed "I don't want to be recognized as a killer in my first years of rule. I promised fair rule and justice for all. Even for Davis."

"Even if she nearly killed you, brought Tal'Darim fleet to one of the colonies killing many colonists there and what's worse, made a huge faction that supported her and bringing back old Dominion?" Raynor said with a shook of the head. "I spared many enemies, some of them gave up, some still went after me. But if I was at your place, I would kill her." He said with a confident tone.

When Valerian wanted to say something, the interrogation was over. Nova left the room, and the one that was interrogated was utterly scared. "It seems she's done with him. Let's hear out what they said." With the recorded video came a translated voices.

Beginning of Interrogation

"Who are you?" She began with a bored voice, looking at a dominated warrior who was fully under her control.

"Calancius of Saderan Empire, Commander of Legio Expeditionis."

Nova continued "What is that object you came from?"

"We do not know, when it appeared we got an order to check that object, and later on, use it."

"Why did you attack us?" A slight of anger appeared on Nova's face.

"Our plans were slightly different, our task was to do scout, set up a camp and wait for messengers with orders to continue. We attacked because that was our order too, to attack anyone at another side of the gate, subjugate, take slaves and loot." No emotion was visible on commander face, all because of mind control.

"Why are you using swords and plate armors?"

"It's our standard weaponry we use in the army of Sanderan Empire. Armors forged by finest armorers, and swords enchanted by runes of power.

"Runes?"

"Magical words that enhance user by various magic powers. Be it strength or agility."

"Are you saying you're using 'Magic'?" Nova asked confused.

"Yes."

End of Interrogation

"Did i heard it right?" Raynor asked with a frown "Did he just said 'Magic'?" He just took a sip from his hip flask. "That's way too way freakish for me now."

"Maybe he meant Psionic abilities?" Matt thought aloud with confusion in his tone.

"I am not sure if we do have some of those 'runes' he mentioned, hell, this is all messed up." And he took another sip from the hip flask.

"There must be an explanation to this," Matt said while doing round walks around the room.

"There is," Valerian said, making two of them look at the young Emperor "I just got all information from the scientific team that was investigating the object. First, we are sure its kind of gateway, second, its range is humongous reaching the point that may be even in another galaxy." He handled the datapad to Matt.

"So you're saying the primitives made gateway that surpasses even the Protoss? Thanks for making it even worse." Raynor chuckled.

"As the soldier said, they discovered it" Valerian began "So it means someone or something else made it."

"Xel'Naga?" Matt asked.

"Only Kerrigan would tell" Raynor grumbled, "Or Protoss, they are masters of reverse engineering after all."

"Carrying on, as I said, the gateway is portal between Korhal and their world."

"Wait so we can use it as well?" Raynor asked.

"Yes. Our Drones went through just fine, one of the scientific team went through and returned afterward, feeling bit fuzzy but no changes in their bodies." He looked at the datapad again, checking the numbers of casualties. "First we're going to pay respects to the dead citizen, refund the families and clear all that damage in Augustgrad."

"And then Junior?" Raynor asked.

"We will pay a small visit to this 'Saderan Empire'"An anger appeared on Emperor's face.

Some info I forgot to mention.

-I am not a native English speaker, hence you will find grammar mistakes / Lack of synonyms / Etc.

-I am a novice when it comes to Fanfics, this will be my first English Fanfic, but second overall (My first one was a Polish one, posted on AO3.)

-I am mostly casual when it comes to writing, but I will not straightly follow the Gate Storyline, it will be slightly different.

-I will upload when I got time, but since I got final class now and I prepare for the main exam, it will be quite hard to post anything, but Ill try.

-I am starting every info with "I", I don't know why.

-I try to keep characters as in the game, but it will not be perfect at all. (Sometime it may be even anti-climatic)

-And lastly, and most importantly, gib me feedback, tips or encouragement is always welcome!