Chapter 1
A young protoss lie on a bed deep i sleep yet disturbed by twitches that showed him dreaming. "AHH". As he awoke Alaric thought that he was being attacked and he jumped to his feet psi blades at the ready. Alaric is a young zealot with a very angular head, more angular than most, and reverse articulated legs. He was a proud member of the alien race known as the Protoss. "Is something wrong Alaric.", Asked the familiar voice of his friend Zarith from outside his door. "No I'm fine, just a bad dream". "Ok". He climbed out of his bed and walked to the door. As he opened the door his com rang. "Yes?" he inquired "We need you at the bridge now." came the mechanical voice of a probe, basic worker and drone of the protoss forces. "O.K.". As he headed there he thought about why he might be needed. He had never been summoned there, and you generally had to be very important to get summoned.
As he arrived he was met by a group of zealots that said "welcome". "Why have I been summoned"?, Demanded Alaric. "Because, you have been promoted to squad captain, you now lead a group of 9 other zealots into battle." Replied Koronis Executor of the fleet. "WHAT, I do not think I am ready." murmured Alaric. "Trust me young one you are.", replied the executor and leader of the fleet. "Now go to the barracks and meet the men you will be leading"." As you wish.", and Alaric walked away.
As he walked down to the barracks he mused over what had just happened. I can't be captain I don't have nearly enough experience as Zarith or Shark. Oh well I guess I will have to get used to it. I still don't know why I'm captain though. As he reached the barracks he heard a group of zealots murmuring in the barracks he was sent to. As he walked in he gaped at his squad. There were his two best friends Zarith and Shrak. "No." he murmured," It can't be". "WHAT!", shouted everyone in the room when they saw him. He also saw some of the most venerable zealots ever. Well ones that weren't captains already. "Well, well, well, looks like weave been outdone somehow doesn't it Shark", commented Zarith. "Yes, yes it does my good friend." replied Shark in a dry but humorous tone. As Alaric walked around one thought was going through his head over and over, This can't be right, This can't be right. Then with a click his com came on again." We have the first assignment for your squad" , came the executors voice. "All right I will go to the bridge to get the orders meanwhile Zarith you get the men ready to deploy to the hanger." "Well it looks like your already used to giving orders then.", Zarith said plainly with a glint of laughter in his eyes.
When he reached the bridge he was met by a chorus of "ADUN BE WITH YOU CAPTAIN". "And the same to you good men.", replied Alaric. "Ah captain, i've been expecting you.", said the executor. "What is our mission executor?", inquired Alaric. "You are being sent to the front lines.", replied the executor. "There you will find that one of our resource bases was recently attacked. You are to guard it with the four other squads we are sending there". "YES SIR".
Chapter 2
As the squad went down to the surface Alaric thought back to when he was young and would see his brothers warping through gates to the battle fields. He now thought it very odd to be doing it himself. The calls of one of his men interrupted his thoughts. "Ummm, sir you might want to look at this." "What is it soldier speak." The zealots reply was shaky, "Sir there, there all dead." Alaric's reply was an angry storm, "WHAT, HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. THEY WERE ATTACKED JUST 10 CYCLES AGO!" (10 cycles=10 minutes) "Well sir the Zerg have already set up a base over our ruins." replied Zarith. Alaric, who was stunned replied quietly, "Very well tell the shuttle mind to hover out of sight while I contact command." "Yes sir.", came the crisp reply. "Command this is Captain Alaric of the 12th squad." The reply was almost inaudible from the static, "Go ahead captain". "Sir the base has been destroyed". "well thats not good" came back the flat reply. "Land and see if you can retake the position." "SIR YES SIR." As the squad touched down Alaric instantly knew they were in trouble. his suspicions were instantly proved correct as a group of zerglings popped out of the ground like moles in a whack-a-mole game. "ATTACK" shouted the captain and his men charged into the fray. The zerglings were quickly dispatched. As he commanded his squad to check in for wounds he began to ponder where the other squads were. His thoughts were quickly answered as the other shuttles began to descend.
One of them disembarked a high templar and a probe. "Captain, take your squad and scout out the zerg base." Ordered the templar. "Do NOT be seen." His reply when it came was terse but nervous, "Yes templar". As his squad moved from cover spot to cover spot around the base he took mental notes of all their structures. Let me see, 1 lair, 3 hatcerys, a spawning pool, and a hydralisk den, as well as defenses. A reasonably well developed base for 30 minutes, not 15 though. I must report this.
When they returned He sent his men to the pylons and shield batteries to refreshen themselves. He himself went straight to the templar in charge. "Adun touridos templar." The commonly used greeting flowed freely from his psychic lips. "Ah welcome captain what news do you have for me" came the reply. "Nothing good I'm afraid The have a base reasonable for 30-45 minutes work." stated the captain. "What but it's only been 20 if that." Was the reply that greeted the captain. "I know sir I believe that they have worked out a way to speed up the mutation process." As soon as he said that the templar and two of his guards looked sharply up at him. "Then we must speed up our warp in process." the templar stated flatly. "Shall i post scientists on the job sir", asked one of his guards. "Make it so", the templar replied. "as for you captain", he continued "you are to supervise the construction of our base. Your records show you excelled in that class as a student." Alaric's reply was,eager, "Yes sir."
Chapter 3
As he and his squad settled down in their sleeping chambers he went over the days work. Let me see, got promoted to captain, landed on a hostile planet, did my first squad scout mission, set up a real protoss base. An exciting day if nothing else. He had a very short sleep. The instant he awoke he knew something was wrong. When he opened his eyes he saw what. there was a zerg strike force settled in the middle of his base. He yelled and alarm and instantly leapt into battle. The last thing he thought before he fell on the enemy was. adun help us there are too many. The first thing he attacked was a zergling. he brought one psi blade in a great arc on top of his foe and sliced one of its scythe-like blades clean off. he then spun with his momentum and brought the other blade dow on-top of the beast's head clean through the jaw. As the ling fell limp he was bowled aside by a rampaging ultralisk (A most likely larger than tank sized creature with 4 giant curved blades) and flew into a hydralisk's back which was spiked up for attack. he felt 10 or so needle sharp spines stab into his back and thought he would black out. Luckily his shield took most of the damage but it was out until later when it would recharge. He lashed backwards with his blades and felt deep satisfaction as it ripped through the beast arms and torso. It to went limp and he landed nimbly on his feet. He took a brief rest and appraised the battle. Oh great adun were loosing. The an Ultralisk bowled him over and he got stuck on its face confusing it and sending it into a wild rampage. It shook and roared and he finally slithered down its front. He hit the ground with a loud WUMP that knocked the breath out of him. A much worse pain hit when he felt a crushing weight land on his right leg. He let out a feral screech of pain and whipped around with both blades burning a blood red instead of the normal blue that was common to the protoss. The slicked through the flesh of the beast like a hot knife through butter. The ultralisk roared and trampled away against all will of its controlling overlord as if the psi blades had caused much more damage then just cutting and burning. After that Alaric black out from the wound in his leg.
Finally he woke up in a medical bay in an unknown area. He could feel his leg but it didn't feel quite right. When he looked down at it he immediately wished he hadn't. Where his leg had been was now a prosthetic limb. The medical probe noticed he was awake and, interupting the process of applying fake skin, called someone in. "Ahh your finally awake, good good." Alaric recognized the voice as the executor of the fleet. "Where's my leg, and wher am I." The captain choked out hoarsely. "Gone I'm afraid, we lost it in the battle and was beyond repair." That was the probe speaking. "Aww come on I liked that leg." With that he also chocked out a hoarse laugh. "As for where you are you are on the command cruiser. Captain I have one question to ask you before I leave you to rest." The executor said. "Very well ask away" the captain replied. "What is the last thing you remember" "Oh thats an easy one. I lashed out at the creature that crushed my leg. There was something odd about my blades. Oh yes thats right they were blood red." he finished with a questioning look on his face. "Not just you blades your whole body was covered in red psi fire." (which was the cause of the extra pain in the ultralisk if you didn't know) The other protoss replied. "Wow" He didn't know what else to say. "Only a select few of our kind get that effect when enraged as you were. We can't train you to use it or anything it just is. You will remain in your current unit and continue to lead them"(I bet you were expecting him to have like a special promotion weren't you. Well to bad. I got a way cooler plot for you) He took a moment to reply, "Uh huh, well anyways did we win?" If the protoss could smile then the executor would be grinning ear to ear. "Thanks to your little trick with that ultralisk it rampaged through their forces and literally paved a path to victory with his own forces bodies. Well now I must leave you to rest, good night captain." With that he left with the blue echos of himself that happened quite often with high templar.
Once he was finally allowed back on duties he began to run his squad through many training exercises since they had been put on standby after the fight. He tried not to comment to harshly on their technique since some of them were far more well trained than him. although he did find them all lacking the unique touch of their own fighting style like he often used. He tried again and again to get them to use such forms. "Zarith come over here and train with me use your own style or this might be too easy." As they circled Zarith lunged with the predictable double jab. Alaric simply dodged the first strike then used his own blade to turn the other to the left. He then did a quick but controlled spin and using that momentum brought both fists, blades off, down on Zarith's back. With a surprised UFF he fell to the ground stunned. He got back up and this time tried to do a flying leap over Alaric's head with blades extended down to slice the captain from above. This attempt was cut short as Alaric simply ducked the blades and caught his opponents foot and brought him crashing to the ground. He pinned him there and growled to him, "now try something I don't expect." Shaken but not discouraged Zarith got up and without hesitation lunged at his captain. with what looked like another doulbe jab he sent the first blade in and brought the other in a wide arc. Since the captain had side stepped the first blade the other caught him in the back of his head and should it not have been for his shield he would have been decapitated. "Well done you finally got me. Go rest all of you we might be called into battle at any moment." As if the enemy had read his mind the attack alarm went off that very instant. His squad and himself rushed down the corridor to the shuttle bay for boarding. Halfway there though he was randomly recalled by an arbiter down to the planet surface. "What the...", in the moment he was confused he tripped over a rock placed in front of him since he had still been running. He hit the ground with an undignified Uff.
Chapter 4
"Sorry for the interruption captain but we have special need of you.", Came a voice that sounded alot deeper than that of a normal protoss, even a high templar. he looked up and saw a protoss face with what looked like the lower jaw of a hydralisk as armor. A dark templar. What are they doing here? Out loud he said, "So, what do you want." Again came the dark and low voice." We require the assistance of a zealot like yourself to retrieve an object of extreme importance to us." The request shocked him because the dark templar are not know for their reliance on anyone but their own kind. When he finally replied it was a cautious answer, "Ok, and what might this object be." In reply the templar stated," We cannot tell you. All you need to know is that it is being held by terrans on the other side of this planet." Great, now I have to deal with terrans. Chances are there are zerg along the way too. Well chances are they won't take no for an answer. Oh well might as well go along for the ride. Out loud he asked," So where will it be." The dark templar threw him a data crystal in answer," All the information you need is on that." with that he walked away. Fantastic, I'm stuck on a backwater planet. I'm not even sure if it was the same one we were orbiting. On top of that I've been recruited by the dark templar to retrieve some random thing form a probably heavily defended terran base. Hey adun you want to hear me tempt fate. "could this day get any worse." See I'm doing it ironically so I think I'm safe. With that he read the contents of the crystal. On the crystal was a show of the bases size as well as the location of the crystal. (The base itself is fully developed. of course Alaric can only guess at that. doesn't being omniscient rock?)
Fan-friging tastic. From the size of that base I'd guess they have siege tanks. If I get caught in the sights of one of those things I'm fried. Oh well no sense moping around when I know I have to do it. Here goes nothing. With those thoughts he marched off towards the hills that most closely skirted the terran base. Once he was up on his perch he got a good look at the base. He had been right, they did have siege tanks. With that in mind he formulated a plan. It all hinged on weather or not the zerg came or not. He was lucky because the dark templar had left him a stasis pod and supplies. he set the pod to awaken him only in 8 hour cycles or if any zerg were detected in the area. He staked there for quite awhile then finally the alarm went off too soon to be an eight hour marker. He checked his mini map (yes I said mini map for all you gamers out there). Sure enough there were multiple purple blobs used to designate zerg. They were moving quickly towards the terran base in an attack formation. Perfect. Once the zerg fall upon them I will come to their aid. Hopefully that will gain me their trust and allow me in as a friend. If not then I will leave, sneak in at night through one of the most badly damaged areas and steal the shard. Either way its a win win. all that raced through his mind as he prepared to leap into battle.
Chapter 5
He lay poised for quite awhile as the battle heated up he realized the terrans were losing. That is when he leapt into battle. The first thing closest to him was a defiler casting plague over the terran forces. He leap onto its scorpion like body and plunged both his blades downwards into its head. In return he was splattered with the warm and sticky ichor of its brain as well as a last shudder before it died. With that done he charged off to the next opponent, a bug like he had never seen before. It looked to be a human dog but horribly mutated. He slid past it just before it leapt onto a fallen marine and sliced off its front paws making it sprawl at his feel. He ended its life quickly. Then a ghost charged at him combat knife ready. he decided not to use is blades and instead gestured for a knife of his own. The ghost, being an unusually nice one tossed him his spare. "lets dance" He ran and flipped over Alaric's head. He was ready for this and used the same trick to down him as he had used to down Zarith in their earlier session. With a surprised mumpf the ghost hit the ground. He flipped over on his back and, with surprising strength, kicked Alaric and sent him flying a good five feet. Stunned and sore he didn't move in time to miss the knife completely and it simply cut his arm. Apparently his shield generator wasn't online since it had never come into effect. He decided to stop using combat skills and just pinned the ghost to the ground saying, "I'm trying to freaking help you. So why in Aduns name are you attacking me. I haven't attacked any terrans this entire battle." He left the ghost a very confused enemy of sorts. Alaric must not have gotten anything through since no terrans ever helped him and he even had to kill a few of them. Once the battle was over the terran commander walked up to him. He gave off a very rugged look and was oddly wearing combat armor. Usually the terran commanders sat back and drank while the soldiers did the fighting. "Speak quickly before I have my boys fry your alien ass. We don't like aliens much." The voice was like gravel rolling down a wash rack. " I seek a shard of crystal that i believe you hold." he replied, " could I perhaps take it off your hands as I am sure it is what theses zerg came for. They are attracted to all kinds of power. I myself feel the crystal's psychic calls." The commander stared at him like he was crazy. " your kidding right. We hold this base for four effing months and now some snobby protoss guy comes in here offering to 'take it off our hands' as you said. NO WAY." Alaric was stunned by the rudeness of the commander but saw no choice. As the terran gave the order for his men to raiser there weapons he called upon the small amount of psi powers he had and focused the smallest psi storm to ever be recorded. The confusion generated by the small shocks allowed him to knock down the commander and run through the rest of the marines into the science facilities. He searched for a very long time and finally came to the chamber with the shard he saw that it was being guarded by 4 marines. Well I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I did just set off a psi storm and knock down their commander. He thought to himself. Knowing there was no other choice he knew he had to kill them. Focusing yet another storm to confuse them he then charged down the hall on servo enhanced legs and bowled the first one over stabbing his psi blade through the helmet visor causing the inside of the helemt to be splatter with gore. Flipping to the side he dogged the crossfire of two other marines and causing them to damage each-other. Kicking the marine he was behind forward into his companions he sliced through the door control panels and the marines cooling pack at the same time. As the door slid open he leap through and landed inside just as the marines suit overheated causing the trooper inside to be fried and the suit itself to explode filling the hallway with bloody chunks of dead marine. Snatching the crystal and running toward the exit as soon as he got out the door he was recalled again. "Do you have to do that every time?" The templar chuckled and replied, "No it's just amusing to see you stumble. I see you have the shard." The next few words were oddly mixed and more multi voiced. "Now may I have it." Alaric was troubled my the change in the voice and said, "What do you need it for anyway. I come all the way out here, almost get fried by a bunch of alien hating terrans, and you expect me to just give it to you no questions asked. Sure just as soon as Tassadar comes back from the dead and says I'm a zergling." With that the templar simply stared at him. "Fine, if you won't give it to me willingly I will just have to take it by force" Then suddenly the templar transformed from the templar Alaric thought it was into the infested form of a high templar. The body was twisted and warped in ways even the most inventive mind couldn't describe. Well great. Alaric thought to himself as he charged forward and engaged the, well i guess i can't say protoss, close up. As he got close the thing lashed out with a psionic assault similar to that of the one Tassadar had used. After the shot flew over his head he kicked out low with his foot causing the creature to fall flat on his face. without hesitation he stabbed straight down. However before his blades made contact he was recalled yet again.
Chapter 6
He appeared in the Hanger of a carrier and didn't manage to switch off his psi blades in time to avoid plunging them into the floor. "Oh come on seriously", Alaric shouted out as he righted himself and switched off his blades. "Captain? But how did you get there, and why did we sense such a power source at your location." inquired the all to familiar voice of Koronis.(for those of you who forgot Koronis is executor of the fleet). Alarics reply was imediate. "Well to answer your first question I was recalled to the planet by who knows what arbiter. As for your other question I have a shard of khadrian crystal which I Procured from a terran base." Answering the following stream of questions about how and why took the better part of an hour. Once it was finally decided that his so called "abandonment" of the ship was actually the doing of the strange zerg creature he encountered he was returned to his squad with, surprisingly, the crystal shard still in his possession. He realized no one had mentioned the attack that had happened on the fleet. That can mean one of two things. One we lost terribly and no one wants to talk about it. Two we barely survived and still no one wants to talk about it. SInce were not all dead I would have to say it was barely a victory. That surprised him because last time he checked the zerg force had been no larger that a few mutalisk's. As all this ran through his head he arrived at his squads barracks. Entering he saw that they had not fared well. everyone had at least one large wound and a dozen small scratches. "Welcome back captain." Was the greeting he received by Zarith. Everyone else except for Shark gave him evil glares as if they accused him of abandoning them in the middle of the fight. "What are you staring at." He snapped, "Its not like I had a choice weather or not to be recalled by that alien thing." Everyone in the room instantly looked up so sharply he immediately knew none of them had heard what had happened. So with a resigned sigh he again launched into the story of how he had been recalled and everything after that. When he finished instead of getting venomous looks he was instead getting looks of shock as his squad realized exactly what had happened. Suddenly something clicked in his head as he realized, "Wait. I was called by a zerg to do something just as the zerg attacked. He wanted to make sure no one noticed I was gone except my squad. Hey did any of you think you were getting attacked more than you should have been?" Everyone in the room sad yes together at the same time. Then everyone in the room picked up his train of thought. The zerg creature on the ground and the attack force that hit their ship were working together. The only thing none of them could find out was why it had chosen HIM. They pondered this for a while and finally gave up. Telling them all to get some rest he himself sat in his chamber and held the shard out in front of him. Focusing his psi powers into a felling tendril he sent it towards the shard. Reaching the outer "shell" of the crystal's power he pushed in and found not pure templar energy as he expected but instead a swirling vortex of void energies and templar energies laced within each-other. As soon as he discovered this his entire body went rigid not with the shock of the discovery but as if he were being electrocuted. There was no pain but a simple buzzing that made his body fell more relaxed but still it remained as rigid as a rock. Finally the sensation stopped and he went limp. As he looked down at himself he saw something that made him leap back in surprise. He was INVISIBLE. He saw only a transparent outline of himself. Suddenly a zealot burst through the door yelling, "Captain be wary there is a dark tem-" He cut off as he saw what had happened to the captain. "Um sir, How did you do that." Alaric was long in replying, "Good question."
Chapter 7
With that he walked to the bridge to seek council with the executor. As he arrived he was met with active psi blades and a mental wall. As the zealots realized it was him they lowered their weapons with nothing more than questioning glances. Disregarding them he walked up to the executor. "What has happened to you captain", was the shaky question that greeted him. Oddly Alaric felt no shame is saying, "I have become one with the void and the templar." The shock that emanated form the room was strong but surprisingly it had no effect on him. The executor was finally able to reply, "How, how is this possible. If it's the void then you must be a dark templar, yet you have been with us on this ship forever since you joined." Seeing as he had already told the tale of getting the crystal he explained what had happened in his chambers. The shocked looks after the story now came with an annoyed spark as a response from Alaric. I swear if everyone starts looking at me quizzically when i tell a story I will punch some one. Finally realizing that no one was saying anything he headed to the door. Before he could leave two zealots stepped in front of the door baring his way. "What is the meaning of this?" He demanded. The reply was low and pained but adamant. "Since you have been fused with the powers of the void you are considered as one of the shamed dark templar. That being I am honor bound to arrest you." Cold fury like icy lightning lanced through Alaric. His voice shook as he voiced his reply, "Honor bound or not I am still a free protoss." With those words he did two things with his newfound powers. First he withdrew himself from the khala and set of blockers in the pathway of the mental linkage. Then while the portoss around him were is disarray from the sudden "blindness" he cloaked himself to all and slipped out through the door. Knowing that the ship would be on alert looking for him he snuck to the hanger and boarded one of the scout fighters. When the guards entered the hanger looking for him he launched into the air and before they could jump onto the ship to stop it from leaving, he turned around and gunned the engine out the hanger. Before any of the other carriers could launch their interceptors or scouts he launched into a randomly plotted portal to get himself away from the fleet. While on the way there he tried to sleep but whenever he did he got flashes of an unfamiliar face. Finally he gave up and simply focused on his new powers. He had stopped by his room to retrieve the shard but nothing else. After some work with his psi blades he managed to cut a niche into his armor for it to lock into. Afterwords he always felt the presence of the crystal close to his mind. Then he meditated on his powers finding that he had been given not only powers of the void but also a boost in his psionic powers as well. The result was probably the most potent mixture of powers since the calling together of the khala. (Thats pretty freakin powerful). In the end his travels took him to a planet the ship called shakuras. Landing and realizing that he would need to get more gas soon or his ship would die he set out for a geyser of vespine. He had to give up eventually because it was getting dark and he was tired. Lucky for him the ship had come with a stasis pod for extended missions.
Chapter 8
A dark form moved along the control panel of a ship. It watched the events of the bridge and the young zealots escape. once the ship jumped the form noticed the ship had jumped to shakuras. Without hesitation the pilot turned to follow. The shard has been found. Now the future is certain. these were the thoughts of xerena a female dark templar scholar. (that was a short chapter wasn't it.)
Chapter 9
When Alaric awoke he found himself staring into the face of a dark templar. Remembering his last encounter with one (or at least something disguised as one) He Punched it in the face leapt to his feet and activated his psi blades. Meanwhile the templar had ignited its warp blade and was holding it in a defensive stance. "Peace templar I seek no quarrel" Came a voice that sounded oddly soft for one of these gruff people. Just so he didn't let his guard down as he replied, "Thats what the last guy said and he ended up being infested by the zerg so..." Such pure shock emanated from the other that Alaric knew there was nothing strange or wrong about this one. "Sorry, I didn't mean to accuse you of being infested but I did run into an infested templar disguised as one of you." The reply was shocked but also understanding, "Indeed. By the way I am xerena scholar of the dark templar." Alaric took a few seconds to realize that she had lowered her weapon. Feeling slightly slow Alaric followed suit. "Why are you here." Alaric, still being slightly in shock didn't realize the question had been directed at him. "I left my fleet. I was fused with void energies by the shard of crystal in my chest plate. The leader tried to arrest me. I felt it was wrong but none-the-less I was forced to escape." The understanding in the templars eyes told Alaric that she know a lot more about what had happened than she could simply from what he had just told her. The next statement wasn't directed at him and he was sure he wasn't supposed to hear it, "So this is the one to find the phoenix." Alaric wasn't sure what "the phoenix" was but he aimed to find out. "Phoenix? Is that some kind of weapon or something?" Knowing she couldn't hide it she told him, "No, the phoenix is not a weapon but a artifact of the xel-naga. I found it on a distant terran planet known as Bherek-Ro. It had released a huge psionic calling that myself, another protoss fleet, and a large zerg swarm all heard and rushed to find what it was. In the end I discovered that is was not an artifact but a seed. It absorbed the protoss and zerg around it to, presumably, build up it's genetic stock. After doing so it lifted off and flew into the void." So far Alaric was having trouble keeping up and decided to ask more questions before she could continue. The eventual result was him hearing about the entire story from start to finish. That alone took the better part of an hour. (for more details read Starcraft book 2 legend of the xel-naga) Once everyone was caught up on what had happened to both of them until they got to this point they decided it was best to keep Alaric and his ship out of sight of the other dark templar on this planet. Being found would bring unwanted attention to him until they could figure out what to do with the crystal. After a week or so Alaric, having meditated on the crystal for long enough found out that anything that happened to the crystal would directly affect him. At one point he dropped it and when it hit the floor he felt a sudden shock to his system. The result was having to work Alaric in with any plans made around it. Over the time in hiding Alaric found himself thinking back more and more to his squad back in the fleet. Then one day while he and Xerena were out simply relaxing a scout particle cannon opened fire around them. In little over half a second they both had their shields up and were running for the nearest cover. Once inside Alaric checked over his body and armor to make sure nothing was missing or too badly damaged. Satisfied that there was nothing major (cept for some scratched paint *GASP*) he turned to Xerena and saw to his horror that she had been hit once though the leg and once through the torso. (if you actually play sc think the leg yellow and the torso yellow. If not GET THE BLOODY GAME) Rushing to her sid he saw that, though badly wounded she was able to stand. Faced with nowhere to go seeing as they were stuck in a sealed off cave Alaric had to think of a way to get past the scout patrolling outside. Deciding to put the crystal to the test he walked out right in front of the scout. It turned and opened fire on him but the shots simply bounced off his shield. Then once it's cannon overheated Alaric thoguht to himself and the pilot My turn (aka insert cliché here) Raising his arms he didn't call a psi storm but simply took all the forces of the templar and the void and compiled them into one huge blast. As he sent it hurling though the air he saw the very reality warp around the sheer mass of energy present. When it hit the scout the first thing that happened was all light in the area simply went out. A second later The air rippled outward so visibly it might as well have been water. The entire scout was ripped to shreds and the explosion was varying colors from bright blue to deep red and every color in between. The wave of the blast then hit the ground and sent Alaric Flying, no skidding along the ground back into the cave and slamming into a wall. The hit knocked him out. The last thought he had before falling asleep was, What about Xerena? Waking up found him in the exact same place yet feeling a bit wet and sticky around his head, Well to be expected considering where I hit, and his legs and feet. Odd considering, well ok they did skid. Lifting his leg took more effort then expected but when he finally could and managed to get his head to look at it without spinning revealed that his legs and feet had no wounds on them at all. Bewildered he look around for the source of what he had definitely identified as protoss blood. Thats when he realized Xerena had tried to get to him to wake him up and fallen that short. Feeling sick he reached into space around him with his mind searching for some form of Xerena's mind. At first finding nothing he refused to believe she was dead and searched again. After searching all of the are again when he reached the last spot he saw the faintest spark there. not knowing what else to do he dove his mind into the spark and suddenly found himself standing next to Xerena on the plains of Aiur. "Ah, I was wondering when you would join me." The voice was Xerena's . "Xerena do you know what state your body is in out in the real world? We have to go back and get you to our scout so we can fix you up." The return emotions were so shocked at realizing she was in an ether world that Alaric was flung out of her mind. Returning to his body he stood up and, knowing that even if she wasn't awake Alaric had to do something about the wounds. Before moving her he went out of the cave and gather some plants that could be used to stop the blood flow. Returning he found her body surrounded by some panther like creatures. One was about to start eating her. Letting out a feral cry he launched himself and the creature bowling it over and siamotainously activated his psi blades cutting the creature in half. The others rounded on him and, feeling they had strength in numbers, launched themselves at him. the first two he cut down easily then, not wanting to take the chance of being overwhelmed by numbers simply sent out a psionic shock wave send the rest flying out of the cave. They stood up and paced the entrance to the cave for about an hour before finally deciding to leave. During that time Alaric tended to Xerena's wounds as best he could with the plants he had gathered. Finally being able to leave the cave he carried her at a very broken pace back to the scout where he lied her on the best place he could find and used the ships much more well equipped medical storage to complete treatment of the gunshots. After a few days of sporadic activity from the templar she finally woke up and managed to stay that way. "What happened while i was out." Tilting his head and half closing his eyes in the way of a protoss smile Alaric replied, "Well first of all 'out' is a bit of an understatement. Anyway not much. Oh a few creatures tried to eat you." The reaction was so sudden and so outrageous that Alaric simply toppled over laughing. The templar had jumped at the news hit her head on the celling the the wall of the scout then finally ended with an undignified *thud* on the bed. Once the fit was over Alaric stood up and said, "so are you able to stand?" The reply was Xerena lifting herself from the bed and after a few shaky movements walk around. Wonderful. Nice to know you have two working legs. " After Xerena was fully healed they set to taking spare parts from the scout to make a mobile assimilator to get gas from a geyser so they could get the ship going. After wandering for awhile they finally found a geyser and took as much gas as the ship needed and then more for spare. That done they lifted the ship and left the system searching for any signs of what to do next. After flying for a few weeks they finally set down on the planet that Xerena had spoken of. They had decided to search the site for any clues of where the creature had gone.