Chapter 2: Yo zombies! You die over here!

Azeroth; Caravan from Andorhal

Ray had minimal fighting experience from back on earth with his pipe. And the only people he fought were some thugs once or twice a year, when he was out late, which he liked to do a lot, especially in the summer. The rest he got from fighting the slightly bigger animals on Azeroth, but here he had Zerglings as guards. He slowly developed what he could only assume magic powers, while Claire developed psionic powers of course.

He could manipulate elements to a small extent. He first did it on instinct and overdid it the first time, resulting in him losing consciousness. It was nothing compared to the lightning strike though.

They landed a bit away from the ground, so they wouldn't be turned to switcher cheese by the archers. They didn't have any dwarfs with them, which meant they had no siege weapons for the upcoming fight. At least the escort had knights and some priests with them. The leader was a paladin. Claire had seen the guy with the hammer. Even Raynor felt the aura coming from the man.

Said paladin looked pretty much like the ones you use in Warcraft 3 in the multiplayer. Brown hair, full beard and muscular. Despite being 40 already, he didn't have a single grey hair and you have to consider, these guys don't color their hair.

His name was Morlune (I started Warcraft 3 to get a name). People gave him the title: The Mighty. It came thanks to his skills with his hammer and the amount of enemies he defeated with it. This didn't mean his faith in the light was any less strong. It was at least as strong. He'd be dead by now without the light.

"Sir!" A soldier approached him. "We're ready to depart."

Morlune nodded. He looked over the little caravan. These villagers had volunteered to help to get rid of the corpses. Still a few people had their families with them. Morlune had hoped this last escort would go with only helpers. Whatever, it didn't change anything about his duties towards the people.

Everyone looked a little tired because of what happened. Some undead had been left in the city and they had ran into more than a few ambushes. "We can never have peace for long. Light give us strength. We're going!" he announced.

The caravan started walking down the path on slow speed. It would take a week, maybe two, depending on the weather. The road was supposed to be safe, still King Terenas didn't take any chances. Some of the other higher ups said he was wasting money, but Morlune didn't think so. Nothing happened the other times, but that didn't mean nothing had to happen. There were still some Orcs on the loose and the only reason bandits didn't attack, was because of the soldiers.

"Sir!" One of the scouts came back. "The undead! They're following me!"

Excited whispers could be heard amongst the soldiers. "Silence! Defensive positions! Protect the civilians!" Morlune shouted. "The light is with us!" As he said this, a bright aura of light embraced him and his soldiers. They cheered in response.

The undead came only a few minutes later, a large group of ghouls and skeletons, some were archers. A few had pitchforks and other farmer utensils with them. "The only way we can save those poor people is to give them a quick death. I wish there was another way."

"By the light, we're outnumbered." his second in command realized. "Be it that way. They have numbers, but we have courage, faith and the holy light. Come here, my blade is getting restless."

As if they have heard him, the undead charged. "Raise your shields!" Arrows started to rain on the defenders. They may have the best armor, Terenas sent some of the best soldiers and knights to help them, but even the best armor had its weak spots. The arrows were slowed down thanks to the aura, which didn't mean they weren't deadly. The undead had a habit of poisoning their arrows with a sick green liquid. A scratch can be enough to seal someone's fate, if not cured by a priest or wizard.

The undead were only about a hundred yards away, when a voice could suddenly be heard. "GET THEM!"

At the voice's command, Morlune could only think of the creatures as oversized insects. They jumped out of the woods and ripped the undead apart. The paladin was reminded of how the undead normally slaughtered their victims. Only this time the tides were turned. The undead tried to strike back, but they didn't get through the shell of the insects.

"By the light, what are those monsters?!"

"Demons?!"

"Did they escape from the dungeons of Dalaran?"

It was then, Morlune noticed three humans and a woman who looked human in shape, but was obviously one of those monsters with the insect armor and the skeleton wings on her back. They didn't look sharp, yet she was able to slice the ghouls apart.

For Raynor fighting those zombies was almost like fighting the infested Terrans, just they had no shooting weapons (bows and arrows ignored). He still wished his power suit would still be intact. Even with his colt he felt vulnerable.

"Wish I had a shotgun." he mumbled, the most stereotypical weapon for fighting zombies. He didn't understand how Ray could fight with only a pipe. Turned out he didn't. Suddenly a ball of fire appeared in his hand and he threw it at the next best skeleton. "Don't ask. One day I could do it."

Raynor suppressed the headache and reloaded his gun, taking cover behind a rock. Rose meanwhile shot psionic balls in enemy groups, which exploded and killed, well speaking of undead...forget it. She eliminated groups of enemies with it.

Claire had the excited look of a predator on her face. Ever since she became queen, she loved the fighting. She developed some kind of instinct. Her physical abilities increased too, not to mention her new psi-abilities. When she was surrounded by a bunch of zombies, she let out an invisible burst of energy. It was like a little shockwave coming out of her body (why do I think of the dubstep-canon?). The enemies were knocked out. Their bodies already rotting away, increased the damage she made with the blast.

She lifted up the head of a skeleton with her abilities, letting the rest of the body collapsing. "Ray! Combo?"

"Am a little occupied!"

Claire gave a mental order to some Zerglings to give him so space. Claire noticed Ray got hit several times and mentally smacked her head for letting him so unguarded. He was only 5% infested. He had his abilities, but he had not the stamina or reflexes she had.

"Alright, time for barbecue." He shot a fire ball at the head and Claire threw it to a group of zombies, letting it explode.

All in all the fight didn't take long. It just takes a while to write it all down.

Ray collapsed after overusing his new powers. He remembered reading something about wizards who forget to eat during a mission in WoW. "Are you alright?" Raynor asked helping the teen up. "Exhausted. This whole crap is still new to me. I wish I had cola with me. I miss that stuff the most."

The Zergling next to them let out some screeches.

"Shut up Shotgun."

The Zerg seemed to chuckle. Raynor was more than baffled. These were not the kind of Zerg he was used to. He looked around and found out their losses were at 0. Some were injured, but only lightly. Turning around he found the humans behind them taking fighting position. Their leader eyed him and his three companions. One knight shouted and pointed at the sky. Two Overlords with Drones inside them arrived.

Claire walked towards the leader of the human soldiers. "20 bugs, they're going to attack us." Ray said to Raynor. The other three followed Claire and stopped in front of the paladin. By the way, the girl had both arms behind the back of her head crossed.

"Hi!" she cheered. "We're doomed." Ray mumbled. Now Raynor knew why Ray was so pessimistic. Claire was what you'd call a free spirit.

"The name's Claire, nice to meet ya all. How's it going?" Ray facepalmed. "They're evacuating a zombie infested village and you're asking them how it goes? How'd you feel if your family would be turned into a bunch of skeletons?"

"Ooops, sorry~"

God help us. Raynor thought.

"Ray Silvers by the way."

"Sorry if we scared you a bit, but we thought you could need some help." Claire explained.

Morlune was the first one to find his voice back. "I am Morlune of the Silver Hand." Before he got any further, the one he suspected to be the leader approached the blond girl. "My queen, the Overlords found the base of the undead."

"They got a whole base? So deep in alliance territory?" she asked.

"You and your stupid gut feeling." Ray muttered.

He took out his laptop from the back, which was somehow undamaged from the battle. "There we go. Spirit towers, a haunted goldmine, Necropolis, Graveyard, Crypt. At least no Altair of Darkness or Slaughterhouse."

"You're...the leader of those...creatures?" the second in command asked Claire, who nodded. "Yup, belief me I was surprised when I found out. By the way, these here are Rose and this is James Raynor."

The rebel leader nodded, but figured since Claire was the leader of the Zerg, even if not a very diplomatic one, he should let her do the talking. Authority was important.

"Long story short, my Overlords found you guys and I'm offering you the help of the Zerg." she said, still smiling.

Ray counted down. "3...2...1..."

"That's absurd!" the second in command shouted. "We'd never join forces with demons!" he drew his sword. However the paladin held a hand in front of the man.

"Sire?"

"Tell me young Claire, what do you have to gain from helping us?" Morgule had learned that sometimes the diplomatic way was the best way. And although he wasn't too fond of those Zerg, they did attack the undead forces and saved many human lives.

"Nothing!" she cheered. "We can't use undead bodies to win bio energy and we can't win any from gold or any other ordinary metal. I just thought you guys could need some help. Aside from that, I'm bored."

"You just HAD to say it." Ray deadpanned in an overdramatic way.

The paladin eyed every one of the four. The face of the woman in the Zerg armor was an observing one. She especially kept an eye on the second in command, who dared to threaten her queen. The man James Raynor, looked like he was ready to cry out in frustration. The male young one let his shoulder hang, his face still in a deadpan and he was sweating. The other young one Claire was the biggest oddity Murlone had ever seen in his life. He could not see a hint of malice in her face, although she was commanding such creatures.

"Hmm, sent a scout out. If it is true what you said about an undead base I'll...consider your help."

"Sire!?"

"Yay!"

*BONK*

"Ow..."

"I needed to do that." Ray said, after he swung his pipe on the back of his friend's head. The other Zerg were all glaring at him and Rose was about to slice him apart, when Claire stopped the queen, telling her everything was alright.

Ray walked to the side of the road sitting down against a tree and looked at his laptop. Shotgun joined him. The Zerg received orders to burrow them into the ground.

The humans meanwhile whispered among themselves about the unexpected newcomers. Raynor decided to keep his distance for now. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to tag along.

Murlone walked towards his man. "Sire, are you aren't serious about working with them?! Surely you only complied, so they wouldn't slaughter us." One of the men whispered. They looked over...

And found Shotgun break dancing. Claire and Ray laughed about the behavior of the little ling.

"If I am completely honest, I am not sure whether they really want to slaughter us or to help us."

"Sire, they must be demons!"

The paladin shook his head. "I cannot rule out the possibility. Send messengers to the wizards of Dalaran, the Silver Hand and of course king Terenas. They should be forewarned. In the meantime, we have no choice but play along and pray reinforcements will arrive. I will try to find out as much as possible."

His men nodded.

The paladin first went to James Raynor. "Your name was James Raynor, correct?" the paladin asked. He nodded. "Yes and you were Murlone, right?" The paladin nodded. "I couldn't help, but notice you seem to be out of place. Excuse me if I said something wrong."

Raynor waved off. "No problem. Well how should I put it...my home is a little far away. I got smacked over head pretty badly, while retreating from some enemies. I got...separated from my friends and ended up finding them. I'm not from this continent, so I stick with them, since they know this place better than I do." Raynor had to be careful with his choice in words.

"What do you think of these...?"

"The Zerg? I have plenty of experience fighting against them and not with them."

"You know those creatures?"

"I wish I'd have never met them. Their controlled by a higher being normally, someone like...Rose. I don't get how a girl like Claire could become the leader of the local Zerg. I hope she doesn't become like..." he trailed off. He had said too much already. Murlone saw the conflict in the man's face and didn't press further for now.

He found two things out: one, Raynor had experience with Zerg and could be useful for strategies against those creatures. Two, something personal happened between him and the Zerg. That is, if he wasn't faking it all. But something inside Murlone said he could trust James Raynor.

He walked over to the boy with the Zergling. "Excuse me young friend, am I interrupting something?"

Ray looked up. "Nah, take a seat, this might interest you." Murlone did and looked at the screen. He saw an undead outpost.

"What is this?"

"A laptop, it works with electricity. It would take too much time to explain everything. Let's focus on this one." he pointed at the screen. "My laptop is linked to one of our scouting Overlords. This is exactly what he sees right now. And as you can see they're waiting for something. Maybe a report from the group they sent against us?"

The paladin's eyes widened as he saw what kind of strategies were possible through this laptop. He could now see what exactly lay ahead of them. The base was blocking the way, so they had no choice but to destroy it. The catch was they had no mortar teams, catapults or anything good for siege at all. What made matters worse, they had civilians with them. They could go around, but they would have to endure wave after wave and until reinforcements arrived it would be too late.

"You don't have any siege weapons with you, have you?" Ray asked.

"Unfortunately no." Ray frowned.

"We only have 1000 Zerglings and one Queen. None of them is really good against those stupid spirit towers. If only we had Roaches or even Banelings would do the trick."

"What about those?" Murlone asked. "These are drones, workers. They mutate into Zerg buildings or transport stuff. Claire brought them, because their faster than horses."

None combat units the paladin realized. "We're going to endure a few losses, if we don't think of something." Ray said, staring at the screen.

Real time observation and workers.

The paladin walked to the supposed to be queen, which he had a hard time to belief actually. She was looking over to the destroyed village. "You know it's funny." she began. "You always hear about stuff like this. A storm destroyed the village, rebels take civilians hostage, there's a war going on somewhere far away, it's none of your business. But when you see it with your own eyes" she inhaled a deep breath and let it out slowly "nothing prepares you for this. Books, pictures...even seeing through the eyes of one of my Overlords, it's so far away. But today...when I see this destroyed village...words are failing me."

The paladin saw now the girl's face, a tear running down her cheek. "After I noticed I somehow became the queen of these Zerg, I noticed some of my emotions changing. I don't hesitate to kill. I don't feel fear in a fight. I am excited, I am a hunter, but..." she let out a sigh "I'm glad I can still be sad."

"How long are you the queen of the Zerg and how did it happen?"

Claire laughed. "Would you belief me Ray and I got struck by lightning, woke up in the woods and I found out about my new power?" His face was answer enough to her.

"As for how long, around three months if I didn't miscount."

"Yo!" Ray waved over. "Jimmy-boy got an idea."

Claire grinned. "As expected from the leader of Raynor's Raiders. Wish I could see the Hyperion."

Claire didn't notice she said it out loud and skipped over to the others. Morlune stored the information in the back of his head and followed.

"What is it?" Claire asked.

Raynor pointed at the cliffs near the goldmine. "They didn't build up any defensive structures at this point. We can use the Overlords to drop our troops inside their base and make a little chaos."

"Good idea, only I don't have that many Overlords. We'd still get overrun."

"Zerg becoming overrun. Now that's something new." Ray commented.

"Those towers can only shoot with those crystals, right?" he asked.

Murlone nodded. "Yes, but we don't know much about their magic. It is too bad we don't have a magician with us."

"Well, how about we sent those rocks of the cliff? We would only get three of them, but at least there would be a hole in their defense." Raynor suggested.

"It's the only plan we have. And as long as their unprepared, we might be able to blow them up." Claire mused.

At this moment the scout returned on his horse and confirmed the location of the undead base. Murlone nodded. As long as they had the element of the surprise they would strike. Of course with the information he had, his men were enough, but at what cost? Despite his officers advice he decided they would work together on this mission.

The villagers whispered amongst themselves, but even they saw how much of a threat the Zerg would be, if they turned against them.

"Rose, you go with one of the Overlords. Try to use as many psi-bombs as possible to get rid of the towers."

"As you wish, my queen."

As the Overlords went out, the rest of the troops marched towards the undead base. Ray definitely didn't sign up to get pierced by some spirit towers. He, Claire and even Raynor were riding on Zerglings, while the Paladin was riding on his horse.

"Kerrigan would have the time of her life, seeing Raynor like this." Claire whispered to Ray, who grinned in return. "Let's hope she doesn't get the idea of following him through the black hole. But seriously, when we get the Leviathan strain, do you really want to fly through a black hole? I think it is a miracle Jim survived."

Claire shrugged. "Maybe we'll find another way. I wonder how his men are doing without him."

XXX

Hyperion Cantina

This was the hardest task Stetman had been ever be entrusted. He was supposed to invent a material which could resist the gravitation of a black hole and Swan was supposed to invent a satellite which could send signals through said hole.

Ever since the first discovery of a black hole, humanity didn't make much of a progress in studying the black holes. Stetman and Swan started at zero. The two were taking a break, talking about their progress, which did not exist at all.

Everyone on the Hyperion counted on them, but hell these are black holes we're talking about.

"Oh dear...I have no idea where to start." Stetman said. So far he only played with his consoles, trying to get any idea. Then he tried brainstorming. Then he tried thinking. Then he started considering things. But there were just too many unknown factors he had to deal with.

Swan was in no better position and without Stetman making progress, there was nothing he could work with.

The two were sitting depressed in a corner of a cantina. Matt watched the two all depressed and knew he'd put too much of a burden on those two. It seemed as if they had to give up the commander and go on without him.

As it stood, they either really continued the revolution without Raynor or hoped for Stetman and Swan to miraculously come up with something or asked the Protos or...asked Kerrigan.

Matt gulped at the thought. Everybody on the Hyperion knew how close those two were before she got infested and she might still feel this way and her psionic abilities might be the thing they needed. He would save it up as last option though.

XXX

Azeroth; Undead Base

Rose had her orders from her queen and she would follow them, no matter what. It was not her to question the queen's decision to help the humans. But when she thought about it a second time, she saw the reasoning. As long as they didn't find recourses, the swarm would grow very slowly.

Since the undead were against every living being, it was wise to look for allies.

Rose, while you're at it, try to capture at least one Acolyte. We might get some info out of them.

As you wish, my queen.

Rose would not fail, especially not on her first mission, which was really easy. She would stand on the cliff, coordinating the small attack force, while throwing rocks with her psi abilities down and destroying as much towers as possible.

Some of the Overlords would help her, but final decisions were up to her, a great honor for the not even one day old queen.

Rose. This time it was Ray speaking, who worked as a communication officer for the time being. Those guys are getting impatient. It won't take long until they try to figure out what happened. Your time limit is as soon as they found out with their scouts. Killing them might help, but they also could get suspicious of their units just disappearing. The Acolytes seem to have the command over this base. We need to take them out before they call reinforcements.

Rose understood. Taking out the Acolytes was like taking out a Cerebrate. The undead would get lost and become easy targets.

Although her time was limited, she took her time to observe the base. She counted 15 Acolytes, five of them working at the small mine. She didn't have to catch one alive, it was more a bonus. But Rose would be damned to fail on this one.

It would take time until the rest of the forces would arrive. As much as Rose wanted to, she couldn't get rid of the small undead army alone. For one, she was too weak at the moment and two she only had a hundred Zerglings with her. Those were around 300 Ghouls. Small number? She couldn't assault them all, because of the defense towers.

Such a great number can't get come from the local villages.

She informed her queen about it. A few minutes later her answer came. Murlone told us a few more villages got victims of the plague. It stopped spreading after the demon Lord disappeared, but it will take time until everything is taken care of, especially getting the land back to life. We'll be soon there. Attack now.

With her telepathic abilities she picked up several large stones and threw them at the crystals over the towers, they were called Ziggurats without the crystals and supplied the undead with food, on whatever way it worked.

It worked. The crystals seemed unstable and as they hid the ground they exploded. However as soon as the crystals exploded, new crystals started to appear. Rose gave away a warning to her queen. As the undead forces showed what was going on, the Overlords dropped the Zerglings, who first attacked the Acolytes working on the gold mine. The fools were so occupied in working with their spells, they didn't notice the invaders, until it was too late.

Seeing as the towers wouldn't shoot for a while Rose shot kinetic bombs at the towers. It took her a little while to destroy the first one, after which the undead noticed her. She growled. This was not working well after plan. She needed to get rid of the Acolytes she realized.

Her own forces however were occupied with the undead and at this rate none of her lings would be able to get to one. She growled. The skeletons started shooting their stupid arrows at her, but her armor was strong enough to deflect them.

After taking care of the towers again, she mentally picked out one of the Acolytes and let him fly to her position. He stood dumbfounded for a second, before she knocked him out with a good smack.

Finally reinforcements arrived. Rose needed to focus on the towers, so her queen and her companions could focus on the army of the undead. An aura of bright light surrounded every one of the forces, coming out from the paladin. It increased the moral on the human side.

Rose ignored the light, like any other Zerg. She only accepted the embracement of her queen's mind. She could accept if it helped the humans.

The fight was soon over with their collective power. Some of the Zerg who had been under Rose's command, were seriously injured, but she took care of it. Afterwards Rose felt the consequences of using her powers so often, but she stood her ground. She wouldn't show any weakness, even if the humans were considered to be allies at the moment.

Her queen arrived and to her surprise she embraced her in a hug. "I'm proud of you." she said and Rose felt like she was about to explode of pride. Claire also checked the Zerglings who went with Rose and was delighted to see everyone alive. Since she didn't have the time to hug 100 Zerg, she embraced everyone within the collective.

XXX

Caravan Camp; 1 hour later

"Never thought we'd get out of there without any losses." Ray commented as he, Claire, Raynor, Rose and even Murlone were sitting around the same fire.

"And you wanted to let Rose guard the base." Claire said, pride clearly being in her voice.

"I guess that is why you're the boss. But seriously Rose, respect. We didn't know the towers could regenerate that quickly and still you managed to keep them shut down." Ray raised his mug and nodded.

Rose took the compliment.

Raynor spoke up. "How long until we arrive in the next city?" he asked.

"A week if we keep using the drones to transport everything." the paladin answered. "I never properly thanked you all. Without you, we wouldn't have made it through the undead so unharmed. Maybe we wouldn't have made it."

"No prob." Claire answered and yawned. "I can't wait to see the faces of the people in town, when they see my Zerg."

"You seriously plan on going in?" Ray asked, but shook his head. "Why do I even ask? You like stomp on the dragon's tail."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, not liking the tone of her friend.

"You remember how you snug into the principal's office and placed the cockroaches into his drawer? Everyone knew you did it, the only reason you didn't get grounded was because there was no evidence. Where did you get that many anyway?"

"School cantina."

...

"Remind me to shoot the cooks."

The Zerglings were burred around the camp, with the exception of Shotgun and a few others on patrol duty. Shotgun was something like a Zerg Sergeant being wilder as the other and often took the initiative. Having a name was the greatest honor for a Zerg. Sure he got his name from Ray, instead of his Queen, but she liked it anyway.

He could feel how her queen summoned more of his kind and more Overlords as well, back at home. He didn't mind getting away from the creep for a bit. Those undead were a bigger challenge than the local animals or even the trolls. He reported to the Overlord about what the humans whispered about the Zerg. It was obvious that they didn't like the Zerg and judging from their words the queen could hear, when the stupid humans were about to betray them.

Shotgun continued his rounds, checking on the other Zerglings here and there. The Queen allowed each Zerg individuality, as long as they were loyal to the swarm. Of course no one doubted the Queen. It was every Zerg's greatest wish to follow the Queen. If they died, she would give them reincarnation.

Suddenly Shotgun smelled something. A distant memory inside his DNA reacted, but before he could pinpoint what it was it was gone. Shrugging, a gesture he got from Ray and his Queen, he continued his rounds.

He came across the now roped Acolyte who was guarded by three humans. The human's eyed the Zergling through their helmets, but didn't move. The necromancer didn't talk, but Rose already got all the useful information out of him and told the rest.

There was another undead base near the coast. The reason they had so many undead was because they had so many reinforcements from the North Pole of this planet. Needless to say they had to get rid of it, but the swarm was in no state to fight an army this big. They also needed to get into stage two, to unlock more units.

Claire saved her own bio energy to get a second Hatchery. Back at the home base, she was spreading creep and getting new soldiers. Once she had a second Hatchery, she would spread the creep a little further and then save up bio energy to get into stage two. Now that the humans knew about the Zerg presence it wouldn't take long until the other races got knowledge of them.

Claire asked her Zerglings to come by, so she and Ray could use them as pillows. Raynor preferred sleeping on the ground, still wary of the insects. Morlune didn't go to sleep directly. Instead he walked in his tent, where his two officers were waiting.

"Sire."

He nodded. "They're asleep now, except for Rose."

"Yes, Sire. The Zerg who aren't underground are patrolling the area in groups."

"Sire, what do we do about them?" asked the other man.

"As far as I can see they don't plan on betraying us. They even let their queen at a stage of easily being harmed. You may disagree and I wish of you to speak open, but I think we can trust them."

"Sire" his second in command "this could be all a trick to get into one of our cities and slaughter everyone."

"That's why we won't allow them to enter with the exception of the four and the drones. I am not a fool. They may have 1000 Zerglings, but that is not enough to bring our cities down, when they are outside. And I think if this really IS all a trick, the four alone cannot escape from us."

"Sire, are you sure? We may be able to overwhelm them, but at least three of them are able to use magic."

"Don't worry. I have received word a few wizards of Dalaran are already at our destination."

"So far they haven't given us a reason to attack them. And I think we all agree it is wise to not give them a reason to attack us."

XXX

On the road to Strahnbrand

Strahnbrand had been rebuilt and was now bigger, because the evacuated people all lived there. The small village Brill had been evacuated too, just to be sure. Strahnbrand was slowly growing into a middle big city after Azeroth standards.

The first day was uneventful and the people slowly got used to the presence of the Zerg. Hell at the end of the day, Raynor saw some kids riding the Zerglings. He had to be on morpheme, everything else just wasn't possible.

He started talking more and more with Morlune, however he avoided details which made holding conversations difficult. Instead they talked about the landscape.

Raynor found later a topic: his old home. He didn't tell how advanced the people at home were or that he was from an entirely different world. He simply told the paladin he'd been working on his dad's farm until someone from the local military hired him.

Raynor had only thought about the money his family needed at the time. He didn't hesitate to tell them how corrupted the military was and even didn't hesitate, he'd been a thief for a long time period until he heard about his father's death. He made it just in time to talk to his mother one last time before she died.

Later he became a man of law, thanks to the help of a friend of the family.

Morlune listened intently. He of course noticed Raynor avoiding details, but got a general idea of the life of the man.

The paladin noticed the question 'Where he came from' was avoided intently. Was he from another world like the Orcs? Well Raynor was human, so he may be just from another continent. Well whatever the reason, Morlune had a good feeling with the man.

On the second day of their travel, they encountered some Ogres, but nothing the Zerg couldn't handle. Claire let a Drone turn into a new Hatchery back at home.

"Wow, I'm getting homesick already." she said.

"Yeah. I mean I'm not even a full Zerg, but this place protected us from all kind of dangers. I think the other Zerg are getting homesick too." Ray said.

"We shouldn't stay too long. So much for shopping, but I can do it another time."

"And when you actually have the money." Ray sweatdropped. "Hey Raynor, are you gonna stay over there or are you still gonna tag along with us?" Claire asked the rebel leader. He didn't answer directly, instead he said he'd think about it, surprising everyone.

On the one hand he preferred humans, duh. On the other he didn't know a thing about this world, the distress signal was still active and the Zerg were his only ticket off the planet.

Unfortunately he'd have to decide earlier than everyone thought, because on the third day they unfortunately met Garithos.

Not him. Ray and Claire groaned simultaneously in their heads.

"Paladin Morlune, I am disappointed, to think someone like you would pact with demons."

"There's a great difference between Zerg and demons." Ray deadpanned. "Let's get the heck out of here. This guy stinks." he said. The Zerg all obviously nodded agreeing to Ray. It looked like they adapted to his sense of humor.

"Why you little-"

"That's Garithos, the biggest racist amongst the alliance." Claire explained to Raynor, completely ignoring the man. "He defended a village of the elves or something like that, but his own home got busted by Orcs. He blames the elves, but all in all, he only accepts humans and treats everyone else from other races like dirt. I for my part don't go with that douchebag."

"That's it! I'll-wha..? What's happening?"

Garithos was suddenly flying in mid-air. "That's what I think of racists." Claire mentally ordered Rose to throw him into the dirt, which she did.

Claire grinned and ordered her drones to unload the stuff. Meanwhile Shotgun went over to the fallen man like a dog, sniffed and pissed on him like a dog. Every single Zerg, even Rose, burst out laughing.

"Shotgun, you're spending way too much time with Ray."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Claire waved off and mentally ordered the Overlords down for the drones to get in and the Zerglings to head back to the base.

"Nice to meet ya, Morlune. Hope we can work together again one day." she said to the completely stunned, yet amused paladin. Raynor decided to stay with them. Seeing Garithos, the man would probably give the rebel leader too much trouble and in the end, throw him into a cage. Besides, he started to like the two teens. And this time he got a private Overlord.