"Go prelate! My forces and I will hold off Amon's forces for as long as we can, khala willing it will be long enough for you to reach Aiur and give them a warning of what is to come." The moment Zeratul had headed into the dark tomb on this dying world Talis had known that this was the end for her and her followers, such was the fate of those that aided great heroes like Zeratul against the enemies of the Protoss, but even as she blasted away another one of Amon's shade like summons there was no welling of fear or regret.
"Thank you Praetor, I can only hope we are not too late... Hierarch watch over you, and I am sorry it has come to this." The Void Seeker was already prepared, Zeratul's crew bolstered by half a dozen of her most talented Zealots to aid him in the fight upon Aiur, which she could only imagine would be as deadly a fight as any they had been through thus far.
"Praetor, the death fleet is here and are slaughtering our forces... Wait, are those Zerg signatures?" Raising her weapon defiantly even as the Void Seeker successfully warped out, Talis couldn't help the feeling of frustration that filled her mind, were the Tal'darim and the Hybrid not enough enemies for Amon to crush her few remaining forces with?
"No need to sound so ungrateful Praetor, I could almost think that you are holding my actions on the Mobieus Station against me..." The deep and playful tone of the voice in her head made Talis cautiously hopeful, something she thought the arrival of the Queen of Blades would never herald, but given the forces arrayed against them Talis doubted that even the weight of the Zerg might not be enough to swing the battle in their favour.
"You will excuse me for being a little cautious of you Kerrigan, you did threaten to rip any Protoss that got in your way in twain after all..." Despite the urge to refer to her by the title most of the Protoss still used, Talis was not stupid and had observed Zeratul's interactions with Kerrigan whilst she had torn her way through the Moebius station, calling her by her Queen of Blades title would probably mean a lot of pain and possible abandonment to her foes.
"So you Protoss can learn, I thought Lassara was one of the odd few in that regard. And we are not going to fight here, there is too much at stake for me to risk the bulk of my forces on such a strategically pointless world. Once my forces have punched a hole in their air defences I will have transports come and pick you up, then you can enjoy my hospitality before we return to Aiur..." Not exactly a heartwarming offer, but as another hybrid buffeted it's way through the fire of her stalkers with a deep roar, Talis decided not to be picky about the choice between rescue and annihilation.
"Carriers, void rays, clear a path to the Zerg fleet! Zealots, hold the line with the immortals until we are able to extract, Stalkers will support against the Hybrid until then!" It would be close, between Kerrigan breaking through and Amon's forces breaking through her lines, but they were Protoss.
To succumb to something as insignificant as overwhelming odds would be dishonourable...
!"£$%^&*()_+
The psionic manifestation of Amon, for the short period the portal into the void could sustain itself until it collapsed and shattered the continent on the almost dead world it was based upon, made it very clear to Sarah that she still had a long way to go until she would be capable of matching his power for even a short confrontation. It had been... distracting to fight with such a poignant psionic presence constantly weighing down on her mind, but that didn't stop her unleashing the Swarm's vengeance on the gathered Tal'darim forces and accompanying Hybrid.
"General, we took 10% losses of this fleet's forces in the extraction of the Protoss loyalists, about 2,000 of them are currently being held on this leviathan until you find time to speak with them while the remainder of their fleet have congregated to the left flank of our fleet." Her Zerg commanders response was better than she had expected, though the presence of her blades and her own still growing abilities had probably helped counteract the overwhelming individual strength of the Hybrid, that and after punching a hole in their air defences they had primarily played a defensive battle whilst the Protoss forces escaped or embarked.
"The Rifles fared much better, only 200 casualties and most of them are treatable, but that was probably because of our Zerg forces taking the brunt of the close combat roles." Looking up from her bed at her two sub-commanders for this fleet, Kerrigan couldn't help but marvel at the changes that had occurred to the two of them over the last year.
Felicity was loosely stood to attention by the 'door' to the small section of the Leviathan that was reserved as Kerrigan's private quarters, her former medic armour gone and replaced with compacted Firebat armour that Jim and his raiders had been working on over the last year. Whilst not quite as durable as the bulky exo-suits that gave the Firebats their vaunted survivability in close quarters, the upgrade was a significant improvement on basic Dominion marine armour in terms of damage absorption without sacrificing their mobility.
Her lover had toned up even further than what had been classed as 'combat ready' on Char under General Warfield, though that may have been helped by a few very minor genetic 'tweaks' that most of the Rifles had now undergone. The upgrades moved every single one of her soldiers into the upper end of human physical capability, improving endurance, muscle and bone density to name a few. It would probably have been frowned on in 'civilised' society, but each and every one of her men knew the threat facing them and had agreed to the changes, the few that hadn't still able to support in non-combat roles the Rifles required.
"Good, any bad reactions to the modifications or feedback regarding the new weapon upgrades the Raiders sent us through on the last shipment? From what I have heard the armour has been more than worth the price, but Hanson and the others always want to see if they can improve further." They had deliberately set up their method of operations this way, so that the new weapons would only make Amon consider her more of a threat rather than Jim and the others, and so that unless Amon had a spy amongst her inner Circle or the higher ups of the Raiders he would have no idea how well developed these new pieces of tech were.
"Two bad reactions, though both were with the newest recruits who had only just come off the holding period for monitoring their changes, so not a big concern. The main concern about the armour is the weakness of the elbow joints once the armour has taken damage, had more than one marine out there nearly let down by his armour as the bloody joints freeze up if they use the combat shield to block a psy blade, but given the fact that the original armour wouldn't have taken more than one hit from a zealot I suppose we have to look at the upside in this case that at least the marines are here to complain about the problems." Despite her 'close' relationship with Sarah for a year Felicity had managed to maintain most of her positive personality, but it was clear that she was picking up some of Sarah's bad habits even outside of their personal relationship.
"I will feed it back the next time I speak to Jim, though I imagine given Amon's presence there the time for preparations is rapidly coming to a close. Anything you wish to add Izsha?" Looking over to where the formerly Leviathan bound advisor was currently meditating in the middle of her room like it was perfectly normal after giving her initial report, Kerrigan waited patiently for Izsha to notice the sensory input to one of her 'bodies'.
When Kerrigan had finished with Mengsk she had some time before she had to prepare for the fight against Amon, and one of the first things she did was what she had promised herself back on Zerus, getting Abathur to deintegrate Izsha from her command leviathan and to allow the formerly shipbound Zerg the chance to experience the galaxy through her own eyes.
One of the three pairs of eyes that now dominated the upper part of Izsha's face opened slowly, fixing themselves instantly on Sarah and causing the body to jerk into life once more. Despite being de-integrated from the Leviathan Izsha had chosen to maintain a predominantly snake-like appearance, her lower body now a scaly smooth tail-like appendage that was frighteningly strong in it's constricting power, the eyes an unintentional effect of the de-integration that Izsha had become fascinated with and insisted that her other bodies gain the same number of visual organs.
"The other fleets are mostly performing well, though as you suspected even before the fall of Mengsk, Az'Kadar has fallen under the sway of Amon, De'haka and the primal Zerg have encountered multiple Hybrid over the last two weeks which has prevented them from making progress into her main stronghold on Mar Sara. He still refuses to ask for aid, but if the growing number of Hybrid are an indication, Amon wishes to make a statement with victory over our forces there and will be intensifying his attacks once he truly reveals himself." Izsha had become a true communications expert of the swarm, possessing half a dozen cloned bodies amongst the different parts of the swarm through which she could transfer her consciousness, allowing her to act as Sarah's messenger and tactical relay in a way that her previous integration never allowed.
"Az'Kadar is not the only one to have fallen to Amon, and I doubt she will be the last we have to deal with before this is through. Nafash and her brood can head to Mar Sara when they are done dealing with the last of the Moebius bases our data gathering uncovered, whilst De'haka is too much of an idiot to ask for help until it is too late I would prefer to remove some of Amon's forces from play as quickly as possible. Now, I suppose I should be a good host and go meet this Praetor Talis in person, as long as she doesn't try and kill me as most of the Protoss do when I save them I am sure we will get along just fine..."
Sarah's annoyance only rose as both Felicity and Izsha rolled their eyes at her sarcasm, well Izsha merely shot her a look given her new eyes didn't have pupils but it had the same effect, before Felicity chuckled and gestured out of the door.
"Well then, I better come to, give the Protoss a friendly face to go with the god-like being that they last remember trying to wipe their kind off of a Moebius station..." Kerrigan smirked but didn't dispute the point, it wasn't her fault she had still been a little pissed at Zeratul for running off on them after Zerus, if she had actually wanted the Protoss wiped off that station it would not have taken much effort whatsoever.
"If I may accompany you General, I believe it would be beneficial for me to interact more with the Protoss off the battlefield if we are to work together against Amon..." Izsha's point was a logical one, and given the amount of time she and Felicity had spent alone during the first couple of months into this 'war' whenever not required for a mission it would probably do some good to socialise with her other generals.
Maybe she could even teach Izsha what socialising actually meant, given the serpent thought based her actions off what she, Felicity and Jim did it would be best to ensure the corrections were in place before she let the snake woman go off on her own again...
A/N: Hi Guys! Sorry for the delay, but once I had actually put the initial part of this story to paper it didn't garner quite the popular reaction I thought it would have, so I got distracted by other projects.
But, as those of you who have read my other fics know I do not give up the first time I hit a wall, so here is my attempt to get the creative juices flowing once more in regards to this story.
I will be attempting to do these small but regular updates from now on, but with X-Com 2 out this week I make no promises on the timing of the next chapter, which will of course be the fateful fight between Artanis and Zeratul... I would ask for audience opinion on whether Zeratul living or dying, but I think his death is probably one of the few plot things that was well done in LotV, so unless someone can give me a very compelling reason why I should save him, I will carry on mostly as canon for that one scene.
