Kerry sat alone, deep inside the Hive at what used to be Antioch, his new base. Outside, the scorched Aiur soil sweltered, but inside the living building, it was relatively cool.
Not like Kerry cared, though. His rough-scaled humanoid body didn't feel heat or cold. Fire barely registered with him anymore. As evidance of the hundreds of Firebats he'd killed. Thousands of Terrans had fallen before the twisted leader of the Zerg.
He reflected quietly to himself, keeping his thoughts blocked from the cerebrates around the hive cluster. He'd been created, not born... the eager Remnants of the Nova Squadren, they had found the tissue samples taken from his "mother," Sarah Kerrigan. They had cloned him, using the combined genes of several other powerful ghosts, with Kerrigan's primary genes as the base. David... that was his name, not that ghosts in the Terran societies needed them. They were numbers, no different from the innumerous zerg under his control now.
He remembered life as a simple child, 12... he had immense telepathic abilities, just as his mother and fathers had. He was physically stronger than most of the guards on the base on the remnants of Chau Sara. He'd been trained, honed, designed to hunt and destroy zerg. Where his mother had allied, he was to have destroyed.
But then... then something happened. The base was attacked during the sleeping cycle, short as it was. Protoss had amasses, and destroyed everyone there... except for the ghost, David Kerrigan. V0279... that number was imprinted in his mind forever. No matter what happened, he could never forget that number. That's what he was...
He broke from his flashback, and raised his scythe-like claws, before slamming them through a small zergling that walked alongside him at just the wrong moment. An explosion of flesh, blood, and bones erupted from the gaping hole in the zerglings side as he keeled over onto the slime-ridden floor of the hive. The small zerg minion's blood mixed with the "body fluids" of the hive, before the nutrients were re-absorbed from the body, and the flesh was devoured by the creep alon the floor.
He blinked, letting his control slide off to the side as he subconsciously continued with his memory... the Protoss commander... a power, wise High Templar... Aegusthus, he had "taken David in." Aegusthus saw the strength in the young Terran, and began to hone his telepathic abilities far beyond what the Terrans could have done. David was taught the ways of the Khala, the ways that all the Protoss new. He was taught to harness the psionic energies running through him, to channel them through his very body... It didn't take nerve appendages to be with the Khala, it just took concentration...
He had found a place where he was not a number. He was home. It felt right to be with the Protoss. They were wise, powerful... they were everything he admired. It was during a raid on a Zerg base that he discovered the truth.
It was on a small backwater planet in the Sara system. They were to rescue a few Terran Civilians who were barely holding off a zerg rush on their "base."
During the melee fighting, the sounds of zerg being torn to pieces, the sounds of valiant Protoss warriors giving their lives for their cause... David felt something. He felt drawn away from the battle, to the hills.
He severed his link to the Khala, leading Aegusthus and the other Protoss to believe he'd been destroyed, though this was an inadvertant action on David's part. Through the winding caves of the hills around the base, he found what had been calling to him. A zerg cerebrate who identified itself as Chax. Chax had immediately recognized David as the son of Kerrigan, and copied the memories of the young Terran to find out how it had all happened.
His heritage was laid bare before David as he was told of his mother, of how she'd given everything to the swarm, how it was his destiny to become the new leader of the zerg. How it was the will of his mother, one he never new existed, for him to lead the swarms.
It was 5 years later that Kerrigan re-emerged... a vague humanoid figure with talons like scythes, with massive spiked mandibles, clacking foot-claws, an alligator-like hide... it was beautiful, to him, to the cerebrated... to the zerg.
The zerg were united under a new ruler once more... immediately taking control of the zerrg swarms, he changed their "passive until attacked" formation into "hostile swarming." It was an unexpected change for the Protoss and Terran enemies, who were caught off-guard by the ferocious attacks that suddenly appeared all over the space-grids.
And that was all 12 years ago, Kerry reflected. Sun was setting, it was time for an attack...
Not like Kerry cared, though. His rough-scaled humanoid body didn't feel heat or cold. Fire barely registered with him anymore. As evidance of the hundreds of Firebats he'd killed. Thousands of Terrans had fallen before the twisted leader of the Zerg.
He reflected quietly to himself, keeping his thoughts blocked from the cerebrates around the hive cluster. He'd been created, not born... the eager Remnants of the Nova Squadren, they had found the tissue samples taken from his "mother," Sarah Kerrigan. They had cloned him, using the combined genes of several other powerful ghosts, with Kerrigan's primary genes as the base. David... that was his name, not that ghosts in the Terran societies needed them. They were numbers, no different from the innumerous zerg under his control now.
He remembered life as a simple child, 12... he had immense telepathic abilities, just as his mother and fathers had. He was physically stronger than most of the guards on the base on the remnants of Chau Sara. He'd been trained, honed, designed to hunt and destroy zerg. Where his mother had allied, he was to have destroyed.
But then... then something happened. The base was attacked during the sleeping cycle, short as it was. Protoss had amasses, and destroyed everyone there... except for the ghost, David Kerrigan. V0279... that number was imprinted in his mind forever. No matter what happened, he could never forget that number. That's what he was...
He broke from his flashback, and raised his scythe-like claws, before slamming them through a small zergling that walked alongside him at just the wrong moment. An explosion of flesh, blood, and bones erupted from the gaping hole in the zerglings side as he keeled over onto the slime-ridden floor of the hive. The small zerg minion's blood mixed with the "body fluids" of the hive, before the nutrients were re-absorbed from the body, and the flesh was devoured by the creep alon the floor.
He blinked, letting his control slide off to the side as he subconsciously continued with his memory... the Protoss commander... a power, wise High Templar... Aegusthus, he had "taken David in." Aegusthus saw the strength in the young Terran, and began to hone his telepathic abilities far beyond what the Terrans could have done. David was taught the ways of the Khala, the ways that all the Protoss new. He was taught to harness the psionic energies running through him, to channel them through his very body... It didn't take nerve appendages to be with the Khala, it just took concentration...
He had found a place where he was not a number. He was home. It felt right to be with the Protoss. They were wise, powerful... they were everything he admired. It was during a raid on a Zerg base that he discovered the truth.
It was on a small backwater planet in the Sara system. They were to rescue a few Terran Civilians who were barely holding off a zerg rush on their "base."
During the melee fighting, the sounds of zerg being torn to pieces, the sounds of valiant Protoss warriors giving their lives for their cause... David felt something. He felt drawn away from the battle, to the hills.
He severed his link to the Khala, leading Aegusthus and the other Protoss to believe he'd been destroyed, though this was an inadvertant action on David's part. Through the winding caves of the hills around the base, he found what had been calling to him. A zerg cerebrate who identified itself as Chax. Chax had immediately recognized David as the son of Kerrigan, and copied the memories of the young Terran to find out how it had all happened.
His heritage was laid bare before David as he was told of his mother, of how she'd given everything to the swarm, how it was his destiny to become the new leader of the zerg. How it was the will of his mother, one he never new existed, for him to lead the swarms.
It was 5 years later that Kerrigan re-emerged... a vague humanoid figure with talons like scythes, with massive spiked mandibles, clacking foot-claws, an alligator-like hide... it was beautiful, to him, to the cerebrated... to the zerg.
The zerg were united under a new ruler once more... immediately taking control of the zerrg swarms, he changed their "passive until attacked" formation into "hostile swarming." It was an unexpected change for the Protoss and Terran enemies, who were caught off-guard by the ferocious attacks that suddenly appeared all over the space-grids.
And that was all 12 years ago, Kerry reflected. Sun was setting, it was time for an attack...