'Hierarch something doesn't seem right. Shouldn't there be guards down here?' One of the templar inquired

'Yes something is amiss here. The guards not being present isn't the only indication, the lighting systems are offline and they have a lot of dust buildup that it's generally cleaned off rather quickly, which indicates that no one has been down here in a long time. Also there are no escape shuttles here. Surely they wouldn't have left two complex technological constructs here without a very good reason.' Artanis replied, After everything the protoss have learned from terrans, they know that terrans like to leave an escape route open at all times, and don't leave anything valuable behind.

'Hierarch it seems that one of the data clusters aren't that far from here.' Adonis informed.

'Then we will be heading over there first, keep vigilant. It's a possibility that something has occurred on this ship, so keep your blades ready.' He instructed the other templar. Between all the confusion and eeriness Artanis started to feel excitement as he looked back towards the empty boarding site, Due to the lack of lighting its impossible to say for sure what color the interior is, but that along with the eerie silence it reminds him of all the time he and Raynor spent fighting the Mobius corps. It seems that a part of him still enjoys adventure.

As they made their way down to the first of the data clusters through barely illuminated corridors, the same dark and forgotten theme seems to follow and both he and the rest of the templar wondered as to what exactly had occurred here and if there are even any survivors which made them all uneasy. That feeling prevailed until they reached a door behind which their first point of interest lied and Artanis could visibly see the others steeling themselves for whatever should be behind it. With no desire to waste any time he presses the button to open the door. And at the very instant the door was half way open he saw a human aiming a gun at him... Not a human, but a mechanical version of one made from some sort of metal, that wears clothes?

That's surprising. he though to himself noting that it can make facial expressions similar to that of humans. He also noticed what seemed to be fear and surprise, but without being able to read its mind he couldn't be sure. He was about to ask a question but the construct was a moment faster with his.

"What are you?" it asked, speech similar to that of humans, but with an added mechanical undertone.

"It has been a while since I have heard that question. Have you never seen a protoss?" He inquired. It was a weird question to hear after all these years. Even if they weren't aware of the events of the Great war he was fairly certain that all terrans had heard of protoss. After all they had joined forces to stop Amon.

"I take it that you've had some contact with terrans within the past 65 years? We've been stuck on this ship for the past 65 years when one scientist decided to go crazy." It said "But before i go into further detail. Are we your allies or enemies?" It said, tightening the grip on the terran weapon.

Even if it was a mechanical replica, Artanis and the rest of the templar could tell that he was being protective over something or someone in this scenario, after he looked over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of a woman in a human stasis chamber before he swiftly moved to cover her more with its frame.

'The first official contact with your species was about 15 years ago, but we became allies with a small group of humans shortly after that and later the only leading terran governmental power called a truce, so to answer your question: Yes we are allies. I am Hierarch Artanis, and you are?' He said gesturing to both him and the woman behind him.

"My name is Hale. And this is Aerowen Gale." He said as he gestured to the woman in the stasis chamber. The way he said her name had surprised even Hale himself. It was one of those rare moments when he felt a surge of pride. The only person that ever had bothered to get to know the man who was only known as the most notorious assassin, the only person he truly liked. One that wanted to change so many things for the better without taking the cheap and easy routes. "She recreated me after I died. She was asked to participate on a research expedition by one of her acquaintances, but that acquaintance betrayed her. He wanted to merge zerg regenerative and adaptive genome properties to that of humans. She told him it wouldn't work but he ended up poisoning her and putting her in cryostasis until he had finished his ridiculous project. After I learned of what he had done I wanted to kill him. Dealt him a deadly wound, but was forced to retreat back here. I've been keeping watch over her ever since."

She looked rather short and had a paler than average complexion, but then again most terrans seemed short to the protoss. She had blue hair a pointed chin and a flat but sharp nose, definitely thinner than anyone he's ever seen, but the most intriguing was the scar that started on the left side of her neck and seemed to stretch to her back. She looked different from most of the terran woman that Artanis had seen. 'It seems that stasis has been deactivated, shouldn't she have woken up by now?' he inquired.

"Yeah even though most of the tech on this ship was really top notch when we left, cryostasis is, as she would put it, light years away from being practically comfortable to use. It takes a while to..."

"Sweet merciful death what the fuck?!" they all were slightly surprised from the sudden shout and turned to see the woman jumping to the furthest corner in the room, much to the protoss' surprise was the speed of this action. "Hallow who are they?" She asked obviously flustered, surprised and scared. Well who wouldn't be scared, I just woke up from a god knows how long of a nap. With a bunch of giant, glowy-eyed aliens in front of me. Wow, my life is so bizare. Ok so how to escape... Her thoughts got interrupted by the, seemingly, most decoratively armored alien, who presumably is their leader raising his hand in a familiar explanatory gesture.

'You needn't do that Aerowen, we are the protoss and are allies to the terrans of now...' the presumed leader of the aliens spoke

Huh, I guess I should probably apologize. Then again I don't even know... His? name. But how the hell did they even find this ship, the scrambling field that the old fool put up should've prevented detection, unless they detected my pulsar. Damn, I'm gonna have one hell of a headache if i keep bouncing speculations around like this... Her musing got interrupted.

'You needn't apologize. I am Hierarch Artanis. We detected this vessel in the outer reaches of our solar system, the scrambling field prevented contact and scans for life signs, but there was a psionic pulse of energy every 10 seconds so I decided to investigate.' He replied to her thoughts. 'Also as far as I am aware, terrans should warm up there muscles before attempting serious athletic feats.' He quipped.

"Oh so you can read minds? That's so cool. Hallow d'ya think I should try to see if i can do that?" the young woman asked Hale. The other templar were surprised of the quick change in her thoughts, and all nearly equally visibly reacted a bit in disbelief of the statement.

Did she just call him hollow? She really is different from any other terran I've met. Her mind and thought process going at an entirely higher intensity and faster pace than any other terran... And did she just say she should try to see into the mind of others? He thought to himself slightly offended by the woman seemingly thinking it wouldn't be hard.

"If you want to then go for it, but it's probably not going to work or if it does it's not going to be easy. And on the side note I'm fairly certain that I told you not to call me 'Hallow' again. Your habit of giving nicknames to everything is rude and it's getting out of hand." the metal man responded with a certain amount of annoyance in his voice.

Ah she said 'Hallow". That is a weird name but I can see how It'd make sense. Artanis thought in his slight amusement from Hale telling her almost exactly what he had planned to say.

"Aerowen I was about to explain to them what happened here, but before that... How did that poor excuse of a man manage to put YOU..." He specifically put emphasis on that word along with gesturing to all of her for effect. "In cryo AND! Manage to walk away with his head still on his shoulders." He leaned almost into her face in a way that spoke volumes about the situation she was in.

"Uhmm... Ermmm... This is really embarassing. He asked me to join him for a drink after he'd told me all the details and I, of course, declined. He invited me for a parting drink. I knew he wasn't really the type to give up 'precious assets'." The terran used air quotes, as Raynor had called them. "I expected him to have some underhanded tactic in store and I got curious as to what it might be. The worst case scenario at that time was him trying to poison me, which wouldn't have worked due to the training. BUT mistakes were made and he used the new sedative I had recently discovered and didn't bother to acquire immunity to, so I uh... kinda screwed myself over with that one..." She hung her head down in shame. This was always amusing to Artanis as it resembled what a protoss might do in a moment of emotional turmoil, but what surprised him the most was her statement about acquiring immunity to poisons.

"Ok I am writing this down, this is too surreal." Hale said as he picked up a data pad. "The prodigious Aerowen 'Azir' Gale, got outclassed by, as you would put it, a total moron. Time stamped 5th of October 2514..."

"2514?!" She visibly recoiled from that, in surprise not shock, which certainly surprised Artanis. "Ok this is your queue to explain what exactly happened. And don't be sassy with me!" She demanded with curiosity clearly visible on her face and in her blue eyes.

'That is.. very unusual.' Artanis said to the other templar. 'Usually terrans would completely lose all bearing when presented with a statement of such magnitude. They'd deny it, say the information must be false or that the informing party is lying, but she just.. accepted it?'

'None of us have as much experiences with terrans as you, Hierarch, but I also expected a more severe reaction. Since she thinks so drastically different from any other terran any of us have encountered, and since we are not as attuned as you, we can not entirely decipher her thoughts. That is something I and, probably, the others find unnerving.' Adonis responded

Artanis received an overall definitive confirmation from the others that they couldn't keep track of her thoughts. This did surprise him, he had a slight moment of difficulty adjusting but he can understand her just fine now.

"Ok we don't have much time to waste here. Even before you were informed by Guliwer himself about his research plans, he had already amassed a sizeable amount of zerg aboard the ship. After you got 'checkmated' he started taking samples from the zerg to test on the various samples he had. After I learned of what he'd done to you I wanted to kill him, I failed, but managed to shorten his lifespan by a sizeable amount and I had to backtrack here to try and get you out. He locked the cryostasis controls with a code I wasn't able to break, but I was able to determine that it would expire once he'd completed his research. However due to the fact that he was gravely wounded he decided to teach her daughter Cortana, and leave the task, if he failed, to her. He also created Zed, taken inspiration from your creation of me, but he is bound and without free will, unlike me, I don't know the specifics. Guliwer had at least a code of ethics to follow - never experiment on a living being, and he took it to the grave 35 years later. The spoiled little shit swizzler didn't share his sentiment. She mercilessly started to experiment on her own staff, even her own mother, because in a way she felt that she was more superior because she was taught by her father via a direct thought link. After she got unsatisfactory progress out of the 124 scientists and the original crew. She instructed Zed to collect more live test subjects. In total they amassed about 600 more, but lost all transport shuttles so if you're to make it out you'll have to use the prototype armor you were working on. To prevent me from going up there and laying down a good old ass-whooping she instructed Zed to create additional units to act as a guard force and upped the security, so I really have no idea how many hostiles are there. but she only inhabits the top floors. The rest of the events are the current ones and now we need to get going as fast as possible." Hale concluded.

Everyone in that room, even the protoss felt the same emotion. Discontent for Gulliwer and Cortana. Everyone seemed to be of the same mind when they all practically irradiated a desire to stop the misguided person ruling this castle of foolish and horrid ambition, and drive it into the nearest star. But Artanis and Aerowen also felt another emotion - sadness...


Long chapter. Enjoy! :P

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