A/N: Hi again, all! I am back with a vengeance and a chapter! Enjoy!

Chapter VII

The Battle Begins

"War makes rattling good history, but peace is poor reading."
~Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts

Soon after, Zeratul returned. The Overseer is sealed, he said quickly. We must make haste!

Tosh nodded once. "Understood," he said quietly. And he and Cynder followed the ancient Protoss deeper into the gorge.

Tosh was clearly nervous, Cynder could see. He looked up towards the cliffs to either side so frequently it looked as though he had an involuntary twitch. Even the collected Protoss Templar looked shifty.

Why? Cynder wondered.

The answer came in a flash and a flurry of blades from on high. They were like stone daggers, covered in a strange slime. Tosh and Zeratul, both clearly expecting something like this, were able to doge the spikes. Cynder took a couple to the shoulder, but they bounced off her armor, leaving only minute dents and scratches.

As soon as she collected herself from the shock, she reacted, battle-hardened instincts from the Dark War guiding her into a kneeling position and then a roll into the shadow of a rocky outcrop from the cliff from which the attack had come.

Tosh and Zeratul were there already. "Spore Crawlers," hissed the Spectre furiously. "They've found us. They know we're here. Nothing now can change that."

Cynder clenched her teeth. Spyro's face looked very worried on her monitor, but she didn't have time to reassure him now. "There's only one thing to do then, isn't there?" she asked. "We move, as fast as we can. We have to get to the plateau and clear the landing site. They know we're here, yes, but all that means is that we've got a time limit now, that being however long it takes them to send their whole force after us.

Yes, said Zeratul. We cannot waste time in combat. We must hurry. Go! Run! Follow me!

And they ran, weaving through the rain of spines as the Hydralisks on the hills fired on them. Cynder's mechanized bulk made it nigh on impossible to doge the blade storm, but she was able to divert most of the power to the more armored sections of her suit and away from the vital areas of exposed mechanics. At least she felt no pain –

She cried out suddenly as one of the spines cut a wire near the cockpit. Electricity coursed through her veins for a moment, before being cut off by the suits natural defense mechanisms. For the instant of fiery pain, her eyes dimmed, the world went even darker than it normally was through her tinted-glass visor, and she stumbled on her steel legs. When her sight cleared she was still running, and she saw Spyro's face looking horrified, his eyes seeking hers. She smiled at him through the tears that had appeared in that one moment of agony and mouthed, "I'm okay."

She kept following after the Protoss and Spectre ahead of her, and they continued to move at a run, even after the Hydralisk's fire had faded away behind them. Then, all of a sudden, Zeratul came to a halt, and then Tosh. She skidded to a stop too – just in time. The gorge fell away just infront of her into a misty abyss with no clear bottom just in front of her. Another foot and she doubted that any armor of shields or carapace would have protected her.

We have arrived, said Zeratul softly. Across the chasm lay what was more an island than a plateau. This was my base area, continued the Protoss. This place in particular, though, will not have any buildings of ours. Now he closed his glowing eyes and his thoughts were no longer channeled to her and Tosh alone, but to their fleet high above. Are the landing parties ready? he asked.

Ours is, answered another voice of another Protoss. Raynor's will be down soon in dropships.

And do we have any of the Terran's nukes at our disposal? asked Zeratul.

We do; the Hyperion is ready to launch them, said the other Protoss.

Then Tosh, Zeratul said to the Spectre, who cut him off with a nod.

"Understood," said he, his feral grin returning, and he took his sniper rifle out of his holster and aimed it at a point of empty ground a ways into the island. He pressed a small button on the gun, and a beam of red light shot out and marked the ground there. "Target acquired," he said.

The Hyperion has fired its missile! said the Protoss in the fleet after an instant. I estimate that it should arrive at its target in approximately two minutes, given our distance.

"Good," said Tosh. "Now my favorite part: Waiting for the blasted missile."

Zeratul shrugged. It is better than waiting for a Planet Cracker to fire, I assure you, he said flatly.

"I don't disagree," muttered the Spectre. "I was there on the mission to Haven. That Mothership of yours had a rate of fire so slow I can't believe it's your main areal blast weapon."

It wasn't always, said Zeratul quietly. We had many, far worse weapons during the Kalath Intercession.

"The Colossi aren't that terrain destructive –" Tosh began, but Zeratul cut him off.

I was not referring to the Colossi, said the old Nerazim. We had many other, worse weapons in those days. Weapons that I would not call back up even at the fulfilling of the Overmind's vision. Now look! The missile approaches! And he pointed upward to the sky.

Cynder looked, and saw a rocket larger than one of the Goliath walkers she'd seen in the Armory falling from the sky. In a moment, it made contact with the ground right at the point of light Tosh had been laying as he talked with Zeratul.

Cynder's eyes widened. The cacophony of light and noise that crashed through the air was like nothing she had ever imagined. The nuke exploded, leaving a totally clear field, empty of Zerg – as well as any plant life.

Site cleared, said Zeratul, unaffected by the missile. Begin warping in.

Suddenly he reached out and grasped both Cynder and Tosh's arms, and before Cynder could make a move, there was darkness swirling about her.

Before she could react to that, however, she was back on Aiur, with one key difference. She looked around in confusion for a moment, before she remembered Zeratul's Blink.

The one difference was that now she was on the other side of the chasm.

The prisms of Protoss warp were beginning to appear all around her. A probe had already appeared, and had just opened a warp channel for a nexus near a resource base.

Another Protoss had warped in just beside them, Cynder noticed. It was taller than many of the others, standing at nearly three meters. Clad in platinum armor like Zeratul's, it bore a similar warp blade on its right wrist and a bulkier band on its left, like, Cynder saw, those of the Zealot footsoldiers. It was plainly much younger than Zeratul, for its face was far less wrinkled and shriveled, and its eyes were a luminescent blue, like the light of Protoss warp energy.

It knelt before Zeratul just after it had appeared. Greetings, Exalted One, it – or rather he, for its voice was plainly male – said. My Mentor, Akhaz, has requested that I remain with you for the first day of this battle that I may observe your skills. Is this acceptable to you?

Zeratul looked at the Protoss in surprise. Akhaz? he said in surprise. I recall him. But why has he sent you to observe me? What is your name?

I am Shazun, said the younger Protoss. Prior to my induction into the Templar Caste of Nerazim, I was a mechanic of Stalker Blinking machines, and I wield one such device myself. The Protoss gestured at a vaguely rectangular metal object harnessed onto his back, which glowed and whirred in various places. I use this technique in combat, but I still do not fully understand the psionics of it. To this end, I wish to observe your use of it in combat, as you are the only Templar in history to have mastered its use without the aid of any machine.

Zeratul nodded slowly. A noble project to research, he said. Very well, you may join us. This is Cynder, in the armor, Cynder gave a little wave, and this is Tosh. Tosh nodded at the Protoss in respect.

Thank you, Prelate, said Shazun, bowing to the Protoss and nodding at each of the others in turn.

Suddenly, another voice snapped into all their minds. The four of you are needed at the eastern lines, it said tersely. Go, quickly. The Zerg have come.

Very well, Zeratul replied. He led the three others past the warp channels that were even now summoning buildings into reality and to the eastern exit of the base.

There were Protoss there already. And there were the Zerg, too, waiting for them.

"Incoming transmission!"

The adjutant's voice rang through the almost-silent bridge of the Starship Hyperion. Matt didn't even need an order to answer – he'd already pressed the button. A Protoss in the golden armor of a Khalai appeared on the screen.

James Raynor, said the Protoss, and its voice was female – though Spyro had, somehow, already known that by her less pronounced jaw and smoother skin.

Jim blinked in surprise. "Executor Selendis," he said respectfully. "It's been a while."

Indeed, said the Executor. Her eyes were ever-so-slightly downcast. The landing site has been cleared, and our forces are warping in as we speak.

"Good," said Jim. "Move us into the upper atmosphere," he told the pilot, who nodded, hit a few buttons, and pulled a lever or two. Spyro felt the motion of the ship change slightly under his feet.

Now that business is clear, said Selendis after a moment, I must tell you that I received a message from the planet Haven recently. I assume you heard that the woman Hanson has successfully found a cure for those in the early stages of Infestation?

"Yeah, we heard," said the Terran, and the atmosphere was suddenly thick with a plethora of emotions, from embarrassment to anger to sadness.

I will not apologize, said Selendis quietly. What I did was what any Khalai Templar would do, and I know it was right in the circumstances. But I am… glad that she found that cure.

"So are we, Selendis. So are we," said Raynor after a moment. After another pause he said, "Look, the past is the past. I didn't lose many men that day, and what happened could have ended much worse. Right now, we need to focus. Things could get real ugly real fast if we aren't careful. My men'll be down there in about ten minutes. Just secure the base until then, and we'll join the fray when we get there."

Selendis stared at him for a long moment, and then she said quietly, That day, I said that your service to Aiur was known to me. I could not have been more mistaken. We, all our race, is indebted to you. En taro Tassadar. And she was gone.

"Spyro," said the Commander after a moment, "I want you to head down to the hangar now. Get into the first dropship. Matt, call 'em and tell 'em it's my orders."

Spyro nodded. "Thanks," he said quietly.

"Don't worry about it," said Raynor as the MageWalker left.

Cynder gritted her teeth. The volume was turned down, so that she couldn't hear all of the outside noise, but the wave of dissonant roars, cries, lasers, warp blades, and her and Tosh's gunfire was still starting to give her a headache. She'd shut off her cloak – it wasn't much use in this kind of combat, she was more likely to be hit by chance than because the enemy was aiming at her – turned her hands into spinning gatling guns, and was now in the process of helping the Protoss mow down the Zerg. Their numbers were such, though, that she wasn't sure how long it's be before that plan turned into 'give up and run'.

Just a short while longer! called out the voice of the Protoss in charge of all this – the Judicator or Executor or whatever; frankly Cynder could care less. The Photon Cannon are nearly prepared!

Cynder couldn't really remember what a Photon Cannon was, but she hoped it was something good. She asked as much to Zeratul beside her. "Is that a good thing?" she screamed over the noise as she perforated a Hydralisk that had been harassing a nearby Zealot.

Yes! Zeratul called back as he slashed through the torso of a Roach and leapt to the side as the monster's acidic insides spewed out.

"Oh," shouted Cynder as she reduced another Zergling to geography with her shoulder grenades. "Good!" she added after a moment's thought as she, forgoing technology, gave a nearby monster a fist/gun to the face that sent it back five feet into another.

Now there was a tiny lull in the combat, which allowed her to catch her breath for a moment. All around her, the others were still fighting, but for this one moment, there was no Zerg in front of her.

So far, only a few Protoss had died, and – to her relief – Zeratul wasn't one of the few. Nor, is seemed, was Tosh, as she saw his cloaked figure run past her and a Baneling about twenty feet from her suddenly develop a very bad chest cavity. It exploded, and a lot of Zerg died. She grinned; Tosh definitely knew what he was doing.

And then there was a Hydralisk in front of her. She sighed and gave it a laser to the face. It went down, and with it, her respite, for behind it was a Baneling.

She hit that with a grenade. It became scenery. So did quite a few other Zerg behind and beside it.

She raised her guns. There was a Roach coming now. She fired. She fired some more. And a little more…

Eventually, she lost patience and hit it with a grenade too. It died, finally. She had long since decided that she despised having Roaches as enemies. The things just didn't want to die.

She really wasn't enjoying this, she decided as she socked a nearby Hydralisk in the belly. Every time she killed a Zerg she felt, at once, both happy and sad; Happy for two reasons and sad for one. She was happy because she was helping the Protoss get back Aiur, and because she was freeing the Zerg from what she somehow knew instinctively was a life of slavery. But she was sad because, regardless of anything else, she was killing Zerg, and that was something she didn't want to do.

Oh well, she thought as she catalyzed a Zergling's perforation. At least Aiur will be free. That'll make Spyro happy.

A moment later, she couldn't remember why she'd thought that.

A/N: This one was hard. I had to fulfill the promise of action that I made to Soul of a Lion, and still keep the story good. Action, you see, does not agree with me. I'm not good at it. I hope I wasn't too bad here. Keeping it a little light-hearted helped me, and you may have noticed the results.

Anyway, Shazun is an OC belonging to Tempest of Reach. That by no means implies that I'm taking requests. It was hard enough to get this guy in, and the negotiations I had with Tempest to change things up so he'd fit in were long and arduous. You'll get to know him better later.

So how was the chapter? I'm unsure about this one, so if the action or anything wasn't to your liking, tell me so I can fix it! Review, please!