Chapter 6: Operational
Zuz walked up to the pedestral near the entrance of the spacious but pitch black room. It resembled a half- metre wide deformed black sea urchin with lines of small bumps and flickering red and green diodes running down its shell, set on a short black segmented pillar which slanted towards the middle of the room and then bent slightly in the opposite direction towards Zuz.
He pressed a few of the bumps on the pedestral, and a second later there was a loud rumbling sound.
The three people standing behind Zuz leaned back against the wall in surprise as a two metre by six metre section in the centre of the featureless black marble floor sank down and then split in its middle, each portion sliding underneath the rest of the floor to reveal a deep, misty pit beneath from which an intense green light shone up.
Segmented, bronze- coloured poles slowly extended upwards from deep within the pit, each ending in weird curved bars from which there hung a wide assortment of spears, suits of armour, what looked like guns, and some other dubious – looking equipment.
Some metre by metre segments opened up in a similar fashion at regular intervals on walls at the far end of the room, each with a metre wide horizontal marble slab extending out from within the mist. Resting on these slabs were some gauntlets, helmets and more dubious – looking equipment.
"My personal collection, made of the most acid resistant materials and designed for maximal protection and effectiveness. Take your picks." Zuz spread his arms and turned towards the three standing behind him with a grin on his face. The latter eagerly approached the niches on the walls or walked around the pit in the floor and peered intently at the weaponry being displayed, like museum visitors touring their favourite exhibition.
Zuz walked towards a pair of unusually large gauntlets held in front of a niche near him and proceeded to put them on. "I'd advice you not to go there, though. Especially after I took the pains to evacuate as many people I as could from that place."
Urte, who had his eyes fixed on a long, segmented, elegant looking pole-arm sticking out from the pit, chuckled, "Surely, the famed Wind Demon is not afraid of monsters now ?"
"No, but when you get to my age, lad, there occur to you things that are more important than proving your courage and honour. Especially as the Chief of Security, it is my responsibility to keep people safe from the dangers lurking in that dreadful wreckage." Zuz held up both arms and clenched his fingers into tight fists. Two half-metre long segmented paper-thin silvery swords extended immediately from the back of each gauntlet he wore, like oversized paper-cutters. They pointed and bent slightly in the direction of his fists. An additional metre-long blade extended in the direction of each elbow. Satisfied, he lowered his arms and retracted the wrist-blades. "Then again, it is also my responsibility to go back to the site and check on its status. I guess it doesn't hurt to bring a few more men with me."
Urte detached the pole-arm from its gripper and immediately its two ends retracted towards the middle, collapsing one segment into another, reducing its length from four metres to one and a half. At one end there was what looked like a slender, half-metre long saber with a curved edge and several smaller blades folded into its base, at the other a thin spear-head with still smaller blades folded into its base. Urte twisted one of the outer segments, and the pole extended fully again. He swung and spun it about randomly for a few seconds, then put it down on the floor and walked over towards the wall to help Eya put on a suit of armour.
Zeratul found that none of the sets of plated armour fit him well, so he had to be satisfied with a stretchy, black, hooded tight suit which Zuz claimed was highly resistant to tear. Oh well, Zeratul, thought, I still have my cape and plasma shield anyways.
"Alright, once we are within Kainde Amedha territory, never take off these masks. If any hostile creature approaches you, you can aim your shoulder cannon just by staring at your target. The button to fire is hidden within your mask and can be reached with your lower mandibles." Urte steadied Eya's helmet. It was a simplistic metal headgear molded over the contours of his entire head except areas where his braids protruded, with narrow horizontal visors and a trapezoidal bulge to accommodate his mandibles.
"Don't worry, I've had my weapons training."Eya reassured his friend, then pulled out from the wall-niche behind him a pair of heavy handguns resembling ribbed black tubes with long straps attached to their slanted hilts. He clipped the ends of the straps onto the holsters on his waist.
"Oh yes I recall, "Urte said as he turned back to try some more pole-arms, "you scored full during target practice and then went on to babble about the mathematics involved in shooting."
"Haha, you two remind me of Kurh and I when we were young." Zuz laughed.
Zeratul regarded the elder Yautja from where he stood.
Zuz was slightly taller and leaner than Urte or Eya. He had pale grey skin with faint wrinkles behind his eyes and cheeks. On his left cheek there was a shallow, dark-green scar resembling a slanted fern frond with nine branches.
Zuz saw Zeratul staring at his scar, so he smiled and explained, "It's a mark of honour unique to our clan that I received in my Blooding ceremony. I started with a three branched fern after I passed my first Trial of Skill, then more branches were added as I accomplished even greater achievements."
Zuz seemed totally at ease with Zeratul. He had probably traveled very widely and seen a lot in his life, judging from his advanced age and the number of branches on his scar, so the sight of an alien being like Zeratul did not disturb him in the least.
Besides, Zeratul had refrained from using telepathy now. He had learned enough of the Yautja language to allow him to vocalize some basic phrases by vibrating the book gills under his cheeks and the sides of his chest.
……
"Wow, you sure know how to modify your ride." Urte exclaimed as he stepped over the top of the stairwell onto Zuz's personal landing platform atop the forest canopy and beheld the large, light –grey craft parked at its side.
"Well, I've had a century to do that." Zuz said as he walked across the platform towards his shuttle, motioning for the rest to follow him.
Zeratul took a moment to enjoy the cool night breeze and observed the shape of the shuttle. It was very compact in design and resembled a cross between one of those large hovering trucks built by the Terrans and an overgrown beetle: its contours were vastly more aerodynamic than that of a truck but slightly more angular than that of a beetle.
Its two body segments were connected in the middle by a depressed black band.
Covering the slanted front and top of the front segment was a large flat trapezoidal windscreen. There were also two elongated, quarter-circular windows on each side of this segment.
Its enormous, cuboid hind segment was covered in angular but gently curving ridges and troughs along its length. On both sides, held a few metres away from the main body of the hind segment by an intermittent series of thick horizontal boards were two gigantic thrusters each as tall as Zeratul himself.
Zuz turned the circular door at the back of the shuttle and then opened it, then all four of them climbed through into the black matted interior of the shuttle. Zuz walked over and sat down at the cockpit housed inside the front segment while the other three settled into one of the passenger benches. "Strap down. There is a cruiser heading for the edge of this star system. If we are fast, we can catch up and hitch a ride in it before it accelerates out of the atmosphere. Even so, it will take us half a day to reach our destination."
Zeratul stretched then collapsed back into his seat. He had had a long day, and still there was going to be another long day ahead of him. He slowly closed his weary eyelids, and let his mind drift off into a star system far far away, to a time long long ago …
"Be safe, Dark One." Tassadar put a hand on Zeratul's shoulder as the latter stepped out of the shuttle.
"I will. Just make sure that there are no Overlords to sight me when I sneak in." Zeratul drew his cape over him and tested his warp blade.
"Do not worry, my fleet would have blasted all of them out of the sky before you even get there. Still, you need to be careful." Tassadar said. "Come back in one piece. You haven't finished teaching me the ways of the Dark Templar yet."
"Same here, High Templar Tassadar."Zeratul replied.
Both of them laughed and embraced each other. Then Zeratul turned and sped off across the ash and lava filled landscape of Char towards the menacing Zerg Hive in the distance, followed closely behind him by a few more dark templar.
Loud fiery explosions lit up the dark red sky of Char and flocks of screeching mutalisks swooped up to meet the Protoss Carriers and Interceptors in a massive aerial battle.
Zeratul and his band of stealth assassins slipped past the Zerg's ground defenses with ease, dodging the occasional smouldering corpse of a four-metre long giant beetle larva with bat-like wings or giant crab the size of a large shuttle which crashed into the ground here and there. Bright blue orbs of plasma and pieces of metal debris slammed into the towering spires and organic structures of the Hive and thick pale orange smoke blanketed the whole area amidst splashes of green or red blood and groans and hisses of dead or dying Zerglings and Drones.
Soon, they had descended into one of the dark subterranean tunnels of the Hive. Occasionally they would find their path blocked by packs of tall, serpent-like Hydralisks, or a hulking Ultralisk, but having nasty scythes on your forearms and titanic mandibular tusks would not help you if you couldn't see your enemy. The creatures were quickly incapacitated with skillful swipes from the dark templars' warp blades.
Finally, they arrived in a large central cavern at the center of which sat what appeared to be an enormous ten-metre long and five metre thick grey-coloured grub covered in a thick layer of gelatin. Its body pulsated in a sickening fashion.
"You can't kill me ! I am a cerebrate ! Even if you destroy my physical form here the Overmind will have me reincarnated and then I shall have my revenge on you !" It hissed telepathically as it sensed the dark templar approaching.
Ignoring Zasz's hollow threats, Zeratul walked up to it, raised his warp blade in the air and called upon the power of the Void. The blade's bright white core dimmed and turned black as it extended a further two metres and its translucent blue surface turned brilliant red.
"By Adun !"Zeratul shouted then charged forward and plunged the blade right through the middle of Zasz's body, pinning the latter onto the cave floor.
Zasz let out an ear-piercing, blood curdling scream and its body began to convulse violently. Its gelatinous covering began to froth and boil. Suddenly, its whole body ballooned up and exploded, filling the cavern with a thin red mist. Where it once sat there was nothing but a four metre long warp blade driven diagonally into the floor.
"Prelate Zeratul, we have word from Tassadar," one of the other dark templars said. " The Zerg forces have been plunged into a state of chaos. They are attacking random targets, even their own. We have succeeded !"
"Good, let us get out of here." Zeratul tugged at his warp blade. It did not budge.
Then Zeratul gasped in shock as translucent red tendrils burst up through the floor and wrapped themselves tightly around his warpblade and himself.
Some of the thicker tentacles extended up towards the ceiling of the cavern and converged into each other. The resulting translucent red sphere gradually formed itself into a five-metre wide eyeball with golden iris and a vertical, slit like pupil.
It peered down at the struggling figure caught within its tendrils. Its deep, reverberating voice resounded across the cavern walls, and in the minds of those who heard it.
"I see YOU !"
Zeratul looked up, petrified, at the terrifying spectral form of the Zerg Overmind.
"So THAT was HOW YOU KILLED SCYLLA and BEHEMOTH as well. YOU WIELD ENERGIES SIMILAR to MY OWN !"
Zeratul tried pushing against the tendrils again, but he could not move.
"ZASZ was BOUND to ME as INTIMATELY as any OTHER CEREBRATE. Did YOU EXPECT to use a PSIONIC ATTACK on HIM and not get CAUGHT ?"
Zeratul felt the tips of the tendrils dig into his head and his back, and screamed in pain. A flood of confusing and horrifying images flashed through his mind.
"PERFECT ! for all THOSE MILLENIA I have been SEARCHING for the SECRET HOMEWORLD of the FIRST-BORN, and NOW I have its LOCATION !
at LAST ! I shall ASSIMILATE the STRONGEST SPECIES in this SECTOR into the SWARM, the PURITY of ESSENCE and the PURITY of FORM shall become ONE, and WE shall be PERFECT !"
The Overmind tightened its tendrils around Zeratul, and the latter felt his consciousness draining away.
"We must free him ! Quick !"Zeratul heard a voice behind him shout.
He saw the blurry shimmer of a warp blade slashing at the stems of the tendrils between him and the ground, and felt a few hands grab him by the arms and shoulder and drag him forcefully backwards, shaking him loose of what remaining psychic hold the Overmind had over him …
Zeratul felt someone violently shaking him by the shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked up.
"Ah, you are finally awake !" It was Urte. "We are there already !"
"The Cruiser ?"
"No, the Derelict."
Zeratul stood up with a start. Damn, he missed his chance to tour the Yautja cruiser that they were supposed to hitch a ride on.
Of all times, he had to have another nightmare flashback during the ride. The assassination of Zasz happened long before he even met Kerrigan or Duran. It seemed that he was reliving every traumatic personal event in a reversed chronological order.
The next one could be my exile from Aiur and my initiation into the Dark Templar, he mused, or something more "ancient".
The door hatch spun and swiveled open, and three Yautja and a Protoss stepped out onto the dark blue, rocky landscape. A thick, pale blue mist hung in every direction. Against the dim, white moonlight, there was a titanic, almost apocalyptic silhouette towering an immeasurable distance above and over them, like a great black serpent looking down at a few ants on the cracked ground through swamp mist.
The four of them put on their full armour, tested their weapons one more time, and walked towards the dark, unfathomable base of the silhouette.