Starcraft: Reigns of War

Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft, Warcraft, or any characters associated with them as they are the property of Blizzard entertainment.

"talking"

Thoughts

Foreshadow

"Talk!" the interrogator screamed as he punched Bellier across the face with his gauntlet covered fist. "I know you can speak our language, now talk!" delivering another punishing blow.

Overseeing this interrogation, Garithos watched on with indifference as his top information extractor used every technique he knew to learn what the Protoss knew.

"How many are there of you? Where is your city located? Talk!" punching the Protoss again only for her to faint with that last hit.

"Tsk, have this creature looked at by the doctor" said Garithos. "We still need it alive to answer our questions".

Nodding, two knights lifted Bellier up by her arms as they proceeded to escort the creature back to her cell.

Garithos was feeling rather displeased thus far with how things were progressing. Even after the capture of this Protoss, they could not get it to talk even after the torture they inflicted on it. More so, with his failed attempt in raiding Quel'Thalas many voices were now beginning to question his authority. Not only did he incur the wrath of the elves, but also that of their new acquaintance the Protoss as whispers of their terrifying power could be heard amongst his ranks. Even now rumors were going about some defecting to the elves while others were planning a coup against him as they felt his leadership would be the doom of them all.

"Nonsense!" he thought in rage. "I will show them once and for all that I am fit to rule. With my leadership that humanity shall prevail!"

Garithos then went down to the armory to check on the progress the dwarves were having with the weapons they had captured. Arriving to the lower levels, he witnessed that these demi-humans were hard at work tinkering with the bits and pieces as the Protoss armor laid scattered on the table.

"Report! What have you learned of this creature's weapons?"

The dwarf looked slightly scared as he was intimidated by the former grand marshal. But gathering himself, he lifted his board as he gave his report although rather hesitant to share what he knew.

"Well speak!" Garithos commanded. "What did you learn of their weapons?"

" . . . . Nothing".

"What?"

"My lord . . . . This is nothing us dwarves have come across. The metal it's made from is unlike anything we've seen before as even our best sword broke against it. Just trying to open it, we had to use our very finest quality of explosives just too even crack the shell. Even so upon breaching the inside, we could not even fathom what we discovered sire".

"Is that not why I sent our best magicians down here to help you figure this out?" then said Garithos trying to be patient and not lose his temper.

"Of course my lord" continued the dwarf. "But even so . . . . Looking it over, we are not certain if this is technology or magic as it goes beyond anything we've ever seen. If anything my lord, this type of machinery looks similar to something those technomages have been concocting as of late. However as it stands sire, this type of weapon is far too advanced to be comprehended".

"Then bring those technomages here at once! I will not accept this lack of results!"

"But my lord, we need more time".

"Enough!" Garithos roared. "If I don't see anything soon I'll make certain you are punished as well as the rest of your dwarf kind".

~ Kalimdor ~

"Is everyone OK?" asked Thrall looking to the small gathering of warriors.

Protoss, orcs, and a few humans reported their condition as at worst they only suffered from minor fatigue after a hard fought battle.

The horde leader then looked to Grom to see him much calmer now. Much to his relief, reports were coming in from his brethren that the demon presence has been purged. It was now that the orcs were truly free from the demons as they could never be controlled again. Turing his gaze, he looked to the warrior that made it happen.

"You have my gratitude" said Thrall. "Without you, none of this would have been possible".

"You are welcomed" said Zeratul feeling the sincerity coming from the horde leader.

Thrall nodded. Aside from killing Mannoroth, they were lucky to escape the demon's hell fire explosion as two of those dark templars blinked in grabbing him and Grom before the teleported out of the ravine which was soon consumed in the hellish blaze.

But as much as they wanted to celebrate this great victory, something much more serious was occurring.

"Zeratul" called a zealot over the psychic booster. "The forest around us is dying. Those undead creatures are beginning to attack. What are your orders?"

"What is the situation?" the dark prelate asked calmly.

Answering carefully, the Protoss shared what he knew starting from the awakening of the druids, the revival of Malfurion Stormrage, and the release of their most vile criminal amongst of the night elves Illidan. For these undead were not only fearless but relentless as they were attacking on all fronts of the human, orc, and night elf bases. However the night elves were faring far better as their outer defenses were reinforced by their photon cannons as their brethren supported the front.

However the undead were now unveiling a much more sinister strategy as they seemed to have been corrupting the land from right under them which would in turn rot any defenses in their way giving them a clear path of attack directly to the heart of each base. Furthermore with each tree and animal that was caught were made into a soldier of these undead.

Although this strategy was effective against the wooden fortifications of the three races, it seemed to have been having a much harder time degrading Protoss technology as it was protected by a plasma shield. However it did appear to be gradually weakening its protection indicating its danger.

Zeratul thought carefully about this. They clearly did not have the resources to deploy any more pylons and cannons to defend the other bases. But what they could do was make a tactical strike to whatever it was that was causing this mess. "Do we know what it is?"

"Yes, we tracked the source of the distortion in the land through the energy it was broadcasting within the ground. Observers were able to safely penetrate the enemy defenses and get the full scope of their forces. We believe we located the source of this deterioration".

Zeratul then connected their communiqué to the Shield of Auir. "What is the status of the warp matrix?"

"Not good" said Malthur of the bridge as sparks were lighting up everywhere as the light dimmed on and off. "We needed to perform an emergency shut down as our weapon platforms overloaded the capacitors and threatened to burn most of the essential systems we needed. At this time we are unable to mass recall the colossi to your position as the buffer system will not be able to compensate for their sheer size".

"Is there enough to send us then?" Zeratul questioned looking out to the small band of warriors around him. "Can it handle us?"

Malthur thought carefully about this as he went to a console going over the data as he moved information around. "Yes Zeratul, we're able to mass recall you as you can then travel through the warp gate. But after that we will not be able to do anymore. Repairs will need to be our absolute priority or risk losing the ship altogether".

"Very well" said Zeratul. "But we'll need the immortals. Mass recall us now".

"Mass recall?" Thrall questioned. "What is this you speak of?"

"There is no time to explain" the dark one answered. "Just try to stay calm".

Before they could answer, the group felt a strange pull as they were shifted through time and space as they were instantly materialized within the current Protoss base on Lorderon. Commanding a warp prism to move as close as it could to the front lines, it transfigured creating a power matrix as soon their group was sent by the warp gate to the front lines as they knew what they had to go after.

~ Lorderon (New Alliance base) ~

Bellier was shifting in and out of consciousness as the female zealot was riddled in pain and injuries. As much as their interrogator tortured her, she would not utter a word to betray her brethren. But even if she could talk, she was already in so much pain which dulled out everything else. With her psychic appendages gone, she was quite literally bleeding to death. If nothing was done soon, she was going to die.

"You're a lucky one".

"Uhhh . . . ." as Bellier started to feel her senses normalize.

"If these weren't looked after soon you would have been a goner. Was it chance perhaps or maybe fate that I would meet your kind here?"

Bellier feeling the bleeding stop was finally able to focus her mind as she looked to the one that was tending to her wounds.

"Greetings there, the name's Arthur Caldwell".

The young Protoss looked to the human man as she searched his mind passively. The humans of this world could not possibly understand their physiology enough to use this kind of medical technique on them. Just pushing back the few layers of his mind, she received her answer to who the man was. "You're . . . . You're a Terran".

"And right you are and I can imagine you have a lot of questions. But before that, can you answer me one thing?"

". . . . And what would that be Terran?" Bellier asked warily.

"Please tell you have a ship to get me off this rock!" Arthur asked desperately. "The people here are so backwards! It amazes me that they get anything done around here!"

"Who are you Terran?"

"Alright alright" as he waved his hands, "let me start from the beginning. My name was Arthur Caldwell. I was or rather used to be a doctor researcher in a secret lab sanctioned by the Dominion. However I then became disgusted with the ethical boundaries that should never be crossed. But secret labs as you know, the only way to resign is by death with a bullet to the head as your retirement gift".

Sensing no lie, Bellier continued with her next line of thought. "How did you come to this world Terran?"

"Well it was surely not on purpose. It was one hell of a debacle as bullets were raining everywhere as I was making my escape. Even getting on my ship I was chased for quite some distance by some pursuing wraiths that were stationed at my post. It just happened that one of them got a lucky shot off damaging my engines causing a miscalculation in my slip space jump. Venting atmosphere, I had no choice but to land on the nearest planet I could find. But landing on this rock, the natives instantly attacked my ship mistaking it as a monster destroying any chance for me in leaving this place. These brutes would have killed me too on the spot if I didn't dazzle them with my intellect. God knows what crude torture devices they would have used on me".

Arthur then gave a deep sigh after his long drabble. Bellier narrowed her eyes as there was then another question she wanted to know. "Tell me Terran, what made you so certain that we came here for you?"

"Taking whatever remained of my ship, I managed to slap together a distress beacon as it's been operating for a while. However there was no telling how strong the signal was or how far it reached. Seeing your reaction and the buzz going around this place, guess you guys didn't get my signal".

"But why are there Terrans on this planet?" Bellier asked. "We have come across many of your ships accessing their databases learning of the many worlds you have come to colonize. However this was not one of them as even we the Protoss were not aware of the place. More so their technology is quite inferior to what I've seen you Terrans produce".

"But then that is the question" said Arthur as his tone reflected intrigue. "There is no record of any colonists coming out this far into the galaxy. Quite literally it was my first question to why there were humans here at all. I even took the time to try and see as far back to this planets history. But records seemed to have been distorted from either being lost or watered down through the ages. Frankly it's been difficult to sort through the facts and folklore".

Bellier nodded as she understood. Trying to get up, she was about to tip over from her injuries.

"Watch it" as Arthur supported her to her feet. "You really need to take it easy. The couplings I put on you are not meant to be permanent. So you need to rest until you can adjust to them".

"There will be no need" she then answered.

"Why is that?"

"My brethren . . . . They are near".

To be continued . . . .

Author's notes: Here is the next chapter and I hope you like it.

But there is a lot of things I need to think about as I'm writing the next chapter as it'll decide the course of the story.

Anyways thank you for taking the time in reading this fic to which I further extend my gratitude if you can review it as well.