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

The World's Secrets

~ Twisted Nether ~

"Impossible!" Kil'jaeden roared. "You are to tell me we were defeated by a bunch of worthless mortals!"

Thousands of his followers trembled as their master vented his fury on the unlucky few that stood in before him. But knowing the kind of master he was, they knew he would not get terribly violent unnecessarily. However their defeat was not something they had anticipated as they had been steadily building their military force for the last thousand years. With such, it was inconceivable that they would be defeated by a bunch of mortals.

"My liege" an advisor warily approached. "What shall be our next move? Shall we plan another invasion? There forces must have taken considerable losses as we should easily be able to overtake them now. What says you my master?"

". . . . No" the red demon simply said which surprised his followers.

"But my liege, you must consider . . . ."

"Do you question my leadership?" Kil'jaeden then asked glaring to many of his followers daring even one of them to speak against him.

"Of course not" the advisor stuttered bowing their head. "It's just that with all things considered it should be an easy victory if we attack now".

"Then you're as foolish as Archimonde" as Kil'jaeden sat on this throne. "Do not even think that our enemies have not been mustering their own power over the last millennia. But what is concerning are these travelers".

"Master?"

"Clearly these . . . . Protoss are a formidable foe to which the likes the Burning Legion has not yet faced before".

"Then what should we do master?"

"We will study them. Learn their weaknesses. Hone our powers till nothing can stand before the might of the legion. We waited a thousand years before invading Azeroth, what is a little more time?"

"Then what of your orders master?"

"We already have several scouts and loyal servants still in Azeroth. Have them observe these Protoss for now. We would want to test them to see how they would react under different circumstances to which I will personally give that order. Meanwhile rally our best alchemists and warlocks. Begin improving our combat abilities. When we return, the entire world will quake in fear of our name".

With finishing his plans, cheers could be heard from countless followers as they got to work with their own individual assignments.

~ Koprulu sector ~

Flying through another dimension, several Minotaur class battlecruisers soared through warp space as many of the on board personnel tended to the much needed maintenance that had to be done.

It had been some time since their battle on Char as the Raynor Raiders came out victorious with the assistance of Prince Valerian and his Dominion fleet. Through a hard fought battle, the swarm was defeated with its leader Sarah Kerrigan de-infested and onboard the Hyperion.

However it was not without loss as the Raiders suffered many casualties. But it was not nearly as bad as the Dominions losses thanks in part for the guiding leadership and strategic thinking of their commander Jim Raynor and captain Matt Horner.

But upon learning of Kerrigan's fall from power, Arcturus did not miss his chance in trying to kill her as he sent everything he had to finish her and the Raiders off once and for all. It was now that they were on the run.

Needing to understand Kerrigan's situation, they made a randevu with personnel representing the Moebius foundation. However it was a trap at Arcturus had gotten to them first as Narud head of the foundation not only betrayed them but stole the Xel'naga artifact as well. So with few options available, they were on the run again.

On board the Hyperion within certain quarters, Jim Raynor sat with Sarah as she was resting from her ordeal. Talking to her, her memories were hazy recalling her time as the Queen of Blades or anything else during the time she was infested.

Looking to her sleeping form, the formal marshal turned freedom fighter was conflicted to how he should feel. For all the destruction she had wrought, Kerrigan deserved to die for all the innocent lives she had butchered and more so for the brave warriors that were slain dying courageously against the swarm for what they believed in. But on the other hand, he wanted to believe that it was not Kerrigan but the Zerg part of her that was responsible for all those atrocities she had committed.

"Damn this is confusing" said Raynor as he rubbed his face. Honestly he didn't know what to do concerning her as there were too many things that revolved around her in relation to her crimes, Zeratul's prophecy, and his own feelings. But for now, it was enough that she was here with him to which he would cross that bridge when he had too.

"Commander, we need you on the bridge" Matt communicated over the radio. "There are a few things you need to see".

"Understand, be right there". Then giving a tired sigh, Jim looked to Sarah one last time as he smoothed his hand from her forehead to her cheek before turning about to leave. "I'll be seeing you later darling" as he then left.

The moment he left, Kerrigan's eyes opened flashing a glowing tinge of yellow as she stared sadly and absentmindedly to the wall in front of her. "I'm sorry Jim" she whispered. Using her telepathic abilities, she could tell how tormented he was. But honestly it was all just a big mess in her head just trying to remember what happened after she was abandoned to the swarm on Tarsonis till now. Even around the ship she could hear the whispers of the crew questioning why she was being left alive for all the things she had done. But she was too exhausted to think about this any further as she soon went back to sleep.

Now arriving on the bridge, Raynor looked around as he saw his second in command looking over the star map as he went over to him. "What's up Matt?"

"Sir, we've got reports all over the ship and from the rest of our fleet. We've been working diligently with repairs after that Dominion ambush".

"How are thing's looking?"

"Not too bad at the moment. Most of the hull breaches have already been sealed up. Power conduits have already been patched up. Some of our damaged systems have already been brought back online. But as for the destination Prince Valerian had told us, it'll still take a few more jumps till we can arrive there".

Raynor's eyebrow cocked at this. "I know you're just being punctual Matt, but it seemed hardly necessary to drag me to the bridge for the same news you gave me last time".

"Actually sir, this is why I called you up here" as Matt faced the star map inputting commands on the holographic projector. "During our last required drop from warp space, sensors picked up a strange signal from an uncharted part of space" as the holographic projector showed a cut off to the map.

Examining it, Raynor squinted his eyes as he interpreted what the data was saying. "This signal . . . . It seems to be Protoss. It seems to be an S.O.S. of some sort.

"That's what I thought too. But I was also reading this along with the signal" as Matt typed in a few commands. "Although the signal is Protoss, the technology that sent it sure wasn't there's as it has a very Terran signature to it. Not unless the Protoss are in some desperate situation, there would be little reason in needing Terran technology to send their signal out".

Raynor then rubbed his chin as he continued to look at the projection. "Any way we can take a detour to see what's going on?"

"That would be far out of our way sir as it's literally in the opposite direction several thousands of light years away to the coordinates provided to us by Valerian. Not to mention it could be a trap as Arcturus is aware of your familiarity with the Protoss".

"But it doesn't seem right. If it were a trap, it would not be so obvious".

"Quite the catch twenty-two predicaments, if the Protoss are really in trouble or this is a trap there really isn't any way to tell".

"Anyway the Dominion caught wind of this?"

"Can't say for sure, but I wouldn't doubt it considering the resources they have at their exposal. But it's up to you sir to either stay the course or investigate".

Raynor had to think carefully about the situation. Honestly he'd love to help if he could. Not only was it common courtesy for any space faring race to answer an S.O.S., but it was the Protoss after all. Figured with some built up credit they'd owe him one to which he'd call in a favor one of these days. However on the flip side it was as Matt said as it could be a trap. With Sarah on board, he didn't want to take any chances of putting her in danger let alone the rest of the crew or his men. But after a bit of thinking, he made his decision. "Tosh, I know you're there. You might as well come on out".

A faint chuckling was heard as several red hexagonal of light appeared electrifying before dissipating as a man soon stood in its place. "What can I do for ya brotha?"

"Can send one of your specters out there for reconnaissance? Need to know if this signal is on the level".

"Sorry brotha, but me and my specters are busy at the moment. However" as Tosh gave one long thought, "I do have someone who can go. If they are Protoss, I'm thinkin he'll get along with them just fine" chuckling a bit.

"Can we trust him?"

"More or less I suppose. Zac is good at what he does, but has a few screws loose" to which he chuckled again much to the irony of those around him.

"When's the soonest he can leave?"

"Once we drop out of warp space he can depart"

"Alright" as Raynor nodded. "If they are Protoss have him send back a message telling us what their situation is. If there's time I'll tend to the rescue operation myself. Meanwhile think you can get a message to Shakuras about this?"

"Not sure" as Matt shook his head a bit. "There technology is so different to ours as frankly we can't know for sure if they'll receive or even understand our message. In addition of it being quite some distance from here".

"Fine, then have Stetmann try to cook up something with the communications array. Hopefully we can reach one of them and tell them what's going on. Alright, you all have your orders, get to it then".

Upon dropping out of warp space, a single specter along with a small tactical platoon boarded an F.T.L. capable transport as it departed the Hyperion as soon the rest of the fleet jumped back into warp space. Meanwhile Stetmann did his best with the communications array attempting to adapt Protoss warp technology to send their message across sub-space. Although it did not look promising, he was still going to try.

~ Azeroth (Lordaeron) ~

Although their current master was gone, the undead still pushed forward with their original order of taking over the continent with dreadlords and Arthas as their charge.

But receiving word from Kil'jaeden, nothing had changed from their purpose of destruction and assimilation of the land. Roaming around the continent as they did, the smaller individual factions were easily crushed which left the only few bigger civilizations to deal with. The high elf homeland was all but impossible to take over now due to the help from their new friends as they had defensive weapons all throughout their territory destroying any chance of an invasion from any strategic position. The dwarves although not nearly as complicated were difficult to fight due to their superior weapons. So this then left the new Alliance.

Although they were a strong force, their greatest foe was themselves. Politics were unsteady as social standings within the group were breaking close to a civil war. Some if not most of the demi-humans had already left the alliance for numerous reasons due to the political unrest or feeling it was safer somewhere else. In such cases, a good deal of them had decided to either flee to dwarf or elf territory. For those not of their race hoped they would be granted amnesty.

However for those who stayed behind had their own reasons be it idealism or certain types of gain. But with how oppressive life there was, even that was beginning to wear thin.

With their current military power, it would be quite easy to crush them. But Kil'jaeden had other plans.

"Understood" said Arthas as he bowed before his master's image.

"Carry out your mission" as demon's image disappeared.

Turning about, the fallen prince looked to the once pinnacle of human civilization as it lay in ruins as the defenses and most of its structures were worn down from constant attack. So this being the case, sneaking in would not be a problem as the Burning Legion had business with the man in charge.

Now within the pseudo-throne, Garithos sat as he looked out blankly to his empty room. Sitting there alone, the once proud grand marshal was nothing more than a hollowed out man paralyzed by the constant fear of death to which he was now even too scared to look at his own shadow. Due to his paranoia, he was failing his duties in maintaining order within the new Alliance base with how strained everything was between the differing social levels.

But being alone in the room, the former grand marshal made it law that no one is to enter his room except one guard to deliver his meal three times a day. In addition, there were to be soldiers posted at his door around the clock with mages checking constantly every hour that only he and he alone was the one in the room.

Reaching up to touch the scar that was left on his face, Garithos could only feel bone chilling terror as he recalled the memory of those ominous glowing green eyes as his heated blade cut into his face. Just knowing how easily that Protoss creature came and went terrified him as he knew his guards would not be able to protect him. As he was about to fall further into his self-loathing, he was disturbed as a shadowy mirage began to appear in his room which caused him to jump to his feet. "I didn't do anything!" he thought as he shook just reaching for his sword to protect himself. But as the figure revealed himself, Garithos attitude changed as he was about to scream for his guards.

"Tsk tsk, we can't have you do that" said Arthas as he placed his Frostmourne's edge against the man's throat.

With the blade touching his skin, Garithos began to sweat bullets as he relinquished the grasp of his sword before raising his hands in compliance. "What do you want from me?"

"Want?" the death knight chuckled, "on the contrary it's what I have to offer you" as Garithos gave him a curious look. "As it stands, 'we' are about to offer you a chance to allow humanity to rise to its once former glory".

The former grand marshals eyes quirked at this. "Why would the likes of you be helping me?"

". . . . Let's say our interests are aligned with each other".

Although these were there words, Arthas and more so Kil'jaeden knew that Garithos was but a simple fool. So long as they dangled the idea of humanity rising back to power in front of him, they knew he'd follow like the stupid animal he was. During this time, the new Alliance would act as the Burning Legions proxy in testing and understanding what the Protoss are and what they are capable of as they would take this opportunity to find a weakness of theirs to exploit. Although they would provide the new Alliance with weapons and knowledge, it would be just enough to string them along till their usefulness had ended.

But for Arthas, he would take this time and find a way to sever ties from Kil'jaeden as advised by Kelthuzard. The red demon was not capable of crossing into this world. If he could somehow relieve himself of Kil'jaeden's dreadlord watch dogs, then everything would soon fall into place as this world would then belong to the one true master the Lich king.

~ Azeroth (Kalimdor) ~

"Look at these designs, will this work?"

"Teach us your ways".

"Please share with us your magical knowledge".

Lasarra could only sigh as she looked to her current audience. As they looked to her expectedly, "no" she said rather flatly to the mages, elves, and dwarves present. "If you want to know how it works then you're more than welcomed to figure it out on your own" much to their disappointment.

Elsewhere, the Protoss scientist saw as her fellow colleagues were being harassed as well by their own groups of mages, dwarves, and elves. Lasarra could only sigh somewhat in annoyance, flattering in a way, but still annoying. This was one of the reasons why observers were usually sent to study civilizations as they wouldn't have to deal with the indigenous species. But seeing they were known to them now, there was no need to tip toe anymore as it was usually more practical to study subjects in person.

But what they found interesting thus far was how their presence had affected them in terms of their own natural progression. Just observing most of their technology, some attempts were being made to replicate them.

The dwarves were making some very interesting progress in developing prototypes of their stalker units. Although they were appalled of the development of weapons technology, in a way they had to say they were impressed with how quickly they had grasped the design of the four legged walker. In a sense they were running before they even learned to walk as they were attempting to create technology before understanding the most basic of scientific principles. But nonetheless, there advancement was nothing short of amazing. By comparison, they were at least equivalent to seventeenth or eighteenth century Terrans from what they were able to extrapolate of their history. If they had to guess, the development of circuit board technology would not be too far behind them.

But as for the elves and the human mages, they made attempts to replicate their plasma shield technology through the use of their magic. Working around the clock, they were writing several formulations and creating artifacts to generate the same effect. Although they asked to use their psionic power matrix to experiment, it was absolutely off limits. It was the Protoss belief any technology that a civilization develops should be under their own ability through time, knowledge, and progress with nothing less than that without outside interference. Of course there cannons was just a minor exception for that one time only.

But speaking of the matter at hand that was what Lasarra wanted to investigate. Magic was still a very interesting concept to them as they still did not understand its properties entirely. Journeying around the galaxy, there was no other race that exhibited such unique qualities. Hence forth they wanted to understand its exact nature.

Doing a little investigative work, they managed to gather some genetic samples from the humans, elves, night elves, dwarves, goblins, and any other species that were on this world. Analyzing the blood samples right down to the genetic level, they found many interesting sequences that they could not classify. However that was what was interesting. With such complex sequences, it was honestly inconceivable how any race could evolve to become like this as it was not reflective in their civilization as a whole. But of course this was with minor exception.

As the Terrans had classified it, there were seven different tiers of technological levels with the biggest numbers showing almost little to no form of technology or scientific advancement and the smaller numbers indicating a very advanced state of a civilization.

By the Terrans sense of ranking, humanity was already a tier three society in which they had the potential in becoming a tier two given a few decades or so. As for the Protoss themselves, they were at least border lining of being capable of tier one technology. Although technically they could be a lot more advanced than they are now, there were many reasons both culturally and philosophically why they limited their progression.

But for the indigenous of Azeroth, they were only a mere tier seven indicating they just barely left their caves and started making progress. The exceptions of course were the dwarves and goblins as they had the ability to move on to tier six while elves were fine living within the natural world.

However what was puzzling to Lasarra and her colleagues was what they found in their blood samples. Locating certain genetic tags, it seemed that each group as a species had almost millions of years to evolve as their genetic profile was on par or probably more advanced than their Terran counterpart. But as there observers carbon dated the planet, it was nowhere near as old which meant either one of two things. The first was that there was something special on or near this planet which was causing this evolution. Secondly, the Protoss were not the first extraterrestrials to come to this world as these humanoids were subject to some form of genetic engineering by a very advanced race. By their own records aside from themselves, there were not many capable of such a feat.

Although Lasarra wanted to study this magic a bit more and try to find where the source was coming from, there was something else she found that was a bit more interesting at the moment.

With the Shield of Auir sensor array fully repaired, they were able to perform a planet wide scan to get in-depth knowledge of the territory. Scanning Kalimdor, they noticed an abnormal energy signature to which their sensors could not penetrate. Even recalibrating their sensors, they were still unable to scan it and that was something worth investigating. So taking an observer along with her, Lasarra ventured through Kalimdor to see what little secret was hiding within the indicated area. Moving to the marked area, the Protoss scientist found herself before a large shrine.

"What business do you have here at the temple of the moon?" asked one of the priestess's of Elune.

"Looking around" said Larassa simply as she continued to observe the relative architecture. It was kind of amusing irony with how more primitive species were capable of building such majestic and wonderful sceneries as this religious place was a careful balance of art and practicality. From her records, the temple of the moon was where the night elves worshipped their goddess Elune as well as governed.

"Is there anything I can help you with?"

"If it would be alright, would you tour me around?"

The night elf scanned her briefly before giving a nod. "If you wish" she said as she walked in first.

Before entering Lasarra commanded her observer to continuously scan and record everything as they went on their little walk. As enjoyable as the experience was, Lasarra was more interested in discovering what the mystery energy was. After a little bit, her observer found the source as it was directed to a particular room. "If I may ask, what is this room here?"

Looking briefly to where her gaze was, "it is a room said to be where our goddess Elune had stayed. In this room, it houses many of the night elves sacred artifacts".

"May I seem them?"

"I'm afraid not. No one is allowed to enter. Even amongst our own, there are only few who are allowed passage".

"I'm assuming there is no way I can reason you?" to which the night elf shook her head. Although sourly disappointed, there were ways around it. Knowing how disrespectful as it was, Lasarra really wanted to know what was in there.

~ Kalimdor ~ (late night)

With most of the activity over for the day, a majority of the night elves were resting which left only the few to stand guard at night. Thus a perfectly ideal situation for an infiltration operation for a very specialized group. But only one was needed.

Zeratul could only sigh for the trouble he was being forced into. But as Artanis would put it, this was all for cooperation between the Khalai and Nerazim. As much as he'd love to pawn this task off onto one of his brethren, he could not deny he was curious as well to what was there.

So cloaking himself, the dark prelate quietly snuck into the temple as he went directly to the room where the energy signature was. Looking around to make sure no one was watching, Zeratul quietly entered the room as he looked around for whatever seemed out of place. After a brief moment, nothing seemed terribly interesting as most of the artifacts were just junk from the looks of it.

But after a few minutes more and deciding to leave, small gleam caught his eye as the moon's light reflected on it. Quirking his eye, the dark prelate turned back as he saw a crystal mounted in the wall. Upon closer inspection, he realized it. "What is a khaydarin crystal doing here?" Upon closer inspection, Zeratul was shocked to see what was on it but was not able to completely comprehend it due to how super compressed the information was. But trying to decompress the information as he did, his eyes slowly widened to what he was able to decipher. ". . . . Xel'naga".

To be continued . . . .

Author's notes: if there is any questions I'll try my best to answer them all.

As some would notice, I borrowed the tier concept from Halo.

I'm aware there is a slight discrepancy concerning Kerrigan as she's supposed to be on Valerian's ship not to mention the ship count. But I figure just go with it.

Also I'm currently fiddling with an idea, but I'm not sure if I should go through with it just yet.

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.