I blinked, looking at Sarah. There was only one possible explanation for her behaviour and it both appalled and delighted me.

"Where? When?"

She closed her eyes, concentrating for a second. "Our western flank. Five minutes, at most." She shivered. "It's a full scale rush."

I turned, beginning to head back to the main part of the base, keying my radio as I went. "Rise and shine, Jess. We've got company."

Her voice came back quickly. "The Zerg?"

"Looks that way. They're heading for our western flank, about five minutes out, Sarah says."

Rather than reply, I heard the general alert ring out across the base. I sent a short command signal across the radio, alerting every commander that they needed to pay attention. Within seconds, they were listening.

"Jim, get a quarter of our reserves and get over to the western barricades. Reinforce that position and prepare for heavy fire. Get another quarter on stand-by."

I heard a brief acknowledgement as I turned my attention to the next person.

"Ros, get the Stingrays in the air. We're going to need that air support sooner rather than later. Take Joanne with you."

"Got it. Give us five minutes."

"You've got three."

Tassadar's voice came over next. "Zeratul and I are leading what parts of my force are ready towards the western zone. We will aid in the defence. Selendis is leading the team to aid you in your mission."

"Glad to hear it."

Duke cut in. "My boys are on their way, except for those couple of squads. You sure about this, Davis?"

"We're never going to have a better time than right now."

"Thought you'd say that."

I reached out to Nova. "Get Kara and head to the briefing room with the rest of the squads. I'll see you there."

"As if I'd do anything else." She chuckled.

I turned to Sarah. "You've got your bit worked out?"

She nodded. "I help hold the line until you need me. Good luck."

Striding into the command centre's briefing room, I faced the few hundred people waiting there.

"All right, listen up. You're probably all wondering why you're here instead of helping to repel the Zerg." With perfect timing, Jess brought up the tactical display of the surrounding area behind me. "This is why."

Turning to the display, I continued. "As you can see, the Zerg are focussing a large portion of their force on our western flank, but they can't move their forces through the choke-point fast enough, and our anti-air is strong enough to repel any attempts at air-drops. We also have enough forces scattered throughout the base to ensure that we can knock out any Nydus incursions before they become a real threat. So, we're going to use the distraction the Zerg have provided and launch our own attack." As I spoke, the Zerg appeared on the approach to the western defences, to be met with heavy fire from the siege tanks and bunkers which were providing most of the defence. So far, I hadn't employed the Temeraires, since I was both trying to keep their capabilities as secret as possible, to surprise the Zerg, but also for them to act as backup for our own mission. The Stingrays, however, were also engaging and showing the Zerg their full force, part of the reason I was confident we could repel the attack.

I indicated the small hive cluster to the north that Sarah had told me about. "This is our target. Now, you might wonder why we'd go to such efforts to destroy a small and relatively insignificant Zerg base, even if it's on our own doorstep. The answer is simple. We're not going to destroy it." I paused, letting them take in what I'd told them.

"We're going to take it."

Practically everyone's jaw dropped. Finally one of Duke's men, Captain Stephen Fry according to his uniform, spoke up.

"You have got to be kidding. How on earth are we going to do that?"

"Glad you asked, Captain." Gesturing back to the display, I continued. "The key part of any Zerg hive cluster is, surprise surprise, the Hive itself. Everything that the Zerg create, comes from there. Take control of the Hive, you take control of the cluster."

"But how would you do it? Wouldn't the Overmind be able to prevent it easily? Isn't it some big massive control freak that doesn't allow the Zerg to do anything that it doesn't want?"

"Although simplistic, you're mostly correct. However, because of the deal it had to strike with us, it deliberately infested Sarah Kerrigan without forcing her into the hive mind structure. She's as powerful as it is, psionically, and that's only likely to improve over time. If we can clear her a path to the Hive, and guard her as she takes control of it, then she can get us that hive cluster."

"You're trusting her? An infested freak?"

My eyes narrowed and everyone else held their breath. Fry seemed to realise he'd taken a step too far. Finally I spoke.

"Sarah Kerrigan has saved the lives of quite a few people here. Most recently, she made the difference between us escaping the Zerg's initial onslaught and dying." I pointed towards Selendis, Nova and Kara. "If not for Sarah, being infested and all, we would be dead or enslaved, and Duke would be in the same boat. Do I trust her? Without a doubt. If she says she can do this, then I'm inclined to believe her. She's the only reason we got as much warning as we did of the attack today. Is that enough to satisfy you?"

He swallowed and nodded.

I continued. "Any other issues? No? Right, this is what we're going to do..."

Within half an hour, our small team of specialists was formed up and ready. Nova and Kara were our main scouts, leading a small Ghost team to probe out the outer defences and make sure the Zerg had no little traps for us burrowed safely away. The main force, mainly Marines, Firebats and Zealots but with a lot of Siege Tank and Reaver support along with the odd Vulture, were clustered about a kilometre back from the Zerg base. Selendis, Fry, myself and a small team were about 500 metres in front of them, scanning the base at long range. We'd arranged with Duke that he'd use the various Comset stations we had set up to scan for hostiles in every direction. The Zerg would detect that, but seeing us scanning everywhere, they wouldn't believe that we were heading for them, simply trying to watch our back while the main attack on our base was under-way. Finally Nova reported in.

"They seem to be fairly lax with their defences. A small cluster of sunken colonies on either side of the base entrance, a few spore colonies behind them and maybe a thousand troops. No Nydus network that we can see, either. We hit hard and fast, then we can pull this off. Stick to the plan, I think."

"Does sound that way, doesn't it. Fall back so you're clear of the line of fire, but we'll need you as spotters for a bit."

"Oh good, some fun stuff."

I chuckled and activated my comm. "Ros, begin your run."

"On the way."

Over the western side of the main base, I could see Ros bank her Stingray around and race towards us. Well not exactly towards us, more the defences of the Zerg base.

The Zerg knew they were coming, of course. There was no way that they could miss the massive warship closing on the hive. But, given how close they were to the hive, there was nothing the Zerg could do to actually stop Ros from making her run.

I'd seen and unleashed the Stingray's power from the air and had been impressed. Seeing it from the ground, devastating a target right in front of you, however, was something else entirely. Like an early fighter, Ros came in low and fast, strafing the Zerg base, crippling much of the defensive structures and back-up creep colonies. Many of the defending troops had also gone up in smoke, but there were still enough left to cause us problems. However, we had a nice way to deal with them.

"Reavers, launch Scarab salvoes." Selendis ordered. Behind us, dozens of Scarabs were fired, racing past us to find their living targets, turning most of the remaining Zerg forces into deep-fried mash. Both Nova and I led our groups up into the base after them, but we had little more than clean-up duty left.

By the time the main force arrived, there wasn't a single living Zerg left, despite the untouched structures around us. I smiled, keying my comm.

"Sarah, we have the hive cleaned out. We're all ready for you."

"On my way." She quickly replied. Glancing back towards where the main Zerg force was fighting, I could see utter chaos, but it was staying in the same area. Sarah hadn't seemed worried, so I figured that our lines were holding. Glancing back around at the men around me, I got back into the current situation.

"OK, listen up. The Zerg aren't going to just let us waltz in and hold here without a fight, so let's make sure we give them one. The creep has retreated from the area enough that we can set up our own defences. I want bunkers and siege tanks at the top of the ramp. Get some missile turrets up around the perimeter, let's not take any chance. Selendis, if you can, I'd like some photon cannons spread around the area as well. Keep the reavers behind the main line until they've re-loaded. Stay alert, people."

Everyone quickly moved in the usual bustle that I was used to in the aftermath of taking a position. A flash of movement to my left signalled Sarah's leap up onto the area where we were. She quickly joined us as we headed for the hive. We all stopped just short of the creep still surrounding it. I glanced at her.

"We can still torch this place if you prefer."

She shook her head. "No. I need to find out if I can do this, and it's better we find out now than when it really matters. But I don't think I'll be able to stop once I've started, and who knows how long it will take."

"We'll hold here for as long as you need, don't you worry about that. You get us the hive, we'll watch your back for you."

She smiled. "As if I had any doubt." Straightening, she faced the hive. "Let's do this." Walking away, she entered the hive and disappeared from view.

"Good luck." I whispered towards her.

For the next few minutes, things were quiet. The occasional larva that the hive was still spawning were easily dealt with and the Zerg hadn't tried a counter-attack. That was a concern. I expected them to at least send some harassment forces or something. Could they really not have worked out what we were planning? I looked over towards the hive. I could see occasional flashes of energy from its spires and its colouration seemed to be changing slightly, but there was little real evidence of anything different.

"Jason? You there?" Sarah's voice suddenly called in my mind.

"Yeah, I'm here. Any luck?"

"Some. I've tried to be fairly subtle so far, not attract too much attention, but I've gone about as far as I think I can without attracting a lot of interest from the Zerg."

"So, in short, we can expect a nice, pretty light show and every Zerg in the area to show up, claiming they have free tickets, that about the size of it?"

"Well, that and free drinks and meals as well."

I shivered. "Yeah, really didn't need that analogy, Sarah." I glanced around the base. We were at least fairly well secure, enough to give the Zerg a headache. We couldn't hold them the way that the main base could yet, but with only one ground entrance, and well defended air-space, we would at least have a good chance. "Do what you need to. We're about as ready as we can be."

"If you say so. Things are about to get interesting."

A sudden pulse from the hive swept across the area, causing no real effect that I could see to any of the troops, but it obviously meant something to the Zerg.

"Jason? I don't know what the hell you're doing down there, but the Zerg look like they're taking a lot of interest in you now. You've got a second attack wave coming in your direction. Five minutes out." Ros's unease was rather apparent.

Brilliant. Another Zerg attack force barrelling down and, despite the preparations, we weren't nearly as prepared here as at the main base. Still, we had some tricks left. Nova, talking with Selendis, felt my mood change and swiftly came over. Fry, seeing them move, followed suit.

"What's up?" Nova asked.

I grimaced. "We've got incoming. Ros spotted another attack force a few minutes out. Nova, grab Kara and get back to the Liberator. I want you two in the air ASAP."

She nodded, all business, and took off, pausing only to grab Kara along the way. I turned to Fry.

"Captain, it's going to have to be up to us to hold off the main attack."

He hesitated. "We might still have time to torch the place and retreat, sir."

I shook my head. "Not an option. Leaving now would mean that Sarah's unprotected, and she can't stop the process of taking control. We're in this until the end, we fight or we die. There's no alternative."

He nodded. "What do you need?"

"Let's get four ranks across the entrance. Two rows of Firebats, first lying prone, second crouching. Behind them, two ranks of Marines, the second rank can shoot between the first. They are to only engage if the Zerg are likely to run the gauntlet of the bunkers and siege tanks and get in too close to target. Get some marksmen to take up positions around there as well, using the tanks and bunkers as platforms if necessary. Have the ranks alternate fire, I don't want everyone running out of ammo at once."

"I'll see to it." Saluting, he bolted away, gathering up men and calling orders. I exchanged glances with Selendis.

"There's no way the Zerg won't try to go around our defences. An air assault might be difficult for them to pull, but they still have visuals here and creep as well, so Nydus canals aren't out of the question until Sarah can get control of the hive. I need you and your Zealots to focus on handling any incursions like that. There's no way they can fight at the front lines without fouling up our lines of fire, so that will have to do."

"And the reavers?"

"That depends. Any chance that they can launch the Scarabs over the cliff-face?"

Selendis paused to consider the idea. "It has never been tried, but the construction of the Scarabs should be sufficient to protect it from the initial impact and still be able to function. The reavers are certainly stable enough to position themselves correctly."

"Good. Then we can line them and the vultures up and pick off the force at a distance. With the missile and photon turrets, we should be fairly well covered from aerial attacks, so we have a decent shot at trimming their numbers."

She nodded. "Then let us make them regret testing us." I could feel both her anger and eagerness for the fight as she drew her rifle. I grinned. At least we had the same idea. Hurrying, the pair of us took up positions at the point where the Zerg would first pass beneath us. As perhaps the two best snipers that were on Char, we would cause a lot of damage before anyone else even got a look in.

Soon enough, the Zerg force arrived, shaking the ground with a deafening roar as they charged towards us. No matter how many times I had seen it, a Zerg rush was still something that I heartily wished I would never see again. Waiting an extra few seconds so we could clean up the most Zerg at once, we aimed and fired. What Selendis lacked in the sheer penetrating power of my weapon, she made up for with the superior explosive and psionic power of her own weapon. The sudden chaos as the front ranks of the Zerg were shredded was truly something to see. Already naturally obvious in terms of their disorder, the little order that they had left evaporated with their front ranks. While they kept moving forward, it was more of a boiling, erratic mass than the river flow that had previously characterised their approach.

Suddenly, more explosions flared up around the Zerg lines, but explosions that didn't come from us. Nor had they come from the forces around us. Selendis and I exchanged startled looks. A quick glance to the sky showed that the Stingrays weren't responsible either. So where the hell had they come from?

Then it hit me. I turned towards the main base, and saw a series of flashes and faint rumblings, almost immediately drowned out by the cacophony of detonations in front of us. It was enough, however, to identify the culprits.

The Temeraires had at last made their presence felt.

At ranges that the siege tanks wouldn't come close to being able to reach, they were smashing the Zerg apart. Thousands of Zerg died during each salvo, entire ranks of forces completely devastated. With enough numbers, and better battle conditions, the new tanks would hold off the Zerg indefinitely. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to get those. The Zerg might have been getting torn apart, but they were still able to make progress, reaching the range of the conventional siege tanks and reavers. Even their fire-power, as impressive as it was, wasn't going to stop the Zerg from reaching the bunker lines, with the troops waiting for them. As the sudden flashes of light and sound from Fry's position told me that the Zerg had reached them, Selendis drew my attention upwards.

A wave of Mutalisks and Scourge were sweeping towards us, Overlords gathering behind them. We exchanged glances.

"Overlords first?" Selendis asked.

"Works for me." I replied.

Switching our focus to the slow-flying bags of flesh, Selendis and I began to devastate the air transports. The only means the Zerg had to respond to our attack were the Mutalisks, and they would have a lot of trouble getting close enough with the ring of anti-air emplacements around us, and Stingrays overhead. Unsurprisingly, they chose to maintain their focus on the latter, as they were a far greater threat to the Zerg. But then, I felt the shuddering that I had feared most. Behind us, massive extrusions of flesh erupted from the ground in a very familiar shape.

"Nydus canals!" I heard someone yell. Cursing, I swung around, trying to target them without killing any of our own troops. However, a loud roar alerted me to a far bigger problem.

Literally, bigger. After all, staring down an Ultralisk at 50 paces certainly qualifies as a bigger problem than nearly anything else. However, it had something else immediately in mind. For whatever reason, Fry was trying to face the damn thing down. The Ultralisk, however was having none of it, lunging forward. At first, I thought that Fry was going to be caught by its blades and torn apart. The truth, however, was nowhere near so nice.

It caught him in its jaws. Tossing him up, screaming, it didn't take a genius to know what was about to happen. Without so much as an instant's hesitation, the Ultralisk swallowed Fry whole. I winced, seeing his form being crushed by the mass of muscle. As it finished gulping, it looked around for its next target and its gaze fixed on us.

Selendis turned and saw the same issue. She blinked. "How, precisely, do you plan to deal with this?"

I shook off my shock and glanced around, taking note of what was around us, before I realised how. "With a little application of physics, I think."

The look on her face was almost priceless. It crossed that line as I raised my pistol and fired at the massive monster. At that range, it was little more than a peashooter, but it achieved the desired result.

It got the damn thing's attention.

With a feral roar, it charged, crossing the gap between us with frightening speed. Selendis obviously couldn't believe her eyes. She froze, but then having an Ultralisk charge at you when you didn't have a way to deal with it would do that to most people.

I didn't freeze, but then I also had a plan. Continuing to fire at it, I saw the Ultralisk getting noticeably angry, and picking up even more speed. In less than five seconds, it crossed the remaining distance between it and us, its blades slashing madly. There was only one problem.

Neither Selendis or I were actually there at the end of those five seconds.

Grabbing her, I'd fired the jump jets just enough to move us back and up, out of reach of the beast, though it continued to try and cut us into mincemeat. However, in the process, it lost track of a few things.

Firstly, something the size of an Ultralisk, no matter how well evolved it was, took some time and distance to stop.

Secondly, it seemed to have forgotten exactly where it, and us, were.

All of this became very apparent to the creature in the next couple of seconds, as it discovered a few truths about the way the universe worked. Namely, that any object that was in motion, stayed in motion, unless some other force acted on it. In this case, the object was the Ultralisk, the motion was its charging run towards us, and the other force was the curious force known as gravity, that had the annoying habit of always working in the same direction even if you really didn't want it to, which came into affect as its run took it over the edge of the cliff that Selendis and I had been using as our sniping nest.

For the record, the combination of an Ultralisk's charge at full speed, and gravity accelerating it towards the ground, did rather nasty things to not only the internal organs and life-span of said Ultralisk, but also the several hundred smaller Zerg that were either crushed instantly under the Ultralisk, or smashed to pieces as its lifeless carcass, carried forward by its momentum, ran over the top of them.

Landing, I turned to look at the scene below us. Selendis was obviously still in no small amount of shock. I cracked a grin.

"You know, sometimes I really love proving Newton right."

Selendis finally snapped out of her shock. "When was the last time someone called you crazy?"

"Had to have been at least an hour ago." I grinned back.

She shook her head. "Well, at least it had its uses. The Zerg will have some trouble getting past that blockade. Someday, you will have to explain exactly who Newton is, but I will assume that they are relevant to this situation."

"Very much so. In short, he defined the laws of gravity and motion from a piece of fruit falling on his head."

She blinked. I shrugged. "Strange but true."

With the initial threat repelled, we could focus our attention on the the remaining problems of Nydus canals overwhelming the area, waves of Overlords coming from nearly every direction, swarms of Zerg attempting to overwhelm our defences and not enough real fire-power to effectively handle all of them at once. The Temeraires and local defences were managing to hold back the Zerg ground rush, particularly with the addition of the Ultralisk-shaped bottleneck that they now had to pass, but it was obvious that they were reaching their limits. Selendis's troops and the terran troops not committed to the main defensive line were successfully keeping the Nydus assault busy, destroying the canals almost as fast as they were appearing, but they too were tiring, as the Zerg began to have the canals surface in very distant portions of the area to maximise the time that they would have to unload.

Our air defences, however, were the most under threat, as we relied primarily on static defences, rather than the more mobile units that I would have preferred. The scourge were almost completely occupying the Stingrays, forcing them to evade constant attacks and minimising their chances of engaging the Zerg. The Mutulisks, able to engage ground targets, were teaming up on the static emplacements, particularly the pylons that powered the Protoss section of the defences. While Selendis had them set up in such a way that they could cover for each other, and the shield batteries provided a degree of support as well, the sheer numbers of Mutalisks engaging them had the emplacements under serious threat, enough that it was difficult to drop the attacking force in time. While the Zerg were taking heavy losses on all fronts, they had far superior numbers as well, so they could afford to lose an army better than we could afford to lose a platoon.

Selendis and I were still teaming up and inflicting as much damage as humanly (and Protossly) possible, while Ros was able to fight her way clear of the constant Zerg attacks to provide much needed fire support, but the problem we faced was, slowly but surely, proving to be quite possibly more than we could handle. I'd had to switch back to my main rifle, since I was running low on ammo for the Penetrator, and deal with the reduced damage output. One thing was becoming clear. Without reinforcements, the battle would end only one way and the result would not be in our favour.

Just to add to the fun, another group of Ultralisks erupted out of a new Nydus canal, with several turning towards us. The realisation was immediate. We didn't have the fire-power to deal with them.

Thankfully, we didn't have to.

A sudden burst of heavy fire from above rained down onto the Ultralisks, devastating all but one, who staggered but continued to charge at us. Snatching up the Penetrator, I fired my last round at its knee. At the same time, however, a second round rammed through its side and a spurt of blood erupted from its head.

I was more than a little confused, but explanations were quick to come. A very familiar shape moved into position above us, hovering protectively, with another familiar figure leaning out of the open airlock.

Nova had arrived, and Jim had come along for the ride. Startling me, Zeratul decloaked right in front of me, his psi-blades obviously having just been used. Nova brought the Liberator low enough to allow Jim to jump down, holding what I recognised as a bag with magazines for the Penetrator. I grinned ruefully.

"Your timing couldn't have been better." I accepted the bag from Jim, swiftly chucking my empties into it after placing the loaded magazines where I would expect to find them.

Jim grinned. "Sorry we took so long, but I figured you'd want us to make sure the rest of the base would hold up to the assault before we came and bailed your arse out."

I nodded. "How are we holding up?"

Jim shrugged. "Duke actually seems to know what he's doing for once. We've had a few probing attacks from the other approaches, but they're still concentrating on here and the west. Mostly here, though; the western side is easing off a little. Obviously, they think that stopping us here is more important than trying to wipe out the base."

"So, whatever they decide to send, we can expect to face the majority of their force here."

"Sounds about right."

"Damn biggest turkey shoot in the galaxy, I say." Tychus commented, having made his presence felt.

"Crude, but accurate. The Zerg would seem to be very keen on dealing with us." Zeratul added.

"So it would seem. Thanks for that little intervention there, by the way."

Zeratul inclined his head slightly. "You are welcome. I was somewhat surprised that my weapons were able to penetrate so easily. Zealots should be able to be just as effective, but I have noticed that they do not do the same damage that I can."

That began to ring alarm bells, but I could not understand exactly what that meant. In any case, we soon had other problems to worry about. All around our small group, Nydus canals surfaced and ejected units. Thankfully, they were mostly Zerglings, but there were a lot of them.

Ros and Nova were forced back from us, evading Zerg suicide attacks, at the cost of immediate fire support, though the Zerg were far closer than we would want for that. So, it looked for all the world like the last stand. Tychus, Jim, Selendis, Zeratul and I against hundreds of Zerglings. Looking around, I saw exactly what hell looked like.

It didn't matter.

Forgoing the Penetrator, I readied the MPAC's, as well as my trusty sword. If the Zerg were looking to drag us to hell, I was going to make sure that we had a big escort, and we were going out the way we came in. Fighting, struggling and making a hell of a lot of noise.

The Zerg charged.

Our guns roared.

All hell broke lose.

I thought that we'd faced the Zerg at their might before. But standing where I was, it might as well have been a play-fight before. This was serious, and everyone lifted to the occasion.

Tychus's plan of attack was simple: letting rip with his rifle, bayonet extended. The man must have mowed down scores before the Zerg reached him. Reaching him, however, proved to be a mistake. I saw him wield that rifle with a skill I had rarely seen, cutting Zerg apart before they could even touch him, regardless of how close they got. At one point, he even ripped the head and spine away from its host body and used it like a bloody whip. The man was savage, and all the more deadly for it.

Jim was cold, efficient and absolutely clinical. Never wasting a shot and never too busy not to cover someone else. The proud ex-Marshal showed all the determination and ability that I had long known he had, but only rarely witnessed on this scale. Like Tychus, he wasn't worried about close-combat either, lashing out with savage punches and moving like water to evade a strike. The Zerg couldn't touch him, and received only death for trying.

Gods, Zeratul was fast. The mighty warrior struck like thunder and vanished like smoke, often literally. Dancing from one enemy to the next, every blow of his blade or shot from his rifle spelt a bloody end for another Zerg. I had seen Ghosts in action before, and he left them for dead. The venerable Protoss was incredible. Even I had trouble predicting where he would go next, and more often than not, he would seem to simply appear there, without ever having travelled there.

If Zeratul struck like thunder, then Selendis was like lightning. More than once, her stabbing blades saved one or more of us from an untimely end and she seemed to have an understanding of the battlefield unlike anyone I'd ever seen. Her dance of death had a macabre beauty to it that was both sensual and terrifying. The Zerg either didn't understand that or didn't care; either way, they fought and died at her feet without ever breaking her rhythm.

As for me, I worked on a single rule. The only thing I wanted to be predictable about, was being unpredictable. So I improvised, one moment, gunning down a bunch of Zerglings charging towards me, the next, bisecting a Hydralisk that had come in close. I relied on the others, trusting them to watch mine and each others backs, while I sowed chaos, switching from one weapon to another, using the skills that Sarah had spent time helping me develop to lethal effect.

I don't know exactly how many enemies we cut down together. I do know that by the time we were able to concentrate on anything other than the immediate battle, the five of us were standing on top of several metres of corpses. Taking the opportunity to look at the environment around us, I was stunned by the change.

The Nydus canals were completely gone. Not even bodies from them were remaining. There were still Zerg around us, but none were attacking us, or in fact attacking anything. I also noticed that their colouring was slightly different. My eyes widened as I realised what that had to mean. A quick glance and I'd confirmed it.

Sarah had taken the hive.

Once more, we were standing in the middle of a fully functional hive cluster, but now the markings that the Zerg structures carried were different. Sunken and Spore Colonies had grown around the area, defending the hive with a savagery that was all Zerg. Several new Hatcheries had been created and were busy spawning units to cut down the remaining Zerg attackers, leaping over our defending troops or firing from the cliff-tops.

The tide had turned at last, and I saw the final reason why.

Sarah was in her element. All the skill and power that we had shown during our little melee was absolutely dwarfed by what we saw her do. She slashed apart Zerglings with her claws and wings. A sudden jump and she had her heels buried within the head of a Hydralisk, while sending streams of psionic energy to tear apart an Ultralisk. Somersaulting off the Hydralisk's dying body, she physically picked it up and threw it at a swarm of Zerglings, with enough force to bowl them over like a bunch of skittles. She plunged her hand into the ground, ripping out a defiler and wielding it like a mace, before draining its life-force and unleashing another wave of psionic energy towards a group of Mutalisks above. If ever a goddess of war was incarnate, then I was looking at her.

Finally the Zerg elected to retreat, rather than continue to face our wrath. Jim and Tychus were barely able to stand and I wasn't much better. Selendis and Zeratul didn't look tired, but they too were obviously feeling the effects of the battle. Sarah, on the other hand, despite the sheer power that she had been expending, looked like she had barely warmed up. I grinned as she leapt back up to us.

"Looks like you had some fun."

She grinned back. "Couldn't let you have it all. But you were at least kind enough to leave me something." Around us, the Zerg that Sarah had spawned were gathering up the remains of the fallen Zerg, dragging them back to the hive. Sarah saw me looking and shrugged. "Apparently, biomass is very significant for the Zerg. It provides a lot of fuel to strengthen the hive and spawn more Zerg. Seems only fair for us to use them like that."

I snorted. "There is a little irony in that."

"Indeed." Zeratul agreed.

"Zeratul?" A new voice spoke, a trace of hostility present. All of us raised our weapons, stunned. Behind Zeratul, a group of what could only be Dark Templar revealed themselves, stunned beyond measure, but ready for combat.

"Vorazun?" Zeratul looked even more shocked. "What brings you here?"

"My mother believed that you needed assistance after she lost contact with you. And we find you here, consorting with our worst enemies. How do you propose to explain this away?"

I blinked. "I'm going to assume that by that, you don't like the fact that he's working with us."

"In particular, I think she means me." Selendis added.

I looked at her, before I remembered what she and Tassadar had told me about the Dark Templar. Closing my eyes to fight off the sudden headache, I grimaced. "If we're going to have a heated discussion about this, can we at least go somewhere a little more private? The middle of a battlefield is not the best place for this."

The leader, who I assumed to be Vorazun, glared at me but nodded. "Very well, human. But I warn you-"

I interrupted. Frankly, I was sick and tired of Protoss I had just met believing themselves to be superior, simply because they were Protoss. "Let me guess, that was about to be some threat of retribution, should we betray you? The only way that you will be coming to harm from us, is if you choose to attack us, or those under our protection. Good enough for you?" The glare that she had directed at me, I returned with significant interest. I wasn't in the mood to play nice, having several near death experiences within the last hour tended to do that.

Slowly, she nodded, but I could see that this wasn't going to be an easy discussion.

It took an hour for us to sort the rest of the base out. There were the usual mountain of things to do, from repairs to reloading and all the administrative crap that came with an army like this. Finally, however, we reached a point where I could join the Protoss for their discussion.

To say that things were tense would be an understatement. On one side of the room stood Vorazun and her group of Dark Templar, fists clenched and ready to fight, glaring furiously across the room. On the other side stood most of the Protoss Commanders that had accompanied Tassadar. They, too, were nervously fingering the activation switches for their psi-blades. In between the two sides, Zeratul, Selendis and Tassadar were obviously trying to avoid a fight, while Duke, Jim, Sarah and the rest of the terran commanders stood off to one side, eyeing the Protoss with a large, but reasonable amount of caution. I could hear the Protoss arguing furiously.

"You dare to side with the Dark Ones against your own kind?" One of the High Templar snarled at Tassadar. "They are traitors and murderers!"

"Traitors? Murderers? That should be something that you are very familiar with!" Vorazun shot back.

"Silence, or I will render the Conclave's judgement upon you." Another spat, hate filling his voice.

"The same judgement that judged my mother a betrayer for daring to wish to live differently?"

I had had enough. I raised my rifle and fired a shot into the ceiling above each group. The sudden startled glances and activated weapons of both sides saw everyone draw their own, though few were pointed the same way. Lowering my own, I fixed both sides with a death glare.

"If you can't behave for a few minutes, then you can all go and ask the Zerg for shelter. Now, sit down, shut up and let's all act like the civilised beings that we all claim to be."

"Civilised? We-" The Zealot didn't get any further, because Nova's blade was at his throat. She hissed, "Word of advice. I'd do as the Commander says, unless you're keen on moving on."

Vorazun seemed ready to make some biting comment, but the sudden flexing of Sarah's wings in her direction persuaded her to stay quiet. The silence was rather charged.

"Thank you. Now, shall we get to the heart of the matter? What the hell is between you all that makes it so difficult for you to get along?"

"How could we expect you to understand, Terran?" The same High Templar that had been so vocal before spat.

"That wasn't what I asked. I know that you have differences in opinions over events in your past, even if I don't know exactly what those were. But to spend over a thousand years without even considering the idea that you might be wrong?"

"You dare! You know nothing of what you speak. Our race was nearly destroyed because of those heretics. They even tried to corrupt one of our greatest heroes."

This appeared to be too much for Vorazun, and even Zeratul looked angry. "Corrupt? My mother would be dead, had Adun not shown us mercy from the Conclave's death sentence and helped her and the rest of the Dark Templar escape."

"You see? The murderess even admits it."

I intervened before another argument could erupt. "So, you are absolutely certain of the events."

"Of course. It is taught to all Protoss, so that we can avoid a return of those dark times."

"Bullshit."

The Templar rocked back, stunned. I continued into the silence. "As I told Tassadar once, how can you possibly know? No one from those times is still alive, so all you have are histories and stories that can be mis-interpreted. You can't be certain of whether they were completely accurate." I glanced between the Protoss. "How is it that no one has ever attempted to even try for peace until now?"

"That is the point that I have been attempting to make." Tassadar said tiredly.

"How were we ever so blind?" Selendis commented.

"That's easy." Jim said. Everyone's attention turned to him as he continued. "There are none so blind so those that will not see. You've all been so used to believing whatever comes out of the mouth of the person higher up the chain, you've never bothered to think for yourself."

"Not only that, you have the example of the Dark Templar to know what happens if you rebel against that leadership, whether you fully know it or not." I added. "They went against the rest of you and lost. That's what you've been taught, so that's what you will remember. Indoctrination at its purest. Why would the Dark Templar even consider trying to remedy the situation, knowing that they will never be believed? Tassadar, Selendis. If Nova and I hadn't been with you when we met Zeratul, what would have happened."

"We would have attacked him." Selendis answered without hesitation.

"Precisely. It took outside influence, and the greatest threat we've ever seen, to even consider that he might not be the threat you thought." I shook my head. Before I could continue, however, Vorazun interrupted me.

"You believe that we are not a danger to you?" Her expression, or what I could read of it, was not just shock, but incredulity. It was clear that she hadn't expected to find anyone even vaguely sympathetic to the Dark Templar. "You believe that it was we who were wronged?"

I faced her. "I don't think it's as clear cut as that. Every myth or legend has some basis in fact, and I know nothing of the events that led to your exile. But I know Zeratul well enough to know that he isn't as the Protoss on Aiur would like to believe. Whether or not they have knowingly changed the history, they've led those who trust them to do exactly as they ask and nothing else. Even slight deviation from that is enough for punishment, it seems. They concentrate power in the hands of a few and everyone else follows like sheep. It's as if they use a hive mind themselves."

"In a sense, that is correct. The Khala that guides them links all Protoss with nerve cords together. Part of the ritual of becoming a Dark Templar is the severing of those cords." Zeratul commented.

I snorted. "Well, I guess, while it would have its advantages, it would have its weaknesses as..." A thought suddenly hit me as I followed the comparison of the hive mind to its logical conclusion. A chill ran down my spine.

The Zerg used a hive mind as well, and I'd seen how easy that could be used to corrupt them. Could the same thing be happening to the Protoss, at least those who weren't Dark Templar?

Could whatever power that was behind the Zerg's enslavement potentially do the same to the Protoss? If it could, and the Zerg remained under its control, it would likely be the Dark Templar and the Terrans fighting against both Zerg and Protoss, and that was a battle I knew we couldn't win.

My fear and shock must have showed, as Selendis turned to me, worry apparent. "Jason?"

"That bastard. Son of a bitch." Nova had obviously read what I was thinking. "It would be just like them, wouldn't it?"

I nodded numbly as I collapsed into a chair. "Manipulation and using others to fight their battles for them. Fits the MO down to a tee."

"Could one of you please explain what the hell is going on?" Duke asked.

I looked up at him. "The Khala. Both the biggest strength of the Protoss and, perhaps, their biggest weakness."

The Protoss reeled. "What do you mean?" Selendis demanded.

I stared at her. "Think about it. We know that the Zerg are not as free as we thought, nor are they necessarily the monsters that we believed them to be. Something changed that. Something corrupted the hive mind that they use, or even forced them into one. Control the head of the hive mind, and you control them all."

Selendis staggered, extending my reasoning. "You think that something has happened to the Khala? Perhaps corrupted it?"

"Not completely, not yet at least. But the possibility is there. Would the Khala have a centre, a critical point?"

Tassadar nodded grimly. "If such a thing exists, it would be the Heart of the Conclave on Aiur. It is the core of our civilisation, and it was there that Khas first discovered and forged the connection to the Khala. If that connection were to be corrupted..."

I stood, noting that the argument on all sides seemed to have been forgotten as everyone realised the true horror that we might yet confront.

"We can't afford to waste any more time. Whatever this power is, it already has near total control of the Zerg. If the Zerg reach Aiur, then it would have agents close enough to take the Heart, perhaps even link it to the Zerg's hive mind."

"We have to destroy it." Selendis said. "Even then, we would not be completely safe, but it would have to work much harder to gain control."

Vorazun and Zeratul exchanged looks. "You will have our full support. Regardless of our differences, we have not forgotten our roots. We can not abandon our people in their time of need." Zeratul vowed.

"Before we can aid our brethren, we have to escape Char, however." Tassadar said. "That we cannot do without breaking their aerial defences. The Dark Templar might be able to sneak a ship or two in and out, but we cannot smuggle an army out past them, not even with Arbiters."

I nodded. "We have to cripple their defences first. So we use the same principle that our enemy would use against us."

Sarah's eyes lit up. "Cripple their leadership."

"The Overmind and the Cerebrates." Nova said.

Duke grinned. "Of course. Joanne told me that was what you spotted in the last scans, wasn't it? You knew what you were looking for, and wanted the flights to work out how to strike them."

"Exactly. And now, it's time to step it up a notch." I confirmed. "During our little skirmish, the Stingrays got enough intel on at least a couple of them to give us a chance of planning an attack."

"Going on the attack against the Zerg's key command units, just after they've battered us. Bit of a risk, but bearable." Sarah replied.

"How hard can it be?" Duke asked. "We have their positions, just rain a few nukes down on them."

Jim shook his head. "Somehow, I don't think it's going to be nearly that easy."

(Author's Note)

Well, a little under a month for this chapter, and it's been a hell of a time, quite literally. I would very much prefer never to go through another month like that, though things have begun to improve over the last few days.

Now, you might have noticed that I now have a Harry Potter story as well. It's a continuation of chris400ad's story "Triwizard Champions", which is well worth the read, especially if you like Harry/Fleur pairings. My story is a sequel that he and I are working together on, using mainly his work for the first few chapters, while I'll write new chapters for it later on. So, I am going to have to alternate between the two stories. The good news is that I already have several chapters which Chris has written ready to go on that, so I can still spend most of my writing time here, though I will need to switch between them on occasion. I'm still going to try to keep up with both, but it may take a while to work out the balance properly.

In other news, regulars would probably have seen me mention Darth Sygnious in several Author's notes, and read his extensive and rather amusing reviews of this story. He approached me a while back, asking if I was interested in betaing for a new StarCraft story he was writing. Well, I'm happy to say that he's started to release it under the name "Starcraft: Generation" and it is definitely worth a read. From what I have seen of it so far, and what I know of his plans, you're not going to regret reading it, so definitely check it out. I've also been asked by Serdancos for some advice on his story "Lost and Found Remnent UED forces in the Korpulu Sector" and it's also well worth a read. He has some interesting ideas and both stories have a lot of potential.

Now reviews:

pt1oef, I have to say, it's a StarCraft AU story. If you want more than that, I'm going to need a bit more of a question to answer.

Kellin09, I have to say that I think you're wrong, on a few counts. Firstly, Kerrigan doesn't have shields, I have no clue as to where you got that particular idea from.
Secondly, human vs Kerrigan is not necessarily ridiculous, particularly when it comes to Jason or Nova against Sarah. Both have a large array of tricks to use in any fight, Jason has years of combat experience and Nova has exceptional psionic ability to enhance her fighting prowess. Would the odds be in their favour? Absolutely not, but ruling out any possibility of victory completely is foolhardy to put it mildly. There's no actual mention of her having increased reactions in canon that would give her that advantage, though many fanfiction stories imply it. She's stronger, and probably a bit faster, but it's not an impossible fight, even if the fight was for real, which this one most certainly wasn't.
Thirdly, the gunfire was never intended to hurt Sarah, I specifically said that Jason fired across her face, not into it. It distracted her and that was what Jason was after.
Finally, if psi-blades are all that can actually hurt Sarah, how did the Raiders drive her back at the end of WoL? Personally, I rather liked the use of spider mines and Perdition turrets, along with some good old-fashioned Marine gunfire, but I'm pretty damn sure that none of them had psi-blades.

Rob, I know I took my time before, but RL has the nasty habit of interfering with my writing time. Sorry, but it does happen. I'm glad you agree with my reasoning for why I didn't use the Arbiters and why I sent the fleet away. I have to admit though, one of the times I killed the Overmind, I built up a massive army of siege tanks, carriers and battle-cruisers, built a force of Arbiters to transport them, cut a way through the Zerg and then recalled the lot on top of the Overmind. Rather expensive, but quite seriously fun. I had intended to hide Duran's identity for a bit longer, but so many people were guessing along those lines, it made sense to just confirm it. As for new units, I'm interested, but I can't see any new ships coming for a while, in fact the Thylacine-class battle-cruiser that I've designed might not actually come into the story until WoL, though I'm interested to hear your thoughts. No guarantees though.

Verdin, I'm glad you like the look of this. Hopefully I can keep the quality up.

Straider, everyone has a story, whether we want to hear it or not. Duke is almost universally disliked, but given how his back story is in canon, I can't help but feel a little sorry for him. I'm still not certain what I'm going to do with him, but he will have a role to play in things. Horace is a definite possibility for recruitment, come WoL though, he's just cool, in a slightly arrogant way. It does make sense I think for the Overmind to have an easy method to be controlled, and as for Sarah, well I'm not going to spoil any surprise there, though I will say she won't necessarily be the same as she is in canon.

Capo, the changes that are being made compared to canon are going to have a major difference, though it might not be seen for quite some time. As for your other comments, they did at least partially inspire some of the key points in this chapter, although I doubt that Duran is personally involved, he has his limits. Your idea about Ragnasaurs has some serious merit, especially with a certain idea of mine.

Lord Corvo, Tosh will come into the story, but I am almost certain that it won't be until WoL. I need to leave some things for then, after all. Exactly how, well that's up in the air. New Folsom is in the same boat.

Matthew, I like it. Might have to see if I can work that in somehow, though it won't be easy.

Uber, wouldn't want you to break your vow, even unintentionally, so don't mention anything to me about Nova's mission op please, I want to play them at my own pace.
There will still be some other characters to bring in, of course, but that will happen over time and mostly where people expect them to be. OC's aren't all that likely, though not impossible. For the record, only one of the two named characters I brought in was actually an OC, so you might want to check out the other.
I will not be killing Duran any time soon, he and Jason are going to have a long-running rivalry that will not be dealt with until HoTS, at the earliest. Stukov will have a role to play, but when and where is up for discussion.
I wish I had applied for a job with Blizzard, I might be having a very different time if I had. Sadly, however, I did not and Blizzard has not yet decided to offer me a job out of the blue and compensate me for the use of my ideas, so I will have to stick to writing here. I didn't mind HoTS that much, but there was definitely room for improvement, I agree with you there.
As for Kerrigan, I'm keeping my plans for her under wraps for the most part. I do have a good idea as to her personality and actions down the track, but you'll have to wait and see.

Timber, I'm glad you're liking this and I hope my PM helped clear up any confusion.

Scott, glad you like it and I'll do my best.

Dreddman, it begins indeed, and it's about to ramp up. I want to get off Char soon, and I have some serious action to pack in before that happens.

Guest, you're quite right, although that relates to Chapter 37, not 1 and it's Joanne Duke. Still, there's other references to things scattered throughout the story and I haven't pointed to all of them.

Aryk, I hope you don't mind, but I'm just going to put what I wrote in my PM to you here.
I wanted to make a few things clear here. Yes, Jason is pretty damn good at what he does. He's smart, powerful and has a large array of tricks to pull in a combat situation. However, he is only human, and does make mistakes, and when he does make them, they're usually rather big. Luck doesn't always run in his favour and I wanted to make everyone aware that he doesn't always win.
Also, while it looks like a long time in the story, the point when this is all happening in the space of maybe a couple of seconds. In that time, Jason has recognised the danger to his friends, realised what he has to do to remove said danger, and done that. He's then realised that he's lost track of the Ghost and worked out where he most likely is. There's not really that much time left for him to come up with a way to avoid what's coming, and he doesn't even know for certain that he's right, let alone actually avoid the strike itself. Could he have escaped earlier? Probably, but given how far outmatched he is, he's focussing just on staying alive and keeping ahead of the next blow, rather than being able to come up with an immediate plan to escape. That's also assuming that the Ghost isn't prepared for him to try such a stunt as you suggested and psionically tampered with the jets, for that added little surprise when Jason tries to escape and realises he can't.
Finally, as you'll see in the following chapter, I needed to set things up for the continuation of the story. Given what I had in mind, this was by far the best way of doing it. Though I like the idea of giving the Ghost a tan, other things were too important for this to really go any other way. But Jason will be having at least a few re-matches with the Ghost, so things are going to be more interesting when they cross blades again.
Good thoughts, and thank you. I like reading reviews where people not only comment on things, but force me to have to either defend what I've written, or change it, it adds a bit of spice to the whole dynamic.

Darth, before I begin, I'm going to say it.
I warned you. I told you what would happen if you brought Fry back. His death is on your head.
I'm glad you like the way I write things, I don't want them to be too predictable, but also not too confusing. Putting the emotional weight behind this is difficult, but worth the results. When I write, I'm always trying to picture exactly what's happening as I write, not just physically, but emotionally too. It seems to work, but it does take time and it's a big part of what takes me so long to write a chapter. As you guys might have been able to tell, I don't really re-read what I've written before I publish it. I prefer to go with first impressions; if I like the look of it, I'll keep it, if not, I'll redo it. It's not until much later when I'm re-reading the story that I'll pick up issues and fix them then, unless someone else points them out first.
I do try to give everyone some depth, even if it isn't necessarily immediate, so I'm glad that you appreciate that. I did want to show that Jason does have his limits, like everyone else, and when pushed beyond those limits, things can get very messy.
To me, it never made much sense that a handful of units would be all that's available to hold off the entire fricking Swarm, so I needed a decent sized force, particularly for what I have planned. As for Artanis, wait a chapter or two, then you'll see what I have in mind there.
Now, Duran taking over Jim. Possible, I suppose, but as Kellin has pointed out, a single bullet isn't likely to be enough to kill her, now that she's infested, and it's doubtful he'd get a second. In addition, Jim and Sarah have their own psionic link, which I think I've mentioned before, and that provides a degree of security as well. Plus, Duran isn't as strong as Amon and is going to have his hands full just keeping hold of a struggling Overmind. Maybe, without the Overmind, and at close range, he could manage it, but it's simply not his style, I think. He's more likely to try and gain control of Sarah than kill her.
Yep, there will definitely be some new units coming along soon, so you have that to look forward to.
Trying to get that emotional depth between Jason and Sarah was not simple, but very rewarding, it's something I've planned for a while and one of my favourite moments of the story. As for that little embrace, I agree. Jim isn't going to know what hit him. But keep that moment in the back of your mind. You will see this mentioned again at some point, and it will have a major impact on things.
Sarah's cloaking ability, and lack thereof in SC2, hasn't been forgotten, and I do know my plans in regards to that, which won't necessarily follow canon.
Now, Zeratul is back in the picture, and I hope you like how he appears. I wanted to try and bring the Templar/Dark Templar issue to a head, at least for the forces out fighting the Zerg. Aiur will be another matter. But I hope he's in the spotlight enough for you, and I intend to keep him there for at least a little while.

Guardian, I wouldn't necessarily say that Duke is a terrible leader, he does have his moments, especially in this story. But it is a good plan, which I might well use.

Well, that's another chapter down. I hope you all enjoy it, please read, review and do all that good stuff I love so much, it really makes my day.

Until next time.