Kerrigan readied her forces for an advance down into the labs before Stukov asked for her at the 'bridge' as she spoke. "Be quick, I have a battle to command."
"I must warn you about the being that runs this lab: Dr. Narud." Kerrigan paused as that name sounded familiar for a moment as Stukov continued. "An ancient shapeshifter who has worn many faces over the years, he made me what I am.
"So he's not a Terran. Protoss? He can't be Zerg, or I would know."
"None of those. He is the servant of an ancient xel'naga known as Amon."
"I learned of Amon on Zerus. He's dead."
"Well, his creation lives on. Narud is the most dangerous being you've ever met. And you will face him in there." She nodded as she headed in and down to the labs below to see what she could find out.
The lift opened as Raptorlings swarmed out to slaughter the defending force of Marines with Kerrigan as a drone moved in to make a Hatchery as she spoke to clearing them out. "We're inside." Stukov spoke up in explaining the sudden quiet around her, some eerie quiet.
"Kerrigan, this lab houses the culmination of Narud's research: the hybrid. They are the ultimate weapon for the final war." One pod opened up and the Dominion opened on it, but it blasted the Marines away in killing them as Kerrigan exclaimed to the quiet turning into a screaming power.
"The hybrid are waking up!" Then the pain as the she felt the monster, the actual abomination, start to attack her like a Templar or Dark Templar of some power would in the fight as Stukov quickly inquired.
"What's happening to you?"
"It's attacking me psionically! Draining me..." There was also an issue with the accompanying Dominion, despite the fact that the Hybrid were clearly NOT under their command.
"That's not the only thing happening. The Dominion have a lot of air support down here." Abathur came through as a flock of Corruptor surged in, catching the assaulting force off-guard as the gene-weaver spoke.
"Corruptors arrived. Can destroy aerial vessels. Battlecruisers valued target." Stukov focused back to the threat of what was attacking Kerrigan now.
"Stay strong! You must kill the hybrid or we are all doomed." That meant a lot of building up as the Hybrid didn't seem weak, more like they were made from the best materials that could be found. "Eliminate that hybrid before its attack kill you!"
"Bring it down! Now!" The force was built up with Roaches and Aberrations in mind before the attack nearly got through when Kerrigan struck, killing the hybrid that dared to attack her like such and it felt and disappeared like the Protoss often do in death as Stukov breathed in relief, considering how close it was for the assault to do so, even when the Dominion tried to weaken the Swarm as well.
"The hybrid is dead, but it will not be the last." But their company was not without issues as someone else joined the wide channel.
"You're not welcome here, Kerrigan."
"Narud..." But before Kerrigan could really find out what exactly was Narud, Izsha warned her of more hybrids awakening, as if they knew that she was there to kill them and to kill her first.
"My queen, hybrid psionic signatures are appearing across the laboratory."
"Fulfill your purpose. Kill everything." This was followed by a hybrid awakening, but Kerrigan didn't push past the line of forces in front of it just yet, opting to build up her forces to make the attack as Abathur spoke.
"Corruptors now able to morph at hive cluster. Requires Spire for strain." They moved in to kill it and did so before another woke up to Izsha spoke.
"A hybrid is attacking you psionically. It must be eliminated if you are to survive." But Alice actually took care of it when she stormed over from a resource site with another hive cluster ready and freeing the Brutalisk for Kerrigan as she shouted.
"My will is my own, but I serve the queen, not some freak of nature! Perish for the Queen!" Kerrigan raised a brow to the attack that came to the monster before the pressure on her mind clear to the third Hybrid's death and it took some time before the next was released, allowing Kerrigan to kill off the supporting Dominion there.
"A hybrid has begun attacking you psionically!"
"You cannot fight the inevitable." Narud's voice was starting to grate on Kerrigan's nerves as she was joined by Alice to attack the next Hybrid and freed the second and last Brutalisk in the lab before they attacked into a Hybrid that wielded both the illusions that Templar could do in the past and psi-storms to rip through the weaker Zerg if Wild Mutations wasn't helping in the least as the fourth Hybrid fell to Narud's prattling.
"The Swarm has served its purpose. It is a broken tool, fit only for the scrap heap."
"Ignore his prattling. More of the lab has come under our control." And that was good to have, even with Corruptors getting the air pressure off the Swarm there as they pressed on killing the forces confronting them and drawing attention from the hard-hitting powers of the Swarm as a fifth Hybrid was awaken and destroyed to the prattling.
"Can you feel their hatred, Kerrigan? Coursing through your mind? You surprise me. But you still have no hope."
"When this is over, I'm coming for you, Narud." Kerrigan deadpanned at the scientist trying to save some face from losing his hybrid to her Swarm as Narud spoke.
"Mmm amusing, coming from the same person who ordered me to make the Hybrid." Kerrigan bared her teeth at that, so he WAS Duran, but she never ordered him to make the Hybrid... She paused to check to be sure and, there were gaps, but not once, ONCE, did she order the creation of such a monster as Izsha spoke.
"Detecting two hybrid signatures. They are in close proximity."
"Two at once, just great..." At least, that took her focus elsewhere to handle than Narud's words as the final attack was made on the level.
"Narud has awakened two hybrid at once!"
"This is it, Kerrigan! Kill them and the lab is ours!" Kerrigan didn't need to be told twice as the Hybrid stirred ot their deaths and the place erupted to the built up pressure finally giving out to Izsha's confirmation.
"We have succeeded, my queen. There are no more hybrid signatures on this level."
"Have the Swarm flood into the lower levels. Kill everyone in our way. Narud is up to something, and I intend to find out what." She had to converse with Stukov with something she pulled form under Narud's nose, he didn't even notice that she did take it for investigation form the former aide of the Swarm, if he could be called that...
"I touched Narud's mind in there. I sensed his devotion to this... Amon. Narud's been trying to resurrect his master for millennia." How was the question, but Stukov had something to go off on.
"It make sense. The endless conflict between Terran, Protoss and Zerg, the hybrid... all part of a plan to bring Amon back." Kerrigan thought the Terran part was a bit out there as they were a more recent force compared to the Protoss and Zerg, but without them, would Narud have been able to perform this sort of act?
"Unless we stop him." Her answer to that was no, he wouldn't be able to converse with Zerg and Protoss as easily to get what he wants and the Terrans provide that unknown element that neither race could take too much out of in the first place as Dehaka had words about the monsters created.
"The hybrid. Their essence is strong, but I cannot collect it."
"Narud created them. Do you think he will bring you more essence if you follow him?"
"That one serves a master who will devour all essence."
"You're talking about Amon? I... think he is dead. And I am going to make sure he stays that way."
"If that one lives, all essence will be collected. Change will stop. I will fight." Well, the Primal Zerg had the insight of fighting to preserve essence, just to take it when it benefits them as Skorch made it a point to go through the Terran remains and the resident energies of the Hybrid cells to sort and find out what essence could be collected to strengthen and extend their existence."
Zagara joins in feeling Narud's pressence, but was unable to do more than feel it as Kerrigan spoke of it. "This thing in the lab, this Narud. It's shielding itself from me, but I can still sense its power." She kept the thought of Narud being Duran away as Zagara agreed.
"Tell me of it."
"It's like... nothing I've faced before." Was it because Narud needed no such interest to shroud himself while he could show off his power and try to force the Zerg Swarm to yield to him?
"But you destroyed the Ancient One. You captured the power of all Zerus."
"This is something born of the void. Cold and empty. But so powerful, it hurts. it feels like a dark shadow. One I haven't felt since..." The gaps lingered again, but Kerrigan felt them previlent as she had sensed them during the Brood Wars, but it was like waddling through creep as Terran to her as she could barely recall what she did back then and what her actions had done, in the name of the Swarm and their leashing master through her.
Stukov helped in that idea of Narud's desire to revive his fallen master as he pondered with looking out to the station. "I wonder how Narud could hope to resurrect a being as powerful as Amon?" Kerrigan had a gist, one that she found actually real with facing the source of those ideas.
"I think the hybrid are key. They gather psionic energy." She started to think to that as she ran a hand over her jaw to it and trying to find the answer. "But where would they get enough to resurrect a dead god?"
"You told me an ancient xel'naga artifact was used to make you human again. But all the power you wielded as the Queen of Blades... where did it go after your transformation?" Seh blinked as she followed his trail of thought, finding it impossible... but could it?
"You mean... there might have been hybrid nearby who gathered it? And... used it to... oh no." The meaning hit her hard in thinking on it before Stukov finished it.
"If Narud used the xel'naga artifact in that way... he may already have enough energy to resurrect Amon." Izsha had other news to speak of as Stukov left to contemplate it further as the aide to Kerrigan spoke.
"We are sensing strange entities in the lab."
"You mean besides the hybrid and the evil shapeshifter?" She raised a brow as Izsha spoke.
"Protoss, my queen, in great numbers." Kerrigan reached out and felt the minds of those further below, somewhere in the swirling rift of... no, those were temples down there, the station and lab attached to them as the feelings were coming from sealed passages further down and to the temples as she spoke.
"Yes, I sense them now. Tal'darim. They serve Amon willingly. They worship him."
"They worship a dead god?"
"That make them even more dangerous." The way she saw it was that the Tal'darim were more than willing to fight and die for their great god and, if Stukov was right, serve as Amon's force among the Protoss... through some connection or another as she looked back to the station for any idea as to what she would be expecting.
"I can sense something else in there. Familiar but... different." And it wasn't Narud, it was something else, where had she felt that presence before, even if it was detached from the rest...
"Kerrigan..." The voice echoed and she gasped before she questioned to herself.
"Who was that? It sounded familiar... Years ago." She shook her head clear as she headed down to the Evolution Pit to get Abathur's input on their returning Corruptors. AS it turned out, he had a bit to say about getting them back into the Swarm as the more anti-armor air creature in the Swarm, reliving the burden off of the Mutalisks as the sole air unit.
"Corruptor biology unique. Useful. Can use corrosive bile to cease structure functions for brief time. However, can also augment Corruptor jaws to improve, enabling Corruptors to rip through heavy armor with ease, replacing standard spore attack. Final mutation makes Corruptor strain more lethal. Increased ranged attack with wounded creature, makes attacks more corrosive and volatile on foes." Kerrigan took it in before she chose to give the Corruptors the 'Corruption' mutation over 'Toxic Jaws' and 'Spore Adrenaline' as that buys more time for ground forces to rip through the forces if their structures can't produce the numbers that they needed as she turned back to Abathur, sensing something else on the gene-weaver's collective mind.
"What else do you have to display?"
"Mutalisk evolution recently experienced breakthrough. Can now choose among several different new strains to augment forces for greater power and threat to foes. Awaiting queen's decision." Kerrigan nodded as she took a seat again and felt her mind zoom to the place where Abathur had set up trails runs of the new strains...