chronicles of the Koprulu sector

by ghost stoneKelden sage

"I'm Stone, but everyone calls me ghost. To make it clear to you, I'll explain it now. The Ghosts are a unit of soldiers, specially trained assassins, and I am one of those soldiers. Once again, I am going on a mission, and in all my time in the service, there was little that could surprise me. However, I could not even imagine what kind of trouble I would have to get into, and tha

========== start ==========

Stone - the elite "ghost" of the Dominion - was then on Tarsonis. He sought peace among the ruins of the former capital of the Confederacy. And give him free rein, he would have spent all the time here, contemplating the remains of the once beautiful and proud cities, absorbing all the features of the former capital of the Terran Confederation. And if Korhal was the pearl in this "crown", then Tarsonis was rightfully considered a gold setting.

The transmitter squeaked several times, interrupting Stone's thoughts and announcing a new assignment. The report said that a certain Zel-Naga artifact was discovered on the planet's satellite, which, of course, no one, except for the elite "ghost" of the Dominion, was able to deliver. He grinned, noting that he hadn't received such assignments in a while.

Stone headed for a nearby ship. The modest ship was waiting for him exactly where it had landed. The sniper climbed inside, walked down the short and narrow corridors and plopped down on a chair near the helm. Now a short flight awaited him.

As soon as they flew to the planet, the ship's equipment detected protoss biosignals in addition to human ones. Without guests, of course, is rarely done - especially when it comes to this mysterious race - Zel-Naga - and their equally mysterious artifacts. However, it seemed to Stone that this time the percentage of mystery per square meter would increase significantly, and this is unlikely to be anything good.

With some unknown weight in his chest, he sent a request to land and received a positive response, went to land. His instinct did not let him down, because as soon as the spacecraft turned and swam through the vacuum to the orbital station, something flashed brightly in the window.

Stone went blind for a moment, cursed and groped for the steering wheel. Opening his eyes, he inhaled deeply and exhaled. The autopilot, struck by a sudden suspicious attack, ordered to live long. And this meant that you had to land the ship yourself.

He sat down in the desert, went out, took out his weapon and heard a voice on the radio ...

Commentary to the beginning

I'll come up with a sequel soon. Evaluate, advise.

========== Adventures on this damn planet ==========

- Unknown ship shot down, welcome.

- Great, send a squad to inspect the area around.

The conversation on the radio ended.

i It's good that I caught this signal /i - Stone thought to himself.

He looked around - it was deserted around, the sensor did not detect anyone.

i "We need to get out of here before a squad of someone else shows up. /i

He came out of the desert and found himself on the usual road. However, after a while I saw a detachment of armed people.

"Activate disguise mode," said the ghost. - According to the coordinates, this is that base. You need to go there and not be seen by anyone.

He made his way to the entrance, everything was fenced off by a wall, on which there were many turrets.

"Damn, we have to get through the main entrance, this time it won't work without noise, we need to get ready."

Suddenly, a voice was heard on the radio: "Welcome, this is a Dominion squad, we are crashing in square e5."

"So this is definitely not the Dominion, which complicates the task a little. We need to find that squad, as help will not hurt, "thought Stone and set off.

Approaching the crash site, he heard shots. The ghost became alert and turned on the disguise mode, coming a little closer, he saw the base that the crashed victims had founded - they were attacked by a detachment of marines. Stone quickly drew his weapon and aimed. Shot - one fell. The second one wounded another one.

b Lack of energy. Disguise is disabled. /b

i "Bl *, what a wrong time!". /i He was noticed.

Stone quickly ran up (it's good that they were close) and knocked out one, the second standing next to him, hit him with the butt, and there were two more. The ghost threw a blind grenade.

- A-ah, my eyes! One of them shouted.

Stone had enough time to shoot both of them in the head. One of the Dominions came out of hiding.

- Who knocked you out? Stone asked.

- I dont know. At first everything was fine, we were landing, but there was a flash, and

equipment burned out. I think this is the new weapon of the Mobius, and it is most likely their base. The Dominion has long been trying to do away with them and their hybrids, said the Dominion.

- We have similar situations. A detachment was sent for me, too, "the ghost replied.

- My name is Hoar, I will be glad to cooperate.

"Stone," said the ghost, holding out his hand.

i "So, we are fighting with Mobius, it was not in vain that I helped them, because now I have a base and allies" /i - he thought.

Stone decided to take his time with the assignment. First you need to find out what's going on here ...

Commentary on an adventure on this damn planet

I hope you enjoy the 2nd part, if not, then please write where I messed up ^^

========== problems are just beginning ==========

So, the search began for information about the technologies located on this damn base. It was not possible to send a spy, since they were not in Stone's team. Say what you like about these mobius heads, but they are well prepared, and it will not be easy to deceive them. This means that you will have to "KNOCK out" the information.

Soon one of the Möbius assault group woke up. Stone in his heart was very glad that he had just hit the bastard with the butt. He woke up, did not even have time to figure out what was happening, and only partially realized that he was in a complete ass.

- Name and title!

- Steve. Mobius unit commander.

- You look at him, and what a pliable he was, and even the commander. Stone, with such luck in the lottery, - with a smirk looked at his friend Howre.

- I have a life and so a continuous lottery - you never know how many cartridges I need so that there are no frostbitten ones left on the planet, - Stone chuckled, pointing his head in the direction of the commander. - Okay, let's continue the conversation, Steve. I hope you will be as accommodating.

- Yes, damn it, I'll tell you something else!

"Listen, if I were you, I would not anger this guy, otherwise he will not only whack you with a butt, but also feed you with lead," Howre answered him warningly.

- Yes, even with uranium!

- Oh, okay, since you insist so, then ... - Howre grinned, raising his hands up and pretending that he was giving up, after turning to his comrade. "Stone, would you be so kind as to get your rifle, and hurry to shoot this commander.

"L-l-okay, I'll tell you everything, everything I know," the commander said quickly.

"Hmm, I see the rifle has a positive effect on you, so it will look directly at you," Howre said contentedly. - So, let's start with the fact that we would like to know why you shot down our ships?

- That was the order of the authorities. They said it was a test of a new weapon.

- So-a-ak, from now on in more detail, - drawled Hoare.

- I am not particularly versed in weapons, but I know for sure that it is made from a certain artifact "Zel-Naga".

i "Well, the Moebius won't calm down to get these fucking artifacts" /i - thought Stone.

- It can also open a teleporter. I saw it, - continued the commander.

- How many soldiers are there at the base?

- Several hundred.

"Stone, I'm afraid we won't be able to get through, we need to think it over carefully," Howre said, frowning.

"It's even better," Stone replied cheerfully.

Having received information from the commander and the base plan, they began to think over a plan ...

i Some time later. /i

"So, we have information about the location of their base, the number of soldiers there and about the new weapon from the Zel-Naga artifact," Stone summed up, resting his hands on his knees.

- Hmmm, not bad. Still, it's good that you only knocked out that commander, and did not kill, '' chuckled Howre.

"However, we haven't decided how we can infiltrate the base. We will definitely not be able to take it by storm, it is dangerous to send someone to spy, because there are so few of us and almost all of us are wounded. Of course, I can try to get into their territory, but first I need to hide you and your squad somewhere, since most of your fighters will not be able to defend themselves normally, "the ghost reasoned, looking at Howrah.

Everyone began to prepare to look for a place to hide, while Stone thought about the plan and studied the surroundings on the map, based on information received from the commander Mobius.

"Come on, it's time," said the ghost. All packed up and hit the road.

They walked along a wide road, and around them was a dense forest. Everyone was on the alert, because at any moment they could be attacked by the Moebius. The detachment was sure that they already knew about the loss of their soldiers.

- Come on! We must not hesitate, "Stone commanded, continuing to walk forward.

He understood that the whole mission did not go according to plan from the very beginning, and it annoyed him, because the ghost knew one harsh, but true rule - the more you deviate from the plan and delay on the mission, the greater the chance of failing it. However, nothing strange happened during the journey, which greatly alarmed the ghost.

After a few hours of travel, a gloomy, old cave appeared in front of them.

- Well, let's go in? The cave seems to be uninhabited, maybe we'll settle here, - said Howr, turning to his comrade.

Stone said nothing to this, he felt that something was wrong with this cave, a strange, incomprehensible, frightening energy emanated from it.

The cave was dark and damp, the squad was moving cautiously along it, when suddenly the sensors noticed unknown biosignals.

- Keep your weapons ready! - quickly ordered the ghost, knowing for sure that the inhabitants of the cave are unlikely to meet them with open arms and offer a cup of tea.

Signals began to move in their direction ...

Commentary on the problem is just beginning

Sorry for the 3 days delay.

========== bloody meeting ==========

The detachment cautiously delved deeper and deeper into the cave, holding their weapons at the ready, in order to repel the attack of the unknown inhabitants of this gloomy cave at any moment.

Suddenly they heard the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps.

- Quiet! Everybody hide, "Stone commanded.

The squad managed to hide in time, because after a few seconds they saw the inhabitants of this place. At first glance, they looked like protoss in the dark, but when Stone looked closer, he saw that they were covered with zerg slime, their bodies were withered, growths in the form of thorns protruded from their backs, eyes that once sparkled with blue light now had with a yellow glow and an eerie, predatory, killing gaze, they had claws on their feet and hands that were like those of a zergling.

"These are the infected protoss," said the ghost.

"Infected protoss ?! Don't you see it, Stone? Otherwise, I don't want to see such bastards here, "Howre replied, not believing Stone's words.

But there was no further time to discuss - the infected noticed them.

- Howre, bend down! - Stone shouted, he managed to react and dodged the jump.

Despite their withered body, they moved at a swift speed. Another silhouette swept past Stone, and almost in an instant he heard the screams of the soldiers. When the ghost turned around, the protoss was already standing next to one of the marines. They did not have time to help him - the protoss with claws pierced his spacesuit through and tore the soldier in two. Having issued a wild cry, the infected pounced on the group, the fighters did not even have time to see from which side they were attacking. At the same moment, the battle began in the cave.

No, this was not a battle, it was a massacre, a bloodbath, accompanied by screams of horror and despair.

Stone, Howre, and the survivors attempted to leave the battlefield.

They ran, ran as fast as if all the creatures of hell were chasing them. At some point, Stone saw the light and a small passage, quickly took a grenade (no, it was unlikely that he would have hit the enemies, the ghost understood this) and threw it into the passage.

Stone and Howre managed to run into the passage, and then there was a crash and a deafening explosion. The ghost grenade was able to block the passage and cut off the pursuers.

- What the hell was that ?! They killed everyone, we miraculously survived and are now locked in a cave with these monsters! Howre shouted.

He was right, because what the ghost recklessly counted as an exit turned out to be only a brightly lit room in a cave. They began to inspect the space: there were some wires scattered everywhere, there were stone slabs and some crystals, and there were also parts of zerg mucus.

i What is this place /i - thought Stone.

But then he felt a surge of psionic energy, the cave began to blur, his legs went numb, it darkened in Stone's eyes, and the ghost collapsed, losing consciousness ...

Commentary on the bloody meeting

I'm back, and yes, now I will write more often, that's for sure)

I look forward to criticism and feedback, I am happy to read your opinion)

========== So many questions and So few answers .. ===================================================================================================

- Ahem, ahem. What, where am I ?! - Coming to consciousness, Stone said.

He looked around: all around was the same cave room. Howre stood near the wall and looked at some symbols on it. He saw his armor and rifle beside him.

"Finally you woke up, I thought that those bloodthirsty ghouls still managed to hurt you a couple of times," Howre said with relief in his voice.

- Fuck! As everything hurts, Boska is cracking, "Stone said, barely getting up. - What happened to me all these hours?

- Hmm, where to start ... you were delirious and twitching all the time, I didn't know what to do, - and Howre began his story.

b i "Flashback: unconscious"

He fell, his eyes dimmed, his body seemed unbearable, as if all the worlds, all the problems and concerns of other people had fallen on his shoulders. And then the darkness ... And then the light.

The ghost opened his eyes. He was standing in the middle of a room. Stone began to listen and look around. Suddenly he heard someone whispering and went to its source. When the ghost came very close, the reality around him changed dramatically - a dark, gloomy corridor ... it was the corridor of the mother ship, the old abandoned ship, no one else was there. Stone walked along its golden roads and saw someone's silhouette. The ghost followed him, and when he caught up, he managed to make out him. He looked like the shadow of an adept - just as immaterial - but his appearance showed that he was clearly not an adept. Stone wasn't even sure if it was a protoss.

And then the silhouette vanished. A bunch of pictures, screams, faces unknown to him, corpses, a planet, a cave and again darkness swept before the ghost. /i /b

i - I don't understand ... so many questions and at the same time so few answers, /i - thought Stone, putting on his equipment.

- Howre, before falling unconscious, I felt a surge of psi energy.

- I felt something too. If my assumptions are correct, then the source of this energy is behind this wall. It was damp and smoother to the touch than the other walls. Symbols were drawn on it.

- Stone, do you understand anything about these symbols? - asked the comrade.

"No, but I'm gradually beginning to understand them," the ghost replied in surprise.

Suddenly, Stone's eyes grew dim again, the symbols blurred. But instead of fainting, the ghost realized that he could translate these characters:

b "∂ – Ω∑πøêêÿšß" /b

b "To enter, you just need to direct some psi energy to the wall." /b

Fortunately, the ghosts possessed psi energy, and Stone was one of the best at this ability. He channeled the psi energy into the passage without much difficulty. The wall cracked, cracks went along it, and at some point it dissolved, as if it did not exist at all.

- Was it an illusion? Howre asked, looking at Stone.

"I think so," said the ghost.

- Well? Let's go?

And they went into darkness unknown to them.

Commentary on So Many Questions and So Few Answers ..

Read, leave reviews.

Thanks in advance for reading ^^

========== Unexpected Guests ==========

Stone and Howre walked along a gloomy corridor shrouded in darkness, it seemed that no, even the faintest ray of light would slip past the all-consuming darkness. They kept walking, walking and walking ... The Ghost began to get bored with it all, and he decided to try to explore this corridor. They found a room by touch.

i - I don't like all this, and the place seems terribly familiar, as if I've already been here, /i - Stone thought.

He hesitated for a few seconds, but still curiosity and interest won over his caution. The room was slightly more lit, and Stone could see the control panel in it.

i - Hmm. What is this panel and what is it responsible for? /i - coming closer, the ghost wondered.

Then he felt something strange under his feet, but did not pay attention to it, as he was standing at the panel. Approaching a little more, he began to try to turn on the panel. And he did it. At the same moment, the ghost was blinded by the light that suddenly turned on and illuminated the entire space. Now you could see what kind of room it was. Everything was done in gold tones, everywhere something sparkled and pulsed with energy, symbols in the language of the protoss were written on the panel.

"Damn, what's the protoss base forgetting here?" The Phantom asked himself.

He also noticed that what he was standing on and did not pay any attention to was a corpse.

This corpse clearly belonged to the protoss race, HE was lying on the floor, stretching out one hand to the terminal, next to it lay the second corpse.

- What the fuck happened here? Howre asked.

- Apparently, we will find out, - Stone muttered under his breath.

- Maybe we can go back? - suggested to the ghost comrade.

- Yeah, those infected have probably finished their meal. We will come, and they will think: "Well, we already ate lunch, and then there was a snack, we didn't even have to chase," Stone said in a sarcastic voice.

"Okay, let's go," Howre finished the conversation.

After a while they reached the central room - it was the only one that was not illuminated by lamps, but a greenish flickering light emanated from there.

Howre and Stone walked into the light, and after a few steps they were already in a large room, in front of them was a stasis chamber, in which the ghost saw the Zel-Naga artifact. The artifact was large, its entire surface covered with cracks, from which a green glow oozed, and the same psi-energy that knocked out Stone. Everything would be fine, when suddenly the ghost was paralyzed for a second, then he began to move towards the terminal of the stasis chamber, his body moved by itself.

i - What the hell ?! What happened with me? I can't do anything! /i - thought Stone.

He walked slowly to the terminal, turned it on, the inscription lit up on it:

b Disable stasis chamber? /b

Stone, without hesitation, turned it off.

The artifact began to simply levitate at first, then faster, even faster and ... EXPLOSION! The artifact shattered into fragments, Stone and Howra were thrown several meters away from the power of the explosion, they lost consciousness.

After 1 hour ...

Stone woke up. When he opened his eyes, surprisingly, he saw no artifact, no golden pulsating walls, no gloomy ceiling of a cave, he saw the sky, they were free! Howre sat next to him.

How did we get here? What happened to the cave? And where are we anyway? - asked the ghost, looking around.

- Well, you see, it turned out that where we were was - was a ship of protoss. I woke up first and started studying it, and trying to get us out of here. Using one of the terminals, I somehow teleported us here, "Howre answered.

Stone looked at himself - he was covered in bandages.

"I had to bandage your wounds. You were wounded by shrapnel of an artifact, and one remained in you, "the Marine noted.

The ghost only noticed that in his chest, in the region of his heart, a large green shard was visible, it was still glowing and pulsing.

"It looks like we'll have to take a break," Stone concluded, getting to his feet.

Over time…

Stone sat and lit the fire. He threw twigs at him, tongues of flame flashed brightly, absorbing the twigs. The ghost pondered all the events that had happened to him and his friend in recent times.

- What are the protoss doing here, why are some of them infected, what is this artifact, why am I still alive, although he should have killed me long ago with his psi-energy? .. - replaying the latest events of these days, Stone thought. Suddenly I heard someone's beckoning voice. The ghost caught himself thinking that somewhere he had already heard him.

- Who's here? Show yourself and tell me what you're doing here, "Stone said.

"I'm here," came a voice from nowhere.

- Where? Speak, otherwise I will have to find you and kill you, "the ghost asked, already clearly straining and preparing the rifle.

"Hmm, well, you're unlikely to be able to kill, unless, of course, you want to commit suicide.

- What the fuck are you talking about ?! Stone burst out.

"I'm inside you, Stone," the voice said.

i - He is lying, this is some kind of nonsense, /i - the ghost continued to think.

"No, I'm not lying," a voice answered him.

"You hear my thoughts," Stone began to guess. - Show yourself anyway.

"Well, since you want it so badly. The voice replied with a sigh.

Suddenly Stone noticed with horror that someone's body was passing right through him.

A psionic phantom appeared before him. He looked like a protoss, but there were traces of zerg in his body, however, unlike all protoss, he looked older, and his eyes shone with neither the blue light of the Deaam protoss, nor the green light of the Nezim protoss, and not even that yellow light of the infected ... His eyes emitted a bright, silvery white light.

- Who are you? - asked the ghost, looking at the phantom.

"My name is Kelden," he replied. "I am one of the few guardians of the Zel-Naga artifacts.

- Well, okay, Kelden, then why did you move into me and what are you doing here - continued Stone.

"You don't need to know this yet, just know one thing, we have the same goals," Kelden replied.

"I take it you knocked me out and controlled me both times," Stone guessed.

- Yes, it was me. Sorry, but it had to be done, it is unlikely that you yourself would have done everything that was needed, - replied the Guardian.

The phantom once again possessed Stone.

"I'll be here for a while, contact me if you need me," Kelden said, and disappeared completely.

Stone returned to the fire, he was perplexed and confused, but he did not have to rest for a long time ...

- Moebius! They're heading here! Howre shouted.

- How many are there? Stone asked.

"A squad of about ten men," Howre replied.

"Get ready, reload your weapons, and set up an ambush if they come here.

Comment on Unexpected Guests

New part.

Comment: do as before, less than a chapter, or as now?

Enjoy your reading ^^

========== Ghosts of the Past ==========

They bided their time. They waited for the Moebius to appear in their field of vision. Stone, hiding in the bushes, thought: i If we go out on them, we will most likely die. Of course, I am a ghost and a seasoned fighter, but with a squad of ten people, without a rifle and with such wounds, there is absolutely no chance. "/i

At the same time, a detachment appeared from behind the trees, clad in heavy spacesuits and holding large-caliber rifles. At the head of this detachment was a man in a hood and a cloak. Looking at him, Stone felt an inexplicable fear and at the same time hatred, besides this, psi-energy emanated from the stranger.

The soldiers walked, examining every bush, every crack in this place. Stone sensed something was wrong, it bothered him that even though they removed all their traces of being here, the soldiers still suspect that their location is somewhere here. Suddenly, the voice of one of the soldiers was heard:

"Sir, there's nothing here, we've searched everything," the Marine said.

- Look for better! I know they are here, I can sense this psi energy, "the hooded terran leading the squad replied.

- But theirs are here ... - the soldier tried to argue, but then there was a knife at his throat.

"Repeat," said the hooded man.

- Yes, sir! The Marine croaked.

- That's the same, - removing the knife, the commander finished the dialogue.

Stone kept trying to remember who it was, why he felt such inexplicable fear at the sight of him and hearing the voice of this terran.

"Pull yourself together, Stone, we need to understand how he finds us, why he feels psi-energy. Who is he? We must get out of here as soon as possible. "

Suddenly Howre signaled with his hand that two soldiers were coming. But it was too late ...

- There they are, fire! Shouted the soldier.

The battle began.

Howre found cover and fired at enemies from there, while Stone entered invisibility, he realized that his only chance was not to go directly to the attack. He ran to the first from behind and with a quick blow of a knife, the only thing he had left after the cave, killed him. Taking the rifle, the ghost shot another. Attention turned to Stone. Volley! He barely managed to get away from the shots for cover.

"Damn, cartridges ..." - Looking at the machine gun store, thought Stone.

There were still seven soldiers and a hooded terran left. Howre killed two more, but was wounded. Stone knew there was no way out. He desperately rushed at the enemies, the disguise ended.

3. 2. 1. b Disguise disabled /b

- To stand! you are surrounded, the soldier ordered.

- What are these preludes for? Just kill him like a dog, and that's it! Said another.

i "Stone, put your hand in their direction" /i - I heard a voice in my head.

i "Why? Show them where they should go? /i - thought Stone, but there was no answer.

He held out his hand to the soldiers.

- I said, hands behind your head! One of them ordered.

Suddenly, the green shards of the artifact lit up with a blinding light, Stone's eyes also lit up with a white light. In an instant, a powerful psionic storm hit the soldiers, they screamed, twitched, fell and burned from the power of this storm. Stone almost fell, he, of course, was a good psionic, but still his body could hardly withstand such a storm.

The ghost dropped to one knee. He was already relieved.

i "Victory" /i - he thought, but he was returned to harsh reality by a kick to the body.

There was still a man in a hood. Stone went hand-to-hand at him. Hit! Past. Hit! Block!

Stone almost hit one of the blows, but the opponent was too fast - Stone received blow after blow: blow to the stomach - he bent, his leg hit the ghost's head, the helmet flew off him.

- Don't get up, you will be worse, - rubbing his knuckles, said the stranger.

- Yes, damn it with two! I will fight to the end, "Stone croaked, gritting his teeth.

The ghost jumped up and resumed the fight with a kick. Hit. The enemy backed away. There and then a sweep - did not have time. The enemy was extremely strong, the stranger struck by, Stone, taking advantage of the moment, immediately pulled out a knife and threw him right in the face. Hit. But instead of the sound of breaking bones and the sight of blood, a crack was heard - the enemy was wearing the same helmet.

The knife flew off, and the helmet cracked, with a quick blow the ghost knocked him off the enemy, he fell, but almost immediately got up, throwing on the hood again. Stone didn't have time to react. A blow to the solar plexus and a second blow to the stomach knocked him to the ground, he tried to get up, but could not. His eyes were filled with horror, fear of his helplessness.

"Ha ha ha, and you have matured and become more experienced, Stone," said the hooded man.

- What the hell are you talking about ?! This is the first time I see you! - trying to show composure, said Stone.

- Don't lie to yourself. I remember this horror in your eyes. Oh, yes, this face, full of horror and despair, the last time I saw him 8 years ago, - removing the hood and slowly approaching, the stranger spoke.

- Not…. No, it's you again, "Stone replied, barely holding back the tremor in his voice.

- Yes, Stone, haven't you seen for a long time, or should I call you Delta Team Captain Stone Raynor? The stranger said with a cruel smile.

He came closer and closer. Stone was paralyzed with fear. He remembered, remembered that face, remembered those pale eyes full of cruelty. A knife flashed in the stranger's hand. Suddenly there was a shout, Howre got up and ran straight at the enemy. But he did not even begin to dodge, he simply directed his hand towards Howre, the Marine was raised and thrown back.

- Now no one will bother me. There, on Tarsonis, I left you alive, but now I will finish what I started.

He swung, but did not have time, Stone first became transparent, and then disappeared.

Some time later.

- What was it?! Stone asked himself.

"I saved your hide twice already, don't thank," came Kelden's voice.

"Again he, this man, I thought that I would never meet him again, I would never let my comrades die again, I would not lose."

Stone was shocked. Where is Howre, what this man is doing here, and how to fix everything - that was what tormented the ghost. After all, he remembered that day, he could not help but remember it. He didn't even notice how he passed out from his wounds ...

Commentary on Ghosts of the Past

New part.

Sorry to wait, no inspiration came.

Read, rate ^^

========== Fatal Mission ==========

Stone walked along the bright streets of Tarsonis, he was in excellent spirits, because today he became the captain of one of the ghost teams and was now heading to the meeting place.

Walking the streets of the city, he thought about the upcoming mission and its goals. It looks like nothing complicated - stealing information about the Loki X project from the laboratory is not an easy goal, for ordinary soldiers ... but not for ghosts.

Stone was at the meeting point 10 minutes later. It looked like an ordinary abandoned confederation complex, but behind its old walls was the Delta Command base. Entering the room, he saw two more ghosts. One of them was called Gray, the second, or rather the second, was Hera.

"Hello everyone," Stone greeted.

- Well, hello, "commander", - Gray said sarcastically with a smile on his face, Hera said nothing.

It would be necessary to tell in more detail about these two. Stone has known them for a long time, they can even be called friends. Gray was an ordinary ghost, entered the academy of his own free will, funny and sarcastic, careless enough for a ghost, but has great killer potential. Hera is silent, a man of action, not of words, always cold-blooded.

It was they, along with Stone, who were members of the Delta team.

- Is everything ready for the mission? Stone asked.

- Yes! - Hera answered.

- Okay, we'll move out in 5 minutes.

During these 5 minutes, he told the team about their plan of action.

- First, we will neutralize the three Marines at the entrance, Hera will disable the turrets. Next, we make our way through the ventilation to the main room, hack the data and leave.

center ... /center

They moved through the deserts of Tarsonis, the laboratory was beyond the line of civilization. Towards evening they finally reached their destination. We waited until it got dark.

Everything went according to plan - the turrets were almost immediately disabled, the marines were neutralized. The team was already walking through the ventilation.

Stone carefully opened the ventilation in the main room. Everything was quiet, too quiet ... and too simple.

The commander felt that something was wrong. Stone and Gray scanned the room as Hera bypassed the Mobius security on the computer. And now the information has been received.

- We need to get out of here as soon as possible! Stone said.

Door opened. Early, too early Stone relaxed. In front of them stood about a dozen Marines, their submachine guns aimed at the outsiders.

To Stone's surprise, Gray disappeared somewhere. The Marines came closer and closer, but suddenly the whole space was filled with smoke.

- What the hell ... - the soldier did not have time to finish, because Gray killed him faster.

- Let's go! Ventilation is shut off, "shouted Gray.

They ran, ran ahead. Two Marines greeted them through the smoke, and Stone stunned them. Hera set a trap behind her pursuers and, when she heard the explosion, was pleased with her work.

Running out through the main entrance, everyone breathed a sigh of relief - all the marines were killed. Gray was shot in the shoulder, but he was fine.

They did not yet know that death was still stepping on their heels and catching up.

Suddenly there was an explosion, everyone was thrown back a few meters.

i - What the hell ?! /i - thought Stone, rising from the ground.

- We retreat, we have the data, we must get out as soon as possible! - ordered the commander and tried to call for help, but something was interfering, but what? Stone helped the others up, when suddenly he felt someone behind him and heard a voice, eerie and cold. The ghosts' voices were cold, but this one still throbbed with cold and bloodlust.

"You won't leave here, little ghosts," said an unknown voice with a sort of mockery.

- We'll see. You will repeat the fate of your friends, "Stone said, gritting his teeth, turned around and, taking out a knife, stabbed.

Suddenly, something stopped the knife, and a man in a raincoat emerged from disguise. He was wearing a ghost costume, but it was additionally modified by the owner. On his head was a metal mask, the glass of which glittered in red and a hood.

Stone let go of the knife and kicked. The stranger dodged. Gray attacked from behind, but the enemy was ready for this too - he grabbed his hand and threw him over his back. Hera stepped back and took aim with the rifle. Shot! The stranger fell, but was alive, he threw a smoke.

Stone and Gray did not have time to react, the enemy quickly approached Hera, a knife flashed in his hands. Nobody had time to do anything. The blade of the knife went right through. The girl first swayed, tried to hit, but it did not work, the enemy only intercepted her hand, knocked it down and finished it off. Hera resisted for a while, but soon calmed down and did not move.

- Hera! - shouted Gray and rushed to the killer.

Too rash. The stranger stretched out his hand in his direction - at first, Gray was lifted into the air, and then completely thrown back, but he was able to get up even after this psi-strike.

"Gray, cover me, I'll try to use this," Stone said.

- But you can die from this, especially since it is too long! - objected comrade.

- Do you have better options? Stone asked.

The commander was furious, even though he was a cold-blooded killer, but he wanted revenge, because even ghosts are characterized by hatred and revenge.

He began to concentrate. There was one attempt.

He was an excellent psionic, so he could use a psi storm, not as strong as that of the protoss, but still. Gray held the enemy as much as he could, but all his attacks were pointless.

Stone was ready. The storm fell on the stranger, Gray wanted to leave, but the enemy pulled him with psi-energy. Stone fell to his knees.

When the storm cleared, he saw what he did not expect and what he feared. Gray lay dead, and the stranger had only a couple of scratches. He walked slowly towards Stone. The ghost backed away from him, his eyes full of horror, he realized for the first time that he was helpless.

"Your friends are dead, Stone," the stranger said.

- You! .. I will avenge the death of my friends! Do you hear ?! Stone answered with pain in his eyes.

"I got rid of only one of the ghosts, you killed your friend," the enemy said with a sneer in his voice. - I will not kill you, you are pathetic, I do not want to waste my strength on you, I will still have a chance to kill you, Stone Raynor. Remember my name, I am a mercenary called "Hawk". See you again, I hope you will become stronger, otherwise it is not interesting to kill you now, it was not even fun, but just a warm-up. Live in fear and hatred, and remember, I will come for you again, this is inevitable ... - Hawk said as he passed by.

Stone tried to get up, but he just knocked him out with a kick.

Darkness, the ghost woke up in a couple of hours. The connection is working.

- Reception, command "delta", as you can hear, reception, - I heard a voice in the helmet.

- Mission failed, evacuation required ... - answered Stone.

Darkness again. Stone woke up by the stone. The memories of that mission were gone, now he was thinking how to save Howre and get revenge on the Hawk. He was lucky to be saved by Kelden this time.

Now he must prepare. Now he cannot afford to be defeated again ...

========== Wandering in search of power ==========================================================================================================================

Stone threw away the memories because he now had more important goals. He got up and looked around. The area was unfamiliar to him, everywhere there was dry grass, trees were not visible even in the distance, a star like the Sun was mercilessly burning the head of the ghost.

i "So, I'm in something like a steppe" /i - thought Stone, slowly walking through the fields.

An hour later, he came across a path, deciding to follow it. Soon the ghost stumbled upon someone's dwelling. The room looked abandoned and old enough. Going inside, Stone saw an empty, deserted room. Walking along it, he came across a small stock of provisions. Taking them and throwing on an old cloak (suddenly come in handy), he left there.

The road was straight, the "Sun" was no longer so hot. It was beginning to get dark.

The ghost, finally reaching the forest, set up a small camp. Here he will live for the time being. After building a fire, Stone began to think.

"Kelden," Stone said after a few minutes of silence.

- What do you want? The ancient spirit asked in a cold voice.

- How did you teleport me? The ghost asked his question.

"This planet used to belong to the protoss. There was a scientific base here, studying the Zel-Naga caves located here. After the Mobius took over the planet, there are many functioning crystals left to which you can teleport, if you know where they are and how it is done, "Kelden reluctantly began to tell.

"I have a proposal for you," Stone said.

- And what is it? - asked the resident of the artifact.

"I will help you achieve your goals, and you will teach me how to use your powers without your intervention," Stone offered coldly.

- Hah. You're brave, boy. In any case, you will do what I need, but I will help you, however, you will withstand a maximum of two or three abilities, - said, grinning in the ghost's head, Kelden.

"We'll see that later," Stone finished the dialogue, going to bed.

In the next morning…

The ghost woke up, got up from the grass, raised his cloak. From that day, in addition to scouting the area and searching for the Mobius base, he began to train in the use of psi energy. Even though he was a good psionicist, even for him, those abilities were on the verge between the possible and the impossible. In a few days, he was able to master only a jerk, like a zealot, for that it almost did not waste his energy in comparison with all other possibilities. Going deeper into the woods, Stone began to find caves. Once having gone out on the already familiar exploration, the ghost felt a small surge of psi-energy, it emanated from an object lying in the grass. Coming closer, he saw a shard slightly larger than the ghost's hand in length and thin enough in width from which it emanated, this shard was a piece of a crystal that you can teleport to.

"Kelden, if I understand correctly, you are supplying mother ships with such crystals, because of which they can teleport themselves and their troops," Stone said.

"That's right, but this is a slightly different variety, with the help of it you can also teleport using psi energies, but only to the place where the crystal is located," Kelden replied.

- So, I can use it for teleportation?

"This piece will be enough for you to teleport a maximum of 10-15 meters," the ancient protoss said doubtfully.

"That's enough," said the ghost, returning to his temporary base.

The next day, he began making a homemade knife, the blade of which was the shard. At the same time, he began to master exactly the ability to teleport to this crystal. So far, he was able to teleport about 5-7 meters on his own, without significant help from Kelden.

"With proper use, it'll do," Stone thought.

He understood that while this was not enough, he needed to become even stronger, but time, on the other hand, was running out. The ghost turned camp and decided to hit the road again.

Hours passed, days, nothing special happened, Stone had already relaxed, which was not like him, when suddenly he saw a familiar place. The ghost should have been delighted, because he achieved his goal - he returned back, but he was upset, because this place was nothing more than the very cave where their entire squad was destroyed in the battle with the infected protoss, and they barely escaped.

The sniper understood that he had nothing to do there, but, on the other hand, he felt that there was something very important there, and with anxiety in his heart he went inside. This time, he was not met by the zerg-infested protoss. The passage that Stone had blocked with a grenade was cleared.

i - What the hell happened here? - /i Stone thought.

Entering that cave room leading to the protoss base, he did not see any crystals or zerg slime, only the passage remained unchanged and was open. The ghost re-entered this corridor, which was now illuminated, because the last time they turned on the power of the ship.

Entering the main room, where the artifact was, he saw a very strange picture. Everything was turned upside down - the fragments of the stalker and a couple of sentries lay on the floor.

Approaching one of the terminals, which was responsible for the cameras in the room, Stone decided to look at the recordings to find out what happened here.

b "Recording from cameras 2 days ago" /b

i Making their way through the corridors of the ship, a detachment of unknowns went forward. Turning on the power, Stone turned on the ship's defenses and brought the guards out of stasis. Walking into the central room, one of the soldiers began a conversation:

"Sir, there's nothing here but those creatures and corpses. We have to get out of here, "he said.

- Set aside, here I am the only one giving orders. Activate terminals, search everything here! The stranger said.

- There is! - answered the soldier.

Approaching one of the terminals and pressing something there, two sentries came out to the detachment and the stalker began a shootout, where the detachment won with great losses. Only the hooded man survived. Taking data from the terminal, he turned to the camera and drowned it out. /i

b End of Recording /b

Stone stopped recording a second before the camera jammed and zoomed in on the stranger. Then he tensed in earnest, because now the Hawk was looking into his face from the screen.

- What has he forgotten here? Stone asked himself.

"Most likely he wanted to take the artifact," Kelden replied.

After standing for a few more minutes, Stone rummaged around the ship and found tools, deciding not to miss such a moment, he took off his suit and disassembled one of the sentries. Taking out the surviving illusion device, he fitted it into his suit. Now he could change his appearance for a short time and create copies of himself. Satisfied with his work and the fact that he still came here, the ghost went in the direction of the Mobius base. Now he wanted to get closer to the goal, set up a camp nearby, think over a plan and begin to act - from such results his mood clearly improved, Stone always loved when the mission began to advance.

i "Now I'm ready to infiltrate the Mobius base, well, I hope so" - /i thought Stone, stepping out into the white light and moving forward.

Kelden was silent, he was pleased - his plans were finally coming true.

Commentary on Wandering in Search of Power

Sorry for the doggy break, I was very busy and nothing came into my head :)

========== laboratory ==========

Stone moved farther and farther from the cave. He walked, considering a plan, now his abilities gave him a chance to get there alone. After all, the ghost possessed power that was almost incomprehensible to ordinary brothers in the profession. The plan was simple with the help of an illusion to take the form of one of the soldiers and infiltrate the base, then find some person who has access to the main building with all the research and copy the appearance along the way, taking the pass from the present.

After a few hours of the hike, the walls of the base began to be seen. Stone heard footsteps and hid in the nearest hideout. 3 Marines went to meet him, of course, he could soak them in the open for a couple of seconds, but he wanted to quietly bypass the detachment, copying along the way the appearance of one of the soldiers.

Approaching the base, he turned on his "camouflage", going up to the gate, two Marines asked him:

"Soldier, where is your squad," asked one of the Marines

"I was sent personally to the chief, we found something," lied stone

"Report what?" - demanded another

"I have been ordered to refer the information only to the main thing," Stone replied in a harsh voice.

They let him through, he entered the base, there were many soldiers everywhere, turrets everywhere. Stone walked deeper and deeper into the city. The base was large, but there was no one here except soldiers and scientists, no liveliness, only cold air and mobius around. Soon he reached his goal, to the laboratory building, but did not find a single scientist in the city. "Huh, gotta spill some blood sooner than I thought," Stone muttered with a grin on his face. Imperceptibly entering the building, he was stopped by a soldier guarding the entrance

"You don't come here…." - the marine didn't have time to finish

"Shut up, Moebius," Stone said angrily taking the knife out of his throat, becoming himself.

While everything was going almost according to plan, he made his way unnoticed. And here in front of him was the cherished door on which it was written "forbidden to enter" and there were several combination locks. Stone went into disguise and waited. Soon he heard footsteps, it was one of the scientists, he waited for him to approach, the laboratory employee began to open the door. Stone quickly ran with him, and grabbing his head, twisted his neck in one motion. Now the ghost was running through the corridors of the laboratory. The winding corridors did not end, but broke into turns and dead ends, but soon Stone was at the entrance. The door was unsecured. The intruder went inside and saw what he was looking for. The room was large and almost empty, with an artifact in the center. But it was different from what the ghost and Howre found on the protoss ship. This relic of antiquity was full of cracks, red energy emanated from her that radiated emptiness and rage. Stone, decided that even if his task was to get the artifact and deliver it to the customer, this artifact would be destroyed by him. The ghost approached the control panel and began to destabilize the artifact. For some reason, his body also reacted to it and he got worse, but he continued.

Everything went according to plan, but at the last moment the artifact stabilized. What the hell ?! Stone thought. The xel'naga relic has activated. Suddenly Stone was thrown back, where he had landed there was already another place. It was an empty room he stood on a wide bridge to the right and to the left was the abyss where the generators were. Suddenly the Phantom heard a voice

"Bravo, Stone, I'm amazed that you were able to get here," the voice said with a grin in his voice.

"Again, again you stand in my way, I became stronger this time you will be so unlucky, you bastard," Stone answered with anger in his voice.

"Huh, you are brave and reckless if you want to fight. Although whatever you do, you still can't get out of here alive, like your friend Howre, "said a voice in the darkness.

"What have you done to him?" Stone asked with composure, no, he felt sorry for Howru, but he could not show his opponent that he was nervous.

"Oh, Howra, your friend, sits in the torture chamber, for now, then he will become an excellent test subject," the voice said with the same mockery, drawing out the last words.

"Well, everything, before that you had a chance to die quickly, but now I will kill you slowly and brutally, prepare for your death" Hawk. " - said Stone

The Hawk came out of the corridor, clapping slowly. "Attack," the Hawk said with a sneer in his voice. Stone lunged at him. A hand-to-hand fight ensued. Stone parried the blow to the head and stabbed the mercenary in the stomach. He jumped back, and with a quick movement, closing the distance again, hit him with his foot in the chest of the ghost. Stone backed away, Hawk seized the initiative in the fight. Stone defended himself, blocking the next blow, with the help of his jerk reinforced by psi-energy, he quickly struck the enemy's shoulder, he blocked, But the ghost quickly drew his knife and made the opponent jump back with an oblique blow, after which, intercepting, he quickly threw him towards the enemy. He landed a little away from the enemy. Suddenly, the ghost began to rise into the air and pushed against the wall. Striking his back, he almost lost consciousness, Hawk slowly approached him with his knife in his hands. Stone jumped up, using a dash to attack again, the stab slid across the ghost's armor and scratched it. Striking the hand, Stone knocked the knife out of the enemy's hand. He hit the ghost in the stomach, Stone bent down and got a knee in the face, the ghost's mask fell off. Stone fell, began to crawl away from the enemy, trying to get up in time.

"You entertained me, this time it was more interesting, but on this base your life will end, you know, I'm even sorry to kill such a worthless soldier, but this time you will not be saved. He walked slowly towards the ghost, Stone backed away. The hawk already felt this taste of victory and reprisal against this pathetic little man, but suddenly a fragment of an artifact in Stone's armor lit up with a white light, like his left eye, stretching out his hand towards the mercenary, a Psi-storm hit the enemy. "Hah, you did not expect this, now you will die of your self-confidence that you have defeated me. Goodbye Hawk, "Stone said. Suddenly he saw a familiar brilliance: "You say goodbye to me early, the old tricks will not work on me, you have weakened yourself again by using this, now you cannot do anything to me, you fool," a voice came from the psi-storm. When the storm cleared, came out a little shabby, but a whole and live hawk. With a grin on his face, he continued to approach limping, yet the storm had time to touch him. "You lost, accept death, you can no longer use it. I know all your tricks. You are a fool if you thought you could defeat me with this. " Stone was silent, he waited, all his hope was for the last grain of energy that he had left, he can use only one thing to win, teleportation, now its maximum is 3-4 meters, if not less, the knife that was made from that fragment was approximately at this distance ... The hawk was getting closer when the knife was a little behind him, "There is something to say in the end" - asked with a grin Hawk. Stone grinned and quickly threw the last, blind grenade at him, which he found when he looked into the laboratory warehouse. "Arhgg, my eyes," said the mercenary. As the blinding began to fade, Hawk realized that Stone is not in the same place, He heard the sound of a knife lifting from the floor. Before he could dodge, the mercenary felt a knife cut into his flesh, he knew it was the end. "I lost, but ... ahem, ahem," a bloody cough interrupted his phrase. "My last words: go to hell, mu * ak" - said the stone, piercing his heart with that beat. The mercenary did not resist, he accepted defeat and death, his body fell to the floor. Stone was injured. The ghost fell to one knee, unable to stand. The last reception with the help of a teleport did not disappoint, but his body could hardly withstand such a battle. The ghost's eyes began to darken. "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness He heard the sound of a knife lifting from the floor. Before he could dodge, the mercenary felt a knife cut into his flesh, he knew it was the end. "I lost, but ... ahem, ahem," a bloody cough interrupted his phrase. "My last words: go to hell, mu * ak" - said the stone, piercing his heart with that beat. The mercenary did not resist, he accepted defeat and death, his body fell to the floor. Stone was injured. The ghost fell to one knee, unable to stand. The last reception with the help of a teleport did not disappoint, but his body could hardly withstand such a battle. The ghost's eyes began to darken. "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness He heard the sound of a knife lifting from the floor. Before he could dodge, the mercenary felt a knife cut into his flesh, he knew it was the end. "I lost, but ... ahem, ahem," a bloody cough interrupted his phrase. "My last words: go to hell, mu * ak" - said the stone, piercing his heart with that beat. The mercenary did not resist, he accepted defeat and death, his body fell to the floor. Stone was injured. The ghost dropped to one knee, unable to stand. The last reception with the help of a teleport did not disappoint, but his body could hardly withstand such a battle. The ghost's eyes began to darken. "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness as a knife cut into his flesh, he knew it was the end. "I lost, but ... ahem, ahem," a bloody cough interrupted his phrase. "My last words: go to hell, mu * ak" - said the stone, piercing his heart with that beat. The mercenary did not resist, he accepted defeat and death, his body fell to the floor. Stone was injured. The ghost dropped to one knee, unable to stand. The last reception with the help of a teleport did not disappoint, but his body could hardly withstand such a battle. The ghost's eyes began to darken. "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness as a knife cut into his flesh, he knew it was the end. "I lost, but ... ahem, ahem," a bloody cough interrupted his phrase. "My last words: go to hell, mu * ak" - said the stone, piercing his heart with that beat. The mercenary did not resist, he accepted defeat and death, his body fell to the floor. Stone was injured. The ghost dropped to one knee, unable to stand. The last reception with the help of a teleport did not disappoint, but his body could hardly withstand such a battle. The ghost's eyes began to darken. "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness mu * ak "- said the stone, piercing his heart with that beat. The mercenary did not resist, he accepted defeat and death, his body fell to the floor. Stone was injured. The ghost fell to one knee, unable to stand. The last reception with the help of a teleport did not disappoint, but his body could hardly withstand such a battle. The ghost's eyes began to darken. "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness mu * ak "- said the stone, piercing his heart with that beat. The mercenary did not resist, he accepted defeat and death, his body fell to the floor. Stone was injured. The ghost fell to one knee, unable to stand. The last reception with the help of a teleport did not disappoint, but his body could hardly withstand such a battle. The ghost's eyes began to darken. "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness "Victory, Gray, Hera, you are avenged." - these were the last thoughts of the ghost. He began to fall slowly, his hands let go of the knife. A ghost without strength, unable to resist fatigue anymore, fell next to the defeated enemy, losing consciousness

To be continued….

Commentary on the laboratory

Hello everyone, glad to see everyone. Sorry for the delays, I hope you enjoyed this part, it's just the beginning ^^.

Leave feedback is very important to me, thank you for your attention.

========== Strike from the Dark ==========

Stone was lying on the floor, there was no one next to him ... It was a completely different room. "Um, where, um, am I?" - barely getting up with a cough, he muttered hoarsely. Stone stood in a small room, it was dark everywhere. "What the hell am I doing here? Where I am? "- asked himself. He began to look around, suddenly he saw a man sitting in the corner of the room. He was a man, about 40 years old, his body was covered in bloody wounds, scratches and scars. The unknown "neighbor" was passed out. Stone stepped closer. Suddenly, at the same moment, the man woke up and said words that surprised the ghost very much. "Argh, damn it, hallucinations again, as always after torture, but they won't get anything out of me. Go away mirage! You are not the real Stone perish. "- said the stranger in a weak voice. "How do you know me who you are?" The ghost asked. "Stone, it's really you, I can't believe it,

"It's really me, real. How did I get here and how do you know me? "Stone asked again.

Damn Stone! It's true you, didn't recognize me it was I, Howra! But this is not the time to rejoice, if you are here, then ... "- said Howra

"Howra, glad to see you, I thought you were dead, what is this place?" The ghost asked, hiding his joy.

"This is a prison cell, I don't know how you got here, I only heard before passing out that someone was caught. But how did it happen that you are here, after all, now we are without weapons, you somehow remained in armor by some miracle, but I am without weapons, we can hardly escape. " the Marine said gloomily. There was a silence, the atmosphere was restless, Stone understood that it would be difficult to get out, even if they were both excellent fighters, but here in the most protected area they have little chance, but there is no way to wait for a good moment in time, most likely they will be transferred to the cameras are heavily guarded, or they will simply be killed. Suddenly, Stone's thoughts were interrupted by Howre: "Listen, how did you even get into this laboratory?" Stone was silent for a little, and just wanted to start his conversation, when he heard footsteps approaching them, Stone quickly entered disguise mode, Howra pretended to be that is still passed out. A marine came up to our cell, he was armed. Stone held his breath, this was a chance to escape. The Marine looked towards Howra and slowly began to open the door. Entering, he went up to him and kicked, saying: "Get up, time of torture" - raising Howrah and mocking said Moebius. Howra followed him along the way, telling him what he thought of him and his friends. Stone stepped out in disguise behind them, walking through the complex, seeing many other prisoners. A few minutes later, they were already walking along a long corridor, one door in front of them. When they entered it, Stone's gaze was presented to a fairly spacious torture chamber, next to the torture devices was another soldier. There was an electricity hub nearby. Howrah was brought closer to the second soldier. And he began to question Howrah. Stone held his breath, this was a chance to escape. The Marine looked towards Howra and slowly began to open the door. Entering, he went up to him and kicked, saying: "Get up, time of torture" - raising Howrah and mocking said Moebius. Howra followed him along the way, telling him what he thought of him and his friends. Stone stepped out in disguise behind them, walking through the complex, seeing many other prisoners. A few minutes later, they were already walking along a long corridor, one door in front of them. When they entered it, Stone's gaze was presented to a fairly spacious torture chamber, next to the torture devices was another soldier. There was an electricity hub nearby. Howrah was brought closer to the second soldier. And he began to question Howrah. Stone held his breath, this was a chance to escape. The Marine looked towards Howra and slowly began to open the door. Entering, he went up to him and kicked, saying: "Get up, time of torture" - raising Howrah and mocking said Moebius. Howra followed him along the way, telling him what he thought of him and his friends. Stone stepped out in disguise behind them, walking through the complex, seeing many other prisoners. A few minutes later, they were already walking along a long corridor, one door in front of them. When they entered it, Stone's gaze was presented to a fairly spacious torture chamber, next to the torture devices was another soldier. There was an electricity hub nearby. Howrah was brought closer to the second soldier. And he began to question Howrah. saying: "Get up, time of torture" - lifting Howrah and mocking said Moebius. Howra followed him along the way, telling him what he thought of him and his friends. Stone came out in disguise behind them, he walked through the complex, seeing many other prisoners. A few minutes later, they were already walking along a long corridor, one door in front of them. When they entered it, Stone's gaze was presented to a fairly spacious torture chamber, next to the torture devices was another soldier. There was an electricity hub nearby. Howrah was brought closer to the second soldier. And he began to question Howrah. saying: "Get up, time of torture" - raising Howrah and mocking said Moebius. Howra followed him along the way, telling him what he thought of him and his friends. Stone came out in disguise behind them, he walked through the complex, seeing many other prisoners. A few minutes later, they were already walking along a long corridor, one door in front of them. When they entered it, Stone's gaze was presented to a fairly spacious torture chamber, next to the torture devices was another soldier. There was an electricity hub nearby. Howrah was brought closer to the second soldier. And he began to question Howrah. there was one door in front of them. When they entered it, Stone's gaze was presented to a fairly spacious torture chamber, next to the torture devices was another soldier. There was an electricity hub nearby. Howrah was brought closer to the second soldier. And he began to question Howrah. there was one door in front of them. When they entered it, Stone's gaze was presented to a fairly spacious torture chamber, next to the torture devices was another soldier. There was an electricity hub nearby. Howrah was brought closer to the second soldier. And he began to question Howrah.

"So the last time I ask is where is the second xel'naga artifact in the cave you visited earlier. If you answer, I promise you will get a quick death. "- said the soldier

"Can I tell you something worse? Go to hell you'll never know where he is. At least break everything here, "Howra replied with a sneer.

"Hah, you still have the strength and courage to joke with us, Prisoner Howrah, you apparently have not yet understood your situation, but I will help you to realize it immediately," the Mobius said with a malicious smile of a sadist. Howrah was chained to an electric torture device. First blow, scream.

Moebius slowly approached and said: "Your ghost friend is dead, for what to fight, you are doomed." Howra just grinned and said: "You will not learn anything from me," said Howra, and as soon as the soldier wanted to apply the second ular with a current, the light began to quickly go out.

"Oh yes, I completely forgot, you were mistaken and you will see the proof of this in 3 2." - began, grinning Houra

"What are you talking about?" The interrogator said, when suddenly a soldier fell next to him with a knife picked up from the table in his back. "1" - finished cutting off the stone, going to the second. "What the hell ..." - the soldier did not have time to finish as he immediately received a blow in the face, and then Stone finished him off. Freeing Howrah, he gave him the Mobius armor, they left the cell together, Stone entered invisibility again. Howra, pretending to be a Moebius soldier, went to look for a way out of the base. Everything was going like clockwork, they moved along the long serpents of the corridors, took their weapons from the security cell. And now the cherished door appeared in front of them, salvation was ahead. But as soon as they entered, Stone, to his disappointment, did not see a white light, he saw that very damned room with an artifact, he had a second chance to destroy it. Stone approached the artifact and as soon as he tried to damage it,

"What the fuck?" Howra asked, getting up from the ground. Stone suddenly felt that presence and suddenly heard Kelden's voice: "You have completed your mission, the artifact is not yet time to destroy, I teleported you here so that you get out of here." Stone grumbled a little about the willfulness of his ancient companion, but obeyed his order, and he and Houra headed towards the ship.

After an hour…

They were already in the desert, where Stone's ship was. It was hot, the ghost and the marine did not stop despite the injuries and bad weather, they wanted to get away from this planet as soon as possible. Finally reaching the ship, they went inside. To the surprise of the ghost, the ship was safe and sound, all devices had moved away from the shock wave and were in good order, it was empty, no one had been here after the ghost left. He sat down in the pilot's seat and began to launch the ship. "Diagnostics are in progress, all systems are normal, the ship is ready to launch." Stone began to lift the vehicle into the air.

They were soon in orbit around the planet.

"Fuh, finally, we got out" - the ghost said with a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, you can't say anything about a fun trip. Where are you going to fly next? "- asked Howra

"Since I did not complete the task, I will probably fly to the nearest planet of the dominion to rest and replenish my equipment," Stone said, thinking. Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by an alert from the ship's security systems. "Attention, a surge of psi-energy is noticed, please leave the area of action, in order to avoid destruction of the ship." Stone put on speed, everything was ready for a hyper-jump, when suddenly looking back at the planet they saw something terrifying. The whole planet was covered with cracks, a red light shone from it, it was torn from the inside. Time was running out, the energy for the jump was still gaining. There were 3 seconds left before the jump, at that moment the planet emitted a strong shock wave and exploded. "The jump is complete, you are 2,000 light-years from the blast site, the ship is damaged." - heard a stone from the systems of the ship. "What was that ?!" Stone asked. Suddenly the Kelden reappeared. "I think it finally killed him, had to use the xel'naga temple to wipe this thing off the face of the universe." "what are you talking about? Did you do that? "Asked the Ghost. "Yes, it's me, I had to destroy this artifact, and to be sure of its destruction, I activated the xel'naga temple to destroy the planet. Why do you ask me this? This is not your mortal mind's business, be glad that I didn't blow you up with the planet. "Kelden answered, looking into space through the glass of the ship. He was tense and for good reason ... Why do you ask me this? This is not your mortal mind's business, be glad that I didn't blow you up with the planet. "Kelden answered, looking into space through the glass of the ship. He was tense and for good reason ... Why do you ask me this? This is not your mortal mind's business, be glad that I didn't blow you up with the planet. "Kelden answered, looking into space through the glass of the ship. He was tense and for good reason ...

"In the meantime before the explosion"

The base was bursting at the seams, the crew was ordered to evacuate, and the entire staff boarded the ships. The artifact left the planet before the xel naga temple was detonated. The artifact was evacuated to a distant secret Mobius base under the leadership of Mark. Who was the head of the Moebius base of that planet.

"Inside the Mobius Artifact"

It was deserted around the whirling black sand, a deserted place, there was emptiness and darkness around, and in this darkness a voice was heard, a voice from the emptiness itself. "Well, Kelden, this time you almost managed to kill me, but I will still break out of here, these fools do not even suspect that soon they will all die, and I will be reborn to become a harbinger of the return of Amun, I will become the one who will return him to life. And I will have time to deal with Kelden, for now I will wait and look at everything from the side. "- said a voice in the darkness. This was the "beast" that Kelden hoped to destroy with this blast, but he underestimated the Fallen Xel'naga, lord of reason and deception, the strongest of Amun's followers who survived the Battle of Zerus, who could even kill Amun if he wished. Soon everyone will know his power on themselves, soon all his power, the power of Elendan, the last dark keeper of the Artifacts.

"On Stone's ship"

The ship was approaching the planet Arafis, and they slowly landed. They received a distress signal and landed near a small rebel camp. They got out of the ship there was a lot of snow around. They didn't even know that there was a secret Mobius base a few miles away, where experiments were carried out on people, where the main one was a Mobius named Mark, who had recently flown here with his group and an artifact ...

To be continued….

Commentary on Strike from the Dark

sorry for the long absence

Iii yes I have a VK group on this fanfiction and its further development, I would be grateful if you join and support in the formation of the community and fanfiction ^^ thanks in advance. here is the link /public200880818

========== Coming of the dark ==========

Snowy plains covered the planet's surface. A blizzard was raging, but through the blizzard, gray walls could be seen in the distance. These were the walls of the Mobius base. A convoy and many soldiers drove up to the gate. In this convoy, prisoners are being taken to test the new Mobius technology. In one of the cells there was a man who was unconscious. He looked middle-aged with a scar on his face. His name was Alexei Stukov, he was a former general of the UZD army. The convoy drove into the city. A few minutes later they came to the test site. Soldiers were at the training ground.

Stukov had not yet been released, he heard only heartbreaking screams. And now it was his turn, he slowly got out of the truck. Nearby were the bodies of other prisoners. Their bodies were disfigured by the zerg virus. At a short distance was the head of the Mobius on this planet, Mark. "This last one, I hope you will still be able to complete the experiment on it successfully," Mark said to the closest scientist, who quickly began to direct the hybrid at the knock. The hybrid approached slowly. Suddenly, coming closer, he began to infect Stukov with the DNA of the zerg. Stukov began to slowly lose consciousness, his thoughts became confused, disordered and then disappeared altogether.

In a few hours

"What the hell, how am I here ... who am I, where am I?" - getting up knock asked himself these questions. To his dismay, he did not remember anything, even his name, and pieces of the past were remembered hard and vaguely. he was now in a room similar to an ordinary living room, but very sparingly furnished, there was only a mirror, a bed and a bedside table. Approaching the mirror, Stukov immediately jumped away from it. His face was half covered with zerg slime, his hand had long claws and was clearly larger than the other, his eyes were inhuman. Of course, he hardly remembered anything, but he knew for sure that he was a simple man. Suddenly two soldiers entered his room. "By order of the commander, we need to get you out of here and bring you to the training ground," said one of the soldiers. When Stukov came to the landfill, he saw a standing person waiting for him, it was Mark.

-Oh, who I see, you finally woke up, Stukov-said Mark

- What the hell am I doing here? Why am I half damn zerg?

-I understand your bewilderment. Well, I'll answer a few questions. You are now at the Mobius base. I am Mark, your best friend - answered Mark

- I see, but what the hell am I a zerg ?! - tried Stukov

-Oh, exactly. During the attack on your outpost, you survived, but you were infected, we were able to partially stop the infection, but the consequences will already be difficult to change. Now we will put you on your feet and test your fighting efficiency, "replied Mobius.

They walked along the range and when they approached the targets, they stopped. Stukov took the rifle, but his hand clenched so hard that the machine gun broke. Then he thought, suddenly he can use the abilities of the zerg. Stretching out his hand to the target, he concentrated, for a long time nothing happened, but suddenly a charge of acid flew out of his hand and corroded the entire target in a couple of seconds. "What the hell was that?" Stukov was bewildered. Mark was silent, he was clearly pleased with his work, the experiment was developing. Then they went to the headquarters. They sat and discussed the operation to capture a certain target. Suddenly, a siren sounded, a hustle and bustle began. The system reported the invasion of an enemy squad into the base. "Send Stukov, we need to stop them.

Meanwhile, Stone was with Hawra's Marine squadron. Their goal was to steal the artifact. They slowly broke through the Mobius defenses. Getting closer to the goal. Having passed almost to the center of the base, they fell into a trap, they fired back, but suddenly Stukov came out on them, he used a charge of acid, the marine in terrible convulsions fell to the ground slowly dissolving.

"I'll deal with this myself, Howrah, cover me." Stone said.

"Okay, we'll cover you, if possible," Howra said.

Howra was mistaken, the opportunity to cover Stone was lost, suddenly the dead soldiers began to rise, their bodies were covered with growths of tentacles and other attributes of the zerg. Stukov was able to infect a soldier in order to use it for his own purposes. While Houra was busy with the infected, Stukov tried to kill Stone, but did not manage to close the distance, the shot, Stone rarely misses, and Stukov was not one of those lucky enough not to get hit by his bullet. But he didn't die, he backed away and fell to the ground, but he was still breathing. The infected teran went berserk, his mind clouded with anger. He attacked Stone again. The ghost did not expect this, the dodge was done too late, and he felt pain in his right shoulder. Stone fell, rising, he threw a grenade at Stukov, but he still managed to get into the zone where the grenade did not kill him, but this time he was badly wounded, the regeneration of the zerg helped, but even that could not immediately heal the wounds. Stukov retreated.

-What the hell was that? Who is it? Stone asked himself.

Meanwhile, at the artifact, a group of scientists worked with Mark, the head of the Mobius was in a hurry, the artifact needed to be activated as soon as possible, but so far nothing has worked. At that moment Stukov returned to them.

-Mark, why are we guarding this artifact at all, what's so important to sacrifice so many soldiers? - asked Stukov

-You will find out everything with time, with the help of the artifact we can change this world, Mobius said with a grin.

An hour later, the message arrived, Stone and his group were already very close. "Stop them at all costs, we almost activated the artifact." - ordered Mark. The massacre began, Stone and Howra suffered heavy losses, but still slowly, they moved towards their goal. "The artifact is activated in 10 seconds." - the system announced.

-Stone faster you must have time to do at least something. - hurried him Kelden.

They broke into the building, but it was too late. There was a huge release of psi-energy, Stone's soldiers fell, Stone himself was able to resist. Then the artifact began to be destroyed, something slowly appeared next to it that no one could see yet. "No, we were late, he broke free, and materializes," Kelden said. Suddenly, an ominous voice full of hatred was heard. "I am free, now no one will bother me, this time there is no one to put me in an artifact." - said the voice. A protoss materialized out of the haze, he was in armor, occasionally red lightning appeared, his eyes flashed red, reflecting all the hatred of their master. "Well, let's proceed to purge this world of all living things," said the Protoss. Suddenly he looked at Stone and said. "That Kelden still cannot become himself, how many more will you use as a vessel for your soul, apparently you never recovered after our battle, well that time you were lucky. But now you will die "- with these words he slowly approached Stone, he, having pulled out a dagger, rushed at the enemy, but he simply disappeared and appeared behind his back. "You can't hurt me in this form," said the Protoss. Stone was playing for time and successfully, the evacuation ship called by him managed to arrive, and they miraculously managed to get out of there. But this was only the beginning, the beginning of this bloody struggle.

To be continued….

Commentary on Coming of the Dark

here is the long-awaited sale, this is the beginning of a new story arc, so I had to sweat a little over the creation of the first part of this arc.

Happy reading to everyone and a Happy 2021 year, I wish you all good health, good health and inspiration.

========== New Year's madness. ==========

tab Stone and his company flew in a ghost ship. As they flew through space, everyone got a tempting idea to celebrate the new year. Everything was done in vanity. The Christmas tree was made from pipes, decorations from what was found on the ship. Even Kelden succumbed to the general madness and gaiety, began to lead the process and observe everything. And only Stone grumbled under his breath, sitting at the steering wheel and discontentedly watching his own, as he considered his comrades to have moved. When the tree was finished, they decided to set the table, then everyone started looking for something to put supplies, there was no table. Stone's patience ran out when the company became especially noisy, and turning to them said:

-Dear my comrades, I certainly understand that you are bored, but could you not touch the supplies and not make noise, otherwise we will have nothing to eat, and if you do not obey my so wise instruction, you will be sent directly overboard by me personally and with my kicks. Fuh, he said, in short, omitting all that politeness, SHUT UP AND SIT SMALLLY, WE ARE IN A FULL ASS, AND YOU ARE CELEBRATING FUCKING NEW YEAR HERE, DON'T FORGET THAT I'M THE OWNER IN THE SHIP, DON'T GIVE ME AND GIVE ME ON THE NEAREST PLANET I WILL LEAVE! Stone said, turning to screaming.

- OH yes laaadno you relax, we are all in space, no one is chasing us, but don't be greedy with supplies, Kelden said laughing.

- You should talk about supplies, have you forgotten that you are immortal? It feels like I'm an ancient xel'naga here for a thousand years, not you. Stone replied.

Khora slowly plumping an unknown slurry, immediately almost got drunk and said contentedly: "Ehh, if I could now have a bite of some living creature." Even though Stone was wearing a helmet, even without seeing the ghost's face, it was clear that he had already been brought to a white knee, and he explained in a nervous voice: "Howra! What kind of living creatures, we are in fucking space, where you see living things here, or we go hunting zerg leviathans, there will be more meat than a ship. " Everyone looked at him and laughed, they of course recognized him as the leader, but then they could not resist, so as not to make fun of his nerves. And they began to slowly introduce him to madness. Stone resisted, but nevertheless joined in and immediately commented: "Yes, there is nothing even to eat and drink, the supplies must be protected and so there is no nichrome." But this remark did not stop anyone ...

A day later

Stone woke up with a headache, everything was turned upside down, he was under some thing, and everyone else was lying on the floor. They flew to the planet, Stone kicked everyone out. The Marine of the outpost on the planet was very surprised and wanted to say something, but Stone interrupted him: "Don't even ask what happened here," and they all went to the camp. There soon everyone got well and told a lot of stories after which Stone took his dagger and thrashed them, but even in this state, his campaign escaped reprisals for his partying ...

This is what actually happened on the ship on the way to the snow-covered planet.

Commentary on New Years Madness.

All Happy New Year, this chapter is designed to cheer you up and the feeling of the holidays, I wish you all a pleasant reading

========== Pursuit ==========

Stone's ship, recently refurbished, swept across the galaxy, carrying all the survivors of the operation. The ghost sat at the place of the ship's captain, but managed with difficulty in his duties. While this was not surprising, no one has yet returned to normal after meeting Eleanden. Fear pierced them, pierced only at the thought that they would have to confront such a monster, just by his presence he broke and destroyed almost everyone. "What is it? Why is there so much power and anger in him? "Stone asked himself. "Elenden, was once one of us — the guardian of the xel'naga artifacts. But on the day when Amun decided to destroy the xel'naga, we guards opposed him, but Elenden, he was different, his strength was unimaginable, but it nourished its roots from the very depths of the void, where even Amun could not get, all that power made him insane and uncontrollable, the Fallen was able to lure him to himself, but we nevertheless defeated them with great losses, we could only put Eleden in an artifact, but I was assigned as his jailer. We were approximately equal with him, until your Mobius friends found the artifact, they with the help of something displaced my energy from the artifact, creating the very wave that knocked you down. Elenden seized the moment and took control of the artifact, and was able to draw power from the void again. I had to leave, my powers were absorbed by the artifact. As a result, everything that you can observe now happened. Even though he is not in his true form now, he is still stronger than me and us all. "- explained Kelden. Stone, listening attentively, understood the depth of the problem more and more, and was more and more amazed that they still needed to somehow stop it. By this point they were approaching the planet,

"Kelden, where did you take us, could you explain?" Howra asked

"We flew to the planet where the nearest protoss base is located, they will help us," Kelden replied.

They approached the planet, after a few minutes landed in some field, they went towards the nearest camp. Stone, or rather Kelden, showed the way. The ghost did not weaken his attention, a certain feeling of anxiety did not leave him, he sensed that something was wrong, it could not be so easy. An hour later, seeing the base of the protoss, they noticed an incomprehensible movement in the distance. It was a Mobius ship, they also flew to this planet, but completely different. Even though Elenden had a shell, it immediately began to crumble, move 20 meters away from the artifact. Yes, he needed a new body, but the Terran body is too weak, the zerg is too changeable, so he needed the protoss one. So he could show the limit of strength at the moment. Stone, of course, did not know this, but he accelerated to get to the base faster. The Protoss base was completely different from the Terran ones, which Stone knew as soon as he saw it. Any protoss base looks powerful, even the smallest, looks like an impregnable city. The ghost had never seen such a thing before, he was surprised. As they approached, no one stopped them, the Protoss sensed Kelden, and knew that he could be missed.

Entering the base, they instantly went to the main building. They need a hierarch who is currently arriving on this planet. They walked through the base. Protoss were few in this golden fortress. Nothing bad has happened yet. And now, having entered the twilight council, where the main warriors and the hierarch were with them. There was some discussion going on in the building. Everyone was discussing some kind of operation. Stone was stopped, and some of the protoss were alert. The hierarch approached the campaign and wanted to ask, but Kelden interrupted his thoughts, and began to explain what's what. After listening to him, the hierarch said: "So Elenden is free, everything is worse than I thought, we just caught a psi burst of emptiness, and tried to detect it, but now everything is clear, if this is really so, then we have big problems, most likely he is already here, we will prepare for the attack. " Stone added: "we saw a Mobius ship,

"We're in trouble again, Stone, you're really lucky on adventure," Howra said with a grin. They began to equip the way, the protoss, or rather their strongest warriors went with them.

To be continued…

Commentary on Pursuit

now the voice acting of fanfiction will be released, on this channel channel/UCnHsTlarJGskv6HqLpLgWqA, and in parallel new parts here on ficbook

========== Scouting Skirmish ============================================================================================================================================================================================================================= Scouting skirmish ==========

Commentary on Scouting Skirmish

All enjoyable reading

ATTENTION THERE IS A VOICE OF FANFIC ON THE CHANNEL kelden sage go and enjoy the live voice acting, parts of the fanfic on the channel come out regularly.

LINK: https: channel/UCnHsTlarJGskv6HqLpLgWqA

Stone and his squad, along with the protoss, went on a reconnaissance mission. All around were fields, fields, some fucking fields. Stone led everyone in the direction of the Mobius ship, his face did not express anything good, he thought about everything that was happening, he is an ordinary ghost, now he is trying to help stop a creature with a force immeasurable in ordinary numbers, recently he only flew on a simple, complex, but understandable mission ... And now he has become a vessel for a creature equal in strength to the xel'naga, has become almost the strongest person, and the protoss are following him, and Stone is again the commander. Memories rolled over him, but now he could change everything, he is no longer the "little ghost" who could not fulfill that mission, but a ghost who needs to deal with all this conflict between the xelnaga. "Stone, we are approaching the landing site, they have set up camp," tore out of his thoughts Howra's ghost. They decided not to attack, Stone had two reasons not to go on the attack: the first was that he understood that his squad was on his conscience and he should not allow losses, the second was that he knew the fact that so far everything is only guessed, Stone felt that very bloodthirsty energy, that oppressive and not allowing anger to move, but he knew, knew that Helenden was there. Kelden knew this too, which is not surprising, he also knew, but he was no longer as tense as at the first meeting, because Elenden did not have a vessel and a material shell, because of this he could not move far from the artifact, otherwise he would simply return to emptiness ... It calmed me a little, but it was also frightening, if even without a material body he was able to arrange a bloody mess in seconds, then what can he do in his body ... the first was that he understood that his detachment was on his conscience and he should not allow losses, the second was that he knew the fact that while everyone only guessed, Stone felt that very bloodthirsty energy, the same oppressive and not giving move anger, yes he knew, knew that Elenden was there. Kelden knew this too, which is not surprising, he also knew, but he was no longer as tense as at the first meeting, because Elenden did not have a vessel and a material shell, because of this he could not move far from the artifact, otherwise he would simply return to emptiness ... It calmed me a little, but it was also frightening, if even without a material body he was able to arrange a bloody mess in seconds, then what can he do in his body ... the first was that he understood that his detachment was on his conscience and he should not allow losses, the second was that he knew the fact that while everyone only guessed, Stone felt that very bloodthirsty energy, the same oppressive and not giving move anger, yes he knew, knew that Elenden was there. Kelden knew this too, which is not surprising, he also knew, but he was no longer as tense as at the first meeting, because Elenden did not have a vessel and a material shell, because of this, he could not move far from the artifact, otherwise he would simply return to emptiness ... It calmed me a little, but it was also frightening, if even without a material body he was able to arrange a bloody mess in seconds, then what can he do in his body ... the second is that he knew a fact about which while everyone was only guessing, Stone felt that very bloodthirsty energy, that same oppressive and not allowing anger to move, but he knew, knew that Eleanden was there. Kelden knew this too, which is not surprising, he also knew, but he was no longer as tense as at the first meeting, because Elenden did not have a vessel and a material shell, because of this he could not move far from the artifact, otherwise he would simply return to emptiness ... It calmed me a little, but it was also frightening, if even without a material body he was able to arrange a bloody mess in seconds, then what can he do in his body ... the second is that he knew a fact about which while everyone only guessed, Stone felt that very bloodthirsty energy, that same oppressive and not allowing anger to move, but he knew, knew that Eleanden was there. Kelden knew this too, which is not surprising, he also knew, but he was no longer as tense as at the first meeting, because Elenden did not have a vessel and a material shell, because of this he could not move far from the artifact, otherwise he would simply return to emptiness ... It calmed me a little, but it was also frightening, if even without a material body he was able to arrange a bloody mess in seconds, then what can he do in his body ... as at the first meeting, because Elenden did not have a vessel and a material shell, because of this he cannot go far from the artifact, otherwise he will simply return to the void. It calmed me a little, but it was also frightening, if even without a material body he was able to arrange a bloody mess in seconds, then what can he do in his body ... as at the first meeting, because Elenden did not have a vessel and a material shell, because of this he cannot go far from the artifact, otherwise he will simply return to the void. It calmed me a little, but it was also frightening, if even without a material body he was able to arrange a bloody mess in seconds, then what can he do in his body ...

But their peaceful march was interrupted by the attack of the infected. "Stukov, he is again," thought Stone.

"Bravo, you figured out me right away, but you can't leave here, at last I can take revenge on you, Stone." Stukov said

"What do you mean, you and I have never seen each other, what drives you, you don't look like a simple infected person, you think on your own, but I don't understand what you mean by revenge on me," Stone said, slowly preparing for the battle ...

"HAh, don't pretend to be Stone's peaceful sheep. You cannot run away from me, so take the battle and die in it, "Stukov said.

"Okay, but if you are so sure of my death, then can I voice my last request?" - ask Stone coolly

"Go ahead," said Stukov

"Remove the infected, and do not touch the rest, this is our fight with you, not theirs, I will take a 1v1 fight," Stone said

"Huh, okay, I won't touch them," Stukov said with a sneer

"Well then, let's start," Stone said, and prepared for battle.

Immediately, the ghost pulled out a rifle hidden behind his cloak and opened fire, Stukov did not expect this, but quickly lifting a curtain of dust with the help of some grenade thrown in the direction of Stone, closed the distance, Stone shot again, and hit right in the shoulder, but Stukov rushed like a tank, Stone managed to draw out a knife and tried to dodge, but Stukov crashed into him, the rifle fell out of his hands, the Infected General triumphantly lifted Stone by the throat, he quickly took advantage of the triumph of the enemy, hit him on the head, kicked them with psi energy jerk, Stukov let Stone go, the ghost with a swift movement, struck a straight blow with a knife, failed, Stukov intercepted Stone's hand, he tried to escape, but his animal grip did not let go, the hand cracked treacherously.

"You can say goodbye to your bone," Stukov said with a triumphant grin. The hand cracked, Stone, let out a quiet cry, he tried not to lose concentration, but then he could not resist and fell to his knee in pain. In vain, a knee hit him in the face. Stone was thrown back, Stukov did not weaken the onslaught, taking him by the collar, he dragged the ghost like a mongrel on the ground. "Well, it's time to end with you, you are too weak, you were weak, now you are weak and you will die weak. This is your destiny, "Stukov said. The infected swung for the final blow, but then Stone, with his helmet knocked down, all wounded, grinned, he waited for the moment, the time was right, he was almost ready. 3, 2, 1. Stukov strikes, and hits a stable place. No Stone did not use the Dagger, he long ago replaced himself with an illusion, even when they approached the camp, he himself was sitting at a distance. But that's not why he was taking the time, no Stukov, did not yet understand what had happened, and paid for the delay, the psi storm hit him, he did not have time to get out of it. The infected did not see anything, He was able to survive the storm, but painfully, he was almost unable to move. But Stone didn't give him time for respite. Stukov, as soon as the storm dissipated saw him, Stone was already preparing to finish him off with a jerk. The infected did not have time to react. Only had time to stretch out his hand. It was pierced the full length of the blade. He gritted his teeth in pain and hit the ghost on the head with his free hand. With his pierced hand, he grabbed Stone's hand. "You can't do anything to me with such a piece of glass." Stukov said. And he hit Stone on the head again, he could not dodge. And the stone passed out, but did not fall, his eyes opened and burned with a white light. "What the hell," Stukov said incomprehensibly. Kelden took control of Stone's body. He knew that it was impossible to hesitate, his power could not be used for a long time by Stone's body, he had to win faster, although the use of this ability would lead to dire consequences for the vessel. He quickly created an illusion, a dash, a punch, a block, Stukov tried to hit, but immediately got kicked into the body. Kelden released all of Stone's psi energy. Stukov and Kelden in Stone's body were equal, as Stukov thought. But he was mistaken, having missed the next blow, Kelden formed psi energy in his hand, the energy of Kelden. And a quick jerk a second and a blow to the heart. Stukov did not move, but he began to slowly lose consciousness, no Kelden did not kill him, he only instilled in him a particle of himself, and showed him the truth about his infection, the bale was able to restore his consciousness. Stukov in his mind, was in bewilderment and anger, Kelden showed him everything that Mobius and Mark had infected him, that they attacked his base that day.

Stukov could not believe it, he was corroded by doubt and anger. In reality, Stukov was lying unconscious, Kelden regained control of the body to Stone, the ghost immediately fell, Howra ran up to him, he and Stukov were carried to the base, Stukov to Stone's cell at the hospital. His condition was serious, his body could hardly cope with that amount of psi-energy, a little more and he would have died. The protoss were able to heal him quickly, but he only woke up after 4 hours. Remembering what was happening, he did not understand how he got here.

"What am I doing here ..." - said Stone, but he was interrupted by Kelden

"I finished your childhood showdown, I had to take control of your body, and yes, this is already 3 times, when I saved you." - remarked sarcastically Kelden. Over time, Kelden's character began to resemble more and more a person, he developed Sarcasm, and even some emotions and affection for people. All this was wonderful, but these reflections were interrupted by the sound of an alarm, the base was attacked. Mobius went on the attack, Stone tried to get up and he succeeded, but he almost could not fight, but still now is not the time to rest, Stone equipped himself and advanced to support his comrades-in-arms.

To be continued….

========== Siege ==========

Stone ran through the streets of the crumbling city, the walls were cracking at the seams, the siege of the base was in full swing, the Mobius were already breaking through the defenses of the protoss, Stone was not in the best condition, but he had to go to the battlefield, because he felt the presence of Elendan there, his aura pressed on him, the hatred of this monster was transcendental, he did not know what he would do when he entered the battle. And now the walls were already visible. They had already been broken through, there was a battle, the protoss were pressing the enemy, and it seemed that victory would come with time to the defenders.

Zealots went forward, behind them were supported by the High Templars, the guns of the immortals rumbled like thunder, screams of carnage were heard, the Marines retreated, there was a deafening explosion, Terran tanks took a siege regime and began shelling, the ranks of the Zealots thinned out. The offensive was restored again, the gelitrons went forward, burning the nearest soldiers. The defenders held on, the sentries were able to recreate the protective field, thin stripes of white flashed in the air, and rockets hit the army right there, the Mobius banshees dropped missiles at the delaam, the protoss were outnumbered more and more. The Terrans suffered heavy casualties, but they were still overwhelmed by numbers. Giant tori came out through the ranks of the Marines, their guns decaying with a creak, and a hail of explosions poured out. Through the haze, it was clear that there were a couple hundred protoss left. The two high Templars watched all this carnage, they were almost alone in their part of the battle. They looked at the troops surrounding them, looked at each other in their eyes there was sorrow and determination. Both joined hands and began to release their psi energy, a blinding light piercing the eyes of their enemies. A huge luminous sphere was formed, the two Templars merged into an archon, a creature of monstrous power. Around storms and lightning marines fled, tanks fired, in vain the sphere began to attract everything around it and slowly expanded, preparing for an explosion. For a moment, a crater formed on the ground. Many of the Moebius were killed. Only a couple of zealots remained from the detachment that defended the gate. The commander of this unit, examined the abandoned enemies with contempt, stood up and activated the psi blades, rushed straight to the enemies, his determination was unimaginable, single-handedly rushed to the detachment of marines. He showed that he was ready to give his life for his fellows, his powers were weakening, he was already ready to accept his end, but suddenly a huge crystal materialized next to him, and pillars of light appeared. Zealots and adepts emerged from them. And now there were already several dozen of them. A battle cry swept through the ranks of the Protoss and they charged at the enemy. The Moebius were backing away, they did not expect such a rebuff. The mother ship appeared in the sky. He obscured most of the sky. Here the Terrans had to leave and hold on to their last strength, the head of the Mobius looked at everything from afar. A smirk appeared on his face. Suddenly, first a green outline appeared in the sky, and then a huge, heavily armed Cruiser. A red flashed in the bow of this ship, a shell flew from there, an explosion, the protoss ship could not stand it, and began to slowly fall. Smaller examples and other ships appeared behind the cruiser. The protoss retreated to the city. The Moebius had already littered the streets with the blood of the cruiser, bombed from the air, leaving almost no chance of escape. Suddenly there was an explosion, and the space giant began to fall, some small shuttle flew out of it, but in the heat of the battle this bipod was not noticed, but the fall of this monster was hard not to notice even if you were blind or deaf. The ship touched the ground and fell with a crash, killing many of the soldiers. The fight went back on track. but the fall of this monster was hard not to notice even if you are blind or deaf. The ship touched the ground and fell with a crash, killing many soldiers. The fight went back on track. but the fall of this monster was hard not to notice even if you are blind or deaf. The ship touched the ground and fell with a crash, killing many soldiers. The fight went back on track.

Let's move on to our ghost. He flew in a shuttle, the sabotage was successful. He has now landed in the distance of the battle near the Mobius camp. and began to slowly move towards the general headquarters. Mark, the head of the Moebius, sat and thought about further strategy. Here his thoughts were interrupted by the shout of one of the soldiers. "Yells like a cut," thought Mark, and looking back saw what he had said about him with terrifying accuracy, the marine was lying with his throat cut, even the spacesuit did not save. Then he felt the touch of cold steel on his throat. "Stone, you ruin all my cards as always. When will you finally die, "said Mark. Stone said that he only needed to get someone out of here, and Mark didn't care much. The head of the Möbius agreed surprisingly. This alerted Stone. He walked to the main lab in the camp in invisibility next to Mark. When they entered he saw the protoss hierarch, he was lying on the floor unconscious. Maok somehow grinned, but did not prevent Stone from doing his job. Stone on the radio requested teleportation from the protoss and they, along with the hierarch, disappeared. When they got to the center of the base, the battle was already over in favor of the protoss. The hierarch was admitted to the hospital. Stone had already relaxed when he suddenly heard the voice of the Hierarch, and what surprised him was the voice that was not the same as before, it was the voice of Elendan. "Fools you have brought yourself to your death, the hierarch has long been absorbed in me as a person. He is now my shell. " His eyes flashed red, and small red lightning flashed around him. Stone tried to strike and he succeeded. But as soon as he struck the heart of the protoss. His body dissolved, and exactly the same appeared from behind. He took Stone and threw it aside. And he was ready to strike him the last blow, but suddenly he was surrounded by the slime of the zerg. And a couple of zerg appeared. Without a word, Stukov raised Stone and ordered him to retreat.

After a couple of minutes, they ran out of the building. Suddenly there was an explosion and a powerful psi blow blew away the immediate vicinity of the base. Helenden decided to show his strength by this. Stone and Stukov were preparing to accept ... a fight? there is no way to accept death sooner, but there were almost no options. This will be the decisive battle in this little war.

To be continued…

========== The key to salvation ==========

Commentary on the key to salvation

here's the new part, hope you enjoy it, enjoy reading :)

Stone was determined, he was ready for almost any scenario, reason said that there were no chances in battle, they were too weak to resist Elenden, but still there was hope of victory inside? No, hope for survival. But there was no time left. Elenden was approaching. Stone's powers were wasted, he tried to take the power of Kelden, but to his indignation, he learned that he could not borrow the energy. Stone mentally cursed at Kelden, but the spirit did not answer. Suddenly there was a second explosion even more powerful. Stone and Stukov were thrown back and knocked over. Nothing more remained of the city. Dust that rose from the explosion hovered in the sky making it dark brown, everything was destroyed, beautiful buildings collapsed, the bodies of many residents were buried under the ruins. Stone was angry with himself, with the Moebius, with everyone who was involved in this. But then he heard on the radio, which miraculously survived in working order, after all that he went through, the ghost heard the voice of Howra, he was outside the city, next to the battlefield. Stone and Stukov moved there.

After a few tens of minutes, they arrived at the scene. Howra really stood there and still looked towards the city with slight surprise and fear.

-I see you got to me, I'm glad Stone that you are standing here alive, but explain what this infected person is doing here, or has your memory lost it? Let me remind you that he almost killed us all.

- Calm down, I am also glad to see you, to explain everything too long, I will say only one thing if we don't leave here, then we will all have a ticket to the next world.

-Hah, I didn't expect anything else from you, I wonder if all the ghosts often get into trouble or was it so lucky for me?

-All ghosts can get into dangerous situations, for some it is downright talent and profession. Consider yourself lucky, because I seem to specialize in creating and getting into problems of a planetary scale.

After talking for a few more minutes, they moved away from the city. They did not manage to get far, Elenden caught up with them. Trying to recapture Kelden's power, Stone failed. "Well, that's all, we are finished." - everyone thought. And when Elenden was already attacking with a shock wave, instead of falling, the company froze half way in the air. Stone released Kelden's energy, all the while the ancient protoss was accumulating energy for the teleport. Everyone was teleported, but due to the shockwave, the stability of the portal was disrupted. Everyone was teleported to different places, to different planets. But it's still better than dying on that planet at the hands of Elendan ...

Stone woke up first. Around him, he saw not a steppe, not a snow-covered landscape, and even more so he did not see a forest. This time, gloomy views of the desert spread around him. It was dark, the sky was black, the sand was the same color. There was not a soul around. Stone stood up slowly, his whole body hurting. Getting up, he decided to go forward, the area reminded him of something, but what? The ghost did not know the answer to this question, or did not want to admit that he knew this place even to himself. Throwing away the expanses of black sand, Stone went on, nothing strange happened. The night did not end, nothing made its way through the darkness, not a single ray of light. The landscape, with its immutability, introduced one into sadness and gave free rein to thoughts about the hopelessness of attempts to get out of here. Stone did not give in to thoughts, he went further, he was worried about how to deal with Eleanden. The fate of his friends worried him too, but he was sure they were also teleported. The sands hovered more and more in the air, a sandstorm began, Stone continued to walk with perseverance. For him, with his equipment, sand is not terrible, unless it is simply filled up. He struck up a conversation with Kelden, who suddenly appeared.

-It turns out that you took us all to different planets ?!

-Yes, Stone, you are all on different planets, Elenden destabilized the portal, thank you for not being torn apart.

-Okay, but you probably teleported me here not only because of the destabilization?

-You are right, we need to do something here, I won't tell you more yet, and save my energy, I won't be able to give it to you again, we won't need it for a fight, so be careful and don't get involved in trouble.

-Thanks for your concern, Stone said sarcastically, Kelden replied with silence.

An hour later, the ghost saw, in addition to sand, also a mountain, yes, a mountain in the desert, for Stone it was a strange surprise. Standing in front of the entrance, with a sense of danger, he went inside, he did not like caves, because for him any trip to the caves ended with a meeting with very strange, of course, hostile creatures. The ghost walked into the depths of the cave, the corridor went down. After a few minutes of descent, I saw an exit that led to a whole dungeon, the space was huge, Stone went on, there were many canyons, the journey dragged on, suddenly he stumbled upon a battle site. Here lay the skeletons of protoss and zerg. Suddenly, after a short silence, contemplating the results of the massacre, Kelden suddenly said quietly: "Rest in peace, Karass you were a great Templar." Stone was a little surprised, but he was more worried about what happened here. Crossing the battlefield the ghost was near an unknown building. Coming closer to her, he saw symbols carved into the building. As they touched the symbols, they glowed with green light, and Kelden opened the vault of protoss lore. An unprecedented amount of knowledge began to flow into Stone's head, thousands, thousands of ideas, thousands of memories rushed through his brain. To prevent the ghost from dying, Kelden had to absorb most of the knowledge into himself, slowly transferring it to Stone.

Stone dropped to his knees, sat up, his head ached from the replenishment. After a few minutes, having overcome the pain, he got up and moved on, he still did not understand why this was all, but he realized that in these buildings there was a key to defeating Elenden. The next stop was the ruins next to the next vault. Suddenly he felt a tremor under his feet. Suddenly a zerg emerged from the ground next to him. It was a zergling, Stone quickly dealt with him, shooting him in the head when he tried to attack with a swoop. The carcass of the zergling fell. Stone walked around the body and walked on, no more zerg he met, except for the skeleton of a hydralisk, whose claw was stuck in his own skull. Coming closer to the vault, he again did all the steps to open it. This time he received information about the xel'naga war, there he saw everything, as if he himself had survived those days, hours, minutes. There he saw Eleden, too, he was in the guise of a protoss mixed with a zerg, but his appearance was different from that of hybrids, and his strength was also different many times over. The power of this creature was great. Then Stone had a moment of victory over Elenden. Kelden, having gathered all the powers of an artifact unknown to the ghost, was able to seal the power of a dark deity into it. It was later placed in a simple xel'naga artifact. Again, the place changed in front of the ghost, now it was the fate of that artifact, it was left on the planet about which Stone did not receive any information from the storage, something prevented him from reading the storage to the end. Finally, the flow of knowledge was interrupted and ended. Stone collapsed from exhaustion. His head was full and hurt mercilessly, the ghosts, though hardy, but everyone has a limit, and this journey was the limit for Stone.

In a few hours…

Stone woke up, his body felt better, at least he got enough sleep, his head ached a little, but it was already much better. Now all that remained was to find the ship, because it is better not to linger here, Elenden will obviously fly here to destroy such a source of knowledge.

But then Kelden interrupted his thoughts: "It's too early for us to leave here, we need to do something else." Stone asked what else they needed here, Kelden did not answer, but silently walked out in the form of a ghost from Stone's body and walked forward. The ghost followed him. Together they found a way out of the cave. A huge building appeared before them. Its walls turned green with old age, dilapidated, the symbols on the door had long since worn out, everything inside was covered with dust. Because of this, the light of the once bright kaidarin crystals dimmed. Yes, it was the Nerazim Memories Library. Kelden went further, besides the library, this site served as a research site for the most ancient xel'naga artifacts. Opening another door, they saw a khaydarin crystal, but it was different, there was something different about it. It was not that big and smaller than the size of a palm. Stone took it in his hand unexpectedly severe pain pierced Stone's hand, the ghost grabbed the hand, the crystal seemed to melt the part of the palm where it lay. The pain went away a little, removing his hand from his palm, he saw that the crystal had grown into his hand and gleamed dully. "For some reason, such turns don't surprise me anymore." Stone said. Kelden somehow looked sadly towards Stone. In his eyes one could read pity and regret, remorse, but for what?

-Kelden, what's wrong with you? "Did you feel sorry for that zergling?" Stone asked

-No, when the time comes you will understand. - said Kelden and moved back to Stone

Together they headed in the direction of the exit from here. But suddenly, after leaving, they spotted a ship, an old protoss ship. Once inside, Stone realized that it was nothing more than a "curvature prism" as this ship is called by the protoss. To his surprise, he saw a ship working, not dusty, not broken and not destroyed by time from the inside. "The expression" Build for ages "was clearly about the protoss," - the ghost was once convinced of this, but still marveled at the skill of protoss engineers and builders. Approaching the terminal, he launched the ship. All systems worked like clockwork. This made Stone very happy. Having risen into the air, the prism first floated through the air with amazing ease, and then, with the same ease, rushed through space, gaining speed. Kelden told him where he believed Howra was.

But in the meantime, on the same planet (Ulaar), another guest appeared in the cave. Stone was tormented by the feeling that someone was watching him on that planet and he was right. Two green lights gleamed from the shadows of the slopes, and a dark templar emerged from the darkness. All this time, right up to the departure of the Phantom from Ulaar. It was a dark templar named Kael'zur. His goal was to spy on Stone, because only he can help him in his goal, the Templar knew about Elenden, but he also knew that Elenden was not the only one freed from the captivity of the artifact.

He slowly jumped off the ledge and went to his ship - "seeker of emptiness", once it belonged to the dark prelate Zeratul, but after his death he went to the prelate's apprentice. This ship reminded of his teacher and his deeds, now his student will have to help save the world from the revival of Amun and Eleden, his ship rose and flew after Stone's ship.

An hour later, Stone was approaching the planet. Suddenly, he received a distress call from an unknown ship, the protoss. The ghost decided that if he saved the protoss, they could help him on his further wanderings. The route remained almost unchanged, the ship was also close to the planet where Houra was, so Stone did not worry about the loss of time, the ship swiftly cutting through the vacuum of space flew to the place where the distress signal was coming from.

To be continued…

Commentary on the key to salvation

Thanks to everyone who read to the end, write reviews if you have something to say, like if you liked it

I want to say a special thank you to Beta, thank you for your hard work :)

========== Ship Dweller ===============================================================================================================

Stone's ship flew, cutting through the vastness of space, to the source of the distress signal. Within minutes, the ghost was close to its goal. At first he did not see anything, it even seemed to him that it was a trap, but he was mistaken, to his happiness, looking closely he noticed a protoss ship, the ship belonged to the dark templars. Void Seeker? But how did he get here? " Stone asked himself. Of course, he had heard a lot about the legendary ship from the past. But all the data boiled down to the fact that he was destroyed after the death of his master, Zeratul. His surprise was not long, he flew closer and closer. And so he docked with the ship. Boarded an ancient ship. Everywhere was deserted, but from the well-groomed ship it was clear that its crew had been here quite recently. There were computers in the main compartment, the signal was activated. But then the ghost noticed something unusual. On the cold floor of the ship lay an object that strongly reminded him of a terran walkie-talkie. Approaching, he decided to check something, having tried without changing the unique purity of the walkie-talkies, he tried to send a message to her, and he succeeded. "There can be no mistake, Hawra had this radio, but what is she doing here?" The stone asked out loud to himself. Suddenly he felt the psi-energy of the protoss behind him, but did not show it, did not turn around, not a single muscle of the ghost flinched. Without moving, Stone allowed the stranger to approach, he regarded his intentions as aggressive. Therefore, the unexpected blow, the dark templar barely escaped from the knife blow, and appeared from disguise. He stood and did not move, and tried to show that he came in peace. But Stone did not believe it, and with a jerk tried to reach him. Nezim's movements have been honed to the limit when something is done by two masters of their craft, you can look at it forever. So you could look at this fight forever, both were masters of their craft, masters of killing. Their measured, painstaking movements, brought to automatism, slow and smooth strikes from different angles were replaced by quick and unexpected feints and techniques. Jumping back from the blow, the protoss again tried to jump with the blow, but the stone quickly took out his pistol and wounded the protoss half way in the leg. The dark templar fell, tried to get up, but his neck had a knife. "Don't even try to go into the shadows, Kelden is blocking your psi energy," said the ghost. Jumping back from the blow, the protoss again tried to jump with the blow, but the stone quickly pulled out his pistol and wounded the protoss half way in the leg. The dark templar fell, tried to get up, but his neck had a knife. "Don't even try to go into the shadows, Kelden is blocking your psi energy," said the ghost. Jumping back from the blow, the protoss again tried to jump with the blow, but the stone quickly took out his pistol and wounded the protoss half way in the leg. The dark templar fell, tried to get up, but his neck had a knife. "Don't even try to go into the shadows, Kelden is blocking your psi energy," said the ghost.

- Listen to me, I'm not your enemy.

-Yes? I don't believe the protoss who killed my friend a few days ago, maybe an hour ago.

"I didn't kill Howrah, he's alive.

- hmmm very nice, how do you know his name?

- I have been following you for a long time and collecting information, in search of the one who is rumored to be the bearer of the artifact shard, I did not know that it was you, until recently.

- Why would you watch me?

"There is information that I have to give you, but we'll figure it out later, now we need to fly after Houra.

- I agree, but can you at least introduce yourself?

"My name is Kel'zur, I am a disciple of the dark prelate Zeratul, after his death I followed in his footsteps and went to Ulaar, like he once did, to learn how to save the world from amun and zerg. But I knew that there were answers not only to these questions. Those fragments that seemed to you to be cut out and not complete were previously viewed by me, because of this they are damaged, but I know the second part of the prophecy that you did not see.

- it is clear, you probably know my name, and now we are flying to the planet to save Howrah.

An hour later, arriving on the planet, they noticed the Dominion base.

"Houra is there," Kael'zhur said. Stone approached the guards and told them that he was the ghost of the Dominion and needed a passage to the base. They let him in, immediately realizing where Houra was, he went into the crowd and took Houra out of there, proving his innocence to the soldiers, and threatening them with problems if they did not obey the order. After a few minutes, they left the base and headed towards Kael'zur's ship. Howra walked, telling what happened to him, Stone listened. After all this, the qel 'zur told where the key to the victory over Elenden and his relatives was located, or rather a part of the key, the second part, as he said, would not be required. Stone sensed an understatement in his words, as in Kelden's Words on Ulaar. They were all silent about something, but about what? So far, Stone seemed like a mystery. The next in line was the planet where Stukov was thrown out. They flew there without incident, quickly took him and flew away. Now their path lay on distant Ulnar. Stone kept pondering the innuendo in the words of the protoss and Kelden. He decided he didn't want to go into details, and that these were just side effects of the xel'naga shrines. And the ghost went to sleep without thinking that everything was still ahead, that he still had a lot to accomplish, and a lot to go through, which he would not want, but he would survive, and did not yet know that he was doomed, forever doomed to carry the burden to which his life did not prepare, for the burden that scared him, he is doomed to lose everything that he values, but whether he will gain something in return, he did not know, because it is impossible to lose everything, but these are only thoughts, the evil fate of fate sharpened its tenacious claws over him, wanting to break him, make him give up everything, even humanity, from his personality, but all this was just a fleeting dream in the darkness of the night,

...

To be continued

========== The road you can't turn off ==========

Stone, once again, having found himself in a strange vision, opened his eyes. He was no longer surprised by most of the visions, because most often it was caused by Kelden's thoughts and his memories. The ghost looked around, usually his visions were just scraps of some moments, and he was just an observer in most of them. But this time everything was different, nothing changed in front of him, no forces directed him, as if this pseudo-world decided to give him freedom of action in it, weakened and let go of the strings of the puppet, which the ghost in this world clearly appeared to be. He moved forward, this time familiar terrain, hateful to his eyes. This was that damned laboratory, the one where he lost the people dear to him, and for the first time realized his insignificance. Old Stone would have shown a lot of emotions, from memories and internal torment due to the past, but the present ghost, although he felt a slight sadness, was incomparably more calm about it. He went on. Walking along the corridors, he noticed some strange change in them, everything looked 8-9 years older. This surprised him a little, because he had never come here since the confrontation with the Hawk, and Kelden had not been here at all, which meant that there could be no memories of the aging laboratory. Passing into the depths, he saw the knocked-out ventilation through which he once penetrated this base together with Gray and the Hero. Having studied everything and already looking at the building from the outside, Stone wanted to leave, when suddenly passing along one of the approaches to the laboratory, he heard a light object thrown into the air. Turning around, Stone saw a picture that penetrated him. In front of him, throwing up a cartridge case and leaning against the wall, was the Hawk. The one as if he was not even surprised at the appearance of his killer and continued to throw in the cartridge case, just a couple of times appraising Stone. All the equipment was with him, the helmet was also on him. There was a deathly silence, interrupted only by the methodical sound of throwing the cartridge case. Stone was oppressed by this silence and this uninterrupted sound, and he could not stand it.

¬¬¬¬¬- What are you doing here, what do you want from me? Stone asked

"I just came to see what you've become, and you know I expected less. - answered the Hawk

- I don't understand your words, and what does it mean I expected less? The already annoyed Stone asked in disbelief.

- I didn't think that my adjustments would make such a tangible result. - as if not reacting and not noticing the ghost, the mercenary reasoned.

-Your adjustments made my life unbearable, how can you even attribute yourself to those who helped me achieve all this? You have done too much evil that you can even say about me, if I was just a victim for you, a victim for which you do not care, so much that I did not even want to kill. The ghost said angrily.

¬¬– What is Evil? What is good? After all, according to your statement, I did not affect your strength in any way, but I do not even want to refute this because I understand that you know that you are wrong. And about evil, tell me Stone, you and I are both murderers and warriors, how many lives did you take? I'm as sure as I am. And do you know what is the difference between us? For the purpose, after all, you consider it evil that I killed your friends, but think after all, you did not hesitate to kill ordinary Marines at the base where Stukov was and where they wanted to free Eleden, and you did not ask yourself: "is it worth killing this Marine, blocking my path, because he may not be guilty of anything, maybe he protects his friends like me "no, you didn't think so, but do you know why? And I will answer, because you knew if you did not kill him, then something much worse would happen than the death of one Marine. You exchanged the life of one for the lives of many, but after all, evil remains evil, you and I can only choose whether we will commit the evil that will entail consequences for everyone, or we will do evil only for a couple of people, but save everyone else. Remember this: there is no pure evil and pure good, sometimes you have to choose from two evils the one that will affect fewer people, evil-good are sides of the same coin, there will always be evil in the world that is good for someone and vice versa. I hope now you understand that we are not able to judge each other, because you do not know everything about me, and I about you. I think you understood me - finished Hawk there is no pure evil and pure good, sometimes you have to choose from two evils the one that will affect fewer people, evil-good are sides of the same coin, there will always be evil in the world that is good for someone and vice versa. I hope now you understand that we are not able to judge each other, because you do not know everything about me, and I about you. I think you understood me - finished Hawk there is no pure evil and pure good, sometimes you have to choose from two evils the one that will affect fewer people, evil-good are sides of the same coin, there will always be evil in the world that is good for someone and vice versa. I hope now you understand that we are not able to judge each other, because you do not know everything about me, and I about you. I think you understood me - finished Hawk

- No matter how disgusting it was to me, I agree with your reasoning, but only you never had such a goal as me, by killing my friends you did not save the universes, you did not stop the Mobius with their hybrids and so on, you didn't have such goals. - said Stone

-You will understand everything in time, I will give you only a hint to answer your question.¬ -Said Hawk taking something out of his pocket. The fact that he took out and threw a small object to Stone, after catching it, Stone saw that it was a protoss crystal for recording knowledge, memories and other information.

- Where did you get it from? Stone asked

- From Ulaara¬ - while leaving the Hawk said, slowly disappearing.

Stone wanted to ask him many more questions, so many incomprehensible things: how could he be on Ulaar, what did he mean by his goals, why was he so peaceful with me, and what did he even forget here? All this tormented Stone. He put the crystal in his pocket and went out.

When he woke up, he got up abruptly. Having gone into himself, the ghost put on his equipment, examined the weapon, talked to Kelden, and already about to leave the cabin, he accidentally fumbled in his pocket that sharp and small. Cold sweat went through him at once, his hand trembled slightly, because taking the object, he realized that it was a crystal that the Hawk gave him. "What the hell, what nonsense? It was only a vision, "thought the ghost. He decided to forget about it for a while, which was difficult, but still worked out. The ghost came out of the cabin, walked around the ship, admiring the different interior compared to the Terran ship. He soon reached the main compartment. Kel'zur and Stukov were already there. They were discussing something, Stone joined the conversation. It was about Ulnar, and about the plan of action, discussion of possible problems. The ghost began to actively participate in this.

After half an hour of discussion, Howra entered the room and greeted everyone. He did not join the discussion, but preferred only to observe carefully. After a few hours, everyone dispersed. Stukov suddenly approached Stone, and as he approached, he began a conversation.

- I forgot to say thank you. Thank you for returning my memory and revealing the truth, I was able to free myself from the Moebius thanks to you. Forgive me for interrupting you at the Mobius base when you wanted to stop the return of that monster, Elendan. - said Stukov.

-No why, we are now comrades, because you also saved my skin from him, I hope you can help us in achieving victory over him. - answered the ghost

- you are somewhat different from other ghosts that I have met, you are less cold-blooded towards others, you protect your squad, even if it is reckless. What happened to change the cold-blooded killer like that? - Stukov asked

- Much has happened, I have lost a lot and gained a lot, and those events in which we are now will change anyone, believe me anyone, even as you put it: "a cold-blooded killer." - answered Stone

- I understand, I hope you can do what you have to - Stukov finished the conversation.

Then Stone was left alone with his thoughts. Remembering everything that happened to him, he went into himself, not noticing anything around, the silence does not interfere with anything. But this idyll did not last long, it was broken by the voice of Kel'zur: "the asteroid field is ahead, we will not be able to get around, hold on tight, we are entering the danger zone." The ghost woke up, shaking began, the ship rushed from side to side, dodging the annoying stones. A few minutes later, the asteroids were behind. Everyone sighed with relief. There was very little further to Ulnar on the map. But flying up to its coordinates, the team found an ordinary planet. Stone was a little annoyed by this fact, because if they arrived in the wrong place, then they wasted time, and the more time they spend, the more people die from the Mobius and Elendan. Despite Stone's judgments, they decided to land on the planet.

Here their feet set foot on the earth of this planet. In appearance, the planet was ordinary, no bases, no Moebius, no dominion, no one. Without finding anyone, they decided to fly on. To Stone's greatest happiness, this time the ship was approaching Ulnar. Everyone was preparing for battle. After all, everyone felt that the battle could not be avoided. The ship flew closer and closer. Here they are already on the surface of this celestial body. A few minutes later we flew to the desired place and got off the ship. Kel'zhur moved forward, followed by the others. The protoss led them. Suddenly, they spotted the wreckage of the xel'naga guards. Ulnar was one huge labyrinth and home to the xel'naga, a repository of their knowledge and bodies. The dark templar and Kelden told Stone about this. Therefore, you cannot do without guards here. After examining the fragments, which still had a spark of energy, which meant their recent destruction. "Most likely the Moebius beat us," Stone said. Began to move more cautiously. After half an hour of walking through the wreckage of the ancient guards, they finally heard some sounds. It was a move by other people. Stone and Houra exchanged glances and gestured to each other a plan of action. Stone went invisible, and Howra crept closer to the source of the noise. There were two soldiers walking slowly, apparently lagging behind the main group. Howra shouted something so that they turned around, when the soldiers reacted to the noise, it was already too late for one to do something, the ghost shot him in the head. The second, however, managed to riddle Howrah until he did not fully understand what was happening. "We're catching up," Stone said. Then they moved ready at any moment to attack or defend themselves from enemy attacks. The team walked along the corridors of Ulnar, ancient constructions delighted the ghost's eye, even in such a situation, break away from this splendor. After a while they came to the stop of the soldiers, it was like a roadblock. The checkpoint was ineptly set up, the soldiers were inexperienced and had blind spots. After analyzing the situation, Stone led everyone behind him. They managed to sneak in without alarm, without casualties on either side. The hike continued, and now a passage loomed on the horizon. According to Kel'Zur, this is a passageway to a kind of xel'naga stasis room. The company was approaching the aisle. Stone tensed, a lump rolled up to his throat, because the doors blocking the passage were destroyed. And if these were ordinary doors, the ghost would not be surprised at all. But the xel'naga doors were unusual, as were all their technologies. These doors can be safely called gates, their thickness reached no less than half a meter, they could hardly be pierced by Terran technologies, only a laser drill, but it is not here, so the only one who could tear down those doors was Elenden. And as soon as Stone talked about him and everyone who saw him in action involuntarily ran a chill through the body, a chill of death, a lump rose at the throat, one had only to think about this monster. The team overcame a slight fear and went inside.

The room was dark, nothing was visible, only faint silhouettes were visible in the darkness, as well as something unusual in this darkness, namely a dim light, not a bright reddish light. Suddenly the light began to intensify, and the ghost and the others saw that the bodies of the xel'naga were completely exhausted, the creatures looked sickly, the last sparks of life were slowly, inevitably fading away. The ghost saw that the light came from a rift in the void. Suddenly, the rift was destabilized, a sharp flash blinded the team. "We're leaving! Faster, faster, we are running zergling, gnaw you, do not hesitate, well, faster! "- the ghost began to command, shouting. Only Kel'zhur had time to run. Further away from freedom, they were separated by the collapse of part of the room, which separated Stone, Howrah and Stukov from their cherished freedom. The rift grew, and began to attract objects around. "heck! heck! heck! infection! We're locked, come what may, "said Howra. The rift was approaching and eventually absorbed the team. Stone's eyes darkened, and he felt the pressure, the furious pressure of the void energy. Seconds later, they were thrown out of the rift. They found themselves in a desert area, in the sky they saw red-black accumulations of emptiness energy. All around was a chaotic, incomprehensible landscape. Stone and the others rose from the ground. Looking around, Howra whistled and said with a note of bewilderment, "What are we going to do?" Asked the Marine. No one answered him, because no one has yet figured out what to do in this situation. Stone received a wake-up call from Kelden, who said he felt Eleden's energy, but noticed that he had a new body, much, much stronger than the protoss body. "From hour to hour it's not easier, maybe a meteorite will also fall on us?" Stone asked. After a few minutes of discussion, the team decided to move, at Kelden's direction, forward to where Elenden was. The ghost's heart was pounding like mad, he felt the imminent beginning of an unequal hard battle. Stone was not ready, not morally not physically, but he understood what was needed, there might be no more chance, and this determination, mixed with hopelessness and slight despair, gave strength to move forward, approaching the fateful battle for them ...