Ghost's Guardian
By Icura
~o~
Chapter 1
~o~
Was this her punishment?
The rifle fell from her limp fingers. It clattered against the broken asphalt of the ruined road, but the noise was drowned out by the ravenous growling. From all around her, dog-like creatures were rushing over the rubble on their clawed feet, their jaws filled with viciously sharp teeth. A pair of arms hung from their shoulders, armed with three blades along their lengths and held at ready to slash apart their prey.
Zerglings. They were the grunts of the Zerg ground forces, produced and sent in great numbers to overwhelm the defenses of even the most hardened Terran lines. For a ghost of her stature, she had put an end to more of their kind than she could ever care to count.
She just never thought that the mooks of the alien bio-army would be the end of her. Yet, here she was, standing in the center of a dead city on a ravaged world. It was ironic; her actions had condemned the entire populace of Tarsonis to death. Was this her just punishment, even though she had done it all for a good cause? Under the dead skies of New Gettysburg, Sarah Kerrigan closed her eyes.
~o~
The moment that he opened his eyes, Shirou Emiya knew his purpose. It was the same one that he had followed countless times before. All around him, the devastation of the world loomed like a dark painting, unwanted but familiar beyond all reason. At times, the canvas would hold a different color or even a different picture, but they all conveyed the same meaning.
The threat was different, but the purpose was the same: kill everything in sight.
~o~
Blood splashed onto her cheek, but it wasn't her own. Pain and agony had not yet visited her. Sarah didn't feel the clawed tendrils or the bladed teeth rip into her flesh, a cause that had spelled death for many of her compatriots. Confused, she opened her eyes and beheld a world of madness.
A red cloak tipped with a crop of white hair stuck out in contrast to the sea of bodies. Black and white blades whirled through the hardened carapaces of the surrounding zerglings, ripping them asunder in a sea of red. A blur, a dance, a symphony. Like music, the death throes resounded like the cry of a violin. Sweet, tender, and violently chaotic.
The zerglings behind her rushed past her, completely ignoring her in favor of the greater threat. It was behavior unlike the Zerg, but she was in no mind to notice. Two arcing crescents, black and white, flowed through the air with a smoothness that beguiled the effort required. The man's feet found purchase on the uneven and rigid bodies, moving lithely even though the flow of attackers never slowed down in the slightest.
He threw his swords, the spinning blades arcing through several bodies, but even injured, these creatures never stopped. Like crazed dogs, they rushed in relentlessly. It didn't matter if they lost a limb or half their bodies; a singular purpose propelled them forth, over the corpses of their fellow monsters and into the jaws of death. One was pierced and pinned by a spear. Another was slashed into two by a greatsword. A hammer smashed one of the beasts from the spire.
The man leaped high into the air, his blood-stained coat fluttering around him. A large black bow appeared in his hand, and from there, it could only be called a rain of death. Fired off like buckshot from a shotgun, numerous arrows pierced through hide and flesh when it shouldn't be possible, not for such primitive weapons. Yet, by the time he landed without a sound, there were only a few stragglers left.
And he killed them. Without mercy, without hesitation, with the black and white swords stained red, he slaughtered them with an inhuman efficiency that felt…dead. It was like a lifeless and soulless puppet was wielding those weapons with machine-like precision, devoid of pride and humanity.
Fear gripped her. It was unreasonable, and she didn't even know how she knew it, but that contradiction could not be ignored; it was like looking at something that didn't belong in a painting, an artifact that stuck out in stark contrast with the rest of the image. Her instincts told her one thing: he was beyond the logic of the universe.
Sarah reached for her discarded, empty rifle. Why? She didn't know. To club him over the head, maybe? However, before she could lay a finger on it, she found that she couldn't move. Two blades were hovering over her shoulders, just bare inches from her neck. Still dripping with the blood of zerglings, it would only take a single motion to scissor her head off her body.
Worse of all, she knew he was going to. She felt it deep inside her. So why did he stop?
~o~
Why did he stop? No, that wasn't the right question. How was he able to stop? For Shirou Emiya, the fact that he could bewildered him. He had only realized it, just a moment before he would have made a terrible and disastrous mistake. In all the times that he had been a prisoner in his own body, a puppet for the role of Counter Guardian, this was the first time that his frantic pleas had shut down his forced actions.
Even with the hopelessness he had felt from being forced to kill against his will, he still tried again and again to stop himself. It was a fact that made him who he was; a fact that he had come to utterly regret.
"This is different…" Giving voice to the confusion he felt, Shirou slowly lowered his blades, keeping a tight grip on their hilts. It was far tighter than usual, for he felt that if he didn't, he would lose control over himself and become the murderous machine that he was forced to be.
"Who are you?"
Wonderment. Strangeness. Like something that didn't belong. In the face of her bewilderment, the man in the red coat simply stared at her with a calm expression, as if this was nothing more than a calm walk in a meadow.
"No one of consequence."
"That sure as hell wasn't nothing." Sarah watched him cautiously. She didn't know what had come over her earlier, but now that he was actually talking, she felt that strange pressure lessening. "What you just did was impossible!"
Shirou allowed his weapons to disperse, ignoring Sarah's widening eyes. It was only now that he noticed it. He was connected to this woman.
"What were those? Psionic blades?" She had seen the psi blades formed by the Protoss and had even formed a more basic form herself, but to see something corporeal like this was impossible.
"…just what kind of master are you?"
"What?"
Shirou didn't reply as he looked upward. Reinforcing his eyes with prana, he could see far into the distance. A swarm of flying bat-like creatures was massing towards his location. Individually, their size eclipsed that of even fighter planes, and their speed was nothing to laugh about. At the end of their worm-like bodies, the spot where their tail would be had been switched out in favor of a gaping and toothed hole, like a second mouth on their bodies. A few of the creatures were ahead of the pack, ushering in their entrance with a green glow emitting from their bottom mouth. There was nothing good that could come from that.
"We need to leave." Without waiting for a response, Shirou scooped her off her feet to carry her bridal style.
"What are you—!" Her eyes widened when she spotted the dark figures in the skies.
"Keep your mouth shut or you'll bite your tongue." With a burst of speed, Shirou ran to and jumped up onto the side of a nearby skyscraper and sprinted up its length, ignoring Sarah's surprised cry. Reaching an adequate height, he leaped off of the glass just as a flying worm with leathery wings crashed into the building, sending shards of concrete and glass flying outward. Landing lightly on the top of a nearby apartment complex, he ran across the rooftop as two more of the winged beasts homed in on them.
The bat creatures swung their tails forward as clumps of green sludge were spat out of their lower mouths. Shirou weaved left and right, evading the projectiles as they hit the rooftop and bounced like ping pong balls. He ducked his head as one of the masses of green sludge sped past him, smashing into and breaking through the window of an apartment. The remaining sludge on the new entryway continued to eat at the walls with smoke rising from the melting edges. His eyes widened. Acid.
"Grab onto my neck!" Sarah heeded the command and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He released her and spun around, spinning her onto his back as a large black bow formed in his arms. With a speed that could only be gained through countless years of effort, he formed and shot several arrows within the span of moments. Even as he turned and continued his run without breaking a stride, he could hear the creatures' screeching as they fell from the skies, their wings pierced by his arrows. Their accuracy was assured even before the arrows left his hand.
The cries of the fallen bat creatures attracted more of them from all directions, but he could not afford to stop for even a moment to end them. He jumped onto the next rooftop as a cacophony of alien screeches echoed from the lower levels. Up ahead, a spiny slug-like creature with a large shell behind its head stabbed its bladed scythe-like forearms into the roof, pulling itself up as it let out a horrible shriek.
Shirou formed his two trusted blades, Kanshou and Bakuya, into his hands and flung them even while dodging a volley of foot-long spines shot out from under the creature's shoulder carapace. The two swords, attracted to each other by a curse, met under the slug creature's head, severing the vulnerable flesh above its upper carapace. Blood flooded out as it wiggled madly in pain, sheering the ears of all those present with its dying cry. The bladed forearms ripped right through the roofing, causing the creature to fall back down to the street level. Paying no attention to his kill, Shirou ran to the edge and leaped towards the next building, even as the creatures below spat out armor-piercing spines that trailed just moments behind him. He landed roughly on the rooftop with a grunt, but he didn't pause for even a second before continuing his run.
Sarah hung on for her dear life, barely aware if she was even breathing. The mad rush, the mad chase. It was like she was in a whole different world. Was she dreaming? If she let go, would she wake up? Those thoughts entered her mind, but she was too afraid to even try them. Her hands were holding onto him with almost a death grip, but he seemed to hardly notice it at all.
Instead, a completely different thought occupied his mind.
"Is this really Earth?" Creatures that were even alien to legend and myth were crawling out of the woodworks, seeming like products straight out of humanity's worst nightmares. No, was it even possible to imagine something as disturbing as this? Even Merem Solomon wouldn't be able to produce madness such as this. Shirou had seen first-hand what that Dead Apostle could do, and it was nowhere near this bad.
The only comparison he could think of that would equal the lethality of what he was seeing would only be Primate Murder, a creature solely designed in its entirety to kill humans with its every waking breath. It was said that to touch Primate Murder with a single finger was to risk complete and absolute death. These creatures weren't up to that level, but they were certainly reaching for it. However, he could not imagine that Gaia would create something like this. The destruction, not to mention the acid, wasn't the style of Gaia as these factors actually harmed the environment. A town emptied of all humans could be attributed to Gaia's Counter Force, but not the destruction of its land.
This was something altogether different.
"Earth? What in the world are you talking about?" Sarah had to practically yell to make herself heard over the chasing animalistic screeches and growls. "You inhale too many spores or something? This is Tarsonis!"
"Is that a country? What continent is that on?" Shirou spiraled to the side, barely avoid the acid sludge. He retaliated with his bow, sending several flyers crashing into the buildings and creatures below.
"Continent? What...? Tarsonis is a planet!"
Shirou blinked in surprise, but only for a moment.
"…then Alaya's grasp has certainly expanded. Or this could be just a parallel world? Zelretch would certainly be interested in an Earth that has a different history," Shirou mused as he landed on the side of a skyscraper and ran straight up the glass that covered the entirety of its side. If he couldn't outrun the swarm on the horizontal plane, he would have to make do with the vertical way. The flyers moved to intercept him, but he had already anticipated their action. He released several pairs of black and white blades, letting the whirling blades swing into the flight paths of the bat-like creatures.
The flying acid spitters pulled back with incredible agility, though some still fell victim to the confusing paths of the blades, their bodies shredded apart while their acid blood fell freely from their broken skin. Of the wounded, a rare few remained in the air while the rest dropped like flies, their fragile bodies unable to hold them afloat. The remaining flyers hung back and let loose green acid from their tails. The sludge easily broke through the glass of the building, bouncing and melting its way through the interior.
Shirou dodged the first few without breaking stride, but the endless barrage was getting closer and closer. Entering through the shattered glass, he ran across one of the top floors of the skyscraper, weaving through the abandoned cubicles that had once been manned by corporate workers. Half a dozen acid sprays trailed after him. The bouncing sludge ricocheted off of the floor, walls, ceiling, and cubicles, coming dangerously close in their random trajectories as he ducked and weaved through the office floor.
Reaching the other side, he broke through the glass window with his shoulder, uncaring of the numerous shards that dug and tore into his skin and clothes. He used his body to shield his passenger from the majority of it, but some still got through. One in particular sliced a cut into Sarah's cheek. As they fell out of the skyscraper, he spun around and formed his bow once again. Instead of a regular arrow, a drill-like sword, Caladbolg II, appeared in his other hand. He pulled the bow string back on the fake spiral sword as the bat creatures flew over the skyscraper, amassing together. The flyers dived as one, attacking in a swarm with mindless fervor. He broke the Noble Phantasm and released the string.
"Close your eyes!" Even as Shirou spun around to face forward, his feet pushing off the side of the building to propel him forward and away, Sarah kept her head turned, her eyes glued on the speeding sword. The moment it stabbed into the worm-like body of the bat creature in the center of the swarm, it cracked open and exploded, engulfing the entire group in a massive ball of ravaging fire.
The mutalisks screeched and flapped around in desperation, even as their bodies burned to cinders. It was reminiscent of a sun, burning and melting away at the edges of the skyscraper.
"What the hell was that!?" It was a question that floated from her lips even before she realized it. It contained the awe, the wonderment, and the fear that she felt inside of herself at the sight.
Shirou didn't bother to answer as he dropped down. It wasn't long before he landed on a building a fair distance from the skyscraper, cushioning his landing with Reinforcement, but even without any enemies in sight—most of them having been attracted to the fire in the sky—he resumed his running. This area bore signs of having been previously ravaged by the beasts, but they had left this area behind after cleansing it as there were none of those monsters in the streets below. Still, he sprinted across the rooftops to gain as much distance as he could. He hadn't survived as long as he did in his previous life by being careless.
~o~
"Commander, come in. This is Kerrigan. Do you read me?" Sarah paced around the floor of the abandoned factory, impatiently tapping her finger against the earbud of her headset. Same as the last half an hour that she had been trying, there was no response. After the twentieth tap, she repeated her message. "Commander, this is Kerrigan. Do you read—"
"We need to leave soon." Sarah swung her elbow behind her, but Shirou easily caught her arm. He had an amused expression on his face. "Did I scare you?"
"Don't do that." Sarah pulled her arm out of his grip with a glare. The man unnerved her. Even though she was considered a veteran and even an elite at her job, this red-coated man felt more like a ghost than anyone that she had ever seen. It was like he could fade away the moment she took her eyes off of him. That notion—real or not—was more than enough to set her on edge.
He chuckled mirthlessly at her reaction.
"What do you mean we have to leave soon?"
"Their territory is increasing. It won't be long before this location is covered in ooze as well." The sight that he saw from the rooftops with his reinforced eyes was disturbing at best. A growing purple layer of mold was slowly stretching outward from the center of the city, overlaying the ground with its strange, alien texture. Organic structures were being grown on top of the mold. Their purpose was unknown, but he couldn't fathom that it would be anything positive. The only thing he had ever seen that came close to this—short of a reality marble—was from a Type, the ultimate being of each planet. What he had seen of Type-Mercury in that South American village was better left unsaid.
"That doesn't give me much…" A faint buzzing emerged from her headset. Sarah turned away from him as she moved to try to get a better signal. It slowly became clearer, and she could just barely make out the words…
"Ke…gan, th…is Jim. Do you…ad me?"
"Jim. Jim! Can you hear me?" Sarah climbed up the stairs to see if it would help the reception. Fortunately, it did.
"I hear ya loud and clear, darlin'. Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, but what happened to my evac, Jim? Everyone is dead, and I barely made it out. What happened up there!?"
"Mengsk," Jim spat out the name distastefully, "pulled the fleet out of orbit."
"What?! Was there an attack?"
"Sorry, darlin', but he had planned on abandoning you here from the start."
"He's the one that saved me! Why would he throw me away to the zerg? He wouldn't. Not after everything I did for him."
"I don't know, darlin', but I'm coming to get you. What's your coordinates?"
"No, I'm too close to the primary hive in New Gettysburg. There are too many mutalisks in the air."
"I'm not leaving you there, Sarah."
"And I'm not telling you to. I want to get out of this alive too, Jim." Sarah ran a gauntlet through her mind in search of a solution. She had memorized the map of New Gettysburg as well as the surrounding areas before the start of the mission. "What about emergency evacuation site B?"
"No can do. The Protoss are throwing down with the zerg something fierce over there."
"The Protoss are still here? Not saying I'm not glad they aren't, but why haven't they glassed the planet yet? It's practically overrun with Zerg."
"Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine."
"What about Site D?"
"Doable, but that's pretty far out. You'd have to trek through an open desert. You'd be lucky if you aren't spotted within the first five ticks."
"What do you suggest then, Jim?"
"Site G should be clear."
"That's on the other side of the city!"
"Where are you at, Sarah?"
"Delta 10, Zeta 4."
"The north side of New Gettysburg? You need to get out of there now! The place is gonna be a hot zone within the hour. Protoss forces are heading towards the city from the north, and I don't think they'll be happy to see you. Not after what you did."
"Jim, I don't need commentary. I need a route."
"On it, darlin'." There was a pause on the line that lasted for a minute before James Raynor returned. "Okay, here's the plan. Head to the west until you hit exactly Delta 7, then head south. Chances are slim, but you can slip right by the hive. It's gonna be dangerous, but it's the best chance ya got."
"Is this really the best you can come up with?"
"Unless you want to try your hand at the open desert, this is all we got."
"Don't tempt me."
"Never crossed my mind, darlin'."
"We're more than likely going to be coming in hot. Prepare a welcome party."
"I'll even cook your favorite dish." Raynor chuckled before his mind caught something. "We?"
"A survivor from New Gettysburg. He saved my life."
"Any friend of yours is a friend of mine. I'll leave a seat free at the table."
"I'm counting on you, Jim. Kerrigan out."
"See you on the flip side. Raynor out."
Sarah breathed out a sigh of relief. That was one burden off her shoulders. Now that she actually had a plan to get out of this place, it seemed like things were finally starting to look up, even if the plan was extremely risky. It was better than staying out here and waiting for death. She walked over to the wall and picked up an assault rifle she had found. It wasn't anything as potent as a marine's rifle, but any normal person would break their arms trying to fire those without an exoskeleton suit.
This assault rifle was mostly made for bodyguards to deal with humans, so it wasn't going to have much effect on the Zerg unless her bullets hit the right spot. She always prided herself on her accuracy but not when she couldn't properly calibrate her weapons. The scope was pretty banged up in the first place, so she had to make do with just eyeing it. If she could just shoot off a couple of rounds, then she would have a much better idea, but it could attract the Zerg so that was out.
"It seems you found a way to safety," Shirou said.
"'We'. The word you're looking for is 'we'," Sarah said. "Unless you want to be stuck here, we should stick together. This world is dead. The only way we can survive is by heading to the evac site. With the infestation in the atmosphere, it's a slim hope, but it's all we have."
A distant rumble brought their eyes to the shattered windows. In the far off distance, a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke could be seen rising from the ground. It was a ghastly sight, but one that was becoming all too common. They were silent as they stared at it, as if they were watching the eruption of a volcano. It took a full minute before the shockwave finally arrived and ran through the factory, shattering what little glass remained on the window panels and shaking the structurally unsound building violently.
"Tactical nukes," Kerrigan said. "A last ditch effort to stop the Zerg, but it won't do much more than slow them down."
Shirou narrowed his eyes. He had seen nuclear weapons used before, especially in the world war, but it was not a sight he could ever get used to. The only blessing was that the weapon used here wasn't on the same scale to the devastation wrought by the nuclear weapons that he had seen in his previous life.
"Were there people in the blast radius?"
"They were probably the ones who hit the switch." Kerrigan walked over to the window as the shaking settled down. "Better to die like that than to be ripped apart and eaten by the Zerg."
"There must be some way to save them." Shirou's lips were grimly set in a frown.
"You're talking as if you don't know about the Zerg." Seeing his blank expression, Sarah asked, "Wait, you really don't know?"
"I've never heard of them before today."
"I know the Confederates had a tight leash on the media, but it couldn't have been that bad. Not for someone like you."
"Then that makes me an exception."
"You're pretty sheltered, aren't you? Well, for a trained killer." Kerrigan turned to look at him. "We better get going before—"
"You will not be going anywhere, Terrans." Was it a voice? It was more like a psychic echo that reverberated across the warehouse. To call it a sound was to label it with a meaningless word. It was more similar to a connection or a bubble in which a sound was imitated but not truly reproduced.
Kerrigan swung her rifle to aim at where it originated from while Shirou waited with folded arms.
Through the open gap that was once the spot where a freight door had been, three tall warriors stepped into the warehouse. Their long, alien faces—lacking mouths and sporting two luminescent eyes—were distinct and strangely textured. Smooth, ritualistic heavy armor adorned their bodies, but it did not impede their harsh yet elegant movements. Sprouting from their bracers were blades of ethereal light, their form complete yet unrefined enough that psionic energy could be seen leaking off the edges.
For however much that he looked at them, Shirou could not grasp their design. They could not be analyzed nor could they be reproduced within himself, because they weren't real weapons in the material sense. They were more like unstable energy condensed into that shape, constantly changing at a moment's notice like water in a crystal container.
"Is she the one?" That echo resonated from one of the alien warriors.
"Yes." The other answered in a similar echo, but it had a distinct flavor to it that set it apart from the previous Protoss.
"Are you sure?"
"There can be no other."
Just as both zealots were about to attack, the one in the lead held up his hand. The other two stopped, but they still held their psi blades at the ready. The zealot in the lead chose this moment to speak.
"En Taro Adun, Spirit. We have no quarrel with a Spirit of Heroism." The leader pointed his four fingered hand at Shirou. "You may leave to attend to your purpose, but your companion must answer for her crimes."
"And if my business involves her?" Shirou casually asked, unfolding his arms. Despite his tone, there was a slight edge to his voice.
"If your words are not false, then she may leave as well. Reluctant we may be, but we have no business hindering a being such as you."
"You are letting her go? This human protected the primary hive! The sacrifices of our brethren were because of her," one of the zealots said.
"And many more will be sacrificed if we do not heed the spirit," the lead zealot said. "Only in times of great peril do they come to prevent a future evil. It is not our place to interfere."
"I agree," the other zealot said. "But only if those words ring with truth. Is your purpose truly with her, Spirit?"
"It is," Shirou solemnly said.
"Then let us depart. Our duties are to the south."
"The Executor will not accept this."
"Executor Tassadar believes in the Terrans. The involvement of the Spirit is more than enough for the High Templar to relent on his order."
Overwhelmed by the words of the other two, the disgruntled zealot could only nod his head in assent, even while dissatisfaction plagued him. The lead zealot pointed his psi blade at Sarah.
"I am allowing you to live for the greater good, but do not think presume that my brethren will be as lenient. Leave this world while you still can."
Moving as one, the team of zealots turned around and swiftly left the warehouse through the gaping hole, their exit as silent as their entrance.
Sarah breathed out a sigh of relief. It wasn't every day that your life flashes before your eyes, but it was becoming a little too commonplace for her. The sooner she got off this rock, the better. However, what had driven them off? She stared at Shirou with wariness and cautiousness.
"What are you?"
"To be asked that kind of question in the first place…" Shirou chuckled without a hint of joy. "What an unfortunate lot I have."
"I'm asking you a question." Sarah couldn't let this go. If she was going to die on this godforsaken planet, then she wanted this curiosity satisfied.
"That," Shirou said, "is something best left for a better time."
"No. I want to know, right now."
"Truly an unfortunate lot," Shirou said ruefully, though he was as calm as ever.
"I'm not leaving until I get answers."
"And I will give them once we're safe," Shirou said condescendingly. "They'll be here soon. The longer we stay here, the harder it'll be to escape."
"Then talk while we move." Sarah motioned for him to go first. "I'm the only one with the evac here, and if you don't start giving me answers, I'll leave your sorry ass behind."
"You need me as much as I need you." Shirou obliged, beginning to move to the exit.
"Maybe, but I'm not going to trust my back to some lying piece of shit," Sarah said as she followed him. "You want me to trust you? Level with me. Why did you save me?"
"Because you summoned me."
"Just because I somehow can't read your mind doesn't mean you can—"
"Shut up and listen. You summoned me. I don't know how you did it, but you brought me to this reality, and you're the only thing keeping me here," Shirou said, stopping by the gaping hole of the warehouse. "We're bonded by a link. Close your eyes and dig deep. You'll feel it."
Sarah gave him a skeptical look, but something in his voice caused her to close her eyes despite how much her rationality rallied against the action. She felt her psionic powers, amplified by her concentration, and continued to search through herself. That was when she found it. The link, the bond, the one-way hose of psionic energy that she was continuously feeding into him. She opened her eyes, bewildered and confused.
"How…?"
"We don't have time for this." Shirou looked outside at the position of the sun before moving through the hole. "The hour draws near. We'll talk about this later."
"How do I know you're not lying?" Sarah followed him outside. The desolate city stretched out before them, but for now, there was—thankfully—no sign of the Zerg here.
"You don't."
"If I find out you're lying…"
"Feel free to shoot me then."
"Don't think I won't."
"Of course."
~o~
In the empty, ruined street, the sound of light footsteps—barely audible above the distant noises of fighting—was the only thing that could be heard. A distortion of air sped past the broken walls and broken rubble. The barely visible blur moved into a dark alley as a wave of psionic energy flushed over its form, revealing a redheaded ponytailed woman in a lightly armored body suit.
Sarah Kerrigan frowned as she checked the meter on her left forearm. Her psionic energy was constantly running through the psi-sensitive suit, such that it was able to give a mostly accurate indication of her current level of energy. Watching the number slowly blink up as her energy regenerated, she knew that it was going slower than usual. That weird link that she had with that unknown man was putting a strain on her body, making her much less efficient.
"It's clear."
From the rooftop, a white-haired man dropped down into the alley, the edges of his red coat fluttering behind him. Landing without a sound in a crouch, he rose up to his full height and took a look around him. It was dank and smelled horrendously of blood and gunpowder.
"You chose a strange place to rest," Shirou said.
"I'm not working my best because of someone here leeching psi energy off me."
Empty suits of bloodstained marine armor sat abandoned against the walls, the glass of their helmets broken into and their grip still on their C-14 rifles. For a moment, Sarah considered taking one of those assault rifles, but that thought was quickly put down; the recoil alone would be enough to break both of her arms.
"Why not take refuge inside the building?"
"Did you forget what I explained to you about them earlier? The Zerg works by entrapment. In an enclosed space, it'd be easy for zerglings to swarm the place," Sarah said. "At least out here, we've a chance to escape."
"It wouldn't impede the hydralisks or mutalisks."
"They won't shoot if there's a chance of friendly fire. It's instinctively built into them. As long as they can't get into a firing line, they won't be a problem." Sarah had found that out from the psionic experiments with the Zerg that she was forced to partake in. Not that she was ever going to tell him about that.
"How much longer?"
"A few more ticks." Sarah checked her psi meter again. It was slow going, making her way across the ruined city in bursts while using her cloak, but it was safer than running out in the open. If they were spotted by one of the Zerg, it wouldn't be long before the entirety of the swarm would descend upon them. That was why they had to make their move carefully.
"We might not have that long." At Sarah's questioning look, Shirou pointed out of the alley and toward the sky.
There was a group of giant floating creatures, slowly drifting by a fair distance above the ruined buildings. Each one had a beetle-like head and bulbous balloon body with two crab-like arms hanging down from it and many drifting tendrils. It was massive, easily eclipsing the other Zerg in all dimensions.
"Overlords." Sarah frowned. This was going to make things more difficult. "There's no use hiding from it with cloak. It can detect through that."
"What about taking it down?"
"And alert the swarm? You may have a death wish, but I don't."
"I can take it out in one shot."
"Doesn't matter. Kill any of the Zerg, and you alert the whole brood." Sarah ran her fingers through her hair. "The problem is those movements…it's like they're searching for something."
"Survivors like us?"
"No offense, but we're about as important to them as a sticker on the wall. It's a waste to search around for stragglers while there's a battle going on. Sooner or later, they'll overrun this planet, and when they do, nothing's going to get out alive. No, they're after something else. We just got to keep out of sight until then, but we can't take too long. The Protoss aren't going to be battling them forever, and Jim's in a bad position."
"What do you suggest?"
"There are sewer tunnels under the city that we can use. Normally, they'd be guarded by sentry turrets, but with the power plants down, those are likely to be offline."
"If we're found, it'll be a death trap," Shirou said.
"It's only a matter of time if we stay up here," Sarah said. "I rather bet on that than take my chances going head to head against the Zerg. Who knows? We might even make it out alive."
~o~
Shirou dropped into the sewer, bypassing the ladder entirely. It was dark with the only light coming from the open manhole, but there were no Zerg in sight. He closed his eyes and strengthened his ears with prana. There was no sound besides the distant ambience of violence.
"It's safe."
Sarah descended the ladder, stepping down rung by rung. After reaching the last one, she hopped off and wrinkled her nose at the smell. She knew it was going to smell bad, but imagining it and experiencing it were two completely different things. She almost wished that she had kept her old helmet, if only to block out the horrendous scent. Taking a look at her companion, she saw that he wasn't affected by it at all, or at least he was hiding his distaste well.
The tunnels were dark, but there were holes in the ceiling—ripped open by the battles that had taken place on the streets above—at various intervals that allowed some light to come through. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing. In the middle of the tunnel was a stream of putrid water, tainted with lines of blood. On both sides along the walls, there was a pathway for people to walk on.
"Let's get going. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can get the hell out of here," Sarah said, forging on ahead. Shirou followed behind her at a more sedated pace.
As they walked through the tunnels, Sarah sporadically tapped the wall. What came back was a metallic echo that sounded a bit hallow. Seeing his questioning look, she began to explain.
"Hidden turrets. You can find them by their discolored panel on the wall. If they were on, they would flip out of the wall and open fire," Sarah said. "It was the death of many rats and more than a few of the shadier civilians. But if you knew the right people, you could get a guide through these tunnels, which would be pretty good if you wanted to get rid of pursuers. Only if they weren't Confederates, though. They have identifiers on them so the turrets wouldn't open fire on them."
"You sound knowledgeable about that."
"I had to stay in the city for a while in the past."
"You're telling quite a bit to someone you don't trust."
"You did save my life," Sarah said. "There was no way I could've survived without you, so I figured I should cut you some slack by giving you a bit of rope. Just don't hang yourself with it."
"How generous." Shirou smirked. "Is there a way to reactivate the turrets? It could help distract the Zerg."
"Short answer: no. Long answer: we'd have to bust into the waste disposal plant and get the back-up generator up and running, but the plant is that way outside the city." Sarah pointed in the direction they had come from.
"So the only choice is to move forward."
"If you want to backtrack past those Protoss, then be my guest."
"Oh? You think you can survive without me?"
"Well, I rather not try my chances," Kerrigan reluctantly admitted. "At least, not with this rifle. It's not going to hold up well against anything bigger than a—"
Shirou clasped a hand over her mouth. He caught her wrist and stepped on her foot, stopping her from kicking him.
"Be silent," he whispered harshly to her. The Counter Guardian looked up at the holes and cracks in the ceiling of the tunnel. Shadows momentarily covered the light from the holes, making it flicker as the sounds of rapid footsteps could be heard. However, one lingered over a crack, letting no sunlight shine in through that fissure. The sound of scraping could be heard for a moment, before it moved on with the rest of its pack.
When the sounds finally became more distant, Sarah pushed him away from her with her free hand. She glared at him.
"You could've just warned me."
"Wait." A cold chill ran down his spine as Shirou summoned his black and white curved swords into his hands. "That wasn't enough footsteps."
The ceiling behind and in front of them broke apart as zerglings fell into the sewer tunnel, having burrowed through both dirt and metal to reach the two. The moment their feet touched the floor, they sprung into action, charging forth like rabid dogs.
"Stay close!" Shirou rushed forward, slashing apart two zerglings by swinging his blades outward. He swung upward, tearing a zergling falling from the ceiling above them in half as Sarah ran past him. Throwing the blades blindly in the direction they had come from, he ran down the sewer tunnel and caught up with her.
Sarah spun around and fired a shot. A loud crack echoed as one of the pursuing zerglings screeched madly just before it crashed to the floor. Dozens of alien cries echoed through the tunnel as its fellow zerglings ran over its corpse, splashing the sewage water as they chased after the fleeing couple with a ravenous hunger.
"We won't be able to outrun them." Sarah fired off another shot, taking another zergling down. "They're too fast."
"Then we'll make our stand here. Trace on." Shirou tossed Kanshou and Bakuya the moment they materialized into his hands. Another pair appeared and he threw them as well. Yet another pair was created. And then, another and another and another and another, until he lost count of how many he had thrown. The spinning swords bouncing off the walls, carving deep grooves in the process. Sparks flew as they ricocheted from wall to wall, their attraction to their opposite blade keeping their momentum up as they sped past each other, creating a corridor of bouncing blades.
There was no room to evade. It was only luck that the randomness—caused by both the ricocheting and its inherent attraction to their paired blade—didn't slay one of the zergling, but for all the rest, they were shredded to pieces. Their body parts were sheared off by the passing swords, eliciting pained cries as they fell into the sewage water, their remaining limbs trying futilely to pull themselves up.
Crack. Sarah lowered her rifle as the last standing zergling toppled over, dead before it hit the ground. She began to run. "Move! They know we're here."
Shirou easily caught up to her and matched her pace.
A slight buzzing in her headset alerted her that a communication was coming in before she even heard the voice.
"Sarah, can you read me?"
Sarah clicked her headset on as she ran. "Little busy here, Jim."
"You're about to get busier," Raynor said. "I'm reading five ultralisks and a sea of zerglings and hydralisks in that region. They even got enough mutalisks and guardians in the air to level an armor column. I don't know whatever the hell you two did, but you gone and pissed 'em right off something fierce."
"Are you serious?" She could feel her heart beating in her ears. "This isn't the time for jokes."
"I wish I was joking, darlin'."
"Delta 7, Zeta 7. We're in the sewer tunnels," Sarah said frantically into her microphone. "Give me a route. Give me something!"
"Calm down, Sarah. I'm gonna get you out. Keep heading south. If you can get to the surface, do so. Alert me when you do. I'll look for ya in the direction the Zerg are heading to," Raynor said. "This is gonna be sticky, but we're going for a hot extraction. I'll drop you a rope on a flyby."
"That's really risky. You might fly me into a building."
"Only chance we got. I'll contact you when I'm en route. Get it the first time, because I don't think we'll get a second chance, darlin'."
"Alright, I'll take your word for it. Make it happen, Jim. Kerrigan out."
"You got it. Stay frosty. Raynor out."
The ceiling broke apart as a zergling dropped down on top of them. Shirou materialized a spear and pinned the creature to an unbroken portion of the ceiling. It screeched in pain and struggled to get free, but it was stuck there.
"We got to get to the surface, my friend can make a flyby pick-up for us," Sarah said. "Problem is that there's an entire brood on the surface above. They even have ultralisks, and they only use those against heavy threats."
"Ultralisks?"
"Giant oversized bugs about the size of a small building with a pair of massive blade arms. They can cleave through tanks just as easily as they can slice through flesh. They're the biggest and strongest that we know of in the Zerg army."
"Wonderful." Shirou let out a sigh. "Keeping you alive is becoming quite the hassle."
"Well, sorry for my life being such a burden to you," Sarah said in a sardonic tone.
"I would save you regardless. Just letting you know how much effort this is going to take," Shirou said. "But I've done stupider things for much less before."
"Can we save this for when we get out of here alive?" Sarah fired off her rifle ahead of her as she ran. The zergling leaped to the side, dodging the shot, but another pull of the trigger ended the creature.
Shirou grabbed her arm and pulled her back as a massive hoof shattered the ceiling, collapsing the tunnel ahead of them. As the enormous leg rose up, he found himself looking at an immense mammoth of a creature staring down at them. This was an ultralisk, he realized with more than a little sense of apprehension. It raised one of its arms, rearing back its incredibly long sickle-like blade with it. He picked up Sarah and leaped back as the tusk-like blade ripped through the walls and tunnel like it was cutting a cucumber. The section collapsed even as it reared back its other blade arm for another strike.
"You've got to be kidding me," Sarah said. "What're we going to do?"
"Stay behind me." Shirou stepped forward, materializing a red spear into his hand. It was designed with vine-like embossing along its shaft, ending in a long, slender spearhead that was as elegant as it was deadly. This was the legendary cursed spear wielded by the Irish hero, Cu Chulainn: Gae Bolg. "How many hearts does it have?"
"You can't possibly be thinking about taking that thing on! We'll find another way."
"There is no other." Behind them, the growls of the distant but approaching Zerg swarm could be heard from down the tunnel. In his other hand, he materialized an enormous bow. The Bow of Hydra, a weapon once used by Heracles. He placed the weapon that had once slain the numerous heads of the hydra onto his back. He would need it for what he was about to do. "How many?"
"Four," Sarah answered. "But you can't…"
Shirou broke into a run, dashing up the rubble of the collapsed tunnel. The ultralisk slashed at him, but he had sped past the impact zone. It swung its other arm to slice him in half, but he leaped high into the air. Prana filled the weapon as he reared back the red spear.
There was only one chance. One moment.
And nine lives.
In that moment, he released the prana contained in the weapon and activated its ability nine times. In that instant, he reversed the law of casualty nine times, straining his own body against the stabilizing reality that objected to his actions. He stabbed his spear forward nine times in the span of a split second. Each heart was pierced twice over, through the tank-like hide and the near-unbreakable ribs. That was because the heart was pierced long before the weapon had even touched the surface of the creature's hide. This was an irrevocable fate, one ordained by the powers of this legendary spear, so the logic of the world reasoned and rationalized. It stated that the weapon must have gone through all obstacles, past each of the impregnable defenses, to achieve that fated end.
Thus, it was made into reality.
The ultralisk roared in defiance and confusion, switching between its destroyed hearts in an effort to keep itself alive from the sudden blood loss. Yet, each time it switched, it only found a mangled organ. With one last wail, it fell heavily down onto the street with a resounding boom, throwing up a cloud of dust.
The rifle fell from her limp fingers as Sarah stared at the sight with disbelief. She didn't even notice that she was picked up and thrown onto his shoulder until they were already flying through the air.
"Stop struggling if you don't want me to drop you." Shirou landed on the corpse of the ultralisk, even as zerglings and hydralisks began climbing the dead mammoth. He leaped off the mammoth's corpse and over the crowd, landing on the side of an apartment building before running up its length. Below him, hydralisks began scaling the building, stabbing their bladed forearms into the wood and pulling themselves up with an agility that would have made rock climbers jealous.
Shirou strafed left and right as he ran, barely evading the pressurized spines shot up after him. He shifted Sarah from his shoulder to his arms, holding her in front of him in a bridal style so that he could shield her from the spines.
Sarah pressed a finger to her headset. "Jim, we need evac now! We're heading to the rooftops."
"Can…re…ETA…ve…icks."
"We're not going to last five minutes, Jim." There was no response. "Jim!"
Sarah felt a jolt on her headset. Pulling it off, she saw that some of the wires had been pierced through, probably from a spine. "Damn it!" She threw it away in frustration.
Shirou flipped over to the top of the rooftop and froze. He had been intending to leap from rooftop to rooftop, but the building ahead of him shuddered violently before it tipped over. The buildings all around them were going following suit. They crashed to the ground floor, crushing numerous Zerg. Looking over the edge, he saw that ultralisks had ripped through the foundations of those surrounding buildings. Guardians, crab-like flyers, in the skies were spewing blobs of acid onto those buildings, weakening them enough for the ultralisks to finish the job. It was already too far to jump to any other structure, but they were continuing their work, breaking down building after building to isolate them.
"It looks like they're trapping us here. They're adapting to my tactics." He set Sarah onto her feet.
"My friend's not going to make it in time."
"I heard you. Five minutes, right?"
"Yeah." Sarah's trigger finger itched for the rifle, but even if she hadn't dropped it, it wouldn't do much. Not against this onslaught.
"Are you tired?"
"Of course I am."
"Sorry," Shirou said, though it was without feeling. "This will make you more exhausted."
"What are you…?" Sarah trailed off as energy began to leak off of the red-coated man.
"I am the bone of my sword." Shirou began his chant as he pulled power from their link. Sarah slipped down to her knees as it somehow became inexplicably harder to breathe. "Steel is my body, and fire is my blood.
"I have created over a thousand blades." Mutalisks and guardians began to amass in the skies above.
"Unknown to Death, nor known to Life." The first of the hydralisks reached the top, pulling itself over with its scythe-like forearms.
"Have withstood pain to create many weapons." The mutalisks began their dive.
"Yet, those hands will never hold anything." The hydralisks surged forward.
"So as I pray," Shirou said calmly, taking one last look at the approaching horde.
"Unlimited Blade Works."
A circle of fire expanded from him, encompassing the entirety of the rooftop in a dome of flames. The hydralisk outside its range climbed up the building and continued to mindlessly dive into the flames as their brethren mutalisks did the same, unheeding of the dangers that it might encounter. All of those who entered the ring of fire were drawn into the reality marble.
In it, Shirou stood on a dusty plain, his long coat billowing in the non-existent wind. There were weapons stabbed into the ground as far as his eyes could see, yet he knew each and every one of them intimately. In the far distance, on the backdrop of the sky, large gears continued to grind like clockwork, echoing the noise through this reality.
This was his reality, the landscape of his mind. Each and every weapon that he had ever seen, he recreated them here. That was the core of his special strength. He could analyze weapons, their structure and their history, from a glance. In here, each and every one of these weapons was perfect, indistinguishable from the original. Some had even been made better. It was when he took them out and brought them into the real world with Projection magecraft that they become less than perfect, a direct downgrade from the original no matter what changes or modifications he had wrought upon the weapon.
This dreary, empty plain was the only place where he could call upon their history and wield them in the style of their greatest user. They were legendary weapons, some whose stories had been lost to the annals of time and the archives of museums, their story never to be remembered and their glories long forgotten, but he remembered them. It was only here, in this forsaken mindscape, that he could bring out their fullest potential. It was here that he had brought them all of his foes, to bear witness to his greatest success and his greatest failing.
"Sit there and don't move. I can't guarantee your safety otherwise." Shirou pulled a gem-encrusted sword out of the ground that had drawings inscribed on its hilt. The moment it was in his hand, his style of movement changed. The way he held the sword shifted as did his entire stance, resembling more of a panther than a human. His walk was light as he stepped forward on the balls of his feet, as if he was ready to pounce.
And he was.
Shirou sprang into action, running in between the blades imbedded into the field to meet the charging hydralisks. Meeting the first, he slashed off its arm, halting its attack, before he stabbed it through its carapace. The slug-like creature erupted into flames as it screeched its final cry. However, he paid it no mind, pulling out a full-length warhammer and smashing the head of the next Zerg, the gravity around it shifting to aid his strike. What came next was a dance that was as chaotic as it was beautiful to watch. He used and discarded weapons as if they were drops in a river rather than the legendary weapons that they were, his fighting style changing immediately to accommodate each and every one of them.
A sword that extends thrice beyond its length. A dagger that drains blood. A lance that propels him forward. A spear that ignores armor. A sickle that freezes. A mace that steals organs. A bladed claw that separates a person into eighteen pieces with a single slash. A bastard sword that inverses the flesh. A staff that steals bones on contact. A ring sword that endlessly follows its target. A pair of katars that allow short range teleportation. A maul that imprints a mark of death. A halberd that pulls in its target from long range. A scythe that displaces time. A flail that rearranges the senses.
It was an endless dance as more and more came from beyond the ring, entering into this world in a never-ending tide. When one died, two more replaced them, stepping over the corpse of their fallen brethren in order to reach him. He slashed, he ripped, he smashed, he crushed, but he never gave in. To do so would be to spit on his ideals, the very same ones that he had only just recovered. That was something he wasn't willing to compromise on.
"Truly, this kind of situation fits my ideal." Shirou chuckled mirthlessly as he slaughtered another hydralisk, ripping it through with a black cleaver. A mutalisk dived, but a sword pulled itself out of the ground and launched itself at the creature. It stabbed the mutalisk in the center, killing it almost instantly. Another of the creatures was slashed in half by a spinning axe. Yet another one was pierced by a spear. Some tried to pull back, but more weapons flew from the ground to give chase, quickly overtaking them.
For someone who believed in the concept of killing some to save many more, to fight off a mindless bug army to save one person was an infinitely better situation to him. He would probably be saving millions more indirectly, for Alaya wouldn't send a Counter Guardian frivolously. Still, even if it had been only for a single person, he still would have taken on the task gladly. Around him, weapons were flying all about, piercing and crushing the mutalisks and hydralisks coming from all directions. The self-controlled weapons were an inefficient use of prana, draining the most but requiring more hits to slay their foes. However, it was necessary to stave off the continuous assault, but he knew he wouldn't be able to last for too long at this rate. He threw the cleaver at an oncoming hydralisk.
"A last stand like this? I can't tell if this is good or bad luck." Shirou pulled out a spear, unmindful of the blood that dripped down his arm and onto the weapon. Numerous wounds covered his body, and there were even spines that were still embedded in him. However, he paid no attention to these. He had suffered through far worse pain than this.
~o~
"What the hell is that?"
From the cockpit of the dropship, James Raynor stood in his marine armor behind the pilot's seat and stared out at the sight ahead of them. There was a dome of fire on top of the only remaining building in the area. Countless hydralisks were scaling that building, climbing up to the top and disappearing into the dome. There was rumbling as the skies around them as well were alight with missile fire and toxic blobs. Raynor could see a mutalisk explode in a spray of blood from a missile in the same breath he saw a wraith crash land into the swarm below.
"Sir, is this the right location?"
"I don't know what psionic trick this is, but that's gotta be her doing. There's no way there would be so many Zerg gathered here otherwise. The rope's fire retardant, right?" Raynor saw the pilot nod in assent. "Then lower the rope into it. We'll do a flyby a few times. That should get their attention."
"But sir, what about the mutalisks?"
"Let the flyboys handle them," Raynor said before he paused. "Actually, forget the rope. Just bring us into that dome."
"But sir—"
"Son, my rangers are dying out there, keeping those Zerg off our backs. We can't afford to waste time worrying about our own safety. Bring us in."
"Yes, sir."
~o~
Sarah weakly got to her feet, nearly stumbling several times in the process. Her breathing was fast and shallow while sweat gathered on her brow. It was getting harder to see clearly, even though she could not take her eyes off the sight in front of her. The white-haired man was practically a blur, the after-image of his coat leaving a red trail. Blood splattered and sprayed as the corpses mounted, yet the onslaught and the retaliation was unceasing.
In the air, all around, countless weapons—beautiful in design and splendor—were stabbing into the opposition. The cries of falling mutalisks and dying hydralisks created a symphony that hurt her ears. Alien and disturbing, the combined sound was like a constant blaring static that made her head ache terribly. Or it could be from her weakened state.
She could feel her psionic energy leaking away, and it wasn't hard to figure out why. It would be so easy, and it was very tempting, to clamp down on the link between them. It called to her, a plea to stop the increasing pain and fatigue she was feeling, as if her body was wasting away, but at the same time, she still held onto her rational thoughts. If she stopped the drain, this psionic mass hallucinatory world that encompassed them would disappear, and that was the only thing keeping them alive from the wrath of the Zerg horde.
Still, as she watched the madness around her, it didn't make sense all the same. How could these illusionary weapons actually harm—much less kill—the Zerg? There were far too many to all be psionic weapons, but the evidence showed otherwise. The plain was littered with blood and alien corpses, a testimony to his power and strength. Valor and courage. Desperation and insanity.
It was getting harder to think. She was even feeling more than a bit faint, not that she would admit it to anyone but herself. Still, she tenaciously held onto her consciousness, biting down on her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. The moment she lost consciousness was the instant that this illusion would fall apart. At that moment, they would die.
And she didn't plan on dying today.
A loud roar of a mechanical engine brought her attention upward to the sky. A dropship ripped through the backdrop of gears, distorting the image for a moment as it flew across the sky. It stopped above them, lowering its bulk down as the ramp began to slide open. On that ramp, Jim Raynor in his black marine armor was holding onto a railing as he held out his hand.
"Sarah!"
She felt herself being picking up a moment before she felt the air rushing past her body. At this point, she was struggling just to get a sense of what was going on.
Shirou landed on the ramp, holding the weakened girl in his arms. He handed her off to James Raynor's waiting arms.
"Is she hurt?"
"She's fine, just exhausted," Shirou said as he looked out the closing ramp. The dropship was starting to lift up as the reality marble began to collapse, the smoky backdrop shattering apart like falling glass.
"Take a rest. You been through a lot, and you're in pretty bad shape. We'll handle the rest."
Raynor turned to a nearby marine.
"Get someone to patch him up, and tell the flyboys that we're done here. Get us back to the Hyperion," Raynor said. "Also, tell Matt to get the medbay ready. We got injured onboard."
"Sir, we've a problem."
"God, I hate that word," Raynor said with resignation. "Alright, lay it on me."
"General Duke has taken control of the Confederacy's Ion Cannon on the orbital platform."
"And what does this mean?"
"The Ion Cannon can't shoot towards the planet, but it can shoot anywhere in space. The Hyperion can't escape until it's taken down."
"Damn it. Do we have any ground forces on there?"
"The Commander is in the process of setting up a base on the orbital platform."
"Alright, let's get onboard the Hyperion for now. Tell the Commander to continue operations on the ground. I'll join him when I can."
~o~ ~o~ ~o~
Author's Note: Alaya is the collective unconsciousness of humanity. I would put it on the same scale as Khala, which is the combined psychic consciousness of the Protoss.
I have not read the Starcraft novels, nor do I ever plan to. This story is based mostly on the games.
I do need beta readers. I would love spelling and grammar corrections, but it's primarily for opinions on the chapters and how to improve them. I'm also really, really worried about OOCness. If you're interested, please send me a message.
This will be a slower effort. I'm glad that I made it to 60k in a month in my last story, but I became eccentric by the end of that. So for this, I'm writing it whenever I feel like it so there won't any set schedule. Thankfully, Vahn volunteered to catch me this time around from the more zany ideas. Also, I want to thank him for his help on beta-ing this chapter.
I don't technically like referring characters by their last name, but some are so well-known by their last names that it's hard to do otherwise. That would be James Raynor. The only other example I can think of is Tatewaki Kuno from Ranma 1/2.
As of 10/11/14, I have made some changes to the chapter. After some discussion with people, I was convinced of the fact that it wasn't necessarily a good idea to have so many questions in the middle of a warzone. To that end, I have removed or shifted around a lot of questions/dialogue directly before and after the Protoss encounter. This is to make it feel more natural and to increase the urgency of the situation, especially when there is no reason for them to delay that long to have such a conversation. Some of the questions and answers will be rehashed for those who read the first version in the later chapters, most probably the next chapter.
As of 10/24/14, Vandenbz had proofread this chapter and now the errors that it had left are gone! Also, some of the wording has been changed around to read smoother. Yay! Big thanks to Vandenbz!