Gate: Thus the Dominion Fought there

Disclaimer: I do not own Starcraft, Gate: Thus the JSDF Fought There, or the characters associated with them. Starcraft is the property of Blizzard while Gate is the property Takumi Yanai

"Talking"

Thoughts

Gate 34

~ Sadera ~

Pina was exceedingly nervous this day.

Throughout the history of the Empire, no sovereign has ever had quite the colorful experience as her with meeting such powerful beings. Each one as capable of flattening her Empire into the ground on a whim. First, it was the emperor of the Terran Dominion. Then it was the hierarch of the Protoss Daelaam. As of right now, she was going to meet the leader of the demons. Zagara, queen of the Zerg Swarm.

As her world grew bigger, she was painfully seeing just how small she was in it.

Of course this meeting did not come out of the blue as she was given notice about the visit. At first, the young empress was terrified at the idea of the demons attacking them again since they had barely survived the first time. But contrary to her belief, the ruler of demons had not come to conquer but to make amends.

". . . . What?" was all a dumbfounded Pina could utter at hearing such a thing.

These Zerg were exactly like the demons described in their world's lore. Even more so that the Terrans and Protoss regarded them in such infamy.

However it was just as it was stated.

The Terrans and Protoss had negotiated on their part in which the demon queen would come alone via the Protoss warp network to say what she had come to say while they in turn would only be present as observers to insure no malicious actions were taken. Once all parties had completed their objective, Zagara would be safely returned to where she came from.

Given some time, the Terrans were kind enough to tell her what she needed to know in how they should address the Zerg. Although it lessened her anxiety, she still felt like a weight was placed on her stomach after the terrifying ordeal they had encountered. But it was some consolation that the Terrans and Protoss representatives would be present with her.

Once the appointed time had arrived, Pina saw that familiar blue light as something was taking shape. Rising from her throne, she would meet this leader with dignity and respect. However once the teleportation had finished, the young empress had to fight the urge to react.

She had already expected it, but her appearance had frightened her. Yet much more then that, she did not restrain her presence in the slightest. When conversing with the Protoss, she only felt discomfort having their thoughts echoing inside her head. But with this demon, it's presence could be felt clinging onto everyone of her thoughts and feelings as if clawing at her very soul. Her face couldn't help but twitch uncontrollably as she was trying to stop her body from shaking.

"My apologies" Zagara slightly bowed. "It is difficult for me to converse on such a level that does not cause discomfort for your kind".

Feeling her presence withdrawing back, Pina quickly corrected herself to maintain her dignity. Giving a slight cough, "so why has the queen of the Zerg decided to grace us with her presence?"

"For two purposes" said Zagara. "The first is to apologize for the damage that was done to this world. I had only recently learned this, but the attack on your world was the doing of one of my subordinates Abathur. He has already faced a terrible punishment for a previous transgression. I will see to it that he suffers more".

Upon showing fault, previous Sedaran rulers would have immediately capitalized on this making all kinds of huge to borderline ridiculous demands. Not only as a form of reparation but also to humiliate the other party as a show of dominance.

If this was the old her, she would have foolishly done exactly that only to incur the wrath of the demon race considering everything she knew about them. But having become more enlightened, she bowed her head and accepted the apology with humility. However as the leader of her people, a simple apology would not be enough to replace everything they had lost.

However then came the next part which even took the representatives by surprise. "And what of the other purpose?" then asked Pina.

As if answering her previous thought, "a gift" said Zagara. "A show of sincerity of not only our wish to make amends but to give back more then what was taken". Opening her claws, there was a strange looking seed.

"What is it?"

"A small sample of an adostra laced with the essence of a Xel'naga".

Upon hearing that, the representatives could only express shock and surprise. Seeing their looks, Pina knew it had to have been something very important. Looking to them to further explain, "It's like a seed from a god. A magical essence in a shape of an orb. You put it in a place you want to flourish and blam instant fertile land". Frankly, that was an over-simplified explanation and more so in terms she could understand without getting scientific. But that was how surprising it was.

In the briefing about the Zerg, the people of iron had given her a clear unedited look at their history. Hence why it came as a surprise to not only her but them as well that the Zerg would make a complete turnabout with who and what they were. No longer a civilization bent on carnage and conquering, but a life giving race seeding or restoring dead worlds allowing it to flourish once again.

As Zagara carefully placed it in Pina's hands, the young empress's eyes could only shine as she stared at this priceless object. "As the Terran had stated, it could be used for that purpose. But also much more then that as it's able to cultivate life any way that you see fit. This seed is only enough to cover the territory of a city. So choose wisely in how to wish to use it". Giving her final thoughts, "live well and prosper, young empress". Though brief, Zagara did not care to linger by stretching this out into something unnecessary. The peace between the three races was still fragile as she did not wish to test it any further. Then looking to the Protoss giving a nod, she was warped away.

Though aware she had left, Pina could only stare at this precious object cupped in her hands. Something so powerful, so beautiful must be used carefully. Of course she would seek council from not only the other two races, but also her own ministers. But staring at this object, an idea had started to form in how she wished to use it.

~ Falmart ~

Officially, this planet fell under the jurisdiction of the Dominion.

But due to a string of events, the Daelaam had a few loose ends they needed to close up to which the Terrans had no qualms in allowing.

However for this particular string, it was in the form of punishment as it stood as a violation to Protoss law.

Along the course of their investigation of this world, they came to learn much about the gate and it's purpose. Apparently, this was a research world in which it was designed to create a giant pool of genetic variation which would ultimately lead to a path of a higher life form. The gate itself would serve as a bait to lure in young and unsuspecting species to cross over out of simple curiosity. Once a certain amount of time had passed, the gate would close not only permanently trapping the travelers but adding it to the overall rich ecology of this world.

But that was only the tip of the ice berg. The gate didn't just reach out across space but universes as well. Such a feat would require an astronomical amount of power. But with a planet embedded with Khaydrian crystals all along it's crust, it apparently was quite possible with it all being focused into the gate. Hence the discovery of species that were not native to this universe in terms of flora or fauna after examining the C.B.R. etched on some of the oldest fossil records found on this world.

Now in the present, the Empire had barely managed to make the gate function as they planned to use it to invade other worlds in a foolish attempt to claim new lands.

Of course Protoss law was clear on this matter. However, the Terrans had already dealt with them in detaining all those responsible. Hence their intervention was now unnecessary as any further action was as the Terrans would put it, 'more salt on the wound'.

But then that left one more thing that needed tying up as to avoid stranding any more species on this planet left alone this universe.

Thus their destination was Bellnahgo. Home to Hardy's main temple who was supposedly the goddess of the underworld.

Arriving by warp prism, the natives were awestruck upon witnessing a ship to the emissary of the gods. By their limited understanding, what else could it be? A vessel crafted with unique crystals and polished metal lined with gold trimmings. Not even master dwarf blacksmiths who everyone knew to be the best in craftsmanship could possibly create something like this.

Appearing at first like blue ghostly shades, they soon fully materialized as the Protoss were mostly shadow guards with a few high templar and Purifier phasesmiths.

"Let us proceed" said Izin. "Let us not trouble the natives any more then we have too".

Bellnahgo was quite the sight having developed into a vast city over the years. The reason for this was simple as it's patron deity was held in such high regards among all the inhabitants of this world regardless of those they choose to worship. For mortals would generally make a pilgrimage here to not only pay respect to the goddess but also to make well wishes for loved ones that had departed.

"Halt!" shouted one of the guards as he and others barred their path. "We can not allow you to go past this point! Beyond here is the inner sanctum!"

Now generally to reach the inner sanctum of the temple one would need a special invitation to enter.

Scanning over these humans, Izin felt their fear towards them. Stories of the Protoss had already reached this far after their little skirmish with the Empire. Many had mistakenly believed they were in service to Emroy or Zufmuut. Not that he can blame them as their advanced technology would very well look like magic to them. Frankly, they didn't care to explain this every time they made this mistake. However, these humans knew just as well as them that if they had to cross blades, they were going to die. Valiantly, but quite foolishly.

At least these humans were a lot wiser then those from the Empire who kept running towards their certain death.

Yet as the Protoss had noted before, they did not care to shed blood if they did not need too.

Izin then stretched out his hand as blue light shined from it making the guards tense at what he was doing. But before long, a scroll had materialized. "There is no trouble here. As you can see, we have permission to enter".

Taking the scroll from his hand, the guard carefully studied it as he then quickly bowed. "My apologies" as he waved for the others to stand down and move aside. "Please be on your way".

Nodding in response, the Protoss proceeded as acolytes would act as their guide.

Now of course the invitation didn't actually belong to them. It was originally for the Dominion as a form of gratitude for dealing with the ancient fire dragon which ironically they were the ones responsible for.

Arriving to the inner sanctum, what was going to happen next was probably going to get messy. Thus the Protoss casted some psi suggestions having all the acolytes leave the room just leaving them and the void based entity.

Within the center of the room, there was a mysterious tower of light. Descending from it, a woman appeared who Terrans would remark as beautiful. Not that they would understand such things.

But before this meeting, they took certain steps for their mission. After the incident with Amon, all current generation of their species no longer had nerve cords. But it did not guarantee that they could not get possessed. Thus they took steps to make certain something like that could never happen again. Hence they developed a closed circuit psi link device that acted like a second brain. It allowed telepathic communication but nothing else. Aside from giving them resistance to possession, it also served to block out the possibility of their minds being read which was important for what was about to happen.

The Purifiers didn't actually need it as they were completely mechanical.

The Nerazim were quick to adapt as their culture had many long years to attune themselves to such things.

But the Khalai were still struggling as it had been a long and painful journey as many still felt lost without the guidance of the Khala. However Artanis was working with several phasesmiths to rectify this problem.

As this goddess appeared, she scanned the room as she gave them all a curious look.

"Hardy I presume" said Izin.

"Yes, but who might you be?" Hardy asked looking now visibly confused as she sat in the air rubbing her chin. "I was rather certain it was humans who were on the other side of the gate".

"They are. The world on the other side belongs to the Terrans. We are the Protoss of the Daelaam. We did not use the gate as we had arrived here from a far off world by ship".

"Ship?" as Hardy seemed more puzzled. "Is such a thing possible?"

Izin gave a simple nod. "For a self-proclaimed goddess, it seems there is much you do not know" which caused Hardy to look visibly irritated. "However I can use some of your wisdom as I have questions I'm certain only you can answer".

Narrowing her eyes, she scoffed. "Very well" as she gave them a condescending look. "I can be charitable. Ask your questions then".

"We have performed many deep scans of this world as we have learned much. Not only of the world itself, but those who live here. The natives alone do not possess the technical knowledge to operate the gate. Thus I assume you were the one who opened it for them?"

Hardy could only halfheartedly shrug at this. "I did. Yet those stupid mortals forcefully kept the gate open longer then it should've been".

"Why did you help them?"

"Bored" Hardy answered indifferently. "I just wanted something new for my collection. However, the Empire has been growing rather arrogant creating a mess within the garden. Thus I figured I could hit two birds with a single stone".

"So you knew the Terrans were stronger then them?"

"Of course. Though I do admit I underestimated just how strong they were. I honestly did not believe they were strong enough to beat an ancient fire dragon" as she gave a thoughtful look about her miscalculation. "But as amusing as they are, they are certainly causing a lot ripples in this world which is becoming problematic".

Izin didn't really need to ask why as he knew what the problem was. Hardy and perhaps the other gods purposely kept this world's science and technology limited as not to lose the dependency of their followers. Whether they derived pleasure or purpose from it, it didn't matter to him. But then it led to another question. Pointless in hindsight, but he had to ask anyways. "You control the gate do you not? Why have you not shut it down?"

Hardy's face then contorted reflecting her displeasure. "It's because of 'her'! Everything has been going wrong ever since she came here!"

". . . . Her?" asked Izin curiously.

"It's not my fault!" as Hardy shook her head violently. "But the others blame me now! How was I supposed to know about her?! This was supposed to be easy! Yet things just kept getting worse no matter what I do! Now we can't do anything about it as she's too strong for us!"

Listening carefully, pieces of the puzzle had started to come together as Izin's eyes slightly widened as he understood what she was talking about. "Kerrigan . . . ." Though she was still a sour point for his kind, it appeared they and the Terrans owed her some more gratitude. If these void based entities interfered, it would have made the situation more troublesome to deal with. But if she was actively restraining these so called gods then it was making their lives a lot easier in the long run. Izin also understood why Kerrigan had not interfered any further as she wanted to respect the free will of this lower plain to make their own decisions whether the results were good or bad.

Still ranting through her tantrum, Hardy's mood had completely dropped as she stared at this lowly life form before her. "Leave. I care not to talk any further with you".

Feeling the pressure of her presence, the shadow guard simply shook his head. "I'm afraid I cannot do that".

"Excuse me?! Do you dare defy a goddess?!"

"Irrelevant. Though I must admit something of my own" as Izin stared back at her. "We came here under false pretenses. Though your wisdom has enlightened us on a few answers we have yet to learn, the truth is we came here for justice". Izin then projected a hologram of an official documentation. "By order of the Daelaam, Hardy of Falmart, you have been found guilty by law of the Dae'Uhl. You are to return with us to face judgment by the council".

Not even the slightest bit amused, "and what means do you have to enforce such a ridiculous command? Do you forget? You speak to a goddess!" Though she may not have any power to directly affect the physical world they didn't have the power to stop her either. Yet as she tried to leave, she found that she couldn't.

The plan had gone off flawlessly. Izin's purpose was to distract the entity while the others set up their equipment tuning it's frequency to her carrier wave. Seeing Hardy confused, "allow me to explain. Sometime ago we had encountered a piece of Xel'naga technology known as the keystone. It's exact purpose varied yet nonetheless extraordinary. It was quite unique as it was able to channel and redistribute energy, matter, information, and consciousness as these concepts were the same to it. Thus it was instrumental in the salvation of our species as it allowed us to banish the fallen one back to the void. However all was not yet well as another had taken it's place. Hence we had worked tirelessly and closely with the Terrans pooling our knowledge and resources if the day ever came that she were to turn on us".

Hardy could barely hear him anymore as her presence was starting to thin as she felt herself being sucked away.

Revealing the device, it looked quite similar to the keystone but with a more Protoss design to it. "Feel honored" said Izin. "We built this cage for something bigger and far more powerful then you" as the underworld goddess was forcibly converted into wisps of energy as she was being pulled into the device. "You should have stayed your hand. However you have grown arrogant and drunk on power. Hopefully if the council is merciful you will have learned humility in a century or two".

As Hardy tried to claw her way out, she was powerless before the advanced technology of the Protoss. Crying out curses as she fought tooth and nail to escape, it was too late for regrets. Fully absorbed into the device, the inner sanctum was quiet now.

"It is done" as Izin picked up the keystone. "We have no further business here".

~ Augustgrad ~

Sitting at his desk, the admiral of the Terran Dominion could only sigh as the situation had just gotten complicated again.

He had just received a report as something horrible was discovered which once again threatened their world if not handled quickly.

Carefully needing to think about his next move, he replayed the report as recorded by the agent who had discovered it.

After the events of the invasion of Sadera, Dominion forces were quite busy with clean up and containment. Not only to insure no one was infected but also to make sure no Zerg were alive to start this mess all over again. Hence they made sure to completely sterilize the area with fire. With ravens in the air, they managed to locate any Zerg bio signs that needed extermination.

But that's when they discovered something horrible.

Noticing it on their scans, a Zerg bio sign was on the move. Thus a platoon was quickly sent over to contain it only to find no sign of it. However it didn't take them long to understand the reason as they spotted a suspicious demi-human with a jar. Although ordered to stop, the creature immediately tried to make a run for it.

Loading up a taser round, they shot him causing him to drop the jar smashing it to the ground revealing the Zerg larva inside. Quickly killing the worm, a terrible premonition had come over them.

A few of their ravens were damaged after the Zerg attack thus why they had to scan the city grid by grid hence they did not have the whole picture.

Needing to be thorough, a ghost agent was immediately called over to perform a telepathic interrogation. Upon initial scans, they learned he was a Haryo agent who was trying to sneak a Zerg specimen out in an attempt to be used as a weapon.

Understanding the gravity of his intentions, they didn't have time for nice and easy. To Matt who was watching the playback, all he saw was the enemy agent shuttering and squirming as their eyes were almost rolling back. But in actuality the ghost agent was tearing apart his mind caring very little for what damage he was doing to his psyche. But after what seemed like seconds, the agent grabbed the Haryo creature by his shirt in a fit of anger and frustration. "What have you done?" as he shook him. "What have you done?!"

However the creature could no longer answer back as he was now completely brain dead. Dropping him he was put out of his misery with a single round to the head.

But from that interrogation, things could quickly turn from bad to worse.

Dominion troops quickly mobilized to either subdue or neutralize any Haryo agents left in Sadera. However the damage was done. After quick mind breaking interrogations, they learned that three Zerg larvae were successfully smuggled out of city in which there destinations could be anywhere on the continent.

The Haryo had set up many hideouts in Falmart.

Yet what angered Matt the most was that these fools had no idea what they were doing. What they were about to unleash on this world. If allowed to grow, a single Zerg could wipe out an entire city in a day. If it goes completely unchallenged, the entire planet would fall to them easily.

Understanding the weight of the problem, Matt needed to carefully consider how to deal with the situation. But frankly he only had one option as this needed to be done as quickly and quietly as possible. As much as he wanted to mobilize the full power of the military there was a very high chance they would end up releasing the Zerg in desperation which the damage was unacceptably high if they could not contain it in time. Not to mention the bureaucracy involved in committing more military activity on this planet that wasn't exactly an official Dominion world.

Asking the Protoss for help would also fall under the same problem.

He certainly didn't want to ask Zagara for it's own set of problems that could occur.

After carefully considering his options, there was no time to put together his own quick response fire team. They needed to be highly skilled, able to operate autonomously, stay objectively focused, keep casualties to an absolute minimum, hit the enemy fast before they knew what was coming, and if possible discretion was very preferable.

As much as he didn't want too, this was a necessary call. Dialing up the number, "Mira, this is Matt. Do you read me?"

"Why yes darling" as the pink haired mercenary gave a charming smile. "Do you have a target for us yet?"

Nodding reluctantly, "some Zerg samples have gotten loose on the continent. I need them destroyed. The Dominion can't move fast enough to contain this". Giving out a heavy sigh, "I will provide intel as it comes in. Give them the green light. Send in the Heaven's Devils".

To be continued . . . .

Author's notes: Hope this chapter was OK and also got a new job. Anyways onto some commentary.

Special thanks to MadClawDragon in helping design this chapter.

Pina had already met the leaders of the other two super powers of the Koprulu sector. So I figured might as well throw in a meeting with Zagara. But as noted in this chapter, the adostra are as canonically described. More so to my own surprise that Zagara had repurposed the Zerg to be a life giving race not only ending the conflict with the other two races but also to honor Kerrigan. Also as noted, Abathur was displeased with these changes as he tried to weaponize the adostra. But fortunately he was thwarted in the end by the three races before things could get out of hand.

I used Stargate multiverse episodes to explain the massive power requirements to bridge universes. Check out Stargate Atlantis season 3 episode 8 (Mckay & Mrs. Miller). I found it entertaining.

The Khalai faction is still having difficulty with the transition as they had become over reliant on the hive minded system. It even got pretty bad as some of the Khalai Protoss tried to go to some extreme measures to regain that connection. Even Artanis is troubled by it. But as noted in this chapter, he and the phasesmiths are trying to find a working solution for this suffering.

For beings calling themselves gods, they are not that impressive as they can't really do much. Aside from give out blessings or appoint apostles, that's about it. They are not as omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent as they think they are. This was clearly noted by Hardy with how little she knew about the JSDF and how much their technology would affect their world. As noted, they are at best considered a higher life form. But completely fall short if not completely arrogant to call themselves gods in comparison to a Xel'naga.

Considering what happened with Amon I'm pretty sure the Protoss would develop some technology to counteract possession. It just seemed like a good idea.

Wanting to avoid another possible Amon if Kerrigan ever turned on them it just seemed prudent for them to recreate the keystone as a cage to contain void based entities. It would just be outright foolish to take the current situation on good faith without having some contingency in place if things go bad as they don't have any real way to stop her short of destroying her tethers in the lower plain and going to the void universe to fight her there. We all saw how that battle with Amon went as it took everything they had to put him down.

I mentioned the Heaven's Devils a few chapters back. Now is there time to shine in smoking out hidden Haryo cells. It also used to be the mercenary group that Jim Raynor was in and was quite famous during the guild wars as they were regarded as heroes. I'll be using the team that Tychus leads in the coop missions. But not yet sure about their team dynamics let alone who their leader should be. Also will edit their roster a bit.

If there are any questions or concerns feel free to ask as I'll try to answer them.

So thank you for reading as I further extend my gratitude if you can review as well.