The battle waged for so long that Alex completely lost any sense of time. He failed to notice even if the sun was still up. All he knew was the bloody, savage dance in which he was engaged. Protoss reinforcements had arrived what must have been several hours before. Groups of zealots eradicated Zerg beasts by the dozens, and still the swarms came on. Dragoons skittered about and reavers meandered through the devastation they themselves created as scouts flew overhead, blasting away at the horrific mutalisks and guardians with their photon blasters.

Carriers released wave after wave of interceptors to harass the enemy while the Zerg menace countered with suicidal scourges. The small, living bombs charged the large Protoss ships, managing to break through their shields, and effectively knocking several out of the fight. To Alex's surprise, a group of High Templars fell to a pack of extremely determined ultralisks. The massive monstrosities charged, tusks flashing, and tore the veterans to pieces.

Alex ducked as a hydralisk nearly took his head off. Refocusing his attention at the task at hand, he managed to take control of the minds of a number of zerglings, ordering them to attack their brethren. The dog-sized creatures were obliterated quickly, but not before they managed to do a fair amount of damage to the nearby enemy ranks. Alex couldn't help but wonder if any of them were going to survive the battle. It seemed increasingly less likely. Even if they did, there was still that strange rift...

He looked over once again to where the shimmering portal had appeared. He was surprised to see he had actually been drawn a fair distance away from it over the course of the fight, but it was still plainly there. He couldn't help wondering where it had come from. He did know hat several warriors from both sides had accidentally been thrown into it, and none had returned. What is it? His curiosity alone managed to spur on his will to survive. He turned back to the battle once again, and completely let go, disintegrating masses of Zerg fighters with his powerful psionic blasts.

* * *

On the screen in the Montauk, Slavik watched as his best techs were slaughtered by...what were those things? It took him a moment to get over the shock, but finally his military training kicked in. Taking communications controls, he keyed in a general alert to all Nod forces.

"Any and all available units make way to our main North American base; it is under attack by unknown forces. Get there any way you can, I don't care if we have to Chronoshift an entire base! That facility must not fall!" Realistically, he knew it could take hours for even a single unit to reach the base, and by that time it would be far too late. But why hadn't the Chronosphere shut down as it normally would? The device drained far too much power to remain active for even as long as a few minutes. What could have been keeping it going? He ordered his lieutenant to bring the Montauk back to the base as quickly as possible. Within moments, the burrowing vehicle shot away from Hammerfest with surprising speed.

When Slavik finally got back to the base, he had to pause for a moment because he was not sure if it was the same place. Aside from the fierce battle waging, the base itself had...changed somehow. It looked like the attackers had taken over and integrated some sort of organic technology into the already existing structures. More variations of the beasts than Slavik had allowed himself to imagine ran amok throughout the base, mercilessly attacking all of his forces. Several smallish creatures seemed to be collecting tiberium, much like Nod's own harvesters would. It was obvious then that this was not simply some alien zoo, but actually a structured, organized army. And Slavik knew something he would not have dared admit before the fiasco with Cabal.

...there's no way we can win this...

A lone soldier-a chameleon spy-approached Slavik hurriedly. "Sir, we've found something unusual."

Slavik glared at him with mild disbelief. "What is it?"

"The rift opened by the Chronosphere is still completely intact. During the fighting some of our units slipped through it. One soldier returned to report that there is a similar battle going on at the other side. It seems this new enemy is fighting another unknown species...and at least one unidentified human."

"A human?"

"Yes, sir."

"Assemble a team. We will assist those others as we can, and attempt to make contact. Prepare our secondary missile silos as well. They may be our only chance to defeat these things. I'll contact Hammerfest and have them charge the Ion Cannon."

"Sir!" With that, the spy was off.

About an hour later, Slavik found himself leading a contingent of Black Hand agents into the heart of what had once been their own primary base. He could hardly believe what had happened. The group almost constantly ran across groups of the bizarre alien creatures, or mutated versions of their own troops. What are they? What kind of leader do they have? How are they able to do all of this in so short a time? He put his questions on hold as they were thrown into another firefight. Within the lower levels of the Tech Center, they ran into more of the serpent-like things that had first come through. Their deadly projectile spines easily pierced several soldiers' armor before the rest managed to take them down. The beasts fell shrieking into piles of ichor-spraying, fractured carapaces.

Signaling silently, Slavik ordered the team to split into two smaller groups. His team headed deeper into the facility while the others would provide distractions. Hopefully they would draw the main forces away from the Chronosphere. Unfortunately, he knew that was not likely to be the case. Finally, after quite some time, and the loss of a large percentage of his team, Slavik once again found himself staring at the massive Chronosphere. Next to it, the glowing, wavy portal that had open was as large as ever, if not larger. A decidedly large rumbling caught Slavik by surprise, but not nearly as much as the massive, tusked, tank-like creature that burst through one of the walls, smashing consoles and other devices. But the rift stayed open. The beast was followed by a small group of devil's tongue flame tanks, spewing fire in short streams.

Slavik and his men opened fire, and after a sustained effort, the monster fell. With a slight boost in confidence from the addition of the tanks, Slavik ordered all of his team into the rift. In the name of Kane.

* * *

Just when Alex thought things couldn't possibly get any weirder, something actually came out of the rift. Several odd-looking, flame-spewing tanks emerged, followed by a number of what could only have been armored humans. Humans? Where does that thing lead? More confused than ever, Alex slaughtered his way through yet another wave of Zerg, past the dwindling Protoss forces towards the newcomers. Two seemed ready to shoot him immediately, but were halted by a command from who must have been the leader.

"Who are you?" Alex shouted over the chaos.

"My name is Anton Slavik," the leader called back, "Leader of the Brotherhood of Nod! Where are we?"

"You're on a planet called Umoja. Unfortunately, we're under attack by an evil race called the Zerg," he ducked a mutalisk's attack and fried the thing with a psi-wave. "The grayish ones are called Protoss. They're good guys."

"Those Zerg destroyed my primary base back on Earth."

"Earth?! Did you just say you're from Earth?" disbelief flooded his voice. Slavik nodded affirmative as he blasted a few zerglings.

Before either could continue, a new cry rang up from the south. The Zerg swarms started to retreat, and then turned on each other. Alex turned to Arathes, "What's going on?"

"The Cerebrate must have been killed! The Zerg are no longer under its control!" Then a shadow of resentment fell across the alien's mind. "It's the Dark Templar. They've come."

Alex had heard about the Protoss outcasts. Yet he felt no malice or negative feeling of any sort from those nearby; only a need to help Aiur, and a desire for lost unity. The out-of-control waves of Zerg were rapidly approaching.

"Quickly, into the rift!" Slavik shouted to his men. Knowing it was their best chance, Alex and Arathes followed.