Sanctity of Darkness
Chapter 1
By: Dark-Elk
The Scourge was following me, faster than I had previously thought possible, banking at a faster rate than anything organic should have been able to manage. It would be over in a matter of seconds, culminating in the Scourge ramming into my Scout and detonating its body, destroying us both. There was little I could do, but I did what I was able to.
I continued to bank, and then doubled back. The Scourge had not expected this, and flew past me. Although it could turn quickly, it had slower reaction times, and had much difficulty stopping. I used the lead I had gained to do what I could. I messaged the captain of the Tassadar, and quickly explained my situation. Quicker than the eye could track, 3 previously inactive Interceptors launched from the hanger bays, banked and fired directly at the Scourge. Although the first shot missed, the second and third hit the Scourge directly in the side and blew off the right wing. The Scourge gave up all pretense of control and detonated immediately. The plasma splashed against the shields of one of the Interceptors, but nothing appeared to be damaged.
I messaged the captain back, thanking him and acknowledging my debt to him. It is not often a Protoss Dark Templar allows himself to become indebted, and even much less often to a Protoss who was not a Dark Templar.
A debt to a Protoss is near sacred, and you can only become indebted after another Protoss has saved your life. Most Protoss do not claim debts, if only for the simple reason that a debt means that you will sacrifice your life without question for the person you are indebted to. My belief is that if someone has saved your life, you are now living on borrowed time given to you by that individual. It is only just that you may be asked to sacrifice the extra time to serve that individual.
My communication gear trilled softly, signaling the captain's order to retreat. Shaking off the hormonal rush that any Protoss gets when in a desperate situation, I guided my craft carefully into the docking bay of the Tassadar. The docking bay was stationed at the aft of the starship, directly beneath the massive engines. The positioning was reminiscent of a Protoss Carrier, but not exactly similar. The Aiur-class, the type of starship the Tassadar is, is a vastly powerful new ship similarly shaped to a Carrier, but holds powerful weapons, faster engines, and is far larger. The ship had been a coalition design between Khalai Templar, Dark Templar, and our renegade Terran allies. As it was designed by both Terrans and Protoss, the controls were usable by either race. The Aiur-class is able to be fully cloaked, and possesses variants of both the basic Terran lasers and the Yamato gun. The lasers had been supercharged with a new variant of Vespene gas found deep within my adopted home world, Shakuras, making them more effective against biological units such as the Zerg and their structures. The awesome Yamato gun had been radically redesigned, and instead of a small nuclear explosion focused by magnetic fields, it featured a matter/anti-matter combustion, focused by advanced Protoss shielding technology. Protoss scientists were confident that it could crack the surface of an average sized planet, or entirely demolish a moon, but how they received this data I am unsure. It had never been tested as far as I was able to discern, as our leaders viewed it as a weapon without honor, killing your opponent without giving them a fighting chance, similar to the beliefs of Tassadar, the greatest Protoss hero who ever lived.
Only five Aiur-class starships had been built so far due to their massive resource requirements. The ships construction alone required the complete strip mining of a moderately rich moon just for minerals alone. The Vespene gas quota had been only barely made on each ship, and had essentially drained one of the rear-guard bases, Triaxis Prime, current base of operations for the Tassadar. Of the five, three were in the hands of offensive Protoss fleets. Another was stationed around Shakuras, a member of the defensive fleet that guarded the new Protoss homeworld continuously. The last was in the hands of our renegade Terran allies, the rather large force that had been formed from the foundations of the rebel group "Raynor's Raiders", led by the most valiant James Raynor, killed years ago.
As I shut down my engines, I looked at my display, examining any damage I had taken. One of my shield generators had been knocked out of line, and two of my engines had serious fractures that spanned the entire outer casing. One of the gun pods had been completely destroyed, along with the munitions carried within. How the missiles had not detonated and shredded my fighter would remain a mystery to be solved another day. I summoned the technicians and engineers to begin work on it.
There are three distinct designs of Protoss fighters. The first design, the Scout, has been a Protoss fighter since the dawn of Protoss space flight. The Corsair, designed by the Dark Templar and first used during combat in the time known as the Brood War is the second, and has the distinction of being an anti-air attack craft only. The final fighter, the Scimitar, is the newest and most advanced fighter the Protoss fleets possess. It features an advanced meshing of Terran cloak technology and Dark Templar cloaking technology to reduce power requirements by using the energy of the pilot's subconscious mind. The greatest attribute of the fighter is that the weapon loads can be customized quickly, allowing different weapons to be attached to the chassis as missions dictate.
I have no need of such an advanced fighter, as so few exist currently. I continue to use my Scout, as mine is a heavy Scout, with upgraded weapons, armor, speed, and sight range. It is calibrated primarily for upper atmosphere and the darkness of space where I can use the speed to my advantage. My Scout is further modified with a Photon-type Sphere Launcher, similar to what a Photon Cannon uses, but the sphere is faster, and explodes on impact and irradiates the surrounding area. The Zerg, possessing an entirely organic army, are at a supreme disadvantage to it. Only Scourges, the foul Zerg creations that have cost millions of Protoss and Terran lives pose a serious threat to me and my fighter. Our mission today was supposed to be a simple mission, consisting of an attack on a newly grown Hive on the surface of the moon we are currently speeding away from. Resistance should have been minimal at best, but we did not know that the planet the moon orbits had already been heavily fortified into a war factory planet, churning out hundreds of Mutalisks and Devourers a day. We also were unaware the most foul creature the galaxy has ever known, Kirona, the Queen of Blades, had taken up residence on the moon.
Kirona, the Queen of Blades, is the spawn of the former Queen, Kerrigan. Kerrigan finally died about 28 years ago after being killed a number of times previous. Something went wrong then, and Kerrigan died finally, and was not reborn into a new body. The Zerg never let go of any genetic material they lay their claws upon, and Kerrigan was no different. The clone Kirona was slowly grown, and had psychic imprinting done to it by the surviving Cerebrates, similar to what Kerrigan went through at the hands of the Overmind before fully joining the Zerg Swarm. The Cerebrates, however, were becoming increasingly disparate with the coalition Kerrigan had formed, and each tried to twist Kirona's mind to their designs. The horrific result is that Kirona is, quite simply put, insane.
Kirona is also far stronger psionically than even Kerrigan was at her zenith. She possesses the ability to launch Psionic Storms larger than even large groups of our greatest High Templar have managed. She also can break down the fabric of space-time and create a pocket of energy similar to an Arbiter's Stasis Field, allowing her forces to deal with them easily. Finally, she is able to twist minds of life forms to her will, enslaving them to the will of her Swarm, and it is truly and solely her Swarm now. There are no more known Cerebrates, save one, guarding their current base on the moon. Kirona slew them all after learning of their treachery during her infancy. The survivor is Griez, the only Cerebrate as insane as Kirona. He also has been empowered with abilities far above the original Cerebrate capabilities, being able to drain nearby enemies of psionic power to better control his armies.
The Zerg, however, are having some difficulties. For it appears that they are fighting a three front war, between the Terran Dominion, the Protoss and our Terran rebel allies, and the newest entrants into the galactic struggle, the Hybrids. Out of all the things in the universe I know, I hate and fear nothing more than the Hybrids. Created by what appears to be enemies of the ancient Xel'Naga using DNA from Terran, Protoss, and Zerg, they have created a race that has never lost in any battle yet. They are practically impervious to damage in every way, as all of their units not only regenerate their own tissues; they also have the gift of vast psionic abilities. Every unit, from their lowly workers to their strongest siege engines can manipulate minds, create Psionic Storms, and other abilities so arcane no Protoss scholar has yet to determine how they are even theoretically possible. For although they control many different powerful attacks, they possess an ability far stronger, the ability to teleport. Unless you have faced a Hybrid warrior in battle, you can never truly understand how fearsome this power makes them. Terrans find Dark Templar such as myself rather eerie, primarily due to our cloak ability which enables us to get into poorly defended bases, but the Hybrids just teleport directly into the base and slaughter everything that moves before moving on to another engagement instantly. An Observer once watched a single group of around a dozen basic Hybrids attack and utterly decimate eleven Terran bases in under an hour, before falling prey to a nuclear missile detonation in the twelfth. Minutes later, another group teleported in and finished all survivors. Their only weakness appears to be a lack of sufficient genetic material. So after every battle, a group of their Reapers goes to all the bodies, not caring which race, gender, or age, and extract their genetic material, and then destroy the bodies.
We are unsure as to how they were created, although the heroic Dark Templar Zeratul once told the New Conclave that he encountered a being on a distant planet designing these abominations. Abominations.I cannot even say that word without knowing the falsehood concealed in it. Although I fear the Hybrids, I do have deep respect for their prowess in battle. It appears that while the Xel'Naga may have created their "perfect race" in the Zerg, their enemies have created a far greater race bent on annihilating all life in the universe. Our alliance has only met with the Hybrids on a field of battle once, and all our forces save one were annihilated or captured. The lone survivor was Zeratul again. He seems to have great skill in evading death at the hands of the Hybrids. I have great pride in Zeratul, for we are indirectly related by blood. He is the current commander of Triaxis Prime and leader of all Protoss military forces in the Koprulu sector.
I tried to shake off these oppressive thoughts and began heading towards my quarters. Although not extravagant in size, they are larger then they would have been on a standard Carrier. I have a room with enough space for a sleeping pallet, a small relaxation area, a sanitation area, and a food preparation area, although like most Protoss, I am horrible at concocting anything edible. Typically, most Protoss eat in the lounges, according to their position. I eat in the pilot lounge three decks below my quarters. All food in the lounges is prepared by robotic servants, which were given to us by the Terran commander who is allied with us. Not many Protoss have met him, although I saw him in an operation briefing once. He was troubled by deep thoughts of depression for a lost comrade, and his emotional state was. . .unstable at best, and he rather reminded me of a famous Terran, although I wasn't able to determine which one. I have great respect for our Terran allies. While their ships are slightly inferior, they have more native ability in piloting, although I would rather be killed than admit that verbally.
I thought-messaged my quarters and gave it my estimated arrival time. Quarters on Carrier and Aiur-class starships have links to their occupant, allowing them to have a "power down" and a "power up" mode to decrease power usage during a battle. There is no sense heating an unoccupied quarter during battle when the power could be better used powering shields, for if the battle is lost the temperature of the quarters no longer matters.
I passed my wing-mate in the hallway. We nodded at each other and continued on our way. I am sure he caught the anger I let show on my face. Anger on Terran faces is easier to see than Protoss, but most Protoss, unless blind, can tell from the general manner of a Protoss warrior when they are agitated. Wingmen are a relatively new concept implemented after seeing survival rates increase drastically in Terran forces. Not many Protoss are proficient at guarding a partner, like mine. He should have been taking care of the Scourge, and instead I now own a life debt to the captain.
Chapter 1
By: Dark-Elk
The Scourge was following me, faster than I had previously thought possible, banking at a faster rate than anything organic should have been able to manage. It would be over in a matter of seconds, culminating in the Scourge ramming into my Scout and detonating its body, destroying us both. There was little I could do, but I did what I was able to.
I continued to bank, and then doubled back. The Scourge had not expected this, and flew past me. Although it could turn quickly, it had slower reaction times, and had much difficulty stopping. I used the lead I had gained to do what I could. I messaged the captain of the Tassadar, and quickly explained my situation. Quicker than the eye could track, 3 previously inactive Interceptors launched from the hanger bays, banked and fired directly at the Scourge. Although the first shot missed, the second and third hit the Scourge directly in the side and blew off the right wing. The Scourge gave up all pretense of control and detonated immediately. The plasma splashed against the shields of one of the Interceptors, but nothing appeared to be damaged.
I messaged the captain back, thanking him and acknowledging my debt to him. It is not often a Protoss Dark Templar allows himself to become indebted, and even much less often to a Protoss who was not a Dark Templar.
A debt to a Protoss is near sacred, and you can only become indebted after another Protoss has saved your life. Most Protoss do not claim debts, if only for the simple reason that a debt means that you will sacrifice your life without question for the person you are indebted to. My belief is that if someone has saved your life, you are now living on borrowed time given to you by that individual. It is only just that you may be asked to sacrifice the extra time to serve that individual.
My communication gear trilled softly, signaling the captain's order to retreat. Shaking off the hormonal rush that any Protoss gets when in a desperate situation, I guided my craft carefully into the docking bay of the Tassadar. The docking bay was stationed at the aft of the starship, directly beneath the massive engines. The positioning was reminiscent of a Protoss Carrier, but not exactly similar. The Aiur-class, the type of starship the Tassadar is, is a vastly powerful new ship similarly shaped to a Carrier, but holds powerful weapons, faster engines, and is far larger. The ship had been a coalition design between Khalai Templar, Dark Templar, and our renegade Terran allies. As it was designed by both Terrans and Protoss, the controls were usable by either race. The Aiur-class is able to be fully cloaked, and possesses variants of both the basic Terran lasers and the Yamato gun. The lasers had been supercharged with a new variant of Vespene gas found deep within my adopted home world, Shakuras, making them more effective against biological units such as the Zerg and their structures. The awesome Yamato gun had been radically redesigned, and instead of a small nuclear explosion focused by magnetic fields, it featured a matter/anti-matter combustion, focused by advanced Protoss shielding technology. Protoss scientists were confident that it could crack the surface of an average sized planet, or entirely demolish a moon, but how they received this data I am unsure. It had never been tested as far as I was able to discern, as our leaders viewed it as a weapon without honor, killing your opponent without giving them a fighting chance, similar to the beliefs of Tassadar, the greatest Protoss hero who ever lived.
Only five Aiur-class starships had been built so far due to their massive resource requirements. The ships construction alone required the complete strip mining of a moderately rich moon just for minerals alone. The Vespene gas quota had been only barely made on each ship, and had essentially drained one of the rear-guard bases, Triaxis Prime, current base of operations for the Tassadar. Of the five, three were in the hands of offensive Protoss fleets. Another was stationed around Shakuras, a member of the defensive fleet that guarded the new Protoss homeworld continuously. The last was in the hands of our renegade Terran allies, the rather large force that had been formed from the foundations of the rebel group "Raynor's Raiders", led by the most valiant James Raynor, killed years ago.
As I shut down my engines, I looked at my display, examining any damage I had taken. One of my shield generators had been knocked out of line, and two of my engines had serious fractures that spanned the entire outer casing. One of the gun pods had been completely destroyed, along with the munitions carried within. How the missiles had not detonated and shredded my fighter would remain a mystery to be solved another day. I summoned the technicians and engineers to begin work on it.
There are three distinct designs of Protoss fighters. The first design, the Scout, has been a Protoss fighter since the dawn of Protoss space flight. The Corsair, designed by the Dark Templar and first used during combat in the time known as the Brood War is the second, and has the distinction of being an anti-air attack craft only. The final fighter, the Scimitar, is the newest and most advanced fighter the Protoss fleets possess. It features an advanced meshing of Terran cloak technology and Dark Templar cloaking technology to reduce power requirements by using the energy of the pilot's subconscious mind. The greatest attribute of the fighter is that the weapon loads can be customized quickly, allowing different weapons to be attached to the chassis as missions dictate.
I have no need of such an advanced fighter, as so few exist currently. I continue to use my Scout, as mine is a heavy Scout, with upgraded weapons, armor, speed, and sight range. It is calibrated primarily for upper atmosphere and the darkness of space where I can use the speed to my advantage. My Scout is further modified with a Photon-type Sphere Launcher, similar to what a Photon Cannon uses, but the sphere is faster, and explodes on impact and irradiates the surrounding area. The Zerg, possessing an entirely organic army, are at a supreme disadvantage to it. Only Scourges, the foul Zerg creations that have cost millions of Protoss and Terran lives pose a serious threat to me and my fighter. Our mission today was supposed to be a simple mission, consisting of an attack on a newly grown Hive on the surface of the moon we are currently speeding away from. Resistance should have been minimal at best, but we did not know that the planet the moon orbits had already been heavily fortified into a war factory planet, churning out hundreds of Mutalisks and Devourers a day. We also were unaware the most foul creature the galaxy has ever known, Kirona, the Queen of Blades, had taken up residence on the moon.
Kirona, the Queen of Blades, is the spawn of the former Queen, Kerrigan. Kerrigan finally died about 28 years ago after being killed a number of times previous. Something went wrong then, and Kerrigan died finally, and was not reborn into a new body. The Zerg never let go of any genetic material they lay their claws upon, and Kerrigan was no different. The clone Kirona was slowly grown, and had psychic imprinting done to it by the surviving Cerebrates, similar to what Kerrigan went through at the hands of the Overmind before fully joining the Zerg Swarm. The Cerebrates, however, were becoming increasingly disparate with the coalition Kerrigan had formed, and each tried to twist Kirona's mind to their designs. The horrific result is that Kirona is, quite simply put, insane.
Kirona is also far stronger psionically than even Kerrigan was at her zenith. She possesses the ability to launch Psionic Storms larger than even large groups of our greatest High Templar have managed. She also can break down the fabric of space-time and create a pocket of energy similar to an Arbiter's Stasis Field, allowing her forces to deal with them easily. Finally, she is able to twist minds of life forms to her will, enslaving them to the will of her Swarm, and it is truly and solely her Swarm now. There are no more known Cerebrates, save one, guarding their current base on the moon. Kirona slew them all after learning of their treachery during her infancy. The survivor is Griez, the only Cerebrate as insane as Kirona. He also has been empowered with abilities far above the original Cerebrate capabilities, being able to drain nearby enemies of psionic power to better control his armies.
The Zerg, however, are having some difficulties. For it appears that they are fighting a three front war, between the Terran Dominion, the Protoss and our Terran rebel allies, and the newest entrants into the galactic struggle, the Hybrids. Out of all the things in the universe I know, I hate and fear nothing more than the Hybrids. Created by what appears to be enemies of the ancient Xel'Naga using DNA from Terran, Protoss, and Zerg, they have created a race that has never lost in any battle yet. They are practically impervious to damage in every way, as all of their units not only regenerate their own tissues; they also have the gift of vast psionic abilities. Every unit, from their lowly workers to their strongest siege engines can manipulate minds, create Psionic Storms, and other abilities so arcane no Protoss scholar has yet to determine how they are even theoretically possible. For although they control many different powerful attacks, they possess an ability far stronger, the ability to teleport. Unless you have faced a Hybrid warrior in battle, you can never truly understand how fearsome this power makes them. Terrans find Dark Templar such as myself rather eerie, primarily due to our cloak ability which enables us to get into poorly defended bases, but the Hybrids just teleport directly into the base and slaughter everything that moves before moving on to another engagement instantly. An Observer once watched a single group of around a dozen basic Hybrids attack and utterly decimate eleven Terran bases in under an hour, before falling prey to a nuclear missile detonation in the twelfth. Minutes later, another group teleported in and finished all survivors. Their only weakness appears to be a lack of sufficient genetic material. So after every battle, a group of their Reapers goes to all the bodies, not caring which race, gender, or age, and extract their genetic material, and then destroy the bodies.
We are unsure as to how they were created, although the heroic Dark Templar Zeratul once told the New Conclave that he encountered a being on a distant planet designing these abominations. Abominations.I cannot even say that word without knowing the falsehood concealed in it. Although I fear the Hybrids, I do have deep respect for their prowess in battle. It appears that while the Xel'Naga may have created their "perfect race" in the Zerg, their enemies have created a far greater race bent on annihilating all life in the universe. Our alliance has only met with the Hybrids on a field of battle once, and all our forces save one were annihilated or captured. The lone survivor was Zeratul again. He seems to have great skill in evading death at the hands of the Hybrids. I have great pride in Zeratul, for we are indirectly related by blood. He is the current commander of Triaxis Prime and leader of all Protoss military forces in the Koprulu sector.
I tried to shake off these oppressive thoughts and began heading towards my quarters. Although not extravagant in size, they are larger then they would have been on a standard Carrier. I have a room with enough space for a sleeping pallet, a small relaxation area, a sanitation area, and a food preparation area, although like most Protoss, I am horrible at concocting anything edible. Typically, most Protoss eat in the lounges, according to their position. I eat in the pilot lounge three decks below my quarters. All food in the lounges is prepared by robotic servants, which were given to us by the Terran commander who is allied with us. Not many Protoss have met him, although I saw him in an operation briefing once. He was troubled by deep thoughts of depression for a lost comrade, and his emotional state was. . .unstable at best, and he rather reminded me of a famous Terran, although I wasn't able to determine which one. I have great respect for our Terran allies. While their ships are slightly inferior, they have more native ability in piloting, although I would rather be killed than admit that verbally.
I thought-messaged my quarters and gave it my estimated arrival time. Quarters on Carrier and Aiur-class starships have links to their occupant, allowing them to have a "power down" and a "power up" mode to decrease power usage during a battle. There is no sense heating an unoccupied quarter during battle when the power could be better used powering shields, for if the battle is lost the temperature of the quarters no longer matters.
I passed my wing-mate in the hallway. We nodded at each other and continued on our way. I am sure he caught the anger I let show on my face. Anger on Terran faces is easier to see than Protoss, but most Protoss, unless blind, can tell from the general manner of a Protoss warrior when they are agitated. Wingmen are a relatively new concept implemented after seeing survival rates increase drastically in Terran forces. Not many Protoss are proficient at guarding a partner, like mine. He should have been taking care of the Scourge, and instead I now own a life debt to the captain.