Character Profile:

Name: Edullon

Species: Protoss

Sex: Female

Age: 268

Height: 7'0"

Rank/ Position: Lieutenant, Imperial Protoss Army

Background:

Not all Protoss warriors are mindless, blood-thirsty killers, as we shall soon find is the case with Imperial Protoss Army Lieutenant Edullon, daughter of Ziktofel and Demioch. Born to a Judicator mother and a Templar father, in a small, coastal village in the province of Scion, on the Protoss homeworld of Aiur. Edullon was faced with a choice that, for all intents and proposes, no other young Protoss has ever been given: that of actually choosing which of the three castes, or two in her case, and which of the six tribes that make up the Protoss civilization/Empire she wanted to be member of; unlike the rest of her fellow aliens, who where born into their tribe and caste, and given no choice in the matter.

She elected not to follow her mother Ziktofel into the highly intellectual life of the Judicator Caste, responsible for overseeing all of the Protoss' political and religious matters, but to follow in her father's footsteps, and choosing the unceasing physically difficult life and mantle of Templar Warrior.

Chapter One: The Gods mustbe crazy

It was a scorchingly hot day amid the small hills, tall grass, reeds, and stinky swamp water particular to almost every square mile of the southern central subcontinent of Dylar IV, the temperature registering an ungodly 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the Dylar system's star mercilessly baking any poor soul choosing, or perhaps not, to be there smack-dab in the middle of the afternoon, or any other time during the daylight hours. And on the day in question, that is exactly where our main character found herself.

Lieutenant of Infantry Edullon, daughter of Ziktofel and Demioch, a member of the Akilae Tribe, considered to be the elite of the Templar tribes, Edullon had always been enthralled with the way of the warrior; being born to a Judicator mother and a Templar father, she had steered away from the robes and protocol booklets and endless state functions and the "being groomed for everything" highly intellectual life of the Judicatoria, preferring the armored power suit and energy blades and twenty-mile forced humps through the worst terrain in the galaxy, and the seemingly celebrity status, that make up the life of the Templari.

So, there she stood, all alone, in the sweltering heat, her dull, yellow armor reflecting the sun just enough to be an annoyance to its wearer. If you could actually decipher the squiggly, Arabic-looking lines that make up the Protoss' written language, you would be able to see that she held the rank of Lieutenant in the Imperial Protoss Army, that she commanded the 3rd, of eight, platoon, of the 1st company, of the 5th battalion, of the 14th Aiur Infantry Regiment(Akilae Tribe), which when combined with her thirteen other sister regiments, formed the Aiur Infantry Division.

Her dark, scaly skin becoming tender from the hours of bombardment by UV rays received while wandering through the hills, dead plants and small rocky gorges, looking for any trace of Zerg(that swarm of insectoid monsters that assimilated or destroyed every race it came across) infestation, seemingly in vain. Not one Zerg track, not one ounce of the creep, the thick, purple substance that carpets the ground under any and all Zerg buildings, giving their living, quite literally, structures sustenance.

Believing to have adequately performed her mission, she thought it was about time to return to camp; kneeling amidst water and tall plants, she attempted to initiate a psionic link with her company commander, Captain Edwarg, first checking around to make sure she was truly alone. She closed her eyes, searching through the many pathways of the Primal Link; that mental/telepathic link that linked all Protoss, and served as their sole method of "civilized" communication.

"Captain Edwarg, my lord, this is Lieutenant Edullon, requesting permission to return to camp to report my progress." Nothing.

"This is odd; one usually receives and almost immediate response to a message sent via the Primal Link," she noted to herself. "Hmmm ." She thought naught of it, and attempted another link.

"My lord, this is Lieutenant Edullon, I must report my progress and return to base. Captain?"

She was by now somewhat frustrated by the failed link; by this pointless mission she had been sent off to accomplish all by herself, by the sweltering heat, but mostly by the failed link. But, no matter how tired and annoyed, and thirsty, she may have been, she made herself draw upon the stubbornness, stalwartness-- call it what you will-- characteristic of the Templar; one of the things that had helped the Protoss military wing win galaxy-wide respect, fear, as well as many battles over the centuries.

She found inspiration in the story of her fellow warriors sustaining, despite the nearly apocalyptic number of casualties, a stubborn, successful war effort against the Zsinji, for a hundred years, eventually coming out on top, adding more than fifty new star systems to the Protoss Empire.

But no matter how much inspiration she drew from that epic victory, she still could not make a successful link with her captain; and then the heat simply became too much for her to deal with. And the heat, as is normal on this continent, intensified, becoming more and more unbearable, as it approached its zenith, usually at around 18:00 hours.

" I can no longer stand to be under the glow of this wretched star....not without water. It is no wonder that no large animals dwell here during the day!" She conceded, too fatigued to be angry, all the while looking for something, anything that could afford a decent amount of shade that was in the immediate area. After a few moments, in her state seemingly an eternity, she saw, about half a mile away, at the very edge of this range of hills, a hill with a very large, shade giving tree about halfway to the top.

"Oh, Got sei dank!" she almost shouted silently,

overjoyed at the sight of a mere tree. But then an unpleasant realization sunk in: that tree was half a mile away yet, and it was only getting hotter, and she found that even standing required a concerted effort, and her equipment seemed to grow heavier every minute she stood there; having to slosh through water wouldn't exactly be helpful either.

But, on the other hand, she could not afford to collapse in her current location; that would have meant death from dehydration, or drowning. Kind of odd, she thought, the possibility of drowning, OR dying of dehydration in the same exact spot.

" I should have followed mother. Nobody ever went through this kind of torture reading a book, or trying to make a treaty," she muttered. "I just have to do it....or die this most inglorious death. Hah!....unnhh."

She then attempted to walk forward, the having to pick her feet up out of the water making her progress all the more difficult, each step sucking the life out of her. She staggered forward for about five-hundred yards, then dropping to her knees and elbows, not caring about being soaked in that icky water, began crawling forwards, her stomach just a few inches above the water....as she had done so many times during basic training, at the School of Infantry, and Officers' Candidate School; all those times, it had almost been fun......crawling through the mud and sand, never water, under the razor wire and simulated gunfire, bypassing the dummy land mines.....but now there was only the searing heat, the disgusting, scum-filled water, the thirst, her wavering will to succeed, to live; that is something that no level of infantry training can teach you to overcome.

After what seemed to her to be hours of crawling, in that extremely uncomfortable position, she reached the base of the hill.

"By the Gods, it's so close!" She was becoming excited now, having made it all the way from her original position half a mile away to the relative haven afforded by the tree, still all the way up the hill. Knowing the end of this crucible was so close, using every ounce of energy left, she slowly sat back on her haunches, becoming enveloped up to the waist by the water....then positioned her left leg....the right.....then heaved herself upright with a mighty roar, almost losing balance, falling back, from the dizzying heat. Seeing the shade so close, coupled with images of her parents, the rest of her family, her home amidst the lush, green coastal forests on her home world of Aiur, gave her one last boost of reserve energy; she positively trotted up the side of the hill, ignoring her armor now considerably heavier from the wetness, finally allowing herself to succumb to fatigue upon reaching the center of the glorious shade given by the tree, collapsing with a clatter of dull yellow armor .

Sleep replenished her energy but she woke with a blistering thirst. The heat had passed, and the temperature was not only bearable, but pleasant. When she had fully woken up, the events of the previous day, her current predicament, immediately came back. Once again, she attempted to reach Captain Edwarg through the Primal Link. Nothing.

Having failed to make the link, she next tried to contact one of her fellow platoon commanders.

" Let me think....what platoons other than mine even have a platoon leader after last week's massacre?" She was of course referring to her battalion's assault upon a very heavily-defended Zerg outpost situated in the southern sector of the same subcontinent she was "scouting". The battalion had gone from nearly full strength, about 950, broken into nine companies, to about 200; her company had fared the best, only losing about 75, whereas several other platoons had been completely destroyed.

" Let's see...we came in with eight fully functional platoons, we still have at least....three....I think. I command number three platoon...number two was the first to go..."

She tried, with difficulty, to recall her company's current roster.

"I know number one platoon--god I'm thirsty!" Now she was enraged over her current situation.

"Who did I anger so that I was sent on this pointless mission?" Shouting, throwing a nearby rock off into the water. After waiting to hear the splash, she asked herself-- "Why me?"

She continued speculating as to her conspiracy theory.

" Surely it wasn't a fellow platoon commander; they don't have the authority to do such a thing.

I'm sure it wasn't Captain Edwarg....I mean... we were almost friends......no...what am I saying....we were more than just friends. Did someone besides us know of that fact?" She paused for minute.

"Was it my fate?" Edullon frowned as she pondered the idea of any, perhaps every, member of her pantheon of gods and goddesses forsaking her.

"No...it can't be. I have always been reverent, always gone to temple, or at least services, when I had the opportunity, and always observed the holy days, even when in the field, always kept a small copy of the Dea'Uhl in my pack for reading during downtime...."

Realizing that she was still on her stomach, she awkwardly, under the weight of her armor, slowly rolled over onto her back, maneuvered herself over to the god-blessed tree that had practically saved her life earlier. She propped herself up against its rough bark. Fatigue and thirst sent her back to sleep

"...the Gods must be crazy!" were the last words she mumbled as she dozed off.