The early morning sunlight was just beginning to break above the jungle tree tops, filling the sky with reddish orange. A cool breeze swept over the grassy plains and up over the plateau that formed the base. Zamoid, Xiatus's larger moon, was still visible on the horizon as a white circle, made slightly orange by the rising sun. Darker spots indicated craters and smooth plains. Zamoid was a big space rock, unlike the rich jungles that covered most of Xiatus.

"Wha… Wait a minute…" One of the many guards stationed at the edges of the cliff was looking out over the jungle valley below and thought he saw something out there for a moment, but then it disappeared. He went to the nearest missile turret and watched its radar. It remained blank for about ninety seconds before it registered something again. Yes, something was definitely there, and now he could tell what it was.

"Station six, radar contact one-zero-seven," he announced to the command center over his radio. "A Protoss Observer," he said with tone dripping with suspicion and a hint of anger. News of the attack on Breki had just reached the base and the sighting of an observer made most at the base jump. Even the veterans, while not scared, were roused out of their usual calm.

It now became apparent that the Protoss probably had a base, at least a small outpost, somewhere in the general vicinity of the base, but there was no way to know exactly where. Since even a full charged comsat station only provided four scans before needed to recharge, HQ (the call sign of the primary command center) ordered a reconnaissance flight to find evidence of Protoss activity in the area. Their energy reactors were fully charged since they had not needed the cloaking field in a while. They would likely need it now.

"HQ to Teal flight three, you are clear for departure." The flight consisted of four wraiths, Teal three-six, three-seven, three-eight, and three-nine, with three-seven taking the lead since he had the most flight hours. They left base along on a heading into where the observer appeared. The four wraiths maintained a close formation to be able to cover each other better if they were suddenly attacked. To save energy they kept the cloak off for now, but proceeded cautiously so as not to run into something and not have time to quick cloak. They also had to keep careful watch for any detectors, which would neutralize their ability to hide behind the cloaking field. The problem with Protoss is that without a detector of their own they would never know if an observer was nearby. They could think they were invisible when in fact they were not, a potentially deadly situation.

After about thirty minutes of flight, they began to wonder if they were not really just wasting their time. They also worried about leaving the base for a long period of time, but there were plenty of wraiths still there to provide adequate protection. "I say we turn around, or at least change heading, or something," three-nine said to the group. "I mean, there's nothing here."

"Let's just hold this course for another few minutes," three-seven replied. "Then we'll report no joy and ask for further instructions."

It turned out that another few minutes was all they needed. "Hey, something's up there," three-eight said quickly and excitedly.

"All units engage cloak," three-seven ordered. In about one second they all faded into thin air. A small special distortion that was hard to see unless you looked real close would be the only evidence that they were even there.

"We really aren't the only ones on this planet," three-six commented as the four pilots took in the scene below. A group of about seven zealots were locked in battle with ten hydralisks, and, as might be expected, the zealots were winning. The wraiths watched from cloak as another hydra collapsed into a pile of gush, leaving only eight. The zealots were getting beat up as well, but none had died. When the Zerg were down to four left, a flock of five mutalisks came flying in and attacked the Protoss. The zealots continued their attack and it took the arrival of a guardian to scare them off. More hydralisks could be seen approaching on the horizon.

"Now that was interesting," three-seven said. "Hopefully the Zerg and the Protoss will keep each other busy. No need for either of them to bother us."

"You hope," three-six replied, knowing that it rarely if ever worked like that. After one killed the other, the survivor would then proceed to look for anything else alive and go after that.

The zealots returned, this time with four dragoons walking up behind them. The Zs went straight for the hydralisks again, and just before two scouts engaged the mutalisks a templar made itself known through the small lightning bolts that appeared over the mutalisks. The birds quickly moved away, but were weakened enough to be easy pickings for the antimatter missiles of the scouts.

"Now's when we leave," three-seven said quickly, pulling his wraith around and heading away from the battle. The other three followed suit before they knew why.

As he was making the turn, three-nine glanced over to his right to see an overlord approaching with about twenty hydralisks and three lurkers walking along under it. "Oh my God…"

"Exactly," three-seven replied. In large numbers, hydralisks could wreak havoc on air units, and who was to say that after finishing the Protoss they wouldn't take advantage of four targets of opportunity that the overlord would have pointed out to them.