Udestae's Encounters

Chapter 1

Surprise!

A/N: Udestae (OO deh stay)

It was a slow relaxing evening. The Protoss were resting after a long, brutal campaign in the Yalto system. No one was seen outside. They were all at home with their families, for they had not seen them in over a decade. Well . . . almost everyone. One of the high templar was pacing about in the streets, apparently deep in thought. It was Udestae, the Praetor of the Akilae tribe. He was the most well-respected Protoss of his day. Considered fearless among the Protss, Udestae had never lost a battle before in his career as Praetor. You may be wondering why he was alone. Udestae had no family. His mother died when he was very young. His father and three brothers all fell in battle. He was left alone.

Even though the Protoss were safely on Aiur, Udestae was on alert. Perhaps it was because he had spent 10 years in almost endless battle. Maybe he was psychic. Nevertheless, he chose to take his men away from their families and equip them with their combat supplies. They thought he was insane, but he was their commanding officer, which meant they had to do as he ordered.

Udestae brought his men to the outskirts of the city. He powered up the photon cannons and placed his men strategically around them. His forces started to get bored and annoyed. They thought that there was no chance of any fleet getting past their orbiting platforms. They were very wrong.

An alarm sounded and the Protoss defenders rushed to get their equipment on (except for Udestae's troops). The alarm got louder and more violent. Udestae looked up to see a humongous fleet of battlecruisers, wraiths, and dropships coming straight toward the city. Udestae's heartbeat grew so loud that it drowned almost everything out. No Protoss, not even Lemkhai (the oldest Protoss by far (age: 1574)), had ever seen a fleet this huge. There were faint shouts of Protoss commanders, ordering their forces to certain places in an attempt to counter the invasion. Too late.

A barrage of laser fire hammered down on the Protoss defenses like it were raining hellfire. Photon cannons tried to hit the attackers but they moved much too fast. The dropships landed and the largest marine force Aiur has ever known poured out. The zealots rushed at them but were massively outnumbered. Dragoons attempted to kill from a distance but were quickly shot down by wraiths. The Protoss were falling fast. Confusion and fear spread like a forest fire in Yellowstone.

More dropships were landing. Siege tanks and goliaths moved to firing positions. The goliaths provided cover for the siege tanks as they began to switch to siege mode. As soon as the tanks had converted, the marines backed off and let the tank fire do the rest. Photon cannons exploded left and right. Zealots and dragoons began to flee. Women and children stood, frozen with fear.

Udestae stood his ground, launching psionic storm after psionic storm, trying to weaken the Terran force. His attempts were in vain. He could not send a storm of that size, and his energy was dropping rapidly. He turned and told all of the remaining Protoss to flee for their lives. He may not be afraid of dying, but to die without taking at least one enemy with him was humiliating.