STEEL, SOUL, AND SPIRIT
By
Gregory P. Wong
Epilogue: The Alliance Fleet
Straas looked over the compound. Newly trained Protoss and Terran warriors, all volunteers, were assembled. I am Executor Straas. Even three months later, it still feels unusual.
Szcraa stood behind him on and to his left, holding Stanton and Kitheran. Yysthre stood next to her mother, wobbling slightly on unsteady legs. With a squeak, she lost her balance and plopped down on her tail. She tried to get back onto her feet, couldn't, and quickly lost interest in standing. She just sat there and played with Szcraa's tail. He smiled to himself. Their children had shown remarkably fast development...
The fleet was months from departing Sawea. The Protoss and Terran scientists had shown a remarkable synergy, their combined brainpower blazing their technology forward at impossible speed. New classes of capital ships were being churned out at the orbital carriers and the remaining Terran ships. Powerful ships, with new weapons and top-notch Protoss shields. The ground forces were also greatly strengthened. He hoped their technology could match the Thres'nalop. Looking over the recruits, he opened a commlink that was tied in to a large speaker system surrounding the complex.
"Loved ones, of both races, have fallen to the horror of the Thres'nalop and Ulreathan. We have been united by this experience, united in a hope for an end to this shadow." He painfully remembered the Protoss souls he had absorbed.
"This shadow is not easy to extinguish, and many of you will lose your lives in the struggle. We go out as outcasts, unable to even communicate our findings with our homeworlds. They cannot know; they are not ready to know of the horror.
"There is no middle ground. The Thres'nalop do not take pleas of surrender. They seek to kill, and wipe all sentient life from this universe. Their technology is powerful, their warriors are strong." The faces of many of the young warriors shone with grim pride.
"Whatever the difficulties and dangers we face, we have strength. We have the strength of our very diversity and culture. Terran and Protoss strengths are our strengths. Terran and Protoss weaknesses are our weaknesses. We have to aid each other, lest the shadow consumes us as we stand alone. We are as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.
"We are united against a consuming darkness. We stand united. Together we will triumph, or together we will fall. In one more month we will depart his world, and begin our battle of light. We will defeat the Thres'nalop, or we will die trying.
"The shadow will not stand up to us if we remain true to each other. Nothing can stand up to us, if our alliance holds. We must hold together. Whether you be Terran or Protoss, we are all part of an alliance. An alliance of light.
"We are the Alliance Fleet. Nothing can stand in our way."