I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the right to Starcraft or any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 50: Arrival on a Battered Planet
The amount of tension on the bridge was mind-boggling for the last few hours of the journey to Auir. No more infested agents were on the ship, and all rooms were checked thoroughly. Everyone was well rested and fed, as we had been waiting for this day for a good while.
"How long do we have till we reach visual range of the planet?" Artanis asked.
Raynor's assistant Butler looked over his readings. "About five minutes at this speed!"
"Still no transmission or contacts?" Artanis asked again as Butler shook his head.
"So much for the welcome wagon," Raynor said, seated to the right of Artanis.
"It is strange, but if the Zerg swarm did indeed pass through this area, the outermost planetary defenses may not have been replenished after the initial attack. Most likely they are all on the planet surface," Tassadar suggested.
"Can you tap into the networks yet? The sooner we get new information, the better off we will be," Artanis said.
"No, but I am picking up signs of debris straight ahead!" Butler announced.
"Onscreen!" The video showed several large asteroids scattered about in a straight line, about five lines deep.
"Take us out of hyperspace, proceed through carefully," Artanis ordered. I felt the ship slow as we neared the asteroid belt. I spotted chunks of metal floating around randomly, especially thick in-between chunks of rock. I also spotted the remains of Protoss buildings on the asteroid surfaces, not many, but enough to be noticeable.
"Confirmed, outer defenses were destroyed, I can't get a reading on all of them, but its safe to say that the Zerg came through here!" another Templar said from his station.
"Any life readings?" Tassadar asked.
"Negative, only debris," Butler said quickly.
"Proceed straight through, keep an active scan for any life readings of any kind, we don't want any surprises out here!" Artanis ordered.
"Interesting," Zeratul said, breaking a long silence from him.
"What's that?" I asked, standing next to him and Vegeta.
"When the Zerg invade a well-defended planet, they will take any chance to fortify their position with their enemies previous locations. They would certainly want to take the outer defensive positions if they knew we were coming!" Zeratul suggested.
"Perhaps the Overmind considers it wasteful when it needs to drive all of its forces against Auir to win! Or maybe that the Asteroids did not have enough resources to consume?" Artanis suggested with hope.
"Showing a large grid of minerals and Vespene geysers in the Asteroid belt!" Butler said quickly.
"Scratch that idea," I muttered.
-
"I've tapped into the network!" the Templar said from his station.
"Anything prudent to tell us then?" Tassadar asked from his chair.
"Full scale war on Auir as expected, about seventy percent of the population has been destroyed?!" he said in shock. That lit up just about everyone's eyes, except those wearing Saiyan style armor.
"Give us a display of Auir as regards to Zerg territory!" Tassadar ordered. A picture of the planet showed up then, showing a very large chunk flashing red. Other notables were yellow flashes in and around the red blob.
"About 35 percent of the planet is completely controlled by the Zerg. Most of the remaining population has evacuated to the capitol for a massive defensive effort against the Zerg. A large portion of major cities has been destroyed. A lot of news about powerful Zerg infested Terrans being responsible for this siege!" the Templar said, casting a look our way. Gee, three guesses who did that. Wait a second, Terrans as in more than one? Looks like Kerrigan was right about multiple clones, I thought, stretching a little in preparation.
"I've got word here that High Executor Aldaris is trying to organize the assistance of the entire population to strike against the Zerg with the combined fleet!"
"Technically the correct thing to do, however this isn't exactly a war that Protoss can win easily," Tassadar said, also looking at Vegeta and I.
"Can you contact anyone in the capitol?" Artanis dared to ask.
"Negative sir, there is an outstanding order for our termination that is all over the networks as well. Apparently Aldaris knows that we would be coming eventually," the aid said right away.
"Praetor, make a scan of sector nine-one-eight in the southern hemisphere!" Zeratul suddenly ordered.
"Minimal activity of any kind present, very far away from any major Zerg activity. Only an ancient Xel Naga temple is there, mostly ruins!" the aid said. At the words "Xel'Naga" my ears perked up slightly. Zeratul has said he wanted to take me to this place.
"Set a course to land in sector nine-one-eight nearby the temple!" Zeratul ordered quickly.
"What? Why are we going to some run down place that is older than dirt? We should strike at the Zerg from the other side and push towards the Overmind!" Vegeta snarled slightly.
"There is someone there I wish to contact before we proceed, and it involves the boy," Zeratul said simply, leaving Vegeta stunned.
"Whatever," he said after a few seconds.
"Executor! I have come across some interesting information!" the Templar officer suddenly said.
"What is that?" Tassadar asked.
"It seems that a small portion of the military has split from the main forces, said to be under the command of the Conclave!"
"But they were overthrown?" Artanis asked suddenly.
"It seems they may have been re-established in a non-direct conflict with Aldaris' leadership. So far there have been no attacks to either side, but they refuse to rejoin the main force and have been attacking the Zerg in small rogue groups. They have set up a command nexus in Sector eight-three-four, not very far from sector nine-one-eight!"
"Perhaps we should pay them a visit as well," Tassadar suggested.
"Five minutes until we enter the atmosphere!"
-
The ride through the upper atmosphere of Auir was short and bumpy, settling down within a minute or two. We landed less than a mile away from the old temple without any disruption. Most everyone left the ship, except for a few human and Protoss crewmembers, left behind for scanning and communication purposes. Zeratul requested that we all go to the temple on foot, but only asked for me to go inside with him. When Vegeta and Gohan asked why, he only said that he preferred the temple to be standing rather than crumbling should any attackers come by. Yeah, especially if we're under it! I thought as I gazed up at it. Overall it wasn't very large above ground, but judging by the layout of it, I wagered that there could be a substantial underground maze of tunnels and chambers to go with it. We climbed up a short round of stairs before entering the withering testament to the Protoss ancestors. Inside there was no lighting at all, no visible power supply, nothing but stone. Zeratul spotted what appeared to be a long dead torch on the wall, and lit it into flames with his wrist sword. It provided a little lighting, but not much. I followed Zeratul through a few of the dark halls before we came to a steep winding staircase. I looked up and down, seeing that it was a LONG way down.
"We must go all the way to the bottom," he said as he started down. I didn't mind walking all that way--it wasn't anything strenuous to me--but it had to have been thirty to forty flights down to the bottom. The stairway was crumbing in a few spots, so I watched my step just in case it triggered something else. I wasn't worried about getting out safely, but Zeratul didn't appear to have the ability to fly, so I stepped with caution.
After what must have been fifteen to twenty minutes of slowly walking downwards, we reached the bottom floor. There were no walls down here in the catacombs, only dirt and cave rock, with the occasional large tree root sticking out somewhere. There was only one darker patch of the cave rather than rock and dirt, and Zeratul right away walked in that direction. Darkness wrapped around us as we entered, with only the torch providing any light around us, showing nothing. After a few minutes of this creepy darkness, we came to a large gray wall with many markings. I couldn't read any of them, as it looked to be ancient Protoss language of some sort. It surrounded the entire wall with writing, except for one small circle in the middle, a little bigger than my hand.
"It has a lot of history scribbled on this door, but the only passage that matters is written here!" Zeratul said, pointing to a strangely bold line of text.
"It says that only the chosen may enter!" he said, pointing to the small round circle. I shrugged slightly, trying to figure out how I may be part of an ancient Protoss legend. I pressed my hand against the small round pad, and instantly the wall started to rise like it was on a crane. Behind a bright light came in, bright to us anyway. Okay, this is getting on my nerves, just too creepy. Inside there was another hallway, but this time the walls were lit with torches and loaded with more ancient text and hieroglyphs all over them. Zeratul dropped his torch to the ground, seeing that he wouldn't need it anymore. I saw a lot of pictures regarding what must have been the long conflict regarding the Protoss and the Zerg. Most of it was famous battles that took place in the past, along with better inventions to fight the Zerg with. There were other little legends regarding rites of passage for a Templar, and a Dark Templar amazingly enough.
"This hall has all of our history since the Xel'Naga left this planet, it was shortly thereafter that we encountered the Zerg for the first time out in space. I am old enough to remember that, as I was once living on Auir, studying at these very same temples! The history past our banishment from Auir has probably not been written here, but a lot of that was preordained," Zeratul said, sounding old.
"You mean you guys knew that you would be banished?" I asked, sounding a bit surprised.
"To an extent, what we didn't know was how and why," he grumbled, as it must have been a sensitive subject. We came upon another dead end with a sealed wall. It to had a round pad to open it, but Zeratul seemed to look away from it for a moment. He spotted a display of pictures written out on the sidewall next to the end of the tunnel. He glanced at the other side briefly, but stood fixated upon the wall on his side. I looked at it now, seeing symbols that resembled Zerg types as well as the Overmind, though it was shaped like an octopus. There was another symbol that sent chilly waves of recognition down my spine. It resembled a man, but had an aura around it, meaning someone with power. It was displayed with other symbols a few times, but stood in front of the Overmind symbol like they were a combined force. Another symbol was shown, a smaller version of the man with a tail and a sword, shown standing before the other one like they were going to fight. Nothing but blank stone came after that, something Zeratul paid a lot of attention to.
"Open the door, it is time to see if this is indeed your destiny," Zeratul said calmly. I placed my hand on the door, a bit confused at all of this. It opened just like the last one did, sliding slowly upwards. Inside the door lay a small room, lit with a few torches, blue and yellow fire erupted from them. The door slammed shut once I was in the room, directly behind Zeratul.
"It's been a long time," a dark and old voice said through the air. This startled me because I hadn't sensed anything, and I still didn't.
"Who's there?" Zeratul asked, drawing his sword.
"Zeratul, my faithful servant, returned to me at last I see. What do I owe this visit old friend?" the voice asked again. This time I could make out a distinctive female tone to the voice.
"I have questions about the future of our race, and I think that this boy here is the answer!" he said, dropping his sword to the side but turning it off. An image slowly came into view ahead of us, eventually molding into a Dark Templar with red robes covering her.
The eyes flashed with golden fire, "Is that so?"
"Who is that?" I asked.
"The Protector of our history and our matriarch, Raszagal*," Zeratul said with a slight bow.
Interlude 50.1 –Outside the Temple-
"Argh, how long does he expect us to wait?" Vegeta asked with his usual impatience. Gohan and the other Saiyans sighed at this, totally expecting it.
"I'm sure they'll be out soon, we can always have a sparring match to pass the time!" Goku offered.
"No thanks Kakarot, I'm going to take out my frustrations on the Zerg as soon as we encounter them!" Vegeta growled. Goku looked surprised, but let it pass. They had been waiting outside with most of the ship's mixed crew for about an hour already without any disruption other than Vegeta's constant impatience.
"Do you think anyone detected our landing?" Raynor asked off topic.
"Despite all of the fighting going on all over Auir, the chances of our arrival going unnoticed are remote at best," Tassadar said next to him. A loud beeping went off after a few moments of silence. Artanis picked up a small round object from inside his robes, pressing it lightly.
"Report!"
"Praetor Artanis, we have detected a single shuttlecraft heading this way from the capitol, estimate arrival time at thirty-six minutes!" a Templar aid said over the communicator.
"Any notable Zerg movement in this direction?" he asked now.
"Negative, the shuttle approaching is not marked by any certain tribe, but we are reading abnormal Psionic waves being emitted from it. All hails have gone unanswered," the aid said.
"Understood, Artanis out!" As he put away the small communicator, he spotted Gohan giving him a hard stare. Gohan broke the look, looking to the North and east, almost right in line with the direction of the capitol. He reached out with his senses, and picked up exactly what he expected to find. Well that didn't take very long, time to get this over with! He thought to himself.
"What is it Gohan?" Goku asked first.
"Aldaris," he growled in a low tone.
*Raszagal- sounds like Rash-ah-gall. In the regular Starcraft story she is the Dark Templar leader, but is not introduced until the Brood War story came out, nor was she on Auir to begin with. Since this is A/U I can do whatever I want (evil laugh). Besides one timeline is already screwed up because of Verto, another one may as well be also!