A/N Well I'm now working with Warchief on a AU of his AU as I combine my Chronicles story alone with his When One Domino Falls story. His profile and story have me mentioned as this is done together so obviously with permission.
Chapter 23: To the Stars
6 months after chapter 22
Things had changed massively with the revelation of Draconia's "nuclear" capacity, most nations were outright terrified by the weapon's capabilities. From Earth's perspectives it wasn't much more powerful than the ones deployed on Japan, but the distinction mattered little on Lodoss, Needless to say, Xapferey secured his borders while he turned his attention to his space-borne forces. In truth, on the ships and space-borne assets, namely the shipyards and the beginnings of a massive space station, there were close to a quarter million, both combatants or civilians, living in the stars.
The orbital habs was a secret colonization project begun at Malkira's birth as people were slowly selected and sent away to build and prepare the massive orbital infrastructure now supplying Draconia's Star Forces. The habitats and other sections were built for interior beauty as even the Elves at times mistook the park sections for the outdoors below on Forceria. Some Elves even began to flourish in the new element as they began communing with the void of space, drawing on it as an elemental force of nature.
All in all, Xapferey knew that they were as prepared as they were likely to get at this stage. From here, the only option to secure their future further was to explore outwards. Despite the dangers, Xapferey was determined to lead the first scouting flight himself. In his mind, the fact that he was most familiar with what they were likely to find meant that he had to be a part of the mission and he was not going to entrust any potential first contact with another race to anyone else. With the new equipment added to Draconia's shipyards, they were able to massively speed their ship building capacity and even managed to begin a fifth shipyard.
However the Draconian emperor wanted his flagship completed as quickly as possible. As such he ordered every mage part of his space forces to both enchant the shipyard building with haste runes and spells along with the physical builders as well. Within a few months, thanks to the spells, their two Defiant class heavy frigates and the two Intrepid class heavy destroyers were completed. Sovereign was close to ⅓ completed thanks to their efforts before it was Deedlit who wondered if there was some other magical way to speed up time to make it build faster.
Smacking himself on the head in realization, Xapferey went to collect the four most powerful spellcasters in Draconia. Namely Slayn, Malkira, Merlin and himself. Taking four days to prepare and tapping every free magical storage they could bring with them, the four arcane specialists ascended to the shipyard.
Linking their minds together with psionics, and the Dragon returning to his true form, they prepared their spells while evacuating all but the immortal constructors from the shipyard. Drawing on the storages they brought, the four arcane casters began to glow from the sheer magical buildup. Two shipyards were surrounded in a golden hue as time sped up far faster than the norm within the magical pocket. Continuing to chant, the arcane quartet drew on everything they had, both externally stored and internally through their magical core to power the spell. Though as time wore on, the sheer efforts of casting were beginning to take its toll. By the time the four finished their spell another later, Xapferey, Malkira, Merlin and Slayn collapsed unconscious, bleeding from their mouths and ears.
"Ugh… how long was I out?" Xapferey muttered as he came around.
"Three weeks, Malkira woke first about 20 minutes ago," the EMH Dr. Picardo replied. "Merlin should be out for another week; while a powerful magical nexus, he is still human. Slayn will be out of commission for another two. Though he shouldn't use magic for a week after he awakens, you and your daughter are fine in every way Sire."
"Good, I have things to do, get me Commodore Allaris," Xapferey ordered as the EMH nodded and passed the Draconian emperor a portable communicator.
"Commodore report."
"My Lord! We were concerned about your collapse, but the spell held, Sovereign was completed two weeks ago, and we were able to complete another Intrepid and two more Defiant class ships before the field collapsed. It collapsed just yesterday Sire."
"Excellent work Commodore, as I know you were likely within the field, and have experienced eight years of work in what was 3 weeks for us, I am promoting you to Admiral and head of the First Star Fleet, to be named Forceria's High Guard."
"I... thank you Sire," she said in a little shock,
"Don't be surprised Admiral, you worked for eight years on this, so I want our designers to oversee this new construct, Galaxy class battlecruiser. Two shipyards are to build a new Intrepid class each, and another two Defiant class"
"Good, I will be returning to the shipyard in a few hours to tour our new Flagship."
"Of course, I'll have everything ready for your tour by then. Excuse me Sire."
"Of course Admiral," turning to the EMH he spoke. "Thank you Doctor, that will be all," the EMH nodded and transferred himself to the medical ward of Draconia. Xapferey on the other hand sought out his wife. He quickly found her in their private office. "Hey Deedlit."
"Xapferey, I was worried when you collapsed after completing that spell. What were you thinking?"
"I needed to make sure our ultimate asset was completed and ready for battle. The discovery of the Terran Confederacy and the knowledge that the Zerg Swarm is within 75 light years of our home made me take a severe risk that I wouldn't consider normally."
"Fair enough, after your collapse, I began researching the Zerg and everything to do with them, including Starcraft, between my duties as Empress of Draconia."
"Have you seen her?"
"Our fleet? Yes, it was like watching one of those films on fast forwards, it was strangely entertaining," Deedlit grinned.
"Come, we should get Malkira and tour our Flagship."
The royal trio was beamed up to the ship by Admiral Allaris Starseeker, as she stood there proudly in her advanced and magically empowered armor.
"My Lord, My Ladies, welcome aboard IDS Sovereign."
"Thank you Admiral."
"If you'll follow me," she led them through the ship, overseeing the various parts of the mighty vessel. From the armory, to the carrier decks for both ground and space forces. From engineering to the bridge, they toured the entire ship in 4 hours.
"A fine ship, I look forward to seeing how it'll handle current events," Xapferey grinned
"Perhaps that should be decided now My Lord?" Allaris suggested. "Let's take a look at the data we acquired from the abandoned Confederacy outpost."
"Excellent idea Admiral."
Xapferey and his advisors had examined the data retrieved from the facility in more detail and found references to a planet he recognized. In hindsight, of course, it was obvious that a Confederate facility would refer to Tarsonis. Thankfully, there were also coordinates for the planet. Not being certain exactly when in the timeline they currently stood, he decided it was best to take a subtle look at the planet to try and establish exactly what the current situation was. While the Sovereign was not exactly the most stealthy of ships, the firepower it possessed was undoubtedly the best choice for them to take. If they did arrive at Tarsonis at the height of the Zerg invasion, then they were going to need every bit of firepower they could get. As such, Xapferey pulled the whole fleet for the scouting mission. An impressive force consisting of one Sovereign class heavy battleship, three Intrepid class heavy destroyers, and six Defiant class heavy frigates. All 10 ships shot away from Forceria and began the trek to Tarsonis at warp 9.5. Even at that speed, it would still take over two weeks to reach Tarsonis. All they could do in the meantime was try to anticipate every possibility that could be waiting for them.
As the fleet came up on Tarsonis, Xapferey ordered everyone to battle stations, ensuring that they could deal with any situation. Even so, what they found as they dropped out of warp, what they found was nothing like what they had expected. Xapferey had expected, at worst, to find the Zerg, Protoss, Confederacy and Sons of Korhol in a slugging match. But the transmission that greeted the fleet caught even him by surprise.
"Liberator, you are to return to your position immediately." He recognised Arcturus Mengsk's voice, but the Liberator was new to him. What was going on?
"Mengsk," Xapferey growled to himself. "Stand by to deploy armor and full weapons on my order."
A new voice snarled over the channel. "When I have friends and troops under my command in trouble Mengsk, I don't walk away!"
"That was an order!" Mengsk yelled at the other commander.
"Take your order and jam it sideways, Mengsk. I'm not letting you sacrifice an entire strike force, just to get revenge on one person."
Mengsk growled. "Commander, I'm warning you…"
The channel squealed as another signal overwrote it. "This is Commander Jason Davis of the Liberator. Raiders, form up on us and proceed to New Gettysburg. We've got a team to extract. Anyone else not willing to sacrifice good people are more than welcome to follow."
Xapferey recognised the next voice. "This is Captain James Raynor, Raiders, you heard the man. Let's get to work."
"Oh, I see what's going on," the Dragon growled. "Patch me into his channel or broadcast it on general frequencies if you can't… Commander Davis, Captain Raynor this is Xapferey Manaweaver, Emperor of Draconia, my forces are new to the neighborhood, but we are ready to assist if you require it?"
Davis's response was swift. "Emperor? Can't say I'm at all familiar with your nation, but right now, I'll take any assistance you can give us. Sending you the coordinates. We have a ground team under heavy assault that we need to extract. If you can provide us with cover fire, then we've got a good chance at getting them out."
Xapferey nodded. "How large is this ground team of yours? As we may be able to extract them without needing to make planetfall."
"Roughly regiment sized. I appreciate the offer, but we'll be able to extract them."
"Fair enough, what about the Sons of Korhal ships? We'll provide covering fire as much as you need.
Of course, Mengsk chose that moment to begin firing on the Raiders' fleet. Despite being outgunned, however, Davis proved he was no slouch, with the LIberator's guns swiftly returning fire, causing havoc to the Hyperion's systems.
"Commander Davis, would you prefer if I disabled or destroyed Korhal forces when I open fire?"
"Disabled would be best, Manaweaver. Despite their choice of loyalties, many of those people are friends and I don't believe we have the luxury of killing everyone. The Zerg are too great a threat for that."
"You have no arguments from me on that front, all ships deploy armor and arm weapons. Aim to disable, save quantum torpedoes unless you have no choice. All right, tactical, target Mengsk's ships, photon torpedoes full spread, dispersal pattern omega."
When the Sovereign alone opened fire, it launched 300 photon torpedoes at Mengsk's forces. Ships were pummeled and blasted around as the antimatter weapons blew open shields and armor alike, crippling multiple vessels from the single volley. The other Draconian ships opened up with their pulse phasers and phaser arrays, as they ripped apart weapon ports with contemptuous ease thanks to the withering barrage provided by their Flagship.
"WHAT THE HELL?" Mengsk screamed. "What is this?"
A whistle came over the channel. "You guys don't mess around, do you?" Davis commented.
A new voice came across the channel, one that Xapferey recognised as Sarah Kerrigan. "Commander? Jim? What is going on up there?"
"Open a frequency to the Sons of Korhal ships," Xapferey ordered.
"Open Sire."
"Mengsk, the photon torpedo is the weakest torpedo in my arsenal, back off or I'll resort to transphasic torpedoes and let me assure you... The transphasic torpedo is capable of obliterating ships a lot larger and far more powerful than your ships," the Dragon warned.
Davis, meanwhile, was responding to Sarah. "Sorry about that, Sarah. We've had some problems up here, the ones we feared. The Liberator is inbound for extraction, about 3 minutes out. We've also picked up some new friends that are giving us some support."
"What? Actually, never mind, just glad you're still there." Sarah replied, relieved.
Mengsk interjected at this point. "I don't care who you think you are. You do not order me around, Emperor. Withdraw or I will show you just why the Confederates fell to me."
Davis's voice interrupted Xapferey's reply. ""Sarah, get 5 nukes in the air and target the main base. Tell anyone left there to run for it!"
"Got it, everyone who was there has either left or is gone." She quickly replied.
"Lieutenant, target one of Mengsk's battlecruisers with a transphasic torpedo, one on the edges of his fleet please and fire."
A yellowish torpedo shot out of the forward launchers at incredible speed and slammed into the target battlecruiser. It ignored the shields and obliterated the armor and the whole ship was consumed by the fury of the weapon.
"And you will fall to me Mengsk… I crippled much of your fleet with a single volley of my weakest torpedoes. Test me at your peril, more powerful beings have tried."
Xapferey brought up the view of the ground battle, seeing the Zerg overwhelming what had been Sarah's original base. Despite this, he could see that Sarah, and the Protoss that were supporting her (how that had happened he had no idea, since it didn't look like she'd been engaging them at all) were still holding a solid line. The nuclear missiles that Davis had ordered blew a major hole in the Zerg attack lines, providing some much needed relief for the defending Wraiths and Behemoth class battlecruisers, while her ground forces, teamed with the Protoss, were engaging the Zerg fiercely. As he looked, Davis's voice came over the channel.
"Sarah, suggest you keep everyone away from the western front. It's about to get messy down there."
"What exactly do you have in mind?" She asked.
For a moment, there was no response. Then the Liberator's main cannons opened fire. While the Sovereign easily outgunned the Liberator's output, the sheer destructive power that the ship's guns possessed was immensive for a ship of its size, comparable to or even slightly exceeding an Intrepid class in a ship half its size. The Zerg on the receiving end of the blast certainly didn't appreciate it. It was soon obvious that Mengsk didn't care for either display either.
"Damn it. All ships, break orbit and disengage. You will regret this. Both of you. I have come too far and sacrificed too much to watch you steal it out from under me. I will not be stopped by the likes of you."
"You will try youngling, you will try," Xapferey then cut the link between his ship and Mengsk's. "Commander Davis, I suggest you hurry, I'm picking up Zerg forces on long range sensors, lots of them."
"Copy that." The LIberator swung around above the base, taking up position and raining fire down on the Zerg, while one of the other ships descended to begin collecting the soldiers. As Xapferey's fleet moved to support them, Davis's voice came over the channel.
"Sarah, we have enough firepower at the moment to extract the Protoss as well, if they're happy for that."
Kerrigan quickly responded. "They're happy to do that, Commander. But what are those other ships?"
"Good question. All I can say is that they showed up and offered their help. I wasn't about to turn it down."
"Guess we can talk about it later. Looks like Matt's full. You ready?"
"On the way." The Liberator swung down, continuing to direct most of its cannon fire at the zerg line while giving cover for the remaining defenders boarding her. Within a couple of minutes, all the defenders had embarked and the Liberator swung back up, driving for space.
"Commander Davis, I can sense a major psionic… two major psionics on that planet and there's a tremendous buildup of psychic energy at the second source. Would you care to meet me there and investigate it?" Xapferey asked.
"Think I'd better. We just picked it up too. Our readings-"
At that point, a flare of light erupted off in the distance, looking for all the world like a nuclear blast. Xapferey blinked, recognising the sheer power behind such a blast and the likely source. Davis sounded shaken when his voice returned.
"Definitely going there now. Whoever did that, they've got Duke and the Zerg closing in on them, and they're close to the Ion Cannon. We need to get there, fast."
"Ok, I'll have one of my frigates cloak and give this Ion Cannon a strafing run with photon torpedoes. I'll probably beat you there," muting the line Xapferey spun to the tactical officer. "Lieutenant have a human only security team meet me in transporter room one, we don't want to tip our hands too soon... heavy loadout, advanced weapons."
"Aye Milord," five others from the Royal Guard platoon joined them. In the transporter room the officer manning it shook her head.
"Sorry Milord, the blast disrupted subspace, we can't beam you straight to the location, we can get you close but you'll have to make the rest of the way on foot."
"Figures," Xapferey muttered before they beamed down and began hustling to the blast's location. As they arrived, the Liberator swept down and touched down ahead of them, disgorging a group before taking off again. Soon enough, Xapferey's group joined them. Of the four soldiers that awaited them, he recognised three. Tassadar's armour was distinctive enough to make him easy to spot, while Sarah's Ghost suit and red hair also gave away her identity. Of the two armoured marines, Jim Raynor's trademark black armour and skull faceplate was unmistakable, leaving only one possibility for the wearer of the navy coloured, more technologically advanced suit.
"Commander Davis?" Xapferey asked.
The blue suited marine's faceplate went up. "That would be me. I assume you're Xapferey?"
He nodded. "Indeed."
Davis nodded grimly. "Appreciate the assistance you gave us, though I'm more than a little curious as to why. Your timing was, well, impeccable. But I guess that will all have to be explained later. Right now, we have a job to do."
"Agreed, shall we?" Xapferey asked as he motioned with his plasma assault rifle in the direction of the blast.
Davis nodded and gestured to the others with him. "This is Executor Tassadar, Captain Sarah Kerrigan and Captain Jim Raynor." As they started towards the blast zone, Davis continued. There's a bit of a problem with this psionic that concerns me."
"Oh?" Xapferey asked. "I mean I can understand because of the sheer power involved. The blast felt almost like the result of a… supernova," Xapferey kept his voice level and controlled but inside he was chuckling at his joke.
Davis shot him a look. "Well, you're not wrong. Our measurements indicated a Class 10 psionic was behind the blast. Only problem is, there's only two of them and I know both. Sarah here is one. The other, well, if it's her then something has gone badly wrong."
Raynor looked at Davis. "I didn't know you knew of another class 10, Jason."
"We all have our secrets, Jim. This one wasn't mine to tell. And if she is here, then someone is going to pay. Even for psionics, that blast isn't normal."
"I was going to say something similar, blasts like those only come from high amounts of experience or pure desperation," Xapferey agreed though he was wondering just how different these events were to what he knew. "Though in the sake of sharing Sarah is not the only powerful being here," Xapferey released some of the masking on his power letting only those psionics within a few feet of him sense the sheer titanic and raw power of his constantly growing magic.
Sarah and Tassadar's heads snapped around to look at him, stunned. "You're not kidding." Sarah managed. "That's a lot of raw power you're holding back, but that doesn't feel like any psionics I've ever come across."
"My abilities do cover psionics as well but my powers are quite… diverse," Xapferey said. "There are many powers I have and can show you in time, including how to mask yourself from others who could normally sense you," Xapferey returned the masking to his powers as they continued forwards.
Davis looked suspicious. "I get the feeling that we're going to need a nice long chat, very soon."
"Of that Commander you are quite right…"
Tassadar interrupted. "We are getting close. I can sense one young Terran female ahead, but there are a number of other Terrans closing on her position."
"How close Executor? Will we make it in time?" Xapferey asked.
Tassadar shook his head. "They will beat us there, but I do not think they will have time to escape with her before we arrive."
"Damn, what if I could make us move and react faster? Would we beat them?" Xapferey pondered using a haste spell in his mind.
Davis readied his weapons. "Unless you can do it very fast, I don't think it's worthwhile. We'll just have to be better than them. You brought some serious firepower with you and we're no pushovers either."
"Ini arcaniss yth gethrisj temepilt," Xapferey spoke in Draconic, as the haste spell settled in. Sarah and Tassadar were the only ones to sense that the words seemed to have power on their own, but connected to his powers, the effect it had was noticeable as everyone began moving twice their normal speed.
Davis shook his head as they rapidly approached. "Well, I guess that counts as very fast." The group stormed around the corner to find a young woman kneeling on the ground, sobbing. Davis ran over to her, kneeling beside her and started whispering. The woman looked up at him and whispered something back. Xapferey recognised her and was glad to confirm his suspicion.
"Nova Terra." He breathed almost silently.
Davis helped her to her feet, but before they could leave, a group of Alpha Squadron marines charged into the area, guns up. Realising the situation, Davis wasted no time in getting out of the line of fire, grabbing Nova and flaring a set of concealed jump jets in his suit to get the pair of them into cover. Neither Xapferey and his soldiers, nor the two Raiders and the Protoss Executor wasted any time either, each whipping up their weapons and opening fire on the Marines, though both Tassadar and Kerrigan threw out considerable psionic power to deal with them as well. Davis, emerging from behind cover with a massively long rifle in hand, sighted and fired repeatedly, each of his shots blasting straight through a number of men. Xapferey called on his own magic, grinning at the marines before snapping his fingers, turning a number of marines into fragments with a single spell. Behind him, his guards shifted fire from one marine to the next, pummelling them with firepower that they simply couldn't match.
Sixty of Alpha Squadron's finest marines had stood against the multi-national group. Twenty seconds later, none of them were still standing. Davis stood, shaking his head.
"Well, that was…..different."
"You're telling me." Sarah said. "What the hell was that? I didn't think anything like that was possible."
"Agreed." Tassadar replied. "Even for Protoss, that simply isn't possible."
Before Xapferey had a chance to respond, Nova got to her feet. "Jason, would you mind tell me what is going on?"
Sarah looked at Davis. "I take it, then, that your fears were right."
Davis nodded, his face grim. "Everyone, meet Nova Terra. Nova and I have known each other for a long time. Now, as much as I'd like to chat, we need to move, now. The Ion Cannon might be down, but there's still a lot of enemy troops down here and we've got virtually no support."
"Fair point." Sarah replied. "But we need to talk."
"Yeah, and I can guess what about too. Add it to the list, it's getting long enough."
Everyone moved fast, heading for an open area where the Liberator could make a pickup from. The group was silent, mulling over the events of the past few hours, and there was a lot to try and reconcile with. As the Liberator touched down before whisking Jason and his crew out and Xapferey's team transported out, both leaders had much on their mind.
Xapferey, while familiar with the events he was in, had had a major change in situation that he hadn't expected. Jason and his crew, on the other hand, was not only dealing with the betrayal of Mengsk and the aftermath of New Gettysburg, but also with working with both the Protoss and Xapferey from here on in, not knowing how much of what they had said could be trusted. Regardless of everything else, one thing was certain.
From here on in, things were going to be very interesting indeed.
