AN: This story is not on hiatus, not really. Until I finish Shadows and Flame, however, it will be very rarely updated, as what happens in this story follows up after that one almost immediately. If you are not familiar with the series that one is based on, I suggest you watch it. It's short, while old, it has its endearing qualities and is a starting point for much of my own headworld lore and worldbuilding.
Ultimately though, if you don't like it, these are my stories, and I share only in hopes that others may enjoy.
As Zagara and Alexei watched from their own flagships, Surriel's ship launched dozens of observer-like drones that swiftly created a perimeter around the system, the three small worlds with the fourth large one all kept in the same region on the opposite side of its pale star. As though directed like an orchestra, the drones moved into position and unfurled their many petals, looking like small, delicate snowflake-like devices -much akin to the one used to connect to Ulnar to bring their forces here- each engaging and emitting a shield barrier that expanded between them, and moved to flank and surround the four worlds they knew to be housing some of Amon's forces. Surriel's ship moved seamlessly through the barrier, brief volley of weapons fire issued from it to cause a series of missiles, launched at them from the surface of the larger planet, to explode harmlessly well away from them. Several void capital ships, one looking like a Tal'Darim carrier, launched from the planet surface and making a run for further space, seeing the gap left open in the shield as an escape route.
As the first grew closer to Warp distance, the massive triangular ark ship belonging to Leon warped in suddenly, a tendril of shadow snaking forward, turning to a massive taloned paw, which swiped through and destroyed the void ship in a brilliant explosion that illuminated the side of the massive ship, showing the carrier to have been only a tenth of the ships height on the one side, at best. It appeared to come alive, the surface rippling like water as rows upon rows of particle cannons were readied and powered up, Surriel's ship opening its own weapons bays and moving to firing range, launching a pair of torpedoes to attempt to discern what other defenses the planet had.
As those watching scrutinized the battle, Leon had busied himself alternately with choosing some earth species he thought the Zerg may be interested in, to bolster the amount of samples he intended to give to Zagara, carefully selecting each, creating duplicates of the needed samples that he had only a few of remaining, briefly monitoring his ship and Aureiahnna's relentless barrage on the forces attempting to flee the planet. One, shielded from the barrage by other smaller ships, attempted to flee by racing along the side of his ship, under the particle cannons when it managed to get close enough.
"No you don't." Leon then sent a simple command, one of the components of his ship suddenly lurching out from the front of the ship, appearing as some might think of a spring-loaded trap, the spine of sorts catching the side of the fleeing vessel and sending it careening in a uncontrollable sideways spin into the shield emitters. It exploded brilliantly, the shield emitters appearing to briefly shift positions, the closest ones gently connecting their shield and dancing it across the ends of his ship.
Two other ships attempted to do the same to the Ahr'aht ship, which simply allowed them to pass it, the two ships seeing the shield far too late and colliding headfirst into it.
The network of emitters held, shifting slightly as the energy distribution adjusted to repair and replenish those most affected by the kamikaze attacks. The two torpedoes had struck the surface missile array, and one of the visible craters on the planet's surface. The resulting explosions cleared enough to show the planet to be hollowed out, Leon and Surriel alarmed and directly focusing on the battle, Surriel even rose to his feet, to observe more pointedly the planet, hoping his and Leon's shared thought to be just a coincidence.
**Surriel...** Leon sent, frowning as they spotted two ships amongst the others they had hoped they had left behind, shaped like small battle axes or talons, Leon promptly focusing his fire on them, hoping that Zagara, Alexei and Xerxes had not spotted them beforehand.
**How the fuck did they get through!?** Surriel swore, agitated now.
**Damned if I know. We can hope it's Amon allying with one of his alternates connected to Voyd, but we need to keep this quiet.** Leon growled back, just as concerned and now visibly pacing on the bridge of his ship, tail lashing at the air.
**Obviously, this could pose a greater problem later though if we keep it from our new allies. That Void and Null are so similar is no coincidence, we have to be careful about how we approach this.** Surriel sighed, nodding to his helmsman and turning to the Taalrulthian in his midst.
"Harumistrel, tell Sam the Beast has agents here. She needs to know to keep it quiet though."
**Surriel, I'm listening, I saw the ships, so did Xerxes and Kuldaris.** Samateus frowned, moving closer to Xerxes and Kuldaris on the Obsidian Flare, the two concerned by the implications of the strange void-comprised ships that they had recorded and brought clearer images of up now, Samateus holding her ears flat as Surriel and Leon both almost crumpled to their knees as their careful attempt to keep information -that could potentially have them pushed from the sector- from reaching their allies, fell apart before they could even formulate a way to explain things.
**Leon, we need to talk once this is over.** Xerxes growled low, but held his ire, understanding the need to keep secrets, to keep the greater populace from becoming panicked. He had done much the same when he knew of how blatantly the Conclave manipulated the truth, and the Khala itself.
**I will attempt to explain things when I see you and the Overqueen.** Leon withdrew his mind from the previously thought private conversation, not realising until too late that Samateus was almost always connected to either him, or Surriel, if a battle were ongoing with them involved. Samateus shook her head solemnly, Kuldaris and Xerxes' concern also worried her, as she explained simply that the Voyd had been their Amon, the being comprised of Null energy, encased in a massive black shell that mimicked and mocked Leon's ship design pointedly.
**How did they get here then, if they did not follow you?!** Kuldaris accused, frowning deeply. Xerxes frowned at him, letting out a growl of warning.
**Amon has agents here that are operating without alerting anyone, like this world here. We cannot know how or when Amon allied with some other of his own alternates, giving them access as we did for Samateus and Surriel. Would you send them away and simply hope that this, Voyd and his minions would follow them instead of continuing to aid Amon to darken our universe as he tried to theirs and so many others?** Xerxes narrowed his eyes, Kuldaris shrinking down a little bit, bobbing his head apologetically.
**I understand your concern Kuldaris, but your father is correct. While we used Ulnar, they may have other means to travel between realms.** Samateus breathed in deeply, exhaling pointedly as a sigh. **There may be an alternate to me, or even you Xerxes, helping them.** Kuldaris balked at this, that any alternate of his father could potentially have turned to Amon instead of Ashtareen. Xerxes simply nodded, chill passing over him breifly making him shake himself slightly.
**I am not surprised by this. Were it not for Mother, teaching me of Ashtareen when I was young and to embrace her, not the Void or Amon, I may not have been able to sway Sevorak, and may have become more like Alarak. Selfish. Dictatorial. The Conclave might have put up a fight, however I know I could have wrested control of Aiur after they had attempted to push me out of the position of Monarch when younger, if I had later pulled the resources available to me, launched the Spear... I dread to think how things may have progressed.** Xerxes' admission to the dark thoughts he had when he had been ignorant of Amon and the darkness threatening their entire species, and even the universe as a whole, made Kuldaris pause, nodding his understanding and expressing sympathy for such. He had watched not once, but twice, as Shakuras, the Nerazim homeworld, had activated a temple to first cleanse the Zerg from the planet, and then destroy it utterly.
**We can speak on that more later, look.** Xerxes interjected, bringing Kuldaris out of his memories, to which he silently thanked Xerxes for keeping him from his own despair and depression caused by being unable to help, watching as Leon's massive ship turned and moved away. The planets had since been obliterated, debris and slowly dispersing peices of the smaller three either caught in the gravity well of the star and turned to dust, or simply kept moving on their trajectory away. Surriel's ship moved to each world, scanning the debris and ensuring nothing had been missed, as the Ark ship belonging to Leon warped itself away and the shield emitter circle disengaged, the devices following safe trajectories to return to the Ahr'aht ship.
One large peice, that remained roughly where the larger planet had been, suddenly erupted in a blast of psionic energy as the Ahr'aht ship neared it, catching the ship in the psionic storm. A single Hybrid Dominator, larger than any before seen and clad in armour that made its movements more effortless, moved to launch a volley of psionic bolts at the Ahr'Aht ship. Kuldaris quickly moved the Flare within range, Xerxes psionically reaching out and grasping the mind of the Hybrid, which paused and looked wide-eyed at the other Ark ship. It tried to wrest itself from Xerxes' control, letting out a single scream of agony as Kuldaris fired a series of projectile lances at it to kill it swiftly. Samateus engaged her armour and streaked over to the Ahr'aht ship, concerned, as it visibly had lost power. A few tense moments passed with her dancing around the ship, as some might think of a fly doing to a horse, the ship soon flickering and powering back up.
Surriel then reached out and established a commlink with Zagara, Xerxes and Alexei, Samateus teleported into the ship's bridge. She could be seen behind Surriel, who appeared a bit haunted and shook some dust off his feathers -no, that was definitely ash- as Harumistrel shook himself and greeted her.
"Apologies, that last one was unexpected." Surriel looked over his crew, each barking back confirmations that they were relatively unharmed, Harumistrel nodding that he would be alright, having absorbed the brunt of the Psionic storm to save the rest of the crew. Xerxes did not speak immediately, Kuldaris agitated by his silence, but did not bring up what they had seen during the battle. He shook his head lightly at the next comment, from Alexei, who did not miss anything about the battle.
"What were those, claw-shaped ships you took special interest in?" Surriel appeared to pale, letting out a tired sigh and shaking his head.
"What we had hoped would be far behind us, members of the forces of Voyd we thought had been left in our realm. We can only assume that they had assistance from Amon or another of his alternates in coming here." Surriel explained as simply as possible, Zagara narrowing her eyes.
**Should we know anything to aid us in defending ourselves should they appear?** Zagara's displeasure remained closely guarded, this new threat adding to the already concerning well hidden strongholds that could be anywhere in the sector a major problem. Surriel expressed wordlessly his apology and deep sadness that their problem had become the problem of others, surprised that Zagara would not become hostile at the admission that he and Leon had been wrong in assuming their threat would be left behind.
"Only that their configurations may all be varied and best handled from afar. The Null energy comprising them is held in place and shape by the control discs at their core, which causes the Null energy to implode or dissipate when the disc is destroyed. Usually on smaller drones they are on the chest, however they had been seen to change tactic on shock troops that hide them on forearms or the abdomen." Surriel explained, motioning to his science officer to send the Flare and Zagara, and Alexei by proxy, information packets on the Beast planet and its agents. All that they had been running from and learning of the monstrosity that devoured entire worlds whole, sent over and absorbed by the two Zerg the most quickly, Alexei frowning.
"How do we know this thing isn't already here somewhere? It may even be by Earth!" His tone barely hinted at the blind rage bubbling under his stalwart Admiral's exterior. Samateus stopped Surriel from responding, opting to speak instead.
"Because we put trackers on the giant bastard. It's shell can be pierced, with a great deal of effort, but otherwise even we have been hard pressed to do it fatal damage." Samateus paused, Surriel stepping back to let the comms camera focus on the both of them more easily. She briefly looked to him, his feathers rising and falling a few times before he nodded and she continued. "Leon's Ark ship can be turned into a massive weapon itself, using a self-contained star, larger than the ones we use in our World Ships and powering his ship effortlessly, and we used it once to launch a single attack on what we called the Beast Planet. It managed to leave a large rent on its exterior, which we quickly hid a tracking device in before it could reallocate other parts of its shell to cover what we exposed. It likely doesn't even realise it has a passenger, but we would have been alerted if it appeared here anywhere, even if it showed up in the Sol system." Samateus explained, eyes locking on Alexei. "I understand your concern. Leon is interested in speaking with you, about your Earth, and potentially extending an olive branch..."
"You... How much do you know of Earth?" Alexei asked hesitantly, Samateus smiling a bit toothily.
"More than I would wish to share at this moment. Though I'm certain you already figured that out." His laugh and nod surpised Zagara, then remembered that Samateus had mentioned being in the form of a Terran -a Human- and worked alongside Alexei with Mira Han fairly recently.
"Alright, I look forward to it. Overqueen, I do not see any further reason to distrust these newcomers myself." Alexei smiled, genuinely, which earned him another nod from Samateus and Surriel, Xerxes and Kuldaris nodding agreement as they too, fully trusted Surriel and Samateus. Zagara then had an idea, which Surriel, Xerxes and Samateus blinked comically at.
**I would like to gift you this system for your alliance. This way we can find you at a moments notice, and your engine-bearing worlds can, power down, if they wish.** Zagara's offer shocked Xerxes greatly, sharing a glance with Kuldaris who almost appeared to smile. Surriel gaped lightly, feathers limply hanging on either side of his head. Samateus chuckled, gently nudging Surriel playfully as she smiled at Zagara again.
"Thank you, Overqueen. You have done us a great kindness in such. Those four engine-bearing worlds have been stuck in a single atmospheric season for years, for them to be able to resume as they were intended will bolster morale." Samateus bowed in her strange quadrupedal way, Zagara returning it.
Zagara and Alexei then bid their allies farewell, Zagara remaining for the return of Leon's Ark ship, which remained at the outskirts of the star's gravitational well, the world ships and many others belonging to the Surrithae alliance appearing from a slipstream conduit in mere moments. Zagara's loaned Leviathan, the one that had started this interaction, warping in momentarily as she called it. Xerxes had Kuldaris teleport him to where Dehaka and Aliszha with Abathur -who had taken to watching the Primal Hybrids interacting with Aliszha's entourage once he had sufficiently gone through Xerxes' genetics sequences to his liking for the moment- were on the lead Ahr'Aht world ship. His arrival roused Dehaka, who had yet to notice the braids in his beard, the massive Primal eyeing the much smaller yet obviously more powerful Primal Hybrid. Xerxes observed Dehaka's movements, attempting to stand similarly, forelimbs held more before him with his smaller ones around them, earning a chuckle from Dehaka.
"You are, still learning, to be Primal. Have you, taken essence? Changed?" Dehaka inquired, Xerxes blushing a bit.
**Yes and no, I've not yet had the... Pleasure, of taking essence in order to evolve my form more. I actually hoped, you might teach me of what to expect when I do.** Xerxes indirectly asked Dehaka to teach him, Abathur blinking comically. Xerxes caught his confusion, as he obviously was very different from any Protoss, Xerxes simply showing Abathur and Dehaka a memory of when he was on Zerus. He had attempted several times to fly using his wings, which he knew now had been undersized and too weak to be able to sustain proper flight at the time, his long tail sporting smallish spurs of Khaydarin crystal and locomotion already changed prior to his entering the Primal Spawning pool. Dehaka in turn shared the brief flash of when he had been feasting with his pack, pausing to look up as he heard some rustling in the trees above, catching a brief glimpse of Xerxes, as he had been then.
**Curious. Have much to contemplate.** Abathur said simply, long talon limbs from his back curling closer to himself as he appeared to withdraw from them.