CHAPTER TWO
MALTHUS
Four years ago.
The high templar had held off the swarms for days – but he was growing weary, and his warriors as well. Several times it had seemed they had devised a cunning way around his attacks, and he had beaten them only by a scant measure at the last moment. But this battle, driven to the edge so many times, had taken its toll on his ordinarily indefatigable stamina. Even the khaydarin, warm to the touch under the palm of his four fingered hand – provided no comfort. The darkness was coming – and it may be that the light was not enough – but there would be such a light at the end.
He raised his eyes, and watched the swarms coming once more.
The one thing he had not prepared for – for all their might and power, an enemy that unflinchingly drove endless hordes into your ranks, until even your powers were depleted… such an enemy had been beyond imagining…
The Zerg replenished themselves almost overnight it seemed, and had fresh troops to assault him. He did not have the resources or the troops at his disposal to root out their hives and destroy them at the root. And so he played a weary game behind the fortifications, seeing how long the shields would last. How long their crystals would last and their reavers continue to be able to manufacture new weapons.
Their power would diminish before the zerg's did – they had occupied a vast land, and they were a small, doubtful redoubt that remained – an island in a rapidly swelling sea. It was their one weakness. They were invincible so longer as their power held – and it always had without fail – but now a new enemy had come, with the unique gift of making the infallible, fall.
And so they waged a war unlike any they had known before. Every cunning stratagem, every brave selfless warrior – everything the protoss had, they brought to bear. And they would destroy every last zerg in sight before they fell.
He had prepared the chamber. Tassadar had left a noble legacy. He would go now to join him if all else failed. When the Nexus was compromised, it would not go alone.
He would teleport as many of his zealots as he could, with his power, to the far-flung moon of Xeres. It was remote, and difficult – but the Zerg would be unlikely to find them first – they would be on their own, but they able to survive until rescue came at last.
Those that he could, he would bring to the remaining ships, which he had been hiding from the eyes of the Zerg, lest his plan fail before it began.
He would topple the walls on their ranks. He would do as was done long ago and shift the continent themselves, and their organic structures would be torn asunder or fall into fiery abyss.
"You should have known this world better, alien foe." He said. He had been stationed here a hundred and ten years – and although it had not been enough to fight a better battle than had – it would be enough for this.
The crystal computers were already measuring forces, and thrumming with respond to ley-lines and tectonic faults, all of which a Nexus had to manipulate for greatest foundation on any world, like the indestructible khaydarin diamond that surmounted it. A pure symbol of the protoss.
A protoss was adept at a siege, from within and without – but the Zerg had played the long odds indeed – in an army that could not be dissuaded with the finest walls and machines of war. They were utterly fearless beyond courage – they fought as if they were already dead and that was their natural and preferred state. The Overmind had taken everything from them, even what they were before he had made them into the Swarm, forged from the life and DNA of innocent creatures.
They had attempted to surprise him several times. Burrowing beneath the earth, their minions seeking out every path and cranny – but he had been well aware. That was one battle he had met well. Knowing their emergence, subtly guiding them, closing off some paths and opening others.
The blue flame of scarabs had poured down the hole and scoured them, even as his warriors dispatched the remnant of a remnant that emerged – a sizeable number in itself, but well and gladly met by his forces.
He sighed, more a psionic quiver than a true exhalation, looking upwards. He could still see one of the carriers falling, its anti-gravity engines still attempting to slow its descent, with its remaining power, and the will left in its khaydarin psi matrix.
When they had fallen was when the battle had truly turned. With those warships in the sky, they could have bombarded the surface and scoured all the Zerg away from their indomitable fortress – but his enclave had lost their protection, the great sword and shield of the protoss.
He had ceased sending his scouts into the fray. The ships remained in their cradles now, battered, torn, still bearing the scars of a dozen ill conflicts. And now the skies were no longer a place for them. They would rise once more only if it was for the last time.
They had tested the protoss like never before. They were truly worthy phase-prongs upon the khaydarin forge-centre, he just prayed they were able to meet the test.
If the Zerg could be impressed, they would have been impressed how the protoss met them in close combat, displaying the mastery and savagery of their own race. Blazing blade against exoskeletal scythe. But they were Zerg, and they saw only that which must be overwhelmed and consumed for the Swarm.
(*)
Far away, Kerrigan was watching over her minions, her mind upon her mission.
She wondered at the Overmind's designs at times. Not all of its thoughts had been made known to her – else there would have been no need for the Overmind at all.
Had the Overmind foreseen what she would become? There had been some goal in its descension upon Aiur, upon the energies of the site touched by the Xel'Naga. It had been where they had first set foot upon Aiur, and so the Overmind had duplicated their example in a case of pure symmetry.
She had heralded a new brood and breed in the Swarm, the Overmind had designed the defiler breeds after her example in combat, and they had been charged with energies and tactics to bypass the defences of the protoss. Her mind and cunning in battle was what it was most proud of, she believed, things that had been hers from before her transformation – but given powers beyond anything she had known by its work.
"Father", she had called it. And she felt a mixture of irony and caution thinking back to it. Whatever it was, it was gone, and she had taken its place as the rightful ruler of the Zerg. She single-handedly commanded the most powerful force in the sector, and nothing could stand in her way.
And so she bided her time, and waited, and brooded – for she had an unsettling feeling that the universe would send more challenges her way – and it was a fool who threw away opportunity when she did not yet know what the future held.
She decided, on a whim, to seek out the temples of the protoss. She did not know what she would find, but they were moving, and so would she. Although she never ceased her harrying – she would at least remind them that she was still there – that she was supreme, holding the great protoss in check.
She had learned to hide and transport herself as well as they did. She had learned many lessons, and she remembered them all.
(*)
The protoss templar Praetor Malthus. He who had once held sympathies with the Tal'darim, some number of them among his house – had nevertheless proven himself in the eyes of the Once-Conclave, and redeemed the suspicion that had fallen upon them.
Although little had changed, he was loyal to Aiur, and would not have stood against the Conclave.
He smiled for his foes in the manner that protoss did, and activated the teleportation chamber. The protoss would disappear before their eyes, and spring the trap of destruction upon them.
In a moment, his physical matter had been captured in the vortex, and energy surrounded him as the beam began transporting him to join his warriors on his own ship, which had been waiting for this moment.
But unexpectedly, when he opened his eyes, he was not aboard the Uxas.
Membrane surrounded him, pulsing, glistening with alien fluids. He had been captured. His captor wasted no time in revealing herself.
A perfect plan, gone awry in a sprung trap of her own. His signal had obviously been interrupted en route, and it troubled him that she was capable of doing so. None had before prevented a protoss from where he wanted to go, or marred his path. He felt this was an offense to the Khala itself, even if he had never entirely believed the entirety of the Conclave's enforced doctrines.
"You are a mighty general of the protoss, I might have use of you if you agree to serve me. Do so, and I shall let you live."
The protoss warrior laughed, and his amusement was sincere. He brought up his gauntlet, and brought it to life for a final battle – or so he thought.
He glanced at his gauntlet, and frowned. No fire ignited – his spirit had left it.
She smiled at his expression, and she revealed something she had been concealing in the shadows. Her eyes seemed to dance with mischief that she had kept it from him – for this creature seemed to delight in tricking the protoss.
"I collected this from one of your temples. Were you looking for this, by chance?"
He recognised it – and said nothing. He may not have been searching for such an artefact, but he knew what it was, and how she had kept his power in check with its use.
"I have nullified your powers, templar, you'll find they are of no use against me."
This time he did frown. She had circumvented him once again – truly she had thought this ploy through. The gargantuan walls rumbled around him, impressing him with their size. These zerg carriers had flooded the skies above Aiur, and he had dedicated his every waking moment to devising strategies of their destruction.
An amusing irony indeed, if one of those strategies should catch him inside one – but it would be a worthy sacrifice. The Templar would remember him. The Khalai would have to record his name.
Dark energies – he watched them swirl and dance, like cavorting, decadent spirits. The monstrous creature was still speaking. "Curious thing, it almost contains the same energies the Overmind did. I guess you could say it's my inheritance."
"Then perhaps you will die as the Overmind did. You should not have challenged the protoss, creature. We have fought wars for a millenia, and you are but a sapling before our forest – even what remains."
"Those who live by the sword, warrior…" she said with a mocking expression.
He looked at her askance, and then looked around. "For one who speaks of peace, queen of the zerg, you surround yourself with odd company."
"Who said anything about peace? You simply need to be more original."
Her talons sliced forward into the light, like the legs of spider crawling forth. The light came from an organic source that glowed through the translucent membranes, providing eerie and uncomfortable illumination.
He laughed again. "Certainly, we shall show you that, Queen of the Zerg. For do not forget that the protoss are teachers of knowledge as well as stewards. We will teach you many lessons before the end." He spoke proudly – but a protoss such as he had long since learned to use knowledge to his strength, rather than the enemy's as they imagined. The opportunity to study and provoke the leader of their hated enemy was rare and priceless, whatever the cost – this was the tenet of the protoss – to seek out challenge rather than hide from it. But one he should not allow to beguile him into forgetting this "Kerrigan" was a master of manipulation as well. Although his past may have been a suspected one, he was still a creature of light, and believed it to be the weapon against darkness. Tassadar had been a master, and set an example for all to follow, whether they had believed in his mission or not.
"Now release me, creature – before my ships blast you out of the sky." It was an idle threat – if he had the ability, he would have given the order at once, but even his mind was shuttered off. His warriors would have retrieved him immediately if they could detect his presence – even now, they were likely manning the fighters to search. But they could only do so for so long – his orders would take precedence, and they would be forced to continue the command even without him. For the loss of any one templar should not come at the cost of his honour and those loyal to him.
It was a bluff, but he entertained the notion that her knowledge of the protoss was not so superior as to discount any powers they might hide from her – and she might be inclined to believe him a coward rather than a strategist, whatever her designs for him.
Her expression, however, was mocking.
"Very well." She clicked her claws, and the thick gelatinous lipids that supported him, suddenly opened beneath his feet.
She sauntered over, to watch his figure fall toward the surface of the planet below. Her minions would tear apart whatever was left.
It was disappointing, but perhaps she had hoped for too much. Pity. Shame to let good material go to waste.