Chapter 2: Thunder in the Forest
The sun peeked from the horizon, shining its golden light over a mountain, atop which a pile of snow rested.
Out of thin air, a green flash of light appeared next to the pile, and then turned into the Lady in Black. "Rise and shine, Prelate! Your warriors are awaiting your orders!"
Makatai raised his head, causing some of the snow to fall off it. He scowled and let out a grumbled sigh.
"That fluffy white coat does not suit you," she said, smiling through her eyes.
He shook the snow off the rest of his body. "Is there nobody else suitable for the position of prelate?"
"You are the strongest member of this tribe, and you are the former prelate's son. Is it any wonder that everyone expects you to pick up the mantle?"
Makatai pointed his claw at her. "You are the strongest member of our tribe! Why are you not assuming leadership?"
"I have joined this tribe two years ago. It would not be fair for me to take over it when others have been here for far longer. However, if you become prelate, I shall use my powers to assist you in any way that I can."
Makatai looked at the snow that engulfed his feet. "So be it. I shall take my father's place as prelate. May Adun have mercy on me."
All protoss, excluding the very young ones, gathered in the palace of the prelate. Garf joined the crowd on his own while Raven had to be dragged inside the palace by a dark archon again.
The Lady in Black stepped on the raised platform in the hall and was followed by the two dark archons. They waited there for almost a minute until Makatai joined them. He was dressed in a new suit of armor, because an old Nerazim tradition their tribe had kept stated that anyone who becomes prelate should be offered attire fit for their beliefs and personality.
The suit was similar to his old one, but the piece on his right forearm was decorated with three green gems shaped like rhombuses, and each of his pauldrons had a spike curved toward his head, which had a silver helmet covering its top.
His people looked at him with anticipation. He was to become either the one who would lead them to victory, or the one who would doom them all.
Hearing their thoughts put much pressure on the soon-to-be prelate, but in spite of his fears, he stepped in front of the crowd and raised his right hand, producing a green flaming warp blade from the hole of his forearm's armor. "I, Makatai, son of Alys'tor, accept the title of prelate, along with all of the responsibilities that come with it. It is my sworn duty to guide our warriors, as well as to make all of the important decisions regarding our tribe."
His followers' eyes were filled with hope, and those protoss who had warp blades ignited them to cheer. They had a new leader and a chance at defeating the terrans who threatened to destroy their settlement.
Makatai continued. "The two terrans whom my father allowed into the tribe shall remain members as long as they do not do anything that goes against the tribe's well-being. Our army will focus on building a massive fleet consisting primarily of void rays. For that to happen with no interruptions, we must send four probes and five stalkers near the terrans' base and proceed to contain it with photon cannons."
"All due respect, Prelate," Raven said, "this vessel doubts that you know about the terran tanks. Should the terrans resort to building a few of those vehicles, the photon cannons will be turned to dust."
"We need to buy time. If we let them expand, they will simply walk right in and destroy our settlement. Our only chance is to contain them now and focus on our void ray production before it is too late. Should they bring in the tanks, we will be ready for them. Probes, stalkers, go and contain the terrans! May Adun be with you!"
"I hope you know what you are doing, Prelate," the Lady in Black said.
The four probes looked around to make sure no marines could spot them, then levitated toward the terran base. One of them opened up a warp portal, and then the other three probes joined in, creating their own portals. Within seconds, in place of the portals stood four pylons with large, green crystals surrounded by silver, ring-shaped frames with clawlike extensions. It was time for the probes to warp in eight photon cannons. The flower-shaped defensive structures were brought onto the field within less than a minute and were ready to use their orb-shaped levitating cannons to shoot at anything that traveled on the ground or flew above the area.
The five stalkers supervised the probes' work, making sure no terran would interfere with the containment operation.
Within less than half an hour, the terran base ended up being surrounded by hundreds of photon cannons that were backed up by multiple pylons. The probes and the stalkers left the area, hoping that the terrans would be kept there for some time.
Garf, not wearing his ghost mask since the air wasn't too cold, hid behind a conifer bush and looked through his rifle's scope. He stalked a creature that was white, fuzzy, with two short ears, brown whiskers, two large black eyes, four stubby legs, and a short, flat tail. It reminded him of the seals from Earth, but he had never seen a seal with such a dense fur coat. Upon further observation, he saw that the creature was accompanied by its baby.
The mother alien seal, completely oblivious to the hunter's presence, rolled over and allowed her pup to drink some milk from one of her six black nipples.
It was the perfect time to pull the trigger, and yet Garf hesitated. His finger was one jerk away from causing the rifle to deliver the killing shot, but seeing those fluffy alien seals so vulnerable made him ponder if he really had it in him to put an end to their lives.
The alien seals continued to be blissfully unaware of the threat.
Garf knew he needed to eat something soon, or else he would end up losing a lot of muscle mass, and he didn't have much fat on him either. He was glad that his hostile environment suit kept him warm, because the planet he was on only knew one season: winter. What he wasn't glad about was that food was very difficult to come by. Most of the local flora did not produce anything edible for humans. The plants with roots that he could eat were difficult to find under the snow, and berries only grew from parasitic plants that could be found at the top of the tallest trees.
The alien seal licked the head of her pup.
"Auuuugh!" Garf screamed while lowering his rifle. His preys heard him and ran away surprisingly fast on their stubby legs, leaving the ghost to cry because of his failure.
"You're a pathetic hunter," the Lady in Black said as she appeared out of nowhere behind him. "Here." She threw him a green vine that had twenty red berries on it.
Still having tears in his eyes, Garf caught the vine and said, "Thenk yau!"
She scowled at him. "If you hadn't attempted to destroy Raven, he would be helping you find food right now."
He scowled back at her. "Raivn es enemay! Ee ca go to 'ell!"
"You don't have to be enemies! You can just be part of this tribe. Neither of you seem to have any pleasant memories regarding your former factions, so just forget them and be like us. We stand united, and together we are strong."
"Nuoooooo!" Garf said. "Raivns an ghosts en … ene … enem ... enemay! 'E taid ta kill m'."
"He was only following orders," she said. "Now he answers to Makatai. And if Makatai forbids him to attack you, he will not attack you."
Garf crossed his arms at his chest and looked away. "Hmpf!"
"Good luck finding food by yourself then." With that, the Lady in Black blinked away.
Makatai saw the stalkers and the drones return from their mission. "Did you successfully contain the enemy?"
"Yes, we have left no gaps through which they could to escape," a stalker told him.
"Excellent," Makatai said. "Now we can begin to gather the ships and then drive these wretched creatures off our planet."
A female protoss with violet skin and a green robe approached him. "Prelate!"
"Yes, Shaska?"
"I flew my oracle to scout the edges of the forest and I saw some terran marines," she said. "They must have left their base before the containment operation took place."
"We must slay them before they build a second base! Shaska, gather the oracles and lead them toward the place where you have seen the enemy! Do not let those terrans escape!"
Shaska nodded. "It will be done."
Khar and five of the children were out on a walk through the forest. The spiky leaves of the towering trees were still covered by snow, but the sun was slowly melting it away, causing small drops of water to rain down on the protoss.
"Stay close to me, children," Khar said. "You do not want to get lost in the forest while those terrans are still out there."
"Those terrans are no match for us!" one of the three boys said. "They cannot even levitate!"
One of the two girls added, "Indeed! Their technology is worse than ours was 500 years ago!"
Khar told them, "Keep in mind that we were uplifted. The terrans were left to grow by themselves. Also, in spite of their outdated technology, they have managed to successfully stand against our kind and the zerg. So do not underestimate them!"
The boy chuckled. "They are still weaker than us overall. Their strongest members could barely win a fight against our weakest people."
Khar put her right arm in front of him. When he stopped walking, so did the other children. There was a strange mist ahead, which made Khar suspect there was something dangerous there. As the mist approached, she could hear loud rumbles and see some trees fall. "We must return to the settlement. Those might be the terrans." She turned around to see three marines with guns pointed at her.
"Looks like we failed to kill it before it laid eggs," a marine said.
Khar looked at the children behind her and told them, "Run! Let me deal with them!"
The children scattered through the forest while Khar glared at the terrans and prepared a ball of green light in her right hand.
Five oracle ships flew along one edge of the forest, then went to check on the photon cannons near the terran base. The terrans were still surrounded, not wanting to risk their lives in exchange for destroying the cannons. There was no sign of any terran machinery capable of heavy ranged attacks.
Three small terran ships called vikings hovered above the base – a large ship that could pass for a carrier. The vikings had spotted the oracles, but could not fly over the cannons without getting blasted to bits.
A bulky, bipedal mech with cannons for arms towered next to two smaller ones. The oracles identified the smaller mechs as goliaths, known from the era of the Brood War. The larger one was something they had never seen before, so they had no idea what it could do. Since it wasn't being used for breaking through the photon cannons, they assumed it wasn't as strong as a tank.
Speaking of tanks, there were none in sight. Perhaps the terrans were busy building them, unless they had a better plan – which could spell trouble for the protoss.
Garf wandered the forest, still looking for something to hunt. He saw a creature similar to a white owl with a round body, its head looking as if it were part of its torso. This was his chance. He looked through the scope of his rifle and aimed for the owl thing's head. But … it was so fluffy … Why did everything on this planet have to be fluffy? Why did his hands have to shake like that every time he aimed at a creature?
The rumble from the forest reached the owl thing's unseen ears, making the creature fly away with its large, feathered wings.
"Uooofff!" Garf said, lowering his rifle. He sighed. It seemed like there would be no food for him that night.
Trees started to collapse in the distance, distracting him. There was a thick mist where the trees had fallen, and something dark could be seen heading his way. It was shaped like a vehicle, and it sounded like one, but there was also a strange whistling sound and … music?
Blaring the song Terran 7 Action on the speakers of his cyclone, a terran man in his late twenties grinned, driving while shooting down trees with the help of his vehicle's tornado blaster missiles. "The Dominion doesn't get that AI just can't hold a candle to human skills when it comes to driving this baby," he said, patting the black plastic dashboard while his left hand held the wheel.
On the video feed from the cyclone's camera there was movement detected. When the driver touched the screen and slid his index finger and thumb over it, the image was zoomed in, showing the protoss children. "So that's what protoss toddlers look like!" At that moment he had what he thought was a fun idea. "I wonder if they're fast enough to escape the wrath of the cyclone, he he heh!"
The two protoss children heard the ruckus and saw the silhouette of the cyclone that brought down trees. They wanted to run away from the vehicle, but they were too tired to climb the mountain behind them. They couldn't head east, because the marines were there fighting with Khar. They could head west, but they would then get out of the forest and become too easy to spot by other terrans that could be out there.
"If only we could turn invisible like our parents can," the girl protoss said.
"Perhaps we should hide under the snow," the boy told her.
"The terran will crush us under his machine if we do that!"
The boy scowled at her. "Then what do you propose we do?"
She looked at the blue sky. "Hope that Adun sends someone to save us."
The cyclone headed straight for the children, knocking trees down as if they were bowling pins. It had a launcher on its left side and another on its right, through which it rapidly fired the small missiles that dropped into the snow. On the left side of the vehicle's front, a red light shone brightly, making the cyclone look like a monster to the children.
Just when the missiles were falling near the little protoss, the cyclone stopped advancing, in spite of its four all-terrain wheels still trying to carry it forward.
"Is this thing broken?" the driver asked, looking at the schematic of his cyclone on its screen. "Systems seem fine. Why isn't it moving?"
Whatever it was, it refused to let the cyclone get closer to the children.
"This is ridiculous," the driver said while face-palming and letting his hand slide down his face. He took a pair of thick, black gloves out of the dashboard's glove compartment and equipped his hands with them. "I better stop talking to myself and go check what's going on out there."
The wheels stopped while the cyclone's front lowered itself to allow the terran to get out. The protoss could see his angry looking blue eyes and the scratch mark scar on his right cheek. On the top of his head he had goggles with two big red lenses and four smaller ones below them. "Hey, you little lizard people! What did you do to my cyclone?"
The children quivered while their backs stuck to the cold mountain rocks behind them.
The driver landed on the snow and started punching his left palm with his right fist. "You don't look so tough. I'll just get rid of you with my bare hands. It'll make the boys' job easier when there'll be fewer 'toss to fight." He didn't even manage to take a step toward them. An invisible arm wrapped itself around his neck and pulled him back. "What the …?"
The children watched, their green eyes wide open. An unseen creature was holding the vehicle's driver and carrying him toward the cyclone's front.
The driver struggled. "Let me go, you … What are you anyway? Dark templar?"
"Huooooo!" the invisible entity said.
The driver kicked his captor in the knee, hoping to free himself from the headlock. His foot met with a piece of metal. "You got knee pads. Sneaky bastard!"
Due to having used up all of his psionic energy, Garf could no longer stay invisible. "Uh ..."
"Oh," the driver said, his tone reeking of disappointment when he turned his head and saw the green-goggled white mask. "You're just one of those UED ghosts." He stepped to the side and kicked Garf in the groin.
The ghost yelped as he let the driver go. Then he fell on the ground, holding his hands between his legs in an attempt to stop the intense pain.
The driver towered above Garf. "You ghosts and your fancy suits … Can sneak around and mess with people, but you got nothing to guard your family jewels." He went back into the seat of the cyclone. "When you'll get caught in the storm of missiles, you'll end up looking like Swiss cheese! Heheh!"
A thunderstorm broke out above the cyclone, sending green lightning strikes down. This caused the driver to abandon his vehicle and flee the scene before he'd get fried. "That's not the storm I was expecting!"
Garf was still on the ground, whimpering while the storm raged on.
"Get out of there!" Khar said, standing behind some bushes.
The protoss children looked at her and then at the ghost that had defended them earlier. They couldn't leave him behind.
Khar ran to help them get the ghost out of there before her psionic storm would become too strong to bear. The cyclone had already been partially damaged, and the lightning started to strike toward the man on the ground. She lifted him by herself while allowing the children to run to safety. Looking at the chaotic lightning above, she realized that there wouldn't be enough time to save herself and the terran. Yet the storm was her fault, so leaving him behind would not be an honorable thing to do – especially not after witnessing him save the children. "I should have trained. The storm would not have gotten out of control if I had learned to use it properly. Please, forgive me."
Garf looked at her and then at the lightning bolts that crackled as they spread like the branches of barren trees. All he could say was, "Yipe!"
A green dome formed above Garf and Khar, protecting them from the storm. The dome then bent its edges upward and turned into a sphere that wrapped the lightning inside itself, shrinking until it became the size of a basketball. The ball then descended and landed in the right palm of the Lady in Black.
Khar knew she was in for some scolding, so she bowed her head and let the terran stand by himself.
After absorbing the orb with her palm, the Lady in Black said, "Do you know how much damage storms such as that one can cause?"
"I am sorry," Khar said.
The Lady in Black pointed at her. "You are foolish. Many Nerazim died because they had unleashed psionic storms aided by the power of the void while they had no idea how to control them. These storms can easily kill anything in their path. The few beings that escape out of their wrath can end up crippled, often for life. You either try to master it, or never use it again. You could have destroyed the entire forest with it!"
"I … I shall train. But if these terrans keep resorting to such disgusting tactics, they deserve to face the lightning!"
"Make sure you'll use it only as a last resort. Even when controlled, a psionic storm will destroy everything it touches."
Khar nodded to her. "So I shall do." Then she looked at the younglings. "Children, we must return to the Temple of Young." She turned to see the ghost, who took off his mask and put it back into his backpack. "Terran?"
Garf looked at her with his wide brown eyes. "Huhf?"
"Just call him Garf," the Lady in Black said. "He can't even remember his real name."
"Thank you for saving the little ones, Garf," Khar said. "That was very brave of you."
"Aw, it nufn'!" the ghost said, grinning while scratching the back of his head with his left hand.
"I have to get back to the temple. You are welcome to drop by at any time." With that, Khar took the younglings by their hands and left.
Garf continued to smile and watch her walk away. He forgot all about the pain and the fact that he was supposed to be hunting.
The Lady in Black noticed his strange behavior, but considered she had more important matters to take care of, so she levitated above the snow and left as well.
The three marines from the forest limped on the way back to their base.
"Those lizards surrounded our base with cannons!" one of them said, looking at the containment area.
"Damn," another marine said. "Now we can't get our wounds healed."
The third marine sat on the snow and held his left knee with his hands, in spite of the CMC armor covering it. "My leg hurts!"
"Move over, crybabies!" the cyclone driver said as he joined them. "Let a pro show you how to whine! They fucked up my cyclone and sent a thunderstorm on my ass! Also, one of those UED ghosts was there, and he tried to strangle me! I would have died if it weren't for my combat skills!"
The first marine snorted a laugh. "Combat skills ..."
"You probably just cheap-shot him, like you usually do to us in fights," the second marine said.
"Your leg doesn't even hurt, Frank! You got no right to whine!" the third marine said to the cyclone driver while still clutching his injured knee.
Frank put his hands on his hips and scowled at the marines. "Look at yourselves! You want to preach to me about fairness in fights? I'm not the one in need of a medic here."
"Again, you got no right to whine!"
"Oh, shut up!" the driver said. "Let's go hide in another part of the forest and contact the boss before those oracles find us."
Makatai watched the group of ten void rays fly above the forest. They looked like silver, elongated flower buds with blue gem ornaments on the petals and its tip. Such beauty for something so dangerous ... He was sure that the strike would be successful. The enemy had nowhere to go, and the few terrans that slipped through were just a few marines; easy to get rid of.
Meanwhile, Gorgas the stalker tiptoed around the settlement, searching for someone. He saw the Lady in Black and then hid behind a house. When he peeked, he noticed that she was no longer there. Where could she have gone to?
The Lady in Black was behind him. "Looking for someone?"
"Oh!" he said, retracting his shaking claws under his head. "Yes, indeed I was. I was looking for you. The memory of your beauty keeps me awake at night. I came here to get fresh memories of you."
"I advise you to stop," she said, glaring at him.
"Lady, you will find no one as devoted to you as I. I am so enamored with you that I have plastered pictures of you by the hundreds on some walls of my house."
"Really?" she asked, her eyes glowing brightly. "Speaking of your house … I think you should go check if you've left the stove on."
Gorgas gave her a blank stare. "What?" He looked at his house, which could easily be seen from where he stood. There was smoke coming out of his bedroom window. "How?! I do not even own a stove! Adun, bring the rain to my house!" He ran to get the probes to put out the fire.
If the Lady in Black had a mouth, she would have smirked behind her bandanna at that moment.
The sun was beginning to set, and the void ray fleet was prepared to fly toward the terran base to attack it. The corsairs were fully charged so that they could cast their disruption webs over the enemy to stop their attacks. All stalkers and dark templar were ready to blink about and bring swift death to any terrans that they might encounter, should the strike fail. The 100 centurions were first to be sent to scout, because Makatai did not want to lose fleet members or stronger warriors to an ambush.
Garf returned with nothing but his rifle in his hands. He would go without supper, since he did not want to wander the forest during the night. For a moment he considered apologizing to Raven, but it was difficult for him to get over what that crazy machine tried to do to him. There would be no apologies! He would walk past the gigantic trash can and not say a word.
Raven rested under the roof of a giant, silver gazebo. He watched Makatai give instructions to his army on what buildings to prioritize defending.
"The terrans must not reach the Forbidden Temple," Makatai said while showing the map on a holographic projector. The temple seemed to be under ground, with the entrance being situated behind the Temple of Young. "If they gain access to its contents, they could easily turn the tide in their favor."
Raven wished that he could help the protoss out, but it was impossible. The terrans who built him did not give him access to the controls of his body, except to the areas responsible for the production and deployment of auto-turrets, point-defense drones, interference matrix missiles, and seeker missiles. For some reason, the guy who piloted him from the distance lost control over him ever since Raven fell down the mountain along with that filthy United Earth Directorate ghost, who would do anything to get rid of him, even when the AI called for a truce.
Speak of the devil, Garf was passing by Raven's gazebo just then. He tried to ignore the colossal drone.
"Auto-turret," Raven said as he spat out the structure that aimed its cannon at the ghost.
Garf's jaw dropped while he cloaked all but his exposed face. Even if he could fully cloak, it would be of no use, because Raven could see him and tell his position to the turret anyway.
"Auto-turret. Auto-turret. Auto-turret."
Three more turrets were produced, so Garf hid behind a silver building and decloaked, panting while looking around to see if there was a different path he could take to return to what had become his home in the village.
"Eat turret, you monster!" Raven said while the two front-facing, triangular arrays of red lights at the base of his wings increased their glow.
Garf peeked from behind the building and stuck his tongue out, then retreated fast, barely avoiding the shot from the turret.
"Cease this pointless waste of energy!" Makatai shouted just before the turrets crumbled. "If the enemy breaks into our settlement, we will need you to help us defend."
Raven lowered his fins. "But, prelate ..."
Garf protested in unintelligible words.
Makatai stomped the snow with his left foot. "Enough of this! As soon as the moons will rise, we shall strike the terrans' base. Be prepared for the worst."
The ghost looked at the raven, who he thought looked back at him – it was difficult to tell, since all that moved was the parabolic dish on the vessel's tail.
The night finally came and the twin red moons were high in the sky. The void rays flew with their gems' lights off, making sure that no one could easily spot them.
The centurions led the way, approaching the photon cannons that continued to keep the terrans contained.
"Nothing unusual here," a centurion said to Makatai over the psi link device hidden within his helmet. "The terrans seem to be asleep. Call the void rays so that this place gets cleansed as soon as possible. The centurion troops will be returning home now."
Another centurion stopped his brother in arms from leaving. "Wait! What is that hissing noise?"
They looked at the sky and saw a large, black, almost cylindrical object that had a flame trail behind it. After ascending, the object turned around and began to fall. A red blinking dot was on a pylon close to the centurions' side.
"It is a nuclear launch!" a dozen centurions said while scattering to get out of the blast radius.
The void rays saw the infamous orange mushroom cloud and fled back to the settlement, followed by the remaining 90 centurions – some of whom were severely wounded and were being carried by their comrades.
To be continued.