Chapter 4: It Snows in Hell

The Frigate rested over the bent trees while the Nerazim whispered to each other telepathically, asking questions regarding the nature of the unusual spaceship and its crew.

"Attention, protoss!" a terran male voice echoed from the spaceship's speakers, putting to rest all speculation among the tribe. "We have received an SOS message, and the coordinates pointed to this location. We kindly request that you give us the ghost and raven that you are about to execute."

"More terrans," Makatai said, glaring at the Frigate. "They are here to back up their people."

"We want them unharmed," the ship's terran said. "We are willing to provide goods in exchange, if that is what it will take to get those two from you."

Makatai ignited his warp blade. "You continue to strike at us. It seems we will have no peace until either every last one of you is dead or we all die."

"Now hold on a second! My crew has never tried to strike a protoss encampment first. It would be like poking a wasp's nest: a pretty bad idea."

"I do not know what a wasp's nest is, terran, but what I do know is that the fewer soldiers you have, the higher our chances will be to win a fight against you savages. That is why I shall personally execute these terrans with my warp blade."

Just as Makatai turned to point his blade at Garf, the man in the Frigate said, "Whoa! Whoa! Dude! We're not here to fight ya! We're just a ship of merchants and space travelers. If we wanted to obliterate ya, we would have done so by now."

"Even so," Makatai said, "these two have committed transgressions against our tribe. They must be punished."

"Look, man, just punish them with exile. We'll gladly take them out of your hair, since we need a ghost and we could always use more detectors."

"Our law states that betrayal is punishable by death, terran. These two must die. Now leave, if you truly are neutral in this war, and let our tribe resolve this matter."

"We asked you nicely," the terran inside the ship said. The middle of the Frigate's tip opened its hatch, revealing three cannons stuck around a shaft. Inside the hole of each cannon, a dim orange light started to glow. "It looks like words won't work with you guys, so maybe words and a gun with the power of three nukes might change your mind."

Makatai stared in awe at the giant gun that could level half of the settlement in one shot. Trying to hide his fear, he put on a serious expression and said, "Now you are making demands of us. We shall not sit back and let you corner us, terrans!" Telepathically, he ordered all available warriors to come out of their homes and help him drive the Frigate away.

Analyzing the details, some of the Nerazim refused to take up arms, but many blindly followed their prelate's order and showed up behind him. Six void rays, two corsairs, seven oracles, seventy centurions, ten dark templar, four signifiers, and twenty annihilators were ready to fight on Makatai's order.

"Dude … Dude!" the terran from the Frigate said. "You're prepared to sacrifice a village's worth of warriors just so you can execute two terrans? What kind of a leader are you?"

Makatai walked toward the Frigate and stared at its cannon defiantly. The centurions thought it was an act of bravery to approach the enemy like that, but the oracle pilots and some of the dark templar considered it a sign of foolishness on part of the prelate.

"Idiot," the Lady in Black said while giving Makatai a look of disappointment.

"We will go," the two dark archons said before leaving toward the settlement.

"Return to your positions, archons!" Makatai said, but the two protoss encased in giant blobs of fire did not return.

"Come on, dude, nobody has to die!" the unseen man said. "It's just two terrans! Nobody's askin' you to give up your wives or riches or anything like that."

The young prelate considered his options. He could risk everything his father helped build just for the sake of a law, or he could give the two terrans away and no longer have to worry that his people's secrets are being leaked to the enemy. The second idea seemed to give the tribe members the best chances of survival. Perhaps there was more to being a good leader than just applying laws and sending warriors to battle. "Have it your way, terran. I shall entertain your request."

"Wise choice," the Lady in Black said.

Makatai gestured with his right hand at the ghost and raven while looking at the Frigate, then he said, "If you want them, come and acquire them."

"Rollin' out!" the man said.

A large hatch on the left side of the Frigate opened up, forming a ramp that connected to the ground and to some trees that were under the ship. The first thing to come out was a siege tank, which drove down the ramp and then turned to face the protoss.

The Nerazim knew how much destruction those terran machines could do. It made them worry even more when four more tanks came out and stood behind the first one.

Down the same ramp went twenty four marines in blue CMC suits and ten soldiers in bulky black armors whose helmets had visors that displayed two red, glowing, squinted eyes. Five small, four-wheeled vehicles with guns on top followed the infantry, and then a vehicle with a pair of cannons on its back and no wheels underneath hovered down the ramp. Most of the army had a blue and silver theme.

Among the protoss, whispers were sent telepathically. They were about worries regarding a possible surprise attack from the terrans and about the strength of the army before them.

"Okay, boys," the man from the first tank said. He was the same one who spoke from the Frigate earlier. "I'm gonna get out of my tank to give these 'toss a proper greeting. If they kill me, I want you guys to get back into the ship, lift the ramp, and get the hell out of here. I'll have none of that revenge bullshit, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, boss!" the terrans of his army said.

Before the tank's hatch could be opened, something blasted the vehicle's top.

"Alright, which one of you jokers fired that?" the boss asked while four SCVs came out of the Frigate to repair his tank.

Three of the tanks in the back turned their turrets to point to the fourth tank, whose pilot laughed.

"Very funny, guys ..." their boss said. He opened the tank's hatch and came out. He was a hefty guy wearing a CVC helmet. Its yellow goggles covered his eyes. His mustache was connected to his beard, and they were both made of stubble. As he approached Makatai, he lifted the helmet's goggles, revealing his brown eyes.

The prelate hoped that the terran would not try to pull a trick on him. There didn't seem to be anything resembling a weapon on the tank driver, and a warp blade could easily pierce the guy's unarmored chest. He looked at the five-fingered right hand that the terran leader extended toward him. "What does this mean?"

The terran smiled. "Grab it with your hand and shake it. It's how we greet each other among our people."

Makatai reached out with his own four-fingered hand and gently grabbed the terran's hand, shaking it.

"The name's Tony Cooper. I'm the leader of the Frigate's bunch of misfits."

"I am Makatai, prelate of the Atum tribe."

"It's nice to meet a protoss who knows how to negotiate for a change," Tony said, letting go of the prelate's hand.

"Yeah, and zealots who don't charge at us while screaming 'My life for Aiur!' " a marine said while approaching Tony.

"We are centurions!" one of the protoss warriors said.

"Aiur? That giant rock can stay covered in zerg gunk for all we care!" another centurion said.

The marine lifted his visor to show the look of awe on his face. "Protoss that don't want to give their life for Aiur?! Now there's something you don't see every day!"

"I'm pretty sure it's just as weird for them to see terrans who don't want to shoot at them, Brian," Tony said.

Makatai frowned. "I can no longer trust terrans. Take those two and leave. We are at war with the terrans who have invaded this planet."

"What started the war?" Tony asked.

"That does not concern you, terran. Get what you came here for and leave!"

"Alright."

Garf sat on the snow, still resting his back against Raven's cold metal plating. All of his muscles twitched uncontrollably. When he saw Tony's right hand in front of him, he snapped out of his trance and looked the tank driver in the eyes.

"Hey there!" Tony said, giving him a friendly smile.

The ghost looked at Tony's hand and then swiftly turned his head to the left to look at a pile of snow. The pile moved. He gasped and flinched away. It moved a second time. He gasped and flinched again. The third time, the pile threw itself at him, covering him in snow.

Tony adjusted the goggles on his forehead while looking at Garf with concern. "What's up with that?"

"His own damaged brain is attacking him," Makatai said. "This happens from time to time. It is not safe to leave sharp objects around where he is present. Perhaps putting him to death would be kinder than letting him live like this."

"Nuooooo!" Garf said, using his hands to remove the snow off his suit and hair.

Tony rubbed his chin with his left hand. "He's a teek, huh?"

Raven decided to make himself heard. "This vessel requires attention."

"Now that's a sad-looking raven," Tony said. "What did ya guys do to it?"

"A pilot is controlling this vessel's turret production from a remote location. This vessel had to be sapped of energy repeatedly to remain harmless. These protoss were about to destroy this vessel. Please disarm this vessel before packing it into the ship."

Tony snapped his fingers. "That's a job for Magellan, our science vessel's AI."

"Well, I'll be!" Magellan said. "I never thought we would ever get our hands on a raven. They are very expensive." He was an android with three bodies united in their abdominal area around a shaft. Each of the bodies had a face with one left eye with white iris, and three red, robotic eyes sticking out of the right side of the face. Instead of hair, the back and top of each head had black wires sticking out of silver connectors. In front of him there were multiple screens. He would sometimes rotate his bodies around the shaft as if he were a steering wheel – this behavior usually made some of his teammates freak out.

Garf was inside the science vessel because he was needed to launch EMP rounds at Raven from time to time. Makatai, Khar, Tony, and Brian were also there, watching Magellan's robots enter the raven to scan it and then start working on it.

Magellan checked the feedback from his robots and said, "This raven has been altered."

Garf snickered.

"Do you happen to know anything about that, Garf?" Tony asked.

The ghost nodded and pointed at himself. "Uh-huh. I d' it."

Raven spread his fins. "This vessel hates you and wishes that you were dead."

"I see," Tony said. "Why did you do it, Garf?"

Garf proceeded to say a ton of what Tony and the others could only call gibberish.

"I'll lend him my fone so he could type that out," Brian said to Tony. He got the fone – a handheld communications device that also supported games and other applications – out of a compartment from the hips of his CMC armor, and then passed it to the ghost. "So, what's your story?"

Garf took the device and opened an app that could allow him to type what he wanted to say. Even writing was difficult when his mind felt like a fish stuck inside a whirlpool, but he began to type away and hope that he would be understood.

I am a ghost who worked for the United Earth Directorate. I specialized in infiltration

Makatai used the other terrans' minds to understand the text, and then glared daggers at the ghost. Garf noticed his behavior and continued to type.

but bear with me. I was supposed to spy on Moebius Corps, the terrans who attack the protoss. I and two other ghosts managed to sneak into Moebius base. There we found dead high templar with damaged bodies. Then found drugged up ghosts and creatures in containers. There was bright light and

He stopped to put his left hand over his forehead. It hurt to dig through his disorganized memories, but he found some pieces of information that he was looking for.

it burned my brain, ruined my teeth, killed my team. I ran, the marines chased me and I cloak. They send that talking scrapheap.

He pointed at Raven.

Raven vibrated his fins. "What are you telling them about this vessel, scumbag?"

I seek shelter in mountains, but raven throw turret after turret at me. He run out of energy so pilot decide to try and crush me with raven. Shitty idea, we both roll down mountain. I then try to get revenge by cutting pilot remote control over raven flight. Raven talks shit about me, so I decided to take over so I could fly it into lake. Old protoss leader found us before I could get rid of raven. Raven begd for help and old leader taked pity on him and me. We got added to tribe and were regarded as friends.

"They were regarded as friends until the terrans sent a ghost to aim a nuclear missile at our settlement," Khar said.

I was framed. Screw Moebius Corps!

He looked at Raven and then added another line of text.

Screw raven too!

"This vessel would like nothing more than to impale the ghost on an auto-turret gauss cannon for whatever insults aimed at this vessel were just written on that device."

"Raven, I think you should not let anger drive you so easily," Magellan said. "On another note, you could try using 'I' or 'me' instead of 'this vessel' whenever you refer to yourself. You are not the vessel. You are a very advanced AI, just like me. You are, in essence, a person."

Raven's fins perked up. "That has to be the nicest thing anyone has ever said to this vesse–to me."

"Hu, hu," Garf said, scowling at Raven.

"So, you're coming with us, right, Garf?" Brian asked.

The ghost thought for a bit, then went to Khar. He held her hands in his and looked into those green glowing eyes he found brighter than the stars. "You com'n?"

Khar seemed upset. "Garf, I … I cannot leave my tribe. They need me."

"If you a'nt comn', th'n I stay," Garf said while slamming his right foot onto the metal floor to make sure she got the message.

"No, Garf. If you stay, my tribe's people will always find something to blame on you. Besides, you are starving here. Lady said that you cannot even hunt, and you waste too much energy digging for roots or climbing trees for berries. These terrans could offer you the right food and everything you need. They even have females of your species."

"Bu' I promis'd to marry yau!" Garf said, hugging her.

Brian stared at them wide-eyed. "Dear god. They're engaged."

Khar ran her right hand's fingers through his hair. "Please, Garf. I do not want you to continue to suffer. Go with them!"

He hugged her tighter. "I staaaay!"

"What are we gonna do with you?" Brian asked while shaking his head.

Makatai really wanted Garf to leave, but the damn ghost just wouldn't do him that one favor. The thought of exiling Khar as well came to his mind, but he couldn't quite find a solid reason to give her that convenient punishment. The only thing that might have made her deserve to be exiled was the incident in the forest, but Makatai knew he held part of the fault for her putting the children's lives in danger. Because he told the civilians that they are safe in the center of the forest and that their army would keep the enemy at bay, his people continued going about their lives as they would in times of peace.

"We just don't seem to have any luck when it comes to ghosts," Tony said.

The Lady in Black leaned against the doorway behind everyone, eavesdropping.

Tony continued. "We had four of 'em back in 2500. One turned against us, so I had to put an end to his madness before he'd harm more of our members. One was real good at nuking, but eventually he got spotted and killed by the zerg we were fighting. One was a bit odd, kept wearing a conical hat and spouting nonsense a lot. He was our strongest ghost, but the day after we beat the zerg, he simply vanished. Some of our crew theorized that he might have turned into this giant, green phoenix squid thing we saw on the same day. And then our last ghost … seemed very affected by the latter ghost's disappearance. Poor guy. The next day after that event, he ran away with ten bottles of wine and … drank himself to death."

The Lady in Black's antennae drooped while she closed her eyes for a second. After looking away from everyone, she left through the corridor.

"If only I had bothered to ask Octavian what he was going to use all that wine for ..." Magellan said.

"Don't blame yourself, Magellan," Tony said. "I wouldn't have suspected a thing either."

Brian grinned. "Yeah. Even I used to stash booze back then. But I went for the really good stuff, not that fermented grape juice."

Tony smiled at the marine and then looked back at Magellan. "Besides, even if you hadn't allowed him to take the wine, he would have found some other way to go."

Magellan imitated a sigh. "I guess you're right."

"We'll leave ya to work on Raven for now. See ya later."

"Later, my friend."

Makatai, Tony, Brian, Garf, and Khar were beamed down from the science vessel – which looked similar to a flying saucer with three spikes extending up from its edges – onto the floor of the Frigate.

As they made their way out of the ship, Makatai decided to interrogate the terran leader. "Why does your capital ship have such a strange shape?"

Tony chuckled. "It is unusual, isn't it? It's shaped like a boat, but I didn't choose its shape. Its previous owner had some bizarre tastes."

"Yeah," Brian said. He pointed at the marines who stood guard next to the Frigate. "And then one day three of our marines got fed up with the previous owner's crappy leadership skills and got rid of the guy by distracting him with a discussion and then throwing a frag grenade at his feet."

"Totally worth it!" a marine with a mechanical right leg said.

"Believe it!" one of the men in black, bulky armor said in a deep voice. "Worth every finger I lost that day, baby!" The cheeks of his helmet gained up to eight red, glowing vertical bars depending on the volume of his voice.

Makatai's eyes went wide. "You have … slayed your former leader?"

Brian scowled. "Yeah. The guy just didn't want to admit he didn't know how to lead. Kept sending us to attack the zerg without thinking up a plan of action, and then we'd end up in situations that could have been avoided. Heck, this one time, the zerg managed to sneak some drones into our base, and then we returned from a fight to find a fuckin' hatchery between our vespene refineries!" He shook his head. "Then he wanted it nuked ... while our refineries were near it! Good thing our ghosts had some common sense and allowed the rest of us to safely tear down the hatchery."

"We were lucky that a buddy of mine took over us, in spite of the captain's orders," Tony said. "He … sacrificed his life to direct a nuke to the zerg hive and end the war. He would have turned 23 two days ago."

"After getting rid of the captain," Brian said, "we had no leader for a few days, but then we all agreed that our big boy Tony here should be the boss." He gave Tony a light punch in the beer gut and smirked.

Tony smiled and punched him back in the armor's abdominal area, although he used all of his strength, since he knew he could not harm Brian. "Yeah, you just have to become the boss once your buddies steal your tank and threaten to never give it back unless you agree to be their new leader."

"You terrans have a weird way of picking your leaders," Makatai said. "My people traditionally choose from relatives of the former leader, or if there is no next of kin, they choose the strongest warrior."

"Not all terrans are like us," Tony said. "Some get taken over by tyrants, some get to pick their leaders from a list of willing candidates … We just have our own style."

A strong gust of wind blew through the branches of the trees, making their needles quiver. Khar and Garf became worried when they realized that the same kind of air current was present when the attack near the temple had happened.

Tony put his goggles over his eyes and looked at the sky.

Makatai realized there was something strange going on, but he could not see anything in the spot from which the wind seemed to come. "What is it?"

"That," Tony said while pointing at the sky, "is a banshee."

The wind's strength intensified, making the trees' branches shake wildly.

"And that is a fleet of banshees."

Makatai looked at Tony and then at the sky. There wasn't anything visible there. "Are they concealed?"

Tony put his right hand over his helmet. "Oh, shit. You guys don't have any observers, do ya?"

"I … forgot to order new observers after the destruction of our last ones," Makatai said.

"Magellan, share the Frigate's detection with the 'toss!" Tony said before jumping into his tank and closing the hatch.

Five seconds later, the protoss could see the ghostly shapes of the terran ships that flew above them. The banshees had a pair of fans that were situated on their sides, as if they were wings. They made only a slight hiss while they circled the area. As they flew closer to the ground, they started to drop cloaked ghosts on the snowy ground.

Tony grabbed the wheel of his tank. "This doesn't look good. Everyone prepare to fire!"

The ghosts wore visors with two lenses instead of wearing the familiar ghost mask. Their weaponry was different from what ghosts usually carried. Some had rifles meant for rapid fire, while others carried what seemed to be rocket launchers. They targeted protoss and unrecognized terran alike and fired.

Tony's crew fired back, making the ghosts jump around to dodge.

The banshees launched missiles toward the ground, hitting two of the tanks and making Tony's infantry run out of the way. Loud shrieks of terran women's voices echoed from the sky.

"Get the air units out, boys!" Tony ordered.

"Wraith ready for the fight!" a man with raspy, relaxed voice said as he flew his y-shaped aircraft out of the Frigate. He made it cloak and then fire its twin cannons' air-to-air missiles, making some banshees retreat from the detection range of the Frigate.

The tanks killed off three ghosts, but received severe damage from the ghosts' rocket launchers. Four SCVs came to repair the vehicles, but had a tough time dodging the missiles launched by a few banshees that employed hit-and-run tactics.

"Valkyrie prepared!" a woman with German accent said as she flew out of the Frigate in a bulky ship three times longer than the wraith. She patrolled the area to ensure that no banshees would clump up and try any more surprise attacks.

"Void rays! Attack the banshees!" Makatai ordered.

The void rays chased the banshees away from the Frigate, but then lost sight of them as soon as they were out of the detection range.

"Our settlement is under attack!" a male protoss voice echoed through the village.

A strong wind shook the branches of the trees above while the houses were being bombed by the invisible banshees.

"We have no choice but to use our psionic storms," Khor'kai said to his wife.

"May Adun keep our people safe from the fire," Aru said.

They both cloaked and held green orbs of light in their right hands. They stared at the sky, trying to spot the hidden foes above them. The direction from which the missiles were fired and the rippling of the clouds gave the signifiers a general idea of the position of the banshees.

"For our tribe!" the old couple cried out as they unleashed their powerful storms over the settlement.

Three banshees could not flee fast enough, and the lightning destroyed their plating and turbofans, causing them to crash into the trees and explode into pieces that rained down over the houses.

A scan was performed by the enemy terrans, and one banshee swooped down on Aru while its pilot let out an eerie shriek. Aru could not react in time, and the missiles exploded upon contact with her body.

"Aru!" Khor'kai shouted as he ran to his wife's side. He picked her off the ground and looked at her eyes. They no longer had any light in them. Her body was pale, limp, and bleeding. Her mind was blank. "O, Aru … My gem. My wonder. They have taken you away from me." He gently put her body back on the snow and turned around to look at the remaining three banshees.

The airships cloaked and opened fire on the Temple of Young while their pilots let out their sharp screams.

"Befouled terrans!" Khor'kai said, putting all of his fury into the green orbs forming in his hands. With a swift motion of his arms, he released the light toward the sky and spread it into lightning that struck everything below it.

Two of the banshees decloaked and crashed into a tree while trying to escape. The last one managed to get out of the storm's range, but Khor'kai threw three more storms around the banshee, giving the aircraft nowhere to go. The turbofans broke off the ship's body, and the pilot died in the crash next to the settlement.

Three observers – one-eyed, levitating drones responsible for detection for the protoss – came out of the settlement's robotics facilities, but were far too late. The first thing they saw was the fire that ate away at the conifers' branches. One of the observers used a voice line from an old terran film. "Huston, we have a problem."

Tony's medivac dropships arrived at the settlement to put out the fires and heal the protoss citizens by flying above them and using their healing beams.

Tony came with his tank, accompanied by his army's vehicles. He got out and looked around at the damage suffered by the silver houses and the temple. "Holy crap, guys! Where are your cannons?"

"We had a few placed near the temple," Makatai said, "but they were destroyed in the nuclear attack. We are low on resources because we have used most of our minerals on placing cannons at the edge of the forest closest to the enemy base."

"You're kidding me, right?" Tony said, raising his eyebrows. Then he scowled. "Right?"

Makatai bowed his head and looked at the ground. "Unfortunately, I am stating the truth."

When Khar entered the settlement, large snowflakes started to fall from the sky. She saw her father, who was kneeling next to an unconscious protoss. A strange, cold feeling coursed through her chest as she approached him and saw that he was cradling the wounded body of another signifier. His thoughts of anguish reached her mind, and before even seeing who the deceased was, she knew. "Mother!" She ran up to her father and joined him in hugging the lifeless body while her eyes scattered green sparks. "I wish I had been here before it happened. I might have been able to save you, Mother."

Garf went next to them. He had a sorrowful expression on his face and could feel the pain of both of the living protoss in front of him.

Khor'kai got up and stared down at Garf. "You!"

The ghost looked at him, confused.

"Not only have you made me lose my daughter's respect, but you have caused the need for the cursed trial that led to the death of my wife!"

Garf straightened his back and gave the nastiest stare he could give to Khor'kai. He wanted to make sure that the tall protoss knew he was no longer scared of him, and that he firmly denied the accusations.

"Father!" Khar said. "You cannot blame these things on him. Do you not see? Your constant, unjustified hatred toward my fiancé is what made me lose respect for you. Mother did not die because of him. Garf had no say in whether the trial would be held or not. It was Makatai who put Garf and Raven on trial when he could have just put them in jail, behind a force field, until the war was over."

Khor'kai stared at her, eyes wide and thoughts silent. He looked at Garf, who continued to glare at him. Then he went to talk with the prelate. "You know, Makatai, there is truth to my daughter's words."

Makatai frowned while looking at the signifier, who was one head taller than him.

Khor'kai scowled. "The trial and the poor management of our production and forces are all to be pinned on you."

"I … I tried," Makatai said. "I tried to do what I thought a prelate should do. I never wanted to lead. I was satisfied with being a warrior. Why did my father have to saddle me with this responsibility?"

The signifier squinted at him. "If you cannot lead your people wisely, then leave."

Makatai thought that perhaps it was best for him to follow that advice. Someone would take his place eventually. Then his people might get a true leader. With his head hanging in shame, he cloaked himself and walked away without anyone noticing.

"Marauders! Tank for us while we shoot at these damn ghosts!" one of Tony's marines said.

The soldiers in bulky black suits surrounded the group of ten marines and fired blasts out of their suits' arm cannons. The marines shot with their rifles, wounding any of the ghosts caught in the scan. This made the Moebius Corps agents retreat into the shady areas of the forest.

One marauder noticed that a ghost was trying to sneak her way into the Frigate, so he broke off from the group and went to stop her. "You must pay for a ticket if you want to go on a cruise, baby!" he said in his deep voice.

She aimed her rocket launcher at him and fired. The projectile barely threw the marauder a few steps back.

The marauder giggled. "Oh, ya like it rough, huh?" He fired at her, but she moved out of the way and the shots landed on the ramp.

Another rocket was launched at the marauder, but he jumped to the side. The projectile landed at the feet of the marines behind him, slightly damaging their armor.

A marine shook his fist at the marauder. "Tyrell, if you're not gonna tank, at least don't make her shoot in this direction!"

"It's about to get heavy," Tyrell said as he fired at the ghost's feet.

The ground seemed to be pulling the ghost down due to the concussive shell that the marauder used on her. Before she could fire another rocket, Tyrell ran toward her and jumped, landing over her with all of his weight. Pinned to the ground, she squirmed in an attempt to slide from underneath the marauder. It was all in vain. "Get off me, you fucking asteroid!"

"Baby, I'll have you know that while part of that weight is from the suit, the rest is from all the love I got inside me."

"I don't care, you pathetic creature whose sole purpose is to suffer!" she said, trying to reach for her rocket launcher.

Tyrell's arm cannon didn't let her hand get close to the weapon. "Hey now, no one's purpose is just to suffer. Sure, life's not all pink, but look at all the different shades of love that can be found in it!"

"There is no love. Love is like a burger dangled in front of you by life, to make you go on, even though you will never get to eat it!"

"Aw, hun, those mean guys at Moebius Corps broke you down."

"Hey, Tyrell!" Brian shouted while running up to the marauder and the captive ghost. "Stop flirting with the enemy and finish her!"

Tyrell looked at the ghost under him. Her straight hair was shoulder-length and jet black. He found that it made her look cute. "But she is so fine ..."

Brian scowled. "So is your mom, but you don't romance her."

"I know you got the hots for my mama, but she's not available. I could get you my sister's number though."

"Sweet!" Brian said.

"Would you two primitive lifeforms stop blabbering and shoot me already?" the ghost said.

The marauder sniffed the smell of smoke and felt his armor heat up. "Miss, some ladies are hot metaphorically, but you're taking hot to its literal meaning!"

She exposed her gritted teeth. "Burn to ashes, you worm! I will stand to the right of the master and laugh as this flawed cycle comes to an end! Your suffering will be all for naught!"

A green light appeared next to the three terrans and then turned into the Lady in Black. "My, my, that is the worst case of amonitis I've ever seen!" she said while using her right hand's claw to poke the head of the ghost, who started to hiss and growl.

"What the fuck is amonitis?" Brian asked, taking a few steps back. "Is she possessed or something?"

"Kind of," the protoss lady said. "Luckily for this girl, I got just the right thing to cure her." She searched between her nerve cords and then brought out a small, white, plastic pill bottle. After opening its lid, she took out four yellow capsules and grabbed the ghost by the scruff of the neck. "Open wide, dearie!"

The ghost refused to comply, keeping her mouth shut tight.

"Fine. Let's do it the hard way," the Lady in Black said. She grabbed the ghost by the nose, leaving her unable to breathe. Once the ghost gasped for air, the protoss shoved the pills down her throat.

"That was pretty brutal," Tyrell said.

The ghost started to cough violently, and her body twitched every second.

"Get off her, now!" the protoss lady ordered.

The marauder wondered if it would be a good or bad idea, but decided to trust the protoss and released the ghost.

"My head!" the ghost said, getting on her knees and holding her head with her hands. "What did you do to my head?"

"Your head is fine now," the Lady in Black said, "unlike earlier, when it was the home of madness."

"You alright, babe?" Tyrell asked the ghost.

She raised her visor over her head and then glared at him with her brown eyes. "Why? Why did you not kill me?"

"Listen, Lin," the Lady in Black said after reading the woman's mind, "you and everyone from Moebius Corps have been lied to. There is nothing awaiting you once you die. You have been drugged with terrazine to ensure you remain obedient to your boss."

"That can't be true!" Lin said. "He showed me where everyone who died went! He told me that terrazine would make me stronger, and it did! I gained the ability to set things on fire!"

"Terrazine does enhance the psionic powers of ghosts, but it has terrible side effects such as hallucinations, delusions, and anger issues. Jorium can remove those side effects and restore your sanity while allowing you to keep the benefits of the terrazine, but if you were too far gone, it wouldn't be able to save you."

Lin looked at the ground. She focused her mind on it, and a flame started to form over the snow, melting it away before fading out. "So, I am still a spectre."

Meanwhile, at the edge of the forest, where pieces of protoss armor and ship plates stuck out of the snow, Moebius Corps gathered six battlecruisers, six vikings, and six banshees. To make matters worse, a snowstorm was brewing.

To be continued.