Yay for Dune & Starship Troopers ( the novel ) ! :D

Legend:

Xx time, xx place : setting

'hello' : telepathic speech

'hello' : very strong psychic presence

"Hello" : normal speech

In the following flashback, only one brood of Arachnids is involved, and the outcome of the battle does NOT reflect which species is stronger.

Also, in this fic I only describe in detail those things that are not shown in the game. If you want to know how everything looks like, then … go play Starcraft 2 ! :D

Chapter 3:

FLASHBACK … long before the events in Starcraft 1, and right before the creation of the Defiler strain:

Daggoth had fallen ! Under cover of a devious ruse, the enemy had somehow managed to sneak past its underlings and struck it down. Not only that, they had gotten a hold on its remains ! They had dared take a cerebrate prisoner !

When the images from that terrible scene was relayed to my mind through the Link, I felt as if I had been thrown into a frozen lake, and then pulled out to thaw again. When my senses returned to me, I became restless. The chamber in which I resided bubbled and steamed, barely able to contain my increasingly volatile essence.

'RELEASE ME !'

Eventually, the Overmind relented.

'Go forth' …

And thus I awoke on the surface of Klindatu, a world barren in appearance, but actually home to an isolated brood of Arachnids, and the focus of Daggoth's campaign of assimilation against said species.

The Arachnids were like us, able to manipulate their own biological evolution to a higher extent than most other species, perhaps even more so than us. If we could even incorporate a portion of their strains into us, that would be a great boon to the Swarm ! Unfortunately, this sophistication also made them a frustrating enemy to deal with. Every one of them was a living weapon, armed to the teeth, and totally fearless.

Fearless ? Then I shall strike fear into their minds !

A psychoactive orange haze hung in the air, obscuring our vision. The Arachnids had created this haze to confuse our forces and thus allow them the opportunity to get close to Daggoth.

Very well then, I would repay them in kind, by also striking at the hearts of their hive clusters ! And for that very purpose, I had brought with me one of those strains I had developed in secret and managed to keep out of reach from the other cerebrates.

Daggoth's preliminary invasion force had left behind patches of Creep all over the Klindatu landscape. These had begun to assimilate and recycle whatever biomass they could from the Zerg and Arachnid Warrior corpses strewn all over the ground. As the great Overlords lifted off and hovered over our landing zone, their equally gigantic cargo burrowed immediately through the creep into the desert sand beneath. The ground trembled as mountains of sand were displaced and shifted in minutes. And then, it was quiet again, or so it appeared from the surface.

Expanding my psychic presence, I guided the Nydus Worms towards the nearest Arachnid Hives clusters, whose locations Daggoth had managed to ascertain before the Arachnids blanketed the surface of their world with that haze. I followed one of their paths towards one of the Hives from within the smallest worm.

As we broke through the perimeter of the enemy hive cluster's extensive underground tunnel network, I sensed densed waves of shock and confusion emanating from the vast area before me. The Arachnids had finally detected our approach, and were scrambling frantically to mount a defense, but it was too late for them.

Subterranean walls and partitions crumbled in the massive and powerful jaws of my Nydus Worms. Everytime the latter passed through a chamber, its inhabitants, regardless of caste, were crushed before they could react. Ah, how I reveled in their psychic death-screams !

'Little insects ! You have believed yourselves capable of outwitting and turning back the Swarm. Now you shall face the true terror that is the Zerg !'

As we neared the centre of the hive cluster however, the chambers became higher and longer, eventually giving the Arachnids enough room to take post and fight back. And fight back they did, with their strange weapons. They were met with my zerglings and hydralisks, which emerged from the mouths of my Nydus worms in torrents, and bore down upon the Arachnid formations like a brown-black tide bristling with claws and spines. Here, the hives' halls and corridors were lit by the faint glow of bioluminescent toadstools, and I had my first faint glimpses of what the enemy looked like.

Most of them resembled lean-bodied scorpions, but with longer legs in proportion to the rest of the body, and overall body sizes similar to our Hydralisks. They each had one or two pairs of forearms ending in pincers. Organs of manipulation.

Here, Daggoth's impression of them being living weapons was confirmed. Their warriors had enlarged menacing looking pincers, sometimes modified into fluted tubes from which they fired projectiles made of a blue smokeless flame. The … plasma flared up as they immolated some of my zerglings in droves and created a ghastly display of light and shadow. In response, my Hydralisks perforated the enemy with a blizzard barrage of needle-spines, while the Zerglings and pincer-armed Warriors disemboweled each other with savage, profuse swings of their claws.

Daggoth's accounts also attributed to them the ability to unleash fast-spreading plagues which devastated their chosen targets, whether organic or inorganic. This I did not have the chance to witness. Perhaps, with my attack occurring so close to their homes, they could not afford the collateral damage.

My attention was however drawn to another threat. There was a powerful psychic presense within the hive. I had to deal with this personally. I commanded the worm carrying my physical form to head towards the core of the Arachnid's hive complex. Once there, I crawled out through the mouth of my worm,

and was met with a focused blast of psionic energy which almost threw me back inside the worm and nearly knocked me unconscious.

'LEAVE ! We will never surrender to you !' A chorus of voices sounded in my mind. The Arachnids had concentrated the hatred their entire brood felt towards us in that psychic assault. Unfortunately, for them, it was not enough to permanently dispel my essence. Until the appearance of the Dark Templar, there was nothing that could dispel a cerebrate's essence.

Reeling from the blast, I uncurled my body, drew in the lingering destructive foreign psychic energy, and rechanneled them over my head. My feelers extended out, and a deep red glowing haze condensed in the space between their tips. A bolt of eldritch lightning shot out from within this haze into the darkness ahead, illiciting a hiss of intense pain from its surprised victim.

'All will fall before the Swarm !'

I crawled forward, probing the corners of the Central Cavern with my psychic tentrils. I could sense the enemy was very near, but I could not see it.

And then right beside me a slab of stone as wide as my own berth suddenly slid off the floor, and a black shape leapt out of the resulting hole and pounced onto me, pushing me over onto my back and stabbing my underbelly with its long sharp pincers.

'We killed one of your Brains, just as I shall kill you now !'

Ignoring the pain, I bent forward, grabbed my assailant's head with my forelimbs and jabbed my fangs ( similar to a centipede's enlarged venomous claws ) into it. Through this physical connection, I immediately poured my psychic tendrils into the arachnid's essence, and through its psychic connection with its brood mates, into the puny minds of every arachnid within their hive, and then those in nearby hives, and then even further …

In response, the arachnid constricted its psychic presence to shut out the mental intrusion, and thrashed wildly in an effort to break my grip. Yet I refused to let go, even as my innards were being shredded to pieces.

Just then, I felt a distant yet penetrating psychic signal pass over us.

'IT IS DONE !'

I recognized its source, and I relaxed my bite in surprise.

The arachnid, too, stopped all its struggles, and stared through the walls of the cavern into the distance, radiating a sense of disbelief. 'How ... ?'

Beyond those walls, my psychic senses told me that the arachnid warriors throughout the hive were beginning to withdraw before the brutal and relentless onslaught of my underlings.

While my mangled body rapidly healed and reconstructed itself ( back then we were still empowered by the Overmind ), I reached out to the source of that psychic signal, and sent a series of questions.

'Daggoth ? You have returned at last ! How were the Arachnids able to suppress your regeneration ?'

'They were clever … but mostly … I let them !'

'What ?'

Besides me, the arachnid now radiated a sense of despair as the Arachnids' own collective consciousness informed every member of their brood of what was going on. 'Re – reincarnated before our eyes ! That is impossible ! … How could we hope to defeat a deathless foe ?'

'Indeed, the Overmind's power is vast beyond comparison, little insect !' came Daggoth's reply. 'You were defeated the moment you captured me, for you have allowed me access to your Primary Hive Clusters ! And while the Old One distracted you with its attacks , I have taken control of all your most potent strains ! This world now belongs to the Overmind !'

'Then … all this … was planned from the start !' I exclaimed.

'Indeed it was. You have done your part well, now rest …'

And then I was overcome by weariness, and the last thing I remembered before passing out again was being swallowed by my own Nydus worm and thus transported up to the surface of the ground above.

END FLASHBACK

- the Canteena, aboard the battlecruiser Hyperion, several hours after leaving the surface of Char.

"Those guys sure took their time waking up." Raynor sighed and downed a few more gulps of beer. "I wish I could sleep that long."

"Well, the last few days had been tiring for everyone, your should get some rest too." Matt Horner replied and took a few sips from his glass of water, then looked over at Raynor's beer bottle with a mild disapproving frown. And then that frown intensified as he recalled their interview with the two marines. "The weird thing is, they didn't remember anything about it. They didn't even remember coming back to base."

Raynor chuckled and patted his first officer on the back. "Well, it happens, Matt. Sometimes you just wake up in a strange place wondering 'how the hell did I get here ?', no ?"

"No, I'm serious. I think we should keep a closer eye on that … thing we just brought back." Matt leaned back and peered past Raynor to look at the person sitting on Raynor's other side. Said person stared back at him with wide emerald eyes and a subtle hint of a smile. Matt waved and forced a grin, then turned back to his Commander. " And are you sure it's a good idea to have the Queen of – I mean, Kerrigan, walking around the ship like that ?"

"Well, there's an old saying: You cage the beast, the beast becomes angry." Raynor shrugged, causing the thin brown jacket he was wearing to jump slightly.

And then he heard a husky whisper. "What beast ?"

Raynor stopped halfway through the action of lifting his beer bottle to his mouth as he felt a piercing glare from the source of that voice. And he paused, a sober expression returning to his face, while the glare intensified.

Placing his cup on the bar table, Matt hastily stood up. "Well, I still have some … duties … to attend to. I'll see you around !" He gave Raynor a mock salute ( which still appeared quite impressive considering that he was still wearing his solemn black First Officer uniform ), then turned round and walked briskly towards the entrance of the Canteena.

After a second more of silence, Raynor suddenly turned towards the woman sitting beside him, his eyes wandering everywhere except towards her, and his free hand scratching the stubs on his shaved chin nervously. "Uh, well, you see … what I meant was ..."

"I know what you mean, Jim" Kerrigan's lips were curled up slightly in a seemingly pleasant smile, but the stare in her eyes conveyed a curious mix of other deep emotions that were not noticeable from a first glance at her face. Those eyes had seen a lot, and now they saw into Raynor's thoughts too. "You were always so readable."

"Yeah, heh." Raynor's scratching hand now moved up to his hair and he chuckled as he recalled the first time he met Kerrigan, way back when she was still completely human. His first impression of her was … that she was very "well endowed". And Kerrigan being a telepath had sensed that thought in him instantly, leading to a brief embarrassing moment between them. At that time, he had wanted to get the mission over with as soon as possible so that he would not have time to do something that would make him even more of a "pig".

Now, after all that they had gone through, he was just glad that the both of them were still alive and together.

That thought caused the nervousness in him to disappear, and he just stared back at Kerrigan with a content smile ( though the way his brows always hung low over his eyes gave him a somewhat mischievous look ), not bothering to think of excuses or to discipline his flow of thoughts anymore.

Kerrigan felt the change of mood, and she blushed slightly. The curl of her lips changed to a shallow pout, and she dropped her gaze to the floor. She kept clutching the collar of the bathrobe she was wearing with one hand, while playing with the tips of her nerve-cords with her other hand.

That brought Raynor's attention to the long thin flowing appendages that Kerrigan had in place of hair – a visible reminder of her identity as the former Queen of Blades, the most feared Zerg-Human hybrid in this section of the galaxy. Was "former" the right word ?

"I should let doctor Hanson have a look at you … once we're near Haven."

That made Kerrigan slowly lift her gaze back up at him again. "Who's doctor Hanson ?"

Raynor raised his brows and made a circle in the air with his fingers. "Well, she was a doctor, scientist … a good one. She's got lots of experience with Infested Terrans."

"Hmm …" Kerrigan's eyes narrowed in suspicion and her lips thinned.

Raynor could almost feel it as Kerrigan probed his mind again. Well, she had been doing that lots of times, so that was not much of a problem now … except that …

"YOU KISSED ?" Kerrigan glanced up at him sideways and her mouth hung half open in a mixture of curiosity and mild disbelief.

"Well, yeah, we did … I saved her people from the Zerg, and I stopped the Protoss from burning her world … you know … all in a day's work … but she was very grateful so …" It took a few seconds for him to realize that he was scratching his chin again. "but that was all, there was nothing else bes-amflmmflhm …"

And it took a few more seconds for him to realize that his voice had been muffled because Kerrigan had leaned forward and was now pressing her lips over his.

'You're mine, Jimmy. Always. … and … now you're all that I have.'

Meanwhile, on my way to the Hyperion's laboratory …

What wonders these Terrans possess !

Every one of their chambers contains its own set of surprises ! The sheer amount of new experiences I had been exposed to within the short time I had entered their gigantic main transport was overwhelming even for one of my mental capacity.

The most shocking to me, was the fact that I could not feel the psychic presence of the transport itself. Certainly it was a living being, for I had seen some of the humans interacting with it through special structures protruding from the corridor walls, which I surmised to be its nerve centres. Yet I could not connect with it telepathically in the same way that I connected with, say, my Overlords. Perhaps this great creature had a very strong psychic barrier which prevented outsiders like me from accessing its mind. After a while I just gave up doing that and was content to just observe my surroundings ( and the humans walking past us, who gave us a wide berth when they saw me, even though Kerrigan had repeatedly assured them that I was harmless ) as I followed the "Scientist" towards his chambers.

The "Scientist", who answered to the name of "Stetman", owned a series of special interconnected chambers, where he performed his work. The walls to these chambers were a pristine and smooth white or grey, quite unlike the dark and tarnished texture of the corridors and other chambers elsewhere.

And within one such chamber, along its clean walls were embedded transparent tubular structures in which Stetman kept his most valuable possessions. I peered in through the entrance as I crawled past it, and swept my gaze along its walls, examining the objects held within these simple see-through cocoons.

A few I could not identify. The others were quite familiar, such as the cluster of activated Khaydarin crystals on the far side of the chamber. And then my psychic senses alerted me to a presence even more familiar, and I stared ahead at its source.

The cocoon holding the Khaydarin crystals was on one side of an inner entrance. On the other side was another clear-walled cocoon holding …

Living Zerg flesh !

It was not a whole Zerg creature though. Suspended in some kind of fluid, it was a lump of brown translucent sacs pressed together, with a pulsating heart in its centre, and tendrils branching out pressing against the inner wall of its container.

Perhaps that explained why Stetman was not as frightened of my appearance as the other humans.

Presently, Stetman led me into an adjacent spacious chamber with an entrance just wide enough for me to squeeze through. This one was completely empty, except for a few appendages protruding from the ceiling. Its walls, ceiling and floor were completely covered in flat, pure-white, and very smooth scutes.

"Alright, here we are." He turned towards me. "Now be good and stay here until I come back, K ? I'll talk to the Commander about letting you into other places, but for now … um, try and settle in, OK ?" He showed his teeth and spread his arms. I recognized it as a non-threatening gesture, but I did not know how to respond, or if I needed to respond in the first place.

So we just stared at each other for a few silent seconds.

And then he sighed, lowered his gaze, and his shoulders drooped. "Well, guess it was worth a try."

Briefly he emanated a sense of disappointment, which was slowly replaced by an already present sense of excitement as he turned and walked out through the entrance.

Right outside the chamber, he pulled a thin barrier over so that it covered the entrance completely. The mechanism behind this "door" was intriguing, and for a while I brushed my feelers over it, trying to figure out how it worked.

Having satisfied this trivial curiosity, I turned my attention to a more fruitful task.

I expanded my psychic presence, allowing my psychic tendrils to reach out through whatever walls and partitions I could by-pass and feel the psychic presence of the other living things within the same transport. Kerrigan's one was impossible to miss. She was emanating a strong emotion that my species had not felt for a long time, but when I telepathically requested that she share this emotion with me, so that I may possibly re-acquire an important trait of our ancestors, she shut me out with a mild psychic warning. 'None of your business !'

So I turned my attentions elsewhere.

And I established a Link with the piece of Zerg flesh that resided somewhere inside the chamber adjacent to mine.

A/N:

That's all for tonight.

If you're wondering why Kerrigan isn't wallowing in guilt for having "slaughtered millions of innocents" and stuff like that, well actually she is, but that's not the focus of this fic. For that you can go read "Next Steps" by Qwerty-man :)

Also watch for updates for "I was there" by Craftman88.

Thanks to the guys who reviewed, and if you haven't do put in a comment or two … or you shall face the true terror that is the Swarm ! … :o

Have a good day/night !

-Star