Author's Note: Was able to pull a little time out of summer school to write this chapter. This one will foreshadow the fighting events of the later chapters to come. Hope you guys enjoy it.

Please read and review!

Chapter 18

Aiur

The hybrid once again entered a telepathic state to speak to the Dark Voice. "Master, there is no doubt now. The Protoss may be arrogant and narrow minded, but there are still those who are intelligent enough to see parts of the greater threat posed to them."

"It does not surprise me. The ruse I had done there was never meant to deceive the Protoss indefinitely. I knew all along this day would come eventually."

"Fortune is still with us, though. The Protoss messenger has made it clear that the news he brings is only for Zeratul, and the Dark Templar is still exploring the caverns below. Do you believe he will act upon receiving the message?"

"He will. Ever since his encounter with Maar on Zhakul he has taken the matter of the hybrids much more seriously. Zeratul is no fool, and if he discovers what I had done, he will rally his brethren to neutralize him."

"The dark one had been recovering for months. I would have expected a being of his power to be ready to carry out your grand plans by now."

"He is almost ready for that, young one. His recovery is near completion, and I know the Protoss will never be able to reach him before then."

"What is your will, master? I stand ready to carry it out."

"See to it that Zeratul does not receive the message. My plans have already suffered a severe setback now that the terrans and Protoss have determined Kerrigan's importance, I do not wish for them to jeopardize my plans still further."

"I will personally lead the Zerg minions of this colony myself, master."

"I have more important tasks for you to carry out," the Dark Voice replied, before transmitting a telepathic neural message to the hybrid. When the creature opened his eyes in understanding, the Dark Voice continued, "The Protoss gathered outside the cavern entrance are slow to adapt to changing their traditions, so the Zerg will be able to handle the task. Gather their warriors at the hive cluster and kill them immediately."

Redstone III

General Madison was fighting on the frontline with his troops, firing his C-14 Gauss Rifle, as he and other marines cut down the swarms of Zerglings charging at them. The Siege Tanks on the high ground continued to offer artillery support, as Hydralisk after Hydralisk were blown to pieces by the power of their Shock Cannons. The Roaches had burrowed underground to avoid the attacks, but while they were capable of moving underground, they still had to resurface to attack, and most of them were killed before they had a chance to react. The ones that were lucky enough to survive, however, were able to get a few acid spits at the tanks before getting their heads blown off by the Marauders' Punisher Grenades. Nevertheless, reports were increasingly coming in of mechanical and power failures coming from the tanks, as the damage done to them was starting to accumulate.

Like Warfield, Madison too was loyal to his soldiers, and he believed it was wrong to sit back behind a desk in the Command Center while his boys were being slaughtered. The Zerg had a near infinite army, and when fighting them, there's no such thing as a commander would throw his soldiers into battle and do nothing himself. He had always hated the how the Confederacy had done it during their days, where the soldiers are expendable. In fact when he was just a young marine, he knew the Neural Resocialization process was about the only thing that kept his comrade marines from going into total mutiny. In war there would be casualties, and obviously sacrifices have to be made for the greater picture, but everyone has endurance limits. No soldier would fight indefinitely simply for someone else's gain without getting something in return. That was one of the reasons why the officer command chain in the Dominion military was somewhat unstable. All the junior officers want recognition and leadership, but few were willing to admit they don't have any real power. Most of that power comes from the very top, from Mengsk himself.

Madison frowned as he thought of his emperor. The latest Zerg attack wave had been repulsed, though another one will be coming soon. The junior officers were already barking out orders to hold the defense lines, and there was no need for him to step in. This gave him a few minutes to ponder in his own thoughts. He had been loyal to Mengsk ever since the formation of the Dominion, but for the first time his loyalty wavered somewhat. Like his soldiers he too knew the basic order of the military is to obey orders, but although they all swore an oath to protect the Dominion, this was not to prevent them from thinking. Otherwise, they'd cease to becoming humans and instead become mindless drones. While there were things he knew that Mengsk chose to keep secret from the public, and even from his own military, by now he had begun to suspect if some of what he had kept secret were to prevent his reputation from being ruined.

By now, there were very few people on the Koprulu Sector that believed his word about the UNN broadcast was fake. Indeed, analysts have probed the transmissions day and night, and could find no trace of what Mengsk had claimed in the press conference shortly after, insisting the transmissions were phony. Most of the Dominion core worlds were still in revolt over that, and the military was being hard pressed to put them down. Even the emperor realized killing the protestors would only cause the problem to escalate, as that would send the message to his people if they did not believe everything that came out of his mouth, they would die. Add in the broadcasts about what Raynor had accomplished on Char, the branches of the Dominion military was being subjected to a similar treatment.

This was among the reasons he had agreed for this mission. While he did not know exactly what his emperor had planned to do with the jorium, it was nevertheless Madison's intent to show the public that the Dominion military was far from incompetent war machine that Valerian had portrayed them as over the media. To that end, a part of the general almost felt slight sympathy for Raynor. For the last 4 years, he had been portrayed as the worst terrorist ever by Mengsk, and now the shoe is on the other foot. Now the media is humiliating Madison and the rest of the military, while portraying Raynor as a hero. A few of other Dominion officers felt the same way, finally understanding how it feels to be on the receiving end of the media's stick.

Madison put these thoughts aside, however, as an officer came up to him. "Sir, we're running low on the cache of minerals we brought with us. The Siege Tanks need the field repairs if we are to hold our line, and our processing facilities are smelting down the minerals as fast as they can to help with that."

The general nodded, understanding. "You want me to authorize the usage of the rich minerals we've mined so far?"

"I know this means it's going to take longer to mine what we need, sir. But if the Zerg attacks keep coming like this, what choice do we have? We came to Redstone III to mine the resources, not rid the planet of the Zerg. That's why our forces were built under the assumption we would only engage in minimal resistance—"

"And the Zerg are clearly not going to see it that way," Madison finished, before tapping his comm-link to speak to his engineers. "Gentlemen, what is the status of the separation of the jorium from the crystals themselves?"

"That wasn't part of the equipment we brought down, general. We came here based on the assumption we would just mine the resources and leave, then hand the crystals to someone else and let them take care of the separation."

Madison sighed in frustration. If he authorized the usage of the rich minerals, the rare jorium crystals would be lost with it. Mengsk may have agreed to temporarily halt the mining operation to deal with the Zerg, but he never agreed it would also be ok to lose the jorium crystals like that. Despite the lava flooding on the low ground every few minutes and efforts were made to lure the Zerg creatures to be burned alive there, the results fell short of expectations. Although there had been a few casualties on their own side for luring the Zerg this way, by now the Zerg were no longer willing to attack lone units when the seismic activity increases, knowing that this is a trick to get them to be killed by the magma.

"General, I know it's a tough call, but you have to make a decision," the Dominion officer said quietly. "If you don't authorize the usage, we'll only be able to last another 2 or 3 attack waves. And from the orbital scan reports, it's clear the Zerg have no intention of letting us stay here."

Madison clenched his fist, struggling with the fact that he had to disobey an order from Mengsk, before nodding. "Do it. Have the SCVs bring the rich minerals to the processing facilities, but only the minimum necessary to conduct field repairs. If the Zerg aren't going to let up, I want to be off Redstone III as soon as possible."

Aiur

With a flash of bright lighting, the hybrid teleported itself to another location on Aiur. From the distance, it saw something it did not expect: a terran base. It was not located anywhere near any important sites, but it was nevertheless confusing to see terrans here. With the Zerg and Protoss still fighting all over the planet, they would be easily caught in the crossfire.

Some of the figures patrolling the base, however, caused the hybrid's eyes to narrow in anger, before blinking to a safe distance and opening communications to his master. "You were correct about the terrans, master. They are experimenting in matters far beyond their narrow understanding."

"It should come as no surprise to you. Like the Protoss, the terrans also have their tendencies not to embrace change, but those that do tend to succumb to total insanity. At least with the Protoss, they have a far greater degree of knowledge and are willing to explore more deeply into the matters at hand before entering the unknown."

"These gestalts I have heard from them is a total perversion to the concept of purity! The terrans possess neither the purity of form of the Protoss nor the purity of essence of the Zerg!"

"Do not be so quick to underestimate them, my creation. The fact that they were able to forge such a being is still a testament to their capabilities. The Protoss had once arrogantly believed their superior technology was enough to overcome any and all terran hostilities, but in many cases they paid dearly for such thinking. Make no mistake: the terrans may not be as powerful, but they are still dangerous."

"I await your command. What is thy will, master?"

"This terran presence on Aiur must be cleansed as quickly as possible. You are to scour the area and locate any minions at your disposal for the task ahead."

"The terrans wisely chose a location that is nowhere near any Zerg hive clusters. Apparently they are aware the force they have is in sufficient to fight such quatities of Zerg. It would also appear they have no intention of staying on Aiur very long. I have seen the defensive positions they had established around their base, and much of it can be removed and sent off world quickly."

"Then you will just have to improvise with the band near your location. It would appear that some of the terrans have plans that seem to somewhat rival that of my own, although on a much smaller scale. I must admit I find such a plan foolish in their ambition, and inevitably their plans must turn against them, but that does not happen until the long run, which I no longer have the patience to see it through."

"I will ensure their plans do not come to pass, master."

The Dark Voice gave a sound of approval to the hybrid. "There is a group of Tal'darim survivors close to your location. Just as Maar was able to corrupt Protoss guardians on Zhakul, you will be given the task of doing similarly for the Tal'darim. They had already been corrupted in the past and still carry the scars of that corruption. Therefore, it should be easy for you to turn them to your side and allow them to fight for you."

"Very good, master. I will go there immediately to take up the task ahead."

"Do not reveal yourself to the terrans, young one. Just as not all of the Protoss have realized what truly awaits them, the same is true for the terrans. And unlike the Protoss, the terrans are much more difficult to be convinced, as once they believe in something it requires a mighty force to for them to heed a message of another perspective. As such, despite Kerrigan's defeat on Char, it is clear they still perceive her as the true threat. It is my intention to keep them thinking in such a way. As long as the terrans continue to tear themselves apart by their internal conflicts and power struggles, it will continue to offer us the advantage in our plans."

Agria

Jim was on the communicator console with Warfield. By now, most of the Zerg hive cluster on Agria has been destroyed. Without their main supply of hatcheries to supply the larvae, the Zerg presence at the starport could no longer be reinforced, and therefore could be taken care of rather quickly. He had already promised Dr. Hanson that once the starport has been cleared, he'll give the green light on the refugee transports on Haven. The Agria colonists of course will be given top priority, but the refugees from other world were free to come along as well. Before the Zerg attack, the planet had been quite beautiful as it was among the Dominion's principal botanical preserves. It will certainly take a while to restore it back to its former glory, but Ariel knew most of her people were willing to take on the task of a little reconstruction.

Nova was in the room with Jim, still somewhat confused about why she had been called to the conference. She was a fighter, and had little time for politics. In fact such matters greatly irritated her, and that was among the few reasons she was glad of her soldier status during her time spent with the Dominion. Sarah had told her the same thing during her time in the Confederacy, but she still would have preferred politics than having Confederate scientists poke at her brain for ways to control and influence individual Zerg.

"Raynor, the attack on the starport has already begun," the general announced. "So far there does not appear to be any signs of trouble, the Zerg are retreating all along the lines. They have no more adequate air support, and no hope of receiving significant reinforcements of any kind. All they can do now is try to make our victory cost as high as possible before we kill them all."

"I'm glad for that, general," Jim replied. "Most of the hive cluster here has been taken care of. Kerrigan is out there with some of the men you left behind to take care of the stragglers, though many of them seem to be staying away from her and letting her do the work alone."

"Don't be surprised. She had been the Confederacy's deadliest assassin before being taken by the Zerg. My boys may be arrogant, but they're still smart enough to know not to underestimate their enemies. Even if she lost all her power from when she was the Queen of Blades, her fighting skills are just as deadly as Nova's, if not more so. Most of the men that know Nova are well aware she is a force to be reckoned with, and were always cautious to avoid getting on her bad side. Having a ghost even stronger than her would scare the living hell out of them if they set off Kerrigan's temper."

"Trust me, that isn't going to happen. Sarah is still trying to make up for everything done as the Queen of Blades. I just wish she'd let it go. She and that Zerg monster are two completely different people, but Sarah just won't admit or even believe it."

"None of us know the answer to that. Everything we've learned about infestation is only physical, never mental, and all your Protoss buddies seem to care about is killing the infested instead of learning, not that I can blame them of course."

Jim shook his head, frustrated. The only one that could know how the infestation really works is the Zerg Overmind, so it's essential to get to Aiur as soon as possible. However he also didn't want to abandon the revolution against Mengsk. Although the Protoss must be pushing the Zerg back all over Aiur, there's still no telling just how long it's going to take before their homeworld is cleared of Zerg. Sarah had told him that although the majority of the swarm had their primary base of operations on Char, there was nevertheless still around 5 billion Zerg on Aiur. When his Char invasion began to succeed, she had recalled many of them off the planet to assist in driving off the terran intruders, but left just under 2 billion to remain on Aiur should the Protoss mobilize their forces to take their homeworld back.

Therefore, Jim knew that even if he went to Aiur right now, he would arrive in the middle of a battlefield with Protoss and Zerg forces still battling it out all over the planet. While he did want to know more about the prophecy, he also knew there was no way the Zerg would just let him go to the Overmind's corpse for that. Zeratul himself only established a slight foothold on Aiur, and the Zerg immediately mobilized their forces against him, perceiving a threat to their former master. The last thing Jim wanted was to subject his Raiders and his allies to a bloodbath there.

As such, the best course of action for the moment is to return to the revolution at hand and gather some more allies to his cause. Once enough have been assembled, he could then go to Aiur to help the Protoss.

"General, right now we need to briefly turn our attention to the Dominion again," Jim announced. "We aren't strong enough to take on the Dominion fleet, we need more allies."

"Can't you contact your Protoss buddies for that?"

"The victory on Char most likely will mean they'll help me in my endeavors, but that's not going to happen until they've gotten their homeworld back, so we need to look for allies elsewhere."

Warfield snorted. "And how the hell you plan to pull that off? You've hired virtually all the mercenaries and freelancers before we even undertook the Char invasion. You going to turn to the Kel-Morian Combine and the Umojan Protectorate now?"

"You said you were willing to believe my judgment, even though you don't believe the prophecy, general. I know how you feel about striking an alliance with them, but there are times we face a threat so great that none of us can prevail alone, and that applies to our enemies as well. Sometimes to deal with a threat like that, we just have to make a temporary alliance."

"I am also a man of honor, Raynor," Warfield insisted. "At least Mengsk hid it quite well for his practice of slavery. The Kel-Morians on the other hand practice it much more publicly, and my boys will go nuts if you strike an alliance with them. The Umojans may be anti-Dominion, which would suit the Raiders a little better, but you know as well as I do they are a giant spy network. They'd never honor such an alliance."

"And that is why I'm not saying I'm going to do what you think I'm going to do. I have another source of allies in mind." Jim then turned to Nova. "How well do you know security defense system at New Folsom?"