Author's Note: Ladies and Gentlemen, with the Agria battles behind us, I know a few of you have been looking forward to what will be taking place on New Folsom, so this chapter is to do just that.

Unlike on Agria, the New Folsom battles will show a bigger turning point in Kerrigan's struggle for redemption.

I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Please read and review!

Chapter 25

Temple Ruins, Aiur

"All right gentlemen, it's time to dig in again," General Ridgeway announced. "There's no Zerg in the area, but those damn Protoss that we were battling earlier have been chasing us. The first of their units will be there in less than an hour."

"Sir, why do we have to set up our defenses here?" A firebat asked, as Vultures moved around the infantrymen, laying their Spider Mines for potential ambushes. "Those temple ruins make good defensive positions themselves, and the Protoss will have a harder time digging us out of the rubble."

"You're right, soldier. But unfortunately I'm under specific orders to prevent any damage to those ruins."

"What for, sir?" A marine asked. "We don't care about the Protoss religion or any of that crap."

"It's not about us," the general replied. "Mengsk believes there's something in those temple ruins that will bring the Dominion military to its former glory again. I don't know what it is myself, but give the state of the Dominion after what happened on Korhal and the broadcasts of the Char invasion, I'd say I'm willing to put a little faith in something I don't fully understand."

A Dominion officer nearby nodded, supporting Ridgeway, "You have to understand something here people," he said calmly. "The temple may be just a pile of rocks to us, but they're still sacred to the Protoss, ruins or not. If they have to bring in their heavy artillery and end up being forced to destroy their holy ground to get to us, they'll be even less merciful."

"They were trying to kill us before we could even locate this place! That's brutal enough!"

"They saw us invading their territory," Ridgeway replied. "I would have done similarly if I were them. Now, let's just set up whatever defenses we've still got left, and hope our engineers can do their job quickly."

He then turned on his comm-link to their channel. "Engineering team, have you located the package yet?"

"We have, general. There isn't as much as we had hoped for, but it'll do. Excavating it won't be easy though. I doubt even the Protoss have technology that can do it fast."

"The Protoss are bringing their big guns to the area! How long do you think it'll take?"

"Even under ideal conditions, at least 3 hours, sir."

Ridgeway clenched his fist in frustration. The air forces he had were still reasonably strong, but they still weren't meant for attritional combat. While the reconnaissance scouts have reported relatively few Protoss air units closing in on their position, that could all change if too many get shot down.

The situation is no better on the ground. Although he still had a few Thors left, they were small in number compared to the groups of Protoss Colossi approaching the temple ruins. To make things worse, the Colossi were purely robotic machines, which means that they could be easily replaced, while the same could not be said for each Thor pilot lost here. The spider mines laid by the vultures would handle the Zealots and Stalkers, but would have little effect against the Immortals due to their hardened shields. The hellions could be used to counter that, as their flame attacks wouldn't trigger the shields, but they also had short range, and getting within that close range would make them easy targets for the Immortals' phase disruptors, assuming they weren't roasted by the Colossi first. It's hoped that the siege tanks would keep robotic walkers busy, but that's going to have to depend on how many Colossi are being sent in to attack them. Support from the BattleCruisers this time would have to be minimal, as the plasma torpedo barrage cannot be used to pinpoint accuracy, and therefore would be considered too risky to be used frequently without damaging the ruins.

"It looks like some things we'll just have to take on faith," the general said finally, before turning to the infantrymen and gestalts on the ground. "Whatever the engineers have found in those ruins is vital to the Dominion's task at hand. It's likely the Protoss will throw everything they have against us to get their holy ground back. They must be held off until the excavation is complete, so we'll give them hell until then."

New Folsom Prison, New Folsom

"They always had weak security at the entrance gate," Nova observed, as she advanced forward with Sarah. "The marines there are mostly cannon fodder, meant to trick intruders into a false sense of confidence as they go deeper into the complex."

"Jim knows what he's doing," Kerrigan assured. "We lead the way, he'll take care of the rest."

Nova nodded, before stepping into view of the lone marine at the gate.

"This complex is off limits to unauthorized ghosts...Nova? Halt, you're under arrest for treason and defection!"

The marine barely got the last words out before he screamed in agony, as Nova used a psychic attack that permanently fried his brain.

"Go to hell," she muttered, before gesturing to Sarah. "See? Nice and easy. Let's move."

The two ghosts moved forward, past the gates, briefly stopping to see a group of marines near a missile turret. "Too many of them to just run past," Sarah observed. "We'll have to shoot our way in."

Nova nodded, unleashing another psychic attack, sending 6 or 7 marines screaming before felling to the ground dead, but the remaining ones immediately picked up on the intruders as they had stepped within the turret's detection range.

"Sound the alarm! We've got intruders!" A marine shouted, before exploding in a pile of blood and guts as his fragmentation grenade pins were telekinetically pulled. Sarah then fired a fragmentation grenade of her own at the turret via her C-20 Canister Rifle. As the structure exploded in a fireball, the two ghosts continued to move forward.

They moved down the road, towards one of the military cell blocks, before Sarah held up her hand, signaling Nova to stop. "Siege tanks, let me handle them."

Channeling her psionic powers, Kerrigan telekinetically lifted the tank off the ground over the screams of its driver, and hurled it into the magma below. Nova picked off more marines with her sniper rifle from a distance, but one of them was far enough to bolt towards an alarm before she could deliver the kill shot. Immediately, alarms went off throughout the whole prison complex.

"Don't worry about it," Sarah said. "You said it yourself the defenses aren't designed for small groups of infiltrators."

Nova nodded, before moving up the ramp overlooking two bunkers. In a move that rivaled Sarah's skill shots, she aimed an irradiation grenade into one of the bunkers' firing slits. The chokes and screams of the marines inside ensured it had found its target.

"There they are!" A voice shouted. Nova and Sarah turned to see groups of marines, marauders, and firebats heading towards them. "Kill them!"

"There are times I wonder why they keep sending the most expendable units first," Sarah commented, as she telekinetically pulled the pins of the fragmentation grenades from the marines. The explosion was massive, as it engulfed the firebats' fuel tanks.

A nearby vulture sped quickly towards them, getting ready to fire, but Nova used psionic powers to unleashed pure inertia at it, instantly flipping it over. Getting the message, Sarah immediately telekinetically raised it up into the air, as Nova used her psionic powers to yank one of the spider mines out of the vulture and hurled it at the other siege tank, the explosion flipping it onto its back.

Sarah cloaked as she saw more marines move in towards them. Nova purposely kept her cloak off, but used her psionic speed abilities to run at 4 times her normal speed, leading the marines to fire at a target who's speed is something they're not used to. As they continued to fire at Nova, Sarah carefully moved from behind, slitting their throats with her combat knife.

"Move towards the first military cell block!" Sarah said, decloaking, as she and Nova kept running forward.

"Stop the intruders! Don't let them get any further!" A marine shouted, before meeting his end by a bullet headshot from Nova. However the message got through, as Goliaths and Vikings were mobilized against the two ghosts.

"I hope your knife skills are as good against the goliath pilots!" Nova shouted, as she unleashed a psionic shock attack. Immediately, the goliaths began stumbling about as the attack temporarily shut down the pilots' brains.

Sarah jumped into the air and landed on the top of a goliath's cockpit. Pulling out her knife, she telekinetically ripped the covers off and stabbed the pilot. The nearby Vikings turned their Gatling guns towards her and prepared to fire, but Sarah unleashed a psionic storm over them. As they were grouped so closely together, they were all blown apart by its destructive power.

More and more marines were fed into the carnage, but to no avail. Nova simply used her psionic powers to jam their C-14 Gauss Rifles, and Sarah soon followed through. Although some of the marines were quick to pull out their sidearms, it made no difference as the skilled shots of the two ghosts mowed them down with their C-20 Canister Rifles.

Just then, Sarah's eyes widened. Hellions were approaching them. Although she and Nova both had pyrokinesis psionic abilities channel fire, this was something that was better done by one alone.

"Nova, get to higher ground!" she shouted. "I'll take care of the Hellions, you focus on the missile turrets!"

The blond ghost nodded, before once again using her psionic speed abilities to run past the marauders. As they chased her down, Nova leapt into the air and threw a EMP grenade at them. The explosion caused their CMC suits to stop functioning due to electrical system failure, and she was easily able to snipe them all before they recovered.

"Come and get me!" Sarah shouted, as the Hellions began firing at her with their flamethrowers. Quickly bolting away, the Hellions gave chase to her, but Sarah used her psionic speed ability to move quickly. As the Hellions slowly closed in, they unleashed their fire again, but she had lured them into a trap. Using her pyrokinesis ability, Sarah channeled the flame into an explosive fuel tank, before channeling her psionic powers into a psionic barrier. As the tank exploded, the area was consumed by flames. The Hellions were set ablaze and their drivers screaming as they were burned alive, but Sarah was able to slip away unharmed as the psionic barrier protected her from harm.

Further forward, Nova telekinetically used one of the marauders' punisher grenades on the missile turret, blowing it apart. Sarah unleashed another psionic storm on the remaining turret, and it too succumbed to its power.

Just then, the warehouse doors Nova and Sarah were standing nearby opened. Siege tanks rumbled out, followed by goliaths and vultures.

"Intruders spotted! Preparing to terminate!"

Sarah immediately casted a psionic storm in their direction, but the Vikings transformed into their flight mode and flew over it. Nova used her psionic inertia blast, but she wasn't as strong as Sarah and therefore had to focus on the goliaths. Although the mechanical walkers stumbled, they were able to regain their balance, and their autocannons opened fire on Nova.

To Nova's surprise, however, the bullets stopped before her very eyes. The blond ghost turned to see Kerrigan had used her psionic powers to provide a barrier for her. Nova looked at Sarah amazed. She was indeed very powerful.

"Give them hell, Nova!" the red head shouted.

The blond complied, taking aim with her rifle and firing off the armor piercing rounds. With her precise aiming, Nova was able to hit all the goliath pilots between the eyes, as the mechanical walkers stopped dead in their tracks, no longer capable of further combat with their pilots dead.

"Sarah! The siege tanks!" Nova shouted, as the siege tanks began to deploy into their siege modes. Her telekinetic skills were strong, but not enough to pick up a siege tank and lift it way high up into the air like Kerrigan could.

"Get to the cell blocks!" Sarah said, diving for cover behind one of the goliaths. "I'll deal with them!"

Nova cloaked and ran, as Sarah used her telekinesis on one of the Vikings. Its engine screamed as it was pulled from the sky against its will, and Sarah hurled it down one of the tanks, blowing it apart in an enormous fireball. Another one took aim and fired its shock cannons, but Sarah used her psionic speed to run for cover as it blew the goliath apart.

Looking up to see she was directly underneath a Viking, Sarah telekinetically lifted the siege tank up into the air and hurled it at the hybrid vehicle. Bolting away, Sarah turned around to see another fireball from the explosion caused from the collision. Without sparing another thought, she immediately took off after Nova, as the remaining siege tanks returned to their tank modes and began chasing after her, as did the Vikings still in the air.

As she neared one of the cell blocks, one of the Vikings suddenly exploded above her. Sarah turned to see Nova, telekinetically holding a spider mine from a vulture up in the air, having hurled one already to destroy the Viking. "Just repaying you back," she smiled.

Sarah beamed. The training she and Nova had back on Haven had benefited both of them greatly. She pulled the overturned vulture next to Nova and threw it at the siege tank. While the damage was minimal, it did cause the tank to stop moving and began transforming into its siege mode again. Taking advantage of the lull, Sarah unleashed an inertia blast at it, flipping it onto its side.

Channeling her psionic powers, the red haired ghost yanked the fuel tank from its underbelly off the tank and telekinetically threw it at the remaining Viking in the air.

"Nova, do it!" Kerrigan shouted.

The blond took aim and fired, hitting the fuel tank square on. Immediately, there was another explosion in the air, as the Viking was blown to pieces by the sheer explosive power.

"Where's the cell block?" Sarah asked. "I thought we're near it now."

"We are," Nova replied. "But I couldn't get to it. There's a bunker positioned right outside it, with Banshee gunships in the air and some Siege Tanks under it. I took out the 5 ghosts positioned outside the bunker, but now they moved a Raven into the area."

Sarah nodded. "Lure the Raven out, I'll deal with the Banshees and the Siege Tank."

Nova cloaked again, as she moved into the Raven's detection range, before firing off a few shots at the Siege Tank. This distraction allowed Sarah to move into position.

"Over here!" the blond ghost shouted, as a Banshee immediately opened up with its backlash rockets. Using her psionic speed, Nova bolted away as the Raven immediately gave chase to her.

Sarah dodged a shock cannon blast from one of the Siege Tanks, as the Banshees fired at her with her backlash rockets. Channeling her psionic powers, she unleashed a psionic barrier at a greater distance from her. As the Banshee rockets are programmed to detonate on impact, this barrier stopped them dead in their tracks without exploding.

Without another thought, Sarah unleashed pure inertia and hurled the rockets backwards, many of them smashing into the Siege Tanks below. The Banshee pilots watched in horror as a single lone ghost turned their own weapons against them, killing their own allies in the process. The thoughts of horror quickly vanished, and replaced by pain, as Sarah casted a psionic storm on the Banshees, and knocked them out of the sky this way.

From a distance, Nova saw the Banshees go down by Sarah's hand. With no prospect of support, she knew the Raven was now defenseless. Nova pulled a fragmentation grenade from a nearby marine's corpse and threw it at the Raven. Although it survived the explosion, the Raven was smart enough to scurry away. Nova made her way back to Sarah's position, killing more security marines with her rifle and psionic abilities along the way.

When she reached Sarah, Nova found her hiding behind the wreck of one of the Siege Tanks, with numerous Vikings positioned right in front of the military cell block, their Gatling guns blazing. Sprinting quickly, she moved to the wreckage to join Kerrigan.

"They're finally starting to turn up the heat on us," Sarah said. "The two missile turrets next to the Vikings prevent us from using the cloak, and the Vikings have been constantly firing even since I've hidden behind this cover."

"Any idea how to get past them?" Nova asked.

Kerrigan smiled. "Leave it to me, Nova."

Dominion Prison HQ, New Folsom

Colonel Winters scowled in frustration as reports flooded in that the main defense line had been completely shattered, with dead marines, marauders, firebats, and ghosts lying everywhere. The wreckage of over 200 Siege Tanks, Vultures, Goliaths, Banshees and Vikings were also strewn across the battlefield. To make things worse, the reports have clearly indicated that the infiltrators were not even contained, let alone subdued.

"But how is any of this possible?" He demanded to an officer on the ground via his communications console. "All the reports I'm getting is there's only two intruders! You're telling me your entire security force can't even handle two pathetic people?"

"They're both ghosts, sir. And their abilities are more powerful than we had expected."

"So what if they're both ghosts? Did you forget our ghosts are trained by the very best? Nova Terra turned them into an unstoppable fighting force!"

"Sir, one of the ghosts attacking us is Nova Terra. She betrayed us and turned to Raynor and his boys. Now she's leading the attack for them on our prison. Since she trained our ghost operatives, she knows all of our fighting methods, as well as all of our weaknesses."

Winters slumped a little in his chair. "And the visits she's made here mean she also knows the weakness of the whole New Folsom security system. Who is the other ghost fighting alongside her?"

"It would appear to be Sarah Kerrigan, sir. She had disappeared completely since the fall of the Confederate world of Tarsonis, don't know when she suddenly reappeared though. Since she's fighting with Nova Terra, that must mean she's part of Raynor's Raiders as well."

Winters gritted his teeth in frustration. He was going up against two of the most powerful psionically gifted terrans ever. Fortunately, Mengsk's special delivery will be able to even out the odds.

Gestalt Barracks, New Folsom

Gestalt 622 looked at his right arm's transmission receiver. A message had been sent to him and the other 34 gestalts upon their arrival to New Folsom only a few days ago. He flipped it on to read the transmission given to him by Colonel Winters, the New Folsom security commander:

Hostile intruders detected attacking prison complex. Rendezvous with remaining security forces to prevent prisoner escapes. Top priority: terminate Nova Terra and Sarah Kerrigan.