Author's Note: Ok, so with this chapter I feel shouldn't go up so soon, but in the last chapter, Shadowbane509 had kind of wanted to know how did Ulrezaj return from captivity, so the beginning of this chapter will explain just that. For those of you who had read The Dark Templar Saga: Shadow Hunters and The Dark Templar Saga: Twilight, this first part of the chapter is also an attempt to connect the dots between Ulrezaj and the Tal'darim.

At MostazalsLord: If you do not know who Ulrezaj is, you can simply find all the info you need by going to Starcraft wiki and typing "Ulrezaj" in the search box. It'll help immensely when you read this chapter.

Chapter 27

Unknown Location

"You will have a difficult task ahead of you, Ulrezaj," the Dark Voice stated. "Now that we can no longer count on the terrans and the Protoss to kill Kerrigan, an alternative must be found."

"It will not be easy," the Dark Archon admitted. "My loyal followers, the Fist of Ulrezaj, were mostly wiped out near Shakuras. What had remained had been too weak to accomplish anything except for the roles of assassination." In fact he had used them to kill the Protoss preservers, but when it came to Zamara, this resulted in failure. It was exactly the reason why he had to turn to the Khalai Protoss that still remained on Aiur, in the hopes of replenishing his ranks.

Of course, the Sundrop that he had used to corrupt them had an alternative purpose than just cutting them off from the Khala: it was also to convert the Khalai Protoss to become more like Nerazim Protoss, despite the fact the Tal'darim had despised the Dark Templar kind. This process was unfortunately long and slow, and by the time he had been imprisoned within the Khaydarin Crystal with Zamara, it was still far from complete. Nevertheless, the Tal'darim had begun to learn the Nerazim techniques without understanding its true nature, and it had suited its purpose. In time, members of the Tal'darim had begun to spread the Sundrop substance to other Protoss on other worlds, enabling them to join with the Tal'darim as well.

It had been Ulrezaj's hope that after he had completed his mission on Ehlna, he would be able to determine just how successful the new Tal'darim recruits would be. Unfortunately, Zamara's actions had prevented that, and even after his release, he had been too weak to be of any practical use and had to recuperate. Only now will he finally obtain his chance to find out the results of his actions.

"It is highly unlikely you will be able to gather your Tal'darim brethren on Aiur to follow you again," the Dark Voice said. "As we speak, the Protoss have gathered most of their strength to retake their homeworld. They know the Zerg have been greatly weakened following the events of the Queen of Blades on Char. The Tal'darim still on Aiur have been frequently encountered by the Protoss. While as you had expected their reactions were hostile, that does not have to mean they're still loyal to you."

Ulrezaj scowled in reluctance. His master was correct after all. When he first formed the Tal'darim by splitting up the Protoss survivors from the Shel'na Kryhas tribe, he knew he would have to reveal himself to at least one Khalai Protoss. To this he had chosen Felanis, but had subjected him to a massive overdose of Sundrop so that his corruption would be so deep that even when he knew of Ulrezaj's true nature, he would remain loyal to him. This had succeeded, and with it he had forged a special group of Tal'darim called the Xava'kai.

Unfortunately, he had not counted on the continued meddling of the Shel'na Kryhas. Their leader, a fierce Protoss warrior named Ladranix, had taken and defeated one of his most loyal Tal'darim followers: Alzadar. Somehow he and the other Shel'na Kryhas Protoss had severed the hold Ulrezaj had over him via Sundrop. With that, Alzadar had turned against him, and had tried to turn the other Tal'darim against Felanis and himself. Although Ulrezaj took pleasure in killing Ladranix on Aiur one year ago, as well as the knowledge that Alzadar had also been killed, the fact remained that his influence had its effects. There was now no evidence that the Tal'darim would greet him as their Xava'tor anymore.

He hoped that Felanis was still alive on Aiur, as there was no proof of his death, but even in his case there was no proof he'd still be loyal to him. While the Sundrop substance had corrupted the Tal'darim leader, it did not change the fact that Ulrezaj was the primary supplier of the drug, and since he had only just recovered, it meant Felanis had not been exposed to it for almost a whole year. Thus it was entirely possible its effect had disappeared from him, and he had reestablished the link with the Khala. The same could be true of the Tal'darim on other worlds, and if that was the case, that would leave him without a powerful warband at all.

The Dark Voice noticed the energy being's silence and understood what he was thinking. "I have taken steps in ensure the Tal'darim retain the measure of control you had expected of them. One of my greatest hybrid creations is already there, commanding a group of such Protoss. He is under my specific orders to relinquish that command to you when the time is right."

"They will see me as a Dark Archon, master," Ulrezaj protested. "They are likely to despise me and react with animosity."

"That will not happen, my servant. For during the time period that you have reenergized, I had taken the liberty of bestowing an illusionary effect spell on you, specifically for the Tal'darim. Although this will have no effect on the other Protoss, the Tal'darim will see you as a Khalai Archon, and not a Dark Archon. This will hold true for the Tal'darim Protoss on Aiur, as well as on other worlds. As you had stated that the Tal'darim despise the Nerazim Protoss, the illusion spell will allow them to be loyal to you immediately."

"What is the status of the Tal'darim on Aiur now, master?"

"Most have either met death or capture as their fates. The Protoss are working hard to undo the influence you had done to them in the past in the case of the latter, while most of the remaining Tal'darim that still remain are under the command of my hybrid, dealing with the unexpected presence of a terran warband on Aiur. As such, you must build your warband using the Tal'darim from other worlds. They too have been weakened from combat, but they are still stronger in comparison to those on Aiur."

"You speak of the terran James Raynor that had defeated them," Ulrezaj said. "I had known of him when I first encountered Zeratul on Aiur a few years after its fall. The Nerazim had spoken highly of him."

"He is not to be underestimated, dark one. It was he who had defeated Kerrigan on Char, despite the vast Zerg forces at her disposal. Thus it should come as no surprise to you of his victories against the Tal'darim on other worlds, and why you must go travel to many of them and rally them together."

"I will unite the scattered Tal'darim," the Dark Archon said with resolve. "And I will see to it that James Raynor suffers his punishment for his actions."

"Do not fail me, young one," the Dark Voice warned. "It was precisely due to your potential that I had rescued you from the Alys'aril Nexus on Ehlna. Your sustained energies made it simple to replicate and deceive the Alysaar, but the deception was never meant to be held indefinitely. By now, they have surely known of your escape."

"Why did you allow Zamara to live, master? She is a Protoss preserver, and will remain a threat to me as long as she is alive."

"You are a capable warrior. You know as well as I do that during the battle on Ehlna, had Zamara not used her strength to channel the Alys'aril Nexus and combine them with her own, you would have broken into the sanctuary and dealt with her yourself. During the battle on Aiur where you had attempted to capture Zamara, you had fought a variety of opponents by yourself, including the Zerg, the terrans, and the Tal'darim that had been turned against you. Even against such a force, you were able to survive the battle, though not unscathed. Thus you need not my assistance for dealing with your adversaries. I certainly could have dealt with Zamara myself, but by allowing her to live, it also presents the opportunity for you to prove that you still have what is necessary to be considered worthy as one of my agents."

"I am still every bit the warrior you once knew me as," Ulrezaj said fiercely. "I will bring swift death to all of your enemies."

"Then begin gathering the Tal'darim on the other worlds. Once you have gathered your mighty warband, I will give further instructions to you."

Bridge, Shield of Aiur

"It is as we had feared then," Artanis said thoughtfully as Zeratul reported the news to him. "Our new adversary has found a way to infiltrate our very ranks, and turned our very kind to do its bidding."

"In the case with Ulrezaj it was a simple task to complete," the Nerazim replied. "His hatred for the Khalai Protoss had been immense long before he had become a Dark Archon. We had seen first-hand at what he was capable of, even enslaving the Zerg to kill the Khalai people."

"I never imagined he would turn against the entire Protoss race though. He is now a threat to all living things, just as this Fallen One is."

"Swift justice will be carried out against him," Selendis declared. "But that justice must wait for the time being. We must complete our current task at hand, and cleanse the Zerg from the rest of Aiur once and for all. The assault on Antioch has already begun."

Artanis turned to the battlefield screen again, looking on as the 250 million Zerg defenders fought grimly to hold on to every inch of the city as they possibly could. Vartanil was leading the Zealots on the ground against the outer defensive barrier, but the presence of Zerg creep somewhat compensated for the speed enhancements of the Zealot warriors. Urun had his hands busy with other matters, as the continued Zerg attacks in the form of Mutalisks and Corruptors prevented his Phoenix fleet from assisting with the Protoss on the ground. This had allowed more and more Zerg Queens to get into position against the ground forces, and reports were flooding in that these creatures were taking a heavy toll on the Zealots and Stalkers.

Mohandar had been dispatched to eliminate the Zerg air support, assisted by some of Selendis's Carriers, but the Zerg Spires and Greater Spires had thousands of Scourges defending it. As the Void Rays' prismatic beams were ineffective against lightly armored targets, the Carriers became easy prey to the Zerg flyers.

The Hierarch had seen enough. He opened a channel to all of the Mothership commanders. "My brethren, it is time. The Exussumers that have been deployed on the outskirts of Antioch will now play their role in the struggle ahead. The casualties we have sustained have been catastrophic, and we cannot hope to defeat the Zerg in a battle of numbers. We must prevail here with most of our warriors still in fighting condition, for our most difficult task is yet to come: expelling the Zerg from the site of the Overmind."

"As you command, Hierarch. The Exussumers will move into position for battle now."

New Folsom

"Concentrate fire on the Dominion infantry!" Nova shouted. "Sarah and I will deal with the gestalts!"

The prisoners' attack using the Hellions had turned out to be a disaster. For all their boasting, it was all hollow. The attack did not succeed in killing even a single one of the hybrids, though almost all of the Hellions were destroyed in the assault. Only two gestalts were injured, both of them no longer in fighting condition, but this was not worth the loss of 27 prisoners killed and the same number of Hellions now a smoking ruin.

By now, Warfield's troops had joined up with the two ghosts, and heavier firepower was at their disposal. While the cell blocks Sarah had liberated were near military vehicles, they were all in the forms of Hellions and Vultures. The Vikings in the compound was of little use, as all of the prisoners either knew how to operate its aerial mode or its ground assault mode. None of them knew how to pilot both modes simultaneously.

Deeper into the prison complex, there were the heavier military vehicles present in the forms of Thors, Siege Tanks, Goliaths, and Diamondbacks, but as yet those were inaccessible as the New Folsom security had gathered their strength and were positioning as many men as they could to deny them their access.

Fortunately, the prisoners had not allowed their hatred to blind them for their reason. When the initial assault on the gestalts had failed with such disastrous results, they had listened to Sarah to regroup further back. With her help, the Dominion pursuers were quickly neutralized, but unfortunately the gestalt units remained behind, and Nova knew this was something only she and Kerrigan could do, and they must do this alone.

Channeling her psionic powers, the blond ghost telekinetically hurled a firebat back into the infantry. Seconds later, his fuel tank exploded, and almost a dozen marines were running out, screaming from the pain of being burned alive.

From a higher elevation, Sarah unleashed a psionic storm against the Siege Tanks deploying into artillery position to shell the prisoners, before unloading from her C-20 Canister Rifle. The effect had killed many of the reapers utilizing their jetpacks to rapidly advance towards her, but the marauders further behind opened up with their punisher grenade launchers, forcing her to dive for cover.

"Someone deal with those damn Marauders!" Sarah shouted.

Warfield's marines advanced forward to comply, but many were cut down from the sounds of sniper rifles. Nova scowled in frustration as the ghosts she had personally trained at New Folsom had used their skills exactly the way she had taught them. Fortunately, they were still using the older model C-10 Canister Rifles, and those gave off greater flashes upon firing, giving away their positions.

Clutching an EMP grenade in her hand, Nova threw it in their direction. Almost immediately, the shockwave illuminated the Dominion ghosts as their cloaking ability was temporarily cancelled out. They never got a chance to recloak though, as all of them fell on the ground, their brains gone by Sarah's mind blast attack.

"The ghosts are gone! Bring out the big guns!" Sarah shouted. Within seconds, the area shook with the fury of artillery fire as Siege Tanks opened up. Marauder after Marauder were blown apart, as the New Folsom security defenders continued to weaken.

However, this promoted the deployment of the gestalts, as Sarah saw them utilize their psionic speed ability, charging out into the open to neutralize their artillery support. She quickly opened a communications channel to Warfield via her comm-link.

"Keep the artillery fire going with those tanks, general. Just keep your infantry out of blast zone. Nova and I will handle the gestalts ourselves."

"You could get killed by friendly fire though."

"It's a risk we're just going to have to take."

Without another word Sarah jumped down from the high grounds, and opened fire on the gestalts with Nova. Their bullets did little damage, however, as the gestalts had parts of Protoss power suits that protected them from harm. On the other hand, both ghosts were forced to dive for cover behind the numerous wrecked vehicles that littered the battlefield as the Terran-Protoss hybrids opened up with their arm mounted miniguns.

Nova gathered her strength and unleashed a psionic shock attack at one such gestalt, but to her surprise the hybrid did not topple over and go unconscious as she thought would happen. Instead, all it did was anger him, as he ignited a psionic blade on his right arm and charged in at Nova.

Suddenly, the gestalt stopped, and was lifted up into the air. Nova turned to see Sarah channeling her telekinesis powers, and hurled him into the scorching magma below. "Remember Nova, these are not normal ghosts we're dealing with here."

Nova nodded, as three more gestalts opened fire on them. Bolting away, she unleashed pure inertia towards them. It wasn't able to hurl them back as she had hoped for, but it did get them to stumble slightly. Seeing this opportunity, she focused her energy on their miniguns, jamming it. As the gestalts tried to unjam it, not realizing how their weapons stopped working in the first place, Sarah threw an EMP grenade of her own at them, before bolting away to get out of the blast radius. The explosion temporarily disrupted their power suits, and both ghosts opened fire with their grenade launchers.

Suddenly, Nova was hurled back, as another gestalt unleashed an inertia blast of his own, slamming the blond ghost into the wreckage of a Siege Tank. Thinking quickly, Sarah telekinetically lifted up a Goliath husk and threw it at the gestalt, but to her shock, the gestalt ignited his psionic blade and sliced the entire husk in half before it could make contact. As it was about to open fire however, the gestalt was suddenly forced back by a huge explosion from an artillery shell. Sarah turned to see the Siege Tanks had complied with her request, still providing the support she and Nova needed to channel the gestalts into killing zones.

However, her eyes widened as she saw what was being brought in to counter this. From the distance Kerrigan saw Dominion Thors slowly moving into firing position. As there was little room for maneuverability, it was likely the Thors would simply be used as mobile artillery batteries, but a single barrage from one of them was more than enough to blow a Siege Tank to pieces.

"Jim, we're going to need Banshee support soon!" Nova requested into her radio. "Those Thors take out our siege tanks and they'll just trample over us!"

"You know I always have a trump card on me," came the reply.

As the Dominion Thors advanced forward to get in range, Banshees came flying out of the sky, their backlash rocket pods blazing. But to the Thors' surprise, none of them unloaded their payload on them. Instead, they had unloaded the rockets right ahead of the mechanical walkers, blowing up a vital support bridge suspended over the molten lava. As this was the only bridge in the vicinity strong enough to support the Thors' massive weight, its collapse meant the behemoths were now stuck on the other side, unable to get within firing range.

Other Banshees carried incendiary type rockets, and those fell by the hundreds on the New Folsom security soldiers' positions. Marines, marauders, and reapers were left screaming as they were burned by the napalm, while other infantry were simply burned to ashes. Goliaths did their best with their hellfire missiles to knock them out of the sky, but the white phosphorus and thermite rockets unleashed by the Banshees had burned through most of their armor. Those lucky enough to survive were desperately retreating to avoid the flames, and this deprived the Vikings, Siege Tanks, and the remaining infantry on the ground of their anti-air support.

The results on the gestalts, however, fell way short of expectations. Many of them simply used their pryokinesis abilities to channel the flames and send them right back up towards the Banshees. However with so much fire around them, it proved impossible to channel it all, and many of them were instead forced to use their psionic powers to create invisible energy barriers to prevent being burned alive.

"They're distracted!" Sarah shouted. "Unload on them with everything you've got!"

The Siege Tanks complied, opening fire with their shock cannons, as Warfield's marines added to the fire with their C-14 gauss rifles. For many of the gestalts, the combination of incendiary fire, artillery shells, and infantry gunfire proved too much, and they finally began to succumb to the firepower unleashed against them.

With almost a third of the gestalts killed, the remaining ones saw that the battle conditions no longer favored them and began to fall back. With their strongest support retreating, this was the sign to the New Folsom infantrymen to withdraw as well, and most of them threw down their weapons and fled, scurrying in disarray across the lighter bridges that had been spared by the Banshees.

"They're just falling back to another defense position," Nova stated. "We've got to get to them before they have a chance to regroup!"

"Keep the liberated prisoners in the rear as they too vulnerable in this state," Jim's voice came from over the radio. "I'll send more Raiders and Warfield's boys down to assist you. Mengsk said the New Folsom prison has impenetrable defenses, and no one has ever cracked them before. Today, those Dominion security boys are going to learn just how wrong their emperor was."

Author's Note: All right, so for those of you who are wondering why I had given a very slight humbleness to the Dark Voice, I wanted to show the entity is not an arrogant moron who discounts possibilities because he feels it's simply beyond possibility, which in contrast is an even bigger insult to Mengsk, who's arrogance seems to know no bounds.

And that is why in this chapter with regards to the Dark Voice, even he is willing to acknowledge James Raynor's potential due to his victory over Kerrigan on Char.

As always, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.