Author's Note: Everyone, I have the next chapter up!

This chapter will be a little bit less diverse, I wrote it to concentrate mostly on the actions taking place at New Folsom. The chapter for the most part will focus on Kerrigan and her struggles.

It will certainly be part of her redemption, but right now I decided to focus on her skills now that she is a ghost again, and this chapter will show she is still every bit as deadly as ever.

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

Chapter 30

New Folsom

Sarah hid behind the wreckage of one of the burnt out Hellions as a tank she had never seen before open fire with its huge laser turret, instantly blowing the 3 Goliaths advancing in front of her apart. "Nova, you want to tell me what the hell is that thing?"

"I've only heard rumors, but Mengsk had wanted to build some sort of tank meant to replace the Siege Tank, said it was to better protect the Dominion when the Zerg eventually return," the blond ghost replied, joining up with her.

"That thing blew apart Goliaths in a single shot!" Franklin shouted from a few feet away. "Even the Diamondbacks aren't that powerful!"

"Rumors had it that this was supposed to be one of the experimental vehicles Mengsk planned to incorporate some Protoss technology into it," Nova explained, returning fire with her C-20 Canister Rifle. "It's certainly living up to that reputation."

By now, the assault on the Thor holding pen had been reduced to a crawl, as the new tanks tore infantry and vehicles alike apart. They were heavier in comparison to the Siege Tanks as well, and Nova found extreme difficult in telekinetically moving them. Kerrigan had much better luck, still being able to psionically pick them up and hurl them into the magma below, but this was made difficult by the sheer number of the tanks now being deployed on the front line.

Jim had already made an attempt to relieve pressure by sending down Wraith fighters to deal with them, but this had failed disastrously. Apparently these new tanks' laser turrets were capable of firing at air targets as well, making them a multi-purpose vehicle for anti-air, anti-armor, and anti-personnel.

To make things worse, the Thor holding pen was located on the other side of a relatively narrow bridge suspended over the lava, making it an easy choke point to defend. While scans had indicated that the bridge was strong enough to support Thors, it so narrow that they would have to travel in a single line. Jim had argued against such an attack, as destroying a single Thor would block the entire advancing column.

The two infantry support bridges did not have the new tanks defending it, but were being held by all of the remaining gestalts. Although the War Pigs were better fighters than their Dominion marine counterparts, they were still no match for the Protoss-Terran hybrids, and they had suffered appalling casualties in an attempt to take the bridges.

Now Sarah, Nova, and Franklin were near one of them, being held up by withering fire from the gestalts, as the New Folsom Goliaths continued to pound their position with autocannon fire. Sarah had used her psionic powers to get some of the hellfire missiles in the Goliaths to detonate prematurely, but other Goliaths simply took their place.

"If we can just take one of these bridges, we can send in our light vehicles," Franklin observed.

"That's not going to accomplish a thing," Nova pointed out. "The first Hellion attack on the gestalts failed disastrously, and even if by some miracle they succeed, they're no match for the new tanks."

Sarah touched her comm-link. "Jim, have you had any luck in finding out weaknesses in those tanks yet?"

"No, but I did get some information from intercepted transmissions about them. Seems like they had originally been intended for mining purposes. That laser turret you see had originally been intended to blast through really strong rock emplacements for faster mining, and the two giant buzzsaws positioned at its front were meant for the same thing at closer distance. It was exactly why the Dominion had designated them Laser Drill Tanks. Of course, the military soon saw use for them as weapons, though the intercepted transmissions have shown their cooling systems testing has not been completed yet, and that is why orbital scans have indicated most of the shots they're firing are at low energy levels. Firing anything higher and repeatedly could end up overloading those cooling systems, and blowing the whole rig in the process."

An idea suddenly came into Sarah's mind. "Jim, is there any infantry that is able to withstand that laser even at low levels?"

"Not likely, Sarah. You saw what it did to Warfield's boys. Half the marines and marauders are no long willing to move forward anymore until those tanks are dealt with."

Kerrigan turned to Franklin and Nova. "Keep providing fire on those gestalts. Force them to focus on you, I have an idea to take the bridge."

"Sarah, I know you're good, but these are hybrids we're talking here!" Franklin protested. "If you sneak across to the other side you'll be completely alone with no hope of fire support of any kind!"

Sarah patted him gently on the shoulder. "Trust me on this, it's the only way to prevent any more appalling casualties."

"But you could get killed!" Nova protested. "I know that Zerg blood healed you on Agria, but you said it yourself you don't know if it'll work like that again!"

"It's just a risk I'm going to have to take," Sarah replied. "Look around you. Men are falling like flies thanks to those tanks. If we can get past them and the gestalts, it'll be a clear way to the Thor holding pen. According to you, once we get the Thors, the rest of the security will fall like dominoes, so they must be putting everything they've got here to stop us. If my plan works, we'll crack New Folsom wide open."

Without another word Kerrigan cloaked, her entire body vanishing in a flash of light blue hue.

"Fanaticism has its advantages," Franklin observed, as he and Nova continued to provide fire support against the gestalts on the bridge. "Still, this is utter insanity."

"I don't like it much either," Nova replied. "But you saw what happened on Agria. She's has her advantages. And if you had seen what I saw when the two of us were leading the attack to get into the complex, you would have seen she's much more powerful than most of us can imagine."

Temple Ruins, Aiur

"We've got more Colossi inbound!" A marine shouted, ducking behind cover to avoid the thermal lance beams. However, this put him directly in the line of an Immortal's fire, and he was blown apart by the mechanical walker's phase disruptors.

Desperate for more ammunition, fellow marines and War Pigs have begun taking the gauss rifles of their fallen comrades, and in many cases even from the wounded. The supply Dropships were simply not arriving fast enough to deal with the situation at hand. Ridgeway had ordered Perdition Turrets to be built at the defense line, and this had somewhat stemmed the Zealot attacks, as their power suits were more vulnerable to the fire. However, this was useless against the Colossi as their thermal lances had longer range. Each time a Perdition Turret popped from out of the ground to unleash its flames, the Colossi would immediately target them.

Flanking the general, the Vikings were firing continuously with their Gatling Cannons, but the Stalkers and Sentries continued to pour in. Many cases the pilots found themselves frustrated by wasting ammo in firing at hallucinations the Sentries had created, while other times the small robotic units generated force fields, preventing the laid Spider Mines from scurrying over to their targets and detonating on them.

On the high grounds, the remaining Siege Tanks continued to pound the incoming Protoss with their shock cannons, but there were too many in number, and as such the Protoss nevertheless were able to advance forward. The Reapers tried to add in additional support by using their D-8 Charges, but this often forced them to get within close range of the Zealots. With only their P-38 Pistol at closer range combat, they were no match for the Protoss warriors' psionic blades and many were cut to pieces.

The BattleCruisers had sent down as many Ravens as they could, and they had done a superb job of detecting real copies from hallucinations for the terran defenders. This had been especially helpful to the gestalts, as their miniguns mowed down many of the real Zealots, while using their psionic blast ability to unleash inertia against other Zealots and pushing them into the line of fire of the Perdition Turrets. The Ravens themselves had deployed auto turrets to the scene, and they too added their fire to the incoming waves of Protoss.

However, the turrets were useless against the Colossi, and in the current attack wave, many of them were destroyed, while inflicting only minimal damage to the towering walkers. Wraith fighters had been pulled off escort duties from the supply ships to counterattack, and this had reduced Dropship activity to a minimum.

All over the battlefield, Ridgeway saw that his men had reached their endurance limits. Truth be told, he was nearing it himself, but he still believed in getting off the planet alive and in one piece. In comparison, only the War Pigs and gestalts seemed to share his point of view, as just about everyone else had completely lost hope in the matter.

The only good news so far is that the engineering team had completed their excavation task, and Ridgeway had used that to give his remaining men the resolve to fight on. Unfortunately, the ore loader vehicles that the team had used to load the package onto had no offensive or defensive weaponry at all. True it could load some 50 infantrymen onto it, but most of that space had been taken up by whatever had been obtained from the temple ruins.

With most of the Wraiths being called to the area to defend against the Colossi, it deprived the Dropships of any escort should they come under attack from Protoss Scouts. Even if one was lucky enough to get to the surface unscathed, there's no guarantee it could return to the BattleCruiser in the same state. Thus the general knew it was too risky to load such a ship with the excavated goods from the ruins, as if the Dropship is destroyed all of the hard work and effort the engineering team had spent would have been for nothing, and his forces simply did not have the strength to hold out for a repeat excavation.

"People, concentrate your fire on any Protoss anti-air units you can see!" Ridgeway shouted over the sounds of battle. "Those Colossi can't attack our Wraiths, so if we kill their anti-air support, our Wraiths will dispose of them. Once they've done that, they can escort our Dropships again. The engineering team has the goods standing by to be sent off world, so once we rid the Colossi, we're out of here!"

New Folsom

From under the bridge, Sarah heard the gunfire repeatedly clatter out. She could only hope Nova and the others were successfully holding out against the gestalts. Every second she delayed getting across to the other side means more soldiers would have to die.

Fortunately, none of the Dominion's forces bothered to look under the infantry bridge, possibly because it was suspended over the magma and the slightest slip would mean instant death in the lava below. Sarah concluded that while Nova may have trained the ghosts into elite fighters, she had never bothered to train them to fight in the location she was in. This of course was understandable, as she was holding on to steel pipes under the bridge's bottom with her arms, moving under the bridge towards the other side. All ghosts had to undertake such training, but none had to actually perform such a task over lava.

Not to mention in her case, there were very few pipes placed in the locations she had wanted them to be. As such, Sarah also had to use telekinesis to move some of the pipes into the straight line position for her to keep going. This meant many times she had to support her own weight with just her psionic powers, and that made it all the more difficult.

As she moved forward along the pipes towards the other side, Kerrigan could hear Nova mentally communicating with her telepathically. You and Jim are way too much alike, Sarah. You're every bit as crazy as he is.

Sarah smiled. Sometimes crazy works, Nova. Besides, I haven't had any opposition so far. Looks like none of the Dominion security had expected me to do this.

Using your telekinesis to support your weight over lava? That's something even I've never tried before. But if you think it'll work, I believe you.

Sarah mentally nodded before moving on. The closer she got to the other side, the louder the gunfire became. As the gestalts could be just as psionically as strong as Nova, she did not expect too much luck from her on the other side to take care of them. Fortunately, she had seen their fighting skills, and they were not too much different from that of Zealots with their psionic blades. During her time with the Zerg she had fought her share of them, and had gained enough experience to know their weaknesses.

Finally reaching the other side, she positioned herself onto one of the metal beams under the bridge. From above, she could see the gestalts still firing their miniguns, support by the Dominion infantrymen. Reapers were placing their D-8 Charges in position, ready to be detonated should the raiders get that far. However, as she was still cloaked, none of them had noticed her yet.

Unfortunately, having such a high psionic signature also had its drawbacks. Sarah had tried to dampen it as much as she could, but she was too powerful to go unnoticed. During her time in training with Nova on Haven, she had told the blond ghost of the Zerg having the natural talent to sense psionic individuals, and Nova had explained this was something that the Dominion Ghost Program had tried to incorporate onto itself as well. As such, it didn't surprise Sarah one bit that one of the gestalts suddenly stopped firing, sensing a psionic signature nearby.

"We don't have the time for you to go looking for people!" A marine nearby shouted. "We need to hold these raiders off from busting the prison open!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" the gestalt shot back. "I can sense someone powerful nearby, and something tells me it's no ally!"

Seeing the moment of distraction, Sarah hoisted herself upwards. Unfortunately, her timing proved to be faulty as it coincided with an EMP grenade explosion launched from the other side of the bridge. Franklin knew the EMP blast would weaken the power suits on the gestalts, but unfortunately it also affected Sarah's psionic hostile environment suit. The blast had caused her cloak to deactivate, allowing all the gestalts and infantrymen to see her.

"Intruder! Kill her!" A marine shouted, before immediately having his brain fried as Sarah unleashed her psychic attack. Several Reapers fell to the ground screaming, holding their heads in pain as her psychic attack had affected them as well.

The gestalts, however, did not suffer as much. Being ghosts themselves, albeit cloned, and combined with Protoss technology, their psionic powers had allowed them to form a psychic barrier which acted as a shield. Although Kerrigan's psionic attack was extremely powerful and penetrated most of them regardless, the fact remained that the damage done was much less than what the red haired ghost had hoped for.

One of them ignited his psionic blade on his right arm and used the psionic speed charging ability to rapidly close the distance, but Sarah raised her arm and let loose a psionic bolt which instantly stopped the gestalt in his tracks. Channeling her energies, she telekinetically hurled the gestalt backwards into the others, before letting loose a psionic storm. Some of the gestalts tried to cast a psionic barrier, but they had little experience with their new psionic powers, and this led to the blue lightning crackling through the barriers, leaving many of the gestalts badly scarred.

"Divert some of those tanks here right now!" A firebat shouted into his radio, before letting loose the flames on his perdition flamethrower. Mustering her strength, Sarah channeled her psionic energy into barrier of her own to shield herself from the flames, before opening fire with her C-20 Canister Rifle. The firebat exploded in a fireball as his fuel tank was hit, and many marines met a similar end as Sarah telekinetically jammed their rifles, before using her power to pull the pins from their fragmentation grenades.

"Enough of this!" A gestalt shouted. Using his psionic powers, he unleashed a blast of pure inertia towards Kerrigan, briefly knocking her off balance for a moment. Focusing his strength, he unleashed it again, this time knocking Sarah to the ground.

The engine roar caused Sarah to turn her head. Her eyes widened. One of the Laser Drill Tank was speeding towards her, the buzzsaws at its front spinning, ready to grind her into a meat pulp. As the gestalt charged towards her, his psionic blade lit, she allowed him to close the distance. Just as he was within striking range, she suddenly leapt into the air, doing a somersault over the gestalt. Landing behind him, Sarah unleashed a psionic blast of her own, sending the gestalt screaming into the buzzsaws of the Laser Drill Tank.

Without giving the tank driver a chance to comprehend what just happened, Kerrigan blasted the vehicle with another psionic inertia, sending it flipping onto its side. Raiser her rifle, she fired at the now exposed fuel tank on its underbelly, before bolting away to avoid the enormous fireball as the entire tank exploded.

Of the remaining gestalts in the area, only one was still in fighting condition. The rest had been too badly wounded by the sheer power of her psionic storm. However, as Sarah took aim to fire, he channeled his psionic speed ability and dashed forward. Igniting his psionic blade, he cut the barrel off Sarah's rifle, before landing a kick to her stomach, knocking her to the ground.

"Don't bother getting up, just die where you lie now!" He shouted, before taking aim with his minigun. However Sarah immediately cloaked, and the next thing the gestalt knew, his arm had been raised up against his will, as Sarah telekinetically yanked the minigun grafted off his arm. As the gestalt howled in pain, Sarah used her martial arts skills in melee combat, landing a kick so hard on the gestalt that it snapped his neck.

Without wasting a moment, Sarah pulled the Psyblade melee weapon from her back, mentally thanking Nova for training with her back on Haven with it. The blond ghost had explained the psionic blades of the Zealot had been of particular interest to the Dominion and their attempts to replicate a weapon of similar power. However research had shown that the blades were created from a combination of psionic energy, and biological and mechanical technology. As this was too advanced to be replicated by terran technology to produce at all, let alone mass produce, something less powerful was created in its place. Yet even this was too difficult to mass produce, so the Psyblade was issued only to the most skilled of the Dominion's soldiers, namely ghosts. As the strongest Dominion ghost, Nova was given access to them, and had a pair on her when she joined the Raiders.

Now that there are two such powerful ghosts on the Raiders, Nova felt it was only fair to give one of them to Sarah and train her with it. Kerrigan knew that the training would have its uses someday, and now proved to be the perfect time.

Channeling her psionic speed, she charged forward with the curved energy weapon, Sarah unleashed a psionic shock attack against the nearby marines. Although the shutting down of their brains is only temporary, a split second was more than enough. Wielding the Psyblade like a katana, marine after marine fell to the ground by her attacks, bleeding heavily.

"Get more of those tanks here immediately!" A marauder shouted into his radio, before opening fire on Sarah with his Quad K12 Punisher Grenade Launcher. However, Sarah leapt into the air and somersaulted, her body spinning in the air, avoiding the grenade attacks, before landing on her feet right behind the marauder. With a swing from her Psyblade, the marauder screamed in pain as his arm was cleanly cut off.

Reapers moved in quickly using their jetpacks, but Sarah used her telekinesis to spin the injured marauder around, before focusing it on his still attached arm and the grenade launcher, firing at the reapers with it. Although the ones in front were killed from surprise, the other reapers quickly adapted and spread themselves apart.

Throwing the marauder at them with her telekinesis, Sarah bolted away to avoid their P-38 Pistol shots, before releasing a psychic attack on them. Many of them anticipated this and tried to scurry away, but the red head channeled her telekinetic powers and used it to pull them towards her, within range of the psychic attack. As the reapers toppled over dead, Sarah had no time to celebrate as Dominion firebats opened up on her with their Perdition Flamethrowers.

By now, 4 Laser Drill Tanks were already within range, and have begun firing at Sarah with their cannons, and their buzzsaws were active as they closed in on her.

However, even without her C-20 Canister Rifle Sarah proved every bit as deadly. Using her psionic speed, she sprinted forward towards the corpse of a Dominion ghost, as the firebats gave chase to her, their flamethrowers blazing with fire. Just as the fire was about to engulf her, Sarah leapt forward, right over the body of the ghost. Using her telekinesis, she pulled his C-10 Canister Rifle into her hands, before spinning around in mid-air and opening fire on the firebats. Two of them immediately exploded in a fireball as their fuel tanks were hit, while 3 others died a more painful death as their fuel tanks leaked, and covered their bodies in flammable fluids.

Sarah didn't even have a chance to catch her breath as the Laser Drill Tanks opened up on her again, their turrets constantly tracking the former Confederate ghost, hunting her down. One of them was closing the distance much faster than the others, its saw blades almost within reach of Sarah.

However, just like the others, the driver had greatly underestimated Kerrigan. As it closed the distance grind her into pulp, Sarah made an incredible leap into the air, somersaulting and spinning gracefully right over the tank. In mid-air, she channeled her psionic powers and telekinetically pulled a heavy gauss rifle from a nearby dead marine into her own hands, discarding the C-10 Canister Rifle she got earlier. As the tank swung its laser turret around and locked on to her, Sarah fired with its attached grenade launcher, the explosive rounds falling right into the gun barrel. Seconds later, the entire turret was blown apart, but the driver never got a chance to recover it. As he stared in shock as his machine was singlehandedly taken down by a ghost, Sarah utilized her telekinesis to pull a piece of armor off from where he sat. Now exposed, she opened fire with her rifle, instantly killing him.

The other 3 tanks stopped immediately, deciding to keep their distance from her as they opened up with their laser turrets, but this was exactly what Kerrigan wanted. Hiding behind cover, she channeled her psionic powers and lifted one of the tanks up into the air. But instead of hurling it at the others as she no doubt expected them to think, Sarah instead utilized her technopathy ability, telepathetically linking her own mind with the tank's machinery systems.

On the ground, the other two tank drivers watched in shock as the tank Sarah suspended in mid-air suddenly turned its laser turret on them. Before they had a chance to react, Sarah focused her psionic energy, and increased the tank's laser output to its maximum power, cutting off the laser turrets on both tanks. Knowing that this would overload the cooling system, Kerrigan immediately hurled the tank in mid-air in the direction of the main bridge. Seconds later, she saw an enormous explosion as the Laser Drill Tank exploded in a fireball, the explosion so massive that it disabled the other Laser Drill Tanks holding the line against the Raiders from proceeding forward towards the Thor holding pen.

Seeing the other two tanks immediately race towards the bridge hoping to plug the hole, Sarah decided to take advantage of the situation. Utilizing her psionic speed, she sprinted after them. Just as the tanks stopped at the bridge, she unleashed pure inertia towards them, sending both of them towards the other infantry support bridge. Moving at such a speed, the Dominion infantrymen had no time to run or take cover, and the screams of them being cut apart by the tanks' still functioning buzzsaws confirmed this.

The sound of artillery barrages made Sarah turn her head, and she was relieved to see a few Thors deployed just beyond the other side of the bridge, opening up with their strike cannons and blowing the last two Laser Drill Tanks apart. With all the gestalts dead or no longer in fighting condition and all the Laser Drill Tanks destroyed, the way was now clear to head for the Thor holding pen.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Sarah walked back along the main bridge as Jim's Raiders moved past her, followed closely by Warfield's troops. Franklin and Nova stayed behind however, and Sarah waved to them as soon as she was able to see them.

Nova was beaming at her for what she had accomplished, but Franklin was still having a hard time accepting what he had just seen, that Sarah had the ability to take on more than a dozen gestalts and several of the Dominion's new generation tanks all by herself, along with numerous Dominion infantry, and prevail against the odds, it was just something that he was having a hard time taking it all in.

"You can let it sink in after we're done here," Sarah said, cocking her heavy gauss rifle and patting Franklin on the shoulder. "We've still got a job to do, so let's get to the Thor holding pen, let out the mechanical walkers, and free the rest of the prisoners here."

Author's Note: All right, with regards to the new types of tanks that MostazalsLord asked me about last chapter, the Laser Drill Tank was a cancelled Wings of Liberty unit (you can look it up on Starcraft wiki if you type that into the search box). I decided to turn it into a real unit, but the buzzsaws I added in for the sake to make the tank look more formidable.

The psyblade is a weapon from Starcraft: Ghost, but since the game didn't come out, I decided to incorporate it into my fic here. Basically it's like a Dominion attempt to create a Zealot psionic blade, and such weapons are only meant to be wielded by the fiercest and deadliest Dominion units, hence why Nova was given one in the game.

I thought it would be nice to give Kerrigan one as well. Just picture Kerrigan with a curved samurai sword and you'll get the picture.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.