Author's Note: Greetings people, I finally have the next chapter written out. Finding the spare time to write remains difficult as ever, but it is my hope that by mid to late this month the situation can finally improve.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Chapter 32

Tal'darim Base, Aiur

"Master, I do not understand," the hybrid said. "What reason have you for allowing the terrans to leave Aiur with what they have stolen?"

"Zeratul did not do as I had anticipated," the Dark Voice answered. "I had expected him and his Dark Templar brethren to destroy the vats, thus in turn releasing some of my creations. They would have slaughtered him and all those within the sanctuary. Instead, he had left them intact and are planning to move them off world."

"Then let me deal with him, master. I will recover them for you and release them out into the world."

"Not with this many Protoss on Aiur, young one. Your skills are exceptional, but even you have limits in the face of overwhelming numbers. As it will take a considerable amount of time before my other creations can be awakened, I cannot afford to waste your skills. For now, call off the Tal'darim under your command."

"As you wish, but the numbers to bend to our will are rapidly dwindling. The Daelaam Protoss have begun pushing towards their capital city of Antioch as we speak."

"That is why you are to leave the Tal'darim base at once. It will not be long before the Protoss locate these survivors and attempt to bring them back to the Khala. They must not know you are the one who has corrupted them. I will have other plans for the Tal'darim."

"Ulrezaj has done well in bringing the tribe under his command again," the hybrid said. "It would appear he is gathering his strength from them off worlds."

"His actions will be beneficial to dealing with the terrans that have yet to see the true threat," the Dark Voice replied. "The Tal'darim army he will unite shall be used to crush them before they even realize the greater scope of the picture. As for you my servant, you are to go to the last Zerg concentration on Aiur and prepare accordingly."

"The 600 million Zerg nestled at the corpse of the Overmind are too vast in numbers," the hybrid pointed out. "Despite the Queen of Blades's defeat on Char, you know the difficulties in controlling so many of them."

"Only in terms of attack. Kerrigan had foolishly evolved them to be much more intelligent and less guiding in terms of defense, and therefore it will take little effort on your end to organize them effectively. No doubt the Protoss will know such an offensive will require a maximum effort on their part, and even then the cost will be catastrophic to them."

"I shall leave at once, master."

"Concentrate on mustering the advanced Zerg breeds there. Few had been so far encountered by the Protoss on Aiur as the Zerg had concentrated almost all of them near the Overmind itself. Even if the Protoss succeed in wiping out the Zerg defenders here, they can and will be easily replaced, whereas the Protoss numbers cannot. The sheer overwhelming numbers of the Zerg will lay waste to them all, once the last loose ends that meddle in my ascension have been tied up and disposed of."

Antioch, Aiur

Urun repeatedly fired the ion cannons of his Phoenix fighter into the Zerg flyers. The assault on Antioch had been going as expected, though casualties had remained extremely high for the Protoss. The damage done to the ancient city, however, had now proved to be a severe drawback for the Zerg defenders.

Past the outer sectors of the province, the inner areas of Anticoh had been reduced to a wasteland, as deserts and ashlands now replaced where forests and jungles once were. There were still some mountainous terrain that gave signs of the city's former state, but they had all been stripped bare of the greens that once inhabited it. As such, this had made it extremely difficult for the Zerg to use any environmental barriers that would provide a natural defense against the Protoss. In addition, with virtually nothing left in the inner and central sectors of the city, there was no need to worry about collateral damage, so anything that did not resemble Protoss would automatically become a viable target.

One of the few things that had remained, surprisingly enough, were the Antioch Water Reserviors. This has been quickly picked up from the Motherships, flying high above over the battlefield, providing assistance in the most critical areas. This had in fact been the primary objective when the assault had begun, as the Zerg could not adapt to the water. Thus if destroyed, all the Zerg ground minions in the city would inevitably drown, and thus immediately priority had taken place to reach the reserviors.

However, the Zerg were not blind to the danger. Realizing it was too late to blow the reserviors themselves when they began to fortify Antioch as the initial Protoss invasion began, they had concentrated some of their heaviest forces in that area. Indeed, of the remaining Zerg defenders in the city, some 85 million of them had concentrated themselves around the reserviors, along with all the Spore and Spine Crawlers that could be spared for the defense in that area. To make things worse, Observer reports had indicated that Zerg Drones had been swarming in the area, rapidly positioning rocks and boulders from the mountains to provide choke points to channel the Protoss into killing zones. The gigantic Exussumers that had been forged were meant to operate in open space environments, and while its sheer size and firepower was meant to compensate against the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Zerg, the lack of maneuvering space would render them ineffective in the assault on the reserviors.

For the Auriga Tribe leader, he was forced to concede that attacking the reserviors and flooding the city was not going to happen. The Zerg had positioned hundreds of Spore Cannons in the area to deal with the Protoss Carriers and Motherships, while the legions of Scourge there, combined with those in the area sectors of Antioch, would overwhelm the Phoenixes.

As such, Urun was now fighting alongside the other Phoenixes to stem the Zerg flyers as the ground Protoss pushed deeper into the city. Selendis and the golden Carriers were providing the ground forces with fire support against the Ultralisks, while the countless Hydralisks tried to shoot the Carriers out of the sky, only to be ripped apart by the waves of Interceptors.

However, the requests for help from the Carriers had been steadily increasing the longer the battle went on. As had been seen all too often, the Protoss capital ships are ineffective against Zerg Scourge, and legions of them had been mobilized to counter this threat. Several Carriers had already gone down as a result of this, and Selendis herself was forced to temporarily fall back to the safety of a Shield Battery to replenish her ship's plasma shields.

With so many Phoenixes being used to hold off the Corruptors, it had left many of them open to attack from the Scourge. Although not as effective against smaller ships, they were used in great effectivness with the Corruptors, the latter covering the Phoenix fighters with their corruption slime to render it more vulnerable, while the former homed in to finish the job. This had left many of the ships to use their overload ability, channeling the pilots' psionic potential to form an energy barrier, where smaller blasts of ion cannon energy fired in multiple directions. However while this proved an adequate defense against the Scourge, once the overload effect dissipates the ship required a few seconds of cooldown before it was able to resume standard operations, and in the midst of battle, many of the Phoenixes were lost to Corruptors this way.

The few Scouts that could be spared from fighting the Mutalisks were brought it to deal with the Corrptors, but they were not as maneuverable and many became the victims of corruption slime attacks before they had a chance to fire their anti-matter missiles. This forced Urun to call the Corsairs away from their disruption web duties to deal with the Scourge, while his Phoenixes continued to hold off the Corruptors, allowing the Scouts to return to fighting the Mutalisks.

On the ground, with the loss of the disruption web assistance, it had initially give the impression to the Zerg that the Protoss warriors would be easier targets. However, this proved to be a grave mistake. With so many Carrier Interceptors swarming across the battlefield, few Zerg units were able to get within range of the Protoss before getting torn apart themselves. Roaches had burrowed underground to bypass this, but their movements had been tracked by Observers, and many were yanked from out of the ground by Zealots and slaughtered. Although the Zerg had moved many Spore Crawlers into position and shot down dozens of Observers, these structures were defenseless against ground units and had to be protected by other Zerg units. They were usually accompanied by Spine Crawlers, but while their impaler tentacle had a longer range than most Protoss warriors, their attacks were nevertheless considered heavy ones, and as such Immortals had been brought in, where their hardened shields protected them as the Zerg defensive structures succumbed to their phase disruptors.

This had prompted the Zerg Brood Lords to attack them, but the giant flyers were slow in comparison to the Mutalisks, and could not generate Broodlings at the rate necessary. As a result, Stalkers were able to blink within range of flyers, and as most concentrated on the Immortals, fell victim to the Stalkers' particle disruptors.

Elsewhere on the ground, Ultralisks were used more and more frequently to deal with the hordes of Zealots flooding in to the city, but it was only delaying the inevitable. Many of the Zealots had Sentries and High Templars as escorts, and in many cases, the Sentries simply boxed them in using their force field ability, while the High Templars released their psionic storms. Although the thick carapace of the beasts were strong enough to survive the attacks, it nevertheless weakened them dramatically, where the Zealots finished the job once the force field had dissipated. In other cases where Sentries ran low on energy for such a task, the High Templars created hallucinations of the Zealots so that the Ultralisks would waste their energy on faked copies. The Zerg had brought in Overseers to counter this, but without any offensive or defensive abilities of their own, they were easy prey for the Sentries' disruption beams. In desperation, many of them spawned Changelings in their defense, but the small Zerg creatures were only meant for espionage, not frontline combat, and as such most fell victim to the Zealots' psionic blades.

From the ground, about the only success the Zerg were having came in the form of Nydus worms. As they were able to pop up from deep underground at almost any given location, none of the Protoss were safe behind the frontlines. In many cases, the Zerg took advantage of this by sending out Queens, supported by Roaches and Hydralisks. While the Roaches and Hydralisks held off the Zealots in the initial attacks, the Queens create Creep Tumors to spread the creep, thus negating their slow speed while off the creep itself. Although their acid spine attacks were not as powerful compared to the needle spines of the Hydralisk, their claw attacks made them very deadly against Zealots. As such, Urun and other Phoenix fighters had been frequently called upon to suspend the Queens in mid-air using their graviton beams, rendering it incapable of anything during that time.

Despite the enormous casualties that has been taking place, the assault on Antioch has been going according to plan. Most of the Zerg on the frontlines has been quickly overwhelmed, and from the Observor reports, it seems more and more Zerg Infestors were being mobilized, their neural parasite tentacles able to take control of Protoss ground and air units alike, turning their own forces against them.

To Urun however, this was an act of desperation, as it was becoming clear that the Zerg were starting to run out of other options. To that end, he had ordered Archons gather at his location. As they were beings of pure energy, the parasite would have no effect on them, and they would deal with the Infestors.

It is only a matter of time, he told himself. Zerg defenses were failing with each passing moment. Soon, Antioch will be free again.

Tal'darim Base, Xel'Naga Worldship

Ulrezaj warped into the area from the Phase Prism, escorted by his fellow Tal'darim warriors. Their leadership branch here had indeed suffered greatly at the hands of Jim Raynor. Despite the advantage of the gravity distortion generators and their effect to kill any non-shielded units that enter the aura, the terran had still managed to fight his way through the Tal'darim forces and acquire the ancient Xel'Naga artifact.

Even more humiliating was the fact that all the prison facilities on the Xel'Naga Worldship had been destroyed. As with the case on Aiur, the Tal'darim here despised the Dark Templar, and thus had them imprisoned. Jim Raynor had apparently freed them all, and the Dark Archon had no doubt that they would have assisted him against the Tal'darim.

As he stepped onto the Xel'Naga Worldship, Ulrezaj was greeted by Tal'darim High Templars, paying their respect to the mighty Xava'tor.

"Greetings, mighty one," a Templar said. "We are honored by your presence among the Tal'darim. I regret that your coming could not have come at brighter times."

"I see that the Tal'darim here remain formidable as ever," Ulrezaj replied. "Despite what had happened prior to my arrival, I am pleased to see you are all still dedicated warriors to the task at hand."

"It was nevertheless insufficient. Despite some of our mightiest forces stationed here, James Raynor was still able to defeat them and reach the Xel'Naga vault. Although he had left the area after acquiring the artifact, his actions have left the Tal'darim here greatly weakened. Much of our fleet has been reduced to ruins. The giant terran ships had played havoc on our Carriers, and many of our Void Rays were unable to do enough damage before they too were destroyed."

The Dark Archon looked around his surroundings, observing the remaining Tal'darim gathering their forces and rebuilding after their defeat recently. Truth be told, there were many times where he wondered if he should have begun his corrupting with the Tal'darim on other worlds instead. While both the Tal'darim on Aiur and the ones on the worldship despised the Dark Templar, it would seem that the latter were far more willing to adjust to situations at hand.

Looking around, he had already seen vast numbers of Stalkers moving about on the ship, and his visit to Bel'Shir he had seen similarly in the Void Rays deployed by the Tal'darim. Both of which were Dark Templar design, something he knew the Tal'darim were fully aware of. The Sundrop substance may have cut off their link to the Khala, but it did not remove their intelligence. Yet it would appear the Tal'darim here were not as corrupted as the ones on Aiur.

This had been reinforced upon his consultation with a Tal'darim Templar on Bel'Shir. He had claimed that the Dark Templar prisoners captured on the Xel'Naga Worldship had been subjected to immense torture for information, and the Tal'darim had learned of the Dark Templar designs of the Stalker, Void Ray, and other Dark Templar weapons of war. Although the hatred for the Dark Templar remained, the Tal'darim had nevertheless concluded that some of the designs may end up having their benefits in the future. It was why the Tal'darim had begun manufacturing such designs and incorporating them into their own forces.

What had greatly impressed even Ulrezaj was the ability to use Stalkers at all. He had seen the use of Dragoons used by the Khalai Protoss, and the Stalker is essentially a Dark Templar variant of almost the same thing. However, while the Dragoon was to be piloted by the Khalai Protoss warriors and fused with the energies of the Khala, the Stalker required the shadow presence of a Dark Templar and infused with the energies of the Void. To that end it had come as a great surprise that the Sundrop substance had allowed the Tal'darim to develop the Nerazim techniques so far that they had been able to develop the ways of the Stalker without having to convert to become Dark Templar themselves.

Although the Tal'darim on Aiur had also developed weapons forged by the Dark Templar, they had been far more reluctant to do so, unwilling to admit the Nerazims created something more capable of fighting the Zerg. On the other hand, the Tal'darim on the worldship seemed to be much more adapt to the situations at hand, and it was clear to Ulrezaj that these would without doubt be a much more effective warband under his command.

"Despite what had happened here, I can see many of your warriors are still ready to take up the fight," the Dark Archon commented.

"It will not be easy, great Xava'tor. Our leadership had suffered a severe blow here. When Jim Raynor attacked the Xel'naga vessel, he also killed our executor, Nyon. He had personally led the attack against the terran thieves with his Mothership, but it had been shot down by the terran ships. Afterwards, we had tried to reach out to other Tal'darim on other worlds for assistance, but none of them were able to reach the worldship in time before the terrans had left. As for the Mothership itself, we were able to salvage it, but no one aboard survived."

"I will need your assistance in my endeavors, my brothers," Ulrezaj replied. "During such times, I will lead you."

The High Templar bowed in respect. "We shall aid you in any way you see fit, great one. Once the Mothership repairs are complete, it will be yours to command."

"I have gathered the Tal'darim from Bel'Shir to aid me in my quests. It is my hope that you will come with me to other worlds inhabited by the Tal'darim. Together, we must unite against our enemies."

"We will do as you command, Xava'tor," the High Templar's eyes then glowed, as energy poured into his Khaydarin Amulet. Within moments, other Tal'darim warriors had gathered around Ulrezaj.

"I have sent your will to all of the Tal'darim on the Xel'Naga Worldship. They all pledge their alliance to you."

"My thanks, my brothers," Ulrezaj stated. "Join me in my quest to gather the Tal'darim from the other worlds, and together we will bring down our enemies together."

Author's Note: All right, for those of you who had read the Starcraft novels regarding the Tal'darim, you would have known that they despise the Dark Templar. If so, then I'm sure many of you would have raised the question as to why the Tal'darim forces in Wings of Liberty have access to Stalkers and Void Rays, as they are of Dark Templar design.

This chapter is to shed some light on that issue, because I didn't want to make it sound like they had access to them simply due to gameplay mechanics. Rather, it was more to show that the Tal'darim may be fanatical, but they're not stupid. And they're also willing to swallow their pride and admit in situations where they feel Dark Templar technology is superior to their own. As such, it would be better off replicate that technology rather than adhere to their original traditions.

The presence of so many Tal'darim still on the Xel'Naga Worldship is also not a coincidence. This is their leadership HQ, and thus would have the strongest forces positioned here. You can't just expect Raynor and his Raiders, even with BattleCruiser schematics, to just steamroll right over them.

This is also the reason why I had the Tal'darim Mothership survive the battle to an extent. The Mothership is the pinnacle of Protoss technology, and are now the new command ships for the Protoss fleet. The Protoss Carriers have weapons that can burn entire planet surfaces to ashes, and the Mothership is supposed to be even stronger than that, if you recall their Planet Cracker ability (though they removed this in the game).

By contrast, the Yamato Gun of the BattleCruiser only has the effect of a tactical nuclear explosion and is much less powerful. Thus you can't just expect a couple of Yamato blasts from the BattleCruisers to blow the Tal'darim Mothership to smithereens, it's just not going to happen.

Anyways that's enough out of me. I'll try to write up the next chapter as soon as I can and try to update faster. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.