Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm back with a new chapter. This one took a little bit of thinking to get done, but I managed to get it worked out. I know you guys didn't like the fact that the last chapter ended on a cliffhanger, so this one will end with a little bit more closure (maybe not as much as you hope for though). The building towards the suspense is still there, as I'm still working out all the details, but it'll be coming up very soon.
In the meantime, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and hopefully review. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next time.
Chapter 38
Dominion Facility, Undisclosed Location
General Ridgeway walked down the ramp of his Dropship, joining the rest of the Dominion marines and other infantrymen on the ground. Dominion transport trucks were moving back and forth, shipping the Protoss stones that had been so painstakingly excavated from Aiur to their destination. With the exception of the Gestalts, almost all of the surviving Dominion personnel were being helped by medics into the few empty transport trucks that could be spared, as their injuries and sheer battle fatigue after fighting the Protoss had pushed them to their limits. The medics had assured the general that his boys will be taken care of at the hospital, and Ridgeway responded that he would eventually visit them there, as he had promised them answers about why Mengsk has sent them to Aiur on an excavation operation in the first place.
He had more than one reason in hoping for Madison to be successful in getting the components Mengsk wanted. Although he knew that most of his men had little patience left and wanted answers, he also knew they were willing to wait it out until they had recovered at the hospital. However, if Madison failed in his mission, then it's likely that Mengsk would call on him to do what Madison could not, and that would be a total disaster.
According to what Mengsk had told him shortly after arriving at the Dominion installation, the Protoss on the moon of Bel'Shir, where Madison was, proved to be much more ruthless compared to what Ridgeway had gone up against. As such, the general was sympathetic towards him. On Aiur, Ridgeway had the benefit of most of the Protoss being distracted by battling it out with the Zerg all over the planet, while Madison on the other hand had no such luck. Ridgeway also had the benefit of defending a position from the Protoss, whereas Madison had to actually assault Protoss fortifications. Regardless of enemy strength and effectiveness, defending a position is always easier compared to attacking it, and that made Madison's task that much harder.
For Ridgeway, he had seen enough of his boys get slaughtered by the Protoss in the Aiur mission as it is, the last thing he wanted was to be ordered to go to Bel'Shir, where he'd have to give orders to feed more Dominion troops into the mincing machine. True, the vast majority of Dominion marines, firebats, marauders, reapers, and other military personnel were murdering psychopaths taken from prisons and penal systems, but unlike Mengsk, Ridgeway did not see them as expendable assets.
Of course in times of war there will always be casualties, but murderers or not, the Dominion troops are still human beings, not just meat for the big guns and fed into the slaughterhouse. With each military operation, there comes a point where the casualties sustained simply becomes unacceptable, and the benefits no longer outweigh the costs. Ridgeway could only hope what his men had died for on Aiur truly was for the greater good.
Of course, after everything that has happened since the Zerg invasion began, the greater good now had different definitions to different people. Prior to it, most of the Dominion military had stood behind Mengsk, believing that he would keep the Koprulu sector safe for humanity, and would build an empire in the name of the Terran Dominion that would prosper for all time. After the Korhal debacle, the Dominion is barely holding itself together. The rioting on Korhal and other Dominion controlled worlds may have mostly died down by now, but the tensions remained. To compound matters, Raynor and his Raiders were sending agents to some of those worlds, looking for anyone who would be sympathetic to their cause, and rallying more support for his revolution.
Ridgeway knew this was clearly increasing the tensions, and although the Dominion was still in control of the core worlds, the control there was nevertheless slipping away. Many of the Dominion fringe worlds have already been lost and declared themselves independent colonies, and right now no one is quite sure how to persuade them to reintegrate themselves back into the Dominion.
On the core worlds, the people's opinions were beginning to change from the way they were once thinking. Reports coming in from Dominion security forces have clearly indicated that more and more citizens were asking themselves what exactly they had been supporting all those years ago when the Terran Dominion was first formed. Indeed, the most frequent question asked in those cases was did they support the Dominion, or did they support Emperor Mengsk.
This was to be expected by the general, as questions of a similar nature had been raised by his troops after Raynor's victory on Char. Although still afraid of reprisal, a few have pointed out that upon entering the Dominion military, they had all sworn an oath. However, that oath was to protect the Dominion itself, not Mengsk. Normally this would be considered treason, but luckily for them, right now Mengsk needed all the support he could get, especially that of the military since it was upon them that the emperor hoped to regain control of the situation.
Just then, a Dominion ghost suddenly materialized out of thin air next to the general, snapping off a salute. "General Ridgeway, it's good to see you survived the operation unharmed, sir."
Ridgeway saluted back. "Maybe not physically, soldier. Mentally is quite another matter."
"I know you wanted some answers regarding the Protoss stones you had acquired on Aiur."
"I do. All emperor Mengsk said was that they will help him in his plan to regain control of the Dominion worlds that had turned against him, nothing more. My boys want it a little bit more specific than that."
The ghost nodded. "The Protoss are a psionic race, everything they've ever built has used some degree of psionic energy as a power source. These stones you've excavated are no exception."
"They're also psionically stronger than us," Ridgeway countered. "Are these stones part of the emperor's plan to make the terran race stronger than them or something?"
"No, the emperor has something different in store, and the stones you've brought here is a key element in that plan. Please follow me, sir."
"Where are we going?" the general asked.
"The stones are currently being analyzed by the top Dominion scientists and engineers here so that we can get all the knowledge we have out of it," the ghost replied, as the two of them began walking towards a huge Dominion facility in the distance. "The answers you want will be based off that data, which is classified information. However, for your services, Mengsk believes you have to right to understand some aspects of it."
Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char
Channeling his psionic powers, Ulrezaj teleported a group of Zealots behind the masses of Zerglings, where they were ripped apart by their psionic blades. From under him, dark shadow tendrils moved along the ground, and Roaches and Hydralisks unfortunate enough to be within range to be strangled to death by them.
Despite the requests of the Tal'darim for him not to engage the Zerg, Ulrezaj knew this was not possible. There were still more than enough Zerg in the primary hive cluster to wipe out his entire warband, and he needed the Tal'darim alive for his purposes. Each Protoss warrior killed here was extremely difficult, if not impossible, to replace, and thus he had to protect as many of them as he could, instead of treating them as expendable assets.
So far, the assault on the hive cluster was going according to plan. Although still very capable in defense, by combining his power of teleportation with the fanatical fighting ability of the Tal'darim, it lead to the deaths of countless Zerg as they were simply not prepared for this type of fighting style, with the Protoss constantly popping up from behind them as Ulrezaj's teleportation had a much longer range in comparison to the blink ability of the Stalker, which the Zerg were more used to encountering.
Other Archons had joined him and were fighting along his side, hunting down the Zerg Infestors. Although they could not match his movement speed, this was not necessary as the Infestors moved at an even slower pace. As energy creatures, the Infestor's neural parasite ability had no effect on them, and the Dark Archon had ordered that these Zerg creatures be amongst top priority to be killed to prevent them from turning the Tal'darim against one another. The Zerg had anticipated this, and had positioned Ultralisks near the Infestors to protect them, but Ulrezaj used his own dark psionic blasts to quickly kill the Zerg behemoths.
In the air, the Mutalisks continued to offer heavy resistance towards the advancing Protoss ground warriors, but as their glaive wurm attacks were not energy attacks, this had no effect on the Dark Archon. Thus it was the simple matter of channeling his psionic powers and casting dark psionic storms, to which the Zerg flyers stood little chance against.
Nevertheless, Ulrezaj knew of the precautions he also had to take. Despite his immense power, he was far from invulnerable, which had been clearly demonstrated during his attempt to capture Zamara on Aiur, and then again on Ehlna, where he had been weakened in the former's case by the relentless Zerg attacks. Although they were not as effective in harming him compared to Protoss energies, the sheer number of Zerg here would compensate for that deficiency.
Zerg Queens had moved into the area to use their transfusion ability to heal the wounded Zerg, but Ulrezaj used his maelstrom ability to temporarily freeze them in their place, where many were slaughtered by High Templars, taking this opportunity to move into position and casting psionic storms. Those that survived fought tenaciously, using their claws to great effect, but other High Templars used their feedback ability to drain the Queens' energies and weakening them further, where they were sliced apart by advancing Zealots.
Roaches moved in rapidly against the Colossi, and despite many of them being burned to ashes by tower walkers' thermal lances, enough were able to get within range to unleash their acid saliva on them. This had forced many of the walkers to fall back so they could use their thermal lances more effectively, and thus put a heavier strain on Zealots, now being forced to attack Spine Crawlers without their heavy support.
Carriers were mobilized to counter this problem, but the Zerg Scourge in the area remained numerous, and most of the golden ships were only able to achieve minor success before being forced to retreat to recharge their plasma shields. The most Ulrezaj could help out in this situation was use his teleportation skills to move the Carriers back quickly, as the Dark Archon was vulnerable to the plasma metamorphosis attacks of the Scourge. Although the small Zerg creatures were meant to attack aerial opponents, a nearby explosion would nevertheless do harm Ulrezaj. The only way to stop the flow of Scourge was to destroy the Zerg Spires, but they were all located deep in the hive cluster. Attempts to mass recall Protoss warriors behind the Zerg lines with Motherships were suicidal, as the Mothership would have to get within position first, and there were simply too many Spore Crawlers in the way to allow that to happen.
Continuing to channel his psionic powers and blasting apart the individual Zerg creatures, Ulrezaj wondered to what purpose Duran had in sending him to the volcanic world. Despite the vast numbers of Zerg falling with every passing moment, the advance towards the primary hive cluster was still slower than expected, and too many Tal'darim warriors would be too fatigued to fight on if this continued. Although Duran had insisted that the losses on Char would be worth the cost, the Dark Archon had yet to even see what he was after.
If the losses continued at this rate, he would consider ordering the Protoss Carriers into high orbit and using their energy beams on a smaller scale, thus burning the hive cluster to cinders, despite Duran had warned him not to as it would also destroy what he hoped to collect on Char.
Of course, Duran was not his master, the Dark Voice was, and if the situation became critical enough, he would consult with the Dark Voice, hoping he would agree for a faster cut through to the objective.
En Route to Scion Province, Aiur
"Jim, this is utter insanity," Nova said under her breath, as she walked alongside the rebel commander and Sarah, with Protoss Zealots walking alongside them. "You can say all you want about how sometimes crazy works, but this is far too insane even by your standards."
"Be realistic, Nova," Jim replied. "What did you think was going to happen after we landed on Aiur? Artanis may have given the order that Sarah was not to be killed, but after everything that's happened, you really think they were just going to forgive her on the spot?"
"No, I had expected them to come after her head the second we won on Char, regardless of what the prophecy had said. Sarah told me all about what she had done to them when she was the Queen of Blades. I'm actually surprised they obeyed such an order."
"It is why I agreed to Zeratul's proposal to speak to the rest of the Protoss Hierarchy. They aren't even fully convinced of the Xel'Naga prophecy yet, let alone about Sarah. To make matters worse, I still don't know how hard I can press my case, since the Protoss are created by the Xel'Naga, so it doesn't give me much room to judge."
"You told me the Sarah was the first female terran they encountered, and that turned out horribly for them," Nova pointed out. "Why bring me along for the ride in speaking to them?"
"History is vital to them. The Queen of Blades left a very bitter impression on the Protoss about terran females, it's why I'm hoping you could set an example to them not all women are like that."
"You think they'll believe it?"
"Not at first," Jim answered. "But it's the same with as I told Sarah: you fight alongside them long enough, they'll learn to trust you."
"I just hope I live long enough to see that," the blond ghost grumbled. "The experience of fighting Protoss is not something I look forward to doing again."
Behind them, Sarah walked on, lost in her own thoughts. The reception so far had actually been much better than she had expected, as none of the Protoss warriors had decided to cut her head off the moment she exited the Dropship. Zeratul had only exchanged a few words with Jim regarding speaking to the Protoss Hierarchy, before vanishing in a cloud of black smoke. Right now, the three of them were being escorted to Scion, recaptured by the Protoss during the early stages to reclaim Aiur from the Zerg. Most of the city was in ruins, but one of the old citadels remained intact enough for the Hierarchy to hold council there, at least for the time being.
This only worsened Kerrigan's fear, despite the fact she had already accepted her fate of death once she had served her purpose in the role of preventing Armageddon. Deep down, a part of her still hoped that something could be done for her to earn redemption in the Protoss' eyes, but the rational part of her knew this was wishful thinking. Billions of Protoss were dead because of her, not just on Aiur and Shakuras, but on numerous other worlds as well. She doubted any of the Protoss Hierarchy would see her as anything more than a mass murderer with an insatiable lust for power and dominance.
However, she made no attempt to read the minds of the Protoss Zealots, High Templars, and Stalkers escorting her, Jim, and Nova. She didn't want to know what they were thinking, as more than likely she would find resentment for being ordered to protect a mass murderer against other Protoss in the event they were unable to control their hatred for the former Queen of Blades, as well as anger for having their minds violated.
Nevertheless, that didn't mean she could control her own mind of the nervousness and fear that plagued her, as she simply didn't know how the Protoss Hierarchy would react to her, and she was very pessimistic about the outcome. In fact, despite what she had learned about her role on the prophecy, she had a feeling that once she entered the citadel to face the Hierarchy members, she wouldn't be coming out alive. Not that she believed she deserved to live after all the pain and misery she caused, but she simply couldn't get her mind off the anticipated meeting with them.
"James Raynor, we are approaching the outskirts of Scion province," a High Templar announced. "The Protoss Hierarchy have all gathered there, along with Zeratul and other high ranking Protoss."
"Where is the citadel they wanted to speak to us at?" Jim asked.
"Near the central part of the city. As you are the only one who has known what the former Queen of Blades was like prior to her infestation, Artanis has convinced the rest of the Hierarchy to listen to what you have to say about her."
Jim nodded slowly, knowing how big of an uphill battle this is going to be. It took every ounce of diplomacy he had just to convince Artanis to give Sarah the benefit of the doubt one more time, instead of just having her killed the moment she had done her part. However, in Artanis's case the commander had an advantage: the two of them had fought together during the Brood War four years ago. The same could not be said for the rest of the Hierarchy and other Protoss. Selendis may have known him for his services in aiding Aiur, but Jim was unsure of if the female executor would still feel the same way after he fought against her on Haven.
He had no doubt that even if they didn't know, Artanis would have surely told the other Hierarchy Protoss of his personal feelings for Sarah, and Jim knew he had to anticipate them accusing him that such feelings was affecting his judgment. Nevertheless, he refused to believe that he would be unable to convince them of seeing Sarah differently.
Overmind's Corpse, Aiur
From his position near the Overmind's corpse, the hybrid watched over the Zerg creatures as the fortification around their dead master continued. Drone production had also been increased, with many of them mutating into Spore and Spine Crawlers, while other Drones formed natural barriers by moving rocks and boulders into position, thus creating choke points for any attacker to go through. The Spine Crawlers are then positioned in such locations, so that when the attack began, the terrans and Protoss would be channeled into killing zones.
Unlike elsewhere on Aiur, some of the largest Zerg breeds had withdrawn to this area when it became clear the Protoss foothold could not be dislodged. Just about wherever he could see, Brutalisks and Omegalisks trundled along the creep infested ground, some of them accompanied by Devouring Ones and Hunter Killers. The most powerful of the Zerg Queens were here as well, some of them even stronger than the Ultralisk. And unlike the massive, specialized Queens with Protoss psionic abilities, these Queens were smaller, but were easier to breed, and more were being hatched from cocoons with each passing moment. The same was being done for Brutalisks and Omegalisks, but these creatures had to be bred from larvae, instead of the Large and Huge Queens, which are simply morphed from the standard Zerg Queens, and therefore were harder to breed.
On the other hand, the hybrid had initially tried to breed the special Queens like on Char, as they were almost the size of an Omegalisk, and much more powerful given the addition of Protoss psionic power. However this was quickly abandoned as too many Queens ended up killing themselves as the psionic powers proved too much for them to handle.
Nevertheless, the hybrid knew he had an impressive Zerg defense force under his command, growing stronger by the minute as Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives churned out the larvae necessary. The three Zerg Leviathans in the air added their contributions to this, as aerial cocoons were launched from their mouths and other parts of their bodies, most of them erupting into Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Brood Lords. Other cocoons dropped onto the ground instead, hatching into Zerglings and Hydralisks to reinforce the Zerg ground creatures.
"You are doing well, young one," the hybrid tilted his head up to hear the Dark Voice speaking to him telepathically. "The Zerg you have mustered here is indeed a force to be reckoned with."
"I live only to obey your will, my master."
"Then I have another task for you to complete. A new psionic signature, something not of Protoss origin, has recently arrived on Aiur. Can you sense it?"
"I can, master. It's Kerrigan, she has come to the Protoss homeworld as well. It is probable that she is here to assist the Protoss in ridding the Zerg presence on Aiur."
"Then you know what you must now do. You and all of your brethren were preordained millennia ago, long before she even existed. You were all chosen for the role of my grand scheme in the cosmic order, and I will not allow that to be endangered, especially not by a feeble terran who was converted to the Overmind's pet and granted special powers in the hopes that she could eventually challenge me someday."
"That will never come to pass," the hybrid answered. "Kerrigan does not know of my presence here on Aiur, and that will leave her vulnerable when the terrans and Protoss attack here. When that time comes, I shall deal with her myself."