Author's Note: All right people, it's time for a new chapter. For the time being, the battle on Aiur will take priority over the others, but don't worry, the other areas I have written will still play their roles. For those of you who recall, back at the end of chapter 28 I had Duran locate the severed wing of the Queen of Blades, but since then I have not mentioned anything about that.
Well, that was only because it wasn't very important to, but it doesn't mean it's been forgotten or anything like that. It is my intention that everything written, however long ago, will eventually come to play its part in the story, you just have to wait it out and see.
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please review and I'll see you next time.
Chapter 42
Unknown Location
Duran observed from a distance as the experimentation on the hybrid cloning continued to be carried out. Although his master had allowed him to proceed, the fact remained that despite the vast numbers of cloned hybrids that have been forged, none of them could be used without his master's consent. The Dark Voice had made it clear to him that if they do not respond to his commands, they would be considered a failure in Duran's experiment.
It was exactly why he had made efforts to take the hybrid cloning to a completely different level after he had retrieved the Queen of Blade's severed wing on Ulaan. Surprisingly enough, the Zerg minions had overlooked this matter, and it had been in well preserved condition by the time he had arrived to obtain it.
Although the wing itself was technically not part of Kerrigan prior to her infestation, the fact that they had been part of her during her time with the Zerg made a difference. When he had deceived her into thinking he was her consort all those years ago, Duran had seen how effectively she had been able to use her new limbs in combat, killing Khalai and Nerazim Protoss alike with relatively little effort. The Overmind had done well in its infestation for her to be able to learn and master such fighting skills so quickly.
Nevertheless, such actions would now backfire on her. Duran had known that the psionic energy coursed through her entire body, and the wings proved no exception. Despite being severed, the tests had clearly confirmed that there remained psionic energy within them, and it was his hope that energy could be harnessed. As they contained virtually none of Kerrigan's human DNA, it was impossible to use the cloning processes and re-create the Queen of Blades, and then have her mind genetically engineered to be loyal to him.
The attempts to harness its energies fared no better. Despite the outcome of her infestation by the Zerg and having no negative effects on her psionic abilities, the same could not be said when replicating these energies and incorporating them into the cloned hybrids. The energy assimilation was successful, but rather than enhancing the hybrid, the psionic energies conflicted with their own energies. This caused the cloned hybrids to be weakened even further, and before long Duran had been forced to abandon this idea in his experiments.
The entire hybrid cloning process was not developing well. Despite being dormant, the cloned hybrids continued to emanate psionic signatures. However, unlike the original hybrids, their signatures were unresponsive to the Dark Voice's telepathy. To his master, this only reinforced his view that the cloning process will continue to result in failure.
However, Duran was unwilling to give up. The cloned hybrids may not be as powerful as the original hybrids, but they possessed virtually all of their abilities, including the ability to corrupt and enslave both Zerg and Protoss alike. All they needed now was a way to obey commands, and he was confident that the components needed to achieve this were on Char. This was the reason why he had requested Ulrezaj to attack Kerrigan's hive cluster there, and while the Dark Archon was not informed of this, the request had been backed up by the Dark Voice, and Duran had no doubt that Ulrezaj would never dare to question his master's motive.
Dominion Facility, Undisclosed Location
General Ridgeway looked over the reports from the Dominion scientists and engineers and their analysis of the ancient Protoss stones he and his men had so painstakingly obtained on Aiur. Normally he couldn't care less what the Dominion eggheads did with it, but this time was different. Although he had succeeded in his mission, the transmissions he had received from Mengsk had clearly indicated that the Dominion emperor refused to take failure as an option.
Nevertheless, the reports he was reading made little sense to him. Granted Ridgeway was no special Dominion operative, but with most military operations, once the mission is over their respective officers would be able to have a much better understanding of the picture, and such was not the case here. The gist of the reports were regarding the comparison between terran psionic abilities and Protoss psionic abilities, yet it had been confirmed by all of the Dominion scientists that Mengsk had no intention of enhancing Dominion ghosts, or at least not in the way that the general is expecting.
The general had read enough. Whatever Mengsk was planning, if the clues were written in the reports, he couldn't find any trace of it. He looked up and turned his head towards one of the Dominion scientists, hoping to get a better answer.
"This psionic ability data doesn't mean anything to me," the general stated. "The Dominion has known about the Protoss psionically stronger than us for years. What does this have to do with the stones collected from Aiur?"
"Protoss psionic abilities are compatible with their technology," the scientist answered. "Every building, no matter what purpose it serves, is powered by a combination of psionic and mechanical technology. From their industrial facilities to their religious churches, they all share that same trait. These stones you acquired from some Protoss temple ruins are no exception to the rule."
"And what use are they to us? I know Dominion engineers have worked hard to incorporate the aspects of Protoss weapons into our arsenal, but they haven't exactly met with the success we had hoped for in the few short years."
"Weapons exist in multiple forms, general. You should know that. Not all of them are in the form of guns, bombs, or energy weapons that can vaporize a man. The emperor has used the media as a weapon for years to influence the Dominion citizen's way of thinking about others, whether they are Kel-Morian, Umojan, ex-Confederates, pirates, or mercenaries. It has been among the main reasons why we have been able to spread our influence to other worlds within such a short about of time."
"And yet that tactic has been turned against us ever since Raynor broadcasted his message on Korhal. Mengsk's order to stop the rioting with the military may have been sound, but the soldiers started off disastrously, shooting at the rioters. All that ended up doing was cause more rioting and weaken the Dominion even further, and cost us even more time and energy to finally quell them all. Regardless, that's beside the point. Are you suggesting the stones my boys excavated on Aiur are weapons as well?"
"In some form, yes. We are trying to learn more about them so we can understand their nature. Once we do, it's possible we can find a way to extract their energy and incorporate them into the Dominion military, or simply find a way to weaponize them."
Ridgeway rolled his eyes. "You're telling me after those reports I've read over, you don't know a thing about these stones?"
"Of course we do, but not to the extent we had hoped for. Unlike the emperor, his son Valerian is very interested in archeology, and if we had him and his associates, we would have a much better grasp on what kind of Protoss technology we're dealing with here. Unfortunately, he refuses to be like his father and we have been unable to contact him."
"So what do you know so far about the stones?"
"They contain some form of energy found in virtually every aspect of Protoss culture. We're not in a state of war with them, but there have nevertheless been hostile encounters with the Protoss in the past. Most of the Dominion military showed more interest in better ways of killing them, but me and the other scientists feel that cannot be done unless we understand them better."
"I agree with that," Ridgeway conceded. "But you haven't answered my question, not in the specific way anyway. What kind of energy are we talking about here?"
"From the corpses of Protoss we have studied in the past, along with their vehicles and ships, and sometimes even the wreckage of their buildings, it would appear they all contain a specific energy signature. After analysis of the stones you've brought here, it would appear these stones give off the same energy signature."
"Do the Protoss just naturally give off this signature or something?"
"No sir," the scientist answered. "It would appear that this energy is some sort of power source, maybe even the main power source. From all our studies, so far we have yet to find a single Protoss building, or even unit that does contain this energy signature in some form."
"Then this could be their main weakness," the general stated. "It's no different than ours from a military standpoint. You want to assault a heavily fortified base without catastrophic casualties, you wreck the base's power grid. Once you do that, you cut off the main power source to the base, so all of their defenses become useless and you can just stroll right in."
"It is all we have discovered on these stones so far, general."
"It's not enough," Ridgeway said calmly. "My boys aren't going to be satisfied with this answer. All you've given me here is what could possibly be the Protoss Achilles' Heel. It'll be good and all should the day come and the state of war breaks out between us and then, but right now it's the Zerg who are our enemies."
"We're aware of that, but as I said, this energy appears to be major Protoss power source. It seems to be able to power everything, including their weapons, weapons used to kill the Zerg with."
"So you're saying the energies in these stones are some sort of weapon we can use?"
"It's just a theory, but it certainly seems to suggest that. The research team is working as fast as we can to find out more about the matter."
Overmind's Corpse, Aiur
Deep in the core of the Zerg hive clusters nestled around the Overmind, the hybrid observed from a distance as the battle unfolded. Due to being outnumbered by the combined might of the terrans and Protoss, it was to be expected that the Zerg numbers were being slaughtered so quickly.
Nevertheless, this continued to prove a serious weakness under the current circumstances. Although the Zerg had understood the concept of deception and manipulation under combat conditions, it had been so rarely used that such traits are mostly not part of their natural instincts. This is mostly due to the fact that the might of the Zerg swarm outnumbered its adversaries in almost every possible situation, and this was still technically true even after Kerrigan's defeat on Char. The Zerg casualties suffered there were devastating, but when compared to the total number of Zerg that were still present on the volcanic planet, the losses were relatively small.
Here however, the Zerg forces could not be replenished as quickly due to the fact that almost every other hive cluster on Aiur has been destroyed. This meant a more conservative approach was needed, but the Zerg creatures don't seem to understand that. Rather, they are still attacking and defending in the way they normally do: continuously pour more and more of their numbers at the terran and Protoss forces to wear them down, and eventually overwhelm them.
This was clearly a fatal error, but without the proper leadership, it takes much effort for the Zerg creatures to be ordered to ignore their natural instincts. The Overlords and Queens had gotten used to taking orders from the Cerebrates, and later from the Queen of Blades. While he was able to control the Zerg to obey his orders, the instinct factor remained a difficulty that has yet to be overcome, and most of the Zerg were very reluctant to go against their standard way of thinking.
Fortunately, despite the continued success of the terran and Protoss forces in pushing towards the Overmind's corpse, it would appear that their progress was moving at a much slower pace than the hybrid had anticipated. It would almost seem as they were holding back and not using the full might of their warriors to scour Aiur of the Zerg, and the hybrid suspected that this may be due to the combined presence of the Leviathans and James Raynor's influence.
The Protoss were prideful and arrogant, but they were not stupid. Despite the fact they still saw combat as glorious, their defeat on Aiur during the Zerg invasion had clearly caused them to rethink their tactics and strategies. No doubt the terran James Raynor would have influenced them into thinking traditions must be broken in order to achieve greater success, and this would explain why the Protoss warriors have not devoted everything in their power to attacking the Leviathans just yet. They must be hoping to draw the massive Zerg flyers out, away from their defensive positions, so that both terran and Protoss forces will be able to engage them on their terms.
The hybrid would have none of this. Despite their immense power, the Leviathan was among the most difficult Zerg strains to hatch, and then successfully breed to adulthood. Given the limited Zerg resources at his disposal, the chances that even an infant Leviathan could be bred onto the battlefield would be virtually impossible. As such, he had issued specific orders that the Leviathans were only to engage the terran and Protoss attackers if the threat is imminent, and only on territory still occupied by the Zerg. This in turn would give them the field advantage and given them greater chances of survival and prevail against their enemies.
Therefore, the hybrid decided it was time to turn his attention to another Zerg strain, one that almost no terran or Protoss even knows exist, let alone know of its combat potential. They had been among the mightiest ground creatures that had ever been assimilated into the swarm, and now it was time they finally made their debut felt to the terran and Protoss invaders.
Reaching out with his mind, the hybrid touched the minds of the Overlords and Overseers. Despite Kerrigan's efforts to evolve other Zerg strains to become extremely intelligent and independent, they still ranked among the top for the most intelligent Zerg creatures.
"You and your minions have performed as I had expected in your defense of the Overmind. Your actions are to be commended. Nevertheless, the terrans and Protoss are increasingly threatening the Zerg positions here, and it is thus time to introduce one of the Zerg's mightiest beasts. Awaken the Zerg Kraken."
Above the Aiur Battlefield
Flying high above the battlefield, Jim watched from the Shield of Aiur Mothership as the battle below raged. So far, the battle was progressing according to plan. By not concentrating their full might, the three Zerg Leviathans have remained in their defensive positions, only serving the purpose of hatcheries and spawning larvae at an accelerated rate in the hopes to replenish the Zerg numbers that had been killed. This strategy of course was essentially a negative one, as the Zerg were being slaughtered faster than they could be replaced, but such a loss was not yet apparent to the Zerg defenders there.
The battle reports from the Observers were constantly pouring in. Together with Artanis and his trusted advisors, Jim scanned over the tactical data to ground and air forces alike. On the west flank, Nova's attack was coming along very well. The initial strategy of using ghosts to sneak past the Virophages had to be abandoned, as the Zerg structures began spraying their deadly slime everywhere, which negated the ghost's cloaking effectiveness. The Vindicators, Purifiers and Soul Hunters had to be called in to deal with the structures right away, while Nova and the rest of the ghosts provided fire support from a distance. Due to the Protoss warrior's shielding, the Virophages' slime was not capable of having an immediate effect on them, and as long as they were protected from other Zerg creatures, there was little difficulty in dealing with the Zerg. Indeed, most of the Zerg ground units only consisted of Zerglings, Roaches, and Hydralisks, sometimes backed up by Devouring Ones and Hunter Killers. As the genetically enhanced Zerg weren't as numerous in number, Nova had used her expert sniping ability to kill many of them from a distance, while the other ghosts followed her example and did the same with the other Zerg. Occasionally the Purifiers were forced to break away from their original role as the Zergling attacks became too numerous in number, but thanks to the power of their energy lances, the lightning arcs made short work of their adversaries. Every now and then the occasional Ultralisk would also move into the area to attack Nova and the other ghosts, but this was of little threat as the Vindicators used the power of their hovering platform to move in and slice at the creature's carapace. Although Ultralisks had very strong skin, it came at the cost of their speed, and the Vindicators used this to their advantage. Utilizing the temporary flight capability of their hovering platform, most adopted a hit and run tactic, slicing into the Ultralisk's carapace before boosting themselves into the air to avoid the creature's deadly Kaiser Blades, before another Vindicator took the previous one's place and the cycle repeated itself. As long as Nova and the other ghosts continued to provide fire support against the other Zerg, this tactic made short work of some of the most feared ground creatures the Zerg possessed.
On their right flank, the Furinax Tribe Protoss warriors had slightly harder difficulty. Unlike most other Protoss tribes, the Furinax Tribe consist more of weaponsmiths, craftsmen, architects and technologists, a contrast to the other tribes that consist of warriors. Compounded by the fact that heavier Zerg strains were present in their area, more and more requests were issued by them for further reinforcements and assistance. Fortunately, the Omegalisks and Brutalisks were also slow to move into position, and this allowed sufficient numbers of A.R.E.S. and S.E.T.H. warbots to be moved from the southern flank to assist them. The Gamma S.E.T.H.s were especially effective in this area, their 8-barreled rotary cannons made short work of the Roaches and Hydralisks, leaving the Zerg Infestors vulnerable to psionic storm attacks. Many of them burrowed underground to avoid the lightning, but any hope to stay hidden proved useless as the sheer number of Observers in the area quickly detected their position, allowing Zealots to close in on their position.
Of course, the Infestors were far from defenseless themselves, and the ones defending the Overmind's husk were more advanced versions. Somewhat similar to the Zerg Defiler, the Infestors here possessed a disease ability that sprayed their toxins in all directions, and any units unfortunate enough to be caught in its path would succumb to it. This claimed the lives of many Zealots, and gave the Infestors the chance to move forward towards the terran warbots, where they would use their fungal growth ability to slow it down, before using their neural parasite to turn the terrans' own weapons against them.
Fortunately, the Furinax Protoss had anticipated this, and had made good usage of their High Templars in their hallucination ability. As such an ability was not as straining on their psionic energies as the psionic storm, dozens of hallucinations were used on terran warbots so the Infestors couldn't tell which ones were real, and in their confusion, other High Templars utilized their feedback ability to drain the Zerg creatures' energy. Without their energy, the Infestors were defenseless, and they were slaughtered by the Stalkers blinking into position.
Mass numbers of Pygalisks had swarmed into the area to kill the High Templars due to their lack of combat ability, but this was usually offset by the presence of Beta S.E.T.H.s. As they were smaller than their Ultralisk counterparts, the Pygalisks' Kaiser Bladers had a much shorter range, and therefore had to get within close range to use them effectively. The Beta S.E.T.H. 's hellfire flamethrower was thus able to incinerate many of them before they could do so, while the High Templars retreated away to relative safety to avoid the flames. The ones that were able to get through immediately targeted the warbot's fuel tanks, know that it's their primary weakness, but the Beta S.E.T.H. was designed to use both their right armed energy blade as well as their left armed flamethrower simultaneously in combat. As the warbot was much more agile in comparison to the Thor walker, it was able to successfully slice at the Pygalisks with its energy blade, where most of them were sliced in two before they had a chance to strike.
In the air, Mutalisks were utilized to deal with the Beta S.E.T.H.s, and swarms of them descended down on the terran warbots. However while their Glaive Wurm attacks proved effective in combat, they had to get within very close distance to achieve such effectiveness. The number of Hydralisks and Roaches pouring into the area had increased to keep the Stalkers busy, but they had not taken into account the Alpha S.E.T.H.s. Although the heat lasers from their eyes were not meant to combat aerial enemies, the Mutalisks were trying to get within range so that a single Glaive Wurm attack would cause the Beta S.E.T.H. to explode, and this meant they attempted to fly to within less than 40 feet of the warbots, rendering them vulnerable to the Alpha S.E.T.H. 's heat lasers, and many of them were shot down this way.
Yet despite the success from the reports the Observers were recording, something startling was appearing from the reports. Seismic activity was starting to increase from every sector. But this wasn't anything like some of the large Zerg strains such as Ultralisks, Brutalisks, or Omegalisks unburrowing or anything like that. Nor was it like Zerg Nydus Worms popping out from under the terran and Protoss forces, ready to ambush them. The Observers had confirmed that it was indeed Zerg activity that was causing the seismic disturbance, but none could provide any intel anything more specific.
Jim pressed his hands harder onto the console overlooking the battle. Whatever is causing this, it's clearly about to show its presence very soon. And since no one seemed to have any data about it, it's clearly something none of them had ever seen before.