Author's Note: All right everyone. Today marks 18 months since Wings of Liberty was released, so this would be the perfect moment to put up another chapter. For all of you who have looked at my fic and reviewed, I thank you all.
And for you who have enjoyed my fic, I would like for you guys to consider looking at another one: "The True Hybrid" by the author MarchenHope.
She and I had discussed online about ideas for our fics with each other, and we have worked together quite well to improve each other's fics.
Anyways, it's just a suggestion if you guys choose to look.
And to Blackhole1 who reviewed my last chapter, asking me about why didn't Kerrigan inform anyone about the Zerg Kraken monster, you're getting too far ahead of yourself. I did factor in that, the reasons will be revealed in time.
Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.
Chapter 43
Northern Attack Flank, Aiur
General Warfield repeatedly fired with his C-14 Gauss Rifle alongside his marines and other infantrymen. They were to provide cover fire against the smaller Zerg creatures, while the towering Colossi overhead opened up with their thermal lances, incinerating Roaches and Hydralisks alike. Lurkers had moved into position to counter this, but each time the creatures used their subterranean spine attack, it automatically gave away their burrowed positions. This led to Reapers to quickly move into position with their jet packs, and to use their D-8 Charges against them. As the Lurkers couldn't move while burrowed, it had to unburrow itself in order to move away, but since it had no defensive capabilities while above ground, this made them easy targets for the marines.
In the air, Brood Lords continued to wreck havoc on the advancing Marauders and Firebats, as their broodlings quickly tore their armor apart, and the latter usually exploded in a fireball, killing Reapers and Zealots nearby. Fortunately, both his boys and the Raiders had learned from this weakness, and all of the Firebats now had Juggernaut Plating upgraded into their CMC Armor, and this included the fuel tanks on their backs. While in the face of swarms of broodlings meant they still couldn't last very long, many of them were able to survive long enough to retreat back towards the Medivac Dropships, rather than just dropping like flies.
Although the Brood Lords themselves have no defense against aerial opponents, the fact remained there were simply too many in number for the Protoss Void Rays to handle all at once. The sheer number of the Zerg flyers overwhelmed them, and despite that hundreds of them were being slaughtered on their way to the ground troops, enough continued to pour through to severely reduce their advance towards the Overmind.
More and more Wraiths had to be called away from the other flanks to deal with the Brood Lords. Vikings had initially been used, but then had to be quickly abandoned as the swarms of Banelings attacked Warfield's forces, and the marines were being overwhelmed. Although most of the Banelings ignored the marines and went straight for the Siege Tanks instead, their destruction would reduce terran artillery support, and Warfield would have none of that. Many of them were already left burning wrecks by the Zerg suicide units, and the Vikings' Gatling Cannons were called in to prevent further Siege Tanks from being destroyed.
Marauders were ordered to deal with the surviving Hydralisks that survived the Colossi attacks. While their Punisher Grenades were not capable of killing the creatures with a single blow, there were very few Hydralisks that succeeded in running the Colossi gauntlet unscathed. Warfield had given them priority as they had the ability to target air units, and the Protoss Observers in the area must not be lost.
Initially, the general had argued against using the Observers, as they had light shields and weak armor, and had no offensive or defensive capabilities of any kind. Raynor, however, pointed out the fact that while the Ravens were more durable, they did not possess the cloaking ability the Observers had, and could be easily seen. Thus in the case of the Observer, as long as they were out of range of Overseers, they would be safe.
However, this had backfired when the Zerg had moved vast numbers of Overlords into the area. Some of them moved from one point to another, excreting creep to allow faster movement for Zerg ground forces, while others morphed into Overseers to spot for Dark Templars, Ghosts, Observers, Wraiths, and any other cloaked units that the terrans and Protoss would throw at them. As such, Warfield was forced to abandon his initial strategy to target the Overseers as they were simply too many to kill. Nevertheless, as the Overseers were defenseless themselves, many of his marines targeted them whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Of course, those opportunities were becoming more and more rare. As the advance continued, reports were coming in of more and more encounters with Devouring Ones. Genetically enhanced Zerglings, they were much more difficult to kill than their standard counterparts due to their improved carapace, yet retaining the sheer speed of the Zergling. Even the Goliaths were taking a heavy beating from them, despite their autocannons constantly blazing towards the Zerg creatures. Despite the improvements to their armor via Regenerative Bio-Steel that Stetmann had created, using internal Nanobots to repair hull damage, many of the Goliaths were forced back towards the Science Vessels.
Despite having been mostly replaced by the Raven, Warfield was glad that Raynor's Raiders chosen not to completely discard the Science Vessel as the Dominion had. Although it was much more difficult to build, and for that matter replace, the few Science Vessels the Raiders had at their disposal had state of the art nanotechnology that allowed it to repair just about any vehicle or starship it came across. While this wasn't very effective in the case with Protoss ships due to their more advanced technology, it had worked wonders on terran mechanical units, and many of the Dominion Goliath pilots under the general's command owed their lives to the Science Vessels. As there were too few of them in number on the battlefield, Warfield had ordered that the Science Vessels were to remain behind the frontlines, never exposing themselves to Zerg attacks. While most of the ground troops protested this, given the Irradiate capability would facilitate greatly against the Zerg, Warfield refused to risk the aerial crafts in such a manner as each one lost would be simply too difficult to replace.
In terms of the air support, the general knew the Void Rays had their own share of difficulties to overcome, as more and more Hunter Killers were fed into the slaughter. Stronger and more powerful than the average Hydralisk, their needle spines were able to tear through the armor of Protoss ships relatively quickly, yet their relatively weak carapace gave the Void Rays' prismatic beams no time to charge up. More and more marines had to be called in to deal with the improved Zerg strains, but even with their 30mm M98 Combat Shield, this offered little protection against the Hunter Killers' needle spines. With the exception of being slightly larger, the Hunter Killer looked identical to the standard Zerg Hydralisk, and this made their task easier in running the gauntlet and getting past the Colossi's thermal lances roasting every Zerg unfortunate enough caught in its path.
As such, Warfield was forced to increase his requests on the specialist marines. Thanks to Dr. Saunders and his science and engineering team, along with Raynor's personal science geek Stetmann, along with the resources they had acquisitioned from New Folsom, the experimental plasma guns could now be produced at a much faster rate, although still not to the point where it could be equipped to infantrymen on a divisional scale. The Raiders thus created specialist teams composed of the most experienced marines to be armed with them, and to be sent to the hot spots where Zerg resistance proved fiercest.
The results had proven well within the expectations. Although the plasma guns were not strong enough to kill the Zerg Queens or Lurkers with a single shot, the damage was clearly enough to leave them badly scarred and barely able to move, let alone fight. Despite their rapid healing ability, such a feat was no easy task even for them, and this had left most Queens and Lurkers easy prey for the Reapers and Marauders. Only the Ultralisk was strong enough to take such a blow and still keep fighting, but in the face of concentrated fire, even these massive Zerg creatures could not last long.
But despite the success, Warfield knew it wouldn't last. If the Zerg casualties continued to pile up, it wouldn't be long before the defenders used their Leviathans. Although the Protoss took pride in their massive starships, the aerial Zerg behemoths dwarfed them all, and the general was concerned what kind a defense would be effective against them.
Northwestern Attack Flank, Aiur
On their left flank, Urun remained unimpressed with the performance of the terran BattleCruiser starships. Primitive in design, they fared even less effectively against the Zerg Scourge compared to the mighty Protoss Carriers. Their plasma torpedo barrage ability was equally unimpressive. Although it had the ability to lay waste to a vast area on the ground beneath them, and turn just about every Zerg ground creature to ashes, it could only be used occasionally, as their ships required cooldown time before such a barrage could be used again. To make matters worse, by now most of the ground Zerg had anticipated this, and quickly burrowed beneath the ground to avoid the deadly attacks.
This was in complete contrast to the golden Carriers of the mighty Protoss fleets. At such a rapid speed and accurate targeting, the Carrier Interceptors were capable of even shooting the acid spines of Zerg Queens in midair. Most Zerg minions, ground or air, stood no chance against the swarms robotic strike crafts. Only the Scourge had the best chance, as their small size made it easy for the Interceptors to overlook and therefore head towards the Carriers. As it stood, Urun had his Phoenix interceptors had to divert almost all of their energies to defend the slow and hulking terran crafts, rather than assist Ataldis and his Dark Templar brethren on the ground.
The Dark Templars had run into their own trouble against the Zerg ground defenders. Although Ataldis was thankful for the terran plasma torpedo barrages, destroying some of the natural Zerg barriers they had set up to channel the Protoss into killing zones, the Zerg had quickly smartened up. Now Overlords were being rapidly moved to the remaining natural barriers to begin excreting creep, while Mutalisks and Corruptors were sent towards the Scouts and Phoenixes overhead to prevent them from interfering. As the Overlords covered the barriers in creep, Zerg Queens moved into position to place Creep Tumors on there so as to allow the creep to spread. Drones followed immediately after, moving parts of jungle foliage onto there to camouflage the tumors right away. As the creep was extremely durable and capable of near instant regeneration, it now meant that the plasma torpedo barrages, and even the yamato cannon attacks, would only have minimal effect on the barriers, and this meant unless the swarms of Overseers were taken out, the Dark Templars would have no choice but to accept appalling casualties as they pushed towards the Overmind's corpse.
Ataldis himself was skilled in the powers of the Void, though nowhere to the extent as Zeratul. Like the old Nerazim, he too possessed the Void Prison psionic ability. Indeed, he had used the power many times over to trap Roaches, Hydralisks, Lurkers and Infestors from attacking his Dark Templar brethren while the Lenassa and Zer'atai sliced them apart with their warp blades. However unlike Zeratul, Ataldis's ability wasn't strong enough to contain the fiercer Zerg units such as Queens and Ultralisks, and this had led to more and more frequent requests from Corsair assistance, although only a few of them were able to come to their aid as the heavy Zerg resistance in other sectors had forced their attention elsewhere.
Despite their success in trapping the heavier Zerg creatures within their disruption webs, this was often of little use as the terran BattleCruisers could not move into position fast enough to slay the beasts, while Stalkers that were able to get into position could not do sufficient damage to the Queens before the disruption web dissipated and the cybernetic war machines were torn apart by their claws. The Ultralisks were even worse, as a single swipe of their Kaiser Blade was sufficient to slice a Stalker in two, but luckily they weren't as fast or agile and gave the Stalkers a much better chance to escape.
It was for this reason that he had requested the presence of terran Banshee crafts to be brought into the area for their immediate assistance. Unlike Urun, Ataldis was much more willing to see the versatility of the terran ships. While defenseless against Zerg flyers, Observer reports from other sectors had their backlash rockets had proven to be lethal against almost all Zerg ground targets, and concentrated attacks from them were capable of killing even Brutalisks and Omegalisks with effective speed. According to James Raynor, it was the concentration of these crafts that had greatly assisted him during the invasion on Char, as their masses of rocket fire had greatly hampered the Queen of Blades's personal intervention in attacking the terran base defending the Xel'Naga artifact.
Ataldis hoped that these terran crafts truly lived up to their word, for as the masses over Overseers continued to pour into the area, his Dark Templar brethren were becoming easy targets for the Zerg Roaches and Hydralisks.
Bridge, Shield of Aiur
Aboard the Shield of Aiur, Artanis continued to read from the Observer reports regarding the flow of the battle. Despite the Zerg being slowly pushed back, more and more reports were coming in of terran grumblings, berating Raynor for adopting such a tactic that was putting their own lives on the line to clear Aiur of the Zerg, rather than simply using the Xel'Naga artifact which had so effectively killed the mass quantities of Zerg on Char. But the Protoss Hierarch knew Raynor was no fool. Upon arriving on Aiur, the artifact fragments were immediately taken off the terran ships, yet no Protoss could get near it without feeling their very essence being drained from them as they got within proximity to the ancient relic. Raynor had been right about the artifact being dangerous to the Protoss as well as the Zerg, and thus Probes were used to carry the fragments instead.
As no Protoss could get near it, reassembling the artifact from the 5 fragments would take too long by terrans alone, and even it could be done, Artanis would have forbidden its usage. With the artifact's energy nova fatal to Zerg and Protoss alike, such an assault would have to have been conducted by the terrans alone. And as there were nearly 700 million Zerg defenders around the Overmind, the terrans would have been greatly outnumbered. Given Kerrigan's desire to seize the relic for herself during the Zerg invasion, there would have been no reason to believe such a directive would have been changed should the artifact be within their reach again.
Raynor had agreed with him that leaderless or not, the Zerg must not wind up with the relic, and it is for that reason that the fragments were taken to the capital city of Antioch instead. Although reduced to a wasteland and currently unable to support life, Artanis had ordered that a small scale dig site be excavated in the city and the fragments hidden underground, before the entrances were closed up and buried so as to better conceal it from the Zerg. Being only in fragment form, the artifact's pulse emanations are weaker compared to when it's fully assembled, and Raynor had hoped that this would prevent the Zerg from being attracted to it as they had on Char.
Nevertheless, Artanis knew that such an action did not sit well with the terrans. Unlike the Protoss, they did not see combat as glorious, especially if the casualties begin to accumulate. The Xel'Naga artifact itself had greatly assisted in neutralizing the Zerg hive cluster, where the Observer scans had indicated combined with the smaller scale energy novas and the terrans' fanatical defense, the fully charged energy nova of the relic had killed some 275 million Zerg at the primary hive cluster, and it was their hope that this would greatly weaken the Zerg defenses here.
As if right on cue, Raynor walked up to him. "You know deep down I still wished there was a way to configure that artifact so that its energy wouldn't harm the Protoss, Artanis. We can kill all the smaller Zerg we want on the ground, it's not going to mean a thing against the Leviathans. The artifact would be a big help there."
"I agree with that, my friend," the Hierarch replied. "I am almost tempted by the idea in the hopes to quickly free our world from the Zerg once again. Yet despite that, I know that is something I simply cannot do. After the Zerg invasion of Aiur, and then a near similar one on Shakuras, our race has been greatly battered from the way it once was. Using the relic would kill vast numbers of Protoss as well, and we would risk having too few of our brethren left alive to rebuild our civilization on Aiur."
Jim nodded, before changing the subject. "And what about Sarah? Your Observers have recorded her actions on the ground too, you know. Now that you've finally got to see her without the Zerg infestation, you still think she is the ruthless Queen of Blades your people have seen her as all these years?"
"There is still debate on the matter," Artanis replied. "She is still a very fierce and deadly warrior, Zerg infestation or not, yet Vartanil seems to believe in her more than the other Protoss brethren do. He seems ready to forgive her for her past sins, but many of us remain uncomfortable on the issue."
"Doesn't surprise me. You told me about how this Rosemary Dahl woman had quickly earned his trust, so it looks like he seems to trust females more than the other Protoss do. Now yes, you can say the others think Sarah is just messing with his head, but you said it yourself that when it comes you leadership, Zeratul is needed. He was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, and you won't do the same?"
"During the Brood War, she had helped us kill vast numbers of Zerg on Char in order to claim the Khalis crystal. Many of us had felt she had indeed turned against the Zerg who had infested her, and we paid dearly for that belief. Despite her actions here on Aiur in helping us kill the Zerg creatures to reach the Zerg Overmind, there are those who feel this could be a similar treachery."
"But Zeratul had discovered the Overmind isn't really what we have been lead to believe all these years," Jim pointed out. "If that's true, then it's likely its actions could also not what be what we think it is, and that would include its interest in Sarah."
"And that is the driving force behind most of my brethren," Artanis explained. "We must extract every bit of knowledge we can from the creature. Only then will we finally be able uncover the truth."
Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char
Ulrezaj advanced forward with the Tal'darim warriors. With almost all of the Zerg defenses incinerated from the orbital Carrier bombardment, he and the Protoss Zealots escorting him faced little in terms of opposition. There had been the occasional Roach or Hydralisk, but they had been quickly and swiftly dealt with.
Nevertheless, the Dark Archon knew that this was would only be a temporary respite. Despite the fact the volcanic ground beneath them was covered with the corpses of Zerg creatures, the bombardment had only been meant to target the Zerg defenses, not the hive cluster itself. As such, almost all of the hatcheries, lairs, and hives within the hive cluster remained intact, as did most of the Zerg auxiliary building such as Spawning Pools, Hydralisk Dens, Roach Warrens, and Ultralisk Caverns, the very structures necessary to breed the fearsome Zerg beasts that had wreaked havoc on the Tal'darim. Fortunately, by now virtually all of the Zerg hives were depleted of larvae, and with most of the Queens killed during the bombardment, it meant that it would be some time before they could supply the larvae in sufficient numbers necessary.
Despite their loathing of the Zerg, the Tal'darim remained loyal to their Xava'tor. As such, when Ulrezaj had ordered them not to lay waste to the whole hive cluster, they had obeyed, only destroying the vital Zerg auxiliary structures so as to force the Drones to scurry out of the hatcheries in an attempt to mutate into them again, and this would make them easy prey for the Zealots, Stalkers, and Immortals.
Satisfied with the progress, the Dark Archon once again entered a telepathic state with Duran, now that the objective was within sight. "You had informed me that the components of what you seek lie within the hive cluster, and that I would know the moment I see it."
"So you have discovered it then?" came the reply.
"I have, but I still see no usage of it, nor any reason why Kerrigan would keep such a structure within her hive cluster. I have seen terran Command Centers become infested before, so why should this one be any different?"
"I suggest you look carefully at the insignia on the Command Center, young Ulrezaj. Your fellow Tal'darim will find it very familiar to them. One of the components I seek will be located within that infested terran installation."
"Very well, I will instruct my Protoss brethren to bring you what you seek. Now, what are the remaining components you desire to complete your plan?"
"Proceed towards Kerrigan's main hive. Beneath the infested grounds, you will discover one of the primary sources she has used to evolve the Zerg swarm to the way it is now. You should be very familiar with it yourself as you had experimented with something similar before, and it will be my reward to you for your services on Char."
"That is not what you seek though," Ulrezaj stated.
"Correct, dark one. Beneath the hive, there lies a dormant creature that I will require you to sample. Kerrigan had forged the beast as a symbol of Zerg might throughout the swarm, and now she will see her accomplishments return to haunt her."
Having heard enough, the Dark Archon teleported himself away in a swirl of black smoke and towards Kerrigan's main hive. It was time he discovered more about what Duran was planning at hand.