Author's Note: Hey guys, I'm back with a new chapter. After showing off new terran weapons and technology, I felt it was necessary to do the same for the Protoss. Remember, by now the Protoss are no longer so prideful as to believe that nothing can be learned of the terrans, and this chapter will show that some of the new weapons they have are also somewhat based off terran design.
To MostazalasLord, all the way back in chapter 24 I had explained about the Protoss Exussumers, but I told you that the specific details about their capabilities wouldn't be known for some time.
Well, now you've waited long enough. This chapter will explain all that, and you can see for yourself just how much the Protoss had learned from Jim Raynor's Raider technology after their defeat on Haven.
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.
I hope you guys enjoy reading this chapter. Please review and I'll see you next time.
Chapter 45
Bel'Shir
"You have done well," General Madison said calmly, as another SCV moved a terrazine canister towards the Command Center. "Our mining operation is coming along quite well right now. We have almost 80 canisters of the substance now, and all of them collected without a single shot being fired."
"It's not enough for the emperor, sir," the SCV pilot said in frustration. "As far as he's concerned, we need to get at least another 350 canisters, and I'm not sure how much longer the other personnel in the SCV corps here are going to tolerate it. Hell, I can barely take much more myself!"
"You're not alone in this anxiety," the general replied. "It took us almost 3 hours just to set up the sound amplifier devices and the ghosts into position to open the altars, and that was just getting the mining operation off the ground. Most of my ghosts are exhausted from constantly using their psionic energies to open these altars up, and there's been more and more complaints of wanting replacement ghosts to do the job."
"Will there be any?"
"I'm afraid not. I already spoke to the emperor about this, and he said unless every ghost under my command is in a body bag, I'm just going to have to make do with what I've got. It took me almost two hours of persuasion just to get him to agree to send even the most minimal of reinforcements to help us."
"Is it enough to fight the Protoss if it comes down to that?"
"Of course not. With all that firepower at their disposal, 150 extra marines would be lucky to last even an hour under combat conditions. Hell, they weren't even sent here with excess ammunition, so our munitions levels are still essentially depleted."
The SCV pilot nodded with bitter acceptance. "So you're saying the second the bullets start flying, we've got to get off the moon as fast as we can or we're all going to die."
"I don't like it any more than you do, but there simply isn't any other option in the matter," Madison said, before another voice spoke up.
"General, we may have a problem here," one of the communications officer announced, walking out from the Command Center, per Madison's instructions to keep radio traffic to a minimal.
"I'm all ears. What's going on now?"
"It seems like the Tal'darim patrols in the area are starting to increase. They haven't detected us yet, but we believe they're starting to suspect us."
"Explain yourself, soldier."
"Some of our boys have been picking up on their chattering lately. They had stayed out of sight as you ordered, but some of our specialists who have been able to translate some of the Protoss language have found something startling."
"You just said they haven't detected us, so what's the problem?" Madison asked.
"Some of our specialists have been able to piece together the language translations," the officer explained. "From our analysis it appears the Tal'darim feel something is wrong with their altars, as the amount of terrazine being collected from them is a little bit less than what they had expected."
Madison clenched his fist in frustration. "You happen to know what conclusions they've drawn from that?"
"Just a few, sir. The scanners have indicated the Protoss are making thorough checks to make sure their altars are working properly. Once they do, my bet is they'll conclude either there wasn't as much as much terrazine as they thought there was in the area, or someone is still here stealing it from them."
The general nodded slowly, accepting his predicament. "Then go back to the Command Center and make additional scans. Search for another location on Bel'Shir, preferably close to where we are, that has another high concentration of terrazine altars. We'll have to leave the ones we've been mining from alone for now to keep the Tal'darim guessing."
Aiur
Tabrenus observed the course of the battle from his Phoenix interceptor. Zeratul hadn't been wrong about the terrans and their tenacity. Although fewer in number compared to the legions of Protoss warriors, they were fighting with vigor and courage. Nevertheless, there still existed an element of fear in them, and even the most courageous of their ground warriors was no exception to this.
For the Furinax Tribe leader however, his attention was paid more heavily to expelling the Zerg from Aiur, just as every other Protoss warrior was thinking. Despite many were grateful for the terrans' assistance, most still continued to show their own pride, and believed it was their strength that would finally liberate their homeworld.
This of course wasn't completely unreasonable. After Executor Selendis's defeat on Haven by James Raynor's hands, the Protoss had worked hard to investigate the mechanical hybrid the terrans called the Viking that drove off the Daelaam Protoss forces, and to develop something similar should they come across the battlefield against the terran war machine again.
By this stage, the Furinax Tribe had excelled in the field of weapons development. They had to be, given the aftermath of the Brood War and the conclusion that Protoss and Zerg forces would inevitably meet on the battlefield once again. As such, although much emphasis had been placed on the roles of craftsmen and artisans, more and more Furinax Protoss were sent to the role of weaponsmiths and technologists. Despite the superiority of their technology to the terrans, the Protoss Hierarchy had concluded that the Protoss could learn from the human race, and any and all of their technology that were capable of defeating the Protoss in battle were to be analyzed by the Furinax Tribe, and hopefully reverse engineered and improved upon.
Thus despite the short time that had passed since Executor Selendis's defeat on Haven and the arrival of the Protoss Great Fleet to purge the Zerg from Aiur, the Furinax Tribe had successfully forged two different types of weapons based on the Viking mechanical hybrid: the Exussumer and the Prometheus.
Both of these machines had been based on the Dragoon exoskeleton design, one of the Furinax Tribe's greatest achievements, having greatly assisted the Protoss Templars in battle. Unfortunately, due to the Conclave's ruling, only one massive sacred shrine had been built on Aiur, dedicated to the building and maintenance of these exoskeletons. Many members of the Furinax Tribe had pressed for greater flexibility and construct additional smaller shrines for the same purpose, but the Conclave had overruled it. Thus with the Zerg invasion and the sacred shrine infested, plans for further manufacturing of Dragoons simply fell apart, and forced the Furinax Tribe to turn to the Immortal cybernetic exoskeletons instead.
Yet despite the years spent manufacturing Immortals to bolster the Protoss ranks, the Dragon exoskeleton had never been forgotten. Indeed, one of the goals for the Furinax warriors who were assisting the other Protoss tribes in the recapturing of Aiur was the hope of recovering the ancient Dragoon shrine so that the traditional exoskeletons could be manufactured in the near future if it was viable.
With regards to the Exussumer and the Prometheus, both of them had also incorporated two machines within the Protoss arsenal that were being gradually phased out in preference to superior machines: the Scout and the Reaver. The Scout had been given priority over the Carriers by the Conclave's decree during the Zerg invasion of Aiur when it became clear that the vast numbers of the Zerg swarm proved too much even for the mighty Protoss warriors to handle, and thus numbers had to be bolstered. Due to the shorter time it took to manufacture the superiority fighter, the Scout had been selected to deal with the vast legions of Zerg flyers, and it had been the hope of the Conclave that it would be the mighty fleets of Scouts that would bring about the end of Zerg air superiority over the skies of Aiur. The Protoss tribes had been charged with the task of mass producing the Scouts and the armaments to go along with them, but due to the Conclave's inability to turn away their failing traditions and believing such strategies were winning the war against the Zerg, most of the manufacturing industrial bases had been overrun by the swarm before the Scouts were given the chance to see combat. Although quick thinking by the Khalai warriors had saved most of the armaments and munitions, they were now of no use without the necessary Scout fighters to equip them to.
It was little different with regards to the Reaver. Despite the heavy reliance on war machines to avoid the loss of Protoss life, the weaknesses of the much feared mobile artillery machine had been quickly discovered, and then thoroughly exploited by the Zerg.
Initially the war machine proved to be every bit as effective against the Zerg as it had been against other enemies of the Protoss in the past. But as time went on, the swarm had quickly discovered that as an artillery piece, it was meant to fight from a distance, and would be ineffective if the Zerg creatures came up close to it. Although the Reavers were usually protected by the Protoss warriors, the sheer number of the Zerg forced them to disperse, leaving the Reavers vulnerable. To compound matters, the highly destructive Scarabs manufactured within the Reaver's micro-manufacturing plant could not be launched at the rate necessary when dealing with swarms of Zerg rushing towards it. As the Reavers had extremely low mobility and maneuverability, they were quickly overcome by the Zerg.
Yet as with the Scout, the Conclave continued to believe the Reavers would ensure victory for the Khalai Protoss. As such, orders were issued to step up production of the Reavers, and the Robotics Facilities had even been involved in the mass manufacturing of the Scarab drones as the Conclave felt the Reavers themselves couldn't manufacture them at an adequate rate. This had led to vast amounts of resources had been devoted to a cause that facilitated the Zerg in the chaos they spread across Aiur, yet the Conclave was blind to it.
Nevertheless, the Scarab drones had proven to be extremely effective to the Zerg ground minions, their destructive psionic energy and self-generated electromagnetic fields capable of killing even Ultralisks within moments. Thus in the wake of Selendis's defeat on Haven, the Furinax Tribe had been given the opportunity to find a way to utilize the Scarab drones again, as mass quantities of them remained unused after the fall of Aiur and the vast majority of the Reaver legions were destroyed.
With orders to forge a hybrid machine that would be capable of transforming to achieve both ground and air superiority, the Exussumer had been an attempt by the Furinax Tribe to combine the combat characteristics of the Zealot, Dragoon, Scout, Reaver, and Colossus all into one ultimate fighting machine. While the Zerg swarm took pride in destroying some of the most massive Protoss warships and ground machines, the Exussumer was specifically designed to make them think twice about rushing into battle and challenging it.
From the outset, the Exussumer looked like quadrupedal walker, but that was where the similarities ended. At more than 3800 feet tall, it was more than 15 times the height of the Colossus walker, prior to which was the largest Protoss war machine on the ground. This is considered tall enough to deal with most of the Zerg air threats, as more and more Mutalisks were called away from engaging the Protoss and terran ships to deal with the increasing ground threat as the Protoss and terran warriors pushed towards the Overmind.
Yet any attempt to attack the Exussumer from its underbelly proved to be extremely dangerous. After seeing the destructive power of the Colossus's thermal lances, the Furinax Protoss had installed hundreds of them on the Exussumer's underside, with dozens on the front and rear sides, and dozens more on the left and right sides. Due to its extreme height, even most of the Zerg flyers ended up flying beneath its underside, where many of the Corruptors, Brood Lords, and Overseers were incinerated by them. The ground minions fared no better, as the Exussumer proved to be too massive and therefore with every step taken, it was easily able to catch up with the ground based Zerg and get them within sight of the thermal lances.
Yet in keeping up with traditions in regards to the Dragoon exoskeleton, a massive phase disruptor cannon was mounted on the top of the Exussumer, and also fired antimatter bolts sheathed in psychically charged fields. Yet given that the cannon size was larger than a Colossus itself, its power proved much more deadly. For the ground based Zerg unfortunate enough to be on the high grounds and within reach of phase disruptor cannon, its destructive energy proved more than enough to vaporize even the mighty Brutalisks and Omegalisks with just a single fully charged shot, although this is usually not done because of the slower firing rate as a result of fully charging the cannon in such a matter.
Despite this formidable array, the Furinax Protoss were not blind to numerical superiority of the Zerg, nor was the factor of mass numbers of Zerg air attacks overlooked. To that end, the Exussumer also had three massive munitions batteries built onto its left, right, and top sides. Each battery comprised of hundreds of firing ports, and this was where the extreme excess of anti-matter missiles and Reaver Scarabs had been put to use after the fall of Aiur.
Due to its massive size, even the giant Brtualisks and Omegalisks the Zerg possessed would look tiny in comparison, and it left the Furinax Tribe with no doubt that once deployed on the battlefield, these Zerg creatures would find a way to provide cover for the less durable ground minions against the Exussumer's thermal lances on its underside. This would allow the Zerglings, Hydralisks, Queens, Lurkers, and Roaches to get within range of the massive golden legs of the Protoss war machine and attempt to bring it to the ground. Thus the munitions batteries had been built to launch a Scarab shower, where a multitude of the Reaver Scarabs would be launched from all three batteries and a multitude of the highly explosive drones would be fired into the air and land all around the Exussumer at a rather large radius, detonating within seconds. Yet similarly, due to the Scarab's large blast radius, the Furinax Tribe had redesigned the drones to have more advanced artificial intelligence upon detonation so that it would not injure allied forces within its radius, something the individual members had quickly picked up on upon encountering James Raynor's Siege Tanks in action on Haven against Selendis's forces.
To counter the Zerg air threat, the munitions batteries had also been equipped with anti-matter missiles. Unlike in the case with the Reaver Scarabs, the anti-matter missiles could be fired from each battery as well as all three batteries simultaneously. Due to its high accuracy against almost all aerial targets, a full volley of them numbering in the hundreds was capable of ripping Brood Lords out of the sky with ease.
Yet due to the weakness of the Scarab shower as the explosive drones could not lock on to enemy targets, the Furinax Tribe had somewhat redesigned the anti-matter missiles. On the Scout, they had been designed only for air-to-air combat, but here on the Exussumer they were capable of both air and ground targets. Their destructive capabilities had already been shown for such a role, as entire legions of Zerg ground creatures had simply been blow apart by volleys from just one of the batteries firing the warheads at ground targets.
Despite such destructive firepower, the Furinax Tribe had quickly seen a glaring flaw in James Raynor's arsenal with regards to what they call the Thor walker. At a massive size by terran standards, it was extremely slow and thus vulnerable to flanking attacks. As the Exussumer was the most massive walker now in the Protoss arsenal, logic would dictate that Zerg forces would attempt to encircle it and attack it from all directions regardless of its firepower.
Thus the Exussumer was outfitted with similar armor that had been forged onto the Dragoon, and later the Immortal. This not only gave the massive cybernetic walker incredible speed and agility, but it allowed its four massive legs to be used as a weapon as well, crushing Zerg creatures beneath it.
From this point on, it was where the lessons learned from the terran machine known as the Viking began to show. Like the mechanical hybrid, the Exussumer too had an alternative form. Out on the battlefield, it had proven itself to be far more deadly. Despite the success of the Immortal and Stalker, the Khalai and Nerazim tribes still prided themselves in their warriors and saw both war machines as an extension of them, their bodies having been too crippled to fight on and thus an alternative body was needed. As such, the Furinax Tribe had decided that the Exussumer's alternative form would change from the massive quadrupedal walker into a bipedal cybernetic Protoss warrior, its twin forward legs would rise up along with the forward half of the entire walker, allowing the rear two legs to become the legs while the front two become arms, as the Exussumer would be able to stand upright, and a cybernetic head would shift into position, completing its transformation into the warrior bipedal form. As per usual of Protoss traditions, the cybernetic heads of the Exussumers were that of the most honored Protoss: Khas, Adun, and Tassadar.
Now at slightly over 6000 feet tall, the Exussumer had demonstrated extraordinary combat potential. In this form, the 18 thermal lance firing ports were rotated onto the Exussumer's back, yet were still positioned in such a way so that they could provide protective fire to the left, right and top flanks of the massive walker, as well as any Zerg fortunate enough to sneak in right under it and fire from below, and this has provided great flank protection to both terran and Protoss forces on the battlefield, having been deployed in every sector.
The three munitions ports were now rotated into position where they were now on top of the shoulder, and behind the right and left arm elbows. As in the case with the quadrupedal mode, the Exussumer retained the ability to fire off masses of anti-missile barrages from these batteries at air and ground based Zerg alike, and as they are now being fired from a greater height, it increased the chances of them being used to neutralize Zerg air support against the quadrupedal Exussumers that the Zerg focused much of their flyers upon.
Lessons had also been taken from the Tal'darim, in accordance to James Raynor's encounter with them. According to the terran, in one of their missions to retrieve a fragment of the ancient Xel'Naga artifact, they had come across the Tal'darim world of Monlyth. The Tal'darim had weaponized some of the massive Stone Guardian statues surrounding the relic, and upon approaching the fragment, the statues came to life and attacked them with their thermal eye beams. Though the Colossus had a similar weapon, the ones the Tal'darim had forged onto the statues were also capable of firing at aerial targets.
Thus the same had been incorporated into the Exussumer in its bipedal mode. As the Exussumer head was almost the size of the Colossus in itself, the thermal eye beams built into it were of a far more destructive power, which had been shown on the battlefield to be capable of turning the massive Zerg Ultralisks into total ash within seconds upon contact.
Unlike its quadrupedal counterpart, the bipedal Exussumer had a number of new weaponry into its arsenal. They had been incorporated to deal with the multiple problems of Zerg swarm rushes onto itself, as well as a faster way to thin out the Zerg numbers in a fashion that the Zerg would never be able to recover in time.
To that end, the frontal legs of the Exussumer, now as arms in its bipedal mode, had been designed to rival the similarities as the Colossus walker. Its tips would open up like a claw, revealing the firing opening of massive cannons. From both the left and right arms, these cannons were capable of firing a massive thermal beam of such intensity that only the most heavily armored carapace Zerg structures such as Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives were capable of surviving upon contact, but would quickly be reduced to dust in only a matter of seconds. To compound that firepower, the Furinax Tribe had perfected a massive version of the Scout's anti-matter missile, also capable of being fired through the massive port. Though not as powerful as the thermal beam, its battlefield debut had proved its worth, as it had proven capable of turning the massive Zerg Spore Cannons and Virophages to a pile of blood and guts with a single hit.
To deal with the mass swarms of Zergling and Baneling attacks that had caused immense problems on the terran warriors, as they were not trained as the Protoss Zealots were in the art of the melee combat, the Furinax Tribe had built firing ports on the shoulders the Exussumers. Upon activation, the hatches covering them would open up, and massive psionically powered energy projectiles, though not anywhere near as the massive anti-matter missiles fired from the Exussumer arms, were fired from it. With their advanced targeting and tracking systems, as per all Protoss weaponry, they were easily capable of tracking the Zerg hordes. Yet unlike standard projectiles, they do not travel towards the Zerg creatures. Rather, they fly to close the range until they are directly on top of the veil Zerg. Once that happens, the projectiles break open, and dozens of explosive Reaver Scarab drones rain down and scatter around them. Given the drones' massive blast radius, battlefield experience has shown that only the most massive creatures such as the Brutalisk and Omegalisk have a chance of surviving.
Thus in dealing with these Zerg creatures, the Furinax Tribe had turned to yet another one of James Raynor's arsenal weapons: the Banshee. The Observer recordings had shown that the terran spacecraft had incredible firepower when deployed against the Zerg defenses on Char, though they proved somewhat ineffective when operating alone in targeting the Queen of Blades. Upon comparison with the anti-matter missiles of the Scout, it had been concluded that the backlash rockets of the terran Banshee had proved to be on par with the Protoss counterpart, and in some areas even surpassing it slightly.
As a result of this observance and seeing the Banshee rocket fire's advanced tracking ability, the Exussumer had been fitted with void missiles, somewhat based on the backlash rocket design. The void missiles however, were much bigger in comparison. While smaller that the massive anti-matter missile fired from its arms, they could be fired in greater numbers. These had been located in the wrist part of the Exussumer's arms, and the Furinax Tribe had deemed it necessary as in the event of firing the massive thermal beam from one of its arms, the Exussumer was unable to do anything else with it until the energy beam had been fully discharged. Thus a common tactic as seen on the battlefield was to have one of its arms fire the massive thermal beam, while the other ejects the void missiles from its wrist firing ports of the other arm. As the void missiles also had advanced targeting and were capable of scattering to multiple targets in the event the Zerg attack from different directions, this allowed for even greater flank protection against the Exussumer.
Yet without doubt the most powerful armament the Exussumer possessed did not come from its arms, shoulders, or head, but rather from the chest. Obsessed with the Mothership's planet cracker ability and its destructive power, the Furinax Tribe had worked hard to find a way to harness the raw energy in a similar way of the large Khaydarin Crystal built into the Exussumer's chest, the very source of its power. While armor covering had been built over it to protect it, the Protoss weaponsmiths soon realized that by focusing all of the weapon systems' power to the core, it could unleash a massive psionically powered energy beam of pure unbridled fury, and that was exactly what had been built into the massive cybernetic walker. While this temporarily left the Exussumer vulnerable for a few seconds for all of its other systems to return back online, the battlefield results had clearly justified its usage, as even the massive Zerg hives unfortunate enough to come across the full fury of the Exussumer were almost instantly vaporized. In fact, to determine the true extent of the energy beam's power, during the test trials on Shakuras it had been test fired on the golden Carriers of the Protoss Great Fleet, and even the massive Protoss ships could not withstand a sustained energy blast like that for very long.
With such immense weaponry equipped to the Exussumer, the Furinax weaponsmiths took measure to forge an internal manufacturing plant within its main body, although far more massive in scale in comparison to the once feared Reaver. With such an arsenal at its disposal, the Furinax Tribe had no doubt that the Exussumer would strike terror into the heart of all enemies who dare to oppose the Protoss.
Yet to keep up with the requests from the individual Templar Castes, all of which still prided themselves in the fighting spirit of the Protoss warrior, the Furinax Tribe also took measures into giving the massive Exussumer fighting ability while in its bipedal mode. Given its speed in its quadrupedal mode, the Protoss weaponsmiths look at yet another weapon within James Raynor's arsenal: the Reaper.
While extremely tiny in comparison to the mighty Protoss Colossus, the terran warrior nevertheless possessed the ability to traverse difficult terrain due to the strange engine packs mounted on their backs. This gave the Reaper much faster movement, something that the Daelaam Protoss have achieved only via the psionic charge ability to rapidly close in on their adversaries.
Yet interestingly enough, it would appear both the terrans and Protoss have had similar thinking along the lines of utilizing such a speed advantage. The S.E.T.H. warbots, as the terrans called them, had such engines equipped to their backs, and the Exussumer possessed thrusters of similar performance that had been equipped to the back of its legs while in bipedal mode. This had been done when it was quickly discovered that its bipedal mode was slower in comparison to its quadrupedal mode, and the time it takes to switch between the modes could spell the difference between victory and defeat.
Thus with the addition of the thrusters on the rear of its legs, it had allowed the Exussumer to move even faster than when it's in its quadrupedal mode, though only for a short period of time so as to prevent the thrusters from overheating. With this addition, it allowed the Exussumer to act in a similar way as the Protoss Zealot warriors, using their psionic charge ability to rapidly close in towards their enemies. Although the massive war machine was not equipped with psionic blades that the Zealots possess, at such a huge size none of the Furinax weaponsmiths saw any need for it.
The Prometheus on the other hand was the second Protoss war machine that the Furinax Tribe had forged based off the Viking mechanical hybrid within James Raynor's arsenal. Despite the success of the Exussumer due to its massive size and immense firepower, there had remained one serious weakness within the cybernetic walker that had not been incorporated after analysis of the Viking: the flight factor.
Although at some 6000 feet in its bipedal mode made the Exussumer capable of hitting almost every possible Zerg air target on the battlefield, it did not change the fact that the Mutalisks, Scourge, Corruptors and Brood Lords could simply fly over the massive walker and attack it from an even higher elevation, while Overlords with their Ventral Sacs could drop mass swarms of Zerglings right onto the Exussumer itself. For that reason, plans were drawn up to forge a second design based off of the Viking, and thus the Prometheus was born.
Unlike the Exussumer, which dwarfed just about everything on the battlefield, save the terran BattleCruisers and the Protoss Carriers and Motherships, the Prometheus was much smaller in comparison, but still considered massive by terran standards and bolstering just as impressive of an arsenal as the Exussumer walker. On the ground, the only terran war machine that seemed to rival its size is a massive version of the Thor walker that the terran dubbed the Odin, though the Prometheus was still somewhat larger than it by comparison.
Also based on the Dragoon exoskeleton design, the Prometheus possessed flight capabilities, something that the Exusssumer did not. To that end, the Furinax Tribe had specifically designed that its two frontal arms to be much more massive compared to its two rear legs, though all four limbs were able to neatly fold into the cybernetic main body, allowing the Prometheus to take flight.
At such a massive size, the Prometheus was less maneuverable in comparison to the sleek Phoenix interceptor, but this was more than made it for its thick armor and its array of weapons. Somewhat like the robotic Sentry, the Protoss technologists had built a massive cybernetic head on top of the forward section of its body, while like the Exussumer, the body itself had an internal manufacturing plant for its wide array of deadly weaponry.
Unlike the Sentry or Colossus, the Prometheus's head served more than just the war machine's artificial intelligence command and targeting system. With the Colossi's thermal beam proven to be effective to virtually all Zerg ground foes alike, it was decided to incorporate that into the giant blue eye of the Prometheus head that also served as its sighting mechanism. While not as powerful as the arm thermal beam fired by the Exussumer, it had proven its worth in battle when firing at the Zerg ground targets, killing Butalisks and Omegalisks with a single concentrated shot and decimating the Zerg Spine Crawlers to facilitate in the terran and Protoss warriors' advance forwards.
Yet due to it being such a massive target, the Protoss knew this meant it would be subjected to masses of Scourge attacks as they were so effective at both terran and Protoss capital ships. To prevent such a fine war machine from being brought down so easily by the small veil Zerg flyers, the Furinax Tribe turned to one of the designed forged by their Nerazim brethren: the Stalker.
Similar to the Khalai Dragoon, the Stalker had the shadow essence of a Dark Templar fused into its body. However, its particle disruptor armament did not require such an essence, but rather to control and fire it. As the Stalkers had proven themselves on the battlefield time and again during the reclamation of Aiur, it was decided to incorporate the particle disruptors onto the Prometheus. At such a massive size in comparison to the Stalker, far greater numbers of particle disruptors were fitted onto the sides of the Prometheus head. With a much greater power source compared to the Nerazim cybernetic war machine, it also allowed the particle disruptors to fire in much more rapid succession, and this had been proven on the battlefield, their deadly trajectories tearing about legions of Zerg Scourges before they had a chance to ram into Prometheus' armored hulls.
The Zerg were no fools in adapting to different combat scenarios. When it had been quickly seen by the Overlords and Overseers that the mass Scourges failed to deal with the new Protoss war machines, Corruptor breeding increased from the individual Zerg lairs and hives, and much of the ones in the air were diverted to deal with the new Protoss threat. Unlike the Scourge, the squid-like Corruptor was much more durable and frequently called upon to deal with the most massive of terran and Protoss ships, such as BattleCruisers and Carriers, and it was upon their legions that the Zerg intended to turn the tide against the Prometheus flyers.
This had been exactly the reason why the frontal arms of the Prometheus had been designed to be of such massive size. Inspired by the munitions batteries that had been forged onto the Exusssumer with great effort, so too had they been done onto the Prometheus's frontal arms. Despite in flight mode and its arms folded away, the locations of hatches that cover the firing ports located on the frontal arms remained in plain sight, and at any sign of masses of Zerg flyers moving into position to intercept them, they would open up and dozens of anti-matter missiles would be unleashed from them, screeching towards the Zerg flyers. As the Observer reports have clearly proven, the mass number of such trajectories had make the Corruptors' task extremely difficult, and while such volleys were not as powerful in comparison to the ones fired by the Exussumers, they nevertheless weakened the Corruptors significantly, and those lucky enough to survive and get within parasite spore firing range were usually shot out of the sky by the Phoenix interceptors with ease. In many cases, the Prometheus cybernetic hybrids were able to fly at a lower altitude, their volleys of anti-matter missiles providing covering fire to the ground warriors below, as Zerglings and Hydralisks were blow apart by their destructive power.
Yet the Zerg continued to feed their swarms of Mutalisks towards the Prometheus flyers. It did not take long before it was realized that unlike the volleys fired by the Exussumer, the ones from the Prometheus were only able to target foes directly in front of it or slightly to its sides. Thus the Zerg changed their strategy at times: using the Corruptors to force the Prometheus to use its anti-matter missile volley, while the Mutalisks sneak up on its sides and attack it from its vulnerable flanks.
Fortunately, the Furinax Protoss had already come up with a solution to this. Inspired by the psionic energy projectiles fired by the Exussumer and the deadly Reaver Scarabs they carry, the Prometheus also carried just that within its massive cybernetic head. Although a volley shot from it fired only two psionic projectiles, they were capable of tracking Zerg flyers and then breaking open to reveal the anti-matter missiles stored within, which then immediately launch themselves at their targets. This had already been demonstrated on Mutalisks moving from the flanks to attack the Prometheus flyers from the more vulnerable sides, and the Observer recordings had shown hundreds of Mutalisks having their wings torn off and blown out of the sky by these energy projectile attacks.
With these weapons more than sufficient to deal with the Zerg air attacks, the numbers of Prometheus war machines that were not necessary had their attention diverted to the ground, where the still relentless Zerg ground attacks continued to take its toll on the terran ground warriors.
Unlike the Exussumer, the Prometheus's air to ground transformation was relatively simple, as all that was necessary was to extend its two massive frontal arms and its two smaller cybernetic legs. At this point the Prometheus walkers move very similarly to the Dragoon exoskeleton, thus a proud reminder of what the Furinax Tribe had achieved during the golden days of Protoss civilization. Yet its arsenal from its aerial mode was mostly retained, as the massive cybernetic head retained its rapid firing particle disruptor attack to deal with the mass swarms of Zerglings and Devouring Ones, the firing ports on the two massive frontal arms were able to fire their volley of anti-matter missiles towards incoming Roaches, Hydralisks, and Infestors, while the giant blue eye and its thermal beam fired from it remained as potent as ever, easily able to burn Zerg Ultralisks to ashes with its concentrated fire.
However, in its ground position it shared the same weakness as its aerial position in its vulnerability to flanking attacks, and during the initial Observer reports, the Zerg had used mass swarms of Zerglings to rush towards it to keep the Prometheus occupied, while other Zerglings enter a chrysalis phase and become the much feared Banelings, their volatile acid burst already taken a toll on both the terrans and Protoss.
Yet as in the case with its aerial mode, the Furinax technologists weren't blind to this weakness. Similar to the Exussumer, the Prometheus walkers' cybernetic heads also had a built in Scarab scatter shower ability built on their tops, to which the hatch would open and dozens of explosive psionically powered explosive drones would be launched out and scattered around the massive robotic walker. As the battle reports had shown, this had proven to be an effective the suicide Zerg units, as the Banelings did not possess the ability to move while burrowed, and many were caught within the Scarab blast radius before they had the chance to get within range of the Protoss walker.
Yet one of the most interesting aspects of the Prometheus was that its most powerful attack was derived from the psionic energies wielded by the Protoss High Templar warriors. Many of them forgo the traditional forms of combat so as to better perfect their psionic powers into weapons through the Khala, and thus was the reason why all High Templar wear Khaydarin Amulets to improve their Khala connection. Yet some of the strongest High Templar could use their psionic powers by casting psionic discharges, and this could be fired at the enemy as an energy projectile. Such a High Templar ability had little cost in psionic energy and thus was greatly valued on the battlefield, but the fact remained that very few High Templar warriors were able to reach such a level of expertise in their psionic powers and thus could not support their fellow brethren as effectively.
The Furinax Tribe sought to correct this matter by forging a weapon of similar ability on the Prometheus. By evaluating the High Templar and their psionic discharge ability, along with the thermal lances of the Colossus, the Furinax Protoss succeeded in incorporating a psionic particle lance into the Prometheus walkers. This had been the primary reason why the frontal arms of the cybernetic machine had been designed to be so much more massive in comparison to the rear back legs: psionic energy gathering and focusing.
In a similar effect to the highly valued High Templars and their ability to use psionic discharges by placing their arms in front of their body, the Prometheus does so similarly, although in the latter's case the massive cybernetic arms detach. Like the High Templar, once position they focused a psionic energy field between them, before letting loose a devastating energy discharge from it. Such an attack takes time to prepare however, and during the time lapse when the Prometheus charged up, it was vulnerable to Zerg attacks, something the veil creatures were quickly able to take note and exploit to their full potential. Fortunately, all of the Prometheus walkers were escorted by Zealot warriors, and their psionic blades made quick work of the swarms of Zerglings charging forward to attack the Prometheus before its particle lance could be discharged. The energy blast had been rapidly justified under the current battlefield conditions. While less powerful in comparison to the Exussumer's arm thermal beam, the psionic particle discharge from the Prometheus proved to be lethal to everything on the battlefield, instantly blowing apart Zerg Spine Crawlers with ease, and permanently toppling Brutalisks and Omegalisks in their wake.
Yet the detachment of the cybernetic arms had inspired the Furinax Tribe to use the Prometheus in a melee warrior role on the battlefield as well, in particular to assisting the more massive Zerg creatures such as the Ultralisk. Despite their massive size, they were still easier to breed on the battlefield in comparison to replenishing the numbers of Zealot warriors. As such some of the Prometheus walkers detached their mechanical arms not for the sake of using the psionic particle energy blast as the Zerg creatures had anticipated, but rather as a way to pin the Zerg creature down and prevent it from burrowing. Once left immobile, the Zealots would quickly rush in and tear the creature apart with their psionic blades, though as shown by the Observer reports, this was not always successful as the creature was too massive and its carapace too thick to be penetrated by the average Zealot, and the mass numbers of Queens and Roaches on the battlefield prevented too many Zealots from having their focus diverted away to deal with the Ultralisks.
Yet nevertheless, Tabrenus knew that the Furinax Tribe had made an excellent contribution to the war effort with regards to confrontation with the Zerg swarm. As the Prometheus and Exussumer walkers were fully robotic, they could be built at a faster rate in comparison to training the Protoss warriors, and it would further reduce the loss of Protoss life. His tribe's forgings had rapidly earned the respect of the terran warriors as well, as the transmissions coming in from the terran forces on the ground had all marveled at the ingenuity of the Protoss, some of them going as far as believing a single Exussumer walker possessed more firepower than the whole of James Raynor's forces just prior to the Zerg invasion.
Like Zekrath and his Shelak Tribe in conducting trials with the Purifiers, Soul Hunters, and Vindicators, the Furinax leader was doing a similar course of action with the Exussumer and Prometheus walkers. Though still relatively few in number, they were nevertheless proving their worth at decimating the Zerg swarm, and Tabrenus hoped that once the Zerg forces on Aiur were completely eradicated, Hierarch Artanis would allow him to proceed with the production of these mighty war machines to usher in a new era of the Protoss Templar.
For now however, the concentration remained with reaching the Overmind's husk. As the cybernetic walkers were still very tiny in comparison to the Zerg Leviathans, Tebrenus hoped the mighty vessel the Daelaam Protoss had forged would arrive to deal with them soon. Once the Leviathan threat is removed, his cybernetic walkers should have no problem in annihilating all of the remaining Zerg forces on Aiur.