Author's Note: Hey everyone, I'm back with a new chapter. Today marks exactly 1 year since I began this fic. I have to say, it's been a great experience overall. With more than 77,000 hits on the fic, I thank my fans and reviewers for their appreciations for my writings.

Chapter 49

Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char

Ulrezaj stood and marveled at the sight before him. Having done as Duran requested, he had reached the hive's main chamber. As he had correctly predicted, there was indeed a hidden passageway that led deep underground. It was so deep that the Dark Archon was unable to see the bottom, but this was of no threat to him. Now that he was an energy being, he was only vulnerable to energy attacks, and a drop down a deep shaft was not capable of causing him physical harm whatsoever.

Of course, the Zerg beast that now lay before him certainly is, and despite his immense power, Ulrezaj decided to take no chances, as he had paid dearly for such an arrogant attitude when confronting Zamara on Ehlna.

"Well done, young one," Duran's voice spoke into his head. "You have successfully located the critical piece of the puzzle that I require."

"You wish for me to acquire this behemoth and bring it to you?" Ulrezaj exclaimed. "The beast is massive! It far exceeds any Zerg creature I have ever seen!"

"The Queen of Blades had seen this creature to be the mightiest of the Zerg strains," Duran explained. "Yet as with all of the other strains, she had seen its flaws and weaknesses and had worked hard in an effort to remedy this during the years she had evolved the swarm."

"Yet she spent so much energy on only a single one of these creatures?"

"Not all Zerg strains are easy to hatch and then bred to maturation and adulthood, young Ulrezaj. Despite what you may have been led to believe during the time you had encountered the Zerg, there are those that the swarm loathe to deploy to the field of battle due to their difficulty of getting replaced. It was exactly the reason why Kerrigan had worked so hard to incorporate even greater energies into them in order to enhance them to an even greater power. The crystals you had seen throughout the hive's chambers was clear proof of this."

Ulrezaj did not doubt this one bit. He had seen with his own eyes the masses of Khaydarin Crystal fragments throughout the main hive, and it was certainly possible that the Queen of Blades had alternative storages of them elsewhere on Char. Clearly, despite her bloodthirst for exterminating the Protoss, Kerrigan did not seek to destroy everything about the Firstborns without the slightest thought. She too had seen the potential of the Khaydarin Crystals just as the Protoss had so long ago, and it must have been for this reason that the scattered remnants Protoss base structures were taken in by the swarm and put to use.

This came as no surprise to the Dark Archon, and it was a further sign of arrogance for his so-called Khalai brethren. Like most of his Alysaar brethren, Ulrezaj knew the psionic artifacts could be used in more ways than merely as an energy source. Yet for most Protoss, Khalai and Nerazim alike, their view was that as the Khaydarin Crystals were left behind by the Xel'Naga on Aiur, it was meant to be used by the Protoss alone. Even after encountering the Zerg for the first time, where they were subjected to Khaydarin Crystal exposure which confirmed them as creations of the Xel'Naga, the Protoss Judicators dismissed them as anything more than mindless beasts, incapable of understanding such technology.

It was exactly this arrogance that had allowed Aiur to be reduced to a wasteland in the first place, according to many of the Khalai refugees that successfully escaped to Shakuras. Contrary to what they had expected, the Zerg too understood the potential power of the Khaydarin Crystals, and it was upon its usage that had allowed the Overmind to manifest itself on the planet's surface. Thus to Ulrezaj, it came as no surprise that some of the knowledge regarding the Khaydarin Crystals were later passed on to the Queen of Blades.

Yet despite the years that have passed since then, it would appear that Kerrigan's efforts to harness the Khaydarin Crystals had fallen short of her expectations in the hopes that their energies could be successfully assimilated into the swarm. Still, she had not given up on her efforts, and fragments she had stockpiled in her hive will now be used to the Dark Archon's benefit.

"That creature will serve as an asset to my plan in neutralizing Kerrigan," Duran spoke out in his mind again. "You know what must be done."

"What you ask is not possible," the Dark Archon argued. "The beast's power is far too great for my Tal'darim brethren to tame."

"You need not tame it, Ulrezaj. All that has to be done is for you to acquire a sample of it. At such a massive size, carving a small portion off of its carapace will be unnoticeable to it. It is currently dormant, and I am confident that you will be able to acquire its tissue without awakening it."

"I still do not understand your grand scheme, Duran. None of these actions seem to be doing anything closer to neutralizing Kerrigan."

"Once you have taken a sample of its flesh, return to me. I will issue further instructions for you. In time, it will become clear."

Channeling his psionic powers, the Dark Archon unleashed a full blast of his dark psionic shockwave at the lumbering Zerg creature. His suspicions were correct about its strength. Such an attack did not even succeed in pricking its carapace. Fortunately for Ulrezaj however, it remained dormant, completely unaware that a hostile intruder was right next to its massive body.

This was clearly going to be no easy task, but Duran had assured him that the time for toying and using Kerrigan had passed, and it was now time to take the fight to her. It was unclear what he had in mind, but Ulrezaj was convinced that he had set his goal towards dealing with the Queen of Blades directly. The Dark Voice had approved of his actions, and the Dark Archon could not afford to protest against his master.

Turning his eyes back to the Zerg beast, Ulrezaj set about his attempts to sever a piece of tissue from it. He could only hope it would be worth his energies.

Bel'Shir

General Madison advanced along the ground with his men. Despite the fact that there have thus far not been any encounters with the Tal'darim, the tensions nevertheless remained. Most of his troops were relieved to see some reinforcements had finally arrived, but they were not in the sufficient numbers that they had hoped for, nor did they carry adequate supplies of ammunition if the bullets start flying again. Thus most were not reassured when the arriving marines had stepped down the Dropship ramps, eager to go Protoss killing.

Fortunately, the new marines were still obedient when it came to orders, and it took only little effort for the general to convince them that hostile fighting must be used only as a last resort. Of course, for most of them, one look at the state of Madison's forces quickly got them in the mindset that not everything was as rosy as they had pictured it to be.

The scan results from the Command Center had fallen short of expectations as well. Although there were other terrazine altars less than 4 miles from their location, they were much fewer in number compared to the ones they had been harvesting from. Yet due to the Tal'darim activity there, Madison knew his troops had no choice but to head towards the new location.

"I'm still unsure about this, sir," one of the SCV pilots said quietly, trudging next to the general. "We aren't going to be able to collect as many canisters as we did before in this new location."

"It's better than being slaughtered by the Protoss," Madison replied. "We'll just have to hope they don't look in that area quickly."

"Sir, what about the amplifiers?" a Dominion officer asked.

"The engineering team is headed to the waterfalls right now. If the altars we find at the new area are adequate, I'll give the order for them to disassemble the amplifiers and bring them here."

"This would be so much easier if we could use our radios more often," a marine grumbled in frustration.

"I know what you mean," Madison said calmly. "But we don't have a choice here. We can't afford to be detected, and if the Protoss start monitoring our frequencies, they'll pinpoint us right away, and we don't have the strength to fight them."

"So what, we're just supposed to send a runner over to them?"

"It's not the preferred method, but it's the only other way. Protoss technology is better than ours, so even if we enter a coded message to them, it can be intercepted and decoded quickly," the general explained.

That silenced the marine, but it didn't make it any easier on the other troops. Madison could tell by the looks on their faces that they shared similar thoughts. They knew that they needed a strong commander to get them through all this, and thus his leadership was needed. As a result he could not go to the engineering team himself, but he also knew there would be very few volunteers for the task.

Nevertheless, Madison knew that bringing the sound amplifiers would be crucial. Although the new terrazine altars location did not reveal any waterfalls, they did reveal a few natural springs in the area. Though they had far less water flow, Madison hoped that the sound amplifiers would still keep his men undetected while his SCVs proceeded with the terrazine harvesting.

A ghost suddenly de-cloaked next to him. "General, we have scouted the area around the terrazine altars as requested."

"Anything unusual?"

"There no combatant Protoss in the area sir, but we were able to find the occasional Observer patrols."

Madison nodded, digesting the news. This was clearly a dangerous spot to be in. Unlike his ghost agents, the Protoss Observers didn't require psionic energy to maintain their cloaking, they could remain cloaked for as long as they liked. Without Ravens, missile turrets, or other detectors, only a very slight light diffraction in the air would give away the Observer's position, but by then the Protoss robotic drone would be only a few inches away, and would have long since spotted the terran intruders since most of them don't have cloaking abilities.

To make matters worse, he knew the Observers were the eyes of the Protoss warriors on the battlefield. If an Observer spotted something that wasn't Protoss friendly, the nearest Protoss forces would be notified right away. Cloaking was useless when dealing with them, as the robotic drones were also detectors.

As far as the general could see it, this was something that everyone may just have to rely on faith, but the risks were clearly unacceptable. If the slightest mistake happens, the Tal'darim would be free to slaughter them all with ease.

"Is there any way to determine the Observers' search patterns?" he asked the ghost.

"Not without getting close to them," the special agent answered. "And by the time we can close enough to see them they'll have long since spotted us. We don't know how fast they can transmit the messages to notify nearby Protoss, but given their superior technology, I'd imagine it'd be pretty quick."

Madison nodded, accepting the predicament. "Then, we'll just have to rely on the scanner sweep ability from our Orbital Command Center. That'll locate the Observers without any of us having to get close to it."

"There is a drawback to that, sir," a Dominion officer spoke up. "The scanner sweep depends on a small portable satellite in orbit, and the satellites are defenseless. Most of the Protoss may have left Bel'Shir already, but that doesn't mean they don't have any air power left. If they shoot the satellite down, the scanner sweep will be useless."

"What about the Wraiths we still have to protect it?"

"The second the Protoss draw fire from our ships, I'd imagine they'd report back to their base of our presence. It won't take much for them to disrupt our communications, though I have no idea if we can successfully jam their communications or not. Even if we can, there's no way to tell how long we can sustain it."

"Still, that satellite was launched when we set came down to the moon," Madison reasoned. "Why didn't the Protoss shoot it down then?"

The Dominion officer shrugged. "Maybe they thought it wasn't important or anything, but that doesn't mean they won't change their mind later."

"It's a risk we're just going to have to take," the general sighed. "Return to the Orbital Command Center and inform the officers there to prepare the scanner sweeps once we've reached the altars. We have to know the Observers' patrol patterns, and quickly."

Bridge, Hyperion, Aiur

Jim entered Hyperion bridge, where he was greeted by his officers. The battle on the ground had once again turned in their favor, and the Zerg creatures were in full retreat. That Protoss ship truly lived up to its reputation of being among the greatest achievement ever accomplished by the Protoss technologists. On that note, deep down he was really glad the Protoss were his allies, because the Divine Light of the Khala possessed so much firepower that it could probably level the whole of the Raiders fleet with only minimal effort. No terran weapon ever invented could so something so similarly. Even the Ion Cannon, the pride of the Confederacy's military ingenuity, did not possess such a destructive power at hand.

Artanis had briefly informed him about the events that had unfolded on Shakuras during the Brood War, where Kerrigan had helped the Protoss locate and acquire the Khaydarin Crystals Uraj and Khalis in order to scour the Zerg from the Dark Templar homeworld. Once they were used on the Xel'Naga temple there, the effect was devastating, the energy discharge killing all of the Zerg forces from Shakuras within moments.

Yet the Hierarch had informed the commander that this was merely something he had already seen, just on a smaller scale. Tassadar had done the same thing on Aiur, when combining the powers of the Khala and the Void to kill the Overmind. The Uraj and Khalis were both fused with the same energies, but vastly greater in scale and thus far more powerful.

Despite their necessity to control the nexus energies that the Xel'Naga temple sat on, some of the Protoss weaponsmiths quickly pointed out that the Uraj and Khalis crystals were merely shards carved from the Khaydarin Crystals themselves. Therefore, it should also be theoretically possible to replicate them. As the Khalis crystal had been a weapon in its own right long before it had been used on the Xel'Naga temple, there was little reason to believe the Uraj couldn't do similarly.

Artanis explained that it was from that reasoning that the Protoss began analysis on the Khaydarin Crystal formations and landforms that were scattered throughout Shakuras. Carving the Khaydarin Crystals was relatively easy, but to the point where they could replicate the twin crystals proved far more difficult. The Uraj and Khalis were both carved by the Xel'Naga, and their knowledge of the Khaydarin Crystals far exceeded that of the Protoss. Even the Shelak Tribe, the ones closest to the Xel'Naga, achieved little in the understanding how they were able to carve the Uraj and Khalis crystals to their design.

On the other hand, the Protoss Preserver Zamara had carved a shard from the massive Khaydarin Crystal located within the ancient Xel'Naga caverns on Aiur, and that shard was vastly more powerful than the Uraj and Khalis. Of course, given the fact that the preserver's spirit now resided within it, the Daelaam Protoss were denied the chance to determine a way in which its power could be harnessed.

Nevertheless, the Protoss weaponsmiths on Shakuras remained confident that their efforts would eventually pay off in replicating the Uraj and Khalis crystals, and by Artanis's decree, the twin crystals were both removed from the Xel'Naga temple's mechanisms, and to be used in a similar way the Khaydarin Crystals were used to power the massive Motherships. It was from the usage of the twin crystals that had given birth to the Bisu Sowilo ships, and the Divine Light of the Khala was the first in line of what the Protoss hoped would be many more to come in the future.

The Protoss ship was truly a sight to behold. Upon first encountering the Leviathan on Char, Jim had thought that was the most massive creature he would ever face. At 36 miles along its length, the massive Zerg flyer made the 6 mile long Hyperion BattleCruiser look extremely puny. Yet upon Aiur, when the commander had seen the same Zerg creature, now grown to a fully matured adult, it was even more terrifying. At 115 miles long, Jim had no doubt that it would only take one powerful swipe of its tentacles to send the Hyperion plummeting down to the ground.

Yet the Divine Light of the Khala made even such a massive Zerg creature look tiny. Powered by the combined energies of the Uraj and Khalis crystals, the golden Protoss vessel was a colossal 800 miles along its length, larger than even the most massive Zerg hive clusters on almost anywhere Jim had seen. The individual terran BattleCruisers looked little more than a speck of dust in comparison.

So massive was the Protoss vessel that its shields had to be specifically designed to prevent the ship's gravitational field from tearing Aiur's surface apart. Capable of storing even the massive Motherships within its hull with ease, it was a testament to the Protoss and their supreme might.

Yet even such a sight did not deter the Zerg from attacking it. Fanatical to the end, legions of Zerg Mutalisks, Corruptors, and Scourges charged headlong for the giant Protoss vessel. This however proved to be a total disaster, as the Bisu Sowilo's weapons batteries opened up.

In an instant, thousands of anti-matter missiles were fired from the bow of the ship. The tiny Scourge stood no chance whatsoever, and their bodies exploded prematurely, killing and damaging the Mutalisks and Corruptors nearby, where they were easily destroyed by further missile volleys. Those that were able to get through fare no better, as the countless ion cannon batteries on the golden Protoss ship opened fire, and they were shredded in its wake.

The Divine Light of the Khala concentrated its forward energy battery, as it let loose another psionic discharge on one of the remaining Leviathans. Without the element of surprise, the Zerg flyer maneuvered quickly to evade, but to no avail. As the energy discharge left the ship, its range widened as it sped toward its target. Although only the rear of the Leviathan was hit, it was enough to send it plummeting to the ground below, where it was immediately targeted by the thermal lances and energy beams of the Protoss Colossi and Exussumers to ensure it does not regenerate and become airborne again.

Elsewhere on the battlefield, with only one Leviathan still active, the individual Zerg Krakens have slowed down their advance now that their air support has been taken out. This turned out to be seriously in error, as it allowed the Protoss Motherships to fly in above them and unleash their planet cracker psionic discharge. Despite their strength, the Krakens could not withstand such an energy blast for very long, and many began to fall victim to the Protoss ships.

As the massive Zerg ground creatures began to stutter to a halt, the terran and Protoss ground forces about faced, turning around and renewing their attack on the Zerg forces.

"Sir, if all goes well we should be able to clear the remaining Zerg forces in about an hour," Matt reported. "The thunderstorm cloud is headed straight for the Overmind's body. If the Zerg down there continue to resist, they'll all drown."

Jim nodded. Contrary to what some people may have thought, he was not completely scientifically ignorant. After Sarah had pointed out to him of the Zerg's inability to adapt to the water, he immediately saw the one element of nature that could rid of them without the need for appalling casualties: heavy rain.

It was upon this logic that he had ordered the stocks of dry ice to be confiscated from the New Folsom facilities, so that they could be used to help the Protoss on Aiur. As they possessed the purity of form, the Protoss would be unaffected by the mass downpour of rain.

As the thunderclouds moved over the battlefield, the results had been exactly what Jim had been expecting to see. Banelings exploded prematurely, killing their nearby allies instead of the terran and Protoss ground forces. Zerglings and Hydralisks tried to burrow underground, but in many cases the water simply filled into their hiding holes where they drowned to death. Roaches and Infestors desperately tried to tunnel underground to avoid the water, but they couldn't move as fast as the water could flow.

The Queens fared slightly better, their thicker carapace at least gave them a slight chance to retreat. However while the Zerg Creep was water resistant, it was far from waterproof. As the endless downpour of rain continued to fall upon it, the organic substance began to recede all across the battlefield. Without the creep, the Queens lost their primary movement advantage, and were thus unable to escape the rain.

Ultralisks, Brutalisks, and Omegalisks, when not subjected to the Protoss Motherships' attacks, stood the best chance against the rain. Their thick carapaces allowed them to survive much longer compared to the other Zerg creatures, but the substance had nevertheless weakened them considerably. With their smaller Zerg allies killed by the rain, the Ultralisks and Omegalisks became easy targets for terran Banshees, as the pilots in the air had a field day picking off these massive Zerg beasts. The Brutalisks returned fire with their ferocious spew, but lacking projectile attacks against ground targets, they came under attack from Immortals, Stalkers, Goliaths, and S.E.T.H. warbots. With their carapace greatly weakened and reduced, the Brutalisks were quickly reduced to piles of blood and guts, and then washed away by the pouring rain.

The situation was even worse for the Zerg in the air. Other than the last surviving Leviathan, only the Corruptors and Brood Lords had thick enough carapace to have a chance of escape. However, due to their thick skin and the masses of broodlings they carry, the Brood Lords could only move very slowly, and most were targeted by Scouts and Wraiths as they desperately tried to maneuver away from the pouring rain and to clearer skies. The Corruptors did what they could to help them escape, but in the face of continued Viking, Phoenix, and Prometheus fighter attacks, along with the constant weakening under the rain, they were unable to last long.

All across the battlefield, wherever the terran and Protoss forces were fighting under the cover of the heavy rain, the Zerg creatures were being slaughtered. As the storm clouds moved ever closer to the Overmind's husk, the Zerg defenders continued to pull back to defend their fallen master.

Overmind's Corpse, Aiur

From his position near the Overmind's corpse, the hybrid watched with anger as the Zerg minions were pulling back all across the battlefield. The elements of nature was not something he had been expecting to be unleashed upon them, the Protoss had too much pride in their fighting ability for such a thing. The terrans, although occasionally more cunning than the Firstborns at times, also prided themselves in their fighting abilities, and he had not expected such a tactic to be used by them on the battlefield.

Unlike himself, fused with the powers of both species, none of the Zerg could adapt to the water. Kerrigan's efforts during her time as the Queen of Blades to evolve the swarm had strengthened them considerably, but even she came nowhere close to eliminating that weakness.

It was exactly this reason that during the Zerg invasion of Aiur, despite the relentless attacks from the swarm, there had to be an element of caution involved. The Protoss homeworld had stormy seas and rainy weather, two crucial advantages for the Protoss that might have turned the Zerg invasion into a total disaster. Once again, their foolish pride had assisted the swarm, and the Zerg almost succeeded in their mission to eradicate the Protoss. Even after the Overmind's death, there was still hope that the Zerg could eliminate the Protoss from Aiur due to their recklessness in making their stand on their homeworld, but by then, enough of them had finally acknowledged that changes were necessary in order to combat the Zerg.

Given that, the hybrid could somewhat understand the changed battle tactics used by the Protoss on the battlefield, but the terran influence was still unexpected. Now the price was being paid for this error.

Nevertheless, the hybrid knew all was not lost. Despite the devastating losses the terrans and Protoss had included on the Zerg defenders, he knew they could be quickly replenished. On the other hand, the entire strategy his opponents had was based on the crucial factor of Kerrigan. If the former Queen of Blades could be removed from the picture, their hopes would shatter.

Reaching out with his mind, he touched the individual minds of the Overseers and Queens in the immediate area.

"It is no longer possible to hold out against the terrans and Protoss as long as the element of nature is on their side, my minions. Staying here and continuing to resist will result in nothing more than a useless death."

"You ask us to abandon our former master?" an Overseer exclaimed.

"There is no alternative in the matter," the hybrid replied. "The element of nature that is assisting the terrans and Protoss is moving towards the Overmind, and the substance is one that you have yet to adapt to. In order to survive, you must disperse from the area."

"But that will allow them to reach our master with no resistance at all!"

"A temporary setback, my minion," the hybrid assured. "By evacuating from here and dispersing over Aiur, the Protoss will foolishly believe they have won now that Aiur is back in their hands once more. They will continue to hunt down the scattered remnants of the Zerg, but it will serve to divert their attention away from the far more crucial picture at hand. It will set the stage for the trap to be set, and I shall personally be the one to spring it when the time comes."

Author's Note: So in this chapter I tied up a few knots together and everything. With regards to where I got the specifications on the BattleCruisers, it came from the book Starcraft: Uprising. It was there that you learn the BattleCruisers are about 6 miles in length. The specifications for the Leviathan I had gotten by using the SC wiki, where I found a picture to compare the size of the Leviathan and the size of the BattleCruiser, where the Leviathan was about 6 times their length.

However, as I stated back in chapter 23 and 24, this was only the size of the Leviathan on Char, which was only a baby, and the mature adult is more than triple that size, and thus the need to make the Leviathans in this chapter even bigger.

For those of you Star Wars fanatics out there, I'm sure you'd probably be wondering why I made the Divine Light of the Khala at 800 miles in length. The Death Star in Return of the Jedi was only 570 miles in diameter, which means the Protoss ship exceeds even that.

All you have to do is look at the Protoss cinematics during the end of the missions for "Countdown" and "Eye of the Storm". Remember, the Divine Light of the Khala is powered by the twin crystals of Uraj and Khalis that harness the powers of the Khala and the Void, which the Protoss had used in "Countdown". Combined with the energies of the Xel'Naga temple, the result had been the total eradication of the Zerg from Shakuras. On the other hand, in "Eye of the Storm", Tassadar's actions in using the powers of the Khala and the Void to destroy the Overmind was significantly less powerful.

Don't forget, Protoss technology may be advanced, but they had all be derived from Xel'Naga technology, and their technology is still the superior of the two. It is for this reason that the Divine Light of the Khala has to be so massive in order to contain the massive amount of energy it contains.

The dry ice cargo that I mentioned back in chapter 35 is also revealed here. Dry ice is used for cloud seeding which is very useful in places of droughts, but the key here is that it can cause rain. As I stated in chapter 37, the Zerg can't adapt to the water. Therefore, if you move a thunderstorm over them, they'll all drown. Quite the effective way to rid of them without causing too many casualties.

Anyways I hope you guys have enjoyed this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.