Author's Note: All right, this chapter was supposed to have gone up yesterday, but unexpected matters kept me busy. Last chapter, I did get a few questions regarding how the hybrid was supposed to deal with Kerrigan now that there's no Zerg army on Aiur anymore.
For that, you just have to remember one simple thing: even after all these chapters, I haven't written anything about the hybrid in combat yet. In other words, the question of just how powerful this hybrid really is hasn't been answered yet. All you have to do is keep that in mind.
The plots for Tarsonis and Dead Man's Rock will be revealed soon, I've already got it all planned out. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Please read and review and I'll see you next time.
Chapter 59
Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char
Ulrezaj psionically pushed away the corpse of a Zergling as the Tal'darim warriors beside him continued to fight off the Zerg creatures from within the primary hive cluster. Despite the progress, the overall strategy was beginning to stray away from the original plan. The Dark Archon's orders were to capture as many of the stronger Zerg breeds as possible, but this was proving very difficult on a practical scale.
The live capture of Zerglings and Hydralisks proved relative easy to accomplish, but the more powerful breeds proved much more difficult. This was especially true in the case of Roaches and Infestors, as both of the Zerg creatures had the ability to move whilst burrowed, and the former had the ability to regenerate its wounds at an even faster rate while underground. Without the Observers, none of the Tal'darim warriors could see where they were retreating towards while burrowed, and the excess of Overseers in the area meant many of the Protoss flying drones fell prey to Hydralisk needle spines before the Infestors and Roaches could be spotted.
The Queens proved no easier task. Despite their slower speed, even while on the creep itself, the fact remained that they were actually sentient creatures, whereas most of the other Zerg breeds were simply creatures with near insatiable bloodlust. The Queen of Blades had evolved the Zerg Queens to be extremely intelligent, acting as leaders on the battlefield, as well as wardens to the Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives. This meant that more often than not, the Tal'darim Zealots, Immortals, Stalkers, and High Templars encountered Queens heavily protected by the other Zerg creatures and were forced into engaging them first.
With the Phoenixes and Void Rays still effectively holding their own ground against the Zerg flyers, Scout ships were called away from their interceptor duties to facilitate in the capture of the Queens, but this had proved to be no easy task either. Many of the Queens continued to create Creep Tumors to keep the creep spreading, thus allowing them increased speed. As the Scouts' photon blasters were weaker in comparison to their anti-matter missiles, it also meant that it took longer to destroy the tumors, and this left many of them vulnerable the Zerg Spore Crawlers moving rapidly into the area as the creep spread.
The largest Zerg creatures on the ground proved every bit as frustrating to capture alive. With their extremely thick carapace, the Ultralisks could withstand significantly greater punishment compared to the smaller Zerg breeds. The key here was to injure them just enough for the Zealots to move in and subdue it, but the balance was not easy to get. Their thick skin allowed them to withstand even High Templar psionic storms, and unless injured severely in the face of overwhelming numbers, the Ultralisks would simply burrow underground to regenerate themselves.
The Brutalisks and Omegalisks followed a similar pattern, but at least with their massive size they proved easier to trap due to their greater need of maneuvering space. Of course, the smaller Zerg minions had anticipated this in many cases, and an enormous amount of energy had to be expended to kill off the escorting Zerglings, while still preventing the Brutalisks and Omegalisks from escaping. This had worked a few times, and some of them had already been captured, but it still wasn't enough to accomplish Ulrezaj's plans.
In the air, the constant threat of the Scourges continued to hamper with any Protoss Carrier intervention, as the massive golden ships were simply too valuable to be lost in such a manner. The same was true of the Protoss Motherships, which were even more difficult to replace than the Carriers.
On the other hand, the situation was coming along better back at the Tal'darim base, where efforts had continued on the Khaydarin Crystal shards, and that proved to be encouraging to Ulrezaj. The Zerg creep contamination was not very difficult to clear from the sacred Xel'Naga artifacts, and the glowing blue hue on the shards had confirmed that the crystals could still be tapped into for power and energy.
With regards to how much power and energy however, that was a completely different story. While the Tal'darim High Templars have confirmed that each individual crystal shard still contains more than enough energy to forge the Khaydarin Amulets, such a relic is only on a small scale. In comparison to even the Pylons that provide power to the individual Protoss buildings, such a small Khaydarin Crystal shard was certainly not capable of providing sufficient quantities of power and energy.
Thus the main question was the matter of assembly, and the Dark Archon had already been informed that the High Templars in the base were concentrating their efforts on such a task. However, he had also been warned that the process of reassembling the shards back into Khaydarin Crystals may not prove to be a complete success, as there was simply no telling what sorts of experiments the Queen of Blades had subjected the shards to. This was obviously not the answer that Ulrezaj had wanted, but he knew this was not something within his own control.
Thus as he braced himself for the next Zerg attack wave alongside his Tal'darim warriors, he hoped that the High Templars will soon be able to report to him with better news. If not, he would still be able to forge the warped Khaydarin Crystals using only Protoss and Zerg energies, but such an action would also force him to revise his future plans as they would be vulnerable to the psychic and Void powers of other Dark Archons. Should it come down to that, then it was something that Ulrezaj would have to prepare for.
Bridge, Hyperion, High Orbit Over Dead Man's Rock
Matt's eyes narrowed as the Hyperion descended lower into Dead Man's Rock's atmosphere. In less than an hour, it would touch down on the planet's surface. The Raiders, along with Warfield's troops, would then have to begin to deploy onto the field immediately, as it was clear to him that the Dominion forces had arrived on this dump first, which meant that they had the greater amount of time to make the adequate preparations for their mission.
It was bad enough as it was just to even see this place again, let alone actually come down to the surface. Last time the Raiders were here, at least he had the luxury of staying aboard the Hyperion in high orbit, never having to exchange a single word with Mira. This time he would have no such luck, and as Raynor had left him in charge of the mission here, he'd have no choice but to work with her mercenary force, comprising of nothing but criminals, spies, and serial killers.
Yet that was far from the other thing that bothered the young captain. Being branded as terrorists by the Dominion was of little concern due to the Korhal broadcasts as the public were clearly no longer willing to put their full trust in the Dominion military anymore. However public image was still a major concern to Matt, and the entire point of the revolution against Mengsk and the Dominion was to send a message to the people of the Koprulu Sector that the Raiders are freedom fighters to help the common people achieve their liberty and freedom from tyrants and oppressors.
It was exactly the reason why he had been so against Jim's idea of striking a temporary alliance with Mengsk's son Valerian. Although the Zerg were the enemies of both the Raiders and the Dominion, the idea of the two factions working together would have been a severe setback, and possibly a total rejection, of everything the Raiders stood for. Yet the commander had a point that Mengsk's tyranny did not automatically mean his son would turn out to be the exact same bloodthirsty monster, and for that reason alone, he finally backed down on the matter and agreed on Valerian's offer.
His fears and concerns rose back up again as the battle on Char came to an end with the deinfestation of the Queen of Blades. After the way Mengsk had backstabbed Jim a few years prior, Matt had been expecting his son to pull the exact same trick, now that the Raiders' service was no longer necessary. That the young prince had actually honored his end deal and departed ways with the Raiders without any strings attached whatsoever had seemed almost unthinkable to Matt, but there was no denying the fact that Valerian was clearly not like his father, constantly craving power without even the slightest regard for others.
To that end Matt had been somewhat humiliated in the aftermath of the Char invasion for his unwavering belief that almost all of humanity's leaders were solely comprised of the selfish and arrogant. There were plenty that were every bit as monstrous as Mengsk, but there were also those who proved to be far more noble, even those within the emperor's own family tree. Nevertheless, the possibility of deception and betrayal could not be ruled out, and it was for this reason that the young captain remained uneasy about the Raiders' newly acquired allies ever since departing Char.
With regards to Mira and her forces however, it was a completely different matter. After Mengsk had portrayed the Raiders as traitors to humanity for years, Matt knew that the media only broadcasted part of the story. However during the four years of peace and quiet until the Zerg invasion began again and watching thousands of news broadcasts from multiple branches, there had been very few broadcasts that had ever mentioned anything noble when it came to mercenary groups. Granted, most mercenaries are considered to be traitors to authority and government, but he had seen firsthand of what his wife's soldiers were capable of.
Despite the tensions from the media branches, Matt knew that the Dominion still had some control over the news networks. If news got out that the Raiders were working with mercenaries as ruthless as Mira's, they could begin to lose the goodwill of the people and public opinion may shift back into the Dominion's favor once more. This was something Horner intended to avoid. The Dominion had been weakened ever since what happened on Korhal, and they must not find any opportunities to regain their hold over the general public.
Yet despite the frustration of coming to Dead Man's Rock once more and the disgust of having to work alongside Mira, along with the concern of the possibility the Raiders' public image could get tainted from this, these had a less dramatic effect of concern to Matt in comparison to the last factor of this mission, of having to work alongside Kerrigan without Raynor's presence.
Despite everything that's happened ever since they had departed Char with her, there was still no assurance that the ancient Xel'Naga artifact had really restored the former ghost's humanity. The remaining Zerg blood in her was a testament to that, and Matt continued to consider the possibility that it could be used to affect her judgment, emotions, and behavior. Although Raynor had stated that she was now much more compassionate and caring than even when she had been with the Sons of Korhal, the possibility that this could all be just a facade could not be factored out, as the memories of the Brood War was a clear reminder to Horner.
Apparently his body language had betrayed his thoughts, as Annabelle, one of the Raider technicians fixing some equipment on the Hyperion bridge spoke up. "Are you all right, sir?"
"It's nothing," the captain answered. "I'm just anxious about what's going to happen on Dead Man's Rock soon."
"You're a horrible liar, captain," the female engineer said calmly. "I can tell by the look on your face there's more to it than that, so spill the beans already."
Matt thought about it for a moment, before relenting. "It's not just having to work with Mira again. I'm more concerned about Kerrigan."
"Still don't trust her?"
"When you're around someone who has the power to tear this whole ship to pieces with just her own mind, I think such a concern would be justified."
"It's not like she's done anything to harm us ever since we left Char," Annabelle pointed out.
"That doesn't eliminate the possibility that she could just be playing us the whole time," Matt countered.
"So you're not even going to trust the words of our commander about her?"
"In war, decisions have to be made without allowing your emotions to affect them. Valerian may not have betrayed us as I thought he would, but that doesn't mean other cases would turn out the same way."
"Yeah well Raynor had a point about accepting the offer in the first place, in face you forgot," Annabelle said. "The whole revolution would have meant nothing if the Zerg prevailed in the end. You're acting as if the whole Char invasion had accomplished nothing except satisfy the commander's personal demon problems."
"I don't like the idea seeing him get hurt again. Whether she realizes it or not, Kerrigan has a far greater impact on him than she thinks. You weren't part of the Raiders then, but I was with Jim when we went to Char a few years back to see her transformed into the Queen of Blades. The effect it had on him was devastating, despite the fact she had allowed him to live. Later on in the Brood War, after her betrayal, it proved almost too much for him to handle. When the conflict came to an end, Jim had turned from a reformed criminal to an alcoholic spiraling completely out of control, where it had been that way for the last four years. Only when Valerian contacted us with the possibility that there might be a way to bring her back did I see the resurgence of determination that I had waited so long for."
"Some of us did hope he would succeed in that too, you know. You honestly thought commander Raynor would have undergone the Char invasion just for the sake of defeating the Zerg?"
"Of course not, but the fact remains that even when the Xel'Naga artifact had been moved into position at the base of the primary hive cluster, there was still no assurance that it would work the way Valerian had theorized. Had his theory been wrong and the relic couldn't reverse the infestation, the whole of the Raiders and the Dominion invasion force would have been wiped out. Under that logic, the risk Jim had taken was simply too high, having gambled everyone's lives on a theory that no one could prove."
Annabelle folded her arms. "And what would you have done? We all knew the Zerg menace would return sooner or later. After we left Mar Sara, shortly after the Zerg invasion began, you said it yourself that this whole mess wasn't just going to blow over and the Zerg would never stop until we're all dead. Were you just hoping to ride it out until something happened to prove you wrong?"
"No, I would have concentrated on getting rid of Mengsk and his Dominion government first," Matt answered. "Once that was accomplished, we would have the full support of the people to take the fight to the Zerg."
"Except your plan was based on the assumption that the Zerg would have continued to stay quiet for many more years to come," Annabelle countered. "You called our commander's plan risky in the Char invasion. The way I see it, yours is every bit as risky, if not more so. You would have gambled everything on the assumption that the Zerg wouldn't return before Mengsk could be brought down, and there's no way you could predict that."
Matt was just about to respond when Annabelle continued, "Don't forget sir, until we retrieved the Confederate adjutant on Tarsonis and got the encrypted data decrypted, we achieved very little success against the Dominion in the last four years. What happened on Korhal was significant, but it didn't topple the Dominion as we hoped it would. In addition, after what happened there you even told the commander yourself that for the moment we had to turn away from our revolution and concentrate on the Zerg or there wouldn't be anyone left alive for the victory party."
"True, but during the initial stages of the revolution everyone had thought the invasion's purpose was planetary conquest," Matt replied. "It didn't take long before people began to see the Zerg had something else in mind."
"That's no excuse," the female technician countered. "You saw it on the UNN broadcasts yourself that once the race to the artifacts had been lost, the Zerg advance slowed down. They didn't give up any of the worlds they conquered, so the only thing that meant was the worlds that the Zerg hadn't yet invaded got a slightly bigger breathing space, nothing more. You and I both have seen firsthand just how fast the Zerg can overrun a whole planet, so the only way we could have stopped them was to take the fight to Char. You were right in that the Raiders weren't strong enough to make it happen, and that was why the commander had agreed to fight alongside the Dominion fleet during that operation."
Horner sighed in frustration. She was right, but it didn't make him feel any better. To him, fighting alongside the Dominion fleet seemed to give the indication that the Raiders were weak, and force to crawl before the Dominion to achieve their goals. It wasn't that he felt the Raiders didn't need anyone else's help, but the Dominion was supposed to be the very last choice given the entire nature of their revolution.
Before he could come up with another remark however, the communications console beeped. Pressing the button to respond, one of the mercenaries' faces appeared on screen again.
"Captain, we are approaching designated meeting spot where you and your wife will speak face to face."
"Here? But this is the middle of nowhere," Matt protested. "Dead Man's Rock may not be pleasant, but I know there's still towns on this planet. Why did Mira select such a remote location where there's nothing but a few dumping grounds in the vicinity?"
"It's not my place to question her orders," came the reply. "But if I had to guess, she would have anticipated that the Dominion troops would begin scouring the individual towns to begin looking for her. If so, the only safe haven would be the barren and desolated areas on Dead Man's Rock."
"Seems like a bad place to conduct military operations," the captain pointed out. "With no towns or even villages nearby, we'll be easily spotted."
"I doubt you'll be doing any military action at the meeting spot. Your wife would have thought of that already. I'm confident that once you two get reacquainted again, you'll both be heading to the larger towns."
Matt turned off the console without another word. He was still firmly opposed to the idea of seeing Mira again, but it was inevitable. The best thing to do now was hope that everything could be done as quickly as possible so he could get off this toxic wasteland.
Dominion Command Center, Bel'Shir
"I apologize for that, general," Dr. Collins said, as she entered the conference room once more. "I had to make emergency check-ups on our marine patient."
"Is he still in stable condition?" Madison asked.
"Yes, and I sedated him again to ensure he will remain asleep for several more hours," the doctor answered. "I was concerned that the terrazine might end up turning him against us."
"How so?" another doctor asked.
"When the general mentioned about the substance having the ability to regenerate brain cells, we simply assumed this is only capable of effecting ghost operatives due to their memory wipes," Collins said calmly. "The reality of the matter is there's actually another aspect we didn't think about."
Madison's eyes widened, immediately understand what Dr. Collins was getting at. "You refer to the neural resocialization the Dominion marines undergo, doctor?"
"Exactly, general," Collins replied. "I'm no expert on that, but even without the details, most of us are aware of the fact that the neural resocialization process shares a lot of similarities with the memory wipe that Dominion ghosts take. Under that logic, if the terrazine can affect ghosts and turn them against the Dominion, it may also have the ability to do the same thing to Dominion marines."
The general thought about it for a moment. "During the days of the Confederacy, neural resocialization was vital so that people would fill in the ranks for the marines and other military personnel. More than 99 percent of the men the Confederacy who had undergone this process were serial killers or psychopaths. Without it, they'd have gone completely psycho right away and gone on a killing spree with no control whatsoever. When the Dominion was formed, we were able present a better image and so volunteers were recruited into the marine corps, but this was only enough to drop the percentage of people subjected to the resocialization process from 99 percent to 95 percent. We claimed the program is a means of taking in criminals and redeeming them so that they'd receive new hope and a new beginning, but the higher ups knew all along this isn't too much different from what the Confederacy was doing."
"So how does the whole process work?" another doctor asked.
"In the simplest terms, it basically suppresses the memories of your previous life," Madison answered. "Once that's done, the resocialization will created false memories and print over your suppressed ones. It kept the marines in check while on the battlefield and therefore we never had to worry about the powder keg exploding."
"Could the powder keg be a problem if the process was reversed or in some other way undone?" Collins asked.
"It's certainly a possibility," the general admitted. "Most of the criminals have virtually no control over their temper or anything like that. The whole resocialization process is essentially the leash we have on them. If they found a way to cut the leash off, well the rest should be self-explanatory."
"Then I recommend orders be issued that all of the terrazine canisters be handled with extreme caution," the female doctor said.
"I was thinking the same thing, doctor. My opinion on this terrazine is that while it may have great benefits, it doesn't seem like it can be controlled. Whoever gets exposed to it seems to go all psycho and won't listen to anyone except for themselves, and that makes it a failure in my eyes. For that reason I just don't understand why the emperor is after the substance, especially after the disaster that happened during Project Shadowblade. Either he's found some way to control it or there's more to the picture that he's just not telling me because he thinks it's too much to handle."
"Well it's obvious he's hiding something," Dr. Collins said. "The only real question now is when he finally reveals it, will it truly be beneficial to us or not."
Madison nodded, before standing up from the conference table. "Continue the monitoring of our marine patient, doctor. I need to know just how long it'll take before his addiction to terrazine wears off. As for myself, I need to join up with the rest of my boys to continue the mining operation. I just hope it'll all be worth it in the end."
Outskirts of Tarsonis City, Tarsonis
"This place is still in the exact same state from when I saw it from orbit last time," Jim commented, as he drove his Vulture hoverbike towards the outskirts of Tarsonis City. "Only the largest buildings are able to stand, and even they're all dilapidated. Just about everything else is total rubble."
"Yeah well you expected anything less? The Zerg did quite a number on the whole planet, the Confederate capital was no exception to the rule," Nova commented, riding in the backseat with him.
"Of course not. I'm actually surprised there's actually people living here right now. You'd think after what the Zerg did to Tarsonis no one would have the nerve to settle down here until they're fully convinced there's no more hostile threats."
"Speaking of hostile threats, I really hope the Dominion troops are the only ones we have to deal with," the blond ghost commented. "The Dominion made it clear that there might still be Zerg on Tarsonis."
"They're right," Jim agreed. "During the Brood War, Sarah had to relocate her primary hive cluster to Tarsonis to try and escape the UED using the Psi Disrupter and hampering her control over the broods. After it was destroyed on Braxis and the UED power base on Korhal had been broken, she transferred the hive cluster to Char instead."
"But she left a rearguard behind."
"Exactly. It was extremely small in numbers compared to the billions of Zerg we had to go up against on Char, but Sarah knew it would be some time before the former Confederate homeworld could be colonized again, at least on a massive scale. She told me that the Zerg here have been mostly quiet ever since the Brood War ended, and replenishing their larvae in an extremely slow state. Therefore, the numbers shouldn't have grown too much higher from the 75,000 she left behind. Still, that's more than enough to kill us all, so we have to be very careful."
"I'm surprised your last visit with the train robbing didn't attract their attention," Nova pointed out.
"I got lucky last time," Jim admitted. "Sarah told me the Zerg main hive cluster is located just outside Tarsonis City, and the rail network where the train robbing took place was too far away from the Zerg for them to care, so we only had to worry about the Dominion military. This time we may not be as lucky since whatever the Dominion is looking for appears to be in the city itself, so if too big a firefight breaks out, we'll attract their attention. If that happens, we may be forced to abort this mission so we don't all get killed."
"Then let's hope it doesn't come to that," the blond ghost said, as Jim stopped the hoverbike. Warfield's troops and vehicles stopped as well, as men began disembarking from the ground and air transports.
Jim stepped out, clutching his Mark XII Heavy Penetrator Commando Rifle. Despite its powerful penetrating power and capable of ripping through the head of an Ultralisk with ease, Nova was not as impressed as the rest of the troops. To be honest, she hadn't actually expected the rifle to have worked at all during the Char invasion, when Jim had used it to kill the Zerg attacking Warfield and his troops at the Helios crash site.
As she had seen all too often, when dealing with the Zerg and their vast numbers, it's the quantity of ammunition that makes the difference, not quality. The Mark XII Heavy Penetrator Commando Rifle only had a firing rate of 15 to 20 rounds per minute, which was completely ineffective in the face of mass Zerg attacks. In contrast, while her C-20 Canister Rifle had far less stopping power, it was capable of firing at well over 2000 rounds per minute, ideally suited in the face of concentrated attacks.
Still, there was still the hope that confrontation with the Zerg forces on Tarsonis could be avoided altogether, and Nova did not factor out that possibility. Unfortunately, this was not something completely within their control. Even if she, Jim, and the others proceed cautiously, there was still the possibility of Dominion troops they would go up against doing something stupid and setting the Zerg off.
"I have Dropships standing by to extract us out of the city if it comes down to fighting the Zerg," Jim said, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Failing that, at least they can keep providing us with ammunition drops so we can keep holding our positions against them."
"Commander Raynor, we have detected large numbers of Dominion troops moving in to Tarsonis City through the eastern suburbs," one of the officers nearby reported. "We should try to follow them as best as we can, then strike when they lead us to the source."
Jim nodded, before turning to Nova. "You know this city better than any of us here, Nova. Once the bullets start flying, I'll be heavily relying on your knowledge to get us out of jams."
"Don't worry about a thing, Jim," the blond ghost said. "We'll stay on constant radio contact, so even if we get separate I'll still be able to help you."
"Agreed," the commander said, before cocking his rifle and turning to the rest of his troops. "Begin our advance into what's left of Tarsonis City. It's time we wreaked some more havoc on the Dominion and weaken Mengsk's throne even more."