Author's Note: People may not know this, but on Tarsonis, we have now split into many POVs. There's Colonel Kim and her Dominion troops in the city, along with Kate Lockwell and her UNN journalists. Raynor and his troops are in another part of the city, as is Nova, and now Mal Kelerchian. So now there's going to be multiple POVs, all of which are going to have a say as events unfold.

Now, things are going to get quite interesting on Tarsonis, just take a look and you'll see for yourself.

Chapter 69

Xel'Naga Temple, Shakuras

"Great Zekrath," one of the Xel'Naga temple guardians greeted. "We are honored by your presence here once more."

"Your humbleness is not necessary, young Taarim," the Shelak leader greeted back. "Do not forget, although you were once a Shelak Protoss, you are now a Xel'Naga temple guardian. The guardians here may be few in number compared to the individual Khalai and Nerazim tribes, but your people here have tended to the temple for years, whereas I have been away. Compared to you and the rest of the guardians, I am not the wiser in understanding the Xel'Naga."

"How can you say such a thing?" A Zealot asked. "Your Shelak Tribe had safeguarded ancient Xel'Naga artifacts on Aiur for years. Your people preserved the most valuable information of them all, far more important compared to scrolls and text of Protoss history before the fall of Aiur."

"Even now it still pains me to know of the years of suffering you endured there, young Korlendir," Zekrath bowed deeply to the templar warrior. "Had we known the Zerg would have suddenly stopped targeting the Protoss survivors, we would have made far greater efforts to rescue more."

"With the recent victory on Aiur, the Protoss may finally be able to rebuild their civilization there," Taarim said. "However, I must agree with Korlendir. You were chosen as the head of the Shelak because you understood more than the others."

"That may well be, but unlike you and the other Xel'Naga temple guardians, I also had a responsibility to my tribal people. Despite the silence of the Zerg in the aftermath of the Brood War, the threat from them remained. The Shelak may have long tended to the relics and documents of the Xel'Naga, but that does not completely override our loyalty as a Protoss. Hierarch Artanis was correct in that because the danger of the Zerg swarm remained, certain duties normally done by Khalai tribes would have to be temporarily set aside."

Korlendir shook his head, disgusted. "I was among the Protoss templars that defended Aiur when the Zerg invaded. We had not succeeded then, what difference would it make now if such an invasion occurred?"

"This was exactly the reason that the Ara, Furinax, and Shelak Tribes also had to be trained in the templar arts," Zekrath explained. "Had there been a Zerg invasion of Shakuras, every Khalai Protoss would have taken up arms to defend this world."

"That wasn't enough to prevent Aiur from being overrun by the Zerg," Taarim argued.

"It was for this reason that the Shelak was given a second task to intensify our studying of the Xel'Naga. Many Protoss warriors were in agreement that as the Zerg were also created by the Xel'Naga, their knowledge may hold clues regarding their weaknesses and a method in which to defeat them. Unfortunately, the studying of ancient Xel'Naga texts, relics, and artifacts is a difficult process, one that cannot be sped up simply due to dire circumstances. For this reason, the studying of the Xel'Naga was confined to a more restricted role amongst the Shelak, while others within my tribe were forced to stray away from their standard duties in attending to the past and focus on the matter of our survival."

"Is this still true of the Shelak Tribe now?" Korlendir asked.

The Shelak leader thought about it for a moment, before replying, "It was until most recently. When we had been informed of the recent Zerg invasion, there was a great concern among the Daelaam Protoss that Shakuras would be targeted. Even if there was no invasion, there was still the matter of Protoss colony worlds becoming infested by the Zerg, and that had to be contained. It was for this reason that Executor Selendis had been dispatched with her fleet to seek out other Protoss worlds and ensure no signs of Zerg infestation were present. However, after James Raynor's victory on Char had been confirmed, it would appear that the Zerg leadership has been crippled. I had seen the new Kerrigan with my own eyes on Aiur, and she certainly did not resemble anything like the Queen of Blades we had seen her as in the years past."

"There is no proof of that," the templar argued. "Taarim and the other guardians have informed me of what had happened during the Brood War, and how the Queen of Blades used the Protoss to secure her position as supreme ruler of the Zerg. All of them had expressed their sheer hatred and mistrust for her, accusing her of manipulating everyone for her own purposes. You cannot rule out the possibility that she is no longer doing that now."

"That is true," Zekrath admitted. "Nahaan has been relying very heavily on this argument to influence the other Protoss, hoping to convince them to have Kerrigan executed immediately. However, the Hierarch's orders remain in place: the Xel'Naga prophecy must be investigated first. Only when more details about it are known can we turn our attention to matters regarding the former Queen of Blades."

"That is the purpose for why you are here then," Taarim stated.

"Correct," the Shelak leader answered. "Although the Shelak Tribe has tended to the Xel'Naga, understanding and protecting their relics and artifacts, our efforts of comprehension are still considered to be small compared to those of the Dark Templar. Do not forget, until only four years ago, the Protoss ruling body on Aiur had always been the Conclave, and the actions of Khas in the discovery of the Khala was to unite all Protoss into it. The only reason why the Shelak was still granted consent to continue our studies on the Xel'Naga was because the Conclave hoped that such knowledge could expand their knowledge through the Khala. The Nerazim approach is different. They believe that to understand the Xel'Naga is to understand the purpose of all Protoss, and perhaps even the Zerg that they had created."

"If the Xel'Naga prophecy is true, you believe they would leave clues behind regarding it."

"And this is why it is essential to explore the Xel'Naga temple here," Zekrath said, as he and the other guardians began to walk through the temple entrance. "The ancient Xel'Naga texts, writings, and inscriptions carved onto the temple itself may provide us with further information. It was for this reason that mighty Zeratul had chosen to continue to explore world after world throughout the Void, instead of returning to Shakuras, where he is respected by all Protoss. He believed clues regarding the Xel'Naga are left on different worlds, and each must be investigated so as to better arm ourselves with the information."

He gestured to the carvings on the temple walls. "As you have been guardians to the Xel'Naga temple for years, all of you must have looked over and translated much of the ancient texts in this structure."

"We have," Korlendir answered. "However the majority of the texts that we have been able to translate only speak of the massive nexus that the temple sits upon, where it speaks of the cosmic energies it houses, and how they're to be controlled by the twin crystals of Uraj and Khalis. Other texts had shown that the twin crystals were carved from larger Khaydarin Crystals, where the Xel'Naga had carved and had given them to us. There are still other texts, but we have not been able to successfully translate them yet."

"Then that will be one of the objectives for the guardians here," Zekrath said, still amazed at the beauty of the temple. "I must request you increase your efforts on the translations. If there is any information that can be connected to the prophecy we have found, it must be uncovered immediately. The Daelaam Protoss are not comfortable that thus far, the only being that holds further clues regarding the prophecy is the Overmind itself, and I am in agreement."

Kerrigan's Hive Cluster, Char

Tal'darim warriors bid their farewells to their brothers in arms as they prepared themselves for the ritual. Ulrezaj channeled his psionic energies to extract the life essence of Tal'darim High Templars. As predicted, the process itself proved to be fatal to them, but none of the other Tal'darim protested against this act. It was clear that they were all willing to be part of the sacrifice to fulfill the Dark Archon's great plan.

With their energies, he incased them into the Khaydarin Crystals, now having been fully assembled by the Tal'darim. Other Tal'darim warriors were still on the ashes of Char, fighting the numerous Zerg creatures, while others continued to carry out his request of capturing further live Zerg specimens. Ulrezaj himself was slightly unsure of how much Zerg energy would be required, as he intended to make the Khaydarin Crystals before him much more powerful than the warped crystals he had created years ago.

The Dark Archon had seen for himself the genetically enhanced Zerg breeds, some of which existed before the Queen of Blades had become part of the swarm. The Devouring Ones and Hunter Killers were genetically enhanced Zerglings and Hydralisks, and they proved to be vastly more powerful compared to their original counterparts. The Torrasque was a genetically enhanced Ultralisk type, and it proved to be extremely powerful on the battlefield.

However with the new crystals, Ulrezaj intended to more than just enhance the Zerg to the new strains such as those. They already existed within the swarm, and despite their power, they were still far from invulnerable. The technology terrans wield may not be advanced compared to the Firstborn, but they were nevertheless capable of killing these enhanced Zerg strains.

Not that the enhanced Zerg the Dark Archon intended to create was to be considered invulnerable either. The Queen of Blades had spent a great deal of energy evolving the Zerg, but they could still be killed on the battlefield, as James Raynor's victory on Char had testified. Rather, Ulrezaj intended to create new Zerg strains and incorporate them into the swarm. It would certainly give the Zerg an advantage in the field of battle, and the Khaydarin Crystals would ensure their loyalty to him.

In particular, Ulrezaj had looked over a number of the Zerg breeds that his Tal'darim warriors had captured for him. Among the ones he took a particular interest in were the Ultralisk, Lurker, and Brood Lord. The Ultralisk itself was the most massive Zerg group creature that could be bred in mass numbers, but it had its drawbacks in its relatively slow speed. This allowed retreating forces to escape when the massive beast was on its own. In addition, despite the Queen of Blades's efforts in succeeding the Ultralisk to burrow, the fact was that it could not move while burrowed underground. Granted Zerglings and Hydralisks did not have the ability to move while burrowed either, but this was compensated by their fast burrowing speed, allowing them to resurface and quickly pursue their prey. In comparison, the burrowing speed of the Ultralisk was extremely slow, and the same was true for its unburrowing speed. This meant the element of surprise was usually lost on the field of combat, and it left the Ultralisks extremely vulnerable to attack during the burrowing and unburrowing process.

An enhancement to the Ultralisk had already been made and incorporated into the Zerg swarm in the form of the Brutalisk, where the genetic codes of the Zergling and the Hydralisk were combined with those of the Ultralisk. Although the Brutalisk had an even slower moving speed compared to the Ultralisk, this was compensated by its ability to defend itself with its ferocious acid spew ability, capable of tearing apart aerial opponents with relative ease. Nevertheless, it shared the same weakness of the Ultralisk, its burrowing and unburrowing speed was too slow and thus made the creature vulnerable.

The same was true of the other Ultralisk enhancement, known as the Omegalisk. Dwarfing the size of the Ultralisk, it shared the beast's speed while moving on the ground, yet still retaining the ability to burrow. Like the Ultralisk and Brutalisk however, the Omegalisk was simply too massive to be used as effectively as one would hope. Short of crushing its allied Zerg minions in its path, none of the three Zerg beasts had excellent agility or maneuverability on the battlefield.

What was needed was something that shared the characteristics of the Pygalisk, a much smaller version of the Ultralisk. Fast and agile, it was capable of tearing apart its enemies quickly, even though its Kaiser Blades lacked the destructive force of the Ultralisk's Kaiser Blades. Unfortunately, because the Pygalisks were so small and fast, it also meant that this speed and agility came at the sacrifice of the carapaces that made the Ultralisks, Brutalisks, and Omegalisks so difficult to kill. As had been demonstrated on the battlefield, until they reached within striking distance of their Kaiser Blades, the Pygalisks were no match for the ranged attack firepower of the Tal'darim Colossi, Stalkers, and Sentries. Only small numbers were able to get within range to engage in combat with the Zealots, the rest were shredded by Colossi thermal lances, Stalker particle disruptors, and Sentry disruption beams.

Ulrezaj knew that enhancing the Ultralisk speed for extended periods of time while still maintaining their thick carapace was simply not possible. However, that may not be necessary as such tasks could fall on the other Zerg breeds. It was merely needed to give the Ultralisks a temporary speed boost in the heat of battle, something that its enemies would never suspect.

With regards to the Zerg Lurker, it was a different story. Their subterranean spine attacks had proved their worth when engaging the Tal'darim, tearing apart Zealot and Stalker armor with ease and forcing many of the Protoss attackers to retreat towards their Shield Batteries to recharge their psionically generated plasma shields. Unfortunately, this strength also proved to be their weakness. It did not take very long before the Tal'darim warriors were able to determine the ranges of their spine attacks. Once this was discovered, the counter strategy to deal with the Lurkers was relatively simple: a single Stalker would move into position and be subjected to the attack of the Lurker's subterranean spines. It would then blink away, forcing the Lurker to unburrow and chase after it. Since the Lurkers have no defensive capability while above ground, they became easy targets for the psionic storms of the High Templar warriors.

It wasn't that the Lurker's attack was a bad thing, what made it difficult was the fact that despite its long range, it still had its limits. Tal'darim warriors could simply move out of its subterranean spine range and force the Lurker to come up to the surface, where it would be easily slaughtered. The Lurker's burrowing speed was also lacking. Although faster compared to the Ultralisk, it was still considered relatively slow when compared to the Zergling, Hydralisk, Roach, and Infestor.

Thus the purpose of the Khaydarin Crystals would also be to remove the Lurker's weakness. If it was not possible to remove its weakness of being completely defenseless while above the surface, Ulrezaj certainly intended to correct the problems regarding its burrowing speed and ranges of attack.

The Brood Lord was certainly an improvement compared to the Zerg Guardian of four years in the past. The Dark Archon still remembered those Zerg creatures when the swarm had attacked the Dark Templar homeworld of Shakuras, their acid spores capable of tearing apart the armor of the Dark Templar with ease, and the same was true of the Khalai Zealots, Dragoons, and even Reavers. Yet the Guardian was not without its flaws. Compared to the Mutalisk, it was extremely slow in flight, and despite its long attack range, it was defenseless against aerial opponents, which made them easy prey to the Protoss Scouts, Corsairs, and Carriers. Their slow speed also made it difficult for them to escape such adversaries, and during the fighting on Shakuras, the Protoss frequently encountered them with Mutalisk escorts as protection.

This problem had only been partially rectified in the Brood Lord. The massive Zerg flyers now had faster flight movement, and their broodling strikes proved far more destructive than the Guardian's acid spores were capable of. Their sighting ability had also been improved, allowing the Brood Lords to see further on the battlefield and thus selecting the proper targets in which to strike at.

However despite the improvements, weaknesses still remained. Although faster than the Guardian, the Brood Lord was still considered extremely slow. To compound to the difficulty, it still shared the Guardian's weakness of being defenseless against aerial opponents, and this lead to many of them being shot down by Tal'darim Phoenixes, Scouts, and Void Rays. While Mutalisks were used in great numbers to defend the Brood Lords, it would appear that the Mutalisk had not evolved much during the last four years. Their Glaive Wurm attacks still proved to be as formidable as ever, but their attack range were still extremely limited and this led to many of them having to move far away from the Brood Lords in order to engage the Protoss ships.

Nor were the Zerg ground breeds any more cooperative in protecting the massive flyers. The Queens were too slow to move when off the creep, but the Hydralisks were a different matter. Unfortunately for the Brood Lords, the Hydralisks showed greater interest in engaging in battle with the Protoss Zealots instead, rather than using their needle spines to fire at the Protoss ships targeting the Brood Lords. This meant that the Brood Lords were mostly deprived of protection from aerial enemies, which made it a simple task for the Tal'darim ships to handle.

In addition the Brood Lord still had the problem that the Guardian had in that it could not be bred from the standard Zerg larvae. Similar to the Guardian that required it be mutated from the Mutalisk, the Brood Lord had to be mutated from the Zerg Corruptor. During the time it is spent in the cocoon phase, it was extremely vulnerable to attack. Although Zerg Scourge flyers tended to protect the aerial cocoon, they too had the tendency to fly off and attack the nearest possible Protoss that came within proximity. This became a common sight, and the Tal'darim used Scouts to lure the Scourges away, before disposing of them with Stalkers due to their inability to attack ground units.

What was required was thus a new type of Zerg flyer, one that had a much faster rate of movement compared to the Brood Lord. Furthermore, the Dark Archon hoped to eliminate the problem of their ability of only attacking ground units. It was Ulrezaj's intention that with the enhanced crystals, he would be able to breed a type of Zerg aerial creature that still possessed the long range of Brood Lords, yet also have the ability to strike at air targets like the Mutalisk.

This would not be long from now. Once he had gathered a sufficient amount of Void energy from the Tal'darim, the next step would be to assimilate the energies of all the Zerg specimens that the Tal'darim have captured into the Khaydarin Crystals. If all went according to plan, he would once again have a number of Zerg broods under his control. It would be considerably less significant compared to controlling the whole Zerg swarm as his master intended, but it would nevertheless be a step in the right direction.

Tarsonis City, Tarsonis

Jim smiled as he saw Nova climbed out of the pickup truck. "I'm glad to see everything is all right with you and Agent Kelerchian."

"It hadn't been an easy ride," the blond ghost admitted. "Got into a few Zerg skirmishes here and there, and this truck wasn't meant for dealing with that."

"The point is you two both got here in one piece, that's plenty right there," he said, before handing Nova a C-10 Canister Rifle. "I know you'll be wanting this. You're certainly more used to that than the AGR-14 you're holding."

"All right, Raynor," Mal said, frowning. "You said you can keep the two of us safe, but right now all I see is everyone out in the open. I'd say this makes it a perfect target for the Zerg. They were still pursuing us earlier, and I'm pretty sure they haven't given up the chase just yet."

"I suspected as much," Jim said, looking over at the rest of his troops. Goliath pilots were standing by, awaiting orders, while Banshees and Vikings patrolled the skies overhead. "Even so, I doubt that they'd focus only on us and completely ignore the Dominion forces in the city."

"Have you picked up anything from their comm chatter or anything?" the wrangler asked.

The rebel commander shook his head. "They maintained radio silence for the most part, and the flyboys have picked up very little activity during the daylight. They must have moved during the night and we just didn't happen to see it, and have probably not moved from their position from wherever they are right now."

"Could they still be in the city?" Nova asked.

"They have to be. If they were going back up to the orbital platforms to leave Tarsonis, the BattleCruisers from orbit would have picked up that activity right away. They're probably just hiding, trying to conceal themselves so the Zerg will only focus on us. They think once we're all dead, the Zerg will go back into their hive cluster. Only then would they come out of hiding and go back to their salvage operation."

"Raynor, it's possible that the Zerg already killed them all," one of the marines said.

Jim shook his head again. "Not likely, soldier. First off, the Zerg wouldn't kill that many without infesting. If that's what happened with all the Dominion troops, we would have encountered plenty of infested terrans by now. In addition the Zerg don't exactly care about hiding bodies from us. If they were all dead, why haven't we seen any bodies yet?"

"Then maybe the Zerg took them all to their hive cluster," Mal suggested.

"I already thought of that," Raynor insisted. "I had a few Wraiths fly over the hive cluster to make some observations. All the reports still say the usual activity, with the Hatcheries, Lairs, and Hives producing the larvae to be hatched into Zerg creatures, which are then sent right into the city. There's been no sign of cocoons being prepared to hatch infested terrans, or even any sign that terrans were brought to the hive cluster for infestation."

"So how do we know where they are?"

"We need to reach the transit hub," he answered. "It'll be the best place to locate the Dominion troops. When I was on Tarsonis last time, the Dominion had restored power to the old rail network, and that's where I raided the Dominion trains which got me that adjutant with the information about Mengsk's war crimes in using the Zerg to kill the people of Tarsonis four years ago. If the Dominion had done the same degree of restoration for the train station here, the rest is self explanatory. At least, that's what the officers have told me."

"They aren't wrong about that," Kelerchian replied. "Ever since I was posted to Tarsonis, the emperor admitted that getting from one place to another in the city would be a pain in the neck because the almost every street and alley would be full of rubble. Thus during the earlier days, Dominion clean up teams did arrive to clear a few of the streets, but mostly they focused on the rail system in the city. The engineers made enormous efforts to get the power back up, for the primary, secondary, and tertiary routes. The Confederate military installations may not be scattered across the city, but given the chaos unleashed by the Zerg back then, it's pretty easy to see the technology get scattered about anyway. Therefore, any and all military secrets and technology found in Tarsonis City would be located quickly using the trains there."

"Did they factor in the possibility of Zerg attacks?" Nova asked.

"It was secondary compared to the salvaging, but yes," the wrangler admitted. "If you have a map of the city, I can show you."

Jim nodded to one of the officers, and he came forward with the portable projector. Raynor pressed a button on it, revealing the blueprints of Tarsonis City, back in its glory days.

Mal pointed to a few areas on the holo-map. "From the transit station, those are the following places that the Dominion have visited recently in the city. Nothing too substantial was dug up though, mostly just blueprints for the Diamondback tanks, which is something the Dominion already have. There were also the drawings for improved CMC Armor for Firebats, but the Domininion is still somewhat hesitant on using them en masse on the battlefield. They certainly haven't proven as effective as people would have liked against the Zerg."

"Any idea where they might explore next?" Jim asked.

"There's a section of the city that's still more rubble strewn than the others to the north of the transit station. That's where a major Confederate military installation was located before Tarsonis fell to the Zerg," Kelerchian explained. "The previous salvage operations have looked mostly at secondary locations for military secrets and technologies, so the area I'm referring to is largely unexplored. From what you told me, it's also among the few places in the city the Zerg have not yet moved into, so if the Dominion troops are still here, that'd be where they're going."

At this point, Jim's radio went off. "Commander, you need to head to the transit station soon! It looks like the Zerg flyers have spotted you, there's a huge concentration of Zerg heading your way!"

"Give me the numbers!" Jim demanded.

"At least 20,000, if not more. It looks like they've gotten fed up with the small attack waves. This one is going to be a major push to kill you all."

"Fine, we'll get to the trains to escape them," Raynor shook his head, before gesturing for a Vulture bike to be brought forward for Mal and Nova. "Hop on in, we're getting out of this place."

Transit Hub, Tarsonis City, Tarsonis

Kate Lockwell sat with the rest of her UNN journalists on one of the makeshift benches in the dilapidated Tarsonis transit station. Like the rest of the city, and for that matter the rest of the entire planet, this place still carried plenty of scars from the Zerg assault four and a half years in the past. The whole place had very little power, save for the rail network itself, so the Dominion engineers had set up makeshift lighting from improvised poles taken from the rubble strewn streets.

The air down here was very heavy, and at times the female anchorwoman found it difficult to breathe. She had raised the issue with one of the Dominion engineers, and he responded by saying that this part of the transit station was located underground, where only minor work had been done in terms of restoration. The focus of the engineers in the underground areas was only to ensure that the tunnels wouldn't collapse on themselves so that the trains would safely make it through. Thus huge efforts of resources and manpower had been poured in to clear the rubble in the tunnels, as well as to reinforce the remaining support beams that held the tunnels up. For the places that had collapsed, new support beams were built, and those sections of the tunnels were restored.

Unfortunately for her and the UNN reporters, no plans had ever been made to accommodate civilians like them in this section of the station. In terms of the areas where the station was above ground, the Dominion engineers could have at least improvised. Here, it was considerably more difficult.

Nevertheless, as one of the Dominion engineers had quickly pointed out, being down here had its advantages. The entrance to this underground section had been camouflaged, and with most of the surviving Tarsonis refugees living on other worlds, only someone who knew the layout of Tarsonis City inside out would be able to locate the entrance. That meant the Zerg wouldn't be able to unless they came really close, and that did not seem very likely. None of their flyers would be able to spot the entrance unless they swooped in really low, and even then they would have a difficult time doing so.

Thus as long as she and the Dominion troops stayed down here, they should be relatively safe from the Zerg. However, everyone knew that sooner or later they'd have to get to the surface, and this was exactly the reason why almost all of the Dominion engineers were currently concentrating their efforts on one of the trains and rail tracks further down the tunnel. The train itself had sufficient armor plating to take quite a beating from the Zerg, and at their normal speed, the massive Zerg creatures such as Ultralisks would be too slow to catch up to it. The same would be true of the Zerg Brood Lords. For all their destructive capabilities to ground targets, they were too bulky to fly quickly about the battlefield.

Colonel Kim had told her just a few minutes ago that the main concentration now was to add in the thrusters that would significantly boost the train's speed. It was necessary to do so because of the sizable numbers of Mutalisks still flying over the city. Despite their short attack range, the Mutalisks' speed was on par with that of the train at its normal velocity, and that would make it very easy for swarms of them to attack the train. The armored vehicle itself had no defensive capabilities, so without the speed boosting thrusters, the only way to defend against such attacks would be to put marines on the top of the train cars. Needless to say, that was not something the Dominion marines favored, as such a task would clearly be suicide in the face of so much Zerg.

At this point, one of the Dominion marines looking over the radar console suddenly called Colonel Kim over. "Colonel, we've got incoming!"

"Impossible," Kim said. "The Zerg couldn't have found this location so quickly. We've been here for hours and everything's been quiet. What changed?"

"I don't think it's the Zerg," the marine answered. "The numbers approaching the station's underground entrance are too few in number."

She nodded in understanding. "Then it must be Raynor and his boys. They're coming here to try and escape the Zerg. Well, that's not going to happen." Kim then spoke into her radio, "Engineering team, report in. What's the status of the train thrusters and the rails?"

"It's still going to have to be a while, ma'am," came the reply. "This train wasn't exactly in tip top shape when we found it here in the station. It's been dilapidated, just like the rest of the city."

"But is it able to run?" Kim demanded.

"Of course, colonel. These are maglev trains, so they're much easier to run compared with what technology we used centuries in the past. The electromagnets on the rails are in reasonable shape, but the ones on the train are not. It's still going to take some work on our part before we can get the electrodynamic suspensions working so that the train can levitate, I'd estimate another three to three and a half hours."

At this point, the general alarm went off. "Colonel Kim!" another marine shouted. "I think you need to come over here and see this!"

"What's going on?" she demanded, rushing over to the radar console. As she glanced at it, her eyes widened. Behind the red dots of what was probably Raynor and his boys was a huge red mass of dots, some 20,000 in number, all of them coming this way.

"What the hell is that?" the marine asked, frightened.

Kim clenched her fist in anger, before turning to the rest of her troops. "Damn that Raynor! He's going to bring the whole horde right on top of us! Everyone, lock and load. We're about to have some very nasty company."