AESEARIA

Aesearia woke to a curious creature nudging her. Considering the fact that the creature did not explode or attack her upon sight, she decided that the creature was friendly. Once her eyes came into focus, she was able to examine the creature more carefully.

The creature was, as was everything on the planet, made of cubes and rectangular prisms. Something that can only be described as a snout protruded from the creature's face that held two eyes. The body was yet another rectangular prism, with five smaller ones protruding from odd locations on the body. Aesearia decided that four of those were legs and the last one was a tail; any other possibility was too horrendous to consider. To complete her study of the curious creature, Aesearia reached into the creature's mind and found:

A set of orders.

Aesearia had been expecting simple thoughts – after all, it seemed like an animal. A set of coded orders was definitely something she did not anticipate. What did this mean? Was the creature a robot?

Aesearia shook her head to clear it. She stood up, and only then did she remember about what caused her unconsciousness. The green, armless creatures were monsters that she would have to look out for in the future. Did they always detonate? Or was that something the monster she encountered did to make one last contribution to the Swarm?

Was the homicidal monstrosity part of the Swarm at all?

Aesearia performed what was the Protoss equivalent of a sigh.

"And who might you be?" Aesearia asked the creature at her foot. The creature gave a loud bark in return.

"Very well. I suppose your name is 'Arf', or something of the sort. I wonder if you'll follow me…" Aesearia looked up. The sun (yet another cube), or what seemed like it, was halfway through the sky. Night would soon fall. Aesearia decided at last to go east – after a few steps, the curious creature was at her heels.

"I see that you are quite content upon following me, my little friend," Aesearia mused, stroking the back of the "animal". "All for the better. I'm sure I can use some company in my quest for civilization."

And thus began a very long trek.

Night had already fallen. Aesearia was alert, her psi blades ready for combat. She had seen some very disturbing things on her way: green-skinned humanoid (there were Terrans here?) creatures, human skeletons, more of the green beasts (which she liked to call Banelings; at least it gave her the sense that she knew about something in this world), and multi-eyed black insects the size of a behemoth. Aesearia had avoided engaging in combat with any of the Zerg; she was unfamiliar with the purpose of the majority of the beings. All she knew was that the greens things exploded. That was it.

Aesearia crept silently through the trees, Arf still by her side. She was thinking about the hill she saw earlier when she heard a loud moan behind her.

She whipped around and found herself face-to-face with one of the green-skinned humanoids, its arms outstretched. Aesearia brought her blade about with a swift movement, and the creature was left armless; another moment and the creature was headless. The rest of the body fell back and –

Disappeared with a puff of white smoke. All that was left behind was a piece of rotten meat and three green orbs.

This place would never cease to surprise her.

Aesearia heard footsteps behind her, mixture with the clanking of bones. She turned and saw that one the skeletons were looking at her. The thing seemed not to be attacking her, but…

Was that a bow in its hands?

Aesearia sensed a malicious intent…

Arf leaped from his position and landed himself on the skeleton. The human debris turned bright red for a split second (how odd!), jumped back, and shot at Arf. The animal seemed not to notice, though; a few more leaps and the skeleton, too, vanished in a puff of white smoke.

Wait.

It vanished.

In a puff of smoke.

Was the thing… Protoss? Did she just kill and witness the killing of her own brethren?

No. That was not possible. That could not be possible. She was Protoss. And that… thing… was definitely not Protoss.

Her psi blades deactivated and her attention turned back to Arf gnawing away at something on the ground. The skeleton's bones. She turned around to face the green humanoid's "remains". She approached the small green orbs first and attempted to grab them –

But saw that her hands passed right through. Was this some type of illusion? She tried again. And failed. Sighing, she focused on the rotten meat. It certainly seemed rotten. She tentatively used her mental abilities to raise the piece. She stared intently at the floating thing – in fact, so intently that she did not realize there was something stalking her until Arf barked.

Aesearia immediately dropped the meat and activated her psi blades. She whipped around and threw herself forward, ready to hold whatever the thing was at blade-point –

And found herself staring into a rifle hole.

"This place… You be Protoss or what?" a rough, distinctly human voice asked.