Kerrigan crested the earthy incline and came to a halt. Her armored feet, given the curious shape of living heels, dug into the well-packed dirt firmly. She frowned at what lay before her. Spread across a field was an ancient pool, similar to the smaller ones she had taken to siphoning essence from when she found them, but it was beyond massive in scale.
"It's a pool." Her lips were bowed into a frown, and she felt her ire rising at the thought of being played by an ancient lizard.
No. Zurvan had remained behind with the Leviathan, and so an Overlord was left drifting near him for communication purposes. It took his voice and brought it to Kerrigan through the hive mind.
This primordial place, the very first spawning pool, is the power of Zerus. The Zerg first crawled from it in a time before names. Here you will be remade or consumed if proven wanting. What will you sacrifice for power?
Her anger quelled momentarily, Kerrigan looked across the expanse of bubbling ooze with a returned sense of determination. Nothing was stronger than the Queen of Blades.
"Anything."
Abathur manifested in her thoughts as soon as her feet sank into the warm liquid. Recommendation: avoid pool. Catalytic fluid will overwhelm queen's body. Not strong enough.
When I emerge, Abathur, you will once again remember why I lead the swarm. No one is stronger than me. Striding past the toothy spikes that were jutting out of the pool, Kerrigan noted it seemed awfully like a mouth when she stood at the center and looked around. Already she could feel the primal essence of the pool seeping through the flesh that it touched, offering change. Zagara. Izsha. Abathur. You three will defend me. Go now and prepare.
Yes my queen. All three echoed eerily, immediately beginning preparation for the defense of their soon to be defenseless leader.
Transform. Transcend. Zurvan's whisper was the last sound Kerrigan heard before erecting the fleshy walls of a chrysalis around herself and becoming immersed in the catalytic fluids of the pool.
Something was flashing in front of Jayces closed eyes, making her brows furrow in discomfort for a moment before coming to a groggy wakefulness. Blinking away the sleep, her hand flailed at the datapad with the incoming call light but missed.
"Accept the call." Grumbling, she kept one eye open and watched the flow of information on screen as Jim spoke up.
"Wake up darlin'. We're gonna be at Kaldir soon and I needed to talk to you real quick-like."
"Yes sir." Noting that there was no visual component to their call, she scrubbed at her face and slowly sat up.
"You still got that pin on you from 837. I want you to keep that on so we can keep an eye on you, but you've got free run of the ship from here on out. No more Tychus and me over your shoulder." Jim did not want to elaborate, suspecting fear would not help their particular situation at all.
"Oh yeah." Jayces hand reached for the button reflexively before the realization that her exchange between Swann had most likely been monitored sunk in. Embarrassed silence followed.
Jayce was no fool. Raynor suspected she caught on to that little bit as soon as the silence wore on, and quickly attempted to gloss over it. "You're gonna stay on the ship with Stetmann, Swann and Horner, of course. I want this ship spit shined when I get back on it, alright?"
"Does this mean you want me to avoid everyone, sir?" Standing up, Jayce began to gather the dirty rags and laundry laying around her room. The place was well overdue for a cleaning, although her mind was elsewhere.
"Don't beat around the bush, do you?" Raynor frowned, glancing at an only partially finished recording of his message to a certain very stubborn, pretty doctor.
"No sir." Jayce smirked slightly while dumping her clothes down a chute built into the back of her tiny closet.
"Yes. Everyone has been told to keep their distance from you, Jayce. You can interact with Stetmann when you need your arm looked at, but that's it. Everything else is going to be over comms. I know you liked hangin' out with Tychus, but you also know the situation you're in. It ain't safe." Jim felt like an ass, but it was the truth. He'd rather her have nobody to talk to or be companionable with than risk an accident.
Jayce felt blood rushing to her head as her anger rose, leaving her stuffing the last of her linens into the chute a little forcefully before stepping back from the closet and glaring down at the comm. Catching herself before any biting response could escape, she regulated her thoughts and feelings for a few moments until it was safe to speak. "You have the right of it, sir. Just don't like the idea of walkin' around this ghost ship alone, but I'll manage." Maybe I'll clean the blood off the walls and pretend nothing is wrong.
"I hear you. Don't know where we'll be goin' after Kaldir, but I'm hoping we can get you somewhere safe soon." Giving his face a rub, Jim sat down heavily in his chair. It used to be extremely comfortable- one of Mengsk's many luxuries in his private quarters, but it had seen better days by now- especially after his back spines had perforated it repeatedly.
Frowning, Jayce placed the datapad on the bedside counter and started ripping away her blankets and pillows. Now that the stale air was moving around, she realized it stunk like an old gym locker in here. "There's nowhere for me to go, sir. I am a part of a terrorist organization, an escapee criminal and I can't even defend myself properly right now." Unable to keep from smirking, Jayce thought about the irony of being labeled a criminal when Mengsk was still the Emperor, of all people. " I wasn't just bullshitting when I said my place was with the Raiders and that I wanted to help, you know?"
"Don't you get it?" Jim snapped, irritable at her naivety. "You could end up a damn infested! That is worse than anything Mengsk and his Dominion justice could ever throw at you!"
"Then I suppose it shows just how terrible our own race really is when I'd prefer to side with the zerg!" It couldn't be helped, once Jim started snapping, Jayce snapped back.
"You are not staying on this damn ship!"
"You need me."
"We'll see about that." Frustrated, Jim ended the call abruptly before they really got into it. Even his spines were twitching in agitation. I need a drink.
Horner's voice scratching to life over the comm system was a welcome distraction. "We are arriving at Kaldir shortly. Brace for warp jump in 5.. 4..." Everyone was reaching for something stable to grab a hold of or attempting to preemptively save things that weren't stable. "2..1..." The Hyperion and its contents blurred momentarily before ripping through space and reappearing whole once more. Instead of the vast starry expanse of space before them it was the icy white and blue colored moon, Kaldir, dwarfed by the massive gray gas giant, Midr IV, which it belonged to.
Finally faced with their destination, Jim grudgingly let his thoughts be known. So we're here now. We just need to find this broodmother and what, bring it back to team Zerg? As he expected, Shlassa was always listening.
Nafash is surely dead. I can not sense her anywhere, nor can I sense what killed her. You will go down to the moon and find her body. We will decide what is next from there.
Sir, the scanners aren't picking up anything either. Horner piped up, concerned. No one liked the sound of that. Regardless, Jim was met by Warfield, Tychus and Swann at the drop pods the chief engineer and his people had designed alongside Stetmann.
"It's a one-way trip hot shot. I can pilot a medivac when it's time to get outta there though, just need to give me the word." Swann patted the side of one of the large containers fondly while everyone else, excluding Raynor, eyed them skeptically.
"I didn't like being launched in one of these out of a ship, hurled through the atmosphere and landing on rocks at Char, and I still don't like it. What about our skin anyway? Isn't this moon the coldest place in the whole damn sector, Jimmy?" Tychus jerked slightly when Swann pointedly threw a pair of too-small mittens at his bare chest.
"Knew you'd be the one to ask."
Warfield and Raynor could barely contain snorts of laughter, entering their drop pods before Tychus could retaliate. "That ain't funny!" Stepping into his own drop pod quietly, Tychus shifted his rifle aside and stared down at the mittens in his hand and mumbled. "Who on this rig was wearing mittens anyway?"
Strapping himself in, Jim sat back and got ready for the ride. Matt. Bring 'er into low orbit. We're ready.
In his laboratory, Stetmann was observing the results of his most recent tests critically. What Swann had given him was an interesting gift: access to a small firing range that had never been used. Ammo is too precious to waste firing at a concrete slab. Swann had said. It was just another relic of Arcturus' many over-indulgences. Stetmann wondered how many more little jewels were scattered around the ship, he had never been interested in looking. What the firing range offered him was a safe space to recreate and figure out just exactly what was going on with his curious singularity attack.
"You Terrans are all so lost inside. Chaotic." Shlassa uttered from her space on the other side of the room. To monitor their thoughts continually had become confusing and taxing in its own way. So many of their thoughts seemed purely wasteful, it was a trying task to sort through them and keep everything under control. Keeping track of what they were thinking at all times was even more important with the constant reminders of all of them wanting her dead: she would not be taken by surprise.
Used to her little comments by now, Stetmann didn't even flinch at her echoing hissing voice. "Free will has upsides and downsides. We each have to find our own purpose: a lifelong pursuit for some."
"There is nothing greater than the unity of purpose of the swarm. As one we are unstoppable." Tilting her head slightly, Shlassa monitored the decent of the three warriors to the moons surface while awaiting Stetmann's rebuttal. Despite the hostile situation around her, Stetmann could generate interesting conversation at times: a welcome respite.
"The swarm is, undoubtedly, unified and powerful. But how many times and on how many fronts have we defeated them just because they weren't capable of thinking beyond the hive mind, or were all tied to the choices of one leader? There are downsides, Shlassa." Scribbling down notes and compiling data, Stetmann remained focused on his task.
"You do not understand what it means to be as one, tell me what you think when you do." Stetmann glanced at Shlassa then, catching her glowing gaze for a second before looking back down at his work.
"I feel it at all times: a pressure on my brain. Why haven't we been immersed in the hive mind? Or have we? Are Terrans not capable of it?" Shlassa's comment had many implications and Stetmann didn't like any that came to mind.
An idea came to Shlassa then, she visibly perked up spines and all. Schooling herself back to a neutral position, she kept her tone even. "I am all that is keeping you and the others from being overwhelmed. Your minds, still too Terran in nature, would be destroyed. That is part of my purpose here." There was no longer any doubt that each would become stronger than her in time, she knew it now.
Taking control of them would soon cease to be an option if they tried to physically or mentally harm her. They didn't need to know that there would be a point when the full force of the interconnected minds of the zerg would not destroy their own. She'd keep that part to herself.
"Oh. Well that explains some things." Stetmann couldn't hide his disappointment. Shlassa had suddenly gone from an enemy to a lifeline in the span of a few moments time.
"Indeed." Pleased, Shlassa clasped her spindly fingers together and leaned back slightly. The little scientist would tell the others, and she would be safe once again.
"Hey Jayce. Yeah, I gave him the mittens. It was great. Shoulda seen the look on his ugly mug." Swann was smirking; he had kept an open comm with Jayce as soon as the drop pods launched and their cargo was taken to ground.
"That's good. Say: I found more of those flow intensifiers, do you still need them?" Jayce had begun her morning routine, a simple maintenance and diagnostic run, but with the addition of several other co-workers' duties. Usually the ship was split off into sections and individuals were to take care of their own, but she took on as many as she reasonably could in this case.
"Oh yeah! I honestly thought we were out of 'em. Could always use more and some spares, just put 'em over at my office in the armory and I'll make use of 'em later."
"Yes sir." While the routine and ability to talk with Swann continually eased her mind, Jayce was thinking hard on several fronts. Worrying about the strange mission on the icy moon was first and foremost, and she sincerely wished for the small groups safety; Jayce was alternately thinking over what Swann had said the previous night. Until that broodmother is dead and gone was a particular point of interest. They could not physically go after the broodmother, or actually formulate a plan against it apparently. Their hands were tied.
There was nothing stopping Jayce from taking their problem into her own hands, however. To kill a broodmother though, that would take some planning. Jayce had never even seen a zerg of any type up close before, she wasn't positive if she could keep her cool if she did see this thing. But I could free them. "Sixth floor, northeast quadrant looks like it's got some kind of power leak. Adjutant will be patching the details through to you momentarily..."
The three drop pods shot through the atmosphere of Kaldir like meteors, piercing into the ice that covered their landing zone with a thunderous crash that echoed off the surrounding ice cliffs. Unbuckling from his seat, Warfield observed ice visibly seeping through the door, along with the temperature dropping at a tremendous rate. Worried that the door would get stuck from the building ice, he shouldered and kicked it open roughly. Tychus and Raynor had the same idea.
All three gasped in pain when the doors crashed down, feeling the warm air in their lungs being sucked away and replaced by painfully cold air was not a pleasant feeling.
"Sweet mother mercy..." Tychus had stumbled forwards and hunched, curling his arms to his bare chest in an attempt to preserve heat.
It hurt to speak, and Jim was reduced to a croaking whisper. "Remind me to kill Stetmann when we get back. Get used to it?" Shivering and angry, Jim reached up and touched the ear bud he had in place to speak with Horner. "Matt. We've touched down. Where to now?"
Warfield looked up and around, taking in the surroundings. The sky boasted a perpetual bleak dark gray color and thick snowflakes were beginning to settle on his clothing. All around they were surrounded by steep icy cliffs that jutted sharply into the sky. Their entrance may have made lots of noise within the canyon but none of that sound would have gotten out of it at least, odds of being detected were low so far.
Aboard the Hyperion, Matt was frowning as he listened to Jim. He had not anticipated so much interference to the comm system from the moon's continual bad weather. "Sir. Comms are not looking so good right now. There's only one path out of there, to the north of you, and it leads to a mess of ice valleys. You need to be careful- the ground is not safe and there are a lot of cave-ins apparent."
Pressing the ear bud further into his surely frozen solid ear, Jim scowled at the crackling and disjointed voice of Matt. "Getting a lot of interference, probably the weather. Sounds like we need to head north boys." Clenching his jaw to stop his teeth from clattering, Jim did note that his body temperature was adjusting- if he was a normal Terran he'd be deep into hypothermia by now. It was clear at a glance Warfield and Tychus were experiencing similar- though he did a quick double-take when Tychus hefted his rifle; he had forced his hands into the mittens which were stretched beyond belief and well over half the length his fingers went through the fabric with his claws. "I can't believe you put those on."
"I can't believe I'm down here half naked." Tychus snipped, stiffly trailing after Warfield and hissing as the thick skin at the bottom of his feet simultaneously melted snow and froze against it with every step.
"North is this way, lets get moving. Think I can see the trail Horner was talking about, too. Sooner we get this mission over with the sooner we can get the hell off this ice ball." Warfield pointed for a moment before firmly gripping his rifle and crunching through the snow and ice.
"S-smartest damn thing you've ever said, General." Tychus fell silent with the rest- the mission returning to the forefront of their minds. Something out there had killed Nafash, and they had no idea if it remained.
Falling into step, the three marched towards the twisting passage that was emerging ahead. It would lead them through the mountains, or so they hoped.
Grumbling to himself, Matt had tried to strengthen the signal to the ground team as much as he could, and with little success. "These aren't going to last." Regretful, he sat down in his captain's chair and closed his eyes, focusing.
Jim.
A long pause and no answer.
Jim? Uncertain, Horner opened his eyes and furrowed his brows in confusion. Their mental communication had yet to fail them.
You are too weak to speak to them so far away, for now. Shlassa gave Matt his answer, much to his agitation. I can relay information to them, you need only think it.
Firmly gripping the arms of his chair, Horner stared at the poor footage of the three men that his scanners could pick up, just three small red dots making their way north. How could he trust Shlassa to not skew any information he wanted to relay? His thoughts were perhaps too vocal, and he quickly found himself listening to Shlassa's clearly agitated voice.
I am to safeguard all of you. Getting them killed would be contrary to that. Besides. She paused. Your Terran equipment is about to fail you.
Alright. Matt relented. He supposed the broodmother was right: there was no reason to distrust her when it came to the safety of the crew, minus Jayce. About to continue speaking, the voice of the adjutant brought him back to reality with a snap.
"Captain. A flash freeze is approaching."
"A what?" Horner mumbled dumbly, standing up and leaning over the console to look at the weather pattern arrayed. The temperature of the region was diving and approaching the three unknowing dots at an alarming rate. "Oh shit!"
Shlassa! You need to tell them to seek shelter immediately! They need to preserve body heat or they are going to die!
No. The broodmothers reply was as calm as it could be, completely unconcerned. In the lab she was holding Stetmann's concerned gaze evenly.
You just said that their safety mattered to you!
They will not die. Zerg adapt.
Slamming his hand on the side of the console in anger, Matt opened the comm with his friends on the ground and prayed his message would get through.
The crunching of their feet and boots in the snow stopped. Raynor, Tychus and Warfield simultaneously pausing to listen to Horner's voice. All they could make out over the static was that he sounded close to frantic.
"That don't sound good. Whatever it is." Wary, Tychus brought his rifle at the ready and started looking around for any visible signs of danger.
Warfield and Raynor acted similarly, facing opposite directions at Tychus' left and right. "Somethin' got him spooked real good, keep your eyes peeled." Muttering, Raynor was almost thankful for the new extra keen eyesight he had been graced with, but all he could see was vast expanses of white and gray in all directions.
"Clear." Warfield lowered his rifle slightly, still looking regardless.
"Wait. You see that?" A movement to the north caught Jim's eye, and all of them looked in the direction he had.
"Hear somethin' too." Tychus mumbled. It was mixed up in the howling of wind flying through the spires of ice all around and above them, but there was a very distinct cracking sound that was not there moments ago.
"Oh hell." Warfield whispered hoarsely. All three staring at what could only be described as a literal visual wall of cold rolled down from the icy spires in the north, coming at them at a terrifying pace.
Brace yourselves. Shlassa's whisper in their minds was almost unheard over Jim's yell. "Take cover!" As one, they ran towards a nearby crag- piling into one another behind it. There would be no escape from the flash freeze, however.
In a moments time after they reached their so-called cover, a howling abyss of ice and cold blasted over them, freezing the three men instantly. They were nothing but icy statues.
Horner had stared at the wall of snow and the fleeing dots of Jim, Tychus and Warfield. When their lights were snuffed out instantly, he felt as though his heart had been cut out.
They are gone.
Though she was speaking to Horner in particular, Shlassa's superior tone was heard by all of her charges. Adapt or die.
The intense storm left almost as fast as it had arrived, ravaging everything in its path as it always had and would continue to. Within a minutes time, snowflakes were beginning to cover the icy statues of Raynor, Tychus and Warfield. Ice beginning to crack and crumble disrupted the peaceful silence, and in a few more moments the spines jutting out of Raynor's back began to twitch, followed by the trembling and groaning of Warfield and Tychus.
Horner was staring at the map before him, completely lost. He was so focused on staring at nothing, he almost missed when each dot representing the men he thought dead flickered back to life. Eyes honing in on the oddity, Horner stared in disbelief.
As I said, they adapt. Shlassa sounded completely smug.
A throaty snarl erupted from Tychus as he lurched back to life, spraying shards of ice this way and that. He almost fell into Jim who was similarly breaking free and gasping for air, while Warfield did stumble into him and corrected himself as quick as he was able.
"I hate being cold Jimmy." The many pupils in his eyes were constricted into tiny dots, and he looked especially crazed. It felt like a fire had lit up inside himself, and he wasn't sure if it was his overwhelming anger or his body adapting to save itself. Tychus decided he didn't care. All three leaned against the icy crag they had hid behind, recovering for a minute before regaining their bearings.
The cold will come again, you should move quickly. Shlassa's voice coaxed them to action, despite their misgivings about having just been living statues for a good minute.
"You heard the bug. Lets go." Jim straightened up and moved to adjust his gun, when it fell to pieces with a loud crack. "Ah what the hell..." One by one, they each noted their equipment simply crumbling into icy shards in their hands, disbelief written clearly on their faces.
"Well here's hopin' there ain't anything out there that can shoot us, 'cause we sure as hell ain't shootin' back!" Warfield griped, throwing his gear down in disgust. Their ear buds and microphones were discarded as well, dead as could be. It was probably the most distressing when their clothing shattered though. Tychus had curled his hands into fists and his already severely overtaxed mittens literally exploded into little icy fabric shards, and every article of clothing they had followed suit right after.
"There's... There's just nothin' for it I guess." Jim tried to grasp hold of some sort of reason to not have an outright shit fit, attempting to keep his cool more for Tychus and Warfield's sake. "Not the first time we've had to run somewhere naked, right Tychus?" His attempt at humor was met with a solid wall of seething silence, both from Tychus and the also newly exposed Warfield.
"Yeah. Lets get going." Uncomfortable, Jim took the lead and tried not to think about it. How did Sarah manage that? He wondered, even though it hurt to.
"The last thing I want to do." Tychus began stomping after Jim, quickly matching his pace and ending up beside him. "Is walk behind you when you are bare ass naked." Though Warfield didn't comment, he took up the space at Jim's left side, clearly echoing the sentiment. Their trek to the ice valleys beyond resumed.
Lassara enjoyed Kaldir, it was not a sentiment the majority of her fellow scientists echoed. The sun never shone, the flash freezes were intense and the Ursadons, ever hungry, were always pushing at the edges of their bases. Ursadon were a favorite species of hers, and though their mission was an attempt to see if they could turn Kaldir into a more hospitable place she often found herself wandering the ice tunnels and studying the great bear-like creatures. This was just such a time.
A Warp Prism, her transport, was hovering silently outside of a previously collapsed ice cave. The high tech machine was covered in a layer of snow and, excluding its softly glowing blue core, was almost impossible to detect visually. Lasarra had removed the debris from the collapsed tunnel herself and turned it into a small camp over her many visits to it. The Ursadons almost never came her way after the path had been gone for so long. It was in this camp she now resided, staring in concern at a seismic disturbance that had caused several small cave-ins and subsequently riled up the local Ursadon population.
Lassara. How much longer must we tarry here? Arut, a Zealot who she considered a good friend and noble warrior, was her escort for this foray and he had no love for the Ursadons or the cold.
Blue glowing eyes smiling in merriment, she shook her head and continued watching the data being fed to her by one of many Observers. Arut, you know I stay out here as long as the Judicator allows. There has been a disturbance, however. Gesturing the sour warrior over to her side, Arut grudgingly followed along and looked.
Cave-ins, Lassara. This icy moon is fraught with them, why is this disturbance any different than the many others?
Three tremors in quick succession. What kind of seismic disturbance do you think that is, Arut? That is not a normal pattern for ice shelves shifting, or even spires fracturing and falling. I think we should relay this information to the command center, just in case. It was concerning, and if anyone knew about the chaotic nature of Kaldir's icy landscape it was the one protoss who loved exploring it.
Judicator Holrim will not appreciate any false alarms. Let us simply monitor for the time being, Lassara. Withdrawing from her side, Arut resumed his quiet vigil. His presence was almost decorative- never had they needed to harm a stray Ursadon lumbering their way. The beasts were easily soothed psychically and redirected elsewhere when not enraged. Lassara enjoyed his company anyway.
As you wish, Arut. Still, Lassara gazed at the information available to her with concern. She would equate it closer to impacts than actual seismic activity, maybe the weather observer would have something. Shifting gears, she discarded the tunnel observer with a quick swipe of her clawed fingertip across the translucent material of her datapad, rerouting to observer 23- a stationary unit that sat at the very top of the ice spires on the southern edge of the ice valleys.
The observer was recovering from a recent flash freeze and it would take time before it could send the technical and visual weather data Lasarra requested. Nothing for it but to wait.
On Korhal, Augustgrad, Nova Terra was cloaked and perched atop the rubble of a recently bombed out apartment complex, looking through the scope of her C-20A rifle. In her sights was a particularly ratty child scavenging through garbage, she could feel his hunger from afar. She could also feel the thoughts of a marauder destroyer squad marching ever closer. It was marshal law- anyone out after curfew was shot without mercy. Whispering softly, her finger got cozy with the trigger of her rifle. "Go back inside."
Unable to outright mind control the boy from such a distance, Nova contented herself with offering a much quicker violent end than the alternative that was coming his way- if he didn't leave fast enough that was. Marauder weaponry had a bad habit of maiming just as much as it did killing. It was with a measure of personal relief that an equally ragged, mud-stained woman grabbed up her son and ran into the ruins of their former home, no doubt squatting with many other displaced civilians. It had become too hard to tell who was innocent with the mass rebelling, and everyone was suffering for it.
Relaxing her stance, Nova returned to searching out as far as she could reach with her mind, filtering past the terror and malice that was radiating off of Mengsk's disgruntled subjects. Nova Terra had a mission here, and while she had certainly dispatched a few leading agitators herself, it was not to quell the more mundane civilian rebels. The Spectres, under Tosh's command after Jim Raynor- the fool, freed them, had come to the throne world with one goal: burning it to the ground around Mengsk. Nova was continuing her mission to hunt them down and stop them.
Returning to her home world had never been a problem before, not until the terrazine exposure. All the memories that had been gratefully scoured away had been coming back, the gas repairing the damage of the mind wipes. Even now the memories of being a ratty little child in the gutters were distracting, never mind the voices of all those who'd tasted death purposefully and inadvertently during those times. The general disenchantment of the majority of Dominion military, those who weren't resocs anyway, was also frustrating.
As soon as word came from on high about the upcoming press conference, a strong sense of foreboding had been seeping through the ranks, it had even begun to affect Nova herself. It was easier to remain loyal to the Dominion when your goal was to fight people who were so clearly hurting innocents, however. The Spectres had been responsible for the very rubble she was standing on, and though the trail was cold right now, she resolved to pick it up.
"See you boys real soon." Nova muttered, leaping and springing through the rubble towards the estimated area of detonation. Tosh himself was out there too, and that one was personal.
Raynor did side with Tosh in this story, which means yes I made a booboo earlier on saying that Jayce was in a ghost suit- sorry! :C Lots of action coming up in the next chapter, let me tell you. I liked Lassara in the game which leaves me quite happy to have some fun and flesh her out in here! Oh yeah, let me know if switching between the different viewpoints/storylines is getting confusing. I'm trying my best to make it flow naturally but if I need to make it more clear I'll start separating them with lines or something, whatever is necessary.