AN: this my first story and the update times will be wildly inconsistent. Sorry in advance.
"Vocal/normal speech"
"Telepathic speech"
"Telepathic shouting or demonic speech"
"DEMONIC SHOUTING"
Thoughts/whispering Telepathically
Chapter 2: Rebirth?
As I reawakened in darkness, I found myself floating in liquid and surrounded buy something hard. When I reached out it felt like rock, or carapace. Where are my tendrils of light, I can't see. I started to push and it cracked. I was in a cocoon, I realized. Are hybrids born in cocoons? He'll if I know. As I'm pushing I'm also getting more tired. I was considering taking a rest when a voice say inside my head "don't stop, young Voltaire. You're almost there." Voltaire? Is that my name? Voltaire. I roll it around in my head and then decide to kick myself for not asking Inarius what my new name would be, but I liked it well enough. Made sound more badass than Bob. Remembering that both protoss and zerg are telepathic, I decided to do as the voice said and pushed against the cocoon wall. I do make some headway but it is slow until my nails start digging into the wall. Then I really start to get out. I can see light. Then it gives way very quickly. Too quickly. I face plant into the creep floor.
I lift my head and find a protoss with two hydralisk at his sides. He looked taller than me more than a few feet. I looked around and saw protoss and zerg everywhere, not fighting. Just like Inarius said. My vision is blurry though so I couldn't see much. The protoss who told me to get out started to clap, and I drew my wandering gaze back to him. He Bagan to walk towards me and stops some feet away. I tried to use telepathy and … nothing. I felt slightly dejected. "Why are you so dispirited, young Voltaire?" I try to latch onto the link but failed. I can't use telepathy. I thought. And he felt it. "Ah. Troubles with telepathic skills. Don't worry, you were just born. You will learn. For now young lord, can you stand?" I realized that I was still in my face plant position. I try to stand and everything starts to spin and shake. I stop in a kneeling position and force my self to focus on the fact that my feet and hands are under me. I continue to stand and make it upright. I remember standing on my toes for various reasons and, since my legs are digitigrade, I repeated the gesture and stood like him. I didn't fall or lose my balance, despite the shaking In my vision. He was very impressed, even more so when I tried to walk. And did so successfully. For the most part, I stopped a few feet away from the protoss. As the shaking started to subside I noticed that the protoss is more feminine than I previously and is in what I assume to be a dress or robes for protoss female. Can you hear my thoughts? I think to the void, I mean, to myself. She responds happily "Yes, but only faintly. You were just born and already using telepathy. Amazing. I thought that it would take more time than this, but I am pleased regardless." She than bowed, bending forward sending a mess of nerve chords tied in a loose braid flying before they settled and flowed over her shoulder. "it is an honor to meet you young Voltaire. The cerebrate said that he secured a way to create a hybrid to aid and lead us. He, Brood Mother Zahra, and Hierarch Taurus were eagerly awaiting your birth. The council named me, Gaia, as your caretaker until you hatched. When you reach full adulthood you will join the council and lead us, defend us." So I'm not a full adult hybrid. Interesting. While she spoke I felt something in mind, my head. I focused and thought "do you hear me now?"
"You used true telepathy!" she shouted into my mind with her hand clasped together in a praying gesture. I immediately put my head in my hands in pain. She immediately reached for me and her eyebrows went up in an upward arrow shape of sorrow. Before she could speak I held my hand up to stop her. "Please don't do that. It hurts." My vision was getting better so I looked around we were in a chamber. A large chamber. It was at least a 60 feet across and 100 feet tall. I could see the protoss architecture covered in creep and multiple levels of scaffolding or something. I could also see both protoss and zerg on the other levels, some working on consoles or transporting equipment and other materials. I try to focus on that spot again to communicate but nothing happens. I can't find the spot in my own head. I turned my gaze to Gaia who had her tilted in a cutesy way. I also notice that the hydralisks are hunter killers. I can't seem to use proper telepathy unless someone else initiates the conversation. She put a hand on what would be a mouth. "Oh am so sorry. I was so excited that used telepathy…" I interrupted her. "Don't apologize, I understand that you were excited. I just don't know what part of my brain uses telepathy and how to access it. When you speak to me that part tingles and I can follow the tingle latch onto the connection and respond." She clasped her hands together below her chest, raised one eyebrow and lowered the other while tilting her head to the right. "Tingle?" she asked. "Yes. Right here." I point to a point on my head. Left, towards the top, and towards the back. "Can you tell me how I got my name then show me around?" she nods her head then steps aside and gestures behind her to an entrance that I hadn't seen before. "Of course. I can do both. Right this way." The door seems to flow like water into the floor. Fancy door.
As we walked through the city, and by city I really mean the largest freaking protoss mothership I have ever seen. It reminds me of High Charity, it was the size of a small planetoid, she was leading me to the council chambers. I looked around and saw protoss and zerg everywhere. All of which has one of four colors on, I noticed. A protoss family had their child riding a zergling as they walked past me on my right. In the distance I could see hatcheries and nexuses in the distance. I could only get this kind of thing in mods. Gaia started to speak "As you can see we have fostered cooperation between our peoples like what has never been seen before, at least not before Amon."
I am aware that they had been fighting for a long time. "I was aware that they have been fighting for a long time, but don't the protoss and zerg have a common ancestry?" I ask as we step onto some type of invisible anti-gravity platform. Seriously, it liked we stepped onto air. Then a type of musical tone played and briefly we floated above floor level, then we sped away to the center of the city. As we sped through, I saw others doing the same thing but going in every direction within the city. "Yes and no. Both of us are the dependents of the Xelnaga, but we have never Seen cooperation like this." She says and gestures to various different sized formations of scouts, phoenixes, mutalisks, guardians, and other things flying together side-by-side to various locations throughout the city. Below I could see protoss ground troops marching in formations , formations that included zealots, stalkers, and immortals, on bridges and streets. Some zerg were mixed into those formations as well, including but not limited to zerglings, hydralisks, and roaches. "I am surprised that you are aware of our blood feud, but it is more complicated than that." She said. She seemed to think about what to say next. I speak while she thinks "because Amon took control of the zerg, and sent them against you when you were too strong to control. Also while I have a chance, why so many troop movements? Don't get me wrong, it is beautiful that such peace can exist between two vastly different peoples, but the military build up worries me."
She looked at me with surprise, "You know of him, of what he did to us, and you noticed the troop movements too. Good. Hierarch Taurus thought a military display would impress you, but it also serves another purpose. If you know all that can I also assume you know about the storm that has appeared?" she said "Yes. Are we headed towards it? To build our future? Why the storm?" I responded. She gestures around and us and says "We journey to the storm because the last time our two peoples worked together we tried to destroy the universe. If the others saw us now, they would see us as Amon's resurgence. And would try to destroy us as a result. We have no home and no reason to be beyond what we choose. When we landed on a forgotten world overrun by zerg. Zerg that did not serve Amon. So we and several hybrids were sent to subjugate them. What we found was a cerebrate merged with a torrasque. As you can imagine, the battle ended in their favor. The cerebrates name was Ash'ner (ash-ner) and he was unlike anything else that I ever encountered. His ideas are very unlike what I remember of the other cerebrates. He gathered us to him and overwhelmed our khala and freedom us from Amon's control and into his. Unlike Amon, he allowed us maintain our personalities, and our psionic link but when he orders we have compulsion to comply. He even defeated a Brood Mother and made her his … partner is the closet word I can use to describe them. They met long before we encountered them. I know they fought in war, one trying to absorb the others Brood, but something happened and they merged in relative peace. They rule their broods together but there relationship is closer than just co-rulers." As she rambled and lectured I started to get the picture Ash'ner and Zahra may be the first zerg lovers, like a king and queen. Wait. "If Ash'ner and Zahra rule together where did the Hierarch Taurus come from?" I asked. I noticed we started to ascend to the roof. She responded with. "Taurus was a High Templar and the only one to engage the 2 in combat and survive. They were so impressed with him that they made him our Hierarch and formed the council. We stayed on that world until Amon started to gain ground. They ordered his to turn one of its moons into this. They held the line until we completed it, and when Amon learned that he would severely in his conquest of us and gave up on us." This shocked me understandably. "He left you alone?" she got a dark look and her glowing eyes even dimmed. "No. He unleashed more hybrid, zerg, and protoss than ever before and destroyed our sun to kill us all. This Sanctuary saved us from certain death. We have been wandering ever since."
Damn. That is … that socks. I thought. To do what was once considered impossible and got there entire system destroyed in return. No wonder they don't want to stay here. Thanks to Amon no one would trust such an alliance. Negotiations would be impossible. Conquest or death would be their only choices. Even if they choose to leave the sector, other forces will hunt and kill them, trap and control them, or experiment on them. The storm offered them a new path, leave this universe and start again in another universe. It may still lead to conquest and death, but we won't be beholden to the legacy of Amon. Our fate will be ours. I like this plan. We are arriving at the top of the citadel. It is a regular mother ship with a massive translucent shield dome. We are already inside the storm, and I don't like what I see. It is a multicolored thing that is constantly changing and shifting, lighting flashes and reveals shadows. Void thrashers fighting against … what I can only describe as demons. We made our way to a raised platform in the … prime mothership I guess, and there they were. There is also a great deal of psychic noise.
There, standing on a platform with dozens of zealot, zergling devouring ones, and hydralisk hunter killers, was the council. The largest was the torrasque cerebrate, who had his own freaking platform due to his freaking size below the rest of the council but still standing over everyone. To who his right was a Brood Mother with two queens at her side. The torrasque had one of his arms around her and the two queens at the same time. To his left, out of his reach was a protoss in armor similar to Artanis. He looked badass, with a scar on one side of his face. The only thing that ruins the image was two female protoss in skimpy attire.
Ash'ner was massive. Probably close to twice as tall as other ultralisks. I could also see a large growth, probably the actual cerebrate itself, growing out of its back and reaching almost to the top of the head crest. Tendrils stretch out from the growth, some swinging around in the air, others are crawling on the platform the others are standing on, probably to pull him closer, and one tendril that forks at the end into three points is placed over the Brood Mother and caressing her chin and chest. That is not telling at all. I can also see a massive and long bonelike tail behind him with a bladed tip. He also has various splotches of blue, green, red, and gold, all separated buy brown carapace. He has four sets of eyes. Each a different color, and all glowing. Two eyes oriented forwards closest to his nose hone, four to the sides of his head, and the last two further up on his head crest after the last four and the furthest from his nose horn. This likely gives him great vision of everything around him, so long as it is in front of him. He has a massive cracked on the, quote-unquote "nose". All of this visible from the front. The color of his eyes in of closest to his horn to farthest is gold, blue, green, and red.
The Brood Mother Zahra, who has a similar color scheme as Ash'ner, has her arms around two queens. She is easily a few feet taller than the queens, and twice the height of the Hierarch. She occasionally nuzzles the tendril, but keep standing at attention. She has nerve chords that go all the way down to her waist. Unlike the queens she had thumbs on her hands, giving her three fingers on each hand. She also has two lower pairs of arms that were resting on the ground, which now makes me think she is sitting rather than standing. Which means she is massive, no where near as big as Ash'ner, but still. She has ten legs each with what looks like retractable webbing in-between them. She has a tail that extends behind her tangling with the tendril on her should. Hers eyes a menacing red. A big head crest with a narrow horn extended up and forwards. Unlike Ash'ner, she actually wears clothing. A type decorative necklace with a crystal rests on a breast plate that has blue cloth with gold and green accents. All of it ending in a loincloth.
Hierarch Taurus had the absolute most battle ready armor out of everyone here. Spiked pauldrons that point upward and away from his head, giving a good range of movement. A glowing green crystal at the end of the pauldron spike. A table has what looks like a fully enclosed helmet with a T shaped visor that glows green on the front with a bladed horn above the visor. The Gauntlets, again fully enclosed and ends with claws on the fingers, each has some sort of golden crystal on the back of each hand. His vambraces are bulky with two pronged forks at the front that seem to be retracted at the moment. His torso has a segmented armor piece with a glowing blue crystal in the chest. His legs have full armor is divided into segments to allow for maximum movement. His feet are enclosed in a boot with a glowing red crystal. All in all, it looks like mandalorians and iron man decided to make an armor for a protoss. The entire thing is jet black. And once again he looks badass, if not for the two protoss ladies in Leia style bikinis. His face has a massive scar that goes from his forehead to his chin and goes across his left eye. Despite his scar, he has two glowing eyes. The right eye glows and the left eye glows blue.
When I entered the room, all three of them looked at me, making me uncomfortable. Brood Mother Zahra stood up. "Ah my darling boy, you've finally come at last" a motherly voice said. My theory that she was sitting down was proven correct, as the queens reached her shoulders before but now they only reach a full 3rd of her height. Ash'ner raises a Keiser blade in the air, his double jaw opening and bellowing. "Ahahahaha. I told you he would hatch. Our combined blood is too strong to fail." A boisterous voice laughed. I can't tell if it was Ash'ner or Taurus. "Indeed, he looks strong for one so young. I look forward to what his offspring will look." A grizzled but tough voice said. Taurus then spanks one of the girls who then strokes his chin. Now I know that was Taurus. So far they treat me like family. Zahra like a loving mother, makes sense, Ash'ner the boisterous father figure, don't pass him off, and Taurus, the perverted uncle soldier. "Uh… hello." I sheepishly said. Ash'ner, with all of his eyes on me, says "Don't be scared boy, you are among family here. So speak, how do you feel." I look up into the storm and the shadows that appear in the shadows of lightning "Honestly. Unsettled. You make me feel welcomed like family, but then I look out into the storm and see things that make my skin crawl. I mean what can casually fight void thrashers. And we are flying past them. I do not like that I can only occasionally see them before they are gone." This shocks everyone.
"You can see things in the storm?" all 3 councilors ask. "Yes?" I say nervously and kind of scooting backwards a little. Gaia stops me and ushers me forward. Ok. Now I feel like I am Being sacrificed. My opinion of Gaia changes completely. "We cannot see into the storm, we only see the ever shifting service and feel the things make contact with our you are not afraid of us?" I look down Zahra who is giving me a pleading look, Taurus is giving me an expectant but intense look, and I can't read Ash'ner. And the psychic noise, once just an indescribable background noise now sounds like radio interference so I can't hear there thoughts except when they "quote-unquote" speak. "No." one of them is going to be a hugger, I just know it. This always happens in anime. I was proven correct when Zahra scooped me up into a bone crushing hug. "Oh! I'm so happy." She let's me down quickly. "OK. We can drop the act." Ash'ner said. Act? "We do think of you as family and wanted to make you feel as such, but now is not the time nor the place." Ash'ner says. "You will be a member of this council and we are in dangerous territory. If you can see things in the storm, void thrashers fighting something than we are even less safe than we expected to be here. So let's speed this along shall we, when you reach the appropriate age to properly join us what is your first suggestion that we do, and why?" After Ash'ner is done talking the mood immediately becomes serious. Ok that changes things. Didn't know that there would be a quiz. I think for a moment. "Three things first and foremost, 1st. More long range infantry like the terrans, because despite being more primitive than us have been able to hold there own against both the protoss and the zerg. When they have proper leadership that is. If we make our own variants we might be able to replicate there success. 2nd. More variety in units that fulfill the same role, Because when we have one type of unit fill a role they can be hard countered by certain strategies. While this can be mitigated by building other units or just spamming that same unit but that can be difficult to do for various reasons. So having multiple types for the same role can make these strategies less viable. 3rd. We are going to places that are foreign to zerg can adapt to anything, but the protoss are not so adaptable, no offense intended," "Some taken." "but that may be to our advantage. There will be disease and parasites that may be able affect protoss biology, but zerg may be able to fix that. The zerg can evolve immunities to these things, and from them vaccinations for the protoss against them."
The council stood shocked then proud. Ash'ner was the first to speak. "Interesting. You have exceeded all of my expectations, Voltaire. 1 last question. What do you see in the storm, what should we be worried about?" I look into the storm and watch the shadows appear. I see the normal monsters, void thrashers and demons, but I also see an un familiar shadow. Moving and getting closer. "I can see void thrashers battling against giant, fat, horned monsters with cleaners, giant horned and winged monsters with axes, and others, but the thing that we should worry about is…" I pause as the sound gets louder. "is the source of that sound." The councilors look at each other. Then Ash'ner spoke. "We have spoken about this at length but can find no answer. We can only see the shifting shapes of the storm. Some see eyes, others tendrils, others see gaping maws, but we have not seen the shapes you see. And any scouts sent out don't return. We all hear the noise though. Can you see its source." I look to the storm and see a face getting closer. "I think that it's source is that giant face that's coming straight at us!" I shout while pointing at the rapidly approaching face. All of the councilors look and it becomes painfully clear that they can see it too. "Brace for impact!" shouts Taurus who shoves his girls to the ground and covers them with his body. Ash'ner grabs Zahra and her queens with his tendrils and used his Keiser blades to hold them tight against his chest. Gaia grabs a hold of me and holds me too late do I realize the face is actually the prow of a ship. A massive ship going at ramming speed. All communications spring to life screaming "Waaagh!"
As the ship slams into the shields its own shields seem to pry open ours, then impact. The world shakes worse than I thought possible. Our platforms collapse. I fall and everything goes black. When the black ends I'm on the streets below the prime mothership. Roars of zerg and battle cries of protoss as well as gunfire and cries of "Waaaaagh!" could be heard. I get up and look around . Gaia is nowhere to be found and the streets are a mess. I hear fighting around a corner and a girl crying. I take a look and Taurus protecting both his bikini babes and a young protoss girl who is close to my size. The thing that they are being protected from is a giant green skinned creature with a massive under bite and 2 tusks as long as my fore arm, the creature stands at nearly three times the size of Taurus. It wears a ramshackle armored suit and an axe that looks like it was made with human light pole, car engine, and power saw. It swings its axe so hard that it cuts through the nearby building. It misses Taurus who stabs it in the shoulder only for it to swing again to try and kill him. These things are durable if nothing else. I look and see several other children headed our way escorted by zerglings. I hear a sound and see a bunch of little green creatures with big noses going after the children. Some of these creatures had knives, axes, swords, or spears, while others had guns. Their weapons look both advanced and ramshackle, barely being held together by something unseen. I can't tell how many there are, but the more that die the more that seem to appear. The zerglings are protecting the children, making short work of the close range combatants, but the guys with guns are having better luck. I have to do something, every bullet that flies is another potential casualty. A mouth develops where once there was none, it split in two, vertically, revealing a second mouth that opens horizontally. I rush the green skins to defend my people.