Episode 34- The slope pointing down.

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"We will help Tassadar."

"But, commander! Meddling in aliens business, flying into the hive of zerg activity… We are but one Battlecruiser! What can we possibly do?"

"Matt…" The two were standing on the Hyperions bridge, together with the pilots and Wit standing to the side, his unique outfit and short stature made him stick out like a sore thumb. "We don't have many places we can go to anyway, not to mention that Tassadar saved us before. Not only on Char, but earlier, by not evaporating planets filled with Terrans on any sign of zerg activity."

"I think it's a great plan." The two turned to him. Extending his hands, Wit continued, "My home would be a perfect respite… for a time. Sooner than later, Mengs would come knocking. And if you tried other places? Pirate den's, smugglers, abandoned worlds, maybe even Kelmoria or Umoja. It sounds good on the surface but… you could be betrayed or unpleasantly surprised at any moment. But following protoss…"

After a moment of silence, and lack of continuation, Raynor started thinking. "By fighting side by side with them, we would constantly face Zerg, and maybe even other Protoss but… That's it. Zero Mengsk."

"I'll reluctantly agree, commander. So, what now?"

"How ready are we?"

"Sir, we fully restocked at the colony, and gathered as much supplies as we could. Discounting the minerals and vespane, we have everything we need for a long journey. They even gave us a few schematics, but they are mostly cheaper substitutes."

"Hey, don't forget the most important thing!"

Horner looked for a moment at the small… person, with the mask on, it really could be any gender, before returning his eyes to Raynor, who was waiting with a raised brow. "Ah, yes. We have gained many new variations of plants. We don't have to grow and harvest this tasteless moss anymore."

Raynor turned a questioning gaze towards Wit yet again. "What? We mastered crop genetic manipulation long before anything else, there is nothing more important than good food."

The Rebels leader could only nod his head. This was the truth.

Getting closer, Kerrigan finally saw, with her very own eyes, and not through overlords. The command center certainly dwarfed her own by at least three times. The two hatcheries were… unproductive, as in not spawning more zerg. The fifteen! spawning pools certainly served for nothing more than recreation for the horde of zerglings. And that was it, no overlords flying in the sky, no zerg defensive 'buildings', or even hydralisks. Just some drones working and a few aimlessly wandering infested, which ignored her completely.

She walked to the middle of it all, and waited. One specific giant zergling walked over, and sat on her haunches, watching like a curious cat. Kerrigan started looking at this unique zergling leader, paying more attention than the last time.

After some time, an infested walked over, and with a certain slowness, slowly raised its normal arm in salute. Kerrigan looked him over briefly, but didn't really note any other differences compared to the rest. But, an oddly behaving zerg who should have a mostly destroyed brain acting a little more intelligent than the rest? It would only mean that she had waited long enough.

"Welcome to my humble abode! So, what is it today? You found the protoss? Haunted Raynor some more? Witnessed the death of some insufferable Cerebrate?"

"No, but I am still waiting for the last one. The protoss ran away, and Raynor together with them. We are alone on this planet, my Cerebrate assistant, my part of the swarm and your…?" She waved her hand around, indecisively.

"You can call it a pack, or even a horde. Look, I even have my own ordo over here!" Dobromir pointed at the command center.

"Doesn't matter. With free time at my hands, I finally found a Zerg evolution master. He should arrive somewhere around tomorrow."

"Yes, finally!" Dobromir jumped up, with a fist in the air. "This stagnation was killing me!"

"But!" She raised one hand, stopping him in his tracks, "I will give you a limited time with him, after hearing about him from Overmind, I have some ideas of my own."

"It's… regrettable, but I will find a way, don't worry! I will be useful yet!"

"We will see about that. And what about all of this?" Kerrigan pointed at his whole base. "Why do you have only two hatcheries, and so many spawning pools?"

"Well… I still can't command other kinds of zerg, and envolve other buildings too. And the spawning pools… A certain lady is adding them as she sees fit." He pointendly looked at his second in command, who seemingly ignored it completely.

"And what about infected? And the command center?"

"I wanted a palace to sleep, or just be inside. The infected are a bonus, but worse than drones when it comes to instinct, or any kind of intelligence. I control them as much as everyone else here, which is very little."

"I still don't understand why are you soooo special, and maybe I will dig deeper into it, but not today."

"Mother superior." It wasn't accented in any specific way, but still carried the hint of importance.

The figure hunched over her computer didn't respond, still bombarding her keyboard with a barrage of fingers. After a moment, the typing slowly stopped, the swivel chair turning around. "I rarely see one of your trio here, what is it.

"We gained certain allies, of the tree kind. They showed their worth, eradicating local zerg and…" the smallest of the crones trailed off, unsure.

"Out with it girl, my research won't wait for anyone."

"Mother superior, I was thinking… what if we would make respites or something along the lines on many different planets? The emptiness is very draining on my and my sister's psyche, by its cosmos, the ocean's surface, or just a barren world filled with sand.'

"So, something special for you, huh? A few ideas come to mind… and the image of green Mar Sara is very tempting… I'll contact a few people. We have the means, just not equipment, at least not yet." She returned to her screen, and started to write messages to her subordinates.

Pixie, used to the sudden dismissal, just walked out. Her steps were reserved and without much energy. The feeling of being slowly crushed by the cosmos was very unpleasant. If not for her hippogriff companion, she would probably experience a mental breakdown already.

"So, what is our battle plan Raynor?"

"Commadner?"

Jim looked at his de facto second in command, and the young weirdo, before looking at the displayed map, courtesy of their protoss allies. And therein laid their current problem.

"We will have to listen very closely to our allies, if we want to avoid friendly fire. Additionally, our greatest contribution will be… Hyperion. There aren't a lot of us to begin with, so we will fight on this ship only, for now."

"Booring! But it can't be helped, I guess. I wouldn't want to be targeted by some random high templar anyway."

"I agree with your decision, commander. Compared to the rest of the protoss who are currently here, we are a very, very small force. Sending our troops, or even starships out would end only in tragedy, for us."

"I don't worry too much now… but what comes after?" Raynor looked worriedly at their scans this time. The opposing protoss seemed to be numerous, but what about the zerg?

Matt looked at him, but shortly after focused on the current battle, which was just the beginning. Ziemowit, on the other hand, with nothing to do, and no role to play on the bridge, wandered off, to do his own thing.

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Authors hawdhiuiwrig:

I just began studying, so I don't know how my further updates will look. I will probably just write them shorter. Don't worry, I won't abandon my story.