Episode 24- It's… clear? What a surprise!
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"Do you feel that Dobomir, Cerebrate?" "-nope" "Protoss are here, on Char, hiding. Protoss commander, you made a mistake arriving here because I am Kerrigan, Queen of the Zerg!"
"Queen huh?" It was delivered with a half smile, which was quickly retorted by Kerrigan's 'shut up' face.
"I know you well, o Queen of the Zerg, because I already met you. I am Tassadar, and I belong to the High Templars."
"Wow, I hear him clearly, clear like a beautiful lake, not marred by a single movement." Kerrigan looked at him for a moment, looking surprised, before turning back with her 'I am talking mentally face'.
"I remember yours, and your companion, valiantly defending humanity against the zerg. It's unfortunate that someone's so full of honor and life fell to the machinations of the vile Overmind."
"I won't be judged by the likes of you, high templar. I will convince you I am a more than worthy opponent. On the contrary, I feel that you have grown weaker."
"Maybe o Queen of the zerg. Or maybe that's just because I don't have the need to brag about my power."
"Boom! Roasted."
"Fool, prepare your defense, my zerg will soon descend upon you." She turned to her companion, with an angry face "What was that?!"
"Sorry, I just couldn't stop myself. It's always so funny to see a well done Insult thrown into another person's face without a rebuke." After saying that, he still had that big grin on his face.
"Just stop smiling stupidly like that!"
"Much needed change of topic then, when did you become a Queen huh?!"
"It just, I don't know, kind of slipped. It's because of you! Always calling me princess when I am older than you!"
"Whaaat…? Is big Sis angry at little young me?"
"Arghh!"
A beautiful morning sun was shining upon a lonely figure laying in the grass. The morning was nice and quiet, projecting a simple tranquility. Some birds were already tweeting, but far enough for the noises to not be annoying.
Mina stretched her limbs in all directions and slowly stood up. She honestly didn't experience such a peaceful dream in a long while. And the thick grass was honestly good enough to comfortably sleep upon. It's definitely something she would repeat, given the chance. A lot of people in this day and age didn't experience the greenery in such abundance, and she happily belonged to the minority blessed enough to witness a beautiful nature.
Looking all over herself, she saw no stains or dirt, thankfully. Taking a sniff, she didn't feel any strong smell from her armpits, just a slight fragrance of grass all over her clothes. It was surprisingly nice, and could be naked into a perfume.
"Enough dilly dallying, time moves forward," she said to herself, doing just that. She still didn't know how to find the aforementioned Stetmann, but she would just have to wing it.
"Now, how should I deal with you…" The protoss warmachine, looking like a fusion of snail and armadillon was scratched all over and punctuated in a few places, giving a very good impression of useless junk.
"You won't deceive me with your miserable look, I have seen you obliterating all those zerglings en masse, there must be something precious inside you".
He started to pry off parts of its armor, using the holes or punctuating small new ones with his cat claws. Okay, they were zerg claws, but very small and in his case, rectacable. Seems his special genes made him even more special, but that was the lot in his life, so he just rolled with it.
After some digging, sifting aside the broken parts, Dobromir finally found something very interesting. It didn't look like it, but given its shape and position, he was fairly sure it was a protoss replicator, which created all those running bombs in the first place. He extracted the piece completely, and put it in his carriage.
The whole fighting with protoss was honestly disappointing. There was some hard opposition at the beginning, making him and Kerrigan defend the base against sudden attacks, but the shiny warriors were quickly overwhelmed with a mass, and now he had time for himself.
His carriage was slowly filling with some precious parts, and the few unoccupied overlords were carrying chunks of protoss machinery for him.
But a few problems arose, the pylons were just too big, the other building's parts didn't look like anything useful at all, leaving him with very few choices. The reavers were rich in components, same as probes, mainly because they were purely machines. The dragoons on the other hand were… useless. The protoss pilot inside it dissipated when their skin lost contact with the fluid, and the insides and outside didn't look like anything worthwhile taking. Just some advanced machinery unique to protoss, and a weir mesh at the inside of the tank. Considering his unawakened magic made him feel heebe jeebes, he decided to leave it all together. Protoss psionic technology was definitely outside the scope of his, and probably his mother's capability. The only other thing remaining were the flying shuttles, but they were always destroyed to pieces and scattered everywhere, making him unable to find anything interesting.
Dobromir stopped his musings when a certain's self proclaimed queen called him over for the final showdown. He looked back at his packed carriage, and the zerglings struggling to move it, and decided to help them a little bit. The unoccupied overlords moved over and bringed the carriage a little into the air. Dobromir quickly reached the top of the small mountain made from parts, and started his little procession back to the base.
Well, now she was lost yet again. The "House of the Root" was nowhere to be seen, and the city itself looked too big to explore in one day. At last the streets were nice, clean and with rows of trees everywhere. Mina also saw a lot of cats generally lying in a lot of different places, they seemed well taken care of, making her wonder if they were strays at all.
Finally, after more aimless wandering she decided to ask the best source of information. A granny sitting on a bench.
"Excuse me, can I ask for directions?"
The wrinkled face brightened a little, "Of course, young one. Where do you wish to arrive?"
"I was told to find a "House of the Root", but I don't know where or what it is."
"An orphanage, young one. All the unfortunate with nowhere to go are sent there. It mostly consists of the children we, as in this colony, encounter during travels."
"Encounter?" She certainly wanted to know the details.
The old person's eyes began to shine. "Once ol' man Tykwa was delivering his Cider to a client, and on a way met a very dirty and malnourished child rummaging in the trash cans just on the establishment's back entrance. It wasn't the first time he had such an encounter, so he only said 'Come with me if you want to live'. The poor little thing was terrified and probably followed out of fear, ol' man never was good with children. Upon returning to his ship, he gave the child something to eat and led her over to the Orphanage just after the landing. The matron here, Magnolia, is the nicest person you will ever witness on this planet. She takes care of all the orphans and the occasional non orphan from time to time. All the traumatized children were given tender love and care, making them grow as they should have."
"How many children are there now?"
"Six hundredth, If I remember correctly. In recent times there weren't a lot of occasions for us to go outside our little planet".
"So… Magnolia has some help, right?"
"Are you worried about her? He he, she has help of course". The laugh was weak, but at last the granny before her didn't start to cough or gasp for breath.
"And where is the orphanage located?"
As a response, the granny took out a phone from her small handbag, clicked a few things, and put it screen up on her knee. A hologram materialized, showing a map of the whole city, with a certain red dot showing on the outskirts. "We are here" She said, showing with a finger a position close to the city center. "The rest is up to you."
Mina, after a moment of surprise, scrutinized the map, looking for the simplest route. "Anyway, what happened to that girl?"
"You mean Katarina? She is currently the second in command of the Dobromir's riders, but, to tell the truth, she usually leads the group when Dobromir is away on a mission, like right now".
Now her head was swimming with questions, important ones. She thanked the granny and moved forward, to her final destination.
"Uehh… how long do I have to wait?" Kerrigan was standing in the main hive cluster, some zerg milling around and a few overlords waiting to transport her. She was tapping her zerg heel, which weirdly created the typical noises, despite meeting with the creep each time.
"I'm here, whew!" He let out a tired sigh, when the overlords were doing all the lifting.
"Why did you gather all this junk? Did you pea sized brain already forget that zerg don't do technology?" The arms crossed over her chest showed her angry impatience.
"And did your brain overflowing with psionic energy make you forget the existence of a race named Terrans?"
"If you think any Terran would help you, then you are delusional. And I somehow doubt you have the brains to figure anything out with this junk."
"Don't worry your pretty little head about it! There is someone who will help me despite everything. On the contrary, with this junk, I certainly won't help myself."
"And who would help you, hmm? And have enough intelligence to learn something from this scrap"
"Why, Mother, of course. After all, Mother, know best〜"
Kerrigan looked at him for a moment, before deciding it wasn't worth it. "Doesn't matter, let's just go".
'Dobromir is dead, together with Kerrigan, Raynor went and made a rebellion, this was all mentioned in a meeting between the Former Magistrate and the two heads of colony. Despite that, they weren't much of a concern, Mina herself didn't know what to think, because it went from bad to worse. First the corrupted confederacy and now Dominion which wasn't necessarily better but with the two aliens added to make the situation even worse.
On the other hand, this colony was entirely peaceful, mostly because of the zerg repellant. With that, the colony on the fringes of Terran civilization, housed the quirky citizens together with refugees from both Mar Sara and Antiga Prime. The weird thing is, no problem arose. No food shortage, enough housing for everyone, good medical support and work for everyone. The colony was flourishing, with more farms and plantations opening around everywhere. Seems the canopy business would expand, together with fruit which also means alcohol. They sure know how to do business, only the best they could make for export.
Her musings were stopped when she finally arrived at her destination. Before her stood the entrance, with a path leading to the building itself. On the left and right of the path grew massive bushes and even bigger trees, unlike the moderate ones in the city. Building itself was very wide, with four tiers in heigh. The trees were thrice as tall, with branches in all heights. With bricks painted pastel white, the overall impression was mind blowing. No child would be unhappy living in a place with so much greenery.
Taking a deep breath, Mina walked over to the entrance.
A brief moment of exhilaration, followed by sudden disappointment. "an illusion, are you afraid to face me templar?"
"So long as you continue to be so predictable, O Queen, I don't need to face you at all. You are your worst enemy."
"Now imagine him making a peace sign and vanishing. Someone needs to teach the protoss how to add extra oomph to their actions. Now this gives me an idea…"
"Whatever ridiculous things you have on your mind, you can forget it. You are zerg, and alway will be."
"Mayyybe… but who said it must be the me me, if it can be some else me…"
"You know what, I don't want to know, peace." She makes the sign and then flies away on her body wings.
*Knock, Knock*Mina stood before the doors, and waited. she didn't see any doorbell or any other machine, leaving her to this simple action. She waited for about two minutes, before the doors were suddenly flung open, and she was flung into a warm embrace, filled with warmth and squishiness. If she was a little shorter her head would probably be enveloped by the two mountains.
"You poor, poor dear. I could feel your anguish from miles away." The hug itself was welcome, she hadn't experienced one for a long time. There wasn't any drive in her to look for a partner, and one night stands just didn't appeal to her. Currently, there was only one thought in her head. It was a sympathetic pain. She had modest size, nothing special, but when it came to the real breast departament, the person engulfing her must experience a lot of back problems.