Episode 33- No one expected the protoss… inquisition?
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"Now, that was… eerie. What was that supposed to be? A taunt? A trap?" He was standing there, scratching his head with one hand. "Or maybe it's just an illusion?".
"Oh come on, you didn't gain a brain damage this big, at least not yet anyways."
The youngish voice certainly startled him. Raynor quickly whirled about and pointed his hastily drawn gun at the newcomer. He certainly gave the impression of a mysterious traveler, but the mask looked a little too ominous. Add the fact that it hauntingly resembled a ghost's and it really hit home. The ghost could wear clothes different that those skin tight environmental suits of theirs no problem. The odd one was the voice, but it could be just a trick.
"Did Mengsk send you to finish the job? Ro maybe someone else wants a piece of me?"
"Do you take me for a serial killer? Do I look like a ghost? Oh wait…" He quickly detached the mask and looked it over. "I do, somewhat." He quickly put it on again.
Raynor lowered his gun, the face matched the voice. A kid was standing before him, on a volcanic planet Char, overrun by zerg, by its surface, underground, air or cosmos. Additionally, his face and voice rang a bell, he just couldn't find the church. Combining that with a recent sighting of a certain loony guy, it made things so much more complicated.
"I see the hint of recognition, and a hint of questions in your eyes. Yes, we met before, but at the same time it's our first time seeing each other."
"What? I certainly didn't…" One of Raynor's comrades was standing to the side, unsure what to do.
"Our first meeting… I was spreading chaos in ghost academy when I walked into your room and… wait no, that was Kerrigan. Come on memory, work with me…" He pressed his hands to the sides of his head and concentrated.
"Sarah… whispered Jim, that name filled him with conflicting emotions, among which were: longing, hatred, love, sadness and let's not forget the most important one. An abyss, which beckoned him to become one with nothingness.
"Hmmm, Hmmm… Ah, I got it! You and your buddy Tychus helped us rescue a certain scientist."
"Wait, what?" Suddenly pulled back, Raynor remembered a certain cat eyed and young weirdo. After that time, he and Findley were doing a certain odd colony's fetch quests before his life took a sharp turn yet again. Suffice to say, he didn't see young Dobromir more than a few times. But the face… and the voice… "You are…"
"Ziemowit, pleasure to meet you." He extended a hand. Raynor slowly grabbed it and shaked carefully. "To answer your unsaid question, I am a representative of the Po'midor colony. Horner is done with the repairs and is just waiting for the plan to pick you up."
"But why did they send you to tell me that? Our communications are working just fine. And how did you come here anyway…"
"Communications can be intercepted, but more importantly-" He made 'come closer' hand motions. When Raynor drew nearer, Wit stranded on his tiptoes and whispered into his ear "Protsssss…" The s' really was extended, and did he hear a hint of echo in that voice. Taking a step back, the short talker continued "And on the matter of me coming here, you saw our Zerg contact, haven't you?"
"Contact? But wait… you mean Dobromir?!"
"Surprised? There is the Queen of the blades, a crazy but still sentient infected and… our little Mir. He was already crazy, and a human something else hybrid soo… the Infection went extremely smoooothly for him."
"Him? A hybrid? He does have weird eyes but still. And what do you mean smoothly?"
"Okay so, first thing, his eyes were the only thing showing on the outside. Secondly, the Zerg infection is very violent and aggressive, the human body resists it, but doesn't have the chance of winning, that's where the standard infection came from. But this loony fella? He was given 'room' for possible further modifications. You can say that his body opened the door for the parasite, showed the way, and made rules."
This was interesting and all but… halfway through the explanations only one question was on his mind. "What about Kerrigan?" His voice was shaky, emotions held by a steel leash of will were trying to break free. "She didn't become modified before or after becoming a ghost!"
"That's the problem, my new friend. From what Mir has said, she was personally taken care of by some weird zerg. She was not only infected but also reshaped."
"But…"
"Commander! Commander!" Another one of his rebels ran up to him, "Some protoss are heading this way!"
Pulling himself together and putting on a steel mask, Raynor turned towards him and asked "So? Our allies are coming and going as they please very often."
"That's the thing, they are some other group, heading right towards us!"
"Not us, rather our new friends. Let's go to Tassadar and ask him what's this all about." He turned towards Wit "We'll finish this discussion… later, when we will have time."
"Don't worry, I'll go with you. First time meeting a protoss on friendly terms, my what a thrilling experience it will be!"
"Where is she…?" Mina was on the boat, with everything ready. Her and her companions' things were already stashed away safely, the rotor blades were slowly spinning, ready to to lift off. But Mila was nowhere to be seen. She said she had one last thing to take care of but that was one hour ago.
Finally, on the horizon two shapes appeared. One was very blocky in a few places and ridiculously tall. The other had just two squares on its right and left side. Those shapes soon showed itself to be a big pile of cases, one stacked on top of another with legs underneath. The fox beside was just carrying a few metal boxes, attached to saddlebags, with a gently swaying its tail all the while.
"Hup!" *Thunk, klang, band* and many many more sounds echoed as the cases were thrown on the deck. Soon followed by the rest taken from the fox. A moment later, the duo hopped on the ship themselfs, landing amidst the mess.
"What's all this? I thought you just forgot one thing! Not more than a dozen!"
"But I forgot one thing, the rest were just last minute purchases. Anyway, you can start now, I'll tell you when there is nothing for you to focus on."
"Ehh… okay." The engines roared to life, before they lifted rapidly into the sky.
"Hmm… Hmmm… should I do some work?" He was looking at the towering command center and… "You know what? No, it's time to be a lazy bum. Come, mister Bit, I see something worth our while just over there."
Together, the two infected jumped into the spawn pool and layed down. Dobromir sighed in comfort, and laid back as much as he could. His companion tried to do the same, but it came with mixed results. The marine armor wasn't giving him as much mobility, leaving him in a somewhat weird position, half laying back and half laying flat.
And so, the to soaked, accompanied only by the mass of zerglings resting everywhere.
"Aldaris, Executor! How is it that you came here? I was about to abandon all hope for a rescue!"
"I came here to arrest you, and bring you home to the Aiur, to stand trial". Arrogance was just… flowing off of him like a waterfall. If most of the protoss had the pleasant feeling of crystal clear water, this one was murky, like an average swamp. Dobromir would feel it as smells but Wit, he just feels the presence of all those around him. Definitely similar to psionics of any kind.
"Arrest me? Aiur burns under the touch of Zerg and you traveled all this way to arrest me?!" The anger in Tassadar's words, or rather thoughts, was barely held at bay. If he was a human, he would probably start shaking.
"Don't let it get to you man, it has happened to me once." In this standoff between Tassadar and the new group of protoss, among which levitated a high templar, probably aldaris considering his additional decorations. And now, Raynor walked forward standing by his protoss friend's side. Wit remained not far behind him, but stayed silent.
"Who is this… human, Tassadar?" disgust was clear in his voice, like a bile hurled by some drunk.
"The name is Jim Raynor pal, and I won't be talked down to by anybody, even protoss."
"Amusing. Tassadar, your taste in companions grows even more inexplicable. Executor, prepare to take him into custody."
"Executor, wait! I don't know what they talked about me, but everything I have done, I did for Aiur. Help me find Zeratul and his dark templar, they alone can slay the Overmind's cerebrates. Once we've won, I'll gladly submit myself to the judgment of the conclave."
"Unthinkable! To presume we would side with the dark ones as you had!? you have gone quite mad, Tassadar!"
Feeling something wet trickling down his ching, Wit quickly located its source of origin. Yep, his ears were officially bleeding, not much he could do about it besides waiting it out.
"You shall speak of them with respect, Aldaris! Executor, there is much I can explain to you, if only you'll help me find Zeratul."
"We're blazing the trail, now what did you bring in all those cases and boxes?"
"Nothing much, just a few necessary things." The response she received was a raised eyebrow. Then a look over all this assorted stuff around them.
"Okay, let's begin a great unboxing! First thing first, your spear." She handed the longest of the cases, which Mina took with one hand, the other still holding the steering wheel.
"I don't know where I would need it, but okay."
"Now, this one would be very helpful," she opened one of the boxes, showing a…
"Slingshot? Why? Just… why?"
"Don't worry, there is a method to this madness, see this?" She withdrew an metallic orb, "It's an explosive, one among many, very useful. Now, look at this." Her companion opened a much larger box, this one containing…
"Crossbow? Why does it have glowing lines along its body?"
"It's a punk crossbow, it wants to stand out in the crowd. I have a few very special bolts, even better than grenades. Now, next is…"
And so they went back and forth. The giant fox was just napping to the side, rather tired after carrying all this weight around. The starry sky accompanied them in this long voyage, showing its support with the twinkling of its stars.
Thanks to the support of the protoss, the short journey was almost effortless. Any zerg that tried to come closer were instantly vaporized by the dragons, electrified to death by psi storms or the lonely archont hovering about. Some of the Raynors boys and girls just helped with the flying zerg, from time to time.
"It makes me happy that we met each other, friend Raynor." With the last words, and a brief glance toward Wit, the protoss warped away, leaving the thirty something Terrans standing around.
"Our defenders are gone, what now?" This question was directed at the Po'midorian emissary, who was de facto the only one in the know.
"I sent the coordinates to Horner a few minutes ago, the dropships should be here in five minutes."
"That quick?" Now this was new, Char was still very dangerous after all. The threat of the zerg would keep away the Hyperion for some considerable distance, at last.
"We were closely working with Horner, so the moment I first spoke to you he was already close to this hellhole. Considering most zerg went to Aiur, and a few helpful devices, Hyperion is provided with relative safety from Zerg, at least for a while."
"I am glad that at last something is going right, for once." Said Raynor, looking at the dropships closing on their position.
"Rise oh mighty Forest! Defend yourself, and all life on this planet, because no one else will!" The biggest tree started gently shaking, only for it to change into violent shudders. Finally the mighty oak started to rise, its many roots resembling a myriad of tentacle-like legs. Other trees began to rise too, sometimes walking on two legs, other times on more. On all of them faces appeared, even if rather crude. The rightful anger shown on them was directed at the purple mass slowly spreading and devouring all the life. The living forest let out a mighty cry! And started to slowly charge at the spreading filth.
"Now, isn't it truly awe inspiring? Trixie is certainly impressed. Only the three sisters are able to reach heights this high… anyway, it's time to speak to the Mayor."
The big ocular was filled with mist again, as The One Who Sees made a call.
"What is it?"
"Trixie has the answer to your question from yesterday. It's tripling what we have right now."
"Tripling? A asked about… ah right! The people. Tripling you say? Oh boy oh boy, we won't be able to finish everything, so focus on essentials and…" The rest was him mumbling to himself.
Trixie just spread her hand before her. The nails would need a little trim, and cleaning too. "Ekhem?"
"Ah, yes. I usually pick up the call without watching who it is, so I always appreciate how you declare yourself from the start. I am rambling, aren't I? That's everything, good job Trixie."
The aforementioned puffed in pride, it always is nice to be praised. And now, "It's Trixie time".