05
Chapter V
The Calm Before the Storm
2508.04.08
1408 SET
Unknown Landmass
The Void
The three Koprulean leaders—including Hierarch Artanis, who has calmed down and admitted his irrationality since the incident—Liu, and the Bismarck's avatar walked down the boarding ramp of the Lux Aeterna and towards the levitating spectral form of a Protoss Executor, on a small island close to the site of the previous battle, with UNS Bismarck hovering a few hundred meters away.
"It is Tassadar, my mentor! How can this be?" Hierarch Artanis exclaimed from his position at the head of the group, "Honored one, to see you brings such joy to my-"
The Hierarch cut himself off as he watched his teacher's ethereal form levitate higher and higher, until Tassadar dissolved, and an enormous being with bloated sacs forming its body and a "head" with eight eyes and dozens of tentacles revealed itself, seemingly materializing out of the nothingness of the Void.
"Tassadar. A form I chose to inspire action in the one called Zeratul. In you," the unfathomably powerful being projected into their minds, "The prophecies Zeratul followed, the result of my psionic extension into the minds of primitive beings. Your presence here, Humans of the galaxy you call the Milky Way, was also of my doing. I have used the weakening of my confinement during Amon's resurrection to influence the physical realm, using a function of the Cradle of Life to bring you here, so that you may assist in Amon's defeat."
"You are the one who called out to me!" Sarah exclaimed, apparently recognizing the presence, "Who are you? Are you a Xel'naga?"
"Ouros, the last Shepherd of the Cycle, and enemy of Amon. He has become one with the Void. It is now an extension of his will, and it binds me as a prisoner."
"Why have you summoned us here?" She asked.
The Xel'naga replied, "The Cycle must be broken, yet not in the way Amon intends to. I sense you have already learned about the history of my race. The Infinite Cycle is but an interim measure to ensure the survival of my civilization until we achieve our true objective: to unify the Void and Shroud. Humans are the only species we have found that is capable of retaining a connection to the Shroud and Void simultaneously. This is the purpose for which your race was initially brought to this cluster centuries ago."
"You, the one called Kerrigan, possess Purity of Form in both the Shroud and Void, and Purity of Essence as the Queen of Blades of the Zerg. You, alone, can merge with my essence, containing that of all Xel'naga who stood against Amon's Rebellion. Break the Infinite Cycle, and ascend to become greater. This is your destiny."
He continued, now addressing Liu, "Humans of the Milky Way galaxy, I have brought you here for your technological advancement. Prior to Amon's Rebellion, we surveilled your galaxy, and found your rate of advancement to be exceptional. Kerrigan's apotheosis will not be enough to vanquish Amon. His Hybrids are innumerable, and will certainly overwhelm Kerrigan and me during the transfer of my essence, when we are most vulnerable. Perhaps they will even pose a threat after, from their sheer quantity. You must utilize your forces to neutralize any non-psionic attacks Amon may send."
"You seem to be awfully sure we will agree to your plan," Liu challenged, "And if Amon's forces are so powerful, why are you not dead?"
"I am confident you would consent because this course of action is in our respective interests. This is the goal my people have striven towards for aeons, and my death will release me from this infernal existence I have condemned myself to in order to survive. For you, Director Liu, one of the greatest threats to sentient life will be vanquished, and you will be allowed swift passage back to your galaxy."
"As for you, Queen of Blades, you will become the most powerful being in existence. Certainly the most powerful in the current universe, and perhaps even of all time. Perchance before the Rebellion, we would have not degraded ourselves so much as to beseech the assistance of mere primitives, but the situation now is dire. All I care for anymore is the defeat of the Dark One, and for the legacy of the Xel'naga to live on."
"I live yet because I possess the combined essence of all Xel'naga who opposed Amon. Just as he has, I have become one with the Void, too. This strengthens us, but binds us to the Void—it also protects me from all but Amon and Narud, who are not powerful enough to fully overwhelm me. The only reason the Dark One was able to manifest outside of the Void was because of the work of his followers, but even still, the majority of his essence and presence remains trapped."
"Fair enough," Liu nodded.
"Sarah, please, you don't need to do this, turn into one of them," Jim begged, "From what the ship said, the UN has a ship more powerful than the Spear of Adun and more than seven hundred other ships just outside the Void right now. Surely that will be enough to kill Amon, you don't need to let yourself be mutilated again!"
"The Queen of Blades will not just become Xel'naga. She will become more. The merging of the Shroud and Void on the scale of our level of power has never been seen before, but it will certainly synergize on an incomprehensible scale. This is the surest path to Amon's defeat," Ouros informed them.
"Jimmy… like Ouros said, this is my destiny, what I went back to the Zerg for, and it is the most certain way to defeat Amon," Sarah replied to Jim, "And besides… with all I have done, the lives ruined, worlds destroyed, there is blood on my hands. I need to cleanse it. This is my destiny, Jim."
"Sarah, I just don't want you to become even more alien to me," Jim said, "You can't deny the Swarm changed you—both times. What will this transformation do to you? Not just to your body, but to your mind?"
"I do understand, Jimmy, I really do. I know how hard it is for you to see me like this: still Human, yet so alien at the same time. But you saw how Ouros was disguised as Tassadar. If I am to become even more powerful than him, then perhaps I could at least appear Human again. And my mind… at least I retained my free will when I infested myself on Zerus. Yes, it changed me, brought out the more primal parts of my mind, but I am still me. None of this really matters anyways, Jim. I have to do this. This is just one more sacrifice you have to make, I cannot just disregard the fate of the universe for your feelings, even with how much I do love you."
"I know darlin', logically this is the right thing to do," Jim admitted, "But I am just so tired of having to make sacrifices for the good of others. I just wish we could be happy ourselves, instead of constantly fighting and sacrificing for the happiness of others."
"Perhaps, if as Ouros says, I do really become the most powerful being in the universe," Sarah mused, "we can just fuck off to some planet somewhere where nobody will be able to disturb or hurt us anymore."
"Fine," Jim acquiesced, "I don't like this, Sarah, but do you you have to do."
"Very well," Sarah addressed Ouros, "What do you need me to do?"
"First, a nexus of the Void must be secured," the Xel'naga said and sent a mental image of a large landmass with an opening in the middle, through which Void energy seems to be flowing. The landmass was overflowing with what seemed to be innumerable Shadows and Hybrids, and even a few powerful Void Thrashers.
"This is the nearest nexus, and it is where the transfer of essence must take place. You and I must be guarded from the forces of Amon while my essence is transferred. I am holding off much of Amon's strength and concentration as of now in our mental battle—and shielding all of you from Amon's gaze, though I could not to the same to Narud—but as my power and concentration weakens during the transfer, you must take the burden lest he gather enough power to annihilate any physical defenses. The light of my essence will also be impossible to extinguish, and Amon will send all of his forces to attempt to stop the transfer. I will perish when my essence is depleted, but you should become powerful enough to easily vanquish Amon, if my prediction is correct. The process should take approximately ten of your Human hours, by my estimation."
"How the hell are we going to clear out that continent?" Jim asked in disbelief, "I doubt even the Spear can get close without being annihilated."
"Otto," Liu said with a smirk as Otto projected a hologram of the landmass, "you may fire when ready."
"Wha-" Jim cut himself off as the hologram turned blindingly white, and what seemed to be a new sun came into being in the distance. Seconds later, the hologram slowly began to return to normal brightness, and as the details slowly came into focus, they noticed every enemy entity seemed to have disappeared.
"Huh, I would've thought the earth would be slag," Liu muttered under her breath.
Snapping out of their shock after a few seconds, Jim and Sarah simultaneously asked in incredulity, "What the fuck just happened?"
"Twenty Type 2497 Katrina submarine-launched matter-antimatter relativistic anti-ship torpedoes just happened," Liu deadpanned, "Over a hundred yottajoules all-in-all, if I am not mistaken."
A second later, Jim activated the radio and ordered, "Hey Matt? Start moving our fleet towards the place that just got the nuked the shit out of, and start unloading the defensive equipment. I'll fill you in on what's going on later."
"You may want to revoke that order," Liu suggested, "You just witnessed the technological superiority of the United Nations, and I assure you, our terrestrial equipment far outclasses yours too. Additionally, Marshal Alexandrov, commanding officer of the marines onboard the United Nations, graduated top of his class from UNU Earth, West Point—by consensus one of the five best military academies in the Milky Way—and decades of command experience—as good as I have been told you are, I am certain he is a better tactician. And the United Nations has more than enough forces to fill the landmass many times over, so please, just let us handle setting up the defense. I already have my escorts moving to destroy any Shadows that form."
A moment's hesitation later, Jim said, "Hold on Matt, the UN said they're going to take care of it. Keep some units ready to deploy, so they probably won't be needed, since well, the bombs that glassed the continent were theirs."
"What the fuck do you mean?" Matt questioned in disbelief, "Not even the Apocalypses that destroyed Korhal IV would come close to the destructive power needed to annihilate that land! I thought the Xel'naga did it or something."
"Well, that's what the UN lady told me, and she hasn't given me any reason to doubt her so far. Have our forces ready anyways, though they probably won't be needed."
"Copy."
1417 SET
Landmass Around the Void Nexus
As the 36 ships of the New York Flotilla and dozens of marine transports began their final deceleration burn, a Type 2507 Shimakaze shuttlecraft shot out of UNMC Dwight D. Eisenhower, burning towards the nexus of the Void.
Half a minute later, the boarding ramp of the shuttle lowered, and Field Marshal Vladimir Konstantinovich Alexandrov—commander of the UN 101st Army—walked down the slope, the medals on his immaculate dress uniform clinking loudly. Three nanite constructs—those of Grand Admiral Wang Tianlong, and the Minds of the United Nations and Eisenhower—walked behind him.
The new arrivals began the short walk to the group waiting around the aperture of the Void Nexus, and drones flew ahead to set up holograms. Seconds later, when everyone had formed a rough circle around the empty holographic map of the continent, the grand admiral began. "Look, I'm sure my wife has told you who we are already, so I won't bother with the pleasantries. This is the plan we have so far," he said, and the hologram became populated with hundreds of tanks, walkers, and ships.
Gesturing towards the rough sphere of warships around the landmass, which were highlighted with a color shift, Wang said, "The New York Flotilla—one of my close-in intra-lightsecond brawling formations, commanded by Admiral Victoria Halsey—will provide heavy fire support. Any spaceborne hostiles will be destroyed as they appear, and orbital strikes can be used to neutralize more powerful terrestrial hostiles, such as these so-called Void Thrashers, as needed."
"I should note spaceborne weapons, even on minimum power, have a high potential for collateral damage, and I have asked Vlad and Vicky to use the fleet sparingly. The primary spinal weapons of New York and the Triumph and Glory-class battleships absolutely will obliterate this landmass, and I would rather not risk utilizing some other select systems. Realistically, the ten cruisers and twenty destroyers of the flotilla are the only one that will truly see much action, and I believe even that is still far more firepower than necessary."
"More ships from the Grand Armada can also be allocated as needed, and ships in transit will acquire firing solutions almost as soon as they cross into the Void. My destroyers and cruisers can arrive here within about forty seconds at maximum burn, but the larger ships—titans and battleships—will take approximately one minute. I have restricted the usage of FTL systems because as similar as this plane seems to be to realspace, the risk of catastrophic failure is deemed to be too great."
"Marathon, Normandy, Stalingrad, and Yorktown-class suborbital gunships—covering all types of weaponry—will provide the majority of fire against the so-called Void Shadows and Hybrids. They should reliably destroy any of these less powerful enemies without much trouble. Wyvern and Thunderbird attack crafts are also ready, though I doubt they will be used at all," the grand admiral continued, pointing at the highlighted swarms of crafts orbiting the nexus in the hologram.
Finishing his part of the presentation, the admiral stepped back to allow his terrestrial counterpart to speak.
"The final line of defense, the heavy armor, will hardly be engaged if our projections are correct. Nonetheless, four Imperator-class jaegers will form the immediate protection around the nexus with starship-grade shields and weaponry. Schützenpanzer Sphinx infantry fighting vehicles and Spähpanzer Manticore light tanks will cover any blind spots or isolated hostiles that slip through the defenses. Jagdpanzer Basilisk tank destroyers will be positioned on all elevated perches, though they might not be very useful. And finally, Kampfpanzer Chimera heavy tanks will block off all choke points, with heavy armor and shielding, physically obstructing breakthroughs." As Alexandrov described each armored fighting vehicle, their positions on the holographic map were highlighted, and enlarged holograms of each vehicle appeared.
"I have omitted infantry because frankly, I do not want to risk my troops in such a foreign and unknown environment, with very little real benefit from their involvement—their screening role is simply filled by Sphinxes and Manticores. The aerospace forces will destroy the majority of the enemy forces, and the ground forces will likely just be for cleaning up stragglers that slip through. Does anyone have any objections?"
"Uh, yes," Jim responded, "Liu mentioned something about a treaty governing the power and technology level of ground forces, will that not be a problem? Also, I understood like, none of the details and names, but I guess I don't need to know."
"Ah, the 2373 Treaty of Alderaan, the result of two corps glassing a continent in under a day," Alexandrov acknowledged, "That will not be an issue. All except the gunships are not treaty-compliant equipment. The treaty was signed to reduce collateral damage and mass destruction, but state-of-the-art hardware is still developed and in service for conflicts against non-signatories, or anomalous situations such as this. The ground assets are state of the art, and I believe them to be largely invincible to most threats, from what data we have."
"And I do apologize for the usage of so much jargon—they are ubiquitous back in the Milky Way, and I am not used to speaking to those who do not know. But you do not really need to know them, and this applies even moreso for the names. TERINCO—Terra Industrial Corporation, the state defense company—loves giving their stuff fancy names, especially for the non-treaty toys. If a word sounds weird, it probably is in another language, a name, technical jargon, or some combination of these. If you truly wish to know right now, though, just ask one of the Minds," he gestured to the two nanite constructs of the shipboard intelligences of Einsenhower and United Nations.
"Are there any more questions?"
"Are you certain not deploying any infantry at all is advisable?" The Protoss Hierarch challenged, "From what I have studied of Human military doctrine, infantry is necessary for your armored vehicles to not be overrun or flanked."
"We this is an open field, with our primary objective being the defense of an immobile point, and as far as I know, our enemies do not have any infiltration units. And the Sphinx's 50-millimeter autocannon can spit out over two thousand neutronium armor-piercing high-explosive fin-stabilized discarding sabot rounds a minute, at velocities approaching ten kilometers per second. I think a battalion of them under these conditions will be far superior to any infantry you and I have access to. Though I suppose some melee capability might be useful, so you are welcome to deploy your troops as you see fit, and I will adjust my plans as needed. Will that be all?"
A few seconds of silence later, the marshal concluded, "Good. Please allow us approximately an hour to set up the defenses, and you may begin your procedure."
1426 SET
Shadows of the Void would occassionally materialize, only to be immediately vaporized by phased array lasers from one of the dozens of gunships orbiting overhead. Even the intermittent Void Thrashers that appear were promptly obliterated by a salvo of semi-armor-piercing neutronium-encased antimatter rounds from one of the Typhoon-class destroyers of the New York Flotilla.
Dozens of wedge-shaped Basilisks dug into their elevated perches for what little additional protection the earth offers, their hydropneumatic suspension allowing the fixed 200mm chemo-electromagnetic railgun to aim at any target within its line of sight.
As they got into their assigned positions, Chimeras diverted power from their repulsors to shields and became immobile fortresses, thousands of millimeters of effective frontal draco-neutronium armor and zro-hardened shields making them a nigh impassable bulwark.
Zealots and Zerglings swarmed around the feet of the four 50-meter-tall Imperators-class superheavy walkers, incredibly powerful war machines armed with dozens of space-grade weapons. Even if they may be a little impractical and not the best use of resources, they are a glorious sight to behold.
Overhead, dozens of suborbital gunships hovered around the nexus, and even further out orbited the 36-ship New York Flotilla, led by its namesake, UNN New York, an Indefatigable-class titan.
The leaders of the Koprulu Cluster and United Nations watched on as Field Marshal Alexandrov directed minute changes in the positioning of various assets, optimizing their positioning to cover all angles of approach to the central nexus.
"Hey, Kerrigan, can you and I have a little chat away from the others, before the Xel'naga does his thing?" Liu asked as she approached the Zerg Queen.
"Sure," she answered as Liu led her inside Lux Aeterna to hide any possible outbursts.
"I've been debating with the others on whether this is worth the risk, but I have a proposal for you. From what I can tell, you have little formal psionic training, and what little you do have under the Ghost program actually hurt your potential, I think," Liu explained telepathically, "Anyhow, I was thinking about how Ouros said you would have to engage in a psionic battle against Amon. Raw power is hardly the only factor in a battle of wills, and I do not know how experienced he is."
"In my opinion, you are woefully unprepared for what is to come. You have power in abundance—and will yet obtain more—but little control and knowledge of techniques. For example, when we first met, when you were trying to covertly read my mind, there should have been no way I could have detected you with our vast difference in power."
"Anyway, I am willing to allow you to access my mind without objections and absorb what knowledge you can. I have a PhD in psi mechanics, a master's in theory, and a half-decade of training with the Shroud Enclave of Chrelythiumn—though I doubt any of these mean anything to you. Control can hardly be taught with so little time, but I believe my knowledge will be highly useful—it should increase your effective power by at least an order of magnitude or two, by my estimation."
"So, what do you say?" Liu asked.
"That sounds good to me," Kerrigan decided after a few seconds of thought, "Though tell me, what is the risk here? Nothing sounds like it could go wrong."
"It is multifaceted," Liu explained, "Firstly, it does have the potential to backfire. The basis of Shroud and Void psionics are different, and all my training and research are based on the Shroud. You are also not fully Human. I do not think this will be a problem, though, since as far as we can tell, your basic psychology is still Human, but augmented by your connection with the Zerg, and the Shroud and Void do not seem to be too dissimilar."
"Secondly, information. I am a high-ranking official, and my husband is one of the highest-ranking individuals in the Navy. The amount of state secrets I have inside my mind is uncountable. I trust you not to purposefully attempt to access these memories, but it is inevitable that pieces will slip through one way or another. I am privy to some rather… dirty secrets of the UN, that I would very much like to stay secret."
"Lastly, and I hate having to admit this, but part of the concern is the possibility you turn out to be an enemy eventually. This procedure will, in all likelihood, make you more powerful. And if you turn hostile… well, that means a harder enemy to defeat. I do hope this will never come to pass, but it is not a scenario we can entirely dismiss, especially given your… spontaneity."
"Please don't take it personally, the Minds especially like to plan for every contingency, and they put too much weight into the worst-case scenarios, in my opinion—bordering on paranoia. We decided to take this risk because the increased probability of our victory—not to mention the bettering of relations—will outweigh the possible detriments."
"If we had the time, I would've just given you a copy of the Principia Psychica to read through, but that's a tome with tens of thousands of pages, and we do not have the time for that. Even with this method though, it would still take an hour at the very least, which does heighten the chances of something going wrong elsewhere, but that is a risk I—and you, I presume—are prepared to take."
"I understand why you would be concerned," Kerrigan assured her, "And thank you for not hiding the truth from me. My decision remains unchanged. What do you need me to do?"
"Just follow my presence," Liu directed and led Kerrigan deeper into her own psyche.
1547 SET
"Took you long enough," the nanite form of Grand Admiral Wang commented as the two women exited Liu's shuttle, "Xinglong took and set up some of your fancy psionic sensors and research equipment in the meantime. The defense perimeter is all set up now too, Vlad even brought in a few extra battalions of light armor, and I moved some of the Cyclones of my other flotillas to Admiral Halsey's command for extra protection."
Turning to Kerrigan, he said, "The Protoss tells me space Cthulhu says he is ready."
"And I am ready, too," the Queen of Blades said and stepped up to the edge of the aperture, "Thank you, Director Liu, your knowledge is truly invaluable. I will forever be in your debt for exposing me to so much wisdom."
"Please, call me Anxing—I think we should be on a first-name basis by now," Liu requested, "And there's no need to be so dramatic. All I ask is, assuming we do emerge victorious, you please not 'fuck off to the middle of nowhere,' and consider accompanying our armada back to the Milky Way. At the very least, stay and help us clean up this damn cluster—I have a substantial list of issues that need to be resolved, some of which you cooperation will greatly help with."
"Of course. And to be honest, I didn't think through the 'running away from my problems' plan much," Kerrigan admitted, "And I think I may very well take you up on that offer."
Turning to the gargantuan form of Ouros, she asked, "What will you have me do, Ancient One?"
Immediately, the Zerg Queen's body levitated above the nexus, and the psionic power of the Xel'nagga encased her in an ethereal golden corona.
"Arise, Queen of Blades, accept my essence, and ascend."
Notes
ok so I had to come up with some shit for why they needed Kerrigan to do the thing, because like is there any lore reason that Ouros can't just do the same thing now that his jailer Narud is dead? Maybe that's in some obscure lore idk
The idea with the treaty is that eventually, technology will get to a point where a rather limited quantity of force can completely devastate a world in a short timeframe, and since habitable worlds are rather valuable… it stands to reason that galactic empires will cut some deal to have it be more "civilized", ie limited to some rather primitive level of technology. ofc no one will be stupid enough to think that there will not be a situation where a nation's full technological might will be needed, so they will still develop the hardware just in case.
I just threw in a fuck ton of technobabble in this, idk i might explain some eventually, who knows (i think most are rather self explanatory tho, you can prob figure them out).
and the few actual numbers I think shouldn't be off too much
obv the panzer stuff is german, idk i just think their words for AFVs are cool
the idea behind the actual names is that the normal, treaty-compliant stuff get boring names of actual animals like tiger, leopard or whatever, whereas the fancy shit gets the mythical creatures.
It's probably unrealistic that the names are all from our history, but whatever
ik i said it was going to be a while before update but I got a 100 on my calc test :DDDD and the week after spring break is boring af so you get it now
also damn this ch is a chonker